By Saul and Krazy Sam

A week has passed, and things started to look well. Marle was busy in her princess life, but Crono was able to talk to her a while every night using Lucca's invention. They talked freely. Crono blushed when Marle said a maid in the castle was talking about him being nice.

Lucca also was able to talk with Crono as normal, maybe a little less because she was busy on another of her new inventions.

One afternoon, a letter arrived to Crono's house:

"I'm able to slip from my princess obligations for a while, so I'll be able to see you at the field in the forest tonight, after sunset.

- Love, Marle."

"Nice..." Crono said getting ready to go to tell Lucca.

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Crono observed closely the field in the forest. Some things had been added, a bench, a swing. There was a clear view of the stars from here. A tree caught Crono's attention. On the back, it had carved a big cross, with small letters C and J on the horizontal ends. Also a lot of wooden sticks were broken in the ground.

"I wonder what all this could possibly mean... Or how long has it been here."

Lucca entered the place. "I see you're already here."

"Yes, I haven't been on the place for a while."

Marle jumped into the field too. "Oh, we're all together! This is cool!"

"It is cool to be able to talk to you, Marle."

"I have a new invention." Lucca said.

"You're spoiling the surprise, Lucca!"

"Was it supposed to be a surprise? Anyway, I'm glad you are happy again Crono. You too Marle."

"Thanks Lucca.", Marle says as she takes out a tear that tried to form on her eye.

Lucca keep talking. "Look, my invention is a stopper, it freezes people still... And I yet have to try it." She says taking it out.

"A stopper... Try it on Crono!" Marle grins.

Crono smiles at the joke, and remembers how good it feels to be with them. "You know girls, you're both the most important thing to me..." He says.

Marle suddenly gets serious and walks to a remote edge and gazes at the stars. Crono follows her a bit confused.

"Marle?" Lucca asks lifting her look from her invention. "Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine, just not feeling very good. I think I have a mood swing. You'll know when you..." Marle stops when she sees Lucca's moody look.

"Mood swings?" Crono says a bit scared. "Uh, oh..."

"It's not that time of the month, if you must know." Marle snaps. Crono's eyes almost pop out. "Ehhhh...", he babbles really surprised.

"I know what you mean, Marle..." Lucca mutters. "I even have a theory for the meaning of life!", she snaps confidently lifting a finger on the air.

"Really, what is it?" Marle asks unworryingly.

"Crono knows it too."

"ME???" Crono wonders why did they have to get him into the problem.

"Yeah, I explained it to you, did you forget?"

"Whew! If I knew the meaning of life I wouldn't be so confused lately." Crono scratches his head.

"Oh, Crono. I'm sorry." Marle says, but giggles.

"It's not only your fault."

Marle walks a bit into the trees. Crono looks at Lucca in search for answers, and she returns his unknowingly look. Marle jumps back... with the head of a monster! "I have been fooling you all this time! I'm really Yakra forty-four!"

Crono blacks out and falls over the grass. Lucca takes out her WonderShot and fires as fast as she can. She misses by centimeters.

The monster jumps. "AAAAAAAAAAAHH", it cries but then its head falls revealing Marle's below. "Be careful Lucca! It's just a joke!"

Crono stands up laughing.

Lucca gets hysterical. "WHAT? You also knew Crono? Why didn't you tell me? Why did you just fall over there????"

"Hahaha!" Crono laughs while looking at Lucca. "And what did you expect me to do when I found out suddenly some monster is the person I am in love with..." Then he suddenly turns to Marle. "Uh, I meant...", he tries to say.

The expression on Marle's face changes and she runs away.

"Marle? Where do you think you're going? The field is no longer than 30 feet!"

Lucca sits on the swing. "This beats me."

Marle stares at the starry sky and Crono stops beside her. She lays in the soft grass.

"Hmm... Marle... Crono..." Lucca starts saying.

Crono decides to not to make things worse. "This is a nice starry night, particularly with both of you... it's like a dream."

Crono says no more. Lucca and Marle are speechless, but Marle blushes.

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"What? Did some mice eat your tongues?" Crono jokes after a while of silence. Lucca's mouth drops realizing that but Marle just goes back to staring the stars. Crono looks at them too standing up, but then sits on the bench to try to figure out some constellations.

Marle sighs happily as a shooting star passes. Lucca smiles at Crono and he sits next to Marle on the ground. "You know what I wished..."

"What?" Lucca and Marle ask at the same time. Marle lays back on the ground.

"Don't you girls know?"

Lucca lays next to Marle. "I might."

"Doesn't telling spoil the wish?"

Lucca looks at Marle and says, "Not right now."

Marle reaches up and pulls Crono down so he can get a better glimpse of the heavens.

"Marle, now I'm farther away from the stars. It will be worse!" Crono jokes.

"Oh, yeah, Crono. 30 cm will make a lot for 3 million miles!" Lucca moans at him.

All laugh, then quietly watch the stars for a while.

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

Crono suddenly notices Marle is shivering at the cold of the night. He begins to take off his blue vest, but Marle keeps him from doing so. "Jackets never help..."

"I should have brought a blanket." Crono says and hugs Marle.

"Ooh... steamy..." Marle mutters.

Lucca gives a sly look at Marle and Crono. Marle shoots it back. Lucca slaps Marle's head in the ground.

Crono stands up upset! "WHAT ARE YOU DOING LUCCA???"

"I... she was giving me a dirty look!" Lucca also stands up. "AND YOU AREN'T MY DAD SO DON'T YELL AT ME CRONO!!!!!!"

"I was just mimicking you!" Marle says from the ground.

"SHUT UP MARLE!!!"

"Sorry..." Crono says and gets ashamed of the way he got this situation out of hand.

"I wasn't hurt." Marle says trying to calm the problem. "I am not hurt... get back down here!"

"Please don't fight..." Crono says in a low tone.

"What is the matter with you Crono??? YOU'VE BEEN WEIRD LIKE THIS ALL WEEK!!!!" Lucca shouts. Crono looks down...

"I..." Marle says, "I have been in his heart with a hammer, all right?... smashing him...

Lucca stares at Marle and Crono angrily like... "I know that Marle! And you, Crono, after all that she did to you are you favoring her because she's your ex-girlfriend???"

Marle stands up too. "See! She loves you! And... you love her..."

Crono's eyes got wide. "What? Ok, ok! Let's settle this thing! The whole truth now!"

Lucca's eyes are wet. "Stop treating me like I'm in the middle of you! BOTH OF YOU STOP THAT!!! Just because I don't have a formal boyfriend that doesn't mean I don't know love or life is!!!!"

Marle is crying also. "I am sorry... for the pain I have caused to you Crono, and for treating you Lucca like an annoyance... I wanted you two to be happy... being together..."

"Lucca, I have NEVER thought of you like you're disturbing..." Crono quietly says.

"Lucca, I'm going to treat you like a great friend, like we once were." Marle tells her. "Are you okay?"

Lucca faces away.

Crono turns to Marle. "Marle, you mustn't be sorry... I told you the breakup helped me."

"It really did?"

"And..."

"And...?"

Lucca storms off alone. Marle forgets what she was going to say and chases her.

"You two, listen to me please. I love you both, but in different ways... I don't want to hurt any of you... or have to choose between you, because you're unique to me... I'm always thinking on either of you all the time..."

Lucca, who heard, comes back with Marle dragging her by the arm. Marle lets her go when they arrive next to Crono.

"Yeah, but you prefer to be with Marle because she's prettier... unlike me..."

"So what? You have been his friend all your life and always help him, I'm just trouble after trouble..."

"Haven't you talked with Marle the ugly I am, Crono?"

"You? I'm so stupid I can't even figure out if your inventions are doing something!"

"STOP IT!" Crono's face is filled of tears.

Lucca gulps, thinking she caused it. Marle hugs Crono.

"None of you are ugly or stupid! And you don't have to... compete over me!"

Lucca now feels like dirt. "You know guys... this fight is stupid..."

But Marle is startled. "I'm not competing! I've got another guy, remember?"

Crono lifts his face and opens his mouth to say something, but...

"I'm going to go. I don't like fighting over a guy." Marle turns away and heads for the exit.

"Ok, Marle... go with Jamerson, just leave me alone..." Crono cries throwing the tears out of his face.

Lucca can't stand it, her eyes is wet too. "Please stop!" She starts his stopping device, but it blows a fuse. "Oh, right!"

Marle stops, "I can't stand it any longer...". Crono doesn't know what to do. Marle turns around and yells...

"I choose YOU!!!!"

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

The world seemed to freeze for Crono, and it wasn't Lucca's device.

Lucca smiles. Marle sighs, "Ugh... got it off my chest..."

Crono can hardly breathe. "Did you really mean that? That you choose me? You had already chosen Jamerson..."

"No, Crono, I choose YOU. The choosing was what I wanted to talk you about..."

Crono remembered the letter. "Love, Marle", it said. "How could have I been so dumb?..." The sticks and the tree meant she was choosing between he and Jamerson... and having a hard time doing it.

Lucca folds arms and raises and eyebrow. Marle bursts into tears and tries to run away. "MARLE, WAIT!!!", Lucca shouts.

"I... Lucca, Marle..."

"Crono! Marle! I... I..."

"Lucca, I... Crono, I..."

"Truce?" Crono holds his hand forward.

Marle breaks in tears again. "Me?"

"I don't want either of you to be upset."

Lucca hugs Marle and wipes the tears out of both faces. "Hey, don't cry."

"Thanks, Lucca. -sniffle-" Marle sighs. Crono hugs both of them. "I'M SO SORRY, CRONO!!!"

Crono caresses Marle's face and draws his fingers along her hair.

"I may be young but I know more that some older people about friendship." Lucca says. "Why are you so sorry?"

"I'm sorry... for all the suffering I put Crono through..."

Lucca smiles warmly at Marle. "Please don't cry..." Crono mutters.

"I didn't want to do it... but... I..."

"It's in the past! I'm okay now." Crono winks at Marle

They all hug themselves tighter. "I'll help you Crono and Marle if necessary..." Lucca says willingly. "Marle, we're not angry at you...", then very low, "...anymore..."

"Well...I didn't want to do it...but when Jamerson said that he liked me, I remembered how I liked him a lot...and felt that I had to go back... or else hurt his feelings..."

"I said it was okay, Marle."

Lucca slips out from under Crono and Marle leaving just the two of them hugging.

"...but either way, I would hurt someone's feelings... I'm sorry... that's why I felt so bad."

"You don't worry. You did the best someone in your situation could have done... If you haven't, it would have been a lot worse."

Marle sighs and leans her head on Crono's shoulder. The crying wore her out.

Crono clears his throat. Lucca nods. Marle lifts up and tells him to talk. "Marle, I am not angry at you in any way the breakup actually helped me and it was an important moment of my life."

"So?" Marle asks.

"It made me think about a lot of things."

"Crono..." Marle says looking down. "I think I know what you're going to say... It's all right." Marle stops hugging Crono.

"Neither words of angry nor greater distances. Pleasure the though of this." Lucca says not to anyone in special, but looks at Marle and folds hands when she hears her.

"It's all right if you don't love me anymore...I deserve it..."

"No, Marle."

"No...?" Marle thought what exactly could he mean with that "No". No, he doesn't love her, or No for mistaking in what she just said. "It's okay, really."

Lucca moves her head left and right and Marle looks at it.

"I was..."

"..."

"going..."

"..."

"to say..."

"..." Marle's heart almost gets to supersonical rate of beating.

"that..."

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

(Marle deserves a little suspense too)

"I love you with a force that exceeds myself."

Marle hits the ceiling... if there were one, that's it. "Really?"

"...with a feeling I can't explain its causes."

Lucca smiles, but Marle is about to open the flood gates. "The tears start to overflow... so much crying..."

"Those are tears for cheers." Lucca sighs.

Crono suddenly gets serious. "Marle, are you sure of the existence of the universe?"

"Wa? Well, yes..." Marle says confused. "of course! There can't be other thing one is more sure of."

Crono denies with his head. "There is, and is that: I love you from the bottom of my heart and with you is the way I want to live my life."

Marle surprises to the point of an exclamation sign could have been seen over her head.

"Destiny in the blooming, but will it ever grow to Entity." Lucca says to the air.

Crono decides to ignore Lucca's words. The few times she got philosophical, she was REALLY strange. "Even if you take my heart out I will always love you."

Marle looks at Crono and Lucca "You both...are true friends...", then she realizes Crono's words. "You mean I can just break your heart many times?"

"Will your new boyfriend ever be able to love you like that?" Lucca asks directly to Marle.

"What new boyfriend?", then she laughs weakly, "Jamerson? He's too shy. Crono, it was in this week that I realized I loved him just because he was my childhood illusion that I had had over many years. I realized that I missed you... that I love you..."

"A true heart of love stays strong forever, Marle." Lucca kept saying. "Soon, Tarus... soon..."

"Oh great, she went ballistic again. This only had happened thrice."

"Never mind." Lucca says.

"But I'm not giving you any of my ice cream!" Marle says.

"What? Oh, boy, I may NEVER understand ANY of you!"

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"Marle, Lucca, I hope you understand I have a great although different relationship with every one of you and I want you to understand the other."

"Ok."

"I understand Marle and you."

"I'm not saying you will, but please never be jealous or something like that." Crono continues.

"We won't." Lucca and Marle say at the same time and looking each other.

"Marle, are we... whatever we were.. again?"

"YES!"

"Lucca, are we best friends again?"

"Yes..."

"Marle, are we friends?"

"YYYYYYEESSS, Lucca!"

Marle lays down on the grass again "Let's go to staring the stars again!" Lucca lays next to her. Crono sits in the middle of them.

Lucca and Marle bring their arms forward and pull Crono so he is laying on the ground. The stars seem to shine brighter than before.

Marle moves closer into the group.

"Even more closer?"

"Yep..." Marle says as Lucca gets closer too. "Poor Crono might get squished!"

"As close as I can get. You're worried about that?" Marle asks.

"Yeah, we can't be friends with Crono if he's dead!"

"Who says?" Crono says staring at the sky.

"Don't worry! I'll revive him!" Marle laughs

"I'll be with you forever..." any of them, or all, said.

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

Crono, Marle and Lucca watched the stars as friends, and at every shooting star it soared cross the sky, they wished they would the best friends ever known, for all time.

We wish Crono, Marle and Lucca, and all the people besides them, the best wishes of friendship and love there can be. We invite you to join us in this wish of hope, so the greatest feeling there can be is kept, one more time...

always,

forever,

and ever.

THE END

____________________________________________________________________

Finished! So, what did you think of it? I wanted to write a CT story that expressed emotions and were original. I never said you would like it.

I think I really made it to express the emotions I needed to. If you liked it, please mail me at the address shown above. (What, did you think I was asking the webmaster to include ANOTHER link? Don't be so lazy!)

This story has been very important to us and we hope you enjoyed and felt what we wanted.

We have to thank "Marle" Lauren Garczynski (Her nick "Marle" has nothing to do with the Marle of the plot of the story for her essential help in the plot of the story. She was vital to the point this story won't be here if isn't for her.

Also, Thanks to SquareFiction Library team for posting the story on this page.

Finally, thanks to everyone who read this story during its creation, and gave comments to us.

Mail Saul

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