By Saul and Krazy Sam

Crono stood in the edge of the cape, but didn't care for his surroundings. The ground was not there, he didn't see either the ocean or the sky. He could barely hear the wind.

He bowed a little, impulsed up, and started floating on the air. Time seemed to slow down. He wondered when would he fall down, but didn't really care.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!", a sound bursted on his left hear as a couple of arms grabbed him over his belly, dragging him back. The shout seemed to have been there since a long time, but he had just noticed it.

The other person grasped him firmly and didn't want to let him go. "What did you think you were doing????". Crono recognized Lucca's voice.

"Lucca let me go!"

"What happened to you? You can't do that! Besides my science and friends I've got nothing..."

"I was really for upset for what happened to me and my life has been changed due to this, I want to avoid the suffering."

"Why do you have to become so gloomy? Why aren't you trying to find a way to be happy again? So, I'll never hear from the bright Crono who cared so much me when we were children? When I was hurt so much when my mom was hurt in that accident, and when people laughed if my inventions."

"..." Crono touched his heart, it had been hurting since...

"Please don't be sad! You're my best friend! You're like a part of my own soul!"

"I allowed her to enter my life... then she crushes me... I don't want to remember that... I don't care for what others say! I won't love anyone again! All is nonsense now! This is the only way!!!" Crono tries to jump again, almost taking Lucca on the way, but she still holds him firmly and doesn't allow them to fall.

"I know the Crono I know is still in here. Look, we all have bad moments in our lives, but we must be strong enough to get over them."

"Ha! What could possibly have happened to you?"

Lucca diminished her pressure keeping Crono and looked down with a sad face. "I would prefer to not to... DARN IT!!! You leave me no other choice!... Do you remember when we were kids, and your family had to move away for three months? Well, I was very lonely, nobody liked me anywhere. Fritz's big brother started making fun of me. He and his friends laughed at me, made sure no one talked to me. He also told me you were never coming back! All that really affected me. I barely ate that day, and, in the night, I worked all long making a...trap. When that big bully came next to me, an electrical discharge shocked him, it was supposed to only scare him a bit, but it was too much and... and..." Lucca started crying and shouting, "it killed him! I killed him! I am responsible for all the trouble on his family! Aaaaaaa! Snif..."

Crono's world seemed to flash away when he heard that. He had never imagined someone he knew could have been through something like that.

He turned back to Lucca with a sweet face. "Oh... I never... knew... they just found him. I now understand why were you so good with Fritz. I would have never thought..." Crono's eyes started to drop water, tears that had been repressed there from a long time. It looked like he had already forgot about crying and smiling in this few days, but now what he had remember the pain they caused. "There it is, sorrow, anger, sadness... pain." His face became totally expressionless.

"And why do you fear feelings? You mustn't hide them!" Lucca cried with also a wet face. "You mustn't become like Shadow!" ...then she asked herself where the hell she knew the ninja Shadow from... but the thoughts seemed to slip away from her. "What is what you think? That they aren't worth it? The suffering?"

Crono was in the midst of deciding: Give it another shot to life for Lucca, or resign that sooner or later he would become depressed again, because in the deepest of his heart he knew he would eventually do, no matter what happened. Maybe he really wanted all to become like before, but the truth was that was impossible, he thought. Then he saw Lucca's face come closer.

"I know I'm going to regret this, but..." She said. It was then when...

Lucca kissed Crono.

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Crono felt it. It seemed like it had taken a long time to react. He felt then a beam entered directly to the center of his heart, and a refreshing energy began to fill his body from it. The wound on his heart, and the rest of them, healed. He had sensation of peace and happiness. He had a sensation of... life.

Lucca moved away. The hearts of both beated back and forth. She hoped Crono understood what she had meant.

"I... I love you..." Crono murmured.

"What?" Lucca worried. That's was not what she tried to achieve!

Crono shook his head. "Sorry... I didn't mean that. It's not everyday one has his first kiss..."

"Th... that was your first kiss? What about...?"

"I got never got that far with anyone... not even Marle. What? Wasn't it yours?"

"Uh..." Lucca tried to remember. Crono was right, it was her first kiss. She had not thought about that. "Yes, it was." Lucca blushed.

Crono braced Lucca. "Thanks Lucca, that was a most wonderful thing... but let's keep this secret, huh?"

"Yeah." Lucca looked up to Crono.

"We had better go back. My mom could get worried."

Lucca stared at Crono surprisingly. He was sure better now. "Well let's go! You'll love my power boat."

--------------

"Nadia's bell rings nicely than Leene's", Lucca thought. "I still wonder what was Marle thinking when she left Crono like that. She surely doesn't know him like me. And leaving like that!"

Then, the door opened and Marle came in, dressed as she normally did for going out, informally. "Phew! This trip of mine was a major fuss, but...", then she started looking at the air.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE????" Lucca shouted at her. "Only because I didn't saw you you thought I would not know what you did???"

Marle immediately went quiet and calm. She faced the ground. "Look, I'm sorry for what..."

"YOU'RE SORRY???? You're sorry? Crono was through a lot! He almost suicided!"

"What?" Marle fell to the her knees, crying. She placed her hands over her eyes. "I didn't want that! What have I done..."

In the midst of that, Crono entered the house. He didn't even notice Marle. "Lucca, I have been thinking and maybe it was the best thing to happen. Probably Marle and I wouldn't have been..." He noticed Lucca's upset look and shut up. Then he looked down and noticed Marle crouched on the floor. Surprised, he finished, "...happy."

After a while on confusion, Crono spoke again. "Marle, is that you? We need to talk."

Marle faced Crono, still with tears on her face. "Crono, I didn't mean to do that to you... I'm sorry... I'm beginning to... regret what I did..."

A lot of thoughts stormed Crono's mind again. "Regret? She didn't mean that? What did she want then? Maybe she didn't want to break... May she... come back to me? It would be nice... No! You just said you didn't want her! That things had to be this way! Why do you keep hopes then? It's impossible! You're like earth and sky! You're from almost different worlds!"

"Crono, just because of what happened, doesn't mean that we can't be friends. I want to be good friends with you again! And also you, Lucca!" Marle said looking at the pair.

"Friends?" Crono thought "Can I be friends with her? From almost the first moment I saw her I have just felt pure love, and during these five days that seemed like an eternity she caused me unbearable pain, and I even came to... hate her... a part of me hates her..."

"Crono, I think we three can become friends again." Lucca gave her hand to Marle, and looked at Crono, like saying, "It's not a bad chance."

"Ok, I accept." Crono now shook hands with Marle. "Friends." Marle seemed very happy.

"Thanks... friends. Now let me tell you how my trip was. In the beginning, we couldn't find the prince and the castle was in ruins, so it was awful..."

"AWFUL??? You call that awful??? You have no idea what PAIN is!!! You would have to be in my body to know the pain YOU caused!!!", but suddenly Crono got scared when he saw the looks of Lucca and Marle to him. Had he shouted it aloud?

"Uh, Crono, is something happening? I don't like at all the look of your eyes." Lucca asked.

Crono suspired. It had only been his eyes. He had not shouted it. "Marle, I know I said we would be friends, but I can't just leave that behind. Why did you do it?" "You can't just waltz into my life, give me hopes, slam me to the ground, go away so I can't talk to you and then come back like nothing!" Well, he didn't say that last aloud, but hoped Marle someday knew it. Maybe she would someday read his thoughts of this moment.

"Whyy? Well... I said I wasn't ready to handle a relationship..."

"You and me know it has to be something else."

"It's personal..."

"Marle, please tell me, you're hurting me."

"Ok, ok, ok. I'll tell you. You know I hated royal life because I was forced to it. But one night, I realized it was my destiny. I no longer hated it, but actually liked it because it was not something mandatory. I also understood I represent my kingdom so I must maintain some correct behavior. That's also what my mom would have liked."

"Oops.", said Lucca recalling her talk with Marle about destiny.

"But what has that to do with our relationship?"

"People would say you love me only because I'm the princess..."

"You know that isn't true! I didn't know you were the princess at first and still helped you!"

"I know... but still. The thought of that you only loved me because I'm the princess was very hurting. I imagined that sooner or later you would break my heart..."

"Marle..." Crono braced her. "...you know I would never do that. My love for you is pure no matter if you are the mayor's servant. Our love is great."

"I... you were so gallant... going to rescue me... your personality threatened to engulf me... that's why I was not sure of my love... also I took a lot of me to break it up with you..."

"Ok, I understand you..." Crono sighted. "I'm sorry for all I said... and thought... I mean it really."

"Oh, thanks Crono... It has been hard until now, I'm overwhelmed with all the princess stuff... which includes guards coming to get me at any moment."

As if on clue, a voice yelled, "Princess Nadia!"

"Gotta go!" Marle said going out of the door. "But I want to talk. What about seeing you at the castle doors, after sunset?"

"I guess it's okay." Crono said, and Marle rushed to the carriage that was waiting her.

"I might not make it." Said Lucca a bit sadly.

"What? Why didn't you tell nothing?"

"You didn't give me the chance. It's okay, I have to go to Porre to test this new device with a friend. Anyway, it will be Marle and you only."

"Whatdayya mean by that?"

"Come on, Crono. Your face and words reveal that you are even more in love than before."

"Ok, I admit it, I still love her. But, what can I do, you just listened her."

"You have a date there, alone. I think she figures you love her, and also still loves you, but she doesn't know it. You have to tell her."

"I'll try..."

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The castle's outside seemed lovely at that time. The lanterns gave it just the necessary light, and it was full moon. Marle had been out to watch the sunset, it had just finished and the dusky night had begun.

Crono came out of the trees, and jogged the short distance to the castle stairs where Marle was waiting for him.

"Crono..."

"Marle... indeed we need to talk."

"I am not sure... what exactly are you planning?"

"Marle, you said you broke it up because you thought I would break your heart, and at this moment I tell you I won't. You said you broke it against you own will, so I don't know what keeps us from coming back."

"..."

"My love for you is like a wall that every time it crumbles, it is rebuilt stronger."

"My heart... is broken into two..."

"Huh?"

"You don't know a thing about the prince, do you?"

"The prince of Choras?"

"Exactly."

"Well, Choras hadn't had a royal family from more than 400 years ago, since they had a war where the king was killed and he left no successors. But, a few years ago proofs were found that the kind indeed had descendance and not only that, he had left a blue medallion, sort of like your dreamstone pendant, to be passed over the generations. The mayor found an orphan boy who had the medallion, and indeed certain resemblance to the ancient king. As I recall, they were preparing the old castle to house him, and rebuild the whole Choras royal system."

"That's right. We also knew that the prince immediately adapted to his new life and started the training to be king. I was affected by the fact this boy, knowing nothing of his past, took so strongly his royal obligations and I, raised as a princess, denied them."

"So that's why all the royal stuff. But, who says a princess can't love someone? I can prove I love you no matter you are the princess or not."

"I already told you it's not only that... I said my heart is broken into two, one part for you, and the other..."

Crono now understood. "And the other?"

"...for the prince."

"I see... What are you doing?"

"I can't love two people at once!"

"I know, I understand. Do you have to choose one of us?"

"Already. I have already chosen."

Crono's heart seemed to pump out of his chest. "Tell me...", he said with a voice as thin as a thread.

"I..."

"..."

"I..."

"Tell me, please. I will accept your choice."

"I love..."

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(A little suspense is good)

"I choose him. I love the prince."

SLAM! Blam! Crash! Now Crono knew what it felt being beaten badly. But, he kind of expected it, he knew she would choose him. Because there was a way Marle couldn't love him, a royal one. The prince was the way of being a princess, the royal, real way, so she would choose him.

"I get it. I said I would respect your choice and I will."

"Thanks Crono." Marle ran away into the castle because of the bad she felt.

Crono stood there alone. Loneliness, what appropriate for what he felt. He walked home in a snap, holding the tears. He locked on his room and thought here, and finally got the feeling out of him. It came back sometimes, and he would relief himself the same way. It was no good to keep the feelings to oneself.

--------------

Crono stood at the bottom of the castle stairs, the same place the plot had finally finished just one night ago. Princess Nadia, Marle, stood there in one of her best dresses.

Tonight was the Guardia ball in honor of the Choras prince. Crono had called her just before the ball.

"Take this. Queen Leene gave it to me that time..."

"It's her hair pin!" Marle placed it on a suitable place on her hair.

"No exactly the one is hers, but the kind the royal family used."

"Thanks Crono."

"Now, do your magnificent entrance."

"Yes..."

Marle went up the stairs and looked one more time at Crono. Then, she turned around and did her definitive entrance, not only to the ball, but to the world of princess and kings, the world where she would be of the prince of Choras she loved. Crono wanted from the bottom of her heart to give her a last -and first- kiss, but that was inappropriate and impossible.

Crono slowly walked back into the woods. He turned back to see if Marle went back down the stairs, but she wouldn't. He waited there for a while, but he knew she wouldn't come. Then, he started walking into the forest. He knew it was wrong to live his life just expecting someday the princess would go down these stairs back to him, but he couldn't help it. As the trees blocked his sight of the castle, he thought wherever he were, he would wait for Marle to go down, always...

forever...

and ever.

Part 3

Chapter List