Ignis and Gladio step out the elevator onto the princes floor. They walk down the hallway, past two doors, stopping at the third door to the right. Ignis puts in the code opening the door. He and Gladio walk in. The door closing behind them. Ignis goes straight to the princes room. Gladio sitting on the couch, still thinking about the blonde. Of course she would be hidden if she is an illegitimate child but keeping her a secret is sort of moot when she has very obvious foreign features. No one would guess even if they were to meet her.
"Noctis, I'm not going to say it again. Get up." Ignis calls, shaking the boy awake didn't do the trick.
"I'd do it before he starts calling your full name princess." Gladio says looking through the game informer magazine.
They hear Noct grumble, Ignis watches as the lump under the covers starts to move. Noct head pops up from under one side. "You're early." he grumbles. Ignis pushes his glasses up as he stare down at the prince. Noct moves to get off his bed.
"We thought it would be best to start waking you up earlier, as a new routine." Ignis says watching the prince land on his two feet, bed head more crazy than yesterday.
"We?" Noct wonders.
"More like me." Gladio says from his spot on the couch. "Your father agreed, we'll get you use to waking up early so we can do some more training. Your test is the week before Solstice. It's coming up, and fast." Gladio says, turning to see Ignis doing Noct bed as the prince change.
"It's too early for training." Noct says, Ignis finish with the bed so he walks out the room to the kitchen. Putting an apron on to get Noctis breakfast ready.
"People train and exercise in the morning all the time." Gladio says.
"You're not training yet, plus we have to give you a pretest to see how well you do." Ignis says from his spot in the kitchen.
Noctis walks out, sitting at the table with his school bag at the end. "From what you've seen how far do I have to go Gladio?" Noct asks.
"Not far, but the test always changes, getting harder and harder. I heard some do really good and still fail. Like last year in the winter test someone set some new breaking records and still failed." Gladio answers, closing the magazine and tossing it the side.
"I heard it was like a performance. Sadly we were traveling last year for the blessing." Ignis adds plating the princes breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. Gladio moving to join Noct at the table.
"And you missed the spring testing so you've got more than a year of training." Gladio tells the prince. "I think you need a different sparing partner other than me. We need to change it up."
"So why wake up early?" Noct asks, Ignis setting his plate down.
"When we do find you a sparring partner, the mornings would be a good chance to figure out what you need to practice on and start." Gladio says leaning his elbow on the table as he rest his head on his hand.
"I know it's hard work but even princes need to pass the crownsguard physical test. Once you pass it won't be that difficult." Ignis says setting down a glass of juice for the prince.
"Yeah, they have to learn different procedures, team formations, the laws, even how to stand guard. Your the prince so you won't have to learn all that. Just some fighting and that's it." Gladio says.
"Did you guys learn that?"
"Some, yes but not everything. As the princes retinue we need to learn how to protect you, along with every procedure that ensures your safety." Ignis turns to clean the little mess in the kitchen.
"So hurry and eat so we can get you to school." Gladio says. Noctis nods, grabbing his glass of juice.
"Speaking of school, we ran into Prompto, I've offered to drive her to school." Ignis says, turning to the prince quickly as he choke on the juice. Gladio sits straight staring at the prince. Then he reaches forward, across the table to pat the princes back. Noctis hacking, trying to remember how to breath like a normal person. Ignis hands the prince a towel, Noct takes it to wipe his mouth.
"She lives around here? How'd we just meet her yesterday?" Noct croaks. Ignis taking the empty plate.
"You know her too? Iggy won't tell me anything about her, he's being mysterious ." Gladio says sitting back in his chair, crossing his arms.
"You didn't tell him?" Noct looks at Ignis, the advisors back facing Noctis.
"We were asked to keep it a secret. It's not up to me or you who to choose to tell." Ignis answers. He turns to face the prince. "Hurry and brush your teeth, it's rude to keep her waiting." Ignis says. Noct nods, silently gets up and goes to the bathroom to brush his teeth, washing his face a little. Ignis grabbing Noct lunch from the fridge, like the mother hen he is puts it in the princes school bag. Once Noct is finished, he get his shoes on, then joins the two at the front door. All exiting the apartment together. As they walk to the elevator Noct let's out a yawn.
"This is a little unfair, you both keeping a secret together." Gladio grumbles as they enter the elevator. Gladio pressing the bottom floor button.
"We didn't choose to. It was forced upon us." Ignis says looking at the shield.
"It was forced on you and you're choosing to keep it a secret." Gladio says.
"It's not bad." Noct says, turning his head over his shoulder to look at Gladio. The shield opens his mouth to say something but the elevator dings on the tenth floor stops him. All three men look at the door as it opens.
Noct freezes, eyes growing wide. There in front of him stands the blonde. Prompto stands with her head down, looking up slowly to see the door open. She steps forward pausing at the sight of the prince there. She's surprised for a moment before she smiles, joining them in the elevator. Gladio and Ignis moving more back, while Noct steps to the side giving her more space.
They all stand as they look forward. Gladio lowering his eyes to her. She's wearing the same uniform as Noctis, so she goes to the same school. He looks over to the prince, seeing the prince trying and failing to discreetly look at the blonde.
Maybe Noct didn't choke on his juice cause he was surprised by the news. What an interesting development this is.