Chapter 1 – Coat Conundrums
The rise and subsequent fall of the immortal monster, toffee, had happened just one month prior. The people of Mewni had never experienced such a distressing event since the passing of Queen Comet at the hands of the very same Toffee. For the normally peaceful citizens, this entire ordeal had a very strong reaction. The Kingdom of Mewni had been in a near constant state of celebration. So constant, in fact, that they only gave it a rest once their Queen commanded them, as the amount of damages caused by the partiers already far exceeded really most of anything caused by the evil Septarian. Even after spending a week or two cleaning up after their own mess, the people of Mewni were still quite blissful. While delightfully peaceful, it's sadly all too well known that the peace achieved after a harrowing ordeal only lasts so long.
•••
"Moon-Pie, have you seen our daughter anywhere? I've searched in all the usual hiding spots and for the life of me I just can not seem to find her!" River, the proud king of Mewni, had been looking for his dear daughter for the last few hours. This search somehow leading him to the top of a chandelier in the dinning hall. "It must be that she used some form of Invisibility spell with that darn wand of hers. To think she would do something so rude to her own father!"
"Now dear, have you tried searching in her room, er, rooms?" Queen Moon couldn't hep but ogle at the sight of the poor chandelier doing its best to hold the hefty king up. "Now why would she be there? That's far too obvious of a spot to hide, I raised her better than that."
"Oh, River, I don't think she's trying to hide from us in any manner of speaking. I think Star just needs… some space. The past few weeks have surely been far too much for her, and she seemed quite upset at that red hooded boy leaving for Earth."
"Red hooded boy…? Oh, yes! I remember now! Marco, the dear boy! Such a wonderful lad. You know, he really showed his bravery in helping to save Mewni." He proudly puffed out his chest, "That meat blanket I gifted him is proof of that."
"Y-yes, the meat blanket." Moon did her best to hide the laugh at the image of the boy wearing said meat blanket as a cape. "He really was a courageous young man, I'm thankful Star was in his family's care. In regards to him leaving, though, poor Star seemed quite upset at his departure."
"Yes, that farewell was very awkward wasn't it? They said goodbye at least 10 times, surely they would have heard each other by the 5th? Maybe toffee some how horrifically damaged their ears, the fiend!"
Moon giggled at the warrior king's outlandish theory, "I'm fairly sure that isn't the case. What I actually think… well, what I think doesn't matter here." She grinned and thought back to her youth, "Ahh, those matters are something Star will have to resolve on her own, just as we did all those years back."
"Yes dear, you must be right. I don't actually have an inkling of an idea about with this 'matter' is, but what I do know is you are always right!"
Moon nodded in agreement , "Now can you please get down from the chandelier, we only just recently repaired the interior of this room"
"…"
"You can't get down can you?"
"…I've been stuck here for the past 8 hours."
•••
"Cmon B-fly, get movin, you can't stay in all day uh-gain!" The ever intruding Princess Pony Head screeched this as she used her horn to tear off the bed sheets hiding Princess Star Butterfly, heir to Mewni, wielder of the Royal Magic Wand, and currently an emotionally drained teenager.
"Nnnhgh shut up Pony head I'm busy being sad." Star used her wand to zap another blanket on top of her, "Stop interrupting my sadness."
"O-kay gurl I am about up to here with this nonsense. If you don't get up soon I'll call Tom and say you wanted to go out!" The threat immediately fell on deaf ears as the emotional teen gave an annoyed "enhh" and shifted under the bed covers.
"Oh. My. Gosh. You're still have a stupid crush on the earth tu-"
"Th-that's not it!" Star leapt out from the covers, nearly flying right into PonyHead, "Crush? PfffIdon'thaveacrushMarcoisjustareallyclosefriendofcourseIwouldmisshimbutIforsuream-"
"B-fly you said so in front of everyone at that crappy earth party way back." Star sat back down on the bed with an embarrassed frown, "o-oh right… that was maybe something I might've possibly done."
Star sat up straight and looked Pony Head in the eyes, "Look, I just kinda said that in the heat of the moment. I really thought I was never gonna see Marco again, and I thought I might like him, like that, I guess."
"Okay yeah, that's f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c, but if you're over the Earth Turd why're ya still bein such a downer?"
"Well I still miss him, he is my be- uh, 2nd best friend after all." Star gave a nervous laugh.
PonyHead squinted her eyes at Star "mhm ya sure, but," She shifted her eyes over to Star's compaq mirror laying on the nearby desk, "Why don't you just call him. Like a normal person. Instead of being a mediocre soap opera star about it."
Star gave an offended look at the insult, "I actually have. He just hasn't picked up… at all." Star shifted uncomfortably in her seat, "Besides, I'm sure he's just been super busy. He was away for home for a couple weeks, he's probably out catching up with his friends, maybe he got one of those 'part time job' thingies he talked about… or he might be going on dates… with Jackie"
PonyHead gave raised her eyebrow, "Jackie, so is that his earth turdete, or…?" Star gripped the side of her bed hard enough to nearly tear through the mattress as she spoke through her a forced smile. "Yup, mhm, she's a wonderful person who we don't need to talk about."
PonyHead rolled here eyes, "Either way you gotta get outta here at some point. Oh! I have the per-fect idea, let's go shhhhhhhoping!" Star dipped her head down for a moment to think, and a small smile grew on her face, "I think I'll take you up on that offer." PonyHead grinned excitedly. "But I'm choosing where we shop."
PonyHead frowned in a snarl, "Ughhhhh fine. If you really want a place that's not gonna be even a tenth as good as my choice."
Star chuckled, "Heh, thanks Pony, I… I really needed something like this."
PonyHead gave a small smile, "Star baby you know I always got your back."
•••
The Mewni MarketPlace was, like the town it resided in, fairly chaotic. There was no real order or pattern to the location of the stalls. You could order a large cornshake, do a simple 180 degree turn and suddenly you're about to buy a brand new broad sword. Speaking of the shopping, it was an odd blend of old and modern. It was as if you took the appearance of a medieval market and filled it with products of an average, 21st century Strip-mall. This included the methods of purchase as well. Even a high end, pricey Compaq mirror could be purchased at a much lower cost than the suggested retail price, if bartered correctly. In fact, the princess of this land was currently engaged in a heated barter herself.
"Really, 350 dollars for the gauntlet? That seems pretty high, doesn't it?" Star set her fist onto the stall's counter, making sure to muster an distrusting glare.
"Ay, but princess, this gauntlet is of a higher quality than ya wee lil mind could ever imagine. Forged with the finest Soleilian metal, found only in the deepest parts of the ancient Underworld mountains. You could throw this here gauntlet into a star and it would simply come flying right back out the other side, no worse for wear!" The burly blacksmith slammed her calloused fist onto the table and bore her eyes directly into Star, "And princess, I don't really care if ya royalty, I don't sell down ta nobody."
"You know, on earth they had something reaaal similar. They called them Oven Mitts. They pretty much did the same thing, but they cost soooo much less." Star shrugged her shoulders and gave an overly exasperated sigh, "But if you really insist on the price, I'm sure I can just go ahead and leave. I really did want those, though." Star smiled deviously, "I think I'll go pour my heart out to my other royal friends about the blacksmith who charges too much and doesn't care for royalty. I'm sure they wouldn't spread that around to any manor influencers at all."
The blacksmith clenched his yellowed teeth, "Nghhhg fine! 200 dollars!"
"100!"
"175!"
"125!"
"150!"
"I'll take it!" Star threw the money onto the counter and swiped the gauntlet. "Haha!"
The blacksmith made a commendable effort to keep an angry face, but the façade finally broke down in to a wide grin and a hearty chuckle, "Ohoho! It's so nice to have ya back Star Butterfly. Haven't had a good haggle like that in ages. Well, ya best be off."
Star grinned from cheek to cheek, "Thanks Bruford! Keep up the blacksmithing!" Star walked away from the smith's stall, and went to the nearest corn shake stand to find her pouting disembodied head of a friend.
"So, what exactly did you get? Omg did you get one of those ne- what is that?" The head stared confusingly at the overpowered oven mitt. "Oh, it's a magical underworld gauntlet that can withstand any heat!" PonyHead kept up the confused look, "So what're ya gonna use it for?"
"I dunno I just thought it looked cool." Star stuffed the gauntlet into her bag, where it will likely never see the light of day again.
"Ugh we had so many better dimensions to go shopping in, but you picked here? Puh-leeze." PonyHead started fidgeting in the air like a bored child stuck with their parent at the store. That could also float. "We're not even in the good part of this trashy market."
"Pony stop being a mood killer!" Star took the seat directly bellow the floating monstrosity, "I've been away from Mewni for almost a whole year. I wanted to catch up a little bit." Star looked all around, taking in the, as Marco would put it, 'renaissance fair-esque atmosphere. "I can't believe I'm saying it, but I kinda missed this place." Star looked up above the countless shops and eyed Mewni castle's ever present glare, "And besides, with everything that's happened, my mom probably wouldn't mind me sticking close to home for a while."
"Bleh, don't tell me you're seriously getting into that conformist 'responsibility' business."
Star gave an offended look, "I'm just trying to be a better princess, sorta!" Taking out her wand, an uneasy yet determined look began to grow on Star. "Whether I like it or not, I'm gonna be queen someday… so I may as well start acting like it."
•••
"So is the most boring shopping trip, like, ever, done now?" The princess duo had been shopping for most of the afternoon by this most of the items bought being carried by the horn of PoneyHead, she was starting to get somewhat, 'irritable'. "Why am I even having to carry all this junk. I see this is the thanks for trying to help a bff."
Star groaned as she answered the question for the 5th time that hour, "Pony, you agreed to carry those after you begged me to buy that expensive foreign pair of boots for you. I still don't even know why you wanted them in the first place! You can't even wear them!"
"Don't judge me just because I have an amazing sense of fashion." She turned her nose up at Star, "back on the important part, a.k.a. what I said, can we please get going? My neck muscles are kill-ing-me."
Star looked out at the setting sun, "Yeah… it's getting pretty late. We should ge-" Star was suddenly interrupted by a sound piercing through the air of the busy market.
"GET OUT OF MY SHOP YOU DISGUSTING MONSTER!"
Star jerked her head towards the noise, and after thinking about it for a short moment, began sprinting towards the source of the exclamation.
"Star I'm carrying all these bags and you seriously start running away?! Fine, don't help the BFF!" PonyHead screeched as she slowly floated after Star.
The scream had led Star to the high end of the market. This 'high end' area was, in comparison to the rest of the market, more inline with a typical earth shopping center. This was most evident in the shops consisting of small, individual buildings as opposed to various sized stalls. The order of shops was similarly different, in that there actually was an order and layout. As for the Mewni princess's opinion, she wasn't too fond of the location. Despite her royalty(and overindulgent father) granting her more than enough cash to indulge here, she simply couldn't stand the snooty, better-than-though atmosphere.
Star's run took her to a small crowd circled around the doors of what appeared to be a clothing boutique. Star started pushing through the crowd and began to bring up her wand, already glowing and ready to blast. "Who's being attacked! And, uh, who's the one attacking?" She yelled as she finally pushed past the last onlookers, only to find someone pushing a young lizard like monster hard enough to cause him to trip on his own tail and fall to the ground. "Eh?"
"You know very well monsters are not welcome here!" The shop's owner, a tall mid 30's man holding an ornate walking cane and wearing a bright white suit, with a garish top hat to match, turned his head to the recently arrived princess, "Oh, the princess shows up here, eh? Well obviously the Royal family can't seem to keep monsters out of here, but maybe they can at least get them to leave." He spat while point his cane at the monster.
Star, still holding up her wand defensively, slowly turned from the man, to the small child cowering on the ground, and back to the man. "So… uh… did the kid attack you, or something?"
"No! Something far worse, this heathen attempted to steal one my luxury coats!" The monster backed away in fear at the accusation.
The gross, guilty thoughts Star first imagined when Marco pointed out the inaccuracies in Mewnipendence day, and a second time when her mother at first refused help from Buff Frog, were again bubbling up at the pit of her stomach. She lowered her wand, and slowly approached the child. Kneeling down, she softly spoke, "Uh, hi. So whats your name?" She said with a friendly grin.
"I-I'm Brandon." The young boy proceeded to get back up, wrapping his tail around his body while holding tip over his face.
"Hi Brandon! I'm Star. So, why is the funny lookin man over here yellin atcha?" Star asked while moving in front of the boy to block the tailor's view.
The boy's eyes nervously darted every which way, "Last month, my friend Lyudmila told me about this really cool jacket she saw. And then I was here, but-but before today, and I saw it too." The nervous look disappeared from the boy's eyes and was replaced by childish excitement. "And it did look really cool, it was black and had this cool fluffy thing on the collar. So I saved up all of my allowance to go buy it, but when I was going to buy it the guy at the register started yelling at me."
"That does sound like a really cool coat. Since it's just a misunderstanding, I'll go talk to the mean guy for ya." Star turned around, immediately swapping her smile for an angry snarl the moment her face was out of sight to the lizard child.
Star walked into the shop, where she found the white suited tailor hurriedly hanging back up what she assumed to be the black jacket the boy was talking about. "There you are. I assume the rift raft has been dealt with?"
Star forced a wide smile, "Yeah, I just checked. Total misunderstanding, he was gonna pay for it. So it's all good." Star's smile started to slip. "You just pushed a kid over for no reason and possibly humiliated him in front of people, that's all."
By the look of his face, it was clear the tailor was somewhat heavily appalled. "No reason? How was I to know that the creature had nothing planned?" He pointed to the monster watching from outside the window. "And either way monsters do not belong here! I was well within my rights to perform such actions."
Star gripped her wand tighter as she did her best to not scream at the offensive tailor, "It is not your 'right' to bully people for no good reason. If I said they were actually underworld royalty, would you suddenly start treating them better?"
"The Lucitor's have been supporting Mewni for generations. I certainly cannot say the same for monsters. My parents were nearly killed by monsters once. Who know's if that chi-… er, monster's own parents, if they have such a concept, are raising him to do the same kind of deeds!" The tailors voice had raised far past the point of any false sense of calm.
She stuck her head out the still open shop door, "P-H back me up over here!" However, all she saw was PonyHead slowly floating up and back, getting farther and farther away.
"Oh, uh, b-fly!" PonyHead said awkwardly. "I will always be there for you but you know I am not for that whole politics thing. I try to keep things neutral, you know what I'm saying"
Star slammed a palm onto her face, "Aughhh, Pony… fine!" She furiously turned back to the tailor, any and all attempts at keeping a level head abandoned. "Okay then Mr. I'mahorribleperson, just sell the jacket already and stop being awful!"
"I'm am not taking the money from some monster!"
Star's grip on her wand tightened, as the star in the middle began to grow a light green. "Fine, then I'll just buy it for him!"
"You think I want one my fine wares in the claws of that thing out there? It would hurt my image tremendously!"
"Well the image of a guy who screams at kids can't really get much worse, can it?" The wand's green glow grew brighter.
The tailor scoffed and pulled out a phone, "Well it seems the royal family still cannot handle issues effectively. I'll just call some knights to properly uphold th-" Before he could finish his sentence, he saw out the window that the young child had a terrified expression on his face.
"Really, calling knights over? For a kid! How pathetic can you ge- why is my wand shaking?" Star finally noticed her wand's green glow as she quickly came to understand what was about to happen, "WATCH OU-" A bright green blast shot out from the wand, causing the entire ceiling of the small building to collapse with a bang, bring down the walls with it.
Luckily for Star and the tailor, Star managed to form a protective bubble around them before the entire building collapsed. Unluckily for the tailor, his shop just collapsed around him.
Star attempted to keep her eyes off the tailor.
She rubbed the back of her head with a nervous grin on her face. "Hehe… oops."
•••
"Explain to me again, why you decided to blow up a shop. That belonged to a citizen of Mewni." Queen Moon pinched the bridge of her nose with a face of pure dissatisfaction. "Over… a monster?"
With the sun having long since gone down, the interior of the Queen's study was softly lit by candlelight. This relaxing environment did little to ease Star's nervousness, let alone the embarrassment she felt. Despite this, she did her best to keep her eyes locked with her mother.
"Mom the guy was being a total jerk to a little kid!" Moon raised an eyebrow, "This 'little kid' you're referring towards, they wouldn't happen to be the monster in this situation?"
Stat waved her arms in the air out of frustration, "Yes! The monster, ok! That jerk was still bullying them!"
Moon sighed, "So the tailor was bullying a monster, and your next the thing you did was…?"
"I went over and tried talking to him, but he decided to get all mad 'boo hoo it's my right to bully a kid' and all that junk." Star cross her arms while rolling her eyes.
Moon looked at her daughter disappointedly, "He didn't agree with you… so you blew up his lively hood?"
Star face quickly turned to a guilty frown, "Um, the whole explosion part wasn't on purpose."
The queen looked at her daughter worriedly, "You lost control of your magic, that's not good. I'll call Baby right away to-"
"No!" Moon jumped back I her chair at the sudden yell. "Sorry! I just don't think it was me, exactly? After the wand got fixed again during all the Toffee stuff, it kinda got a boost in magic, kinda. I think."
Moon's look of unease didn't waver, "Are you sure it will be alright?"
Star frantically waving her hands out, "Yes! Yes! I got this! This isn't like… like back when you first gave me the wand. This is different." Star furrowed her brow, "I can… I will handle this"
"Well… alright. But this doesn't change the fact you aggravated a citizen!" Moon quickly went back to the face of an angered queen. "Now I expect you to head back over there first thing in the morning to fix the damage you caused!"
Star attempted to interject "Bu-"
Moon shot out of her chair and slammed her hands onto her desk, "Do not argue with me young lady! Public favor of the royal family is not particularly great at the current moment. I do not want word spreading that the princess is blowing up property over petty arguments!
Star, realizing it would be unwise to argue any further, turned and began heading out from the study to her room.
"Yes ma'am… I'm sorry"
•••
Star, having changed into her nightgown, laid sprawled out on her bed, "ughhhh, what am I supposed to dooooooo?" She grabbed a pillow and pressed her face into it, "Gahhh, if Marco was here, it'd probably wouldn't have gotten this bad…"
Star glanced over at her phone, "Actually, he'd probably still be up now…" She hastily grabbed the phone.
"Brrrring…"
"Brrrring..."
"Brrrring..."
Like the other 15 times she attempted to call in the past, it went to voicemail. Star would normally just hang up there, but this time something drove her to actually leave a voice message, "Hey, Marco, it's me, Star, your best friend that you've been avoiding. I… I could really use some help over here. I know I said that I… that I said some weird things, and we didn't really talk about it, but I just really need you over here and… you're probably busy with earth stuff. I… miss you… but why aren't you even talking to me? I didn't mean too… and I just… just…" finally growing too frustrated for her own good, she ended the message and threw the poor phone across the room, bouncing it off the wall.
Star laid back down onto her bed, a lonely expression adorning her face, "I guess… I'm on my own for this one."
•••
In the early morning, long before any villagers would be heading to market to shop, Star had already began her work. Due to wielding a wand with an insane amount of magic power, fixing the main exterior of the small shop wasn't exactly trouble for the young princess. A simple wave of her wand and every bit of brick and glass that littered the foundation soared back into place, good as new. The interior, however, still looked as if a tornado had ripped through the racks of clothing. Rather than use her wand a second time to deal with this mess, Star began setting back up different clothes racks and hangers by hand.
"What exactly is compelling you to do this work by hand? Rather than use that death wish of a wand?" The tailor walked back into his newly re-built shop, wearing a get up near identical to the previous day, save for the now bright green color scheme. "Or is it that you're afraid you might destroy my property? Again."
Star continued to hang up designer coats, mot even bothering to turn around. "It's not that I would 'destroy your property' again. I just don't like relying on just magic to do everything." Star paused to look at a red jacket she had just hung back into place. "A really good friend taught me that."
The tailor only response to this was gruff "hmph"
•••
Luckily for Star, the small size of the shop meant it only took around an hour to sort all the clothing back in place. With that done she still had one more, arguably more difficult task. To apologize.
Star slowly walked up to the tailor, now sitting back at the shops front counter. "Phew… let's see… I am sorry about destroying your property and source of income. That was not proper of me as the Princess of Mewni. I am also sorry for…" Star gave a frustrated frown, "…no. I am not sorry for what I said to you"
The tailor took a step back, a confused face adorning him, "Come again?"
"Okay, yeah I shouldn't have accidentally blown up your store. But I still think everything you did yesterday was awful." Star turned her head down, doing her best to keep her temper in check, "I'm just the princess right now… but I'm gonna be queen eventually. And stuff like that, bullying a kid… I'm not gonna let people like you get away with it anym-."
"You can stop that now."
Star turned her head back up to the tailor, fully ready another angry ear-full. Instead, the tailor simply sighed and pulled a box out from underneath the counter, placing it in front of the confused princess.
Star cautiously opened to box, only to find a familiar black coat neatly folded inside. "whhhaaaa…?"
The tailor turned his eyes away, not wanting to see the princess's expression, "Go ahead and give it to the kid."
Star jaw dropped to the floor in shock, "What happened to Mr. 'oh I'm mean and own coats look I like to make fun of people for being monsters'?"
The man coughed into his fist embarrassingly, "Yesterday, near the end of our little spat, I saw the young mons- sorry, young child, running away with a scarred look in his eyes." The tailor looked grew a somewhat ashamed expression, "I've always been terrified of monsters, you know. I've been told stories of them since I was a child … but I… I've only really seen them myself a few scant times. And any time I do see them a guard is already throwing them back out, or a mob of fellow citizens is doing just the same."
The tailor took off his hat, pressing it against his chest, "That fear only grew more as of late. Especially after, coffee was it, attacked? With that foul beast taking over our fair home, I simply grew more afraid. But yesterday, all I saw was a terrified child." The tailor grimaced as he spoke his next words, "I couldn't stop thinking back to what I had done to this child beforehand, along with your own words towards me, as much as I do really hate to say it. I still don't think you've fully thought out your own actions, but, alas, you may very well be… in the right."
Star glanced back down at the boxed coat, "So…?"
The tailor put back on his garish hat, "Yes, give it to the child. I'd like to be able to go to bed in peace sooner rather than later."
A small smile grew on Star's face. "So you do have attitudes other than 'complete Jerk'."
The tailor rolled his eyes, "Okay now hurry along, business hours will begin shortly."
Star's smile only grew wider as she waved goodbye, and began heading out.
•••
Star slowly made her way through the thick forest as she headed towards Monster Village. The day after Ludo's defeat, Buff Frog had informed both Star and Marco he was moving his family to the village, as he hoped they would be safer there. Just in case either of them wanted to visit, he wrote down a page of directions to the monster safe-haven. This map was, of course, not the one Star Butterfly was currently holding. The one she was following was a copy written by Marco, who had spent a good majority of his recent stay at Butterfly Castle deciphering Buff Frog's still completely incomprehensible hand writing.
"I'll have to thank Marco for this, again." Star looked at the sunlight filtering through the thick mass of tree branches with a somber expression, "If he ever wants to talk to me again."
"No, no!" She vigorously shook her head, "I need to stop thinking like that. He's still my best friend." Star looked back down at the map, "Besides, this is more important right now."
After what felt like hours of aimless wondering, Star finally began to see what appeared to be a village between the many trees. "…Wow."
The Monster Village itself wasn't exactly anything to write home about. It fit the bill for what a Mewni village would look like, with many buildings made of mud and straw of varying sizes being scattered around the dense town, along with small corn fields at the back sides of many houses. It was actually a fair bit smaller than most other towns Star had visited, with it's only notable structure being the large crater like divot the village resided in. This crater like appearance being due to the entire area being a hallowed out lake, with a large monster made dam holding the river that previously filled it at bay. No, what was incredible was the simple sight of monsters living their normal, daily lives. There were monsters going on dates, some were shopping, others even getting into simple squabbles. Just average, standard lives.
For Star, this was a sight to behold. Since she could remember, she had been told time and time again that monsters were nothing more than creatures with out morals, willing to kill and burn down a village simply because they wanted to. While Star had already begun questioning this narrative for some time now, to see concrete proof going against the falsehood was exhilarating.
"Man, I can't wait for Marco or Janna to see this… awwww those kids are playing cornball with each other. So cute!" Star's wide smile was soon accompanied by wide eyes as she remembered the whole reason for coming in the first place, "Wait a minute, kids!"
She turned her wand into a small telescope and began peering at the playing children. Sure enough, a young reptilian child popped into view. "There's the lil guy!" Star poofed up the still screeching Cloudy and zipped down to the kid.
•••
"Nuh-uh, we're winning right now! The ball was on fire and set Ginny on fire while she was wearing green, so we get… hey, who's that?" A young monster cover in cyan fur pointed at a quickly approaching Star Butterfly. Hopping off Cloudy, she walked over to the child while holding the still boxed jacket behind her back.
It took a moment, but Brandon finally remembered Star, "You're the cool lady who blew that store up yesterday!" He gave a large toothy smile.
"'Accidentally' blew up. It was an accid- you know what, never mind." Star took the box out from behind her back, "Guess who's getting a gift?"
The boy went wide eyed, "Really?!" He hastily grabbed the box and opened it, "No way!" He took out the coat, letting the box drop to the ground. "I get to keep it? Really?"
"Yup! The weird suited guy wanted to say sorry. He felt real bad about what he did." Star said with an uncontrollable grin plastered on her face.
Despite being a good 2 or 3 sizes too big, the child couldn't care less, and proudly wore the jacket with a puffed chest. He ran over to his friends (one of which, Star noticed, was still very much on fire) of whom each shared equally enthusiastic reactions.
Turning back to Star, he ran over to ask, "You wanna play Cornball with us?" Star bent down to better talk with the happy kid, "Sorry, I've got really boring princess stuff to do."
The child went wide eyed for a second time that afternoon, "You're a princess?!" He turned back to his friend, "Guys I got a gift from the Princess!" He said this with a smug look on his face.
After getting back on Cloudy, Star faced Brandon one last time, seeing him a d his friend waving goodbye, "Bye Miss Princess Lady!" Star happily waved goodbye back.
•••
Despite only being a little into the afternoon, Star couldn't help but collapse onto her bed. "Ahhhh, that all went wayyyy better than I thought it was gonna." She stared at her phone, now with a large gash on one of the decretive wings.
Despite her better thoughts, she picked up her phone and called that same person once again.
"Brrrring…"
"Brrrring…"
"Brrrring…"
Before she knew it, the call had gone to voice mail. Despite this, she told herself once again that he was just… busy.
She walked over to the window, staring out at the bustling village just beneath the castle. She thought about how similar it and the Monster Village looked, and smiled.
"I only changed one person today… but I want to keep doing this." She looked out to the market where this whole fiasco began, "I have to keep going."
Despite a sad look in her eyes, her smile didn't waver, "Heh, guess we're both busy now, eh, Marco?"
Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to read this first chapter.
All thoughts and criticisms are greatly appreciated.