Disclaimer – I don't own the Chrono Trigger characters.

Love in Time

/Chapter One/

The door to the Ashtear house banged open. Walking through the doorway, Lucca loudly announced, "All men are scum."

The living room—always a mess of books, scrap metal, wires, blueprints and tools—contained a newly collaborative invention: an automated vacuum. No taller than two feet, it was shaped like an elephant with the trunk pointed to the ground, ready to devour dust and small bits of garbage. Currently, the top of its head was open, revealing a mass of wires which gave the appearance of a brain.

Her dad, Taban Ashtear, sat on his work stool before the machine. His back was hunched as he peered down at the wires and made necessary adjustments. "What have we done this time," he asked her.

Lucca slammed the door and marched over to the couch. A variety of tools cluttered the long upholstered seat. Within seconds, Lucca sent all tools clanking to the wooden floor. "Men don't know how to appreciate an intelligent woman," she answered, lying herself across the sofa.

Her dad made a move to clip a wire and then drew back his hand. He set his cap crimper down.

Lucca frowned and sat up. "Sorry, Dad. I didn't mean to distract you. Go on and finish what you're doing."

He stood and straightened himself. "No, no." His hands reached for the ceiling in a bone cracking stretch. "I needed a break." He dropped his arms to his sides and strolled to the couch where he fell into the spot next to her. "Besides, I'd much rather hear my daughter tell me why we men are the scum of the earth."

Lucca smiled sadly. "All men but you…and Crono, of course." She sighed and slumped against the couch. "Dad…" She turned her face to him. "What was it that first drew you to Mom?"

Drawing in a deep breath, Taban smiled widely. "Well, I'd have to say her eyes."

His answer resulted in Lucca rolling her eyes. "Typical," she muttered. Standing, she headed for the hallway door.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No. You just said the truth."

She went upstairs to her room. After she shut her bedroom door, she sat in front of her vanity.

The truth. Lucca stared into her vanity's mirror and pondered the truth that stared back at her. Unremarkable hair, average nose, and common eyes behind plain brown framed glasses; these were the features which formed her ordinary face. No wonder nobody paid her a passing glance. No wonder that while Crono and Marle had tied the knot over half a year ago, she was still alone.

She would always be alone. People wanted something to dazzle them, something beautiful. While her intelligence was to be admired, it failed to dazzle. Unlike her mom's, her face stopped no guy in their tracks. Unlike Marle's soft graceful body, her trim build made no man dry in the mouth. She was once told that a man must be caught. With looks like hers, her line would always come up bare.

She rested her head on her vanity's top and sighed. A light knocking on her door disturbed her. "Lucca?" The voice belonged to her mom, Lara.

"Yes, mom?"

"Can I come in, honey?"

"Sure."

Lucca heard her door open and mom's footsteps as she entered the room. "Lucca, you're dad said you might want to talk to another female about the…dirt of the earth." The uncertainty in her mom's voice was obvious.

Lucca chuckled and lifted her head. "The scum of the earth, Mom."

"Oh." Her mom shut the door and walked over to Lucca's bed.

Lucca turned on her stool to keep her mom in sight. When her mom sat on her bed, Lucca demanded, "Why couldn't I have gotten your eyes."

Her mom blinked several times, eyelids hiding then revealing the baffled orbs that Lucca had not inherited. "My eyes?"

"Yes, your eyes." Her hand swept from her head to her knees, as she said, "Then there would have been at least one thing attractive about me."

"Oh, Lucca." Her mom's gaze grew gentle. She stood and moved to Lucca, kneeling in front of her. Her hand reached up and cupped the side of Lucca's face. "You are beautiful."

Lucca's gaze fell away from her mom to the clasped hands in her lap. She spoke in a soft and wavering voice. "You're the only one who seems to think so."

Her mom's hands covered her clasped ones, and she gave them a tender squeeze. "That can't be true. What about that Reede boy, you've been spending so much time with?"

Reede? The guy with the messy brown hair and crooked smile? The guy whose voice started her stomach dancing the jig? That Reede? She didn't want to talk about him.

"You guys have been spending a lot of time together."

"Doing work."

"Oh, but you seem to get along so well. I thought—"

"He has a girlfriend!"

"I'm sorry, Lucca. I didn't mean to imply…I didn't know."

"I didn't either until today." And what a shock finding that out had been. "I had been thinking along the same lines as you, Mom," she confessed. "But I should have known better. When Reede first approached me, it was because of my intelligence. He wanted to use some of my inventions to help him in his repair business. As I taught him to use my machines and helped him with his projects, he always told me how smart I was and how he admired my genius. I knew his admiration only went as far as my mind, but…" Lucca clenched her hands. "I loved him, Mom. I really loved him." Her eyes welled with tears which in moments spilled down her cheeks.

Her mom's warm and comforting arms soon slipped around her shoulders. "It's going to be okay, Lucca. I know it hurts now, but the pain will fade." Her mom rested her chin atop of her head.

Lucca leaned against her mom, wrapping her arms around her waist. Hugging tightly, she took in her mother's warmth, her comfort, her tenderness. After several minutes, her tears subsided, but the ache in her heart remained.

"Will I ever find true love," she asked in a whisper.

"Of course you will. You've just got to be patient," her mom murmured. "Like all good things, love comes in time."

After a moment, Lucca grinned. "You do know how corny that sounds, don't you?"

Her mom pulled back from their hug and smiled down into Lucca's eyes. "As smart as you are, I'd thought you'd know that some of the truest things in life are the corniest things."

Lucca's grinned widened. "Like how a full stomach can help a broken heart."

"I've never heard that one, but I can take a hint." Her mom headed for the door. "I'll get started on dinner."

After the door shut, Lucca stood and flopped back on her bed. While her gaze focused on the ceiling, her mind's focus was elsewhere. Tomorrow, she and Reede were supposed to finish repairing a table for the Housto family. The table's top needed a good sanding and a fresh coat of paint. She needed to show Reede how to use the new sander she'd invented, the Sander 1000. But she didn't know if she could bear being in the same room with Reede now.

I could pretend to be sick, she reasoned. He doesn't need to use the new sander. Even though there was no great necessity in presenting Reede with the sander the next day, she knew that he would be thrilled to see it. His eyes would lock on her in that thankful, tender way she craved. She pictured that look, and her heart clenched.

"No. Stop. Stop," she told herself, trying in vain to push the image from her mind. She tried not to think of his soft brown eyes, strong square jaw, and inviting parted lips. "Oh!" She jumped to her feet and shook her head. "I've got to distract myself."

In vain, she looked around her room for anything that would stop her from thinking of Reede. Her gaze stopped on her reflection, at the chain that peeked from beneath her collar. "Perfect."

She opened her door and jogged down the steps. "Lucca?" Her mom called from the kitchen. "Something wrong?"

"Everything's fine," she called back, coming into the living room.

Her dad was back in front of the elephant vacuum. He looked up at her as she jogged passed him. She waved and said, "I'll be back in time for dinner." Then she disappeared through the front door.

She arrived at her destination minutes later. Slowing her jog to a walk, she eventually came to a stop. She bent over, pressing her hands against her thighs as she gasped for air. When her breathing returned to normal, she declared, "I am so out of shape!"

After straightening herself, Lucca locked her eyes on the thing she'd come to see.

Hidden deep within Guardia Forsest, the Epoch glinted in the sunlight that managed to stream through the foliage of the well aged trees. Lucca had hidden the machine years ago. She, Crono, and Marle had come to the agreement that if the Epoch should be destroyed. With the world saved, there was no need for the Epoch, a machine that could be used to do great evil if in the wrong hands. She'd said she would destroy the machine, but when she went to do it, she couldn't. The Epoch contained so much technology. It would be a crime to destroy it. So she didn't.

She'd told Crono and Marle otherwise.

Knowing her friends would not share her sentiments, she hid the machine. "This is all that's left," she told them, showing them the machine's key. "And I think I'll keep it, for sentimental value." Neither friend questioned her. Why should they. She was honest and logical Lucca.

Her dishonesty bothered her, but she assured herself that she would eventually destroy the machine. After she got all the information she wanted from it.

She spent many hours in the forest, studying the Epoch, taking it apart bit by bit, and putting it back together bit by bit. She filled up books with what she learned from it, and was amazed at how much knowledge went into the making of it.

But one day she was distracted from her work by a pair of enchanting brown eyes. And in the passing of three months she all but forgot about the Epoch.

With effort she pushed those eyes from her mind and focused on the machine in front of her. "It's been awhile," she said, gliding her hand across its smooth metallic surface.

Reaching inside her shirt she pulled out the key that hung on the chain around her neck. She unlocked the Epoch, and remembrance washed over her. Crono insisted being the one to pilot the Epoch, but whenever she was part of his traveling group, she was the one in the pilot's seat. The seats lowered, and Lucca smiled, taking the seat that had always caused such a commotion between her and Crono. "No one to argue with me now," she mused, pressing the button that would take the seats up.

As the seats rose, Lucca heard a voice and her heart froze. "Yeah, I saw her headed this way. And she was running awfully fast." That was Crono.

"I hope nothing's wrong." That was Marle.

"Shoot!" She couldn't let them see the Epoch. She shoved the key into the ignition and quickly turned it. Just as quickly she pulled the lever that would send her hurtling through time, not caring what coordinates it was set to. All she cared about was moving the machine before Crono and Marle came upon her.

But as the Epoch powered up for the shift in time, Marle and Crono ambled into the clearing. Their eyes fastened to the Epoch, to the driver in its seat. For a moment, as Lucca stared back, her world stood still. Then Epoch sent her plunging back in time.