Mario's cabin

Chap. 20

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Peach and Bowser saw that Mario was already in his bedroom, asleep.

"Must've had a busy day," Bowser whispered.

"Yeah, I guess," Peach whispered back as she went back into her room.

She buried her face in her pillow in thought.

Why was Mario so tired? His day couldn't have been that busy. I'm hungry...

Peach went to the kitchen to see a dead deer, a turkey, and some more apples. She helped herself to some apples when Luigi came in.

"Hi, Peach," he said.

"Uh, hey, Luigi," Peach said back.

"Did you tell him?"

"Tell who what?"

"Did you tell Bowser that you're going to have his child?"

"Actually, I did. We didn't finish the conversation;
we probably will, come this evening."

"Well, do tell me what he says."

Peach, who was feeling rather suspicious, asked, "Why do you wanna know so much?"

"Because we wanna help you," Luigi answered.

"'We?'"

"Bowser and I. We intend on helping you have this child in a safe environment."

"But wait! What if Mario notices something about my appearance in the next few months?"

"Oh, that's taken care of. You see, I gave him some water right as he came in, and he was getting pretty drowsy."

"You're the reason he fell asleep?"

"As charged!"

"Ok, that seems good and all, but what about when I'm having the child?"

"Oh, we're thinking of having you go into the woods to have it. We'll tell Mario that you're going hunting so that if he hears your screaming, he'll think you're being attacked. Then we'll send Bowser out to 'help out'. Mario won't suspect a thing."

"Ok, but what about after I have it? Surely, Mario is gonna get suspicious if he sees a small child running about."

"We'll keep it in the woods until we can think of something."

"Well, we could see if Rosalina or Zelda or someone we know can take care of it."

"Yeah, we're putting together a list of possible babysitters, and here it is." Luigi pulled a piece of paper out of his front chest pocket and gave it to Peach. It read,

Possible babysitters
Rosalina
Zelda
Donkey Kong
Kirby

"Donkey Kong?" Peach exclaimed.

"He's actually pretty good with children," Luigi replied. "We're trying to think of a way to get ahold of them without Mario knowing, but so far no luck."

"Have you tried saying to Mario, 'Hey, Mario. How about we visit so-and-so? It's been a while?'" Peach suggested.

"Hm, it's worth a shot," Luigi said. "We'll ask tomorrow."

"Good," Peach replied as she took some of the meat that Luigi had been cooking while they were talking and walked to her room.

She gobbled it all down in less than two minutes, yet her stomach still felt unsatisfied. She ran back to the kitchen and saw that everyone was eating at the dining room (well, everyone except Mario, whom Bowser said was still asleep). She asked if she could have the apples and leftover deer. They were okay with it, so she ate the leftover deer meat in under five minutes and took the apples to her room to eat later.

She went to the restroom and returned to her room ten minutes later. She made a plan to stay in her bedroom and never leave for the rest of the night.

Fifteen minutes later, however, Bowser came in.

"Can we go back upstairs and finish our conversation?" he asked.

"Uh, ok," Peach replied as she followed Bowser back to the nearly-blank room upstairs.

"Well, where did we leave off?" Bowser asked.

"I was asking you if there was a safe way to have this child, but Luigi already said that you and him had that covered," Peach answered.

"Well, he told you correct," Bowser replied.

"Did he tell you that he's planning on having Mario visit some people (with Luigi and you) so you and Luigi can ask them if they can take care of the child for a while?" Peach asked.

"He did," Bowser replied. "We're not sure if Mario will go for it, but we'll ask. No worries there."

"Ok, good," Peach said, relieved. "I just cannot take any chances. Mario would kill me for what I did, he'd kill you for what you did, he'd kill the child just because he's the insane Mario we know, and he'd probably kill everyone else because he'd be so mad."

"I understand," Bowser replied while resting a paw (maybe clawed-hand. I'm not too sure there) on her shoulder. "How're those scratches healing up?"

Peach felt for the scratch on her back; it had healed some, but not that much. She then checked the one on her chest; it was the same way.

"They're healing slowly," she responded.