Forbidden Fruit (A Bowigi Fanfic)

Take Two

Luigi seemed to be incredibly uncomfortable. He shifted under Bowser's stare. The king looked away. He'd thought maybe sending the others out of the room could help. He knew Amakeshil could be a little intense. Hopefully, they didn't scare Greenie too much. Perhaps he was always this anxious when he wasn't drinking strange mystery wine.

Or maybe he's thinking about how great yesterday's interrogation went, Bowser's mind supplied.

As he opened his mouth to speak, Luigi straightened up in his chair. "I'm ready."

"What?"

"Do your worst." Luigi swallowed, he looked like he was trying to put on a brave face though terrified. It was amazing how even though he was scared so often, he always did his best to stay strong.

"This will not be a repeat of yesterday," as much as he normally loved the power, there was something about the way Luigi feared him. It wasn't like the unbridled fear and the strict obedience of many of his subjects. He seemed almost sad to have this fear like he wanted to trust him but couldn't. It hurt.

"Not even last night?" He barely heard the almost disappointed whisper from the man. If Luigi hadn't immediately covered his mouth with his free hand, Bowser would have thought he'd been mistaken.

"Actually, I uh-" Why did he keep stumbling over his words? To be fair to himself, Bowser did have plenty of reason to be nervous. Luigi was one of the most brilliant war strategists he'd ever encountered, not to mention devastating on the battlefield. The rest about him seemed to be a well-guarded mystery. Bowser's spies struggled to even find his name. He was that valuable of an asset to the Mushroom Kingdom. It wouldn't be surprising if Luigi had a tremendous influence over the Princess and her subjects. He took a deep breath. " I wanted to ask you a bit about that."

Luigi shifted his weight and nodded.

Bowser continued, "Are you ok?"

Luigi exhaled, seemingly relieved and smiled up at Bowser. "I'm not even hungover! Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I can handle wine, even whatever that was," the king laughed at the memory of the night before.

Luigi didn't laugh. "Are you sure? You looked like you'd seen a boo this morning."

Bowser sighed. He was hoping he wouldn't have to address that. "I was told you died," he whispered.

"Isn't that good for you?" Luigi blurted out and tried to tug out of his restraints.

Before he even had a chance to panic, Bowser shut it down with a simple. "No."

There was a moment of silence while Bowser nonchalantly cut the handcuffs off Luigi with a flick of his claw. To the king's surprise, Luigi didn't run. He waited expectantly for an explanation. Bowser sighed again. This was tough.

"If I were to kill you, a hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, your brother would kill me. We always stop once the Princess is retrieved, stars, he may even kill me this time."

"He won't."

"Huh?"

"He won't kill you this time - unless you decide to stop being yourself."

Bowser growled at that last part. What was that supposed to mean?

"Uh, what I meant to say-" Luigi stammered as Bowser bared his fangs. "I don't think, I- at least I hope, your true self wasn't who I saw in the last interrogation but instead last night."

The man's hand began to glow and it felt as if a switch had been flipped in Bowser's brain. He wanted to stay angry, he still had an image to maintain but Luigi was right. Last night was much closer to who he was. Or at least wanted to be. It was the most relaxed he's felt since a very, very long time ago. Most importantly though, the mysterious unpredictable magic was back.

And he had to help.

Before he could even reach the plumber he had thrown himself backward onto the ground.

"No, don't touch it! I don't want you to get hurt again!"

Bowser stopped his approach but was now more concerned. "How can I help?"

"I don't know," Luigi was curled up against the wall cradling his hand. Bowser knew this was his fault. He may be a terrible monster but he had to try to fix what he'd done.

Bowser slowly kneeled down on the floor and sat in front of Luigi. "I'm sorry, I'm not going to touch you. Do you think we can do that breathing exercise we did last night?"

"Will... it... be... followed... by... the... wine?" Luigi managed to gasp out. He was joking, that was good.

Together the two were able to work as a team to get the hand to stop glowing. This time it took almost half the time it did before. Once Luigi's breath had returned to normal he held Bowser's uninjured hand.

"Thank you."

"No," Bowser shook his head. "It was my fault."

Luigi thought for a moment and then chuckled. "I guess so, you're just big and scary."

Bowser scrunched his face in confusion. "Is that funny?"

"I laugh when I'm nervous. And I'm sorry for saying -"

"You did nothing wrong. You're almost correct about me."

Luigi tilted his head and patted the spot on the floor next to him. This was definitely the strangest interrogation that had ever happened within the castle walls but Bowser couldn't deny he liked it. He turned and sat down next to the man and took a deep breath.

"You can talk to me, I mean, realistically, after Mario comes and I escape, we'll probably never have a chance like this again." Luigi let him take time to think. Another rarity he seldom experienced. Bowser didn't like the sound of never but he knew Luigi was right.

"How can I know you won't tell the Princess, or use this against me?" Bowser did not need Peach to know he had any shortcomings. She'd attack those instantly and he feared Luigi would do so further down the line.

Luigi cringed. "She uh... I wouldn't tell her." He paused. "I don't know how to say this but... she doesn't like you, man." He looked like he'd hide in his shell if he had one.

Bowser was surprised. Did Peach lie to Luigi about that too? He thought Luigi was in on that piece of propaganda. Stars, he wouldn't have been surprised if Luigi had started it. It certainly painted him in a pretty bad light. After the shock wore off he chuckled and shook his head.

"Princess Peach Toadstool might just be my least favourite person in the world."