Hey readers! I was deeply shook by the promos that came out for Season 4, and I knew that I had to write something. Instead of going with a fluffy one-shot (which I still might do anyways), I decided to build a mini-series based off of my theories about the episode "Curse of the Blood Moon." I hope you enjoy this and leave comments and reviews if you do. The hype is real!

It all started like any other Thursday night. Bowls of salty, cheesy snack-foods—nachos, popcorn, a plate of steaming sugaritos—lay scattered across a soft blue blanket draped on a bed. The lights were dimmed, creating the perfect relaxed ambiance for cuddling and movie watching—the preferred activities for a perfect Relationship Thursday. After fluffing the pillows, fetching a couple cans of "Cold Ones," and checking the volume on his laptop, it was time for Marco to invite his very special guest. Or should I get more sugar for the sugaritos? Was one canister enough? A gentle knock on the door snapped the preoccupied teen out of his thoughts, and he decided as long as he could marathon Mackie Hand movies with his girlfriend, then all was right in the universe. "Coming!"

Scrambling to the other side of his room, careful not to step on the laser puppies laying on the ground asleep, Marco opened his door to invite Star in. Her radiant blue eyes sparkled like stars in the evening sky, full of joy and laughter, complimented by her flowing, golden hair. So beautiful, Marco couldn't help but blush slightly. He had to be the luckiest guy on Earth, Mewni, and several dimensions to have Star Butterfly, the most awesome person ever, as his girlfriend. It was a long time coming too, after years of denial and dating the wrong people. They were finally together at last, as it should have always been.

"Uh, Marco?" Star gently rapped her knuckles against his forehead. "You in there?"

"I'm f-fine," he stammered. "Come on in."

He escorted her around the laser puppies and to the bed. Since Star favored the right side, he let her have it while settling on the left and gently pushed the snacks out of the way so they could cuddle. She leaned against his chest and took his hand in hers. The movie played, showing Mackie Hand taking down a dozen ninjas while blindfolded, but Marco was only half paying attention. His brown eyes beheld Star alone, and he was awestruck by her presence. The scent of her strawberry shampoo, the drumming of her heartbeat against him, how close she lay beside him. This is so nice, his mind purred.

"Yeah, it is," Star lazily took a bite out of a sugarito. "By the way, the sugaritos are fine, Marco. No extra sugar needed."

"That's—wait, what?"

"You said something about sugar earlier," Star shrugged. "Oh, and do you really think I'm beautiful, Marco?" His skin flushed, and he became so hot that he had to take off his hoodie. Other than being massively embarrassed, questions arose in his head. Marco had never voiced the thoughts aloud, and, even if he did, Star wasn't in the room to hear them.

He raised an eyebrow inquisitively, "When did I say that?"

"Am I beautiful, Marco?" She kissed his cheek, which derailed his thinking for a second.

"I'll answer you after you answer me," he promised.

She mockingly pouted at him, "Fine…I don't know how to answer it. You weren't around me, but…kinda in my head, y'know?"

"Not really…?" What did she mean by that?

"I dunno what I mean, Marco," she folded her arms. "It's hard to explain."

"Star?!"

"What? You asked."

"I didn't say it though."

Not out loud. Not for her to hear...It was like she was reading his mind, but that was impossible. Marco had seen millions of improbable sights on his whacky adventures with Star: cats with human faces, beasts with sandwiches in their pores, and a lizardman who was obsessed with getting his severed finger back, to name a few. Magic had expanded Marco's horizons a thousand-fold, but things like mind-reading still seemed too far-fetched for Mewnian madness. Maybe he was muttering the thoughts to Star, and simply imagining that he was thinking them to himself. Just worry about it later, Diaz, he settled back into his pillows and focused on Mackie Hand.

"Marco?" Star gazed up at him.

He smiled at her, "Yes?"

"You never answered my question…"

"Can't you read my mind, Star?" He teased only to have her lips ram into 's answer was one that didn't need words.

Sunlight streamed into Marco's window the next morning, but, instead of greeting the dawn, he threw covers over his head. For some reason, he woke up with a migraine, and his head felt like someone was squeezing it. Maybe I slept on a bowl. The movie marathon lasted pretty late, and he didn't have time to clean off his bed before passing out afterwards. However, it was a small price to pay for an amazing night with Star. He loved holding her in his arms while cheering over action movies and eating tons of junk food. Relationship Thursday was the best day of the week. If only they happened more often.

"Yeah…they are nice."

"Star?" Startled, Marco jumped out of bed. "How did you—?"

But there wasn't anyone in his room besides the laser puppies sprawled on the floor. They lifted their tiny, yellow heads wondering what was going on. Clearly, the answer was that Marco had gone crazy. Ow…he held his head, gritting his teeth. What was going on with him? He'd already gone through puberty—which was when the weird stuff was supposed to happen to his body.

"At least you don't go through Mewberty," Star giggled, but, again, she wasn't in the room with Marco despite how loud and clear she sounded.

"This isn't funny," the boy complained while reaching for his clothes. "Where are you?"

For some reason, Marco knew she was still asleep in her bedroom down the hall. His arms felt weighed down as if they were under blankets—her blankets by the scent of them. Huh? For a moment, Marco's room disappeared, replaced by a field of colorful wildflowers surrounded by snowy mountains. Warnicorns grazed on the long grass, flicking their grey ears without a care in the world. Everything around the stunned boy felt real. The slipperiness of the grass, the breeze that shimmered among the grass and his hair, and the sweet scent of the wildflowers. As frightened Marco was at his sudden switch of locations, it was kinda incredible. Suddenly, a warnicorn lifted his head, funneling his ears towards one part of the meadow. Two wide nostrils quivered, breathing a wreath of moisture around his grey snout. In a flash, a streak of yellow and blue darted out of the grass and latched onto the rearing animal's back. The other warnicorns bolted, including the one carrying a smiling princess who clutched his black mane. Despite riding a frightened, thousand-pound beast galloping at breakneck speed, Star was having a good time, showing not a single ounce of fear.

"Star?" Marco blinked as she passed him.

The scene around them stretched into slow-motion and their eyes met. "Marco?"

His room reappeared in a flash, and the headache was gone along with the meadow. Marco shakily sunk to the floor, feeling like he was about to throw up. Perhaps, he should see a doctor about his recent delusions, but how would he explain the state of his brain to any other being? That he was imagining his girlfriend reading his mind and sharing her dream of warnicorn riding? Was there a disorder for this?

"I think you're overthinking it," Star replied in his head, completely unphased by what was happening. Maybe he was—this had to be a bad dream. Just had to be. There was no way he and Star were sharing minds or that he was going crazy! He used to be an honor's student in high school, for Pete's sake.

Marco got up, pinched his arm to make sure he was fully awake, and went downstairs to say goodbye to his parents before heading back to Mewni with Star. Staying in Echo Creek every now and then was great, but Mewni called the boy. His parents were sitting on the couch watching the news and doing crossword puzzles. Star and I will be like that one day, he could easily imagine spending lazy morning with her, rubbing her belly swollen with their child. Maybe he was skipping a few steps, but Marco knew that he wanted to be with Star forever. In fact, he knew that when they were still friends. The two had always been inseparable, and there was no way he could spend his life with anyone else in the universe. I wonder if Star feels the same, he wondered.

His mother smiled in greeting, "Morning, Marco, did you sleep well?"

No, I've been busy having a headache and mentally communicating with Star, but he nodded, "Yeah, slept great."

"Hiya, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz!" Star slid down the stair railing, as cheerful as ever. Seeing her put Marco in a good mood, and he pulled her in close for a swift peck on the forehead. They locked eyes, grinning at each other as they held hands until a shutter noise went off behind them.

Mrs. Diaz shared the picture she snapped on her phone, "You two are the cutest couple I've ever seen."

"Ah yes," Mr. Diaz chuckled. "So precious."

"Whatever you say, Dad," Marco and Star covered their mouths after they had spoken in unison. What gives—this was his dad, not hers. Instead of finding that creepy, the Diazes laughed.

"It's like you two share the same mind," Mrs. Diaz cooed.

"It's not funny!" The teens protested.

"Stop that!" They were still in phase.

For next the next few minutes, Marco thought up a dozen funny words to say, hoping they would disentangle Star from him, but they did not. Even words that normally made her laugh, like "hypotenuse," failed to work. As much as he adored Star and her zany shenanigans, Marco was getting annoyed that she wouldn't stop copying him and that his parents thought they were trying to be cute. "I can't help it, Marco!" The panic in her mind seized his heart as if it were his own. A mixture of dread and guilt filled the boy—he shouldn't be mad at his girlfriend. This wasn't her fault.

Relaxing finally, he felt something unclick in his consciousness, and when he opened his mouth to speak, he did so alone. "That was weird."

Star took his hand, panting slightly, "Very…weird."

"Oh, it's just young love," Mrs. Diaz insisted, giving her husband a loving smooch. "Every couple gets to a point where they complete each other's sentences."

Not like this, Marco grumbled in his head. Do they? Then again, he was never this close to Jackie, so he had no idea how a real relationship was supposed to work. Maybe he and Star just knew each other so well that it appeared like they were sharing thoughts and not actually doing so. They had been best friends for over a year, and it was easy to figure out Star's thinking patterns. Yeah. There was always a sane answer to a bizarre question. Absolutely, in no way, was there any mind-sharing magic going on between them. Just normal friends-knowing-each-other-so-well stuff. The kind of stuff a fifteen-year-old boy from Earth could wrap his tired head around.

After saying their final goodbyes, the pair left for Mewni and hoped their bizarre adventure would end too. The dimensional scissors sent them back to the Butterfly castle, where Queen Eclipsa graciously let them stay despite the fact Moon wasn't Queen anymore. Before going inside, Marco sat on the front steps to take a breather, and Star joined him. To destress, he practiced on his breathing: in slowly and out slowly. All in all, everything was okay, and there was nothing that couldn't be easily explained.

Star watched his ritual and giggled at the silliness of it, "You're so cute, Marco."

"Even when I'm stressed out?" He eyed her.

"There's nothing to worry about, y'know," she laced her fingers through his. "Nothing has been destroyed or has caught on fire, so far."

Our standards are so low, he smiled thinking of the times Star accidentally destroyed parts of Echo Creek with her wand. It took a while to get used to having a magical princess from another dimension living with him, but without Star, his life would be boring. Marco never would have become a squire, or spent sixteen years fighting a thousand Hekapoos, or met his amazing friends if she had never crashed into his life like a meteor. He would have never gotten the chance to fall in love with truly the most amazing girl in the universe. His Shining Star who blazed with the fire of a comet and was like a thunderstorm rolling through the night. Forget about the weirdness from earlier—absolutely nothing in the universe could spoil a single moment spent with Star Butterfly.

They smiled and leaned in for a passionate kiss while hoping that the castle guards weren't lurking around. Marco let out a slight involuntary moan, caused by the warm feelings that burned in his insides. Being with Star was great but kissing her was even better. A part of him never regretted the fact that they shared their first while trapped in a photo booth even though she was still dating Tom. It had been a spur-of-the-moment affair, brought on by giant truthbombs about feelings, but it felt so right. Star had always been a touchy, passionate person—it was why hugging formed a big part of their friendship—and she put all of that into each kiss, making them intoxicating.

Slowly, they pulled away, and Marco felt his cheeks burning because he was smiling so hard. Actually, they kinda hurt too, but he wasn't concerned until he saw the shock on Star's face.

"M-marco…," she breathed and pointed. "You have cheekmarks…"

Huh?! He whipped out his cellphone to use as a mirror and spied a pair of crescent moons glowing on his face. I thought this was a one-time thing? Marco remembered the only other time he had grown cheekmarks. It was when Star was stuck in the magic dimension, and, out of sheer desperation to find her, he used the wand to perform the All-Seeing Eye spell. But why had they shown up now? He wasn't using magic. It's like our souls are bonded, he remembered saying that when he picked up the wand. Despite the mystery and awe around it, the object felt instinctive and familiar to use like it was meant for him too. Our souls are bonded…what an odd thing to say…unless it was true… The last time he and Star spoke in unison was right after the Blood Moon Ball, and Marco remembered the words a demon priest had said: "When the light of the Blood Moon drobbles down and selects two lucky souls, binding them together for eternity in it's hypnotic, ruby, brodlum."

Meanwhile, Star was busy stroking his cheeks, "Aww, they're so cute on you, Marco. I like them."

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Thanks. But Star, do you remember the Blood Moon Ball?" For the first time, Marco realized that they had never talked about the mystical night.

She sighed in annoyance, "You mean Tom's pathetic excuse to try to win me back? Unfortunately, I do remember the Blood Moon Ball, and I also remember you crashing it. I'll forgive you because you're an amazing dancer."

Gee thanks, he scowled at her, "I mean, do you remember anything said at it?"

"Something about souls being bound together for all eternity," she shrugged indifferently. "But that's just a fairytale, Marco. Tom told me that's not real. And, ugh, can you believe he tried to make me bathe in unicorn's blood? Hello, my best friend is a unicorn!"

What if it's not a fairytale…? What if the soul-binding thing was real? Usually, Marco wouldn't believe in stuff like that, but after the day he'd been having, it seemed like an explanation. There was one person he could ask about creepy magical things, and, knowing her, she'd be down to skip school to talk to them. While, Star prattled on about how Tom had been a jerk during the Blood Moon Ball, Marco sent a text to Janna: Wanna come to Mewni? Star and I need to ask you about the Blood Moon.

Omw, he instantly got a text message. "Hey, Diaz!"

Janna literally appeared out of nowhere, and Marco jumped like a scared cat into Star's arms. His former classmate had her backpack slung across her shoulder and a few dusty books under her other arm. Star almost dropped Marco as she rushed to her friend for a hug. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" The blonde princess asked.

Nonchalantly, the other girl shrugged, "I've got one of my Ocrams handling notes. Y'know, if you ever need to borrow one of my Marco clones, just give me a call."

"Hmm…" Star rubbed her chin.

"We don't need one," Marco shook his head. "And I called you here for an important meeting."

"Yeah, yeah," Janna replied. "You and Star have finally realized that you're Blood Moon'ed. Congrats."

"We're what?!" They exclaimed together. "Ugh, can we not do this right now?!"

Janna smirked, "Can't believe you didn't know about that, but come on, let's talk inside."