A/N: Hey guys! Super sorry this took so long, but IB is terrible (never do IB if you can help it). I'm on Easter break now tho, so I had time to upd8! This is mostly filler, and I'm so so so so sorry ;A; You're all literally the best, thank you so much for your nice comments and your kudos and bookmarks! Means the world to me, honestly! 3
The final bell rings, starting a stampede of children heading towards the door, eager to get home. However, to the back of the group, in no rush, are Tom, Marco, and Star.
"So it's 'sengie no fala'? And that means 'nice to meet you'?" Marco asks Tom earnestly as they walk along, carefully swerving around running people.
Tom chuckles, not needing to swerve as people easily got out of his way, and replies, "Almost. It's sengi nu faala, and it more means 'this meeting between us is appreciated, I will not attack you unless provoked', but," Tom waves his hand carelessly, "Yeah, modern day translations and all that, so 'nice to meet you' is basically what it means nowadays."
"Gah, gotta work on my pronunciation." Marco groans while they continue to move along at a snail's pace, "Yxiate jui Marco, my name is Marco, I at least got that right, yeah?"
Tom smiled, and reached a hand out to ruffle Marco's hair, "Yes, you're pronunciation is much much better, but honestly Marco-Polo, don't beat yourself up too much, alright? A lot of hellish words aren't even really meant to be said by living humans, so it's understandable that you'd say them a bit weirdly."
Marco pouts slightly, and moves Tom's hand from his hair, "Yeah, but if I don't practise this, I'm gonna end up sounding like a tourist and getting taken advantage of by Underworld shops, and I don't know - taxis! Do you guys have taxis? I'm getting off topic - let me just try my best with this, okay?"
Tom chuckles a bit, and stuffs his hands into the pockets of the hoodie, "Whatever you say Marco-Polo, whatever you say."
Star fake gags and says, "You two are so cutesy and couple-y, it's almost sickening!"
She smiles brightly at the blushes and sputterings she receives from both boys, before grabbing each of their hands and dragging them along faster, until they were finally out of the school. However, she doesn't let go of either of their hands, and instead starts skipping between them, causing all of their hands to swing.
"If you're so hyped on teaching Marco hellish, why not teach him what you said to Ferguson? I think those insults are definitely something that people need to know!" Star says brightly.
Tom laughs and says, "Because, Starship, I don't think Marco-Polo would appreciate only being able to say those particular phrases. He'd have to fight everyone, and while I'm sure he's capable, he's not you and so I doubt he'd want to. What I said really isn't for… polite company. Besides," Tom gently tugs at the hand Star is holding, causing her to let go of Marco's.
He then twirls her as they walk, causing her to laugh happily, "Last time I taught someone curse words first, they ended up insulting nearly everyone who was in high standing at the time, and nearly caused a civil war."
Star stops twirling, and turns to look at Tom, her hands on her waist, smiling and still slightly swaying because of how dizzy she got, "That was one time! And to be fair, you only taught me curse words! What did you expect?"
Marco stops walking and looks at Tom, "Yeah honestly dude, it's Star. She'll easily try and fight anyone, and you decided to only teach her insults and curses? That's just a recipe for disaster."
Tom stops in his tracks and snorts, "It only had to happen once, you don't just forget an almost civil war Starship. Besides you only wanted to learn curse words - believe me when I say Marco-Polo, I tried to teach her other words, and simple phrases. She refused to even listen to anything that wasn't a nasty insult, and hey, I'm a demon, who am I to stop chaos? And what's Star other than cutely bottled chaos?"
Marco blinks, turns his head to look at Star, and remembers how when he first met her, she lit her own rainbow on fire, before turning back to look at Tom and shrugs, "When you're right, you're right."
Star over exaggeratedly pouts, "You know, if I wasn't so okay with being called cute chaos, I'd think you guys were trying to tease me." She can't her pout for long though, and she breaks out into a smile, "You guys can make up for it though, by following me to the mall - there's this cute shop that I wanted to check out!"
Marco groans while Tom shrugs and says, "Sure."
Marco looks at Tom like he's a traitor and loudly whispers at him, "Are you mad? Have you ever been shopping with Star? We'll be there for like three whole hours!"
Tom tsks and says, "Only three hours? Starship you disappoint me. On my last trip I spent like five hours in one shop alone. You've grown weak."
Star sticks out her tongue at him and says, "S'your fault for getting all weird and unrequited-y! I haven't had a good shopping buddy who can shop for hours since! No wonder I'm not as good as I was before."
Marco looks to Tom in horror, and whispers with dread, "Five hours…?"
Tom turns to Marco with a devilish smirk, "In one shop only. And I made my way through practically every store that mall had."
Marco covers his face with his hands, and sinks down onto the sidewalk, "You're worse than her! I don't think I can survive this."
Tom pats his shoulder reassuringly and says, "Chin up, think of it as… training, or some shit, I don't know. Maybe you'll even learn to like shopping."
At Marco's disbelieving laugh, Tom continues with a smirk, "Besides, if you ever feel like dying during this trip, we can always just go to the Underworld and shop there. You get the whole 'death' experience, me and Starship get shops. Sound good?"
Marco groans and says, "You're the literal worst."
Tom smiles and pulls Marco up, "I know - demon prince, remember? Let's get a move on-" Tom was cut off by his magic mirror-necklace starting to ring. "That's odd, I wasn't expecting any…"
Tom trails off as he looks at the caller-id on his mirror, before looking up at Marco and Star to say, "One moment, I have to take this."
He then walks a bit away, and accepts the call. Some indistinguishable speaking comes from the mirror, and Tom hurriedly says, "Hold on, I don't have headphones in."
Before starting to rummage in his backpack, to retrieve some black, flamey headphones, which he plugs into the mirror. "Okay sorry, you were saying?"
Marco looks to Star in question, and she just shrugs before starting to fiddle with her wand. Marco loses focus on Tom, and instead tries to get the wand away from Star before she causes any chaos, leading to a slight skirmish which only ends when Tom comes back over to them and loudly clears his throat.
Both Marco and Star snap out of their positions with a blush, though Star still manages to stick her tongue out at Marco.
Tom smiles and shakes his head before saying, "You both are five. Okay, well Marco-Polo's at least ten, but Starship is definitely five."
Star interrupts him with an, "And three-quarters!", causing Tom to laugh and state, "Sorry, five and three-quarters. Anyways, I have to cut this mall trip short, I'm needed back in the Underworld right now. A prince's job is never done, and all that bull. I should be back in time for dinner though, so don't eat everything - Starship I'm looking at you."
Star immediately looks away and says, "No promises!"
Tom smiles, before giving a slight wave, "Later Marco-Polo, Starship." before sinking into a hell hole he made under his feet.
Marco jumps back a few steps, "He needs to stop doing that without warning! What if someone fell in?"
"You're kinda supposed to fall into them Marco, duh." Star rolls her eyes.
"No, I know that! I mean what if someone who isn't supposed to fall in falls!" Marco waves his hands to emphasis his point.
Star takes one of his flailing hands, and starts to once again drag him along. "If someone accidentally falls in, Tom can just make another one to send them back, easy peasy lemon squeezey. But, since Tom isn't here anymore, that means it's just the two of us going to the mall Marco!"
Marco fakes a sigh of relief, "Thank god. I don't hate shopping, but I don't think I could've survived a five-hour-long trip. Do you have any idea what that whole phone call was about though?"
Star shrugs and says, "Not one clue. But look Marco, the mall!"
She quickly drags Marco into the building, then up an escalator, and pushes him into a rather cutesy, pastel shop.
"Gosh, your escalators really take too long Marco!" Star says as she lets go of Marco's hand in order to skip around the store.
"Maybe that's because you tried to run up an escalator that's going down." Marco says with an eyeroll, as he follows her around the store.
Star waves him off, "Excuses, excuses."
Marco lets out a faint laugh, and for the first time looks around the cute seeming store.
"Uh, Star? Why is there a bloodshot eyeball bag? Isn't this supposed to be, I don't know, a sparkly cute pastel shop or something?" Marco goes up to the bag and pokes at it curiously.
"Oh Marco, Marco, Marco! You really know nothing about fashion, do you?" Star says as she skips towards him and the bag in question.
Marco looks down at the pants and white shirt he usually always wears - Tom still had his hoodie, the thief -, looks back up at Star, and says in a flat voice, "Whatever gave you that idea."
Star laughs and says, "This shop is a creepy-cute shop! Creepy. Cute." she emphasises her words by poking at the eyeball bag.
"It's a style that really really cute and sparkly, but at the same time gorey and creepy. Bleh!" She makes a scary face at Marco, before laughing her bubbly laugh once more.
Marco lets his eyes quickly scan the shop, then looks Star up and down, before saying, "You know...that fits you shockingly well actually."
Star smiles widely, and twirls, "I know!" Then she skips back to the dress rack she was looking through before.
Marco shakes his head fondly at her, before starting to walk through the racks himself, deciding that, since he's gonna have to spend a long time there anyways, may as well make it a game to find the creepiest thing they had.
He ends up thoroughly engrossed in his little game (deciding that the creepiest thing that he found was a seemingly cracked, eyeless porcelain doll, that had an extremely pink lolita dress on with a matching bonnet), only snapping out of it when Star calls, "Marcooooo, I think I'm done for now! Lemme just pay, and then we can go!"
Marco calls back, "Alright, I'm coming," and starts to make his way up to the cashier where Star is dumping her piles of items onto the counter, when his eyes glimpse something that he had overlooked before.
It was a long, pastel pink bunny jacket - complete with a hood that had ears and a fluffy tail at the back -, that had oversized black buttons on the front, and would've looked completely innocent, if not for the fact that it had red bloodstain designs seemingly dripping off the edges on the hoodie, as well as tears in the pastel fabric which showed skeleton patterns in some places and guts in others. One of the bunny ears flopped downwards, with a jagged cut off at the end, giving the illusion of it being bitten, and, at closer look, the jacket itself seemed to have a black turtleneck stitched on the inside which, when pulled up over someone's mouth and nose, showed a mess of bloody, sharp teeth, and the whole thing was also lined in black faux fur. Marco smirks and takes the jacket off it's hanger.
"I think I'm gonna buy something too Star."
Star gasps and looks over at him, "See Marco, shopping with me isn't all bad!"
As she says this, she leans on her wand, causing a stray bolt of magic to hit a passerby, giving him bug eyes. The man screams and runs off, and Star chuckles nervously before continuing, "Anyways, I didn't think you'd like anything in this store, but hey, who am I to judge? At least you'll be wearing more than just those red hoodies and plain white shirts!"
Star tugs at Marco's top playfully. Marco lightly slaps Star's hands away as he hands the overworked, apathetic cashier the jacket, "It's not for me! It's for Tom, so he'll give me back my hoodie."
Marco gives his money to the cashier as Star casts a spell to make all of her bags lighter so she can carry them easier.
"Awww, you're getting a gift for your boyfriend, that's so sweet! I got Jackie this blue zombie hand hair clip, and this, possibly cursed, creepy siren charm bracelet!"
"He's not my boyfriend - thank you," Marco takes his change and bag from the cashier with a smile, before he walks out of the shop, Star easily falling into step beside him. "As I was saying, we're soul-bonded, not boyfriends. I only want my hoodie back, that's it. And what do you mean by 'possibly cursed' Star?!"
Star pats Marco's cheek and runs out the mall, "Okay so it's possibly cursed, and was giving out some creepy vibes - doesn't mean it's like, definitely cursed though! And Jackie loves mermaids and sirens! If it really is cursed, then we can just break the curse, no biggie Marco."
Star waves his concerns off. "Kinda a biggie Star, it's a curse!"
Marco says as he opens the door to his house. Star runs in front of him, then turns to face him, placing her bags on the ground so that she can squish his cheeks, and places her forehead on his.
"As I said Marco, if it's something, then we'll get it when we get to it! I already bought it, might as well go along for the ride. Plus the possible curse doesn't feel like it'd be lethal, so no worries!"
She lets go of Marco and picks up her bags once more, "If it makes you feel better, I texted Jackie before I bought the charm bracelet that one of the gifts I got for her may or may not be non-lethally cursed, and she wanted to see what would happened too! So it's all cool! It's not like I'd curse my girlfriend without consent, honestly Marco!"
She then bounds up the stairs. Marco follows her into her room at a much more sedated pace, before he collapses on her bed beside Star who had already face-planted into the mattress.
Marco sighs, then brings his wrist with the mirror-watch up to his face. He turns his head to look Star, "Do you think he's okay? Should we call?"
Star turns onto her back and replies, "Nah, he's probably okay. Just some, you know," Star twirls her hand in the air, "Underworld prince mumbo jumbo."
Marco nods in acceptance, then glances back nervously at his watch, before resting his arm back down on the bed. Star immediately notices that he's still worried, and a large smile takes over her face.
"You know Marco… You used to call me on my mirror."
Marco turns his head towards Star in confusion, before his eyes get wide in understanding, "Star, no."
Unheeding of Marco's words, Star sits up, "Late night when you need my love."
"Star stop, I'm begging you." Marco groans, and covers his face with his hands.
"I know when that mirror rings! That can only mean one thing."
"Star please."
"Ever since I left my kingdom, you~"
Marco removes his hands from his face, and throws a pillow at Star, who dissolves into laughter. Her bubbly laugh is naturally contagious, and Marco soon starts laughing along with her.
As they laugh, a hell hole appears in Star's floor, and Tom comes out of it. He looks at the nearly hysterical pair on the bed, and asks, "Do I even wanna know?"
Marco forces himself to take some deep breaths, and sits up cross-legged on Star's bed, wiping a tear from his eye he replies, "Probably not."
Tom accepts the answer with a shrug, and sits on the bed in between Star and Marco. "Again, sorry Starship, we'll definitely go shopping together another day."
Star, who's still lying down, lazily reaches a hand up to pat Tom's cheek, "It's cool, it's cool. Shopping with Marco was actually fun, and I got a looooot of stuff, so in my opinion, it was a successful trip!"
"That reminds me." Marco says as he reaches for the bag at the edge of the bed.
"Oh, did you actually get something Marco-Polo? See, shopping isn't all that ba-," Marco throws the jacket at Tom's face, cutting him off.
"Oh shut up. It's for you, so you finally give me back my hoodie," Marco says, watching as Tom unfolds the jacket thrown at him and look it over with a blank look.
"It's lined with black fur, and even has that whole turtleneck thing, so you can't complain that you're cold anymore. Now, give me back my hoodie."
Still holding his blank look, Tom unzips Marco's hoodie and tosses it to him, Tom's eyes flickering to the jacket the only sign of emotion on his face.
Marco takes his hoodie, then rubs behind his neck, "Look, I just thought it'd suit you. If you don't like it, it's not a big deal, we can just go and get one you like."
Tom's eyes flickers back to Marco's, "What are you talking about?" His face breaks out into a wide grin, "I fucking love this. I just can't believe Marco-Polo actually cares about me."
Tom starts laughing, and Marco blushes while putting back on his red hoodie, "Hey don't get the wrong idea. I just wanted my hoodie back, and you're such a drama queen that I couldn't just get you any old hoodie - you would've refused them."
Tom hums and puts on the jacket, "True, true. Well, lucky for you I love this, and it seems to fit."
Tom blows the bitten bunny ear from his face, where it was hanging down, "However, I'm probably never going to take this off. Starship, could you cut some holes in this so that my horns can comfortably fit into the bunny ears, after dinner?"
Star rolls off the bed, and gives Tom a thumbs up. "Okay cool, let's go eat," Tom pulls Star off of the floor, and pulls Marco by his hood, "I'm starving."
A/N: And as always, follows, favourites, fanart, and reviews, give me energy to write faster! And don't ever be afraid to bug me into writing! I still track fsiiaabmb on tumblr
