Disclaimer: I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil!

Title: Superman

Summary: Sequel to Hummingbird. Star, Marco, and Tom work on fixing the castle and their relationship.

Warnings: Spoilers for Divide and Conquer

...

I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
I'm just out to find
The better part of me

And it's not easy to be me

Star fiddles with her black ring while she talks, spinning it on her finger. Marco is too wiped to fully pay attention to what she's saying, but he knows its orders from the stiffness in her shoulders, the rise to her chin. He doesn't know if she realizes it or not, but when she gets into the sort of mindset she's been in for the past little bit, Star really does look a lot like Queen Moon.

A clatter of metal and Tom is sitting next to him, propping himself up on the stone step with difficulty. Marco expects him to bring up the kiss- if only because it's the closest to a safe topic either of them have right now- but instead he says nothing at all, watching his girlfriend work, the edge of a top canine peeking out his lip.

"Hey," Marco says, because he's never been good at keeping his mouth shut. Safety might be important to him, but he's never been quite able to master his attitude, which has only gotten bigger after meeting Star.

"Hey," Tom returns, just as deadpan. They're both too tired to start much of anything- which, considering the demon's temper, probably said a lot. "She's pretty amazing, isn't she?"

Marco's brown eyes flicker to him, observing, but Tom doesn't look any particular way. He just kinda... is. Hanging out. "Yeah."

The prince returns his look. "You're pretty amazing too, dude."

He shifts back a bit, surprised. Whatever he expected from this, praise certainly isn't it. But it wasn't like he and Tom had ever fought a battle this big together, either, so that might just be the demon's way after something so hard. "Thanks, I guess?" Marco nods to Star, who is now massaging the bridge of her nose with one hand and clenching the other into a fist. "But I could never be that strong."

"Yeah," Tom says, slowly shaking his head in amazement. "Me neither."

Meteora had wrecked most of the castle. To the surprise of none, that includes Star's room. Marco's too, but he had been too exhausted to make the trip further down the hall, instead calling for a slumber party.

Her mirror is in shards on the floor, accompanied by shreds he thinks may have once been her old rugs. Paintings, swords, fish- that and more is scattered about the room, accenting the thoroughly destroyed bed. Star finds her upturned and slightly crunched bedside table, removes the first-draft spellbook (which is possibly the only unharmed thing there), and promptly collapses onto her mattress, cracks and tears be danged.

"Hey, Star?" Marco prompts as he joins her. There's no point in pretending he'll sleep on the floor; too much glass. "I'm hungry. You?"

Star groans into her comforter. "We're all hungry, Diaz. Deal with it."

He blinks at her, surprised. "Star?"

The girl sighs, propping herself up on her elbows to be heard better. "Most of the food supply is kaput. She either chucked it out or ate it all. The crops suffered a lot with the whole, y'know, soul-sucky thing, so the next bit is gonna be a mess."

"Oh."

"I'm leading a hunt tomorrow."

"Oh."

She squints at him suspiciously. "What's with that differently-spoken oh?"

Marco taps his index fingers together. Shrugs. "I didn't know you could hunt."

"Boy, I've told you a million times about the hunts papa took me on." She snaps her fingers. "Out with the truth."

The squire pressed his cheek into the comforter, touching the edge of a clawmark. "I'm just worried, okay? These past few days sucked super bad, and I don't want you overworking yourself."

Star snorts, rolling her eyes. "Queens don't get health days, Marco."

"You're not queen," he reminded her quietly.

The playful look slid off her features. She rolled over. "I am until mom gets back."

Marco fell silent. He glanced out the window. It was deadly quiet outside. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something- for food, for danger, for consequences, for Moon. He wasn't sure which would come first, but he sure hoped it came soon.

This is a bad time for this. It really, really is. But it's not fair to keep it a secret from her- not something like this. "I told Tom we kissed."

Star's reaction is slight- a subtle tensing in her shoulders- but Marco knows that small means more than large with her. "You what?" she stated, her voice flatter than Marco's ever heard it before.

"I wasn't gonna ask your boyfriend to fight by my side if he didn't know, okay?"

She's quiet for a moment. "He's not my boyfriend."

Marco's stomach turned to ice. "He's not?"

"No," Star says. She's still not looking at him. "I proposed. It's... it's a political thing."

In a way, that's more comforting than having a breakup behind his back, if only because it meant she hadn't spurned him when she needed comfort. "When?"

"At the ball mom threw. After Eclipsa's judgement?"

"I remember that one. Your family can be real jerks." Marco chuckled awkwardly. He cleared his throat. "Look. There wasn't a whole lot of time when I told him, but I'll go and clear it all up the next time I see him. I'll tell him how I made the move and you didn't reciprocate."

Star shifts onto her belly. A single blue eye moves to look in his general direction. "It's not that simple."

"No," he agrees. "It's not."

"Uuuuuuggghhhhh." She buried her face in her arms. "I miss when it was."

"Is that why you-"

"No."

"Oh."

"I don't want to talk about that right now."

"Okay," he says, though it's really not. After sending himself and others into a fight for her, it's really not okay to not have any clarification. But he also knows it's not reasonable to demand it. Not when Eclipsa hasn't returned. Not when her mother is still missing. Not when Star felt she needed to be strong.

The thud-thud-thud of warnicorn hooves is familiar to Marco, despite not being out hunting before. Star had a bit of an obsession with them, after all. Star with a bow and arrow is slightly newer, but only because she usually preferred swords and maces to them in her day-to-day battling. Both of them knew how to use them.

Wildlife on Mewni is a subject he's yet to study, but Star aims and fires at creatures that look a bit like if rabbits, antelopes, and rhinos had been on a deeply close level at some point on the evolutionary chain, so Marco does the same. The hunting party is composed of ten people total, so they come out of it with decent game- enough to feed the castle, at least.

Star carefully saws the horn off the first rabbit-antelope-rhino and tosses it into their cooking fire. She says something about it being good luck. For their sake, he hopes she's right.

As afternoon turns to dusk, she commands the rest of the hunting party to take their catch back and disperse it to those who need it most right now. Technically, she means Marco too, but there's no way he's leaving her alone in the middle of the woods. That's not how a proper squire behaves. Star doesn't fight him on it, leading them to a open stretch of grass she seems to know well. They lay down and look at the stars.

Marco decides this is one of the safer discussions to start. "Did your dad show you this place?"

Star shook her head. "Mom did."

"Oh." He glanced away. Come'on, Diaz. Say something to her. "I'm... I'm sorry, Star. About what happened to the Queen."

"You act like she's dead. Everybody does."

"She's not dead," he says. "But she's gone, and you're stuck taking over in her place."

Star shrugs a little, tight-lipped. "Mom took over the entire kingdom at my age. If she can handle that, I can handle being temp-queen."

Stop comparing yourself to someone else, Marco thinks. You always do that when it comes to Moon. "So. You're, uh. You're engaged."

"Yup."

"How's that going for you?"

"Oddly enough, it's the least-scary thing going on these days." Star holds her left hand up. It's too dark out to properly make out the ring, but he doesn't doubt it's there. "Tom is... well, he's Tom. He's a good guy."

Marco thought back to the past few days. Fighting with Tom had revealed an entirely new side to him. Sure, he'd known he and Tom were cool, but he hadn't expected the Prince of the Underworld to be ride-or-die for him. "Yeah. He really is."

"So you can stop worrying now." She reached out to push his shoulder. "I can take care of myself, you know."

"I know." He did know. He'd learned from the Blood Moon Ball. "I just worry I fudged up the trust factor between us."

"Marco-"

"Lemme finish. I shouldn't have kissed you. It wasn't fair to you or Tom. And I know I need to make up for it. And I will! No matter what it takes, I will." He twiddles his thumbs on his chest. "So. You know."

Star snorted a little, a hand going up to cradle her head. "The first time dad got kicked out of the castle... I was five, give or take? He'd taken me to kill some rampaging monster- I don't remember its name." She paused, something hard and hot flashing in her chest cavity. Knowing how wrong she'd been about monsters make these sorts of memories... bittersweet. "Anyway. We get home five days later, covered to our ears in goop, and Mom flipped. Whoo boy, was she mad."

"About the mess, or about disappearing for five days?"

"Both, but mostly the former. Papa told her we were going on a little trip, but she didn't think I'd be out hunting with him. She kicks him out and I just start blubbering. I honestly thought they were gonna, like, get a divorce or something."

"Can your parents divorce? Hypothetically speaking."

"I mean, they could, but it's not a good idea. Dad would go through a lot of crap as the not-Butterfly, and I'd probably end up being denounced by the Commission."

"Ah."

"Mom got me all cleaned up, and then she took me to this little field to make me feel better. She pointed up and said 'look, Star! It's you!' and I laughed and laughed." Star's voice grew melancholy. "I wonder what was so funny."

Marco said nothing. There was nothing he could possibly think to say that would help soothe this wound. Even if he brought her mother to her on a silver platter, healed and pristine and in-charge, it wouldn't change this night. It'd be a band-aid, nothing more.

"You know what really scares me?" Star asked rhetorically, then went on. "I know that her coming back won't actually change anything. I mean, yeah, I won't be in charge anymore, and I think we all can agree that'll be a relief, but it won't change what happened." Marco set a hand on her arm. The blonde sucked in a shaky breath. "Mom can't fix this."

Star starts to cry. She's quiet about it, which is unlike her, but there's no denying it when she reaches up in a vain attempt at wiping the tears away. Marco shuffles over those few centimeters to grab and squeeze her hand, wishing he could do more.

Tom had vanished not long after their impromptu mutual admiration talk, which hadn't exactly been surprising, he supposed- Tom was just as much of a prince as Star was a princess- but neither he nor Star seemed to expect him to be at the castle when they got back the next morning. He looked like he'd gotten even less sleep than Marco, but his triumphant snaggle-toothed grin made up for it.

"Hey, guys!" he cheered, wrapped a supportive arm around both of them. Marco jumped, but quickly settled. The demon was warm like a blanket, and his sore shoulders needed that kind of heat right now. "Look. I know it's not really my business, but I heard Mewni was having some food troubles, so I thought I'd come by and bring a carriage-load of basic supplies to help ya'll make it through. I hope that's okay?"

Star sighed, relieved, and pressed their cheeks together. "You're the best."

Tom's three eyes darted to Marco. His smile didn't look any less earnest, even knowing what he did. Marco was just glad he hadn't completely ruined his best friend's relationship.

Hekapoo attempted to break in, talking about politics and other things Marco didn't quite understand (it wasn't really Hekapoo's thing, either- why didn't they send Omni?) but Star grabbed the scissors the woman was gesturing with and pointed them in her face. "I haven't slept or eaten in two days now," she grunted. "This can wait."

"Has it really been two days?" Tom asked.

Marco shrugged. They were both sitting down in some random hallway against some random wall. Star quickly excused herself to bed sometime after handing Hekapoo's scissors back, legs shaking, and it wasn't like they had much to do right now. It was that awkward after-battle pre-consequences funk. "Dunno. I mean, I haven't exactly been watching her sleep or anything."

"But you've been together almost constantly."

"Oh. You, uh, you heard about that."

Tom's eyes flickered away. He almost looked sheepish. "Yeah, well. You're her squire. S'kinda yer job, dude. I get it."

Marco pulled his knees in. "Star told me. A-about the engagement."

"Okay."

"And I figured you'd want clarification. About the- about the kiss." Tom's eyes narrowed, but he didn't stop Marco. "It was all me, man. She didn't initiate or continue anything. I was the jerk."

"Why?" he asked quietly. "That's not you, dude."

He tapped his fingers together. It's embarrassing. All of this is embarrassing. But it's only right Tom know. "I kinda thought we were in a magic photo booth. Surprise, surprise. We weren't."

"Oh," Tom said. "Okay."

"You aren't mad at Star, are you?"

"Why would I be?" Tom poked himself in the chest. "I know I've got a bad temper, but I'm not a butthead."

"Touché, Lucitor."

"And, well, being real? This isn't that big of a shocker, Marco." A tiny little scoff echoed in the demon's throat. "I mean, half my issue with you back in the day was because I thought you and Star were gonna do a cliche romance thing."

Marco looked away. "Look, man. I know I messed up, and I totally get it if you don't wanna be friends anymore. But I just want you to know that I'm not doing any weird love triangle biz with you, okay? I want Star to be happy. That would make her the complete opposite of happy."

Tom blew some air out the side of his mouth, looking vaguely uncomfortable- but, ultimately, a lot more accepting than Marco had originally expected. "Look, Marco. Dude. You're my best friend."

"I betrayed your trust."

"You did. Yeah. I'm not denying that, you're not denying that. We're both agreeing that it's a thing that occurred. But you're still my friend. At least, unless you stomping all over my trust becomes, like, a habit or something." Tom tugged on one of his horns self-consciously. "The engagement between me 'n Star is political. It's not all about love. And I told myself- I promised myself- that if she fell for someone outside of the marriage, I wouldn't make a big deal out of it, because it's not a romance thing."

"But you're not married now," Marco insisted. "You're dating. It's, like, totally romantic and not political."

"It's a little of both, actually."

"Tom."

He held his hands up for peace. "Look. Here's the bottom line. You're always gonna be in Star and mine's life. You're our friend, dude. So the only real options I have here are to either forgive and remember, or to spend the rest of forever hating someone I know really well." Tom bit his lip as he met his eye. "Forever's a long time, Marco. I got more important stuff to do."

"You're right," Marco admitted after a pause. "There's a lot of stuff out there that's waay more important than me, or you, or Star. Just... don't use that as an excuse to ignore when you feel bad, okay?"

"Oh, I'm not. Believe me." He laughed a little, ears wiggling with the motion. "I'm built of rage from the toes up. Losing a couple hundred souls didn't change that."

"Good." Marco took a chance and set a hand on the demon's arm, half-expecting him to pull away. He didn't. "You wanna make some nachos with me?"

Star didn't eat so much as she descended upon the platter of nachos, hardly even taking the time to thank them before she went into the pile of chips and cheese face-first. One thing that could always be said of Star was that she didn't do things halfway.

"So," Tom prompted once she had a mouthful, pulling a chair up beside her destroyed bed. "Is it okay to bring up the whole wand thing? Is that- is that a viable conversation starter yet?"

She swallowed. "Are we really doing this over breakfast nachos?"

"We don't have to do this over breakfast nachos if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine." Star wiped a grease stain off her pajama shirt. "There's not much to say right now, honestly. Eclipsa has the wand. I offered the throne. Her answer was super vague. I... don't really know what she'll do with it once she's done reuniting with Globgor."

"If she presses?" Marco urged. "What'll we do?"

She looked at him strangely. "If she thinks it'll fix what my family has done... I don't really have the right to refuse her." Her cleaner hand touched Tom's wrist. "I'm sorry, Tom. I made this big production out of wanting to make sure I'd be queen, and then I handed it away like it was a free cookie. And after you did so much..."

"Hey, hey, hey." Tom intertwined their fingers. "I'll be by your side no matter what your title is."

"I'm still a Butterfly. It's still a family title," she replied, pulling away. "I'm just not a Butterfly Butterfly."

"You could go by Johansen," Marco suggested. "If it gets too confusing."

She wrinkled her nose. "Star Johansen sounds boring."

It was startlingly refreshing for her to say something so blase, and Marco had to stifle a chuckle. He'd missed this kind of camaraderie between them. He missed when battles weren't scary- just fun little romps against evildoers. As glad as he was to be here, to be her squire, to be her friend, it was tiring.

But going home would be even more tiring. Sure, there weren't any missing mothers or possible attempts at thrones, but he had to pretend to be happy there. That got pretty bad all on its own, let alone school.

"I should get going," Tom said suddenly, startling him. The teen didn't look particularly pleased by the notion himself. "I swear, I'll be back as soon as I can. Marco, dude, you mind walking me out?"

Marco didn't.

They got to the gate without any resistance or interference. A quick chant and the door to the Underworld was at their feet. Marco hated how quick and easy it was- that he could just leave. He shook the thought away. Tom had a family and kingdom of his own.

"Right. Before I go." Tom grabbed his shoulder, angled him, and promptly pecked him on the lips. It wasn't anything groundbreaking- short, and a little rough, actually, mostly because he hadn't been expecting it and jolted, almost knocking their noggins together- but Marco stared at him after he drew back, mouth agape. "There. Now we're even."

"Dude," Marco said. "What's happening between the three of us?"

Tom shot him finger guns. "Dunno, but I kinda like it." He paused. "Is it... not to your tastes?"

He laughed at how fancy that was of Tom. Not to your tastes. Like this was some sort of meal. "Hey, you know me. I'm down for basically anything these days."

Author's Note: I honestly didn't expect to make a sequel to Hummingbird, but here we are! Have some poly teens worrying about life.

That finale was soooo good, ya'll. I'm excited to see where we go from here!

-Mandaree1