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It started at Booster’s Tower, he realized.
It was a quiet night, Mario already asleep in their bed, as he left his desk, turned the lights off and came to join him. He wasn’t quite tired yet, but as he felt him cuddle with him in his dreams, he settled down, and started to go down memory lane.
He had tried to play it cool, as if the loss of his castle, his army, his family really, didn’t affect him. He wasn’t convincing, but he entertained him despite the other’s protests, and he appreciated that.
He helped him with the poor Chain Chomp, so sad and hurt, and even now he cared after her, loving her like he loved him. He looked at her, resting in her bed near the windows, and smiled.
Of course, there was the kiss. He had tried to play it off, as if the kiss was nothing at all, as if he hadn’t blushed and felt something change, as if all color hadn’t shifted just for a second to that same blush pink. He denied it for so long, and it seemed so silly in retrospect, knowing that he felt the same too back then. The two of them were hardheaded, it was just another proof of that.
It really wasn’t about Peach, not anymore at least. It became about him from there.
A small movement. He looked down to Mario, huddling even closer to him, and a chuckle escaped his lips.
He remembered him fighting Jonathan, seeing the same glint in his eyes that he had when fighting him, and for a second he felt jealous. Jealous that someone else was making him have as much fun as he did. He felt weird about that back then too.
Then there was Monstro Town, and how he had seen Goomhilde’s wink as they talked. He just thought she had confided something to her children on their way out, but she had commented on how happy he seemed at that moment before that. She was always more perceptive than him, he knew.
He was, also, not a subtle man. His family had hammered that in after he announced their relationship.
And then, of course, was the aftermath of Smithy’s defeat. He didn’t expect him to take his “order” of having to help with the repairs, Peach and Mallow certainly didn’t. But then he showed up, tools in hand and a grin on his face, and that was the second time Bowser’s heart tried to tell him what he felt.
He felt sleep start to claim him, and yawning as he adjusted his pillow, he leaned into his partner’s body, looking at him until he fell asleep, smiling.
Guess he had to thank Smithy for one thing.