oh wow look, i'm actually alive. i swear i'm more shocked then any of you, and it's like 4am so excuse my not tiredness. Seriously though, I'm sorry this took so fucking long, all of y'all are amazing, ib is literal death, plus I've been kinda writing my own original book/story/thing, which is fun but also stress so *distressed noises*. Thanks so much for putting up with my shitty writing and even shittier time management, and i hope you enjoy! ^u^

BTW: I ACTUALLY GOT FUCKING FAN ART I AM SO EXCITED GAZE UPON ITS MAGNIFICENCE: post/131072684376/my-brain-you-know-they-only-appear-in-one

*happi velociraptor noises* i've also started tracking the tag: fsiiaabmb on tumblr if you have anything related to the fic that you want me to see! ^u^


The Friday evening found Marco and Star in Star's room, underneath a magically created, massive blanket fort, in their respective pajamas, with a giant plate of nachos being shared between them.

"So, since then you've been talking with Tom regularly, and you wanna get to know him better, and so you're trying to sneak him in all Star-like into school?" Star says as she nabs some nachos,stuffing them in her mouth with her free, already painted hand.

"Pretty much. And you and Jackie started hanging out - hold still Star, I don't want to mess up when I'm almost done - cuz you two escaped monsters at this party you went to that I didn't feel like going to?" Marco reiterates as he finishes painting Star's other hand's nails a light blue-sparkled pastel pink. She had somehow talked Marco into painting her nails with her super fast drying nail polish, but he didn't mind, as he had really missed hanging out with his best friend - not to mention it helps him practise the steady hand and patience he needs for karate.

Marco let go of Star's hand, and she held it up in the air, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the sparkles, before saying, "Yup! Then we kept hanging out, cuz I thought skateboarding was one of the coolest magics on Earth, like seriously Marco, the board just moves on it's own! She tried to teach me, then stuff happened, then I spilled my drink on her, yadda yadda more stuff, then I told her I thought she was like, super cute and- wait, Marco! Lemme do your nails!" Star interrupts herself, then rushes out of the fort, and bringing back some red nail polish, all the while ignoring Marco's sputterings.

"You just told her, upfront, that you thought she was cute?" Marco eventually spat out as Star took his hands."Wait, what colour is that? Because I don't think I wanna get beat up just for the sake of being 'nail twins' with you Star."

"Oh shush Marco, if anyone even thought of bullying you, you could just y'know, karate chop them in the head, and I could give 'em a good old fashioned Narwhal Blast." Star mimed chopping the air, "And anyways, it's red. Y'know, your favourite colour, and the colour that reminds you of Tom~." Star drew out Tom's name in a teasing manner as she started painting his nails.

"Hey- what- it does not!" Marco tried to rebut, "Red has always been my favourite colour!"

Star totally ignores him, instead continuing with her story, "But yeah, it was easy 'cuz everyone knows and agrees that Jackie is a super cutie. Okay, maybe it wasn't that easy. Maybe, just maybe, there was some stuttering and freezing, and just a tad intense blushing and a pinch of freaking out when she agreed to be my girlfriend and go on a date, and I might have felt like I was going through Mewberty again, but details details, really Marco." Star waves the air like she was blowing away any questions as she finished with one of Marco's hands.

Marco let out a small laugh, and passed his other hand to Star, "Good to know that no one's immune to the force that is Jackie Lynn Thomas."

"Okay enough about me! Tell me more about your boyfriend!" Star finishes up Marco's nail, and then lets go of Marco's hands, leaning forward conspiratorially.

"B-boyfriend?! Tom is not my boyfriend Star!"

"Boyfriend, soul-bonded, same thing, tell me!"

"No, not same thing Star!" Marco stands up and starts pacing around the blanket fort, "I mean, I don't know much about soul-bonds, but can't we just stay like really close friends? Is there some rule that says we can't? I have no idea what I'm doing Star."

Star stands up, and stop's Marco's pacing with gentle hands on his shoulders, pushing him down to sit. "Hey hey hey now, calm down Marco. I'm just saying there hasn't been any recorded cases of a soul bond ending in just close friendship, but that doesn't mean it can't happen! ... Would it really be that much of a disaster if you ended up dating Tom though? I thought, from what you've told me, that you don't think he's that bad or evil anymore."

Marco sighs, and carefully runs his hands over his face before saying, "No. Yes. I don't know Star. I've just befriended the dude, I don't want to scare him off by developing a crush or anything. I mean, the fact that he can't actually be scared off because of the bond is equal parts relieving and scary, but I don't want to ruin any friendship that might be budding. I mean, I don't even think he's into guys, he's been hung-up on you for so long." Marco lets out another sigh, "But, if I did develop a crush on him that was somehow, using some magic, reciprocated, and we ended up dating, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Let's not jinx it though, alright? Best buddies is all I am working towards, so I don't need a matchmaker. I'm talking to you Star."

Star laughs, "No promises Marco! And I wouldn't be so sure of Tom's 'straightness', but that's for him to explain. Wait a minute, don't you have to tell your parents about Tom staying with you during the weekday? And tell Tom about the whole, you know, chest of gold thing?"

Marco groans, and falls backwards onto some pillows, "My parents! I totally forgot, how am I gonna tell them about all this?"

Star pats Marco's cheek and says, "Don't worry, Star's got this."

She then stands up and goes to the door, shouting down, "Mr and Mrs Diaz, my friend who is also Marco's boyfriend is going to be staying with us for awhile, is that cool with you?!"

A shouted response came from Marco's dad saying, "Any friend of yours is a friend of ours!" The kind voice Marco's mom filtered up, "Plus, we have to meet Marco's boyfriend, or else what kind of parents would we be?"

"Well, there you go Marco, easy-peasy!"

Marco quickly stood up and ran to the door, shoving a laughing Star onto some pillows, and shouting down, "He's not my boyfriend!"

He then turns back towards Star and says, "Really Star? You had to say that?"

Star still laughing, sits up and says, "Hey, you're the one that forgot to tell them! I was just preparing for the future, I mean, don't you always tell me to 'plan ahead'?"

Marco groaned and face planted back into the pillows. Star continued to laugh as she picked up Marco's still groaning head, and placed it in her lap, "Come on Marco, it'll be fine! Now you don't have to explain the whole soul-bond jazz, cause they'll think you two are always together because of some gushy-mushy love stuff! And if you two do end up getting together, you won't have to tell them, and if you don't then this can just be a prank or something."

She plays with Marco's hair and asks in a more subdued manner, "You're not actually mad, are you?"

Marco stops groaning and replies, "No, not really. It'll just be another thing to explain to Tom, I guess. But, why do I have the feeling that this is payback for not telling you sooner? I mean, you only just told me about you and Jackie!"

"Cuz Marco!" She lightly slaps his cheek, "Me and Jackie just became an official thing! So I did tell you as soon as it happened, technically." Star then pinches her fingers together, closes one of her eyes and squints the other as she says, "And yes, just an itsy bitsy tiny bit of payback. I mean, I am your twin Marco!" She lightly hits his shoulder, "Best besties and twins don't keep stuff like this from each other!"

Marco snorts, then rolls on his back to face Star, still in her lap, "Okay, no more keeping secrets. Is that fair?

Star smiles and nods, "Pinky swear on it Marco. Pinky! Swear!"

She holds her pinky in his face, and Marco bats it away, before wrapping his pinky around hers, the pink and red nail polish complimenting each other, "Yeah, yeah, pinky-swear."

After they let go of each other's pinkies, Marco asked, "Alright, we've done nachos, blanket fort, nail polish, caught up and I even let you try and put makeup on me. That's two for me, two for you, and one for the both of us. What next? We have one more each and then should probably try to go to bed."

Star chewed her wand thoughtfully, and then suddenly said with a gasp, her heart-cheeks turning into lightbulbs briefly, "You still have to call Tom and tell him about everything! That'll count as yours, and then we can start a movie marathon of movies I chose for my own!"

"Uh, Star I don't think that's really fair-" Marco starts, but is then cut off.

"Oh come on Marco, let's stop debating things like 'fairness' and call your almost-not-quite-boyfriend-friend!"

"He's not my-!" Marco was cut off as Star suddenly stood up, causing his head to fall out of her lap and hit the ground with a slight thump. Star didn't seem to notice as she manhandled Marco's wrist to face her, accidentally pining Marco in the process, and saying clearly into the watch on the wrist, "Mirror Mirror, call Tom."

The mirror-watch rang for a bit, the watch enlarging and floating off of Marco's wrist. Eventually, Tom picked up saying without actually looking at the mirror for a bit, seemingly writing something with one of his bunnies on his head, "Hey Marco-polo, is everything okay, you haven't called me and it's really late in Earth terms rig-," Tom looks up finally, and almost does a double-take, "Starship?"

"Hey there Tom, cute bunny! we need to catch up sometime since there's no more hard feelings about the whole break-up-then-blood-moon-ball-thing! But! Marco needs to tell you something first, come on Marco tell him, tell him, tell him!"

All three of Tom's eyes blinked slowly and a slow smile spread across his face, "Now I'm positive you haven't changed a bit Starship. Also, yeah, water under the bridge, we did worse things when we were together- though usually not to each other, like that one time with that annoying pixie."

Two of Tom's eyes looks off into the distance, his third one staying on the mirror, as well as Star looking off into the distance herself, as if they both were remembering something. They say at the simultaneously, "Good times."

"Anyways." Tom shakes his head, and return the two wandering eyes back to the mirror, "Marco-polo. What did you want to tell me?"

Marco had been watching the entire interaction between Tom and Star with exasperated fondness, and a bit of… jealously? Marco shakes himself out of it and says, "Well, I'd get to it if Star would get off of me before my lungs collapse."

Star rolls of Marco, saying "Oops, sorry Marco."

Tom mockingly shakes a finger at Star with a smirk, and says, "Now Starship, don't you know that humans are fragile?"

Marco sits up, criss-crosses his legs, and straightens out his shirt, "Hahaha Tom, pick on the human. Seriously though, we figured out everything over this side. My parents are totally cool with you crashing here during the week - they might have some… strange assumptions, because someone," Marco throws a mock glare at the laughing Star, "Likes to make my life difficult. Other than that, if you can bring like a chest of gold or something like that to school, we can bribe the principal to let you in, just like Star's parents did. Is everything cool over your side?"

Tom rubs the back of his neck, "Well, the whole 'you staying in the Underworld sometimes' thing is still going through… tweaks. I mean, it'll probably happen, 'cuz my mom thinks it's fine and she has a lot of power when it comes to dad, but my dad still needs to be, uh... convinced. However, my mom says it's totally cool if I went to school with you on Earth, and fed my dad something about 'dimensional connections', so that part's set. Just maybe call me on Monday morning reminding me to bring the chest of gold, and then I'll just open a hell hole into your room, yeah?"

Marco scratches his cheek and a soft smile appears on his face, "Yeah, that sounds… that sounds cool."

A soft smile appeared on Tom's face in a reaction to Marco's, and Tom repeats, "Cool."

The two remain softly smiling and looking at each other for a moment, until Star, who had been quietly watching the interaction while shoving nachos into her mouth as if it were popcorn, interrupted with a firm, "Ahem."

The two boys startled and looked away as Star continued, "Sorry to cut this short, but me and Marco have a movie marathon to force ourselves through until sleep takes us-" Marco let out a groan, and Star, not looking at him, reached over to cover his mouth, touching his cheek at first, before correcting her aim with a, "Shhhh Marco Marco Marco. You agreed and there is no escaping."

Directing her full attention back to Tom, she says, "Also, it seems like your bunny fell asleep on your head Tom, so you probably need to put them to bed and continue writing whatever you were writing. Good night, and see ya on Monday! Oh, and tell Brian 'hi' for me!" Star waved at the mirror with a big smile.

"Uh, yeah, you're probably right. Night Marco-polo, Starship, have fun with your movie marathon." Tom said, two eyes focused on them while the third was trying to look on top of his head as he was carefully trying to take off the bunny without waking it, his forked purple tongue slightly sticking out in concentration.

Marco removed Star's hand from his mouth and gave a slight wave, " I guess we'll talk again tomorrow or Monday. Night Tom. And bunny."

After he said his good night, Star reached over to the mirror, and ended the call, the mirror shrinking back down to watch-size, and reattaching itself to Marco's wrist.


i apologise for the shortness, but forgive me as it is literally 4am and i dont know up from down let alone plot and grammar. Follows + faves show that you care, and review give me motivation! i'm never mad at fanart *nudge nudge wink wonk cough cough hack*