Soon after they graduated from high school, the pair started to settle into their new post school routines. Noctis did his best to adjust to the Citadel routine, even though he felt very much out of his depth. He spent more time with Ignis for many months than he spent at high school for a while, not getting back to his apartment till the late hours of the evening.
Still, eventually they managed to find their way in their new lives and made sure to spend their days off together to enjoy that time as much as possible. Somehow the time between their birthdays flew by, and they were eighteen. Finally Noctis knew he could enact his plan.
Several weeks after Prompto's birthday, Noctis picked up his boyfriend from the Amicitia manor with a wide grin. "Are you ready for a long overdue afternoon at the arcade?" He asked.
"Oh hell yes! I am aching to play some video games today!"
"Great! I've been daydreaming of this day for weeks. The only thing keeping me going in those meetings." Noctis laughed while he started the car toward the arcade. "Think they'll have new merch for us today?"
"The merch of us hasn't gone down in sales in over two years, so probably yes. They keep coming up with newer, stranger things. Like seriously! I saw bobbleheads of us at the mall the other day. Bobbleheads!" Prompto exclaimed.
"Bobble heads? That sounds weird. Please tell me you took photos to show me when we get to the arcade."
"Of course I took photos. Why wouldn't I take a photo that accurately captures your big ego," Prompto laughed playfully.
Noctis gasped playfully. "Oh you are asking for trouble for that. You are going down this afternoon."
"Go ahead and try, I'd like to see it happen."
"You know one of these days, I will beat you." He teased while pulling into a parking spot in front of the arcade. The Crownsguard had already arrived to make sure the place was secure for them.
"Hey I can't help it if it's easy to tease you," Prompto smirked.
"It's lucky I love you." Noctis teased as he took Prompto's hand to guide him into the arcade.
"Also, it's your turn to pay, yeah?"
"Yeah yeah, my turn," Prompto said as he went up to the counter to pay for their credits for they day.
Their usual attendant at the arcade wasn't manning the front at the moment, but she waved to them from where she was fixing one of the claw machines. "Sorry, won't take much longer I think. I know it's one of your usual tries." She said with a little sad smile.
"Yeah," Prompto added. "We do enjoy the simplicity of playing the little claw games for silly little plastic toys. Always good fun."
"I know I appreciate them on my desk to brighten up the place." Noctis confessed. "Let us know when it's fixed, maybe it'll improve our odds."
"Can do. Now shoo so I can finish this." Joan said with a little wave.
Prompto guided Noctis across the room to their favorite shooter game. "Ready for another round of zombies?"
"Yes, want to try the co-op mode some more? I think we're finding a pattern to beat the high score." Noctis offered.
"You mean beat our own high score."
"You bet. Gotta make sure no one can beat us."
"We shall dominate the entire scoreboard!" Prompto laughed.
Noctis laughed and picked up the plastic gun for player two. He had no problem letting Prompto call the shots in this game with his sharpshooter skills.
After they finished, their final score only came up in 2nd place, just beneath their best score. "Ah shoot, still can't beat our super amazing play."
"One of these days, we'll figure it out. Try again, or some racing right now?"
"Motorcycles or cars this time?"
"Motorcycles. We don't use those enough."
"Alright! Let's ride!'
Noctis smiled as they played against each other for this one, and with motorcycles the game was much tighter between them. Today Prompto ended up winning their series of rounds. "Alright, alright, guess that means you get to be the first person on the next game." He laughed.
"Your highness, I wanted to let you know the claw game is finished." Joan interrupted with a bowed head.
"Oh, then, I guess you get your first crack at the claw game. What terrible toy will you win this time?"
"Hmm, probably some cheap little wind up toy, or maybe one of those squishy ones," Prompto replied as they walked over there.
"Oh, hopefully you can finish that set of wind up toys you've been gathering." Noctis mused as Prompto put in his credit. He leaned against the machine to try and make sure he kept his cool.
"I would love to collect all the colorful chocobo wind up toys. A dream come true," Prompto said as he started to maneuver the claw.
It took a couple of tries, but eventually Prompto caught one of the mysterious spheres and dropped it into the chute. Noctis reached into the catch to grab the planted sphere from earlier that day and pressed it into Prompto's hand. "Go on, let's hope it's something new."
Prompto looked at Noctis weirdly for a moment, before he shrugged. "Sure, let's see what we got. Whatever it is, they really wrapped it up good." He popped open the capsule and started to unwrap the paper.
While Prompto worked on the paper, Noctis dropped down to one knee to look up at his boyfriend with a fully adoring expression, waiting for him to find the black ring with gold skulls inlaid.
Prompto slowly unwrapped the last pieces of the paper when his eyes went wide. He nearly dropped the capsule and ring from his hand when he noticed how Noctis was kneeling before him. "N-Noct? A-Are you... like are you actually doing this?"
Noctis was quick to steady the shaky hand and hold it tightly. "Prompto, I adore you with every fiber of my being. We've been through so much in the few years we've known each other, and I already know I wouldn't want to go through anything else without you at my side. And, I want to make sure you always have a place at my side. Please, Prompto Amicitia, will you marry me?"
Prompto nodded while his face flooded with emotions. He smiled warmly with the blush creeping in slowly, but his eyes were already full of tears. He had tried to open his mouth, but a ragged sob made its way through first, but he was nodding ferociously.
As soon as the sob came out of Prompto's mouth, Noctis got up so he could wrap his arms around the crying blond. "I'm sorry, was it not good?" He asked softly.
Prompto shook his head. "N-No it was good! So very you. I just didn't expect it. Even the real time gets me crying."
"Does that mean yes?" He asked softly. He didn't care about the people watching as he needed to hear the yes.
"Like I told you last time, the answer will always be yes," Prompto said before he wrapped his arms around Noctis's body and held him tightly.
"Give me the ring, so I can put it on you." Noctis replied while he leaned into the hug as well.
A loud cheer went through the arcade as people celebrated the newly engaged couple.
Prompto placed the ring into Noctis's palm as he wiped away his tears shortly after.
Noctis smiled as he gently slid the ring onto Prompto's finger before leaning in to press a firm kiss, heedless of the press nonsense they were going to face tomorrow.
At least Regis knew what was going to happen today.
"So this is really happening?" Prompto asked. "Just wanna triple make sure that I'm not imagining things."
"You are not imagining things. This is real. We are going to plan a wedding."
"The coolest wedding of the century, right? All because you proposed through a claw machine capsule!" Prompto said before he burst into laughter.
Laughing and falling into Prompto's arms, Noctis felt immense relief that it worked. "I had to make it work for us. You deserved something special."
"A claw machine capsule is something special?" Prompto snickered.
"What, did you want a fancy candlelit dinner and a long walk in the park?" Noctis teased. "Come on, you still owe me that dance game."
"I would take any proposal methods from you. Even if you did the cheesiest oldest trick in the book, I would have loved it. It's really cute," Prompto replied. "And I am so ready to take you on for another dance."
"Great. I'm not going easy on you just because you're my fiance."
"Same here Mr. Future Husband."
Amid cheers and congratulations from the arcade goers, Noctis reached in to grab the actual capsule Prompto got to hand to him before they went to the dance machines to play.
Meanwhile back at the Citadel, Clarus was sitting down in Regis's office while Regis did work at his desk. Suddenly there was a pinging sound from Regis's phone and he turned to look at it, a grin spreading across his face.
Clarus felt a sense of dread go up his spine when he saw that grin appear and soon pulled out his phone. He saw a series of silent notifications of his adoptive son and the Crown Prince trending with the rumors of an engagement announcement flying across the internet.
"Regis, I take your smile as confirmation that the rumors are true?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Rumors? Now why would you call them that? Look at the trending topics! They've reached the top within several minutes of the trend starting," Regis mused.
Stifling a sigh, Clarus put away his phone. "Your son didn't ask me for my son's hand in marriage. I could stop all of this."
"But would you?" Regis asked smugly.
This time he did sigh at his friend. "No, I wouldn't. I knew they were going to get married at some point in their relationship as soon as they went public."
"We should be ready to celebrate! This is a monumental occasion!"
"I'm not the person to tell, to get a sudden party started. Who do you wish me to bring?"
"Hm, I suppose we should keep it private. Though I know the boys have a friend at the arcade they would probably want to invite."
"Do they? Do they have the appropriate security clearance?" Clarus asked quickly.
"We can ask Ignis to check into that, but I assume it would be fine."
"Ah yes, Ignis would have the preliminary check for all the arcade employees. Should I summon him?"
"Yes, let's get to it as soon as possible. We must prepare for the wedding," Regis replied happily.
Clarus finally sighed. "How long have you known? You could have wanted us."
"You know how much I've been waiting for the day Noctis could get married. Seeing him happy with the man he loves," Regis wiped a tear from his eye. "His mother would be happy for him."
"Yes. Aulea would be very happy for him too. She always supported love over all. Do you wish to have a celebration now or a bit later?"
"I want to prepare it as soon as possible, for when our engaged boys come back today," Regis stated.
"Very well, I'll summon Ignis so he can start the appropriate plans for your proposed celebrations." Clarus gave a nod before starting a series of phone calls to various people.
Ignis was soon in the room with a small bow to the King. "You requested me, Your Majesty?" He asked and tried to not look too curious.
"Yes, I assume you haven't seen the news yet?" Regis asked.
"I've been in a meeting until I was called. Has something happened, Your Majesty?"
Regis nodded as he held up his phone to display the current trending news. "Take a look for yourself."
Ignis took the phone to skim the trending topic before taking a deep breath. "I see. This is wonderful for them. Should I get with the PR team to make sure we control the story as we deem fit?"
"Yes, that would be a good first priority," Regis nodded. "We want to keep the story as positive as we can."
"Very well, I'll take my leave and take care of that."
"Thank you Ignis. I wish for this to all go off without a hitch. I trust that you can handle it."
"Thank you, I will do my best." Ignis gave another bow before leaving the room to head off to the press room.