Chapter Text
“What about when you look at me?”
Marco frowned and intently looked at the princess he served, his eyebrows scrunched in careful thought as the gears in his head visibly shifted. A whirl of confusing emotions swiveled within him, stalling his tongue as his companions began to look at him with growing concern.
Tom leaned forward towards the human. “Marco?”
As if stirred from rest, the Latino suddenly shivered, his eyes briefly widening before turning back to their normal state. Shaking his head, Marco felt something inside him fade and wink out of existence, the pain slowly fading away; floating in its place was a sudden warm, comforting glow that shone brightly within his heart and his mind—an epiphany, a light within the darkness that had dominated his soul ever since he arrived on Mewni.
Star worriedly asked, “Marco?”
Marco looked up and suddenly said, “You know what? I just realized, I don’t actually need to be here.”
What? Star looked at Marco in confusion. “Marco? What are you talking about?”
“Bro,” Tom prodded, clearly sharing his girlfriend’s sentiment, “are you all right?”
The human blinked. “I know now why I went to Mewni to be with you; because I loved you. Everything I did—becoming your squire, being your best friend, helping you as Princess of Mewni, planning out the Monster Bash and that birthday party on Stump Day—I did because I wanted to be a part of your life, and maybe even try to be something more than just being your best friend.”
“And now?” Star asked, a discomforting feeling growing inside her.
Marco frowned. “I don’t love you, Star.”
Tom and Star’s eyes widened in shock. Relicor screeched and cried, sobbing into his hands.
“I did everything I did because I loved you, and even if you didn’t want me that way, I kept doing them because of how I felt. Now I know that I don’t feel that way for you, why should I do these kinds of things for you? You have a boyfriend, for corn’s sake! I’ve been literally wasting my time here on Mewni when I could have been somewhere elsewhere in the universe, with someone who actually wants my feelings for her!”
The princess stared at Marco with horror, his words echoing in her mind as Tom realized that the Severing Stone might have worked a bit too well in removing his friends’ love for each other.
“But Marco, you’re my best friend! I still care about you, and I do appreciate what you do for me! Right, Marco? Please,” Star begged, tears coming out of her eyes, “everything’s alright now, isn’t it?”
In another time, the Latino would have paused and instantly rushed to Star’s side, sharing the warm, special embrace that the two knew they saved only for each other. Now, Marco simply stood there, looking at her with no small amount of irritation.
“No. Maybe for you, perhaps, but not for me. I’m sorry Star, but I’m tired of being simply your bit on the side. I’m tired of simply being your servant and squire instead of your friend. I’m tired of being your third wheel whenever you and Tom spend time together. I’m tired of spending all my time and effort for planning all these parties and trips and surprises that you never get to appreciate or even seem to want in the first place. I came here to Mewni hoping that I could be your boyfriend, but now that I don’t have these feelings in my head, I can actually think clearly now! And right now, I just realized that since you viewed my feelings as simply just part of some inconvenient curse, why should I stick around when I can find someone else who sees those kinds of feelings as something more?”
Oh no.
The princess’s mind was spiralling downwards, blow after blow upon her heart as cracks began to form. This wasn’t happening, this couldn’t be happening! It wasn’t supposed to be like this; the feelings were supposed to be gone, and the two of them were supposed to become simply friends and nothing more! Star trembled in fright, realization suddenly dawning upon her that she may have had just lost her true companion then and there. Her mind grasped at the implications of that epiphany—
“No. No!” she cried, frantically grasping Marco by the lapels of his jacket. “It was the curse, wasn’t it? It was the curse! Stop acting like this, Marco, you’re scaring me! Please say you’re playing a prank on me! Tom, something went wrong with the Stone, didn’t it? It’s got to be the Stone messing things up, wasn’t it?”
Relicor sobbed something vague, and Tom paled as he listened to his great-grandfather’s words. Turning to the three non-demons in the room, he remarked, “Sorry, Star, but apparently the Stone broke the Curse exactly the way it should.”
Marco smiled, a hint of warmth upon his lips as he did so. “Star, maybe there’s perhaps a sliver of a chance that my feelings weren’t just the curse. But let’s be honest; are you ever really going to reciprocate while Tom’s still around?”
“B-b-but Marco—”
“I thought not,” the human replied, sighing to himself as he did so. “And even if you did, considering how you’ve treated my feelings beforehand, why should I keep having those feelings when you’ve always considered them an inconvenience to you being with Tom? There are many other people out there who I’m pretty sure will happily have those feelings, Star; I could maybe go see Hekapoo, now that we’ve patched things up again. Maybe I could go ask Kelly out on a date like I think she’s always wanted me to do, or perhaps I could go catch up with Jackie and see how she’s doing. How is she doing, by the way?”
Marco’s expression was brightening by the second, the excitement palpable in his voice as he spoke. The heart stickers in Star’s cheeks were breaking at the seams, and even the normally aloof Janna appeared taken aback by her friend’s unexpected change of heart.
Tom slowly spoke, “…so, you’re leaving Mewni?”
The Latino eagerly nodded, “Yep; as of this moment, I’m quitting! I’m going to take Tad’s advice, and I’m going to go exploring the universe like I used to back in the Neverzone. Man, those were some good times—”
Star’s hearts cracked and split. Somewhere, something inside of her broke at the sound of Marco’s words, the ultimate outcome she had always feared but hoped would never come. In an instant, the princess collapsed, desperately yanking onto Marco’s hoodie in a last-ditch effort to keep him by her side as she sobbed onto his shoulder.
“No, no, no, NO! Please don’t leave me, Marco, I’m sorry! We can talk about this; we can fix this! Just come back to Mewni with us, and we can make everything all right—”
“Star.”
“—I need you, Marco! It wasn’t the curse, it was me! I’m sorry, Marco, I’m so, so sorry—”
“Star.”
“—for everything I did to hurt you, please forgive me! Just stay, Marco; you’re my best friend!”
“Star!”
Star looked up, her round, droopy eyes hopeful as ever. Marco sighed.
“Star, you’re a good friend, or rather you have been a good friend, but I think it’s time that I spent some time for myself for once. You’ve got a happy relationship with Tom ahead of you, and thanks to my dimensional scissors I’ve got an interesting future ahead of me. To be honest, I think we stopped being best friends a long time ago, and I think it’s time we both recognized that. I’m sorry, but I don’t think me being here on Mewni as either your squire or your friend is going to help either one of us.”
Marco smiled, more to himself than to his companions within the room. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find someone who actually wants me to be her hero.”