Disclaimer: Honestly, if CT was mine I'd currently be lounging around on a beach near a five star resort, deciding whether I'd rather have a Porsche or a Viper. :)

It happened to be breakfast time at Lucca's house, and that always meant complete and utter chaos. Watching exhaustedly as the children noisily consumed their porridge and toast, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and bent down to clean up a particularly nasty spill of what (hopefully) appeared to be orange juice, cursing her chosen profession for what seemed to be the millionth time.

(There are just some days...SOME days where I wonder just what the HELL I was thinking when I opened up an orphanage.) She involuntarily reached up to scratch her head, only managing to get the mysterious orange goo in her hair. (And THIS day is one of them,) she thought as she uttered silent but vicious curses to herself under her breath.

The day had already gotten off to a bad start. It had unceremoniously kicked off with Maribelle waking her up and complaining that someone had plugged the toilet, causing her to stand in the bathroom with a plunger and fight a losing battle with Whatever-God-Only-Knows-What for a half an hour. No sooner had she replaced the accursed and very smelly instrument back in the utility closet than a huge explosion had rocked her side of the house, giving her a rather nasty reminder that she should have replaced about half the chemicals she was storing in her room a very long time ago. After ANOTHER half an hour of cleaning up smoky, pungent, and overall mysterious things there, she limped back down to the kitchen to start breakfast, immediately discovering that her two youngest charges had decided to see what it was like to finger paint with the pancake batter she had had standing on the counter. Nothing seemed to be sacred in this house. Nothing!!

(And we haven't even seen the worst yet,) Lucca thought as she ventured a glance up the stairs, over towards where Magus's room was. She knew he would be waking up sometime today, although she wasn't quite sure when. His injuries had certainly been bad but in no way life-threatening. All she knew was that what would ensue would probably be close to apocalyptic, if she wasn't severely mistaken...

Noticing that she had actually been wiping a clean spot for about the past five minutes, she threw the rag back into its bucket and dished herself up a plate of food, sitting down across from Kid at the end of the table. "You look a lot better," she commented lightly, taking a swig of orange juice. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Yeah," Kid replied slowly, taking a bite of something-or-other. "No dreams or anything. I don't even have that one all that often. It's just that - that - that when I do, it's - it's...awful."

Lucca stared at her charge, noticing the pale look on her face at even the mention of the dream. What a nightmare it must have been - she still didn't like talking about it, even after another night. She mentally noted to take some time later to check out some of her old psychology books; perhaps they held an answer to the cause of Kid's current grief.

Her mental note to self, however, was suddenly rudely interrupted with the sound of a loud crash and the sound of an indignant, angry voice carrying over from some distance away (but, unfortunately, not far enough) : "Who's down there?! I demand that someone come up here and tell me where I am at once!"

Lucca sighed as her heart seemed to plummet downwards and out of her body. Yes, the voice was unpleasantly familiar. And yes, it was coming from upstairs. Given these two facts and the third one already stating that an evil wizard had taken over her guest room, one could only deduce that Magus was wide awake, and a little too early for her liking at that. And that his vocal chords were, unfortunately, uninjured.

She stood up and nodded at Kid, who, along with the others, had stopped chattering in surprise in reaction to Magus's very colorful tirade. "Make sure no one kills each other while I'm gone," she said to her amid the loud shouting, beginning to climb the stairs. "I have a feeling I'm gonna be up there awhile."

***

Angry blood-colored eyes immediately glared unblinkingly at her the moment she entered the room, carrying a wet rag and some bandages in tow. For a split second Lucca's stomach gave a rather grinding lurch and her knees began to feel a little rubbery as those eyes narrowed in recognition, but she managed to shake it off, reminding herself that the circumstances were totally different now than what they had been over a decade ago.

(Calm down, calm down...you are NOT an awkward sixteen year old girl anymore. And you will NOT stand to be bullied. If he so much as raises his eyebrows at you, then...then FLARE his ass all the way to Choras!)

Well, maybe not to THAT extreme... (We-ell, maybe a WEAKER Fire spell... Not Flare. I'm just ASKING to go to the Void if I do THAT!)

Putting the bundle of bandages down on the dresser, she approached the right-hand side of the bed, ordering him in a businesslike manner, "Lift your leg."

The reply sounded rather disgruntled. "What?!"

Lucca gritted her teeth. "I said, LIFT your LEG. I have to check if it's broken!"

Disgruntled silence.

"LIFT your LEG!! Don't you know what a leg is?!" Lucca spat, determined to win this first battle. It seemed he hadn't changed a hell of a lot in twelve years...

"And what if I don't?" his reply was infuriatingly calm, a smile starting to play on his thin lips. Apparently his love of torturing people hadn't went away, either...

"Then - then you'll just have to STAY there!" she exclaimed, stamping her foot so hard that the floor vibrated for a minute. "As if I'm gonna waste my time yelling at you!"

"You already are, if you hadn't noticed." Magus laughed harshly, straightening up as Lucca started to turn red. "But that doesn't matter, as I am leaving. Now," he added pointedly.

Lucca scowled, still blushing. "Your leg looks broken," she replied flatly. "You won't be going anywhere, not unless you love screaming in pain."

The nasty, smug grin began to come back. "Why so concerned? Lonesome, maybe? Just broke up with your pasty-skinned, greasy-haired boyfriend, perhaps?"

"YOU'RE the one who's pasty-skinned, scumbag!"

"Oh, I know! You just lost the battle with the princess over-"

If Lucca had been able to froth at the mouth, she definitely would have been doing it by now. "VERY thin ice, Magus, and you're treading right on it!"

"As if a little water would frighten me," he replied coldly, throwing back the covers and sitting up. "Now if you've with finished making a fool out of yourself, I believe I have a time period to find my way back t-"

His bold statement, however, was suddenly and rudely interrupted by a loud, sickening crunch. Lucca had to fight back a triumphant smile as she watched him trip right over his useless leg and crash into the floor, cursing vehement medieval oaths as he went. "See?" she said crisply as she reluctantly helped him back into bed, fighting back an especially nasty insult that had just come to mind. "There's really something wrong with your leg. Now let me look at it!"

After a haughty, indignant glance that could have melted ice, he finally threw the covers back again and gingerly stuck out his leg, still cursing to himself. Trying to ignore the fact that her face was turning a vibrant shade of fire engine red, she pulled up his pants cuff to the knee and began inspecting the leg. The sooner she found out the problem, she reasoned, the sooner he would be out of here. And, seeing how things were going, that would be wonderful.

She took a moment to stare at his face mid-inspection. It was scowling at her. His aristocratic nose seemed to curl up when pointed in her direction, and his red eyes flashed dangerously as he noticed what she was doing. His cerulean hair tumbled loosely down past his shoulders. He currently had the air of a trapped, cornered animal. A trapped, cornered animal who bit, mind you.

She looked down quickly and continued to feel around his ankle. (Ugh, and I thought he was kinda CUTE when he was sleeping last night?! I KNEW I should've been noticing what the kids were putting in my juice earlier...Him, CUTE?! That insufferable, arrogant, unlovable, know-it-a---)

"OW!" He suddenly kicked out at her when she found an apparently tender spot on his ankle, narrowly missing her glasses while he was at it.

Lucca smiled triumphantly. "See, what did I tell you? There's definitely something wrong."

He scowled. "Then don't stand there and stare at me, you idiot! Find out what!"

Rolling her eyes, she bent down to further inspect the ankle. "Yes, Your Highness..."

They both sat in a strained silence for a moment as she looked, each one desperately wanting to gore the other.

Finally Lucca lifted up her head and announced, "Well, it doesn't look like it's broken or anything."

"And?"

"It's just a bad sprain."

"And?"

"And you'll have to lie around until it heals."

"And?!"

"AND YOU'LL BE STUCK HERE FOR THREE OR FOUR DAYS!" she shouted, shooting him a glare that would have made a normal person cower. "ARE YOU SATISFIED NOW?!"

"Just let me think about that for a moment, will you?" he replied coldly, letting forth a very punctuated pause.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"HOW ABOUT NO?!" he finally roared in reply, giving her one of his trademark deadly-ice glares.

"I thought that."

"You obviously don't understand," he went on impatiently in an imperious tone. "I have to get back to my time period - now. There's something I must do, and I obviously can't do it here."

"What? Forget to feed Alfador?"

"Don't you dare mock me-"

"You're just asking to be mocked!" she shot back, the anger suddenly starting to seethe within her again. "Listen, as much as I don't want you here either, it can't be helped! I can't move you, and you can't move! Just accept it for a few days and quit your whining!"

"Easy for you to say! You won't be sitting here and letting a huge window of opportunity slip away!" he hissed, shifting restlessly. He craned his neck to stare out of the open window nearby. "What year is it, anyway?" he asked moodily after a moment.

"It's 1011," she replied back through clenched teeth. "Almost twelve years since we defeated Lavos, just like you! Lost a few brain cells since I saw you last, have you?"

"And you've never had any to begin with," he shot back coolly.

Lucca turned crimson, angry that she had been one-upped. "Oh, how very witty of you, twisting my words around to insult me back again. Witty for someone with only a one digit I.Q.!"

She suddenly turned away from him, having realized that her legs were shaking and that she was growing angry beyond measure. He had always had power over her like that, making her so mad that she couldn't even speak properly. And she was an adult now?! This was ridiculous! She was acting just like the toddlers in her care!

She realized that she'd better just up and leave before something got broken. But not before she dealt one more blow to his pride...She left the room and headed to the bathroom next door for a few seconds, coming back with something large and well-scrubbed in her hands.

A shiny gold bedpan.

"Here," she hissed, practically chucking it onto his lap. "I believe you'll be needing this!"

The look on his face was priceless. "What?!"

Lucca headed for the door. "Well, I'm not carrying you to the bathroom every five minutes!" she said in a business-like tone, fighting the urge to laugh.

"This is it! I am not- I am not-"

"Quit whining or I'll watch!"

His dangerous voice was back. "You wouldn't dare!"

"I would," Lucca just replied, shutting the door behind her with a click. (There, that'll keep him from yelling for awhile,) she thought, hurrying back downstairs. (Now just to clean up breakfast...)

But she wasn't even blessed with THAT opportunity. Because yet another annoyance reared its ugly head...No sooner was she down to the landing than she heard a loud knock on the front door. She looked out the peephole only to find that Crono and Marle were waiting on the patio, holding two giant black bags and a stack of gigantic tomes that looked like they were full of healing spells.

Her life was forever cursed.

Author's Notes: I've always had a lot of fun writing up banter for Lucca and Magus, so I couldn't resist doing a chapter like this. Don't worry, I'm trying to keep Magus as in character as possible, as I was told several times on my last fic that he needed to be a little more stoic and also probably above the name-calling that I tended to do. He only flipped out earlier because he had been on the brink of figuring out what had happened to Schala. I'm also trying to label Lucca as less meek and a little more hot-headed, but also sensitive. I hope it's working...

Anyway, we get a little more into the plot next chapter, with Crono and Marle there as well. I appreciate any comments, advice, or even just saying whether you liked or hated it! I'm still don't really have a real sense of direction for this fic yet, and besides, it lets me know that you guys are out there! :)