Chapter Text
Prompto can’t believe his eyes.
He blinks twice and then rubs them, and then he even squints, but what he’s seeing is very much there in front of him. Unless he’s hallucinating, Noctis Lucis Caelum is on the cover of a magazine aimed at teenage girls. How did that happen when Prompto can barely get his best friend to be in his own photos? And Prompto’s photos aren’t nearly as campy as the cover of this magazine. Prompto wonders if he should tell Noct he's insulted and use it to guilt trip him into agreeing to do a photo shoot for him.
In the photo Noct pouts in a very Instagram-model manner, but Prompto’s pretty sure that’s just a mix of Noct being tired and unwilling to cooperate, his natural ability to look good no matter what expression he wears, plus some poor magazine employee having to spend hours in front of photoshop so that they don’t make the Crown Prince of Lucis look like a total douchebag.
He wears colors — not just black, white, or gray— which is very not Noctis, but Prompto doesn’t think that was by choice. Prompto would ask why Noct failed to mention that he was fucking posing for a teen magazine cover, but he’s pretty sure he already knows the answer. Prompto wouldn’t ever let him live it down.
But now Prompto’s found out anyway.
He briefly skims the words on the cover; different mini-headlines in block letters advertise articles, and interviews, and—
In bright blue lettering, overlapping Noct’s elbow where it juts out to one side, Prompto reads the most hilarious thing he’s ever had the fortune to see in his life.
IS THE CROWN PRINCE YOUR PRINCE CHARMING? (pg 56)
Prompto can’t help himself. He laughs and snatches the magazine off the rack. He brings it to the front counter— Noct’s already up there, handle of the bag undoubtedly filled with unhealthy snacks around his wrist, phone in hand as he texts someone or other or scrolls through Instagram or something— and nearly slams it down, forcing his laughter under control.
“Is that all?” the cashier, a middle-aged woman with a round face and crow’s feet near her eyes, asks.
Prompto nods. “Yup.”
At this point, Noctis seems to notice what his best friend is up to because Prompto hears him groan. “Really, dude?”
“Really, dude,” Prompto replies, grinning at Noct who rolls his eyes.
Prompto hands the gil over to the cashier as Noct complains about “embarrassing” and “didn’t want to” and “seriously?”
“But you did,” Prompto replies, “and you didn’t even tell me, so—” Prompto pauses. Has a realization. He sends Noct a sideways glance, eyebrows raising slightly, as they exit the convenience shop. “Please tell me that Iggy and Gladio don’t know either.”
Noctis groans again. “You’re the worst,” he says, but even he’s smiling a little now, so Prompto takes that as a win. He also assumes it means that Iggy and Gladio don’t know, and Prompto really can’t wait to see the look on both of their faces.
“Are they still coming tonight?” Prompto asks.
Noctis nods.
“Oh perfect. Then all four of us can take the quiz.”
“What quiz?”
“Dude, the quiz.” Rather than tell Noctis outright, Prompto taps the teal block letters on the cover with his index finger.
Noct reads it while they walk and immediately he scrunches his nose a little. “What the…” he mutters, more to himself than Prompto, probably. “Well, that explains all the questions about what I’m looking for in a romantic partner.” Then he shakes his head. “All four of us? You want me to take a quiz about myself?”
“It’ll be fun,” Prompto says.
“You think everything is fun.”
“Says the guy who likes fishing.” Prompto hits his shoulder against Noct’s, and Noct stumbles sideways a bit, clearly not anticipating it.
Noctis doesn’t have any defense for that apparently, because he says nothing. It’s a bright afternoon, rays of sunlight streaming past the edges of the tall buildings that make up the Crown City. Warm as it is there’s a slight breeze that keeps the heat from making Prompto sweat as they walk back towards Noct’s apartment.
There’s a few other people walking along the sidewalk. Noct has a tendency to walk fast, regardless of whether they actually have somewhere to be, so it’s not surprising when he huffs impatiently as they end up stuck walking behind a lady with three children, two holding each of her hands and a third holding one of the other children’s hands.
Prompto grins and the back of his hand brushes against Noct’s.
Noctis glances at him. “What?”
“Oh, hmmm— nothing,” Prompto replies with a grin.
Noct shakes his head but smiles back.
A few minutes later, Noctis turns the key in the doorknob of his apartment and pushes through. Prompto sighs in relief at the rush of cool air from the air-conditioning that’s been on inside the apartment.
“It’s so dark in here,” he says, stepping into Noct’s kitchen and pulling the string to open the shades.
“You made me get up to hang out with you,” Noctis replies.
“It was almost one when I texted you!”
“Exactly.”
Prompto rolls his eyes and finds a seat in a plush armchair with his feet up, legs crisscrossed. He’s pretty sure it isn’t proper etiquette, but Noct’s taken up the whole loveseat by himself, lying with his feet hanging off the arm of it.
“You better not fall asleep,” Prompto says.
Noctis makes a sound that tells Prompto he’s heard, but that he isn’t really listening. Prompto reaches down to the floor, where the living room pillows Noctis no doubt did not buy himself sit, and then throws one at his best friend.
“Okay, okay,” Noctis says, shifting so that he’s sitting up. “I’m not falling asleep.”
Ignis and Gladio arrive shortly after, and the four of them spend the evening mostly shooting the shit with each other. Noct puts something on the TV, but none of them really watch it. At some point, Noct breaks out his bag of snacks, and Ignis predictably insults his eating habits, and Noct ignores it.
It isn’t until Ignis stands up and says something about having an early start tomorrow that Prompto remembers the magazine.
“Wait,” he says, “Did you guys know—”
He cuts off and gets up to find it. Gladio protests, “Can’t just say that and then literally walk away mid-sentence,” but Prompto ignores him. He finds the magazine tucked between the arm and the cushion of the chair he had been sitting on earlier and then returns to where the others are and puts it face-up in front of Gladio and Ignis.
Three things happen simultaneously. Gladio laughs, and Ignis raises his eyebrows and says, “Noct…,” and Noctis groans.
“I was hoping that you forgot,” Noctis says.
“How could I forget this, buddy?”
“Yeah,” Gladio says, eyebrows lacing together, “how could you forget?”
“Can we not talk about this tonight?” Noct asks.
“It looks like it might be a long story, so I’m going to have to agree with Noctis,” Ignis says. “Seeing as I was already on my way out.”
After Gladio and Ignis say goodbye, Noct looks at Prompto. “I’m getting pretty beat, too. You staying over?”
Prompto shrugs. “I mean, I wasn’t planning to.”
Noctis hums, thinking. Then he says, “Did you at least turn on the AC at your house before you left this morning?”
“No,” Prompto says, slowly.
“Then you’re staying over,” Noctis supplies for him.
“Okay,” Prompto says, grinning at his best friend.
#
Prompto wakes up the next morning on Noctis’ couch, neck and back angry at him. Light streams into the room from the windows in the kitchen that he opened yesterday. They had never closed them, and Prompto’s surprised that even Ignis didn’t notice they were open once they turned the lights on it was dark outside. For a Prince who likes privacy, Noctis doesn’t really think all that much about taking the measures to keep it.
It’s eight, which is far too early for Noctis to be conscious yet, so Prompto rolls over to his side and scrolls through Instagram for a few minutes before giving up on that. He notices the magazine on the coffee table and grins to himself as he remembers finding it on a magazine rack at a convenience store the previous afternoon.
IS THE CROWN PRINCE YOUR PRINCE CHARMING? (pg 56)
Oh, yeah. The quiz. Prompto grabs for the magazine and opens it to a random page. He has to flip through a bit to find the quiz, and then when he does he laughs at how simple the questions are. It’s ten questions and multiple choice.
“No margin for error there,” Prompto says, laughing to himself.
Prompto doesn’t have a pencil or a pen, but it’s only ten questions so it’s not impossible to keep track of the answers in his mind. He answers all the questions easily, mostly going with his instinct. He has a feeling he knows what the answers to get the ideal result are. After all, he knows Noctis better than anyone.
Big romantic gestures and high maintenance stuff? That’s not Noct. At least that’s not Noct his best friend. Noctis Lucis Caelum, Crown Prince has other priorities. Prompto is pretty sure none of those include spending a long time getting his apartment ready to romance a girl.
Prompto laughs, if only the girls taking this knew how messy Noct’s apartment is. Heck, Noct has never really even talked about girls in their whole time as friends. Prompto knows that Noctis and Luna and friends, but Noctis has ever indicated he feels anything more than that towards the only girl besides Gladio’s little sister that Noct has ever mentioned.
The quiz goes so far as to even ask about favorite color. But since it’s multiple choice and Prompto’s favorite color isn’t there (really all of these options have been close enough at best), he just goes with yellow since it makes him think of chocobos. Noct would probably go with black, or gray, but those aren’t options, so he’d settle for blue.
Prompto’s sure of that.
Prompto finishes the quiz. He skims down to the results and finds If you picked mostly C… and he almost doesn’t read it. After all, it’s a silly quiz in a magazine written by someone who’s maybe had a five-minute conversation with Noctis at most. He almost doesn’t read it.
Still, he shakes his head. He’s just having fun. And he spent the last few minutes actually reading all the questions and picking answers so he might as well just read the thing, if only to see what someone who barely knows Noct thinks that liking the color yellow has to do with the Crown Prince of Lucis falling in love with someone.
Shaking his head, Prompto turns his attention back to the results paragraphs.
If you picked mostly C…
CONGRATS! You two are a perfect match! You’re a sunny personality and exactly what the Crown Prince is looking for. You and Prince Noctis complement each other well, and before you even realize it he’ll be totally head over heels for you!
Prompto thinks that maybe he should find this result amusing, but instead, he feels uncomfortable. His heart beats too fast in his chest and it’s stupid; it’s just a silly quiz it’s not serious. It’s not like Noct would ever actually fall in love with him.
He laughs aloud if only to force himself to brush it off, and fiddles with his wristband.
All the results probably say something similar. Right? Isn’t that how these things usually go. Prompto quickly skims through the others, and…
If you picked mostly A… You and Prince Noctis could never even get along, never mind fall in love...
If you picked mostly B… You and Prince Noctis would make great friends! But nothing more than that…
If you picked mostly D… You and Prince Noctis are more like brother and sister…
He doesn’t need to read the entirety of them to get the gist and— Well, it shouldn’t change anything that they don’t all say the same thing. The quiz is just a silly marketing tactic to get teenage girls to buy the magazine that has the prince on the cover of it.
Still, Prompto’s gut twists.
Prompto tries to rationalize it, even though he knows it’s a stupid quiz and it doesn’t need to be rationalized. He and Noct are best friends. In high school people constantly mentioned how the two of them were inseparable. So maybe the quiz is right, in a way, just... minus the romantic aspect.
It’s probably best that he doesn’t tell his best friend that a silly magazine quiz thinks that they’d make the perfect couple.
#
“Turns out we’re not compatible, buddy. Maybe Gladio can be your knight in shining armor.”
Noctis snorts. “Well, he is my Sworn Shield, so—”
Prompto laughs at the imaginary concept of Gladio being someone’s knight in shining armor. Knight in leather, maybe. Though that makes him sound like a stripper which is even more ridiculous and something Prompto doesn’t want to think about.
Noct has just woken up. His hair stands in about thirty more directions than usual, and he’s yawning while pouring himself a bowl of cereal, and Prompto can’t help himself.
“Smile, buddy,” he says, taking a few pictures of his friend, ignoring Noct’s protests. Prompto grins at his handiwork. “Oh, these are going to make great blackmail one day.”
Noctis groans. “Dude.”
Rather than walking like a normal person, Noctis hops over the back of the couch and slides down into the seat next to Prompto. He places his bowl of cereal on the dark wood of the coffee table, then he grabs the magazine off it.
He shakes his head.
“Why would Noctis Lucis Caelum agree to be featured in a teen magazine?” Prompto asks.
Noctis puts the magazine down in his lap and leans his back over the top of the couch. “I was probably half asleep when they called to ask if I would do it. I might have said yes just so they’d stop calling.”
“How’d they even get your number? I thought Ignis handled all that stuff.”
Noct rolls his eyes. “A few always slip through. It’s not like it’s exactly difficult to find with the right internet subscriptions.”
“So you agreed to be in a teen magazine because you wanted to go back to sleep?”
Noct knocks his shoulder against Prompto’s, exhales through his nose like a laugh. “Shut up.”
“Nah,” Prompto replies.
Noct settles back into the couch and flips open the magazine. A few minutes pass in silence, and Prompto watches his best friend read through the quiz about himself. He looks at Noct’s dark eyelashes slanted towards the page, the rise and fall of his chest, the bridge of his nose, straight and regal and—
Two realizations hit Prompto in the face. First, his best friend is going to be the King of Lucis one day. Second, Noct is beautiful. Prompto blinks, surprised by his own line of thought and quickly looks away from Noctis.
“Well,” Noctis says, putting the magazine back on the table, pages open. “It turns out I’d be a terrible match for myself, too.”
Prompto tries to laugh and still doesn’t let himself look at Noctis. “Ha… yeah… you and you are just too similar.”
“Prom…” Noctis starts. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Prompto says, and now he forces himself to look at Noct. Nothing has changed, not really. Noct still looks like he just got of bed and his hair is kind of silly, really. His eyes are too deep, too intense now that Prompto’s looking at him differently. “Yeah,” he repeats. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Noct narrows his eyes, and Prompto tries to grin, tries not to squirm under his best friend’s gaze. His best friend who is one day going to be the fucking King of all of fucking Lucis. His best friend who is maybe one of the most beautiful people he’s ever laid eyes on and–
Well, Prompto’s known those things for a while. Somewhere in the back of his mind. Sure, Noct is Prince. Sure, Noct is attractive, even if Prompto isn’t attracted to him. And the first thing, the realizing Noctis is going to be king, well that doesn’t change anything. Prompto knows that his friend will probably be the best king that Lucis has ever seen. He has exactly zero doubts about that. And realizing it suddenly has him feeling even more loyal to Noct, something Prompto didn’t even think possible.
But the second one. Well, it’s tripping Prompto up. He likes girls, and Noctis is his best friend, and he’s going to have to marry a woman and continue the royal bloodline and—
“Prompto,” Noct says, grabbing his shoulder. “Breathe.”
Prompto hadn’t even realized he wasn’t. He takes one slow breath. And then another.
“Sorry, Noct,” Prompto says. “Kinda got stuck in my head there.”
“Yeah, clearly,” Noct says.
He removes his hand from Prompto’s shoulder, uses it to run his hand through Prompto’s hair. Prompto’s sure it feels tacky from leftover product that he slept in overnight in, and he probably looks just as ridiculous as Noctis, but he takes a breath anyway. As soon as Noct’s hand pulls away he realizes with a pang that he misses the contact.
“You wanna talk about it?” Noctis asks.
Prompto shakes his head. “Nah, it’s uh— it’s nothing. I don’t want to bother you with my problems.”
Noctis frowns. “It wouldn’t be bothering me, Prom.”
Prompto isn’t sure what to say, really, but he thinks he needs to go home now. “I— uh— Sorry Noct. I’m just gonna go home and chill there if that’s okay.”
“Yeah,” Noctis says. “Okay. If you’re sure.”
Prompto nods, probably too quickly. “Yeah,” he says, “I’m sure.” He stands up. “See ya, Noct.”
“Yeah,” Noct says, and Prompto doesn’t miss the hint of concern in his voice, but still he doesn’t turn to look at him. “Bye, Prom.”