A/N: Okay. I'm 99.99999999999 all the way down to the trillionth place percent certain that THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER. Not too sure whether I'm happy about that or sad. Probably happy, because that means that I get to finish all my other fanfics now. WHOOT!

So, here's the (probably almost definitely last) chapter. Enjoy!

ROSETTE

"...and this is the gown I wore to the second ball!"

The girl smiled flirtatiously and spun around, holding her pink-and-silver dress to her chest so that we could see what she would look like with it on. "And with it - ooh, I should show you the jewelry, too - I wore these strapless heels..."

I sighed. Joshua smiled politely and hid his yawn behind his hand. Azmaria discreetly checked her pocketwatch for the umpteenth time.

"I am so sorry," she suddenly said, standing up and hiding her watch in the folds of her skirt, "but we have to leave now. I'm afraid we have many more homes to visit, but it was a pleasure meeting you, Miss..."

"Rosie Annabella Isolde Halley Millhem," the girl automatically said.

"Miss Rosie Annabella Isolde Halley Millhem," Azmaria repeated with a slightly pained smile. "If we could just take our leave now..."

She not-so-discreetly stepped on Joshua's boot, and Joshua yelped. I pinched him hard, and he yelped again.

"Uh-uh-right!" he stammered, shooting me a glare that said I'll get you back for that later. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Rosie, but the three of us have to go. Thank you, again, for having us over."

"No problem at all!" She beamed and sidled a bit closer to my brother. "Of course, feel free to come back whenever you like, Prince Joshua. I'm sure we'd have a lovely time getting to know each other..."

I grabbed Azmaria's hand and dragged her outside before she could pounce on poor Miss Rosie-etc. and tear her gown to shreds. "It's just flirting, Azzy," I said to calm her down. "One-sided flirting. Joshua still likes you, remember? All this stuff is just an act; please don't go and kill that girl, I'd hate to have to lock my best friend up in prison..."

I was actually really tempted to go and beat the girl up myself. Of course, if I did that, Azmaria would leap in and join me, and very possibly Joshua too, so whenever we were in one of these one-sided-flirting situations where either Joshua or Azmaria were the ones being flirted with, I had to be the calm, level-headed one and make sure everyone got home in one piece. Me. Be calm. And level-headed.

Every. Single. Time.

And to make matters worse, we still hadn't found Chrona.

"All right, you two," Joshua panted as he climbed into the carriage and slammed the door shut behind him. "Next house is the last one. I swear to god, these girls..."

"Well, luckily, there only is one house left anyway," Azmaria commented as she checked her list. I stared at her. Gone were any signs of her earlier frustration and rage. Gone was the red face; her hair and gown were just as perfect as always.

I'm never going to get used to that.

"So..." I leaned over Azzy's shoulder. "Are we going to this Aion person's house now?"

"Yep." Azzy frowned down at the name. "Where have I heard the name Aion before? I swear, it sounds so familiar..."

"Does it matter?" I glanced down at my watch and stifled a yawn. "The sooner we get back and in bed, the better!"

-0-o-0-o-0-

After a few minutes of travel, we finally arrived at the last house in a long, exhausting line. This one looked pretty average, if not a bit run-down and messy. There was a battered-up car in the driveway that looked a couple of decades old, the paint on the door was peeling, half of the shingles on the roof had disappeared, and the lawn was less of a lawn and more like a weed infestation, but it looked like a family of five or six could live in it pretty comfortably, so long as the inside of the house wasn't quite as messy as the out.

The biggest difference between this place and the others we'd been to, though, was this:

Nobody came out to greet us.

We stood outside for a few minutes awkwardly, wondering whether or not this was the right address.

"Are you sure these people came, Azzy?" I whispered into her ear. "It seems unnaturally...quiet."

"Oh, shush," she whispered back. "They're probably just shy."

A few minutes later, a girl came running out of the door.

"I'm so sorry!" she gasped, looking absolutely mortified. "But - well, this isn't my house, my cousins live here, and they were being absolutely horrid. I'm so very, very sorry for making you wait, but my cousin"-she turned her head and yelled out the word, presumably so that this "cousin" of hers would hear-"was being stubborn and didn't want to come greet you himself, and my other cousin didn't want you to come in at all."

"It's all right," Azmaria replied with a smile. "I suppose it's all right for us to go in now?"

The girl nodded her head vigorously. "Oh, yes, definitely!" She smoothed back her long, white-blond hair and smiled at us. Somehow, the merry twinkle in her crystalline blue eyes reminded me of Azmaria. I doubt that was a good thing. "My name's Mary Magdalene. I'll introduce the rest of the family once we get inside."

She turned on her heel, leaving us to follow her as she marched up the gravelly driveway. She held the door open for us, and I winced at the creaking sound it made when she opened it. That door hadn't been oiled in years, if ever at all. And that wasn't the worst part. The living room had dirty clothes strewn all over the place - on the floor, over the TV, on the sofa, except for where the people sat. Judging by the few empty spots on the floor, some effort had been made in cleaning them up, but definitely not enough, and to top it all off, everything was coated in cat fur. One of the women, a brunette with glasses and a bob cut, sat in the love seat, cuddling five of them up against her chest. Normally, I would've thought that that was odd enough, but one of the other woman had a giant, hairy tarantula crawling on her hand, the third lady was wearing a freaking maid uniform, an enormous huge and silent boulder-like guy, another person who looked halfway crazy, and then finally - the one who somehow emanated an aura of a leader - a tanned guy with glasses, white hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a trench coat.

All in all, they seemed like a band of freaks.

"That guy"-Mary pointed at the blondie-"is my cousin, Aion, who owns this house. He turned eighteen less than six months ago. Nobody else here is related, except for the stupid, stubborn, idiotic guy upstairs!" she yelled at the ceiling.

I heard a muffled eep and a thud. Mary nodded in satisfaction. "He'll be down shortly."

Sure enough, less than a minute later, a short boy sulked down the stairs. Curiously enough, he had a baseball cap on under his hoodie, which had the hood pulled up almost to the point of covering his entire cap. "Sorry, Mary," he muttered. Mary smiled angelically at him.

"Oh, it's all right, Chrono," she cooed, almost as sweetly as Azmaria would in that type of scenario. I was beginning to wonder if the two of them were exactly the same. "Just make sure you come down when I tell you to next time. Okay?"

I don't know about the kid, but I gulped. This girl was scary - scarier than Azmaria, maybe.

Scary enough for me to entirely forget what the newcomer's name was.

"Hello, Aion." Azmaria smiled politely and stepped forward toward the blondie. "Remember me? We talked together during the third ball."

Aion leaned back and peered at her from under her glasses. "Ah, yes, I remember," he drawled. "We talked about my brother."

"Yes." Azmaria turned and extender her hand out to the younger boy. After some time, he tentatively reached out and shook it. For a brief moment, I thought that I saw her wink at him, but it must've just been my imagination.

"So, did any of you women attend the three balls?" she inquired. "My friend Joshua here is searching for a friend of his called Chrona, and we were thinking that one of you might be her, although..."

"None of you really look like her," I supplied. Meanwhile, Aion's grin had grown.

"A girl named Chrona. Can't say I know her," he said. The boy - I still couldn't remember what his name was - jumped a bit and turned around, ready to dash up the stairs. Mary held him in place.

"No, we don't know anybody named Chrona," she managed to say as she engaged in a miniature tug-of-war with her shorter cousin. "No help to you guys there."

"Oh." I sighed. "It was too much to hope for, I guess."

I felt both relieved and disappointed at the same time. Disappointed because, of course, I hadn't found Chrona, but relieved because I'd finally be able to get home. Before I could leave, though, Azmaria spoke up.

"If you don't know anybody named Chrona, then do you know what gown this belongs to?" And with a flourish, she pulled a scrap of blue fabric and purple strings out from behind her back.

Upon closer inspection, it proved to be half of a sleeve and a few strands of purple hair. Azzy noticed my questioning look and explained, "I grabbed these off of Chrona while she ran by us last night. You know, just in case."

I shook my head in amazement. "Azzy...you really are something."

Of course, that didn't explain why she'd decided not to take it out during any of our other visits, but that was explainable enough: All the other girls had absolutely zero possibility of being Chrona. Here, at least, we had a slight chance.

Mary picked up the sleeve, completely ignoring the hairs that Azmaria had wrapped inside. She looked it over carefully. "I think I might - one of my gowns is ripped and missing a sleeve... Chrono, would you go fetch it for me?"

"I'm not a dog," the boy said with some irritation, but he turned and ran up the stairs anyway. It took me a moment to register that name in my mind.

Chrono.

Chrona, Chrono - they sounded really alike. It was probably just a coincidence, though. Right...?

It only took him a few minutes to come barreling down the stairs again, this time loaded with an armful of fabric. He kept his eyes down as he handed the strangely familiar gown over to Azmaria, but that wasn't what caught my attention. What I was interested in was the handful of hairs that now poked out from under his hood, thanks to his run up and down the stairs. They looked strangely...purple.

Before I could lose my nerve, I reached out and yanked his cap off. All his long, purple hair went streaming down his back, and he looked up at me in surprise.

Red eyes.

Long, purple hair, red eyes, shortness, a slim build - from what I could tell, anyway - tanned skin and that familiar gown.

This was Chrona.

CHRONO

"I don't want to go down!" I whined, putting all my weight on the door to try to keep Mary from barging in. She pushed back with just as much force. "Come on, Mary, don't make me!"

"Stop being such a baby!" she snapped. "They're waiting for us outside, and I am not going down without the person they're looking for available for them to find!" She tossed something in through the crack in the doorway. "If it bothers you so much, put those on! But you're coming down, like it or not!"

I nearly fell over when she stopped pushing and stormed down the stairs, this time to yell at Aion and his gang and to please God make that living room look presentable! I picked up the wad of fabric. A hoodie, and a baseball cap.

Well. This might just work out after all.

Right after I'd managed to fit all of my hair under the cap and pull the hood on without dislodging the hat, Mary bellowed from downstairs, "Stupid, stubborn idiotic guy upstairs!"

I squeaked and fell over with a thud. Fortunately, none of my hair came out from under the cap. I quickly pulled the hood a bit further down over my eyes and hurried down the stairs to Mary's side. "Sorry, Mary," I muttered. She beamed at me.

"Oh, it's all right, Chrono," she cooed. Was it just me, or did she put some extra stress on the word Chrono? "Just make sure you come down when I tell you to next time, okay?"

I didn't need to answer, so I didn't. All I could think about was: Joshua is here.

I peeked at him from under the bill of my baseball cap. Strangely enough, he didn't look like the Joshua I knew. Maybe it was just because of my brother, or maybe - more likely because of - Mary, but he seemed too... Stiff. And formal.

"...gowns ripped and missing a sleeve. Chrono, would you go fetch it for me?"

I snapped back to reality. I'd missed most of the conversation, but based on the bit that I'd heard, I guessed that Mary wanted me to go get the gown I'd been wearing last night and had ripped. "I'm not a dog," I said, somewhat irritated, but I turned and ran up the stairs anyway, if only so that I'd be able to puzzle out the mystery of the overly-polite Joshua.

When I came back down with the dress in my arms, I still hadn't come any closer to figuring out why he seemed so strangely distant. Even his sister was more lively than he was, which was odd, because I remembered her as the more formal type. It was almost like the two of them had switched personalities - but before I could elaborate on that thought, I felt someone grab my shoulder and yank my cap off. All of my hair, which I'd so carefully tucked up in that hat, came spilling out, and I looked up in shock at the one who'd done that to me.

It was Princess Rosette. But she didn't look like the Rosette I remembered from the balls. She looked like...

She kind of looked like Joshua.

We stared, speechless, at each other for a long, long minute. Then, finally, she broke the silent with an awkward, "Um. Sorry about that."

I flushed bright red, grabbed the cap from her hands and yanked it down over my eyes again. No good; the damage was done.

"Hey, have you been listening to what we were talking about?" she demanded, crouching down to look into my eyes. I blushed harder and looked away, but she just mirrored my movements. "You know, about me and my brother looking for a girl named Chrona? You weren't listening, were you?"

"No, I wasn't," I muttered, but she ignored me and continued to talk.

"Because you look an awful lot like the Chrona we're looking for, and I was wondering if maybe you're her."

"I'm not," I said, slightly more loudly. If Rosette was Joshua and Joshua was Rosette, then that meant...

"Oh, yeah? Then tell me." She leaned in until her lips were right next to my ear and whispered, "What were we doing right before midnight?"

I jerked back and stared at her in alarm. She grinned at me, and suddenly I felt like there was no longer any doubt. Only Joshua - Rosette - smiled that way. His - her? - sibling would never smile like that.

"It's all settled~!" she chirped. "Azzy, we've got her - well, him, I guess," she corrected herself. She grinned at me. "What do you say we run away from that demoness of a cousin you've got?"

I considered it for a moment. Getting to know Rosette - not Joshua, I was sure of that now - better, and ditching Mary in the deal, too...

"I'm in."

She winked at me and hitched up her skirts with one hand, then grabbed me with her other one. "Come on, Azzy, Joshy!" she yelled. "We're going back now!"

"What-" Mary blinked. "What? Now?"

"Yep!" Rosette waved at her. "Sorry, there's only enough room in the carriage for four people. Maybe we'll come back for you."

Mary gaped at her. Then she turned to me. "Chrono! You're not going to-"

"Sorry, Mary." I shrugged. "Maybe later."

I turned and followed Rosette out of the door. I'm pretty sure that Joshua and Azmaria were following close behind.

By the time Mary had recovered from her shock enough to run out, we were all loaded in the carriage, which had already begun to roll.

"Chrooono!" she yelled. "You'd better tell me about this later! Got it? As soon as I show up at the palace!"

"You guys aren't going to let her in, are you?" I muttered to them. Even though I'd just realized that the two siblings had been crossdressing, and they, no doubt, had just realized I'd crossdressed, I still perfectly at ease with them.

"No way," Rosette retorted. "One Azmaria's enough."

"Hey!" Azmaria cried. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know perfectly well what it means," Rosette said with a laugh. "But anyways, Chrona - I mean, Chrono! Why were you crossdressing? I mean, Joshua and I did it so that I'd actually have some fun at the balls, what with them being for my birthday and all, but...what about you?"

I sighed. "It's a long story."

A/N: Okay, I'm just going to end it off there, but - holy guacamole! Three thousand words! Not bad, if I do say so myself. And no, I'm not adding another chapter. This fanfic is officially, as of now, com-PLEEETTTEE! Man, do I feel good about myself!

Yes, I'll admit, it does end on a bit of a cliffhanger (or a LOT of a cliffhanger) but if I kept going on, I'd go into their adventures at the palace, and maybe a jealous princess who popped up and tried to hijack everything (aka Satella) and all that stuff, and then this fanfiction would end up a hundred chapters long. As fond as I am of this story, I'm not sure I want to make it that long, and if any amazing plot ideas for a continuation/sequel to this series pop up, I'll publish them on this site, but until then... SUFFER IN MISERY, ALL YOU CHRONOxROSETTE FANS.

Or, better yet, write your own ChronoxRosette/AzzyxJoshua fanfic. Heaven knows this category NEEDS more writers.

So, basically: IT IS COMPLETE! DONE! OVER WITH! AT LAST!

...now I've just got to finish the other twenty or so fanfics that I've got on hiatus on my USB.

Any comments, questions, notes (yes, it's unrealistic for cars, alarm clocks and carriages to be in the same kingdom, but I didn't even notice that mistake until I reread my whole fanfic to figure out what colour I'd putten Chrono's eyes down as, and I still didn't figure it out) or sequel ideas are welcome!