Blessings of Eos
Chapter 12
Disclaimer: Don't own Final Fantasy.
In hindsight, the boys' plans to meet again outside the dream world weren't well considered. Given the number of schools in Insomnia, there was no guarantee Noctis and Prompto would end up in the same school. Noctis also hadn't considered how the details of the encounter would fade. By the time he entered public school to start sixth grade, he had forgotten most of the dream encounter. He remembered the name 'Prom', and blond hair, and there was something about chocobos he knew was important, but not much else. When he had regained consciousness, things happened too fast for him to think about writing any details down, and between meeting Lunafreya and the attack on Tenebrae, remembering the dream wasn't as important.
There was one boy who caught Noctis's eye. He was blond and overweight, mostly sitting in the back of the classroom regardless of the others' activities, fiddling with a digital camera. Noctis wanted to talk to him, given how familiar he felt, but he didn't want to draw too much attention. To himself or the blond boy. He had enough with the students always asking him questions about the most random things. He had no clue how many 'servants' he had; they was just people who worked there or for his dad, regardless of whether that work involved writing speeches for his dad, picking up after him, dusting all those rooms that were never used, or cooking weird green soup.
The blond boy did approach Noctis one day, in the place he usually found himself at during breaks. He wasn't sure what prompted the boy to approach him, but he was confused as to why the boy said the camera was okay when Noctis asked if he was okay after he tripped, and thinking he wanted the camera when he went to give him a hand up. If he wanted to know if the camera was okay, he would've said so, plus he wouldn't just presume to take other people's things, even just for a look, without asking.
It was later, idly doing homework on stuff he learned last year, that Noctis realized the boy had probably heard his comment when he helped him up, and might see it as an insult. It had just been an idle comment; he usually commented on how heavy things were in training. To be honest, Gladiolus felt heavier than the boy had.
Noctis may be more than a little clueless on how people interacted normally, without royalty and nobility getting in the way, but he did know it was more than likely for his idle comment to be seen as an insult. They hadn't covered anything like this in his etiquette lessons, and he had the suspicion any attempt to explain might just dig a deeper hole. Maybe this was like how dad told him to watch his words, since they had more power than that of most people?
The next day, he felt eyes on him when he was at his spot, but no one in sight when he looked. He felt it again when Ignis picked him up that afternoon. Noctis wanted to ask Ignis how to apologize for an unintended insult, but he didn't want a lecture on minding his mouth.
He kept feeling the eyes for a few more weeks when he was picked up from school. Noctis thought he had caught a glimpse of blond hair a couple times. By the time feeling the eyes had become normal, it stopped, and he mourned that loss.
He figured the blond boy decided it wasn't worth the effort to try and talk to him again. Not if he would be unthinkingly insulted. Still…
Noctis found himself looking for the blond boy as the months and years passed. The blond hair was his touchstone at the start of every new term, and it got harder to spot, until the owner blossomed in ninth grade as a social butterfly, flitting from group to group, seemingly friends with everyone. Well, everyone but him, not that he could really bring himself to blame the blond.
Mentally comparing the image of the boy that day he tried to talk to him to him now, Noctis was reminded of that old nursery story about an ugly baby bird turning into a graceful swan.
So it was something of a shock when, on the first day of tenth grade-and high school-Noctis hear a familiar voice right behind him, and a gentle slap to his back. "Hiya Prince Noctis!"
Noctis turned to see the blond boy behind him, somehow infusing the words with a casualness Noctis had never encountered. "I'm Prompto! Nice to meet you!"
"…haven't we met already?" Noctis found himself asking.
The boy-Prompto-blinked at him, like he didn't think Noctis would remember that encounter in sixth grade. Well, if he was willing to forget the encounter, so was Noctis. Smiling slightly, he just shook his head and continued on, Prompto walking beside him as he returned the slap. Prompto just scratched his head sheepishly in response.
"Eh, so you live in an apartment outside the Citadel now?" Prompto asked as they walked away from school at the end of the day.
"Yeah. Apparently it's some kind of tradition to gain independence, but I know that everyone else in the building is Crownsguard at the very least, even if they're not active anymore." Noctis told him.
"You mean since they say 'once Crownsguard, always Crownsguard'?" Prompto inquired.
"Pretty much." Noctis admitted, reveling in the experience of just walking with someone like anyone else. "Though Iggy comes by every day to make sure I eat and drop off stuff I have to look at."
"Iggy?"
"Ignis Scientia. He's been training to be my future advisor for most of our lives, but for now he bugs me about eating vegetables."
"…how does nagging you about vegetables translate into advice?" Prompto couldn't help asking.
Noctis just shrugged. Leaving it at that, Prompto stretched, crossing his arms behind his head. The motion brought his school bag in Noctis's attention, and he couldn't help noticing the two charms on it. A chocobo with Carbuncle.
"Did you ever dream about Carbuncle as a kid?" Noctis suddenly asked.
Prompto stopped walking, turning his head to look at him, grinning.
Noctis knew that grin. "Prom?"
The grin grew brighter. "Noct."
A sense of relief flooded through Noctis. "I thought you didn't remember. I know I forgot most of it."
Prompto pouted. "Was I that forgettable?"
"Hey, I remembered the blond hair and something related to chocobos. And what about you? I know we've going to the same school since I entered public school." Noctis countered.
Prompto's face grew red, drawing attention to the freckles across his nose. "…you remember me from then?"
"Something about you caught my attention even though I didn't know why, like an itch you can't scratch." Noctis bit his lip and looked down. "I thought you didn't want to talk to me, after that one time and when I didn't feel you watching me anymore."
"That had absolutely nothing to do with you and everything to do with me." Prompto said fiercely, making Noctis look up.
It was Prompto's turn to look down. "…I know you probably didn't mean it the way I took it back then, but…it was a push. To do better. To be better. I…realized that I wasn't really living, just…going through the motions, y'know? Looking in the mirror…I realized I didn't like myself. So, I decided to do something about it, changing what I saw in the mirror. So one day I could walk beside you."
"…I figured you decided it wasn't worth the effort, if I was just gonna unintentionally insult you. And the way you look doesn't matter." It was the most honest conversation Noctis could recall having. It should have felt invasive, talking about things like this to someone he barely knew.
Yet it wasn't. Noctis found himself remembering what he had previously forgotten from the dream. The sense of comradery, fighting alongside each other. The time spent together numbered in hours, yet Noctis felt closer to Prompto than he did to those he'd known all his life.
Prompto shook his head. "It was always gonna be worth it; I just needed to get myself sorted."
"Why high school though?" Noctis was curious to the reasoning.
"I figured if I didn't do it now, I never would." Prompto shrugged. "I guess you can invite me to your house now?"
Another thing he forgotten floated up. "I'll remember not to have more than a knife, a fork, and a spoon for you."
Grinning at him, Prompto started walking backwards to look at him face to face. He didn't get very far before tripping. Looking down at him, Noctis could almost imagine those sweat drops the artists put on characters' heads in the comics on both their heads. "I thought exercise was supposed to help clumsiness?"
"Shaddup." Prompto glared as he took the hand Noctis offered.
Noctis remembered to keep his mouth shut this time.
Both boys suddenly paused mid-lift, turning their heads to look at the same spot in unison. "…you did hear that, right?" Noctis asked.
Prompto got fully to his feet. "Yeah. A girl giggling?"
Noctis nodded. Prompto shivered. "Hope it's not a ghost."
Noctis scoffed. "Why would a ghost be haunting a random street?"
"See, that's how it always starts! Someplace normal then bam! You got creepy kids meowing at you and girls crawling out of TVs!" Prompto waved his arms as he spoke.
"…the hell kinda movies you been watching?" Noctis had never heard of movies like that.
"Yamato horror! They're really old and in black and white with subtitles, but they're really good! They go more for creepy-scary than slasher-scary." Prompto explained.
"Yamato?"
"It's an island. Or it was. The Nifs fire bombed it like fifty years ago, so no one lives there now."
"And you watch these?"
Prompto pouted again. "I'll just have to bring some over and show you."
"As long as you agree to watch them with the lights off." Somehow, Noctis figured Prompto watched these movies with all the lights on in broad daylight.
Prompto swallowed in an exaggerated motion. "Fine."
They reached a fork in the road. "My house is down this path." Prompto pointed to the left.
"I have to go this way." Noctis pointed off to the right. "You wanna meet up here and walk to school tomorrow?"
Prompto looked startled at the suggestion. "Yeah. If you want. What time?"
"7:45 AM? It takes me a while to get up in the mornings, and I'm not really sure how long the walk will take." Noctis suggested.
Prompto grinned, and Noctis was taken aback, again, by the brightness. "See ya in the morning Noct!" He shouted as he took off down the road to his house.
"OK!" Noctis shouted back, a warm feeling nestled in his chest.
Ignis couldn't help but notice Noctis's good mood when he arrived at his apartment. "Good start to high school then?"
Ignis was taken aback at Noctis's grin. He couldn't recall the last time he had seen Noctis so cheerful. "Yeah. Hey, is there anything I have to do before I invite someone over?"
While Ignis was prepared for such an event, he wasn't prepared for it to happen so quickly. "I'll look it up and review with you. Is it a pressing invitation?"
"No. There's no rush." Noctis's good mood stayed, even through the dense financial folder Ignis had brought for him to read.
Aerith couldn't help the giggles that came as She watched the boys. She wasn't surprised they had Heard Her, and looked to where they did, even though that spot had just been Her vantage point as She watched. They were just too cute together.
It was easy, falling into a routine with Prompto. Walking to school in the morning, hanging out on the roof at lunch, stopping at the arcade on the walk home. They were in the same classes, save for the elective period, where Noctis was in political theory and Prompto was in theater.
It was two months in when Prompto first came over, Noctis having worked out his issues regarding his royal responsibilities…for now. Bearing copies of the Yamato horror movies he had mentioned and a change of clothes, Prompto was ready to hang out with a friend for the first time and have his first sleepover. Ignis was late coming over that day, and he wound up startling the boys when he entered the apartment, baffled at the darkened living room.
Ignis was nonplussed as he took in Prompto, the pair descending into giggles over their reaction, the movie paused with a pair of eyes unsettlingly close to the screen. He hadn't been sure what to expect, as all he had known was that it was Prompto encouraging the visits to the arcade. Gladiolus's impression hadn't helped, since he had met the blond for all of two minutes, tops. "Dare I ask why the windows are covered?" He finally asked, when the two calmed down.
"I dared him to watch this in the dark, since he only watched it with the lights on." Noctis said, still snickering slightly.
"Watching horror with the lights on is a perfectly legitimate way of watching it." Prompto protested. "And it's not like I get to watch it with someone else; dad hates anything with blood and mom made me swear not to make her watch any more of this fifteen minutes in." Leaning back on his hands, Prompto looked up at Ignis from his spot on the floor in front of the couch. "So you're Ignis? I'm Prompto."
"Charmed." Ignis said dryly, setting down the files he had brought over on the table. "So you're the reason Noct had taken to carrying more lunch and detouring to arcades?"
"It's not like we live at the arcade. Plus your food's the best I've ever had! You could totally open your own restaurant." Prompto told him, snacking on one of his latest attempts at the Tenebrae Mystery Dessert. "Then again, I think anyone who can cook for real is amazing, since my skill ends at 'cook on HIGH for three minutes.'"
"No TV dinners?" Noctis asked, curious.
Prompto flushed all the way up to his ears. "I forgot to set the timer one time and forgot it was in the oven. My parents came home to the fire department lecturing me on paying attention to what you're cooking and a ruined oven. So I don't get to touch the oven with supervision. Which is totally unfair, since this happened when I was nine."
"I dunno, you are pretty easy to distract." Noctis told him.
Prompto didn't bother with a rebuttal.
Taking in the interaction as he cooked dinner, Ignis couldn't help noticing how at ease the boys were with each other. It was like watching two life-long friends, rather than two new friends. He couldn't deny the warmth Prompto gave off, and he found himself opening up to the blond quicker than he expected to as dinner was served.
Subtle questioning revealed Prompto to be an average student, performing better in more creative subjects like the arts rather than math. Which was confusing, given how Noctis proclaimed him to be a mechanical guru. Perhaps it was the theoretical parts that caused difficulty. He highly enjoyed photography, showing off various photos saved to his camera. Ignis saw promise there, as the photos seemed to capture the essence of his subject.
The biggest point in his favor was he ate vegetables without complaint. Noctis eyed his enjoyment of the carrot and broccoli mix with a measure of awe and disgust. "How can you eat carrots?"
"How can you not? They're not as bad as you make them out to be. Plus they make the plate more colorful!" Prompto answered, readily accepting Noctis's portion.
"And my theory of you being distracted by bright colors only grows stronger." Noctis informed him as Ignis began to clear the table, Prompto helping, nodding as Ignis directed him through the cleanup. Bringing out vanilla ice cream, he raised an eyebrow as Noctis handed the bottle of chocolate syrup to Prompto, who proceeded to drench his portion of ice cream. "Thanks man."
"Is plain old vanilla ice cream really that boring?" Ignis asked, amused to observe the addition of chopped pecans left over from chocolate chip cookies before the concoction was mixed up, feeling sure enough in his assessment of Prompto to guess at the reasoning behind the drenching.
"Why else does it exist, except to be made more interesting? And you can never go wrong with chocolate!" Was the answer he received, himself and Noctis opting for a more traditional consumption of ice cream by not mixing everything up.
Ignis left the boys to their horror night after dinner, feeling less apprehensive about Noctis's association with the boy.
Four months in came a proper introduction to Gladiolus. He could tell the blond kid was nervous, nearly vibrating in his seat as small talk was made in the living room. When Noctis left the room for something, Gladiolus decided to comment on something he noticed when he arrived. "So you like chocobos?"
The comment brought Prompto's vibrating to a halt. "…yeah?"
"Humph. Moogles are better." He couldn't help the smirk as the kid's eyes narrowed.
Noctis returned to the living room to find Prompto wrestling with Gladiolus on the floor, putting up a determined fight despite being massively outweighed. "Admit moogles are better and I'll let you up." Gladiolus said calmly, barely winded by his struggles.
"NEVER! CHOCOBOS FOR LIFE!" Noctis was taken aback by the fierce answer, wandering over to Ignis's side, who evidently entered with the brawl in progress and declining to intervene.
"…the hell?" He and Ignis blinked at each other before turning their attention back to the fight when Gladiolus let out a decidedly unmanly yelp when Prompto bit his arm.
Prompto used the distraction to scramble out of range, flopping down behind Noctis and Ignis, panting as he glared at Gladiolus through the safety of their legs.
"Dammit kid, you file your teeth or somethin'?" Gladiolus asked as he prodded broken skin. Satisfied he wasn't going to start bleeding, he started laughing. "I knew a fight would break the ice."
"What the hell?" Noctis repeated his previous statement, Ignis merely sighing as he removed his glasses and began cleaning them.
"You know, most people wouldn't start a fight to get to know someone." Prompto commented as he poked at his rising bruises.
"Well most people wouldn't get into a brawl over chocobos and moogles either." Gladiolus pointed out, straightening the disturbed furniture before Ignis could start to fuss.
"Considering that includes you, I wouldn't be casting stones."
The Shield and the Friend starting laughing, noticing the stunned look on the faces of the other two. Noctis wasn't quite sure just how brawling over whether chocobos or moogles were better broke the ice between them, but neither he nor Ignis were complaining with the result, since Prompto had broken two plates and a glass from his nerve-fueled clumsiness.
Six months in and Noctis was looking forward to spending the night at Prompto's house for a change. On paper it was so they could work on their research project for biology, but all parties knew as much time would be spent on video games as on school work.
At least, until he arrived home the day before.
Japanese horror fans will recognize the references. 'Yamato' is the old name for Japan.