CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Where are they?" demanded Crono. "We've worked it out, we have everything planned. How long can it take to get someone's hair cut?"

"I told you we should keep them separated," sighed Marle. "I said not to let her go off alone with him."

"If I know Janus, and I'm sure I do, she'll be perfectly safe," yawned Schala. She had been curled up asleep in one corner. None of them were quite sure why, but she had probably been cat-napping. "Well... I suppose I haven't actually had anything to do with him for eleven or twelve years, but... anyway."

"Lucca knows what she's doing," put in Robo faithfully.

"Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of," said Marle under her breath.

Lucca jumped up onto the platform, Magus arriving a few seconds later. They were arguing about something. "Face it, I'm right, you're wrong," said Lucca firmly as she walked into the main area.

"When am I ever wrong?" demanded Magus, following. He was wearing Taban's clothes.

The others digested this in silence. It was Marle who demanded, "Okay, what happened?"

"She washed my hair," Magus explained. To him, it was the only explanation needed.

"Right," muttered Crono. "Sure."

"Ayla like Magus hair," said Ayla a little uncertainly.

"So do I," added Marle. 'A bit too much,' she thought to herself privately.

"Um... thank you," responded Magus suspiciously. "Blame Lucca."

"I'll bet," said Marle to herself.

"What was that?" queried Lucca.

"Nothing. So you cut his hair?" asked Marle.

"Yep. There wasn't anyone in Truce after all. Did something happen? Why are you looking at me so strangely?"

"Nothing," said Marle again.

Lucca put her hands on her hips. "Damn it, tell me!"

"Um... nothing," Crono told her finally. "Really. It's nothing. But you have grass in your hair."

"I do?"

Smiling slightly, Magus brushed it out for her. "We must have missed those bits."

Lucca studied the expressions of the others. "What? Something is going on!"

Marle asked carefully, "Are you absolutely honest when you say all you did with him was wash his hair?"

Lucca looked blank and exchanged a glance with Magus. "You guys are all sick," said the evil wizard coldly and stalked off to talk to Alfador. Meanwhile, Lucca joined the others.

"Everything's planned," said Crono a bit stiffly and in a whisper. He was very careful not to meet her eyes. "Except for the cloak."

"Look," hissed Lucca angrily, neatening her shirt, "nothing happened! I washed his hair! You're jumping to conclusions again!"

"Why don't we go to the Fair and see if we can find a cloak?" suggested Marle brightly but quietly.

"Good idea! Lucca, you're coming. Marle, you get to come too and I'll accompany you," Crono decided.

As they were heading towards the Epoch Schala called desperately, "Could I come too? It's so boring, just staying here!"

"Yes, you can come," Crono consented. They all went off merrily to the Fair.

While Schala, Crono and Lucca tried to find someone who sold cloaks or capes Marle, bored, wandered off on her own. She stopped to talk to someone and after a while he asked, "Have you heard the latest gossip?"

"No," she answered cautiously. Gossip in this town was usually about her, the king's untrainable tomboy daughter.

"Well! I heard this from Pynta who heard it from Senna who heard it from Arlen who saw it herself. You know Lucca, the crazy inventing girl? She was wandering around here with someone calling himself Magus. Apparently his folks are supporters of the Mystics. I've heard they were a pretty intense couple."

"Couple?" Marle repeated.

The man nodded. "Absolutely. What will her parents say?"

"I have to go now," she blurted and went to find Crono. On the way she overheard a girl telling her friends about Lucca and her 'boyfriend' and what had happened on the beach. She practically ran into Crono.

"Marle? What's the matter?" he asked, concerned.

She pulled him off a little way and told him n a whisper what the man had told her and what she had overheard. "Everyone seems to be talking about it!"

"Maybe it's a rumour," he said reasonably.

"Maybe it's not! I knew Lucca wouldn't be able to keep her hands off him!"

"Hey!" he said sharply. "I know Lucca, and she doesn't do stupid things. I would really like to believe it's just a rumour-"

"But you think there's an element of truth in it?"

"Let's just keep them separated, wait until all of this dies down, and decide that nothing ever happened," he suggested.

Marle nodded somewhat doubtfully. She had her own theory as to what had happened but she'd keep it to herself.

"On a different note, we found a cloak," Crono informed him. "Schala's just buying it now. We're paying for it with the Universal Treasury." The money that they collected individually was put together and used when necessary. Marle had dubbed it the Universal Treasury. "I thought we'd hide it in the Epoch, get Ayla and Robo out, and tomorrow send other people over to the Prehistoric Age in the Epoch. We just won't go anywhere for two days."

"Got it," reported Schala, appearing behind them. "Do we have to go just now?"

"I think we should," decided Crono. "You can come back and have a look around without- um, later." He didn't want Lucca hearing any of these rumours but didn't want her to ask why Schala could only look around without her.

They returned to the End of Time.