Paying off debts (Koopaling x FEM!reader)

Confession

A/n: Before the chapter starts, I just wanna apologize for my absence. This chapter was a LONG one, and I didn't quite know how true that was until I started writing it (Over 4,000 words aaa), but I'm back. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, cause it's quite the wild ride

I did not figure it out the next day.

Or the next day.

Or the next.

In fact, the next week or so was filled with even more conflicting and confusing emotions. No updates from Iggy either, unless you counted him making the most in-depth explanations for the slightest change in his brothers' behavior as anything. The koopa managed to go on an hour long tangent about how Morton not getting seconds for dinner the prior night was a sign of something. I admired his commitment to it, though.

I couldn't observe anything because they were all as equally clingy as each other.

"(Y/N)! Watch this!" Larry had said on one of my shifts, proceeding to do a fairly mediocre wand trick that ended with flashy little sparkles. It was charming in its own way. It earned a small smile from me, which seemed to make Larry's day.

Morton and Roy were at each other's throats more than usual. Whether it be tennis matches in the gym or arm wrestling tournaments where I was completely convinced one of them was gonna tear the other's arm off. They always had me ref for those matches, and every single time one of them won, they'd seem so proud of themselves.

Lemmy was seemingly the most normal acting, but he also took to showing me some of his little tricks. The guy was quite the talented acrobat. I always wondered how someone as small as him could hold his own against Mario, but seeing his agility showed me why.

Ludwig was weird. He was still putting on his aloof, sophisticated act, but he had also shown a more. . . Nerdy side? If I could get the man to ramble about the book he was reading, I'd be lucky to get him to shut up. I didn't understand most of what he was saying half of the time, but his passion for the topics he rambled about really drew me in.

None of this was helping. Even with Iggy clearing himself from the suspect list, neither he nor I could possibly find an answer. The only one who truly knew the answer wouldn't cough up an answer, and if I'm being totally honest with myself, probably wasn't that fond of me. Wendy was always so dodgy, I was beginning to wonder if she had just hung around me because all of her brothers liked me. It made my chest hurt in a way it hadn't hurt since I was buried in fireballs.

I shook that thought out of my head, feeling a bit silly for getting so emotional over a stupid bracelet. It wasn't even that big of a deal. Maybe I could just ask the koopalings themselves?

They could easily lie, though.

Hell, for all I know, Iggy could've lied about not making the bracelet! I choose to believe him, but there's still that possibility that I can't ignore.

All of these thoughts swarmed in my head like a perfect storm as I stared off the castle balcony. There wasn't much to see in a volcanic wasteland such as the Darklands. Dark rock mountains, rivers of lava, and ominous smoke clouds in the sky. Living here my whole life, you get used to the bare land. Most would call this place a dump, but I call it a home.

Watching the lava flow through the cracks in the ground below really put the uneasy thoughts in my mind at ease. If only I were a paratroopa. . . Maybe I could fly high above the sky. Wouldn't that be fun? I wouldn't have to worry about a bean heart bracelet ever again.