Noct turns his head away from the window to the blonde who sat away from them, in a different booth. The prince, his advisor and shield sat in the booth on the right facing north while Prom sat in the booth across from them. She squished herself against the window. Every now and then she would look down at her phone. She seems to be ignoring them, well not all of them. Only two of them. The raven haired prince turns his head to the other two who sat across from him, both brunettes look at the prince. The prince motions with his eyes to hurry and talk to her.
They are on the train to Tenebrae, once they reach the capital it wouldn't be easy talking to her. She will find ways to ignore them. It will get worse if they don't do something now. The three men turn their heads to the blonde when they hear her sneeze. They watch as she sneezes again, then she shivers. Silently she gets up and walks to the door to the connecting train car. Noct slides, watching her leave the room. He watches her figure go further before turning to the other two.
"I thought you wanted to apologize?" Noct wonders, both of them saying they did that morning as they left the hotel to catch the ferry.
"It's a little embarrassing to admit but... I'm drawing a blank as to what I should say." Ignis says blushing slightly.
"I don't think I've had to apologize to her for anything." Gladio points out, making all of them notice how they have never upset the blonde before. How they have never had to apologize to her before.
"I don't think waiting for Prom to forgive you is an option." Noct says. He has a point. They know what she's willing to do, how far she'll go and they don't want a repeat.
"Well master of apologies, what do you suggest we do?" Gladio frowns at the prince, arms crossed over his chest. Noctis frowns back, crossing his arms over his chest, mirroring the shield.
"I would love some pointers." Ignis says.
"You don't need my help, we all know she doesn't like it when we keep secrets." Noct says, and true. They know she doesn't like feeling like a burden, or useless, or kept in the dark. She wants them to trust her. And they do, they just don't know how she'll react to certain things. "Just being upfront should help." Noct says, not sure now to help, giving advice isn't something he does or know how to do. All of this is coming out of his ass. Hopefully it helps, if not he tried.
"Why don't you talk to her then come back and tells us how mad she is at us?" Gladio suggests. Noctis and Ignis both stare at the shield thinking.
"That's an option." Noctis says. The prince leans over not seeing the blonde coming back. He checks his phone to see the time. He waits for a few more minutes then checks his phone again. At this point she's been gone long for someone seemingly just getting a coat. If that's what she planned on doing in the first place. "I'm going to talk to her." Noct says standing up. He walks in the same direction as Prom did. He checks the room they they got, it has four beds, not finding her there he moves on. Going further down towards the caboose.
He found it harder to find her when she mostly blended in, there are more people with blonde hair now that they are in Niflheim. Spots of brunette sprinkle the sea of blonde or silver. Prom didn't stand out like she does in Lucis. Noctis checked every short, long haired blonde woman standing alone he could find. Noct shivered as he continue searching, it's getting colder. Many of the passengers have their coats on already.
He finally finds her, leaning against one of the many observation windows. She wore a white jacket with grey and red lining, on the back is a print of a black Chocobo with burning feathers. Noct stands on the other side, he leans against the cool of glass and metal of the wall. He stays silent for a while, gathering his thoughts. "You do know Ignis and Gladio didn't mean anything bad about what they did?" Noct looks over to her reflection, it being more clear now, with the sun setting and the sky growing darker. He shifts uncomfortable with the cold. He should get his coat but later, he didn't want to leave and come back.
"I get that they were trying to help you Noct but that doesn't change..." Prom stops, ending the sentence with a sigh.
"What doesn't change?" Noct says standing closer. Not to close, he didn't want to crowd her but close enough.
"What happened between us, what you said." she turns her head to him. "It hurt." her voice cracks. She swallows the lump in her throat before she continues, "faking not having feelings for you, trying to make it seem like normal. I was done, ready to give up on our friendship to ease the pain, even before I knew I was pregnant." Prom lets out a shaky breath.
"You were going to... leave?" Noct asks, very hurt by that.
"Noct... it was tiring and hurtful pretending, you leaving for prince work helped separate us, and learning I was pregnant pushed me forward." Prompto leans against the window, her forehead thunk against the window. "You'd be hurt if the situations were reversed." she says not taking a look at him. Eyes closing as the motion of the train vibrate through her.
With her eyes closed she couldn't see the hurtful expression on the princes face. He didn't think he hurt her so bad. So he thought about what she said about the roles being reversed. What it he wasn't the one getting married but Prompto instead? What if she declined because she was going to marry someone else? Prompto with someone else.
He doesn't like it. The image hurts, the idea hurts. Especially with the knowledge that they do have feelings for each other. Why shouldn't they be together? It sucks. He must have hurt Prompto worse than how he's imagining now reversed, then add a baby into the mix.
Yeah, she was right to want to distance herself. His position helping with that. Speaking of, even if Prom wanted to stop it how would she? There wouldn't be anything for her to do legally. Truly the decision fell on him, and he wouldn't be able to do anything, he already knew that considering the spiral he went through after learning about Astrum.
"I'm sorry." he apologizes with way more heart in this than the other one.
"I know you are but that still doesn't help the feeling of being the last resort." Proms eyes open but she keeps them on the scenery outside that's getting hard to see with night approaching.
"The last resort?" Noct asks not sure what she's talking about. Hoping it's not what he thinks.
"Luna, is of course the first choice." she says wrapping her arms around herself, holding herself tightly. Reassuring herself with a self hug. "I'm sure your father would have wanted you to marry some rich girl from Insomnia. Someone like me wouldn't be in the top ten." she tells him. Noct shakes his head.
"That's not true. Dad would have... he would have let me choose." Noct says and the blonde scoffs.
"Even you don't fully believe that. What's so good about me?" Prompto scowls at her own reflection.
