Disclaimer - I do not own Star vs the forces of evil.

A/N at the bottom. :)

Chapter 1 –

3 days after Meteora was defeated.

Marco laid in his bed, staring at the moons through the large hole in his ceiling on the other side of the room. Mewni Castle was still in a battered state after the battle with Meteora and repairs were going slow, but steady. Marco closed his eyes and replayed the scenes of the battle repeatedly in his head before letting out a deep sigh. 'If only I was stronger, maybe I could have stopped things from getting this bad.' He thought to himself with a frown on his face. As he was sitting up in bed he saw a familiar face staring at him from the end of his bed with her hands resting on her chin. "Something on your mind muscles?" she asked with a worried look on her face. Marco stared at her for a second before getting an annoyed look on his face "How many times do I have to ask you not to sneak in my room to watch me sleep? You're starting to act just like Janna." Hekapoo just smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

"Ugh never mind, I was just going over the battle with Meteora again in my head, wondering if there was anything I could have done different. Anything I could have done better. I feel like I failed everyone, especially Star….and you." Hekapoo got up and sat on the bed next to Marco and brushed the hair away from his eyes and rested her left hand on Marco's right cheek causing him to blush a little "Marco, you're too hard on yourself. You didn't fail me or Star. Sure, you lost against Meteora, but so did all of us, Star included. All our strength combined wasn't enough to bring her down, there's nothing more you could have done." She said with a small smile on her face. Marco softly took her hand from his cheek and lightly squeezed it "Thanks Hekapoo, but you got your soul sucked out because my plan failed!" he said with a pained expression on his face. Hekapoo gently squeezed his hand back before letting out a small chuckle "Oh don't flatter yourself! Its not the first time I've had my soul sucked out, oddly enough. You have nothing to feel bad about. Our job was to stall Meteora long enough for Star to find Moon and we did. Sure, the plan went a little off the rails, but we still managed to win, and everything worked out alright!" Marco looked at her before cracking a smile and letting out a soft chuckle "Hehe, I guess you're right. All things considered, we did pretty good for a thrown together group of idiots!" he said as the both started to laugh. Hekapoo lightly slapped Marco on the back with a flaming hand, causing Marco to yelp. "Glad you're back to normal muscles! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go talk to Star about looking for Moon." Hekapoo said as she got up and started to head for Marco's bedroom door. "Hekapoo… Thanks." Said Marco as he softly smiled at Heakapoo "Anytime Marco, I'm always around if you need me. You do have dimensional scissors after all. You can always just come straight to me if you want." She added with a wink, causing Marco to blush.

As she was walking out of Marco's room, he got off his bed and walked up to her grabbing her hand "Hekapoo, wait." She stopped and turned around to look at him before he started again "I need to ask a big favor from you." He added. Hekapoo just nodded in response and he continued "I know I hurt you the last time I kept secrets from you and I don't want to do that again." She just continued to look at him with a slightly confused look on her face. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath "I was able to use Star's wand. I can use magic… I had the cheek marks and everything." Marco finished as he slowly cracked his eyes open again. He saw Hekapoo just standing there dumbfounded. Before he could say anything else, he felt a flaming hand slap the back of his head hard, making him jolt with a yelp of pain. "You Idiot! Do you have any idea how dangerous it was to use the wand!? You could have gotten yourself killed! How do you think I would feel if you died!?" she said as the flame above her head was roaring in anger. Marco gently rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head and said "I couldn't help it. Star went to some pure magic dimension while she was sleep portaling and it was the only way I knew how to find her. I used one of Eclipsa's spells to find her and It worked. She was able to portal her way back home and learned to control her butterfly form. I was afraid to tell you because of how mad you got the last time I kept a secret from you. I didn't want you to hate me."

Hekapoo closed her eyes, rubbed the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh "Marco… I could never hate you. I'm definitely mad, but I'm in no position to judge you for keeping secrets." She said while looking away from Marco with a sad look on her face, rubbing her arm. Marco grabbed Hekapoo by the shoulders and pulled her into a hug. She stood stunned for a few seconds before returning the hug. A few tears began to roll down her cheeks and form a wet spot on Marco's shirt. He just tightened the hug. After a short while, they broke the hug and looked into each other's eyes, both blushing profusely. Hekapoo decided to break the silence first saying "Thanks Marco… I needed that." Marco just smiled down at her and said, "I think we both did H-Poo." She smiled and responded with a weak punch to his arm "Don't call me that!" They both started laughing.

Hekapoo's laughter was fading as she wiped away a tear forming in the corner of her eye before she whispered "That's why I love you Marco" she quickly covered her mouth with both hands, but it was too late. Marco looked at her, both of their faces were as red as a tomato. He chocked out a breath before asking "You… You love me?"

Hekapoo's flame was starting to jump up and down as she scrambled for the words to say. She finally knelt and put her head between her knees before whimpering out "…...Yes."

Marco stood there in disbelief, not knowing what to say to her sudden revelation. He took in a deep breath to calm down, then got on his knees and lifted Hekapoo's chin upwards and their eyes met. Before she could say anything, he blew out her raging flame above her head and said "I… I feel the same." And he gently held her cheek in his hand before slowly planting a soft kiss on her trembling lips. Hekapoo's eyes went wide at the confession, but they slowly closed as she leaned into the kiss.

After what felt like an eternity, they broke the kiss and stared in each other's eyes. Hekapoo leaned in and rested her forehead on his "Since when did you become so bold? Or such a good kisser?" she asked wearing a sly smirk on her face. Marco just chuckled and replied "Oh I have plenty of surprises up my sleeve. I'm not the same little boy you met at the beginning of my scissor quest."

Hekapoo let out a huff in amusement "Pfft… Ok easy there, stud. Don't get a big head just because a girl tells you she's got the hots for you." She said poking his chest with her right index finger as her left hand rested on her hip. "Not to ruin the moment or anything, but I thought you were in love with Star? I've seen the way you look at her you know."

Marco looked at Hekapoo and furrowed his brow before looking down at the floor, seemingly lost in thought. "I am" he said looking at her again. "I love you Hekapoo, but I do still love Star too. I think I always will, but she loves Tom now and I don't want to get in the way of that. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but Tom is one of my best friends and I don't wanna be the guy that comes between the happiness of two of my best friends. So, I think the best thing for me to do is try and move on."

Hekapoo sighed rubbing her temples "Marco… You really don't understand women, do you?" Marco looked at her, squinted his eyes and asked, "What do you mean?" she just shook her head, smirked and responded "Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually muscles. By the way, what was the favor you were talking about earlier?" Marco's eyes beamed at the question "Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" Hekapoo just rolled her eyes as he continued "Do you know of any dimensions out there with a time passage difference like in your dimension?" Hekapoo tapped her finger to her chin as she thought to herself before answering "I can think of one or two, why?"

Marco clapped his hands together "Well, I was thinking of going to one of them for a while to train and learn how to use magic, after we find Queen Moon of course" He said with a big grin on his face.

"That… That sounds like a horrible idea." She replied looking at him like he was the biggest idiot in the multiverse.

"What, why!?" he asked throwing his hands in the air.

"Because you have no idea how to even train with magic. You would probably end up blowing yourself to kingdom come!" she said throwing her hands in the air too.

"Ugh… Well what do you want me to do!? I need to learn to use magic somehow, do you have a better idea?" he yelled before plopping back down face first on his bed.

"Hmm…" Hekapoo hummed to herself as she paced the room lost in thought.

This continued for a few minutes before she stopped, a huge grin creeping on her face. She jumped in the air and landed on top of Marco's back as he let out a large 'oof' sound. As she sat on Marco's back she started giggling manically, which freaked Marco out a little.

"I'm afraid to ask, but what's so funny?" He asked as he turned his head to look at her on his back.

She kept a big Cheshire grin on her face as she answered, "Oh nothing~ I just thought of the perfect place for you to train, the old man there owes me a favor. It has a similar time difference to my dimension, although not quite a severe. You could spend years there with only a few weeks passing by here, plus your memories from the time spend there won't start to fade when you leave, like with my dimension. It's the perfect place for you to train for a long time and retain all the skills you acquire there, plus you will de-age when you return to this dimension, just like last time. It's a win-win!"

"Really!? Awesome! So, when can I- …Wait… What's the catch?" he asked with a drone in his voice.

"Oh, there's no catch. I will be going with you though." She answered while looking at her fingernails.

"Ha! I knew there was a catch! Why would you wanna go with me anyways? I was planning to spend a couple years there training. It will probably be boring for you." He questioned.

She slapped the back of his head again before getting off his back. "You idiot, I'm not gunna let you go by yourself. You would probably get yourself killed without me around. Besides, the longer we stay there, the more we can get to know each other." She said before she pinched his butt, making him yelp and fall off his bed, which caused her to burst out laughing.

"Dang it Hekapoo!" he yelled picking himself off the floor. "You win! We'll go together, but first we still need to find where Queen Moon is."

"Don't worry your pretty little head Marco, with you, me, Star and the rest of the Magical High Commission, we shouldn't have much trouble finding her. We will get everyone together first thing in the morning, but for now just get some sleep." She said as she flicked Marco's nose.

He rubbed his nose while grinning slightly "Ok, ok, geez. Thanks… For everything H-Poo."

"No problem dork. You're just lucky I like you." She added as she left his room.

Marco changed into his pajamas and got back into his bed before falling asleep.

A/N:

Thanks to everyone that took the time to read my story! This is the first thing like this that I've ever written, so please let me know how I did and what I can do to improve my writing. All reviews and comments are greatly appreciated. :)