A/N: Woo, sorry I've been so terribly neglectful; it's been a very busy month for me (My birthday and stuff =P). I always imagined the timing of this chapter to be sort of like Valentine's day, if such a thing existed in the Mushroom Kingdom. No hearts, cards, chocolates, or roses; just fluff.

The following morning proved to be even more stressful and hectic than Peach had even imagined. News of her recent successes in negotiating trade agreements with the Darklands had spread like wildfire and encouraged both entrepreneurs and investors, resulting in nearly double the usual applications for business permits. As per Mushroom Kingdom tradition, it was customary to open shop on the first day of the New Year, and per the same tradition, it was Peach's duty to visit every one of them. This was, of course, a tremendous task and usually spanned anywhere from one to four days.

Peach looked out the rain-streaked window of her carriage as they stopped at a newly opening apothecary. She did not particularly mind these little visits, often times the new businesses would offer her a small gift basket or some samples. That alone made the visitations the most enjoyable part of her New Year's duties. After this, she would have to sit in for weeks of meetings discussing new budget plans and going over new bills to pass into law. This year, because of her "display of excellent foreign diplomacy," her advisers expected her to go to even more meetings about foreign relations. Peach did not mind doing these things for the good of her country and her people, and she was very appreciative of the respect she had earned from the council. However, right now she was tired, hungry, and ready to go home.

Peach stared absently at all of the strangely-shaped bottles and even stranger looking plants and roots on the shelves as Toadsworth chatted with the elderly Koopa who owned the establishment. So far, they had visited two new bakeries, a badge shop, an accessories store, three cafes, a grocery store, a shoe shop, and even a dental office. Peach smiled as she looked down at her lovely new shoes, a gift from the owner of the shoe store. The flats were made of baby pink silk and had a lovely golden brooch, encrusted with pink, purple, and green gems, on each shoe. She loved them so much, she decided to put them on and wear them right away.

"Ah, well, many pleasant regards to you, madam. We wish you nothing but the best of luck in your enterprise." There it was! The sentence Peach had been waiting for; the signal from Toadsworth that it was time to go home.

It was all Peach could do to keep her eyes open for a quick but hearty dinner before she collapsed into her bed and fell into a hearty slumber.

Pauline smiled and hummed a little tune to herself as she painted her toes a fresh coat of red. Life was going very well! With the enormous success of her last performance, she had become the one of the most sought-after performers in all the Mushroom Kingdom. She had already auditioned and been accepted to share the stage with the great Madame Flurrie, a legendary iconic actress. Various magazines and other publications had also contacted her for interviews. With the advent of reuniting with Mario, even her love life seemed to be turning sweet.

To her, he was even more handsome than he was in his younger years. Sure, he was not necessarily attractive in a conventional way, but something about his demeanor and attitude she found very alluring. It was a paradoxical feeling of being perfectly content and safe, but also excited and thrilled all at once. Pauline loved every second of it. She also loved that their little meetings were becoming increasingly frequent.

Tomorrow night. I can't wait.

"Oh. My. Stars!" Wendy squealed in a high-pitched voice, heels clicking as she ran down the marble steps into Bowser's private office. "I can't believe it, like, I can't believe it!"

Bowser glanced over his shoulder to see his daughter running towards him with a huge grin on her face. "What is it? It better not be another boyfriend."

"Tsk, like, no Dad. Even if it was, it's not like I'd tell you after what you did to the last one."

Bowser chuckled to himself and wondered if the poor boy ever found his way off Lava Lava Island.

"Dad, be serious! This, like, has to do with my future! I got that internship at KCM, I've already got my first assignment!"

"Uh, KCM?"

Wendy rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "Koopa Couture Magazine, Dad. Honestly. I'm going to help interview--well, she's a really famous up-and-coming actress. Anyhow, I totally need to get packed so, see ya!"

Bowser watched Wendy run back up the stairs. He had no idea why anyone would want to read an article about some stupid actress, but he was proud of his daughter anyway and glad she was getting to do something she wanted to do. He looked over the law papers scattered on his desk and sighed. The majority of these laws mattered even less than celebrity gossip.

Who even wastes their time thinking up and submitting this stuff? "A petition to make street signs reflect more cultural diversity by placing pictures of every single species in the Darklands on them? Are you serious?" Bowser grumbled to himself before taking out a pen and writing "Who Cares?" in his finest and largest handwriting. It seemed a bit of shame that the king personally had to approve every bill, because he certainly seemed to see a whole lot of trivial nonsense pass by his desk. Then again, Bowser was completely unwilling to let any of his advisers make decisions about the kingdom without him.

It was getting late and the temperature in the office was dropping by the minute. Bowser put down his pen and listened to the silence of his castle. The kids were asleep or occupied, and the only sound to hear was the distant patter of rainfall. Raining again? At least we won't have to worry about any water shortages this year. The Koopalings were leaving for school again in just two days, just when Bowser had gotten used to having them around. Even though they could be temperamental and selfish, and they shouted at each other all of the time, it sure could be lonely without them.

Quietly shutting and locking the door behind her, Peach immediately flopped on her bed and immediately felt relieved. Finally! I thought that would never end!

Peach had just finished four back-to-back lessons, lectures, and practice meetings. It seemed like she had to become an overnight expert on everything that every adviser had spent his or her entire life learning. Although she found history, foreign policy, and economics interesting, all of the information and expectations could get overwhelming. Peach looked over at her Buzzy Beetle, who looked back at her with its shining plastic eyes. She flipped on the television, too tired and unmotivated to get into pajamas.

It was already a month and a half into the New Year and, so far, every single day had been exactly like this for Peach. Every day, she woke up early, spent all day in meetings and lectures, and then retired to her bedroom for an early bedtime. Aside from a few very brief instances, she had not seen any of her dear friends since the festival.

"How you doin'?" Fake audience laughter blared from the television. Peach quickly flipped off the television to silence the racket and instead closed her eyes to listen to the rain. I wonder what they've all been up to. I hope they're having more fun than I am. It's no wonder Daisy tries to shirk so many of her royal duties. She sighed and thought of Mario. It sure has been a long time since we talked. I wonder if he's busy too.

Peach was beginning to feel herself drifting off into sleep when the steady sound of falling rain was pierced by shouts and a booming noise which shook the entire floor. Peach frowned softly and opened her eyes. She heard a sharp rapping on one of the glass panes of her balcony door. Cautiously, she pulled back the gauzy, pink curtains and revealed, to her shock, the Koopa King.

He pointed towards the door handle and silently mouthed, "It's locked!" Peach gave Bowser an outraged expression and, not knowing what else to do; she unlocked and opened the door.

"Bowser! What are you—?"

"Doing here? That line again? Whatever, I'll explain later. C'mon Princess, let's go!" Bowser grabbed her wrist and gently pulled her towards his Clown Car.

Peach pulled away quickly. "Bowser…I can't. I'm really tired and—"

Suddenly, the handle of her door jiggled, followed by a loud knock and a panicked shout of "Princess Peach, are you alright in there? The Koopa King may be attacking again, please open the door!"

Bowser raised his claws in the air in a sarcastically menacing way and, mocking the high-pitched voice of the Toad, quietly squeaked, "The Koopa King is attacking, oh no!" He looked at Peach with that wonderfully pleading stare of his. "I'll have you back in a few hours at the most, I promise. I just want to show you something, but if we don't leave now, we'll miss it!"

The banging on the door was becoming more frantic. "Your Highness? Your Highness! Please open this door at once, you are in grave danger!" She heard the sound of keys.

"Okay, let's go." Peach figured she could not very well let her retainers know that she had intentionally locked them out of her room in order to have a conversation with Bowser. If she went with Bowser, they would just figure he had kidnapped her again.

As the Clown Car zoomed away from the Mushroom Castle, she heard faint cries below until the transparent rain dome sealed out any noise besides the humming of the engine. Peach looked down at her feet and played with her thumbs nervously in the awkward silence that remained. She looked out the dome and saw that they were rising higher and higher into the sky. "So…what did you want to show me?"

"You'll see." He smirked. "How've you been?"

"Oh, uh, I've been well. I'm very busy with all of these sorts of new royal duties. Actually, um, I wanted to thank you for being so generous to the Mushroom Kingdom. I mean you didn't have to do that."

"Do what? I just signed some agreements I found to be in the best interests of the Darklands."

Peach felt herself blush as Bowser threw her yet another smirk. She noticed they were flying right through the cloud layer. What is going on here? Where are we going?

As the Clown Car slowed to a stop next to a floating platform, Peach found her questions answered. Here, high above the stratus clouds and the pouring rain, Peach had a clear view of the starry night sky. Bowser pressed a button to retract the glass weather dome and Peach shuddered as the freezing night air met with her skin. Luckily, Bowser was prepared for just such a situation and handed her a very plush pink blanket before climbing out of the car onto the slightly wobbly floating platform.

Peach looked at Bowser, wide-eyed. "What are you doing?"

"The Clown Car won't go any higher, she's not really meant for that, so we're going to take this platform instead." He extended his hand out to her. "You're gonna want to bring that blanket."

Peach looked in horror at the medium-sized, green-checkered platform. Did he really expect her to get on that thing? There would be barely enough room for the two of them, and she could see how much it shook when he got on. There was no way she was getting on. She shook her head violently, a scared look in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I can't, that looks…really unsafe."

"I know it looks scary, but I swear this thing is completely safe. If it can hold me, it can hold you too. This thing I want to show you, it's totally worth it. I won't let anything bad happen to you Peach, you just have to trust me."

I'm supposed to trust Bowser? What a strange world she was living in. Peach sighed and weighed her options. She could either get on the platform to look at whatever he wanted to show her, or stay in the car like a stick in the mud, be cold, and disappoint him.

Mustering her courage, she extended one hand to Bowser and with the other, clutched the blanket around her. The platform tilted violently as Bowser easily raised her up onto the platform with him. When the platform began to move upwards, Peach began to shake uncontrollably from some mixture of terror and cold. Though she did not like to admit her fears, heights were not among Peach's favorite things, and the distinct lack of guardrails or anything to stop them from plunging several thousand feet to the ground below made her nervous, to say the least.

Peach clutched tightly onto Bowser's arm for both support and warmth, which paradoxically both increased and decreased the feeling of terror balling in the pit of her stomach. Being so close to the Koopa King made her nervous, but his smoky scent in the icy breeze somehow soothed her. She pulled the blanket tighter around her with her free hand and shivered. She really hoped whatever this was would be worth it. Everybody is probably very worried about me.

Bowser found it hard not to hum happily to himself as he ascended into the sky with his curious princess on his arm. This reminded him ever so slightly of the time he had abducted her with the intention to create a new galaxy where they could rule by each other's sides. In retrospect, maybe this galaxy was not so bad after all.

"Ooh, a shooting star!" Peach's delighted cry interrupted Bowser's train of thought. It seemed she had temporarily forgotten her extreme fear. The platform had finally come to a stop somewhere in the curiously oxygenated tropopause, right below the realm of Star Haven.

"Yeah, there's about to be a lot more where that came from. Every year around this time, there are a whole bunch of 'em. Not sure why."

Peach eagerly scanned the sky in silence until she saw another shooting star, and then another. Before long, stars were falling all around and beside them. "This is fantastic! How do you know about this?"

"The first time I went to Star Haven to, uh, borrow the Star Rod, I was already pushing the Clown Car to be up this high and these annoying little stars kept crashing into her. Anyhow, I guess it happens every year. Kammy says it means those goons up in Star Haven are up to something."

"No way, I don't believe it!"

"Believe it, Little One, you owe me twenty coins."

Twink screwed up his face and looked into the crystal ball once more. Sure, he was supposed to be able to see anything that was going on down below but, this had to be some kind of trick. Up in Star Haven, every Star Spirit, including Twink, was busy with the annual granting of all the wishes they had approved from all the New Year's celebrations worldwide. Twink had seen plenty of strange wishes, but this was just too much.

"You know, they made a mutual wish too!" Geno chuckled.

"That's crazy, I knew Peach when I was just a little apprentice Star Kid and she was trapped in his castle. She couldn't wait to leave and now you're trying to tell me that something has changed? I mean, everyone in Star Haven already knows about his wishes but she would never…"

"She would." Geno held out a pristine white envelope with a flat, blue star enclosed. Twink took out the star and found an elegant green script detailing simply "Bowser."

"And here's the other one for you," Geno said as he passed over yet another ungranted wish in the form of a flat blue star. "This one's his."

"Oh sheesh, not again, put it in the box with all the others."

"You can't, they're mutual and there's nothing selfish to it, so go ahead and grant them already and I'll take those coins too."

Twink looked over at Geno with a tired expression on his face. "I can't believe that I'm personally overseeing this. When did this world get so weird?" He waved his small arms, activating the wishes. They emitted a bright white light and leaped off the platform, hurtling down towards the land.

Peach's eyes shone as she saw the brightest shooting star yet, blazing in front of her. Bowser sighed silently as she clutched onto his arm tighter than before and he took in her soft fragrance. Maybe there's a chance for "the bad guy" after all…when did this world get so wonderful?

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the meteor shower began to slow down. Bowser looked at Peach adoringly as she rubbed her eyes and the platform began its descent. They would be at his Clown Car soon enough and then he would have to take her back as he had promised. He suddenly felt a pressing urge to say something to her, something romantic. It was now or never. "Uh, Peach? Can I ask you something?"

"You just did," Peach said with a yawn. "I mean, I'm sorry. That was rude of me to say; go ahead."

He looked into Peach's expectant eyes and felt his confidence fall. "Well…I wanna," he hesitated, "ask you to be a judge in the Koopa New Year's Games in about three weeks. I usually do it but I've been…called into service."

"A judge?"

"Yeah, it's kinda an ancient Koopa tradition. The Koopalings all choose knights and then there's a two-day tournament with all kinds of events. Whoever doesn't get eliminated wins and gets a prize of their choice. There's a lot of other stuff too, lots of feasts, games, decorations and general chaos."

"Sounds like fun. Why have you been called into service?"

Bowser snorted and smirked to himself. "It's Junior's first year that he's going to participate. Wouldn't you know that he'd pick his old man as his knight? Of course, since I'm the baddest Koopa around, nobody else has a chance. All of the other kids are mad about it. Anyhow, I can't be the judge, for obvious reasons, so we could really use your help."

Peach sighed under her breath. Could use my help again? Bowser was getting too good at getting her to go along with whatever he wanted her to do. Even so, watching a Koopa Tournament sounded like a lot more fun than endless meetings about Koopa foreign policy. She was sure her advisers would be more than happy to let her go on another diplomacy trip to the Darklands. Oh Stars, am I rationalizing this? The platform stopped at the Clown Car and Peach made a face. She knew she would have to climb back down into the car and bear with the terrifying wobbling of the platform.

Unexpectedly, Bowser swiftly placed his arm around her back and slid both her and himself into the car in one movement. Peach was speechless in shaking fear until she realized that she was already safely inside the car. Nonetheless, she managed to squeak, "Please don't ever do that again. I really thought I was falling!"

Bowser reluctantly removed his claw from around her waist and began to pilot the Clown Car down though the thick, misty clouds below. "You wouldn't have thought that if you had any faith in your trusty Koopa King. Besides, I promised to take you back in a few hours, not a few days. If we had waited for you to climb down by yourself, we would have been there all night!" he teased.

Peach looked shocked and defiantly protested, "We would not have been there all night! You didn't even let me start trying!"

"Of course not; you probably would've got scared and fallen."

"I would not, take it back!"

"No."

"Yes."

"Come to my kingdom for the festival and I will."

Peach narrowed her eyes playfully. "No way, you're not going to win that easily. I want accommodations."

"Oh yeah, like what? Just name it."

Peach giggled. She did not really want anything but now felt compelled to think of an appropriate demand. "Uh, well, I want--well I don't know what I want."

"I've never met a girl who does."

"Oh c'mon, that's enough!" The car emerged from the clouds and in the distance; she could see her castle getting closer. "I guess you're just always such a good host, I don't feel like I could ask for anything else."

Bowser smiled at the praise. She thinks I'm a good host! "So, you'll come then?"

"I suppose I couldn't very well refuse."

Bowser grinned triumphantly. "No, you couldn't. Don't worry Princess; I'll make sure you'll have all the accommodations you could ever want."

The Clown Car stopped at her balcony to the confusion of the Mushroom guards below. Peach leapt out of the car onto the smooth marble balcony without any assistance from the Koopa King.

"You're getting better at that, Princess."

"Please, that little platform must have come straight from the Underwhere! After experiencing a ride on that, jumping from the Clown Car is nothing. In fact, I feel practically invincible."

Bowser chuckled. "Well, hopefully you'll still feel that way after those little Mushroomies thumb you down with all their non-stop meetings."

She groaned. "Why did you have to remind me? I had just forgotten."

She heard Toadsworth and a few other retainers making their way up her steps.

Bowser sighed, "That's my cue, gotta run."

"Goodnight Bowser. I had fun, thank you for showing me the shooting stars."

"Goodnight Peach, see you in three weeks." Just as he was piloting the Clown Car away, Toadsworth, Toadette, and a few servants burst into her chamber.

"Your Highness, are you alright?"

"What happened, Poppet? How did you escape from that foul creature?"

Peach stretched her mind for a proper explanation. She was not sure she was quite ready to explain that she was merely out on a stargazing expedition with the Koopa King. Instead, she said, "I made a negotiation with the Darklandians."

Fearing the worst, the Mushrooms anxiously crowded around the princess.

"In exchange for my safe return, I have agreed to go on a diplomacy trip to the Darklands in three weeks time. While I'm there I'll be serving on a weekend council of sorts for a Darklandian event."

The advisers burst into chatter at the news. "What the devil are those brutes trying to achieve by putting the princess on a council?"

"I have no doubt it's some kind of Pro-Darklands propaganda," said a Mushroom retainer. "They intend to play her sympathetic nature to gain better agreements for themselves. We mustn't let her go."

Peach folded her arms and pursed her lips. She was getting very tired of her advisers talking about her as if she were not there. Moreover, she had no idea her people could be so xenophobic when it came to the Koopas. She had taken quite enough; it had been a long enough day already.

"Well, I, for one, am just glad the princess is back safe and unharmed," Toadette said softly. "Can I get you anything, Your Majesty?"

"No, thank you Toadette. As for the rest of you, I've made a promise to a powerful foreign sovereign and I certainly intend to honor it."

"As you wish, Princess. If that is the case, we must start your preparations with double intensity tomorrow. We did not expect you to be called into duty again so soon."

Bowser's words echoed in Peach's head, "Hopefully you still feel that way after those Mushroomies thumb you down with all their endless meetings."

"I'm sorry but, I won't be attending any meetings tomorrow either."

"But Your Highness, you must!"

"No, I mustn't. I'm completely exhausted, entirely overworked, and very certain that it will all be waiting for me after I take the weekend off." Peach shook with nerves and adrenaline. This was what it felt like to assert herself. It was so amazingly empowering! No wonder Bowser pulled rank like this all the time. "Now that we have settled that, if there are no further questions, I am going to undress and go to bed. You may now leave."

The shocked advisers slowly meandered out of Peach's room in a single file line. Trailing the group was Toadsworth who looked back at the princess as she firmly closed the door behind him. What in King Granbi's name has gotten into that girl? Maybe we've overworked her; I haven't seen her so resolutely defiant since she was a young lass. Toadsworth hobbled down to his chambers shaking his head and hoping Peach's new attitude was only a phase.