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“Well that was…” Bowser begins, but doesn’t finish.
“That was something,” Peach finishes, for him.
Mario lays on his back, staring up at the sky. Everything’s fine now, of course, they’re back at the center hub of the world that Master Hand has set up for Smash tournaments. The sky is blue blue blue without a hint of the purple that was threatening to eat everything. Everything’s fine. But things were very close to not being fine and…
“I mean at least we made it out okay?” Luigi says, and at his brother’s voice Mario reaches over and just kind of places his hand on Luigi’s knee. Luigi’s sitting not far from him. Peach and Bowser are… somewhere Mario can’t see from this angle, not without lifting his head a little, which no thanks, at the moment.
“Yeah that could have been way worse,” Bowser agrees. “Like, c’mon, that Tabuu guy against all of us? All of us?” Oh, Bowser must be sitting closer than Mario thought, because his hand passes through the edge of Mario’s vision as he makes a sweeping motion to… gesture to the concept of the entirety of all the heroes and so on that have been gathered for this Smash tournament, probably. There was an even bigger turnout this time, compared to last. “He didn’t stand a chance!”
“The being a statue thing was weird, though,” Luigi says. “I can’t say I enjoyed that, heheh”
“Worse ways to spend your time,” Peach says, and—
Stars, Mario did not want to think about that. The images rise in his mind anyway, Peach glowing with a purple aura, eyes golden, perfectly willing to—it wasn’t actually her, just those shadow bug… things(??) at least, and he figured that out pretty quickly but. Immediately his mind (un)helpfully conjures the image of Peach, purple dress, hand held to her mouth as she laughed high and unlike herself and she spoke with the voice of a demon with a grudge and—Ughhh.
Mario groans, aloud, and does not pull his hat down over his eyes even though he very much wants to. He just kind of squeezes Luigi’s knee, instead.
(and does not does NOT think about Luigi’s face attached to a monster—)
“You good, bro?” Luigi asks.
Mario does not want to talk right now, but he doesn’t exactly have another option. If he were elsewhere he’d have his phone, or his old Mailbox SP, but he had not wanted either of those things in his pocket during a fight in the ring, and then things just kind of got wildly out of hand. They literally just defeated Tabuu like an hour ago. They have not moved from this spot since finding it, wanting to sit and chill away from the crowd, about twenty minutes ago.
Anyway. Anyway he has to say words.
“Just been. A year.”
“Oh, yeah,” Peach says.
Luigi reaches forward to put his hand on Mario’s hand, squeezing it.
“This makes, what,” Bowser says, “two nearly-universe-ending crises? Three?”
“Three, and one of them was your fault,” Peach says.
“The marriage thing was also your—”
“I meant the trying to take over the galaxy thing.”
“Oh.”
Mario lifts the hand Luigi isn’t holding to rub at his face, feeling very tired all of a sudden.
“C- crazy, huh bro?” Luigi laughs, but that’s the laugh he does when he’s just trying to make Mario feel better when neither of them feel good at all which always backfires. Mario sighs.
“I’m tired,” he says.
“Sorry, we don’t have to do this right now,” Peach says. And then, because she is still going to do this right now, adds: “Some of us were raised like proper royalty, and know when enough is enough.”
“I was raised just fine, thank you!” Bowser shoots at her.
Mario presses his lips together and hums, longer than he wanted to, a sound that comes all tight from the back of his throat. Luigi squeezes his hand a little tighter. Peach and Bowser, thankfully, shut up.
Well, they both say sorry, and then shut up, but.
The only good thing about this year is that traveling with them—during the whole Flipside Flopside Count Bleck Tippi thing—is that both Bowser and Peach are more hyperaware than usual of when Mario’s just straight up not doing hot, which he appreciates. Even if he also hates, a little, that either of them had to see him when he was not doing hot. But Bowser obviously usually doesn’t travel with him for reasons and Peach usually doesn’t either for those same or adjacent reasons. When he spends time with either of them, it’s usually not life-threatening! The last time it was was—the thing with Smithy, and Geno, and… that was way less terrifying than, well.
Well.
He said he wasn’t going to think about Dimentio so he very much is not thinking about that!!
“…are you okay, Mario?” Peach asks.
He stops humming. He didn’t realize he was still humming.
“Exhausting being a big bad hero, huh?” Bowser says, into his silence, all bluff and bluster. “Tell me about it! I could sleep for a week after all this!”
Bowser has successfully made the conversation about Bowser, which Mario would be offended by if he wasn’t also grateful the conversation is no longer about Mario.
“You spent half the time helping Tabuu cause this mess,” Peach shoots at him.
“I didn’t know Tabuu existed until—”
Luigi’s hand tightens on Mario’s again, and Mario thinks he’s going to say something but…
“Hey, uh-- wait sorry is this a bad time?” comes Pit’s voice, at which Peach and Bowser stop bickering. Apparently Pit decides to continue, anyway. “It’s just, we’ve just finished checking things out and all the rooms are still intact so if you wanted to… I just thought I’d…”
He’s trailing off again in a way that Mario only heard him do a few times, because Pit is almost entirely unflappable. So, Mario lifts his head enough to look at—oh it’s Peach giving him the please go away now glare, the one she usually only uses on royal advisors she doesn’t feel like dealing with at the moment. That’s probably a little mean to Pit, but. Well.
However Peach doesn’t get away with silently intimidating Pit out of the conversation because Luigi is a nervous people pleaser slightly before he is a socially anxious mess, so: “Thanks for letting us know! We’ll, uh, well we know our way over there so when we’re, we’re done here.”
“Yeah yeah, cool cool,” Pit says, and then he’s gone.
Mario lets his head hit the ground again.
“Wow,” Bowser says, appreciatively.
“Peach you didn’t have to,” Luigi says.
“I’m tired too.”
“He was just being nice.”
Peach sighs. “I guess you’re right.”
“If uh, we’re all tired,” Bowser says. “Should we go, then, or stay a little longer?”
Mario makes a noise that his friends correctly interpret as I do not have the energy to get up, is the thing.
“We could just stay here until you’re feeling a little better, bro,” Luigi says. “That’s why we sat down anyway, huh?”
“Or I could carry you,” Bower says. Someone must send him a look. “What! I could.”
“That doesn’t mean Mario wants to be carried,” Peach says.
By Bowser? Yeah, well… Actually. As much as Bowser is a jerk, Mario trusts him enough to not hurt him if they aren’t on a battlefield, because Bowser cares first and foremost about a fair win. And also their Smash contracts do dictate there are repercussions for hurting other competitors off the field so like. It’s at most going to be a little uncomfortable, but, eh.
Mario lifts his free hand to shoot a thumbs up at Bowser.
Bowser splutters. “Uh- oh- oh okay, I honestly thought you’d say no.” The ground shifts a little as Bowser shifts—not dramatically, but he’s got enough weight it’s still noticeable, and his feet stomping against the ground isn’t exactly a quiet sound. “Like- now? You wanna go now? Or did I just stand up like an idiot.”
Another thumbs up. Mario could make this easier on Bowser and like, stand up, but nah. It’s kind of funny making this awkward.
“Okay,” Bowser says, and then, “okay,” again, as he seems to be realizing that Mario is just going to lay here and let him do this.
For being manhandled by a Koopa, it’s honestly not so bad! Bowser ends up slinging Mario over his shoulder, but there’s enough shoulder back here before his shell starts that it’s perfectly comfortable, all Mario has to do is hold onto his hat. It’s also less embarrassing than probably any other way Bowser could have chosen to carry him, honestly.
Peach giggles, equal opportunist. Mario shoots her a tired grin.
This whole adventure was a lot, yeah. But it’s nice, to sit at the end of it, with friends. And it’s nice, to not have to worry about anything else but each other—no kingdoms, no Troopa army, just some logistics that aren’t their job to take care of.
And if Mario falls asleep while Bowser’s still carrying him, well. He’s had a long day.