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It isn’t often that Prompto has time to take a day off from hunting, but when he does get the chance, he likes to spend it with his daughter as much as he possibly could. And then, it’s just a matter of what they’re going to do.
This time, though, his little 9 year old daughter had wanted to go see the Chocobos. And who was Prompto to deny his little girl a request? Plus; he wouldn’t mind seeing the Chocobos, himself.
When they arrive at Wiz’s Chocobo Post, Prompto’s barely shut off the engine or Regina is already undoing her seatbelt and clambering out of her seat. And Prompto merely laughs as he follows after her. Of course, the first thing Regina does when they arrive, is run up to greet Talcott, who laughed warmly as she came up to him with a cheerful hug.
As Prompto joins them a little later, Talcott says suddenly: “Oh hey, Promp! Amare’s eggs hatched the other day!”
At those words, Prompto’s eyes widen almost comically, before he smiles warmly, while Regina looks around curiously, unsure what’s going on, until Talcott takes her hand and leads her and Prompto off to one of the special pens. And when they arrive, Prompto laughs as he hears his little girl give a squeal of glee as she hurries for the pen and looks into the pen toward the small flock of Black Chocochicks.
The chicks are chirping and hopping about as mother Amare walks about and keeps a close eye on her chicks, and it brings a warm smile to Prompto’s face as he watches the Chocobo quietly.
“So cute!” Regina chirps happily, as she reaches out through the fence, trying to reach one of the chicks. But, of course, the chicks aren’t interested, and this makes Regina pout.
Prompto laughs as he leans on the fence, and he watches Amare, and Amare notices and she looks back, and then she chirps, a cheery “Kweh~!” and trots over. He smiles as he stands up a bit and then pats Amare’s head as she pushes her beak up against his chest for attention with another chirp.
“Hello, Amare,” he says softly as the large bird chirps merrily.
Regina is pouting, he notices, so he laughs softly and picks her up, bringing her up to Amare’s level. The Black Chocobo chirps curiously as she regards Regina, who holds out her hand to the bird, before Amare allows Regina to pet her, a cheerful chirp coming from her beak. And Regina’s smiling again, and this makes Prompto smile as well, as her cheeriness is more than a little contagious.
“Daddy, I wanna help Taly with the chickies!” Regina chirps suddenly as they’re setting up in their room.
Prompto blinks in slight surprise at the words as he looks at his little girl, before he snorts and laughs. “Well that’s sudden… but really, sweetie, it’s not that easy, you know?”
“I can learn!”
Prompto laughs at the girl’s eagerness. “Yeah, well… you might have some difficulty with them, princess… if they’re anything like their Mommy.”
“Huh? Why??”
“Well… because your Papa and I had to watch her once and… well, it didn’t go too well.”
“What happened, Daddy?”
Prompto smiles as he moves over and plops down on the bed, next to Regina. “Well…”
It’d been a long week of seemingly endless hunts along with hunting down a bunch of dumb rainbow frogs for Sania, but the gil they’d made from the hunts was worth it. Mostly, anyway. Ignis had finally decided that they’d earned enough money to allow them to take a break. And, because they were in the neighborhood, Prompto’d insisted on staying at Wiz’s Chocobo Post.
Which was what had gotten them in the current predicament.
“How the hell’d she get up there?!” Noct was asking as he and Prompto were looking up the rocky cliffs, where the little Black Chocochick they’d called Amare was sitting, perfectly comfortable, by the look of things.
While Ignis and Gladio had offered to help Wiz in redesigning the race track, Prompto had offered himself up to look after the little Chocobo chick they’d rescued a few weeks back, and, by extension, Noctis as well. While Noct hadn’t been that interested in it, in the end he figured it was better than actually working on the racetrack.
Now, however, both of them were starting to regret their decision.
“I dunno, but you gotta get her down from there!” Prompto said insistently.
“Wait, why me?”
“Coz you can warp and I can’t, duh!”
Noct sighed in slight annoyance, but he was quick to concede to Prompto’s point and he took a few steps back, looking up to the ledge where Amare was sitting. After a moment more of watching her, he materialized his Engine Blade and then threw it toward the ledge with a well-aimed swing of the wrist.
And Prompto watched as, in the blink of an eye, Noctis disappeared from where he had been standing next to the blonde, to materialize high above, hand gripping his blade as it protruded from the cliff’s side. Once he was up there, it took him a little bit to clamber up onto the ledge properly, though he managed, somehow.
“Careful, Noct!” Prompto called out toward the prince as he balanced precariously on the cliff.
“Would you be quiet?!” Noct snarled in return as he slowly moved over toward Amare. “Alright, Amare… easy now… time to go home, girl,” he said as he approached her.
However, the moment he reached her and tried to pick her up, the chick chirped and suddenly hopped down. “Shit! Prompto!!”
“I-I got her!” Prompto called out as he rushed forward and reached up to grab Amare, moving back slightly when he wasn’t in the proper position – only to trip back over a rock with a yowl. And then Amare landed on his stomach with enough force that his stomach’d likely bruise and bounced off and scampered off again.
“Dammit, Prom!!”
“S-sorry!”
By the time Noct was back on ground level, Prompto was already clambering to his feet and hurrying after the chick, and Noctis was only a few steps behind. It didn’t help that the surrounding ground was still wet from the recent rainfall, and this caused them to almost slip on multiple occasions, hitting the dirt/mud and staining their clothes and their cheeks and getting it in their hair and they got more than a few bruises from falling over and over again and they were cursing and getting more and more aggravated the longer this continued on.
They’d thankfully managed to keep Amare from wandering into old Deadeye’s nest, because even though Deadeye was taken care of, that didn’t mean there weren’t any other Behemoths in there that were out to try and munch on unsuspecting little Chocochicks. But that didn’t mean it was any easier to catch the chick.
It took them almost an hour of running around after the chick before Noct finally managed to warp just enough in front of Amare to snag her up, a little less than gently, but he was just way too annoyed to be entirely gentle. Amare was chirping and squawking in indignation, trying to flap her little wings, but Noct held vast and was growling and snarling under his breath in his annoyance.
“I am never listening to any of your ideas ever again!”
“Oh come on, Noct! That wasn’t even my fault!”
“Maybe, but none of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t offered to watch her!”
They argued all the way back to the outpost, where they toned it down immediately as Ignis and Gladio approached them, both confused and a little worried about their appearance, but Noct was quick to wave it off and dismiss the whole issue. Once Wiz had ensured that Amare was back in her pen and wasn’t going to run off again, though, the prince had immediately made a beeline for the caravan, clearly agitated, still.
Prompto, of course, told the others he’d calm him down and had hurried after Noct, hurrying inside before Noct could think to lock the door behind him. Noct was already in the bedroom, and so Prompto sighed as he walked over slowly, peeking his head around the door. Noct was face down on the bed, head stuffed in the pillow. He’d thrown off his muddied clothes in the hamper had changed in some easy shorts and shirt, which Prompto should probably do, too, but this was a little more important…
“Noct…?”
“I’m not talking to you,” was the immediate (though muffled) response.
Prompto tried not to sigh as he slowly stepped into the room, ditching his jacket on the nearby chair. He debated on removing his shirt, but in the end decided against it as he moved over. He did rub off the mud from hands/gloves on his pants and the back of his shirt as he approached. As he sat down on the bed next to Noct, who didn’t respond to it, Prompto briefly popped his knuckles, before he reached out and placed his palms against Noct’s back.
The prince had tensed at the touch, and he seemed ready to say something angrily in response, but as Prompto’d moved his fingers and pushed and rubbed, the words shifted halfway into a soft groan. Prompto smiled as he felt Noctis relaxing under his fingers, and he hoped that, with the tension, the anger was flying away to… wherever it went whenever it wasn’t used.
“…better?” he asked after a moment.
“Mmhmm…”
Prompto smiled a little wider at the hum, and continued his gentle but firm massage of the prince’s muscles, glad to note that he was calmed down again.
After a moment of silence, though…
“…I’m still not listening to your ideas again.”
“Oh come on, Noct!” He was about to say something else, but then he noticed Noct’s lazy smirk. And this had him pausing to try and stifle his chuckles. “Ain’t there a way I can convince you otherwise?”
“And how do you intend to do that, huh?”
Rising to the challenge, Prompto flipped Noct on his back and swiftly connected their mouths together. And Noct merely chuckled as he slipped one hand into the blonde’s hair, the other reaching for one of Prompto’s.
It was a very short make-out session, really, because Ignis and Gladio could come in at any moment… but it was enough, for now. Their breathing was slightly heavy when they finally pulled away, but that was fine, as Prompto moved over and rested himself next to Noctis.
They didn’t often get to cuddle nowadays, and whenever they got the chance they were always on edge for anyone who could be watching. Because it wouldn’t do for anyone to know that the Crown Prince of Lucis was getting it on with a commoner – and a male commoner, at that – especially with his upcoming marriage with Lunafreya.
If that was still going to happen, anyway…
“…think we can adopt Amare if the wedding stays cancelled?”
“You bring that up again and I’m never talking to you again.”
“Awww…”
“That was mean!” Regina points out, pouting, and Prompto laughs softly.
“I know, sweetie, but Papa was in a bad mood. So yeah, he wasn’t in the mood to talk about Amare like that so soon.”
“…Did you adopt Amare?”
Prompto again bursts out laughing. “I wish I could’ve… but we never got the chance. But it’s fine; she ended up fine without us, so I can’t complain.”
“I guess so…”
Smiling softly, Prompto then stands up. “So… shall we go see the chicks again?”
“Yeah!!”
And he smiles as he takes the girl’s hand before they head off. And he secretly hopes that things will not go the same way they had with him and Noct…
That’s the last thing he needs right now.