"You, my friend, have been far too stressed lately and as your friend, your best friend, I am obligated to help you relax," Prompto gave Noctis a light nudge as they headed back to school after their lunch break. "And do you know how I do that?"
Noctis paused bringing the water bottle to his mouth as he side-eyed him. "I don't know? You're going to throw around the word friend a few more times?"
"No," Prompto scoffed throwing an arm over Noctis's shoulder. "We're going to ditch our last block of classes and hit up the arcade."
A dubious look flashed over Noctis's features as he unhooked Prompto's arm from his shoulder and sidestepped away from him. "I don't think cutting class and sneaking around the arcade is going to de-stress me."
Prompto expanded his arms a large grin spreading across his features ready to offer a solution to any protest that Noctis might have. This was happening. Noctis would make a responsible show of rejecting the temptation, but Prompto knew eventually he'd cave.
"It will be less crowded. All the good machines will be free-."
"That much easier for us to get caught," Noctis muttered tugging at the edges of his shirt. "We're still in our uniforms."
Prompto waved off the comment. "We'll change. We are very mature looking and could totally pass for two guys who have already graduated," He leaned in closer to Noctis. "Check it out. Pretty sure I've got facial hair coming in."
Noctis pushed Prompto's face out of his. "Pretty sure you don't."
"We're straight A students we can afford to miss a class every now and again."
"We're straight A students?" Noctis reiterated with emphasis.
"Fine! You're a straight A student. I'm a suffering artist whose creativity is being stifled by the systems insistence that I learn quadratic equations and memorize really boring facts."
Noctis grinned. "Very dramatic."
"Also very true. Besides grades are irrelevant anyway."
"Unless they support your argument to ditch class?"
"Yes!" Prompto responded with renewed enthusiasm. "Look," He took a few steps backward prepared to walk away from direction of the school. "I'm going and what kind of friend would you be if you didn't come with me?"
"A responsible one?"
"The Mom friend, Noct, you're going to be the Mom friend."
Noctis raised a brow watching as Prompto continued to backpedal away. "Try and look both ways before you walk backward into the street."
"Oh come on!" Prompto whined dropping his hands to his side with a dramatic flair. "You are not seriously going to make me slay zombies by myself!"
The corner of Noctis's mouth quirked upward as he tilted his head at Prompto pretending to consider the statement. He glanced over his shoulder at the rod iron gates of the school looking just beyond the neatly cut shrubbery.
Would a few hours really hurt?
Noctis shifted his school bag on his shoulder and took a few steps towards Prompto. "Can't let you go and get eaten by zombies now, can I?"
Prompto pumped a fist into the air. "All right!" He cheered drawing the attention of a few passersby.
It was Noctis's turn to sling his arm around Prompto's shoulder pulling him in and dragging him out of view of the other people on the street. "Going to need you to be a little bit better about this whole sneaking off thing."
"Right. Noted. Was just excited that's all." Prompto responded sounding a bit sheepish.
As expected the arcade was empty. The proprietor at the counter paused staring at the two of them over his newspaper. He hadn't expected anyone to arrive until the schools let out. There was still the usual three or four people who showed up every day, but Noctis and Prompto didn't fit the bill of daytime customer.
He kept his eyes on them assuming the worst. Two unsupervised boys with no money just hanging out and causing trouble. However, when he noticed Noctis slip some money into one of the machines, he relaxed going back to his paper.
Truants or not he was not about to turn away paying customers.
Noctis picked up one of the guns on the machine in preparation to start up the game only to be cut off by a low whine from Prompto.
"What?" Noctis asked turning to his distressed looking friend.
"I wanted to be the red gun."
Noctis glanced down at the red plastic gun in his hand and then back at Prompto. He had two options here he could relinquish the gun to Prompto who apparently operated under the notion that whatever color gun you were using had an impact on gameplay.
Or he could be petty and tell Prompto that if he wanted to pick his gun, maybe he should pay for the game himself.
As tempting as it was to be just a little bit spiteful Noctis settled with rolling his eyes and handing the red one over to Prompto.
Blue was cooler anyway.
Prompto ran his fingers along the gun's side earning an eyebrow raise from Noctis whose finger was hovering over the start button. "Should we play or do you two need a moment?" He asked biting back against the bubble of laughter in his chest.
"It's still got that chip in the side of it from where I banged it against the console last year. Feels so personal to me."
"Weird," Noctis muttered.
"Sentimental." Prompto echoed back in a sing-song voice.
"Yeah, your destruction of property is real endearing."
"Final boss! I had him in my sights! Bullets for days, Noct! And what happens?"
"The game glitches."
"The game glitches!" Prompto shouted back putting the proper amount of outrage into the statement. "It came back on, and I was dead. Boss zombie was munching my brains!"
"Needed a light snack, did he?"
Prompto sputtered turning the battered plastic over in his hands. "Why am I friends with you?"
"Probably because no one else would cut school with you to play video games."
"Right. That's it. You're real easy to talk into things."
Noctis gave Prompto's shoulder a light bump before pressing down the start button ending any further discussion.
"One could argue that we are learning valuable lessons here. In the field life training if you will," Prompto grinned as Noctis side-eyed him from the skee ball machine.
"No, go ahead love to see how you spin this one."
Prompto hummed. "Hand-eye coordination," He pointed as Noctis rolled the ball up the ramp. "There's problem-solving skills."
Noctis gave him a sideways grin as he reached for another ball.
"And teamwork. I mean man, we would have never been able to slay all those zombies without proper teamwork."
Noctis just laughed shaking his head as he reached over to retrieve the tickets he had won from the game.
"Oh and math we're learning math too. Like how many times are we going to have to play to get enough tickets to buy that giant stuffed bear."
Noctis looked over where Prompto was pointing at a ridiculously large stuffed bear looming over the top shelf on the prize counter. He made a face. "Eight thousand tickets. That's so stupid what would you even do with it?"
"Mount it in my room as a souvenir of our day together."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm the one winning all the tickets here. Who says I'd waste that many on a stupid bear for you?"
"A personal gift from Noct what could be better?" Prompto teased.
Noctis ripped ten tickets off the strand and handed them to Prompto. "You can have ten erasers, and I'll even let you pick them out all by yourself."
"I had my heart set on a bear."
"I'm sure they have bear erasers," Noctis dropped another coin in the machine decidedly ignoring any further protests Prompto may have had about giant plush toys.
Noctis turned around finishing up his current game noting how suspiciously quiet Prompto had gotten only to find he was no longer there. He glanced around the room until he located his friend heading back from the prize counter with his hands purposefully behind his back and a mischievous grin plastered on his face.
"I got something better than erasers." He announced.
"Set the bar real high with that one, didn't you?"
From behind his back, Prompto produced two cheap plastic water guns. "The perfect memento from today. Of course, I get the red one." He said dangling the blue in Noctis's face.
Noctis took the item inspecting it carefully. "That's actually pretty cool of yo-."
He cut himself off when a weak trickle of water hit him in the face.
"Man, the pressure on this, sucks."
Noctis scowled but responded by giving Prompto a light flick in the forehead. "Slightly less cool of you."
"Still pretty cool though, right?"
"Yeah still pretty cool."
As their afternoon progressed Noctis was finding that Prompto was right this was helping him feel less stressed. Any lingering anxiety that they would be caught and disciplined had long since receded to the back of his mind.
It wasn't until late in the afternoon that their carefree mentality came back to bite them hard. The sound of the arcade doors opening didn't draw their attention, but the man standing in the doorway with his arms crossed scanning the room did draw the proprietor's.
He set down his newspaper. It was uncommon for them to have such a well-dressed guess. The proprietor swallowed hard looking at him up and down. The guest appeared more likely to do a tax audit on the establishment than to be there to indulge in the games.
"Uh, can I help you with something?" He asked watching the newcomer with wary eyes.
The man was still looking around the room stopping when he spotted Noctis and Prompto hunched excited over one of the consoles. "No, I do believe I have found what I came for thank you." He said making his way over to the two.
It was Prompto who noticed him first fiercely shaking Noctis who kept swatting him away as he tried to focus on the game he was playing.
"Seriously Prompto what is your dam—Oh cra—I mean, Hey Ignis what's up?" Noctis was mentally swearing to himself. He had completely forgot about the fact that he'd need to be back at the school in time for Ignis to pick him up.
"Uh, fancy seeing you here." Prompto offered trying to lean as casually as possible against the game system.
Ignis fixed a glare on Prompto that nearly had him scrambling to hide behind the nearby claw machine. Once he was certain, he had Prompto sufficiently terrified of his presence he fixed his attention back on Noctis. "Your father was rather insistent that you attend a public school. However, I fail to see the need if you do not intend to stay there."
"Uh…." Noctis stammered the color draining from his face a bit at Ignis's words fearing that he had just traded one afternoon of fun with Prompto for a lie time of tutors and homeschooling. "It's not what it looks like?"
Ignis gave him a dull look, but Noctis was already aware that had been the worst excuse possible.
"Oh come on Iggy you and I have snuck out plenty of times in the past!" Noctis waved an arm in protest. "It was just this one time! So, we missed an algebra lesson and an hour of foreign studies big deal. We weren't doing anything wrong."
"And we were properly reprimanded for our actions." Ignis reminded him. "It is a big deal. People will talk." He dropped his voice. "Can you imagine what would happen if the press got wind of the fact that the future King was ditching his studies to play games."
Noctis sighed looking around the room. No one there appeared to know or even care who he was. It was why he liked this place so much.
"The public already has an uneasy opinion of your future leadership due to the fact that your father has taken such a lax approach to raising you as a King. We needn't give them more reason to doubt your abilities."
"Um, Ignis…er Mr. Ignis," Prompto raised his hand leaning into the conversation now. "Sir Ignis? This is all my fault really I convinced Noct to come with me. He was just super stressed lately, and I thought umm well maybe….ta-dah?" He finished giving a weak gesture to the video games behind him.
Ignis raised his eyes and glanced at Noctis who had made a point to turn away. "I see," Ignis trailed off trying to force Noctis to meet his gaze. His tone and expression became more sympathetic. He knew firsthand how talk of the future tended to affect Noctis's moods.
It was usually the reason Ignis would become indulgent and participate in whatever plan Noctis had for sneaking off the Citadel grounds.
"No one knows, yet, that I wasn't able to pick you up at the school."
Noctis felt a weight lift from his chest as he turned and faced Ignis again. He regarded him cautiously.
"I don't see a reason to inform your father or any of the Crown's Guard of this indiscretion. Provided by the fact that in the future you inform me of where I will be picking you up and that you save your destressing activities until after school hours."
Noctis gave a small smile. "Yeah, I think we can manage that."
"Now come along I already have dinner prepared. Will you be joining us Prompto?"
Prompto jumped a bit in surprise. "What? Me? Oh Yeah!" He chimed back happily quickly moving to follow after them.
