#shes learning

I was reading some of the news stuff and I wondered if Peach ever gets a quiet contented moment for herself and what that looks like. And maybe for the extra challenge, we’re there ever moments during her training or adventures like that? Five minutes where she was just able to breathe?

Oh she gets them, it’s whether or not she takes them.

Peach pre Hisui is tightly wound, a workaholic, always stay busy so the stress and the panic doesn’t settle in. If she keeps working and training then nothing bad can go wrong. Her “down time” was spent painting for days on end in secret, and while she found joy in it, she also sold them under a pen name for cash so the labs can get needed upgrades and items. There was always a stressful background hum of needing to do well, to make money to help others. On the rare moments she got back then to relax, it was brief but pleasant. Fleeting moments where she could sit and take a breath, try to focus on the good for just one minute.

The readers of the current comic and various story lines get to watch her learn how to relax during Hisui in particular, it’s a huge part of her growth, and it’s all thanks to Rei, the boy who just happens to be there when she is, and destined to intercept her grouchy stressed out life. He shows her how to relax and enjoy more. The hisui arc is SO important to her unwinding, learning not to be a control freak, not to get hung up on her rage.

She gets plenty of opportunity to relax despite being thrown around in the past, and it’s that endless struggle to survive and win that makes her see that in fact the joys matter, they never did until she gets close to losing them all. She learns to laugh at jokes more, Rei gets her dancing even when she can’t much, but he teaches her what he can. They start to have inside jokes, start to laugh together. Their “training” turns into a more jovial activity, where both parts are actually having more fun than they’ve had in a long time. There’s plenty of moments where she can accept that sometimes you can sit back and relax. It’s ok to not always be ‘on’. Rei is her change, a teenager with no bad vibes what so ever, she needs him way more than he realises.

So when she's finally home and dry, with the people she thought she'd never see again, her loved ones, human and pokemon alike, Peach is a changed woman. Grey has never seen her demand a day off, but she's activly picking her schedule and allowing for time out (unheard of) and in that down time she's busy sure, but busy with things that make her smile, even takes a nap in the sun sometimes, or gets five minutes to stitch in peace for the hell of it. Plum will watch this once stoic and often serious woman crack more jokes, dance with her, she can kind of do that now??? They get to all see this person finally step back and do things for herself in a way that gives her time to rest and come back to do her job way better.

It's a huge notable change, she's much more fun, way more open, with a softer heart, and a calmer disposition. Once you fight a god, can you really be stressed out by the small stuff? She sure can't.