Notes: This is my gift for bossmedley for the Mario Secret Santa project on tumblr/discord; the prompt was "Mario, Luigi, and Peach at a picnic at the castle."
The two brothers had been carrying the largest picnic basket full of food they could find; it was rather heavy, prompting Luigi to complain about it. But Mario cheerfully encouraged him to keep his chin up—after all, how often did they get to enjoy a peaceful picnic, uninterrupted by Bowser or any other villain du jour?
Peach, assisted by Tiara, was putting the final touches on a cake as she glanced out the window to see Mario and Luigi arriving at the castle garden. Mario saw her and waved (releasing his end of the picnic basket, causing Luigi to scramble to keep it from tipping over), a big grin on his face (and an exasperated look on his brother's).
"Hello, Peach!" he called.
"Hey, you two!" she called back. "I'll be right out!"
"Okay; we'll get all this set up in the meantime!" Mario returned. "C'mon, Little Bro!"
Luigi rolled his eyes slightly as Cappy now hopped off of Mario's head to assist him with the picnic basket.
"He gets excited really easily, doesn't he?" the Bonnetor observed. "I seemed to observe as much when we traveled through all of those kingdoms. I thought it was the thrill of the adventure, but it seems he's like that even when things are normal."
"Yeah, he's always been like that. You get used to it," Luigi said, with a shrug. He smirked in spite of himself as he began to set up things on the picnic table once Mario had spread the tablecloth over it.
Cappy chuckled and helped out as Mario now also finally began to help out arranging things—at least until Peach and Tiara arrived with the cake, upon which he promptly dropped everything to help carry the cake.
Cappy watched in interest—Toads that were attending to things in the garden stopped to bow to Peach as she walked past. And yet, Mario hadn't bowed to the princess—had he just been overly excited for the picnic? …Come to think of it, Cappy couldn't recall Mario ever bowing to Peach, even during the times they had met up in the various kingdoms after her rescue. At any rate, she didn't seem to mind.
"I know Mario admires the princess very much," he said to Luigi. "He wanted to propose before Bowser interrupted him."
"Uh-huh," Luigi agreed.
"And you see the princess as a friend, too."
"Of course!"
"But neither of you bow to her like the other Toads do," Cappy observed. "I don't mean to pry, but is there a reason?"
Luigi paused for a moment.
"Actually, there is," he said. "Mario did bow to Peach once—a long, long time ago, when we were all very young. We used to play together as little kids—it didn't matter that Peach was a princess and Mario and I weren't royals… Kamek had predicted that my brother and I would bring trouble for the Koopas, and when Peach's father, the King, found out, he wanted us to remain close with Peach. Our papa thought it was great that we had royal connections, but… Mama was more concerned about Kamek having his eye on us. And then there was an alien invasion…" He shuddered; thanks to E. Gadd's time machine, they got to experience the Shroob takeover twice.
"Oh, I see!" Cappy said. "Because you grew up together and went through all that, no one saw the reason for you two to bow to her?"
"Well, actually, no…" Luigi said. "After the alien invasion, Mama insisted that we leave the Mushroom Kingdom. She'd been making plans with Papa without letting the King find out, but then, one day, while all this planning was going on, Bowser—still a prince at the time—showed up at the castle to cause trouble again while Mario and I were there… I'd gotten a bit battered in the fight, and there's no quicker way to make Mario mad than to do that to me…"
At that age, there had been little that Mario could have done to avenge his brother, but angrily chasing Bowser around the throne room with a fire flower had apparently been enough to keep young Bowser on the run.
Luigi had been sniffling on the floor as he had sat up, more shaken than hurt, but still on the verge of tears; Peach had been looking from him to Mario, but before she had been able to say or do anything, all four youngsters had nearly leaped out of their skins as the throne room burst open—revealing a very angry woman shrieking in Italian.
Their mother had been angrier than the brothers could have ever imagined—though, in hindsight, she'd had good reason. In an instant, she had raced across the room, gathering Luigi in her arms and now heading for Mario and Bowser.
Bowser had quickly realized he was in a great deal of danger and leaped out the window to get away from the angry mother; Mario had hastily hidden the fire flower behind his back, but before she could question him, the king had chosen that moment to enter the throne room, and she turned her wrath on him instead.
"Is this how you raise children!? My sons and your daughter were attacked by un piccolo demone! Look at what that beast has done to my little Luigi!"
She certainly hadn't bothered to bow, and neither the king nor Toadsworth had been brave enough to remind her of protocol.
"The Shroobs—they came, and you learned nothing!" she had ranted on. "You have had your chances; my boys are not safe here! Si—we go! Ciao!"
"Er… Yes, of course," Toadsworth had said. "This won't happen next time; you have our word-"
"Next time?" she had replied, incredulously. "No! No next time! We are leaving this kingdom! I have been planning this since the Shroobs attacked—but now we must go earlier!"
Luigi had looked at his mother, and then across the room at his brother, who had dropped the fire flower in shock. Leave the Mushroom Kingdom? Leave their friend Peach?
Peach had obviously arrived at the same conclusion, for she immediately started to wail; Mario had tried to get her to cheer up, but it was difficult when he himself was close to tearing up.
The King and Toadsworth had tried to get the brothers' mother to reconsider, but her mind had been set, and they knew that trying to dissuade a protective mother would be a battle they would not be able to win.
Realizing that they had backed down, she had turned to her other son.
"Mario! Vieni, stiamo andando!"
But Peach was still crying, and Mario didn't want to leave her.
"Mario!" his mother said, again, sternly.
Gently, Mario had taken Peach's hand and bowed; she had been surprised and pleased enough to stop crying, managing a small smile. It was short-lived, however; Mario soon found himself being taken by the hand and leaving with his mother and brother, and as the throne room doors closed behind them, they could hear Peach starting to cry all over again…
"…And that was what happened," Luigi finished, back in the present. "The only time Mario ever bowed to Peach."
"But you made it back to the Mushroom Kingdom," Cappy said.
"Not intentionally," Luigi admitted. "As we got older, being raised away from all this, we sort of… forgot about the Mushroom Kingdom and Peach and everything as we grew up—I think Mama wanted it that way… She wanted us to have quiet, normal lives where nothing ever happened. She was so happy when Mario and I wanted to get into a normal, everyday career like plumbing. …But then, while on the job, we found the warp pipe back to the Mushroom Kingdom just as Bowser had kidnapped Peach. We still didn't remember her or the Kingdom, but you know how Mario is—if someone needs help, then he's just gotta go help them. Pauline can back me up on that."
"Yes, of course," Cappy said. "He helped me find my sister, even though he had Peach to worry about."
Luigi nodded.
"Mario led the way, and I followed, and we found Peach… We still didn't remember her, but Mario… I remember he just walked up to her and introduced us, saying that we were getting her out of Bowser's castle, and I was kinda embarrassed at first, since the Toads had told us she was their princess, but… Mario thought that the last thing she needed was someone who wasn't going to be open and honest and wouldn't get caught up in all those protocols. Looking back, I think he was right; we'd have been nervous trying to stick to all those rules, and that wouldn't have helped her feel better at all."
"Ohh, so that's why?"
"Partly," Luigi said. "The real decision came right after the rescue, when Peach wanted to formally thank us for the rescue—with a picnic just like this, actually…"
Luigi had been staring absently into the window of a store in Toad Town when he had been jolted from his thoughts by his brother calling his name.
"There you are, Luigi! What's up, Little Bro?"
"I'm just thinking about the picnic this afternoon," Luigi had replied. "We need to buy something to wear."
"We do?"
Luigi had given him a look.
"…You don't expect us to go to the princess's castle dressed like this, do you?" he had asked, indicating their work shirts and overalls. "That warp pipe that brought us here seems to be closed now; we can't exactly go back and get our Sunday best. I think we have enough coins to get something nice, though."
"Hmm, I think we'd be better off saving our coins for food and a place to stay," Mario had replied. "With that warp pipe being closed, we might be here a while."
"Oh… Well, that may be, but if we turn up looking like this, we could get thrown out! If we're embarrassed, it'll be harder finding a place to stay…"
"I don't think the princess is like that," Mario had said. "She seemed nice enough when we found her in that castle."
"We did just free her…"
"Trust me on this, Little Bro; it'll be fine—you'll see!"
Mario seemed to have put all doubts behind him, but Luigi had continued to be nervous as they arrived at Peach's castle later that day. Mario strode in with the same confidence he always had, but Luigi had been looking around, noticing the looks from the Toads—and hearing the whispers.
He had known exactly what they were saying—whispering about how these two battle-damaged plumbers were daring to meet the princess dressed in those old rags. Normally, Luigi was never bothered with the fact that he and his brother were maintenance men; life in a big city meant crossing paths with those of a higher standing, and both he and his brother had learned to look white-collar folk in the eyes without being intimidated (not hard when their usual interactions were said white-collar folk begging them to save their backed-up sinks or busted pipes). But this situation had been nothing like that—strangers in a new land, meeting royalty? Luigi couldn't help but feel self-conscious.
Peach, in an elegant gown, had been there in the throne room to greet them—the same throne room where they had been separated all those years ago, and now formally reunited (though they hadn't realized it yet). She had extended her hand like any royal lady would, having been trained to put up with guests kissing her hand, whether or not she was comfortable with the idea.
Mario wasn't going to have any of that; why should she be forced to have her hand kissed just because she was a princess? And, anyway, he had been determined to put the cards on the table and present himself as he was, no false airs or anything like that.
And so, instead of kissing her hand, he shook her hand, as though greeting a friend.
The reaction had been instantaneous; quiet gasps and murmurs from the Toads about how clueless Mario must be began to fill the room, and Toadsworth had been facepalming. And Luigi had begun to blush in secondhand embarrassment at all of this.
But the only ones who hadn't seem embarrassed were Mario and Peach. Mario had been continuing to look her in eyes with a friendly expression, and Peach, though initially surprised by the handshake, had suddenly looked genuinely pleased.
"Mario, I want to formally thank you and your brother Luigi for risking your lives to rescue me from Bowser."
"We always try to help out," Mario had said, with a grin. "And we thank you for this kind gesture of a picnic."
"The pleasure is mine, my friends."
It had been those two words—'my friends'—that had reassured both Mario and Luigi that everything would be fine. And Peach had been reassured, as well, for she had found friends who would treat her without dancing around her and her royalty, as so many others had done.
"And that's why we're here, able to be all casual with the princess," Luigi finished. "She's been a great friend to us all these years, the fact that she's a princess and we're just plumbers was never an issue at all." He smiled as he watched Peach gently chide Mario for trying to sneak a taste of the cake before it was time for dessert. "It's also why their friendship can survive the rejection of a wrongly-timed marriage proposal—at the end of the day, they will always care about each other."
"And you," Cappy added.
"And me," Luigi agreed. "And you and Tiara, too—you pretty much joined our circle of friends when you helped Mario out."
"…I'm honored," the Bonnetor said, sounding rather touched.
Luigi smiled.
"C'mon, let's eat!"
Luigi and Cappy caught up to the others and dug in, enjoying the food and company as they ate, all of them grateful for their circle of friends, and being a part of it.