New chapter time! Woo!

Once they were inside the mansion, Prompto was met with even more new scents. He had to scrunch up his nose for a little bit, trying to not feel too overwhelmed by all of the new smells. He continued to be pulled along by Noctis though until they reached a kitchen area.

Noctis let go of Prompto, and headed to one of the drawers. "So you just need a pair of scissors?"

"Yeah. Just so I can cut a hole and stuff… for the tail."

"And that's okay? You'd be cutting a hole in your pants."

"Not the first time I've done it. Usually I wear these pants that have this removable piece of fabric, but these aren't those pants. So making a hole it is."

Noctis handed over a pair of scissors to Prompto and quickly led him to the bathroom. It wasn't long before Prompto stepped back out with a fluffy tail sticking out behind him. He could see Noctis stared at him, and no doubt the tail that was also wagging behind him. Right away his tail stopped and dipped between his legs.

"Nooooct, can you stop staring at me like that? It's embarrassing."

Noctis snapped out of his gaze, shaking his head slightly. "Sorry. I've still never seen it up close before."

"You've seen dogs before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, but this is different. Werewolves are much cooler than just a regular dog. Plus now seeing the full picture, ears and tail, I still think it's pretty cute."

Prompto could feel the heat rushing back into his cheeks. He gave the biggest pout he could at Noctis without going as far as to start whining. "You just wanna make me suffer don't you."

"Maybe I do," Noctis said with a rather childish smirk. "Now come on, we gotta get going before Iggy comes looking for us. Follow me."

Prompto followed right behind Noctis as they ran down one of the long hallways. Prompto wished he could have stopped to take in everything. He could tell there were a lot of old smells that no doubt belong to old furniture or heirlooms that no doubt had a magical history. He so badly wished he could explore everything right away, but as of right now it was time to head out to wherever Noctis wanted to hide from Ignis.

Eventually, after a few turns they made it to a door that was at the far end of the mansion. Noctis opened it and it led outside to a massive garden and backyard. Prompto breathed in deeply, taking in the fresh scents from freshly watered fruits to the flowers that were blooming with all of their vibrant colors.

Prompto could already feel his tail was wagging excitedly again, and he finally gave up trying to find ways to calm himself. He had already gone as far to cut the hole in his pants, so he saw no reason to continuously try and conceal his features. As long as Noctis didn't start teasing him again, he felt like he would be able to manage… hopefully.

"Wow! This is amazing! Like, wow! I knew you owned a mansion and stuff and it was going to be huge, but I didn't expect a backyard like this. Could you even call it a backyard? Or is it all just garden? Warlock garden? Magic warlock forest?"

"Really? Magic warlock forest?"

"Hey! I don't know everything about the secretive and magical Lucis Caelum house and land! I only know the basic stuff you hear from rumors and sometimes the papers."

Noctis smiled as he moved closer to a large tree that was a bit further away from the house. "Yeah, and I'm kind of glad about that."

"Huh?"

"You aren't some crazy fanboy," Noctis replied. He stared at Prompto for a moment before casting his gaze away. "You just see me as… normal, not some mysterious warlock whose secrets need to be exposed."

"People actually think of you like that?" Prompto asked as he raised his eyebrows. "But you are just a normal dude! Well a normal warlock dude, but same difference. I won't treat you any differently no matter how mysterious you are."

Noctis looked at Prompto, giving a smile that was much more fond than before. "Thank you, Prompto. Really, I mean it."

"Of course! And I mean everything I say too."

"Good, now follow me."

Noctis walked around to the other side of the tree, letting Prompto see that there was a thick rope ladder dangling in front of it. He tilted his head up to try and see where the ladder led, but it was covered by various tree foliage.

"Dude, do you have a secret treehouse hidden up there?"

There was that smirk again. "How do you think I hide from Ignis so often? Come on, let's go."

"Right! You go up first!" Prompto said, trying to hold back whatever nervousness wanted to crawl out of this throat.

He had no idea how high this treehouse was. He hadn't even seen it before when they were walking over to the tree. But from what he could gather it was higher than the average treehouse. Just the sheer thought of it being more than a couple feet off the ground made his hands sweet and his legs jittery.

Part of him thought to call out to Noctis, telling him that he wasn't sure he could do this, but he shook the thoughts away quickly. The last thing he wanted to do was embarrass himself by admitting his fear of heights. If Noctis could do it with ease, he would just have to follow along and pretend that he wasn't a nervous wreck on the inside.

"At least my tail and ears are already out… I'd hate it if they were to come out only after climbing all the way up there," Prompto thought to himself.

Carefully, he grabbed onto the ladder and tightened his grip. He didn't like how shaky the ladder felt. It swayed a little from his weight, but the longer he stayed still the more it calmed down. With his heart pounding he forced himself to climb higher and higher.

"Just don't look down, Prompto," he told himself as he kept going up.

Soon he was past the level of branches that hid whatever was above. Now he could see that he actually didn't have to climb that much farther. He could see the largely built tree house nestled within the large branches and Noctis leaning against the doorframe.

"Hey there you are, I was worried for a moment that all the plants must have eaten you."

"Oh ha ha, yeah right. Wait… the garden plants don't actually eat you do they?"

Noctis snorted. "No. Why would we have something like that?"

"To keep thieves out of the garden?" Prompto asked, pulling himself up a few more more steps.

"Not a bad idea, but we don't have magical people eating plants. That's just garbage nonsense that clueless humans probably made up."

"Oh totally it was them! Humans make up the dumbest stuff sometimes."

"Yeah, it's always the humans," Noctis laughed.

As Prompto neared the top, Noctis held out a hand to help pull him over into the tree house. With a deep breath, Prompto realized he climbed the rest of the way without even considering the height. He had been so focused on chatting with Noctis that he had forgotten everything that had been stressing his mind.

Though, with that in mind, he didn't dare try and look down to see how far he had come. Instead he stepped further into the tree house and gawked at it. "Whoa… wait a minute! This looks waaaay bigger than it should be in the tree."

"Well, what do you think it is?" Noctis asked as he closed the door to the outside of the treehouse.

"Magic?"

Noctis nodded. "Magic."

"Sweet. Always wanted to see that 'bigger on the inside' magic in person.

As he began to walk around the magically larger, he couldn't help but stare and smell everything yet again. It still had the look of a tree house, but on the other hand it was so much bigger with much more room. There was even a couch with a nice table before it, and even a shelf filled completely with different games and a whole bunch of comic books.

"This is like your own man cave but in a tree house. Tree cave? Man tree?"

Noctis started to laugh again. "You always do have the best names for things. Where do you come up with it?"

Now it was time for Prompto to finally give his own cocky smirk. "Well, it just so happens I am the master of humor and being really funny."

"Or really? Where's your certificate?"

"Left it in my other pants," Prompto chuckled.

"Aw come on, I thought you were going to say you accidentally cut it."

Prompto laughed as he flopped onto the cough. "You're right! That would have been such a good one! I'm going to have to steal that."

"Hey I thought of it! You can't steal it!" Noctis said as he sat down next to Prompto.

"But I am the master of being funny!"

"The master of funny wouldn't steal other people's jokes!"

Prompto tilted his head, grinning widely. "Who said I was stealing? I'm not stealing anything. Just using what my little ears may or may not have overheard."

"You're still cheating Mr. Werewolf Ears!" Noctis said as he lunged over at Prompto.

Prompto was pushed down onto the couch as Noctis started to rub his fingers on his stomach. He bit his lip, trying to hold in his laughter, but Noctis kept trying to tickle him. Soon he couldn't hold it in anymore and he let out his loud burst of laughter.

"N-Noct! Cut it o-out!"

"Not until you admit defeat that you are not the master of funny!"

"N-Never!"

"Then suffer my wrath!" Noctis laughed as he kept tickling Prompto's stomach and sides.

Prompto kept laughing, unable to stop or pull away from Noctis. Tears of joy tickled from his eyes as he started up a Noctis who was hovering over him. He tried to raise his hands to tell Noctis to stop, now that he was laughing so much he couldn't speak any words.

Thankfully, Noctis backed off and Prompto could finally catch his breath. He breathed in deeply for a few seconds before he jumped and pounced onto Noctis. "And now it's time for my revenge!"

"No you can't!" Noctis gasped dramatically.

Prompto leaned in closer to Noctis's face. "Watch me."

Without wasting another second, he began to tickle Noctis along his sides. The raven haired boy burst out into a louder laughter than his own and Prompto nearly stopped. He had heard Noctis laugh shortly at jokes and snicker before, but he had never heard him laugh like this. This laughter was so much cuter than Noctis's regular laugh, and he wondered why Noctis didn't laugh like that more often.

Prompto soon let go of Noctis and backed off. He still had to catch his own breath from before. He laid back on the couch and placed a hand over his stomach, trying his best to take slow and deep breaths. With a small glance to the side, he could see that Noctis was doing the same.

"We good?" Prompto asked.

"We're good. All is forgiven," Noctis replied, smiling softly.

"Good, cause I think I am going to still need a moment. That was just as intense as the tickle fights that I have with my siblings."

"Wow, really?"

"Ah, well not really. You're just one guy, not several small energetic werewolves that want to know everything you do each day. Man! I can't even imagine what they are going to say when I go home today."

"Are they that hectic?"

"Sometimes yeah."

"Can I ask about them? Your family I mean? You've told me a little before, but I still don't know much about them."

Prompto nodded. "Sure thing. Well I told you before, I got two older and four younger. I'm kind of stuck in the weird middle though. Luna is the oldest at 21, but she's usually away with work most days. Then there's Cloud, he just graduated last year from high school. So they are the two that really look after the rest of us."

Prompto stretched for a moment, turned to sit up on the couch. He pulled his legs up to cross his legs before turning to face Noctis again.

"After that we got me, but after me we got the twins Roxas and Ventus. They're only two years younger than me, but they are still really rambunctious."

"Twelve-year-old are the worst!" Noctis laughed. "I remember what Ignis used to say to me when I was that age, I think he was pretty annoyed with my antics."

"You? Causing antics? No way!" Prompto scoffed sarcastically.

"Yeah! I don't know what he was thinking," Noctis snorted. "I'm clearly the picture perfect child everyone says I am."

Prompto laughed. "Oh totally. You would never tackle and tickle your best friend just because they stole your joke."

"Ah! So you admit it."

"I admit nothing!" Prompto shouted. "Anyways! After the twins, we got Lann at age 9. He's a really goof sometime. He thinks it's really funny to say 'what the honk' and honestly it's just cute to hear him say it. Then last of all, the cutest little girl of the family is little Namine. She only recently turned 7, but she is the sweetest ever!"

"The little girls are always the sweetest. Gladio has a little sister, and she's the same age as Lann, but I've known her since she was a baby. So I totally understand."

"Oh yeah? Well that's cool. But there ya go! That is my pack family. It's pretty hectic some days, but we manage together."

"They all sound really nice. Maybe I could meet them one day?"

"You'd want to?"

"Sure why not. I'd like to see what a big werewolf family is like," Noctis replied as he pushed himself up from the couch.

Prompto stood up after him. "Yeah? Well I'm sure we could plan something. But just know my home isn't as cool as yours, and my little siblings are most definitely going to take you with a lot of questions."

Noctis gave a shrug. "Eh, I'm sure I could manage. Now, wanna play a game?"

"Sure! Let's see what you got!"

The two went over to the games shelf and began to look over what to play. Prompto knew though that whatever game that they would pick would be fun. As long as he was with Noctis, he could have more fun than he ever had in years.