Hey everyone,

this chapter wasn't easy to write. So I hope that I did a good job in describing and explaining everything, phew.

ben4kevin: thanks! Glad you like it so far!

Yoshi333: thank you very much for your review! :D Makes me really happy to hear/read that you like my story, so please enjoy this chapter!

Please enjoy reading!

Kamuel

P.S.: Prom is such a sweet-heart ;_;!

Chapter Four

...

"Uhm, don't think strange of me, but this is the first time I sleep over at a friend's house. So, what I want to say is... thank you."

Prom looks up from the sink, holding his teeth-brush up in the air for a moment. He seems surprised. His mouth is full of white tooth paste when he exclaims with wonder, "Woow, for me thishh ishh the firshht time to have a friend over to shhpend the night tshooo!"

Despite his fatigue, his face glows with happiness and it's like he's lightening up the whole bathroom with his wide smile. At this moment I'm really glad over my decision. I still have a slight bad conscience for postponing my duties, but hell, it feels good to be the one to make him that happy.

"Ishhn't thhhish eshhciiting?" he asks, waving his tooth brush around in his obvious excitement.

"Yup." I nod eagerly in response and I send him a slight mischievous smile, because this feels as if we both just shared a top-secret secret. I have the feeling that this weekend will be special for us.

And so, we both continue to diligently brush our teeth. Actually it's kind of funny, because I don't know who was the one to start this in the first place, but all of a sudden both of us speed up the teeth brushing as if it became a competition of who finishes first. Grinning to each other, we continue to make the silliest of sounds. All those funny, little brush-strokes against our teeth echo and reverberate in the bathroom, both wanting to see now who is better, funnier and faster at it.

This is too much fun!

In his haste, Prom has tooth paste smeared all around the lower half of his face and he starts making some funny faces which all at once makes me laugh outloud. I can't help it, I can't stop myself, he's just too funny!

And then I realize that I don't look any better when he points his finger at me and joins me, holding himself upright on the sink so that he won't fall on the floor from laughing so much. And if this isn't enough yet, he poses around in the image of famous actors, exaggerating and articulating wildly with his arms and this is so hilarious that I have to almost laugh my eyeballs out! Now I honestly start to fear that my intestines will come out of my throat any moment.

"Y-you sh-should-hahaaaaha-seee-hahhaaa-yourself! Ss-oo-hahaa-funny!" I wheeze out, trying to breathe in and out properly.

Really, we are trying to calm down, because the laughter starts to seriously hurt our bellies, but then, out of the blue, his tooth brush slips out of his hand and falls directly into the loo which is located right next to him.

We stare in complete silence at the now drowning tooth brush. And then we look back at each other with wide eyes.

Somehow this was such an unexpected thing to happen, that not even one moment later we fall on the floor, our feet no longer able to support us as we howl like maniacs from the hilarity of the situation!

I think none of us has ever laughed that hard in their lives. Tears escape the corner of our eyes from the sheer extertion and our faces are red beyond recognition.

"S-sstop, Noctisss, I can't anymooore! Haaaaahahahhaaaahaa! Hurrtss! Hahahaa!" Prom laughs and whines simultaneously, holding his belly as he rolls on the floor.

"Ssstop yourself first, y-you are the reason I l-laugh sssoo hard! Hahahaahaaahaa!"

I honestly can't say for how long we rolled on the floor from laughter that evening.

But what I can say for sure is, that this will become one of the most memorable moments of our lives. And little did I know that there were a lot more to come...

...

"What? Absolutely not."

There is no way I'll let this happen tonight.

We stand now inside Prom's bedroom, ready to go to sleep. But there is still something holding us back. Quite silly actually.

I have to make my point clear to Prom that I refuse to let him sleep on the floor.

After he almost starved and poisoned himself? Eos, please. How can he expect me to occupy his bed when his body needs some proper rest? Prince or not, I could never be that cruel and selfish.

"Yes, you will. You are my guest." Prom insists stubbornly, clutching a pillow to his chest as if it were his last lifeline.

"No. You will." I stay stubborn as well.

After everything he had gone through this evening, I'm sorry, but he's delusional if he thinks that he can get away with this nonsense.

I suggest calmly, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly, "I'm okay with sleeping in the car. I can sleep anywhere anyway." And I mean it. King of Sleep, remember?

Prom stares at me in complete shock. "W-what are you saying? Noctis, we are friends. I couldn't possibly let you spend your night in a car! Just take my bed and I'll sleep right here next to you. I'll make a makeshift bed on the floor for me. I really don't mind." He turns his back to me, throwing some extra blankets and pillows on the floor in front of him, a second one of the fluffy pillows adorably squashed inbetween his arms as he adjusts another blanket with his feet.

I don't know what happened, but the sudden backbone he seems to have grown this evening makes me smile fondly. This must mean he feels much better than before. The only downside of this is, I can't seem to get my way as easily as usual, as he and I are in danger of arguing back and forth to infinity if I allow for this to go on much longer. It's like we clash our stubborn pillows in a dramatic battle of wills without any of us getting into a true pillow-fight. But as I take a good look down on me, now dressed in an over-sized pyjama, surrounded by a ton of teddy bear prints (in my humble opinion quite the battle armor in disguise!), well, let's just say he has absolutely no chance to win this argument. I feel invigorated just by the sheer cuteness of it all.

And so I cross my arms to think fast about a satisfying solution which should suit both of us. Meanwhile I observe Prom playing with the corner of his pillows, yawning and muttering under his breath some things which I can't identify because they are too faint for me to hear. He's obviously dog-tired, and I start to feel guilty for being so stubborn over this. But he sure is as stubborn as I am. And I fully admit to like this side of him. Nobody dared to defy me before and I find it to be not only refreshing but exhilarating as well.

Prom rubs his eyes tiredly, glancing at me once to see if I made my decision.

Well, as entertaining as I think this banter is, Prom really needs to sleep. His health and comfort has priority.

Heaving a sigh, I walk towards his bed and get under the blanket. I can feel Prom's confused gaze follow my movements. Sliding on one side, I hold the blanket up and make an inviting gesture for him to join me.

His bed is big enough for both of us after all.

Prom stares at me in complete bafflement.

"Jump in, what are you waiting for? Let's go to sleep."

"Uhm... o-okay." he says after what seems like ages.

I watch him join me on his bed with a sheepish looking smile. And then I cover both of us up with the warm blanket, snuggling into the soft mattress under me. Our sides are touching and his warmth reaches me immediately. Prom's clean and unique smell envelops me and this is so comforting that it doesn't take long for me to be on the brink of falling asleep.

"Thank you... for everything.", Prom whispers.

"No, I thank you." I reply softly, smiling into the darkness with my eyes already closed. "Good night, Prom."

"Good night, Noctis..."

...

Something feels wrong.

My instincts are immediately alert and with a sudden bolt of adrenaline I wake up and sit upright.

The light in the bathroom is switched on, and I can hear slight, strange noises coming out. At first I don't understand what's going on, my mind too tired to catch up with my surroundings, but then I recognize the strange noises to be Prom throwing up.

Oh no!

In an instant I jump up and rush to his side. "Prom, are you okay? Can I help you?"

"S-sorry for waking you up..." he says weakly after his stomach has finally calmed down.

He looks dreadfully pale again and my hand rubs over his back soothingly. "It's okay, that's why I'm here. I didn't want you to be all alone when you feel so sick."

Prom looks incredibly sad for a short moment, flushing the toilet, before he goes to rinse his mouth at the sink. His body language now is so completely different to the one hours before.

Did I... did I say something wrong?

But then the memory of what Sius taught me yesterday is distracting me from my worries, so while Prom brushes his teeth again I use the opportunity to walk into the kitchen and to take a wet towel with me, and in afterthought I bring also a glass of cold water back to Prom's bedroom.

"Come here and lie down." I say after I'm back again, and motion to Prom with the towel in my hand to lie down on the bed. "Sius said your body still needs lots of fluid. Drink something first."

He hesitates, avoiding my eyes, but then he takes a few, careful sips of water and I place the half-full glass on his nightstand for later. I sit down carefully on the other side of his bed and after he made himself comfortable under the blanket, I start to dab and rub the damp towel in soothing motions over the clammy and pale skin of his face and neck in the same way Sius did yesterday.

"This feels refreshing... it's nice." he whispers, his voice broken, his body trembling and he looks as if he's close to tears.

I furrow my brows with worry when I watch him swallow back his tears several times, but then his emotions seem to get the upper hand because he starts to sob in a heartbreaking manner, hiding his face from me with his hands.

"Prom..."

I bite on my lip, unsure, starting to feel helpless because I don't know what to do now.

Is this my fault? I didn't want to make him cry.

He's sobbing harder, facing away from me and leaning on his left side so that I can't see his tears.

My heart goes out for him, I always feel sad when people cry in my presence, so I place the wet towel on the nightstand and slide closer to him to place my hand on his arm for comfort, awkwardly petting and caressing over the fabric of his pyjama in hopes that my presence can soothe whatever emotional pain he is in. This is what my father always did to me when I felt anguish...

I wonder what happened that made Prom so upset? I don't want him to feel sad.

What can I do to make him smile again?

Tremors upon tremors wreck his body as he stiffles his sobs into the pillow below, and when I see that this must be something very serious for him to cry like that, I lie down next to him and raise one arm up to hug him from behind. It's a somewhat uncomfortable position, so I slide even closer to him, and then I continue to caress him softly, whispering, "Hey... it's okay. I'm here if you need me."

It takes him awhile to calm down, but I continue to whisper soothing things and I keep hugging him tightly, not letting go until I'm sure that he's okay again.

For a moment I get the impression that he's fallen asleep. But then he's sniffling adorably, wiping his tears away and whispering back, "I-I'm sorry..."

I huff slightly, "What for? Because you're human? Despite what everybody says, it's okay for guys to cry. It's okay to be emotional. It's liberating. When I was younger I did it all the time... well, still do it occassionally but that's not the point I want to make."

Prom snorts out a sound that might be either a laugh or a sob. "For me it's been years... I haven't cried in a long time." he admits to me, his trembling voice raspy from crying so much.

"Why didn't you?"

"I... I didn't allow myself to cry, because I didn't want to appear weak in front of everyone. It was much easier to ignore and swallow everything down. As you can see, I'm overweight. What I did instead was compensating my need for comfort with eating. Besides, crying wouldn't have changed anything."

This comes as a shock to me. I don't know what to say, so I just squeeze his arm lightly to show him my sympathy.

The silence drags on for some minutes, and then he's turning around to face me. I let go of his arm and make room for him to settle on his other side. Now it's became possible for me to look into his red, puffy eyes.

"If eating is to obtain comfort for you, then tell me, why did you almost starve yourself? Did something happen?" I finally ask the question that burned on my mind for the last few hours, ever since Sius revealed to me the reason of why Prom fainted yesterday.

He's avoiding my eyes, looking upset again.

"If this is a line I shouldn't cross, of course you don't have to force yourself to tell me. As your friend I just worry about you... friends care about each other." I add before staying silent.

In afterthought it's amazing what Luna teached me when she and I met several years ago. It was because of her that I learned what true friendship is like. It's thanks to her that Ignis and Gladio became such good friends, because I let them in and because I talked to them if I needed their advice and support.

And now it's my turn. I can finally give back what I so kindly received from everyone.

I wish to care for Prom in the same way that Luna cared for me. It just feels right.

Prom sniffles adorably once again, surprisingly opening up to me when he says softly, "You know... I promised someone something important. And I thought, well, to achieve my goals, to be accepted and not to become a burden, that I needed to lose weight... I began to eat the right food, I started various sports too, but then..."

Oh...

Now things start to make sense.

"Then my parents came for a visit."

What?

My eye brows rise up to my hairline in confusion and disbelief.

Did I hear right? His parents came for a visit? So they don't live here? What in the world?

"Each month they come by to check up on me. They usually sign all the papers that I need for school and then leave some money on my table. And then they leave. People think my parents live here with me. But in truth I live alone."

I can only stare at him wide-eyed.

What kind of cold-hearted people would let their own child live all alone?

"But this time they noticed that I started to care for myself, that I was much happier than usual, so my mother started to ask all kinds of questions, and I thought that finally she would be able to accept me when I told her the true reason of why I wanted to change myself for the better..." Prom's voice starts to shake, and he takes a deep breath before continuing, "This was the first time when I realized that she didn't love me at all. Of course, I somehow knew it all along but I didn't want to see it. Didn't want to think about it, because it would hurt too much."

Tears well up in his eyes again and I reach my hand out to grasp his in a tight squeeze.

He looks up into my eyes, his voice choked up despite sounding cold when he says, "She mocked me. She said all kinds of horrible things to me to make me feel bad about myself, to make me lose my new-found confidence. She said I'll never lose weight. That I'll never reach my goal because I'm her pathetic son. Then she worked herself up to hurt me even more, telling me that I'm a good-for-nothing son. That I'm a burden to her and that she wished I've never been born."

A stricken expression is on my face, and I feel my own tears well up at the cruelty.

How?

How can a mother do this to her own son?

I don't understand. My mother... when she was still alive, she loved me and appreciated me with all her being.

"I live all alone, Noctis, because my mother is mentally ill. The authorities separated us, because otherwise I would live in a constant danger of her hurting me in ways that would become irreparable..."

I... I just don't know what to say.

So I do the only thing that Luna once taught me to do in such a situation.

I pull Prom into a fierce hug and say the same words that Luna once said to me.

"You have me now. You're alone no longer, I'm here to stay."

...

To be continued.