Aflame

Chapter 8

Brainsaya

Leaving the forest of certain death, Star and Marco went back into Echo creek, happy that nothing bad had happened while they were there. Well, nothing too bad.

"So you're coming back to my house, right?" Marco asked.

"Yeah." Star said. "I mean, I'd rather stay at your place than the monster temple, and I'd like to go there to get an outfit for our date later tonight."

"Are you sure?" Marco asked. "I mean, I don't think all your best outfits are at my house."

Star looked at him, a small smile forming on the edge of her mouth. "Oh, so is what I wear the only important thing Marco?"

Marco put his hands up to his chest. "No! Of course not! I wasn't implying that! In fact, I-"

Star burst out laughing. "I was kidding Diaz! But seriously, yeah. Plus, there's some stuff there that I want to get. I couldn't earlier, because it was blocked off by the police."

"Okay." Marco said. "But what should we tell Eclipsa and the others about Ludo?" He asked. Although the Mewnian high council had really only suggested Ludo so they could leave, they would likely still want to know about him. Or at least a few members did. But Buff frog said not to tell anybody about their group, and they had to keep that promise.

"We'll just tell them the first half." Star said. "We went to Brudo, talked to him, found Ludo, went to his house and talked, found no evidence that he had anything to do with it, and left. We don't have to mention the monster freedom-fighters at all."

"That's a good plan. But a thought just came to my mind. We still have no idea who it was that killed Mina. We still don't know why either. How are we gonna figure that out?"

Star sighed and looked at him. "Marco, I thought we were gonna relax. Try and forget about all that for a while."

"I know." He said. "But I can't stop thinking about it. It's like a song that's stuck in your head that you just can't get rid of. I'm worried."

"I am too." Star said. "I get it. But we'll handle it later. But who knows, maybe they'll present themselves to us and we won't have to search at all."

"I...doubt that." Marco said. "But if you say so. I'll try to relax."

The two teens then walked in silence the rest of the way to the Diazes house, holding hands along the way. Luckily, like they had hoped, the house was no longer covered with police tape. It still looked like a bit of a mess inside though.

"I hope your parents are here." Star said. "I haven't seen them in about a day, so I hope they're doing okay."

"I hope so too Star." Marco said. "I can't believe I almost forgot how hard this whole thing must have been for them."

"Yeah...well, enough wasting time. Let's go see them."

Not skipping a beat, Star walked up to the house's door and opened it. As she had suspected, it was still quite...destroyed inside, as there was still overturned furniture and several smashed things. But it did look like a bit of cleaning had been done. Most of the bigger pieces of furniture were back in their original place, and most of the broken dishes and other things had been cleaned up. Angie was standing in the foyer, sweeping up some pieces of broken glass.

Upon spotting the pair, she dropped the broom she was holding and practically ran over to them, embracing them in a tight hug.

Marco, slightly struggling to breath, hugged her back, and a moment later they let go of each other.

"I'm so happy you're both alright." She said, smiling at them.

"Mom," Marco said, "We were just a day ago. We haven't been gone that long."

"I know, but you've been gone a while. What have you two been up too?"

"Well," Star said. "We had to go to the Mewnian high council meeting after Mina's...incident, and then they sent us to go investigate someone so they could leave earlier."

"Who did they send you after?" She asked, picking the broom back up and continuing to sweep.

"That Ludo guy." Marco said. "The green beaked monster who tried to steal Star's wand a bunch of times."

"Oh, that one?" Angie said. "I thought he would be in Mewni jail or something."

"He kinda was." Star said. "I trapped him in the void for a couple of months, and then he asked me to throw him back in. I guess that could be considered a kind of jail."

"That's nice. I'm going to assume that he had nothing to do with Mina. You two have told me numerous times about the incompetence of the people at those meetings."

"Yeah." Marco said. "Nothing at all...but what have you been up to mom? Just...cleaning everything up?"

"That's right." Angie said. "Your father and I have been doing a lot to clean everything up, even after the police said they'd offer to do it. But we declined. We were worried about them putting stuff in the wrong places."

"I see. But where is dad anyways? And Mariposa?" Marco asked.

"Oh, he's off buying some new furniture that we couldn't fix. Luckily, it was only a few rooms that were really damaged, but there's still a lot to be done. Your little sister is with Eclipsa's baby, having a playdate or something."

"We can help with the damage!" Star said. "I'm sure if we all pitch in, we can fix it up in no time!"

"Star, no." Marco said. "You said you wanted to relax. Go upstairs and take a nap like you said. You need it."

"But...you wanted to relax too." Star said.

"It's okay. I'll just stay down here and help my mom. Maybe just cleaning everything up will help take my mind off things. I'll just treat it as one big chore."

"Well, okay." Star said. "But we're still going on that date tonight, right?"

"Of course. I'll probably have to pick out an outfit though."

"Great!" Star said, before leaning on towards Marco, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, and then running upstairs, leaving a blushing Marco behind.

Angie watched her go with a knowing smile. "She's so sweet." She said. "You're really lucky you know. We all are."

Marco, still blushing widely, smiled to this. "Thanks mom. I can't even imagine what my life would be like if she had never arrived in it."

"I can either. Now, if you want to help, grab one of the brooms and help sweep out the living room."

"Got it." Marco said, before turning back to her.

"Hey wait. How did the meeting with Star's parents go? About the whole becoming a royal family thing."

Angie shrugged. "We had to cut it short because...well, you know. But we still have a lot of things to discuss. So, it's going slowly at the moment."

"Huh. Probably the only thing that is going slowly…" Marco said, before walking over to the broom closet, grabbing one, and walking over to the living room. Marco looked around and surveyed the damage. His parents had definitely cleaned up a lot. It was in much better shape than before, with most of the furniture back in place and the ones that had been destroyed having been thrown away. But it was still messy, with pieces of glass, couch leather, and even some wood splinters carpeting the floor.

Marco sighed, picked a random spot and started sweeping up the various broken things.

"Jeez." He said to himself. "Mina really messed his place up. I just hope that it'll be done in time for my date tonight. It'll be nice to finish it."

"You won't." A sudden voice said.

Marco jumped back and help the broom stick up like a spear, pointing it at nothing.

"Who said that?" He asked. "Mom, was that you?"

"I didn't say anything." Angie said from the next room over.

Marco frowned and continued looking around. "Must be hearing things…" He muttered. "Hope I'm not going crazy."

"You might be going crazy."

Marco once again held the broom up and looked around.

"Alright." He hissed. "Who was that? I know you're there!"

"Up."

Slowly, fearfully, Marco tilted his head skywards and looked at the ceiling, only to discover...the ceiling.

"Not that up. I meant your head."

"What?" Marco let go of the broom and grasped the sides of his head. "Are you...inside my mind?"

"Fool. I am your mind. I'm what happens whenever somebody gets doubts about stuff."

"I've had doubts before, hundreds of them, and "a voice speaking to me in my head," definitely isn't what happens." Marco said, not even believing that this was happening.

"First time for everything."

"No!" Marco said. "Not really! Voices in my head...that's like magic stuff. Like Neverzone stuff. You can't be an actually consciousness in my head. With magic gone, stuff like telepathy shouldn't be possible."

"You're right. It's not. But I'm not magic. I'm just your brain, all it's fears and doubts, here to make you believe that your date with Star will be terrible. You're basically arguing with yourself right now."

"Great, so now I'm insane?" Marco asked. "Because I'm pretty sure that stuff like hallucinations and delusions are signs of insanity."

"Perhaps they are. But no. You're just nervous. You know it's true. With everything that's happened recently, you're afraid to even leave this house. Sometimes, stuff like this happens to people. They think they need someone else to tell them that they're okay. I guess you decided that you needed someone to tell you that it wasn't."

"You know, you remind me of somebody. That stupid "naysaya" thing that was attached to my shoulder once. You even kind of sound like it. Are you actually-"

"Nope. Just your brain. Call me "brainsaya" Diaz. Or should I say...me."

"Alright, I'm not in the mood to deal with this, so I'm just going to get back to cleaning now. I have a lot of work to do."

"You're never gonna get it done. Not in time."

"...Are you gonna do for the rest of my life?"

"I'll leave after the date ends. Or when you come to terms with your own fears about that date. But until then, enjoy your own head telling you why every decision you made was a bad one."

"Fannnntastic." Marco said sarcastically, continuing to sweep the floor.

Meanwhile, upstairs…

Star slowly opened the door to her bedroom and looked around. Mina had only wreaked the first floor. It made sense. The babies and Janna were all on the first floor. Mina had definitely left in a hurry.

Star kicks off her shoes and flopped onto the bed, not even bother to get in a comfortable position. But try as she may, she couldn't fall asleep, and she sighed and grabbed the framed photo of Magic off her bedside table.

Star stared at the photo and hugged it to her chest.

"Oh Marco." She said. "I really you never have to know just how scared of all this stuff I am. It's kind of ironic. I told you that you needed to relax, and yet I'm here, unable to fall asleep because of my own worries."

"But...I promise we'll get through this." She said to herself, and to Marco.

"No matter what."

Star fell on her back and went to sleep, still clutching the picture frame.

Several mind-numbing, boring, and unnecessary paragraphs of text later...

"Let's see...should I go with the gray suit jacket, or the black one?"

"Either one would make you look like a dork. Why would Star go for a guy who dresses like that?"

Marco let out an annoyed groan and continued looking through his closet. The last few hours had been nothing short of hellish, with the "Brainsaya" constant putting him down every time a worry or fear came to his mind. Marco thought he could just get rid of it, considering that it was his mind that was speaking to him, but so far nothing had worked, so he just had to live with it.

"Gray suit jacket." He decided.

"Oooooh. You're probably going to regret that later."

"Why don't you just-" Marco started, before being cut off.

"Hey, I'm just saying what you secretly think. You really do think that Star won't like that jacket."

"Of course she's going to like it!" Marco practically yelled. "I've worn this on several of our dates before!"

"Well, then maybe she'll be bored of it."

Marco growled at this insult/possible truth/criticism, but didn't say anything else and walked out of his room. He had settled in mostly simple attire, with a grey jacket, white undershirt, red tie and dark grey pants.

With his Brain constantly making him rethink every decision of course.

Marco grabbed his wallet, walked down the stairs and waited in the foyer for Star. It was much, much cleaner than earlier. Sadly, just like his brain said, Marco didn't manage to clean it all up in time to get ready for his date, much to his chagrin.

"I hope Star doesn't take too long." He said. "We don't have a reservation, and I'd like to get a good table."

As per expected, the self-proclaimed "Brainsaya" returned to annoy him. "There's not going to be any tables left." It said, his own mind trying to convince him of that fact. "The date will go horribly, and you will-"

"Shut up!" Marco said. "I can hear Star coming down the stairs."

As the doe to Star's bedroom closed, Marco could see her coming down the stairs, dressed in a small blue dress, with her hair in two large yellow braids. Marco simply stared at her, a mixture of love and amazement in his eyes.

"You ready?" Star asked, unaware of the effect she was having on him.

"Ye-yeah." Marco stuttered out. "You look great Star."

"Smooooooth. That's it? "You look great?" Not, "You look adorable?" Or, "Wow. You're so kissable right now." How lame."

"Shut. The hell. Up." Marco growled through clenched teeth.

"My my, such rudeness. So disappointing. She could do better than you."

Stars face flashed into a blush as she grinned widely. "Awww. Thanks Marco. I kind of tried to model my hair like how it was in my butterfly form, did you think I'd do a good job? It's a lot harder than it looks."

Magic nodded his head. "Yeah. You did a terrific job. Now all that's missing is the six arms and wings." He said while laughing.

Star laughed at this as well. "And the golden dress. But I don't have anything like that. Maybe we should go shopping later. I bet Ponyhead will be up to it."

"Let's focus on the "now" Star. Come on. My moms out front with her car. She's gonna drive us."

"Can't we just walk?" Star asked, looking slightly confused. "I kinda like walking to places with you."

"Well...my mom said that it would be safer. She's worried that we'll get attacked by somebody. She's afraid that here are still Mina sympathizers out there."

"Oh." Star said. "That's fair, I guess. Okay, let's go Marco!"

They both exited the house and climbed into the backseat of the car, where Angie was waiting for them.

"Alright you two." She said. "Ready to go?"

"Yes!" They both answered at the same time.

"Good. Next to the town square, right?"

"Yup." Marco said.

Angie turned on the car and started heading towards the center of the town, while Star and Marco talked in the back.

"So, who do you think owns this new place?" Marco asked. "You did say it was opened by some Mewmans."

"I'm not sure." Star said. "All I know is that people seem to like it, so I thought it'd be perfect. A new place to check out, you know?"

"Yeah." Marco said. "Can't wait."

"You're still worried."

"Oh, shut up." Marco whispered.

"But you are. Is this place good? Will Star hate it? Sure, you didn't pick it, but if she doesn't like it, then the whole date will be ruined."

"You're wrong." Marco said. "This date is going to be great. I know it."

"You know you don't believe that. If you did, I wouldn't be here."

Marco didn't have anything to say to this. This was his brain after all. Well, probably. But it was spouting facts. He was worried. About everything. But that was natural, right?

Right?

"We're here you two!" Angie said, breaking Marco's train of thought.

"Sweet." Star said. Angie parked the car in a random spot next to the restaurant, and Star and Marco climbed out.

"Call when you're ready to go home! Have a great time!" She said before driving away.

"Huh. She's kind of in a hurry." Star said.

"I guess." Marco said. "Wonder why…"

Both of them entered the restaurant and looked around. It was, quite frankly, of good quality. The whole place looked quite clean, and was a mixture of Earth and Mewman culture, with medieval-esque decorations covering the building mixed with modern Earth lights, seats, and other knick knacks.

"This place is awesome." Star said, wowed. "It's nice to see this kind of mix between the two cultures."

Marco would have responded to this, but his brain was currently reprimanding him on his choice of cologne. (Citrus.)

A waiter came up to them. Just like the restaurant, his outfit was a mix of Mewman and Earth clothing, as his clothes were a mix between a Mewman butler's outfit and an Earth waiters. "Good evening." He said. "Just you two?"

"Yup." Marco responded. "Just us."

"Would you like a booth or a table?"

Marco turned towards Star. "Which one do you want to get?" He asked.

"Hmmm. How about a table?" Star said.

"Very good." The waiter said. "Please follow me."

Star and Marco followed the waiter as he traveled through the restaurant, eventually reaching a table near the middle of the restaurant, which Star and Marco sat down at. The waiter then left, leaving them both to choose what to order.

"What are you gonna get?" Marco asked.

"Not sure…" Star said. "Surprisingly, I only see a few corn dishes. Maybe I'll get one of those, keep it simple.

You did say you were paying earlier, right?"

"No, actually." Marco mumbled. "But I guess so, yeah."

"Nice. Now, I'll be right back." Star left her seat and walked off to the bathroom.

Marco watched her leave and then turned back to the menu. "Hope I have enough money." He said to himself, before realizing what was about to happen next. "Wait, nonono-"

"You probably don't."

Marco groaned, set the menu down and put his forehead on the table.

"You know," He started. "This date has gone just fine so far. You're just in the way. Once it's over, you'll disappear, just like you said you would earlier."

"If this is an overly complicated way at telling me to shut up, it's not working."

"Don't care. Now, I'm going to get a water and a corn calzone, and there is not a damn thing you can say to stop m-"

"You...do realize im not actually here, right? Stop yelling at yourself."

Marco fell silent, picked his head off the table, and stared at the menu while waiting for Star to return.

After a few more minutes, she came out of the bathroom and went back to the table.

"Do you know what you're going to get?" She asked.

"Yes." Marco said, sitting up.

"Are...you okay?" Star asked. "You looked kind of exhausted."

"No I'm fine." Marco said in response. "No problems here."

"Right." Star said, unconvinced, and staring at him oddly.

The waiter returned a moment later, and asked them if they were ready.

"Yup!" Star said cheerfully. "I think I'm going with...the cob cake. Along with that strawberry drink I'm seeing here."

"Would you like any sides?"

"Do you have nachos?" Star asked.

"We...could make that, yes."

"Then a side order of nachos please."

"Alright." The waiter said before turning to Marco. "And what would you like young man?"

"A corn calzone please. And some water. No sides."

"It'll be out in a few minutes." The waiter said before walking away.

"Star, whats a "cob cake?" Marco asked, never having heard of the dish.

"It's a Mewnian dish." Star said. "It's Like part corn, part cake, all mixed together in one dish."

Marco turned slightly green upon hearing this. "That actually sounds really weird. Not to mention unappetizing. I'm good with both foods, but I don't think I would want them together."

Star made a "psh" sound. "If you say so. But I think it's going to be great."

"Oh no. She's looking kind of angry now. Nice comment. There's no possible way you can take that one back."

"She's not angry." Marco mumbled. "She just has her food tastes, and I have mine. We're not a perfect couple. We have our differences."

"Keep telling yourself that it's all okay. But we both know what you're really thinking."

Marco scowled and tried to focus on something else in the restaurant. But try as he might, he couldn't. All he saw was a bunch of random people. A few monsters, a few humans, a few Mewmans, some teenager who for some reason had seemingly dyed his hair white. Wait, why did it look like he was watching the-

"So." Star said, interrupting Marco's look-see of the restaurant.

"Oh. What is it Star?" He asked.

"You haven't said that much." She said. "You're kind of quiet. Is there a problem?"

Marco laughed, trying to keep a cool face. "To be fair Star, you haven't said that much either. Plus, we kind of just arrived. It hasn't been that long."

"I know, but still. I feel like you're hiding something. A second ago, you were mumbling something to yourself, but it really sounded like you were talking to someone."

Marco looked away. "Um, that was nothing. Just thinking of something."

"Marco…" Star said.

Marco inhaled through his teeth and looked at Star, who was now looking at him with concern.

"You don't have to hide anything from me." She said. "Trust me, I'll understand."

Marco opened his mouth and was about to speak, but he was quickly interrupted.

"She thinks you're a weirdo. Flee, while you still have the chance. Go home and do nothing for the rest of the evening."

As tempting as that was in the current moment, Marco knew he couldn't do that. He started talking.

"I'm still worried, okay?!" He said. "Like I said earlier, it's a song stuck in my head, and it's been playing over and over. I told you to relax, when really it was me. All this stuff is so much to handle. Mina, Meteora and Mariposa getting kidnapped, Janna getting sent to the hospital? That whole monster freedom-fighter group we discovered, and now this Brainsaya thing-"

"The what now?" Star asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Nothing." Marco said. "Ignore that. But it's so much, you know? I feel like it'll turn out badly in the end. Even this date, which is supposed to be my time off with you, has been a nightmare because I'm constantly having doubts about what's right and what's wrong."

"You're welcome."

Marco ignored this and kept going. "So now I-"

Not bearing to see Marco behave like this any longer, Star quickly leaned forward and kissed him, snapping him out of his monologue.

"Feel a little better?" She asked.

Marco, now blushing intensely, dropped his head. "I guess so, yeah."

"Good, because since you helped me with this kind of stuff the night Janna was hospitalized, it's my turn to help you. I get it." She said. "I understand completely. It was just a day or so ago that you had to hear me complain about everything not working out in the end. I'm worried too Marco. But we still have each other. So until the day comes when we won't, I promise that I'll always help you through it, and you gotta help me."

"But what if that day does come?" Marco asked.

"Then I'll make sure that even if one of us is gone, we'll still have other people looking out for us."

Marco looked back at Star. "Thanks. That means a lot. Especially from you. You're always the one person I can count on."

"I know." Star said. "Now cheer up, I think our foods here, and I want you in good spirits for the rest of the date."

Just like Star said, the waiter arrived to the tables a few seconds later, and set their plates and drinks down.

"Is there anything else you need?" He asked. "Perhaps you would like a dessert menu for later?"

"No." Marco said. "We're good. Both of us."

The waiter nodded and walked away, not catching the true meaning behind Marco's words.

Both of them looked down and their plates and started eating.

"Hey." Star said between bites. "This is pretty good you know. You want some?"

Although Marco didn't want to risk throwing up, he also didn't want to say no. It did look rather appetizing, now that he had seen it.

"Sure." He said.

Star stabbed part of the cob cake with her fork, leaned over to Marco and gave him the fork. Marco cautiously put the piece of food in his mouth and started chewing it. A moment later, his eyes lit up.

He swallowed, took a deep breath, then turned towards Star.

"Can I have any more of that?"

"Ha!" Star exclaimed. "I told you! I told you it was good! I was right!"

Marco laughed at this display. "Yeah, yeah, you were right." He said, before picking up his calzone and taking a bite out of it.

"You any part of my calzone?" He asked.

"Nah." Star said. "I already know that tastes good."

'Huh.' Marco thought. 'Wonder what that means.'

"She doesn't trust you to give her food. Or maybe-"

"Quiet." Marco whispered. "Enough out of you. There's nothing more to be said."

"Are you sure? Because trust me, I know everything you know. You still have doubts."

"And I am choosing to ignore them. As well as you. So if you really are my mind, then take a look into yourself, and you'll see it's true."

"..."

"Well?"

"Well. It seems you were right. No more doubts. No more fears. No more nothing. Guess that kiss and pep talk from Star really did it. That was faster than expected."

"That's right. Now leave. You said when I overcame my fear about this date, you would leave."

"Yes. I'll be going now. But, not really. I'll never leave. And I will return to make you-"

"Just get the hell out of here."

"Okay."

With that all said and done, the "Brainsaya" left, and Marco was left alone with a feeling of happiness, and not a single worry inside him.

The rest of the date went relatively well, as Star finished her cob cake and nachos and Marco finished his calzone, all while the two of them talked to each other.

"This was fun." Star said. "I really needed this."

"As did I." Marco said. "It's nice to get back to a feeling of...normalness, maybe?"

"Definitely." Star said, setting her utensils down. "In fact, I have a feeling that this will all be over soon."

"You think so?" Marco asked, smiling at her optimism.

"Yeah. I really do."

Both of them stared at each other. Marco started to lean forwards, and Star did the same, and their lips were just about to touch and-

"Did you enjoy your meal?" A sudden voice asked.

Both Star and Marco snapped back into their seats, their cheeks now fire-engine red. Star was also noticeably annoyed at their moment having been interrupted.

"Yes." Marco said quickly. "It was good."

"Yeah." Star said. "That cob cake was pretty good as well.

"Can we have the check please?" Marco asked, pulling out his wallet.

The waiters eyes darted to the side and he pulled a checkbook out of his pocket.

"Well, there's something odd about that…" He said.

"What...do you mean?" Star asked.

"Your meal has already been paid for." The waiter answered.

"What? Who paid for it?"

"I don't know." The waiter said. "But when I saw you were finished with your meals, I went to your table to give it to you. But before I got there, I was stopped by somebody. He offered to pay for you. I initially refused, but he was quite insistent, and he said that something like that a very common Earth practice."

"It's...it's not." Marco said.

"Huh. That would explain why I've never seen anybody else do it."

"Who was it?" Star asked.

"Some teenage boy. He didn't give me his name, but he had white hair, orange eyes...I think. I don't remember what he was wearing though."

"Where is he?" Marco asked.

"He's sitting in the booth over-"

The waiter pointed to a now empty booth.

"Hm. I guess he must have left. Odd, he didn't order anything. Oh well, he did ask me to leave the check with you, and I heard it's rude to try and get in the personal business of customers." The waiter put the checkbook on the table.

"Thank you for coming, please come again soon." He then walked back into the kitchen, and Star and Marco watched him go.

"Well, that was weird." Star said.

Marco grabbed the checkbook and flipped it open. "Yeah. Especially since I think I saw that guy earlier, and I swear he was watching u-" Marco stopped cold, as if his mouth had just run into a brick wall.

"Are you okay?" Star asked.

Without taking his eyes off it, Marco passed the checkbook to Star, and mouthed to her "it's another secret note. Like the one Needles wrote to us."

Star's eyes widened and she took the checkbook. 'Another note?' She thought. 'Did Needles send somebody to tell us something us? No, he would have probably told us with a tennis ball, right? And he left town anyways.'

Star flipped it open and she read the note, which was written on the back of the check.

"Magic sanctuary." It read. "Tomorrow. Eleven. AM. Be late, and there will be consequences."

Both of them exchanged glances, and sat in an unnatural silence.

And both of them had their optimism swept away, replaced by a feeling that no matter what they did, no matter what happened next, it wasn't going to end well.

End chapter 8.

A/N: I feel like this chapter may be kind of weak, or maybe it's good. Let me know what you guys think.

On the other hand, before anyone might ask, the Brainsaya is not any kind of separate entity, as stated multiple times. It's meant to represent all the fears one has before dates. It may or may not return.

The next few chapters are going to be a doozy, so until next time.