Here's an extra chonky chapter from me! Strap in and I hope you like it! Second last one, ignoring the epilogue!
Bowsette slept wondrously that night; dreams of Peach and romance and happiness. Part of her worried that last night's kiss was part of the dream, but one look at Junior when she woke was all she needed to know that it was not. He didn't say anything – rather uncharacteristically; Luigi or Daisy must have said something to him – but he had the proudest, happiest and yet somehow the smuggest grin that she had ever seen on his face. She'd simply laughed and hugged him.
Breakfast was a happy affair. Everyone was animated, yet, still no one mentioned the kiss; Peach and Bowsette were clearly agreed that they would only talk about it to them, after they had spoken about it to each other. As such, Peach invited Bowsette – and only Bowsette, to the disappointment of a few – to join her for a walk.
The walked in silence for a while, though Peach reached for Bowsette's hand the second they set foot outside.
"So..." Peach spoke up once they were a sufficient distance from the castle.
"So." Bowsette added, unhelpfully. There was another pause, both looking away bashfully. "Are you okay with what happened last night?" Bowsette broached, indicated towards their joined hands.
The blonde squeezed the redhead's hand with a smile. "Us kissing, you mean?" Peach clarified, smirking when that made Bowsette blush. "Of course I am." She blushed herself, this time. "It was wonderful." She met Bowsette's eyes with warm ones of her own.
Her gaze hardened, however, turning more serious. "We have a complicated history, though. I know you're not the person you once were, but we need to discuss this; set boundaries, find out what we both want and expect – things like that."
That assuaged her fears slightly. "Okay. Yeah, that makes sense." She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "A lot healthier than anything I tried before..."
"Hey," Peach interrupted softly. "That's in the past, now. You've apologised, you've learnt from it. We can move forward from it."
"Okay," Bowsette sniffed. She stopped, causing Peach to turn to her. "I'm... I just..." Tears were welling up in her eyes, her composure dissolving as they came.
Peach quickly closed to the gap between them, pulling the taller woman into her arms. "Hey, it's okay, I'm here." She cooed, rubbing the redhead's back.
"I'm sorry..." Bowsette eeked out.
"You have nothing to be sorry for. Not anymore." Peach kissed her on the cheek for emphasis.
She sniffed, meeting the blonde's eyes. "You really want to be with me?" She asked in a small voice.
Peach gave her the most loving smile she'd ever seen. "I do." They met for a kiss, Bowsette's heart fluttering with joy.
"But, like I said, we need to discuss this first. And, before that, we need to discuss something else."
Peach, seemingly out of nowhere, produced a newspaper. She held it towards the other woman. "This."
'This', specifically, was a picture of Peach and Bowsette walking through town together with their arms linked on the front page. The headline and article were wildly speculating on the identity of Bowsette, and it was surprisingly through. It seemed to be heavily leaning towards Bowsette being a secret lover – she blushed heavily when she read that – reporting on conflicting reports that the two had been seen sharing a kiss at the ball. Lots of the article was overly sensational, with some speculation about what it would mean for Peach which made Bowsette uncomfortable. Her worry spiked, however, when the article mentioned Junior – whom the paper correctly assumed was Bowsette's child – and tried to find out how he would fit into things. Junior was not immune to press attention, of course, but she was protective of him, especially when these people didn't know who he actually was.
She looked up at Peach, who was hiding her worry behind a tight smile. "I'm sorry, Peach, I didn't want to cause you trouble."
The blonde simply looked confused. "Wait. Hold on. I was worried about you, not me; I'm used to this sort of attention, with an exception or two."
"I'm worried, too, but I guess you did already warn me about this. I don't want to cause you a scandal, though."
Peach squeezed her hand. "It's okay; honestly, it's a nice change from all the speculation about me and Mario's relationship as of late." She paused, her expression suddenly cautious. "It might be a good idea to start thinking about telling people about... you, though." She gestured towards the taller woman, making it clear she wasn't talking about their relationship.
"What do you mean?" Bowsette asked.
Peach hid a look of confusion with a softer expression. "About you being... You, now. Like this."
Bowsette's throat went dry as a thousand realisations and doubts crashed over her at once. Wasn't she meant to be waiting for a way to turn back? Did she want to? Did Peach only want to be with her if she was like this? What would Koopa Kingdom think if she was always like this? Her thoughts spiralled as her stomach churned.
Clearly, her face reflected her turmoil, because Peach was about to try and reassure the redhead, but before she could, something demanded both of their attention.
An explosion made both women instantly alert.
It came from the castle. There was no visible damage from this side, so the two exchanged a look and quickly ran back to the building.
They rushed through hallways, managing to track the source of the explosion by going the opposite direction to the fleeing castle staff, which led them to the castle entrance hall.
They found it full of intruding koopas and toads. They'd clearly taken the direct approach – the doors had been blown clean off their hinges, now more closely fitting the role of a carpet than a door.
They both tried to assess the situation. Peach racked her brain over who this group could possibly be, if not the Koopa Kingdom. Bowsette's mind immediately tried to figure out what kind of threat they were facing. That was, until she noticed a group moving down a hallway on the opposite end of the room.
A group that was carrying a bound and gagged koopa child.
Her child.
A deep growl rumbled in her chest as rage burned inside her.
"LET GO OF MY KID!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, flames rising in her maw.
The koopa woman's voice echoed through the hall, drawing silence from the bustling invaders, who stopped in shock.
One of the koopas stepped out of the crowd, facing the angered monarch. "You! Listen, you may have stopped us last time, but that's Bowser Koopa's kid, we need him!"
Bowsette inhaled deeply, an unnerving calm settling over her.
"Listen, Punk," She spoke with in a deathly calm voice, "if the next words out of your mouth aren't 'of course, here's you kid back, we're so sorry!' then I will beat every person in this room who isn't Peach or Junior into a mushroom-koopashell pulp!"
He snorted with misguided confidence. "Well, you see, here's what's actual-"
His speech was cut short by an immobilising grasp on his face.
The last thing the poor koopa saw before losing consciousness was fire emanating from Bowsette's clenched teeth as she threw him with such force that his body struck down three more people.
The intruders immediately sprang into action.
Bowsette would make sure that the next thing they sprang into was a hospital bed.
Waves of fire blasted in front of her, launching the first wave of unfortunate idiots back. She then leapt forward, spinning to knock back the next wave with her tail.
Peach appeared beside her, flinging herself rear-first into one of the intruding toads, knocking them into two more.
"Bowsette! I'll fight these ones; you focus on Junior!"
'Right.'
With a nod, Bowsette then set off in the direction of the fleeing kidnappers. With claw, tail, fist, and flame, she barged through the hordes of feeble resistance. Quickly finding herself at the start of the hallway they retreated down. Finding the crowd had thinned, she started to sprint after them.
Running after them, she quickly realised that she wasn't gaining on them fast enough. Thinking on her feet, she darted to the nearest koopa invader, picked them up and launched them at the kidnappers.
The shell knocked them off their feet, allowing Bowsette to quickly make up the distance.
She immediately went for Junior, though she made sure to stomp extra hard on the two kidnappers that she walked over.
"Junior! Are you okay!?" She picked him up carefully from where he had tumbled from the kidnapper's arms and then set to work untying him, removing his mouth gag first.
"Mama!" He called out, hugging her when she untied his arms. "I'm okay." He mumbled.
"Bowsette!"
The koopas turned, to see Daisy and Luigi running up behind them, Daisy breathing a sigh of relief once she saw they appeared to be unharmed. "You're both alright. Good."
"We helped Peach deal with everyone else, it was-a just these ones left."
"Yeah," Daisy picked up from Luigi. "Now to find out what they were up to."
Bowsette nodded. "Right." She set Junior – now completely free – down beside her and turned to the final kidnapper, the one she hadn't trampled.
With a growl, she yanked the toad up by the collar. "You heard her. Talk. Or my next meal is fried mushrooms."
The toad audibly gulped. "Umm. I-I don't k-know who you are, but... but that's Bowser Junior! A-and we... Well, we n-need him?"
Bowsette let out a dark chuckle. "No, no, no... Trust me, there are a few things you need right now, Junior is not one of them. So, if you don't want me to start taking those things away from you, you'll need to give me a better explanation than that." She jerked them suddenly, to almost provide the illusion of tightening her grip on their throat. "Who are you people? Why do you need Junior?"
She could feel the toad's heartbeat through her hand, see the abject terror in their eyes. The quiet savagery in her voice was probably more powerful than if she was shouting at them. "W-we, we're a group of... concerned citizens-"
Fiery illumination sparked from her mouth as she growled this time. "Listen, I don't have time for your games, if yo-"
"Wait! Wait!" They shouted, "I'm telling the truth! We're a group of citizens from the Koopa Kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom. When it seemed like King Bowser wasn't going to try and kidnap Princess Peach, we decided to kidnap two people close to each of them, to try and force them together!"
Bowsette's grip loosened, confusion marring her face. "Wait. What? I don't understand, why do you want to do that?"
"Our group believes that the Koopa Kingdom and Mushroom Kingdom can only be their best if they are united. Through marriage."
A cold chill ran down Bowsette's spine. A fog descended over her and her own heartbeat thumped in her ears. Fearing her silence, the toad voiced justifications, mentioning military strength, farmlands, and other technicalities, but Bowsette could not hear them. She dropped the toad, taking a few steps back. Her head spinning.
'I caused this. This is my fault.' She shook her head, trying to reject the thought, but it clung to her. 'They wouldn't have acted if not for what I did in the past, I've manipulated Peach into a relationship with me without even realising it.'
"Bowsette?" Luigi and Daisy approached cautiously from behind, but before she could give a response – or lack of – there was a familiar puff of smoke in front of her.
Kamek was here.
Fear and anxiety clawed at her, her turmoil increasing ten-fold. 'No, no, no! Not now!'
The aged magikoopa seemed somewhat startled to find himself in Peach's Castle.
"Kin-umm, Bowsette?"
He looked around at the chaos, also exchanging a look with Luigi and Daisy that seemed to somewhat assuage his immediate desire for an explanation, something he suppressed when he noted the distress on Bowsette's face.
Distress at seeing him.
He met Bowsette's look with one of understanding and parental care. "I take it you have realised why I'm here?" He broached gently.
Bowsette didn't react and – though he knew that she knew – he spoke anyway. "I have finished my investigations; and I've found a way to turn you back."
Horror marred the redhead's face at those words.
"-If you want it." Kamek added softly.
Bowsette's eyebrows knitted together, her expression morphing into a troubled one, before her eyes fell to the floor.
"Bowsette! Junior!"
Peach ran up to Bowsette and Junior, her stride slowing upon realising everyone appeared unharmed. The silence was unnerving, though, but Peach understood it instantly when she saw Kamek.
"Hello, Kamek." She uttered softly.
"Princess Peach." He bowed his head, silently giving her leave to attend to Bowsette before worrying about him.
Peach tried to hold Bowsette's hands, but her gaze focused on hers and she jerked backwards.
"I-I'm sorry, Peach." She choked out, shaking her head, tears flooding her eyes. "I didn't mean- I didn't want to... I didn't know!"
"Bowsette, I-I don't know what you mean."
"This is all my fault! Even when I try, I can't give you peace..." He breath caught in her throat.
"I just drag everyone into my stupid fantasies and cause us both pain..."
Peach shed tears of her own, stunned into silence, not knowing what to say nor what caused Bowsette to say all of this.
Bowsette backed away again, grabbing Junior – who was also speechless – and turning away.
"Come on, Junior, we need to pack."
And she ran to her room.
Peach stood there, wanting to run after her, but the shock kept her rooted.
Bowsette was hurting. Clearly something the kidnappers had told her had caused her distress – that or Kamek's arrival, but judging by what Bowsette said, Kamek's presence was likely only additional strain that exacerbated her distress.
Her girlfriend was suffering, and Peach needed to find out why before she could try and help.
The princess turned, her skirts fanning out around her. She strode up to the toad – who was still lying on the floor – and firmly stood on their chest.
"Tell me everything you told her."
Junior remained silent as Bowsette packed their stuff – there wasn't much – but as Bowsette took their luggage and reached for Junior's hand, he stopped her.
"Mama, what's wrong, why are we leaving?" He asked, stress and confusion taxing his voice.
"Because I ruin everything, including every chance I've had of happiness. I'm sorry I have to ruin things for you, too."
Junior didn't know what to say to that. He just grabbed Bowsette's hand and muttered. "I love you, Mama."
All she could think about was how little she deserved it.
Peach had interrogated the Toad, spoken to Kamek to make sure she was right about why he was here – she was – and collected her thoughts while making some reasonable deductions on what was going through Bowsette's head.
They were all still stood in the hallway – bar the intruders – when Bowsette and Junior returned. Daisy and Luigi were stood off to the side, having opted to give the princess space while she figured out what to do. Kamek, however, had remained where he was, which was currently next to Peach.
The koopa woman stood before the two, unsure what to say.
"Bowsette," Peach started, "This isn't your fault."
The koopa woman shook her head. "I may not have intended this, but it's still my fault. I still tricked you, even if I didn't mean to."
"No, Bowsette, that doesn't make any sense." Bowsette opened her mouth to interrupt, but Peach cut her off. "I don't care what their goals were, I don't care if they were inspired by your past kidnappings or not to come to their meaningless conclusions. It doesn't matter. You had no way of knowing that this was going to happen. And you didn't trick me into anything."
Peach took a step forward, punctuating her point by pointing a finger at the redhead's chest. "You didn't intend to even come here – I asked you to stay. Then, after you told us who you were, you were nothing but honest with me. We both knew our past, but we both felt something; we both stumbled into this together."
Confusion, distress and affection all whirled in Bowsette's eyes, but Peach carried on.
"Yes, maybe it was our past that ultimately put us in this situation to begin with, but you had no way of knowing that. Junior was a victim of both of these attacks, and they wanted him to get to you. You're as much the victim here as I am."
Peach braved a small smile.
"Maybe this is your past catching up with you, but that shouldn't be a reason to hide, it should be a reason to face it; to show the world who you've become."
They were both crying by now and Bowsette's voice was small when she finally spoke.
"I'm not sure who I've become... I don't know who I'm meant to be..."
They both flicked their eyes towards Kamek, knowing that they weren't just talking about her past anymore.
Peach took her hands, rubbing them in her own. "You're not meant to be anyone. At least, not anyone but yourself.
"Bowsette, you should only be what makes you happy. Not the person that other people expect you to be. You owe yourself that. You have that choice."
Peach leaned in, pressing her lips softly to the other woman's. "And I still want to be with you regardless; whatever you choose, I just want you to be happy. So you don't have to worry about me."
She smiled as a thousand emotions swirled in Bowsette's eyes. "I'll be here – waiting for you – when you're ready."
Peach stepped back, looking towards Daisy and Luigi, prompting Bowsette to do the same. Mario was stood with them now; they had all clearly heard the whole conversation.
Of the three, it was Luigi who spoke for them. "And-a we will still be your friends whatever. Don't worry about what others – even us – will think; it's not selfish to be yourself. Your true friends and family will-a stand by you regardless."
Mario and Daisy nodded in agreement, their smiles filling her with comfort; the knowledge that she had a blanket to fall back on, if she ever needed it.
Feeling a small hand grasp hers, she turned to Junior. "I'll always love you, Mama. You're the best parent I could ever ask for."
The emotions that bubbled inside of her were overwhelming. Bowsette couldn't help the sob that escaped. "T-thank you. All of you. Thank you for having faith in me."
"We only want what's best for you, Bowsette, and we trust you to know what that is."
They all shared a moment of silence, before Kamek interrupted.
"Bowsette? Are you ready to return to your castle?" He asked, seemingly nervous.
Bowsette's expression hardened again. She took a deep breath. "I suppose so."
Peach reached for her hand, drawing the redhead's attention back to her. She moved forward with a kiss, pulling back with a loving look in her eye.
"Remember, Bowsette. Whatever you decide, I'll still be here."
Bowsette mentally stored away that reassurance. She would have struggled to believe that Peach would still be okay being with her if she came back as hulking male koopa, were it not for the conviction in her voice.
"Thank you, Peach."
With the group wishing her good luck – with whatever she may face – Bowsette, Junior and Kamek returned to the Koopa Kingdom.
Well, that was the chapter of conveniently timed occurrences. I hope I managed the tone okay and it wasn't too over the place.
Also, what Peach and and Luigi were saying to Bowsette at the end? Take that advice yourself, yeah? Be the person you want to be, not the person that others want you to be. I only ask that you try to make that person good and kind.
On the topic of kindness, you're lucky I didn't leave this at a cliffhanger after Bowsette ran from Peach. I'd love to hear what you thought, though! I don't seem hear from you FFN peeps any more! No pressure, though. I'm just thankful that people are reading and seemingly coming back for more.