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Starting off, Mario has a lot of insecurities. A LOT. He has a lot of things many back in Brooklyn would have considered "undesirable." Just as a few examples:

He's not conventionally attractive by typical standards.

His family isn't very well off.

He comes from a VERY Italian family and takes great pride in their culture.

He works a job many consider "disgusting"

He's trans

He has both ADHD and BPD

He struggles with academics (reading and math especially)

Needless to say, based on everything those around him said to him, and his own insecurities getting to him... Mario doesn't see himself as someone Peach would ever be associated with.

However, Mario is not the type to voice these kinds of concerns. In his mind, he has to be the bigger person, so he shoves them all down HARD. As such, he sometimes comes across as fairly chill or even nonchalant when, in fact, the opposite is true.

Failed a plumbing job? Eh, it's fine; just deal with it later.

Screwed up at a work meeting? Whatever, he didn't like that job anyway; the pay was shit.

Someone outright says they don't like him? Cool, he didn't need them anyway; he has Luigi, and that's all he needs.

The idea of telling anyone these kinds of things is way too foreign to him. His biggest fear is being rejected by someone he cares about and being left to deal with the aftermath of it all by himself. So, he takes that opportunity away before anyone else can do so.

That's not to say he's an asshole; quite the opposite! He's one of the nicest people you could ever meet (so long as you don't give him a reason to hate you, of course). He was always the one who did odd-jobs just to make himself useful. That way, others wouldn't see him as "less than" or "small."

Essentially, he overcompensates, not even caring how much of a toll it takes on him.

His friendly exterior is his way of appearing "normal" in front of others; he's nice, but... not really so much to where you're all that close with him aside from a friendly acquaintance. The number of people who are at that level is really slim. Except for one person:

Luigi.

Out of all of his friends, Luigi is the only one who really knows Mario (understandably since they're literally grown up together). Luigi's seen Mario at his worst spirals and insecurities, and can immediately clock when he's at the start of one.

When Mario's around other people, he puts on the happy mask. He's a massive extrovert, and you wouldn't know by looking at him that he even has insecurities. Luigi, meanwhile, is quite the opposite. If anything, he rarely speaks whenever Mario's in control, except to add his own sentiment (partially from insecurity over his stutter, and because he's shy).

When they're alone, however...

Mario tends to withdraw. Having to constantly keep up the appearance that he's "fine" really takes a toll on him most days. Thus, when he's alone, everything he's felt throughout the day comes flooding back.

And Luigi is, as you can probably assume, the opposite.

For that reason, he's the first to notice when Mario starts to develop feelings for Peach. At first, it was little things when they were alone together; Mario would ONLY talk about the princess, he was actually smiling a lot more when he was alone, and one time Luigi even found a love letter that he'd written (he trashed it).

While that was big enough on its own, Luigi soon noticed that Mario showed signs even in public.

To most people, Mario's expression is really hard to read (mainly due to him always smiling, but also because his eyebrows make him look angry). However, Luigi would say otherwise, as long as you know when to look.

For instance, he began noticing that Mario would stim with his hands more often around Peach, even when he tried to hide it. His face lit up whenever she started speaking. And even his voice changed entirely, becoming a lot more awkward and formal.

That finally convinced Luigi that his big bro had it bad.

He waited a while to confront Mario, even though he already knows he would deny it upfront... and he does.

It took some time, but eventually Mario relented, finally telling Luigi about everything he'd been feeling towards Peach. Most of it was stuff the younger brother already assumed just from knowing Mario:

He didn't think he was attractive enough.

He didn't want to ruin the friendship between them.

He was scared that by loving her, he'd idolize her.

He was scared she'd reject him.

He was embarrassed about his work compared to her.

He wasn't sure she liked him back (Luigi nearly had an aneurysm because it was so obvious to him--)

He didn't know how he was going to tell her.

He was worried about how he should treat her.

However, the most surprising one was something Luigi could have never anticipated.

See... in Mario's eyes, Peach was absolutely perfect.

She didn't have any flaws as far as he could tell, even when she outright told him about the things she didn't like about herself (not knowing her birthday, disliking crowds, feeling guilty that she needed to be alone after every royal meeting), he still saw her as perfect.

And therein lie the problem.

Peach could like him, maybe even be friends with him... but that was it, as far as he was concerned. Someone as beautiful and perfect as her deserved only the best the world could offer. She was a woman of status and regality. She had far more important things to concern herself with aside from love from someone she didn't deserve.

That was the reason he loved her.

Perfection.

... but he was scared that it could never go farther beyond that.

She was too perfect, in his eyes.

And in due time... she would forget about him.

And with her being engaged to Haru (at the time of meeting her)... it seemed like a very real possibility.

As always, Luigi did his best to keep him from thinking like that, telling him that any girl in the kingdom would be lucky to have him as their partner because he was Super Mario. That, alone, was reason enough, at least to him.

And even though Mario heard the words, Luigi could tell he didn't quite believe them, as always.

Mario always had a way of letting anything good slipping his mind when he became fixated on everything he didn't have, or he began to fear when Peach would forget him altogether. Luigi could tell Mario that he loved him, as well as Peach, until his voice grew hoarse.

But as soon as Mario's own brain caught up to him, it was a losing battle.

It's not that he didn't want to believe anything Luigi said. He was simply far too fixated on the idea that no one could love him, so he preemptively prepared himself for "inevitable" rejection.

However, that didn't mean he avoided Peach altogether.

In fact, quite the opposite.

Even if Mario denied himself from loving her the way he wanted, he went above and beyond to show her the love she deserved (as a "friend" of course).

One thing he loved about her was simply how fascinated she was by anything he'd consider normal. Even something as simple as "going out" was an adventure in her mind. As much as he wanted to give her that, however, there was Toadsworth to consider.

And... he wasn't quite as flexible.

Of course, that didn't stop Mario from making Peach little gifts from his own world (some with Luigi's help, of course). On her "birthday," he made her the parasol she still uses. And it only got bigger from there.

He repainted the stained-glass window once the colors began to fade.

He took over some of the duties in Toad Town whenever she couldn't (either due to other plans or her own personal things).

He'd come over to visit her whenever she got sick; sometimes even bringing along soup (Luigi did that part).

He stayed with her when she expressed her dissatisfaction with the arranged marriage, even though she knew it would benefit the kingdom most (as much as it hurt, admittedly).

He'd sneak in through the windows whenever he knew she'd had a rough day, just to check in on her.

Hell, at one point, he even considered getting her a cat because she had expressed an interest in one! That didn't end up happening as he lacked the money to do so, but still. He came very close.

In Mario's mind, the best thing you can do for someone, is show your love through your actions, whether you're a friend or a partner. Words could never be enough to tell Peach that he loved her. And simply staying beside her felt like it was never enough either. So... he did the only thing he knew he could best do by giving her pieces of himself.

Eventually, he did end up confessing to her, though it took a lot to do so. He still struggles to believe she could love him, but he's never once regretted telling her.

Saying "I love you" to her is always the hardest part.

Even the day he confessed it, his chest felt tight, and his eyes welled with tears... he finds it embarrassing, so he uses it sparingly. He'd rather use his actions than his words anyway.

He loves her more than life itself. Many times at night, he sometimes imagines her before him, living together with him until their last breath. Whenever he can't sleep, he thinks of her, and that's nearly enough to send him drifting off.

He no longer sees her as perfect, either, which he recognized as a flaw on his part soon after.

She was never this immortal goddess he envisioned her to be (as much as he liked to believe she was)... she was simply Peach.

She was the one person he could be himself, fully, without judgement. He'd shown her his worst moments, and she never once blamed him. Even if he did act hurtful (a few times, he yelled at her, but it never went further beyond that), she was honest about it, but still reassured him that it never changed her opinion of him. Plus, he always made an effort to rectify his mistakes... so why would she punish him?

That was the exact reason he soon made the decision to call her his wife, in due time.