Bower's Castle Chapter 5: Part of the Family
Apparently, updates for this fic are just gonna be infrequent. I am still working on it though, just not as much as I wish I were able to. I will try to get at least one more chapter before I start holiday stuff in September but I can't promise anything.
~
In hindsight, Luigi should’ve asked where he could find a phone in addition to getting permission to use one. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to him until now as the throne room doors closed behind him with a small thud. It was too late now. … It would probably be fine though. It was a castle full of people living in it, there had to be phones all over the place, right? And it’s not like he had anything better to do anyway even if he was starting to feel like lying down would be nice.
As he wandered the halls in his search, he naturally got looks and mutters from passersby. None of them approached to talk to him though and he didn’t dare try to speak to any of them on his own. Maybe he should though as his exhaustion grew and he still hadn’t found a single landline. There had to be some in the castle somewhere though, right? Otherwise, Bowser would’ve said he would need to borrow a cellphone or something, right?
Eventually he had to pause and take a breather, leaning against a wall in an out of the way hall. He wasn’t quite tired enough to sit on the floor but he was close. … Yeah, escaping was not a real possibility right now. One didn’t just recover from everything King Boo had caused his body to go through in a single sleep, huh?
Speaking of that, if he was going to stay and be Bowser’s minion apparently, he wasn’t going to blindly trust Bowser to be entirely a good guy now. Doing so would be stupid. Maybe he could even put his time here, hiding from King Boo to good use like spying or something. … Hmm, it was something to think about.
But if he did stay how long would it have to be before he was safe from King Boo? … What if it would never be safe to go home? He couldn’t live in Bowser’s castle forever. Something had to be done about…
“Haha!” a triumphant voice came from down the hall, making Luigi flinch. … It was Bowser Junior.
Luigi looked around for a place to hide but… there was nothing. It was too late anyway; Junior was already jogging over. He wasn’t exactly his enemy right now though so… maybe it would be fine.
Junior slid to a halt in front of him, pointing up at him in triumph. “Finally found you Green Mario! We’ve been looking all over for you! Boy you really know how to get lost, huh?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that I’m… uh, maybe I am a little lost.” He hadn’t exactly been paying the most attention to where he’d been going for the past little bit now. He might’ve been going in circles for all he knew which would explain why he hadn’t found a phone yet.
Junior chuckled, not his evil one though but instead something that sounded almost friendly. “Yeah, the castle’s confusing at first, lots of hallways and stuff. But uh, why are you wearing Peach’s dress?”
“Um, first, my name’s Luigi. And second, I’m wearing Peach’s dress because there’s nothing else available for me to wear right now.”
“Hmm… I guess that makes sense. But anyway, I heard Papa saved you and decided to keep you so you’re like part of the family now, I think. Which, now that I think about it is weird ‘cause you’re Mario’s brother and that means…”
“Wait what? ‘Part of the family’? What do you… mean by that exactly?” That was entirely different to being Bower’s minion.
“That’s how it works. Papa saved all my siblings and decided to keep them which is how he adopted all of them. You’re an adult though so I don’t know if that’s how it works for you too. Maybe you’re an uncle now. I’ve never had an uncle before so that could be fun. Or maybe you’re something else entirely. I don’t really know.”
“But why would that make me part of your family at all?”
“I just told you. That’s how it works. That’s how it’s always worked.” He gave Luigi a look as if he were an idiot, making him feel quite stupid in the process because he still didn’t really get why it would work that way. Was that just a Bowser’s family thing or a cultural thing? It was strange no matter what it was especially when considering how it differed so much from seemingly a lot of Bowser’s other policies. “Like I have a cat now because I saved her from the street so she’s mine now. She had kittens recently because she was pregnant when I saved her even though I didn’t know that at the time. They’re mine too by the way. You want to see them?”
Change of topic or not, Luigi was actually quite into the idea of seeing some kittens. After how horrible the last few days had been surely he deserved that, right? And maybe afterwards he could ask where a phone was so he could call Mario and E. Gadd and tell them what happened and where he was. For now though… “Sure.”
“Awesome. Follow me.” Junior took the lead with a small skip, forcing Luigi to hustle to catch up. “Oh but wait, first…” He paused to reach into his shell and pull out a cellphone to quickly type something into it, presumably texting someone, before putting it away and moving on.
“What’s that about?” Maybe Luigi shouldn’t ask but he was curious and well, it seemed Junior was currently his ally so why not.
“My siblings. I was texting our group chat to the tell them I was taking you up to see the kittens because we split up to look for you. We wanna ask you what happened with King Boo because Dad and Kamek won’t tell us the details. We also want to know how he possessed you in the first place which Dad and Kamek don’t even know so we have to ask you about it.”
That wasn’t really something Luigi wanted to talk about so soon after being freed from it. There were probably worse things to explain to a bunch of curious children though. And he could leave out the death threats and the whole almost killing E. Gadd thing which had been the scariest parts anyway. So maybe it would be fine.
~
The kittens were kept in one of the bedrooms in the sleeping quarters in the upper part of the castle. Seemingly it was set up specifically for them; the door had cat flap and inside wasn’t much furniture other than a large cat bed with a fancy water bowl – the kind that water constantly flowed through – and a rug positioned perfectly for the sunlight streaming in through the window to hit it. Cat toys were strewn across it and a litterbox sat in the far corner of the room.
Junior led him straight over to the cat bed where mama cat and her kittens were currently resting. “This one’s name is Tommie.” He pointed the kitten on one end of their lineup. “Then this one’s Oreo and then Morgana and then Lucky and Midnight.” The pride in his voice made it pretty clear that the reason he’d offered to show Luigi the kittens was because he just wanted to show them off to anyone willing to give him the time of day to do so. “And the mama’s name is Queen because she’s the queen of the castle since we’ve never had a real queen. You can pet her and her babies but you have to be gentle and you’re not allowed to pick them up, they’re fragile and sleeping. If you aren’t gentle or if you hurt them, even if it’s on accident, you’ll regret it big time, got it?” Ah, there was some of that familiar tendency for violence.
How much weight that threat held though was hard to guess, but regardless Luigi had no desire to test it. “Got it.” He crouched down beside the cat bed and reached out a gentle hand to rub the top of Queen’s head. She started purring almost immediately as she lifted her head into his touch. Her blue gray fur was soft and warm and she and her kittens were perhaps the most beautiful precious things Luigi had ever seen.
“Uh… are you crying?” Junior asked, drawing Luigi’s gaze back up to him. “
“Oh! Uh… sorry.” Still gently stroking Queen with one hand, Luigi lifted his other to wipe away the tears that has started pool in his eyes. “I’ve just had a rough few days.” And he was so relived to finally be done with it. … Except maybe he wasn’t done with it, maybe this was just a break that could be shattered at any time by King Boo’s return. He’d said this wasn’t over after all, that he’d be back.
“Yeah. The whole thing with King Boo. You don’t have to worry about him any more though. Papa will punch him in the face if he ever tries to come back.” As if to illustrate his point, Junior punched a fist into his own palm, grinning as if he anticipated witnessing such violence.
“He will?” And Bowser had said earlier that Kamek would take care of it. Would it be enough though? Would Luigi actually be safe from King Boo here?
“Yeah. He did that with Ludwig’s biological mom when she tried to take him back after he ran away from her because she was mean to him.”
Luigi was learning a lot about Bowser and surprisingly a lot of it involved him being not as bad as he seemed. It didn’t make any sense but there’d be nothing to gain from lying to him about it, right? Of course he couldn’t let his guard down about Bowser completely. But it seemed very likely he was safe here from King Boo – or at least safer than anywhere else – and that Bowser wasn’t likely to hurt him.
Which meant… he was staying huh? For a time at least, however long it took for someone to figure something out about King Boo. A cowardly move perhaps but he didn’t care, not anymore. He was that much more afraid of King Boo now and no one could rightly fault him for it.
He was going to have to tell Mario that when he called him later and undoubtedly Mario wasn’t going to be pleased by it. He could worry about that conversation later though, for now he was busy petting cats. Surely he deserved the chance to do so for however long he felt like after everything he’d been through the past few days.
So mentally shaking away those thoughts for now, he turned his head to look at Junior sitting beside him again. “Can you, uh… tell me how you got Queen? You said you saved her?”
Junior’s face lit up, evidently eager to share. “Okay so Kamek likes to make sure that we all get out of the castle occasionally, especially me and Dad, to have the people see us or something like that. He never wants to come with us though which is dumb because he’s important to the kingdom too so if we all have to go around and be important people occasionally, so should he, right? Dad forces him to come sometimes though which he always complains about so serves him right. But um, anyway, it’s super boring, hanging out with Dad and being all formal and stuff, so I always try to sneak away as soon as I can and go explore on my own or with my siblings. Which is what I did during…”
“I’m here,” came a sing-songy voice from the doorway as it opened.
Luigi looked over to see one of the Koopalings had entered, the one with the pink bow. “You better not have told Junior everything while I wasn’t here or I’ll be mad.” She looked like she intended to say more but paused as Luigi stood up to greet her. She eyed him up and down as if measuring his worth. “Pink’s not really your colour. I suppose it’s better than what you were wearing before and far better than whatever it is you usually wear but… still not your colour.”
“I… needed a change of clothes. This was the fastest option. Now uh… I don’t think we’ve ever been properly introduced.” If he was going to stay here for any significant length of time he should probably get to know the names of all the important people in the castle. Also, he was actually quite enjoying hanging out with Junior so maybe the rest of the Koopa Kids were also not so bad. “I’m Luigi.” Forcing a smile, he offered her a hand to shake.
She didn’t take it, frowning at him instead. “You really don’t know my name? Everyone’s supposed to know my name. I’m the only…”
“That’s Wendy,” Junior interrupted, also standing up from where he’d sat beside the cat bed. “She can be a real b-word sometimes but you get used to her.”
“Uh, maybe don’t call your sister…” Luigi began before Wendy cut him off.
“I’d be offended if you weren’t too much of a baby to just say the word ‘bitch’.”
“We’re not allowed to swear. You know that.”
“Yeah. And we’re also not allowed to interact with the prisoners. But here we both are.”
“He’s not a prisoner though. Dad claimed him so he’s… something else now. I don’t know what but not a prisoner. Regardless he’s an ally now so he’s going to tell us what happened with King Boo.”
“Not until everyone gets here though,” said a new voice from the doorway. Another of the Koopalings. This one had dark blue hair and a slight scowl. “We all agreed it’d be easier if we got the story at the same time.”
Before either Junior or Wendy could reply or resume their argument, Luigi walked over and offered his hand to the new arrival. “I’m Luigi.” Not only should he know the Koopalings’ names but also he was going to make sure everyone knew his name too. He was tired of being called ‘Green Mario’ and other worse nicknames. He’d been through too much to continue to put up with being forgotten and ignored.
The kid looked at his hand for a couple seconds before with a slight shrug, accepting it. “Ludwig.”
From there the rest of the Koopalings arrived swiftly. Luigi made sure to introduce himself to each one and learn their names in turn. Larry, then Morton and Iggy as a pair with Roy not far behind. Lemmy came in last but also with the most noise as he slammed the door open, earning a scolding from Junior about how the cats need quiet. Which led to Junior ushering everyone back out into the hall and then to the empty room across the hall.
Once inside with the door closed, they all turned their gazes upon Luigi. He’d never quite fully thought it through before but, having them all together in the same space made it quite clear how many eight kids really was. Even with all the help he no doubt had from castle servants and probably Kamek too, how did Bowser manage? Luigi’s respect for him had officially grown.
“Now tell us what happened with King Boo,” Iggy said, getting straight to the point.
“Yeah. Tell us all the gritty, gory details!” Larry said with an uncomfortable amount of excitement.
Luigi really had no choice but to tell them, huh? “Okay. All right.” He couldn’t fault them their curiosity, they had only been witness to small parts of what had happened, who wouldn’t want to know more? He wasn’t going to go into all the ‘gritty, gory’ details though; he didn’t want to talk about any of that and they were children and thus didn’t need to know.
![[Bowser's Castle - Mario Kart 8 OST]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_n6qfed0CxM1rdidvno1_1402032757_cover.jpg)
