It wasn't long before Prompto heard a knock on his door. He stood up, adjusting the baby in his arms and walked over to answer it. He opened it up expecting Ignis, and the man was in fact there, his hands full of bags no doubt with baby stuff. But he was not expecting to see Noctis standing there besides him, with a surprised look in his eyes.
"So you are actually serious!?"
"Shhh. Not so loud," Prompto hushed. He looked down at Scarlet who stared up at him and started to smile. "Don't wanna upset her cause she is pretty calm and content right now so I think she could sleep soon."
"Let us head inside first before we decide about anyone sleeping any time soon."
The two stepped inside and Ignis closed the door. He then moved ahead to the kitchen to first drop off the bags by the tabel. Then he picked up the paperwork Prompto had left out and began to read over it.
Prompto on the other hand walked over there just as quickly and sat down, letting Scarlet sit more comfortably in his lap. She started to sway back and forth, babbling complete nonsense which honestly made Prompto want to squeal over how cute it was. But he knew he needed to focus right now. He could coo over the baby later after things were settled.
"So this is the baby?" Noctis said as he pulled up a chair to sit across from Prompto.
"Yup, this is Scarlet. Hey Scarlet." Prompto said as he looked at the baby. "Can you say hello to my buddy Noct?"
Scarlet grinned widely and let out a loud garble of baby sounds.
"Uh, hi?" Noctis replied.
"Isn't she just the cutest?!" Prompto said.
"I guess? It's a baby though."
Prompto looked at Noctis curiously. "So?"
"Babies… they just kind of sit there and make noise. I remember when Iris was born, she was a loud baby."
"Well Scarlet is a lovely, well behaved baby!" Prompto said in defense.
Noctis leaned back. "A baby you just found less than an hour ago."
"So what?" Prompto asked. Then he looked at Ignis. "I can keep her right, Iggy? You won't force me to give her up, right?"
Ignis sighed as he put the paperwork down. "I won't separate you. I promised that much when you told me your situation."
"Situation?" Noctis asked.
Prompto frowned. He felt bad that he hadn't told Noctis first. He could see it in Noctis's eyes that he was a little hurt that the truth had gone to Ignis first and not him. But it wasn't really the best circumstances that Prompto wanted to even tell Ignis, but his hand had been forced. If he had not been so quiet and shielded about his home life, he probably would have told Noctis right away. It was just that he didn't think he would want to bother him with such trivial pleb life things, but now he saw that was probably a mistake to make.
"I'll tell you in a bit," Prompto offered. "But uh, so we can do this? I can adopt Scarlet?"
"I am going to do what I can to make the paperwork official, but I believe I can do that, yes."
"Whoa wait a minute!" Noctis interjected. "You're seriously going to adopt it?"
"Her," Prompto corrected. "Not it. She isn't an it."
Noctis shook his head. "Sorry… But I just can't understand why you would do this… Ignis said he knows your situation. How come I didn't know about this?"
"I only told Ignis tonight when I called him. It's no big deal."
"Yeah it is! I just want to know what's going on but all I get is a vague random text with you and a baby. No explanation! So what is it? What's the deal?"
"Can you not raise your voice," Prompto said at first. "You could upset Scarlet… and second thing.. I'm sorry. I uh, to be simple, I've kind of been lying about how often my parents have been home."
Any frustration or anger from Noctis's face disappeared. He sighed as he stared down at the floor. "So you've been on your own for a while? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Didn't want to be a burden or sound like I was whining. Really, it's not a big deal like I said."
"Prom… of course it's a big deal. Here I thought you were coming home to your parents but they just were too nervous to have the prince in the house."
"I wish that were the case…" Prompto said, holding Scarlet a little closer to his chest. "But now you know. Sorry I didn't tell you… but now with Scarlet, I just wanna protect her. Be what my parents couldn't."
Noctis moved his chair a little closer to Prompto so he could rest his hand on top of his shoulder. "Hey, I get it now. And I wanna help too. You can't raise a baby all on your own."
"Thanks, Noct. That's why I called Iggy y'know? He did a good job of raising you so I thought he'd be the man to look for."
Ignis sighed with a smile. "I wouldn't say I raised Noct. He was already 4-years-old when I began looking after him. A far cry from raising."
"You're right," Prompto said. "If you had raised him, maybe he'd actually eat his veggies."
"Hey! I'm right here!"
Prompto laughed. "Just teasing."
"While I appreciate your thought Prompto, if we must pick someone who knows anything about children, it would have to be Gladio. He had a hand in raising his little sister Iris of course."
"Yeah," Noctis agreed. "Iggy and I helped out sometimes, but Gladio always tried to do most of the work if it wasn't being done by a nanny or his father."
"Then all of you can help! I'm sure Scarlet would love some uncles," Prompto beamed.
"I think that would be nice."
Noctis started to smile as he patted Scarlet lightly on the head. The baby giggled and tried to reach up to grab his hand. Noctis let her grab onto his fingers and she brought them closer to her face. But before Noctis could pull his hand away, she put her mouth over his fingers.
Noctis scrunched up his nose as he tried pulling his fingers away. "Gross. She's like… sucking on my fingers and- Ouch! She's trying to bite me!"
Finally Noctis pulled his hand away from her while Prompto started to laugh. "Dude, she's a baby. They just wanna put anything in their mouth."
Noctis was already standing up and heading to the kitchen sink. "Well just another reason that babies are weird."
Ignis cleared his throat. "While I appreciate some amusing banter, we should get back to the topic at hand. We have a baby who was left at your door with her records having been altered to omit the parents. It's clear that they don't wish to be found, but I still would want to press for an investigation. They should be charged with the offence of child neglect."
"Do we need to?" Prompto asked. "Like uh, I am mad at the parents. But do we wanna cause a big scene over it? I'd rather keep it quiet and not draw any attention to myself."
"Prompto, the actions we have to take are going to draw attention either way. But if we want to make sure that the parents are repremained for their actions."
"And if… if my parents ever come home, are you going to do the same to them?"
"Only if you wish that I should. Since you are nearly an adult, I can leave that choice to you. But for our little baby here, I feel we need to make that choice for her."
Prompto nodded. "Right yeah. Okay makes sense. Then you can do the investigation. I guess that way we can make sure the parents can stay away."
Prompto lifted Scarlet up and faced her toward him. She gurgled and smiled, reaching out towards his face. "We're doing this for you, Scarlet. We are going to make sure your future is the best."
