(listen to Sparkle from the Your Name soundtrack to set the ~mood~)
The whole thing started with an off-hand comment from Noctis, in the middle of their literature class. They were studying some ancient playwright who compared some unknown lover's eyes to the starfields standing watch over the deserts of Leide.
Prompto wasn't sure if the comparison was supposed to be romantic or whatever, given that Leide was a desert, but then, he wasn't a immortally famous poet, either.
Noctis, unusually awake at this point in the school day, leaned back with his hands behind his head and said, "I have a feeling the actual stars are better..."
"We should make a trip out," Prompto said.
It was definitely wishful thinking, though. Prompto knew, before Noctis said anything and because he was pretty familiar with the restrictions surrounding Noctis's life by now, what the answer would be.
"Even when I turn eighteen, I'm pretty sure the answer's gonna be no," Noctis said and then let out a graceful yawn, apparently remembering, finally, that he was Noctis Lucis Caelum and he should be napping.
As Noctis settled himself behind a propped up textbook, Prompto blinked. And blinked again.
And a switch was flipped.
The problem with Noctis's birthday was that Prompto was poor as fuck so he couldn't exactly spoil Noctis even if he wanted to. Besides, everything that Noctis could possibly want would definitely be gifted by someone else.
Instead, he was reduced to relying on the resources he did have. When he got right down to it, writing a huge list of logistics and supplies...he found he had a lot more at his disposal than the average Insomnian.
Prompto blinked at his lists, the tangle of bullet points, scratched out words, and arrows pointing to other tangents and it took him a moment to realize that he could actually pull it off. He never thought he'd take advantage of his connections to the Crown Prince but hey, at least it was for the prince. Or, more accurately, his best friend.
It was a months long project. Months of learning camera settings, of trials and errors late into the night.
He found him napping alongside Noctis most days. He woke once to find his head resting on the prince's shoulder and an absolute sense of contentment welled up in his chest. That alone was enough to make everything worth it.
He begged Ignis for Noctis's schedule and help obtaining an overnight pass outside of the city. The advisor quirked an eyebrow that turned into a long look when Prompto explained it was for Noctis. Prompto almost melted in relief when Ignis agreed in exchange for help in the great Noctis Vegetable War ("a single carrot, that's all I ask").
While Noctis trained, Prompto worked. He begged the art teacher to use the darkroom after graduation and then studied the constellations until his eyes practically bled.
The technology teacher welcomed Prompto with open arms when he asked for help with some wiring. He pleaded with his boss to borrow the really fancy camera ("it's the most important project of my life, help a guy out").
Gladio gave him a look similar to Ignis's when Prompto asked to borrow his camping gear, just the chairs and stove, please man, but soon relented.
There were times when Prompto was pretty sure Noctis knew something was up. It was the way Noctis looked up from his phone at the Crow's Nest, when Prompto said he was planning on going to the shop classroom, and squinted at Prompto.
"You only go when I train."
"Right," Prompto laughed it off, the way Noctis's eyes dimmed ever so slightly, so fast he almost didn't catch it. "Like you want to watch me tinker with wires all day."
"Maybe I do," Noctis said, and then mashed at his phone screen. "Maybe I want to see what you tinker with."
"One day," Prompto said, and then nudged Noctis in an attempt to lighten the shadow that fell over the prince.
Noctis turned and just sort of. Stared at Prompto. Except it wasn't like Ignis or Gladio, where they basically dissected his brain and then left him a mess of questions.
No, it was worse. Open and probing, almost like Noctis expected Prompto to just read his mind or something. And, oh man, the guilt for lying to him.
But. Fuck. It was easy to get caught up in the beauty of Noctis when his entire attention was turned on him; the ice blue eyes, the perfect bow of his lips. So easy, too, to be captivated and forget to speak.
Noctis sighed and said, "you better not secretly be beating my high scores at the arcade," and nudged Prompto right back, and maybe forgot to move.
On Noctis's actual birthday...Prompto was a mess. He fell out of his bed when his alarm went off and he got so into his head in the shower, going over the schedule and everything he had to do, that he almost slipped to his death.
It wasn't overly complicated...but it was Prompto, and this was Noctis's eighteenth birthday, and this needed to be perfect. The epiphany that brought him on the journey to this day hadn't clued him in on why it needed to be perfect but it just did.
Fortunately, turning eighteen was the biggest deal the Prince of Lucis could have, so he was busy at the Citadel the entire day, just as Ignis promised.
Prompto slipped into the apartment an hour after Noctis left for the Citadel, just in case, using the spare key Noctis had bullied Ignis into giving him a few years prior.
It was, literally, the first time he ever got to use the key. Being in Noctis's space, the grounded center of his life, without the prince felt more intimate than a single glance or the stupid nudgy thing the two did.
A laugh bubbled out of Prompto; warmth spread through him and did not fade because try as he might to be worthy of Noctis, right at that second it felt right to be there, so much so that his nerves eased a bit.
Enough to breathe, enough to feel excitement carry him through the last of his preparations.
Night had fallen by the time he heard Noctis's key, the jiggle of the door handle, and then a soft rustle as Noctis entered his darkened apartment. And took a look around.
"What the hell?"
Prompto, who was lounging in one of the borrowed camping chairs, almost dead center in the living room, scowled and said, "wrong Astral realm, dumbass."
"Yeah. Well." Noctis swept a dumbstruck look around his apartment. "Heaven doesn't properly convey the what the shit feeling I have. Seriously, Prom. What is this?"
"This," Prompto gestured to the apartment at large, hand stopping before the small projector in the center of the room, "is the starry sky of Leide."
Noctis stepped further into the living room, all wide eyes and open mouth as he took in the thousands of stars projected on the walls and ceiling of the apartment, a small contained galaxy glittering brightly and happily.
He glanced at the makeshift campsite Prompto had set up, complete with chairs and s'mores supplies and an Ignis-prepped dinner. At Prompto's phone, which played a chorus of fake as shit sounding crickets, compliments of a free noise maker app. At the nest of blankets and pillows in front of the tv which, let's be honest, was a nonnegotiable requirement in their camping scenario. And then, finally, at Prompto himself, his mouth going slightly wobbly.
Prompto let himself feel smug while Noctis processed everything. No one else could bring Noctis to Leide and no one else really tried, either. Prompto did this.
When Noctis turned his attention to him fully, his breath hitched because oh. Shit. There were his nerves.
Prompto had studied the stars and constellations over the summer but, somehow, never once questioned what Noctis would look like with the stars reflected in his eyes or over his body, his lips and cheeks and hands.
He never questioned, but he still got the answer: Noctis was fucking beautiful, and Prompto's throat went dry.
"How," Noctis choked out; Prompto was relieved that he also seemed to have trouble with words.
"I, uh," Prompto coughed. Tore away from Noctis to point at the projector behind him. "Ignis got me an overnight pass and I went out to Leide and photographed the sky from a haven."
Prompto bit a lip and snuck a glance at Noctis, who quirked a brow. "Ignis let you leave the city? Alone? Ignis?" He sounded impressed.
Prompto laughed and scratched the back of his neck. "Apparently, something happening to the prince's best friend isn't very high on the agenda. So he made a Glaive go with me, some guy who was on temp guard duty. Honestly I was kind of flattered."
Noctis let out a snort and dropped to the floor, leaned against Prompto's chair and Prompto himself. Solid, warm.
"I developed the pictures myself," Prompto continued, leaning forward so his hands lay flat on the floor, his body slumped against Noctis. "Used them to make the projector slides so yeah, this is the actual Leide sky and don't fucking forget it because it was a bitch to do."
Noctis's smile said that no, he would definitely not forget it. "And the wiring project? This is why you kept going back to school?"
"Yeah."
"And here I thought you just didn't know what graduation meant."
Prompto pouted and shoved Noctis who caught his wrist and just...held it, his own fingers tracing the constellations that lit Prompto's hand. The movement both tickled and sent bursts of fire through Prompto, whose heart apparently learned to fly.
Noctis watched his own finger but Prompto heard the several intakes of breath, as if the prince were trying to form words, any words.
"Thank you," Noctis finally breathed, turning as he said it, the words brushing against Prompto's cheek.
It was the stars in Noctis's eyes, he thought. And the way his mouth popped open. And, well, just the overwhelming need to know how Noctis's lips tasted. All of that. And more. Prompto leaned forward.
Their kiss was short, testing but like a million star bursts as Noctis turned and tangled his hands in Prompto's hair and pulled him closer. Prompto fell clean off his chair and onto Noctis, though who cared because it was Noctis.
Prompto decided, wrapped up in Noctis and the blanket nest, surrounded by the stars he brought from Leide, that he could stay there forever.
"Happy birthday, buddy."
RIP Ignis for having to clean up this mess
(find me on tumblr tsukibeamfics ^^)