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Mario wasn’t sure how long he’d been down here in this cell, his arms chained behind him. Maybe a day, but he was getting restless and irritated.
He couldn’t believe that for once he was the one needing to be saved from the Koopa King.
The man let his guard down for one second, and suddenly HE was the target. Something about ‘finally getting rid of the competition’ blah blah. He was a little surprised Bowser didn’t just kill him in his sleep, but then again, he isn’t well known for how smart he is.
What Bowser didn’t like was that Mario didn’t really react to this situation how he wanted him to. He thought he’d be scared, and finally cower before him being the one in chains. But instead he was constantly met with deadpan stares, eye rolls, and snarky comments from the captured hero. And Mario’s occasional soft banging of the back of his head against the wall when the king would go on tangents about his big plans to finally make Peach his.
Mario was frustratingly calm, unbothered, and just simply annoyed. Could anyone other than Bowser blame him, though?
He knew Bowser was an idiot, but also that he enjoyed the cat and mouse game of kidnapping, Mario tracking him down to kick his ass, take the princess back, rinse and repeat. Basically Mario believed he didn’t kill him because he secretly liked the banter, and the role of the villain. Without Mario there, he had nothing to fight for. He could take the princess, and the kingdom and force her to rule with him. But.. then what? He’d have it all. And that might not really be what Bowser wants..
Or maybe Mario’s just going crazy with sleep deprivation.
Then again, a true evil person wouldn’t play golf with you on Saturday so-
“Are you even listening to me?!”
Mario lifted his head back up to look at the koopa king.
“Nope.”
“You make me WANNA PULL MY HORNS OUT, PLUMBER!” Bowser screamed.
“That’d be brutal to watch, but entertaining,” Mario replied smugly.
Bowser roared angrily as Mario just laughed.
He was laughing a little too hysterically for what just occurred, but again, he chalked it up to sleep deprivation.
Bowser heaved angrily then paused.
Mario was laughing?
At HIM?
THIS is the first real reaction Bowser got out of him?!
Laughter because he was successfully annoying him?!
“Oh gohohod sorry I think I’m just going insahahane from lack of sleep. Well I’m not sorry for laughing at you but-“
“SILENCE! I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR LACK OF REACTIONS. LACK OF EMOTION. LACK OF- OF FEAR! WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO YOU TO MAKE YOU SUFFER?!” Bowser yelled.
He paused again.
Laughter.
Suffer.
Bowser wondered..
He walked towards Mario, and reached for him. Mario squished himself against the wall, and flinched. Bowser did like this reaction, but it wasn’t the one he was looking for. Not anymore.
“Hey, watch it you big liz-ARD- HEY!” Mario was cut off by a claw poking his stomach.
Bowser poked it again causing Mario to jump the slightest bit. Then he gently squeezed his rib eliciting a yelp as Mario jerked his body away from the koopa’s hand, “HEY! W-what gives?!”
Bowser grinned evilly, “oh yeah, this’ll do.”
“What does that mean?!”
Mario tried not to show his anxiety, but his mind was racing with what Bowser could be cooking up.
Bowser didn’t reply, he just opened the door and called for Kamek.
“Yes, your dubiousness,” Kamek popped up in front of Bowser in a cloud of smoke.
“You seize him, I'll lock him to the table.”
“Yes, sire!”
“What does that mean?!” Mario yelled again, his voice cracking.
Bowser absolutely adored the fear Mario was trying to hide terribly.
Mario got no response as Bowser grabbed him up from the wall, taking the chains off his wrists. He began to fight back before feeling all his muscles completely seize up. A magic, purple glow surrounded him from Kamek’s spell. Bowser dragged him to a table with restraints. Mario knew he would be trembling now if he wasn’t stuck by magic. He hated showing any sort of fear, especially in front of Bowser, but he couldn’t help it. Bowser had never been one to really torture him.
Chaining, intimidation, minor cuts and bruises? Absolutely.
But horrific, mind breaking torture? Never.
Bowser laid Mario on his back on the table. He grabbed hold of Mario’s wrists, forcing them above his head and locked them up. He then did the same to his ankles. Bowser snapped and Mario felt the tenseness in his muscles relax.
Well, not all of it. But he was no longer rendered immobile by magic.
“Sire, don’t you want to keep him still?” Kamek asked.
“No, I wanna watch him squirm.. From anxiety and desperation,” Bowser smirked.
“What are you doing?!” Mario yelled as he immediately gave Bowser what he wanted by desperately trying to worm his way out of the restraints.
“You’ll see, Red.. hmhmhm..” Bowser chuckled, “Kamek, get me half of a blue mushroom.”
Kamek disappeared and re-appeared in only a few seconds holding the mushroom.
Bowser ate it, and he began to shrink. Not all the way, but now he was only six feet instead of his usual nine, and he was more proportionate to Mario.
“There, that’ll make this a lot easier.”
“Now, I’ve gotten sick of your flippant attitude. And since your only reaction towards me is laughing at me, I’ll give you something else to laugh about,” Bowser wiggled his fingers.
Mario’s eyes went wide. Oh no. He had never thought he’d have to ever endure this in his life. He knew he was ticklish, but he decided to try and play it strong.
“HA! That’s all you could come up with?! Tsk! Tickling, how childish of you, Bowser. I mean honestly, do you think I’m 5?! Too bad for you, I’m not even ticklish, ask anyone,” Mario wanted to throw himself off the castle roof for saying that knowing that would ultimately be disproven.
“Yeah, we’ll see about that, shorty,” Bowser puffed smoke out his snout in amusement.
Bowser wiggled his fingers again, and gently brushed Mario’s side.
No reaction.
He narrowed his eyes at him as he squeezed both sides at once.
A light jump and sharp inhale.
Better reaction.
Bowser then thought of something evil. He began to walk his fingers up his sides and ribs. Mario tensed more, and bit his lip.
“No no no no please not the armpits already.. they’re not even protected by clothing, shit!!” Mario thought.
Since he was taken in his sleep, he was wearing a loose t shirt and shorts. If only he wore overalls to bed damnit!
Bowser couldn’t hear the internal dialogue, but saw his face contorting into trying not to squeeze his eyes shut and biting his lip.
“Not ticklish? You sure you wanna lock that in? I can just tell you’re gonna break, shorty,~” Bowser teased.
No no no, not the teasing.
Bowser fingers wiggled on Mario’s top ribs making him throw his head back with a “pfft” sound. He terribly tried to stop his mouth from breaking into a smile. His legs kicked out hopelessly, trying to focus his mind on something else.
The problem with squeezing his eyes shut and having his head back was that he couldn’t see Bowser’s next moves. He realized this a little too late when he started to open his eyes again to see Bowser’s claws dart to his open armpits, skittering them quickly.
“GAH- MMM NGHH NA- HAHAHAHAHAHA WAHAHAHAHAIT!!”
Bowser smiled wickedly at Mario breaking with this explosion of laughter.
“There it is! I knew you couldn’t keep up that tough act for long. You humans are so weak to this!” Bowser reveled.
His claws lightly glided up and down Mario’s underarms and top ribs causing him to emit a loud cackle paired with arching his back.
Holy shit this was brutal.
He moved one of his hands down to begin squeezing his hip. Mario thrashed in his bonds to no avail. Bowser kept this up, switching sides occasionally until Mario was wheezing, and red in the face.
When he paused, Mario’s body dropped limp as he heaved to get air in his lungs again.
“Hm.. maybe that was too brutal to start with..” Bowser thought.
He was so busy with proving Mario wrong about his ticklishness, he had already completely tired him out.
Bowser watched as Mario settled down from the attack, and saw his shirt had ridden up from the thrashing.
He laid his hand on Mario’s stomach gently, and pulled the shirt up more to reveal his entire belly.
“NO! No plehehease n-no mohohore,” Mario pleaded.
“Calm down, Red, I’ll be nicer this time.”
That did not instill confidence in Mario.
Despite the protests, Bowser started to gently scribble Mario’s belly.
“Mh- EHEhehehe- p-pleheheaseee!!”
Bowser found this laughter incredibly funny. Instead of the full, boisterous laughter like before; all Mario could vocalize now were high pitched ‘hehe’ giggles and a few snorts. His face was blushing more of a pink than a red like before, and he seemed to be genuinely more relaxed. Still twisting around, and uselessly pleading, but he wasn’t dying like before and his smile looked.. genuine.
Holy shit wait.
“Do- do you like this?” Bowser asked very perplexed, yet still amused.
“N-nohoho! AH- AHEHEHEHE NAHAHA-!” Mario’s voice got even higher and louder when Bowser used both hands to skitter up and down his tummy.
“Hm sure sounds like you do.. you’re not screaming like before, and not fighting very much. I’d say it’s almost cute if you weren’t an annoying little shit.”
Truthfully, no Mario didn’t like this, but it was definitely better than before. The teasing was still killing him, though. If he had half a mind, he’d say that Bowser was the one enjoying this.
“Sh-shuhuhut up, you freheheheak!” Mario giggled.
“Insulting me in this position is not a wise thing to do, little ticklish one,~” Bowser teased.
Bowser stopped skittering his fingers then began squeezing his stomach rapidly causing Mario to guffaw and throw his head back again. Then he decided to try something.
“Kitchy kitchy coo! Who knew big, strong Mario would be taken down by just some skittering to his belly and squeezing of his ribs? What a silly little predicament that he couldn’t escape if he tried..~”
To Mario’s displeasure, this worked like a charm. His face blushed a deeper red at this teasing, and he tried to hide his face in his arm muffling his laughter somewhat.
“Oooh no, you’re not hiding that pathetic laughter from me, shorty,” Bowser chuckled.
Without warning, he took a deep breath before leaning down to unload the strongest raspberry he could muster onto Mario’s belly.
“AAAHEEHEHAHAHAHEHHAHAHA!! STAHAHAHAHAP I CANT TAKE IHIHIT!!” Mario absolutely hit the roof, screeching.
Now, this is what Bowser wanted to hear, screaming laughter and begging for mercy that he would never truly grant.
“You can’t take it?! Oh well I better give you some mercy then,” Bowser teased.
He did technically give him a bit of mercy from the raspberries, but his tickl-y fingers never left his body.
“You know this would’ve neeeever happened if you’d have just backed off, and let me have Peach.”
Mario shook his head, “NEHEHEHEVEHEHER! SHE HATES YOHOHOUR UGLY ASS ANYWAHAHAY!”
“Oh is that so?! Well then you just earned yourself another raspberry!”
“WAIT NONONONO- AHHH GAHAHAHEHEHAHEHAHAHA!!” Mario cried out as tears rolled out his eyes and into his ears.
Bowser blew another big one before finally giving Mario a full break.
“Whyhehehe.. why are you doing this?” Mario whined through giggles.
“Because I love to watch you suffer, but I’m not into the whole painful torture thing. I like more psychological and harmless but unbearable torture. It all rode on you being ticklish and man did I strike gold,~” Bowser chuckled.
“Peach and Luigi are gonna save me and kill you for this!” Mario spat.
Bowser rolled his eyes, “I think they would be pretty happy I did this to you instead of hurting their precious hero and brother.”
“So you want to do this just because? What you’re bored?”
“Basically, yeah. Now, I’ll be honest, I like you better when you shut up and only make your sounds of suffering, so-“
Without warning, Bowser dug back into his hips with his thumbs. Mario arched his back with a yelp that turned into full belly laughs.
“Well, thank you for making this easier, shorty!” Bowser teased.
Mario tried to ask what he meant but his thoughts were interrupted by yet another sloppy raspberry. He tried to curl back in on himself but Bowser wrapped his arms around his middle forcing him in this arched position. His fingers dug into his sides increasing the ticklishness times ten.
Bowser kept this up for a few minutes until Mario was once again red in the face and the only sounds he was producing were wheezes and occasional snorts.
“PLE- ASE- I need to breheheathe!” Mario wheezed.
“Oh fine… where to tickle next, though?..~”
Mario shook his head in protest, wishing he didn’t giggle while doing so. He couldn’t help it. His nerves were so hopped up, and the leftover phantom tickles still plagued him. He hated being this vulnerable to his enemy. Unable to do anything about it without power ups and with his energy drained. This was going to be embarrassing as hell for Peach and/or Luigi to walk in on. But he honestly didn’t really mind as long as they don’t make fun of him…
Okay they might.
But they would stop if it truly upset him. And it wouldn’t, Mario knew this was a ridiculous and silly situation to be stuck in.
“Actually I’d rather them walk in than someone like Daisy.. she’d just join in!” Mario thought.
“Oo I know!” Bowser exclaimed.
He walked down to the end of the table, and put his hand around Mario’s ankle. Mario’s heart skipped a beat.
Oh fuck.
“WAIT!”
Bowser’s grin grew wide at this.
“What? Are your feet a little ticklish, shorty?~”
“PLEASE DON’T! I- I BEG! I’LL DO ANYTHING!” Mario couldn’t believe he was groveling like this so quickly.
“My my, your feet must be really bad for you to beg that you’ll do anything for me to not tickle them. Well, then… let me think about this..” Bowser put his fist to his chin, tapping his foot.
Sweat formed on Mario’s forehead. His feet were his death spot. It was a spot he rarely, if ever, let anyone touch or tickle in a tickle fight. Even Luigi knows this. The few times he’s tickled him there, though, it’s to catch him off guard in a tickle fight then he moves somewhere else because he knows how horribly ticklish they are.
“How about.. you’re fucked, plumber,” Bowser smiled evilly before grabbing Mario’s ankle again, and skittering his claws on his socked foot.
Mario absolutely hit the fucking roof screaming. Loving this reaction, Bowser ripped off his sock, and clawed at his arch going up to his toes.
“NOO NO PLEHEHEHEASE N-NOT THE TOHOHOHOES! MA- MAHAHAHAMA MIAHAHAHAHAHA!! HOLY MERDAHAHAHA!!”
“I love that you’re telling me exactly where to tickle you by saying not to tickle there!~ kitchy kitchy coo, stupidly ticklish plumber!” Bowser teased.
Mario shook his head, and kicked his free, still locked down, leg around like his life depended on it. To his terror, Bowser just grabbed the other foot and started tickling it, too. Bowser didn’t think his voice could go any higher until he scratched under his toes.
“If only I had a brush with me, that’d really kill him.. maybe later,” Bowser thought.
Currently, Mario’s mouth was wide open, scream-laughing incoherent pleas. He shook his head vigorously trying to deal with the sensations as tears ran down his face. This was torture.
About ten minutes had passed, and Mario felt like he was going to pass out when suddenly, the dungeon doors burst open.
It took Bowser a moment to figure out someone else was in the dungeon with them.
“MARIO!” A voice yelled.
It was Peach!
Mario heard the voice, but just continued to laugh, trying to stay awake through this torture..
Wait. It stopped.
He faintly heard the sound of a roar, a yell, something crashing to the ground, then hands were on his wrists and ankles. He tried to fight weakly, but the voices he heard weren’t that of Bowser.
“Pl-plehehease no mohohore-,” he giggled meekly.
“It’s okay, Mario, it’s just us! Luigi and Peach. You’re safe, bud,” another voice soothed.
Luigi was here, too!
Mario laid limply before slowly moving his hands over his face when his arms were freed. He curled in on himself when his ankles were freed, his feet still twitching slightly.
His mind began to clear as he felt a hand rubbing his back gently.
“H-help me u-up pl-please,” Mario whimpered.
The two helped him sit up, and slowly got him to stand. His whole body was still tingling and shaking as little giggles still left his lips.
Then he laughed until he was wheezing as he doubled over. Those phantom tickles were still driving him crazy.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” Peach furrowed her brow trying to figure out what was going on.
Mario nodded, and fell into Luigi’s open arms.
“Here, hop on my back, bro.”
Mario tiredly climbed onto his little brother’s back wrapping his arms and legs around him.
They walked out of the dungeon, leaving Bowser unconscious on the floor.
~~~~
The moment they got back to Peach’s castle, Mario flopped down on the first thing he saw which was the chaise lounge in Peach’s common room.
Peach was extremely worried about him. Luigi was a bit less worried, having a good guess as to what happened to him. He witnessed it for a moment before lunging at Bowser, knocking him away from Mario. Luigi knew how deathly ticklish Mario’s feet were, though, and cringed at the thought of how long that had been going on before they got there.
“Th-thank you both.. for saving me,” Mario huffed.
“Of course! …so uh.. he found your weakness huh?” Luigi asked.
Mario exhaled sharply as that was the only form of a laugh he could muster anymore, “that was insane.. it.. it was.. okay until… oh mioho dio…” his toes scrunched at the thought, “I know you two find it.. funny, it’s okay to laugh… I can’t a-anymore, though.”
Luigi giggled slightly, laying a comforting hand on Mario’s shoulder.
“I don’t.. he tortured you.. Stars, Mario, I’m so sorry I couldn’t get to you sooner,” Peach knelt down eye level with Mario, petting his hair gently.
Mario blushed slightly at this gesture, trying to keep down the tears that threatened to spill. He was so drained physically and emotionally that this simple gentle touch from the princess was enough to make him wanna cry.
“P-principessa, it’s okay, it uh… it was just uh… t-t-…” he found himself not being able to say the word.
“It’s okay, I won’t judge you,” Peach assured.
Mario smiled, shaking his head. She was taking it so seriously; she was too goddamn sweet to him.
“Did.. did Bowser tickle torture you?” Luigi asked.
Mario dropped his head in his hands, groaning in embarrassment.
Peach gasped, and slowly covered her mouth.
“Oh.. oh hohohoney.. I’m so sahaharry..” Peach tried so hard not to giggle.
She really didn’t mean to, she could see how exhausted Mario was and felt for him. Honestly, she did. But it was just something about picturing him laughing his head off getting tickled that was so funny and kind of adorable to her. Taking Bowser out of the equation, of course.
Mario sat up slowly, and crossed his arms, trying to pout while smirking a bit.
“Laugh it up, guys, I’ll get my revenge,” he snarked.
Peach only laughed again knowing she wasn’t ticklish. Luigi just scooted away from Mario a bit.
Mario poked his side causing him to squeak.
“I really do hope this hasn’t.. ruined tickling for you.. I know you and Luigi love to have tickle fights,” Peach said.
“More like I love to win tickle fights against him, but also, no this hasn’t ruined it for me, I’ll be okay, Princess. I mean, he could’ve been worse. Kinda silly that’s all he could come up with.”
Peach nodded in agreement.
“Do you need a hug?” Luigi asked.
Mario glared at him with a tiny grin, “…sure..”
The brothers hugged, and when Luigi wrapped his arms around Mario, he wiggled his fingers a bit.
“I kNEW IT, PICCOLA MERDA!” Mario yelled.
He playfully tackled Luigi, and dug into his ribs causing Luigi to burst out laughing.
Mario smiled at his little brother, then put on a sinister face, “YOU DESERVE THIS!”
Peach watched in amusement at Mario getting revenge, then rolled her eyes and walked towards the brothers.
All that the toads heard around the castle was a scream that dissolved into laughter.
Peach had joined in on the revenge.