"So, you've dragged me all the way out here," Prompto mused, kicking at the dirt. They had retreated to the most isolated portions of the forest behind the Citadel. The afternoon sun spilled from the trees and sprawled to the ground; metropolitan buildings shining above treetops. It was a typical summer day in Insomnia. "What's first, Professor Caelum?"
"Well, summon your weapon," Noctis commanded. He had enthroned himself on one of the rocks nestled in the shade of leaves, knowing that the first day of practice would be the most tiresome and they were in for a long day.
"Um. Okay," Prompto replied with a casual stretch. "H-how do I do that?"
"Like this," The prince opened his palms and effortlessly conjured a sword to his hands with a flash of blue light. "You try."
"…That was a great explanation, thanks," Prompto finally said after being stunned. Sure, he knew his buddy could do some cool magic like that, and he's seen it on occasion, but he never expected to do it himself.
"Uhh… just visualize it?" Noctis added. This was something he'd done effortlessly and naturally since he was a child; it was like his friend just asked him how to breathe. "Think of it like reaching into a bag and grabbing what you want. You should be able to feel it before you can see it."
"Hmm…" Prompto said skeptically. He raised his hand and tried to think of that blue light he—
"Whoa." Prompto jolted back a bit in shock because he did actually start to feel something. Then his lips curled into an excited grin.
"You get it?" Noctis asked, folding his arms.
"Hoooo yeah, baby!" Prompto beamed, then poised himself in the ultimate edgy pose. "O shining light of the crystal! Come unto me in thine hour of need! I summon thee… Starlight Shooter!"
A gun appeared in his hands with a scatter of blue light.
"Woohoo! Yay, I did it Noct!" Prompto did a victory dance, doing one complete lap around Noctis. "Did you see that!?"
"Oh I saw it alright," Noctis sighed, but not without a hint of a grin. "I saw how embarrassingly you summoned that thing. I might have to uninvite you to my wedding."
"And leave half the fun behind on this trip?" Prompto shot back at him. "No way you could."
"Have you ever even fired a real gun before?" Noctis asked. It was one of Noctis' guns of course, since the permits for civilians obtaining firearms would take far too long to process and the prince absolutely needed his best friend by his side when he was to be wed. To take Prompto outside of Insomnia on a road trip, he needed to at least be able to defend himself against daemons and they had both decided that firearms would be the quickest thing to learn when it came to defending yourself.
"No. But come on, it'll be easy peasy. Just like beating you in Sabertusk Shootout III." Prompto gave him a playful nudge, but Noctis held a knowing grin as he shoved him back.
Prompto took a confident, one-handed stance towards the classic red and white target pinned to a trunk and aimed carefully. He pulled the trigger, and his whole arm instantly jerked back.
"Gah!" The gun fell to the ground, just like Prompto's over confident ass. And just as Noctis expected, there wasn't a single scratch on the target.
Noctis burst out laughing. "Easy peasy huh? Wow, Prompto you really showed that target who's boss."
"Just watch, I'll definitely get it next time," Prompto said determinedly. He attempted to shake the feeling of the recoil out of his arm.
"Make sure that where you're aiming and where you're actually shooting share the same postal code this time," Noctis teased with a sly grin.
"Thank you! For your royal advice!" Prompto praised him sarcastically. He raised the gun again, this time with both hands.
His stance shifted, this time to a much more suitable position. Prompto went quiet for a while, and it wasn't until Noctis glanced up at him that he realized that he was attempting to read the direction of the wind. Those blue eyes held a relaxed focus for any hints: the way the leaves fell and branches rustled… then pulled the trigger. A bullet hole instantly appeared just outside the center of the target.
"Told ya!"
"Nice job."
Prompto began firing at regular intervals, taking a half-step back each time. All of them hit the target more or less close to the center. Pretty soon, he began doing trick shots like jumping while firing, and still managed to land his mark.
"Hey, are you… sure this is the first time you've picked up a gun?" Noctis asked quizzically, after the spectacle went on for too long for it to pass off as beginner's luck.
"Well, it definitely isn't the first time I've shown you a thing or two with babies like these," Prompto twirled the gun around his hand. The next shot hit the target exactly in the bull's eye. Again. "Aw yeah! 10 points!"
It's true that much to Noctis' annoyance, he had never been able to beat his friend's score in any arcade shooting game. Still, real guns are completely different from the ones in games. As someone who was trained to use guns himself, Noctis knew that Prompto's aptitude for firearms was just a little too good for any random guy.
"You know what I mean," Noctis said. "Real guns are different from the arcade. You got the hang of it a lot quicker than I thought you would."
"Wow, are your expectations for me that low?"
"Kinda, considering I'm supposed to be leaving for Altissa in less than a week," Noctis replied. "Which means you'd have to take the exam in 3 days, and I dunno if you'd get the OK from the captain to be a part of my entourage by then."
"3 DAYS!?" Prompto's jaw dropped. "You think I'm going to be prepared for this in just three days!? And there's an exam!?"
"Pretty sure you've said the exact same thing before in high school."
"This is completely different," Prompto flailed his arms in exasperation. Noctis wanted to remind him that he was still holding a gun. "You, Gladio and Ignis all had years of training with this sort of stuff. And I'm supposed to catch up in just 3 days!?"
"Can't help it, Dad wants me to get going right away," Noctis replied. "Seriously though, you're doing way better than me when I went through firearms training. It's like you were made for this."
The statement hit Prompto like a splash of cold water.
Noctis must've noticed the sudden change in his mood. "Something wrong?"
"I-it's nothing. ...Just…" Prompto groaned, palms pressed against his face in mock disbelief. "Dude. Your bachelor party's gonna get me killed."
"C'mon, it'll be fun once we're out on the road," Noctis grinned.
"Yep. Fun getting mauled to death by daemons," Prompto sighed, looking at the gun. "So, uh, how do you reload this thing? Or does it magically reload itself?"
"Here," Noctis hopped off the boulder, striding closer. His hands filled with the cackle of thunderous magic. "See for yourself."
"Argh!" Prompto chocked for air, his whole body tense with a dream that felt too real. He could still feel the tingle of lightning pricking at his skin. Crazed eyes hurriedly scanned the room for anything familiar, with the feeling of dread creeping up from not knowing when or where he was. Steel bunk beds. The scent of antiseptic. A minimalistic bedside lamp. All items that he knew for sure wasn't something that belonged in his house- so where the heck did he wake up from...?
Everything snapped to a dizzying focus all at once, and he felt his breathing gradually slow, noticing for the first time how he was nearly hyperventilating. He didn't realize that he had clutched onto white sheets with such tenacity until he found himself willing for his fingers to pry loose.
"Rise and shine." A voice called out from somewhere in the room.
"Noct..?" Prompto mumbled, rubbing his eyes and trying to get a hold of himself.
"Guess again." The voice was deep and earthy. Familiar. Prompto relaxed.
"Oh. G-Gladio. G'Morning, Gladdy…" He replied shakily. Why hadn't he noticed him before? "Um... where are we?"
Prompto shouldn't have tried to sit up so fast… or maybe not at all. With a pained groan, he slowly slumped back down into the warm embrace of the sheets.
"You okay?" Gladio had seated himself in the bed next to his, arms folded. Prompto found himself wondering if he ever told Gladio that he had a resting bitch face, (he looks scary right now!) but realized this wasn't the time for that.
"Dude, no. I have this killer headache and I'm aching all over. Where's Noct?"
Considering what he saw a few moments ago, Gladio felt as though "Dude, no" was an understatement.
"Your mum's coming over with food and medicine," came the only reply. It was Ignis, who was polishing his glasses by the doorway.
Those words baffled Prompto for a moment, since he's never heard of Iggy talking about any of their mothers before. Maybe because Ignis was like, the mom of the squad? But everything suddenly made more sense. The hangar doors were closing, the daemons had just kept growing in number, and Ardyn was there, then his mom and dad, then Noct-
Prompto guessed that they still didn't have a clear answer to Noct's whereabouts. "In the Crystal" was their only explanation and it's very hard to justify three grown men losing the Prince to a rock.
"In exchange for safe passage, we've been tasked with stopping the MT production of the Keep," Ignis informed him, and Prompto snapped to attention. "I certainly hope you're up for it. We... saw the video Ardyn made."
"It wasn't as bad as it seemed," Prompto assured him a little too quickly. "All those missed Thundagas from Noct prepped me up for this moment."
He let out a casual laugh, but those skeptical looks didn't fade.
"R-really, I'm ok!" Prompto continued. "I fought Ravus and all those daemons with you guys just fine, remember? I just needed a bit of rest. ...I'm fiiine. Seriously. You guys don't have to look so worried."
"What're you after, following me around this whole time!? It's all YOUR fault—"
"What are you talking about? …Do you really mean that, Noct?"
"OF COURSE I DO!"
Prompto winced as another memory dawned on him. He knew that Noctis had been disillusioned when he tried to murder him in the train car, but those words hurt more than anything Ardyn ever did to him. It was his greatest fear brought to reality; Noctis finding out what he was and wanting to kill him for it. He remembered begging to talk to his best friend, but being denied even that. He remembered his agony at being unable to apologize for whatever he may have done, for dragging him down; for not being able to tell him that he wasn't after anything other than a friend. And that Noctis was the best he's ever had.
"I'll even do a pinky promise." Prompto held up a pinky like some sort of peace offering, hoping they didn't notice him wince and hoping even more that they didn't think he was in pain. Because he really did feel ready to fight. "I promise I'm okay. Headache's already going away and all I need is a potion for the aches."
Gladio just sighed at that and tossed him a potion from his back pocket. "I didn't care before, but now that they're here, what's up with your parents? Were they here all this time? Did they really not visit you once in the past five years?"
"…It's…" Prompto hesitated, fiddling with the vial before using it. He looked away. "It's actually been longer than that. When Noct got attacked by some daemon in the city as a kid, King Regis strengthened the Wall. They couldn't sneak back into the city after that."
Interesting choice of words, Ignis thought. Soma introduced herself as a nurse from the Crown City. A citizen wouldn't need to sneak in…
"But, ah, please don't tell Noct!" Prompto exclaimed. He paused, realizing what he just said for a moment then added: "...whenever he comes back."
"Tell him what exactly?" Ignis replied, breaking free from his thoughts.
"That the reason I couldn't see my dad was because of his." Prompto looked up. He hated the look Ignis and Gladio were giving him. Somber eyes and hard pressed lips in an attempt to suppress a frown. The same look they'd give to a wounded puppy.
"C-c'mon, it wasn't that bad. You guys don't have to look at me like that." Prompto frowned. He tried to think up reasons to just make those looks go away. "They send lots of texts. And we video call a lot."
"A video call." Gladio repeated, unimpressed.
"Y-yeah," Prompto couldn't look him in the eyes anymore. He started babbling. Why does Gladio have to be so big and intimidating all the time? "And… I send them lots of pictures! They're really not missing out on a whole lot."
He let out a forced laugh, but it sounded more pained than anything else.
"You've no need to explain further." Ignis said, sensing his distress. "We're just… ashamed that we haven't noticed after all these years, is all. However, if you should ever need someone to listen, Gladio and I would be more than happy to be of service."
"Thanks, Iggy." Prompto meant it, but he knew that this whole friend-being-affiliated-with-Niflheim thing wasn't something that would sit well with the Prince's bodyguards. If they had found out earlier... before they had gotten to know each other and become friends, Prompto knew: His head would be rolling.