Hey everyone,

it's time for the next chapter :)! There is not much to say to this, I'm just taking things slowly one step at a time ;).

Have fun reading everyone! Thanks so much for your reviews and follows!

bevin: glad to read you liked the dream sequence! I will definitely insert another one when they are older :).

Fergaze: Oh wow, thanks so much for your review! I'm not the fastest writer, sorry that the update took so long. Hope you enjoy reading it :)!

Sage: lol, nah, thirteen is not too young to start having a crush on someone, I mean, look at all the young girls and guys crushing on idols and stars ;). But the funniest thing about Noct is, he doesn't realize until much later that he starts to feel attracted towards his friend. lol

Yoshi: You are welcome :)! Yeah, Noct has seen Prom grown up. The more he learns about Prom, the more his emotions towards his new friend change over time... ;).

Annie: oh wow, dear, thank you so much for your long reviews, I appreciate taking your time for this :).

I understand what you mean. Phantom Cupid was one of my very first stories and at that time (early last year) I was somewhat frustrated that nobody has written a smutty story about those two. While I agree that in that plot Noct and Prom got sexually involved too quick, please keep in mind that I was a yaoi fangirl not ready to wait for too long for those two to get hot with each other, lol. This doesn't mean that all my stories have to be written this way, of course I enjoy writing 'In Aeternum' for the reasons you just listed. I want this one to be well-paced and for the readers to stay emotionally intrigued and invested until the very end of the story. This is a good learning process for me so far as well :). And don't worry, Noct and Prom won't have any sexual related involvement until much later, when they are about sixteen or seventeen years old. Because as you said, this is what I feel is sensible and right for this kind of story. Thanks again Annie! You don't know how happy you made me with your honest critique :), imagine me smiling very, very brightly!

Kamuel

Chapter Eight

...

I'm so nervous and excited that even my feet just can't keep still.

Prom will arrive at any moment now and I can't stop myself from pacing back and forth impatiently.

I stand in front of the stairs of the citadel, my mind already busy; which places would be interesting to show to Prom? What kind of games should we play at first? Honestly, this is the first time in ages where I look forward to something so strongly.

The attendants behind me stare curiously into the distance. They can't hide from me their obvious interest about the mysterious friend that I have invited to stay over for the duration of the entire weekend. My father approved, and because of that I can certainly understand their curious stares. Something like this never happened before after all. Aside from Ignis' and Gladio's friendship, for the most part I grew up all alone in this lonely place...

Just at that moment we hear the car driving around the corner. I'm not aware of holding my own breath as the driver, finally, stops the black car in front of us. I feel my heart jumping up and down in my chest as I watch how Sius gets out the car to open the door for Prom.

From the outside, I might appear to be as cool as a cucumber, not letting anyone know how restless I truly feel inside. But I don't exactly have the luxury of time right now to start analyzing the source of my unusual excitement.

There he is, my new friend!

"Noct!" Prom greets me with a wide smile as soon as he gets out of the car.

I wave my hand at him with a tender smile of my own. The adventure we experienced in our dreams still fresh in my mind. But just when I make the first step toward him to give him a hug, Prom beats me to it and embraces me fiercly.

My eyes almost pop out of my skull in surprise, because we both underestimated his strength as we stumble backwards, and as a result we fall down on the red carpet followed by surprised cries and a heavy thud.

"Your Highness!"

Sius and the attendants immediately rush to help us up, but I raise my hand to stop them. With a breathless chuckle I glance up at Prom's blushing face. "You okay?"

He just nods, smiling sheepishly, "Ehm, I'm sorry. Did you get hurt?"

"Nah, I'm good." Well, that's a lie, my elbow hurts. But he doesn't need to know that, I wouldn't want him to feel bad about it.

We help each other up and then I pull on his hand to follow me. "Let's get your things up to my room first," I say full of excitement when the reality strikes me again that Prom is truly here.

Prom stares speechlessly at our joined hands, so I cough once to get his attention. He then snaps out of his dreamy state to look wide-eyed at me, as if making sure that holding the Prince of Lucis' hand before everyone's eyes is really okay.

I just squeeze his hand gently. "Follow me," I say conspiratorially with a wink.

As soon as we reach the final pair of stairs, which lead to the entrance of the palace, Prom suddenly lets go of my hand to take a few tired breaths.

"W-wait Noct, you're too fast. I need a moment," he wheezes, sounding breathless while bending down to place his hands on his knees.

I'm confused, so I take a look behind Prom to count the stairs and then my eyes drift back to him again. Huh, are those stairs really that strenuous to walk up? I mean, I myself walk them up and down since forever, maybe I've just gotten used to them? I guess?

Prom has his eyes squeezed shut, breathing heavily, making a hand gesture for me to wait a little bit more.

I bite on my lower lip to keep myself from laughing out loud, because I wouldn't want him to misunderstand or to offend him. Eos help me, I find him so adorable right now that I just need to tease him. Only a little bit.

So I try to hide an amused smile when I say casually, "Do you see those windows up there? The ones which are high up on the 50th floor? There's my room, and for us to get there we'll need to take the stairs, so..."

"Eeeeeeh?" Prom's rosy cheeks seem to have lost all blood inside when he stares high up to the windows where my hand points toward to. Holding his sides with one hand, he moans in defeat, "No waaay...! I... uh...," he swallows dryly.

His expression, as he wipes away the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, is so comical to watch, that my pokerface crumbles and I snort out a chuckle. I place my hand on his shoulder in a reassuring gesture as I say, "Prom, relax. Of course there's an elevator for that."

"Noct!" Prom sends me a reprimanding look, relief and humour written all over his pale face as he playfully pushes me backwards. "How can you do this to me? I almost believed you!"

Now I can't stop the laughter from bubbling forth anymore, avoiding his grasp like a sleek cat. "You should have seen your face, so funny!" I chuckle, jumping aside to dodge his continuous attempts to catch me.

"Noct, you're so mean, wait until I get you!"

But instead of avoiding his grasp, I just courageously take his hand into mine to continue to guide him up to my rooms.

He stumbles after me, staring now wide-eyed at the building in awe, the top of his ears red.

Yep, I'm happy that Prom is here.

...

"So, what's your favorite colour?"

"Black."

"Huh? Black is not a color," Prom sends me a grin as I sit down next to him at my study desk.

"Yes, of course it is," I say with a raised brow, opening his first book for us to start doing his homework. "My clothes are black, therefore I wear the color black."

"No, it isn't," Prom insists. He places his pencils in front of us before looking back at me. "I read once that black is the absence of colour, it swallows all light. In contrast, white is a color because it consists of the entire spectrum of colours."

"Heh, shouldn't this be in reverse? Why did I hear that black is a color, but white isn't?" I ask with a frown.

"Well, I guess it depends on your point of view. Ask a scientist and he would say that black isn't a color, but white is. Ask an artist instead, and he would say to you that white isn't a color, but black is. My best guess is that artists usually have to blend all colours together, like red, green and blue to get black as a result."

I stare astonished at Prom. "Huh, I didn't know that. I learned something new today thanks to you." He surprises me yet again and again, so I ruffle his hair gratefully. "Well then, I decide to think like an artist and say that I like the colour black. But if you, as a fellow scientist, think that this isn't a colour, then let's just say that red is my favorite one," I say cheekily, smiling.

"Really? Mine too, I like red." Prom smiles happily, pointing at his red t-shirt before trying to fix his messy hair with his hands.

While Prom is occupied with fixing his hair, I turn to stare at the huge pile of papers lying on the table, not knowing where to begin. Damn, Ignis should arrive any moment, why isn't he here yet? He promised to help us out.

After a long pause of silence, Prom suddenly takes out his camera. I glance curiously at him. Apparently he doesn't want to do his homework yet, but rather have fun.

"Recently I took some interesting pictures. Would you like to see?"

"Yeah, sure," I slide with my chair closer to him, our shoulders touching as i glance down at the small screen of his camera. Prom must have taken a shower before, because he smells incredibly good...

Just then I shake my head, silently scolding myself. Why am I noticing all these things about him? First I'm mezmerized by his eyes, then by his adult form, and now this... what in the world am I doing?

"See this one," Prom points at the glowing screen with a fond smile, "the black cat you see here, I picked her up when she was sick, and then shortly after, I found a new home for her. The family who took her had to move on the other side of the city. It's too far away for me now to visit her, so I'm not able to see the cat anymore. But I'm happy to have all those pictures of her at least..."

"She's so cute. Why didn't you keep her? You seem so fond of her," I ask when I see that he misses the cat dearly.

"Because...," he swallows once, caressing the screen of his camera tenderly with his thumb before whispering, "my mother would have done something cruel to her to hurt me, I'm sure of it. So... to find a nice family for the cat was for the best."

For some reason, I can't do anything else but stare at Prom's sad smile. Something about him right now makes me catch my breath, something about him makes me want to hug him again, and despite the mood that grew somewhat saddened between us, my heart won't stop fluttering in my chest with something. As I continue to watch his upset profile, his gentle looking eyes never leaving the sleeping cat on the picture, that bittersweet feeling inside of me grows and grows and no matter how much I try to give it an identity, I can't come up with any appropriate words for it.

"I'm sure the cat is doing well," I say suddenly to lift up the mood and to distract myself from this something in my chest that has begun to grow unbearable. "I think you have talent, I myself would have never thought of taking this picture from that perspective. Ah... but wait a moment, what's this? May I take a closer look?"

Prom nods his consent for me to take a hold of his obviously very precious camera, and then I raise it up to the level of my eyes to squint at the picture's resolution.

"Don't you think the image is a bit blurry? Hm, did you check your settings before using your camera?" I turn the device around to inspect the various options.

He bends his head closer to me to glance at what I'm doing, asking confused, "Yeah, err, I think so? Why?"

Fantastic! Now the time has come for me to impress him with my incredible repertoire on professional photography knowledge. All those sleepless nights where I diligently spent studying Ignis' photo books finally pay off!

But, of course, it's just my luck that right at that moment Ignis has to knock on the door and decides to grace us with his presence.

I know I shouldn't, but right now I can't help but to regret informing my best friend and tutor on my phone of Prom's huge amount of homework. Ignis is always very strict with my own homework, so I should know that he won't let us have any fun until lunch time. So I resign myself to delay imparting my hard-earned 'Photographer' language to Prom much later in the evening.

With a quick glance at my clock I prepare myself for very, very long and dry hours full of relentless work.

"Come in," I call out, sneaking quickly some of Prom's papers in front of us, to look like we already started to work on them diligently.

Prom stares curiously at Ignis, placing his camera away into his bag.

"Prom, this is Ignis, a good childhood friend of mine. He's going to help us today to get your homework done," I reassure Prom when I see that he grows nervous at Ignis' presence in my room. Well, I should have informed Prom of my plans beforehand, but somehow it completely slipped my busy mind.

"Nice to meet you," says Ignis, holding his hand out to Prom.

"Oh, nice to meet you too, Ignis. I'm Prompto."

I watch how they shake hands and then I make room for Ignis to sit down next to my new friend.

"Prompto, Noct told me that you have a lot of school work to do, so as he said, I'm here to help you out. Usually I don't do something like this, it isn't a part of my usual duties. That's why, I hope you two get the message that this won't happen again," Ignis finishes his strict speech, already reaching out for a pencil to start.

I fear to glance at Prom, not knowing if he will be offended that I called Ignis for help. I promised to be the one to help in the first place, but Ignis is so much faster and a whole lot smarter than me that I just want to get Prom's homework out of the way as fast as possible, so that we can use our freetime to play. My eyes, those traitors, shift all on their own toward Prom's face, preparing myself for the worst, but then I find myself blink a few times at his elated and awed looking expression.

He bows in front of Ignis a few times, "Thank you SO, so much, Ignis. If you like, we can start with math, I'm really not good at it and I look forward to you teaching me. Please take care of me!" Prom bows one more time to thank him profusely.

Ignis' looks as if he lost his ability to speak, his posture tense with astonishment.

I can certainly understand his reaction. Not even once did it occur to me to thank Ignis like this in the past, somehow I always took his duties as a turor for granted. Maybe I should take this as a lesson and do the same now.

"Yeah, thanks Ignis, I owe you," I say humbly, placing my hand on his arm in thanks.

Ignis seems to hide his smile, rolling his eyes at us. "You two can thank me later, for this will take some time to finish. So let's start. The sooner we get things done, the sooner you two are free to do whatever you want this weekend."

Yeah, Ignis is right.

More freetime to spend with Prom is what I want, and by guessing the meaning of Prom's bright smile, I'm not the only one to look forward to afternoon that much.

...

"Let's do a break. It's almost noon," says Ignis, placing the finished math homework aside while looking at the clock.

Oh thank Eos, finally lunchtime.

I stretch my back, placing my pencil away with a yawn.

"Thank you very much, Ignis. Without your help I would have never understood those difficult calculations. Not even my teacher could explain the formula as well as you did," says Prom with awe as he stows away his finished math homework back into his bag.

"You're welcome," says Ignis, taken aback again by Prom' unexpected politeness. "What subjects do you need my help with after lunch?"

"Uhm, let's see...," answers Prom, searching inside his bag for his books.

I can't thank Ignis enough for his help, later I have to ask my father if I'm allowed to buy Ignis a present or two.

"By the way Prompto, Noctis informed me of your wish to change your diet and that you need my help to arrange a proper time table for your exercise."

Prom bag slips out of his arms down on his lap as he blinks owlishly a few times. He looks like he completely forgot that.

"Uhm, yeah, that's right, I'd like to reduce my weight," he answers warily, as if afraid that Ignis might judge him for his current weight.

Ignis' face brightens suddenly up and I raise my brow at this, a bad feeling overcoming me all of a sudden...

"Very well, let's work on your diet schedule immediately after lunch. I'd like to mention that I've taken the liberty to inform the cooks to prepare healthy meals for the duration of this weekend." Ignis ends his speech, glancing at me with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Oh, sounds good. Thank you for this, your forethought is greatly appreciated," Prom gives Ignis once more his heartful thanks.

I wish I had listened to Ignis' exact words, instead of beaming at Prom the whole time. I would have saved myself a viscious headache if I had been prepared for what Ignis had in store for me...

...

"Please, take a seat," I encourage Prom to sit down next to me at the table located inside the dining room.

"Thank you."

While waiting for the attendants to bring us our meals, I stare at the other end of the table, only to feel crestfallen that my father didn't make it to have lunch with us.

"Pssst, Noct," whispers Prom, calling for my attention.

"Hm, what is it?"

"Why doesn't Ignis sit with us?"

"Good question. My father told me once, that only royality and guests are allowed to sit together to take their meals... I'm not sure," I say, furrowing my brows.

He stares at me wide-eyed. "Huh, don't you think that's a bit strange? Ignis is your friend, too. He should take his meals with you all the time he's here."

I find his innocence to be quite endearing. It's strange how Prom makes me notice things that I personally would have never questioned.

But then the attendants come in and bring us lunch, finally, because I'm starving. The hot chocolate and croissant from this morning having been long since digested into nothingness.

My body grows all stiff when they place the various plates full of food on the table before us.

One short glance at Ignis, who politely awaits further back in the room, confirms to me that my pop eyes are not deceiving me, nor that this might be a simple coincidence only. Those smiling eyes of his are almost diabolical with intent and I inhale a sharp breath of horror.

The attendants wish us to enjoy our meals and then leave Prom and I alone again.

Oh dear Goddess, no. No!

Not like this!

"Noct, is everything okay?" Sweet Prom places his hand on my arm to shake me out of my rigid and alarmed posture.

I clutch at my chair in utter revulsion.

No! No, I'm not okay!

I swallow down a huge lump that feels like a cotton ball, my throat hurts already just from the sheer evil sight that greets me.

Prom waves his hand in front of my eyes, whispering, "Noct, say something, you scare me."

There are mountains of food full of vegetables on the table and staring me defiantly in the face!

Greens! Everywhere my horror-stricken eyes can reach!

The only thought that I'm capable to think of, in my current state of mind that reminds me slightly of anneurysm, is, what have I done in my previous life to deserve this horrific punishment?

...

To be continued.