The long awaited epilogue! Sorry it took almost a year! Been a busy one, though, cursed with much writers block... This isn't much - oly two small scenes - but I hope you enjoy it!
*Three months later...*
"Mama Peach! You look amazing!"
"Heya, Junior!" She stepped back, avoiding the hug he wanted to give her. "No hugs just yet; I don't want to crease the suit before Bowsette sees."
He pouted momentarily, but it was fleeting. "Ooh! Mama looks amazing, too! You just gotta see!" He was about to dart off, presumably to fetch the aforementioned koopa, but Peach caught him.
"Hold on a second, Junior." The princess crouched down in front of the koopa kid. "Your bowtie to skewed, let me just..." Peach adjusted the neck garment, then kissed him on the forehead. "There we are, honey. You're so handsome."
Junior blushed bright red.
"Junior?" Bowsette's voice called out from around the corner.
Peach stood, hurrying to readjust her jacket just as Bowsette turned around the corner.
"Ah! There you... are..."
Bowsette blinked, her eyes taking in an equally stunned Peach.
"Peach, you look... remind me why you don't wear suits again?"
Peach was dressed in a pink three-piece suit, with white trim and a matching bow tie. Her hair was down as normal, with a familiar pink bow atop her golden locks. The look was finished with white dress shoes and gloves.
Bowsette, similarly, was also wearing a three-piece suit. The trousers and tailcoat jacket were white, the jacket having purple trim. She wore a matching purple ribbon bow tie around her neck, while the waistcoat was a lighter shade. The look was finished with silver versions of her signature armbands and choker. The ensemble was deliberately reminiscent of her suit for the ill-fated moon wedding – albeit without the hat.
"Apparently because I'll never pull one off as well as you..."
Bowsette grinned a toothy grin. "Ha! I appreciate the compliment, but looking at you..." They both stepped forwards, meeting in the middle to hold hands. "... I think you need to wear a suit more often. Help me decide, you know?"
The blonde chuckled, pressing her lips to the redhead's. "As long as you do, too." She muttered into the kiss.
"Anything for you, Peach."
"Ah! There you three are!"
Kamek floated in, using his wand. He, too, was wearing a suit. A blue one, to match his hat – which he still wore along with his signature glasses.
"Kamek! You look very nice in that suit!" Peach exclaimed in greeting.
Bowsette chuckled. "I can't remember the last time you wore anything other than a robe." She teased.
Peach nudged her in the side. "Hush."
Kamek glared at his charge but otherwise moved on. "You all look very nice as well. But, we must hurry along, everyone will be waiting for us."
The three then moved to follow the elderly magikoopa – all holding hands, with Junior in the middle – and Bowsette took the opportunity to reflect on what had happened since she came out.
Once the press put the pieces together of Princess Peach's mysterious new lover and the newly out Queen of the Koopas, they lost it. The conclusions were sensationalist and absurd, but luckily died down slightly with time. No official announcement of their relationship had been made, but there were enough sightings of them kissing in public for people to be certain.
Oddly enough, the mysterious group that sought to force Bowsette and Peach together were among the few who were unhappy about the new peace between the two kingdoms. Further digging – which took place while the group leaders were being apprehended and sentenced to a long stretch of community service – had uncovered that one of the reasons that they wanted Bowsette in charge was because they wanted a "strong man" to lead the kingdoms and form a "great empire". Upon that revelation, it was little surprise that they didn't take to Bowsette's coming out too well. They were now publicly ridiculed during their community service, and Bowsette's only regret was that she didn't take more joy in beating them all senseless.
On the topic of answering for crimes, Bowsette had made a point of helping out all of the kingdoms that she had invaded, terrorised, or otherwise been a nuisance to. It was going to take a while and the list was very, very long. But the Koopa Queen was up to the task.
They arrived at the sitting room where Mario, Luigi, Daisy and Toadsworth were all waiting for them.
Like Bowsette, Mario was also wearing a white suit. It was a three-piece as well, with a white waistcoat and a white bow under the collar of his black shirt. Uncharacteristically, he had forgone a hat.
Luigi was sporting more typical colours; wearing a green tux. With a purple bowtie and matching trim on the jacket, Luigi had also forgone a hat; his hair gelled back stylishly and his moustache neatly combed.
Daisy had taken a more laid-back approach than everyone else. She wore an orange suit, though she went without any necktie. Instead she left her top two buttons undone. Coupled with her tousled hair, the look was very deliberately smart-yet-stylish.
Finally, Toadsworth was wearing the suit he normally wore; albeit, with a suit jacket instead of his usual coat.
"Heeyyy!" Daisy called out with a drawl as the group of four arrived.
With a returned "Hey!" of their own, the group of four joined the rest, settling in so they were all seated around a large coffee table stacked with snacks.
They all settled in, Bowsette, Luigi and Mario being the fondest of indulging in the snacks; Junior having quickly become full and Peach rather content to steal the odd thing off of Bowsette's hoard. The koopa woman didn't mind too much, though started to notice less as the conversation started to move onto a more personal topic.
"Did I ever tell any of you the story of how Bowsette found herself with this body to begin with?"
Bowsette blanched, but everyone bar Kamek had yet to notice.
"It was a lab accident, right?" Daisy said, mouth half full, curiosity piquing.
Kamek smirked a tricky smirk, the kind of smirk that he only smirked once in a blue moon. The kind of smirk that Bowsette was very wary of.
"Why, yes, yes it was. But did she ever tell you the details?"
Peach had caught on by now, sending her distressed girlfriend a mirthful look before taking the bait. "No, I don't believe that she did. Would you care to tell us, Kamek?"
"Yes, Kamek." Daisy added with false formality and a twinkle in her eye. "Now that you mention it, I'm quite curious how it possibly could have happened."
Bowsette was about to interrupt, but Peach glanced her way and squeezed her hand, so she held her tongue.
"Well," Kamek began. "For reasons you're all aware of by now, Bowsette was... Not in the brightest of moods. I, however, was having a very productive week working on my latest project. I was not yet at the point where I would normally show off my work, but I thought it might cheer her up to give her a plan; a... plot to think over."
He shook his head as he smiled, relishing in the glare the woman in question was sending his way.
"So I took her to the lab, to the bench I'd been working at. It was quite fascinating work, really; you see, I was reverse engineering the Super Crown that Toadette uses as we were quite fascinated by its ability to temporary mimic Princess Peach's appearance. You see..." Kamek caught himself, he had that glimmer in his eye that he always got when talking about his work, but he reigned in his enthusiasm.
"Ah, anyways, I digress. So I was working on an experimental power-up to try and mimic the powers of the Super Crown, just applied to a different form – though we hadn't gotten to that stage yet; the transformative effects were seemingly random. Of course, I warned Her Majesty about this, but, well..." Kamek nodded towards the koopa woman with a chuckle.
"She was holding the Super Crown after messing around with it and then she picked up the experimental power-up – seems I made the mistake of adding a big red button –" Everyone but Bowsette chuckled. "And she pressed it. It was an unstable power-up, so it exploded. So, the power-up gave her the feminine form she wanted, the Super Crown gave her some human features – I hypothesise, of course – but that was not what maintained the form... No, it was not."
Peach was looking rather shocked, though there was still an amused glint in her eyes, but all the rest were just somewhere caught between intrigued and amused. Except Bowsette, of course, who was hiding her embarrassment in the crook of Peach's neck.
"The explosion was caused by a large surge of power – knocked us both back. But it knocked our dear Bowsette back into her rejuvenation pod. With a large surge of energy. So she was rejuvenation. rejuvenation as the form we see her today."
Kamek paused and met everyone's gazes.
"Then she steadied herself, got up, saw her – decidedly feminine – hand..."
"And fainted."
Daisy guffawed.
It was already getting dark outside by the time they met up in the sitting room, but by now, night had truly fallen.
It was getting late and Bowsette knew that there was something that everyone needed to see while they were in the Koopa Kingdom.
Atop the hill behind the Koopa castle, removed from the city lights, the only natural lights came from the soft glow of surrounding rock and the shining stars above.
"Wow..."
The skies of the Koopa Kingdom – due to the abundant volcanic activity – often had a slight reddish glow. Much research had concluded that it was perfectly safe and mostly contained to the clouds, so it only remained a visual marvel of the land. Little known to lots of outsiders, however, is how this dusty glow affected the night sky.
The stars were the same as the Mushroom Kingdom, of course, but they didn't look the same. The red tint carried over into the night sky, the earthen dust scattering the starlight so that the stars swam in a sea of orang-y red. The moon – currently peaking over the horizon – had the same red tint, the extra diffraction blurring it to give an ethereal glow.
"The stars back home are amazing in the desert," Daisy muttered with awe. "But this? This is something else..."
"It's definitely something I never noticed until recently. Despite how many times I've been here." Peach added.
Bowsette grimaced to herself, though, luckily the action was hidden in the night.
"Mama used to take me out here lots! 'specially when one of us was sad."
Peach scooted closer to her girlfriend and squeezed her hand. "I hope you both being happier is the reason that you're not out as much."
Bowsette answered with a squeeze of the princess's hand and a kiss to her cheek.
"It always used to get cold, though." Junior added with a shiver, not hearing Peach and Bowsette's private conversation.
"Oh, Junior! Wait a sec." Bowsette separated from Peach and removed her jacket, draping it over the young koopa's shoulders. Peach then also swooped in, picking him up.
Junior snuggled into Peach's arms. "Thanks, Mamas!"
"Anything for you, kiddo." Bowsette muttered, kissing him on the forehead.
"You're the best Mamas I could ask for."
Something within Bowsette, something deep, twanged painfully. Junior and Peach were getting blurry and she couldn't focus on what Peach was saying. It took her a moment to realise she was crying.
A sniff was all it took for Peach to realise, too.
"Bowsette..." Peach affectionately bumped the koopa woman's shoulder. "You're a brilliant Mama. You were a good parent before all this, but you're an amazing one now."
Bowsette sniffed again and looked into Peach's eyes.
"You mean it?"
"I do."
Junior looked up from the nook of Peach's neck then and turned to her Mama, nodding vigorously before leaping out of Peach's arms and into Bowsette's.
"I love you, Mama."
"They're right, you know." Came Luigi's voice from over her shoulder. She turned to face him. "No one ever doubted your parenting before." Daisy stood forward and booped Junior on the nose, making him laugh. She picked up from Luigi.
"He's right, and you're doing amazing now. You've come so far."
She saw Mario nod in agreement from the side
Peach came up and nudged her side, the two turning to face each other. "You've faced your past mistakes, learned from them. You've become such an amazing person."
They gazed into each other's eyes.
Then Daisy broke the moment.
"Yeah, crazy that this all happened because you were doing dumb things in a lab."
Bowsette groaned in annoyance. "I shouldn't have let Kamek tell you about that..."
The all laughed, but Daisy continued. "I would have gotten it out of him eventually!"
The koopa woman let out a fiery huff, likely to intimidate silence, but the effect was ruined when Peach kissed her on the cheek, muttering "So cute..."
"Hey! You're meant to be on my side!"
Peach laughed before putting on a mock-serious face. "Daisy, you're not supposed to try to embarrass my cute girlfriend. She finds that mean."
Bowsette groaned. "Thanks..."
Luckily for Bowsette, the teasing only lasted for a short while longer.
Though, unfortunately for her, these were her friends now, so she was likely going to be victim to much teasing for many years to come.
Bowsette thought that a small price to pay.
Firstly, I wanna say that I know that stars only appear white because they're so dim that we don't see them in colour, but... magic. *sparkles*
Otherwise, thank you so much for reading my story! I hope you liked it!