(A/N: Okay, so Mario and Peach have made it home to the Mushroom Kingdom, but they both need a little time to recuperate after what they've been through. You can't really blame them, though, can you? Let's stay with Peach and see what she's going to be up to!)
After Mario disappeared from her sight, Princess Peach started to make her way upstairs, to her bedroom. She knew that she really needed a shower after Bowser decided to put his filthy hands on her, and she hadn't wanted to take a shower while she was on his stupid airship.
And the princess had a good reason for not showering while she was on Bowser's airship. What if that Koopa creep had microscopic waterproof cameras installed in the walls of the shower stall so he could watch her? Peach wouldn't put it past him to do something as sick as that, and the thought was enough to make her shudder.
Peach began to think that maybe that was how TEC-XX, the computer owned by the X-Nauts, came to see her and find out about her. If it was, then the X-Nauts were a bunch of sick-minded perverts. TEC started talking to her and decided to help her right after she got out of the shower, feeling fresh and new.
Peach froze. Huh. She hadn't thought about that computer or that time since the whole ordeal with the X-Nauts came to an end, courtesy of Mario and the friends he'd made on that adventure.
One of the first things TEC spoke to Peach about was what happened to it when it saw her. To her, it sounded like a computer's version of what happens to a horny man when he sees an attractive, naked woman before him. (A/N: Read what he said. That's exactly what it sounded like to me.) But TEC couldn't really do anything to Peach because he was just a computer, albeit a weird one.
Peach felt that even though TEC was just a computer, he was also something along the lines of a creepy stalker, which was proven by the fact he watched her in the shower and had eavesdropped when she spoke to herself about the Mushroom Ball. Still, he did prove himself as an ally to her during her time in the clutches of the evil X-Nauts, although there were times he made her do things that made her feel... uncomfortable.
But in spite of all that, the nicest thing he did was allow her to use his communicator to send e-mails to Mario's Mailbox SP, to let him know that she was fine, and to keep him up to speed on what she was learning about her kidnappers (even though they wouldn't tell her anything about their wicked plan that somehow involved her).
Now Bowser, unlike TEC, was flesh and blood, and Peach's worst enemy. That meant that he could (and would) do vile things to her, and he would do them without a second thought. After what he did to her on his airship this time around, she was positive of this fact. The thought of Bowser violating her made the princess feel like she was gonna be sick.
Peach hurried up the stairs as fast as she could, and when she came to her bedroom door, she threw open the door, entered her room, then slammed the door shut behind her. She leaned against the door, panting and feeling nervous and upset. This whole ordeal with Bowser had been so rough for her. It made what happened with TEC and the X-Nauts seem not so bad.
The princess also knew that this most recent adventure wasn't the first time someone had changed her clothes while she was unconscious, either. There was that time Luigi had changed into her clothes in order to take her place when the Koopalings demanded her in exchange for Mario, who had rocketed right into their clutches by accident (and they didn't plan to give him back). And this happened right after she had a rough landing that knocked her out cold!
When she finally awoke after a horrifying nightmare, she started to remember her escape from the tower, and she realized that Mario flew right past her. She had to know what happened to Mario! Well, Toad informed her of Mario's whereabouts, and she intended to go over there and get him back, but Toad stopped her, letting her know about the green-clad plumber's plan. Peach looked down at herself and realized that she was dressed like a plumber, not like herself at all.
Peach had been understandably creeped out upon realizing that Luigi had changed into her attire and put her in his own clothes while she was out like a light. But at least Luigi had the courtesy to tell her why he had done it. He told her what the Koopalings wanted, and he wouldn't allow them to take her back. Not after she just got away from them! He wanted to spare her and save his brother, and that meant he had to lie about her feelings for Bowser.
Luigi also let Peach know that he didn't do anything other than change her clothes. He didn't get any sick ideas when he was changing her, and he looked her right in the eyes when he told her all of this, so she knew he was telling her the truth. He was her friend, and he would never do anything to betray her trust.
The princess thanked Luigi for not wanting to hand her over to the Koopas. She also told him that she was more than thankful that he didn't just leave her lying there in her unmentionables. She was more than certain that if she had been left like that, any enemy (Bowser included) would have taken advantage of her unconsciousness and violated her for sure!
Luigi had shuddered at the thought. He and Peach agreed that it was a good thing that he thought to change her into his own clothes before he left. It was a smart move on his part, sparing her from suffering a fate that no princess (except maybe evil ones) deserved.
Peach even expressed her relief that he had been the one to find her when she suffered that horrific crash. She didn't know what would've happened to her if some enemy had found her first. But Luigi was Mario's younger twin brother, and a very good friend to her. She knew that he could be trusted, and she was glad to call him one of her friends. Then she proved it by giving him a hug, which he was glad to return.
When it was time for Luigi and Peach to change back in their normal attire, they were able to easily swap back their gloves, shoes, and head gear, but they stood back-to-back when they swapped their clothes. Mario helped out by standing between the two and taking the articles of clothing from each and handing them to their correct owner. Neither brother peeked at Peach's body during that time, much to her great relief, 'cause she didn't peek at Luigi.
As Peach looked around her bedroom, she slowly began to lose the sick feeling. She was starting to feel happy again. It was always pleasant for her to see her room again after Mario rescued her from Bowser's clutches. Whenever she saw her room again after a rescue, she always had to have a good look around it. She often felt as though she hardly knew the place whenever she returned.
"Dorothy was right. There's no place like home!" Peach happily said to herself as she looked around her room. Gee, it was good to be back home.
Suddenly, a sparkle caught Peach's eye. She looked in the direction that sparkle came from, and she gasped. Sitting there on her nightstand was... her crown!
"My crown! Oh my goodness! The Toads must have found it for me!" the princess cried out in surprise. She ran over to her nightstand and picked up the symbol of her royal lineage, inspecting it all over. She needed to make sure that it had not been damaged after Bowser flicked it off of her head. To her relief, it looked to be okay, and it appeared that it had been polished, too, hence the sparkle.
"Thank the Star Spirits! If Bowser had damaged my crown, then I'm afraid I'd have no choice but to go back to him and damage his face!" Peach said as she carefully set the crown back on the nightstand.
"Wait a second. Where the heck did that idea come from? I think Daisy's beginning to rub off on me. Oh well, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, given the bond she and I have always shared. Since she's with him, she's probably damaging his face for me. I hope that's what she'll do when she scares him... unless she's already done it." Peach thought.
The princess shrugged and began to remove her gloves while stepping out of her red high heels. She set the gloves on her bed, then padded over to her vanity table, where her jewelry box sat. She took off her earrings and carefully set them in their proper place in the jewelry box.
Then Peach walked over to her closet and took out a fresh pink dress. She then threw the dress over her white linen dressing screen in the corner of the room. She would change into it after taking her much-needed shower.
With that done, Peach grabbed some clean unmentionables from her dresser, took them with her to her bathroom, and closed the door. She set her unmentionables on the counter near the sink, then walked over to the linen closet in the room. She grabbed from it a clean washcloth, which she put in the tub, and a soft, fluffy towel, which she hung on the towel-rack outside the tub.
The only reason Peach had a tub rather than a shower stall is because sometimes, after a rescue, she often felt like taking a relaxing bubble bath. And while that sounded like a tempting thought, the princess reminded herself that what she really needed more than anything right now was a long, hot shower.
Peach then walked over to the sink and took off her make-up. Then she walked back over to the tub and finally turned on the shower, stripping off while she waited for the water to heat up. Once the water was hot enough for her, she got into the tub, pulled the shower curtain across it, and got ready to wash up. It was time for her to wash away the disgusting feeling of being touched by an evil Koopa.
Once she was behind the curtain and under the hot water, the princess grabbed up her pink bath sponge and carefully looked over her shower gels. She decided on using one of the Aromatherapy shower gels, but which one would be right? She had several that she might want to use to help her feel better after what she had been through...
After a bit of deliberation, Peach finally decided to use the shower gel for Stress Relief, because if there was one thing Bowser seemed to really enjoy, it was stressing her out, and all she wanted to do now that she was home was relax and unwind. That was what this shower gel would do.
As Peach scrubbed herself clean, she started to feel better, and it wasn't just because the essential oils in the shower gel were beginning to calm her as she breathed them in. She was finally washing away the horrible feeling of Bowser. The thought of him touching her body made her sick!
But as the princess washed herself, she inspected her body to see if Bowser had harmed her while she was out. She hadn't had time to check when he told her to change back into her normal attire and leave the ship. Now she was able to look, and she seemed to be unharmed, with no bruises or scratches.
When she finished rinsing the soap off of her body, Peach began to wash her long, blonde hair. She had a good feeling that Bowser might have been touching it while changing her into the Lochlady Dress. She couldn't stop him from doing what he wanted with her when she had blacked out. At least he allowed her to do up her hair as she wanted, and put on the gloves and shoes that went with the dress.
"For all I know, that creep was also sniffing my hair while I was out like a light! So gross!" Peach muttered in disgust as she massaged the shampoo into her scalp. She worked on that for a few minutes before she was ready to rinse out the shampoo and add the conditioner. She worked the stuff into her hair real good before rinsing it out.
Several minutes later, figuring that she was clean as could be, Peach turned off the water, grabbed her towel, and began drying her hair as best she could. It was still damp, but she had a hair-dryer, so she knew she could use that to get it completely dry. With her hair as dry as she could get it, she began drying off the rest of her body.
After drying her body, Peach quickly rubbed some lotion on her body, put on her unmentionables and corsets, then donned her soft, fluffy, baby pink robe to cover them. She slipped her feet into the slippers that matched the robe as she walked over to where her hair-dryer was, by the bathroom sink. She turned it on and dried her hair just right. Now her hair was shiny and soft and beautiful, but she knew it would look a lot better once she brushed it out.
Peach also decided that as long as she was here in the bathroom, she should brush her teeth. So she grabbed her pink toothbrush, applied toothpaste, and began brushing her teeth until they were as white as the Lochlady Dress she had worn when Bowser made plans to marry her. Then she rinsed with Scope. Now her mouth felt clean.
"Okay, now I can get dressed." Peach said, giving her reflection a happy smile. It felt so good to be clean again!
Peach walked back into her room and quickly got behind her dressing screen. She threw her robe over it, then pulled her corset strings tight before putting on her pink dress. Thankfully, her dressing screen was in a corner of the room, so no one could look behind it and see her changing. Well, okay, they could only see her silhouette, but they weren't able to actually see her looking indecent.
Now that she had her dress on, Peach knew that she looked decent enough. She walked out from behind the screen and made her way over to her bed. She picked up her gloves and put them on while slipping her feet out of the slippers and back into her red high heels. Then she went to her vanity table and sat down before the mirror.
Peach began humming a Beatles song to herself as she grabbed her pink hairbrush. She started brushing out her long, silky golden hair. When she was satisfied with her hair, having made it look like a waterfall of spun gold, the princess set down the brush and put on her blue earrings. Then she applied her favorite pink eye-shadow and lipstick, keeping it light.
"Mario is such a sweetheart for tricking Bowser and saving my life. If it wasn't for him, I would most likely still be with Bowser right now, and I'd probably still think he hadn't survived, even though I'm sure I heard Bowser warning the Broodals about him before he caught up, with Daisy in tow." Peach mumbled to herself as she peered critically at her reflection in the vanity mirror. She looked good, as usual. Except for one thing...
Peach stood up and walked over to her nightstand. She picked up her crown and put it on her head. She looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror at the other end of the room and smiled brightly as she said, "Perfect!" Now that she had her crown back on her head, she looked and felt more like a princess, and that was a good feeling!
Now that she was feeling fresh and new, and dressed in clean clothes, Peach needed to think of something that she could do to kill time until she saw Mario again. There were a lot of things that she could do on a day like today, now that she was home again.
Well, she didn't feel like going for a swim in her pool, since she'd just showered and gotten dressed into her normal clothes. Should she make her way to the castle library and take a book to read out on her balcony on this nice, sunny day? Or should she grab a movie to watch here in her room? Or maybe she could play a video game? What was she gonna do?
(A/N: In the first part of the "Super Mario Adventures" comic, when we get our first look at the princess, we can see her playing a game that looks like "Super Mario Bros.", so we can assume that Peach is something of a gamer.)
"Well, maybe I should write what's been going on in my diary before I do anything else..." Peach decided, opening the top drawer of her nightstand and taking out her pink diary. She set the book against the pillows on her bed, laid down on her stomach, opened the diary to the next blank page, then grabbed her pink pen and began to write about what happened to her when Bowser captured her, and what Mario had done to save her life, as well as her kingdom, once again.
If there was one thing that Peach loved writing about in her diary, it was Mario, and how much she loved him. A lot of her diary entries mentioned the fun that she and Mario would have whenever they were together. He was, without a doubt, the best thing that ever happened to her, and she felt so blessed to have him in her life.
After the princess had written all she needed to write in her private pink book, she looked at her clock. It took her 20 minutes to write all that she had dealt with until now. Peach put her diary away and tried to think of something else to do until her boyfriend came back.
"Oh, I know! I'll go down to the kitchen and bake a cake! That usually helps me to relax. And the cake will be for Mario, to thank him for saving me." Peach said. So after tying her hair back in a ponytail and removing her gloves, she made her way downstairs to the kitchen, where she tied on her apron, found one of her recipe books on a high shelf, and started looking through it for a cake recipe.
But Peach wasn't having that much luck finding a cake recipe that she thought was 'good enough' for her man. She so badly wanted to make a really good cake for Mario. Peach knew that Mario loved her angel food cake with buttercream frosting, but that was reserved for special occasions (like her birthday), and she thought he deserved something better than that, despite him saying that nothing could beat that heavenly dessert.
"Wait a minute! Maybe I'll do him one even better! I'll make cupcakes instead, and they'll be the kind that Mario likes; the chocolate ones that he calls 'Death By Chocolate'." Peach said to herself as a light bulb popped up over her head. She quickly found the recipe for those cupcakes in her book. Then she washed her hands and got out all the ingredients and supplies she was going to need.
After spraying the cupcake pan with non-stick cooking spray and getting the oven preheated, Peach wasted no time getting right to work on the cupcakes, putting the ingredients in the mixing bowl so she could prepare a special treat for the most special man she knew.
"Mario totally earned this treat. After all the trouble he goes through to keep me safe, to prevent me from becoming the wife of our enemy, he deserves something as nice as this. I know I normally fix him a cake to thank him for his hard work, but I know just how much he enjoys these cupcakes, so I think my sweetie will be pretty happy with a reward as sweet as he is." Peach smiled as she turned on the mixer.
While she was mixing the batter, Toad and Toadette happened to pass by the kitchen, and they heard the sound of the mixer being used. The siblings knew that the sound meant one thing: Peach was busy preparing something sweet. So they hurried into the kitchen as fast as they could, to see that they were right.
By that time, the princess had finished mixing the batter for the cupcakes, and she smiled as she handed the beaters to Toad and Toadette to lick. She smiled and said, "I saw you two come in. I know why you're here."
"Well, you're right about that, Princess. You know us well. And we know for a fact that Mario's going to like these cupcakes because the batter is really good." said Toad as he happily licked the beater clean.
"Yeah. You know that he'll enjoy the cupcakes if we enjoyed the cupcake batter. It's the best, and not just because it's chocolate!" added Toadette, having licked all the batter off of the beater she was given.
"I'm glad to hear it." Peach said as she started filling each little container in the pan with cupcake batter. When that was done, she put the cupcakes in the preheated oven and set the timer, then handed the bowl to Toad and Toadette to lick, which made them even happier than they were. They saw that Peach decided to lick the scraper clean, but the bowl was bigger, so what did they care?
"Whoo!" the siblings cheered as they began to lick the bowl clean. Whenever Mario was around, then he was the lucky beggar who got to lick the bowl, the beaters, and even the scraper. But he wasn't here, and if that was the case, they were able to have all the fun this time around.
After they finished licking the bowl, the beaters, and the scraper, the Toads and Peach put them in the sink so they could be washed. With that done, Peach put away her recipe book and decided that she should wash the stuff, for that would give her something to do while the cupcakes baked.
And while Peach is busy preparing sweets for Mario, we're going to be rejoining him in the next chapter! Stay tuned if you want to see him again!