Work Text:
Peach threw open the double doors of her castle significantly harder than she usually did, causing the huge slabs to slam loudly against the interior walls. The toads in the entry hall jumped at the sound, and the first one to recover from his panic and approach the princess was rewarded with a tennis racquet to the face. Peach was not in the mood to deal with toads at the moment. The rest of her subjects quickly scurried out of her path as she made her way up the staircase toward her chambers. Locking the door behind her, Peach threw her gym bag across the royal quarters in a distinctly unprincessly manner and started angrily tearing off pieces of clothing as she made a b-line for her bathroom and shower.
It hadn’t started out as anger; shock came first. Seeing Mario and… her had been bewildering; it had taken her a moment to even figure out what was going on. Then, of course, as soon as she had barely started to recover, her lanky green-clad tennis partner started hitting on her. Peach was tempted to call Daisy before getting into the shower—she deserved to know another Mario brother was treating her as a backup—but she couldn’t be bothered.
By the time she reached her shower, Peach had left all her sweat soaked tennis clothes in a messy trail behind her. Still hot from her workout, not to mention the rage that was making her blood boil, she decided on a cold shower. She turned on the cold water and jumped into the shower, enjoying the shock of the freezing water as it pelted her hot flesh.
Why did men always assume that she would fall into their arms the moment she was alone with them? She was a princess; she ran her own kingdom for Miyamoto’s sake! Was she supposed to just give herself to some man and spend the rest of her life taking care of him—all the ones she’d met certainly couldn’t take care of themselves—because he did something he thought was impressive? Honestly, the last time it had been two of them at once. Bowser throwing her in a wedding dress had been bad enough, but then Mario expected her to, what, marry him because she was in a white dress and he had put on a matching tuxedo?
Having cooled off, Peach turned up the heat a bit and exhaled as she tried to let her frustration go. It was something that she’d had to practice with the way her life went. Reaching to the shelf built into the wall, she grabbed the soap and started to wash the workout off of her skin.
Were they finally tired of chasing her? Was that why they had done… that? It would certainly make her life easier. She could actually focus on governing her kingdom, without wondering when the next time she’d be kidnapped or have to entertain a plumber would come along. Still, something felt wrong. The routine had been a part of her life for so long that she had a hard time imagining it being over.
Peach felt her shoulders relax as she scrubbed them. The anger was draining out of her, leaving exhaustion in its wake. Putting away the soap, she grabbed the shampoo and squeezed a liberal amount into her hand before putting the it back on the shelf as well. She worked the product into a lather on her scalp, then started spreading it through her long blonde hair, careful to do as little damage as possible as she worked out the tangles from her workout.
What did Bowser see in Mario anyway? She wasn’t surprised at all that Mario had jumped to another woman without a thought; he’d been chasing her for a while, but she knew she wasn’t his first damsel in distress. Bowser was different though. He (she?) was royalty, not to mention he’d always been after her . The mustachioed plumber was a pretty big change in taste. She didn’t think it was the super crown; it shouldn’t do that. Was it another scheme of his? Was he trying to make her jealous? Was it working ?
Peach’s legs began to feel tired and she allowed herself to lean against the wall of the shower, slowly sinking to the floor. She leaned forward and lowered her head, letting the stream of warm water rinse the shampoo out of her hair. As the water continued to rain down on her, she felt her face redden behind her curtains of wet hair.
It couldn’t be. If she’d been attracted to the King of the Koopas, her problems would have been over a long time ago. Of course, he wasn’t the King of the Koopas anymore. She was the Queen . Peach didn’t really want to think about that. Sure, she’d looked at Bowser more than Mario when they strolled by, but that was just because of the change. It definitely didn’t have anything to do with her hair, or waist, or chest, or that cute little shell, or… No. No, it was just because she looked so similar because of the super crown. It was just narcissism. That was better, right? She wasn’t attracted to Bowser, especially not female Bowser. That was crazy. Impossible. Yeah…
Peach pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She didn’t want to think anymore. She didn’t want to do anything. She was drained from everything she’d been through in the past few hours. Standing up and getting out of the shower was out of the question. Instead, she just sat there and let the warm water comfort her.