Morgan woke up feeling no different than the day before. But still…he was excited. He was a year older now—and in a few weeks, he would get to go on a celebratory mission with the Mini Shepherds to mark their one-year existence. On his tenth birthday Robin started teaching him how to wield magic; on his twelfth, he learned how to wield a sword for the first time. Now fourteen, he wondered if the every-two-years-something-good-happens routine would keep up. Robin's insistence on keeping a little well-meaning secret convinced him that he wasn't wrong, but he wasn't expecting what he actually got.
Immediately after breakfast he dug into the presents, counting little less than two dozen coming from family, friends, and castle staff altogether. It ranged from practical items to stuff meant to be a joke (usually in reference to something he had said or did recently). Tradition stated that such requirements must be fulfilled, just as other requirements were met on anyone else's birthday. Once he put away the gists, he found himself outside sitting in a tree, with Noire underneath him and practicing her bow skills.
They kept up a fairly normal, general conversation—although it stopped when Noire pulled back her bow, looked towards the castle gates, and hummed. Morgan followed her gaze, but couldn't easily see anything out of the ordinary. "Do you see something?" He asked.
"Yeah; your last gift," Noire replied. She shot her arrow at a nearby tree, then went over to tug it out. "I was told to leave when 'it' arrived, so head into the castle when you're done. Happy birthday, Morgan."
He would've questioned her if she didn't almost run after she retrieved her arrow. He didn't have to think on it for too long, though, because he saw what he could only assume was the gift—and it made him question if he was actually awake. He knew, however, that whether or not he was sleeping, this was a chance he couldn't let pass. So, he hopped off the tree and called out, "Malin!" It sounded a bit more like a question, but the man he called for looked right at him and smiled. Morgan started walking—close to running—towards him, stopping once he got close.
"Didn't expect me?" Malin asked.
Morgan just shook his head. But thinking on it… "It makes sense, though. Mother and Father just came back from somewhere they didn't want to say for 'the sake of a surprise.' Did they go to your time and take you back here?"
"Pretty much," Malin replied. "Marth talked with them first, then I was asked to bring them back here. I had permission to come with them, but I won't be here for too long."
Morgan smiled a little more than he already had been. "That's all right. Oh, maybe we could do tactics with Mother! The three tacticians of Ylisse, playing a tactics game to decide who is truly the best!"
"As long as Mother doesn't mind," Malin said. He paused, only for a moment. "You're a lot happier now than you were when we last met."
"Goodbyes are…something I haven't quite mastered yet," Morgan admitted. "I never needed to permanently say goodbye until then. But this is much better! I helped get you back—even if it's not for long."
"I would come back more of I could," Malin said. "But Marth wants to minimize people traveling to and from. Even if we could use the supplies or, heck, even a few dozen more people."
"You could always smuggle them in," Morgan pointed out simply. "As long as anyone you bring is willing no one here should complain, and you can claim that they're foreigners—which wouldn't be a lie. Then you could say that they brought supplies with them—which also wouldn't be a lie."
"Devious!" Malin replied. "I can tell you hang out with Noire—that kind of thinking doesn't typically come from just tactic lessons."
"Mother would say the same thing," Morgan said. "From the sound of it, it's more than just you and Marth, right?"
"Only about a hundred others," Malin answered. "Counting me, Marth, and the eleven other future kids, and how almost half of the whole population is either too young, old, or sick to work."
"Sounds tough," Morgan noted.
"It is," Malin agreed with a nod, "But it's working. I try to run things like Mother and Father do here, since it means less work for Marth—although it probably won't stay in place for whoever the next exalt is after her, given how much trust is required."
They fell into silence for only a few seconds, then Morgan thought of something. "Hey, is your birthday on May fifth too?"
"Yeah," Malin said. He seemed to catch on, because he chuckled. "And it'll be May when I get back to my time. Think that makes me twice as old?"
"Eh, you'll probably look the part," Morgan replied playfully. "You're not giving me too much hope for when I'm your age!"
"This is revenge, isn't it?" Malin mused in a theatric kind of quiet. "I joked about Mother's age once, and now I'm getting insulted by my kid self about my age! I'm not that old, you know."
"You're the oldest non-Mother tactician I know," Morgan countered.
"Okay, now you're just being stubborn!" Malin said with feigned offense. "I'm the only non-Mother tactician you know aside from yourself!"
Morgan laughed, and Malin joined in for a little while too before it died down. "You know, this was my plan all along and I didn't even expect it," he said, quiet and thoughtful. "I wanted you to come back, so I worked to make it happen."
"Well, was it worth it?" Malin asked similarly. "It may have only taken a few months, but it couldn't have been easy to balance it with everything else you needed to do."
Morgan looked up at Malin. "Of course it was worth it. Even if it's not going to be forever, just you being here makes it feel…better. More complete, maybe. It seems like the years that Mother spent looking for you didn't happen; that you were here all along. We're friends—and you're Mother's other son." He smiled, dropping most of his seriousness. "What kind of son would that make me if I didn't try my best to make sure she could see you again?"
"You're a good kid, Morgan," Malin said with a smile of his own. "Do Mother proud, all right? Don't make the same decisions I did."
"Rest assured, I have no intentions to," Morgan replied. "But enough of that; you're starting to sound like you'll be leaving in a few minutes, and there's still more you need to do before you go! First things first, Noire told me to head to the castle once we were done. Ready to see Mother and Father?"
Malin nodded, and Morgan lead the way. They never stopped the conversation, never fell into silence for more than a few moments. It was more than what Morgan was used to—more than he had hoped to get. He would have to thank Robin and Chrom for getting Malin, and Malin himself for coming. It truly felt like no time had passed—like there hadn't been anyone missing for years and the consequences were nonexistent. This kind of completion was what he had hoped for by making that promise back in October, even if it wouldn't last very long.
