Title: The Unlucky Urn
Rating: PG
Genre: Gen/Family (soft fuzzies)
Pairing: none
Summary: Inspired from a certain "picture" seen in T&T, case 3-5. Mia tries to cover for a certain mischievous little sister.
Warnings: Spoilers for 3-5.
Notes: Written entirely for the Week 1: "Shout" prompt of LJ community <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/pw_contest/">pw_contest</a>. This came to me out of the blue, and ended up being finished before I really knew it. I hope at least some people enjoy it, despite that. Also, my first PW fanfiction ever. Yay me. Cross-posted... just about everywhere, sorry.
Word Count: 1586

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Mia Fey had a certain few distinct memories involving her mother. One of the most fond and vivid ones was just before her mother had become involved in the DL-6 Incident.

She was about 14, and Maya had been 4, the day that the Sacred Urn was broken the first time. It was late spring, and Maya had been extremely insistent about going to the local lake for a swim.

"Sis!" Maya's voice traveled all over the Fey Manor, when she wanted it to. It hadn't needed to this time as the girl was just in the room next to hers, but for some reason moderation was never Maya's forte.

Mia paused in her art project with some effort. Working with clay was always difficult. "Yes?" she called, not even bothering to look up. She could tell from the stomping sounds that her sister was now at her door.

Indeed, the door flung open not even a second later. "Let's go to the lake today!"

"Maya," the teen whined. "I really don't want to."

"ARGH," Maya huffed. "You never really want to!"

While that was mostly true, Mia never really felt like her sister was fair about it. She'd personally just never cared for that sort of activity. Mia considered for a moment. "You know that we'd have to get an adult to go with us, too... why don't we just go next week?"

She hoped that this would buy time, and with any luck, Maya might forget the offer altogether. As she watched her sister's face, however, Mia knew it wouldn't be that simple. Maya built up air in her cheeks and leveled her best glare. Mia thought to open her mouth to attempt placating the other girl, but it was too late; Maya had already started storming down the Winding Way.

At first, Mia simply shook her head and stood slowly. It wasn't uncommon for Maya to do this whenever she couldn't find a way to express herself. The girl would usually find a place to hide in the mansion, staying sometimes for hours. Typically, her overeager appetite would win out in the end, but it gave the staff and other family a hard time finding her in the meanwhile. In Mia's case, though, she knew most of the places to look.

All seemed normal, but then suddenly Mia heard a crash. Paling, she ran to the doorway and dashed outside. "Maya?!"

The sight before her made Mia gasp silently. The Sacred Urn was in no less than ten large pieces, and dust bits littered the walkway around it. Maya was trying to pick herself up off the ground, yet to realize what had happened.

Mia's mind started working a mile a minute. "Maya, stay here!" she said urgently, and then dashed back to one of the hallway closets to grab a couple of brooms. "If the Elders find out about this..." Mia thought out loud, frantically. She made a second stop at her room to dive at her art supplies for the crazy glue, then ran back out.

When she rounded the corner again, Maya finally had come to grips with what she'd done. She had fallen down in a silly spread-eagle sitting position and was bawling. Shaking her head, Mia ran over and patted her sister on the back to comfort her. "Come on, don't worry." She examined the situation in a bit more detail as she spoke. "We have to get it cleaned up first. If we can do that then no one will know..."

It became quickly apparent that Maya was going to be inconsolable for the better part of this endeavor, and Mia groaned a bit in frustration. Leaving one of the brooms beside the other girl, just in case she managed to pull herself together and could help, she dashed around to the opposite side to try to get to work. It took a few distracted tries to get her own broom to lean steady against the half-wall of the Winding Way before it stayed upright.

She began piecing the thing together, a bit of sweat running down her forehead. The glue was being uncooperative though in this heatwave, no doubt about it. In the meantime, Maya simply continued sobbing. Let's see... the "A"... then the "M"... Mia was doing her best to put her problem-solving skills to the forefront.

The urn was already halfway put back together, but finally, Misty couldn't hold it in any longer. Her clear laughter reverberated across the garden, and Mia froze, a piece of the urn suddenly gripped to the point of breaking into even more pieces. Slowly, like in a terrible horror film, Mia turned toward the garden, and gave a shout.

Misty lifted the camera in her hands and captured the moment for all posterity.

"Mom!" Mia looked even more panicked and reached to hide the glue behind her form. "I-" she looked back and forth between the urn and her crying sister desperately, trying to gain some assistance one last time. "She-!"

Misty just kept laughing. She took a few steps forward, after what seemed like a small eternity to Mia. She leaned down and patted the crying Maya on the head softly a few times, and the young girl eventually peered through tear-strewn eyes to find out who it was. There was some hiccuping, but slowly she relaxed. For her part, Mia had found a nice, consoling crack in the wood on the floor.

Eventually, Misty spoke up. "Maya, why don't you play house? We need the dust off the floor here, right?" Maya seemed confused at first, but took to the game her mother had made up nicely.

The older woman smiled gently, then turned to her other daughter. It seemed that Mia was actually feeling more guilty about the whole event than her sister was. "Mom, you didn't...."

"Didn't what?" Even she was lost now.

The crease in Mia's forehead got larger, if at all possible, and she still refused to look up. "Why did you take the picture?!"

It took everything that Misty had not to laugh out loud again. "Don't you worry about that. I had it so that I could take promotional pictures of the grounds, to run an ad about our Channeling Technique."

Mia looked up, her face still full of concern. "You mean you won't... you're not going to tell the Elders?"

Misty waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Now why would I do that? This urn's been in worse trouble before..."

"What?"

Misty bent down at the knees and crouched beside her older daughter, taking the pieces one at a time from at the girl's feet to continue fixing the urn. "Do you remember when I told you about Aunt Miriam?"

Mia took a deep sigh, but soon settled into a sitting position and began helping. She nodded in response. Aunt Miriam had been her mother's older sister. Misty often spoke of her with much respect, and Mia felt almost obligated now to hear what her mother had to say.

"Well, once when I and your Aunt Miriam were very young we decided that Mystic Ami could use a bath."

The teen looked at her mother incredulously. "A... bath..."

Misty smiled again. "Yes, a bath. We figured that she'd gone long enough in this musty old urn, and that she needed some freshening up." The woman's hands worked methodically as she spoke. "But when we went to put her in the lake, a strong current picked up. It pulled the urn right out of my hands... and I dove after it."

Misty paused here, dramatically. Mia looked at her closely, and then the inkling of a grin pulled at the corner of her mouth. "You couldn't swim?"

"No, I couldn't," Misty replied, her tone one of amused patience. "Aunt Miriam had to go after the both of us. We were both soaked to the bone, and the urn's seal was well broken. Mystic Ami's ashes went all over the bottom of the lake."

Mia would not laugh, my dear, serious Mia, thought Misty, but amusement shown in the young woman's eyes.

"So you see," Misty said, as she set the last piece in place, "you're the most responsible Fey that has ever lived!"

Finally Mia let out a small exhalation, one that was somewhere between a laugh and a sigh of relief. "Mom..." she said, flustered.

The crafts work finished, Misty lifted the urn carefully back on its pedestal. She peered around at the floor; it seemed like Maya had done a good job sweeping. There were a few bits left around Mia, which could easily be taken care of. As she trailed up to Mia's face, however, the girl's expression gave her pause.

She was staring out into the garden, where Maya had eventually taken to "sweeping" the dirt in the garden. The expression was one of fierce loyalty. Misty felt warmed to no end, and it wasn't because of the weather.

"Mia," she said softly, and waited the brief moment it took for the girl to turn to her. "Make sure you're always there for her, in case she needs the protection."

The younger woman stood and genuinely smiled. "I will."

Misty nodded in acknowledgment, then stalked into the garden to pick up little Maya from behind, flaunting her kicking, giggling form over to Mia. "Most especially if she needs protection from herself!" the woman yelled over the ruckus, and then joined in the laughter herself.

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*laughs* That was really good! You captured each character's personality perfectly (especially Mia... serious Mia...)
The only "issue" I had is that, didn't Misty only have one older sister? Morgon? Ah well, it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, good job!

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Yes well, I admit that Morgan would generally be the choice for it, but I sort of stretched the reality a bit. I couldn't imagine Morgan very well caring if Misty had been swept away... so I made up another sister for her. IIRC, there wasn't anything saying she didn't have any other sisters, right?

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Adorable. Lovely work. As an older sibling myself, I sympathize with Mia completely. :) The only issue I have has already been pointed out and that's with Misty having another older sister. I'm not sure that the game rules out the possibility of her having more siblings and I could certainly stretch my imagination to believe that she did, but you may want to change Miriam to being a younger sister or a cousin. After all, they clearly have an extended family system in Kurain. Morgan has to be the oldest because if she wasn't then she would never have even been a possibility for the position of Master. On top of that, I have a hard time buying that neither of Misty's older sisters had enough power to be Master considering how the power is usually passed down. The oldest sibling is the one who normally has the strongest powers and thus how the position is usually passed down. Morgan's lack of power was a shameful anomaly. It would be unlikely that neither of Misty's older sisters had enough power to be the Master. As for Morgan not caring about Misty, I don't think she started off as bitter as she is in the game. Remember that Morgan's big problem with her sister had to do with the succession issues and that wouldn't have really come to the forefront of things until after Misty surpassed her, so they could have had a decent relationship as children. Very nicely done overall!

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Perhaps Miriam died? Ah, who knows. Despite that, it's a great story!

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Sorry I haven't had the chance to respond to these earlier...

Basically yes, it was my intention that "Miriam" died when they were still very young. Perhaps even before they became older teenagers, when the whole 'who gets the title' became into play. She was meant to be a passing character.

I have no sisters... and not much of a mother. But it was fun to write this. I'm glad some people got enjoyment out of it. :)

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