Understanding her feelings

Hey everyone. Gusto here. So, I was trying to figure out the Alli arc of my other fanfic real quick, when I came across this little story I wrote like last year or something. The original draft was a songfic based on Miranda Cosgrove's 'about you now' song, but then I made it into a full story. I look at it now, and it was pretty good, so I revised it a little, and here it is.

Disclaimer: I don't own Land Before Time. If I did, Littlefoot x Cera would be canon. Not by this scene, but it would be somehow.

It was nighttime in the great valley. The night circle was full and bright, and every resident in the great valley was asleep, except for Littlefoot. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't sleep, and he knew exactly why.

'Cera...'

The two had a fight recently, and it ended with Cera's family leaving the great valley. All that was going through his mind was that it was his fault for her leaving. Littlefoot didn't understand why her family left, but he knew it had to be something bad. Possibilities have been running through his mind about what happened, but all of them came back to him.

Littlefoot was beyond upset about this. He and Cera had begun their Times of Great Growing a few months before, and he was starting to feel odd around her. It was a feeling of lightheartedness whenever they were together, and a feeling of yearning when she wasn't there. At first, he had wondered what the feeling was, and why it was getting stronger everyday they were together alone, so he asked his grandparents, and what they told him stuck with him.

'Littlefoot, what you are feeling may just be love'. At first he was skeptical, because he always believed he was supposed to be with Ali. But he couldn't deny that every instinct he had was pointing toward Cera, so he had to accept it. He was in love with her.

However, at that moment, this only made him feel worse.

On the opposite end of that stick was Cera. She was out with her dad, Tria, and Trica, going to see the rest of her family for some threehorn toughness contest. While being able to prove how strong she was sounded amazing, it didn't help her get to sleep. She was wide awake, and she knew exactly why.

'Littlefoot...'

Ever since their argument earlier that day, she had been feeling horrible about what she had said. Her father was disappointed at her, for reasons unknown, and the words Littlefoot had said left an odd feeling within her. And everytime she tried to think of something else, her mind always brought her back to one point in the argument.

'You can't leave me Cera!'

'Why do you care so much?!'

'Because I love you!'

Immediately after realizing what he said, he ran away, leaving her to ponder her own feelings, and realized something. She loved Littlefoot, and for longer than she thought. Now she knew, and it hurt her inside. She simply wished she could bring earlier today back and re-do that whole argument, but she couldn't. Then she remembered something Littlefoot told her Doc had said.

'Change what you can. Accept what you can't'

That was exactly what she would do, but she didn't want anyone to know until it was all over. Luckily, she was travelling with someone who could keep a secret. Her older sister Ann owed her a favor ever since she saved Dana and Dinah in that big storm. Now was her time to call it in.

Cera woke her up and told her this: "Ann, I'm heading back to the valley. If I'm not back by the first sign of the Bright Circle, tell them where I went. Remember, you owe me this." And with that, she knew what she had to do.

Once in the valley, Cera quickly found Littlefoot, who was wandering. Upon him seeing her, his expression changed from tired to shocked. "Cera," he said, "What are you doing here?"

Her response shocked him almost as much as seeing her to begin with. "I couldn't leave on a bad note. You need to know everything." After explaining about the toughness contest and there little journey a week beforehand to, as her dad put it, 'Scope out the competition', Littlefoot was all caught up, but still had one thing he didn't understand.

"Why did you return?" Her response to this was what amazed him the most. "Earlier, you said you loved me. It hurt me to think you thought I left because of you, so I had to return. And I had to let you know the truth. I love you too." At that same moment, there was nothing holding them back, and they kissed. She and him both knew this would bring up problems, but they didn't care. She didn't care what her father thought, what his grandparents thought, what her friends would think, or what anyone thought for that matter.

Cera knew her feelings now, and nothing would change that.