Lucca was cleaning her gun, stained rag working off the clinging powder that stuck to the finely-crafted metal, when she caught Marle's eyes from across the fire. The blonde was staring at her weapon with interest, her crossbow sitting, forgotten, in her lap. Lucca raised an eyebrow at her.
"What is it?" she asked. Marle grinned sheepishly. Lucca frowned. Oh no, that was never a good sign. Holding in the urge to groan, she watched Marle approach her, crossbow in hand.
"Well, I've always been curious about your gun. You said you designed it yourself, and it can hit monsters way harder than my crossbow. So..." she trailed off. Here it came. "I was wondering... Maybe we could swap weapons? Try each other's out for a bit?"
"Swap weapons?" Lucca echoed, confused. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn’t that. "But... why?"
"Why not?" Marle rebutted. Touché. "They're not very different, right? Both shoot things that hit targets. So, why not give it a try? I can try out your cool gun, and you can give my crossbow a go!" That was... actually sound reasoning, ignoring the oversimplification of the functions of their weapons. 'Shoot things that hit targets'... Really?
"I..." Lucca started, but, like the cheater she was, Marle instantly pulled out her cutest face to lethal effectiveness. "Ughh... You know I can't say no to that face!" Marle giggled, covering her grin with a hand.
"Yep!" Unabashed as always...
"I... I guess we can," Lucca relented. She raised her hand as Marle's face visibly brightened. "But this thing is dangerous. I know crossbows are too, but this gun has some nasty kickback that can throw off your aim if you don't take it into consideration. That's part of why I like using scopes." Marle nodded enthusiastically.
"Alright, it has some kickback and I need to be prepared for it. Got it," she repeated back, clearly not understanding a thing. Lucca sighed, but brushed off the area around the barrel once more for good measure and handed it over pointing to the ground.
"Just, be careful? Don't point it at anything that isn't an enemy, and remember to push up that little latch on the top. It stops the gun from firing when we're not battling anything." At her words, Marle's eyes caught on the small latch that was currently up.
"That was a really smart idea," Marle complimented her, brushing her hand along the barrel. "I have to knock a new arrow each time I want to use my crossbow, but I forget that your gun can hold multiple at once." Lucca nodded emphatically.
"Exactly, so it can be dangerous. I don't want to take the ammo out just in case we get jumped, but I didn't want any accidental firings either, so that was the solution I came up with," Lucca explained. Marle didn't seem to catch it, as she was busy marveling at the unfamiliar weapon. Lucca sighed, but a smile tugged at her lips. Typical Marle.
"I'm gonna turn in for the night," Lucca said, catching Marle's attention for a moment. "No firing it while I'm asleep." She narrowed her eyes and fixed Marle with the strongest stare she could muster, and judging by the way Marle jumped a little, she had hope it resembled her mom's unimpressed stare.
"Okay, I won't use it while you're asleep," Marle promised. For the first time in the whole conversation she actually looked properly serious. Seemed she'd taken that to heart. Lucca yawned loudly.
"I'll see you in the morning." She grabbed Marle's crossbow and headed into the tent they'd set up for the night.
Behind her, she could hear Marle call back, "See you in the morning!"
The Nu Guardian was already a tough opponent in the past, but Lucca had a sinking suspicion that the Nu Master, its strengthened form, would be even stronger after so much time had passed. It might not have been the best idea to swap weapons for this fight. But Crono didn’t say anything about the swap, even though he did look at the two of them funny when they left camp.
Lucca was many things - an inventor, an eccentric, a steadfast friend - but first and foremost she was a woman of science. She had to see this experiment through. And judging by the ecstatic grin on Marle’s face, she felt the same.
The black Nu was faster than she remembered, and it rushed forward to headbutt her, sending her to the ground.
“Lucca!” Marle’s voice shouted from afar. A bang rang out, the Nu grunting after what was hopefully an impact. Lucca, air knocked out of her, scrambled to her feet in time to see the Nu charge up electricity.
“Look out!” she shouted. She shot a bolt from the crossbow, or at least she tried to, but the missing knock-back threw her off. Lucca could just make out Crono dodging to the side, narrowly avoiding her shot, before Marle flooded the area with her ice.
She held him there long enough for Crono to land a nasty hit with his sword and, on impulse, Lucca shot forward a swath of flames. The battle from there was messy to say the least - at some point the Nu Master used some rainbow-y attack that knocked her out cold, but Lucca reawakened to Marle’s healing magic just as Crono finished their enemy off with another decisive blow.
As the Nu sunk to the ground, Marle rushed over to her side. She scrambled to help Lucca up, which she accomplished with some effort.
“I’m fine,” Lucca grunted. She didn’t feel completely fine, but she wasn’t horribly banged up either. That headbutt would definitely leave a bruise, though. Leave it to a Nu to use their giant heads to pummel people.
“Lucca, you just got headbutt within an inch of your life, and were then magically forced to faint. I’m allowed to be worried!” Marle stressed. Well, what you put it like that it sounded a whole lot worse. Not like it was the first time Lucca had collapsed in battle, though.
“Check on Crono too, at least. I nearly took his eye out with your crossbow,” Lucca said. Even though she could remember him dodging, the bolt might've grazed his skin or something. Marle’s pinched face softened at the reminder.
“You should’ve seen the look on his face! I’ve never seen his eyes bigger,” she giggled. Covering her mouth with her hand, Marle turned back to Crono, trying to stifle her laughter. “Sorry Crono, but it’s true.”
Crono just grunted noncommittally in reply. Lucca scanned his face, sighing in relief when she found both eyes in tact and no new, visible scratches. There was some grass and dirt clinging to his cheek - had he been knocked out at some point, too? - but otherwise he seemed fine. Lucca patted Marle’s shoulder to get her attention.
“That was a fun experiment and all, but I’d like my gun back,” she deadpanned, hand held out. “I think we should stick to our own weapons in the future.” Marle smiled, producing the gun without a fuss, and the two traded between themselves again.
“Definitely,” Marle agreed. “But you have to admit, it was kind of fun, right?”
“It could've gone better," Lucca argued. "But, all things considered, it wasn't too bad. Let's just... save it for a lower-stakes battle?" She might have to warn the others about Marle running around with a gun and her own questionable aim with the crossbow if they traded again. Marle grinned.
"Sounds good to me!"
