Chapter Text
Bowser had been having a rather quiet morning, it seemed peaceful and maybe thats what made something feel off. He wasn’t sure until breakfast was called and he noticed something was wrong. There were eight of his kids instead of nine, and of course the ninth one was the one that had never disappeared before, opting to follow Bowser around or occasionally venture through the koopa kingdom, never having been seen by outsiders and never gone before breakfast. The king ended up skipping breakfast to search the castle for any sign of the teen. He had never officially adopted them like the others but even then, without a doubt, the teen was always around except for this morning. He yelled at a guard who claimed that he didn’t know Bowser didn’t ask them to go outside of the kingdom, falling for such an obvious lie from one of the kids made the king puff up in annoyance but the teen had shown to be strong enough to take care of themselves, he just had to hope they would be fine.
The teen in question whispered curses to themselves. Their name was Chaotic, an odd child who looked almost human if it wasn’t for their koopa tail and eyes as well as a set of razor sharp teeth that lined their mouth. They hadn’t bothered venturing outside of the kingdom until today. Sure they had years ago before Bowser had found them but after that they had hid from outsiders outside of pranking them from the shadows. They never had a reason to until recently.
Stories about people and places in the mushroom kingdom began intriguing them. Which is why they had planned to check it out for themselves, at least until while trying to sneak in a toad had spotted their tail. The toad didn’t see much of them outside of that and assumed it was just a regular koopa and threw a spear at them. They weren’t hit severely but they ran off limping on a scratched leg.
They weren’t sure where they were but they thought they were alone. They finally started crying, holding the injury close to their body. That's when they heard a voice, a voice that sounded vaguely familiar but not enough to stick, a voice that was almost a little nervous and shaky as it spoke,
“Uh hello? Is-a someone there?”
Chaotic tried to quiet themselves but it was too late. A human wearing overalls and a green shirt and hat now stood in front of them. He had a mustache and blue eyes that seemed worried. Chaotic immediately tried and failed to hide their own tail behind them as they backed away into a tree.
“Oh dio mio! Let me help you there!”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of bandages while the teen growled trying to make themselves look scary. Despite thinking they were in danger they didn’t look scared, instead they looked angry.
“Hey! Back away! I won’t let you hurt me!”
“Hurt you? But why would I hurt you?”
Chaotic seemed a little surprised and narrowed their eyes in suspicion
“Because you’re a human! That's what they do! Besides, why should I trust you, I don’t even know who you are!”
The human in question just looked a little sad to hear those words and crouched down, raising his hands up to try and make the teen feel less threatened.
“My name is Luigi, now I promise not to hurt you, bambino. Can I bandage that scratch you have?”
Chaotic still looked suspicious but lowered their leg out so it could be bandaged. Luigi winced looking down at it.
“Ouch… how did you get-a this?”
“…stupid toad…and their stupid spears…”
He blinked in mild horror at their pouty mumbling
“They threw a spear at you?? But you’re just a bambino… er child!”
“Part koopa child… that's why… I wasn’t even gonna cause any problems! I just wanted to look”
Luigi seemed a little surprised looking over at the tail that wrapped around Chaotic.
“Ah. So that's explains the tail and teeth”
“You… aren’t upset?”
“No no, you are still hurt and that's the important part”
Chaotic went quiet for a little while seeming to think to themselves.
“…You… you said your name was Luigi right?”
“Si”
“…Mine is Chaotic”
“That’s a rather unique name bambino”
“I made it myself”
Luigi smiled as the teen seemed to relax a little. Their tail wagged a little as they spoke, now with less suspicion.
“I’ve heard about you a lot actually! Dad always says you’re the better plumber and my siblings seem to think you’re fun even if you are a scaredy cat sometimes.”
They didn’t seem to notice the brief look of discomfort as they said ‘scaredy cat’ that lined the human's face and went back to rambling.
“You’re as nice as they said actually. I wasn’t sure since your brother always just attacks but you are definitely cooler!”
Luigi looked up quickly at that, not fully processing the words that were said at first. They eventually clicked into place and he stared at the child
“You… you think I'm cooler than Mario?”
“Well duh! You weren’t even scared of me despite the fact I'm part koopa and you helped me! Then you also listened, which Mario never does for my siblings. We’ve never personally met but I hear he’s really annoying.”
Luigi laughed a little, not expecting to hear those words. He was normally only ever compared to his brother as lesser but this kid, who was inevitably on his brother's enemies side, used his brother as a way to praise Luigi instead.
“You are quite cool yourself Chaotic”
He instinctively ruffled the teens red hair who giggled a little at it.
“Stop that! You’re acting like my dad”
They playfully pushed the hand off their head still smiling. He smiled back, double checking the bandage he had finished wrapping.
“I don’t get that many compliments to be honest-“
“What?!? How?!? You’re so cool!”
“Ah haha I guess others don’t think so”
He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as Chaotic studied him in confusion.
“…Even though you’re one of the heroes of the kingdom?”
“Oh Mario is the one who gets the praise for that. I just live in my cottage”
Chaotic paused, seeming to be thinking of something. They suddenly stood up and grabbed Luigi's arm, their tail wagging and smiling which completely contradicted their next set of words
“I’m going to kidnap you!”