Full Summary: In a world where a disease called StarScourge turns those infected into daemons, there are two companies at war with each other. CrystalTech strives to find a cure, helping those in need and researching to get a better understanding of the disease. MagiMite strives to rid the world of StarScourge by hunting and destroying the daemon population.
Noctis, heir to CrystalTech has been groomed since birth. When his father passed away, the company fell into the hands of his father's best friend. At 14 Noctis hears of a plan for him to marry someone he's never met. Hurt and betrayed by the people he thought of as family, Noctis runs away.
Onboard a passenger train bound for Gralea, 14-year-old run-away, Noct, meets a researcher from MagiMite with red-violet hair. Immediately captivated by the strange man Noct joins his family of Daemon Hunters and soon forgets the other life he left behind.
7 years later, a mission to Lucis reminds Noct of a young boy called Noctis and his reasoning for escape, however with the daemon population steadily increasing as the years go by, it might be worthwhile for Noct to forget his betrayal in favour of protecting those he loves.
A/N: Hello! Sorry for the lengthy summary or book blurb lol. Welcome to a Sense of Betrayal :)
Special thanks go to - Spirit_Muse for their help with German translations. Nocturnal_Raine for their (probably unknowing) help with coming up with this story. My sister for being my beta despite the fact that she doesn't love (or even like) FFXV as much as I do. To you guys for taking a chance and reading this and to the whole Chill XV discord group.
Right enough said, and with a friendly reminder about the fact that I own nothing - I encourage you to enjoy and let me know what you think :)
The phone ringing brought Ignis Scientia out of his slumber much earlier than he would have liked. As personal assistant to both Clarus Amictia and Cor Leonis, joint presidents of CrystalTech Reseach, his alarm was set for 6.30 every day, however, he usually woke before it. When he glanced at the clock on the way to picking up his phone he saw it read 5.45. Slightly more awake at the prospect of it being his boss, he grasped his phone in his hand and struggled to sit up, something stopping him.
A quick glance down at the arm wrapped around his waist told him that his partner was still asleep despite the high pitched ring cutting through the room. De-tangling himself from the arm, he finally sat up and slipped his glasses onto his face. Once settled he glanced down at the display of his phone.
Noctis
Noctis. How long had it been since he'd heard his voice? How long had it been since he'd seen his face? They'd had no word in the six-plus years he'd been away. Ignis had texted him, little messages of encouragement, a happy birthday, a plea to call, but in all instances, the messages had been read but not responded to. Now he was here and calling him. There was a dread of panic, had something happened? Was he lying in a hospital somewhere and they'd gone down his phone to find a next of kin or a contact? Or was it something else, did he need money?
"Babe, are you going to answer that?" Ignis started, the phone still ringing softly in his hand. Gladiolus Amictia, his partner of five years and son of Clarus, had woken up and propped himself up on an elbow, sleepily glancing at Ignis and the phone in his hand.
Pushing all thoughts aside, Ignis nodded slightly before answering the call.
"Noctis?"
The voice on the other end of the line was definitely not Noctis. It was more high pitched and slightly accented, Lucian not being his native tongue. "Hi, err no, my names not Noctis. But I'm a friend of Noct, so I assume he's the same guy... Anyway, I found this number stored on his phone and thought I'd give this a try. Hehe, shit, he's going to kill me when he finds out but err… yeah…"
Ignis raised an eyebrow, the kid sounded both nervous yet excited. He was also rambling which wasn't helping the horrible sinking feeling in Ignis' gut. Gladio sat up next to him, crossing his legs as he looked at Ignis questionably.
"Where is Noctis? Is he okay?" Ignis tried to keep his voice steady. Had he been kidnapped, was this someone's idea of a ransom note?
"Yeah he's fine, I mean I stole his phone and snuck outside. The sun is gonna rise soon and it's like really pretty, is the sun rising where you are? Scheiße, ich bin schlecht darin …"
The kid was rambling again, and speaking in Nifillian.
"Where is Noctis," Ignis repeated, adding more force to his voice.
"Right, err, he's inside. Sleeping because it's not even 6 am and we worked late last night. He's not dead if that's what your asking heh, he's most definitely alive, and snoring… I can put the phone in his room if you want proof of his snoring, but then I'd rather he didn't know I'd stolen his phone." The kid sighed deeply. "Look at me rambling, look this is a bad idea, but I thought you might be able to help us. You see, er well, I was kinda hoping you could contact Crystal... no, wait this coming out wrong... Akk.. Scheiße.. Look sorry for waking you, this was a really bad idea and I'd really appreciate it if you didn't call back or you know to mention this to Noct or anything…" The was the yell of another voice away from the caller and the phone but still able to be picked up by Ignis.
"Prompto! Komm herein!"
"Ja! Yes, I'm coming!" The kid responded. "Look I gotta go, I'm sorry!" There was another shout before the line went dead, leaving Ignis to stare incredulously at his phone.
"What was that about?" Gladio asked after Ignis had put his phone down and removed his glasses to rub his eyes.
"I honestly don't know," Ignis sighed. It hadn't been Noctis, but it had been someone who knew him, could give them a little hope at least. It also gave them a rough location of where their friend had been, they'd been too busy focusing on searching within Insomnia and then Lucis, they'd never thought to look out with Lucis altogether. He smiled softly at Gladio and ran a hand through his hair. Maybe this was progress. What did concern him was the kid's request to speak to CrystalTech if that what the kid was going to say. What did he want with them?
Prompto hung up the phone and shoved it into his back pocket his heart hammering. Why had that been so hard? He'd rehearsed what he wanted to say over and over for the better part of an hour, however when he'd heard the highly educated voice on the other side, all he wanted to say had gone flying out his head, he'd even struggled to speak Lucian. He groaned frustrated to himself before clambering up the front steps of the ramshackle building they called home.
"Alright? Coffee's ready!" a voice called from the kitchen as he entered. It was the same voice that had been calling him inside, putting a halt in his plans. Prompto stomped the snow off his boots and made his way through the living area. A female with brown wispy hair looked questionably at him whilst she nursed a coffee. He shook his head, failure apparent on his face. He'd explain to her later. The owner of the voice, a broad shoulder male with long brown hair, named Libertus, gestured to an empty space at the table, a mug of coffee just waiting to be drunk, but Prompto shook his head. He waved indifferently and instead started climbing up the stairs to the first floor of the building. He stopped at the top and before he pushed the door open to the room he shared with Noct, he pulled the phone out of his pocket and deleted the call history and the 50 draft messages he'd tried to send previously. Satisfied there was no trace of what he had been trying to achieve on the phone, he instead pulled up a game and navigated to the main menu before pushing open the door.
Surprisingly Noct was awake, pillows propped up against the headboard as he absentmindedly stroked the cat on his lap, a faint glow of dawn peered through the curtains and Prompto swallowed nervously as he shuffled into the room.
"You're up early," he said sheepishly, pulling off his boots and sticking them under the bed with all their other shoes.
"You leaving, made the bed cold," Noct said sleepily and in Lucian. When Noct had first arrived in Gralea, 14, silent and a bit spoilt, he didn't know a word of Nifillian. He'd learnt it, slowly and rather crudely, even now he wasn't fluent and he most certainly wouldn't be presented to the emperor with his language skills but it was enough to get by in shops or their social circles. Around the house, they all spoke Nifillian if Noct was tired or couldn't be bothered (which was more often than not) he would slip back into Lucian.
"Ah, sorry."
"What are you doing up so early, and have you seen my phone?" Noct turned to him a little more awake now and Prompto blushed.
"Couldn't sleep," he muttered before handing the phone over to Noct.
"Ah ha! Caught red-handed," Noct exclaimed reclaiming his phone and seeing the menu screen of the game Prompto had switched to moments before. The cat meowed at the sudden movement, walked off Noct's legs and curled up at the bottom of the bed instead.
A small sigh of relief escaped his lips. Noct didn't talk about his old life that much, but Prompto had seen the texts that came through on major holidays, seen the way he'd hide the phone quickly or drift off in thought. So admitting to Noct that he'd tried calling his old family, for help with a matter Prompto hadn't even discussed with him, was something Prompto didn't want to face. It was disheartening to see sometimes, the majority of their house, their group were all orphans; refugees from Galahd or like Prompto, plucked from the slums of Gralea to be given a better life. Noct came from Lucis, and not only that, from the crown city of Lucis. But the first rule of their house was to not ask questions, so Prompto never did, no matter how much he wanted to learn.
A hand pressed over the top of his and he looked down, he'd been worrying at the band on his right wrist, a habit that happened when nervous or shy. It was an old threadbare thing, black and could quite have possibly been a headband but it served its purpose in covering what was underneath.
He looked up into to find blue eyes boring into him concernedly, the phone lay forgotten on the bedspread beside him.
"Prom you alright?" He asked in haltered Nifillian.
Prompto broke the eye contact and tried to worry at the fabric again, but Noct's hands were holding them firmly in place. Filled with the need to fidget or do something, he instead started biting the inside of his cheek. Now would be the perfect time to tell him.
A cool hand grasped his chin softly and pulled his head up to resume the eye contact. They were searching, calculating and the blueish eyes he'd ever seen on a non-niff.
"Prom, tell me. What's wrong?"
He could tell him, couldn't he? Noct loved him and wouldn't think any different of him right? But then again he'd tried to tell Noct's friends and that hadn't gone so well. Why was he such a failure? He wormed his hands out of Noct's grasp and fingered the fabric once more. He took a deep breath, still maintaining eye contact and started to remove the fabric.
"Yo! Tureltauben! Ardyn's here with breakfast!" Libertus' voice carried up the stairs, amusement laced in as if thought something else was happening. Prompto sighed, the moment was lost, Noct dropped his hand from Prompto's chin and rubbed his eyes sleepily. Prompto hastily covered up his wrist once more before standing up and quickly left the room to wash his face.
A/N: I'm hoping all will become clear, I realise I'm leaving you guys in the dark as much as the characters lol. Just a small note worth mentioning:
Nifillian = German, Tenebrean = French, Galahdian = Spanish, Accordian = Italian
This is just my headcanon. None of it is confirmed, but I felt like each country needed it's own language to add to the modernity of the story I'm creating. I also don't claim to be fluent in any of these languages so those times where I do write the language I apologise for grammar and the awful translation. The majority of the time if the characters are speaking a different language I will state somewhere what language they are speaking, hopefully, it will be easy to work out. We're also pretending that Galahd is it's own country like Accordo and Lucis and not a city or a region :D
Quick Translations:
Scheiße, ich bin schlecht darin - Shit, I'm bad at this (Prompto on the phone to Ignis)
Komm herein - Come in (Libertus to Prompto after the phone call)
Tureltauben - Lovebirds (Libertus again :) )