This was initially supposed to be a short, fun, fluffy Starco story to get over my writer's block on my SVTFOE/Star Wars crossover fic (which, if you haven't read it, I'd really love if you would. Find it under my stories, entitled Star (Wars) Vs The Forces of Evil) and then...it somehow got way longer than I ever intended it to be.

This will be four chapters, so if you enjoy chapter 1, be sure to follow the story. Subsequent chapters will come out whenever I get around to editing them.

Anyway, my headcanon is that, following the events of Cleaved, Star and Marco have become the clingiest, most affectionate couple ever...which is exactly the kind of relationship that I'm looking for, if I'm being honest. (Not possessive and jealous, just clingy.)

Part 1: The Bet

Janna did not need the ringing of the doorbell to alert her that her friends had arrived. She already knew. She glanced at the digital map on the screen of her laptop one last time, smiling at the strobing light that showed Marco's current position, right outside her house. Implanting that tracking device on her friend completely without his knowledge was still one of her proudest achievements, even if it didn't exactly have many practical uses. It ranked right alongside the camera she had hidden on Marco previously, but recent events had forced her to disable that device.

Janna closed the laptop and strolled from her bedroom, sliding down the bannister and then using the momentum to dismount and glide in her socks across the hardwood floor, coming to a stop perfectly at the front door.

"Hey, Guurrrrl!" Pony Head greeted enthusiastically as Janna opened the door.

"Sup, guys," Janna greeted. Star, Marco, and Tom stood before her on the front porch alongside the floating unicorn head. She thought something about Star looked different, but she couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what. "Ready to go?"

"As long as you are," Tom replied.

"Just gotta grab my shoes."

Pony Head groaned. "Well, hurry up already! I've been waiting to try Britta's Tacos for a whole. Year. I cannot wait any longer, okay?"

Janna's shoes were right where she'd left them beside the door. She stepped into them and locked the knob, joining her friends on the porch.

Star bounced up and down excitedly while holding onto Marco's arm. "I am so pumped Britta's is finally reopening!"

Marco agreed. "Me, too! I haven't been able to find another taco place with food as good as Britta's. Non-authentic Horchata aside."

Practically hanging off of her boyfriend's arm, Star gazed into his warm brown eyes. "It'll be so good to have ourplace back. We haven't been able to eat there since right before we became a thing."

"Oh, yeah, that's right! It's been over a year since the last time we ate at Britta's!" Marco smiled at Star and sighed happily. "A whole year of pure bliss with you." Star giggled and kissed him on the lips.

Tom, Janna, and Pony Head simultaneously rolled their eyes. "Okay, I'm hungry, so I'm gonna start walking," Janna called. Star and Marco did not acknowledge her as she passed them. "You guys catch up when you're done."

Janna walked between Tom and Pony Head as they headed for Echo Creek's town center where Britta's Taco's resided.

"I can't believe those two are still acting like that," she said quietly, knowing that the pair in question were only a few steps behind. "It's been a whole year and they're still hanging off each other!"

Pony Head stuck out her tongue. "It makes me want to, you know, like, barf."

"I understood it at first." Tom glanced back at Star and Marco. Star still had both of her arms wrapped tightly around Marco's relatively unimpressive hoodie sleeve-shrouded bicep, and they gazed at each other with goofy, delirious grins as they strolled along. "I mean, they both thought they'd never see each other ever again when the magic was destroyed. I'd be super clingy, too. For a while, anyway. But I mean..." He looked back a second time. They hadn't changed positions at all. Tom wondered how they could walk while staring into each other's eyes so well without tripping, but then realized that was a dumb question. Obviously, they'd had lots of practice. "At this point, it's just getting ridiculous. I wish they'd at least tone it down in public, it's embarrassing to be around."

They reached an intersection and Janna pressed the crosswalk signal. "Did you notice Star even stopped wearing her horns?" Pony Head asked as a thirty-foot-tall monster ducked under the traffic light and walked through the intersection behind a city bus and a pair of sedans.

"What?" Janna turned around herself. Star and Marco had stopped walking several paces behind them. The former had wrapped her arms tightly around her boyfriend, her eyes closed as she nuzzled his chest with her chin. Sure enough, Star's usually ever-present devil horn headband was missing. "Ohhhh, that's what looks different about her. I couldn't figure it out."

"You know why she stopped wearing it?" Pony asked. "Because she pokes Earth Turd in the neck with it when she rubs her head up against him like she's some affection-obsessed kitten or something!"

Janna made a disgusted face. "Ugh. So gross."

The crosswalk signal turned clear as opposing traffic stopped and they crossed the street, only to find that Star and Marco had not followed them once they'd reached the other side. The couple still had their arms wrapped around each other, their eyes closed as Star burrowed her head into the space beneath Marco's chin.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Tom groaned.

"Hey!" Janna yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth. "You guys coming or what?"

The couple jumped as they finally realized that their friends were gone. "Oh! Whoops! Sorry, guys!" Star called as they parted and hurried toward the crosswalk.

Marco suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" He pointed to the signal. It was flashing "DON'T WALK" with a number countdown, which was currently at 26. "It says 'Don't walk'!"

"Oh, c'mon, Diaz!" Janna yelled from the opposite street corner. "You can easily make it before the traffic light changes!"

"Nope! Rules are rules. It says don't walk, so walk we shall...not."

Janna was exasperated. "That's just a suggestion, Marco!"

Star's fingers found their way back into Marco's hand. "That's my safe kid. Won't back down from a fight with a three story-tall hydra, but never breaks the rules." She playfully rubbed the tip of her nose against his. "That's okay. I don't mind waiting. It's hard to walk and kiss at the same time."

And kiss they did.

"Oh. Em. Gee," Pony Head groaned as the traffic light changed and opposing traffic cut them off from their friends. "If I had a hand, I would facepalm right now." She looked at Tom. "Tom, quick, hit me in the face."

"What?! I'm not gonna hit you!"

"What, I didn't say punch me! Weren't you listening? I want to facepalm but I don't have any- you know what, never mind, forget it, the moment's gone. You ruin everything.""

As she watched Star and Marco slowly share kiss after kiss and stare deeply into each other's eyes, Janna crossed her arms in annoyance. "Alright. We've been putting up with this for a year now. It's about time we have a little talk with the lovebirds."

Tom nodded. "Agreed. It's for their own good."

"Um, no, no it isn't, it's for our own good," Pony Head snapped. "Because if they don't stop, we'll be late every singe time we get food and the three of us will starve to death."

"Man, Britta's has never looked so..." Star searched for the right words.

"Shiny and clean?" Marco suggested through a mouthful of taco.

"Yeah, that's it! Shiny and clean!" She frowned. "It feels wrong."

Marco swallowed and wiped his mouth off. "Honestly, kinda ruins the charm."

"Oh, definitely." Star picked up her burrito and took a comically large bite. "Still delicious, though!"

Indeed, the new Britta's Tacos stand (built slightly to the left of the original's location on account of the magic-induced sinkhole) was a gleaming recreation of its former self. The sun-faded and stained outdoor-only seating had also been replaced with brand-new, clean, more comfortable tables...that were somehow just not as good. Regardless, the banner strung from the roof proclaiming "Grand Reopening" had brought in a sizable lunch crowd, the picturesque weather assisting further.

Janna, Tom, and Pony Head reached the table with their own food, Janna carrying Pony's lunch on her tray, each looking rather grouchy. After Star and Marco had made them have to wait on the walk there, the couple had managed to get their food first.

"Isn't it so great to be back here, guys?" Star asked enthusiastically, completely oblivious to her friends' sour moods. "I'm so excited that you finally get to try Britta's, Pony!"

"Uh-huh. Yeah. So great."

Star looked back at Marco. The sun was shining through the fabric of the umbrella shading their table directly behind his head, giving her boyfriend's head the illusion of glowing as he bit into his taco. The trio opposite them rolled their eyes again as Star's pupils doubled in size and began to shimmer with reverence.

"Ohhhhh, Marco!" she said in a loud whisper. "You're so beautiful!"

Marco swallowed his food. "Aww, so are you, Star."

She giggled softly and slid over closer to Marco until she was right up against him, an occurrence Marco had become so accustomed to that he automatically put his arm around her and held her tightly to him as she comfortably nestled into his side.

"Love you, Star," he whispered, kissing the top of her head.

"Heehee. Love you, too, Marco."

Janna, Tom and Pony Head stared, annoyance growing behind their eyes. None of them even felt much like eating anymore.

"Okay, that's it," Janna sighed. "You guys, we need to talk."

Star and Marco frowned, both equally taken aback. Marco set what was left of his taco back on his plate. "Um...okay...what's up?"

Janna tapped a finger on the table. "How to put this...?"

Tom picked up the conversational baton. "You guys know we love you two, which makes this hard to say but, it has to be done. See..." He looked up into the umbrella overhead, also searching for the right words. "Whenever we're around you guys...we, uh..."

"We wanna puke!" Pony Head blurted out.

Star and Marco each raised an eyebrow. "Wha...?"

Janna gave a huff. "Look you guys, we know you two were really, really happy to be back together when Earth and Mewni merged, but it's been over a year! You two have practically become dependent on giving each other affection, and it's really embarrassing and uncomfortable to be around, especially in public. And that's coming from someone who lives for making others feel uncomfortable."

Star could not believe what she was hearing. "We are not dependent on each other's affection!"

"Yeah!" Marco agreed.

"You're also completely oblivious to everything happening around you whenever you guys start getting all...cutesy," Tom explained with a cringe.

"Its just gross!" Pony Head cried. "And you two need to cool it, okay? There, I said it, I didn't wanna say it, but I said it."

Star put her arm around Marco's shoulders, pursing her lips in annoyance. "Well, I'm sorry that we enjoy showing our love for each other and aren't embarrassed to do it in public like some people."

"...Who are you referring to?" Tom asked. "I know not me because you and I kissed in public before."

His question went ignored. "And we most definitely do not have a problem!" Marco added, turning up his nose.

"Oh, please," Janna scoffed. "You two would explode if you went five minutes without making out."

Star gave a dismissive wave. "C'mon, that's not true!"

Janna lowered her eyes in disgust. "Star, you guys literally starting kissing the second you finished that sentence."

Indeed, they had. The girl broke away from her boyfriend's lips. "So? Kissing is, like, the best thing ever!"

Tom sighed. "Uh-huh. And you're addicted to it."

"Hey, we could stop any time we wanted to! It's just that..."

"...We really don't want to," Marco finished.

Inspiration struck. Tom noticed the smirk on Janna's face and knew she had some kind of devious plot brewing. She leaned across the table and very deliberately asked, "You guys wanna bet?"

"Oooooooohhhh! Hahaha!" Pony Head laughed. "You're in for it now!"

Star and Marco exchanged a look, each silently conveying to the other that this was a challenge that they could not back down from.

"You bet we wanna bet!" Star agreed. "We'll prove to you that we don't have a problem! Right, Marco?"

"Right! Um...what's the bet?"

Janna waggled her eyebrows at Tom and Pony Head, still smirking. "Twenty-four hours. I'll bet that you can't go without affection for twenty-four hours."

"Ha! Piece of cake!" Star said confidently.

Marco crossed his arms. "Totally. Star and I have actually spent some time apart since we got together."

"Exactly! I'll just go stay in my old room at the Monster Temple with Eclipsa tonight. Zero temptation!"

Janna shook her head. "No, no, no."

"Yeah, that's cheating." Tom tapped his finger on the table to make his point. "The whole point of this is to teach you to restrain yourselves when you are together."

"Exactly!" Janna said. "You have to stay together for the whole twenty-four hours and resist being affectionate. In fact..." Her mouth curled into a devious grin. "...I have a great idea."

As they watched Janna stand up and walk around to their side of the table, her hands clasped behind her back, Star and Marco were no longer feeling quite so confident.

"Stand up," Janna told them. They did so slowly, brimming with nervous apprehension. "Now hold hands."

They smiled at each other lovingly, interlacing their fingers. They loved holding hands just as much as any other affection.

Janna shook her head. "No, not like that. Hold hands like you'd shake hands with a lawyer."

The pair looked confused but released their clasped hands and then rejoined them with only their thumb joints crossed. Before they even knew what was happening, they jumped in surprise as a pair of handcuffs suddenly snapped onto their wrists. The chain holding the binders together provided so little slack that they couldn't stop holding hands even if they wanted to.

"There," Janna declared. "Now not only will you be forced to stay together, you also won't be able to stop touching, either."

"Ohh, Gurrlllll!" Pony Head exclaimed. "That is just devious! Forcing them to be in contact so that their endorphins will constantly be flowing and tempting them to be even more affectionate!"

The other four stared at the disembodied unicorn with blank surprise.

"What? I watch a lot of tv, okay? I get earth channels and Mewni channels now! And I remember stuff!"

Tom shot Pony Head a knowing look. "Did you remember that because it was being explained by a hot scientist?"

Pony made a motion that would have been a shrug if she had shoulders. "What can I say? He sure had my endorphins flowing," she cooed.

The now-captive couple exchanged another glance. No words were necessary to convey the mutual "This may have been a mistake" feeling.

"Uh, Janna," Marco said slowly, hoping for a way out of the challenge, "How exactly do you plan to monitor us? What are you gonna do? Come watch us while we sleep to make sure we don't cheat?"

Star rolled her eyes. "Oh, sure, Diaz. Way to just up and give away our only opportunity to smooch for an entire day."

Janna smiled and shook her head. "No need. I have this." She held up an object that she seemed to have obtained from thin air.

"What the heck is that?" Tom began to ask, but he barely got the first word out of his mouth before Star, Marco, and Pony Head chorused a surprised yelp of "Truth or Punishment?!"

"Janna, where in the world did you get that?" Star demanded, referring to the cube perched upon her friend's open palm.

Marco raised an eyebrow. "And where exactly...were you keeping that...on your person?"

"Glossaryck gave it to me last year," Janna said matter-of-factly. "And you don't need to know where it was."

Marco gave a dejected sigh. "Yeah, that seems about right."

"Janna, there's no way that thing is going to work," Star said. "Magic's gone, remember?"

"Doesn't matter. This thing isn't magic." She repeatedly tossed it up into the air and caught it as if it were merely a tennis ball as she explained. "It's an electronic device possessed by a demon. Suuuuuper weird. I love it. Anyway, if this thing can tell if a person is lying, I'm willing to bet it can tell if someone is cheating, too." She caught the box as it fell one last time and flipped it upsidedown. She twisted the dial on the bottom from "TRIAL" past "BACHELORETTE" and stopped at "INTERVENTION", setting the box down on the table. "Just so you know, Star, we're definitely trying out the 'Bachelorette' setting before you marry this dork."

A soft glow emanated from the cube as it slowly levitated up off the table.

"Is anyone going to explain to me what is happening?" Tom asked.

"No, shut up, no one cares about you," Pony snapped. "Listen!"

The box recited an opening poem as it had at Star's sleepover and Eclipsa's trial:

"You've got a problem, a habit, an addition,

Your friends all worry for your affliction.

Swear off your vice until you're cured

or else be punished forever more."

Marco grit his teeth. "Ooh, boy. I already hate this."

"Box," Janna said, "My friends here are addicted to affection. Keep them decent for a full twenty-four hours, please."

"Ooh hoo hoo! A bad case of the cuddle bug, eh? That's a new one!"

"Now we gotta walk around with that thing spying on us?" Marco groaned.

"Nah. Having it around would subconsciously remind you not to break the restriction. But I'm willing to bet this thing can detect when you're breaking the rules even if it can't see you."

"Oh, yes, indeed!" said the box. "I can detect when someone cheats from anywhere in the universe."

"Great!" Janna grabbed the box from where it floated. "I'll just hold onto it and then I'll be alerted if you've lost the bet or not. Oh, speaking of which, when you lose, you two aren't allowed to be all lovey-dovey around me and Tom and Pony Head for..." She looked at the demon and unicorn head. "The rest of time? Sound good?"

"Sounds great!" Pony agreed. Star and Marco cringed.

"I think that sounds kinda harsh," Tom said. "How about until they get married?"

Janna shrugged. "Okay, fair enough. That oughta be enough time for the romance to die."

Marco tried to cross his arms and Star let her left arm go limp so that he could pull it across to properly express his annoyance. "Awfully presumptuous of you to assume we'll lose."

Star then put her hands on her hips to express her own annoyance and Marco took a turn letting his right arm go limp so that she could show her own displeasure. "Yeah! You're proposing an awfully big penalty if we lose. What do we get when we win?"

"Ha!" Janna laughed. "Yeah, sure! Okay, I'll tell you what. I'm so confident that you're gonna lose, I'll put up something of mine that Marco has coveted for a long time."

Marco gasped, his eyes widening to the size of dinner plates. "You mean-?!"

"Yup. My box of Choco-X-Treme Admiral Blanche's Sugar Seeds."

Marco squealed in excitement. Star's brow furrowed in confusion. "'Admiral Blanche's Sugar Seeds?'"

Marco quickly explained. "It was a failed sister brand to Captain Blanch, and the Choco-X-Treme flavor was only available for a two week span in 1992, only in Madagascar, before it was outlawed by, well, every government in the world."

Intrigued, Star asked, "Why was it outlawed?"

"It has so much sugar in it, rumor has it that if you ate more than one bowl in less than six hours, your heart would race so fast it would literally explode," Janna said.

Star's eyes shimmered. She put her free hand on Marco's shoulder and looked hard into his eyes. "Marco, we HAVE to win that box of cereal!"

"Yes, yes we do! Alright, Janna, we accept your challenge!"

They held up their handcuffed hands and were able to part their palms just enough for Janna to slide her hand in the middle for an awkward three-way handshake.

"For four hours and twenty more, your affections shall be ceased," the Box of Truth said. "Lose and stop forever more, or until you wed, at least." The now familiar demon face on the telescopic inner slide of the box appeared, and Star and Marco each took a turn inserting their pinky to swear their oath to the box.

"Alright, game on," Janna said. "Box, you running a timer?"

"I began the instant you relayed to me the rules. There are twenty-three hours, fifty-four minutes, and seventeen seconds remaining."

"Great. Now that we have that out of the way, maybe we can actually have lunch now."

Tom looked down at his tray of food. He had ordered more than anyone else. "Oh, yeah, lunch! I almost forgot!"

"Yeah, all this betting actually brought back my appetite!" Pony Head exclaimed. "Can someone be my hands please?"

Janna returned to her seat. "I gotcha, Pony." She unwrapped Pony's taco and held it up.

"Aw, yeah, Britta's Taco's taco! Come to mama!" The shell crunched loudly as Pony took an excited first bite. Star and Marco watched her with anticipation to see her reaction.

"Whatdaya think, Pony?" Star asked.

The unicorn swallowed. "Mm. Kinda cold."

"Mine's cold, too," Tom said through a mouthful.

"Guess we spent too long talking," Marco laughed.

Janna snickered. "Your fault, lover boy."

Part 2 coming some undetermined amount of time from now. Follow so you don't miss out. It's gonna get awkward.

Leave a review and let me know what you think.