Locked Away

The Marriage Part 2

Peach was almost falling asleep as she listened to various aristocrats and military leaders drone on and on about how 'great' Bowser was, her eyes drooping slightly but finding it impossible to even contemplate falling asleep in the uncomfortable throne. Instead, she busied herself with looking around the great hall, trying to distract herself. 

Her eyes were glazing over despite her best efforts to pay attention, and she gradually lost interest in the world around her. However, she was harshly jolted back to reality by a loud *thud* that made her jump about a mile on her seat. Looking around frantically, her gaze came to rest on the honour guard, where one of the boy Koopalings, Larry, she thinks his name is, was laying face down on the carpeted floor, seemingly unconscious.

She threw a look over at Bowser, who glanced disdainfully at his adopted son for a second before focusing his attention elsewhere, glowing with pride at the compliments the important guests were showering on him. Peach shifted in her seat, wanting to help; she may not like the Koopalings; in fact, she downright hated some of them, but it didn't make sense for somebody else to have to suffer today. Besides, she would have thought that Bowser would at least have the decency to be concerned about his son. After all, Larry couldn't be more than 12, he was far too young to even be doing this anyway!

"Did he seriously just pass Larry over like that? That's cold even for Bowser." Peach frowned without noticing, feeling uneasy. She decided to mimic Bowser and ignore it; although she wasn't happy about it, she had her own problems.

After what felt like an eternity, the last of the guests has finished their speech, and someone she couldn't see announced some sort of dance. Peach wasn't paying attention, and was startled by Bowser hauling her out of her throne and practically dragging her down to the main floor, pulling her along so quickly that Peach accidentally collided with Lemmy and nearly knocked the small Koopa flat.

The dreadful music started up again, a badly-played melody that was obviously written for slow dancing. Peach begrudgingly allowed Bowser to hold her wrists in his signature steel grip, not even attempting to fight it anymore, more concerned that Bowser might step on her foot. Who wouldn't be? He weighed, like, 600 pounds. Peach had to take massive sideways steps to keep up with Bowser, and kept looking past his shoulder. Wendy was dancing with some noble a few feet away, looking highly uncomfortable. Iggy and Lemmy looked like they were about to cry, although Peach didn't know why. Kamek was whispering to Kammy in a corner, seemingly anxious to avoid dancing.

Despite her current position, Peach nearly laughed at the way Ludwig's expression scrunched up slightly with disgust every time the organ player hit a bad note, and Bowser clearly mistook her faint smile for her enjoying the dance, and waved his hand in a signal for the music to speed up. Peach was suddenly jerked along like a ragdoll as the tempo sped up, nearly falling over between a combination of her shoes, her dress and the fast pace. Wendy actually did fall over, and Peach could feel Bowser tense up when he noticed. 

Wendy looked exhausted as she picked herself up off the floor, one of the shoulders of her dress having slipped down. Before she could pull it back up to its proper place, Peach distinctly saw the unmistakable faint purple mark of a recovering bruise. Wendy noticed Peach looking and her expression immediately changed to scorn, turning her shell on the princess. Peach didn't have time to contemplate it much as she was swung round again to another cheery song that seemed so out of place in the melancholic atmosphere around her.

Peach didn't notice just how out of breath she was until the horrible music stopped again, and she was led back up to her throne, panting and trying to catch her breath, sweat running down her face. Wendy practically limped back to her place by the side of the aisle, discreetly rubbing her ankles and wincing. Kamek just looked happy that it was over. Most people didn't sit back down again, instead they milled around talking and gossiping to each other, their words merging into something resembling the chatter of bats in Peach's tired mind.