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“How you doing?! Ignis? Gladio?” Prompto sidestepped an imp diving towards him and immediately shot it in the back of its head, squinting in the dark to look for the other two. It was hard to see with his eyes so full of dust and the sweat dripping from his forehead from being in the fray.
Goddamn contacts being of absolutely no help.
“I’m alright,” he heard Ignis call back, and turned to see him finishing off a daemon. “though i’d appreciate some assistance.” Not something Ignis liked to admit, Prompto noted, but was still impressed to see him firaga the shit out of the monster coming up behind him.
“Gotcha Iggy,” he dashed in that direction, sending a flurry of bullets as he went. “Pretty fly for a blind guy,” he laughed, gently bumping his friend on the shoulder as he passed him.
“I do my best,” Ignis smiled in his direction, but it was quickly replaced with a look of concern. “It can't be much longer,” he said to Prompto, quieter than before. Prompto didn't know what to say. He watched the daemons sink back into the darkness and tried to catch his breath.
He had to hang on. And as well as he had been hanging, he was ready for this to be over. He ignored the voice in his head telling him no, you don't, don't you realize you're losing Noct? The part of him hoping it never ended.
The part that wanted to go with him.
And though it was a tiny voice, it was loud.
He shook his head, as if some kind of mental etch-a-sketch could make the thoughts go away. “Yeah. I know.” He cast a quick glance around, happy to see that if even for a moment, the surrounding area was barren of daemons. “We’re clear.” He continued to look, this time for another familiar face.
“Gladio?”
Finally spotting movement some ways away, he watched as huge arms slung a claymore straight into the leg of an iron giant, knocking it to the ground. Prompto’s legs practically gave out at the sight, and he sat down with a sigh, leaning slightly into Ignis. Gladio marched towards them, away from the dark mist that erupted from the remains of the creature’s body.
“And how are we doing, ladies?” He joked as he came to stand beside them. Sitting down, Prompto could truly appreciate Gladio’s looming figure, and was not at all surprised he could take down such a big monster by himself. He was in pretty rough shape now, his face bruised and a large cut on his shoulder, staining his shirt with blood, but even with the obvious injuries he looked like he could kick your ass into the next century.
The man was scary.
“Glad to have a minute to breathe,” Prompto sighed, leaning back on his calloused hands. “It's a jungle out there.”
“Definitely.” He nudged Prompto with a heavy boot. it hurt, but nowhere near as much as anything he was already feeling. “Now get up. Just because they're not here doesn't mean they're not coming.” He too looked around, noting the lack of impending doom. “But…” He paused, and Prompto could tell by the strained look on his face that he didn't want to say what Prompto knew they all were thinking. “They are starting to disappear. You don't think…?”
Gladio trailed off and looked to the ground.
Prompto swallowed hard and closed his eyes tight.
He had just gotten Noctis back. And now he had to let him go.
Though he had thought waiting indefinitely for his best friend in the whole goddamn world to come back from what can only be called nonexistence would be the most painful experience of his life, he was starting to change his mind. He would wait for Noct forever, if he had to. Even if he didn't have to he would.
But for him to never come back?
He dug his nails into his knees. He couldn't feel much through the thick material of his pants, but it felt better to have something grounding him.
“Probably.” he whispered, breaking the painful silence. “I...I'm sure he’s--” His throat tightened, forbidding any more words from coming out. And what was he going to say? Done? Gone?
Dead?
He thought he had prepared himself for this. He tried. He spent the night before unable to sleep, watching his friend’s chest rise and fall slowly as he slept, just like he had so many times before. Noctis was always the first to fall asleep no matter the circumstance, and their last night together was no exception. Just being near him again was all Prompto could ever ask for.
And he got it one last time.
As much as he wanted to smile at the thought, his final happy memory with Noct, there was nothing he could do to stop the tears from spilling over. They rolled down his freckled cheeks and made tiny spots on his jacket, but he didn't bother wiping them away. He knew more were coming.
Gladio knelt down beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. Prompto wanted to shrug him off, but even in all this, it was just so fucking comforting to know someone else might understand even a fraction of what he was feeling. Ignis silently sat down, finding Prompto’s shoulder to wrap his arm around. It felt so much better to have them there. He pulled his knees to his chest and laid his head down.
He was so tired.
But at least he had those two.
He was so grateful. Even excluding Noct, he had made the greatest friendships he could imagine. He couldn't have even imagined them if he had tried, as a lonely kid just looking for a friend. It just felt so good.
It felt warm.
The warmth engulfed him from the inside out. From his chest all the way to his fingers, his toes, and he almost found himself laughing through his tears, his chest still heaving from quiet sobs. He looked up at Gladio and Ignis, all he had left, and pulled them closer. With a hand on Gladio’s and the other on Ignis’s shoulder, they were banded together. They had been for so long. They always would be.
He was so grateful.
And despite everything, Prompto smiled. He closed his eyes tight and laughed a little, then turned to look between his friends.
And his voice shook slightly as he said,
“At least we made it.”
As he went to put his head back down, he felt something almost familiar prickling the back of his neck. Something that, until now, he hadn't felt in a long time.
Something warm. He blinked and snapped his head up. Was it lighter out? Was he imagining it? He jumped up so quickly he almost fell right back down on his ass and turned around, ignoring Gladio’s curse of surprise and Ignis’s question of concern.
Light was beginning to creep on the horizon.
Prompto wanted to say something to get their attention, but he was absolutely speechless. There was no way they couldn't notice, anyway (it was a good thing Ignis could sense some light, he thought). The soft sparkle of the sun on the ground was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was if he had lived on a cold, unforgiving planet his whole life, and this was his first time seeing a reason to be alive.
He took off running towards it, not sure where he was going, not even thinking about it. He was in nothing short of awe as he watched a ball of fire come back to its home above Eos. He lost himself running until he felt his chest burning like the heat coming down on him. He had forgotten how exhausted he was.
Prompto slowly came to a stop, eyes burning from the tears and the light he hadn't seen in ten years now, ten long years of nothing but darkness, confusion, fear.
But he couldn't look away.
When he finally did tear his gaze from the sight, only one word came out of his mouth. A name he couldn't be happier to say, to share this with.
“Noct!”
He turned to look to his side and felt his heart break as he remembered he wasn’t there.
Noct did this.
For a moment, all of his excitement came to a crashing halt. He struggled to swallow and he brought a shaking hand to his hair. His chest hurt. Noctis had given it all for them. Everything he had done had been for his friends, for Prompto. He blinked the next wave of tears out of his eyes and looked up again, letting the warmth wash over him.
“Thanks, buddy.”