Chapter Text
For the first time in his life, Noctis wished he was in one of his father’s meetings.
“So,” His math teacher clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “The next project you all are going to be working on is a partner project and-!” She clapped her hands again as the room started buzzing and Noctis’ heart sank.
He hated partner projects. One-on-one social interaction sucked just as much as group interaction. At least in group interactions he could sink to the background and ignore everyone.
“And, I will be assigning the partners. I know you just love getting to work with your best buddy, but that might not be how you work best. So here’s the list. Come up, find your name, find your partner. Then I’ll give you your project theme.”
Noctis didn’t want to move. He didn’t want to find out who he was paired with. He could only stand a few people in this classroom, and even almost all of those people were pushing it. Groaning, Noctis started to get to his feet.
“Hey, Noct!” A familiar voice called to him from the front of the room. He looked up. Prompto was walking over to him with a bright smile. “You’re my partner, dude. What a coincidence,” He looped his arm around Noct’s shoulders. “But real talk, did you bribe Ms. Hiroch?” He asked in a loud whisper, “Use royal influence? Tell me your secrets man.”
“I put you two together because I thought you’d work well together,” Ms. Hiroch’s voice piped up from behind them, causing them to jump. “If you think this arrangement might be a problem, I can-”
“No, no problem, Ms Hiroch, we’ll work super hard, I pinky promise!” Prompto assured her, holding up his pinky finger. Noctis nodded his agreement, not willing to part with someone he actually got along with.
Ms. Hiroch gave a slight grin and nodded. “I’m sure. That’s why I gave you a slightly harder topic. Explaining why the square root of every prime number is irrational. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask.” With that, she walked over to the next pair and gave them their topic.
“So we can get started right now, but do you wanna meet after school to work on it some more?” Prompto asked, pulling up a chair to sit on.
Noctis shrugged ambivalently.
“I choose to take that as a yes, Your Majesty…” Prompto said with an overt bow.
“You’re a dork, you know that?”
“I live to please.” Prompto smirked, bopping Noctis on the nose with a finger. “But let’s get started, shall we?”
After three hours of staring at lesson notes and various textbooks, Prompto and Noctis concluded that their math teacher was a sadist.
“Who can understand this? Where does the “p” come from? Why is that A there? And what the crap is the “f” doing with the B? I thought it was over with the A?” Prompto ran his hand through his hair.
“I...I have no clue.” Noctis admitted. He had always felt like he was decent at math. It vaguely made sense to him, at least. But this was too abstract for his liking. Give him a word problem with a thousand steps over this crap any day.
“I guess we should probably ask her about it tomorrow,” Prompto suggested, glancing at his watch. “In the meantime, it's getting pretty late. I should be heading home before it gets too dark.”
Noctis stood up, “Okay. I guess I’ll walk back home too. I have a friend I can ask for help, too,” He shoved his notes and textbooks back in his bag. “I’ll catch up with you tomorrow!”
Prompto waved back, “See ya!”
Noctis took his time getting ready, making sure that he had all his books, and even removing some books his didn’t need any more from his locker. Anything to procrastinate from the political report that was no doubt waiting for him at home. At least he didn’t have to go to the meetings themselves. That would have been horrid.
Insomnia was always pretty at night, he noticed as he started his walk home. The street lights glistened off the glass faces of sky scrapers that stretched elegantly into the night sky. But... something was overshadowing his usual delight. It felt like he was being followed, but in the basically empty streets around him, he couldn’t make out anyone he recognized. So he started walking faster, trying to force himself to take in the beauty of the city at night. He allowed his gaze to trace up the side of a particularly tall building ahead.
He was about to move on to another building when some movement from the roof caught his attention. Something glinted in the moonlight. At least he thought. It was a long way up, he couldn’t really tell. But alarm bells went off in his head, and pieces of a puzzle connected: he was the only person on this street, there was no place to run or hide, and he felt like he was being followed. Instincts took over and probably saved his life.
Within seconds, he had summoned his sword and flung it across the street. It didn’t make it all the way across, instead sticking into the side of a freight truck, but it didn’t matter. It got Noctis away as a gunshot cracked through the night air.
Noctis warped to his sword and immediately warped again. He had little more plan than “Move.” He knew he was running out of magic, but, luckily, the person who shot at him didn’t take any more shots. Noctis tried to see if they were still there, but the building was so tall and now so far away.
He took a deep breath, adrenaline coursing out of his body and leaving him weak-kneed. He sat down on the ground heavily and pulled out his phone, dialing Ignis’ number with shaking fingers.
Ignis answered after two rings, “I’m sorry Highness, did you want me to pick you up?”
Noctis hesitated, not trusting his voice to remain level. He should be ready for this. He was going to be king. A little assassination was to be expected. But it was so sudden and scary and he didn’t know what to do. How to react. “I-Iggy…” Noctis hated how small his voice sounded and how it wavered.
“Noctis, are you okay? Are you injured?” Worry cut through loud and clear. “Are you in danger? Do you need me?”
“...J-just… I just need you to pick me up. I-I’m by the Rand building.”
“Are you injured?” In the background, Noctis already heard the purring of a car engine. How did Iggy make it to the car so fast?
Noctis checked himself for injuries. “I-I don’t think so. It was pretty close though. Some...um, someone had a gun. Or, or a rifle, I guess. And, well, I… I guess I owe Gladio a bunch of thanks, eh?” He forced a laugh.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Would you like me to stay on the line?” Ignis offered.
“Y-yeah. Please. Thank you.” He paused. “Does this mean I get out of reading that report?” He tried, cracking a small smile.
On the other line, Ignis gave a breathy laugh. “I’m sure we can forgive this one time. But don’t expect such pampering in the future.”
Regis gripped the arms of his throne as Ignis gave him a painfully detailed account of a second assassination attempt on his son’s life. He wanted whoever caused his son grief to suffer. But first they had to catch the son of a bitch.
“And you have no leads?” Regis asked, voice laced with disapproval.
“None, sire,” Ignis spat. He hated not having the answers, “Gladio is staying with him for the time being. We’re working under the assumption that he will be safest in the relative anonymity of his apartment, with increased security, of course.”
“Logical.” Regis couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice. He knew that the palace wasn’t much safer than his son’s apartment. In fact, it was easier to hide in simply because of its massive size, but he hated not being there for his son. It seemed like at every important moment in his son’s life, he was absent.
“I understand you wish to be with your son, and he wants to be with you-”
“What I wish is for my son to be safe. I trust that you will do everything in your power to keep keep him so.”
Ignis nodded and took his leave. He was careful to watch his rearview mirrors for any cars that might be tailing him, but saw none as he pulled into the parking garage of Noctis’ apartment complex.
He was stopped no less than five times between the parking garage and the elevator. But most people knew his face, so he was allowed to pass easily.
When he got to the door of the prince’s, he knocked three times, paused, then knocked twice. The door opened slowly, revealing Gladio’s hulking form. Gladio registered Ignis and stepped inside, glancing outside warily before closing the door.
“How is His Highness?” Ignis asked, taking off his shoes.
Gladio sighed. “Moping, but that’s to be expected. He’s not too bad, considering. Just shaken up.”
Ignis sighed and nodded, stepping into the living room. All the curtains were drawn, blocking out any natural light, and two Kingsglaive lounged on the couch, hoods drawn back to reveal their faces.
Noctis was sitting on the loveseat, at least pretending he was doing homework. He glanced up as Iggy walked in and looked away in shame. When Iggy had picked him up after the attempt, Noctis had broken into tears and hugged Ignis close for nearly a minute before Iggy ushered him into the car for safety. Then Noctis asked Iggy to stay with him until he fell asleep, which of course Iggy did. Noctis hated that someone, even a good friend like Iggy, had seen him at his lowest.
“Hello, Noctis, I’m glad you’re feeling a bit better.” Ignis said with a slight bow.
“Yeah. Did you find out who did it yet?” Noctis asked softly.
Ignis shook his head. “Unfortunately, we have no clues. His Majesty has almost all of the Crownsguard working on it as we speak, as well as a few of his own personal Kingsglaive, obviously,” He nodded to the two on the couch.
Noctis nodded slowly with a sound of uncertainty. He snapped his book shut and got to his feet. “I’m going to go to bed,” He said, shuffling over to his bedroom.
“Of course. And which one of us would you like in there while you do?” Ignis asked.
“I don’t care. You choose.”
Ignis thought it over carefully. The Kingsglaive were more powerful than Ignis and Gladio, with the ability to warp and summon shields through the power of the crystal, but Noctis was more comfortable around him and Gladio. At that thought, Ignis mentally scolded himself. They didn’t have the comfort of caring about Noctis’ feelings. They needed to keep him safe.
“One of you two,” He pointed at the Kingsglaives. They looked at each other. A brown-haired man with braids stood up with a shrug.
“I guess I can babysit. I’ll let you know if anything happens,” The Kingsglaive followed Noctis into his room, shutting the door behind them.
Ignis watched the door swing shut with a heavy heart. This had been the second attempt on the Prince’s life, but the first one since he had officially started serving as the Prince’s advisor. He was almost as shaken up about it as Noctis was.
Gladio noticed Ignis’ expression and laid a gentle hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Hey, now, Iggy, if anything, I’m the one to blame. I’m his Shield. Fat lotta good I did him.”
“Noctis did mention that it was most likely due to your training that he survived physically unscathed.”
“Hm? He really said that, did he? Musta been the shock. Can’t see him admitting it out loud,” Gladio’s eyebrows raised slightly in amusement. The prince had always complained about training at such a young age, but obviously that had been a smart choice. Unfortunate that it had paid off so early in Noctis’ life.