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The first time was a mistake. Honestly Luigi was too scared to confront anyone, especially not the Queen of the Koopas. Yet here she was finding room in her schedule for small talk with her previous captor. It’s not like she was busy in the evenings anyways, her and Mario only worked in the mornings. In the afternoons her brother would spend time with the princess or go off on random adventures, Luigi felt like she was wasting her time in comparison. She didn’t know or understand the Mushroom Kingdom as well as her brother, probably because she was locked in a cell while he was getting to know the citizens, and that made her less comfortable with going out on adventures.
Princess Peach seemed nice, but mildly unapproachable. She would’ve honestly liked to honestly get to know the Princess better, especially with the insane ramblings she overheard from Bowsette. She could just never find the right words when talking to her. Not to mention every time the princess and her brother tried to arrange a get together with her something went wrong. That's how she was in this mess in the first place.
Not long after Bowsette’s defeat, Mario and the Princess had invited her over for afternoon tea. She had managed to get through the front gates and into the castle just fine, but as she wandered the halls; looking for the exit to the garden, two guards had stopped her. She had tried to tell them that she was there for a meeting with the princess but they wouldn’t believe her. Before she knew it she was running down the halls and up winding staircases chased by their spears.
While she wasn’t faster than the guards on flat ground she could outrun them on stairs, so she started climbing further and further up the floors of the castle. Eventually she ran out of stairs to run up. She had, however, gotten enough distance between herself and the guards that she could sneak into one of the rooms. The guard outside the door to the room closest to the stairs was sleeping with his spear on the ground, she figured she could go in unnoticed. She closed the door as quietly as she could. Hoping the small metal clank the door handle made wouldn’t be enough to wake the guard outside.
After stepping away from the door and further into the room she allowed herself to catch her breath from running. That’s when she noticed a small voice yelling at her.
“You! What do you think you're doing here!” Upon further investigation the voice was coming from a lone cage in the center of the room and in it, was a shrunken Bowsette. Luigi walked towards the cage. She hadn’t seen Bowsette since the Princess had shrunken her originally and was honestly surprised by just how small she was. I felt odd, having their roles swapped; Luigi being the one towering over Bowsette instead of the opposite.
“Yes you! Leave now!” she continued yelling, climbing up the walls of the cage which was now swinging back and forth. As it swung it made a creaking sound much louder than Bowsette’s screaming. Despite her current size and the fact that she was imprisoned, Luigi was still terrified of her. She couldn’t leave the room quite yet though. The guards were still chasing after her after all and she’d rather not be imprisoned again. Even if the Princess would come to her rescue quickly.
The sound of heavy footsteps and winded breaths altered Luigi that the guards had finally made it up the stairs. She stopped the swinging cage, holding the bars of it on both sides of Bowsette.
“Can you please be quiet?” she asked as softly as she could. She stared down at Bowsette. The cage was elevated several feet off the ground, but even then Bowsette’s eye level was still half a foot lower than Luigi’s. She stared back up at her, but to Luigi’s shock she did remain silent. The guards retreated back down the stairs after a few minutes of searching. They checked every room except for the one she was in. Which made sense considering the prisoner housed in that room, but Luigi was thankful regardless.
When the footsteps of the guards became faint echoes Luigi let go of the cage. Before she could take a step back though; Bowsette jumped up and grabbed her hair through the gaps of the cage. With remarkable force she pulled back on the strands in her grasp and Luigi face planted into the metal bars between them. She let out a scream that she could only have hoped the guard sleeping outside wouldn’t have woken up for.
“What was that for!” she tried to raise her voice while whispering. It didn’t really work.
“You don't get to boss me around!” Bowsette yelled back. Even though she wasn’t trying to be quiet her voice wasn’t any louder than Luigi’s.
“Well I’m sorry! I just didn’t want to get captured! Again!”
“You trespassed on my land! It's not my fault my underlings caught you.” Bowsette, who had been inching closer and closer to the edge of the cage, took a step back to take a breath before continuing. “How many times have been captured anyways? It almost seems like you want to be held captive again.”
“Only once! And it was terrible so, no, I do not want it to happen again”
“Its the worst! It’s so boring, there’s nothing to do, and the food they’re giving me is terrible!”
“Maybe you shouldn’t imprison people then?”
“No! The people I imprison deserve it!”
“And you don't?"
“Of course not!”
Luigi sighed and sat down. There wasn’t really a point in arguing anymore and her face and head hurt from earlier. She didn’t feel like leaving though, where was she going to go anyways? She’d probably just get chased around by the guards again if she left and she’d rather avoid that. She started to run her fingers through her hair, brushing out tangles that she swore weren't there when she entered the castle. She had a rather large bald spot behind her ear; from when Bowsette had captured her and ripped her hair out during her interrogation. It had only just started growing back, but she actually liked the texture of the short hair and was considering keeping it short.
“Why don’t you leave now?” Bowsette asked from behind.
“I don’t know. Need a break to regain my thoughts?”
“The toads check in on me once every twelve hours and bring me food. They should be coming soon so if you don’t want to get caught you should leave.”
“Oh. Okay then.” Luigi stood up and brushed the hair out of her face. “Goodbye then. I guess?” Bowsette only glared at her in response. Luigi exited the room as quietly as she could, shutting the door softly again before tip-toeing down the stairs. When she got to the ground floor Mario and the Princess were standing in the opening at the base of the stairs.
“Lu! Where were you?” her brother questioned.
“I just got lost while looking for the garden,” she responded. The Princess looked down at her with a slight downturn in her lips. The look vanished quickly though.
“Well then, shall we continue with our tea party then?” the Princess said, prompting them to begin their walk to the garden. The garden itself was extravagant, sculpted bushes, marble statues and many species of flowers she couldn’t name, although all the flowers were uniformly pink. In the center of it was a long table with several snacks and tea where some toads were already enjoying themselves. As soon as the princess showed up they all left and cleaned up their spots to make room though.
The tea itself wasn’t bad. It wasn’t bad talking to the Princess and Mario either, but her thoughts kept wondering away from the conversation. The garden was so full of life and decorated to its fullest, she couldn’t help but compare it to how empty and stale the room Bowsette had been kept in was. There was no furniture, no decorations, unless you counted her cage hanging from the ceiling. She thought back to their conversation. The toads only visited her once every twelve hours, but was she alone for the entire rest of the time? At least while Luigi was captured she had heard the insane ramblings of the other prisoners. She knew Bowsette probably deserved it, but she also knew how awful it was to be held captive in that way. Did anyone truly deserve that same fate? When they went their separate ways these thoughts still stayed prominent in Luigi’s head.
The second time wasn’t nearly as much of a mistake. Luigi had started spending more of her afternoons in the Princess’s castle, which meant talking with more of the royal guards and with the Princess herself. She was thankfully safe from being thought of as an intruder at this point and was free to come and go as she pleased. The castle was a gorgeous place, don’t get her wrong, but every time she walked through its halls all she thought about was its top floor and the captor in its walls. She knew she shouldn’t have been thinking so much about it; Bowsette deserved the punishment inflicted on her. She had hurt hundreds of people, maybe even thousands, including Luigi herself. Even then, any time the conversation came around to her at the castle, she’d always find a way to ask about Bowsette. How is she doing? How often do the guards check in? Has she been given food?
Her brother had taken it as her being worried for herself. Worried that Bowsette would escape again. The Princess had caught onto what Luigi was actually asking about. Luigi and the Princess were alone in the garden, Mario had gone away for some competition with DK that neither of them wanted to support. With Mario’s absence it was a lot easier to ask questions about the castle or the Mushroom Kingdom itself, and certainly a lot easier to talk about Bowsette. It wasn’t that her brother didn’t respect her opinion, but he often made decisions for the both of them, even in conversation. He was just louder than her is what she decided on. Around the fifth time Luigi brought up Bowsette in the conversation Peach spoke up.
“Would you like to talk with her?” Peach asked her.
“What?”
“Well you seem concerned for her. I hope you understand why I wouldn’t want to talk to her and I don’t think I could get any of my Toads to ask her how she’s doing therefore I see you as the best person to talk to her and then plan the best course of action from there.”
“I mean, I guess I could?” Luigi genuinely didn’t know what to do. Did she really want to talk with Bowsette again, and if she did would it ease her worries, or make them worse? Could it serve as a chance to create a more solid opinion on her, and would that opinion be in a better or worse light than what she thought now? “Yes. I would like to meet with her.” The Princess nodded back at her.
“I can see where your concerns may be coming from as someone who has been held captive similarly before. I truly do not wish to be as terrible as she was. I am hoping that you can help me be considerate towards her.” Peach stopped in her tracks and turned towards Luigi before placing her arms on her shoulders, holding them tight. “That being said, if she does anything, and I mean anything that makes you uncomfortable, you leave immediately.” Luigi nodded and looked up at the Princess. Her glare was harsh, only solidifying her point. She let go of Luigi’s shoulders and started to lead them towards the castle.
“I’m going to give you a key to Bowsette’s room. It’s not locked but it should show the guard you have permission to be there.”
Once she got the key she walked up the many flights of stairs. They were far more tiring than the first time she climbed them, as they seemingly went on forever. When she got to the top of the staircase she spent time to allow her breathing to settle before going into the room. She’d rather not have Bowsette see her panting out of breath when she walked in. While the guard outside the door was different this time, he was still sleeping slack on the floor. She ended up waking the guard and showed him the key. He was confused and half asleep but let her pass by with little questioning.
“What are you doing here again?” Bowsette immediately questioned her the second she got in the room.
“Well I’m here to check in on you, see if you need anything we can maybe accommodate for you.” Luigi was fidgeting with her gloves and her voice sounded far too questioning, it got higher in pitch with every word spoken. The Princess and her never actually came to a conclusion on what this meeting would entail and she figured it was too late to back out now so she’d just have to make something up. Silence filled the room after Luigi spoke. The air felt thick before Bowsette’s laughter broke through it; it was a splitting round really. Normally her laugh would strike fear into those around her as a show of her confidence. But now it sounded out of pitch and broken up by ragged breaths while she laughed as hard as she could. I between laughs she spoke.
“And whyyyyy would you do that?”
“I guess because I’m a bit worried about you?” The laughter cut out.
“And why, pray tell, are you worried about me?”
“I don’t know why. But I don’t want you to suffer.” Bowsette glared at him from across the room. With confidence Luigi didn’t even know she had she walked across the room up the cage. “So I’ll ask you again, is there anything I can do to help you?” she asked, staring right back at Bowsette.
“Pfft” Bowsette broke their stare off. “If you really want to help, start by curing my boredom.Get a jester to perform or something.”
Luigi could understand where she was coming from, it in fact didn’t seem all too demanding to ask for entertainment besides staring at the wall. The only issue was that the residents off the mushroom would rather not interact with the Queen on the Koopas, making the performing arts off limits. The thought of performing herself briefly came up before she quickly shoved the idea to the back of her mind. Maybe she felt a light blush come to her face as well. She needed to get back on track; brainstorm more ideas to help.
The idea of live performers was most likely out of the question. What about digital entertainment? Electronics, oddly enough, didn’t work in the Mushroom Kingdom. Her and Mario figured the cell signal couldn’t get through the pipes. Some scientists were trying to apply devices from the real world to the Mushroom Kingdom through altercation. Recently a particularly mad scientist asked Luigi to get him a vacuum cleaner of all things. Until technology in the Mushroom Kingdom caught up though, she decided digital entertainment was not a possibility.
Maybe she could work based off hobbies. Bowsette had never told her of any hobbies she had, but even then maybe Luigi could introduce some to her. Looking back at her time imprisoned, she remembers it was never quite. Even beyond the other prisoners' chatter and the sizzling of lava below, there was always a faint sound of music she could pick out if she listened carefully enough. It was quite grounding for her at times; she could probably try to play off that.
“I think I have an idea,” she was already backing towards the door, itching to consult with the princess.
“Oh good. You're leaving. I thought you were just going to stand in the corner of the room all day.” Bowsette’s voice was dripping with sarcasm, Luigi couldn’t care though.
“I’ll see you again soon. Goodbye.” She closed the door quickly and the noise actually startled the guard outside. She briefly muttered apologies to him before walking down the stairs. The Princess ended up being in a very similar spot to where they departed last.
“Did the meeting go well?”
“Yes, I actually think it did. Do you know any places that sell tiny instruments?” The Princess, who clearly was not prepared for the seemingly random question, was caught off guard and had to re-compose herself for an answer.
“Yes, I do. Many of my citizens are smaller than humans so selling smaller items only makes sense.”
“And where can I find these?”
“I’ll give you and Mario instructions once he gets back. I’m going to trust your judgement on what you're doing and am I correct in assuming you’ll be meeting with her again?”
“Yes, Mario should be back tomorrow so I’ll be back.” Luigi started to walk out of the castle before stopping. “Actually can you make sure not to tell Mario about what this is for, or that I’m meeting with her at all.” Peach gave her a firm nod and she smiled back before running back home.
On the way back to her house she remembered the faint tune of a piano. She had heard many types of music while being held captive. While rock and metal were what she heard most of the time, what stuck out to her most was the sound of soft piano chords. Where they were coming from, she couldn’t possibly imagine. Maybe she could hear Bowsette playing the piano in the future.
The third meeting was definitely, fully intentional. After Luigi had bought the small piano, insisting to her brother that she’d just picked up a new interest, she tried desperately not to rush herself back to the castle. She knew rushing would only concern her brother and make him far more likely to notice her situation with Bowsette. Once the Princess had invited them over for tea though she leaped at the opportunity. The afternoon with the Princess was the same as it usually was, maybe Luigi was slightly more distracted and a little bit more wound up but not particularly unusual. At the first opportunity she got, she came up with an excuse to leave and proceed to walk up to the top floor of the castle. The princess had given her the key to the room permanently so she could come and go as she pleased. The guard acted confused again when she explained that she had permission to go in and out but let her pass again.
This time when she entered the room Bowsette was sleeping. Her snores echoed through the room and she could only imagine how loud they would be when she was full sized.She walked up to the cage, trying to figure out the best course of action. In the end she ended up tapping the top of Bowsette’s head and her fiery red hair. This was not the best course of action.
“What do you think you're doing!” she screamed while swatting at Luigi’s hand until she retreated.
“I'm sorry I was only trying to wake you up I swear,” Luigi was now messaging her beaten hand with the other one. Bowsette’s claws had scratched in some areas and drew blood. “Anyways I brought you this,” She pulled out the small piano from her overall pocket. The piano was basic and uniformly black but had weight to it, which she assumed meant it was good quality. It also came with a matching bench with a soft black velvet cushion. When she pulled the two items from her pocket Bowsette stared at her, not a glare and not in a menacing way, but just stared.
Luigi slipped the piano between the bars and set it down before doing the same with the bench. Bowsette’s eyes continued to stare; not at the piano but her.
“I’m going to get going now. Mar-my brother must be getting worried about me by now but I’ll see you soon.” Bowsette still stared at her as she backed towards the door and she could swear that she still felt her eyes on her even when she turned around. It wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, it wasn’t like the way she glared when she was angry and it wasn’t the same stare she gave when talking about the Princess.
“Goodbye Luigi,” Bowsette said, in an almost quiet voice. Luigi was just about to leave the room. The door handle was in her hand, but she dropped it gently and turned back around after Bowsette spoke.
“Goodbye to you too Bowsette,” Luigi gave a smile while she responded. Bowsette looked away from Luigi, instead looking to the floor at the side of the cage. Luigi knew she wouldn’t be hearing anything else from Bowsette today based on that, so she left. The farewell had caught her off guard though, not in a bad way, in fact she felt strangely happy about it. Her face was getting hot but she couldn’t tell why. For the rest of the day she kept thinking back to Bowsette, it seemed to be the thing she thought about most of the time recently. She kept thinking back to how she stared at her across the room and how her voice shifted from being demanding to almost kind when she said goodbye.
Their meetings never stopped, in fact they became more and more regular. Over time, farewells and greetings became regular, and Bowsette started treating her more and more kindly. Luigi kept doing what she could to make her life imprisoned better. What started out as just fear for her safety ended up being much more. She didn’t just want her to be safe but also comfortable and even happy. Eventually she even got the cage switched out for a fake home, she thinks that was the first time Bowsette thanked her.
Bowsette turned out to be quite the good piano player and would often play for Luigi. She once asked Luigi to sing for one of her songs. It turned out that she used to enjoy singing a lot, but after she shrunk her voice was always out of tune and too high pitched to sing most of her songs. Luigi agreed to her offer and it became a routine for them. She’d give her the lyrics and play the rhythm and tune of them on the piano before Luigi would sing them. She’d also promised that if she ever got back to her usual size she would sing for her. Luigi knew that it would be bad if Bowsette's shrinking had reversed, but she still thought about the offer and how much she wanted to hear Bowsette’s actual singing voice.
There were several times that Luigi refused to sing the songs Bowsette had written though. She had tried to explain to Bowsette that she wouldn’t sing such creepy things about the Princess. They had argued about it for days before Bowsette changed the lyrics.
The first thing Bowsette ever specifically asked for was painting supplies. Luigi was quick to agree to get them. At that point she had gotten several different things to liven up Bowsette’s living space but she always had to guess what she’d like; she was unsuccessful some of the time. She liked the piano, didn’t like the flowers, liked the heat lamp and the record player, but didn’t like the chairs she had gotten. There wasn’t really a pattern Luigi could find in what she liked and didn’t like so some guidance was helpful.
When she gave the art supplies to Bowsette she immediately started painting. Normally they would talk when Luigi came but they didn’t this time. She debated whether or not to leave but ended up staying just to watch Bowsette paint. She didn’t see the end result until the next time she visited, but it ended up being the most beautiful painting of the princess. Almost all of her paintings were of the princess, it wasn’t until Luigi asked if she could paint something else that she did. She was surprised to see Bowsette show her a portrait of herself, every stand of her brown hair was painted with precise detail. Luigi blushed at the depiction of herself before they continued their regular routine.
They had certainly become closer over time. Small short conversations became longer and more in depth. They talked about issues they faced in the past, issues they still faced, the gossip in Luigi’s life. Luigi didn’t think she could become as close to someone as she did to Bowsette. Maybe it was just because their meetings were the one time she was away from Mario, but she felt it was a lot easier to voice her opinion. It was unfair to pin all of the blame on her brother, he was only trying to help ease her fears by talking for her. Sometimes though, despite her stuttering voice she still wanted to speak for herself, and he just didn’t understand that fully.
Hand holding became regular between them, whether through the bars of her cage or on the balcony of her fake home, Bowsette would grab onto Luigi’s finger with her small claws. Luigi started wishing they could return Bowsette to her regular size. She knew they couldn’t but she also saw how unfair it was to the Bowsette. Maybe she was being a little selfish, but if Bowsette was large again it would be easier to develop their relationship further. Luigi had become aware of her feelings, she couldn’t do anything with them though. It was unfair to ask for a relationship when one of them was a prisoner so she kept to herself and dreamed of a world where things could be different.