A/N: ...Hey y'all... *gets shot*
okay okay, 1stly i am sO SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER AND A DAY, IB MIXED WITH DEPRESSION, IS NOT A GOOD MOTIVATING COCKTAIL ;A;
it's Christmas break so i /hope/ to get on some sorta update spree, but no promises as i'm on vacation in Canada with close family that i haven't seen in a bit rn, but i will try! ^O^
I actually wrote this on the 4 hour flight, it knocked off around an hour/hour n 45 mins/maaaybe 2
2ndly, Y'ALL ARE LEGIT THE BEST, ALL THE NICE COMMENTS AND KUDOS AND BOOKMARKS AND JUST NOT GIVING UP ON ME I COULDNT ASK FOR BETTER READERS ^U^ I'm sorry for being so shitty
3rdly: since its been awhile and i cant remember, if any of y'all made like fanart or something that i haven't added to these notes in the beginning to show off yet, please just remind me and i'll add them! ^u^
and on that ^^^ note, here's some fanart a wonderful reader drew of Tom in his lovely hoodie! (minus the spaces and ~'s ofc): gosshiku-hime-wa-yami-san . tumblr . c~o~m /post / 150843515832 / gosshiku-hime-wa-yami-san
ITS SO CUTE AND I SCREM
but srsly now, you guys are the best and thanks for stickin' with me ^u^
The week seems to pass by mostly uneventfully - Star was still trying to create something to undo Jackie's bracelet's effects, Tom still becoming acclimated to Earth, and Marco juggling learning hellish, school, and various tidbits about the Underworld that he felt he should learn since he's gonna eventually spend more and more time down there as he got accustomed to it, all the while keeping his two inter-dimensional friends out of too much trouble.
As Saturday quickly comes, the trio sits in Star's room, waiting for Jackie to come over in order to go on their trip to the Underworld. Star impatiently jumps in place by the door, eagerly waiting for Jackie to come, while Marco sits on the bed with a backpack, and Tom paces back and forth, causing a little burn mark to appear on the carpet by Star's bed.
"Marco-Polo, you really don't have to do this you know. The Underworld is my home, and Star isn't human, so I've never seen a full human walking around down there - honestly who knows what could happen."
Star snorts from the door and says while peeking out to see if Jackie was there yet, "It seems like the safe kid title is rubbing off on you Tom."
Tom flicks a little spark in Star direction, calling out, "Is not," as Star shrieks and quickly pats the small flame on her dress that the spark had caused.
Marco ignores them both and continues checking of a list that he had made. "It'll be fine Tom, it's not like I'm planning to leave the palace - castle? Mansion? Uh, penthouse? - without you. Now that would be dangerous."
Marco nods to himself, ticking off the last thing on his list before throwing both the paper and his pencil into his backpack, and zipping it up.
Tom rolls all three eyes in resignation, "With both of you ganging up against me, I don't even know why I try."
Star laughs and opens her mouth, most likely to start teasing Tom, when she was cut off by Mrs. Diaz calling up, "Kids, Jackie's here for your trip!"
Star squeals happily, and quickly runs downstairs to greet her girlfriend.
"Well, she's excited even if you aren't." Marco says, as his eyes followed Star out the door.
Tom rubs a hand through his hair, "It's not that I'm not excited. I'm just. Worried as well about the two fleshy humans that will be in my domain of hell, fire, and well, hellfire."
As he says this, flames around his feet flare up with his worry.
Marco gets up from the bed, and carefully touches Tom's arm, causing the demon boy to look at him, "Hey, how about we leave the worrying to me - one of said fleshy humans? With Star's magic, my karate skills, Jackie's siren thing, and you with your whole 'Prince of the Underworld" schtick, I'm sure we'll be fine."
Tom looks at Marco, his eyes flickering between Marco's face and the floor, before he takes a breath and the flames retreat, "Yeah, you're the better worrier out of the two of us, honestly. I swear you get worked up about almost everything Star and I do."
Tom cracks a small smirk, and Marco hits his arm lightly, "That's because everything you and Star do is cause for worry. How did you guys even date without setting everything on some sort of rainbow-fire?"
At this moment Star walks back in, dragging a smiling Jackie behind her, "Oh we did Marco! There are at least five dimensions where neither me nor Tom are allowed back, even with our royal statuses. You'd think they'd be more thankful - me and Tom really livened up those places!"
Star pouts, feeling put-out. Jackie laughs and pats Star's pouting cheeks, "Well I'm sure that the place looked way better after you guys were done wreaking your havoc."
Star looks at Jackie with wide eyes, her cheek-hearts beating, and whispers seriously, "This is why I love you."
Before giving Jackie a quick kiss, causing Jackie to laugh.
Tom stuck his tongue out, "Blech, you too are so cute you're gonna make my teeth rot out of my head."
Star stuck her tongue out in retaliation, before jumping and holding on to Jackie like a koala, and rubbing their cheeks together.
"Don't be jealous of my lovings Tom." Star says in her new position, while Jackie looked completely unruffled by her behaviour.
Tom claps his hands together once and says, "Alright, since we're all here let's get this demonic show on the road before I regret my decisions or Starship and Jackielantern over there make me invest in dentures."
"Jackielantern?" Both Marco and Jackie question, while Star is content to fiddle with her girlfriend's hair.
Tom blushes, steam billowing off his cheeks, "Look, it was short notice, and there's not a lot of things the name Jackie can be put in to."
When all he receives is a raised eyebrow from Marco, Tom rushes to continue, "I mean what else could it be? Jackie-the-box? Jackielope? Jackie-of-all-trades? It's a hard name! You try to come up with something on the fly."
Jackie speaks up, "Nah nah, it's cool. Jackielantern - I kinda like it. It makes me sound like some sort of Halloween-based superhero, y'know? Thanks Tom."
She gives him a thumbs up and a sideways smile, before quickly readjusting Star who was about to fall off of her position of dangling from Jackie.
"Okay enough with the yibber-yabber, let's go go go!" Star says, no longer fiddling with Jackie's hair, and instead waving her hands impatiently at Tom, one of them holding her dimensional scissors.
Tom chuckles and bats away Star's hands and the scissors, "Alright alright, hold on Starship, no need for your fancy scissors." He snaps him fingers, and a pillar of flame appears, "Our hell-hole awaits."
Star slides off Jackie with a shout of, "Hell yeah!" and Jackie chimes in, "Dude that is so awesome."
Marco, on the other hand, screams and backs away quickly from the fire, his eyes blown wide, "Oh hell no Tom, I am not going anywhere near that! Do you know how much of a fire hazard just that thing's existence is? Not to mention I'm a fleshy human, remember? We tend to burn easily."
Tom chuckles, and walks over to Marco, putting a comforting arm around his shoulder, "Marco-Polo I'm not planning on barbequing you. These flames are totally safe for transport, they're actually more chilled than hot, so no one will burn. Jackielantern has more faith in me than you do right now dude."
Marco inches himself as far away from the flames as he can, causing him to press closer to Tom, not that Marco notices, "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I don't trust flames, and haven't completely thrown out the laws of Earth which state that touch plus fire equals bad. It's alright though, I still have this thing."
Marco reaches into his hoodie pocket, and takes out the small hell-bell, before turning to look slightly up at Tom, "I can just meet you guys there alright?"
Tom third eye looks Marco straight in his eyes, while his other two eyes flickers between Marco's face and the hell-bell in his hands. Tom then closes all of his eyes, and sighs before saying, "Yeah, that works. I'm letting you off this time because I feel some of your fear in the undercurrent of the bond, but I'm not letting you off fully! One of these days, I'm gonna surprise pull you into one of these hellholes, just so you can see there is literally nothing dangerous about them. But back on subject- don't take too long to catch up with us Marco-Polo alright? No detours."
He then rests his forehead against Marco's, all eyes closed. Marco unflinching, huffs a laugh and says, "Where would I even go to? I'm literally gonna be just behind you guys - I thought we agreed that worrying doesn't suit you." "I blame you, the bond is making your worrying become a habit of mine, it seems."
Star then pipes up, "Okay well if you two are finished being gay as hell-," The two boys seem to realise what they were doing, and jump back from each other, "-then let's go! I haven't been back to the Underworld since the Bloodmoon, and I have things I wanna show Jackie!"
Tom chuckles at Star's enthusiasm, and shakes his head slightly before giving Marco a short wave and turning away to jump into the hellhole. Star quickly launches herself in after him with a quick, "Bye Marco!"
Jackie smiles at her girlfriend's antics before going over to Marco to give him a light punch on his arm. "Don't take too long, aight Diaz?" , she remarks before stepping into the hole as well.
Marco rubs his hand before shaking his head at the closing hole, muttering under his breath, "Crazy people, no practical worry of being burnt alive."
He then shakes the bell he still had in his hand, and walks over to the window where he could hear the struggling gargoyle flying towards. "Hey there Jeff." Marco greets the gargoyle as he steps into the elevator, all of the gargoyles' names being one of the various tidbits of the Underworld he demanded to learn from Tom so that he didn't feel awkward in the case of ever having to call them for quick transport - his mother taught him manners after all.
The gargoyle gives a slight, surprised smile at hearing his name, before replying, "Nice to have you aboard Master Tom's Marco. You're lighter to carry than Master Tom's Star. It's much appreciated."
Marco crossed his arms with a slight huff, "Well I'm sorry we can't all eat like pigs then work it off monster hunting. I'm a simple human with simple tastes. And I'm not light, I'm just…petite."
Jeff snorted, "Yeah. Simple. Like getting soul bonded to fire demons who are also the princes of the Underworld. Totally simplistic."
Marco blushed, and lightly hit the top of the elevator, "Not you too Jeff! I can't rely on anyone nowadays."
Jeff said nothing, but smirked out of sight of Marco, "Anyways, where to Master Tom's Marco? Master Tom's rooms?"
Marco sits back and gets comfortable, "Yup, thanks Jeff."
As they literally descended into hell, Marco starts to fiddle with his phone, instinctively being able to tell when they crossed the threshold from mortal dimension to the underworld by the sudden increase in dropping speed, and the heat waves that slams into him and they go lower and lower. Marco fans himself as he starts to sweat, and reminds himself, 'Not much longer.'
And of course, as he thinks this, a blast of energy hits the elevator directly, causing Jeff to careen to the side and Marco to fall sideways.
"What was that?" Marco shouts as he tries to right himself, "Jeff, are you alright?"
Jeff's pained reply comes, "Mostly, but my wing seems to be badly bruised. I'm sorry Master Tom's Marco, we're gonna have to do an emergency landing, and call Master Tom for a new gargoyle for you. I am very sorry for the inconvenience."
Marco says kindly, "Hey, we're both still alive and not in immediate danger - this is already less of an inconvenience than one of Star's missions. It's no problem, I'm glad you aren't hurt too bad."
"Thank you Master Tom's Marco-"
Marco cut him off, "You can just call me Marco, you know."
"Alright then Master Marco, as I was saying, brace for impact."
Marco quickly braces against the elevator's walls right, not a moment too soon, as they then painfully hit the ground. The elevator rolls a bit, but holds together thankfully. When the rolling has stopped, Marco uncovers his head, and checks himself over, noting that although he wasn't bruised or had broken bones, his mirror watch broke, causing glass to spread on the floor of the elevator.
"Aw man, seriously? I actually liked this thing." Marco mutters unhappily to himself as he gingerly tiptoes around the glass, and pokes his head out of the elevator door, "You okay Jeff?"
"A bit tangled Master Marco, but otherwise fine." Marco's eyes quickly finds Jeff, who is indeed tangled in the ropes that connected him to the elevator, the wood around his neck causing him to be stuck in an awkward and uncomfortable position. Marco quickly scrambles out of the elevator towards Jeff.
"We gotta get you outta there! Think Diaz think, uh magic? No that's Star's thing. Scissors? Star. Pocket knife!" Marco shouts triumphantly, and begins to pat down his hoodie pockets, before stopping with a sigh, "Stolen by Star earlier this week. Okay, don't worry Jeff, I'll get you out, I just need, like a really sharp rock or something."
Marco begins to pace around as he talks, frantically looking for a stone.
"Uh, Master Marco, while your concern is touching, feel free to use my talons. I would've, but my position makes it hard for me to see my hands, and a quick slice could possibly take off my arm instead of the rope, so please do be careful."
Marco stops his search, and makes his way back to Jeff with an, "Ah, right. Talons. How could I forget."
He then gingerly picks up Jeff's hand, and carefully manoeuvres it to reach the ropes. As he starts cutting, Marco continues to nervously ramble, trying to calm his raising panic, "Where the heck did that hit even come from though? That felt like some serious magic."
"Uh, Master Marco, you may want to-"
"And I know serious magic, being around Star so much. Not how I thought my life would go, but beats being the safe kid, you know?"
"Master Marco, I think you should turn-"
"And don't get me wrong, I love Star as a friend, she's the closest one I've got. I just didn't expect it to lead to, well, soul bonds and freeing gargoyles, but still-"
"MASTER MARCO, MOVE!"
Jeff, still with one arm tangled, manages to push both Marco and himself out of the way of an incoming blast of violent green magic. Marco quickly rights himself, and looks towards the source of the blast, which was no other than a very raggedy looking Ludo, riding on the back of a giant eagle with a wand stretched out in front of him.
"Of course," Marco rolls his eyes, "Look Ludo I don't have time for you right now, I've got to help Jeff."
Marco says, pointing his thumb at the still entangled gargoyle.
"Marco Diaz, let's make this quick then shall we? Tell Princess Butterfly to come out of wherever she's hiding, and give me her wand, and then I'll leave you with your... gargoyle problem."
Marco snorts as he turns his back on Ludo to continue cutting Jeff free, "No dice dude, Star isn't even with me, she took the hellhole. Long gone, totally comfortable somewhere in the Underworld's castle - or uh, mansion? Extremely furnished penthouse?"
Marco debates once more with himself the correct term as he finally lets loose Jeff.
"Master Marco, we must leave immediately, the little creature is a magic wielder!"
Ludo protests at being called 'little creature', as Marco rolls his eyes and scoffs, waving a hand as if to shoo away the concern, "It's okay big dude, it's just Ludo. He's after Star not me, which means he's as harmless as a fly."
Ludo speaks up enraged, "I am certainly not harmless, Marco Diaz! Actually... since Star isn't here, how about I take you hostage instead? From what I heard about Toffee's siege, that worked perfectly in getting Star to go to him."
Marco's eyes widens as Ludo points his wand at him, "Well fuck me then."
Marco jumps out of the way of Ludo's blast, and shouts, "Jeff, go get Tom and tell him what happened!"
Jeff calls back, also dodging some wayward blasts, "Master Marco, I cannot just leave you!"
Marco rolls out go the way of a blast and yells, "Jeff, your wing can't fly us both right now! I'll be fine for a little bit, I've got practise in Ludo dodging."
To further emphasis his point, Marco jumps right in time to miss being knocked out by Ludo. Jeff looks between Ludo and Marco, before seeming to steel himself, "Master Marco, please do not die."
He then quickly flies away to notify Tom, leaving Marco with Ludo.
A/N: And as always, faves & follows show you care, and reviews give me motivation! My tumblr is gosshiku-hime-wa-yami-san . tumblr . c~o~m for anyone who's curious ^u^ Also, i'm never mad at fanart *nudge nudge wink wonk cough cough hack*
I track the tag fsiiaabmb on tumblr~
