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.
