Long Live the Queen
Fandom: Final Fantasy XV
Pairing(s): Past Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum and mention of Noctis Lucis Caelum/Lunafreya Nox Fleuret at points. Also a number of OC/OC pairings.
Summary: A series of ficlets depicting the life of Prompto's adoptive daughter, Regina, from the moment of her adoption to the moment where she discovers her true place in the world.
Year: M.E. 767
Summary: Somewhere deep in the recesses of people's minds, every person desires to be a parent. At 31 years of age, Prompto finds he is no different as he longs for a child of his own…
Small Queen
Prompto's never considered it before, but the more time passes and the longer he continues to live another day, the more he feels the by now familiar stirring in the very pit of his soul. He's tried to ignore it, telling himself it was a fool's errand, but it didn't stop the yearning he was now feeling, didn't stop the gnawing in his stomach as he watched people go about their lives. Or more specifically… parents with their children.
Even if no one knew (yet), it was official; Prompto wants to have his own child.
It isn't like he can get away from seeing all those children, too; with the return of the dawn, more and more people were having children left and right to repopulate Eos after the darkness that had plagued them for so long. This only makes the feeling that much worse as Prompto sits on a wall in Lestallum, trying to make pictures of anything other than happy families…
No such luck, of course…
Eventually he gives up and laments on his own longing for a child. He wants to have a child so badly… maybe a boy that he can mess around and roughhouse with… or maybe a girl that he can spoil and pamper like a little princess…
Either option is okay, but there's just one problem; he has no one to share this wish of his with.
He's entertained the thought of asking Cindy, but he shakes the matter off quickly. Cindy is a nice girl and he does like her, and many would say he's been smitten with her since their first meeting some 10 years ago, but it was all just an act. It always has been, and that's why he's never as much talked to her about anything other than cars or other mechanics. He likes her, sure, but not in that way… and even if he did, Cindy just isn't interested in having her own kid, or even a long-lasting relation with anything other than a car or some other vehicle.
Aranea's been his second choice, since they did have a number of quick flings during the days when there was no light whatsoever and it was jus an endless night. But she, like Cindy, doesn't much care for actual long relations, or children. She's always made it a point to only meet with him at those times when there was no chance of her getting pregnant.
With them both out of the picture, who does that leave him with? He doesn't even want to consider Iris, because he just knows that Gladio will kill him if he tried…
He's considered just placing an ad in the paper once, but he's not sure what he's supposed to put in it. Let alone, he isn't even sure if anyone will even accept his request. In the current world they live in, there's likely no woman alive who would give up her own child just for him. Of course, that doesn't stop him from dreaming and drawing up drafts for the ad. None of them have ever made the cut, of course, but he often likes to look back on them and tries to imagine what kind of child he could have helped bring into the world…
…until he realizes that he always specifies for his partners to have short, black hair and he cracks.
It's barely been a year since the dawn returned… barely a year since he lost the love of his life to an ancient prophecy that he still curses to this day. It's been less than a year since Noctis Lucis Caelum was taken from the world in exchange for the sunlight they all needed to survive… but Prompto sometimes wishes he was still living in he dark…
At least then he was alive, at least then there was hope that he would see him again… that they could someday see each other again and lose themselves in each others' embrace. He doesn't even remember exactly when it started… maybe when they were still in school, when it was just a couple of horny teenagers finding solace in each other and little else. Somewhere between there and Atissia, something changed between them… it changed into something wonderful…
But then they reached the imperial capital and things went to hell and he almost lost himself… He'd barely held on… had barely been able to make it through those ten, long years, praying for a miracle… praying for Noct to come back…
And then he did… but the news he brought… the truth about what would happen one they reclaimed the Crown City… the Citadel… it hurt!
He'd wanted to scream, wanted to cry, wanted to wail and curse at the Six for the fate they pushed onto his beloved…
Worse still, though… was that Noct hadd been ready to do it… he was prepared to go through with it…
…for him…
"Prom… I want you to see the dawn again… I want you to live on… I want you to be safe…"
He didn't care…
He didn't care about 'safety'…
He just wants his lover back…
He knows it never would've worked… if things had worked out as they should've… things would've ended at Altissia… with Noct's marriage to Lunafreya…
And even if, somehow, they could've stayed together… he now knows that he would have never been able to fulfill his dream. And that hurts… it really does…
He travels to the Crown City sometimes… just to watch the place that was once his home… see how much it had been reduced to ashes… see just how much he's truly lost…
He would run from Hammerhead, spend some hours there, and then call his Chocobo to get him back to Hammerhead for a restless sleep… as he always did when he came to the Crown City…
He's never dared to go into the city itself… he's too scared of what he'll find there… too scared of seeing the places he once knew reduced to rubble…
He doesn't want to see the places where he's made so many memories with Noct… memories that he holds so dear to his heart…
Prompto sighs as he climbs to his feet again and he looks to the horizon. The sun is beginning to set, so he will have to make tracks to get back… and prepare himself for another night of rolling around the bed, unable to sleep a wink.
"…uu…uwaaaaaaaaah!"
He stops, alarmed, as he hears the scream, and he whirled around onto the sound, looking around, before he runs toward it. He recognizes the sound… knows what it means… and knows he has to find the source. So he runs and runs and he looks around, trying to isolate the exact location.
And finally he finds it, in a small crevice of a wall. He bends down and peeks in, and he spots the small, bundled up infant screaming its lungs out, crying and wailing and flailing its tiny hands. He frowns sadly as he crawls forward slowly, making soft, shushing sounds as he approaches. He reaches out and gently takes one tiny hand in his own, rubbing his fingers along the small fist, and the babe whines and whimpers, before it opens it tear-filled eyes and looks up, sniffling and hiccupping and Prompto's heart almost breaks.
Who would leave a child here alone?
He manages to carefully take the infant out from the crevice, and as he sits back, he gently cradles it in his arms. The babe gurgles and then settles, one of its small fists into its mouth. He smiles as he looks into the little one's blue eyes, its head topped with short, fluffy black hair. He peeks a little bit into the blanket around the babe, and he quickly determines the little one is a girl.
Prompto sits back and cradles the girl, holding her close and murmuring gentle words of comfort, even though she's no longer crying, and as he gazes down at her, he smiles at her, hoping to soothe whatever fears she still has. Thankfully, she falls asleep soon, snuggling up close to Prompto, and he smiles as he tucks her back in, and on a whim, he moves in and kisses her forehead. She's just so adorable… and there's just something about her that tugs at his heartstrings and he can't just ignore it.
He gets up, calls his Chocobo, and then hurries back to Hammerhead, after he's secured the small girl within his jacket, holding her close to his chest and trying so very hard to not jostle the girl too much, but she remains blissfully unaware of his rushed journey back to safety.
Of course Cindy is surprised, but she doesn't ask many questions and he's glad. He just asks her to help with some supplies and then he retreats to the caravan, and he goes to bed almost immediately, having prepared everything for whenever the little girl wakes up.
As he lies there, though, he cannot help but smile as he lightly fingers her short hair. She's almost like Noct, he realizes lazily, and it makes him smile as he settles next to her. She's got the same eyes… the same hair… hell, she even seems to have his little pouty lips… if he doesn't know better, he would have said she was his lover's daughter.
Of course, she can't be… but he likes to believe… and likes to believe that he found her for a reason…
He wants to keep her… he knows the others will not approve, but he doesn't care. He wants to keep her, to raise her, to see her grow and watch her become a beautiful woman. He wants to be there for her… because he cannot help but feel like, somehow, a little fragment of his best friend and lover have survived the departure of the night and the return of the dawn.
It probably isn't wise… but he names her then.
"It's okay, Regina…" he murmurs softly, running a hand along her cheek. "You're safe now… Daddy's here to keep you safe…"
Regina… "Queen"… Because he believes that's what she is; she truly is royalty, even if only in his eyes.
She murmurs in her sleep, but she doesn't wake, and Prompto smiles, placing a gentle hand on her little tummy, before he shuts his eyes to get some rest. And for once, his dreams after visiting the ruins of his former home are filled with pleasant memories instead of horrible nightmares of days of endless night and cold, harsh environments.
For once, he thanks the Six… thanks them for this small, precious miracle to help him stay alive…
Notes: This is a series I began on AO3, and I finally decided to put it up here. I'll try to update this every now and again, but it all depends. A lot of this story I already have in my head, but if there's something specific you want to see happening, let me know and I might be able to work with it.