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Chapter Text

“I thought we were supposed to be getting more fire power this time!”

The words came across the communication line in a garbled mess of static and hissing. Nyx swore as the sharp words threw his aim off by a degree or two. He had no choice but to follow the thrown blade though, flashing after it with a burst of blue light. Catching the hilt of the kukri he quickly drew the other and threw again. This time he managed to hit his target, albeit a lot lower than he intended. He slammed painfully into the ruined wall he had been aiming for the top of. Gritting his teeth he dug his toes into the wall and pushed back far enough to see just how far off the mark he was.

“Son of a bitch...” he swore softly realizing that climbing the wall would be too slow and would make him a huge target.

That meant that he was going to have to warp the distance, about thirty feet straight up. Swearing again he lobbed his second kukri at the top of the wall. Ripping the other free he dropped for a second before his connection to the other blade allowed him to follow it. He shattered back into reality just above the edge of the wall. Shifting his weight midair he was able to land painfully on top of it, finally. Rolling onto his back he had mere moments before his communicator buzzed in his ear.

Tapping it he groaned, “What?”

“Hey, hero. You make it up alive?” Libertus drawled back at him, not phased by the irritated groan.

“I am you asshole. I thought you were supposed to be here to meet me,” Nyx growled as he pushed himself upright.

“Sorry!” Libertus grunted and Nyx realized just why his friend wasn’t there ee before he spoke. “I’m pinned down on the other end of the wall! Getting To you is gonna be tough!”

“Hang tight, buddy. I’m headed to you. Don’t die before I get there!” Nyx said already moving toward his friend.

Libertus grunted but said nothing else and the line went dead. Nyx shook his head and sheathed both kukris, breaking into a run. He barely made it two steps before the whole wall shook with a massive explosion. Fumbling Nyx found himself tripping over the now loose stones at his feet. Rolling across the unstable ground he came to his knees and looked wildly around. The whole wall was crumbling around him. Forcing himself to his feet the glaive tried to jump to more stable ground, reaching for a kukri as he did. A particularly loud gunshot caught his attention mere seconds before a bullet embedded itself in his shoulder, effectively killing his arm for the time being. Letting out a roar of pain he missed his window for safely grabbing the other kurki and warping out of the fall.

Debris fell around him even as he reached for the sable ground on the other side of the wall. Suddenly he felt a hand wrap around his wrist. The sudden anchor against gravity yanked harshly at his arm, causing him to cry out again. He dangled there for few seconds before the reality of everything set in.

“Libertus, you liar. I thought-!” he said before looking up at his rescuer, the words dying out as he got a look at the person.

This was by no stretch of the imagination his best friend. The face above him, half shielded by the Kingsglaive hood and mask, was far more recognizable and way too important to be out on the front lines. Nyx felt his throat constrict painfully as none other than the Crown Prince of Lucis pulled him back to safety. The prince, one he hauled the older man high enough, gripped fist-fulls of his coat to help pull him the rest of the way up. That lead to an imbalance of weight sending them both crashing to the ground.

Nyx was quick to sit up and start apologizing, “I’m so sorry, your Highness!”

Prince Noctis just stared up at him for a few seconds, face fully revealed since the hood and mask fell off at their landing, before he found his voice, “It’s fine. I just misjudged a little.”

Swallowing Nyx pushed himself of of the prince completely, wincing as the action jostled his shoulder. Noctis sait up quickly beside him with wide eyes as he reached for Nyx’s wounded shoulder. Gloved hands made contact and Nyx suddenly realized that the prince was wearing an actual Kingsglaive uniform. It was as basic as the basic uniform could get, allowing the prince to blend in with the rest of the glaives. That had him wondering why the prince was here in the first place.

He didn’t realize that he said that part out loud until the prince laughed softly, “I’m here because my dad promised you more fire power for next engagement. So here I am.”

“Why you though? You’re the prince,” Nyx knew he sounded like a whining child but he was more than a little concerned by the heir to the throne out on the front lines.

“It would have been my father had he not collapsed two days ago.”

Nyx froze at the soft words. The king? He would have been out on the front lines? Why? It made no sense. Regis hadn’t left the city in years. Some actually believed that it was impossible for him to leave because of the Wall. A sharp tsk pulled the glavie back to the present. Noctis was looking closely at his shoulder, trying not to touch it a much as he could.

“I can't do anything more than patch it until we can get someone to dig the bullet out,” he said pulling back and producing a small gauze patch.

“Don’t. We don’t have time for patch jobs. I need my arm more or less functional,” Nyx said putting one hand on the others wrist.

Noctis looked at him like he’d grown a second head, “Even if I heal it the bullet will still be affecting your range of motion.”

“I won’t be in danger of bleeding out. We need to move,” Nyx countered.

“Fine, but don’t blame me if you get hurt again,” Noctis growled as he all but threw a healing spell at the glaive.

Nyx hissed as the magic sealed the bullet inside his shoulder. It wasn’t an ideal situation but at least he could feel his fingers again. Shifting his arm he grit his teeth as the bullet rubbed against the bone. The prince watched with an impassive face as the glaive tested his arm. Finally getting a nod from the older man he stood and hauled the glaive to his feet. He was about to say something when his eyes widened. Tightening his grip on the other man he took off running. Nyx had no choice but to follow him, eyes wide. Throwing a look over his shoulder he swore as a smoking dropship came crashing into the section of wall they were on. At the last possible second the prince produced a greatsword and hurled it. Nyx felt his gut clench at being pulled into a warp with the prince but forced himself to go along with it.

They came crashing to the ground mere feet from Libertus just as the man finished killing the troops that had pinned him. Giving a shout at their sudden appearance Libertus ran to his best friend who was leaning against a broken section of wall. The Prince was lying just to his right, already struggling to his knees. Shaking his head the younger man forced himself to his feet. Libertus was shaking his friend awake and didn’t notice exactly who had just saved Nyx’s ass.

Turning back to the pair Noctis spoke, voice steely, “Stay put, both of you!”

“What? Who do you -?” Libertus started to shout only to realize just who he was talking to.

Noctis moved to the edge of the ruined wall, one hand curled loosely against his chest. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath. AFter a moment his eyes flew open and his hand snapped out to the side. With the sound of shattering crystal a ring of glowing ethereal weapons surrounded the young man. Rolling his neck Noctis brushed his fingers against the trident spinning lazily with the rest of the weapons. It glowed for a few seconds before the ring pulsed softly.

“Stay here,” he said once again before stepping into open space.

Libertus opened his mouth to protest even as Nyx called out to the prince. They both expected him to plunge to his death, stepping into thin air as he did. Instead the ring of phantom blades pulsed around him and he remained airborne. Leaning forward Noctis few at the next approaching drop ship, trailing blue phantoms in his wake. By now the other glaives were taking notice, everyone trying to figure out just who was capable of dishing out enough damage and who had enough power to literally fly around the battlefield.

Nyx raised a shaking hand to his ear, tapping his communicator, “that’s not one of us.”

“If it's not one of us who the hell is it?” Luche shouted angrily.

“Remember that extra firepower we were supposed to get for this fight?”

“Yeah, we never got it,” Luche growled darkly. “Why?”

“He’s it,” Nyx said voice barely above an awed whisper as the prince tore through several drop ships.

“Who’s it? Whoever is flying around tearing dropships to ribbons?”

Nyx swallowed thickly before speaking again, “Yeah. You’re never gonna guess who it is.”

Before anyone could make a guess the figure ringed in glowing blue weapons was knocked from the sky by a shell fired from a Dreadnaught. There were several shouts as he fell. As he dropped to the ground the ground seemed to split open with a loud cracking sound. From the massive crack a large hand reached for the falling form. Thick brown fingers closed around the small body even as a larger one rose from the ground. Glaives could only watch in amazement as the Archaean freed himself from the bottom of the rift.. The massive god hauled himself all the way up to where the fighting was the thickest, one massive hand still curled into a loose fist. Moving onto the stone bar the god finally released his curled fist. There, rubbing at his head, was the prince. He still had the glowing ring of weapons floating around him and they moved with him as he stood. It seemed that he was talking to the Astral for a few moments before leaping off his perch.

“Why the hell did he leap off? I thought it would be safer for him with the Archaean than on his own,” Libertus said waving a hand at them.

“I would have thought the same but look!” Nyx pointed silvery eyes wide.

At that moment the god reached down and ripped loose a massive chunk of rubble with both hands. With a roar the massive being hurled the rubble at the Nif Dreadnaughts still trying to shell the glaive. The rock was large enough that there was no missing any of the ships it was launched at. They all went up in brilliant, fiery explosions. Still the Archaean remained to tear a few more ships appart before he faded. Libertus and Nyx just watched in silent awe as the massive deity vanished. A shout above them had both men looking up.

“I’m surprised you listened to me!” Noctis shouted down as he drifted back to ground.

As soon as his feet hit the ground the weapons dissipated with a bright flash of light. The action seemed to send a small gust of wind whirling around the prince, ruffling his hair and clothes. HE smiled at the two glaives while the others celebrated making the Nifs retreat. They were almost back to the base camp when a shout came over the coms. Whirling around they saw that several dropships, flanked by Dreadnoughts, were towing something toward them. The massive thing was giving off smoke as the fading light touched it.

“Is that a demon?” Libertus asked voice almost nonexistent.

“It’s burning. It has to be a demon,” Nyx whispered.

“A man-made daemon, by the looks of it,” Noctis added, blue eyes wide. “The Nifs somehow created their own demon...”

They could only watch in horror as the monster ripped itself free of its restraints, tearing a few dropships from the air as it did. Orders to retreat were all but screeched out over the comms as the monster roared behind them. Vaulting over pieces of rubble the trio bolted for their camp. They didn’t get very far before demons had them all but surrounded. Readying their weapons Nyx hissed as he tried to move his left arm higher than about his waist. The sound had the other two pulling closer to him.

“This is gonna make getting back to base hard, you know that right?” he asked brandishing the one kukri he could.

“Hard?” Libertus laughed harshly. “Try impossible, hero. We’re not gonna make it out of this. Either these things are gonna get us or the big one will. This is it for us.”

A low growl drew their attention to the prince, “The hell this ends here.”

Releasing his sword the prince stepped forward, eyes glowing a violent magenta color. Everything seemed to coalesce around the heir to the throne and the demons backed up from the trio. The wind kicked up around them until it was howling in their ears. The force of it actually had Nyx and Libertus on their knees. Noctis stood at the epicenter of this mini tornado of energy, the very air around him seeming to crackle with power.

“You owe me this,” he whispered slowly.

The two glaives looked at each other worriedly but before they could say anything to the prince the sky split open. Everything looked up; demon, monster, human and robot. From the sky the God of War descended. The Draconian was resplendent in his gold and blue armor, the fading light of dusk glinting off of him. After seeming to survey the area for a moment the deity turned on the giant demon. Slowly the deity hefted his massive sword, holding it point up in front of his face before flying at the demon.

The monster roared at the god hurtling toward it and moved to try and counter attack but the hulking body couldn’t match the Draconians speed. Bahamut’s sword cut deep into one of the thing’s massive shoulders and setting off a massive explosion. An earth shaking roar split the night as the Astral flew backwards. Flipping over in the air briefly Bahamut rose higher into the air. As he did so his wings shattered into their component blades, only to be replaced by elegant red banners. They formed a swirling ring around the god that he held for a few seconds before launching all of them at the demon. Every blade met a mark, whether it was in the massive demon or in a Nif ship. The formerly Niflheim controlled side of the field went up in flames in the wake of the Astral’s assault.

As the wings reformed around the Draconian he turned, piercing eyes landing directly on Nyx, “I leave the Chosen King to you. Care for the stubborn fool, keep him safe.”

Chapter Text

Nyx just stared at the god for a few moments as the deity faded out of existence. A shout from Libertus had his attention snapping back to the prince. Noctis swayed dangerously on his feet, one hand raising slowly to his head. Swearing softly Nyx leaped forward right as his right knee buckled. The prince dropped like a rock into Nyx’s arms, sending both crashing to the ground. Groaning in pain due to the weight on his shoulder Nyx shifted so they were both lying against a pile of nearby rubble. The shift had the prince’s head lolling against the glaive’s neck.

“Son of a bitch...” Nyx swore softly at the blood dripping from the royal’s lips.

Apparently summoning a god or two was far more energy consuming than he or anyone realized. It wasn’t impossible, clearly, it just took far more out of people than just calling on one. Carefully Nyx pressed two fingers to the prince’s throat, searching for a pulse. When he finally found it, beating strongly if a little slow, he let out a breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding. He was going to be just fine. Leaning his head back Nyx became aware of Libertus hovering at his side.

“He’s gonna be fine, big guy. He’s just out cold,” Nyx murmured with a faint smile. “I guess summoning two gods in one day is a bit much for our dear prince.”

“That stunt coulda killed him, Nyx! And for what? Defending us? Saving our skins? What does he gain from that?” Libertus questioned, dark eyes flicking back and forth between the unconscious prince and his best friend.

Shaking his head Nyx sighed, “I’m gonna tell you what he told me when I asked why he was here and what I already said. We were told we were gonna get more firepower fro this next fight, right? Well, he’s the extra firepower.”

“That’s bullshit! Sure, he’s powerful as hell, but why risk the crown bloody prince in a fight like this?” Libertus shook head head sharply, unwilling to think that the king had willingly sent his son into a war zone just because the glaive begged for help.

“It was going to be his Majesty.”

That brought the large man’s pacing to a grinding halt. Turning slowly Libertus looked at his best friend closely. The ashen haired warrior just looked back at him seriously. Swearing colorfully in Galahdian and Lucian the man sat down roughly next to the pair. Neither was actually in any kind of shape to go anywhere so they had to wait for the others to come find them. Thankfully Noctis had made their position stupidly obvious when he summoned the Draconian. The resultant wind funnel had blown most of the light debris out far enough away from them that it would be easy to get to them.

Amazing their rescue came in the form of several mages, Crowe included, vaulting over a stone wall behind them. Libertus staggered to his feet with a shout at seeing the brunette mage. She shamelessly threw herself into his arms when she was close enough, content to hold her adopted brother close for a few moments. When she finally did let go her first reaction was to sucker punch him in  the shoulder.

“Ow! Wadyado that for?” he asked sharply rubbing the sore spot.

“That’s for being an idiot and getting cornered like that!” she snapped back brushing a hand across her face angrily.

Libertus looked down, recognizing the motion for what it was, “I’m sorry, Crowe. I tried not to get blocked out like that but...”

“It’s fine, you lunkhead. I’m just glad you’re OK,” Crowe smiled lightly smacking him with a glowing hand.

The large man sighed happily as the healing spell soothed his aches and pains. Giving the shorter glaive a smile he turned back to Nyx. Several other mages were crouched around the pair still on the ground. One had gently shifted the prince around so that the could get to Nyx’s shoulder. Mumbling something about a bullet in his shoulder earned the man a sharp reprimand. Libertus laughed under his breath as one of the mages was forced to cut open the man’s shoulder to dig out the bullet before trying to heal him again. Nyx bore the abuse with grace, only grimacing once or twice during the whole thing.  

By this point the amount of shifting had managed to rouse the prince somewhat. Bleary blue eyes drifted from person to person before settling on Nyx. The Galahdian gave the younger man a wave and a smile. Well, it would have been a smile if not for one of the mages finally getting a grip on the bullet in his shoulder.

“Told you it ws bad idea...” Noctis mumbled blearily managing to pull himself a little more upright.

“Highness!” several voices shouted all at once, earning a grimace from the young royal.

“Tone it down... I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’m awake...” he muttered putting a hand to his head.

“What was such a bad idea, Highness?” one of the glaives asked slowly, mindful of the volume.

Noctis rubbed at the bridge of his nose for a moment more before replying, “He had me heal his shoulder with the bullet still in it. I told him that it was a bad idea but he insisted.”

“You moron!” Crowe shouted, hitting Nyx in the head with a pebble.

“Hey! I needed to not be bleeding out while we were trying to finish this battle! There wasn’t time to dig out the bullet and then heal my arm,” Nyx defended himself loudly even as another healing spell was cast on him.

“Still shouldn’t have insisted on leaving it there,” Noctis grumbled, wiping the blood from his lips and scowling at it. “Remind me to never do that again.”

“Do what?” Crowe asked softly, hyper aware of how she really should not be asking such a question of royalty.

“Summon two gods within the span of five minutes. That really did a number on me and I really don’t like feeling like half of my insides just got ripped out through my throat,” the prince groused before smiling at the brunette

“That is really a disgusting image and now I can’t unsee any of it...” Nyx muttered, looking slightly green.

“I gotta agree with the hero on this one, Highness. That was pretty bad,” Libertus chimed in with a shake of his head. “Especially after...”

Noctis held up a hand, fully aware of where that statement was going, “Sorry about that. When I get tired I have no filter whatsoever. It’s just gonna get worse the longer we’re out here like this. Sorry.”

The others shared uneasy looks before carefully hauling both the prince and Nyx to their feet. Both men swayed slightly once they were upright. Noctis looked like he was going to actually get sick just from standing. HE still had blood on his face from when he summoned the Draconian. Nyx pulled away from the mages beside him to carefully loop an arm around the royal’s waist. The prince said nothing, just leaned into the glaive’s side. After taking a few deep breaths with his face pressed to the other man’s side Noctis finally straightened a bit.

“Sorry... I’ve never tried to summon two Astrals in a row before... I had no idea what it would do...,” he whispered, exhaustion finally catching up with him.

“It’s fine, Your Highness. You saved our asses out there,” Crowe murmured with a faint bow.

“Don’t call me that, please...” Noctis shook his head slowly as he leaned a little more on Nyx. “Just call me Noct.”

The glaives hesitated for a few seconds before Nyx spoke, “Can you walk, Noct? Or do you need to be carried?”

“I would love to say that I can walk, but I feel like the moment I try to step away from you I’m gonna collapse... Sorry,” Noctis mumbled into the taller man’s chest.

Nyx looked back at the mages still surrounding them. Some of them looked a little nervous about the prince’s condition but Crowe just nodded at him when he caught her eye. Taking a deep breath and praying that he wasn’t going to be eviscerated by an angry deity Nyx stooped to bring the prince up into his arms. Noctis let out a small surprised sound as Nyx swung him up into a bridal carry, but said nothing. One arm slid around the older man’s neck while the prince’s forehead settled against the side of his neck.

“Sorry...” Noctis mumbled again, sounding like he was two seconds from going to sleep on them.

“It’s cool,” Nyx murmured back, arms tightening briefly on the other. “Do you think you can try to stay awake long enough for us to make it back to base camp?”

Noctis just gave a barely there shrug before going almost completely limp. Nyx could still feel the other’s hands clenched around fist fulls of his coat. HE took the continued grip to mean that the royal was doing his best to stay with them. Looking back at the mages he found that several had already started clearing a path for them. Libertus barely touched his elbow as he came to stand beside him.

Without a word the group moved off. They picked up several stragglers as they neared their base camp. Everyone did a double take at seeing the prince in Nyx’s arms but no one spoke. Despite being grateful for the silence Nyx almost wished that one of them would try and speak. It would help take his worry off of the silent royal in his arms. Noctis was still with them but the fact that he was so quiet was a little worrisome.

When they arrived back at their camp Nyx flinched when a loud shout drew everyone’s attention, “Ulrich!”

“Shit, the Captain is so pissed...” he mumbled.

To his surprise that earned a faint chuckle from the prince in his arms before he lifted his head, “Don’t stress it too much... I’ll try and smooth things over with him.”

“You sure you’re up to that?” Nyx asked softly shifting his grip on the royal as they moved closer to the irate Drautos.

“If I can deal with him when my brain it trying to melt its way out of my skull I think I can handle him when my body feels like it should be a pile of dust,” Noctis replied carefully rolling his neck with a smile.

Nyx just shook his head but said nothing, choosing instead to shift his grip on the royal a bit. Drautos stormed right up to the group, for the most part missing seeing the royal in Nyx's arms. Noctis took the whole thing in stride. He stayed quiet right up until when Drautos was about to rip into Nyx and Libertus for not falling back when the order was given.

“Excuse me, Captain, may I add something here?” Noctis asked, his voice having taken on a very noticeable tone.

Drautos froze, mouth wide open before he looked down at the royal. Noctis just smirked and settled the hand that had been around Nyx’s neck into his lap. The rest of the glaives behind them were having a hard time not snickering at the absolutely flabbergasted look on the captain's face at the sight of the royal. Noctis just gave the man a raised eyebrow before slowly folding his arms across his chest.

“My apologies, Your Highness. I did not see you there,” Drautos bowed stiffly.  “I...”

“Let’s get me settled somewhere else where we can talk about what happened and why I’m here shall we?” Noctis gestured to one of the tents set up in the area. “Besides, I think this one could use a break from hauling me around.”  

“Y-yes, Your Highness...” Drautos stammered as he turned and headed back into the command tent.

Nyx glanced down at the royal and got a small smirk in response. Shaking his head slowly the glaive followed his commander. This was going to be one hell of an interesting conversation, that was for certain. He just hopped that it wouldn’t end in him getting fired.  

Chapter Text

After properly getting the prince settled in a chair with someone there to look him over Nyx was allowed to head to the medical tent. Sure, the mages had patched him up but he needed proper medical treatment for the bullet wound in his shoulder. As soon as he left Drautos turned to the prince and started apologizing for whatever Nyx might have done while out in the field. Noctis just watched the man for a few seconds, trying to process what was going on, before finally finding his voice.

“Captain, calm down,” Noctis found himself ordering before the other man could start in on another apology. “I’m fine, he didn’t put me in any danger, don’t take this out on him. He had nothing do do with it.”

“Then please explain why and how you are here, Your Highness. It is highly unusual for royalty to take the field with us, especially in such a situation as this one. You could have been killed,” the captain said sinking slowly into the folding chair opposite the prince.

“Well, first off let me say that it wasn’t even supposed to be me out here with you all for this fight,” Noctis began before the other man cut him off.

“If it wasn’t supposed to be you then who was supposed to be here?” Drautos asked sharply, fully aware that he was interrupting the Crown Prince but not fully caring.

“It was supposed to be my father.”

The words stunned everyone in the tent into silence. Drautos and the doctor tending to the royal just stared at him with wide eyes as the processed that information. It was supposed to be King Regis out here fighting with them... the king almost never left the city. How was that supposed to work? For King Regis to even leave the Citadel it took a media spectacle and a half just to get him out the front door. How in the world was he supposed to make it all the way out to the front lines without alerting the whole kingdom and the Empire?

Noctis could see the question in the other man’s eyes and spoke before it could be voiced, “The only reason he’s not here is because he collapsed the other day. As it turns out, it's not all that hard to get a generic Kingsglaive uniform that fits. I just had to keep the hood up and my head down while you were making your rounds. After that it was relatively simple, I just followed everyone else.”

“We... probably should... do something about that then...” Drautos muttered slowly, earning a laugh from the royal.

“Might be a good idea, yeah,” Noctis smiled turning briefly to thank the doctor before turning back to the older man. “Hey, can I keep this uniform?”

Drautos blinked for a moment and looked at the royal, “S-sure. I think after that performance out there you might have just earned it.”

“Cool, I was kind expecting you to say no, but this is still cool,” Noctis smiled as he tugged lightly on the jacket’s sleeves.

The older man just watched Noctis as he smoothed a hand down the front of the uniform, wondering how in the world he could go from Crown Royal to over excited teenager in the span of a few seconds. Shaking his head slowly Drautos pulled out his phone, quietly messaging Clarus to try and confirm the prince’s story. When the Shield messaged him back a few seconds later he let out a slow sigh. Sure enough King Regis had indeed planed on joining the glaive for their next major battle. He had given the glaive a promise of more firepower on their next major battle.

No one had been too sure what in the world that meant at the time. Now, though, it made all the sense in the world. The royals were not known as living weapons for nothing. With their Armiger of phantom weapons and their skill with all weapon types Drautos wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in the Kingsglaive and Crownsguard manuals there was probably a line that read “When a royal is present in a fight, throw the royal at the biggest thing there”. That would not surprise him in the least, especially after having seen not one but two Astrals descend to fight at the behest of the Crown Prince.

The presence of the prince and the two deities did, however, throw a Titan sized wrench in his plans. He knew what was supposed to happen; the glaives were supposed to be unable to stand against the massive daemon, counting this as a victory for the Empire. Unfortunately with the tow god's acting at the prince’s direction that did not happen. Instead Lucis very much won this fight and proved that even a man made daemon couldn’t stand against the might of the divine. This was not going to end well, for anyone.

“Something wrong, Captain?”

The prince’s voice snapped Drautos out of his head and he turned to look at the royal. Noctis was giving him a concerned look with his head tilted to the side a bit. Swallowing thickly the man assured the other that nothing was wrong. Noctis just gave him a soft smile and leaned back in his seat a bit.

“If you will excuse me for just a moment, Your Highness. I need to step out for a bit,” Drautos said rising from his seat with a shallow bow.

Noctis just smiled and waved a hand, “No worries, Captain. I’ll be right here. Though, if you do see Sir Ulric wandering around out there I would like to talk to him. As well as Sir Ostium and Lady Altius. If you don’t mind.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” the older man demurred before bowing out of the tent.

No sooner had the tent flap swung closed that the smile on the royal’s face faded. The medic had long since left the tent, leaving the royal completely alone. Letting out a sigh Noctis pinched the bridge of his nose. A few seconds later his phone let out a familiar chime even as a small warm body situated itself into his lap. Dropping a hand without looking he stroked his fingers through soft green-ish grey fur as he pulled out the little device.

“Everything alright?” the message read.

“Not quite, my friend. Something is wrong with the captain and I think I know what. I just need to get him to admit it before I can do anything about it,” Noctis murmured as he gently rubbed Carbuncle’s ears, enjoying the feel of the dream astral’s fur on his fingers.

Carbuncle just looked at him before another message popped up on the prince’s phone, “and how do you plan on getting him to say anything. He seems more than a little tight lipped about what’s going on in his head. I would imagine you would have a hard time getting anything out of him.”

“I might be able to get something out of him. I just need something small, just a little slip,” Noctis murmured, not wanting any passing glaives to think he was losing his mind.  

“If you’re so certain, then I wish you good luck. You know the gods, all of us, are on your side,” Carbuncle said as he rubbed his head along the underside of the royal’s chin.

“Thank you, my friend,” Noctis murmured, giving the astral one last squeeze before he faded. “I won’t fail them all this time. I will make sure they all make it through this.”