BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BE-

The whine of an alarm clock is silenced as a groggy but well rested Marco Diaz began to shrug off his initial drowsiness after a good night's sleep. After taking a moment to sit up and stretch, Marco let out a contented yawn and blinked his eyes to adjust to the bright rays coming in through his window.

For a moment Marco wondered to himself what seemed different about this Sunday morning. Why did he feel so relaxed? While many would call him a spaz and a worrywart, even he realized that there was a little less tension in his muscles than usual. He couldn't put his finger on why until his eyes swept over the room and caught his wall clock; it read 6:45 am.

Marco rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked again, squinting to make sure he wasn't mistaken. "Not even seven o'clock...? Why did my alarm go off so early?" Confused, he glanced back over at his alarm clock which greeted him with the time he expected to see, 7:45.

Now the realization trickled down over him. "Daylight Saving Time, that's right." This morning they skipped forward an hour, and now Marco remembered his plan from last night: Go to sleep two hours early and hopefully circumvent the frustration of waking up an hour earlier than his body is used to.

Thankful for the extra rest, Marco got out of bed and made his way toward to bathroom door. He knew that he would still have plenty of time to start the morning off right. There would be ample time to get cleaned up, make some breakfast, and still catch whatever Sunday morning movie marathon would be playing once Star came down and they were done eating. His was a weekly morning ritual that he was way too comfortable with to break over a simple change of the clock.

Making his way into the bathroom with a fresh towel, he glanced over at the vanity and noticed his stuff a little disorganized from the previous night. He shrugged and decided he'd rather clean it up now than after he's done in the shower. At least it isn't THAT big of a mess he thought, looking over at the toiletries and tools that were piled up around the other side of the sink to the right of his own. He could never forget that he currently shared his bathroom with his polar opposite when it comes to organization. "As long as it's not on my side, she can keep it" he said to himself. He managed a small chuckle at the mess and went back to finishing up with his own side.

After spending over half a year living with Star Butterfly, Marco has become accustomed to clutter that, at one time, may have given him a panic attack. He could never imagine treating his own stuff the same way, but Star is just a bright, eccentric ball of energy that has her own way of doing things. Being a little disorganized is something he can ignore if it means having the coolest best friend a guy could ask for. As far as he is concerned, nobody else on Earth has the privilege of calling an inter-dimensional princess with a magic wand their bestie. Just last week they were in a dimension full of giant, marshmallow-like trees and rode a cloud through a candy rain. It was practically an understatement to say that life was interesting in the best possible way.

Marco cleared off any residual pieces of hair, toothpaste stains, and drops of water and reorganized his side completely after a few minutes. He took a moment to review his work before giving his seal of approval and deciding it was time to have a nice, long, and relaxing shower. He brought the water temperature to a comfortable heat, letting out a sigh of relief as he felt the not-quite scalding droplets of water begin to melt away his tension from a week of classes and chaotic hijinks. He finally lowered his guard and just soaked in the intoxicating heat of a well-deserved shower, apathetic to his surroundings and unaware that another member of the house was already awake and moving around just one room over.

"Awesome feeling

We started out as friend-nemies

But then you opened up to me

And found that we have chemistry..."

Star was bobbing her head up and down excitedly, mouthing the words to one of her favorite Love Sentence songs as it blasted through a pair of headphones she poofed up with her wand a month ago. She wasn't sure why, but she felt ever so slightly tired and disoriented, as though she had dragged herself out of bed earlier than usual. She brushed the thought off, knowing that she always slept the same amount if nobody or nothing woke her up first. Something, nonetheless, still seemed off. It may not have been apparent from the outside, as she was always putting out her infectious, bubbly attitude when she got up, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't quite fully alert like she should have been.

Star looked around her room, nothing seemed out of place; it was just a normal Sunday morning. She could have sworn the far side of the room seemed a little dim, but that detail wasn't quite suspicious enough to hold her attention. Not quite sure what to make of the weird vibes, she decided that she could go downstairs and ask Marco about it when she was done in the shower. She felt off, but she was still excited for another Sunday with her bestie and looked forward to finding out what they would catch on TV or to, perhaps, checking off yet another dimension from her list of totally cool places to show Marco.

She got her things to get ready for her shower and sauntered into the bathroom, still bumping to the song and enjoying herself. Ever since she made her magical headphones, she has taken to occasionally showering with her music. Since her headphones were powered by her magic instead of electricity, they were waterproof, and, as far as Star's concerned, Love Sentence can make even a quiet morning shower into a fun little concert.

Star noticed the humidity in the air as she smirked and thought to herself while the song continued blaring in her ears. Silly Marco. Someone must have been running late. Hope he didn't steal all of the hot water before he was done. She also noticed the fresh towel Marco left in the room and smiled. At least he left a clean towel as an apology, she concluded. She stripped off her pajamas and placed them over by the sink, then grabbing the towel to hang over the shower. She opened the door to get in and clean up.

"And you were like, "ooh-ahh-ooh"

And I was like, "ooh-eee-ooh"

White tiger's like-"

"WHAAAAHHHHHHHHH!? STAR!?" Star shot up and her eyes popped open as she tensed up and raised her arms reflexively in a combat posture, startled silly by the unexpected noise. She regained her senses and looked ahead to see Marco's shocked face. For a moment she wondered what was wrong. The next moment she realized that he wasn't wearing any clothes... and the moment after that she remembered that she, too, was not wearing any clothes.

Star froze up and looked at Marco for a second, paralyzed by embarrassment, confusion, and... something else? After a few seconds she snapped out of her daze and immediately reddened as she realized what she was doing.

"I-I-I'M S-S-SORRY, M-MARCO!"

She took a step backward, bolting out of the shower. Then she grabbed the towel, wrapped it around herself and shut the shower door. Her knees gave out under her and she dropped to the floor, leaning against the now closed shower door. She was shaking for a moment, as she had not been prepared for the awkward and vulnerable moment that she had just shared with her best friend.

Marco was also no longer on his feet, experiencing a similar loss of leg strength at the sudden, violent disruption of his relaxing shower and the extreme violation of his privacy that followed. He had just found himself in a situation he could not have been prepared for: he was nude and Star had just walked in on him, the tiny shower space barely having room to contain the both of them, and reactively screamed out in embarrassment. When she froze up and stared at him, he did the same, the fact that he was looking at an uncovered Star Butterfly hitting him like a brick.

It couldn't have lasted for more than three or four seconds, but they both succumbed to feelings of self-consciousness and were left speechless after Star finally placed the shower door between them once more. He sat against the door from his side and shook his head, rebooting his faculties and trying to come to terms with what had just happened.

Star had walked in on him during his shower time, so this was her goof up... and yet Marco felt absolutely guilty, as though he had taken advantage of his best friend in a vulnerable state.

A few more seconds ticked by and his nerves began to loosen back up, the shocked expression not daring to leave his face just yet. He was practically catatonic, not entirely sure himself what he was thinking about now.

"Marco... I-I wasn't expecting you to be in the shower ... it's a Sunday... y-you're usually done when I wake up..." Marco heard from Star as she tried to move past the awkward silence filled with tension thicker than the heavily humid air in the bathroom. Marco didn't respond at first, and Star felt completely incapable of overcoming the uncharacteristic caution she felt as she considered her next words.

"...Star," Marco finally spoke through the lump that formed in his throat, "It's 8:00, we went to bed early last night because we lost an hour..."

Suddenly the realization came around to Star too. She remembered seeing Marco messing with his alarm clock, trying to explain "Daylight Savings Day" or whatever it was and suggesting they go to sleep early to make up for it. She must have gone to sleep too early and woke up during Marco's shower time. She stared ahead to the sink, realizing why she felt like something was off this morning and realizing that she had goofed big time.

"Oh..." Was all she could make out as she continued to process both her mistake and the consequence of it. She felt as though she had leaped over a painfully tall hurdle that she shouldn't have. She wanted to turn around and hop back over it, but she couldn't. Everything felt wrong. There were now feelings of awkwardness, uncertainty, cloudiness, transgression, betrayal; things weren't supposed to be like this. Star felt like the worst friend in the world.

She breathed in to apologize properly and try to push through this moment, but her breath hitched as her mind wandered back to that frightening, brief moment where they were both completely unclothed, standing face to face, red-faced, and frozen, staring wide-eyed in one another's direction. She shook her head, clearing away those thoughts and slowly found her voice once more.

"Marco?"

"Yes, Star?" Marco said as he regained a little more control of his thoughts, determined to fix whatever this was.

"...Are we still friends?"

"Of course we are still friends."

Star let out a small sigh of relief and continued.

"Friends make mistakes, right?"

"...They do."

" And when they do, they forgive each other, right?"

"They forgive each other, Star."

With those words, Star finally calmed down. She was able to regain some of her composure and was internally thanking Marco for being so patient with her. She didn't usually mind sharing the bathroom with Marco, but she thought perhaps it was best that she leave him be for the rest of his shower. She stood up to go grab her pajamas and move back into her room before she heard Marco's voice.

"Star?" It sounded like something else had occurred to him.

"Yes, Marco?" she replied

"...Can you get me a new towel?".

Star looked down and realized that the towel now wrapped around her body must have been the one he was intending to use.

"Okay."

Star gathered her things and left the bathroom. She returned to drop off a new towel but had once again lost her voice as she returned to her room, trying to avoid thinking about what happened. She laid on her bed and looked up at the ceiling, placing her hands on her face. She felt like she had a fever, and she knew that her efforts of dropping the matter were ultimately doomed until Marco was ready to relinquish the bathroom to her.

What Star was unaware of was that Marco hadn't yet returned to his feet, also struggling to stop thinking about what had just happened and wondering about the effect it was having on his state of mind.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read. I've never done this before, but the idea has been stirring in my head all week thanks to the deviantart post "An Awkward Situation" by dm29 making its way to the Star vs Subreddit. It got the gears spinning and so brought me to this idea. This is not a one-shot, I will be continuing it soon, but it is definitely not supposed to be a very long story either.

The thumbnail is from this work by Judacris on his tumblr page * post/160554807754/well-this-is-kinda-awkward-more-star-vs

I appreciate any feedback you can give me as I pave my way through the rest of this drought of a hiatus.