Chapter Text
Luigi took in a sharp breath, his heart rate increasing immediately. He let out his breath with a shake, and carefully walked up to the now tiny turtle-dragon. He felt stupid for being so scared when he was so small now.
“Luigi?.. Why are you here?” Bowser finally spoke.
Luigi had to suppress the small urge to laugh at his high pitched voice.
Luigi cleared his throat, “hello, Bowser. I came to see you. I heard what happened. I’m.. I’m glad you stopped your harassment of the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach.”
“I stopped for you,” Bowser said simply.
“I.. I know. I’m also here to say that I was going to come back to you, but.. Having time back at home, I realized what really went down, and I no longer wanted to see you. I was terrified of you. You were a repeating time bomb and I didn’t know what would set you off. I do not wish to be with you or rule with you. So, get any thoughts that I’ll be there for you when your punishment is over out of your head.”
“Luigi.. Why are you saying this? I fucking knew you being back with your brother was bad. He put the ideas in your head that I’m a monster, didn’t he? I never meant to hurt you, honest,” Bowser put a hand to his heart and gave a look of pain and sympathy.
Luigi felt himself falling for it as he felt his mouth go dry.
No.
“No,” he said.
“W-what?”
“No, I will not let you manipulate me any longer, Bowser. I do not love you, I never loved you, and never will. You are a monster, and I
hate
you,” Luigi felt lightheaded saying that, confronting him like this.
Bowser stayed silent for a second.
“I… I thought you enjoyed our time.. I admit I was a bit mean, but we can try again. I have fallen for you completely, Luigi, I don’t want our time together to be misconstrued as anything but intimate and real. I felt it was real.. Didn’t you?..”
Luigi was revolted. How could anyone see what happened as enjoyable and intimate? He thought of a response, his brain going a mile a second. Tried to think of a comeback, an explanation, something that reflected his feelings-
“You raped me.”
His mouth closed as fast as it opened to say that phrase.
Neither of them knew what to say. Luigi processed what he just said, and Bowser didn’t want to respond.
“…Lu..”
“DON’T- ..call me that. You don’t get to call me a nickname. Do you understand how much you’ve hurt me? Not just mentally and emotionally but physically?” Tears began to spill over onto his cheeks.
“I.. I’m sorry about the puncture woun-”
“Not that. The pain inside of me. In my…my privates. Because of your lack of understanding of basic biology, you ended up tearing my vagina. And my urethra. It hurts to pee. And according to the doctor I went to, even though I didn’t want to at all because of the trauma of being absolutely violated, I can’t have children anymore. And you should be fucking glad I never wanted any to begin with. Do you know how much I’ve wanted to die because of you? Because of what you did to me? You ruined my life, you ruined my mental health, and you destroyed mY FUCKING BODY,” Luigi sobbed behind his hand.
Bowser sat there in his cage, confused. He was angry that Luigi hated him, but he still had that part of him that didn’t want to see him cry. At least not like this. He knew there was no way to make it up to him.
Luigi took some breaths so he wouldn’t panic, “you are a monster, Bowser. You act like you are, but you’re not sorry for what you did. You never wanted love, you wanted power. That’s all you’ve ever wanted,” Luigi felt his anger rising as he gripped the bars of the bird cage, “I hope you’re never released, and you fucking rot!”
“LU!”
~~~
“Did Luigi say he was going to the bathroom?”
It had been nearly ten minutes since Luigi went to the bathroom, and Mario was slightly worried.
Peach nodded.
“I think I wanna go check on him,” he said as he got up from the chaise lounge.
Peach went with him to show him where the bathroom was.
The two walked through the halls to the bathroom where the toad guard was standing.
“Hello, princess,” he saluted.
“Hi, is Luigi still in the bathroom?”
“I would assume so, though it has been a while,” the guard said.
Mario knocked on the door, and saw it was unlocked, “Lu? Are you okay in there?”
There was no response..
He very slowly began to open the door to see if he would get a yell to close it, but nothing. He swung it open to find it was empty. His anxiety rose quickly.
“Where is he?! You didn’t see him leave?!” he yelled at the guard.
“I’m very sorry, I was turned around to give privacy!”
“Privacy to what? There’s a fucking door for privacy!!”
Peach put a hand on his shoulder to silently tell him to calm down.
“He has to be in the castle somewhere,” she said in hopes to calm his fears.
“How many floors are in the castle?”
“Uh.. three.. Four if you count the dungeon… six if you count the towers..”
Mario groaned before speed walking down the right side of the castle.
“Luigi!!” Mario called out.
He walked down the hallway, opening every unlocked door and knocking on the locked ones. Peach had called for a search of the castle on the main floor. All the toads were searching the other side of the castle, doing the same as Mario by opening doors, and knocking.
Mario spotted two guards by a large door at the end of the hallway he was in. He ran towards them as their spears crossed over the door.
“No entry unless the princess ha-”
“Is anyone in this room?” Mario interrupted.
“Yes. The beast in there along with an investigator appointed by Peach,” a guard said.
“Investigator?” Peach tilted her head, “I never called for an investigator-”
It was at that moment they heard someone yelling from inside the room.
“You wanted power, that’s all you’ve ever wanted!”
Dread filled Mario as he recognized it as Luigi. He pushed the spears away from the door, and burst into the room.
“LU!” he yelled.
There stood Luigi in front of a bird cage, sobbing and yelling.
“I hope you are never released, and fucking ROT! ” as Luigi yelled this, he began to shake the cage.
Peach then burst through the door past Mario, yelling at him to stop. When he didn’t, in fact he got more aggressive as he cried harder, she jumped on him. He screamed and let go of the bars, falling to the floor, Peach landing beside him.
Everything went silent except for Luigi’s crying, Peach’s panicked panting. Bowser sat up in his cage, rubbing his head as he now had a headache. Mario ran over to Luigi, getting down next to him. Luigi grabbed onto his shoulders as if he was his lifeline.
“Okay, it’s okay, it’s okay, bro.. What the fuck were you doing?!” Mario yelled softly.
Peach stood up, and inspected the cage to see it thankfully wasn’t damaged. She was most thankful that Bowser was still small and hadn’t gotten hurt from the shaking.
“Luigi, I know you’re upset, but that was very reckless, and dangerous. You could’ve hurt him, and the mini mushroom would’ve worn off making him normal size again. Don’t do that again,” Peach scolded.
She heard Bowser huff angrily in disappointment.
“I’M SORRY!! I'm sorry.. I- I didn’t know, I didn’t mean to.. I’m sorry, I'm so sorry..” Luigi sobbed.
Mario actually gave Peach a side eye for scolding his brother like that when there were clearly more dire things in this moment. He understood the danger Luigi could’ve put himself and everyone else in if they were a second late and he shook the cage hard enough to hurt Bowser, but that never happened. So now he was only focused on comforting his brother.
“Let’s get out of here, okay?” he sighed.
Luigi nodded, but not lifting his head off Mario’s shoulder. He was ashamed of himself. He lost control of his anger. He almost literally killed everyone, and doomed himself. Mario patted his back, and Luigi lifted off of him, hiding his tear filled, burning eyes. Mario began to lead him out of the room, but felt some resistance.
“Mario, wait.. I- ..I’m sorry I’ve changed, I’m sorry I’ve put you through so much with taking care of me especially during my breakdowns where it’s gotten so bad you get hurt, and have to literally lock me in your arms until I stop fighting while having a night terror, and fall asleep again. I’m so sorry I’ve become such a mess of a brother. Such a.. A failure, a dependent child, a shell of what I was, I- I’m so sorry.. You shouldn’t have to put up with me anymore. I don’t deserve it, I just almost killed everyone. I ruined today, and your date with Peach, and- and I’m just so sorry, I don’t deserve to live. I don’t. I don’t wanna be here, I can’t do this anymore, I can’t do it, Mario, I can’t-”
“Fratellino, look at me,” Mario cut him off, and got down on his knees where Luigi had sunk back down to the ground, “I would rather die than imagine a world without you. You are the best brother I could ever ask for. Your pain is completely valid, don’t be sorry for things you can’t help. Did you mess up today? Yes, but that’s okay, it’s a process; you still have confusing feelings, a pain you don’t know how to handle, and a trauma that is incredibly difficult to deal with and overcome.”
“B-but.. I was supposed to do the breathing thing when I got angry like my therapist told me, and I didn’t. I let my anger override my emotions, a-and I just feel like I failed at getting better, like I’ve done so much work in the past month and I fear I just ruined all of it..”
“You are not a failure, you didn’t ruin anything, and what happened today was a mistake. You didn’t know the consequences of hurting him would be him losing the magic of being shrunk. And hey, it never happened. You didn’t hurt him, and you didn’t kill anyone. You have done a lot of work and I’m so proud of you. This isn’t the end of that. This is the work, Luigi. Working on yourself and your mental health is hard, it’s so hard, you will have slip ups, you’ll have days you don’t want to or you just can’t. Days you wanna go bat shit on the person who hurt you, and that is okay. What you do with those feelings is what the work is. You’re doing fucking amazing, Luigi. I love you so much, and I. Need . You. Here. I need you to live,” Mario finished with tears going down his cheeks.
Luigi jumped up a bit and hugged him hard, taking a deep shaky breath trying to calm down after hearing Mario’s words that meant so much to him. Neither of them cared that they were on the floor of the Princess’s castle in the room with a tiny, disgruntled, still locked up Bowser. All that existed right now was each other. And that was all either of them needed.
After the two had unwrapped themselves from each other, Mario helped Luigi stand up, and made their way out of the room. Peach followed behind them.
“Guards, take Bowser down to the dungeon, and make sure he can’t hurt himself,” Peach instructed as she shut the door behind her.
She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought about that. Bowser could easily do something to hurt himself, and grow big again. She was just glad that he hadn’t thought about that.
There was an awkward feel to the air. Peach then sighed, breaking some unspoken tension.
“P- Princess, I am so sorry for doing that, and causing everyone great distress. I understand if you don’t want me back here, I will never bother you again,” Luigi apologized.
“Luigi.. you know what you did wrong, and I understand why you did it. Thank you for apologizing, I forgive you, and you’re not banned from here. I will always open my doors to your brother and you. Before this incident, you were a delight to have around, and you still are after this. I really hope you get better, and that we can see each other again. Maybe all three of us could have a picnic outside so we aren’t in the castle next time?” Peach gave a small smile.
“We would love that, princess, thank you so much for forgiving me. I promise next time you see me will be better,” Luigi smiled even though he still felt like crying, but was feeling better just by being around Mario.
Peach gave a solemn smile.
“Well, I think it’s time for us to head back home, Peach,” Mario said.
“Okay, have a safe trip home, and I’ll see you both next time,” she started as they began walking down the hall toward the front of the castle, “Well, actually, next time, I will be seeing you, Mario. We can have dinner next week if that works for you?”
“O-oh, yeah totally! I’ll see you next week then, Peach, I can’t wait!” Mario blushed.
“Could you stop flirting already, it’s making me sick,” Luigi joked.
Mario gave him a light shove with a flustered smile as the doors to the castle opened. Luigi continued to walk out the doors, but Mario was gently held back by a small hand grabbing his. He turned to face Peach.
“Hey, I know today didn’t go as planned, but hopefully our date will go better, and you can bring something to eat that you actually like. I knew you didn’t like mushrooms, but it was all our chefs could think of for pasta,” Peach giggled.
“Heheh it’s okay, it wasn’t terrible, and thank you for forgiving Luigi, it’s been rough for him, but he’ll be alright as long as I’m with him. That doesn’t mean I can’t come over, though.~ I can’t wait to have dinner with you again, princess.”
“Great, I’ll see you then, mustache.~”
Mario giggled and was about to say bye when Peach leaned forward, and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. Mario’s brain stopped working as the same shade as his shirt filled his cheeks.
“Better catch up with Luigi before he wanders into a toad’s house,” Peach teased with a smirk, “bye, Mario!”
Mario gave a wave as he spun around, and high tailed it out of there catching up with Luigi.
Peach couldn’t help giggling at the sight of Mario running up to Luigi, and jumping for joy. They even did their signature handshake after he said something to him. She shook her head with a small laugh.
Absolute dorks.