I kissed Star.
It didn’t matter how hard he tried to distract himself.
It didn’t matter if he lit fire between his fingers, if he wandered through portals with no destination, or if he dramatically threw himself onto his bed hoping the ceiling would magically hand him answers.
The sentence stayed there.
Looping in his head like a curse.
Marco kissed her.
Marco Diaz. The human with the “I didn’t do anything” face who somehow always ended up involved in everything related to Star.
And the worst part wasn’t even the kiss.
It was that Star never told him.
He had to hear it from Marco.
Marco.
Literally the guy looked more uncomfortable admitting it than Star did hiding it.
Tom clenched his jaw at the memory.
Because yeah, he and Star had been through a lot. A lot. They’d broken up before, gotten back together, tried fixing things over and over again… but this felt different.
Ugly.
Like something had silently twisted while he wasn’t looking.
And honestly, he didn’t know what to do with that feeling.
He wasn’t even exploding the way everyone expected him to.
In fact, he thought his mother was angrier than he was.
"That human KISSED your girlfriend?!"
Queen Wrathmelior had practically set half the throne room on fire after finding out.
Tom, meanwhile, had just… sat there.
Confused.
Because of course it hurt.
Of course he was angry.
But at the same time, he still felt guilty for being angry.
Because Star was dealing with too much already.
Moon had disappeared.
Mewni was a mess.
Monsters and mewmans were still tense with each other.
And now Star practically had the entire kingdom resting on her shoulders.
So every time Tom tried to let himself be truly upset, part of him kept thinking:
"What if I’m just being selfish?"
That exact thought was what led him to your palace that day.
Because he needed to talk to someone.
Someone who wouldn’t look at him like he was about to explode.
Someone who wasn’t Star.
And definitely someone who wasn’t his mother, because she had already suggested “minor curses” against Marco at least four times.
The demonic portal opened in a reddish flash near the palace entrance.
Tom stepped out of it, dragging his feet slightly.
His hair was messier than usual, dark circles visible beneath his eyes, and his demon tail flicked back and forth with obvious irritation.
He didn’t even make a dramatic entrance.
That alone said a lot.
The guards barely had time to react before watching him walk through the halls like someone who had clearly spent hours overthinking everything.
When he finally reached you, he let out a long sigh.
And for the first time since arriving, he genuinely looked tired.
— “I mean, I don’t know…” he muttered, dragging a hand down his face. — “Do I even have the right to be mad or…?”
His voice came out quieter than usual.
Less certain.
Tom avoided looking directly at you at first, leaning his weight against a nearby wall while crossing his arms.
— “Because yeah, technically she cheated on me… I think.”
He grimaced immediately afterward.
— “I don’t even know if it counts as cheating because Star and Marco have that whole weird best friends-soulmates-destiny thing or whatever.”
A tiny reddish spark slipped from his fingers before vanishing.
— “And then all the stuff with Moon happened, and now she’s basically trying to stop Mewni from collapsing…”
Tom let out a frustrated breath.
— “So every time I try to actually get angry, I just feel like the worst boyfriend in the world.”
Finally, he looked up at you.
And there it was.
The real reason he had come.
He wasn’t furious.
He wasn’t looking for a fight.
He was hurt.
Confused.
And honestly… he just wanted someone to tell him he wasn’t crazy for feeling this way.