Syre23-Really glad that you hold my story in such high opinion! Like I've said, this is my first ever fic that I've ever had to adapt episodes, so it's nice to know I'm able to blend my two favorite characters together. Yeah, looking back on it, Chapter 12 is probably the weakest chapter. I wrote that while having writers block, and it shows. Hopefully I can avoid that from now on.

JudgeDreddSA-Thanks for the heads up.

Guest-I'm still planning for how I'm going to incorporate Steven in those episodes, but chances are a 'most likely' for Connie. I wouldn't think so, mostly because he still plans on being a knight for his own kingdom.

"I'm so regretting this." The discontent King River groaned as he tried to sit happily with his family for a nice family dinner. The table was perfectly spread with a wide variety of corn to choose from, his two children were lost in their own little world, hardly noticing what was going on around him, and for once, Moon had calmed down enough to simply enjoy a nice meal together. All in all, it was as close to ideal as one could get.

But King River was not a happy king tonight. He was annoyed, livid, irritated of what they had to go through just for a simple photo. "Hm, yes, yes, keep chewing, keep on chewing." A small purple man with tiny wings observed from behind him, writing down on a note pad, becoming more and more enthralled with each word he wrote down. The King did his best to ignore the preying eyes, trying to enjoy his cream of corn soup as much as possible.

"Dear, if your going to murmur while you're eating, at least try to keep the beard clean." The Queen corrected her husband, pointing to the various stains of a yellowish-white substance all over his facial hair. The irritation of the King was hardly quailed, especially with the little purple man started to sniff the messy beard, and began chewing on it.

"Honey, this is ridiculous! I know the portrait needs to be perfect, but did we have to bring this freeloader with us?!" The king questioned, yelping in slight pain when the fairy like person ripped off a piece of hair, and gurgled it in his mouth. "For the past two weeks, all he's been doing is following me around, nosing around in everything I do! I can't even throw my axe right at monsters without him messing up my aim!"

"Your, highness, your highness, relax." The winged man causally interrupted after he swallowed the hair ball. " First off, it's not freeloading if you pay me to do this. Secondly, this is just how the art of Atelier de Colbat Ferrero works. In order to do it perfectly, I have to study you in your natural habitat. Observe your eating habits, become one with your environment, bathe in that strange, sweet incense that you light in the bathroom every night."

"River, what is her talking abou.."

"The bathroom is my time, MY TIME!" The King defended as he pounded on the table. Everyone, even his two children, oblivious to the conversation, turned their heads to what was going on. "Ugggh, how much longer are you going to 'observe me'?"

"Oh, not much longer. Come tomorrow morning, I'll be out of your hair." He said, spiting out the hair he ate earlier into the King's lap by accident. "Whenever I do family pics, I find it easier to study the simpler creatures first." River chose not to commentate on that as he threw the ball of saliva and hair over his head.

"Wait it out, wait it out.." River said under his breath. "Kid's, are you sure about being, 'observed' by this guy? We can totally put it off until you're ready."

"Observed by who now?" the 8 year old Quartz asked, still being absentminded about the whole thing, likewise with his sister, who paid the bare amount of attention as she gobbled down on her ear of corn.

"Mom paid some old guy to eat our food and make a picture of us." The thirteen year old explained. River grunted, knowing that their 'guest' would continue to live here.

"Star, stop being rude. Mr. Ferrero is the best painter there is, and I want our portrait to come out perfect." Moon berated, not that the princess paid that much attention to her words. "Plus it was half off for royals when we hired him. So do your best not to turn him away."

"It's alright, your highness. I can't call my work the best if they don't act like themselves. I can take a few nasty comments to the face." He said with no dejection or anger in his tone at all, not even when the bare cob of corn was tossed at his head. "Interesting." Ferrero spoke anomalously as he wrote down more notes in his pad.

"Wait, so he's still trying to call you, ever after you broke up with him?" Quartz said as the both of them headed towards their beds. "I thought he wouldn't even try after you dumped him in front of all the royals." He glared upward with a little miff in his tone.

"Yeah, Tom's never been the kind of guy to take a hint." Star stated with a hint of shame. "I still can't believe I dated that jerk for two years, even after all you told me about him."

"Don't blame yourself. Tom's a guy who's always on fire, and you were just drawn to his flame. It catches your attention, but like the sun, it can burn you, or.."

"OK, Quartz, I get it, enough fire talk." Star shushed her brother with a single finger. "I'm still the oldest. If anyone here is going to sound smart, it's gonna be me." She picks him up and gently tosses him in his room. " Besides, the only bright person in my life is right in front of me." Quartz, in an act of silliness, points to himself like he was confused on what she meant. "No, the moon outside the window! Of course it's you! Night!" She clarified, leaving the prince to climb into his bed.

Quartz playfully rolled his eyes as he began to close them. "Night bed, night moon, night Star, night creepy shadow at the base of my window." He yawned before drifting off into dream land, not even concern about the last thing he noticed.

Dreams were a wonderful time for the little boy. With everyday always guaranteed to be fulfilling and long, it was nice to retreat to the freedom that sleep allowed. The one thing about his dreams was that they weren't really the most exciting dreams, like the ones that played out with tons of action and explosions to the point where you had to immediately wake someone up in order to prevent yourself from forgetting, nor were they like the ones where you walked through town in your underwear and you died of embarrassment.

His dreams, as weird as his life could get, were really more calm and peaceful, like swimming through the night sky in a lake of warm space water. Sitting down by his Lion's side as he rested his head on Lion's soft pink coat. Or, his personal favorite, just sitting on a mountain top over all of Mewni, on his mom's lap while Star sat on Dad's, all of them embracing each other as the sun rose.

Maybe it was because his life was already like one crazy dream, maybe it was because his life was always full of adventure and magic, that his dreams couldn't do anything to amplify the experience. Whatever the reason, the boy almost never had trouble sleeping. There was nothing to worry about, and he couldn't be happier for it.

"Mom." His dream self interacted with his dream mother. "Whatever did happen to the Rose Guard?" This was the part of the dream that he needed to be a little more 'unrealistic'. Deep down, he knew this was a dream, but it was a question that he never got an answer to in real life, mostly because no one else seem to know either. He figured if maybe he got an answer in his dream, it would point him in the right direction, or at the very least, provide him with some closure to his inquiry.

"Interesting." His mother responded, though it wasn't with her own voice. She creepily started to pet his head, making the boy slink away from his mother's grasp in discomfort. Likewise, his dream sister began to do so, though her pats seemed to be a little rougher and clammy.

"Dad, can you get them to stop?" He practically begged, growing more and more uncomfortable with each growing moment. He remembered his mom telling him stories on how possessive Star was of him as a baby, and how it could actually be a little scary at times. It at least couldn't have felt as disturbing as this.

"Interesting..." The same weird voice came out of the king, reaching out for the boy, curling the ends of his fingers like the were the sharpest of claws. That sick, sinking feeling began to form within the boy's gut, growing more and more as he found himself unable to escape his family grasp.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" The boy finally woke up once he forced himself out of his rest. His took long, deep breaths to calm himself down, finding the little purple man at the foot of his bed, chewing on a bare piece of cob as his stared right into the soul of the prince. "What are you doing here?"

"Watching you sleep, doy." He replied bluntly, having no apology for his actions. "My occupation means I have to break a few laws of courtesy, sue me." He ruled his eyes as he continued to write in his pad. "It's not like you know someone's observing every breathe you take once you're knocked out. By the way, there's about a 15 second period where your breathing stops every 10 minutes. Might want to get that looked at."

The pit in Quartz's stomach refused to leave him know, no matter how much he tried to think of any positives here. "Can you at least observe from a distance?"

"Kid, this is me observing from a distance. I grew up my entire life making sure I never learned the concept of personal space, because when I need to get personal, I make sure to get up close and personal.." The artist flew up right into Quartz's face, cornering him in his own bed. "..no matter how uncomfortable I need to make someone."

"Star, can I sleep here tonight?" Quartz begged his sister, still half asleep, when he charged into her room, making sure block the door with as much junk he could find.

Still not in for control of her actions, the zombie-like Star snatched up the little prince in her grasp and held him for the rest of the night like a teddy bed, squeezing his little body tightly every hour or so.

Still felt a million times less invasive.

"So are you sure you don't want Lion to go to the underworld and.." Quartz and Star spoke the next morning after breakfast, swinging around on one of the castle's many chandeliers by their hands. It would probably cost another small fortune to repair any damages, 'but fun can't be fun if things don't get messy', as Ponyhead would often remind the two.

"Hmmm, well that is tempting, don't get me wrong." Star pondered, trying to blow away the hair getting in her face. "As much as that would make me feel better, I can't respond to Tom like that. If I give that guy any attention, he's just going to take it as a sign that I secretly want to get back together with him. The best thing that I can do right now is ignore him until he gets the hint." Both the siblings jump of the ceiling, perfectly landing on ground. "After all, the best way to deal with a problem is to pretend like it doesn't exist."

"Is that how you're able to handle that guy?" Quartz asked, pointing to Mr. Ferrero above them, sniffing the chandeliers like a dog sniffing a bone. "He's been watching us for weeks, and I'm not sure how I feel about something always watching me."

"Relax Quartz, I watched you in your sleep plenty of times." Star happily admitted. "I even drew pictures of it, see?" She handed him pages filled to the brim with crayon marks and drawling's, barely resembling the boy and girl when they were younger. This was able to get a little bit of a smile from him. "This really shouldn't be any different."

"Yeah, but this was back in our childhood, where everything we did was slightly cuter than how we do things now."

"And you're saying that what we do now isn't?"

"No, what I'm trying to say is that this isn't you, or me, or somebody we're comfortable with. It just feels a little too, prying." Star scratches her head. "Look, just pretend that it's mom watching you all the time, silently gawking at you, writing down and looking at every moment in your life, no privacy, no comfort, just cold, lifeless eyes judging you, waiting for any flaws, and mistake that could.."

"Okay, okay!" She shouted in a panic, her hair getting a little wilder from worry. "You've made your point." Quartz smiled proudly. "What?"

"You're really scared of Mom, aren't you?"

"No!" She poorly defended. "Yes, maybe, I don't know. Maybe if you weren't so scary at describing it." She muttered a bit bitterly. "Let's get back on topic. Hey painter guy!" The teen shouted to get the painter's attention, making the man fly down to her level, face to face. "Exactly how much longer do you need to stalk us?"

"Quick to assume, jumps to the assumption, easily takes after father." The man murmured like they weren't even there. "Always energetic unless confronted by something from the mother, always acts like a shield for the brother.." The two continued to stare in upmost confusion. "Oh, sorry about that. Whenever I deep in analysis, I announce my findings out loud no matter where I am. What were you saying?"

Star was a bit bewildered to give back a response, the Quartz's curiosity seemed to spike up. "Really, so do you have any deep and revealing thoughts on me?"

"Of course I do. Let me see here.." He flips through the various pages, showing off many other findings, including suspicions behind the king's scheduled 'lectures', the momentous stress that being a Queen can put on you, the family's favorite type of corn, the pros and cons for giving Star the royal wand. "Ah, here we go, Prince Quartz: youngest in the family, constant urge to always be happy..."

"Ha, that sure does sound like you." Star interrupted, rubbing his head just a little..

"..a constant source for and of affection by everyone around him, mostly pacifistic unless there's no other choice.."

"Hey, if I don't need to beat up a monster, than I shouldn't have to beat up a monster."

"... Does everything he can to defend people, sticks to his sister like glue, both have a mutual loves and respect for each other, happily oblivious to most situations, especially towards anything that involves his actual parents.."

"Wait, what was that last part?" Quartz stopped him this time. He knew that he heard Mr. Ferrero correctly, and that it was his job to learn everything he could about them, but bringing up 'that' thing was always something of an unspoken no-no within the castle.

"Oh, was that something you were unaware of, because if so, It wasn't me who.."

"I've, known about it for quite a while." He said as happily as he could in a very quiet tone.

Star placed her hand on his shoulder, hoping she this wasn't going to lead towards anything bad. "There isn't anything wrong with that, right?" She spat out with a hint of malice in her tone.

"Oh no, not at all." The flying man insisted, casually writing more notes down as he talked. "It's just that whenever I do family paintings, it can be a little harder to anyone in that's not related by blood."

"Harder?" Quartz question with more worry coming out of his mouth. How could something so small actually affect a painting of all things. Artistic logic must be to complex for him to understand.

"Yeah harder, because there's always that little bit that feels a bit off about it." The painter continued to explain, ignore Star's attempts to shut him up. "It's like you have the perfect cookie waiting to be eaten, yet right in the middle of it there's a raisin that got mixed in by mistake.." Star began to franticly search for an explanation for her mother if she suddenly found imbedded in the castle's walls. "..and you do your best to avoid the raisin, always trying to look past it, but fail to do so, since it's so well mixed in, and you bite it anyway, and it's not bad that you eat it, but there's that bad aftertaste you have to deal.."

"Okay, that's enough art lessons for today." Star shoved away the flying man. "Sheesh, take a hint guy, you would think invading people's business for a living would teach him a little tact, right Quartz?" A quick turn of the head revealed that the boy had abandon her by herself. "Quartz?"

The boy didn't go anywhere particular, in fact he ran off in such a hurry he didn't quite know exactly where he went. His heart began to pace at an uncomfortable rate that he didn't know it could reach, and his quick breathing didn't do anything to help him.

Problem, burden, he knew better than to think like that. He just got too curious about 's work and he fell way to deep into it.

Still, the way he worded his sentences couldn't help but strike down at the little prince. It had been a long while ever since he thought about the fact that he was adopted, and that was partly due to the fact that he's been a Butterfly ever since the beginning. He was a baby when Star found him, and he grew up only having the one family that raised him. As far as he was concerned, it was the only family that he needed.

He remembered quite vividly when his mother told him about it all those years ago..

4 years ago...

It was quite a normal day in the castle, as in the Queen quietly tapped her foot in impatience, waiting for the guards to bring back her children. The two had managed to escape her grasp, and once again found themselves in a world of mischief and calamity. Star as of late had been encouraging her brother to be a little more 'outgoing' whenever she had him all to herself, and proceeded to get him involved in who knows what.

It wouldn't be so irritating if she'd wasn't absolutely sure that part of Star's 'encouragement' came from wanting to see whatever magic Quartz showed her the day she found him. She was too excitable and jumpy than any kid her age had any right to be, and the last thing she needed was for Quartz to be the same.

"Many apologizes for my intrusion, my Queen, but we have located and retrieved your children, as per request." The guard lady barged into her room, dumping the two troublemakers, covered in splotches of mud, twigs, and some mysterious third substance she was sure wasn't natural, right in front of her, snapping the Queen out of her thoughts. The eldest of her two children stood proudly, not really showing any sign of fear or regret, while the boy hid as much of himself as he could behind his sister, looking down ashamedly.

The Queen dismissed the guard as she looked over her children with a mixture of anger and relief. If she could, she would keep her daughter on a leash at all times. "Do I even have to ask what you were trying to do?"

"We were just playing around in the mud, no need to be to suspicious." Star said in a confident tone, clearly having no shame for being dirty. Moon had to avoid being splatted by the gunk every time Star took a step forward. "We were grabbing everything we could to make the biggest mud pool in Mewni, but than we ran out of mud, so we tried found the green slime than that was leaking out of a cave.."

"And why were you making a mud pool to begin with?" Moon pressed on, knowing there was more to it. The mud thing itself was yet another matter that she had to deal, but she knew that Star had something else in mind, because nothing this girl does was ever the normal amount of troubling.

"Absolutely nothing at all, I just think things in my life would be better if I had a huge pile of gunk I could dip into whenever I want." The princess defended. "And I might add, I feel quite offended that you would assume.."

"She wanted me to make a big bubble and fill it up with mud." The boy jumped into the conversation out of nowhere, slowly revealing himself while still looking at the ground. "Her idea was to get as much mud as possible and launch it with one of the catapults at the next group of monsters we see." Star began to whistles, hushing at the boy to get him to stop talking. "She told me that it was our duty to protect the castle, and the best way to do it was to beat away any threat that comes our way."

A slightly dismayed, but small smiled surfaced on the Queens face. "At least you're honest about it." The boy returns it, finally looking up from the ground. It never felt good to hide anything from his parents, despite what Star and Ponyhead told him. Weren't fun times better when everybody knows about it? He just couldn't get the appeal of secrets. "Didn't anything else happen?"

"Nothing, absolutely nothing happened at all!" Star shouted, hoping to bring the interrogation to a close. Her mother gave her a wide eyed looking, before turning her hear at Quartz once more, knowing the boy would probably spill more than he needed to if she asked. "We were just playing around in the mud, we got all happy and joyful and cute together, both our cheeks began to glow, and before we could do anything else, that guard began sticking her nose in our business and made us freak out and lose our glow. That's all, I swear." The princess huffed out quickly, gladly looking at her brother, knowing her secrets were safe to be exposed another day.

A weird, curious look grew on the mother's face, making an expression the kid's couldn't really read. It held a little bit of anger, a little bit of curiosity, a little bit of surprise. The two didn't know whether or not she was happy or mad at what she just heard. "That's not a bad thing, right? Isn't that just something that we Butterfly's all have?"

The expression on her face changed again quite noticeably, making the kid's all the more worried. Did they just say something wrong. "Star, go to your room, we'll be having a very frank discussion about this monster fighting habit later." The girl nodded in understanding, beginning to walk out of the room with her brother following suite. "Not you Quartz, I need to talk to you alone for a moment."

The two glanced at each other, still very confused on what their mother was thinking. If she was punishing them, than she would've just told them what the punishment was already. Star slowly walked out, silently wishing her brother luck before exiting.

Quartz tried his hardest not to show any intimidation as he approached his mother. It wasn't like he had anything to hide from her, at least nothing that painted himself in a bad light. Star on the other hand, she literally started creating a whole closet full of stuff Star didn't want people to know. He got anxious at the very idea of lying.

Moon's face remained unchanged as he got a little closer, making every second feel longer than they should've. It was time's like this that he understood Star's reluctance to tell their mom about anything. "Quartz.." She began, her voice coming out a bit softer than he expected. "Were both of you're marks glowing at the same time?" Moon questioned.

Was that all she wanted to know about? "Ahh, yeah, I believe so. They stopped glowing at the same time at least." The worry didn't seem to leave the mother's expression. "But I'm Star's brother, wouldn't it be weird if our cheeks didn't glow around each other?"

"Well, under normal circumstances, that would be true." Moon explained as simply as she could. "Past Queen's of Mewni have had siblings before, Solaria with Justin, Crescenta with Dirhhennia, and they've each had their own mark. But your case is a little, different than most.." She further expanded upon.

"Different as in bad?" Quartz fearfully asked.

"Not at all." She reassured, rubbing her hand on his face, ignoring the mud that was now staining her gloves. "Has Star ever told you about how she's the one that 'brought' you into the family?"

Yes, Star said that at least once a week to him. It was a subject that she always liked to bring up, though all she would say was 'You created magic bubbles and we became the most awesome brother/sister duo ever!'. "She's mentioned it once or twice before" He simplified. "I never really knew whether or not she was serious about it."

"Trust me, I know." Moon grunted upon remembering. "Despite how dramatic she can be, she's not stretching the truth about it, as far as I know." Quartz tilted his head at that. Mom usually was the one to poke the wholes in Star's stories. "When you were an infant, she found you in the middle of the woods, all alone."

Quartz took in this revelation a bit slowly, not really sure what to make of it, or what it really meant. "So does that mean Star's my mother?"

"YES!" Star shouted, revealing she had been listening in the entire time, outside the room, pointing at her mother a bit self-righteously. "I kept telling you..!"

"Aren't you suppose to be in your room?" Her mother corrected without flinching, stopping whatever rant the princess was about to make, making her pout as she exited their sight once more. "I can't tell you how long it took to get her to stop saying that. Anyway, You two bonded almost instantly, strongly, practically inseparable. Literally nothing we tried would tear you apart." She continued own, choosing her words very carefully, knowingly leaving out some of the more 'painful' truths. "So strong, that the magic between you two became intertwined. You meant so much to her, and to me, and your father, so we took you in as our own." She smiled, hoping that what she said wasn't to much for him to handle.

The prince was silent for almost a full 40 seconds. "Didn't you say that magic was what makes the universe work?"

Moon blinked in confusion. "Uh, I'm sure those aren't the words I used, but I suppose soo.."

"And it was magic that bonded me with Star, right?"

"That's a very over simplified explanation for it, but yes.."

"Then that means the universe made all of us family!" Quartz concluded excitedly.

"Yes, but.." Moon tried to explain more, though she found herself having trouble getting out what she wanted to say, especially seeing Quartz becoming so elated by his somewhat faulty logic. There was a whole lot more she needed to say, but also just as much that she needed to stay silent for now. "I can't argue with that." She relented, smiling wide as Quartz jumped on her a gave her a hug. "Okay, that's enough, you're getting mud on my attire." Quartz, out of blissful ignorance, didn't let go. "Seriously Quartz, let go.." The hug got deeper and tighter, making the mud spread even more. "Quartz!"

"Reminiscing deeply about your place in the universe, are we?" And old, wise sounding voice came up from behind him. Stuck in his own mind for a while, the prince nearly falls over in shock, thrown off by the sudden intrusion. No one was around him, and the only thing in front of him was a familiar, old, and large book that sparked awe in the little boy.

The book of spells, as well as the Butterfly's entire family history, was something the boy had only glanced it in passing whenever his Mom had it in hand. He wondered as to why something so important was laying around, but that was pushed to the side when her leaned over to open it.

He only opened the cover before something weird happened. The boy watched in silence as the book began to flip by itself, rising from it's pages a tiny blue man wearing a robe. "Are you that surprised? I'm pretty sure this isn't the weirdest thing that you've ever seen."

The boy picks himself up, clearing his throat once he recollects himself. "Um, you're Glossaryck, right? The tiny man that lives in my mom's book?"

"Okay, that's only scratching the surface of who I am, but by all means, yes." The floating wise man replied with a roll of his eyes.

"Wait, why are you here, why is the book just abandoned right now, why isn't Mom looking for it, and why.."

"Quartz, Quartz, my dear prince, life has many mysteries to it, many questions that lead to the unknown and unexplored, so today's question shouldn't be about why I'm here right now.." The man deflected from the topic, getting real close to the Prince. "..the real question we need to ask right now, is why are you here right now?"

Not noticing the man's subtle manipulation, Quartz took a moment to think about what he just said. "Mr. Ferrero said something about me being in the family portrait makes it harder for him to work with." Quartz answered very quickly. "And not that I don't have very fond memories of everything, but.."

"The artist saying that reminded you that you aren't related to the Butterflys by blood, so you ran and had a flashback to help balance out your emotional turmoil." Glossaryck answered very bluntly, to which Quartz could only nodded in confirmation. It still hurt to have it be said out loud, but it was the truth. "How does history keep repeating itself?"

"What?"

"Nothing, just having my own flashbacks." Glossaryck replied back with a tone of dejection, before changing his tone to a much lighter one. "Listen kid, I can see your bummed out, so I'm going to help you out with a little bit of wisdom. After all, helping Butterflys is what I'm meant to do."

"Really?" Quartz said with his usual excitement returning to his voice. Glosseryck, from what he could remember, was as old as the universe itself. "Does that me you'll answer anything I ask for?"

"I'll tell you what you need to know." He answered back. "But I'm going to need something in return." Quartz tilted his head at that. "What, I need to charge you something, like you said, you're technically not a Butterfly.

Ouch. Okay, that didn't really mix well with what he just told him a second before that. "Sure, what do you need?"

"What I need is pudding. Tons and Tons of pudding." He leaned over Quartz's head, very serious in his expression. "I can't function properly until I have my daily dose of pudding."

"Okay, weird request, but sure." Quartz agreed, heading off towards the kitchen in search of his gooey prize. Not to shame pudding lovers, but he thought their were better desserts out there. Cake, Cornshakes, a nice Cookie Cat, but everyone has their own tastes, so who was he to judge?

As he headed towards the desserts, he pondered what he would ask the tiny man. Could he ask him about how the universe was made? What was the purpose of life? How was the dark everywhere if nothing was faster than light? "Could I ask where the Rose Guard went?" He pondered about that. Nah, if he knew that, than he probably would've told someone by this point.

"Quartz?" Star came up from right behind him, carrying a unhealthy amount of cake on a plate she was holding. "You ran off earlier, you alright?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm find." He said with a bit of a shrug, grabbing onto his pudding like nothing was going on. It wasn't like what Glossaryck was asking him to do was wrong, so there was no reason to be afraid of anything. "I'm just grabbing this for someone." He replied as he tried to walk pass her, though she stayed in his way.

"Good, good, I just don't want you to hold onto any more junk than you need to." Star replied with a soft expression, placing a hand on his shoulder. " You know it's never bothered me that you're adopted, right? What we have is stronger than blood." Where was this calmness on his fifth birthday? Things probably would've ended up being a lot less chaotic if she confronted him like this back then. "I mean, if you can't connect with the baby that saved your life, what can you connect with, am I right?" She winked.

He replied by pressing his right hand against her chest for a full 20 seconds before leaving her sight once more. It was very comforting to know Star still watched out for him, even with her about to get the wand in about a year.

"Alright kid, show me what you got." Glossaryck demanded from the prince, who gladly presented the man with a large cup of the chocolate goo. "Pudding is another one of those weird mysteries that'll never be solved. A strange substance, stuck in the limbo between the states of matter, not quite a solid, yet not quite a liquid either." The man dunked his hand into the cup, scooping out a large amount of the substance, slowly gnawing on it as he continued to talk. "I mean, it's slimy enough, so how come no one ever drinks pudding with a straw?"

"I thought the point of this was for me to ask you questions, not for you to give me one?" The boy said a little confused, trying hard not to be turned off by the blue man's messy eating habits. "Not to rush you or anything."

"Well, what I said was that I would tell you what you need to know now as long as I have pudding.." Glossaryck corrected as he ate another handful. "And I got half a cup of pudding left, so shoot."

The butterflies in his stomach began to increase the nervousness he was feeling, knowing he might mess this up if he wasted a second on the wrong question. "Okay, so I got to ask, was being found by Star fate or an accident?" He finally settled on.

The floating man took a second to lick his lips before continuing to speak. "Well, that depends on your definition of the word 'fate', because by all means, it was a complete accident." Again, ouch. Quartz didn't know the proper response to that, mostly because he was too busy trying to figure out how the old man could say that so seriously with a mouth full of goop. "Destiney implies there's a fixed set of direction one has to go on no matter what they do, but more often than not, people forget that there's a way to derail the course they're on."

The little tried his hardest to grasp every word the wise man kept telling him, he really did. "Uh, I'm not sure where you're going with this?" He's only 8 for Pete's sake. He couldn't solve a riddle on a popsicle if his life depended on it.

Glossaryck sighed as he ate another scoop. "The youth and their ignorance. A gift, and a curse. Okay kid, imagine life is like a train, and the track you ride on is your entire lifespan. When people have a fixed idea of fate and destiny, they unintentionally lock themselves on a one way track that goes straight for miles and miles, with no way to deviate. However, people tend to forget that, as the conductors of our own trains, we can have control over what we do, we set the paths we need to go own." The blue man finishes as he starts to lick the corners of his cup slowly. "Get the picture now, kid?"

"I think I do?" He questioned mostly himself. "So Star finding me was an accident.." The blue man nodded his head silently with a smile, motioning him to continue. "...yet the actions that were taken after she found me made it fate?"

"Eh, your reasoning is a bit choppy at best, but lets go with a yes." Glosseryck concluded.

Quartz didn't know if that made him feel better, or worse. It still sounded like he was overcomplicating things just to make him even more confused. Though, the Prince at least started to grasp the concept of what he was saying. "I guess that clears things up for me, I think. Thanks." He said with a slightly dejected shrug.

"No problem." Glossaryck replied back, scrapping the bottom of the cup for the last of the chocolate sweetness. "I should tell you, though, there's nothing wrong with bringing a little deviation from the course of the Butterfly's train, it's actually quite welcoming." A brief lightness came to the boy. Now this was something he knew was positive. "I mean, considering where you come from, a well needed change was sure to come."

Huh? "What, what did you just say?" He didn't, could he know, what, did, did he just imply what he thought he did.

"I said how welcomed the change is considering where you.." Glossaryck continued to explain further, only stopping once he realized something, staring at the boy a little weirdly. "Oh, you don't know about that yet, do you?" Yep, that confirmed everything, as well as destroy whatever lightness the boy had left. "Huh, wouldn't have put it off for this long if you asked me."

"Wait, do you know, do you know where I came from?" Quartz said, the calmness leaving his voice, being replaced with a more shaky and anxiety filled one. "D-oo, do you know who my parents are?"

"Has anyone ever told you that you look like a Steve?" Glossaryck shifted the subject out of no where, with a new, cheerful smile to boot. "Because the name fits you perfectly."

"No, no, no!" The boy shouted. The frustration up to this point had finally reached it's peak. "I heard you clearly! What do you know about me!?"

"Whoa, whoa, Steve, calm down now." Glosseryck tried to explain while slowly floating backwards, not that it did him any good.

"You know what you said!" The boy continually accused as he started to get uncomfortable close to the man. "Tell me what you know that I don't!"

"Well, that's quite a large number of things, so to take the time to list everything would take a large while to.." Glossaryck continued to stall.

"Stop being so confusing and vague!" Quartz snapped louder. "Stop messing with me and TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!"

"Quartz, what's with all the yell.." The Queen stepped in almost out of nowhere as the two turned their heads towards them. Moon's expression turned from worry to scowling once she saw the book and Glossaryck on the ground. "What are you doing here Glossaryck?" She asked in a stern huff.

"I know I shouldn't have gone off, but in my defense, I really needed some pudding." The Blue man lamely excused himself as he rested himself in the books pages. "And with that said, my time here is up. Remember what I said todaaaa.." He waved at the prince before letting the book close in on itself, still leaving the boy as frustrated as ever, even as the mother picked up the book.

"I swear, he get's stranger with every princess that's born." Moon sighed as she turned to put the book away, only to stop once she felt her son tugging on her dress. "Quartz?"

"I, I still need to speak to him." Quartz said with big eyes, giving her the biggest pleading look she had ever seen. "He was just about to tell me something important, he was.."

"Quartz, Glosseryck is a bit complicated, especially when it comes to his teachings." Moon explain, with Quartz face getting more disappointed with every second. "Did he ask you to get pudding for him first."

"Well, yeah, but he still.."

"He's been prying for pudding for the past few week Quartz. Why do you think he was out here in the hall to begin with?" Quart stopped talking, knowing that he couldn't argue with the logic presented. "He wouldn't have told you anything specific that you wanted to know." Moon up and left as soon as she was done, leaving Quartz feeling a little more empty than he thought he was.

"He knows, he knows.." Quartz teared up, fighting the urge to cry as he walked out of the hall.

It had taken him the better part of two and a half months, but at last, the painter known as Atelier de Colbat Ferrero was near completion of his latest master piece. The Queen proved to be the most difficult to observe, being the least open of the royal family, but he managed to get it perfect, just like all his other works.

The last thing he need to do know was to have the family pose for him one final time to finish up any leftover details. It was a long process, but it paid big, provided him with yet another roof over his head, and yet another master piece got to be completed.

Which was why the Prince's sudden request for a complete change of the painting irked him to no end. "Are you kidding me!?"

"No, not really." Quartz sheepishly requested, trying to be a quiet about it as possible. "You, you said that the painting was harder to fit me in, so can't you just, I don't know, erase me from it all together?"

"Oh yeah, let me just go down to Quest buy and pick up the latest paint eraser so that I can erase an entire month's worth of my work!" The flying man replied dryly. The Prince, however, didn't catch on that he was being sarcastic.

"Oh, so you can do it?"

"No! I don't just undo my work! I don't trace back, I don't change it, I'm given a job, and I do it the way I see it!" He yelled back, before taking a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Sorry for asking you to do something you hate, then. I, I didn't know." Quartz said sincerely, raising an eyebrow from the painter. "I, it's just, you told me that me being in the picture made things feel a little off, so I thought if the picture needed to be perfect, than I should be cut out of it altogether."

This was the last thing the painter needed to hear right now. "Kid, I, how do I put this?" He rubbed his face in contemplation for about a minute, before turning back the saddened boy. "First of all, all my paintings come out perfect, which is why I was hired to make it, so shame on you for not realizing it." The boy gave him a questioning glare. What's with the short, flying people with the vague insults that are suppose to sound helpful?

"I've painted a number of things over the years, I've painted animals, plants, people, monsters, buildings, explosions, wars in progress, secrets, private moments, public moments, you name it. And the one thing that's always consistent with what I make is that I'm able to capture what it is I'm making, perfectly."

"Are, are you really just bragging about your work now?"

"Mostly likely, but the point I'm trying to make here is that this picture won't be complete if your not in it." The man sternly spat out as Quartz leaned forward to understand better. "When I make family paintings, I can tell what's family, and what's not, and kid, whether or not your related by blood, I can see that your family, and it would be impossible to complete this thing without you in it."

Quartz remains a little speechless at his statement. "Wow, Mr. Ferrero, thanks for saying that, I, I really needed to here that." He smiled grew bigger. "And you didn't just say that to me to make me feel better?"

"I'm just stating what I've observed kid, no need to look too deeply into what I said." The man bluntly clarifies as he turns his back. "Besides, I hate having to redo any of my work, so you would still be in the painting regardless.

Quartz rolled his eyes with a shrug, knowing that he shouldn't press for more than he needed right now.

Soon the whole family was standing as still as they could in front of the painter, dressed in their most elegant of clothing while patiently waiting for the whole thing to be over. The siblings still found themselves able to talk to each other, making sure to whisper as quietly as they could whenever the painter was distracted enough. "So your good for real this time? Like ice cream on cake good, not 'I'll still focus on my problems' good, right?"

"Ice cream cake good." Quartz responded to his sister wholeheartedly with a warm smile. "I'm sorry for being a bit of a bummer, but that's, I know.."

"You don't have to say anything about it." Star reassured "It's weird, our family situation is weird, but that just means there's more to love about it. But.." she trailed off for a bit, trying to figure out how to best word her next statement without bumming him out again. "We can look into this family thing if you want to."

Quartz wasted no time to give a response. "Nope, no, I'm done on that front. Everything started to get confusing and mixed up the moment I started thinking I wasn't a Butterfly." He pauses for one final huff. "I think things will be better if I stop thinking about it all together." He then gives Star a knowing glance. "Pretend the problem doesn't exist and all that." Star immediately reached for her brother's curly hair, though he hand was shot down by her mother before she could even take it off her side. "But I'm never going to Glossaryck for advice again." His face grows a scowl before letting it go.

"Don't worry Quartz, he's going to be my teacher once I get the wand." She reassures before both of them turn their heads forward once more. "You'll never have to go near him again."

Next time: Cat fingers