1. The emptiness of words.

Since his emotional farewell to Noctis, Prompto and the guys had not been seen again and however, the chobobro was quite certain that none of them had stopped eliminating the demons that Ardyn had left behind. Prompto's life had not been much easier since he separated from his friends, in his mind was more present than ever that his origins were in Niflheim and something inside had made him enter again on that way back pursuing something that only he could feel. When he got into gear he put all the warm clothes that he had in his backpack for to be able to better cope with the eternal cold that awaited him on all frontiers of the Empire because, no matter which way he chose before reaching the capital, he would find the icy tundra that characterized so much the horrible place.

Prompto had not seen Niflheim since the last battle with the rest of his friends, It was a painful memory and coming back again only reminded him that his best friend was no longer by his side to support him when everything turned dark but now, instead of Noct, he had a tattoo that he would force himself to watch whenever his strength faltered: If we walk, we'll see you again.

During his trip to the Empire his camera didn't stop working, little by little he realized that he was instinctively advancing along the same path he traveled with his friends the first time and since he did not at the time, he dedicated himself to immortalizing every significant detail he encountered: Camps, animals, even take a new photos with Cindy and maintaining a interesting conversation with her… "Everyone will die of envy when they see it" he thought to himself when he showed the photos to the blonde women. Cindy had not stopped being the goddess he thought she was, although time will continue to pass Prompto always thought that she was beautiful and kind and – obviously– the Cindy's garage was not around but It was worth going to the place.

"It's been a long time since you've come here, it's nice to see a familiar face," she said, punching him in the arm.

He laughed. Worshiped Cindy's voice. Cindy offered Prompto to spend the night in her caravan instead of the outdoor, and who would say not? Despite the embarrassment he felt when she asked him, Prompto accepted the request by tilting his head as he drew a half smile. What was not expected were the events that took place inside the caravan that night: After dinner, Cindy began to ask him about his adventures with Noctis and the guys, she wanted to know what happened to the prince in those ten years of darkness or why the sun returned to illuminate Lucis… And from there, she began to rummage through the feelings of the blond boy until without warning, the girl straddled on the Prompto's hip:

"I've always wanted to know what it feels like when you ride a chocobo." She said.

At first, Prompto didn't know what she meant by that until Cindy's tender lips kissed him. It's necessary to explain what's happened after?

When he woke up it was early enough but still, Cindy was inside the garage repairing a couple of cars, Prompto dressed and discovered on the door of the caravan there was a voucher that would be for to get food in the bar. He smiled to himself, next to the voucher was a note written by Cindy: "Good morning, my little Chocobo, I hope you don't take so many years to come back again, last night was nice. Take care, Cindy". Not knowing very well why, he noticed how he blushed and even so, he left the caravan and acted as if nothing had happened.

He had breakfast and said goodbye to Cindy and –after making sure no one looked at them– he gave her a quick kiss in the mouth and a wink as he left the garage. Despite the safety he had shown, he could feel his legs trembling even well past the frontiers of the city. The days became slower from that, every night that he camped Prompto missed Cindy, It was as if suddenly the heat of that girl had taken over his whole being and made him miss having someone to talk at night; it didn't want to say that he could no longer live without her, but he had remembered his old nights surrounded by people whom he appreciated and once again, because of the Empire he was left alone.

Time passed and the cold became more palpable as it approached the Empire's frontier, since his trip he had not encountered any demons but he had also read that the few remaining specimens took refuge in Niflheim because anyone had shown an interest in the ruins of what had brought the decadence to Lucis and to the whole world. "I must be the only fool that comes here" he thought as he walked along the abandoned tracks of the train that came to the capital. The icy wind froze his face and created a cold layer of frost on his skin, that night would not be enough to find a place to sleep, but he would have to rest somewhere where he could take refuge from the snowstorm that would hit the tundra when it was night. Luckily for him, he discovered a dilapidated train carriage on the ledge of a cliff, when at last he was in front of the train carriage he was removing the snow until he had a hole through which to go inside and once inside he let out a sigh of relief to see that there was nothing dead that made him vomit for being there. Perhaps the most difficult part had been solved, he went outside to see if he could find anything more to eat than the tin cans he carried in the depths of her backpack.

In his walk he found nothing to move or could he chew, he was not a kitchen expert as Ignis had been during his trip but luckily, Prompto had learned something on his own in the time he was alone. When the light was showing signs of disappearing, he accepted that night he would eat canned food and returned to the train car, when lacked only a few yards left when he discovered strange marks on the floor, it seemed human footprints and came from the depths of the tundra, the footsteps were quite recent and although he ruled out that they were of an enemy or of an animal by the way they were drawn in the snow his heart began to throb with speed, Prompto looked for one of his pistols trying to make the minimum possible movement, since Noct had disappeared he had to carry his arms on him and to choose in each occasion (depending on his trip) which one of them was better option. The sound of loading the gun even made an echo and he waited in silent for a few seconds still waiting for whatever was walking in the snow gave some sign of being close, suddenly a sound pierced Prompto's ear and without stopping to think much, the guy started to run in the direction in which he had heard how that which was walking fell on the snow. When he finally found what he was looking for, his heart throbbed harder, giving him the feeling that it would come out of his chest: Before him was a human body lying face down on the snow. He ran to the person in question and turned it around, discovering that was a girl who should not have been more than twenty years old; the girl was only wearing a bulletproof vest on top of a military jacket that was wide enough to be his size, worn pants and boots that didn't seem to be his either; luckily the train carriage wasn't far from there so once he put his gun away, Prompto grabbed the girl as best he could and walked to safety inside the vehicle.

Once there, his problem was another: the girl didn't wake up and falling asleep in the cold could mean that she never woke up, Prompto kept moving, wondering what the hell to do until his blue eyes discovered that the real carriage door opened to the walls of the cliff maybe if he opened it he could improvise something to make a fire. He put all his strength into opening a hole large enough for him to enter in profile, to his surprise, in that place that faced the outside there was hardly snow since there was a plank high enough to avoid falling snow inside, the only that he had to do was move the plank to open a hole through which the smoke of the campfire would emerge. Without think about it, he began to search among the rocks small places to grab to be able to move himself to the wooden roof, with much effort achieved its goal and prepared using wood from the carriage abandoned a small fire (which was giving warmth and better light to that improvised sleeping alcove). Prompto smiled proudly of his work, he also thought that the fire would give a better flavor to the canned food and could also take advantage of it to have potable water from the snow; he dedicated himself to do all after wrapping the girl in one of his blankets and put her by the fire, when to look at her with more attention realized that it was quite familiar but could not say why: She was blond with her hair pulled back into a rather disheveled and leafy braid, he didn't know what color her eyes were but the cheekbones and bridge of her nose were colored by a row of small freckles… "She looks as Cindy?" Prompto thought. Automatically dismissed the idea but what other girl could he remember?

While Prompto was in his canned dinner, the girl began to wake up. He stared at her, discovering with astonishment that she had a blue eyes and waited for her to orient herself. At first Prompto thought that she would be quite nervous since it was not very normal to find herself in front of a bonfire accompanied by a guy whom she neither knew nor had seen in her life but… nothing of that happened, the girl looked at him disoriented and then she tried to say something to him realizing that the words refused to leave her mouth. Surprised, she put a hand to her throat and blinks several times totally stunned. Prompto tried to help her and gave her a glass of water without getting too close, she accepted and after giving a few sips to the glass tried to speak again without success:

"Don't worry, your voice will come back" He said with an extra comprehension in his voice "Do you understand at least what I say?"

The girl looked at him and nodded slowly as if it really took a little to understand all that the blond guy was saying, he caught it and slowed his words as he spoke:

"Do you want to eat something?"

She smiled and nodded again. Both shared the food and to avoid the awkward silence between the both, Prompto kept talking and tried by all means to get information from the girl about who she was: His attempt was a failure because with slight gestures to nod or deny could not go too far but he descovered that the girl came from Niflheim, she could not remember why had left there but something seemed to frighten her, the girl didn't have any hurt or feel sore and it was quite strange considering that the demons attacked without hesitating to all that moved… Even so, he didn't want to push her too much, so Prompto wished her good night and leaned against the train car to watch for something or someone attacking them drawn by the heat of the fire.

When he woke up in the morning he felt the impulse to laugh when he was involved in a comical situation: First of all, he thought that if they had been attacked, he would not have been the first to realize because he was lying a few inches from what was left of the fire of the night before (a few of inches from where he thought he slept) and at his side, extremely cuddled, the girl who he had rescued the last night. When he looked at her again, the sensation of knowing her struck his chest, but he still didn't remember what situation his paths might have crossed and more if she came from the Empire. He thought of the idea of seeing her when Ardyn drove the entire army versus Lucis kingdom and kidnapped him, but then he fell that there were two important factors that completely ruled out his theory: The first was that he had not seen anyone in his captivity and the second ... that the girl must have been a girl of no more than ten years when that happened. He stood up without making much movement and went outside to wash his face and save everything to get going again, suddenly, a small mirror fell to the ground and was fortunate not to break into the shock. When Prompto picked it up from the floor he was startled to see himself reflected in him: he was blond, not as light as the girl but had blue eyes too ... and cheekbones and nose colored with freckles... To his mind came the solution of who his new partner reminded him: himself. But how and why?

The sound of her moving between the blanket brought him back to reality; the blond guy again peered into the hollow and helped the girl to rise up. She seemed to be able to stand.

"Oh, wait... I don't know where you go but I'm going to Gralea" said Prompto.

Without warning, the girl took his arm and shook his head. There was a small struggle in which in the end Prompto became enraged and made a bad move for to let go him of the girl, she was a bit frightened at first but when Prompto walked away to leave her alone more angry felt, she started to walk behind the man and when both were out of the train carriage, Prompto felt like a snowball crashed against the nape of his neck. As he turned, the blonde guy watched as the girl set out to create another icy projectile and her face showed considerable annoyance:

"Ey, ey, ey, keep calm" said Prompto "I'm sorry, really, so sorry, I didn't want you to get upset, but ... seriously, I have to go"

The girl's eyes diverged for a moment and then she released all the snow she was trying to throw at him. Prompto smiled:

"I'll help you get out of here so no one will attack you, okay?"

She denied it energetically again, took hold of him and held her breath:

"Go-with-you-too" finally said.

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