Chapter Text
“You know, normally I’m the one that kidnaps people.”, Bowser muttered, calmly lounging in Luigi’s overall pocket. “Weird to be the one getting kidnapped for once.”
Grinning, Luigi rolled his eyes and waved him of. “Oh, hush you. I can still take you back.”
Both of them knew he wouldn’t.
.. He pretended they didn’t.
“Where are we even going? We’ve been walking through the forest for ages. I thought we got lost like three times already.”
Luigi grinned, excitedly.
It had been a while since they’d left the castle- thanks to Mario and his overbearing protectiveness-, but his brother was out with the princess today, so the two of them had basically free reign, as long as nobody caught them.
He’d picked up Bowser about an hour ago, made him promise to behave and told him to just trust him, put him in his pocket, and left the castle again, all in the span of less than half an hour.
He’d made a point to glare at every toad that crossed them, just so they’d leave him alone.
Then he’d made a beeline for the forest behind Toad Town, told Bowser that he could stick his head out now if he wanted to, (spend the next ten minutes being mesmerized by the calm smile on the koopa’s face) and started walking.
He refused to tell the other where exactly they were going, instead opted to be a little shit and stay mysterious. And while Bowser was complaining about that, Luigi also couldn’t shake the feeling that the koopa kind of liked it when he was being a menace like that.
“I promise you we didn’t get lost.”, Luigi answered with an easy grin. “I know exactly where we are. We’re almost there, in fact.”
He kept walking, strolling through the trees, enjoying the sunshine that flickered through the leaves ahead.
Even Bowser, no matter how much he complained, seemed to be in a good mood today.
He leaned his upper body out of Luigi’s pocket, stuck his head up towards the sky, a smile on his face, more relaxed than Luigi had seen him in the last few days.
“I gotta say, this is really nice.”, the koopa muttered eventually, and Luigi nodded, grin widening. “I never really managed to come all the way over here. Forest is too far away from the border for that and for all the shit I give ‘em, the toads sure know how to keep it safe. Stars know how they do it.”
Luigi chuckled. “No idea. To be honest, I have don’t know how they managed to keep the Kingdom safe this whole time before Mario and I arrived.”
Bowser puffed his chest out, made himself as big as possible, and smirked. “Pure luck, I tell ya.”
“Ah yes, definitely.”, Luigi replied, laughing now, and took a right turn when he recognized a big oak ahead. “Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact your plans are shit.”
Bowser gaped at him, and the italian laughed, harder than he had all day.
Then he quickly looked around again, making sure not to miss even a single tree, since there were no signs or even streets to orient himself. The place he was taking them to was basically impossible to find, except for one that knew where it was.
A few steps ahead, Luigi reached a line of wild looking bushes, and stopped, gestured for Bowser to disappear.
“You gotta stay down now.”, he muttered quietly. “Don’t want someone to see you and freak out.”
The koopa glared at him, pouting. “But I want to see where we go! I haven’t been outside in ages!”
Luigi rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, but couldn’t hide the amused grin. “I took you out to the marketplace last week.”
“Yeah- well- that’s not the same.”
He laughed and shook his head fondly.
“Alright, how about that;” Luigi firmly decided to one day stop trying to please literally everyone around him and sighed. “Use your claw to poke a hole in my pocket. But only a little one! Or people will notice. A-and be careful! These are my favorite overalls.”
For a moment it looked like Bowser might want to argue with him, but Luigi raised an eyebrow and made a gesture that roughly translated to ‘well go on, I don’t have all day’, and the koopa gave in.
He slipped back down into his pocket, grumbling quietly, and a second later, Luigi saw a claw peak out of the fabric.
Only when it disappeared again, did he walk towards the berry bushes ahead, carefully sidestepping some stray thorny branches.
And behind the bushes, the forest opened to show a little village, safely tucked away and hidden by the trees around them.
The smell of fresh bread and sweet flowers reached them, and Luigi sighed, felt the rest of the stress wash from his shoulders.
His feet automatically carried him forwards through the open streets, made from nothing more than pebbles and stones, sat between overgrown patches of grass, wildflowers growing at its sides.
He crossed a few houses, waved back to the older toads that recognized him with a smile.
Nobody tried to stop him. Nobody tried to ask him a thousand questions.
The people here were different than the ones that lived in Toad Town, calmer, more relaxed. They enjoyed the quiet here, where it was never fully silent, not really. With the wind in the leaves and the soft splashing of the nearby river, with birds in the air and crickets in the grass.
Mario and him had found it a few months ago, shortly after he started meeting up with Bowser, when a group of goombas had found the village and decided to wreak some havoc. And Luigi had fallen in love with it, had been drawn to the beauty and the peace of the place almost immediately.
It was a safe haven, and in a sense, it became one for him too. The toads didn’t bother him here, not even to ask about Mario. They left him alone, mostly, free to stroll around the marketplace or eat ice cream while sitting on one of the benches around the village, in peace.
And for how annoyed he was with the toads in Toad Town and their obsession with his brother, Luigi loved it that way.
He walked down the main street towards the market, humming softly under his breath, a bounce in his steps. Until something poked him in the chest, and he glanced down to see that Bowser had shifted a little and was now looking through the hole in his pocket.
“It’s beautiful, right?”, he whispered under his breath, after making sure there was nobody close enough to hear him. “Mario and I found it more or less accidentally a few months ago.”
“This place doesn’t even look like any toad towns I know of.”, Bowser replied, voiced awed and curious. “And I know a lot of them.”
He took a right turn behind a house, checked to see whether the alley behind it was empty, before nodding.
“It’s not just the place. It’s the toads too. They’re calmer, almost.”, he replied with a shrug. “But then I guess that’s because of this place, so.”
He felt Bowser shift, looked down to see him glance up at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s completely hidden away in the forest. It’s kind of a.. safe haven for the toads, almost. No outsiders ever really come here- it was an accident that Mario and I even found it.”
Bowser looked away, turned his face away from Luigi to look through his hole.
“A safe haven, you say?”
His voice was.. off, strangely subdued.
Luigi nodded, his steps slowing to give him time to explain.
“Yeah. It’s the location. The village, I mean. If one doesn’t know it’s there or what to look for, it’s impossible to find. They built it like that, some toads years and years ago, when they grew tired of the fighting and the attacks. They weren’t.. like other toads, I guess? The elders sometimes tell me stories, but then, the toads who built this village have been dead for longer than even they can remember, so it’s mostly speculations and guessing.”
The pebbles and grass crunched under his boots, and he looked around, took a turn to the left now, passing a few more mushroom houses, similar to the ones in Toad Town.
They passed a few kids, sitting around an older toad in a half circle, listening to his stories, and the bakery, with fresh bread cooling on the windowsill.
“Hey, uh, Luigi?”, Bowser muttered eventually, when the italian was leaning his head back to enjoy the sunshine on his face, knowing the way to the market by memory alone. “What did you say this one was, uh, called? The village, I mean?”
“Forest Delight.”, he replied quietly, taking another left turn, and waved at a young girl sitting by a window a few houses away, drawing. “Though I doubt you’ve heard of it. It’s not in any maps or-“
“I know”
There it was again, his voice. It had a weird sound to it, and this time it sent the hair in his nape on edge.
“I’ve uh, been trying to find it.”, he continued after a moment, even quieter than before, and Luigi could feel him shift around in his pockets. “For years.”
Now, Luigi was relatively smart. Not like, book smart, but street smart. Generally.
Still, even years later, he wouldn’t have been able to tell you why his only reaction to that revelation was confusion.
Confusion, a raised eyebrow, and a muttered “Why?”
He did feel very stupid though, when Bowser just glared up at him, surprised, annoyed, frustrated and everything in between, and furrowed his bushy brows, gesturing down his body. “Really? You’re asking me why?”
Luigi shrugged. “What?”
He blamed it on the fact that Bowser had changed so much it was hard for him to remember who the King of the koopas actually was- and ignored the part of him that laughed a little manically at the fact that he knew full well what Bowser was capable of- and had in fact dreamed about some of those things on nights when life had been especially shitty to him.
He coughed.
Bowser groaned.
“Look- just, ugh. Because I wanted to.. have it- well, take it, I guess.”
And only when Luigi noticed the way his eyes scuttered about, looking at literally anything but his own, did he realize that something was actually going very, very wrong in that moment.
“From a.. strategic point of view, Forest Delight is perfect. Almost impossible to-to find, muss less take back from one when-“, Bowser cut himself off and glanced down at his hands, which were shaking, Luigi was surprised to find.
He slowed his steps to a halt, looked around to make sure nobody was close.
He could hear Bowser shudder, felt it against his chest.
“I was gonna raze it to the ground.”, he whispered then, barely more than a breath, and looked up at Luigi with hollow eyes, wide and unseeing. “I was gonna kill them all to.. to prove a point.”
Luigi reacted quicker than he would later remember and had turned around and already started walking before he even realized he was doing it.
He had a feeling this was one of those talks that were best held alone, without the possibility of anyone overhearing them.
Bowser had slipped back into his pocket, and was quietly rambling now, too fast and quiet for Luigi to understand, who quickened his steps anxiously, ignoring all the confused glances and worried faces around him. He speedwalked through the village and took a right at the end of the road, which brought them to the outskirts, right between the oak trees that surrounded the whole village and made up most of the forest.
“Hey, it’s- it’s okay.”, he mumbled, not daring to speak any louder, and stuffed shaking hands into his pockets. “We’re out, see? I’m gonna- gonna go a bit further, make sure n- nobody listens in, y-yeah?”
Bowser’s breath had turned shallow by the time they reached and passed the berry patches, and Luigi was almost running now to put as much space between the village and its inhabitants, and him and Bower.
“H- Hold on.”, he muttered between breaths, as loud as he dared. “Just a little- further, okay?”
Bowser didn’t answer, and Luigi wasn’t sure if he’d heard him in the first place. He kept running for a handful of minutes, until the quiet sounds of the village had all but disappeared and he was absolutely sure they were alone, worry pushing him forwards.
He held one hand up and against the pocket in which Bowser was hiding, hoping to be able to offer at least some sort of comfort, and tried to calm his anxiety at the same time.
It was fine.
Luigi was fine.
Bowser was fine.
Breathe.
Devi respirare, Luigi.
In and out.
He looked around, slowed to a stop, and all but collapsed under a huge oak tree, breathing still a little shaky but good enough for now.
“H- Hey”, he called quietly, winced when he saw Bowser flinch a little, big eyes jumping up to his in shock. “Do you.. Y-you wanna come out? There’s nobody around and-“
Bowser firmly shook his head, and Luigi nodded with a sigh, leaning back against the tree.
“Okay. Y-you can also just, uh, stay in there, if you want.”, he added quickly. “That’s fine too.”
He took another moment to calm his frantic.. everything, and pressed his palms into the ground to keep them steady.
Somehow, seeing Bowser like that freaked him out. Maybe it was because he was usually the one that comforted Luigi, not the other way around. Maybe it was the words he had spoken, or the fact that it happened so suddenly.
Luigi wasn’t even really sure what was going on in the first place, wasn’t sure what had set Bowser off, but he was glad the koopa was starting to at least breathe clearer again.
He could deal with the rest.
He glanced down at the figure in his pocket, curled up, claws digging into thick pale-yellow skin and Bowser’s eyes jumped up, so sudden it scared Luigi.
He crooked his head to the side, hoping the smile on his face looked calmer than it felt.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
Bowser shook his head.
Then he hesitated.
Opened his mouth.
Closed it again.
Breathed.
“No.”, he answered firmly, and then, quieter, he continued. “Tell me a story though. Don’t- don’t just sit there, all quietly.”
It sounded like a command.
And everyone else might’ve understood it as one, too.
But Luigi smiled, a little more honest now, with warmth in his chest, and filled the silence around them with words, for as long as Bowser needed.
..
It took a while, at least an hour if Luigi had to guess, for the koopa to join in.
He was talking about that one time Mario and him had started a full-on prank war with their cousins that lasted for a whole three months before their mothers had sat them down for a peace treaty, and Bowser had flinched so sudden and intensely it surprised Luigi into silence.
He let them sit in it for a while, trying to calm his racing heart.
Bowser sighed, and finally sat up in his pocket, leaning his shelled back against Luigi’s chest- who did not blush (too much) at that, thank you very much.
He glanced down, curiously, waiting to see if the koopa would open up about what had happened in Forest Delight earlier, considering he usually wasn’t one to talk about his feelings or ‘things like that’, as he put it.
“I-uh, I’m sorry.”, was the first thing he said, and Luigi immediately understood why he got so annoyed when the italian kept apologizing for things he didn’t need to apologize for. “I, uhm, didn’t mean for that to, uh, happen. Just-“
He cut himself off and growled, frustrated. “I.. I realized something, back in Forest Delight. I guess. And, uh, I’m just- I’m really not that- great, am I?”
For a moment, Luigi wondered where exactly that had come from.
Bowser had, well, he had changed, sure. But he’d still always been an exceptionally prideful guy, thinking himself better than most- even if he mostly did it to make fun of Mario.
Then he decided that he was the absolute wrong person to answer that question, considering all the things he thought about the koopa and how many of them were rather in the upper half of any greatness-scale anyone had ever imagined.
He shrugged, cursed inwardly when his blush grew and spread all the way up to his ears.
“I-I’m not sure I would say that?”, he answered hesitantly, not willing to lie to Bowser, but also unwilling to tell the full truth. “I think you’re plenty great- even if you did some, uh, not so great things.”
“Oh, come one!”, the koopa growled, sinking his claws into the fabric of his overalls. “We both know I did lots of shitty things, man. No need to start sugarcoating it now when you never did so before. I kidnapped your brother’s- fuck, whatever they are, I threw you in a cage, I fucking- I tried to destroy this whole kingdom!”
Luigi gulped, balled his hands to fists at his side anxiously. Relaxed them. Did it again.
“You know why I wanted to know where this stupid town is?” Bowser turned around to face him then, face scrunched up in anger and frustration. “I wanted to burn it down. Kill those stupid toads and infiltrate the kingdom from there. Because that’s who I am-or, was. Fuck, I dunno. So don’t-“
He glared up at Luigi, and the italian blinked, confused, and wondered how he’d ever misplaced the self-loathing in his eyes for anger.
“Don’t try to tell me I’m ‘plenty great’, when I’m trying to go through some sort of.. character development here.”
Luigi raised both brows in surprise, a grin on his face that felt more like a grimace, pride and worry fighting for dominance in his chest.
It really was amazing, how far Bowser had come in the last few months.
“I won’t st- stop you there, don’t worry.”, he agreed, haltingly, one corner of his mouth raised into a little smile. “But I can still think you’re great while also accepting that you did some fucked up things, Bowser.”
And the koopa kind of stopped at that, and Luigi shrugged. “Cause I do.”
Bowser gaped at him, eyes wide and disbelieving. His claws were tightly wrapped into the fabric of Luigi’s overalls, and he wondered if the other knew he was grasping them like a drowning man would grasp a lifeline.
“Why- how-“, he stammered, cursing under his breath when the words died in his throat. “How are you like this?!”
Luigi shrugged, pressed his hands into the grass around them to avoid reaching out for Bowser, unsure whether the touch would be appreciated or not.
“Like what?”
The koopa gestured around frantically, and a little smoke came puffing out of his nostrils. “Like that! Hello?! I’m Bowser! Remember that? Guy who threw you in a cage and wanted to fucking burn you alive as a present for the woman that didn’t even want to marry me? Guy who terrorized these lands?! How can you be so- so nice to me? Why don’t you hate me? You- you should hate me! Everyone else does. So why don’t you?!”
He was breathing heavily, eyes blazing, and ripped his hands away to rake his claws through the wild red mane, harsher than necessary.
“Hey! Don’t-“, Luigi flinched and reached out, carefully grabbing his hands, pulling them away. “Don’t do that. Please?”
Bowser looked up at him, so unsure and- and frustrated and sad and so desperate for comfort, it nearly broke Luigi’s heart.
“Why can’t you hate me like everyone else does?”
He wondered how long he’d been dealing with this, all by himself. Wondered how long he’d been beating himself up over this.
“I-“
He remembered soft words and gentle comfort, talks that lasted from morning to evening, stargazing, laughing at 4am, half delirious from lack of sleep, stories about children and family, painting lessons and reading together. Remembered being silly together, annoying Mario, baking, drinking together..
“I just don’t think you’re a bad guy.”, he muttered, ignored the way his heart raced, and blood rushed in his veins and the voice in the back of his head that was screaming. “I-I mean, you did bad things, sure..”
He remembered a dad that wanted a mother for his children, someone who loved them as much as he loved them, who could care for them as much as he did, a king that went to the frontlines, ready to die to earn the respect of his people.
“And- and you definitely have to give some apologies. But- I don’t think you’re half as bad as you want others to think you are.”
..
Bowser blinked.
He didn’t- He wasn’t sure what to say, wasn’t sure what to think or do or- Or anything, really.
“Oh, hey, no- I-I-I’m sorry-I didn’t mean-“
Luigi reached out, gentle, always so fucking gentle with him, and wiped something from his face and Bowser-
Was crying. He was crying and he was heaving and he wasn’t- he wasn’t sure what to do because how- how was he still like this- how could he-
He’d been a monster.
He’d hurt Peach, he’d hurt the kingdom, he’d hurt- he hurt him.
And here he was, fucking comforting him, telling him it was fine, that he wasn’t a bad person, that he- that here was hope, even for someone like him.
Luigi, who had been through so much in his life, who’d been hurt by so many people, who was- who was the best fucking thing that had ever happened to him since he found his children.
He buried his head in Luigi’s chest, holding onto the fabric in his hands for dear life, distantly wondering if he would be swept away if he let go, broken and crumbling as he felt right now.
It could’ve been so easy.
He would have waited a few weeks, maybe a month or two, for Ludwig and the others to show up, wreck some havoc and bring him home, Easy as anything.
But no, Luigi had to show up and just- fucking ruin him, make him regret so much, make him want to no longer be the monster, the bad guy in, well, not everyone else’s stories, because he still didn’t really care about everyone else, but in his story, in Luigi’s story.
And then he had taken him there, to Forest Delight, to the town Bowser had been searching for, for years, that he wanted to burn to the fucking ground to prove how serious he had been. And he had seen them, the toads living there in peace, the children- the fucking children that he would’ve killed, the- the old ones, the young ones, barely older than Junior- He had brought him there despite the fact that he was supposed to be in the castle right now- despite the fact that Mario would rip Luigi a new one, again, for taking him out, again.
And what- What did he have to offer?
He was fucked up- a half decent king that sent his kingdom into war the fucking day he was crowned, that ignored every peaceful option and rather decided to steal and kill and destroy and-
“Hey. How about you share some of those thoughts with me?”
Bowser startled, blinked a few times to get rid of the blurry vision, and looked up at Luigi’s worried face.
“There you are.”, the plumber smiled, and Bowser kind of wanted to shoot himself- no matter how dramatic that would’ve been. “You- what’s going on?”
He gently poked his head.
Bowser sniffed. Like a hatchling.
Great. Just- wonderful.
“I’m sorry if I said something wrong.”, he continued, always fucking apologizing, and petted Bowser’s hair. “You’re the baddest and- and scariest koopa I know, I promise.”
He snorted, despite himself. “Anyone ever told you that you- you can’t lie for shit?”
Greenie grinned, scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Ah, yes, actually. Mario tells me all the time.”
Stars, he needed a nap.
Or two.
Maybe just a full night’s sleep, actually.
“You didn’t.. say anything wrong. I’m just..”, he growled, willed his pride to step down and just let himself talk, for once. “I never really.. cared, about what I was doing, but.. coming here, it kind of opened my eyes, I guess.”
He wrapped his arms around himself, as far as possible, and honestly debated just slipping out of his shell for once to make it easier to curl up and let Luigi hold him.
He didn’t. He wasn’t that far gone- not yet, at least.
“It’s not a bad thing.”, Bowser added quickly, before he could think that through any more. “I just- don’t really know what to do. Or- or how to feel. I’d love to be the person you see in me, but I’m.. I’m not. I don’t know how. I hurt so many people- I destroyed so much. I kidnapped Peach, I wanted to kill you and your brother.. I endangered so many of my own people, goombas, koopas..”
He exhaled shakily, eyes cast downwards, pretending his hands were the most interesting thing in the whole world right now, that he wasn’t plagued by images of Forest Delight, burning to the ground behind them, so real he could almost smell the smoke around them, hear the screams in the air.
“I think..”, Luigi started, and Bowser glanced at him to find the plumber smiling at him, a gentle and soft thing, so very much Luigi that he wanted to start bawling again.
“I think you went and adopted a bunch of kids to save them from being orphans and growing up without each other. And then you had your own kid, and you still loved them all the same. And you did everything you could to ensure they’d grow up being loved and cared for- even if your methods weren’t the best.”, he argued, sincerity in every syllable. “And I think you inherited a kingdom on the brink of war, way earlier than anyone ever should’ve, and you went out there, ready to die to earn your people’s respect.”
He reached out with one hand, carefully petting down Bowser’s shell, and the koopa had to suppress a shiver.
“You were ready to start a war to find a mama for your kids.”, he continued, shaking his head with that damn smile that made him weak in the knees. “I don’t think you’re a bad person- or a good person. I think.. you’re just a person. You.. Tu ami con tutto il tuo cuore.. You’re someone who loves very fiercely and very protectively. And you’re ready to do whatever it takes to care for the ones you hold dear.”
He wiped the tears off his cheeks.
“You made mistakes, big ones- giant ones, sure. But they’re just that. Mistakes. Admitting them is the first step. Who says you can’t take the next step and make them better?”
..
They did in fact get into trouble when they got back to the castle.
Luigi was still eating the remainder of his ice cream when Mario came out of the huge front doors, raised one eyebrow at him and the lump in his pocket, and groaned.
“And where did you two come from?”
Luigi snickered. “Therapy.”
Yeah, Bowser really had chosen the right one to fall in love with.