Ready, Player Two?

When Peach awoke, they were on the train. Slightly confused, she removed her earplugs and threw them into the small, sterling silver trashcan, before looking around to the rest of the small cabin. Pauline was on the plush bench to her left, reading a somewhat poorly-rendered newspaper that was clearly not intended to be picked up, and she didn’t seem to notice her. Peach hesitated for a moment, before, throwing herself into Pauline’s arms, holding the woman close and effectively ruining the newspaper in more ways than the game devs cared to animate. It was discarded, and Pauline carefully hugged her back.

“Sleep well, Princess?” she asked smugly. Peach looked like she was about to cry tears of actual joy, and she just nodded, kissing Pauline happily. Pauline froze for a minute, before she realized what was happening, and she kissed back for the brief instant before they broke apart. It wasn’t intended to be a passionate kiss, just one that showed how relieved they both were that they had made it out of there in one piece.

Peach kept peppering kisses all over Pauline’s face, until the woman just knew that she’d have quite a great deal of lipstick to wash off of her face before they arrived at Mushroom Kingdom.

“We did it!” Peach sobbed, kissing her one last time before holding her close. Pauline hugged the woman back, and cocked an eyebrow even though she couldn’t see.

“Surprised that I could rescue you?” she asked playfully, “Princess, I’m hurt.” Peach just shook her head.

“No, no…” she managed, “it’s a long story. I’ll explain it when we’re home.”

“Peach… what?” murmured Pauline, getting no response. They held one another close for a while, before Pauline was surprised by a sudden movement.

“I can touch you!” exclaimed Peach, pulling back a little to look at Pauline.

“Y-yes, Princess,” responded Pauline, confused. Peach looked deep into Pauline’s eyes, giddy.

“I can really touch you!” she cried, wrapping her arms around Pauline and pulling her into another kiss. This one was much deeper than the first, and Pauline found that she didn’t mind. She felt Peach almost immediately suck on her lower lip, and in surprise, she opened her mouth to let the princess explore. She took her tongue into her mouth, sucking delicately. Oddly enough, she didn’t taste of peaches, but she did still taste sweet. They pulled apart for a moment of air, before Peach pulled her back down, kissing her as though she may never kiss her again. Pauline was thoroughly confused, but she let it happen, gently running her hands up and down Peach’s back and sides, before resting them on her hips.

Peach eagerly sat on the woman’s lap, wrapping her legs around her as best she could and placing one of her hands over those of Pauline, encouraging her to feel her. Completely shocked, Pauline could do nothing but comply. She held onto Peach and helped her roll her hips against her, before she instinctively began to reposition. She softly pushed Peach onto her back, thankful for the soft benches in their train cabin. Once she seemed comfortable, Pauline carefully slipped her thigh in-between the woman’s legs, poking her just enough so that Peach knew she was there. With a gasp, the woman rolled her hips against Pauline, seeming surprised by her own reaction. Pauline just smiled, bending over her and letting her hair fall over the two of them.

Stars, Peach was gorgeous. Pauline really, really wanted to have her. And given that she was already blushing, squirming, and panting beneath her, it was really difficult for Pauline to say no. She was about to, when Peach pulled her down and clung to her, grinding shamelessly now against her thigh and making muffled noises of pleasure.

“W-Peach, I need to know what prompted this…” managed Pauline, already a little breathless.

“I can finally touch you…” Peach’s voice was so small that Pauline had to pull back a little to see her face. The woman looked so vulnerable in that moment, and so frightened.

“Of course you can,” responded Pauline, “you always could. Why is this different?” Peach shook her head.

“I wasn’t able to touch you for so long, Pauline…” murmured Peach, grinding back against her leg once again and rolling her head back in complete elation, “this… this is like heaven…” She sighed and bucked. Pauline stared down at her, confused.

“I still don’t understand,” she said.

“You don’t need to understand,” whimpered Peach, “nothing else matters right now, just fuck me. It’s been so long...” Pauline’s eyes widened. Where had the princess learned such a word?

“Princess-” Pauline had to stop. She saw the fear of rejection in Peach’s eyes, in that small moment, as the woman released her completely, “what about Mario?”

“It’s a long story,” responded Peach, furrowing her brow, “I haven’t had you in so long, though… Please. I need you, Pauline.” Stars, that voice. Pauline had to keep a low whimper from coming from her throat.

“H… what do you mean? You haven’t had me ever,” said Pauline, “Peach, are you sure that you’re alright? You’re making no sense, I don’t think that you’re in an appropriate state of mind to be making these decisions.” Peach huffed, before sitting up completely while Pauline resumed sitting a respectable distance away from her.

“Okay, I won’t act on it… but please let me hold you,” asked Peach. Pauline nodded, opening her arms, into which Peach ran.

“Will you tell me what’s going on with you?” asked Pauline. Peach sighed, snuggling into her as best she could.

“It hurts to talk about…” muttered Peach, “it scares me very badly. What could have happened...”

“Peach…” Pauline spoke with a softer tone, looking down to the woman in her arms, “I can’t help you out if I don’t know what’s wrong, and I certainly can’t be with you if I think that you have clouded judgement. Can you please explain what’s going on?” There was a pause. Peach nestled into Pauline, hiding her face in the woman’s neck.

“Alright…” she mumbled. Pauline rubbed her back, trying to soothe her.

“It all started that night that you came to see me,” Peach began, “well… it wasn’t night this time around, but it was night the first time.”

“What do you mean?” asked Pauline.

“It’s… quite difficult to say, Pauline,” explained Peach, “but I’ll do my best. The first time that I ever saw you, it wasn’t the same ‘you’ that I’m speaking with now. You see, I have an acquaintance, whom I thought dead for the longest time. She is able to traverse the universe so quickly that she rewinds time, all the way back to when the universe was created. Each time that she does this, a new universe results, because people make different choices here and there. Are you with me so far?”

“I… I think so…” muttered Pauline, lost.

“In layman’s terms, my acquaintance has access to alternate universes,” said Peach. Pauline nodded. It wasn’t the weirdest thing she’d seen that week.

“The first time that I ever met you, Pauline, we were in a different universe. Everything was very similar, but there were a few notable differences. For instance, there was no Mario. It was just you and I, and you would regularly save me from Bowser’s shenanigans. I would then reward you with a kiss, or more,” Peach began, “but... Then this particular quest happened. Bowser understood something about you called a system of lives. He theorized that if he got you to lose lives on each challenge, then he would only have to win once against you in the final battle in order to get a ‘Game Over.’ A Game Over counts as you actually dying in the universe where the Game Over happened. I was unaware of this. I watched you die and not get back up. I screamed and cried, and you didn’t get back up. Bowser won.”

Peach had begun to shake a little, and Pauline realized that she was crying. She held the woman closer, rubbing her back softly. “T-Then, I met the acquaintance. She said that she could not bring you back to life, but she could give me more chances at saving you. I watched you die countless times, Pauline. I…” Peach hiccuped, “at this point, I just wanted you to stay alive… I… I love you… Even if you can’t remember me yet… You are the same woman that I fell in love with, and I can’t stand to watch you die.” Peach coughed, sniffling, “I felt real heartbreak syndrome, evidently it’s actually possible to feel like your heart is tearing itself up if you get really hurt… it was the most excruciating agony that I’ve ever felt. Still, I couldn’t stop trying. I just… had to do something to stop Bowser before he started his plans with you.

“But… it didn’t work.” Peach paused, nuzzling against Pauline as a reminder that she was still there, “I… Stars, when I first heard you knock, Pauline, I just… I needed to have you with me… I couldn’t let you leave, I missed talking to you so much… Then Bowser came and ruined everything again. But this time… this time I remembered the second trap that was supposed to take another of your lives. It was engineered by Kammy Koopa to tell when I was awake, and trigger the pyramid falling in on itself and crushing you in front of me. I saw you get crushed so many times…” Peach whimpered, shuddering.

“But, she couldn’t tell if I was awake if I was just drifting in and out of sleep… Out of sheer luck, I guess I just managed to remain asleep this once, and we’re free,” finished Peach, “if we hadn’t been lucky, I would have lost you again…” There was a long pause, in which Pauline merely held Peach as she cried, whispering what little comforts she could think of.

“Don’t leave me… please,” begged Peach, sobbing, “I can’t see you die again. I love you…” Pauline couldn’t say that she loved her back. She barely knew her. It pained her, she wanted to say it and she knew that Peach desperately needed to hear it, but she also knew that Peach would know that it was a lie if she said it now. Instead, she waited.

Pauline awoke to sunlight streaming through the light-pink canopy of the extremely comfortable bed, feeling someone pressed up close against her chest, breathing evenly. Right, she and Peach had spent the night together again. The princess was curled up, arms wrapped loosely around Pauline, and she seemed to be smiling in her sleep. Pauline wanted so badly to stay, but she could only imagine what would happen if Toad were to come in for his daily duties and find them there.

He was in charge of waking Peach and dressing her. While the princess and the mayor both found that tradition to be extremely silly, it was also necessary for a woman of her status to meet a very specific dress code, and Toad was always there to make sure that she did.

That was why Pauline had to leave. Lying together with nothing to conceal them besides the bedsheets was hardly an appropriate way for Toad to find them, and he usually came in an hour after sunrise. Pauline took Peach’s hands into her own, gently extracting herself from the woman’s embrace. A little sadly, she left a kiss on the woman’s forehead, tucking her in and going to put her clothes on in order to go out into the world.

Just as she finished buttoning her blazer -fortunately, she kept many clean changes of clothes in Peach’s wardrobe now, hidden at the back- she heard the woman in the bed begin to shift. Turning just in time, Pauline saw Peach sit up and stretch, the sheets sliding down and off of her body.

She looked like a goddess in the sunlight, and Pauline couldn’t help but go over to greet her.

“Good morning, princess,” she murmured, sitting next to her on the bed, “up a little early this morning, are we?” Peach mumbled something incoherent, wrapping her arms around Pauline from behind and pulling her into a hug. Pauline chuckled.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Stay with me,” murmured Peach, “just a little longer.”

“Toad comes in an hour,” Pauline gently reminded her.

“I don’t care.” Peach pouted stubbornly, resting her head on Pauline’s shoulder “I want you with me. I’m a grown woman, I should be allowed to sleep with whomever I want.”

“But you’re a monarch,” sighed Pauline.

“Yeah…” mumbled Peach, closing her eyes, “but you’re so warm. Everything else is always so cold.”

“Such is life, princess,” said Pauline, “but I’ll be back for you, probably in a day’s time.”

Peach, in a manner very unbecoming of a princess, flopped backwards onto the bed, bringing Pauline with her. The other woman chuckled, kicking off her high heels and turning around to face her.

“Hey!” she said playfully, “you know I can’t stay. The toads get up soon, I need to leave now or they’ll see me leaving the castle and know that I stayed the night.” Peach didn’t seem to be listening.

“You put your clothes on…” she said, sounding a little disappointed, “I like it when I can hold you without this stuff in-between us.” Pauline smiled.

“Come on, Peach. I have to go,” she said, trying very weakly to stand up. Peach kept her down, and she definitely didn’t protest.

“Take me with you…” murmured Peach.

“Would you really like that?” asked Pauline.

“Huh?” asked Peach, seeming more awake.

“I told you that I’d take you to my city when you want to take a day, just for the two of us. Would you like to go now?” asked Pauline. Peach looked at her, seeming a little forlorn and rejected.

“Yes, I really, really want to,” she said, “but…”

“The kingdom,” Pauline finished for her.

“Yes, the kingdom…” muttered Peach. She sighed, eventually forcing herself to let go of Pauline and immediately feeling the emptiness in her arms once the woman stood, putting her heels back on.

“Hey, I love you,” said Pauline. Peach huffed, pretending to be grouchy with her for leaving. Pauline smiled, tousled the princess’s hair, and left.

Peach would regret her lack of response for the rest of her life. She would regret not going with her, and would regret not asking her to stay with such conviction that she just couldn’t say no. Pauline would only come back once before it happened, but Peach didn’t know that yet.

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The loud, blaring whistle of a train woke Pauline from her slumber. She felt a lot better than she had in Bowser’s castle, and she was ready to face the world again. Goombrielle was sitting next to her, looking at the map and occasionally glancing out of the train windows at the tall sand dunes. The train slowly chugged to a stop, and Pauline could see the steel support beams of a train station whizz past the train until it pulled to a complete stop.

“Attention all passengers: This is the end of the line, Dry, Dry, Desert. Please disembark the train at this time, and mind the gap.” The announcement boomed over the intercom, and Pauline stood up with Goombrielle in tow, leading her off of the train and into the blisteringly hot air of the desert.

“Woo! Yeah, that’s a desert alright!” Goombrielle explained, holding the map up for Pauline to see, “now we’ve gotta go north for a really long time, so make sure you’ve got water and nutrients. You wouldn’t wanna pass out out there, I’d try to drag you back, but you’re four times my size.”

“Thanks, Goombrielle,” said Pauline, “where exactly is our destination?”

“Oh stars it’s way out there in the middle-a nowhere,” responded Goombrielle, leading the way out into the desert, “I mean at least that Toad guy helped me find it, or else we’d just be wandering for a long time until we somehow stumbled across it. It’s a pretty obscure ruin.”

“Hold up,” said Pauline, “is that a sentient, seven-foot-tall cactus?” There was something very tall and very spiky moving towards them at a relatively frightening speed.

“So it is,” said Goombrielle, “that’s a Pokey. Run.” She led the way and they both sprinted away from the sentient cactus. Once they were sure that they’d lost it, Goombrielle slowed back down to a walk.

“Woah! I’m outta breath,” she said, “can we just.. Sit down for a minute? Have some water?” Pauline nodded, pulling a bottle of water out of her purse and handing it to Goombrielle. They took turns drinking from it, and it was quickly emptied. As they sat there, regaining a little bit of their strength, they heard something.

“Hello?” It was a dry, cracking voice from just beyond the sand dune in front of them. Goombrielle and Pauline looked at one another.

“Anyone? Please?” it rasped. Pauline put the empty water bottle into her purse, closing it and approaching the sand dune. She reached the top, appeared shocked, and sprinted down to the other side, Goombrielle in tow. At the base of the dune was a winged koopa with a battered mail bag.

“Water… please…” rasped the koopa. Without hesitation, Pauline gave him the second bottle of water that she had stashed in her purse. The koopa began drinking it very slowly and carefully, and Pauline realized what happened. He was very dehydrated, and if he drank the water too quickly, his body wouldn’t be able to handle it. He would definitely need some electrolytes, and so she also fished around for her tonic, giving it to him as well. He smiled, thanking her in his raspy voice and downing the small tonic.

“That’s better…” his voice was still rough, but he no longer sounded like he was on the verge of death, “thank you. I thought I was going to die out here. Could you… if you wouldn’t mind, ya know….” He gestured to his right wing, which was under a large rock. Pauline and Goombrielle lifted the heavy rock, tossing it aside a short distance, and the koopa recoiled his wing, hissing a little in pain.

“Ah, yep. That’s gonna sting alright,” he said, “but it’s better than being stuck here…”

“What happened to you?” asked Goombrielle.

“I was delivering mail and then, out of nowhere, someone started launching rocks at me. I dodged a lot of them, but the last one hit me, and I got trapped out here. I tried to yell, but I guess I’m too far away from civilization for anyone to hear me,” the koopa explained.

“That’s terrible, why would they do that to you?” asked Pauline.

“For fun, I guess…” muttered the koopa, before he collected himself, “a-anyway, my name is Koops, at your service.”

“Oh no,” said Pauline.

“Alright!” exclaimed Goombrielle, “another one on the Bowser train!”

“B-Bowser?!” squeaked Koops.

“Yeah, he took Princess Peach. Pauline here is trying to get her back,” explained Goombrielle, “We actually just came from his castle. Man, he’s one messed-up dude.”

“Do- do I have to fight him?!” asked Koops.

“No, no you don’t,” said Pauline, “Goombrielle and I are just fine, you aren’t obligated to help us, don’t worry.”

“A-alright, thanks!” exclaimed Koops, “I mean… man, that’s one big koopa! Still, I owe you one, both of you. If I can help you guys, just contact me. I’m the only mailman, so I shouldn’t be hard to find.”

“Alright, nice to meet you, Koops!” exclaimed Goombrielle. Pauline waved, and they were off. In about two hours, they finally arrived at the ruins, which seemingly came out of nowhere. They started jutting out of the ground in odd places, and there was only one, tiny, goomba-sized entrance that Pauline could barely fit through. Just as she reached out, ready to help Goombrielle into the ruins, she spotted something on the horizon, moving fast. It was Koops.

“Wait!” he exclaimed, “I don’t know how to get back to civilization!” Oh. Right. Pauline supposed that they were stuck with him. She helped Goombrielle through, and then they both lowered a shivering Koops through the entrance. He kept his injured wing folded to his side, and had long since resorted to walking. The ruins were disturbingly quiet. Not quiet as in ‘finally inside after a loud and windy day in the desert’ quiet, but quiet as in ‘you could hear a pin drop a mile away’ quiet.

“Jeepers…” muttered Koops.

“Really?” responded Goombrielle, “‘jeepers?’” Pauline ignored the two of them as best she could, focusing on finding a path through the odd ruins. There was once again not a single enemy in sight. On multiple occasions, Goombrielle just barely stopped Pauline from tumbling into a pit or floor-trap, but aside from that, there was no danger. That was, until they came to the central chamber of the ruins.

This room was dimly illuminated by torches that were stuck to the walls of the triangular prism. With a steel collar around her neck, chained to the wall on the opposite side of the room, was Peach. She was fast asleep, but Pauline almost cried out because she noticed how much worse she looked than before. She looked like she hadn’t eaten in days, and clearly Bowser had gotten physical with her many times after they had left his castle. Pauline held back a sob, running to her and dipping down in front of her to gently unfasten the chain around her neck. Koops ran up behind her, Goombrielle in tow, and tapped her on the back, reaching into his mailbag with his spare hand.

“I’ve actually got some tools here…” he whispered, pulling out quite a few screwdrivers, a wrench, and some bolt cutters. Pauline decided not to ask, and she just thanked him, taking the objects and carefully getting to work. First, she unchained Peach from the wall, catching her body as it slumped forward and setting her gently down so that she could get the collar off of her. Fortunately, it opened and closed in a fashion similar to those of handcuffs, and because of the large size of the screws, it was easy for Pauline to open it and release Peach. She sobbed. The poor woman’s neck was red, and there were cuts from struggling against the bonds.

“Peach…” she whispered, “Peach, wake up. We need to get you out of here.”

“No…” murmured Peach, still half-asleep. It was then that Pauline remembered Toad’s words. He had explicitly said not to wake her up.

“Crap- guys,” Pauline whispered, “Peach has to stay asleep, we need to make sure that she doesn’t wake up in the desert.” Like a literal angel from heaven, Koops reached into his bag once more, procuring a few store-brand earplugs that were still in their container.

“I can never sleep if it’s even a little loud, so I have some super-strength earplugs. Do you think she could use these?” he asked, handing her a pair after opening the package. Pauline nodded, thanking him as quietly as possible. She didn’t really like putting them in Peach’s ears, but it was necessary. After that, she very, very delicately picked up the sleeping woman, carrying her bridal-style out of the ruins.

She took her time, carefully avoiding the traps and pits while not waking Peach. Once they were outside again, the trio began to make their way towards the train station.

“I can’t believe we just walked out with her!” whispered Goombrielle. All three of them felt like they would still get caught if they spoke too loudly.

“Toad was right, I think… we just need to make sure that Peach doesn’t wake up until we clear the whole desert,” responded Pauline, also whispering, “I don’t know why, but he was right.”

Pauline was on her regular commute to the Mushroom Kingdom. Of course, she went there whenever she could, because she hated that her work had to take her so away from her girlfriend. She had received another neatly-written letter inviting her over for a small event, and of course she couldn’t be late. Peach was so adorable when she actually worked up the guts to ask for things.

“Dear Pauline, I miss you dearly even though we’ve only just parted Will you come back to Mushroom Kingdom very soon? I want to be with you again, -Peach”

She smiled as she reread the letter. She was always so formal whenever she wrote to her, for fear that someone else might find and open the letters. Pauline was suddenly off of the train and outside of the castle, walking towards it. It was a beautiful day, full of bright, vibrant flowers and a moderately warm temperature with a small breeze. Toad eagerly greeted her as she approached.

“Hello again, Pauline!” he chirped, “Peach is still getting ready, but she asked me to send you up!”

“Thank you, Toad,” Pauline responded, walking past him and into the castle. She knew that place like the back of her hand, and at this point, it felt like a second home. The familiar scents and sounds of little mushroom people milling about made her feel at ease, and she went to Peach’s chamber on autopilot, finding the woman waiting within.

When she entered, Peach ran to hug her, grinning, before pulling back sheepishly.

“I’m so glad that you could make it,” she said, looking at her with a look of affection so strong that it made Pauline’s actual heart feel like it was being hugged. She dipped down, kissing the princess on the nose before brushing past her to sit on the loveseat near her bed.

“So,” she chuckled a little, watching the princess sit down beside her in her favorite spot, “how’ve you been since we last talked?” Peach huffed.

“Oh, come on! I know that I just saw you yesterday, but… I missed you, okay?” she asked, pouting a little.

“I know, I know… I missed you too, princess,” responded Pauline, “one of these days, we need to figure out how to live together.”

“Yes please,” whined Peach, “it would be nice to get to sleep with you and then wake up with you still there.”

“The feeling is mutual,” murmured Pauline, running a hand through her partner’s hair, “I’m just not sure about how the kingdom would react to it. To me staying over, that is. Our relationship is already taboo as is.”

“Yes, but they’ll understand,” mumbled Peach, resting her head in the crook of Pauline’s neck, “they’re toads, they have tens of thousands of genders. I don’t think that it’s even possible for them to be in a straight relationship, so they have to understand us.”

“And if not, I’ll just whisk you away to the city,” added Pauline.

“Mmm…” murmured Peach, “I really would love to visit you there more often. Just kick back and relax for a little while in your house, it sounds amazing.”

“Are you stressed out?” asked Pauline.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” responded Peach. There was a pause, and Peach looked up to Pauline to see a familiar, mischievous glint in her eyes and a smile on her lips.

“What are you planning?” asked Peach.

“We could just go now!” decided Pauline, “you could just come with me. We could relax together and nobody would even know, so long as I got you back by tonight. It could be like a little adventure, like running away together!” Peach giggled.

“You always were a romantic,” she murmured, nuzzling into the woman, “but I could never do that. My kingdom needs me.”

“I understand that,” responded Pauline, still running her fingers through the woman’s hair, “you don’t need to rush. Whenever you’re comfortable with it, we can just take a day for us and no one else.”

“I’d like that,” sighed Peach, “I’d like that a lot.”

“Then it’s a date.”

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“Pauline! Hey!” With pain that shot through her clouded, foggy mind like sharp, jagged bullets, Pauline registered a sound. Her eyes were so heavy that she could barely manage to force one open to see Toad standing over her. He waved to her frantically, and she managed to open her other eye. Sitting up was an effort, it felt like her insides were charred, and they were rubbing against one another each time she moved to cause a pain unlike any that she had ever known.

“Pauline, I’m so glad I found you, there’s not much time! Bowser got the princess, but I have something that you need to know!” exclaimed Toad.

“Whhaaahhhhh…” croaked Pauline. Her throat was dry and cracked. Looking around her, she remembered what had happened. Right, the electrocution. So that was what losing a life felt like.

‘Now I need a one-up girl,’ she thought groggily.

“Pauline, Peach needs your help, but you need to listen to me!” said Toad.

“Hrg?” asked Pauline.

“When you find Princess Peach, take her out of the trap, but leave her asleep!” demanded Toad.

“Wh-okah…” managed Pauline. Her mouth felt… less bad? She guessed?

“I have to go now, you need to move!” Toad was suddenly gone, and Pauline lay on the floor, dazed. What. For a while, she just sat there, slowly moving her limbs and getting used to the way that it felt to be alive. It hurt. A lot. When she stood up, she almost fell down again, but she stabilized herself, for Peach.

Taking just one more moment to collect herself, she started off on her first objective.

“Goombrielle!” she yelled, “Goombrielle, are you there?!” There was nothing but silence.

“Yeah…” croaked a voice. Pauline ran in the direction of her voice, eventually finding her behind a tall, marble pillar. Bowser must have missed her.

“Goombrielle, here, wait a minute…” Pauline reached into her purse, pulling out a small tonic, which she gave to Goombrielle. It patched her up quickly and she was back to her normal self.

“Ouch, jeez!” decided Goombrielle, “you don’t look too good yourself but man- that hurt! He just hit me aside, man! I had to crawl as best I could so he wouldn’t see me. What a jerk.” Pauline paused.

“Goombrielle, I think that you should go home,” she said.

“What?” asked the goomba, laughing nervously, “what do you mean?”

“You could have died. You’re too young, you have a family who loves you, and you’ve got a village to protect. You should go home,” said Pauline. Goombrielle’s face fell.

“I… what are you saying…?” she managed, seeming very upset.

“You’re not safe, Goombrielle. That could have killed you, and he would have if you hadn’t been able to hide,” said Pauline, “I don’t want you to die because of me. You don’t need anything else, and I think that you should go home.”

“But-”

“Go home, Goombrielle.” Pauline was stern, looking the goomba dead in the eyes. It was obvious that she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“What, just like that?” asked Goombrielle. Her voice wavered a little as she spoke. “That’s how this story ends for me?”

“Goombrielle-”

“No, Pauline, I’m not just an NPC,” said Goombrielle, “I have my own thoughts and ambitions. I know that I’m taking a risk when I’m going with you, but… Heck, man… you’re my friend. I want to help you, regardless of the danger. Besides, we get to see so much cool stuff! It’s better than just dying of old age after doing nothing for my entire life. I want to go with you.” She also looked like she wasn’t taking no for an answer. They were at a standstill.

“Goombrielle, you could have died because of me. I can’t accept that,” stated Pauline.

“No, I could have died because of me. You don’t get to go and say that you have that much control over anyone else’s life, I chose to come with you, I chose to enter Bowser’s castle, and I chose to fight by your side. You didn’t make me, it wasn’t your choice, it was mine. And this, this right here, is my choice too. I’m going to help you, because you clearly need help, and someone needs to talk some sense into you so that you’re willing to take it!” Goombrielle finished with a huff. “I’m not letting you go out there alone. It’s dangerous. I started this mission, and I’m going to see it through to the end.” Pauline had no response for a long while.

“Let’s get going then…” she managed. Goombrielle nodded, pulling out the map and beginning to find new coordinates.

“So while you were out, I couldn’t move, but I could hear bowser talkin,’” she started, “they’re headed to a place called ‘Dry, Dry Desert.’ That’s where we should go next.”

When Pauline and Goombrielle finally pushed through the bleak woods and arrived at Bowser’s castle, it was night time. The air was freezing, and the harsh wind caused the two of them to shiver. Their only source of light, save for Goombrielle’s headlamp that she had thought to bring with her, was a tiny sliver of moonlight in the sky. Even the stars seemed to shine dimly.

“Yeesh,” muttered Goombrielle, “this guy just has to be edgy about everything, doesn’t he?” The bushes nearby rustled, and they were both effectively silenced. Pauline shivered as she passed the underbrush, feeling a pair of eyes on her, like needles, so close to her skin that she could feel them without actually being touched. She looked behind her, seeing nothing but the bushes, and kept going.

Oddly enough, she made it to the castle’s front door. The drawbridge was down, allowing her direct access. Other than the footsteps of Pauline and her companion, the world was cold, dead, and silent. Carefully, Pauline grabbed a giant ring, hearing it creak. She tugged gently, surprised as the door slowly opened before her with very little effort. Inside, it was completely dark, and there was not a sound.

Goombrielle and Pauline exchanged nervous glances before heading inside. The huge parlor in front of them was flushed with a peculiar, dark fog. Goombrielle’s little headlight could barely even penetrate the peculiar, dust-filled air, and it was actually doing more harm than good, so she turned it off. Pauline couldn’t even see her hand in front of her own face. She carefully felt around for the walls, making sure that Goombrielle was right behind her, until she found a grand staircase. Perhaps, she hoped, that it would at least lead above the dark fog so that the headlight would be useful again. Heading up the stairs one-by-one until she could finally see the floor in front of her, she was relieved to be right.

“Stars…” whispered Goombrielle in the quietest voice that she could muster. Even such a quiet voice sounded like a throat-wrenching scream in comparison to the silence, and Pauline jumped a little.

“Yeah, this is... a lot,” she agreed. They looked over the balcony to the floor below, where there was clearly a thick black cloud.

“Hey Pauline?” asked Goombrielle.

“Yeah?” whispered Pauline.

“How much do you wanna bet that the princess is down there?”

Pauline paused for a moment, mulling it over, before sighing.

“I’d… I’d bet a lot that she’s down there. But we don’t know for sure, we should check the other rooms before we spend a few hours looking around,” she decided.

“Right,” agreed Goombrielle. They moved on in silence down the dark hallway with the checkered, creaky floorboards. They were in Bowser’s castle, but he was nowhere to be seen. Neither of them was particularly eager to make any loud noises, and so each time that the floorboards creaked beneath them, they jumped, holding their breath.

After a few minutes of walking down a seemingly-endless hallway, Pauline froze, raising a finger to her lips even though both of them were already silent. They both listened. There was a beat, and then Pauline heard a soft sobbing from up ahead. She and Goombrielle looked at one another, before they silently agreed to go forward.

The sobbing was coming from a room to their left. Pauline opened the door as softly as she could, but it was old, and it let out a loud creak. As soon as the door opened, Pauline was relieved to find… nothing. Nothing at all, besides what looked to be an empty children’s room. The walls were whimsically painted pink, with little rockets drawn in intricate detail, and there were a few toys scattered across the floor.

“Princess..?” whispered Pauline. There was no response. The sobbing was gone.

“This must be one of his kids’ rooms,” whispered Goombrielle, “but that doesn’t explain-”

The sobbing started up again, coming from the closet to the left. Pauline took a deep breath, before gently opening it and looking around. There was nothing but clutter inside of the closet, except for a huge teddybear that looked like it had seen better days. The sobbing was coming from its… its stomach.

“Hello?” whispered Pauline, “who’s there? We’re here to help you.” The sobbing continued, and Pauline swallowed. She moved towards the teddybear, pulling on its fabric. The withered old thing easily came apart, and she was surprised to be met with nothing but stuffing. Rooting around, Pauline’s heart sank, and her entire body grew tense. There wasn’t anyone inside to produce the sobs. She kept feeling around, just to make sure that no one was hurt. There was definitely no living creature in this room.

Resigned to her fate, she hastily left the doll, spinning around for just long enough to see a flash of light disappear. Goombrielle hadn’t seen it, and they continued on.

Every other room was frighteningly the same, until they had gone through each of Bowser’s children’s rooms with no sign of the princess.

“You know what that leaves…” whispered Goombrielle. Pauline nodded. There was nothing left to do besides to head back downstairs. Through the smog, it took them a very long time, but Pauline finally ran into something hard at the center of the room.

“Peach?” she whispered, “is that you?” She heard a muffled noise in a familiar voice. Coming close enough to the object, Pauline recognized a chair. When she looked around the chair, she came face to face with the gagged, terrified princess, who let out a squeak of surprise when Pauline popped out from behind her.

“Peach, oh my stars, are you alright? What did Bowser do to you?!” Pauline quietly demanded, pulling Peach’s gag out as gently as she could, “I’m going to save you, we’re getting-”

“Pauline, behind you!” exclaimed Peach, seconds before Pauline felt herself get roughly yanked backwards, getting slammed into something solid with such force that she could feel bruises. Something fastened itself around her wrists and ankles, and she was forced into a sitting position.

“Pauline?! Pauline!” Yelled Goombrielle, unable to see her. There was a loud thud, Goombrielle screamed, and then silence. After a moment, a fan whirred to life. Slowly, the majority of the fog was blown out of the castle, but the room was still pitch black. Pauline could barely see Peach sitting across from her. There was one other sound, the sound of something small, hollow, and plastic, rolling across the stone floor. When it finally came into view, Pauline gasped, biting back a scream. It was a cracked helmet with a flickering, sparking headlight attached to it.

“G-Goombrielle!” she yelled, hoping for a response. There was none, besides a soft sob from the seat across from her. Peach had bowed her head so that Pauline couldn’t see her cry.

“Peach… Peach, look at me… it’s going to be okay,” she said, hoping that she could sound reassuring even as she was terrified.

“No, no it’s not,” managed Peach. Her voice was so small, and it sounded scratchy, like she had been screaming.

“You are COOOOOOORRECT!” boomed a harsh, growling voice. With a loud pop, a single, blinding spotlight came on at the top of the grand staircase, illuminating Bowser in all of his glory. He stood in a white suit and bowtie, microphone in one hand, button in the other. As he walked down the stairs, the spotlight followed him, until he was standing next to Peach and Pauline.

“It is, in fact, NOT going to be okay!” he announced, “it is going to be WONDERFUL!” There was another harsh pop, and a hot, white light illuminated Pauline and Peach from above.

“Ladies and ladies, I brought you here tonight for one reason, one beautiful reason. Do you know what that is?!” he demanded. Peach opened her mouth to scream.

“Ah, ah, ah!” Bowser Scolded, “you’re already in on the secret, sweetie-pie. It’s miss Marine’s turn to guess, and her time is up!” A loud buzzer sounded, and on the board behind Bowser, a large red ‘X’ appeared. He pressed the button in his left hand, and Pauline felt herself receive a little shock of electricity.

“That was a fine example of the new game that we are going to be playing tonight, broadcasted all over the world! Pauline, as the first contestant, how does it feel?!” Bowser held his microphone to Pauline’s face, and she frowned.

“Oooh! Wrong again, what bad luck!” the buzzer sounded, and Bowser pressed the button again. Pauline winced, feeling herself get shocked with more force this time.

“Anyway, today you two lucky contestants are here to play a lovely little game called…. Your Life’s in JEOPARDY! You must answer with a question, and whoever answers incorrectly will get zapped! If you both answer correctly, you’re both zapped, and if neither of you speaks, you’re both zapped, understand?!” Pauline furrowed her brow. The shocks had hurt, yes, but she could take them if it would keep Peach safe.

“Oh, I almost forgot! Each time that you get electrocuted, the voltage increases by twice itself! So eventually, one of you will have to die. Sorry, them’s the rules, ladies! Now I know that our sweet, brave little Mario- or… Paul...y…” Bowser paused, before picking right back up, “would never let Peach get hurt, so Paul, you know what to do.” He winked in Pauline’s face, his stinking breath causing her to recoil so hard that she hit her head against the back of the stone chair.

“Without further ado, let’s get started!” He roared. “First question: what color is Mario’s signature hat?”

“What is: Blue!” screamed Peach, before Pauline could even think of a wrong answer. Bowser blinked a little.

“Peachie, you’re not supposed to answer wrong,” he explained, “that gets you zapped. You’ll die if you keep doing that.” Peach glared at him, puffing out her cheeks in anger. Bowser growled, enraged, and slapped her across the face for a moment before pressing the button. Peach squeaked, before clenching her teeth. The slap had left a deep red mark on her face, and it looked like that she was going to bleed from the places that the claws had hit.

“Don’t let it happen again!” he roared. Pauline gasped, feeling like she wanted to throw up. She looked over to Peach, who was avoiding eye contact.

“Next question!” yelled Bowser, “what’s my name?!”

“Wario!” Pauline yelled immediately, beating Peach to the punch by a few seconds. Bowser smirked and zapped her. This shock was more painful than anything that Pauline had ever felt before. She could feel millions of flaming hot needles poking at the inside of her skin, and she had to bite back a scream.

“Next Question!” howled Bowser, “Peach is Princess of the WHAT kingdom?!”

“Butterfly!” yelled Peach, beating Pauline by a fraction of a second. Bowser snarled, zapping her, before grabbing a fistfull of her hair and pulling her as far out of her seat as her restraints would allow.

“Do. not. do. that,” he growled, face mere centimeters from hers. She spit in his face, and he threw her into the chair so hard that she was momentarily stunned, unable to think clearly.

“Final question!” he announced. Both women sat to attention, looking right at him.

“Who’s my little bitch?” he growled in a low voice, looking directly at Peach.

Finding the goombas wasn’t very difficult for Pauline and her new friend. Getting information from them was also not difficult, because they were cowards. Goombrielle was able to fend for herself amazingly well, and it took very little time for them to find the self-proclaimed ‘Goomba King’ in his tiny castle. As they saw it, silhouetted on the horizon, they realized that they could hear a faint, constant roar. The harsh glow from afar alerted them to the fact that there was a wildfire.

As they approached and the castle came fully into view, Pauline and Goombrielle realized that the fire was surrounding the castle like a moat, making it impossible to get inside. Atop the castle, which was actually just a glorified rook, stood a goomba that was five-times the size of Pauline in both height and width. It wore an ill-fitting crown, a cruel smirk, and nothing else.

“Just try and get past these flames, Mario,” it boasted, “you won’t find yourself getting anywhere anytime soon.” Pauline looked slightly annoyed, and Goombrielle looked between her and the Goomba King in confusion.

“Um… you have the wrong guy, oh shroomish one,” said Goombrielle, bowing.

“EH?!” Demanded the king, “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Well, this here is Pauline,” Goombrielle explained, “she’s just here to seek your counsel. You see your shroomliness, Mario’s very short and also a man, and as you can see here, Pauline is very tall and a woman, so she’s clearly not Mario.”

The Goomba King paused for a moment, before grinning. No one had ever come to seek HIS counsel before.

“Well then, my apologies for the confusion, come right in!” he barked, disappearing into the castle for a moment. There was a loud thunk from within the castle, and the fire receded into the earth. Pauline wasted no time stepping through, Goombrielle in tow.

“Now,” sighed the Goomba King, walking out of his castle, “what was it that you needed to talk about? I’m listening.”

“Mario’s sick today so I came to rescue the princess in his place,” said Pauline. The Goomba King blinked.

“What?” he asked.

“You work for Bowser, right?” asked Pauline.

“Yes…” responded the Goomba King, backing up and sounding uncomfortable.

“Well, where did he take the princess?” asked Pauline.

“I… I can’t just tell you that…” the King was in the doorway now, and he kept backing up.

“You’re going to tell me, though,” said Pauline, taking a step forward for each step that the King took backwards.

“O-oh? Is that so?” managed the King, sounding uncomfortable. He had been backed into the wall of his own Castle by a human who was one-fifth his size.

“Yep,” responded Pauline, “I’m here on business from Mario. I could crush you, or, you could give me the information that I want to know.” The Goomba King appeared to think for a moment.

“Alright, alright, I’ll tell you…. It’s-” without warning, he jumped on top of Pauline, slamming her against the ground before springing away, “guards!” Two, regularly-sized goombas ran in from upstairs, somehow carrying spears.

“Seize them!” exclaimed the Goomba King, his face growing red with anger. Goombrielle looked to Pauline, who nodded, before they both launched into action. Goombrielle took on the two weaker goombas while Pauline tackled the king, jumping on him twice. While that would have killed a normal goomba, it just knocked the king’s crown off. He fumed, stomping his feet, and his face grew even redder.

Before either Pauline or Goombrielle could react, the king charged them, knocking them both aside and slamming them against the hard stone walls opposite one another. As Pauline collected herself, a guard leapt onto her head, whacking her, before running back to its king. She pulled her hat off of her head, throwing it at the goomba and confusing it. As soon as it opened its eyes, it was met with a flash of purple and a purse to the face, which sent it flying. It hit the opposing wall right next to Goombrielle, who was fighting the other enemy goomba, and slid down. It had been knocked out cold. Goombrielle made quick work of the other goomba, and that left the king, whose head was even redder. He let out a screech and charged Pauline, but she dove to the side just in time, leaving him to charge straight into his own wall. He charged with such force that he broke the wall and got his head stuck.

Pauline took a moment to collect herself, before walking outside to see the very disoriented Goomba King.

“So, Bowser’s Castle. Where is it,” she asked dryly.

“Like I would ever yell you!” shrieked the king, all sense of dignity completely lost.

“You’re right, you won’t tell me,” Pauline sighed, looking to Goombrielle as she exited the castle behind her, “he’s useless, so we should just get rid of him.” She raised her purse, ready to deal the final blow to the back of his head, when he shrieked again.

“No, no! I’ll talk!” he exclaimed, “inside of my castle, in the dungeons, I keep my treasury. You’ll find a map there.”

“And will there be any guards waiting for us?” asked Pauline. The goomba shook his head, almost suffocating himself.

“N-no, just a couple loser goombas that I found in the village nearby!” he exclaimed. “You can even take the key from the shelf inside, just don’t hurt me!” Goombrielle perked up, looking to Pauline. Without another word, the two went inside, grabbed the key, and found the door to the cellar. It was so dark that they could barely see, save for the occasional torch that lit the way. Up ahead, they could hear a faint, quiet scuttling, and Goombrielle picked up the pace.

“Goonther!” she exclaimed, “Goonther, are you there?” There was a pause.

“Yeah, yeah I’m here! Goombrielle, is that you?! You gotta help us, man!” They came to the very last cell, where the goombas sat, and Pauline fumbled with the keys until she was finally able to get them out.

“Goonther!” exclaimed Goombrielle, running inside and looking around. “Goommaw! You’re here too?!” A swarm of happy goombas lifted her up, cheering.

“You saved us! We’re free! Hooray!” they sang, carrying Goombrielle outside. Pauline smiled, following closely behind. Once they were outside by the Goomba King, the goombas set Goombrielle down to stare at him.

“What do we do with this guy?” asked Goonther, the goomba with the baseball cap as his defining feature.

“We should just leave him,” said Goombrielle, “he’s learned his lesson. Besides, maybe he’ll learn from our hospitality.” She said the final bit while making eye contact with the king, frowning. He nodded frantically.

“I will, I will!” he exclaimed. With that, there was nothing left for Goombrielle to do but head back to her village. Pauline tagged along for a little bit, hanging off to the side and letting her have her moment. She deserved it. When the excitement seemed to draw to a close, Pauline slipped away from the small village, pulling a rumpled, agéd piece of paper out of her pocket and looking at it. This was it, the map to Bowser’s castle. It was written entirely in goomba, but she figured that she could at least use the pictures to navigate. Besides, Goombrielle had her own life to lead.

Pauline walked through the forest, checking the map carefully. She was slightly surprised when she saw that the destination kept moving a little bit, even though it appeared to be normal ink on paper. Thoroughly confused, she held the map up, turning it around to see if it caused the destination to move.

“Hey!” came a voice. Pauline turned around to see Goombrielle running after her.

“What, were you just gonna leave without me?! I s-” she broke off, panting, “swear to the stars, I WILL walk to Bowser’s castle myself!” She came to a stop in front of Pauline, looking slightly disgruntled.

“Your mission was completed,” said Pauline, “I figured that you would want to stay with your family. You don’t need to come with me anymore, right?”

“I mean no, I don’t need to,” huffed Goombrielle, “but you need me to. We do twice as much damage together and besides, I owe ya one!”

“You really don’t have to come,” said Pauline, “you’ve got a life to tend to.”

“Listen, you helped me out, and I’m gonna help you out, like it or not missy,” said Goombrielle, “I ain’t the type-a gal to just let favors go unreturned. You’re stuck with me till we get that princess of yours back.” Pauline paused, smiling.

“Well, if you really do want to come, I’d be glad to have you,” she said.

“That settles it! Now let me look at that map!” Goombrielle looked at the map, “how were you even plannin’ on reading this, missy? You speak old goomba?”

“No, I-”

“Oh my stars,” mumbled Goombrielle, “well alright, first off we’re heading in the wrong direction…” The two of them walked off in search of Peach, Goombrielle giving the best directions that she could.

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Bowser finished getting Peach into her special, steel restraints. As she sat there, glaring straight ahead, she had to shiver slightly. Electricity crackled and popped around her wrists. It wasn't enough to do even a little damage to her, Bowser had made sure of that, but it was just a little bit of friendly forewarning so that the princess would know what was in store for her and her white knight. As she was shocked again, Peach flinched, taking a sharp intake of breath. Bowser grinned.

"So, I see you've noticed my cunning plan," he said, coming to stand fully in front of her. In order to fully come into view, he had to stand behind the chair opposite Peach across the table. She frowned, ignoring him.

"Aw come on, babe!" he exclaimed, "I know- I know that it's scary, but don't worry. I won't let that Paul guy hurt you. That's the reason for this setup, see?" He gestured around her, and Peach just sighed, looking utterly deflated.

Without hesitation, Pauline disregarded Peach’s orders and went after the princess. She returned to Peach’s quarters, gathering her purse, before running barefoot into the hallway. A few passing Toads tried to ask her what was going on, but she either ignored them or gently pushed them out of the way in order to get to the exit. There was no time to spare. Breaking out into the cold night air, Pauline spotted the ship and chased it as best she could, thankful that she was not wearing high heels. It wasn’t long before Bowser pulled up so that he was above the clouds, making it impossible for Pauline to track him.

Stars, she had lost her. Pauline didn’t stop running, frantically scanning the clouds for any signs of Bowser’s airship, but ultimately coming up with nothing. She was so focused on the sky that she didn’t notice the drop in front of her until she slammed down her feet and was met with nothing but air. She fell for one, terrifying moment, before crashing to the ground and collapsing. It had been a long, long day.

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When Pauline awoke, it was to a headache, a soft warmth on her forehead, and the smell of something savory being cooked over a burner. After blinking her eyes a few times, the room around her came into focus, and she saw that she was in a cute little bedroom, the walls of which seemed to be made of wood. Upon her forehead was a warm rag that must have been placed there in an attempt to soothe her headache. Setting the rag aside, she got up slowly, head spinning, and tried to figure out where she was. It didn’t look familiar at all. As if on queue, a goomba entered the room, and she jumped in shock. It smiled at her, seeming to be not at all harmful.

“I’m so relieved that you’re up! You looked like you got pretty hurt back there,” said the Goomba. Its voice was distinctly feminine. Pauline was completely shocked that a Goomba could even talk in the first place, and this was a lot for her to take in. She just stood there, mouth agape.

“Oh, sorry! Where are my manners? I’m Goombrielle. I saw that you were in pretty bad shape, so I took you in,” said the Goomba. Pauline grasped for words.

“T...Thank you, Goombrielle,” she said. There was a tremor in her voice, but her gratitude was genuine, “I was chasing Bowser’s ship, and must have run straight off of a ledge…” Goombrielle laughed a little.

“Really? Man, that would have been a silly way to go!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah…” muttered Pauline, still in shock, “did you see where the ship went? Bowser took Princess Peach from her castle, they could be anywhere!” Goombrielle furrowed her gigantic brow, appearing deep in thought.

“No, sorry miss,” she responded, “all I saw was you lyin’ on the ground.”

“Thank you anyway,” sighed Pauline, looking around the room, “it was really nice of you to go out of your way to take care of someone in need. People like you give me hope.” The goomba smiled in return.

“Aw, it was nothin!” she chirped, “I always try to help out a person in need. Besides, no one could possibly just leave you lying there in the cold.”

“Well, I appreciate it,” said Pauline. She paused for a moment, opening her mouth to speak before there was a loud crash from outside. Goombrielle jumped, looking shocked.

“That didn’t sound good!” she exclaimed, running out of the room. Pauline followed her closely, running through a living room and out into the world. That was when she saw something that made her blood run cold. Goombas were attacking other goombas all around the small village. The rougher, meaner looking goombas would actually pick up their opponents and run away with them once they had knocked them out. Goombrielle shrieked, running forward and headbutting one of the cruel-looking goombas. Pauline, of course, went over and helped her.

She had very little on her except her purse and hat, but she found that her purse could easily be used as a melee weapon. Decking the violent goomba over the head with her purse, Pauline effectively got it to run off.

“What’s going on?!” she demanded.

“Bad goombas are here!” responded Goombrielle, dodging as a goomba was thrown past her, “they’re the ones who are loyal to Bowser! They usually leave us alone, though, I don’t understand why they’re here right now!”

Pauline whacked another goomba with her purse and sent it running. Because of her height and weapon advantage, she was able to help the goombas scare away the villains, and everyone was left to recuperate. Goombrielle was looking around, a look of deep concentration etched into her face.

“Goonther!” she called, receiving no response, “Goonther! Has anyone seen Goonther?!” There were murmurs of unrest, but no response. Slowly, more and more voices began to cry out the names of their loved ones.

“Some of them must have been taken!” exclaimed a voice.

“Taken? Where would they even go?!” screeched another. The crowd slowly erupted into an uproar, and Goombrielle was left standing next to Pauline, shocked and confused.

“I’m going to fight bowser,” Pauline decided, “I’ll bring them back, along with Peach.”

“I’m going with you,” stated Goombrielle, “Goonther is my little brother. I need to save him myself.”

“Are you sure?” asked Pauline, “you could get hurt.”

“Me? Naw, I’ll be fine,” responded Goombrielle, “Bowser, on the other hand… oh, when I get to him, he’s gonna wish he never hatched from his pathetic little egg.”

“Well, I certainly won’t tell you to stay,” Pauline decided, after a brief moment of consideration.

“Trust me, you couldn’t make me stay if you tried,” boasted Goombrielle, “now let’s get going!”

“I can’t say no to that logic,” Pauline said, shrugging and beginning to walk out of town. There was a brief moment of silence as they walked through the grassy forest, before Goombrielle spoke again.

“So… where are we going?” she asked. Pauline, who had been carefully surveying the woods for any signs of movement, stopped for a moment.

“We’re going to find those goombas and see if we can get them to talk,” said Pauline, “if they’re loyal to Bowser then they have to know where he is.”

“Alright! Sounds like a plan!” exclaimed Goombrielle. And then, there were two.

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Peach sat, tied to a chair, wearing a dog’s muzzle and glaring daggers at Bowser, who seemed more relaxed than ever.

“Why the long face, princess?” He cooed. Well, it was still a growl, but it was the best possible impression of a tender voice that he could manage. Peach just glared at him, and Bowser stood up, throwing his arms in the air.

“I mean, we’re getting married, babe!” he exclaimed, laughing a little, “you should be celebrating, but something’s got you down. What is it?” Peach glared.

“Is it that mean little plumber?” asked Bowser, feigning empathy. Peach hissed something that sounded like ‘mayor, actually,’ but Bowser didn’t seem to hear her.

“Polly can’t get you here,” he reassured her, “but if she really is bothering you so much, then I can help you out.” Bowser sighed dramatically, looking out of the windows of his ship, “the things I do for love.”

“Tell you what, Peachie,” he began, “how's about we wait till she comes to us, and then we punish her?” Peach shook her head, still glaring at him.

Pauline wound up having a surprisingly pleasant conversation with the girlfriend of her ex-boyfriend. She found that Peach was quite right, and that she did really enjoy her company. The woman was always polite, but she clearly had a sense of humor that she was able to get away with by feigning obliviousness to the real point of whatever she said. Before Pauline knew it, a few hours had passed, and they both decided to head inside, as the air grew cold. What she wasn’t expecting was Peach, innocently grabbing her hand and leading her there.

They both sat down on a loveseat, and Peach leaned on her side, absently resting her head on Pauline’s shoulder. The mayor couldn’t help but think that she was intruding, but she also… really didn’t mind. She knew that she herself was attracted to women, she had known it for a while, the only problem was that this particular woman was taken by a friend of hers. While she’d like to indulge herself, she knew that it would break his heart, and so she kept her hands to herself, allowing Peach to do whatever she pleased without returning the favor.

“I’m cold…” murmured Peach, seeming drowsy, “won’t you hold me?” Pauline froze.

“I- um- I mean, we can grab a blanket,” she offered, feeling Peach shake her head.

“Peach, I can’t help but feel that I’d be intruding on events that you and Mario should only ever experience together,” she said.

“Mmm?” asked Peach. Pauline looked over to answer, before the words that she was going to say got caught in her throat. Peach was very, very close. She was staring up at her, smiling in an innocent yet undeniably smug sort of way.

“You aren’t intruding on anything,” responded Peach, speaking quietly now because of her close proximity to the other woman, “you’re perfectly welcome.” Pauline’s heart sped up. The other woman’s face was mere inches from hers, looking up at her coquettishly, lips quirked in a smile.

“Peach…” was all that Pauline could really say. It was very, very difficult for her not to act on the opportunity that was being presented to her. Peach’s hand on her shoulder gently tugged her down, and the blonde woman closed her eyes. Their lips brushed. Stars, they were so close, but Pauline had to close the gap. In one swift motion, she indulged herself, wrapping her arms around the smaller and incredibly alluring woman and pulling her closer. Peach squeaked and let herself be maneuvered onto Pauline’s lap, holding onto her until she felt the woman’s torso fit snugly between her legs. She loved how it felt, but Pauline still had not kissed her, and she was incredibly disappointed. She opened her eyes, now having to look down a little to meet those of the other woman.

“Are you sure?” demanded Pauline. Her voice made Peach shiver. There was that undertone that she hadn’t heard in so painfully long, the deeper timbre to the voice which implied just about everything that Peach needed to know.

“Take me.” Peach whispered the command, looking down at Pauline with nothing but certainty in her eyes and a tiny, smug smirk on her lips. Alright, Pauline supposed. She had won. She could deal with the aftermath later. Pauline eagerly placed her hands on Peach’s waist, craning her neck a little to reach the woman’s lips. Before she could get what they both so desperately wanted, however, there was a loud crash. Pauline looked in the direction of the noise, and Peach whined in utter and complete frustration, pressing herself as close to her partner as physics would allow. There were loud thuds, and Pauline held Peach close.

The princess curled up in her lap, and Pauline looked to see that there was a slight hint of fear in her formerly confident eyes.

“Is that..?” she whispered. Peach nodded. Bowser.

“We have to hide you,” decided Pauline. Peach shook her head.

“It won’t work!” she whispered in return, “it never does!”

“What do you mean ‘it never does?’” asked Pauline, “has Mario even tried?”

“There’s no time to explain this right now!” Peach responded in a stage whisper, “we have to fight him.”

“If you could fight Bowser, we wouldn’t have a problem in the first place, right?” responded Pauline.

“I can take him now,” responded Peach, looking determined.

“Please, don’t hurt yourself,” said Pauline. Peach shook her head, standing firm. The door burst down, and Bowser barged into the room.

“Peach! Mar-” Bowser stopped for a moment, blinking in confusion. “Feminine mario…” he continued, looking a little concerned, “it’s no use resisting me! Peach, my darling, come with me, you wouldn’t want to miss our wedding!” Bowser tried to scoop Peach up in one arm. She sidestepped it as if she knew exactly where he was going to hit before he even swung.

“Bowser,” she said politely, looking thoroughly put off but not concerned, “may I not just have one date where you don’t intrude upon us?”

“Not if it ain’t a date with me!” responded Bowser, “that’s life!” He tried to swipe at Peach again, but she jumped, landing on his hand. While he was confused, she ran up his arm, jumping behind him and grabbing his tail. Bowser realized exactly what danger he was in, and so he jumped into the air as best he could with his tail being held, tossing himself backwards shell-first. Peach rolled out from the path of destruction without a second to spare, hopping to her feet and looking up. Bowser dove for her, but Pauline wound up and slapped him across the face with her purse. It hit him surprisingly hard, and he recoiled in shock.

“Well, well, well,” he commented, “Mario’s learned to actually fight back when Peach is in danger. Nice job! You almost hurt me!”

“The name’s Pauline,” hissed Pauline, going at him again. He simply caught her with one hand, which was roughly the size of her body, and tossed her aside, grabbing Peach with the other. The princess struggled in vain to escape his grasp, and Bowser broke through the glass door onto the balcony, hopping onto an awaiting airship. Because, Pauline reasoned, of course he brought the airship.

She sprinted out after him, looking up to Peach, who stared back at her with nothing but pure terror.

“Don’t come after me!” she yelled, “please, Pauline, don’t come after me!” Pauline was busy removing her six-inch high heels and throwing them at Bowser’s head. He spat angrily, but was mostly unaffected.

“Nice try, Paul, but for now, your princess is in another castle!” Bowser roared with laughter as he pulled himself and the princess fully onto his ship.

Mario had been outstandingly helpful to Pauline when she had needed him the most, and so she was perfectly happy to return the favor when he wound up getting sick. After all, his immediate work was completely okay with him missing a day, and so all that she really needed to do was make sure that nothing in the Mushroom Kingdom caught on fire while he wasn’t looking. With Peach being a perfectly competent woman, Pauline thought that she had a pretty easy job. She was wrong.

Almost as soon as she was ready to get some of her other work done, she received a letter that had been sent to Mario and then re-addressed to her. Inside were two folded pieces of paper. One of them was pastel pink with very neat, small handwriting on it, and she chose this one first. It read:

“Dear Mario, I thought that it would be nice if we spent some time together. Would you like to chat over tea and cake? Princess Peach.”

Pauline blanched. It was a little unprofessional of Mario to send his girlfriend’s love letters to his ex-girlfriend. Unless… He did say to watch over the mushroom kingdom. Did he really want her to go on a date with his girlfriend? Was that what his idea of “filling in for me” entailed? Pauline shook her head, before her attention was grabbed by the next piece of paper. It was old and yellowed, and had Mario’s familiar handwriting on it. Pauline opened it up, taking a look.

“Dear Pauline, Every single time that I have ever gotten a letter from Peach asking that we go on a date, she’s been abducted. Seriously, every single time, without falter. I know that it’s a lot to ask, but could you just pay her a visit? Say it’s from me, thanks Mario.”

Pauline read and reread the letter, confused. So… he expected her to go hang out with his girlfriend whom she had never met. It was a lot to ask, but she supposed that she could understand his concern. Getting abducted was traumatizing, and she’d hate for that to happen to anyone, even Peach. She was thoroughly confused despite this. Was she supposed to bring anything? Should she just… show up? Eventually, she just decided to do Mario a huge solid and bring Peach some red roses, claiming that they were from him. That way, she also wouldn’t come empty handed.

When Pauline arrived at Peach’s castle, it was not without mild confusion from its residents. On second thought, strutting up to her front door with a bouquet of roses would look a little weird out of context. Toad still greeted her, and she explained why she was there, so he showed her to the room where Peach awaited. She didn’t know why, but she felt… uncomfortable.

Knocking politely on the princess’s door, she immediately realized why she felt uncomfortable.

“Come in,” chimed a voice. It was innocent but there were still some rather… implicit undertones, and suddenly, Pauline was not really sure that she wanted to come in. I mean the woman was waiting for Mario in her private quarters, anticipating a long period of time spent alone together. Pauline felt very, very out of her element. Regardless, she did as she was told, politely opening the door with an apologetic look.

“Mario sends his apologies-” she began, before looking at the room in front of her. Or rather, the woman in the room in front of her. Peach was… well, she was… something. Pauline politely looked away, blushing a little out of civility.

“Sorry, princess,” she said, “Mario sent me to see you. He’s sick today, you see…”

“And he sent you?” asked the woman. Her voice didn’t sound demeaning, just curious. Still, Pauline wished that Peach would get into a different position. It simply wasn’t decent, her entire calf was showing.

“Yes,” she responded, still looking away, “he wanted to make sure that you were okay. He said that in the past, sometimes your letters were cries for help, so he wanted me to check on you.”

“That’s sweet,” was the response, “I really was just looking to have some time with him, though. Thank you for coming on his behalf.” Pauline nodded.

“It’s no problem,” she said, finally returning her gaze to the woman. Sure, she was still a little exposed, but they were both girls, “anyway, he brought you some roses.” She closed the distance between the two of them, carefully handing the bouquet to Peach.

“He did?” Peach seemed skeptical, before smiling absently “that’s unusual.”

“If you really are fine then I’ll just take my leave now,” Pauline continued, taking a step back, “I’ll tell Mario you liked the roses and that you’re doing well.”

“You could stay for cake if you liked,” offered Peach, looking up at Pauline with a smile that she couldn’t really read.

“I’m… sorry?” asked Pauline.

“Well it would be a shame to let it go to waste, and I’m certainly not going to eat it all by myself,” responded Peach, standing up, “besides, it’ll be a chance to get to know you better.” Pauline really did not want to stay.

“I mean, I’ve still got to do a lot of paperwork for New Donk City-” she began, cut off abruptly.

“You should stay,” Peach insisted, softly but in a way that made Pauline think that she might not have any other option, “I think I’ll like your company.”

“Princess…” managed Pauline, utterly confused.

Pauline was true to her word, and she swiftly arrived at the comet observatory the following afternoon with light baggage in preparation for her trip. Rosalina glided down from her garden, where she had been tending to the flowers, and greeted her at the entrance to the observatory. She seemed much shyer than she had been the night before, and Pauline found it confusing but endearing.

“Are you ready?” she asked. Rosalina nodded.

“Yes, let’s go,” she decided, smiling a little. Pauline offered Rosalina her arm in a somewhat goofy display of mock-royalty, as it was a gesture similar to that of what a prince would do in escorting a princess. Rosalina giggled a little and took her arm, letting her lead the way to the appropriate Launch Star. Within a moment of traveling at light-speeds, they had landed in Seaside kingdom at sunset. In retrospect, it always seemed to be sunset there, and neither of them really minded. Pauline took a step forward, releasing Rosalina’s hands in order to take in the warm, evening air.

“This is going to be nice…” she murmured, smiling and turning around to her partner. A wide, affectionate grin crossed her face when she saw her expression. Rosalina was absolutely dumbfounded by what she saw. She was looking around slowly, trying to take it all in. The gorgeous colors were unlike anything that she had ever seen, with the splashes of bright orange on the canyons behind her, and the teal-blue water in front of her, shimmering with the reflection of the setting sun.

Pauline decided to remove the rest of her clothing as she was wearing a bikini underneath, setting it all neatly aside with the towels that she had brought along before trotting up to Rosalina.

“Are you ready?” She asked, barely able to restrain herself from jumping into the water. Rosalina was staring at her in confusion, cheeks flushed a deep red.

“O-oh.. Um…” she stuttered, looking away, “you’re wearing that? ”

“I mean I could probably find something else if you’d like,” said Pauline, but Rosalina shook her head fervently.

“No no, it’s good… it’s better than good… I just wasn’t expecting it right now is all,” she said.

“You weren’t expecting a swimsuit..?” asked Pauline, still confused.

“A what?” asked Rosalina. Oh. Right. Riiiight. She wouldn’t be familiar with the practice of swimming.

“Oh- I’m so sorry! I forgot that you probably didn’t know about this,” said Pauline, leaving the water’s edge to get closer to Rosalina, “we generally wear these things when we swim. Either a bikini or a one-piece,” she explained. Rosalina nodded slowly, still not meeting Pauline’s eyes.

“Ah… I may have… forgotten one…” she said quietly, seeming embarrassed. Pauline waved it off.

“That’s no problem,” said Pauline, “I can just swim to the merchants over there and pick one up for you. That is, if you’re comfortable wearing one.” Rosalina mulled this over for a moment, before nodding slowly.

“I think I’d like one, if that’s alright,” she said. Pauline nodded and dove into the water, causing Rosalina to gasp in astonishment. Of course, she knew what water was, but it was still surprising for her to see Pauline just jump in and go straight towards the bottom. She was very scared that the woman might sink, before she observed her begin to “swim” gracefully towards the surface, coming up for air before swimming just below the surface towards one of the merchants.

‘Ah,’ Rosalina observed, ‘that must be swimming, then…’ Bikinis really just looked like underwear to her, but if it was an earth custom, then so be it. Within a minute, Pauline was back, and she pulled herself out of the water with a soft blue bikini for Rosalina.

“I figured that this was more your color,” she said, handing it to the woman. Rosalina nodded, thanking her quietly, before waving her wand. In a brief moment, her body and bathing suit were surrounded by a white light. When the light faded, she had changed into the suit and her dress sat neatly-folded in her unused arm, where the bikini had been. She set it next to Pauline’s clothing and joined the woman.

“Am I ready now?” she asked, looking up to her. Pauline smiled a little. The princess of the cosmos was honestly quite cute.

“Yes,” she responded, “so long as you know how to swim.” Rosalina was silent for a moment.

“I think I can figure it out,” she decided, getting into the water. Pauline was about to stop her, before she saw Rosalina replicate her dive perfectly, and come to the surface with no problem. Well, there was one abnormality. She wasn’t moving her arms or legs in a way that should actually have been keeping her suspended. As Pauline joined her, she regarded her with an affectionate look of confusion.

“How are you doing that?” she asked. She, of course, was treading water as people normally do.

“I’m just hovering, as-per-usual,” responded Rosalina. Oh, of course. That reassured Pauline. Even if the woman didn’t know how to swim, she did know how to hover, so there was no danger of her drowning. She grinned, looking over to her companion.

“Nice!” she said, “now there are normally games that people play in the water.”

“Oh?” Rosalina inquired, seeming genuinely curious.

“Mmm-hmm,” hummed Pauline, “this is one of them.” With no warning, she splashed the princess and dove away, coming back up a few feet away from her. Rosalina looked stunned for a moment. She was just… hovering there, looking distraught. Concerned, Pauline swam back over to her.

“I’m sorry, did that-” before she could finish, she was hit with a small wave of water, and as soon as she had cleared it from her eyes, she realized that she could no longer see Rosalina. Looking around frantically, she saw a small ripple in the water, looking below and seeing the princess dive even further away. Pauline grinned mischievously, diving after her and propelling herself through the water with the combined dolphin kick and butterfly stroke. She emerged behind the other woman as soon as she came up for air and splashed her from behind, receiving a startled squeak as Rosalina whipped around to splash her. She was too late, however, because Pauline was already underwater. Rosalina smiled evilly, diving back down after her.

To dry off for a moment, Pauline decided to take them both out of the water and sit in the warm sands, where they lazily spoke of whatever came to mind. Their calmness was, however, disrupted by a young Bubblanian who called to them from across the beach.

“Get on the court! I can take both of you!” he called. Rosalina looked to Pauline, who quirked an eyebrow.

“I think he wants us to play volleyball,” she said, responding to Rosalina’s confused stare.

“Volleyball?” asked Rosalina.

“Basically, you just hit the ball over the net and don’t ever let it touch the ground on your side,” explained Pauline, “it’s actually pretty fun. Do you wanna give it a shot?” Rosalina nodded, and Pauline stood up, helping her up as well. They brushed some of the sand off of themselves before trotting over to the Bubblanian, who immediately tossed the volleyball towards them. Pauline was able to easily hit it back over the net, and the game began.

As the rounds passed, however, it got more and more difficult for them to actually hit the ball over the net without it getting past them. They soon found themselves diving across the court to catch the ball, one round actually being won by the fact that Pauline dove across the court, landing on her stomach, and hit the ball over the net just before it would have hit the ground. The woman was sweating a little, and flushed from all of the exercise, as well as still being clad in her bikini. Rosalina definitely didn’t mind, although she was too shy to flirt with her out loud. When they finally won, having hit the ball one-hundred times, Pauline looked about ready to fall over. Rosalina politely thanked the coach, before finding both of them two chairs on the beach nearby, where Pauline was able to relax.

After Pauline made her recovery, and there was another short while of playing around in the water, Pauline decided showed Rosalina something amazing. She had a playful glint in her eye as she climbed up one of the stone structures which housed a water geyser. She jumped into it, and suddenly, she was gone. Rosalina gasped, trying to figure out where she had went. After a moment, she was able to spot a very far-away Pauline, jumping and waving to her from the top of the Glass Tower. Rosalina could just float up to her, but she smiled a little and decided to let herself have fun.

Launching herself out of the geyser of water was amazing. She couldn’t keep herself from screaming in excitement, as one would on a roller-coaster, as she was shot at high-speeds through the air, eventually landing upon a large cork atop the water in the Glass Tower. To her surprise, she found Pauline sitting on a red-and-white-checkered picnic blanket, upon which there lay an assortment of foods. The water above her dispersed so much that it was barely just a fine mist above their heads, and it made a rather pleasant feeling without actually getting either of them (or the food) wet.

Pauline smiled and patted the blanket next to her, where Rosalina promptly sat.

“Wow…” she murmured, surprised by all of what Pauline seemed to have planned.

“I got some friends to help me set this up right before we got here,” she explained.

“It’s just…” Rosalina didn’t have words. Everything was just so beautiful and romantic, and she didn’t know how to express the way that her heart felt. “Wow…”

“I’m glad you like it,” Pauline smiled, tousling Rosalina’s still-wet hair, before beginning to dig in. It was a high-quality meal, too. There were these things called crepes, which Rosalina had never tried before, and she was amazed by how they tasted and felt in her mouth. First, there were savory ones, but after that there were also sweet crepes filled with nutella and bananas, and it was possibly the most delicious thing that she had ever had. Topped off with a small glass of “Le Cigare Volant Réserve” and well… it was really, really nice.

She felt generally… warm, cozy, and relaxed in a way that she hadn’t been for quite a long time. The end of the meal found both her and Pauline, lying on their backs and staring up at the sunset sky, which grew slowly darker, and talking about whatever came to mind. Rosalina was lying in a way similar to that of the prior night, with her head resting on Pauline’s chest and the woman’s arm around her shoulders and stomach. She had to shiver every now and then, when Pauline accidentally brushed her bare skin by shifting slightly, but that was really the last thing on her mind. She was really just enjoying laying there, warm and in the arms of someone who seemed to care deeply for her, sharing a moment that was only between the two of them. Pauline finished speaking about her hopes and dreams, and there was a brief, comfortable moment of silence, which neither of them really wanted to break too soon. All that existed was them, the fading sunlight, and the sound of the waves lapping against the far-off shore.

It was when Rosalina’s breath hitched that Pauline decided to look over to her, seemingly broken out of a trance. She had been absently stroking the woman’s stomach as she thought, and it didn’t seem to lack an effect. Rosalina looked to her, furrowing her brow.

“Today was amazing, Pauline…” she murmured, pressing further into Pauline’s side with a content sigh. She was a little worked up, and yet… she didn’t really want her lust to take away from her love in that moment. Pauline smiled, kissing her hair.

“I’m glad you liked it,” she responded, “I was just happy to get to spend it with you. You’re really cute when you’re learning new things, you know that? You’re generally just really pleasant to be around.” Rosalina blushed slightly deeper.

“I-um-thanks,” she squeaked, “I feel the same… for you…” It had been so easy to flirt with the woman just twenty-four hours earlier, but now she found herself stumbling for words and second-guessing herself.

“Rosalina…” murmured Pauline, “I’d like it if we could be together. I want to get to know you even more, and I’d like it if… well…” she paused, and her face reddened, even though she seemed confident, “would you be mine?” Rosalina lifted her head, smiling affectionately down at her.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she managed, feeling genuinely ecstatic for the first time in as long as she could remember. Her heart pounded in her chest as she watched Pauline’s face first turn to a look of relief, before lighting up into a look of genuine, true love for the woman. Rosalina was shy, but she was unable to restrain herself in that moment. Without concern for anything in the world, she dipped down and kissed Pauline. It was a slow, languid kiss, and as Pauline slipped her idle hand into Rosalina’s hair, she felt nothing but pure affection for the woman in her arms. Or… well, beneath her, to put it literally.

They only ever broke apart for air, and the breaks were brief, as one of them would quickly pull the other back in. Rosalina, though incredibly shy, nibbled on Pauline’s lower lip in a silent question, and was pleased when the woman took her queue and opened her mouth, allowing Rosalina to tentatively slip her tongue inside. What she wasn’t expecting was for Pauline to suck delicately, which elicited a light moan from her. She pulled back in shock, covering her mouth in blushing.

“Oh, I… uh…” she tried to explain, fumbling for words and growing more embarrassed by the second. Pauline sat up to join her, smiling a little.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” she said, with a smile “it was…” She ran through the list of words that she had to describe the adorable, exceptionally alluring woman, before arriving at a conclusion. “Cute.” Rosalina smiled, still looking embarrassed. Pauline leaned forward, kissing her briefly for a moment, before standing up and offering her a hand, which she took.

“Should we be heading back?” she asked. Rosalina wanted to say no, but they had left both of their respective kingdoms for quite some time now, and she knew that it was her duty to say yes.

“I don’t want to,” she confessed, “but we probably should.”

“Yeah…” agreed Pauline. She looked somber for a moment, before breaking into a wide grin.

“Race you to the Launch Star!” she yelled, leaping over the edge of the Glass Tower and diving gracefully into the deep waters below. Rosalina was shocked for a full ten seconds, but she was able to conjure a much smaller Launch Star and propel herself through the air towards the beach. She could see Pauline’s sleek figure shooting through the clear water below her like an arrow, and she was barely ahead of her. When Pauline came up for air and realized what Rosalina was doing, she shot forward with more vigor, launching herself into the air at the last possible second to gain the extra speed, before landing on the beach, just milliseconds before Rosalina landed next to her.

“Darn,” sighed the princess of the cosmos, “that was close.” Pauline was panting a little, but grinning widely. Thanks to her most recent idea, however, she was soaking wet while Rosalina was able to change into her completely dry dress for the trip back to the much colder outreaches of outer space. Pauline shrugged, thinking that she would figure something out.

After landing in the very, very cold comet observatory, she realized that she was wrong . The poor woman was shivering, and Rosalina immediately took on a look of deep concern.

“You must come inside immediately to dry off,” she insisted, leading Pauline to her bedroom. It was the only place that was both indoors and outfitted for relaxation. While Pauline was already in a towel, Rosalina also grabbed her a heavy blanket, wrapping her in it as best she could and making sure that she was entirely warm and comfortable before she stopped moving. If Pauline could have spoken through the layers upon layers of blankets, she would have called Rosalina’s fussing “absolutely adorable.” She had to admit, it made her heart skip a beat when she realized how much the other woman cared for her.

Rosalina did her best to cuddle with her through the layers of blankets, and Pauline smiled affectionately.

“Maybe just one blanket will do for the both of us,” she tried to say. It came out as “mmm jmmm ommm blmmm wmmm dmmm fmmmr thmmm bmmmth mmmmf mmms.” Rosalina giggled a little, helping Pauline with the blankets before the woman repeated herself. Rosalina blushed slightly, before nodding her head in agreement.

“That’s good, so long as you will wear something else to bed… That bikini is covered in sea water and it can’t be comfortable to sleep in,” she said.

“I haven’t brought anything with me,” said Pauline.

“Then I suppose I’ll just have to return your earlier favor,” hummed Rosalina, grabbing a set of her pajamas and bringing them over to Pauline, who blushed a little.

“How could I say no to that offer?” she asked, grinning and beginning to get herself out of the blankets with much help from Rosalina. She took the pajamas from Rosalina, who stared at her expectantly. Pauline stared back, smiling a little.

“Uh, while I don’t mind putting on show,” she began, not needing to continue as Rosalina lightly apologized, turning around so that Pauline could get changed in peace. When she was done, they both crawled into the woman’s amazingly soft bed, and Pauline cuddled her close.

“You’re like a stuffed animal…” she mused, “so fun to hug.” Rosalina giggled a little.

“Same to you,” she responded, nestling herself into the other woman’s arms. She was lying so that her head was right at the center of Pauline’s chest, and she could hear the woman’s heartbeat. It was so steady and reassuring. As she was beginning to fall asleep, Rosalina thought over how nice it was to have someone to hold. She was usually so alone out in space. Certainly, she had the lumas, but they didn’t offer companionship that paralleled this in any way. Pauline was just so… close, and warm, and just… soft.. Rosalina could feel her heart swell, and she let the small smile cross her face as Pauline gently stroked her hair. Without warning, a loud, harsh ringing disrupted the silence. Pauline looked surprised for a moment, before she hopped out of bed and went to her work clothes, where they lay in a pile on the floor. Rummaging around for a moment, she retrieved a phone and held it to her ear.

“Hello? Oh! Oh no!” she began to look troubled, “yes, of course. Of course, I’ll be there right away!” She hung up and began stripping with no concern for whether or not Rosalina saw her this time, although the princess turned to give her privacy as she changed into her work clothes.

“What’s going on?” she asked, sounding worried.

“Nothing that you need to be concerned about,” Pauline said, trying to calm her down. She walked over and gave her a kiss on the forehead, before going to the door, “Someone’s been causing trouble around New Donk City, and they need me there to clean it up. It shouldn’t be a big deal, so don’t worry too much, I’ve just gotta go and resolve it. You've got surprisingly good reception out here, by the way. Sorry to leave you so soon, but I have to run! Love you!” Pauline was out the door before she even realized what she said, leaving Rosalina slightly bewildered on the bed as the woman’s words registered in her mind. Love was such a strong word, and yet… it suited the situation.

Peach had never been the type of person to get possessive or jealous over someone else. Even in romantic relationships, she was generally able to let her partner do whatever he wished and trust that he would be loyal to her. That was why Peach couldn’t make sense of her current behavior and feelings towards a certain mayor who had walked back into her life.

Pauline had been charming from the get-go, and the two of them had instantly hit it off, becoming fast friends. The woman would often hug Peach, hang out with her when she was feeling lonely, and teach her self-defense in return for baking lessons. They had been spending a lot of time together, and Peach loved how she felt whenever she realized that she was going to see the delightful woman again. Of course she had invited Pauline to her ball that evening, and of course Pauline had been very charismatic in striking up conversation with the other guests. She was a politician, after all, she had to be a people person, and beyond that, she was just plain likeable and sweet.

Back to the problem at hand. Or- well… Peach scolded herself. It was hardly a problem that Pauline seemed to be getting along very, very well with her friends Daisy and Rosalina. It wasn’t a problem at all that Rosalina was the only one out of the bunch who was single besides Pauline, and she seemed to be feeling surprisingly… not shy tonight. It certainly didn’t make Peach grow slightly angry when she saw Pauline fussing over Rosalina, who blushed a little as Daisy joined in and teased her about whatever it was that they were talking about.

Peach walked up to them, greeting them politely, and stepping in-between Rosalina and Pauline. She didn’t do that because she was jealous, of course, she did that because there was the most space there, that was all. At least, that’s what she told herself. Everyone politely greeted her in return, before they fell back into their prior conversation.

“Princess,” said Pauline, “you didn’t tell me that you were gonna invite a literal goddess! She’s amazing, Rosalina- show her what you can do!” Rosalina looked to the side, slightly embarrassed, before waving her wand and producing a burst of magic, around which, millions of tiny stars seemed to orbit as if they were planets. With a flick of her wrist, the tiny stars circled the small group of women, before returning to her wand and disappearing into thin air. Everyone clapped, and Peach found herself feeling a little bit angry again. Why had she invited the goddess? Because they were close friends, and it was petty for her to get upset over the fact that Pauline was fitting in with the rest of the group. Calm down, Peach.

It was when Pauline praised Rosalina excessively, and the goddess responded by blushing and acting incredibly shy, that Peach decided to put logic aside. How jealous could she possibly get before she would do something stupid? She smiled, looping her arm through that of Pauline.

“Dinner should be ready, girls,” she chimed, “we should head to the dining room.” Everyone agreed with her, as it had been a long time since the party had started, and they were growing quite hungry. Rosalina looked at Peach and Pauline’s looped arms, eyes flicking from Peach, to the arms, and then to Pauline. Daisy regarded the rest of them with an amusement that only Peach could detect.

“Something funny, Daisy?” she asked innocently.

“Oh, no!” scoffed Daisy, “I was just thinking about all of the great food we’re gonna have. Let’s go!” She passed Peach, smirking at her once she knew that only she could see, before leading the way to the dining room. As they all walked and made idle chatter, Pauline cast a quick glance down to Peach, furrowing her brow.

The straight one was acting even weirder than usual. It was just like her to be completely disinterested in Pauline’s advances until she turned them on someone else. With mild amusement, she turned to regard Rosalina, who was walking (hovering?) by her unoccupied side.

“What’s it like living out amongst the stars?” she asked, genuinely curious. Rosalina seemed to be startled out of a thought, and she paused for a moment to silently repeat the question before answering it. A small smile crossed her face.

“Well, I’ve lived there for so long that it’s all I can really remember,” she explained, “so I don’t have much to compare it to besides the occasional visit to the Mushroom Kingdom. It’s very... tranquil, and time seems to stand still when there’s nobody out there besides the Lumas and I. It does get a little lonely, though, without other humans. That’s why I stop by so frequently. Lumas make excellent company, but there’s something about human contact that just can’t be replicated.” Pauline nodded, smiling.

“I think I know what you mean,” she said, “I mean after all, I chose to be mayor of New Donk City.” Rosalina hummed contemplatively.

“It must be nice, to be surrounded by so many people all of the time,” she mused. Pauline shrugged.

“It’s nice most of the time, but sometimes I do just want to get away from it all. But hey, if you want to give that lifestyle a shot, you’re always welcome to come see me,” proposed Pauline.

“I think I’d like that,” responded Rosalina, smiling a little.

Peach silently simmered, and they arrived at the dining room. She had pre-set the table so that she was sitting at the head with Pauline to her left and Rosalina to her right, which was fortunate for their current situation. Peach honestly wasn’t sure if she could handle the two of them sitting next to each other. Daisy, who was on the other side of Pauline, was enjoying every second of her friend’s wrath. She had never seen her get jealous before, and this was amusing to her.

She watched as the four of them made conversation, seeing how Pauline’s eyes would intentionally linger on Rosalina for just a bit longer than usual, and how whenever Rosalina caught her staring, the goddess would blush and look away. Each time that this happened, Peach would huff and look a little annoyed. Honestly, in Daisy’s opinion, she had it coming. Pauline had been quietly courting her for the past few months, and Peach had given nothing in return, because she was supposed to be straight. Now, Pauline found somebody else to pursue, and Peach seemed upset.

In hindsight- did Peach even realize that she was jealous romantically? Daisy had to hide her small chuckle with a napkin. Her friend was so oblivious to everything, even her own emotions, and it was both parts cute and pathetic. Daisy decided that she should fan the flames. Pauline deserved to court at least one woman, and Daisy would ensure that it was either Peach or Rosalina. Her sister could get in the way of her own romance, but it was just annoying for her to intrude on that of another.

“Hey, Pauline,” Daisy intervened, “were you and your band gonna perform tonight?” Pauline’s eyes lit up with genuine passion for the subject at hand, and she nodded.

“Yeah, we were going to do it a little after dinner so that everyone could dance to it,” she responded, wearing a huge grin.

“You perform?” asked Rosalina. Pauline redirected her gaze to the goddess, and she nodded.

“Yes, I sing whenever I have the time to set up a gig,” she said, “it’s nothing much, but I get a kick out of it.”

“Oh, she’s amazing!” Peach intervened, before backing up and seeming slightly embarrassed at her sudden outburst, “sorry! I just… Pauline has a really good voice, and you have got to hear her band play, Rosalina. You’ll never hear anything like it.”

“Well, now you’ve got me intrigued,” mused Rosalina, offering a coquettish smile to Pauline. Peach internally scolded herself.

“Why Miss Rosalina, I’m honored,” responded Pauline, smirking a little. “I could perform any song that you like, just say the word.” Pauline caught herself, “Not-not tonight, obviously, but if we’re together sometime then I could prepare it for you.”

“I’ll have to take you up on that,” giggled Rosalina, “music is something that I miss dearly when in space. I can still hear it at certain places, but it’s usually very quiet out there.” Rosalina’s face lit up, “oh, and I’m sure that the lumas would love to hear you! I don’t think that they’ve really ever heard a full-on musician before!”

“Is this an invitation for me to come over?” asked Pauline. Rosalina smiled, nodding.

“I’d like to have you, yes,” she responded coyly. Pauline’s heart skipped a beat. Had she just..? Daisy didn’t externally react, but she was reeling. Oh MAN she had not expected that from the introverted star-woman.

“The feeling is mutual,” purred Pauline, prompting a smile from Rosalina. Holy shit. Daisy looked to Peach, who seemed completely fine. Right, she was straight. She had absolutely no idea what Rosalina had just proposed. Still, Daisy did notice her hands clenching together in a nervous tick, just discrete enough for nobody else to notice. Dinner wrapped up slowly, with Pauline and Rosalina flirting behind an ill-fitting mask of innocent tabletalk.

When it was done, Peach introduced Pauline and her band, and they took their places, preparing to perform. Pauline seemed uncharacteristically shy, but she launched herself right into it. The lack of vocal warmups surprised Daisy, but she supposed that Pauline knew what she was doing, and it didn’t seem to affect her voice during the songs.

Daisy looked to Rosalina, who was very close to the front of the stage, looking like she was practically in a trance. When she wasn’t looking at Pauline, in her gorgeous dress and incredibly smooth movements to accompany her singing, she had her eyes closed and was swaying absently to the beat. Daisy realized, with a slight twinge of pain, that she was genuinely interested in Pauline, and the feeling was mutual. This, of course, left Peach. The woman looked genuinely happy to be able to see Pauline perform, and she was watching her excitedly and cheering her on when it was appropriate. She didn’t notice Rosalina, having eyes only for Pauline, and Daisy wondered if she even knew how she felt for Pauline yet. Peach was a little obtuse when it came to these things.

She was good at flirting but bad at understanding anything beyond heterosexual interactions, and she might not even understand her own feelings because of this. Daisy supposed that, at this point, with Rosalina hanging onto Pauline’s every word and Pauline singing just for her, it would be better if Peach never realized the full extent of her feelings for her. It would cause some jealousy, but at least there wouldn’t be heartbreak.

The concert ran on, until Pauline arrived at the final number. It was a slow, sultry song. The crowd didn’t notice it, but it was definitely directed at Rosalina, and Daisy wondered absently if the timid goddess could handle all of this at once. To her surprise, she saw Rosalina smirking coquettishly up at Pauline as she sang and nodding her head to the beat. This was what she wanted in a partner. Daisy had never seen her try to romance someone before, and it was clear that the quiet, introverted woman was not at all shy when she knew that her feelings could be reciprocated. Once the song and bows were over and the roar of the crowd finally died down, Pauline stepped off of the small stage that she had been allotted by Peach.

She was immediately swarmed with amazed onlookers who showered her with praise until her cheeks were red, and it took her quite a while to find Rosalina, who had waited for the crowd to die down. She did like people, but she didn’t care to mingle with whole swarms of them at once.

Daisy couldn’t hear what was being said, but she did see when Rosalina stood on the tips of her toes, planting a small kiss on the edge of Pauline’s lips. She saw when the woman smiled and reciprocated, kissing her directly on the mouth and rubbing a bit of her red lipstick off on the other woman, who clearly didn’t mind. Daisy also saw Peach, staring at the two of them with wide eyes, her mouth agape. She decided to approach her confused friend as Pauline and Rosalina continued to… get acquainted.

“Hey Peach,” she said, trotting over to her, “‘sup?” Peach looked to her, seeming to be snapped out of a trance.

“Oh… I…” she paused, looking over to Pauline and Rosalina, who were now shamelessly holding one another close and kissing. Nobody else seemed to mind in the slightest. “Is that… can they do that?”

Daisy smiled a little.

“Peach, women can be attracted to other women, and Pauline is definitely gay,” she said, “we’ve established this.” Peach’s eyes widened for a moment, before she covered her mouth with her hand.

“I… oh…” Peach furrowed her brow for a moment, before promptly turning and walking off. She was not seen for the rest of the party, which was probably a good idea on her part. Pauline and Rosalina made no effort to hide their interest in one another, and while they remained civil, they weren’t afraid to walk around with their arms around one another’s waists or shoulders. To Daisy’s amusement, they also left the party soon after, telling her to tell Peach that they had a wonderful time and were really thankful that she had invited them.

They left together, and it was clear what they intended to do.

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Pauline was never one to beat around the bush, and it seemed like Rosalina wanted to cut to the chase as well. They had both decided to go to Rosalina’s place for the night, where Pauline became absolutely transfixed by the Lumas, insentient stars, and planets, forgetting her original intent. Rosalina, finding her enthusiasm to be adorable, was more than happy to drop her prior motives and show her around the place, watching in delight as Pauline found every little thing that had been mundane to Rosalina just moments prior, to be absolutely amazing!

While she found the woman extremely attractive, and her intention was to spend the night with her, she also found that she was growing a little attached to her. Maybe this wouldn’t be a one night stand, if Pauline felt the same. One of her lumas, a deep red one, seemed to take an interest in Pauline, who was absolutely in love with it. She played with it like a dork, and Rosalina had to hide her laughter.

“It looks like this little one has taken a liking to you,” she chimed, sitting next to Pauline on her bed. Pauline actually giggled a little as it twirled around her and she petted it, and Rosalina felt her heart… swell? She furrowed her brow, placing a hand over her chest. This was unusual for her. It was similar to when she slept with women, but somehow, it felt softer in a way. Smiling a little, Rosalina just decided to enjoy it, continuing to watch Pauline as she played with the stars.

Without warning, the little Luma flew up into the air, twirling once, before flying out the door. After a beat, it flew back in, seeming like it wanted Pauline to follow. She turned to Rosalina, who stood up calmly, moving over to the Luma.

“What is it, my child?” she asked. Although it didn’t really sound like the Luma said anything, it moved as if it were speaking, producing a strange, otherworldly noise, and Rosalina’s cheeks turned slightly red.

“Oh… alright, if you think she’d like that,” managed Rosalina, “thank you.” She turned to Pauline, who looked curious.

“I…” Rosalina was a little red now, “I know that this wasn’t our original intent, but if you’d like, this Luma knows of a very beautiful planet that’s not too far away from here where we might lay in the flowers and watch the earth from afar?” Pauline blinked, before also blushing.

“I… uh… yeah,” she managed, “I’m down for that. Lead the way!” Rosalina masked her excitement and led Pauline to the Launch Star. Once they arrived on the planet, Rosalina miraculously landing without actually touching the ground, Pauline could only look around in awe. It was a very beautiful planet indeed. It was very clearly a garden, and there were many species of fauna that she had never seen before, growing from the ground, the terraces, and the bushes all around them. However, it seemed that Rosalina and Pauline were alone on the planet. The feeling that Pauline got with this realization was unparalleled by any sense of amazement that she had ever felt before. It was somewhat like stepping off of a ledge and realizing that you were falling, except it felt good and positively exciting. She walked around a little, in complete awe, and Rosalina followed her quietly.

Finally, the Earth came into view.

“Wow…” was all that Pauline could say.

“Yeah, wow…” Rosalina agreed quietly, sitting down in the soft grass as Pauline joined her. She stared down at the planet quietly, seeming to marvel in its beauty.

“Earth is such a peculiar, endearing little place,” she quipped.

“Hmm?” asked Pauline, “how so?” She had taken to lying back on the grassy hill, using her arms as pillows behind her head.

“There are so many of you there,” responded Rosalina, “and yet, just like all other planets, it appears small and fragile from afar. Without looking into it, one couldn’t see what it’s truly made of. It’s such a beautiful, complex little thing.” Pauline was silent. She had never thought of it that way, and honestly, it made her feel… in love with her own planet, all over again. There was a long moment of comfortable silence before either of them spoke again. Rosalina laid back, joining Pauline in star/earthgazing.

“Rosalina,” Pauline spoke pensively.

“Mmm?” asked Rosalina, growing a little drowsy.

“What drives you?” asked Pauline.

“What?” Rosalina was more attentive now, curious as to what the woman was saying.

“You know- what makes you get up each morning and do what you do? I feel like… I know that we just came here to do one thing and then leave, but you’re just such an interesting person, I really want to get to know you a little better first. What drives you?” asked Pauline. Rosalina was slightly taken aback, and her heart rate increased as she blushed a little.

“I suppose, in a general sense, it’s the Lumas who drive me,” she responded, “they depend on me, and provide me with friendship and support, and I love and take care of them.”

“But what about you?” asked Pauline.

“Hmm?” responded Rosalina.

“Let me think of how to phrase this…” Pauline paused for a moment, before appearing to figure it out, “what do you want to do for yourself? As in, what interests do you have that just revolve around you?” Rosalina paused and mulled this over. In all honesty, she rarely thought of herself, and really just minded the Lumas.

“I… really haven’t thought about it,” she confessed, “what about you?”

“Well,” Pauline was able to respond immediately, “I’ve motivated by the need to constantly be moving forward. I want to become a stronger, trustworthy individual so that my people can really depend on me, and so that DK can’t mess with me ever again.”

“That doesn’t sound like it orients around you, either,” Rosalina mused. Pauline was quiet for a moment.

“You’re right,” she said, mentally scolding herself, “you know… maybe the two of us should just take a day off. We could use some time to get to know ourselves -and one another- a lot better than we do.” Rosalina paused, before responding.

“I’d quite like that,” she decided, “but where would we go?”

“I’ve always wanted to visit Shiveria, but it’s rather cold there,” responded Pauline, “and we don’t have to limit ourselves to Earth.”

“I don’t mind the cold so long as I have someone to keep me warm,” responded Rosalina. Pauline blushed a little.

“Touché,” she said, “but really, it is quite cold there. If we went, you’d want to bring something very warm to wear outside. Oh, I know of a much better place!”

“Mmm?” asked Rosalina. She was drifting off again, and she subconsciously moved closer to Pauline so that she could rest her head on her shoulder. Pauline smiled affectionately, daring to run a hand through the woman’s hair, causing her to sigh blissfully.

“Well, you and I could go to Seaside Kingdom,” she murmured, “it’s very warm there, and they’re known for their clear waters and generally gorgeous scenery.”

“I’d love to go.” When Rosalina spoke, it was so quiet that she could barely hear it. It was clear that she was about to fall asleep, and so Pauline nudged her gently.

“Wanna head back, you cutie?” she asked. Rosalina made a noise of protest and pressed herself closer to Pauline’s body. Chucking affectionately, Pauline picked her up, carrying her bridal-style.

“Come on, let’s get you home,” she said.

“Not yet…” murmured Rosalina, opening her eyes and wrapping her arms around Pauline for better support, “I don’t want this night to end just yet.”

“Neither do I, but if you like, I’ll be here to pick you up for Seaside Kingdom first thing tomorrow morning. Or rather, tomorrow afternoon. You should get some rest.” Rosalina grumbled, but agreed. They launched back to her comet observatory, and Pauline set her down. She was prepared to leave, but Rosalina stopped her, still holding one of her hands.

“What is it?” asked Pauline, turning around to face her.

“This…” murmured Rosalina, standing up on the tips of her toes and giving Pauline a swift peck on the lips, before pulling back and looking embarrassed.

“S-sorry,” she said, avoiding eye contact. Pauline pulled her back in, pausing and looking into her eyes before kissing her again, this time more slowly. When they broke apart, the air felt… different, somehow. It was as if, in that instance, everyone and everything around them had ceased to exist, just for a moment. Pauline smiled, still cupping Rosalina’s cheek with her hand.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, smiling, “goodnight.”

Pauline had come to the Mushroom Kingdom to have a sleepover with some of her dearest friends, including the esteemed Princess Peach. Now-- whenever she was near the princess, Pauline always found herself in a compromising position. Of course, it wasn’t entirely accidental. Pauline wanted very badly to claim the alluring woman as her own, but her heart belonged to Mario, and so the mayor would just get as close to the woman as possible without crossing boundaries. Or, rather… that had been her intention.

As it happened, she found herself in a very confusing situation, the likes of which she had never dealt with before. She and the two princesses had gone to her royal quarters in preparation for the night, which was generally where they liked to hang out, and they had gotten into the usual sleepover shenanigans. While Pauline was a grown woman, she found their somewhat childish interactions to be amusing, and so she played along.

Currently, they were playing a game called “Never Have I Ever.” She had been shocked to find out that Peach was willing to listen to Daisy’s suggestion, and she had had “strawberry tart” liqueur shots made and brought up to them. Straight girls were really weird about their sleepovers, Pauline knew this from first-hand experience, and she supposed that it was normal to get a little tipsy when there are no men around, but that still didn’t explain her current situation. It had started out normal, with Daisy smirking and looking directly at Peach.

“Never have I ever ridden dick,” she said. Peach turned bright red, sticking her tongue out before taking a shot. Pauline stayed as she was, smirking a little. If they kept it to straight girl things, she’d be fine all night.

“Alright, yeah, ha-ha,” said Peach, before looking directly at Daisy, “well never have I ever ridden-” she stopped herself, turning red, “y-you know…”

“Ridden what, Peach?” asked Daisy, wearing a shit-eating grin.

“G-girls…” mumbled Peach. Daisy nodded, gladly taking a shot.

“Right, that’s what you were gonna say,” she quipped. Pauline cautiously took a shot as well, avoiding eye contact with both of them. Well, that was one way to come out. While having a sleepover. Great. Daisy, however, just hooted and gave her a high-five, while Peach looked moderately surprised. Right, it was Pauline’s turn now.

“Hmm…” she murmured, trying to think of one that would make them both lose, “never have I ever kissed someone and actually liked it.” Both women just looked really surprised.

“What? Oh, sweetie…” muttered Daisy, “that’s no good!” She took a shot, and as did Peach. Pauline shrugged.

“It is what it is,” she said, “I just worry about the city and its people, romance can wait. Anyway, that kinda dampened the mood, didn’t it? We should keep the game rolling.”

“No no no,” said Daisy, “we have to fix this!”

“H-wait what?” asked Pauline, “fix what?!”

“The whole kissing thing! It isn’t fair for a woman your age not to enjoy herself!” exclaimed Daisy, seeming like she had been personally violated.

“What are you suggesting I do..?” inquired Pauline, growing skeptical.

“Easy! I could just kiss you. I’m a great kisser!” offered Daisy. What.

“E-Excuse me?” managed Pauline.

“I mean, you said you liked girls,” reasoned Daisy, “and you’re pretty cute. I could just show you what a good kiss feels like, that way you can’t keep moping around!”

“I mean… no,” said Pauline, “I don’t think that’s a good idea at all.”

“Why not?” asked Daisy.

“Well, for one, you aren’t single,” said Pauline, “and on top of it, you’ve had two shots. It feels wrong, I’d rather deal with you when you have a clear head. Maybe we should just move onto the next question?” Daisy pouted, and she looked like she was about to argue, when Peach chimed in.

“Daisy,” she said, giggling a little, “I think that you may be too much for our guest to handle. Let’s move on.” Huffing, Daisy agreed and continued the game.

“Never have I ever gone down on someone,” she said. Pauline glared at her, taking a shot. Peach continued.

“Never have I ever been gone down on!” she exclaimed. Pauline did not take a shot, but Daisy did. After she was finished, she looked to Pauline.

“What, really?! We need to-”

“NO!!” Peach and Pauline yelled in tandem, shutting her down. She grumbled something about the government these days before continuing.

“Never have I ever had dirty thoughts about Pauline,” said Daisy, smirking at Peach. They stared at one another for a long second, while Pauline shamelessly took a shot. She was gorgeous, of course she’d had some less-than-polite thoughts about herself. I mean, look at her! Just as she set her glass down, she saw Peach take a deep breath, grabbing her shot glass and throwing back a shot, before setting it back down and refusing eye contact. Daisy smirked, winking at Pauline and mouthing the words ‘you’re welcome.’ While in the castle after-hours, she had come back to collect something that she had left behind, and walked in on Peach making some quite telling noises. There was a long moment of silence, before Peach realized that it was her turn.

“Oh-um… how about we play another game?” she asked, still blushing.

“Dibs on choosing!” yelled Daisy. Peach furrowed her brow, but consented, as did Pauline.

“Great. Spin the bottle,” sang Daisy, already hopping to her feet and going to grab an empty bottle.

“Wait no-” exclaimed Peach.

“Actually, you know what? I’ll be back in a while, I don’t know where I’m gonna find an empty bottle, so I’ll have to search the whole castle. You two just have fun together!” called Daisy, already out the door.

“What?!” exclaimed Peach and Pauline. There was no response.

“Daisy certainly is a character,” said Pauline, leaning back on her elbows on the floor and staring at the ceiling.

“Yeah, she’s… definitely something,” responded Peach, laughing nervously.

“What did she mean by- oops!” they had both spoken at the same time.

“You first,” Peach prompted, receiving a nod from Pauline.

“What do you think she meant by ‘have fun?’” she asked. Peach sighed, flopping onto the ground next to her.

“Oh, stars…” she muttered, “it’s just that… well, she heard something I said and…” Peach fumbled for words, her face turning a deep red.

“What’s wrong, princess?” Pauline adjusted herself so that she could see the other woman, looking curious.

“I… uh…” Peach looked to her, her entire face red, “gosh you’re close… well, um… It’s just… I’ve been wondering how lesbians… well… how they… you know..?” Pauline’s eyes widened. “How they have sex?” she asked, receiving a quick, embarrassed nod from her friend, “I mean, I can explain it to you if it won’t make you uncomfortable,” she chuckled, “it really isn’t that hard to understand.”

“Yes please,” squeaked Peach.

“Hmm?” asked Pauline.

“Please do… tell me…” She muttered, avoiding eye contact. Pauline sighed.

“Honestly if you’re dying to know, and Daisy’s evidently dying to get in my pants, then she and I can just show you. There are a lot of different ways to do it, it’s pretty much the same as straight sex, just without a dick,” she said. There had never been a time in her life when it was NOT the norm.

“No!” exclaimed Peach, “not with her!” Pauline paused.

“Oh, alright, then I’ll just tell you?” said Pauline. Peach nodded.

“Well, there’s a number of ways that you can do it,” said Pauline, “I couldn’t possibly cover all of them, but the most common ones are either using your fingers or using your mouth.”

“W-where would you use your mouth?!” demanded Peach.

“Y...you know….” managed Pauline, slightly uncomfortable, “we already talked about this during the game.” Peach was confused, before her eyes widened.

“You do that on girls, too?!” she asked, shocked. Pauline nodded. “How?!” Demanded Peach, “there’s no… thing!”

“It really isn’t that difficult to understand,” Pauline grew exasperated, “you start up top of course, but when you do reach the bottom, you generally just go for it. Each woman is different in her preferences, some don’t like oral at all, but as a general rule of thumb you should lick up and down the labia, and at one point, if you want to combine it with fingering, move your mouth up to the clitoris and suck it while you finger her. There’s… I mean there’s a lot that you can do, but it really just comes down to pleasing your partner. A lot of it is just improvising and going with how you feel.”

“How… how does it feel..?” asked Peach. Pauline blanked.

“P-Peach… I mean…” she had no idea how to respond, “I can’t describe how it feels, that’s a little personal and I don’t bottom anyway.”

“Can you show me?” asked Peach, leaning in. Wow, she was close. Pauline felt her face heat up, and she was suddenly acutely aware of every feature of the other woman’s face.

“You said that you didn’t want Daisy and I to do that, and anyway-”

“No, I don’t!” interrupted Peach, “I mean… you know… Daisy’s going to be gone for a while, and… I’m just so curious… will you show me..?” Pauline really wanted to have her. She’d wanted her for months, and now, Peach was presenting herself. But she knew what this was. It was this kind of trap that straight girls loved to pull on lesbians, where they’d go far out of their comfort zone and then just use it for gossip material, ditching the friend that they had fucked or lured. “Peach, you’re straight,” said Pauline, “and I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”

“I… I want to try…” managed Peach, looking like she wanted to curl in on herself out of embarrassment.

“Peach…” Pauline couldn’t believe that she was saying this, “no. Just… no. I thought that you were better than this. You can’t just find some lesbian and toy around with her for your amusement and bragging rights. It’s really not cool for you to use me like that, I’m going home.” She stood up, dusting herself off and leaving Peach on the ground, hurt. Pauline left the room, grabbing her blazer on her way out.

“We’ll talk tomorrow,” she said, sounding somewhat closed-off, before she left, closing the door behind her.

Peach lay on the ground, thoroughly confused by her own actions, and hurt by what Pauline had said. She didn’t want to admit it, but Pauline was right. She was just amusing herself with the woman. After a few minutes, there was a knock, and Peach’s heart skipped a beat. However, it was Daisy who walked in, looking a little confused.

“Hey” she said, sitting down next to Peach on the floor, “just saw Pauline headed home. What happened?” Peach looked up to her, before sitting up as well and furrowing her brow.

                  Peach loved how the other woman’s eyes followed her. At first, it had weirded her out a little. All of the constant attention, and yet this was the first time that a woman had ever expressed interest in her. Pauline wasn’t too obvious about it, and it had taken Peach a little while to pick up on the woman’s feelings for her, but after some time, she figured it out. It was the little things that Pauline would do, like how her cheeks were always rosy whenever Peach regarded her, or the way that she seemed to be in a constant good mood when she was around.

             Then, there were the times when Pauline would seem to be almost afraid to touch her. She avoided physical contact at all costs, and apologized profusely for such small behaviors that it had confused Peach at first. Pauline had seemed very confident, but Peach was finding it easier and easier to make her into a blushing mess, and she was enjoying every second of it. So naturally, Peach decided to play with it.

             Whenever Pauline was on a couch, she would eagerly sit down next to her and lean her head on her shoulder, inquiring about whatever she was reading. To her great amusement, the woman would blush and speed through a summary of her book, before making some sort of excuse to stand up and excuse herself. Having so much power over a woman was new to Peach. Certainly, she was a princess, but her subjects did not respond to her in quite the same way as Pauline did. If she were to be honest with herself, even Mario didn’t have the same responses.

            And so, Peach would take delight in finding new ways to play with Pauline. In all honesty, it felt quite risky to her. She had never considered loving another woman, and her heart did speed up when she thought about giving it a shot. Her innocent actions soon became less-than-innocent, before it was clear that she was flirting with Pauline while having no interest in the woman. She would always find ways to get into odd positions, sitting on Pauline’s lap and holding her close as the woman tried to make sense of what was going on and how it could possibly be a 100% straight girl on her lap, literally straddling her, and asking her to feel her boob… Pauline was just extremely gay and confused, and Peach was enjoying herself. She had to admit, she got excited whenever Pauline’s breath hitched and the woman blushed a little because of something that she had done. She could feel her heart beat faster, and even sense herself begin to get a little needy, but she knew that it was probably all for show. She was just reacting in the way that she did because of how new and exciting the situation was, that was all.