"Uh…Magus? Are you okay? You…haven't said or done anything for awhile…"
Indeed he had not. In fact, the room had been silent for nearly fifteen minutes in which neither Lucca nor Magus could so much as look at each other. The silence probably would have stretched on for an eternity had Lucca not chanced a glance at the man in front of her and noticed that his face had become even paler than it usually was, and that he looked as though he was going to pass out. As if such strange behavior coming from Magus wasn't enough, she also noticed that he was turning a strange shade of blue, indicating that he hadn't breathed in a while either.
"Magus…snap out of it! I admit that I was shocked when I found out too, but I at least breathed!"
Seeming to have heard her, Magus took a series of short, almost non-existent breaths before taking one very deep one and settling into a normal rhythm. Gradually, the blue that had become a rather prominent feature on his face began to fade.
"Well…at least that's one thing…Now, could you say something? I know you're the strong silent type, but this is ridiculous."
He took another deep breath before replying, and when he did, his voice was cold and flat.
"There's nothing to say. This is either a mistake or you're joking, and for your sake, it had better be a mistake."
"No, Magus…there's no mistake, and I'm not dumb enough to play a joke on you…I rather like having my body in one piece, thank you very much."
Receiving only an icy stare from Magus, Lucca sighed in frustration before continuing.
"Look, I've been trying to convince myself that I'm wrong about this since I noticed the first signs, but the more time that passed and the more I thought about it, the more obvious it became that my suspicions were correct. So we're both just going to have to suck it up and accept the fact you and I did something on impulse and now I'm pregnant with your child!"
Of course, Magus was not one to be convinced of his doom so easily.
"Alright. Let's say that you are pregnant. How do I know that it's mine? I'm not exactly the only man in history capable of doing that sort of thing."
Narrowing her eyes in a most intimidating way, Lucca responded to such an accusation in a low and dangerous tone.
"Just what are you implying?"
"You know very well what I'm 'implying'. There are plenty of other men that you could have been with before and after me, so there is really no proof that I am the father."
Obviously, Magus was not wise in the ways of women, and thus did not realize that by saying what he had just said, he had insulted Lucca beyond all reason. As a result, the anger hidden deep inside every woman, reserved especially for men who are being particularly idiotic by trying to weasel their way out of out of their responsibilities, awoke within her, and before he could so much as blink, Magus found Lucca standing over him, her eyes positively on fire with rage.
"JUST WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME FOR!?" As though the deafening tone of her voice was not enough to get her point across that she was very angry indeed, Lucca emphasized her point by slapping Magus across the face with all of her strength, the force of the blow causing his head to whip to the side and spittle to fly from his mouth. Magus was noticeably shocked, having never been hit by a woman before.
Looking back at her, he noticed that hitting him must have been an effective way to blow off steam, for she had calmed down a little, though she was obviously still very peeved. While trying very hard to keep her temper under control, Lucca continued.
"Magus…it couldn't have been anyone other than you. You are the first and only man I have ever slept with, and, unless I got pregnant by some other miraculous means, that would make you the only man capable of being the father."
Still trying to comprehend the fact that some one had actually hit him, Magus could only stare at the young inventor in front of him while rubbing the hand-shaped red mark on his cheek as she sat back down.
"Okay...now that we have that out of the way, we should probably discuss just how we are going to handle this."
Quickly regaining his composure, Magus again tried to back out.
"We? I see no we in all this. It seems to be more your problem than anything. After all, if I remember correctly, you were the one that came to me the first time. I was just an innocent bystander."
"Oh, yeah…real innocent. As I recall, you started it. When I came to your room that night, I had absolutely no intention of doing what I did."
"Oh? Then what were you doing? Stopping by for a little chat?"
"Actually, in a sense, yes. I needed someone to talk to about the whole incident with Crono."
At this, Magus raised an eyebrow. Seeing that he was curious as to why she would choose him, of all people, to talk to about something that he couldn't have cared less about at the time, Lucca hurried to explain, frustration and weariness clear in her tone.
"Well what do you expect!? Since Crono died, you were the only person who had offered any useful information. That, and you were the only one in our group that hadn't managed to get on my nerves yet. Marle was moping around about Crono, which I can understand, but seeing her unhappy didn't exactly help with my emotions, so I wasn't about to talk to her about it. Ayla's solution to the problem would be that we go back to her time and have some poi, and, depressed as I may have been, I wasn't in the mood to get drunk on that again…"
This time, both of Magus' eyebrows went up, voicing without words that he was surprised that she had ever been drunk before.
"Uh…long story…Anyway, since I knew that Ayla would suggest that, I didn't even bother to try to talk about it with her. Robo was out for the very same reason that I didn't go to him tonight. As much as I love machines, they just aren't what you talk to when you're feeling sad; their logic can actually make things worse. Then there's Frog. Yeah, he's a sweet guy and all, but somehow, no matter what the topic, conversations with him always lead back to you and how all wrongs in the world would be set right once you were slain and Cyrus' death was avenged. Honestly, I don't know about that guy…"
Shaking her head in pity, she sighed before going on.
"So…that left you, and you seemed like a reasonable choice. Like I said before, you were the only person that had offered any useful information at that point, though I still can't quite figure out why you did. That and I knew that you had lost someone close to you at one point in your life too, so I was hoping that you could offer some advice on how to handle it. That's why I came to you that night, not to…well…you know…that part was your doing."
"I don't see how that could have been my doing. I did nothing more than let you in, offer you a drink, and let you use my bed-"
"Yeah…I'll say you did."
"-to rest. You stayed for so long that you practically collapsed on it. Can I help it that when I tried to wake you up you attacked me?"
"If by attacked, you mean kissed, that was all you, buddy. I just played along for fear of you killing me if I refused."
Turning away and crossing his arms, he responded haughtily.
"I wouldn't have killed you. Injured maybe, but not killed." Eyes widening for a brief second in realization, he quickly added, "and either way I wasn't the one who did it."
Raising her hands to the sky in exasperation, Lucca decided to put an end to this before she lost her mind.
"Fine! Believe what you want! It's not like it really matters who started it that night, because it's not as though that was the only time it happened. The rest of those times are just as capable as the first of making this happen, and the blame for those alternated between the both of us."
She gave a frustrated sigh before beginning to rub her temples in an effort to stop her impending headache, before she said in a tone that was less angry and more whiny, "Magus…it's almost morning and I've been up all night. I'm tired, cranky, and still upset about all this, so either give me a room or kill me, I really don't care at the moment, as long as I get some form of sleep before I get sick again."
"Why would you get sick?" Magus asked while slightly tilting his head to the side, showing that he was genuinely confused. "You seem fine to me."
"You really don't know anything about this sort of thing at all, do you?" she asked while giving him a look that bordered on pity. "Never mind…you'll get it soon enough, I suppose. Now could you please give me a room. We can continue this discussion later."
"Didn't you say not too long ago that you wanted to 'discuss how we are going to handle this'?"
"I changed my mind," she said through clenched teeth, anger becoming clear on her face once more.
Deciding that there was no way out of it, Magus gave in.
"Fine. If it will make you stop snapping at me, you can stay here, though I still have my doubts about this whole thing." Getting to his feet, Magus began to leave the room, indicating that he wanted Lucca to follow. With his back turned to her, he didn't notice Lucca roll her eyes and shake her head in pity due to the fact that Magus actually thought she had any control over what mood she was in right now, therefore proving her point that he was clueless on this subject.
After Lucca had been given a room and Magus had returned to his own, they had both tried to get in a few hours of sleep. However, doing so proved to be more difficult than it should have been. Both of them laid awake in bed for some time after, trying to figure out just what had caused them to do what they did that first night together.
That night, Lucca had only intended to talk to Magus. He had only been a part of their group for less than a week, and, though Lucca would admit to herself, if only to herself, that she had thought him to be kind of good looking, and that she wouldn't have minded getting to know him better, the thought of getting to know him in that way had never even flickered across her mind.
So, they had talked, though neither one of them could explain just why Magus had actually allowed her into his room in the first place. They didn't talk a whole lot, seeing as to how Magus seemed to have a limit as to the amount of words he was able to say in any given amount of time, but, even during the extended periods of time in which nothing was said, Lucca had felt comfortable there.
Maybe it was that she enjoyed the fact that she could be around someone without it being necessary to talk, and that she could think about things without being interrupted that had made her stay so long. Or maybe it was simply reluctance to go back to the room she was sharing with Marle and therefore be forced to hear the young princess cry in her sleep. It could even have been that, though it didn't seem like it to her, she had had just a little too much to drink Whatever the reason, it had caused her to lay down on Magus' bed, which she had been sitting on due to the lack of chairs in the room. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.
It was a while before Magus had even noticed that she had dozed off, and when he finally did, he, surprisingly, did nothing about it. Truth be told, he was amazed that this girl had felt comfortable enough around him to actually do so. After all, it wasn't too long before that night that the two of them had been enemies, both bent on the destruction of the other.
However, after some time had passed, Magus' eyelids began to feel heavy, so he had decided to rouse Lucca and send her off to her own room.
Deciding that scaring her wouldn't be the wisest way to wake her due to what he had observed of her mood in the mornings, he had approached the bed as quietly as he could. Sitting down beside her sleeping form on the bed, he gently touched her shoulder, shaking her slightly and softly calling her name.
At first, all this accomplished was causing her to grunt and roll from her side on to her back. He tried several more times to awake her, but she did nothing more than before. Just as he was about to give up and had just begun to consider picking Lucca up and almost literally throwing her at the princess down the hall, he decided to try just one more time, this time calling her name directly into her ear.
Turning toward her, he began to lower his head to her ear. It wasn't until he was within mere inches from his destination, and therefore her face, that he had noticed something. Moving his head directly over hers, he was able to confirm his suspicion: Lucca's eyes were wide open.
At first they had only stared at each other in surprise, Lucca still trying to figure out just what Magus was doing, and Magus too surprised to find the young woman awake to do anything else.
It wasn't long, however, until the look of surprise had melted away into a look of longing, and, before either of them knew what was happening, they found themselves locked in a passionate kiss. It was tentative at first, due to the fact that neither one of them were very good at expressing themselves in these matters, but it had soon grown in intensity. It had progressed from there.
In the morning, both were surprised at the reality of what they had done. Though, for some strange reason, Lucca was not as embarrassed as one might expect, she hurried out of there, hoping that Marle had not noticed the fact that she had never come into the room the night before.
Unfortunately, she did, but Lucca was able to convince the young princess that she had been out walking all night, thinking.
After that night, Lucca and Magus would often just glance at each other during the day and would later find themselves spending the night together.
They had never thought of the consequences.
A/N: Well, would ya look at that!! I updated!! Oh, sure…I've got a huge pile of homework that's kind of waiting to be attended to, but….well…I told you my procrastinator gene would kick in. Well, anyway…I hope you enjoyed the chapter. And congratulations to all who guessed what Lucca's secret was!! Yay for you!! I hope no one finds this a bit too…weird…but, my muse demanded that it be written, and I had to listen to her…she wouldn't let me sleep, and I was tired. Oh...and after consulting with friends and family about it, I upped the rating a little, just in case. So…have fun…I'm gonna go do my homework now…or at least pretend to….Remember, any reviews will do…so…Review please!!