A/N: Well, I certainly didn't expect to fall so deep into this show, but here we are.
They were everywhere, now.
Marco let his gaze slide over the couple holding hands at the marketplace with practiced ease, turned away from the bashful monster teens leaning in for a kiss before their lips touched, and took a breath that was almost steady. He was here for Sugar Seed cereal, and he refused to let whatever anyone wanted to do while he was on this very important mission bother him.
The distant sounds of metal clanging on metal and voices in a rainbow of pitches provided a small measure of distraction as he wove his way through various stalls, noting distantly that the interdimensional poacher Hekapoo had been after appeared to still be at large given the wolf-bear pelts for sale. His fingers twitched for dragon horn handlebars that weren't there, so he shoved them into his hoodie pocket and kept walking, eyes watchful, trying to forget the memories of marketplaces in other dimensions that flooded him at every similar sound or sight because he was safe here, he was happy here.
He had Star here.
His nails dug fresh half-moons into his woefully under-calloused hands, and Marco almost broke his promise to Sir Stabby and stopped at the blacksmith's to get a decent sword because maybe if he got into some kind of sword fight, he wouldn't have time for thinking about Star as anything other than his princess and his best friend.
"Hey, Marco, what's up?"
Kelly waved from a nearby stall that seemed to specialize in brushes and combs, so Marco walked over and said, "Hi Kelly, just here for some Sugar Seeds. You know how Star is with them."
Kelly laughed, handing over a few gold coins for a sturdy-looking round brush and bag of scrunchies. "Yeah, girl loves her some Earth treats. Got some time to take a detour? I have one more shop to hit and I might need some extra muscle."
"Sure thing," Marco said, and followed her down a winding path towards stalls that were more spread out, large items sitting out on blankets instead of small tables.
"Getting some furniture?" Marco asked when they passed the third vendor yelling about the merits of fine Mewni oak.
"Yeah man, now that Tad's gone I can finally redecorate. Been spending the last few weeks cleaning out all his nasty pizza boxes and stuff."
"Gross," Marco said, and smiled. "But it's good you get to do what you want with the place now."
Kelly returned his smile. "Yeah. So, what about this for a dining room table? I'm thinking something big, you know, so I can have friends over." She gestured to a large, round table at a stall across the path, its four thin legs somehow managing to support the large dragon skull on top of it.
"Looks good to me. But will it, uh, fit..?"
"You fit, didn't you?" she replied with an arched eyebrow, and Marco had nothing to say to that so he shrugged and said, "Looks good to me. Will you need some chairs?"
She started walking toward it, where a shifty-eyed Mewman in stained clothing was leaning against the pole of his awning. "Nah, the ones I have will be fine. Should be just enough for the gang, actually. Speaking of, are you and Star cool now?"
Marco tripped. "What do you mean? We've been cool. We're like ice. Ice besties. Not even the strongest flame could - well, okay, I guess fire melts ice, but-"
"Marco." Kelly handed over a few more coins and the Mewman grunted, gesturing dismissively at the table before he adjusted himself against the pole and closed his eyes. "You've been acting funny ever since the beach. What's going on, man?"
"Nothing," Marco said honestly. He could tell her about how he spends his time with the knights when Star goes on dates with Tom, or about the caustic joy of living in a space that always smells like her, but that wouldn't change anything anyway, and he learned the hard way that sometimes it doesn't matter how hard you fight for something: you still lose. "We're fine, she's working hard to make the kingdom more accepting of monsters, and I'm still her loyal squire-slash-best-friend."
Kelly pursed her lips and tilted her head, considering. "I don't believe you, but it's okay if you don't want to talk about it yet. Here, help me get this home; you're a lot stronger than you look."
Marco took the out gratefully and shouldered the dragon skull off of the table so he could turn the table on its side. He had a brief moment of feeling phantom muscles bunch in anticipation before the reality of his paltry fourteen-year-old physique set in, and he grit his teeth against the pain from long hours spent with the knights as he flipped the table.
With a careful inhale to brace his core, he lifted one edge and dragged it towards Kelly, who was holding her hair open and looking at him over her shoulder. "Thanks Marco!" she called when he let the table down inside, his back and stomach muscles complaining at the effort. "Means a lot!"
"Yeah, no problem Kelly. Good luck with the organizing," Marco said, stepping out of her hair and gingerly patting it close.
She turned to him and opened her arms for a hug. "Will do. Good luck with your stuff. I'm here if you wanna talk about it sometime."
When Marco leaned in to hug her back, the traitorous part of him noted that her hair was so much coarser than Star's, and smelled clean but different, the same kind of Not-Star that Jackie and Janna and even Hekapoo smelled like. He felt emptier when he straightened up.
After one final wave, Marco headed back towards the main part of the market where he could grab Star's cereal and then go work off this mood in the practice yard. He wondered what she and Tom were up to today, if he would laugh at her jokes and offer her his jacket and cover her left side in a combat situation; she was always a little slower to react on that side, and left herself open to the kinds of crippling attacks that he'd never forgive himself if she got hurt by-
No. He shook his head and bit his cheek, hard. It's none of his business if Tom does any of that stuff as long as Star is happy with him. Besides, he mused, memorizing the location of that wolf-bear pelt stall as he walked by, it's not like much has really changed. Star still relies on him in missions; they're still friends, best friends even.
But best friends isn't good enough, is it that voice whispered in the back of his head, and he wanted to run, wanted to fight, wanted to do anything to silence that ugly, sneering part of himself. It wasn't true, he thought, jaw clenched and fists balled at his side, it wasn't true. He was honored to be such a close friend of Star's, and their trust spoke for itself. Being able to be near her, to fight with her and laugh with her, was enough.
Except.
Seeing Star lately made him want to squint, like she were a miniature sun and Marco was intent on going blind. Every time she laughed, or scoffed, or screamed at him in rage, he felt more alive than when he was on any number of high-speed chases astride Nachos in the Never Zone. He had begun to wonder if he nicked his chest with his dimensional scissors, because surely one heart wasn't capable of being filled so quickly.
His thoughts were interrupted by a flash of purple in his peripheral vision. Looks like he made better time to the Earth import section than he thought he would. He fished out a few coins and grabbed two boxes of Sugar Seeds, then considered the giant rainbow lollipops before settling on a large bag of gumballs. She liked the sparkly ones.
"Marco?"
He was barely past the next stall when a break in the crowd revealed Star and Tom, holding hands and looking completely at ease. It took an extra measure of willpower not to step forward, his heart suddenly surging in his chest, his eyes trained on Star, the electric feeling that hummed in his veins whenever she was nearby making him itch to get his hands on something. "Hey Star, hey Tom. What're you guys doing here?" he asked instead, adding another row of half-moons to his palm.
"Y'know, looking for stuff. Having fun. Doing date things," Tom replied, raising his tiered sunglasses to get a better look at Marco. "I'm actually gonna pick Star up a box of that uh, Earth food she likes so much. Sweet...salty...pellets…something like that."
"Sugar Seeds!" Star supplied with a small clap, bouncing on the balls of her feet and clearly ready to get her hands on a box. "But what about you Marco? Why are you down here, I thought you wanted to go bother the knights some more."
Marco glanced from their joined hands to the way Star was ever so slightly leaning against Tom, and said, shifting his bags behind him, "I was, uh, helping Kelly get some furniture for her bachelorette pad. I'm on my way to the knights now, actually."
"Fun, fun. Okay, well, I'll catch you later! Gonna get me some sugary seeds." Star waved and bounded towards the Earth imports stall, her hair sending goosebumps down Marco's back when it brushed him on her way past, but he ignored it enough to grab Tom's sleeve as he began to follow her.
"First of all, get her at least two boxes unless you want to come back here tomorrow; she lives on the stuff. Second, here, give here these. They're one of her favorites." Marco pulled out the bag of sparkly gumballs and handed them to Tom, who took them with an appreciative sound.
"Thanks man. Next time I come over, I'll bring my super rare Love Sentence demo CD and we can listen together."
"Sounds great. Enjoy the rest of your date." Marco gave a half-hearted wave and melted back into the crowd before Tom could reply.
He walked until the electric feeling drained from his system and the world took on its usual washed-out hue. His heart was still thundering in his chest, bile was rising in his throat, and he had to duck behind an abandoned awning so he could get his sudden shivering under control. The way Star and Tom looked so right holding hands and leaning on each other replayed over and over in his mind, and he forced himself to watch it with the same discipline he had cultivated to chase down every last one of Hekapoo's clones.
This was how things were meant to be. Star was a princess - his princess, that snarling, sneering voice reminded him - and Tom was a prince; together, they'd be able to do a whole lot more to further Star's mission of peace than he could as a lowly squire, and a human at that. Star had always been destined for greatness, and deserved a partner who would be able to match her. His chest tightened when he thought about how often he had matched her, how many times they'd slipped into a state where it was almost like they could predict the other's movements and even hear each other's thoughts, but none of that mattered because Star had made her choice and he would see it through to the end.
Marco reached the knights' training ground as the sun began to dip towards the horizon and began to look Higgs. She was busy scrubbing some armor in the corner of the practice arena, her telltale grumbles carrying over the sounds of practice swords clacking nearby.
"Is Sir Stabby around?" Marco asked without preamble, no love lost since the Squire Blowout.
"Yeah, he's grabbing some water and will be back in a minute," she replied, putting the armor down to look him over. "Back for another beating?" she added under her breath, her smile cruel, but Marco ignored her when he saw Sir Stabby walking back toward them.
"Ah, Marco, I didn't think you'd be back until next week," Sir Stabby said, gesturing to the small bench for Marco to put down his belongings.
"I just want to get better," Marco said, pulling his hoodie and shirt off and folding them on the bench. Higgs gasped, and Marco's answering smile was grim. Bruises covered his entire torso in thin, practice sword-sized lines, most of them overlapping in various shades of purple and yellow. "I'm out of practice."
Sir Stabby sighed, but still picked up two wooden swords and tossed one to Marco. "There are better ways to go about this, boy. This kind of training takes years, and part of being a knight is knowing when you're outmatched. Are you sure you want to continue?"
"I am," Marco said, rolling out his shoulders with a small wince. "Some things are worth the pain."
"That they are," Sir Stabby said with a considering look, and took a few steps back to assume a fighting stance. "On three."
While Sir Stabby counted down, Marco thought about the excited glimmer in Star's eyes when he offered to make nachos, the whistley way she snorts in her sleep, and how the curve of her head felt in his hand when he held her close in their goodbye hug so many months ago.
The countdown ended, and Marco charged forward.
He may have lost his chance be Star's boyfriend, but he could still become her weapon.