*kicks down door* whaddup lads, here's some boiz. The inevitable sickfic, and since this is a collection written by yours truly, probably not the last sickfic to come. For now, enjoy Prompto and Gladio being miserable!


In theory, Noct knew that Prompto had a pollen allergy. It wasn't as severe as Gladio's, who kept sneezing during pollen season even with his meds, so Noct had really only witnessed it once. Prompto had showed up in school with red, teary eyes, a raspy voice, and wearing a pair of glasses instead of contacts like usual. As it turned out, he hadn't realized he'd run out of his medication and couldn't buy any before school started.

Noct had felt pretty bad for him back then. Apparently, so had the teacher. Prompto made it through exactly one and a half lessons that day before he was sent home. But aside from that one time, Prompto was usually fine with his meds. It'd been long enough for Noct to pretty much forget about the allergy.

That was why it kinda came as a shock when they ran out of antihistamines and both Gladio and Prompto had to deal with the consequences.

There was an issue with the delivery, the cashier at the gas station informed them. He was very apologetic about it, but that didn't change the fact that they couldn't get any meds, not even at any other store since they were all affected by the missing delivery. Not unless they located the delivery truck that was apparently lost somewhere along the way, as it seemed to happen pretty often these days.

Grimacing in sympathy at the thought of his friends who were currently waiting in the car, Noct told the guy they'd handle it, waited for Ignis to pay for his three packs of Ebony, and trudged back to the car to inform the other two about the problem.

"Ugh," Prompto said, voice stuffy and rough.

Gladio just sneezed in agreement.

Overall, they both looked pretty miserable, Gladio more so than Prompto. Noct liked to tease him about it, how he could take a sword through the chest no problem but some tiny little pollen were enough to render him useless. Looking at him now, he didn't have the heart to. His Shield was slumped in the backseat, eyes closed in an attempt to ease the burning and itching a bit, but it probably didn't help much. He'd given up on talking hours ago, it'd just make his already raw throat hurt worse. It was a pretty heart-wrenching sight, really.

Prompto was doing a little better. His allergy wasn't as severe, but he was visibly suffering too. He was still talking, not as much as normally but still in his usual cheerful tone. He wasn't really fooling anyone. He didn't look like he could fool anyone, either. His fair complexion let the redness around his eyes and nose seem more severe than Gladio's tanned skin. Not even the glasses he was wearing did anything to hide it. Every now and then, he'd sneeze and sniffle and then carry on with the conversation as if nothing was wrong.

Noct opened the door to the backseat and moved to get it, but then he hesitated. "Hey, Prompto. Take my seat. More room in the back. You can lie down or something," he said, casually.

Prompto looked like he wanted to protest, but then he smiled weakly but with gratitude. "You know what? That sounds great, actually."

Slowly, he peeled himself out of the passenger seat and shuffled around the car. "The Prince of Lucis holds the door open for me. I'm honored!" he joked. The effect was kind of lost when he sneezed immediately after, though.

Noct rolled his eyes at him. "Yeah, yeah, just get in and shut up."

Prompto tried to wink at him, which didn't work all that well with his teary eyes, and climbed into the backseat next to Gladio. He didn't even bother sitting up properly. Instead, he dropped his head into Gladio's lap and sighed in relief.

"This okay, big guy?" he rasped, looking like he was very unlikely to move even if Gladio told him to get off.

Of course, Gladio did not tell him to get off. He just hummed in agreement and dropped his big hand onto Prompto's stomach.

Noct threw them another glance before he walked over to the passenger seat. It didn't look like they were gonna move or speak or look vaguely alive anytime soon, so it was probably best to just leave them alone.

"Seems like it's up to us now, huh, Specs?" he said

"Indeed," Ignis replied and took a sip from his coffee. "I do hope whatever foes await us aren't too strong for us to fight by ourselves."

Noct shrugged. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Gonna show these two we can handle things without them."

The cashier hadn't been able to provide much information about the truck's whereabouts. The only thing they had to work with was the route it was supposed to take, but there was no way of knowing where exactly it got stuck. That meant they had to drive the whole route and hope they were able to locate the truck somewhere.

For several hours, they drove, without any trace of the truck. Noct was starting to feel really bad for Prompto and Gladio. Aside from the occasional sneezing, they weren't making any noise, and it was hard to tell if they were asleep or not. For their sake, Noct kind of hoped they were.

After a while, it started to rain. Whilst Noct normally wasn't keen on getting wet when running around in the woods, he was now grateful for it. The rain would wash away some of the pollen in the air, hopefully making his friends a little less miserable. Still, that damn truck had better show up soon.

He was just about to voice his frustration to Ignis when dark tracks on the road near the Fallgrove caught his attention. "Specs, you see that?"

"I do. Let's have a look, shall we?"

"Mm. That better be our truck," Noct agreed. "Think these two are gonna be fine while we're gone?"

He glanced at the backseat, but he still couldn't tell if they were awake. Ah, well. He'd just lock the car, they'd be alright.

The truck had probably been hauled off by daemons, but it was easy to follow the path of broken twigs, flattened grass, and the deep, very obvious tracks the wheels had left.

Noct groaned when he spotted the truck, surrounded by hundlegs. "Can't anything be easy for once? Specs, how do we do this?"

"Hit and don't get hit yourself."

"Very helpful. Let's do this."

An annoying but not particularly hard fight, a couple of potions, and a couple more antidotes later, the only things left of the hundlegs were their, well, legs.

Noct gathered them and dismissed them into the Armiger to sell later and walked up to the truck.

"Seems like the cargo is fine."

"The driver wasn't so lucky," Ignis commented.

"Yeah…"

The truck driver's tragic fate dampened Noct's mood considerably. He just wanted to get this over with. Gather the supplies, get back to Gladio and Prompto and stuff them with meds until they felt better. Fortunately, Ignis seemed to agree. They emptied the truck quickly and without much talking, and soon they were back by the Regalia.

Noct's plan had been to give Prompto and Gladio the pills as soon as they returned, but now they were definitely asleep. He stared at them for a moment, considering if he should wake them. No, he thought, it could wait until they were at the motel they'd definitely be staying at tonight.

The sun was already low, so he and Ignis hurried to load everything into the car and head for the nearest motel before the daemons came out. Delivering the supplies to a gas station could wait until tomorrow, Noct decided, selfishly. Like hell he'd make Gladio and Prompto sit in that car any longer than necessary.

If Ignis pushed the speed limit a bit, neither of them said anything about it. As the last sunbeams were starting to disappear, they finally reached the motel, just in time before nightfall.

Noct rounded the car and opened the door on Prompto's side whilst Ignis did the same on Gladio's side. "Prompto. C'mon, rise and shine. We're at the motel, you can go back to sleep in a minute."

Prompto blinked and muttered something Noct didn't catch. He didn't seem entirely awake, so Noct helped him out of the car and half-carried him to the motel. He wondered if that was how the others felt when they tried to wake him up in the morning.

Ignis had gone ahead and paid for their rooms. He'd left Gladio in the car once it'd become clear he wouldn't be up and walking on his own anytime soon, but now he was hauling him out with some effort. Noct didn't exactly envy him; he was already struggling to support a nearly limp Prompto.

Eventually, they dragged their pretty much unresponsive friends into the room and deposited them in one of the two double beds.

"Here, take this," Noct said once he caught his breath, handing Prompto his medication. When Prompto barely managed to hold onto the pill, Noct didn't even try to give him the glass of water. It was easier to just hold it for him, he thought.

He made Prompto drink the entire glass before he was satisfied and let him burrow into the blankets and pillows and Gladio.

"Gladio all set?" he asked, turning to see if Ignis needed help, but Ignis just brushed his hand through Gladio's hair and straightened up.

"All set," he confirmed. "We'd best head off to bed as well."

Noct all but collapsed onto the other bed, not even bothering to take off his clothes. "Oh yes, definitely. Night, Specs."

Of course, Ignis bullied him into getting up again and changing out of his clothes after all, but it still wasn't even five minutes later that he fell asleep as soon as his eyes closed.

He definitely deserved it.


Prompto with glasses, anyone?

Gladio's pollen allergy seems to be pretty much accepted as canon from the way he randomly sneezes in the game, so I was more than happy to hop onto the bandwagon AND drag Prompto down with him.
I am so very glad I don't have a pollen allergy, let me tell you. I wear contacts and when it is Pollen Time™ these tiny little assholes like to land on my contacts and chill there all day. It is very itchy and very unpleasant. To imagine there's people who have to deal with allergies... uhhh yeah, no. Y'all have my utmost respect and sympathy. Thoughts and prayers my dudes, thoughts and prayers.

Hope you liked!

I'm also on Twitter ( Butterfly_OnIce) and Tumblr (thisfairytalegonebad), and even on Discord too (thisfairytalegonebad#2939) and I'm always happy to chat, about my fics or your fics or these boys or literally anything!