group was to say the least completely exhausted. Even ignis barely cooked his usual well thought out meal in the trailer oven they had available to them. The four of them ate noodles for dinner that night. Gladio cut training back today to less than half the time they usually spent and Noct is pretty sure Prompto is about to fall asleep with his cup in his hands. Noct was currently watching from his place lying on the side of a yellow chocobo as Prompts eyes slowly closed and his cup of noodles tilter further and further in his hands.
Today had been difficult. The boys were running low on funds so they decided to go to the local towns and hunt down some monsters that were terrorizing people to earn a few extra gil. The first half of the day went smoothly with nothing but easy hunts. Empowered by their success, they decided to go after a bigger monster in the second half of the day.
A snake had been blocking the towns path to their water supply. None of them were paying much attention while the tipster was giving advice or they would have realized how large that particular snake was. It was a large black snake, easily over 50 foot long and thick enough not even Gladio could wrap both his arms around it if he wanted to. Alas, they did not listen and spent the remainder of their day battling the creature.
After the fight, they had barely been able to make it to the car borrowed from the prince's father and make their way to a camper. Not one of them suggested sleeping outside with how exhausted they were and they were still to short on funds to sleep in the hotel. Thus , the group found themselves sitting in the chairs outside of camp half eating/half picking their food before they pass out for the evening. With how close to the hotel they were, they knew they would not be bothered by the local wildlife.
Turns out everyone was so tired that even watching the events unfold, everyone in camp was frightened when Prompto's food finally spilled in his lab and he yelled out "AH! Hot! Hot! Hot!' he jumped up and down trying to dislodge the hot food from his lap. Gladio jumped up so quickly he stumbled over the chair, hit the ground hard and moaned pitifully from his place sprawled halfway under the table.
Ignis and Noct did not get away from the event easily either. Ignis was putting out the fire for the night. He turned so quickly, sparks flew around him and he had to do his own jumping to prevent his clothing from catching from the fire. From his current position on the ground, one could only assume that Noctis had attempted to get into a fighting form and failed miserably.
In his defense he had managed to summon and sword and even avoided impaling himself with it in his less than ideal state. When he summoned it though, it startled the the chocobo he was lying on so badly that the bird scratched his arm and ran off further down the beach.
It was pandemonium for a few minutes as everyone attempted to settle themselves back down after the interesting display. After calming down, Noct looked up and noticed the sight before him. Gladio attempting to get out from under the table, Ignis and Prompto finally realizing the danger is passed and holding still, and the great prince of the nation holding his right arm where a bird had scratched him and blood was leaking through his fingers.
The four just stared at how ridiculous they all looked before the reality of the situation hit them all. Ignis jumped into the camper to get the first aid kit for the burns and the scratch that was maybe bleeding more than a normal scratch should be. Noct and Prompto busted out laughing while easing themselves back on the ground, careful not injure themselves further. The laughing numbing any pain anyone was in for the moment. Gladio just sort of sighed praying for patience for the idiots surrounding him and lied back down on the ground.
Now came another problem that the two adults of the group did not know how to fix. Both of the younger boys were hysterical in their laughs. Prompto was turning an unusual shade of blue to match his light colored hair and Noct could not get up from his knees. They would begin to settle and look up a moment, only to see the same situation and the other laughing.
It was a vicious cycle that lasted almost 30 minutes as the two adults watched helpless to stop it. Finally after both had run out of air, Ignis told prompt to change out of the clothes that now had cold cup noodles all over them and attempted to see to the prince. He somehow ended up the worst out of the bunch. Gladio only bruised his pride a bit. Turns out the other two were not even burned. Their clothing protected them from the hot food and fire. It took some prodding and finally Gladio had to get up off the ground and pry the boys fingers away from his damaged arm.
Noct paled as he saw the damage. Usually when they fought, there were not many injuries that he could not shake right off. Most of what he had at the end of the day were bruises and abrasions. He did not realize that a chocobo's claws could cut so deeply. Even after the time skip and the pressure the wound was still bleeding freely and he could feel a burning sensation going all the way down his arm. The "Scratch" wrapped nearly around his entire arm.
Tsking, Ignis knew what was about to have to be done. Looking at Gladio to hold pressure on the wound and hold the arm in place. He explained to Noct and the returned Prompto that he would have to clean and stitch the wound closed. Now Ignis did have some medical training and he was part of the guard. This would not be his first time stitching another's wound. He even had the lidocaine to numb it while he was stitching.
Safe to say, everyone was awake now. After explaining the process to the other three, they each had a part to play. Noct, who was still quit pale, looked more determined than fearful to take the stitches. Ignis would be providing the care and Gladio would hold Noct's arm in place so he would not jump when Ignis started. It fell onto his best friend to distract him while the other two worked.
The problem with stitches though was that the prince had never had any while he was awake. Sure he had some in the past when he was attacked but he was thankfully unconscious when they were being put in. First order of business was to inject the lidocaine into the surrounding tissue and wait for it to take effect.
Getting shots was not pleasant but that was only the first part. Even cleaning the wound was not too bad. It felt like the cleaner every other time the young man had hurt himself and Ignis patched him up. The burning sensation of the antiseptic was familiar enough that Noct did not think too much about it and he did have the best helper ever.
Prompto took his current job very seriously. He sat on the opposite side the others were working on and kept the young man's eyes on him. He was doing most of the taking while the numbing agent began taking effect. He talked about how the day went and how happy he was for it to be over. He conspired with Noct to talk the others into taking a day off tomorrow because of all the extra work they had done tonight.
As the needle pierced his skin for the first time, Noct's entire arm tensed up and only Gladio's firm hold kept it in place. "Did you feel that" Ignis asked concerned. "Not really, Just felt a tug on my arm is all" Noct answered still looking at Prompto. The sunshine child took this as his cue to up his distraction game. As the adults worked, he began to talk about the one thing that always held Noct's attention, fishing. Now he did not care too much for fishing but hearing his friend get excited over something like this was always a treat for Prompto.
The boy loved to fish and though everyone will likely pass out after this little even, tomorrow when they woke up they did happen to be right by a large body of water. The idea alone of spending the day relaxing by the water was enough to get Noct to open his eyes again and start talking to Prompto.
Of course the fishing freak would already know what kind of fish were caught here. Apparently he heard it from his fishing buddy that he saw from time to time. At this point the distraction was working a bit too well. The prince had gotten his color back but now Gladio was glaring at Prompto while trying to keep the excited teen's arm still so Ignis could finish stitching it.
The boy ignored the glare and had his best friend talking about his hobbies until Ignis sighed and signaled for Gladio to release him. Now that the wound was taken care of, Noct took a closer look at it. 12 stitches were neatly lined up around his arm. Ignis had cleaned the blood up and the wound was no longer bleeding. After testing the range of motion, the boy asked the question Ignis should have been expecting. "Do you think I'll be good to go fishing tomorrow with Prompto."