Count Bleck pushed the curtains back. He had been watching Nawrocki through the window of one of the front rooms until Mimi went back inside. Now he floated away from the window, scowling deeply. "He has got to go." It was the first thing Count Bleck had said all day.

"Who does?" Tippi was sitting on a decorative pedestal against the wall. Many pedestals in Count Bleck no longer held decorations, instead providing a flat space for Tippi to rest while still being somewhat level with everyone else.

"Nawrocki."

"I see."

"He's talking to my minions."

"He's allowed."

"He's in my dimension. He has a lot of nerve being in my dimension after everything he pulled."

"He apologized."

"And that makes everything alright?"

"No. But it means he isn't a hostile threat."

"I'm going to talk to him."

"I think you should."

"I'm going."

"There's the door."

Count Bleck left the room, leaving the door ajar behind him. Tippi counted to thirty before following closely behind.

Outside, Nawrocki had settled into the ground and had rested his chin in the black dirt, only to jerk right back up the moment Count Bleck threw his doors open. "Nawrocki."

Nawrocki smiled. "Eyyyy, Count Bleck! Salut! Ça va bien?"

"Don't take that familiar tone with me."

"Désolée."

"Why did you follow me here?"

"Because I have a vested interest in your mental state."

"You need to leave."

"I won't."

Count Bleck threw his cape out and pointed away with his cane. "You need. To leave."

"It's a free dimension."

"It absolutely is not!"

"You'll have to force me out, then."

"Do you think I won't?!"

"Why are you so angry?"

"Why am I angry? Because you threw my minions and I in a dungeon, you enslaved us, you built foul machines, you attacked us with a giant plant, you left a gaping dimensional hole in our castle, and you never finished my wife's potion!"

"I apologize," said Nawrocki, his voice firm but not angry. "I was wrong. That was wrong of me. I was lashing out, and I hurt you. That's not who I want to be anymore. I'd undo it in a heartbeat if I could."

"But you can't. You can't, and you have to live with it!"

"Like you do."

"Yes! You can't take it away! There are some things that are completely unforgivable. That no matter how hard you try or how much you want it, they can't be forgiven. That's it. End of the line. The moral event horizon. Point of no return."

"Ahhhh." Nawrocki nodded. "I see."

"Thank you."

"This isn't about me."

"What? Yes! Yes, it is!"

"No." Nawrocki shook his head. "This isn't about me, and it isn't about you, either."

"Then who is it about?!"

"It's about your father."

This line caught Count Bleck so off guard he was momentarily stunned. All he could do was stand there and gape at Nawrocki. "My father?" Count Bleck's voice was much more even, though still pained. He was no longer yelling, in any case. "What does my father have to do with anything?"

"Your father took the woman you loved away from you, cursed her, and turned you both into what you are today. You can't forgive him for what he's done to you. But you know, deep down inside, that what you did was worse than what he did. So you can't forgive yourself, because you can't forgive him."

"That's not..." But Count Bleck couldn't finish.

"It is, though."

Count Bleck sat down. Nawrocki pulled his roots out of the ground and walked over to Count Bleck. He put his leaf arm around the Count's shoulders.

"Well?" asked Nawrocki gently.

Count Bleck slowly shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I'd wager you haven't spoken of it in years."

"To be honest... I've never spoken of it."

"Well, you should." He turned Count Bleck's shoulders a little so that he was facing the castle. "With someone who loves you."

Tippi was hovering behind them, about halfway between them and the castle. "Hello, Blumiere," she said softly.

Count Bleck stood up. They quickly crossed the distance between them and Count Bleck embraced her.

"You never told me in words how you felt about what your father did," said Tippi.

"I tried my hardest not to think of it... It's just too painful. I thought if I erased my heritage from existence, that would erase my pain as well."

"But it didn't."

"No." Count Bleck pulled down the brim of his hat. "It's been festering for years. I try so hard to do good so I don't have to think about what I did... but I suppose it's not what I did that's causing the problem."

"Blumiere, you have to forgive your father."

"If I could, don't you think I would have?"

"Well, have you tried?"

Count Bleck didn't answer.

"Hm." That was Nawrocki

Count Bleck turned around and both he and Tippi stared at him.

"Don't mind me," said Nawrocki. "I was just thinking..."

"Are you sure you don't want to elbow into our private conversation?" asked Count Bleck.

"No. I'm feeding off your drama. It sustains me."

"Just ignore him," said Tippi.

"It's not something I can do overnight, continued Count Bleck as if he had not been interrupted."

"We can start by talking."

"Not here," said Count Bleck. "Tonight. After dinner."

"Aw." Nawrocki pouted.

Count Bleck turned around and went back to Nawrocki. He knelt down in front of the plant. "Thank you," said Count Bleck. "I suppose I needed that."

"Ain't no thing." Nawrocki stood up. "I mean, I guess this doesn't exactly make up for what I did, but... uh, maybe it's a start? Well, my work here is done. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a dirty alley to get back to."

"You truly have nowhere to go?"

"No," said Nawrocki. "I'm no longer welcome anywhere good."

Count Bleck heard a tiny cough. He turned around and looked around, but all he saw was Tippi, the castle landscape, and the chain chomp guards.

Count Bleck frowned. "Mimi?"

One of the chain chomps immediately turned into Mimi. "Aw, how'd you guess?"

"I've never heard a chomp cough so delicately," said Count Bleck. "It sounds like you were trying not to say something?"

Mimi pointed. "He's trying not to say something."

"What?" Nawrocki stiffened.

"You're in love!"

"What?" Count Bleck turned around quickly to face Nawrocki, while Tippi stifled a laugh. Nawrocki's face flushed hot and he looked down for a moment.

"I can tell by the way you talk. You're in love with someone you can't be with. That's why you do bad stuff."

"Is this true?" asked Count Bleck.

"Not- not exactly," said Nawrocki, holding up his hands. "She's a bit of a romantic, isn't she... I'm not in love. I just love her. It's not romance. It's devotion."

"So... you love someone, and you can't be with this person?"

"No. She... no."

"... She won't have you?"

"She's better off without me."

"Better off without someone in her life who loves her more than anything else?"

"I would just ruin her life. It's not like I was a saint before I went off the deep end and started worshipping Smithy."

"So you left her for what you presume is her own good."

"It's for the best."

"Does she love you as well?"

"What? Uh, I guess? I never really asked."

Count Bleck picked up Nawrocki, his gloves under Nawrocki's arms. "You must go to her."

"What?"

"Listen to me. You must. You love her."

"Uh... didn't you hear me? Haven't you met me? It's for the best if I stay away."

"Did you ask her how she felt about you leaving?"

"Of course not! She would ask me to stay!"

"So you'd rather she be miserable."

"What? No! That's-"

"Go to her, Nawrocki."

"I- I can't."

Count Bleck fixed his gaze right into Nawrocki, staring at him with such intensity that it made Nawrocki quiver. "Go to her."

"My husband has a thing for people being with the one they love," said Tippi.

"I..." Nawrocki looked over Count Bleck's shoulder at Mimi and Tippi. Mimi shrugged.

Nawrocki sighed. "Only if you'll come with me."

"I would be honored to escort you."

Soon they found themselves in Toad Town square, hiding in one of the bushes outside the gate to Peach's castle. All four of them were trying their hardest to hide in such a cramped space, on Nawrocki's insistence.

"Get your hat down," Nawrocki hissed. "She'll see you!"

Count Bleck put his hand on top of his hat and ducked as low as he could.

"Mimi, turn into something inconspicuous," Nawrocki said.

"Got it." With a poof, Mimi transformed into a glittering amazy dayzee.

"INconspicuous, you dotty dolt!"

Mimi giggled. "Just teasing ya!" With another poof, she turned into a plain old bub-ulber.

"Besides," Nawrocki grumbled, "I don't know that she'll even show up. I mean, she used to come by here every day, but that was years ago. For all I know she doesn't even live here."

"What are we looking for?" whispered Tippi.

"I'll know it when I see it."

They finally settled in to wait. Count Bleck watched an ordinary red-spotted toad come into the post office. Another toad went to the badge shop to browse. Two young girl toads came to visit the garden. Nawrocki watched them all with indifference.

Then another toad came that made Nawrocki tense up all over. To the others, she didn't seem much different from any other toad. She had blue spots and brown pigtails, and she was wearing a pink pinafore over a white jumper. They saw her just as she exited the post office and began walking west towards the house with the spinning roof.

"Is that her?" asked Count Bleck.

Nawrocki nodded.

Count Bleck nudged him.

Nawrocki took a deep breath, and then popped out from the bush. "Hey! So, uh... Hi."

The toad woman looked at him, first with her brow furrowed, and then with her eyes wide open in amazement. "Nawrocki?"

"Yeah... it's me."

There was no hesitation. She ran as fast as she could to the bush and grabbed him in the biggest hug imaginable. She spun around three times before letting go and looking at him in awe. "You came back!"

"Well... yeah?" He looked her up and down. "You've grown up."

"You changed your hair."

"What?" Nawrocki's hands went up to his pigtails. "Oh! Forgot I... yeah, I was just trying to make someone smile. I still wear it the same most of the time."

"You're still such a sweetheart."

"Your memory seems to be a bit fuzzy."

"It's called sarcasm. You never said goodbye, you know. After all these years, I was beginning to think you were just my imaginary friend."

"I guess I thought..." he mumbled something that Count Bleck couldn't hear, but the toad woman apparently did.

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Tippi asked politely.

Nawrocki turned around and saw Count Bleck, Tippi, and regular Mimi standing in front of the bush. "Oh! Yeah. Uh, so this is the famous Count Bleck, and his wife Tippi, and Mimi."

"I read about them all the time on the newsboard," said the toad woman.

"Everyone, this is my best friend in the whole world, Morala T."

Count Bleck extended a glove. "A pleasure to meet you, Morala. You're a friend of Nawrocki?"

"When I was a little girl, he was my only friend," Morala replied.

"You were kids together?" asked Tippi.

Nawrocki shook his head. "I'm much older than she is."

"It's quite unseemly," agreed Morala. She turned to Nawrocki. "I have a family now, you know. A husband and two kids of my own."

"Really?" He looked surprised. Then he started counting on his fingers. "I guess it has been a while."

"Why did you leave?"

"Because I was a bad influence on you and I was keeping you from making other friends."

"What? No, you weren't."

"Remember the field trip incident?"

"You're taking too much credit. If I recall correctly, at least half of our trouble-making capers were my idea."

"I did keep you from making other friends, though."

"Well... it was easier to be friends with you than to go out and make more. I have trouble connecting with other people. I always have. After you left I spent years in therapy learning how to make friends. I'm still bad at it. You didn't keep me from making friends; you reached out to me when no one else could or would. You're the only person to ever meet me halfway on this... well, you and then Ness."

"Ness?"

"Ness T. My husband. You'll have to meet him."

"So what, just like that? You're going to welcome me back into your life?"

"I've been waiting for this day. I knew you'd come back."

"Look, uh... I need to tell you. I've kinda been up to some stuff since I saw you last..."

"You mean that time you tried taking over the world?"

Nawrocki coughed.

"Yeah, I saw that on the newsboard, too. That wasn't cool."

"That's putting it mildly."

"But I don't know, I hear about that stuff and I think... I don't feel like I don't wanna be your friend anymore. I feel like maybe you can do better than that, and I can be there for you. You know?"

Count Bleck smiled. Nawrocki looked helplessly back at him.

"You're where you belong," said Count Bleck.

"You don't understand," said Nawrocki. "I'm going to do bad things. I don't plan it. I just always end up doing this. I care about people, and I hurt them, and I ruin everything."

"I'm an adult now," said Morala. "If you try to take over the world now, I'm gonna call Mario- or Count Bleck- and have them punch you in the face for me. And then I'll come visit you in jail. We'll play cards."

Nawrocki looked at Morala. "You're really going to take me back?"

"Of course. I still love you."

Nawrocki reached up and rubbed the top of her head. "Well... I love you, too."

"We should be going," said Count Bleck. He prepared to teleport out.

"Wait!" Nawrocki suddenly broke away from Morala. "Before you go! The ingredient Merlon is missing!"

"Oh! Yes!" Count Bleck stopped immediately. "You were going to tell me. It's hard to come by?"

"Yeah," said Nawrocki. "It's a whacka's bump."

"Pardon?"

"A whacka's bump." Nawrocki turned back to Morala. "Okay, bye!"

Count Bleck watched them go off together into Toad Town until he could no longer see them between the buildings.

"A whacka's bump?" asked Mimi.

"I'll worry about that later," said Count Bleck. "For now I just... want to enjoy this."

Tippi rested on her husband's hat. "Me, too," she said.