Fic: you're at the bottom, this is it

[mrsluigivargas]

you're at the bottom, this is it
After so many kidnappings and unwanted advances by Bowser over the years, an especially trying night at the end of which she’d gotten kidnapped by him again has Peach finally snapping and letting him have it. This is some of the aftermath.

Fandom: Super Mario
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy
Relationships: Mario & Luigi
Additional Tags: Hurt/comfort
Length: 1,830 words

~~~

Knock-knock-knock.

The wait outside Bowser’s quarters was quiet, the expected shout of “Whaddaya want?” nowhere to be heard. Kamek was tempted to knock once more, if not for being absolutely certain his charge was in one of the few rooms beyond. There’d been no reports of aircraft leaving the castle aside from those on their usual supply runs, and Bowser was no master of subtlety when it came to sneaking around.

So he reached a hand up to the doorknob and twisted it. The door creaked open as Kamek stepped inside; before him was Bowser’s office space — or what was left of it, anyhow.

The desk — carved from the hardiest stone they could get, heavy enough that it had cost multiple sprained muscles, aching backs, and paid sick time off to get inside the room in the first place — crumbled into boulders and stones and pebbles and dust, strewn about and along a path across the room. Its associated chair — plush, purple, custom-made — weeping bright white stuffing from the gashes in its fabric, kneeling against the wall, back holding on by mere splinters and its legs folded under itself. Well, most of them. One lay by a bookshelf, all the books Kamek had spent painstaking hours sourcing and sorting strewn across the floor, and the other was nowhere to be seen, though the broken window could be a clue to its whereabouts. Kamek tried not to think about what else could have exited that window, nor about the absence of the rest of the desk's usual contents. He also tried not to think about the burnt paper strewn across the similarly-charred rug. Ugh, he hoped none of that paperwork was truly important.

But even as Kamek clicked his tongue in disapproval, he couldn't quite muster up the usual amount of resigned annoyance at the inevitability of being forced to clean up this mess. No, after...

(“— and it's no wonder you can't be loved like that, the horrid evil selfish monster that you are —”)

...he was primarily surprised that a trashed room plus a day and a half of hiding was all there was.

With a frown, Kamek waved his wand, righting what he could right at the moment and gathering what he couldn't into a pile by the door. He’ll have to summon a few minions to haul all the junk out later. A task he’ll need some extra intimidation for, since they all were wary about going near this part of the castle after Bowser had disappeared within it wearing the most severe look of fury he’d ever had in recent memory. Even if that fury had fallen apart after not even an hour’s time.

Kamek crossed the room, trailing a path of ash to the side door that opened to a hallway, completely dark, on the other end of which sat the door to Bowser’s bedroom. On the way there, Kamek almost tripped over something on the floor — the frame of an unlit lantern that probably had been ripped straight out of the wall, by the chunk of stone brick attached to it. One of many, each glinting in Kamek’s wand-light as he walked with careful steps.

Kamek didn't bother knocking as he entered Bowser’s bedroom. It wasn’t quite the mess he was expecting, though perhaps that was because there were fewer things to make a mess of. Sure, the sheets had their claw slashes and one of the bed posts slumped at half a right angle and the quilt spilled over the edge of the mattress and the pillows were completely gone, but other than that the room looked completely empty.

...But Kamek knew better, and he rounded the bed with quiet steps. The nightstand was overturned, and in its place sat Bowser’s shell, wedged in the corner between the bed and the walls. Kamek stifled a sigh, lowering himself onto the floor next to it.

“...I suppose that could have gone better,” he said, after a long silence.

The silence stretched on even longer. Kamek reached over to thread a hand through the spikes on Bowser’s shell. “Speaking of,” Kamek said next, “The Princess has long since been escorted out of the castle, my Lord.”

Escorted all the way home, in fact, by him personally. He had felt it wise on the off-chance she’d burnt through too much of her vicarious goodwill with the rest of the castle with that impulsive tirade of hers. Or maybe he’d been projecting a little, the grip on his broomstick near white-knuckled as he’d steered it. Peach, for her part, had wisely stayed silent, as her words had caught up with her and she’d realized she’d crossed the line too far past the point they all knew she was warranted. She’d shivered in the predawn air as they flew. He’d paid it no mind.

He’d set her down in the forest outside of her town; she’d almost said something, then, but one look at his impassive face had her changing her mind, instead stumbling bare-footed to the nearest tree and all but collapsing at the base of it. From there, it had been trivial to bait the Mario Bros. — disheveled, still half in their pajamas yet somehow already almost halfway to Bowser’s Castle — into backtracking enough to find her. She’d still been sitting there when he’d left them, hands tangled in her hair and shoulders shaking.

...but Bowser didn't need to hear all of that.

Instead, Kamek’s mind idly wandered to the day before yesterday, when none of the following events had happened and Bowser had been his usual, slightly-abrasive self. He’d been in an unusually good mood, even, as he’d headed out of the castle, and the contrast between then and now had Kamek’s face tilting into a scowl.

“We don't have to stand for this,” he said abruptly. His hand motions slowed to a stop. “We can make her regret speaking to you as she did. It would be pathetically easy to rally the troops into an all-out offensive; they’re already fired up just by the rumors alone, and with hardly a nudge they would march behind you in this in a heartbeat. Perhaps we could start our revenge by crushing those brothers once and for all - Luigi for making a fool of you and daring to boast about it to your face, Mario for taking what was rightfully yours in the first place. We can make them pay for this humiliation on your orders, sire.”

From within the shell, a flash of teeth but little else. Kamek sighed and sat back, resuming rubbing Bowser’s shell.

“We can pull back, then,” he decided. “It’s hardly like we were on very good terms with them to begin with; we’re supposed to be enemies at the end of the day, after all. Sure, repurposing so many of our resources will likely be troublesome, and there will be the disruption to the economy to consider, and it might be difficult to explain the decision to the Young Master... But we all would understand, at this point, if you deem her and hers unworthy of your attention; your people will be glad to endure whatever follows, if that is what you ask of us.”

A shaky exhale; the shell rocked in place from the force of it. Kamek’s eyes drifted to the dust motes dancing by the window.

“Or,” he mused, “I suppose we could attempt to make amends.”

The weight of Bowser’s stare was heavy. Kamek continued speaking. “It would be a tall order, certainly, after so many years of kidnappings and torment. However...” Kamek drummed his fingers in thought. “I suppose for all of the Princess's shouting she did seem to regret what she’d said, when she’d come to her senses. And despite her words, I’m certain if Luigi had truly found your company so poor, then he would have been capable of doing something about it, and if not him, then his brother. But we know well that the both of them are a couple of naive, goody-two-shoed fools, don't we?”

By the time Kamek fell quiet, Bowser’s head had, slowly and gradually and eventually, emerged from his shell. It lay on Kamek’s lap, and Kamek carded a hand through his hair in the moments before Bowser sat up fully. An arm wiped at his face; when it came away Bowser looked just as lost as Kamek expected him to.

“They say to start with an apology” — Bowser flinched, Kamek softened — “but we can do one better. I know you kept that old treaty somewhere. I can simply modify it to suit our current needs. Just say the word, and it will be done.”

Little by little, Kamek watched surety bleed back into Bowser’s expression and nodded in approval. “No matter what happens,” he said, firmly, assuredly, easily. “you will have us.”

Bowser closed his eyes. He nodded. He raised his head high, and Kamek’s arm fell back by his side.

“Now then.” Kamek got to his feet, Bowser helping him up. “I believe you have a very concerned son wanting you to see him. He’s been...attempting to lead the troops in your absence,” Kamek added sourly.

Bowser huffed a surprised laugh. “Has he?” he hummed, voice rough but no less amused.

Kamek grumbled something unintelligible. Yet as Bowser left to go see what his son had been up to in his absence, the ghost of a smile flickering on his face, Kamek paused, because as his charge turned the corner out of sight the annoyance the reminder of Junior’s antics had re-sparked was fading quickly, something trying to swell in his chest in its place. It felt almost like pride.

...Kamek stamped it down before it drove him to do something ridiculous. He needed to get back to work. And the first order of business was seeing what he could salvage of Bowser’s office. And doing something about that desk.

Except when he stepped back into the office, most of the desk had vanished, leaving behind only pebbles and gravel and a line of glittering dust trailing out the door. So it seemed he didn't have to call in those minions after all.

And, try as he might, he couldn't quite suppress the emotion that sprung up from that, this time.

~~~

This fic exists because I had a hankering for writing this part of the timeline, the low point Bowser has to hit and the uncomfortable truths that have to be dragged forward for him to truly be part of this polycule. Also, I had the image of Kamek kneeling next to a Bowser in his shell, talking to him and threading a hand through his spikes, similar to how he did in Chapter 9 of A Dream of Sunny Skies.

What Peach says exactly isn’t very important, so I didn’t bother writing it. The only important thing was Bowser’s reaction. And sure, he had been terrible to her in the past and she’s definitely justified in snapping and letting him have it, but her words are still allowed to sting, you know? I didn’t want there to be any winners here. Not Bowser, who’s fledgling character development was just harshly stuck down, not Peach, who was filled with a fury she’d never felt before, and now has to sit with how cruel she’s capable of being and the emotional crash that follows, not Luigi, who inadvertently kickstarted this whole mess and had had his own fair share of being yelled at, not Mario, who is forced to be a bystander to this entire ordeal. But they’ll recover from this!