For about the one millionth time since the day he came into this world, Prompto found himself drifting along the currents, following the steady push and pull of the waves along Cape Caem. He knew the ocean like the back of his hand. Knew the fish, the trenches, the vegetation. From the largest wave to the smallest grain of sand, nothing eluded his sharp eyes. And as a lesser Astral, son of The Hydraean, The Tide Mother, The Leviathan herself, naturally, nothing should. But it wasn't the ocean that Prompto was interested in.

No, for as long as Prompto had been on this planet, his eyes always drifted upwards, above the barrier of the water between himself and the endless sky. Towards the jagged mountains, hills, valleys, and vast expanse of the islands around him. From Altissia, to Niflheim, to Insomnia; he'd gazed upon them all in awe, wondering what it was like above his aquatic barrier. He wondered what the air would feel like as it caressed his skin. Wondered what the grass and dirt would feel like beneath his feet, what the creatures that dwelled above the surface would look like, what they'd sound like, how they lived and breathed and acted. Despite being conjured up by The Hydraean to help rule over and monitor the ocean alongside her, his heart was always far, far away, running along the beaches and climbing the trees.

The other Lesser Astrals were lucky. They all got to reign and watch over the creatures of land in multitudes of way Prompto never would. There was Ignis, Son of Ramah, who brought the rain and crafted the clouds, travelling wherever the wind took him. Gladiolus, Son of Titan, who reigned over the mountains and volcanos, who could start earthquakes with only the step of his foot upon the ground if he so wished. Lunafreya, Daughter of Shiva, who brought the snow, carefully crafting every individual flake like a piece of art and gathering them in the heavens until it was time for winter to fall. The last was Ravus, Son of Ilfrit, who painted the colors of sunrises and sunsets across the sky as he followed the sun, sending warmth over Eos as he went. Prompto was the youngest Lesser Astral and was left to give watch to the sea, creating the rise and fall of the waves, mold the coral reefs, give life and color to the fish, and protect his mother as she slumbered safely under Altissia.

All the other Lesser Astrals got to be relatively close to one another, got to commune as they worked. Prompto was the only one left in the dark, trapped inside the cold, deep ocean. It didn't stop him from dreaming, though.

Prompto didn't despise his duty, nor did he despise the ocean. He loved them both as well as understanding the importance of his role alongside his mother. On the contrary, he loved it all. He loved the deep, impossible blue of the waters, loved the way the sun danced above the surface, casting beautiful shadows along the bottom. He enjoyed crafting and painting the coral and shells. He loved every creature that dwelled alongside him and knew all their names by heart. Prompto was just so incredibly lost and lonely; craving something more, something new. It was exactly what brought him here again, to the rocky shores of Cape Caem. And this time, he would have it.

As his mother slumbered peacefully beneath Altissia he swam closer and closer to the shoreline, hoping to see the person he longed for.

"Awesome. I have the place all to myself again."

Prompto's ears perked up and his blue-violet eyes immediately flitted towards the direction the voice was resonating from, only slightly distorted by the barrier between them. As the familiar pale form and mop of black hair approached the edge of the dock, he swam closer, staring up at the human above in adoration. Prompto wasn't sure who the man was, what his name was, or why he came to Cape Caem frequently throughout the last fifteen years, but ever since he saw the boy as a child, fishing along the dock with what was sure to be his father, there was something about the human boy that had drawn Prompto irrevocably towards him. There was something about his icy blue gaze as they roamed over the expanse of water and admired the fish, his voice, both childish and mature, his long limbs and hair dark as the bottomless trenches of the ocean itself. Everything about him piqued Prompto's interest and infatuated him.

This one human man was the sole reason Prompto was here.

The man sat along the dock, legs dangling over the edge and toes just barely dipping into the water. As he materialized a fishing pole with magic and began choosing his line and lure Prompto swam closer still, white scales along his arms, fins, and cheeks glowing an iridescent rainbow under the morning light. He wasn't afraid of being seen; he had no reason to fear it. Astrals, True or Lesser, couldn't be seen by mortal eyes. They were everywhere and nowhere, all at once; a fleeting presence, granting prayers and wishes on whims alone. But even still, his heart raced in his chest when he was close enough to make out those familiar features; take them into memory like a precious dream.

He swam until he was directly beneath the man, twisting his body to turn upwards, belly up, to look up at the man as he looked down into the ocean in kind. It was times like these where Prompto could almost pretend the man was really looking at him; was really seeing him for who he was instead of staring right through him. He wanted to know this man's name, his likes, his dislikes. Where he lived. And what of the man who used to be with him here, when he was merely a child? Prompto wanted to find out all those things and more; if only for a day, he ached to become human.

Prompto watched as a small, peaceful smile graced the man's features and couldn't help but smile in return, lifting his webbed fingers towards the crest of the water and dance along the distorted shape of his cheekbones. He watched as the man clasped his hands together and bowed his head in prayer, and even though the man's lips didn't part, Prompto could hear the words along his ears, in his mind. Gentle as a whisper yet loud enough to drown out all other sound.

"Thank you, Tide Mother, for this ocean and all creatures in it. Bless this rod, so that I might catch something for my father. It's his birthday today, and the Lucis Catfish is his favorite… I… I'm not sure how much longer he has, Tide Mother… I want to make him happy for as long as I can… Thank you…"

Prompto wasn't at all upset that the man didn't pray to him instead of his mother. Humans didn't know about the Lesser Astrals and how they played their part. Even so, he smiled as Noctis cast his lure into the water far away. The oceans were relatively calm today, Prompto had deemed it so effortlessly, and with little flourish of his tail, he opened his mouth and began wailing a soft tune, calling the Lucis Catfish out of hiding and luring a herd of them towards Noctis. The smile on the man's face was well worth it. As one of the fish nibbled and then eventually got snagged on the man's line, he smiled widely and stood up, putting all his energy into catching the creature.

Prompto allowed the man to catch a good few of them before steeling himself. He glanced far, far off, where his mother slumbered. He hoped what he was about to do would not disturb her. It was now or never.

…

Noctis reeled in his fourth fish of the morning. It was the biggest one yet and would make a fine dinner for the two of them.

"Awesome! Another big one!", he praised himself as he took the catfish off the line and tossed it inside his cooler. Surely, that was enough food for one day. He took one more deep, satisfied breath, savoring the salt in the air and the sound of the waves crashing along the rocks, before closing the lid to the cooler and banishing his fishing rod to the Armiger. "Thank you, Tide Mother.", he called softly, to no one in particular, and his voice carried with the wind before disappearing altogether.

He was just about to grasp the cooler and walk it to his car, when everything began to change.

The sky abruptly began to darken, as if a rolling storm had loomed right above him, and the winds ripped through his bones. The force of the winds was so strong, Noctis had to cry out and lunge for the railing next to him in order not to fall right into the waters.

"W-What's going on?!"

His eyes widened as those calm waters began to grow turbulent, the waves growing larger and larger, until every time they crashed around the dock he was splashed and wet entirely, and he struggled to keep his eyes open through all the salt water. In the expanse of only a few seconds, it was as if he were in the middle of a hurricane. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed his cooler of fish sliding with the heavy wind along the dock and let go of the railing with one hand in order to hold on to it.

Noctis' heart raced with the force of it all. Had he done something to anger the Hydraean? Had he, somehow, became the cause of her unforgiving wrath? He swallowed a few gulps of salty air and his lungs began to burn. His arms felt like they were going to be ripped off, being torn between holding on for dear life and refusing to let go of his catches.

"S-Stop this! Please!", he cried out, voice tinged with desperation and pain, and then there was a light. An intensely bright, sacred, golden beam of light that rose from the ocean, shooting up all the way t the heavens, merely a few feet before him. The light looked beautiful, a beacon amidst the storm. Noctis looked on in equal parts awe ad terror at it's brightness and what it may signify, and then altogether, as quickly as it came, the light vanished.

The winds stopped blowing and the waves died down and the sky cleared up once more. Noctis slumped to the floor of the dock, leaning over his cooler and breathing heavily. For a moment he thought he had gone mad; thought he had dreamed it all up. But he could still taste the salt water in his mouth, could still feel the burning in his lungs, and his clothes were still utterly drenched, and he knew that what had happened had been real. He tried to will his racing heart into the calm, evenness it once had been, and stood up once more. He reached for his cooler, lifting it easily and made his way on shaking legs to the other end of the dock, by the shoreline.

The ocean was calm now. Too calm. Even more so than when he had arrived, and it made Noctis feel a sense of dread well up inside of his stomach. He turned to look once more out towards the ocean, towards the clear, bright sky and the still waters, trying to search the horizon for some reason, some excuse as to why what had happened had played out that way, but froze entirely at what he saw.

A hand, reaching out of the water, to grasp the edge of the dock.

"Oh, Gods! Did a person get swept into the water?" Noctis dropped the cooler none-too-gently and raced towards the edge of the dock once more, barely managing to slip on it's wet surface. He fell to his knees and reached for the hand, only to freeze in place once more. The hand looked to be much like a human hand, only there was no mistaking the patches of scales along the skin. White, impossibly white, and when they caught in the light, they glittered and shines vibrantly, reflecting all the colors of a rainbow.

Noctis' eyes widened and his breathe caught in his throat before gazing along that hand and towards the body that it belonged to.

Impossibly blue-violet eyes were gazing up at him beneath sharp eyebrows and blonde bangs, matted to a wet face that expressed just as much, if not more, amazement and wonder as they looked at one another. It was a man, that much was evident. He was pale and thin, and everywhere along his skin, seemingly at random, there appeared to be patches of those same, iridescent scales, glittering and shining. His entire body seemed to have this ethereal glow about it, and for a split second Noctis forgot entirely how to breath or move. But one of those hands clasped carefully around his wrist and it was impossibly cold, cold as death, and it cause Noctis to blink rapidly and kick back into gear, doubling his efforts at getting the man out of the water.

"S-shit, I'm so sorry! Here- grab my hands. You're freezing! You feel like you're on the verge of death!" Noctis talked to the man but received no reply. The man merely stared up at him in that same child-like wonder as he first had, nodding mutely and doing as Noctis said, taking both of the prince's hands into his own and allowing himself to be lifted onto the dock.

Noctis wasn't surprised to find that the mystery man was naked. It paled to be a surprise when the entirety of what the man even was to begin with was an even larger mystery in itself. Noctis took a few steps back as the blonde rested on the dock, catching his breath, swallowing the air in large gulps, as if he'd never breathed before. the same, glittering scales travelled along his legs and the tops of his feet as well, and those large eyes remained on Noctis and Noctis alone, flitted across all of his features and his clothes, like the man had never seen another person before in all his life.

Noctis had a long, unending list of questions he wanted to ask. What was he? Where did he come from? Why was he here? Was he what caused that storm earlier? But for now, he settled on the simplest. "W-what's your name?", he asked, shifting his weight on his feet nervously.

The scaled man's eyebrows raised, and he hesitantly pointed a thin finger at himself, as if to question, 'Who, me?', and Noctis nodded, giving him an incredulous look. Who else would he have been talking about? The man opened his mouth to speak-

-and Noctis screamed.

There was an inhuman noise erupting, seemingly coming from within his own head and all around him all at once. A mixture of inhuman white noise and a barrage of mingling voices, whispering and chattering over one another, but the words weren't discernable, nor did they sound like words at all. The sounds whispered and screamed at him, and he clasped his hands over his ears and crumpled to the ground, screwing his eyes shut tightly. He felt as if his head was being split open, as if his eardrums were going to burst.

"Stop! Please!", Noctis yelled, and the inhuman noise quickly retracted and disappeared, leaving only the sound of the waves and his ragged breathing behind in its place. When Noctis finally opened his eyes and lowered his hands, the man before him was looking sad and confused, and it perplexed him further.

Noctis rasped between breaths, voice hoarse, "Okay, screw your name. Where did you come from? Insomnia? Altissia? Maybe… Niflheim?"

The blonde opened his mouth once more and Noctis frantically clamped a hand over the being's mouth, forgetting all forms of manners in his desperation to not hear those whispers and screams anymore. Large, blue-violet eyes widened and Noctis started after a moment, retracting his hand. He scratched the back of his neck nervously. "S-sorry… Just- look. Don't talk. Just, I don't know… point?"

The blonde hesitated, still looking a little dejected, before lifting a finger and pointing at the water.

Noctis balked. "The… ocean?" The blonde nodded. "You-you came from the ocean?" Noctis repeated his question again, not able to grasp the reality of the situation, and when the scaled man nodded once more, he let out an incredulous laugh, pulling at the roots of his hair. "A-are you… human?" The man seemed to think this over for a long while, eyes darting everywhere except Noctis before meeting his gaze and offering a stiff shrug in response. "Okay. No clear answer. Right. Okay. Cool. No problem." Noctis stood up and began to pace around, thinking. "Why are you… out? Of the ocean, I mean. Why are you up here?"

The man was hesitant to answer this question as well, taking a long moment of maddening silence before raising a finger and pointing it wat Noctis. The prince stopped pacing and stared at the man. "…Me?" The man nodded, smiling a small, unsure smile towards Noctis. "Me?!", he asked again, louder, and the man nodded again, this time more confidently and sure of the answer.

Noctis let out a shaky breath, shaking his head vigorously. "No. Hell no. This is crazy. This isn't real. I must be dreaming- that's it. Yeah. This is all a crazy dream that I'm waiting to wake up from!" The blonde frowned as he watched Noctis pace, seemingly hurt by his words. Noctis turned on his heels and began treading back up the dock, towards his cooler. "Right. Okay. So, all I gotta do is finish the dream and this will all disappear, right? Right. Just gotta get these fish to Dad and I'll be awake and in my own room in no time!" He heard scuffling along the boards behind him, but he didn't dare look back. He just kept moving forward, hoping to tear himself from this dream and be back to the comforting familiarity of his normal life as fast as possible.

…

Prompto felt panic rise in his chest as the man turned around and began walking away. He tried to move his legs, tried to stand up, but his legs felt numb and laid beneath him, unmoving. They only twitched ever so slightly at his attempt to follow. Prompto didn't want to be left alone. He didn't know how to speak the way the humans do, couldn't control his new limbs just yet. He didn't want to return to the ocean so soon after finally being free, after finally meeting the man he'd been watching and admiring and envying for years. He reached out for the man.

Prompto bit his lips. He didn't want to hurt him, but he had to try and talk to him again. Had to try and convince him to take Prompto with him, and his astral voice was all he knew how to use. He swallowed thickly before opening his mouth to speak. "Please, don't leave me!" Just like before, his astral voice was too much for a human to bear or even begin to understand, and once again the black-haired man crumpled to the floor, clamping his hands over his ears, and screamed. Prompto flinched at the sound and his heart ached when the man turned his head back, looking over his shoulder to face him.

"What do you want with me?! What are you?!"

Prompto wanted so much to be able to tell the man everything and anything he wished to know. But he was unpracticed. Everything about this plane of existence was entirely too new for him. Answering the only way he could, he pointed towards the sky.

This only confused the man further as he followed where Prompto's finger was pointing. "Wait. Wait." The man shook his head and stood up to walk back towards him. "I thought you just said you were from the ocean. Now you're telling me you're from the sky? What's the truth, huh?"

Prompto let out an exasperated sigh and a little whine. This was hard. How could he even begin to explain that he was a Lesser Astral, plucked from a constellation of stars by The Hydraean and created to roam the oceans? Both answers he gave the man were entirely true. All Lesser Astrals began their lives as distant stars before being chosen and given a purpose.

He perked up suddenly as he remembered the stars. Of course!

"…What? What is it?", the man asked, quirking his head at the way Prompto suddenly perked up and smiled.

Prompto lifted his arm towards the man, exposing his wrist and the Star Mark that adorned the skin there. His wrist held the Pisces constellation, glittering on his skin like diamonds. He watched as the man's eyes widened as he looked at it.

"You…. You came from the stars… and fell to the ocean?" Prompto nodded, smiling wider. It wasn't a perfect explanation, but one that would do for now, until he could obtain the ability to speak. "You… Are you… an Astral?" Prompto nodded once more, lowering his wrist. The man began to pace again, frantically, fingers lacing through his dark hair. "Can… can you walk?" Prompto frowned and shook his head. The man bit his lips. "Are you… able to return?" Prompto's frown deepened. He could return at any time he wished, but the thought of it caused his heart to ache painfully in his chest. He didn't want to return so soon. He wanted to spend time with the man. So, eventually, he just shook his head; a resounding 'no'.

The man nodded, letting out a heavy breath. "I see… so… you have nowhere to go, then…" Prompto nodded in agreement. After a long silence, the man crouched down to his level once more. "Would you… like to come back with me? Until we figure out how to get you back?" Prompto smiled a wide, toothy grin, and nodded eagerly. When the man gave him a small, yet unsure, smile back at him, his heart fluttered in his chest. "Okay. Okay… Um… Here. I'm going to carry you to the car."

Prompto didn't know what a car was, but he couldn't have cared in that moment. The man leaned forward and placed his arms behind Prompto's back and under his heavy legs, and the Lesser Astral wrapped his arms around the man's shoulders in kind, allowing himself to snuggle into the man's warmth and be lifted from the dock. The man carried Prompto up the rocky hills, along the stone stairs, and down the dirt path towards the small parking lot and deposited Prompto in the back seat of his car. "Hold on one sec. I gotta go back and get the fish."

Prompto nodded and watched as the man ran back towards the ocean and returned with the cooler, placing it in the trunk before seating himself in the driver's seat. He turned and looked back at Prompto. "I'm Noctis."

Prompto smiled. 'Noctis…'. He repeated the name in his mind as the car was started and pulled onto the road.

Finally, a name to the face.