"Don't worry Noct you got this." Gladio says smiling, slapping the princes back as they make their way from the changing room to the training room.

"Not helping." Noct grumbles as he tighten his wrist guard.

"Ignore Gladio, trust yourself and your instincts. You know everything, you've trained hard, just trust yourself." Ignis tells him, sending a glare to the shield.

"I just said that, but you said it more fancy and with an accent." Gladio says back. Noct frowns. Ignis rolls his eyes.

"You all seem lively." The three look forward to see Regis and Clarus standing in front of the doors to the training gymnasium. Noct face gets more stone cold. Hiding his emotions. Not wanting his father to see how nervous he is. Even more now that his father is here. His father is usually too busy to watch him train.

He honestly doesn't know how strong he is. Gladio says he'll do fine but what if he's not as good as he thinks he is. Of everything this is one thing he doesn't want to fail at. The spring test was unfortunate timing. He had gotten a little sick and his back ached horribly but he didn't want to seem spoiled so he went through with it and at first it wasn't bad. During a sparring test he dodged and that did it, two in one, his cold got worse and something snapped in his back. He won but after that it's all blurry. Noct knows it's not his fault but he didn't know what the correct choice was. That was last year. After the spring test is the winter test but he was traveling for the blessing so he couldn't participate.

With the blessing he knows it's his fault, maybe it's both of their fault, but he's convinced it's his. He's no prince and the Astrals saw his flaws. That's why they didn't bless him.

He doesn't want to add to the failure rapsheet he's slowly creating.

He silently follows them inside.

"Eeehhh," they look to the noise. They pause at the sight of Cor, standing in the middle of the large mat, hunching over the short blonde deaf girl. Her head turned as he look into her ear, they can't see clearly but he's touching her ear very seriously.

"There." He says letting her face go. She straightens her head, hand going up to her ear. She looks up at him. "Better?" He asks with a smile. She just nods. Cor moves his hands to touch her ears, looking at both of them. "Are they uncomfortable?" He asks, looking at her straight in the eyes. She shakes her head. Cor lets out a breath staring at her for a second before finally noticing them. "You're finally here." He says back to his serious, no nonsense attitude. He lets go of her ears. Seeing him talking she turns to look at them. She gives them small grin, raising her hand a little to give a sheepish wave.

Well, shit. Noct is screwed.

For the rest of the week he's been nervous about talking to her, especially at school. How can he just go to her class and start talking to her? He can't. For one that would be too sudden and bring unnecessary attention to her. He's sure she doesn't want that. Also he's to nervous to talk to her, he doesn't know what he should say to her.

Then there's trying not to fail in front of his father. So he's nervous about this sparing lesson with Cor. To sum it up he's nervous about Prompto and nervous about sparring and now he's sparring Prompto. He's double screwed.

But wait, Noctis doesn't know he's fighting her. Maybe she's just here to observe her father, and the real person will be in shortly. Though, what she's wearing doesn't bring confidence. She's wearing a baby blue sports shirt, navy blue gym shorts and black leggings underneath, with training boots. The same as him. Thought he wore all black sports shirt and shorts, along with a leather chest plate.

"Oh, we meet again." Regis smiles at her. She smiles back. Gladio looks at them confused. What's she doing with Cor? They know each other? "Will she be observing the training?" Regis asks kindly, moving to sit at the bench, Clarus following.

"No. She'll be sparing with the prince." Cor says. They all pause, looking at Cor, then Prompto who look down at her feet nervously.

He's is so screwed.

Is this why he hadn't seen her since that day? He knows they live in the same building but besides the first time they saw her in the morning he didn't see her at her all. Was she getting up earlier (Noct shutter at the thought)?

"Are you sure?" Regis asks, Noct won't hurt her right? "Are her parents okay with this?" He asks.

"Yeah." Cor answers. "Why don't you stretch?" He tells both Prompto and Noctis.

"I'd feel better if I meet her parents and got their okay face to face." Regis says, feeling rather uncomfortable about a deaf girl getting hurt by the prince.

"Parent." Cor says, eyes on the blonde as she stretch. Seeing her doing her stretches perfectly he turns his head to the king. "She's my daughter." Cor tells them, then turns his head away. Gladio stops to look at the prince and advisor, both rather calm about this. They knew, that's the secret. She's Cors daughter.

"How can you never tell us till now?" Regis asks, staring at the man.

"It never came up. Then I thought it'd be best people don't know so I never brought it up."

"Why now?" Clarus asks.

"Regis seem like he wouldn't let it go about her parents agreeing to this so I thought I'd better clear it up now." Cor answers with a shrug. "I thought she'd be a good sparring partner for the prince since they are around the same age." Cor adds.

"Then let's see them sparing." Regis says with sigh.

"Noct go pick your weapon." Cor instructs. Prom continue to stretch. When she finish she looks to see the prince grabbing a wooden sword from the weapons stand that held many other wooden weapons. She turns to Cor, face worried.

"I won't get in trouble for hurting him right?" She signs to Cor. The marshal lets out a laugh. Regis and Clarus looking at the man, never seen the man laugh so deep, it's been so long.

"It's fine. Don't hold back. The prince needs this to test his strength. It'll be a good test for you too." Cor signs back. Prompto nods.

When Noctis turn back, he sees the spot Prompto standing empty. His eyes roam the room, spotting her at the gun rack, for the wooden guns. She wraps a brown pouch around her waist, then grabs onto a wooden rifle. It look big in her hands and heavy.

She turns to him. At the same time they walk to stand in front of each other.