Mariposa wriggled her finger at him, old and frayed puppet perched daintily on her finger.
Sometimes she had this look in her eyes that told him that she remembered her life without them. The life in the neverzone. It wasn't that bad of a place, and they had clearly grown well enough there. He would know well what it was like to spend fifteen years in that world, though he had at least already been old enough to defend himself.
"It's alright Mariposa. Meteora will be by to see you in a few days. She's just getting to see her parents now. They haven't been able to settle down for a little while."
Mariposa gurgled and squeaked childishly, but he felt she understood.
"I love you, Mariposa." He whispered, kissing her forehead before he walked away.
It had been a few days. Life was vexing, and people weren't settling immediately into the sudden collapse of dimensions into one another. For one thing, his parents had finally met Nachos, which was nice. On the other, he had to kill a few of the beasts that attacked Echo Creek, and they found out exactly how much practice he had with that.
In all the things that changed, some stayed the same. Britta's Tacos rebuilt and reopened, citing an earthquake as the cause for the collapse, which they were insured for, given them being in California.
He stopped by for lunch, grabbing a couple tacos and a drink. The only other patrons at this hour were Janna and a quiet monster that didn't seem to have the confidence to strike a conversation.
"Hey Janna. Thanks for helping me out earlier." He said as he sat down at her table.
"No problem, Marco. I heard you dumped the Princess. Something about performance issues with all the magic shebang?"
Marco frowned. "No! How did you hear about that anyway?!"
Janna raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "Um, Star's best friend is a huge gossip? She's been ranting about you for days, Diaz."
Marco groaned. "She's gonna ruin my reputation."
Janna raised her eyebrow, if possible, further. "Your reputation? You dropped out of High School to fight things in another dimension. You have a dragon motorcycle and everyone has seen you kill like ten monsters before they could get anyone. I think your 'reputation' is fine."
Marco groaned again, if anything just because he had nothing to say.
"I just don't know how to feel. Star was ready to leave me forever just to get rid of magic. Am I too clingy or something to expect her to at least hesitate to decide that?"
"Honestly? Yeah. You know Star doesn't really consider consequences to her actions until after she's done taking them, and you should be used to it by now. If anything, she probably had to feel a lot worse than you did once she had done it."
Marco sighed and slumped his head into his tray, ignoring the slight remains of his tacos as they sank into his face. "I just-"
"But." Janna interrupted. "You have a decent reason to be upset. You basically gave up your whole life to go help her out on Mewni, and she didn't ever really acknowledge that."
Marco suddenly remembered that she had admitted to putting a camera on his person at some point, and was worried about how much of it she had seen or gone through.
"But if you think about it, you don't really have any good options. You can be mad or whatever, or you can make up with her. Your call doofus."
Then with that helpful advice, Janna stood up and walked away with all the carelessness he had come to recognize as custom for her.
Marco stewed on Janna's comments for a good few minutes before sitting up and brushing his lunch off of his face.
"I gotta talk to Star." He decided.
