heartful-cake - Tumblr blog

heartful-cake · 5 months

Text

Untarnished

Prologue (TW: Blood)

AO3 link! Plus a prologue to the prologue.

~~~

Almost there.

This was one of two mantras that kept Peach’s feet moving, even as dawn broke into day and faded back into dusk, even as her every muscle cried out for reprieve. Almost there. Just a bit further and then she could rest. Almost there. Just a bit more, then she could eat as much cake and drink as much lemon balm tea as she could stomach. She could embrace her friends, she could lather herself in fruity-floral suds beneath the rush of hot water, she could stand out on her balcony and watch her people go on about their business while she went about hers. Life could go back to normal.

The hand within hers went slack and pulled her back into the present. Right away she tightened her grasp and planted her soles as firmly to the ground as she could manage, as if she could withstand any additional burden. But Mario didn’t stumble or black out; his eyes were fixed on a dot just over the horizon, elevated high above the towering fungi surrounding them, too distant to make out its shape but close enough to cast its light into the darkness.

“Almost there.” His voice was weak, and the smile he tried giving Peach looked more like a grimace, but determination still burned hot in his eyes. One last push. One last push, and they’d be home.

The forest around them shifted and spun, each step sending jolts of nauseating pain to her head, and beside her she could hear Mario’s steps faltering. If she had her wits about her, Peach would have suggested they stop right here, in the relative safety of the forest’s edge, or at least make it to the inn on the outskirts of town. The castle would still be there come morning. Right now, she needed him to focus on resting and not dying.

But some nagging voice deep within her overrode all other senses. That voice told her that, if they stopped now, they’d never get back up — he’d never get back up. She had long since pumped every ounce of magic she could muster into his body just to revive him, just to keep him in one piece until they made it back, and even then, she knew it wasn’t enough to last. They’d already cheated fate once. Next time they might not be so lucky. It was surely a miracle that they’d made it this far.

And what would be the point in making it home if he didn’t make it with her?

Peach swallowed uneasily. She truly had no more to give. That wouldn’t stop her from giving it all to him anyway.

Closing her eyes to block out her dizzying surroundings, she grit her teeth and summoned what little was left from some well deep within her chest, a well she knew couldn’t be replenished once it had been spent. Her very own lifeforce. That force couldn’t travel fast enough; it trickled through her like a broken tap, constricted her lungs and stiffened her muscles and amplified every last unpleasant sensation in her body, and she dug her nails into Mario’s skin to make certain he received every last bit of it.

Infuriatingly slow though it was, she knew it was working. His footsteps gradually grew steadier, quicker, and she let herself follow him blindly, until at last the grass beneath their feet gave way to a sturdier path. Their footsteps clacked against cobblestones, echoing into an empty, sleeping town.

Or maybe just his footsteps. Peach couldn’t be sure that she was walking any longer. The sting of open blisters on her feet faded into a pillowy nothing, as did the jolts of pain that kept her awake and moving, yet the wherewithal to consider this a relief — or to consider anything, really — was far from her grasp. She tried to open her eyes, gauge how much farther they had to go, but all she could see was darkness. Her well was running dry.

“Almost.” His voice sounded so far away. Garbled, like she was hearing it from beneath the murky depths of some dark lake. Perhaps that was where she was: drowning, drifting aimlessly beneath the undertow as it all faded away, every sound, every sensation, every last proof of life but Mario’s hand in hers.

And then even that was gone, her last anchor to the realm of the living, and Peach’s body went weightless— until some unseen force knocked air back into her lungs, slammed her spirit back into her body, and she gasped from the shock of reawakening.

Darkness. Darkness and a few distorted shapes in shades of blue and purple and black, and maybe a few pinpoints of light in the distance. Somewhere beside or beneath her, she heard Mario grunt, and she let herself be jostled about as that unseen force righted her leaden body. It was only when he pulled her against his side, his arm secure around her waist, that Peach realized her saving force was none other than him.

“Stay with me.” The words came out strained and desperate, and with his opposite hand, he guided Peach’s arm over and behind his head. “We’re almost… just a little further, Princess. Come on.”

He hauled her forward a few steps before she was able to regain her footing, and she slumped against him as she redistributed her weight, her cheek just an inch or two from the top of his head. He took hold of the hand slung over his shoulder, his fingers fumbling to secure her grasp. “That’s it. Come on. Almost.”

Peach numbly searched within herself once more as they dragged each other forward, willing that trickle of magic to return, just a bit longer, just a bit more. Just until he was safe. But her focus was hampered by her own lightheadedness, a distant cacophony that she swore was growing louder, those pinpoints of light drawing closer and closer and closer…

“Princess!”

She knew that voice. She knew the voices that accompanied it. The familiar call of her commander, only the second friendly voice she’d heard in three months’ time, followed by the equally relieved and concerned shouts of the guards he led—

Her knees buckled.

She felt Mario lean into her as her legs failed, but any further efforts at keeping her upright were futile. He succeeded only in collapsing to the cobblestone first and breaking her fall with his body.

He cried out when he hit the ground, softly enough that only Peach could hear, and she couldn’t tell if it was from pain or relief.

By the time Peach managed to untangle herself from Mario’s arm and pull herself to her knees, chaos cornered her from every angle. A blanket was thrown over her shoulders. A million questions were thrown her way, stupid questions with obvious answers like Are you okay? Are you hurt? Are you hungry?. She could see more clearly now, fuzzy images of spotted caps and beady eyes and halberds, but darkness still lurked in her peripheral, ever encroaching.

Mario remained doubled over in the street, his huddled form shuddering violently, his breath coming in uneven gasps. Looking down, she watched as some substance dripped onto the stones beneath him, dark and shining. One drop. Two, three, four drops. Wounds that had seeped blood their entire journey now flowed freely, unhindered by her magic.

Almost there.

“Get him to the infirmary right away.” She heard her own voice as though listening through foreign ears, stronger and steadier than the half-dead husk it came from. “He’s gravely injured.”

The beginnings of a protest sputtered past Mario’s lips, something like “Nnuh— P— Peach—” . If not for her single minded focus on remaining conscious until she saw him to safety, she might have cried — even in complete ruin, his first concern was her.

With each pump of her heart, her vision pulsed in and out of focus. Just a bit longer. Just until she knew he would be okay.

A quartet of Toads in foot soldiers’ armor broke through bearing a simple stretcher, a tight-woven net between two poles, and she motioned for them to lay it down beside Mario. Townsfolk had begun peeking out from their houses and spilling into the streets, and a handful of guards posted themselves around the rest to keep them at bay, shouting orders to get back, give them space, make way for the exhausted Princess and her hero.

My hero.

In spite of his increasingly incoherent and weak protests, Mario was urged onto his side by the makeshift medics, onto the stretcher, and he curled heavily into himself with a soft groan. Beneath the layer of dirt and blood it had accumulated, his face was unnaturally pale. It stood out against the darkness like a full moon in a starless sky.

But in spite of the pain, in spite of the dizziness, in spite of the rapidly slipping waking world, he managed to peek his eyes open and find her. The fire in them had cooled and left their once brilliant blue glassy and opaque. Yet he managed to smile; not a forced smile, a well-meaning but empty effort to lift her spirits, but a soft and small and achingly real smile, the sort that told her everything would be alright.

We made it.

“Your Highness…?”

Peach’s vision pulsed once more, and this time, it never went back into focus.

“Your Highness!”

Her hero’s smile burned itself into her brain like the dying light of a supernova as her body went weightless once more, and then the darkness claimed her. No unseen force was present to save her this time, but that, she decided with her last coherent thought, was quite alright.

#mareach #today is a truly blessed day to log into tumblr again #banging my head into the wall over the intro SORRY #“Peach swallowed uneasily. She truly had no more to give. That wouldn’t stop her from giving it all to him anyway.”#<- THAT’S THE NAME OF THE GAME BABY!#did you know this is like so canon actually #like for anyone who's seen the first two paper marios. does this not remind you of how hard peach carries in those ending fights #bc it really reminds me how she puts her all into helping mario in any way she can even if it's minuscule in comparison to what he does #<- ultimately ends up saving the world at least twice bc of her wishes and efforts to keep him safe LOL #OUUUHHH... i get why they're both so desperate for the other to stay alive but who's going to start having some self preservation for once #like what is this? the self sacrificial olympics? there will not be a winner guys ❤️ stop trying to die for each other ❤️#sorry I SWEAR IM INVESTED!! i just need to make fun of them a little bit #(in reference to the scene where peach tries to get mario to the ICU) HOLY FUCKING SHIT #STOPPPPPP STOPPPPP #IM GONNA KEEL OVER STOPPPP #DAMN YOU TWO FOR NOT CARING ABOUT YOURSELVES AS MUCH AS YOU CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER!!!!#“No unseen force was present to save her this time but that she decided with her last coherent thought was quite alright.”#<- STOP STOP STOP STOP RIGHT THERE YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW CRAZY THIS MAKES ME #SHAKING YOU. ARE YOU DOING THIS ON PURPOSE.#THE FRICKING SUBVERSION OF PEACH FINALLY HAVING THE CHANCE TO REPAY (AKA SAVE) MARIO #BUT IN THE END FALLING INTO THE SAME MENTAL TRAP AS HIM #THINKING SHE CAN ACCEPT ANY AND ALL LETHAL CONSEQUENCES IF ONLY HE ENDS UP OK SHUT THE FRICK UP!!!#IT'S ALREADY BAD ENOUGH THAT BRO ALMOST BLED OUT WHEN HE GOT TO YOU!!! <- reread the prologue before this #YOU NEED TO LIVE TOO GIRL!!!#HE LITERALLY WON’T FORGIVE HIMSELF IF YOU DIE #GIRLL STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!!!! PLEASEEEEE 😭#oh guys i just clicked on the ao3 link for the summary and tags it’s so jover for me #i’ve been privately kicking and screaming for a fic that explores peach’s trauma and ptsd in greater depth for ages now #and it's finally happening...#CHAT ITS JOVER FOR ME

69 notes · View notes