For Marco, the night passed in a blur.
The night of the Blood Moon Ball. What had started as an average day turned into a momentous evening that revealed more about him than he cared to know.
But really, at fifteen years old, how are you supposed to handle it when suddenly you're stuck with feelings you've never had before? Especially when it involves your whirlwind of a best friend?
That night, a lot of things changed.
Really, he'd just wanted to check in on her. It's not like he'd know what he'd jump into when he stepped into that ballroom.
(It'd be weird to think about how clearly the beautiful image of Star Butterfly in her bright pink gown imprinted itself in his mind's eye.)
Tom worried him, and right alongside that was his worry about her being able to take care of herself. On top of it being an incredibly boring night, he really didn't have much when he'd already made his way underground.
It was only when he had her hand in his, and the two of them were bathed in the violently crimson glow of the blood moon, that something triggered in his core. Looking into the deeply tinted azure eyes of Star, something he couldn't fathom rose up like a bird spreading its wings.
It would take months to figure it out, but in that moment, all that mattered was the warmth of her palm against his and the way she smiled at him while he twirled her. The way it felt to hold her close overrode every other feeling in his body for a moment, which could've been the curse laying its hands on him; but, if he's honest, that's not what it was at all.
It was probably at that moment that Marco fell deeply in love with Star Butterfly.
Not because of a fated curse, but because he already had budding feelings for her before that. From the day he met her, he was overtaken by her, swept up in the giddy joy and fun she brought with her like a tidal wave.
To be Star's right-hand man was like a dream, to fight by her side felt more natural than anything else Marco'd ever done. It felt right to be with her.
As the months would go by, and they would face darker and darker problems like Toffee, Eclipsa, Miss Heinous, that little moment between the two of them at the Blood Moon Ball would replay itself like a clip stuck on loop. Jealousy when she was with Tom, bitterness for his own inability to say how he felt, horror when he realized she'd liked him all along; things that became painfully obvious once he chose to open his eyes to the truth.
And even when it was all over, when they were standing at the end of magic itself, he was still stuck on that moment at the Blood Moon Ball where he had held her close in a dance he could never replicate. Shivering in the never-ending ocean of blackened magic, he longed for the very beginning where he had innocently twirled her across the dance floor and nothing else mattered but the smile on her face.
Really, though it unraveled itself with time, it all started on that one fateful night.
By the light of the moon, Marco Diaz fell in love with Star Butterfly. And it was the best thing to ever happen to him.
A/N: Just a little drabble while I get invested in the fandom again.