Disclaimer: not mine

Chapter 6

Prompto stared at the collection of buildings, trying to gather up the nerve to enter. Everything he'd worked so hard to do, to finally get there, and now he was too scared to enter. Was he a wolf or a coward? He took a deep breath and fought back a grimace at the mass of clashing scents before walking forward, seeing and smelling the other nervous teens, obviously in their first year as well.

The uniform still felt itchy and restricting but it was something he'd have to live with. He was attending one of the top schools in the city after all, uniforms were compulsory. He saw that some of the students already knew each other, they must have gone to school together before as well. He checked the slip of paper, looking for the right classroom. His parents had told him all they remembered about school, though his Mom had admitted that his Dad's recollections would be more relevant as they were more recent. The school knew he'd been home schooled though to explain why he wouldn't know all the rules, they had helpfully sent out some pamphlets on appropriate behaviour and the basics of what was expected.

He entered the room to find some other students already there, hesitating as he looked around, did he just pick a desk? The teacher looked up and waved him over.

"Name?"

"Prompto Argentum, sir," he answered quietly.

"Ah yes, you'll be in the third row, next to the window. It's assigned seating in here. Any forms for me?" he asked and Prompto handed over the form his Mom had given him that morning, the final one needed to ensure the school didn't try to make him participate in any sport. He smelt the slight annoyance from the teacher as he read it. "I expect you to keep up with your work. You'll need to organise with your other teachers as well, to ensure you receive and turn in all assignments on time."

"Yes sir."

"Take your seat," he waved him off and Prompto quickly moved to the desk.

He sat down, fighting the urge to slump down. So far, his classmates all smelt human, which was good, but quite a few were missing if the class was a full one. Sure enough, a few more students came in and he smelt two vampires among them. Just before the bell, a final figure entered the room and approached the teacher whose attitude and scent did a complete turnaround from how he had dealt with any other student.

"Welcome, Your Highness."

Oh… Prompto glanced up, seeing the dark hair, taking in the scent of vampire, and silently freaked out. He was in the same class as the Prince! He was so dead.

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Noctis dragged himself out of bed and into the shower, trying to wake up more. Why did high school have to start even earlier? At least the uniform was a little nicer. He left the jacket off and the tie undone as he stumbled out to the main room, seeing Ignis had already poured his morning blood for him. He collapsed in a chair and picked it up to sip, letting it wake him up a bit.

"Will you be alright?" Specs asked in concern and he nodded lethargically. "I've made you an easy lunch and a full flask."

"Thanks," he mustered a smile.

"Gladio will drive you this morning and one of the Guard will pick you up," he explained.

"Not you?" he asked, disappointed.

"I have a morning class and then meetings," Specs explained and Noctis sighed but then nodded.

He finished his blood and then went to brush his teeth, oral hygiene was especially important when you drank blood regularly, it was very rude to have breath that smelt of old blood. He was shoving his shoes on when Gladio arrived and soon they were on the way.

"Excited?"

"Why?" he stared out at the passing people. "It's just another school."

"A chance to make friends," Gladio offered and Noctis snorted.

"People who want to be friends with the Prince."

"Lighten up Princess," Gladio smirked at him, pulling up in front of the school. "Better get a move on, don't want to be late on your first day."

"Thanks," he grabbed his bag and headed in, seeing everyone moving to their classrooms, so he checked the number for his and walked towards it. He grimaced when he realised everyone else was there already, every head turning to see him in the doorway.

He took a deep breath and walked over to the teacher's desk. He heard his heartbeat speed up, though thankfully not in fear, no, the man was excited. Wonderful.

"Welcome, Your Highness," the teacher smiled widely but he doubted a human could miss the real emotion behind it, he was sucking up to the crown.

It seemed the majority of the class was human, and he could hear the whispers, some nervous and some excited, others scoffing at his presence. He knew some of them were scared of him, because he wasn't just any vampire, he was a Lucis Caelum which meant magic on top of the normal skills. He saw a blonde boy watching him with wide eyes and quickly looked away to focus on the teacher.

"If you will take the seat next to Argentum, please. Argentum, wave," he called.

Noctis' heart sank when a hand went up, it was the blonde boy. He took a breath and walked towards him, seeing the empty desk beside him. He put his bag down and dropped into the seat, careful not to move too fast or do anything that could be seen as threatening. Should he say anything?

"Hi," the blonde whispered and Noctis turned to look at him. "I'm Prompto."

Huh, he hadn't expected that, not with his reaction to just seeing him across the room. "Noctis," he offered in return, it would suck to be seated next to someone scared of him for the whole year so if talking to him helped then he'd give it a go. "Sorry."

"For what?" Prompto looked confused.

"You probably wanted to sit with a friend," he glanced at the front, but the teacher had yet to get up.

Prompto shook his head. "Don't have any. I…uh, this is literally my first day ever at a school," he answered and Noctis frowned in confusion but before he could ask anything else the teacher stood to begin.

Noctis was relieved to sense the other teen relaxing as class went on. It was odd…but Prompto didn't have much of a scent, weird. Noctis diligently took notes, fighting the urge to nod off. Vampires being totally nocturnal was a myth, but it did affect them. He also had the added pull of magic and his link to the Crystal that protected Insomnia. All of that made him sleep more and it was hard to fight it sometimes. He hid a yawn and kept working, not realising when he began to slump until there was a nudge to his desk. He jerked and blinked, he'd nodded off? He glanced to the side and met concerned eyes.

'Okay?' Prompto mouthed and he nodded.

'Thanks,' he mouthed back before getting back to work until the bell rang for break. He packed up, catching Prompto looking around, taking his cues from everyone. "Twenty-minute break," he offered. "Then more class, then we get forty-five for lunch."

"Thanks."

"No problem, you said you've never been to school before?"

"Uh, no. Home schooled," he shrugged awkwardly.

"Bet this is really different then. Thanks…for waking me up."

"No problem. Long night?" he hesitantly followed Noctis from the classroom.

He said nothing to dissuade him. Having someone to talk to was nice, if awkward, and if it helped Prompto get comfortable with him then he didn't mind at all. "It's because of the magic, I need more sleep. High school starts earlier than previous years."

"Oh, that must suck."

"I like sleeping but yeah," he glanced around and found a table, in sight of everyone but still a bit private so he headed over, seeing Prompto hesitate. "Want to sit with me?" he offered nervously.

"Is that allowed?" Prompto asked nervously and Noctis mustered a small smile for the boy.

"Sure. Unless…you don't want to, because of what I am?" the lack of strong scent was odd but also nice, and Prompto seemed like a nice though nervous guy. Maybe…he wouldn't care that he was Royal? If he could get past the whole vampire thing.

"My Mom's a vampire," Prompto told him and Noctis started.

He took a deep breath, opening all his senses but…there was nothing.

"Adoptive Mom," Prompto corrected, obviously realising what he was doing. "I don't care if you are or aren't," he shrugged.

"Oh…I thought… when I saw you first…" he moved to the table and sat down and Prompto sat opposite him, cheeks flushing slightly.

"Sorry…I just… everything's so different and new and the teacher was….and then you walked in and I'm going to school with literal Royalty and I think I kind of freaked out a bit," he looked down at the ground.

"The teacher what?" he already didn't think much of the guy, had he given the blonde trouble? Prompto just shrugged and Noctis let it go, Prompto had said he'd never been to school before so maybe it was just that. "So what do you think of school so far?" he asked after a while, taking out the flask but hesitating to open it.

"It's different… Mom drinks from an open mug, got a pretty good idea what's in there," Prompto offered, digging out an energy drink for himself.

Noctis opened it and drank from it, feeling his energy levels increase a bit. The human students at his previous school had always been disgusted by blood drinking, then again Prompto had grown up around it so for him it was probably normal. He had so much he'd like to ask about home schooling, what it was like growing up in a mixed family, about being adopted… and those were all questions he was pretty sure Ignis would give him the look for. He glanced up to find Prompto watching him curiously.

"What did you want to ask?"

He started slightly, embarrassed at being read so easily. "I, um, I don't want to be rude or pushy or anything."

"it's fine," Prompto shrugged again.

"You don't have to answer or anything."

"Okay," Prompto offered a small smile.

He hesitated, what did he really want to know? They didn't have a lot of time left before class went back. "Well, you uh, said you were adopted?"

Prompto nodded. "Yeah, when I was eight. Technically the Argentum's are my cousins. I'm…uh, sick. Some weird, complicated name I never bothered to memorise cause I just hate it. I needed the kind of medical help you can only get here, so Dad came and picked me up and brought me here. They adopted me to ensure they could okay medical treatment and stuff. It's why I've been home schooled till now. I've been doing better though, and the school knows I might miss a lot."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Noctis winced. He couldn't imagine being sick like that. It had been bad enough being injured the way he had when he was eight.

"You didn't know."

"So your uh, birth parents?"

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"Live in Tenebrae still as far as I know. We…we were never close. Guess they didn't plan on a sickly kid," Prompto gave the answer he'd been told to.

"You're from Tenebrae?" Noctis' eyes lit up. "It's so beautiful there. But…couldn't the Fey have healed you?"

Prompto shook his head. "One of the few things they can't." And that wasn't a lie, not even they could cure being a wolf.

"That sucks," the Prince…Noctis grimaced and then seemed to realise something. "We're the same age…so you moved here the year I went to Tenebrae. Where you still there when I was?"

"No, Dad and I arrived in the city to the news of, um, the attack on you." And with that another bell rang. "Break over?"

"Yeah, sport next."

Prompto sighed. "Have fun with that."

"Oh! You can't?"

"Not even allowed to play with the kids on my street let alone do anything like a real sport activity. Never even got to interact with them till I was thirteen," he admitted. Everyone thought it was because his immune system had sucked, that he'd catch anything he was exposed to and he hated lying. Good thing he used the scent supresses or Noctis would so be smelling the lie on him. He had the better sense of smell and he couldn't smell it. And he was managing to keep his heart rate at an okay level, enough that it would be seen as first day nerves and the like.

He followed Noctis to the big gym and took another copy of the note to the man waiting for them, getting waved over to the rows of ascending benches. He sat down and pulled out the assigned homework from earlier, might as well get as much of it done as he could.

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Noctis glanced around and spotted Prompto sitting alone on the bleachers, schoolbooks out, he knew what it was like to be unable to participate. Even with the help of the Queen and his own healing, it had taken a year for him to get back to where he could jog let alone really participate in sport or training. He could hear the other kids whispering about Prompto and it was stupid. They didn't know anything about him, they were just making things up, teasing him, for no reason. Yeah, Noct didn't know him either, they'd only met that morning, but he seemed like a really nice guy. It was kind of nice not being the only socially awkward one and he hadn't gotten upset over his asking about his family.

As soon as class was over, he headed into the changing rooms to clean up and then looked for Prompto, relieved to find him packing up and not already gone. "Prompto!" he called, and the blonde looked up. He jogged over and climbed up to join him. "Want to have lunch with me? It's, well it's the earliest I can actually stomach food, so I really do mean lunch."

"You're sure?" Prompto seemed surprised he asked, and he wondered if Prompto had heard any of the comments.

"Of course, unless you don't want to."

"No…I…I'd like that," Prompto gave another small, shy smile and Noctis helped him grab the last of his books.

They headed outside to the same table as earlier and Noctis got out the lunch Iggy had packed him while Prompto got out his own, all healthy food which Noctis assumed made sense if he had health issues. His own lunch was food that was easy to digest, some sandwiches and a treat of a piece of cake, plus some grapes. At least they weren't another attempt to sneak vegetables into his food.

"Can I ask…"

"What?" he asked, wondering what he'd ask and hoping it wouldn't be any of the usual questions. He…he wanted Prompto to be different to the others.

"Well, my Mom has no trouble with food, so I was just wondering…"

"Why I do?" Noctis asked, surprised by the question, and Prompto nodded. "I didn't used to, when I was little," he admitted. "After the attack, well I was in a coma and couldn't eat food, but they kept up a steady supply of blood and my body seems to have…"

"Adapted to it more than normal?" Prompto offered and he nodded, glad he got it so quickly. "Makes sense."

"Do you like living in Insomnia? Must have been a big change."

"Yeah, it was. I don't…remember a lot from before, I was really, really sick for a long time. Don't even remember a lot of the trip here. I love the city, it's always so alive, so much to see, even when I was stuck indoors, I could watch it all from my window."

"I hated being bed bound when I woke up, I can't imagine being sick so long. I'm glad you're doing better now."

"Thanks. One of my parents was always home that first year. I had schoolwork to catch up on when I was well enough. Dad taught me how to play video games and Mom taught me crafts I could do in bed, cooking on good days."

"You play video games?" that would give them loads to talk about and Prompto grinned.

"Doesn't everyone?" he asked and Noctis couldn't help grinning.

They spent the rest of lunch talking about the different games they'd played and what their favourites were. The rest of the day went quick enough and they were soon packing up to go home. "See you tomorrow?" he asked as they headed out.

"Hopefully," Prompto shrugged. "If I'm not, I'll be back."

"You can get sick that quick?" Noctis asked in alarm and Prompto nodded.

"Fine one day and stuck in bed the next. I'm not contagious in any way, even with other humans," he quickly assured him and Noctis nodded, very, very few things could be transmitted between species anyway. The school would never accepted him if his health was dangerous to the other students. "Thanks…for helping me today. I thought I knew everything I needed, guess I didn't."

"Hey, we all learnt it as kids, you'll pick it up quick. Thanks, for…well for just treating me like normal," he offered in return, feeling very awkward.

Prompto stopped and stared at him. "You don't like it, do you? Being treated like Royalty. Just like I don't like being treated like glass," he said and Noctis blinked but then nodded, glad he understood. Prompto grinned at him and it was amazing how bright it made him look. "See you tomorrow," he waved and headed off through the crowds while Noctis headed for where the car would be waiting.

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Ignis smiled as Noctis walked into the apartment, glad he had gotten back earlier than expected. He studied him, surprised to see he seemed…happy?

"You're early!" Noctis grinned, yanking his tie off.

"Meeting was shorter than expected. How was your day?"

"I uh…I think I might have made a friend," he answered and Ignis paused in his work, turning to fully face him.

"Oh?"

"His name is Prompto Argentum, originally from Tenebrae, adopted by the Argentum's who are technically his cousins. It was his first day ever attending school, he's been home schooled due to bad health. We had assigned seats next to each other. His adoptive Mom's a vampire and his Dad is human. He…he's sick Iggy, really sick and the kind the Fey can't heal. It's why he was brought here."

"Medical technology," Ignis nodded sadly. His Father's family had come from Tenebrae originally and he had visited as a young child. It was a magical land, but it relied heavily on magic. "I will have to have a security check run on him," he warned and Noctis nodded.

"I know. Just…can it wait a few days? We got on today but…"

"Give you a few days to see if you'll want to keep talking with him?"

"Or he'll want to keep talking with me. He was nervous and I was the first person to talk to him."

"Alright, I can give you the week, as long as you're careful. The school does vet the students, which is why it was the one chosen for you." For a week, the school's background check would do, any longer and a far more detailed look would be needed. His records before coming to the city were likely rather spotty, Tenebrae was barely keeping their freedom from the Empire, and communication was not always easy.

"Thanks Specs."

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"I'm home," he called softly, despite knowing the house was empty. His Dad had managed to see him off in the morning, but he'd been planning to leave around lunchtime. He was due in Altissia in a few days after all.

At least it meant he didn't have to tell them that the Prince was in his class, that they sat next to each other, had talked. He knew they'd panic. Was his paperwork good enough to stand up to Royal scrutiny? What would happen if it didn't? How long until they did a background check on him? He knew the school did a basic one as part of the scholarship process, but anything done by the Citadel would be a lot more in-depth. That scared him but… he thought…. he might like to get to know Noctis better. It was crazy and dangerous but if Noctis wanted him around then he would like to give it a go.

TBC….

Trying to write 2 socially awkward teenagers is never easy.