It was late evening in the enchanted forest of Dimension X-103, with the last rays of the sun just poking through the dense foliage. Brunzetta had a pot of stew on the fire, full of vegetables and the day's hunt. Marco was currently in the nearby gnome village, coaching dance lessons for the less fortunate. Brunzetta had never been much of a dancer, so she decided to leave Marco to his work. The gnome lodgings had been far too small for them, so like many times before, they had made camp in the local woods.

With the stew nearly finished cooking, Brunzetta heard a rustling in the nearby leaves. Marco waved as he entered the cleaning, calling out to Brunzetta. "I'm back!"

"Hey, Yammy! 'bout time." Brunzetta lifted the lid of the stew, giving it a quick check and waving back to Marco with her free hand. "Stew should be done pretty soon. You got those gnomes dancing?"

"Yeah, finally." Marco took a seat on a stump across from Brunzetta, letting out a yawn, tired after a long day of work. "Legs that short weren't exactly made for postmodern jazz polka fusion, but we got it done. They're gonna crush it at the village talent show next week."

Brunzetta was happy to hear that he had accomplished his mission, but the job itself had seemed so unusual for him, almost like Marco was just looking for busywork. She wondered if future quests might be equally out of character. "So, what's next?"

Marco shrugged, having not thought that far ahead. "I don't really know yet. I'm sure something will turn up." Dimension X-103 rarely stayed quiet for long, in or out of the Neverzone.

"Yammy, what I mean is... you stayed to fix the ice castle, and it's been done for months. And you haven't gone home." Brunzetta wasn't trying to get rid of Marco, but she had begun to sense that he had ulterior motives for not returning after his work was complete. "What's really keeping you here?"

Marco raised an eyebrow, not sure what Brunzetta was getting at. "... what do you mean? Why would I leave?"

"When we started on the castle, you said you'd go back when it was done." It was a years old promise now, but she'd never known Marco not to be true to his word. "If you want to stay here, that's fine, but it seemed like you had something to go back to. What was it? Family?"

"Not really. My parents are about to have a baby. They won't have time for me." Although he had promised himself that he would be a good big brother to the new baby, he was sure his family could manage without him if they had to.

It was an obvious excuse, but not a completely ridiculous one. Brunzetta decided to probe further. "Friends?"

"I never exactly had a lot of those. Alphonso and Ferguson almost feel like strangers now. Jackie kinda, y'know, dumped me. Janna would probably still stalk me if I gave her the chance. I'd rather not. And Tom... well, things were kinda weird when I left." Brunzetta vaguely recognized the names from Marco's story, although she knew more about some than others. In particular, Marco had always been quite evasive when describing his "current" relationship with Tom. "I guess I wouldn't mind seeing Kelly again, but still. I really do like it here. I don't know that there's anything I really miss enough to go back."

Brunzetta went through the mental list of people Marco had told her stories about, knowing that something was off, but not quite able to put her finger on it. She repeated the names in her mind, looking up at the sky as she tried to figure out what the problem was. As the first star of evening winked to light, she realized just what it was that Marco hadn't said. "You're missing somebody."

The double meaning hit Marco like a punch to the gut. "Brunzetta, please..." The ommission had been entirely intentional. Marco had been doing everything he could to forget about Star. Throwing himself into adventure, trying to keep his mind off what he had left behind. It had almost started to work. He still thought about her every day, but now it was just a little less. The last thing he wanted was to be reminded of her.

"Come on. You used to talk about her all the time." Now that she thought about it, Marco had hardly mentioned Star since the work on the castle was finished. "When we met you introduced her as your best friend. She must be important to you. Why don't you go see her? At least for a visit. I'll still be here when you get back."

Marco shook his head slowly. "I don't know if I should see her again. Too much has changed."

"Because you've been away too long? You know better than that!" Brunzetta laughed aloud, unable to believe Marco had forgotten about the rules of X-103's temporal flow. "With the way time passes here, it's not like things are any different for her."

After a long hesitation, Marco spoke in a barely audible whisper. "... they are for me."

"... oh. It's like that." Brunzetta quickly realized that Marco wasn't referring to the length of time he had been away from Star. "Aaaaaaaaaand you had told me she's dating someone else, didn't you." It was a statement, not a question.

"Tom." Marco sighed heavily, having deliberately concealed Star and Tom's relationship status from Brunzetta, in order to avoid exactly these uncomfortable questions.

"Yikes. Classic Yammy..." Despite the jab, there was more than a little sympathy in her voice. "Well, stay here then, if that's what you really want. Nothing's stopping you. Live a life of adventure, fight ancient horrors, find some other girl to pine after..." The tone made it sound like it wasn't a serious suggestion.

Marco didn't apprciate the attempt at reverse psychology, but held his temper in check. He understood that Brunzetta was trying to help in her own way. "I know what you're trying to do, but I've already thought about it both ways. It's not like I'm unhappy here. I'd be okay with living in the Neverzone." Maybe it wasn't quite his perfect fantasy life, but he could think of worse ways to live. "I shouldn't go back. It's too much to ask for, thinking it'll work out somehow and I'll get the fairytale ending. Happily ever after with 2.5 kids and a suburban castle with a white picket fence... I don't think it really works that way." Whatever feelings Star might have once had for him, he was sure they were gone now. Marco saw that she had chosen Tom, not him.

"Look, I get it. Love triangles? Been there, done that. More times than I can count, and that's just in the past few hundred years. And like you said, it doesn't always have a fairytale ending." Brunzetta understood the difficulty of Marco's situation, but she didn't approve of his choice to run away from it. "But are you telling me you'd give up your entire life just so you don't have to find out how the story ends? That you'd leave all your friends and family behind JUST IN CASE it doesn't turn out how you want? That's pretty selfish if you ask me."

"I DIDN'T ask you. It's not just about me, you know! All me being there would do is make things more complicated!" That much was true. Marco had spent a long time feeling like he was just in the way. Star and Tom didn't need him. They would be happier without him. Although he wasn't sure he truly believed it in the very depths of his soul, he still felt it, and that was enough. "If me being there makes Star's life worse, what kind of best friend would I be if I just barge back into her life?" He'd already made that mistake once, and had no desire to make it again. Even if there was no gap in time from Star's perspective, he wondered if it still wouldn't make her life easier to just stay away from her.

"That's... well, I mean, I get where you're coming from." Although she stood by her words, Brunzetta immediately realized she had overstepped her bounds. After a minute or so of tense silence, she decided to rephrase her question. "Let me put it another way. Where do you really belong?" This time, she knew the answer before she had even asked the question. And she knew Marco knew the answer as well. Brunzetta got no joy out of putting Marco on the spot, but in the years she had known him, she had learned that usually the only way to get him to make a hard decision was to force his hand. "If you can look me in the eye and tell me it's here, in X-103, in the Neverzone, I won't ever bother you about it again. But if you can't do that, I want you out of here in the next five minutes."

Marco was taken aback by the abruptness of Brunetta's demand. He HAD missed Star, that much was certain. But that was the problem, wasn't it? So many years apart had done nothing to make him miss her less. True, he had forced himself to think about her less, but that wasn't the same as missing her less. She was the only reason he had gone back after his first adventure in the Neverzone.

So how could he answer Brunzetta's question? Where did he belong? He didn't yet know. But he knew he that no matter how much it hurt him, he didn't belong anywhere without Star. Without her, there was nothing for him in X-103, or anywhere else. It was a conclusion he absolutely hated, but had no choice but to accept.

Marco rose from his seat, letting out a resigned sigh. He had made a decision, and there was no point in delaying it. "Hey... tell the gnomes I'm sorry I'm gonna miss the talent show."

Brunzetta got up to meet Marco, nodding with approval. She suspected Marco might have wanted to go home all along, and just needed the right push. Though she would miss her old friend, she knew he was doing the right thing in leaving. "So how much are you gonna tell her?

Marco had kept many of his Neverzonian adventures from Star. For all the good times he'd had in the Neverzone, there was a great deal he preferred not to dwell on. But maybe that had been a mistake. After all, keeping so much from her had gotten him in this mess in the first place. If he'd been more honest, maybe he could've addressed her former feelings for him before they had faded. "Everything. Well, almost everything. Just not THAT." Not yet, and maybe not ever. But this time he would tell her as much as he could. Learning to speak Merman, his first gray hair, teaching underprivileged gnomes to dance... all the bad along with the good. All the things he wanted to forget, he would share those too. "But maybe someday... everything. The whole Marco." He didn't know if that moment would ever come, but if it did, it wouldn't be like the booth. He swore he wouldn't try to run again.

"Good. Well, never been much for long goodbyes. Besides, we might see each other again. Like I said, I'll still be here. So if things don't work out... don't be a stranger, okay? I'll at least make you some stew." Brunzetta gestured toward the now finished pot of stew, then gave Marco a quick, two fingered salute. "Take it easy, Marco."

Marco pulled his dimensional scissors from his pockets, cutting a portal back to Mewni. "Yeah. See you around, Brunzetta." He would miss the company of Brunzetta, but she was simply a friend. And he needed a best friend. HIS best friend.

Filled with a new confidence, Marco stepped through the portal to reunite with Star.