Chapter Text
Marco was sprawled out on Star’s bedroom floor, watching a Mackie Hand compilation on his phone as the reddish glow of the setting sun poured in through the window. The sounds of his video filled the warm air, intermingling with the cacophony of noise from Star—who was sprawled out on her bed above him—video chatting with Pony Head. It had been a long and busy week full of peacemaking missions with various kingdoms, and the princess and her squire were taking some much-needed time to decompress.
Enthralled in his video, Marco almost failed to notice the pair of legs emerge from under the small rug in the middle of Star’s room. The legs, clad in Star’s signature red boots, were writhing and kicking, clearly trying to free themselves from the rug’s weight. Marco felt his throat tighten and his stomach lurch.
“Star…” he croaked, unable to tear his eyes from the sight before him. “What am I looking at?”
“Ugh, one second, Pony. Marco is being weird,” Star grumbled, placing her multi-coloured compact down on the bed beside her. “What is it?” She sighed, sluggishly flipping herself around to look down at her friend on the floor. Marco was slowly shuffling backwards, pressing his hoodie-clad back against the bed as he settled into a defensive crouch.
“Uhm…” Marco muttered, pointing to the floor ahead of him. Star’s eyes followed his gesture to the rug in the middle of the room and the severity of the situation washed over her.
“Tell Earth Turd to stop harshing our vibe!” Pony Head called over the speaker, huffing in annoyance.
“Oh no, it’s back,” Star whispered in horror as she jumped up onto all fours. “Pony,I’llcallyoubacklaterokaybyeeeee” Star called out hurriedly before slamming her phone shut and jumping from the bed. She lunged at the half-hidden form attached to legs, diving onto the rug in an attempt to restrain whatever it contained.
"Marco!” Star yelled, making her already mortified friend jump at the sudden noise. “Quick, the wand!”
“Star, why is that thing back? And what is it?!” He screeched, eyes widening in terror at the sight before him.
“Marco, we don’t have time for this! My wand—now!” Star ordered in breathless exasperation, clearly struggling to keep whatever was attached to the legs from fully emerging. She reached out her right hand expectantly as her left fought to grasp whatever surface of the creature’s legs she could.
From where he sat on Star’s floor, Marco looked up toward the wand that was resting on the nightstand above him before whipping his head back to his friend as she grappled with the extremities. Once his brain had finally caught up with Star’s request, he raised himself up onto his knees to reach for the wand, but hesitated before he could make contact. His hand stopped a mere few inches away from the object’s handle, but despite the distance Marco could feel a familiar surge of warmth pulsate against his hand. A faint thrum, almost like an indecipherable whisper swirled around him. The pull he felt towards the wand sent a rush of adrenaline washing over him, a sensation which he distinctly remembered feeling a few months earlier.
He started to panic the moment the mirror’s screen went to static and he lost connection with Star.*
“C’mon… Call Star!” Marco yelled in desperation. He let out a noise of anguish as the mirror once again failed to connect. “What am I gonna do?!” He frantically pulled at his hair, trying to think of something, anything to get his best friend back.
“Oh! What about Glossaryck? Maybe he can—” Janna suggested hopefully before being cut off by Glossaryck’s usual utterance as of late.
“Globgor!” He shrieked.
“You’re a disgrace to magic,” Janna lamented, thoroughly unimpressed.
“Magic,” Marco muttered under his breath, releasing his hair as he turned to the wand. He slowly began to approach it with wide eyes, his gait weighed down with trepidation.
“Oh, that’s a bad idea. And that’s coming from me,” Janna warned, her eyes widening to match his as she realized what her friend was about to do. The pressing need to save Star from whatever dimension she was headed for overpowered Marco’s anxiety. Instead, he quieted his thoughts and squeezed his eyes shut, grasping the wand with a sweaty hand.
“Ahhhh, you’re gonna die!” Janna exclaimed resolutely, hurriedly ducking behind the makeshift table which they were previously sitting at as they watched their friend propel through countless portals in her butterfly form. A beat of silence passed. The tension cementing Marco’s arm began to lessen with each second that went by, and he let his muscles relax. He allowed his eyes to open.
“Huh. Nothing happened,” he marvelled, looking down at the wand with uncertainty. It still looked so very Star, as if it didn’t register a change in who was wielding it. Marco recalled that it changed form even when Ludo’s goon Lobster Claws took hold of it back on Earth. But now, it was almost as if the wand thought him and Star were the same person. “It’s like our souls are bonded—”
His statement was cut off by an explosive force of motion propelling the wand upwards and sending a gust of supernatural wind swirling around the entire room. In an instant, Marco was torn off the ground by the pull of the magical current emanating from the wand, which spun him around as red, purple, then blue streaks of light shot out of the Butterfly heirloom and surrounded him. Marco felt a warm, almost electric surge course through him as the object in his hands transformed. The magical gale eventually dropped him back to the ground, his hair blown about and disheveled from its force.
Marco stared at the newly-metamorphosized wand before him with his mouth agape and eyes wide: he breathlessly took in its pointed, deep green and black features, all of which seemed completely foreign to him.
It feels… good? He had thought the moment his feet returned to the ground. The verity of the thought surprised him almost as much as the feeling of boldness and sheer power which pulsated from his hands and coursed throughout his body.
But why does it look so—? His thoughts were halted by Janna leaning over him in order to dot the left corner of the wand with a ‘mole’ that resembled his own. He took no time to reprimand her, instead diving over to Star’s bedside table and tearing out the makeshift Book of Spells she had begun composing after Ludo had taken the original. He recalled watching her use the spying spell (even though she warned him not to) when she was trying to retrieve the book—along with Glossaryck—from Ludo. He forced the glittery notebook into Janna’s hands and took his stance.
“Woah, ‘The All-Seeing Eye?’ ‘Spying leads to crying?’” Janna read aloud, clearly uncomfortable with whatever Marco was about to attempt.
“Just… hold it up so I can read it,” he ordered, hoping his voice evoked some semblance of courage.
“Okay…” She conceded reluctantly. Marco took a deep breath to center himself, sweat beading down his forehead. He recited the spell with all the confidence and desperation he could muster. The power he felt—not to mention the sensation searing itself into his cheeks—both frightened and emboldened him.
He had only managed to make contact with Star for a few short moments before his best friend’s blissful stare was stripped from his sight as his hand foolishly made contact with the spell. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror during the heartbeat after the spell recoiled. He almost thought he had imagined the light red crescent moons that marked each side of his face, but the sensation they left on his cheeks was unmistakable. He was thrown across the room by the force of the spell as it imploded a short moment later.
In that moment, Marco wasn’t sure what frightened him more: the fact that he temporarily had the cheek marks of a Butterfly, or the craving he felt to reclaim the wand once Star had taken it away from him…
“MARCO!” Star screeched, desperately trying to snap her friend out of his sudden stupor as both her body and the legs under the carpet flailed about wildly.
“What—OH, sorry!” Marco apologized. He swiftly pulled himself out of his vivid retrospection and hurled the wand towards Star, ensuring that the object left his hands just as quickly as he had picked it up. A brilliant flash of light and an array of glowing strawberries filled the room as Star blasted the legs—and whatever being had been attached to them—out of existence. The tattered rug collapsed, emptied of its previous tenant. Both teens took a moment to catch their breath as they rested on the bedroom’s cool hardwood floor.
“What happened, man? You totally checked out back there,” Star finally spoke, both annoyance and concern trickled into her panting voice.
“I don’t know…” Marco trailed off nervously. He didn’t fully understand how that particular memory was making him feel, nor how to begin to explain it to her. “I guess I won’t be getting a ‘Squire of the Year’ award anytime soon, huh?” He muttered awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head and avoided Star’s imploring gaze. The princess snorted in amusement and lifted herself off the floor. She shoved his shoulder teasingly as she sauntered past him, stopping before the mirror mounted to her wall as she raked her fingers through her tangled mane of blonde hair.
“Sorry, Diaz. Not this time. There is a way you could make it up to me, though,” she mused aloud, her voice lilting in a sing-song tone while her eyes glinted with something mischievous.
“Oh?” Marco wondered. If she says Abs Dimension, I swear… he thought to himself, bracing for the inevitably awkward encounter.
“I require nachos, squire! And make them extra cheesy,” Star proclaimed righteously. “If you think you can possibly regain your honour, that is,” she teased, perching on the edge of her bed. Marco felt his pride flare up at the prospect of a challenge, even if he knew she was just messing with him.
“Now, that I can do, m’lady,” he teased in return, playfully taking a knee and bowing before her. He jumped up and pointed to the mangled rug beside him before she could reprimand him for addressing her so formally. “This, on the other hand, is out of my pay grade,” he nodded towards the tattered rug below his feet and grimaced.
“Wow, how did I get so lucky to have such a brave squire to protect me?” Star muttered sarcastically, letting her tone fall flat as she tried not to laugh at the boy before her, whom she knew to be anything but the ‘Safe Kid’ his peers back on Earth thought him to be. Marco had started walking towards her door, but stopped himself upon hearing her remark.
“So, is that a no to the nachos, then? Because I can go and do more squire-ly things, if you want,” he shrugged, pulling his hand away from the doorknob. He ducked just in time to avoid the pillow that barreled towards his head. “Hey! Alright, I’m going!” he shrieked, escaping the onslaught of pillows by barreling out the door and out of Star’s sight.
“Extra cheese or else I’m picking the movie tonight, Diaz!” Star shouted after him.
“NO!” Marco yelled back at her, his high-pitched shriek echoing from down the hall. She could hear his pace quicken considerably. The princess smiled to herself and flopped backwards onto her bed, humming as she picked up her phone to resume her conversation with Pony Head until Marco returned to commence their movie night. The rug in the center of the room lay still, if not a little disheveled, bathed in the glow of the purple and red light of the setting sun.
After countless hours spent in Star’s room watching movies which, thankfully, he got to pick, Marco collapsed onto the bed of his Mewnian bedroom. He let his body relax and his thoughts slow, while shaking the mental image of the creature from under the rug out of his mind. His thoughts eventually drifted elsewhere, and Marco smiled fondly at the remnants of joy from the last few hours spent with his best friend. As he was well accustomed to by this point, he did his best to ignore the dull ache that sat heavy on his chest from the part of him that still pined for her.
Just breathe. It’ll go away one day, I hope, he thought to himself, letting out a long exhale. Whenever his impending crush became too overwhelming, he would normally tiptoe through the castle’s vast halls to see if Eclipsa was awake—she usually was, he discovered pretty early on since becoming acquainted with the current queen. They often ran into each other in the middle of the night down in the kitchen, usually after Marco returned from one of his midnight adventures with Hekapoo and the gang. The queen, it would seem, was a bit of a night owl, much like himself. They settled into a comfortable routine: he brought snacks, and she listened to him vent about his inescapable and ever-growing feelings for his best friend. Tonight, however, after a rather hectic week, Marco could feel the weight of exhaustion bear down upon him, and he quickly plunged into the depths of sleep.
“I’ve got it, stand back,” Marco’s deep voice bellowed.
The wind howled through the trees that lined the clearing of the icy plateau overlooking the outskirts of the NeverZone. Lightening tore cracks in the sky above the two companions as they skidded to a halt, momentarily halting their frantic getaway. Marco snatched a miniscule fairy that the gusts of the storm hurled in his direction, which he promptly smashed between his palms, its remains glittering under the ghostly light of Dimension X-103’s moons. He sprinted over to a nearby tree and completed the charm, smearing the substance onto the rough bark. The forest around him commenced its chorus of groans.
“Marco?!”
“What? We are going to need backup!” He called to her in response.
"No, you… Uhm, Marco, humans can't use summoning charms. Not even in this dimension," one of the last few of Hekapoo’s clones barely uttered over the shrieks of the trees and the explosions of thunder, her voice shaking slightly.
"I did it perfectly, what are you talking about?" He asked, doubt eating away at the pride in all his years of training and studying in this dimension.
"Yeah, you did.” She stared at him, giving no further explanation. The clone—who appeared to be completely transfixed by the man before her—drifted towards him. She reached out to him with both hands and cautiously caressed his cheeks. The wind roared around them. Marco followed her gaze, focusing on her fingers, which he noticed were illuminated by what looked like a pale red light emanating from both sides of his face.
Marco didn't know how to process what was happening, especially due to the familiar rush of heat that her touch sent blossoming throughout his chest. The warmth she caused felt much more comforting than the tingling, almost searing sensation coming from his cheeks.
“How did you—?” Her question stopped dead in her throat. He didn’t get the chance to press her on what she was implying.
Their moment was interrupted by a giant, serpent-like creature bursting from the cracks in the ice at their feet. The serpent took out the Hekapoo clone in one swift flick of its tail, sending her limp body flying into a nearby tree, which burst into flame the moment she made impact. Seeing her form crumpled before him absolutely shattered something in Marco’s chest.
"H-POO!” He screamed while running to her and crouching over her stilled body.
Tears clouded his vision. The fact that she was a clone did nothing to lessen his pain in knowing that his companion for the past year couldn’t respond to his cries. Addressing her by the nickname ‘H-Poo’ had started as a taunt, something to merely rile her up, but overtime it became a term of endearment and, eventually, one of devotion. It differentiated her from all the other clones, from Hekapoo herself. She was his H-Poo.* He could never bring himself to blow out her flame, not even if it allowed him to fulfill his quest and finally return home. In reality, she ended up being the only clone he encountered to snuff out her own flame. After almost two years together, H-Poo eventually decided she could no longer keep him from his quest, no matter how much she selfishly wanted him all to herself. She left him with a tearful smirk and a parting ‘Good luck,’ before vanishing into a cloud of smoke. He knew that memory was real: it haunted him each time he had seen the original Hekapoo since. This version of his and H-Poo’s final moment which currently tormented him, however, was almost entirely unfamiliar to him.
"Wait, this is different! What's going on?! H-Poo, I—!” He choked on his sobs but managed to continue shouting, “H-Poo, PLEASE, I can't do this without you again!" Marco could barely hear his own screams over the muted thud of his heartbeat that echoed through his ears. Turning his back on her fallen remains, he drew his sword, el choppo, the swift motion of him brandishing it caused a glimmer of light to trace its way from the hilt to its highest point, which then shimmered into the shape of a crescent moon.*
He raced toward the snake, its scales glistening with a sickening, dark green hue as the blaze of the fire, her fire, refracted off its surface. His swift run barely allowed him to dodge the beast’s thrashing tail as he forced his legs onward with all of his might. In one dauntless motion he leapt up towards its center, just below its head, and drove his prized sword deep into the monster's belly. Marco tumbled to the ground, his back painfully slamming against the unyielding ice as he let out a hiss of pain. Suddenly, the serpent's head whipped around to face him, its skull beginning to melt from its previous snake-like shape, before reforming itself into a face Marco knew all too well.
"SURPRISE!" Toffee's wide, ravenous eyes and chilling smile instantly sent terror coursing through his veins. The Septarian choked out what sounded like a horrifying laugh as its body crashed to the ground, encircling the tattered and broken man below. His foe’s uncaring eyes drifted to the place where H-Poo’s body previously laid, before it had been consumed by her own flames. In another slow yet calculated motion he turned his head back again and fixed his unfeeling gaze on Marco.
Marco jumped up with a ferocity he had never felt before—fire and hatred overtook him. Bloodlust singed his mouth with a metallic sting, hungering for the blood of the monster before him. Just as quickly as he had prepared to charge his enemy, he stopped himself, sensing something suddenly wrong with his usually scarred and brawny physique. Looking down, he saw that he had returned to his teenaged figure and was now clad in a fitted black suit, the shirt below it was crowned with a white collar which folded over the knot of a sleek, red necktie.*
"It’s about time…" Toffee commended in a weak yet menacing timbre while his serpent form began to melt, seeping into the cleaved ice below.
No, please not again, Marco pleaded internally as he ran towards a pool of the undescended, dark green remnants of Toffee. His reflection confirmed what his dreaming mind feared more than anything else: he was greeted by an image of himself staring back at him, its chin slightly tilted upwards in a way that drew attention to its slight yet sinister smile and indifferent stare. His reflection held the Butterfly wand in his hands, specifically designed for him, and his eyes glinted with the light of the two blood red crescent moons burned into his cheeks.
The force of his piercing scream tore Marco from the throes of the nightmare, the noise barely muffled by the folds of his sweat-drenched pillow. He barely had a moment to catch his breath and wipe the tears from his cheeks—which stung with the remnants of the dream still clinging to his skin—before the panic set in.
“What the hell was that?” He muttered breathlessly, frantically tearing off the blankets and almost falling off of his bed in an attempt to reach for the dimensional scissors he left stashed between the mattress and the wooden bedframe. Even though that exact interaction with H-Poo had never happened during his two years with her on the outskirts of the NeverZone, there were aspects of the fictional episode which were a little too familiar for comfort. As for the dream’s conclusion, Marco’s nightmares had been plagued by a similar image even within the first year of knowing Star, back on Earth. They tended to follow a basic pattern: he would see himself in that same suit, staring back at himself with the moon shining red light down on him. Tonight, however, was the first time that Toffee himself had ever said anything other than You’re a disappointment, a phrase Marco’s nightmares hadn’t stopped repeating to him since that lone conversation they shared in Ludo’s castle.* Sometimes the dreams replayed the image of Marco’s hand dripping with dark green sludge from punching a hole through Toffee, in the moment he thought he had lost his best friend forever.
Marco realized that this particular nightmare was also the first appearance of both the crescent marks on his face, and of the Butterfly wand in his hand, which was recognizably modified to apparently resemble him (although Marco still had no idea how its sharp, winged, sickly green appearance could possibly do so). Beyond these differences, especially the unnervingly serpentine presence of Toffee, one final aspect of this dream stood out to him: his reflection had never smiled back at him before. The image made him sick to his stomach with fear. No matter how terrifying the nightmares got, Marco had never told anyone about them, not even Star. I just have to know… He thought to himself. Grasping his dimensional scissors in his clammy palm, he opened a rift ahead of him as he found his footing, sprinting into the flaming orange portal without a moment of delay.
“AAH!” Hekapoo screamed in genuine alarm as the most recent inheritor of her sought-after scissors burst into the room before her eyes, nearly landing on her rather recklessly in the process. She jolted up from the couch that sat at the far end of the dimly, yet effervescently lit room. A massive tome she had been reading fell from her lap and thumped onto the floor between them. Marco, on the other hand, stumbling backward to recover his balance, silently gave thanks to whatever force of fate allowed him to find her so easily, relieved to see her lounging in the dingy room he visited in the final moments of his sixteen-year-long quest, where she once forged his scissors in the flames of her supernatural fires. Once she properly took in the familiar man towering before her, the magical being rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed.
“Dramatic entrance, much?” She huffed, her voice returning to its usual smooth timbre. She nudged his bicep with her shoulder while moving past him, swiftly raising her opposite hand up towards the back of his head. She froze when her hand failed to make contact with his now-healed patch of hair, her usual spot of attack, and instead was firmly held in place as the man roughly grabbed her forearm and whipped around to face her, towering over her.
“I need to ask you something,” Marco’s strained, aged voice growled, still panting slightly. Hekapoo had to strain her neck to look him in the eye, but she met his gaze with a look as steeled, albeit far less manic than his own.
“I’ve already told you, Flesh-wad. Nachos is fine. She’s with the other dragon cycles flying and frolicking happily, or whatever. Besides, our next ride with the crew isn’t until—”
“Hekapoo, I’m not here about that,” Marco cut her off gruffly. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I need to ask you about summoning charms.” Hekapoo finally released herself from his grip, turning her back to him as she walked towards the hearth at the far end of the room.
“What did the princess mess up this time?” She chuckled, absently tending to the flames before her.
“No, it’s not Star… It’s me,” he replied. “Why can I do them?” Hekapoo halted her tinkering and slowly turned back around to face him, wordless and unmistakably void of all emotion.
“I can do them,” Marco confirmed, nodding. “I just don’t know how I used to do them when I was in the NeverZone, especially since Star or the wand wasn’t anywhere—"
“What? No, you can’t,” she retorted sharply, cutting him off with a sudden uneasiness creeping into her tone.
“I wouldn’t lie to you.” He ignored her pointed, judgmental look. “I think something is…” Marco’s voice broke as he trailed off, a feeling of dread washing over him. He took a deep breath and met her gaze more forcefully. “Can humans usually do summoning charms?” He asked, already dreading the answer he suspected was coming.
“No,” Hekapoo answered curtly. She regarded him for a moment, watching his eyebrows knit together while his eyes scrunched shut and his posture slightly curled in towards itself under the weight of her words.
“How many times have you pulled it off?”
“Countless. Seriously, I have no idea,” Marco replied with a shaking voice, feeling far more like his usual fourteen-year-old self than he would have liked to in this moment.
“And was Star around? Or any of me?” She prodded tersely.
“Star only once. You… Her, I mean. H-P—”
“I know, her. I get it,” interrupted Hekapoo, her voice sharp. Marco exhaled. So she knows about H-Poo... he thought to himself, trying not to let the shock show on his face.
“I think she only saw me do it once, that’s it. But I don’t even know if that is an actual memory or if my mind just created the scenario. I’m not sure if what I have been seeing in these dreams and flashbacks lately are real…” He left himself trail off. Marco decided that it was best not to go into too much detail about the increasingly troubling content of his nightmares. He took a deep breath and quietly continued. “I had a dream tonight. In it, H-Poo got really scared when I did the charm, and... Well, she also told me that humans can’t do them. Other than her and Star, no one else ever saw me successfully complete one. I was usually alone,” he muttered in defeat, letting himself collapse onto her couch. He stared forward at the wall on the other side of the room. After a long, tense pause, Hekapoo walked over to him.
She hesitated for a brief moment before letting herself drift down onto the couch beside him. “It was a memory,” she confirmed quietly, nodding her head once. Marco kept staring on ahead, his suspicions confirmed. So I guess I had just repressed it or something. He had always wondered if Hekapoo retained any of H-Poo’s memories or experiences from their time together. He was suddenly grateful that the dim light of the room hid the blush beginning to tinge his cheeks at the thought. The brief moment of longing was cut short by his own confusion.
“Then why didn’t you believe me?” He questioned her.
“Ugh,” she groaned in frustration, taking a moment before responding. “Because I wasn’t really sure it was real either, at least until now,” she admitted begrudgingly. “Lots of clones, lots of memories… that kind of thing,” Hekapoo muttered, shrugging in defeat. Marco's mind was reeling, but one thought stood out among the noise: If humans can’t do magic, then was does that make me? Marco wondered internally.
“Hekapoo, am I not—” Marco began to ask.
“Look,” Hekapoo exhaled, placing a hand just above Marco’s knee, “Even though the fairies themselves are magic, non-magical creatures usually can’t harness that magic in order to actually complete the charm, if that makes sense. But, then again, I don’t know what prolonged exposure to the Butterfly family and uhm, her and I, could do to a human.”
“And what about my cheeks? Does that kind of thing… usually happen?” He asked with a tone of hesitation.
“What? What about your cheeks?” Hekapoo asked, genuinely confused. Marco quickly realized that the glowing moons on his cheeks must not have actually appeared when he did magic in front of H-Poo. Panicking internally, he tried to backtrack.
“Oh. Nevermind. I think these dreams are just starting to mess with my head,” he muttered, hoping his dismissal was convincing. She didn’t press him on it, much to his relief. Even though he was withholding information, he hated how true his last statement was starting to become. So I guess the moons only ever appeared when I used Star’s wand, then. The two of them looked ahead at nothing at all for a few beats in silence.
“I used her wand once,” Marco finally whispered from his side of the couch. He visibly cringed as soon as the words involuntarily tumbled out of his mouth.
“You what?!” Hekapoo hissed. Marco shrugged awkwardly in response, purposefully avoiding her gaze as he continued his confession.
“And—and it worked. Star wasn’t even in the same dimension as me at the time. I think I have magic, like… without Star's influence. But I don’t know what that means,” he finally admitted aloud, both to her and himself. Hekapoo let out a long, tense groan. She shook her head in disbelief, and uttered a noise Marco thought almost sounded like a chuckle.
“Well, I guess this might finally explain the mystery of how you managed to beat my game,” she concluded, letting a playful resignation lighten her tone. A terse, gruff laugh bubbled in his chest, shaking his shoulders for a brief moment before he allowed himself to slightly lean on her, placing a part of his weight against the spitting image of someone he used to be able to lean on when times got tough.
“I’ll look into it, okay?” She affirmed as she let herself relax a little at their intimate position. They both continued to look straight ahead of them. “In the meantime, don’t touch the wand again and no more summoning charms. Just lay low and I’ll see what I can figure out,” an edge of protectiveness crept into her voice. It comforted Marco.
“Can we maybe keep all of this between us for now?” He asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Yeah, that would probably be for the best,” she agreed, slightly shaking her head once more in confusion.
“Thank you, really. I think I mostly just needed to vent to someone,” he smiled, letting his hand briefly rest on top of hers.
“Whatever, dummy,” her smooth voice murmured fondly as she released her hand from his and swiftly reached up to singe the hair at the back of his head with a firm swat of her hand. “Yes,” she hissed in victory.
“Ouch, damn it,” Marco grumbled, shaking his head and letting himself really laugh for the first time in what felt like weeks. He knew that wasn’t true, but the nightmares of this past year—especially in the last couple of months, which, he realized, had started to become more frequent since he had used Star’s wand—had been starting to get to him.
“Get some sleep,” said Hekapoo as she stood up and spliced open a portal for him. One foot through the portal, Marco turned back to her with a mischievous glint in his eye.
“I’ll see ya later, H-Poo,” he crooned, his stare daring her to respond.
“DON’T call me that!” She shouted, sending a ball of flame directly toward the portal. With a echoing whoosh the portal closed before him and he was back in the dark, drafty castle. He shook his head at the image of the deep red blush that coursed across her cheeks in the moment before he dodged the blast.
“Oh,” his teenaged voice cracked. His smile fell as he finally understood the weight of Hekapoo's dislike for that nickname. She has H-Poo’s memories… “I guess I’ll deal with the repercussions of that later,” he sighed.
For the second time that night, Marco collapsed onto the bed in his room in Butterfly castle, grateful that he finally opened up to someone about his plight. As for what his magical abilities meant, time would tell, but for the meantime he internally vowed not to tell Star or her parents, just in case. He knew that Star was aware that he performed the All-Seeing Eye spell as well as the summoning charm, but he had a feeling she didn't think much of those instances, if at all. She probably told herself it was because of her magic and the closeness of our relationship, like I assumed it had to do with our souls being bonded, he mused. Nevertheless, it seemed best that he keep this from the Butterflies for the time being, at least until he had a firmer understanding of how he could tap into their magic so easily. Unless the magic is my own, of course… he wondered.
In the moments before peaceful sleep finally overtook him, Marco briefly wondered if he could trust Hekapoo with this kind of information. He knew enough of the goings on of Mewni’s royal court to recognize that the Magic High Commission wasn't the most morally reputable governing body, to say the least. As if in response to his dilemma, his brain replayed the blush that rouged Hekapoo’s cheeks and sparked the flame above her head as the portal closed ahead of him just a few moments before. I don’t think she will be too eager to mention that interaction to anyone anytime soon, he concluded, allowing himself to grin at the memory.
Even if they had both long moved on from his time in Hekapoo's dimension, it was nice to know that he had a friend who truly understood the hardships and horrors he went through during his time in the NeverZone.