Prompt: Just Marco and Star continuing their abusive torment back and forth with each other.

Them

A sequel to "Him/Her"

Marco figured it's a bit sad.

Well it's actually fucking depressing. This thing he has with Star. It's surely unhealthy, he probably needs to be checked at by a professional psychiatrist at this point because he was not the type to think of such ridiculous things. In fact, before Star he didn't entertain the idea of a girl getting under his skin. Slowly cutting deeper until he'd want to actually punch a girl for the first time in his life but at the same time as much as he wanted to–no matter how much he wanted to, there is a bigger part of him that just wants to crash her sarcastic mouth with his own and keep her there.

He likes it even if it hurts him.

Maybe it's a masochist thing; to want this so called friendship–should he even call it friendship? Never mind. All he knows is that he has never wanted something so bad in his life like this before and he considers himself a pretty content guy.

Marco sighs heavily and surely in that moment, his music goes off, his headphones yanked by someone which now rests around his neck. "Geez you're gonna turn deaf if you keep listening to this thing in full blast"

He looks up in surprise, the pen he is holding stopping in its acrobatic jumps between his fingers. He settles with a frown to find his person of depression/attraction giving him her usual knowing look.

"What's wrong?" She asks.

"What do you mean? Nothing's wrong!"

"You're listening to heavy metal in full blast. Something is wrong"

"J-just because I listen to something in full blast doesn't mean I'm sad. I'm just in the mood for things" He says with reddening cheeks, which she obviously caught on.

"Marco you're not just in the mood for things and I certainly did not mention being sad" She says smartly and he glares.

God she's always the haughty jerk that's what she is, he thinks just when she leans on the wall in front him with her hands jammed in her jean pockets.

"Just shut up. What's it to you anyway?" He senses the triumphant smile grazing her lips as she holds out a sharpie and a used paint brush.

"It's gonna be more fun doing this"

He could only dart his eyes, watching her leave the room as Mr. Fallon followed right after with a glare, a ready-to-kill look on his poorly drawn dicks on the face with a sharpie and pain–wait a second…

"DIAZ!"

His eyes nearly popped out of his head as the entire room shifted from their chemistry teacher to him in a progressively loud chorus of laughter.

"That wasn't me! It was Star! She–"

"Oh you're not fooling anyone here Diaz! Go to detention!"

"But–"

"DETENTION ROOM NOW!"

Marco curses under his breath as he took the walk of shame and exits the room. Sometimes he often wondered why Star of all people? And he somehow, somewhat knows the answer. He fucking hated it. Despite getting in trouble for her and seeing her laugh her ass off in the corner of the hallway, he couldn't help but think as long as he could love her, all his well.

God fucking damn it.

This is the first time he's in detention and he can see why most troublemakers dreaded it. He's the only one in the room, banned from anything to keep himself company because according to their principal, he needs the entire space to think about his actions and how wrong they were. Most adults thinks backwards it's not even funny.

"Looking good Diaz" Star is leaning by the door frame, looking all smug.

He glares at her. "Shut up Star! This is your fault, I'm not talking to you"

"Too bad because I'm the only company you'll ever get for the next hour"

She sits on the desk beside him, her neck tie all loose and shirt crumpled. He swore she should really stop doing that, she makes being messy a bad habit, she is almost scolded every day by the councilor for wearing 'improper' dress code. It's all so fucked anyway. He completely agrees with her counter argument about girls being allowed to wear tops which covers nearly nothing than a crumpled collared shirt and a tie.

"Don't you have one more class before dismissal? What are you doing here?"

"Hey you still have this?" Star changes the subject, reaching for the army helmet keychain attached to the zipper of his backpack. She bought it for him as a joke, she says it reminded her of him as her general (inside joke). "You kept it…"

He reaches over and snatches it away, putting his backpack on his side of the room. His expression stiff. Her smile lingers wider. "I forgot all about it. Besides it's easier to open since the zipper is fucked"

"Ah huh…" She hums, not even nearly convinced.

"You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here? Cutting classes again?"

She tucks her arms underneath her head as some sort of pillow. "I wish that were the case but I'm actually in trouble"

"What did you do this time?"

"Justin caught me by the hallway and wanted to talk" She replies nonchalantly.

He scrunches his brows in confusion. "Where's the trouble in that?"

"The part where I poured orange juice on him and Mrs. Lim caught me"

Maybe she was overreacting again. Marco witnessed the countless times she'd do anything out of instinct because something pissed her off which happens most of the time or something had caught her off guard. There's no in between.

"Alright what did he do that set you off?"

"He wanted a date"

Marco shifts his eyes at her for a second before going over his bag for something, anything–a troubled look on his face. He sees her shrug her shoulders nonchalantly, closing her eyes and missing the way he frowns at the idea of Justin the popular quarterback asking her out on a date. "A-a date? Didn't you told me before that he's your type?"

It's true. At some point between a year and three months ago, she voiced out her opinion on guys and how he doesn't fit the description of having the looks and the body. He remembers quite clearly that she used Justin as an example. Cool, good looking and nevertheless has the body carved by gods themselves. So he's quite puzzled by the fact that she poured orange juice on the poor guy.

"He's actually kind of annoying. Never shuts up about football and working out. He's easy on the eyes but how the hell am I supposed to deal with the rest of him?" She scowls, he could only roll his eyes.

Marco spares her a glance and ignores the huge weight that has been magically lifted off his chest.

"But he's a nice guy. You told me before you'd date him in a heartbeat" He regrets ever letting those words leave his mouth but it felt like it has to be said.

She cracks one eye open. "If you want you can have him"

"I'm just saying! Maybe you can grow to like him…"

"That's not gonna happen. Why do most people waste their time forcing themselves to someone? You don't waste words and time after you realize you don't like someone. About every guy in this shithole is more in love than themselves than to other people. It's disgusting. At least I don't see you trying to impress a girl with how much weight you could carry" Her scowl deepens and he tries his best to not let her words get to him because she always says this–mentions how much she appreciated him compared to the rest but it's probably because they are both equally dislikeable. With that being said, they can easily tolerate each other.

So it is made known she doesn't like guys like him.

She likes guys like Justin.

Marco never prodded over Star's dating life but only an idiot would believe that she doesn't have the experience. He had caught her before with some guy not even in their class professing his undying love for her and she rejected them all the same. All impassive and heartless. He liked those moments but at the same time a part of him knew that she's probably looking for something in a person, and if she found it, she'd not hesitate to get it. And it could be anything. She could be looking for a summer fling or something as opposed to what he wants for a while now.

"Don't even think about it" She warns.

"Wha–"

"If you haven't noticed I'm not just looking for a fling. I'm looking for the real deal! Guys like Justin isn't gonna cut it out for me because he's something temporary. I want something that's gonna last more than a week, thank you very much"

Marco swore his pride of knowing Star shattered as he actively widens his eyes at her in disbelief. "What? You're really looking for someone?"

He blinks a few times before deciding in the last minute to scroll on his phone, not wanting to show any sign of panic on his face.

"Not anymore cause I found him" Star raises a brow at his weird attitude.

"You did? So you're in a relationship right now?" His other hand did this awkward, nimble seizure as the weight is back in his chest and is twice the heavier, unable to hide the way his heart literally dropped to his feet. She catches on like always, observant son of a–

"What's with that face? You look disappointed" She's spot on and hits the very spot where it hurts most but of course he can't let her see that.

"I'm not! I just feel bad for the guy who has to date you. You'd make his life miserable at best!"

"Wow thanks for telling me I'm a lost cause, Marco" She deadpans.

He really shouldn't wait forever. High school is going to end soon and they are going to move on with their lives.

It has been like two years and Marco Diaz has since then completely figured out what love means. Because a year and four months ago it was just a friendly crush and hate feeling he established with the troublemaker who is in the form of Star Butterfly. He strongly believes that he can no longer see the future without her and her damned smirk. And he'd spend enough time mulling over the fact of how boring and grey his life has been before he met her. Oh how much he spent so much time mulling and sulking over it, the annoying blonde who takes satisfaction in proving she's always right.

"… It's wrong"

"What?"

"The answer on the board. It's wrong"

His eyes stray on the board once more as he pays attention to the only problem poorly written in chalk. It's physics. Some kinematics problem and something he's very good at. He checks to validate her motion, eyes darting from side to side.

"No it's not" Marco rebuts quickly. Double checking–triple checking at most to find out that whoever wrote the answer is right. He raises a sharp brow at her. "It's supposed to be divided, right?

"Nah, the other way around"

"No that can't be right!"

"Wanna bet on it?" She grins, taking her phone from her back pocket. "I might still have the answer key"

He straightens his back briskly, knowing enough that he's not losing this one because he had those formulas imprinted in his mind since their last physics class (which was last year). "Fine! Let's get this over with! I know I'm right"

She notices the strain of doubt in his voice and she knows she's right because she happens to be the very person asked by Mrs. Lim to deliver the answer key to another teacher after the incident because she thinks that's the least she could fucking do.

She smirks, the exact one she knows pisses him off as she slides her phone to his desk.

"You're right, you say?" She says smugly.

Marco couldn't believe it. He tried. Oh god he fucking tried.

"Wha–but how?! That's–" He mutters more to himself with clenched teeth, going over in his head to check before realizing she's right. As always. "Fucking hell!" He cusses.

"So you're right, it doesn't matter!"

Star watches as he rests his head over the desk, a smile clinging on her lips knowingly before mimicking his action and facing him.

"Are you annoyed at me yet?" She asks all of a sudden.

He doesn't really find it surprising considering most of the words coming out of her mouth is half assed thought out. But he frowns at her face, understanding enough that he doesn't just want to slam her head against the wall but also kiss her senseless while doing so. If that were even possible. It's a difficult question because she got him always feeling different things at once. So for now, he's going with the gut telling him that he's less than a minute away from violently mutilating her head.

"Are you seriously asking me that question?" He retorts sharply.

She doesn't seem fazed, she continues smiling that cute smile of hers. "Well I don't see you complaining"

"Everyday. I complain about you everyday" He deadpans.

"Alright but I don't see you doing anything about it" Star smirks as he hits a part of him speaking truth to her words. He sets his lips into a thin line, about to raise his defense. "And yelling in my ear doesn't count! You're still here keeping me company" She says as a matter of fact.

"That's what matters"

Marco frowns some more, making a strangled noise in the back of his throat. "Just shut up" He looks away trying to hide his growing smile.

Star enjoyed her moments of triumphs by laughing at Marco's tomato red face for the last few seconds of imprisonment before standing up and calling it a day. As she bid farewell to her favorite nerd, he watches her retreating back along with the sway of her hips which stirs something deep inside of him.

When she was no longer visible, he decided in the last split second to follow her. And for some unknown reason the click of her sneakers and still, that fucking sway of her hips did it for him. He has had enough of the abusive torment back and forth between them because all he wants to do to her right now is to call her name and come to her in five long strides.

And that's exactly what he did.

Getting the attention of almost everyone, especially hers. Not that the rest mattered. She's looking at him with wide eyes, those blue almost shuddering him–making him want more than just stand there looking like an idiot.

So when he steps closer, the atmosphere suddenly shifts and everyone starts holding their breaths. The air grows thicker and even as he hovers a feet above her, seeing the conflict in her eyes, he then understands how she can't wrap her head on what's happening. He hesitates just once before bringing a hand to cup her face and her eyes spring wider, bigger–he could see the slits of darker blue in them as he shifts closer, his breath fanning her pink lips.

And he sees her eyes warming, something he wishes to see more often because she gives him this gentle smile he never knew she was capable of giving and she stands on her tip toes to meet his lips.

The reaction is explosive for both of them.

His own heart threatening to burst out of his chest as a bewildering urge to kiss her urgently crashes into him. He takes all of his willpower then to keep her there as one arm wraps around her slim waist and the other gently resting on the back of her neck that pulses with her life right underneath his fingertips while her own hands rake his hair.

Her heart is beating fast.

But then again, so is his and it doesn't matter at the moment because they're both thinking selfishly of themselves and how it was always her driving him to the brink of his own sanity, into doing compulsive things and just downright completely breaking his defenses. He doesn't let that get to him—not now because she's giving him a hard time of pulling away, she's intoxicating him.

Her forehead touches his chin as she gasps for air. When she looks around, eyes darting from everyone in the hallway, she finds all of them minding their own business although she's not stupid enough to believe that stories behind what happened isn't spreading like wildfire at this very moment, she doesn't care anymore. She never did anyway.

Marco recalls one particular detail as he can finally breathe again.

"Hey"

She looks up underneath her lashes. "Hm?" Still dazed.

"That guy you found" He places his forehead against hers. "Was it the same for you?"

Star stops and thinks for a bit, remembering a certain brunette who wore his hood to cover his disinterest and sat at the back of the class when she first transferred. How he was staring intently with those attentive almond eyes, catching her full attention–and his words of pure arrogance and sarcasm surprising her–she thought that no matter how much of a sarcastic asshole he really is, he still has the best face she has ever seen and god only knows what's beneath his jacket as she learned earlier on that he's a black belter in taekwondo.

"Yeah it was" Deciding that she probably doesn't know the complete answer just yet but she knows enough to kiss him for the second time.

Author's Note: See you next time. (Probably next week)