Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Meteora won’t find us in the underworld. We’ll be safe. And very, very warm.” Tom didn’t wait for an answer before heading down the stairs towards the entrance of the Underworld, hearing Star’s hesitant steps behind him. He knew he was asking a lot of her, to leave her kingdom and hide, but he was as resigned as she was. Without Queen Moon, there was little they could do at the moment. Hiding was their best option until they had any other opportunity.

But Star stopped on the first step, and when Tom turned around to encourage her onwards, she was looking at the sky with a face of horrified realization. “What am I doing?! I can’t leave!”

“Star?”

“I am the queen and these are my people,” she said, her eyes still locked away from him and Marco. “I have to stay and fight.”

“But Meteora will destroy you!” Tom tried to reason her, his pulse rising as he imagined Star, sweet and bright Star, the girl he had liked longer than any other person in his life, charging at the monstrosity that had decimated the entire kingdom.

However, Star had the best argument. Putting her wand away, she jumped into the air and her entire body was engulfed in a bright golden light that dazed Tom for a second. When he blinked his sight back, her dress was a warm yellow, her long hair parted in two thick braids that defied gravity. Huge butterfly wings had sprung from her back, supporting her in mid-air. Her inexplicable six arms and determined face made her look like a foreign goddess, and Tom forgot to breathe for a second, his mouth agape and three eyes wide open. “Stay here and take care of Marco,” she said, before swishing away through the air. In barely three seconds, she was out of sight.

Tom blinked. His mind exploded into a supernova of questions and emotions that his numb conscience couldn’t even begin to sort. All he could do was stop and turn to Marco. “Wha- Did-did… Did you know she could do that?”

The soulless floating body stayed silent at the end of its rope. Tom felt familiar embers of anger stinging at his chest amidst the chaos of his mind. He was tempted to let them blow up and consume him, like they had done so many times before.

He gritted his teeth and breathed tensely. “You probably knew, didn’t you, Mr. Squire. She tells you everything! While I have to beg for some attention. Some- Why does she trust you so much more than me?”

He pulled Marco’s body down to his level, like he could find an answer in the void of his eyes. Just like that, a pang of grief washed over his anger, creating a lump in his throat that almost made him sob. He knew the reason. It was the same as his.

Because Marco was certainly the bravest, most honorable fool he could find in the entire universe. He had led them up against Meteora, with no hope they would bring her down, but out of desperation to hold her back long enough for Star to find the Queen. And when that wasn’t enough, he was ready to sacrifice himself to let Tom escape – and he did, despite Tom being most likely to survive her soul-sucking attacks.

He went as far as risking Tom hating him for kissing Star. Which, honestly would have happened. Maybe at another time, under other circumstances. Now, Tom felt betrayed, angry, hurt. But for some reason, as he looked at this blank, motionless face, he could feel no hatred. This was his best friend, and he meant more to him than a kiss behind his back.

Of course Star trusted Marco. Even now, he would as well.

But then, he realized, Star trusted him too. She trusted him with Marco.

And he wasn’t sure he was worthy of her trust.

He walked back into the night air and looked up. The sky was filled with soulless bodies of mewmans, as well as the eagles the King rode to fight. No wonder Star had been so upset and determined.

“But Meteora is probably stronger now than ever. She is going to get crushed! Isn’t she?” he questioned, turning to Marco again. He knew there was so many things he couldn’t see about Star, and he knew he probably underestimated her, despite how high he regarded her, how much he loved her. But he couldn’t help himself. There was no way he would lose the two persons he loved most in the world in one day without at least putting up a fight. He looked at Marco again. “We are going to help her. I mean, mostly me, probably, because you’re… You get the idea.”

Despite his poor wording, he felt like this was right. Marco would have done the same thing.

Time to try and catch up with his girlfriend. Hopefully, he’d get to be of some help against Meteora.

Chapter Text

Defeating Meteora hadn’t brought back everything she had destroyed. A lot of the kingdom was ruined and would take some time to build back up. Which could, and would, wait for a couple days.

“Star, I still think we should-”

“No, no, you stay in bed.”

“But-”

“The. Bed.” Star insisted, pushing Marco back down onto his pillow. Tom snorted amusedly at that, tucked in right next to the human boy.

Neither of them were used to sharing a bed, but their options were limited. Star’s bedroom was one of the castle’s areas that had miraculously survived with only very little damage. Other areas included some guest rooms, the royal dining room, the laundry room and a few corridors. So while Star had made arrangements so that the spaces that weren’t ruined too much could serve as temporary living space for the people that had their homes destroyed, she had kept her room as a private space for herself and the two boys she insisted needed to rest.

“Honestly, Star, I’m fine. Pretty sure we’re both fine.”

“No, Marco. Tom took a punch to the entire body and was out cold a couple hours ago.”

“Okay, but-”

“And you literally had your soul sucked out of you. By royal decree, everyone who had their soul sucked out by Meteora have to rest until the day after tomorrow.”

“But that’s everyone in the kingdom!”

“Yeah, I declared a general holiday. Now stop trying to get up, I promise you don’t need to come with me, I’ll be right back.”

Marco stared at her for a few more moments, then reluctantly sunk back into the pillow. “Fine…”

She smiled fondly. “Thank you.” She then walked to the other side of the bed. “Tom, can you make sure he doesn’t leave?”

“Sure can,” the half-demon said, and was rewarded with a short kiss before she walked out of the bedroom, leaving only the bedside light on. As soon as she was out of sight, Marco tried to get up again, but Tom grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. “Dude, you said you’d let her go.”

“I just want to make sure she won’t need help.”

“Marco, she’s just going to make sure everyone is settled down in the castle, she doesn’t need your help.”

“Yeah, well…”

“Come on, relax.”

Marco would have tried to get up again, if it weren’t for Tom’s hand firmly holding his. He knew he was being ridiculous for worrying like that but it was just hard for him to calm down. A part of his mind was still keeping an eye out for Meteora, and it didn’t help that Star had told him she would have died if Eclipsa hadn’t been there.

Tom couldn’t understand how he felt, but he could see very clearly that he was upset, and the fact it was past midnight probably had something to do with it too. “How about you give her, like, ten minutes. If she’s not back then, we can both go check on her,” he offered.

That was a good compromise. “Okay,” Marco agreed.

Star sneaked back into her bedroom about an hour later. Her legs were sore and she had bags under her eyes, but she had a smile and a metal tray with a midnight snack on it because dang it, she deserved it.

Tom and Marco were asleep in bed, facing each other and snoring peacefully. As she walked closer, Star noticed their intertwined hands and stopped, almost knocking her tray over when she slapped a hand over her silly grin. This was simply too adorable.

The clank of silverware was not quiet. Tom’s eyes opened one after the other, blinking in the dim light, and he let out a small groan as he lazily rolled on his back. “Star?”

“Hey, Tom,” she sing-sang quietly, giggling. She decided to set her tray down on the bedtable before she dropped anything. “I see you two are comfortable.”

Tom followed her gaze to the hand Marco was holding, and blushed, repressing his own embarrassed laughter. “He, um, he wouldn’t stay in place otherwise.” Star giggled some more, so Tom tried to pry Marco’s hand open without waking him up, but the human boy clenched it tighter in his sleep.

“Wow, he’s clingy,” Star commented as she sat on the bed, after nudging Tom’s legs out of the way.

“He was pretty worried after you left so I think he’s just tense.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

They went silent for a few moments, watching Marco’s sleeping face. He did seem a little tense. Tom spoke up. “Hey, Star?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s… Uh, well, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”

“Now?” she drawled.

He breathed in, out. “Yes, now.”

“Okay, what is it?”

He looked back at Marco and took a few more careful and controlled breaths. “Earlier, when we were fighting Meteora, Marco wanted me to leave so he could buy us some time. When I refused, he told me about… Well, he said he kissed you.”

Star went quiet, her eyes wide and startled. She had a shallow gasp. “Tom, I… It’s n- it wasn’t, I mean…” she stopped, and looked around the room, avoiding his gaze. “Hey, um, gimme a sec, alright?” She jumped out of bed.

“Star, please don’t leave.”

“I’m not leaving,” she assured, pacing around for a while. Then she grabbed her dressing screen, deciding she needed to change into her nightgown right now, immediately. Maybe she should brush her hair too and clean up a little.

“Star, I…” Tom took another careful breath. “I’m not going to get mad, I just want to talk about it.”

“Yeaaah, um, well you see there was the photo booth and that weird gobbling guy and we were like ‘what?’ so…”

“Really, Star, I’m fine with it, just…” Tom looked at Marco’s scrunched up sleeping face again, and as if his gaze was uncomfortable, Marco nuzzled deeper into his pillow. “Star, do you like Marco? Like, more than me? In a romantic way?” the demon said, gulping.

Star appeared from behind the dressing screen in a cute and comfortable nightgown. Her hair was ruffled and she had set her horns aside. She sighed and breathed and then: “I do like Marco. I had a crush on him, and it never really went away, and I’m sorry for not telling you. You were just getting along so well and I was scared of ruining that but it was not fair to you, as your girlfriend, so… I’m sorry.”

Tom breathed in deeply, a little forcefully. There it was, the anger, the jealousy, but also sadness, and fear of being left out. He breathed out. Again. And again. He was in control. Star watched, amazed, as he tried really hard to put up a shaky smile. He looked at Marco who now had his entire face in the pillow. He cleared his throat and when he was ready, he said: “It’s okay, I forgive you. Both.” Another deep breath. “And, if you are happier with him, then…”

“No, wait, Tom.” He didn’t know when she had walked back to the bed, but now she was sitting next to him again, and she was holding his other hand and it suddenly felt so right, despite all the emotions raging inside him. “I do like Marco, and I can’t help it, but I also like you, like, so much. Like, not even the way I liked you the first time we dated. No offense, but you were kind of a jerk back then.” He coughed out a nervous giggle that Star shared, glad he was taking it so well. “You just changed so much these last months and I really, really like the person you’ve become. Just look at you! You have every right to be mad right now and you’re just… okay with it. For all it’s worth, I’m really proud of you right now, Tom.”

The praise made Tom blush and almost glow with happiness. He could have cried. “That means a lot to me, thank you, Star.” As a response, she leaned forward and hugged him tight. Tom pressed himself into the embrace, but he had more concerns to address. “What about Marco?”

They parted and both turned to the boy who still had his face pressed into the pillow. Star was almost worried he’d smother himself in his sleep but he seemed to be fine. Actually, his hand had gone limp, and if he wanted, Tom could have easily let go of it. Which he really didn’t want to do for some reason.

“I really don’t know,” Star said pensively.

“It’s obvious he likes you too, he wouldn’t have kissed you if he didn’t.”

“I know.” She curled up on herself defensively.

“And you like him too. Not that I blame you,” Tom added a little quickly. Star looked up at him and smirked, encouraging him on. “He’s… pretty awesome, to be honest,” he admitted. “I know I used to hate him but now… He’s my best friend. You know, when he told me he’d kissed you, I felt betrayed, and I wanted to leave but… I just couldn’t. I couldn’t hate him, because that would mean I would lose him. I can’t think of anybody I felt closer to. Except for you.”

“You two have a thing,” Star sing-sang, and although they both laughed a little, they realized she might be right. Tom had never really thought of dating boys. It was always a possibility considering sexual preferences really weren’t a big deal in the Underworld, but his anger issues and slight obsession with Star up until some time ago didn’t really let him experiment much. Maybe he did have a crush on Marco. Star seemed to think so, if her silly face said anything.

“He’s probably the one guy I would approve you leaving me for,” Tom just said.

“Ugh, but I don’t want to choose between you two!” Star groaned. “Maybe you should just date each other, that way I won’t decide.”

Tom stopped, hardly keeping a straight face when he said: “Are we seriously arguing over who should date Marco?”

They looked at each other and started laughing, trying to be as quiet as possible so that they wouldn’t wake up the human boy on the other side of the bed. However, amidst their fit of laughter, Tom felt Marco’s hand shake a little in his. When he looked back, Marco’s face was still nuzzled into the pillow, but his shoulders were shaking a little, like he was laughing too.

Star followed Tom’s gaze, and noticed as well. “Marco?” The shaking stopped. “Marco are you awake?”

There was a moment of stillness, and then Marco turned his face to them, looking a little uneasy. He was red from smothering himself into a pillow for so long. “Um, yes?”

“How long have you been listening?” Tom asked, a little baffled.

“Well, I heard Star say I was clingy,” Marco answered. Their hands parted and he propped himself up against the bedframe, looking away. “Thought we were just going back to sleep so I didn’t say anything, but then you started talking so I kinda just heard it all…”

Well, this was a little awkward.

“Then… What do you think we should do?” Star asked.

“No clue,” Marco admitted. He had a fond smile as he looked up at them both, but then his smile fell again. “You are super nice about me and, to be honest, I would date like, either of you, but I… I hurt you both. And if I decided to date one of you, I’d hurt you again, and how, how could I do this, I… You should keep dating each other. I’m the one who messed everything up.”

“Marco, don’t say that!” Tom interjected.

“Yeah, we’ve been talking about how we both like you too for like fifteen minutes!” Star added with a smile. “We can’t just go back like nothing is different.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Uh…” Star raised a finger, and then set it back down. She started humming to herself and fidgeting, thinking hard of what would be the best thing to do. The boys stayed silent, not really seeing a solution, but Star was not giving up. Then, she suddenly realized something and mentally called herself an idiot for the second time that day. “Isn’t there a thing where three people can date each other?”

There was a moment of silence, then Tom said. “Uh, yeah? Probably?”

“It’s called polyamory, I think,” Marco added.

“It has a name? Wait, how do you know that?”

“From a little something called… the internet,” Marco teased. “I don’t know much about it, but it’s a thing.”

“So like…” Tom looked unsure. “Switching every other time?”

“I mean, we could do that, but we could also just decide to all date each other at the same time.”

Tom looked unsure, but Star’s eyes were living up to her name, wide and excited. “We should totally try doing this! It just makes sense, I mean, I like you both, and you also like me, and you like each other! Nothing is stopping us from dating each other! So we can all be together and nobody has to be alone!” She breathed, looking very proud of herself. “Wow, I wish I knew about this earlier.”

“How is this going to work though?” Tom asked. He seemed worried about the idea of dating two people at once. After all, only dating one already was a lot of trouble. He didn’t want to screw up again.

Marco took notice of his hesitation and tried to reassure him. “Hey, I think Star is right, this could work very well for all of us. We just have to talk it through.”

Tom quickly put up a smile. Yeah, he could try it out. Then Star slipped between them in bed and kissed both of them on the cheek and it suddenly felt just right enough for Tom to relax.

They agreed to wait until morning to talk about the details. For now, all three of them were way too tired to discuss it clearly. Star shared the snack she’d brought, hot chocolate and pie, with her two boyfriends — good call, Meteora. When the tray was cleared, they had almost unconsciously moved closer to each other. They fell asleep like that, not quite cuddling, but close enough that they could feel each other’s warmth in their sleep. This was just the beginning, and there’d be so much to get through, not even counting all the magic and royalty stuff they had to deal with. But it felt right, and that was all they needed to know for the time being.

Chapter Text

Star’s mirror phone alarm went off at seven. She groaned, her eyes still closed, and her hand padded around blindly to turn it off. When it finally stopped, she turned around and went back to her slumber.

The alarm went off again at five past seven. She groaned a little louder and reached out again to turn it off. “Star…” Marco whined, or maybe warned, neither could tell. She settled back down.

Ten past seven, the alarm went off again and Star finally opened her eyes, annoyed. She sat up and grabbed the mirror phone. “Just shut it,” Tom slurred angrily.

Star turned the alarm off and noticed vaguely that she had programmed about ten of them, every five minutes, and a note in the mirror phone said “get up and go to castle, royal biz, you promised”.

She blinked. Oh. Right. Recent events had called for some kind of paperwork meeting this morning and she had promised to take it seriously.

She really didn’t want to leave.

But she had promised. She had to be the better princess.

She quickly de-programmed all the alarms and relished for a moment the idea of going back to sleep, right here, right now.

Instead, she crawled out of bed, looking for her closet. She then realized this was not her room, so the closet was not going to be here. This was Tom’s room, in the Underworld, the general warmth of the place should have been a clear reminder. She rubbed her face, trying to wake up a little faster.

Marco and Tom were still in bed, drifting between slumber and consciousness. It had become a habit for the three of them, over the last few months, to have date nights that inevitably ended with cuddling each other to sleep. It was calming, in a different way for each of them.

Star looked around for her clothes. The ones she was wearing the day before were rolled into a ball and abandoned on an armchair by the TV, and there were some other stuff scattered around in small clean piles that belonged to her that she had forgotten over the course of their last dates at Tom’s place. She pouted at all of it. She was sleepy and headed for a boring day of royal deskwork apprenticeship. For some reason, showing the effort of gathering her own belongings and trying to match an outfit out of it felt wrong right now.

She suddenly spotted Marco’s clothes neatly folded on top of the drawer, his red hoodie standing out on top of them. Glancing at her boys, she tip-toed her way over there and ran a hand on the thick and soft fabric. It was smelly and comfortable and way more alluring than anything she had here. Um, it was missing something though.

She ducked down and opened Tom’s drawer, retrieving a pair of dark purple pants. She quickly changed into them, leaving her nightgown on the floor to deal with later. She slipped into one of her T-shirts before putting on Marco’s hoodie and taking a deep breath.

Ah, there it was. The feeling of her boyfriends around her. She smiled contently and slipped her horns headband in her hair. Maybe the day wouldn’t be too bad now. She felt ready to go and deal with whatever royalty would throw at her. Alright, now for the dimensional scissors…

“Star?” She turned around. Marco was still in bed, propped up on his elbows and staring at her with an amused smile. “Are you wearing my hoodie?” Tom then looked up at her, two out of three eyes still trying to open properly.

“Maaaaaaybe,” Star drawled with a blushy smile.

“And my pants,” Tom remarked, looking a little confused.

“I didn’t have any other spare clothes.”

Tom blinked and looked around the room, then snorted. Marco just smiled. “Sure you didn’t.”

She walked up to the bed and nudged them both playfully before grabbing the scissors on the bedtable. “I’m going to have a very boring day so I’m borrowing those. I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”

“That’s fine, we’ll wait here. Unless you need to go somewhere?” Tom asked Marco who just raised an eyebrow at Star.

“No need for royal squiring today,” she said, cutting a portal open. She hesitated a moment then crawled into bed to kiss her boyfriends on the cheek. “See you later guys.”

“Later, Starship.”

“See you. Say, you left me something to wear, right?” Marco wondered.

Star giggled. “You can steal my clothes too if you need,” she said, stepping out through the portal and leaving.

Tom fell back on the mattress, moaning, and opened his arms pointedly. Marco rolled his eyes and on his side to cuddle with his boyfriend for a few more minutes.

When Star came back, spent but glad the day was over, she found Tom and Marco playing video games. A popular Love Sentence song was on, and there was a pile of DVD cases on the table.

Star smiled amusingly when she noticed Marco was wearing one of her dresses, a loose peach one with a discreet heart pattern, over a pair of shorts. He was also wearing some hair-clips for no apparent reason, but they really looked super cute on him. Then she looked over Tom and realized there was no way those neon-colored knee-socks were his, but damn did he look good with them under the holes in his jeans. Same thing for the baby blue jacket over his T-shirt. How come she had never thought of that?

When the two boys realized their girlfriend was back, the game was paused and they stood to greet her, but stopped at the strange stare she gave them. When she spoke, they just laughed with relief: “You two really should borrow my clothes more often.”

Chapter Text

Star had been away more frequently than usual. Several times a week, she would be gone for hours at a time. It wasn’t a drastic change, but it was noticeable enough for Marco to get curious about it.

She wouldn’t tell him where she was gone. The only other person who appeared to know was Tom, and he was also trying hard to keep Star’s activities a secret. Marco had tried to get an answer out of them both multiple times, without success. He’d be okay if it was something he just was not supposed to know, but it wasn’t even that. They always managed to switch his attention to something else, until the next time Star was gone.

This had been going on for weeks and Marco was really starting to feel irked by it all. He knew Star needed her privacy, but the fact her and Tom were specifically keeping him from knowing was upsetting.

That day, Star had been away for even longer than she usually was, and even Tom was nowhere to be found. Marco had been left hanging around in the palace, killing time until his girlfriend and boyfriend were back. He didn’t mind free time but god was he in a sour mood. As the evening darkened the sky, he waited for them, playing video games in his bedroom, which was now more of a private space than the place he slept most of the time – that would be Star’s bedroom.

Tom and Star didn’t even get a chance to speak first when they came back. Marco was up and ready to call them out as soon as he heard their footsteps in the corridor. There had been a few false alarms so far, mind you. But not this time. This time, when they stepped into his room, he glared at them both right in the eyes and snapped. “Okay, that’s it, this has been going on for too long! I won’t back down until you tell me where you were today!”

“Okay, Marco.”

Star’s sudden compliance caught him off-guard and he stopped to look at her and Tom. He was wearing a tranquil, amused smile, staring back at him attentively. As for Star, she had the largest excited grin on her face, slightly bouncing on the soles of her feet and keeping her hands hidden behind her back. Their common glee completely washed away his previous annoyance, leaving him unsure and curious.

“We were at Eclipsa’s,” Tom said plainly, moving to go sit on Marco’s bed, glancing at the paused video game screen.

“Eclipsa’s?” Marco repeated. “The other times too?”

“Yup!” Star confirmed in her excited sing-song voice.

“Why?” There would have been no reason to hide that from him. After the former Queen had managed to free her monster love from his crystal prison, there had been a bit of ruckus, obviously. But after some adaptation and some broken fights, Globgore and Eclipsa were now living a happy marriage in their isolated castle, raising their surprisingly adorable de-aged daughter. Tom, Star and Marco would pay them a visit from time to time, and they were all on good terms, so why hide more frequent visits from him?

“Well, you know, catching up over tea, playing with baby Meteora, oh, and Eclipsa has been helping me work on my magic hands!” Star took her right hand out from behind her back and wiggled her fingers, a gesture she had gotten from the former queen. Star had been working on summoning her magic without the wand for a while now and was getting very good at it, even in her normal mewman form. She kinda had to, since she was insisting on letting Eclipsa keep the wand.

“That’s… It?” Marco asked tentatively, because there was no way that was all they had done.

“Well, Star kinda had this little side-project Meteora and Glossarick were helping her with, so today I went and helped them with the finish,” Tom said like that was completely normal.

“What kind of side project?”

Star almost started vibrating from excitement and bit her own lip harshly. “Take a guess!”

“Um…”

“Oh, you know what, nevermind, I can’t wait any longer!” Star cried out, shoving the thing she was hiding in her left hand into Marco’s arms.

He looked down to see what it was, but it suddenly emitted a blinding light and soared into the air, pulling Marco with it. It spun wildly for a moment, then stopped and floated back down a lot more gently, setting the dizzy human boy back on the ground. The light dimed out revealing a metallic green object akin to a very short dagger, but with a spherical hilt adorned with black bat wings and a small purple diamond-shaped stone. Marco’s eyes widened in recognition, his eyebrows soaring higher than the object had moments ago. “Star, is that your wand?!”

“No, not my wand, Marco!” Star had one of the happiest, most excited faces Marco had ever seen on her, and that was saying something. “This is an entirely new, extra-personalized magical wand and it’s yours!”

“Mine? What? How? Why?” Marco was extremely lost but Star seemed literally incapable of calming down.

“Isn’t it amazing?! We’re going to be the most incredible team of magic people in the entire multiverse!” she screamed, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him like a rag doll. Tom snickered, trying to not be too obvious about the fact he was having a blast watching them.

“Can someone tell me what’s going on?” Marco pleaded.

“Star has been making a new wand to replace the one she gave Eclipsa, and she wants you to have it,” Tom explained, getting up from the bed. He made his way to his two partners and gently pried Star away, keeping her in a back embrace from a dizzy but thankful Marco.

“We both made it, actually!” Star interjected, flashing a grin at the blushing demon. “That’s why Tom was with me today!”

“Okay… Wait, what? Why me?” Marco asked, finally able to think a little clearly.

“Because you’re awesome and we love you and we’re going to be an amazing magical team!”

“Because I already have my demonic powers and Star has basically mastered wandless magic,” Tom explained, and from the embrace where she was kept, Star wiggled her fingers. “So we thought it would be awesome if you could use magic too!” Even if he could manage his excitement a lot better than Star, Tom was as genuinely happy as his girlfriend.

“Oh god. Oh god, you guys, I… This is…” Marco struggled to form a coherent sentence. That Tom and Star trusted him with a wand, one they had made just for him… It meant so much. Without him saying anything, he was suddenly the center of a group hug and had to stop thinking for a moment in order to appreciate it. “I don’t know what to say,” he admitted.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Star said.

“Aren’t your parent going to be… You know, worried about this?”

“I don’t care. Now!” Star pulled back so suddenly Marco was pushed against Tom and the two boys had to found their balance again. “You gotta try it out!”

“Wait, I don’t know any spells or, are there any precautions I have to take first? How about…”

“Ugh, Marco, now’s not the time for safety!” Star slapped her hands over Marco’s cheeks and looked at him straight in the eyes. “You now have a tool of incredible power you must use and protect against the forces of evil. You won’t always have spells to rely on or time for precautions.” Her face closed in, uncomfortably serious. “So trust your guts and go for it.”

Sounds of people yelling and things breaking was coming from afar, far below them, at the foot of the castle. The air smelled like dust and burnt cheddar as Star, Tom and Marco stared at what once was the wall of Marco’s bedroom. There was no hole in it, the entire thing was gone and its remains had rained down the white stone façade like a waterfall.

“I am a very bad teacher,” Star remarked.

“No, don’t… Don’t say that,” Tom tried.

“I am very bad at magic,” Marco added.

“Hey, don’t say that either,” Tom sighed. He drew the two close tentatively, rubbing their shoulders. Marco was still clutching the wand, teeth clenched. Star looked like she was having St-Olga flash-backs. Tom felt a little guilty. He loved seeing his lovers happy and excited but maybe he should have stopped it before it went too far.

“It could’ve gone a lot worse.” Star smiled, and giggled nervously. “You didn’t set the entire castle on fire.”

“Because you did?”

“I was young and wild and a little cold.”

Tom and Marco looked at her and caught her infectious laughter. “I can second the wild thing,” Tom admitted. “But you were fourteen.”

“Which is young.”

“It was two years ago.”

“Maybe we should go and check if anybody got hurt?” Marco interrupted.

Tom and Star nodded. “Good call, let’s go.”

Chapter Text

The preparations for Tom, Star and Marco’s wedding took over half a year of planning, two weeks of training, three diplomats, an expert in demonic astrology, an a few terrified priests. No union had ever been so unheard of in the history of Mewni. What made it so difficult was mostly the fact they had to undergo all the ceremonies, with their respective cultures and customs, for their marriage to be accepted by Mewni, Earth and the Underworld alike. The event lasted three days, each one taking place in a different dimension.

Earth was actually the easiest part, because it didn’t include any kingdom inheritance. Marco’s parents were just set on the fact they needed their son to have a proper wedding for their family of non-dimension-hoppers to attend. Which is why it was the first one out of the three.

They traumatized about six priests and a half before giving up on trying to get married in a church, which Tom apologized multiple times for — after he calmed down from his fit of anger at Earth priests’ discriminating attitude. Eventually, they managed to rent an abandoned chapel and have Janna act as their officiant, finding out on the way that it’s a lot easier than it should be to become a minister in the US through online resources. Ferguson was Marco’s best man, and Brian acted as Tom’s, which was a surprisingly emotional decision. Star had Jackie be her maid of honor. Marco’s little sibling was the ring bearer.

Star’s dress was coming straight out of a fairytale, white and puffy, sparkling like it was sown with diamonds and topped with a magically created platinum tiara. Pretty much Giselle’s dress from Enchanted. Tom and Marco wore matching suits, much to the human’s displeasure but his family had insisted, so Tom promised he could wear whatever he wanted for the ceremony in the Underworld.

A good part of Marco’s extended family as well as the many friends Star made at Echo Creek Academy attended the ceremony and the party in the early evening. It was rather simple but fun and charming. Janna loved being the officiant and kept adding silly lines to the ceremony until everybody collectively asked her to just get to the point. When it came to the rings, there were two of them, golden and thin. Star and Tom each took one of Marco’s hands and slid the rings onto both his third fingers. They had decided this would be how they’d do it during each ceremony, but even though it was only the first part of their union, they all started crying at this point, especially Marco, and when they shared their symbolic kiss, it was an awkward and wet three-way peck that made everyone giggle gently.

After the ceremony was the celebration part. Everybody danced and ate and had fun together on a mixture of pop and folk music. There was a lot of hugging and happy confessions, and a little bit of inoffensive fainting. When it was time to throw her bouquet, Star took it a tad bit too seriously and rocketed her roses and lilies across the room. Somehow, StarFan13 was at the perfect spot and managed to catch them with a squeal of delight before fainting again on a bed of lost leaves and petals.

Later that night, by the end of the party, Marco had a touching family moment with his parents and little sibling before leaving with his spouses to spend the night in the Underworld and get some rest for the next day.

One of the reasons the marriage took so long to organize was that the Underworld has very specific traditions when it comes to weddings, most of which have to do with star alignments and omens, and it came in the way of when it was convenient for the marriage to take place on Mewni, hence the diplomats and astrology expert. Wrathmelior and Dave Lucitor only wanted the best for their son and future ruler of the Underworld, so it all had to happen under the best auspices, literally.

The ceremony took place at night, under a waxing moon, bathed in the light of bonfires and red candles. A number of important demons watched from the outside of the ceremonial circle as the participants took their places. First came in the King and Queen, Tom’s parents, standing on each side of the altar, then the demon officiant who would lead the ceremony. Tom, Star and Marco walked in next as a local band that Tom really liked started to play some sort of ominous nuptial march.

They all wore a different shade of red in clothes of their own choosing. Tom had the darkest, a fitted suit with small white flowers at his collar, and he had his devil tail sticking out in his back. Star had opted for a light shade, almost pink, flowing around her in the form of a long and airy ball gown. Her hair was styled in a large bun, and she wore her fake horns. As for Marco, he had chosen something a little bit in between: a bright red tunic, a color reminiscent of his hoodie but in a style that made him look like a knight, complete with a cape.

The ceremony was what could be expected of a demonic marriage, but adapted as to bond three people. (Try googling “satanic marriage”, it’s actually pretty interesting!) To finish the ceremony, Marco and Star put their rings on both of Tom’s hands and kissed them. Then, they all faced opposite directions, standing back to back, as the officiant crowned them and declared them crown princes and princess of the Underworld.

The celebration was wild, yet, slightly shorter than the one they had on earth. They did take the time to dance, all three of them holding hands in a small, intimate ring. Marco had a little bit of trouble following Tom and Star’s steps, but they assured him he did fine. However, it was already late and the three spouses still had one last, but not least, ceremony to go through the next day.

They had saved the wedding ceremony in the Butterfly Kingdom for last, because out of the three, it was the most grand, regal, and politically significant. This last ceremony was supposed to make their union official to all peoples of Mewni, and was really a public event rather than a wedding. The day was declared a punctual holiday. Although it was really only expected for nobility to attend, Star insisted that Buff Frog and his family, as well as several monsters, were invited as a statement of peace. Kelly, Ponyhead, Eclipsa and Meteora received seats in the front row; Globgor was unfortunately too tall and had to sit in the back along with the other more imposing guests.

Tom, Star and Marco’s clothes were tailored for the occasion under the King and Queen’s orders. They all included the same pure white fabric, but embroidered with specific symbols in purple silk. The bottom part of Star’s large dress was adorned with an intricate pattern of butterflies, diamonds, hearts and stars. Tom wore the Underworld’s emblems on the front of his coat, and both he and Marco had respectively little suns and moon crescents on their vests.

The three of them were paraded through the capital before being led to the throne room where the ceremony was taking place. They said their long vows in unison, as was customary in the Butterfly Kingdom, first to each other, and then to their audience. Tom and Marco took Star’s hands and slipped the final rings on her fingers, trying really hard not to cry. Star kissed Tom, then Marco, a little more passionately than deemed appropriate for a princess, before the two boys kissed each other. People cheered, some more genuinely than others. The three of them were then crowned again as the officiant recited the list of their newly acquired titles and declared the wedding had officially come into effect.

They walked back down the aisle, thanking their guests and grinning blissfully. They were paraded once more through a celebrating town before joining the party in the castle’s gardens so that they could open the ball.