Okay. Welcome to the fourth story in my collection. Don't worry about My Smile Is Yours. It's still going on but it's under construction right now. So anyway this is a four-chapter story. They're four different one-shot romance stories for all the different seasons of the year. You know the seasons, summer, spring, fall, and winter. See I told ya! You do remember. So here they are. Here's the first season. Fall!
Seasons Of Love
Fall
Leaves. It's hard to understand them. They go through many changes of color. They start out green, and then fade to colors such as red, yellow, and orange. And then when their life is gone and they can give no more, they wither to a dark brown. A crispy dark brown that eventually crumbles into little pieces and falls into the earth soil.
This was how Princess Peach felt. Her love life and her life in general were falling in the same direction of the leaves. She was slowly changing. Once upon a time Peach was a bright green leaf. In fact she was like an evergreen leaf of never changing. Or so she thought until one night.
That one horrible night.
Peach shut her eyes to clear the memories of that night away. The thought of the words said to her… or maybe not directly to her, made her want to let her tears flow from her face again. She promised to never cry again over him. Never again. But the memories could not stay away.
Peach was surrounded by the trees of the fall season. The trees were going through the states of fall. They had all reached their brown color. How she fit in with the brown color. She could remember the change easily.
When she was green leaf of bliss, she was happily enjoying her life amongst all her friends at the SSBM mansion.
But she had especially loved spending time with her true love Mario. She and Mario were inseparable ever since the first time they came to the mansion. Five years later, Mario came to her and proposed and she happily said yes. They were to be married towards the fall. Yes, Peach was the little evergreen leaf that would never change.
But it seemed after the day Mario proposed to her, she lost her verdant evergreen. The green she was to be, started to slowly fade to a yellow.
The yellow stood for the warning of Peach's life to change as they went into a sudden war against the enemies Master Hand and Crazy Hand. She had no idea this battle would foreshadow on what was to come.
The red leaf stood for danger and there was nothing she could do. The danger was a warning on Peach losing something or specifically someone. Mario and Peach were battling the two hands alone. At first it seemed everything would be okay, but Peach was so busy attacking the left hand she didn't realize Master Hand was creeping over to her. When she realized he was behind her, it was too late the hand was ready to attack. She thought this was the end and shut her eyes awaiting death. But it never came. She opened her eyes and realized Mario had taken the shot for her.
Peach remembered watching the horror of her love's punishment for sacrificing his life for her. The thrashing and beating he received filled her eyes with tears. The sounds of cracking bones and the agonizing screams. But she never could forget the endless crimson blood flowing from his body. The same crimson blood he shed for Peach. Though she thought this was the end, she was proven wrong when her friends came to her and Mario's rescue. But by the time they had came, was too late.
The orange leaf of depression and worry was the next stage in Peach's life. As soon as the war between the hands was over Peach had a new battle to fight. The battle for Mario's life.
She tried her best to stay strong for him but his condition continued to grow worse. Her strong heart started to weaken its barrier and soon her heart was full of depression. The heart had lost its hope and faith. Just like an orange leaf that lets its color slowly fade to brown it is also giving up its chance to keep its color. Soon, Peach could no longer hold onto hopes of Mario getting well again. Sure enough, a few days after Peach gained her doubts her love passed away on a cold autumn night.
The princess finally opened her eyes and looked around. She was still in the same spot. She was sitting on a bench right across from her beloved Mario's grave. It was the exact day Mario had passed away. Peach looked up at the sky and choked back her tears. Two years. She had been visiting this site for two years now. Nothing had changed and nothing ever would. He was gone.
Peach wasn't the only emotionally damage by this death. Luigi became inconsolable and had locked himself in his room. Occasionally he would come out and talk for a while trying to see if he had healed from the loss of his brother. But the flowing good memories of his brother would always haunt himand he would retreat back to his room.
Peach then thought of the green dinosaur Yoshi. Yoshi had not taken Mario's death too well. In fact, all the smashers were sure that he didn't even understand what happened. Ever since the death of Mario, Yoshi would stay right besides Mario's bedroom door and wait for his time to be with his master once again.
The many boys who had tried to reach Peach were endless. Ever since Mario died, boys were swarming over her. They tried to comfort her with sympathy but the princess knew their emotions were lies. No boy ever cared about her feelings on Mario's death. They only cared for sexual desires with her.
Her friends who actually showed concern for her were loyal. Her girlfriends (as in tight buddies) Samus and Zelda had always been there for her through the misery of her loss. No they couldn't heal all the wounds held up in her, but they did enough to make her have the strength to face everyday.
Not only them, but also everyone else had been a big help towards her. They had given her cards, flowers, and as much support as they could.
Peach wished she could go back in time and stop the despair feeling felt on the battlefield so she could smile again.
She stared at the lovely diamond ring on her finger from Mario. It shined brightly into her eyes reflecting her sadness. But as she looked deeper into the ring, she could only see Mario's face staring back at her with sad blue eyes. The eyes were asking her why…why she let this happen?
"Its my fault and mine alone. He warned me not to come with him. But I was too stupid to listen to him and now he… he had to save my life again." Her tears had found a way out of her eyes. "B-But this… this is the last time."
Peach rubbed her tears away. "No…I'm not going to cry again. Never again."
She bit her lip to stop the tears. As she sat there a leaf found its way to her lap. She slowly picked up the delicate plant and examined it. The leaf was a brown color and its ridges were visible enough. As she barely touched it, she felt it withering away.
She balled the leaf up in her fist. She could hear it crumpling away. As she opened it, she saw it was no longer together but in little pieces. She held her hand out and let the now decayed leaf flow with the wind.
This was where Peach was. She was at the crumpling state. It was time for her to crumple and disappear into the next world. Life was too hard to bear for the princess. She could no longer find her happiness.
She never thought dying of a broken heart could ever happen in real life. But now that she was in this case, she knew it was true. Her heart had used up all its strength and was ready to pass on. Ready to take its last pump.
The pain started to flow in her body from the heartbreak. It was like her breathing was slowly stopping. She looked at another tree in the surrounding area. There wasn't a single leaf on it, except one. The brown dying leaf. Just like the other leaves, it was going away.
Every time the leaf would even twitch, Peach's heart would react in pain. Why this would happen? It was because on this very season of time, Mario had proposed to her. It was at the time the leaves were falling for the autumn season. And now seeing them made her just want to leave even more. She had nothing left.
The leaf was now barely hanging onto the tree and now her heart was hanging on by a thread.
And then…it let go. The leaf released its grip on the branch holding it.
Peach's heart stopped. She shut her eyes and placed her hands where her heart was supposed to be. There wasn't another heartbeat. This was it. The leaf was falling, falling, falling, and falling. As the leaf fell towards the ground, Peach could feel herself
Falling…
Falling…
Falling…
And…it stopped.
… Peach reopened her eyes. Her slow death had been withdrawn. She was still here. But why?
"Peach?" a male voice asked.
Peach looked up and saw a pair of blue eyes staring down at her. At first she thought it was Mario but then she saw the one flaw in that thought. The flaming wild red hair. She knew only one person with those features. "Roy…" she whispered.
She watched Roy's face lose its worry. "I thought you were never going to wake up again. Are you okay? How do you feel?"
Peach had no idea what she was feeling. As of a matter of fact, she had no idea why she was still here. She was accepting the death of her because of her broken heart. But it never happened. She was still here in the cemetery but now Roy was here with her. Which brought up her question.
"Roy? What are you doing here?" she asked softly.
"Oh me?" The question sent panic up his spine. "I-I was just walking and I saw you on the ground. You fell unconscious."
Peach gripped the closest thing next to her. It turned out to be Roy's leg and she realized she was resting her head in Roy's lap. She shot up quickly and pushed herself off of Roy and to the other side of the bench. Due to her dreariness she grabbed onto the backboard of the bench to stop herself from falling over again.
Roy blushed. "Sorry. I just didn't want you to lie on the wooden bench. It's not the most comfortable thing around here. So I tried the next best thing." Roy shut his eyes and wished he could shut his ears afraid of how she was going to lecture him now. He had a reputation of getting on the princess' last nerves.
"I don't care," Peach said carelessly. "It was nice of you to show some concern though." She stood with her back facing Roy.
Roy opened his eyes in disbelief. Did he just get off easily? He had to ask. "No witty comments?" he asked carefully.
"Roy. I haven't said anything bad to you in almost two years. I've matured since then, and there's no point in arguing with you anymore. It gets us nowhere," She answered.
Roy realized Peach was staring at Mario's gravestone. He could see the lines of the words engraved on the tombstone. He couldn't see what it said but he remembered perfectly what was on it. It said: Mario A True Smasher and An Even Better Friend. Roy thought of that day of one of the worse days since he's been here and he was sure Peach felt the same. He could see her whole body trembling. He had to try and help her out somehow.
He stood up. "Peach…" he started as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Listen…"
"No!" She smacked his hand away quickly. "Leave me alone! I don't want to hear anything you have to say! You've done enough to ruin my day!"
"Excuse me! But what did I do?"
"I was going to finally die and be happy. My heart was going to take its final leap." Peach could see that Roy couldn't understand so she tried to put it in simpler words. "Don't you see? I have no other purpose for living anymore. I knew this was my time to go. I was almost there and then you had to come!"
"What does that have to do with anything? I was worried something happened to you because at first you weren't breathing. I was concerned. So why are you blaming me!" Roy spat back. "It wasn't my fault! You just want to take out your anger and frustration out on somebody because Mario passed on and you don't know who to blame right?" Roy could see Peach just staring at him but he didn't care. "You always gotta blame me don't you! If all else fails blame good ol' Roy for everything! Right!"
Peach's vision was getting blurry. She could feel the wet feeling in her eyes. She remained silent and tried to look away from the fire burning in Roy's eyes.
Roy got up in her face. "WELL?" He roared .
Peach didn't realize she was dragging Roy into her own misery. "I'm sorry!" she blurted out. "I'm sorry okay! Is that what you want to here? Well there you go! And let me apologize for all the other things I've done while I'm at it! I'm sorry for calling you a jerk and all those other names! I'm sorry about for teasing you and bothering you! I'm sorry for putting you down when you really don't deserve it, like right now!" Peach turned back around and stared at the tombstone again.
Roy dropped his anger and sighed. Peach really doesn't need this right now. He silently stood next to Peach and looked at the surrounding area. None of them made a sound and they only heard the wind. After a long moment of silence, Roy spoke up.
"You miss him a lot don't you?" he said in almost a whisper.
"Yes. I thought after all this time, I would be okay with it. But every time I come by here, all my memories of him come back…" Her memories started to flow through her head as she said the last sentence. Her tears started pouring down her face. She covered her face in her hands. "But I'm trying to be strong by trying not to cry but my tears keep coming back. I want to forget him. But when it didn't seem to work, I thought that was my sign. A sign telling me to join him. Yet, I'm still here. Why am I still living?"
"Must not be your time to leave. I think there is probably much more you have to live on for in this place. Your tasks aren't complete yet."
"What tasks? There is no one else who needs me. My tasks ended when Mario sacrificed himself to save me that night of the battle."
"Believe it or not, there are other people who need you. And not just because of your cooking talents." Roy knew she wouldn't crack a smile but he wanted her to know there was much more to her. " What about Luigi and Yoshi? They need you here because you can keep them high in spirits and if you leave today, I think that'll just devastate them anymore. The younger smashers like that you always look out for them, read them stories, and always are in a mood to play with them. Your best friends Samus and Zelda really like you being around and putting a smile on their face when they're not in the best of moods. And just about everyone else they love the happy mood you are, well used to always be inn. Even the enemies. We all can't get along without you."
Peach looked deep into Roy's ocean blue eyes. She couldn't see any sign of him joking at all with his words. At this moment she didn't care if she hated Roy or not. She just needed someone. She ran into Roy's arms and buried her face in his chest and started to sob. Roy circled his arms around the princess and hugged her gently but enough to show he cared.
"Why?" She asked through her mourning. "Why did you take the time to show concern for me? You're showing so much care and… I just don't understand why."
"We all want you back, Peach. We all miss you." He whispered in her ear. "Especially me."
Peach pulled away from Roy and looked him straight in the eyes. "You? But you always hated me because of how I act. I'd hate myself if I were you."
Roy chuckled. "Peach I never could hate you if I tried. It's impossible."
Peach raised an eyebrow. "Really, and why is that?"
Roy sighed. He couldn't believe he was going to say this. "Peach. For the longest time, I've been in love with you."
Peach stared at him in disbelief. He had to be kidding. "What did you just say?"
"I'm in love with you, Peach." He felt better saying it a second time. "Yes, call me crazy, but it;'s true. Sometimes I even think it's crazy that I fell in love with you. I'll admit when we first met, I had trouble getting used to you, and I thought you didn't belong here. But as time progressed on, I saw new sides of you that I had never seen before. The way you treat others made my heart react with affection towards you. I instantly fell in love with the other you I had never seen. I envied how everyone else would see this side of you that you would never show to me. So as you continued to insult me, I kept up my end by retaliating back with insults of my own. But I never meant any of them." He let his arms loose so Peach could get free, which she gladly took advantage of as she backed up a little to face him another way instead of in his arms. "I knew the truth and there was no way I could insult you honestly after seeing the sweet you. I thought of one day telling you how I felt, but then you and Mario got together and then eventually you two were engaged. I shrunk behind and tried to stay out of your way so I could rid my self of the love I had for you, but it never left."
Peach crossed her arms. "And then let me guess. When Mario died, you knew this was your chance to keep me as your own."
Roy took those words to heart. "As mean as I come across sometimes, I would never try to harass a girl after she suffers a loss of someone dear to them." He said. "I have some morals."
Peach knew she was coming on a little too strong on Roy. But she knew exactly why. "Roy. I still…"
"I know already Peach. You still need time to get over, Mario. I can accept that. But I just wanted you to know that I care deeply about you. I don't know if you'll ever get over him, and I'm not rushing you to but I just want you to know you're the only girl who can ever keep me smiling and strive me to go on. That's why I need you to still be here with us, with me. Otherwise, I don't know what I'd do."
Roy saw Peach wasn't sure what to say next. He wasn't too sure either. He sighed and turned from her. "Well I'm glad you're alright. I'm just going to head back to the mansion. See you later, maybe." He turned his head a bit to look at her through the corner of his eye.
Peach tried to move her hand to stop Roy as he walked away but it froze. She still couldn't find a way to respond to everything he had just said to her. The words had so much feeling towards her. But she couldn't go to Roy after what happened to Mario. How could she wish for Roy sit right there and be there for her, when Mario was still gone. Mario, who cared so much for her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life her. The man who gave up his life to save her.
Surely, she was depressing herself all over again, and yet it was strange: she felt like the brown leaf ready to die but it was like the leaf was going backwards. Back to orange… then back to red… and back at yellow again. All of a sudden, Peach felt like time stopped. She only could hear the autumn wind blowing her forward as if being guided somewhere. For a brief moment she could have sworn she heard the wind speaking to her.
The wind said. "I want you to live on and be happy. I'll always be here with you."
The words hit Peach in the face like a ton of bricks. Those words of the wind weren't just any words they were Mario's exact words when he gave his last breath before he died. He whispered them to Peach with a smile on his face that showed her he would keep his promise.
And now he had finally reached out to her. Just like… Roy was trying to do. She really thought about her time with Roy after Mario died. The teasing had completely stopped, but everytime he saw Peach, he'd say hello with a smile. Then, Roy would be on his way. When guys did bother her fresh after Mario's death, Roy was one of the ones who made sure the guys were gone before she could blink. In moments when she wandered with no direction, Roy seemed to be there to make sure she always made it back to the mansion, back home where people loved her. He'd been there for her. He's been there for her. It reminded her, reminded her so much of "Mario," she whispered.
Peach felt fresh new tears falling down her face. After two years…I thought he was lying. Mario didn't come when I wanted him to, but he came right on time and he sent me someone to assure I stayed happy. He kept his promise.
"Roy!" she called.
Roy turned to face her. Peach saw someone stand beside him. She could see the wind forming into someone. It was very faint but she saw him. Mario was dressed in white and he was smiling at Peach. As he started to fade away she saw him nod, telling her what to do. She got up and ran to Roy. She placed her hands on his shoulders and pressed her lips against Roy's gently. She could feel Roy return the kiss. She could feel the wind circling around her now and it was whispering to her.
This is who you need now and he needs you. He will protect you from all harm.
Peach's tears never stopped. But these were different tears. They were tears of happiness.
Roy felt her tears fall on him. He parted his lips from hers and looked at her confused. "Why are you crying?"
Peach wiped her tears. "It's nothing. Nothing anymore." After two years she did something she hadn't done in such a long time. She smiled. It was then she found some new memories. After the death of Mario, Peach remembered Roy had done things for her in the past. She had no idea how she forgot about them. Roy was the one who was comforting her at her funeral after everyone had left. Roy was the one who gave her white roses of courage and hope. She then realized that during this time, she had also seen Roy in a new light. He was the one who was keeping her strong for this long and now for years to come. He was her reason for living on. She hugged the blessing in her life. "I just realized, I love you too Roy."
Roy looked at Peach's smiling face. "Glad to see you're back. Peach, I promise I stay with you for…" Roy was cut off as Peach placed two of her fingers over his lips.
"Don't promise me something you can't keep. We don't know how long we have left here in this world. No one knows."
"Well what can I promise you?" Roy asked as she pulled her finger away from his lips.
"Just promise me that you'll be yourself and never turn out the way I just did. You don't have to promise that you will stay faithful to me. I trust and believe that you will never try to make me cry."
Roy kissed Peach's forehead. "It will never even come to thought. This love I have for you is too strong to even think that way." He looked at the sun setting in the sky. "I guess we should head back."
"Just a second," Peach said. She let go of Roy and walked over to Mario's grave. She kneeled down in front of his grave and looked at the little pedestal where the flowers were usually kept. She looked at her ringed hand. The engagement ring was shining brightly. She slowly took it off her finger and placed it on the pedestal. She stared at it and let the last tear fall on the gravestone.
She closed her eyes. I pray that with this ring, a part of me will be with you too, Mario. Thank you for bringing Roy to me.
She stood up and brushed her dress off. She felt Roy's hands slip around her shoulders. He whispered into her ear. "Are you sure you'll be fine?"
Peach nodded. "I'm ready. After two years, I'm ready to start new beginnings with you by my side."
Roy nodded. "I am too." He offered his arm to Peach and she gladly linked onto it. The two slowly walked towards the exit. Roy noticed something odd as he reached the exit. "That's weird."
Peach pulled her head up from Roy's shoulder and noticed he was looking at a tree. There was something special about it. She realized it right away.
"All the other trees have changed colors. But this one still has green leaves." He commented.
Peach smiled as she looked at the evergreen tree. The green leaves of happiness. They were telling her, she wasn't at her happy green leaf color yet. But she was on her way to having a happier and brighter future.
So…what did you think? I know that was a little weird adding all that stuff about the leaves and the wind but I'm trying a new concept I learned from my English teacher. It's when you use nature to help in romance or to use it as emotions. It's not my usual style but I'd thought I could take a whack at it. Anyway tell me if it is good or bad? Oh yeah, next chapter will be the season winter. See you then.
Please Review!