Nobody had seen Marth since the matches were announced. His door was locked, and Peach wondered if he even left his room to get food. Marth himself had actually taken to sleeping during the day so he could have the training room to himself at night. When it was light out (and he wasn't sleeping), Marth would read over Roy's letters. They had become less frequent, and the bluenette worried for his lover's safety. Every time he received one, he wrote back immediately.

The first time Marth had been seen since then was the day of Ike's first match. Marth and Ike's match would actually be the mercenary's second match of the season. Master Hand has wanted to show off the new contestants in the tournament, so they were given more matches initially when compared to the veterans. Ike was going to be fighting Toon Link on Battlefield, and Marth sat as close to the fight as possible. As soon as he sat down, Peach spotted him, and took her seat on his left side.

"Well hello there, Mr. Lowell, nice of you to join us today."

"Was that sarcasm." It wasn't a question. Marth knew it was sarcasm.

"I don't know, have you been missing for a week? The answer is yes. You were missing for a week, so yes. That was sarcasm."

"I just changed my sleeping schedule. It's not that big of a deal."

"Just changed your- Marth, I've been worried about you! How was I supposed to know if you were eating or not!? You can't just turn nocturnal and not tell anyone!"

"Sorry?" Marth felt a little guilty.

"No! Not sorry! Never do that again, Pit was worried about you too! Roy and I aren't the only ones who care about you, you know."

"Yeah! I care about you too!"

"Ahh! Pit, don't do that!" Marth exclaimed, clutching his armourless chest where his heart would be. The angel had sat on his right side when he wasn't looking, and now beamed at him as if he hadn't almost given the young prince a heart attack. Peach just giggled.

"Oh, shush, Marth, you deserve it." Before the blue haired prince could argue with her, the match began. Marth took out a notepad.

Ike and Toon were fighting on Battlefield, giving Marth a good view of Ike's fighting style. Right off the bat, Marth could see that the taller male would be much slower than him. His moves seemed to deal a lot of damage, judging by the percentages displayed onscreen. As Ike charged up an attack, Toon dashed forward, getting caught in the blast. It did major damage to the cartoon, and 10% recoil to the mercenary. Marth took note of this, thinking of how easily he could counter the move. The blast had taken roughly 5 seconds to charge up.

Marth studied Ike's moveset for the entirety of the match. He was slow, but not too slow, and he had a dashing move Marth would have to look out for. The mercenary was definitely stronger than him, but Marth had no doubt that he would be able to use that strength against him. He also saw that Ike had a counter move similar to his own. Though Ike had his strong points, Marth was confident he could win.

The prince was so wrapped up in his thought that he barely even noticed when the match ended in Ike's favor. Peach and Pit talked excitedly about the match as they stood up. Marth walked with them, feeling tired after being awake at an uncommon hour for him and paying such close attention to Ike's abilities. He let out a long yawn.

"Oh, you aren't usually awake at this time, huh." Marth shook his head.

"It's a good thing your match is at night!" The prince nodded.

"I'm going to go to sleep. That was tiring." Peach rolled her eyes before smirking, holding something up.

"Not before responding to this letter, you aren't. And you're not getting it until you show me all your old ones and tell us what you've even been doing at night." Marth blushed.

"P-Peach, those are private!"

"Not anymore they aren't, loverboy. Come on Pit, you can come too!"

"I didn't agree to this. Please give that back, it is my personal property."

"Aww, come on Marth, it'll be fun! I'll even bring the mirror and we can talk about Roy for hours!"

"What's the mirror?" Peach asked Pit. The angel began to explain, and Marth yawned again.

"I'm actually really tired. M-maybe we can do this later?"

"Ugh, fine. You better leave your door unlocked or we're breaking it down. We'll be back at 9."

Marth nodded and entered his room. He let out a loud groan he was certain could be heard by the princess and the angel. It only took him moments to fall asleep when he flopped onto his mattress, still fully dressed. Sometimes he wondered why he was even friends with that princess!

Word Count: 836

Yeah, yeah, I know, this is really short. It looked a lot longer on paper though, and that's probs bc it's a lot of dialogue. The other reason is probably bc Marth didn't receive Roy's letter this chapter because Peach stole it. Next chapter is going to be all about Roy. They're going to be reading his letters, talking about some memories from the Melee tournament, and Marth is going to try and work with the mirror.

And then maybe the chapter after that will be Ike and Marth's match.