Peach showed off the golden band with the small diamond that adorned the finger on her left hand reminiscing about the events from the other day that led up to him sliding it on. After sitting through meetings and signing paperwork, she was ready to retreat to her room for the remainder of the evening. Two years into this role and everything she had learned still couldn't prepare her for these exhausting days but she was proud of herself nonetheless. When she left the meeting room, their eyes caught each other as he stood against the wall holding a bouquet of assorted flowers. Even though the distance was short, he pushed himself off the wall to meet her halfway and presented her with the gift. Smiling, both their cheeks blushed a bright red as a few Toads passed by letting out 'oohs' and 'awws' , some even lingering in the corridor longer than necessary. Leaning in closer to her face, he talked just loud enough where she could hear, asking her to come with him.

Turning to the side, he offered his arm and she slipped her hands through it while adjusting the bouquet as he led her to the front of the castle. Toadsworth met them at the door where he offered to take the flowers promising to put them in her room. Passing off the flowers, she could've sworn she saw both her advisor and partner a knowing look out of her peripheral vision. Peach wanted to ask about it, but decided against it as she let him lead her across the town, Toads repeating the same actions from before as they passed along. They stopped at a stand where he paid the toad merchant handsomely, receiving a basket he must have pre-ordered. The sun was starting to set by the time they reached the outskirts of the town and to the open field near the lake. Placing the blanket on the grass, he took a couple more things out of the basket that included a candle and shared favorite snacks.

They scooted closer together, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder pulling her closer. Peach placed a gloved hand against his chest and laid her head on his shoulder. While watching the sun set fully they just enjoyed the time that passed by with each other. The orange-yellow sky turned into a Dark blue-purple as many stars started to fill it. At some point she had dozed off finally giving into her tiredness now laying in his arms. She awoke to the now lit up candle and apologized for falling asleep, he just smiled and brushed a strand of blonde hair away from her face and offered to walk her home. Wiping the sleep from her eye, she stood up and brushed little specks of dust and dirt from her pink dress, turning back to face him, eyes widening in surprise.

On one knee he held up a red velvet with the jewel in the middle. The well rehearsed speech he gave her brought tears to eyes, a smile growing wider with each passing moment. At the question she let it all out crashing into his arms repeating the word 'yes' over and over. He wrapped one arm around her waist, while the other stroked her hair. They stayed hugging together like that for what felt like forever before pulling apart looking at each other, he offered his and she gave him her own. He pulled her glove off before slipping the ring on. Kissing her hand first then a much slower, longer one to her lips.

Blushing an extreme red now as recounted the rest of evening in her thoughts. Being pulled out of it by the sound of a finger snapping and her name being called.

"Peaches, hello? You have that gross look on your face." Bowser, her long time friend called from across the table with a groan.

"Oh sorry where was I?" Peach questions allowed "oh yes, well um you could probably fill in the rest of the blanks" she giggled sheepishly rubbing at her cheeks.

"I'd rather not...you've done enough by just putting the image in my mind" he told her in a monotone voice.

"What you're able to tell me about your mating practices, but as soon as I even mention something about it you're all like 'grr gross shut your mouth' and all that" she exclaimed poorly imitating his voice with a laugh, Bowser just rolled his eyes.

"It is different. I actually have to do this for the benefit of my own kingdom...You're just doing it cause you can" he argued with his head in one hand, pushing the teacup towards her silently asking for a refill to which she obliged.

"Any eggs yet?" She asked, grabbing the teapot filling the cup up.

Bowser had told her about this years ago when she asked if there were any female dragon koopa's. They keep them separate from all the male species until they are needed to avoid conflict. Once the male Koopa reaches king status and breeding maturity they start mating every few months in hopes of producing multiple heirs for the throne.

"Nah. I'm about to say fuck it and put some orders into the stork." He scoffed, taking a sip of the tea, shooting a fireball in the cup to heat it up a bit more. Knowing full well he wouldn't resort to that...he wanted strong heirs and having the stork deliver Koopa kids was a risk he wasn't willing to take. "You still wanna be their God mama Right?" He asked.

"Of course! I want to see baby Koopa's." She exclaimed happily with both hands now on the edge of the table leaning over with that same spark in her eyes whenever he asked that question.

"Nice" he cleared his throat, setting the teacup down looking at her "So what do your people think about that? Or have you not told them" motioning his head to the ring on her finger.

"Oh yeah well I showed Toadsworth the next morning and he was over the moon for the rest of the day." She recalled all the compliments and hugs he showered her with throughout the day. "Everyone's also ecstatic they love Haru. I started wearing it over my glove. They're already planning it. We want to marry in a month's time so there's so much work on top of the usual stuff. Please make sure you keep an eye out for your invite" Peach finished admiring her hand.

"You mean his highness actually wants me there? That's surprising." Bowser questioned

"No" Peach quickly replied but shook her head when her brain finally caught up with her mouth. "I mean who cares about that. It's just as much as my wedding as it is his. You've been there for everything since we met. My birthdays, my coronation...of course I'd want you there" She listed off the major things that she enjoyed having him attend throughout the years.

"True but surely he'd have something to say about that" he urged.

Peach couldn't understand what Bowser's problem was with Haru and even vice versa as sometimes the calm and collected Prince would lose his temper when the three were all together. To her that had to be the reason he was reluctant to introduce her to the flower kingdom because of some unresolved tension but, after persistent pestering on her end he relented and introduced her and council to them. They got along quite well throughout the meeting but he ended up not forming an alliance with them. Peach on the other hand was smitten with the young man from across the table. Beautiful blue eyes stared right back at her, nervous her heart rate increased and she was sure her entire face was red at that point but she couldn't look away. Everyone was up and taking a tour around the castle and the kingdom and she had only processed that the room was empty when he spoke to her. Not even acknowledging his question, the first thing she blurted out was how pretty she thought his cyan hair was.

Quickly she clasped both hands over her mouth before stammering over a few more compliments and apologies before she was cut off by his soft chuckle. Reaching his hand out to her, Haru showered her with compliments of his own as she took it he pulled her out of the chair.

Maybe it was because this was the first time she had encountered another human in years?

Maybe it was because he reciprocated her comments with sweeter ones?

Maybe it was because of how their hands seemed to fit so well together?

Whatever it was in that moment, something inside her heart and mind told her that this guy was the one. They wrote to each other consistently for a few months before he showed up one day to spend time with her which ended in them starting a relationship. Dividing her time between her duties and spending time with both Haru and Bowser was challenging but she somehow managed it well. Everytime when they encountered each other however, Bowser and Haru just did not click and she started to think it was because of her. Assumptions were proven correct when she asked Haru about his problems with Bowser, he would tell her that it had to do with how he'd give his opinions on how she should run things even without being prompted. Peach would tell Haru that it was just one of his many quirks he'd have to get used to and to take everything he says with a grain of salt. Voicing his concerns that with the long history they shared that she'd somehow be taking his advice in the way she approaches things, she would always assure that it was the complete opposite.

Bowser would tell her that he couldn't stand how weak his kingdom was despite it having decades to be something better by now. The Koopa king for the life of him just didn't understand why she would ally herself with them even if that was always her goal. What could he really offer to the mushroom kingdom aside from a little resources that other places do much better. Peach would tell him that she thinks everything no matter how small went a big way and plus she liked how similar their communities felt. Not really satisfied with her answer, He still brought it up everytime in conversation. Bowser kept pushing this point and even more so when the two started dating a couple months ago. Maybe with the union things would become better between the two's personal opinions on each other and their kingdoms. Again, her thoughts were broken by him calling out to her giving him her attention once more.

"Peaches, I was asking what made you accept his proposal? when I asked you to marry me a couple years back, you straight up told me no. Now you expect me to just believe that you change your mind just like that only after dating? For a short period of time no less" he interrogated looking her square in the eyes "Its cause he's a human isn't it" Bowser added.

"No that's not true" she defended, looking down at her now empty cup. On a subconscious level she thought that maybe there was some truth to his claim. Then as she thought more about it more, could it have been some of his customs that turned her off? Inwardly she shook her head, she had come to terms with that ages ago, while she didn't agree with everything, It seemed to work well enough to keep his kingdom running strong for years. So she thought about it more and came to a conclusion. "When you asked, It was six months after I was crowned so I wanted to try and do it all alone. You had helped so much up until that point while still taking care of your own responsibilities so I wanted to give you a break why I put my training into work" She told him,

Bowser refilled her cup in silence waiting for her to continue. She nodded and thanked him, sighing deeply before she continued.

"We talk about this all the time, but I wish you were a little nicer when it comes to how you treat my people sometimes. I want to be with someone that my people also love and adore and Haru is that." she explained, thinking about all the little interactions that occurred between the two royals and her people.

"With everything I've done for your people over the years, I'll say that I've been more than kind Peaches." He told her as a matter of factly elbows on the table and face on the palms. She groaned laying face down on the table in her arms not wanting to have this discussion with him again.

"Bowser you asked me and I answered. It doesn't have anything to do with you not being a human. I really do appreciate all you've done for me through the years." She hoped that would shut him down. "Plus he wouldn't leave my people without resources for a month cause I said no" she thought she said that last part to herself but jumped up and yelped in shock when he slammed his palm on the table.

"You're really on that again. Grow up Peaches that was so long ago" He yelled at her causing his half-empty cup to spill over knocking his seat over and giving her his most intimidating look and smirking in satisfaction as he saw her shrink down in her seat.

"Ok I'm sorry, I thought we could joke about it by now." She tried to sound as sincere as possible, arms out waving her hands in front of her. "Calm down ok, I swear I won't bring it up again." she sat back up when he let steam out of his nostrils reaching a hand down to grab the chair.

"You reckon your fiance would say the same thing when it comes to you?" Bowse asked her with a sinister tone. She gave him a puzzled look.

"What do you mean would he say the same thing about me?" Peach directed the question to both him and for some reason aloud to herself. Clutching the sapphire brooch on her dress. There was some sort of sinking feeling in her gut that this conversation would take a turn for the worse.

"I mean all I'm saying is up until about half a year ago, He didn't know a thing about the mushroom much less that their Princess was human." Bowser started to explain sitting back down. " Like I told you before, it's quite hard to gain an audience with the Kingdom of Sarasaland, but I have heard their Princess is human much like yourself. How do you know he just didn't get tired of waiting and is just settling for the first person he met?"

"Where is this coming from all of a sudden Bowser? If you were thinking this before why share it now" Peach asked him trying to get to the point.

"Well now that you're deciding to marry the guy have you actually really thought about what all that really entails? Especially when it comes to two Kingdoms." She gave him a clueless look but was waiting for him to continue. "If you think you had problems growing up with your people pressuring you to be a princess…It's about to be tenfold as not only them but a whole other kingdom along with yours pushing you to be a Queen." Bowser started casually grabbing a napkin to wipe up the liquid from earlier. "Unlike back then though, It would be seen as quite inappropriate if you're coming back and forth to me every time you have problems and do you really think he'd understand?" he added.

Peach, unsure what to say, sat there in silence and just took all that he said. The citizens of the flower kingdom thought a great deal of her, seeing as she made their Prince. The King and Queen welcomed her into their family with open arms and would compliment and commend her on how great of a job she was doing bringing her kingdom up from nothing. Now that he had brought it up, she started picturing different scenarios in her head, them being similar to growing up. Would she really be able to live up to the expectations of other people? Even today she still felt like she could be doing so much better by her people. Would people really have something negative to say if she's still going to her friend for advice even though she has a husband? Toadsworth and the council have come to her a few times over the years about Bowser's behavior. Aside from that conversation she had about Bowser with Haru, They haven't had many problems in their relationship but would he really understand and work with her if those things came up.

"Oh and soon they're going to be expecting you to produce an heir. Much more for you being that this is a new kingdom after all. I'm sure your people would want to welcome in someone as soon as possible to start showing them the ropes." Bowser added a little while afterward when Peach was still silent.

Her arm twitched at the mention of a future heir and what that would mean for its childhood. Where she had a good amount of years to make friends with her people, This kid would be royalty from the very start. Their actions would be viewed under a critical eye by not only her people but Haru's people. Would she be able to buckle down like Toadsworth was able to and raise a prince or princess in the best way by being one for so little time herself? The fact that she wouldn't be able to give this kid the choice in the first place bothered her the more she thought about the future.

"Anyway Peaches, it's about time I get going." Bowser called, getting her attention he finished the rest of his tea in one sip and stood up. "I'll be busy for a little while but will tell Kamek to keep an eye out for a letter from you." He told her as she got up and followed.

"Yeah please do, like I said I really do want you there." Peach told him in a somber tone.

"Hey, don't give me that face" He turned to her, noticing her sad smile "I really am happy for you and don't take what I say so seriously. It'll all work out" He assured her, offering his arms out for a hug. Peach stood there for a few seconds before accepting it. After that, they had a silent walk to the pipe that led to the darklands. "I'm not leaving till I get my genuine Peaches smile" he said

Peach mustered up a smile that was satisfactory in his eyes despite how she was feeling. That evening in her room, looking at the ring didn't bring her excitement about the future, but worries instead.