A/N: Consider this a bittersweet chapter. Also that updates will be slow. Like... realllllllllllllllly slow...

Disclaimer: Pretty sure you guys know that I don't own the characters right? They belong to SE. I just created the fanfic and plot.

Lucis was by meant to be known for its urban and natural landscapes. Dark skyscrapers decorate the crown city of Insomnia with golden and blue lights. The city itself was always alive with activity, but also managed to maintain the silent beauty of the night. By no means was the intention of the royal family to have their nation become a tourist attraction, let alone become a international buzzing topic, but that came along with the prosperity of the nation's sole crystal.

The only crystal remaining in the world in fact.

Unfortunately that meant certain snakes crawled their way into the Capital, causing the peaceful lives of the Lucian citizen at risk.

To make sure everyday life went by peacefully, the government kept quiet of potential threats and his majesty, King Regis, had recently updated the nation's security policy to protect its people at all cost. Only the grand council, executives from the National Security and his majesty knew of such details.

Prompto only heard of such things from King Regis about his recruitment for new soldiers and officers for potential advancement. When Prompto suggested that he participate in helping out, the King rejected his proposal.

"Although you are a fugitive, Prompto," His majesty replied. "I can only trust you and the rest of Noctis's friends to be with him. Make sure that harm does not fall through his way."

Prompto didn't dare to disobey the man who allowed him to stay in the palace after he escaped his country as a child. Just by walking down the streets of Insomnia, the night was a pleasant bright purple from the snow. More gently fell from the sky, prompting him to dusting the yellow of his hair with frozen flakes. He was surely grateful to live a peaceful life, having the chance to live free from the fear of corruption from his home country.

The grand palace came into view when he arrived to the large clearing, the gates already opening for him to scurry past. A guard that Prompto befriended shook the remaining flakes out of his hair when he arrived and passively commented that he might catch a cold without dressing appropriately. He only waved it off like splashing small ripples in the water.

In Lucis, there were plentiful resources. In Lucis, there were many things to do. In Lucis, there were many new things to try. But what Prompto was most grateful that Lucis had were the people who cared about him. He would have no trouble deciding how to protect this country.

Because to Prompto, Lucis is his home.

He vowed that no matter what happens, he would make sure Noctis would stay safe from harm.

"Hey Gladio, Iggy! Is sleeping beauty awake yet?"

As a confirmation, a book of commercial law was thrown aiming to hit his face. Staying true to his name, Prompto quickly dodge and stepped to the side smiling wider than ever.

"Aww don't be like that Nocty! I have food!"

"That's nice. Please shut up." was the only answer that came under the heap of dark blankets of the corner of the game room.

"Now where have you been squirt?" Gladious approached Prompto eyeing the large box he was holding.

"Oh, just went by a friend's place to get some food and met some really cute girls."

"Typical of you." Gladious helped himself to a light sponge cake. "Noel and Yeul made this right?"

Prompto diligently nodded, but shrunk behind Gladious when he noticed Ignis glaring at him behind his lens, clearly still mad at him for eating the macarons he was saving for later.

"Don't worry Iggy, I got your earl grey macarons! So now you can have your tea party with princess Noc-" Gladiolus shoved a piece of his sponge cake into Prompto's mouth before he could finished. Honestly, Prompto did not understand when he crossed the line, let alone have any sense of personal space.

Ignis didn't say anything, but retrieve his macarons from the box, while Prompto snatched an egg tart from the box and approach the sleeping figure on the couch.

"Hey Nocty, I visited Noel today."

No answer. Pushing his luck he decided to wave the pastry in front of his face. It invoked some reaction, to which Prompto thought the prince would have smacked it away, but it seems as if he refrained from doing so as he buried his face into the blankets instead. Noctis wasn't the kind of person to waste food.

"I ate lots of nice treats and also met two really pretty ladies." Noctis only groaned at his response, which was appropriate considering this is Prompto who is saying such a thing.

"Speaking of which, where has that pretty bodyguard of yours gone now?"

Noctis threw the blanket off his face, revealing his typical frown. "Deported to the Lucii National Museum tonight. There is a family event going before the official start of the holidays."

"Aww Nocty, are you lonely? Here let Prompto give you a hug!"

"Don't touch me when you are drunk." He stood up and went to attend the papers Ignis has been pestering him about. It wasn't enough to keep his chipper friend away though.

"You know…" Prompto started, "I found out something about that pretty bodyguard of yours…"

"Prompto, I told you she's not my bodyguard."

"But you also told me that you have a common interest of chocobos yes?"

"That has nothing to do with what we were talking about."

"Which was?"

"A Guardian Corps officer transferred from Bodhum to Lucis for the remaining time of her service and a chance for potential advancement. Her record says that-" Noctis stopped midway, and narrowed his already sleepy eyes at chocobo haired friend, realizing the trap Prompto lured him into. "Stop screwing around with me."

"Aww, but you were just getting to the part about her height, weight, blood type-"

A loud smack was heard throughout the room when Ignis came by after slapping Prompto from the back of his head. "Mind you, that's classified info. Only his majesty the King, the Grand Counsel and the National Security Society have access to such personal facts. Noctis shouldn't even be concerned of these details."

"But I'm Nocty's best friend too! Why can't I be part of the National Security Society?"

"Because you've violated the Lucii law by using firearms when we've banned them, driving a car without a Lucii driver's license and almost drove us off the road into the Duscae Valley when we had a schedule appointment for RHS-113 with Cidney."

"Plus to you carry that gun of yours around in public too." Gladious added, trying out some caramel brownies from the pastry box Prompto brought back.

Prompto puffed his cheeks, much like how Noctis does when he's exhausted and cranky. But as immature as he can behave, he was quick to notice facts and details about things. He turned over to Noctis, who has long been ignoring the conversation and tending to the mediocre paperwork as a 'responsible' prince should have been doing.

"What?" The prince grumbled, obviously trying his hardest not to yell at his friend.

"Aww, aren't you bitter about not knowing the full details?"

"Unlike you," Noctis sighed, "I know where my attention is needed and have to act accordingly as- Prompto stop waving food in front of my face."

"Lightning Farron likes sweets. A lot."

There really wasn't a response from the prince, other than the bored look he got from looking at the paperwork in front of him. He yawned a couple times before answering:

"So what?"

"Well, it is a nice detail to know about your potential wi- I mean bodyguard." Carefully choosing his words so he would not get slapped again, Prompto added. "Plus the Dynasty Ball is happening next week; don't you think it's pretty sweet that Lightning is going to be there?"

"That's enough sugar for you today squirt." Gladious caught Prompto head with his arm.

"Hey! Let go I haven't told you the best part! Her real name is Éclair!"

Noctis didn't pay much attention to what was being said while Prompto was being dragged off to play video games with Gladious. The last thing he vaguely registered was Ignis scolding Prompto that he got the wrong flavour of macarons and that he couldn't tell the difference between lavender and earl grey.

Despite being strict, worrisome and occasionally, a bad influence (the blame falls on Prompto), the trio were very close to Noctis, you could say close like brothers. And the thing about brothers is that they know what makes you happy, what makes you sad, what irritates you and motivates you to pursue your goals ad things you genuinely love. As stubborn the little prince may be, the three of them eventually understood Noctis's struggle to keep a cool façade amongst the evils of society for the sake of the kingdom, working to control his powers, and unfortunately, his tendency to be rebellious. But, if someone were to ask the first and most important thing they should know about their precious prince:

Noctis Lucis Caelum doesn't like sweets. At all.

He doesn't like the lingering taste it leaves on his tongue, leaving you itching for something to get rid of it. Rather he's picky with what he eats because of his sensitive appetite, since sugar usually makes him feel sick frequently. It wasn't easy for him to explain his preferred palette to others since he's terrible with words in the first place.

Even as a child, Noctis wasn't fond of sweets. Back in his school days where he met his delinquent friend Prompto, he tried to coax the prince to play a game of tag with ice cream, to which little Noctis refused.

"Aww! Your majesty won't even accept a peasant's gift?"

Noctis shook his head and looked down, after telling Prompto he was grateful for his 'thoughtfulness'. He didn't really understand Prompto's self-depreciating humor and actually was on the verge of tears of hurting the other's boy feelings. Prompto thankfully didn't notice it.

"Then why won't don't you want it?"

"Ice cream… is a dairy product."

"Yeah that's right! Dairy is a food group! That means ice cream is healthy and should be eaten for breakfast, lunch-"

"I'm lactose intolerant."

"…Oh."

He managed to use this excuse and among others to refuse eating sweets until much later in their life Prompto found him sharing an éclair in the library with his father. Prompto wasn't the brightest child, but he didn't need to think to realize what Noctis was eating consisted of a cream based. He was fairly sure, that cream was certainly a dairy product.

"OH THE HORROR!"

"Shut up, Prompto. The servants are getting disturbed."

"BUT YOU DIDN'T TRUST ME TO SAY THAT YOU DIDN'T LIKE SWEETS?!"

"Would you have believed me?"

"…"

"…"

"No…"

Noctis didn't bother wasting his energy on Prompto up to that point since he already used the entire afternoon to convince Prompto that it was just a preference for his appetite.

And from the way Prompto was attempting to 'hint' at something, Noctis took that as a sign as more unpleasant things happening at the ball. He made the connection with Prompto's patisserie visit to Yeul, Noel's adoptive sister, who has 'visions' about certain things. He vaguely assumed Yeul must have said something to him if she had a vision. If unpleasant things had to occur, like entertaining Sir Gilgamesh and his brother Enkidu during the holidays would surely be very unfortunate.

Or worse…what if it was Aldercapt that he was stuck with throughout the evening?

He surely did not want to be stuck around these crazy old folks during the holidays, let alone be the victim of nagging from the enemy nation's emperor. The old man was still after the Lucii crystal since his childhood.

He'll just have to stay away from people at the ball for as long as possible. Again.

A/N: Was a little conflicted whether to put Prompto's mini backstory and the dialogue was awkward to edit as ever. Not much was really edited from the original posting back on A03. Likely I'll edit everything again before posting the last chapter on both sites.

At most, I can only see it should be 3-4 chapters. (Yeah updates will be extremely slow, but I'll finish it!)

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review and I would like to read your thoughts and inputs. ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶