Prompto wriggled in his reclined bedchair, tossed for a while, and eventually turned on his back, put up his legs and touched the glittering night sky with his feet. Stretching under the stars, he had a hard time going to sleep. Not for lack of an absolutely dire need of rest after a long day's hunting. No, he needed all the sleep he could get, much like his fellow campers. No, it was because they had finally come to an agreement that tomorrow was going to be the day they stopped by the Wiz Chocobo Post. He had been looking forward to that day since the moment Noctis agreed to bring the fluffy haired chocoboy along for the road trip. He could pet them all day long, feed them fresh, locally grown Gysahl Greens and get a whiff of that poignant, yet strangely endearing odor from which frequent riders usually suffer. What are they talking about, "they stink?" I'm sure they smell like- He thought of the many things he expected them to smell of, green meadows, Cleigne wheat fields, riding through the expanse as if flying. He could perfectly imagine it if it weren't for the loud noise rumbling in his ears. And the droplets on his face.
Prompto sat up, alert. The sky was crystal clear a moment ago. It is now rumbling thunder and pouring rain, intensifying by the second. The only time he had seen this happen-
The hulk of a man that was vegetative in the chair adjacent to his sprang to life. "Shit, not again," he grunted and ran into the tent. Prompto hurried after him, his gut quickly twisting into a knot. "What's going on, Gladio?" His voice was whisked away by the brewing storm.
As Gladiolus got into the tent, Prompto looked from outside to find Ignis hunched over his best friend. Prompto's breath hitched and he froze at the sight of Noctis writhing, panting and groaning, soaked in sweat, as if fending off an imaginary daemon. Ignis was attempting and failing to restrain him. Gladio was at Noctis's head now, holding his arms up and slapping him hard.
"Snap out of it, kid!"
"Gladio! We both know that will only make it worse!" managed Ignis, in between wrestling and dodging the Lucian's armigers that seemed to be conjured up momentarily just to evaporate again. "I need your weight, not your temper."
Noctis kept groaning, straining and occasionally materializing a random weapon in his hands, which were held under Gladio's secure grip. Some of them did manage to scrape and cut him, but he dodged around any serious injury, swearing under his breath.
"Smelling salts?"
"We're out."
"Ungh. Is that a gold needle?"
"Whatever works."
Ignis had straddled Noctis and was administering his potions, remedies, golden hourglasses and whatever may have the slightest chance of soothing, to no avail, while occasionally bending to whisper inaudible things in Noctis's ears and wiping a stream of sweat off his forehead.
The air inside was spinning with crystal dust.
"Guys, what do I do?! Ignis!" Prompto quickly back-stepped to dodge a wayward Star of the Rogue, ripping out of the tent flap just to disappear as quickly as it appeared. "Let me help." He grabbed a flashlight and, in his panic, had as much trouble turning it on as if it was a manic cactuar.
"Just keep a safe distance," yelled Gladio.
"Please, let me help! I'll hold his legs while-"
"No need," interrupted Ignis. "He believes he's paralyzed from the waist down."
"What- uh, T-then lemme get some smelling salts."
"Some stronger Paracast would be nice," mumbled Gladio.
"Gladio!" chastised Ignis, again.
"Don't leave," strained Noctis. "Don't leave me," at which everyone stopped bickering.
After a moment's silence, Ignis commanded. "Get out. Both of you."
"What? No way.."
"And let him impale you?"
"If you want your prince and yourselves unharmed, leave at once," barked the strategist. Gladio gave him a look of pure faith, let go of Noctis's arms and ran off, pulling a frozen Prompto with him.
By now Prompto was hyperventilating almost as badly as the unconcscious prince was. He wanted to help. It killed him to see his childhood friend in a hysterical state the likes of which he had never seen. He also did not want to be scorched to death by a misdirected lightning bolt and, by the flapping and tearing of what used to be their trusty, weather-proof tent, that was soon to follow. "What's wrong with him, Gladio?! He's never been like this," he yelled over the roaring thunder and torrential wind.
"He has." Gladio picked up his shield in one hand, put the other on the now drenched chocoboy's shoulder and kept his eyes up, watching for a particularly angry man in the sky. "We dealt with it. Just have faith in Ignis. He's calmed him down before. He'll do it again."
This was far from reassuring. "These aren't your average night horrors! Didn't you see how much pain he was in?" Prompto started to go back into the tent "Lemme just hold his hand or something."
Gladio grabbed the back of his jean jacket. "Stay put and wait!"
"But he needs us! He said so!" Prompto wriggled out of his jacket.
"It wasn't us, ya dace." he dropped his shield, grabbed both his arms this time and held him back. "Listen!"
"Dude, he needs us! What kind of guard are you, leaving your future king alone when he needs you most?!"
"Just listen, damn it."
In his frantic shouting, Prompto failed to notice that the rain was now slightly less than a downpour, the sky was slightly less than beaming with lightning and the wind was slightly less than furious. That it was not getting any worse was enough to calm him down a little.
They both stood there in silence for an agonizing length of time, within the bounds of the unsafe haven. Prompto started pacing back and forth across from the tent, eyes fixed firmly on it, now that the menace was less likely to come from above.
"What's he doing?"
Gladiolus remained silent.
"Think it's okay to check in on Noct now?"
"Just wait."
The wind died down enough for them to hear each other, but Prompto's worry was only growing more intense. How could he not have known about this happening to his best friend? And the latter being the raging Royal Arm waving, manically phasing, blade wielding psycho that he is right now, how could he leave him alone with his other friend? Under the crushing weight of worry, and the way the brain tends to malfunction under anxiety, he absent-mindedly began to mumble a tune to himself.
come on down to the neatest nest in town
Jolly good fun and a mouthful of happiness
Crow's gonna flip around that frown
Kenny Crow, Kenny Crow-
"For cryin' out loud..." the hulk sighed.
After what felt like eternity, the blond snapped "I can't take it anymore. I'mmona check on them." and dashed toward the tent, at the other man's objections, then came to an abrupt halt when an extremely disheveled Ignis emerged out of it.
He was without his glasses, his hair and the remainder of his shirt were damp with sweat, clinging to him, and he was holding a phial of megapotion that he lifted with a shaking hand and used on himself, as the two came to his side.
"He's fine. He's sound asleep." He reassured them before they could ask.
By 8:00am, the ever gleaming Regalia was breezing down the road on a clear, sunny morning, through the cool shade of a lush fir forest. An unusually pensive Prompto sat in the passenger seat. On his left was a typically stoic, meticulously dressed Ignis, betraying no sign of distress to the average observer, except the fact that he was on his 3rd can of Ebony already. Behind him, safe and sound, snored a beatific King-to-be, occasionally falling to the side onto his loyal bodyguard, who jerked up from his extremely focused attempt to read a book with his eyes closed.
Prompto was absent-mindedly fidgeting with the camera in his lap, mentally noting how smoothly this whole affair went, considering. Earlier before the crack of dawn, Ignis had taken the Regalia up to Coernix Station and returned to replace the tent, two chairs, healing items and miscellaneous goods that had been blown away to oblivion. Afterwards, he carried on making everyone breakfast and briefing the party on their plans for the day, Noctis only coming out of the newly erected tent at the end, complaining that Ignis must have snored like a Garula because he didn't seem to get enough rest last night.
Recalling what little Gladiolus told him, Prompto was wondering how often that happened before and whether Noctis even knew about it, and exactly how much he hid from him about himself, when his train of thought was interrupted by a light slap on his left thigh. He looked up to find Ignis looking at him, eyebrows pleading and lips curled in a genuine smile. He gestured with a nod at the road ahead and Prompto looked. Up in the distance, a flamboyantly yellow silo peeped through the towering fir trees and, just ahead, he could make out a bright yellow sign on the side of the road, welcoming one and all.
"You alright?" asked Ignis, occasionally taking his eyes off the road to look at Prompto, half smiling and half concerned at not getting the reaction he expected from him.
"Y-yeah, thanks," was Prompto's natural response. "Wait, no! No, I'm not alright-" he scowled in a lower voice than he would have wanted, "and neither should you be! How come you're acting like nothing happened last night?"
Ignis's smile faded but he did not seem to respond. Prompto scowled further, crossed his arms and looked ahead.
"Yanno, you really need to learn how to share. If we're gonna keep travelling together, kicking Imperial butt together and raising chocobos together-"
"Renting."
"Ugh, renting chocobos together, you're gonna have to be more open with us, especially when it concerns our sleeping beauty over there."
A hand slapped him upside the head from behind. "Stop bullying our driver," followed a hushed growl from an annoyed bodyguard.
"What- I'm not- watch the hair, okay?"
"There's a time for talking and this ain't it. What happened happened, we're still alive and we have a long trip ahead of us, so can it."
"Still alive?!" Prompto turned around in his seat to face the backseat, his knees on the chair and the wind blowing in his hair. "By a friggin' miracle! I was this close to being turned into a crispy prompto kebab!" He shoved his thumb and index finger into Gladio's deadpan face as if holding an invisible ant. "In a friggin' haven! Not cool, man. You guys may be too old and, like, battle-hardened to feel anything in your stone-cold hearts but I'm not okay!"
The car swerved as it came to a hard stop, which made Prompto fall over onto Ignis, who calmly palmed prompto's face back onto his seat.
Noctis got a rude awakening by the front seat head rest. "Hnn! Ignis, what the f-"
"We have arrived at our destination. You may unbuckle your seatbelts or unbreak your noses if you weren't wearing them," declared their driver nonchalantly.
"I'mmona die on this trip," breathed an exasperated Prompto. "And not by Imperial hands."
"Bwaha. Get off your pretty ass and let's go pick you a chocobo." Laughed Gladiolus. "You might just find one that rivals your own hair."
"I Don't! Have! Chocobo! Hair!"
"No, you're right," contributed Noctis as he stepped out with the rest and stretched. "Chocobos have Prom hair."
"Oiii." Prompto bent over, mock-scratched the ground with one leg before charging at Noctis. "Kick De Chocobo!" at which Noctis feigned the most feminine shriek he could muster and ran away with his knees together and arms flailing. They ran off head-butting each other to the stables.
Ignis and Gladiolus both leaned back on the Regalia, looking down the dirt road at them.
"That was a lotta new downs you got from the store."
"Anticipating worst case scenarios is the role of a good tactician."
"We had plenty yesterday."
"Six, to be exact."
A faint squeal from ahead. "Uwaaah~ the smell is awesoooome."
"They ran out, didn't they."
…
"Yes."
…
"Remind me again how many armigers the kid got so far."
…
"Six, to be exact."
"...So it's true what they're for?"
Ignis sighed. "As far as I could tell, but there is no knowing for certain just yet."
He took off his glasses, reached in the inside pocket of his jacket for a cloth, wiped his lenses with it meditatively and then put them back on. "Since the recent events are only exacerbating his condition, we ought to make haste accordingly. Let us keep these excursions to a minimum for the sake of our prince, shall we?" He started walking to the ranch. The other guard followed.
"For the sake of our friend, we should make the most of what little joy we can wrest outta this deep pile of shit he found himself in. Especially if your theory is true."
"M-hm. We're all in this 'deep shit' together."
"Ooh, Specs. There's hope for you yet."
"GUYS!" Prompto came running and blurting out syllables like the rapid fire of his gun. "YOU'LLNEVERBELIEVEWHATHAPPENEDTHEY'RENOTRENTINGCHOCOBOSTHERANCHISCLOSEDCAUSETHERE'STHISBIGBEHEMOTHTERRORIZINGTHEPOORCHOCOBOSWEGOTTADOSOMETHINGWEMUSTTAKEOUTTHEBADBEHEMOTHANDSAVETHECHOCOBOS-"
"Just got deeper."
"Appears so."