To Forget, To Remember, To Forgive
DISCLAIMER: Nintendo = Owner. Aust =/= Nintendo. Ergo: Aust =/= Owner.
This fic = FAIR USE = legal
When Nah woke up in the middle of the night, the first thing she noticed was an absence of her fiancé. The second thing she noticed was a moist spot where his head had been, as if he was crying. Her heartstrings tugged at her, she knew that the dampness was from Morgan's tears. She had approached him on the subject before, but it was always after he was able to stop the tears. This was the first time she woke up before he would have that chance.
Quietly slipping from their shared bed, she crept out of their tent into the brisk midnight air. She stifled a soft yelp when a cold breeze rushed by her, while she scanned her surroundings, looking for a sign of what direction her companion took. The vast plains they travelled offered little by way of landmarks, but what the legendary plains of Sacae lacked in features, it made up for with vantage. She saw Morgan a moderate distance away. He had found a small outcrop of rock, and was seated upon it, staring to the heavens.
Her target set, Nah silently pulled her dragonstone and with practiced movement, silently transformed and flew towards him, softly landing a short pace away from him. As quiet as the proverbial mouse, she slowly approached him, her feelings confirmed by the quiet sobbing he made. Heartbroken, but still determined, she climbed the outcrop and slipped in beside him, her arms snaking around him, gently embracing him.
Morgan jumped at the sudden contact, but relaxed into her arms. A defeated sigh escaped him, the sound of which perked Nah's ears. He had been avoiding her in his moments of weakness, but now there was no talking around it.
"Okay, yeah, I have been crying at night. Sorry."
"You had your reasons to hide it, but I couldn't just wait for you to open up. I love you, Morgan, but you're just as stubborn as your mother." Morgan snorted at that, which earned him a jab from the Manakete still attached to him, "Oh stuff it, Mor. You know it's true. Sakura used to follow me on my rampages, you know? It absolutely terrified her, but she refused to admit it until I threatened to eat her."
"You threatened to eat my mother?"
"I was running out of ideas!" she defended, pulling away from him, "I was scaring her, but I couldn't just stop rampaging, they're important to my health, after all." Morgan nodded in agreement. Nah still needed to occasionally turn into a dragon and destroy everything. However, unlike his mother, Morgan wasn't afraid of dragons. Soon after Morgan proposed to Nah, he took over supervision of these events. Now he knew why his mother was so relieved.
"Anyway," Nah continued, "the anxiety was starting to affect her tactics. I asked her to stop coming, and focus on her work, but she refused to quit. So I turned into a dragon and threatened to eat her, like I do with all liars." She had a slightly smug look on her face while she told Morgan this. It was a face that scared him.
"Oh don't look at me like that," she said, noticing the fear in his eyes, "I'd never actually eat somebody… except Inigo, but I think your sister has that covered."
This earned her a laugh from Morgan. Satisfied, she resumed holding him, sighing slightly when he absently stroked her hair.
"Don't think that you've won," she said suddenly.
"Won what?"
"The distraction game," she replied, "I'm still going to ask about it."
Morgan sighed, "I guess it'd be pointless saying I don't want to talk about it?"
"Morgan, you were crying in your dreams," she said concerned, "and the reason why had to have been bad if you felt you had to hide it from me." She tightened her grip around him, "how am I supposed to support you the way you've supported me if you won't tell me how?"
"I'm not sure what I need to support myself…"
"I can at least listen and provide a bandage."
"Yeah… I supposed you can…" Morgan sighed again. A deep, regretful sigh, as if he had been hiding a terrible secret. "Well… go ahead and ask," he said in a defeatist tone.
Nah couldn't help but smirk. Even on the verge of tears, her lover still had at least a little wit. "What's wrong, Morgan?" she finally asked.
"My memory returned," he stated flatly.
"Really?" she asked, surprised, "shouldn't that be a happy thing?" She couldn't hide the worry in her voice. She knew why Morgan wasn't happy, and the guilt of it broke her heart further.
"Don't," he said, a hint of anger betraying the calm he was trying to convey, "Don't act as though you never knew. You know what I've done. You all knew all along, and so did I." He stared to the heavens once more, tears flowing freely, "I was so faithful to mother that I'd betrayed all of you. My faith was so great that I was ready to kill all of you, even though I knew Grima was the one behind everything all along."
Nah grimaced; she had hoped that part of his memory would never return.
"I also remember all the happy times before father's death." Morgan sighed again, "Somehow that makes it worse."
"Don't say things like that, Morgan." She was cut off before she could continue.
"Grima murdered my father, and I was unshakably doing his bidding! I've committed sins so atrocious that you should have difficultly LOOKING at me, never mind sharing your life with me. I could very well be the catalyst for his return. And yet… and yet…" his train of thought had run to a halt. No longer able to form words, Morgan simply cried in Nah's arms.
Nah said nothing, and simply held him; there was no anger in her eyes, only warmth and love.
"Why?" Morgan finally choked out, "why were you so accepting even though you all knew what I'd done?"
Nah actually chuckled slightly, "we didn't know at all." This caused a stir in Morgan as he looked at her with confusion. "Well, no. That's not entirely true. Lucina and I knew, but the others? They all thought you were dead, and another version of you appeared in those ruins."
"If… if that's true, then why did you hide it? I could have been sent by Grima to stop your plan."
Nah had actually started giggling, which further confused Morgan. "Mor, I know you weren't sent after us because I'm the reason you lost your memory in the first place."
"We had finished the rite," she began, "and most of us had already gone through the time portal. We knew you were coming, but we thought we had enough time before you got there. We were wrong. Just as Laurent was going through, you burst in, still weak from the battle not a few hours previous. The sudden distraction is probably why he missed the target, actually. Anyway, you were weak, and you had barely any Risen with you. I'll be blunt, it was probably the shortest battle we've ever had in that future. It was just you left, and you had started a tirade about 'Grima this' and 'Naga that', and honestly we were tired, annoyed, and frankly didn't care anymore. So I grabbed a log and hit you on the back of your head."
Morgan instinctively reached up to his head, which got another chuckle out of Nah.
"Yeah, sorry about that, but I had to think fast. I had to stop you, but neither of us would've killed you or left you to die at Grima's hands, so I picked you up and brought you into the portal with me. The others thought you were dead, and I didn't think you'd remember anything. It was the closest thing to a fresh start I could give you, and the heartache nearly killed me when we reunited.
Tears formed in Morgan's eyes again, "so… even after all that. After everything I've done?"
"Morgan, if you asked me to join Grima, I would have. Maybe I'd just be trying to break his brainwashing, but I would have joined you." Saying that, she leaned forward and kissed him, "I love you now just as I loved you back then, and will continue to love you forever."
"Nah…"
"Even all brainwashed, I would've stayed behind to be with you. So don't you dare say you're not worthy of me, because that's not for you to decide."
"Nah… I…" but he was interrupted by a sudden, forceful kiss from Nah. Surprised, he barely stopped himself from falling backwards as she relentlessly snaked her tongue around his own. As she continued to push him back, she began to straddle him, while he let go of all instinct to push back and allowed the small girl to dominate him.
Soon she released him from the kiss, and she looked deep into his hazel eyes. "Still think you're unworthy?"
"Meep."
"That's what I thought." She nuzzled into his neck, and kissed softly. "By the way… when did they return?"
"My memories?"
"Yeah, because I know they didn't suddenly come back this morning."
Morgan laughed sheepishly, awkwardly rubbing his head. "Err… around the time I found Naga's Bell for you. I slipped and tumbled, and I guess I hit my head at one point, because when I woke up I remember practically everything before that last fight before you finished the rite. I figured that if nobody was mentioning it, they probably didn't notice it was me all along, or they thought I died before the rite. Either way, I pretended that my memory was still gone, and let me tell you, that was hard. I don't know how Lucina did it before she joined Mother and Father."
Nah smiled, and stroked Morgan's hair softly, "so this entire time you were playing the stoic, in order to protect our illusion? That was sweet of you, but I wouldn't worry too much about what the others would think. Even if they noticed, they wouldn't think less of you. You weren't yourself, Morgan, there's nothing to forgive because you weren't yourself."
Morgan sighed again, "I know you're right, but it's not so easy to forget my actions, even if they weren't my own." He held Nah close, "maybe I should consider this some sort of pilgrimage of repentance? I'm on a journey to find it in me to forgive myself and stuff."
"Uh huh… and what's my role in this, hmm?"
"You're my most faithful companion. The lovely lass who forgave me before I even knew I had sinned!" Morgan sat up and had begun to dramatically move his arms, much to Nah's amusement.
"Glad to see you remember all the time you spent with Owain."
"What's he got to do with this? Owain was just being silly; this is serious business, my love! I must find the lost… treasure… thing, so that I can save our future!"
Nah was laughing now, "You are such a dork. Why do I love you?"
Morgan stood up, "come, my love. Fate awaits us!" He took a step forward, but wasn't paying attention, and quickly fell off the outcropping. Nah quickly moved to the edge and looked to where he fell.
"Oh my gods, are you okay?"
"Mostly… Could you come down and help me up? I seem to have broken my dignity."
Laughing, she nimbly jumped down and helped him up. Slowly they walked back to their tent and quickly fell back into their bed, sleep soon finding them. Outside the winds blew across the grass, blowing seed, dust, and the embers of the moment between two lovers. It was quiet once more.
"Forgiveness is the final form of love." –Reinhold Niebuhr
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well hello. I've returned with another one-shot for you. This particular plot bunny was inspired by a friend of mine, and it wouldn't leave my head until I wrote it down, so here you go.
It's actually something I had in my head before though. I've always envisioned Morgan still having his memories, but maybe he bumped his head upon landing (happens to the best of us, my son), and then I played the Future Past DLC, and I thought "what if he remembers that bad shit he done did?" and then my friend came up with a similar thought, and then I came up with the "Stick of Memory Modification +2" ™ and it all went downhill from there.
Why Sacae? Because why not, basically. I wanted Morgan and Nah traveling everywhere. I couldn't tell you if this is their Sacae, or if they're in the Outrealm. In any case, they're there, and they're having a time, and it's adorable.
I had a Ky plot in my head, but then I lost it. Oh well.
Also, I recently discovered Yggdrasil Radio. Love jPop and Anime OPs, but frustrated with Pandora's lack thereof? Here's a radio station for you.
Warning: Listening will make you want to watch anime based on their OP. This is a trap. Don't do it.
Aust Awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
