It isn't the kind of website a prince should be visiting. If anyone found out...hell, even if only his dad found out, Noctis would be mortified beyond belief, especially because it's not women he's looking at, and he's supposed to marry one some day.
Things are simpler this way, easier. The fantasy is more than enough to get him through, because it's not like he has a crush on any real guys anyway. It's more the idea of men he appreciates, and seeking them out online helps Noctis avoid the kinds of real-life temptations that could land him in the tabloids.
He scrolls through profile after profile. There are a few he recognizes, his favorite channels, but also more new ones than he can count.
He remembers what a relief it was to discover live camming, to find people with real lives and personalities you could return to day after day, like having a relationship. Even though he knows it could all be an act, it doesn't feel that way, and that's probably why he craves it so deeply.
And it's good because that means Noctis will never go looking for sex outside of his arranged marriage, which means he'll only ever have sex with one person, a woman, and that will be that. And he'll just keep doing this in private.
No one cares about a prince being self-fulfilled or happy anyway. Well, they do (some of them do), but there are also things they care about more, and he can't blame them because Ignis and Gladio would give up anything for him, and he can't take that lightly. If their happiness is secondary because of him, then his happiness ranks somewhere abysmally low, and he's pretty much accepted that.
He uses a credit card that Ignis specifically gave him for purchases that were meant to be discreet, and if Ignis notices what he's actually using it for, which he probably does (he notices everything), then he never says.
And it works for Noctis. It really does. It fills a lot of lonely hours.
The problem is that tonight none of his favorites are online, and he needs that little extra something, that adrenaline rush and dose of connection he never gets because Gladio and Ignis are like brothers to him and Prompto is his best friend, and none of them can supply the type of intimacy that leaves a hollow ache in his chest and an insatiable hunger somewhere beneath his ribs.
He's intrigued enough to click when he sees a still-shot of a guy wearing a skimpy-cute Luigi costume that's basically just faux overall straps attached to navy blue briefs with a tight green, sleeveless crop top under it.
The guy is thin but muscular with smooth, pale skin and freckle-dusted shoulders. He's the exact build Noctis prefers, and the freckles are just a bonus. He likes to imagine he's blonde, but it wouldn't be game over if he were a redhead or brunette.
When the guy turns around revealing a round, plump ass that is both sexy and honestly kinda cute, Noctis is most definitely intrigued enough to stay.
The guy's not showing his face, which is too bad, but Noctis respects it, respects someone wanting to keep their identity private, and besides, it means he can imagine whatever he likes.
The guy isn't speaking, but he has some kind of punk music playing in the background, the kind of music Prompto listens to, and Noctis reaches a hand inside his boxer shorts to find he's starting to get hard.
He sees the list of challenges and the token thresholds to be met for them to be performed, everything from taking off his clothes to anal play with toys.
Noctis doesn't want anything for now, just wants to watch, so he throws some tokens in, no strings attached, and the guy types up a quick message to welcome him with a kiss emoji, and Noctis feels that little spark of recognition that assuages his appetite, soothes the ache momentarily.
He sees too that some guys are being dicks, making the kind of comments that always make Noctis sad, so he throws in some compliments, saying how cute this cam star is and how those other guys can go to hell.
He's rewarded with more attention as soon as the guy stops to use his keyboard, but mostly the cam star is just teasing the camera while he waits, hands gliding over his ass, squeezing his thighs occasionally.
And then one of the men gets crass, and the things he's saying are making Noctis furious. He hates that he doesn't know what this beautiful stranger with pale, freckled skin is thinking, doesn't know if the words are hurting him or if he's the kind of person who genuinely doesn't care what other people think. Noctis assumes the worst, and he does something he generally doesn't and pays the exorbitant fee for a private show, just to get this asshole off his back.
He's playing the hero, and he knows it, and even as it makes him feel condescending, like some dirty sugar daddy with a savior complex, and even though he kinda hates how he has this secret power to throw money at bad situations to make them go away (a power he didn't even know he had until he realized his best friend didn't), he can't not do it, because he thinks it's the right thing to do, and it's better than half the frivolous things he throws his money away on anyway—new gaming systems and action figures and tons of junk food (that he buys even though Ignis already cooks for him). At least he can help someone else for once.
Chocoblow: Hey cutie. How r u?
WaywardKnight: Good, u?
Chocoblow: Good ? What can I do 4 u 2nite?
Noctis sees a menu appear, listing all kinds of sexual acts he can buy, and he realizes he doesn't want any of it. He's not even hard anymore. He just wants to talk, wants a connection, to feel something, to make this guy's night.
But that's not the kind of thing you tell a cam star in a private chat, even if this guy probably already knows, probably has Noctis pinned as someone lonely and desperate because he's just like everyone else.
WaywardKnight: I'm going to send u some tokens, but it's a gift. U don't have to do anything.
Fuck it. Noctis sends the maximum amount, an amount that could get this stranger to perform the dirtiest acts on his list, maybe even an amount that would allow Noctis to make up something dirty of his own. But he doesn't want to. He really doesn't. He just hopes this guy will accept it and leave it at that, take the money and not make a fuss over it.
Chocoblow: Srsly what can I do 4 u? Can be not on the menu and I'll consider it 4 u ?
WaywardKnight: it's ok. Just wanted to get that asshole off your back.
Noctis sees him typing, but for a long time no words appear on the screen, dots dance then disappear, then dance again, then disappear. Clearly, the guy doesn't know what to say to that, and Noctis feels bad because it's going one of two ways: he's touched or he's weirded out, afraid Noctis is one of those guys for whom acting the hero is not a genuine act but a threat leveled, emotional bartering for something he just doesn't have the guts to ask for yet.
At the very least, he has to let him know it's not that.
WaywardKnight: nbd. I'm just kinda bored. So do u really like video games or ?
Chocoblow: oh yeah. Love video games. I have other outfits if u want me 2 play dress up 4 u? ?
WaywardKnight: all good. I like how u look now.
Chocoblow: thx ? do u want to get off together?
Noctis thinks about the possibility. It's not like he doesn't know what this website is for, but the fact that the guy says together, like Noctis can imagine it's consensual and he's not just paying for it...it makes it sound okay, even good because he feels like he knows this guy even though he doesn't.
He's cute, he's nice, he likes video games. That's all Noctis needs to know—honestly all he cares to know, so Noctis says yes and throws him a few more tokens just because he wants to.
Chocoblow: thx so much! U really don't have 2 send that much just 4 this. If u think of anything u want, tell me, k?
He worries about what this guy is thinking. It seems like Noctis's fears are correct, and he's making this guy feel guilty instead of flattered.
WaywardKnight: k
Chocoblow: give me a sec ;) just gonna adjust the lighting 4 u, k? ?
WaywardKnight: k.
And when the guy's adjusting his laptop camera, Noctis's eyes catch on something he's definitely not supposed to see: the corner of a dresser with a little chocobo plush sitting on the edge of it.
The corner of Prompto's dresser, Prompto's favorite chocobo plush.
He tries to tell himself no, he's just seeing things, but the problem is that hanging from its neck is the silver pistol necklace Noctis gave him for his birthday, the custom-made one that Prompto tried to give back saying it was way too expensive.
It's Prompto. He's Prompto. Noctis's best friend, Prompto. And Noctis is watching his best friend's hands—those unmistakable hands with the nails all chewed down—how did he not notice that?
He's watching his best friend's hands dip into his waistband, teasing, before they return to the keyboard.
Chocoblow: U want to chat or just watch bb?
Noctis doesn't answer. He slams his laptop shut, and he realizes, all at once, with the force of a goddamn tidal wave, that there's a reason why all his favorite cam stars look the same, and the reason is that he likes Prompto Argentum and not just as a friend.