It was always fascinating to watch Lucina train; she was taught by Chrom, but their fighting styles seemed to differ a little. For one thing, Lucina seemed to still believe the training dummies were taller than her…which was a lie, because most of them were shorter than her now. Morgan couldn't really break his own fighting habits, however (especially when it came to sword fighting), so he wasn't sure how to properly aid Lucina in breaking hers.
Morgan watched her for about thirty minutes before speaking up. "Hey, Lucina?"
She faltered, apparently not expecting him to say anything, and ended up piercing the training dummy's arm instead of anywhere fatal. Nonetheless, she turned to him nonchalantly, "Yes?"
"Sorry for, uh…more-or-less using a combination of guilt-tripping and constant pestering to try to get you out of your room," Morgan said. It…sounded a lot worse out loud. He laughed nervously a little. "I guess I got a bit paranoid; I started studying some little kingdoms that rose and fell quickly, and the underlying problem was typically a failure to communicate, so…"
"It's fine," Lucina replied, smiling at him to show some form of reassurance. "Privacy is near impossible in this castle anyway. I had to come out sooner or later…honestly, you're probably one of the better people to bother me every day. But don't feel bad about it; I won't hold it against you."
Morgan smiled back at her, if only because he couldn't quite figure out how to say "thank you." He did have something else he wanted to say though. "You still won't tell me what was wrong, though, will you?" It wasn't so much of an accusation as it was a general question.
"Sorry," Lucina said. "It's hard to explain; Father had a whole speech prepared, apparently, but it wasn't needed. I just asked questions, and they gave clarifying answers. I already knew about half of it, though, whereas you would be going in clueless."
"Sounds like something Malin says," Morgan admitted. "Every time someone says 'it's hard to explain,' I swear they're referencing the same thing."
"It's likely," Lucina said, shrugging a little. She sat down her sword, looking over the half-destroyed training dummies, then sat beside him. "Malin is apart of it. It's nothing bad, really—I guess while privacy is near impossible, so is simple communication of past events."
"I believe it," Morgan replied simply. "Although I wish secrets weren't as common as they are. It drives me insane sometimes when I'm not told anything; I think it's a combination of being the youngest and being a tactician. It depends on what's not being told, though—like if someone decided not to tell me what was for dinner one day, I'd be fine with it; but if someone decided that it would be 'best' not to tell me about something important, I am definitely going to be questioning them."
"As to be expected," Lucina said. "I think we all have our little issues; I occasionally struggle with a sense of individuality, you don't like harmful secrets, and Owain…I'm not as sure about him, but I believe he his occasional theatrical behavior is a result from lack of attention. The adults have similar problems as well. It's just the way we were raised, I suppose."
Morgan nodded; she wasn't wrong. He was aware that the adults had their own sort of problem that was a result of past events (namely the wars shortly before and after Chrom became the exalt); he didn't spend as much time with Chrom and Lissa as he should, but he knew that, for one, Robin had difficulty accepting the lives lost during both wars she participated in—although Morgan didn't notice it until he was about sixteen, right before the Grimleal War, when he (mostly unintentionally) eavesdropped on a conversation between Robin and Chrom.
Robin…was never fully at peace with sending out a bunch of at-the-time teenagers to fight in a war that she saw as her fault. Morgan supposed that watching sixteen-through-eighteen-year-olds leaving Ylisstol on terms of war brought to mind some of her previous mistakes. She didn't talk about it much; it showed through a bit of over-apologizing, though.
He wasn't entirely sure about Malin. He was supposed it was something similar to his own; albeit in a more…prying way. When something was bothering Malin, he normally pestered the person until they told him what he wanted to know. There were a few exceptions—like the mercenary (if Morgan was remembering correctly, her name was Olencia) who came to bring Lucina out of the castle a few months ago, who 'reminded' Malin of someone, but he didn't openly say who and he seemed to drop the subject quickly. It was never something that bothered Morgan, though, since he didn't recognize the mercenary (he was curious to know what she did that led Lucina to hide in her room for so long, however).
Morgan was lost in his thoughts to the point where he only half-acknowledged Lucina saying, "I'm going to go into Ylisstol for a little bit," and thus missing his opportunity to ask if he can join her.
As soon as he realized it, he cursed silently. But alas, she was gone and he was pretty sure she won't come back until early afternoon (maybe a bit earlier if she was planning on bringing back Eisso and Kenzie, though).
He stood up, and—if only to keep himself occupied—started fixing up the training dummies. There had to be dozens of them, hidden away somewhere, but there were about twenty that everyone insisted on always using. Therefore, said twenty training dummies were mostly just fabric tied on a pole with a poorly shaped head and a few random limbs, at this point.
Once he had about half of them looking reasonably decent, he pushed them away a little and took out one of the practice swords. Might as well try to train a little, since he was already here.
(A/N: Alright, Imma just say this since it probably won't be established in the story: during Similar But Different—which is what I've been calling the story where Lucina gets the spotlight for a little bit—Lucina learns that there are future versions of all the children (if you want the FULL explanation, just send me a PM; however, since it's a bit long, I won't be explaining it in this author's note). Chrom, Robin, and the other parents have yet to tell the rest of the children about their future counterparts, which is why Lucina knows that Malin is Future Morgan when Present Morgan doesn't know.
Is this getting confusing yet? Yes? No? Either way, feel free to send me a PM with any questions you might have about this story or the past few stories, and I'll try to give spoiler-free answers—in most cases, at least.)
