Hey dear readers,

another update comes your way ;).

Did some of you play the Platinum Demo? How did you like it?

I myself have spent over ten hours with it since it came out, I just can't get enough ;_; lol, it's so much fun! September cannot come soon enough!

So continuing in this spirit, this chapter is dedicated to our fluffy Carbuncle! Because he's a sneaky, meddling, little cute unicorn-fox ô_Ô!

bevin: ;) yeah, I agree, Regis is amazing!

Sage: Hey Sage! Thank you so much for your comment! Glad you like this story :D. Prom is precious indeed, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

Yoshi: You're very welcome! I'm so happy that you stick with me through this story, thank you so much for your support ^_^! Please, enjoy this chapter!

Have fun reading everyone!

Kamuel


Chapter Seven

...

The car stops in front of our home and I open the door to get outside.

I look up into the sky, blinking the sudden raindrops out of my eyes.

The cold drops soak immediately my hair and shirt up until Sius reaches me to hold out an umbrella protectively over my head. Usually this would make me rush the multiple stairs up into the palace as if the devil himself were after me.

I can't stand the rain. Rain reminds me always of bad things...

So I find this to be such a strange coincidence, that it has to rain just when I feel sad again. Today of all days...

But the sadness that I feel right now is the only thing my heart cares about. My feet respond to that emotion, and they walk up the stairs slowly, following the steps of my father as if they all of sudden have turned into lead.

"Welcome back, Your Majesty, Your Highness," greet us the attendants once we reach inside.

"I'm going to take a shower," I inform my father without giving anyone the chance to speak first. I want to be left alone. I can feel their stares full of questions and pity, but quite frankly I'm not in the mood to get pampered and questioned by everyone today.

Without waiting for an answer my feet resume their task to get me into my room, I crave the silence and solitude that I can only find in the privacy of my own bedroom. But my steps feel heavy, sluggish, as if they would have a mind of their own, because my mind can't do anything else but stay occupied with confusing, glum images and thoughts of this morning's events.

All that I can think about is Prom's upset face. That short moment, when he quickly wiped away his tears to hide them from me, had burned itself behind my retinas.

I feel my own tears well up in my eyes when I finally reach my destination.

As soon as I close the door behind me, locking it up as to not get disturbed by anyone, I suddenly run the last few steps that lead to my bed and I throw myself on it.

Why?

Why am I that devastated over the fact that Prom rejected my invitation?

I feel so helpless, scolding myself with the knowledge that I could have run back to him to hug him, to convince him to come with me, but I didn't know how. Knowing that I could have said something to comfort him before I closed the door, but I didn't know what.

Right now I'm so emotionally invested, that it makes me fear myself. This is a new side of me. I have never met someone like Prom before that makes me wish so foolishly to spend as much time with him as possible.

Eos, that he refused to come with me shouldn't be such a big deal, and yet here I am, acting as if the world just ended.

I'm still a child after all.

I close my eyes tightly, forcing the burn behind my eyelids to stop. I don't want to cry. I'm sure that there is a good reason why Prom decided to stay home. There must be.

But as much as I try to find an answer on my own, I can't come up with anything.

Despite the turmoil inside of me, the seconds and minutes go by, and as tired as I am it doesn't take long for me to drift back to sleep...

...

(Noct's realm of dreams)

...

'Noct! What happened? What are you doing here so soon?'

My fluffy friend from my dreams greets me with a cute squeak and I send a sad smile towards him, shrugging my shoulders helplessly.

'Carbuncle, I'm so glad to see you again,' I greet back, watching how my dear friend runs with quick steps to catch up to me.

Now that I'm older, he and I don't need a communication device any longer. I learned to control my lucid dreams a lot better and our thoughts are tightly interwined as a result. I'm glad for it, because now we are able to exchange words, ideas and symbols freely within our minds without any misunderstandings. It took us five long years to achieve that feat, but it was definitely worth all the trouble.

As soon as Carbuncle reaches me, his small body jumps up into my open arms and I hug him tenderly, nuzzling his white fur with the side of my face.

He then squeaks gently next to my ear, 'You are sad. How can I help you to make you feel better?'

The guardian of my dreams always knows my current moods and feelings. I couldn't hide them from him even if I wanted to.

'Let's just stay like this for awhile...,' I whisper against his fur.

'You know you attract nightmare creatures when you stay upset like this for too long,' Carbuncle warns me fondly.

I just hug him closer to my chest. 'Hn, I know.'

After some time, I can feel his small nose poking my cheek to get my attention and then he squeaks out, 'Prom's realm of dreams sure seems fascinating.'

'Heh, is that so.' My voice is muffled when I continue to snuggle my face on his soft fur. I try not to show him how much I want to know more about it.

'Ah, I knew you would be curious! Just admit it, you can't hide it from me,' he squeaks out, a sly chuckle following.

I feel the urge to smile, despite the stab of pain Prom's name calls forth in me. So I give in to Carbuncle's bait to get me to speak about my troubles.

'You caught me red handed, you know me too well,' I confess. Of course I'm very much interested in what he has to say about my new friend.

So I listen eagerly to my guardian's next words.

'You remember the Iron Giant that prevented you to wake up some years ago? I found out something terrifying. A nightmare creature, of the same alarming scale as the dark giant you once defeated, seems to have nested itself inside Prom's subconscious mind. It wreaks havoc with his self esteem, insomuch poor Prom can't escape his grasp and influence even at the time when he's awake in the real world. While I scouted his dreams yesterday, I tried my best to steer Prom away from that dark place for the time being. He was not ready to face that creature all alone. But maybe, if he joins forces with someone close to him...'

My hands lift Carbuncle immediately up so that our eyes are on the same level. 'You think that I'm able to help? Show me the place, I'm ready.'

He squeaks out a soft laughter. 'Oh Noct. You are a true friend. I knew you cared about Prom very strongly,' he teases me, his eyes twinkling with some kind of emotion that I am not able to understand yet.

'That's why yesterday, I took the liberty to weave a gate, to form a link to his realm of dreams, and now there is a connection from his subconscious mind to yours. I can take you right there if you want to do this now, Prom is asleep which will make your journey seamless.'

The strong desire to protect Prom from any harm suddenly dispels all sadness instantly.

'Bring me to him,' I say firmly, nodding at my guardian for him to show me the way.

Carbuncle jumps down to the ground, looking ahead.

'Follow me, you know the drill by now.'

...

In the past few years I managed to accumulate a lot of knowledge and strength. I gathered many abilities of how to defend myself inside the realm of my dreams. With Carbuncle by my side I scoured deeper levels of my subconscious mind and I defeated a vast number of nightmares along the way. A feat that did help me a lot in the outside world. I have become less scared of things, I became stronger and a better person because of all those nocturnal journeys. Lucid dreaming is amazing once one gets the hang out of it and it's incredible what I was able to learn about myself in all those past dreams.

A lot of dark creatures learned to fear me by now and this gave way to much scarier and bigger opponents over time. While still dangerous, I'm confident in my abilities to defeat a nightmare of the scale of an Iron Giant without the need to transform into an adult version of myself any longer.

So I'm ready to tackle whatever might come my way. I'll protect Prom with everything I have.

As my father once said to me, 'In your dreams you are the King.'

'We are here,' squeaks Carbuncle in warning, leading us the way inside a dark cave.

But then all of a sudden my fluffy guardian slows down.

'Oh no! Prom is here!'

'What?! All by himself?' I squint my eyes into the darkness, trying to catch sight of something as I gaze as far into the distance as I can.

'Noct, the Iron Giant seems to have grown since yesterday, his magic powers feed off Prom's fearful emotions! I can feel it!'

Prom!

Without thinking too much, my feet already resume running, jumping, climbing and warping over various obstacles to reach Prom in time.

Carbuncle calls after me, 'Noct, wait! We don't know how dangerous this nightmare might be, slow down!'

I can hear Prom shouting in fright from afar and I grit my teeth, forcing my body to move faster, praying with all my might to overcome the remaining distance at one go.

Please! Come on, hurry up you stupid legs! This is only a dream! There is no gravity to hold you back!

I need to save my friend!

My body starts to glow and I look down at my hands as wisps of strong magic encase my body. Carbuncle squeaks out loud in surprise when we suddenly find ourselves high up in the air.

In a blink of an eye we both warp beside Prom.

I'm too shocked to react, needing a moment to process what just happened. Usually I need to throw a weapon into the distance to warp myself to it. This time I warped with Carbuncle in tow without any aid of weapon.

I'm truly shocked.

'Noct, this was amazing!' praises Carbuncle and I send a wide smile at him in answer.

'It worked! I can will my body to warp anywhere I want!'

But my joy is cut short, because the huge Iron Giant takes a hold of me and starts to squeeze out the breath out of me.

"Noctis!"

Prom calls my name, his fearful, wide eyes staring at me owlishly, as if not believing that I'm truly here inside his nightmare.

Eos, I'm so happy to see that he's all right, but I forgot how painful it is to be squeezed to death by the Iron Giant's massive hand! This time the dark creature is so much stronger than the version I defeated five years ago!

I'm shouting with pain, struggling to get out of his unforgiving grasp.

"Noctis! No!"

Prom seems to forget his fear, because he's already standing up from the ground to run up to me, his intent to help me written all over his pale looking face.

"Let go of my friend!" he cries out angrily.

He punches and kicks at the Iron Giant's leg several times, sounding desperate, "Let go of him, do you hear me! It's me you want, I'm right here!"

I still struggle to get out, but because I'm in my younger form I can't warp out of the grasp as easily as I once did. The dark magic is too strong, I can't do anything!

Carbuncle squeaks out and jumps up to provide Prom with a weapon to fight.

'Prom! Use your gun to defeat him!', shouts my guardian at my new friend. 'Don't worry, I'll be right by your side to help you!'

"Carbuncle, you here? Noctis and you really came to save me? All of this is not my imagination?"

Prom stares at us in disbelief before taking his gun swiftly into his hands to shoot at the Iron Giant's head.

"Aim at his heart, Prom! This is his weakness!" I cry out at him in between harsh and painful squeezes on my limbs.

"Understood!"

Prom focuses his aim at the Iron Giant's heart, attacking it with sharp, deadly shots.

The strategy seems to work, because I can feel the fierce hold on my body lessen. Finally I am able to warp down to the ground!

Landing next to Prom, I nod at him, smiling like an idiot because I'm proud of him that he overcame his fear to save me. I knew it that he is brave!

But before Prom can react to me, the Iron Giant lifts up his heavy sword already and prepares a strong attack. In my younger form I'm aware that I'm not strong enough to counter his sword, so in a swift move my arms go around Prom and I warp us away at a safe distance.

Because of the strong impact, we land in a heap of limbs on top of each other.

Prom blinks up at me, his glasses askew. His face seems flustered.

He and I are so close to each other right now that our noses almost touch, and all of a sudden my brain thinks that this is the right moment to inform me of how many different kind of hues and nuances his blue irises are comprised of. In addition to that, a big image appears in my mind, encouraging me to compare his eyes with the beautiful sky on a clear summer day...

I can feel my own cheeks heat up for no reason at all and I quickly take a step back to give us some much needed space.

Where in the world did that embarrassing thought come from?

But before I can question myself any further, Carbuncle joins us, his expression worried. 'Noct, this time around the dark creature is too strong! In this state I fear you are not a match for him. You know what you need to do, don't you?'

Nodding in confirmation, I glance back at Prom. "How good is your imagination?"

"Huh?" Comes his overwhelmed answer.

"Can you imagine yourself as an adult right now? Can you picture your future self in your mind?"

Prom tilts his head slightly to the side. "Noct, what do you mean?"

I smirk in reply. "I mean this."

Closing my eyes and focusing on my future self, my body starts to glow and I can feel my appearance change to that of a 20 year old self. With a mischievous smile aimed at Prom, I intend for my shuriken weapons to appear into my hands, preparing myself for battle.

"Wha... who... h-how?" Prom stutters completely taken aback, looking me up and down with his mouth hanging wide open. The sheer and utter awe painted all over his adorable face makes me laugh softly.

From afar we can hear the Iron Giant getting closer, his growls growing louder.

Carbuncle sqeaks in panic, 'This is the realm of your dreams, Prom! You can do it too! Hurry!'

"Close your eyes," I urge him, aiding him with further explanation, "and then imagine how you would look like when you get older. It doesn't matter what age, you need to be an adult for your abilities to grow stronger. Forget your limitations, here you can do and be anything you want as long as you believe strongly in yourself!"

Prom closes his eyes, brows furrowed as he focuses on his task.

"Join me when you are ready," I say, leaving his side to confront the dark giant.

My dream guardian stays behind to protect Prom and I try not to glance back curiously when I hear him squeak loudly in shock.

The Iron Giant catches up to us and I jump high up to throw my shuriken in vicious strikes at his heart to hold his severe attacks off. I can only hope that his fighting techniques are the same as they were the last time when I confronted his counterpart in my own realm of dreams.

The nightmare creature growls louder, the air around me reverberating his evil intent and he stretches his arms out to gather more dark energy into himself.

Very good, that's the opening I've been looking for! This is my chance!

With swift warps I get close to him and then I attack the area of his heart with the huge Zweihänder. But just when I think that I'm able to do a lot of damage to his armor, the slashes of my sword gets immediately repelled and I'm getting thrown off to the ground with force.

I imagine to hear my bones cracking from the impact, even when I know that this is a dream and my body isn't real.

Eos, this hurts like mad!

When I try to stand up, I can't stop a wince, because my body hurts like it would do in real life, dream or not.

Right then the nightmare giant uses his gravity attack to absorb my essence into his wide bubble of dark energy.

I warp away from the magnetic pull, but a heavy strike of his huge sword close to me crushes me to the ground again before I can even think to warp away any further.

"Noct!"

Prom joins me out of nowhere, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"You alright?" He asks with worry lacing his voice, his arms pulling me up.

"Yeah, splendid!" I joke, but everything else that I wanted to say gets entirely swallowed up by my dry tongue when I look up at Prom's adult self.

He pats my clothes in an attempt to get rid of the dirt which is only an illusion anyway, his face focused on the Iron Giant next to us. "How can we defeat him? Do you have a strategy?"

I try to utter something intelligent, but I find myself not able to speak, my eyes firmly glued on him.

Gone are his chubby cheeks and plump looking body. For the first time I see how truly handsome Prom is. Of course I found him handsome and adorable before, but now...

I shake my head. Hell, this is not the time to gape at my friend!

Compared to me, the Iron Giant doesn't slack off, his huge sword suddenly coming down on us with a swift blow.

So I turn around with a growl, willing my huge shield to appear on my left arm, just in time to parry the forceful attack!

What happens next is too much for me to comprehend, because in a spur of valor, Prom joins my counter attack with a series of impactful shots at the giant's massive chest! Right then the enemy is forced down to his knees and we use this opportunity to attack simultaneously! I activate the Armiger, the mysterious Phantom Swords cycling around me as they spear one after another the giant's heart, destroying his armor to make room for me to use the shuriken to strike effectively at his weak point while Prom fires his deadly arsenal mercilessly in a final, finishing blow!

"Guuuarrrrggggghhhhhh!"

The evil giant gargles his defeat, and Prom and I watch breathlessly how the black essence gets absorbed by the liquid ground underneath his heavy body.

Prom stares at me and I stare back.

After the nightmare's epic fall into nothingness, we fall down on our tired asses, panting, looking at each other and starting to laugh in joined euphoria.

'Noct, Prom! You did it!' comes Carbuncle excited squeak from behind. He jumps up on Prom's chest and then he swishes his fluffy tail against Prom's nose in his joy.

With this Prom sneezes and suddenly turns himself back to his younger self.

Carbuncle jumps down, praising us, 'You two should have seen yourself, each one of you were so incredible! So strong!'

Just then I feel myself transform back as well, and I send a fond smile at Prom while holding my fist up.

Prom adjusts his glasses, a playful grin on his lips. Reading the intent behind my gesture, he raises his fist to meet mine in a victory bump.

"Not bad for your first slay," I tease him.

He ducks his head shyly, his adorable cheeks red as he acknowledges the hidden compliment.

"So, what do you say? You ready to come for a visit to my place? I won't bite, I promise," I tease him again, being hopeful that this time he won't reject my offer.

Prom's head turns to me swiftly, staring wide eyed at me.

I tilt my head in confusion. "What's that look for?"

"I... I thought you were mad at me. You... ehm, you really want me to come to your place? Are you sure you won't get in any trouble because of me?"

Ah, so he declined my offer because of self esteem issues for which his nightmares were responsible for.

He looks down on himself and I have to smile at his sudden, horrified gasp while his hands hurry to pull his shirt down to cover his belly from my sight.

Nightmares or not, some things never change. He's truly adorable.

"Prom," I say softly, "you are welcome to visit my home anytime you want. You are my friend now. A good friend."

He meets my eyes from underneath his lashes, nodding slightly, nervously plucking off something invisible from his short jeans while he bites on his lip to hide his happy smile.

Eos... I can't properly express how relieved I am to see him smile again.

"Then... expect me at your place in about an hour," he says shyly.

A nod is the only thing I'm able to give back to confirm, speechless from the sheer joy that Prom changed his mind.

"I'll send Sius to pick you up."

Carbuncle, who watched our interaction in silence until now, suddenly quips up, "Don't forget to bring your homework."

"Eeeeeeeeeeh?!" Prom stares aghast at our fluffy friend. "I forgot! My weekend is now completely ruined!"

I snort out a laugh. "Nah, don't worry." I reach out to ruffle his hair. "I'll help you with your homework. You can copy some of mine and then we have enough free time to have fun."

Prom's eyes start to water, his hands reaching for mine, whining playfully, "Noctisssss, you're sooo niiice! Marry me?"

We all start to laugh in good humor.

Truly, I'm so glad to have met him.

I'm grateful that we can spend the weekend together after all.

I really can't wait.

...

To be continued.