Good evening, it is at the time of typing this 21:45, my bedtime is at 22:00 and I kept trying to wrap this up but it just grew so now I gotta speed-post this so I don't lose too much sleep.
Enjoy some Prompto-suffering ft. his bestest bros and special guest Aranea!
Prompts:
No. 17: "You're the lump in my throat and the knot in my chest."
Collar | Touch Aversion | "Leave me alone."
Warnings: Brief description of non-consensual touching (non-sexual)
They're all various levels of physically affectionate.
Gladio likes pounding people on the shoulder and giving bear hugs, and if someone is talking to him they're likely to experience some form of physical contact at least once during the conversation.
Noct is a bit like a cat. He won't be very touchy-feely most of the time unless he gets sleepy, in which case he can get a little clingy.
Ignis gives affection freely but is not very fond of receiving it, unless you're one of very few select individuals.
Prompto, however, is easily the one with the least boundaries when it comes to physical contact. He'll throw himself bodily at Gladio with post-fight-euphoria, he'll get into Ignis' space when he's in the passenger seat and wants to look at something outside on the driver's side, and he'll slap Noct on the ass whenever he least expects it. He likes to throw his arms around people and he routinely falls asleep on someone's shoulder during movie night.
That's why it's such a surprise when he physically recoils when Gladio reaches out to inspect a cut on his left cheek, a leftover from his days spent in Ardyn's custody.
Prompto looks just as perplexed as they feel.
"Sorry, I- sorry!" he stammers, wide-eyed.
Gladio hesitates but reaches for the cut again, and this time Prompto doesn't flinch, but he holds himself stiffly and looks ready to bolt.
"Got any other injuries?" Gladio asks, but Prompto quickly shakes his head.
"Nope, all good."
His smile is somewhat forced, but he did just go through something traumatic, so it's not exactly surprising, and they forget about it quickly enough with all the other stuff they've got going on.
As they make their way through Zegnautus Keep, Prompto attaches himself to Ignis again, the way he did after they left Altissia. He reaches for Ignis' hand and tucks it under his arm, and Ignis, admittedly exhausted, is reluctantly grateful for it.
They run into a bunch of daemons, and once the fight is over, Ignis reflexively goes to grab Prompto's arm for guidance again, but Prompto flinches and whirls around.
"Shit, Iggy, I didn't mean-" he immediately apologises, and it's only when Ignis hears the crystalline sound of something being put in the Armiger that he realises he most likely just got a gun pulled on him.
Furrowing his brow in concern, he asks, "Prompto, are you feeling alright?"
"Fine!" Prompto says immediately, sounding anything but. "Just, this place gives me the creeps, y'know? Makes me jumpy, can't wait to get out of here!"
"That makes two of us," Ignis agrees, accepting that he's not going to get anything else out of Prompto.
"Four of us," Gladio corrects. "Let's go, sooner we can get out of this place the better."
No one's really in the mood for their usual banter, they're all on edge and any words that are spoken are tinted with various levels of fear and nerves.
Something's clearly off about Prompto and they've all realised it, even before he leaps halfway across the narrow walkway when Noct accidentally brushes their shoulders together.
Any attempt to ask about it is immediately deflected, though, and they simply don't have the time to stop and figure it out.
And then everything goes sideways all of a sudden when Ardyn shows up. They engage him with everything they've got - Prompto immediately puts a bullet between his eyebrows, but it's like it doesn't even register, and he reacts similarly to their other attempts to get rid of him once and for all.
Surprisingly, all of them make it out alive, though less due to skill and more due to the fact that Ardyn is simply toying with them. The only reason why they're alive is because he decided to let them live.
Noct is… gone. Not dead, thank the gods, but inside the crystal, and after trying to get him out for a long, long time, they're forced to leave him behind.
"We'll come back for him," Gladio swears, near tears. His hands are bleeding from his attempts to break the crystal, but he's refusing a potion.
Ignis nods mutely, stumbling along as they search for an exit. He yelled himself hoarse and hasn't said a word since, and he's moving as if in a trance.
Prompto brings up the rear, full of adrenaline and so high-strung that he's shaking. If he were to shoot anything, he'd most likely miss by a mile, but he cannot bring himself to dismiss his gun or even just lower it.
Ironically, they don't encounter a single daemon on their way out. Ardyn's doing, no doubt.
"I can call us a ride," Prompto says breathlessly when they're finally outside and at a loss for how to proceed.
"A ride?" Ignis echoes, speaking again for the first time. His voice is hoarse and he doesn't even look remotely put together.
"Yeah, lemme just…" Prompto rails off and walks a few steps away from them for some semblance of privacy as he calls Aranea.
He's not a fan of having to ask her for a favour so soon after she saved his ass, but unless they magically find a mechanic somewhere to fix their car, they've got no other option.
It's not all that much later that her dropship appears above them, the noise putting both Ignis and Gladio on guard immediately.
"It's just Aranea," Prompto reassures them quickly.
As if on cue, she jumps off the descending dropship and lands directly in front of him.
"Hey, shortcake," she says cheerfully, clasping him on the shoulder in a friendly gesture.
Prompto flinches and takes a step back, but the reaction is nowhere near as extreme as it was earlier.
"Hey, Aranea," he says, pretending he doesn't see the way too perceptive look she gives him. "Thank you for picking us up."
"No problem, I was in the area," she replies airily then looks around before her questioning gaze lands back on him. "Where's Pretty Boy?"
The slight smile Aranea's presence put on Prompto's lips falls immediately.
"Uh. Long story. I'll tell you on the way," he promises.
"Sure, but first you boys get some rest. No offense, but you all look like shit."
No one can really argue with that.
Despite their exhaustion, rest does not come easily.
Aranea let them get settled in the back area of the dropship. There are two cots that Gladio immediately insisted Prompto and Ignis take, getting down on the floor himself before Ignis tells him not to be ridiculous and share with him instead.
Realistically, the cot is too small for both of them, but they're making it work with a complete lack of regard for personal space. It doesn't seem to bother them, either, if anything they seem reassured by the physical contact.
It leaves Prompto alone on his cot, which suits him just fine. The idea of sharing with either of the other two makes his skin crawl.
As if he had read his thoughts, Gladio suddenly asks, "Hey, what was up with you back there?"
Prompto stays silent for a beat too long before he replies, entirely unconvincingly, "What? Nothing!"
"You flinch every time we touch you," Ignis points out.
"With Aranea too, but only a little. Don't think I didn't see that," Gladio adds.
To that, Prompto has nothing good to say.
"I'm fine, just, y'know. Tired, hated that place. Made me feel jumpy. Don't tell me you liked it there," he attempts anyway. He's aiming for a light-hearted tone, but instead, it just sounds pathetic.
"Prompto," Ignis says seriously. "What did Ardyn do to you?"
The question, while not unexpected, leaves Prompto speechless.
Nothing. Everything.
Still, he forces himself to say, "Nothing. He didn't do anything."
"Prompto." Gladio's voice is more gentle than Prompto's ever heard, and for some reason, it drives tears to his eyes.
"It's the truth, he didn't… didn't do anything," he sniffs quietly. "Just. He was being creepy. Touched me, sometimes."
"Not inappropriately!" he adds immediately because both Ignis and Gladio go rigid at that. "He didn't do anything like that, he'd just come up and touch my face, my hair and stuff and it just… it made me feel really gross is all."
"But there's more," Ignis presses. "Gladio said you didn't react as badly to Aranea. Why not?"
Prompto presses his lips together in a tight line and stays silent. If it were up to him, he'd just never talk about it again and try to forget it ever happened. But he knows Ignis and Gladio and they're some of the most stubborn people he knows. They're not going to let this go.
"Sometimes he did it while looking like you guys," he says finally, quietly enough that he hopes they didn't hear over the roaring engines of the dropship. "It kind of really messed with my head and after a while I couldn't really tell what's real and what isn't anymore."
Gladio explodes in a string of curses and Ignis looks both heartbroken and about two seconds away from a murder.
Guilt stirs in Prompto's chest, but more than anything, an unexpected burst of anger surges through him. This is why he didn't want to tell them, and he does not have the emotional capacity to deal with their outrage at the moment, not when he's barely holding it together himself.
"Look, can we just. Not do this right now?" It comes out pleading and more pathetic than he'd like, but it does seem to have the desired effect.
Gladio cuts himself off to stew in silent anger instead, and Ignis bows his head respectfully.
"Of course," he says. "But please know that we're here for you, in whatever way you may need."
"Yeah, what he said," Gladio agrees. His voice is gruff, but Prompto knows it's not from a lack of caring but rather the opposite. It's clear he's absolutely pissed, but he's holding back for Prompto's sake.
And, it's stupid, but somehow that makes Prompto feel better than anything.
"Thanks, guys," he says, wiping the tears from his eyes. Everything is horrible, they've lost Noct and Prompto's losing his marbles, but with them by his side, he thinks, he can get through anything.
This is barely proofread because I wrote this tonight and am now immediately posting it so I hope there's not too much *gestures* weird stuff going on in there.
Thank you for sticking with me for 17 days straight, unfortunately stats are broken to hell and back here so I can't see how many of you actually are here, but whenever y'all leave me a review I wanna straight up cry, you guys fucking rock *kisses your forehead*
I'm not too sure what I'll be doing tomorrow yet so I can't give you any spoilers for the character this time - I don't know it yet! Sorry!
Have a good day, and I'll see you around!