Day 3: Late Night Talk / On a Date - Elephant over

NotesComments: This starts out as the rest of a date, but quickly turns into Late Night Talks. NSFW, mentions of Depression symptoms and teenagers trying to deal with growing up.

"Noct?"

"Mhm?"

"It's been a really long night... we should sleep?"

"Nah, just let me finish this mission," Noctis said, eyes glued to the giant TV in his living room, the controller in his hand already signalling that he was out of battery. They would have to recharge it soon, so that meant Noctis either had to stop playing, or he had to move from his cocoon on the couch to the ground in front of the console. Both options were not that great, but Prompto had watched his boyfriend often enough to know that he hardly cared about these things when he was in the zone.

Usually, Prompto didn't mind. And he wouldn't have minded at all tonight if he hadn't known why Noctis was so focused on that one assassination mission tonight, trying to beat the score again and again until he got nothing but an S for 'Perfect'. Unfortunately though, he was playing on the highest difficulty and had been trying for the past four hours and hadn't managed to get past an A.

Prompto had been entertaining himself with a game on his phone, but all they were really doing was to avoid that Elephant In The Room.

They had a month left before they graduated from high school. Finals were done, they both knew that they had passed - Noctis with flying colors, Prompto just good enough that he wouldn't have problems to get into the university that he really wanted to go to. And that was the Elephant they were trying to avoid.

Prompto knew what he wanted to do in the next two to four years.

Noctis not so much.

On the other hand, he had grown up knowing what he was supposed to do for the rest of his life and even Prompto could tell that he didn't want to think about anything past that. Not when they both could see just how taxing it was for Noctis' father to be king. The magic he used seemed to be consuming him and with the Niffs obviously cooking up something beyond the borders, not quite satisfied with annexing Tenebrae, Galahd and everything else, Noctis could hardly be blamed to dread looking into the future.

Sometimes Prompto felt guilty that he was so excited about going to university and broaden his photography skills during his art studies when Noctis wasn't excited about the future at all, even if the two of them had promised to stay together for all times. Prompto had no illusions about not ever getting into the spotlight once Noctis had to marry a woman to guarantee the continuation of the lineage of the Lucii, so he was happy with what they had at the moment.

That was another Elephant, but one that Prompto was as reluctant to talk about as Noctis was.

He stared at his right wrist, the weird barcode hidden under the sweatband and worried his lip, worrying about all the things that had gone unsaid between them for a while now.

"Noct," he started again, only getting a grunt in response. He glanced at the clock on his phone that read 3:27 and he winced. It was a Wednesday and even if they didn't have to attend classes tomorrow, their sleeping cycle was fucked up enough already.

"Noct, let's go to bed, please," he yawned. Seriously, he knew what was wrong, but for Noctis staying up so late when the man loved his beauty sleep, Prompto just knew that something was seriously, entirely and very-hard-to-fix wrong.

"Just this one mission," Noctis said again.

"You said that four hours ago," Prompto whined. "Seriously, you've got training with Gladio in... three and a half hours? And I'm supposed to be training at the Citadel myself..."

"You can sleep if you want to. I don't mind," Noctis said and Prompto was sure that there was nothing that could convince him now.

"Fine," Prompto huffed and got up. "I'll be in your bed if you need me."

He blushed at his words, but took his blanket and carried it over into the other room, sidestepping the plastic bottles, food containers and dirty clothes until he was close enough to fall into the prince's bed. He grunted and rolled to the side to get that handheld console out from underneath and groaned, wishing that his boyfriend could be a little tidier. But then he'd sound like Ignis and that was something that he didn't want either.

Staring at the light shining in from outside, he waited a little, then closed his eyes, telling himself that he could stay awake until Noctis came to bed with him.

When he opened his eyes again, there were hot kisses on the back of his neck and a cold hand on his chest under his shirt, pinching his nipple and making him moan, a firm bulge bucking against his ass.

This was a first.

Well, not totally, but the last time they had done something like this, Prompto had been awake although Noctis had been adamant on being the one who had woken up first.

That never really happened though.

Prompto was a light sleeper and Noctis was... Well, Sleeping Beauty. In both senses of the word. So for Noctis to wake up Prompto with an undeniable sexual hunger was... A first. Although they had had their fair share of sex to be comfortable with it by then.

"Noct..." he moaned, despite knowing that they shouldn't be doing this right then. Not with that big fat Elephant In The Room.

But he couldn't get the words out, not with Noctis knowing exactly where to kiss him and how to touch him to turn him into putty in his hands. His body was already reacting, wanting to feel more of Noctis on him. Inside of him as well and that was the embarrassing part. He had become so addicted to the other that it scared him sometimes.

Long fingers pushed inside his boxers and wrapped around him, giving a few well-aimed tugs and Prompto found himself crying out wantonly into the pillow. Tears of frustration joined these cries because he was so weak, so unable to say no to the prince when he really should. They had these friendly jabs going on between them, those were easy because they didn't mean much. But when Noctis was like this, there was nothing that Prompto could do or wanted to to stop him.

He pushed back, rolled forward as he pushed his ass back, offering himself so that Noctis could take out whatever frustrations he hadn't been able to quench with that video game, because that was the easiest way. They could still talk afterwards when Noctis wasn't so goddamn high strung anymore.

Noctis bit down on his neck and squeezed him, pushing his own bulge hard into his backside and Prompto gasped, the sound turned into a long stretched out moan and he half-expected Noctis to continue to do it dry, but that was where everything stopped. Noctis hand was still in his pants, his mouth was still latched to his neck, but he only lapped at him gently, as if to apologize for his rough and hot-headed treatment just now.

"Noct?" Prompto asked, breathless and confused.

"I'm sorry," Noctis murmured, pulling away slowly before he turned around so that his back was to Prompto. "I'm sorry," he whispered again, his voice breaking.

Prompto felt his heart breaking. He knew that Noctis wasn't exactly the most emotionally stable person he knew, but seeing him like this was... devastating. He turned around and propped himself up to lean on his arm so that he could hug Noctis and hold him. Also, he held himself up so that he could see parts of his face, the rest obscured by his bangs, longer now than how they had been at the beginning of high school.

"Hey... I'm here. We're fine. If you... want to talk?" Prompto offered, knowing that Noctis wasn't really the type to talk about his problems at all. Usually, he would rather have them eat him up until he exploded and sometimes that happened in the worst possible way. Fortunately, he had Ignis and Gladio - and him! - to be his backup when he had one of his meltdowns.

However, this one seemed to be the Meltdowns of Meltdowns.

"I'm sorry," Noctis pushed out between gritted teeth, curling up around himself and away from Prompto, who realized that this was one of the few occasions where he shouldn't pull away and leave the prince to his own devices.

"Don't be. It's my fault as well for not stopping you," Prompto said softly. "We both know I should have."

Silence was his only answer. Which was bad, because even though Prompto knew exactly what was wrong, he had absolutely no idea how to address it. It wasn't like it was his fault, really. He had been going on and on about wanting to join this one particular university, knowing that it was nothing that Noctis would ever consider and yet he had seen his boyfriend stare at the leaflets he had brought along longer than he had thought he would. Prompto had brought them over to rant about how this was perfect for him and how he was hoping that he would be able to get in, only realizing too late that Noctis would get moody over that. Because it would inevitably mean that they would be going seperate ways.

A fact that Prompto hated just as much. He would miss their lunches together, learning for the same tests and all these things, but he was more than happy to have tests that he would actually know how to tackle, that he was actually interested in.

"...I don't want to miss you, Prom," Noctis spoke up in a voice so small that Prompto almost didn't hear them over his own thoughts.

Violet blue eyes widened and he stared down at his boyfriend, just to realize that he was hiding his face so that Prompto didn't see his blush.

His mouth dropped open and he didn't know what to say. At all.

"But I... I want you to be happy and you're... you're so, so happy about... about your future, I don't... I can't take that away from you."

His eyes widened a fraction more, feeling hurt by those cruel words, but he knew Noctis well enough that he was laying his soul bare there. They might sound cruel, but Noctis also beat himself up for thinking such cruel things. Yet he trusted Prompto enough to know that he was hating himself for being like that.

It was complicated, but then again, it was also pretty easy for Prompto to decypher. Now, if only all things were as easy as this...

"I know you wouldn't," Prompto replied softly, resting his head on Noctis' shoulder.

"But a part of me wants to. A part of me wants to keep you to myself, to lock you up and to... to do things to you that I shouldn't even think about. And then there's me and I don't even know what I want to do tomorrow. Except to stay in bed with you and not go anywhere else," Noctis said, turning his head down into the pillow as he tensed up.

"Noct," Prompto started, once again at a loss for words. What were you even supposed to say something like that? Except for the spark of happiness that he felt when Noctis said that he wanted to keep him to himself, which was entirely weird if he thought about it.

"Noct," he tried again, although he was none the wiser even after the moment he had just bought. "I won't go anywhere. At least not far. We'll be able to hang out after classes, maybe even between classes. I don't want to go too far either, I don't want to be without you."

"I don't even know what I want to do," Noctis interrupted. "Where would that take you? It would only drag you down!"

"What makes you think that? Why can't I be the one who motivates you?" Prompto shot back, feeling a weird pang of relief that he was able to say at least that much so easily.

"Because I... I'm this... I'm just... a mess? I mean, look at this room. Ignis had tidied it up this morning and now it's... Like this."

"Hm... but that's something we can change easily? I'll help you tidy up, too, if you want to. Half of this is my mess anyway."

"...You don't have to. It would look like this anyway," Noctis huffed, but Prompto could feel him relax slightly.

"Mhm, but I want to," Prompto insisted, nuzzling his cheek into the soft fabric of Noctis' shirt. "Because I love you and I want to help you find what you're looking for."

Slowly, Noctis turned and looked up, waiting until Prompto had shifted enough to gaze down at him. "I don't deserve you," he breathed.

"Dude, that's my line," Prompto chuckled, but the sound died down quickly when Noctis' expression turned sour. "I-I mean, it's still my decision that I want to be with you, right?"

"...I guess so," Noctis sighed, his eyes fluttering shut.

Which was a good sign, as far as Prompto was concerned. Sleeping Beauty feeling sleepy instead of restless meant that Noctis was finally relaxing again and stopped worrying enough about whatever was eating him up to listen to his body's desires again.

"I mean it though. I love you and we will find a way to meet up, to make us work even though we're going different ways now. Who knows what will happen after those two years? Maybe I will become your bodyguard after all. I'm good with guns and the Marshal says I'm going to be on par with the Crownsguard soon. If it means I can be by your side for the rest of our lives, then I'm sure that we both can cope with being apart for two short years."

"...I guess so," Noctis said and although Prompto could see that he still wasn't happy with this, he had stopped to worry too much about it.

"I could be your bodyguard who shoots those who try to assassinate you and you," Prompto grinned, hugging Noctis a little tighter to lighten the mood. "Well, your pictures really, but you'd only have to pay me once! Besides, being your personal photographer would be the perfect disguise for a bodyguard."

"Gee, is that your master plan?" Noctis asked and Prompto felt giddy when he could hear the smile in his voice.

"Well, it used to be 'befriend Prince Noctis' and look where that got me. My plans always work out!" Prompto boasted, finally relaxing himself as they fell back into their usual easy banter.

"I guess I should replace Ignis with you as my personal strategist then, huh?" Noctis teased, entwining their fingers where Prompto's hand rested on his stomach.

"A-ah... I guess I'm not that good. It took me way too long to get that plan going. Ignis' plans usually work out quicker..."

"Well, I guess the strain would be too much, too. Working as my personal photographer, bodyguard and strategist. Next thing we know is you're taking over my job as well," Noctis hummed, his voice heavy with sleep already.

"I wouldn't dare!" Prompto protested gently, but before he could say anything else, he felt the steady rise and fall of Noctis' chest, realizing that the prince had fallen asleep.

"Good night," he smiled and kissed his shoulder before he also allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

He was glad that the Elephant was out of the room for now.