Luigi And The King - 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."

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.

Luigi And The King - Chapter 1 - 2000pepper (2024)

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