A/N: *stands, lifts champagne glass* First and foremost I'd like to thank… what? No speeches? Oh, okay, then. It was fun, this whole story thing, but appropriate that it's finishing now. Schoolwork and all of that.. anyhow, maybe if you're nice to me and I have the time I'll ost the sequel… let's see about that…

CHAPTER TWENTY

Meanwhile, Lucca was leafing through a book. They had already checked briefly through a lot of books but found nothing about alternate universes. She began reading in earnest.

Marle, hoping she had found something, stole the book and checked the cover. She raised an eyebrow. " 'The White Rose'? Good book, but not exactly what we're looking for."

"I can't find anything," admitted Lucca. "Maybe Schala's found something. Schala? Schala!"

Schala opened her eyes and looked at them with great annoyance. She had settled down in a warm spot with the sun shining through the window and had been dozing off. "What? Cats need their sleep!"

"You're not a cat any more," Marle pointed out.

"So I'm not." Schala stretched and yawned, then rose to her feet and walked over to them, carrying a book. "This tells of another universe. Completely fictional, I'm afraid. It talks about walking through wardrobes and being in whole other worlds."

"I have also found nothing," Robo announced, walking over. "Perhaps we should return for the others, bring them here and see if they can discover something we would miss."

"Can you imagine Crono in a library?" laughed Lucca. "How crazy!"

"Can he read?" Marle queried.

"As far as I know, yes. I think everyone in our group can read. Except maybe Ayla, I'm not sure reading was invented back then... okay, shall we go and get the others?"

They were delayed a bit because Marle lost the kitchen. This was because she rarely went to the library, which was huge, so technically she lost the door leading out of the library, and when she found it she was completely disorientated. Eventually they found it, and as soon as they walked in Crono grabbed Lucca and dragged her off.

"We're going to have another picnic!" he told her cheerfully. "Kelke may have stolen it the first time, but we're damn well going to have one anyway! Wait... we're having this second one because I wanted to prove that Kelke couldn't stop us. Oh well! This picnic," he announced, "is going to be even better than the last one. It's kind of a picnic in progress at the moment, but we'll get there. Anyway, you have to help with the cooking. Fine, I mean, 'could you please help with the cooking?', but anyway. And we're kind of stressing Magus at the moment, so he might appreciate some help."

"Magus can cook?" she asked disbelievingly.

"No, I'm trying to work out how you use this thing for the fun of it," Magus shot back. "When did the Earthbound Ones become so civilised... that's one thing I'll never get used to... fix it, Lucca!"

Lucca shoved him out of the way and pressed a button. "Oh," said Magus. "I was going to do that next. Well, if you're so good at it, you take over!"

"Thank you, I will," she retorted.

Lucca absolutely took over, but no-one else really minded. Magus helped as much as he could and both of them had lots of fun ordering the others around. They had a bit of trouble when Magus decided he didn't like the grater and blew it up into little pieces, but Lucca assigned Crono to cleaning it up and no-one mentioned it afterwards (mainly for fear of going the same way as the grater). About an hour later Lucca had them cleaning up the kitchen to make it as tidy as it had been when they started, or perhaps even more so. She gave the cook back his kitchen, they stole a basket, and they departed the castle, Crono proudly carrying the basket containing their work.

"This looks like a nice place," he decided and sat down.

"Crono, this is where we had it last time," Marle pointed out, joining him.

"Well, it was a nice place last time too. I'm hungry! Let's eat!"

"By the way," said Lucca as she carefully chose a piece of cake, "if Kelke shows up again, could someone grab him, please? If I can get something from him I can make a Kelke-finder too. That could come in useful."

"Okay, grab the evil evil wizard," Magus nodded. "Got it."

"As opposed to the good evil wizard?" Frog asked him.

"Yep. Exactly. I have to be a good evil wizard now or Schala might yell at me again..."

"Do you know what we forgot?" Schala commented.

Crono looked at all the food. "We have lots of goodies, and cutlery and plates and cups and all of that."

"Yes, but there's nothing to drink," she pointed out.

"Ayla get sweet water!" said Ayla eagerly.

"No!" Schala responded sharply. "No sweet water, ever again. I'll go and steal something from the castle. Janus has to come with me. I'll get lost."

"You think I know anything about the castle?" Magus complained, getting to his feet and following her. "Hey, I'll race you!"

"You're on!" Schala responded and they floated off at a great speed. The last the others heard of them for a while was Schala screaming, "Hey, stop cheating!"

"Told ya," Lucca nodded firmly. "He cheats. Um... now what?"

They waited until Schala and Magus had returned before properly staring the picnic. It went for a long time, because they couldn't be bothered doing anything else.

"I'm bored," said Marle finally when the food had all gone and it was beginning to get dark.

Crono grinned with inspiration. "I know. We should play 'spin the modern-day eating utensil'!"

"No," warned Schala sleepily. "No spinning anything. Or doing anything else you did at that party, for that matter."

Frog had accidentally patted Schala once and now whenever he tried to go away she hissed at him. Resigning himself to his fate, he remarked, "I agree with Schala. I, for one, do not wish to end up in a tree again."

Magus had wandered off a little way to look at trees and had dragged Lucca with him. His excuse was that he was cold. He really did over-use that, but she wasn't exactly reluctant to go. They were still in earshot of the others and quietly Lucca asked, "Speaking of the party, do you remember what happened?"

"Every bit," he answered. "I wasn't exactly as drunk as the rest of you. This is a pretty leaf."

"Yes, very nice. Okay then, what happened?"

"Aren't trees amazing things? They're so tall and... treelike, and they do nice things for the environment and... yeah."

"Don't try to change the subject!"

"Do you really want to know?" he challenged her.

"Yep. If something happened, I have a right to know," she replied.

He sighed. "You have a point. Okay, I'll tell you. You were drunk, and I took advantage of you."

"Not enough information."

"Well nothing really happened anyway- don't give me that kind of look! I'll steal your glasses again!"

"You do that and I cut the rest of your hair off! And break your fingers again. Just tell me!"

"Okay, okay, I'm getting there. You were cold, and asked if you could borrow my cloak. I said no. You got annoyed, asked if I wanted something for it. I think I said that if I gave you my cloak, you had to give me your shirt. You agreed. But the moment you put my cloak on, you nastily stole your shirt back. You didn't quite manage to do it up correctly, but you were drunk... and I couldn't help you, because I couldn't use my hands. That's it. See? Nothing happened."

She relaxed somewhat. "I think I can live with that."

He looked straight ahead and smiled to himself. "I got a good look at you without your shirt, though."

"Magus!" she shrieked and hit him. (Arlen, who had been following to listen to their conversation, ran off without being noticed.)

Crono called, "Hey, you two! Get over here! We're going to have a nice warm pathetically... um... pathetic ending, and watch the sun set in a friendly, comfortable, free manner with no strings attached, or else."

"Did you say warm? I'm there," Magus responded.

The nine of them sat down on the red-and-white chequered blanket they had brought along, purely because there was always a red-and-white chequered blanket at picnics. Crono and Marle were sitting together. Alfador, who did not care for sunsets or pathetic endings, climbed into Magus' lap and promptly went to sleep. Robo monitored the passage of the sun as it sank from view with curiousity. Ayla just thought, 'Colours! Pretty!' Frog was zoning out, not really thinking a whole lot. Schala had allowed him to stop patting her and had curled up again, all ready to get some sleep. Lucca wondered if she could modify the Epoch to go into outer space but then, settling against Magus, decided it didn't matter anyway.

They watched the sun go down.

The Nice, Warm, Pathetically Pathetic Ending.

Epilogue

The sun set.

They sat in silence for a while. Finally Crono asked plaintively, "Are you sure we can't play 'spin the modern-day eating utensil'?"

This Is Definitely The End.

"No it's not!" complained Kelke, hidden away in his castle in his little universe. "What about me?"

Shut Up. You Get Dealt With In The Sequel. This Is The End.

"But I don't want to be dealt with," protested Kelke. "And I've run out of food!"

Shut Up Or I'll Smite You!

"Okay... I'll be quiet. Until the sequel..." Kelke laughed evilly. "I'll get you then, Magus! I'll get you all!"

We'll See About That... THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE END!

The End.

For absolutely great Lucca/Magus stories, check out-

"Never Ever in a Million Years" Yuffie-Girl

"Two's Not A Crowd" Azalai

"Just Hungry…" Sailor Leo

"Struggle for Happiness" Dark Creation