January 13, 2022

5 months and 4 days after Star and Marco's two-year anniversary

Marco's mind drifted back and forth between waking up and falling back asleep. He knew he should get out of bed soon. He knew he had to get out of bed soon. He knew there were dire consequences for not getting out of bed soon.

But whenever he felt like getting up, his eyes returned to the sight of a sleeping Star cuddled against him. One of her arms had found its way under his shoulders while the other was across his chest. Her head rested under the crook of Marco's left arm. The rest of her nude body was curled against his equally-unclothed form as closely as Mewmanly possible.

"I can get used to this," Marco thought.

Granted, the previous night wasn't the first time that he and Star made love, and the morning was far from the first time that the two had cuddled. But it was the first time that those two experiences occurred back-to-back. Instead of sneaking away for an hour or so, the two of them got to enjoy a full night together.

Marco wanted to bask in that feeling as long as he could, but he knew the moment couldn't last forever. He needed to get Star back to 'her' room - the Diaz guest room - before his parents woke up. If they saw Star sleeping in his bed, things would get awkward. And if they saw Star in his bed in her current state of undress, awkward would merely be a best-case scenario.

Marco reluctantly reached over to the table next to his bed, grabbed his phone, and brought it to life with a swipe of a finger. He was immediately greeted with the current time.

7:52am

Crap.

Crap crap crap.

This was bad. Very very bad.

Marco quickly shook himself fully awake and focused on his phone. He pulled up his list of alarms to see if he had set one for 6:45 like he thought he did. He briefly wondered if he had somehow slept through it, or if there was a shift in Daylight Saving Time that he forgot to account for, or if the phone had simply glitched out. When he finally got to the list, he saw that the alarm was still active and set to go off in... 10 hours and 53 minutes.

He had somehow set the alarm for 6:45pm.

Crapcarapcrapcrapcrap.

This was exactly what he was afraid of when Star showed up at his bedroom door the previous night. One of Mina Loveberry's prominent anti-Monster followers made a scene at City Hall earlier in the day. Star was initially able to brush off their actions, but with nothing else to think of at the end of the day, all of her thoughts turned towards whether she was really making a positive difference in the newly-merged world.

Despite his fears about getting caught by his parents, Marco invited her into his room on two conditions: that things would not progress any further than cuddling, and that Star would wake up early enough to sneak back into the guest room before his parents woke up. The first condition was quickly discarded without protest from either partner, but that was no problem. The breaking of the second condition, however, was a BIG problem.

Marco turned towards his girlfriend and shook her shoulder. "Star," he whispered harshly. "Staaaaaar..."

Star shifted slightly in her sleep but made no real motion to get up. "Mmmmmmm five more minutes," she grumbled.

"No more minutes." Marco struggled to keep his voice at a whisper. "You need to get up. Now."

Star tightened her grip around Marco and pulled herself closer to him. "But you're so coooomfyyyy."

Marco willed himself to fight off the desire to slip into Star's embrace. A short cleansing breath allowed him to refocus on the problem at hand. "Star, it's almost eight."

Star's eyes shot open in panic.

Crapcarapcrapcrapcrap.

Star quickly untangled herself from Marco and dove towards a pile of discarded clothes beside the bed. She found their underwear bunched together. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she tucked her bra and panties under her arm. She grabbed Marco's boxers and tossed them to him. "I screwed up."

"You're not the one who screwed up," he whispered back as he snatched his underwear. "I set the alarm wrong." Once he was no longer comes nude, he walked over to where Star was, grabbed the remainder of the clothing pile, and tossed it onto the bed. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" Star asked as she grabbed the shirt Marco threw at her. "I'm the one that talked you into it."

Marco pulled up his pajama pants and pulled the shirt over his head. "But I'm the one who said they'd set their alarm."

Star pulled up her sleep shorts and gave Marco a wry grin. "I guess that means we're still mess-up twins."

Marco chuckled slightly. "I guess so."

Star shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe we lucked out and your parents are still asleep."

Marco shook his head. "I doubt it." He turned towards the bedroom door and walked over to it. He cupped his right hand behind his right ear and placed it against the door. When he heard distant stirrings, he frowned. "They're up." He leaned closer to the door and grew more concerned. "They're making breakfast." He inhaled deeply through his nose, then went into full-on panic mode. "They're making huevos rancheros! Star, we gotta get you back to your room now!"

"Okay, okay, okay," said Star, "but…"

"But what?"

Star grabbed Marco by the shoulders. "...why are you so paranoid about this? You do remember that dinner right before our anniversary, right? Both of our parents thought that we were doing…" Star blushed slightly. "...this already."

"Yeah, but there's a difference between them thinking we're doing it and them knowing we're doing it." Marco pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Look… I promise I'll talk to them. Soon. Just… not right this second."

Star nodded. "I know. But when you do, we will talk to them, okay?" Star gave Marco a quick kiss and headed towards their shared bathroom to enter her own room. "See you in a bit."

Knock knock knock

Star and Marco both felt the color drain from their faces. The knock came not from Marco's bedroom door, but from the bathroom door Star was facing.

"Marco," Mrs. Diaz sang from the other side of the door, "are you decent?"

Star and Marco looked at each other in a panic. "Uuuuuuh... Just a second!" he cried.

Both Star and Marco scanned the room for a way for Star to escape. It was risky to send her out into the hallway since the rest of the family was awake, and Star wasn't wearing enough clothing to consider heading out through the window.

Quickly, both pairs of eyes settled on the bed. They looked at each other and knew what had to be done.

Star rolled her eyes. "You're lucky I love you," she mouthed silently. She silently dropped on all fours and crawled under Marco's bed to hide.

Once Marco was satisfied that his girlfriend was sufficiently out of sight, he climbed back onto the bed and pulled up the covers. He turned to the bathroom door and said "you can come in now."

Angie Diaz took her son up on the invitation.

"Good morning, son," Angie began. "Sorry to wake you up like this, but have you seen Star?"

Marco's eyes bulged. He had been so focused on hiding Star that he hadn't put any thought into explaining why she wasn't in her room. Marco's brain thought that he could try and explain her absence from her room, but his mouth apparently had its own plans.

"Ummm… no?"

Angie raised an eyebrow. "That's weird," she said. "She's not in her room. Mariposa barged in because she wanted to wake her up for breakfast, but she wasn't there. I figured she'd either be in here or she'd tell you if she were headed out."

"Wh- why do you think she'd be in here?" Marco asked a bit too loudly.

Angie smirked. "That's a good question. Why would she be in here?"

Marco began to sweat. He was worried that his masterful plan to hide Star would fall apart, especially since his plan consisted only of 'hiding Star.' He needed to think up some excuse for Star's absence, and fast.

"Uhhh, maybe she… went out for a run."

Angie's face fell flat. "A run."

Marco nodded desperately.

Mrs. Diaz stared directly at Marco. "You're telling me that Star… our Star… got up early… to exercise."

Once he heard it explained that way, Marco knew that his explanation sounded very un-Star-like. But he was committed now, so he had to stick with it. "Yeah, maybe," he said with a shrug.

Angie continued to stare Marco down for a few seconds… then her features softened. "Okay," she said. "I'll catch her when she gets back. Anyways, how are you feeling?"

"Great!" Marco cried with a bit too much enthusiasm. "Awesome. Never better!"

Angie smiled. "That's good to hear. Your father and I were worried about you."

"Oh?" he asked. "How come?"

"We thought you were sick," she replied. "We heard you groaning pretty late last night."

Marco's eyes bulged. "Oooohh... " He had hoped that his activities with Star had been undetected, but that clearly didn't happen. His brain went into overdrive to think up an explanation. "I… um, had a… umm… a stomach ache."

Angie's face filled with concern. "Oh no. Was it bad?"

Marco shook his head. "It was just a minor thing."

"Really?" she asked. "Because you were groaning pretty loudly. Your father and I could hear it in our bedroom."

"Ummmm…." Sweat started to pour down Marco's face. "Actually, now that I think about it, it was pretty bad last night. But I'm better now."

"Oh really?" Angie asked. "Didn't you just say it was minor?"

"I… I did," Marco said as he ran a hand through his now-sweat-dampened hair. "Because it was minor… then it became major. B-but then it was minor again."

"Mmm-hmmm," Angie said with more than a hint of doubt in her voice. "So you're feeling better after your minor-slash-major-slash-minor stomach ache."

Marco gulped. "Better."

Once again Marco found himself on the sharp end of a motherly stare-down. He was almost certain that he was digging himself into a hole, but he held out hope that he could throw his mother off of the trail.

After what seemed like an eternity, Angie broke her stare and gave her son a smile. "Alright. I guess I'll keep looking." Much to Marco's relief, she turned back to the bedroom door and began to head out. "Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes."

Marco had done it. He had somehow, someway, put one past his mom. His lips curled into a slight smile as he watched her place a hand on the door. But instead of making her way out, Angie stopped to call back to her son.

"By the way, I hope you aren't planning on going to class like that," she said.

Marco was caught off guard, and his smile disappeared instantly. "What… what's wrong?"

"Your shirt is inside-out."

"Is it?"

Angie nodded. "And backwards."

"Oh."

"And Star's."

Marco froze in panic. He finally glanced down at his shirt and saw that his mom was right on all three counts. Seams were visible on his inside-out top, as was the tag which was on its collar underneath his chin. And it was painfully obvious that the shirt was a couple of sizes too small. He turned his attention back to his mother, who was staring right through him.

"Oh… Well, you see…" he began as sweat poured down his face. "This is… this is what… ummm… couples do on campus now. They… they, ummm… they wear each others' shirts to show-"

"She's under the bed, isn't she?"

Marco let out a long, defeated sigh. "Yeah."

Angie let out a wry chuckle and shook her head. She walked to the foot of the bed, knelt down and reached underneath it. She began feeling out for something Star-shaped, and quickly found something ankle-shaped. She pulled her discovery out feet-first to expose Star, who wore both an embarrassed frown and Marco's inside-out shirt.

"Mrs. Diaz, I can explain," cried Star.

Angie chuckled again. "Is your explanation going to be anything like his?" she asked, pointing at Marco. "Because if it is, I am dying to hear it."