Chapter Text
It's only been a few days since they left Insomnia and Prompto realized that he had already forgotten what a bed felt like. A motel was not the most glamorous accomodations for the night, and certainly not for the Crown Prince of Lucis and his entourage, but compared to campsites and caravans, it's like a little slice of paradise. The bed itself was nothing special: queen size, run of the mill, pillows a little too fluffy for his liking, but at that moment it time, it was like lying on a cloud. Prompto grabbed one of those overfluffed pillows and enveloped it in his arms as well as resting his head on it, feeling a sense of satisfaction as it slowly started to flatten to a normal and usable state. Life was good, and he expected to not move for at least an hour.
Fifteen minutes later he moved because his arm fell asleep under the combined weight of the pillow and his head. He turned his head to see Noctis and Gladiolus seated on the other bed facing each other, with a deck of cards between them engaged in serious competition. Gladiolus smirked and showed the cards in his hand to Noctis, who threw his cards onto the bed in defeat. The sound of running water in the suite's bathroom told him where the last member of their party was.
Despite the minor setbacks, Prompto thought the trip was going pretty well. They were a bit behind schedule, sure, but another day of driving and they'll be in Galdin Quay and on a boat bound for Altissia. It wasn't like they were late: they had left sooner than they had thought they needed to at King Regis' insistence. Maybe the king wanted to give them a few days of free time they could spend relaxing on the beach or sightseeing in Altissia. Maybe the king in his kingly wisdom he thought to give them a few extra days just in case. Or maybe he knew the four of them seemed to be bad luck beacons and accounted for that in the travel plans. Whatever the reason was, it worked out well. They'll still make it to their destination on time and then they'll celebrate the biggest wedding of the century.
The shower stopped and a few minutes later, Ignis emerged fully dressed in sleepwear and carrying the clothes he had worn that day. He had a towel around his shoulders and his hair was both damp and unstyled. Prompto had seen him like that a few times before, but it never ceased to be weird to him. Logically, he knew this was the same person he had just spent an entire day sitting next to in the Regalia, but Prompto's image of Ignis didn't match up with what his eyes were seeing. Ignis was always supposed to be immaculate, his dress as sharp as his mind. A being who was specifically engineered to be perfect in every way. As such, this version of Ignis, this unstyled, slightly damp, utterly exhausted from driving all day Ignis was difficult for Prompto's mind to process and comprehend.
"The bath is free," Ignis said before sitting down in a chair to check the messages on his phone. They hadn't decided on an order on who got to use the bathroom when and Prompto looked over to his two unwashed companions. However, neither seemed to have been listening, for Noctis loudly demanded a rematch from Gladiolus, who was more than happy to comply. Taking this to mean it was now officially his turn, Prompto fished out some comfortable clothes and a small bag from his luggage and claimed the bathroom for himself.
Inside, the first thing he did was brush his teeth and gargle with mouthwash. He didn't know if he had bad breath, but Prompto was never one to take chances on that front. The last thing he wanted was Lady Lunafreya passing out within seconds of meeting him because he neglected to use mouthwash. And then Noctis' wedding would be ruined. That, Prompto figured, was one of the worst possible things that had a slight, miniscule, nonzero chance of happening. The next thing he did was remove his contact lenses, leaning in close to the vanity mirror to pinch at his eye. When he was younger, it used to take ages for him to remove them as he wasn't used to the concept of almost, but not quite, poking himself in the eye in order to remove something that he had put on it by also almost, but not quite, poking himself in the eye. Now, the process only took seconds.
Once the lens in his left eye was removed, he cleaned it properly with solution and left it to soak in its case before repeating the process with the other eye. Prompto's eyesight was somewhat poor, having needed glasses since he was a young child. Years of staying up late to watch television or play video games did little to help, and while he wasn't completely helpless without them, he needed corrective lenses to go about his daily life. His contacts secure in their case, he turned the faucet in the shower and hopped in, feeling the dirt and stress of the day wash off his body and down the drain. He would never take a shower for granted again.
When Prompto left the bathroom, Noctis and Gladiolus hadn't given up on games and were staring intently at the cards in their hands. However, they were no longer playing a game for two for at some point, Ignis had decided to join them. Or, more likely, the two had managed to successfully pester him into playing. Compared to the other two, Ignis looked rather relaxed and confident and even with his blurry vision, Prompto could make out Noctis' jacket behind Ignis' back and Gladiolus' necklace around his neck, the latter an interesting contrast to Ignis' own necklace which was usually well hidden by the clean pressed dress shirts he liked to wear.
"Hey, Prompto," Noctis said, looking up from his cards. "Wanna join the next round?"
Prompto politely refused the invitation, deciding he was too tired to properly lose at cards and in moments, he's back on the bed and fast asleep.
Prompto awoke with a start, and for a moment, he was confused as to why. His sleep was dreamless and peaceful, undisturbed by nightmares, and one glance out the window told him that it wasn't morning yet. The sky was still dark although he could see a slight tinge of purple beginning to creep up over the horizon. So why did he wake up all of a sudden?
The answer came to him as a thin arm that appeared out of nowhere and dropped directly onto his face.
Beside him, Noctis twisted and graciously removed his hand from Prompto's face all while still being in sleep's comfortable embrace. He must have been dreaming, for he shifted again and lightly kicked Prompto in the shin. Wonderful. Prompto knew he couldn't fall back asleep like this. With a sigh, he reached over to grab his phone and held it close to his face to check the time. The backlight was far too intense for that time of night and Prompto had to squint slightly at the sudden brightness being beamed directly into his eyes. 4:13 AM. Maybe it was a good thing he decided to just pass out right after his shower. It meant he got a couple more hours of sleep.
Prompto's best course of action was to get out of bed, as much as he didn't want to, but the alternative was letting Noctis unconsciously smack and kick him, and that was a far less appealing option than moving. Maybe he could read a book or play on his phone for a few hours while waiting for everyone else to wake up. Reluctantly, Prompto reached over the side of the bed to where his luggage was and groped around blindly within it until his hands found a rectangular case with rounded corners. Opening it, he pulled out a pair of glasses, one with thick black frames and rectangular lenses, and put it on, making the suite come into focus. Prompto rarely wore his glasses; he hadn't expected to wear them on this trip and had only brought them along "just in case," but there was no way he was going to put on his contact lenses that early in the morning.
Reaching over to the lamp on the nightstand, Prompto hesitated briefly before turning it on. A little bit of light never woke Noctis up before, and it certainly wasn't going to start now. Still, the clicking sound the lamp made as the switch was flicked still sounded impossibly loud. He glanced over Noctis at the other bed, but all Prompto could see was Gladiolus' back, his friend's massive bird tattoo proudly on display. At last, Prompto sat up and yawned before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing up.
In the end, he decided to neither read or play on his phone, for he actually hadn't brought any reading material and King's Knight isn't much fun to play solo. Instead, Prompto got his camera and settled into one of the chairs of the suite to browse through the photos he had taken of their journey so far starting from the pictures he had taken in Insomnia, of the city and the people they left behind. It hadn't been long, but it already felt like they left ages ago. It was easy for him to get absorbed into each picture, taking several moments to remember the memories associated with each one.
"Mind if I join you?"
Prompto nearly jumped out of his seat in surprise and looked up even though he knew who it was. That voice and that manner of speaking were unmistakeable. Even then, Prompto almost didn't recognize the man before him. Ignis was there, still in his sleepwear, still with his hair unstyled, still wearing Gladiolus' necklace, and the haze of sleep still lingering around him. The weirdest thing, however, was he wasn't wearing his glasses and to Prompto, that was just the most bizarre thing of all. They were a permanent fixture of Prompto's mental image of him. How could they not be when he's only seen Ignis while he was wearing them and Noctis' affectionate nickname of "Specs" for him?
"Oh, hey Ignis," he replied once his heart rate went back down to acceptable levels. "Did I wake you? Sorry, man." Ignis shook his head in reply.
"Not at all," Ignis said, and Prompto wasn't entirely sure he believed him. "Gladio's snoring seems to be particularly bad tonight and he decided to roll over and snore directly into my ear."
Prompto paused to listen, and he had to agree that yeah, Gladiolus did seem to be making a bigger racket than usual.
"Well, Noct nearly kicked me out of the bed. Think he's dreaming or something."
As if on cue, the slumbering prince let out a low grumble, as if he knew he was being talked about despite his current state of deepest sleep.
"Then perhaps we should make them share a bed next time," Ignis said, and Prompto thought that made a lot of sense. Noctis could sleep through anything, including Gladiolus' thunderstorm of snores and a few light touches and kicks from Noctis wouldn't do much to wake Gladiolus up. "But enough about that, let's see those pictures of yours." Ignis pulled up another chair to sit by Prompto and the two of them pushed the causes of their disturbed sleep out of their minds to get lost in the snapshots of the recent past.
Ignis had commentary for every single one of Prompto's photographs, from praise for his sense of composition to admiration for his ability to take clear photographs during their battles with the local wildlife, as if Prompto was able to arrange everything and everyone and pose them for a perfect picture. He used terms like "contrast" and "negative space" and Prompto actually understood them and responded in kind. And they said art classes in university were a waste.
The sun started to show itself properly once they reached the last image, its warm and gentle morning rays reaching into the suite and illuminating it with a gentle glow. The two men took a few minutes to appreciate it, to admire the fact that such a simple change in lighting could make even an old, worn motel room look beautiful in a way artificial lights could never hope to recreate.
"By the way, Prompto," Ignis said, breaking the silent reverie they had fallen into. "I believe this is the first time I've seen you wearing glasses."
At the statement, Prompto gave a bit of a nervous laugh. He never wore his glasses in public and he even rarely wore them in private. A part of him figured he always looked, well, dorky while wearing them. Not that he thought glasses were dorky by default, of course. Ignis made wearing glasses look good, made it look mature, sophisticated, and even a fashion statement. Prompto was well aware that he wasn't Ignis.
"Yeah? Well, this is the first time I've seen you without glasses," he countered.
"Don't be silly. We've been traveling together for days. Surely you have?"
Prompto shook his head vigorously. "Nuh-uh! You're always wearing them after you come out after the shower, and you're always the last of us to go to bed and the first to wake up. It's kinda weird. Anyway, I must look like a nerd right now, huh?"
Ignis dismissed that last statement with a wave of his hand. "Nonsense. Glasses alone don't make someone, as you put it, a nerd." And suddenly, he affixes Prompto with a very dark look, eyes narrowed and lips a thin, straight line. "Or are you saying I'm a nerd?"
"Nope!" Prompto yelped, and while he knew Ignis was just playing around with him, he couldn't help but feel just a little bit scared. The man was always, like, low key intimidating at all times with the ability to manipulate his intimidation level as he pleased with worrying precision. On a scale from one to ten, the current level of intimidation was at approximately 3.14, which was plenty intimidating enough for Prompto. Anything above a 2 made him want to back off and slink around Ignis like a frightened dog. "You make it look good."
"And you don't?" Ignis asked, his face suddenly back to a friendly expression. "Prompto, trust me when I say it's a good look on you. Consider wearing them during the day when you feel like a change in pace. Wearing contact lenses all the time isn't the most comfortable thing, especially when riding in a car all day."
Prompto did agree that sometimes contacts were a chore. Having to occasionally put rewetting drops in his eyes during the day was a minor annoyance, one that grew much larger in size when he had to do it in the Regalia where the motion and the wind rushing by made the task a lot more cumbersome than it already was. But a good look? No, that couldn't be right. Ignis was just trying to be nice.
"You're not so bad without glasses yourself, Iggy," he replied. "Maybe you should consider going without them for once." Since Ignis brought up the inconveniences of wearing contact lenses, that probably meant he owned some himself.
"I'll think about it," Ignis answered, one hand reaching up to idly play with Gladiolus' necklace. Prompto saw it as a prime opportunity to change the subject.
"So, like, are you keeping that?" he asked, pointing to the necklace in question. Ignis looked surprised for a moment, apparently unaware that he was fidgeting. An unconscious habit? Up until now, Prompto figured that Ignis always did everything deliberately, as he was a man who was in complete control of himself and his life. Just not in control of the prince he was assigned to serve.
"This? Of course not. I'll be giving it back to Gladio when he wakes up. I just thought I'd like to hold onto it for a while."
Although Ignis didn't elaborate on why, Prompto knew the answer. It's because Ignis liked to rub it in when he won at games. Unlike Noctis, Gladiolus, and Prompto, he didn't do loud boasts or taunts. Instead, he liked to quietly flaunt his victories all while pretending to be prim and proper. He didn't fool Prompto. He knew what was up. He's seen the self-assured smirks that Ignis would give to defeated opponents. It was incredibly hilarious when it happened to Noctis or Gladiolus, but it was also incredbily infuriating when it happened to Prompto himself. Ignis had once worn the chain Prompto usually wore on his pants wrapped around his right wrist for an entire day, meaning Prompto had to see it every time he looked at him while driving and be reminded of his utter, complete, and humiliating defeat. Ignis would always make sure to reach for his can of Ebony with that very same arm whenever he did.
That was when Prompto learned that Ignis could be just plain mean when he felt like it, and he considered his decision to skip out on last night's game of cards a good one.
Prompto decided to check the time, grabbing his phone. The backlight didn't bother his eyes now that he's been awake for a while and the sun has started to rise. 6:28. Were they really talking for that long? It certainly didn't feel like two hours. That was one twelfth of the day gone by, just like that. Gladiolus would be waking up soon and they could spend their customary thirty minutes of trying to rouse Noctis from slumber. It always took at least half an hour and by now, they've learned to budget that time into their travel plans. It was both funny and kind of sad.
"We should start getting ready for the day," Ignis said, getting up from his chair. "Any preferences for breakfast?"
Prompto thought for a moment. "Let's just see what they're offering here. There's free breakfast, right?"
Indeed, there was, and Prompto greedily loaded up on fresh fruits and toast. A refreshing meal for a refreshing day. As Noctis tried, unsuccessfully, to rub sleep from his eyes, Prompto hopped into the passenger seat of the Regalia, ready to tackle the brand new day.