A/N: I AM SO SO SORRY, IB IS KILLING ME, I LITERALLY HAVE A PROJECT WORTH 100 MARKS, WHILE DOING A LAB IN THE SAME SUBJECT, AND HAVE TO BE PLANNING MY EE (4000 word essay) AND MY IA'S (2000 word essays for every class) WHILE DOING HOMEWORK, AND IM STRESSED AND CRYING MOST OF THE TIME, BUT THAT DOESN'T FORGIVE ME FOR NOT UPDATING SOONER, AND I AM SO SORRY YOU ALL ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST 3 it is very much 4:30am so forgive me for any spelling/grammar errors, and if you see one point it out and i'll try to fix it when i'm not sleep deprived! ^O^

Also! Lookit this cute AF fan art i got through tumblr of the hallway hoodie thief scene!: cinna-not-a-bun . tumblr. ccom/ post/134636275441/ tom-you-dirty-hoodie-thief-fire-safety-is (minus the spaces and fix the double c in com!)


They were in and out of the office surprisingly quickly. Of course, the principal put up a fuss first, especially with Tom being a demon, but once he saw the gold Tom had stored in his backpack it was smooth sailing, especially as since Marco was already with Tom, the principal didn't have to worry on getting someone to lead him around the school, and they headed to their first class.

As Marco thought, Tom got a lot of attention, especially from the more alternative kids, but instead of talking or flirting, he was fully invested in the lesson, taking notes, and sometimes even making a point to lean over to Marco to talk about how wrong the syllabus was on certain things, or to just get clarification on human actions, such as raising hands when you know the answer, instead of throwing fire, acid, or poison at the teacher and/or fellow students. Marco did curiously note that Tom seemed a bit focused on his bag though, Tom had it in his lap, and was frequently opening it as if he was looking for something in there, but as Tom wasn't giving any trouble by doing so, and didn't seem worried, Marco just put it off as Tom making sure his bag didn't set something on fire- he still didn't buy the whole 'fake fire' thing.

Soon enough the lunch bell rang, and Marco began to lead Tom to the cafeteria.

"I still can't believe you throw fire at teachers."

"Non-lethal amounts, Marco-Polo, most of us are at least a little fire proof, as well as immune to most poisons - the more powerful you are, the harder it is to kill you, and so most of the teachers have to be a certain power level to deal with us. Especially kindergarten teachers, do not mess with them, trust me. I mean, we aren't brain-dead neanderthals, Marco, we're violent, but only as violent as we can get away with."

"But still!" Marco throws his hands up in the air, and Tom snorts, before ruffling his hair, "Don't worry your little human mind about it Marco-Polo."

Marco rolls his eyes, but smiles, finding himself to enjoy Tom's company more than he had thought he ever would. "Well, you're about to meet my other two friends, Ferguson and Alfonso- please don't scare them off, they're pretty cool."

"Then everything will balance out well." Tom says offhandedly, mostly to himself.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Marco questions, turning his head towards Tom.

"Oh, it's just good that they're cool, as it will balance everything out. Y'know, cuz I'm hot as hell."

For a second Marco didn't say anything, then he let out a massive groan, shoving a laughing Tom away from him, "You are the worst."

"Actually studies have shown that I'm the best, but hey," Tom raises his hands in surrender as Marco continues to glare at him, "Different people, different opinions."

Marco rolls his eyes at Tom, "Just don't set one of them on fire if they, I don't know, say something you don't like? I rather not see my friends burn to death thank you very much, and I will not hesitate to drop kick you, then run and get Star to freeze you in a block of ice or something."

Tom stuffs his hands into his stolen hoodie and says casually, "Noted."

They quickly reach the cafeteria, and get their lunch, before going over to Marco's usual table, already filled with his friends. Marco, who had been making light conversation with Tom as they walked, stops in his tracks when he sees that in edition to his friends, Star had seemingly invited Jackie Lynn over to their table as well.

While Marco didn't quite have a crush on her anymore, what with her dating Star and all, it was still incredibly threatening to see such a popular girl sitting with them, and he wonders idly if he should just sit somewhere else with Tom, instead of making a fool of himself.

Tom looks over at Marco curiously, before turning to see what he was looking at. Tom's eyes narrowed slightly in a glare as he spotted Jackie, his eyes going back and forth between Jackie and Marco, before rolling his eyes and lightly tugging on Marco's sleeve, "C'mon Marco-Polo, I don't feel like eating while standing up. Those are your friends aren't they? I mean Star's over there already."

'It's not my place to get jealous,' Tom repeats to himself as they sit at the table, 'Though I wish the bond was strong enough to get a good read on Marco's feelings.' He then pokes his food, until Star flicks his horn.

"Rude." Tom says while rubbing his horn, though he smiles at Star as he speaks.

"Well soooorry, but you were totally ignoring me and my awesome introductions!"

"Oh. Sorry Starship, my mind was gone, just getting used to Earth I guess. Mind repeating what you said?"

Star pretends to think about the request, "Hmm, I don't know, my introductions were pretty awesome the first time around." She breaks out into a smile, "I will, but you have to get me the new Death Killers cd! Oh, and the Princess Sparkles single!"

Tom snorts, "You drive a hard bargain, but sure. Plus, you and I both know I was going to get that for you anyways. I always get you new albums for the bands you like, whether we're friends or not."

"Yeah, but now you have a reason to, and I don't feel as bad accepting them, especially as we're friends again and it doesn't feel like a guilt trip! Anyways," Star continues, "That's Ferguson, and that's Alfonso - they were Marco's friends before I was - ,the person spying on us behind the garbage is Janna - she's pretty cool, most of the time - ,you already know me and Marco, uh, the girl glaring at us way over there is Brittney -"

Star stops to wave at Brittney with a huge smile on her face, to which Brittney just responds with an even meaner glare. Star's hand slowly lowers, and her smile slightly falls, which causes Tom to look over at Brittney and give her his most terrifying glare - glowing red eyes, forked tongue, and all.

Brittney turns pale, and quickly turns her back on the table, and Tom hears a voice saying, "Damn, nice one. I haven't seen queenie that scared since a spider fell on her head in prep school."

Tom turns around to see that the comment came from the girl Marco was staring at earlier. Star says, continuing her introductions, "And this, dear Tom, is the coolest kid in school, Jackie Lynn Thomas," then she whispered loudly enough for the table to hear, "My girlfriend!"

Jackie Lynn blushes slightly and says, "I wouldn't say I'm the coolest kid, but," she raises her hand for a high-five, "dude, you have all of my respect. That glare was awesome, you gotta teach me how to do that sometime."

Tom's eyes glance quickly between Star, Marco, and Jackie, before smiling slightly, revealing his fangs, and giving Jackie a high-five, "Oh, you and I are going to get along perfectly. Did Star ever tell you about the time she tried to fight a siren, before she learned how to swim?"

"Toooom, no shoosh, you two are no longer allowed to be friends." Star calls out hurriedly, covering his mouth with her hands.

"I don't know Star, I kinda wanna hear the story." Jackie says, leaning her elbows on the table with a smirk.

"Marco help!" Star looks to Marco pleadingly.

"You brought this on yourself." Marco says as he continues to eat his pizza.

Jackie's eyes light up, and she looks at Tom, "Oh, that reminds me! Did Marco ever tell you about that one time in kindergarten when he-"

She's cut off by a red-faced Marco slamming his hands on the table, "Nope, you're not allowed to be friends, not at all."

At this, the entire table - minus Marco and Star - burst out laughing.

Tom then says, "Oh how could I forget," and reaches into his backpack that he had put carefully on his lap when he sat down, and takes out a white, fuzzy, three-headed creature. Marco and Alfonso slowly lean away from Tom, while the girls and Ferguson lean closer to try and see what it was.

"Uh, Tom. I'm not freaking out, but what is that, and why on earth did you take it to school." Marco hisses at Tom.

"Hmm?" Tom says, reluctantly removing his attention from the fuzzy creature, "Oh, this is Cerberus, my three headed bunny. When I went home for my bag, Brian said I should take her with me, just in case."

Tom turns Cerberus towards Marco so that he could get a better look, "I just call her Cerbi for short."

Marco slowly inches back over near to Tom, and carefully places his hand by the rabbit, which then snuggled into Marco's fingers. "Okay, I guess she's kinda cute."

"Tom, dude, that's so sick! I kinda want one now." Jackie says, stretching out of her seat to look at Cerbi.

"Sorry Jackie, but Cerbi is one of a kind," Tom says with a smug grin, petting the bunny.

Seeing her crestfallen face, Tom's own smile slips slightly, and he continues, "But, if you want, you and Starship can feed her? If Starship remembers how, that is."

Star squeals, "Of course I remember how Tom! Oh gosh, she's gotten so big though- still as cute as button though!"

Star then carefully scoops up Cerbi, and scoots over beside Jackie, before using her wand to magick up some bunny food that seemed to be from the Underworld- or at least what Marco assumes to be Underworld bunny food, seeing as a lot of the food items that looked too odd, and well, bloody for a rabbit to eat usually.

Star starts rambling to Jackie, "So this head eats veggies mostly, this head eats raw meat mostly- it could settle for rare, but Tom likes spoiling her -, and the middle head eats anything, but prefers sweets!"

"Hey Tom, you're like a prince of hell or something right?" Ferguson asks out of the blue.

"Uh, well yeah, technically I suppose. Something like that anyways." Tom replies, all three eyes blinking at the question.

"Then why would you have a freaking bunny as a pet? If I was the prince of hell, I'd have like, a giant flame spewing dragon, that like, shot venom from it's eyes. Not some tiny rabbit." Ferguson says, slightly poking the rabbit's tail.

Tom's left eye twitches, "Well, human, bunnies are fantastic company, they're always sweet, while dragons can be temperamental. Not to mention the whole dragon movement that states that dragons are their own sentient species, and thus shouldn't be treated as pets, which I fully agree as a close friend of mine is dragonborn, but you wouldn't know that would you, you ishmalti ghator nu spanf. Don't stulal talk about things you know nothing about, it makes you sound ignorant and like a doroby, though honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that was somewhere in your gene pool."

Tom reaches over, which causes a pale Ferguson to flinch, but Tom only picks up Cerbi and starts to pet her furiously, all the while continuing to feed her, ignoring Star's slack jaw.

"Woah Tom, I only knew around three of those words, and I can tell you you are lucky they're no teachers who speak hellish around here. Where did you even learn some of those, and why haven't you taught me yet?"

Tom cracks a smile at this, and looks at Marco when he says, "No, no teaching Star swears in other languages," Marco ignores Star's prompt whining and continues, "Okay, I didn't understand any of that, but two things. One, even I could tell you weren't saying anything nice, don't you think you were a bit too harsh on Ferg? I mean, none of us, save Star, know any better, with us being from Earth and all."

Tom pouts slightly, and looks back down at Cerbi. He starts patting her more slowly and concedes, "Yeah, okay. I apologise Ferguson, Marco's right I came off too harsh with you. Anger issues and all that, but that's no excuse, and I am trying to get better. On the bright side, I didn't set you on fire."

Tom looks up with a proud smile as he says this, and Ferguson pales further.

"No you didn't, I suppose that in itself is progress," Marco sighs and runs a tired hand over his face before squeezing Tom's shoulder, saying with a supportive smile, "Good job Tom."

Star adds on, "Yeah! You're already much better than when we had first met! You deserve a reward!"

Star waves her wand, and a star sticker appears on Tom's shirt, with the saying "You tried," in comic sans, and a circle button right under it, stating, "Congratulate me, I haven't set anyone on fire today."

Tom looks happily down at his sticker and button, and Ferguson clears his throat, colour slowly returning to his face, "It's, uh, cool Tom. I really didn't know what I was talking about, and I didn't mean to like, offend you or anything. Sorry."

Tom just waves off his apology with a smile, "We're equally wrong, let's just forget about it."

Marco speaks up, "Okay, the second thing I wanted to say, or well ask. Can you teach me hellish? I mean, I'm obviously gonna spend more time in the Underworld, might as well learn the language, instead of looking like some ignorant human. Gotta build up my dimension cred, what with both you and Star being royals and all."

"Uh, if you really want to learn, I suppose. But it's not necessary, pretty much everyone there can understand if not speak english already."

Marco waved him off, "That doesn't matter to me. I wanna be able to speak your language, so I can no if you're actually insulting me without me knowing, and we can talk about Star behind her back."

"Hey!" Star exclaims and punches Marco's shoulder.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding, jeeze, you know I'm only joking."

"Yeah Starship, Marco-Polo's too much of a cinnamon roll to talk shit."

Ignoring Marco's disgruntled, "Hey!", Star giggles and says, "Yea yea, that's true. Face it Marco, you're a pure, innocent cinnamon roll, too precious for this world!"

"Precious my ass," Marco grumbles, before returning his attention back to Tom, "I hope you know that I am not putting up with all this teasing unless you're gonna teach me hellish."

Tom puts his hand on his chin as he mulls over Marco's request, all three eyes unfocused in thought, while his second hand pets Cerbi. Enough time passes that Marco starts figiding in his seat, before Tom says softly, all eyes snapping to Marco, "Well I guess I could try and teach you, if you really want to learn that badly. May be fun to speak to someone in this dimension in my mother tongue. But, it's not gonna be easy, I'm not even sure myself how a human will be able to pronounce some of the words we use."

Marco once again waves him off, "I didn't ask for easy, I asked to be taught a new language. I mean, I'm already bilingual, I know how tough language learning can be, but I think I can do it with a good enough teacher. I mean, I'll have to settle for you, but it's still possible."

"Hey, what's that supposed to-" Tom starts, but Marco ignores him, focusing on Star, "I can't believe it's easier for me to get Tom to teach me his language than my supposed best friend."

Star comes around the table in order to grab Marco by the shoulders and starts to shake him, "Marco Marco Marco! How many times do I have to tell you this, Mewnish is all but a dead language. Dead as in deceased, finished, unused and unthought of, ten feet under, other synonyms and metaphors for death, yadda yadda yadda. Everyone's kinda just mostly adopted English, with a few slang hybrid words here and there," Star stops shaking Marco, and instead grabs his face, pressing his cheek to her cheek while gesturing off in the distance, "That's one of the differences between Mewnie and the Underworld Marco!"

She turns her head with a big smile so they are now forehead-to-forehead, "Mewnie's all about adapting to the future," She lets go of Marco's head, and made a dismissive gesture towards Tom, "And the Underworld's all about tradition and holding on to the past."

Tom snorts at this, giving Cerbi back over to Jackie to hold, and comments, "Say's the girl whose country still has peasants instead of middle and lower class workers with proper housing, still fights monsters with rudimentary weapons, still relies on magick for some of the most simple day-to-day activities, and who still lives in an unnecessarily gaudy looking castle."

Star gasps, "Hey your place is gaudy too!"

"Yes, but only from the inside Starship. There's no need to flaunt our wealth from the outside, that's why it only looks like a penthouse suite rather than a mansion my dear. You see Marco-Polo," Tom says, pulling Marco over towards him, "While Mewnie still thrives on old money passed down through generations, the Underworld is a mostly new money economy, and far more advanced than others," He sends a fake glare towards Star who fake glares right back and sticks her tongue out, "Would have you believe. While yes, we do have a few outliers who still have power only from what was given to them through generations of greatness -"

Star cuts him off, "Snooty, privileged, pretentious royals like you."

Tom chuckles at this input and smiles at Star, "You're royalty too you know sweetheart, and I'll have you know the main royal branch always prides ourselves by gaining more power each generation instead of falling back on old ones. As I was saying, yes, we do also like sticking to some traditions, but that's more of a… guideline, if you will Marco-Polo, rather than anything set in stone, a way to honour those before us. All that considered, I'd be flattered- no, honoured that you want to learn our language."

Marco and the rest of the table blink blankly, and look back and forth between Star and Tom. Marco then puts his hand to his face and rubs at his temples, "Y'know, at times I wasn't sure how you too were royals with the way you act, but after that whole shtick, I can see it. I think my head is swirling from all that my-kingdom-is-better-than-yours overly polite speak."

"Yeah Star, I think I might be getting sick from all that passive-aggression you just threw down. I didn't even know you could be passive anything!" Jackie exclaims, though with a smile to indicate she's joking.

Both Tom and Star's eyes get wide, and they look at each other with a blush, which ends up with them breaking out into laughter.

"Sorry guys." Star says, wiping her eyes.

"I guess old habits die hard, don't they Starship," Tom says, still chuckling, "All in all though, yeah I think it'd be cool to teach you hellish, let's do it."

The bell rings with perfect timing, causing everyone to pick up their empty trays and Tom to careful pack Cerberus back into his bag, putting it on carefully and readjusting his- Marco's hoodie.

Marco says slightly under his breath as he get's up, "You coulda just said that in the first place."

Tom of course hears this, Marco blames some sort of demonic hearing capabilities, and says, "Yeah I could of, but it wouldn't have been as fun."

Tom winks at Marco, and bumps him slightly with his hip, before taking the tray from Marco and hurrying ahead to put both his and Marco's trays back, then turns around to walk backwards.

"C'mon Marco-Polo, daylight's a wasting, and it's time to do some more learning." Tom shouts back with an over-the-top smile.

"You really like seeing me suffer through classes, don't you?"

"Well I am a demon, and as far as I can tell you don't seem to be getting actually injured from this, like would be if we were back home, so yeah I'd say it's pretty amusing." Tom concludes with a smirk, causing Marco to roll his eyes.

"Plus it's… nice. Seeing Starship so happy while being aware of my presence is really refreshing, I'm really glad we could stay friends in the end. Not to mention that all your friends, and enemies, are pretty interesting, and I think I'm going to get along with Star's girlfriend- Jackie? - more than I thought I would." Tom carefully readjusts the straps on his backpack once again, then fiddles with the sleeves of Marco's stolen hoodie, "Uh, what I'm trying to say here is. Thanks. For giving me a chance, and not being too unmanageably freaked out by the whole blood moon soul bond thing."

Marco smiles softly, and bumps his hip into Tom's, like Tom did earlier, "No problem Tom. You're actually a lot cooler than I gave you credit for. If only you would stop finding my suffering hilarious, then we could get along great." Marco ends jokingly, causing Tom to laugh.

"Ah, well, as long as you know if you're in any real danger or actually suffering there's no force in any dimension that can stop me from trying my best to save or help you, and rip whatever hurt or threatened you into shreds, except me, y'know, dying. I think this is our classroom, right… Marco-Polo?" Tom trails off to look at Marco.

Marco had went wide-eyed during Tom's tirade, and now, even though he's a bit aghast at both the thought of Tom tearing something to pieces and of Tom possibly dying, he feels a happy warmth budding in his chest for an inexplicable reason. He snaps out of it to look at Tom, who seems to be focusing on his chest too, a hand placed over his heart and his eye's blown wide in surprise, as if he could feel the warmth as well. Marco shook off the ridiculous thought- it was probably just heartburn from the cafeteria food anyways -, and looks at the door Tom had stopped at.

"Hm? Oh yeah, you're right this is it. C'mon Tom."

Tom's head snaps up to look at him, then he looks back down at his chest, before rubbing it with the hand placed against it and says, "Y-yeah. Learning, woo-hoo."

Subconsciously, Marco takes a hold of Tom's hanging purple hand, and pulls him into the class, "Well, you're the one who wanted to see me suffer, and this bond apparently means you have to suffer right along with me."


A/N: once again, sorry for the wait, i love you aaaaalllllllll 3333333, thanks for all the support, and as always kudos and comments make my day, and fan art makes my life~! i track fsiiaabmb on tumblr if you want me to see anything you made/anything that reminds you of my fic, and my tumblr link should hopefully be below if you ever wanna shout at me for not updating, or just talk 'bout tomco! 333 I also s2g it was supposed to be longer, i just remembered how long i've kept y'all waiting and went 'screw it' ;A; xD