Semi-optional Song Suggestion:

"I'm Not in Love," by 10cc.

I will let you know when to start playing it ;)

But if you have Itunes, look up the Angel's Music Box version of "I'm Not in Love". It makes a certain part of this story so precious!

Chapter Sixteen

Two more hours of traveling went by, and the sun was already beginning to change shades as it made it's way to the ground. The scenery had also transformed into endless fields of farmland with patches of trees and rivers. Though it was much less boring than wasteland, it was getting hard for the travelers to stay awake - Peach especially. Despite the stress that constantly followed her, her eyelids slowly closed more each minute. Soon her eyes had completely shut and the Kart's right tire started to trail off the road and into the dirt.

Feeling the Kart hit gravel, Bowser jumped into action. He grabbed a hold of Peach and took her place in the driver's seat. Just in time, he jerked the wheel and leaned into a harsh turn, barely missing a massive boulder. The Kart squealed as it turned and threated to flip but Bowser shifted his weight to keep both sides of the car on the ground and hit the brakes to bring the Kart to a halt.

"Peach, are you okay?" Bowser asked in-between taking deep breathes.

…no answer…

Bowser looked down and saw he had put his hand right over Peach's face. He quickly removed his hand and Peach leaned forward gasping for breath. The Koopa awkwardly patted her back and apologized to her repeatedly for almost suffocating her.

"What are you talking about?" Peach heaved, taking longer and more controlled breaths. "I almost got us killed and you saved us!"

"My badass driving skills wouldn't have done much good if you had ended up dying from suffocation," Bowser stated half jokingly and half serious.

"Damn, I'm such a moron…"

Before Peach could refuse or move away, he pulled her into his chest and locked her in a hug. She was completely encased in him. The shell on his stomach was hard but his arms were warm and kind of soft like his lap…

"Wait! I am sitting on his lap…?!" Her body went rigid as she tried to wiggle her way out of his iron grasp.

"Bowser, it's getting hot in here. C-can you let me go?" Peach asked anxiously, as she tried to will him to move.

She heard and felt a low growl rumble through his chest. Her efforts came to an immediate stop, and the hair on her arms stood straight up.

"Only if you promise to stop for the night," Bowser spoke into her ear. She shivered as his hot breath warmed the skin on her neck.

"I promise," she answered in a whisper that he could barely hear.

Giving a satisfied grunt, Bowser unwrapped his arms and shifted so Peach could dismount the Koopa King Kart. She got off without a word and grabbed her suitcase. Before Bowser could follow, Peach made her way to the forest just beyond the field of soybeans they had almost crashed in. Once she made it to the woods, she found a clearing with a patch of grass and set her bag down. It was almost pitch black out, but she found her pajamas and slipped them on.

After Bowser started another fire, he sat next to Peach with a sigh.

"Are you going to be able to sleep tonight?" Bowser asked with a look of concern. Peach straightened out a wrinkle on her dress and pursed her lips.

"Yeah. I don't get nightmares very often," she answered. He watched her hands fidget nervously as she spoke.

"Hmm… makes sense," Bowser said simply. He then got back up and busily searched for more wood. As the Koopa walked around, Peach laid down and attempted to sleep. An hour went by before he finally sat back down beside her.

"You aren't asleep yet, are you?" Bowser stated as more of a statement than a question.

"…No," Peach answered quietly.

"Well, since neither of us are going to sleep anytime soon, why don't we play a game?" Bowser asked with a devious smile.

Peach sat up, absently fixed her hair, and looked at him curiously. "I don't play strip poker if that is what you have in mind."

Bowser chuckled, "How about Truth or Dare?"

"No," Peach answered simply.

"What? Why not? It's a good game!" Bowser asked eagerly.

"That depends on who you play it with," Peach laughed dryly, shooting him a glance.

"I will play nice. I promise," Bowser crossed his heart with his index claw and gave her a toothy grin. She shook her head and sighed in exasperation.

"Fine…" Peach said. "But only if you play a fair, clean game. If not you forfeit the game and I win. No questions asked."

Bowser grimaced slightly but nodded in agreement. "Okay, princess… Truth or Dare?" Peach sat up straight and searched his eyes carefully.

"…Truth," she answered.

"Good choice," Bowser smiled. "Have you ever picked your nose?"

"Bowser! That's a forfeit!" Peach chastised him.

"No, it's not! If you consider that dirty then this game won't be any fun at all!" Bowser argued. Peach brought her legs up to her chest and glared at him.

"Yes," she answered softly. Bowser laughed and she frowned at him.

"Shut up! Truth or Dare, Bowser?"

"Truth," he chuckled and sat back on his tail casually. He was an open book.

"Hmmm, you always talk so proudly about how godly you are. What is one thing that you dislike about yourself?" Peach asked with a smirk.

Bowser's smile faded a little, but he caught himself. "What are you talking about? I'm the hottest, toughest, strongest, smartest person in the world!" He winked at her. "Perfect as a ruler and an even better lover."

Peach leaned away from him as he wiggled his eyebrows… seductively?

"You're stalling," Peach folded her arms and raised her eyebrow at him. Bowser rolled his eyes.

"Hey, it's hard for perfect people to find things they need to improve… Hmmm..." Bowser thought carefully. "I dislike that I am too kind," he finally answered with a shrug.

"Wait… What do you mean, too kind?" Peach asked with a little disbelief.

"Nope! My turn!" Bowser grinned. "Truther or Dare?"

She chose Truth.

"If you could go back to the past and change something what would it be?" Bowser asked. He watched as her eyebrows furrowed and she pursed her lips thoughtfully. Bowser always loved watching her think. It was one of his favorite expressions. Even better, Peach only ever wore this expression when she was comfortable.

"Our first meeting," Peach said, a tiny bit of sadness entering her voice. Bowser grimaced and looked away. That was not what he had expected her to say. Did she really regret the first time they met?

"How would you have changed it?" Bowser asked with a guarded expression.

"I wish I would have invited you and your Kingdom to our ball that day," Peach answered.

THAT was really not what he had expected.

She saw his confused expression and sighed. "You don't remember, but the day you took me Father was going to host a Mushroom Kingdom Ball with the surrounding kingdoms. I asked the council if we could invite you and your people. They said no. I didn't like leaving you out but I didn't have the courage to send for you without proper introduction or permission from Father. I like to think that if I had invited you, you would have come and things would have been different. Maybe you wouldn't have kidnapped me and things would have been... friendlier."

"I might have shown up, but that wouldn't have stopped me from kidnapping you," Bowser said simply.

"You don't know that," Peach contended with a frown.

"I do know that," Bowser grumbled. "Anyhow, my turn…"

"No, it's not! Why would you have kidnapped me anyhow?" she asked with eager curiosity.

Bowser glared at her and turned his head away. "I choose Dare," he grunted. Peach pouted.

"Fine. Take your claws and scratch the paint on the Koopa King Kart," she ordered.

"What?! The paint is…" Bowser's eyes widened and he looked at her with incredulity.

"Just this once I'll let you change your mind. Choose one, Truth or Dare?" Peach inquired. Bowser looked at the Kart and then back at her.

Truth.

"…I wanted to make my wife jealous," Bowser mumbled quickly. Peach was sure she had misheard him.

"You wanted to make your wife jealous…?" Peach repeated his words slowly.

Bowser watched her from the corner of his eye as she mulled over his answer.

"You… didn't steal me for my kingdom? Or because I was a beautiful princess?" she looked at him with searching eyes.

"Hell no! I was a married man with the biggest, coolest kingdom in the world! I didn't care who you were. I hadn't even met you before! Psh… that would be so weird…" he mused to himself. Peach shook her head at him in disbelief.

"What? I honestly didn't care who you were or what you had. You were just a princess featured in some magazines. When my wife, Clawdia, saw that you were in most of the magazines the servants brought to my bedroom, she freaked out, ordered them to be burned, and banned those magazines from the Dark Lands. She accused me of being unfaithful to her, or something like that," Bowser chuckled.

"After that, she looked through every magazine that was brought to the castle. One of the magazines Clawdia kept had the most beautiful blue gemstone on the front of it. She brought the picture to me and told me to buy it and give it to her as a present for her birthday!" Bowser began to laugh heartily. "I did her one better! I brought the gem AND the girl it belonged to! Gwa ha! ha! ha!"

Peach didn't know how to react to that. She knew he wasn't making it up. Bowser was a mischievous Koopa. It was in his blood to play tricks and poke fun at people. A part of her felt bad for Clawdia while the other part was relieved – kind of.

"The first time I kidnapped you I was just riling Clawdia up for kicks and giggles. A year later, she died and, to make her roll in her grave, I told Bowser Jr. that you were his Mama! That's why he kidnapped you for the second time. He wanted to meet you, and the rest of his siblings went along with it. Those sneaky little punks really did a great job too! But then something happened while you were with the Koopalings…" Bowser stopped and brought his eyes back to Peach's face. There was an awkward moment of silence and Peach began to blush at the wistful look in his gaze.

"What?" she asked self-consciously.

"It was during that time that I saw something that I hadn't expected to see," he answered with a soft smile. Peach blushed harder and looked away. "I saw a personality… deep. Deep. Deep. Deeeeeeeep down."

Peach scoffed and glared at him. She sat straighter and stuck her nose in the air. "I have always had a personality."

"Not when you were a Princess," Bowser muttered under his breath.

She gawked at him incredulously. "I'm still…! I make a perfectly good and charming princess!" Peach argued with frustration.

"Yes, yes…. Paaafectly Chaaaming," Bowser mocked her with over exaggerated formal diction.

She puffed and pouted, crossing her arms in frustration.

Bowser smiled and leaned forward to get her attention. "As a princess, you are cordial and kind, but when you are you… you are probably the most attractive creature in the world."

All of a sudden, Peach didn't like where this conversation was going. She searched for the right thing to say in order to change the subject until another question popped up.

"So… if you didn't like me at first, when did you start…?"

"It's my turn… BUT I like talking about you, so I'll answer. Just don't forget how many questions you owe me," Bowser winked at her. Peach only nodded. She had forgotten about the game entirely.

"I'm not sure if there was a specific point in time," Bowser began to answer. "But if I had to choose one instance, it would be when I heard you snort and curse in your sleep."

"I did not!" Peach covered her face with her hands as her face turned beet red.

"Ohhhhh-ho, yes you did!" Bowser grinned impishly.

Peach looked at him through a space in her fingers, "What… did I say?"

"...Are you giving me permission to say it?" Bowser answered with a knowing smirk.

"No!" Peach exclaimed, bringing her hands off of her face. "That's enough! I won't listen to another word of this nonsense. It's your turn!"

"Alright. Truth or Dare?" Bowser asked, leaning casually against a tree.

"Truth, of course," Peach answered.

"Who was your first crush?" Bowser asked.

"Mario, obviously," Peach answered quickly.

"Have you ever liked anyone else? Even for a moment." Bowser asked.

"Yes."

Peach pushed the thought out of her head. "I uhhh… I guess? I meet a lot of different people, so it is inevitable to find people I think are cute or attractive. But Mario has always been… the only person I primarily thought about."

"Huh. Who else did you think about?" Bowser looked at her curiously.

"Bowser."

"No. no. no. no. no. Absolutely not. Get yourself together, Peach!" she chided herself silently. Her stomach flopped and her cheeks betrayed her with a blush. "Dare. I choose Dare instead."

Bowser opened his mouth to protest but stopped himself and stared at her thoughtfully for a moment.

"Fine, let me think of something," Bowser muttered. He smirked when an idea came to his head.

"I want you to eat…" he picked up something from the ground, "…this bug."

Peach's gag reflex almost kicked in. It was a large black beetle.

"Just this once, I'll let you off if you answer the question," Bowser stated with a mischievous grin.

Peach cringed as he held it close to her. Her face had mortification written all over it.

Bowser smiled to himself. She sooooo wasn't going to eat the bug. Whatever she was hiding wasn't worth it….

"Okay," Peach stated confidently.

Bowser almost choked on his surprise. "You sure? Because this beetle is pretty gnarly looking…"

"Give me the bug, Bowser," Peach demanded. Bowser handed it to her and watched as she took it between her fingers. Peach shivered as the bug crawled on her hands. She got up from the ground, took a stick from the pile of firewood that Bowser had gathered.

"What are you doing?" he asked her suspiciously.

"Cooking it," Peach said with a smile. "You told me I had to eat it, but you didn't tell me how I had to eat it." Within a few minutes, Peach had completely charred the bug to the point that it looked like nothing but a pile of soot.

"That… is so not fair," Bowser grumbled as she took the black lump of ash and ate it.

"Okay. You have one more question," Peach told him. "After that, the game ends and we go to bed."

"Alright… Wait a sec while I think of a good one," Bowser sighed as got up from his spot by the tree. He took a few logs and started adding them to the fire.

...Cue Music...

Peach made her way back over to her spot in the grass and sat down. Bowser watched her for a moment as she looked at the sky. She noticed he had gone quiet, but she forced herself to keep her eyes focused on the stars. A minute felt like an hour as she sat with her hands tangled in the long blades of grass.

After he added more wood to the campfire, he lumbered over and laid down beside her legs with his head resting on his arms. Both of them looked at the stars for a few more minutes. They had both been quiet for so long that the silence had become rather comfortable. The playful atmosphere had been completely swallowed up by something else entirely.

"Romantic."

Peach pretended to swat a mosquito as she shook her head to clear her thoughts again.

"Truth or Dare?" Bowser asked as he watched the sky. "Choose wisely, Princess. No take backs, no mercy for the Dare, and you will get a penalty if you refuse to do either the Truth or Dare."

"Truth," Peach said decidedly, looking at Bowser expectantly.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, "Who else attracted your eye?"

She felt a tinge of relief when she realized she could work around his question. "Well, there was this old Toad how wore this really bright green lipstick…" Peach smiled.

Something in Bowser's demeanor changed as she spoke. She looked away for a moment as the hair on her arms began to stand up. She heard him shift and her arm began to grow warmer. Despite her better judgment, curiosity won her over and she looked.

A pair of red luminescent eyes captured her. She couldn't look away. Her head began to swim when he leaned ever so slightly forward.

"…D'un doutz baizar de fin' amor coral…"

Peach flinched. The words of an old song penetrated her mind.

"Penalty."

She blinked. "What?"

"Penalty," Bowser repeated. With a sigh, he laid down and rested his head on her lap. Before she could figure out how to react, he took her hand and placed it on the top of his head. "Ten minutes."

"But I answered your…" Peach began to protest and took her hand off of his head.

"You chose not to answer honestly. Penalty," he took her hand and laid it back on his head.

Peach made a face and patted his head awkwardly. Bowser closed his eyes and let out a long content breath. Something about his action made Peach's tension start to melt away.

She pursed her lips and looked away from him as she ran her hands over his hair reluctantly. It was softer than she had expected. She frowned a little as her hands snagged on a particularly tough knot. Her fingers worked through it carefully and continued smoothing his hair one lock at a time.

"Mmmph…" Bowser grumbled. Peach's hands stopped and her shoulders tensed as one of his arms wrapped around her waist and the other around her legs. He pulled her closer and nestled his face into her lap.

She almost chastised him for his imprudence until he began to snore lightly. A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

He looked so peaceful this way.

"Be sai la noih, can me despolh,

El leih qu'eu no dormirai re."

Thanks for the feedback!

Indirect translation:

"…D'un doutz baizar de fin' amor coral…"

With a sweet kiss of love heart-true,

"Be sai la noih, can me despolh,

El leih qu'eu no dormirai re."

I know when I retire at night,

That I shall barely sleep a wink.

༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ I DO NOT OWN ANY MUSIC UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE ༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ