Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was Wednesday evening, and Star was tempting the fates by balancing another precarious coffee cup on the leaning tower of dirty dishes in her sink. She almost had it just right when someone rapped a familiar, friendly knock on the front door of her. Was that Jackie?

Star rushed to answer the door, abandoning the pile of plates, bowls, cups, and cutlery to clatter chaotically onto the counter. “Shoot,” Star cursed to herself. Hopefully nothing broke.

“Hey!” she greeted Jackie with a big hug, “What are you doing here?” Wednesday was definitely not their usual date night, so the visit was entirely unexpected. Totally cool with Star, though. It always felt like a little victory when she managed to pry Jackie away from her other engagements.

Jackie’s embrace felt a little half-hearted, though. She pulled Star closer when she tried to pull away, and pressed her face into Star’s neck.

“Hey, you okay?” Star asked.

“Yeah,” Jackie replied. “Just missed you. Can I come in?”

“Totally! Yeah! Sorry it’s such a mess.”

Jackie snickered and replied with a joking tone, “Aw, man, no you know that’s a real deal breaker. I better just head back home.” Then she gave Star a playful wave and turned around to leave.

“No, come on,” Star said, grabbing the back of Jackie’s shirt to keep her from fleeing. “Okay, it’s not actually that bad.”

“Yeah, Star, seriously, it’s never that bad, why do you always make a big deal about getting everything nice in here for me? I know Marco sets a high bar, but let’s be real, no one is that tidy.” Jackie followed Star into the apartment and plucked a pair of week-old leggings from Star’s living room floor, “Now this is the real Star. Can’t get this on a date night.”

Star grabbed the garment from Jackie’s hand and tried to defend herself, “Okay listen, no. I’m very cool and normal and you are not allowed to think I’m a slob. I do my laundry.” While she spoke, she shovelled the rest of her scattered clothes into her arms. “You have to believe me. It’s just been a rough week, okay?” She then heaved the big clump of clothes into her bedroom and quickly shut the door. “There, that’s better. Illusion restored.”

Jackie smiled and made herself comfortable on the couch. “I really don’t care, Star. I’ll still love you even if I have to wade through an ocean of dirty clothes to get to you.”

Star sighed and tried to change the subject, “Coffee?”

“Yes please,” Jackie replied like she was dying of thirst.

A few minutes later, Star returned to the couch with a couple of hot drinks – Jackie’s favorite, a sea salt caramel blonde roast cappuccino, complete with latte art featuring an ornate seashell of milk and foam. Jackie held the drink in her hands, admiring the pattern on the surface, a sad smile on her face. She spoke with a somber reverence, “Okay full disclosure, dude: I might have come here just for your coffee.” She leaned over and gave Star a kiss on the cheek, “You’re so sweet.”

Star smirked, “Guilty.” She paused for a moment before asking Jackie again if she was okay.

“Yeah,” she lied again. But Star wasn’t going to press it. If Jackie wanted to talk about it, she would.

“You’re not really here just for the coffee, are you? Why’d you really come over?”

“Oh I dunno. I was just walking around and I thought of you, missed your face and hands and the rest of you.” She rotated the untouched cappuccino in her hands a few times before she continued, “Lucky you’re home.”

Star laughed, “Yeah, super lucky. You know I’m always out, shopping and adventuring, spending all those big bucks I totally have.”

Jackie didn’t respond for a few moments. Eventually she asked Star how her day was, sounding only half-interested. Her mind was clearly elsewhere.

Still, Star tried her best to tell Jackie every detail of her day. Her morning routine; opening the café and all the fun and miserable customers she dealt with; some gripes about the Boss; a cute pair of boots she spotted on the way home that she couldn’t possibly afford.

“I haven’t had dinner yet,” Star mused when she was done, “You want to go out? Delivery? Are you sticking around for a while?”

Jackie had started taking sips of her no-longer-hot coffee. She thought about Star’s question before responding with a nod, “Yeah, let’s order something.”

“Nice. What do you want?”

“Do you know if that burger place downtown delivers? I want something greasy. Like, fill me with regret greasy.”

“Sloppy José’s? Uh…” Star opened her phone and did a quick search, “They do! Lucky. You want to see the menu?”

“No need, dude. The super bacon burger. Medium rare. Loaded, and drown that bad boy in chili.”

Star put Jackie’s order in with a smile, added in her own burger of choice (the Hawaiian), and sent it off – her treat – to what she liked to imagine was some kind of special void where food materialized out of the ether. (Marco assured her it was just a regular minimum wage worker’s hard labor in a hot kitchen, but that was a more depressing and Star enjoyed the illusion of whimsy.)

She hoped the comfort food would be enough to lift the spirits of her forlorn companion.

While they waited, Star set up a videogame that she picked up a few weeks ago while she was out on a date with Jackie – a discolored cartridge she found in some bargain bin that happened to work with that janky old console she scored at a garage sale. She heaved her little TV onto the coffee table and tossed Jackie a controller.

The screen lit up with a bright blue sky, a beautiful wave-speckled teal ocean, and a cartoonish title screen. A crackly, distorted, singsong voice sung out of the tinny speakers on the TV: ~Wave ♥ Busters 2~, followed by a killer chiptune of a theme song that got Star tapping her fingers and moving her shoulders to the beat. Earth might be pretty boring compared to Mewni – or like, literally any other dimension – but they made up for it with some top-notch videogames. This one was half collect-a-thon waterski racer, half deathmatch, half stunt-off, and half plot-rich romance story. A real hidden gem – except for the terrible graphics, low framerate, and occasional game-breaking glitch. Star and Jackie had already gotten to the third world together, uncovered the myriad mysteries of Blood Cove, and won the affections of half the princesses in the sea. World 3 was some weird dreamscape prison dimension that they had find some way to escape – through jet ski racing, of course.

Jackie’s heart just wasn’t in it today, though. She kept crashing into obstacles and picking terrible dialogue options. Star was really starting to get worried. What could get Jackie so depressed that she didn’t even have the heart to race across an ocean of dreams to ignite the heart of some beautiful princess in distress?

After one particularly frustrating last-place finish, Jackie tossed her controller on the couch beside her and sighed. “Chloe brushed me off again,” she finally admitted.

Star immediately put her controller down and turned her full attention to Jackie, “Aw, no. What happened?”

The TV screen flickered faintly while chill, somewhat muted pause music played on.

Jackie shrugged and threw her hands in the air in indignation, “I wish I knew. Like, what’s even going on with her? Just because I’ve got someone to hang out with over here, she thinks she can just bail on all our dates now?” Jackie crossed her arms and took a deep breath, trying to stay calm and deescalate her frustration. “I get that a video date with me isn’t exactly as exciting as hanging out with that Kristoff guy in the flesh, but come on.” She looked Star in the eye, pleading for support, “I’m not being ridiculous, am I? I just want some of her time. I just want to know we’ve still got something.”

Star put her hand on Jackie’s and tried to talk her through it. “You’re totally not being ridiculous. It’s definitely not okay for her to just cancel on you so much. You’ve got every right to be upset.” She entwined her fingers with Jackie’s. She knew it was easy to get stuck in your head about someone sometimes, writing a story for them, forgetting how a person really is. She’d done it before – heck, she’d done it for Jackie. That was a whole thing. Maybe it would help to trying to turn Jackie’s imagined narrative around a bit. “But… I mean, is she really bailing on you for her boyfriend over there? That doesn’t sound like her.”

“He’s not her… boyfriend. He’s just a… like, a stupid fling or something. They’ve only been seeing each other for like… eight… months…”

Star was staring Jackie down with a concerned, questioning look.

Jackie sighed. “Fine, Star, you got me. Maybe I’m feeling… I don’t know, jealous? But, you know what? She’s not giving me any reason not to be jealous – pretending to be busy all the time?”

Star placed her free hand on Jackie’s knee. “Maybe she’s just… actually busy? Why does she keep cancelling?”

“Oh man, Star, she has like every excuse in the book. Studying for cake exams? Taking care of her mom? Babysitting for her neighbor?? Laundry??? And she never tells me until right at the last minute! What’s her problem?” Jackie was getting worked up again. This really must have been weighing on her mind for a while.

“Uh… yeah, okay. That’s… not great…”

“I know! How am I supposed to feel when she won’t make any time for me anymore?”

Star raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to one side a bit. “I thought you said you guys went on a date last week?”

Jackie pulled away from Star. She didn’t respond.

“Aw, come on Jackie… How long has it been?”

Jackie balled up her fists before she responded, “A couple… months…”

“No way, for real? That’s crazy! Why didn’t you tell us?”

“You guys don’t need to deal with all my Chloe stuff. That’s not fair.”

Star always thought Jackie would come to her and Marco with her troubles. She was kind of hurt to find she was keeping things from them like this, but more importantly, she was scared that Jackie might genuinely think that sharing her feelings with them was putting some kind of burden on them. She pulled Jackie in for a long hug and reassured her, “You can talk to us about anything, Jacks. We’re here for you, whatever’s going on. And what’s going on here? You totally don’t deserve to be blown off like that.”

Jackie sighed and wrapped her arms around Star. She buried her face in Star’s shoulder and gently grasped the back of her shirt. She let out a quiet breath with a little apology and a thank you in it.

After a long moment, the two of them released their embrace and returned to holding hands. Jackie looked like she was stuck on a troubling thought. At last, she gave up on it with a grumble and a shrug, “You’re probably right. She probably isn’t actually ditching me for him.”

Star playfully boasted, “Of course I’m right. When am I ever wrong, huh? Chloe loves you, you know that. She wouldn’t hurt you like that.”

“She is hurting me, though, that’s the thing. Like, okay, maybe she’s not trying to, but how can she be this oblivious to how much this stuff breaks my heart?”

“Well… I mean, I hate to point out the obvious here, but have you… told her?”

Jackie looked up at the ceiling to avoid looking at Star when she replied, “No…”

Star didn’t have to say a word to let her lover know how ridiculous that sounded.

“Star I can’t just…” She let out a deep sigh before she said with a bit of impatience and finality, “It’s complicated, okay?”

Star squeezed Jackie’s hand tight, “Okay.”

“‘Okay?’ Just like that?”

“Yeah, it’s cool, I get it. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

Jackie didn’t smile, but the tension in her posture released with a subtle sigh. She was clearly grateful that Star was letting her off the hook – though Star certainly didn’t want to. All she wanted to do right now was talk Jackie through this, get everything off her chest, and help her figure out how to make things right with her troublesome girlfriend. But this clearly wasn’t the right time for all that. Jackie was scared and alone. She needed a friend and a shoulder to lean on. Maybe some soft kisses on the forehead, and to be told everything was going to be alright. Or maybe she just needed a distraction.

“Man,” Jackie lamented, “Marco just wouldn’t let it go when I was tried to talk to him about this…”

“Oh jeez, did he start doing his psychiatrist thing?”

“He did!”

“I haaate that.”

“Right!? Like, dude, if I wanted my brain picked apart, I’d crack it open and feed it to the seagulls on the pier.”

Star gave Jackie a playful shove, “Ew, dude. Gross.”

“What? Better than having to hear all about my problems from the esteemed future-doctor Diaz.”

Star snickered, “Can’t argue with that.” But after a second of reflection, she realized they were basically throwing the poor guy under a bus for doing his best to make things right. “But, you know, he’s just trying to help.”

“I know, I know. And I love him for it, but it’s like, dude, do I need this? I just want to vent.”

“Yeah totally.” Star played it cool and pretended that she wasn’t aching to fix this problem for Jackie just as much as Marco must have been.

Jackie snuggled into Star, who wrapped an arm around her and held her tight. Star’s fingers traced winding streams in Jackie’s hair while the two of them silently watched the digital water oscillating behind the pause screen on the TV. Jackie’s stress seemed to melt away in Star’s arms. Her breathing slowed, and her tight grip on Star’s shirt relaxed until she let her hands rest gently on Star’s arm and chest. Star smiled and gave Jackie that much-needed kiss on the forehead. A quiet moment comforting her lover – she hated to admit it, but maybe a little crisis once in a while wasn’t so bad if it meant that she could offer Jackie some emotional support like this. The cool and collected Jackie Lynn Thomas was hard to catch in a vulnerable moment like this.

A few minutes of soft, quiet bliss later, a knock at the door announced the arrival of Jackie’s greasy and well-deserved comfort food. And either the venting, the snuggling, or the burger did the trick, because she was looking a lot better after the meal.

After the meal was finished off, Star held up the controller for the game and asked if Jackie wanted to keep playing.

Jackie shook her head, “Star I’m not gonna lie, I don’t think I have the jet ski warrior spirit in me today. What kind of movies do you have?”

“Terrible ones. Have a look, they’re in that drawer over there,” Star pointed to the dresser that served as her entertainment console.

Jackie kneeled in front of the bottom drawer and started shuffling through the haphazard pile of movies in there. “Oh man, these are just… awful. Why do you even have these?”

“Would you believe they were a ‘gift’ from Marco?”

“No,” Jackie gasped melodramatically. “I thought he had better taste than this.”

Star laughed. “Yeah, now he does. He said all that stuff is like ten years old. I basically got all his leftovers – the ones that didn’t make the connoisseur’s specially curated collection.”

Jackie grinned and pulled out a dusty apocalyptic rom-com that Star had never gotten around to watching – The World Ends With You. There was something about well-meaning people causing the end of the world overnight that didn’t sit well with her. She couldn’t put her finger on why. But maybe it would be nice to watch it with Jackie beside her – especially if the movie was so bad that they could poke fun at it the whole time.

Halfway through the train wreck of a film, Star asked Jackie if she planned on staying the night.

“Is that cool with you?”

“Yeah of course! Wow what a treat, Jackie Lynn Thomas staying in my bed on a Wednesday. You’re normally… busy…” Star was too late to catch herself saying something awkward.

“Yeah. Wednesday night, my much-anticipated, regularly-cancelled, standing reservation with Chloe.”

“Sorry.”

Jackie puffed herself up a bit and tried to sound like her usual unshakeable self. “You know what, it’s fine, I’m over it.”

Star had her doubts about the veracity of that statement, but she wasn’t about to push it.

After the movie, Star went to her room to shuffle the chaos on the floor and bed into a closet and to make some room for a romantic sleepover, then she returned to the couch and put on another terrible film for the two of them to waste the night on before heading to sleep. Jackie was fully out by the time the credits rolled, so Star shook her a little and led her to the bedroom where she proceeded to change out of her daytime clothes down to her underwear and a borrowed shirt, then crawled into bed and passed out immediately. Star tucked her in, then went through her normal pre-sleep routine before hopping into her pajamas. Under the covers, she snuggled up with Jackie, and her sleeping beauty mumbled a groggy, “Love you,” before returning to her deep slumber.

Star didn’t fall asleep for a while. Her mind was rattling around thinking about poor Jackie’s misery. There must be some way to make it better. Something to bring them together. A brilliant idea popped into her head right before she fell asleep. How was she such a genius, she thought to herself. She’d run it by Jackie in the morning, and everything would be right again by the end of the week.

Star was roused into a groggy state of consciousness by a soft kiss on her sleeping lips and a good morning, but she fell right back to sleep, listening to the distant sound of the shower running. She didn’t manage to crawl out of bed until an hour later when the smell of coffee and a pan-fried breakfast filled the air.

Over the meal, they talked about what snippets of their dreams they could remember, what Jackie was planning to do for the day – meeting a friend for a walk and some ice cream to catch up after weeks of mismatched schedules.

“Not that I ever have much to catch up on,” Jackie smiled sadly. “You know me, just bumming around town all day every day.”

“Still no plans for college, huh?”

“You know, it just might not be for me. What about: camp counsellor.”

Star lazily reminded Jackie that that was just a summer gig.

“What if I made it an all-year camp though, you think kids would still show up?”

“They have school, don’t they?”

Jackie took a moment to think about it before a disappointed look took over her hopeful face.

Star wasn’t trying to crush Jackie’s spirits so early in the morning. She tried to offer a suggestion, “You could just be a teacher or something couldn’t you? If you just want to take care of kids.”

Jackie laughed. “I’m not smart enough to teach anything, dude. I barely got out of high school with a B average.”

“B for ‘too Badass for this mess’, right?”

Jackie smiled, “I don’t think a college will accept ‘Badass’ as a prerequisite for a teaching program.”

Star shrugged, “You won’t know until you try. You’d totally be great at teaching gym. Right? Yeah, you know I’m right, girl. Or maybe you could be the chill school counsellor? Getting kids doing cool activities and keeping them on the right path. A generation of proud ‘B for Badass’ graduates under your wing. I hear from Marco that school counsellors are usually pretty useless, but I bet you’d put them all to shame.”

“Yeah, or: little easier: maybe I can just stick to being a lifeguard forever.”

“Okay I think you’re just willfully ignoring the ‘summer gigs don’t last all year’ thing now.”

“Like at an indoor swimming pool though, like at the rec center?”

“Dude swimming pools on Earth are so, so gross. Whatever they put in the water, it stinks so bad. You want to come home smelling like that every day?”

Jackie sighed. She stirred the eggs on her plate around pensively.

Star figured it wasn’t going to do any good pushing Jackie any more about this, but her future was a pretty frequent source of anxiety for her – that she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, that she was wasting her life while everyone around her was doing important things.

“Hey,” Star reached over and placed her hand over Jackie’s, “You’ll figure it out, there’s no rush.”

Jackie met Star with warm eyes and said thanks.

“You free again tonight?” Jackie asked, but then she caught herself, “Oh, no, Friendship Thursday?”

“Yeah! We’re going to the Dimension of Darkness again today. I think we’re gonna get the thing this time. We were so close last time, except for that idiot Ludo getting in the way again. How does he always find me at the worst possible times?”

“I love that you still call it that.”

“What?”

“‘Friendship Thursday’. Like, you’re not just friends now, you know?”

“Uh, no, we’re best friends.”

“Come on Star, you know what I mean.”

“Hey, pretty sure Marco and me are always gonna be friends, dude. Just because we’re doing this whole romance thing now doesn’t change that.”

Jackie smiled at that. “I love you guys.”

Star gave Jackie a soft kiss on the lips and reminded her that the feeling was mutual.

While they were doing the dishes, Star remembered the plan she came up with the night before. Maybe this was a good time to bring it up.

“Hey so I was thinking last night—”

“—Well that’s never a good thing,” Jackie joked.

“Shut up. About Chloe. I might have something that could help you two.”

Jackie was hesitant, but she was curious enough to ask for more details.

“Okay well first of all,” Star continued, “I think you super need to talk to her—”

“—Star—”

“—Hold on, I’m not done. I think you also need to see her. In person. This long-distance stuff is obviously killing you and it’s breaking my soft little heart to see it.”

“So, your plan is that I spend two thousand bucks on a 12-hour return flight to Paris… for one day… to have a really awkward conversation—”

“—I’m not done!” Star indignantly interrupted with a little scowl. Jackie sighed and let her continue. “You can just borrow my Dimensional Teaspoon. No planes, no pressure. Just pop over for a little visit, hang out for a while, get all your gripes out on the table, and, best of all, have a real date.”

Jackie stared at Star in disbelief for a moment. “Star that’s… really generous of you. Are you sure? That thing’s like… super important to you. If I lost it or broke it…”

“Jacks please. I know you’re super athletic and all, but I don’t think even you could crack an invincible magical artifact. Pretty sure these things are designed to outlast the universe.”

“You sound like the captain of the Titanic.”

Star looked at Jackie quizzically.

“It was this massive ship with thousands of people on it that was supposed to be unsinkable. It sank.”

Star crossed her arms and pointed a confident, fact-establishing finger at Jackie. “Okay but was it an indestructible magic ship?”

Jackie shrugged and brought her hands up in defeat, “Okay, fair enough.”

Star beamed and went ahead planning this scheme out, “Okay we got our things today, and tomorrow I’d got work and we’re all going out to that show with Janna, right? So… Saturday?”

Jackie didn’t respond right away. She seemed to be considering the plan, but she clearly still wasn’t sure. “I don’t know about this, Star. You really think she’ll want to see me?”

“Yes!”

Jackie laughed, “Okay, jeez. Your confidence is infectious, dude.” Jackie gave a little sigh and relented, “Alright, I’ll come over Saturday. But I either have to leave for Paris super early or super late. She’s 9 hours ahead.”

“I can probably drag myself out of bed in the morning if it’s for you, Jacks. Do you want me along? You know, for moral support?”

“Aw that’s sweet of you, Star.” She thought about it for a moment before agreeing, “Yeah you know what, that’s a great idea. If it goes well, I can introduce you two. I’m sure Chloe would love to meet you, and you’ll love her for sure. And… I dunno, if it goes bad, at least I can show you all the sights in beau Paris – the most beautiful city in the world, apparently. According to the travel guides anyways. They never mention the smell though. It’s a little much sometimes, if you want the truth.”

“I’ll bring a mask.”

“Oh, it won’t help,” Jackie said with a playful smile.

Star said her goodbyes to Jackie with a hug, a kiss, and a reminder that she loves her. Then she spent some time before her afternoon shift at Buck’s feeling giddy about getting a chance to go to Paris with Jackie. Honestly, she wondered why she hadn’t thought of doing this sooner.

The adventure with Marco that evening was pretty unsuccessful. The thing they were looking for wasn’t where their shadily acquired map said it was. Clues at the scene pointed to some kind of burglary, so they’d have to try again next week with a thorough forensic investigation.

When they got back, Star ran her plan about Chloe by Marco, and he seemed to be pretty supportive of it.

“Why didn’t you do this sooner?” he asked.

“I know! What’s wrong with me?” Star replied, disappointed at her own cluelessness. “Whatever, though, we’re doing it now. Maybe it’ll be a regular thing! Jackie going on real dates with Chloe again. She’ll love that. She’d love that, right?”

Marco smiled at her enthusiasm. “You’re a thoughtful girlfriend, Star. She’s lucky to have you looking out for her.”

“I know,” Star gloated. “I think I’m a strong contender for best girlfriend of the year.”

“You’ve got my vote.”

The show on Friday was a blast. One of Jackie’s favorite bands blew through town and was doing an ‘unannounced’ gig in the park, playing right on top of their tour bus. Even Janna seemed to be having a good time, though nothing Star did was enough to convince her to get up and dance. Turned out she was more of a toe tapper than a dancer. Still, the show was super fun.

Jackie spent the night over at Star’s place again so they could wake up early together. And they woke up super early – even before the sun rose.

“We’ll eat when we get there,” Jackie said, insisting that they skip breakfast.

Star nodded, still half-asleep.

“Okay, well, I’m ready,” she said, wearing her favorite outfit and carrying a longboard strapped to her backpack. She looked at Star with eager anticipation.

“Huh? Oh, right,” Star was drawn to attention by Jackie's expectant silence. She fished the Dimensional Teaspoon out of her bag and handed it over to Jackie.

Jackie looked at the ornate instrument quizzically. “Uh, Star, I don’t know how to use this thing. I thought you were—”

“What? No no no no, I can’t open a portal to Paris, dude. I’ve never been there. You have any idea how dangerous that is? We could end up anywhere in this dimension if I do that. Pretty sure most of this dimension is the void of space, so probably not a great idea, right?”

Jackie waved the spoon uneasily through the air, clearly having no idea what to do with it. “You can’t just look at a map or some photos or something?”

“I wish. Here, I’ll show you how it works.” Star took the Spoon back and swirled it in the air. A faint glowing whorl formed, ready to be pointed at some distant location. “You’re just stirring up a hole in the multiverse, like making a vortex in a cup of coffee, get it? Then you just think about where you want to go, and…” Star put a familiar destination in her thoughts, and a shimmering portal opened. Then she poked her head through and yelled, “Marco! Hurry up! You’re late for work!”

Then she stepped back from the opening and, as simply as it opened, it disappeared into nothing again.

“He’s not really late for work, is he?” Jackie asked.

“Oh, heck no, are you kidding? I doubt he’s ever been late for anything in his life. But I bet he’ll be halfway down the street before he remembers he’s off today.”

Jackie smirked at Star. “Janna’s rubbing off on you in the worst ways, Star Butterfly.”

Star handed the Spoon back to Jackie, “Okay, give it a shot.”

“Okay. So… swirl it around,” Jackie said, unsure of herself. But she had it figured out. A faint flowing vortex formed in the air. “And then…”

“Think Paris thoughts.”

“Right. Paris thoughts. Paris thoughts.” A small hole started to form at the center of the disk, but Jackie hesitated and drew her hand back, snapping the unfinished portal closed. “Wait. What if… what if I remember it wrong? I don’t want to end up opening a hole at the bottom of the ocean or something.”

“Jackie it’s fine, that’s not how it works. If you’ve been there before, you know where it is, how it feels. Just focus on that.”

Jackie tried again, and despite a few stumbling failures, she eventually got the portal open.

Star gave her a little applause. “There you go! Easy, right?”

Jackie smiled and agreed. Then she handed the Spoon back to Star, who promptly stuffed it back in her bag.

They stepped through the portal, and Star was immediately struck dumb by the city’s vibe. She marvelled at the buildings around them. There was no architecture like this anywhere in Mewni, or anywhere she’d been in California. The street the landed on was busy with more people than she’d ever seen in the whole of Echo Creek.

Jackie looked a little disappointed. “This isn’t where I wanted to go… We’re pretty far away from Chloe’s house. She’s more on the outskirts of the city.”

“Ah, yeah, that’s how it goes sometimes. It takes some practice to get it right every time – and even I mess it up. Like, all the time.” Star offered the Spoon back to Jackie, “Try again?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Again, wavering slightly, Jackie swirled open a portal to Paris, but when the two of them stepped through, they ended up in exactly the same spot.

Jackie hung her head for a moment before she put on a brave face and hoisted her spirits up. “Oh well, it’s fine, I can work with this.”

“Sorry Jacks. At least we’re in the right city, right?”

Jackie looked around and confirmed, “I know exactly where we are. It’s a pretty nice part of downtown Paris. We used to hang out around here all that time when I was sojourning here for school. And I spent a lot of time skating around downtown when I was here visiting Chloe last time – mainly because her mom… uh… let’s just say she didn’t like me hanging around their house while Chloe was out. Or… ever, at all.”

“Rude.”

“You don’t know the half of it, dude. You don’t know French, huh?”

Star shook her head. “Languages aren’t my thing.”

“Well, I’ll try to leave you somewhere anglophone-friendly while you’re waiting for me. Come on, we’ll have to rush a bit so I get there in time. Stay close, okay? And keep your bag close to your chest. I’ve never seen one myself, but I’ve heard that pickpockets are a menace around here.”

Jackie took Star by the hand and led her down the crowded street. There was barely room to breathe. Star was constantly being bumped around by dozens of strangers. Jackie did her best to clear a path, but it wasn’t doing much to speed them along. After a solid ten minutes of shoving through crowds, they managed to find a street that let them walk side-by-side, with only a few occasional shoulder-checks from passers-by.

“Not exactly a friendly city, huh?”

Jackie laughed, “You get used to it.”

Star wasn’t sure she wanted to. She hoped she’d be able to find somewhere a little quieter to hang out while she waited for Jackie to finish her business with Chloe.

“Oh, what’d you tell her?” Star asked excitedly.

“Ah ha ha… Well, I couldn’t just say I’m going to pop up out of nowhere, could I? She wouldn’t believe me.”

“You didn’t tell her??”

“I convinced her to reschedule that video date she bailed on. I figure I’ll just… I don’t know… surprise her?”

“What, are you going to sneak up behind her or something?”

“Something like that.”

“Jackie. Dude. She’s going to mace you.”

“Nah, she’s more of a ‘throw you across the room’ kind of girl.”

Star shook her head and smiled at Jackie’s boldness, “I’m sure once she’s done freaking out, she’ll be happy to see you.”

“Ha, yeah, she’d better be.” Jackie looked a little uneasy for a moment before she put on a smile, “Come on, I set up the ‘date’ for 4. We should hurry.”

Along the way, Jackie pointed out some of the places she liked to go when she was going to school here. It seemed like every museum, every library, every café and park and restaurant she pointed out – they all shone with a vibrancy that made it pretty obvious why Jackie loved them so much. Happy patrons practically smiled and waved at them as they walked by her beloved hangouts and shops. Children laughed and screamed joyfully as they played in her fondly-remembered parks. All Jackie’s favorites definitely made Paris look, as advertised, like the most beautiful city in the world, even if a lot of the rest of the city looked… kind of pale by comparison to the colorful landmarks of Jackie’s school days.

As they rushed along, Star noticed something odd down a dark back alley. Some shadowy figure, but… no, she must’ve imagined it. Shining yellow eyes? A sinister white grin? The glint of steel? Just a… big cat, probably, right? A typical Parisian cat, probably.

But… the more Star looked, the more… odd things she noticed. Like, a lot of the faces in the crowds they passed looked… soft? Like their features had been sanded down and smoothed out. Was that just a Paris thing too? Did French people just look like that?

And a lot of storefronts, even though they had bright red ouvert signs in their windows, there was just… no one inside. Just lights showing off ambiguously shaped merchandise inside. Even the shop names, that were so fancifully drawn on the doors and awnings of each building, stopped making sense. Like, some logos looked chaotic and scrambled, and even the letters were backwards or misshapen here and there. Star didn’t know French, so maybe that was just the style here, but she could swear the signs were almost readable before they passed them.

She tugged at Jackie’s sleeve and tried to ask about it, but by the time she pointed out anything odd to Jackie, it had already returned to normal. People – sharply, well-defined people – occupied previously empty stores. Signs returned to a familiar alphabet. Even back alleys looked less intimidating.

Star convinced herself that she was just suffering from sleep deprivation and hunger.

“Hey, I know we’re in a rush, but can we stop for some food and coffee? Just something quick.”

“Oh, Star, dude I’m sorry, I totally forgot about breakfast. Yeah, there’s a good sandwich place just up here I think.”

Jackie led Star into a charming little bistro. There were barely any tables in there. Most of the customers were seated at counters by the windows, reading books next to empty plates and cold cups. Quiet, chill music played – French, of course. It had an entirely different character compared to the stuff that played over the speaker system at Buck’s. It was nice.

While they waited in the extremely long and slow-moving  line, Jackie looked at her phone with a little grimace, “Uh okay so I really wanted to avoid this, but… we should probably get on the metro after this if I’m gonna make it in time.”

“What’s the metro?”

“The subway.” Star had no idea what Jackie was talking about. “No? It’s like an underground train?”

“Ah. Of course. A train.”

“Star please tell me… Uh. Okay. A train is like… I don’t know, like a bunch of buses tied together in a chain that can’t turn, but they go way faster than cars do in the city.”

“Ohh, and it’s underground so it doesn’t get in the way? Smart.”

“Right. But… it’s crowded and super dirty, so… when we go down there, try not to touch anything. Or look at anyone. Or make too much noise. Parisians hate that. Especially from Americans.”

Star stuck her tongue out at Jackie’s instructions. “I’m not really American, though, so I can be as loud as I want, right?”

“Yeah, no, sorry. To the rest of the world, you’re American.”

“I’m just visiting! And ‘visiting’ is kind of a weird way to put it too… more like… exiled… by my own mom…”

“Hm, no, I’m pretty sure you’ve been living in Echo Creek for too long. You’re one of us now.”

“Aw come on, I’m still from Mewni. And I’m going to go back one day. Eventually. You can’t just strip away my whole identity because I hung around too long.”

Jackie shrugged with a playful smile that gave away the joke, “I don’t write the rules. America has you in its cold capitalist claws now, Star. There’s no escaping the call to serve the righteous agenda of our manifest destiny. It calls to us all.”

“Well,” Star mused, “Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be an American for real. You guys seem pretty nice. And I hear Americans all get bear arms? How does that work? Do you have to fight the bear, or is it just like… a box shows up on your door when you turn 18?”

“Oof, no, Star, America is like… somehow the best and the worst place in the world, and even if we got bear arms, it would not make up for the other stuff. Stick to Mewni.”

“Mewni doesn’t have all my favorite Americans in it though.”

“Aw, you’re so sweet. You know I’d come visit if you went home, dude. You’re always just a portal away, right?”

Star’s face lit up at the thought. “I should take you there after this! I think you’d like my dad. He might try to fight you, though, but I think he’ll go easy on you if I tell him how sweet you are to me.”

“It’s a date. Hey,” Jackie changed the subject and nodded to the menu, “What do you want to eat?”

Star marvelled at the selection of breads behind the counter. Even if that was the only choice she had to make, she’d feel pretty overwhelmed, but the menu board was huge, and absolutely full with dozens of sandwiches to pick from. And, being in French, the names and descriptions were basically useless in helping her decide.

“Uh… you know what, just get me whatever sandwich you think is good. Surprise me. Oh, and a latte with an extra shot of espresso?”

“You got it boss.”

Jackie stepped up to the counter and greeted the cashier. Star had never heard her lover speaking French before, but her heart skipped a beat when she did. Jackie’s voice sounded so… instrumental and evocative. The rhythm of it, the rolling consonants, the exotic vowels. Star couldn’t put her finger on it, but the way the words rolled off Jackie’s tongue, it did something to her.

To her surprise, the cashier seemed to know Jackie’s name. A look of realization brought Jackie’s face to life and the two young women cheerfully clapped their hands together and redid their hellos with excitement. The cashier seemed to be asking Jackie what she was doing here, and Jackie replied with a cheerful explanation.

While Jackie placed their order and caught up with her friend, Star dug through her bag for her wallet. But when she fished it out, all the money in it was gone. It wasn’t much money, but… did someone steal it?

“Hey Star!” Jackie pulled Star up to the counter, “This is Maddy. We went to school together briefly. Too briefly.” Jackie turned to the young woman behind the counter and spoke to her in their shared language, “Cette tres belle femme est Star Butterfly, ma copine sidérale.” [This beautiful woman is Star Butterfly, my sidereal girlfriend.]

Maddy replied, “Elle doit être profondément amoureuse de toi pour suivre ta main cruelle à Paris. Est-ce vraiment son nom ? C'est incroyablement mignon.” [She must be deeply in love with you to follow your cruel hand to Paris. Is that really her name? It's incredibly cute.]

Star wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but it must have been good because Jackie reacted with a smile and a laugh before replying to her old friend in stumbling French, “Mais oui. Comme… euh… comment dire… comme un… papillon! Un papillon qui… euh… brille dans le ciel de mon cœur.” [But of course. Like… uh… what’s the word… like a… butterfly! A butterfly that shines in the sky of my heart.]

Maddy smiled and spoke in a chiding tone, “Jackie, les papillons ne brillent pas. Vous pensez à une luciole ?” [Jackie, butterflies don’t glow. Are you thinking of a firefly?]

“Non non. Bien sûr, je sais que les papillons ne peuvent pas briller, mais elle est l'exception.” [No, of course I know that butterflies don’t glow, but she’s the exception.]

Maddy turned to Star with a big smile and spoke in a confident, thick accent, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Star. Jackie says such sweet words about you. You’re making a poet out of a skater. You’re treating her well, yes?”

“I do my best,” Star replied shortly, trying and failing to be polite through her distress. “Hey, give us a sec?” She pulled Jackie aside and whispered, “Jackie, someone stole my money.”

“What? No way, are you serious?” She shook her head with disbelief and disappointment, “That sucks. Man, I lived her for months and I never got pickpocketed. Did they take anything else?”

Star hurriedly took inventory of her bag’s contents to make sure all she lost was the forty bucks in her wallet. Hair clips. Lip balm. Some cool rocks. Brush. Emergency tissues and other sanitary products. It looked like everything… was… there… Wait. No. No.

“Oh no,” she muttered under her breath. “Uh, you finish talking to your friend, okay? I’m gonna go sit over there and uh… not freak out.”

Star waved to Maddy, who smiled and politely waved back, and then she rushed over to an empty table. She stood over it while she spilled out the entire contents of her bag, then she started digging through the pile in a panic. It wasn’t there. She looked again, more carefully, and still, no good. No matter how many times she checked and checked again, it wasn’t there.

“Hey,” Jackie returned to Star’s side. She put a gentle hand on Star’s shoulder and asked, “What’s wrong? Did they take something else?”

Star slammed her fist on the table’s surface, turning heads in the café. “The Spoon, Jackie! The Spoon is gone! Oh man. Oh man, this is super bad. I have to… I have to go back! Maybe the thief is still on the street somewhere. Yeah, how hard could it be? I’ll just… track down whoever took it and shake them like the nasty little rat they are until they drop it.”

Jackie’s mouth opened slightly to say something, but she held it in and bit her lower lip for a moment. “Star there’s… there’s no way you’ll find some random pickpocket in downtown Paris.”

“I have to! How are we supposed to get home??”

The other patrons of the bistro shamelessly staring at Star now. Jackie put her arms around Star’s shoulders and tried to calm her down with gentle whispers, “Hey, it’s okay. We’ll figure something out. Come on Star, deep breaths, everything’s gonna be fine.”

Star sat at the table in a heap and stared at the chaotic mess she’d spilled out there. She put her head in her hands. A painful knot twisted up her insides. The chill music continued to play over the speakers of the café. Cutlery clattered. The espresso machine rumbled and hissed to make her latte. Jackie stood up to collect their order, then when she returned, she carefully swept some of Star’s things out of the way to set a plate and a tall glass in front of her. She dragged her own chair over to sit beside Star with her own sandwich.

Star peeked at the food in front of her, but she couldn’t even think about eating right now. She didn’t know what to say, what to do. Jackie started putting things back in Star’s bag to tidy up the chaos on the table a bit. She squeezed Star’s hand to say, ‘It’s okay.’

“We’ll figure it out,” she reminded Star.

And she was right. Like, okay, this sucked. This sucked really, really bad. But she still had options. She could call her mom to come get her with the Butterfly family’s Dimensional Teaspoon. Of course, that would mean explaining how they got stranded here in the first place, which would mean admitting that she’s been using a probably-stolen Teaspoon of her own. Or, less awkward, they could just fly back on an airplane. Not that she could afford tickets. Would she fit in a suitcase? Maybe it would be best to just start a new life here in Paris. The cafés seemed nice enough. Maybe she could get a job slinging espresso out here. She’d miss Echo Creek, and Marco and Janna, but maybe this was just how it had to be…

Star sighed and joined Jackie in returning the scattered items to her bag. Then she gave in to her hunger and ate her sandwich with a morose look on her face.

She didn’t want to say anything about it, but the food wasn’t very good. It looked nice – a simple ham sandwich on a crusty baguette – but she could barely taste it. And the coffee? It was so bland. Even the stuff at Buck’s was better. Where was the familiar fragrant aroma that always lifted her spirits when she was tired and miserable?

…Wait, actually, where was… any fragrant aroma? Star sniffed the air and realized she couldn’t smell… anything. No fresh bread, no coffee, no… whatever horrible Parisian smell Jackie was warning her about the other day. What was going on with her today? Seeing things in the street, losing her senses… Was she sick? She pretended to brush some hair out of her face, and discretely pressed her fingers against her forehead to feel for a fever. But there was nothing. She felt fine.

She looked over to Jackie, who seemed to have already moved on from the shock of not being able to return home today. She was relishing the chance to eat at one of her favorite places again for the first time in who knows how long. Star was a little jealous of the way she was looking at the sandwich, clearly lost in nostalgic reverence, a look of sincere affection in her eyes. She was barely taking time to breathe between bites, and with every other mouthful she let out a delighted, ‘Mmm’.

“Hey, uh, how… does that taste?” Star asked, trying to figure out if everything was weird or if it was just her.

“Star their Pan Bagnat is amazing. Here, have a bite,” Jackie offered the half-eaten baguette sandwich to Star. “They import all the ingredients fresh from Provence. I don’t normally dig black olives, but they really bring the whole thing together.”

Star sniffed at the sandwich. Nothing.

“Smells great, right? Try it!”

Star raised an eyebrow at Jackie, then took a bite, and found the thing… almost entirely flavorless. Despite the sandwich clearly being on warm, fresh-baked bread, and stuffed with tuna, crisp greens, tomatoes and onions, olives, and slices of hard-boiled egg, it tasted more like she was like chewing on a sponge wrapped around some old celery and oatmeal. She could barely stand it.

She wondered if she should bring it up. If she was the only one struggling with the food, then she might actually be sick with something. But the last thing Star wanted to do right now was add even more stress to Jackie’s trip. It was already too much that Star had screwed up and lost the Spoon. If she started freaking out about losing her sense of taste and smell, if she ruined this chance for Jackie and Chloe to finally see each other, she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself. So she tried to play along like nothing was wrong.

“Wow, that’s… really something,” Star said, trying very hard to avoid outright lying. “There’s definitely nothing like that back home.” Then she handed the rest of the sandwich back to Jackie.

“How’s yours?” Jackie asked, with an expectant smile on her face that told Star there was only one possible response that wouldn’t ruin Jackie’s good spirits.

Star made a show of taking another bite and gave Jackie an enthusiastic chef’s kiss. It wasn’t so bad compared to Jackie’s. At least this sandwich was pretty simple to imagine the taste of – just ham, butter, and crusty bread – so even if this particular sandwich tasted like cardboard today, she could just pretend.

Star managed to choke down both her sandwich and her terrible coffee so they could get back on their way to Jackie’s destination. She and Jackie waved to Maddy on the way out, and then Jackie led the way to the metro station. The entrance led to a long staircase that twisted deep down into the earth. As they made their way into the dungeon’s caverns, Star could feel the ground rumbling. It was surreal. She felt like the whole of Paris was falling apart. But when they got past the turnstiles, she found that the source of the sound was just… a long, metal and glass… well it kind of looked like a giant Mewnian dire snake with doors and windows.

A calming pre-recorded voice spoke over the PA system, and Jackie made a mad dash with Star to get onto the train. The hem of Star’s skirt barely made it through as the doors closed.

When the train started moving, Star noted that, despite Jackie’s warnings about not touching anything, it seemed entirely impossible to stand inside the train car without touching someone. Jackie stood up on tiptoe to peer out above the crowd on the train in search of something.

“Ah ha!” she whispered excitedly to Star. “There’s an empty seat over there, come on.” She told Star to stay close, then she started shoving her way through the car, dragging Star behind her, and issuing an assertive excusez-moi to every impatient passenger she squeezed past. Star was far less elegant at navigating the crowd, and was subjected to grumpy glares and rough shoulders as she tried to keep up. She quietly offered her own apology to everyone she bumped into, but they didn’t seem to be an especially forgiving bunch of people.

When they got to the empty seat, it was the one on the aisle side, and it was… kind of gross. Weird stains and worn-down upholstery made it look pretty unappealing to sit on. But Jackie was kind enough to pull a cardigan out of her bag to lay it down for Star to sit on. How could she say no to such a romantic gesture? Even if it meant she was stuck sitting halfway off the seat because the person by the window beside her was taking up way too much room.

Jackie dropped her bag on the floor and shuffled it under the seat, keeping the longboard balanced on the tip of her shoe. While the train roared along, she stood directly in front of Star, one foot in the aisle, one foot between Star’s legs. Her midriff was just inches from Star’s nose. More than a few times, the sudden jolting of the train or some aggressive shover moving past Jackie in the aisle forced Star’s face right into Jackie’s abdomen. Jackie apologized for losing her balance the first couple times, but eventually Star gave up on trying to avoid getting smooshed in the face and just leaned against Jackie’s abs, wrapping her arms loosely around her lover’s legs. Jackie ran her fingers thoughtfully through Star’s hair – expertly keeping herself upright with no hands on the railing – and said something soft and sweet. It sounded like an adoring ‘babe’, but the noise of the tracks drowned out her voice, so Star wasn’t sure.

Despite the noise and the uncomfortable crowd, it felt nice being here with Jackie. Like being together in a storm. But Star couldn’t find much space in her thoughts to appreciate it properly. She was still doing calculus in her head on the pros and cons of her potential solutions for getting home, and none of the numbers were looking good.

After a while, much of the crowd on the train cleared out. There was room to stand and breathe, and the window seat finally opened up, so Jackie could sit next to Star. This also meant that Star could finally pull her phone out and try to put one of her terrible plans into motion – messaging her mom.

None of the messages were getting through, though. Star sighed. She really didn’t want to actually talk to her mom, but it looked like she didn’t have much of a choice here.

Strangely, though, when the call connected, there was nothing on the other end of the line. Just a rapidly beeping tone.

Jackie noticed Star struggling and pointed out that her phone probably wouldn’t work down in the metro tunnels. “Something about the metal in the train and all the rocks in the way of the signal or something. It sucks, I know. It was super annoying when I was living here. Honestly, I’m surprised they haven’t added some signal boosters down here by now. It’s been years.”

Star slumped in her seat, defeated, and put her phone away for now. Then she offered another apology to Jackie for losing their only way home.

“Hey, I told you it’s fine. I’m not upset dude I promise. Seriously, it got stolen, it’s not like you could’ve done anything about that.”

Star laughed at a stray thought, “You know, we should’ve brought Marco along. I bet he carries a whole safe in his backpack whenever he’s travelling.”

“Oh man, absolutely, he would love to break his back lugging one of those things around for us. Hey, did I ever tell you about his lunch box?”

Star shook her head and listened intently. She loved embarrassing Marco gossip.

“This went all the way back to grade school. Someone kept stealing the fruit snacks out of his lunch bag, every single day. One day he got sick of it and started coming in with this metal lunchbox with a little diary lock on it. But even that wasn’t enough to stop the thief. So he kept buying stronger and stronger lunch boxes until one day he’s literally got a big industrial lockbox wrapped in chains to guard his food. He could barely lift it, and it was way too big to even fit in the fridge in the classroom.”

Star laughed. “Yeah, that sounds like Marco alright. Did it work at least?”

“Nope, and I bet you can guess why in three tries or less.”

Star thought about it for half a moment before she pointed confidently at Jackie. “Janna.”

“Bingo.”

“Of course it was Janna.”

“Marco was furious when he finally figured it out. She wasn’t even eating the fruit snacks. She was trading them for homework at recess.”

Star shook her head, “Of course.”

“Anyways, you get it, right? Even Marco ‘Safe Kid’ Diaz couldn’t keep a dedicated thief out of his lunch, so there’s no point beating yourself up about losing this thing.”

“Yeah,” Star took a deep breath and tried to get all the guilt out of her mind. It wouldn’t do any good sulking about it, and Jackie really was sincerely cool with their situation. They’d clear it up later. “You’re right.”

Still, Star wanted to get a message to her mom as soon as she could when they got back to the surface. Solutions, not sulking. That was the way home.

Some time passed on the train. Star was zoning out. There was something soothing in the rhythmic clack of the wheels on the track the rapidly passing lights in the tunnel. Occasionally, the train’s disembodied robot voice came over the speakers to make announcements in French that Star could barely understand, but she eventually figured out when Miss Robot was giving a heads-up about an upcoming stop.

Star was watching some passengers disembark from the train when she noticed that Jackie hadn’t said anything in a few stops. Her lover was turned sideways, feet up on the seat, back against the window, and had pulled out her phone to keep herself occupied. Star expected to see her playing some kind of game, but when she peeked at the reflection of the screen in the window, it looked like she was just scrolling through a chat with some pictures in it. Her downcast eyes were half-closed in thought, and the corners of her lips had fallen a bit, a change from her usual chill grin.

As the doors closed, a voice came over the PA system announcing the next stop.

“Hey, how many more stops?” Star asked, trying to steer Jackie’s thoughts away from whatever gloom she was wallowing in over there.

Jackie melancholically replied that it was the next stop. “Then it’ll be a short walk from there.”

Star beamed with excitement, “Aaaa! Jackie this is going to be such a cute surprise! It’s going to go great, okay? She’s going to be so happy to see you, I promise. Where are you going to take her?”

Jackie smiled, rolled her eyes playfully, and shook her head slightly, then, instead of answering, she leaned across the seat to give Star a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for coming along, Star. I don’t think I could do this if you weren’t here.”

“Well duh, how would you even get here without me?”

“You know what I mean. I really… I don’t think I could do this alone.”

A voice came over the PA system announcing the next stop.

Star glanced out the window and noticed a distinctive neon pink and yellow graffiti under a red light on the wall of the tunnel. She had a strange sense of déjà vu, but shook it off as another part of whatever sickness was messing up her senses that day.

“So?” Star prodded Jackie gently. “Where are you taking her?”

Jackie was kind of distant when she replied. “We had this special spot,” she said. Then she turned her phone around and handed it to Star. She had been reading over an old conversation with Chloe, and had opened up a photo of her beau smiling on some building’s rooftop. There was a pretty sunset in the background over a neighbourhood with tall trees peaking out over the buildings below. “She was always showing off. Climbed all over the walls and trees and hopped over gates and fences like it was nothing. Always with a big ‘come get me’ smile, like she knew exactly how cool she looked.” Jackie let out a little laugh, “I couldn’t get back up on that roof on my own if I tried. The only way up is the fire escape, and she was the only one who could scale the wall high enough to drop it.”

Star swiped to the next photo before Jackie’s quiet cry of ‘wait’ could stop her. This one wasn’t just Chloe on the roof. There was a guy with her. And in the next photo, a kiss.

“Jackie…”

Jackie took the phone back with a sad smile. “Well, looks like the view’s still pretty good up there. Should be a nice place for a picnic kind of date, right?”

Star squeezed Jackie’s thigh consolingly. “Hey, it’s still special.”

Jackie nodded and tried to smile. “Yeah. I know. I’m just being weird, sorry.”

A voice came over the PA system announcing the next stop. Star was pretty sure it normally only did that once, but she’d heard it a couple times now.

And in the corner of her eye, a flamboyant piece of graffiti under a red light on the wall of the tunnel flew by the window.

Star turned her head around behind her to follow the familiar red light, and was met with a… slightly terrifying sight: the other train cars behind them had gone completely dark. All the other passengers on their car were… fuzzy? Blurry? Almost like they were scratched out. And that red light was losing its shape, deforming into a radiant plume of smoke before it disappeared into the inky blackness that was following the train down the tunnel, consuming the tunnel and the cars in the rear of the train. In the dark, Star could see… golden eyes, a sinister smile, and the glint of steel.

“Hey, weird question,” Star hesitated to ask, “Does Paris have any magical creatures in it?”

“Magical creatures? Hm. There’s only one that I know about.” Jackie smiled coyly at Star before explaining the creature’s features. “The Papillon Étoilé. Terrifying. Rumor is she travels in the deep dark tunnels under beau Paris, waiting for a chance to strike. Many a fool has been taken in by her fair appearance. She may look like a beautiful young lady with cute wings and a disarming smile, but she’s actually got enough cheery energy in her to level a whole city if she catches you feeling bad about yourself. Oh, and she bites—”

Star was only half-listening to Jackie’s facetious description. She was still turned around in her seat, transfixed by the scene behind them.

“—Uh. And… she has blonde hair? And hearts on her cheeks? And tender fingers that send shivers down your—Star? Did you hear me—?”

Jackie turned to join Star in peering at the darkness.

But it wasn’t darkness when she looked. To Star’s rapidly diminishing amazement, the train returned to normal as soon as Jackie looked at it again. A smattering of bored commuters sat or stood, reading books, listening to music, or just zoning out and staring at the ceiling. The trailing train cars were lit up again and extended far down the line. And there was no sign of a malevolent, all-consuming black fog chasing after them.

A voice came over the PA system announcing the next stop.

A piece of graffiti flashed by.

This wasn’t right. Either Star was suffering from the weirdest sickness in the multiverse, or… Jackie had done something to this world.

And whatever she did was keeping them on this train.

Star turned her attention to Jackie and asked, “Hey are you uh… still feeling… anxious about seeing Chloe again?”

“A little, yeah.”

“Not like… a lot? Like a whole lot, maybe?”

“…Don’t worry, I’m fine Star.”

Star didn’t know what to do here, but she knew she had to do something to get them moving, or that date would never happen, and they’d be stuck listening to the same robotic announcements over and over again forever. “You said it was the next stop, didn’t you?” Star asked “I think the robot lady said it was coming up right away.”

“Oh, right!” Jackie stood up suddenly. “Yeah, we have to get to the doors, come on.” She quickly grabbed her bag and board and waved for Star to follow her, and then, only a moment later, the train slowed to a stop and let them off, like everything was normal, like the world wasn’t disappearing behind them.

Once they got out of the underground, Star checked her phone and was disappointed – but not at all surprised – to find it was still behaving strangely. It wasn’t even a matter of not being able to dial out. Her contact list was just… gone. All her messages, all her calls, all her pictures… everything was missing, except for… Jackie’s. She tried to dial her mom’s number from memory, but, again, there was nothing on the other end of the line.

What was the answer to getting out of here? Star looked behind them and saw a growing darkness in the distance. She could try to convince herself they were just storm clouds, but storm clouds on a sunny afternoon were never that black.

As they approached the location of Jackie’s date, she handed Star come cash and pointed out a couple of good cafés that Star could hang out in until they were done – which would have been a nice gesture if Star weren’t feeling so uneasy about being any distance from Jackie at the moment.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come along maybe?”

Jackie smiled and assured Star that she would come back for her. “I’m not going to forget about you, I promise. Give us an hour and if you don’t hear from me, just give me a call, okay?”

“Just an hour? That’s not much of a date, is it?”

“Well, I don’t know if she even… I mean, I’ll definitely know if we’re going to have a real date or not by then. I’ll let you know what the plan is as soon as I can, okay?”

The prospect of waiting around for an hour wasn’t super enticing right now, considering what kept happening to everything out of Jackie’s immediate line of sight, but… at least Jackie left her number in Star’s phone if something went wrong. That was almost reassuring.

Star waved as Jackie dropped her board and sped off, then she settled in at a window seat in the quieter of the two cafés – a seat with a view of the black clouds on the horizon. She considered ordering a cup of coffee, but she had a feeling she already knew how that would turn out. Instead, she ordered some iced tea. She figured it would, at worst, taste like a cup of cold water – which it did. Weird that Jackie’s world was missing details like that. While she waited, she checked her phone again just to be sure, but she still couldn’t dial out, and her phone was still in Jackie-only mode.

Star tried to rationalize what was going on. It seemed like the world started disappearing whenever Jackie’s thoughts were occupied – especially when they were occupied with Chloe, and with her doubts and anxieties about talking to her. It must have been the only thing that mattered to her right now, confronting this monster she’d created in her mind. This world was like a lucid dream for her – one where she could forget anything that didn’t matter, one where she could exploit her fond memories to keep herself going as she went to face her dragon.

Wait. Her… dragon… If this world was some kind of manifestation of Jackie’s anxiety-ridden mind… There’s no way the Chloe here, the one that had been blowing her off for months, who she hadn’t seen in ages, who she was literally afraid to confront about her feelings – there’s no way that Chloe would be the loving, caring, excited-to-see-her partner Jackie needed right now.

The clouds in the distance suddenly closed in with a thunderous boom, traveling the dozens of miles between the horizon and Star in an instant, and consuming the city in inky darkness.

Whatever was going to happen to this world when everything came crashing down with Jackie’s date, it was starting.

Star grabbed her bag and bolted out the door, running down the street, away from the world-eating darkness that followed close behind. She needed to get back to Jackie immediately, or she’d be eaten up too. As much as she wanted to believe that Jackie wouldn’t forget her in the void, after seeing how singularly focused Jackie was on Chloe lately, she didn’t really want to risk it.

It wasn’t long before she found the place – an old building, surrounded by the rapidly encroaching fog. The rusty fire escape was on the side of the building just as Jackie had described it – ladder down, waiting to be climbed. She imagined Jackie unsuccessfully trying to sneak up the creaking, rattling old staircase to surprise Chloe.

But Star sure wasn’t going to be making any attempt at subtlety here; the darkness had already eaten the ladder by the time she hustled up to the 3^rd floor, and there were 4 more to go.

She tried not to look down, but she didn’t have to. The cold, black, world-erasing mist was nipping at her heels, tripping her up, disintegrating stairs out from under her. This was it. She was definitely done for. There was only one more flight of stairs, but it was too far to run. She leapt up and desperately grabbed at the edge of the roof just as her body was enveloped in the chilling void.

She closed her eyes and braced for whatever waited beyond the mortal coil. She never considered that today would be the day she’d get the unfortunate opportunity to find out what oblivion felt like. She was surprised to find it had the sensation of being submerged in cold, dry bathwater. Her clothes and hair floated weightlessly in the dark. And, to her relief, her hand was still gripping the ledge of the building for dear life. She hadn’t been erased. ‘Paris’ was gone, drowned in a sea of nothingness. Now all that remained was Star – and whatever awaited her on the roof.

She peered over the edge of the building to assess the situation. Star had expected tears and shouting, but instead the two lovers were sitting on the opposite side of the building, a pile of food and a half-empty bottle of wine between them, engaged in casual conversation, laughing together. Jackie playfully butted her head into Chloe’s and rested her cheek on her beau’s shoulder. They were fine. Happy, even.

Star hadn’t considered that what was inspiring Jackie’s laser focus on Chloe wasn’t rage or hurt. It looked like she was just lost in the warm presence of her estranged lover.

Despite the world falling apart all around her, Star couldn’t bring herself to interrupt them. This is what Jackie had been aching for. Star could spend a little longer in the void if it meant Jackie got the time she needed with… ‘Chloe’.

But it didn’t last long. Chloe casually looked at her phone, then suddenly pulled away from Jackie. She said something to her that shattered all the joy in Jackie’s body, sunk her shoulders, and froze her solid. As Chloe stood up to leave, Star could hear an apology from her, and then she started walking away, towards Star, towards where the fire escape used to be.

“We’ll meet up later, okay? It’s so nice to see you again, my love,” she said as she waved back over her shoulder.

But she only got halfway across the roof before some unseen force halted her in place. Jackie slowly got up from her perch on the ledge and walked over to Chloe. Star could barely make out their conversation, but the look on Jackie’s face said more than words could.

“You said you’d do this date with me, Chlo. The whole date.”

Chloe tried to defend herself, “Of course! But I didn’t know you’d surprise me like this. I had a whole day ready before you asked to see me today, on such short notice, and now you’ve come to visit me while I’m completely unprepared. How is this fair?”

Jackie shook her head, “You promised me a date. Across the ocean or sitting here right next to me, it shouldn’t matter – you promised me. You promised you’d take me here, that we’d have some real time together for once. Were you planning to bail on me even before you knew I was coming to visit? Were you just going to make an excuse then and hang up on me after ten minutes?”

“… No. Ma douce, non, please, I wouldn’t do that to you. But something has come up—”

“—Where are you going? To him?”

“What does it matter where I go to, ma chérie? I just have to go. We’ll continue this later, my love, I promise.”

Jackie took an aggressive step towards Chloe and jabbed an accusatory finger into her chest, “You always promise. It’s always promises. It’s been months of promises, Chlo.” She crossed her arms and turned to the side. “Why should… why should I keep waiting, huh? Give me a reason. Please. I need you to… I need a reason to wait, and a promise isn’t enough anymore. Do you have any idea how much you’ve been pushing me away? Taking me for granted? Expecting me to be fine with you… just… just…” Her head was low. She was hugging herself now. She hesitated to continue for a moment, but, squeezing her chest tight, she found the conviction to let it out. “It hurts. All of this – us – it just hurts now.”

Star had never seen Jackie so upset before. Is this what she’d been holding in this whole time? This must have been building up for ages. It felt rude to eavesdrop on Jackie’s heartbreak, but there was only void behind Star with nowhere else to go, so she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

“Ma petit coquillage de mer, please, I thought you were fine with our time apart. Is that not true? Have you been deceiving me all this time? You have your beaus in California to keep you satisfied, do you not?” [My little sea shell]

“You think they’re standing in for you?” Jackie brought her fingers to her eyes and wiped her cheeks. “That’s not how it works! Holy heck Chloe you were the one who was supposed to be an expert in this stuff. You’re the one who pushed me into trying out this whole poly thing in the first place. Do you really think that’s how any of this… Is that how you see Kristoff too? He’s just some convenient guy for you to use while we’re apart? Your romantic fix? How is that fair to either of us?”

Chloe’s posture changed in response to Jackie’s assault. She straightened her back and brought her chin up to look down on Jackie. Then she asked in a cold tone, “What do you think you are, exactly, chérie? My everything? My raison d'être? My sun and moon and the sky above and the air I breathe and all the life-giving water in the ocean? Just because I love you doesn’t make me yours, Jackie Lynn. I don’t need you.”

Chloe’s words sent rumbling shockwaves through the fabric of the world. Jackie looked like she’d been shot. Her arms dropped to her sides lifelessly. Her lips parted in silent shock. She didn’t have a response to that at all.

But the darkness did. It responded by constricting itself tighter and swirling around the feuding lovers, creating a tiny stage for their conflict, and erasing the last handhold Star had, leaving her floating helplessly in the dark to witness their fight.

Star tried to call out to Jackie, to warn her, to save her from this, but her voice wouldn’t make a sound out there.

With Jackie crushed as she was, whatever magic had been holding Chloe in place for Jackie to spill her heart out, it was broken. Chloe took a step towards Jackie and put a hand on her shattered lover’s shoulder.

“I love you, Jackie Lynn, but not more than life, not more than breath, not more than freedom. If you’re going to weigh me down, I’m going to cut you free. I am not drowning for your love, chérie.”

“I’m not… asking you to drown for me, Chlo. I just want to feel like you care enough about me to spend time with me again.”

Chloe spoke without removing her hand from Jackie’s shoulder. “…You should go home.”

“I can’t just… go. Not like this. I came here for you.”

“Your mistake.”

Again, the darkness closed in on the two of them.

Jackie couldn’t lift her head to face Chloe, but quietly, hoping, she asked the phantom of her lover, “Will you forget me?”

Star had to do something to stop this. But she couldn’t get through to Jackie like this. Then she remembered her phone – stuck in Jackie-only mode. It was the only escape that Jackie had left for herself. Maybe it would work. It was worth a try at least. Anything was worth a try at this point.

Jackie reacted to the buzzing in her pocket. It worked. Star was elated. Now if only Jackie would read the messages. Her crushed lover placed a hand on her pocket and glanced for a moment, then back at Chloe, who was still standing tall and menacing over her.

“Go ahead, you deserve that at least,” Chloe insisted dismissively. “It’s the same courtesy I steal from you, no?”

Jackie looked up from her phone in Star’s direction. The darkness – created by Jackie’s tunnel vision on Chloe – parted to make a little space for Star. The roof beneath her feet returned to reality, and she could finally get her feet planted down.

“Jackie!” Star ran across the roof to embrace her emotional wreck of a girlfriend.

“Star? Why are you…”

Chloe – the Chloe seemingly created by Jackie’s fears – sneered and said, “What’s this, Jackie Lynn? Your lover? Interrupting our date? Hypocrisy doesn’t look good on you, my love. Were you planning to bail on me to spend the day seeing the sights of Paris with your paramour?”

Jackie couldn’t respond. She just clutched at Star’s chest, trying to hold back tears.

Star whispered to her, “It’s okay, Jacks. That’s not her. None of this is real.”

“What are you talking about…?”

“You know Chloe, Jackie. You know her. Look in your heart, girl. Is this her? Is this really her? She’d just break your heart like that after all the years you’ve spent loving each other?”

“…She might. She might, Star.” Jackie looked away from Star, and for once the darkness didn’t disappear. For once she was clearly in as much distress as Star had been staring into the black mist. But still, she shook her head and dismissed what she was seeing. “Even if this… even if it’s not real or whatever, she’s still right. Chloe doesn’t need me. She never needed me. I was just… just a—”

Chloe finished her sentence, “—Just a fling.”

“—Just like him – like the new guy…” Jackie mournfully completed the thought.

“You’re already a fading memory,” the imposter continued. “Yes. I will forget you. I will forget to what it is to hear your voice, I will forget what it is to see your smile, and I will forget what it is to love you.”

Star continued trying to appeal to Jackie’s senses, “Come on, Jackie, that’s not normal. I know Chloe doesn’t talk like that. Heck, that’s not how anyone talks! You’re in your head, dude, you’re letting your fears go crazy here. This isn’t what’s going to happen when you see her. Stop being so hard on yourself. She loves you, even if she’s bad at making time for you. You can work that out! She’ll want to work that out, to make you happy, to keep you. And she’s not just going to forget you. If you just tell her how you’re feeling—”

“—She’ll leave.”

“She won’t. Stop this.”

“She’ll leave, Star. She doesn’t need me, and if I get all clingy, how’s that going to make her feel? Like I’m just a nuisance, like a kid who never grew up, like I don’t even know how to take care of myself or be on my own for a little while. When we couldn’t be together anymore, I said I’d be fine, no conditions, no rules. And now I can barely keep it together. That’s not fair to her, is it?” Jackie looked at her creation, the towering, indifferent Chloe of her nightmares. “I can’t believe I said all that… I really almost ruined everything, didn’t I? If this was real… This was such a bad idea. I’m sorry, Star, I know you were trying to help, but this isn’t going to work, okay? I should just grow up and let it go. Is it even that big of a deal? Not really, right? I’ll just… you know, if I stop harassing her to make promises to spend time with me, then there won’t be any promises for her to break, and we can just see each other whenever we have a chance to fly across the ocean.” Jackie pulled away from Star’s embrace and wiped her face dry. “We should just go home. I want to go home. Before I wreck this whole relationship for real.”

And as if on command, a creature born of the swirling shadows appeared before them – yellow eyes, and a coy, pearly white smile – the creature that had been keep a close watch on the two of them all day. It stared at Star for a moment, then smugly dropped a glinting metal object at her feet – the Dimensional Teaspoon.

Was it Jackie all along, then? Had she… unconsciously stolen it from Star? Hidden it away in the void so she’d have no choice but to stay here with Jackie? Didn’t Jackie realize that abandoning her was never even an option for Star?

Star hated to see her lover hurting like this. She was furious at Chloe. The real one. The one that was so clueless that she’d never bothered to check in on Jackie, to see if they were okay. This should never have gotten so bad, and listening to Jackie take all the blame on herself for how much she was hurting, it was heartbreaking. Star didn’t know Chloe very well, but she knew that the Chloe that Jackie loved, the one Jackie gushed to Star and Marco about, then one who made Jackie glow for days after every date – the Chloe that was in Jackie’s heart must be more compassionate than this nightmare.

Star picked up the Spoon, and Jackie looked to her, expecting a portal home, expecting a way to put off facing the reality of her situation forever, but Star couldn’t give that to her. Not yet. Star clutched the instrument to her chest and refused to use it. “You’ve got a date to go to, Jackie. A real one, with a woman who loves you more than you’re letting yourself believe. This isn’t her. This is like, the worst possible version of Chloe you could have imagined. If the real Chloe saw this thing she’d be crushed that you think of her this way. I think you can make up something a little closer to reality, can’t you? I mean you can at least try to come up with a version of her that isn’t ready to break up with you as soon as you tell her how you’re feeling, right? You know she wouldn’t do that, don’t you?”

Jackie rubbed her arm and looked away before she responded. “…I don’t know. I mean she’s great at deflecting awkward conversations but… I guess… I guess she usually listens. Eventually.”

“So make a Chloe that listens. You can do it right this time, make that kind version of her, the one you know, and get your feelings out for real. And maybe get rid of that weird idea that she’s just going to forget you? That’s a bit much, Jacks.”

“…You think I’m just being dramatic?”

“A little, yeah. The world isn’t going to explode just because you have some complaints about your girlfriend. You just want to fix this so you don’t get hurt anymore, right? I bet she does too. You just have to tell her what you need and find some way to make that work. And she’ll work with you, I know she will.” Star crossed her arms and defiantly added, “And if she doesn’t want to listen, then you just call in the big guns babe and I’ll kick her butt for you until she does.”

Jackie laughed, “Okay, tough guy.”

Star pointed at the Chloe behind her, “Give her a chance to be good to you. Then you’ll be ready for the real thing.”

Jackie took a deep breath and approached her imagined Chloe, who had been very patiently waiting for Jackie and Star to sort things out. She looked softer and smaller now than she had a moment ago – on Jackie’s level again.

“Hey uh,” Jackie awkwardly started over, “So, I actually came here for a reason – I mean, more than just for a chance to see you again. Though that’s been amazing. I missed you. I really… really missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, ma petit fleur de mer. What’s happened? You look like your heart is breaking.” [My little ocean flower]

“…I guess that’s what I want to talk about. I think… maybe we’re missing each other in different ways. I’ve been having a hard time with all this, with being away from you. It’s a lot harder than I thought. And I know I haven’t told you, and I’m sorry about that, but I’ve been feeling really disconnected and ignored. I don’t want to feel like this anymore.”

“Ah, I see. This is because I’ve been too busy with my studies, isn’t it? Jackie Lynn I thought you were being patient with me far more than I deserved. Mais non, you don’t owe me an apology for that. I should have known it was too much.”

“It’s… more than that, though. It’s not just that you’re too busy for me, it’s that you still make time for Kristoff. How am I supposed to take that?”

“Ah, I have excuses, but your point is sharp and clear. It’s simply that he’s easily contented with a few minutes here and there. A drink, a meal, maybe some temps perdu on the couch. What kind of rendez-vous amoureux is that? You deserve better, don’t you? You live on a pedestal in my heart, I want our time to be special.” [wasted time] [romantic date]

“Chlo I don’t care about it being special. I want to waste time with you too.”

“Were you so lonely? Forgive me.” Chloe reached out her hands for Jackie to hold, and, with some hope in her eyes, Jackie placed her fingers on Chloe’s open palms. “What can I do to make it up to you?”

Jackie smiled, but she couldn’t help lowering her eyes from Chloe’s apologetic gaze. She shook her head and said softly in disbelief, “It can’t be this easy.”

Jackie pulled her hands back and wrapped herself in a soothing embrace. Chloe stood frozen in time for a moment, silent, soft, supportive. Then she disappeared, consumed in the swirling darkness, along with the rest of Paris. All that remained was Star and Jackie, suspended in the void together.

Neither of them said anything for some time. Star wanted to give Jackie some space to figure out what her next move would be – to decide which version of Chloe would be waiting for her in the real Paris.

At last, Jackie found the resolution to move forward. She put out her hand and asked Star for the Spoon.

When they got through the portal, they were on the very same roof as in Jackie’s imaginary Paris. Chloe was waiting unaware, sitting on the edge of the roof, admiring the view, idly kicking the side of the building with her heels. A pile of snacks and an unopened bottle of wine sat beside her. It turned out that Jackie had gotten a lot of details right in that dream world of hers.

When the portal closed, Chloe turned her head at the sound and exclaimed in shock, “Jackie! What is this? How are you here?”

Jackie smirked and nodded at Star, “One of the perks of having a magical girlfriend.”

“You weren’t answering your phone. I thought you were finally getting your revenge on me. Instead you were planning an ambush?”

“Yeah, something like that. Sorry I’m late. We got stuck… uh… in the metro.”

“Ah, a magic girlfriend that drops you in the metro. I didn’t realize you were dating someone so cruel in California.” Chloe smiled at Star, “A joke. I hear only good things about you, Star.”

Star smiled and replied that the same was true of her.

Then Chloe turned back to Jackie. “I can’t believe you’re here! Come, sit! Is Star joining us?”

Star put her hands up in the air to protest, “Nope! No, I’m just the chauffeur. I’ll leave you two alone.”

Jackie turned to Star and silently mouthed a thank you before giving her a kiss goodbye. “That café was real, you’ll be okay to find it?”

“Totally, totally. You know me, great sense of direction.”

Jackie laughed, “Okay, well call me when you get lost.”

Star stuck her tongue out at Jackie, then mimed the words ‘good luck’ with a smile before heading down the creaky fire escape.

She didn’t quite make it to the same café as before – which, she insisted to herself, was probably because the streets were shuffled around in Jackie’s world or something – but the place she ended up in had the menu half in English, so she was able to get a sandwich and a coffee. For the first time that day, she had the delightful opportunity to taste food again. (And the unfortunate experience of smelling the real streets of Paris.) She sent Jackie a picture of the café’s storefront with a message that read, “Close enough right?” Then she entertained herself with her phone as best she could until she got super bored and headed out into the streets of Paris to find something fun to do.

She spent half the afternoon chasing down and scolding pickpockets, and then another hour learning how to pickpocket from one of the friendlier ones. When the sun set, she started making her way towards the weird glowing spire in the distance, admiring the sound of cheerful chatter and music that spilled out onto the streets from restaurants and apartments. Even in the dark, the whole city was full of color and life. It was invigorating.

She managed to find a spot across the river from the massive skeletal tower to sit and enjoy the light show. Why a city needed such a huge watchtower right in the middle of it was a mystery, and why they’d light it up like a Christmas tree was beyond understanding, but whatever their reason, something about the structure made her smile. Humans really were pretty crazy about building huge, complicated things, like massive cities and giant metal towers and unbelievably long tunnels. Earth was pretty cool sometimes.

Jackie finally responded to Star’s café photo with, “Sure Star, close enough :P,” and then Star’s phone rang.

“Hey, are you here? I don’t see you.”

“Oh! Sorry, I got bored and started wandering around. Hold on I’ll be there in a sec.”

She opened up a portal to get back to the not-quite-right café’s front door, where she found Jackie and Chloe holding hands and smiling.

Chloe marvelled at the portal for a moment before it closed. “So that’s how you do it, huh? Maybe Jackie and I can get a ride somewhere some day?”

Jackie interrupted before Star could say yes. “So, I’m uh… going to spend the night here with Chloe, if that’s okay?”

Star gave Jackie a sly grin, “Totally. Very okay. Should I pick you up in the morning?”

Jackie and Chloe shared a playful look, then Jackie replied, “…Maybe the afternoon?”

Star laughed, “Cool, cool. I’ll meet you in this very spot tomorrow then – if I don’t get lost. Have fun you two!”

Jackie and Chloe waved goodnight, then Star opened a portal home to leave the two reconciled lovers to their evening.

The next day, before the California dawn could brighten the sky, Star dragged herself out of bed and through a portal into the rainy Parisian afternoon, where she found Jackie waiting alone at a small table in the café. Her face lit up with joy when she spotted Star. With a beckoning wave, she insisted that Star come in and sit beside her.

Star could barely keep her eyes open, though. She was used to waking up early for her morning shifts at Buck’s, but never this early. She splayed her face and arms on the table and groaned about wanting to go back to bed.

Jackie put a consoling hand on Star’s head and offered a slightly patronizing thank you for coming to get her, which almost made it worth waking up at such a terrible hour 2 days in a row.

“How was your night?” Star croaked. Her voice hadn’t woken up just yet.

Jackie smiled, “She really missed me.”

“Yeah? How could you tell?”

She poked Star’s forehead playfully and promised to tell her later.

“So I was right, huh?”

“Yes Star, you were right.”

“Told you. When am I ever wrong, huh?”

“When you try to find your way around the streets of Paris.”

“…Touché.”

“Seriously, how are you so hopeless navigating a city?”

“This place is huge! How does anyone find anything here?”

“Oh my poor sweet little small town girl. Let’s finish up here and get you back to the quiet streets of Echo Creek, babe.”

“Please.” Star paused for a moment before she added, “But if you want to come back and show me around properly some time, I’d like that.”

Jackie smiled and touched Star’s forehead with a kiss. “You got it. And I promise I won’t destroy the city next time.”

“Aw thanks,” Star playfully teased Jackie, “That’s sweet of you.”

Jackie clapped Star on the back with a big smile, “No prob, dude.”

Star dropped Jackie off at home. They parted ways in the light of the rising sun with a long embrace. Jackie got her in a bear hug and refused to let go until Star accepted her sincere thanks, and then Star spent the rest of the day and night basking in the afterglow of Jackie’s grateful farewell kiss, dreaming of the day Jackie would hold her hand for a casual stroll through the streets of the real Paris – nasty smell and all.