Prompt: Star and Marco has one sleepless night where a lot of feelings unfold.


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Marco groaned. It's past 2AM.

He tossed and turned for god knows how many times now but it's a hopeless case at this point. The storm is too loud. Thunderbolts and lightning are booming like an angry orchestra. He can't find a comfortable position. It's also too cold for his liking. There's simply no way of falling back asleep now.

So he sat up and padded quietly out of his room, making sure not to wake his roommate up. Maybe there's some milk he could drink.

As Marco drew closer to the hallway, he notices the dim light illuminating the living room.

"Marco?" A familiar voice echoed through the couch.

Surely enough, Marco sees Star perched by the couch, reading a book with a lamp behind her. It wasn't difficult to notice but Star grew to be a fine young woman. She wasn't just Marco's childhood friend anymore who jumped between trees, she is a psychology major now who's sharing an apartment with him.

Marco notices how her hair was lazily tied into a ponytail, the band unable to restrain all its glory. He notices her pajamas only consisting of a tank top and some slim shorts. He notices the light reflecting her mile long legs despite knowing she's a head shorter than he is. She's hot. Goddamn it. Marco wanted to slap himself several times for thinking that.

She's your best friend. Marco forcibly etched in his brain but on the other hand, That doesn't make her less hot though.

"You okay?" She said, her face laced with slight worry.

He gets back right in his senses as he sees her reading a romance novel. Star never read anything related to romance though. Weird.

"Uh… Yeah I just" Marco has no idea what he was nervous about, it's only Star a few feet away from him. Not some interrogation unit. "I couldn't sleep"

He hears her sighing heavily. "You too huh?"

Her gaze lands on his face. "Marco are you sure you're okay?" She stands up and strides in front of him. He jerks his head away when he feels her soft hand on his forehead.

"You're a bit hot. Sounds to me you have a fever"

"Uh no n–no" Marco pulls her hand away from him. "I'm fine. I just need to wash up that's all" He immediately dashes for the bathroom, leaving a very confused Star standing in the middle of the living room.

Marco splashed his face with cold water. What the heck was wrong with him? He felt weird, not just weird but he could actually hear his blood pumping in his ears. This is new to him. He couldn't tell if he was just sick like Star pointed out or his body just doesn't like him since he has been stuffing himself with convenient store ramen these past couple of days.

But lately he has been feeling this way. Sometimes his face gets all warm, he's breathing heavily, his chest hurting. Or even all at once. He can only recall one time when that happened. It was when Star was all dressed up for prom during their senior year.

And he's not an idiot to not figure it out. So what if Marco has a crush on the girl for almost three years now? It's not like something's going to change between them. He figured. Or at least that's what he keeps telling himself. Little does he know he has been sinking himself deeper. Falling deeper head first without stopping anytime soon. He just doesn't realize it.

Yet.

Marco has no idea how long he has been standing there in front of the mirror like an idiot.

"Hey Marco. Are you sure you're okay? You've been there for quite some time" But something tells him it's been a while.

"Uh uh I'm okay! I was just" God he's such a mess. "I was just brushing my hair" He took a roller brush lying on top of a dresser.

"You're brushing your hair?" Star repeats, flatly.

Marco facepalms. "Y-yeah" Who even brushes their hair in the middle of the night? He should just get it over with and try to sleep.

Except just as it made contact with his hair, it tangled itself. Great.

He pulls on it hard, making him cry out in pain.

"Marco! What are you screaming about?" He could hear Star trying to open the door. She sounded really worried, only to find out what mess he is in when he opens the door.

Star gazed at him. His face scrunched in pain with one hand on the handle of the brush.

"Want me to help?"

Marco could only nod his head in embarrassment as Star lead him to the couch. He felt her nimble hands easily untangling the brush from his hair. He also winced when he felt the brush back on his head. So she started working more slowly. She brushed him delicately. Then braided and even played with his hair. Marco concluded that Star is good with hair and the whole time, he just sat there in silence with his eyes closed.

But then something strange happened. Well more like something hit him like a bus.

Marco suddenly had the urge to kiss Star. He just wanted to just grab her and then kiss her. He has no goddamn idea what came over him but the feeling grew more and more intense as he felt the familiar drum in his chest and the warmth of her body with his own. She's close enough just for him to turn around and go for it.

At the same time, he also hesitated. For the same reasons why he has never told her how he felt.

It's a rare moment for Marco Diaz to push aside his doubts and hesitation, so when he turned around to follow his burning desire, Star did not expect it at all.

She jabbed the brush on his face instead.

"Oh my gosh Marco! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" She immediately apologized, placing the brush on the table while he cried out in pain.

Marco grabbed his burning face. He couldn't help but think how much of an idiot he really is.

"I-I'm fine" He says while grinning. "It's not like I'm bleeding or anything, right?" He says while gazing at her.

"Yeah. If you say so" She places the book on top of the table. "It looks like we're not gonna catch some sleep anytime soon. Wanna just talk?"

Marco shrugs his shoulders before he props himself in a more comfortable position. Soon enough, they started talking. It's sort of refreshing for them both, considering how they were both too busy to even bother with each other since they've been studying for their upcoming finals. But now with nothing to keep them worrying, they talked about many things, laughed about many things and even almost cried.

No one knew where time went but Marco found himself waking up with Star hugging his arm. As surprised and nervous as he was, he didn't want to wake her up. It was still too dark after all.

Slowly but surely, Marco tried to slide his arm away from her but the moment he made that move, she clung tighter. He sighs in defeat as he places his free arm over his face. They're both going to have body aches when they wake up soon.

He was about to sleep again but then the book she has been reading caught his sight. Romance novel, huh? Curiosity got the best of him as he opened the book and flipped through the first page.

In a neat and carefully calculated handwriting, it read, Star Butterfly's Diary

By the time Star Butterfly woke up, it's already morning. It would have been a beautiful day to start with since Marco is beside her probably still asleep but then again, when she looked up at him, her heart literally dropped to her feet as she saw him reading her diary!

"M-marco! What the heck are you doing?! G-give me that!" Star snatched her diary away as she got up and flipped the pages if he ever did anything funny to it.

Star nervously glanced at Marco only to see him look back at her unfazed. It looked like he hasn't gotten to the page she's worried about.

But just to make sure. "Marco how much did you read?"

"…All of it"

To say that Star is surprised is an understatement. She felt the whole world shift out of focus as it tilts underneath her. She couldn't believe it. Marco read her diary! The very item she possessed in secret has been exposed by the very person she has been keeping it from. He read her diary which meant he knew.

Star has never felt more naked and exposed in her whole life and right now, all she could do is to chuck the damn thing on his head over and over again while yelling profanities.

"I can't-I can't believe you would read my diary!" She chucks and slaps him over and over as he tried to defend himself.

"This-this is something private! Why w-would you invade my privacy like that!" Marco sees the tears spilling from her eyes and he immediately felt guilty.

"A-and now you know–y-you know that I…" Star had stopped abusing him then as she cried instead.

"Today I realized something very important

I realized that I like my roommate. I probably even love him

I don't know how to explain this other than every time I arrive in this apartment with him in it, it feels like I'm home" He recited every word fluidly, so many emotions laced in his voice.

"I'm sure now. I do love him" He says rather more softly. This was her entry one week after her little confession.

Star looks up at him with trembling eyes, she places one hand over her mouth. Did he just–

"I was reading my favorite part" Marco stares at her intensely. "Over and over again until I memorized it"

"What are y–"

He silences her with a kiss. A kiss that's so life changing, the mere contact sent a voltage in their bodies.

Marco brings her closer to him as he felt her respond to him with equal passion. All his doubts and hesitation burning from the desire in his chest as he brought his hands to her face to continue kissing her. Deeper.

Deeper.

And deeper.

They both pull away gasping for air.

"I love you" He whispers, only to realize a second later what he just said. It's funny because he did not actually mind though, not this time. He sees her lips tugging into a small smile.

Marco captures her lips again for the second time. He's beyond happy.

He pulls away slightly. "I've been wanting to do that yesterday" He shamelessly admits.

But before he could resume what they were doing, Star slaps his face again.

"I'm still mad at you though" She stood up from the couch, approaching the kitchen.

"So what do you want for breakfast?" She asks. No lace of anger evident in her voice.

Marco couldn't help but grin as he answered her question.

In the back of his head, he can see the future. He'd wake up every morning to that question.

Star is his home.


Replies:

taylorclan555: Thank you for being my first supporter for this collection! I really appreciate having me on fave, follows and stuff. Really heartwarming stuff thanks!

Readmenot: Yeah? I might make a sequel but never a series (I'm so sorry) At the moment, I can't really commit to having my mind wrapped around with just one story that's why I'm doing one shots :) But I really appreciate your thought!

FrostKing21: Thank you for reviewing each chapter! I love getting feedback so I appreciate your thoughts so much! Also I would be honored to put your work as my cover, would totally give you credit! Thank you :)