Chapter 4

Marco was haunting her.

Every time she pulled out her phone to look at her schedule, she was reminded of him. It was the schedule that Marco had made for her- her entire week laid out for her.

He'd already had information prepared for nearly everything she would need over the next week. Marco had personally tailored his summaries and refreshers to her. They were filled with personal touches and little notes- sometimes just random thoughts he had on a topic, or an idea he'd had on the top of his head, or even just a 'see you later!'. Star couldn't help but feel now that he had left a little piece of himself in them.

She couldn't bear to think of when they would run out. It would be like losing him all over again. Everything reminded her of him. She almost couldn't make it through her first breakfast after Marco… Marco had left, because she remembered the day he introduced her to her favorite cereal. Whenever she caught a flash of red in a crowd, her heart leapt with hope, only to sink in dejection every time she realized that it wasn't her bestie.

Some mornings, while she was still dozing in bed, she forget that Marco was… gone, and absently wondered what he was up to, why he hadn't knocked on her door or texted her yet to coordinate with her… and then she remembered and it all came crashing back down on her.

She honestly hadn't realized just how much she relied on Marco every day, and not just with the business of running the kingdom. Just knowing that he had her back, that come hell or high water Marco Diaz would be by her side, it had given her strength. Now, it felt like Marco had taken part of herself with him. Her heart ached for the piece that was missing, for Marco.

She sighed, looking up from Marco's notes on the upcoming corn harvest. Star loved corn, but even Marco had a hard time making this particular topic interesting. Surplus corn storage, shipping and processing, fair distribution- by corn it was dull.

There was a knock at her door. "You in there, Starship?"

Star mustered a smile and called him in. "Sooooo… how are you holding up?" He asked.

"Good, good. It's all cool. Just, you know, reading about corn." Star lied. Tom asked about her, in his own awkward way, nearly every time they saw each other nowadays and Star had lied every time. She didn't want to worry him or any of her friends more than she already had, she told herself. But if she was being honest with herself, she didn't think she could handle bearing her aching heart to someone without breaking down again.

"Well, how about I help you out a bit? Do you think you need some help with the corn thing?" Tom offered. Star blinked in surprise, Tom had never volunteered to do something like this, something so dry and bureaucratic, before. But it was really nice that he wanted to help her.

"Suuuure." Star agreed, waving her wand absently to poof up a comfy chair for him. "I could actually really use some help. This stuff is so boring, especially without… company."

Corn, talking about anything was like stumbling through a minefield. Avoiding saying his name was the mental equivalent of that twister game that she and Marco had played once.

Tom looked through the notes "Did Marco put this together?" He asked, opting to charge straight into said minefield.

Star's expression crumbled. "Yeah."

To his credit, Tom noticed her reaction and tried to apologize, which was ridiculous because he had only mentioned Marco's name. "It's okay, Tom." Star cut him off. "I can handle hearing… his name."

Star explained to Tom the workings Mewni's corn industry and the information contained in the packet- not noticing how his eyes glazed over after the first few minutes. As she did so, she couldn't help but appreciate just how much work Marco must have put into this- regular communication with regional officials, references to historical records. He had done so much without complaint, all out of love for her.

"Star, are you okay?" Tom asked, and Star realized there were tears in her eyes.

"Y-yeah! I'm fine. It's just corn is a very emotional topic for me." Okay, that was probably not her most convincing performance. She looked up at Tom, who regarded her sadly.

"Star, I really hate seeing you this way. I know you say you're fine, but I know you aren't. You can talk to me." Tom pleaded, and for a moment Star felt her resolve waver.

Could she really talk to Tom about this, though? How much she missed Marco? How she missed everything about him now that he was gone. His smile, that could light up the whole room and take a load off her heart if it was genuine. His eyes, so warm and caring. His patience. His kindness. His awkwardness. His cute little mole.

Uhg! No, there was no way she could tell Tom about that stuff, not without running the risk of him getting jealous. Especially now that he knew how… how Marco felt.

And there was no way… no way she would ever open that can of worms with Tom. She could barely even handle the overwhelming surge of confusing emotions that emerged whenever she thought about how Marco… Marco loved her.

Star plastered a wide smile on her face. "Don't worry about me, Tom. I can handle anything life throws at me."

Tom sighed in resignation "Alright, alright." He conceded, abandoning the topic for now. "So, about these reports…"

"Hm?"

"Well, I know my parents have people that put stuff like this together. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's not like this" He gestured to the stack of papers on her desk "but you know, the same idea."

"You're saying I should hire someone." Star surmised resignedly. "I don't know, Tom."

Truthfully, she had had the exact same thought, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to go through with it. It just felt… wrong, she didn't want to replace Marco. Marco was irreplaceable.

"Look, I know I'm not Marco-" Tom coaxed, ignoring Star's grimace at her former bestie's name "-but I can have good ideas too. Just, give it some thought."

"You'd never believe the rumors that are flying around." Hekapoo remarked, taking a swig form her flaming drink.

Marco mirrored her, enjoying a spoonful of his sunday, while contemplating how much to tell her. It was always something of a game with them- a push and a pull. While he could spill everything to her in one go, he suspected Hekapoo would be secretly disappointed that she had gotten it out of him so easily.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly be in touch with the rumors flying around Mewni, not anymore." Marco told her, the last part with just a touch of bitterness. That wasn't quite true, Marco admitted to himself. After all, he had spent a lot of the last few days with Kelly- apartment shopping, furniture shopping, grocery shopping, just in general taking advantage of the savings he'd built up over the years. He had made her promise to keep him posted on how Star was doing, but so far she'd been pretty vague- which might have been a mercy.

"Sensitive subject?" Hekapoo probed "What, did you finally tire of being Star's doormat?"

Marco's heart lurched at the reminder of his best friend. He knew what Hekapoo was doing, she was goading him on. Marco couldn't bring himself to be angry at her for the jab, though. It wouldn't be the first time Hekapoo had ribbed him about his dedication to Star, even occasionally 'jokingly' suggesting he ditch Mewni's Queen for her instead.

"You could say that." Marco offered, and to his surprise Hekapoo offered up her fist to bump.

"About damn time!" She chuckled.

"You seem unusually happy about this." Marco noted "If I didn't know better, I'd say you actually cared."

Hekapoo had a reputation as being tempestuous and capricious. If one were to believe the rumors- she was above the petty concerns of mortals, and at most viewed them as pawns to achieve her own goals. Marco suspected she'd deliberately cultivated that reputation.

Of course, Marco knew that she'd taken a certain fondness to him at some point during his 16 year scissor quest, and that she was far from above 'petty mortal desires' like food, entertainment… sex. She was a person, albeit a person who was ridiculously powerful, nigh immortal, centuries old, and had a temper to boot.

"Of course not, Diaz." Hekapoo returned with a mischievous grin, placing a hand on his forearm "I can't help but be happy, though, at a certain opportunity that has arisen, with Star out of your life."

"Oh?" Marco managed.

"I find myself in need Marco, in need of your services." She purred.

Services? Huh? It took him a moment for him to piece together what she meant, and how he should react.

Marco smirked "Oh H-Poo, if you wanted me for a job, all you had to do was ask." It wasn't like he needed the work. To be honest, the money he got from his position at St. Olgas would be enough to live off of. But in another way, he did need it- the adventure.

Hekapoo frowned "You're no fun."

"You're just upset that I'm harder to tease." Marco bantered "So, what's the job? Does it have to do with those untraceable portals that Mina's people have been using?"

Tracking down Mina's group should not have been difficult. Between the seeing-eye spell, and Hekapoo's ability to trace any portal activity, it should have just been a matter of finding them and overpowering them.

But Mina was surprisingly squirrelly. Try as she might, Star couldn't use the seeing-eye spell as a portal, and the Purists seemed to relocate almost daily. They had been able to identify a few traitorous nobles- so it hadn't been a complete waste, but the more worrying problem was that Hekapoo couldn't track their portals. Hekapoo was at a loss, and he and Star had talked the subject to death. They didn't have any leads to speak of, only speculation. Someone powerful, more powerful than Mina, had to be backing them.

"No, actually." Hekapoo answered "Well, at least I don't think so. But I do think you'll like this case."

"Alright, I'm curious, why?"

"Because, Marco, the portals are coming from Earth."

Nothing quite beat riding through a dimension portal on a dragoncycle as an entrance. This was especially true if you were Marco Diaz and the place you were entering was St. Olgas.

More than perhaps anything, Marco was proud of St. Olga's. What had once been a repressive reform school, and then a party school, had become something more. It was only a few months after Star had become Queen that he'd received a tearful call from Princess Arms. The school was going to be shut down. Royals weren't willing to send their daughters to a party school that produced no results. Arms begged Marco to help her save St. Olga's.

Marco took to the project with zeal, and the results were better than he could have hoped for. They'd gotten teachers for subjects that might actually be important for royalty and future queens- like history, politics, economics, military strategy, and even combat. Marco had borrowed teaching styles that had been becoming more popular on Earth to set up classes that encouraged interactive learning, teamwork, and provided a relaxed atmosphere. The curriculum wasn't too stringent, the princesses were able to choose their courses and had a lot of free time, but Marco figured that forcing them into classes wasn't the way to go anyway.

Enrollment soared. Both the parents and students loved 'St. Olgas 3.0', the students because they got a lot of free time and the classes were cool and interesting, and the parents because they saw actual improvement in their children's behavior and work ethic. They'd actually gotten some requests to accept princes, which the school board was still debating.

For his efforts, Marco had been given a permanent position on the school board. He remembered the day he accepted that position, how Star had been so happy for him… Marco forced Star from his thoughts.

Marco surveyed to school a moment before coming to the ground. The school had changed a lot. Gone was the oppressive atmosphere of Heinous' time. Gone was the refuse that had built after the revolution. The school looked… nice. Grass, trees, and bushes surrounded the building. Even now, there were princesses outside, relaxing and studying.

Marco coasted through the gates, and was soon surrounded. At first the princesses were inquisitive, but Marco could pinpoint the exact moment he'd been recognized when they started squealing.

"Look at his mole! It's Marco Turdina!"

"Sign my Princess Turdina doll!"

"Sign my Princess Turdina movie!"

"Can we take a picture with you?"

"Say your catch phrase!"

St. Olgas was always good for an ego boost- something Marco felt like he needed right about now. Still, he had come here for an actual reason. Marco waded through the crowd, acquiescing to sign a few of the more reasonable requests, and blushing profusely when one of the girls asked him to sign her boobs.

Eventually he made it through the crowd, to be greeted by an amused looking Princess Arms. "Princess Turdina, what an honor." She smiled.

In the wake of the overthrow of Miss Heinous, Princess Patty Arms had become something of a leader of the St. Olgas princesses. That had transferred over into the official position of student council president when the school was revamped. She had graduated last semester, but hadn't wanted to leave the school.

Marco's solution was simple, the school could use a headmistress, why not the person who had put more into the school than anyone? Patty had been dead set against it at first, since it was the title that Heinous used. So Marco went over her head and put the idea to the students, who had burst into applause at the idea. Patty ended up tearfully accepting the position, passionately promising her students that she would never, ever, ever be anything like Heinous.

"Hey, Patty." Marco greeted casually. "How's it going?"

"I should be asking you that." The princess returned "Because rumor has it you've just done a runner."

"You could say that." He really needed to get used to answering that question, or at least get to the point where the thought of Star didn't cause a stab of pain in his chest.

The two of them managed to extricate themselves from the crowd, and shut themselves in her office. "So, what's the deal? You and Star have a falling out?" She asked.

"No. It's not like that." Marco denied "I just… need space." He sighed, while he considered Patty a friend, he wasn't comfortable with telling her everything.

The princess nodded sympathetically, and Marco wondered how much she knew "Well, I'm guessing you're not here for gossip, what's up?"

"Well, since I'm no longer working for Star, I found that I have a bit of free time. I've always kind of skirted on my duties as a board member, so I figured I should get a bit more involved."

Patty snorted. "I wouldn't say you've been slacking. I mean, you've been to every meeting and always have suggestions. Your position is more of an honorary thing, really."

"Yeah, I guess." Marco allowed "But I'm in the position to do more, now. Maybe look over the curriculum in detail, get some feedback, see what can be improved."

"Be my guest. I don't think you'll find any objection from anybody here, after everything you've done. Is that really all you came for?"

"Actually, I'm here on official business. From Hekapoo."

Princess Arms' eyes lit up in realization. "Ahhhh. The kidnapping."

A/N: Well, there you have it. Not much angst in this chapter, though I promise you there is more to come ;). Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, I hope you guys enjoy this update!