Since I couldn't PM you, anonymous guest reviewer, I'll have to answer you here. I hadn't planned on putting Ravus in the story, but I'm open to suggestions if any and all people who want to see Ravus can offer a way for me to work him in, because SPOILER ALERT! I don't actually have a concrete plan for this story. That's how I do all my works. I get an idea, and play the rest by ear. Unconventional, I know, but I'm bad at planning, so… yeah. If someone supplies a good idea, I will be happy to put emo boy Ravus in here somewhere because he's awesome.
Day 2—Part 1.
Prompto was accustomed to waking up at early hours in the mornings for any number of reasons—going out to jog, snapping pictures of a sunrise, making a predawn run to the Crow's Nest for waffles because his wife, Cindy, had a sudden craving—but never before had that reason been Ignis calling him… at five in the morning.
Clumsily, he fumbled to answer his phone lest the snazzy pop song that was his ringtone should disturb Cindy, and slipped quietly out of bed to take the call out on the balcony where his voice wouldn't reach the ears of his sleeping wife.
"Iggy? What's going on?" he asked when he was safely outside in the cold morning air, shivering at the sudden drop of temperature and resisting the urge to pull his arms into the warmth of his t-shirt sleeves. It wasn't like Ignis to contact him so early in the day. The chamberlain was always aware of others, and would never have called Prompto if he thought he might still be asleep unless the situation was dire.
Fleetingly, the blond had the panicked thought that something had happened to Noct, but Ignis' reply dispelled that and any other reflection he might have had.
"Prompto," the chamberlain said, his voice cracked and tired like he had just emerged from a trying struggle, "I need your help."
The concern for Noctis vanished in an instant, only to be replaced by worry for the adviser.
Iggy needs my help? He never asks for help! The hell's going on!?
"Help?" Prompto questioned, bouncing on the balls of his feet nervously, "help with what? Are you okay, Iggy?"
There was a sigh on the other end of the line, then Ignis' weary voice explained, "I'm alright, I suppose. I'm not in any physical danger, if that is your concern, but I'm afraid I can't handle this matter on my own."
"What matter!?" the blond pressed, his short attention span demanding a swift answer that Ignis seemed strangely reluctant to supply.
There was a beat of silence.
"Stella," the chamberlain huffed quietly after a moment, sounding somewhat defeated.
Prompto furrowed his brow.
"Stella?" he echoed, "you mean, like, Stella Stella? Noct's kid? Heir apparent to Lucis? That Stella?"
Ignis heaved an exasperated sigh.
"Prompto, do you know of any other Stellas?"
The blond replied in the negative, and Prompto could practically hear the silent "well, there you go then" in Ignis' next oddly emotive breath.
"Yeah, okay," Prompto continued slowly, "but why do you need help with her? You watching her or something?"
"With much harm to myself, unfortunately," Ignis affirmed, then continued, forestalling Prompto's next question, "Noct and Lady Lunafreya are gone for the week, vacationing at Galdin Quay, and I offered to watch the princess in their absence. I have, however, run into a complication: I can't get her to stop… well, screeching."
"Screeching?" the gunner parroted with amusement, "that's a harsh word, don't you think, Iggy?"
Ignis didn't reply, there was only a rustling noise as the adviser moved at his end of the line, then the soft thump of his feet across the floor before, with a soft clunk, the phone was placed against something hard. Prompto surmised in the next moment that the hard surface was a door, for beyond it, he heard the muffled—yet no less deafening—wails of a very upset baby.
He should have known better. Ignis never exaggerated. That sound could certainly be classified in the "screech" category.
The blond pulled the phone away from his ear as the cries reached a super-sonic volume, wincing from the pain in his ear and from the pity he suddenly felt for Ignis.
The chamberlain removed the phone from the door, muting Stella's cacophony, and resumed speaking.
"I realize that this is out of the blue and perhaps a bit unprecedented, but I regretfully admit that I am not equipped to care for Stella at the current moment. I… I need your help, Prompto."
As if he could say no to that desperate tone. Ignis must really be laid out on the rocks if he admitted to needing assistance—Prompto's assistance. The gunner could see no way to decline even if he wanted to—which he didn't! He owed Ignis that much at least.
"Sure thing, dude," he agreed, "I'll just have to tell Cindy that I'm going. I'll be over in a jif! Don't die before I get there!"
He hung up without waiting for Ignis' response and slipped back into his bedroom.
Cindy was still asleep, the covers pulled up all the way to her chin, snoring ever so slightly. It was rare to see her slumbering so deeply. At eight months pregnant, any number of things could arose her at the most ungodly hours, often resulting in her being up well before Prompto, tired yet trying to act cheerful as if he couldn't see those dark shadows under her eyes.
She looked so peaceful now. Prompto didn't have the heart to wake her.
Smiling once at her sleeping form, he gathered his day clothes from the closet along with his shoes and departed for the bathroom to get changed and to style—neaten. He meant neaten—his hair.
He emerged a few minutes later in a comfortable pair of jeans and a t-shirt, patting the last strands of his chocobo-inspired hairdo into place.
And just for the record, his coiffure was meant to look like the bird's crest, not its butt, as Gladio seemed so determined to believe.
Prompto entered the kitchen and scratched a quick note to Cindy illustrating where he was before slipping out of the house.
He elected to travel to the Citadel by foot, both to fulfill his morning jog quota, and because he was loathe to leave Cindy alone without a car should some trouble befall her while he was out.
At a steady pace, it didn't take Prompto long to reach his destination. Out of concern for his expecting wife, Prompto—along with his anxious friends—had had to convince Cindy to leave Hammerhead for a time and stay in an apartment in Insomnia that Noctis had prepared for them. Knowing the beautiful mechanic as well as he did, Prompto could see that Cindy would've stayed at the garage fixing cars even if she started going into labor. He admired her dedication—it was one of the things that had endeared her to him from the start—but sometimes he found her to be a bit overzealous in her work. It had taken him, all three of his friends, Cid, and even (oddly enough) Cor the Immortal to convince her to leave Hammerhead for a while until the birth of their child was over and they had gotten everything settled and ready for travel back to their permanent residence.
That was why now it only took Prompto twenty minutes to jog to the Citadel from their apartment, stopping but briefly at the gates as his familiar face was identified and he was allowed to entry by a pair of Glaives.
He took the front steps two at a time, bounding up them with his seemingly endless reserves of energy, then navigated easily through the halls to the elevator, bouncing impatiently on his toes as he waited for it to finish its ascent. It soon slowed to a smooth halt, dinging cheerfully as Prompto stepped out and walked the remaining distance to Ignis' suite.
Even if he hadn't known his way around the palace so well, he needn't have worried about the directions he took. Had he gotten lost, he could easily have followed the splitting wails that echoed shrilly about this entire floor of the building.
Yowch. Poor Iggy.
He knocked cautiously on the door, but received no answer. Leaning in close to the entrance, he called softly, "Ignis? I'm coming in."
He wasn't sure if the chamberlain could hear him over the screams of his young charge, but he continued nonetheless, turning the knob and entering the room beyond.
Ignis, apparently, had indeed missed his calls and the knock, for when Prompto stepped into the suite, the adviser was standing with his back to the door, Stella in his arms, absorbed by his attempts to silence the distressed princess.
It didn't seem to be working.
Prompto cleared his throat as loudly as he dared, and Ignis turned in surprise before his expression revealed his relief.
"Prompto! Thank the Astrals!" he exclaimed, crossing the room quickly with his long strides.
Jeez, Iggy looks a wreck!
The chamberlain was in perhaps the most disheveled condition Prompto had ever seen him in, and that was coming from a guy who had witnessed the adviser's wicked bedhead firsthand. He looked completely exhausted, his pale skin a shade lighter than usual, his eyes glassy and tired, ringed by dark shadows, his hair a tousled mess, and his immaculately-pressed shirt was rumpled, with the top two buttons undone.
That last observation alone convinced Prompto that whatever torture Ignis had endured last night must have been hardcore.
"Apologies for the early wake up call, but I truly am in dire straits," the bedraggled chamberlain conceded to his younger friend as Stella beat her tiny feet against Ignis' stomach. The baby had yet to stop crying, but it was quieter now as she faced the identity of her newest victim curiously.
"Yeah, dude, I can see that," Prompto replied before he held out his arms for the princess wordlessly. Ignis, just as wordlessly, handed her over before shaking the stiffness out of his limbs.
He must have been holding her for a while.
Prompto turned his attention to Stella, who had finally ceased her wails, but only to study the blond with a discerning eye.
"Well, what has you so upset this morning, stinker?" he asked the baby playfully, "is it Iggy? He makes me want to cry sometimes, too."
He bounced her gently, and her suspicious glare faded away as she began to giggle blissfully.
"You should go take a nap or something, Specs," Prompto suggested, glancing up briefly at the adviser, "you look like death turned over."
Ignis smiled wearily.
"I do believe the expression is death warmed over, Prompto, but I take your point," he said. "I certainly have no objections to the idea if you have everything in hand here."
Prompto grinned brightly down at Stella, bouncing her again unexpectedly, the surprise causing her to squeal in delight.
"No problems there, dude," he assured the chamberlain, "just go lie down. I got this."
Ignis nodded, turning to depart for his bedroom.
"Don't hesitate to wake me if you run into any trouble," he added, pausing briefly at his door, his hand on the knob.
Prompto waved in acknowledgment, never looking up from the baby.
"Sure, sure," he agreed absently, "just go to bed before you kill yourself."
Ignis seemed hesitant to leave his charge so easily, but after a moment of indecision, he nodded and disappeared into his chambers, closing the door softly behind him.
When at last he was gone, Prompto smiled devilishly at Stella.
"Sooo," he drawled, looking about the apartment studiously, "what should we mess with first, your majes-tay?"
Stella, who seemed glad to be rid of the uptight Ignis for the moment, smiled at Prompto's joking tone, and responded with a string of nonsensical baby-words.
The blond nodded sagely as if she had just said something deeply profound.
"Yes, that's a good idea. But wouldn't Ignis notice if we used all his chocolate chips?"
"Bah!" Stella responded, as if in agreement, then pointed toward a large bag of toys on the floor that Prompto assumed were hers.
They certainly didn't belong to Ignis. He wasn't fond of xylophones.
"You want to play a game first?" he asked, plodding over to the bag and plopping down on the floor with the baby in his lap, her top-heavy body leaning back against his chest for balance.
"Let's see what we've got here," Prompto mused, digging through the toys for something amusing, eventually pulling out a small plastic car that looked suspiciously like the Regalia.
He put the car on the ground and started rolling it in Stella's direction, making an engine noise with his lips as it "drove."
Stella didn't seem to know what to do about the situation, so Prompto decided to include her in the budding road trip adventure.
"Check out the size of that mountain!" he commented, stopping the car in front of the baby's foot, "it's huge! We're not seriously gonna climb that thing, are we?"
Stella snickered, catching on to the game as Prompto nudged the front bumper against her soft heel.
"Ugh," he mumbled irritably, pitching his voice lower and trying to make it rasp a little in a moment of random inspiration, "it's all squishy and gross."
He grinned, pleased with himself. He thought that was a fair imitation of his best friend.
Stella, apparently, thought the same judging by the look of surprise that she leveled on Prompto when the voice of her father came out of his mouth.
Man, that expression was priceless! Prompto struggled to hold back a laugh as the young princess looked around the room with a confused "eh?" as if she expected Noctis to pop out of the wall and cure her befuddlement. She couldn't seem to comprehend that her father wasn't actually here. Prompto almost felt guilty that he had blown her six-month-old mind.
Almost, but not guilty enough not to try his luck again.
This time, he lowered his voice to the deepest pitch he could, and snorted quietly, "wuss. C'mon, Prince Charmless, you'll never get to the top if you don't even try."
Alright, so his Gladio left a bit to be desired, and to a more seasoned listener it wouldn't have passed muster, but to Stella, who had only been in close quarters with the Shield a few times in her life, it must have sounded like the perfect imitation.
She looked up at Prompto with her jaw slack, then turned back to the car, then up to Prompto again.
"Bah?" she questioned after a long interval of perplexed silence, pointing curiously at the tiny Regalia.
"Yep," Prompto replied in Gladio's voice, "I'm in there."
Watching his lips move to the words, Stella seemed to understand the joke at last, and she laughed, bouncing excitedly in her newest caretaker's lap.
"Hey, I think she likes it!" he chuckled, reverting back to his impersonation of Noctis.
"Oh, yeah!" he chipped in his normal tone, as if responding to the comment his "friend" had just made.
Stella seemed inordinately pleased with his imitations, and, warming to the theme of the game, she pointed to Ignis' door across the room and made another of her signature inquiring sounds, her face open and hopeful.
Prompto easily discerned her meaning, and his smile widened as he turned back to the toy car, bumping against Stella's foot again to bring her attention back to the problem the invisible foursome was encountering before he complied with her desire.
"Yes," he began once more, morphing his voice into a smooth, accented drone, "this mountain is rather enormous. I suggest we find another way around."
The enraptured smile that Stella cast on him as he parroted Ignis could've melted the iciest heart, her clapping and amused squealing so sincere and happy that Prompto could swear she was glowing.
Wonder why Iggy was having so much trouble with her? the gunner puzzled, she's so easy to please!
Stella tapped his hand with her pudgy palm, demanding him to continue, and Prompto happily acquiesced.
"Save it, Iggy," he continued in the deep tone of the King's Shield, "we made it this far, I ain't backin' down now."
He reverted back to his natural voice.
"Aww, but I'm too tired to climb all the way to the top!"
Dang, am I always that whiny? He pondered for a brief moment before arriving at the conclusion a mere second later.
Yeah. Yeah, I am.
He decided to make "Noctis" complain so that not all the lame lines weren't reserved for himself.
"Yeah, Gladio, I don't think 'fell down a mountainside' is the way I want to go out."
Perfect. That was something Noct would say, wasn't it?
"You won't fall if you shut up and pay attention to where you put your feet," fake Gladio argued with distinctly disrespectful snark.
By this point, Stella, with her adolescent attention span, seemed to be losing interest in the one-sided conversation, so Prompto decided to liven things up. He emulated the ring of a cellphone—unintentionally startling the baby with the unexpected sound—then made a clicking noise as "Noctis" answered.
"Hello?" he asked in that bored tone that his friend always used when speaking to someone other than his close acquaintances.
Now came the tricky part. He was positive that not even Stella would be impressed with the next voice he tried, but something had to be done. The situation was desperate. Gladio was trying to make them climb a baby-shaped mountain, and Prompto was not having it, not even in the land of his own imagination.
No holes barred. He was going for it. Thank the Astrals his wife wasn't here.
"Heya, Prince!" he said, doing his best to recreate the thick drawl and chipper tones of Cindy, "sorry to bother ya now, but didja try out them new tires I installed on the old girl?"
This newest voice in his arsenal seemed to be a hit, and Stella cackled gleefully as she recognized the voice of her surrogate aunt, even though Prompto's voice cracked a bit on the higher intonations.
False Noctis replied in the negative with a sound of confusion, asking what "Cindy" meant, at which point "Ignis" sighed wearily and had to explain to the prince (seriously? Why was imagination Noctis such a dimwit?) that the pretty mechanic had told them back at Hammerhead that she had given them special "gripping tires" (whatever those were. Prompto himself wasn't one hundred percent certain). Fake Cindy then had to say that they would help them climb up rocks in the Regalia, then—although "Gladio" grumbled about it—the group decided to go up Stella Mountain in the car, which was definitely not something the real Ignis would ever consent to.
He made the four of them climb back into the Regalia, then started forward, driving straight up the instep of Stella's foot.
The baby shrieked with laughter as the tiny wheels tickled their way up to her toes, then over her ankle before rumbling up her chubby leg.
After much laughter and squirming on the strange mountain's part, the party in the Regalia reached the top and stepped out onto the unusual, blonde "grass" that was Stella's hair.
"Here we are," Prompto said in the tones of Ignis, when the car was parked comfortably on the crown of the princess's head.
"Woohoo! We made it!" he celebrated in his real voice.
"Cake, baby." That was Noctis.
"Huh, the view would be more rewarding if we'd climbed." Gladio, obviously.
He didn't have much of a plan for his story beyond that point, so it was something of a relief when Stella reached up, managing to reach the toy car with her short arms, and put the Regalia in her mouth, effectively killing them all.
Shoot. Cindy would be so disappointed, but hey! at least her gripping tires had worked.
I realize this ending's a bit abrupt, but I had already exceeded 3,000 words, so I was like, "meh, this is a good place to stop." Also, I sincerely apologize that this chapter is late. I had orientation last week, and it really took a lot out of me (it was two days long. Gross.), so I was knocked out for a few days after (ah, the non-existent re-energizing power of the introvert!), and then, I ain't gonna lie, I just got lazy and uninspired. I'm sorry that my spirit animal is a sloth. It just happened that way. :)