Everything was bright. Far too bright. Obscenely bright, he immediately noticed when he awoke. Prompto squeezed his blue eyes tightly shut while he tried to remember where he was. He found it was near impossible to concentrate through a splitting headache and the way he felt like he had bricks piled on top of his chest with every breath he took. He saw red everywhere when he shut his eyes.
He let out a groan through his dry throat. He tried to rub his sore temples but found his arms would not move. He thought his fingers were moving, but he did not like the way he had to second guess his body. The way his arms felt like lead made his eyes snap open in panic.
The last thing he remembered was screaming.
"Ignis?! I need help! I-I-I don't know! Prom-Prompto! H-He-!"
Noctis... Fuck... Prompto swore. Hesitantly, he dared to look down at his body. He let out a shaky breath at the sight of the thick bandages around both of his forearms. Well, shit. He thought. As if he could not feel his heart beating harder in his chest, a machine to his left began to beep faster, making his headache even worse.
His foggy memories slowly came back to him as he realized he was in a hospital. Noctis must have brought him to the hospital. Noctis and Ignis? His careful scanning of the room revealed to him that he was, in fact, alone. Blue eyes slid shut once more as dread filled his stomach.
Did Noctis and Ignis drop him off at the hospital and leave? Prompto would not blame them if that is what they did. He did not even want to associate with himself at the moment. Noctis had more important things to worry about than his friend who was obviously crazy and could not even manage to kill himself right.
Prompto felt the familiar sting of tears welling up in his eyes as he tried his best to relax his sore body. He tried to wipe his eyes but found his arms hurt too much to be brought up that high to reach his face. He felt pathetic. If he had felt helpless before, than waking up in the hospital was the lowest feeling he could ever recall having.
He was not sure how long he laid there sobbing, when he heard a knock at the door of his room. Prompto jumped, shaking his head quickly at a failed attempt to brush the tears from his face. The door opened before he could even say anything and for a moment he did not dare look up at who it was, assuming it would be a doctor or nurse coming to do whatever it was hospital staff did with patients like him.
"Oh. You're awake." A deep, yet awkward, voice muttered from the doorway.
Prompto's head slowly turned to face his guest. It took him a moment to focus on the large, dark haired, man standing before him. Prompto squinted, suddenly realizing that he had neither his glasses, nor contacts. The man seemed familiar, and by the way he was dressed in just jeans and a tank top, definitely not a doctor.
"Can I sit down?" The man asked carefully, as if afraid Prompto was going to snap at him, or have another break down, at any moment.
The blonde slowly nodded, finding his movements to be very sluggish as he tried to make out the man moving to sit beside his bed. Once the man was close enough, Prompto could vaguely make out some familiar features on the man. "You're... Ah... G-Gladio... Right...?" Prompto asked cautiously, remembering the man that Noctis had introduced him to when they first started hanging out after school.
Gladio nodded, genuinely surprised that the teenager had remembered him. He was sure that they had only hung out a small handful of times. And only because it convenienced the Prince. "That's me." He responded, keeping his voice and expression as calm and neutral as possible, considering where they were.
Prompto swallowed, finding his throat incredibly sore and dry before letting out a weak cough. He began to panic as he thought of all of the possibilities as to why Gladio would be there with him. Was he there to make Prompto understand that he was not to contact Noctis again? Was the prince really that scared of him that he would not be able to tell him in person, or did he just hate him that much? Someone like Noct was probably too busy for such trivial concerns and probably sent Gladio to deliver the news while he did more important royal matters. "Are-Are you here... to... to... does... does Noct hate me?" He asked carefully, bracing himself for the worst.
Gladio shook his head. "He's not happy, but he doesn't hate you."
He wished his head was not battling a migraine so he could focus on the man sitting beside him. The blonde was having a terrible time trying to pick up on Gladio's tone while he spoke. "Then... why... are you here...?"
There was a pause, as though the shield was thinking of an answer. He noticed Gladio look away from him for a moment, amber eyes scanning the room while he spoke. "Just wanted to talk to you for a bit. Is that okay?"
Prompto sighed, he had a feeling that he was going to have to talk a lot about what he did. "Are you going to tell me I'm selfish? Because, like, I know... So..." He hoped that would be enough to get Gladio to leave him alone to his self-loathing.
Another shake of his head as Gladio took a sharp intake of air. "Wasn't planning on it..." He answered and Prompto had a feeling that he was being genuine with his answers.
"Are you... going to yell at me?" He asked before wondering why he continued to ask questions when his throat and mouth were begging him to rest.
Gladio let out a sigh, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Which Prompto thought was odd as he watched the strong man seem so out of his element and unconfident. "Look. Prompto, right? You don't know me well enough to be guessing why I'm here, yeah?" He said, growing annoyed with the guessing game.
Prompto swallowed, trying to make himself smaller in his bed. "W-why then?" He asked quietly after taking a pause to work up the courage to ask.
"Because Iggy asked me to talk to you and I owe him, like, eighty-seven favors and he decided to cash them all in tonight because he's a stupidly selfless person and so here I am." Gladio answered, running an aggravated hand over his face while he spoke.
An uncomfortable silence filled the room as Prompto did not know what to say to that extremely vague answer. The sounds of the machines connected to Prompto filled the sterile space and the adolescent found his exhaustion catching up with him. He found it growing more difficult to keep his eyes open in front of his unusual guest and allowed himself a small yawn. Gladio realized that if he was going to make good on his promise to Ignis, he had better say something before the kid passed out on him.
"So, uh, you know who I am." Gladio started, and the sudden voice caused Prompto to jump. The shift that caused the shield to be so uncomfortable was not lost on the younger and he realized that this was probably going to be the first of many serious talks he was going to have to have with many people. "But has Noct told you what my job is? Do you remember what I do?"
Prompto forced his heavy head to nod. "You're his... personal body guard, right?" He asked, trying and failing to remember what exactly Noctis had called the large man's position.
Gladio nodded. "Yeah. So. The Amicitia family has been trusted as the King's Shield for hundreds of generations. I'm the Shield to the Prince, my dad is Shield to the King, grandfather for grandfather and so on." Prompto thought he saw Gladio glance over to him and he gave a small nod to show that he was following his explanation. "Well... I wasn't... I wasn't always Noct's Shield." He spoke with a softness that seemed out of place coming from such an intimidating person. "I... had an older brother... Who was originally assigned to watch over Noctis."
The weight of the past-tense hit Prompto hard in the stomach and he wished his body would let him take a deep enough breath to recover. He was not sure, but he thought he could feel his hands shaking.
Gladio nervously popped the joints in his hands and wrists before continuing. "I don't how much of this you know, but... There was an attack when Noctis was, I dunno, eight or so. A daemon caught the royal procession and Noct got hurt. I mean. Really hurt." Gladio's eyes faced his hands, but seemed to be looking somewhere much further away.
"He fell into a coma. They had healers from all over come to The Citadel and take care of him. They said that if he was lucky enough to wake up, he probably wouldn't walk again. The King was devastated. We all were. No one ever actually said out loud that it was my brother's fault but... Edelweiss was so serious about his job and he took the news about Noct's condition really hard..."
Gladio swallowed. "He told me once that he felt that he had failed at his job. Which isn't fair at all, because he was, fuck, fourteen at the time? There was no way that one person could have stopped the attack, or even seen it coming. Especially some kid, but, there was no telling Edel that..."
Prompto was at a loss for words. Gladio had been right, he did not know this man well enough to be having this conversation. He could hear Gladio take in a sharp breath before he was steady enough to continue. Prompto knew what was coming, but he still dreaded hearing the rest of this story. He could feel his injuries on his arms throb as his hands clenched weakly without his permission, dreading and waiting with a heavy heart for Gladio to continue.
"He used to stand by Noct's bed while he was unconscious. The healers would have to work around him. He was obsessed with watching over him. Like, he could be of some help some way." He let out a sigh, eyes squeezing shut because was definitely not going to cry in front of this stranger. "One day he just... wasn't by Noct's side. Which was really not like him. So, my dad called the house and asked Jared if Edel was still home and..."
Gladio wrung his hands together, as though his knuckles might pop again. He let out a frustrated sigh when they did not, but he continued. "Jared found him in his room but... We couldn't get him to wake up..."
Even though he knew that was how Gladio's story was going to end, Prompto found himself shaking as he continued. He felt lightheaded and sick to his stomach and he really wished Gladio would stop talking. Was he trying to get Prompto to feel guilty for what he did? He could not help but wonder what Gladio's end game might be.
The Shield let out a half-hearted chuckle. "The worst fucking part, though..." Prompto gave him a confused look, wondering what could have been worse than that. "Like, three days after his funeral, Noct came out of his coma. His back and leg was still really fucked up, but shit you've seen him now. Hardly anyone even knows that it happened. You can't tell by just lookin' at him." Prompto did not need to be feeling clear-headed to be able to hear the anger in Gladio's voice. "If Edelweiss would have just waited a week, less than a week... He would have seen that everything worked out..."
Shit... The swear fell flat on Prompto's tongue as he realized the point that Gladio was trying to make with this story. As best as he could with his injured body, he shifted uncomfortably in the hospital bed, folding his hands in front of him to ground himself before he could fall into hysterics.
Gladio was silent for a moment before he turned to look back at Prompto, coming back to the present time as he carefully examined the younger man laying in the bed. It was easy for him to wish that his brother had been given the same second chance that Prompto was getting. He desperately wished his brother could hear the words that he spoke to Prompto.
"Outside of what Noct tells me, I don't know you, man. I don't know what daemons you have in your life that make you feel like this is something that you gotta do. But I need you to promise me that next time you feel like hurting yourself you hold action. It doesn't have to be a full week. I just need you to wait and not do anything for one or two days." Prompto weakly nodded at the seemingly easy request.
"And if after a day or so, you still feel like shit and you still wanna do... this, then you gotta call someone. I don't care who it is. I don't know what your family situation is, but call Noct or Iggy, or fuck I can give you my number. I don't care. I just don't wanna see you here again."
Prompto did not even pretend like he was not openly crying at the sincerity of the man's request. He never once thought that someone would be this kind to him out of nowhere. His chest felt full of unfamiliar emotions as he struggled with the concept of someone else looking out for someone like him. "Wh-why?" He asked desperately. "You don't... You don't know anything about me. Why do you care so much?" Prompto stuttered through sobs, his blurry vision growing unbearable through his tears.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, man. Purely selfish reasons." Gladio responded after thinking for a long minute. "Because it's been almost ten years and I still miss him every damn day. Because my little sister doesn't remember her brother at all because she was so young when it happened. Because the first thing that Noctis said when he found out was, 'did he do it because of me?' Because my old man is the strongest person I know and I still remember the sound of him crying and screaming at me over the phone when I told him how we found Edel. Because... I know I'm a different person now, and I miss the person I used to be before he died. Because I don't wish any of those feelings or situations on anyone." If Prompto was seeing clearly, he would have easily been able to see how glossy Gladio's amber eyes were with tears. "I know how you feel. I do. I get it, man. I've been there... But I also know how shitty your friends and family are gonna feel if you don't wake up in the morning."
This stranger's honesty meant more to Prompto than anything else he had ever heard in his short life. The Shield could have easily thrown around some bullshit about how much he was loved by hundreds of people, or how all of his problems would magically fix themselves if he just believed in himself or something. Even easier, Gladio did not even have to come at all. "You... You didn't have to..."
"Yeah I did." He answered quickly, patting the younger man way too roughly on the shoulder. "See, Noct, Iggy, and I... I think it goes without saying that the three of us have been through some shit together. Jobs and titles aside, we're a team and we look out for each other. So, if Noct likes you enough to wanna take care of ya, then you automatically get Iggy and I on your team, too. That's just how it works. And this team doesn't run. Especially from shit like this. We take care of our own."
Prompto could not believe the words he was hearing. It amazed him to believe that he was considered part of any sort of group or team, especially after what he had done to himself. Gladio seemed sincere, but were Noctis and Ignis still willing to put up with him after this? He was not sure how hopeful he wanted to allow himself to be. "Where... where are they?" He asked carefully. "Do they still... Like me...?"
Gladio motioned to the door with a thumb over his shoulder. "They're down the hall in the waiting room, actually." Prompto let out an audible choked out cry at the news that the people he was sure had abandoned him had not gone anywhere at all. "You wanna see them? Or we can come back in the morning after you get a good night sleep. Your call."
Prompto bit his lip. He did not know how to ask for help. He had never given himself the luxury of thinking that he could turn to another person for support, and yet here was someone offering him just that. He wondered if he could really allow himself to be brave enough to reach out and voice what he needed. He supposed that they had already seen him at his lowest point, so he did not have to worry about them thinking less of him after seeing him this vulnerable. Where else did he have to go? It was not like he could crawl any lower than crying in a hospital bed in front of a stranger with stitches in his arms. "I... really don't wanna be alone right now..." He said softly, praying to whatever god would listen that his request would be taken seriously.
Gladio nodded, patting him on the shoulder more gently that time before he pulled out his phone. "I'll give them a call then." He muttered, explaining himself before placing the phone beside his ear.
"I... thought you said they were right outside?" Prompto asked with a frown, confusion in his voice as he began to think that Gladio had not been as transparent with him as he lead Prompto to believe.
"Hey. Yeah, he's fine." Gladio spoke into the phone before lifting his eyes to address Prompto. "Well, I'm not leaving you alone to go get them." He responded, as though his actions were obvious. "Yeah. Yeah. He'd really like to see you, too. Alright. See you soon." He signed off before hanging up the phone. Gladio pocketed the device before turning back to give his full attention back to Prompto. "They're on their way." He explained simply.
As soon as Prompto heard Noctis' voice in the hallway he began to sob freely again. He had never been a part of a team before, but he was sure there was nowhere else he would rather be. His heart swelled with the new beginnings of a hope that had been lost to him for so long as the door to his room was thrown open with an unabashed sense of ownership that could only belong to the prince.
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