scrawlers:

Notes: The idea of the
lockets was shamelessly borrowed from Yu-Gi-Oh!,
wherein the Kaiba brothers have very similar lockets. I figure it’s not an idea
that’s exclusive to that manga/anime,
but credit where credit is due regardless. It was too good to pass up. Also, I
know that Morgan’s sprite is tall as anything, but I still like to imagine him
being markedly shorter than everyone else, due to being a few years younger
than the rest of them.  He might hit a
growth spurt someday, but for now? Well, he compared himself to a tiny hawk when talking to Kjelle, so I
think that says enough.

Summary: Lucina hadn’t
spared much thought to her birthday at all, but when they find her brother, she thinks
that perhaps Naga did. 

– – –

They find him in the Ruins of Time, and when Lucina sees him
half-shielded by their father, her heart leaps to her throat.

She can’t get to him, not right away.  She’s on the other side of the ruins, flanked on either side by Inigo
and Owain, fighting her way to through the pack of Risen to the north.  All the same, she can’t stop herself from
looking over her shoulder, and every time she sees him cast a spell from the
tome in his hand or pull a Levin Sword from the sleeve of his oversized
tactician’s coat, it suddenly becomes very difficult to breathe, and her head
spins a little from a lack of oxygen.

He’s here.  Morgan’s here.  They found
him, and if they weren’t currently surrounded by Risen and fighting on very
narrow, jagged platforms, Lucina thinks she might have let herself be consumed
by the emotions that, to this moment, were making tears sting her eyes and blur
her vision.

But there isn’t any time for crying now, and Lucina leaps back as a
mounted Risen tries to spear her, only to spring forward again to cut it down
with Falchion’s might.  The Risen falls,
and Lucina looks over to see Morgan dart deftly around their father to aim a
well-placed Arc Thunder on a mounted Risen near them.  The Risen falls with a strangled cry, and
Lucina watches as their father claps Morgan on the shoulder before saying
something Lucina can’t make out.  From
the way their father moves to shield Morgan from oncoming Risen, she thinks maybe
he told Morgan to be more careful.
Lucina smiles; it wouldn’t surprise her.

She hadn’t told her parents about Morgan.  She hadn’t told anyone who didn’t already
know, actually, and had asked those that did
know to keep quiet.  She had lost
Morgan in the time stream, didn’t know where or when he’d ended up, and though thinking of him kept her up many
nights—though the added anxiety of his fate made her feel nauseous, made her skin
clammy and her heart spasm so erratically in her chest she almost wanted to rip
it out herself—she didn’t want to worry her parents further by telling them of
the son they might have lost.  If she
changed fate, Lucina told herself, Morgan would be safe.  She would be saving him, too.  And if not, then they were all lost,
anyway.  Worrying others over Morgan’s
fate—worrying others because she had
been poor enough of a big sister to lose him—wouldn’t do any good.  They had to focus on the war.

But now he was here, he was
here and he was safe and it was all she had to keep fighting, to stay focused as
Owain foolishly threw himself right into the center of a Risen pack, forcing
both Inigo and Lucina herself to rush in and save him.  They had found Morgan, he was safe, and given
that their father was sticking closely by his side, he would stay that way.

For now, they have to fight.

–

The last Risen falls, and the first thing Lucina does is shove
Falchion hastily back in its scabbard before she turns to face her brother.

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