Chapter 5 ( Prompto)
Prompto could not sleep that night. He knew his time was running out, and the stress of knowing was starting to get to him. How would he even begin to explain this to Noctis? Would Noctis hate him after? Prompto wouldn't be able to handle that. While he had other friends now, Noctis was his best friend, and the one he turned to for everything.
Eventually, he was able to fall into a restless, anxiety filled sleep.
(DREAM)
It was dark, and cold. He couldn't tell where he was. Eventually, he got up, and began to walk. He saw the outline of a door. Reaching for the handle, he opens the door and steps through to see the coffee shop he and his best friend frequent. Noctis is sitting down at their usual spot. He looks up, and waves Prompto over.
Suddenly, the atmosphere changes, and he feels someone's arms grabbing him. He looks up to see who it is, and opens his mouth to scream when he sees its Ardyn. No sound come from his mouth. Ardyn just grins, and continues to pull him away. He pulls out a gun, and shoots at Noctis, hitting him in the chest. Prompto punches him and escapes his hold. Running towards his friend, Prompto falls the ground, and pulls Noctis into his arms, but it was already too late. Noctis was already growing cold in his arms. Tears started to roll down his face, as he cried.
(END DREAM)
Prompto snapped awake, gasping for air. What a terrible, horrible nightmare, he thought to himself. He rubbed his face with his hands, feeling the wetness of the tears as they streamed down his face. Without thinking about it, he rushes to grab his phone and send a text to Noctis.
P: Noct, you awake? I need to talk to you.
N: You know me, I'm always awake at night. Whats up?
P: I had a really terrible dream.
N: It's been a long time since you've had a bad one. Want me to come over?
P: Actually, I could use a walk. Is it ok if I come to you?
N: Sure.
Without a second thought, Prompto threw his clothes back on, grabbed his bag containing his camera, and headed towards the prince's apartment. He only lived a couple of blocks over, so the walk shouldn't take him too long. He needed to clear his head. Why did he dream about Ardyn? He knew the guy was creepy, but was he really this afraid of the man? He had only interacted with the man once, so he was unsure of why he would have such a terrible dream.
Once he arrived at Noctis's apartment, he knocked softly on the door. One knock was all it took for Noctis to throw open the door and grab his friend's arm into the apartment. Once they were both settled on the living room couch, Noctis gave his friend an inquisitive look. Prompto knew that Noctis wouldn't push him for details until he was ready to talk.
(Noctis)
Noctis sat back and looked at his friend. The dream that Prompto had just described to him was intense. He certainly had not expected to die in this dream. He wasn't sure what it meant, and he said as much to his friend. Prompto sat silently on the couch for a while, his ears drooping slightly. Noctis could sense his growing unease, and decided it would be best if he asked his friend what was going on.
"Hey Prom, you've been acting strange these past couple of weeks."
"Hmm, have I? I haven't really noticed." Prompto looks at him with a slight tilt to his head.
"Yeah. I can't really explain it though. I guess it seems as if you've been distracted? It isn't because of this Ardyn guy showing up at the chocobo stand, is it?"
"Uh, yeah… That might be part of it. But…. There's something more. I can't really tell you about it though. I'm just not ready to talk about it."
"Will you tell me though? When you're ready?"
"Yeah, of course I'll tell you. I tell you everything."
" Well, ok." After a few moments, the silence between them grew, and Noctis couldn't stand it anymore, so he pulled his phone out. "Wanna play some king's knight?"
A large grin spread over the blonde's face, and he went to grab his phone. The two friends played all night, until they both drifted off to sleep, their phones falling from their hands with the game still on, playing the theme music.
(Ignis)
Ignis knocked on the door to Noctis's apartment. The prince hadn't been answering his phone calls or texts all morning, which was somewhat usual as he was probably still asleep. What was unusual was that Prompto also had not answered any calls or texts.
" I don't know why you bother knocking when you have a key." Gladio says from behind him.
"It's called manners. One doesn't want to just barge in on the prince's personal space." Ignis replied, pulling out the key to the apartment from his pocket.
"All I'm saying is you know he's probably still asleep. If given the chance, he'd probably sleep for an entire week."
Turning the knob and opening the door, Ignis and Gladio walk into the apartment. Ignis instantly turns to go down the hallway to Noct's bedroom, and Gladio turns to go towards the kitchen, hoping to find some coffee. He didn't get that far though.
"Hey Iggy, I think I know why both of them weren't answering your calls." Gladio calls quietly to the bespectacled wolf.
Turning around and walking towards the living room, Ignis takes in the sight of Noctis and Prompto asleep on the couch. They were both laying down on the couch, their phones long forgotten on the floor. Noctis had his face hidden in Prompto's back.
"Well, now isn't this adorable? Looks like the two of them had a sleepover last night and we weren't invited." Gladio says.
"No doubt they had been playing games all evening, and lost track of time. This is hardly the first time we've caught them like this."
"Most likely." Gladio says, pulling out his phone and snapping a picture. "This will make great blackmail in the future."
Upon hearing the click of Gladio's phone, Noctis twitched his ears. "You better delete that." He says, his voice muffled by Prompto's back.
"Nah, I think I'll hang on to this one."
"So noisey…." Prompto complained, rolling over and burying his face into Noct's chest.
"As much as I would like to let you two get back to your slumber party, We are actually here to discuss something of importance with you two."
Groaning as he slowly sits up, Noctis glares at Gladio and asks "Couldn't you wait until a decent hour?" As he sits up, he catches a faint sound from Prompto, who had wrapped his tail around himself for warmth.
"We did. Its noon. You've had plenty of time to catch up on your beauty rest. Now, come to the kitchen and I'll prepare breakfast." Ignis says, pushing his glass up his nose.
Prompto sits up and rubs the sleep from his eyes, then bends over to pick his phone up. "Aw man, the battery died."
" Here, you can use my charger." Noct hands the charger to Prompto, then walks into the kitchen, and sits at the table.
Several minutes later, everyone was sitting at the table, and enjoying the meal that Ignis had prepared.
"Noct, you need to eat your vegetables." Ignis scolded, as the prince was removing any traces of vegetables from his plate, and putting them onto Prompto's.
"You're too easy on him."
"Well, then you make him eat his vegetables."
" Mom, Dad, can we not argue over breakfast?" Prompto said in-between bites of his breakfast.
" Very well, we'll make Noct eat his vegetables at lunch I suppose."
"So, why are you two here so early on a saturday?" Noct asked without looking up from removing the offending green vegetables from his plate.
"Hunter Headquarters has been getting a lot of requests lately, and they are struggling to fill them all. They sent a request to Cor today to ask if some members of the Glaive can lend a helping hand. Since we haven't done much field training with either of you, I figured now would be the perfect opportunity to do so. What do you say? Interested?"
"Yeah, count me in." Noctis says, finally satisfied enough at the lack of vegetables to start eating his breakfast.
"Sure thing! I'll need to call Wiz to let him know though. When do we go?"
"As soon as possible. We shouldn't be gone more than a few days."
"You two should spend the day preparing. We'll be camping for this one, so make sure you have plenty of supplies." Ignis says as he watches Prompto slip his bacon onto Noctis's plate while the prince wasn't paying attention.
"We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning."