This is for Whumptober! Following the rules, these will not go into graphic nsfw territory. Violence will be kept safe for work as well. You're also allowed to do the prompts in whatever order you want. All chapters are cross-posted to Ao3, Tumblr and DeviantArt.

This was majorly rushed to meet the deadline, so if anything is off, I don't mind if you let me know!
I tried a different way of writing, and not too thrilled with it, but is more for practice and fun. Also, how do you write Gladio? He is difficult for me.

Day 1 - Prompt 18: Hostage.
Brotherhood Era.

Look up whumptober on Tumblr or message me if you want the link. FF . net keeps removing chunks of the url no matter what I do. Thanks, site.

Disclaimer: I own this fanficiton, but not the characters or game they're from.

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He felt like he was floating again. Good, he thought absently. Maybe he could he could finally float far, far away and this would all be over- the pain would stop and he could get some rest that wasn't interrupted by another round of whatever his captors felt like torturing him with at the time.

Astral's, everything hurt and he was positive at least one of his newer wounds was still slowly bleeding. In a funny way, it occurred to him that his school uniform was definitely not going to able to be fixed. It looked as damaged as he felt from his time here.

How long had he been here, anyway? There were no windows, calendars, clocks, anything to give him any clue how much time had passed or what it currently was. He'd been in and out of consciousness and was ready to check out again.

A sharp backhand to his face ended that real fast, knocking his head to the side, forcing a series of pained coughs from him while the taste of blood filled his mouth. He spat it out, not bothering to look at his current tormentor. He didn't have the energy to raise his head to face her.

They'd been very careful to not use their names and wore masks(it would be a long time before he watched any horror movies now, thank you very much), but if he was given the chance to guess, they were disgruntled ex-crownsguard. Everything about this was too military- he'd sat in on a few of Noctis's training sessions, seen what they had to go through and some of their combat tactics were the same.

Thinking about Noct and Gladio, his heart crawled into his throat and with a dreaded sense of finality he'd become well acquainted with since he was brought here, the blond was certain he was going to die in this make-shift prison. He may be Noctis's best friend, but he was a commoner and his life wasn't worth much(if anything) in the grand scheme of things here. He was replaceable, knew it well. At least if they found his body Noctis and the others would know he hadn't told them anything. Traded his life to keep his friend safe and really, he wishes that thought wasn't as comforting as it was.

He didn't want to die.

The woman grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. "I suggest you start listening when I'm talking to you." Her grip is firm, voice an even mix of annoyed and angry. He's certain that's a command, not a suggestion, but doesn't voice his opinion. It would not end well, Prompto's sure of it.

"You have the choice to make all of this go away. Why waste your life on someone that isn't even looking for you?" She lies through her teeth and Prompto isn't buying it. His silence says as much.

The boy was resilient, she would have to give him that(unexpected as it was), but time was limited for their small operation and they needed what he knew. Even if what it was was on one of the staff; his guard, adviser, drivers, maids, anybody could give them an in.

She saw the ridiculous loyalty inside of his determined, worn down, gaze. Briefly, it reminded her of her younger days when she was full of bright-eyed optimism and thought the kingdom was a fair place for all of its citizens, one worth laying her life down for.

That was a long time ago and this was now, where she needed to focus and think. Things had been going off the rails as soon as they realized he was stronger than they gave him credit for when they were watching him.

The boy couldn't fight well to literally save his life; he was fast and loud though and that had given them some trouble in the beginning. He hadn't been the easiest capture. His parents were out of the country and if it weren't for the prince being his seemingly only friend, he could disappear one way or another and she doubted anyone would have looked for him or cared.

She let go of his face, watched as it drooped down bonelessly. Her brow furrowed in quiet thoughts. Time was something they didn't have, and if the boy wouldn't talk then they may as well finish him off then try for one of the staff of the prince's. Someone low on the tier. For now, maybe they could use the teenager to serve as an example- ensure they would be taken seriously by the royalty they used to serve. If the changes they wanted weren't met, they would get to the prince or someone else one way or another. Prince Noctis would be the best bargaining chip they could get, however it seemed that wasn't happening anytime soon as they had planned.

It was enough to make up her mind on the matter at hand.

"Fine. If you won't talk to me, your corpse will speak to them." She spoke gravely, leaving the room, not bothering to see his reaction to her words.

The door clicking shut and locking sounded so much louder than it really was. He swore it echoed in the small room.

Prompto sagged in his chains, unable to even sit down, feeling like a common scarecrow in someone's garden with how he was strung up. How long had it been since they left him like this? He guessed it didn't matter anymore...

This was it, his mind began racing, when she returned he was going to die and that was that. His death was undoubtedly going to be drawn out because of his refusal to put his best friend in harms way because some goons had issues.

Terror ripped through him violently and stronger than before. He pushed pain aside to try and tug uselessly at his bonds again. No luck still. Everything was crashing down at once- his breathing quickly came and went in shallow breaths, tears began to fall down his face. He had the thoughts this was going to be it, but hearing it for real? It was too much.

'I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die.' He bit back a sob.

There was so much he wanted to do. Seeing Noct and the others topped the list, and visiting the dogs in the parks and taking pictures of them again came in a close second. He was just supposed to go to school and take a stupid test he waited until last minute to cram for. One he likely wasn't going to do amazing on, but it would be done, then he and Noctis were going to hit up the arcade, complain about their teacher grading unfairly and eat unhealthy food before parting ways for the evening.

'This wasn't supposed to happen'. Prompto had been told it was a possibility, part of the risk of being Noctis's friend, but Prompto hadn't cared. He wouldn't have traded being Noctis's friend for anything. It was one of the most important things in his life and Noct one of the most important people to him.

Oh, what if they thought he talked? What if they didn't let him be friends with Noctis anymore after this if by some miracle he lived?

Prompto felt very sick just then, not noticing right away what was going on outside his little prison, trying to get his own breathing back under control instead.

Meanwhile, on the fourth kick the door swung open, hitting the wall hard enough to leave a mark on the wall. A group of very visibly armed crownsguard soldiers swarmed the room, guns cocked, looking around the place very quickly before deeming it secured.

One of the first ones to enter spotted the teen chained to the wall and grimaced. The kid looked like he'd been through Hell and back, looking at them in that way where he doubted he was actually seeing them and in the middle of a panic attack.

He turned and nodded to his partner, who spoke into his mic that they had him, alive, and ordered a medical team.

From what he could see the restraints weren't metal and he could cut them off. 'Now for the hard part,' he thought and signaled for the team stay back while he approached the kid, hands up. Right now, he had no way of knowing how the teen would act once he got close enough to cut him free. He wondered if they had drugged him at all.

"Alright, kid, I'm going to cut those off and you're outta here."

He hadn't missed the way the teenager tensed on sight and tried to shrink away from him after he brought out the knife.

"Alright, you said he was alive, so what's taking so damn long?"

The group of them looked to the door where the prince's shield was pushing his way to the front, looking far from pleased. He'd been allowed on site as a familiar face for Prompto, after finding out about who his captors were. Noctis had fought them so hard on being here, Ignis being the one to remind him that it was still dangerous and whether he cared about that or not, if something happened to him while he was there, then Prompto's suffering would have been for nothing. Noctis had deflated after that, and Gladio had left with the team right after, promising an update as soon as they had something.

Honestly, Gladio had expected to find a corpse on the scene instead. Gladio knew Prompto was tougher than he looked or let on at times, but civilians weren't prepared for this kind of thing, and most crownsguard never had to endure it.

Seeing the state he was in, Gladio cursed, this had been straight up torture.

Gladio got closer, grabbing the knife from the crownsguard. From what Gladio had been informed, he wasn't surprised to see that Prompto was terrified of his rescuers. "Shit, Prom, breathe. In and out, that's it."

"Gladio? Is that really you?" Prompto asked after a few long moments after following the instructions, sounding cautiously hopeful and almost disbelieving. Gladio's heart twisted hearing it. "Yeah." The shield had anger building he couldn't take out on who he wanted and didn't know what to do with right now. Making a new dent in the wall held an appeal. "I'm cutting these off now. "

Prompto had thought maybe in his panic induced thoughts, he'd been hallucinating the whole thing. In the movies and books, being so close to certain death could do things your brain, make him see what he wanted before it shattered and reality would come crashing in.

After being freed, even if it was a hallucination Gladiolus, Prompto had told him urgently that he hadn't told his captors anything they wanted.

He was going to have new scars to prove that much.

The rest felt like a blur of people and colors and shapes he couldn't fully remember if he tried.

Questions had been asked, but he'd been too tired to answer much then trying to walk on his own and not succeeding, he was vaguely aware of someone picking him up then a welcomed nothingness taking over.

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Extensive and injuries were not words he had ever wanted to hear in the same sentence when talking about his best friend. It wasn't right, wasn't fair that Prompto had had to suffer because of him. Guilt and fear had twisted his insides into something ugly, seeing the blonde bandaged in the hospital bed hadn't done anything to help. He'd only been allowed to see him after he had come out of surgery and hearing he had even needed that had run his blood cold.

It had been two days since Prompto had been found. Two days since Prompto had been here and not woken up. If Noctis couldn't be here, Gladio or Ignis were. Noctis was at least grateful for that. Prompto wouldn't wake up to a strange room alone. Noctis wanted to be there when he finally did, wanted to apologize, maybe hear that Prompto didn't want to be friends anymore and Noctis wouldn't or couldn't blame him if he did. A small, ridiculously hopeful part of the prince supplied that it wouldn't be likely. They had been best friends for years, and while normal friendships didn't endure this kind suffering, their friendship was hardly normal.

And, and...

He raked a free hand through his disheveled hair while leaning back in the chair besides Prompto's bed, his other hand intertwined with Prompto's free one. He gave it a light squeeze, wanting him to just wake up so he could take him out of here, back to his apartment where Prom could rest while they ate the extra food Iggy had made(Ignis wouldn't admit it, but Noctis knew he had been stress cooking. He knew his advisor and friend better than that.). Most of the dishes were ones that were Prompto's favorites. They could play games, he could heal and be somewhere in Noct's sight, and stay with him until his parents dragged him back to their house.

"You gotta wake up, Prom."

Anything would be better than the noises from the machines around the bed. A constant visiual reminder of something that was his fault.

Without thinking about it, he squeezed his friends hand again, and this time got one in return.

"Noct?"