Blessings of Eos
Chapter 16
Disclaimer: Don't own Final Fantasy.
Looking back, Prompto could never say just why the anniversary of his rescue by Miss Aerith got to him that year. They had spent ten days together, and counting back from the day of his arrival in Insomnia-May 13th-led him to place the date of his rescue on May 4th. It never had in previous years. Perhaps it had been the combination of learning he was evidently important enough to warrant divine aid and his mom finally 'translating' the last parts of his file with the stuff about his memory. Either way, it was in the shower after his morning run before school, having only idly noted the date, that it suddenly hit him.
I should be dead.
Well, not dead in a traditional sense, but his sense of self would be dead. Despite her misgivings, Eleanore had shared with him just why the units couldn't remember the time before after the final transition, when he asked after she went over the neurological section of his file with him. It hadn't bothered him at the time; it answered some of his questions. At least, it hadn't consciously bothered him.
Standing there in the shower, rinsing the shampoo from his hair, Prompto realized that by all rights, he shouldn't exist. Well, 'Prompto Argentum' shouldn't exist, he would just be the number on his wrist. He did his best to avoid looking at his wrist as he finished his shower and dried off, the wristband being the first thing he donned, even before his boxers. He spent several minutes just staring at himself in the mirror, only moving when his alarm to meet Noct for the walk to school went off.
He was only vaguely aware of what was happening around him, still caught up in the realization that everything he was, everything he had experienced, shouldn't have been at all. He only really snapped out of it when he was standing in his living room, hours earlier than normal with Noct staring at him, worried. "…why are you at my house? And why is it so early?"
This statement did nothing to ease Noct's worry. He had been subtly guiding Prompto throughout the day, growing more worried as Prompto remained distracted. "Uhh…someone was an idiot and managed to blow up the chemistry lab? They evacuated the school and canceled classes for the rest of the day? You said your mom was going to do that lasagna you love so much and I asked if I could come over and mooch dinner off you for a change?"
With a jolt, Prompto realized that yes, he did remember all that stuff happening; it just hadn't seemed important. "Oh yeah…"
"Are you okay? You've been out of it all day; I forget how many things I had to keep you from walking into." Noct said, consumed with worry. He had never seen Prompto like this.
"Sorry, man. It's just…today makes eleven years. Since Miss Aerith saved me." Prompto sagged into the sofa, Noct sitting to his right.
Noctis watched his hand go to that wrist band he always wore on his right wrist. He couldn't ever recall seeing Prompto without it. Pausing, almost as if he was working up the courage, Prompto finally pulled it off.
Noctis wasn't sure just what he had expected to be under there, but he definitely hadn't expected what was there. A bar code, like what was on practically everything for sale. There was string of numbers underneath, handside down. His eyes were drawn to the two letters at the end. PA. Prompto's initials.
"I tried cutting it off. I gave up after it grew back the third time, despite the salt."
Noctis just stared at Prompto, trying to wrap his head around wanting to be rid of something so much as to willing go through such pain.
Prompto curled in on himself, pulling his legs up to hug his arms around them, resting his chin on his knees. It seemed like forever before he spoke again. Noctis didn't try rushing him. It remained him of trying to approach an injured cat; the best thing was to just stay put and give them the time to come to you. "…You know the magitek troopers Niflheim has? They're not really robots…I mean, there's magitek in them, but they were people once.
"They have these womb tanks, where they grow future MT babies. That's where it starts…where they start exposing the units to the blackness…to the Scourge. It's tiny at first, the amount, but as the babies leave the womb tanks and start growing up…they increase the amount. Until around puberty, ages 12 to 17…the infection reaches the point of no return, and the final transition happens. The trauma of it destroys the frontal lobes, so while they can function…they don't remember anything from before…before they were daemons. From the perspective of everyone involved, the units stopped being human once they're first exposed to the blackness…
"For some reason it hit me this year, that I shouldn't exist. 'Prompto Argentum' should never have been. I should've had no idea about anything of this, things like the Sun and chocolate and being a person. In the middle of the night today, eleven years ago…I woke up for some reason, in time to see Miss Aerith enter the room. I thought She was Death, since 'death' was someone dressed differently taking a unit away. Maybe She was, in a way, since what I was died in the light of that dawn over the ocean…they had put a bomb inside me, an 'emergency termination device'…crossing the Wall meant it would be triggered in a way that didn't damage the city, but starting killing me from the inside. Mom…she was the one who operated on me, to take it out. She and Dad could only adopt me by spinning it to the people in charge of that stuff as 'monitoring me', in case something was missed…"
Silence stretched between them. Noctis was horrified. How could stuff like that happen? How could Prompto even smile and laugh, with that hanging over his head?
Mistaking his silence for something else, Prompto buried his head in the cradle of his arms and legs. "…the spare key's on top of the door jam, if you can bring yourself to lock the door. Do you…do you think you could pretend to still like me, just at school? The football team keeps asking what services I offer, to be able to hang out with you and wondering if they'd have an in with you if they 'sampled'"
Entering public school was an eye-opening experience for Noctis. It was amazing what you could learn by hiding in a bathroom stall. So he didn't have any trouble understanding just what kind of 'services' these guys thought Prompto was offering. Noctis started reaching out, to put his hand on Prompto's back. Prompto just curled up even smaller, impossible as such a thing seemed. Like he was expecting a hit.
That did it for Noct.
Before Prompto could realize what was happening, Noct was hugging him close, wrapping his arms and legs around his curled up form, like he was protecting him. "…what are you doing?" Prompto whispered.
"Hugging my best friend."
Prompto unburied his head to look at Noct. "Even after learning all that? That I…"
"None of that changes how you're the one who took me to the arcade for the first time. Who helped me face the darkness that tried to keep me from waking up. The only person willing to try and be friends with 'Noct', not just 'Prince Noctis'. You said yourself that what you had been died during that first dawn after you were saved. 'Prompto Argentum' is all that's left, and he's a Crown Citizen." Noct said fiercely.
Prompto just started crying, burying his face into Noct's chest. Noct could only hold him tight through his hiccupping sobs, until he fell asleep, exhausted.
Somehow, Noct managed to get his phone out. Flicking through the contacts, he only paused briefly before calling his dad.
It didn't take long for Regis to answer. "Are you okay? I heard the report about the explosion at your school. Since you were sighted leaving with Prompto, I didn't send anyone to get you."
The explosion was pathetically trivial, given what he learned. "Did you know? About Prompto." Noctis knew his dad had known about Prompto's file, but not if he had read it.
Regis sighed heavily. "The Lady who saved him delivered the information to me personally, when She came to inform me of the danger crossing the Wall would put him in."
"He…he asked if I could still pretend to like him at school; that the football team's been wondering what kind of sexual favors he's doing so I'll hang out with him and if they could sample." Noct's voice was fierce, despite speaking no higher than a whisper. "Why would he even-? Hasn't it been obvious? How much I care for him?"
"Noct, he spent the first five and a half years of his life being told he wasn't human, and being treated as such by those with no limitations on how far they went, as long as there was no permanent damage." Regis told him gently. "Such things cannot easily be forgotten."
There was a pause, as Noct took this in, fighting back tears of his own. "Stay with him this weekend. I'll let the relevant people know."
"Are you sure? Isn't there that one meeting tomorrow?"
"There will be plenty of other meetings for you to attend. There won't be plenty of other Promptos for you to know." Regis answered. "You won't have to worry about your training either. Obviously, how much Ignis and Gladiolus learn is up to Prompto, but knowing that he had brought himself to tell you about him…you won't have any problems."
"Thanks…" Noct had to hang up then. It was epically rude, but he couldn't hold back his own tears any longer.
He just sat there, wrapped around Prompto, staring into nothing as the tears flowed and he absorbed everything he had learned. He had plenty of questions, but he didn't know just how much more Prompto would be willing to share. Finally, he texted Ignis and Gladio. /Staying with Prom this weekend. He told me. Dad already cleared it./
Noctis knew Ignis and Gladio had debated between themselves just what would be in his past that would alarm the Crownsguard. Prompto being from Niflheim originally was as close as they got to guessing the truth. He wasn't sure just what Prompto would be comfortable sharing with the others. Hell, Noctis had the feeling that if he had not caught Prompto at the right time, he'd have never learned. He didn't regret learning it, but a quote from Kingdom of Hearts came to mind.
The closer you are to the light, the greater your shadows become.
Prompto had eased out of the ball he had curled himself in, pretty much laying on top of Noctis at this point. For some reason, Noctis was very aware of where their body parts were in relation to each other. The puffs of air hitting his neck as Prompto breathed in and out were not helping things. It wasn't like this hadn't happened before, but it seemed particularly difficult to ignore today. Probably because he was in the unusual position of being the one awake; normally he'd wake up to Prompto blushing from being used as his pillow, and the encounter would end when he got up.
Noctis was understanding why Prompto was always blushing when they wound up on top of each other in their sleep.
Prompto started to stir, stretching out in a manner that reminded Noct of a cat. "…huh?" Prompto blinked up at Noct. "…I thought I dreamed that."
"That I stayed?"
Prompto just nodded. He sat up to recover his wristband, and Noctis felt inexplicably cold at the loss of body contact. "Well, my weekend has freed itself up. Dad okay-ed it, so I'll be mooching off you for a change." Noct informed him.
"Really?" Prompto wandered over into the kitchen to splash water on his face, to wash away the tears.
Noctis subtly wiped his lingering tears off his own cheeks. "Yeah…said there'd be plenty of other meetings to attend, and said I shouldn't have any problems from Ignis and Gladio for skipping training this weekend."
The boys wandered up to Prompto's room. Prompto flopped down on the bed, Noct sitting on the floor at about the middle of the bed. "…can I ask you about it?"
Silence reigned, and Noct was about to take back what he said when Prompto finally spoke. "What do you want to know?"
"How do you know about what happens? I mean…you were just a kid when you were saved."
"It's not like what was going on was a secret from the units. As for the details…His Majesty visited, after you burned the file. Miss Aerith had given him info about it all, and my file from there, to give to me one day."
"…Dad came to visit?"
"Well, more like broke in to wait for me to get home from school. Given how much the guy who picked him up was scowling, I don't think it was an authorized trip."
Noct laughed a little. "It was probably Gladio's dad then."
"He did kind of look like Gladio and Iris." Prompto admitted. "Mom had to explain all the terms in the medical history section for me, but…something they did with genetic manipulation means I heal better; it's why I don't have any scars from trying to get rid of the bar code or from the bomb being put in or taken out. Part of that made the connections in the brain related to memory stronger, so I remember more from an earlier age."
Noct hesitated before asking his next question. "Like what?"
"My right arm was broken when I was three, when I didn't want to take part in target practice. The second time I did that, it was my left arm. The third time…one of the guards stomped on my right leg. I was awake when the doctors were doing what was needed to set the bone fragments. I wasn't aware of time scales like days and months, but this all happened in a four month period like right after I turned three. I'm just glad I don't remember when they put the bomb in, even if they did knock me out for it; the file has pictures." Prompto had tossed an arm over his eyes, so Noct couldn't see his face.
Noct couldn't stop himself from blanching. "Target practice?"
"They started with animals. Afterwards, it was people to be executed or daemons. Five kill shots in a row meant vanilla ice cream at dinner. It was more effort for me to miss than to hit them, so I wound up eating a lot of vanilla ice cream." Prompto elaborated, sitting up to lean against the wall. "It was bland like all the other food in taste and color."
"No wonder you can bring yourself to eat carrots and vegetables. And like spicy food so much." Noct commented.
"I still say you're missing out." Prompto sighed. "Remembering all that stuff easier isn't completely bad."
Noct hummed in question. "I can remember the trip from wherever I was in Niflheim to Insomnia with Miss Aerith easier too." Grabbing a book from his desk, Prompto joined Noct on the floor. "We spent three days at Wiz's chocobo post in Duscae. We started at Cape Caem. When the rental chocobo saw me at the lighthouse, she tried to groom me. Having never seen a chocobo before, I thought she was going to eat me." He opened the book to a picture of a white-ish chocobo. "That's Opal. Practically every time my head was in range, she'd be grooming me. No one could figure out why, not even Mr. Wiz." A different page had a photo of Wiz with his family, and Noct recognized Chrissy in the photo, having met her in person a few times after the chocobo research project.
The next page had two Polaroid photos on it, one with Prompto holding a chocochick solo, and one with Miss Aerith in the shot with him, also holding a chocochick. "We got to see a couple clutches hatch. This one chick really seemed to like me-" Turning the page to one full of chocochick pictures, Prompto pointed out one the color of honey. "-and when he tried to get a different chick to give up its spot, it got kicked for its trouble." Prompto gestured to a picture of a chick that seemed smaller than the others.
The next page had a photo that was mostly a whirl of colors, Opal in one corner. "This was one of my first shots; Opal decided I had gone too long without grooming."
Listening to Prompto reminisce, Noct couldn't help noticing how cheerful he was, having moved on from the dark mood that he was in earlier.
Prompto noticed a photo sticking out a bit in the back, and pulled it out. He groaned, "Man, I forgot that they got this."
"Got what?" Noct was curious.
"Nothing!" Prompto said quickly.
"Hey, lemme see." Noct said, reaching for the photo.
Prompto stretched his arm out as far from Noct as possible. "Nope; not showing you."
Noct's response was to tackle him, trying to get the photo in question. The photo book got pushed under the bed as they wrestled in their game of keep away. "YES!" Noct managed to get a hold of the photo, straddling Prompto's waist and pinning his arms with his legs to his sides.
Prompto just groaned as Noct took in his prize. It was Prompto in the act of leaping on a fish in an attempt to catch it. "Now I need a copy of this."
"Like hell you do!" Prompto got an arm free, and it was Noct's turn to stretch his arm as far away are possible.
It was then that the door opened, revealing Dr. Argentum. Cocking an eyebrow, she said, "Dare I ask why you two aren't taking advantage of the bed?"
It was in that moment that Noct realized the suggestiveness of their positions, and started to blush. "MOM!" Prompto half screamed, half whined, turning red up to the roots of his hair.
"Oh, did the boys finally decide to act?" Mr. Argentum appeared behind his wife.
"No dear, false alarm. Just fighting over that picture of Prom's attempt at hand fishing." Dr. Argentum told him. "Maybe next time."
It was then that Noct remembered how to move, and scrambled off Prompto, just as red. Dr. Argentum whipped out her phone and snapped a picture of their blushes. Prompto just groaned, pulling his pillow off his bed and hiding his face behind it. "You know if you suffocate yourself, I'll have to explain the disheveled clothing somehow, and you won't like the explanation I'll give. Plus, you'll miss the lasagna." Dr. Argentum informed Prompto. "I think this makes a good lock screen, don't you dear?"
Prompto let out a wordless scream that was half whine, half groan. Noct swore that an egg could have been fried on either one of their faces.
The elder Argentums laughed. "You know embarrassing you is part of our job." Mr. Argentum reminded Prompto. "That said, you weren't behind the explosion at your school, right?"
"Just because I destroyed the oven one time doesn't mean every fiery act of destruction is my fault!" Prompto protested.
"He was too busy nearly walking into things to cause any explosions. And we're not taking chemistry this year and were at the opposite end of the building when it happened." Noct said, coming to his aid.
Mr. Argentum looked ready to make some sort of comment, but Dr. Argentum elbowed him in the stomach, stopping him. "Dinner will be in about an hour. Is Noctis staying for dinner?" Dr. Argentum inquired.
"Actually, can he spend the weekend?" Prompto asked. "His Majesty already said he could."
"As long His Majesty approved it then it's fine with me." Dr. Argentum tugged her husband's arm, pulling him down the hallway to follow her. "Help me with dinner."
Given how this was a statement and not a question, Mr. Argentum wisely kept his mouth shut as they descended the stairs.
"My parents are crazy." Prompto complained, his face finally approaching its normal coloring.
Belatedly ditching his school uniform jacket and tie, Noct could only nod in agreement.
Dr. Argentum's lasagna was every bit as good as Prompto claimed. Six layers of noodles three wide, with meat sauce (extra meat) and lots of mozzarella cheese. Served with a crusty bread that left crumbs everywhere, Noct could see how it hardly lasted a day, if it even made it to leftovers. While Noct hadn't brought any clothes over, he and Prompto were practically the same size, and it wasn't like he had to wear black all the time anyway.
Despite the embarrassment from earlier, they still found themselves curled around each other in Prompto's bed when they finally called it quits after dying against the same boss in Kingdom of Hearts II six times. "Beating him will be very satisfying; 'dance water dance' my ass." Noct grumbled.
"Hey, Noct?" Prompto asked.
"Yeah?"
"…thanks."
Noct didn't have to ask why Prompto was thanking him. Grabbing his right hand and squeezing, Noct just said, "I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you."
My goal wasn't to necessarily make the boys friends earlier, but to make them closer friends than they already are in canon. That's it a prequel to romance is bonus.
Aerith had nothing to do with Prompto's sudden realization. The chemistry lab explosion is another story entirely. The lasagna described above is how I do lasagna, and amazingly good.