now there's no place else I could be but here in your arms

Summary: "I told you once that I've never been bored after you moved in. I meant that, Star," how Marco came to terms with how he feels for the Heir of Mewni.

A.N: I'm kinda iffy about this but I needed it to be done prior to the movie airing.

Consider it a vent fic? I guess? Whatever.

Edit: This is a series now!

Please, please consider leaving a review if you like it!

It's just like one of action movies Marco likes to watch after homework: the 12 DVD series he made her watch twice during her time on Earth.

A big explosion, and the main character's thrown across the screen. They struggle to get their bearings, and the world around them shifts and tilts and nearly crumbles (she remembers watching that part and gasping, grabbing onto Marco next to her on the couch and dropping popcorn onto the floor). The other main character runs to their side and yells things at them the character can't hear. It's just white noise, resonating to the audience in a fictional universe.

Except it's real and they've won and she does hear him – she hears him over everything else, though a bit fuzzy and murmured. And even if she couldn't, she'd read it on the way it leaves his lips, the way it sticks on his cheeks like red velvet spreading up towards his ears. She can see it in his eyes – how they give way to the fear and anxiety he currently feels, the same feeling she felt a mere few months ago when she confessed.

But it's like her ears are ringing – her skull collapsing on itself (she thinks she got knocked out at some point when the roof of a bakery shop collapsed on her but she can't really remember), and the weight brings a dull ache and whatever he just said isn't helping.

"Wait," Star, covered in dirt and glitter and cuts and bruises, shakes her head and hands to slow him down, slow it all down. Most of the Mewni army is celebrating a well-won victory, though there are some soldiers waiting for further orders, listening in, and she can feel the eyes of both Mewmans and Monsters bearing down on her and her best friend, a yard apart from one another. "Wait, what did you just –"

"I love you," Marco repeats, letting words flow out in short breath, chest falling. His cape is torn and the arm that dropped his sword after the fight is dripping blood. "I love you, Star."

That's when the ringing stops in her ears and travels down to her chest. A light buzz, dull and soft, now echoed and constant and loud. So very loud.

She's waited months for any sign of him feeling anything for her. Where was this coming from?

"Marco…" She looks around, eyes meeting the eager battle mates that have ceased their celebration to watch the two, "I –"

"It's okay," he laughs, looking off to the side in an attempt to avoid her gaze. Embarrassment creeps in after his sudden admission. "Uh, that was sorta outta nowhere and it probably freaked you out, right?" Marco's hand rubs at the back of his neck. "Well, not really 'outta nowhere' – this has been kinda creeping up on me ever since you left Echo Creek. But like, after a battle it's sorta outta nowhere, I mean. Am I rambling? I think I'm rambling. Anyway, we haven't talked about this in a while either so it's definitely freaked you out. I mean," he laughs again, a little more forced this time and gestures to Star, who hasn't looked away (as if she could), "look at you! You're all pale and stuff – this was such a bad idea. Why did I just confess in front of everyone? Now they're all staring at us."

Rejection is scary, Star knows that. She's been there – weeks ago, in front of everyone. But she had a reason to be scared. He was with someone else at the time, and he was happy, and she had to tell him; she wasn't supposed to ever see him again. And now, months later, after what has felt like a standstill between the two of them with bursts of normalcy and sometimes what she thinks could be the hint of something blossoming, he's shot her with a glittery blast of emotions that has left her off-balance. What was he afraid of after her Narwhal Blast-sized confession? Shouldn't she be the one freaking out?

He spins in the other direction, shuffling in mortification towards their friends who stand in the front closest to the couple.. Which, if it were any other time, she'd totally call him out on.

"Anyway, I'm gonna –"

"Really?" Star manages to croak out, stopping Marco from escaping an embarrassing feat. When he turns back around, glancing at her with the utmost confusion, she points to herself. "You're like, actually serious about feeling that way for me?"

"Well," he laughs shortly, looking at her earnestly, "yeah."

"Totally serious?"

A nod. "I'm totally serious."

"Totally, totally, totally serious?"

"I'm totally, totally, totally serious, Star."

"Are you sure, though? Because there was an explosion earlier and that did a real number to your hair and we don't know the possible head trauma that came with it," she gestures vaguely to his ridiculous tuffs of hair that stick out at odd places, while Marco pats on it sensitively. It's her turn to ramble - stuttering and avoiding his gaze. "And frankly, I was under the impression that you didn't even know how you felt about everything and that you needed time, and –"

"Star," he interrupts.

She's worried – worried it'll backfire on her and she'll run off crying; a repeat of his summer bash party. There's been so much hurt for her and he doesn't want to be a source of it anymore.

"I've had time. I've had loads of time."

"But -"

"I spent three hours over one plate of nachos for you because you looked sad one time, and I couldn't stand seeing you that way," He starts, swallowing back nerves and recounting his moments with her. The ovens on Mewni were a disaster – built for cooking things only corn-based and became too hot too quickly, so he managed to burn five batches before Janna finally decided to help him out. The countless teasing about his insistence for making them wasn't appreciated, though – jabs at how dense he was and jokes about sharing melted cheese with a potential girlfriend. She laughed at him then, and she was laughing at him now, standing across the way next to Tom.

"I got into a fight with Tad because I told him your hair was prettier than Kelly's." Star laughs at that, tucking a strand behind her ear while a loud 'Hey!' is heard behind him.

"I gave you three of my hoodies because I noticed you liked wearing them as capes." Pony Head had caught him walking in and out of her empty room with them, a glowing unicorn horn threateningly greeting his presence after dropping them off. She called him an idiot when he told her what he did – a dense idiot who didn't know what he was doing to her best friend by doing that.

Pony Head remembers, clearly. "You're still an idiot for that!"

Marco shakes his head solemnly, still paying attention only to Star, who could only gape back at him. "Not as much of an idiot as when your parents hosted that celebratory ball." He hears Tom groan – probably with a roll of all three of his eyes. "I was miserable that entire night because other royal consorts were able to dance with you more than I could." Star remembers that night too – Marco as handsome as ever, in shoulder tassels and white cloth and looking so downtrodden until she approached him with a curtsey, an outstretched hand, and an offer to dance. "I spent half the night ripping up bouquets and table cards and even then – even after Tom called me out on how jealous I felt, I had no idea why I was acting that way."

"I did!"

"Thanks, Tom," Marco tilts his head towards his friend, who replies with a sardonic thumbs-up. He exhales and looks back to Star, her expression expectant and eyes beginning to water.

"I've spent hours sitting on the sidelines just watching you master spells with your mom and tossing you juice pouches when you looked parched." The Queen regards them both quietly, a soft expression as she watches them both. She's been there before, with River, who stands next to her with his own silent affection and offers his hand. Moon's eyes drop away from her daughter and Marco, from a sight that brings back her own fond memories, to her husband's offered hand. She takes it, squeezing it gently.

"And on top of everything, I followed you to fight a battle that isn't my own. I followed as soon as you told me how you felt and left without any explanation, and I fought for you. And I'm still fighting, and I always will be as long as you need me to," he swallows and sighs.

"Because I'm in love with you, Star. You're my best friend and I'm in love with you. I know that now."

Her tears let loose at that point, a happy sob escaping her lips. It's frustration and heartache finally releasing from her charred up chest and he tears up because of it. He steps closer.

"What about," Star sniffs, wiping at her wet cheeks with the front of her wrists and choking back tears, "What about us going back to how we were before?"

"You're my best friend, and I didn't want that to change. So I thought a lot of these things were just that – us going back to the way things were," he shrugs, huffing a little. His cluelessness the past couple of weeks now frustrate him as much as it frustrated their friends. "And, yeah, maybe I still want things to be the same in the end. But there are things that I kept feeling for you that I couldn't ignore anymore, and I guess I just finally caught on to what my heart wanted."

He reaches for her palms, clammy and covered in grime, just like his, and brings them up to hold in his own.

"I told you once that I've never been bored after you moved in. I meant that, Star. And if you're okay with it," his thumb traces against the scabs that have been left over from previous fights – the ones he's already memorized, "I'd like to never be bored ever again. With you."

He doesn't get a voiced answer. Instead, she tackles him into a hug and buries her face into the crook of his shoulder and holds on tight, arms wrapped around his. His hoodie becomes damp and her cries become muffled. He wants to hug her back – to wrap her tight and bury his face into her hair and never let go, but there's a shooting pain that stabs consistently at his limb and it's blinding -

"Arm," Marco squawks, "Arm. Arm. Arm."

"Oh, right," she doesn't go far after releasing him. "Right, right. Sorry."

"It's, uh, it's fine," he chuckles lightly. "Just kinda sore from the whole…explosion thing."

"Yeah," she sniffs, her right hand clearing most of the tears she's managed to subside. Star brings the other hand gently up to his face, cupping his cheek. She examines him a little more carefully – a bruise is forming on the right side of his forehead, and there's a cut by his left ear, but other than that and his arm he seems mostly undamaged. "That must've hurt a bit."

Star's hand is dry and dirty on his skin but it's still warm to the touch. His cheek heats under her palm while her thumb traces back and forth where his mole sits. There are still traces tear tracks on her hearts and he raises his own fingers to dry them off, and his touch leaves static that jumps between both of them. It's the kind of static that makes your heart jump, the kind where you feel it race up your arms and fill your chest. It's transmissible – just like the smile that spreads across her face.

"Hey Marco?"

He swallows, watching her head tilt up towards him, "Yeah?"

"I love you, too."

And she presses onto her toes and kisses him with a force that makes him reel back, catch his footing, and hold on.

It is kinda like those action movies he'd make her watch – with his arm reaching around her waist to keep himself steady and kiss her to the sounds of cheers and affection from warriors and friends alike. And it's real – they're real, and for the first time ever for him, love is real too. It's not pretend, because he's feeling it right now, against her tear-stained lips that won't stop smiling and making their teeth clack. He feels it in his cheeks that are hot under her touch, in the grip of his hands against her waist because she isn't close enough. He feels it when he thinks of spending every Thursday under a warm fuzzy blanket with her – or even every lonely, quiet moment with the loudest girl he knows.

Janna wolf-whistles in the back and he's brought out of his thoughts back to reality – where, while it feels like it's only them two, they're also surrounded by joyous and rambunctious friends (and her parents. He shoves that thought in the back of his mind as soon as it settles in, though).

When Star lets go and he rests his forehead against hers, he opens her eyes to see her looking up at him, a light smile biting back infectious laughter. It's the happy kind that makes you feel like you have wings (in her case, they flutter – he hears them beat wildly behind her hair) and feel like you can fly, and he loves it. He loves her.

It's real, and he knows she feels it all too.