Vicissitude

by Cyndi

Bowser learns he is dying as Junior prepares for his wedding and his future. This is a story about life, death and legacies. (Sequel to Liminal Lacuna)

5. Chapter 5

All of the OCs are mine. The Bowser x Peach is there, but you have to wait for it.

I was 27 when I first wrote this, and at 43 I realized life is more complex than I presented it before. I gave this fic a huge overhaul to bring it in line with the prequel (Liminal Lacuna) and take it further than the original went. If you read this before, come read it again, it got a huge facelift! The old version is still up, I added "old" to the title to set it apart. If you're new, hi! Bring tissues!

Also, if you see nods to other fandoms…yes you read correctly! I peppered those easter eggs around.

MAJOR TW: This may be difficult for anyone with medical trauma, trauma from witnessing medical emergencies or trauma from witnessing death. The descriptions of these events are graphic and disturbing.

Other TWs: character death, sexual abuse (mentioned), sexual humor, sexual language, body horror, gore, ritualistic cannibalism (shown), suicide (mentioned), bullying, vomiting, swearing, ableism, alcohol, and needles.

.o

.o

"With shortness of breath,
you explained the infinite.
How rare and beautiful
it is to even exist.
I couldn't help but ask
for you to say it all again.
I tried to write it down,
but I could never find a pen.
I'd give anything to hear
you say it one more time,
that the universe was made
just to be seen by my eyes…"

"Saturn" by Sleeping At Last

.o

.o

Two stone sconces illuminated the black Koopa crest headboard looming over an enormous slab of a bed. In the center, a giant spiked green shell. The black wooden door to the right of the bed creaked open, shedding yellow light into the otherwise gray room.

"Bowser? Are you awake?"

"Mmh?"

"I caught you napping, didn't I?"

"I was meditating."

"Oh? Why is there a drool puddle?"

Bowser stuck just his head out of his shell. Wrinkles edged his mouth and the corners of his eyes. Gray overtook his hair and bushy eyebrows, leaving only some reddish-orange streaks. His horns were sharper and ridged, something that happened to Koopas as they aged.

"It's part of the mantra! Now watch, I'm gonna do yoga." He yawned, squinting as he stretched his neck. A few vertebrae popped during his groggy pandiculations.

He blinked sleepily at the figure in the doorway. She wore a red ankle-length puffy-sleeved dress and a simple gold tiara. Her olive skin, brunette hair, sapphire blue eyes and stately nose were unmistakably Mario's, while her delicate eye shape, soft smile and heart-shaped bangs came from Peach. Freckles dotted her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.

"Cherry?" He wiped his eyes, "How did you get here?"

Cherry giggled, covering her mouth. "Junior 'kidnapped' me and we went out to lunch. We ate at that new place by the beach, Kasterborous. Have you tried their burgers?"

At this, Bowser grinned. "They're so messy you can't eat 'em without ketchup and mustard falling on the tray."

He poked his arms, legs and tail completely out of his shell and pushed himself up to sit. The long years gave him a pot-belly, which was common for Koopas his age. Surgical scars left a palimpsest of dark marks across the plastron ridges on his chest.

"Where is that brat anyway?"

"Trying to fix the Koopa Clown Car. The propeller broke."

"Again?"

"Afraid so," said Cherry, smiling, her lips painted as red as the fruit she was named after.

"Great." Bowser stared at her for a moment. Gods, she looked so much like Peach. He shook himself out of his funk and stood up. "I better help him fix the damn thing before he breaks it even worse."

Her smile dropped a little. She fell into step with him, frowning. "I hope you'll be careful. You know what doctor Neil said about your heart!"

"I'm fine!" Bowser grumbled. "I'm the first Koopa with Crash to survive four heart attacks. A little exercise won't kill me."

He patted his stomach, "Besides, I could probably use it. Sitting around isn't good for my heart either."

Cherry shook her head at Bowser's stubborn posturing. Though his desire for the Mushroom Kingdom died when Peach did, he was still a bull-headed jerk at times and rarely listened to his cardiologist. Neil gave him pills for his heart and he wouldn't take them.

"The side effects are worse than the problem," he'd said.

Crash, a heart condition that affected Koopas, did a number on him. Three bypass surgeries, three stays in intensive care and three brushes with death. Cherry recalled how it devastated Junior to watch his dad endure so much. He showed her the pictures and videos, they were hard to see. The trauma of it still affected him, though he tried not to let it show.

Something thudded noisily outside.

"Damn!" A silky baritone voice cursed aloud.

Two more bangs that didn't sound good.

"Uh oh," Cherry grabbed her skirt and broke into a jog, her red kitten heel pumps hardly making a sound on the ground.

She crossed outdoors and onto the castle drawbridge stretching out over the deadly lava below. Fans under the castle sucked away most of the heat and poisonous gasses and converted them into electricity to power everything.

Bowser shoved a Goomba out of his path in his haste to get outside. He came alongside Cherry.

"Junior!"

More clunks and sparks. A tail with three bone spikes flailed out the top of the overturned Koopa Clown Car as smoke billowed up in black clouds. The wrench clanged again, striking metal.

"You damn, good for nothing pile of shit! Argh!"

A spitting image of Bowser in his youth crawled out of the smoke, coughing. Oil stained his hands and the white bandanna around his neck. Some even got onto his reddish-orange topknot ponytail, which dangled past the topmost spike on his shell.

In profile, he looked identical to his dad. Only when he turned face-on did the small differences reveal themselves— a narrower snout, smaller nostrils and closer together teeth. The face of a future king.

Junior threw the wrench down and flopped to sit, growling. Beside him, the Koopa Clown Car lay with its engine parts exposed.

"Junior!" Cherry dashed to his side. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Oil isn't getting to the propeller mechanism for some reason. I think the hose is clogged, and it's overheating so— oh!"

He stopped talking long enough to notice Bowser looming over him.

"Hey, dad! Uh…" His face melted into a huge, sheepish grin, "It broke. Sorry."

Smoke finally stopped pouring off the poor, abused machine.

Bowser cocked an eyebrow and stuck one of his beefy hands out. "Gimme the wrench."

When Junior handed it over, he crawled into the Koopa Clown Car that had seen better days.

There was gunk in the hose. He loosened it, tapped the side until the muck dropped out and reconnected it to the engine. Judging by the smell, it must have been building up for a while, kind of like the plaques in arteries.

Heh, a machine had a heart attack. That's ironic.

Bowser scooted backwards to hit the ignition switch, and the propeller sprang alive like a champ. He grinned, all teeth, and shoved the panel shut with his left hand. I still got it!

Junior and Cherry moved closer to the castle to avoid the smoke. She took a handkerchief out of a pocket in her skirt to wipe his hands, and the oil on his palms turned the whole thing grayish-brown.

"I'm going to need a shower to get this off," he groaned.

She swatted him with the dirtied cloth. "Oh, hush. A little oil never killed anybody. Besides, that was a neat landing."

"Crashing is a neat landing?"

"Yeah, especially the screaming."

They laughed.

Bowser rested an elbow on the rim of the Koopa Clown Car, settled his chin on his palm and sighed, watching them. The way those two gazed at each other excluded everything else like a paracosm.

Junior and Cherry started out as a pair of curious kids chasing each other all over this same drawbridge. Now there they were, in their early twenties, growing into more.

Bowser remembered back to his first heart attack. Ludwig was twenty when that happened, and last winter he celebrated his thirty-seventh hatch-day.

Junior turned four yesterday, didn't he? How the hell did he reach twenty-one so fast? Where did all that time go?

Bowser sighed and eased the buzzing Koopa Clown Car up into the air. He had important business to attend.

.o

Pollen motes scintillated in the sunlight shining on the hilltop. In the midst of it stood a golden statue of Peach. She was posed with one hand slightly outstretched, so people had to kneel to meet her eyes.

Her grave marker looked its most beautiful at high noon— it glowed and cast a halo of light on the ground in all directions like a beacon.

Bowser parked the Koopa Clown Car at the foot of the hill and climbed up. His frequent trips wore a brown dirt path into the grassy hillside. In one hand he carried a rag, in the other a red rose. He panted for breath by the time he reached the statue.

Two years ago he could sprint up this hill, and now he got winded just walking up stairs. It annoyed him.

"Hello, Peach," Bowser said gently.

He laid the rose with the withering ones already lying on Peach's name plate. Then he used the rag to wipe the dust off the statue, kissing the outstretched hand before wiping it clean as well.

Tears spilled from his eyes when he returned his gaze to her smiling face. "Junior broke my propeller again. You'd find that amusing, I know. Crazy kid…he really likes Cherry. No, not like…he loves her. It's in his eyes. Just like I still love you."

Ten years. Ten rotten, painful years since Peach died. The day of her death, she gave him a hug after he stopped by to say he was getting too old and sick to keep kidnapping her, and that he wanted peace between their kingdoms. All part of a plan he hoped to see bear fruit, but still! Hours later, word came to him that she broke her neck falling down a flight of stairs. A foolish, unfair, unbearably tragic freak accident.

Lakitu lifted footage of the fall. Sometimes Bowser wished he never watched it. But who else saw her die?

He went to her funeral and everybody stared in shock when he bawled next to her casket. Breaking down was the ultimate humiliation. Mario tried to pat his arm and comfort him. He turned on Mario, Peach's shell-shocked widow, and berated him for not being there to protect her from her untimely fate. The tirade left the little plumber weeping. Cherry had to console Mario while Junior dragged Bowser back to his seat.

For months afterward, people visited Peach's grave. As time passed people came less. Some still stopped once in a while to pray or pay respects.

Cherry and Junior came by on her birthday and the anniversary of her death. Mario never came.

Bowser showed up regardless of the weather. He made sure her statue was clean, he clipped the grass over her grave if it needed it and he always, always, brought a rose.

Her death broke his heart by triggering the worst of his four heart attacks, one so severe it ripped a hole in his septum and almost killed him. The damn thing never beat right after that. As he went under anesthesia for the bypass surgery, he gave an order demanding somebody leave a rose on Peach's grave on his behalf every day until he could do it himself. It took six months of rigorous physical therapy to climb the hill and lay a rose on her grave with his own hands for the first time, and ever since he came daily.

"I miss you, Peaches." Bowser grumbled, staring at the ground. He frowned and traced the letters of her name with his huge thumb.

"I miss my left ear going deaf from your screaming. I miss everything about you."

More tears escaped. Unrelenting grief clutched in his throat. He swallowed, hoping nobody was around to see him starting to cry.

"I wish you loved me as much as I love you. I shouldn't have gone in saying I wanted to conquer your kingdom. You were what I really wanted. Peach."

The dam broke as intensely as it did when he saw her in her coffin. He curled up, sobbing, his voice hoarse, "I hate that I wasn't there! You fell, and I— I should've stayed!"

No response, just birds twittering. The vacuum of her absence tore at his heart even more. He retreated into his shell so nobody would see him cry.

People didn't understand. They stopped shedding tears over Peach a few years after her death, as if they grew accustomed to her not being there. But he never did, and never would. Sometimes he wondered if cried enough tears to seep through the grass and fall on her crystal coffin.

"Peach," he whispered plaintively.

.o

"There he is." Junior nudged Cherry and pointed.

Bowser's massive spiked shell lay just to the right of Peach's grave.

"Sitting with mom again. He goes every day." Cherry sighed. "Poor guy."

Nodding, Junior prodded Lakitu's shoulder. "Thanks, Lakitu. Take us down. We'll take him home in the 'Car."

Lakitu grumbled about being a taxi service and his cloud slowly descended. Junior helped Cherry hop down. They landed quietly beside Bowser's shell, where the sound of him sniffling was apparent.

Junior hated seeing his dad like this. He couldn't forgive himself for something that wasn't his fault.

Cherry knelt near the head of Bowser's shell. "Bowser?"

The sniffling instantly stopped. "What? I'm fine! I'm just having…some, um, allergies."

Junior made a face. Cherry shot him a glare and bent to peer into the shell. She could just make out Bowser's puffy russet eyes and bushy eyebrows. His weeping was obvious.

Rather than berate him about it, Cherry smiled gently and said, "There's a lot of pollen in the air today. My nose is itchy, too. Come on, let's go back to your castle. I'll make you a Cheep-Cheep kabob."

Bowser's eyes crossed as he considered the offer. He loved those kabobs, and nobody made them like Cherry. His eyes closed and his head and limbs popped out of the shell.

"Make it two kabobs and you have a deal."

"Two it is."

"I'll take mine extra crispy," Junior said, grinning. It was all he could do to not feel embarrassed on his dad's behalf.

He stopped when Cherry's dark hair caught the light and gleamed. Five years ago she had braces and only a hint of a figure. She seemed to blossom overnight into a stunning woman befitting the role of princess.

Stars, he loved her. There was no ignoring the twitchy feeling in his stomach any longer.

"Junior, come on." Bowser smacked him in the back of the head, breaking his ruminations. He pulled him closer to whisper, "Stop gawking with your mouth open. Girls don't like that."

Junior blinked, "How did you— "

"You're my son," Bowser winked and wiped the tears off his face, "I know that look."

Cherry thought the two of them standing with their heads together was funny. They always did that when whispering about her.

She glanced at her mother's statue and her smile sobered a bit. The love Bowser had for her mom, Cherry could not begin to fathom how deep his heart was. She had a collection of love letters he wrote to Peach.

In person, Bowser was a gruff ruffian who tended to put his foot in his mouth, but his letters were passionate enough to make any woman blush. Peach kept those letters, though she never replied. He stopped sending them after she married Mario.

Bowser finished saying whatever he needed to say to Junior. "…got it?"

"Okay, okay, yeah." Junior and Bowser separated, but Junior ran ahead. "Shotgun!"

"No, doofus! Remember? I'll fly it! You take care of her."

Junior's eyes crossed. He rubbed a hand over his hair, which looked like fire in the sunlight.

"Oh…right. Hey, Cherry!"

.o

They arrived home in less than an hour, and the Cheep-Cheep kabobs were put on hold for a Kart race around the underground castle tunnels. Bowser, Junior and Cherry laughed as they sped through the dimness. Tires screeched and smoked.

Bowser knocked Junior out of the lead with a blue shell. He laughed at him as he passed to win that round.

"Ow." Junior picked himself up, uninjured.

Time flew. It was almost dinner hour.

Mario would be annoyed that Cherry wasn't home again, but that pesky plumber was an old fart and wouldn't be much of a challenge. Bowser knew he could kick his ass if he wanted to.

Cherry kept her promise to grill Cheep-Cheep kabobs. Vivi, the elderly Koopa Troopa cook, hobbled around, leaning on her cane, helping her add spices and herbs.

Bowser smiled proudly as Junior pulled Cherry's chair out for her when they sat down to eat.

Cheep-Cheep kabobs were huge, each fish the size of an adult Koopa's fist and drizzled in some foreign cheese-like sauce Cherry called "afraido" or something. It made them juicy and exquisitely messy.

Bowser and Junior each had two sticks with two Cheep-Cheeps apiece, while Cherry only had half of one.

Rather than talk, Bowser crunched his kabob and watched them.

He taught Junior how to "accidentally" brush his forearm against Cherry's shoulder when he reached for his napkin. The kabobs were greasy, so there were plenty of opportunities to pull this off.

If this works, kid, you'll have what I always wanted for you, he leaned back, her love…

"I…love your hair," said Junior.

"What?" Cherry glanced at him, blinking.

"This afternoon. It was shiny, I guess I didn't notice—" Junior peeked at Bowser.

Bowser made a pushing motion with his hand and pointed to his eyes.

Junior went on, "—that it makes your eyes look really—" he glanced over again, fishing for a word.

Bowser grabbed the blue napkin, folded his thumb and pivoted his hand, using Koopa Sign.

Junior's face brightened and he finished, "—blue! And I like blue."

He checked with Bowser again. Bowser curled his thumb and index finger into an 'okay' sign, grinning.

Cherry's face flushed bright red. She giggled and turned towards Bowser.

Bowser dropped his napkin on his kabob stick and leaned back, pretending to be bored.

She shook her head and smiled— "You're so cute, Junior."— and Bowser tilted so far back that his chair tipped over.

He scrambled back into his seat in time to see Junior's face blush as red as Cherry's dress.

After finding himself staring into Cherry's blue eyes longer than intended, Junior cleared his throat. "So um…dessert?"

Dessert was a huge fudge Bundt cake. Bowser and Junior made pigs out of themselves while Cherry had one dainty little piece. Their appalling table manners amused her.

She finished first and stood up, dabbing her mouth with her napkin. "I should head home. Daddy is probably worried already. Thanks for letting me cook your dinner tonight, it was fun!"

"Thanks for making it. Good stuff," Bowser replied.

She smiled, pointing to him.

"It's early," Junior pouted.

"I know," Cherry sounded annoyed. "But you know how he worries."

"I should go down there and kick his wrinkled ass." Bowser snuffled. Chocolate crumbs splattered down his chest when he spoke. He wiped them off with his palm.

Cherry made a face at him and started for the door. Bowser blinked and waved his hand until he had Junior's attention, then made a walking gesture with his fingers.

Junior blinked rapidly. "What do— oh!"

He ran to catch up with her. "Hey, Cherry, I'll reverse-kidnap you home."

"Aw, why thank you," said Cherry with a smile. She slid her hand into Junior's as they disappeared from the dining hall.

Bowser belched and grinned. The kid was a silver off the old shell!

.o

Sunset turned the volcano an angrier red than usual. Despite its nacarat heat, nothing felt warmer to Cherry than Junior's beefy hand holding hers.

She knew what Bowser and Junior intended to do. They were so funny, and trying so hard that she felt it would embarrass them to reveal that she saw their intentions.

But it didn't bother her. Sometimes she played oblivious to see what silliness they came up with next.

She turned her head slightly to peer up at Junior, liking how the red light flashed across his saurian features. Koopas were works of art. Her eyes drifted to his hand, paused on the big spiked band on his wrist and followed his thick golden-orange forearm to the band on his bulging bicep. He was flexing a little on purpose, trying to impress her with his muscles.

And it worked.

If it wasn't for the white bandanna around his neck, people would think Bowser aged backwards and returned to menace the Mushroom Kingdom all over again.

Perhaps marrying Junior will truly join both kingdoms together. The Mushroom Princess and the Koopa Prince. His dad taught him everything he knew about leading armies, and a Koopa army would be a great ally to help us protect ourselves against invaders.

Cherry rubbed Junior's palm with her thumb. And while he is a big dork, he's not a huge jerk like some of the other princes I met. I'd rather marry someone I care about…not a stranger.

They climbed into the Koopa Clown Car together. Junior started the engine in a vibrating whir and lifted off.

"Oh, Junior, look!" Cherry pointed east as they rose above the volcano's rim.

Towering cumulonimbus clouds piled onto the abendrot backdrop of the horizon. Their charcoal anvil tops spread out like blurry suction cups adhering them to the upper atmosphere.

"Looks like quite a storm." Junior said. A reflection of the horizon glowed in his russet eyes. "Don't those end up over that huge hill up north?"

"Mmhmm." She tried to peer around him at the hill, but darkness obscured it.

Junior glanced down. His eyes could smile while his mouth didn't. They did that a lot when he looked at her.

He noticed her watching him and blushed, his snout darkening, "What?"

Cherry's face heated, "N-nothing. You've got chocolate on your teeth."

He rubbed his tongue over his pointed teeth to clean them off. Cherry's face heated. She focused on the oncoming storm.

Beside her, Junior said, "The wind might get nasty. Grab onto me if you get scared."

Less than ten minutes later, a huge blast of wind nearly blew the 'Car off course. By then the sun was down and half the sky blackened by clouds.

Cherry spun and pressed her face against Junior's chest. He laid a hand on her back, smiling. Invisible butterflies fluttered through her stomach, making her heart pound.

They were best friends since he was four and she was five. He always made her stomach flip and her heart itch. People tried to chalk it up to a simple little crush, and maybe it was during childhood, but she wasn't a kid anymore.

The Koopa Clown Car descended towards the flickering lights of the Mushroom castle. Her room was on the north tower, its window facing west. Vines grew intricate spirals around the curved iron trellis framing her large, open window.

"Um, Cherry…we're here." Junior lowered his head and got a snout full of her cherry-scented hair. He inhaled like he was smelling a delicate flower, his eyes drifting shut.

"Already?" Cherry twisted to look. "Huh, I guess so."

Without further comment, he helped her climb inside her window. She pulled herself into the darkness and immediately popped her head back out. There was only one way to scratch this itch in her heart, and she wasn't sure if she would have the courage tomorrow.

"Wait, Junior! Come back this way. I forgot something."

He floated the Koopa Clown Car back to her. "What?"

"This."

Cherry eyed him for a moment and went for it. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against the middle of his snout. It was soft and smooth, similar in texture to a human mouth.

Junior jerked back in shock, blinked, leaned in and cupped her cheek in his palm. "Do that again?"

She obliged. That time, he was ready, with his head cocked and mouth gently pressing back.

Her heart throbbed in her chest. Could he hear it? Did his heart hammer as fast as hers?

They held that way as the breeze ruffled their hair and stars scattered diamond dust over the half-cloudy sky. Their heads tilted and they separated at the same time, opening their eyes to look at each other in a new light.

Cherry giggled. "Thanks for the ride."

Junior stared at her, his mouth hanging open. He blinked, collected himself and laughed self-consciously.

"S-sure! N-no problem! Think I can call later tonight? My dad doesn't care what hour I call, but I know yours…eh. You know…"

Cherry made a face. Mario never forgot how Bowser blamed him for Peach's death. That anger made him bitter and distrustful towards Koopas over the years. Rarely was he the jolly plumber she knew as a child.

She beamed up at Junior. "Who cares? Call if you get bored picking up after Bowsie-wowsie."

"Bowsie-wowsie? Oh, don't let him hear you say that."

They grinned at each other.

A breeze blew some of Junior's reddish-orange hair in front of his curved horns. Cherry brushed it behind them where it belonged. She winked, drew back into her room and Junior took off into the darkening sky.

"WOOHOO!" He whooped in the distance.

She giggled, closing the window.

.o

"…and then she leaned out and kissed me! I don't mean a little peck on the cheek, it was like the movies. I asked her to do it again, and…yeah. There were tongues. It wasn't awful. My heart beat so fast, and I got all tingly! I just…aaah, it was great!"

Junior perched on the floor by his dad's feet as he finished recapping his trip to Cherry's castle. His heart pounded as he remembered her soft lips brushing his mouth.

Bowser sat slumped in his throne, listening to Junior's excited chatter while sipping from a spiky goblet of cactus tea. The roaring fireplace behind him outlined his silhouette and caused his shadow to dance on the opposite wall.

Junior waited for a sign that his story hit home. He did not need to wait long.

A toothy grin crinkled Bowser's russet eyes.

"Congratulations…you just went further than I ever did with a princess."

"I-I know."

Junior hugged his knees.

"I want to marry her, dad. Not a forced one, but the kind where both want to. We could cement our alliance with the Mushroom Kingdom. Their army is weak, but if we took over as their military forces, we could protect them. I could protect Cherry. And in return they'll share their medicine and water-mining resources to help make us a richer nation. Imagine the trade routes we'll open up and the parties we'll throw for no reason other than we feel like it! What do you think?"

No answer came for a while. Crackles and pops in the fireplace punctuated distant thunder from the storm Junior narrowly escaped on his flight home.

Lambent firelight outlined Bowser's shell and glowed in his eyes. For a few seconds he looked like the malevolent being bent on destroying everything for Peach's hand.

"That's not a good idea," Bowser said, deadpan. He drained his tea. Then he broke into a huge grin and ruffled Junior's topknot. "I'm kidding! It's a great idea! I'm so glad I thought of it."

Junior looked up and laughed. "Aren't you the one who taught me to steal the best ideas?"

"Which means I'm allowed to steal them back, too." Bowser winked. Then he wrinkled his nose and rubbed his left arm.

The joy left Junior's expression. "Dad?"

"What? Oh, calm down, don't start that again. My arm just itches, okay? Can I rub my arm without you freaking out?"

"Oh…okay." Junior's shoulders slumped. "It's just…"

Bowser's eyebrows drew together, "You just what?"

"Nothing." He shuddered as the sudden adrenalin drained away.

It always started like that, with Bowser rubbing his arm. Then it blossomed into gurneys, IVs, heart monitors, ventilators and worried nurses rushing around. Junior thought he was about to witness it all over again.

A deep breath slowed his racing heart. No need to call Neil for help or do chest compressions. He could relax.

"I'm gonna call Cherry. Maybe it'll piss Mario off."

A cheeky grin curled the corners of Bowser's mouth. He poked Junior between the eyes, "Don't talk dirty yet, okay?"

"I wasn't going to. G'night." Junior launched himself upright. Halfway to the door, he jumped in the air and clicked his heels together, yelling, "I love my life!"

.o

Junior's spiky shell disappeared from Bowser's sight. The instant it did, Bowser clutched his left arm and the tea goblet crashed to the floor. Invisible fists crushed his chest and withdrew.

Angina pains were only cause for worry if they didn't pass in a few minutes. The sclerosis in his coronary arteries turned them stiff like concrete pipes. But somehow, despite their inflexibility, the blasted things still went into spasms. They weren't anything to freak out about. It came with the territory of having Crash.

Another crushing ache slapped into him. This one shot across his lower jaw. He reached into his shell for his sublingual nitroglycerin tablets and popped one in his mouth. They were the only pills he took when he needed them.

"No," Bowser whispered, "Not now. Let me see my son get married. Let me see that he'll be okay. Give me that long. Please…I need more time."

Whatever higher power was out there, it listened. Or maybe the nitro worked. The pain subsided and he leaned back, wiping his hair out of his eyes. Sweat poured down his face like tears.

"Dammit!" He flicked the goblet into the fireplace with his tail.

I have to get Junior married to Cherry. He can handle everything afterward, but I'll have to play nice guy with that pipe-dick plumber if there's gonna be any wedding bells. It won't count if they run off and elope, which I know they'll do if Mario ruins everything.

Bowser drummed his claws on the arm of his throne. His face pulled in an ugly sneer. The fire swirled behind him, tiny reflections of it dancing off his scales.

Lightning flashed outside, illuminating the painting of Peach he kept on the opposite wall. He stole it from the Mushroom Castle the day of her funeral. Her unchanging smile reassured him.

This time around, we'll do things the right way. If making nice with Mario is how I have to do it, I'll do it for Junior.

Bowser uncurled from his spiked throne and headed towards the door. His bedroom was two flights up, while Junior stayed in his childhood room on the second floor.

He paused on the flight of stairs when he heard Junior hum as he dialed his cell phone. Sleep could wait a few more minutes…he wanted to hear this.

.o

Cherry changed into her purple satin knee-length nightgown and brushed her long, brunette hair. Behind her, the brilliant reds and golds of her bedroom revealed themselves dimly in the glow of her white mushroom-shaped bedside lamp.

She had just set her brush down when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Mario stuck his head in and peered over his half-moon glasses. His hair and mustache were completely white, his cheeks sagged a little like a dog's jowls and he had wrinkles around the corners of his eyes and mouth. Age caused his bottom lip to stick out more, making him appear to be perpetually pouting.

"Cherry."

"Yes?" She sat down on her bed.

He leaned against the doorframe. "You were hanging around with-a Junior again. I saw him drop-a you off."

Cherry's face heated when she remembered giving him a smooch.

"We would have been back sooner, except the Koopa Clown Car broke down again. Bowser fixed it. We raced Karts, and I lost track of time. I had dinner with them as a thank you for being so patient with me being there unannounced."

"Those Koopas are-a trouble!" Mario snapped. "Especially that testa di cazzo, Bowser!"

"Hey!" She jumped up, offended. "Daddy! Don't talk like that about them."

A hurt look passed across Mario's blue eyes. He closed them, hanging his head. Cherry's stomach twisted. She crossed the room and hugged him.

"Daddy, Bowser has a secret you should know about. It's about mom."

"Oh?" He sniffed.

"Do you remember that tirade he went on at her funeral?"

"How could I forget?" Mario's expression darkened. "He blamed me for-a Peach's death!"

"I know, but the truth is he blames himself," she said, looking into Mario's eyes, "He was projecting because he was in shock about what happened. Junior and I…we went looking for Bowser this afternoon. He was crying over mom's grave and telling her he was sorry that he left that day. He goes there every day, and seems to have it in his head that if he hadn't left, he could have caught her or something. It's…it's nobody's fault, but you know how Bowser is, he has to blame somebody or something."

For a long time Mario didn't speak. He turned towards the window, as if the lightning captured his attention.

Finally, he sighed, "You heard-a what he said."

He spoke as if she hadn't tried to convince him of this a dozen times before. It didn't stop her from trying, she intended to say it until it stuck.

Cherry patted his hand. "You guys need to make amends. Tell him it wasn't his fault. Or forgive him, I don't care what you say. But stop being enemies. The Koopas can be great allies if we could just get along."

Mario rubbed his mustache, frowning. "Let-a me a-think about it, Cherry."

She touched his arm. "Bowser isn't well, daddy. Don't take too long."

He nodded, and opened his mouth to say more when the mushroom phone rang.

Cherry answered it. "Hello?"

"Hey!" It was Junior. "I'm calling to annoy your old man. Is he there?"

She giggled— "Hi, Junior!"— and watched Mario roll his eyes and walk out. "It worked! He just left, pouting."

That made Junior chuckle. His silky voice and musical laugh didn't sound anything like his father's deep bass rumble. Junior's voice had traces of a growl to it, the result of his first language being the roars, growls and grunts of his species, but this accent wasn't as pronounced as Bowser's.

"Cherry…"

"Yes?"

"You kissed me."

Grinning, she flopped down on her bed. "It felt right. Did you like it?"

For a minute he didn't say anything. Then, he laughed again. "Yeah. But next time, I wanna kiss a little longer. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Awesome. Now…uh— huh?" The phone shuffled and Cherry heard Bowser's voice in the background. Coaching him again, by the sound of it.

Junior came back, "Hey, um— the big Mushroom Carnival is coming in three days— and I was wondering if— you'd like to come with me on— "

His voice faded again, Bowser mumbled something, then he returned, "— a date."

A date! Cherry almost screamed in delight. She waited years for Junior to properly ask her out. "What time should I be ready?"

"Ten o'clock on Saturday."

"Works for me!" She smiled when she heard Bowser and Junior slap hands.

"Great! Awesome! I'll see you Frid—" Junior coughed and Bowser loudly corrected him in the background, "—I mean, Saturday!"

They were too funny. Cherry covered a giggle with her hand. "Okay…bye, Junior."

"Bye." Junior's line hung up.

.o

Bowser retreated to his room after Junior settled down to play games on his phone. He picked up the small velvet box always present atop his dresser and opened the lid, revealing the ring he placed all his hopes into. The diamonds glittered like polychromatic stars in the gold Koopa shell setting.

He gazed ahead at his reflection, at the gray hairs working their way into his bushy eyebrows. His reddish-orange locks were half and half now.

And somehow, he knew he wouldn't see it all turn white.

But I'll live long enough. Sixty-one ain't bad when I almost died at forty-four. Heck, maybe I'll make it to sixty-two.

Bowser smiled and closed the box.

The future he saw kicking and screaming into existence over a decade ago was finally starting to happen.

He went to bed cocooned in hope, and dreamed of ascending spiraling polychromatic crystal stairs that shone brighter the higher he climbed. At the top, barely visible through the glare of infinite white, the outline of a closed wooden door.

Bowser crossed the long corridor and reached for the door. He woke up instantly in the familiar darkness of his bedroom.

That dream again. Bowser ran a hand through his hair. He shifted around on his slab of a bed and closed his eyes once again. If he dreamed more, he didn't remember them.

.o

Saturday took forever to arrive, but finally the eastern sky brightened on the fated morning.

Junior jumped out of bed at six o'clock sharp, raced to shower and spent ages in front of the mirror, combing his reddish-orange hair in the dimness.

If he relaxed, time would slip by him unnoticed and make him late. Go-time was three and a half hours away, an eternity waiting to catch him unaware.

What if he made a fool of himself? What if he forgot how to talk? What if he said something that hurt her feelings? How much was their relationship going to change after today? Were they moving too fast?

Junior swallowed the rush of spit trying to fill his mouth. Cherry was five when he met her, right after his dad's first heart attack. She turned twenty-two last month. They weren't kids anymore. The rules were different. What if he messed up?

His stomach twisted into knots until acid came up. He bent over the toilet platform, retching.

"Hey, are you dying in there?" Bowser knocked on the bedroom door.

Junior couldn't answer, so Bowser came through his room and peeked into the bathroom.

"Aw, nervous?"

"Yeah," Junior heaved again.

"You poor kid. BWAHAHA!" Bowser smacked the stone sink countertop. "Eat some Piranha Plant leaves."

"Can you make that tea stuff with them instead? They taste awful."

"Fine, fine." Bowser reached out and patted Junior's shell, his voice growing serious. "You okay?"

Junior nodded, wiping the tears out of his eyes. "I don't want to look like a dipshit."

Bowser sniffed, sticking his head back in. "Everybody looks stupid on the first date, Junior. The secret is to own it if you mess up. You trip in front of her? Make it look like a dance you just made up. You'll be fine, kiddo."

"That's great, dad. Tea, please. No offense." Junior's stomach wouldn't stop flipping.

"None taken. You poor kid, BWAHAHA!" Bowser laughed again, leaving the door wide open when he left.

Junior washed his mouth out and tried to fix his hair once more. After a lot of fussing, he decided to leave it loose because Cherry once mentioned she liked it down.

The second he got calm, his nerves jumped to life again.

A date with Cherry! He didn't want to mess it up!

Junior bent over the toilet and spat up bile.

Bowser came back carrying a mug of Piranha Plant leaf tea. He put in sugar, honey and a dash of salt and presented it with flourish.

"Here, puke-face. Slow yourself down. You'll rock this."

"I hope so."

Junior sat on his bed, sipping it in tiny slurps. By the time he finished, his stomach settled and he felt okay enough to eat some ash toast.

Bowser cooked his famous Bowser bacon by dumping pepper on the strips while they sizzled. Junior ate one and Bowser demolished the rest.

He returned upstairs at eight o'clock to freshen up one last time.

It wasn't until the sun lit up his room that he stopped dead in his tracks by the bathroom mirror. The horror of horrors stared back through his reflection.

A zit on the side of his forehead! Right in a place where his hair wouldn't cover it! He might as well have a neon sign on his head because it was so obvious against his green scales. Wasn't that supposed to stop by the time he finished puberty?

What if this ruined his date?

"Oh, no…DAD!"

.o

Cherry stepped out of the shower at seven o'clock sharp and went about drying her messy dark hair. Outfits were laid out on her bed, her final contenders.

A flowing red sundress, a blue denim jumper dress with a red T-shirt, a purple halter top and black pleated skorts, white stirrup sweatpants with a pale yellow crop top, and a short orange shirt-dress.

She tried every single one in front of the mirror. The white stirrup pants were rejected because they would get visibly dirty before she walked outside, the crop top seemed too desperate, the shirt-dress skirt risked flying up to bare her underwear, and she didn't want to flash anybody if she bent over while wearing the halter top.

Besides, Mario would have a conniption.

She wanted to look like herself, yet pretty enough to capture Junior's eye. It boggled her how much it mattered when she didn't care like this before.

Going on dates made people into fools.

But she was excited. She wanted to take this next step, and maybe another.

Cherry inhaled a slow breath as she pulled on the red T-shirt and fit the blue denim jumper dress over it. The long, thick skirt was less likely to fly up on rides, and it went nicely with her brown Mary Janes.

She looked like a feminine version of her dad, especially when she pulled her hair back in a high ponytail.

A tiara would fly off, so she used a gold barrette with glittery ruby cherries to hold her ponytail instead.

For makeup, she kept it simple— a little eyeliner, blush and lip gloss.

Then she saw herself up close in the mirror and froze.

There was a pimple on her chin! A beast as huge as Bowser's volcano crater. She crashed back into her bathroom for more makeup, but nothing would cover this hideous thing! What if this ruined her date?

"Oh, no…DAD!"

.o

And so it came to pass that Junior arrived at the Mushroom Castle wearing a ridiculous orange baseball cap. Cherry waited on the steps with a little white lace fan coyly covering her mouth and chin.

Cherry asked, "What's with the hat?"

And Junior asked at the same time, "Why do you have a fan?"

Sheepishly, Junior took off his hat so Cherry could see his zit. Blinking, Cherry lowered her fan so Junior could see her zit.

"I never would have noticed," they said simultaneously.

Junior grinned, Cherry covered her mouth and they both guffawed until tears ran down their faces. He helped Cherry climb into the Koopa Clown Car and they sped off towards the brilliant colors and spirals of the Mushroom Carnival.

.o

Mario dressed casually— blue denim overalls and red polo shirt— and went to the carnival two hours after Cherry left. His attire sent a silent message that royal formality wasn't necessary, so people placed their hand respectfully over their heart when he passed instead of bowing.

Honestly, Mario didn't mind when people forgot royal protocol. He was just a plumber from the outside-outside world of Brooklyn who fell through a pipe and ended up here. Becoming a king happened by accident.

Toad children scampered across the carnival entrance, which had colorful ribbons festooned over a wooden white archway. Steam curled skyward as cooks prepared everything from funnel cakes to egg rolls and meatball sandwiches.

Mario bought an egg roll. The cook tried to offer it for free, but he paid the five coin fee anyway.

"If you're going to feed-a me, the least I can do is make sure you can-a feed your family, too."

He munched quietly, letting the salty flavor warm his mouth while watching the multicolored Merry-Go-Round twirl.

Peach used to love riding that with him. Seeing it every year was both a painful reminder and a soothing comfort.

At last, a spiked green shell. Wait, no, too-long, very not-gray hair— that was Junior. Cherry laughed uproariously at him juggling three baseballs before he flung them at the row of baskets behind the counter. His throws were too hard, so they bounced back out. The poor Toad running the booth ducked and covered until it was over.

Cherry shrugged. Junior faced her and the softness in his eyes looked exactly the same as Bowser whenever he laid eyes on Peach. They grinned at each other and strolled out of sight behind the booth.

They acted like that before, but something about it being a date imbued their faces with a new light.

Mario kept walking. He hoped to run into Bowser somewhere amid the rides and game booths, but the Koopa King was nowhere to be found.

He glanced west towards the hill holding Peach's statue and saw a spiky shell.

Of course. Cherry told him Bowser went there at noon every day. One could set their watch by it.

Pushing his way gently past two red yoshis and a Toad kid, Mario made his way up the hill. Bowser knelt, clipping the grass gently with a pair of enormous gardening shears. He kept at it until Peach's grave looked like a perfect rectangle. Then he wiped the dust off Peach's statue with a gentleness that belied his fierce saurian appearance. Even more startling, he had tears rolling down his snout.

"Today's the carnival. Junior and Cherry are on their first date. Junior was so nervous that he puked. I spent half the morning laughing at him. He freaked out. Good thing he's got a dad like me to set him straight, huh? I used to get nervous enough to puke before kidnapping you, heh, heh! Imagine that…me getting nervous…you'd probably laugh."

"She-a would have." Mario said.

Bowser whipped around, wide-eyed. His eyes flashed in recognition and he hurriedly wiped the tears off his face.

"What the— " He cleared his throat, trying to sound angry, "—W-what are you doing here? I didn't invite you!"

"Scusi!" Mario said sarcastically, "This is-a my wife's grave. I can-a come any time I want."

At that, Bowser's expression melted a little. It hit him that he wasn't the widower here. And, judging by his frown, he was sulking about it.

Mario scratched his gray mustache while observing the aging Koopa King through the lenses of his half-moon glasses. Bowser's hair had thick white streaks and his eyes were a little more squinty than he remembered. It wouldn't surprise him if Bowser's eyesight wasn't as sharp as it used to be and he refused to wear glasses or contacts.

The most conspicuous thing about him was the scarring across his upper chest. A blurry dark red-brown line ran between the plastron ridges like train tracks.

"How come you don't come here?"

The question startled Mario into a wave of guilt. His head sank into his shoulders and he shifted uncomfortably under Bowser's accusing glare.

"I guess it's easier if-a I go where she-a was alive. If I come to her grave-a…" A hot lump swelled in his throat, turning his voice hoarse, "all-a I can see is-a her death. I don't want to remember her dead on the floor. Does-a that make sense?"

Bowser's eyes cooled to a less menacing gaze. Suddenly, he turned away to look up at Peach's statue.

"Tch! You married her, made love to her and woke up to her every day. I'll admit I went about loving her in totally the wrong way, but that doesn't change the fact that I love her."

He said it without growling or snarling, just utter frankness. Mario couldn't remember the last time he said anything to him that didn't include a taunt or threat.

"This," Bowser gestured to the grave, "is all I have. Dammit, Mario! I never got to say goodbye!"

Mario dared to venture close enough to sit next to Bowser's hulking form. Bowser made no motion to encourage or discourage the action.

He had a scent to him, like the burning brimstone of his volcanic home clung to his scales.

Mario stared up at Peach's golden, smiling face. He could still remember finding her at the bottom of that damned staircase, her body twisted amidst the fabric of her pink gown and gold hair, her beautiful blue eyes dilated with death. The grave thrust him back into that horrible moment.

Those bitter tears welled up again like a painful swelling in his chest. He took his glasses off and covered his face with one hand, sniffling.

"It wasn't your-a fault, Bowser."

"What?"

"Peach…her fall-a was not your-a fault. Nobody could have stopped it from-a happening. It was a terrible accident."

He sobbed once, wiping his eyes, but the tears came so fast that nothing stopped them.

Fresh silver trails blazed down Bowser's face.

Mario's voice cracked, "Sometimes…there are days where-a I wonder if I could have stopped it if I just came around the corner five-a minutes sooner. Oh, my Peach…my sweet-a Peach…"

His eyes overflowed. He remembered when the coroner finally allowed him to hold her, how he bawled against her shoulder with her golden hair falling all over his face. She felt so small and fragile in his arms.

The day of her funeral, he put her gloves on her hands after the undertakers dressed her. When he kissed her lips for the last time, they were so cold and dry.

Mario wasn't a drinker, but he gulped a shot of whiskey to calm his nerves before the ceremony. Then Bowser showed up and tore into the guilt he housed.

But Bowser felt just as guilty.

And they both acted like assholes about it next to her coffin.

"Peach," Mario whispered, eyes stinging.

A thick, warm hand settled itself across his back. Before he realized what had happened, he was pressed to Bowser's side. That hand, a hand as wide as his arm was long, held him in place.

"Let it all out." Bowser said, his bass voice trembling. "We've been crying for ourselves for too long. Let's cry for her. Let it out."

Mario curled into Bowser and sobbed, faintly able to hear Bowser crying as well. Him and his worst rival, weeping together for the woman they both loved. He knew Bowser laid aside a lot of pride to cry in front of an adversary like this. It was an honor, even, to share this vulnerable moment with him.

They cried until they ran out of tears. Then they leaned against each other for strength.

"I died three different times," Bowser rumbled, keeping his eyes closed.

"You-a what?"

"True story." Bowser sighed noisily through his runny nose. "Every time it happened, I traveled up a staircase. Gorgeous place, crystal bricks and colors you'll never see in this lifetime. Lots of light. So bright it's all you can see. I died three different times, Mario."

Mario stole a glance upward at him, watching him swipe his palm across his dripping nose.

Bowser went on, voice husky from crying, "My worst heart attack was at Peach's funeral. I died coming out of surgery, and I saw Peach."

He coughed a chuckle and opened his eyes, his dangerous claws squeezing Mario's shoulder a bit too tightly.

"Eh, 'saw' probably isn't the right word. I perceived her. She was a piece of that light, Mario. I begged her not to go. I cried, and I begged, and I'm not somebody who likes to beg. She told me to get up off my ass and raise Junior."

Looking upward again, eyes unfocused and glimmering with tears, he continued, "I was in a lot of pain, I didn't want to go on, but she made me fight for my life because she didn't get the choice to."

Now he turned his sorrowful gaze onto Mario, russet eyes focusing again. "It broke my heart when she died, but I lived because she told me I have to, and I'll do anything to be worthy of her."

"Except stop-a kidnapping her." Mario pointed out snidely. He regretted it as soon as he said it, but there was no taking it back now.

Rather than get angry, Bowser vented smoke through his nostrils and released his grip on Mario's shoulder. His claws left pinprick holes in his red shirt.

Mario scooted away from him. He pulled an old rag from the pocket of his blue overalls and blew his nose.

Bowser turned his head, snorted and hocked a snotty, frothy half-gallon loogie into the bushes at the northern base of the hill. The whole bush sagged as strings of slime slid off the ends of its sickle-shaped leaves.

A couple of yoshis jumped up and cursed at them in their native language.

Mario's face went from red to green and back to red.

"What?" Bowser wiped the residue off his nostrils and cleared his throat. "They don't make tissues strong enough for Koopas and my snot was choking me up."

"No…it's-a just…" Mario went from tears to laughter, "That was a mighty far-a shot! And you ruined their picnic."

"Oh." Bowser's eyebrows crossed. He glanced at the bushes and laughed as well. "I just beat my old record! Yeah! Serves you right for eating there!"

The angry yoshis picked up the food that hadn't been snot-balled and stalked off.

Mario glanced past them and saw Cherry and Junior on the ferris wheel as it rotated a little, stopped and moved again to let other riders climb aboard. He put his glasses on for a better look.

They were kissing, smiling and holding hands. Junior rocked their blue mushroom-shaped carriage. Cherry slapped his arm. Both of them laughed.

Bowser followed his gaze, squinting.

"They're in love. No doubt about it." He chortled, lowering his voice. "Hey, pipe-head! Why not let those two get married? No, wait, don't say anything until I finish."

Mario closed his mouth.

"They love each other. Look at them. I've been thinking. Well, it was Junior's idea too, but, if they got married, we could ally our kingdoms. Open trade routes and stuff."

Bowser swept his hand to the side, gesturing as he spoke.

"The Koopa army can protect the Mushroom Kingdom from invaders and your guys can share their medicine with us. We can exchange technology, improve the economy, and all kinds of good stuff. I can't see any better way of making the merge than by letting our brats hook up. But they'll hook up the right way."

He smirked. "I'll just kidnap Cherry if you say no, so you might as well— "

Mario's stomach tightened and his fists clenched. He scowled, and Bowser burst out cackling.

"—Mario! I'm kidding! BWAHAHA! Oh, your face is redder than a spanked yoshi's ass!"

Laughing deepened the wrinkles at the corners of Bowser's mouth and eyes, as if they formed because he laughed a lot.

Mario shook his head and chuckled self-consciously. He turned again to watch Cherry lay her head against Junior's bicep.

Peach used to say she wanted Cherry to marry for love. Their daughter wasn't property or a prize to be won, and she knew when she was being treated that way.

In this case, a marriage between them would be a benefit for both kingdoms.

"Cherry is in love with-a him. She-a tried to keep it a secret, but she-a is like her mother. Letting them marry young will mean a long reign, won't it?"

"Yeah, it will."

The possibility of the Darklands and the Mushroom Kingdom coexisting without conflict or bloodshed sounded fantastic. How much stronger could their kingdoms have been if they became allies a decade ago?

Bowser was too stubborn to see what lay in front of him back then. Maybe he needed to grow up a bit more before it became clear.

While Mario wasn't sure he trusted his intentions fully, he wanted to give this new foundation a chance.

"Why?" Mario asked.

"Why what?"

"Why the change of-a heart?"

The corners of Bowser's mouth turned up in a faint, sad smile.

"I didn't take the best care of my own heart, the least I can do is look after Junior's until it's in good hands, and I know it will be with Cherry. Isn't it our job as parents to make sure our kids have it better than we did?"

The sincerity in that answer caught Mario off-guard. Funny, he wanted the same for Cherry, yet never imagined it being Bowser's youngest son to capture her heart.

He saw their growing closeness when they were kids, and he remembered how cruelly he tried to break it up by taking Cherry away with him to Sarasaland after Peach died. It was a petty act meant to hurt Bowser, but the fallout did more damage than he intended.

Cherry didn't talk to him for weeks. When they did, they reached a compromise: If she still felt the same after four years away, he would leave the issue alone.

And what did Cherry do when they returned to the castle after all that time? She spotted Bowser sitting where he sat now, and ran up to see him. He put her in contact with Junior again, and they picked up where they left off.

It was like watching her come to life again.

Ever since, Mario cringed when he looked back on how he acted. Hurting Junior to cause Bowser pain wasn't fair.

"I'm sorry," Mario whispered, looking down at the grass where they sat.

"Huh?"

He rubbed his mustache, his fingertip rustling the coarse hairs. "I used my pain to-a cause you pain after Peach died, and I hurt both of our-a children."

Bowser arched a bushy eyebrow. "No kidding. You should feel like shit for that."

Chastised, Mario sighed.

Bowser cooled, nostrils flaring. "I apologized to Peach for all the kidnapping and garbage I put her through the day she died. I was gonna stop trying to kidnap her, and I never got to show her I meant that apology."

His voice quieted further. "I acted like a jackass at the funeral. It's not like you broke that stair."

Then he scrunched his face as if tasting something foul. "I guess this is where I say I'm sorry about that, isn't it? Sorry."

Mario eyed him warily. "Do you mean-a that?"

"Don't make me say it again. I'd rather eat glass than apologize to you." Bowser snorted, crossing his arms and looking away.

Oh, he meant that apology.

Mario pursed his lips, his eyes wandering up to Peach's golden statue. The sculptor captured her soft expression so perfectly, she would smile at this exchange just like that.

There was no need to think about it any longer. Mario met Bowser's eyes.

"I want to give-a back what I took away." He pointed towards the Ferris wheel with his thumb.

A hopeful light shone in Bowser's eyes.

"So you're cool with it? For real?"

"Yes."

"Awesome!" Bowser pumped his fist in the air. Moments ago he looked deflated, and now he seemed alive again. "We'll finalize this on the Kart track, whaddya say?"

"Let's-a go!"

.o

Various dings and beeps echoed around the stuffy yellow tent. Cherry and Junior stood over the Whack-a-Mole machine, pounding away.

Cherry shouted directions, "Quick! He's coming up again! AH! Get it!"

Junior tried to hit them with the mallet. The game wasn't designed for his huge hands, and he had trouble swinging the mallet without tossing it across the tent. So, just like his dad, he cheated. He used his fists and racked up a large ticket pile.

"Gotcha!" Junior roared triumphantly. He looked at the loops of tickets and the frowning Toads tapping their feet. "Oh, wow, I think we should stop playing now. The locals are getting mad."

"Sure." Cherry tore the tickets from the slot, balled them up and stuffed them into Junior's shell. "C'mon, let's go watch the Kart races!"

Junior grinned roguishly, which made Cherry's heart do a flip-flop.

She poked his arm as they left the colorful tent. He poked back gently. She nudged him a little harder. He goosed her ribs with his tail. Squeaking, she shouldered him as hard as she could, which barely rocked him. In return, he gave her a sideways shove that toppled her into the kiddy ball-pit. He laughed and took off running. She freed herself from the ball-pit and chased after him, giggling.

"Ack! Look out!" Junior called.

Too late. Cherry tripped on something swinging across her path. Junior swooped his arm in to prevent her from falling.

It was those two muscular Sledge Brothers, Jack and Black.

Jack wore thick, round red-framed glasses that magnified his dark eyes. He grew his inky black hair out since she last saw him. What used to be spikes was now a slicked-back ponytail that touched the top of his shell.

"I'm so sorry!" Cherry eyed the rolling marshmallow tip of the long white cane in his hand. She managed to step right on it, and somehow the cane wasn't damaged. Not even a mark on the iridescent reflective red strip near the tip.

"My fault." Jack laughed self-consciously, pulling his cane towards him in the pencil grip. "I walk too fast for my own good."

Black, by contrast, still had the same spiky hair sticking up off his head like the top of a pineapple.

He pointed at Jack's back and moved his hands up and down similar to a marionette on strings, signing, "He's a klutz."

Junior stuck his tongue out at him. Black laughed, a wheezy sound like someone shaking a steaming tea kettle while it whistled.

"Gosh, what happened to you?" Cherry hadn't seen Jack in person for almost four years, and he didn't have a white cane last time!

"My retinas detached. Sometimes that happens to high myopics like me." Jack waved the black handle of the cane back and forth. "They saved a smidge of central vision in my right eye, but the left one is only good for light perception."

He shrugged, "My eyes were already awful, so this isn't tragic. Now I see as well as Ludwig hears."

Black loomed behind Jack with raised eyebrows, and signed, "Is he talking bad about me?"

Cherry picked up a few of those signs and extrapolated the meaning.

She pinched the air. "No."

To Jack, she said, "Wow, I hope it didn't hurt."

"Nah." Jack turned his head to look at Black when he signed close to his face. He propped his cane against his shoulder and signed something back.

Junior leaned over to murmur in her ear, "Black said everything is fine because the two of them are a working set of eyes and ears."

Cherry smiled, tapping on Black's arm. She wiped two fingers downward in front of her nose. "You're funny."

Black grinned a huge, unhinged smile that practically split his face in two.

Jack, by contrast, had a smaller, more shy smile.

Black waved at Cherry and gestured. Junior interpreted what he signed.

"We're going to wreck the High Striker. If you hear dinging, it's us."

"Good luck!" Cherry grinned and finger spelled it.

Black ducked his head, brought the back of his hand forward and formed a finger spelled K, showing her the correct sign. She repeated it, and he helped her shape her fingers. When she did it right, he gave a thumbs up and blew her a kiss with both hands.

Junior signed something she only caught in the corner of her eye. Black's eyes widened. He grabbed Junior's shoulders and playfully shook him back and forth, squeaking. Junior laughed, pretending to headbutt him.

"That! That! That!" Black gestured wildly, expression bright. He signed more, but Cherry couldn't follow it at that high speed.

"Shut up," Junior clapped Black's hands between his without any real venom. He waggled his eyebrows and went on, gesturing, "Go piss off everybody by the High Striker."

Black scrunched his nose when he chuckled, fingers flicking, "It's going to be funny!"

"Yeah, let's move on and see how many more princesses I can trip with my cane today." Jack smiled cheekily in Cherry's direction. "Nice seeing you, Princess Cherry."

"Likewise!" She clasped her hands together. "Maybe we'll keep bumping into each other."

"We shall see!"

Jack started for the north end of the carnival. He slid his cane forward and tapped a perfect two-point touch, the tip swinging towards the opposite side of whichever foot stepped forward.

Toads and yoshis moved aside when they saw him coming.

Black bowed respectfully to Junior and Cherry and jogged after his brother.

"Black is going to clean out their funnel cakes. He loves them." Junior took Cherry's hand and cradled it gently. "Are you okay? Did you twist your ankle or anything?"

"Hm? Oh! No, I'm fine. Just a little startled." Heat rushed into her cheeks again. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek and whisper in his ear, "What were we doing again?"

"We were, uh…" He hugged her, chuckling, "Karts! We're going to see Karts!"

Across the carnival, the High Striker bell rang twice in rapid succession.

Cherry nuzzled her cheek against Junior's chest. "Hey, Junior?"

"Huh?"

She wiggled free, slapped his arm and broke into a run. "You're it!"

"Hey! No fair!" He chased her, laughing.

Their running feet carried them amid striped tents, shiny streamer festoons and multicolored speckled hats.

Toads and yoshis dashed out of their path. A balloon vendor performed a spectacular pirouette to avoid getting bowled over, and the colorful balloons tied onto the thick metal ring he held spiraled around him.

They arrived at the Kart track gasping, flushed and sweaty in their shared mirth.

Junior tapped Cherry's back. "Got you!"

"No, the track is safe!"

"You mean the railing is safe, and you're not touching it. Therefore, you're it!"

Cherry thumbed her nose at him. He fake-pouted. They snickered and embraced.

The track was a straight-away that curved into a hairpin turn and straightened out like a concentric letter B.

Cherry slid to the front to see who was racing. Junior used his size to nudge people out of his way and leaned on the metal railing next to her.

Two racers took their positions by the stoplight. One was massive with a spiked shell and the other wore a red cap. No mistaking them.

"Cherry!"

"I see them too!"

The stoplight began to flash. Bowser grabbed a banana peel someone left on a nearby railing and set it against one of Mario's back tires.

At the green light, Bowser took off. Mario spun out on the banana peel and got a face-full of dust.

"Playing fair is for wimps!" Bowser roared as he sped by. He went so fast that his hair blew straight back.

Cherry covered her nose so the dirt behind his Kart wouldn't make her sneeze.

Mario finally got his Kart going. He depressed the gas and zipped down the track towards Bowser, shouting, "Stronzo!"

Their engines roared around the corner towards the hairpin curve.

Bowser kept trying to edge Mario off the track. They were shouting at each other and— Cherry couldn't believe it— laughing. That was her dad, the man who iced over at the mere mention of Bowser. Did they make up?

Smoke rose from their wheels constantly bumping together. They drifted around the curve on screeching tires, Bowser in the lead.

Ten feet from the finish line, Mario grabbed a Blooper someone tossed over the railing and flung it in front of Bowser. Ink splattered Bowser's face, blinding him. He fishtailed into the bushes while trying to rub his eyes.

Mario crossed the checkered line as Toads cheered.

"Wahoo!" He pumped his fists in the air.

"You pesky pipe-pissing plumber!" Bowser roared, scooping the inky goop off his face.

Mario stood up on the seat of his Kart with his hands on his hips. He leaned back and laughed. "Someone once-a said 'playing fair is for wimps!'"

"And it's a damn good quote, too! Because I made it up."

Junior turned away from their banter and stared wide-eyed at Cherry. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Are they actually joking with each other?"

"They must have talked about mom." Cherry replied. "Let's follow them!"

"I— oof!" Junior tripped over his own tail in his haste to catch up with her. "I feel like I'm in a mirror universe where everybody has a goatee."

They followed Mario and Bowser into a bright orange tent with two pads covered in arrows on the floor. In front of them was a screen full of moving arrows corresponding to the pads.

Mario focused on hitting the arrows under his feet.

But Bowser? Bowser began to all-out breakdance. For such a huge, beefy guy, he was ridiculously athletic. Drops, six-steps, freezes, the turtle, air chairs, a huge windmill and he finished up by spinning around on his shell to win the game.

The five-minute routine left him gasping and sweating, but he rolled back to his feet and shot Mario a smug look.

Mario smirked. They shook hands.

They. Shook. Hands.

Whatever competition they had, it was over and they were even.

"Wow." Cherry raised her eyebrows as Mario looked her way. All he did was smile at her with a twinkle in his eye.

Junior backpedaled when Bowser glanced towards him.

Bowser steered Mario to a corner by grabbing his shoulder and pushing him that direction, and they resumed their conversation.

"We better leave them alone to do their business," Cherry said, tugging on Junior's arm. "C'mon, let's go get some hot dogs. I'm hungry."

"Hot dogs!" Junior grinned. "Big, fat juicy hot dogs with so much stuff on 'em that they spill everywhere."

"Exactly! The best kind!"

"I don't mean to brag, but—" He pretended to polish his claws on his chest, "I can eat six hot dogs at once if I want."

Cherry burst out laughing. "I'd like to see that!"

"You asked for it." Junior said, leading her to the hot dog vendor and pulling a sack of coins from his shell. "How many for you? Just one? With iced melon tea? Medium? Gotcha."

He tapped the counter until the cook showed up. "Seven hot dogs, a medium melon iced tea and a jumbo lemonade, please."

The vendor stated the price.

Junior paid before Cherry could pull the coins out of her pocket.

Moments later, the hot dogs and drinks arrived on a plastic tray that Junior carried to a secluded picnic table under a fat apple tree. The wooden bench creaked from his weight when he dropped himself onto it.

Their drinks were easy to tell apart since Cherry's pink tea came in a clear plastic glass, while his yellow lemonade had a lid and straw.

"Just kick me if this gets too gross for you."

Snickering, she picked up her hot dog and bit into it. Relish, mustard, ketchup and even bits of onion splattered back onto her tray. She let the different tastes sting her tongue.

It was hard not to laugh at how awful Junior's table manners could be when he decided to not care about them. He stuffed all six hot dogs into his mouth, bit down and half the condiments on them squished out between his teeth to stick onto his chin.

"Junior!" Cherry almost spat out her melon tea.

He chewed loud enough to hear over the susurrus of carnival chaos and shoved the back halves of all those hot dogs into his jaws to finish them off.

It was disgusting and hilarious. He winked at her, wiped his palm across his mouth and gulped his lemonade.

Anyone who didn't know him would think him an ill-mannered buffoon, but she knew better.

You're so funny. Cherry thought. She picked up a napkin and gingerly wiped the mess off Junior's chin. They stopped and stared into each others' eyes.

"You're a lot like your dad," said Cherry, laying her tiny hand on top of his huge one.

"Uh, thanks!" He smiled sweetly.

She did, too, and then sobered.

"Junior, whatever happens in the future— if you start having heart troubles, please listen to the doctors."

"Cherry?"

"Just promise."

Junior blinked and licked his fingers. "Okay, I promise, but I had stents put in so I won't have those kinds of problems. I just had my five year echo and angio last year, and Neil said everything looks great. You, um, you didn't used to worry."

She smiled sheepishly. "I searched up Crash on the internet. It scared the heck out of me. It went into all these details about the complications. Aortic dissections, embolisms, valve regurgitation, dilated cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias. I had to look up what all of those meant, and I couldn't sleep that night."

"Yeaaaah, reading about Crash is nightmare material. But I promise I'm okay. Mine got treated."

"Don't you have a regurgitating valve right now?"

He shook his head. "My mitral valve is prolapsing, or being a little floppy, it's not leaking. Neil isn't worried."

"What about Bowser? He looks so tired all the time. Is he okay?"

Her line of questioning bumbled into one of his worst fears, and he didn't want to sit with it for long.

Junior's expression darkened. "Dad is fine. He isn't gonna die any time soon."

Cherry picked up on his discomfort. She sighed, wiping a dark brown lock of hair behind her ear. "Sorry. I just— I didn't know how serious it could get, and I know how hard it is to lose someone close to you too soon."

"Aw, Cherry, I'm not going anywhere, and neither is my dad, so—"

"HUZZAH!" Bowser jumped out from behind the tree.

"Eep!" Cherry's heart leapt into her throat.

"GAH!" Junior toppled off the bench. He hit the ground at the same time the High Striker bell rang, and squirmed around on his back while Bowser laughed.

"Bowser!" Cherry held her chest. Her racing heart gave way to laughter. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"What?" Bowser fixed her in a hard stare.

Heart attack jokes were the only kind of jokes he didn't find funny.

"Sorry," she murmured, "That slipped out."

Bowser cooled and waved it off. "I have to talk to Junior for a minute."

His eyes were brighter than she had ever seen them, as if the weight of the world blew off his shoulders. He dumped a handful of coins into her hand.

"Scram, this is Koopa-to-Koopa business. Go play some games or something."

"Are you planning a prank?"

"Maybe."

"Is someone going to cry?"

He grinned, "Maybe."

Cherry playfully tossed her napkin at Bowser's head. She finished her iced tea and slid off the bench, taking her trash with her. "Okay, I'll play along and disappear. Junior, come find me when you're done."

Junior nodded, giving a thumb's up. Bowser leaned over and said something in his ear. His eyes lit up and he grabbed Bowser's upper arms.

She put her trash in the bin and followed the ringing bell to the High Striker.

.o

Junior's reality moved at a snail's pace as Bowser said the magic words into his ear: "I worked everything out, kid. Mario is okay with you marrying Cherry."

"Wait? For real?"

"Yup."

"Dad!" Junior yanked Bowser into a tight embrace, his face buried in his shoulder. Tears spilled out of his eyes. "We're barely on our first date!"

Bowser nuzzled their cheeks together. "So? You two loved each other from the word go. When you let go of somebody you love and they come back, they're meant to be yours. Why waste time dating and goofing around when you know what you want?"

"Do you think she wants it?" Junior muffled into his dad's shoulder.

"I wouldn't say this if I didn't think so. C'mon, kiddo." Bowser lightly scratched the sides of his arms with his claws. "Hey, look at me."

Sniffling, Junior straightened and found Bowser's expression unusually composed.

Bowser reached into his shell and pulled out a small black box. In it was a beautiful gold ring. Several diamonds were set in a tiny Koopa shell frame. The clear, faceted stones sparkled like polychromatic stars in the sunlight.

His eyes glistened with tears as he gazed down at it.

"The diamonds were one of Peach's earrings. She lost it the first time I grabbed her. I had it made into this to propose to her. It's old, Junior, and I guess it wasn't meant for my wedding. This belongs on Cherry's finger."

"Dad?" Junior met Bowser's eyes.

Tears spilled onto Bowser's cheeks when he smiled, his mouth trembling. "I buried it on Peach's grave after Mario took Cherry away. I thought I was burying a dead dream, but I planted a seed instead. I dug this thing up the day Cherry came back. It's been cried on, dragged through the mud, stepped on and forgotten about, and if it can shine like this after that, so can your love."

He closed the box and pressed it into Junior's hands, never breaking eye contact.

"Love is a promise, remember? Now you go and propose to her. Look her in the eye, get down on one knee and flip the box open. Don't drop the ring, and don't throw up."

Junior slapped his elbow for that. "Dad!"

Bowser dabbed the tears off his face with his thumbs. "Hey, nerves are awful. Don't let them win."

Realization dawned in Junior's eyes. He closed the box and clutched it between his palms.

"You planned this. The tulip was the start, wasn't it?"

Bowser smiled roguishly. "I've been looking out for your heart your whole life, Junior. Now go get her."

"What if she freaks out? This is sudden as hell, and Peach—"

"What if she doesn't freak out? What if she says yes?" Bowser's voice dropped to a whisper. "Don't ruin it by getting drunk after you propose. Unless she says no, but she won't. Now go get your girl."

"Dad…are you sure this isn't too soon?"

Bowser clenched his jaw, and Junior knew he tried his patience.

"No. The younger you two marry, the longer you can boss people around. Now stop stalling! No kidnapping unless she says no!"

Junior laughed and sprinted into the crowd.

.o

A thick, wide oak tree shaded the picnic table by the High Striker where a princess and two Sledge Brothers gathered.

Black never ceased to be hilarious. Cherry texted him random words, and he tried to pronounce them out loud. He texted her random words, and she guessed how they were signed.

Jack sat with his cane folded on the table next to him. He kept almost choking on his meatball sandwich because of their antics.

"How do you say it?" Black signed to Jack.

Jack pulled the phone close to his good eye. He let Black press his hand under his chin while he said the words.

"Funnel cake."

Jack did it again, slower, sounding out each syllable.

Black tried to say it, but it sounded so much like fuck yay that Cherry buried her face in her forearm, practically crying from mirth.

Jack took a bite of his sandwich. He extended two fingers on both hands and tapped them together. Black slapped the table and guffawed.

"Is that what I said?" He gestured.

"Yup." Cherry moved her fist up and down like a nodding head.

They cackled together, red-faced.

"Your turn." Black signed one-handed. He texted her a word.

"Hmm…"

Cherry held something imaginary cupped in her hand and mimed peeling it.

Black pointed, stomped his feet and giggled. He lifted one finger and made the peeling motion. That was how Cherry learned the Koopa Sign for banana.

She smiled, moving her finger towards her mouth and pretending to eat it. Black grabbed her hand, laughing. He held up a finger and texted her.

"Oh, geez!" Her face turned red. "Is that what I signed?"

Black wheezed so loud he sounded like a train. He signed, "There is more than one way, but you did one of them!"

Jack interpreted for her as he finished the first chunk of his meatball sandwich. He ate neatly, hardly letting a crumb fall.

His phone beeped, so he took it out of his shell, slid the back of the neon green phone case down, exposing a bunch of tiny metal holes, and the information on the screen popped up on the back of the phone as silver braille dots. He ran his fingers over them without having to change his grip.

Black looked over when Jack smacked his arm, signed something and watched him closely.

"What's up?" Cherry asked.

Jack smirked, pointing to Black. "Just got a soccer score. The Tsunamis beat the Hurricanes. This smug goon owes me money."

Black ripped a meatball out of Jack's sandwich and ate it.

Junior emerged between two balloon vendors. He jogged over upon spotting her.

"Hi, Cherry. I'll talk to you in a sec. I have to talk to Black first."

"Sure." She grinned as he kissed her forehead. "My mom used to say 'no hurry, the day is young and so are we.'"

He smiled, patted Black's muscular upper arm and nodded towards the tree behind the table.

.o

"Dad says he worked it out. I'm going to propose to her." Junior signed frantically, eyes wide. "Help me, how did you propose to Ludwig? How did it go?"

Black waited until Junior's frenzied movements stopped. He gestured at his eyes while making soft peh-peh noises in the back of his throat.

His hands didn't go into motion until Junior focused fully on him. The black, diamond-encrusted wedding band on his left middle finger caught the sun in a series of streaky sparkles.

"Ludwig and I proposed to each other at the same time on the night of his first symphony. I went in before the performance because I couldn't wait until after. I lowered to one knee and asked the question. He got down on one knee with me and proposed back. We laughed until we cried. Sometimes we think with one mind!"

He waggled his eyebrows and grinned, black eyes bright.

"You asked me how you know it's love. You were little, but you asked. Do you understand now?"

Junior remembered Black telling him it felt like hunger, and he was right. He stood chest high to Black when he asked that. Now Black stood chest high to him.

"I don't want to look stupid." He signed it so hard that he slapped the back of his hand into his other palm with two extended fingers rather than strike his forehead.

Black took his face between both hands, stared him intensely in the eyes and signed back, "Everybody looks stupid proposing. Be yourself and she will love you for it."

He inhaled, moving his spread hands in and out over his chest. "Breathe with me."

Junior obeyed. They took three deep breaths together. In through the nose, out from the mouth. His racing heart slowed to a less chaotic pace and his whirling thoughts collected into sensibility.

Black tilted his head towards Cherry, his spiky black hair flopping side to side.

"Approach her with love in your heart and the rest follows. I promise," he signed.

Nodding, Junior brought his hand up to his mouth and moved it forward. "Thank you."

Black flipped his hand over against his chest. "You're welcome. Go on. I'll get Jack out of there."

He went to the table first and signed into Jack's hand instead of near his face.

"Looks like he's ready for round two of funnel cakes." Jack smiled at Cherry. "We'll be right back."

"Sure!" Cherry sat up straighter, putting her phone away.

Jack signed to Black, "You're a wingman today?"

Black tugged on his arm and signed into his hand as they walked. "Yes, and it's important. Move."

Jack unfolded his cane. He gripped Black's elbow. They made themselves scarce.

And suddenly Cherry sat alone at the table, her wind blown ponytail glistening in the sun. The red T-shirt and denim jumper reminded Junior of the outfit she wore when they met a lifetime ago.

Junior swallowed, his mouth dry, and sat across from her at the table with his hands folded on the tabletop. The box containing the ring was clutched between his palms, hidden by his thick fingers.

"I love you." He blurted it as his butt landed on the wooden bench.

Cherry's big blue eyes softened. "I was waiting to hear you say that." She clasped her hands on his, unaware of what they concealed. "I love you, too."

His heart sped up again. He moved his fingers, slowly revolving the hidden velvet box against his palm. Its top was domed and the bottom flat.

She leaned in and kissed him. "We said it. Now what?"

Junior grinned crookedly because her question gave him the words he needed.

"This is nuts. We're on our first date, but we've known each other a long time, right?"

"Feels like forever." Cherry's cheeks flushed. She was there, with her freckles, and her nose, and her eyes, so perfect, so right. "Back when we were kids, I, um…I had a crush on you."

When their eyes met again, she giggled. "I only ever told mom about it."

"Me, too." Junior swallowed again, his mouth kept doing fantastic impressions of a desert. "Except I never told anybody. I didn't know what I was feeling. But now I do."

Her hands pressed tighter over his. "Can we stay like this forever?"

"Like what?"

"In this feeling."

Junior smiled. There it was.

"Yes." He stood, which encouraged her to stand up, too.

With his eyes locked on hers, he sank gracefully to one knee, flipped the velvet box open with his thumb and presented the ring. The diamonds scintillated in the dappled sunlight filtering through the tree leaves.

"Cherry Toadstool, will you marry me so we can stay like this forever?"

Cherry's hands flew up to cover her mouth. Her breathing accelerated. Tears welled in her eyes as her fingers trembled.

"On our first date?" She whispered.

He grinned roguishly. "Who says we can't go on more dates?"

Her melodious laughter was music. She knelt, hugged and kissed him.

Against his mouth, she said, "Yes. Let's be like this forever."

Cherry extended her left hand, and Junior almost slid the ring onto her middle finger. She wiggled the finger next to it and he corrected himself.

They kissed again, slow and deep amid shining sunbeams.

Applause broke out. Junior hadn't noticed people gathering to watch the proposal. Bowser walked out from behind the apple tree with Mario at his side. Jack and Black flanked him. Mario looked ridiculously small next to the muscular Sledge Brothers.

Bowser had his phone in his hand. Junior wondered how many pictures he took. There was probably video footage, too.

Cherry buried her face in Junior's neck and hugged him tighter.

"Mom would be really happy right now," she whispered.

Junior toyed with her ponytail, "She's watching. She knows."

"The planning is going to be nuts, you know that, right?"

He chuckled. "I can stage a kidnapping if it gets too hectic."

"Ooh."

"Um, Cherry?"

"What?"

"I knelt in somebody's gum."

"You didn't."

Junior stood slowly. Strings of pink sticky goo clung to his left knee.

Cherry clapped her hands and doubled over laughing. "Oh, no!"

Off to the side, Bowser elbowed Mario. Mario looked up at him. They smiled at each other. Jack and Black slapped hands.

Junior's phone beeped. Bowser texted him a photo of the moment he got down on one knee.

Can I put this on ClawBook?

Junior texted back the affirmative. He looked down as Cherry used napkins to scrape the gum off his knee.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. It's hilarious." She grinned up at him. "It wouldn't work if something dorky didn't happen."

"I'm going to dork up the wedding, too."

"You better."

They chortled.

Not a second later, Junior's phone blew up with his siblings congratulating him.

.o

The next five months were filled with stress and wedding plans. A mile long guest list, reception details, ceremony details, places where Koopa and Mushroom cultures could mingle and the astronomical cost of the whole thing.

Cherry and Junior hired and fired several wedding planners— they figured planning the wedding themselves would be easier than having a stranger tell them what to do.

Their wedding cake was going to have twelve tiers. Chocolate cake tiers alternated between Koopa shells and Mushrooms, whipped cream frosting drizzled in more chocolate with cherries around the edges. It would feed an army!

Junior and Cherry talked about serving exotic delicacies for the reception, but quickly changed their plans when they realized how impersonal it would be. Plus, a lot of Koopa delicacies would freak out the Mushroom Kingdom locals, and the Mushroom Kingdom delicacies would be too small to satisfy Koopas, who were big eaters. Morton alone would destroy the entire buffet!

They decided to have Cheep-Cheep kabobs and pasta cooked en masse. The exotic part would be the drinks— various Mushroom and Koopa wines, beers and punches. They added finger-foods, too, like carrot sticks, meat platters and cheese.

At one point, they grabbed books from the libraries of their castles and sat down into read etiquette how-to books for both Mushroom and Koopa weddings. Both cultures contradicted each other in so many ways!

"This is nuts!" Cherry exclaimed after dropping her book.

"Welcome to wedding planning!" Junior threw his book across the room.

They looked at each other, laughing.

.o

Two kings who never thought they would work together did exactly that. Mario invited Bowser to the Mushroom Castle, and they met in the study, a room off to the side of the throne room. All around them, scrolls lined shelves along the sky blue marble walls. Sunlight and a cool breeze came through the large open window that faced south.

Mario and Bowser poured over paperwork. Some sheets were palimpsests of pencil markings that only got inked after both came to agreements on what they said.

They created treaties, signed mergers on their land and prepared the royal marriage license.

The guards were nervous, lots of shifty eyes and shuffling feet.

Bowser's noisy breathing didn't escape Mario's notice. The aging Koopa King looked like he outran death on foot and still expected it to clobber him at any moment.

"What're you gawking at?" Bowser caught him looking. He smirked, "You think I'm sexy, or something?"

Mario wrinkled his nose. "I don't swing-a that way."

"Does Luigi?"

He paled. "What?"

Bowser bared his sharp teeth in uproarious, booming laughter. "BWHAHAHA! Oh, your face!"

He's trying to ruffle you. Calm down. Mario drew a deep breath, and yet again he noticed Bowser's breathlessness after his mirth passed.

A few minutes later, Bowser took a green pill bottle out of his shell and popped something under his tongue.

"They decided on dashed last names," he rumbled.

"It-a was Cherry's idea." Mario eyed the enormous Koopa crouched awkwardly by the table. "What's-a with your heart?"

"Huh?"

"Crash. Cherry mentioned it-a once. What is that?"

Bowser stashed the pill bottle in his shell again. He smiled wryly. "Crash is a nickname for a condition called Restrictive Coronary Artery Hypoplasia and Sclerosis."

"What a mouthful-a."

"Yup. That's why they call it Crash. All it means is my coronary arteries didn't grow right and they're hardening up like pipes as I get older."

Bowser rubbed a hand down the middle of his face. He glanced up at the clock on his left and sank to sit on the floor. "Friggin' nitros drop my blood pressure."

Mario set his fountain pen aside and cocked an eyebrow. Was Bowser's snout supposed to be pale like that?

"Is something the matter?"

"I don't know yet. Just sign papers and shove them over here. I'll sign everything after I'm done being woozy."

Guards poked their heads into the door, their speckled caps almost bumping into each other. Mario waved them off and tried to focus on the scroll in front of him, but the sound of panting kept distracting him.

Bowser snagged his pen in his left hand and signed what Mario passed to him. He took the time to read, first, squinting as if he couldn't quite see the text.

Finally, Mario took down the magnifying glass sitting on a nearby bookshelf. It was rectangular with an LED light across one side of the lens.

"They write-a too small sometimes," he said.

"Hmph." Bowser held it delicately between thumb and forefinger and suddenly read a lot faster.

They continued that way for a while, neither speaking.

As time went on, Bowser looked worse than he did fifteen minutes ago, his snout pale and his face sweaty. He checked the clock again.

"Hey, Mario?"

"Yes?"

"Can your medics treat a heart attack?"

Mario forgot their paperwork. He crossed past the table to kneel in front of him.

"Of course."

Bowser pressed his hand hard against his chest, slid it up to rub his lower jaw and moved it to grasp his left shoulder. He peered at Mario through glazed, unfocused eyes limned in fear.

"Call them. I'm having one."

Sweat dampened Mario's hands inside his white gloves. Years ago, he saw Bowser collapse aboard his airship after a failed attempt to kidnap Peach, and he looked just as ashen now as he did then.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm—" Bowser grabbed his snout, doubled forward and vomited chunky grayish-green liquid across Mario's brand new shoes. It was as hot as a shower from his body heat.

Mario's stomach turned over. He bolted for the window and stuck his head out to be sick himself. Luigi couldn't puke without him and Peach's morning sickness made him puke with her. Now Bowser joined the ranks of triggering his sympathy vomit.

He was still heaving when he pulled his phone out to dial.

.o

.o