Happy holidays everyone! I hope you all had an AWESOME Christmas! I really took my time making this chapter, even with said time to write in small amounts. I want these last couple of chapters to be just right, especially the wedding one coming up. I also took some extra time to work on a wintery one shot that should be up pretty soon so you can look forward to that! It's not going to be Christmas related due to the absolute FLOOD of Christmas fics, I think we got enough of those. In this chapter we get meet Marco's extended family and his new rival (oOoOo!). They go exploring and have to joust over Star yadda yadda yadda you get the idea, see you at the bottom! (I still don't own anything)
Marco rolled over groggily, the sweet smell of grass gently flowing through the open window. All was perfect... except it wasn't, something was off. He couldn't put his finger on it but it felt like he was missing something...
Star was in the exact same predicament, albeit a little more oblivious to what she was missing. It was still there though, sitting restlessly in the back of her mind.
After what seemed like an eternity of drifting in and out of sleep Marco yawned and forced his eyes open to meet another pair of bubbly blue ones across the room. They weren't in the trailer anymore, now they each had their own comfortable beds. The room was dim, a few stray beams of sunlight made their way through the swaying soft white curtains in the window and illuminated dancing dust particles.
Once the two realized the situation they knew what they had been missing.
Marco never thought he'd say it but he kinda missed sleeping beside Star, waking up to her joyful attitude and amusing antics. Star missed Marco's playful irritation, and it was adorable when he got all flustered!
"Morning Marco." Star said with a goofy smile.
"Morning Star." Marco replied, smiling back.
In the soft light and each other's presence the two nearly slipped back to sleep but it was for not as an abrupt knock on the door forced them get up, "Come down stairs kids, we're having pancakes!" Mrs Diaz called through the door.
Marco groaned and pushed himself out of bed, a little woozy from standing up a bit too fast. Star buried her head in her pillow refusing to get up.
"Come on Sta... ah whatever." Marco at the moment could care less about getting Star out of bed, he barely got up himself!
Enticed by the smell of pancakes wafting from below he shoved the wooden door open and fumbled his way down the stairs into the kitchen where his family awaited patiently for the him (as in they were already eating).
There were all there, his aunt Maria and her husband Reggie, their two sons and daughter Ricardo, Daniel and Sofia, Grandma and Grandma Diaz and of course the man of the hour Donato who was staying at Maria and Reggie's place until the wedding.
"Morning Marco!" Everyone said in unison.
Marco gave a sloppily executed half smile in return and walked over to reunite with his extended family.
After the usual smiles, hugs and hellos he went to sit down before one of his infamously renowned cousins stopped him, "So Marco who's the lucky lady I've heard is tagging along with you?" Ricardo asked.
Ricardo was a well built farm boy who had a resemblance to Marco. He was muscular and stood just a bit taller than Marco. But don't be fooled by his farm life upbringing, he was suave, very suave, so suave in fact that he was well known around the area to be a heart breaker.
Marco rolled his eyes, here we go. "Oh Star? She's our new foreign exchange student, we're basically best friends." He boasted proudly, it was nice to say he was her best friend.
Ricardo grinned slyly "Oh so she's not taken then..."
Marco frowned "Hey, you keep your hands off her; I don't want to see you trying anything sneaky." He warned.
"Whatever you say man, but you better keep your eye on her during the dance or ima swoop in like an eagle and take her away!"
Marco glared back at him in response, "Speak of the devil look who's here!" Ricardo exclaimed, ignoring Marco's scornful glare and gestured to Star at the top of the stairs.
She muttered something to herself and then went to take a step, missed, and then stumbled her way down barely standing, into the kitchen. The whole Diaz family watched with curious eyes.
"Hey...?" Star waved shyly as she straightened up.
There she stood in all her glory, blonde hair a complete mess, bags under her eyes and a little bit of drool on the corner of her mouth. She wasn't exactly the picture of beauty at the moment but that didn't stop Ricardo from taking interest, much to Marco's uneasy displeasure.
"Everyone this is Star, the girl I was telling you all about!" Mr Diaz exclaimed.
"Morning Star!" Everyone greeted on unison mirroring the greeting given to Marco.
"Morning!" She echoed back with a bright smile.
She skipped over and sat down close beside Marco, causing a bit of a stir in the group. Marco raised an eyebrow at the family's whispering.
"What are you..." He stopped for a second before turning multiple shades of red.
"Of course!" He cursed to himself, "They think were a couple!"
"What is it Marco?" Star asked innocently at his mumbling and red face.
"Oh nothing I-It's nothing." He blurted.
Star smirked, "Ok..." Man Marco sucks at lying.
Marco who was desperate to cease the family's errant whispers decided to change the subject, "So uhhh guys I don't think we told you but Star is in fact a magical princess!"
It worked, the whispers stopped but it failed to remove attention off of Marco and Star like he had planned.
"What?" Daniel asked in disbelief.
Star's eyes lit up and she eagerly jumped into the conversation, "Yup I am! Me and Marco go on magical adventures all the time! You want to see!?"
Multiple people around the table snickered causing Marco to go red again.
"Sure why not...? Daniel said sarcastically.
"Ok!" Star continued, Daniel's sarcasm completely going over her head.
Star jumped up and stood on her chair and pulled out the magic wand, "GLOWWORM GLITTER SURPRISE!"
A blue glittery blast burst out of the wand along a bunch of adorable little glowing worms.
Everyone stared in wide eyed shock, except Marco, Mr Diaz and Mrs Diaz who all had smirks plastered on their faces.
"See I told you!" Star exclaimed proudly.
Marco sighed and slumped back into his seat and waited as the questions came flying in, this was going to take a while...
An hour and a half later...
Star and Marco sat peacefully munching away at their pancakes in the sunlit kitchen. Marco had put stop to the incessant rain of questions the family was asking in rapid fire, more could be explained later but for now he and Star needed to eat.
That was when Ricardo unexpectedly slid up behind them, "Hey so Star..."
Star whirled around in her seat and faced Ricardo, cheeks stuff with delicious pancakes, "Ya?" She said eagerly after swallowing.
The first things Star noticed about the boy was his resemblance to a certain best friend, she thought he looked kinda like a discount Marco.
"I'm Ricardo and I was wondering if you'd be interested in a tour of the farm?" Ricardo asked, his intentions sounded good but Marco who was listening knew better.
Ricardo's composer was broken when instead of responding to him directly Star turned to Marco...
"Please Marco can we go? It'll be so fun!" Star pleaded to Marco, who looked up at Ricardo with a smirk.
"Why are you asking him for permission?" Ricardo asked a bit flustered.
"Oh well me and Marco do everything together so I don't know if he will want to go or not..." Star explained nonchalant.
Ricardo raised an eyebrow, "So Marco how about it?" He hissed.
Marco sighed and looked to Star, he really didn't want Star within a hundred and fifty feet of Ricardo but it was her choice so, "Fine, we can go."
"YES!" Star shouted with joy before going back to enjoying her morning treat.
"Alright!" Ricardo exclaimed and began to walk away before stopping, "After your finished go get dressed and then meet back down here."
Star and Marco nodded and then went back to eating. After finishing breakfast the two teens went up stairs to get changed. Star pushed open their room's door, "I'll go first!" She stated.
"Woah hold up, you take forever to get changed, I'll go first and then when you're done we can just leave." Marco intervened.
"I wouldn't say I take forever." She replied with a smirk.
Marco rolled his eyes, "Remember yesterday at the mall?"
Star giggled "Fine go." She said, shoving him into the bedroom and shutting the door.
The three regrouped by the door, plan for the day fully realized. Star bounced her way outside into the crisp morning air, pale yellow sunlight filtering down to earth.
As Ricardo went to follow Marco stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, "If I see you try and pull any tricks..."
Ricardo scoffed and brushed off Marcos hand, "Me? Pull tricks? I would never!" He said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Sleaze ball." Marco muttered as Ricardo stepped out, grinning at Star.
They began the tour of the farm, winding their way down trails through the tall grass and looking out over the rolling hills, first stop: the tree house...
Two hours later...
Marco eyes traced straight ahead along the track carved into the rippling summer grass. He wasn't sure what horrible chain of mistakes had led him to this terrible crescendo, but he was pretty sure it was Ricardo's fault.
Right now Marco was about to joust, on a tractor. Ricardo had been babbling on about a challenge and the winner taking the hand of the fair princess to the dance or something, and Star got all, well, starry eyed at the idea and the next thing he knew he was about to tractor joust.
In all honesty Marco was pretty sure the only reason he was there was because Star wanted him there.
He looked down from the magically souped up tractor to Star who watching with feverish glee, "Do I really have to do this it seems a bit dangerous..." Marco said with anxiety. Even with the full body armour he was wearing he didn't feel safe.
"Of course you do!" Star replied carelessly "You have to battle FOR YOUR HONOR! Besides it's just a joust, what could go wrong?"
"Not helping!" Marco yelled and Star giggled.
"Just relax it'll be fine!" She retorted with a wave of the hand.
Marco gulped, why; why on earth did he end up doing this? And why when he was with Star did they end up in high speed situations?
He didn't have any time to answer those questions plaguing his mind as Star began the dreadful countdown.
"Three!" Star shouted, her blonde hair whipping in the warm mid day breeze.
"Two!" Marco's grip on the steering wheel tightened and he pulled his soft tipped jousting stick close.
"One!" Beads of sweat glide across his face; this was for Star... kinda.
"Go!" Star screeched at the top of her lungs and shot a firework high into the sky with her wand.
The explosion echoed above and Marco put his foot heavy on the gas pedal.
The tractor surged forward at break neck speed knocking Marco back a bit, the knobby tires tearing at the soft earth.
Marco's opponent came in to view and was approaching fast. He could barely hold onto the jousting stick as the tractor shook him out of his skin.
Marco desperately tightened his grip; soon Ricardo himself was visible, confidently speeding forward with impeccable posture.
"Here we go..." Marco groaned and pressed his eyes shut.
-K-THWACK-
Ricardo's stick slammed into Marco's chest plate and blew him backward nearly knocking him off the tractor. At the same time Marco had dropped his stick and it became logged between Ricardo's tractor and his sending them both spinning in different directions.
Marco clung on as he spun out of control, "AHHHHHHH!"
Star watched the scene intently from afar.
Ricardo was also spinning but quickly regained control his tractor. Soon he was back on top and heading in for seconds, "En garde peasant!" Ricardo taunted.
"Are you nuts!?" Marco shouted as he clambered back onto the tractor and attempted to regain control, "I think you're taking this whole knight thing a little too seriously!"
Ricardo scoffed "I think your taking this too lightly!" He shouted back.
"Do you think Star's going to like you just because you're pretending to be a knight?!" Marco yelled.
"No I don't think so, I know so..." Ricardo said menacingly.
The two collided again this time Marco who was without a jousting stick was sent flying backwards high into the air and landed face first in a small pool of mud.
Ricardo jumped off his tractor, letting it slid to a halt, "Looks like I win!" He said with arrogance as he waded towards Marco through the grass.
Marco rolled over in the small mud puddle and grunted in response, of all the possible places to land...
"And look who's now running over to congratulate me!" Ricardo continued turning to watch Star.
"Star I see you've co-... wait what?" Ricardo was shut up as Star flew by him to Marco.
"MARCO!" She shouted
"Star what are y- umfff!" Marco said but was cut off by Star jumping onto him.
" THAT WAS AWESOME!" She yelled into his face, "You were like spinning and spinning and then you were like flying and it was so cool and... are you ok?" Star asked the poor boy.
"Yeah... I'm good... Continue." Marco strained to push out the words.
"Anyway and then you like fell into the mud and I laughed because it was pretty funny and it was just so coooool!" She said, pausing to stare down at him with a bright smile.
Marco smiled, "You know what else is funny... this!" He said and pushed here off and into the mud puddle.
Marco stood up proud at his accomplishment. Ricardo stared in shock and turned to Marco, "You can't just do th-"
Star jumped up out of the mud puddle and tackled Marco into the grass, "Take this!" She cried and shoved a mud pie into his face.
Marco pushed her off into the grass and wiped the mud out of his face, "Ok that was fair." He said chuckling.
Star giggled "Yeah, you deserved it." She said brushing the mud off her clothes.
Ricardo watched awkwardly from across the muddy pit, he didn't get it. He was winning on all fronts! He won the joust, was cooler, better looking and richer! But yet Star clearly favoured Marco, what did Marco have that he didn't? And what was up with this girl Star!? She had barely even batted an eyelid at him unless to ask a few farm related questions on the walk.
"Ahem..." Ricardo grunted, "We should get going..." He said between his gritted teeth.
"Alright." Marco replied he got up and helped Star to her feet, the three then set off home.
"What's his deal?" Star whispered to Marcos ear and gestured to the fuming Ricardo marching in front of them.
"I have no idea." Marco replied with a sly grin.
...
The bright full moon was out, its glow drowning out most of the stars. Ricardo had at least by now calmed down and was back to his normal self. Of course the rest of the family still insisted that Star and Marco were a couple despite both of their denials.
The mess they had made jousting earlier was now all cleaned up, thanks to magic no less. Now they all sat around the backyard fire bit and roasted wieners for dinner.
Star leaned back in her lawn chair and watched the flames of the flickering fire and listed to the chatter of the Diaz's. Her eyes came to a close in the cool summer evening and just like that she fell asleep.
And that's that! Thank you all so much for reading, reviewing, favouriting, ect, It makes writing each new chapter so worthwhile. Also don't forget to check out my upcoming winter one shot, it should be up very soon! (To anyone who asks it is a Star vs the Forces of evil fic.) Anyway hope you enjoyed and see you in the next one!