Kingsley

Chapter 3

Movie Night in Mewni

After saving her in the Forest of Certain Death, Moon took to Toffee a lot better and dialed back her attitude. There was no more hide-and-seek, obviously. She also had started listening in their daily lessons and doing almost everything he asked of her without complaint. It was the least she could do to repay him for saving her life. Although, Moon's sheer determination alone wasn't enough to change the fact she loathed every minute she was being forced towards queenship. So, Toffee decided to offer her an incentive for her hard work and she had come to enjoy at least five minutes a day. He had agreed to five minutes, after her lessons, where Moon was allowed to ask him something personal. She could ask him anything she thought of, however, there was no guarantee he would give her an answer. Moon just got to fire off random questions, until he chose to answer one. Which she was fine with, for the moment. Eventually, she hoped he would tell her all the questions he refused to answer. Moon could tell he had a lot of secrets.

Over the past few weeks, Moon had learned the following things about Toffee:

-He doesn't like ice cream. He's cold-blooded and says it's on par with eating a pile of daggers.

-He's from somewhere called Septarsis (wherever that is). It's apparently in the same dimension as Mewni, but far away, past the wetlands of Avarius.

-His mother kept trying to eat him when he was a baby.

-His only living relative is his cousin, Rasticore. They don't talk…

It wasn't such a great accomplishment, considering she'd only uncovered four little tidbits about Toffee in the month she'd known him. But, Moon knew it was more than her parents and probably anyone else knew about him. It made her feel somewhat special that he'd bestowed such a privilege on her.

"Princess?"

Moon could hear Toffee knocking on the door to her room, but she wouldn't let him in. For some reason, he was still struggling to call her by her name. Moon tended not to answer if he didn't, as if training him. Toffee had come to fetch her for lessons. Even though she was more likely not to run off nowadays, he didn't want to take a chance on wasting anymore time.

"No princesses in here. Sorry!" she replied, with a sing-song sort of cheeriness in her voice and a playful giggle. Moon was in a good humor today. Glossaryck was finally going to teach her how to defend herself with magic and read Solaria's spellbook chapter. She was sick of learning parlor tricks from past queens of Mewni. Her own mother had barely contributed anything to the book that wasn't something to do with etiquette and proper queenship. Moon was also ecstatic because she'd thought of the perfect question to ask Toffee after their lesson.

"Moon, the king and queen wish to see you before we start." Toffee added. Moon groaned, her mood instantly dampened, and reluctantly opened the door to meet him.

"What do they want?" Moon inquired, slightly curious, but also rather skeptic.

"No idea." Toffee replied, simply. "Come along now. We best not be late…"

Moon sighed and diligently followed him towards the throne room, where her parents sat waiting. Toffee bowed low to them, while Moon walked a little closer before curtseying. Apparently, according to Toffee, it was not polite to keep stomping up to them and say, 'What do you want?' anymore. Even if they were her parents, she still had to treat them like the king and queen.

"You wished to see me?"

"Yes, my dear." King Juniper smiled, kindly. "We've asked you here because we've seen a real change in your attitude lately and have decided that it's finally time for you to hold your first royal ball."

"Oh." Moon replied, not knowing what else to say. Out of all the things she was expecting, a ball was obviously not one of them. When she was younger, they always seemed like such an exclusive, grownup thing.

"You're going to love it, Moon! We're going to invite royalty from every dimension, including the new members of your future magic council."

"New members? What about the current council? Aren't they immortal?" Moon questioned, curiously. She didn't know too much about her mother's council of magic, but she'd always assumed she would just inherit them too, like she did with the wand. From what she did know, they were a collection of the most powerful magic users in all the dimensions. Death didn't seem to fit them.

"Sweetie, nothing is immortal. Anything can be killed if you hit it with strong enough magic." Queen Willow explained, with a sickly tone that was far too sweet for what she was saying. "Besides, you don't want a bunch of stuffy adults at the ball, getting in your way."

"What might they be getting in the way of, mother?" Moon asked.

"Oh, Moon. You shouldn't ask such bold questions!" her mother laughed, like what she had said was somewhat of a joke. "If you must know, it's practically the only way to meet people. I met your father at a ball—"

Moon did not need to listen to her mother any further. By 'people', it was plainly obvious that she meant boys. This whole event was masqueraded so she might find a contender for the future king of Mewni. The only two boys Moon knew were River and Prince Ponyhead, who weren't exactly at the top of her list of crushable guys. This was the next step on the ladder to being queen she did not want to climb, but she would be forced to climb anyway.

"I see. Very good then." Moon stated, in a monotoned voice. She hastily curtsied to them, to signify her intent on departing, and turned to leave. Toffee had taught her it was the eloquent equivalent to 'Fuck this shit. I'm out.'

Her swift pace quickened as she moved through the halls, with Toffee following close behind her.

"What's troubling you, princess?" he questioned, suddenly, noticing her glum expression and eagerness to get to a lesson she did not want to go too. She stopped and glared at him, daring him to find his error. Toffee quickly figured out what he had said wrong and had no choice but to fix it. "What's wrong, Moon? You don't seem pleased by the news."

"Yeah, the whole thing is just a ploy for them to arrange my marriage. I won't have it!" Moon replied, with a haughty huff. She crossed her arms angrily, happy Toffee fixed his mistake, but still upset at the news.

"That may be true. But, royal functions are also a great place for networking and showing off. By planning this, your parents believe you are finally ready."

"After only a few weeks with you? What do they know? I still have so much to learn."

"You don't need to know too much for a ball. People your age won't really want to talk about things like politics—"

"I don't know how to dance! I shall make a fool of myself!" Moon shouted over him. Toffee looked bewildered by her confession for a brief moment, but quickly returned to question her.

"Weren't you supposed to have an instructor last year?" he inquired.

"I broke his foot and he swore he'd never teach another princess again." she explained, with a guilty smile.

"Moon…" Toffee sighed. He rubbed his temple out of the quiver of stress she brought him. It was an exclusive gesture reserved for Moon when she said and did certain things. "I guess we can add dance lessons to our schedule this week."

"Who's going to teach me, though?"

"I am."

"How do you know how to dance?" she added, with clear disbelief. Toffee did not strike her as the dancing type. It was a hard thing to even put into her imagination.

"I didn't step on my teacher's foot," Toffee smirked. Moon frowned at the slight jab and no further explanation, which made Toffee guiltily feel the need to explain. "I taught myself. I found a device called a VCR that plays things pre-recorded and it had recordings of dance lessons."

"Never heard of it."

"It's originally from the Earth dimension."

"I've hardly been out of Mewni before." Moon admitted, with a shrug. Unfortunately, despite the growing popularity of dimensional scissors, Moon had barely gone past the squalor of Mewni's village. There was no doubt she'd get her chance in the future, but for now she was basically stuck in the castle. "Is earth a nice place?"

"Well, actually I bought the VCR at a specialty shop in the village. I've never been there myself." Toffee explained. She looked perplexed as to why he would do such a thing and Toffee knew she would not cease till she received more information. "I collect things from other dimensions."

"Really? That doesn't seem like you."

"Yes, I admit I don't exactly know how it started myself." he added. Toffee pondered on it for a moment more, before he came up with a suitable explanation. "I suppose it's because monsters don't create anything."

"Toffee, you shouldn't say that!" she snapped back, surprisingly. Toffee's main reason for teaching Moon how to be queen was to stop her blind prejudice against the monsters. It was evidently working because she found what he had said very hurtful towards them.

"You think I'm being hard on my race? Fine. Name one thing invented by a monster."

"Uh—what about—no…um—"

"Exactly. They don't contribute anything, even within their own society. All they do is think about themselves." Toffee replied, knowing she wasn't going to come up with anything. While he admired her effort, it was pointless. "Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only one thinking of the bigger picture."

"But, that's okay." Moon added. He looked at her curiously. "You don't need anyone else's help, but mine. I'm the one who's going to be your queen."

Toffee grinned at her far too much, silently wondering if Moon would notice her incriminating phrase of words. She processed the words seconds after she said them and grew a feverish blush.

"I—I mean—not your queen, specifically. I meant everyone's queen. Including the monsters, if they're into that." she rambled, trying desperately to save herself from embarrassment.

"If it's you, Moon, I'm sure they will be." He smiled to assure her that he would not judge her and she returned it gratefully.

"Can I come over later and see the VCR?"

"There's not much room in your schedule—"

"I was thinking sometime around eight. My schedule is clear then."

"You shouldn't be in my room after five. It's not proper." Toffee added. He was trying desperately not to blush and prayed she wouldn't ask the same question she'd just asked her mother as to why. "I'll just set it up in your room—"

"But, what if I have questions, or what if I accidently break it. You must watch it with me!" she protested, desperately. "What are you so worried about?"

"Being executed." he stated. It was a gracious extension by the Butterfly family that they let Toffee into the castle at all, let alone that he was allowed spend time with their daughter and sole heir to the throne. The last thing he would want to do is be caught alone with her at night, huddled around a strange device.

"Please Toffee!" Moon pleaded. She even broke out the impossible to resist, big, sparkly, puppy dog eyes. She hardly ever used them, because as a royal brat she always got anything she wanted, so they were about ten times more effective then they'd normally be.

"Don't look at me like that!" Toffee snapped, trying to advert his gaze at the helpless expression of innocence. It could literally cost him his life. However, the cuteness sucked even his cold frozen heart in, like a blackhole, and he caved moments later. "Alright, I'll bring it over at eight and we'll watch one tape."

Moon clapped in her victory, while Toffee seemed impassive about it. They finally arrived at the library door and industriously began another day.

It was exactly eight o' clock when Toffee attempted to knock on the door of Moon's room, while holding a plastic box and a slightly tinier plastic box that went inside it.

"Moon, I'm—"

Moon had answered the door looking like she was, well, a proper princess. She was dressed in a sparkly blue dress of layered tulle and had little multi-colored butterflies hiding within each layer. Her long hair was tied up in a bun and fitted with a small golden crown. "—here."

"It just arrived for the ball and I was trying it on," she explained, as if she needed justification. Toffee was still not answering, just looking at her. "Does it look bad?"

"Not at all. I was just surprised."

"Surprised? I wear gowns literally every day."

"This is clearly different." he answered, as if it were obvious.

"Thanks…" Moon mumbled, praying that his statement was a compliment, but not daring to ask for clarification. Instead, she quickly changed the subject towards what was most likely the infamous VCR, "Is that it?"

"Yes." Toffee replied, presenting it to her.

"Wow, it's a lot clunkier then I imagined." she added, taking it from him. The VCR clearly didn't look like anything that had ever been conceived on Mewni. It was heavy, yet somehow also hollow on the inside. Moon handed it back to Toffee, before she imminently dropped it on the stone floor, and was surprised by a thin, rubbery rope hanging from it. "What's this?"

"It's called a cord. I have to attach it to your mirror."

"It can just do that?!"

"No, I've tinkered with it a bit to adapt it to Mewman's advanced technology. A lot of our technology is actually derived from earth, you know." Toffee explained. He entered the room with the device and grabbed her mirror off the wall to make the necessary adjustments.

"And you said monsters don't make anything." Moon chimed, wittily. He gave her small half smile before getting to work. Not knowing what she ought to do in the meantime, she turned her attention to a bowl on her tea table that she had forgotten about in all the excitement. Although, he was busy working and they hadn't even started watching anything, Moon couldn't wait to show him what the bowl had to offer. "I had them make us a snack. Want some?"

"What is it?" he inquired, looking curiously in the bowl at suspicious white fluffs of food he'd never seen before.

"It's called 'popcorn'. One of the chefs discovered it when he studied abroad on earth."

"It's really corn?"

"Apparently." she replied, looking down in slight bewilderment, as well. While they were distracted by the popcorn, Moon's mirror decided to flicker to life. Toffee moved it onto Moon's dresser, for a slightly better view, and popped a black rectangle into the VCR. It took the mirror a minute to process the unfamiliar device before it decided that it would play. "Woah! It works."

"Of course, Moon." he smiled, at her childish excitement.

The screen flashed with some kind of pirate warning, which Toffee had to insist was nothing to worry about and no pirates were coming for them. Moon had just stopped arguing with him about the possible swashbucklers, when a woman appeared on the screen. She wasn't dressed in a pretty gown like Moon, but she was still very beautiful on her own merits. Moon was instantly mesmerized. She had never seen someone from earth, but she could only assume the woman was an earthling. People from earth apparently looked identical to Mewmans, but just wore drastically different clothes.

"Hi! Welcome to Ballroom Dancing for Idiots, Volume 1—"

"Who is she?" Moon asked, mindlessly.

"The virtual teacher you can't hurt."

They continued watching in mostly silence. Sometimes, Moon would get up and practice along with the teacher, while Toffee took the opportunity she was distracted to eat as much of the popcorn as he could. He probably wouldn't admit it, given their deal, but he might've liked it.

"Now, we're going to practice all the steps we covered together." the teacher smiled, reassuringly. "If you are watching this with a partner, it's a little easier. However, it's perfectly fine if you don't have anyone. It's not like you're going to die alone—"

"See, I needed you after all!" Moon exclaimed, suddenly turning on a half-asleep Toffee and yanking him up onto his feet.

"Here we go! One, two, three and—"

The teacher's voice faded out, either from the music or from the fact that both of their attention was intently on the other. Despite the fact Toffee had made such a fuss earlier, for a fraction of a second, he wasn't thinking about being alone with the crown princess in a dimly lit room. Or at least not thinking about it, as if it were such a bad thing.

"You're doing well." Toffee smiled.

"It's all thanks to you…" Moon murmured back, praying it was dark enough that he would not see her blush. The reality of what they were doing was only sinking in at this moment.

"—end of Volume 1. Thanks for joining us!"

They quickly broke apart, Toffee towards the VCR, while Moon scooped down to return the empty popcorn bowl to the table.

"How many tapes are there?" she asked, once again searching for a distraction.

"11, but I'm missing volume 8." he answered, quickly. "We'll be fine without it, though."

"Why don't you try to go find it?"

"Because that'd require me going to earth, which is impossible."

"Why?"

"Not only would I need a pair of dimensional scissors, which if you recall monsters have recently been banned from having in possession. But, it would also require me not looking like this." Toffee explained, pointing at himself, bitterly.

"They don't have monsters on earth?" Moon said, as more of a statement then a question.

"No monsters. It'd be every Mewman's safe haven, if it also didn't have magic."

"Are there any books in the library about earth?" she asked him, curiously. Moon hadn't ever thought about other dimensions before, being young and untraveled. There were thousands of places she'd never been and never bothered to learn about. However, a place without magic or monsters certainly sounded like a peculiar dimension. It might be worth a book, or two, if they were able to create such fascinating things without magic.

"A few. I'll pick them out for you tomorrow." he agreed. Toffee quickly detached the VCR and headed for the door, before anything else could happen. While Moon settled in a chair, probably eager to be rid of him, so she could finally get out of her dress. "Goodnight, Moon."

"Goodnight!"

9