Chapter Text
Princess Peach Toadstool was furious. Well, that was an exaggeration.
The princess was merely exhausted after an evening of revelations. Her best friend purposely delays her arrival to visit another one of her friends, whom she's secretly in a relationship with and hasn’t even told her about. Then involuntarily ruins her own alone time with her crush. It made her blood boil. Not because she wasn’t happy for them, but more so jealous that she didn’t have that special bond herself. The fact that another potential evening with Mario alone was derailed, because of this secret made Peach feel that Rosalina was punishing her after beating her in the last Mario Kart tournament.
The princess had dressed down into her equally as ornate nightgown which flowed and rested around her knees. As tossed and turned in her bed, Peach knew she would not be able to drift off peacefully. Luckily, a knock on the door distracted her.
'How strange? I thought I dismissed the guards for the night. Oh, please don't give me another thing to worry about.'
Peach promptly put on her robe and answered the door and found no one in the corridor. Peach had a habit of forgetting she hasn't been the same height of a Toad since she was a toddler. She looked down and found no one either.
"BOO!!”
"Eeek!-"The mushroom princess released a shrill shriek that was quickly stopped by an equally shrill laugh.
"All these years, Peachy and you're still so gullible!"
"DAISY!" The desert princess kept laughing as Peach looked like she'd eaten a fire flower. Daisy used all her resolve to stop teasing her friend.
"Not funny, Daisy.” Peach entered her room in a huff and tried to shut the door behind her, only for best friend to hold the door open with her bare foot.
"I'm sorry, Peach," Daisy apologised sincerely. "I come with a peace offering."
Peach was so shocked by Daisy's childish scare that she didn't notice that Daisy's arms were hidden behind her back. Then, Daisy revealed a small box of Yoshi cookies. The sight and smell emanating from the box made her nostalgic for simpler time when as babies, the girls would sneak into the castle kitchen and steal cookies and other treats that Toadsworth would withhold from the princesses to avoid spoiling them.
Seeing Daisy in her simple pajama top and shorts with a childish grin made Peach soften. She invited her friend into room, and they had an impromptu sleepover like they used to.
The princesses chatted and joked as if the night's earlier events didn't happen, but Daisy had enough intuition to know that the mostly proper princess was positively bubbling under the surface. In a rare moment of humility, Daisy choose to put Peach out of her self-imposed misery.
"I'm sorry."
"For what, Daisy?"
"You don't have to be so coy about it, Peach. And you've almost finished the whole box!” Peach blushed in embarrassment. She was prone to stress eating when she wasn’t careful.
"I'm sorry too. I overreacted."
"Overreacted? You were hysterical. Luckily Mario didn't seem to mind. You glow when you're angry! HAHA!"
Daisy was laughing so obnoxiously, she almost missed Peach jump at the mention of her favourite plumber. "Oh, so that's what this is about?"
Peach hid behind a pillow. "I don't know what you're implying," she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Come on, Peach, I'm just teasing." Peach kept her face hidden.
"If you don't come out, I won't tell you all the juicy details about Luigi and I." Like clockwork, the pink princess emerged and glared at Daisy nonchalantly.
"Well, it clearly wasn't juicy enough to tell me sooner...” She slowly rose up and asked tentatively, “...So what was it like?”
“What?” Daisy was unsure what Peach was asking. Peach felt awkward asking about something so ‘explicit’.
“...The kiss, I mean.”
Daisy gasped and her eyes widened in shock. “Peach, don’t tell me you’ve never-” Daisy’s question was interrupted by Peach hitting her with one her many pillows. “Keep your voice down!” she insisted tersely. The princess of Sarasaland decided not to pry further as the subject seemed to be a sore spot for Peach. She took a bite off another cookie as she explained.
“It was nice. His moustache kinda’ tickles though.”
‘Just as I suspected...’ Peach thought. She looked on intently as Daisy described the events leading up to Peach and Mario walking in on the couple. Peach knew the pair had a ‘thing’ for each other, with Luigi’s feelings being towards Daisy more apparent. Peach and Mario found it amusing to see Luigi stumble over his words and feet whenever Daisy came over to visit. Whenever the four hung out, Daisy would demand Luigi tell her about his adventures and listen as if no one else was in the room with them. However, she never thought their relationship would go beyond ‘flirting friends’.
“So, how long has this relationship been going on behind my back?"
Daisy screwed her face and began counting on her fingers. "Ten. Eleven.... I don’t know, about a couple days.
"Days!?" Peach yelled incredulously. "You don't kiss a boy like that after a few days!"
"Of course not! What kind of girl do you think I am?!” Peach quickly and sincerely apologized for her insinuation, which Daisy accepted.
"Whenever I plan to visit, you coincidently get kidnapped and Mario runs off to save you. Luigi and I have spent a lot of time together over the last year, it’s just kinda' happened over several visits. Although the kissing part only started recently."
"Well, you can’t blame me for being surprised. Mario's told me about Luigi's crush on you, but I didn't think he would act on it no matter how much we encouraged him."
Peach reflected on the last time the pair had a casual tennis match. After the game, she noticed Daisy brazenly flirting with the green plumber and inviting herself over for lunch at his home as her prize for winning the game. She laughed at the sight as she anticipated prematurely Luigi to fall over himself, only for him to just laugh it off and thank her for complimenting his backhand and accepting the invitation with incident. At the time it was strange, but now Peach realised the moment was indicative of a shift in their dynamic.
"If it makes you feel better, I made the first move."
Peach scoffed. "I don't doubt that. I just wish you told me..."
"I know. I know. I should've said something earlier, but every time I wanted to tell you were in Bowser's dungeon. And honestly, my parents hounding me more lately, and it's sort of fell to the wayside."
Daisy fell down onto the bed and stared at the ornate ceiling. Peach joined her as turned off the bedroom lights and bucked themselves in under the plush duvet.
"Have you told parents about Luigi?" Peach asked.
"Are you crazy? Of course not! Ugh, I don’t even want to imagine Luigi meeting them. They’d give him a heart attack just by staring at him. They're still trying to set me up. My mother's even willing to lower her standards to accept a noble than a prince."
"Oh, how dire."
Daisy shuffled around under covers, unable to get comfortable. "You’d think they’d get the hint by now! You're so lucky. Toadsworth may be a pain, but at least he doesn't force you don't go on any dates."
"Not really," Peach countered. "At least you get to meet boys. Toadsworth has been sending princes away since I came of age. "
The idea that Princess Peach, arguably the most beautiful woman in their world, let alone her own kingdom, was still single was shocking to Daisy. Among royal circles, the Mushroom Kingdom's bachelorette status was common fodder for gossip. Daisy knew that few friends outside her and the Mario Brothers. Peach had a very isolating childhood. Toadsworth was the previous king and Queen's trusted advisor, so when they passed away, the old Toad raised Peach as his own granddaughter. Peach loved Toadsworth and appreciated his protectiveness over her, but lack of freedom she had growing up was suffocating sometimes.
Peach tugged at her silk sheets for comfort. "My parents’ marriage wasn't arranged, but Toadsworth told me that being Queen was really stressful for on my mother. I guess he doesn't want the same for me."
Daisy turned to hug her best friend and the two fell in a comforting silence.
"You should tell them, Daisy. They’ll understand once they see how happy you are with him. Luigi’s not a prince, but he’s a hero and that should count for something."
"Tsk when chain chomps learn to fly."
“Daisy, you know they mean well.”
“Yeah, well, I can be Queen on my own. I don’t need a man.”
“But you want Luigi,” Peach replied smugly, finally able to turn the tables on her fiery friend as Daisy blush was hidden by darkness.
“Don’t you start!” Daisy whined as she through another rouge pillow at Peach in retaliation. She turned away from Peach in a huff and tried to get some sleep until Peach whispered a request.
“Daisy... If want someone like that, how do I get them to notice me.”
“Peach. You’re the princess of the one of the biggest, most renowned kingdoms in the world. I don’t think you need advice on attracting a prince, especially not from me.”
“I don’t need help attracting a prince. I want a... plumber.” Daisy eyes shot open and almost jumped out of the bed in excitement.
“Well, why didn’t ya’ say so!”