Tom groaned in anger when he heard the organ music. That was the wrong piece! This was the super romantic Blood Moon Ball that he was going to be sharing with Star, and there couldn't be that awful, depressing music playing in that background. "This is gonna drive me crazy," he muttered. "All right, don't go anywhere. I'll be right back."
He ran off, and he vaguely heard her say, "Okay." He skidded to a stop in front of the organ player with an angry expression when a finger tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around, feeling his anger bubbling up, and looked at the tapper.
"Do you mind?" he spat.
The stranger looked at him. He could only see two yellow pricks with cat-eye-style pupils underneath of a hood, but it didn't really bother him. He dealt with worse stuff all the time, as prince of the Underworld. "Look," they said softly, pointing to the center of the room.
He looked, but there was nothing there. He was about to complain when the lights shut off and a red spotlight fell on two people. Star . . . and some masked dude. His eyes widened in a mix of horror and rage, but the voice of the stranger just barely carried over the organ music.
"I can give you any one wish," they said in that same quiet voice, and he turned around to look at them again. "Anything."
He looked at their eyes again, and something about them was off. Wrong. Whoever this was, they definitely couldn't be trusted. But . . . his gaze flickered back to Star as she danced with the other man, and something different sparked within him. Determination.
"Do the soul thingy to me and Star instead," he ordered, pointing at her. "Instead of with that masked guy."
The hooded head just barely nodded, and they snapped their fingers. Everything around him snapped to black, except for those two yellow eyes staring at him.
"Be careful what you wish for . . ."
Everything slammed back to normal, though he was standing somewhere different now. The middle of the room. The red light wasn't there yet, so his heart leapt. This was his chance to dance with Star! He turned around to look for her, but he couldn't see her. He frowned and spun around again. Nothing.
Where was she?
A hand grabbed his, and he found himself in the dancing position with . . . that masked guy! The red light fell on the both of them, and he yelled out in some level of disgust. That wasn't what he meant! Not at all! Where was Star?
He heard another voice shout out, a horribly familiar one. Not Star's. Not anybody else he knew.
His own.
Horror filled him, and he looked down at himself, a growing knot of fear forming in his stomach. No. NO! This is not what he meant by the soul thingy! Though, he realized with a bit of annoyance at himself, he hadn't phrased that wish very well, had he? Ugh! That was so like him!
Instead of his white suit, there was a dress. His hands had on long white gloves. When he felt at his face, he had no third eye (which was super weird) and no horns, and there was a massive bun on the back of his head.
His fear changed to anger in a flash, and he turned around to find the hooded stranger. He stalked over to the organ, expecting to find them, but instead he found something even more disturbing.
Himself.
He shouted out in disgust, again, and leapt back, staring at himself. He was feeling at the third eye, and the horns, and looking very disturbed. Him-but-Not-Him turned to look at Actual-Him, and they locked eyes.
"Tom . . . ?" Not-Him asked slowly, his eyes widening. "What did you do?"
"Oh, no," he whispered. He clutched the sides of his head, feeling at those little strands of hair off to the side of the headband, the one that he had bought. "No, no, no." He backed up and nearly bowled into a couple partygoers. That masked guy was staring at him in concern, and he knew exactly why. "Star, I'm so sorry," he told Not-Him. "I . . . I didn't . . ."
The masked guy grabbed his arm. "Star? Are you okay?"
He wrenched his arm away and backed up against the wall, panting. The masked guy just got closer, and he turned away. "No! Stay away! Just . . . ugh!"
Star, now in his body, started pacing around and pulling on his horns. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no," she murmured, staring at him in horror. "Tom! What did you do?!"
He screamed and sank to the floor against the wall, clutching his head. "Go away! Everyone! GO AWAY!" He didn't erupt into flames, and his voice didn't go all low and demonic, but people still definitely got the message. Almost everyone backed away, except Star and the masked guy, who looked even more concerned.
"What's going on?!" the masked guy demanded. "Star, what's wrong?"
"I'M NOT STAR!" he screamed, glaring up at the guy, who just removed his mask and stared at him. It . . . it was that human kid Star had been with, the one that had karate-chopped his hand off. He gasped, then growled. This was his fault! If he hadn't danced with Star, then he wouldn't've made that stupid deal that got him stuck in Star's body!
"What?" the human asked, frowning and spinning to look at Star, who looked like Tom. "Wha—"
"It's hard to explain," she said frantically. She turned to the crowd, who had started edging back, and glared at them. "STAY BACK." The flames and low voice stuff happened to her, not him, since she was technically now him, and she blinked. "Well, that's new."
The human looked between the two of them. "What's going on here?!"
"I made a really bad deal and switched bodies with Star!" Tom snapped, glaring at the other boy.
"Then . . . who are you really?" he asked cautiously.
He just gestured to his normal body with an annoyed expression. The human visibly paled and looked at Star. "Star?" he asked incredulously. She just nodded, clearly very uncomfortable. "So that makes you . . . Tom." They stared at each other for a second. "Um."
All three of them turned to the shocked crowd, which was staring at them. "Maybe we should go somewhere a little more private," Tom suggested, and he raised his arms up to summon the fire portal. He tried again, until he remembered that that was Star's power now. He bit his lip uncomfortably. Whoa. Not sharp teeth.
"You have dimensional scissors in your pocket," Star informed him, and after a moment of uncomfortable searching, he located said dimensional scissors and handed it to the human, who sliced open a portal and stepped through it, followed by Star, and then finally him. They stood in a familiar room. It was Star's bedroom, from Mewni, but the view outside was unfamiliar. Earth, he guessed.
The other two plopped on her bed, and he slowly followed them. "So," the human said, looking at him. "What kind of deal did you make?"
"Um . . . I'm not quite sure," he admitted, feeling his cheeks heat up a little bit. "But I don't know how to fix it."
Star sighed, which felt really weird, since it was his face and voice. "What are we gonna do, though? Tom's a prince, so he's definitely gonna be missed . . ."
"I don't really wanna tell people, either," Tom added. "That would be really, really awkward."
"So . . . should I try and live your life?" she asked, looking kind of afraid by that concept. "Maybe tell your parents, and the Diazes, and a couple close friends the change, but keep it mostly a secret?"
The human nodded, awkwardly. Everything about this was awkward. "I . . . I guess that's the best option for you guys. So, for the moment, Tom will live here and pretend to be Star, and Star will go to the Underworld castle and pretend to be Tom? Are we . . . are we good for that?"
They both slowly nodded, with a slight wince on his part. He pulled his legs to his chest—Star's legs to Star's chest, but he was trying not to think about that—and shuddered. "I'm so sorry, Star," he apologized, looking at her. "I really didn't mean for this to happen. I just . . . I just wanted to dance with you," he said softly, and she looked at him in pity. He looked away.
"Also, don't tell my mom," Star told them, standing up. "I don't really want her to know. So, uh, bye, Tom, bye, Marco." She walked over to the balcony and raised her arms. He was kind of confused, until he realized she was trying to summon the fire portal. She chuckled, embarrassed. "Just a second."
After a moment, she figured it out, and she stepped into it. And she was gone.
He looked at the human, Marco, and then hastily stood up and said, "I'm gonna go to the bathroom." He sped out the door and into a hallway. He realized he had zero clue where the bathroom was, so he was walking down an unfamiliar hallway and opening random doors until he found it, and then he stared at himself in the mirror.
It was really strange, looking in the mirror and seeing Star's face instead of his own. He pulled off the gloves she'd been wearing and stared at the pale hands. Not purple, like normal, but a creamy color. He felt at his forehead again, but of course Star didn't have three eyes. Nor a tail, which she'd probably be very surprised to find out he actually did have.
He pulled at the big bun, and a lot of hair collapsed onto his back. It was surprisingly heavy, and he wrinkled his nose. He did not like long hair. His eyes drifted down to the counter, and to a pair of scissors sitting amongst the mess that overtook the right side. He locked eyes with himself and shrugged. If he was going to be her for a while, he might as well be as comfortable as possible, right?
So, about twenty minutes and a lot of hair later, he had cut her hair to a more comfortable length, though it still went past her shoulders, so it wouldn't look quite so weird. He had it a little uneven, too, so it was almost spiky like his. Blond hair sat on the floor all around him, and he tried to summon a ball of fire so he could burn it, but of course, that didn't work.
He tapped his foot with a frown. How could he . . . he suddenly became aware of a weight in his pocket. The wand. He remembered brushing his hand against it while he was searching for the dimensional scissors, though he'd originally dismissed it. He reached in, though, and he pulled it out.
As he stared at it, it changed, kind of. The purple changed a little bit to match his normal skin tone better. The little butterfly-shaped blue part shifted into an eye, kinda like the one he'd lost. The gold stuff turned into more of a dark silver, and the blue turned into a dark red that reminded himself of his shirt. And the wings were just a little sharper than before.
He frowned slightly at that, though it was really cool looking, and he just waved the wand and thought about the hair disappearing, and it did with a flash of purple. Whoa. That was really handy. He could get used to that. As a bit of a test, he tried to apply his mascara with the wand, but it was just a massive blast of purple that really disoriented him. It worked, but maybe he should just do it by hand.
His eyes started to drift downwards, towards Star's chest, but he forced himself to look up. He could get through this without being totally creepy. He could. He could. He just had to . . . not think about how he was in a girl's body right now.
But hey, with the shorter hair and the mascara, he was feeling a lot better. The cheek emblems were kind of weird, still. After a moment of concentration, he was delighted to learn he could change them with a thought, though they went back to hearts the second he stopped paying attention. Maybe that was for the best.
It was getting kind of late, though, and unlike what a lot of people seemed to think, he wasn't actually a night owl. He'd rather get up early in the morning than pull an all-nighter. So, maybe he should change the clothes tomorrow.
He walked back to Star's room, thankfully having remembered the way back, and he laid out on her bed, thinking it over. He wouldn't be home for a while. He wouldn't get to tell his mom about how it went, and he would be in an unfamiliar place for a while. An idea came to him, though, and he walked over to Star's communication mirror.
"Call Sta—er, Tom," he told it awkwardly, and after a moment, his own face greeted him. Star did a double take upon seeing the changes he'd made.
"Whoa! Tom! You cut my hair?!" she asked, staring at him. "Oh, your makeup looks pretty good on me, though . . . ANYWAY. Um. Your life is hard. You don't even have a wand to do stuff with!" Something flipped next to her. Oh, his tail. "Oh, yeah, and why didn't you tell me you had a tail? It's so cute!" She smacked at it, a little bit like a kitten, and he smiled.
"Well, I did have to deal with a puppy that shot lasers out of its eyes, so you're not the only one with problems," he reminded her.
"Oh, I won't get to see the puppies!" she pouted, seeming to only just realize that. She sighed heavily, but then she brought it back to the topic of hand. "I told your parents about it. Your mom seemed really bummed out, though I can't understand her, because I'm not the one who knows how to speak Demon. And they put everyone at the ball on silence or whatever so they can't tell anyone. Have you told the Diazes yet?"
He shook his head. "No. I was thinking I could do it tomorrow, at breakfast."
"Yeah, that'll probably work," she agreed. "Just don't forget. You might get angry if too many people call you Star, especially ones you see every day. Maybe Marco's close friends should know, and—" She suddenly gasped. "Pony Head! I need to tell her about this. I call her every day, what with her being at . . . that place." She shuddered.
"St. Os?" he asked, and she screamed, running out of sight. After a moment she showed up again, panting. "Okay, you do that. I'm gonna head to bed. Good night."
"Good night, Tom. Oh, also?" He glanced at her again. "I'm gonna tell Brian and send you the bunny." He nodded, a little uncomfortable. That was probably smart. "Bye." He hung up and sat back down on her bed, staring up at the canopy. And, after who knows how long, he managed to fall asleep.
Tom yelped and punched a monster in the face. What the heck?! Neither Marco nor Star had told him that monsters would attack him for the wand! This was ridiculous! Not really knowing what he was doing, he used a magic blast and blew this two-headed red one away from him, and it kind of worked.
A grin spread on his face as he started to get it. He spun around and shot another one into the sky as Marco dodged a battle axe. "How are you losing?!" Ludo, the short bird guy, demanded. "You guys have, like, 200 pounds on her!"
Him, actually, but Ludo didn't know that.
Marco pulled open one of the monster's pants wedgie-style, like he expected him to do something, but Tom was too disgusted by the sight, so Marco just kicked him in the crotch instead.
"At least hit her with a rock or something!"
A teddy-bear-ish monster ran up and threw a rock at him. It hit him on a head, and he shouted out, rubbing his head and glaring at him. He retaliated with a fiery blast, and Ludo groaned in frustration.
He shot another blast, and he tried to do something new. Marco had said that Star liked to use something called a Narwhal Blast, so he tried it out. "Narwhal Blast!" he shouted, aiming it at this giraffe monster. Then Marco wiped the rest of them out, crushing Ludo under the weight of seven monsters with a single kick.
The two of them stared at the chaos, and Marco informed him, "There's only one thing Star and I do after a victory like this. Get Chinese food!"
"Uh, what's that?" he asked, frowning.
"I'll show you. C'mon."
He munched on the food. "This is really good," he commented, picking up another piece, with some difficulty. "And it's kinda cool, eating with these tiny swords." He poked Marco on the shoulder with it, and the human gave him a look and batted it away. A plate was dropped off with . . . something on it. "Are these cookies?" he asked.
"Yeah, these are fortune cookies," Marco told him, grabbing one and showing him. "They can magically predict the future." He broke open his cookie. "'A friend will greet you with a smile'."
"Ooh, that's cool," he said with a grin. Then he paused. "But we're not friends."
Another kid walked up, and Marco must've known him. "Ferguson!" they hi-fived. "Yeah!" They smiled at each other, and then the other kid, Ferguson, walked away. Marco turned back to him with an easygoing smile. "See, the cookies know all."
"Whoa! No way!" He grabbed one and tore it open, interested. "'Think positive and good luck will come your way.' Oh. Well, that's not happening." He chucked it behind him, and it barely missed a lady carrying another box. "Ooh, more cookies . . ." He slid out of his seat and speed-walked over to her, where she was about to throw them away.
"They're stale," the lady said, confused.
"I don't care," he said, grabbing the box.
"You're a weird girl." Not a girl, but okay.
He looked down at them, already attempting to grab one and open another. Marco walked over and said, "Wow, Tom. Looks like you did think positively." He just glared at him and read another one.
Change is happening in your life, so just go with the flow.
He grunted and chucked it away. "These things don't work right," he complained, folding his arms.
"Yeah, they're not magic. They're put there by people in a factory," Marco confirmed. Tom pouted, looking away. "But I can make you some nachos if you want."
He perked up. "Nachos? What are those?"
Marco grinned at him. "Oh, just you wait."
"I was kinda hoping it was like those calzones that predict your death Star loves to get in Mewni, though."
"HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE NACHOS?!" Marco demanded.
"I DON'T LIKE CHEESE!" he shot back. It felt really strange to not be on fire while he was having a fight, so he used Star's wand to make fire behind him. "Maybe if you ever LISTENED to me, you'd KNOW that!"
"WHEN DID YOU SAY YOU DON'T LIKE CHEESE?!"
"LITERALLY THIS MORNING!" He huffed and turned away. Marco's parents came into the room to see what all the ruckus was about, but evidently they saw the broken plate, the nachos on the floor, the fire, and the screaming, and they decided it wasn't worth it, because they turned away and left as quickly as they had come.
"Star likes my nachos," Marco said snidely.
Tom turned to him angrily and said, "Well, I'm not Star, okay? When are you gonna figure that out? I'm my own person, and sure, I may be in her body, but I. Am not. Star."
"Clearly."
With that comment, Tom glared at the human one more time and stalked upstairs, to Star's room, where he violently sat on her bed, pulled his knees to his chest, and seethed, wishing he had a tail to let smack around him furiously. He was already tired of this! He wanted to be himself, and for people to realize who he really was! Not to be called she, or a girl, or to be treated like he was Star.
He could hear someone coming down the hall. He didn't know if it was Marco, or his parents, but he couldn't deal with it right now. He summoned Cloudy—one of Star's spells he'd learned about—and hopped out the window. "Where to, Star?" the cloud asked in a cheery voice.
"I'm not Star," he growled, and the cloud squeaked and flew off to somewhere. He didn't care where, he just didn't want to be here anymore.
Cloudy dropped him off on some random street, and he just walked around in a stew. The humans seemed to realize his mood, because they all steered far away from him. Slowly, he started to calm down, though that all was thrown out the window when he heard an annoying song start to play. His anger returned full-force, and he stormed around the corner and glared at the dancers.
"Can you shut up?" he asked roughly, and when they didn't stop dancing, he groaned in frustration and walked over. "Did you hear me? Quit it!" He was just about to pull out the wand when the dudes removed their hats and coats, revealing themselves to be monsters. He cursed loudly and pulled out the wand, holding it defensively, only to find more monsters behind him.
I . . . I left Marco, he realized. That's why they attacked now.
I really screwed up.
Instead of attacking immediately, like they probably expected, he shot his first blast downward, sending himself flying into the sky. Thankfully, it wasn't too high, but it still hurt when he rolled to a stop on the roof. He climbed to his feet as soon as he could manage and ran as fast as he could.
Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot! Marco!
He jumped and, using a well-placed blast, he managed to jump to the next building. Maybe if he hadn't been running for his life, he'd be excited at coming up with a new application for the wand, but he was, in fact, running for his life, so he wasn't particularly excited. He continued like that, running across the buildings vaguely towards the Diaz household, all the while screaming,
"MAAAAAAAARCOOOOOOOOOO!"
At some point, the human looked up and saw him. A glance back told him that the monsters had been chasing him by the street, and that Marco was very alarmed. "Tom?! What did you do?!"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
He hopped down from the roof with a blast to slow his fall, and they stood next to each other, ready to take on the horde. The monsters paused when they noticed Marco, as they'd probably come because Tom was on his own, and now he was no longer on his own.
A rather chaotic fight ensued. Marco was kicking and smacking monsters left and right, and Tom had devised his own method of fighting with the wand, which was a little different from Star's: he'd use more harmless blasts to help himself with a more parkour-ish method for kicking and punching. Like a blend of Star's and Marco's strategies, with that Tom flair.
"Use a big destruction blast or something!" Marco told him, fending off monsters.
"Ah, right. Uh . . . Mega Mushroom Destruction Blast!" he shouted, and a wave with a whole bunch of mushrooms shot out of the wand. When the water cleared, all the monsters were groaning and covered in mushrooms, which did not look pleasant. Ludo shoved them all through the portal, and then they were gone.
Tom reluctantly helped Marco back to his feet, then he, embarrassed, said, "I . . . I'm sorry I exploded like that. I really am. I know that you know that I'm not Star, and . . . and I was being a jerk. I'm sure your nachos are delicious to people who like cheese."
"And I'm sorry for assuming you and Star would like the same things," Marco apologized. "It might not have been intentional, but I still did it, so I'm sorry."
The door opened, and he realized they were by the Chinese place. The lady from before came out, holding another box of cookies. "Oh, weird girl. You want some more stale cookies?"
He shrugged. "Yeah, sure." She gave them to him, and Marco gave him a look. "What? I still like them better than nachos." He handed one to Marco, who ate the cookie and gave him the fortune to read. "'A great evil has been unleashed.'" They both laughed at that.
Maybe they weren't friends just yet, but they weren't enemies.
Okay, I . . . have a problem. I started a Gravity Falls fic that I'm collaborating on, and I really should be working on that one, but I couldn't help but start this one. So . . . if you like it, great, just expect less frequent updates.
Also, sorry if the concept is weird. I wanted to do it anyway.