When Luna is fourteen years old, Tenebrae is merely a province of Niflheim, and the royal family now only House Fleuret. Things have changed, and Ravus has changed, and sometimes Luna looks in the mirror and wonders if she's the only thing that hasn't.
Life in the Crown City is better, but it's a luxury that Luna can't afford to focus on. So much of her energy is spent in Tenebrae, fighting for her people and for at least some small extent of political autonomy from the Empire, that Noct is constantly tired and miserable, lacking the will to do much of anything.
His father and Ignis realize that ever since the accident he sleeps more, that he speaks less, that he's less cheerful, and that he's just a little bit less of everything. Noct notices it in the increasingly older look his father gives him and the way Ignis speaks to him, more slowly, more carefully, as if he's going to break with even the slightest harsh sound.
And he feels terrible, that he's making them worried, but at the same time he's too tired to feel guilty, and so he can't help but continue on the only way he can, and as Luna works harder and harder, Noct only gets more sullen, and he closes himself off more and more.
So i think I broke the "Updated: (date here)" thing that this site has because I've been posting way too fast and the fic doesn't jump up to the top anymore, so I'll limit myself to a chapter a day lmao