As a red hood covered his eyes, a young boy leaned against the wall of his friend's room, lifting the cloth every so often to check on the blonde's status. She was still bouncing from one side of the room, looking for whatever in the world she was looking for, and he wasn't buying into helping her out. He'd already told her to get ready and they'd known for the entire week what the plan was. Unfortunately, Star Butterfly played by her own rules, and Marco Diaz knew this already. He'd lifted the hood from his eyes before he'd checked the phone one more time. It'd already been an hour since she started on this crusade for the "perfect outfit"…

"Star, Tom's going to be here soon. We were supposed to be ready for the concert 45 minutes ago! Can't you just put on whatever so we can go?"

"No, Marco! I have to find the perfect outfit! This is going to be the big blowout concert for an old Mewman friend of mine! I always knew he wanted to hit it big, and I want it to be perfect for him! 'Sides, the concert tickets were free and we have guaranteed seats! There's no need to worry, Marco, I promise!"

As much as she'd said that to reassure him, he knew her saying things like that eventually lead to other things that had nothing to do with her original goal. It was just her kind of way of doing things, and Marco never really had a problem with that. At the same time, however… It tended to cause issues for things that should never escalate to that kind of level. Marco pouted as Star continued to rampage through the room and he'd settled into the fact that she wouldn't ever change for anyone, and he couldn't ever ask her to either. Just at the thought, he couldn't help but smirk.

Just as he'd thought she was done, though, he heard her mirror ring. He'd lifted an eyebrow and wondered if it was Tom, then he'd heard a name that he hadn't ever heard before. Perhaps her Mewman friend? Star had answered the mirror without missing a beat and had a quick chat with that other person, Marco not quite paying any attention to the conversation and blocking everything out as he'd lost himself in thought. Before he'd realized it, though, Star was standing in front of him in her usual attire, red horns and blue dress and all. Of course, Marco was stunned and he was building with rage from all of that wasted time before he'd noticed the look of worry on her face.

"Marco, I just got a call from my friend and the concert's been cancelled… I'm gonna… I'll be back later, okay? I'm sorry!"

"Wha… Star, you can't jus-"

Marco couldn't even finish his sentence before she'd pulled out a pair of gray, sword-like dimensional scissors and used them to cut a hole to Mewni, putting her hands together apologetically before bowing into the portal and closing it shut behind her. He'd reached his hand out as if to stop her, but she was already gone. A few more thoughts crossed his mind before he'd realized that she'd nabbed his dimensional scissors and quickly checked his pockets to confirm that. With a groan, he'd bunched his hands into fists and pounded one against the stone wall, feeling the sting of his flesh hitting the hard material but ignoring it.

I can't believe she just bailed on me like that! If this guy is such a good friend, why haven't I ever heard of him before? I mean, at least with Tom, she'd told me about him… Some mystery guy...

Marco allowed himself to wallow in self-pity for a bit longer before a ball of flame erupted inside of the room. And cleared away, leaving a few scorch marks on the floor, but not much else to show that fire had been there. What else did the fire leave? Marco looked up from the floor and noticed a demon who was dressed quite dapperly, raising an eyebrow as the demon's eyes trained on Marco. All three of them. Shrugging a bit, Marco pushed off of the wall and greeted the guest.

"Hey Tom. Star left. We're not going to the concert. You can go back and do… whatever it is demons do. What do demons do?"

"Okay, Marco, first of all - ow, racist. I'm a person like you, but better. Second, what do you mean we're not going?! I put on nice clothes and everything! Are you telling me that I wasted all this time and we're not even going?!"

Seeing that Tom was going into his usual "burn everything around me" kind of rage, Marco raised a finger, very much not wanting to deal with Tom burning down his house or whatever drama the demon was stirring up. He'd walked forward and pat Tom on the shoulder as he'd walked past. He wasn't looking to wallow the entire time that Star was gone. He knew that if he were in some sort of trouble, Star would drop everything to help him out too. That's just how she was… But even knowing that, Marco couldn't help but feel the slightest twinge of jealousy. She'd dropped him to meet up with whoever this guy was and Marco had no way to feel good about that.

"Yeah, Tom. But whatever. Apparently the concert was cancelled or whatever, so it's not like we can go just the two of us."

"But we can still hang out! If I'm going to get all dressed up, I'm going to make sure it's worth it!"

"... Tom, we don't even like each other."

That was enough to stun Tom for the shortest of moments before the demon turned around and grabbed Marco's shoulder, twisting him around to look into his glowing triplicate of eyes. It was clear that Tom was displeased, and Marco wasn't an idiot. He knew that he couldn't take Tom on in his current state - even with everything he learned from his time spent with Hekapoo. Groaning in annoyance, he'd placed his hand on Tom's and pat it reassuringly.

"Fine, we can hang. I don't know what we'll do, though."

"That's what I thought. How about this? We can make Star jealous. I can feel it in your heart, Marco. Negative emotions are kinda my thing."

"What are you…?"

"Look, I know how to get her worked up. We dated - briefly, yes I know - so I know a few things. So how about we catch a good meal and take a few pictures? That should get her worked up."

Marco was honestly uncomfortable with this whole plan, but he also figured that it wouldn't cause any real harm. Tom seemed to be very visually excited about this idea, though Marco wasn't exactly sure what for. This would kind of be like a date, but Marco was more occupied with the fact that they were doing this with the intention of triggering jealousy on Star's end. Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but... Shrugging once more, he'd bowed mockingly and motioned his arms out of the door of Star's room.

"Lead the way then, Tom."

"Me? I don't know what you guys eat here. Take us to one of Star's favorite places on Earth, or something."

It wasn't hard to think about, since Marco could only remember her obsessing about a particular food recently… Taking a step towards the door, he'd motioned with a finger for Tom to follow him. Thankfully, this place was within walking distance and Marco had no plans to let Tom engulf him in flames to take him places. It simply wasn't good for his lungs, and it especially wasn't good for the floor...

When they'd returned, Marco invited Tom into his room and they'd sat on the bed, the human pulling out a pair of foil-wrapped burritos from a paper bag. Tom had no idea what they were going to be eating, since Marco had walked into the restaurant on his own. After all, he didn't want people panicking over seeing a demon - though the people in his town were surprisingly… unfazed by Star's presence. Even after the whole mewberty incident. Regardless of that, though, it was simple enough to get everything they needed in order to "make Star jealous."

"What in the… humans eat metal? What is this?"

"No, Tom, we just wrap the food with it to keep it warm. It's called a burrito. Try it."

"Ugh. I have no expectations, so I guess I might as well. I'll never understand why Star likes this dimension."

Marco just wanted Tom to shut up and eat, so he'd removed the foil from the bundle of joy and deliciousness and pushed the tortilla-wrapped goodness into Tom's face, forcing the demon to bite it or take a faceful of beany-cheesy mess. As the fangs sank into the wrap and he'd started to chew, his demeanor changed to that of someone who was skeptical to someone who was surprised and impressed. He'd taken the burrito into his own hands and dug in, Marco putting on the chillest fake smile he could muster and taking a selfie with Tom chowing down in the background. He couldn't deny that it was fun watching Tom experience food like this for the first time, though. The reactions felt genuine and Marco never got a lot of that from Tom. Generally to get to that part, he had to try a lot harder and deal with a lot more.

Following that selfie were several others that included them eating nachos together, watching a movie on the couch under a single blanket, and overall just hanging out. The last thing Marco sent was an overhead selfie of the both of them laying on the bed together, heads side to side and both of them were seemingly having a good time. He'd sent out all of the pictures to Star over the time they were spending together and this would be the last one that Marco had in mind. Mind you, this was all over the course of the past couple of hours, so it was almost like a date - as Marco had felt aversion to at first.

Surprisingly, Marco had no reason to be suspicious. This was the first time that they'd spent time together mutually and Marco hadn't felt any sort of shade or ulterior motive on Tom's end. Even though they were doing this for dubious reasons at best, it was still mutual. Maybe they could be more than just friendenemies and actually be… friends? It kind of put a weird feeling in Marco's head, but that was just about what he expected. Feeling safe and also a bit tired, his eyes started to close as he'd laid back against the bed and let out a soft sigh to release a bit of tension. What happened next was more… unexpected.

Marco felt Tom's hand on his face, the feeling of Tom's skin being surprisingly soft - considering the fact that Marco knew Tom as this flaming demon who couldn't control his anger. His eyes opened slowly and he'd now noticed Tom was over him, his eyes looking into his with a strange passion that Marco hadn't really felt directed towards him before. What was this strange… sensation? Before Marco could even say anything or even object, Tom had pressed his lips to the human's in a very forward manner. Caught off-guard and honestly feeling a bit frozen from shock, Marco sank into the bed as if trying to pull away, but was unable to. Tom's lips - very much like his hand - were very… soft.

Without missing a beat, Tom's hand moved away from Marco's face and over to his phone, taking a picture of this kiss before moving down to Marco's waist and sliding under his shirt. There was a moment of panic for the briefest of moments before Tom's fingers had made their way to one of Marco's nipples, gently pinching and working the soft nub tenderly and causing Marco to moan softly. Tom knew what he was doing, and Marco was becoming putty in his hands. It wasn't something that Tom normally swung for either, but he knew that in order to really get under Star's skin he'd had to do something drastic.

Pulling away from the kiss, Tom looked into Marco's eyes and had a devilish grin, pulling at the human's clothes and tearing them away, his eyes filled with ravenous lust and desire. All intention of making Star jealous was soon fading into an entirely other thing, as the demon's eyes glowed a deep crimson and his hand found its way to Marco's crotch, palm pressed against the building bulge in Marco's pants, stroking it through the teen's jeans and working it fervently. Marco's moans became more apparent now as any attempts to fight the sensations that Tom was putting him through fell away to his own curiosity.

"You know Marco, we don't need her... but I'd still love to see the look on her face after she sees this. Let's continue, shall we?"

Marco looked up at tom incredulously, not quite sure how to absorb what he'd just heard. At the same time, however, he couldn't help but want more of what Tom was giving him, and - as far as he could tell - Star wasn't responding to any of the texts or messages, so she wasn't coming back anytime soon. He'd seemed to have lost his voice though, as all he could let out was another moan as Tom teasingly gave his clothed crotch another firm stroke. He'd nodded slowly, still a bit lost in the lull of lust, but also finding himself growing more and more curious for more of what the demon could offer.