So, this one will predate A House is Not a Home, but is not actually a 'prequel'. No need to read the other one first, but you should because it's awesome. Since the early indication on the characters says that Ignis and Gladiolus were suspicious of our favorite chocobo loving friend at first—thinking him a bad influence—I thought I would explore that a little. Also, we're gonna go ahead and say the official drinking age in Insomnia is 18. (holy crap, guys, have you been on AO3?They are effing brutal over there.Glorious.) I'm still working on another Status! story, and am maaaaybe planning a sequel to A House... I mean, I'm interested in a sequel, I dunno about you guys. This one should be 3-4 fun angsty chapters. Anyway, they're not mine, I don't own this stuff, but I love it.On with the story!
The bar was on the outskirts of Lestallum, near the parking area for the city. It wasn't quite run down, but it wasn't quite on the up and up, either. Most of the patrons were either hunters or plant workers. But, it had a certain charm, and served a variety of alcohol.
Noctis and Gladiolus convinced Ignis to spare some funds so the four of them could go out and let off a little steam. It hadn't been too difficult; they had recently completed a series of six hunts that had left them all a bit stressed and worse for wear. Even the adviser agreed that a night out would boost morale.
Ignis and Gladiolus were posted up at a corner booth; Ignis working on his third glass of wine, and Gladiolus on his fifth beer. The younger two were currently playing a game of pool and being rather rambunctious with each other.
"How many do you think they've had?" Ignis inquired of his companion, inclining his head towards the pool tables. Gladiolus watched them for a second, a vague smile on his face.
"More than they should, probably. But, I say let 'em get good and trashed. They deserve it. We all do." Gladiolus winked and tapped the side of the adviser's wine glass.
Ignis lifted it in salutations, and drained it, signaling the server to have it refilled.
After she left the table with a wink and a swish of her hips, the two older men lapsed into a comfortable silence. It was shattered quickly, however, by the uproarious whooping of Prompto carrying on across the bar.
"Boom, Noct! I won! You know the rules, bro!"
"Are you serious?" The prince, just as raucous; "You don't expect me to actually—"
Prompto, growing ever louder and gaining the attention of several patrons, cut the prince off with a wild wave of his arms. "Oh, no you don't. You know very well you would have held me to it if you'd won."
Relenting with a grin, Noctis held his arms out to the side and spun around dramatically. Prompto immediately leapt onto his back, and the prince hitched him up and gave the jubilant blonde a piggy back ride around the bar, laughing and declaring him the King of Kicking Noct's Ass. They made their way back to the booth, bumping and subsequently apologizing to several other customers on their way, eventually collapsing in a tangle of limbs and laughter.
Gladiolus reached down, pulled Noctis up by the collar and sat him in the booth next to him, while Ignis more politely helped Prompto up on his side.
Once situated, Prompto thrust a fist in the air, yelling "Shots!"
"I sec…ssecond that!" Noctis grinned, his face already flushed with the amount of alcohol consumed.
Ignis was about to protest, but Gladiolus was already signaling to the server, who came and sat a shot glass in front of each man. "Just steer into it, Iggy."
Sighing, Ignis followed the warriors lead and downed the alcohol, hissing at the heat of it and slammed down the glass just like the others.
He suddenly rocked to the left as Prompto slung his arm around the adviser's slender shoulders. "Hey, so hey Iggy. So, hey I saw that there was this…um…there was this tourna…troundernet.. Tournament tomorrow. A, uh, like a pool thing. I was thinking maybe we could enter it and get some—"
"NO."
Prompto jerked back as both Gladiolus and Ignis yelled in unison. "Wha? Whad I say?"
Ignis summoned his most sober look, fixing Prompto with a fiery gaze. "Do you not remember the last time you thought it would be a good idea to enter one of those things?"
Prompto's face reddened considerably more and he looked at the table. "Aw c'mon Iggy, that was soooo long ago. I *hiccup* I'm not a kid anymore."
Noctis lifted a lazy hand, waving it between the two. "What're you talking 'bout?"
Gladiolus laughed loudly for a second, reaching across the table to slap Ignis on the shoulder. "Oooh, Iggy, looks like you broke your promise. If I remember correctly, you owe me 100 gil."
Ignis rolled his eyes. "I think that bet can be called off by this point. Surely there is a statute of limitations on stupidity."
"Heyyy…" Prompto pouted, then abruptly grinned, reaching for Gladiolus' beer and sliding it towards himself. The larger man helped him, pushing it from the other side.
"What's everyone talking about?" Noctis was definitely interested, now. He leaned forward wrapping his hands around one of the empty glasses in front of him, eyeballing it suspiciously.
"Well," Gladio began; "You see as it turns out, Iggy here wasn't too fond of Prompto when you first started bringing him around."
"I dunno why," Prompto whined, squeezing the bespectacled brunette in another half hug. "I'm freaking delateful. Daylightful. I'm freaking awesome."
"That you are." Gladiolus reached across the table and ruffled his blonde locks playfully.
Ignis cleared his throat pointedly, his index finger delicately circling the top of his wine glass. "If I recall correctly, I believe you characterized our young friend as a 'punk ass boyband reject', along with a few other choice phrases."
Prompto snorted indignantly, slapping his hands to his chest over his heart. "You wound me, big guy. You wound me."
Meanwhile, Noctis nearly fell out of his seat in a fit of hysterics, repeating "Iggy said the ass word" over and over. Once he finally got himself under control he leaned back in his seat and gently kicked Ignis under the table. "Alright, out with it. Tell me this story."
"Wait! We need something before he begins!" Prompto smiled at the prince and waggled his eyebrows.
"Shots?" Noctis replied.
"Shots!" Prompto hollered, and the server promptly brought over another round.
XVXVXVXVXVXVXVXVXVXV
XVXV 5 YEARS PRIOR XVXV
Gladiolus sighed to himself. He was sitting in one of the more rough-and-tumble bars near the slums of Insomnia, waiting for Cor to arrive. He'd been nursing a beer for about thirty minutes, and it was little more than backwash and foam at this point. Grumbling to himself, he pulled out his phone in the off chance that he'd missed a call or text.
Oh.
He did.
::Can't make it::
Gladiolus rolled his eyes at the ever-informative marshal of the Crownsguard. The man had asked him specifically to meet him here to discuss certain security details in regards to the prince.
He had a feeling he knew exactly which detail he was going to discuss. As of late, it seemed that the young prince had made himself a new friend. Considering this was almost unheard of for the grumpy teen, both he and Ignis were suspicious. Well, mostly Ignis.
Lots of kids approached the prince, and he'd gone to a few parties and gatherings over the years, but neither the adviser nor shield could recall him ever having actual 'friends'. Noctis had always preferred to be alone, citing that other kids were boring.
Then, all of a sudden, this bouncy yellow-haired ball of aggravation had burst on the scene. He and Noctis had been thick as thieves ever since that first day of high school, and the prince had slowly started bringing him around the others. Now, he was a semi regular fixture in their non-official outings.
If he was being honest with himself, Gladiolus actually kind of liked the kid. Or at least, he found him to be amusing. Especially when Prompto got under a certain uptight adviser's skin enough to get an actual reaction, which he and Noctis had ceased being able to do long ago.
But, there was just something about the freckled youth that set Gladiolus' alarms to a low alert. He was almost too happy; too helpful. It was obvious he was working hard to ingratiate himself to the prince and his entourage. It was also obvious that he was hiding something. This made him hard to trust, and the shield did not want anyone around Noctis that he wasn't 100% on.
And then there was Ignis, who was especially upset that the prince had been missing afternoon lessons in politicking in favor of going to the arcade or other less princely activities. Gladiolus at turns both admonished him for being so hard on Noctis, and agreed with him that he should be putting in more effort.
Gladiolus laughed as he downed the last bitter swallows of his beer, grimacing at the taste. The image of a near spluttering Ignis confiding in him just how he felt about 'allowing the prince to run around will-nilly' played through his head. He pulled out his wallet to throw some cash down on the table, and turned towards the front door.
He froze when he saw a familiar blonde head in the crowd, ducking and dodging its way towards the billiards room. Gladiolus followed stealthily behind, making sure to keep the boy's back to him at all times. He took position in the corner near the juke box, pulling up the hood on his coat and slouching back against the wall to appear shorter in case Prompto happened to glance in his direction. Gladiolus could barely see him through the billowing smoke.
Prompto was dressed in a green tank-top and jeans, and had slicked back his hair in a hilarious attempt to look older. He bellied up to the bar and ordered a drink from the heavily tattooed man behind the counter. The bartender grabbed his ID, scrutinizing it, then him, and then the ID again, finally slapping it back down on the counter and pouring a drink. The blond head nodded and grabbed the beer, heading over to a dark corner. He situated himself facing away from the door, and started fidgeting with his phone.
Gladiolus couldn't believe his eyes. He knew for a fact the kid was only fifteen, and he didn't look a day over twelve. That must be one hell of a fake ID. His mood darkened at the implications of this when it came to the prince.
Scowling, all thoughts of giving this kid a chance flew from his mind as Gladio pulled his own phone out and hit number 3 on his speed dial.
XVXVXVXVXVXVXVXVXVXV
Ignis groaned to himself at the insistent chime that abruptly disturbed his meditation. It was after 10 PM by a long shot, and in his opinion that is the last acceptable hour to make or receive non emergency calls. He wilted a little upon seeing it was Gladiolus, and answered in a more or less neutral tone.
"Sorry to wake you, Iggy."
Ignis cut his eyes at the name. He had not been fond of it as a small child, and thought it done away with by the time Noctis was in his teens and the future king stopped using the childish moniker. But, that …new friend… of Noctis' had started calling him that not long ago, and the other two boys followed suit.
"Not to worry, I have not yet retired for the evening. What can I do for you at this late hour, Gladio?" His tone walked the line between 'I'm ready to help if something is wrong' and 'this had better not be a waste of my time'.
"I'm at that bar Cor wanted me to meet him at, but he didn't show."
Ignis huffed. "My apologies, but I am not quite of drinking age, and if I were, I'm sure I would not do so in that sort of establishment."
"Would you shut up and listen for a sec, Iggy? I think I know why he wanted to meet me here. Looks like that kid Noct has been hanging around with has himself a fake ID. He's up here, now, sitting by himself in the corner."
Well, that did pique his interest. "Do you plan on confronting him?"
"That's why I was calling you. My first instinct is to go grab him by the scruff of his neck and drag him outta here. But, I don't know. There's something off about this kid; I thought I'd get your opinion."
"Hmmm, well Noctis is quite defensive of his young friend. Any time I try to bring up the subject of being more careful about him, he rolls his eyes and gets himself in a tizzy. Maybe it would be best to observe his actions and then we can discuss this matter further. At a more decent hour, preferably."
He disconnected the call with Gladiolus, and sat down at his meticulously neat desk. Switching on the lamp, he pulled out the file he'd been collecting on his charge's new friend.
Prompto Argentum
Like the prince, he had recently turned 15, and was in his first year of high school. Due to educational equity laws, the prestigious public schools in the noble district that the prince had attended over the years had to accept a certain number of students from the poorer areas of Insomnia, and this boy happened to be chosen during each lottery. His grades were good, but not great. He wasn't part of any clubs or organizations. In fact, his only extracurricular activity had been a submission to a photo contest for the school paper, in which he came in second place.
Ignis pulled a copy of the photo out of the file, holding it up to the light. It was of the school itself, shrouded in early morning fog. It wasn't his cup of tea, but he could see that it was good in a melancholy sort of way.
He placed the photo back in the folder and continued with the paperwork; though he'd committed the information to memory days ago.
The boy was adopted at around twelve months of age. Ignis wondered idly if Prompto was aware of the fact, since it happened when he was so young. There was no mention of his birth parents. As far as the official record was concerned, he didn't exist before the adoption papers were filed. Ignis had done a lot of digging, but was unable to come up with more than that.
The Argentums were bland as far as people were concerned. Neither had a criminal history. Both had been at their respective places of employment for at least ten years; she within the school system and he within the transit authority—both thankless low-to-mid earning positions that required a lot of time. All evidence pointed to Prompto being the proverbial 'latchkey kid'. This gave him a lot of time to distract Noctis from his studies.
Which is exactly what he intended to talk to King Regis about in the morning.
Ignis readied himself for bed, switching off his light and lying down. He glared blearily at his phone a while later when Gladiolus' text came through.
::He didn't do anything. Just people-watched. Barely touched the beer. Went straight home.::
That night, Ignis dreamt of a never ending pile of laundry and the sinister laughter of two certain teens