A/N: We enter with a snow-covered cabin on a wooded mountainside. The inside is rustic and cozy, a warm fire crackles in the hearth. Our host, Lord of the Storm, is relaxing in a velvet armchair enjoying a fine glass of wine and a good book.
Oh! Didn't see you there! Come in, come in, you must be cold now that it's the holiday season. In fact, if we judged this right, you should be getting ready to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving spread if you live over in the U.S., hopefully surrounded by family and friends. And no, I'm not using the royal we. Just because I have lord in my pen name doesn't make me that pretentious. No, I mean we as in myself and the incredible LordCornwalis and RonaldReagan! You may have heard of any of us from our various works such as Cornwalis' In the Pale Starlight, Reagan's Forgotten Ventures and Fleeting Moments, their combined work The Once and Future Queen, or my own My Life, My Kingdom, My War… yeah, we've been fairly prolific. Or maybe you've never heard of any of us and are just here to take a look around. In either case, welcome!
Now, a while back Cornwalis and I got into a one-shot competition that produced my work We Need to Talk and his work To Tell the Truth. We had a ton of fun with it and judging by the reactions to both of the stories, so did you! Now we're back to give you another one, this time with RonaldReagan here to join us! Each of us will be writing a one-shot exploring the theme of "first date." So please, sit back, grab a drink and enjoy! And after you read this please go give Cornwalis' and Reagan's one shots a read! They should be posted right before or right after this one on the update list. Cornwalis' is called "Gimmie a Beak!" while Regan's is called "Hours of the Labyrinth." And if you like them let us know, it always helps to hear feedback from readers. And hey, if you really loved any or all of our works, I encourage you to check out any/all of our other stories. With that, let's get started.
What A First Date! A Starco Story
Just… one… more, annndddddddd, ouch! Got it! Marco Diaz triumphantly held a pair of tweezers, a single eyebrow hair clutched firmly in their grasp. Discarding the offending hair in question, the young Latino ran one finger over the top ridge of his brow, satisfied that it was now perfectly level, groomed to perfection.
Taking a step back from the bathroom mirror, Marco proceeded to check himself over for the fifth time in as many minutes. Wine-colored dress shirt? Freshly ironed, pressed and immaculately tucked in. He'd left the top button undone to highlight his "misunderstood bad boy" image. Dark brown dress pants? Also ironed, not a wrinkle to be found. Dress shoes? Shined. Breath? Minty fresh. Hair? Perfectly blow-dried and combed with just enough jell in front to make his usual front bangs.
"Alright Diaz, you've got the look down. Now we just gotta make sure you've got the style."
Observing himself in the mirror, he leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Oh hey, didn't see you there. You look cool or whatever, I don't really care." He tried to sound as aloof as possible before shaking his head. "No, that's not it."
Keeping his position he switched from crossing his arms to shooting out two finger guns. "Hey good looking, you ready for the time of your life? I'm gonna take you around the world, baby. Ugh, no! Absolutely not."
He tried propping one leg up against the wall instead of his back. "You, me, awesome date, guaranteed."
He tried pantomiming giving her flowers. "I was going to bring flowers but then I realized nothing would be prettier than you."
He tried squatting down, closing one eye and throwing a "v" over the other. "Waz up girl?"
"Ahhhh!" He screamed in frustration, banging his hand against the stone countertop. "Why is this so hard? They always make it look so easy in the movies." Dejectedly, he looked up, seeing what he could only think of as his own pathetic expression. "Marco Ubaldo Diaz, how the hell did you get yourself in this situation?"
Flashback to Monday
It was another start to the week for the students and staff at Echo Creek Academy; the warm southern California air helping to hid the fact that winter was fast approaching. As usual, Marco had arrived at school early, perfect attendance records didn't maintain themselves you know! After stopping at his locker and picking up the books he'd need for his morning classes he made his way over to homeroom. Waiting outside the door for Ms. Skullnick to arrive, Marco was enjoying the quiet relaxation when a shout of "Hey Marco!" broke the peaceful air. Glancing about for who called out to him, the young Latino was soon waving as his two best friends, Ferguson and Alfonso, made their way over to him.
"Hey Ferg, Alfonso! What gives, you guys are never here this early. Half the time Ms. Skullnick makes Janna hunt you down to get you both into homeroom on time."
Both boys involuntarily shuddered at the mention of their trouble-making friend/tormentor. "Don't remind me, I still have nightmares about the bear traps," Alfonso said.
"So then what vies with the early show up? Did you guys just get tired of getting yelled at?"
"Nah dude. The Ferg just needed to get your opinion on his latest lady-slaying idea."
Marco facepalmed. He would be the first to admit that his own experiences with girls wasn't… the best. But at least he knew it. Ferguson on the other hand was almost willfully blind to the fact that most girls didn't like him, and the few who were willing to tolerate him were usually freaked out by his "plans" to get them to fall madly in love with him. "Look, Ferg, buddy, considering how your last 'fool-proof plan' got you banned from every ice cream store in a ten-mile radius, maybe you wanna lay off the ideas for a while, yeah?"
"Pssstt, those guys just couldn't see my artistic genius. The ladies loved it though."
"Yeah, those screams of terror were really just cries of adoration. How could we have been so blind?" Alfonso snarked.
"Whose side are you on anyway?!" Ferguson shot him a dirty look before turning his attention back to Marco.
"Anyway, this one's guaranteed to work. Check it out!"
Lifting his shirt, Ferguson treated Marco to the truly horrific sight of a crudely drawn face plastered onto his stomach. "Hey baby, want to hang out with this love machine?" The chubby redhead said in his best mock deep voice.
"Ferg for god's sake put that away! There are children here!"
"Oh c'mon Marco don't you think you're overreacting a little bit? Look! I can even make him dance." Ferguson began jiggling his stomach, causing the face to contort into a somehow even more nightmarish grimace.
Marco bent over, one hand covering his mouth while the other clutched at his stomach. "I think I'm gonna be sick." Thankfully, the nausea passed after a moment. "Dude, I think you really might kill someone with this one."
"Oh please, what could possibly go wrong?"
Marco facepalmed, "Oh no."
Another student who had arrived at homeroom early picked that inopportune moment to appear. Approaching the trio he waved a hand in greeting. "Morning guyyssssss…." He trailed off seeing Ferguson with his shirt still raised.
In a flash, his eyeballs instantly combusted, two hellish pits of fire now occupying the space his pupils had been. "MY EYESSSSSSS!" He screamed as he ran off, quickly slamming into a series of lockers as he tore down the hall.
"You were saying?" Marco deadpanned.
"Fine, fine," Ferguson relented as he dropped his shirt back down. "Maybe it wasn't my best work, happy?"
Seeing his friend look down Marco felt some sympathy. Ferguson wasn't a bad guy, just clueless. Reaching over, he put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry man. Someday you'll get it right. After all, like my dad always says, there's a masterpiece inside every block of marble! Or something like that. There's definitely a girl out there… for… you…"
Marco trailed off, eyes going blank. Concerned, Alfonso snapped his fingers in front of his friend's eyes a couple of times to no effect. "Marco, you alright?" He asked worriedly. Still no response. Finally deciding to follow Marco's line of sight, he sighed in part exasperation and part relief.
Picking up on what was going on, Ferguson also followed Marco's gaze before elbowing him in the gut while snickering. "What's the matter Marco? Got some… butterflies in your stomach?"
"It… it's not like that!" Marco protested.
"Mhmm, sure it isn't."
Marco sighed. Okay, so maybe it was like that. The moment he'd seen her, everything else had faded away into the background, just like every other time he'd seen her. He had it bad, and he knew it.
Star Butterfly was easily the most amazing girl he'd ever met. She was the, literal, star of Echo Creek Academy. Long blond hair, crystal clear blue eyes, cute heart-shaped birthmarks on her cheeks made her the most beautiful girl at the school; easily outclassing, to her fury, the head cheerleader Brittney Wong and even the resident laid-back surfer/skater Jackie Lynn Thomas. Couple that with a bright personality that led her to try and befriend quite literally anyone and a near constant desire to liven things up and make every day feel like a party and the fact that her family had to be even richer than the Wong's… yeah, it was no wonder she had a line of suitors, guys and girls. In that regard, Marco was just another face in the crowd.
Oh sure, he and Star talked sometimes. In a stroke of either pure luck or terrible irony depending on how you looked at it when the Butterfly family had moved to town a few years ago they'd chosen to build their house on a vacant piece of land just down the street from the Diaz family home. His parents had been their usual, loveable, over the top selves and had greeted their new neighbors with bright smiles and open arms, something the Butterflies had instantly welcomed. Star in particular had been eager to befriend Marco right away, at the time he'd thought that made him special, now he realized it was just her personality. For his part, Marco had been instantly smitten, leading to multiple, painfully embarrassing moments where he got completely tongue-tied around her. It wasn't his fault though! She was just stupidly, irresistibly cute! In fact, apart from wanting to maintain his perfect attendance that was the other big reason he always came to school early. Star had once suggested that they walk to school together in the morning and Marco had said yes so fast he was pretty sure his voice broke the sound barrier. Then he'd actually had to, well, walk with her to school and he'd gotten so nervous about being alone with her that he hadn't been able to talk with her at all! Every time she tried striking up a conversation with him, he'd just stuttered until he either manage to get out something completely nonsensical or had simply given up. After that, he'd purposefully avoided being alone with her as much as possible. He could handle talking to her in social situations where there were other people to bounce the conversation off of, but that was about it. Chalk it up as one more reason he'd never be anything more than just casual friends with her.
"You should make your move dude," Ferguson said, snapping Marco out of his flashback. He was jerking his thumb over at Star who was now across the hall from them grabbing books from her locker while talking about something with Jackie, the skater girl looking like she was struggling to hold back tears of laughter.
"Not a chance in hell Ferg, I think I'd have more luck asking Ms. Skullnick not to give us homework for the rest of the year." He looked forlornly over his shoulder. "Face it, she's never going to notice me."
"Marco, drop the pathetic act already!" Alfonso shouted in frustration. "You two live near each other, your parents like her, her parents like you and she asked you to walk to school with her. Walking. To. School! That's like, the high school equivalent of a marriage proposal!"
"Yeah maybe in those cheesy rom-com anime you like so much."
"You leave my shows out of this!"
"Al's got a point dude," Ferguson chimed in. "You're clearly not a 'nobody' to her. And besides, what've you got to lose? You already try and avoid being around her like she's the grim reaper half the time. If she rejects you, you'll just keep trying to avoid her. And if the embarrassment you're worried about, you hang out with us and everyone already calls you the safe kid anyway. Can't really get much worse."
"It was one time! I wore a helmet in the locker room shower one time!"
Ferguson and Alfonso looked at each other. "Nothing to lose." They deadpanned in unison.
Marco rounded on his two friends. "There's everything to lose!" Nightmarish scenarios began running through his head.
"I could try talking to her and my mouth could get so dry that I can't speak. Or my tongue could swell up and I could start choking! All of my teeth could fall out or I could vomit! Everywhere! It would RUIN these jeans and I'd have to walk in with vomit pants into the nurses office and then everyone would start calling me vomit pants Diaz!"
Marco's shouting rant was beginning to attract some eyes at this point as more students started arriving at the school and wondering what was going on. Seeing this, Alfonso tried to get him to calm down. "Okay Marco we get it, it was just a… joke! A joke! Right Ferg?"
Ferguson nodded vigorously. "Yep! Just a joke! So why don't you just take a deep breath and…"
But Marco just kept going, his mouth well outstripping his mind. "Oh, oh even better! I could ask her and everyone could turn on me! I mean, why wouldn't they, who'd want to see that? The safe kid and the school idol?! Together?! They'd probably have the drama department build a stockade and put me in there. And then everyone would throw tomatoes at me. I don't even like tomatoes!"
Being able to see over Marco's shoulder, Alfonso could now see who else was joining the growing crowd gathered around the trio as Marco kept ranting. Eyes going wide, he redoubled his efforts to try and get Marco to shut up before something bad happened.
"Marco we get it. Seriously, you need to calm down before…"
"But noooooo!" Marco shouted above Alfonso. Ferguson could now also see what was coming and tried to warn his best friend.
"Dude! Incoming missile, disengage! Disengage!"
"You two just want me to stroll right up,"
"Marco…"
"Put on a big, shit-eating grin!"
"We tried buddy, oh you're so screwed."
"And say, Star Butterfly, would you like to go out with me?!"
"Sure Marco, I'd love to go out with you!"
The silence was deafening enough that you could hear a pin drop in the hallway. Everyone in the now sizeable crowd stared wide-eyed, not believing what they'd just heard. None more so than Marco himself. He just stared straight ahead, ashen-faced at his two friends who had mixed horrified and apologetic looks on their faces.
"We tried warning you man…" Ferguson whispered softly.
Turning ever so slowly, Marco finally came face to face with his crush, standing there smiling as usual, completely oblivious to how she'd just utterly shattered the young Latino's mind. Unable to think, unable to really do anything beyond the basic respiratory functions necessary to keep him alive, Marco simply said the first unfiltered thing that came to mind
"Oh, FU…." As the homeroom bell blared and Star merrily skipped inside followed by a gaggle of now gossiping and texting students and one very brain-dead Marco.
End Flashback
Despite his best attempts to avoid Star, and to generally avoid making eye contact with anyone for the rest of the day, the blond teen had caught him by waiting OUTSIDE HIS HOUSE after school. All smiles and giggles she'd happily pestered him about when their date was and what they were doing until he'd given in and told her he would pick her up at her place at 7 o'clock Friday night to take her out to dinner. She'd done a little twirl and bounded off; he promptly went up to his room and collapsed face first onto his bed in agony. Oddly enough he actually hadn't seen much of her for the rest of the week. She'd avoided giving him her usual cheerful greeting in homeroom and almost seemed to purposefully shift to the other side of any room the pair found themselves in, even the sprawling cafeteria. Marco chalked that up to Star being embarrassed about having said yes while being too nice to, at least publicly, cancel on him. And so he found himself finally presentable at 6:45 sharp. If he left right now he'd get to Star's house right on time. Bracing himself for a painfully awkward evening sure to end in disaster, he sighed and left the bathroom making his way downstairs… only to be instantly blinded by camera flashes.
"Woahhhhh!" Marco screamed, barely managing to maintain his balance as he half-tripped, half-jumped down the remaining stairs. "What the…" he started to ask only to be met with more flashes.
"Oh, our little Marco all grown up and ready for his first date!" Angie cooed.
"And with Star no less! I always had a feeling about you two, mijo."
"Guys it's not like that!" Marco protested. "I told you, I just sort of… blurted it out. And Star only said yes because she's nice. This isn't a real date."
"Mhmmm…" Angie hummed disbelievingly while looking her son up and down. "You look awfully dressed up for something that's not a real date. Doesn't he Rafael?"
"Si mi amor, he looks like a young man now. I'm so proud," he said as he wiped away a tear.
Marco blushed. "Well, I mean, date or not I still wanted to look nice, you know? But it's still definitely not a date!"
Mr. and Mrs. Diaz shared a knowing look. "Alright then Marco. Make sure to have fun on your 'not date'." Angie giggled.
"Don't be out too late Marco! And 'date' or not, make sure to treat Star like a lady!" Rafael added.
Now crimson from his nose to his ears and sure he wouldn't be able to take any more of his parents teasing, Marco left with a quick "whatever," fleeing his house as fast as possible.
At 7PM sharp, Marco found himself outside the Butterfly home. Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to describe it as a palace. When the family had arrived, they'd bought up a large, weed-choked field and built a sprawling piece of property that made the Wong mansion look like a shack. Over on the left side of the property was a literal tower with a small, arm-like protrusion about two-thirds of the way up that ended with an onion dome top and had its own balcony. That would be Star's room. Easily the oddest thing about the property though was that anyone could walk right up to the front door. While the Wong's mansion was set well back from the front edge of their property and guarded by a large wall and wrought-iron gate, the Butterflies had a normal driveway and front walk as if their colossal estate was no different than any of the other suburban homes lining the street. Taking a deep breath, Marco grabbed a hold of the over-sized brass knocker hanging on the front door and banged it quickly three times against the large double-doors.
He barely even got the chance to take a step back before the heavy piece of mahogany was thrown open, revealing Star Butterfly with a ten-thousand watt smile.
"Hey Marco!" She waved at him, bouncing up and down on her toes as if barely able to contain her excitement.
"H—Hey uh, Star. You… you look nice." Marco managed to stammer out. Nice barely began to cover it in his mind though. She'd left her hair free flowing most of the way down her back, held in place by a dark purple headband that almost matches his shirt rather than her usual devil-horned one. She was wearing a sky-blue sleeveless dress that ran down to just above the knee and completed the outfit with a pair of short whit heels, gold hoop earrings and a necklace of some kind, Marco couldn't tell what was on the end of it though. In short, to him she looked angelic, he just didn't trust himself to say so and, since this was a fake date, he didn't want to creep her out anymore than he probably had.
If Marco had been more perceptive he might have noticed how Star blushed lightly at the compliment, all while biting her lower lip as she eyed his outfit in turn. "Thanks Marco. You uh, you really clean up good. Very handsome," she almost purred.
That managed to get the young Latino's attention. "You really think so? I've never really worn this shirt that much so I didn't know how it would...look." He trailed off as he faintly picked up what sounded like muffled screams coming from inside the house. Glancing over Star's shoulder, he was just able to see just inside the threshold where he was able to see what looked like her dad, River, in a rather… compromising position.
"Star…"
"Yes?" She asked innocently as if nothing were amiss.
"Why, exactly, does it look like your dad is chained to a chair with heavy-duty trucking chain and gagged?"
Star rubbed the back of her head. "Oh thattttt! Right. Well, when I told my parents you were taking me out on a date tonight daddy got a little… overprotective. But mom and I calmly and civilly explained the situation to him and now he's completely okay with it." The rising volume of River's screams and the murderous look in his gaze when Marco managed to make eye contact with him said the exact opposite. When one of the chain links holding River to the chair audibly snapped, Star seemed to decide that was the opportune moment to make their escape.
"Okay bye daddy! We won't be home too late, love you!" She waved at him before slamming the door shut, grabbed Marco's hand and practically dragged him down the street, running surprisingly fast considering the heels. It was only several blocks later that Marco finally managed to pull her to a halt.
"Uh, Star, do you know where you're going?"
"…No?" She admitted cutely, causing Marco to blush anew.
"Then do you, um… mind if I take the lead then since I picked the restaurant and all?"
"Sounds good to me!" Marco was disappointed when Star released his hand only to have his blush drastically worsen when Star wrapped himself around one of his arms. "I place myself in your capable hands Sir Diaz of Echo Creek," she said playfully.
Marco was sure Star could hear his heart pounding in his ribcage considering how loudly it was reverberating in his own ears. He actually stood there for a full minute letting the idea of "Sir Marco Diaz" protecting "Princess Star" spin fantasies in his head before Star tugged on his arm, bringing him back down to earth.
"Uh Marco, shouldn't we get going?"
"Oh! Right! This way." He said, taking a right on the next street as they wound their way through the sea of casual family homes. Luckily, Star had dragged them in the direction they needed to go, so it didn't take them long to reach their destination. When they arrived Star squealed loudly and gripped Marco's arm hard enough that he had to hold back a wince. Seriously, how strong was she?!
"Oh Marco I've been meaning to try this place! How did you know I loved French food?"
"Oh, you know… lucky guess, hehe." In truth he had no idea what kind of food Star liked. It had never come up during their brief conversations and during the various times the Diaz' had gone to dinner at Star's place she'd happily devoured dinner regardless of the food type. He'd just figured French food was stereotypically romantic enough that it would look like he knew what he was doing on their date and "Chateau Mewni" was the hottest new French restaurant in town so he decided making a reservation there was a safe bet. He grimaced as Star dragged him inside. Maybe he really did deserve the safe kid nickname after all.
After a quick check-in to confirm their reservation the pair of teens were led to a cozy two-person table near one of the walls. Looking around, Marco was impressed. The interior was dimly lit by low lightbulbs and soft candlelight causing shadows of diners and wait staff to flicker and dance along the velvet-lined walls. A large crystal chandelier dominated the center ceiling while soft piano music was pumped throughout the restaurant by unseen speakers. It didn't take long for their waiter to arrive, and when he did Marco had to hold back a choked laugh. The guy looked like someone had tried to stuff an oversized catfish into a doublet.
"Good evening, sir and madame. My name is Manfred and I'll be your server tonight. We have a pan-roasted chicken special tonight served with steamed carrots and caramelized onions and the soup of the day is french onion. Will you be viewing our regular menu this evening or should I bring the kids menu? Perhaps with a side of crayons?" He finished snidely, smirking down his bulbous nose at the pair.
Marco was about to give the guy a piece of his mind when Star beat him to the punch. "We'll take the regular menus please. Oh and also…" She proceeded to say something in French that Marco couldn't understand. From the way Manfred flushed with anger and stalked off though it was clear that he could. Star watched his retreating figure for a moment with a triumphant smirk before turning her attention to her menu as if nothing had happened.
"What the heck did you say to him? It looked like he was about to have a heart attack!" Marco said in near awe.
"Mhmm? Oh, nothing much. I just… gave him some advice about his manners, and his personal appearance. I think he took it pretty well to be honest," she smiled at him mischievously.
Framed in the candle light with that look on her face, Marco felt himself blush furiously. She looked like the perfect cross between an angel and a demon in that moment. Star could have asked him to marry her, or demand his soul be sacrificed, and he wasn't sure he would be able to deny her either request. Rather than reply, he tried to will his blush away while turning his attention to the menu, only to discover a major problem; the entire thing was in French. He frantically began scanning the pages, face still hidden behind the tall paper immaculately pinned down to the leather binding. After all, Marco had been to upscale restaurants before where the dishes had been listed in their native language and there had always been English translations listed underneath. Not this time though. He let the menu fall back to the table, discouraged. Great job Diaz. Way to pick the one restaurant in town where you can't even read the menu. That's got to be a new record in the Marco moment book.
Meanwhile across the table Star, apparently satisfied with her pick, neatly folded the menu and placed it off to the side, smiling over at her date. That smile quickly disappeared when she saw his still dejected expression though. "Marco? Is everything alright?"
His eyes snapped back up as he desperately tried to think of a convincing lie. "Oh yeah, great! It's great. I just can't, uh… decide what to pick! I mean everything looks so good here."
Star's frown deepened, unconvinced, she pressed on. "Are you sure? You look a little flushed."
Marco gulped and started tugging on his collar. Had his shirt always felt so tight? It had fit perfectly when he was back at his house! "Yep! Never better! It must just be hot in here, you know?"
Star cautiously began to reach a hand across the table towards Marco's palms laying on the table. "Look, Marco, if there's something you want to…" Before she could finish her sentence however a far more subdued looking Manfred returned, asking for their orders in a clipped tone. Flicking the menu back open quickly, Star rattled off her order which Manfred dutifully wrote down before turning his attention to Marco, eyeing his still open menu with one cocked eyebrow.
"I'll have, um, what she's having," he said quietly. A single curt nod and Manfred was gone.
Still determined to coax the young Latino out of his shell, Star decided to try a different tactic. "So Marco, doing anything fun this weekend?"
"Oh, uh, Alfonso wants Ferg and I to come over Saturday to check out his new console setup. Probably be a whole day marathon so that should be a good time. What're you weekend, doing, the thing that you are… maybe?" He facepalmed. Why did his mouth decide to betray him every time he wanted to talk to this girl?
Fortunately, Star seemed to take it all in stride. "Ugh, I have to spend, like, half of tomorrow listening to another one of my mom's stupid boring lectures on proper etiquette," she put up in air quotes. Marco nodded sympathetically. Star absolutely chaffed at the lessons her mom gave her and she never hesitated to let anyone and everyone know exactly what she thought about them. He'd been on the receiving end of more than a few of her more… colorful, rants. Star quickly perked back up though. "But then Jackie and I are going skating for the rest of the day and we're doing a movie marathon with Janna on Sunday. I can't wait! Janna wanted to bring over this new horror movie about an undead groundskeeper but Jackie totally shot that down. And then…" Marco just nodded along, letting the conversation flow as he slowly started to loosen up. Star had a way of easily taking up all the oxygen in the room. Not in the narcissistic need to be in the center of attention kind of way but rather that her natural exuberance drew people to her. All he had to do in this case was sit back and enjoy the ride as she led the conversation. He was even able to make her laugh a couple of times adding in side quips about Janna and some of the ways she had both helped and tortured him over the years.
Overall, Marco was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, this date wouldn't be a complete disaster… and then dinner showed up. A server arrived and placed two identical plates in front of the teens piled high with still steaming vegetables and a giant fish. Not just a fillet, an entire fish, it's dead eyes staring blankly back at Marco. He had to resist the urge to gag. Marco absolutely HATED fish; the taste, the texture and especially the smell which was currently wafting up into his nose with a potency he didn't know was possible. Even the veggie sides which looked delicious and which Marco had no doubt he would've enjoyed immensely felt ruined by the fish smell. Over at the other end of the table, Star looked like she was positively drooling. Seizing her fork and knife she began eagerly attacking the dish with Marco swearing he could hear her moan a little after the first bite.
It didn't take the blond teen long though to see that her date wasn't eating anything. "Is everything alright Marco? You got the same thing as me, did they not make yours right?"
"No! It's great. Really, really great. It just looks so good I can't… decide where to dig in." He lied.
Star let the matter drop and got back to her own meal, keeping one eye on Marco as he idly nibbled on a few of the smaller sides. The conversation was completely absent, the tension hanging over them like a heavy wet blanket. After a couple more torturous minutes of this Star set her silverware down and just waited. Marco, eyes still downcast at his plate didn't even notice.
"Do you want to just leave, Marco?"
That got his attention. "What?"
Star had a deeply hurt look on her face. "I mean, I never even checked if you wanted to actually ask me out or if it was just a joke or something. I never gave you a choice and it's obvious, I mean really, painfully, obvious that you don't want to be here. So maybe we should just go… okay?"
"Star, I…." Marco reached out to her. Not like this, he couldn't let it end like this!
Star ignored his outstretched hand and stood up. "Please, Marco. I just want to go home." She wiped away a tear.
Reluctantly, Marco stood up. "Alright. I… I understand. Let me just tell the waiter we want the check and then we can…"
BOOOOOMMM
An explosion ripped through the restaurant as a section of the wall near Star and Marco exploded. Rubbing his eyes frantically to clear the dust out of them, Marco saw a group of men clad in all black body armor and matching ski masks that made them look like ninjas from a cheap kung-fu movie. At their head was a much shorter man, this one wearing dark green body armor and forgoing a mask. He was completely bald with a hooked, beak-like nose and a matted grey beard tied off in a few mini-tails at the end.
"Star Butterfly! At last I've found you!" He cackled.
Forgetting the conversation she was having with Marco, Star turned her attention to the attackers. "Ludo! How did you know I was here?"
"Heh, wouldn't you like to know?" He asked smugly.
"Yes, that's why I asked."
"Oh. Well you see I was having you followed and… Hey wait a minute! I don't have to tell you anything. Attack!" He shouted at his men.
With a roar Ludo's minions charged forward, tossing aside tables and shoving aside panicking patrons as the other diners went running for the exit. One of the masked goons had a clear shot at Star and went running straight at her. She quickly dropped into a fighting stance, ready to intercept him. Before he even got within kicking range though, Marco flew at the man like he'd been shot out of a cannon, slamming a left hook into his jaw and sending the man to the ground, unconscious.
"Nobody hurts my Star!" He screamed at them.
Star bounded up next to him, blushing at his declaration and eyes wide in surprise. "You can fight?!"
"You think all those karate lessons at the mall dojo were just for show? Look out behind you!" Marco pointed behind them to see two more men charging at them. Laughing, Star jumped up and executed a vicious roundhouse kick, catching both men and sending them crashing into a table a dozen feet away.
Now it was Marco's turn to look at Star slack jawed. Star's blushed deepened. "Dad started giving me self-defense lessons when I was five. Never thought I'd have to use them but I guess they came in handy!"
"You idiots!" Ludo screamed. "Just rush them all at once!" Snarling, the minions still in the fight moved to surround the pair of teens, staying out of kicking range while preventing them from escaping. Without having to communicate, Star and Marco quickly lined up back-to-back, both in a fighting stance. With a roar, the masked men charged forward thinking to easily crush the two teens under their sheer combined weight. They were met with a flurry of punches, chops and kicks as Star and Marco put the mother of all beatdowns on them. At one point in the fight Marco had just delivered a soldi chop to one man's neck, sending him gasping to the ground. Because of the angle he couldn't see a second goon ready to pounce on him. Star however managed to catch it off the reflective chandelier hanging above them.
"Marco, catch me!" She shouted without warning before bending back until she was parallel with the floor, one elegant leg coming around almost 180 degrees as her heel collided with the man's nose. He fell back screaming as Marco caught Star, looping his arms around her upper back to cradle her weight while she wrapped her arms around his neck for support. As Marco looked down to make sure she was okay she saw a complete transformation in the boy. Gone was the awkwardness and tension from the rest of the evening. Instead, she saw a warmth and, more surprisingly, an excitement that she didn't think she'd ever seen on him. Purring, she let one hand slip back around his neck, dragging a finger along the crease of his jaw, delighting in seeing him shiver even in the heat of battle. She liked this new side of Marco. Marco meanwhile was dumbstruck by what was going on. He had Star in a position he'd daydreamed about plenty of times. She was in his arms, clinging to him like a lifeline and had a fun-loving yet flirtatious look on her face. It would be perfect if not for the ten million questions he had running through his head; top of the list being who the heck were these guys and why were they after Star? Speaking of which… Marco lifted Star gently back to a standing position, bowing to her as though the pair had just completed an intimate dance, which also left him in a perfect position to execute a sweep kick that put the last of Ludo's men on his ass.
"You idiots!" Ludo shrieked, jumping up and down like a child in the throes of a tantrum. "How hard is it to beat two children? Children! Some elite mercenaries you are! I wasted corn knows how much money on you good for nothing…!" Ludo's tirade was interrupted by the sound of police sirens. Marco thought the entire Echo Creek police department was on the way judging by the sound.
"Boss, we must flee! Cannot take chance of capture by authorities." One of the masked men said in a heavy Russian accent.
Ludo turned on the man. "I'm not leaving here without it! I'll take her on myself if I have to!" Turning however, the bird-like man saw Star standing a short distance from him, one hand on her hip and a smirk on her face.
Raising her fist she said, "You want some of this, Ludo?" The man in question backed up.
"I… I… oh fine! Men, strategic retreat!" Pulling a device off his belt he looked at Star with fanatical rage. "This isn't over Star Butterfly! One day I shall have what is rightfully mine, I swear it on the name Avarius!" He then pulled a pin on the cylinder and threw it on the ground, causing a massive cloud of smoke to erupt. Just as quickly as it emerged however it dissipated. Ludo and his men having vanished along with the smoke.
Before Marco could react, Star grabbed him by the hand and began running, pulling him along as she made her way out the restaurant's front door. "C'mon Marco, time to get out of here!"
"Wait, Star! Shouldn't we wait for the police to get here? They're going to want statements about what happened and who those guys were. And what about the restaurant?!"
"Hmmm… nope!" Star offered as a rebuttal without breaking stride. Despite Marco's continued protests she managed to haul them along, the cops of the Echo Creek PD racing past them, paying no mind to two more fleeing patrons of the now ruined establishment.
It was only once they got back to Star's driveway that she finally stopped, Marco managing to free his hand as he bent over, both hands on his knees gasping for breath. "Did... we... really… need… to sprint… all the way… back to your… house?"
"Gotta work off that meal!" Star said cheerfully as she patted her stomach. Looking at Marco though the adrenaline of the last half hour or so wore off. He had a bruise forming on one side of his face where one of the goons had managed to get in a lucky shot, his knuckles had spattered blood on them and his once pristine shirt was now covered in dust from the initial explosion. She had no doubt that if she looked in a mirror she would look any better.
Marco, finally catching his breath, stood up and the pair made eye contact; neither willing to look away but neither willing to begin talking about what had just happened. It was Star who finally broke the silence.
"Marco, I'm so, so sorry."
"Star, I…"
She put up a finger to his lips, silencing him. "Shhhhhh… shush, shush, shush, Star's talking." He nodded wordlessly when she pulled her finger away. "You got hurt because of me. I thought something like this might happen some day and some part of me knew I needed to keep my distance from everyone, especially you but I just didn't want to be lonely and when you asked me out I was so happy and I… I…" Star began crying, wrapping her arms around herself as if to block what she was sure Marco's verbal assault would be. To her surprise, no angry words came. Instead, she felt an immense warmth as Marco wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tight. She instinctively nuzzled into him, enjoying the heat and the smell of him beneath the sweat and dirt of the fight.
"Star, I'm just glad… so, so, glad that you're alright. When those guys said they were after you, I didn't need to know what was going on. I didn't even need to think. I just knew that I would do whatever I had to too keep you safe. And… to be honest, I should be the one apologizing." Star pulled back from him, surprised. She made to protest that he had nothing to apologize for but this time Marco shushed her.
"I like you. I mean I really, really, like you. I've been wanting to ask you out for a while but I never thought I would be able to work up the courage. And then the guys started goading me and I panicked when you said yes. I thought this was a pity date so I didn't know what to say or how to act. And I can't speak French and I hate fish and I understand if you never want to talk to me again and…"
Marco trailed concerned as Star began shaking. Looking down he saw that she had one hand over her mouth, barely holding back her laughter as tears appeared at the corners of her eyes.
"What's so funny?" He asked.
With lightning speed, Star stood up on her tiptoes and placed a gentle kiss on Marco's cheek. "You are, you sweet, adorkable boy." She took a step away from him. "Marco, I've been crushing on you for the longest time!"
"Whaaaaaaaaa…."
"Yeah dummy. You're like, the smartest guy in school. You're sweet and considerate and hot, like really hot. And you can fight! Do you know how good you look fighting?! But you always seemed to keep me at arm's length and I thought that meant you didn't like me. I was actually going to ask you to the school dance in a couple months to test the waters, it was Jackie's idea. But then, well, you know what happened."
Marco was now blushing furiously, his mind totally overloaded by his longtime crush's declaration. "So… we could have been dating this whole time, essentially?"
"Yep!"
"But we were both too dense to approach the other?"
"Seems like it."
He looked over at her. "Mess up twins?" He joked.
"Mess up twins! Hugggggsssssss." Star wrapped him in a tight embrace, Marco gently returning the gesture as the two simply enjoyed the closeness they'd both been craving and yet had been too afraid to seek.
"Hey Star?" Marco asked a couple minutes later.
"Mhmm?"
"Not to ruin the moment here but uhhh… who, exactly, were those guys? And why were they after you?"
"Huh? Ohhhhhhh, right. Ludo. That guy. Okay, this is going to take some explaining." She broke their embrace and pointed back at her house. "So you can tell my family is sort of…" She struggled to find the right words.
"Loaded beyond all possible imagination?" Marco offered.
"Yeah, something like that. Anyway, my family comes from a long line of famous jewelers going back like, forever. I don't think anyone in the family has actually made anything or cut any gems for a few generations, but we still manage one of the largest collections of high end pieces and precious stones in the world, especially diamonds."
"That explains a lot. So Ludo was after you for what, ransom money?"
Star shook her head. "Remember when he said he was after me to get something that was rightfully his?" Marco nodded and Star reached into her shirt, pulling out what was on the end of the necklace she'd been wearing all night. Marco gasped when he saw it. On the other end was a single diamond nestled in a golden pendant. It wasn't the largest he'd seen compared to a few museum pieces and documentaries, but it was also unlike anything he'd seen before, the number of facets alone reflecting the light in a seemingly impossible constellation of rainbows.
"Beautiful…" Marco whispered.
"Yeah, it is." Star said while looking down at the gem with a mix of fondness and resentment. "This was the first diamond a member of the Butterfly family ever cut, going back to my, like, twenty times great grandma or something. One of her apprentices was a member of the Avarius family; they've been claiming for centuries that they really made this diamond and that we stole it from them. Ludo's just taken that claim to a whole new level apparently."
"Okay… so he was after the diamond, got it. But why do you have it? Shouldn't it be in a vault or something? I mean no offense but just leaving something that valuable with someone out in public where it can be stolen? It doesn't make much sense to me."
Star shrugged, "Maybe, but it's our family's prized treasure and it's a tradition. Every first-born daughter in the Butterfly family has worn this diamond until her daughter turns 14, then it gets passed to the next generation in whatever piece of jewelry they'd like. My mom had it set into a ring, I like necklaces. One of my grandmas even had it set into the pommel of a sword, how cool is that! But it's also supposed to teach us about responsibility and being an adult and all this other stuff mom is constantly lecturing me about, as if being a teenager wasn't hard enough."
Marco mulled that over. "So… what you're saying is I'll just have to pick somewhere safer for our second date? Maybe come prepared to be attacked?"
"Yeah that would make sense… wait!" Star looked up in surprise. "Second date!"
Marco blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, yeah. I mean, you didn't think a group of highly trained mercenaries attacking you regularly was going to keep me away, did you? We'll just chalk it up to one more unique thing about Star Butterfly."
A slow smile came over Star's face. Rushing forward, she barreled into Marco, throwing her arms around his neck while jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist. Marco caught her easily and began spinning her around until they were both dizzy and laughing.
Smirking, Star rested her forehead against Marco's, warm brown meeting crystal blue. "Gotta say Marco, never thought the safe kid would be bold enough to just outright declare there was going to be a second date. Sure you're not being a little presumptuous?"
Marco smirked right back. "I keep telling people, I'm a misunderstood bad boy."
Star's voice dropped to a sultry whisper. "And just how much of a bad boy are you?" Her eyes became half-lidded as she leaned in.
Marco followed suite, their lips meeting gently in their first kiss that quickly became more heated. When they broke apart both teens were flushed. "That answer your question?" Marco asked breathlessly.
Star seemed to consider it for a moment. "Hmmm, not sure. Mind running it by me one more time?"
As they leaned in for a second kiss however a thunderous roar was heard followed by a loud bang as the front door of Star's home exploded outward. Standing at the top of the walkway was a now murderous River. A murderous River who now had a clear view of Star still wrapped around Marco's waist.
"YOU DARE DEFILE MY PRECIOUS BABY GIRL?!" He screamed as he began hurtling down the driveway.
"Run?" Marco asked.
"I'll slow him down," Star said as she dropped down and gave him one more kiss on the cheek. "See you tomorrow… boyfriend."
Marco held a hand to his cheek, his mind and heart both soaring.
"MARCO DIAZZZZZZZZ!" Right, back to running. He didn't look back as he heard Star shout, "Sorry about this dad!" Followed by a loud thud and more shouting, choosing instead to run for his life.
He didn't stop running until he had made it back to the safety of his own front porch, relieved to see that River hadn't pursued him. Sitting down to catch his breath, Marco finally let himself replay all of tonight's moments, smiling wider and wider as he realized how crazy his life was probably about to become, and how much better it would absolutely be.
In the end, there was really only one thing to say. "Man, what a first date." Smiling and looking up at the stars twinkling overhead, Marco went back inside his house. He was going to need a good night's rest to get to school early tomorrow to meet his girlfriend after all.
Yes, what a first date indeed.
A/N: And that's a wrap! So first off let me apologize; due to some scheduling issues from each of us we had to push back the release date of our stories from the day before Thanksgiving to now. That being said, I sincerely hoped you liked this story as it was a ton of fun to write! Many thanks to LordCornwalis for coming up with the theme of this one-shot and for getting both RonaldReagan and myself involved in participating. Please make sure to go read their works as well if you haven't already. Again that's "Hours of the Labyrinth" for Ronald Reagan and "Gimmie a Break" for Lord Cornwalis. I've already started working on the next chapter of my fic, "My Life, My Kingdom, My War," so whether you're a fan of that one or haven't read it yet, expect an update before the end of the year there. And hey, feel free to fav, follow, or leave a review for this story and if you have an idea for another challenge, feel free to message Cornwalis, Regan or me, we just might take you up on it. Until next time everyone, stay classy.