Written for the following prompt on the FFXV Kink Meme on dreamwidth: "I am thirsty af for something where Noctis or someone else muses on the fact that his features take after Aulea more than Regis."
Whispers
It's not hard to hear the whispers wherever he goes.
"Are they really related?"
"Did the king find a surrogate?"
"Maybe he had an affair."
"The Prince looks nothing like the King."
It used to upset Noctis when he was younger, often to the point of tears. He didn't like to hear people cast aspersions on his dad's character, especially when he saw how much it would upset his dad. Regis would look down at him and smile, but Noctis could see the tension in his face, the tightness in his eyes and the crinkles in his forehead as they both tried to pretend the comments didn't sting. His dad used to try to deflect the comments, making jokes about how Noctis got his good looks from his mother's side, but it never stopped the whispers for long.
Nowadays Noct doesn't cry anymore, but he's not any less bothered by such hurtful words. And the worst part is, they're not entirely wrong. No, his dad didn't have an affair or anything ridiculous like that, but he's fully aware that he doesn't look much like Regis. They have similar dark hair (or they did—Regis' hair has been rapidly greying, a fact which Noct desperately ignores), and their noses could possibly be the same, but they share no other features. So he can at least understand the comments on that.
What Noctis doesn't understand is why no one ever wonders if he looks like his mother, instead.
Regis rarely talks about her, and Noct doesn't remember her, since he was only one when she passed away, but he's seen a few pictures of her before. It's been several years now, but Noct's pretty sure he's grown to look a lot like her. Their eyes and mouths have the same shape, they also have noses that look similar, and he knows the softness of his face and his clear skin definitely don't come from his dad. He also gets the colour of his eyes from his mom, that beautiful light shade of blue that his dad's remarked on more than once.
People often make admiring comments about how pretty he's become. It's a little embarrassing, if he's honest with himself. No sixteen year old boy wants to be called pretty. But at the same time, he can't help but feel a secret sense of pride whenever he hears that word in connection with himself. Aulea had been a beautiful woman, and Noctis has so little else of her that he's glad to at least be able to resemble her.
He just wants other people to know it as well.