Reading about a thing isn't ever going to be the same as experiencing it for yourself. I can describe what it's like being a princess; I can go into detail about the day to day life and my own personal feelings, but that won't make you know what it feels like a princess. Everything isn't that difficult to parse out and understand.

Like most curious girls I read about sex. Sometimes I read something clinical and scientific while other times I stole away into my room to read romance novels that tried to put things into flowery terms. Even the things I did at night in my chambers when the servants were sleep and all was still didn't prepare me for the hint of what it all could be.

We didn't even engage in the actual act itself—what we did was, sex adjacent. Still the muscles in my thighs are spent. I'm also pretty sure that I scratched the side of Mario's face when I was trying to keep his eyes covered. At least we managed to keep that stipulation in place.

My skin is covered with a sheen of sweat and the sheets themselves are drenched below me. It feels like I should think this is dirty, that I should want to take a shower, but I don't. I will myself to move, to sit up and get out of this bed. Not just my thighs, but everything is sore. Was I tensed up this much? The chilly night air assaults me and I'm still nude except for the lacy underwear I had on before this whole thing. Mario's last act of mercy before he departed for the bathroom was to blindly slip them back onto my body. I'm fairly sure they're the wrong way around.

It hardly matters. I don't bother to find my chemise, opting to throw Mario's dress shirt over my shoulders and clench it in the front. There's a large sliding glass door that leads out onto small balcony overlooking the roof of the next building.

I jostle the door open, sure to keep one hand clasped at the edges of the dress shirt. The air outside stings with an after rain chill. It's remarkable how alike winter is in the Mushroom Kingdom and here. From my room in the castle you can see down over the moats and the rolling hill to a small stream that curves it's way out to a little lake. Daisy and I built a boat out of two baskets that we tied together and rode that stream when we were little. She broke her arm going over the waterfall that drops into the lake and we both got into huge trouble.

The last time I saw that place it was engulfed in flames. I wonder if I'll ever see my home again. If anyone there is alive or keeping order in the Mushroom Kingdom. What Mario gave me tonight was nothing short of incredible and I can't wait until we're married and able to do the rest, but reality doesn't care about my sappy love story or a fleeting orgasm. As the happiness of the moment fades I'm realize how little worthless I am.

A figurehead princess of a country that mostly ran itself. When true trouble arrived all that I could do was run.

The stone floor of the balcony is cold and damp as I move further out from the building and lean over the railing to look at the roof of the next block over. "Maybe they're better off without me over there. The time of Toadstools has passed."

Something moves in the shadows alongside the building. Is it the people who live on the next floor down —things might have gotten a bit loud earlier. Then the shadow moves out from the building and into the light and there's a small familiar sound, the sound of the magic that keeps this thing afloat in the air despite the weight it usually carries.

I clutch the shirt tighter to my body, suddenly aware of just how naked I am. "Bowser…"

The device he calls his 'Clown Car' hovers closer and a familiar face I didn't expect to see comes into view. "Daisy?" Her blue eyes look almost like they always have, but there's a weight in them that wasn't previously there.

"This is the only way I could have come here, sorry if I scared you." Daisy landed the Clown Car in the small amount of space allowed by the balcony and jumped out. Her usual yellow dress was dingy and her arm was cut, blood spilled down into the sleeve of her long gloves in small splotches.

"What happened to you? How did you get this cursed thing?" I ask pointing at the Clown Car.

"It's wild, Peach. Bowser went to kidnap you like he always does, except something surrounded his airship and blasted it out of the sky. He only survived because he landed in a lake. He was too weak to make it back to his own Kingdom so he came to us…"

"It attacked him too?" I wonder out loud.

"Yeah, what the fuck is that thing?" Daisy asks.

"Language, I don't know. It tried to murder me and I escaped here…now the warp zones…"

"…are all sealed off? Yeah, we noticed. There's no getting in or out of the Mushroom Kingdom by pipe now and the airspace around your castle is a death trap. After Bowser lent me this I went to take a look, you've always complained I was too nosey, well it almost cost me my damn head this time. Everything got dark and it was like some force just hit me. I was able to get to Gadd's lab, repair this stupid thing, and take a warp zone here. But it took him a while to find one."

I throw my arms around Daisy and squeeze her tight. She pulls away as I kiss the side of her face over and over. "Thank you, you're the best friend anyone could ask for. You and Bowser have…"

"Why are you naked and wet—holy shit, you've been having sex!"

"No I haven't. Not really." I stutter.

Daisy rips the shirt from my hands, opening it up. "You're letting the girls swing free out in the open like this?" She asks. "How long have you been gone? Does time pass differently over here?"

"No, it's the same—look, Mario and I didn't have actual intercourse, it was…"

"…you went down on him? Or no, he went down on you? Or did you do each other at the same time, because that's not beginner shit!" Daisy says, her voice seeming huskier and louder than normal.

"Ugh, the second one. And could you keep it down?"

"Ah, well I'm glad you didn't use the proper term—cunnilingus," she puts on a snobbish affectation for the last word. "You were always such a prude, but aww, I'm proud of you. My little Peachy is growing up."

"I'm older than you! And could you climb back from boy crazy for like five minutes," I jerk the shirt shut again. "What's going on with my Kingdom? My people?"

Daisy shrugs. "No one knows. We assume they're alive and fine since it's just the area around the castle that's all dark and smoky. Bowser is trying to coordinate with Pauline to arrange a summit, but since I've found you…"

"Bowser is trying to arrange a summit?" This is the kind of thing I never expected to hear.

"Um, yeah, he wants to bone you, not drop a building on your fucking head. He's worried about you. We all were."

"Bowser does occasionally do the right thing, I guess. It's just a lot to take in that he's spearheading something."

Daisy shakes her head. "That's the other thing, Bowser didn't escape the crash unscathed. The reason he couldn't come here himself is he's still healing—he lost his eye."

"Lost? Like it fell out?"

"No, dumbass. Something got jammed in there. He's humiliated and a little pissed, rightfully so. So that might be why he is so gung-ho, but there's also the thing about worrying over you. Look, does Mario have any snacks. Like maybe some of those little chocolates that are covered in sweet shells with the little M's on them? Or, oh! Some cake with ice-cream."

I lead her to the door. "We can check the kitchen. I know Luigi brought some stuff the other day. Don't you kind of want to see him?"

"Oh, not yet. I was watching him sleep through the window down there, no need to wake him."

We enter the room and the shower is still going strong, probably loud enough to drown out the Clown Car and Daisy's yelling. What is Mario doing in there? "The kitchen is through here."

"Mario's in the shower? Oh, speaking of Mario, what's his crank look like?"

"Goodness, Daisy. I don't know. Can you just eat something and not try to sift through my sex life?" I growl.

"Ooooo, my best friend has a sex life," Daisy slides a jar of peanut butter toward herself and unscrews the lid, digging in with her index and middle fingers to scoop a dollop out. "I have so much to teach you." She says with a smile before she sucks the peanut butter off her fingers.


When Mario emerges from the bedroom to look for me he's dressed in pajamas and his hair is wet and fuzzy from the shower. He peeks around the corner into the sitting room area and then back toward the kitchen. "Peach, is everything…okay?"

Daisy and I are sitting on the tall stools that sit in front of the small bar connected to the kitchen. I've buttoned his shirt up now, but I'm still just wearing nothing but underwear other than that. Daisy's spooning peanut butter into her mouth in between blasts of pressurized whip cream from a can. "Hey, Mario," she says trying to keep the whip cream from sloshing out.

"Daisy? How did you…"

"Bowser let me borrow that stupid Clown Car of his. I was coming to tell you that Peach was missing and Bowser didn't do it, but then I found her here…all glow-y with that post-coital bliss," Daisy laughs through another spoon piled with peanut butter.

"It wasn't post-coital. Well, not exactly." My face is burning red hot now. I could almost slap Daisy.

Mario shakes his head. "You enjoying the food?"

Daisy nods. "Mushroom Kingdom is pretty screwed right now as far as anyone can tell," she says.

"What happened?" Asks Mario.

"It's not clear. Bowser went to pull his usual schtick of kidnapping young, beautiful, buxom blondes," Daisy pokes me in the chest with the spoon as she says this. "When he got to the castle something attacked him, downed his airship and nearly killed him. He lost his eye and barely managed to make it to my palace. Never seen him that vulnerable. I had some people patch him up and he let me use the Clown Car to find you."

"Then we can take it back to the your world!" Mario says.

Daisy shakes her head. "No can do. I got shot down getting here, it was only just enough to get it here, but it won't fly high enough for the warp zone I used."

"How did you make it through?"

"On the other side it's on the ground, but on this side it's in a cloud. Bowser showed me," she explains.

"Mario, it's not going to work, we'd need Kamek or Gadd or someone like that to even begin to fix the Clown Car—we have to find another way," I tell him.

He folds his arms over his chest. "It looks like it, but now Daisy is stranded over here too."

"I'm just glad that I found my best friend alive and well. After what happened with Bowser we feared the worst."

"You said that he lost his eye?" Asks Mario.

"Yeah, he's recovering right now. That's why he sent me—well that and a huge ass ginger horned turtle with a spiked shell would raise a bit of suspicion over here."

"Um, Bowser is actually trying to get a coalition together so that they can investigate what's going on. According to Daisy all of this is only happening right around the castle itself, so when we get back there we should be able to get pretty close on foot without trouble."

Mario hugs me around the waist and kisses my cheek. "This is a lot to take in, my number one priority is keeping you safe. We don't want to rush into the castle without knowing what we're up against."

"Bowser and I have the largest standing armies left, respectively," Daisy begins. "If Peach is going in there, she's got my backup and probably his."

A smirk appears on Mario's face and he pats the top of her head. He's never known exactly how to act around her. "Thank you Daisy, for everything you've done."

"Not a problem. Oh, Peach promised me some of those little colorful candies with the M's written on them."

"I said no such thing!"

The wall rattled as the door knob slammed into it, Luigi stumbled out of his bedroom into the florescent light of the kitchen. "I-I thought it was a dream, but Daisy…"

Daisy fired another blast of whipped cream into her mouth and licked her lips clean. "Hey, Lover. Did you miss me?"