Boom Boom and Pom Pom laid out on their sunbathing benches and basked in the sun for the two hours it would be out today before it sunk below the clouds of volcanic ash and nightfall came upon them.

“Boom Boom wonders something...”

“Yeah, honey?” Pom Pom asked.

“What if Boom Boom had never told Bowsette about that fake invasion everyone was planning for her? What if Boom Boom had let her keep being the miserable King koopa that she was?”

“Then the world would be a much unhappier place,” Pom Pom said. “You’re not going to start blaming yourself for all the bad stuff that happened because of Bowser becoming Bowsette, right? Because... that’s a total lame-o move.”

“You’re right,” Boom Boom said. “Boom Boom was totally going to start doing that.” He laughed softly.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore, because you’re doing a great job as Prime Minister. Everybody loves you. You could probably call yourself King and everyone’d just accept it. I’d accept it for sure.”

“Boom Boom knows you’re only saying that because you want to call yourself Queen.”

“You’re not wrong,” she said with a laugh.

Still... Even if Boom Boom wasn’t King in title, he was effectively the ruler of all of Dark Land. He... really liked having that power.

This was the life.

Though... he would later learn that he had forgot to put on sunscreen and his body, head to shell, was covered in sunburns.