Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 5

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

After some digging and information collecting, the party of nine finds the location of the next royal arm for Noctis. In the southern region of Leide, there was a mine that held the weapon in question, and after an hour of driving, they arrived at the abandoned mine.

'So, the next royal arm is here?', Aqua asked as she and the others exited the Regalia.

'According to the hunters anyways…', Ignis confirmed, 'Though the last one we found was pure accidental'.

'Yeah it happens a lot', Prompto mused, 'We found the latest one when we just climbed a volcano!'.

'Oh…neat', Sora said cheerfully, hopping off his Chocobo and helping Kairi. Prompto gave the boy a weird look, not exactly expecting such a laid-back response. Then again, the boy could summon spinning teacups, a giant lion of fire and turn his weapon into a giant hammer, so maybe he was used to extreme stuff like that.

They approached the entrance, going in a single line with Gladiolus in front and Aqua in the back, covering the rear. Inside the darkness, Noctis and his royal retinue switched on their flashlights. The corridor was narrow enough for everyone to keep bumping into the walls or each other. The party came to an elevator, which certainly had seen better days.

'We're…gonna have to use that aren't we?', Noctis questioned.

'Looks like it…', Goofy concurred, although equally apprehensive.

'Maybe, we should decide who goes first? Probably shouldn't overweight it', Aqua offered wisely.

'…what are you trying to say Aqua?', Kairi questioned.

'You know what I meant'.

After some debate on who goes first, it was decided the first group would consist of Noctis, Gladiolus, Goofy, and Donald. Inside, Noctis found there were some other levels to choose from. He eventually choose the first floor just to be safe. The elevator ride had all four of them on edge, the grinding of the metal the squeaky screams of old rusted gears finally brought to life, along with it moving slower than your average elevator.

Donald and Goofy immediately had their hands on the walls while Gladiolus hummed nervously. All the while Noctis was clenching and unclenching his fists, breath held and desperately trying to think of anything outside of the fact he and his friends were stuck in a slow-moving death machine.

'Should've let Iggy go first…', Noctis murmured.

What felt like hours, the ride was over. The doors opened with a groan and they wasted no time in getting out of the ride, letting breaths of relief. Gladiolus then turned to the machine and yelled up to the others, telling them they were off. Without a callback, the elevator doors closed and slowly ascended back up to the surface levels. 'Should we wait for them?', Goofy asked. 'Nah, we'll go on ahead and see what's on this level first', Noctis declared.

Gladiolus placed a hand near his mouth and yelled: 'IGGY! WE'RE GOING TO CHECK THE FIRST LEVEL FIRST!'.

Above, the others heard the giant's words and once the elevator returned with a loud clang, the five decided to enter it together. With everyone inside though it was a tight squeeze, they descended. Prompto was humming nervously, hands wringing, and he looked everywhere like a trapped animal, while Aqua and Ignis were calmly waiting for the descent to conclude. Sora and Kairi though, nervous, were pushed together thanks to smaller space.

'Well, least this trip is bringing us closer', she joked, pointing out how she was pressing against Sora.

'Y-Yeah', he replied shyly.

Passing the first level, they reached the second level and the two oldest members exited the elevator with Sora in tow. Kairi approached, but then stopped when she heard something fall. A quiet curse from Prompto, she turned around to see him picking his phone. 'Crap, sorry', he said apologetically. Kairi smiled softly at him. 'Jitters?', she asked. 'Yeah, don't like being stuck in places like this', he confessed.

'You and me both', Kairi agreed. 'Come on'.

Kairi turned to the exit but before she could even take another step, the gate suddenly closed in front of her. This caught the attention of the others, turning around to see Kairi and Prompto stuck inside it, the former placed her hands on it. Sora immediately ran back to the elevator and tried to pry it open. But the gate refused to open, and the machines began to stir again, and it began to descend. 'Kairi, Prompto!', Sora cried as they descended below.

Kairi looked at the buttons, hoping to find the emergency stop or halt the elevator altogether, but between the ones not alit or broken, she couldn't tell which one was which. Prompto looked himself but he couldn't tell which one was the emergency stop, and truth be told he wasn't even sure if it did work. 'Okay, okay…let's not panic! W-We'll just go back to the last level!', he said, nervously.

'Right…right!', Kairi agreed.

Upon reaching the third level, the cage opened but the elevator shook, and the sounds of metal groaning loudly rang from above. The shakes caused Prompto to fall against the wall and Kairi fell to her knees, but the elevator shifted, breaking and almost slipping further down. More breaking noises resonated from above, warning the two of what will likely come next.

'GO!', Kairi shouted.

They scampered out of the elevator, no sooner did Prompto leap out of the machine, the elevator's wires snapped, and it collapsed. The sounds of crashing metal and loud smashing noises combined with one final explosion of smashing metal.

On her backside with Prompto leaning against the wall, panting, Kairi looked at the shaft where the elevator used to be. With a loud breath of relief, she got back to her feet. 'That was too close', she said, sweating.

'You're telling me! Holy crap!', Prompto said, hand on his heart. 'I'm never taking an elevator again!'. Kairi giggled tiredly at him, almost agreeing him. She patted her clothes to wipe off the dust of her clothes. 'Guess we're going on our own…', Kairi sighed. Prompto groaned. 'Great…'.

Prompto handed Kairi his flashlight and helped attach it to her top, while he used his phone's flashlight and attached it to his jacket. No sense in letting her go in blind after all, plus he had a sneaking suspicion Aqua and Sora wouldn't take kindly if something were to happen to her after all. Just a guess…

The two less experienced members proceeded down the narrow passageway, the blonde with his gun in hand while Kairi held her keyblade at the ready. Kairi was already apprehensive about fighting in this area, given how narrow the place was and she was already imaging what sort of heartless they'd encounter. She hoped a giant heartless wouldn't appear here.

They came to a clearing where there was some light pierced from above, she sees several old abandoned minecarts with broken railway tracks, sand, and dust all over the place while several bits of ore glistened. They stood in the center, still armed and ready for an ambush. Then, Kairi's ears picked up something in the distance. It sounded like rusty wheels finally moving after years of immobility, and the sound was getting louder and louder.

Kairi's gaze turned to a pathway darkened with a railway track, and then suddenly a mine cart shot out of the darkness. She yelped and leaped out of the way, just dodging the mine cart as it rocketed on the tracks and once it reached the broken tracks, it broke off and smashed onto the ground loudly before it crashed into a wall. Kairi looked to the cart's origins and saw goblins pour out from the cave.

'Goblins!', Prompto called out, helping Kairi back to her feet.

The daemons charged at the two, swiping their claws at the keyblade wielder. Kairi blocked their attacks and parried them, leaving them open to her weapon of light. She cuts down two of the monsters. Kairi turned on one and aimed her keyblade at it, firing a Pearl spell at it. The spell smacked the daemon and destroyed it, the spell flew all over the area and managed to smack two more before it dissipated.

A goblin attempted to pounce on her but Prompto quickly turned around and with a clear shot, took down the sneaking monster. Prompto turned around and fired a few shots at the scurrying monsters, he managed to hit a few thanks to the scattershot tactic but many of them danced around his bullets. The blonde then switched to his SMG rifle and began to spray and pray at the daemons, yelling at them as they either dodged or found cover.

One goblin though managed to evade his bullets and sped up to him. The goblin leaped and slashed against his chest, cutting him and making him yell out in pain. He dropped his SMG in pain as he staggered backward, but before the daemon could tear more of his flesh Kairi decapitated it in a flash and stood in front of Prompto. Looking at his wound, Kairi aimed her keyblade at it and said: 'Cure'. A green light surrounded them, and tendrils of green healed the boy.

The blonde nodded gratefully, summoning up his revolver again as Kairi turned to the other daemons. The redhead keyblade wielder hacked away the daemons that came close to her and Prompto while the latter picked them off from a distance.

But as they were progressively thinning out the daemons, suddenly the light from above was blocked. They both looked up to see from above a black ink void, blocking the rays of light and shrouding the two in darkness, their flashlights the only sources of light remaining. Slowly long lanky creatures began to slither out of the black ooze from above, all fallen to the ground with silence, like wraiths.

These heartless were far lankier than the neo shadows, almost like the dusk nobodies Kairi had seen before. Except they weren't malleable like them, their fingers were long nails that glistened with some form of green liquid, red and black lines around their black ink bodies, reddish-golden eyes that shined in the darkness, their legs humanoid looking with black ooze leaking from them like wounds. On where their mouths should be, there were paper shark-like teeth drawn upon the head.

A total of six, along with the seven remaining goblins, Kairi and Prompto were outnumbered. To add more trouble to their list, the darkness was dense and almost blinding them. Their light being their flashlights was enough to reveal the two, but then the heartless' eyes disappeared, and they were then surrounded in pure silence.

Kairi and Prompto were in the center back to back, eyes and ears on full alert as the blonde held his gun up high and Kairi held her keyblade with both hands up. Neither dared to speak, chances of them distracting one another was too risky for them, and the sheer silence of the entire mine was suffocating. Kairi could hear her heart beating in her ears, the sweat trailing down her forehead as she looked for the monsters.

Kairi jumped slightly when she saw a flash of red light in the vortex of darkness, hearing the dust being kicked up and some of the rocks being knocked.

Prompto let out a shot at the dark, probably out of shock or was spooked, but he missed entirely. The spark from his gun lit up the area for a moment but even at that moment, they couldn't spot the heartless. A flash of red shot towards Kairi, the warrior of light had little time to block. The clash of steel rang loudly in the mine, making her stagger backward. She pushed it off her but when she tried to swipe at it the heartless leaped back and vanished into the darkness again. Kairi grunted and held her weapon up.

Another red-eyed heartless shot out at her, this time, however, Kairi aimed and fire a torrent of ice at the heartless. The flutter of the cold blasted it straight in the face and froze the head and shoulders entirely. The redhead swung her keyblade and shattered both the ice and being of darkness, destroying it. One down she thought to herself, turning back to the heartless. Unfortunately, from the corner, another leaped out and with its claws, scratched Kairi's right shoulder.

Kairi let out a yelp of pain, clutching her shoulder in pain but kept the keyblade up, eyes on full alert. But despite the superficial cut, she began to sway and the strength in her legs started to weaken. Her head felt heavy, her vision was hazy, and to add further trouble she felt sick. The girl fell on her knee, heaving. 'Kairi?', Prompto turned, looking at her.

'P-Prompto, something, somethings wrong…', she gasped, almost feeling like she was going to throw up. Quickly the blonde knelt to her level and looked at her wound, seeing it wasn't severe, but the greenish ooze was concerning. 'Crap', he cursed, recognizing the symptom after previous unfortunate setbacks. Quickly he turned and fired another shot at a goblin that attempt to get the jump on them, and in turn, got a bullet to its ugly face.

'Just hold on!', he said, rummaging through his pocket.

'W-What's happening to me?', she asked, coughing.

'You've been poisoned! I've an antidote on me…ah ha!'.

Prompto pulled out a green glass vial and quickly handed to Kairi, and with some help from the gunner, crushed it. Immediately Kairi felt the poison purge from her body and let out a breath, coughing still. She shook her head to shake off the dizziness as Prompto helped her back to her feet. 'We can't fight like this…!', Prompto said, 'Do you have any ideas?'.

'I'm fresh out', Kairi lamented, swinging her keyblade at a goblin and knocking it backwards and into a wall. Just as the sparks flew from Kairi's keyblade from guarding another red-eye attack, Prompto looked at his gun and grinned. 'I've got one!'.

Aiming his gun up high, the blonde fired a single bullet that shined brilliantly above them like a flare. The entire cave was lit up, exposing the heartless and daemons. Not to mention with the intense light that was like the sun, their powers waned in response to it. Kairi grinned and nodded to Prompto, approvingly. She aimed her keyblade as electricity began to surge around the blade and channel to the tip of the weapon. 'Thunder Chain!', Kairi yelled. A blast of lightning shot from the weapon like a web of lightning, silvery bolts blasted the red-eyed heartless and goblins alike. The heartless had massive holes in their chests with the goblins shocked and blasted.

As the heartless disappeared back into the darkness with the goblins, the black ink above and allowed the light to shine down on the two. They each released breaths of relief, glad to be back in the light. Dismissing their weapons, the two searched the area for any more surprises while Prompto rolled his shoulders. 'Close one, huh?', he muttered. 'Yeah…still, feel off…', Kairi replied, rubbing her stomach.

Prompto checked her and her wound, seeing that while whatever wound that would be there had healed up and there was no more of the poison around it. 'First times always the worst, it'll get easier to deal with', he said. 'Trust me, been there way too many times'. Kairi giggled, smiling at him. 'Thanks for the antidote earlier'. He gave her a goofy smile and a thumbs up before they resumed their exploration, more on guard.

They decided to forgo the passage that spawned the goblins and took another turn down one other tunnel, some more railway tracks that were mostly broken in several structures so less chances of being ambushed by a cart again.

As they walked, Kairi spoke up. 'So what exactly is a royal arm?', she inquired. Prompto turned to her oddly, before he remembered she and Sora were asleep when Iggy explained. 'Oh, well umm…see, they were weapons used by Noct's ancestors, like hundreds of years ago', he said, though he sounded like he was trying to make simple or picking at his memories for it. 'And ummm…well…'. With a sigh, he knew he was gonna be bringing up Insomnia again.

'See, Noct's dad was our King, and when he died, that power to use his ancestor's weapons passed on to him'. Kairi stopped walking and gave the blonde a look of shock. 'Noctis is a prince?', she asked. 'Yup, and soon we're gonna call him King Noctis', Prompto hummed in response. Kairi blushed softly and scratched her cheek. 'Oh dear…I guess I should've…you know, acted properly around him huh?'.

Prompto chuckled, she reminded him of everyone else back in school, except she was genuine. 'Nah, Noct prefers when you treated him like he's your everyday guy, that's how I met him!', he assured. Although he left out the real first time, he met him, Prompto gave her a friendly smile. She, in turn, smiled back. 'I get that, its more of hassle when people treat you like royalty, and suddenly you're not the same person in their eyes anymore', Kairi said.

'Huh? You say it like you know how that feels?', Prompto asked.

Kairi tensed up and shyly scratched her neck, giggling nervously and look away. Prompto stared at her before his own eyes widened with realization. 'Wait…a-are you a princess?', he asked. Kairi didn't answer but still refused to look at him, which only provided an answer unintentionally. Prompto blushed and jumped back before bowing. 'S-S-Sorry! I didn't-

'W-Wait a second! It's not like Noctis! Its…', she said, waving her hands rapidly, a blush coating her cheeks. Prompto blinked in confusion, lost. Kairi folded her arms and looked like she was trying to figure out the world's biggest riddle before she sighed. 'Its…complicated…I'm a princess of light', she said. 'A princess of light?', he asked, tilting his head.

Kairi gave him an unsure look before she laid her arms by her sides. 'I'm probably gonna get into trouble, but since you told us about Noctis…it's only fair I explain this', she said, walking with him…

1st Level

Back with Noctis, the four were still exploring the first level with little trouble from the goblins or daemons since they were scarce in numbers. One blast of magic from Donald, cleaving from Gladiolus and a warp strike and problems solved faster than Ignis finishing crossword puzzles.

Noctis had tried to get into contact with the others earlier after hearing a loud crashing noise from earlier that spooked all four of them, but being underground gave them no reception, not to mention the fact his battery was running low. That'll teach him not to charge at night…

'Think the others are faring any better?', Gladiolus asked, hoping to stir up a conversation to keep the atmosphere light.

'I hope so…I'm more worried about Kairi', Donald lamented. 'She's still a newbie at this'.

'I'm sure she's fine, Donald. She's got Sora and the others to help her out', Goofy said in an assuring tone.

Noctis couldn't agree more with that, after seeing what Sora can do along with Aqua being around, and Prompto and Ignis, she couldn't be in any safer hands if she tried. Still not to say he felt a little intimidated by his predicament, heck he had two shields and a mage. The prince was ahead of them leading the way, while he thinks he's leading them somewhere. The mines were abandoned for quite some time based on how run down the equipment was, the amount of broken rail tracks and rust on the mine carts.

He wondered what sort of daemons had made this place their nest, and hoped they didn't invite any heartless to share the rent of this place. They came to a narrow bridge with again more destroyed rail tracks, which made the prince stop in his tracks. They all peered to see how low the ground was from above, and Noctis was pretty sure he wouldn't be getting up if he fell.

'This feels like a good spot for an ambush…', Gladiolus muttered, sword out and shield at the ready.

Noctis couldn't deny that, seeing a lot of passages above them. A good spot for sniping and given how narrow the pathway was it would be easy for anyone to lose their footing and then met an untimely demise. Gladiolus pulled him back and went ahead first, slowly placing his feet carefully to keep his stance right and his amber eyes searched all around for anyone that wanted to take him on. Donald and Goofy held their weapons out in case of heartless attacking from behind them, while Noctis flexed his fingers in case.

Once the shield crossed over to the other side, he gave the prince a nod. After confirming with the two other world beings, who gave them a nod, Noctis went on ahead. But once he reached the middle, he was attacked. A daemon samurai suddenly leaped down from above the ceiling, landing right before Noctis. The prince backflipped away from it, summoning his engine blade and quickly swung at the samurai's long blade.

He parried the attack quickly and managed to create a distance for himself and the monster. 'Oh sure, attack after the big guy crosses…', Noctis criticized. The daemon rushed in and struck at the prince, the speed of its slashes was maddening, yet the prince wisely summoned one of the shields in his arsenal to block the onslaught.

The blade sparked and cut into the shield, each blow pushed Noctis back even as he dug his heels into the sandy bridge, gritting his teeth as he felt each strike. The daemon turned around, parrying Gladiolus' sword, but before it could retaliate the shield swung his sword again upwards, slashing the chest of the samurai. The giant blade slashed the chest and out came the black daemon blight blood, making it stagger back slightly.

'Noct, get back to the others!', Gladiolus yelled, attacking the daemon again.

Knowing the shield had the better chances of holding his own on a narrow bridge, the prince reluctantly nodded and warp struck back to Donald and Goofy, appearing behind them. The samurai turned its attention to the shield, eyes red with murder. But Gladiolus raised his shield just as it attacked him. As it wailed on the guardian, it was ignoring Donald, as he channeled some magic. Aiming his staff, a chill surged around the tip and then ice swirled around it.

'Blizzaga!'.

A blast of ice rocket forth from his staff and smacked the daemon straight into its back, freezing it's back. Yet despite the powerful spell freezing it and making the movement stiff, it persisted on taking the shield's life. Donald's jaw fell when he saw his magic merely hindered the daemon as opposed to freezing it, but then he growled.

'Oh yeah? How about this!', he shouted.

He channeled more magic into his staff, all the while Gladiolus stayed off the daemon's attacks with his shield and sword. He parried another attack and with a single thrust slammed the top of his giant sword against the daemon's chest, knocking it back and even getting it to its knee. Dismissing his shield, he grabbed the sword with both hands and with a yell, brought the sword down upon the daemon. But the daemon suddenly parried his attack with one quick stroke of its corrupted blade, easily deflecting the attack and with the surprise shift in momentum, Gladiolus was wide open.

And then, the daemon stabbed the shield right through his stomach. Gladiolus let out a gasp of shock, dropping his sword. He looked down at his wound as the daemon lifted him with one arm, making him growl in pain. 'GLADIO!', Noctis screamed. With a cry of rage, Noctis tossed his sword at the daemon and struck it in the back, piercing it. The daemon let a roar, turning its head slightly to see the enraged prince, blade embedded in its back.

The samurai then tossed Gladiolus off its blade, leaving his wounded form on the bridge before it turned its attention to the prince. Noctis summoned his twin daggers and began to parry the attacks with wild swings and keeping his eyes on the daemon. Then a shield flew over Noctis and smacked the daemon right in the face between the eyes with a loud clang. It recoiled in pain and staggered back, but this gave the prince a chance for retribution. With a pounce the prince buried his daggers into the daemon's shoulders at once, burying them deep into the shoulder blades.

'Noctis! Get Gladio over to the other side!', Donald bellowed, his staff glowing yellow with electricity. Nodding, the prince navigated around the daemon and grabbed his wounded friend, helping him to his feet and together they ran to the other side. Once both were safely across, Donald bellowed a loud quack and aimed his staff up high.

A large golden bolt of lightning rocketed down from above, destroying the ceiling and crashing down upon the samurai. It practically bathed the daemon in lightning, but it also demolished the bridge and sent it crashing down into the dark depth below, bridge eradicated in tow. Once the lightning disappeared, the two other world beings looked at their two friends. Gladiolus was leaning against the wall just as Noctis handed him an x-potion, and once he broke it open his body was bathed in green. He exhaled, the pain leaving him stiff and small aches.

Noctis gave the two a nod, confirming Gladiolus' condition. Yet his eyes fell to the now non-existent bridge between them. Before he could ask, Donald had already fired a ray of ice from his staff and created a bridge of ice, and Goofy in his infinite wisdom tossed his shield on the bridge, grabbed Donald and together leaped on to it. They slid across it and Noctis barely had any time to dodge them as they rocketed past them.

Last thing they could see were the sparks from Goofy's shield as he and Donald sped off down the corridor, yelling and then once they were swallowed by the darkness, they heard a loud "clang" and a crash.

'…WE'RE OK!', yelled Goofy in the distance.

Then the two heard a "clonk" like noise, followed by indescribable shouting.

'Well can't say I feel any safer but I'm very entertained…', Gladiolus remarked with a chuckle.

'You and me both, big guy'.

Level 3

'So let me get this straight, you're a princess of light, meaning you've no darkness in your heart', Prompto said, 'Which means you can't turn into a heartless like everyone else'.

'Yup…and there's this "passing the torch" thing going on with a new generation of princesses', Kairi explained, based on what Aqua had told her. 'But you're still one of them?', Prompto asked. 'Yeah, I'm not sure why though. Aqua says it may be because of the keyblade'.

Prompto hummed in response, trying to tie all this information in his mind. As much as Kairi was able to tell him, she was one of the Seven Purest Hearts, that according to Aqua are the "keys" to unlocking this door to the purest light and the bleakest darkness. And now the previous princesses have passed that torch to others…which she wasn't sure who they are. But he managed to learn herself and Sora both came from the same world, so that was a plus.

'Well about the keyblade, how does that work? I mean, I saw Sora handing his to Noct earlier and then it suddenly popped back into his hand', he asked. Kairi stopped and summoned her keyblade, holding it out. 'Well, Aqua told me, the keyblade will only stay in the hands of its chosen while in the hands of others it just…goes back?', Kairi said. 'I'm not sure how the whole thing works myself…heck, I've only recently just come out of training with the basic stuff'.

Prompto gave her a bewildered look as she sheepishly smiled. '…As you saw earlier, I'm not as good as Sora or Aqua…not even close', she lamented with a smile. Prompto felt a wave of déjà vu with this conversation, seeing the sheepish look clashed with doubts and lacking in confidence in one's talent. It was almost like…when he joined the Crownsguard. Kairi let out a sigh as she dismissed her weapon and folded her arms. Her face was coated with a forlorn look, the ugliness of doubt. 'Back there, if you were with anyone else you'd would've ended that fight quicker'.

Prompto didn't know how to feel about a person like her berating herself, it reminded him too much of he was feeling when he was just starting with Noctis and the others. The less experienced, less prepared and worst of all youngest member of the team, while the trio had far better grasps on combat and their training showed they were well prepared for whatever the world threw at them. Prompto remembered those moments where his self-confidence would be non-existent, where he'd question why Noctis would put his trust in him.

But all he had to remember was that night where his friend sat down and talked to him, proving he wouldn't have it any other way. Noctis made him feel he was worth bringing, that he proved his mettle to the party more than once.

Seeing Kairi like this, it felt as if he was taken out of his role and put into the role something he never expected to be.

'Well ya know, you did pretty good', he assured. Leaning against the wall, he gave her a friendly smile as she turned to him. 'I get that, the sense of "I'm not good enough". Just because you feel you're out of your element, or your friends are better suited for the fight, but ya know…', he listed. Looking down, he scratched his head before sighing. 'Believe it or not…I only passed my exam kinda thing, just a month before we had to leave home'.

'So, imagine, ya know, you're just fresh out of training and now suddenly you're off full-time to guard a prince, fighting the empire, monsters, daemons…and now heartless', he said with a weak smile. Kairi leaned against the wall with her small smile, her eyes showing she was getting his point. Prompto shuffled awkwardly in his stance, scratching his nose. 'Being the newbie sucks, and trust me I know, but…well, I wanted to be here, you know?'.

'Yeah, instead of being stuck on the sidelines, waiting for your friends to come home…it sucks', Kairi concurred. 'Least for me, I hated being left behind. Being safe while my friends are out there fighting'.

'Right…', Prompto said, understanding her view. Granted it was never about him getting left behind while they fought, it was more so because he wanted to protect the one friend he had. 'And then when you do get out there, you see what the world's got to offer'. Kairi sighed in agreement. 'So why did you join with Noctis?', Kairi asked, curious. Prompto gulped, suddenly feeling the old stretch marks on his body itch. Normally he'd keep those details to himself, but Kairi gave him this aura of assurance, confiding confidence.

'Well, believe it or not, I was a chubby kid', he said, albeit a tad bit of shame sneaking into his tone. Kairi gave the older boy a look of genuine sympathy and admiration. 'I find it hard to believe indeed, you're really thin', she said. Then she blushed and stuttered. 'I-I mean, not that it's bad…'. 'No, I get what you're saying, promise', he laughed.

'But see, I was the socially shy kid who kept to himself until I worked up the courage to finally say hi to Noct'. He left the story of the Oracle's dog for now, not entirely sure if he should bring her in. 'I, in my usual lucky self, tripped and he tried to help me up, and said I was heavy'. Kairi gasped, shocked. Prompto waved her off. 'It's ok, he didn't mean to say it like you think…but in a way, it helped me, ya know? Get fit, eat healthier…'.

He told her the rest of his tale, how he spent most of his early teens getting fit and healthy, how he worked up the courage to finally speak to him again (and blush when Noctis remembered him) and then told her how the Crownsguard thing went.

'So, you wanted to help your friend', Kairi said, smiling with admiration.

'…and ya know, I owe a lot to him for being there. Accepting me as…me', Prompto said with a grin. 'So even if I'm not the best, and I may screw up now and then…I wouldn't go anywhere without them, you know?'.

Kairi nodded, eyes shining. 'So don't let yourself think any less, I mean, Sora probably goofed up a few times on his first run, right?'. Kairi giggled, recalling the stories Donald and Goofy had told her a while back, smiling at them. 'Right, you're right'. She then clasped her necklace, her smile turned softer as her thumb brushed against the smooth stone. 'I guess, despite how determined I am not to be a burden to Sora, I'm still new to all this', she confessed. 'I don't want him to be in danger to save me, it's my turn to help him'.

Prompto nodded in understanding, smiling back at her. Then Prompto recalled something about the two, something he swore he sees in Noctis whenever Umbra delivered a letter to them. 'Speaking of Sora are you two dating?', he asked.

He wasn't expecting an answer to that very blunt method of questioning sure, …but he sure as heck did not expect Kairi's smile to fade…and her cheeks to turn into the darkest shade of red he thought no human could achieve.

Kairi stuttered, then paced awkwardly before she all but marched off.

'W-W-W-We should get going! Find the others! A-A-And that royal thing!', she said, her voice flustered and hi-pitched with embarrassment. Prompto, however, persisted in his questioning. 'You're blushing! Come on!', he teased.

'Shut up!', Kairi said, her cheeks darkening.

'Oh, come on! Wait, have you two been together for a while?'.

'Prompto!'.

'Just asking! He gave me that impression when we first saw ya! The way he was ogling you!'.

'NO, he- was he? Was he ogling me?'.

'Maybe? I could always ask!'.

'DON'T YOU DARE!'.

'Hey, I think he gave me the number to his phone…~'.

'IF YOU SO MUCH AS PRESS THAT…THAT…BUTTON, THING, I SWEAR TO WHOEVER IS LISTENING!'.

Prompto, with a cheeky smirk, took his phone out and opened it. Now truth be told Sora didn't give the blonde his number, and even if he did there was no signal below ground so he couldn't ring him at all.

But Kairi, as she was just as tech-savvy as Sora, didn't know that he suspected. 'Hey, Sora~ Just wanna ask~'.

'PROMPTO!', squeaked Kairi, grabbing her hoodie and throwing it over her head.

'OOOH really~ Aww that's adorable~'.

'STOPPPPPP!', whined the princess, looking like she wanted a heartless to show up and end her suffering.

Prompto was snickering the whole time, but he accidentally exposed his phone screen to Kairi by moving his arm, and when she peeked in a vain attempt to stop Prompto, she narrowed her eyes. The screen was black, which despite her lack of technical knowledge, she knew he didn't even open his phone.

She stood up straight as Prompto finished his laughter, grinning ear to ear at her. '…you have five seconds to run before I hurt you', she promised. Prompto laughed and sprinted ahead as Kairi yelled "five", summoned her keyblade and chased after him.

All the while smiling…

A/N:

Okay, so this is a focus on Kairi and Prompto chapter. I dunno if its just me but these two do have a lot of similarities between them. So I wanted to focus on them with a decent fight scene since I think Sora gets enough screen time. Anyways, please leave a review to help me see where I can improve on and if you wanna see something in this story.

As always, thanks for reading. Stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!