How the world fares
Super Smash Bros. Brawl fanfiction by Shade-Duelist
disclaimer: I own no one in this story save the OC's Stella and Player Shii. I do not own SSBB or any of the games that feature in it. I do own this story, so be wary of my wrath when using it in the wrong way. And I determine what is wrong.
Chapter 3: Understanding
Days had passed uneventfully. Several brawls had come and gone, all with different victors, all celebrated with equal praise for the winners and good advice for the losing parties. At one such victory party, celebrating Bowser's ultimate victory over King DeDeDe, Ganondorf and Wario in what had been named the 'Battle of the Baddies', Pit found himself analysing the situation he was in.
It had been a week since Palutena's words of wisdom had revealed the truth regarding his feelings for princess Peach to him, and in that week he had noticed the relationship between Peach and Mario grow sour. Both the Princess and Mario refused to speak to the other and avoided one another. Peach had even turned down an offer to brawl alongside Yoshi and Mario against Bowser, causing a bit of grief to the green dinosaur as he thought Peach didn't want to brawl by his side. Pit remembered the day well. Yoshi had come to him almost crying, and Pit had patted the little dragon on his back reassuringly, explaining the situation. Now both Peach and Yoshi avoided Mario, along with Pit who had less trouble since he didn't know the plumber that well.
Pit looked at Princess Peach from his seat at the side of the table. She had on a pink T-shirt and some white sport shorts that fit her very well – her crown had been traded for a smaller and more durable version. Her exercise of that afternoon – she'd played a bit of tennis against Yoshi again, who had beaten her – gave her a rosy blush that suited her excellently. Pit found a lazy smile sneaking up on his features and gave in.
After a few minutes of generally being inattentive to his surroundings, he felt someone tap on his shoulder and found Yoshi standing there, beckoning for him to follow him outside of the dining room.
"You want to go and play some more, Yoshi? ...Okay then, but first you'll have to teach me how to play...", Pit said as he and the dinosaur walked into the main hall. Yoshi chuckled – an odd 'ahaha ooh' sound – and shook his head, motioning up. Curious as to what his friend meant, Pit followed him up to the fourth floor, above his own, to find the Mushroom dormitories there. He walked past a green, a red, a purple and a pink door – the pink one, he guessed to be Peach's room – and they ended up opposite a black-and-red door leading to Bowser's room. The door to Yoshi's room was painted white with green spots, and inside everything had lovely subdued pastel colours. Childish drawings adorned the walls, depicting scenes of Yoshi heroism. Pit marvelled at the simple beauty of the room for a while until Yoshi dragged him on to a small table where crayons and pieces of paper were. Pit chuckled as he looked over them: he'd seen Yoshi and Kirby sketching together often and had wondered how the drawings looked. Now he saw childish renditions of himself, Bowser, Dedede, and many of the others.
"Wie!", Yoshi voiced as he quickly rifled through the stack, pulling up three drawings. One of them was a drawing of the two of them flying, the style childish and yet remarkably accurate. Flowers were drawn around their heads, and Pit snickered.
"Flowers mean friends, right?", he asked, and Yoshi's nod brought a big smile to his face. "You're a great friend, too, Yoshi. Not many are as courageous and kind as you are..."
"Waaw...", the green dinosaur voiced his appreciation of the praise before showing the next image. It depicted a man in dark overalls and a girl with blond hair and a blue suit: Pit recognised Samus in her Zero Suit easily, but had some difficulty labeling the man until he noticed the badly drawn unshaven cheeks and realised Yoshi had drawn a very bad impression of Solid Snake, the mysterious man that had arrived about a day after he did. Around their heads were no flowers but hearts with happy faces, however, and he snickered as he immediately realised what that meant. He hadn't observed any affections between the two, but he had been preoccupied during that week.
"Samus and Snake, and they like each other, right?" Now Yoshi merely nodded vehemently. "I didn't even know, Yoshi – you must look through some keyholes in your spare time!"
"Hop!", Yoshi said, and Pit snickered when he realised that Yoshi had spied the two together while flying around. The little green dragon then took out the final drawing, and Pit's throat was suddenly dry. There he was, and beside him was a drawing of Peach in the same childish-yet-accurate style. Nothing was drawn around their heads, and Pit didn't realise what Yoshi meant until the green dinosaur held out a crayon for him. "Hm?", Yoshi asked, and Pit knew his friend was waiting for the answer of the unposed question. He put the pencil on the paper and sighed. 'Palutena...', he started mentally, but did not finish his thought as his hand seemed to move on its own accord, making the two adjoining curves he sought for. A perfectly drawn heart now stood between him and Peach. Yoshi blushed and then closed his eyes in his happy look.
"Wie-wie-wie-wie-ea!", he voiced, giving Pit the thumbs up before looking at Pit again as the angel sighed.
"Yeah, but now what? I like her... But what do I do now?", he asked Yoshi. To his surprise, Yoshi handed him a drawing neatly separated in four parts. It showed consecutive drawings according to their numbering. One was of two people outside, talking – represented by a musical note in the air between them. The next drawing was of two people going to a place he vaguely recognised as Mansion City, the small town only a mile away from the mansion itself where a small amusement park and some stores were. Then, the drawing showed a starry sky and two people sitting down on the grass. The fourth image was self-explanatory: one single big heart stood above the two people. "So I talk to her, ask her out?" When Yoshi nodded, he continued: "I take her out on a date, then when it's late have a beautiful evening with her under the stars, then... Then what?"
"Waaw...", Yoshi said, his tone slightly lower and with more awe, making Pit chuckle.
"Yoshi, I have higher standards than that you know! Besides, I am an angel, and I doubt it I'm allowed to even..." The angel then blushed and grew silent, causing Yoshi to start doing a happy dance. "No need to get happy yet, Yoshi..." He swallowed hard. "I didn't even ask her out yet..."
Peach enjoyed a leisurely afternoon in the sun together with Samus, who had traded in her full-body Zero Suit for a shorter version that doubled as a swimsuit, a feature of which she was now making use. The princess and the bounty hunter sat in the shallow part of the swimming pool, generally enjoying the cool of the water lapping around their waists.
"So, Peach, how was your week? You didn't brawl much, did you?", Samus asked, wiping her hair out of her eyes. Peach shook her head.
"I brawled along with Luigi against King Dedede and Ness. And I joined Yoshi and Pit in a sixty-six stock battle against Pokémon Trainer – that was my hardest battle yet!", Peach replied, sighing at the end. Samus heard and grinned.
"I happened to notice that you and Mario are not on speaking terms. Care to share?" Peach shrugged, smiling as she thought of the bounty huntress' inquisitive nature. 'Then again, if I was travelling the galaxy, I'd be curious as well...', she mused before answering. Samus listened attentively, nodding occasionally before shaking her head. "I'm not especially fond of Bowser myself, but you're right on one count: around here, he isn't the downright evil being that he is in the Mushroom Kingdom. You were right to tell Mario that he was cruel and heartless and you're right for ignoring 'Mister I don't even realise my girlfriend may be on to something'..." Samus then looked up and grinned. Peach followed her gaze and saw Yoshi glide down to the ground towards Pit. "Those two always fool around... Hmm..." Peach looked back toward her friend and noticed the sly grin on her features.
"What's the matter, Samus?", she asked innocently.
"Pit always looks so easily distracted and dreamy nowadays... especially after you two have been talking... Do I sense romance in the air here?", the bounty hunter said softly, and Peach rolled her eyes.
"First of all, that's rich coming from you, miss 'I don't ever need romance', and secondly, it's even ironic considering you've managed to romance that mysterious Snake guy when neither of you likes that kind of thing in the first place." Peach then giggled. "No, you're probably mistaken. There's nothing going on between us."
"Yeah, right, as if I'm going to believe that." Samus' dry comment was nullified by her look of glee when Pit walked over to them. "That blush, princess, tells me another story... Oh, he likes you, and seems to me like the feeling's mutual...", she added in a whisper when the angel came close enough to hear them. Peach now blushed furiously and thought of walking away indignantly until she heard a splash and looked back to the pool to see Yoshi and Pit resurfacing, splashing each other good-naturedly. They ceased their games for a moment to greet the others.
"Wie-ea!", Yoshi said cheerfully, and then whistled at the two when he noticed they wore their bathing costumes. Pit merely nodded, blushing.
"Good afternoon, Peach, miss Aran...", he said. Samus grumbled and dunked the angel, who spluttered as he re-emerged from the water. She chuckled and raised an eyebrow.
"'Miss Aran', what's that supposed to mean? My name's Samus, Pit! Just plain Samus!", the comment came in a mock indignant voice. She grinned and ruffled the angel's wet hair. "Calling me 'miss' makes me feel old, kid..."
"And calling a boy only five years younger than you 'kid' doesn't?", Peach commented, gaining her a playful punch from her friend.
"Peh! I'll go enjoy Yoshi's pranks, since all you two do is make me feel left out! Good-bye!", she said theatrically and waded to where Yoshi was playing on his own. Both Peach and Pit blushed, recognising the deliberate distance their respective best friends kept for what it was, and then slowly moved closer, leaning on the edge of the pool.
"Hey Pit, how have you been?", Peach asked. The two of them hadn't really talked that day yet, and they'd mostly spent their time brawling the previous day. Pit smiled.
"I've been well, and you?" They slipped into a comfortably airy conversation about their days, the brawls, and their thoughts on the battles and the other brawlers. Then, suddenly, Pit looked into the distance and blushed.
"What's the matter, Pit?", Peach asked, suddenly genuinely concerned. Pit turned to her and she found the water much cooler around her all of a sudden, even giving her goosebumps.
"P-peach, would you maybe like to...", the angel started, but then seemed to waver. She saw him swallow and then heard him finish his sentence, starting over from the beginning. "Would you maybe like to go out with me tonight?" Now it was Peach's turn to blush. Samus had been right, of course. She, too, had noticed the angel's sudden change in behaviour towards her. Whenever he looked at her, there was a rosy tinge to his cheeks that certainly wasn't caused by the sun or the spicy food Kirby loved to cook up. He also seemed to talk to her more often, and yet those conversations were almost always about such meaningless topics. She contemplated saying no, but found that her mind resisted the very thought of that.
"Oh, sure, Pit... I'd love to...", she said demurely after only a split second of uncomfortable silence. The angel's face turned from anxious to relieved and joyous in the blink of an eye.
"G-great! We'll leave in about two hours, is that okay?", he said, and Peach nodded, suddenly feeling at ease and even pleased at the prospect.
"I look forward to it.", she said solemnly, and truthfully. Pit excused himself and went back to Yoshi, and the two got out of the pool. Pit wrung out his tunic again – Samus wolf-whistled as the young angel stood with his upper body bare, causing him to blush furiously – and then took off, an excited conversation with the green dinosaur taking place from the moment the girls were out of earshot. Judging by Yoshi's look of glee, Peach suspected that he had given Pit the advice to ask her out, and she sighed.
"So you said yes, didn't you?" Samus' comment brought her out of her reverie and back to reality.
"What?", she asked, raising an eyebrow. Samus chuckled.
"You don't take me for a fool, do you, princess? I heard Pit loud and clear. He asked you out this evening and you said you'd love to."
"Yes, I did, and yes I will." Now it was Samus' turn to look at her in confusion.
"You will what?" Peach chuckled and suddenly got a sly grin, making her look very unlike a princess.
"I will love my evening out with Pit."
That evening, Peach and Pit sat outside of the Mansion on a hill, an endless star-spun sky above them and soft grass below them. The two had gone to the city. Pit had bought Peach a ticket for the amusement park, he'd treated her to dinner in one of the restaurants of the little town, and now they were enjoying the beauty of the evening some more.
"Pit, I've had such a wonderful time...", Peach sighed contentedly, and Pit smiled. "You're charming and kind..." Pit's smile broadened as she spoke before he finally answered her compliment.
"I'm only charming when in the presence of someone as beautiful and amazing as you, Peach... Seeing you smile makes my day complete." He noticed the princess shiver and moved closer to her, the feeling of their shoulders touching making both of them blush without the other noticing. "Peach, you're cold... would you like to return to your room?"
"Actually, I am cold but I..." She hesitated, and Pit saw her bite her bottom lip – a very uncharacteristic move. "I don't mind the cold when I'm sitting with you." She could even pretend to ignore the cold, but after a few minutes just leaning against him she was shivering again.
"Peach... You're freezing, I know. You shouldn't be out too long, I wouldn't want you to catch a cold.", Pit said, concerned.
"But...", Peach started, trying to convince the angel that she was fine. However, she suddenly felt arms encircling her waist and then felt the ground sink from beneath her feet – she almost panicked until she heard the beating of wings. After what seemed like an eternity to her, an eternity that had passed in the blink of an eye, she was put down onto her balcony on the fourth floor. She turned around quickly to see Pit fly toward her, his usually small white wings suddenly larger and bright blue with holy energy. He landed and his wings returned to normal, small white feathers scattering around them. "Pit, that was wonderful!", the princess sighed, embracing the angel.
"Peach, I...", he started, but she silenced him with only a look. Her eyes were soft, and even in the light of the moon and stars he could see the slight blush on her cheeks and the tempting softness of her lips so close to his.
"I know... me too...", she whispered before she lightly kissed him. It was a quick but tender kiss, but it was enough. When they let go, their eyes told the other exactly what was on their mind even if their blushes didn't prove it. "Pit... see you tomorrow morning...", princess Peach said softly as she slowly backed to her door, her eyes sparkling with joy. Pit nodded and bowed quickly before letting the princess head inside. They both knew that something beautiful had grown between them.