Cold Star

This fanfic is inspired by a head-canon a friend and I came up with the other day. We wanted to know what happens when Star gets sick. Because she is from another dimension, we decided that she would be affected a little bit differently than a normal human. And thus, this story was born!

Marco Diaz was worried.

He paced back and forth across his room, so distressed that he nearly tripped over his own feet several times. He rubbed his head anxiously in a vain attempt to force himself to calm down. He tripped again, and finally fell face down onto his floor. Knowing that the same thing would happen again if he got back up, he laid still, groaning in defeat and frustration.

"Why is she ignoring me?" He whined, voice muffled by the floor. "She's acting weird." He declared, pausing for a moment when he realized what he had just said. "Well, weirder than normal." He amended, rolling onto his back so that he could gaze at his ceiling in despair.

The dark-haired boy was of course referring to his energetic best friend from another dimension, who had, once again, locked herself in her room. Sadly, this was only the most recent event in a string of strange behaviors the blonde had been demonstrating recently.

Lately, for some inexpiable reason, Star had begun avoiding Marco.

She had taken to walking to school on her own rather than riding the bus with him as she usually would. This had not warranted his attention at first, as they both understood that she was an extremely high-spirited girl, and it was good for her to be outside in the fresh air before being trapped in the sunless prison that was school. However, after the third day in a row of the girl's absence from the morning bus, her best friend became concerned.

Star's newfound strange behavior also resulted in her not speaking to Marco nearly as much while the two were at school.

He would never say it out loud, but he missed the way she would constantly try and gain his attention during class so that she could show him the latest commodity she had doodled onto her classwork.

The princess had also acquired a habit of vanishing whenever lunchtime rolled around. He had attempted to question her about this many times, but was always interrupted by Miss Skullnick demanding the students to complete their assignments.

They did still ride the bus together after school, but she barely spoke to him, merely greeting him when he took his seat beside her. Even when he decided to try and talk to her, she kept her eyes closed and gave one word replies; her face screwed up in what looked like concentration.

Then, once the two arrived home from school, instead of hanging out with him like she usually would, Star would almost instantly disappear into her bedroom, claiming that she had homework that needed to be done.

Marco immediately knew that the girl was not being entirely truthful, because the next day when their troll of a teacher rudely demanded the student's homework, she would always declare that one of the laser puppies had destroyed hers. The reason the boy knew that she was lying was because he knew their pets very well, and their puppies were much more well-mannered than that.

All of this added up to one mysteriously distant magical princess, and one extremely distraught and worried hoodie-wearing boy.

Said boy groaned once again as he finally sat up and crossed his arms, desperately trying to think of logical reasons his best friend had been avoiding him lately.

His ideas ranged from the princess merely being upset due to a recent call from her mother, to her having been replaced with her evil twin. With each idea becoming more and more unreasonable the longer he contemplated them, the more agitated he became.

"Okay, that's it!" he snapped, finally having had enough. He scrambled to his feet, nearly losing his balance and face planting again.

"I am going to find out what's wrong with Star right now!" he stated boldly, his eyes full of a confidence rarely found there.

He briskly made his way out of his room and down the hall towards Star's room, filled with determination to get to the bottom of his best friends more than unusual behavior.

Star Butterfly was scared.

She didn't know what was happening to her. All she knew was that whatever it was, she didn't like it one bit. She shivered for what had to be the fifteenth time, and gripped the blankets even tighter around herself in a vain attempt to get warm.

She had been feeling weird all week, but the unpleasant coldness that she could not seem to rid herself of was a new, and very unwelcome, development.

Star placed her palms to her face, vaguely wondering if it was because she was so unbearably cold that the normally cotton-candy pink hearts on her cheeks had dulled to a dark blue.

The girl had noticed that something was wrong a few days ago when she woke up one morning with an excruciating headache. She had squeezed her eyes shut and hoped for it to go away, but later when Marco had knocked on her door to make sure that she had not overslept, the pain was still intense.

She slowly got ready for school, trying to ignore the awful pounding in her head. After she finally exited her room and went to join the Diaz family for breakfast, she realized that she had no appetite.

This raised another red flag, as Star was usually always ready to enjoy Mrs. Diaz's delicious cooking. She hovered outside the doorway, wondering if she could sneak away without causing suspicion. She began inching towards the front door, but just as she was about to make her escape, Marco glanced up and noticed her. She mentally groaned.

"Morning Star. Come grab some breakfast." He said, grinning at the girl.

Her cheeks flushed, and this time she wasn't sure if it was because of her best friend, or if she was embarrassed that she had almost gotten caught. She concluded that it was most likely the former option.

Star walked away from the front door, a genuine smile forming on her face at the sight of her friend's silly expression.

"Morning Marco." She said, trying to sound just as happy as he did.

The boy looked at her strangely, and she was scared he had read her mind somehow. However, the moment soon passed, and she took her seat next to him.

The two quickly ate their breakfast, although Star secretly fed most of hers to the laser puppies, and they left to catch the school bus.

She felt completely fine as she and Marco took their seats, but as soon as the bus started moving forward, her stomach lurched.

Marco had once tried to explain what motion sickness felt like, but she had not truly understood. Now however, as her stomach churned and her headache returned full force, she realized that what she was feeling matched his description perfectly. She involuntarily let out a groan.

"Are you okay, Star?" her dark-haired friend asked her in concern. She quickly forced a smile onto her face.

"Yeah, totally fine. I just didn't get too much sleep last night." She explained, coming up with a lie on the spot. Marco frowned.

"That's not good, Star. You need to make sure that you get at least eight hours of sleep every night." He lectured sternly, his 'safe kid' persona making itself known. Her lips curled slightly in amusement.

"I know I know. I promise, from now on, I'll go to sleep on time." She reassured him. The boy nodded in approval and let it go.

She nearly sobbed in relief when the two arrived at school and the bus stopped moving. As soon as she got off of the bus, Marco never far behind her, her stomach settled slightly. Her head still hurt, but Star Butterfly was nothing if not stubborn, and she was determined to act as cheerful and crazy as she normally was.

This lasted all the way until the first bell rang. The second the shrieking bell silenced, the classroom door violently swung open. The resulting crash made Star flinch and grit her teeth to avoid from crying out at the sharp pain that assaulted her skull.

Miss Skullnick stomped her way into the room, and loudly demanded the previous night's homework. There was a chorus of groans and rummaging as the students searched for their assignments.

Once the homework had been collected, class began. It was, as usual, a ridiculously boring lesson, but it was quiet, which the blonde-haired girl was extremely grateful for. Time ticked by achingly slowly, until finally the bell rang to dismiss the students for lunch. Star started packing her things, while Marco, always prepared, waited beside her desk. She pulled her backpack onto her shoulders and grinned at him.

"Ready to go?" he asked her. She began to nod, but hesitated when she realized that the mere idea of food made her feel nauseous. Not to mention that the cafeteria was always overcrowded, and that simply imagining the elevated noise level caused her headache to spike painfully. She internally winced, careful to not let her discomfort show on her face.

"Sorry Marco, I actually need to go get something from my locker. But I promise I'll catch up." She said, feeling bad for lying to him of all people. He frowned.

"What is it? I'll come with you." He offered, not liking the idea of being separated from her for even a short amount of time.

The girl smiled softly at the sweet gesture, and leaned forward to give him a quick hug. Their faces both warmed slightly. She pulled away smiling brightly.

"Thanks, but I got this. I'll meet you in the cafeteria." She lied again. Reluctantly, the boy nodded.

"Okay then, if you say so. I'll go catch up with Ferguson and Alfonso." He said. She nodded, and waved at him as he left the room.

Needless to say, she did not rejoin him at the cafeteria, choosing instead to stay in the classroom and take a nap. When class resumed and the students returned from lunch, Marco looked as if he very much wanted to question the girl about where she had been, but before he could do so, Miss Skullnick commanded everyone to take their seats.

The rest of the school day passed uneventfully, and there was a cheer when the last bell rang, dismissing the students until the next day. As everyone made a mad dash to leave, Marco waited patiently by Star's desk as she finished packing her things.

She grimaced, realizing that to get home, she again had to endure the now torturous bus ride home.

That had just been the beginning. It had only escalated from there, and now she couldn't even remove herself from her blanket without feeling like her skin was made of ice, the blue hearts on her cheeks serving as a physical sign of her lowered temperature. She knew that something was seriously wrong, but she didn't know what it was.

Star sneezed, which caused a sharp pain to shoot through her head. She groaned in despair.

"What is wrong with me?" she asked no one in particular, staring first at her ceiling, and then letting her gaze lazily wander about her room. They stopped on a large, almost bursting at the seams, book. Suddenly an idea occurred to her.

"Maybe there's a spell or something about this in the book." She thought aloud, sitting up. She moved to stand, and was annoyed and vaguely alarmed by the amount of effort the task took.

Slightly swaying, she stumbled across her magically enlarged room to her desk, where her comically large spell book lay. She eagerly flipped through it, desperately looking for a spell to rid herself of her symptoms.

Her search was interrupted by the unexpected appearance of a small blue creature with a white beard. He opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated once he looked at the unusually pale girl.

"Gosh Star, what happened? You look terrible. And your hearts are blue." he declared bluntly, expression unconcerned. She rolled her eyes.

"Gee, thanks Glossaryk." The girl replied sarcastically. A thought struck her.

"Maybe you can help me. I don't know what's happening to me, but I don't like it. Can you tell if there's something wrong with me?" she questioned hopefully. Glossaryk stared at her for a few seconds, and drew in a deep breath.

"Nope. I got nothing." He said, conjuring up a hairbrush and grooming his beard. She scoffed.

"Of course not." She sighed. "Well, thanks anyway."

"Of course, any time. I am always happy to impart my wisdom- "his statement was cut short as the girl slammed the large book shut around him.

She was about to resume her search, but was distracted by a knock on her bedroom door.

"Star, can I come in?" Marco asked from the hallway.

She froze, and her eyes widened in panic. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't ignore him, nor did she want to. But she couldn't let him in either. He would take one look at her pale face and her blue hearts and freak out. She didn't want Marco to worry, she was already worried enough for the both of them.

"Star, are you in there?" he called, knocking again. She cleared her throat.

"Uh, hey Marco. Now's not really the best time, I've got a lot of homework." She lied, falling back on her default excuse. There was no reply. "Marco?" she asked, confused by the silence.

"Star, I'm coming in." He declared, just before turning the doorknob and entering her room.

The first thing he noticed as he stepped through the doorway, was that Star was holding her oversized spell book in front of her, preventing him from seeing her face.

"Star, what are you doing?" he asked in confusion.

"Oh nothing. Just looking for a spell to, um, help me with math. I really don't get it." She said nervously, hoping her best friend would leave. He raised an eyebrow.

"Right. Anyway, can we talk please?" he asked. "You've been acting weird all week. What's going on?" he questioned her, concern in his voice.

Star kept the book firmly in place, her mind racing to come up with a response, hating herself for lying to Marco.

"I don't know what you're talking about Marco, I'm just trying to do my homework." She claimed, cringing at the way her voice cracked. Her panic rose as she heard footsteps drawing nearer to her.

"Don't lie to me Star. You've been saying that all week, and I know for a fact that you haven't completed a single homework assignment." He declared, a tint of anger in his voice. He stopped right in front of her. "And will you put down that stupid book and look at me?" he demanded irritably, placing his hand on the top of the book and pushing it down.

His eyes widened and his jaw dropped when he finally saw her horrified face, his anger quickly melting away to confusion. She let out a small shriek and quickly tried to hide her face with the palms of her hand.

"Uh, I can explain." She said unconvincingly.

"Star, your hearts…" he trailed off, subconsciously bringing the palm of his hand to her pale cheek. He almost screamed at the coldness that greeted him. "Holy crap! You're freezing!" he exclaimed, confusion transforming into full blown panic.

The girl flinched at his raised voice. "Not so loud please, my head hurts." She confessed. His eyes widened, and he slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Sorry. Is this better?" he asked much more quietly. She nodded gratefully, then squeezed her eyes shut and shivered as a wave of cold washed over her. Marco frowned at this, and without hesitation, pulled his hoodie over his head. Star's eyes widened, and she was sure that if she wasn't so freezing, she would have been blushing furiously.

"Here, put this on. You're ridiculously cold, it should help." He explained, holding the hoodie out to her. Now understanding, she smiled thankfully, and pulled it down over her own head. The boy's breath caught in his throat, and now he was the one forcing himself not to blush at just how… right it felt to see his best friend wearing his signature hoodie.

"Thanks Marco." She said happily. He simply nodded, not trusting his voice at the moment. He cleared his throat and was about to question her some more, when without warning, Star's legs seemed to suddenly give out on her. Marco yelped as he raced forward to catch her, managing to reach the girl just before she hit the ground. She shook her head slightly, and then laughed sheepishly.

"Well that's new. Um, sorry about that. I kind of just, felt dizzy for a second." She said, painfully aware of the fact that he hadn't let go of her. He frowned.

"That's not good Star. Has this been happening all week?" he asked concernedly, gently lowering the both of them to a sitting position, reluctantly removing his arms from around her.

"Yes." She admitted, sighing. "It was nothing too bad at first, but now…" she gestured to her hearts. He nodded in understanding. "It just keeps getting worse and I don't know why. What's wrong with me?" She asked, not really expecting an answer. Marco placed his hand on her shoulder and smiled at her reassuringly.

"Don't worry Star, we'll figure it out." he promised, his heart thumping when he received a small and tired, but undeniably adorable smile. "Okay, let's see. When this all started, what is the thing that you first noticed?" The girl tapped her chin while she thought.

"The first thing I noticed was that I had a headache." She responded truthfully. The boy nodded.

"Okay, what else?" He encouraged. He didn't particularly like hearing about Star being in pain, but he knew that he needed to find out how to help her no matter what.

"Um… oh yeah, I wasn't hungry, and when we rode the bus I thought I was going to throw up." She stated her symptoms matter-of-factly. He nodded again, now making sense of her recent behavior.

"Alright, so when did this happen?" he inquired, carefully tracing one of the dull blue hearts on the girl's cold cheeks. She shivered again, and this time, it wasn't entirely due to the cold she was feeling.

"Uh, I uh…" she shook her head and cleared her throat. "That's new." She said simply, not quite able to form words at the moment. She coughed twice. "So, what do you think is wrong with me?" she asked him.

"Hmm…" Marco tapped his knee as he thought, considering all of Star's symptoms. "Well, it's obvious that you're sick, but it sounds like to me, you either have a cold, or maybe the flu." He declared, mentally listing the various remedies he knew. "But it's weird. Whenever people get sick, usually they get a fever, which makes them really hot. You're freezing." he told her, wondering why his friend was being effected so differently. He shrugged. "Must be a Mewni thing." He decided, unaware that the girl had already stopped paying attention.

"Wait, I'm sick?" she asked, but she was smiling slightly, confusing her best friend.

"I'm pretty sure yeah. Why do you look so, happy about it though?" he asked her.

"Because I've never been sick before." She said cheerfully. She suddenly began coughing violently, causing her worried friend to lightly hit her back. "Thanks." She said once she was able to speak again.

"No problem. Now what the heck do you mean you've never been sick before?" he asked the girl in disbelief. She shrugged.

"I mean, I've never actually gotten sick." She stated nonchalantly.

"How is that even possible? People do get sick on Mewni, right?" he wondered aloud. She nodded.

"Of course they do. But since I was always inside the palace anyway, I never got sick." The girl reasoned. Marco nodded his head in agreement, but then furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Wait a minute, always in the palace? What does that mean?" he asked, feeling a growing sense of apprehension. His concern increased when Star averted her gaze, and looked at the wall when she answered.

"Well, before I got the wand, mom never really liked for me to leave the castle, or even my room, unless I had to. That's why I would sneak out to fight monsters!" she said cheerfully, not noticing her companion's horrified expression. He remained silent for a few moments.

"Wow." He said, still processing the bombshell of information that had just been dropped on him.

"What?" the blonde girl asked, finally facing him again.

"Nothing it's just, everything about you suddenly makes much more sense."

A look of understanding flashed through her eyes and she grinned. "I know, right?" she laughed, and then began coughing even harder than before. This alarmed her best friend, who immediately moved to her side and began rubbing her back in an attempt help her. They both breathed a sigh of relief when she stopped.

"Okay, how about we talk more about this later?" Marco suggested concernedly. "You should rest, it'll help you feel better." He promised. He stood up, and then carefully helped Star to her feet. She gave him a weary smile.

"Whatever you say, 'safe kid'." She chuckled, poking fun at his unwanted nickname once again. He rolled his eyes slightly, but then smiled. They began walking towards the girl's bed, but once she stumbled, he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Thanks."

"Of course."

They reached the other side of the room without further incident, and the girl easily climbed into her bed, secretly glad to have her warm blanket back. The dark-haired boy couldn't help but laugh a little at the content look on her face.

"Better?" he asked teasingly. She stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed again. "Good." he said, slightly turning towards the doorway. "You take a nap. I'll go make some chicken noodle soup. It always helps." He proclaimed, slowly turning and taking a few steps towards the hall. Star frowned and bit her lip.

"Uh, Marco?" she called, watching him stop and turn back around to give her a questioning look. "Um, I'm still pretty cold. Do you think you could, uh, sit with me? Just until I fall asleep?" She pleaded with him. His eyes widened, and he was sure that his face matched the hoodie the blonde-haired girl was currently wearing. Nevertheless, he smiled softly at her, and quickly made his way back to her side.

"Of course, Star." He said. She smiled in relief, and scooted over so that he could lay down beside her. She closed her eyes so that she could go to sleep, and after a moment, felt feather light fingers stroke her hair. She smiled, recognizing the action as one that the two usually saved for their Friendship Thursday movie nights. Between the combined warmth of her blanket, Marco's hoodie, and Marco himself, plus the soothing fingers running through her hair, Star was asleep within minutes.

He knew exactly when she fell asleep, but the boy never stopped stroking her soft hair. He began to feel drowsy, and knew from personal experience that if he did not get up now, he would fall asleep as well. However, he glanced down at the slumbering girl in his arms, and decided that there was no way he was about to leave. He let out a yawn, and before he could fall asleep, pressed his lips to the top of the blonde-haired girl's head. Finally allowing himself to close his eyes, he uttered one last phrase before sleep overcame him.

"Goodnight, princess."

Well, there you have it. I'm not too sure how I feel about this one to be honest. I hope the ending doesn't feel to rushed. Please let me know what you guys think it would mean a lot to me!