Chapter 2
Moon woke up several hours later to a knock on the door. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking against the grainy feeling.
Another knock.
"Bloody fu—I'm coming!" She yelled out. She stuffed her feet into a pair of mismatched slippers and opened the door. Her mother stood there with her father, they both looked vaguely disappointed. They barged their way in uninvited.
"Moon, we are very disappointed in you." Her mom stiffly said.
Moon lifted an eyebrow in question, "Why? What did I do?"
Her father held his hands together behind his back while he looked down at her. "You were seen making a scene outside the palace walls. Apparently you tried to coerce Toffee of Septarsis to kiss you."
She blushed, "I didn't say that…"
"Nevertheless," her mother gritted out, "we've decided to take care of this ourselves." She stepped back to reveal a teenage boy, half her size. "Meet River. He is your to-be husband."
"What?" gasped Moon. "No!"
"Hello, Princess Moon," River shyly said.
"Hello. You need to leave now." She pointed to the door and he moved out of the room. She turned to glare at her parents. "You've arranged a marriage?"
"Yes. You are no longer to go anywhere alone without a chaperone, and Toffee will soon be given an order to put a stop to your friendship with him."
"Toffee is a good friend."
"He's a monster," her mom corrected. "This little friendship will be put to an end. We will not risk having another Queen Eclipsa moment."
"You're being unfair."
"No, we are not. Dinner will be postponed for an hour, dress appropriately. We will announce your engagement while the Monsters for Mewni Peace Treaty members are there."
Moon felt the blood rush from her face as they left. She had a feeling she had just put her friendship with Toffee at risk.
On most nights, when they weren't hosting any events, they dined in the small informal dining room. Tonight however, a lot of organizations were gathered. So they ate in the gigantic dining room that was always freezing and the chairs were so hard and comfortable, you had to sit up straight or you'd wake up the next day with a kink in your neck.
Moon wrung her hands together as one of the maids helped pin half her hair up. She stuck the princess crown on her head a bit too hard and Moon winced.
"So sorry, my lady." The girl squeaked.
Moon gritted her teeth and said, "It's okay. Just please hurry." The girl nodded and worked faster.
Moon stepped out of her day dress. The dress she was to wear for dinner had a light pink top and black skirt. A black bow was arranged at her throat and she pulled on pink elbow long gloves.
"Ready," Moon grumbled as she ran her hands over the skirt of her dress. The maid opened the door and Moon stopped in surprise as she realized River was waiting for her.
"What are you doing outside of my room?" She asked as she closed the door.
He cleared his throat and offered his arm. "I was hoping I could escort you downstairs, princess."
Moon hesitated and then tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. "Okay."
River actually turned to be a good talker, and by the time they got to the dining room, Moon was laughing with tears in her eyes.
"That was a pretty good joke," she admitted.
River blushed, "Thank you." He brought them to a stop outside the open doors, "Um…will you sit by me tonight?"
Moon stopped laughing, "I'm not sure that's appropriate. Not that I don't want to sit by you but my mom might have me sit next to her."
He nodded dejectedly. Then gave her a bright smile. "It was worth a shot."
"I will try to sit by you," Moon whispered as they walked into the dining room and were separated. She found her parents talking to the members of the Magic High Commission.
"Moon, there you are." Her mom sounded relieved. "You will be sitting by River."
"Good." She said. This caused her parents to shoot her a questioning look. "I want to sit by him. He's really sweet and funny."
Her parents kept staring at her so she decided to casually look around the room. And spotted Toffee. He looked quite dashing in black and white and he was staring at her intently. A blush crossed her face, causing her to look away.
She could feel his stare on her back. They were finally ready to go sit down. She felt him staring as she made her way to sit by River. With a quick peek, she saw Toffee narrow his eyes as he assessed the situation.
River leaned over to whisper in her ear and she saw Toffee stiffen.
"Do you think people will take our engagement well?" River asked hesitantly.
She took her eyes off Toffee and looked at River. "I'm not sure."
River nodded. "Hopefully they take it well—"
The sound of a fork hitting glass broke their conversation and Queen Butterfly stood up.
"Attention," her mother said with a clear of her throat, "attention please. I have a very special announcement to make."
Toffee slowly looked at Moon.
"I am pleased to announce that my daughter, Moon Butterfly, and River Johansen are to wed."
The guests broke out into polite applause as River and Moon stood up with awkward grins on their face. Just as quickly, they sat back down.
Dinner past by in blur and everyone was excusing themselves to head to the ballroom where they would mingle and be miserable until they could go home.
River and Moon stayed by each other, the awkwardness returning between them.
"Congratulations, princess." A voice said.
Moon stiffly turned to stare at Toffee, who had his hands balled up and jaw tightly tensed.
"Thank you," She muttered.
He kept looking at her as he said, "I am sorry to hear that you want to break off our friendship."
A wave of shame washed over her. "I didn't write that note."
"I know. Your mother did."
"Toffee…"
"No," Toffee said with a shake of his head, "it's better this way." He bowed. "It was a pleasure being your friend, princess." With that, he walked away and didn't look back once.
She missed Toffee. Missed his witty, sarcastic remarks. Missed his friendship. She missed being able to talk to him every day. Her entire days were spent with River, who she held dear to her heart.
They went on walks, picnics, went to go see plays. They joked and laughed and talked for hours on end.
But she was fooling herself if she didn't admit she missed Toffee.
It killed her knowing she couldn't talk to him even though she saw him every day at the castle. He was always there to speak on behalf of monsters. And she knew he saw her too, he would stop talking to whoever and follow her with his gaze.
If only she could go back to before she begged him to kiss her on the front steps of the castle.
"Moon." Her mother interrupted her conversation with River. They were playing chess and it was Moon's turn to go and she was stuck.
"Yes?"
Her mom gestured for Moon to follow with a flick of her wrist. "Come on. It's time for you to sit in on one of the meetings. It's time you learned about these sort of situations."
Moon stood up and fixed her skirt. "Okay." She pointed playfully at the chess board and told River, "Don't mess with my pieces. I'll know."
She followed her mother into the conference room and sat down in one of the two available chairs there was around the table. She smiled and greeted the people sitting around the table. She let out a small sigh of relief when she noticed Toffee wasn't among them. Though there were a handful of monsters sitting around the table.
"Let's get this meeting start, shall we?" Her mother pulled out a stack of papers and began droning on and on about boring topics. Moon spaced out, her mind going back to the chess piece and trying to figure out how to beat River.
Then the doors opened and conversations ceased. Moon looked up to see Toffee walking in as he fixed his red tie.
"My apologies, Queen Butterfly. The Royal Mile was backed up." He paused on his way to the table as he saw her. He scanned the area and realized there were no other seats besides the one by her. He swallowed and slowly went to sit down. She noticed that he scooted his chair an inch away from her and folded his hands on the table.
"Apology accepted," her mother stiffly said. "Now, as I was saying. Tension between Mewmans and Monsters have been at an all-time high lately. I've recently had reported to me that crimes against Mewmans made by monsters have risen thirty percent in the past six months. Most of these have included weapons."
Toffee raised a hand but didn't wait for permission to speak. "Crimes against Monsters done by Mewmans have risen eighty percent in the last three weeks alone. All of them have had an injury done by a weapon."
Queen Butterfly frowned, "yes. But that isn't the point at this moment."
"What is the point then? We need to keep both monsters and mewmans safe."
"Yes," Moon's mother said. "Which is why we are instating the Mewman Safety Act. Monsters will no longer be able to carry around weapons."
The room broke out with protest.
"You can't do that!" Toffee yelled over the noise. "You're putting Monsters in danger. You're making us susceptible to being killed."
"Mr. Toffee," Moon's mother rebuked, "Once Mewmans know that monsters are unarmed, they will stop being afraid and it will help everyone."
"You can't possibly believe that!" He growled.
"Toffee," Moon whispered harshly as she noticed the guards stiffening. "Calm down." She tugged on his sleeve.
He shook off her hand, picked up his things, and left. The door slammed behind him and the loud noise continued.
The meeting lasted only five more minutes and they left, the Monsters for Mewni Peace Treaty members were angry. Moon ran out of the conference room in search of Toffee.
She found him walking around cursing and muttering to himself in one of the training rooms. He picked up a spear and stabbed a dummy where the heart would be. Moon blanched, never before had she seen him that angry.
"Toffee!"
He whirled around with a furious expression. "What? What do you want?"
Moon held her hands up in surrender. "I know you're angry."
He laughed bitterly, "Do you? Do you really?" My people are about to be one hundred percent vulnerable to being killed and you think I'm just angry?"
Moon touched his hand, "I know you're furious and you have the right to be."
He moved his hand. "You don't understand. I've lost my entire family because people decided it would be a fun sport to kill monsters. I barely escaped with my life when I was ten."
"I'm so sorry. I'll talk to my mom. She can't really go through with this."
He coldly laughed again. "She's doing this to punish me. She didn't want her perfect princess to become enamored with a monster. Your mother doesn't like me, that's no secret."
Moon frowned, "That's not true."
"Yes it is." He stared down at her with dark eyes. Grabbing her by the face, he whispered, "Why are you marrying River Johansen?"
"My mother wants me to," She said.
"Because she doesn't want you with me." He tilted her head up and kissed her.
Her hands went to his chest in protest but didn't push back. He lifted his head and pushed her away.
"Leave." He softly said. When she didn't move he yelled, "Leave!"
And she ran as if the very demons from the Underworld were at her heels.
Crimes against monsters became an everyday occurrence. Many were murdered in the most painful ways. Forty-five of the forty-seven Monsters for Mewni Peace Treaty members were killed in their homes. The only two councilors left were Toffee and Sir Riggs. They went into hiding for safety. A year passed before Moon saw him again.
