(A/N: So in that previous chapter, Mario decided that he'll propose to his girl after a picnic under the stars at Shooting Star Summit! How exciting! Now it's time to start this chapter before you throw a fit!)
It was a nice Saturday morning in the Mushroom Kingdom. The sun was shining and the birds were singing cheerful melodies. But we haven't the time to admire the scenery. We have to join the Mario Bros. and see how they're doing. So let's head on over to Luigi's Mansion!
At Luigi's Mansion, Mario awoke, feeling excited but also nervous. He knew that he was planning to really surprise Peach tonight, but he was afraid that things might go wrong somehow. Still, this was what he wanted to do more than anything, but he shouldn't really worry about it until nightfall. He got out of bed and got himself dressed for the day before heading downstairs.
Luigi was also dressed for the day, and he was setting two plates of food on the table when Mario entered the dining room.
"Morning, bro." Luigi greeted his older twin brother.
"Buongiorno. Good morning, Luigi." Mario replied.
"I know what you're planning to do tonight, and how nerve-wracking the thought of doing so must be for you, so I thought I'd fix something special for breakfast this morning." Luigi said as he and Mario sat down.
Mario was pleased that not only had Luigi fixed him chocolate milk to drink, but the meal was none other than French toast, and Luigi had been kind enough to top his breakfast with chocolate chips.
"Luigi, when was the last time I told you that you're the best brother a guy could ask for?" Mario asked.
"La notte scorsa, last night, when I promised you that not only would I help you prepare the meal for your picnic (I told you I would if Peach agreed), I would also ask the Star Spirits to keep Bowser out of the Mushroom Kingdom so you can propose to Peach with no problems at all." Luigi replied after taking a sip of his orange juice.
"Well, you're overdue. You really are il miglior fratello, the best brother a guy could ask for." Mario told him, smiling.
"Aww, thanks, Mario." Luigi said, returning the smile. Then he asked, "So, when do you want to start preparing the food for the picnic? I know we prepared the batter for the cookies last night, but it won't take long to bake them and prepare everything else."
"We'll start fixing the picnic food right after lunch." Mario said after swallowing a bite of his French toast.
"Okie-dokie." Luigi replied.
After finishing breakfast, the brothers went to work on getting the mansion cleaned up. Luigi had always been a neat freak, so it was expected that he wanted to keep the place looking spick-and-span. And Mario never argued because he knew that his little brother was right when he said that a clean mansion was a happy mansion.
At that moment, the Mario Bros. were busy cleaning up the parlor. Luigi was vacuuming (due to being so good with the Poltergust vacuums), and Mario was taking care of the dusting. However, it didn't take long for to Luigi notice that Mario seemed to be distracted, for he had been absent-mindedly dusting the table for the last 5 minutes.
"Mario..." Luigi said, getting his brother's attention.
"Huh?!" Mario said, snapping to attention.
"You've been wiping down the table with the dust-cloth for 5 minutes already. I thought you'd have moved on to another piece of furniture by now. Stai bene? Are you OK?" Luigi asked.
"Oh! Mi dispiace, Luigi. I'm sorry." Mario replied, leaving the table and moving on to dust something else in the room.
"You're really nervous about tonight, aren't you, bro?" Luigi guessed.
"I... I can't help it, Luigi. I love Peach very much, and I know that I want to marry her, but... e se qualcosa va storto? What if something goes wrong, just like last time? What if she says 'no' again? I don't think my heart can take another rejection..." Mario said, remembering how much his heart ached when Peach turned him down. He never knew that a rejection could hurt so much.
"I don't think Peach is going to turn you down again, Mario. I can see that you and Peach love each other very much. She'll be honored to be your wife." Luigi promised.
"Okie-dokie. I should take your word for it, because you've never lied to me before." Mario said.
Just then, they heard a bark by the entrance to the room, and when they looked in that direction, there stood Luigi's faithful Polterpup, looking at the brothers with a happy smile on his cute face.
"Doggy, Mario's feeling nervous about his starlight picnic with Peach, because he's going to ask her to marry him, and he's afraid something might go wrong. Now I don't think that Peach has thoughts of turning him down again. Do you think she'll accept his proposal?" Luigi asked as he walked over to the dog and began petting him.
Polterpup barked, as if to say 'yes' before panting happily. Perhaps the ghostly animal seemed to understand what Luigi was saying.
"Hey, Mario, you're in luck! Even Doggy believes that you're going to be engaged before tomorrow." Luigi smiled.
Mario put down the dust-cloth, walked over to the ghost dog, and looked him in the eyes as he asked, "Sei sicuro? Are you sure, Doggy?"
The dog responded to the question by jumping on Mario and knocking him onto his back, wagging his tail furiously. Then he proceeded to shower Mario in dog drool by licking his face.
"Does that answer your question, bro?" Luigi asked, laughing at the spectacle that was taking place.
"Okay, okay! You win, Doggy! I believe you!" Mario said between laughs, trying to push the dog away from him so he could get up and get back to work.
"Lascialo alzare. Let him get up, boy." Luigi said, grabbing the dog by the collar and pulling him away from Mario.
When Mario finally sat up, he said, "Good thing I didn't take my shower when I got up this morning. I'll be taking it about 2 hours before it's-a time for me to get Peach."
"Right. You'll want to look your best for the princess when you ask her to marry you, and that means you're going to need to take a shower." Luigi said.
"Luigi, I'm just going to wear a clean shirt and overalls when we go on this picnic. Remember, I don't want Peach to suspect that I'm up to something." Mario reminded his brother as he wiped his face with a tissue from a box in the room.
"Oh, right. The proposal is supposed to be una sorpresa, a surprise, and we don't want Peach to be suspicious." Luigi remembered.
"That's right. Now let's-a get back to work." Mario said as he went to go pick up the dust-cloth and resume his work.
So the brothers went back to work, tidying the mansion they knew as their 'Super Mario Bachelor Pad'.
Later that day, at Princess Peach's Castle...
Princess Peach sang happily to herself as she took a hot shower that afternoon. She knew that in a few hours, Mario would be coming to pick her up, and they'd be at Shooting Star Summit, having a nice little picnic under the stars. This was sure to be one of the most romantic evenings Mario had ever planned for them!
"I can't believe it! Mario and I have never had a picnic under the stars before!" Peach thought as she grabbed her light pink bath sponge and looked over her array of shower gels. Which one should she use? Perhaps an Aromatherapy one would be good for tonight. She eventually decided that the best one would be Aromatherapy for Love, for she really did love her red-capped beau.
"I think this will do nicely." Peach said to herself as she squeezed the gel onto her sponge and began to scrub herself. She was really looking forward to tonight, for she would be with the man she loved, and together, they would enjoy a lovely evening and a delicious meal. It was going to be so much fun!
"Mario is such a romantic, and I know I'm the luckiest princess in the world to have a wonderful man like him in my life." Peach told herself as she rinsed the soap off of her body and began working on her hair. She knew that Mario was a sweetheart. He didn't love Peach for her title, or because she was a princess, or because she was beautiful. He loved her for who she was, and she returned his feelings. And he cared about her feelings, too, which was very important.
"He's better than Bowser, that's for sure. That dummy actually tried to win me back with a bouquet of stolen flowers! What was I thinking, looking flattered by that?! I should've turned down the flowers right away, walked over to Mario, and left with him. It would have spared him a broken heart." Peach muttered, working her shampoo into her hair. She did still feel bad for breaking his heart.
"Well, I can make it up to Mario tonight by asking the Star Spirits to make sure Bowser doesn't show up and ruin our picnic. But if he does show up, then no more Mrs. Nice Princess." Peach said, feeling angry at the thought of Bowser. If he thought he was going to win her, then she would take off her shoe and smack him in the mouth with it until all his teeth fell out.
"Oh boy... If Daisy ever found out what I'm thinking of doing to that Koopa creep the next time he comes around, she would be so proud of me. And that's because Grambi knows I've been spending enough time with her to find that she's beginning to rub off on me." Peach chuckled to herself as she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and started to add the conditioner.
Later, when she finished rinsing out her hair, Peach turned off the water, stepped out of the shower, dried herself off with a soft, fluffy pink towel, donned her fluffy light pink bathrobe with the matching slippers, and stood before the mirror, ready to blow-dry her hair, which was still pretty damp after she dried it with the towel.
Now let's rejoin the Mario Bros.!
Mario and Luigi had prepared the food and lemonade for the picnic, and everything but the cooling cookies were in the fridge, keeping cold. The cookie batter yielded 2 dozen cookies, and as they baked, Mario had decided that 8 cookies would be enough for the picnic.
"At least you're nice enough to leave most of the cookies here so I can enjoy some myself." Luigi said in reply to Mario's decision.
"Hey, you were kind enough to help me prepare the food, so I think you deserve something nice." Mario said.
"Grazie. Thank you, bro." Luigi said.
"Don't thank me until you see how I plan to decorate the cookies." Mario said.
"I know you're planning on using icing, for you bought a bunch of those little tubes of colorful icing like we use for decorating gingerbread cookies at Christmas, but you didn't tell me just how you're going to decorate the butter cookies." Luigi said.
"You'll find that out when the cookies have cooled." said Mario.
When the cookies were cool at last, Luigi watched as Mario picked up the small tube of red icing, and what did he ice on one of the cookies? A star!
"You're icing stars on the cookies?! That's really nice, and fitting for where you and Peach are going tonight! Can I help you do the same thing with the rest of the cookies?" Luigi asked.
"Essere mio ospite. Be my guest." Mario replied.
So Mario and Luigi went to work, icing colorful stars on the 2 dozen cookies. The treats looked a lot better with stars on them, although, like Peach's cakes and cupcakes, they were almost too pretty to eat.
Around 5:00, Mario decided it was time for him to get in the shower so he'd be nice and clean and dry when he went to go pick up his princess.
"Have fun!" Luigi said as Mario ran to his room to grab some clean unmentionables, and a bath towel and a washcloth from the linen closet. Then Mario ran into the bathroom and stripped off as he turned on the water and waited for it to warm up. When the water was just right, he stepped into the shower, ready to get himself cleaned up.
Mario still couldn't believe that it was almost nightfall. Before he knew it, he would be on his way to the castle to pick up his princess, and then they would go to Shooting Star Summit, for a picnic, and a proposal. For a while, the plumber didn't think Saturday night was going to get here. Now it was just a couple of hours away. Then he could put his plan into motion.
"Cerca di non farti prendere dal panico. Try not to panic, Mario. It's-a not like you to be really afraid like Luigi." Mario told himself as he grabbed the soap and scrubbed himself. But he was trying again to do something that he had failed to do in the past. Still, it wasn't entirely his fault; he should have known that after all Bowser had put the princess through, marriage was going to be the very last thing on her mind.
"I'd better stop thinking about that idiota soon, or else the Star Spirits are going to think that I really want him to show up and ruin our night, but I don't. Peach and I hate him with a passion, and so do they, after what he did to them." Mario said to himself. He didn't want anything bad to happen and ruin his and Peach's picnic. He couldn't afford to have bad things happen on this picnic. Not tonight.
Before long, Mario was all nice and clean, and after drying off, he applied deodorant, donned his red bathrobe, slipped his feet into his customized red-and-blue slippers, and made his merry way to his bedroom. He found a clean red shirt in his dresser, and a pair of fresh overalls in the closet. Then he got himself dressed for his date.
"Can't forget about this." Mario said as he opened his nightstand and pulled out the black velvet ring box. He opened it to make sure the ring was still in there, and he sighed in relief when he saw it. Then he closed the box and placed it in his pocket.
"I wonder if Peach is going to wear her normal attire, like I am." Mario thought, pulling on his gloves as he looked at his reflection. He was really feeling the butterflies in his stomach now.
"Mama-mia... I guess I'd better go downstairs and take care of the butterflies." Mario mumbled as he went to grab his things from the bathroom. He took them downstairs and threw them into the laundry room before going to the kitchen for a drink of water.
Luigi was currently in the kitchen, preparing himself some leftovers for supper.
"So, are you just about ready to get Peach and have your picnic at Shooting Star Summit tonight?" Luigi asked his brother.
"Sì. And I'm as nervous as anything, if you can believe that." Mario replied, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge and drinking it to make the butterflies go away and leave him alone. He had no time for nervousness.
"Mario, you love the princess. She loves you back. When you give her the ring and ask her to marry you, she's going to say 'yes'. I just know that this night is going to end in your favor." Luigi said.
"You're right, Luigi. When you're right, you're right. Peach is going to say yes, and before the night is over, both of us will be off the market. We're going to belong to each other after this." Mario said.
"That's right. Besides, you're not going to propose to her as soon as you arrive at Shooting Star Summit, are you?" Luigi asked.
"No. That's too early. I'm planning to do so after we've enjoyed our meal." Mario said.
"Buona idea. Good idea. But promise me you won't worry about proposing too much, Mario. If you do that, then you probably won't be able to eat, and if you don't eat, then Peach is going to worry about you. Don't make her worry, Mario." Luigi said.
"I don't want her to worry, Luigi. She already does enough of that when she's in trouble and I'm on my way to rescue her." Mario said.
"That's true. So, don't think about what you're going to be doing until after you have eaten." Luigi said.
"Questo è pazzesco. This is crazy. I should be the one telling you this, about Daisy." Mario said.
"Hey, you're the one who suffered a broken heart the last time you tried proposing." Luigi said.
"But I accepted the blame for it, Luigi. I really should have waited a while before attempting to do so, and I was acting no better than Bowser, forcing her to choose me and not giving her the chance to say anything. That was my fault." Mario told him.
"You've waited long enough to try proposing again. By now, Peach should be as ready as you are to get married, and you know as well as everyone else that you're the only man she wants to spend the rest of forever with." Luigi told him.
Mario then went back upstairs to comb his hair and mustache, and to brush his teeth and rinse with Scope. With all that done, he put on his cap and said to his reflection, "Okay, Mario, you've got this. The princess loves you as much as you do her, and she'll be thrilled at the prospect of being your wife. It's-a time for you to be really brave and ask her the big question."
Then Mario came back downstairs, and Luigi helped him load up the picnic basket with the food, the drink, the cups, and the red-and-white picnic blanket.
"Okay, that looks like everything I'll be needing for the picnic." Mario smiled.
"Do you have the ring, Mario?" Luigi asked.
"It's-a right here." Mario replied, patting his pocket.
"Don't forget your smartphone." Luigi said.
"Molto più avanti di te, fratello. Way ahead of you, bro." Mario smiled, showing him that the case with his phone in it was in his other pocket.
"Okie-dokie. Good luck, Mario!" said Luigi.
"Grazie! Thank you!" Mario replied as he grabbed the picnic basket and made his way out of the mansion. Luigi watched him, waving until his brother was out of sight. Then he looked up at the sky and whispered, "Please let everything go well for Mario. He deserves to be happy, and so does la principessa, the princess." After that, he went back inside the mansion to enjoy some delicious butter cookies for his dessert.
Mario will join the princess in the next chapter. How is their picnic going to go? You'll find out if you stay tuned for Chapter 4!