"Crono!"
"Crono!"
"Crono, come on sleepy head get up. One of your friends is here to see you!"
Crono reluctantly pushed his blankets out of the way and slowly got out of bed. He ran groggily down the steps wishing who ever it was could have decided to come later. He grinned when he saw Marle sitting at the table as his mom fed her breakfast despite her protests.
"Thank you, but I already had breakfast and I'm not really hungry right now,"
Crono's mom shook her head, "You're too skinny, you need to eat more!"
Marle sighed realizing that she would never be able to win an argument with her. She turned when she heard laughter behind her and saw the familiar wild haired figure. Crono's mom turned too.
"Finally Crono, Come on and sit down, breakfast is ready," she put down a plate laden with food in front of his normal chair. Crono sat down smiling at Marle's exasperated expression and she scraped some of her food onto Crono's plate as soon as his mother's back was turned. They ate in silence for a while concentrating on eating all the food his mother had set out for them. Crono's mother always went overboard when she cooked but it did not bother Crono any, he loved his mother's cooking.
Crono's mom smiled as she looked at them eating together. It had been so long since one of his friends had been over long enough to eat. Lucca used to come over all the time. She could still remember them dashing around the house chasing each other and racing to see who could get to the plate of cookies she always set out first. After the accident however Crono had become more withdrawn and hardly ever talked even to her. Once the Millennial fair had started something strange had happened. Crono would be gone for long periods of time. She had assumed that he was just at the fair but soon he had started bringing home some rather odd people. First it had been a robot, then a talking frog, then a woman dressed in animal furs that hardly covered her body, then there had been that strange man with the unusually pale skin and pointed ears. Finally the truth had come out and she had been so shocked that she had been tempted to lock Crono in his room for the rest of his life to make sure that he stayed home and did not go gallivanting through different eras trying to save the world. Now that he had assured her that it was all over she had been able to relax considerably.
Crono could tell that his mom was thinking about him, whenever she was she got this look on her face that made him want to run to her and hug her. When he and Marle had finally managed to finish eating he stood up. "I'll be back soon," he called out to his mom as he went out the door Marle trailing behind him. Once outside Marle dropped down on the grass holding her stomach, groaning. "Crono your mom is a super cook but I don't think that I needed to eat two breakfasts," she pulled Crono down next to her and they lay in the grass staring up at the clouds.
"I just wanted to talk to you, to make sure it's all real," Marle said. It had been about a week since they had defeated Lavos. Things had changed considerably, her father actually allowed her to go out of the castle without armed escorts, well as long as she promised that she would be with either Crono or Lucca and would not do any more time traveling, at least without consulting with him first. That however did not seem like it would be a problem. They were all content to be back in their own time, in their own homes, able to live their lives out normally without having to fight all the time.
Crono looked over at her and smiled, "Of course it's real," he said, but he knew what she meant.
"That's a relief, don't you love this Crono? Just being able to lie here without having to worry about anything?"
"Yeah," he had to admit that he loved it. Sure it had been interesting to travel through time, saving people, making the world better, but there were definitely a lot of things that he did not miss.
"I kind off miss them though. Like Ayla, she made everything seem special somehow, because they were so new to her and Frog, I wonder if he went back to the castle. What about Magus? Do you think he went back to being Janus? Do you think maybe him and Frog are friends?" Crono was a little caught off guard by all her questions but he did his best to answer. After a while Marle stood up and Crono followed. "Let's go see Lucca; I wonder what she's up to now. Race you!" She darted off laughing and Crono did his best to catch up, but even though he knew he could beat her he wanted to let her win knowing that she would delight in it.
Marle pounded on the door and a shocked looking Taban opened it as she burst threw dancing around in a circle, "I beat Crono!" she yelled. Lucca came in looking amused, then smiled when she saw the look Crono had on, knowing that he had let Marle win on purpose.
"You never let me win when we raced," she said to Crono making sure that Marle couldn't hear. Crono shrugged, "Sorry" he muttered.
"So what're you guys doing here?" Lucca asked perched on her bed
"Just wanted to talk too you and see what's up," Marle said bouncing on the twin bed.
"You meant see if my dad has invented another machine that winds up screwing up and creates a totally new portal?" Lucca grinned, "Believe me that's what I've been hoping but so far no luck. However he's decided to study the Epoch so we should probably be there to make sure he doesn't accidentally cause something to happen."
Marle jumped up, "YES!" she yelled happily, and Crono nodded, "Yeah we'll be there, just come and get us," he secretly hoped that maybe he would do something so that they could travel once more at least to visit some friends.
"I mean I guess if we felt like it we could go time traveling again. I mean think about there are some things we left undone. Like Schala, we never found out what happened to her," at the mention of Schala Crono suddenly started, "back in a few minutes," was all he said as he ran out of the room and they heard the front door open and close. Lucca and Marle looked at each other then shrugged. Marle was silent for a moment and then very hesitantly she asked Lucca, "How come Crono doesn't really talk much? I mean it doesn't bother me at all, just curious," Lucca's expression suddenly became somewhat sad.
"He used to be talkative before, he'd talk to everyone, everyone loved him, and I mean guess they still do. He spent as much time at my house as he did at his own, my mom thought he was the sweetest little thing in the world. I can still remember all the games we used to play together. There were times though when Crono would race home as fast as he could even if we were in the middle of something, it didn't matter. Those times were when his dad finally came home. Sometimes I'd go with him, I loved his dad. I can still remember him; he had wild hair just like Crono's and a red scratchy beard. He would sit on the couch his wife next to him snuggled up against him and Crono and I would sit on the floor in front of them and listen to all the tales he had to tell. He was an explorer, I guess an archeologist of some sort. Anyways he always had exciting things to tell, he'd talk in his deep gravely voice making it seem like we were actually there with him. Then one day Crono was at my house, he kept asking what time it was. 'What' my mom said, 'can't wait to get out of here?' Crono giggled then said, 'nope, daddy's coming home today' my mom ruffled his hair, 'When it's time I'll tell you' she said. We continued playing until my mom said his dad should be back any minute. Crono grabbed my hand and we ran as fast as we could, it had been a while since we had last seen him though I suppose it seemed longer because we were so little. We ran straight in and I can still remember the look of excitement on his face as he screamed, 'Daddy! Daddy!' Then his mom came over from the table where she had been sitting, she was crying and it scared me. She could barely talk and so I ran home to get my mom. When we got back Crono's mom was sitting on the top step and Crono had locked himself in his room. My mom sat down with Crono's mom and I managed to pick the lock to his room and went in. He was holding the toy sailboat his dad had made him and had silent tears running down his face. I hugged him and tried talking to him but he just ignored me. Finally my mom came in; she was crying too, she explained to me what had happened. Apparently she had gotten a letter from one of the people on Crono's father's expedition team. Their ship had been caught in a storm and crashed on an island. Some of the crew members were never found, Crono's father among them. After that Crono would barely talk, he's more talkative now then he has been in years," Lucca sighed remembering it all. Marle wiped a tear away. Poor Crono, he had been through so much, no wonder he had so much courage, he wanted to be like his adventurer father.
"That's so terrible; no wonder he's so quiet most of the time. I had no idea… That makes me realize how lucky I am to have made up with my father," they both suddenly jumped into a random conversation as they heard the door open again…