Do you like fluff? Because this story is PURE 100% GRADE-A NOT-FROM-CONCENTRATE FLUFF.

Remember when I said I wrote a lot of Phineas and Ferb fanfiction back in the day? In a lot of those stories, particularly the ones I deleted, there were a lot, and I mean a lot, of real-life cars. (Phineas had a 1970 Ford Torino that still appears in some of the stories that I didn't delete.) When I started writing SVTFOE fanfiction, I said "No more of that. It's wrong to have IRL brands in fanfiction, and no one read my old stories because they had cars in them, anyway."

Well, I broke down and gave in. This story has a real car in it. Because it's a car I recently purchased and it's unexpectedly fun.

This is a combination of two concepts that I've been trying to figure out how to make work for a long time, and as it turned out, the answer was to just combine them.

Star and Marco are like 18 here.

The sky through the windshield of the car turned progressively orange as the sun sank, transforming the heavens of the late summer evening into a water-color painting of pinks and yellows and blues. Star rested her chin on her outstretched arm as she held her hand out the window. The air rushing past blew her lengthy mane of blonde hair wildly, and she was thankful to have her ever-present horn headband to help hold at least some of it in place.

Star turned her head to the driver beside her. Noticing her gaze upon him, Marco briefly took his eyes off the road and flashed her a happy smile. The evening sunlight bathed her boyfriend in a warm glow, and Star gave a contented sigh as her heart melted. Despite four years having passed since her crush on him developed, and almost three since they'd become a couple, whenever Marco smiled at her just like that, she got (semi-ironic) butterflies in her stomach. Star felt her cheeks grow warm as she blushed, still feeling like a little kid hiding a secret crush.

Once more leaning on her outstretched arm, Star held her hand out flat, slowly twitching her fingers up and down and altering the way the air passed over and between them. It tickled the skin on the backside of her fingers, reminiscent of the way it felt to wield magic without the use of the wand.

Magic.

As far as Star was concerned, those five letters were a dirty word. She hated that she used to rely on that power which had caused so much destruction so heavily, back when she was a princess.

And she technically never was a princess, either. That was a title she was happily rid of.

As far as Star was concerned, she was pretty fortunate. Earth and Mewni had combined together, the magic was gone, and she was no longer destined to become queen. Now, she was just Star, free to do whatever she desired with her life in this world that had combined both her native home and Marco's.

What exactly did she want to do? Star hadn't really figured that out. Yet. But she did know one thing. Until she did, she was perfectly happy just being...Marco's. As far as she was concerned, so long as they were together, everything would work out. It always it.

She snuck a peak over at Marco behind the wheel again. An air of calm confidence emanated from her boyfriend as he lightly gripped the steering wheel with both hands, keeping a close watch on his mirrors as well as the road ahead.

Marco had resisted getting a car for a long time, confident that he would find Nachos sooner or later (or that Nachos would find him). But, when he began college and his beloved Dragoncycle had still not turned up, Marco needed transportation, so he broke down and bought a car.

It wasn't anything fancy. His monthly $650 royalty checks from his Princess Turdina merchandise went a long way toward paying for college, but didn't leave him with much of a budget for transportation. A 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 purchased for $1,000 was about the best he could do. After a few hundred dollars more in parts and a little TLC courtesy of Janna, the little 2-door sport coupe was mechanically sound once again. It's faded green paint and peeling clear coat didn't turn any heads, but it got over thirty miles to the gallon, the 5-speed manual made it pretty fun to drive, it was a breeze to park, and, perhaps most importantly, Star thought the tiny little car was adorable.

As he watched the mostly-empty four lane state highway fly by, Marco felt the unmistakable feeling of eyes upon him. Without turning his head, he glanced slightly to the right and saw Star shyly staring at him while trying to make it appear as though her gaze were affixed anywhere else. He chuckled to himself, wondering if Star had covertly stared at him like that when she'd secretly had a crush on him and he just never noticed, and wondered further still why she did so now even though they'd been a couple for nearly three years.

So, without taking his eyes off the road, Marco reached over and gave his girlfriend a playful shove. Star fully turned toward him, and Marco winked at her. She giggled and punched him in the arm.

The traffic light at an intersection ahead in the distance changed from green to yellow, so Marco let off the accelerator and pressed in the clutch, giving the accelerator a tap to raise the RPM's as he downshifted into fourth gear and smoothly let out the clutch.

As the little ZX2 decelerated, the light jab of a finger in his side caught Marco's attention. He he glanced at Star and found her smiling at him suggestively, waggling her eyebrows as her pupils flickered back and forth between Marco's gaze and the gear shifter. He responded with a good-natured eye roll and acquiesced her silent request, grasping the gear selector as he downshifted again. This time skipping over third gear and going back down into second, he slapped the gas pedal to properly rev-match. The tachometer needle shot up to five-thousand RPM's, the 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine screaming as it revved high, slowly dropping back down as it helped brake the car.

Star loved it. The ZX2's rusty muffler had a hole in it, and revving the engine high made it sound like a race car. She mimicked the sound of the engine with her lips, and Marco smiled, glad that she was enjoying herself.

Marco braked the little ZX2 to a halt at the traffic light and put the transmission in neutral. Now safely halted, he looked over at his girlfriend and found her smoothing out her wind-blown blonde mess and draping it over her right shoulder. When she noticed him gazing at her, Star shyly brushed a lock of hair behind her ear before they locked eyes. She watched as Marco bounced his eyebrows up and down a few times, smirking mischievously. He watched as her shy expression almost imperceptibly changed, and Marco knew she got the message.

It was on.

The couple lunged toward each other, meeting in the middle above the gear shifter, throwing their arms around each other as their lips collided, each running their fingers through the other's hair as they proceeded to make out as if it were the end of the world. It was their favorite way to kill time waiting out a red light.

Presently, the sound of an impatient car horn interrupted their mad display of affection. The traffic light had turned green and they were holding up the car behind them. They quickly released each other, and Marco slammed the shifter into first gear and took off, the taste of Star's sweet kiss lingering on his lips.

The little two-door Ford Escort didn't have as much horsepower as modern four-cylinder cars, but it was so light that it could still accelerate hard enough to be fun. Star threw her hands in the air, right arm out the window, left through the open sunroof, squealing with delight as Marco held his foot nearly to the floor, holding each gear until the tachometer nearly reached redline. He let off when the car hit the 60mph speed limit, and Star pulled her arms back inside the car.

Looking over at Marco, the rays of the setting sun still bathing him in a warm glow, Star swooned. That dorky safe kid who so desperately wanted to be the bad boy had grown into a brave, caring, and loyal young man...who still managed to adhere to the rules while having fun. Her heart swelled with affection for him, and she desperately wished they could resume their abrupt but very heated make-out session. Sadly, the next two traffic lights were green, and they passed through without stopping. Star's craving for romantic affection became progressively more unbearable, and she jittered in her seat as she fought the very dangerous urge to grab Marco by the cheeks and pull his mouth to hers.

The sinking sun had nearly vanished completely, the sky turning violet as it sank below the horizon. Marco flicked on the headlights. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Star's anxious bouncing. Her expression was one he was quite familiar with: Nervously biting her lip, her vibrant blue eyes pleading with him. Star always looked like that when she desperately wanted his affection but they were in a setting where such an interaction would be wholly inappropriate. Or, as in this case, dangerous.

But Marco had learned a trick or two in three years of dating his best friend. Still keeping his eyes on the road, he slowly reached over and gently touched Star's bare arm. Her jitters ceased as she followed Marco's fingers tracing down her arm to her wrist. Even after all the time they'd been together, the way he touched her when he was being romantic gave her goosebumps. Star turned her palm up to greet him as he reached her hand, and Marco responded by sliding his digits between hers.

Their fingers intertwined between them, they simultaneously met the other's eyes. Marco gave his girlfriend a warm smile as he squeezed her hand, Star involuntarily grinning from ear to ear. She giggled softly as he winked at her before turning his gaze back to the road.

Star leaned back in the seat again, holding her free hand out the window as she watched fields of Mewni corn beside the road fly past. It suddenly occurred to her that neither she nor Marco had spoken a single word in quite some time, and yet they had communicated quite a bit simply by reading the other's expression.

I guess that's what it's like when you're in love with your best friend, Star thought to herself as she felt the cool evening air rush between her fingers. When you're that in-sync...words just aren't required.