Ok, ya dicknuts. Now it's time for some good ol' fashion hurtin'. I didn't really go all out on the last one since this isn't supposed to be a monumental occasion or my main story or anything so really, don't expect anything huge out of me. Also, sorry if I haven't responded to any of your PM's lately, I've mainly been focusing on writing up the prompts every time I log in lately.

Also, the prompt was supposed to be emotional recovery after the season 2 finally, or at least that's what I remember it being, but it changed on me and I didn't realize until after I finished writing this so the story's a bit off topic but hey, what can you do? It's supposed to be something like "what happened the last time one of them was badly injured" or whatever and, honestly, that would have made a much better story.

Anyway, onto the show. Let's see what happened after Star left Earth (since we finally have this amazing event in the show):

Starco Week 3

Thursday, April 5th

Recovery of the Fallen

These are not feelings any one person should be able to contain on their own. To have your very being ripped from your heart as a cruel punchline to an already hard few months, it's not easy coming back to your former glory. This fall from grace, this denial that everything is alright, this feeling of pure dread that hangs over you at night, it's something that will haunt you until it's all over. Until everything goes back to the way it was. Until everything is normal again. Funny thing is, what's been normal for Marco the last year is not normal for everyone else on this god forsaken planet.

Star had left only 20 minutes ago and he had already cleared the place out. The end of the year party was over, everyone had to get out, Marco needed time to think. Even Jackie had to leave. She probably took it as hard as Marco, to have your boyfriend forget your entire existence so that he could cry over a friend who had just pronounced their love to him. It sent the wrong message, one Marco may or may not regret in the coming times. She left the house begrudgingly after several attempts at trying to comfort Marco only to be met each time with the same answer: "I'm fine, I just need to think."

And what of his parents? What did Mr. and Mrs. Diaz do while this hullabaloo was going on? Rafael never even noticed it was happening, having been preoccupied with making pizza nuggets for the party as it was going on. Angie decided to help her son funnel the party goers out the door, wanting to spend time with her heart-broken child. It wasn't what she got, however, as Marco managed to get away and lock himself in his room for the remainder of the night. And that's where he remained for the better half of the night, eventually getting up to pee and make himself a sandwich late into the night as his parents slept. He got the bread out, the ham and cheese, the lettuce and tomato, the tortilla chips and jalapenos, and before he knew it he was taking a plate of nachos out of the oven.

He cried for two hours.

What a strange life to lead, and what a hard life to leave, is one that requires you to manage an inter-dimensional princess hellbent on having a good time all the time. It's a lot of hard work, and comes with a lot of drawbacks, but in the end that princess is worth having around because without that fiery rainbow in his life Marco was nothing but the weird safe kid at school. Not a life he wanted to go back to. Ever. He's tasted the honey and now he wants the whole pot. Can you blame him, though? Having Star in his life was the most fun he ever had, and now that she's gone, probably forever, there's very little light left in his future. The only light left is that of leading a normal life, going to college and getting a job, raising a family and settling down in some nice suburban neighborhood where all the neighbors know each other and all the kids like to cause mischief in the name of having a bit of summer time fun, eventually watching his grandchildren grow up just like he and his children did, retiring and buying a dingy to go fishing on for the rest of his life or until he becomes bedridden with whatever disease old people get these days, and then dying peacefully in his sleep after a life well lived. He couldn't go back to that future, there was no way in hell.

He lifted his head from the plate of nachos and came to his conclusion. He needed to get Star back.

It only took a few minutes before you could find Marco sitting on his bed, looking down at the ground. His scissors were gone. Disappeared just like the tower extruding from the side of the house, just like all the laser puppies, and just like his hope for ever seeing Star again in the near future. The only thing that still remained was a picture of the two of them, one from around the time they had first met. Everything that had been created through Star's magic was gone, that must be what happened. He clenched his fist as a tear drop escaped his eye. It landed on the photo right on top of Star's face, distorting it ever so slightly. A metaphor of some kind. All he wanted to do was see Star again and now his only solace was ruined. There was nothing left to direct his feelings onto.

All he could do was wait.

Star was facing similar problems in her own emotional life, though she had significantly less time to think about anything while being hauled all around the castle as things were being fortified. Her mother was making crazy commands to the royal guard, her father was preparing a strike of his own, and the overall war vibe was really bringing her down. Messengers were being sent for assassins and mercenaries, runners were sent to bring extra weapons to the barricades in the more remote locations, and fortifications were being made everywhere. By the time Star was back on Mewni for a full three hours she had been confined to her room for the rest of the night and most likely the morning.

The only entertainment she had was laying in bed and thinking. Her mom had taken her wand, not wanting any sort of distractions in her room, and told her to go to bed. It was obvious she couldn't seep, though. How could she? There was so much on her mind, chiefly: what was going to happen now and whether or not Marco liked her back. What if Marco didn't like her? Did she ruin their friendship? She knew he liked Jackie but to what extent? Was he willing to move away from his relationship with her to spend more time with Star? But those thoughts wrapped back around to the original. How could they spend more time together if she never went back home? Would she ever go back home? Was she going to battle with her parents? Would she die in battle? If she didn't, who will? Her parents?

The foreseeable future held only one thing certain: her life was about to go back to her normal duties as part of the royal family. And during war times her obligations to the state were much more... unpleasurable. She didn't want to go back to her normal life, she wasn't fit to be 'normal'. What if this life gets to her head? What if she actually turns into the brain dead, boring, perfect little princess the kingdom wanted her to become? How would Marco react? Would he even get the chance to? What if she never sees Marco again?

The questions surged and surged through her brain, never accompanied with an answer. She started pacing the room, shaking in fear of what was to come. They had fought Toffee before. Star had, Moon had, Marco had, they've all beaten him before and with relative ease (save for Moon's experience, Star wasn't really old enough to remember when that happened). Why were they taking all these precautions? Surely they didn't need the entire kingdom's army just to beat one person. Or... did he have underlings, an army of his own? Only time will tell.

Until then she will stay confined to her thoughts, too scared to try and do anything herself. It was one thing to make trouble just for the fun of it when no one gets hurt, right now was not one of those times. She didn't want to stress out her mother anymore than she may be right now. And without a wand or scissors she didn't really have anywhere to go. Her bed sheets certainly wouldn't make it to the ground from her balcony. There was no way out of the situation, only time to waste and pray. Praying was a weird thing Marco tried to teach her that she still didn't really get. It never made sense to her.

She paced all throughout the night. When morning came around the sun illuminated her tired face. She hadn't slept all night. She didn't want to sleep, all she wanted to do was see Marco again. But it didn't look like that was going to happen anytime soon.

All she could do was wait.

I lied, I put a lot of effort into this chapter. I really tried to highlight the difference between Marco's and Star's thought processes, trying to emphasize that Marco was more emotionally distraught than Star and that Star's mind was rather... active. I dunno, maybe I went too far with it. I still love this one-shot, definitely my favorite that I've written so far. It's also one of the shortest. Eh, more quality less quantity I always say.

*says the guy that spent the first few months of fic writing doing nothing but putting out at least 5,000 words a week*

Shut up, I'm trying