Tiny wooden toothpick lodged between her teeth, Star strolled half a step in front of both friends, "All I'm saying Marco is the cookies have been right this entire time! Why must you doubt them!?"

"Staaaaar, we've been over this!" Marco drug his hands down his face in exhaustion of the cookie worship Star really refused to give up now that she'd succeeded in befriending the senior girl, "They're not magic! People, in a factory, put them IN the cookie! No magic!"

"Hmm???" Star made a huge gesture at Elly. Who did her best to cover her mouth as she chuckled at Marco's expense. Then Star gestured at her nearly empty box of cookies she'd gotten at the restaurant. Be it because they were stale and Star toppled over the cook trying to throw them away. Nonetheless she refused to let Marco dampen her spirits in the magic folly of the oriental cookies.

"I don't know, I kinda like the cookies," Elly added to Star's delusion.

Only earning a scolding from Marco of course, "You've gotta be kidding me! Tell Star they aren't- Wait-" Drifting out mid sentence Marco halted the brigade down the sidewalk, "Do you guys hear that?"

"Mmph-Hear mm-what?" Star looked around unable to hear anything but the crunk of the cookies in her mouth.

"Music?" Marco's thick eyebrows pinched inward with confusion.

"Aww my last cookie-" Star held the sole fortune in her palm.

About to dive into her last treat, Marco interrupted it all when he saw what had to be the source of noise, "Aha music!"

"What are they doing?" Elly followed Marco's finger to see two figures doing some weird posturing at each other. Boombox in the middle and they kept like, dancing, at each other.

"Ooooo dance off!" Star far more intrigued by Marco's discovery pocketed the cookie. The three of them rushing the other side of the street to get a closer look.

"Oh! Someones gonna get served!" Marco hollered out in a gangster bellow. Enthralled Star reached into her little purse to savor the last cookie while watching one of those dancing fools get served.

As quickly they'd settled in to watch a dance off, a flurry of jackets and baggy jeans thrown up in the air to reveal-

"Monsters!?" Star and Marco called out as a hoard of towering beasts jumped the trio from behind as well as emerged from the fake dance off set up.

"Ha ha, fooled you!" one bear monster adorned with a horn chortled at their miss step right into a trap.

Jumping to the rescue Marco was about to go full karate boy before Star through him off with an elbow, "Hold on-" In her fingers the off colored fortune from her last cookie, "Love is always the answer."

"What?!" this time it was Marco and Elly's turn to be blindsided by the princess's words.

"No fighting is! They're monsters Star!" Marco exacerbating his point with a motion to the monsters creeping in on them, "Elly?!"

He'd turned for backup to his point but the other mewman shrunk back with a little horror setting into her as the towering creatures set in on them.

"Sorry Marco, it simply isn't the will of the cookies," Star shook her head and grasped the tiny piece of paper close to her heart.

"Really?! Now?! I can't believe- Ahhh!" infuriated but overpowered Marco was run off from Star's side by a hoard of the monsters swarming him. Everyone losing sight of one another as Star, Marco and Elly were swarmed by enemies.

Obeying Star lowered her wand and grabbed the closest monster she could into a giant hug. Moments of struggling before the foolish henchman gave into the warm fuzzies and hugged the girl back. Each and everyone Star hugged melted into docile nothing ness, "Stop fighting them Marco! Awww come here, boy you guys need lots and lots of hugs-"

"Star!?" Marco fighting her cookie wish with all his might only ended him with four monsters tossing him into a dumpster while a fifth one locked it shut.

Tucked behind the brick that lead to the trapped alley, Ludo hung back with Toffee watching a real plan unfold just as designed. Ludo nearly beside himself he shrieked and lunged out, "The wand! It's so close- I could just-"

"Patience," Toffee's low voice soothed the frantic little monster. Ludo huffed teetering on his stubby legs gazing at the wand about to jump it. Toffee grabbing his shoulder to stop the little tyrant as his yellow eyes sought over the bumbling crowd of fighting, hugging stupidly. A moment longer and all he needed was-

"Gah I can't! It's right there!" Ludo could control himself no more as he threw himself into the messy scuffle.

Toffee glancing around, each party was busy, no eyes in his direction, like nothing he slipped away from the skirmish without a single noise.

Elly more bewildered than scared, found herself bumped and passed over as the monsters swarmed her comrades. Barely able to process what was going on as shoulders, horns, elbows, and hands shuffled her back further and further from the main action. Opening her mouth like she wanted to scream out for Star when she saw the princess stupidly hugging the monsters and not fighting. Elly was choked up when she was blindsided by a screaming little bird in a horned helmet.

Stumbling back on her own feet. The moment she expected to fall to the hard ground in the alley way, transpired in a flash and she tripped and with a harsh thud was on her bottom on the rough tar roof of a building.

"Wha-" terror slowly replacing the confusion when Elly heard Marco hollering and Star yelling at him but not from beside her. Instead bellow her.

Scrambling to her feet Elly in blind confusion made towards the sound of her friends voices. Until his voice hooked into her like needles.

"Hello...Kathryn."

"Toffee-" like a dog heeding a master's call, her body whipped around to the tell tale calm voice hailing her to a name she faintly remember.

"My Dear," directly before her, Toffee stood well over the five eight mewman female. Hardly a shift in his amber eyes as he looked down his long pensively closed maw.

She did not scream.

She did not move.

Locked in place her slate eyes unable to look from the suited being before her. Piping up knowing well her voice was about to crack like a fool. Toffee ceased her words before they began. His right claw like hand coming up to cover her mouth with his thumb. While his other two fingers cupped her round jawline. A strange sensation where his middle finger was missing. The same gesture she'd fell for many of nights. But nothing like the icy touch from another dimension. This was warm, the touch of his claws gently digging into her pale skin, there was no mistaking this for a dream.

"How-?" She began to speak but the moment more than one syllable came from her mouth, Toffee pushed his thumb against her lower lip and silenced the subservient woman.

"I told you," she clutched onto every word that past like a low whisper from him, "I would come for my things." Without thought she made a motion to hug his suit pleated torso. Foiled the moment his fingertips pressed into her skin and teetered on breaking the surface with his claws, "No." Toffee denied her advancements before they began as he held her face firmly in his hand. Elly burned for an outlet but knew those claws digging in her cheek would hurt more if she disobeyed.

Reserved to holding still like commanded, Toffee nodded and his grip relaxed within a short count. His thumb the gentle touch as it traced over her pouty bottom lip, "Good."

Below the veiled had been pulled on the fortune cookie plan. Ludo screaming, monsters rushing the princess and Marco's loud karate moves. Star cried out in a storm of light and mushrooms as her spells overwhelmed the pathetic monster army. Time dwindled to nothing and he knew.

"Patience, my dear," After the long years spent with nothing more than the dimensional mirror and vacant icy touch she sometimes received, Toffee left her with the smallest reward for her amenable actions. He seized her face up towards his own. A shallow bow down, he left the barest kiss of his scaly lips on her warm forehead. Gone as quickly as she'd felt it.

Wanting to savor it more than she could, Elly was thrown back with one powerful push of Toffee's prehensile tail. Throwing her off the roof right there in the heat of the moment. Had it not been for Marco spotting her plummeting figure the female would have splattered on the concrete.

"Syrupy toast surprise!" Star spun around half a circle and out of her wand shot an oversized and overstuffed piece of disgusting sticky breakfast meal.

Slurpy sticky noise when Elly struck the confectionery spell. Star and Marco calling her name as they rushed to her. Ludo shuffling back through their dimensional portal. The only trace of Toffee as the tip of his tail slipped into the shimmering expanse.

"Oh my cob!" Star dashing to the groaning piece of toast. She dove in fists firsts ripping at the sticky breading, "Elly?! Elly are you ok?!"

"What were you DOING up there?!" Marco gawked from the three story building she was dropped from.

"Huh...." Unable to help the mixture of disgust and slight pain from ridgedly hitting the catch all french toast, Elly pulled herself from the sickening sweet mess, "What the-" Elly went to rub her hair but only got a fistful of nasty syrup, "Eww! What- What is this?!"

"Hehe-" Star grinned as she looked away, "It...may or may not be french toast."

"French toast?!" Leaping to her feet only to turn around and see she wasn't kidding. Sure it was one thing to not be dead but the mess she was coated in almost rivaled it.

"What were you even doing up there?!" Marco not letting go of the fact she was three stories above the actual fight.

Disorientated Elly followed his eyes up the side of the building. Boggled when she came to realize she'd literally just dropped from that height, "I- I was up there?!"

Now that she was just as addled as Marco was, Elly looked at Star and then to Marco like they had answers. Marco scowled skeptically.

Star, a bit more positive, "That was Ludo, he, he likes to try and steal my wand."

"Your wand?!" Elly still a little more focussed on processing the plummet she took.

"My wand, yaaaa," Star held up her star adorn handheld, "It's kinda like, you know, pinnacle of magic or some jizz."

About to rub her temples like an onset migraine was happening, Elly was reminded of her head to toe bath in simple syrup. Groaning she tried to wipe her hands off but to no avail since her pants were soaked too.

"Hey we can go to Marco's and clean up!" Right out the gate Star bubbly to suggest her coming back over.

"No my parents would kill me if she got syrup everywhere!" Marco exnaying the plan immediately.

"Oh come on it'll be fine!" Star produced from her satchel the red handed dimensional scissors she'd been blessed by Ponyhead, "To the Dias's house!"

"Star!" Marco's complaint was noted but disregarded as she stabbed the shears into thin air. Producing a similar rippling portal to the ones Ludo and his cronies had gone through. Star's on the other hand bright blue and inviting. Not dark and cackling green like the monsters.

Swinging over to Elly she smiled and took the girls hand, "Come on!"

No say in the matter as her head still whirled with the daunting fact she'd just been tossed from stories above the actual ground. As frothing mad as she wanted to be about it as Star drug her and Marco through the portal. Nothing mattered being dwarfed by the tingling sensation of the scaly kiss left previously on her forehead. Sealed to silence as her own blistering secret Elly didn't even know she would keep.