As per his usual routine, Marco was the first to arrive to English class. He meticulously laid out his class materials on his desk, making sure he was prepared for any question Mrs. DePalma might ask about last night's reading assignment.

Last night's assignment...

He'd barely comprehended it. After yesterday's strange and terrifying events, which concluded with him thinking his best friend was gone forever, he couldn't concentrate on his homework. He was too busy listening for miscellaneous magical noises coming from Star's bedroom, just to make sure she was still there.

Being separated from her at school was no easier. He and Star didn't have identical schedules, so it was impossible for him to keep an eye on her (and make sure she didn't transform into a giant, purple bug again) all day. English was one class they didn't have together. Marco already expected he would have difficulty concentrating during this period.

"Hey there, Marco," said a sly voice.

He looked up to find Janna standing over his desk, a smug smile stretched over her face.

"Janna." Marco scowled, in no mood for her shenanigans. "What'd you steal from me this time?"

Janna feigned offense. "Me? Steal from you? Now why would I do that?"

Marco just growled under his breath as she took her seat in the desk beside him. The rest of the class was trickling in, a few students at a time.

"Hey, I wanted to ask you," Janna went on, "what was going on with Star yesterday?"

"Oh. Yesterday. Uh, she had-" Marco paused as he realized how ridiculous the word about to come out of his mouth probably sounded. "...'Mewberty.'"

"'Mewberty'?" Janna raised an eyebrow, deep in thought, reflecting on the events of the previous day at school. She hadn't been present for the entire incident, but, in addition to an earthmover-sized load of purple heart-shaped stickers covering the school, she thought she remembered seeing Star, in the form of a giant, purple, winged insect, zooming through the hall, dragging Marco along behind her as he tried to restrain her with a volleyball net. She couldn't be totally sure though, as she was busy feeding pudding to Glossaryck at the time. "Is that what it sounds like?"

"Um...probably not? She transformed into a giant, boy-obsessed moth or something and started throwing every boy in the school into jail cells she made out of a row of lockers and webs of sticky purple hearts that she shot out of her hands."

Janna smirked. "So it is exactly what it sounds like."

Marco rolled his eyes. "I'm just glad she turned back to normal and came back. When she lashed up Oskar's car and disappeared into the clouds, I thought she was gone and I'd never see her again." He fiddled with a pencil on his desk. "I was so relieved that she returned."

Janna's grin turned mischievous. "Yeah, I bet you were."

This earned another groan and scowl from Marco. He faced the front of the classroom just as the bell rang and the last few students arrived. Mrs. DePalma, however, was nowhere to be found. She must have been running late.

"Did you kiss her?"

The question came from so far out in left field that at first Marco didn't even realize that Janna was directing the question toward him. "Did...did I kiss who?"

"Um, Star? Who else?"

Marco was shocked. "What?!" he yelped, trying to keep his voice down so that the idly chatting students around him would not overhear.

"You heard me."

"Why would you even ask that?"

"Um, because you were happy she came back? And you wanted to show her how much you care?" Janna said, as if it should have been completely obvious.

Marco was used to being annoyed and creeped out by Janna, but this was a completely different spectrum of weird than her usual brand of Jannaness. "Janna, you and I have known each other since preschool. You know I've had a crush on Jackie for years! Star is my best friend. Why would I have kissed her?"

Janna shrugged. "I don't know. Just think you should have."

Marco opened his mouth to reply, but the sound of the classroom door closing cut him off. Mrs. DePalma had finally arrived. Class began, and Marco turned his focus over to the day's lesson in English literature.

But, in the back of his mind, Janna's strange inquiry still swirled around like a swarm of angry bees that he simply could not push away. When the bell rang to signal that class was over, Marco bolted from his desk and out the door, just wanting to put some distance between himself and Janna before she had a chance to continue her earlier line of questioning. He hurried to his locker to put away his school materials before heading to lunch.

"Don't listen to her, Diaz," he muttered under his breath as he deposited his books into his locker a bit more roughly than usual. "Just forget all about it."

"Hey, Marco!" greeted the familiar, cheerful and bubbly voice of his best friend. Closing his locker door, he was greeted by the sight of Star's cheerfully smiling face on the other side. He breathed a sigh of relief at the lack of purple heart-shaped stickers on her face. "Ready for lunch?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," he replied, his tone still laced with annoyance. "Let's go."

Star raised an eyebrow. "You okay? You sound...ticked."

Oh, nothing, Star, Janna was just suggesting that I should have kissed you yesterday. Yeah. I'm sure that would go over well. "Oh, uh, nothing. I, uh, just got a writing assignment back in English last period and I got points taken off for a really stupid grammar mistake that I can't believe I missed," he lied.

"Oh. Well, don't beat yourself up about it, Marco. Everyone makes mistakes! I do it allllll the time," Star said encouragingly. "Now, c'mon! I heard the cafeteria has tater tots today! Some crispy cylinders of grated potato will cheer you up!"

Marco chuckled. "I do enjoy tater tots."

They strolled through the hallways of Echo Creek Academy, Star waving and enthusiastically greeting everyone they passed. Her cheerfulness was contagious, and Marco soon found himself feeling more upbeat. Unfortunately, any positivity he had gleaned vanished the instant he and Star entered the cafeteria and he spotted Janna waiting for them at their usual table.

Awwwwwwwwwcrud.

After buying their lunches, the pair joined their mutual friend. Marco was careful to make sure Star sat in the middle between he and Janna. He remained solemnly quiet, shoveling tater tots into his mouth as Star excitedly told Janna about a new spell she was working on.

"Mrs. Diaz bought this stuff you put on ice cream that's called 'chocolate shell.' It's like chocolate syrup, but it hardens into solid chocolate candy! It's so good! And it gave me a great idea for a new spell! It's called 'Chocolate Shell Super-Soaker!' It blasts out a high-powered beam of liquid chocolate powerful enough to knock a monster backwards, and it sticks to them so that when it hardens, they get trapped by chocolate!"

"Cool. You try it out yet?"

"Not yet. Ludo hasn't tried to steal my wand since I thought of it. Besides, I haven't decided yet if the wand motion should be more like this-" Star picked up her wand from the table and gave it a flourishing wave. "-Or more like this!" She twirled it around again, this time ending with both hands on her wand handle and holding it straight out in front of her. A pressurized stream of chocolate suddenly blasted from the crystal and soared through the air, arcing over the entire cafeteria before plunging back toward the floor, where it collided with the lunch monitor...Miss Skullnick. The troll was knocked flat on her back by the blast.

"Princess!"

Janna calmly took a bite of a her sandwich. "Definitely the second one."

"Miss Skullnick, I'm so sorry!" Star cried as she rushed across the cafeteria to the teacher's aid. The chocolate had already hardened, Skullnick's limbs pinned to the linoleum floor. She struggled to free herself, but couldn't get the leverage required to break through the inch-thick layer of solidified chocolate.

Marco sighed. "Guess Star's gonna be in detention for...forever."

From their seats across the room, he and Janna watched as Star tried to free Miss Skullnick using magic, only to discover that magically produced chocolate seemed to be impervious to further magical transmogrification.

"Hmm...didn't know that was a thing," Star muttered. "Uh, okay! Not a problem!" She held up her wand and it transformed in a comically-large lavender sledgehammer adorned with pink hearts. "I'll just break the chocolate apart with this to get you out!"

"NO!" Skullnick yelled. "Do not hit me with a sledgehammer!"

Marco lowered his eyes. "Oh, boy."

"You should kiss her."

Marco slowly rotated his head to look at Janna through narrowed eyes. "Excuse me?"

"You should kiss her."

Marco threw up his arms in exasperation. "Why, Janna? Why are you so adamant that I kiss Star?"

Janna shrugged. "I don't know. Just kinda seems like something you should do."

"That's not a reason."

"Pfft. Of course it is. It's a great reason."

The revving of a high-pitched two-stroke engine and a high-pitched scream suddenly reached their ears from across the cafeteria. Marco looked back toward where Star was trying to assist Miss Skullnick. The princess had used her wand to conjure a floating pink chainsaw with oversized teeth. Skullnick was screaming in terror for her to stop.

Marco quickly stood from the table. "I'd better go help before Star accidentally kills Miss Skullnick. But before I do..." He put both palms on the table and leaned in close to Janna's face. "...We're going to end this conversation right now. Never mind the fact that I have a crush on Jackie, Star is my best friend. It would be so awkward! I mean, she lives with me! If I kissed her, she might not even want to be friends anymore!"

"But what if she wants you to kiss her?"

"She doesn't."

"But what if she does?"

"She doesn't!"

"But what if she does?"

"She has a thing for Oskar!"

"Maybe she's just pretending to make you jealous."

Marco was becoming very annoyed. He leaned even closer to his friend's face. "Janna. Read my lips."

She grinned mischievously. "Gladly."

Marco ignored her. "I will never. Never ever. Ever. Kiss Star."

"I can't. Believe. I kissed. Star."

Marco whispered the words to himself for the umpteenth time as he lay awake in the dark, staring at the ceiling in his bedroom. After taking Kelly home from Ruberiot and Foolduke's wedding reception and returning Nachos to the Neverzone, he snuck into Butterfly Castle and up to his bedroom as quietly as possible. He felt extremely embarrassed, gripped by an unshakable feeling of guilt, and, despite Star actually being pretty cool and understanding about the whole situation, he was terrified that things would never be the same between him and his best friend. If this ruined their friendship he would never forgive himself.

But there was something even worse still that was weighing on his mind just as heavily, and making him feel even guiltier still. Marco's tongue slowly traced over the edges of his mouth, the taste of Star's lips still lingering on his own. It was such a light and gentle kiss compared to any time he had kissed Jackie, and yet...somehow...it just felt...more correct. Sure, immediately afterward he felt unparalleled levels of embarrassment. But in the moment, for those precious few seconds that his lips made contact with Star's, it felt to Marco like the most natural thing in the world.

And he hated that. He hated that he liked it. He hated that he wanted to kiss her again. He hated that the kiss happened at all, without telling Star of his plan to free them from what they both thought was a magic photo booth, which he felt was a huge betrayal of her trust. And he hated that he had also betrayed Tom. Much as it pained him to see Star with the demon prince, Tom was his friend, too, and Marco didn't want to hurt him any more than he wanted to hurt Star.

Not to mention that Tom had a history of anger management issues and the ability to shoot fire.

And meanwhile, as all these thoughts swirled around in Marco's mind, making him feel guilty and embarrassed beyond belief, the words that Tad had said to him at the Soulrise were repeating over and over his mind: "You have feelings for your best friend, Dude."

Well, if I didn't before, I definitely do now.

Marco groaned mournfully and pulled his pillow over his face. "I can't. Believe. I kissed. Star." He moaned again and tossed the pillow to the floor. He pulled himself up to a sitting position. "What am I gonna do?" he whispered to himself. "I wish I had someone to talk to..." Normally, the only person he'd ever want to talk to about his most awkward and dire secrets was Star, but that wasn't exactly an option at the moment.

Pulling his phone from his pocket (which he was amazed actually worked on Mewni) he scrolled through his contacts.

"Alfonzo...Ferguson...no. Dad...doubt he'd understand. Tom...I wish I could call Tom. He'd actually probably give good advice." His eyes briefly drifted over to his bedside table, where his dimensional scissors lay waiting. "Hmmm...Heckapoo? Not sure if I can actually trust her to keep a secret or not..." Marco looked back at his phone. He'd accidentally scrolled down further to a contact that read: J.O. RUReallySureUWant2CallThis#?

Marco stared at the contact name for a long time before almost subconsciously tapping the call button with his thumb and putting the phone to his ear. "I must be completely out of my mind."

The phone rang twice...three times...four...five. Marco lowered the phone and was about to hang up when he suddenly saw the call timer appear and begin counting up. He quickly put it back to his ear.

"Marco?" came a sleepy yawn.

"Hi, uh...Janna."

"Marco, I'm assuming it's the same time on Mewni as it is in Echo Creek."

"Uh...yeah. It is...sorry. I...I can call back in the morning."

"It *is* morning, Marco."

Marco looked at the clock on the wall. It's hands read 3:43.

"Oh. Yeah. I guess it is."

"Dude, are you okay? You sound really down."

Marco sighed. "No...not really. That's...kinda why I called."

Janna's tired voice somewhat perked up. "You wanna talk about it?"

"I do...but..."

"Your secret is safe with me, Marco. Unless I need to blackmail you at some point."

Yup. Same old Janna. He took a deep breath and proceeded to lay out the whole story of being held captive in the not-actually-magic photo booth, his talk with Star, and the ensuing final strip of photos. "I thought I knew what the booth wanted before it would let us go, so...I...I kissed Star."

"Called it."

"Wha-?! Whatdya mean, 'called it'?!"

"I told you to kiss Star last year, remember? You said you never would. Very emphatically, I might add. But I knew you would eventually. Good job, Diaz."

"No! No! Not good job, Diaz! I mean, Star isn't my girlfriend or even single! It's a huge betrayal of her trust, and Tom's!"

"But dude. You were being held captive by a magic photo booth."

"Well, the booth repair guy told us it was magic, but it was actually just him holding us captive because he said we..." Marco swallowed uncomfortably. "...looked...like...we...'needed a smooch'."

"So kissing Star did actually get you out? That is hilarious. But tomato, potato."

"That's not...not how that saying works."

Marco could almost hear Janna rolling her eyes at him. "Whatever. The point is, you had a good, necessary reason. I mean, if, for example, you and I were trapped in an enchanted shipping container and the only way out was for you to kiss me, I know you would."

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...suurrrrrrrrrrrre." Um, no, I'm pretty sure we would die in there.

"Exactly." Marco thought it sounded like Janna was trying to stifle a laugh. "It was basically life or death."

"...I mean...I guess so..." Marco sighed. "I just...I hope this isn't going to ruin our friendship. I honestly...don't know what I'd do without Star. My life would...feel pretty empty."

"Well, what did Star say afterwards?"

"She was...actually amazingly cool with it."

"See? I mean, just like you said, Star is your best friend. If anyone in the multiverse would be cool with a surprise kiss to escape a life-or-death situation, it's her. Honestly, I doubt you have to worry."

"You think?"

"Totally."

"Huh." Marco considered Janna's words for a moment. "I guess you might be right."

"I'm always right."

Her confident answer actually made Marco smile, if only for a short moment. "I still feel guilty, though."

"You don't have a reason to, Dude."

"Well, except...maybe I do. A different reason."

"...which is...?"

Marco nervously bit his lip, unsure if he should tell Janna this part. "I...uh...I..."

"You want to do it again, don't you?"

The silence before Marco replied stretched on for so long that Janna was beginning to wonder if the call had been dropped. "...yes."

"Not surprised."

"You're not?"

"Marco, do you love Star?"

The question took Marco completely by surprise. "I-I-I-I, uh, well, I-I, uh, um-"

"And there you go."

Marco covered his eyes with his forearm. "What am I gonna do? Do you think I'm a bad person?"

Janna didn't answer right away. "I think Star is lucky to have you for a best friend and doesn't even realize just how lucky she is."

Marco certainly wasn't expecting to hear that, especially from Janna of all people.

"Look, Star had feelings for you when she lived with you on Earth. She told you, and, you know, everyone that was at your house that night, as much. I think when you went home again after you helped her defeat Toffee and she thought she'd never see you again, she was really broken up inside. I think she found some comfort in the familiarity of Tom and he filled the void that you left when you went home. But Tom is...he's like a puzzle piece that's the right color and close enough in shape that you can force it together and maybe even think it's the right piece, but it doesn't quite fit and it never will. He may be the object of Star's affection right now, but he'll never be her best friend. Because that's you. And it'll always be you."

Marco was stunned beyond words. This was a side of Janna he had never experienced or even knew existed. But...he wasn't so sure she was right.

"Now, if you don't mind," Janna went on, "I would really like to go back to sleep."

"Oh, uh, right. Um...thanks...Janna."

"Anytime. Unless it's the middle of the night. Then no."

Marco rubbed the back of his neck. "Haha, yeah. Sorry for waking you."

"Goodnight, Marco."

"Goodnight, uh, Janna..."

The phone clicked as Janna disconnected on her end and Marco slumped over onto his back. Janna had certainly helped him to feel less guilty, but he wasn't quite sure that she was correct about Star and Tom's relationship.

"I can't just wait around hoping that Star suddenly decides she had feelings for me again," he whispered to himself. "It would make me miserable. Besides, right now, Tom makes her happy...and she makes him happy." Marco sat up. He spotted his pillow on the floor and slowly climbed out of bed to retrieve it. "Okay," he said to himself as he climbed under the covers once more. "That's it. Sweeping declaration time! Even if it is a life or death situation, I will never, never ever kiss Star Butterfly again. The only way our lips will ever touch is if she kisses me." He laid down and closed his eyes, hoping that he would finally be able to fall asleep. "Yeah. If Star kisses me. Like that would ever happen."

Wow. Never thought that would ever happen.

Marco thought this to himself as he and Star walked hand-in-hand back to Monster Temple from the pig-goat barn. His best friend gazed at him with a loving smile, and he looked back with the goofiest, dopiest, involuntary grin he had ever had in his life.

"Marco...I want you to love me...because I love you."

Those were the words she had spoken to him just two minutes earlier, words that Marco didn't think would ever come from Star's melodious vocal chords, just a few moments after she asked a question he never thought he'd hear.

"Okay, can we kiss?"

The time that elapsed between those two sentences felt like both an eternity and a fraction of a second, as the best friends shared the deepest, most loving kiss Marco had ever experienced. It was an experience he had tried so hard not to daydream about, a struggle ever since he had kissed Star in the photo booth. In the time since that incident, he'd had a little casual-ish thing with Kelly that eased the hurt for the little bit, and a broken curse that he was sure would put an end to his feelings for good. But, his relationship with Kelly quickly began to hurt more than it helped, either because of or in spite of the Blood Moon Curse, so Marco had been forced to end it. As for the curse itself, once it was lifted, Marco realized that his feelings for Star had been a double-whammy all along, having formed on their own and then overlapped with a supernatural bond.

But all of that was passed. There was nothing left to sway his feelings. No more curse, no more "breakup-buddies", and no more triangle after Tom realized that, despite how badly he wanted to make it work, he and Star just weren't the right match. And, best of all, this time, it was Star bestowing a real, non-circumstance-driven kiss on him, because she genuinely wanted to and for no other reason.

"So," he asked as they approached the the Monster Temple, "Are we...more than besties now?"

Star giggled. "I hope so!"

Marco squeezed her hand, staring into Star's eyes with reverence. "Sounds good to me...girlfriend?"

More giggles from Star. "Okay, boyfriend."

Marco couldn't help himself. As they reached the bottom of the Monster Temple stairs, he pulled Star into a tight hug, and she quite enthusiastically reciprocated, nestling her head under his chin. Marco didn't bother asking this time. He pulled her headband off to avoid being jabbed in the jaw by the plastic horns and held her tightly, nuzzling into her soft hair with his chin.

For that moment, the ensuing danger of attack by Mina and her Solarian Warriors was briefly forgotten. Star and Marco were overjoyed. At last, at the tail end of so much emotional turmoil, this would finally be their happy ending. It was only a brief reprieve, but for just a few moments, nothing in the world mattered, and nothing again would ever have to come between them...

...for about an hour and a half, when the newly minted couple were forced to say a very painful and expectedly permanent goodbye as the Realm of Magic collapsed around them.

"You have to go back through the Earth Well!"

"Yeah, okay, but what's the plan for seeing each other? There's a plan, right?"

"Uh...yeah! Yeah! Of course! Of course there's a plan! But you gotta get going before we get stuck here!"

She put her hand on his shoulder, and as she did so, Marco could see the tears welling up in the corners of his best friend's vibrant blue eyes. "Star?"

Star threw her arms around his midsection, sniffling as she hugged him desperately.

There is no plan, Marco realized. If there's no magic, there's no portals, and without portals...there's no Star...

Marco closed his eyes and lowered his arms, gently cradling Star's head as she pressed her ear to his chest, trying to commit the sound of his heartbeat to memory. The turbulence of the crumbling dimension drove the dead magic into swirling waves around them as the best friends spent one last moment together.

This is the end... Marco thought. The end of the magic...and the end of us...

They reluctantly parted, each taking one last look into the tear-filled eyes of the one they loved so dearly. The words they wished they could say in that moment could have filled an entire library. But the time could not be spared. Nothing either could think to say seemed right, and they were too choked up for any long speeches.

"Bye, Star..." was all Marco could manage.

"Bye..."

Marco forced himself to turn away and run to the Earth Well, sloshing through the swells of dead magic. His heart felt as though it had been forcibly torn in two, the wound from the purple unicorn's horn in his stomach aching as he forced himself to push forward. The Earth Well was not far. The pile of garbage they had thrown down from the basement of Britta's Tacos now lay at his feet in the bottom of the magic waterfall.

Well...this is it...

But Marco could not bring himself to take that last step. He pictured his mom, his dad, his baby sister at home, waiting for him on Earth. He thought of Ferguson, Alfonzo, Jackie, Sensei...

And Star...

Star...his best friend. The one he spent so long pining for, for whom his heart was filled to bursting with so much love. Since the day they met, he never again wanted to imagine his life without her in it. And now, after finally confessing their feelings for each other...

...he could not, would not, live without her.

"I'm sorry..." Marco whispered.

The Earth Well closed. There was no turning back now. Marco spun on his heel and ran toward the Mewni portal.

He didn't make it. The well closed. His already broken heart sank. He was stuck between worlds.

But then, like his guardian angel come back to rescue him, Star was suddenly there, rushing to him, sinking to her knees before him, holding onto his shoulders and looking into his eyes.

They were trapped. The magic was gone, the portals were gone. There was no way out of the realm. Star and Marco had succeeded in stopping Mina and her warriors by destroying the magic, saving all of Mewni from her insidious plans, but now they would now be casualties of their own plan.

They didn't care. They hugged each other tightly.

"...Because with or without magic..."

"...we belong together."

As Star and Marco clung to each other for dear life in the churning swirls of dead magic, Marco had one last thought as he shut his eyes and prepared for the end.

If this is the end...at least I'm with Star. No matter what, there's no other person in the multiverse I'd rather be with...

Several years later...

Yup...definitely no one anywhere I'd rather be with.

But man, does she ever run out of energy?

Marco slumped heavily into his chair behind the big table at the head of the room. Exhausted from dancing with his new bride, he was in desperate need of a breather and a cold drink. Thankfully, the waitstaff at the wedding reception refilled the water goblets on every table quite persistently, and he had a fresh, icy glass waiting for him. Putting the glass to his parched lips, he closed his eyes and downed the entire contents. When he finished, he was startled to find Janna sitting right next to him in Star's designated seat.

"Ya! Janna!" he cried in surprise.

"I'm proud of you, Diaz," she said with a smirk, ignoring his startled outburst. "You finally tied the knot. Been waiting for this for ages."

Marco gave a nervous chuckle. "Well, you know how it is. Bride and groom say they're going to plan wedding together, bride gets annoyed by how groom has gone from meticulous planning to over-worrying and taking way too long to make any decisions, groom drags out the planning for an entire year stressing over making every little detail perfect..." Marco watched Star happily dancing with Pony Head and Jackie on the dance floor in the middle of the grand dining hall of Monster Temple, still stunned by just how beautiful she looked in her wedding gown. The dining hall had been completely redecorated for the wedding, and it was jam-packed to capacity with friends and family. "...Bride decides she's done planning and is ready to be married now and sets up the whole thing without telling the groom and, well, honestly saves the groom a whole heck of a lot of anxiety," he finished with a chuckle.

Janna rolled her eyes. She had been listening to Star complain about Marco micromanaging the wedding for over a year since the couple were engaged. It was the only time Janna could think of that Star had had anything worth complaining about on the subject of her long-time romantic partner. "Yeah, you sure know how to take wedding planning to an annoyingly cautious level and make everyone wait around for forever."

"Yeah, sorry." Marco leaned back in his chair and took a few deep breaths, still winded from dancing with his bride for such a long, uninterrupted period of time. "Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without Star sometimes."

"You could have been here a lot sooner, you know."

"I know, I know, I changed the wedding date four times."

"That's not what I meant."

Marco raised a quizzical eyebrow. "What did you mean?"

Janna laced her fingers behind her head and leaned backwards in her chair. "Your whole relationship with Star could have started a year and a half earlier. But you didn't listen to me."

"...Janna, what the heck are you talking about?"

"You don't remember? It was the day after Star went through Mewberty. You got really mad at me."

"Why, what did you steal from me?"

"Your birth certificate. But that was later in the day and you didn't find out about it for a week. This was at lunch time."

Marco thought hard for a moment, the jaunty party music echoing through the hall making concentration difficult. "Uhhhhh...?"

Janna shook her head in disappointment. "I told you to kiss Star."

The memory came flooding back. "Ohhhhhh."

"But you didn't listen to me. Just think how much sooner you two could have gotten together."

"Yeah, but I never would have done it. I had a crush on Jackie, remember? There's no way I ever even would have wanted to!"

"Whatever, Dude. I knew it was the right thing, whether it was what you wanted at the time or not."

The sound of wooden chair legs on the hard stone floor behind him made Marco turn around. Star was coming along the backside of the table, having to push chairs out of the way to make room for her wedding gown to pass between the table and the wall. "Hey! Whatcha guys talking about back here?" She kissed Marco on the temple before sinking into the chair beside him.

"Nothing," Marco said curtly.

Janna, on the other hand, had no qualms about filling her in. "I was just reminding Marco that I told him he should kiss you when we were 14, right after you went through Mewberty." She folded her arms. "But, obviously, he didn't listen to me."

Star's eyes went wide. "Marco! Why didn't you listen to Janna?! You totally should have kissed me!"

"Wha- bu- I- Star, you know I had a crush on Jackie! And you swooned so hard every time you saw Oskar that you had trouble staying upright!"

"Well, yeah, okay, but Marco, you were still my best friend and even back then I thought you were cute. If you had kissed me, I would have been, like, all about that! Just think how much drama we could have avoided!"

Marco slowly turned back to Janna, his eyes narrowed. "Thanks for the advice,Janna."

She casually picked up her glass and took a swig, feeling quite pleased with herself. "Any time, Marco. Any time."

A long time ago, in a fandom not so far away, a young high school-aged fanfiction writer (who was me) started a story called "Don't Deny It and other short Phineabella Stories", containing a myriad of mostly-unrelated Phineas x Isabella stories from the world of Phineas and Ferb. Ever since I began writing Star Vs The Forces Of Evil fanfiction, I've been wanting to start a similar collection of short stories about my OTP to end all OTP's, Star and Marco, but I wanted to focus my time on writing my *FANFICTION MASTERPIECE* that is "Star (Wars) Vs The Forces of Evil", a crossover that you can probably figure out from the title. Recently, however, I realized that I often need a break from working on that story and inspiration for short Starco fics strikes fairly often. So, I'm starting up this story as a place to post the short stories I write when I need a break from writing S(W)VTFOE. It will be updated at no particular interval, just whenever inspiration strikes. Length may range anywhere from a few hundred words to two or three chapters. Some stories may be related to each other, in which case I will inform you of such in the author's note. Most of them will probably be post-Cleaved, it just so happens that the first two take place during the show. Most of the stories will be very light and fluffy and Disney-friendly, but I'm almost positive thatat some point the rating will be changed to "T" because I'm sure some chapters will take place when our beloved little beans are, you know, more grown up, and may contain some more...um..."adult themes."(But nothing graphic.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this first tale. The next chapter (which will be a really, really short little blurb of a story) will be posted in a couple days because I already wrote it, so give this story a follow so you'll know when it's up. And if you'd care to leave a review, I would appreciate it very much. I love hearing from my readers.

See you soon!