Upon landing at the castle and disembarking, Junior seemed to have shed nearly all of his shame and hurt feelings, and Bowser most of his foul temper. Or perhaps, Peach thought, they were just doing the same thing as she was and putting on a different face for their underlings. Peach, while her insides were trembling and her head was ringing with a million screaming questions, still stepped into the castle cool, collected, and poised. The heat from the fire and lava did a bit to calm her; she had always found the warmth here comforting.

All of the castle mooks rushed towards their returning ruler, looking various mixtures of surprised and pleased.

"Oh, there you are, sire!"

"We had no idea where you'd gone to!"

"What happened?"

"Princess! We weren't expecting you!"

Peach smiled, leaning down to speak to the koopa troopas that had gathered around her. "Hi, guys! Alonzo, how's your little boy doing?"

"He's doing great, Princess! He'll be getting his braces off next week!"

"Wonderful! I'm so glad to hear that!"

"Blah blah blah, who cares?" grumbled Bowser, yanking Peach by the sleeve of her gown and pulling her along with him. Peach frowned deeply and, as carefully yet forcefully as she could, she broke out of his grasp, but still continued walking alongside him. "You there, Alonzo or whatever your name is!"

The koopa troopa who Peach had just spoken with quickly straightened to attention. "Yes, sire?"

Bowser pushed Junior forward with his foot, much to Junior's annoyance. "This little brat's grounded for about a month for the stunt he just pulled. And no supper for him tonight, either!"

"What?!" whined Junior.

"Okay, fine, rustle up some bread crusts for him or something. Then send him to his room!"

"Wait!" Junior still looked a bit cocky in front of all of his father's mooks, but his voice had a touch of pleading to it. "I swear I didn't mean to make you angry. And Mama said that she'd back me up on this, too!"

Peach opened her mouth to speak, but Bowser cut her off.

"STOP CALLING HER YOUR MOTHER! SHE IS NOT YOUR MOTHER! Just for that, half a bread crust! Now—"Bowser turned his attention back to Alonzo—"take him to his room and lock the door!"

"This isn't fair!" screamed Junior as Alonzo began to lead him away. "I just wanted to get you the best birthday present ever! I'll get you for this!" Alonzo pushed him around a corner, and Junior's yelling faded away.

"Aw," said Bowser, with only a touch of sarcasm. "I'd be really proud of him right now if he was saying that to someone else."

"What should we do with Junior's servings of dinner tonight, your nastiness?" another troopa asked. "Shall we designate it to the princess instead? We weren't planning on her being here, but..."

"Nah, give her the rest of the bread crusts," said Bowser offhandedly. "If she's going to side with Junior rather than me, she can take the same punishment. Someone take her to her room, too! I don't care who, any one of you!"

There was murmured confusion amongst the troops—Bowser never treated Peach this way. But two troopas did eventually step forward.

Peach, however, firmly pushed their arms away. She was angry. Very angry. And when she got angry, she got... quiet. Deathly, icily quiet.

"You can't tell me what to do." Her lips were small; her words were cold and curt.

"Oh man, that's rich!" laughed Bowser. "I can so tell you what to do! You're my prisoner, in my kingdom—don't you forget that!"

It was really hard to forget that right now. Peach was humiliated and enraged and feeling betrayed over each of the million possibilities her mind had theorized were the reason for Bowser's treatment of her over these past three years. She had never felt more like a prisoner, not even the very first time he had kidnapped her.

"I have always been your prisoner, and I have always done as I pleased here." Keep your head high, keep calm... She needn't have worried. Her icy anger was more than enough to mask her inner confusion and trembling.

"Yeah, well, you've been lucky!" Bowser snapped back. "You've been lucky that every time before now I've been a good mood! But the only reason you're even here right now is because that bratty kid of mine can't follow orders! I call the shots around here—not Junior, not you—ME! Got it?"

"If you don't want me here," said Peach, her voice level, cutting, cold, "why don't you just take me back home?"

Bowser laughed in her face. Peach finally turned her chin away from him by a few degrees, but still forcing herself to look him in the eyes. "As if! You really think I'd do that and let everyone think I've grown soft or something? In your dreams, Princess!"

Peach blinked hard. He never called her Princess. He always called her by her first name. Except now.

"Now one of you pea-brains take her to her room already! Do I have to do everything around here?"

"No," hissed Peach. "I can go there myself, thank you." She turned around, chin still held high, and began to walk away from the now even more confused gathering of castle guards, servants, and residents. Who could blame them; neither Bowser nor Peach had ever acted this way around each other before. "And don't worry about feeding me, crusts or otherwise. I won't be joining you for dinner."

"Your loss!" Bowser sneered back at her.

Peach was stoic throughout her long, lonely walk to her room. She didn't let herself cry until reaching it and closing the door behind her.

...

The next few hours were the longest hours in Peach's life. There was too much to think about, too many such vastly important things that were pounding in her brain. Was she really... could she be... was it even possible... that she was Junior's mother? And if she was, how could that explain Bowser's treatment of her? And if she wasn't, then who was the mother?! Why didn't Junior know? Why had Kamek told him it was her? Why did Bowser suddenly not care about her anymore? Why, why, why?!

Part of her desperately wanted to just sink into sleep and shut off her brain for a few hours, but she already knew there was too much inner noise for her to ever be able to shut it off. Not until she got some answers.

It seemed like days before night fell and the lights in the castle went off one by one. Only then, with most of her tears out of her system, did Peach, with resolve, quietly leave her room and make the familiar trek down the hallway.

Upon reaching Bowser's room, Peach could see that there was still a faint glow of light from behind the closed door. Good, she wouldn't be sneaking in on him while he was asleep this time. She wasn't scared of his fire breath or worried that he'd hit her with it, but at least that was one less thing to have to deal with.

She pushed with all of her might, finally getting the door to budge open.

Bowser was awake too, even at this late hour, pacing in front of his window with characteristic heavy steps, looking down at the ground. There was no one else in the room, but not that Peach was surprised by that. If he did have someone else, she was probably only around when Peach wasn't. She bit her lip anxiously, taking advantage of his distraction to gather her thoughts, before stepping completely in the room and forcibly pushing the door shut.

Bowser bolted at the noise, spun towards the door, and instantly clamped his hand over his mouth, as if forcing down any fire that had instinctively shot out again. "What—" His hand muffled his voice, and he gulped and pulled his hand away. "What the heck are you DOING here?!"

Peach said nothing, only staring at him with stern, focused eyes.

"Get back to your room!"

"No. Not until I get some answers."

"YOU GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW OR I'LL..."

He trailed off. Peach waited. Bowser, finally, just gestured an arm towards her fruitlessly.

"Or you'll what?" Peach asked levelly.

"I'll... just stand here and yell at you. And you don't care."

Peach nodded. "Indeed."

Bowser flopped down on the bed with a heavy sigh. He looked... defeated. "Just go, okay? Even... even if you want to go home. You can just walk out and go, if you want."

"It's the middle of the night."

"Oh. Yeah."

"I told you. I'm not leaving until I get some answers." Peach felt her eyebrows knit even deeper into her brow.

"I kinda need to know the questions first," Bowser shot back.

Peach faltered. With all of the mental rehearsing she'd done before now, her mind was coming up with nothing but a blank on where best to start. Finally, frustrated, she held out her palms, her fingers spread apart. "You see this?"

"Uh... what are you even doing right now."

"You see them? My pinky fingers? They're bent. It's genetic."

"Yeah... so?"

"Junior has them, too."

One of Bower's eyes twitched suddenly. "Yeah, and? What's your point?"

"I know it's probably a coincidence, but... Junior told me how old he is. And I just—I just need you to tell me, yes or no. I just need to know."

"You're crazy!"

Peach inhaled sharply. Yes. Of course she was crazy. Before leaving her room she had talked herself into the perfectly logical conclusion that there was no way that she could be the mother of a child that was a completely different species. But the puzzle pieces had fallen so perfectly into place, and she just had to find the piece that didn't fit. The piece that would throw this crazy theory out the window. Without it, she'd never have peace. "I know it's impossible, and I know what the answer is, but I just need to hear it from you. Am I..." Her voice broke for the first time. "Am I Junior's mother?"

"Go away!"

That wasn't a yes or no answer. Peach's knees began to wobble. "Not until you answer me. What are you hiding from me? Just tell me! Tell me the truth!"

"YES! For crying out loud, YES, you ARE! Happy now?!" Bowser's shoulders slumped even more after the outburst, the sudden silence enveloping the room and accentuating the truth of his words.

Peach slowly, mechanically, sank to her knees. She didn't notice the silence. She wouldn't have noticed any sound had there been any, either. Even her shrieking, frenzied thoughts had been blotted out.

All that was left was: He's my son. He's my SON. He's MY son.

She vaguely felt tears wet her cheeks.

I'm a mother. I'm a mother. All this time, these past three years, I've been a mother.

Some other part of her brain was struggling to keep her breathing steady. Peach didn't even care.

He's my child! That mischievous, scheming little clone of his father is my child, too! He has been all this time! That aggravating, sweet little boy who I've kept comforting despite everything—and he's always been my son!

Peach's hearing finally registered an awkward grunt. She looked up through her tears. Bowser was standing next to her, looking uncomfortable, holding out a tissue gingerly on the edge of his claw.

She snatched it away, her arm feeling like rubber. And she glared at Bowser. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Bowser shrugged defensively, but not looking at her eyes. "What does it matter?"

"What do you mean, what does it matter?" Peach angrily dabbed at her eyes. "He's my son!"

"Look, you nearly died, okay?" Bowser shot back bitterly.

"But I didn't! What, did you think I couldn't handle the truth?"

"YOU NEARLY DIED!" Bowser reiterated with much more force. "Junior nearly died! He shouldn't even exist! He was just floating inside of you, not even in an egg like a normal creature! The doctor had to pull him out from you when he was still way smaller than a normal hatchling, but if we'd waited any longer you would have died!"

"But I didn't," Peach said again, but softer. "I survived. Junior survived. Why did you keep this from me?"

"What was I supposed to do?" Bowser shouted back, flopping down like a heavy sack of bricks on the floor near the edge of his bed, a few feet away from Peach. "Send him along with you when I finally let the Mario losers take you back? Wrap him up like a friggin' present with a 'Surprise!' banner for when you finally woke up? Maybe if he looked like you I would have done that, but you had a koopa baby, and so I kept him here!" He pulled his arms and legs in tight—very tight—and Peach realized with a start that he was actually trying to retreat under his shell.

"It's not that you kept him," said Peach, dabbing away the last of her tears. Her limbs were still shaking, but at least she seemed to have cried everything out. "That's fine. It's just that you never even told me what happened. You've ignored me ever since then. You could have told me. You could have done something."

"Yeah? And what would you have done if I told you? Come running back here and marry me?"

"I... I don't know," Peach admitted.

"Yeah you do. You wouldn't have," Bowser looked down at the floor with a resigned, bitter glare in his eyes. "You can't abandon your kingdom and all. That's what you told me before."

Peach turned her head away as well. Yes, she had turned him down when he'd asked her to marry him. Well, asked wasn't the best word. It was more like he would just blurt out "marry me" at various times when the two of them were alone. And she'd said no every time. It wasn't that she didn't care about him, it was just that her kingdom came first, her parents had entrusted her with it... and their arrangement was working out just fine anyway, right?

There was a long, uncomfortable silence between the two of them.

Finally Peach spoke, in a small voice. "Is that why you've been ignoring me all this time? Because I won't marry you?"

Bowser looked at her incredulously. "What? That's—look, if that were the case, I would've been ignoring you for longer than this! You've been saying you won't marry me for way longer than that!"

"Well then, what is it?"

Bowser continued to look at her like she was crazy. Peach bit her lip, but said nothing else, waiting for his answer.

His answer came in the form of reaching over and yanking off one of her gloves.

"It's that," he said, pointing to the gashes and scars that tattooed her entire forearm. "And the ones your poofy sleeve is covering. And all the ones on your other arm. And on your legs, and on your body."

Peach's face softened, "Bowser, I've told you, I actually like getting—"

"Oh, just shut up already!" Bowser yelled, helplessly flinging her glove aside. "Why don't you think about me for once? I don't like it! I don't like hurting you! And I especially don't like it when I'm the reason you nearly die because I somehow put a baby in you! I love you. I don't like hurting you. But I hurt you every time you're around. So I thought if I just kept you away, then I wouldn't have to hurt you anymore!"

Peach, rubbing her exposed arm, took a few deep breaths. It made sense, so much sense that she couldn't believe that she, even in the midst of all her irrational thinking, hadn't realized it before.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I didn't even... I didn't even think of that. But if you don't want to hurt me... you ignoring me these past couple of years hurt me far worse than anything physical you've ever done to me. I thought you'd stopped caring about me."

"The hell? I've been avoiding you because I care about you!"

"I know. I know that now. But I..." She gulped and looked Bowser back in the eyes. "When you stopped trying to kidnap me, and when I saw that you had a kid, I thought you'd found someone else."

"Are you crazy? There's never been anyone else! It's always been just you!"

Peach felt as though she might cry from relief. All of her fears, every single jolt of jealousy from all of these years were unfounded. There never was anyone else. Seven of those kids weren't even his, and the one that was... was her kid, too. It had always only been her.

She scooted over closer to him. He growled and tried to turn away.

"Please, don't. Please. I'm sorry. But I've missed you." She carefully slipped under his arm and pressed herself close to his body. Bowser relaxed a bit, but Peach could see that his eyes still looked tense.

"It's okay," Peach comforted him. She kissed the side of his face. "I'm okay. We're okay."

"Humph. Not really." Bowser stroked her cheek with the front end of his hand, keeping his claws turned into his palm. "I wish you were a koopa."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because koopas are tougher than you."

"I'm tough." Peach crossed her arms, but was still smiling playfully. "I survived a cross-species pregnancy that shouldn't have even happened. How much tougher can you get? And my son's tough, too."

Bowser finally smiled a bit. "Duh he's tough, but he gets that from his dad."

"Probably from both of his parents."

"Well, his parents are both pretty awesome."

"Speaking of Junior, though, you should let up on him. He didn't mean any harm. You should let him go have some fun with the Koopalings."

"Hmm... maybe in a few days. I don't care if he meant any harm or not, he still ran off in my airship. Little brat."

"He feels plenty bad about it already, though," said Peach. "I think you've punished him enough."

"I'll decide when he's been punished enough, he's my... oh. Right." Bowser smirked sheepishly. "Yours, too."

Peach nodded, still trying to let that sink in. She was a mother. She was Junior's mother. In all honest-to-goodness truth, she was. No matter how many ways she shouldn't have been; somehow, she still was.

"So... now what are we gonna do? What are you gonna do?" Bowser's smile was gone, and looked unsure again, his head down but his eyes still on Peach.

Peach gulped. Wasn't that the question. A conventional couple they were not, and they wouldn't have been even without the supposed bad blood between them and their kingdoms. It had been workable... thrilling, even in a strange way, to have their secret fling, but it was going to be hard for Peach to hide the fact that she knew Junior was just as much her child as he was Bowser's.

"I don't know," she admitted softly.

"I've got an idea! I can take over the Mushroom Kingdom, for real this time. Then I can marry you and we can both rule over both of our kingdoms together!"

Peach shook her head. "Mario would defeat you. He defeats you even here, on your home turf."

Bowser scoffed. "I let him win," he said, but with not as much conviction this time.

"Maybe..." Peach murmured, before she could stop herself. "Maybe I should just come out and admit to everyone what's been going on."

"What?! NO!" Bowser stirred violently, and Peach moved away from him in surprise. "Look, people... can't know that I feel like this. I've got a reputation to uphold, you know!"

Peach shook her head, not bothering to hide her smile. "Bowser, I think everyone knows how you feel about me. You do a terrible job of hiding it."

Bowser stared at her incredulously before suddenly plopping his face down in his palms, pouting. "Damn."

"I'm the one who should be worried about what people think. This isn't what a princess is supposed to be." She looked at her exposed arm again, each scar a wonderfully passionate and enticing memory, but a scar still the same. "I'm not ashamed of anything, I just don't think anyone would understand."

"Probably not," said Bowser, turning his head away from her, keeping his eyes off of her scars. "Kamek and whatever the heck my doctor's name is don't understand, either."

Peach looked down at her foot, which was absently tracing circles on the ground, and did her best to keep her voice level and calm. "They know about us?"

"Yeah. Just them. I told them if they ever told anyone I'd use them as bowling pins." Bowser scowled. "Although Kamek did have to go blab to Junior."

"Junior told me that Kamek told him I'm his mother. Why did he—"

"Who knows? He tried to feed me some stupid story about Junior seeing you and just 'instantly knowing' and that Kamek just told him he was right, but I don't buy it."

Peach, however, felt oddly comforted at the fact that Junior had recognized her at first sight. If it was true, of course. She hoped it was.

"But, whatever," Bowser continued, grumpily. "You're right, no one would get it. Everyone would think you're a freak. And if you showed them your arms, they'd think that I'm just some horrible jerk."

"I thought you wanted people to think that you're a horrible jerk."

"No, I want people to think I'm an EXCELLENT jerk. Besides... I don't want to be a jerk to you." His voice grew a lot smaller there.

"You're not."

"Oh, knock it off already! Stop trying to make me feel better! I'm the reason you nearly died!"

"You didn't mean it, though. None of us even thought that I could get pregnant, anyway."

"Well, I'm not going to risk it again." Bowser scooted further away from Peach, seemingly trying to end the conversation.

Peach would have none of that, though. She wasn't going to have everything snap back to the way it was earlier that day, even if she now knew why it was that way. She stood up, walked over towards him, and carefully lifted his chin up with her bare hand.

"You don't have to," she said gently. "We can still be intimate. We can still... have sex, even, without us worrying about me getting pregnant again. There are ways. Even if we just hold hands sometimes, that's better than nothing. But please, please, don't shun me anymore. I can't bear that. I love you. I want to be here, but only if you're doing things with me. Only if you make me feel like you want me here."

"I always want you here," said Bowser, nuzzling her hand automatically. "Why do you think I keep asking you to marry me?"

"Well, you can't blame me for having my doubts. You haven't seemed to want me around for these past three years. You haven't even kidnapped me in all that time. I understand you not wanting for me to nearly die again, but I can be here, we can still be together, without that being a concern."

Bowser sighed, but then grinned at her, wrapping his arms around her waist possessively. "Okay, I take it back. You're tougher than any koopa I know—besides me, of course. If you still wanna be here now that you know what really happened, well, you can't expect me to hold back anymore! I'm tired of trying to fight it. It's gonna be just like old times again. I'm gonna be kidnapping you all the friggin' time now. I hope you're happy."

"Nothing could make me happier," said Peach, smiling blissfully. "I'm so glad you still care."

"Never stopped." He stroked a long, golden lock of her hair between two large fingers. "Don't go back to your room. Stay here tonight. With me."

Peach pressed her face against his, kissing him lightly and sweetly. "I don't want to be anywhere else."

...

The next morning, Peach was awake early, and loath to leave Bowser's embrace after being denied it for so long, but she still slipped away anyway, careful to not wake him. She then got dressed, did her hair (pleased and touched that Bowser had still kept her personal care items in his bathroom this entire time), and quietly made her way to the castle kitchen.

Upon arrival, however, she discovered that she was not the first to make an early-morning trek to the kitchen.

Bowser Junior had stacked three chairs all on top of each other and was precariously tottering on his tiptoes, trying to reach the shelf above the stove where all of the candy containers were.

Peach gasped. Junior, startled, lost his balance and tumbled down, the flimsy chair tower collapsing as well.

Peach rushed over and deftly caught Junior before he hit the ground. Junior gave her an abashed, guilty smile. "Uh, hi, Mama."

"Junior! What were you even doing?"

"Trying to get some real food! Those bread crumbs last night didn't cut it!"

At the mention of food, Peach's stomach rumbled loudly, reminding her for the first time that she hadn't eaten a thing last night. She reached up and pulled a cookie jar down, setting it down on a counter and opening the lid. "These look like they might help both of us," she remarked.

"Oh boy!" Junior jumped out of her arms and onto the counter, grabbing a handful. "Just what I wanted! Thanks, Mama!"

Peach smiled warmly. "You're welcome. But you'll need to get off the counter. I'm going to be baking."

"Baking what?" Junior asked, his voice muffled by cookies.

"A cake. I didn't know yesterday was your dad's birthday, and I feel bad that I didn't get anything for him. So I'm going to bake him a cake." Junior brightened at this, and Peach felt herself glow too, a wave of loving emotion coming over her as she looked at... her son. This was going to take some getting used to, but Peach didn't even care. "Do you want to help me?"

"Really? Yeah!" Junior quickly scampered off the counter. "What do we do first? Can we make it chocolate? OOH! Chocolate with green frosting! And skulls all over it! And HUGE! We'll make the biggest cake ever!"

"We'll see," smiled Peach. "I see you've got a love for baking. Looks like you inherited something else from your mama besides your pinky."

"I like food," shrugged Junior innocently, "so why wouldn't I like baking?"

Peach laughed. "Good point. Now let's get started. You can start by finding me a big mixing bowl."

As Junior eagerly scampered off, and as Peach began gathering up the rest of the needed baking essentials, a wave of happiness began to enfold her. At this time yesterday, she wouldn't have believed it, but this had been the best birthday she had ever had. She'd finally gotten exactly what she wanted—and then some.

And, although it was a day late, she was going to make today the best birthday celebration ever.