Chapter 6

When Tom next saw Star, she acted almost as if their last conversation never happened. Honestly, he understood the impulse to pretend that nothing was wrong, but he couldn't bring himself to give into it.

Ever since the day Marco had left, everything had felt wrong. Star wasn't the same- no matter how hard she tried to act like it, she just… wasn't. He could tell that the stress of ruling the kingdom was piling up on her more and more, and Tom honestly tried to help. Accompanying her while they went over paperwork, trying to get her to relax and let loose every once in a while, trying to be there for her. But nothing he did seemed to be enough, and Tom was beginning to feel that there was something broken between them.

He felt useless. And what made it even worse was that his first instinct, the first person he wanted to go to about it, was Marco.

He'd been furious with Marco at first, but after only a few days that anger had diminished entirely. And if he were being honest, brutally honest with himself, he missed Marco too. A lot.

Star and Marco were basically the entirety of his social circle, Marco was (still was?) his best friend- one of the few people who actually gave him a second (and a third, fourth?) chance. Tom felt just as powerless to fix the rift between him and Marco as he did to fix his and Star's relationship.

Star's polite smile, to someone who didn't know her, revealed nothing. But to Tom, who'd known Star for years, it was just wrong. Star didn't smile politely, at least, not in private. She grinned, beamed, giggled, and laughed, the slight upturn of her lips in response to Tom's presence felt fake.

"Hey Starship!" He enthused "How are you doing?"

Her smile tightened slightly "I'm doing just fine, Tom. How are you?"

"I'm doing well." Tom mirrored. Jeez, even their conversation felt fake.

"Tom… you were right."

"I was? I mean, of course I was."

There was something genuine in her smile now- fondness, but it was so fleeting that Tom almost missed it. Star seemed to steel herself for what she said next "About getting a new assistant. I-I can't just keep pretending."

Pretending what? That she could do this alone? That Marco was coming back? Tom didn't want to ask.

"It's alright, Star. I'm sure we'll find somebody."

Steven forced down his nervousness. Yes, Butterfly Castle was intimidating, and the guards were intimidating. And yes, he was about to have an interview that could change his entire life for the better.

He had good reason to be a little nervous, but it wasn't time for that. Above all, he needed to make a good impression on whoever would be interviewing him. Whoever it was had to be trusted by the Queen, and surely must be important and influential.

A guard, or maybe it was a full blown knight, he honestly wasn't sure, led him through the castle halls to a room. "Don't worry, she probably won't behead you if you screw up." She remarked, and Steven felt the blood drain from his face. It was only when she began snickering that he realized it was just a joke.

Feeling relieved, Steven walked into the room, only to have his heart seize up in his chest when he caught sight of the Queen. She was sitting casually, leaning back and feet resting on her desk- beside her was the man that was rumored to be the next King of Mewni- similarly relaxed and sipping on a drink.

He made a noise, it wasn't exactly a coherent noise, but it did perfectly reflect his emotional state at the moment. This would be his first time actually speaking to royalty. He'd seen Queen Star from afar- during speeches and official ceremonies, but certainly nothing like this. Of course, he realized, he should have been prepared for this, the position he was applying for- the Queen's personal assistant- was one which required a lot of interaction with said Queen.

Mustering himself, he managed to put together something that passed for a proper greeting "Your majesty! It is an honor to meet you!" He began to bow, but then thought better of it, but then second guessed himself and recommitted to the bow. God, he was making a fool of himself.

"So. Steven, right?" Prince Lucitor asked.

Steven gulped "Yes, your majesty."

"You can cut it with the 'your majesty' crap." Tom waved him off "Pretty sure you'd drive this one nuts a week in if you keep it up." He smirked, gesturing to Queen Star.

"Sorry, of course, sir."

Prince Tom chuckled, and inclined his head toward the Queen, who was surveying Steven intently… making him distinctly uncomfortable. "So, why don't you tell us about yourself?" Tom suggested.

So Steven spilled his entire history. Explaining how he worked as a clerk in a shop for two years until he could manage to get an apprenticeship under a merchant and how he travelled from kingdom to kingdom and dimension to dimension while apprenticed. Until, that is, the day he realized that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life travelling with no home, which led to him serendipitously seeing the call for interviews to be the Queen's personal assistant.

"So you would say that you're good with numbers?" Prince Tom asked.

"Uh, yes."

"And you're organized?"

"Yeah."

"And you have experience travelling dimensions?"

"Yeah."

Tom turned again to Star, who let out an unconvinced "Eh." as she twirled her wand between her fingers.

That wasn't the response that Tom seemed to hoping for, and he led the Queen out of the room, where they had a quick discussion that they failed utterly to keep Steven from hearing.

"You can't just reject literally everyone who applies, Star. You were the one who decided to do this."

"I'm not going to settle on someone who isn't good enough, Tom."

"You're being impossible! This dude is like a perfect fit."

The Queen huffed "He's not. There's no way he could do the job as well as…"

"So that's what this is about."

"Don't even go there, Tom."

"This isn't about replacing him, Star."

"I KNOW!"

There was a beat of silence, before Queen Star quietly followed up with something that sounded like an apology. Their low murmuring was muffled enough by the door that Steven didn't pick it up- and to be honest he was happy for it

After another few moments, Queen Star burst back into the room. "You're hired."

"Really?"

"Yep." She answered, matter-of-factly. "Now, I've got stuff to do, so why don't you get started by looking at a few of these papers." She unceremoniously dumped a pile of papers into Steven's lap. "This is the kind of work your predecessor did, so you'll need to be familiar with it."

Steven couldn't help but be intimidated by the stack of papers, and he could feel the blood drain from his cheeks as he leafed through them and spotted terms and symbols that he simply couldn't decipher. "Do you think you can handle this?" The Queen asked.

With the memory of her nearly dismissing him out of hand so fresh in his mind, Steven summoned all of the false confidence he could. "Absolutely, your majesty. I won't let you down!"

Internally, however, his stomach squirmed. He felt much like he had that time his brother decided to dump him in deep water for the first time as a prank.

There was a lot he needed to figure out. And fast.

"Thanks for inviting me." Kelly told Marco softly "And showing me around your hometown. It was nice."

Marco shrugged. She was the one who was helping him with his job, the least he could do was show her around Echo Creek. "Come on, this place isn't anything special." Just another town, one out of hundred, the only unique thing about it was that a magical princess from another dimension decided to call it home for a year.

Yet still, she seemed to be fascinated by even the more mundane aspects of Earth life, attentive when he talked about childhood memories, and curious- asking questions about his life here. She wanted to know the little things, like why he got interested in karate (his obsession with Mackie Hand) and who his first friends were (Janna, technically).

"It's where you grew up. It made you who you are; I'd say that's pretty special." Her voice was so earnest, and Marco became uncomfortably aware of how close she was to him.

Marco stepped to the side, widening the gap between them, but not sure what to say. "Uh, thanks."

Kelly giggled, and shifted closer to him once again. "I really like you Marco." The words slipped from her mouth, and the moment she uttered them a brief look of horror spread across her face.

"Like me… like…" Marco trailed off, giving her an escape hatch. The heat was rising in both of their cheeks, but the fear had left her face, in its place was determination.

Quick as a flash, Kelly leapt up and pressed her lips to his, before retreating just as quickly. "Like that."

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

"Kelly…"

"I've liked you for a longtime, ever since we saw the soulrise together, really." She explained, her eyes never leaving his. "But you always seemed to only have eyes for Star. But now that… you know… I thought that maybe… maybe, we could…"

Kelly was losing steam, and Marco's mind was overloading, trying to figure out how to respond. He never thought, never even considered that Kelly had feelings for him. He was getting flashbacks to the time that Star had blurted out how she felt about him in front of everyone. At least he and Kelly were alone.

His stomach squirmed uneasily. How had he not seen it for so long? Marco felt like a hypocrite- pining after Star but not realizing that someone was pining after him.

"Well, say something." Kelly entreated, and Marco realized that he had been frozen still and silent for far too long.

"Uh… look." Oh god, this was not going to come out well, no matter how much time he had to practice it, and he had to do this on the spot "You're great, Kelly."

Kelly took the words like a physical blow, seeing them for what they were. "You're a great friend." Marco couldn't even in good conscious call her his best friendeven after all this time, because he knew that in his heart Star somehow still clung to that title. "But I'm not interesting in anything more than that."

Kelly's eyes were glistening, and her lower lip quivered "I-I thought, that maybe I could help you get over her… but if you need more time…"

He could take the easy way out, Marco realized. He could say he just wasn't ready for a relationship yet, that it wasn't about her it was him.

But that would be a lie.

Because yeah, he definitely wasn't ready for a relationship yet, but the truth was he just didn't feel that way for Kelly. Would it really be fair to string Kelly along like that, just to avoid a tough conversation?

"Kelly… don't wait for me."

"What?" Oh god, she was about to cry. Marco had no idea how the situation could spiral out of control so quickly before his eyes. It was all falling apart. He was going to lose another friend and he was helpless to stop it. Was this how Star had felt when he came clean to her? If so, he felt even worse about it now.

"I don't feel that way for you. You're just a friend to me. I'm sorry." He forced the words from his mouth, almost wincing at how each line landed.

Tears flooded onto her cheeks, and Kelly choked down a sob. Heart aching for her, Marco reached out to put a hand on Kelly's shoulder, but she flinched away. Yeah, he should have expected that. He probably deserved it.

"I don't get it, Marco." Her voice was wet with tears, yet seeping with frustration "Why? I've done so much for you! I've been there for you all this time while she treated you like dirt for years!"

Marco was reeling, but the disdain in Kelly's voice when she talked about Star rubbed him the wrong way. "Don't bring Star into this." Marco said softly "This isn't about her."

"She shattered your heart into a million pieces, and you still defend her! But even after I help you put it back together piece by piece, I'm still just a friend." She said the last word like it was poison on her tongue.

And really, he didn't have a good answer for her. Part of him was worried that this would be like Star all over again- only realizing how he felt after Kelly was out of reach. But Marco knew himself better now than he did at fourteen. He knew how he felt. When he looked at Kelly, he didn't feel the warm, abiding flame of love and affection he held (still holds) for Star, or the nervous flutter of a crush he had for Jackie, or even the chemistry he and Hekapoo seemed to share.

Kelly was his friend- a close friend, but nothing more. He couldn't explain why he felt the way he did, even to himself, let alone to her. "I'm sorry. I really am." He repeated, near tears himself, but he knew that it wouldn't be enough.

He knew from personal experience that nothing ever would be.

A/N: Did anyone order a serving of Kellco angst? No? Well here it is anyway! Yeah, for any fans of Kelly, I do apologize. She's handling rejection poorly after pining for Marco for years, but she isn't he bad guy here and she'll have her redemption.

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed!