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Star VS. The Forces of Evil - Wings

If you were privileged enough to be able to visit the great castle of Mewni where the Butterfly family resided, many amazing sights awaited your arrival. Portraits of the royal family dating back to their early days of settlement, suits of armor lining the hallways in decoration and many spoils of battle on display. It was everything one might picture in a fairy tale about a magical princess from a far away land. Or simply what you may imagine if you lived your daily life with said princess.

Marco Diaz was currently looking over several impressive suits of armor, complete with weapons on the walls next to them. He knew these were some sort of historically important works of metal and ferocity but couldn't make out the symbolism behind them. While the armors all looked the same many of them were decorated differently and none of their weapons matched compared to the previous set. Normally Marco wouldn't have put this much thought into studying historical pieces but he was eager to have something to entertain himself while in the castle. Since his kidnapping by the monster Toffee and the following battle, his family had been invited to stay the night in the castle and recover from the ordeal. Their Earth family's involvement having been a great deal of concern by the royal family but all of them, especially Marco's parents, hadn't thought much of it. This was simply the way things go when you're helping out your friends.

Now however he'd been left alone while his parents were tucking in for the night and his best friend was getting what he presumed be a lecture from her mother. Star Butterfly had been the magical princess that saved him from his kidnapping but who was also to blame for it happening to begin with. Not that Marco really minded. He'd come to accept these sorts of things since meeting the girl and battling monsters by her side. Even if they'd come out of this situation the victor there had been a lot of emotional stress and even some loss. Marco knew something serious had happened with Star's magic wand, the source of her power, ever since it was destroyed and restored. But how serious it had been and what would happen to her because of it was still a frustrating mystery to him. Much like the ruby encrusted armor he was currently viewing. "Now this one's the gaudiest suit in the whole bunch."

"You think so? I always liked it." A voice spoke up from down the hall as Marco looked over to see Star approaching him. "It seemed a lot prettier while all the other ones were kind of dull metal."

"Isn't armor supposed to be dull metal?" Marco asked curiously.

"I guess so, but when you're a king you don't really have to get your armor messed up unless you want to." As if to demonstrate Star pointed to the end of the line of suits of armor, which was a much shorter set of azure blue steel that had plenty of dings and cuts in it from battle. The hammer beside it was as large as the armor itself, letting Marco know this obviously belong to King Butterfly, Star's enthusiastic father. "Daddy always liked solving monster problems himself."

"Reminds me of someone I know." Marco said giving Star a smile and earning one in return. "So um... is everything okay?"

"Well I still get to stay on Earth with you guys." Marco sucked in some air and let out a sigh of relief, very worried that her mother would have pulled Star out of the Diaz home and back to the castle after all of this. "Mom was pretty angry though, but she didn't yell at me. She just wanted to tell me that I needed to be more careful from now on."

"That's good, I was worried that... well, I was just concerned that you'd get in trouble." And that his best friend might have been taken away from him for good. But after everything they'd been through at least this was coming out in their favor. "Did she take your dimensional scissors away?"

"Actually no, they're still in my purse in my room."

"Do you think she forgot?"

"Maybe, but that's not like mom. She's on top of everything all the time." Star spoke the words with a mix of admiration and teenage dread from having an overbearing parent.

"She might just trust you more now?"

"Pfft. I wouldn't." Star sighed. "She's still 'cleaning' my wand too, whatever that means. But I figured it's best to go along with what she wants for right now."

"Okay." Marco responded, not really sure what else he should say. They looked at the collection of history together, something Star had probably seen a million times before but was still so new to Marco. "So this is the king's armors, huh?"

"Yep, every king got his own special set that's immortalized here for years to come. Pretty nice, ain't it?"

"I'll say, most of these are really cool looking. Oh, do the queens have sets of armors of their own too?"

"No, there's this hall of gowns you can check out though. It's pretty cute but, not armor and weapons cool. Unless you're looking for a new princess outfit for yourself?" Star asked teasingly, poking fun at Marco's adventure in a dress when they snuck into St. Olga's School for Wayward Princesses. Or more simply put, Princess Jail.

"Hey, I managed to sneak in with that disguise, didn't I? Super spy!" Marco said and put up his hands in a karate stance, causing the two of them to laugh out loud. "But I think I'm okay for now, probably pass out soon. Getting nearly squished to death takes a lot out of a guy."

"Yeah..." Star agreed, looking away a little sad.

"Are you going to bed too?"

"Maybe in a little while. I have to figure out how to clean my wings without my wand. It's going to be such a pain."

"Your wings? Oh wait, your wings!" Marco said, suddenly remembering Star's Mewberty phase that resulted in a terrorized school for a day and the princess sprouting two cute pink wings on her back. "I never see them anymore so I kinda forget they're there." Star's long blonde hair served as an effective shield for the little wings that sprouted from her back, often covering them completely.

"Yeah, reaching around back there is going to be difficult, it's why I usually just keep them flat under my clothes. So I'll get to bed like an hour later." He'd never heard her mention having to do this before, but with floating magical accessories at her side due to the wand's power it was probably never an issue. Having to do it by hand sounded like a chore, no wonder she was dreading it. "Night Marco." As the princess prepared to head to her chambers a thought crossed the boy's mind.

"Hey Star, do you need any help?" The princess stopped suddenly at the offer, thinking it over.

"Help... with my wings?" She asked, sounding a little uncertain. Though Marco wasn't sure why.

"Yeah, if it's that big a chore why not have me do it for you? That way you can get to bed sooner." Star turned to face him and pulled her long hair over her shoulder and into her hands, stroking it thoughtfully. It was unusual to see her be so uncertain on something and made Marco wonder if he'd done something wrong. "Unless you don't want me to?"

"No. No it's okay. You can help." Star responded finally, still clutching at her long hair within her fingers.

"Okay, glad to be of service. Just let me know what to do and I'll do it!"

"Sure." Star said, smiling back at him but without near as much enthusiasm. Her behavior was less energetic than he'd been expecting but they'd been through a lot today. Star was probably eager to get to bed. After a short, winding walk through the hallways of the castle the duo arrived at Star's chambers. She opened the door for Marco to walk in. "Welcome to Star Central."

"Wow, it's... it's... a lot like your room on earth." Marco commented, taking in the sight. Her chambers had decorations, various knickknacks, posters and furniture strewn about in the same chaotic style as her bedroom at the Diaz home. "Actually now that I look at it, it's a little smaller."

"Mom wouldn't let me alter the castle to make it bigger with the wand. She keeps stating the building would be structurally unsound or something. I mean your house was able to take a whole extra tower attached, I don't see why I can't add in a pool and indoor sledding hill."

"Oh how you have suffered." Marco said sarcastically.

"I know, right! Anyway, we'll need these." Star directed Marco towards her vanity where among a pile of beauty supplies rested a small wooden box. Star picked it up and opened it to display the instruments inside. Items like tweezers, brushes and sticks with sponges on the end laid in a perfect row along with a bottle filled with some liquid. Marco was impressed, he'd never seen Star with anything so organized before.

"There's a lot of tools here."

"Wings can be sensitive." Star handed Marco the box and turned him around. "Now keep staring at that wall for a while and don't turn around until I tell you, okay?"

"Okay?" Marco agreed, not really sure why he had to do this but not feeling like questioning a girl in her own room was wise. Instead he took in the sight of what appeared to be pictures of Star and Princess Ponyhead attached to the wall alongside posters of from what he could tell were lute playing rock stars. After a few minutes of waiting he was finally relieved of his fascinating view.

"Okay, you can turn around now." Unsure of what to expect Marco slowly turned to find Star was no where standing behind him. He searched the large space of the room to see her no where at all. "Over here, on the bed silly."

"Oh?" Marco responded and walked over, deciding that did make the most sense. She'd probably want to be comfortable while they did their little procedure. Though the sight Marco got when he arrived at the bed was more than he expected. "Oh!"

"What?" The princess asked from her position on the bed. Her body was laying with her stomach down and her hair moved to the side to reveal her wings. However she was covered up from the lower back down by a thick, soft blanket and resting her head on a pillow. It wasn't her position that shocked Marco or what she'd chosen to cover up with, but rather what was exposed. Star's upper back and shoulders were complete bare as the girl wasn't wearing a shirt in bed.

"Wh-wh-wh-wh-"

"Words, Marco." Star asked, getting annoyed by his fumbling.

"Why are you naked?" He managed to fumble out, his body shaking a little from the sight of the girl before him.

"I'm not naked, I've still got my tights on. But I don't have any shirts or dresses with wing holes and I don't feel like cutting one just for this." Star looked away from him. "If you don't want to you don't have to."

"No! No no, no. No. No no it's alright." Marco swallowed a lump in his throat to try and calm down and stop sputtering all over. "I said I'd help and I meant it. This is okay, it's fine. Everything is just fine." He took a deep breath and sat next to her on the bed, trying to calm his nerves. Sure she was technically topless but from the way she was laying on the bed he couldn't see anything inappropriate. He just had to remember that this was only to help his friend and nothing else was going on here.

Though it was the closest he'd ever been to a girl his age that was this nude.

"Okay then, if you're alright with it."

"Yep! Totally fine. I'll just uh... just pull out the... okay which one do I start with?" Marco asked as he brought the box of cleaning products up towards where Star's head was. Star directed Marco to the small brush and instructed him how to properly use it on her. Once he'd steadied himself and they were both prepared Star made her wings stand straight up and he began to brush her carefully.

Now that Marco was over the initial shock of seeing her in this position he noted that the process was both easier than he'd thought it be and very necessary. Star's wings had all sorts of little bits of debris, lint and just dirt accumulated on the surface. Partly from being pressed to her skin and partly from her clothing getting covered in dirt from the previous battle. Once the brushing was done and he carefully (and embarrassingly) removed it from her bare skin he took to using the small tweezers to pull off anything that had stuck enough where a light brushing couldn't remove it. As he worked Star watched him with interest. "Was this more than you expected." The princess asked and Marco managed not to blush or make a fool of himself when he spoke.

"It certainly wasn't what I planned to see." He answered and Star looked away.

"Sorry if it's weird."

"Nah, it's not weird. I guess I just didn't expect to see you in such a... revealing state."

"Oh? Is that all? I thought you had a problem with my wings. Cause humans don't have them, right?"

"We don't last I checked." Marco answered with a smile. "Your wings aren't weird, I knew about them already didn't I?"

"I guess so."

"It is funny though, I'd never thought you'd have such a fragile part of you."

"What do you mean?" Star asked, unsure if that was him teasing her.

"You're the strongest girl I've ever met. Strongest person I've ever met. Yet even with all the monster butt you're always kicking you got these soft little wings right on your back. It's unexpected."

"Do you think it makes me weak?"

"Pfft, are you kidding? Nothing stops you." Marco said confidently and Star smiled brightly at the compliment. "Other side please." Star laid her wings flat on her back now, allowing Marco to begin brushing that side as well. She was quiet for some time, enjoying the small pampering she was receiving at Marco's hands. As time passed Marco was becoming more skilled at cleaning her wings as well. making sure to get every little spec he could before moving to the tweezers again. As he picked away at the bits of material Star broke the momentary silence.

"Do you remember when we met?" Marco stopped for a moment to process the question. Even though it hadn't been that long the day Star came to Earth felt like it was ages ago.

"Yeah, you were doing battle with a water fountain." Marco recalled in amusement.

"And you were telling me how it was crazy anyone thought you were the 'Safe Kid'." Star replied with an equally large smile.

"Then you set the school on fire with a rainbow."

"Good times." Star concluded happily and Marco rolled his eyes. "There was also the time I nearly destroyed the football field."

"That was my fault, I should have explained things better." Despite taking the blame on that one Star just made a little grunt in response, not agreeing with or disagreeing with him. "What's the next step on the wings?" Star's hand deftly reached into the little wooden box to pull out the small sponge on a tiny metal rod with a handle and the bottle of clear liquid.

"Moisturize on both sides, then start all over again on the other wing." Marco nodded and carefully wet the sponge in the bottle as instructed, now brushing her wings with the wet substance. He couldn't place the smell but it must have been some chemical from Mewni and not Earth. "There's also the time I turned our teacher into a troll." Ms. Skullnick had been the victim of one of Star's earlier attempts at complicated spell mastery. All in all it could have turned out a lot worse.

"She seems pretty okay with what happened to be honest."

"I guess so. There's also that day I froze time."

"True... but that turned out okay too." Marco was noticing a pattern here. "Star why are you only bringing up times where you made mistakes?"

"Because I make a lot of them." Star admitted in quiet voice.

"Big deal, I make mistakes too you know. Lift your wing please." Star did as asked, her wings standing upward again, but she didn't seem relieved by his words. "Remember that mess where I lost your wand charger? Or when I joked with you about fortune cookies being real?"

"Those all turned out okay."

"Exactly, just like all those other times turned out okay too. Heck I've messed up even worse. Like when I ran up your magic mirror's calling charges, or that whole deal with Lobster Claws? If you mess up then I'm your mess up twin right along side you." That seemed to relieve her a bit but it didn't bring the smile back to her face. "Why are you so worried about this now all of a sudden?" Star's fingers gripped onto her pillow tightly at that question.

"Because this time you almost died because of my mess up." She looked up at him with great concern. "Nothing's worse than that, right?" Marco looked back at her, trying to counter her statement but unsure of what to say. Instead he closed the box of cleaning tools with all its contents inside and sat up from the bed. "Marco?" Star asked with the slightest bit of fear as he stood up, but soon the boy had rounded her bed and sat on the other side of her.

"I needed to get to this wing too." He admitted, only half telling the truth. In reality he was trying to come up with something to say to make her feel better and was regretfully falling short. Removing the brush from the box Marco went back to work. "You don't have to worry about it Star, I'm fine."

"You're fine now, but what if something happens." Using her hands Star moved her long hair to the other side of the bed so she could move her head to look at Marco where he currently sat, the boy trying not to show her a somber expression while she was feeling bad. "What if next time I'm too late?"

"Star, you don't have to worry about it. Things got scary for a while I know, and it's partially my fault for letting myself get kidnapped. But I'm fine."

"You shouldn't have to protect yourself from getting kidnapped." Star admitted, looking away again. This didn't sound like her at all. She was always full of optimism and joy. Instead it was more like...

"Did your mom bring all of this up?" Marco asked and Star's eyes wavered as if she might tear up, yet she managed to hold them back.

"She said I could live with you but... that I should decide if that's best or not. Maybe it's not?" Star questioned and Marco decided to swoop in right there with his own opinion.

"Hey, if you're not there who would stop them from coming after me while you're gone?"

"Maybe the wouldn't at all if I was gone?" Star offered but Marco countered.

"I don't believe that. Lizard Lawyer or whatever his name was had that all planned out for when you weren't around. I can't believe he would have stopped just because you weren't hanging out with me."

"Maybe, I just don't know what's the right decision, you know." Marco felt that lump in his throat from earlier when Star first approached him tonight, afraid her mother would have forbid her from coming back home. Now here Star was questioning it herself and despite what the right or wrong answer might have been, Marco knew what answer he wanted her to give.

"I just don't wanna... lose my best friend. You know?" Marco asked, his voice wavering a little. "That's all. I don't really care what else happens. I'm fine with it."

"What if me staying means I'll lose my best friend?" Star countered, the question scary with the weight of what it implied. Marco took a breath and picked up the tweezers to continue his task.

"You won't. You're the strongest girl I know." He said reassuringly. "Besides, you can't get rid of me that easily. I've gotten pretty good at getting through tough times too." The two smiled at each other in the dimly lit room and felt confidence in their decision. Though one thing still dug at the princess.

"I'm sorry about what I said yesterday. With the whole sandwich thing." Marco had actually forgotten about all of that, the source of the fight they'd had before all of this began. He'd been the most upset with Star since they'd met but managed to keep those raw feelings quelled in this moment. "I was just upset because I wanted it to be a fun adventure together. But then things didn't turn out like I expected, and you got upset with everything, so I got really frustrated and said something stupid. I was a jerk." Star put her face in the pillow to hide it. Truth was Marco was still upset with her over that but he'd put those emotions aside with everything else that happened.

"Wing down please." Marco asked and Star's wings lowered onto her back to allow him to clean that side as well with the brush. Thinking it over for a while Marco realized right now he was being the jerk making her wait on him like this and decided to act like an adult. "I forgive you Star. It's all okay."

"But it hurt you." Star said through the muffled sound of the pillow.

"Yeah it did, but our friendship is stronger than that."

"Strong things can have fragile parts to them too." Star spoke, bringing Marco's words back up in a poignant way.

"Maybe... but I know you'll take care of those fragile parts too." Star's head turned to look back at him with a frown.

"I'm not too good at being gentle or delicate." She admitted, expressing her concern in saying something thoughtless again in the future.

"No, but you are good at making things better after you mess up. So I'll stick with my mess up twin, thank you very much." Star giggled a little as Marco moved onto using the tweezers, picking off the last few pieces of foreign objects from her wings before moving to the moisturizing solution. "This is going pretty fast, it's a good thing I came in to help you."

"Mmmhm, you're really good at this." Star admitted, now relaxed further after their talk and just enjoying the treatment she was receiving.

"Something tells me if my parents could see this though I don't think they'd be as pleased."

"Really? Your folks seem okay about a lot of weird stuff."

"If my dad walked in and saw you on the bed without a shirt and me over you, I really don't want to think about what would follow afterwards." It was true his father and mother were great examples of free spirits and eccentric behavior but his dad wouldn't have been so open minded about him alone with a half naked girl they were supposed to be hosting in their home.

"I can relate to that, daddy would probably toss you out the window."

"Heh, yeah I can imagine." Marco laughed at the idea but Star's face was serious.

"No, really. He'd toss you out the window."

"Oh. Right. They're not likely to walk in on us are they?" Marco asked now feeling more tense than before.

"Daddy? Nah. He'd never barge in on me. My mom on the other hand, she does whatever she wants."

"Well that's just... great. Just great. Wings back up please." Marco felt encouraged to speed up the process, using the sponge now to moisturize the final side of Star's wings. He stroked quickly and carefully but managed to get a little bit of excess on the edges. Not wanting to leave too much liquid on her and cause dripping later, Marco reached up with his fingers to gently run them down the edge of her wings and remove it.

Star's upper body sprung up from the bed and she let out a loud gasp after Marco had touched her, enough to cause him to leap back in surprise when she did. Realizing what she'd done Star dropped her body back onto the bed before anything revealing could be shown, looking away from Marco. This left him scrambling.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay!? Did I do something wrong? Oh no, that didn't hurt did it!?" Marco panicked a little, not sure if he might have ruined her wings with that little move. For all he knew they were as delicate as a real butterfly. Instead Star just squirmed a little on the bed and shook her head.

"No. No it didn't hurt." The princess replied quickly.

"Oh. Um... are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine." Star said letting out a little breath. "It's just I've never let a boy... I mean I've never let anyone touch my wings before. You spooked me is all."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to."

"I know, it's okay. You're fine." She was telling him that but Marco felt like not everything was completely fine. He didn't know what touching her wings meant but clearly she didn't think he'd ever do it. After relaxing her body again from the sudden touch Star let out a breath and seemed to be back to normal. "Thank you Marco, this was really nice."

"I'm happy I could do it." He replied, feeling a little more confident now that she really was fine and maybe all he had done was surprise her. Sitting on the bed again Marco put away all the cleaning utensils and closed the box. "You going to be okay tonight?"

"Yeah. Will you?"

"Yeah. Hey Star, thank you... for saving my life." He realized that along with her forgetting to apologize he forgot to say that as well. "I know you were willing to give up a lot for me and I won't forget how important that is."

"Gimme." Star said and took hold of Marco's hand. She pulled it up against her face and squeezed it to her cheeks. "There, this is the best hug I can give right now." He smiled happily, glad to get the small token of affection from her.

"It's one of the best hugs I've ever had." Marco said, the small act filling him with a sense of calm and happiness. Washing away the doubts of earlier today and the fear from the previous one. It was a small act but it meant the world to him. With this, he would never be afraid. "Night princess, sweet dreams."