Chapter Text
“And where are you going?”
Marco, who was currently in the middle of zipping her hoodie, looked over shoulder at Star and Janna behind her.
“Tom invited me to go to hell.” This came absentmindedly from the karate expert.
“Oh cool!” Janna was practically giddy eyed at this statement. “Can I come? I’ve never met a demon before? I have a few questions I’ve been meaning to ask him.” After saying this, Janna pulled out a ridiculously long list, which Marco expected contained every question she planned to ask Tom.
“We’re just gonna play ping-pong. No blood-rituals or devil summoning.” Marco stopped talking for a moment. “At least I hope there won’t be any of that.”
A downcast expression appeared on Janna’s face.
“Well, that sounds boring.”
“Janna, don’t be rude!” Star admonished her friend, waving her wand at her in a scolding manner.
A shrug came from Janna.
“I just mean, what’s the point of being friends with a literal freaking Demon if you’re not going to be committing any crimes against nature? Sounds like a missed opportunity.”
What Marco wasn’t telling her friends was that she didn’t hang out with Tom for just the ping-pong. Marco made time to meet up with Tom because she needed someone to talk to. She may not have shown it, but she did have issues with some of the things she and Star had been through. Toffee’s Castle. The Quest-Buy Card incident. Ludo taking the spell book. All of those close brushes with death were leaving a mark on Marco, a constant fear that her next adventure might lead to her end.
“Look.” Marco began, wiping her hair down. “I like ping-pong. Tom likes ping-pong. It’s just two friends hanging out.”
“But, doesn’t Tom always beat you?” It was amazing how Star could say these things without any malice behind them.
“Not ALL the time.” Marco grumbled. “Just a lot of the time.” This came out as a mutter.
She couldn’t exactly go to a therapist about this stuff. There’s no book on how to cope with a small, Goblin monster Mage trying to kill you and your friends.
And she never wanted to tell Star. Marco was nearly a 100 percent sure that Star was having similar feelings about the traumatic things they go through, and didn’t want to add to her worries.
So, that’s where Tom came in.
3 Months Ago
The two of them were lounging on a coach, watching one of the first Mackie Hand movies: Mackie Hand: Come Out Punching and Kicking.
“You know.” Tom drawled out, picking a piece of popcorn and throwing it into his mouth. “This movie might be his best work. It’s not the best dialogue, but the stunts are absolutely dope.”
“’Dope’?” Letting out a chuckle as she said this, sipped from her can of soda. “I wasn’t aware we were in the year 2005.” Marco thought that was pretty good burn.
Rolling his eyes, Tom sat up on the blue couch in the middle of his TV room.
“Look, maybe in your dimension that word has gone out of style, but here it’s brand new.” Kicking his legs up on the table, Tom began to relax more.
The room was far from the picture of cleanliness. There were chocolate bar wrapper thrown around the couch. Empty cans of soda dotted the floor. Crumbs from popcorn, and stuff that neither of them were sure of, was spread around the room.
“So, how are things with you?”
“To be honest, not great.” This came out a lot lighter than Marco had expected. It wasn’t some sort of huge confession. Just a quiet confession of something that had been bubbling under the surface.
Tom stayed quiet for a few seconds.
“Wanna talk about it?”
Present:
Marco was knocked out of her thoughts by the sound of something at the window of Star’s room.
Running over, she quickly saw the telltale transport carriage that Tom was so fond of.
The doors of it opened, quickly revealing horned teenager.
“Marco, you ready to get destroyed?” A cocky grin was plastered on Tom’s face.
“Jeez, least let me think I have a chance.” Marco chuckled this as she entered the carriage.
It was when Janna and Star were leaving that Marco heard something she wished she hadn’t.
“You boys have a fun night.”
Marco knew that Star didn’t mean to hurt her. How could she? She didn’t even know.
But it hurt. It hurt a lot.
Marco supposed that even before she met Star she knew she was a girl. Like, she had the feelings of being lost and not knowing what it truly was.
It was only in St. Olga’s that she began to realize what those feelings were. Having everyone see her as a girl, calling her “She”. The dress. Her long hair in a ponytail. The eyelashes. It just all felt so……right to her.
Ever since then, she’d had been exploring her identity.
Waking up in the middle of the night to try on makeup while everyone else was asleep.
Looking up trans Utubers and comparing her experiences to theirs.
Writing down the feelings of dysphoria in her journal. (One she hid in another dimension. Just so Janna couldn’t find it.)
She was sure of it. Marco Diaz was a trans girl.
But she wasn’t sure of how everyone else would react.
99% of her was sure that Star and her parents would be accepting. They had never done anything to indicate otherwise.
But that 1% of doubt terrified her too much to try it.
Apparently, she had been not doing a good job at hiding her feelings from her face.
“Marco.” Tom began, sipping from a goblet. “Something wrong?”
“I can’t tell Tom. Sure, he’s been great about the other stuff. But I don’t even know how demons feel about gender issues.? I can’t risk a bad reaction.” Marco had considered telling Tom before. But she had weighed the cons against the pros and decided against it.
“Tom, I think I’m a girl.”
And now she decided for it.
As the words left her mouth, Marco’s mind began racing with worries. What if Demons were transphobic? What if this caused Tom to lose his cool? What if Tom just doesn’t understand at all?
Looking up, Marco was hoping to gauge Tom’s reaction.
Tom was in mid-drink as he heard this, and slowly brought down his goblet.
“Oh, I see.” Tom began swirling the contents of his drink around. He didn’t seem to be reacting angrily. Which Marco was thankful for.
“Do you have a name you want me to call you?”
Relief flooded into Marco as she heard these words.
“N-no. Marco’s fine, thanks.” While Marco was aware that many trans people change their names during their transitions, she never felt that urge. Her name was her name. There was many things that made her feel dysphoric, but her name wasn’t one of them.
Grunting in affirmation, Tom began rubbing the back of his head.
“Look, you don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to. But I’m all ears if you do.”
Pulling out a juice cartoon she had brought with her, Marco let out a quick chuckle.
“I think our talk tonight might be a bit different than usual.”