Chapter 5

Pain

"I guess it is kinda awesome."

His phone was ringing on his messy bed when Noct stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, his hair still dripping warm water onto his floor. He picked it up and saw Prompto's name flashing on the screen. He tapped the green icon and brought the phone to his ear.

"Hey."

"Dude, sorry, were you sleeping?" Prompto's voice sounded a little faraway, and there were whooshing sounds in the background like he was throwing around his blankets or something. Noct glanced at his digital clock on the nightstand. It was a little past noon. Sure, he liked sleeping a whole lot but did Prompto really think he was going to sleep all day?

"No. Just got out of the shower."

"What, really? Noct, it's Sunday. I thought you'd only be up at, like, dinner time or something."

Noct rolled his eyes at the surprise in Prompto's voice, but he wasn't wrong, though. Noct had actually planned to wake up a lot later had he not remembered the promise he'd made to Ignis earlier in the week. He had begrudgingly promised him he would finally go get his suit fitted at the Citadel today for the gala coming up next month. He really didn't care about the gala or the suit, but he cared about Ignis. Ignis was the only reason why he was up this early on a Sunday. But he really didn't have the energy to explain all that to Prompto.

"I just feel like a morning person today," Noct mumbled into the phone before tapping the loud speaker icon and tossing it onto his bed to dry his face with his towel.

"Pftt, morning? Yeah, fifteen minutes past noon is so damn early, Noct."

He pulled the towel away with an irritated grunt. "Can you just tell me what's up? I doubt you're calling just to check if I was awake or not," Noct said, pulling on a shirt and a pair of pants. He didn't bother toweling his hair, letting the water seep through the collar of his shirt.

"Oh yeah, sorry. It's my blazer. Is it at your place? I can't find it anywhere."

"Your blazer? Hold on, let me check."

Noct started walking around his room looking for Prompto's faded school blazer. He kicked up heaps of his own clothes that he had strewn about without a thought across the floor for the past week, throwing his blankets off his mattress, crouching on the floor to see if the blazer had somehow ended up stuffed underneath his bed when he suddenly remembered that Prompto didn't usually come into his room if he wasn't staying over. And he didn't stay over last Friday.

"I think I must've left it somewhere in your living room," Prompto said belatedly.

"Yeah, I'm checking there now." Noct grabbed his phone and walked out of his room only to step into an even messier living space.

The default state of his apartment was chaos—a fact that Ignis was determined to change—but during the weekends, especially after his and Prompto's gaming night, the level of chaos always went up a few notches. Right now it looked like a small typhoon had gone through the living room a few times. A 'shipwreck' Ignis had once described the state of his apartment.

Noct didn't stop to wonder what Ignis would say when he came by later as he grabbed the crushed pizza boxes on the sofa and threw them in the general direction of the kitchen, not really caring where they actually landed. He didn't even check if there were any pizza slices left in the boxes.

"You're wading through the sea of thrash in your living room, Noct? What the hell did you throw just now? I heard a whoosh and a thud," Prompto said with a laugh.

"Just some pizza boxes. Ignis can clean them up for me later."

"Dude, you know he's not your maid, right?"

Noct ignored Prompto as his eyes roamed the wrecked living room looking for the blazer, kicking up a lot of junk off the floor in the process. He finally spotted it stuffed underneath the coffee table, rolled and crumpled, looking almost like an old garbage bag. He picked it up, not missing how soft and thin from wear it felt in his hands, the frayed hems and the threads coming undone in a lot of places.

"Found it," he said.

Prompto sighed with relief on the other end. "Oh, thank gods. Can you bring it to school tomorrow? I only have that one piece."

"Sure, but it's all crumpled and stuff. I can lend you mine if you want. I have like a gazillion others in my closet."

"Nah, it's okay. Your school blazers are all custom-made, right? I can't really wear something made for the prince. You know I'd be all jittery and worrying the whole day about ruining your expensive silk-lined blazer. What if I accidentally pulled a thread loose? I can't possibly afford to even pay for a foot-length of imported thread."

Noct flopped onto the messy sofa, grabbing a packet of potato chips wedged in between his throw pillows and tearing it open a little aggressively. Of course Prompto would say no. He knew it was stupid to try lending anything of his to him. Prompto had never actually said it out loud but Noct could tell that he felt he was unworthy of nice things, let alone something absurdly expensive meant for a prince. He hated it sometimes when Prompto reminded him of his royal status.

"Fine, whatever," he said dismissively. "Anything else?"

"Uh, nope. Don't think I left anything else at your place, so yeah, just the blazer."

Noct munched on the chips, his eyes catching something in his kitchen. "By the way, you left like a huge box of these To-me-toos on my kitchen counter."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Can I eat them? They're good."

Prompto laughed lightly. "Just eat every single packet in the box if you want to, Noct. I know you like them. Just make sure you hide them somewhere. Ignis's gonna kill me if he found out I supplied you with 'unacceptable' junk food."

"I think he'd be glad, though. These stuff are tomatoes. He'd be proud of me," Noct said, smirking around a chip.

"Tomato-flavoured, Noct. Big difference."

"There're still tomatoes in them. Still counts as far as I'm concerned."

Prompto sighed but Noct heard the amusement in his voice. "Just don't go crazy and eat them all at once, okay? You'll get sick."

"Okay, Ignis." Noct rolled his eyes, purposefully biting loudly into the chips, the crunch was followed by Prompto's easy laughter. He wasn't going to tell Prompto that he'd already eaten almost every packet of the MSG-loaded goodness in the box yesterday.

"Alright, alright, I won't kill your fun, Noct. Just eat whatever you want. Thanks for finding my blazer, by the way. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya."

.o.o.o.

It was in the afternoon of the following day that Noct first realized something was wrong with him.

The day was clear, hot and sunny, and as he and Prompto were walking home from the arcade, excitedly discussing the game they had just spent hours playing, Noct somehow landed his foot in a small but deep pothole in the pavement.

"Noct!" Prompto cried out in panic when he saw Noct's arms flailing, his body already tumbling forwards. With one foot stuck in a hole, Noct fell ungracefully onto the pavement, reacting just in time to break his fall with his hands. It wasn't a big deal, really. It didn't even hurt. But there were people around and he didn't want them to make a fuss about a stupid little fall, so he got up quickly before anyone could figure out who he really was, pulling Prompto into a little deserted alley further down the street.

"Hey man, you alright?" Prompto asked when they finally stopped walking.

"I'm fine," Noct said with a shrug, brushing his knees to get rid of the dirt. "Just wanted to get away before anyone realizes the prince's tripped over nothing and starts taking pictures of me crawling on the street—"

"Hey, you're bleeding," Prompto pointed out, worried eyes locked on Noct's hands.

Noct looked down at his palms, eyes widening at how much blood there was on them. He wasn't sure how he could have missed all that smeared red. There was a particularly big gash on his left palm, slowly oozing a lot more blood than the other cuts in his hands.

"Huh. I am…" he mumbled numbly, staring at all the blood.

He pressed his other hand against the big wound to stop the bleeding and felt something sharp scraping his skin. Upon closer inspection, there were actually tiny shards of glass embedded in his palms. Did he fall on broken glass just now? It looked like it, but it didn't feel like it. Like, it didn't hurt at all. Strange. He didn't feel anything.

Absentmindedly, Noct started pulling out the largest shard that was embedded quite deep into his flesh. His palm started to bleed more, blood slowly pooling in his slightly curled hand. And then out of curiosity, he pushed it back deeper into his wound, watching the blood bead around the glass. He pushed it some more, deeper and deeper.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Prompto quickly grabbed Noct by the wrists, pulling his hands apart so strongly out of sheer worry he was half-pushing Noct up against the alley wall. He stared at Noct's bloody palms before his gazed shifted to his startled face. "Why did you do that?" he breathed, looking at Noct like he was crazy. "That must hurt like hell. What the fuck, Noct?"

"I just… wanted to see if they're real..." Noct said, a frown appearing in between his eyebrows as his own words dawned on him. They sounded ridiculous. Of course the wounds were real. What was he talking about?

"Huh? You're not making any sense. Anyway, let's get that bleeding to stop," Prompto said, letting go of Noct's wrists before rummaging around in his school bag.

Noct took that opportunity to quickly pull out the shards of glass in his palms without Prompto seeing him do it (because he knew he would yell at him again and look at him like he was out of his mind). Also, he wanted to make sure that he really didn't feel any kind of pain when he messed around with the wounds.

"Here," Prompto said, pulling out a crumpled piece of pink cloth from his bag.

Noct blinked. He didn't think Prompto was the kind of person to carry around a handkerchief. He eyed it curiously. "Does that have your initials embroidered in one corner? Wait— Is it a girl's? Did a girl give it to you?"

"You took up reading Gladio's romantic novels or something? Who carries around embroidered handkerchiefs anymore?"

"You do, apparently."

"Nah, no fancy embroidery here. I got this for free when I bought a bottle of handwash," Prompto said with a laugh. He folded the handkerchief neatly into a long, narrow strip before pressing it carefully to the big wound in Noct's left palm.

"Is the thing even clean?" Noct asked with a scrunched up face. The pink cloth looked like it was stained with something orange.

"Who knows? It's better than nothing, though. Can't really let the Crown Prince of Lucis bleed to death."

"Exaggerating much?" Noct scoffed, watching Prompto tie the handkerchief neatly around his hand.

Prompto took out a pack of tissue paper, pulling out lots of pieces from it and gently dabbing them to Noct's other bleeding wounds.

"You'll be a great mother someday, Prompto," Noct chuckled, watching the white tissue papers soaked red with his blood. "I didn't know you were so motherly."

"I nursed a wounded puppy back to health not too long ago, if that's any kind of explanation."

"Not really."

Prompto shrugged. "There, I've cleaned up the blood. They're just scrapes, mostly. Except for that big one in your left palm. Make sure you clean it when you get home, okay? You do have a first aid kit at your place, right?"

Noct had to think for a second. "Uh, I think so?"

Prompto slapped him playfully on the back. "Just ask Ignis. I'm sure he knows where you keep it."

"Dude, no way. He'll get all fussy and stuff if he knows I hurt myself."

"Then take better care of yourself, man," Prompto said with another soft slap on Noct's back as they arrived at the junction where they were to go their separate ways. "Don't forget to clean your wounds, Noct. Don't want your hands to drop off. See you tomorrow."

.o.o.o.

While tending to his wounds that night, Noct got curious.

What happened after he hurt himself that afternoon didn't make sense. Maybe his brain wasn't wired correctly at that time, maybe his nerves were not functioning for a second or two. That was why it didn't hurt. A normal thing, probably.

But he had to make sure. So he pressed his thumb into the huge wound in his left palm, lightly at first. When he didn't feel any pain, he dug his thumb deeper until the wound started to slightly bleed again, staining his nail red. Still, he felt no pain.

Weird.

Was something wrong with him? He didn't feel pain. He couldn't feel pain.

This was kind of awesome.

Maybe he could try something tomorrow with Prompto.

.o.o.o.

"Prompto. Punch me in the face," Noct said a little too eagerly the next day while they were having lunch on the rooftop of their school's gym building.

Prompto froze in the middle of biting his red bean bun, staring at Noct with wide eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"Punch me in the face. Come on."

"You want me to assault you? Noct, are you okay? Did you somehow hit your head yesterday?"

"No."

"Do you realize what you're saying?"

"Yeah, I'm telling you to punch me in the—"

"But why though?" Prompto asked in a shrill voice, throwing down his bun a little too forcefully onto the warm concrete of the rooftop. "Is this a trick? Did I do something?" His eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Are you trying to get me into trouble, Noct?"

"I'm not trying to get you into anything, Prompto. It's just an experiment. I want to confirm something," Noct said, running his hand that wasn't badly injured through his hair.

Prompto cocked an eyebrow. "What experiment?"

Noct was quiet for a while, thinking very carefully. He had decided to tell Prompto about this the night before, but now that he was really going to tell him about it, would he sound crazy? Would Prompto believe him?

"Hey, you know you can tell me anything, right?" Prompto assured when he saw the uncertain look on Noct's face.

Noct shifted slightly against the wall he was leaning on. "I don't think I can feel pain anymore."

Prompto sat up straighter at that, looking a little bewildered. "Dude, what? What do you mean?"

"I can't feel pain anymore. When I hurt my hands yesterday, they didn't, well, hurt."

"You mean, you can't feel anything?"

"Not that I don't feel anything. I feel it when I put pressure on the wounds, or when you dabbed the tissue papers on them yesterday but that's the thing, I felt the touch, the pressure, but I didn't feel the pain. Even now," Noct brought his hands up, crushing and twisting his bandaged left hand with his right, ignoring the horrified look on Prompto's face. "Even now, I don't feel the pain. It just… doesn't hurt."

Prompto just sat there quietly, staring somewhat dumbfounded at Noct's hand.

"So, would you?" Noct asked after a while.

"Would I what?"

"Punch me in the face."

Prompto's shoulders sagged a little as he closed his eyes. "You want me to literally punch you in the face?"

"I thought that's what I said?" Noct said with a tilt of his head.

"Fine, I'll do it. But I'm not punching you in the face, alright? The thought of me ruining the prince's good looks…" He shuddered, looking over his shoulders as if expecting security personnel to come out of nowhere and arrest him for even thinking of hurting the Crown Prince.

Noct shrugged. "Stomach then."

"What? That's even worse. Look, I'll punch you in the shoulder, alright?"

"Sure, whatever. Just punch me as hard as you can, Prompto. No holding back."

"Jeez, Noct. Didn't think you were such a masochist."

"I'm not! Dude, what the hell?" Noct felt his face warming at Prompto's teasing.

They both got up to their feet and then stared at each other awkwardly.

"What now?" Prompto asked.

"You punch me?"

Prompto made a disgruntled noise, running his hands through his hair. "Okay, alright," he muttered, taking deep breaths, balling and unballing his hands a few times. "Okay, Noct. Get ready."

"Don't hold back, alright."

Noct stood still as Prompto pulled back his arm, getting ready to throw his punch. He refused to even blink as he watched Prompto close his eyes, his arm straightening with force as he threw his fist into Noct's shoulder.

When Prompto opened his eyes, Noct was standing still and staring down at the fist against his shoulder.

"You call that a punch? Man, you need to do some hard training with Gladio."

"What? That's the hardest I've ever punched anything in my life! Wait, are you calling me a weakling?"

"With that weak-ass punch? Yeah, definitely."

"Why you little—"

Prompto froze when Noct splayed his injured left hand inches away from his face.

"If you can't hurt me by punching or things like that then can you like, press into the wound or something?"

Prompto took a step back, face blanching. "Noct, that's… fucked up."

He ignored Prompto's disgusted face. "I did it myself last night, but I'm not convinced. I keep telling myself that I didn't press into the wound hard enough, that's why it didn't hurt. My brain wouldn't let me hurt myself, right?"

"Noct…"

But Noct just quietly undid the bandage around his hand and offered it to Prompto.

Hesitantly, Prompto reached for it. His hands were a little cold as they held Noct's injured one. He pressed into the still red wound very lightly, his eyes never leaving Noct's face, ready to pull his hand away the second he saw pain registering in his dark blue eyes. But Noct only returned his gaze without a shadow of a grimace in sight.

He could feel Prompto pressing harder into his wound. Strange. He could feel the pressure but he didn't feel the pain that he was anticipating.

"You're not even flinching. Noct, you really can't feel pain?"

"Seems like it."

Prompto stared and stared.

"That's… actually kinda awesome!" he suddenly cried, a huge grin taking over the worried look he had on his face earlier. "Like, you're never ever gonna have to worry about feeling pain anymore."

"Right?" Noct agreed, a smile creeping onto his own face as he watched Prompto being excited for him. "I guess it is kinda awesome."

But by Thursday morning, Noct was getting anxious about his inability to feel pain.

It was not fun anymore.

He had training with Gladio on Wednesday night and it was just so strange not feeling any pain while he was being hit and bruised and pounded like a sack of sand (he had actually let himself be hit a lot more than usual just to see if he would suddenly feel pain, much to Gladio's puzzlement). It made him feel like his body was not his, like he wasn't even real, and it was driving him crazy.

He realized he was actually desperate to feel pain to prove to himself that he was still alive, that he was a human being.

"Prompto, please. Just kick me in the gut or something."

It was half an hour before the first bell on Thursday morning and Noct had somehow managed to drag Prompto to the deserted school gym.

"Come on, Prompto. Just kick me until it hurts, until you break a ribcage or somethi—"

"Noct, no! Do you know how crazy you sound right now? I don't want to hurt you!"

"It's okay to hurt me if I'm willing to be hurt. I need— I need to feel some kind of pain, Prompto. Maybe— if you hit me hard enough and long enough, maybe I'll feel pain again."

"You know I can't throw a punch to save my life."

"That's why I'm telling you to kick me. I know you have strong legs. You run every morning, right?"

Prompto was backing away from him, refusing to look at Noct. "Can't you ask Gladio to— hell, to hurt you? Gods, that sounds so wrong. You train with him, right? Just ask him to hit you harder or something."

"He'll get suspicious. He'll report it to Ignis and my dad. And then they'd call the doctors to check on me and the whole Citadel would know there's something wrong with me!"

Prompto finally looked at him, striding closer to put a hand on Noct's shoulder. "But isn't it better for you to get checked for this?"

Noct stared at his feet quietly. "I just want to really make sure. And… I don't want to worry anyone, my dad especially. I-If… the painlessness goes on, I'll get help. I'll tell Ignis about it, I promise."

Prompto sighed, dropping his hand to his side. "Alright. Fine. I'll kick your royal ass or whatever."

But as soon as Prompto brought his leg up and swing it in Noct's direction, as soon as he sensed that Prompto was giving it his all, packing power into his kick, Noct's body moved on its own before he could even think or stop himself. His guard was automatically up, his arms moved in reflex, catching Prompto's leg that was aiming for his stomach and in a blink of an eye, he had overthrown Prompto hard onto the ground with a loud, worrying thud.

"Fuck, that hurt! What the hell, Noct?" Prompto yelled, sprawled on the floor looking hurt and betrayed.

Noct stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "Oh my gods, Prompto, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that! My body moved on its own!"

Prompto shook his head, rubbing his sore back as he got up to his feet. "I know you didn't mean to do that but we're not doing this again, Noct. Please, let's not talk about me hurting you anymore."

And Noct wordlessly followed Prompto out of the gym, feeling terribly guilty for hurting him. He didn't think his body would react like that.

But on their way home from the arcade that afternoon, Noct brought up the subject again.

"Prompto, you're coming over tomorrow for gaming night, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Can you do me a favour then?"

Prompto looked at him suspiciously. "What?" He sighed when Noct shifted his gaze away, looking kind of guilty. "Please don't tell me to hurt you again, Noct. In the end, it'll be me who'd end up half dead."

"No, no, don't worry, Prompto. I've got a plan. We'll use these."

Noct held up a pair of handcuffs, the sleek black steel glancing off the afternoon sun.

Prompto stared. "What— Where the hell did you get those?" he asked in shock.

"From my school bag. I always carry around a pair."

"What? Seriously?"

Noct shrugged. "Gladio made me. They're one of his. He said it'd be useful if I ever got into a 'situation' and need to restrain an assailant or something like that," he said, making air quote marks with his fingers.

"Huh. I didn't know that," Prompto said, eyeing the handcuffs like they were going to suddenly shoot lasers at him. He could make out the small, faint Crownsguard insignia stamped on the smooth metal of each of the cuff. "But what are you gonna use that for?"

"You'll put me in these so I can't retaliate when you hurt me."

Prompto gave Noct a strange look, his lips starting to curve upwards slightly into an odd smile. "Are you sure you're not a masochist, Noct? You're into kinky stuff, aren't you?"

His smile turned into a hearty laugh when he saw the embarrassed look on Noct's reddening face.

"What— No! What the hell, Prompto!" Noct cried, punching only the air where Prompto was standing in a second ago as he dodged Noct's fist, still laughing.

"Chill dude, I was joking! Although I won't judge if you really are into kinky stuff."

"I'm not."

"Kinky's fun."

"I told you I'm not—"

Prompto laughed even harder when he saw how riled up Noct was by his teasing. "Should I bring along some red candles? That's kinky stuff, right? Dripping hot wax—"

"Cut it out, man!" Noct hissed through gritted teeth, looking around to see if anyone was listening in to their ridiculous conversation.

"You'd probably enjoy that kind of hot pain. Oh wait—" Prompto's laughter continued to echo down the street they were walking along.

"Hilarious, Prompto," Noct deadpanned.

"Alright, alright. I'll stop now," Prompto said in between his dying laughter.

Noct stopped walking as he reached the junction where they parted ways, folding his arms and tapping his fingers anxiously as he waited for Prompto to stop laughing and catch up to him.

"So, you'll do it, right? Tomorrow night?" Noct asked with hopeful eyes.

Prompto scratched the side of his face with a finger. "I'll think about it."

"But what's there to think about? It's not like we're doing super complicated stuff. It'll be fine, Prompto."

"So many things could go wrong, Noct. What if someone walks in on us? Gladio likes to drop by on gaming nights sometimes, right?"

"Then we'll just explain it to him. Besides, I told him not to come over tomorrow."

Prompto sighed, exasperated. "The thought of me purposefully hurting you is absurd…" He looked around suddenly, casting anxious glances. "Let's not talk about me planning to hurt the prince out here in the middle of the street, okay? That's just asking for trouble." And with that, he started to back away, cutting their conversation short. "I'm heading home, now. See you tomorrow, Noct."

"You will do it tomorrow, Prompto. That's a royal decree," Noct said to Prompto's retreating back. "Not doing it is treason!"

Prompto just turned to look over his shoulder and waved him goodbye, the grin still on his sunny face as he walked away.

.o.o.o.

Noct didn't know what was happening to him that night. Maybe he ate something bad during the day? His body was starting to feel—he didn't know how to describe it—different? uneasy?—ever since before Prompto arrived at his apartment and they started playing King's Knight. He tried pushing away the feeling by focusing on the game and enjoying all the junk food Prompto had brought over. There were some new ones that tasted kind of interesting. He especially liked the spicy soda—nasty-tasting stuff but somehow strangely addictive. He couldn't stop drinking that one.

And Prompto had finally agreed to do what he wanted.

"I'll kick you or whatever after we play, okay?" Prompto said as he settled himself on the sofa, watching Noct start up the gaming console.

"Instead of kicking me, maybe you could just cut me with this," Noct said, handing Prompto a retractable knife he had grabbed from somewhere.

Prompto stared at it, looking uncertain. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Noct? Even if you don't feel pain, you're still getting hurt, and you know I'd never want to hurt you. You'll still bleed if I cut you, right?"

"Relax Prompto, it'll be fine. I'm not gonna bleed to death or anything. You worry too much. Here, have some pizza," Noct assured as he shoved a box of pizza into Prompto's arms.

After about four hours of playing, Noct was feeling so off he had to lie down on the sofa. But he pretended to be just tired as to not make Prompto worry about him, and there was still the thing he wanted to carry out. He was sure Prompto wouldn't want to do it if he knew Noct wasn't feeling too good.

"Hey, we're still doing Experiment Hurt the Prince or what?" Prompto asked after a while, looking unconvinced at Noct lying along the length of the sofa.

"Yeah. I think we can do it now," Noct mumbled into the pillow his face was squashed in. When he saw how reluctant Prompto was being, he said, "Just think of this as a task, like an order from the king or something. You wouldn't disobey the king, right?"

Prompto glanced at him with an offended frown. "Really, Noct?"

"What? It's only because you're so reluctant."

Prompto's shoulders drooped as he let out a defeated sigh. "Alright, Your Royal Highness. I'll carry out your damn orders. No backing out, you got that?"

But by the time Prompto had cuffed his hands behind his back and hauling him to sit up, Noct's mind was already on its way to shutting down. He wasn't even sure if his mind was present at all when Prompto were cuffing him. Sometimes he was aware of what Prompto was saying to him, sometimes not. He wasn't even sure of what he was saying to Prompto half of the time.

He really didn't know what was happening. Prompto was somehow forcing him to drink some more of the soda and then he was unbuttoning his shirt, the knife in his hand.

"You'll bleed from this…" Prompto's voice was laced with concern and doubt.

Noct wanted to give him a reply although his brain barely registered those words, but his tongue wasn't working anymore. Maybe they shouldn't go ahead with this hurting thing. Even in the midst of his mind fog, Noct could tell something was wrong with Prompto too. He looked pale and there'd been a constant pained expression on his face since a while ago, like something was hurting him from the inside.

And suddenly Gladio was there, shouting and looking so ready to murder Prompto. Noct wanted to tell him what was really going on, that it wasn't what it looked like. Prompto would get into so much trouble if he didn't explain the situation quick enough but his body and mind were rapidly drifting away, already lost under the heavy waves of sleep.

He really hoped Gladio wouldn't hurt Prompto.

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Final chapter:

Teenagers

"I'm sure you will, Prompto."