Author's Notes: Hey guys! I just wanted to post another one shot before the Halloween one! This one is about an idea I got when I heard that Marco took Star to play minigolf with him in Royal Pains.

Enjoy the fic!

Star let out a frustrated groan and stomped her feet in annoyance. Marco was leaning against a golf club on the side, shaking his head. They were currently at a mini golf course that Marco had decided to take her to. He had thought that it would be a good idea to get Star more immersed in Earth culture so she would be able to fit in more.

But, his plan wasn't going very well.

Star had tried at least 40 times to swing the golf club the correct way. The first few tries, all she had been doing was holding the club wrong, which Marco quickly helped her correct by demonstrating the proper way to hold the club. Once she got that down, she had tried to hit the golf ball into the hole like Marco had told her to.

There was just one little problem.

Star didn't really know the meaning of "restraint" so when time came to actually hit the golf ball, Star used all of her strength to hit it. She had thought it would take some extreme amount of effort to get the ball to move, so consequently, the ball went flying very far out of the course. Marco ran to retrieve the ball and had told Star to use some restraint which she pouted to, but agreed. Now instead of making the gold ball fly very far out, the force she used this time was miniscule, making the ball barely even move. And after trying many, many times, Star was starting to get frustrated.

"Star, you need to find the in-between when playing mini-golf, not too much, but not too little either," Marco said as he casually walked over to the infuriated girl.

"I CAN'T THOUGH!" Star exclaimed crossing her arms. "Why are earth activities so weird?! If we were on Mewni, we would be having contests on who could last the longest over 'the Blazing Pit of Despair', like normal people!"

Marco rolled his eyes. "Right. Normal people."

Star huffed and crossed her arms. "It's still way more fun than doing this."

Marco sighed. "Look Star, mini-golf is fun! All you got to do is hit the golf ball the right way."

He walked over in front of Star and placed a golf ball down. He eyed the hole carefully before swinging his club with correct form and posture and getting a hole in one.

He turned around and gave her a smile. "See?" he said gesturing to the course. "It doesn't take much effort to move it, just a small swing and it'll start rolling."

"But I tried that like a million times!" Star exclaimed waving her hands. She frowned and slumped to the ground in defeat. "I'm never going to get this," she pouted.

Marco let out a small smile as he offered a hand to his friend. "Don't worry Star; you'll get it eventually."

Star looked up with puppy eyes. "Really?' she whimpered as he took his hand.

"Really," he confirmed as he pulled her up. "Don't worry, I'll help you out one step at a time!"

A smile on Star grew as he said that. She gripped the golf club with determination and set a new golf ball on the ground at the start of the course. She moved to the left of the golf ball and positioned the golf club right in front of the ball.

Marco noticed her tense. "Star, why don't you take a couple of practice swings first?"

Star turned her head around. "Practice swings?"

Marco nodded. "Yeah. Swing the club like you're going to hit the golf ball but don't actually hit it. Just to get a better feel for it."

Star nodded back in understanding. She turned her head and moved the club to the right of the golf ball so that when she swung it would miss. She pulled the club back in the correct way Marco taught her and... swung with all her might. If she had actually hit the ball, it would have gone flying.

Unfortunately, Star didn't notice and looked at Marco for confirmation. "Did I do it right?" she asked.

Marco face-palmed. "Star, that all would have gone flying," he said flatly. "Try again."

Star frowned then looked back at the club. She focused her mind on trying to get the perfect swing down.

Marco having noticed this, sighed and started making his way over to her. There was no way she was going to learn unless he...

He froze. Oh no he thought.

His great knowledge on movies and cliches suddenly flooded his mind as he remembered all those sappy, love movies where the guy and the girl were playing mini golf and the guy wrapped his arms around the girl to 'help' her with her swing.

C'mon, there has to be some other way! he thought desperately. He racked his brain for any other possibly way that would actually help Star, but to no avail.

But I can't do that to Star! She's my best friend and people will get the wrong idea! he scolded himself. Mini-golf wasn't even that important anyways right? There were always tons of other activities that they could do so that he wouldn't end up in this awkward situation.

But as seconds passed, Marco saw the frown on Star spreading across her face and he knew what he needed to do.

"Stupid invisible force," he muttered to himself as he continued his way towards Star. This wasn't the first time he had been stuck in some awkward moment with Star. He was convinced there was some invisible force making sure that they would get stuck in every single romantic cliche possible. He tried to avoid the opportunities that the invisible force could take advantage of, but no matter how hard he tries, he always ends up in the very cliche he wanted to avoid.

Star was sweating with determination as she shakily gripped the golf club. How Marco did it was a mystery to her. She wound up for another practice swing but suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her and grip the handle on top of her hands. She felt a familiar presence suddenly behind her, his breath gently blowing on her hair.

She tilted her head backwards to see the face of Marco, who was trying not to look nervous.

Marco tried to calm his rapidly beating heart as he looked down at Star's confused face who was looking up at him tilted backwards.

Suddenly, Star broke out into a smile. "Good idea Marco!" she grinned. She shifted her body to face him and wrapped her arms around him. "I was getting tired of this mini-golf thing. Hugging is wayyyyy more fun!" she said as she snuggled into his neck.

Marco blushed and started to look around him to make sure no one was watching. Unfortunately, everyone around him was giving him a knowing glance and just staring at the pair.

"No, Star," he started as he pried her away from him. "I'm trying to help you improve your swing."

"-By hugging me?" Star tilted her head.

Marco looked down, embarrassed. "Well, that-"

"OH I GET IT!" Star exclaimed. "Hugging has magical powers here on Earth that improve mini-golf skills!"

"Uh... yeah, sure," Marco replied. Quite frankly, he just wanted to get this over with.

Star turned back around and gripped the golf club again. This time, she felt more relaxed and calm.

Wow, I can already feel the magic working! she thought as she felt a warm feeling churn in her stomach.

Marco gulped. He was basically hugging her from behind now, just like all those romance movies he's watched. He was just hoping Star wasn't as uncomfortable as he was or this would probably be more awkward.

"A-alright then," Marco started with a dry throat. "Y-you got to swing it l-like this."

He swayed both of them backwards whilst tilting the golf club and then gently hitting the golf ball, making it roll relatively close to the hole.

Star's eyes widened. "LOOK MARCO! I DID IT!" she said exhilarated. She was jumping for joy in his arms, shaking with excitement.

"Y-yeah you did Star," he laughed as her hair started whipping his face in her excitement. "I-I think you've got it down now."

He slowly began to move his arms away from her but Star quickly stopped him by holding his hands in place. "But Marco! I need your magic! I'm finally starting to get better at this!"

Marco shook his head. "Star, I don't have actually any magic. I was just showing you how to-"

"You-you don't want to help me get better?" she interrupted him with watery eyes. She put on the cutest puppy dog face Marco had ever seen and pouted. "I thought that we were best friends!"

The second he saw Star's face, Marco's heart almost leapt out of his throat.

Of course this happens Marco thought in panic. Why invisible force? WHY?!

He glanced at Star and groaned mentally. There has to be some law against having a face that beauti- I mean, adorable.

"...Fine," Marco relented as he continued to 'help' Star. Star's face brightened up as she squealed in excitement. For the next 20 minutes of their mini-golfing adventure, Marco had his arms around Star, helping her practice her swing. Marco was embarrassed and blushing the whole time while Star hummed happily, enjoying her mini-golfing experience. Passerbys would occasionally give them a glance over and chuckle at the nervous boy and the completely oblivious girl that were practicing mini golf. One little girl even commented that she "wanted to be just like them" when she grew up "with her prince charming", in which Marco tried to hide his face away from the child causing the parents of the child to laugh before moving along.

It was now around 1:00 in the afternoon and Marco had decided it would be a good time to go back home; maybe even catch a movie and make some nachos.

"Wasn't that fun Marco?!" Star exclaimed as she skipped ahead of him. "I take it back, mini-golfing is FUN!"

Marco's face was still very red but it was slowly returning to it's normal shade of color. "Y-yeah. It was."

They continued walking towards the exit until something caught Star's eye. There were people crowded around this one golf course. Two of the best local golfers were currently playing on that course, having some sort of competition.

"Hey Star, what are you looking at?" Marco asked as he followed her gaze. He caught what she was looking at and laughed.

"Oh, that's Rico and Billy. They're the best mini-golfers that go to this place!" he explained. "They usually do competitions and right now, they're on their last course. They always pick this one as the last one. It's the hardest one to beat at this place! No one has ever gotten even close to a hole in one in this course. The best is somewhere around like, 5 hits or something."

Star gazed upon the course. It was a serious of turns and hills that eventually lead to the hole, which was pretty far away.

"Maybe someday when we get better, we can try this one out!" Marco laughed.

"Hmmmm," Star wondered. The course looked hard, but quite fun.

"Hey Marco, I'll be right back," she said as she dashed towards the course.

"Sure Star, I'll be- what?" Marco's eyes widened as he saw Star making her way towards the golf course. She probably thinks she's good enough after all that practice! Marco panicked. He ran off to follow her. He had to stop her from embarrassing herself.

"Star!" he called to her, as he made his way through a multitude of people.

By the time he arrived at the course, Star was already there, people staring at her while she stood at the start of the course.

"Hey, is it ok if I try?" Star yelled across the course at Rico and Billy who were all the way at the end.

"Uh, sure I guess," chuckled Rico. "Careful though, it's hard."

Star flashed a smile and laid a golf ball down. Marco was nervously biting his nails as he watched scene unfold.

Star hasn't had enough practice yet! he thought. What if she completely swings the ball too hard out of the course?! What if-

Before he could finish the thought, Star gave a surprisingly gentle, yet firm, swing with her club causing the ball to roll across the course. Marco and the onlookers were wide eyed as they saw the ball zip around the course like it had a mind of its own before settling into the hole at the other side. A hole in one.

Everyone was silent. Rico and Billy looking at Star in disbelief and Marco rubbing his eyes to see if they were playing tricks on him.

"Phew!" Star said. "That was fun!"

She hopped over to where Marco was and grabbed his hand. "Let's go Marco! Time's a-wastin'!"

She pulled an awestruck Marco as she skipped her way to the exit. Before they made it out, Marco came back to Earth and shook his head. He stopped in place and turned Star around to face him.

"Star!" he said in wonder. "How did you do that?!"

"You mean the golfing thingy?" Star said. "It was easy! You just have to hit it with the right amount of force!"

"But-but, just a few minutes ago, you couldn't do just that! How did you learn so quickly?"

Star leaned towards him and gave him a wink. "I guess you're just a great teacher!" she giggled as she turned around and continued to make her way towards the exit.

Marco didn't know what to say, so he said nothing.

Who knows what she's thinking? Marco thought as he followed his best friend.

Bonus:

Phew! Almost caught me! Star thought as she continued on her way towards the exit with Marco trailing behind her. It's a good thing Marco's so oblivious or else I would've never gotten away with asking him to hug- I mean 'help' me!

Author's Notes: Haha well hope you enjoyed it! Octobers been a crazy month for me so hopefully I'll have more time next month. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews and support and I'll see you all later!