A/N: Happy Wednesday! This is kind of a silly chapter! I want to include more "fun" moments where it isn't 100% serious, I hope you don't mind! At first, I wasn't very happy with this chapter, but I went through and added a lot more to it! Now it's one of my favorites, lol!
"You're up. It's about time."
Peach groaned in exhaustion while rubbing her eyes as she slowly sat up. Her body ached, especially her torso, and she had a thick ringing in her ears. She tried to look around but she was unable to see anything in the darkness; something she was becoming annoyingly familiar with. She rubbed her head and tried to find out where she was, who she was with, and what had happened.
Peach instantly remembered who she was with as her profile singed from a flash of fire from the koopa beside her. She winced in discomfort and shielded her face with her hands. The flames lit up the darkness in an instant and warmth ran up her legs and singed the tip of her nose. After the initial blast, she welcomed it, as his flame melted away the lingering cold that seeped through her. Once the fire wore down, she opened her eyes.
King Koopa and Peach sat in front of a pile of wood in front of her, bouncing with powerful, red flames; his fire sparked and bent as it crackled against the misshapen wood. She pulled her legs against her chest and leaned into them to capture her warmth.
She was enamored with the way his fire moved, but even more curious about where they were. The flames were powerful, but only lit up a limited bubble around the two and she could only see as far as it stretched. With the help of a few bouncy embers, she could at least tell they were somewhere more rural than the labyrinth, as the wall behind her was dark, untouched stone covered in unmanaged scratches and bumps.
Her back was pressed against a jagged stone wall and the king sat a foot beside her, also against a wall. They were in a corner of what felt like a small cave, just large enough to fit him.
After a long pause, she sleepily mumbled. "Where…where are we?"
King Koopa arched a brow as if it should've been obvious. He tossed a large plank of wood into the fire, staring into it as it creaked and quickly started falling to black ash.
"Darklands' Mines. An abandoned section of it."
Everything came flooding back to her in an instant: how she had broken the pillar, how she had tried to help him, and how she had sent them falling to...apparently, the Darklands' Mines. She looked around and tried to see how deep they had fallen, how close they were to the surface, where the closest exit was, but...she groaned, as she was limited by the king's fire.
After a few more silent moments filled with cracking fire, he looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Why did you do that?" He quietly asked.
Peach tensed at his confrontational tone and instinctively shrunk against the wall. Several emotions ran through her, but most intensely: guilt. She hadn't meant to cause so much trouble for him...she hadn't meant to throw herself into danger, she hadn't meant to throw him into danger! She just...
She quickly started rambling a rushed apology as she fidgeted with her fingers. "I didn't mean to break the pillar, I-"
Her apology caught him off guard and he turned his face towards her with a distant rage within his eyes. She further cowered away from him, caught off guard by the fury within him, expecting such anger out of him but nearly always flinching from it.
King Koopa noticed her anticipation and grumbled to himself. His eyes shifted as he was discomforted with how she looked at him when he was frustrated...he never had a good grip on his emotions and they often times never leaked out of him or came out in full force, never inbetween, and understandably scared the human when he didn't communicate himself properly. Though frustration still leaked out of him, he continued in a softer tone, trying his best to monitor how he made her feel. "I don't care about that," he whispered.
King Koopa noticed Peach's eyes advert from him and he sighed with a frustrated run of his claws through his hair.
"I meant…" He fell to silence as he tried to compose his words. "I told you to run. You could've gotten hurt. You're fragile. You…you can't do things like that without breaking." The king trailed off in pure frustration and a huff. He growled under his breath.
"It was my fault everything broke," she argued. "I wasn't going to let you handle it alone-"
"You should've!" He barked. "You're meant to stay where it's safe! Not run into danger!"
"Don't run into danger and I won't have to follow you!" She passionately argued. "I couldn't just sit there and be worried sick about you!"
He angrily growled a foreign curse through clenched fangs and aggressively tossed another stick into the fire a bit more intensely than intended. It knocked the flames to the side, releasing a burst of embers and ashes that crawled away from the two. Peach's eyes followed the bouncing ash until it fizzled out.
Peach gulped and changed the topic. "Did…did we fall? It's all so blurry."
"Only 40 or 50 feet."
"Only?!" She cried.
He burst out into laughter at her panic. "You're lucky I caught you before we fell any further."
The king picked up one of the burning pallets in the pile before them and lifted it in front of him. He leaned forward, using the flame to further illuminate where they were, and Peach's eyes eagerly followed the expanded bubble of light. His fire illuminated something steep and dark...Peach's eyes widened as she recognized it as a cliff a few feet away from her feet. It was endless, seemingly stretching infinitely and absorbed nearly all of the light his fire radiated.
They weren't just in a cave, they were on a ledge of a narrow cliff.
Peach gasped under her breath and was more aware of her body than ever, and eagerly pressed it harder against the stone wall; she was close enough to have fallen off at any moment if she stood up. She pulled her legs against her chest, eagerly wrapping her arms around them, expecting them to lead her off of the edge somehow.
He threw the stick back in the pile, releasing another crackle of ashes.
Peach's eyes lingered on where the cliff was, though she could no longer see it. Descending into the unknown would normally excite her, but…
"I wouldn't let anything bad happen to us. You don't need to worry," King Koopa whispered. "Just don't go wandering away from me the second I let my guard down."
Peach gave a subtle nod as her heart raced. As much as she wanted to leave, she was more comfortable sitting near the abyss rather than descending into it.
Even if it meant anxiously brushing her arm against him every time she breathed.
"Are you alright?" She quietly asked. "You must've taken the fall for me."
He scoffed. "You'd have died if I didn't." He paused as he growled through his frustration. "You make it so hard to not be protective of you. You're so fragile. Things that hardly phase me could kill you."
Peach gripped her legs even tighter against her chest.
"You don't need to hurt yourself to keep me safe."
Her concern made him grind his teeth together. "More scars are nothing to me anymore. I hardly feel anything."
Peach stared at him, her eyes trailing up and down the scars that covered him. He was a convincing liar, but she knew he wasn't being honest with her; whether or not he felt the pain physically, she was well aware of the anxiety that always sat behind his eyes. No matter how he tried to cover his emotions with anger or blank stares, but the unknown seemed to scare him more than anything.
While she was drawn to it, he tried to escape it.
She opened her mouth but she was promptly cut off. "As much as I'd like to try and find a way out of here, I need time to rest. So do you."
Peach opened her mouth again but quickly shut it, contemplating what to say to him. She tried to think of what her father did whenever she was afraid or needed a distraction...he would always sing her a song, but...Peach's face flushed as she subtly shook her head. No, she couldn't do that! Not to him! She kept thinking, going as far as remembering what her mother would do and, of course, her mother sang as well! Peach groaned under her breath, was there anything she could do to distract them besides sing?!
Her frustration fell to silence as she remembered something else.
"Let's play a game," she quietly offered.
Just as she had expected, she felt him look at her with intrigue.
"A game?" He repeated with sparked interest.
She nodded.
"Have you ever played truth or dare?"
He thought to himself for a moment.
"Can't say I have."
Peach softly smiled. "We used to play it when the girls on my street spent the night together," she whispered. King Koopa stiffened as her eyes glistened over in thought, equally dripping happy and discomfort.
"They would stay up all night telling horrible stories. Things that terrified them! Things about...oh, well...you..." Peach's face turned crimson as she realized she was sitting next to the monster her and her neighbors grew up terrified of. She continued in a subtle panic. "None of which were true, of course! Unless you eat human babies and terrorize human girls," Peach awkwardly rambled with a laugh.
"Only in my freetime," he shrugged. Peach giggled at how his serious expression contrasted the humor in his eyes.
She continued. "Looking back, the stories were...well, clearly, they weren't true, but...they were convincing when you'd never met a koopa. Even I was terrified! They would always end up staying up all night because of how scared they were! So...they'd distract themselves with truth or dare. It's silly, but...I thought maybe it would distract us..."
Peach left out one key detail to her story: she was never invited to the sleepovers.
Though she was never in the room with them, her bed was right underneath the window that faced her neighbor's bedroom, and she would always leave it cracked to listen into their loud conversations and fun games when they had friends over. She would close her eyes and hug her pillow, the other girls unaware of her eavesdropping, and pretend she was part of the games and laughs they shared.
She never dared count as she was too afraid to confirm her insecurities, but she always felt like she was the only girl on their street that wasn't invited, even though she lived directly next door. She never knew why, but she could never get along with others as well as everyone else. Only when they finally went to bed and silence followed did she realize how isolated from them all she felt.
She wasn't argumentative, loud, annoying, or anything of the sort...but, she just never knew what to say to others or how to fit in with everyone around her. It seemed like all the children her age had flocked together into groups, leaving her as the only outsider. She preferred her wandering thoughts and curiosities instead of friends and sleepovers, though she knew her isolation was her only option growing up the more she thought about it.
Perhaps that was why she was always shoved to the side; she wasn't as outgoing or eager to get along with everyone. Looking back, maybe if she had tried a bit harder...
Only after her mother passed away and her father hounded on her to become more 'ladylike' was she able to mask a likeable personality to those around her. Even so, she still didn't make many friends or engage in friendly activities. A part of her burned with saddened realization as she realized she hadn't hidden who she truly was in a long time...not until she met him.
Peach cleared her throat after an awkwardly-long pause. She hadn't realized how lost in thought she had been, nor how his eyes had been analyzing her the entire time. Finally, she looked up at him. "Do you know how to play?"
"No, I don't."
She tapped her chin. "Well…I ask you if you'd rather answer a question- any question truthfully, or have to do something I say. No matter what!" She added with a curt point of her finger. "Then you do the same for me. There's not really a winner…I guess you play until the other person can't do what you asked."
King Koopa furrowed his brow, not exactly understanding how the game was meant to be fun.
"How are you to know if I'm being honest or not?"
"I guess I just have to trust you," she giggled. He arched a brow at her laughter. "So, do you want to play?"
He leaned back against the wall with a grunt. "I could use a distraction."
Peach smiled. She knew he wasn't the least bit interested in her game or conversation, but his compliance was all she needed.
"I'll go first. Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
Peach beamed. "What's your favorite color?"
He rolled his eyes. "That's an underwhelming question. Red."
His disinterest in the game didn't bother her. In fact, she was thrilled to learn something so 'underwhelming' about him. She mentally jotted down his answer.
"Now you ask me," she whispered with a nod of her head.
"Truth or dare," he grumbled as if it were a chore. It was clear that he was miserable playing such a pointless game with her but the fact that he reluctantly agreed was beyond amusing to her. He grumbled even further at her nonstop giggles.
"Truth!" She replied with an eager smile.
He hummed to himself for a moment.
"Do I scare you?"
Peach stiffened at the question. She hadn't expected something that would make her think inwardly about herself so she thought in silence for a few seconds.
"No, you don't scare me," she reassured. She couldn't tell why, even though he looked completely unbothered, she wanted to smother the feeling that he scared her in even in the slightest. "You did when I first saw you, but...I don't feel scared right now, if that's what you mean. Quite the opposite, actually," she added through a whisper.
"That's a shame."
Peach gently laughed into the palm of her hand at the way his eyes jolted away from her. Though he tried his best to conceal his emotions with an annoyed scoff, she knew a part of him, whether he felt it or not, was relieved by her answer.
It was her turn.
"Truth or dare?" She quietly asked under her breath.
"Dare," he instantly replied.
Peach's eyes widened at his confidence. She arched a brow as she wondered why he was so hesitant to answer truthfully.
"That's bold of you."
"Is it?" He muttered. Though his eyes were bitter and disinterested in the game, he seemed to enjoy her reactions and a small smirk grew across his features as he met her eyes. For someone who didn't know how to play or didn't want to play, he seemed to understand the risk in his choice and enjoyed it. Instantly, Peach's face lit up from his reaction.
"I dare you…to tell me something you've never told anyone else."
His eyes widened for a fraction of a second.
"Damn, I guess I was bold."
His joking tone caught her off guard and she laughed one more time, much louder than before. Peach's heart raced as she couldn't think of the last time she had laughed so much...especially with someone like him in a place like this. Maybe it was the severity of the situation that made everything so funny, maybe it was the way she was playing a game she always dreamed of having someone to play with, or maybe King Koopa was just funny.
Her heart skipped a beat at the idea. The king of the Darklands had a sense of humor? Why did that make her heart race?
Peach's laughter fell to silence as she shrunk against the wall, noticing how his eyes softened every time she laughed. Her face flushed as she saw, for only a fraction of a second, a slight grin on his face as he had silently watched her laugh. What, was he trying to get her to laugh all of a sudden? Why? Peach nervously looked away from him as she tried to conceal her flustered frown.
King Koopa was too distracted with her laughs and forgot that they were playing a game. He hummed under his breath as he thought about his answer though it came out as a quiet growl. After a few moments of wondering, he turned to her with a disinterested shrug.
"I used to love music," he muttered. "When I was young, I planned on running away to play the piano throughout the kingdom. Some nights, I'd even sneak off to local bars or joints to play. The locals always allowed it, seeing as I'm royal. They couldn't exactly kick me out. Maybe I would have been better off chasing something so pointless," he bitterly laughed. "But, it didn't exactly work out once I was handed the throne."
He...enjoyed music?
Peach was practically vibrating in wonder, though she tried to conceal it, horribly so. She nervously fidgeted with the hem of her dress as she tried to contain her enthusiasm but he was already well aware of the way she looked at him. "I never took you for the musical type," she responded with awe.
King Koopa growled as he felt the shock dripping from her eyes.
"Shocked that royal koopas are good at more than violence?" He taunted.
Peach's appreciative smile fell to an annoyed frown as she crossed her arms. She knew he was messing with her, but she also knew a part of him was bothered by the assumption behind her reaction.
"No…I just…well, I guess I'm just very surprised because I love music, too. I'm pleasantly surprised, not shocked. I didn't think we would have something like that in common," Peach rebuttled in defense. She sighed and turned back to him with a soft smile, her interest in him smothering her temporary frustration. "I'd love it if you could play for me one day."
His eyes sparked with amusement.
"Truth or dare."
Peach flinched as she forgot they were playing a game. "W-well, I'll match your boldness. Dare."
Peach squirmed from the interest he looked at her with due to her choice; he looked her up and down, taking his time to think of what he wanted her to do. Her mind wandered, anticipating the worst from him...but, the more she thought to herself, the more her heart ached for him to make her do things she'd never find the courage to do. She bit her lip as the thoughts grew louder the longer he thought to himself.
She looked up at him with a forced smile, trying her best to compose herself, though the way her fingers gently shivered against her knees made him laugh under his breath. For an actress, she wasn't very convincing.
King Koopa slowly leaned in close to her and took pleasure in the way she stiffened from the shrinking space between the two. She tried to back away from him but her back pressed against the wall and she nervously gasped. He preyed on her inability to pull away and moved in even closer. With his fangs close to her skin, he whispered into her ear with dark intentions. "I dare you…"
His sultry words trailed off as he breathed against her neck in silence. Peach's lips parted and she struggled to put together a coherent sentence as her mind muddied from the usual haze she always inevitably found herself in when he toyed with her.
She leaned closer to him. "Y-yes?" Peach shakily whispered with clear eagerness for his request. She bit her tongue as that clearly fueled his intentions with her even further.
He smirked. "To show me what you've been hiding from me."
Peach jumped out of her trance as he snatched her purse away from her in a tactical, thought-out movement. He turned away from her, unzipped her purse, and casually shoved his hand inside, rummaging for whatever she had kept hidden from him. His hand was a bit too large for it and stretched it at its seams. He had trouble with it and was clearly contemplating ripping it in half.
Peach yelled at him to stop as she grabbed his arm and climbed over him while reaching for the purse. He hardly moved and easily avoided her aggressive movements which only set her temper and scolds further: She spat a few less-than-lady-like curses at him in adrenalin-fueled panic and he burst out into dark laughter; he had never heard a girl like her curse through clenched teeth like that before.
Oh, his laughter set her off even further.
Before either had realized it, Peach had accidentally placed herself on top of his lap, one hand on his shoulder and the other on her bag's strap to their left. Only when she stared at him in flustered shock did he stop moving and realize why she had lost her desperation to get her purse back.
The king's eyes trailed up and down her body as it pushed against his powerful frame, an instinctual growl grumbling from the back of his throat as he realized how much of her he could feel: he could feel her shaky breaths, her quick heartbeat, and her chest against his. Her hair drooped over him and her body practically numbed him with her scent.
What shocked him most was how she stayed.
Peach followed his eyes leave the bag and examine her body. At first, she flushed, but she quickly noticed his hesitation and snatched the purse away from him the second he let his guard down. She got off of him, sat back on the cold floor beside him, and locked it against her chest under her arms while staring at him with confident refusal. Though, both were well aware of her pounding heart.
"Two can play the distraction game," she angrily whispered through heavy breaths. Though, she knew half of her was too afraid to find out what would happen if had tempted his restraint further. The other half...well, the other half was a bit too thrilled to have even put herself in that situation.
King Koopa growled as he composed himself and shot his eyes towards her in frustration. Though, he bit his tongue, only showing his anger through his eyes, as he refused to admit he was captivated by her accidental spell.
"You have to show me or you lose," he argued.
Her temper fell to embarrassment. "I…you'll make fun of me," she whispered.
He quietly laughed. "What makes you think that?"
"Don't patronize me," she groaned, well aware of his usual treatment of her. "Look, I- Fine, I'll…I'll show you."
Peach rolled her eyes as she noticed a large gash against her purse's side, running up to its zipper and ruining the delicate fabric, obviously from the way he had roughly handled it. After a quick annoyed glare towards him, she sighed and pulled out the crumbled letter at the bottom of her purse. She purposely ignored the gem that brushed against her knuckles and zipped the bag closed again.
She closed her eyes as she anxiously handed it over to the koopa.
Without even uncrumbling it, he instantly recognized it.
"You were supposed to get rid of this," he growled.
Peach groaned in embarrassment and leaned forward to snatch it but he leaned away. "You had it in your chest of so-called treasures!" She angrily rebutted as she crossed her arms. "You shouldn't have kept it if you didn't want me to find it!"
King Koopa squinted in annoyance. "I should've known better than to expect you to keep your nose out of my things."
"You asked me to go through your things!" She curtly argued.
"I didn't ask you to take anything," he growled.
Peach sighed in frustration. "Why keep it if you hate it so much?" She quietly asked. "If you've already read it you can throw it away."
He paused for a moment.
"I never read it."
Peach blinked. "Never?"
Her shock, once again, bothered him. "I managed to read half of it and got bored. You aren't a thrilling author so I forgot about it before I finished," he muttered. "I'm not interested in it."
Peach noticed his posture shift and leaned towards him in suspicion. She looked up at his profile, his eyes refusing to meet hers, and down at his clenched fingers, easily picking up his lack of transparency.
She opened her mouth to question him further, but he quickly grunted under his breath. "Choose dare," he ordered.
Peach stumbled over her words. "No! It's not your turn! And you're just going to dare me to throw the letter away!"
Peach winced as he carelessly threw the letter onto the floor in front of her, dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. She angrily leaned forward and snatched it before shoving it back in her purse with a venomous glare towards him. The only reason she didn't chew his hear off was because she knew the only reason he discarded it was because he knew she would take it.
"Fine," she muttered. "I choose truth."
Peach leaned into her knees as she tried to think of anything she could ask the King of the Koopas. Surprisingly, it was hard to think of a specific question that Surely, there were countless questions a girl like her could ask the infamous king of the koopas:
What's the worst war crime you've committed? What's a dark political secret your kingdom has? Oh, do you actually eat human babies? You were a little too fond about that joke earlier, you know!
Peach's brow furrowed as one question rang through her the loudest.
Did he...
"Do you…like me?"
Peach's face flushed and King Koopa's eyes widened at the bold question, neither expecting it, and neither looking forward to the answer. She promptly covered her mouth as if she could shove her question back inside of her. She hadn't meant to say it out loud, it was a ridiculous question that she couldn't get out of her head, that was all! A question both knew the answer to, a question she most definitely didn't want to have answered!
King Koopa's face darkened. "Dare."
Peach stuttered over her words at his audacity. "N-no, you can't change your answer!"
"I just did."
Peach groaned into her hands. "Fine, I dare you to tell me if you like me or not!" She argued.
"Like you? Tolerate is a better word," he grumbled.
Peach scrunched her nose as he continued avoiding the question. Noticing the way he subtly squirmed in anxiety numbed her own discomfort and made her...stubbornly curious. If the answer had been so obvious to her...why was it so difficult for him to say it out loud? Didn't he hate her? Did he...A small grin crawled across Peach's face as she leaned closer to him.
"You didn't answer the question. I'll only accept a yes or a no!"
He grinded his fangs together in frustration as she, for once, had the upper hand on him. His distress only made her small smile grow further up her cheeks.
"I don't completely dislike you," he hissed.
She tapped her chin innocently as if she had no idea what she was doing to him.
"No, you still haven't answered me!"
He practically squirmed as broken, angered words spilt out of him in frustrated growls. Peach giggled into her palm though his reaction to her laughter wasn't as enamored as before; her snickers pushed him to his limit. "God damn you, I…god damn it, you already know the answer! Do I have to spell it out for you?"
Her heart flushed at the way he cursed under his breath and stared at her in pure, utter frustration. It was endearing, seeing his composure crack so easily around her.
"Fine, you don't have to answer that one...but, that means I win, then." She paused for a small laugh as she brushed her hair behind her ear with a bashful smile. "I've never seen you so nervous," she teased. "It's almost…cute."
Peach's laughter bounced off the cliff's walls as his eyes lit with unfiltered rage; this time, his eyes did not soften at her laughter.
"Call me that again and I'll change my answer," he threatened through a venomous scowl. He grumbled under his breath as her laughter only continued to grow. "You only won because you chose a stupid question."
"I didn't know you were shy," she teased. "You shouldn't be so afraid to admit that you don't hate everyone. It's perfectly normal."
"You're insufferable," he groaned through her laughs, "go to bed."
She wanted to keep pestering him, her heart pounding from the way she easily bothered him and got the truth out of him, but he turned away from her with a flustered, annoyed growl and silently ended the conversation. Peach rolled her eyes as she laughed one more time at his frustration...as usual, emotions didn't seem to be something he was good at managing, positive or not. His interest in her dwindled out as he returned to his emotionless mask, though she could practically hear his inner monologue screaming at her as he avoided her pestering eyes.
He was right, though. As much as she wanted to keep talking to him, she needed to go to sleep. With how much she was laughing, she had nearly forgotten they were in danger.
King Koopa's indirect answer made her face flush as she laid down and shielded her face away from him. Only when she fully relaxed did she realize how quickly her heart was beating and how her mind was practically exploding with thoughts of him.
Why did it matter if he liked her or not? Wasn't that the bare minimum? Why did it mean so much to her to hear him struggle to answer her? Oh, just playing the conversation back was enough to make her nearly squeal with happiness! The way he growled his words, the way his eyes were conflicted with countless emotions she couldn't even begin to identify.
His answer brought forth a similar question: did she like him? He was many things she didn't like, many things she found annoying or unfiltered, but...with the way her heart beat from the idea of him liking her, she already knew her answer.
I like you, too, she thought to herself as she finally drifted off to sleep.
A/N: This chapter was partially inspired by one of my favorite fanfictions I read in highschool: Her Broken Promise by Gabbelina! I used to get so excited for every new chapter, lol! There was a really fun part where they played truth or dare and I just had to include something similar. I recommend you check their story out, it inspired me a lot. Thank you so much for reading!