The months trickled on as Prompto studied and worked harder towards his goal. All the while he still tended to his little daughter. He watched her grow and develop every day, helping her along as she got older.
Her third birthday came and went, and steadily her fourth was approaching. Before long, she would be starting pre-school, and all at the college he was going to. Ignis had thought it would be a good idea to utilize the college's preschool program, giving Prompto an easier time to check on her if there was ever a reason to.
With that aspect in mind, Prompto still found himself in moments of disbelief. He had been raising a child for over two years, nearly three years. He had decided almost impulsively at 17 to take a child into his life because he didn't want her to end up as lonely as he did growing up.
Now, Scarlet lived a wonderful life. Prompto did whatever he could to dote on her, but he also had a lot of help from the guys and King Regis himself, who still proved to be the super, loving grandpa.
Prompto couldn't have asked for a better family system to stay by or for a more precious daughter.
Sure, there were moments that were hard to work through. Scarlet was still a toddler after all, and children at those ages occasionally cried and fussed, but Prompto did his best not to feel overwhelmed by it. Even when it felt difficult, he kept going, knowing in the end things would get better.
One evening, Prompto had just finished up his homework for class when Scarlet walked up to him.
"Dada?"
"Yeah, Scarlet? What's up?"
Scarlet looked up at him, her eyes gleaming with wonder. "Can we see chocobos?"
"You want to go see some chocobos?"
Scarlet nodded. "I wanna pet chocobos!"
Prompto hummed, leaning back in his chair. "Well, there's no chocobos in Insomnia. We'd have to take a trip outside of the kingdom, which could take some planning. But, the semester is almost over so…"
"Chocobos?" Scarlet asked excitedly as she crawled up into Prompto's lap.
Smiling, Prompto patted her head. "If I can talk to the guys, we might just make a road trip out of it. How's that sound? A trip with your favorite uncles?"
Scarlet nodded her head. "Yeah! And then we can see the chocobos together!"
"That's going to be so fun!" Prompto cheered as he hugged her.
"A trip out of Insomnia to a chocobo ranch? Hmm, that does sound like a rather grand idea."
Prompto had come before Regis to tell him about the idea. If anyone had a good idea about venturing outside of the kingdom for a trip, he figured no better person to ask than the king himself.
"So, we could do it? Like, me, Scarlet, Noct, etc?"
Regis smiled. "I think it would be lovely. Not only for Scarlet to see chocobos, but also for you four to experience life outside of Insomnia. It's a much different world outside of these walls, you know."
Prompto nodded. "Yeah, I figured that much. But, I think we could survive out there!"
"I would hope so," Regis laughed. "Now, when you do go, I hope you'll take plenty of pictures of videos to show me when you return."
Behind Regis, Clarus let out a snort.
"Yes, Clarus? Something you'd like to add?" Regis asked playfully.
"Nothing, Your Majesty. Only amused at your ever increasing grandfather habits."
"Are you saying you wouldn't want precious pictures of little Scarlet and chocobos?" Regis asked, pretending to look offended.
Clarus chuckled. "No, I would like to see those pictures as well. I'm just not as gushy as you are."
Regis sighed. "Oh, Clarus… you'll understand once you have grandkids of your own."
Prompto tried his hardest to not laugh, but he couldn't deny the old brotherly friendship chemistry between Regis and Clarus was fun to watch. It made him wonder if Noctis and Gladio would be like that once they were older.
"Anyways," Regis said, returning his attention to Prompto. "I'm sure we can make arrangements for a trip."
"Oh thank you, Regis!"
"Anytime, Prompto. Oh, and one more thing."
Prompto was just about to stand when he looked back at him. "Yes?"
"Noct and I are having dinner tonight, and I'd like to invite you and Scarlet."
"You… would?"
It was obvious why he wanted the two of them to come. It wasn't the first time either, but it was the first time in several months. Even after this long, it still proved to be shocking. Regis never stopped being full of surprises.
"Of course! It's been sometime since you ate dinner with us, so would you be able to?"
"We can! Not like we do much else for dinner time!"
Regis grinned happily. "Then we'll see you and Scarlet tonight."
Prompto headed back to his room, knowing that even Scarlet would be ecstatic for tonight. But, aside from that, he was going to get his trip. They would all get to venture out into the world and see new places and things, chocobos included.
After a couple weeks of planning, the trip was prepped and ready to be set in motion. Prompto and Scarlet, along with Noctis, Ignis, and Gladio would take a trip first to Galdin Quay, having a couple nice by the ocean. Then when that was wrapped up, they'd drive out to the place known as Wiz's Chocobo Ranch.
There were a few other stops planned, but those were the two biggest ones on Prompto's mind as he double checked his suitcase.
"Can I bring books?" Scarlet asked, plopping herself down in front of the suitcase.
"Of course you can, Scarlet. But let's only bring, hmm, let's say five books. Can you do that? Pick out your five favorite books to read?"
Scarlet held up a hand, showing off all five fingers. "Five?"
"Yeah! That's right! You go and do that and we'll put it in daddy's suitcase, okay?"
Scarlet nodded as she scrambled to her feet, running off to her room.
As he finished organizing his clothes, Scarlet came running back with five books in her hands. Two of them were chocobo related, no surprise there, and Prompto happily placed them into the suitcase.
Everything was packed between them, Prompto had tripled checked his list to make sure, and now all they needed to do was wait.
"Are you excited, Scarlet? We're going on a big vacation!"
"We're going on vacation!" Scarlet cheered.
"We're going to take a long car ride, and see the beach. Remember when we read about the beach?"
"It's like a big pool! But big!"
"It's super big! So we have to be careful swimming, okay? But we can build sandcastles too! We could build a huge one!"
Scarlet walked over to Prompto and hugged him. "Sandcastles! I wanna build sandcastles!"
Prompto hugged her back. "And we will. But we need to get there first."
"Can we go now?"
"Not yet. We're leaving tomorrow morning, remember?"
"No, I wanna go now!"
Prompto stood up, still with Scarlet wrapped in his arms, swinging her around playfully. "Not tonight. We can watch a movie instead. Then it'll be bedtime and when you wake, we can go on the road trip!"
Thankfully, the aspect of a movie distracted Scarlet from asking further about the trip. She started chanting about her favorite movie, leaving no chance to even offer choices.
The movie was still enjoyable, with plenty of good songs and funny moments. During the parts where the characters would sing, Scarlet and Prompto would end up singing along.
By the time the credits were rolling, Scarlet had fallen fast asleep. Prompto hummed happily as he scooped her into his arms and carried her to her room. She was still so light in his arms, and he could understand why parents never wanted their kids to grow up. He didn't even want to imagine the day when he could no longer carry Scarlet.
'Don't think about things being over,' Prompto reminded himself. 'She's still young, and it's not going to end any time soon. There's still so much more ahead for us.'
He placed her into her bed before giving a kiss lightly on her forehead. "Goodnight, Scarlet, my little strawberry," he whispered.
The next morning Scarlet was excitedly bouncing down the hall. Prompto almost couldn't catch her before she ran into the elevator by herself.
"Whoa, Scarlet. You gotta slow down."
Scarlet found this rather amusing and giggled.
"Yeah, laugh at daddy. You're silly too, you know that?"
"No. You're silly!"
"Ah, I think we're both silly. Now, let's push the right button. Remember which one?"
"G floor!" Scarlet replied as she pushed the button for the ground level.
When they got down to the main floor and headed to the front of the Citadel, the other three guys were already waiting. At the bottom of the stairs outside was the fancy car known as the Regalia.
Scarlet gasped. "Big car!"
"It's grandpa Regis's car. He's letting us use it, isn't that cool?" Prompto asked.
"Cool car!"
"Looks like she's already in a good mood," Gladio mused as he took Prompto's suitcases for him.
"You know kids! They love cars!" Prompto exclaimed.
"Do we even need a vacation then? We could have her sit in the car and call it a day," Noctis laughed.
"You mean you don't want to go? See all the new fishing spots out there?" Prompto asked jokingly.
"Just teasing," Noctis laughed, lighting shoving Prompto.
"We best hurry and head out, if we want to make it to Galdin before late afternoon, we need to leave now," Ignis instructed.
The four of them headed to the car, with Prompto helping Scarlet into her car seat. She was already babbling happily about the car, rambling to herself about every little thing the car had to offer.
Prompto decided to sit in the back with her, leaving Noctis to sit in the passenger seat, and Gladio on the opposite side of Scarlet.
"Are we all ready?" Ignis asked.
"Ready!" Scarlet cheered.
"It looks like it," Prompto chuckled.
Within minutes they were on the road leading out of Insomnia, driving at a steady pace through the street. The top of the car was down, letting a warm rushing breeze to flow overhead, delighting little Scarlet.
Prompto smiled, taking a few pictures of Scarlet as they drove along. He made sure to get himself a brand new SD card, knowing full well he was going to snap so many precious moments of their trip. He even remembered to bring a spare, just to be on the safe side.
Overall, he was excited for this trip, knowing it would be one of many in his future. He was sure one day he would take Scarlet on trips all over Eos, but, all of that future thought would have to come later, he needed to live in the now and enjoy the moments as they came.
To whomever is reading this story, I hope you are enjoying. It's probably going to wrap up in a few chapters but we shall see how it goes.