Chapter Text
“Yeah,” Prompto nodded as he spoke into his cellphone, face completely neutral as he walked along the street which eventually let out right next to his school.
“Don’t worry about it.” He replied softly to the person on the other line.
“It’s fine, really… I know the drill.” He continued, not paying much attention to the actual conversation at this point.
“Uh huh… yeah, okay.” He nodded even though he knew the person on the other end couldn’t see him.
“Yeah, I’ll see you guys in a few days… love you too, bye.”
Prompto slowly removed the phone from his ear and placed it back into his pocket, trying not to think about the news that he had just gotten. Although, at this point, he really should have seen this coming from a mile away; and frankly, it was probably more his fault for getting his hopes up anyway.
He had almost convinced himself that maybe… just maybe, this year would be different. His parents had promised him that they would be home in time this year… he could almost perfectly recall the conversation he had had with his mom just last week about how she was so sure that they were going to be able to make it back this year.
It just so happened to be Prompto’s 16th birthday today. He assumed from the way all his other classmates freaked out about it, it must be a special milestone for most people. However, Prompto would have settled for just having his parents actually be home to celebrate with him for pretty much just once in his astral-damned life. But no… of course something just HAD to come up and extend their business trip by another few days… which was just long enough to have both of his parents completely miss everything. “Well… so much for that, I guess.” the blonde sighed.
To be honest, he wanted to be furious and spitting mad at his parents for bailing on him yet again… I mean seriously… they probably held the world record for the number of times someone was conveniently absent or otherwise occupied during their own kid’s birthday. It was one of the biggest reasons that Prompto had almost started dreading this time of year, thinking of all the new ways his folks would undoubtedly find to disappoint him this time.
Prompto also wanted to be sad, since this newest development meant he would be spending yet another birthday all by his lonesome. But as much as he wanted to feel these things, he also knew that it wasn’t his parents fault that their trip had been extended; and at least he would be seeing Noct at school today, so he reasoned that maybe things weren’t a complete loss. Prompto doubted Noct was even aware it was his birthday, seeing as the blonde had never made a point to bring it up, and yet, he just couldn’t bring himself to care. After all, there were probably hundreds of much more important things Noct needed to keep track of anyway, seeing as he was the Crown Prince of Insomnia and all that jazz. Yeah… there was no way Noct should have to waste his time thinking about something so insignificant like the fact that today just so happened to mark the day that someone as insignificant as himself had come into this world.
Trying to push the whole birthday ordeal out of his brain, because just thinking about it wasn’t going to change anything. Prompto instead rummaged around in his school bag for his camera and kept his eyes peeled for just the right thing, or scene, or person to come by with just the perfect lighting for him to catch a good snap or two, so he could show Noctis the picture once he got to school.
Prompto must have gotten really caught up in taking pictures, because before he knew it, he had glanced down at his phone to check the time and almost had a fit when he realized he only had about ten minutes until the late bell rang at school. He was definitely still at least five minutes away from the school, which means he would only have about five minutes give or take to get into the building, put all his stuff away in his locker, before running off to homeroom in a desperate attempt to get to the class on time and avoid getting scolded yet again by his teacher.
With quite a bit of running and a heck of a lot of luck, Prompto managed to sprint just about the entire rest of the way to school and somehow managed to actually get to class what felt like mere seconds before the late bell rang. Prompto nearly fell over himself as he ambled across the crowded classroom, and couldn’t help but feel that painful and yet familiar pang of disappointment settle deep in his chest when he realized that the desk Noct always sat at was completely untouched and empty.
It was pretty clear to the blonde at that point that he must have committed some grave and horrible sin against the six at some point in his life, because shit… he just really couldn’t seem catch a break today. He had hoped that even if he couldn’t be with his parents, then maybe he would be able to hang out with Noctis, but apparently that was just too much to ask and at this point Prompto was pretty well convinced he had to be cursed when it came to birthdays or something… but again, what could he do but continue to move forward? He sure as hell wasn’t going to break down in the middle of his class because of some silly reason like being completely and utterly alone on his birthday… that was just ridiculous, and if the other students didn’t think he was weird before, they definitely would now.
“Hey uh- Prompto, was it?” A familiar voice suddenly snapped the blonde from his silent musings, and although he could vaguely recognize the voice, when Prompto turned around to face the student that had tapped him lightly on the shoulder, he found he didn’t actually recognize her at all. He felt a little guilty that he had no idea who she was, but judging by her confused look and knitted brows, it was probably a safe bet to say she didn’t really know who he was either.
“Yeah, that’s me.” He tried to put on his usual broad smile as he answered the young girl, curious as to why she would be talking to him, when he didn’t really talk to many other people in the class other than Noct.
“I… I um- I… here…!” The very obviously flustered girl squeaked as she held out a small envelope in her outstretched hand. It would be an understatement to say that Prompto was very confused about why this strange girl was acting so shy around him and then- oh- he thought as he quickly realized the reason behind her nervousness when he spotted the distinct seal of the Lucian Royal Family on the back of the letter she held out to him.
It has to be from Noct… he thought to himself, although it was kind of weird that the raven-haired teen would write him a letter rather than just text or call him, but as the blonde started closely examining the seal, it was definitely the seal of the royal family, so it had to be legit, right?
“Thanks.” Prompto replied lightly as the girl nearly sprinted back over towards a small group of what had to be her friends clustered at the front of the room, talking very excitedly, and Prompto could only imagine how that conversation was going.
As if on cue, the teacher chose that very next moment to direct all students to take their seats. Prompto proceeded to sink down into his seat, while quickly slipping open the very ornately designed envelope and pulling out the sturdy piece of paper folded neatly inside. He casually skimmed over the contents of the letter for a few seconds, before his heart suddenly started skipping a few beats. The letter started off pretty generically, with Noct apologizing for missing class. Apparently, he had managed to get all the way to school, just to have Ignis come by and whisk him off to the citadel to address some urgent royal business. Although despite that, the raven-haired teen also apparently still wanted to meet Prompto after school to give him something special, since it was his birthday and everything.
The young photographer couldn’t help but smile, and had to genuinely fight against the tears that were now threatening to start forming at the corner of his eyes. Maybe there would be a little something to salvage from this whole mess of a day after all. Noctis had absolutely no reason to do anything special for him… just being able to be friends with the raven-haired prince was all that that Prompto could ask for right now and more.
Despite everything, Prompto found himself actually getting excited about the fact that it was his birthday for what felt like the first time in a long time; and he supposed that if he couldn’t spend all day in school goofing off with Noct, this might come at a close second.
Prompto knew that it was going to be a long wait from the moment he read Noct’s letter that morning. until the dismissal bell at the end of the day; but damn… each class definitely felt two or three times longer than ever before. He was convinced that he must have been in school for days before the bell at the end of the day finally rang. The moment that it did though… the blonde took off like it was nobody’s business; that way he could quickly grab all of the stuff from his locker and get over to the athletics building where Noct had asked him to meet in the letter.
“Hey…!” The blonde called excitedly as he ran over towards the lone figure, causally resting up against the backside of the building. “Noct, you know you don’t have to-” Prompto started saying before he got just a bit closer and realized that although the person leaning against the wall was about Noct’s height and size, it definitely wasn’t him.
“Oh- s-sorry…!” Prompto laughed nervously, as he brought his hand up to rub the back of his head in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, which was now causing his cheeks to turn a bright red. “Thought you were someone else… my bad, dude. Sorry.” The blonde hastily apologized as he turned to leave, considering just trying to call Noct to see where he was or really taking any other excuse to remove himself from the immediate area.
“You’re not waiting for a certain Crown Prince by chance, are you?” The boy asked, straightening himself up so that he was no longer leaning up against the large building and starting to walk over towards where Prompto had come to a stop.
“Was he here?” Prompto asked, wondering if maybe Noct had to run off for some other reason and had told this student to stay here to catch him if Prompto came by while he was gone.
“Yeah, he was just here a few minutes ago.” The boy replied casually. “I think he went off to the bathroom for a quick second.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks!” Prompto grinned, as he thanked the other student, “Guess I’ll just chill here till he comes back…” The blonde muttered mostly to himself, and proceeded to open King’s Knight on his phone to distract himself until Noct came back.
Prompto thought it was a little weird that the other male hadn’t left even after a few minutes after he had told him about Noct, but maybe he was waiting to meet someone here too? That wasn’t all together the most unrealistic situation in the world. Although that thought was abruptly pushed from his mind, when all of a sudden, he felt someone grab his arms and before he had a chance to do anything about it, they were forced harshly behind his back, his phone falling uselessly to the ground from the unexpected assault.
“What the-” Prompto gasped as he tried to fight against the hands that were currently holding his own wrists behind his back in some kind of painful death grip. “H-Hey…! W-What are you doing…? Let go...!” he grunted as he struggled to free himself from his mystery assailant.
“Oh, I’m afraid we can’t do that.” A voice laughed and although Prompto couldn’t see whoever it was that was holding him, he couldn’t help but try to suppress a sudden shiver running through his body as he felt the other male’s hot breath caress the side of his face as the boy whispered into his ear. “We wouldn’t want you running off before we were able to give you your present, isn’t that right fellas?” The one holding him continued to hum quietly as Prompto noticed the boy who he had original thought was Noct turn around and another student who must have been hiding around the corner appeared; both started laughing and grinning as they approached Prompto and the other boy who was currently securing the blonde’s hands behind his back.
“As much as I would love to hang out and catch up with you guys about your terrible social skills, I just remembered I have somewhere I need to be, so if you’ll excuse me-” Prompto forced as genuine a laugh as he could muster, hoping that if the other students who practically had him surrounded realized that they weren’t scaring him, then they would just leave him alone.
“Yeah- nice try, blondie…” The boy holding him abruptly cut Prompto off as he proceeded to merely tighten his grasp on Prompto’s wrists as opposed to loosening them. “Your precious prince won’t be coming to your rescue this time.” He spat irately and all of a sudden, even though Prompto still wasn’t entirely sure who these guys were, despite the fact that his voice did sound slightly familiar… Where had he heard it before? Homeroom maybe? Wait… that’s right. Recently during homeroom, Prompto had thought he had noticed a group of guys starting to pay an awkward amount of attention toward him and Noct in the past few weeks or so… but seeing as Noct always tended to act as a magnet for all kinds of attention just about everywhere he went in school, Prompto hadn’t thought much about it.
If these really were the same group of guys from their homeroom, it wasn’t that difficult of a guess as to why these guys were so pissed off at him. The way he had used very particular emphasis while referring to Noct was the only clue that the blonde needed to figure that he was probably jealous of the fact that Prompto had managed to befriend the private and guarded prince.
“Are you jealous because I’m friends with Noct?” Prompto asked honestly before he could even stop the words from leaving his mouth.
“That’s ridiculous!” The student holding him shouted indignantly, all but confirming the blonde’s previous suspicions. “Why the hell would I be jealous of someone like you…?! You’re just some poor charity case that the prince keeps around because it makes him look good for all the papers…! Why in the hell else would someone like him waste his precious free time with a worthless loser like you? Especially when he could be amongst people that are more suitable to his status as Lucian royalty??”
“Like you…?” The blonde photographer couldn’t help but laugh despite the fact that the guy holding him had basically just laid out all of Prompto’s worst fears right before his very eyes. Those comments had definitely shaken him, but Prompto was damn determined not to let these stupid bullies get the satisfaction of knowing that.
“Watch your mouth, you ingrate…!” The boy snapped once again. “I’ll have you know that my father just so happens to work very closely with none other than the Marshal himself. That is Cor the Immortal, in case you didn’t know… he is none other than the leader of the elite Crownsguard, the very soldiers that lay down their lives every day to protect our royal family from anyone that wishes to do them harm.”
“Oh yeah, Cor…?” Prompto couldn’t help but smile smugly. “Yeah, I’ve met him a bunch of times. People tend to find him really scary, but he’s actually a pretty cool guy once you get to know him; he also tells some pretty killer war stories if you catch him in the right mood.”
Prompto could practically hear the boy behind him fuming, grinding his teeth forcefully at the blonde’s latest comment, and judging by the way Prompto was starting to lose feeling in his hands from the other male gripping them so tightly, he was pretty sure it was safe to say that he had officially pissed the guy off. Which, while it was super satisfying, also didn’t exactly do much to actually help him get out of the situation he currently found himself in.
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you, you little piece of worthless trash???” The student behind Prompto hissed, the fury in his voice clear as anything Prompto had ever heard. “Why keep ourselves in suspense any longer now, Mr. Birthday Boy…? I’d say you’ve just about earned your present by now.”
Prompto wasn’t exactly sure he liked the way those words had practically melted off the other boy’s lips and then definitely didn’t like where things were going, when the boy behind him pushed him forward so suddenly that it nearly caused him to lose his footing and fall face first onto the ground.
As he was forcibly lead by the group of boys through the back door and into the now deserted athletics center. It was a Friday afternoon, right after school, and considering there weren’t any games or practices scheduled until Sunday afternoon at the earliest, there was absolutely no-one here to stop the three boys from forcing Prompto to continue walking until they reached the oddly spacious boy’s locker room.
“You know, I totally woke up this morning and thought to myself, ‘I hope that some rando classmates take me on a romantic date to the boy’s locker room today after school. Wouldn’t that just be the perfect birthday present?’ So, kudos on that boys.” Prompto joked lightly, which probably wasn’t the smartest idea, but hell if he was just going to sit around and wait for them to do whatever it was they were planning on doing in here with him.
“Astrals above… how in the world Prince Noctis puts up with all of your incessant and annoying rambling is something I don’t think I’ll ever understand…” The boy still holding onto Prompto complained loudly as Prompto was roughly shoved up against a nearby locker, the raised metal on the door causing the blonde to wince at the unexpected pressure of the raised metal edges, roughly rubbing into his cheek.
“So, uh- is this your big plan, then? You just going to sit here and slam me up against some lockers or something…?” Prompto asked, his voice slightly muffled by the fact that the majority of his mouth was pressed up against the lockers. “Can’t say it’s the worst present I’ve ever gotten, but thanks for the thought, I guess… so, can I like, go now…?” He asked once again, as he tried to push back at the hands still holding his wrists tight.
“You hear that boys? Looks like the prince’s newest little puppy wants to get on with things.” The boy called and then a second later, Prompto could feel two new sets of hands on his arms forcing him back up and over towards one of the full-size lockers that teams tended to use as storage for all of their equipment and regular clothing during their games.
The boy who was obviously the ring leader of all this, was now holding the door open to one of the empty lockers with a broad, malevolent grin adorning his face.
It is, at that particular moment, a huge chill runs down Prompto’s spine. Everything suddenly becomes clear and if he had been able to look at his own face, he would be pretty sure that all the color had instantly drained from his face, and he was left looking as pale as a ghost. Prompto was no longer content with just kidding around with these guys for the fun of it, he needed to come up with a plan to get out of here, and he needed to do it fast.
“You guys aren’t serious, right?” The blonde laughs nervously. “I know I’m skinny and all, but you gotta know that there’s just no way I’ll be able to fit in there…”
“We won’t know until we try, now will we?” The boy holding the locker door open laughs as his two friends forcibly push the now visibly, alarmed and panicking blonde closer and closer to the small, enclosed metal storage space, that not only would be super cramped, but probably smelled like absolute shit too.
“H-Hey, we can talk about this, right?” Prompto now asked, unable to keep the trembling out of his voice at this point. He was only a few feet from the locker now… he was running out of time and needed to think of something fast before the two guys behind him eventually overpowered and pushed him inside the unchanging and unyielding, 4 metal walls of the sturdy locker.
“I… I can t-talk to Noct or something… I-I’ll tell him you guys are c-cool and we should hang sometime… I won’t even tell him about all this, promise. We can all be friends, you know? Just like you wanted. J-Just don’t – please…” Prompto tried desperately once more, trying to plant his feet on the ground to make it harder to move him or by simply struggling against his captors, but nothing budged.
“Hmm…” The other boy mused, and for a second Prompto might have thought that he was actually considering the offer when-
“Nah. I’ve decided that I like this option much better.”
Still reeling from the fake consideration of possibly avoiding this whole nightmare all together, Prompto was suddenly spun and pushed forcefully backwards until he felt his sides scrap against the unforgiving metal edges. Actually feeling the cool metal on his skin, quickly set the blonde into all-out panic mode, and even though he couldn’t brace himself against the sides of the locker with his hands because his back was towards the opened door, that didn’t mean that Prompto was just going to give in without a fight. He did just about the only thing he could think of right now (Damn… next time Noct goes to his trainings, he really needed to talk to Gladio and see if the large bodyguard could at least show him a few basic moves in case he ever found himself in a situation like this again), which pretty much consisted of latched his hands around just about anything and everything he could grab; a shirt… a hand… anything.
They couldn’t shut the door if they couldn’t separate themselves from him, right? It almost even seemed like a decent plan; at least until Prompto remembered that he was outnumbered three to one, and no matter how hard he tried, he constantly found his grip being peeled open, just as he had been able to get a good grip on a shirt or arm or whatever else he could grab, before scrambling to grab somewhere else before both hands lost their grip.
After a few minutes of frantic and desperate struggling between Prompto and the other two boys, it seemed as though Prompto’s assailants were finally getting bored of their little game and the blonde was momentarily stunned when something very hard hit his face (was that a… fist…?) and his head was sent flying backwards from the force, so that it hit the back of the locker with a loud clang and Prompto’s started spinning. He had only lost his grip on both his hands for only what felt like a fraction of a second, but that had apparently been just long enough of a reprieve for the two other boys to successfully wedge the blonde so that his body was now completely flush with the back of the metal locker. The boy that had been holding the locker door open, took this opportunity to finally slam the door shut before Prompto heard a soft click, almost like the sound of a lock-
“No!!!” Prompto couldn’t hold back the pained cry torn from his throat, as he desperately beat his fists as hard as he possibly could against the unyielding metal barrier preventing his escape. He continued this even despite the fact that his hands were all pinned to his chest with how tightly wedged his body was inside the locker. Most importantly, it sure as hell didn’t stop the blonde from frantically pounding on the metal as quickly and loudly as he could.
As the seconds, which honestly felt like hours, ticked by, the feeling of unbridled panic was steadily exploding out of his chest and consuming his entire being. He could feel every muscle in his body start to twitch as they screamed to be released from their current position, as fresh tears now sprang to his eyes at the sheer idea of not being able to adjust practically at all from the awkward and cramped standing position he now found himself in. The only clear thought his brain was processing right now was that he needed to find a way out of her and find it now.
“Okay, you win…!” The blonde cried again, his voice cracking as his tried and failed to hold himself together before he broke down completely. “I admit it…! I’m worthless and stupid, and I have absolutely no right to be around Noct… I p-promise I won’t hang out w-with him anymore.” Prompto continued to plead, desperate to say anything that might get just one of the three only people in this entire building to take pity and let him go. ”I’ll s-say whatever you want me to. J-Just p-please… please, let me out!” Prompto couldn’t stand to have to admit these things in front of these guys, but he was at the point right now where he would literally do anything the boys would ask of him, if it meant getting out of the death trap he was stuck in right now, before he went absolutely insane.
He could feel his entire body trembling and at this point had already started to bite his lip so hard that he was sure he would bite clean through any second. In fact, he was pretty sure he could already taste the foul taste of blood on his lips, and he was pretty sure that he had only been in here for a grand total of like thirty seconds.
“Okay, fine…” The leading student muttered, and Prompto almost couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Would this guy really change his tune so quickly though? It didn’t really make a whole bunch of sense; but to be frank, the blonde really couldn’t care about the why right now... all he cared about was getting out and far away from this fucking hell.
Hoping and praying that he would be released in just a few moments longer, Prompto tried to take deep, calming breaths as he listened to the boy fiddle around with the lock that was currently preventing his escape; sniffing lightly as he also attempted to stem the tears that had previously streaming down his face.
“Oh damn…” The boy muttered as he attempted to pop open the lock with no success, and Prompto felt a renewed pang of familiar terror drop down and settle into his stomach.
“Oh silly me…” The boy drawled, his mask of feigned concern dropping almost instantly. “It seems as though I’ve completely forgotten the combination to my lock…it has been quite some time since I’ve used this particular one, so it could be just about anything…” The boy laughed, taking particular pleasure when he heard the strangled cry of despair finally force its way through the blonde’s once again trembling lips.
“You know if the janitors were here I could probably get them to open it, but I’m pretty sure that they don’t come over here to the athletics building unless they need to clean up after or before a game and well… how unlucky for you that the next game isn’t scheduled to take place until Sunday afternoon.” The boy shrugged causally as though it were such an easy solution to the current problem. “Guess you’re just going to have to make yourself comfortable until then…”
“N-No!!” Prompto yelled as loudly as he could, completely terrified to death of the idea of being left in here for not just a few minutes or even a few hours, but essentially for almost two full days…! There was no way… there was no way that he would be able to make it. “Please! You can’t-! PLEASE DON’T DO THIS!!” The blonde screamed, as he quickly descended into loud, painful and heavy sobbing, only stopping once he felt as though he would pass out from lack of oxygen so that he could attempt to catch his breath. “I-I’m sorry… I’ll do whatever you want, j-just please d-don’t leave me here…” Prompto continued muttering quietly, the utter despair and desperation in his words, a last resort to break through to any of the three boys currently standing right outside the locker Prompto had been forced inside.
“I feel for ya, blondie; I really do.” The other male laughed, his face changing to that of feigned concern as he lightly knocked his knuckles against the cool metal before turning his back on the clearly terrified blonde.
“I will make sure that you get out… at some point that is.” Was the last thing the student uttered before he motioned for the two other boys to follow and all three proceeded to burst out in laughter as they reached the exit, making sure to turn off the lights, all the while ignoring the renewed hysterical pleading emanating from the trapped blonde they had left behind.
Noctis wasn’t all that worried when Prompto didn’t pick up his phone right after school got out. Seeing as it was his birthday, Noctis kind of assumed that the blonde had probably raced back to his house after school to celebrate with his folks. Noctis could clearly recall Prompto constantly talking about how excited he’d been, to spend his birthday with his folks. Just yesterday, if fact, the blonde had been going on and on and on about the fact that his parents were still on track to actually make it back to the Crown City so that they could celebrate his birthday for probably the first time since he was really, really young.
There was maybe a small part of the raven-haired teen that was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to celebrate things with the Prompto the second they got out of school, but Noct also definitely didn’t want to intrude on Prompto’s time with his parents, since he so rarely was able to have genuine time to spend with his folks while they were actually living in the Crown City between their many work trips.
It was only once Noctis found out that Prompto’s parents hadn’t actually managed to make it back to the Crown City today from Ignis because of some unexpected problems arose that caused them to have to stay in Altissia for another few days, that he started to become a little more anxious.
He texted the normally energetic blonde’s phone and when he didn’t get an answer right away, Noct even tried actually calling him; but absolutely nothing worked. Which, considering Prompto’s phone was always practically glued to his hand, and was on his person pretty much 100% of the time, things were definitely starting to add up.
Noctis only proceeded to become really anxious when he finally couldn’t take waiting around his apartment anymore and went through the trouble of having someone drive him personally over to Prompto’s house, and said house ended up being completely and utterly empty when the young prince finally arrived.
Things were now getting to a point where Noctis hadn’t heard from Prompto all day. Not to mention, it had even been a couple of hours since school had ended, so Noct should have heard from the blonde by now… and yet there was nothing. It was like his best friend had just dropped off the face of the planet.
Now convinced that something must have happened to him, Noctis proceeded to call Ignis in an absolute panic and Iggy had suggested that Noctis try to reach out to some of their classmates to see if Prompto had made it to school that day and start there. The prince quickly complained that he never really talked to anyone other than Prompto, which lead Ignis to have to find the information out for himself, and in usual Ignis fashion he had the answer within minutes. When Iggy announced that Prompto had in fact, been present at school all day that day, Noct could feel the tension in his own body simply continue to rise… and he was left to wonder what the hell had happened to Prompto in between after-school and now.
“From what your classmates revealed, there were a few that said they saw Prompto run off towards the athletic building after school, but none of them had any idea why.” Ignis had revealed over the phone, while Noctis had practically jumped back in the car and instantly demanding the driver take him immediately over to their school. That was the last place that anyone had seen his friend, and Ignis had suggested that Noctis retrace his steps, so he might as well start at the last place Prompt had physically been seen.
Once Noctis finally arrived at the school, he nearly warped out of the Regalia in his hurried attempts extricate himself from said car as quickly as possible so that he could start sprinting over towards the Athletics building, as fast as his feet could carry him.
It only took a few minutes to get over to the Athletics building and Noctis quickly walked around the perimeter of the building looking for any clues as to Prompto’s whereabouts. At first, there was absolutely nothing that seemed out of place… that was, until he reached the back entrance, and noticed some kind of small, rectangular device, about the size of his hand laying discarded right next to the door- was that…? No- It couldn’t be...
The prince hurried over to pick up the previously unidentified piece of technology, both glad and terrified at the same time that the small device now in his grasp was none other than Prompto’s own cellphone. Noctis pressed a button so that the screen came on, and was at least able to see all of the missed calls and missed texts that he himself had sent earlier. Judging by this new information, Noct could at least figure that whatever had happened, it must have happened before he had started trying to contact the blonde and a huge wave of guilt crashed over Noctis, knowing deep down that he should have never ignored the odd feelings that he had been getting. Things had definitely been off, and Noctis should have realized that sooner; he should have started looking for Prompto earlier. Oh etro, if anything did actually happen to the blonde, Noctis wasn’t sure what he would do… he was pretty sure that at the very least, the guilt would just eat him alive.
Noctis paused for just the slightest of moments to at least attempt to clean most of the dirt and muck off the small device, before finally placing it carefully into one of his larger jacket pockets.
Noctis quickly decided that the only place left to check was the actual Athletics building itself. Prompto’s phone had been lying right next to the door, so it would reason that there was a chance that he had been either heading in or out of the building when he had dropped it.
“Prompto…? You in here??? PROMPTO…!” The prince yelled as loud as he could as he wandered along the large gym, receiving nothing but a short silence in response. Once he had adequately covered the the large gym, he subsequently headed into the locker room, because well, why the fuck not, right?
“Prompto?!?” Noctis calls again, but oddly enough, this time he isn’t met with complete silence like he had been expecting. It was more like… soft… was that crying…? It was so quiet, it was difficult to hear if you weren’t really listening. And yet, the prince was convinced that there definitely wasn’t anyone in the room, because Noctis was pretty convinced that he would have seen them by now.
“Hey, is someone here??” Noctis called out one more time as he attempted to figure out where the crying was coming from. Was it just a trick of the vents or something? Where could it possibly be coming from…
“n-noct…?” A soft, trembling voice that Noct instantly recognized called out, breathless and throaty; almost as though he had just spent the last few hours screaming non-stop.
“Prompto…?? Where are you?” The prince called out and his attention was instantly drawn to one of the larger lockers, with a large blue lock on it, when heard a soft thumping against the metal lockers.
“O-over here…! Please, Noct... hurry! I… I can’t- ” The blonde called out desperately, almost unable to believe that someone had actually found him after only a few hours as opposed to a few days.
“Holy shit, Prom…! What the hell are you- you know what, it doesn’t matter. Gimme two seconds and I’ll have you out of there in no time. Just hold on for another few seconds, okay?!” Noctis practically shouted in surprise, as he ran up to the small lock and quickly froze it with a very small, but powerful frost spell and then smashed the frozen padlock underneath one of his large boots. The lock almost instantly shattered as though it was made of glass and Noctis proceeded to throw the locker door open with so much force, he nearly pulled the damn thing off its hinges.
With just one look at the absolutely destroyed and almost dead look in the familiar blue eyes that were usually so bright and full of life, Noctis wanted nothing more than to brutally destroy whoever the fuck was enough of a monster to lock his incredibly claustrophobic best friend into what was almost certainly his absolute worst nightmare come true.
There were so many things that Prompto wanted to say and do right now, but he just couldn’t make his body to do any of it. All he could do was curl up tight against Noct and hold on to him for dear-life, sobbing and scared that if he let go for even a moment, the raven-haired prince might disappear and he would wake up to find that he was still in that six-forsaken locker, helpless and alone with absolutely no-one knowing what had happened to him.
“Hey, it’s okay now, Prom.” Noctis uttered softly as he just sat there and held the shaken blonde tightly as he continued to let out painful, and heart-rending sobs that shook his entire body. Noct started lightly rubbing the blonde’s back with his hands in a circular motion, hoping it would help to calm him down enough so that they could get the hell out of here and get to somewhere, like his own apartment, where he was sure that Prompto would be much more comfortable. “Just let it all out, okay? I’ve got you… you’re safe now.” He continued to repeat like some kind of sacred mantra. “I swear to the almighty bahamut, that I’m going to find the bastards that did this to you and they’re going to pay…”
“N-no… I d-don’t- they- I just want to…” The blonde trailed off before he could properly finish his thought, and Noct didn’t press any further, but merely continued to hold the blonde tight for as long as was necessary to allow him to finally start to calm down and catch his breath.
After a few minutes of the two boys just sitting there and Noct continuing to whisper comforting words into the blonde’s ear, it seemed as though Prompto had finally started to calm down a little bit. Said blonde was currently in the process of practically melting into the raven’s warm and reassuring chest, his breathing having finally starting to even out and Noctis wouldn’t have been surprised if the other male had already fallen asleep then and there. He was sure that after going through such a traumatic event, Prompto had to be left utterly and completely spent… physically and emotionally.
Not wanting to disturb the blonde, but also knowing that they couldn’t just spend the rest of the night sitting in the middle of the boy’s locker room at school, Noctis carefully pulled out his phone, found Iggy’s number and dialed.
“Highness?” The usually very neutral advisor asked, failing at the moment to keep a combination of curiosity and worry out of his voice. “Did you manage to locate Prompto?”
“Yeah, I did.” Noctis replied flatly. “It’s a long story and I’ll explain it to you later, but I do have a favor to ask…”
“And that is…?” Ignis asked earnestly. If he were being completely honest, the advisor had to admit that he hadn’t been so super keen on the young, eclectic photographer when he had first met him after he and Noct had just started hanging out; but even Ignis couldn’t help but let the boy’s excitement and just all around overly positive attitude grown on him. He certainly had done a surprisingly good job of bringing Noctis out of his shell since the two boys had started hanging out, which had to count for something.
“All that stuff I had you get together earlier today? Yeah, could you make sure it’s all good to go at my apartment shortly?” The prince asked. “I’m going to bring Prompto back with me, but just so you know he might not be his usual exuberant self for reasons I’ll explain when we get there.”
“I assure you, I will make all the necessary arrangements, your highness.” Ignis replied effortlessly, and Noct knew that if there was anyone who would be able to get the job done, it was Iggy.
After ending the call and making sure his phone was placed back in his pocket, the prince once again focused on the blonde, who was still curled tightly against his chest, completely still and making absolutely no attempts to disentangle himself from the other.
“Hey, Prom…?” Noctis asked softly as he lightly prodded one of the blonde’s shoulder, of which he received a low hum as evidence that the blonde was indeed still awake and at least somewhat listening to Noct. “What do you say we get the hell out of here?” he asked lightly. “My apartment’s super close and the Regalia is right outside, so it won’t take long to get there and then we can just spend the rest of the night chilling or whatever you want to do.”
At this suggestion, Prompto finally managed to gather enough energy to turn his head just enough so that he could look Noctis straight in the eyes and the desperate and pleading look from the blonde was enough to confirm the answer to his question, although the blonde still uttered a soft, “Please… anywhere but here…” before once against hiding his face in the crook of Noct’s shoulder.
“Then it’s settled.” Noctis smiled, as he rearranged the blonde carefully so that he could easily heft the skinny boy up into his arms. They could finally get out of this damned building and get somewhere that Prompto would be able to feel safe and relax.
There was a part of Prompto that felt embarrassed that Noct was carrying him back to the Regalia waiting at the entrance of the school. Although, on the other hand, seeing as his entire body still felt completely numb, his legs felt like jelly, and he wasn’t all together convinced that he would even be able to stop his legs from buckling the moment he tried to put a semblance of weight on it; for right now, he would just have to graciously accept the other’s help.
“Sorry...” he muttered quietly as the two boys finally emerged into the now darkened skyline, the sun having finally descended below the horizon.
“Don’t even try to apologize.” Noctis replied, his reassuring tone unwavering. “None of this is your fault, I promise you that.” Prompto said nothing, but that didn’t stop the young prince from continuing to assure the blonde still settled in his arms. “Now, I believe that there is a certain celebration that we need to get to.”
“Celebration…?” the blonde muttered absentmindedly, apparently still quite distracted by everything that had happened to remember the simple fact of why today had been so significant in the first place.
“Yeah,” Noctis nodded as they finally reached the car, the man in charge of driving the raven-haired prince already having opened the door, so Noct could strategically maneuver himself to get both him and Prompto into the car without worrying about the hitting anything on the door frame. “You know as well as I do, that Gladio won’t have any qualms about eating all the food that Ignis put together if we don’t hurry our asses over there.” Noct laughed as he settled both him and Prompto in the spacious back seat. It could have been a trick of the light, but Noct could have sworn that Prompto had even managed a small smile in response to his jab at his sworn shield.
The rest of the short car ride pretty much consisted of Prompto almost instantly falling asleep with his head in Noct’s lap, and said raven simply laying back against his seat, staring blankly out the window. The longer that he thought about everything Prompto had told him about what had happened, the more he realized that Prompto had been targeted because of him. He knew the skinny photographer would deny everything, but deep down Noct knew the hard truth of the matter. All he could do now was to make extra sure that Prompto would be able to defend himself, if god forbid, something like this ever happened again. Maybe he could talk to Gladio at some point tonight about potentially giving Prompto a few self-defense classes… that should help things a little bit, at least until they could come up with a more permanent solution.
In what seemed like no time at all, Noctis noticed the Regalia pulling into the parking deck of his apartment complex, and so he took that as the cue to start lightly shaking the blonde’s shoulder, in an attempt to rouse him from the short nap the blonde had been taking on the way over.
The two boys proceeded to slowly make their way up to Noct’s apartment, Prompto having now decided to try and take his chances with seeing if he could make the short trek upstairs. He didn’t care so much that he was still leaning most of his weight on Noct; and thus ultimately using the raven-haired teen as a glorified crutch. He was just happy with the fact that Noct no longer needed to carry him around like some helpless invalid. The blonde wasn’t all together sure why his whole body had pretty much decided to quit on him, considering he didn’t even really have any serious injuries; but nevertheless, he continued on, determined to make it to the apartment before his body truly and completely gave out on him.
“Almost there… you’re doing great, Prom.” Noct grinned as he held tight to the blonde now practically attached to him at the hip. “Just gotta get over to the door and once we get to the apartment, I promise you can just go ahead and collapse on my couch.” Noct finished, and Prompto simply nodded as they finally got to the door moments later, and the raven knocked lightly a few times.
The door opened a few moments later to Prompto’s complete and utter surprise, since he had no idea that there would already be someone else in the apartment.
“Quite the impeccable timing, your highness.” Prompto instantly recognizing the accent, and especially formal tone, which could only belong to Noct’s royal advisor, Ignis. “I was just about to message you and let you know that we had finished. Gladio arrived here just a few minutes earlier than you two.”
Finished with what? Prompto wondered, although the question nearly died on his lips as Ignis pulled the door open wide and the blonde was able to finally get a good view of the apartment within.
The entire living room had been completely decked out with streamers and a whole bunch of brightly colored lights, with a huge bundle of balloons scattered here and there around the room. The dinner table that Prompto and Noct barely ever used, because they usually elected to just bring their food over to watch whatever movie or video game they were currently playing, was covered in a bright white tablecloth accented with what looked like hundreds of cute, little cartoon chocobos. There was even a small pile of packages that had been stacked at the far end of the large table and all Prompto could do was stare dumbly at the completely unexpected scene before him.
“W-What…?” he uttered softly, completely awestruck and also quite confused.
“What do you mean what?” Noct joked lightly, as he helped Prompto situate himself on the large couch in the center of the room. “Like I was going to pass up the chance of celebrating with my best friend on his birthday??” The raven grinned, as Ignis and Gladio proceeded to gather next to the awestruck blonde.
“Happy Birthday, Prompto…!” All three males chanted in unison, as Iggy revealed a small, exquisitely decorated cake with a single lit candle perched atop it.
Prompto blew out the candle quickly, hoping that the tears threatening to overflow once more, wouldn’t drip onto the cake and ruin all of Iggy’s hard work. He couldn’t help but smile as the wish he just made had already come true.
Despite everything else that had happened today, it seemed as though by some miracle, Prompto had still somehow gotten the birthday he had always wanted. Here he was, surrounded by people who honestly and truly cared about him, and he couldn’t think of any other way that he would have wanted to spend his birthday. So what if his absentee parents hadn’t been able to make it back to celebrate with him…? At this point, he was convinced that even if they had miraculously made it back to Insomnia on time, anything they could have done, would simply have paled in comparison to the happiness that he felt right now.
“You guys really didn’t have to do any of this…” Prompto started saying, and just as Noct had been about to argue, the blonde quickly finished with a, “But it really means a lot that you did... so, uh- thanks.” The blonde grinned, a grin finally reminiscent of his usual happy and bubbly self. If this was how other people felt when they celebrated their birthday surrounded by their loved ones, Prompto felt as though he was finally starting to see the charm of the whole thing for the first time in many years.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Gladio grinned as he loudly shattered the silence that had filled the room. “That cake’s not going to eat itself.”
“I do believe that the tradition is to have the person whose birthday it is, take the first slice.” Ignis chortled.
“Well then, get on with it why don’t you, Iggy?”
The two older males continued to banter back and forth as they once again disappeared back into the kitchen, so that Ignis could properly delve out portions for everyone. It wasn’t but a few moments later that the two returned with four plates, filled with possibly the most delicious looking plates Prompto had ever seen. He took one bite and practically shoved the entire rest of the cake into his mouth as fast as he possibly could without making himself sick.
The rest of the night carried on in much the same fashion, with the four boys joking and playing around with each other and messing around with super ridiculous party games. Prompto getting seriously choked up when he was told to open the presents that the three others had gotten him on the table, because he had honestly though that the packages on the table had been purely for decorative purposes. The night was quickly wrapping up as Noctis suggested they finish things off by watching one of Prompto’s favorite movies, which was how Prompto currently found himself curled up against the raven’s side, holding tightly onto the large stuffed chocobo that Noctis had gotten for him when he had traveled for some official event held at a Chocobo Ranch (he didn’t even know such a place even existed) just outside the city limits.
“Hey, Noct…?” he muttered quietly.
“Yeah.”
“Thanks... for everything. Really.”
“You’re welcome, Prom. I’m just sorry I got you caught up in all that shit earlier…” The prince mumbled, still unable to completely shake the guilt he had been feeling after he had found out what had happened to his best friend.
“Not your fault.” The blonde insisted. “I know this is going to sound ridiculous but… I dunno. I’m kinda glad that it happened in a way… cause then we might not have gotten to where we are right now without it. Is that weird?”
“Yeah it is,” Noct muttered back. “But lucky for you, I like your kind of weird.”
“Good to know.” Prompto laughed lightly. “I’ll have to keep that in mind for later.” The blonde yawned as he curled even closer against the young prince’s chest relishing in the comfort of knowing that right now… even if his parents were on an entirely different continent… right now, he was surrounded by his true family, and he was pretty sure it would be impossible for him be any happier than he was right now at this moment.