"Noctis! Where you at? Me and Ignis just found Prompto ogling on naked woman centuries older than him. He thought you and Stella were in the same room all along, but it turns out you guys aren't here! Where are you? We're hungry!" Gladiolus grumbled through the walkie-talkie.
"Oh… we're…" Noctis paused to glance back at Stella for a private wink.
"We're downstairs. We'll meet you up in the top floor food court in a few minutes." Noctis hung up on Gladiolus instantly.
"Looks like the boys need fuel. Let's go Stella." Noctis and Stella stepped towards the elevator.
Stella took one last turn to ease her farewell with this secret room, a room she may never re-visit again…
She couldn't come back here.
It would be her last moment in this underground den…
Unless… she came back with Noctis…
Will she have another chance to do so…?
"What's wrong Stella?" Noctis asked earnestly.
"Oh… nothing… it's just… I thought that I wouldn't be able to see this place again… I've never been to a hidden room of any kind in my life before… so… I'm saying goodbye to it." Stella sounded almost as though she were sad.
Her small shoulders slumped lower.
Noctis snorted.
"Who decided that, Stella? You can always come here, whenever you come to Lucis. I'll let you in next time as well." gestured Noctis in a friendly manner.
Stella felt a glimmer of warm hope at the thought of re-visiting this place with Noctis.
The next time she did, she and Noctis will be much older.
"Really?" Stella's voice rose to a high-pitch.
"Promise." Noctis chuckled as he held up his pinky finger up in the air.
The two children rode the elevator back up to the empty car park, and then onto the highest floor of the museum, where all the cafe and restaurants gathered to form the food court.
The food court was everything that you would expect from the typical interior designs of Lucis architecture.
Modern glassy walls enclosed on both gourmet restaurants and fast-food franchise takeaways that were decked with neon advertisement signs.
It wasn't difficult to find Noctis's crew.
One simply had to search the room for three teenage boys who would infuriate the fashion police to come chasing after them, for the crime of committing cringe-worthy fashion sense in public.
Homeless Prompto was waiting with Gladiolus; snuggled into his athlete uniform, his protective helmet and knee pads fastened on to his well-built frame.
The lean boy beside them looked every bit the geek as anyone could look; nerdy dungarees, huge spectacles and high-knee socks.
Who could this be, but the bookworm Ignis?
Stella struggled to fight her uncontrollable desire to whoop into villainous laughter at the drug dealing gang leader re-uniting with his mob; the beggar, the jock and the nerd.
"Sup boss! Me and the nerd was hanging out at the sixth floor looking at vintage postcards. Ignis was fascinated as ever with those educational bull shit, but I was bored as hell." Gladiolus wailed.
"Ignis will always be like that. Good to see you're in good shape player of the month." Noctis punched Gladiolus's exposed biceps in a playful manner.
"I'm hungry! What are we gonna eat?" Prompto whined.
"Ah hem…" Ignis coughed deliberately to draw attention.
"I think its courtesy for us to hear Lady Stella's opinion of what she wants to eat." Ignis glared at Prompto, who was still acting as careless as his usual self.
"Oh… right… my bad, Lady Stella." Prompto scratched his head.
"So what do you feel like for lunch, Lady Stella?" Gladiolus requested brightly.
"Oh… how gracious of you guys to ask… actually, I don't mind at all. I don't know much about Lucis cuisine… Noctis? Can you introduce me to something you usually enjoy?" Stella tilted her head facing Noctis.
"What? Me? Well… um… ok… how about… uh- eating something un-royal? We always have deluxe food all the time at home, so why don't we try out some commoner food for a change? Like… hamburgers, fries and a soft drink combo? You know, stuff that normal people eat." Noctis asserted as if he just came up with the most brilliant idea in history.
"Wow! Sure! I've always wanted to eat ordinary fast-food that civilians eat, but my mother would never let me… she said it's too inappropriate for royals to eat 'that junk'." Stella quoted her mother's comments of fast-food sarcastically.
The boys all joined in on her joke.
"Right! Let's all head to the inappropriate junk restaurant for the royals." Noctis led the group towards the hamburger fast-food chain.
Stella ordered the regular sized chicken burger set while the four boys ordered the supersized cheeseburger combo.
They sat down around the red plastic table in circles, Stella coincidently sitting right beside Noctis.
The boys bravely dug themselves into their 'commoner meal' as if eating a fast-food hamburger was at the top of their life's bucket list.
"Oh! Lord Regis! How my tongue has ached with longing to taste this goodness once again after all these years!" Prompto religiously savored the cheesy, warm burger in his mouth, the mayonnaise sauce oozing out of his oily lips in climatic ecstasy.
"Now this, is what I call pleasure! This baby is delicious! I'm gonna get me another one of these babes!" Gladiolus had already finished the first junk food of his life in a flash.
He immediately marched towards the counter to order his second burger.
Noctis remained silent while the party sang nothing but appreciation for ordinary French fries and burgers, but he too, was energetically munching into his first yummy treat of 'normal food'.
"You see, even if we go out to eat, we only visit five-star restaurants run by world-renowned professional chefs. Don't get me wrong, those foods are tasty, but we've had enough of Filet Mignon steaks in fancy platters." Ignis chimed in on the appraisal.
"Same here." Stella too found this unfamiliar burger combo very appetizing.
"It feels kind of wrong at first… but it tastes good as you get used to the exotic flavor. It tastes so different to the burger and potato chips served at home." commented Noctis as he nibbled on his packet of crispy French fries.
"I'm guessing that the chemicals embedded into these types of food won't help us build abs or anything, but hey, I'm not complaining." Ignis yammered while crunching on his chicken nuggets.
Stella and the boys chewed joyfully as they shared their first experience of junk-food.
"So, Noct. Where did you and Stella disappear off to? After I… uh… um… felt that I had done my day's worth of studying historical art… uh… I noticed you guys weren't in the same room…" Prompto stammered sheepishly.
"You mean, where did we go after your eyes got sore from seeing too much porn of naked dead women? Well… there was something I wanted to show Stella about Lucis's history downstairs." Noctis lied convincingly.
"Hey!" Prompto yelled in retaliation as everyone at the table cracked up loudly.
"Oh… me and Ignis thought uh… you and Stella might've gone away for some private time." teased Gladiolus.
Stella tried to duck her head low so none of them could notice her awkward expression.
"Ooohh! Uh la la! Noct is finally reaching puberty! What did I tell you guys? I knew he was coming around to it! It's about time!" Prompto slapped Noctis on the back as a way of delivering his brotherly encouragement.
Noctis shrugged Prompto's hand off violently in embarrassment.
"It was a historical discussion." Noctis emphasized harshly.
"Yeah. Noctis and I just had something we wanted to find out downstairs. That's all." Stella elucidated to help Noctis out of his uncomfortable situation.
"Well… okay, okay." Prompto sleazed out his dramatic playboy slur.
"But just so you know Noct, I know all about this business." Prompto winked at Noctis like a sly fox.
"Think however you want." Noctis snapped back.
Stella felt a desperate need to change the conversation topic expeditiously.
"So guys… I was wondering, what were your personal inspirations you had, to design your 'Plan B' costume?" she trailed her question in speed.
"Oh… well… for me it's obvious… wait. I suppose for the whole gang actually. You see, our Plan B costumes represent our inner and spiritual identity. We dressed up as who we are really on the inside. Who we aspire to be! For example, I've always wanted to be an athlete, Ignis is the epidemy of the archetypal nerd, Prompto is homeless because he ain't royal enough and Noct is the bad-ass gang leader because he's a rough cookie deep down, you know?" rapped Gladiolus.
"Now I think of it, it makes perfect sense!" giggled Stella as she intimately studied the boys one by one.
"Are there any other friends or members of this royal club of Lucis?" queried Stella.
"Well… we do have this guy called Cor Leonis, who's like our über strong lion babysitter. He's the Head of the Royal Family Guards, and is one of the three strongest fighters in Lucis. But the dude takes life way too seriously; he's super sensitive and strict with just about anything related with national security. He's like a warrior fire alarm." Noctis drank his coke as he elaborated on the captain of his bodyguards.
"Yeah. The dude needs to chill sometimes. This one time, we tried to play tricks on him to hide his katana while he was asleep. When he woke up, he was literally about to fume Firaga spells at us and scolded us big time about how immature we are, and how important it is to him for his katana to be right beside him at all times, because he is 'duty bound to watch over our safety.'" Prompto criticized.
"He's too old to join our crew anyway. He's in his early thirties. Ain't hip enough to hunt Cactuars with us, you know?" Gladiolus mumbled through his mouth full of food.
"He's a no-nonsense military type of guy sworn to protect the king and his subjects for the welfare of this country. Give the man a break. He's only doing his job." lectured Ignis.
"He sounds like an interesting person. Maybe one of you could introduce him to me someday!" Stella exclaimed.
"Yeah , sure. Although he's busy at the moment organizing security for the treaty banquet in few weeks time. All the royals from Lucis and Tenebrae are gonna be there, so Cor is really uptight with pressure to make sure there is zero infiltration and possibility of danger." conveyed Noctis.
"Lady Stella. I have a question for you too." Prompto rested his chin on his hand as he eyed Stella seriously and maliciously.
"What is it?" Stella responded gently.
"Ok, I'm gonna be blatantly straight forward. Do you have a boyfriend?"
Everybody sitting on the table except Prompto nearly choked on their coke and burgers, in the case of Gladiolus he gagged on both.
"I beg your pardon?" Stella blinked in astonishment at Prompto's sudden impersonal questionnaire.
She knew Prompto wasn't of noble birth and upbringing, and that he lacked royal courtesy compared to the others, but boy, she wasn't expecting this.
"Prompto! Shut your pie hole or I'll kick your skinny ass like a behemoth! Who do you think Lady Stella is?!" Gladiolus attacked with rage.
"What? I was just asking a simple question! She's thirteen for Bhunivelze sake! All the other girls her age have one, so I might as well figured she had one too!" Prompto defended himself against the menacing laser beam blasting through Ignis and Gladiolus's eyes.
Noctis was inadvertently sipping his coke in calm, trying not to add more tension to Prompto's drama of misbehaved mayhem.
"You're forgetting something thick head. Lady Stella is not like 'all the other girls'. She's a royal. As you have realized from hanging around with us, royals don't date casually like yourself. We're obligated by our parents to date and marry with extra caution with selected individuals by the likes of our social status." Ignis pointed out at Prompto, who was beginning to show signs of hatred towards his own uncontrollable loud mouth.
"Yeah, but as Stella's a pretty girl, I thought she might… uh… forget it… Lady Stella I am terribly sorry for crossing the border… I was just… curious…" confessed Prompto.
"Oh… you don't need to be sorry Prompto… Actually… all my other royal friends in Tenebrae seem to have casual affairs in and out of school, but I don't have one yet." Stella answered in a soothing way to relax the rigidity surrounding Prompto.
Noctis was now sucking his straw on an empty cup.
There was no drink left to suck, but he did it anyway, to look as though he didn't find this new piece of information amusing.
"Woah. Really? That's a surprise. A pretty girl like you ought to catch a lot of attention and offers from boys our age." Prompto almost sounded lively again.
"Thank you Prompto, I appreciate your constant compliments. But I'm an indoor girl. I mostly spend time indoors in libraries, reading. I'm not too outgoing at school either." Stella gracefully wiped the grease on her lips with a tissue.
"Why? Are you interested in Stella, Prompto?" Noctis stiffly butt into the conversation out of no where, as he stopped sucking his straw to place his empty cup on the table.
"Fat chance of a guy like Prompto to hook up with a girl in the likes of Lady Stella." joked Gladiolus.
"Yeah, only in your wildest dreams mate." Ignis tapped Prompto on the shoulder for reassurance.
"No! What? Of course I know my place in the world! I was just curious. It's normal to ask girls this kind of stuff to get to know them a little better! We're gonna be hanging out with Lady Stella for weeks to come! Might as well break the ice a little sooner, you know?" Prompto denied as he waved his hands in retribution.
"What about you guys, do you all have girlfriends?" Stella challenged back.
"Well I broke up with mine last month. Gladiolus's first and last girlfriend was at pre-school and the most Ignis ever crushed on was his math teacher." Prompto ridiculed quirkily.
"And as for Noct, well… his testosterone is on delay compared to the rest of us. He's not too into girls." whispered Prompto.
"Shut up. Are you calling me gay?" Noctis rolled his eyes in irony.
"So basically, everyone in this table is single and available!" announced Prompto as he spread his arms open wide to show the celebration of teens riding solo.
"Actually, you'll be dating a new girl next month. I'm betting my new katana on it." Ignis folded his arms as he re-corrected Prompto.
"Nope! I swear that won't happen this time." rebutted Prompto as he swayed his head side to side in refusal.
"I'm on the bet." added Gladiolus.
"Count me in." adhered Noctis.
Stella sniggered as the whole gang scoffed at Prompto.
Stella's attention naturally fell upon Noctis, who was sitting right next to her.
That's when she realized that for the first time, Noctis looked genuinely happy.
Something he heard during lunch had elevated his mood, like an air balloon flying up in to the skies.
