Luigi And The King - 2000pepper (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Light shines in streaks through the window of the tailor's shop, catching the shifting fabric of the dress currently being pinned on Luigi. Peach is hosting a ball in a few months and after his drunken confession to both her and Daisy that he'd always wanted to wear a dress to this type of thing but it’s hard to find fancy ones that actually fit him, Peach had immediately sat him down with the royal tailor who was more than happy to take Luigi's measurements and whip him up a few dresses to try out. He and Peach were close, drawn together by their shared status as Omegas, and she had taught him that most people here were entirely unconcerned with his status, that he could act and dress however he wanted and do anything that he saw as traditionally for Alphas, which Luigi hadn't quite believed until he experienced it personally. He and Mario had grown up in a pretty traditional household, and even though he had been wrestling and playing football outside with his brother in the rain the week before, after he presented as an Omega he was all but banned from doing things "inappropriate" for his status. No more sports, no contact ones anyways, no more working out in the yard or down at the shop, and he would be moved from working with his dad in the butcher side of his family's deli to working with his mom in the bakery from that point forward. His and Mario's dynamic had changed too, something Luigi hated to admit. Mario presented the year before him, on their 13th birthday, and had spent the entire next year talking Luigi's ear off about how cool it'd be when they both grow up into big strong Alphas like their dad and uncles. However, when the calendar rolled around to their birthday the next year and Luigi presented as an Omega, Mario had ignored him for three days until he had tried to instigate a wrestling match, something they did constantly up to that point, in hopes of breaking up the awkward tension they had. When Luigi tried to tackle him, Mario had basically shoved his brother across the room.

"Don't do that, Omegas aren't supposed to fight,'' and that had been that. They were still brothers, of course, but something was just…off between them from that point forward. Stilted conversations, pointed “observations”, annoyed declarations – Mario made it clear early on that being an Alpha was the best and only option for a real man and kept that mentality even after Luigi presented. He feels like Mario judges him, has been judging him, ever since their 14th birthday for something he can’t control, passive-aggressive comments about “proper behavior” coming out of his mouth every time Luigi did something he deemed inappropriate. As they get older, the reach of Mario's influence over his life pretty much covers every aspect; he has to personally approve everywhere Luigi goes, everyone Luigi sees, everything he wears, everything he eats or cooks, anything that he thinks Luigi is too helpless or naive to do for himself as an Omega, and even pressures him to attend the college he wants to go to, even though his brother drops out after three semesters. When they’d fallen down that pipe his brother did try to exercise the same amount of influence over his life as he had back in Brooklyn, but Princess Peach was much smarter than Mario gave her credit for and picked up on his brother’s tendencies quickly, oftentimes asking Luigi questions directly or suggesting they do something "un-Omegalike" together like racing or boxing or sports, cutting Mario off anytime he opposed her ideas with a "I think Luigi can decide for himself, no?" Because of her, Luigi is finally able to actually enjoy doing things again, and after he realizes the Toads don’t really have a concept of gender he starts growing his hair out and shaving his face, something his brother had advised against him doing for years because otherwise he’d look like “all these other sissy Omegas,” not like a real man.

That brings his thoughts back to his current situation, something that was only happening because of Peach's determination to show him that not everyone was like his family. They were currently doing some final adjustments to one of Luigi's favorites, a sleek beaded dark green dress that swept across the floor when he walked around and a pair of gold platform sandals. The tailor had just finished taking out some of the last few pins and sewing everything together, walking into the adjacent room to put away some of his materials when Luigi hears a door opening. Assuming it’s just the tailor, he starts in on a description of changes he wants on the other dresses but when he gets no response he turns around and sees an empty room. His pulse starts to quicken, "hello?" he calls out, and when he turns back around there are three cloaked figures standing in front of the mirror with expressionless white masks on.

His scream comes out more of a silent burst of air than anything else, and he feels himself losing consciousness as the three figures move in to catch him. He wakes up on an airship, the brightness of the sun from this high up making him squint. He tries to get answers, but he doesnt think these people talk at all, not a single one of them has uttered a single syllable since he'd woken up. His stomach drops with the airship as it descends through the clouds and brings their destination into view. He’d had a feeling, since it'd been a while since Bowser had kidnapped the princess, that this is where he was headed, but that doesn't make the fact any easier to stomach as they approach the landing area. Why did they take him? Was Bowser trying to ramp things up and decided taking the Princess away from Mario wasn't enough? or did these silent figures mistake him for Peach? He doesn’t know how... smart these things are, and he is wearing a dress, so it might not be too far of a stretch if they'd never seen her before. His thoughts are cut short as the group motions for him to stand, walking towards the slowly opening door as they follow close behind. His anxiety is off the rails as he's led through vast dark halls to a large room framed at the front by an absolutely enormous throne, gilded and encrusted with enough jewels to finance Luigi's entire lineage, not just himself. His hands shake where they’re pressed into the sides of his legs, raising an eyebrow at one of his captors when they pull out a chair situated at a table across the floor from the throne. He sits, cautiously, and stares in shock as a teapot and cup as well as a plate of food is sat in front of him. He looks between the table and the masked men in utter confusion as they make their way out of the room, the resounding thud of the door leaving Luigi with nothing but himself and the food that had been placed on the table to fill his time. He does eventually give in to the hunger clawing at his stomach, he hadn't had a chance to eat that morning because of his brother's eagerness to see the princess after her "diplomatic trip" to Sarasaland to visit Daisy. He knows it was anything but a business trip, with both Daisy and Peach texting him pictures of the two of them shopping and eating and goofing around, but he'll keep that fact from his brother just to avoid seeing his dejected expression at the fact that the princess had spent her time with someone other than him. Of course, as soon as he's made a big enough dent in the snacks to no longer make it seem like he hadn't touched it, the large doors swing open and none other than the Koopa King himself walks in. He's distracted on his phone, reading glasses sliding down his nose as he starts talking as if Peach was actually here, not him.

"Peaches! Long time no see, eh? It’s been what, a month, maybe two? I’ve been trying to go over these papers you left last time, but they're so f*cking confusing that I needed you here to help me figure this out." Papers you left? Luigi is so scared he can’t even speak, and at the ‘princess’s’ silence Bowser looks up from his phone at his throne, then locks eyes with Luigi who is frozen in his seat at the table.

He snatches the glasses off his face with a "what the f*ck? you're not Peaches. why are you here?" The confusion in his voice turns to anger as he gives Luigi a once-over, the scent of spices and smoke so thick that Luigi almost chokes, "no really, why are you here? I swear if this is some sh*tty attempt at an ambush I'm gonna be pissed."

Luigi is quick to answer, panicked at the thought of being on the receiving end of any more ire from the Alpha in front of him. "Nonono, wait. I was just at the castle for a fitting. Peach is having a ball in a few months and she wanted me to have something new, I swear. These guys in red cloaks just showed up and took me, they didn't even say anything."

Bowser just scoffs, "yeah right, you expect me to believe that you weren't just playing decoy for the princess? You're wearing a dress." The dress must give Luigi more confidence than he was aware he had because of all the things that he could have said he has no clue why he says what he does. "Oh come on, you're gonna hit me with that? It's just a dress. Plus does this look like anything the princess would wear?"

The smell of lavender and rain permeates the air as Luigi motions to himself, and Bowser's got to admit he has a point, "I look good in it, don't you think? who cares who it's for'." he finishes his statement with a twirl, sending the king a smirk. Bright red bursts across the man's face, and Luigi feels his blood run cold. Jesus Christ, why did I say that? This man is supposed to be dangerous! Don’t piss him off, what are you doing flirting with him? He's gonna f*cking kill you! he thinks to himself.

"I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I said that, I just-" but before he can finish, Bowser is cutting him off, "no, you're right. It looks great on you." Luigi smiles at the compliment, thanking him and laughing at himself as he does a little curtsy.

Bowser huffs a laugh, "well usually Peaches can find her own way to her room, but since I don't think you've even been outside of this room before I'll tell Kammy to take you to one of the guest suites. I've got to go, being such a great king takes a lot of work, you know?"

Luigi laughs at the overexaggerated wave that Bowser throws him as he types away on his phone and shuts the door behind him.

Back at Peach's castle, staff and maids were trying to ignore the yelling and the metallic woody scent coming from the princess's personal chambers.

"What do you mean 'he's probably fine?!?' He was kidnapped! f*cker probably has my brother chained up over a pit of lava or something!"

"Mario, please. This kind of thing happens all the time, does it not?" Her scent is calm, champagne and bubblegum, but it spikes with anxiety every time the man across from her slams his hands on the table, “not with Luigi it doesn’t!”

She sighs, "Well I have plenty of experience being kidnapped by Bowser, I promise you he's not in any danger. He'll probably send him back after the weekend, since he wasn't trying to kidnap him anyways" she continues, hoping to ease some of the anger radiating off the man.

Her words only seem to make him angrier, "Of course he's in danger! He's an Omega, an unmated one at that, who knows what that feral-ass Alpha could do to him. Probably wouldn't even stop if it killed him."

Peach gasps, the calm scent she had been working so hard to maintain shattering into fire and burnt sugar as she stands from her seat. "Alright, that's enough. I know this is a stressful situation for you but I am telling you that your brother is fine. I will not have you speak so lowly of anyone, regardless of if we're "enemies" or not. Your brother is more than capable of taking care of himself, Omega or not."

It seems like the only thing that stuck with him from that rant was her air quotes around enemies, because he scoffs at her, "what, you're gonna tell me after years of being kidnapped you've finally fallen for it? "enemies"? what the f*ck does "enemies" mean? He's a f*cking monster, Peach! and he's got my brother! You can’t be this stupid…"

At this point Peach has run out of patience, "and he'll keep him until we go get him on Monday," she turns to face him, glaring, "I'll have you remember, "princess" is just a nickname. and one of the first laws of my kingdom is that you treat your queen with respect. Don't ever speak to me like that again. Have a good weekend, Mario, I trust you know how to see yourself out?"

At his stammered reply and heavy steps towards her, she calls for her guards, and Mario even has the decency to shut her door on his way running out of her room. She really wasn't worried about Luigi, not his safety at least, she knew he was a pretty anxious person but he's also smart, and should hopefully be able to tell that he's not in any actual danger. That was something that not many people in the Mushroom Kingdom could comprehend, that someone could be safe in Bowser's castle, but she couldn't really blame them for it. Their kingdoms have a long history, one that's been full of tension since before she took the throne. She doesn't know if it had actually started with their fathers, but their feud was something Peach remembers permeating even the earliest of her memories. The Koopa King is a ruthless man, her father would say, he'll do anything to get what he wants. What he wanted was power, in any way shape or form, and his first step was to break off pieces of his kingdom's Power Star in order to infuse his unborn children with it and consume some himself. He was trying to create an army of ultra-powerful, ultra-loyal warriors, and on top of the Power Star injected strands of dragon DNA in the eggs to ensure his offspring were strong and big, larger than every other Koopa including himself. He rampaged every kingdom, tore down entire cities trying to take their Stars and using the destruction as training for his children, encouraging them to harass the locals and take whatever they wanted, they were oftentimes seen running around and laughing in the burning rubble of buildings all across lands even Peach had never been to.

A lot of people are killed as a result of his hunger for power, and he makes an enemy of almost every single Kingdom to the point of banding together to fight back against him. The Koopa King starts to get more desperate for power as the years go on, and what would turn out to be his final scheme had since turned into a historical tragedy, one that would end up kickstarting Peach's rule as Queen of the Mushroom Kingdom. A few nights after her 13th birthday she's walking along the veranda that connects the Royal rooms from the rest of the castle late at night, late enough that everyone else is asleep, including her guards, and she's pretty much plucked right off the sidewalk, a bag thrown over her head. She must have passed out at some point because she distinctly remembers waking up some time later noton the veranda but chained to the wall in some kind of cell. She's not alone in here, though, against the opposite wall sits one of the princes of the Koopa Kingdom, Bowser. As terrified of him as she was at first, the two of them actually form a little alliance in the darkness of that cell, intent on figuring out why they had been kidnapped and how the hell they were both getting out of here. He clearly wants to be here as much as she does, which is not at f*cking all, but she's still surprised at how... friendly? He is? At 15 he's the youngest of the current King's children, and they actually get along pretty well. After he breaks them both off the walls he tells her stupid jokes to keep her from freaking out when the guards come by their cell and he doesn't seem to mind that she's not the perfect Omega princess everyone wants her to be, teaching her a way to tie her skirts so she doesn't trip over them if she needed to fight or run away when they'd figured a way out of their cell and laughing at her certainly unladylike comments about whoever was keeping them here. She assumed he'd be just like his dad, and when she tells him that she wants to smack herself at the sad look on his face. He continues to prove her assumptions about him wrong as they make their way through what turns out to be an abandoned airship that had crashed on an island, constantly keeping her out of harm’s way when they sneak around and taking the entirety of the blame when they get caught. Turns out, they were there to get married, a revelation that they look equally horrified at. According to the freakshow magician, Count Bleck? Maybe? And whatever book he was reading, their union would produce a power star, which his client was counting on.

Peach remembers being so confused, what kind of client would want something like that? but one look at the terrified expression on the Prince’s face and she knew this was going to end badly either way. The threat of death kept her from running as cloaked figures help her into a wedding dress and guide her to the altar where Bowser was waiting, clearly still trying to figure a way out of this for both of them if the look he’d given her when they stood face to face meant what she thought it did. Whatever he was thinking was clearly thrown out of the window when halfway through the ceremony, a power star slowly materializing between them, the Koopa King breezes through the large double doors and stalks up to the altar. There was a lot of yelling, but Peach mostly remembers how betrayed Bowser sounded, used as a pawn by his own father. She can also remember the look on Bowser’s face as his father told him he would never be as strong as his siblings, that he was a disgrace, and that he would be left outside the room when his father and siblings consumed the power star, left behind as his family became more powerful than ever before. The star was unstable though, left partially formed as a result of their unfinished union, and Bowser’s father and siblings were killed in the explosion, their bodies unable to contain the unrefined energy they were putting in them. When she returns to her Kingdom, her parents are sick with what she assumes is worry, but as the sickness spreads and lasts longer than the summer she starts her official training to claim the throne. As a result of the commotion, the already strained relationship her kingdom had had with Bowser’s was entirely severed, regardless of how badly she’d wanted to forge an official alliance with her friend. Her parents’ signed one last law into effect before their deaths, a decree that would ban all citizens of the Darklands from entering the borders of any other kingdom unless it was for the officially sanctioned sports events or kart races, where they would be heavily monitored and asked to leave at any time for any reason. They had cut off all trading in and out of the Darklands, and encouraged all the other kingdoms to do the same. This meant that her newfound friendship went on a backburner for a little while, unable to contact or see Bowser at all due to the laws, and as hard as it is for her to admit she actually kind of… forgot? About him? To her credit, trying to learn how to run a kingdom at 14 is an incredibly time consuming endeavor, and it wasn’t like she had any easy way to get in contact with him. He'd only tried to come to one Race, and had been denied before he even got off his ship, she had a phone but didn’t have his number and she had pen and paper but didn’t have any way to get it to him other than going herself. A few years later, thoughts of forming an alliance with the ostracized kingdom have been pushed away again, too focused on ensuring her Kingdom's safety and security.

Bowser apparently had other plans, seeing as he kidnapped her from her bedroom balcony a few weeks after her 17th birthday. She'd been scared at first, her years on the throne had changed her so much and she had no doubt he had changed as well, surely his father's crown had gotten rid of whatever was left of the soft-hearted goofy teen she'd met before. However, by the end of her third day there she was once again proven wrong about the Alpha, watching him interact with his citizens as he showed her around the cities and towns he'd helped in the aftermath of his father's death. Apparently in the beginning the people of the Darklands weren't exactly happy that the "weakest" and youngest of the former King's children was taking over as their leader, and he'd even gone through extensive training to prove he could act like the "perfect" Alpha, even if he still didn't really want to resort to violence and destruction as easily as his father. As hesitant as his people were at first, no one could deny what he had been able to do even as young as 16 in terms of advancing the kingdom. He immediately gave away almost all of the money in the royal vaults, citing a better use for it being the reconstruction and development of cities and structures that his father had destroyed, and offered many of the townspeople positions at his castle instead of keeping the stacked court his father had. As a result of his efforts the Darklands were actually doing really well, most of the land had more advanced technology than even the most well off cities in her kingdom, and upon Peach's return to her castle she tries to tell anyone who will listen about her experience there in hopes that her advisors would consider adjusting or abolishing some of the laws her parents put in place. She got as far as convincing her guards to allow the Koopa Kingdom to occupy their viewing box at games and races before she gets kidnapped... again... Her annoyance is palpable every time she ends up at his castle, even as well as they get along, because she's trying to do something nice for him, hello? and he's ruining the chance she's trying to get him to form an alliance. However, the more she returns unharmed to her castle the less people take Bowser seriously, which wasn't exactly what she was going for but at least they aren't completely terrified of him anymore. There are many visits over the years, so many actually that when she goes almost a year without seeing him she starts to get a little worried something bad happened.

Literal days before she was planning on bringing something up to someone she's plucked from her personal garden and brought to his castle once more, where she meets his newborn son? and her need to help him increases tenfold. And they do make as much progress as they can in the years between that visit and the moment two brothers from somewhere called Brooklyn stumble into her Kingdom after her 25th birthday and make it their life's mission to keep her from staying there longer than a single night. There's a small group of her inner council and toads in the town outside the castle who have been told the real story, straight from the Princess, about what happened the night Bowser's father died and support her endeavors to welcome him as an ally, and the thought of her supporters reminds her of a plan she'd been toying with for a while now. If she can get another person to stay in the Koopa Kingdom for longer than a few days as an ambassador, provide her with information on the true state of Bowser's Kingdom, and return unharmed and willing to continue going back, she could probably make a strong case as for why these laws her parents put in place should be rolled back, and trade and travel between the Kingdoms should be allowed again. And if Luigi is at all willing to go back when they return with him on Monday, she'll have the perfect candidate. Everyone is used to her going and returning unharmed, but there’s not a single person in the kingdom who would assume the self-proclaimed scaredy cat of the Mario Brothers would willingly go and return, especially not since he and his brother have spent so long trying to keep Peach away. Not to mention, Luigi is smart, and resourceful, and can handle himself in a pinch, regardless of what Mario has to say. It's like the Alpha forgets that his brother literally took on multiple mansions and an entire hotel full of enemies and ghosts to save him. He has experience with diplomacy, helping herself and Daisy with various problems over the years when both she and Peach had come up with nothing, and would probably be able to help Bowser look at some of his kingdom’s problems from a new perspective. Plus, Luigi is a really good friend. They’ve gotten close since his arrival, and she thinks living away from his brother would do him some good. Not to mention, Bowser is one of the loneliest and most awkward people she’s ever met, he could benefit from having someone like her Omega friend there. She steeples her hands in thought after nodding to the guards that had come to check on her, ironing out the finer points of her plan in her head before she brings it up to Luigi.

Chapter 2: Chapter Two

Chapter Text

Kammy was, in the nicest way, a lot. She was a ball of anxious energy, rambling as she showed Luigi to his room.

"...and my brother and I work down there, in the magic labs," she points down an almost comically long hallway, "and the kitchens and dining room are back the other way but you'll see those when you come down for dinner, obviously where else would you eat dinner?" She chuckles nervously, "I'm sorry, we just don't get many new people here, especially humans. His Majesty said to just treat you like we'd treat the princess but the princess is a little scary sometimes – she's just so pretty and nice and usually Kamek deals with the people because I apparently go on and on and onand most people don't really like that."

He frowns, "I think you're doing a great job! You don't have to be scared of me, or the Princess honestly. I don't care if you ramble, you're showing me around. I appreciate you pointing things out to me!"

That seems to help a little, her shoulders relaxing with a small smile. Soon they're stopped in front of a large wooden door, and Kammy is pushing it open. "Wait, are you sure this is a guest suite? it seems kinda ...big?" and Kammy giggles at that, "yes, Mr. Luigi, this is one of our guest suites. The Princess's room is down the hall, for when she's here, but this will be your room for now."

The Princess has her own room? What kind of kidnapper does that?He shrugs, "well alright. And you don't have to call me Mister. Just Luigi is fine." She nods, and moves to leave and let him explore his rooms, but he stops her before she can open the door, "wait! You said something about dinner?" Her eyebrows shoot up, "oh! yes, of course!. It's at 7, so you have a little while to get settled," the clock on the wall by the door reads 5:07, "but I can come back by and take you to the dining room, if you want?"

He nods, there's no way he's finding his way around this huge place by himself, and she throws a "see you later!" over her shoulder as she shuts his door. Luigi is rooted to his spot, eyes scanning the room he's been given. Dark wood covers the walls, a dark marble covering the floor and ceiling and tall windows taking up the wall across from him. This room has a large tv above a fireplace, ornate red and orange and black couches, chairs, tables, and rugs covering the space, and a set of double doors against one wall. Upon opening them Luigi is greeted with the sight of a huge bedroom; a four poster bed and more big windows with a balcony, who would give a prisoner such an easy way to escape? , a dressing table, drawers, bedside tables, a mirror and more chairs all in the same colors as the living room furniture. On one wall, there are two doors, and Luigi opens the right one to reveal an insane closet, rows and rows of clothes in all types of colors and styles. Luigi could spend hours in here alone trying sh*t on, but he tucks that away to do after dinner and goes back out into the bedroom to open the left door, which he suspects is a bathroom. His suspicions are correct when the door swings open and the largest bathroom Luigi had ever seen was behind it. Dark gray marble covers every surface, a stone tub sitting against a wall under another large window and a shower that looks straight out of an architecture magazine sits along the other. In between was a long double vanity with a backlit mirror, and beside the shower was a door that opened up into the closet. The toilet was thankfully just a normal one, Luigi had seen his fair share of f*cked up looking bathrooms since he'd fallen into his new life, but it was the lighting that really caught his eye. It looks like lava, casting everything in a light red glow from behind glass inlays in the floor, walls, and ceiling. Looking closer, he realizes it is f*cking lava, slowly moving through the inlays, like a... lava lamp, Luigi amusedly thinks, watching it flow through the bathroom and into the bedroom. He traces the lava with his eyes and finds that it snakes through the entire room, casting everything in a low light that Luigi hadn't even noticed until now. There were large chandeliers in the living room and bedroom for when it got really dark, but until then Luigi would enjoy the ambient lighting while he got ready for dinner. He decided to just hang his dress up while he showered and put it back on when he was clean, since his exploration of the room had taken him nearly an hour. He uses his shower as time to process everything that's happened so far. It kind of seems like Peach's kidnappings were more like vacations, what with the tea and snacks waiting for him and the dinner and absolutely insane rooms, something he'd have to ask her about when he returned. He can’t imagine a room more luxurious than this one, but knowing Peach she’s got her room here absolutely decked out.

The bathroom has piles and piles of beauty products stacked around the bath, in the shower, on the counter, plus more on the dressing table in the bedroom, which Luigi takes advantage of as he bathes. And it seems like Bowser is just...cool? with him being here? The casual way he had spoken when he thought Luigi was Peach was interesting, since he had only ever heard Bowser growl out threats and taunts at him and his brother whenever they saw each other. And the glasses were definitely funny, the image of the "scary" Alpha King squinting down at his phone making Luigi laugh into the silence of his room. He seemed to be much more relaxed here, in his home, and the spicy smoky scent that Bowser emitted during their interaction made him feel something he’s not even sure he has a name for, even when it was laced with anger. He belatedly realizes that his phone is still with his other clothes in Peach's castle, but there's nothing he can really do about it now, so he just resigns himself to being "unplugged" until he can get back home. He gets out of the shower and towels off, using some random lotion he finds on his legs and arms before slipping back into his dress. It's nearing 7 by this point, so Luigi sits on the couch and flips through the tv channels for about 15 minutes until there's a quiet knock at his door. He opens it to find Kammy standing and fidgeting with her hands, and he smiles at her before he motions for the two of them to head to dinner. They pass by the large formal dining room with a long table and walk through a pair of doors that opens into a much smaller dining room with a round table. Bowser is sitting on one side, glasses back on and reading a book.

He sets both his glasses and the book on the table, "hey! Long time no see!" he smiles, echoing his words from earlier as Luigi sits across from him, "find everything in your room okay?" Luigi nods, "I can't believe that's a guest room, it’s bigger than my whole house!" Bowser chuckles, and soon their food is served.

The food is amazing, savory and spicy and the polar opposite of what he's gotten used to in the Mushroom Kingdom, and the two of them fall into easy conversation over their meals. The King is more than willing to answer any and all of his questions, including where his shell was, why Peach had her own room here, why he wasn’t being treated like a prisoner, and why he was given a *room and dinner* . Bowser eyes him curiously, raising an eyebrow at his last few questions.

"Well, the shell is more of a...piece of armor than a body part. Most people don't wear them unless they’re going somewhere they need protection. Probably why you thought they were attached, because no one here’s leaving the kingdom without it these days…” He doesn’t know why, but Luigi feels kind of guilty hearing that, “After like two years of trying out guest rooms I guess the Princess just found one she liked, so she claimed it as hers and I sent the architects up for her to change it how she wanted.” He pauses, “Why would you think you're a prisoner? I didn't even mean to kidnap you. And you have a room because where else would you sleep? You're a *guest* here, even if it was unintentional. And dinner... Well, I guess you could call it a tradition. Peaches likes spending time with me, I guess."

His teasing smile makes Luigi's stomach flutter despite his anxiety. He doesn't really believe this whole "good guy" thing the Alpha is putting on, but his answers seem so genuine, and his scent hadn't dipped back into anger or anything malicious since the brief slip from before.

He nods, "makes sense.” It most certainly does not, but whatever.“This food is super good, by the way, what's in this?" and Bowser shrugs, "you're asking the wrong guy. I just eat the food, you'd have to ask the chef about something like that."

"And I can just...do that?" Luigi blinks, which makes Bowser laugh. "Greenie, I swear. You aren't a hostage here, you could leave tomorrow if you wanna make the trek back by yourself, but all our airship operators get the weekend off unless there's "official business" planned. You could also just...relax?"

At Luigi's glare, he cringes, "not like that! I'm not– I'm just saying– You can just take it easy. You really aren't in any danger here, I swear. Someone from the kitchen will bring you breakfast tomorrow, and I can show you around after my meetings, if you want? The castle isn't actually that big once you know where everything is."

The Omega is a little surprised, he wasn't exactly expecting Bowser to commit to his nice guy bit to this extent, offering to spend more time with Luigi and even give him a tour of his home on top of having food delivered to his room, but he agrees anyways, eager to learn more about the endless hallways and sprawling rooms he saw in passing with Kammy. After dinner the man walks him to his room, leaving him for the night with the knowledge that his rooms were just down the hallway. He shucks his dress off in exchange for some shorts he finds in the closet and falls into bed, exhausted.

The next morning, he's awoken by the sound of movement outside his bedroom. He walks over to the door and cracks it open, and is met with the sight of two koopas setting up a tray of breakfast on the table behind the couch.

"Oh! Good morning, Mr. Luigi! we didn't know what time you'd be awake, so sorry for disturbing you!" He shakes his head, "good morning! no worries, it was about time for me to wake up anyways," he looks over at the clock that reads 9:37, "thank you for bringing me breakfast, I honestly thought he might have been lying about that..." His stomach grumbles at the smell of the absolute spread the kitchen had prepared for him, and the kitchen staff share an amused look, "what?" he asks, and they both snap out of it, embarrassed at being caught.

"Well! Enjoy your breakfast, Mr. Luigi! Leave the cart outside your door when you're done and someone will be back later to collect it." Both of the koopas scurry out the door and Luigi is left with silence and a table full of food, which he eats while surfing through the channels on the TV. After he finishes his food he sets the cart outside and decides to take the Alpha's advice and relax, getting ready for the day and finding an interesting book in the large bookshelves bracketing the fireplace, sitting with it in front of the windows. The book is actually really interesting, and Luigi finds himself distracted with it until the warmth from the sun pulls him into a nap. He wakes up an unknown amount of time later, it can't have been too long since the sun had barely moved in the sky, by a knock on his door. He rubs the sleep from his eyes and clambers over to open the door, where he's met with the sight of Bowser, presumably fresh out of his meetings.

He looks a little surprised to see Luigi, despite having knocked on his door, "sorry, I honestly figured you might have left already, since you hadn't touched your lunch," he points over to the cart, which had been restocked and left outside his door.

He blushes, "no, no. no escaping, just reading and a nap. That couch is literally so comfortable." His honesty makes Bowser laugh, "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Offers still on the table for that tour, if you're up for it."

Luigi nods, "I've accidentally spent my whole day in here, and I wanna see the castle. It seems so much different to the Princess's" And so, they set off down the expansive hallways of Bowser's castle.

As much as it was surely supposed to be creepy, Luigi couldn't help but admire the dark stone hallways and wood paneled rooms. It reminded him of some of the old money estates that dotted the East Coast back home, huge ceilings and expensive fabrics and intricate stonework, there were so many things packed into each room that Luigi could spend a whole day in each one and not run out of things to look at.

Right off the entrance was a large circular room with a glass ceiling, "Fair warning, it'll probably be kinda hot in here, Junior uses it as a greenhouse" Bowser says as he opens the door, and Luigi is grateful for the warning because it is indeed, hot as hell.

He's looking around at all the different plants when the Alpha's words really set in - Junior.

He had honestly forgotten Bowser even had a son, since the only time anyone ever saw him was at competitions or Kart Races. He doesn't have much time to wonder what the kid is like because when they round a corner that's covered in palm-like plants a koopa tumbles out of the bushes, obviously young but still almost just as big as some of the full grown ones he'd seen around the castle.

The kid shakes off his fall and turns to face them, "papa! The fire flowers are blooming! come here!" and before he can protest Bowser is being pulled through thick foliage into a clearing near the back of the room, Luigi following behind slowly with amusem*nt. "Look! Look! That man told me they wouldn't bloom so soon, but I knew they could!" Junior is just so precious, and the Omega feels his heart melt at the image of Bowser watching his son with so much fondness, leaning in to get a closer look at the things his son is pointing out.

Maybe he's not such a bad guy, I mean what kind of mean, ruthless Alpha would be so invested in his son’s flower garden? And give another kingdom's ruler a room in his house that she had apparently designed herself? His inner Omega has been poking around the Alpha in interest since he got here, the compliment on his dress and their easy connection making Luigi's metaphorical tail wag. Bowser may not be easy on the eyes, but he’s not ugly, and something about his confident personality and co*cky expressions made Luigi blush just thinking about him. Stop it. You're not even supposed to be here, now is not the time to think about finding a boyfriend. He's pulled from his thoughts by the sight of Junior standing in front of him.

"Hello! My name is Junior! Wait, you look kinda familiar... have I seen you before? I thought you usually wore red, and did you get taller? Are we in trouble? I swear my Papa doesn't mean anything bad, he just needs to talk to the Princess!" Luigi is laughing behind his hand and looking over at Bowser who is covering his face and shaking his head. "Hi, it's nice to formally meet you, Junior. You probably have seen me before, I compete in a lot of the same sports and races as you and your dad do. And my brother is the one in the red, Mario, my name’s-"

His introduction gets cut off by the excited child, "Luigi! You saved all those people from the hotel, right?" He nods in surprise, the unexpected acknowledgement of his travels catching him off guard, "You're right, that's me! How'd you hear about that? No one's in trouble, I came here by accident instead of the Princess. I'm sure she'll be here in a few days, though, so your Papa should be able to talk to her then, don't worry."

Junior nods resolutely, "okay good. Papa is teaching me how to read from the newspapers, and there was a story about the hotel in there!" The child doesn't wait for Luigi's response, turning to his father and jumping on him, prompting the Alpha to catch him and hoist him up on his shoulder, "Papa, did you eat lunch yet? I'm hungry, can we eat in the garden?" Bowser replies affirmatively, "I'll have to call the kitchen, let them to know to take it out there."

He pulls out his phone but Junior is reaching for it, "do you want to call them? you'll have to order the food, you can't chicken out like last time," the Alpha gives the phone to his son, who hesitates over the call button, whispering "can Luigi eat with us? Please? I want to ask about the ghosts!" into his father’s ear loud enough that Luigi can hear, and he smiles when the Alpha looks over at him.

"You'll have to ask, and see what he wants to eat," Junior is let down from his shoulder and he walks back over to Luigi, shy. "Would you... like to eat lunch with us? I can order for you, if you don't know what you want. I have great taste, I swear!" The child's cheesy smile and thumbs up has Luigi nodding, "I trust you, pick your favorites," and Junior is climbing back up onto Bowser's shoulder giggling and calling the kitchen.

The food wouldn’t be ready for a little while, so Luigi falls in step beside the King as Junior races off out the door ahead of them to point out various flowers and vines and trees and bugs along the path to the covered area along the back of the garden.

"I’m surprised you let your son read about stuff like The Last Resort, that’s some pretty heavy stuff.” The kid is distracted by a bush of flowers just off the main path, and Luigi laughs lightly, “He’s adorable though, how old is he?" Luigi looks in question to the tall man.

The Alpha considers his question, "Well, I don't know if you knew this or not but the Darklands history is kind of...heavy. Whatever they print in the newspaper probably doesn't hold a candle to what he's learning in school." He shrugs, "But I'm not really worried about it. He really is precious, I can't get over it sometimes. He's seven, his birthday was last month. Which is kind of crazy, since it feels like he was born yesterday."

Bowser watches his son try to get a bug to land on his arm with a smile, and Luigi is overcome with curiosity about the Alpha's child. He's no childbirth expert, and he has even less of a clue about Koopa anatomy, but he's curious as to where Junior's mom is. "And his mom... is she still... around?"

The Alpha stops, looking at Luigi with amusem*nt, "yeah, he'sright here," he motions to himself which only serves to confuse the Omega more, drawing a snort from Bowser. "Koopas don't need another person to have a kid, we're set up with all the right... equipment to do it ourselves. It's not really common for Alphas to willingly be pregnant, but by the time I turned 20 I had already spent half a decade without any family. It put me under some fire, I guess everyone was still a little nervous for me to have a kid after what happened with my dad, but I don't really give a f*ck. He's practically the people's prince, the way everyone fawns over him when we go out."

Well that was a lot to think about, but Luigi takes it in stride, nodding with a tilt of his head because he’d at least heard of some lizards that could do that kind of thing back on Earth, "that explains why he looks just like you," which makes Bowser laugh again, tilting his head back and offering Luigi a view of the smile that had his inner Omega preening, following the strong line of his neck as it connected to his shoulders under his shirt with his eyes.

He could feel his cheeks get hot and the flowery scent he carried intensified, hopefully masked by the fragrant flowers lining the walkway. He fears he's been caught when the Alpha looks him up and down, laughing lightly before running a hand over his jaw and continuing down the path, lifting Junior up to pick something off a tree when he notices that the kid's jumps aren't quite high enough to reach, and Luigi feels his inner Omega whining at the soft display of affection before he snaps out of it. Jesus Christ, calm down, Weegie. One day with the man and you're ready to jump his bones. You don't even know if he's legit, he could just be doing this so you don't go back and tell Peach and Mario he mistreated you. But his Omega is not listening, too caught up in seeing the soft side to an Alpha he had previously written off as violent and aggressive to act reasonable about a man he just met. They make it to an overhang, where a table has been set with three platters of food. He has to admit, the kid does have good taste, whatever sandwich and salad he had ordered for Luigi reminded him of things he used to eat from his family's deli. The three of them eat lunch; Luigi and Bowser eat, Junior spends most of his time filling them both in on the drama at school and referencing internet humor that they were both a little too old to get, as much as he was loath to admit it. After lunch Junior was collected for his music lessons, and Luigi and Bowser spend a large portion of the rest of the afternoon exploring the castle, the Alpha showing him an enormous library that he assures Luigi has full access to, another glass roofed room full of intricate metal furniture and a fountain, a few meeting rooms, his office, the music room where Junior was practicing on the drums, the medical ward, the airship hangars, another garden in the back of the castle that was clearly used by the kitchen, rows of herbs and vegetables and fruits lining a majority of the space. He's taken by the tailor's shop, which looked much more like a shop from a British spy movie than the high end boutique-vibe that Peach's tailor gave off, and shown the royal spas. The name was kind of misleading, since the spas were open to any and all residents of the Darklands. Because the castle was situated on top of a volcano, there were an abundance of natural hot springs, some of which were right along the edge of the property, far enough away from the castle that no one could accidentally end up somewhere they weren't supposed to be. It was set up like some of the spas Luigi has passed by with his mom speed walking through the New York streets, all sleek and glass and stone with a full service staff offering literally anything he could think of. Massages, specialized facials and body care, nails, hair, hot stones (lol), acupuncture, and of course unlimited access to the community hot springs. Luigi assumes the large gilded door to the right of the entrance to the springs is a private bath for the King, something that's only proven more probable when he notices everyone coming in or going out is only using the left door. Everyone they come across bows slightly to Bowser, who chuckles and sends them on their way.

Also, Luigi is definitely talking to Peach about this, because he knows she's gotten the exact same tour but didn't ever think to bring any of it up to anyone, not even him or Daisy. Bowser takes them back through to the formal dining room, "we don't really use this room much, it's mostly for special occasions."

They make their way through to the kitchens where dinner is being started, a testament to how long they've spent wandering around hallways and in and out of rooms. Luigi is reminded of his desire to speak with the chef, and looks between Bowser and the woman standing over the stove. The Alpha nudges him forward slightly "hey, didn't you want to ask about stuff?" but he's still hesitant. "Well I don't want to interrupt, cooking is kind of involv-" he's cut off by Bowser, "uh-uh, none of that. I told her you had questions and she wants to answer them. She knew we were swinging by, don't sweat it."

Luigi blushes, his Omega fawning hard at the consideration the Alpha is showing at bringing him here. He introduces himself to the cook, who eagerly answers his questions about what kinds of meat and vegetables were being used down here, the ways that she prepares the food and the spices she uses. Once she realizes that he’s actually pretty knowledgeable about it, she actually asks him a few questions about combinations she’s been wanting to try and suggestions for next year’s crops. Bowser watches on from the doorway and says something in passing to one of the staff, an unfamiliar feeling blooming in his chest. It had started when he opened the door to his throne room, looking over scans of some documents Peaches had brought him last time she came as a reference for how he should start formatting his royal budget or something just as trivial that she thought would help their plan’s chances. Immediately, he'd known something was up, since the Princess had taken to sitting on his throne and eating her snacks, kicking her feet up and pissing him off because that’s hisseat, thank you, he earned that. But when he looked, his throne was empty, and there was a terrified Luigi sitting at the table. He hadn't been able to control his blush when the man twirled in his dress, the fabric hugging his body and flaring out teasingly at the end. His Alpha was immediately clawing at the walls at the sight of the confident smirk gracing the Omega's features, and the scent of lavender and rain had him internally showing his belly in contentment. The feeling came back with the scent in the garden, something he could immediately pick out over the smell of the other flowers surrounding them, and he'd had to laugh it off lest he do something he really regretted. He could be a little intense sometimes, romance-wise, and as much as he'd wanted to scent the Omega in the garden he'd just walked away after his son, not wanting to scare away this man who he seemed to actually get along with, even better than Peaches. He rolls his eyes to himself about the fact that his Alpha seemed to be set on taking care of the brother of his "nemesis" and someone who he'd never even meant to have met like this, and smiles at Luigi as he makes his way back across the kitchen.

"Thank you so much for this! I never get to talk with anyone about cooking, and they don't have these ingredients in the Mushroom Kingdom. She's very knowledgeable, I bet it'd be fun to cook with her," Bowser's Alpha formulates a response before he can think about it, intent on providing for this wonderful Omega that’s made his way into his castle. "You're more than welcome to spend time in here, and you can use whatever isn't already in use, you know. I'm sure the staff would have no problem?" He looks to the chef and a few of her assistants who all respond enthusiastically that they've been needing someone new to give them ideas on dishes. Luigi giggles and looks between Bowser and the group.

"Well, cool! I'll definitely be back down here tomorrow, how's dinnertime sound?" He gets nods from both Bowser and the chef and smiles, his inner Omega pushing him to thank the King in a more... tactile way, pushing his nose against a wrist or his neck. He ignores it, for now, and settles on thanking everyone verbally and following the Alpha back through to the smaller dining room he had eaten in the night before. The King clearly eats first, judging by the piping hot plates of food sitting on the table that Luigi had just seen the chef ladling into bowls in the kitchen.

"I hope you don't mind, but I just went ahead and had them set us both up for dinner in here again, since I figured we'd still be poking around the castle by dinnertime." Luigi shakes his head, "not at all! Thank you," he nods his head as he sits in the chair Bowser pulls out for him, blushing.

The low light from the dimmed chandelier casts shadows over Bowser's face and really emphasizes that he is, indeed, part dragon. Luigi's eyes trace over a strong jaw and a sharp hook nose, scanning over his horns and the curve of his cheek before meeting his eyes, blushing. "see something you like, Greenie?" the Alpha jokes, and Luigi reaches over the table to smack his arm with an oh, shut up.

He rolls his eyes with a smile, "thank you for showing me around today, this place is super cool." Bowser chuckles at him, "of course, I redesigned the whole place a few years ago, so not many people have seen it like this." He hums, "well you did an amazing job, it looks like it's been here for centuries like this." That gets him a half bow, the Alpha smirking as he flourishes his hand over the table, "thank you." They both tuck into their meals, quiet conversation about the castle and some of the plants filling the space between them. By the time they finish, talking and laughing through their dessert about random drama they'd heard about other kingdoms and royalty, the clock is pushing midnight and Luigi is yawning into his hand.

"Don't fall asleep at the table, now. Bad manners." The deep voice jolts him out of his after-dinner haze and he glares over the table sleepily. "M'not falling asleep, you're just boring me." Bowser laughs, "Oh, so that's how it is! Come on, let me walk you to your room, sleeping beauty, wouldn't want you getting lost. Your brother's probably showing up tomorrow, and he usually makes it a point to get here at the crack of f*cking dawn, can't let a man sleep in..."

At the mention of his brother, Luigi is wide awake. He had been enjoying his time here so much that he had honestly forgotten he wasn't actually supposed to be here, and that there was no doubt Mario would be here as soon as possible to collect him. He's honestly a little scared, because he knows how his brother can be when it comes to him. One time in high school Luigi had been shoved in a locker by some stupid football players and they'd had to go collect Mario from the police station because he had sent the entire team to the hospital. It's that stupid macho Alpha mentality, the one that had pushed the wedge between them in the first place, and Luigi's newfound fondness for the man in front of him made everything ten times harder for him than it needed to be. He should be ecstatic to be going home after being wrongfully kidnapped and spending the last two days in the castle of someone he had been taught to hate, but something about the place makes him want to stay.

"About my brother... I'm sorry. He's just really...protective..." he trails off, and Bowser scoffs, "yeah, I kinda gathered that from how often he comes after Peaches. Don't worry, I'm used to it by now. It doesn't even hurt, I'm just an amazing actor." He draws out the last two words long enough to make Luigi laugh, and the two of them head out the door and back through the hallways to Luigi's room. Stopped outside the door, Luigi turns back to the Alpha, deciding that if tonight was gonna be his last night here then he might as well take a risk and let his inner Omega have some fun.

He steps up closer to Bowser, who is eyeing him curiously, "Thank you again for showing me around today, and for being so nice to me even though I wasn't even supposed to be here," he takes the man's hand who jumps a little in surprise, before bringing it up to his face. He nudges at the small bump under the skin of his wrist with his nose, and he can feel the Alpha's breath hitch as Luigi's senses are filled with smoke and spice.

Bowser smiles before bringing Luigi's other hand up to his lips, pressing a kiss into the skin before flipping it and pressing his nose to the matching spot on the Omega's wrist and watching the man’s eye’s flutter shut in response. "Of course, Omega. You're always welcome, even if I have to kidnap you to get you here." Bowser presses another soft kiss into his skin before pulling away. "Being kidnapped wasn't that bad, I'd do it again," he says, giggling. Bowser chuckles at him before bidding him goodnight, leaving Luigi to get ready for what was sure to be an interesting morning.

As soon as the Omega shuts the door, though, he's sliding down the wall and screaming silently into his hands. His inner Omega is absolutely delighted at the small physical contact, the most he'd experienced from an Alpha in years because of Mario's obsessive control over his life. He tries to reason, tries to say that it's just because they've never really met before this and Luigi's been stuck here waiting for his brother and he doesn't even know if the man is actually safe and not just playing this up so he doesn't go running to Peach and Mario about it. But it doesn't matter, the butterflies in his stomach at the thought of the Alpha smiling down at him and the way his Omega is begging for him to go and properly scent Bowser, nose and mouth rubbing over his neck, is making him dizzy with want. He shakes his head and heads for the shower, intent on washing away all thoughts of getting closer to the Alpha King with the hot water. As the heat from the spray blankets his muscles his thoughts of home and getting back to his old life are overtaken by the memory of breath on his skin. His body heats up further, pressure building in his abdomen as he washes shampoo out of his hair. Before too long, the pressure becomes too much, and one of Luigi’s hands slides down his front and grips his dick, tugging lightly with a gasp as he leans onto the wall. He speeds up, eyes falling shut and breath coming out heavy as the phantom feeling of Bowser's lips travels from his hand up his arm and across his chest, and all too soon he's biting back a moan and watching with a blush as the evidence of his fast attraction to the man is washed down the drain.

Bowser watches the door shut with a huff of breath, running his hand over his face and hiding a smile as he makes his way back to his room. He stops by Junior's room to make sure he’s asleep and smiles at the soft snores coming from his son's bed. He leans over and plants a kiss on the top of his head, and two small arms wrap around his neck.

"Night, Papa. I love you." is slurred out, and Bowser returns the hug tightly, "goodnight, I love you too." He shuts the door to his kid's wing of the castle before heading for his own.

Most of the bedrooms in the castle were remarkably similar, black and gold marble walls and dark wood floor and ceiling. The room, though, was the biggest, the bed alone taking up as much space as some of the smaller bedrooms. Dark maroon sheets and a blanket cover the mattress, and gold curtains hang from the bedframe. Through a pair of large french doors sits a living room with plush couches in the same dark maroon. There was also a large bathroom with an enormous stone tub, shallow enough that he could sit on the bottom, but deep enough that he’s sitting up to his shoulders. His closet is largely filled with casual clothes, his shell acting as his sole outfit outside of the castle. Thanks to Kamek’s magic, the tub fills quickly, and soon Bowser is sinking into the molten heat of the tub and reminiscing about the events of his day. His inner Alpha is a tad angry with him for not scenting the Omega properly, pulling them chest to chest and burying his nose in the soft skin of Luigi’s neck. But he really doesn’t want to mess this up, for some reason, it surprised him enough that Luigi had initiated the scenting in the first place. It was really pitiful, how quickly he was falling for the human, and he tries to keep his Alpha from running wild with the thought that the two of them were meant for each other, albeit unsuccessfully. He just can't help it, not with the Omega's soothing scent and bright laugh. He's never gotten along with someone so easily, even with Peach it had taken a little while before the two of them had the kind of relaxed conversation he and Luigi shared. And he’s so pretty, bright blue eyes and curly brown hair paired with his size difference reminding Bowser of some kind of fairy. He knows the human doesn't all the way trust him yet, which is understandable, he'd only been there like two days and he did get kidnapped, even if it wasn't on purpose. But he seemed so...sad? when his rescue was brought up, like he didn't want to leave, or at least didn’t want to return with his brother. Bowser's heart lurches at the thought that someone could actually miss him, that he could actually make someone want to stay, and his Alpha runs with the feeling, trying to cement the memory of Luigi's scent and the feel of his skin under his hand in his mind because he’s probably never going to get the chance to do any of that again. His face starts to heat as he starts to imagine what it would be like to scent the Omega closer, maybe he would let Bowser sit them down and pull him onto his lap, hands around a small waist as he buries his nose and lips in Luigi's neck and pressing kisses along his throat. His head falls back against the edge of the tub as he recalls the feeling of Luigi’s small hands in his own, and Bowser can’t help but spread his legs a little wider along the bottom of the bath, feeling his core clench at the memory of the human’s closed eyes and parted lips. He runs his hand over his slit, feeling the skin surrounding it puff up at the stimulation. Pressing down on his abdomen, he can feel the outline of his penis through the thin skin, rubbing on it absentmindedly as his imagination runs wild with the feeling of Luigi’s back against his chest, and before long he’s slipping his fingers inside himself, panting heavily as the tip of his penis begins to poke out. He presses down on the tip and rubs, hips twitching as he slumps bodily against the side of the tub, resigned to taking a shower after he gets out of his now soiled bath. After his shower, he pulls on some boxers before collapsing in bed, face flushed as his activities catch up to him. f*ck's sake. *what* is he doing, letting his Alpha go crazy over a random human Omega like he wasn't a King who had responsibilities and a reputation. He lets his Alpha relish in his post-org*sm bliss a little while longer before he reminds himself that Luigi is leaving tomorrow, and that whatever infatuation he’s had with the Omega for the past few days will have to come to an end.

Chapter 3: Chapter Three

Chapter Text

When Luigi wakes up a few hours later, he's being shaken by his shoulders.

Kammy is standing over him in a robe and bonnet, "Oh thank stars, you're a heavy sleeper! You have to get up now though, Mario's been spotted a few towns over and will probably get here in a couple of hours, if we're lucky."

Luigi is confused, but stumbles into the closet to throw on some random clothes anyways, "you said Mario's coming? Where are we going, won't he just come find me?"

Kammy is ushering him through the halls, "No, no, His Majesty doesn't want your brother running around all over the castle, so we're going to the throne room." Now that he thinks about it, every time he'd been to rescue the princess they'd only ever gone in the throne room, where Bowser had been conveniently waiting on them with Peach.

"It might seem a little extreme, but His Majesty has an image to protect, as I'm sure you're aware." They round the corner into the throne room, and Luigi grins as he watches Bowser slumped over tiredly on his throne, crown askew from where his head is resting on his hand.

He's wearing his shell, a shield for the inevitable fight, and he's got on a long dark blue cape, clasped across his chest by two bejeweled clusters. Clearly, he'd been given just as much notice as Luigi about their impending guest. Luigi walks across the floor and comes up beside the throne, trading good mornings with the Alpha. "Sorry for all the theatrics, but I can't have people thinking I just let my “hostages” run free in my house.."

He motions over to a large gold cage with a door that's propped open, presumably waiting for Luigi's arrival. "I get that. Nice outfit, by the way," his comment gets him a glare, and a poorly hidden smile, and Luigi leans over to push the crown to sit centered on his head.

"There. can't have that all crooked for your big showdown, huh?" Bowser blushes, mumbling a thank you before Kammy is coming over to show him his cage. He meets Kamek, too, briefly introducing himself before listening intently to the mage's explanation of the warding around the cage.

"It's entirely enchanted, the patterns on the side make it float and the big circular thing in the middle will keep you from falling out once you're up there. It's mostly to keep you off the floor because your brother and His Majesty tend to get into...intense fights."

Everyone's attention is pulled to the large doors at the front of the room when a koopa comes running through, telling Bowser that Mario had been spotted along the outskirts of the town just outside the palace, and that he would be here sooner rather than later, it seemed. That kicks everyone into gear, Bowser straightening up on his throne and Luigi nabbing a croissant to take with him in his cage, the door shut but not locked behind him as he was hoisted into the air. He waves at Bowser around a bite of his breakfast, and the man smiles at him and gives him a small wave back. He feels his anxiety come back tenfold at the arrival of his overbearing brother, who is sure to be upset with Luigi for ‘doing something so stupid’ as getting kidnapped by their enemy. He stews in his anxiety for another 15 minutes before one of the stained glass windows lining the walls shatters, and his brother swings in through the empty space. He can hear Bowser sigh, rolling his eyes as the shorter human makes his way to stand in front of the throne, glowering menacingly.

"Man, I tell you this every time, but you can just use the door." Luigi giggles as he watches the large doors creak open, Princess Peach walking through moments later, beelining for the enchanted chain holding Luigi airborne while the other two throw their first punches.

"You f*cking monster, this is a whole new low," Mario starts, "You and Peach have had this weird back and forth thing for years, and that's fine because I'm gonna show up every time and beat your ass, but taking my brother? That's too f*cking far!"

Mario is putting out some serious damage, but the other Alpha isn't doing anything, dodging most of his shots and blocking the ones he couldn't run from. "What have you been doing to him, huh? You're disgusting, to take advantage of an Omega like I'm sure you did. He's not strong enough to fight back, and you're feral enough to take what you want, I'm sure."

Bowser clips him upside the head, not lethal but definitely enough to hurt, "don't treat your brother like he's completely helpless. He survived the whole weekend here with me, and there's not even a single scratch on him!"

That only makes Mario more upset, "dont talk like you know anything about us, you f*cking animal."

In the corner, Peach has successfully gotten Luigi down with some subtle help from Kamek who lifted the enchantment on the chain with a nod so she could pull it. Now they were kind of just standing here, Peach taking a bite of food off of the plates left earlier by the kitchen as she watches on, clearly annoyed. Luigi chews at his lip, he hadn't meant to get kidnapped, but he didn't think the Princess would be genuinely upset about coming to rescue him.

"I-I'm sorry, Princess. I didn't mean to make you both come all the way out here because of me..." he trails off.

She's taking his hands in hers quickly,"No! no, don’t say that. I'm not annoyed with you, Luigi, I'm annoyed with your brother." At his raised eyebrow she continues, "I told him you would be fine. I figured he would believe me since I've been dealing with this longer than the two of you have been down here, but it was a fight enough to get him to wait until today to come get you. How did you enjoy dinner by the way? I’d pay to see his face when he saw you instead of me."

Her knowing smirk reminds Luigi of what Bowser had said, kind of a tradition. "Wait, how did you know that?" but she just laughs, "I've been doing this for a long time, I know what to expect by now. he's really not a bad guy, under all that-" she motions to the fight that is still very much going on,"-tough guy act. he doesn't even like the fighting, he just kind of lets Mario beat the sh*t out of him to make him feel better, I guess."

And sure enough, Bowser is laid out, his brother leaning over him and slamming his fists into already bloody skin. "That actually makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it," Luigi starts to say something else but the sound of his brother taunting the man slumped over on the floor unnecessarily and can't help how he reacts.

"f*cks sake, Mario! He's not even fighting back at this point, you're just beating the sh*t out of him for no reason! I'm not even in any danger, something you would have noticed had you literally even looked in my direction at any point."

Both of the brothers seem surprised at Luigi's outburst, he really hadn't meant to mouth off to his brother like that and by the look on Mario’s face he hadn't been expecting it either, raised brows turning down in anger and confusion in his direction before Peach steps in.

"Yes, I'm sure by this point the King would just allow us to leave?" She looks over to Bowser in question, who just motions to the door and nods once. He can't help but stare at the man as they pass, feeling guilt threaten to swallow him whole at the sight of the blood and bruises covering the Alpha's body. It's like Bowser can sense him, though, and lifts his gaze to throw Luigi a wink, biting back a smirk and disguising it as a grimace when Mario looks back over his shoulder with a glare.

Upon his return, Mario is stuck to his side like glue every second of every day. Even in their house, he won't leave Luigi alone longer than 10 minutes, paranoia over his recent kidnapping clear as day. The only time he finds himself away from his brother is at the castle, where he's been spending the weeks since his rescue catching up with the Princess while Mario locks himself in a room in the library all day doing who knows what. He's been asking questions about the Darklands, and about Bowser, because Peach is the literal only other person to have stepped foot in Bowser's castle in along time. He's sure his interest in the man does notseem purely academic at this point, judging by the amused expression Peach has on her face every time she answers. But, she still answers them and doesn't call Luigi out on anything he clearly isn't telling her about his time there, electing to keep his and the King's closeness out of the rotation for now regardless of how obvious it is that Luigi clearly likes the man.

As weeks turn into months, Luigi spends most of his time not at the castle trying to convince himself that his weird longing feeling he was experiencing was just because he missed the good food and freedom of choice his stay in the Darklands had given him, and not because he was missing the company of a certain Alpha. About a week before Peach's annual ball Luigi is sitting down in Peach's parlor after getting the final alterations done on his dress when she walks in the room with a folder tucked under her arm. She smells anxious, burnt sugar peeking through her normal scent, and Luigi tilts his head in question as she sits across from him.

She takes a deep breath, "Luigi, I need your help with something." He nods slowly, looking between her and the file on the table, "I know you know by now that Bowser isn't the cold-hearted ruler that he's made out to be. I've been trying to help him get his sh*t together, so to speak, for the last few years but I can't ever stay over there for long enough to get anything substantial done."

Luigi stammers slightly at Peach's relaxed language, but she continues anyways, "I've been thinking, and if I can get someone over there for longer than a week or two I should be able to get the information I need to help him. I want everyone to finally live in peace, Luigi, and I think you could help with that..."

He raises his eyebrows, "Princess, how in the world could I help with that?" trying to ignore the way his pulse kicks at the mention of returning to the Darklands. She looks at him through her eyebrows, "Luigi you've literally helped me and Daisy through Kingdom-wide crises without even breaking a sweat. If anyone knows what they're doing for something like this it's you. I just need someone there for a little while to sit in on meetings and help me put together a report I can show my advisors. I swear, you won't be in any danger, and I'll make sure you have your phone with you this time so we can stay in touch."

He laughs at her attempt to diffuse the situation, but his hesitance must speak for itself, "just think about it, please. There's not a time frame on this at all, so take whatever time you need and just come talk to me whatever you decide." With that he nods and makes his way out of the castle, through the town and up the path to his and Mario's house. His brother was still at the castle, but he hadn't moved from his spot in the library all day and Luigi was f*cking exhausted, all he wanted to do was hop in the shower and go to sleep, so he really doesn’t care if Mario gets angry with him for leaving without him. He watches the water from the shower circle the drain, deep in thought. He definitely missed the freedom that came with living away from his brother, and his inner Omega was jumping at the chance to be close to the Alpha even after months of not being able to contact him at all. Plus, Peach seemed pretty serious about this, and Luigi does have to admit that he's pretty good at coming up with solutions to people's problems, the main reason why Mario put him on customer service duty when they had their own business in Brooklyn. If she really thought this was something worth doing, then he should probably do it. She wouldn't put him in danger, he knows that much. He towels off and stumbles into a pair of boxers and lays face down in his bed, trying to fight off the swoops in his stomach as he remembers smoldering red eyes and the scent of spice and smoke. He definitely still had a little crush on the man, even after being away from him for so long. He thinks about him constantly – whether or not he's in any pain, if his injuries have healed okay, what he's up to in general- Luigi is down bad for this man, and the thought of being able to see him again fills him with a good kind of anxiety, one that buzzes under his skin in anticipation, not dread. He spends a few days contemplating his decision and trying to calm himself down at the prospect of seeing Bowser again, and by the time lunch rolls around on his fourth day of deliberation he’s in his room getting ready to head to the castle and tell Peach he’d be a part of the plan when he hears Mario slouching his way into the front door, dropping his bags and heading to the kitchen.

He shouts a good morning down the hall and is met with silence, save for the sound of his brother’s steel toed boots clunking down the hallway to stand in front of Luigi’s door. "You know, the princess told me something funny on my way out this morning," at his confused noise, Mario laughs, "she told me..." he cuts himself off with another laugh, "she told me she was trying to send you back to the Darklands, as if you'd ever agree to something like that." Luigi tries to interject but gets cut off, "I mean, 'peace between all kingdoms'? This isn't a beauty pageant, like come on. You can’t seriously think she knows what she’s talking about, right? People like Bowser don't deserve peace, they deserve pain..."

He eyes Mario incredulously, "alright tone it down, Jigsaw. I think it's a great idea." His attitude is clearly not appreciated, judging by the look on his brother's face but he continues anyways, "and I'm actually on my way to agree to her 'stupid idea' right now, if you'll excuse me." He moves to push past Mario, but his brother has always been stronger.

He's pushed back into his seat on the bed with a sneer, "You Omegas are all so f*cking dumb. The man is crazy! He's literally kidnapped her for years and all of a sudden she wants to help him? It doesn't make sense!"

Luigi does interject this time, scent souring into grass and ozone as he glares at his brother, "they've been working on this for years, according to Peach, a lot longer than we’ve even been down here, and apparently my being there will speed things along. You're just pissed because you won't get to be the big strong Alpha if your nemesis stops fighting you."

That seems to hit a nerve, because his brother is growling and moving from the doorframe to get in his face, "don't speak to me like that, Omega." Disdain drips from the last word and Luigi rolls his eyes at his brother’s obvious attempt to get him to submit.

"f*ck off, you idiot. Leave me alone, get out." When he hesitates, Luigi motions to the door and repeats himself, "get. out."

Mario seems to hear him that time, scoffing and turning on his heel to leave the room. He makes it in record time to Peach's castle and climbs the stairs to her office, pushing the door open to find her writing a letter. She goes to cover it up before she realizes it’s just Luigi, and he takes a look at it from across the desk as she continues her writing.

"Whatcha writing?" he asks teasingly, and she huffs a laugh. "This is the only way I can communicate with Bowser on a regular basis, I can't use my phone because it raises questions with my advisors." He hums, reading her swirly script upside down, only being able to make out his own name and a few other small words before Peach catches him looking, "it's just to let him in on the plan, that's all, and so we can actually plan his part in this. Toadette runs them to the border and someone from Bowser's castle comes to get them every week."

"So...what's the plan? Because I'm here to let you know I'm in." Peach gasps at him, smiling behind her hands and going into deep detail about the plan she had come up with so far. "Okay, so since you agreed to do this before the ball this weekend I have an idea on how to get you out of here on the low..." Essentially, everyone in the Kingdom would be at this ball, and all Luigi would need to do is make the rounds and make sure people see him, slip up the stairs unnoticed and make it to the tailor's shop on the opposite side of the castle where an airship would be waiting for him. All the secrecy seems kind of unnecessary to Luigi at first, but Peach reminds him that most of the population here still views Bowser as a threat, and that to avoid people trailing behind to "rescue" him they needed as few people to know about this as possible. Her personal guards would be standing outside that night, just to keep the others from sounding the alarms at the sight of the airship, and Mario had been instructed to stay quiet about what little he knew with the threat of exile from her Kingdom, the same threat she’d given everyone entrusted with information about her plan. One thing they couldn't plan, though, was exactly how long Luigi would be gone. Neither of them knew how long it would take to convince Peach's advisors, but Luigi doesn't even really care anymore. That fight he'd had with Mario only made him miss his momentary freedom even more, and he honestly hopes he can find a reason to make his stay in the Darklands longer than it might need to be. He looks back down at the letter.

"It usually takes a few days to go back and forth like this, but I can't imagine he'd say no to seeing youagain..." the way she says it makes him blush, and her snicker just gets louder the redder his face gets, "he's asked about you a few times, in the letters. You didn't have your phone, I guess, because he's been begging me for your number. But I'll just tell him you'll give it to him in person, when you get there." He sputters, which only serves to make the Princess laugh harder, even her personal maid hiding a smile behind her hand at Luigi's dramatics. He smiles and glares at her before remembering that as good as it was that he'd be leaving soon, he's still stuck in the house with Mario for the next week, and decides to do something about it before he can chicken out.

"Hey Peach..." he starts, and the woman watches him patiently, "do you think... would it be okay if I stayed here until I leave? What little you told Mario of the plan he isn’t taking well, and I don't want to be stuck in the house with someone who's angry with me." Peach pulls him into a hug, "Oh Luigi, of course. Your room is always unlocked for you if you want to stay here. I can go with you to pack your luggage if you don't want to be alone with him right now, you can run in your room and grab whatever you want and I'll distract him by telling him how big his muscles look or something."

She snorts, and Luigi can't help but laugh at the fact that something like that would *absolutely* work on his brother, "You know, I think that just might work. Thank you, Princess." He goes in for another hug, which she gives. For now, Luigi and Toadette make their way to his room, where he breathes in the familiar scent of a room that was definitely his but hadn't been used in forever.

It was really only in case of emergencies anyways, but his emergencies tended to be more on the "too drunk to walk home" or the "my brother is sick and won't stay in bed" side of things. Neither of those happened very often, so the room was more storage for some of the artifacts and artwork he'd collected on his adventures than anything else. Still, he falls into bed with a groan, inhaling the faint scent of himself from months ago, light lavender and the sky when it’s about to rain. He wonders if his crush on the Alpha is that terribly obvious, what with both Peach and her maid giggling at his blush when she teased him about Bowser, but he almost doesn’t care. He wonders offhandedly if the tradition of dinner together is something that will carry on for every night Luigi spends there, and he feels his cheeks get hot at the notion of it. He’s so f*cking excited to be going back.

Bowser huffs into the pages of the book he's reading, trying to distract himself from some paperwork he needed to have done a few days ago. More accurately, he's trying to distract himself from the thoughts of the Omega that had spent a weekend with him months ago by this point. The first few days after he left both Kammy and Kamek were with him a lot, reminding him to eat and drink water and get up from his desk every once in a while and sleep. He was more affected by the Omega than he thought, thinking of him constantly and trying to reassure his inner Alpha that he hadn't been abandoned, that they'd only known each other for two days and the whole situation was accidental. He had sent Kamek off with a letter for the Princess about a week into his Alpha's lamenting asking a few questions about their plans for the alliance work they'd been doing and trying to sneak in a few inconspicuous questions about Luigi. Nothing crazy, just asking how he was doing and what he'd been up to since his return. The princess had replied quickly, an envelope with her insignia on it gracing his desk not even a full two days later. He could almost hear her smirk through the page as she answered questions about her friend; that he was doing fine and they'd been spending a lot of time together because Mario won't let him go anywhere alone but spends all day cooped up in the castle library. He starts glazing over her words when she circles back around to talking about the alliance, but something makes him triple take back up the page.

Luigi's little trip actually reminded me of an idea I've had for a while but never had the resources to try. I think what we need is an ambassador, someone to transfer information between kingdoms without raising the suspicion of my staff. And now, what with how highly Luigi talks about his time there, I'm thinking he could be perfect. Bowser blushes a little at the mention that Luigi had actually enjoyed his time there enough to tell the princess about it. He's got a lot of experience helping me and Daisy keep our sh*t together, and he's smart. He comes up with stuff no one would ever even think to consider, and I think that's what we need for this. He seems more than willing, and I can make sure no one sees you if you send people to 'kidnap' him from the tailor's balcony like you did before. Just let me know you'll be there and I'll get everything else in place. Talk to you soon! -P

His response is written and out the door within the hour, that he thinks that's a f*cking great idea, and he gets into bed that night feeling better than he had in weeks. Luigi might be coming back to him, if he and Peaches can pull this off, and he can't help the small smile that creeps onto his face at the thought of seeing the Omega again. His brain is already supplying him with places he'll be able to take Luigi now that he'll be there for a longer amount of time. He wants to take him into the capital city, outside of the palace, and show him that all the propaganda that painted the Darklands as a deserted wasteland couldn't be further from the truth. They might have been decades ago, but with his leadership and Peach’s small but important contributions his people have become much more prosperous than before. Everyone can afford to live and Peach sent over mountains of books that Bowser gave to the doctors of his Kingdom, so people rarely get sick. Food is abundant, and no one is starving. He stops himself from calling the architects and designers responsible for Peach's rooms because as much as he wants Luigi to be comfortable here, something that involved should probably wait until the man was here to actually make the choices for himself. He's pulled from his thoughts by a soft knock on his bedroom door, and he knows who it is even before he hears the sniffles coming from behind the wood. "Come here, Junior. What's wrong?" The door cracks open, and his son pads across the floor rubbing his eyes with one hand and trailing a blanket behind him with the other, "had a nightmare, papa. Wanna sleep with you." Bowser scoots over wordlessly and the two of them fall asleep quickly after that, even though Junior won't stop f*cking kicking him and moving around in his sleep.

Luigi's next few days are full of trips between his house and the castle, spending half the day working on last minute preparations for the ball and splitting the other half hanging out with Peach and trying to avoid his brother. He hadn't said a word to Mario after their fight, and Mario hadn't said anything to him, which he honestly appreciated having forgotten how judgmental his brother could be after spending even a short amount of time around someone who didn't judge him at all. By the time the night before the ball rolls around, Luigi is ready to leave. It's not that he didn't enjoy being home and seeing Peach and his friends, but staying in the castle with the Princess has reminded him just how *observant* she is. She'd been trying to get him to talk about his little crush on the Alpha, which he doesn't have by the way! She'd just caught him off guard, asked him something casually and his mouth moved faster than his brain, his approval of Bowser's physical features slipping out before he could stop it. She'd teased him about it the entire rest of his stay, good-naturedly of course, and he could take the teasing to a certain extent but it had started making him more anxious to see the man again than anything else. He really shouldn't be feeling like this over a man he's only actually known for the course of a weekend, but something about him makes Luigi feel safe and connected in a way he hadn't felt about any of the random men or women he'd dated over the years.

The night of the ball finally arrives and Luigi spends about an hour walking around and talking to people, making sure they remembered he was here so he could sneak away later and enjoying the attention his dress was bringing him. Peach's tailor had really outdone himself, and his slate blue slip dress brushed around the floor effortlessly, the slouchy neckline and thin straps held up by small gold chains across his back showcasing the soft expanse of his skin. He spends a few minutes admiring himself in a hallway mirror before he slips up an empty staircase and makes his way to the tailor's room. He shuts the door, turning around and meeting the gaze of the three oddly dressed figures he'd gone with last time. Well, he doesn't actually know if they're the exactsame, the whole cloak and mask thing kind of makes it hard to tell. They're just as chatty though, motioning without a sound to the door of the balcony for Luigi to follow. One of them must recognize Luigi, because he does get a small nod as he's helped up the metal stairs into the same airship he'd woken up in last time. He gets to watch, this time, as they ascend up into the clouds. His luggage is sitting by a couch, something that Peach had assured him would happen even if he was sure there was no way to pull it off. He had been confused when she'd asked him what he was planning on packing because he'd planned on bringing...nothing? He'd managed just fine without his stuff the first time, plus how would they get anything on the ship without making it incredibly obvious what they were doing? He's glad for it now, even though it isn't much, just a few outfits and some of his personal items, things he wouldn't want to leave for a long time with his brother, given the man's cleaning habits he imagines the house will be damn near destroyed if he's gone longer than a month. So he just has one suitcase, a duffle bag, and a backpack, carrying all kinds of things from his laptop to his favorite shoes and clothes, some of his skincare and his journal, Peach encouraged him to take as much of his stuff there with him as he wanted to help him get situated a little easier in Bowser's castle. She did throw in a sly comment about how she's sure he'll get settled down-oh, in, sorry- quickly enough before hugging him and sending him off to mingle with the crowd. He watches the hilly green landscape of the Mushroom Kingdom pass by beneath him and takes a sip from the drink he was offered after they took off, sitting it back on the table and leaning back into his seat and closing his eyes.

Chapter 4: Chapter Four

Chapter Text

He must have fallen asleep because soon he's being lightly poked on the shoulder by one of the masked men, who jumps back slightly when he opens his eyes. He laughs and apologizes but predictably doesn't get a response, and he follows the three of them out of the airship when the door opens. He walks through the now familiar halls to the throne room, trying to see if anything had changed in his absence. He's sat at the same table as before and left with a similar spread of snacks, and when the figures leave him alone he snags a few things off the plate and starts walking around, looking up at old paintings of people and landscapes, walking to stand in front of a massive tapestry that hung from floor to ceiling and stretched across an entire wall. The door opens once again, and he doesn’t have to wonder who it is because seconds later he has an armful of the Koopa child who had befriended him last time he was here.

"Luigi! Welcome back!! You look so pretty!" Junior hugs him tightly and he returns it, "hi! thank you, what have you been up to?" He responds, and listens as the child regales his last two months, from how he's doing in school to all the trouble he got into around the palace.

He's so focused on Junior’s story that he doesn't hear the door opening again, but when the kid looks over his shoulder and wriggles out of his hold, he turns and is met with the sight of Bowser walking over to them. "Papa! Luigi is back!" the kid says and Bowser chuckles, "I told you he would be. Peaches has a plan, remember?" before turning to Luigi with a warm expression.

"New dress?" he nods, "it looks good! You look good." Luigi blushes and spins, catching Bowser staring at the expanse of his back when he turns around.

The man rubs at his neck, embarrassed, "how was the trip? Stay awake this time?"

The Omega laughs, "no actually. But I fell asleep this time," cheeks coloring at the realization that Bowser knew he had fainted when he first got kidnapped."And it wasn't my fault I passed out the first time! Those guys snuck up on me, and they're creepy !"

The Alpha shoots him a look that says suuure , "don't worry about it, Greenie. They're cool, even if they don't talk much. Honestly I think I've only heard one of them speak one time, so I don't know what they've got going on but they're loyal and good at what they do, so I just let them kinda do their own thing."

Luigi nods, "well that makes me feel better about the head nod one of them gave me earlier.”

"Oh yeah. That's kind of their thing, the head nods. At least I know they can hear what I'm saying." They continue to catch up, Junior running off somewhere when the conversation gets too boring for him to pay attention anymore. They end up sitting back at the table, eating and listening to each other talk

"So, how was your time back in the Mushroom Kingdom?" Bowser draws out the last two words with a snooty accent, and Luigi giggles.

"Well it was nice to be back, to see everyone, and to help the Princess plan this whole thing. I do have to say, it's nice to be back. I missed being here." I missed you is left unsaid, but it seems like the King reads in between the lines, smiling at him softly,

"Really? Like me that much, do you?" his teasing earns him a smack on the arm, "I'm glad you're back, Luigi, really. Once Peaches told me that Mario knew of the plan the day after she told you, I wasn't sure you'd actually... come back?"

The uncertainty in Bowser's eyes reignites the spark of annoyance he had with his brother, and he sighs. "He... wasn't happy about it. Pretty unhappy, actually. He certainly had a lot of things to say about everyone involved..." Bowser raises an eyebrow, " everyone ...?" he asks, looking Luigi up and down.

"Everyone," he answers, "especially me. He couldn't understand why I would want-" Luigi cuts himself off from accidentally just confessing to his crush less than a day after returning. "Why you would want what? What did he say to you?"

Luigi saves that trainwreck for another day, "why I wanted to come back, why I wanted to help. He doesn't understand the concept of a redemption arc, I guess. He was just being dramatic, telling me I didn't understand because I was an Omega and how the Princess would be begging on her knees for his help within the week.”

Bowser rolls his eyes, "Yeah right. I don't think I've heard the princess beg on her knees for anything in the past decade, especially not for help from an Alpha."

Luigi blanches at that, "a decade?? I thought Peach was only like, 22?? How old are you? How long have you guys been planning this?"

He gets a full on laugh from the King, "oh, I'm sure she would love to hear that the next time you see her. We both took our thrones young, I know I was 16 and we had our coronations the same summer, so that would have made her.... 14?" At Luigi's shock, he makes a face, "I know, 14 seems a little intense. But she's always been smart, and when I kidnapped her for the first time she had an alliance drafted before the week was over. By that point she had been Queen for like three years? So she'd signed so many alliance and trading agreements that she pretty much did that one in her sleep. Her advisors were understandably not happy about the whole kidnapping thing, so they were not even considering an alliance . Especially considering her parents and my father are the reason the borders are closed in the first place."

The Omega hums, watching the man in front of him speak, hands moving any time he recalls something intensely, "So we worked out a plan, I would kidnap her and bring her back here and she would look over court documents and ledgers and help me pull together everything, since my father left it all a f*cking mess. Which worked for a while, until a couple years ago when a couple of brothers fell down here and started coming to collect her quicker than her staff had been able to."

He glares at Luigi playfully, "things kind of stalled because of that, but now you're here helping me, and if you're half as good as Peaches says I think we'll probably make better progress than we did before."

He blushes at the compliment, " wow . I had no clue you guys had been working on this for so long. I'm glad I can come here and help, especially since it's partly my fault that it's been so hard to get anything done."

The Alpha watches him with amusem*nt, "Like I said, I'm glad you're back. Come on, I wanna show you some of the stuff that's changed since you left. Not much, but it's stuff I think you'll find interesting."

Luigi nods, smiling, and they're off down the halls so that Bowser can point out some of the art that had been changed, some of the rooms that had been repurposed into something new like Junior's new art studio, and some of the fabrics and furniture dressings that had been changed to reflect the rising temperatures of the coming summer. They also went by the back garden and the kitchen, where Luigi noticed that small sprouts of some of the herbs he had suggested to the chef had been planted alongside the newer seasonal crops, and the staff in the kitchen were all happy to see Luigi again and insisted that the offer from before was still open and he could come down and cook or watch whenever he felt like it, especially now that he was here for longer.

As they're walking up to Luigi's room so he can get settled back in, a question pops into his head, "How many people know about why I'm really here? That you're getting help from me and Peach?"

Bowser looks at him oddly, "what do you mean? Everyone knows."

"Everyone?" he asks, and Bowser laughs, "inside the castle, yeah. There really aren't that many people here, not like how it is at Peach's, so word gets around easily and quickly especially with the help of my son."

They both laugh at that, remembering the full breakdown of his school class's dynamic and drama that he got last time he was here. They talk a little more before they make it to his room, and when they're standing in front of his door Luigi is reminded of the last time they were like this. He steps up closer to the man, who looks just as surprised as last time, and takes his hand, once again bringing it up to his face and running his nose across the gland, the spicy smokiness that Luigi had been thinking about for months invading his senses once again.

Bowser smirks, taking his other hand and kissing it, "welcome back, Omega," he flips it over and noses along a slender wrist, pupils dilating when they meet Luigi's.

They stay like that for longer than is probably necessary considering they're standing in the hallway where anyone could just walk past. When they part they're both breathing heavy, half-drunk on pheromones, Bowser leaves him to his room with another kiss on the hand, a key to the guest room, and a reminder that dinner would be ready in a few hours.

The room is largely exactly how he left it, save for the heavier winter furniture being switched for something more light and breathable. His luggage was sitting by his bed, and he spent the next couple hours unpacking everything, with a break thrown in to call Peach and let her know he made it okay. He hops in the shower and relaxes under the water, enjoying the heat and pressure that his shower at home lacked, and spends the better part of an hour taking advantage of all of the products left for him. By the time he gets out there's still about an hour until dinner, so he slips back into his dress and shoes and looks around his room some more. He finds a couple more books he's interested in and a gaming console for the tv with a few games and movies tucked into a corner of the cabinet by the fireplace and puts them to the side to look through them when he gets back. A few more minutes later he's scrolling on his phone and there's a knock at his door; when he opens it to find Kammy on the other side, he smiles and greets her warmly. They catch up on the way to the dining room, and he learns that her and her brother have been working on some new stuff in the lab, top secret of course. When they get there, Bowser is shuffling through a stack of papers that he hands to Kammy with a nod when Luigi sits across from him.

"Get settled in okay?" Bowser asks him and he nods, the two of them eating and talking about what exactly Luigi would be doing here, "I figure that it might give you a better idea of where we're picking up from if I show you the work we've done so far, so we can start on that tomorrow, if you want. It'll be a lot of reading, but I can answer any of your questions."

Luigi hums, "That's fine! I like reading. Are you sure you can just spend all day answering my questions? I don't want to keep you from anything important."

Bowser huffs a laugh, "There's really not that much going on around here, I swear. I would be happy to answer your questions. Also, if you're interested, as ambassador it would make sense for you to sit in on meetings, right? That way you can get everything from the source."

"Wait, really? Are you sure?" Luigi asks, and Bowser nods his agreement. With that out of the way the conversation bleeds into more fun topics, like all the places he wants to take Luigi and what the human wants to do while he’s free from his brother and his adventuring obligations.

The days pass quickly after his first one, spent as promised holed up in the library until Luigi had read everything and Bowser had answered all of his questions, and he’s pretty much given free reign of the place after he sits in on his first meeting. He's only stumbled across a few places he was denied entry, the lab where Kammy and Kamek develop their magic techniques and a large stone door he came across down leading to the basem*nt that was locked, which is fine, he thinks with a shudder, because he wasn't planning on going down there anyways. He makes a lot of friends in the castle, particularly in the kitchen where he's teaching the chef how to properly use the spices available and making more suggestions on which ones to plant for next season and with Bowser’s advisors Kammy and Kamek, and he updates the princess after his first handful of meetings with pages of information he'd gathered. Luigi had been entirely silent for the first few meetings, assuming that the room full of Alphas and Betas wouldn't take kindly to any suggestions by an Omega. It's not like he didn't have ideas, but years and years of being shot down at school or ignored completely in meetings and professional conversations taught him he might just be better off keeping them to himself. That all changed one night; it had been raining all day, heavy and loud against the windows, and the meeting he was sitting in had been going on for hours. Frustrated with the useless back and forth from most of the room of dignitaries, he blurted out the suggestion he had been sitting on for most of the meeting. Everyone turns to look at him, and he slaps a hand over his mouth and looks at Bowser, panicked. He’d expected him to be mad, since he had spoken without being addressed and was just supposed to be observing, but the King just gives him a small smile and motions for him to continue. He ends up being able to steer the conversation towards an agreement quickly, and Bowser looks pleased with his contribution. After that, he was encouraged to actively participate in meetings, sometimes even being asked for directly when a new perspective was needed.

Another well-timed question from Peach while Luigi was distracted by the King stretching out across a daybed in the garden during their next phone call turns his subsequent updates into gossip sessions that mostly consisted of Peach trying to get Luigi to talk about his interactions with the man they were trying to help. And as much as he likes to deny it over the phone, he’s starting to think that his little crush is turning into something… not so little. After dinner the first night Bowser eats almost every meal with him, breakfasts in Luigi’s living room or the garden, lunches in Bowser’s office or the library, and what has now become a nightly tradition of eating dinner together in the dining room and catching up about their days even when they’d spent a majority of them together. Junior shyly asks to join once and is obviously given permission, prompting him to eat his meals with Luigi whenever he feels like it, even if his father isn’t there and Luigi isn’t eating, just sitting across the table listening to the child talk about his day at school, or some new piece of music he’d learned, or whatever plant was blooming. One day, after a particularly taxing day of meetings where Bowser has to stay behind and talk about something with a few of his advisors, Luigi gets lost in the twists and turns of the hallways outside of one of the meeting rooms. He swears the door he went through was the door he came in, but he just keeps opening doors and finding hallways that he’s never seen. Eventually, he pushes through a set of large doors onto what seems to be some kind of porch, partially enclosed stone spilling out in a garden that was similar to the ones he’d been in before, but smaller. There are tall stone walls surrounding the plants and flowers planted there, and a small sitting area in the center. He sits down on one of the oversized daybeds, resigning himself to taking a break before he tries to navigate his way back to his room. He’s so relaxed, facing away from the door he’d come out of and trying to pick out all the different kinds of plants he’s seeing, that he doesn’t hear the door open nor does he hear the Koopa King coming down the stairs towards him.

“How’d you find your way out here?” Bowser’s quiet voice makes him jump, and he turns around in his spot with wide eyes.

“ Jesus Christ! ” Luigi yelps, and starts laughing, “I’m sorry, you just scared me. I got lost coming out of that meeting, and I ended up here… Where is this? By the way? This wasn’t included in the tour.”

Bowser chuckles, “This is a private garden, supposed to be for the royal family. Junior uses it a lot, but I rarely come out here.”

He cringes at the thought of invading the man’s personal space, “I’m so sorry! Gosh, let me get outta here then, I didn’t mean to intrude!” He moves to get up, to hurry his way through the large doors that had led him out here, but Bowser stops him with a hand on his arm.

“You don’t gotta do all that! Like I said, I usually don’t come out here. I’m glad someone other than Junior is enjoying it, would you like to look around some more?”

Luigi nods shyly after a moment, looking first to the man’s hand on his arm and then up to his face. They spend a long time in the garden, much more time than is entirely necessary, considering this garden was smaller than all the others, but Luigi isn’t complaining. When the sun starts its descent behind the horizon Bowser turns to him,

“We should probably head back inside, they’ll be serving dinner soon. Did you enjoy your time out here?” He nods, and in an unusual bout of confidence he grabs the man’s hands, “I did! Thank you for showing me this, it’s so beautiful…” Bowser is looking at him with an unreadable expression, eyes darting between their joined hands and Luigi’s face. His eyes dart to Bowser's mouth, and he watches a small smirk form as he snaps his gaze back up to make eye contact. When he reaches the lizard’s eyes, though, he notices Bowser’s eyes are on his lips, Luigi watching hooded eyes track his tongue as it pokes out to wet his lips. He shuts his eyes, leaning forward slightly and tilting his head. He can feel Bowser’s hand on his face, his breath on his lips, closing in slowly, before he hears the bushes behind him rustling loudly.

“Your highness, your highness! I have an important update about the situation in the city! Your presence is needed immediately in the conference room.”

Luigi pulls his hands back like he’d been burned, and he can feel Bowser rest their foreheads together and huff out an annoyed breath against his face.

“Sir! This is important, ple-” as he breaks through the bushes, the goomba immediately clams up at the sight before him, “I apologize, sir, I was unaware you had company with you out here. Please make your way to the conference room as soon as you can.”

With that, the goomba scurries off down the path back to the castle, and Bowser cups his cheek before standing, offering his arm to Luigi, “I’ll take you back to your room.”

The walk back through the castle was silent, but not awkward, and soon enough he was back at the large double doors in front of his room.

“Thank you again for the tour, I had a really good time today. Will I see you again soon? I definitely understand running a kingdom is a busy job, but I enjoy our time together.” Luigi looks up at the man through his lashes, and he catches Bowser looking at him with a fond expression.

“You’re precious, Greenie. I’ll be back tomorrow to fill you in on the meeting. Kammy should be by later with your dinner.” To his surprise, he’s pulled into a light hug, and he wraps his arms around the dragon’s neck tightly before pulling away, “good night, Bowser.” Luigi slips inside his room, and immediately slides down the door, giggling and holding his head in his hands. Who would have thought Luigi's super secret unobtainable crush is… showing interest in him? He runs through their interactions today, and presses his hands into the blush on his cheeks. He really should be more focused on the actual reason he’s here, having learned some very useful information about the kingdom to use in his case in support of Peach’s alliance. He finds a notebook in one of the nightstands, and writes down any information he thinks would be important for his first update with the princess before hopping in the shower, washing off the activities of the day and returning to his thoughts of the King.

After dropping Luigi off in his room, Bowser heads back through the castle to the conference room. His body was still tingling from the hug they shared, and his brain was overrun with thoughts of the small human. It's become a problem, how enamored he is with the man, but his advisors know better than to call him out on it. He’s been… admiring from afar for a little while now, but never being able to get a word in because his stupid red brother takes it upon himself to try and beat his ass every time they see each other. Luigi also has quite a habit of fainting, something that he’d noticed over the times he’d been face to face with him. He’s honestly surprised that there hadn’t been more fainting when he’d first been brought here, but it wasn’t like he was complaining. When he didn’t have someone in his ear telling him how bad Bowser was, Luigi actually held quite an enjoyable conversation. And he didn’t seem scared of him, which was always a plus. He really hadn’t meant to try and kiss the man, but he had just listened so intently to Bowser’s story, and he was so cute, big blue eyes staring deeply into his eyes as Bowser opened up about his past. And the hug, he really hadn’t meant to do that, but he just couldn’t help it. Contrary to his rough and tough persona, Bowser was really just a big softie. He was incredibly doting to his kid, many times tipping the scale into full on spoiling, but hey, he deserved it! He doesn’t want Junior to grow up in a household like he had, the least he could do was provide him with the things he wanted. And even though he had never really been in a serious relationship seeing as his reign as king started at the age of 16, he’s secretly a big romantic. Hence the reason he tried so hard with the princess before having to just accept that she didn’t want him that way. After their almost marriage, which honestly turned him off of the entire idea of marriage, he had kind of thought they had… trauma-bonded? In a way? And he’s not going to lie, the first time he kidnapped her he was kind of thinking about trying to date her and she very quickly shut him down, but not for the reason he’d thought.

He’d always been kind of an outcast, his larger frame and royal status pushing most of the children his age away when he was growing up, but he’d rewarded the few friends he did make with positions in his court, many of them generals or lords over smaller towns outside of the castle. His social status didn’t stop him from going full steam ahead when he had a romantic interest in someone though, which resulted in many embarrassing and public rejections even before he met Peach. She didn’t make fun of him, or ridicule him, she just simply explained that she didn’t feel that way about him, or anyone for that matter, and that she thought they would be much better off as friends. His inner romantic is rearing its head again, though, and he is already falling hard for Luigi. He honestly can’t help it though, the man’s kindness and generosity paired with his devastatingly pretty face had Bowser weak at the knees. He’s distracted by thoughts of the small man through his entire meeting, only retaining enough information about his upcoming royal tour that he would have enough to satiate the human’s anxious curiosity when they meet again tomorrow.

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Chapter Text

Something is definitely different between the two of them after the garden. Even though they were... interrupted, their moment alone is proof enough that there's clearly something going on between them, and regardless of their mutual inability to talk about their feelings it's clear that they're both feelingtheir feelings. Luigi’s anxiety about his stay in the Darklands isn’t something he thinks about often, but the first time he goes into town with Bowser and his son, he's so f*cking nervous he damn near passes out. He hasn't even been back for a full month when his lunch is interrupted by a small but mighty knock on his door. He gets about as far as getting up from his seat and walking two steps towards the door before it swings open and Junior is running in excitedly.

"Luigi! We're going to the city today! You have to come with us, pleeeeeease?"

He's caught so off guard that he doesn't answer right away, and he hears a familiar voice from the door, "You heard the kid, you haveto come..." Bowser is walking over to him and rubbing a hand across the back of his neck.

He throws the Alpha a good-natured glare, "you know, I'm starting to think you're using your kid to get me to spend time with you." He's only half joking, there's been at least three times in the past week Junior has insisted on his presence for something only to be followed closely behind by his father who would never refuse him anything, even when there isn't anything in it for himself.

His teasing gets him a blush and a dramatic hand gesture, "Hey! He's the one that asked, not me! I'm just here for moral support."

Junior looks between the two of them, a thoughtful expression crossing his features before he turns to his dad, "Hold on, I better still be getting that ice cream you promised me papa!"

Bowser smacks a hand on his forehead and Luigi laughs loudly, "well obviously you're right, I haveto come. You'll have to tell me what flavor is the best, because now I want ice cream."

He'd been pretty excited at first, because as much as he's enjoying his scenery at the castle Luigi has always been one for exploring, even in cities he's lived his whole life, for finding places he's never been and then going there just because he can. Now though, his anxiety about going out in public to a town full of people that know him and his face from the countless times he and his brother have come through in search of the princess is skyrocketing. For all he knows, his face could be up on wanted posters around the f*cking town square. The people that lived here weren't happy to see him any other time he'd been through on jobs, what would be different about today? All he has is a new job, it's not like he's a new person. Apparently his anxiety is spiking enough to mess with his scent, because Junior is asking him why he smells "stormy" and crawling over his lap in the ship they've taken to the town to point his favorite "landmarks" out to Luigi through the window. He's got to admit, the distraction works wonders, and by the time they're getting out of the ship he's less anxious and more wondering if it's more impressive that there's at least one statue of Bowser every two miles or that he apparently hadn't requested a single one of them be built.

After his initial trip into the city there are many more, with Junior and Bowser and then with Kammy and Kamek as he realizes that no one in any of the towns he'd torn through before seemed to even be upset with him in the slightest. Apparently, word had traveled outside the castle about what exactly he was doing here, Luigi suspects a certain Crown Prince might have had a hand in that, and everyone he meets seems to appreciate what he's doing.

By the time Luigi's stay in the Darklands extends from weeks into a month and then two being scented by the Alpha in lieu of a greeting becomes his new normal, and he's absolutely elated to be able to scent him back literally whenever he feels like it. A touch of his lips to Bowser's wrist on the way out of a particularly stressful meeting, the pressure of Bowser's nose of the back of his neck as he's reading over his notes for Peach, and even brushing their wrists together in passing when they cross paths going about their daily lives in the castle. Luigi has taken to spending a lot of his free time in the kitchen, learning from the staff about traditional Darklands cuisine and teaching them some recipes that he'd learned from his family. If he's honest, the people he's making friends with here are starting to feel like more of his family than the one he was born into. Kammy has become his best friend in the castle, Luigi offhandedly thinks, her status as Bowser's right hand woman meant that they spent a lot of time together going over paperwork and notes from meetings, trying to pull together information and brainstorm. Her initial description of herself, as much as Luigi had protested it at the time, turned out to be an accurate description after all. Not that he minded per say, but Kammy was definitely a talker. At first it had just been about the plan, rapid fire suggestions for ways to prove the Darklands would be a beneficial ally, but when she walks into one of their meetings ranting about the exactsame reality tv show Luigi had just gotten off the phone to Daisy about, most of their meetings turn into something reminiscent of his and Princess Peach's "lunch meetings", more gossiping and laughing about stupid things they'd seen online than getting any actual work done.

The more he goes into a town with Bowser, the more he catches the people there watching on in amusem*nt as he walks around arm in arm with their King, and Luigi swears he's seen a leaderboard hung up in the kitchen's dry storage for who has interrupted one of their "moments" the most. He knows the closet is glass, so to speak, even to the two of them. I mean, they spend almost an hour every night just scenting each other until they're both drunk on it. Jesus, they haven't even kissed yet and Luigi has already stopped trying to ignore his inner Omega's attempts at getting him to act on his feelings. He can tell Bowser stops fighting with himself over it when little gifts start piling up around his rooms.

Flowers, pretty jewelry, clothes and shoes he'd pointed out as cute in passing, skincare, lotions, perfumes; anything Luigi even looked at for more than 10 seconds somehow found its way into his possession, left around his room with a note or given to him at random by the Alpha as he went about his days in the castle. He does try to reciprocate somehow, but he's shut down immediately every time, admittedly pretty romantically but frustratingly all the same, by Bowser's insistence that being allowed to be so close to the human was more than enough. His anxiety tries to claw at him sometimes about the lack of calling their little back and forth what it is, but at the end of the day he's happy and not really bothered by the lack of a title to their situation, and it doesn't seem like Bowser is either, so he's content to just enjoy their flirting and little touches while he can.

Bowser is bothered. He's so f*cking bothered. The time since Luigi had shown up at his castle had been some of the best days he'd had in a long while, and he feels like he honestly might be falling in love with the small human. He wasn't expecting much from his arrival, to be honest, since he and the Mario brothers had a pretty rocky past to begin with, but as soon as he laid eyes on the man in the throne room his Alpha had been on overdrive, and his self-control is only tested further as they get closer, the last shreds of it crumbling away on a return trip from one of the farther away cities he'd taken Luigi to on a day trip. The Omega had fallen asleep, curled up in a blanket beside Bowser as the King read something from a folder of quarterly statements he'd gotten earlier in the day. The man shifts in his sleep, stretching out further and pushing the flat of his arms into the side of Bowser's leg, and Bowser looks away from the papers and down at the Omega who had relaxed back into the couch. His hand moves before he can think about it, carding through brown curls and running his thumb over a cheekbone. He freezes, both at Luigi's sleepy noise and the realization of his actions, before the Omega nuzzles into his hand, smiling against the skin. He relaxes back into the couch and finishes reading without moving his hand, and they stay like that until the airship lands at the castle. Every day after that he can no longer fight the urge to be as close as possible to the Omega and touching at almost all times. He stops fighting his Alpha's courting instinct the first time the two of them stand scenting each other for an hour, and soon he's buying everything he sees that even remotely reminds him of the man and finding any excuse he can to be close to him. Most recently, they had started watching some soap opera Luigi stumbled across leaving the tv on during his daily morning routine. They each had their theories on who would end up being the killer, Luigi rooting for the sister while Bowser took the typical route of blaming the butler, which the Omega constantly poked fun at him for. Currently they're sprawled out on a couch in front of Bowser's absolutely enormous tv, curtains drawn and eyes glued to the screen. The Alpha is relaxed against the cushions, sitting up with one arm leaning on the side of the couch and one arm slung across the back while Luigi is laying on his side, head resting on an arm that's propped up on Bowser's thigh, his legs stretched down the length of the couch. When its revealed that both of their theories are true, the butler and the sister teaming up to murder one of the last remaining characters, Luigi pulls a large hand from the back of the couch to hide his face, peeking an eye out to sneakily watch the gruesome scene play out. He can feel his heartbeat, thrumming strong just under the skin as Luigi's nose unconsciously rubs against the tendons in his wrist. He grips the arm tighter when an intense part plays, and the scent of spices and fire grows strong and heady between them. The human pauses his assault when Bowser lets out a soft growl, blue eyes shooting up to meet red ones before looking between the Alpha's face and his wrist, twisting to sit up on the couch away from him.

"I'm so sorry, I just got so involved in the show, I didn't realize what I was doing." He looks so disappointed with himself, Bowser can't help the sympathetic whine that leaves his throat at his expression, "don't be sorry, Omega. I would have stopped you if I didn't like it."

Luigi's shoulders loosen a little, but he still looks upset with himself for giving into his instincts so easily. That won't do, he thinks, and Bowser sends a prayer up to whoever is listening that what he's about to try isn't gonna backfire on him. Smirking, he asks, "What do I smell like?" and at first all he gets is an eye roll in response, "It was a scary scene! I was just hiding, it's not my fault your arm was the closest thing!"

Bowser huffs, "Come on, I know I'm a little dense but I'm not stupid. I'm not judging you, I'm just asking a question. What do I smell like?" and he gets a response this time, spoken quietly after a sigh as he looks at an invisible point off to the side, "you smell...nice. Kind of like a campfire, but spicy."

Leave it to Luigi to find a way to turn the situation on its head, looking up at the Alpha through his lashes, "What do I smell like? Don't think I didn't notice, I know my shampoo doesn't smell that good."

The thing is, he's totally right, Bowser had been sneaking, or so he thought, sniffs of the smaller man's hair when he thought he wouldn't notice, breathing deeply and relaxing in the scent of lavender and rain. Even though he's much more shameless than Luigi, the words still fall from his mouth without his consent, "so goodyou don't even understand"

The Omega is twisting in his hold to face him, cheeks red, "Hey! I don't deserve an actual description?" and Bowser is tilting his head and looking the human up and down, "you smell so good, like a garden after a storm. Soft and pretty. Pretty fitting, honestly, given your personality."

He smirks down at Luigi, who tries to hide his smile behind a hand and an eye roll. "thank you. was that so hard?" Luigi asks coyly, and Bowser decides to push his luck even further by scooping up the smaller man into his lap, legs sinking into the thick cushions of the couch. He can't tell right away whether or not he's gotten away with it, but when the Omega relaxes in his hold he knows he's at least made it this far. "Comfy?" he asks teasingly, and Luigi just nods, face red, as they settle in to watch the last few episodes of the show, large arms coming to wrap around a slim waist.

Sitting like this, Bowser can feel every shift and jump Luigi makes, more and more frequent as the show they're watching ramps up to the final showdown. His new hiding place seems to be the dragon's neck, tucking his nose into the skin every time a loud noise or flashing screen caught him off guard. He's not complaining, though, the new position allowing him access to the soft skin of the Omega's neck, inhaling deeply every time he got a chance and trying to memorize the subtle shifts in the man's scent as he got scared or excited by the show. Eventually Luigi settles permanently against Bowser's neck, twisting his neck towards the tv and relaxing further against the warm body underneath him. During a slow part of the episode they're watching, the one before the finale, Luigi turns his head into Bowser's neck and breathes deeply, nosing along the scent gland poking out slightly from the tight expanse of skin. Large hands tighten their hold in their places against the human's waist and he shifts his gaze from the screen to the expanse of skin between Luigi's shirt collar and his hairline. He can't help the way he stretches to run his nose along the muscles in Luigi's neck when the human unknowingly lets out a small chirp of contentment at the scent pouring out of the gland on his neck and he smiles against soft skin when the action grants him a second one. He runs a hand up the Omega's back to thread through soft hair encouragingly as the end of one episode bleeds into the opening of the next. Bowser jumps slightly in surprise at the feeling of soft lips grazing the rough skin of his throat, dragging back and forth over his scent gland. On the next pass of lips he relaxes entirely into the couch, legs spreading and pulling the body on top of his closer. He can feel Luigi start to pull back gasping quietly when he realizes he's accidentally taken it farther than they've taken it before, mostly just brushes of noses against cheeks or wrists or necks. But Bowser is quicker, squeezing the skin under his hands reassuringly with a soft press of lips against his neck, mirroring the Omega's actions and running his lips across the subtle bump under his skin. He chances a small swipe of his tongue to lap up the sweet scent straight from the source, and he can feel Luigi's body relax against him, letting out a relieved sounding sigh and peeking his tongue out for a cautious taste. Eventually he can't stand not knowing the taste of the Omega's lips, and he captures them with his own. And f*ck if that wasn't probably the smartest idea Bowser has had in years. Luigi is immediately very into it, moaning softly as he brings a hand up to thread his fingers through red hair and tracing the Alpha's bottom lip with his tongue. They stay like that for a long time, ignoring the big plot twist at the end of the season in favor of nuzzling against each other, both trying to memorize the heady scents coming from the other. This new style of scenting quickly becomes their favorite, and Luigi can imagine the leaderboard that definitely notin the kitchen is filling up rather quickly with the amount of times they've fallen asleep tangled together somewhere and been woken up by the staff just trying to do their jobs.