A/N: Sorry for going MIA...I hope everyone is okay! Slow chapter here! I know this story is one heck of a slow burn but we're getting to actual romance, I promise! :D Thank you so much for the support! Please leave a review/favorite/follow for more updates! :D
"That isn't going to work. You're too small."
Iggy stared at the human with visible concern, confused as to why Peach had rushed out of his father's chambers so quickly. No matter how crazed she seemed, he hesitated to stop her, as she seemed to have a goal in mind.
The fury in her eyes was a bit scary, anyways.
He flinched as he gained a bitter glare over Peach's shoulder before she turned back towards her task. She didn't seem to be in the mindset for his silent judgement, or, even worse, his hushed concern.
Peach held onto the closet's handle with every ounce of strength she could muster. She pulled with frustrated grunts as her heels scraped against the floor, but all she was managing to do was tire herself out.
The handle rattled and didn't give in. She grunted with each pull, but the large wooden door barely budged against her. She managed to set a few puffs of dust free from the corners, but that was the only sign of movement, as the door was solid wood and double her height; far too heavy for her to even dream of forcing open.
Iggy held his breath as he watched the small human attempt to force open the locked door. It was an amusing scene, but something about the amount of force she used made him skeptical of her goal. She seemed desperate and oddly confident in her bizarre actions, and he felt compelled to let her follow through with whatever she was seeking. He was curious enough to turn an eye.
Peach's hands slipped off of the door's handle, throwing her back against her force and onto the floor. With an annoyed frown, Peach landed on her backside.
Iggy crouched down towards his company with an arched brow. He tilted his head as he observed the woman.
Peach clenched her fists into the wooden floor as she scowled at the locked door, completely ignoring his presence.
"I'm not meaning to...stick my nose where it doesn't belong, but, um, what are you doing, exactly?" He asked with a concerned frown.
"I am trying to open a door," she hissed sarcastically, annoyed that she had to even explain what she was doing. Peach sighed before continuing. "Do you know where the key is? To the closet."
Iggy flinched at her out-of-character coldness, but quickly answered her question, as he had the answer, and was eager to provide it.
"Ludwig keeps tabs on the keys for most of the doors around here. If something's locked, he probably has the key." He shrugged. "That, or Dad has it on his person. Doubt it, though. Why would he care so much about a closet?" Iggy mumbled to himself. He paused before continuing with a confused glare. "Why do you care so much about a closet?"
She nodded her head in understanding. That was just the answer she wanted to hear, as long as the first part was accurate. If Ludwig had the keys, she would find a way to snatch them. As for the king...if he had them…
Peach sighed as she laid down, not caring that she rested on the floor. She could feel Iggy staring over her, but she ignored him as she stared up at the ceiling while digesting the koopaling's earlier question.
"The key. Isn't it strange that it belongs to where I came from? I haven't seen anything that belongs to the Mushroom Kingdom except for...in there." She forced her eyes shut in embarrassment. "I feel like it opens something in there. I...feel like I'm being ridiculous. I don't even know what I'm looking for! It could belong to something silly...yet…" Peach groaned. "I'm being silly."
Iggy popped his head above her, interrupting her view of the ceiling.
"No, I think that makes sense," he muttered. "Finding a random key from your homeland is something out of a novel, isn't it?" He muttered with amusement. "Though, I can't say I understand your...desperation. Any reason why?"
Peach blankly stared at him, surprised that he was enabling her stubbornness. For what seemed to be a smart koopa, she had expected judgement, not agreement.
She opened her mouth to reply to his question as if the answer was obvious to her, but, instead, she slowly closed her mouth as she realized she didn't necessarily have an answer. She had felt so confident in her need to storm into the closet, but, as she laid on the wooden floor before it, she couldn't pinpoint why she had felt the rush of adrenaline.
Something deep inside her was pushing for an answer. She knew fixating on a curiosity was what got her into the phantom's claws in the first place, but the key felt...different.
"I'm...not sure. Whatever it is, it has to be important! He's hiding something, surely!"
Iggy nodded.
"Dad has countless war crimes, scandals, and other dark things pushed under the rug. I wouldn't be surprised if a small key hid something even I don't know about." He shrugged. "Or, it could be garbage. Both sound...plausible!"
Peach closed her eyes as she felt a wave of sickness rush through her. She was uncertain why she held so much curiosity for a random key, but she couldn't deny that the king's treatment of her was a guiding factor.
Or, rather, how he had treated her earlier.
It was undeniable that she was desperate for a reason behind her position below the opera house. She had clung onto her belief that there was something between the two, but that had been shut down so bitterly by Iggy's reveal of the king's past.
She wanted a reason for her imprisonment that wasn't terrifying. She needed reason behind his kindness. She just wanted to believe that he cared about her.
Even so, the key felt oddly...familiar. As many things did with the king, she felt drawn to it.
"There...there has to be a reason. There has to be a reason why he made me feel this way...just one reason that doesn't make me feel sick," Peach mumbled in pure desperation. She stumbled over her words as she tried to keep her composure. The more she spoke, the more her words shook.
Every reason she could think of was at her expense. No matter how hard she tried to come up with an explanation of her fate that had herself in mind, it fell flat.
Was it true? Was she locked away by a monster who didn't truly care about her? Was she not as safe as she had previously thought? Was she pitied only for Daisy's sake, or a fond memory?
It was odd, but seeing the beast have a soft spot for her had given her hope, rather than fear. Was that why she had latched onto the idea of the two forming a relationship so ideally? To cover up how terrified she was?
Now she stood with no reason to feel secure. Instead, she felt betrayed and, quite obviously, afraid, of her position with the beast.
Peach groaned in frustration and embarrassment. Why did the betrayal hurt so much more? Why was she looking for answers when she wasn't even sure what she was questioning!
Peach raised her arm to her face and covered her eyes. Tears welled up within them, but she refused to let them fall. To cry for the beast was to let him overpower her.
"I just want to prove that he isn't...toying with me. Why is it so hard to prove? I barely believe it now. Why am I even crying? This is so stupid."
Iggy, while shy to social settings, was not one to be oblivious to heartache. He had seen it countless times within his parents, and it sat identical on Peach's face, though far less violent and anger-driven. It sat blatantly, but dormant to her, almost as if she was ignorant to the way she cared so much as to cry.
He could not understand the pain, but he could see it, and knew who to blame. It was odd, imagining his father with someone so small and unlike himself, but it was clear there was something between the two. Neither seemed aware, but it was quite obvious from looking from an outside perspective.
He was not skilled in understanding others, and the situation was too complex for him to analyze without jumping to conclusions. While unsure of his father's intentions or perspective, Peach held something for him.
Romantic, platonic, or a mixture of the two, he didn't know. All he was able to grasp was that the two cared about one another, to some extent, and had formed a connection that had snapped. That, in itself, was shocking, but not something he was opposed to.
Iggy quickly shook his head in embarrassment, as it was not his affair to get entangled within. He was often guilty for prying, and he knew it was not his issue to stick his nose in.
"I don't think it's stupid," Iggy finally whispered with genuine sympathy. Peach scoffed, urging him to continue with a slightly-strict tone. "Look, we all complicate things. I'm sorry if what I told you made you upset. I can't help but feel like it contributed to this. I'm not...good with these things."
Peach sat up and pulled her knees to her chest. She slowly shook her head.
"I'm just afraid of what'll happen. Your dad, he hates me. He could kill me! I thought we...I wanted to…" Peach trailed off in frustrated embarrassment. "He's a creep," she blurted out with a huff of air. She clenched her teeth as the amount of embarrassment led her to a fit of flustered anger.
"A creep, a stalker, a liar, and a kidnapper, no less! What did I even want from him?! All he's done for me is save me, and any decent person would do that! I wouldn't have needed saving if he had just kept his claws off of me!"
Peach was internally ripping her hair out as she rambled out the king's awful qualities. She quickly paused as she turned back to her company, realizing she was talking about the koopa's father.
"I'm sorry-"
Iggy crossed his arms.
"Agree to disagree," he mumbled with an unamused shake of his head. He sighed. "I'm just now seeing that you dislike Dad. I guess I'm not as observant as I thought."
"I don't dislike him!" Peach loudly interrupted. She quieted herself before continuing. "I don't fully, at the very least. He can be...good company, when he doesn't have a royal stick up his butt," she muttered blandly.
I had thought he cared about me...But, how can I fully dislike a face that feels so familiar?
Iggy rolled his eyes. How could one not dislike someone who one deems a "two-timing creep"? Her opinion of the phantom was confusing and she seemed to have overlapping views of him.
He didn't understand her, but something told him that her relationship with his father was pulling the strings behind her new obsession with the key.
She seemed to think sourly of his father, yet refused to acknowledge hatred for him. She was hard to understand, especially to a koopa of a young age.
Looking back towards the key, Iggy changed the subject.
"You should probably head back to your bed unless you're planning to sleep in there with Dad. He's not exactly very giving with the blankets, so I don't suggest spending the night with him."
Peach instantly sprang up from the floor. With a few pats on the front of her dress, she removed the dust, and blankly turned back to Iggy.
"No offense at all, but that is quite literally the last thing I want."
"Understandable," he agreed. "But, I have to ask, are you really going to sneak in there?" He asked with a point his thumb towards the closet. "That's quite a bold thing to do."
Peach squinted.
"My answer depends on if you're going to rat me out or not," Peach mumbled suspiciously. "I'm not exactly on good terms with your father and I'm not looking to arrange a funeral."
Iggy nodded as if that were a completely normal situation to find oneself in.
"I'm not going to tell on you. Just wondering if you're actually going through with it. I admire your boldness."
Peach forced an awkward smile. Should breaking and entering into his own father's study be...admirable?
Iggy read Peach's expression.
"I could never do something like that," he continued explaining, "my siblings, excluding Ludwig, maybe, but me? I can't see how you can confidently go against Dad for the sake of a gut feeling. I admire that about humans; your kind is overly curious and not very bright, but that leads to many unexpectedly-clever outcomes when in the right situations."
Peach blankly stared at the koopaling in dead silence, on the fence of whether she should be offended or not. She had no doubt it was framed as a compliment, but she wasn't exactly beaming at being labeled, for a lack of better words, "stupid."
Could she blame him? She was being careless.
Peach silently rolled her eyes, as it still didn't sit right with her. It seemed common for humans to be defined by the stereotypes their species held, rather than individualistic qualities, and it annoyed her.
Besides, it was just a coincidence that she fit that description! It's not as if it were true.
Peach finally turned towards the exit.
"I should head off. It was nice meeting you, but I really need to get out of here."
Peach cringed as she remembered how she had ended up in the king's bed in the first place. She hadn't realized how tight and heavy her chest had been this entire time, surely from it being filled with water when she had fallen.
And he had saved her.
She shoved the memory away, as it made her tremble.
"Oh, of course!" He quickly replied, fearful of accidentally holding the woman even longer. Iggy gestured towards the door. "Do you need-"
"No, I'm fine," Peach interrupted, knowing he would offer to guide her back. She forced a small smile. "I'm starting to vaguely remember where my room is, at least in this hallway, so I'll be fine."
Peach turned out to the hall and closed the door behind her, cutting off any potential response from Iggy. She stood in front of the entrance, the only light at her feet from the closed study, illuminating her damaged and dirty shoes.
The rest of her body was coated in the dark, but she had no doubt she looked just as filthy and unkempt. At the very least, her clothes were clean from nearly drowning.
At least that was one good thing she could think of.
Peach took a few steps to the right and quickly felt tears stream down her face as she replayed back everything that had happened. For the first time, she truly cried about her imprisonment, though she remained silent, afraid of luring unwelcomed company.
Her conversation with Iggy was distracting, but the shock of so much information had briefly numbed her. Now that she stood alone, she was able to digest everything even further.
Peach clenched the key in her fist as she walked, fixating on the warmed metal. Her ring grazed its surface, pulling her attention to it.
The delicate band had brought her so much comfort through the years, knowing there was a man, a suitor, out there who truly cared for her. She was not one to need a savior, especially a man, but his presence had always been...relieving.
But, now, she felt nothing.
Where was he now? Surely, he had found another young woman, who was more eager to meet his needs.
She had no doubt he was living a new life with a promising future. It was silly of her to wear the ring, knowing it belonged to a stranger, especially after his disappearance.
In one swift motion, Peach pulled the ring off of her finger. She didn't do it out of bitterness or jealousy, rather embarrassment at the fact that she ran around looking to meet her prince charming.
Instead of a slipper, she had a ring, and she waited for him to notice. Perhaps her imprisonment was a wake up call to how...childish that was.
An underground prison was not the place to meet one's true love, if that was what she was even looking for.