(A/N: While Daisy was torturing Bowser en route to the Moon Kingdom, I think we should see what went on between Mario and Peach during that time. This is the story of all that transpired between Mario and Peach during the fun we had with Daisy and Bowser!)
Mario, Cappy, and Peach were still on their way back to the Mushroom Kingdom when night fell. Cappy was a lot calmer than he had been after hearing the princess crying in fear, but he was still pretty angry that Bowser had physically and emotionally harmed his little sister for no good reason. Peach had calmed down, too, because she was with Mario again, and Mario was feeling relaxed because he knew that Peach was safe.
On their way home, Mario and Cappy told Peach everything they had been through since they agreed to work together, and even though she was listening, she was quietly making plans to go on a new world tour soon, perhaps after Daisy worked over the Koopa King. She also made plans to take Tiara on the tour with her, for she too needed to have some fun after what they'd been through.
At one point, Cappy looked out the window and saw that it was dark outside. So it was nighttime now, but how late was it? He didn't really know. Maybe Mario would know.
"Hey Mario, do you happen to know what time it is?" Cappy asked.
Mario stopped his conversation with Peach and checked his watch.
"It's 8:00, Cappy." Mario replied as he looked at his watch.
"Okay, I was just wondering. So it's 8:00 at night." Cappy said.
"Night?!" Mario and Peach exclaimed in shock. They looked out the window, and sure enough, it was dark, and the stars were out.
"Mama-mia!" Mario said. He hadn't thought it was that time already. Last time he looked out the window, the sun was still up.
"Wow, it's really nighttime? We've been travelling that long?!" Peach said.
"Non me ne ero accorto. I hadn't realized it. It felt like only a few hours to me." Mario replied.
"And we're not home yet, are we?" Peach asked.
Mario checked the GPS and said, "Nope. Not yet... Home is still a good way from here."
"Shouldn't we stop and find someplace to stay for the night?" Peach asked as she looked at the starry sky, unable to find any familiar constellations.
"Non lo so davvero. I don't really know, Peach. I'm not sure if there are any places in these kingdoms for tourists to stay. I wasn't exactly on the look-out for any hotels when Cappy and I set out on this adventure. Saving you and Tiara was what mattered most to us." Mario replied.
"Every second counted, Peach. We had no time to stop and rest for the night. You and Tiara needed to be rescued. Well, at least until that no-good jerk, Bowser, decided my sister had to stay with him..." Cappy said, grumbling during that last sentence.
"I'm fairly certain that Daisy will keep Tiara safe from Bowser. You can trust her as much as Mario and I can." Peach assured him.
"Okay..." Cappy sighed.
"And besides, I'd rather not stop on the off-chance Bowser is suspicious that he might have been lied to. È troppo rischioso. It's too risky." Mario added.
"So, you just want the Odyssey to keep on flying until we get back to the Mushroom Kingdom, right?" Peach asked.
"Right. I mean, if you don't mind flying all night to get back home..." Mario said.
"It's okay, Mario. I don't mind the thought of an all-night flight; it's something new to me because I've never done it before. It's just that... where are we going to sleep?" Peach asked.
"Well, there's un letto, a bed over there. See?" Mario said, pointing to the bed.
Peach looked, and sure enough, there was the bed.
"Oh, I didn't notice that." Peach said.
"It was one of the first few things I noticed when I came in here for the first time. And I've been sleeping in it every night since this adventure began. I also took catnaps in it." Mario said.
"Okay. In that case, you can continue sleeping in the bed." Peach said to Mario.
"Me? But what about you, Peach? Where are you going to sleep? C'è solo un letto. There's only the one bed. I was going to insist you take it for tonight." Mario said.
"But Mario, after all you've done for me, you earned the right to continue sleeping in that bed. I'll just sleep right here in this chair. I'll be okay I promise." Peach said, patting the arm of the chair she was sitting on.
"Oh, no you won't, Peach! You're una principessa, a princess, and you deserve the bed more than some ol' chair. I'll sleep in the chair while you sleep in the bed." Mario said.
"But Mario, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here right now. You deserve to sleep in a nice, comfortable bed." Peach protested.
"But I think you deserve the bed more than I do, because if it wasn't for you, my life wouldn't be as happy as it is right now." Mario said.
"Do I really make your life happy, Mario?" Peach asked.
"Sì, Peach. You really do. My life hasn't been this happy since the two of us got together." Mario replied, giving Peach a loving smile.
"It's really sweet of you to say that, Mario, which is why I insist that you sleep on the bed." Peach said, blushing a little from Mario's loving words.
"But I still insist that you take the bed." Mario tried again.
Before long, Cappy got a little irritated, and he said, "Here's a thought: why don't you both try sharing the bed? If I'm right, we'll probably be back in the Mushroom Kingdom by tomorrow morning, so you'd share the bed for at least one night. Why haven't you guys thought of sharing it? Can you tell me?"
Mario and Peach looked at each other before turning back to Cappy.
"Cappy, there is a reason why Peach and I aren't thinking of sharing the bed." Mario said.
"And that is?" asked Cappy.
"Now, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't mind sharing a bed with Peach." Mario said.
"And I wouldn't mind sharing a bed with Mario. It's just that my longtime steward, Toadsworth, said that Mario and I shouldn't be sleeping together until we're married." Peach said.
"Oh, is that all? Well, then, answer me this: is Toadsworth here right now?" Cappy asked.
"No." Mario and Peach said in unison.
"If he's not here, then he's not going to know that the two of you were sleeping together unless one of us tells him, correct?" Cappy asked.
"Right." Peach said.
"Are either of you planning on telling him?" Cappy asked.
"Non glielo dico. I'm not telling him. If he found out I was sleeping with Peach, he'd probably bite off my head if Bowser hadn't already done it." Mario said, shuddering a little.
"No, if I know Toadsworth as well as I do, he would never go that far, Mario. All we'd get from him for something like that is a boring lecture. But if he did lecture us, I could teach you how to tune him out. I learned to do that whenever he lectures me. But if he asks a question, you can just nod or shake your head every now and again so he'll think you're listening." Peach said.
"But you're not going to tell him either, are you?" Mario asked.
"Not if telling him means suffering a long, boring lecture on why we shouldn't sleep together until we're married. You'd think our parents never gave us the talk about the birds and the bees." Peach said.
"Oh, Luigi and I got that talk when we were 11. It was so awkward that Luigi couldn't take it. He blacked out. I was just completely weirded out." Mario said.
"Okay, so you got the talk before I did. I was 12, and since my parents died when I was a baby, Toadsworth took it upon himself to give me 'the talk' when I got home from visiting Daisy in Sarasaland. And if that wasn't enough, Daisy's parents gave both of us 'the talk' the day before. It was not fun." Peach said.
"Did you tell him?" Mario said.
"I tried to stop him, but he told me I could speak after he finished giving me the talk. After he finished and noticed that I didn't look as weirded out as he expected (partially because I tuned him out). Only then did he let me explain what I'd been trying to tell him since he decided to start talking: that I'd already heard it." Peach replied.
"So you have proven that what he doesn't know won't hurt him. Good. Now that we've got that squared away, let's move on. I'm sure you guys are feeling pretty tired, because I know I am. Is getting some sleep all you guys want to do right now?" Cappy asked.
"Sì..." Mario said with a yawn. He was feeling pretty tired after everything that had happened that day.
"If you and Peach share that bed, do you think you would be going right to sleep, not doing anything that couples who share a bed might do?" Cappy said.
"I believe so. I'm tired enough to sleep until dawn." Peach said, feeling tired herself after seeing Mario yawn.
"Then do it! Just share the bed and go to sleep, why don't you?" suggested Cappy.
Mario and Peach decided not to argue anymore.
"Let's-a do like Cappy said. What Toadsworth doesn't know won't hurt him." Mario said to Peach.
"You're right. It won't. I've done something he doesn't know about, and it isn't bothering him." Peach said.
"You have? What did you do? Was it something naughty?" Mario asked.
"It wasn't anything bad, Mario. I noticed that he used to fast-forward through 2 different scenes in "Bambi" when I was a kid." Peach started.
"Oh, I think I know what one of them was." Mario said. He remembered his mother fast-forwarding through a... certain scene when he and Luigi were little.
"I'm sure of that. Anyway, one day, when I was 9, I took the movie in my room and watched it while he was out running errands. When I saw the scenes he never let me see in their entirety, I wished I hadn't. But I never told him I did it. That's all I did." Peach said.
"That doesn't sound too bad." Mario said.
"Neither does the thing we should do." Peach said as she and Mario looked over at the bed.
"Why didn't we just think about going ahead and doing this in the first place?" Mario said.
"I was mostly afraid that if we slept together, it might... make you want to engage in... carnal gymnastics." Peach said, turning red.
"Oh no, Peach, I don't plan on engaging in sexual activities until I'm married. There's only one woman I want to do those with." Mario said.
"Me?" Peach asked, gesturing to herself.
"Actually, I was going to say, with the woman I marry. After I marry her, that is." said Mario.
Peach smiled and looked at Mario with respect. He was such a gentleman, one of the traits she looked for in a man.
"I'm glad. I too want to wait until after marriage myself before I do such things." Peach replied.
"That's good. Now let's-a get some shut-eye." Mario said as they got up from their chairs. No sooner did they stand up did Cappy dive for the chair Mario had been sitting on. He made himself comfortable and promptly fell asleep.
"Sweet dreams, Cappy." Peach whispered to the sleeping Bonneter.
Mario smiled at Peach, then motioned for her to lay down on the bed.
"I normally don't like to sleep in my dress, with my corsets still on. I know I've done this a million times before, as Bowser's prisoner, but it doesn't make the whole thing any easier." Peach thought, but she smiled back at Mario, then took her shoes off before lying down on the bed. However, it was then that she and Mario had a new problem.
"Uh-oh. I think this bed sleeps only one." Mario said. There didn't appear to be enough room for both of them to lie in it together.
"Oh, this isn't good. I don't want you to sleep in a chair..." Peach said.
"And I'm not making you leave that bed." Mario said.
They thought for a moment, and then Peach said to herself, "Maybe if I lay on my side, like this." And she moved so that she was laying on her side, and so she was facing Mario, who was watching her get situated. Now there was room for him to get in next to her.
"Grande idea! Great idea, Peach. I'll get in now." Mario said, taking off his own shoes before getting in next to Peach. Like her, he was also on his side resting on his side. He was facing her.
"Think you'll sleep well tonight, principessa?" Mario asked Peach.
Peach thought for a moment.
"If you hold me close all night, I know I'll be okay." Peach replied.
"As you wish, amore mio." Mario said, wrapping his arms about her, holding her close.
Peach embraced Mario, too, feeling good.
"One more thing." Mario said.
"What is it?" Peach asked.
"May I please have un bacio della buona notte?" Mario asked.
"A what?" Peach asked, looking confused.
"A good night kiss." Mario translated.
"Of course. But I'd like one, too." Peach said.
"I can give you one." Mario smiled.
So Peach and Mario kissed each other good night.
"Buona notte, principessa... ti amo... Good night, Princess... I love you..." Mario said as he closed his eyes and finally surrendered to sleep.
"Good night, Mario. I love you, too..." Peach replied, blushing as she fell asleep. Not only did she and Mario kiss each other good night, Mario even told her he loved her in Italian! She was completely convinced that he was the man she wanted to marry.
Aww, I love the romance that those crazy kids share, don't you? If so, then stay tuned, 'cause there's still more to come!
