REVISED VERSION

I was reading back over this chapter, and some things stuck out like a sore thumb. So, I felt compelled to revise. I plan to add chapter 12 within the next couple of days, so just thanks to everyone for hanging in there. I hope you enjoy the edited version better.

Warnings: Nothing but the usual. There shouldn't be many surprises this far into the story. Also, I got half of the title from the 30 Seconds To Mars song, "The Kill (Bury Me)," which I was listening to a lot while writing the Roy and Peach scenes. If you can tolerate the rock/screamo style, then you should check it out; it's a pretty awesome song in my opinion, and it suits Roy and Peach's situation perfectly.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot of this story.

Enjoy.

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Chapter 11: Take Me Or Bury Me

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It had been days.

It had been countless days since Peach had even spared Roy a passing glance.

Okay, maybe it hadn't been that long, but it had sure felt like it. After she had stormed out that day, she didn't dare look back at him, and it seemed that every time she saw him, she saw fit to reenact the scene as if he hadn't gotten the point the first time.

When notably, the point rang as clear as a bell.

You would always hear poetic lines about how lovers who were a victim of the ever-angsty "unrequited love" scenarios, and how they would lie in bed and wallow in their self-pity. Then, you would silently laugh at them as they progressed to desperately latch on to any member of the opposite sex that they could get their hands on until they realized that they were still hung up on the first person.

Well, maybe dramatic romance stories were just in movies, writings by William Shakespeare, and other various romantics, but it all held the same point.

Roy sighed deeply, as if in thought and stared up aimlessly at the ceiling.

This isn't me... He thought, his eyes scanning around the room slowly, I'm acting like a broken-hearted schoolgirl...

His sat up on his bed slowly, and looked around the darkened room.

His recent hobby had become trying to rack what was left of his brain to figure out what he had done wrong in the middle of the timeslot between the terms he and Peach used to be on, and now.

Of course she had her heart broken before, and maybe things like that took a long time to heal, but was it possible that there was another reason?

The general knew that he and Peach had never been on the most stable of terms, but did she really love to torture him so much that she wouldn't even look his way while they were with their friends? Did wounds really run that deep?

That's exactly why the past few days had been so hard. He had tried countless things to sort out his feelings and actions to find some sort of flaw.

And of course, the fights came up, but Peach always seemed to brush them off, and Roy would go back to conducting the masquerade of friendship to try and cover up the fact that he could never tell her how nice she looked that day.

Or, how miserable Peach had seemed lately, and he could help but think that he had something to do with it. Roy knew that he had never been the most sensitive person when it came to matters of the emotions, especially when it came to Peach, but he knew he wasn't entirely heartless.

It went without saying, that his social status in Peach's life remained undecided. And maybe she had every right to hate him, but did that mean that he had to hate her too? Even after all this time, and all the different ways he had managed to spit this one particular phrase out, he had realized one thing.

He could never manage to hate her.

Link, Marth, Zelda, Samus and Peach had all decided to hang out as a group, and all excluding Peach had tried to urge him to tag along, but the swordsman complained about the heat and covered his head with a pillow, which was new Roy language for "this conversation his over."

And much to his surprise, his word was respected, and they left without him.

Though it might seem like the ideal thing, he found that he was digging his own grave by moping around the way he had been. Roy was positive some alone time would be all he needed to get his mind of things, but, for some unknown reason, it seemed like the worst thing.

The past few days had went by in a sort of blur, having every usual detail of his life smear together like an art piece done by a two year old.

For one, he had no idea why Peach was so upset. The joke he had cracked was so... unfunny, for lack of better word, that he had to explain the pun to Marth. However, the prince had always been a little slow when it came to jokes... well, except the childish ones that would escape his lips every once in a while. Afterwards, he'd have to tell everyone what the joke meant, all the while accusing everyone in a room of having no sense of humor.

I guess, Roy lamented, with one of the rare grins he had spared for a while one his face, one of the things that royalty wasn't taught was how to tell a decent joke, or entertain a crowd...

Either that, or Marth just wasn't very good at it.

The pyro sat up in his bed and crossed his legs, still clad in his pajamas, which, of course, were red to match his hair... and fire. He cradled his head gently in his hands and let out a long suppressed sigh.

How long was this misery planning on gnawing at him?

This sensation had found itself seeping out of the cracks in Roy's ego, and out of his body. He couldn't quite place the feeling. It was new, and yet it felt sort of like the feeling you get when you run into someone that used to be your best friend at a restaurant. It was new to him, and yet it felt like he had felt it before.

Regret?

Success?

No, this wasn't nearly like the others. It somehow felt as if he had just let go, and something inside had just left him numb and empty.

Almost on impulse, he shot out of his bed and went to the bathroom, swinging open the door and closing it, locking it firmly behind him.

He stood in the bathroom alone, leaning against the door, his shoulders rigid. Looking around. His short, soft breath intakes echoing around the small room. He noticed a bottle on the side of the sink, filled with a reddish liquid: presumably Marth's shampoo. Roy stared at it for a moment, then picked it up, reading the label.

"Tropical Passion," He read aloud, his eyebrow arching confusedly, "Guaranteed to bring you lush locks and a soft scalp,"

He looked quizzically at the bottle for a moment. True, Marth did take special care when it came to hygiene, namely his hair, but what people got from that was "a real stuck-up princely pretty boy." Or, the one that really used to hit the blue swordsman's nerves: "gay."

However, what some failed to do was realize how Marth really was. Beyond all of the "glamour" he maintained was a very natural, real person. Someone who you could count on, and always seemed to keep his cool. And, what Marth himself had failed to see was that his kindness towards people was actually what made him so "princely," and that false derogatory remarks made by ignorant people shouldn't bother him.

But, of course, only males seemed to have a cold heart towards Marth, and Roy figured it was because girls tended to pine after him, and their boyfriends didn't appreciate the fact that when Marth would make public appearances in Altea, their girlfriends would gawk at him.

Jealousy, was how you would put it.

And in the same way, people looked at Roy's exterior, they would see a very egotistic and slightly cruel person. The problem, of course, was convincing them that there was more to him than met the eye, but that notion never seemed to be taken seriously.

Roy reached through the shower curtain to turn on the water, and a stream of the clear fluid began to shoot out of the metal shower head, making a loud humming noise. After a moment of staring down at the shampoo bottle once more, he discarded his clothes and stepped into the shower.

The Pharean native didn't tell people, but he had always felt that the shower was one of the best places to think.

Unwind and contemplate, were the words that Roy used many times to sum up his strange mannerism.

The warm water had instantly washed over him, and traveled down in beads. He rested his forehead on the tile walls.

Thinking.

There was a certain purity to taking a shower. It cleansed away all the dirt on a person, and not just the physical grime. No matter what someone felt before they had entered the small sanctuary, it would all be washed away in a little while. You could come clean. Whether it was a shameful night when you woke up next to someone you didn't even know, or if you

just had a heavy heart, it could all be fixed.

You could forgive yourself, and you could forget.

By this time, Roy had learned that no matter how many brain cells he burned thinking, he wasn't getting any closer to the answer. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more knew why Peach was angry and him. The problem was that he wasn't sure of how to respond to it.

Confrontation?

Evading?

Forgetting?

No, just forgetting about Peach was impossible. He wouldn't be able to do that even if he wanted to.

The water crashed down and soaked his hair, matting it to his forehead, all the while Roy was slowly hoping that the warmth would ebb all of his troubles away. Ease his headache, and help him gain back all the hours he had lost stressing about such a stupid issue. He used a hand to push his bangs out of his eyes in contradictory lament.

Then again, he thought, Peach was nowhere near "a stupid issue".

She was the most important issue.

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In the living area, Nana, Young Link, Popo, and Ness sat in a small circle, just talking amongst themselves.

"What's been with Roy lately?" Popo asked suddenly, snapping the group of friends out of their silent trance. The group looked up at him, as if the sudden noise was interrupting some kind of intricate pledge of silence.

"Roy?" Young Link asked quizzically, "Haven't you noticed Peach lately? She's been really sad too,"

Ness jumped up, brandishing his trusty yo-yo. "Quick! To the Delinquent Cave! Da na na na na na na na DELINQUENTS!!"

The other three looked up at him with raised brows, and Nana just shook her head as if there was no hope.

"Ness," She asked, "Did you sneak coffee again?"

The boy just grinned and performed a complex trick with his yo-yo.

"With extra sugar!"

Popo grinned sheepishly at the antics of his friend but stood up anyway.

"I think Ness' room is the Delinquent Cave..." The male Ice Climber said slowly. "In case no one's noticed, he's been muttering about that delinquent thing for five minutes,"

"So?" Link asked haughtily, "Ness is high on sugar, so why in the world are we even having this "delinquent" meeting. What the heck is that, anyway? Isn't delinquent an insult?"

"Look you guys, I know this isn't our style, but we gotta figure out what's wrong with Roy and Peach, and help them get happy again! Roy is like, the prank master! How are we gonna learn from him if he won't even come out of his room?" Popo said, ignoring Young Link's cynical statement.

There was silence between the four, and Ness just smiled.

"TO THE DELINQUENT CAVE!"

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As the four entered Ness' room, Popo randomly picked a note pad off of the psychic boy's nightstand, and took a seat on the floor. His friends followed an formed a circle like before.

"So, what do we know about Peach and Roy?"

"Ooh, they hate each other!" Ness answered enthusiastically raising his hand, "They are always fighting and yelling at each other! Remember when she slapped him a couple of days ago? Maybe that's why Roy's sad!"

"Good work, bud," Popo congratulated as if he was a newspaper editor giving credit to a reporter for a good story, "But we need to find out why Peach was so easily provoked that day..."

"Why are you using such big words?" Young Link asked with a raised brow, "I thought you were stupid,"

Ignoring the insult, Popo answered, "Desperate times call for desperate measures,"

Cynical glances were passed around in response to what was said.

This time it was Nana's turn to give suggestions.

"Remember that fairy tale that they told together?" The only girl in the group asked, "They were talking about a princess falling in love with the prince charming she always hated! And Uncle Marth was acting really funny... Something about beginning the fairy tale..."

"Then she got all defensive on me when I made fun of it... maybe that story's kinda personal for her!" Popo suggested.

"Then Peach must be the princess in the story, because she is a princess!" Ness stated dumbly, the effects of his sugar rush fading away.

"But who's the prince...?" Nana wondered aloud, as she went silent, thinking about anyone in the mansion who is a prince that Peach might have feelings for, that might link to Roy.

"Got it!" Young Link called out, jumping out of his seat triumphantly, "Marth is the prince, and Peach likes him!"

"No stupid," Popo retorted, "Marth is dating Samus! Besides, what does that scenario have to do with Roy?"

"Maybe Roy's upset that Marth has the hots for his woman!"

Nana, Popo, and Ness stared slack-jawed and wide-eyed at Young Link after his outburst, all of them surprised at his conclusion... And maybe even a little disgusted.

"Dude," Ness began, "Just sit down and look like your older self,"

The younger Link sighed and took his seat, not bothering to open his mouth for a smart retort.

"Anyway..." Ness said, letting the room know they were still plotting. "So, we have to figure out who this Prince Charming is... It's probably not going to help us any, but maybe it will lead us closer to helping Peach and Roy"

"Guys!" Nana suddenly said, "What if Roy is Peach's "prince charming"?"

Popo's eyes narrowed, his little mind formulating a plan.

"Then I guess we have to get them talking to each other again, now don't we?"

"What?!" Young Link exclaimed, slamming his fist down on the ground in front of him in astonishment, "How come you told me to shut up when I suggested that?!"

Popo just shrugged at the elf. "It sounded stupid when you said it. Besides, you dragged Marth into it."

Despite the silent pouts coming from the Hylian, the other three of them nodded, and stood, each of them exchanging knowing looks and shouted:

"DELINQUENTS!!"

However, none of them knew why they actually started calling themselves delinquents just because Ness did on his sugar high.

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"So how are we gonna do this?" Young Link asked Popo, who stood beside him, looking over a chair in the living room at the older Smashers, who included Peach, sitting on the couch and the chairs surrounding it.

The group had split up, each of them going to different branches of the mansion, gathering information.

"I dunno, stupid," Popo whispered loudly, his sharp tone etching into the young elf's ears.

"That's why you're here with me... To help me with my idea... um, making... thing... whatever..."

"Oh," The young hero replied quietly, "So that makes my job ten times easier!"

Popo groaned and put a hand to his forehead. "Look what I have to put up with!"

Link shrugged but looked over the couch as Popo pulled a pair of binoculars that were hanging around his neck, to spy on the unsuspecting group. The two stared as Samus was playfully teasing Marth while the prince just pouted, Link and Zelda were chatting away, and Peach was looking just as depressed as ever.

"Wow... this whole Roy thing has gotten her all bent out of shape." Popo observed, lowering his binoculars, his tone quiet and genuinely concerned.

"And just how are we going to help?" Young Link asked incredulously, "We can barely understand why the heck Samus is dating Marth! How are we supposed to set up Roy and Peach? Shouldn't we just tell her that Roy's got the hots for her?"

Popo put down his binoculars and popped the blonde on the back of his head in a scolding manner.

"No, you boob! A monkey could tell you that we'd mess everything up if we just told Peach that Roy likes her! He's got to tell her himself!"

Well excuuuuuse me..." the younger Link mumbled under his breath.

Popo sighed deeply. "I just hope that Nana and Ness are having better luck with Roy..."

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The two younger Smasher's stood near the Pharean's door, contemplating whether they should knock on it or not.

"I dunno if this is such a good idea," Ness whined, looking in several directions nervously,

"What if he's in a bad mood?"

"Uncle Roy wouldn't blow up at us," Nana assured her friend, catching his anxiety, "He's probably too down in the dumps to yell at anyone, anyway."

Ness nodded his head to the side, and shrugging as if confirming that he indeed didn't take

those variables into the equation.

"Although, I'm not exactly very happy about being right this time," Nana said quietly, reading his expression and lifting her wrist to knock on the door twice, the pounding noises echoing throughout the quiet hallway.

The young kids heard footsteps on the other side of the door, until it was pulled ajar, revealing a bit of red hair sticking out of the small opening.

"Uncle Roy?" Nana inquired softly, looking up with large, chocolate brown eyes.

The general opened the door completely, and stared down at the two Smashers with a smile, but the Ice Climber could see that it was bittersweet. She could see that there was a lot of pain behind the forced smile.

"What do you guys need?" He asked, looking at the both of them.

"Can we come in for a while?" Ness spoke up, gathering his wits, "We need to talk to you about something important!"

Roy gestured for them to step into the room with his hands, and moved out of their way, allowing the two of them to pass.

The both entered to see the room virtually spotless, and to see items from Marth and Link near their beds. Roy sat down on his bed, the mattress groaning beneath his weight, and Nana and Ness sat down on either sides of him.

Roy rubbed a tired hand on one side of his face, and then let it flop lazily to his lap.

"So what did you two want to talk about?" He asked, trying his best to look completely preoccupied with them, instead of scatterbrained like he was.

Nana exchanged glances with Ness.

"Well... uh... we wanted to talk about..." The psychic boy trailed off, unable to speak the name, for fear of upsetting the swordsman. He swallowed hard, and passed the torch to Nana with his eyes.

"We w-wanted to talk about Auntie Peach!" Nana sputtered loudly, almost as unnerved as Ness was.

Even though she had been on his mind all day, Roy paled instantly at the sound of the blonde's name.

"W-what a-about her...?" He asked, his voice reduced to a mere cracking stutter.

Nana looked up at the general, her large eyes glazed over. This was the first time she had seen the red head look genuinely upset.

"H-how do you feel about her?" Ness prodded gently, picking his words carefully, knowing that the whole lot of him and his friends could be wrong about their whole theory. He knew they could be dead wrong.

Roy turned his head away, too ashamed to answer the question, and too ashamed to look his company in the eyes.

"I thought I had some type of feelings for her, but now, I'm not so sure of what I feel... She doesn't exactly think I'm a knight in shining armor." the general was solemn, and his voice void of any warmth. He wasn't sure why he was telling two young kids of his feelings, when he hadn't even told the friends he had that were his own age, but he felt compelled to vent to his kid friends.

Nana and Ness wouldn't think him pathetic and out of character. They held the childhood-oriented benefit of the doubt.

"Don't be so sure that she hates you, Uncle Roy," Nana said sadly as she patted his leg comfortingly above his knee, Roy's sorrow rubbing off on her, "She isn't feeling too happy either."

Roy extended his arms out and wrapped the two Smashers in a small thankful hug. Ness seemed opposed to it, but he decided to give his mouth a rest. Not everything deserved a smart-alec retort.

"Nana, Peach has always shrugged me off... And no matter how much I care for her, it won't make her do the same for me," Roy said, trying his best to explain his situation in a way they could understand, "You can't force what won't fit,"

He released his hold on his younger friends, and they both hopped off the bed.

"Thanks for talking with us," Ness spoke up, shooting the general a sunny smile, hoping that the cheerful glint would return to his eyes.

No avail. It seemed that there was nothing else any of them could say.

Nana turned to Roy and gave him one last sad smile, and then opened his dorm door and departed into the hallway with Ness, the both of them getting a lot more from their "talk" than what they originally thought they would.

A few minutes after leaving the Pharaean's room, Ness and Nana met up with Young Link and Popo to compare what they had learned in a nearby hallway. The four young friends hadn't spoken to Peach, because she seemed so void of conversation, but they realized that what Roy had told them was enough to make them realize that there was a lot more to their feud than just a slap in the face and a bad joke.

"I feel sad for them," Link said, looking at the floor, "It must be hard to like some one so much when they just ignore your feelings,"

Instead of Popo making some comment about Young Link making a sensitive statement and actually meaning it, he just nodded his head in agreement with the Hylian.

"I guess we weren't the big time detectives that we thought we were... I bet we made Roy feel even worse," Ness observed, leaning against a wall.

"I guess not..." Nana added softly, looking to the walls for some kind of answer.

Maybe getting caught up in the affairs of others wasn't such a wise decision after all.

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Princess Peach of Mushroom Kingdom looked around the "social gathering place" of the Smash Mansion, also known as the living area. She had been down there all day with Marth, Samus, Link, and Zelda, doing absolutely nothing in particular. Her friends has been chattering non-stop, and she couldn't currently see how in the world they could be so full of vigor... so full of life.

She hadn't been that cheerful herself in the past couple of days. Everyone expected her to be this, sugar fueled, happy princess who always had a warm smile on her face and hot pink polish on her nails.

Peach couldn't always be that. There was a time when she had to be an actual human being, not contained in the mental box people placed her in.

"Yo,"

The princess heard the slang term, but she didn't look up until she felt some one bang their fist on the arm of the chair she had been sitting in.

Peach jerked her head to see Samus Aran standing over her, her green eyes stony, and her expression locked into a scowl.

"You're really worrying us," the bounty hunter spoke, her tone like a dagger to Peach's ears. "You've just been sitting over here sulking. It doesn't make sense."

Samus hadn't intended to sound so condescendingly blunt and uncaring. Empathy took to back seat even when she didn't want it to. Mental cursing of her horrible people skills ensued.

Peach, unaware of her friend's ambivalent feelings, stood suddenly, her cool suddenly lost in the million thoughts running through her head.

"Of course it doesn't make sense to you!" the honey-blonde bellowed at the tomboy, "You have the perfect relationship!"

She gestured to Marth sitting beside the spot that Samus once occupied, "The both of you got together with virtually no effort! You didn't have to work at it! It came natural to you! Sorry if everyone else can't do it so easily!"

Samus was about to fire back the fact that it took her a while to warm up to Marth thinking of her in a romantic manner, but the princess, on her rampage, beat her to the punch.

"Unlike you two, some people just don't fit together like jigsaws on a puzzle! You have to rip yourself apart to try and see things the way the other person does!" Peach stated, the volume of her voice alerting every other Smasher in the living room, causing the occupants to go quiet under her dominant voice's reign.

Samus just looked at her friend wide-eyed, not used to seeing her so... moody.

The princess looked around the room to see everyone staring at her. Her heart ached, and she suddenly felt her burst of rage simmer down to quiet, subtle, confusion and anger.

She whispered a barely audible "I'm sorry" to Samus before she ran blindly out of the room, and almost tripped going up the stairs, heading to her dorm. She couldn't look at anyone, especially Samus, after the way she had just spoken to her.

The bounty hunter made a move to go after Peach, but she felt a hand grab her wrist before she could even take a step. She turned around to see Link, shaking his head, slowly indicating that that Peach needed her space now.

Samus could only stare after the path that her friend took with pained eyes.

Peach, on the other hand, slowed her pace down to a hurried walk when she disappeared from sight, not noticing the fact that she passed Roy, who had decided to be apart of the general population after having a conversation with a two certain younger Smashers, who had unknowingly motivated him to face his fears, instead of cowering up into a ball before them.

The male turned around to see the one person who had been cutting cracks into his mind all day walking right past him. Before she got too far, he lunged out quickly and took her gently by the shoulders. He felt her tense under his fingers.

"Peach," he said softly, not paying attention to the lack of struggle on her part, "I need to talk to you."

He was going to be serious for a moment. He needed to do this, before he lost his nerve.

Peach's eyes burned with the urge to cry mad, angry tears, but she refused. Crying was what everyone expected her to do, and she would not show weakness. This was her time to be strong.

She wouldn't turn around and look into Roy's eyes.

"I know you hate me right now. But I think one of us has to bend a little before we both break." Roy ignored the lump in his throat, "I can't go on trying to make sense of us."

He hated being so quick to get to the point, along with how vague his words were, but it hurt to say what needed to be said. He just wanted to get it over with.

It was initially just a slap. But now, it had turned into so much more.

"I'm finished trying to get you to make a final decision on how you feel about me," it felt like he was choking on his words, "I can't mope around anymore. You need to find out what you really want. And if it involves not talking to me again, then that's fine. I just don't want to see you upset."

He stared at her rigid back for a moment, a thick silence taking over the hallway.

Roy flinched as he felt Peach turn around and grip the stomach of his shirt, pulling his body close to hers.

"You idiot," she hissed into his ear, brushing cheeks with him, her words like a pin dropping to the floor in an empty room, "You're what I want."

Having said that, she pulled his lips down forcefully to meet hers in a bruising kiss.

Roy went into instant shock. Peach pushed him against the nearest wall for support as she deepened the kiss. It felt like all her frustrations with him ran together in one aggressive moment.

After the shock subsided, Roy lifted his body from the wall and returned the kiss with equal force.

That was all Peach ever wanted from Roy. She wanted him to fight for her, but he just gave up. Maybe that was stupid and selfish on her part. It began to occur to her that maybe this whole fiasco had been her fault, and she should have just confessed to him long ago.

But none of that mattered right now. As the taste of Roy began to take over her senses and stain her lips, she found that she had no right to think about anything else.

After what felt like only a split-second later, Roy broke away suddenly and stared at her in disbelief, breathing heavily from the heated kiss.

Peach, however, found herself unable to contain a smile. A smile that brushed away the cobwebs of her heart. She had finally found her peace. Her anger was gone.

"How can you just smile at me?" Roy asked, befuddled at her robustly amused behavior.

Peach just chuckled and offered him her arm. "Come on. I give you permission to walk me to my room."

"Permission?" Roy questioned, losing his ignorance and smirking at the girl. "And isn't it the guy that's supposed to give the girl his arm? And you still haven't answered my first question!"

Peach rolled her eyes as she walked down the remainder of the hallway, her arm looped with Roy's, the both of them walking at the same pace, side by side.

No words needed to be said. Roy secretly knew the answer.

It wasn't really all that noticeable, but it occurred to him that maybe Peach had loved him all along.

"So..." he said slowly, turning his head to look at the girl beside him. "Does this mean we're a couple or something?"

Yes, Roy," Peach said matter-of-factly, "I didn't just make out in the hallway with you for nothing!"

"Hmph! One can only hope for no strings attached!" he muttered loudly, purposely making himself sound genuinely disappointed so she would retaliate. Which, of course, she did without missing a beat.

"That's not very funny." Peach had heard his little comment, and took the bait without a second thought.

The red head laughed, noticing that they were already arguing. It seemed that no matter how close they were, they were destined to disagree... And maybe that was okay. He actually preferred it that way.

"I guess some things never change," he said, the cheerful glint returning to his eye. "... Except maybe the fact that you dig me, because, I mean, look at me... I'm gorgeous!"

Peach shook her head. "Come on, Mr. Conceited. I think we need to have a talk about your sudden lost touch on reality."

Roy gave her a small peck on the cheek. "Be in denial if you want... Hey, if you can call me Mr. Conceited, can I call you Peachie?"

The girl grimaced, but regarded his question.

"I suppose so…."

Roy pumped his fist in victory at her answer, even though he would have called her Peachie no matter if he had her permission or not.

As they approached her room, Peach suddenly became anxious. As if on cue, memories of only ten minutes ago flooded into her brain.

She had slammed one of her best friends, and on top of that, she snapped seemingly for no reason in front of every fighter in the Melee Tournament.

What would they think of her?

Seeing her sudden change in expression, Roy looked at her oddly.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, stopping in front of her dorm.

Peach took him by the hand and opened her door, dragging the general with her as she shut it

firmly behind them.

"Are we doing a strip tease or what?" Roy joked with her, earning a glare from the princess.

"No," she answered plainly, her tone carrying a hint of disappointment in herself, "I just remembered how badly I screwed up!"

It was clear she needed some closure.

Roy sat on one of the three beds in the room, and patted his knee, gesturing her to sit down.

"Sit and tell me about it. Right here. Next to Papa."

She smiled slightly and obliged his command. She needed the comfort.

"So what did you do?" he asked, snaking an arm around her waist, and resting his head on her shoulder.

"I told Samus off when she was trying to make me feel better," Peach despaired at how stupid she acted as she subconsciously shifted from Roy's knee to sit between his legs.

"I'm sure Sam knows you didn't mean it, Peachie." he coaxed softly, "It's not like she's all that sensitive anyways."

"Neither are you," Peach quipped, "But I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate me screaming at you in front of twenty-three other people."

Roy sighed, knowing this wasn't an argument he couldn't win.

"I'm sure everything will turn out fine."

Peach huffed slightly at the remark's expense as she felt Roy's warm body leave her to lay down on the bed and stretch.

"This is your bed, right?" He suddenly lifted his head, not wanting to be making himself at home on either Zelda or Samus' mattress without their knowledge.

At the blonde's nod, he relaxed himself once more and looked at the ceiling.

It felt good to be able to have a moment's peace without having to think of the thousand problems that had plagued his mind not too long before.

Roy felt Peach settle into the space beside him. He couldn't shake it, but a question had suddenly popped into his head.

"What made you kiss me in the first place?"

Peach cocked her head to one side as she stared at the general out of the corner of her eye.

"It's hard to explain..."

"I've got the time," Roy said, turning over on his side to face her.

"I don't know… I did it… Just because."

She couldn't think of any other reason. The real motive was hard to put into words without sounding horribly cliché and rehearsed.

"… Well, I guess that's enough for me!" Roy grinned at her for good measure.

"That's it?" Peach was surprised he had no over zealous, dramatic questions to ask her.

The swordsman shrugged. "That's all the reason I need. Who cares about the past when you have the present?"

Peach made a mental note to write that down. It wasn't often Roy said anything worth quoting.

"I think that's your best feature," she told him, "Sometimes you're not very prying when other people would be. It saves me a lot of emotional stuff I don't want to go into."

His companion grinned goofily and put both hands behind his head in a very relaxed manner. "Well, I do my best. And sometimes you don't need all those gushy explanations or whatever. You just know… Ya know?"

Peach internally laughed. He wasn't very eloquent, but Roy did have quite a lot of introspective thoughts. You just had to dig a bit to find them.

There was a comfortable silence before Roy spoke up in random question.

"Wait. What do you mean 'I'm not sensitive?'"

The girl looked at him, as if questioning his seriousness.

"A strip tease?" Peach threw his words back at him with a grin, "That was kind of a mood killer, right?"

Roy merely shrugged. "I dunno... It's sensitive enough, right? I mean... I'm so emotional... I'm like... a woman or something..."

Upon hearing his last comment, Peach scooted a considerable amount of distance away from him.

"I didn't mean it literally!" He caught her jokingly move away from him and he sat up.

Peach did likewise and playfully punched him in the shoulder.

"I'm just kidding," she teased him, "It's customary for us to do that, right?"

Roy agreed, but he still shook his head out of amusement, not paying attention to the door knob turning as Samus and Zelda began to enter, with Link and Marth standing a distance behind them, probably walking with them since the male dorms were on a separate hallway, a little farther down.

"Uh, what's going on in here?" a voice they recognized as Zelda's asked.

Roy and Peach's heads snapped to look over at their friends, all of them looking at the pair with blank stares.

"I DID NOT USE MARTH'S SHAMPOO IF THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE THINKING!" The red headed swordsman exclaimed, raising his hands in defense as Peach released him.

The four pairs of orbs remained transfixed on him.

"I just remembered!" He said nervously, trying to get from under the suspicious gazes of the others, "I have to go... uh... braid my hair! Yeah, that's it!"

Zelda stepped further into the room to give Roy an opening to leave through, which he did, but not without stopping to pass Peach a quick wink.

"Phone me sweetie!" he said, flashing her the "call me" gesture, then quickly bolted down the hallway to the right.

"Uh..." Link said, sensing the awkward vibe in the air, "I'm going to go follow him in case he hurts himself!"

"- I'm going to make sure he didn't really use my shampoo!" Marth stated almost in unison with the Hylian.

And as quickly as they had came, the two of them power-walked down the same direction as their departed friend, secretly knowing exactly what had just taken place, leaving Peach standing alone in the room with a bounty hunter and the Sage of Wisdom looking blankly at her.

"I guess I got some 'splaning to do," Peach said meekly, half talking about Roy and herself, and half talking about the way she talked to Samus earlier.

Said bounty hunter just grinned slyly and crossed her arms, leaning on the doorframe with soft eyes, telling the embarrassed princess with her expression that she held no grudge for their fight earlier. In addition of course, she clearly read between the lines what the whole scene in front of her unveiled.

"No. I think we all know what happened here. But I think you do owe an explanation to our little detectives, Nana, Ness, Popo, and Young Link who saw you playing tonsil hockey with Roy in the hallway."

Peach looked absolutely mortified at Samus' description, but felt better nonetheless.

Because, as of right now, everything was fine. And she was content in that.

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Whoa! That kiss scene was kinda steamy, no? Almost as steamy as Roy in the shower!

Hah, just kidding!

Well, I hoped you enjoyed the fact that I didn't take another 7 months to update, and the fact that those two finally got over themselves and confessed LOVE!! XD XP

I focused this whole chapter on Roy and Peach because this love confession was 10 chapters in the making pretty much, and besides, I love the both of them... And it seemed like most people were ready for them to get together anyways.

I hope you guys don't mind the quick transition from angst to humor... I could never make RoyPeach an all around angsty couple... Besides, I think their little arguments are adorable, but that's just me.

Also, I proofread this a thousand times, so if you find grammar errors, (which I'm sure you will...) please disregard them, and a thousand apologies from me.

Many thanks to the following peoples:

Fried Cheesecake

Hello Nessa

tanimax

Unique-Yoshi

BabyGurl278

Mimza

s (Hey dude, I feel sorry that you can't read. Apparently you can't spell either. But I can't say anything, because after looking back at everything I just had to revise, neither can I. XDD.)

RoyalFanatic

ElementUchihaMaster

Royal Kenya

ShimmeringJade

Babykoalaprincess

crystalicios

Empress Caroline of Tamaran

Well, my wonderful subjects, (gives reviewers brownies because RK prefers them over cookies) thank you for reading, and PLEEEEEEASE review on the way out!

With randomness,

-Sage