Christmas: Mario Style
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the castle, not a creature was stirring... I think.
Actually, there was a creature stirring. Two creatures, in fact. Their names were Mario and Luigi, and they were on a mission: to deliver gifts without being spotted.
It had been Toadsworth's idea, actually, to deliver their presents this way rather than giving them right to the princess on Christmas morning. It was a good idea, Luigi had to admit, but there was a problem with it: how were the brothers supposed to get into Peach's room, where her presents were, without being spotted by the night guards, waking the Toad servants, scaring Peach, or all three?
The two had already gotten past the guards; they had used Wing Caps to fly over the castle walls, and hadn't raised any alarms. Now all they had to do was get through the castle without waking everyone up, which wasn't as easy as it sounded, as Mario and Luigi had found out.
"Careful, Mario!" Luigi hissed, as his brother narrowly avoided knocking over another vase.
"I'm sorry that I can't see where I'm going over this crazy pile," Mario mumbled.
Luigi sighed. "Maybe if you gave some of those to me, like I've asked you to do about three times already, we would already have finished putting the presents under Peach's tree!"
"Hmph," Mario... hmphed. "Fine, you win." He handed a few packages to Luigi and continued walking.
About five minutes later, Luigi realized that they had just walked in a circle. "Hey, Mario? Are you sure you know where we're going?"
"Ummm... no. I actually have no idea which direction Peach's bedroom is in."
"Great... we're lost. Now what? We can't exactly call Toadsworth and ask for directions."
"I know. Whose stupid idea was thi-"Mario's sentence was cut off when a door opened.
"What are you two doing here at this ungodly hour?"
Mario and Luigi sighed in relief. "Phew, it's only Sue. What are you doing up at midnight?" Luigi asked.
The young Toad stepped out of the doorway. "I wrote something not-so-nice about someone on a wall today, so I had to stay the night and clean the trophy room. With a toothbrush."
Mario chuckled. "What'd you write?"
"I wrote, 'Toadsworth is an ancient Hoohooligan' in blue paint on one of the castle walls. Don't change the subject. Why are you two here?"
Mario sighed. "Can you keep this a complete secret? Don't tell a soul, not even a mouse."
Sue crossed her heart. "Your secret is safe with me. Please tell me?"
"We're delivering some of Peach's presents," Luigi told her. He then had to clamp a hand over her mouth to stifle the shriek that came from her.
"You're delivering Peach's presents?" came from her mouth, although somewhat muffled. Mario and Luigi looked at each other, 'I knew that would happen' plastered all over their faces.
"Sue," Mario warned, "Remember that thing about not telling anyone?"
She nodded, unable to answer through Luigi's hand.
"Can you keep quiet now?"
She nodded again. Luigi took his hand off of her mouth. Sue grinned. "I can't believe that you two finally thought of this! What better way is there to deliver presents than on the sly?"
"Mi vengono in mente molti modi, meglio di questa idea stupido," Luigi muttered.
Mario ignored him. "Do you know where Peach's room is?" he asked Sue.
She grinned wider. "Of course I do! I even know a shortcut that will let you in without waking her!"
"You do? Excellent!" The brothers looked excited. Finally, they were getting somewhere!
"Let's-a go!" Mario said, jumping to his feet.
They ran down a hall, one that the Mario brothers hadn't seen before. The two looked at each other. "Oops," Luigi mouthed. They smiled.
After about two minutes of running, the three reached a bright pink door. "So this is Peach's room," Mario said.
"Come se non sapeva dove si trovava prima," Luigi mumbled.
"Chiudi la bocca," Mario said, blushing. Luigi snickered.
Sue glared at them. "You know I can't understand a word you're saying."
Luigi was still snickering. "You don't need to," he said.
She sighed and opened the door quietly. Mario and Luigi tiptoed into the room and nearly had a heart attack as they saw the silhouette of Peach's bed about seven feet away from them.
Luigi sighed. "Sue might have told us about this," he thought. Mario was thinking the same thing.
They saw the tree across the room and walked over to it. Careful not to drop anything or make any noise, they placed the presents one by one under the tree. Still silently, they walked back to the door and closed it behind them gently. They then turned on Sue, who was standing with a smirk on her face.
"You could have told us that Peach's bed was right beside the door!"
She was still smirking. "It was funnier to see your faces when you realized."
Mario sighed through gritted teeth. "Calm down," Luigi warned him. Mario sighed again, but with an open mouth.
"Let's just get out of here and back to bed," Mario said. They got out of the castle and back to their house without incident.
Christmas Morning
Peach woke up, sat up, and looked around the room. She smiled when she saw the bright packages under the tree. She got up, got dressed, and ran down to Toadsworth's room.
"Toadsworth!" she called. "It's Christmas! Wake up! We need to do presents!"
He opened the door. "Princess, it's six in the morning! Can't it wait until at least ten?"
"No!" she said impatiently. "We should open them now!"
"At least wait until Master Mario and Master Luigi arrive," Toadsworth grumbled, and shut his door.
Peach put on a pouting face and went back to her room, where she brightened up when she saw the pile of presents.
"Well," she thought, "it wouldn't hurt anyone if I just looked at the tags to find out who these are from."
She sat down on the floor and looked at a present. The tag said that the present was from Toadsworth. She looked at a few more. They were all from the serving staff around the castle. She looked at the presents at the back of the tree and saw one with a tag that said it was from Mario, and another from Luigi. There were a few with the brothers' names on them.
"That's funny. Mario and Luigi didn't drop off any presents in the past few days… Maybe they mailed them. I don't remember Toadsworth saying anything about a mail delivery, though," she thought. Then she saw something else: a huge package, wrapped in dark green, scaly-looking wrapping paper. She walked over to it and looked at the tag. It didn't give her any clues as to who the sender was.
"Hmm… Who did this come from?" she wondered. She shrugged. "Guess I'll find out later." She sat down in a chair and started to read, although she couldn't concentrate on it. She needed to find out who had sent that huge package…
Mario house, 9:00 am
Luigi was already in the kitchen cooking breakfast when Mario awoke. The first thing he smelled was bacon. "Mmmm… bacon," Mario thought, his eyes still closed.
Luigi, realizing that his brother would probably be awake whenever the bacon was cooking, and knowing that Mario probably wouldn't get up for another hour, had prepared a little surprise for Mario to get him out of bed. He had gotten a bucket and filled it with water, and was creeping silently up the stairs to Mario's room with it. Mario didn't hear, or wasn't paying attention. Luigi crept up to his brother's bed and turned the bucket upside down above Mario's head.
Mario yelped. "LUIGII! That wasn't funny!" he yelled, jumping out of his bed.
Luigi was doubled over with laughter. "Merry Christmas, bro," he gasped between bouts of laughter.
Mario was glaring at him. "I'll Merry Christmas, you! What was that for?"
Luigi was calming down now. "To get you out of bed. I knew you wouldn't get out of bed for another hour. Besides, you did worse to me as a kid."
Mario chuckled at the memories. "Oh yeah, like the old shaving cream in the hand trick. Works every time… Anyway, I thought I smelled bacon?"
Luigi nodded. "Get dressed first. We're going over to the castle right after breakfast."
After their breakfast, the Mario brothers headed to the castle where Peach was excitedly awaiting them at the door.
"Hi Mario! Hello Luigi!" she called when they opened the door.
Toadsworth came through a door into the foyer. "Good, you're here! The princess has been waiting for you to arrive since six this morning."
Mario grinned. "If I had known that, I would have gotten up way earlier this morning!"
"Yeah right," Luigi faked a cough. Mario glared at him.
"Oh, Luigi! What did you do to him this morning?" Peach asked.
Luigi smiled. "Oh, nothing. I just upturned a bucket of water on his head."
Peach gasped overdramatically and hugged Mario. "Oh, you poor thing! I hope he wasn't too mean about it, was he?"
Mario shot his brother a grin, then put on a pitiful expression. "Well, the water was really cold," he fake whined.
"Oh, poor Mario. Would a kiss make it better?" Peach giggled.
Mario's expression looked like that of a man who had won the lottery. "Yeah…"
Peach giggled again. "Well, too bad," she said. Mario's face fell, but then brightened as he decided to do something else. He turned his head a little and gave Peach a peck on the cheek.
"Well, I never!" Toadsworth cried in surprise.
Peach gasped in surprise and let go of Mario. "Mario!"
He grinned, then sobered up a little as the mood of the room became awkward. "Well… should we go open presents now?"
The mood suddenly brightened up a lot. "Yeah!" Peach and Luigi cried. They all walked together to Peach's room.
One hour later
Peach was opening the second-last present, a small box from Mario. She finally got all the paper off and opened the box. It was a gold chain necklace that had the word "Peach" as the pendant, in elegant cursive.
"Wow…" Peach said quietly. "It's beautiful. I love it, Mario."
"I knew you would," he said. "I had it specially made for you."
"Well, there's only one present left," said Luigi. Everyone looked toward the green package in the corner of the room.
"I still can't tell who it's from," Peach said. "I guess we'll find out when we open it." She walked over to the box, grabbed the corner of the wrapping, and pulled on it. The wrapping ripped off the box easily. When it was all off, a plain brown cardboard box was sitting on the floor. Peach went to open the lid, and Bowser popped out of it.
Peach screamed and scrambled away from the box. Mario and Luigi got ready for a fight, stepping in front of Peach to protect her.
"Whoa, calm down," Bowser said, putting his hands out in front of him in an "I'm innocent" gesture. "It's Christmas. I wouldn't kidnap Peach on Christmas morning. I'm not that evil."
"You've done worse before," Luigi said. "Today being Christmas wouldn't stop you."
"In case you haven't noticed, Green Stache, Peach is still here. If I had wanted to kidnap her, she'd be gone by now."
"True," Luigi thought. "He might be serious. Maybe he's just lonely in his castle, or something."
"All I came to do was bring the princess a present on Christmas, and you two want to stop me? I haven't kidnapped Peach in a month! I haven't even been near her! All I want is to have a good Christmas!"
"What about spending Christmas with your kids?" Mario asked. It was clear that he still didn't trust Bowser.
"They're playing with their toys. We did presents at three this morning, then Kamek wrapped me up and teleported me here at five."
"Well," said Peach, who had stepped out from behind the Mario brothers, "if you want to have Christmas with us, I guess that would be all right."
Mario looked at her like she was crazy. "Peach, are you crazy?"
"She has a good idea, bro. If Bowser wants to have Christmas with us, and if he's willing to keep it peaceful, he can have it. I know I am okay with this idea."
"Well… I guess," Mario agreed reluctantly.
"Great!" Bowser said. "Then, in that case, here is my present." He held out a box towards Peach. It was a lot smaller than the one he had arrived in, but was wrapped the same. She opened it. Inside the box was a decorated box that felt like it was made of ivory or something. She opened this box, too. A little figurine of Bowser was standing there; it was perfect to the last detail. A tune began to play. (The tune was that of Bowser's airships from Super Mario Bros. 3, but with gentle, soft notes rather than booming, intimidating ones.)
"It's beautiful. Thank you, Bowser," Peach said. He turned a bit red.
"Well… That's not the only thing I brought." He turned redder. "I got gifts for Mario and Luigi, too." He held out small boxes to Mario and Luigi. The wrapping paper was different than on the last two boxes. For Mario, the paper was red and sparkly, with a white "M" on the side, just like on his hat, and for Luigi, the paper was green and black striped, with the white "L", like on his hat. They tore off the paper and opened the boxes underneath. In the boxes were spiked wristbands – two for each brother – just like the ones Bowser wore, but were red and green for Mario and Luigi, respectively.
"Whoa," said Luigi, "These are cool." They tried them on and found them to be a perfect fit.
"These are great," said Mario, while attempting to flex and look impressive. "Thanks, Bowser. Now I feel guilty. I didn't get you anything."
"That's all right," said Bowser. "Did you guys open your presents already, or just Peach?"
"Well actually," said Mario, "we left our presents at our house accidentally. We should probably go and get them." He and Luigi started for the door.
"Nah," said Bowser. "I have a better idea." He walked over to the window, opened it, and bellowed, "KAMEK!"
"He'll come," he said, walking back from the window towards the others.
Sure enough, a few moments later, Kamek flew down the chimney wearing a red robe. "So Kamek is Santa Claus today, eh?" Mario whispered to Luigi, who nodded and chuckled.
Kamek glared at the two. "I heard that, you know!"
Bowser spit a fireball at him that hit him in the broom, causing him to wobble in midair. "Listen to me," he ordered. "I want you to fly over to Mario's house and grab all the presents from under the tree, then go back to the castle and grab the ones I saved especially for this, then bring them here. Got it?"
"Yes, your Nastiness," Kamek grumbled as he flew back up the chimney.
The other four sat down – Toadsworth had fainted when Bowser came out of the box and was still out cold – and talked about random things, some breaking the fourth wall, like Luigi and Bowser's conversation about fanfictions and their writers – L van Am was the main writer they talked about :D – until Kamek flew back down the chimney with a huge sack on his back, causing everyone awake to burst out laughing. He scowled, dropped the sack near the tree, and flew back out of the chimney.
Five minutes later
Everyone was still laughing.
Ten minutes later
They were starting to calm down, but everyone was still laughing pretty hard.
Fifteen minutes later
They had all (finally) calmed down by now. "Oh, man, that was funny," Mario said. "That totally deserved a fifteen minute laugh-fest." Everyone else agreed.
"Now's probably a good time to open those presents," said Luigi. They opened the sack and Mario, Luigi and Bowser got to work opening presents. Soon, all the gifts were unwrapped, Mario was wearing a new hat, Luigi was wearing plaid overalls, Bowser had something around his tail, and they were all laughing and having a good time. Toadsworth had woken up and was watching from the other side of the room, still terrified of Bowser, despite the fact that the situation had been explained to him.
Mario and Luigi started putting their gifts back in Kamek's sack. Bowser produced another sack from seemingly nowhere and was putting his presents in it. When they were finished, Bowser asked, "Well, what should we do now?"
"Let's go for a walk!" Peach cried. The others agreed. Luigi changed back into his regular overalls and put his new scarf on. Mario, seeing as his new hat was the same as his old one, didn't change, but put on a scarf as well, and helped Peach into a nice warm coat. Bowser just put on a toque and scarf and looked adorable. Peach giggled at the sight of Bowser in his winter wear and he blushed. They then walked out of the castle together.
"Where are you going?" Toadsworth called after them, but they didn't hear.
As the foursome walked through Toad Town, they received some odd looks, but they were in such good spirits that they didn't notice. They wished everyone who passed a "Merry Christmas," and they were laughing and talking and joking and generally making merry. They passed some people in the street who were huddled around an oil can and trying to light a fire, but weren't having much luck. Bowser told them to keep out of the way between him and the can, and breathed fire on the wood and things inside the can. The wood ignited quickly, and soon the fire was big and warm. The people who had been huddled around the can thanked Bowser and wished them all a Merry Christmas. The outing was a lot of fun.
Soon enough, it was time to get back to the castle for Christmas dinner. When the group walked in the doors of the castle, the first thing they smelled was turkey and gravy. "Mmmm… dinner," they said in unison, and walked through the castle to the dining room.
Christmas dinner was excellent. There was roast beef, mashed potatoes, turnip, ham, cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, and of course, a turkey. Bowser ate so much on a regular basis that they made a huge turkey just for him. For dessert there was berry pie, apple pie, cherry pie, all kinds of pies, as well as ice cream. There had to have been twenty different kinds of ice cream there.
After dinner, the Mario brothers, Bowser, and Peach went back up to Peach's room to grab their presents.
"That was a great Christmas," Bowser said. "I'm glad I got to have it here." He hugged Peach, then turned to Mario and Luigi. "But just so you know, this was a one-day-only truce."
"Yeah," said Mario, "I'm sure you'll be back to your old tricks tomorrow." They laughed.
Bowser whistled out the window, and a few minutes later, the Koopa Klown Car flew up outside the window. Bowser went out on the balcony, jumped into it, and flew off. They waved to him until he was out of sight. Before he disappeared, he called dramatically, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night."
A/N: Hello people of the Mario fandom! This is a bit of a change for me, writing in this fandom, but I enjoy reading these stories, so I figured I could. This is a fanfic i was inspired to write about Mario and what he and his friends do at Christmas. I had intended it to be shorter, but the fic kept me going. It's longer than any chapter in my chapter story! For those who read I, Jedi Knight, don't worry, I will have the next chapter out soon, but I'm having a bit of trouble finding the right lines from the game to use, so it may be a little longer. Review, please! Peace and Merry Christmas!
Italian translations:
Mi vengono in mente molti modi, meglio di questa idea stupido: I can think of many ways, better than this stupid idea
Come se non sapete dove si trovava prima: As if you did not know where it was before
Chiudi la bocca: Shut your mouth