Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything Chrono Trigger related. Whatever made you think THAT?!
Author's Note: Heh-heh! Be careful while reading this one! This chapter has some very insane things happening, and the flirtation between Lucca and Magus just seems to make the whole thing worse! I thought we needed a breather after that strange one that I wrote last week (although, if you think about it, they're really all strange). Enjoy!
The sun shone almost red in its descent towards night, bestowing upon the ocean a rainbow of breathtaking colors that changed every time a small ripple or tide moved forcefully inward. The beach's fine sand, normally a stark white, was now equally changed into a dusky pink hue, further accentuated by the multitude of brightly-colored pebbles and shells that lay scattered all across the premises. A light, clean-smelling breeze ticked its way through the air, ushering in the loud sounds of the nearby city, which at the moment seemed to be a million miles away. Yes, a better night you could not have asked for. It was a perfect evening to just sit and contemplate about how happy to be alive you were, and even more perfect for a romantic stroll along the beach with your lover...
"Geez, this sucks."
Lucca raised her eyebrows at her "lover", who was starting to look more and more grumpy by the minute. Hitherto he had just kept his mouth shut, walking at her side with his arm draped lightly about her waist, but now it seemed that he couldn't take this punishment any longer.
"Oh, what's your problem NOW, you dope?! There's nothing to complain about so you have to find something, is that it?!"
"No," replied Magus, kicking a rather large shell into the air. "This really DOES suck. This is starting to bore me, I'm getting sand in my boots, and worst of all, I don't even have my scythe."
"And thank GOD for that!" retorted Lucca. "I absolutely refuse to go out in public with someone that looks like Farmer Bill!"
Magus snorted. "I never even wanted to leave the hotel, four-eyes, so that would have been fine by me. Hmpfh! What's wrong with me, anyway? I said I was never going to go outside, and look where I am now."
"Yes," Lucca replied. "You also said you were never gonna go to the beach either, and look where you are now. Hah! I've got you whipped already!"
"Hmpfh! NO one whips the King of the Mystics, least of all YOU, poindexter!"
Needless to say, Lucca spent the rest of the time at the beach laughing her ass off, much to Magus's chagrin and confusion.
***
The pebbles and sand clattered loudly as they came into contact with the sidewalk, making a few people nearby turn their heads in curiosity.
"What did you do, bring the whole beach with you?!" Lucca commented as she watched Magus give one of his boots a final shake.
"Yes, thanks to YOU," he replied, starting on the other one. "Honestly, I don't see what was so romantic about the whole thing."
"I never said it WAS, you fruit!! But can't you even say the ocean was pretty or something?!"
"The only thing pretty about it was how pretty well these braindead morons have managed to dump toxic waste and syringes in it."
"Always cynical, aren't you?"
"Always."
At the moment they were sitting at an outdoor cafe, sharing a rather large sundae, watching people in the busy street pass by in the dusk and occasionally making the odd disparaging comment about some of them. All-in-all a decent way to pass the time, Lucca mused as she played around with Magus's hair, looping and twirling it in her fingers. How he hated it when she played with his hair! But that was why she did it...
"Hey there, sugah!"
Both Magus and Lucca swiveled their heads around only to see a tall, slender woman standing right next to them. Well, not just a tall, slender woman. More like a young, blond, and very leggy supermodel-looking woman that right now looked like she wanted to bang Magus like a virus-infested computer, Lucca thought as her heart threatened to drop down into her stomach.
"Yes?" Magus asked her coolly.
"Now yer a cute 'un, if ah do say so mahself," she drawled on in that odd accent, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Wah don't yeh come along wit ol' Gwendolyn 'ere and ah'll show yeh a good time. A reall-eh good time, ah promise."
Magus scratched his head in puzzlement. "What?"
"Ah said yeh shed come wit me, hun, mah man don' look like nuttin' compared to ya, sweetie," she crooned again, stroking his hair.
"Huh?"
"Come along wit meh now, don' wanna disappoint a purty gurl, yah beg hannsum studmuffin! Ditch thuh dork an' lut's go git illegul!"
"Huh?"
"Ah sid it once an' ah'll say et agin, manly man! Come wit meh an' I'll show yuh a REEL good time. How bout et, sugah?"
"Uh, no thanks, not interested," Magus said hastily, removing her hand from his hair.
"Gwendolyn's" eyes shot daggers. "Wull, I neva!" she interjected, putting her hands on her hips. "No man's resisted mah charms afore! Wull hun, ah kin on'y say un thin', yer gonna miss out on ol' Gwinn an' y'all neva know wha' hitcha!" She stomped off, tripping on her high heels and cursing vehemently as she went.
Lucca sighed with relief. She had seen other women eye her prize before, but no one had dared approach him until now. "So wait---let me get this straight, you are NOT gonna go get illegal?" she asked him, a small smile forming on her face.
"Oh, is that what she said?" he replied, an eyebrow raised. "I only caught the whole manly man piece."
"You MEAN what you're saying, right?" Lucca asked, a little incredulously. "That you were not attracted to her just one little bit?!"
"Attracted?" he said, a little amused. "I couldn't even understand her, much less be attracted to her!"
"We-ell...just asking."
Magus tsked, "Little four-eyes, little four-eyes, always so insecure. Trust me, if I didn't want to be with you, then I wouldn't be here right now. And I'm here right now, aren't I?'
Lucca, feeling a lot better at what he had said, cracked a shy smile. "You know, I think that's the first almost-compliment you've ever paid me."
"Hm, am I really that bad, poindexter?" he said lightly, smoothing her hair, which (to say the least) stuck out in all directions. "I had no idea. And honestly...if you think I like blonde-haired bimbos...why aren't I out chasing Marle at the moment? Not only is she slender and golden-haired, but she's a princess, she's rich, and has about the I.Q. of a log as well. I couldn't have it better!"
Lucca laughed. "You've got a point there, I'll tell you that much. You'd better start formulating your plan to get her away from Crono; you've got your work cut out for you at the moment!"
"Oh, come on! It wouldn't be THAT hard! Most women seem to be DRAWN to handsome, evil wizards! I'd have her under my thumb in three seconds, I tell you!"
Lucca shoved him playfully. "Arrogant, aren't we? Although you weren't exaggerating when you said evil; you just stole MY cherry off the sundae!" She gave him a mock-angry glare.
He gave her a cheeky grin. "Then why don't you come get it, four-eyes?"
Lucca willingly obliged, leaning in and giving him a teasing kiss, nibbling lightly on his lower lip before going in for the kill. Her tongue meandered inside his mouth for a good five seconds before he joined in; pressing her to him and massaging her shoulders expertly, he brusquely placed his tongue in the way of hers, causing another one of their battles. Lucca inhaled sharply, grabbing his shoulders in an almost painful way, as she attempted to gain the upper hand. All of her senses seemed to enhance whenever she kissed Magus, it was true; his body was warm and firm against hers...she could smell his scent, of incense and vanilla, quite vividly...and taste the whipped cream in his mouth, which seemed to melt away at the lightest touch of her tongue. She was in complete and utter bliss.
They slowly drew away from each other, both breathing a little heavily, admittedly enough, both staring as if they had just opened their eyes and seen each other for the first time.
"You bastard..." she barely whispered, holding on to him even more tightly.
"Hm, so you want more, geek?" he said in reply, his words rather muffled; after all, nipping at her neck made it rather hard for him to talk properly. "I suppose that's possible."
He indulged her in a full liplock for a second time; a harder, more bruising one. This time they kept both of their eyes open. As Lucca peered intently into those piercing, crimson colored depths, she couldn't help but notice how remarkably at peace they were at the moment. Was it her? Normally his eyes looked at least a little bit troubled or careworn. Did she help him? Did she help him forget? Was it possible that he ever regretted some of the atrocities he had committed during his reign over the Mystics? Was that look that was often in his eyes also another kind of regret; about his family and his sister, that he was unable to save them, even after being given a second chance? She could only speculate; she knew that Magus would never tell her those kind of things. But if she could help...
"HEY, YOU TWO!! GO GET A ROOM!!" The sharp command suddenly brought the two back to reality, but maybe perhaps a little too harshly.
CRASSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! They lost their balance on the small bench they had been sharing and did a header onto the grass before they could even figure out what was happening.
When they got up and dusted themselves off, they saw that the manager of the cafe was standing nearby, his arms crossed and an angry expression on his sharp features.
"Do you mind?!" he tiraded, looking like he wanted to kill them on the spot. "You're scaring away my customers!" He broke off into a string of incoherent curses, muttering something about "kids these days"...
Magus, equally as red as Lucca was, hastily paid him and they both hurried off, noticing that they were getting freaked-out stares from the other patrons.
"Y'know, that was really stupid," Lucca commented after they were out of hearing distance.
Magus could only roll his eyes in reply.
And that was just a taste of what was to come...
***
"Ohhhhh, isn't he cute?!" Lucca smiled as she pointed at the kitten in the front window of the pet shop. It was white with brown patches, and it had such big blue eyes, and poofy fur...
It was now almost totally dark at this time, and Lucca and Magus had, since the disaster at the cafe, wandered around towards the business district, basically just walking around, window shopping, and enjoying each other's company. Nothing else to really do at the moment, at any rate...
Magus smirked. "Hmpfh! Alfador beats him by a mile!"
"Just shut up, Maggy. You're scaring me."
"Well, he DOES!"
"Gay alert! Gay alert! Raise the rainbow-colored fla-"
"I've said this before, and I'll say this again, I am NOT-"
"Lucca! LUCCA! Is that you?!"
A familiar voice broke out over the rumble of the crowded street, causing Lucca and Magus to both jump about a mile. They whirled around, knowing full well who it was before seeing her. It was Lucca's mother, of course.
Lucca groaned inwardly at the sight of her. She knew that her mother would be extremely mad. Not only was she supposed to be watching the house (even though her father HAD given her the house key so she could come and go as she pleased), but she was also with Magus as well. Hmmm...Porre...far away...boyfriend...what kind of images would that evoke in a mother's mind?
And then there was the fact she was no longer crippled. Lara was now a lot more mobile than she had been a few days ago (and Lucca was very pleased to see that, despite the irony of the situation) and didn't have to depend on other people anymore to get her places. You see, as corny and coincidental it sounded, she had managed to do a little portal-hopping (or more like it had materialized out of thin air) the night before her first little rendezvous with Magus in the cave, to just minutes before Lara had been permanently crippled by one of Taban's experimental conveyer belts. Not only had she managed to save her mother from the wrath of the machine, but in this time line she could now walk normally as well. Geez, she had totally forgotten about it, when the whole debacle with Magus had erupted, but now-
"Um, hi, mom!" Lucca managed to choke out. "Um, never expected to see YOU here!" And boy, had she not. Even though, well duh, her parents HAD been going to Porre, and she had been told so the day they had left.
Lara surveyed the couple calculatingly, but broke out into a smile a moment later. "Well, I never! Taban told me that you might have to leave, but I never thought I'd find you HERE, of all places! And I see you've got Janus with you, too! Hmmm..." She trailed off, getting the same look on her face as before.
Lucca sighed. Apparently the absence of her handicap made her a lot more even-tempered, but perhaps not totally... "Um, Mom, it's not what you think. You see, uh, I'm with Crono, too!" She made up some B.S. as fast as her brain could procure it. "I need help from both of them to buy some decent parts! Really! Honestly!"
"All right, all right, dear, it's just a mother's job to ask questions!" she replied. But she was looking from side-to-side... "But where IS Crono? Heaven knows I haven't seen the poor dear for a few months, his mother says he's been so busy lately-"
"We lost him," Magus cut in in his most friendly, conversational tone (although friendly and conversational wasn't exactly what he was feeling at the moment, if the increasing distance of which his fingernails were being driven into his palms were any indication). "We can't find him anywhere, but we believe he'll turn up at some point. Porre isn't THAT big."
"Well, I hope you can find him," Lara said, shifting the basket of fish that she was holding into her other hand. "But in the meantime, why don't you join us all for supper? I just came here to get some fish for it, and-"
"Supper? It's getting close to eight-thirty, Mom," Lucca piped up.
Lara's eyes narrowed for yet a third time. "Oh, Nana made me burn the chicken again. Said it wasn't done and kept me standing there the whole time saying that I was such a terrible cook and that I should learn how to bake things properly until it actually DID turn out terrible." She continued to mutter under her breath.
"Huh? Nana? I thought you said she was gonna-"
"Oh, we thought it was the last time, too! Apparently it was just a false alarm! Really, the more she gets sick, the more healthier she seems to get!" Lara threw up her arms in exasperation. Perhaps you might think that it was mean, the way she was talking about her own mother and all, but then again...you don't know everything about Nana, do you?
The few times Lucca had ever seen Nana, things had been disastrous. Nana was an almost-deaf, ninety-year old hag that seemed to just get meaner and more cantankerous with each second more of existence. She was almost blind, and the glasses she wore were indeed even thicker than Lucca's. She constantly ragged on Lucca to be more lady-like and to stop "tinkerin' with them damn machines!" And of course, then there was the senility. She said things that should not be said, even by the most brutally honest, and of course she got away with it because she was "old" and supposedly "has no idea what she's saying." It was enough to drive everyone off the deep end themselves. This was no loveable old lady. THIS was the older than dirt, human incarnate of meanness.
Lucca, suddenly noticing the possibility of a horrible situation (she had a feeling Magus and Nana might not take too kindly to each other), immediately tried to back out. "Well, that's very nice and all, Mom, but we really have to find Crono now-"
"No, really, though, Lucca! I insist! We've barely seen you once in the past three weeks, and it would be nice for us all to sit together at the table again. And I think it would be nice for you to come and visit Nana. She's seen you maybe only three times, hasn't she?" Lucca had a sneaking suspicion somehow, though, that her suggestion wasn't out of sheer kindness and respect for Nana, but more like for self-benefit on Lara's part. Well, self-benefit or not, it looked as if her mother had won this time, and she would have to grit her teeth, put on some armor, and drag Magus along for the ride.
"Oh, I guess we can come," Lucca said sweetly, although it pained her to do so. "I bet Crono will turn up eventually." She tugged on Magus's hand (which she had been holding for the last hour), going, "Come on, sweetie" while kicking his ankle at the same time as Lara had started to turn to lead the way (he wasn't looking to happy with the change of plans at the moment).
"Nana's house is this way," she called back over her shoulder to them, pointing over to the right. "It's not far, just two streets, dears!" The two lovebirds reluctantly followed.
As Lara led the way down the busy street, Lucca and Magus trailed behind, speaking in hushed voices about the unexpected turn of events.
"I TOLD you we should have stayed at the hotel."
"Oh, shut up, fanghead! How was I to know this was gonna happen?!"
"I don't know, but it's still your fault!"
"Hey butthead, listen to me quick. You are a twenty-one year old dentist from Porre that enjoys gardening and carpentry in his leisure time. Got it?"
"Hey, I'm much older than THAT, four-eyes! I'm twenty-eight, get that straight! Geez..." Magus rolled his eyes. "I would have to have been ELEVEN when I killed Cyrus, geek, ELEVEN! And I sure as HELL do not like gardening!"
"Well, I had to tell my parents SOMETHING about you that one night! I don't know what you do in your spare time!"
"But gardening?! GARDENING?!"
"Oh, just shut up for a minute. I'm not finished yet!" Lucca glared at her companion. "Remember to be polite to Nana, no matter how much you want to incinerate her. I want NOTHING from you, no Dark Bombs, no Black Holes, not even a little Fire spell! And most importantly of all: whatever you do, if she takes out her dentures and pretends to talk to you with them, you MUST laugh. I mean it!"
"Oh God, I can just see this already. Can't I pretend to fall ill or something?"
"No, I need support. You are staying with me, and THAT'S FINAL!"
"Support?! What is she, an ax-murderer?! Oh, the things I do for you, four-eyes..."
"You must REALLY have it bad for me to brave Nana, that's all I'm gonna say, fanghead."
"Hmpfh!" Although his grip on her tightened at that comment, just a little...
***
A wise man once said, "Eventually all good things must come to an end." This event was no exception to the rule, Lucca mused as they slowly but surely approached Nana's house. The place had a foreboding look to it, although on the outside it seemed just to be your normal, two-story white house with a string of creepers growing on the eastern end. If only the passerbys knew the horror of what was within that abode...
Author's Note: Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!! I was planning to squeeze the whole dinner with Nana thing into one chapter, but my fingers just seemed to fly on the keyboard a little too fast. Dammit! And I wanted to write the most evil cliffhanger known to man, too! That's what happens when you have chronic insaneness. Anyhow, I have no idea how many chapters EXACTLY that I have yet. I tend to write more than I plan to, although I know how everything's ending and what will transpire later on. At this point I'm saying maybe four or five more...but I'm never going over twenty, no matter what. If I STILL want to write more, hell, I'll just write another Lu/Ma with all my old ideas sometime down the road. But not right away! Dear no, I need a break! (And I've got a Yuffentine I wanna write!)
Here are a some shameless plugs (as red mage calls them) of some of my favorite stories in this category (most of them being Lu/Mas, of course). If you want a more complete list of some of the ones I've already plugged, then go back to chapters eight or nine (somewhere in that neighborhood). They're all really good!
ShadowMage: by Imania
Old Quarrels, New Love: by Rhianwen
The Entity's Revenge: by red mage
Husbandry: by Chrislea
Just Hungry: by Sailor Leo
The Prophet's Apprentice: by Dark Creation
Oh, and remember to review, of course! Please? Pretty please? With a cherry on top? Honestly, they help me write better chapters!