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Mario was sitting at an outdoor toadstool cáfe having a bite to eat when he noticed Bowser's son floating by on a cloud. It didn't look like the young koopa was heading for Peach's castle so the plumber felt no need to rush after him. Seeing the little prince though had Mario pause and ponder, Bowser never did reveal the identity of Jr's mother.
The boy still believed Peach was the one to bring him into the world. Mario wondered why Bowser kept letting Jr think that. It would only hurt the boy further on down the road when he was old enough to understand there wasn't a drop of toadstool blood in his veins. He decided to give the Koopa king a visit in the hope that Bowser would answer his question and not try to throw him out the window.
~~~~~~~~~
Bowser sighed happily, sinking further under the hot bath water. The koopa boss was finally getting some much needed alone time, jr was off playing and all the paperwork was finally caught up so it afforded the large reptile some relaxation time. Bowser let all thoughts drift away and was settling into some kind of meditative state when there was a sudden pounding at the door.
'Somebody better be dead' the large koopa thought nastily, unsubmerging.
"You have five seconds before I roast you to tell me why you are disturbing me!" Bowser growled angrily and could practically hear the koopa on the other side of the door shaking in his shell.
"S-sire I t-tried to tell him you didn't w-want to be disturbed but he insisted!" Squeaked the terrified creature.
"Who?" Bowser snapped, wishing for more competent henchmen.
"M-mario sire!" The koopa said slightly shrilly.
Bowser paused at hearing that and the scowl that tugged at scaly lips grew deeper "what does that pest want? Peach isn't here!".
"He just said he wanted to talk to you" the little koopa sniffled.
Bowser grunted in annoyance, so much for relaxing alone time "tell him I'll be out in ten minutes".
The little koopa scurried away to do as told and Bowser sunk back below the water, blowing angry bubbles.
~~~~~~~~~
Mario was led to what looked like an office of some kind, probably where Bowser did his actual job as king. He looked around a little, not meaning to snoop but curious nonetheless, he never got to have a social visit with the large koopa before. He noticed some pictures around the room of seven other younger koopas with similar features to Bowser, possibly relatives of his if Mario was to guess.
The plumber heard the door open and he turned away from the picture he was looking at to see Bowser just coming through the doorway. He looked rather annoyed so Mario assumed he interrupted the koopa king while he was doing something important.
"Hello Bowser" Mario greeted as he stepped away from the wall of pictures "it's good to see you".
"Cut the polite chit chat, what do you want?" Bowser asked, in no mood to play good host "Peach isn't here in case it escaped your notice".
"I know the princess isn't here, she isn't why I came for a talk" Mario explained.
Bowser huffed "then what do you want? Spill it so I can get back to what I was doing".
"Ah, I am sorry for not giving you more of a warning that I was coming, I don't really know how to contact you" Mario apologized "I actually wanted to talk to you about your son, I saw him earlier today and he reminded me of a question I never got to ask you".
"You want to ask a question about Jr?" Bowser said skeptically, eyeing the short hero.
"Indeed, after the first time he appeared claiming Peach to be his mother, I wanted to ask who his mother really is" Mario explained.
Bowser froze at hearing that. Why did the pipsqueak suddenly want to know who Jrs other parent was? Didn't make any sense why he would go snooping for that kind of answer, especially with how long it's been since the kid’s introduction to the outside world.
"Why the interest? It's not really any of your business" Bowser growled in annoyance and possibly slight defensiveness.
"Oh I know it isn't, I was just hoping you might be willing to tell me" Mario shrugged "I figured with how long we have known each other…".
"Just because we've known each other forever it doesn't make us friends, we're enemies in case you forgot" Bowser grunted.
"Only when you're trying to cause trouble, any other time I really have nothing against you" Mario shrugged again "in fact I actually respect you".
"You respect me" Bowser said in disbelief and suspicion.
"Of course, you're a mighty king with a rather large kingdom; your subjects respect you as much as they fear you and while I don't really condone the fear I understand that it can't be helped" Mario explained his view of the matter "you have an image to maintain that keeps your kingdom safe; no one wants to try to attack a powerful angry king who can roast them in a single breath".
"No one except for you that is" Bowser pointed out.
"Eh, people know me as the hero with no fear but to be honest I fear quite a bit, I'm just good at hiding it" Mario hummed "but what I do does not really change the fact that you're not someone to be taken lightly".
Bowser huffed after a moment and went over to sit in the oversized chair behind the desk "I still don't get why you need to know so badly about Jrs lineage".
"Honestly, I'm wondering why you told him Peach is his mother" Mario offered as he took a seat on the other side of the desk "anyone can see there is not a bit of toadstool in him, so why the fib?".
Bowser glared down at the desk, tapping a claw on it for a few moments. Red eyes flicked up to pin Mario firmly to the spot "the hows and whys Jr exists is a secret for a reason you meddlesome pipsqueak".
"I'm not here to cause you any trouble if that is what you are worried about" Mario tried to assure the large Koopa.
“It’s not you causing me trouble that has me worried” Bowser grunted, tapping his claw tips against each other “As a matter of fact you’re the lowest thing on my totem pole of worries”.
“Well gosh, I’m glad to hear it” Mario said with a small hint of sarcasm which made Bowser smirk.
“If I’m not what has you worried about telling the truth, then what does?” Mario asked and once again Bowser went stiff.
“I still don’t know why you expect me to tell you” Bowser grumbled, glaring at the mustached man.
“A shared secret makes a lighter burden?” the hero offered as a consolation answer.
Bowser’s eyebrow twitched at the answer the small man gave, why was this conversation even happening? Worse yet why was Bowser actually considering saying something? This whole thing was stupid.
Bowser finally grunted and pointed a claw at the hero “if anything I say leaves this room, I will roast you till there is nothing left; do you hear me?”.
“I will not tell a soul what you tell me” Mario vowed, a serious look on his face.
Bowser was silent for a long time, Mario could see in the other’s eyes that Bowser was formulating how to give Mario an answer.
“The reason I told Jr that Peach was his mother is because I want to make sure my son has everything I never did as a child” Bowser finally explained.
“You never had a mother?” Mario asked curiously.
“It was always just my father, brother and I” Bowser explained then pointed towards the pictures Mario had seen on the wall “Then my brother had his kids”.
“Your nieces and nephews” Mario nodded in understanding as he glanced at the pictures then looked back at Bowser “but why Peach? Why not one of the female Koopas? What happened to Jr’s mother?”.
“Ugh you’re so nosy” Bowser grunted in annoyance “I picked Peach cause she’d be the most constant female figure in the boy’s life what with the whole me constantly kidnapping her. I definitely wasn’t going to pick some random koopa, do you know how that would look if I showed a single individual citizen favoritism?”.
“Hmm and the boy’s real mother?” Mario asked, hoping he wouldn’t hear that she had passed away though that was looking more and more likely as Bowser refused to talk about her.
“There is no mother” Bowser finally growled “She doesn’t exist”.
Mario blinked in confusion and furrowed his brows “Um what do you mean?”.
“I’m that boy’s only parent” Bowser grunted, getting more agitated the longer this conversation dragged on “there’s a reason I didn’t grow up with a mother and it's the same as Jrs, there never was a mother”.
There was quiet for a long few seconds as Mario tried to process what Bowser was talking about. How could there not have been a mother? It took two to reproduce a child didn’t it? As he thought about it something in the back of his mind tingled, as if some long ago memory was trying to resurface.
‘Look here little Mario’ A female voice echoed in the back of the man’s mind as a faint memory played.
Mario looked at what his mother was pointing to. It was a baby piranha plant poking up out of the ground.
‘Did you know that they only have one parent?’ the faded woman explained to the small child.
Mario looked up at her in amazement and held up a single finger ‘one?’.
The woman chuckled and nodded her head ‘that’s right sweety, that one parent is both the mama and daddy because they were made special. The piranha plant isn’t the only one with this special ability, there are other creatures out there who can do this too’.
The memory slowly faded and Mario stared intently at Bowser “so… you gave birth to Jr”. Mario could see the way Bowser hunched in on himself at those words.
“You’ve got your answer now, happy?” Bowser grunted in annoyance and crossed two large arms.
“What I still don’t understand is why not tell this to Jr? Surely your son would understand” Mario said with a frown.
“And say what? “Hey son, your dad is a freak of nature, you don’t have a mom cause I’m your mom and dad and one day you can do this too” like that would go over well” Bowser scoffed.
“I don’t see why not, you aren’t a freak” Mario huffed “a freak would mean what you do isn’t common but it is more common than you think”.
"It's not common enough for it to not be weird" Bowser shot back.
"Your son isn't going to mock you for this but he will be angry if he finds out you lied to him all his life" Mario tried to reason "he's not dumb Bowser, He'll figure it out with or without help".
"Hey don't make it seem like I wouldn't ever tell him, He'll need to know eventually… just not now" the big koopa huffed in annoyance.
"And when would the right time be? When he is all grown up? And what do you think he will say or do when you do finally tell him? You can't keep secrets from your family or you run the risk of hurting them" Mario sighed.
"You're telling me you have no secrets from Luigi" Bowser said doubtfully.
"There is not a single secret that I would keep from my brother no matter what it is" Mario swore.
"Then you are either really brave or really dumb" Bowser snorted.
Mario shrugged "probably both but we aren't talking about me now are we".
"Better than the original conversation we were having" Bowser scoffed.
"Please Bowser, for the boy's sake… tell him" Mario sighed.
Bowser scowled at him for several long seconds then huffed and turned away "whatever, I'll think about it".
Mario smiled, knowing that was as good as he was going to get.
"Are we done yet? I do have a kingdom to run" Bowser sniffed.
"One more question then I will go" Mario said then paused and thought "are you alright if I continue to say he when I refer to you or do you want me to use something more neutral? I know some people are particular about titles".
Bowser narrowed his eyes and said "why would you bother asking me that? No one else knows about this but you".
"Still, it is the thought that counts" Mario shrugged.
Bowser rolled fiery red eyes and huffed again "what ever, just keep calling me he, it doesn't really matter to me".
"If that's what you want" Mario smiled pleasantly then hopped up from his chair "I will be going then. Next time you should come to my house, I make a mean spaghetti".
"Who says there will be a next time?" Bowser growled.
Mario shrugged "just a thought, enjoy your day Bowser!".
Bowser watched Mario leave and grunted when no longer could the plumber's footsteps be heard. "Good riddance" the koopa king grumbled. Bowser wouldn't admit to how much lighter it felt now that the little family secret was essentially out of the bag.
"Daaaaaaaaad" was heard yelled and Bowser groaned, so much for alone time. The little koopa prince came shooting through the door and pounced in the kings lap.
"Oof" Bowser grunted, Jr was getting too heavy to keep doing that "how was your day son?".
"It was great!" Jr exclaimed then proceeded to recount his day.