Sunlight glinted off a pair of scissors as it cut through the air, the tear in space and time expanding and widening until a vortex appeared.

"Star," Marco said warily he stepped through the portal, blindfolded with hands spread out in front of him. "I don't know about this-"

"But Marco!" said Star, pouting at her companion (even though he couldn't see it) as she pushed him forward. "I promised you an afternoon full of fun and that's what you're going to get!" The portal closed behind them with a pop as the princess fully stepped through onto solid ground.

"I appreciate the gesture, but I have a lot of homework so I'd rather go home."

Which was completely true. It was their senior year of high school and Marco was swamped with AP and honors classes, the work load practically drowning him. But he was never one to back down from a challenge and he wasn't going to stop now, especially from one that would benefit him in the long run.

Marco felt the hands on his shoulders tighten, stopping him in his tracks.

"Trust me, you'll love this," he heard Star say from behind him.

"That's what you said about the last dimension," Marco protested, "but we almost got eaten by a plant!"

"Minor detail," Star waved off, walking around to stand in front of him. "We fought it off, didn't we? And there aren't any man-eating plants in this dimension so there's nothing to worry about. It's perfectly safe!"

Marco gave her a disbelieving look, knowing she'd be able to see it even with the blindfold. "Safe by your standards or mine?"

"Okay, so maybe this dimension isn't perfectly safe," Star conceded. "But this area is, I promise!"

Marco sighed in defeat. "Well we haven't been attacked by anything yet so that's good. Plus I'm a misunderstood bad boy, so even if we are it's nothing I can't handle."

"Still going on about that huh," Star deadpanned.

"Hey, just because you can't realize the truth doesn't mean it's not true!"

"Yeah whatever. Are you ready to see this place now?" Star asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement.

Without waiting for an answer she tapped her wand to the piece of cloth from this face, causing it to disappear (she had gotten a lot better at magic in the last few years) and dramatically waved her arms toward the view in front of them.

"Tada!"

Marco couldn't help but gape at their surroundings. They were standing in the middle of a field of red flowers with tall trees around the edges, the black leaves contrasting beautifully with the white bark. The sky was more of a light gray color than the blue that he was used to, but the fluffy white clouds made it look more like Earth.

"Wow," Marco said in awe, walking forward with wide eyes as he took it all in. "This is incredible!"

"I've been wanting to take you here for a while," Star said as she took in the scene herself. "I know that red is your favorite color so I thought you would like it."

"Like it?" Marco laughed, turning to look at her. "I love it!"

Star giggled and watched Marco walk around, inspecting the flowers as he went.

"My parents would take me here for picnics all the time," she said, hands folded behind her as she followed him deeper into the field. "Well, not all the time because, you know, they're royal and they were always busy, but whenever they could spare the time we would come here."

Marco had stopped walking, turning to give her a look of concern. "So you're gonna be really busy when you go back to Mewni, huh?"

The princess looked down, digging her toe into the ground and kicking at the dirt. "Yup," she said, popping the "p" at the end.

Marco could see how sad she had gotten at the mention of leaving and immediately regretted bringing it up. She was trying to do something nice and give him a fun, stress-free day and he had mentioned something she had been trying to forget. What a great best friend he was.

"Hey Star," Marco said, needing to distract her.

She looked up with a hum, only to gasp in surprise as he gave her shoulder a little push, immediately running away.

"You're it!"

Star let out a laugh and chased after him, long blonde hair billowing behind her. Sure, he probably could've come up with something better to distract her, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

They played around for a bit, laughing and chasing each other through the flowers, sometimes hiding within the trees as they took turns being "it".

Eventually they both got tired and laid down in the clearing (after Star had tackled him to the ground and they were too tired to get back up), legs spread out in opposite directions with their heads next to each other as they fought to catch their breath. The flowers were just tall enough to show in their peripherals as they looked toward the sky, watching the clouds as they floated by.

"Oh! That one looks like Buff Frog!" Star excitedly pointed toward the cloud she was referring to.

Marco tilted his head and squinted a little. "I don't see it."

"That's because you're not looking at it right!"

After a few minutes of cloud watching (aka of Star trying to convince him that the cloud over there totally looked like a puppy riding a unicorn), Marco sat up and began fiddling with some of the flowers, eventually picking some of them. Star sat up as well and adjusted herself until she was sitting cross-legged beside him.

"Whatcha doin'?" she asked, trying to look at what his hands were doing in his lap.

"It's a surprise," he said, turning slightly away from her so she couldn't see what he was doing, tongue poking out from between his teeth in concentration.

Star huffed and spread her legs out straight in front of her, leaning back onto her hands with her head thrown back dramatically. She continued to watch the clouds in silence, eyes occasionally drifting over to the boy beside her as he picked more and more flowers.

After what felt like an eternity Star asked, "Are you done yet?"

"Nope," came his short reply.

Star groaned and fell backwards, lying flat on the ground as she pouted with limbs spread out like a sea star.

Periodically she would sit back up and try to look at what Marco was doing, but he always playfully pushed her away, claiming "you have to be patient, Star" and "I'm almost done, just give me a sec".

Finally after a lifetime of waiting (or what felt like it to Star) Marco proclaimed that he was finished. Star shot up and kneeled in front of him, sitting on her legs that were folded beneath her as she bounced in excitement.

"Can I see it can I see it can I see it can I see it-"

"Yes," Marco interrupted patiently, shifting to face her with his hands behind his back. "But you have to close your eyes."

"But-"

"You gave me a surprise, now it's my turn."

Star grumbled but obliged, shutting her eyes tight. She heard Marco shift closer and felt something lightweight be placed gently on her head.

"Okay, open!"

Star immediately opened her eyes and reached up, feeling soft petals around her head. She grabbed her wand and produced an ornate silver and pink mirror, gasping at the image of her with red flowers encircling her head.

"Where did you learn how to do this?" she asked, entranced that someone could make something this beautiful without magic.

"Eh," Marco shrugs, a little embarrassed. "It's just something I learned to do on my own."

Star gave him an impressed look, tilting her head to look at herself at a different angle. "You really are smart, Marco Diaz."

"I'm not in those AP classes for nothing."

Star dropped the mirror to the ground and threw her arms around his shoulders, squeezing him as hard as she could. She released him after a few seconds, much to Marco's relief (he was running out of oxygen) and leaned back slightly, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Both of their faces flushed red.

"Thank you," Star said, leaning all the way back to sit on her legs again. "It's beautiful."

Just like you, he wanted to say.

"Well you knew how stressed I have been lately and you took the time to do this for me, so making you a flower crown is the least I can do," he said instead.

"This is a flower crown?" Star asked, apprehension lacing through her tone.

Marco deflated a little, knowing that she never liked the idea of wearing a crown. He really should have thought this through more. "Yeah, well, I mean-"

"I love it," she interrupted with a small smile. "It's the only crown I'll be happy to wear."

Marco smiled back in relief, glad that she liked his silly little gift so much. "I'm glad."

They sat there smiling at each other, which was just fine by Marco. Star in a flower crown was an adorable sight that he would be happy to stare at all day.

"But now you need one too!" Star said, breaking the silence. She raised her wand and pointed it at his head, causing him to flinch. Sure Star had gotten a lot better over the years but there were too many mishaps in the past that started with her pointing her wand at him. It was just a natural reaction at this point.

He cautiously opened his eyes to see Star smiling giddily in front of him, grabbing the mirror off the ground and thrusting it in his direction.

"See? Do you like it?" she asked in anticipation.

Marco took the mirror from her, reveling at the contact their fingers made as the object was passed between them. He looked at his reflection apprehensively (too. many. bad. memories.) but was happy to see an elaborate crown of pink flowers sitting atop his head, blending in with his hair so nicely that it looked like the plants were growing out of his head.

(He reached up to make sure that wasn't the case, and he gave a mini sigh of relief when he didn't feel any connection between the stems and his skull.)

"Wow, Star," Marco said, impressed. "I love it!"

"Yay!" she squealed and hugged him again, this time longer and not as tight. Marco wrapped his arms around her waist and smiled into her shoulder, letting go reluctantly when Star pulled away. "But you have to teach me how you do it, okay?"

"You wanna do something without magic?" Marco asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. "You always use magic. For everything."

"I know," Star rolled her eyes, "and I really don't know how you get by without it. But you looked like you were having fun doing it so I wanna see what all the fuss is about. Like a normal Earth girl."

Marco shrugged. "If you say so. Do you wanna learn now?"

"Nah," she waved him off, plopping down on the ground next to him and looking back up at the sky. "I'm pooped for the day."

Marco laughed. Now there was the Star he knew.

He lied down next to her, hands folded on his stomach as they watched the clouds drift across the sky together in companionable silence. Both of their lives were so hectic that there was rarely a quiet moment for them, so Marco was enjoying this for all it was worth.

Eventually, though, all silences have to be broken. Something had been eating at Marco and he just had to ask, and Star seemed really happy so he figured this was as good of a time as any.

"So when you have the time, where are you gonna go?" Marco asked quietly.

"Hmm?" Star hummed, turning her head to look at him.

"You said your parents came here with you a lot," Marco clarified, still looking up at the sky. "And we know your dad likes to fight monsters in his spare time. What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna come see you, silly!" Star said, smiling easily. "I always thought that I would fight monsters, but I can always do that with you."

Marco nodded and sat up, wrapping his arms around his knees after he brought them to chest.

Star sat up as well, eyes searching her best friend's face. "What is it?"

"It's just-" Marco faltered, looking out at the field of red flowers, "fighting monsters with you is great, you know I love it. But is that all we're gonna do with the rest of our lives? And how often am I really going to see you? We're both going to be so busy…"

Star looked out into the field as well, face twisting in thought. The idea of fighting monsters with Marco forever sounded great to her, but if Marco didn't want to do that…

"I will always find time to kidnap you and go on crazy adventures. That's our thing, no matter what happens. And we can do whatever you want, it doesn't have to be monsters all the time," she said with finality. Marco was her best friend on Earth and they had been together for years. She would do anything to make him happy.

Marco released his knees and sat crosslegged instead, reaching out to fiddle with a flower. He took a deep breath, trying his best to slow down his heart rate. Somehow preparing for AP tests was way easier than this. But he was never one to back down from a challenge.

"What if I wanna come here? And just spend time with you?" he asked, finally raising his eyes to meet hers. (Okay, not exactly what he wanted to ask, but close enough.)

Star gave a small smile. "As long as you make me another crown made of flowers, I will kidnap you as often as you want. And a couple more times of good measure."

Marco smiled wide at that, leaning over to gently kiss the heart on her cheek.

"Sounds perfect to me."

Star laughed and leaned her head on his shoulder with a content smile, trying her best to hide the flush on her cheeks. Her smile grew even wider when Marco rested his head on top of hers and reached for her hand, threading his fingers between hers.

They both sat there in silence, watching the flowers sway as the wind brushed through their hair, perfectly content to be together in that moment.

"But we can still fight monsters, right?"

"Of course, Star. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Looking down at their entwined hands, Marco decided that this was good enough for him. He can always ask her out on a date some other time.