Title: Sleep
Genre: Angst, hurt/comfort, friendship
Summary: Noctis was always a heavy sleeper, but after his near death experience as a child, he has to adjust to the difficulty of waking up.

Chapter 9: Sleep

Waking up was a long process to Noctis. It took several alarms and slaps to the face before he could see past the hazy blur of sleep. Even after all that he still took a long while to truly become aware of himself and his surroundings. Most of the mornings he went on what he referred to as autopilot; sticking to the daily routine without wasting conscious thought on anything. But when you were the most wanted person on the continent and hounded at every step you really had to get a move on at the wee hours of the night – just when he was falling to the deepest state of sleep.

Coffee was his saving grace; without it he would have died a gruesome death a thousand times over. Ignis was always sure to keep a stock of regular good old-fashioned coffee next to his beloved Ebony. They had learnt long time ago that a sleep deprived prince was as likely to cause trouble as he was likely to dive head first into it.

It was no wonder then that one day on the road when Ignis announced that their stock of coffee was depleting that the normally cool and collected heir to the Lucian throne was quite close to having a mental breakdown.

"Are you sure the nearest gas station is two days away?" he asked for the fifth time that afternoon.

"Yes, the previous shopkeeper made it clear that the road we are taking doesn't have any civilization until the border. He also stressed that the road is in poor condition after the bombing and we ought to drive more cautiously. There's no garage this time to fix the car if we venture carelessly."

Noctis groaned and buried his face in his palms. As much as he enjoyed a good nap he did not enjoy being stuck in the foggy aftermath of sleep. It was then that he had visions of death; both of strangers' he had never seen before and people he knew and loved. Thankfully he witnessed the latter far less often. In that state, between sleep and wake, he was conscious enough to realize he wasn't really physically there within his own dream witnessing another poor soul's passing, but at the same time he was too drowsy to force himself to full awareness. Sometimes he would even see the light escaping from Etro's Gate a moment after his vision. The sight never failed to make his skin crawl.

On bad mornings he would lie in paralysis, hearing the sounds around him yet unable to concentrate and actually listen. His brain fed him false images and sounds that were so unlike those in normal dreams. Worst part was how he could remember the visions clearly long after he had woken. It was a rare blessing when he did forget. He would hear the sounds in his visions overlap with the sounds of the real world. Conscious world is what he thought of it as. To him the visions were as real as the brilliant sunset he was currently witnessing.

Even though the visions rarely lasted longer than five minutes, his struggling consciousness made it feel like hours. During those longest minutes of his life he was completely helpless and unresponsive. No matter how badly he wanted to shake himself to awareness and communicate with the people around him, the only thing that he had limited control over was his breathing.

He had had his first vision and paralysis after waking up from a coma that followed his near-death experience. He had been utterly terrified and felt helpless – the feeling was only intensified by his immobility. King Regis had comforted him and told him that the wheelchair was only temporary; his leg would heal in no time. At the time he had been too confused with all that had happened in such a short period of time that he hadn't mentioned his inner turmoil to his father.

The cure he had silently prayed for came in the unexpected form of a dog. Umbra was its name according to the Fleurets' only child. Noctis had sat on his wheelchair and petted the dog while Luna had chatted to him excitedly. One moment he was completely focused on the pretty girl's stories about Tenebrae and the next he had passed out from an unexpected wave of exhaustion. When he came to, Umbra was lying by his feet, nudging his hand with its wet nose. He did not realize it at the time, but it had been the first time in weeks that he had woken without being stuck in a vision.

Luna had given Umbra to him as a sign of their newfound friendship and the dog and the boy became nigh inseparable. The dog seemed to sense when Noctis was suffering from paralysis and would jump on the bed and lie down on Noctis' stomach. His caretakers were less than thrilled with the dog hair in his sheets, but Noctis would rather hear their scolding and scoffing than suffer through visions he did not understand and was deeply afraid of.

Years later he found out that a simple touch could rouse him from the paralysis. As he and his three companions set on their journey to Altissia, they agreed that when he was stuck in a vision he would make use of his limited ability to control breathing and signal his companions with quick short breaths that he needed help to get through the vision. Over time their agreement had altered to include nudging, patting, slapping and shaking to the young prince's annoyance.

Noctis snapped out of his musings at the sound of Prompto's voice. "If worst comes to worst we could just dump a bucket of cold water on him", he suggested tad too eagerly.

"He might impale you", Gladiolus' looked pointedly at the younger man's covered right arm. "Don't you remember the last time you tried to wake him up with unorthodox methods?" Gladiolus preferred not to repeat that incident. They had had to listen to Prompto's pitiful wailing for days as Ignis was forced to stitch his right upper arm without the aid of painkillers. Just their luck they had downed their last potion before the incident.

"Okay, fine", Prompto rubbed his arms suppressing a shudder. He remembered quite vividly the absolute agony his arm and shoulder had been in. Even to this day he covered the scar with a black band. He claimed it was for coolness factor, but really he just didn't want Noctis be reminded of it and feel bad about it.

"How about–", his eyes followed a faraway figure of a malboro in the distance.

"No", Noctis gritted his teeth.

"Aw, c'mon, could at least–"

"No."

"–try?"

"No!" Noctis did not want to know what went on in that head of his sometimes.

"Okay, okay", his sulking lasted for two seconds before he turned back to face the back row. "Do you have any ideas, Luna?"

The woman in question perked at the mention of her name. "Is it so bad if we let him to take his time to get up? We're not in a hurry, are we?"

Gladiolus shot a quick look at Noctis who was obviously uncomfortable with the topic. "Not right now, no. But if we run into unfriendlies and he's napping, things could go real bad real fast."

Luna turned to look at the distressed prince beside her. He had always been a sleepy head for as long as she had known him. She still remembered how insulted she had felt when the boy had fallen asleep mid conversation for the first time. They had been just children back then. She had huffed and puffed when her exciting stories were met with silence. Shaking him had done nothing; his eyelids had remained stubbornly closed. Not taking his unresponsiveness well at all, she had run to the guest chambers where she and her parents were staying. She had rummaged through her mother's belongings and dashed back to Noctis' room where the boy remained slumped in his wheelchair. Luna had taken her mother's make up kit and smeared the unaware prince's face with blush and lipstick. Needless to say he did his utmost best to stay awake in her company thereafter. There were still times when he would go out like a light without any warning. She learnt to forgive him and would instead cover him with a shawl and order Umbra to lie by his feet and guard his sleep.

She had no canine companion with her now, but she would guard her betrothed's rest for as long as she was around. She hastily averted her eyes as Noctis stopped bemoaning his coffeeless fate and turned his attention to her. When had she gotten so soft? Had she always been like this and had merely forgotten when the Empire stole her childhood? Frowning, she turned to stare at the road.

Ignis parked Regalia by a rundown forest path that connected to the main road. The trees would shelter them for a little while and allow them to make a hasty retreat if any patrolling MTs happened to venture this far from civilization.

The quintet set their camp but decided against a campfire in fear of alerting unfriendly eyes. The meal was cold and meager, but they ate it in silence without complaint. Even the usually animated Prompto ate his canned food without a peep while grimacing all the while. The mood was tense. They could all feel the danger looming in the horizon.

Gladiolus offered to take the first shift. Luna helped Ignis clean the cooking ware before retreating to her and Noctis' shared tent.

They lay down and stared at the tent's roof, both far too awake to think about sleep.

"You see the light."

Luna turned to look at him, brows knitting together in confusion. "Of course. You know that." He hummed in response, but said no more. She suspected this was as good time as any to get him to unload whatever was bothering him. "Why?"

"Do you", he began tentatively, his voice husky and small "Do you ever see it in your dreams?" His apprehensiveness was starting to unnerve her. She had never seen him act so uncertain around her. He was always so sure of himself.

"No. Do you?"

He remained silent, but she could see the answer clearly from the way he clenched his jaw.

"Tell me."

So he did. He told about how he nearly died and was only saved because his father had the mind to come looking for him. He told her about his difficulties to wake up from both visions and sleep and how the husky she had gifted him had kept him safe all these years. He told her how he had had a vision of his cousin's death only to wake up and see the light glimmer around him as it phased through the wall which separated his chambers from his cousin's. He had run to check on him and found him dead. His face had been twisted in an ugly grimace from weeks of fighting a difficult case of malboro disease.

Luna's heart ached. Here he was baring his soul for her to see, yet she felt she couldn't do the same for him. She wasn't ready, not yet. Hesitantly she reached to take his hand in hers. All this time Noctis' gaze had been glued to the roof, but as he turned to face his betrothed she saw his eyes shine with unshed tears. He was far too stubborn to let them fall even now. She didn't know what to say or how to console him, so she did the only thing she could and held on to his hand.

She watched over him until he fell asleep and she was there to wake him up from another nightmarish vision with a gentle squeeze to his hand. She shyly caressed his cheek until the fog lifted from his eyes and he became fully aware of the world around him.

He had never felt safer.

A/N: The description on Noctis' sensations between sleep and awake are my personal experiences from suffering sleep paralysis. I've also read that just touching the person suffering from sleep paralysis can help the waking process. There was a story I read long time ago about a person who suffered from it and had a dog that could sense she was troubled and would help her wake up by lying on top of her.

Also, did I just write Luna doing the Jigglypuffs on Noctis-? Hooboy.