Super Mario Sunshine

Chapter 44 - Sunshine and Roses

Screwing his face up into an odd expression of consideration, Mario held his pen poised over the paper, thinking.

Twisting around in his chair to face the corner of the room, where his friend was sitting as he charged, he tapped his chin. "Do you think mentioning prison in my letter is a bad idea?"

"That depends on who you are telling," the water pump replied matter-of-factly.

Mario broke into a smile. "Yeah, maybe I shouldn't... Although it would be a good laugh!"

"Indeed," Fludd agreed.

A gentle knock on his hotel room door sent Mario scrambling up from his desk.

"Come in," he called, pushing the chair aside and quickly throwing a pile of dirty clothes into his suitcase. As soon as he had, the door was opened and in came Princess Peach, nearly skipping like an excited schoolgirl. Stopping in the middle of his floor to twirl in a serendipitous circle, she clasped her hands and turned to him.

From where he was perched casually on the side of his bed—which he had thankfully decided to make that morning—the young man gazed up at her in amusement. He knew that it was never something that came to mind when thinking of Princess Peach, but she really was a loose cannon when she got her mind set on something. Right now, that thing was the beach.

"Oh, Mario! Are you ready to leave? It's almost time to go to Gelato Beach!" She fixed her sparkling sapphire eyes on him, face flushed with pleasure.

Pushing up the brim of his hat, Mario chuckled. "You bet," he replied, glancing over at his desk where an unfinished letter was in progress. "I was just writing a letter home but I can finish later."

"Well, that's a fine idea, Master Mario," Toadsworth said, striding into the room behind the princess. "But we want to catch our train, so I suggest we head out soon if we want to be in time for the Watermelon Festival!"

Looking between the two men in excitement, Peach beamed. "Oh, I've been looking forward to this beach for a long time," she said wistfully, watching as Mario got up and ran to the corner to pick up Fludd. Strapping his friend on with long-practiced ease, he returned her grin.

"Me too," he replied, flipping his sunglasses.

It was the tenth day of their vacation, and by now the initial excitement of the trip had been replaced by a sincere desire to come back in the future. As the days ticked away one by one (much faster than Mario had thought possible), the group had been visiting place after place, finally getting to experience Delfino tourism the way it was meant to be. There were few traces of any damage done on the island during the koopas' week of terror, and any lack of sunshine was only due to the princess' parasol.

As Fludd had promised, it was shaping up to be quite a vacation indeed.

According to Toadsworth's carefully thought-out plan, with a bit of input from Mario, they had made it their business to visit about one local hotspot each day. Today, with Gelato Beach, they were knocking out their last one.

There were still a few more days left after that, but by now the entire party was becoming aware that they were dwindling, and a desperate need to make the most of every second was felt. As such, the princess had taken the matter into her own hands.

Peach was perhaps the most impressive thing they'd witnessed on their whole trip. Over the course of the fun-filled days of travel she had become more excited and joyful than Mario had ever seen her, like a reinvigorated child with a new skip in her step, to an unusual degree. He supposed it was because she was finally able to experience something without the lens of her royal duties hindering her; he liked the change.