Butterfly In The Light

In which Star plays with fire

Stars POV

Where are those dumb shoes. I always find my flip flops when I'm looking for my dino-shoes but now when I need them they have disappeared. I open my bottom drawer and rummage around looking for my beach appropriate shoes.

Ughh why are things so hard to find. They must be in my secrets closet if they're not in my drawers. I walk over to the closet and open up the door. The seemingly infinite closet is full of so much stuff itll take forever to find my flip flops. I look around and spot a photo. What could this be? As I walk closer I see that it's of me and Marco. It's a photo from the photobooth at bounce lounge. Marco and I are both laughing and we look so happy. I remember how nice that night was. Marco always makes events better, he's always there and although he can be super awkward, he tries, and sometimes that's all that matters. The photo makes me smile so I decide to keep it on my person.

I pocket the Polaroid and continue my search for my sandals. I spot a pile of the things I've collected for the beach and sort around until I find my favourite flip flops. The baby blue sandals have small suns on them, and each sun has a smile and a pair of sunglasses on them. Marco got them for me on my first trip to an earth beach. When I told him all I had to wear were my dino boots we went to a beach shop and he asked me to choose out a pair of sandals. Obviously I chose the funkiest pair in the store.

I'm finally ready to go to the beach with Tom. I go to my mirror and call him. He answers almost immediately.

"Hey Star are you ready for our little date?" His face forms into a smirk and I almost laugh at the silly sunglasses he's wearing, almost like he's trying to be a helicopter pilot. I blush slightly and giggle at him. He smiles at my laugh and I quickly compose myself.

"Yes Mr. Lucitor, yours truly is finally ready to be picked up, so if you don't mind, could you come already" I say exasperated and ending with a giggle.

Looking as happy as ever he ends the call. I wait a couple of minutes before a massive pillar of fire shoots up outside of my balcony, as the fire fades a beautiful wooden carriage raises up. It is being carried by a flying demon, which looks like a mini devil. I've gotten used to his means of transport, but the demon servant always creeps me out a bit.

As Tom steps out of the carriage I stretch my hand out and he grabs it. He kisses the top of it while his soft eyes meet mine. Instead of his usual torn rock shirt and jeans he is wearing a purple vest and some yellow shorts. The style is unusual but goes well with his pinkish purple skin tone. He pulls me into the carriage and commands the demon to take us to South Beach, where I told him the best ice cream is made.

As we fly I tell him about the new restaurant Marco showed me, it's a Mexican restaurant where they make really spicy food, which happens to be Tom's favourite part of earth, he says the spicy food is a lot closer to underworld food than the sweet or savoury corn that is Mewni's staple food.

We arrive at South Beach and get out onto the parking lot. Me and Tom walk towards the board walk. I spot an ice cream truck and I drag him to try a new flavour. We wait in the line for a few minutes before I decide to get  the fruity tornado and Tom asks for a dark chocolate cone. We begin to walk down the path, licking on the sweet treats, while talking about life.

"So how is school life going here Star? In the underworld I never really spent time with others under a teacher. I always sat in my grandfather's study learning from his books, I cant imagine sitting amongst others in a room learning together" Tom looks at me sideways and grins, he seems genuinely interested in Earth's learning system.

"Well a lot of the stuff we learn here on earth is pretty useless for everyone, except maybe someone who wants to go into that specific field of work, but it helps you learn how to work towards a goal and also how to explain your ideas better. My mother did tell me to focus more on my magic than school though. Otherwise I'm enjoying having so many friends close to me . It's really nice to have something to do everyday." I think of Janna and Jackie, they're always there, even though I don't know them well they mean a lot to me and keep me company when Marco is busy.

"Yeah I can imagine its really nice to spend everyday with Marco and not have go worry about working because you can just use magic." Tom looks at me knowingly and maybe a bit jealous.

We get to a spot where theres a gap in the railing and the board walk meets with some rocks that are almost the same height. We climb down and walk to the edge. We both sit with our legs hanging over the edge. We're both done with our ice creams by now so we start to have a serious conversation.

"You know Tom. In Mewni everyone knew my name, they all bowed down to me and I never got into trouble for all the mess I made. But here, everyone's treated the same, most people don't even know who I am or what I can do. It's kinda nice to disappear into the crowd, I'm not as important as what I am in Mewni, but people don't look at me with funny looks, they don't expect as much or treat me like I'm better than them."

Tom gives me a thoughtful look before looking down into the violent sea, I wonder if his soul is experiencing the same violence.
"In the underworld I'm basically a god. I have so much power, everyone is at my beck and call. It's so tough to learn self control, because no one else would dare tell me to control myself. They just hope I don't kill them. It's so much harder being powerful than people think. Sometimes it weighs heavy on my shoulders. The whole kingdom will someday belong to me, I will be completely in charge of a place where people already treat me like a god. I don't know where I'll get friends..." He looks genuinely sad as he crunches his fists against the rock, heating up its surface.

"You have me." I give him a genuine smile.

He turns and looks surprised. "I, uh.. I guess I do have you Star, you've been there for me always."

"Even Marco is your friend, he thinks your a really cool guy." I remind him of the hot mess that is Marco. I think we are both imagining Marco mesmerized by Tom's power and skill.

"Marco is a good guy Star. He deserves better friends than me, he deserves people who don't have issues."

"Heyyyy. You don't have issues. You have control of your anger. The older you get the more control you have, I can see it in front of me. You don't get as angry anymore." I look up and pout at him, he seriously can't think hes not good enough for Marco. They're really good friends.

"Thanks Star. I think I needed to hear someone say that I'm getting better. I always feel like my servants are lying to make me happy." His smirk returns and he looks super friendly again.

"What do you say we go on some carnival rides?" He gets a sparkle in his eyes and jumps up. Racing me to the gates of a roller coaster.

*4 hours later*

I climb out of the carriage with wild hair and feeling tired. What a day, I've never spent so much time flying through the air, screaming as I fall just to go up again and restart the process.

"Thanks for our date today Tom, I really enjoyed it" I give him a satisfied smile.

"No problem Star. See yah." He blows me a kiss that I return. The door closes and within a second the carriage and demon disappear in a column of fire.

I'm so exhausted from the date.Let me just sleep so I can be ready for tomorrow. I'll go check up on Marco quick before I sleep.

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I've been focusing mainly on Star and Marco lately but this is specifically for Star. I just wanted to get Tom and Star to talk about their struggles as leaders and show how I think they understand each others problems better than star and Marco. Also I wanted to show how Star and even Marco to an extent are all that Tom has. To date Marco, Star needs to basically take away his two best friends. Sure they'll stay friends but it'll always he awkward for Tom liking Star.

Thanks for reading and please *star* ( :) ) this story.

Lots of love,
Nick.