"You know what?" Prompto asked.

The two of them had just finished a game from Noctis's shelf, this one had been a weird and complicated card game called Triple Triad. It was apparently an older game that Noctis said his brother had played, and it was that part that made Prompto start to think.

"You've mentioned your brother a few times, but that's it. I told you about my family, so can I get to learn a little more about yours? You've gotten me curious."

"Oh, uh, guess that's fair. Sorry, I didn't think about it before. You know, just regular social awkwardness."

Prompto laughed. "But you are getting it! A little bit every day, right?"

Noctis nodded. "Yeah, guess you have a point. But uh, yeah my brother. His name is Zack."

"Guess he must be pretty busy if he isn't around much? Or is he like, all grown up?"

"You don't know about him?"

"Like I said before, I haven't read up a lot on your family. I mean… well I know that you are currently the youngest Lucis Caelum but I didn't know if you had siblings or if you had an aunt or uncle who had kids or stuff," Prompto explained. "Plus the Lucis Caelum family is already super mysterious and hard to read up on, even if I wanted to."

Noctis smiled. "I see. Well Zack is only five years older than me. So he's usually pretty busy doing other stuff, but he'll be around at some time. But he's a good brother."

"That's good. Good brothers are always nice."

"Yeah… but friends are good too."

Prompto smiled and nodded. "Me too. Friends are really nice."

Nocits got up and started to walk around the room. "So what should we do now? More games?"

Prompto shrugged. "I dunno, what are you feeling?"

Noctis hummed as he stared out the window. "Don't know. I've never… never had a friend to do stuff like this all the time. I mean I've had Gladio and Ignis, but they grew up as people who worked for my family to protect and look out for me."

"Well we could uh… get a snack? You have any snacks up here?"

Noctis shook his head. "Nah, we'd have to go back inside for that. But Ignis could catch us."

"We're not really going to hide out here from Ignis the entire day are we?"

"We cooould," Noctis said as he turned back around. "If it means avoiding the homework."

Prompto leaned back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling, letting out a light laugh. "I don't think we can avoid it forever. Plus I'm hungry! And you don't want a hungry werewolf, we get fussy!"

Noctis moved back over to the couch and leaned over Prompto. "Alright alright! We can get you something to eat. Let's head on down."

Prompto got up to follow Noctis to the exit of the tree house, but just as he neared the door he froze up. "Wait… we g-gotta go back down?"

"Yeah? How else would we get back down?"

"But back down the rope ladder? That seems really unsafe! Like you could miss the step if you aren't looking down," Prompto said, feeling his ears twitching slightly. "It sways so much!"

"It's not that bad. Just sways a little at least. Why do you ask about this so much? Something wrong?"

Prompto's heart started to race a little faster, the sound of his heart pounding in his ears. He took a step back carefully. "N-No! It's nothing. Just asking questions, being random and stuff."

Noctis looked at him, confusion spreading over his face. "Uh, are you sure? Your ears are like… pressed against your head? Or however it's said? Your tail too is tucked…"

Prompto was on edge now. He felt like he could have a breakdown right then and there. He was on the spot. Noctis was asking him and questioning him. He was going to find out his embarrassing secret.

"It's nothing Noct, r-really let's just go," Prompto said as he tried to move to the exit. As soon as he looked down though, reminded of how high up they were, he staggered back. His head started to swirl and the room spun along with it.

"Prompto?" Noctis asked with concern. He raced to Prompto's side and guided him back to the couch. "Come on Prompto… you can tell me what's wrong. Please, I'm worried."

Prompto shook his head. He still couldn't bring himself to say it still. He just shook his head and closed his eyes, hoping the room would stop spinning.

"Prom… you're… are you afraid of heights?" Noctis asked hesitantly.

Suddenly, everything that Prompto was trying to hold back broke. He started to cry as he pressed his face into his hands, hoping to hide his horribly embarrassing face from Noctis. There was no way Noctis would want to continue to hang out with him now.

But much to his surprise, Noctis wrapped an arm around him and held him tightly. "Hey, why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have dragged you up here if I knew that."

"B-But I didn't want to disappoint you. It's nice up here and I like it here. I didn't want to ruin the fun."

Noctis let out a sigh. "But you shouldn't make yourself freak out just to have fun. I would've understood if you just told me."

That faint little sigh made Prompto start to feel even worse. He knew Noctis probably meant nothing of it, but his mind was already racing. "Oh great… Now he is disappointed in me. Great job screwing up the friendship," Prompto thought to himself as he cried a little more.

"Hey, come on, don't cry," Noctis said. "You don't have to be embarrassed or stuff about this. I get it, not everyone is fond of heights, but it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"But it's so stupid!" Prompto shouted. "It's just height. I shouldn't be so scared!"

"I uh… I don't really know what I can say… but maybe I can help?"

Prompto lifted his head to look at Noctis. "How?"

Noctis bite his lip, averting his gaze for a moment. "I could… uh… I could help show you that it isn't too scary?"

"But how? How can you do that?"

Noctis closed his eyes as he let out one sharp sigh. "Okay. I think I know how to do this. But first we need to get back down to ground level. I'll use a teleport spell to get us down there first, if you're okay with that?"

Prompto nodded. "Y-Yeah, I think that would be nice."

Standing up, Noctis held his hand to Prompto. He took it, still a little ashamed that he was still shaking, but Noctis's grip was firm and comforting. The warm hold of his hand was enough to calm his heart down a little bit.

"Okay, just hold on and I'll teleport us okay?"

Prompto nodded as he watched Noctis chant some words he didn't understand. Within an instant the room faded away, with a light wind picking up and brushing against him. Not sure how to feel towards any of it, Prompto shut his eyes until he felt the wind dying down and now could feel the warmth of the sun on his skin.

Opening his eyes again he saw they were on the ground again, right next to the treehouse ladder. Prompto gasped as he felt Noctis let go of him, letting him walk a bit to see that they truly had teleported. He had seen warlocks and witches perform spells on television, and sometimes he even saw some magic use while in town, but he had never seen it so up close and personal. He had never actually been a part of the magic.

"That was so cool!" he exclaimed, feeling his tail wag excitedly.

Noctis grinned. "If you thought a teleportation spell was cool, just wait until I show you what else I can do."

"Yeah, I'd love to see it. But you said you had a way to help me…? With… the height and fear stuff?"

Noctis nodded. "Yup, and I think it would really help."

"Well? What is it? Some kind of anti-fear spell? A potion I drink to help make me less afraid?"

A laugh came from Noctis. "No no, nothing like that. It's much simpler than anything with magic spells or potions."

Noctis started to take off his jacket, making Prompto really curious just what it was that he would show him. But just before he could even finish, an accented voice echoed across the yard.

"Noctis! I've been looking for the two of you since Cor came back!"

Prompto straightened up at the sight of an older boy walking towards them. If Prompto had to guess, he looked to be around Luna's age, though he looked far more mature with the way he presented himself. He wore a fine casual suit as well as thin glasses that rested lightly on his nose.

"Did you really think you could hide out here all afternoon?" he asked as he finally came over to stand next to Noctis and Prompto.

Noctis only sighed, pulling his jacket back on and then crossing his arms. "I'm allowed to have a little fun after school, aren't I?"

"Not when you probably have important assignments and homework to be done first."

"Ignis," Noctis groaned. "I didn't invite Prompto over just so we could do homework together. That's not how you hangout."

The boy, Ignis, pushes his glasses up. "You know the rules, Noct. Homework first and then fun. I'm sure if you two did it together then it would be done twice as fast."

Prompto tried his best not to feel nervous, but he could already feel his tail trying to hide between his legs. "W-We're sorry, uh Ignis? Mr. Ignis? We'll get on that homework right away then."

Ignis let out a long breath and closed his eyes. "Please, just call me Ignis. I don't mean to intimate or startle you, but Noctis is supposed to get his homework done first when arriving home and he knows this well."

With a grumble, Noctis grabbed onto Prompto and started pulling him towards the mansion. "Come on, Prompto. Let's just go and do it to please Ignis. Then we can get back to the fun stuff."

"U-Um okay if you say so," Prompto said as he stepped closer to Noctis, trying not to look back at Ignis. He didn't even get a chance to identify the smell that Ignis had, not that he would do it on purpose or anything. But he was curious just what the man was. If he had to put a bet on anything, it was most likely a warlock must like Noctis.

Back inside the house, Noctis headed to the large open kitchen area. Their backpacks were set by the table and a few bowls full of chips and other snacks were set out. With a sigh, Noctis finally let go of Prompto and flopped into one of the chairs. He slumped down in it before looking up at Prompto.

"Well… let's get the homework done, okay? This just sucks."

Prompto tried to offer a smile as he took a seat next to Noctis. "Hey, it's not so bad. Ignis is right though, it can go faster if we work together. Then we can go back to having fun and you showing me whatever it was you wanted to show. Is that okay?"

"Yeah yeah I guess," Noctis replied. "Just homework sucks."

"Totally. But we can get through it together."

Noctis turned and smiled, showing just how beautiful he could be when he looked happy. Though throughout most of school Prompto would see him put on this cool and expressionless guise, he now knew what was hidden under all that cold. He could see the kind and dorky boy that was hidden from the public eye."

"Right. Together," Prompto agreed before going to grab the homework for today.