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mrs-luigi-vargas · 6 months

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A Burning Secret

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Characters: Bowser Jr, Rosalina, Luma, Bowser Relationship: Bowser Jr & Rosalina, Bowser Jr & Luma, Bowser Jr & Bowser, Bowser & Rosalina Tags: Implied/Referenced Character Death, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Summary: Almost half a year after the universe was reborn, Bowser Junior lets Rosalina in on a secret. Word Count: 1,995 words A/N: Inspired by this post!

[AO3 Link]

~~~

Rosalina’s afternoon was proving to be peaceful so far.

Shortly after lunch, she’d taken to walking in a nearby park with one of her Lumas as company, enjoying the time before she needed to get ready for the next scheduled kart race. She’d run into Mario and Peach, who’d evidently had a similar idea. Mario had even given her a spare bag of birdseed before they’d parted, which she was sitting on a bench near an empty playground and using now to feed an eclectic variety of local birds.

Or at least she had been doing that, until a green and yellow blur sped into the cluster of gathered birds with a yell, sending them all squawking and flapping their wings to flee, which likewise sent her Luma into a giggle fit. When Rosalina lowered her arms after the cacophony had ended, someone was standing in the middle of the space the birds just left, laughing triumphantly about their departure.

“Bowser Junior, was it?” Rosalina asked, and he turned to grin broadly at her.

“Yeah, that’s me!” He puffed up his chest, looking every inch his father’s son. “Prince Bowser Junior! Hey, you’re that Star Lady from space!”

“Princess Rosalina,” she corrected, but Bowser Junior was only half-listening, looking for more birds to scare.

His search, despite bearing little fruit after the ruckus he’d caused earlier, only extended a certain distance away from Rosalina’s bench. “Dad got lost,” he told Rosalina when she asked why that was, “and this is where I’m supposed to wait for him if either of us gets lost.”

“...I see.”

Bored with searching for birds, Bowser Junior cambered onto the bench next to Rosalina. Eventually, now that everything was still, some birds came back to eat the remaining birdseed on the ground. Rosalina tossed them some more to snack on.

Floating above them, their Luma companion mused about the birds they were feeding, and how tiny and insignificant their lives were. Like theirs, it supposed, small stitches in the vast fabric of the universe. Stitches that affected the fabric the most when cut. It giggled. “Ah, to have my string cut someday...” it mused, bobbing and twirling in the air. “To leave behind a void that will never be the same, even if it’s filled...”

“Cut...like dying?” Bowser Junior furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Of course! The string of fate, sliced clean by the blades of the unturnable~!”

“...You’re weird,” Bowser Junior said. The Luma giggled again.

Rosalina’s eyes slid from the regrowing crowd of birds to the child sitting next to her. She considered giving him her bag of birdseed, so he could have a go at feeding the birds and perhaps deem that a better way to interact with them than scaring them off, but he looked too deep in thought to be bothered. And sure, almost half this planet’s orbit ago he had been a whole lot of trouble as part of Bowser’s attempt to take over the universe, but that was more his father, not him. Which was why she felt the need to ask him if there was something wrong. “Sorry about my Luma,” she added, thinking something it said had upset him. “Its demeanor can be...off-putting to most.”

Said Luma pouted at her. Bowser Junior huffed a laugh. But he still looked rather troubled for someone so young, fiddling with his bandanna and staring off into the distance. Rosalina decided not to push him, being patient. And that patience paid off, as with a final look between her and her Luma, he asked, “Can I tell you a secret?” in a small voice.

The Luma floated toward him, curiously. Rosalina leaned in, subtly.

“I died once,” Bowser Junior quietly told them.

“You did?!” The Luma gasped, an outward echo of Rosalina’s own surprise that exchanged her muted horror for amazed delight.

“Shh!” Bowser Junior covered its mouth, looking around furtively. “Quiet! It’s a secret!”

Whatever the Luma wanted to say next was muffled under Bowser Junior’s hands. “When?!” it asked when Bowser Junior removed them, obediently dropping its voice to a hushed whisper.

“Uh...a couple months ago, I think?”

Ah, Rosalina thought. “That supernova...you were sucked in by its black hole.”

“Huh? Black hole...?” Bowser Junior looked confused, as if he had no idea of the event that almost had the entire universe destroyed, despite being near the epicenter of it. But his face quickly cleared, and he shook his head. Rosalina’s stomach sank. It was something else...?

“What was it like, what was it like?!” the Luma asked, vibrating in excitement.

“Um.” Bowser Junior backed away from the Luma’s enthusiasm, bumping into Rosalina. Looking down at him in concern, she was about to tell him he absolutely did not have to indulge the Luma’s curiosity in the slightest, but then he took a breath and began speaking, each word carefully considered.

“I fell,” he began, frowning. The Luma leaned forward in anticipation. “And the ship fell, too. And then...and then...” His voice trailed off.

“You don't have to discuss it,” Rosalina interrupted firmly, with a stern glance at her Luma. “Not if the memories are too much to bear for you.”

But to her surprise, her words had the opposite intended effect; Bowser Junior’s vulnerable expression was joined by a stubborn glint in his eye, and he barreled on.

“I fell and it got hot,” he said in a rush. “And bright,” he added. “And really hot. And then...” The resolve faded. He searched for what to say next. He swallowed, thickly. “I woke up,” he finished simply, head bowed and shoulders hunched.

Though his description was vague, the Luma practically had stars in its eyes hearing it. “...Did it hurt?” it breathed, enraptured.

“.........Yeah.”

“Woah...”

“I’m sorry,” Rosalina said, heart heavy.

“It's okay, I think...you didn't do anything,” Bowser Junior reassured her, as if that wasn't the entire problem with this situation. But she'd been too far away to even see most of what was going on in Bowser’s galaxy back then, let alone do anything to help. And there was no way Mario and Peach knew either, Rosalina realized abruptly, though they'd been closer to the action. They'd be beating themselves up about it endlessly if they did. But what about — ?

“Does your father know?”

“No!” Wide-eyed, Bowser Junior grabbed at her dress. “Don't tell him! Or he won't let me go fight Mario with him anymore...! He already barely lets me help, now...!”

...She should probably tell his father. But Bowser Junior had started tearing up some, so...

“Alright, I won't tell,” Rosalina promised. Bowser Junior sighed in relief. “But,” she continued, “only as long as you promise to tell your family about what happened soon.”

“Yes, you should tell them!” the Luma cheered, twirling around the pair. “The knowledge of what's after death! It deserves to be treasured and shared~!”

“...You’re weird,” Bowser Junior told the Luma, but there was the faintest of smiles on his face as he wiped at his cheeks. “Okay,” he said next, and Rosalina gave him a starbit to munch on for it. And then a couple more when he started pestering her for them, and then a few more after that.

Not long after, Bowser walked down the path towards them, face pinched in worry and clearly in search of his son. “Dad!” Bowser Junior exclaimed, hopping off the bench and running up to meet him.

“There you are!” Bowser knelt to ruffle his son’s hair. “Didn't I tell you to stay with me so you wouldn't get lost?”

“I wasn't lost,” Bowser Junior grumbled. “You’re the one that disappeared.”

Bowser chuckled indulgently. But then Bowser Junior’s exasperated expression became overshadowed by uncertainty, and Bowser’s grin dimmed to match. “What’s up, son?” Bowser asked, voice softening.

“Um,” Bowser Junior said, and then quieted. His eyes flicked to the ground, to his father, to the Luma who had floated into his periphery, to a different spot on the ground. He shook his head. “Nevermind.”

Bowser bent down further to better meet his son’s eyes. “You sure?”

Bowser Junior nodded.

“Oh.” Bowser straightened, putting a hand on Bowser Junior’s shoulder. “Okay. Uh, you know you can tell me anything, right?”

“I know!” Bowser Junior chirped. He smiled at Bowser, small yet light. “Maybe later. I’m going to go play over there now.” he pointed at the nearby playground.

Though he still looked worried, Bowser met his son’s smile with his own, similarly warm. “Go for it,” he said. “Just don't wander off again, yeah?”

“You wandered off,” Bowser Junior insisted with a sigh. Nonetheless, he ran to the playground. The Luma followed him, sprinkling stardust as it floated about his head, stardust that caused Bowser Junior to sneeze. The Luma laughed, and when Bowser Junior began chasing it around in indignation for doing so it flew off to a hiding place underneath the slide with a wide grin. Bowser watched them go with a thoughtful look, but he seemed to accept his son’s new friend in the end.

But then he noticed his son’s new friend’s guardian, and he flinched at her cool stare. Rosalina kept it up even as he worked up the nerve to say something, perhaps because their charges were getting along mere yards away.

“So, uh.” He tried to meet her eyes. He didn't succeed. “He didn't bother you too much, did he...?”

“...He was fine,” Rosalina replied tersely. Bowser huffed at her answer.

“No, he was definitely a handful," he said. "He’s always a handful.”

Despite the complaint, he sounded fond. Rosalina understood that feeling intimately. So she decided to throw him a bone. “No more than any of my Lumas can be,” she offered, and Bowser laughed a little, relaxing slightly.

“Yeah, I guess you’d know about that.” He grinned at her like she was just a fellow parent, and not like he was the monster who had attacked her home, scared her children, and almost destroyed the universe months prior. There was really no reason he couldn't be both, Rosalina mused. But as a fellow parent, Rosalina should probably tell Bowser something about what his son had told her. She’d promised not to, though, so she didn’t. Instead, “After the universe was reborn,” she said, “how did your son fare?”

Bowser looked surprised at the question. “He, uh, fared fine. He’s lucky he didn't get hurt, from what I heard. Though” — Bowser frowned — “there’ve been nightmares. And some art. Of vents or somethin’, I dunno; he won't let me see any of it. Don't blame him, though; I shouldn't have lost track of him near the end of all that. ” Bowser’s face twisted into something guilty. “Gonna be keeping a better eye on him from now on, for sure,” he muttered, crossing his arms and looking off in the direction of the playground, where the Luma was cheering as Bowser Junior scaled the jungle gym. “We’ll get through this, and then I’m not losing him like that ever again.”

Rosalina hummed. She hadn't been sure about what Bowser’s answer would be, but the one she heard at least assured her that Bowser Junior was in good hands, and would continue to be so after he fulfilled his end of their promise.

“Dad!” Bowser Junior called from atop the jungle gym. When Bowser didn't move within milliseconds, he called for him again. And again. And —

“Alright, alright, I'm coming!” Bowser yelled back, amused. Without a second glance to Rosalina he ambled toward the playground with large steps. When Bowser Junior shouted at him to hurry up, Bowser smirked and all but stopped moving. He laughed at the resulting groaning about it, grin widening as said groaning turned into laughter of its own. As he walked further away, Rosalina tuned out the rest of his and his son’s exchange. With one eye kept on the playground, Rosalina sat back and resumed feeding her birds.

#this fic sits well below my usual quality of work #and thats because i wanted to see what would happen if i stopped giving a shit about the quality of the work XD #(i was only mostly successful in that endeavor)#a lot of aspects of this fic sit outside of my current skill level anyway #so if there was ever a time to eschew quality this was it lol #i still did a pretty decent job tho i think!#mlv.fic #smb #anyway happy three year anniversary to the post that ruined (lighthearted) the ending of Mario Galaxy for me forever lmao #don't consider it a headcanon of my own but its implications are. fascinating.#(and also really funny in kind of an awful way haha)

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