(8) Experiments

"Wow, isn't there anything worth watching today?"

Marco halfheartedly grunted in agreement with Star's complaint as they sprawled out on the couch, the incessant beating of the sun outside locking them in for the day. The reptilian girl huffed in frustration as she flipped through the channels, the remote laying slack in her hand as the other propped up her head against the armrest.

"Your parents should've never switched to satellite," she grumbled.

"Hey, you're the one who punched a hole in it during magic practice," Marco shot back. "We're just lucky Glossaryck agreed to repair it. Maybe he should be teaching you that magic instead." Star pouted and let out a low grumble as she kept searching, her thumb now angrily smashing the button over and over again. Marco looked over in disappointment at her soured mood. He reached out with his sock-clad foot and gently poked her side.

"Hey come on, it's not all bad," he said. Star said nothing, but Marco saw her nose briefly flare before settling again. Marco pursed his lips tight and thought for a brief moment on how to get her to open up, before a devious smirk came across his face. He threw himself up into a sitting position and quietly snuck his hand across the couch. Once he was sure Star was still occupied with the television, he quickly pressed his fingers against her side and started flicking them back and forth.

"H-Hey!" Star let out even as she held back a laugh. "S-Stop! That tickles!" Her pleas fell on deaf ears as the boy quickly switched hands, throwing his left arm around her to get to her other side. She doubled over, her face cracking into excited laughter as she held her hands to her ribs. Marco briefly relented just long enough to encircle her and pull her off the edge of the couch, pinning her tail between her back and his torso as he held her there with one arm, his other hand assaulting her slender stomach. She weakly pawed at his arm as tears began welling up in her eyes, writhing against the boy frantically.

"S-S-Stoop! I'm sorry, okay?" Star managed to choke out through her spasming giggle fit. Marco released her after one last vigorous flick to her navel, and she slumped against him, breathing heavily.

"You meanie!" she giggled, slapping him lightly across the cheek with her tail. Marco laughed and put his arm around her again, pulling the girl into his lap and popping his head out to rest just above her shoulder, enjoying the mild response as she willingly let herself sink into him. He reached over to grab the remote and, to his surprise, found Star's hand blocking him. He opened his mouth to speak when he saw Star's face transfixed upon the television screen.

"Marco, what is that?" Star quietly said as she pointed to the television. Marco's eyes followed her finger to the screen, where two chefs were engaged in what appeared to be a basic baking tutorial, both women preparing a dish unknown to them. Marco observed as the chefs each whipped out a fresh pie from the oven in front of them, the surfaces a rich, decadent brown. Marco could almost smell the chocolate through the screen as Star's eyes widened.

"Ooooh, that looks delicious! Hey Marco, have you ever tried baking?"

"Uh, not really, but I know how to do some basic stuff. Dough, pastry filling, stuff like that," he replied. "You wanna try Earth baking?"

"Totally. Mewni's baking techniques are usually really dangerous, so I never really took interest. Kinda hard to make soufflé with dragon fire," Star cheekily said, one hand already beckoning him off the couch. Marco laughed and stood up.

"I guess it's better than channel surfing. I'll look up a recipe, you get Mom's number ready. We can have her pick up anything we need." Star exaggeratedly saluted before running off to get the home phone. Marco shook his head in amusement as he pulled out his phone and began searching for the cooking channel's website.

---

Angela Diaz shoved one foot through the door as she carefully stepped inside the front door of her home, breathing a sigh of relief as her son dashed over from his seat on the couch to take one of the grocery bags she held off her hands. The older woman snickered as she walked into the kitchen and saw Star excitedly bouncing in place, her dress covered by a bright pink apron, a cute frill running along the straps. Placing her bag down beside Marco's, she looked to her two teenagers.

"I must say, calling me out of the blue with this was a bit strange, but I'm glad you're taking an interest in new things, Star," Angela said. Star grinned and said nothing as her hands moved with frightening speed, unpacking the paper bags with a glint in her eyes. Marco and Angela both backed up to avoid the flurry of ripped bag paper, their eyes following Star's pace.

"Marco, you got the recipe ready?" Star asked. Marco blinked and nodded, pulling out his phone and walking over to the counter drawers, opening one and grabbing a pad of paper from inside. Taking a pen out of his hoodie pocket, he began scrawling the directions down before Star interrupted him with a tap on the shoulder.

"Go ahead and change into something lighter. I'll finish this," she said, beaming at him. Marco shrugged and headed up the stairs to change as Star began measuring out the ingredients. Angie quietly slipped away to the living room, a smile on her face.

---

"Alright, let's first get the dough crust made. We'll need the flour, butter, yeast and salt," Marco said, having descended into the kitchen in a simple black shirt and jeans, a pair of steel-toe boots encasing his feet up to the lower calf. Star eyes his footwear quizzically for a moment before brushing it off and collecting the butter from the fridge, setting it beside the powders. She threw the salt and flour into a bowl, briefly reaching over to add a dash of sugar to the mound for good measure. She looked over to see Marco getting out a mandoline from a drawer. He laid out the stick-and-a-half of butter and took a knife to each, scoring the pieces four-fifths of the way vertically before setting his knife aside and adjusting the mandoline to the batonnet thickness. Star set a small bowl beneath him as he quickly ran the sticks down to the nub against the blade, each stroke producing four pea-sized bunks of butter that fell into the bowl.

"You sure you never got into baking?" Star asked as she observed him.

"Nah, I just know how to use this from salsa-making," Marco replied. He silently thanked his mother for texting him some baking shortcuts beforehand as he set the mandoline aside, roughly chopping up the nubs of butter. He threw the bits into the flour bowl alongside a bit of vegetable shortening.

"Now this is what you use if you want to get serious about your salsa," Marco said as he pulled the food processor towards him from across the counter. Setting the blade over the bowl, he gently lowered it into the mix and let the machine pulse slowly for a half-minute, pouring a half-cup of cold water in gradually as Star observed with a mild sense of frustration, her foot impatiently tapping against the floor.

"Am I gonna actually cook at some point?" she accusingly inquired. Marco stopped the blade with a sheepish chuckle as he ejected the blade safely into the sink.

"Sorry Star. Here, you wanna knead the dough?" he asked, removing the vaguely spherical lump of dough from the bowl and setting it down on a board, dusting the surface of the wood with flour. Star huffed and took the dough in her hands, sinking her fingers into the soft substance and ripping fissures along the surface, her brow raised in confusion. Marco shook his head and walked around behind her, gently dipping his fingertips into the flour of the board as he went.

"M-Marco?" Star stuttered out as she felt his back press into hers, the boy's larger hands reaching around and resting on top of hers.

"It's alright, Star. Let me show you," Marco softly replied, Star feeling the fleeting presence of his breath on her ear. "Gather it all up into a mound, then gently push the top part forwards with your palm." Star meekly obliged, smoothing the dough back into a pile and pushing her hand down against the dough. Marco's hands came over hers and guided her as she pushed the top half over, then rolled it back over and pushed in again on a different side, gradually flipping the pile over while curling it in on itself. She blushed as she took in the heat and heartbeat behind her, her fingers finding their way between his. She turned her head to see Marco watching both her hands and face, and gasped as he leaned in and kissed her softly.

"You're cute when you're embarrassed, you know that?" he said. Star blushed harder and leaned in to close the gap, both of their hands leaving the dough for each other as they slipped into the heat of intimate touch, reveling in the feel of soft flesh and shy tongues.

From the living room, Angela Diaz smiled behind the camera of her phone and shot a thumbs-up to her husband, who got up from the sofa and beckoned her as he began walking up the staircase. She followed with a smile towards their bedroom, letting out a shocked giggle as her husband's hand pinched her rear. Entering their bedroom, she grinned devilishly as she pushed Rafael back on the bed with one hand, closing the door behind her as her other hand freed the top button of her blouse.

The kids wouldn't be done with their cooking for a while.

Neither Star or Marco seemed to notice the light thumping sounds above them as they finally cut their embrace short to let the dough chill and rise, wrapping the soft substance in plastic and chucking it in the fridge. Star gathered up the wet ingredients for the filling as Marco leaned back and observed, content to let her take the reins.

"Okay, so combine the whipping cream, peanut butter and chipped chocolate, then add the softened butter," she muttered under her breath as she went. Marco held his mouth to stifle a giggle at her almost grim seriousness as she hunched over the bowl, her arm a flurry as she stirred. Star set the batter spatula aside and grabbed the electric beater they had set up, gently lowering the head into the mixture and letting her finger tap the "low" button in rhythm.

"When did you learn how to use that?" Marco asked.

"I just watched you with the dough," Star said, her eyes never leaving the bowl. Marco shrugged and looked over at the timer he'd set for the dough, and grabbed it from the fridge to begin rising. Star set the beater aside, filling a measuring cup with water and gently spinning the head inside the liquid to rinse it before turning the power off.

"So what now?" she asked. Marco looked up from setting the rise timer.

"We need to wait a bit for the dough to rise. Let's see if this filling is any good in the meantime," he replied. Grabbing a spoon from the utensil drawer, he dipped the tip into the bowl, brought it to his mouth, and immediately let out a noise. His mouth almost hurt with the intensity at which his jaw tightened, the flavor running over his tongue and enveloping all of his other senses with fleeting bliss. His face went slack as he dropped the spoon on the counter. Star raised a brow with a worried expression.

"Is it bad?" she said, taking a step forward. She was prevented from saying anything further as Marco picked up the spoon and almost shoved a light scoop of the filling into Star's mouth. Her shoulders relaxed as the sensation shot through her head, her tongue lolling out of her mouth in nirvana.

"Whoa...," she whispered. Marco laughed and tapped the spoon against her slack tongue, drawing a yelp of surprise from Star as she pulled her tongue back in with an annoyed grunt. She dipped one finger into the bowl and ran the filling across Marco's face.

"Hey!" Marco shouted, returning the favor with his spoon. Star put her hand up even as she felt the metal glide across her cheek, managing to catch his hand as he doubled back for a second swing. She giggled before gasping as he shot his head forward, licking the streak he had just left off of her. She blushed harshly and stuttered, giving Marco time to land another thick line of filling on her chin. Huffing, she gave up trying to fight him and reached for a paper towel, wiping the filling off her face.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Marco sheepishly said. Star rolled her eyes at him.

"It's fine," she said." She and Marco both jumped as the timer went off, beeping incessantly before Marco's finger silenced it. Star quickly grabbed the beater and began one last round of mixing as Marco began shaping the dough into the two pie pans on the stove. As Marco set the crusts to bake, Star grinned, wrapping the filling bowl with plastic sheet and setting it in the fridge.

"Now we just need about 15 minutes for those to brown and we'll be good," Marco said, already setting the timer. Star turned to him with a smile.

"I really appreciate you sticking through this for me, Marco," she spoke softly. Marco grinned and put an arm around her in a side hug, the girl tucking her head against his shoulder.

"Hey, we had fun with it, right? Besides, this peanut butter pie's gonna be awesome," he replied. The two laughed softly and leaned back against the counter contentedly.

It was only then that the thumping above them grew loud enough to hear. The two teenagers looked up, Marco's blush appearing first alongside his disgusted expression.

"Ewwwwwww."