Chapter 10: Glow

The hour was late in the town of Echo Creek. Owls could be distinctly heard hooing in the distance as the silver moon draped the streets in glimmering light. Said streets were barren, everyone having retired to their homes long ago, ready for a relaxing evening of peace and slumber. Despite the brightness of the moon, darkness filled all the houses that decorated the quaint little town. All except one.

In the magical tower that protruded from the side of the Diaz residence, glowing light could be seen shining out from the windows, invading the streets below. While all other lights in the home had been turned off, this one remained active. The light of Star Butterfly's room.

And yet even so, the large spiralling room was completely empty. No magical princess from another dimension in sight. Only the faint sound of snoring emanating from a particularly big book of spells could be heard. Apart from that, dead silence. That is until the obnoxious sound of ripping spread through the room, as a swirling portal sliced into the fabric of space was created.

A grey suited boy emerged, almost jumping out of the portal, and landed firmly on the floor. He moved his hands to his hair and ruffled it lightly, making sounds of contempt as he did so.

"Oh man," Marco groaned, continuing to attempt to fix his messy hair, "I swear, those stupid portals always do this. It's like going through pure static!"

As the Latino boy ran his hands through his messy brown hair, a second figure stepped out of the portal, more gracefully than her predecessor, wearing an elegant blue dress.

"No idea what you're talking about, Marco." Star said casually, feeling her own smooth blond hair with her fingers. "It never does that to me."

Marco's frown turned into a playful grin as he rolled his eyes. "Well, we can't all be as lucky as you, your majesty."

Star folded her arms and huffed in pretend annoyance, her cheeks turning the slightest shade of red. He is far too cute for his own good.

"Bit hypocritical now, that nickname, wouldn't ya say, Diaz?" she smirked, to which Marco just look confused. "Now that you're 'Prince Marco Diaz of Earth and future King of Mewni'."

Now it was Marco's turn to blush, which made Star giggle. Once her laughter had died out, a silence ensued. The earth boy and the princess looked at each other, smiling sheepishly.

"So," began Marco, rubbing his arm and shifting his gaze, "Eventful night to say the least, huh?"

Star smiled at this, her eyes still on her fake date of the evening, "Oh yeah. You could say that."

Silence again. Marco's blush had yet to subside, as he tapped his hands against his leg awkwardly. Finally, he looked back at Star. "Hey, at least the plan worked, right?"

"Yep," the girl said cheerily, still feeling the aftermath of being on cloud nine for the end of the ball, "Too well, you might say."

Marco laughed nervously. "Ha ha, yeah…" He trailed off, not really sure how to continue this conversation. What do I say now? Should … should I bring it up?

Marco almost felt himself say goodnight to Star, and bolt out of then room, but he stopped himself. What am I thinking? the boy thought, irritated at himself. It's that kind of thinking that made Star so upset before. Marco took a deep breath. No more Safe Kid stuff, Diaz.

"So Star…" he began, causing the princess' eyes to shoot back over to him, glistening with hope.

"Yes, Marcoooo?"

The boy shifted uncomfortably, "Will this … I mean, uh … is this gonna, y'know … ch-change things? Between us?"

Star grinned at this, and for a split second Marco thought he saw something glowing from her dress pocket. "Only if you want it too." she said playfully.

Marco's attention was drawn back to Star as he heard her words. He looked at her face and took it all in. Her small, flirtatious smile. Her mesmerising blue eyes. Her cute little pink hearts on her cheeks. Her overall overwhelming beauty.

He felt a surge of confidence take over him, his previous nervousness forgotten. He looked Star straight in her eyes, and returned her smile. "I do," he said, blushing all the while. "I really do."

Star's eyes lit up and she felt her stomach do somersaults, both at Marco's words and his smile. She slowly made her way over to him, not being able to contain her giddiness. "Good," she said softly, stopping just in front of him. "So do I."

At that, Star launched herself at Marco, tackling him into a warm hug. Marco laughed a little at this before wrapping his arms round Star and melting into the embrace, sighing contently.

They stayed like that for a while, both latched onto each other, soaking up the joy they felt in the other's arms. Finally, Star looked up at Marco, fire in her eyes. "So it's official then … boyfriend?"

Marco's face became even redder at this new label, but he found that the word settled well with him. He returned Star's blazing glare, as he bent his head down and caught the girl in a surprise kiss.

It only lasted for a second, but Star felt a rush at feeling the boy's lips on her's yet again. As Marco pulled away, feeling the same sense of tingling and euphoria, Star stared up at him, blushing madly and in a dazed state. "I guess it does…" he said, smiling at her, which she slowly returned. "...girlfriend."

Girlfriend… Star thought, throwing the word around in her head. In the end, she smiled to herself. I could get used to that.

Yet again, the pair stayed in their embrace, just staring into each other's eyes. It was a magnificent moment, a comfortable silence, the both of them just basking in the happiness of their new found relationship. Finally, however, Marco broke the silence.

"So you're definitely not into Tom, right?"

Star smacked his side, exiting the hug and making Marco both chuckle and wince in pain simultaneously. "You just had to ruin it, didn't you?"

"Afraid so," replied Marco, nursing his hip and grinning to Star at the same time. The girl couldn't keep up the charade of being mad at him for long, and yet another smile spread on her face as well.

"In all seriousness, Tom was a huge help tonight," Star said, thinking back fondly to the talk she had had with her demon ex-boyfriend. "He's not so bad, y'know?"

Marco shrugged. "If you say so. But I can't see us becoming best pals, if that's what you're getting at." He winked at the princess, grinning.

Star rolled her eyes. "We'll see."

Suddenly, Marco clapped his hands together. "Anyway, enough about Tom. This all calls for a celebration. How about I whip up some of Marco's Super Awesome Nachos?"

At these words, Star instantly jumped up in glee, her mouth starting to seriously salivate. "Really? Really really?" she almost squealed, her excitement getting the better of her.

Marco bowed to her formally and slowly moved backwards in the direction of the door. "Anything for you..." he said, opening the door and slipping out of the room, but not before adding, "...girlfriend."

Star turned bright red as Marco left the room. She made sure he was well out of earshot before letting out yet another squeal. She grinned to herself, utterly lovestruck.

"I'm his girlfriend," she said to herself mirthfully, and was about to follow Marco's footsteps out of the room until she heard an abrupt slam behind her. Star whizzed around and raised her wand defensively. She saw that her magical book of spells was now on the floor and open, with a certain miniscule blue figure sitting cross-legged on the pages.

"So, did I miss something, or…?"

Star breathed out heavily, a sense of relief washing over her. She lowered her wand. "Oh, hey Glossaryck. You scared the heck out of me."

Glossaryck floated up from the book and began swimming in circles through the air, "Well, maybe it was just some more training to make you more aware of your surroundings."

Star raised her eyebrows, and the small blue man scratched his arm with his foot as he halted swimming. "Or not. You know, I'm not too sure myself."

The princess scoffed at this, "Oh, come on, Glossaryck. We both know that you know, like, everything."

"If that's the way you want to put it," he said idly, now examining his fingernails for dirt. "So what was with the high pitched squeal? Stub your toe or something?"

Star shook her head, still clasping her wand in her hand. Her smile returned. "Nah. Actually, it was because of something good."

"Oh do tell. You know I live for good news." Glossaryck said, resuming his air swimming, this time floating up to Star.

"Well," Star began excitedly, as her mentor swam circles around her. "Marco just asked me to be his girlfriend! And I said yes!"

The girl hopped up and down slightly, her giddy joyfulness taking hold yet again. Glossaryck slowed down and eventually stopped swimming. He eyed Star, a curious look on his face. "Really, now?"

"Yep!" the princess answered excitedly, in a world of her own. "We even kissed just earlier at the Ball of the Butterfly. We are, like, totally a thing now! Isn't that cool?"

Star was caught up in her own little fairytale, sighing dreamily at the prospect of an actual relationship with Marco. She laughed lightly to herself. Who would have thought it? Me and Marco? It was definitely strange, but a good kind of strange. A sort of strange that was both exhilarating and heartwarming. This was something Star had wanted for a long time without even realising it.

Glossaryck looked at Star intently. His eyes then shifted to the wand she was holding, and then back to Star again. He hummed. "Interesting…" he mumbled.

"You bet it is!" grinned Star, not really paying attention to Glossaryck, still swept up in the events of the evening. "Well, I better go check on my boyfriend." Star couldn't help but giggle sweetly at that word. "He's making nachos!"

Star pointed her wand to the light in her room. "Light Removing Sunshine Spell!" A blast of magic hit the light dangling in Star's room, which caused the glow to slowly die out. Soon the room was left in moderate darkness. Glossaryck watched this closely all the while.

Star threw her wand onto her bed, which bounced lightly before becoming stationary. "See you later, Glossaryck!" she said chirpily as she skipped merrily out of her room, slamming the door absentmindedly on her way out.

As the girl left, Glossaryck's eyelids narrowed slightly. "Hmmm…" he pondered, rubbing his beard with his finger. "Something feels … off."

From the periphery of his vision, something caught the blue man's eyes. He carefully turned around and saw that there was a faint glowing emitting from Star's bed.

"Well, what could that be?" Glossaryck said to himself as he floated over to the large bed, searching for the source of the glow. He stopped directly above the bed, and looked down at Star's wand.

Ever since the wand had been cleaved, Glossaryck had seen it glow before. Sometimes it would be pink, when Star was feeling any strong positive emotions, such as happiness or love. Other times it would glow green, when she was feeling negative feelings, such as anger or jealousy. While Star or anyone else had yet to deduce this, Glossaryck was no fool. He knew everything, as Star had put it.

But this was something that the blue man had never seen before. Eyes squinting, he stared down at the crystal of the cleaved wand. It was certainly glowing, but the colour it emitted was neither pink nor green.

It was purple. A very dark shade of purple.

"Oh," Glossaryck commented, almost casually, still staring at the glowing purple wand. Then his eyes slightly widened.

"Oh no."

Thank you so much to everyone for all the support for this story! Yes, I'm afraid 'The Ball of the Butterfly' is over. But don't worry too much, as the story will continue soon enough in it's sequel, 'The Corruption of Magic'! Keep your eyes peeled! :)