Maybe, Maybe, Maybe

"Master Tom, Princess Butterfly has arrived," the deep, growly voice of one of Tom's demon servants said, drawing the prince's attention away from the two of the Unerworld's denizens that currently held his interest.

The carriage dropped to the ground and the doors slid open, revealing what appeared to be Star Butterfly. She looked fantastic in that dress and with her hair pulled up, but she wasn't actually a she. Of course, this was actually Sol pretending to be his sister, not that Tom was aware of this.

"Wow," Sol breathed, climbing out of the carriage. The Underworld was much...um, darker than he remembered. He absently rubbed the back of his neck as he looked around.

Tom stopped in front of him, a funny look in his eyes. Instantly, Sol began to sweat. Had he done something to blow his cover already?

But then Tom smiled. "Star Butterfly," Tom said. "Don't you clean up nice!"

Despite himself, Sol felt a faint flush rise to his cheeks. "Er, thanks," he muttered.

Admittedly, Tom cleaned up nice as well. Dressed in white and red, he actually looked, erm, kind of handsome. Not that Sol noticed, of course.

"I got you this." Tom pulled something out of his pocket. It was a, um, spider...thing.

"What is that?" Sol asked, recoiling slightly.

"It's...a hair thing. It goes in your hair. It'll help you fit in down here." Tom attempted to put it on Sol's head.

Sol stumbled backwards. "Um...that's really sweet Lu―Tom, but, um, I'm not really a spider person, and I have my own style going on here…" He chuckled nervously. "Thank you, though, but, um, let's just go have fun…or whatever, yeah?"

Tom let out an angry growl, but as if by magic, his life coach Brian appeared to calm him down. (Man, someone was really good at their job.) A pet of that fluffy pink bunny was enough to calm him down, it seemed.

"I am so excited to be covered in blood with you" is a sentence that Sol was certain that he would never hear again. The follow up to that sentence, "But don't worry, it's not real. It's from a unicorn" was quickly added to that list of "sentences Sol will only ever hear once in his life".

"You mean it's not human blood," Sol said.

Tom blinked. "What?"

"You said that the blood isn't real because it's unicorn blood. I think you mean that it wasn't human blood, because it's still real if it's from a unicorn."

"Sorry," Tom said sheepishly. "You're right."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to bathe in unicorn blood with you, Tom," Sol added, which really shouldn't have been necessary, but that was Tom for you.

Speaking of the demon, he let out another little growl and reached behind his back.

"What are you doing?" Sol queried, peering around him.

"Nothing!" Tom said quickly, which was, of course, a lie. Brian was hiding behind him, holding up that bunny for him to pet.

A small smirk toyed Sol's lips. "Wait a second. Are you getting angry, Tom?"

"No," Tom said harshly.

Sol raised a brow, unable to help himself. While being on the receiving end of Tom's anger was not some place that Sol would like to find himself again, it was oddly fun to mess with Tom just to hear that cute little growl he made when frustrated.

Wait, what?

Cute little…? Whoa. Maybe the hair spell thing had scrambled Sol's brains. Tom was most certainly not cute.

"I think I need a drink," Sol muttered, wandering off toward the punch table.

But on seeing the bubbling, blood red substance in the punch bowl, Sol decided that no, he did not need a drink after all. He let out a sigh and leaned against the table, looking around at the hall. It was oddly...mellow...for the Underworld. Kind of...boring, actually. Almost as boring as his father's lectures about "throne posture", and those could be deadly.

So when the strange monster with his face on his body rather than his head approached him and accused him of being the reason that the party was so lame ("He made this whole entire ball completely boring, all for you!"), Sol couldn't find a reason to argue against that statement. Though a part of him was oddly touched that Tom went to such drastic measures as to potentially anger his other guests in an attempt to make Star comfortable, more of Sol wanted to slap Tom for the same exact reason. This ball was ludicrously dull, and Star would have most certainly not enjoyed it like this. Where was Tom's thinking?

Said strange monster man finally walked off in a huff, leaving Sol with a tall ork-looking fellow in a tunic.

"Wanna dance?" he asked Sol, sounding strangely like he had a Southern North American drawl. (Weird. Funny VA choice, maybe?)

Luckily (or perhaps unluckily), Tom-ex-machina floated down out of no-where on his flame feet and saved Sol from having to give the poor ork guy an excuse. "Her dance card's full," Tom said firmly.

"Oh, I get it," the ork thing grumbled. "You think that your soul, and, like, her soul are totally gonna…mmmm." He made a strange gesture with his hands, locking his fingers together.

Sol desperately hoped that didn't mean what he thought it meant. "Er, Tom? What's he talking about?" he whispered.

Tom looked embarrassed, but before he could explain (or before Sol could make him explain), the sound of feedback from a microphone called their attention to the front where a devil in a powdered wig stood on a podium.

"Good evening, ladiesngennlebremen," the devil said. He had a snooty voice. "It is my pleasure that I request you now to turn your heads skyward when the light of the blood moon drupples down and selects two lucky souls, binding them together for eternity in its hypnotic, ruby brodem." He did that same gesture with his hands as the ork did, confirming Sol's suspicions.

The prince of Mewni's blood ran cold. So that was Tom's plan? To bind their souls together for eternity with some magical blood ruby thing? That was diabolical, and crazy and…actually kind of sweet, in a weird way.

"Oh! That's the wrong piece of music!" Tom grumbled, bringing Sol's attention to the eerie piano music that had begun playing for the first time. "This is gonna drive me crazy." He started off toward the piano player. "Don't go anywhere," he said to Sol. "I'll be right―"

Tom cut off abruptly when Sol grabbed his wrist. "Wait," Sol said quickly. "Um, Tom, the music's fine. And, uh, we could miss our dance if you leave," he added.

What he really didn't want to admit was that he was actually kind of afraid of being out here alone. What if the ruby thingy bound him to some random monster? What was he supposed to do then? As much as he hated the idea of having his soul tied to the likes of Tom Lucitor, Tom was really the lesser of two evils here.

That strange look entered Tom's eyes again. He opened his mouth to say something―

―and promptly closed it again when the lights went out and the ruby's bloody glow fixed on them.

"Oh, pegasus feathers," Sol whispered.

As the two began to dance, the crowd around them hushed. The music changed to a calming and honestly beautiful tune, which did nothing to sooth Sol's nerves. All of this felt way too romantic for his taste, the sickening feeling in his stomach returning.

And then Sol recognized the song.

"Snow Dance?" he asked, the breath catching in his throat. This was the piece that Mother had insisted he learn nearly four years ago on Mewni's version of the piano. Though he'd initially loathed the song because it was far beyond his skill level at the time, he'd quickly grown to love it. But he'd only ever told Star this, so how did Tom…?

"You like it?" Tom asked hopefully. "I picked it just for you."

"But―" Sol cut himself off. There was no way to ask Tom how he knew without blowing his cover.

And so they danced in silence. Tom was actually a surprisingly good dancer, so Sol told him this. "You're a surprisingly good dancer, Tom," he said.

"You're not bad yourself, Solace," Tom responded.

It took Sol a moment to realize that the jig was up as Tom dipped him. "H-h-how did you―? How long have you―?"

"Since you got off the carriage," Tom answered, grinning. "You rub the back of your neck when you get nervous. Star doesn't."

"You've known this whole time?" Sol demanded, letting Tom twirl him around. "Why didn't you say anything? Or send me back? Or something?"

Tom smirked, pulling Sol in close. "Maybe it's because I never wanted Star in the first place," he said against Sol's ear. "Maybe I wanted you to come this entire time."

And suddenly everything made sense. Tom's odd way of bargaining, the strange looks, the dulled down party. This was all an attempt to get Sol to come. But that meant… "You and Star planned this, didn't you?"

"Maybe." That infuriating grin was still in place on Tom's stupid, three-eyed face. "I didn't know you played piano," he added, just to spite Sol.

"I'm going to slaughter you both," Sol hissed, but they both knew that his threat was empty. As much as he hated to admit it, he was having fun. And maybe, just maybe, Tom wasn't as awful as he thought he was.

Maybe.

But as all things do, the dance came to an end. The two princes stood there for far longer than necessary, just staring at each other, for they both knew what this meant. The ruby thingy had chosen them. They were now bound together by weird blood moon magic.

"So, um…" Sol took a step away and rubbed the back of his neck, a faint blush rushing to his cheeks. "I should probably head back. School in the morning, you know." Gods, that sounded lame.

"Right," Tom said.

Sol let Tom lead him through the crowd and back to where his chariot awaited...as well Marco and his sister, both of whom were in some weird Day-Of-The-Dead disguises.

"Sooooooooooool―Star!" Marco exclaimed. "Hey! We were just, um, coming to get you!"

Sol cocked his hip and raised a brow, doing his infamous Sol Butterfly pose. "Thanks, Marco!" he said in an exaggerated impression of his sister. Chuckling, he turned to Tom and they shared a knowing look.

"I had a great time tonight, Star," Tom said, taking Sol's hand. "Maybe we can see each other again? Out of your disguise?" he added quietly.

"It's a possibility," Sol responded, grinning. "Oh! Almost forgot." He opened Tom's jacket to reveal that sticker of his. With a snap of his fingers, he changed the 53 to a 54. And then climbed into the carriage with Star and Marco, leaving the Underworld behind.