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Passing through Lestallum in the next couple hours. Call me if you want to go daemon hunting. xx
Noctis’s phone doesn’t recognise the number. He shows the text around to the others, asks them if they have any ideas.
“Cor?” Prompto suggests.
“Two kisses?” Noctis asks. “He normally only sends one.”
“All right, smartass. You’re the one who’s getting kisses and doesn’t even know who they’re from.”
“Could it be Aranea?” Ignis asks.
“Let me see those kisses,” Prompto says, snatching the phone away.
“Aranea?” Gladio asks. “Aranea, the empire chick who tried to kill us?”
“She’s okay,” Prompto says, turning Noctis’s phone upside down and giving it a very hard look. “She’s good now.”
“All she said was that she was thinking of leaving the empire,” Noctis points out. “We don’t know what she’s trying to do.”
“Well, she wants to hunt daemons. That’s good, right?” Prompto looks over at Gladio. “Seriously, big guy, you missed out when you ran off. We got to fight with her and she was incredible. I mean, with her with her. The good kind of fighting with her.”
Gladio shrugs. “Sounds like I’ll get a chance to see it now.”
“Are we planning to needlessly endanger ourselves, then?” Ignis asks.
“Look, you know I hate fighting daemons as much as anyone,” Prompto says. “But this is Aranea we’ll talking about. She’ll probably spear us in the face if we turn her down. It’s not like we can say no.”
“I don’t think she’ll care,” Noctis says.
Prompto shoots him a glare. “Well, I think it’s irresponsible to just leave daemons around when we could be doing something.”
Noctis raises his eyebrows. “Does that mean you’re gonna stop bugging me to find a hotel the second it gets dark?”
“And it could keep Aranea on our side! We need all the allies we can get, right?”
“Okay,” Noctis says, taking his phone back. “I’ll call. But you don’t get to back out if it turns out to be Cor.”
It’s Aranea. After a brief conversation to establish a meeting place and time, Noctis hangs up.
Prompto is practically hopping on the spot with nervous excitement. “Do you think she would like flowers? Like... hypothetically?”
“Some nice ones nearby,” Gladio says. “I could show you.”
“Hey, thanks!”
-
Prompto’s asked if he can have a moment alone with Aranea once the fighting is over, and Noctis respects his wishes, although he’s privately a little worried that Aranea will kebab him. From the fact that Prompto catches up with them by the Regalia ten minutes later, Noctis deduces that he hasn’t had a stellar date.
“She told me to keep them,” Prompto says, bleakly. “So, uh... it’s kind of like she gave me flowers, right?” He sighs. “Yeah, right.”
“Don’t take it hard,” Gladio says. “Anyone could tell she’s not one for flowers.”
Prompto stares at him. “You knew? And you let me look like an idiot in front of her? You let me spend all that time picking them!”
“Well, yeah. You wouldn’t’ve picked ’em otherwise. Iris likes flowers.”
Something strange comes across Prompto’s expression. “Iris?”
“Yeah. Noct can make the delivery.”
“Or I could not do that,” Noctis suggests.
“It’s okay,” Prompto says, quickly. “I can do it.”
There’s a pause.
“You,” Gladio says.
“Well, yeah.” Prompto scratches the back of his head. “Like, I was the one who collected them. So it makes sense, right?”
Gladio folds his arms. Looks Prompto over. “Hmm.”
Prompto is starting to look slightly terrified. “I mean, I don’t have to.”
“Give them to her yourself, Gladio,” Noctis says. “Won’t kill you if she knows you care.”
“It’ll mean more from you,” Gladio says. He walks in a circle around Prompto, looking at him from every angle. “This guy, though...”
“Okay, fine,” Prompto says. “It was just an idea. Stop staring.”
Ignis, with a theatrical sigh, plucks the flowers out of Prompto’s hands. “There’s a dropship on its way. Argue much longer and the empire will settle the question. I’ll give these to Iris on behalf of all of us, shall I?”
-
They’ve booked a caravan for the night, after a long and important day of fishing and swimming at Galdin Quay. Noctis waits until Prompto has wandered inside to sleep before he looks over at Gladio. “Did he show you his photos from today?”
“Good batch.”
“Do you think he’s ever going to go ‘okay, I’ve taken enough pictures of Gladio’s ass’?”
“If he wants worse batches, maybe,” Gladio says.
“Has he... mentioned anything to you about it? Like... tried to explain?”
Gladio shrugs. “Nope. Not like it needs explaining. He say anything to you about all these longing pictures of the back of your head?”
Noctis would have expected Prompto to be selfconscious about taking all these pictures, or at least to be selfconscious about showing them around, but maybe he hasn’t even realised he’s doing it. There’s other stuff going on in the background a lot of the time. It’s just that Gladio’s ass appears in the foreground slightly too much to be coincidental.
“Do you just keep shoving your ass in his camera?” Noctis asks.
Gladio cuffs him on the back of the head. It’s not an answer.
-
“This had better be good,” Noctis grumbles. “Last time you dragged me out of the tent at the crack of dawn, it was just to stalk Cindy.”
“Appreciate,” Prompto says. “It was to appreciate Cindy. And this definitely isn’t that. And – and you shouldn’t be thinking about that, anyway. Forget about that.”
“Wish I could,” Noctis mutters. The sun is just beginning to slant over the mountains, sparkling off the lake in the distance, making the world around them almost glow. It’s beautiful. He hates it.
“Look,” Prompto says. “Noct.” He takes two deep breaths. “I, uh, think I might... like you.”
“I know,” Noctis says. “You like everyone.”
“What? No. Come on, dude, are you seriously going to make me say it?”
Noctis only raises his eyebrows. He could be sleeping right now. Yes, he fully intends to make Prompto say it.
Prompto grimaces. “I, like... like like you,” he admits, at rapidly decreasing volume. “I mean, two likes. Not three likes. I don’t know what three likes would even mean.”
“I know,” Noctis says. “You like everyone.”
“That’s not fair! That’s not true.”
“Cindy? Iris? You gave Aranea flowers.”
“Yeah, friendly flowers! As a friend.”
“Sure. What about Gladio?”
“What, uh, what about him?” Prompto shifts on his feet. “You know I’m straight, right?”
“You just confessed your love to me,” Noctis points out.
Prompto flushes. “Okay, you suck. I don’t even one-like like you any more.”
There’s a pause.
“I don’t mean that,” Prompto says.
Okay. Entertaining as it is to tease Prompto, this is probably something that actually needs to be addressed. Noctis isn’t a huge fan of addressing things head-on, but he guesses it’s happening now.
“So what’s this thing that’s going on with you?” Noctis asks. “You just want to get laid? Because Gladio could help you out with that. I could ask him for you.”
“Uh, what?”
Noctis shrugs. “Like I asked. Is this just an ‘I want to get laid, I don’t care who it is’ thing? Or are you actually...” This is the more awkward option. “Are you actually... into everyone?”
“I – Noct, is this conversation seriously happening to me?”
“It’s happening to both of us,” Noctis says. “And you started it. So what is it?”
Prompto opens and closes his mouth a few times, with increasing desperation. “I don’t – I don’t know!”
“Okay,” Noctis says.
There’s a pause. Somehow, Prompto’s squirming is hilarious enough to keep it from getting too embarrassing. For Noctis, at least.
“Maybe I can help you figure it out,” Noctis suggests.
“How’re you planning...” Prompto’s eyes widen as Noctis leans towards him. “Oh. Okay.”
Prompto doesn’t seem to know what to do with his arms when he’s being kissed and ends up just kind of flapping them, which is entertaining but distracting. Noctis tries to set a lead for him by reaching up to grip Prompto’s hair, but Prompto kind of flinches away.
Noctis pulls back. “You don’t want this?”
“No, I do,” Prompto says, quickly. “I definitely do. It was just, uh, instinct.”
“That’s not an instinct that makes it seem like you want this,” Noctis points out.
Prompto gives a small, embarrassed cough. “Well, I mean, you were going to mess up my hair.”
Noctis laughs at that, half in amusement and half in relief. “You bet I am.”
Prompto’s entire body seems to freeze up at that, and he lets out a burst of strange, uncontrolled laughter. “Oh. Uh. Wow.”
Hmm. Noctis is tempted to pull Prompto back towards him, but Prompto’s expression is slightly too close to his ‘an Iron Giant just pulled itself out of the road in front of us’ look for it to feel right. “Maybe when you’re ready for it. Why do you go chasing after everyone if you don’t know what to do when you catch them?”
“Because it’s never going to happen!” Prompto exclaims, as if it should be obvious. “It’s not scary when it’s never going to happen!”
“Okay,” Noctis says. “If you just want me to stand around and look good, I can do that.”
“I know,” Prompto mutters. “You’re really good at that.”
“But you’re going to have to figure out what you want. Because this is something that could actually happen.”
Prompto nods rapidly. “Okay. Got it. I’ll – I’ll figure things out. Uh, that was good. Thanks.”
“If we’re doing this, please don’t say that every time we kiss.” Noctis glances over his shoulder. “We should get back. Ignis’ll freak out if he wakes up and we’re not around.”
He sets off, back towards the campsite. Prompto falls in beside him, doing an odd half-skip on every other step. Noctis tries to hide his smile.
After a while, Prompto’s skipping falters. “So, ah, what’s that you were saying? About Gladio... helping me get laid?”
“You interested?”
“Well, yeah. I – I mean—” Prompto turns an impressive shade of scarlet. “In the sense that it’s interesting. I am interested in knowing more about what you said. Like, does he put you in touch with, uh, with a professional? Or was it a joke? Or does Gladio actually... um. Have you ever...?”
Noctis looks back at him, his expression carefully blank. It’s an effort not to laugh.
“You know what?” Prompto asks. “I don’t need to know. I’m not going to ask.” A moment passes. “Tell me.”
“Ask him yourself.”
“Noct.”