Thank you to everyone who favorited and followed! The title for this chapter comes from the first chapter of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Chapter II: A sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard"
Prompto had wanted a break from pushing the useless hunk of metal the Regalia had turned into the instant it broke down, but jumping into a fight with a pack of hunting Sabertusks hadn't exactly been what he'd had in mind. Now, panting for breath next to someone he'd just met, he decided that he was done complaining about pushing the Regalia so long as they made it to the repair shop in Hammerhead without any more incidents. He really didn't want to do anymore running after pushing a black car for miles in blazing sunlight, sweat sticking his clothes to his skin and the metal painfully warm against his fingers.
A hitched breath caught his attention and he turned to face the girl next to him. He hadn't paid much attention to her earlier, more focused on getting her out of the range of the Sabertusks than what she looked like. The strawberry blonde hair was a shock, even if it was leaning closer to the red end of the spectrum than blonde. Lucis was the land of dark hair, full of more shades of brown and black than Prompto thought should have been possible. Occasionally you ran into a Lucian whose hair fell on the darker end of the blonde spectrum, but only if they had an ancestor from Tenebrae or Niflheim, though if it was the latter, the ancestor was only mentioned in hushed whispers.
Her breath hitched again and deep green eyes welled with tears. Oh crap, Prompto thought, his own eyes widening. Please don't cry. The last time he'd been around a crying girl, it'd been Iris and Gladio had looked like he'd wanted to murder Prompto before Iris had managed to inform her big brother that he was terrorizing the wrong person. "H-Hey, are you okay?" he managed to get out, stuttering a little as he struggled to push through the first word and stretching out his empty hand to rest it on her shoulder. To his consternation, his poor attempt in trying to waylay her tears only made her start sobbing.
Prompto found himself staring helplessly at her, the hand holding his gun hovering uselessly at his side while the one that had been on her shoulder dropped to his side, twisting anxiously in the hem of his shirt. He opened his mouth and then shut it a moment later, realizing he had no idea what he should say. Stumped, he glanced over at Noctis, only to have his best friend shrug in response.
Gladio saved both of them from making the girl's day any worse, dismissing his sword and sweeping in from the sidelines like some fairytale prince charming. "Hey, hey, it's all right," Prompto heard him say in the same gentle tone of voice he'd used on Iris that day. "Everything's going to be okay." Prompto watched with no small amount of awe as Gladio guided the sobbing girl carefully over to sit on one of the larger rocks around them, taking their first aid kit from Iggy, and working on patching her up, talking the whole in the same tone of voice. It was working too. The girl's sobs were slowing down, her shoulders no longer shaking from the force of them.
Prompto glanced away, shuffling his feet awkwardly as his shoulders rose up towards his ears as if trying to block out the sound. He glanced over at Noctis only to catch his friend beating a hasty retreat towards Ignis, who was examining the one of the dead Sabertusks, probably trying to figure out what had been wrong with them. While the creatures were normally aggressive towards local wildlife and humans alike, they didn't usually go after cars. Like most predators, Sabertusks weren't interested in wasting energy over something that might not even earn them a meal, but the deep scrapes on the sides of the car and the shredded back tires that Prompto had gotten a good look at while Gladio had gone diving pretty much head first into the situation, had told a pretty clear story.
"Prompto!" The blonde jumped and whirled around to find himself face to face with Gladio, or well, face to chest because Prompto wasn't a hulking behemoth, or even anywhere close to that. "Stay with her," the Shield ordered, tilting his head slightly towards the girl. "I'm going to check on the car."
"Yeah, sure thing," he replied with as much confidence as he could muster, inwardly panicking. The girl wasn't crying anymore, but she had her arms wrapped tight around her stomach and her breath was hitching every couple minutes. Prompto approached her the same cautious way he did the alley cats in Insomonia when he was trying to get a photo of them. She glanced up at him with red rimmed eyes and he struggled to keep his smile in place. "Um, hi."
"Hi," she croaked back. "I, uh, I'm Maeve, Maeve Ryan." She managed a weak, wobbly smile and Prompto practically beamed at her in pure relief.
"Prompto Argentum. Nice to meet you," he replied brightly before deflating a bit and added, "Although it could have been under better circumstances." Her lower lip wobbled at that and a couple tears dripped down her cheeks before she lifted a shaking hand to quickly swipe them away.
"Yeah," she agreed, voice wavering a bit. Her breath hitched again, shoulders flinching with the force of it. Some of Prompto's growing panic and dismay must have shown on his face because she said, "Sorry. It's, uh, it's been a really horrible day."
"I bet," Prompto agreed, settling carefully next to her and bumping his shoulder lightly against hers. She managed a weak smile at that, before flinching at the sound of a slamming car door, her head dipping towards the ground.
"They're dead, aren't they?" she said, her voice hollow. Prompto didn't reply, glancing over towards Gladio. The Shield was turning away from the wrecked vehicle, his expression grim. That told Prompto everything he needed to know.
"I'm sorry," he told her and felt her shoulders slump.
"It's not your fault," she told him, voice muffled and shaking. He looked over to see she was crying again, hands pressed to her face. Prompto hesitated a moment before cautiously putting his arm around her shoulder, half afraid she was going to break into a thousands pieces the instant he touched her. Instead she leaned into him, letting out quiet, hitching sobs.
The others kept their distance until her crying slowed down again, Ignis and Gladio presumably coming up with a game plan since local authorities wouldn't come out this far. Not with the risk of monsters hunting them down while they were out of their vehicles. He'd learned that much from listening to his mother talk about her journalism assignments when he was younger. Plenty of people died between towns and nobody found out until days later because of the monsters. They'd have to get Maeve to Hammerhead just so she could file an incident report, and judging by the bloodstains on the knees of her jeans and how thick the bandages around her palm were, she wouldn't be helping to push the Regalia, not that he blamed her. She'd had a long enough day already.
Maeve scrubbed at her cheeks with her unbandaged hand as Ignis approached, adjusting his glasses for a moment as he stopped in front of them. "We need to head to Hammerhead so we can file an incident report and it would be best to get there before nightfall so we don't have to fight daemons on the way there. Since we still have to push the Regalia, we should leave sooner rather than later."
Prompto groaned a little as he stood, not thrilled about having to move something that was supposed to be moving them, and held out a hand to Maeve when he noticed she wasn't moving. She took it carefully in her bandaged hand, the other scooping up her phone and clutching it to her chest. It looked like an older version, chunkier than the one Prompto had left in the Regalia. He wondered if it even still worked after everything it had probably been through during the day. Probably not.
The strawberry blonde wobbled a little, clinging to Prompto's hand for support before steadying herself and relaxing her grip. The three of them made their way back towards the road, Ignis settling in place so he was purposefully between Maeve and the wrecked car. The Regalia came in sight just around the corner, Noct leaning against the vehicle despite the blistering heat of the black painted metal, eyes fixed on his phone. Gladio was standing next to him, keeping watch, as always.
"We need to get moving," Ignis said when they approached, "so we can reach Hammerhead before nightfall." He turned to Maeve then and added, "I hate to ask this of you since you've just been in a car accident, but we need someone to steer the vehicle while we push."
"I think I can manage that," the strawberry blonde replied, fingers squeezing against Prompto's nervously. "I mean, I've done it before. You just keep the car on the road and break if it starts going too fast down hills, not that there's very many hills here."
"You don't have to do this if you aren't comfortable with it." Ignis's voice was gentle, cutting through her babble. "You've just been through a traumatic experience. It is completely understandable if you are not comfortable being in another vehicle so soon after the first accident."
Prompto could see Gladio and Noct paying attention now over Ignis's shoulder while Maeve chewed lightly on her lower lip. Prompto squeezed her hand lightly, the same way his mother had when she'd walked him to and from elementary school for four years. That had been before the war between Lucis and Niflheim had ramped up again and their jobs had kept them away from home for increasingly long periods of time. "I can handle it," Maeve said at last, squeezing his hand back almost absently. "At least I'm pretty sure I can. If not we'll find out quickly, because I'll have a complete meltdown the instant the car starts moving." She flashed a weak little smile and Ignis nodded once, stepping aside.
Gladio and Noct were both staring now and Prompto suddenly became very aware that he was still holding Maeve's hand. He dropped it almost instantly, feeling like his cheeks were burning and that he was going to die of embarrassment, but Maeve didn't seem to notice. Instead she was already heading towards the Regalia, hesitating a moment before opening the driver's side door and stepping inside. "Let's get pushing then. The car isn't going to move itself," Gladio announced, heading for the back with Ignis only pausing to murmur a few instructions to Maeve before following him.
"I thought the car was supposed to move us," Prompto whined for the third time that afternoon even as he took up his position at the passenger side door, Noctis opposite him on the driver's side.
"Can it," Gladio growled. "Ready...Steady...Push." The car inched forward under their hands, Prompto's muscles aching in protest from the strain almost immediately, and once again they were headed towards Hammerhead, now with one more person than they'd had a few minutes before.
