Tenebrae, Age 8

"This is the Grand Library," Luna told him.

Noct took a quick look around, his eyes roving over the shelves—it was smaller, but taller than the library back in Insomnia—and up the white, spiraling staircase at the center of the room to the ceiling, where his gaze caught and stayed.

Luna looked up. "It's colored glass," she said. "It was created by my great-great grandfather when the manor was built."

"That's the war the Astrals fought, isn't it?" Noct mumbled in awe.

Bahamut was leading the other Astrals in a charge against Ifrit, his blade wings spread out behind him in gold. Titan was behind him, frozen with his hands in the ground. It looked like he was about to pull it up and out from under Ifrit. And then there was Shiva, her head turned away from the almost-battle, blowing ice on the flames consuming Solheim.

Leviathan stood at the back, her mouth open, face twisted in rage, holding her trident high in the air, calling down rain and wind to batter Ifrit. It took him a second to name her, because in his homework she was usually depicted as a sea monster, or a giant water snake.

It was her Messenger who was usually the bronze-skinned woman he was looking at.

His eyes moved on their own to another part of the ceiling. It didn't show the gods but what must've been the people of Solheim as they fled from Ifrit's anger. Some were on their knees, faces twisted up in grief, while others were clinging onto limp bodies, caught in the middle of crying.

It made his stomach feel weird. It was... bad. Awful.

He heard a stifled little giggle and his gaze snapped to Luna. "You must really like it for it to have your attention for so long," she said, pressing her fingers to her mouth.

Her other arm was around his waist, and his right arm was around her shoulder.

His legs still felt sort of numb. They responded when he thought to move, or wiggle his toes, but from the waist-down it felt like he was being held up by air.

But he didn't want to think about that. It was when he wasn't distracted that he always thought about the Marilith—

"Why would your grandad make that?" Noct blurted out, then went red. It sounded like he was insulting her grandad. "I mean—that part—" he hastily pointed at the human figures.

Luna looked. "Grandfather hated war," she said, and didn't sound offended at all. "He wanted to remind his ancestors of the cost of it. Every time Mother has to make a difficult decision, she comes in here and looks at that, and only that."

Looking at it like that, he sort of got it. He still didn't like it, but yeah, he understood.

"Come," Luna said, gently urging him further into the library. "There was a book I wanted to show you."

She had to bend awkwardly to support him because she was taller. It had embarrassed him when they left her room, and it was only getting worse.

Noct looked away, his face feeling too warm. "You don't have to..." he trailed off, frustrated at himself. "I can manage on my own."

He couldn't, he knew that, but this was... it made his gut feel all twisty.

Luna didn't stop walking, and Noct didn't either, not wanting to put more of his weight on her. "But I want to," she said.

"You could be, I don't know, doing Princess stuff," he muttered.

"Do you know why I asked you to accompany me around the Manor, beyond my duty? I wanted to show you the things I liked," she said simply. "Mother and Ravus have their duties, and we never have guests my age, so I never have anyone to tell about them, Prince Noctis."

His eyes widened at her. "Noct," he said.

She looked at him questioningly.

"Call me Noct," he stumbled to say, feeling his face warm again. "I'm not a Prince here."

Her eyes laughed at him. "You're a Prince everywhere, Prince Noctis."

"It's weird," he tried again. "It just feels weird. You're not Princess Lunafreya to me. You're just Luna."

She blinked at him, and then she was smiling.

He liked her smile.

She nudged him to hold onto a gray table as she pulled a chair out for him. As he sat, she went over to one of the bookshelves, trailing her fingers across the spines as she did.

Noct watched her, unsure how to name the feeling in his chest, and jumped when he heard a noise from the ground next to him, like a low whine.

Umbra had been pawing at his leg. Noct picked him up without thinking and the dog curled up in his lap as Luna came back with a book with a blue cover.

She pushed a chair next to his and sat. She paused. "It was rude of me not to ask before, but do you like to read, Noct? There are other things I can show you if you don't."

"I like to read," he lied.

She smiled again and opened the book on the table between them. Noct couldn't stop looking at her.

.

.

.

It was only because Luna was watching him that he didn't poke at the plate she'd put in front of him.

It was some kind of brown cake, maybe, with fruit on top.

Fruit and him didn't tend to get along.

"I wanted you to try it, at least once, before you left Tenebrae," she explained. "The chefs were resistant at first to break dinner protocol, but they weren't a match for my pout."

"Right," Noct said, dragging out the word as he looked warily at the cake for a second before he steeled himself, tightened his grip around his fork, and scraped off a corner of it.

He shoved it into his mouth, expecting to taste fruit right away, but he didn't.

It was soft and chocolate-y, but not too chocolate-y, and had a sweet tangy aftertaste. It was good.

Noct immediately started eating it faster.

"Wait, wait, it was to be shared between us—"

Noct moved the plate closer to himself as she picked up her fork, looking warily at her as he chewed, and she paused, locking eyes with him.

After a few seconds, she laughed. It wasn't like the little giggles from before, but the kind of laugh that had her struggling to hold onto her fork as she bent forward.

It made him smile, even as he nudged the plate back towards her. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"No, no, you shouldn't be," she said, pressing her fingers to her mouth again. "I should've known to request three servings. Two for you and one for me."

Noct desperately tried not to blush again. He looked away. "You know dad and your mom—you know we're supposed to get married one day, right?"

"I know," she said softly, a little wistful, like he'd asked her about a memory.

"And how do you... feel about it?"

She looked at him. "I ought to feel grateful, I think. Not everyone can marry the hero of our world."

Noct looked away again. "Well, I guess I'm lucky too. You—You have really cool dogs, Luna."

The cake was sweeter when she helped him finish it.