STLTH 100

Hmm… Nah. Maybe something showy for chapter 10.

STLTH 1000

That's better.

10.

It had been quiet in the castle all morning. It had been two long weeks since Star and Tom had left. There was a clear lack of magic around the castle, one that had been apparent before her departure and had worsened since. It was more than just the personality and presence of the girl.

The magic utility was gone. This was something that had never occurred before and the castle felt desiccated, dry of interest and vitality.

Everyone had long sensed that something was amiss, and today it had been confirmed by the King as he called for everyone in the castle to gather so he could make an announcement. Except for a bare few who had long known of what had been going on, River shocked them all.

The throne had been abdicated. It was now Eclipsa's, and she was the rightful Queen of Mewni. It would've been the choice to make by Moon but she was still missing, and laws had to be maintained regardless in her absence. As such, the ongoing repairs that had been taking place in the castle were to be halted as Eclipsa had no desire to occupy the castle, choosing instead to reside in the monster temple.

The castle was to be closed within a week. River said that nothing was changing, except for the heads of staff, so to speak. He and other leaders were defunct as Eclipsa had already handpicked her chosen ones, that being mostly monsters. Knights, auxiliary workers, and the general like who ranked lower were obliged to join her as would've been the case normally, but there had been a general outcry against it.

Some room doors were being locked, some with occupants pacing their floors wondering about their next decision. Some were being scuttled for anything useful to help tide them over to their next trade. Others had already left, having come with no personal attachment to the castle and stored their belongings elsewhere.

Higgs had no idea what to do. Sitting at the small round table at the center of her room, she had her head propped up on the table, resting in the palm of her hand. Her index finger idly ran the circle of the top of her mug. It was half-full of cool wine. Picking it up, she idly downed the rest, only drinking it to occupy her time.

"Is that good?"

As if only remembering her companion, the girl's eyes focused and looked to the one asking her about her beverage.

"Higgs? Is it good?" Marco asked again. He seemed curious enough to know, though he had declined her earlier offering of the drink when he'd first come. It had only been an automatic attempt at keeping their amicable relationship going, but now Higgs felt like she didn't know anything.

"Um… I guess so," she said after a bit, "I like it. Lots of my friends do too."

Marco looked as though he wanted to try it after all. His parents had taught him, of course, to avoid everything that 'was of this world', until he was older. She'd told him that it was wine. That was just grape juice, right? He'd had grape juice before, eaten grapes before, eaten raisins before. He'd had wine before too, sparkling ones. It was given to him at a few New Year parties without his parents knowing but had thought it was one of those parental warnings that had no merit, though he had done so with wariness.

However, he didn't know the difference between then and now was that this was fortified wine, and Higgs didn't mention it was alcoholic. That would have been the case as well if he had mentioned his experiences before because she probably would not have cared anyway.

He hadn't asked for it, not yet. Despite this, she retrieved a clean wooden mug from a hook over her dresser, gave it a cautionary wipe before filling it at the wine barrel's tap in the corner of the room. Marco looked down at the red drink placed before him, almost deciding that he wouldn't like a drink that wasn't iced. Glancing up at Higgs, he noticed that her attention had left him again, staring into space. The squire had been like this all day since hearing the King's — or rather, former King's — announcement. "Either I'm fired, or I'm gonna work with a monster giving me orders. Or maybe Stabby join them too. Don't know which to expect, or what to look forward to." She then muttered some local curse word, one that Marco paid no mind because he wasn't Mewman enough to understand.

"Sounds like you really love your job."

"It's more than just pride. A job means money, and I need to eat," she retorted.

Marco had to repress a chuckle. Leave it to Higgs to put it bluntly, and she meant it. "What about having a monster for a boss, though. They're not bad. Well, I guess you've got a few bad apples, but so does… every race, I guess. I've met some who are pretty cool."

"Was Toffee one of them?"

That was an unexpected jab. "Heck no. Glad he's gone."

Something she could agree with. "And what about Meteora?"

"You mean Princess Meteora?" Even Marco couldn't help but cringe, and Higgs noticed. "What's up with the specific names? You don't like monsters, do you? They're not all like Toffee. Meteora was just a victim of circumstances. Not blameless, but forgivable, I guess."

"Well, besides Meteora who I hate with a passion for literally sucking my life out, I've been training to fight monsters all this time. Taught how to subdue them, see through their tricks, the works. And now they're running the kingdom, and I'm supposed to go work with them? Work for them?"

"Heinous… Meteora," Marco corrected himself, "was always meant to be an eventual Queen. There was a…" Marco paused, wondering if he should tell Higgs. This was a huge secret, and he was using it as a passing conversation to one of the lowest members in the chain of knightly staff. "Wonder if I can tell you?"

Higgs raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "I can keep a secret. But ask yourself this… is it going to affect the rightful Queen and princess of Mewni?"

Marco hesitated. "I guess not. The truth is, Eclipsa wasn't too big on being with Shastacan, and had a child with a monster she eloped with. But since Shastacan didn't want a monster kid to inherit the throne, he basically had her replaced with a civilian girl. Festivia."

The girl took a long swig on the rest of her wine and put the mug down with more force than necessary. "Well, that's a pretty big secret. Wouldn't call it a secret, 'cause it used to be. Doesn't matter anymore. From Festivia?! That's about what… more than 300 years of fake Butterflies? By god's bones, this has to be the most messed up thing I've ever heard. Wonder if they will make it public?"

"But still, monsters are okay," Marco said, feeling the need to remind her of this.

"I'm not going to take that at face-value, Marco," she replied. "I'll be the judge of that. Guess I'll see what it's like working for Eclipsa, 'cause I don't have a clue on what else to do."

"Uh-huh. You do that."

Higgs got up to refill her mug with wine and once more, with her shock dwindling, idled over it but not as much as before. "So is that why you've been so mopey for the past couple of weeks? You knew that the throne was gonna be abdicated?"

She thought he looked sad? He didn't know that it was obvious. "That's not the reason. I knew that it was gonna happen before then, too."

"Then it must be because of the princess. What, didn't the panties work out? No, lemme guess… you stole them again!" she started laughing, but Marco didn't share in her mirth. Already feeling self-conscious, she stopped and apologized. "So what happened?"

"As it turns out," he grumbled, "I'm cursed."

"Cursed?" the girl echoed. "Is that why you've been stealing left and right?" She'd long known who and what was the cause, having been the person to give it to him. She thought about it often, and with a high degree of optimism and regret, hoped that it would pass on its own. She'd long come to realize that he was a nice guy without even a bad bone in his body, no matter how much looked like Rocam. Could she tell him why and how he got cursed? Would he understand, and forgive her?

Maybe she ought to tell him sooner instead of later.

"The stealing is a side-effect. The curse is something to keep me and Star apart. I cuss her a lot, and last time we left the castle to find out what was wrong with me, I came close to hitting her with a rock from behind. Now she's with Tom, looking for her mother."

Higgs nodded slowly, not trusting herself to speak. Now everything made sense. 'Tom split them up,' she thought to herself and wanted to find out how much Marco knew. "Have any ideas on what or who cursed you?"

"Well, I had a list of suspects, but I'm done with looking it over. I think Tom did it. But I can't do anything about it until he comes back and I confront him, or I prove he did it. If I had my scissors, at least I could do something about it instead of just waiting around."

"Well, if you're thinking that a jealous boyfriend would do that…" she trailed off. "But about this list of suspects. Didn't you have any enemies?" It was a roundabout question, but he saw through it.

"You were on it too, if that's what you were asking. It was a long list," the Diaz said with a grin, "if it makes you feel any better."

"I hope so, or I would've had my feelings hurt," Higgs replied sarcastically. Still though, wouldn't this be a bad thing? If Marco suspected Tom, then how long before she herself was outed as being the one to deliver the poison? The barrel of wine was BOUGHT with Tom's payment. Didn't that mean she was obligated to protect her employer?

Now her relationship with Marco was going to get even more complicated. She had been content to keep him around; they liked one another's company, though she suspected that she was now a friend of convenience, as Marco didn't have many others he could hang out with in Mewni currently. Higgs was the same and appreciated him not only because of the benefits he came with but also to the fact that he was her only friend outside of work relationships. Being stressful enough as it is, talking about squire this and polishing armor that with the others had been driving her insane and she badly needed to decompress from it sometimes.

"I was hoping that you'd get better," she said after a while. "I'm tired of losing stuff when you're here."

"You got some of them back," Marco retorted. "Besides, it's accidental."

She stared at him intensely. "It'd be nice to get my left slipper back. And my hairbrush. And my damn insoles. And how about my maroon belt? It was my favorite one…" She looked down, suddenly noticing an empty space on the table. "Where's the mug, Marco?"

"Huh." Marco had only realized that he'd already stolen the mug of wine she'd given him, and it was nowhere to be found. It was one of those incidents where the stolen item had completely disappeared without a trace, and his mood soured even more. "I'm sorry, Higgs. You know I don't mean it."

"This is getting tired. That was one of my best mugs. I know you didn't mean it… Did you at least try the wine?"

"Afraid not." The disposition in the room had fallen faster than a rock. The boy let his head bang on the table and grabbed the sides as if he was unsteady and was about to fall. "I can't take any more of this!" he shouted, his voice muffled and cracking. "I can't stop the stealing, I've lost my best friend and I can't do a single thing about this curse! I didn't do anything to deserve this!"

Higgs felt bad before. She felt like complete crap now. She'd helped to cause all of this and from the short time she'd personally known Marco, she knew what he said was true. She wanted to tell him, but what good would that do any of them? Maybe go their separate ways, Marco hating her because she had been an absolute bitch who'd taken out her rage and frustration on him because he resembled someone who had oppressed her before. Maybe he would get his proof that Tom had cursed him. Maybe. Maybe he would get cured. Maybe not. Maybe he'd save his friendship with the Butterfly. "Sounds like you really care about the princess."

"I care about Star a lot."

He'd corrected her, even though it was just her way of referring to the blonde. He cared about the girl, not the princess. Now she felt even more conscious of how deep Marco's feelings ran. It would've been nice if Rocam had been more like Marco, and Higgs found herself jealous of Star. "I know you wouldn't have done a single thing to deserve getting cursed."

This was getting awkward. They were both a mess, and she didn't know how to comfort him. She looked down at her cup of wine. She hadn't drunk any of it since her last refill. It was an indulgence now when it had previously been a way of escape, a way to feel good when she was low. Lack of money had kept her from becoming an alcoholic, but pondered if it would make a good next move.

"Marco?" she touched him on the shoulder, trying to get him to lift his head. "A'right, try some of the wine."

"Hmm?" he rose, somewhat expecting a poor-quality mug with some wine in it, a reasonable act by someone prepared to lose the item in question. Instead, what he found was the same quality as the one previously lost, filled with red alcohol. Nervously, he took a sip. It wasn't bad. It tasted fruity, like the ones he was accustomed to, and an inexplicably warm feeling that started at his throat that traveled to his stomach. His trepidation leaving him, he had some more polite sips, then in mouthfuls with regular swallows. She didn't tell him to pace himself. It guaranteed him getting a buzz that would make him feel good, which meant it would effectively benefit him more, for less. He didn't quite stop until he was almost finished, and she asked him how he felt about it. "It tastes good." He drank the dregs and smiled in appreciation. "I thought that I wouldn't like it without the ice, but I'm glad I was wrong. I'd like some more, please."

She smiled back at him. "Sure thing." Taking up the mug, she went to get it refilled at the wine tap, absentmindedly wondering what he might have been stealing while her back was turned.

Like lightning, it struck her. His smile was so eerily reminiscent. Tom had approached her in secret and instructed her, as one of the squires waiting on others at the party, to slip a capful of a potion in Marco's drink. Before reaching Marco, out of hatred for Rocam, poured the entire potion into the boy's juice while making the rounds.

Maybe he didn't remember her, maybe he was just being kind. He smiled at her — like the one just now – and thanked her for it before drinking it all.

She wondered if he would die by morning.

The wine had nearly overflowed in the mug. Stopping the tap just in time, she felt weak in the knees. So this was what it was like? Drinking with the person she originally wanted to kill? He didn't know.

He didn't know.

She wanted to tell him, but she was too afraid.

It was quiet.

Feeling shaky, she hastily drank the wine in the mug in one swig, now almost full. She wanted more. She needed more, or something stronger, something poisonous. She refilled the mug again. The mug was nearly filled to the brim, but her cup was already running over. She had to tell him. How could she tell him?

"Uh… Higgs? You doing okay?" Marco asked. When she didn't respond, he was about to get up and approach her but she stopped him by simply turning around. "You okay?" he asked again.

"Not doing so well, no."

"Well, don't worry about it. If you decide to work with Eclipsa after all, I'll help you get settled in. And maybe how to avoid Meteora." He shrugged. "She's a baby and although Eclipsa says she doesn't remember anything, she kinda freaks me out sometimes."

Higgs couldn't help but laugh. She hadn't even known Marco that long, but now she felt like she grasped enough to figure him out for life. Worse yet, despite feeling depressed, he was still concerned about her. "Here you go, Marco. One mug of feel-good."

"Thanks again." He took it from her but did so with some hesitancy. After seeing her drink his original refill at the wine barrel, the boy only now realized that he had been drinking from her cup and blushed almost as red as the wine. Her lips had been pressed against the mug for half the day. "Err… huh?" he said at last.

She drummed her fingers on the table, wondering why he looked so embarrassed. "It's what I call it sometimes."

"Oh. Okay." He decided to chalk up wine as a woman thing, like chocolate around certain times of the month, but it was a struggle to keep drinking from the cup. Was this like an indirect kiss or something? Ignoring it, at last, he drank heartily. "It gets better. Is that a wine thing?"

"Yep." He suddenly started smiling now, wide and somewhat goofily. Higgs noticed it and figured that he was getting buzzed as the wine was hitting him. The wine was harder hitting when you knocked it back quickly, not to mention that it was Marco's first exposure to alcohol.

She wondered if now was the best time to tell him that she was the one who helped curse him and that it was Tom who had given her the potion. Would he take the news easier now? Or worse? Or would he simply forget it? She probably shouldn't. None of the outcomes were fair to him or her.

Either way, today alone was a drinking day. Marco was depressed about his situation and he needed to either vent or get drunk — she attributed that to experience. "Alright, Marco, just one more cup, and then I'm cutting you off. Hangovers can be a bitch."

"Hangover?"

"Think about it as the price you pay for feeling good. The more you feel good now, the worse you're gonna feel later."

"I doubt it. Couldn't feel any worse."

Guess that meant he was sadder than she earlier believed. "This crappy attitude ain't like you, Marco," the squire said, wishing that he'd go back to normal. "Hope this curse wears off soon."

"Now would be nice," he grumbled, "but I bet it won't. If it's anything like the curse I once got on Earth, it'll have some weird rule I have to do before it goes away."

"You were cursed before?" It was said to herself, but the boy heard her. "You a magnet for these sorts of things?"

"Tom cursed me back then. It was supposed to stop me from getting into a relationship with Star, but it got between me and another girl that I had liked."

Higgs was surprised. This was news. She got up to refill the mug for the last time but didn't give it to him, not yet. "You dated other girls? You've got game, eh?"

"It was just her. I'd always liked her, ever since we were really small. But as I said, Tom cursed me." Only just grasping that he had said Tom had been the one to curse him, Higgs went taut. No wonder Marco suspected him again so easily. "You gonna give me that mug?"

"Not yet. I'm gonna hold onto it for just a little longer. This is getting too good for you to stop." He groaned in response but gave up as she held it out of his reach. "Okay, spill it. What was she like? Was she a plebian?"

"Whazzat mean?"

"I'm asking if she was an ordinary girl, like me, or if she was one of those noble daughters or something."

"She was pretty… ordinary," he said the last as if it were the ending of some grand joke. Not knowing why he said that or even realizing that he was getting drunk, he went on. "Earth doesn't really function like Mewni, but she was really pretty and cool. I guess she'd be like what Sir Stabby would be to everyone else. Good-looking and awesome at the same time." She got what he meant. It was a great mix. This was the kind of girl that Marco liked?

"It was hard to start a relationship with her though, 'cause I was so nervous around her… I was always afraid of messing up around her and ruin things, but she laughed it off, and I got over it. We dated for a while, but we broke up not too long after I went back to Earth after we beat Toffee. She seemed convinced that I loved Star instead."

"I'm inclined to agree," Higgs muttered. She handed him the wine. "But how pretty was she?"

Marco looked at Higgs more closely. "Um… very pretty, I guess?" His brain was a little hazy, and he couldn't find better words to use. Knowing that the girl sitting across from him wanted more details, he shrugged. "Had this light shade of green eyes, and had freckles too. Nose a bit pointed, round face." Higgs thought that she was describing her for a moment, and bit the inside of her bottom lip to keep from getting flustered. "But she had blond hair and she wore it around her head and neck."

All Higgs thought of was the 'but'. BUT…?

So Marco had been describing this Jackie girl with her in mind. She wondered if Marco was playing her, or if it was unintentional.

Did he think those features were pretty? She facepalmed herself, trying to tell herself that Marco was teasing her, but knew that he wasn't the type. In the meantime Marco drank his wine in sips, wanting to make it last since Higgs said it was supposed to be his last. "Stingy. Got a whole barrel…"

The girl ignored what he was mumbling. "Yeah, yeah, don't want you turning into an arfarfan'arf. (1) So that's why you think Tom cursed you again. Now I know why. He did it before, so what's stopping him from doing it again?"

"Exactly." Only dregs remained in the mug. Ignoring whatever Higgs had just called him, he drained the mug and placed it before her. "Thanks a lot," he slurred. "Know why you call it feeel-good. Do you charge people for it?" She was sure that he was completely drunk now and tried to decide if he was able to make it back to his room on his own.

"I don't charge my friends. Come by for some anytime you want. Only about two weeks left before it goes bad, anyway."

"I'm glad we're friends."

It was quiet.

Her head fell in shame. She had to tell him.

"Wow, you really meant it about coming back for more!" About to tell him that she had been the one to give him Tom's curse, she looked up to Marco but stopped short when she saw him with an outrageous hat on his head and a mug in his hand. Staring closely, she recognized the hat as being Eclipsa's. The mug, however, was what had shocked her. It was the same mug that he'd earlier stolen, and he drank the wine happily.

"What is this?" she whispered. "How…?" That was when a barrage of things seemed to phase into existence around them, all manner of Mewman paraphernalia ranging from clothing to paintings and food, even items of furniture. They occupied the entire floor space of the squire's room, leaving her befuddled. "Why… what IS THIS?!"

As if not even noticing what was going on, Marco barely had the dexterity and focus to push the empty mug towards her, just as he had done before. He didn't realize, in his doubled vision, that there were now two mugs before her. Everything wavered around him and wanting to steady himself, laid his head down on the table and passed out almost immediately.

It was quiet.

Higgs looked around the room, staring at the clutter. She knew what they all were, but her mind fought against it in disbelief.

"By god's bones… what the HELL is this?!" (2)

In answer, a pair of blue-handle scissors winked into existence in midair and fell onto the table in front of Marco. Recognizing them as dimensional scissors, from the accentuated heart design that Hekapoo put into all of her scissors, her stylized imprint of Marco's name, there was no doubt about it. These were very same scissors that had been missing for weeks and had been one of the primary sources of frustration for Marco.

"So THAT'S why he couldn't find it. He stole his own dimensional scissors? Damn, nerd." She looked down at the sleeping boy with a high measure of sympathy and regret before going to her bed and retrieved one of her pillows. Gently raising his head, she placed the pillow underneath for him to rest on, and looked on as he slept soundly.

It was quiet.

She thought of Jackie again, thought of how Marco described her. Deciding that enough wine had been consumed, she set aside the mugs to be washed.

"Wonder if he thinks I'm pretty too?"

Did it matter? After what she'd done? Like it or not, deny it or accept it, she didn't deserve his thoughtfulness, his forgiveness, his friendship.

"I'm really sorry, Marco," she apologized to the sleeping boy, unable to get his saddened face out of his mind. He couldn't drink his problems away. She'd helped him for one day, but that wasn't enough. "You didn't deserve this. You didn't deserve ANY of this." She wondered how she could fix this.

It was quiet.

I feel like pushing the limits of how much I can post in T-rated fiction, but not enough to get me banned.

Seriously though, minors getting harassed by demigods? Minors drinking? Um… It's not quite so bad, it's teenaged. I promise.

1 – Arfarfan'arf – A Victorian word for a drunkard. Higgs said she didn't want him to become an Arfarfan'arf (drunkard).

2 – By God's Bones – A Victorian oath. Swears haven't changed much over the centuries, but since medieval times, they took oaths when things were really serious. I can't throw f-bombs around like Vestiges (If you like Miggs, a fan of action but have NEVER looked for SVTFOE fics under the mature rating, go check it out. GO CHECK IT OUT.) So I used this old-fashioned oath because Mewni looks medieval, and I needed some way for Higgs to exclaim in shock.

Guess that's it.

Valete omnes,

MRAY 4TW.