I do not own Chrono Cross.
Well, I finished the game, got the first ending, and while it was cool…it kinda left me wondering, you know? Anyway, I got this idea stuck in my head, and since I have difficulty working on other stories when I have an idea for something else lodged in my head, I decided to type this out. It's a romance fic, set after the end of the game, although it's a little bit different…(Possible spoiler alert!)
In this, the two worlds have become one, and the travelers have all retained full memories of what happened in the final battle. Kid is currently in Arni (yes, this is a Serge/Kid pairing, but that's not the main focus!) This is purely 'What if…', and I don't expect people to necessarily agree with the pairings that I hint at here…I know I'll probably get flamed, but I don't care. This is just something I thought might be a good follow-up to the game; you don't have to agree. So there.
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Korcha heaved a heavy sigh as he leaned against the wooden railing and gazed out at the rolling waves of the ocean, unusually quiet for once. The salty sea breeze ruffled his flame red mohawk unnoticed by the youth, for his thoughts were elsewhere. His gaze was drawn to the sea, and in that rippling sapphire surface he could see a pair of luminous blue eyes, eyes that seemed to be as deep as the ocean itself…
He was rudely jolted out of his reverie as a pair of hands abruptly seized the simple cord necklace he wore around his neck and yanked on it, pulling him backwards and nearly causing him to fall. Sputtering and choking, Korcha turned around and found himself looking into wide green eyes and a freckled face. He moaned inwardly; he might have known it was her…
"WhatCHA trying to do, Mel, kill me?" he demanded, glaring down at his little sister.
Mel responded by giving him a wide grin, and she tugged on his arm as she asked, "CouldCHA give me a ride to Termina, couldCHA huh, Korcha, please, please, PLEEEZE?"
"Not again!" Korcha moaned. "Don'tCHA spend enough time over there as it is? I just took CHA there yesterday!"
"But I promised Van that I'd come visit him today!" Mel pleaded, and went into full-fledged begging mode, turning her puppy-dog eyes on her sweatdropping brother as she pleaded, "Please take me over there, Korcha, PLEEEZE? PLEEEZE?"
"Oh, so that's it, huh?" Korcha laughed, arching an eyebrow at her as a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Don't tell me CHA got a little crush on Van, eh, Mel?"
"I DO NOT!" Mel insisted at the top of her lungs, her face becoming a bright shade of crimson that made her freckles stand out vividly on her cheeks.
"BetCHA do."
"DO NOT! Besides, at least I'M not fawning over that 'Kid' girl…"
"SHUT UP!" Korcha howled, the color of his face matching the shade Mel's had adopted a few moments before. Mel pulled on her eyelid and stuck out her tongue, and Korcha glowered as he turned his back on her, adding, "There is no WAY I'm taking CHA over there now!"
"But Korchaaaaa…"
"I SAID no."
Mel's face screwed up into a grimace, and she began to stomp around so hard that the wooden walkway began to shake under them. Korcha blanched and made a clumsy grab for the railing, and his brown eyes were wide as he stared over at his little sister.
"Hey, now, willCHA stop that? Damn, I wish CHA never learned that stupid 'Tantrum' skill…CUT IT OUT, WILLCHA?"
"I WANNA GO TO TERMINA! TAKE ME TO TERMINA! NOW!"
"Okay, okay, willCHA calm down? I'll take CHA to Termina…" Korcha finally relented. Mel immediately stopped stamping her feet, and beamed up at him as he regained his footing. Korcha glared at her for a moment, then sighed in defeat and motioned for her to follow him to the docks.
Oh well. Maybe this won't be a total waste of time,
he mused as he made his way across the walkway, climbing down to the docks below. Something Mel had said was causing his thoughts to drift back in time, reminding him of a promise made what seemed like an eternity ago. Maybe it was finally time to get an answer to an old question that kept popping up to haunt him; after all, Arni Village was only a fairly short walk away from Termina…* * *
Kid hummed brightly to herself as she strode through the small fisherman's village, a tune Serge recognized as being one of her favorite songs, a little tune she often sang or hummed when she was in a good mood. What had she called it…oh, that was right, 'Radical Dreamers' was the name she had used. He'd have to ask her to sing him the full version sometime: he had only caught her singing it aloud a few times, and in snatches.
In fact, he wouldn't mind hearing the whole thing right now. He stepped forward and opened his mouth to ask, when suddenly a pair of slender arms twined themselves around his arm and yanked him backwards.
"Hold it right there, Serge," a female voice commanded. "We have got to talk…"
Serge sighed silently and spun to face a frowning girl. Knowing what was coming, he patiently waited to see what she was going to say, although he had a pretty good guess. Leena brushed a few locks of orange hair away from her face, smoothed out her violet skirt a bit, and took a deep breath before raising locking eyes with him.
"Okay, Serge, I know you've been avoiding me for the past few days, and I have a pretty good guess as to why, but I want to discuss it with you first."
"Discthuss nothing!" a lisping voice piped up behind them. "You've been acting very ticked off, Leena, you no fool I! You going to give Sergey a piece of you mind…"
"And who said this was any of your business, Poshul?" Leena demanded coolly, glaring down at the fluffy pink pooch. Poshul bowed her head and shuffled off, muttering under her breath.
"And Me thought Me was suppothed to be the only b–"
"Poshulll…" Leena growled, clenching her hands into little fists at her sides. Serge just sweatdropped as the pink dog beat a hasty retreat, leaving him alone with the maiden. Leena turned back to him with a reassuring smile, or at least, she thought it was a reassuring smile, only it looked more like the leering grin of a Grim Reaper to Serge. Or was that merely his imagination…?
"Look, Serge," Leena was saying, "I know that you and I haven't been too close to one another lately…what with traveling between worlds and the war with the Dragon Gods and FATE and everything…but I just have to know… With everything that's happened to us, I feel…like we've been growing apart…"
Her voice trailed off, and she raised pleading copper-gold eyes to gaze up into his face as she continued, "But I want to let you know…that no matter what's happened, I still…have feelings for you, and I…I wanted…to see if…if we could…just…pick up where we left off before…before all of this began?"
And there it was. He had known, of course, long before she had ever cornered him and babbled this little confession that this was what she wanted to tell him. He knew, too, what he was supposed to say at this point: that nothing had changed, that they would always be together, just as he had once carved on a rock on the edge of Cape Howl, so long ago…
"Serge and Leena forever…"
But the Serge that had carved that declaration in stone was not the same one that stood before the maiden now; they both understood that. Something had changed during the journey: something that they once had between one another had gotten lost at some point along the way. There was no turning back time…
Unable to give her the response she longed for, he remained silent.
After a few awkward moments, Leena bowed her head, letting her hair fall over her eyes and mask her expression. Turning away, she murmured bleakly, "I thought as much…well, I…I won't trouble you any longer…"
She walked away slowly, forcing herself to walk away, leaving Serge gazing after her as her figure wandered out of his vision. Then, with a sigh, he turned and went in the opposite direction, wondering where Kid was…
* * *
"I TOLD YOU NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! GET LOST!"
"So…CHA sure about this?"
"YES!"
The next thing Korcha knew, he was scrambling to get out of Kid's range, daggers whistling past him. Obviously she was certain about refusing his request, certain enough that his pressing the subject had ticked her off enough to make her launch her Red Pin tech at him. Lately it appeared that he was becoming a regular target for tech skills, much to his chagrin, and he quickly retreated from the village, not wanting to be within reach.
Once he thought he was safe, Korcha felt his shoulders start to sag, and he dejectedly kicked at a small white shell. Okay, so he hadn't really been expecting Kid to take him up on his offer of becoming his bride, but had she really needed to go overboard like that? A reaction like that was not exactly flattering to one's ego…
Korcha bowed his head, depressed, and instead of heading directly back to Termina, he found himself tracing a path through Lizard Rock instead. The last thing he wanted to see right now was Mel hanging off of Van, pleading with the blue-haired artist to show her more of his work. He supposed that the two looked fairly cute together, despite the difference in their ages, and it was true that they shared a lot in common. Enough, at least, that Van didn't get sick of Mel's hanging around him so much and resorting to desperate measures to keep her away. Heck, he had even invited her to come visit!
Well, that was best for them. At least Mel's interest in Painter Boy seemed to have caused her to forget her once-strong and oh-so-obvious crush on Korcha himself. For that, at least, he was glad…
(Although there's one girl I wish looked at me the same way Mel used to…)
Sighing, Korcha abruptly became aware of the fact that he had wandered all the way down to Opassa Beach. For a moment, he stared at the sandy white banks, lost in his own thoughts for once. This was where everything had started and ended for them…the quest he had found himself pulled into had come full circle. Everything was over: there was no sense dwelling on the past. Better to look to the future, which still remained unwritten, waiting to be written…
A soft noise suddenly alerted Korcha to the possibility that he was not alone on the beach. Whirling around, the fisherboy found himself tensing, for a moment believing that something had gone wrong and he was about to find himself being hurled through space and time to who-knew-where…
Instead, he realized that a girl was kneeling in the white sand, hugging her knees to her chest. Curious, Korcha walked closer, and with a start realized that he knew this girl; she was one of the ones who had traveled with Genki! He hadn't seen a whole lot of her, though, and it took him a moment to remember her name…
"Leena? WhatCHA doing out here?"
The maiden gasped in shock and bolted upright, her coppery eyes as wide and frightened as a cornered rabbit's. She stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, then recognized him, and tentatively asked, "Um…Korcha, right?"
"Right," Korcha said, nodding. The two regarded each other quietly for a few moments, then he heard himself ask, "So…whatCHA doing way out here all by yourself?"
"Thinking," and Leena gazed back out at the ocean, watching the gentle waves brush up against the white sand and fall back again. "About a conversation I had on this beach a lifetime ago…"
"Ah," Korcha nodded, falling silent. After a while, he prodded, "With who?"
"With somebody I thought was going to be my one true love," Leena sighed, "though it didn't turn out that way. Fate had other things in store…"
"Hey, now don't CHA start going on about 'fate'," Korcha warned her. "In case CHA forgot, that's kinda a meaningless term now…Don't forget, we kinda kicked that whole system out the window some time ago."
"That's right," Leena laughed, "I guess it was silly of me to say that. Fate doesn't govern our lives anymore; we have to think and act for ourselves. We don't have to worry about what our destinies are, because we're going to write our own destinies. Our own futures…"
Korcha nodded, then suddenly did a double take as he noticed how low in the sky the sun was. He slapped his forehead and moaned, "Oh no, I've gotta get back to Mel and get back to Guldove. Macha's gonna have a fit…"
He turned and raced off, then suddenly paused and glanced back at Leena.
"Do CHA want to head back with me? Might be a little dangerous to head back alone when it's this dark…"
Leena stared blankly at him for a moment, then smiled slightly and nodded. Her brown and violet skirts crinkled slightly as she got to her feet, and Korcha watched as she walked up, waiting until she was past him before he hurried after her. The two hurried back to Arni Village, and something made the fisherboy decide to see Leena to her house before hurrying back to Termina. As she walked back into her house, Leena turned and smiled back at him.
"Thanks for the pep talk," she said. "See 'CHA' soon."
She closed the door, leaving Korcha staring dumbly where she had stood for a moment, his mouth hanging open. No way…she couldn't have meant…could she? A shaky, lopsided grin tugged at the edges of his mouth, and after a moment, he turned and heading back toward Termina, considerably more upbeat than he had been.