AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote most of this story on a bus with Sage of Darkness looking over my shoulder, telling me what to write and to elaborate. A lot of what you've already read, and what you will hopefully read next, came from her suggestions. Thanks, Sage!

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Lucca opened her eyes. She couldn't see a whole lot. She looked around desperately and found her glasses, for some reason, on Magus who was lying possibly comatose next to her. She took them off him and put them on herself as she rose.

She walked around for a bit, trying to locate the others, and slowly it dawned on her that she was wearing Magus' cloak. She sat down for a bit to try and work out what happened and remembered bargaining with him for the privilege to wear his cloak. It had been something like she could if she took something off, and she had a very bad feeling that it hadn't been her glasses. She checked her clothes carefully. They were all there but her shirt was buttoned up incorrectly. Absently she fixed it and went to wake someone else.

Crono and Marle were dead to the world. She hauled Marle off him and shook his shoulder. "Wake up!"

"My head hurts," Crono groaned, trying to focus on her. "Are you wearing Magus' cloak?"

"I was cold. I think. What exactly happened last night?"

"I'm not sure. I seem to remember something about a prehistoric eating utensil..."

"Wake up Marle," Lucca instructed. The princess was wearing her hat. She took it and put it where it belonged, namely on her head, and looked for Frog. He was sleeping in a tree. "Wake up!" she yelled at him.

He woke up and fell out of the tree. "Ow! What doth thou thinkest thou be doing?! A frog needs his sleep! Did thou perchance discover whom it was that hit me with a hammer just now?"

"You're hung over. It happens. Where is Ayla?"

Frog rose unsteadily to his feet. "I shalt walk with thee. What be thou doing, wearing the cloak of Magus?!"

"I was cold," she replied, already getting sick of being asked that. "Have you seen Ayla?"

"Nay, I have not."

"Oh well. She'll be here somewhere."

They found Ayla sleeping peacefully on the ground. When Lucca poked her with a foot she bounced up happily, not experiencing aftereffects from last night at all. "Party fun!" she grinned.

"Do you remember what happened last night?" Lucca asked her.

Ayla frowned, shook her head. "Ayla not know."

"Who else is there? Oh, Robo." Lucca found him quite easily. Frog stayed to talk to Ayla. Being a robot, Robo didn't drink and wasn't affected by alcohol anyway.

"Good morning," he greeted her. "I did not expect any of you to be up so early."

"What time is it?"

"Midday."

"Oh." She thought about this for a moment. Eventually she decided to forget it and asked, "Do you remember what happened last night?"

"Yes. Do you want to know?"

"Um. No. Not really."

Robo nodded. He hadn't thought so. "You look very nice in Magus' cloak, by the way."

She sighed and sat down beside him. "Okay, I give in. What did happen?"

"Well, after Schala left you played 'spin the prehistoric eating utensil'. After that, I think it was Magus who suggested frog-tossing. The rest of you, including Frog, certainly agreed readily enough. That was how he ended up in the tree. I think Crono threw him there. Speaking of Crono, he and Marle were getting rather friendly. I don't think anything really happened, they just slobbered over each other for a bit. Ayla... at about four, she just curled up and went to sleep. I'm not really sure what you and Magus were doing, except that it involved you taking off your clothes."

"Only my shirt," responded Lucca. At that moment it finally sank in. "Oh my God. I'm never getting drunk again."

"Someone ought to wake up Magus," Robo commented.

"I'll give him back his cloak but I'm not waking him up. I don't think I can look him in the face for the next thirty years," replied Lucca gloomily. "Maybe I'll run off and join the circus until he goes away."

"Didn't you say he was leaving after this?" queried Robo.

"That's what he thinks!" Lucca responded and walked over to the sleeping wizard. She took his cloak off and carefully laid it over him, but decided not to wake him. She wouldn't let him leave but she didn't exactly want to talk to him for at least the next few weeks.

Schala entered the meeting place, Alfador running at her feet. "I hope you all embarrassed yourselves horribly last night," she greeted them.

"Yes, well." Crono thought of Marle and tried not to blush.

"Are you all up? Oh, except Janus. Wake up! Alfador, would you wake him up, please?"

Alfador meandered over, leaned as close to Magus' ear as catly possibly and said, "MEOW!!!!"

The result was instantaneous. "I'm awake! I'm awake! Ow! My head hurts," Magus complained. "Don't bother with a party next year. It could kill me. It might kill all of us. Ow. What happened last night?"

"How much do you remember?" queried Lucca somewhat nervously.

"Um... bits." He sat up. "Oh. I remember the bargain we made for the cloak."

"You do? Oh. I have to go now." She wandered off a bit. She didn't really know what had happened but she was drawing a conclusion mainly from what Robo had told her.

"Why? What happened with the cloak?" asked Marle sleepily.

"Oh, nothing. I let her have it, is all," Magus invented. "Seeing as you gave me the cloak, I may as well grace you with my presence for a while longer. Can we stay here and sleep some more, or do we have to go and fight Lavos?"

"In this state?" groaned Crono. "Let's go back to the End of Time and sleep. Who stole the Epoch?"

"The question is not," announced Frog, "who stole it but rather why are there two of it?"

"You should use the Gate," Schala suggested. "I'll take the Epoch. I don't trust any of you to drive it at the moment."

They went through the Gate in one group of three and two groups of two. Schala took Alfador in the Epoch and returned to the End of Time.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm back again. Just can't keep me away…

Sage of Darkness- Thanks for everything. See you on Sunday, a la Foire!

Yuffie-Girl- I absolutely love your fic. Write more!

Azalai- Definitely cannot wait to see what you come up with!

Sailor Leo- Written anything lately? Hint hint… love your story!

Kit Thespian- Hooray! More Lucca/Magus fics!!

Sick Little Fiend- Somewhere deep within our most closely guarded and expertly concealed inner selves we are all chickens… heh heh…

Thanks to everyone who reviewed for boosting my ego so nicely. Pretty soon my head will be so big, I'll have to have my front door widened… or perhaps the entire wall taken out… thanks again!