I once had plans to keep these around like 800 words *curls up on the floor*

This one's just plain ol' Prompto whump (or aftermath thereof, really), some nice little bedside weeping and injury recovery, how's that sound? Writing it was a lot of fun!

Enjoy!

Prompts:

No. 29: "I only sink deeper the deeper I think."
Scented Candle | Troubled Past Resurfacing | "What happened to me?"

Warnings: None

Prompto awakens to a world of pain.

His head feels fuzzy, his eyelids almost too heavy to lift, and when he manages to pry them open, he immediately has to close them again because everything is too bright and it sends a spike of pain through his skull.

"Prompto? Hey, you awake?"

It takes a moment for Prompto's scrambled brain to place the voice.

Gladio?

He doesn't want to open his eyes again, but his throat is so dry and sore that no sound comes out when he tries to answer Gladio's question, so he doesn't have much of a choice.

This time, he only cracks one eye open, very slowly, and eventually Gladio's face comes into focus.

"That's it, here you go," Gladio encourages him.

Prompto takes in his surroundings. He's lying in a bed, covered with white sheets. One of his hands disappears beneath Gladio's huge fingers, and the other one has an IV drip in it. Next to him, something beeps steadily, and with all that combined, Prompto pieces together that he's in some sort of hospital room. Except it doesn't look like a hospital room, at least not a normal one - there are fancy paintings on the walls and Gladio isn't sitting on a cheap plastic chair but in an armchair instead.

For a few seconds, he's almost convinced he was dropped into some sort of alternative dimension until a different voice on his other side says, "You're in the Citadel's hospital wing."

By now, Prompto is awake enough that he recognises the voice - and the accent - immediately.

He manages to turn his head a little and spots Ignis sitting in another of those comfy-looking armchairs, furiously tapping away on his laptop's keyboard, but he pauses and offers Prompto a gentle smile when he makes eye contact.

"It's good to see you awake," he says. "You've worried us."

"Sorry," Prompto croaks out of habit and immediately erupts into a coughing fit.

Vaguely, he registers hands touching him, steadying him, but he can't process it through the terrible pain the constricting of his diaphragm triggers.

It's all-consuming agony, a feeling close to what he imagines someone taking a lit torch and shoving it through his stomach, and for a horrifying moment, he can't breathe.

Then, he's being propped up somewhat, just slightly, but it's enough that his lungs calm down enough for him to start breathing again, but the pain throbs for a good while longer until it finally dulls back down to a more tolerable level.

"Shh, you're alright," Ignis soothes, his thumb gently brushing along the bottom of his eye, and it's only now that Prompto realises he has tears streaming down his face, but he can't even bring himself to be embarrassed by it.

The coughing fit has sapped whatever strength he'd had right out of him, and his eyelids start to droop without his permission, but then he's startled into opening them again when Gladio gingerly pats his cheek.

"Hey, try to stay awake for a little longer, yeah? The doctor's gonna be here any minute and they'll want to check you over. Here, this'll make your throat less sore."

Prompto expects a glass of water, but instead, Gladio gently pushes some ice chips past his chapped lips. They're wonderfully cool and they soothe his throat so much that a tiny little sigh of relief escapes him.

"What… happened to me?" he whispers once he deems it safe to speak without having to cough again. He doesn't remember a single thing that has led to him being in the hospital, which is more than a little concerning.

Gladio squeezes his hand. "There was an ambush. You shielded Noct with your body and got shot."

Noct…

His eyes widen in alarm, but before he can make himself ask, Gladio answers the unasked question.

"Noct's fine, thanks to you. He has to give his statement before he can come see you, but he was ready to fight just about anyone to get to you, so he'll probably show up in no time."

Prompto sags back against the pillows, relief making him feel light-headed - or maybe it was the gunshot wound. Wounds? How many are there?

He cranes his head, trying to get a good look at his body, but most of it is covered with a blanket so he doesn't see anything.

"You were shot in the stomach, about here," Ignis says, indicating the location of his wound on his own stomach. His expression turns sour as he adds, "You've not been given any curatives yet, but I expect that'll happen soon."

Something in his voice promises pain to someone, and Prompto's momentarily confused until Gladio gives a wry snort and explains, "Potions are strictly rationed and are reserved for Citadel staff and military, so they wouldn't give you one. But Iggy's been fighting tooth and nail to get you access as soon as possible."

"One would think that they'll make an exception for the civilian who quite literally saved the Prince's life, " Ignis mutters. He sounds absolutely furious and it's kind of terrifying.

Prompto doesn't quite know what to say to so much anger on his behalf, so he gestures vaguely at his stomach and says, with all the eloquence he can muster. "'Splains all the… ouch."

Staying awake starts to become really difficult, so he's glad when the doctor finally saunters into the room. He manages to answer her questions somewhat fine, even though words are hard, but by the time she finishes the examination, he's long asleep.

The next time he opens his eyes, there's less pain, no Gladio and no Ignis, and one red-eyed, distraught Prince clutching his hand.

"Mmmm," Prompto manages, and Noct's gaze snaps to Prompto's face.

"Prompto!"

"Hey." Prompto's throat is dry again, but at least this time he doesn't start coughing. He's kind of missing those ice chips, though, and he hopes Noct has a bowl stashed away somewhere.

He doesn't get to ask, though, because Noct's eyes are suddenly wet and he's blinking away tears and chokes, "Don't ever do that again, I'm warning you!"

Prompto blinks dumbly, processing, then asks, "Do what again?"

"Sacrificing yourself for me! Almost dying! You can't do that, okay? It's not allowed!"

Noct sounds so upset that Prompto already has an apology on the tip of his tongue, fully convinced he's actually broken some kind of law that says don't try to sacrifice yourself for the Prince before he realises how stupid that is and Noct's just being Noct.

"I'll try," he says instead and it must be a good enough answer because Noct squeezes his hand before letting go, leaning back in the armchair.

"How do you feel? Any pain? Doc said to call if you're hurting anywhere."

Prompto takes mental stock of his body before shaking his head. "No pain. Just really tired and sluggish. And kinda achy, I guess? But no gunshot wound levels pain."

"Yeah, they gave you a potion a while back and now you're all healed up," Noct tells him, expression going grim when he speaks again. "You, uh. You lost a lot of blood, so you're gonna be feeling that for a while."

His eyes adopt a faraway look and he looks so haunted that Prompto gropes around to find Noct's hand again to comfort him.

Noct shudders and looks down at their joined hands, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to look nonchalant.

"You could probably retire now, y'know," he says, carefully casual, eyes trained on some invisible spot on the wall. "They're gonna give you some sort of military honour badge and you're gonna get a whole lot of compensation, so you might actually be settled for life. Never having to work again, huh, how's that sound?"

It's a lot to take in, and none of it sounds even remotely real so Prompto files that as something to think about once his brain is somewhat back in working order. He opens his mouth, intending to brush Noct off with some light-hearted remark, but what comes out instead is, "I want to join the Crownsguard."

Noct physically recoils as if Prompto had punched him. "What?"

"I want to join the Crownsguard," Prompto repeats. "I've decided."

"No!" Noct says, in a tone that allows no argument, but Prompto can hear the fear and insecurity beneath it. "Why would you- Prompto, you almost died because of me, and now you wanna make that your job?"

He's starting to sound a little choked up, and Prompto doesn't actually mean to make him cry (again) so he hurries to say, "Isn't it just gonna improve my chance of survival, though? I mean. I'm not Crownsguard now but I still got shot, so if I'm gonna be hanging out with you anyway, wouldn't it be better for me if I were trained to handle that kinda stuff?"

Contrary to what Noct may believe, this isn't an impulse decision. Prompto has to think about what he wants to do with his life, anyway, and it's not like he's likely to be able to make a living out of taking photos, so he might as well get a government job that pays him to hang out with his best friend, right?

Noct looks devastated, but when he tries to argue with Prompto's logic, he seems to draw a blank and ends up just pressing his lips together and averting his eyes.

"Okay," he says, exhaling shakily. "Okay. We're not… this conversation isn't over, we're gonna be talking about that again, but first, you need to get better. Got it?"

Prompto's feelings on the matter aren't going to change, especially now that he knows what it feels like to know Noct is safe because of him, but he's too tired to argue with Noct about it right now. Plus, Noct looks like he might burst into tears the second Prompto says anything else about it and he kind of really wants to avoid that, so. Better save that for another day.

For now, he nods and lets Noct redirect the conversation to a video game sequel that's about to come out, and before long he falls asleep to the quiet sound of Noct's voice.

*comes up with increasingly unhinged reasons why one cannot be given a potion immediately in order to get Maximum Whump*

Important info: I straight up forgot to post yesterday's chapter. I don't know why, the document was prepared and everything but I just didn't post it, so now I'm posting it along with this one. So if you haven't seen chapter 28 yet, you might wanna go back and read that too :)

Anyway! Just two more to go! And I've actually written Tuesday's fic this afternoon, so this means I only have to write one (1) more thing for Whumptober and then I can officially call myself a completionist! Holy shit!

Stay tuned, I'll see you tomorrow!