Thanks for the support for the first chapter and here's the second!

We are breathing and letting go.

We are made of our longest days,

we are falling but not alone.

We will take the best parts of ourselves

and make them gold.

-"Make Them Gold" Chvrches

Noct missed the sun of Galdin Quay. Sure, it was nice to see Prompto smiling again but really, the smell of Chocobo poop on a humid day was almost too much to bear. He had to be fair to his friend though: it was his turn to decide where to go.

They'd spent three days at Galdin Quay, napping on the beach, fishing and swimming as per Noctis' request. The four boys had decided each of them got to pick somewhere to vacation, a welcome respite to the horror show that had been the last ten years. Ignis went next, and they road-tripped across Lucis, visiting the Disk of Cauthess, the canyon and plenty of locations in between. Then it was Gladio's turn and they relaxed in Lestallum with a side trip to kill a behemoth. It only felt right to start with a vacation, after all, they only had the rest of their afterlife.

Finally, it was Prompto's turn and to Wiz's Chocobo Stable it was. Noctis tossed his phone in his hand, looking for said friend, who hadn't replied to his texts. Gladio was talking with the weapons trader and Ignis was purchasing greens, but Prompto was nowhere in sight. It was later in the day so Noctis would have been sure Prompto would be begging them to go on a long ride or challenging him to a race. The king was concerned, the last couple days, Prompto had increasingly distant and quiet, so he visited every spot he could conceive the Chocobo lover would be.

Eventually, Noctis found him.

"You like roofs just as much as me, huh?" Noctis said, stepping over a cluster of cables running toward the lit up Chocobo sign, and plopped down next to his blonde friend.

"It gives me perspective, I guess," Prompto said glumly, kicking the wall with his heels.

"Hm? Perspective on what?"

"Everything that's happened. That," Prompto gestured lazily at the now-setting sun. "The fact that it's still there. We don't even know if it will ever rise again for our Eos."

"You can't think like that. Of course the sun rose again. We died so it could rise." Noct asserted. If he closed his eyes, he could almost see the sunlight filtering into his Throne Room.

"Yeah." Prompto wouldn't look at him still.

"Something else is wrong."

Prompto put his hand on the pocket and pulled something out. It took Noct a moment to recognize it in its state.

"The picture? How did you…" Noct trailed off, baffled. It was stained almost completely with red and brown, dementing the figures in the picture, a corruption of what was such a good memory.

"You had it in your chest pocket, Noct, when you died. I took it off your body." Prompto said flatly. Of course the image would have been ruined after his death, but Noct hadn't even had a chance to bleed before he'd died, so he hadn't known. But his friends had had to see him like that.

"You came back to the Throne Room?" Noct said in a small voice.

"Damn well, we did. We didn't want you to die alone but in the end…" you still did.

Noct didn't know what to say to that. "I guess I assumed you, Ignis and Gladio, well, died on the steps to the Citadel." He swallowed nervously, almost not wanting to know. "How did it happen?"

"We got back to the Throne Room and we found you," Prompto's fists clenched, but he stopped when the photo crinkled in protest. "and we decided to make our last stand. We only had makeshift weapons. I was the first to get hit. I—I couldn't move out of the way and got thrown against a wall, I think I snapped my spine 'cause I couldn't move at all. And Ignis and Gladio just kept fighting, fending off hoards. One of the daemons came down on me with an axe and Ignis took the hit for me, even though—! Even though we both knew I wasn't going to last, that I had minutes, tops, he took it."

Prompto choked over his words, grabbing his mouth to stop a sob of panic. Noct opened his mouth to stop him but Prompto shook his head vigorously. "I think Iggy was dead before he hit the ground. Gladio was raging. He kept fighting, no matter what happened. He lost a leg a-and and he stood against the wall and fought them off until he collapsed. And I was the last to go. I saw the three of you dead and I just faded…I didn't even realize it until it was over."

Noct didn't realize he had tears running down his face until they dropped on his lap. He hastily looked away and wiped them away. Prompto did the same with his. "Gladio's last words were about you, you know. I couldn't hear him but he mouthed your name."

"Those weren't his last words," Noctis said after several seconds, voice still shaky. "I won't accept any last words from any of you ever again." He fished a picture from his own jacket pocket and handed it to Prompto, who accepted with surprise.

"This…"

"Yeah, same one." Noct said as Prompto compared the photos. One with bright blue seas, the smiling faces of four adventurers, the other a cruel parody. "I had it when I died. And when I woke up again, sitting at my throne, this picture was what reminded me where I belonged when I wanted to stay behind and sleep forever with Luna."

Prompto cheered up a little. "You really think you made the right choice?" He asked carefully.

"Truth be told, every night, I dream that I'm at the throne, sleeping there with her. And I'm really happy. But when I wake up, I'm always relieved that I'm here where I can travel with the three of you for as long as I want." Noct shrugged. "You can keep the picture, if you want."

"Thanks, Noct!" Prompto flashed the king a smile before tucking both pictures back in his jacket. Noct wanted to tell him to throw away the photo covered in his dying blood, but he didn't want to push his best friend just yet.

"Of course, Prompto."

"What do you say we race Chocobos?" Prompto ventured, the smile widening across his face.

"Hn," Noct clasped his hands behind his head, returning the smile, "only if you get a head-start, it's just too easy otherwise."

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