"Call me a hooker one more time you little shit and I'll shove my boot so far up your ass you'll be tasting leather."
"Oooh, kinky. Me likes."
Noctis slammed the door as loudly as he could, catching both Aranea and Prompto off guard. They were sitting in the living room, Prompto with a container of some kind of Altissian food all but crawling up from its cardboard depths. He had his fork half-raised to his lips as he avoided a kick from Aranea.
The woman was dressed up in her work clothes, leather and chains and Noctis was pretty sure some fluids he didn't want to think about smeared on the soles of her six-inch heels. She had one foot raised up, ready to kick in Prompto's blonde head, with the other propped up on her coffee table.
"Prince, remind your idiot friend I'm not a hooker."
Noctis looked at Prompto who was eying the leather heel with a mixture of awe and deep interest. "She's a dominatrix. She'll kick your ass in before she'd ever fuck you." To Noctis there wasn't much of a difference, but...
"Thank you. And don't think I won't. You two are little shits. Coming in my house, eating all my fucking food—" Aranea reached forward and grabbed the container of Altissian food from Prompto's hands, not bothering with to grab the fork. She using her fingers to get some of the sopping noodles, pinching them in Prompto's direction before leaning her head back and dropping them into her mouth. She chewed for a minute before continuing. "—and you got no respect for me and my profession. I should kick your ass."
"Don't offer him that, 'Nea. Prom's one kinky bastard. He may actually get off on it."
Prompto wiggled his eyebrows, and Aranea smacked him.
"Oww, that hurt!"
"No, it didn't. Trust me, you'd know if it did."
The two continued to bicker as Noctis pulled off his shoes, hissing when he came back up. The pull in his shoulder made his entire body feel a thousand times worse; he should have stayed at the hospital for a few more days, but with how everything had gone down... There just hadn't been a choice.
It had been healing up fine enough until it wasn't.
"Your shoulder again?"
Noctis looked up at Prompto, whose face had been overtaken by a rather somber expression. "Yeah. I think the infection might be back."
Aranea sighed when both men looked at her. She scrunched up her face for a moment before sighing and plopping the container of Altissian food into Prompto's lap. "Fine. Call Cindy and tell her to swing by. I don't need you dying in my apartment. You still haven't paid up rent yet."
Noctis reached into his pocket and pulled out some cash, holding it out to her between two fingers. "This should be enough, right?"
Aranea eyed it. "Where'd you get that?"
"Holy shit, Noct. Did you rob a liquor store or something?"
Noctis shook his head and shoved the rest of the cash back in his pocket. "Nah. I... I saw Iggy today."
Aranea quirked her eyebrow. "You went and saw Iggy?"
Noctis nodded and slowly eased his way into the beat-up recliner opposite the two. "Yeah... he's... he's doing okay."
He wasn't doing okay. There was nothing okay with any of this, Noctis wanted to scream. But he bit it down and looked at his two friends who were sharing a glance. He wondered if they knew he could see.
"Well, tell Iggy next time that he should pay me more for babysitting you." But her words, despite the sharpness, were full of light.
"...I'll let him know."
Aranea looked down at her nails and then back to Noctis. "Look. I'll call Cindy, but remember that I've got two rules in my house—"
"Don't fuck on your couch and no drugs in the house. Yeah, I know."
"So I don't care if Cindy promises that she's got something real special that'll make your orgasm a bucket of cum and make all your holes disappear. I swear I'll kick your ass. And then I'll call her over and kick her ass. Keep that shit out of my house."
Prompto interrupted. "Aranea, don't you think you're being a little harsh? Cindy's only doing her best—"
"My house, my rules. If she wants to swipe pills from the hospital, she's more than welcome to. I'm not going to be sharing my bed with a pill pusher." There was a harsh sound to her voice that Noctis knew only ever came out when they were talking about Cindy.
Usually it was best to not talk about Cindy. Though they had know each other for years, Noctis had never known just how turbulent the relationship between the two women was... Especially considering Cindy's newer job of sneaking pills from the local Insomnia Charity Hospital. Aranea had thrown Cindy out without so much as a look back, though now that he was looking at the silver-haired women he could see the black under her eyes and the tired pull at her lips.
"Fine. No pills from Cindy. Just a shot of penicillin to the ass. Promise."
Aranea nodded and pushed herself to her feet. "Fine then. I've gotta get to work. Try to be useful and clean up this place." She edged a stack of books near the edge of the couch. "I swear, my apartment's been taken over by a bunch of bachelors. I thought being a lesbian would have saved me from this kinda shit."
"Way harsh, 'Nea!"
The woman shrugged and ran a hand over her black leather bustier. "That's kinda the point." She pulled out her phone and tapped in her pin before looking back to Noctis. "I've got to get over to the club for my shift. Try not to burn down my house."
When Aranea left, Noctis picked himself up from the creaky chair and allowed himself to sink into the sofa next to Prompto. He took the food from where it rested, reaching over to pull the fork from Prompto's hand.
His best friend didn't complain as Noctis spun the fork around and around.
Prompto's voice was soft when he finally spoke up. "You... you need to talk about it?"
Noctis didn't look up at his best friend, instead allowing himself to tap out the constant rhythm of metal clicking against cardboard.
"Iggy said that Gladio's doing well."
"Oh... oh. That's... that's good."
He wanted to apologize to his best friend for taking him away, for pulling Prompto into this like he always did. Prompto, whose head always seemed straight on his shoulders, only ever got into trouble when it was Noctis doing the pulling. It had been that way since they had met in elementary school. Even bonding over animals and video games, there had always been that ever-present knowledge that Prompto was supposed to be normal.
Noctis... Noctis would never be normal.
"How's Iggy?"
"He... His eye's gone."
Prompto let out a breath. "Oh. Man. That's... I'm sorry."
Noctis pulled up the fork and looked at the noodles, sighed, and put the container down on the table. "He asked me to go home."
Asking Noctis to go home, to go back there... After everything that had happened, after all of the blood and the death that he had caused.
Noctis closed his eyes and thought back to that day, thirteen weeks before. He wished that he could block it all out. The beautiful blue flower petals littering the white carpet, the hauntingly beautiful chorus in the background of the church, the soft breathes and even softer touches. He could remember the way Ignis's hand brushed ever so gently against his as the both turned to look down the aisle.
She had been beautiful, her white dress fluttering in the breeze.
Bang. Bang.
Screams.
Red.
Noctis shook his head and forced his eyes back open, feeling the pain intensify in his shoulder.
There weren't words that could fix this. Nothing would ever fix this.
They stayed in silence until there was a soft rapping at the door, and thankfullyy Prompto was willing to get up and answer it.
"Hey, ya'll... 'Nea asked me to stop by and check on the Prince?"
"Yeah. Come in, Cindy. You're looking real pretty today."
"Aw, ain't you just a peach." Noctis turned to see Cindy shut the door and slam her hand down the set of door locks. She was quick with bolting them down, almost like second nature. She even managed to make the last one lock, which caused Prompto to nearly faint in shock.
"Holy crap! I've been trying to do that for weeks."
The smile on Cindy's face fell. "Yeah... just gotta shimmy the lock to the left."
Of course she knew how to lock the door to her own damn apartment. Prompto seemed to realize his mistake as well, though though he decided it was in his best interest to clamp his mouth shut instead of replying.
Cindy had her blonde hair pulled back in a high pony-tail, her bright yellow nurse scrubs making her face even brighter. There was a red badge around her neck, the lanyard dotted with colorful pins with pictures of famous cartoon characters and inspirational quotes to tell Noctis what a good boy he was and how he was going to be a good fighter.
It was difficult, even after listening to Aranea rant about her for the last several weeks like a broken record, to think of Cindy as anything but a lovely lady... who also had sticky fingers when involved with her hospital's pharmacy.
The woman cocked her head to the side as she inspected the apartment, though thankfully she said nothing about the pizza boxes stacking up like sky-scrapers or the dozens of half-drank cans of cola and beer that were like ill-placed dominoes only waiting for an accidental kick. It probably infuriated her to see her old apartment a hovel, but...
Things hadn't been easy over the last few weeks, and... cleaning... it hadn't been something particularly high on Noctis's list. Laying in bed, staring at the pale green walls that only reminded him even more about Ignis's eyes. Ignis's stolen eye...
"Hey, Cindy..."
"Hey, Prince. 'Nea told me your shoulder's acting up, so," she lifted up a little kit, shaking the plastic. Something rattled inside. "Gotta check and see how it's doing."
"Think you're gunna need to cut it off?" Prompto asked as Noctis followed the woman into the kitchen which was perhaps the cleanest room in the house, if not for the thin film of dust on the stove.
"Let's hope not. I don't have enough morphine for that."
Cindy put the kit on the table and slipped it open, gesturing for Noctis to remove of his shirt and take a seat on the pink leather stool. He did as he was told, listening to Cindy snap the gloves over her hands and very gently rest her hand against the middle of his back. He leaned down toward his knees to give her further access.
Prompto hissed.
"That bad, huh?"
Cindy tsked. "Some of the fragments are coming to the surface. We're going to need to take them out..."
Noctis felt a dull pinching to the junction between his shoulder blades. "Well, not like we've got a choice."
Cindy responded, "No. Unfortunately not, Prince. If we leave them in there they'll definitely get infected. I've got the tools and some medication, but you're still gunna be feeling this."
Noctis leaned up enough to look at Prompto and then to Cindy. "Aranea said she'd throw us out if you gave me drugs."
"Oh. Did she." Cindy pursed her lips. "Then... Prompto. I'm going to need your belt."
"Why?"
"Because Mr. Ashburn next door'll call the police if he hears screaming again."
"Again?"
"Oh, sweetie, you think Aranea is quiet?"
Noctis snorted and then let out out a low groan as he felt leather slide between this teeth.
"This is probably going to ruin your tattoos, Noctis. I'm sorry. You sure you don't want some morphine?" She waited for a moment, gently letting her fingers run across the place where Noctis knew his family's emblem sat between his shoulders. The skull of Etro...
Noctis shook his head and tried to say something, but the tang of Prompto's belt buckle and the sudden sharp stabbing in his shoulder filled everything with red.
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