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Noctis was never really the one who would be awake at night, but the never-ending thoughts about his marriage to Lunafreya, his late father, and the fall of Insomnia had still rampaged in his head. He squints at the clock and lets out a heavy sigh, but not loud enough for the others to wake up.
How is it only 2:07 in the morning?
Admitting defeat, he glances over at Prompto and lingers his gaze at his rising and falling chest. He’s just happy that Prompto is able to sleep comfortably, despite everything that they’ve been through on this road trip already.
Noctis looks back over to where Gladio and Ignis were sleeping to make sure the coast was clear. He quietly removes the blanket and neatly sets it back in place, careful not to disturb Prompto. On the way out, Noctis pulls his phone out of his charger, slips his boots on, and grabs his jacket hanging from the chair. He turns around and grabs the spare key to the room and slips it in his pocket before closing the door behind him.
Breathing a sigh of relief, hoping that he didn’t wake anyone up, he makes sure the door is locked and heads down to the lobby. He bows at the sight of the desk employee as he heads out the front door that opened into the deck and the restaurant. It’s still dark outside, yet brightly illuminated with the lamps on the deck. Noctis takes the stairs past the restaurant and sits idly on the edge of the long side of the deck, laying down with his legs dangling off the edge as his arm folded around to serve as his head support. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and opens up King’s Knight, hoping to play a few rounds so he gets tired enough to haul himself back to bed.
As he aimlessly plays through round after round, he notices the light grows lighter outside. Shit, Noctis curses himself as he’s still wide awake preoccupied with his raid and pushing his intrusive thoughts to the side. Another hour passes by and Noctis grows even more anxious with the light getting brighter, having a full day ahead of him full of quests and errands to run, and having gotten no sleep whatsoever.
With the “Defeat” sign flashing on the screen, Noctis grunts and pushes his phone aside in disappointment after PVPing a gruesome opponent in what felt like the longest battle he’s done in King’s Knight yet. He covers his eyes with his arms, rubbing his eyes to ease his eye strain. Noticing that his field of vision got darker suddenly, Noctis moves his arms away from his eyes and sees a familiar silhouette above him. At first, he didn’t process it, continued to rub his eyes and blink a few more times as he got up, and the silhouette appeared even closer to him.
“Mornin’!” the silhouette says in a hoarse, half-awake voice, making Noctis jump up.
“Astrals, Prompto! You scared me!” Noctis huffs as he nudges Prompto on the shoulder. Prompto chuckles and sits down next to Noctis, leaning back with his arms supporting him.
“...I guess…” Prompto yawned, covering his mouth as his droopy eyelids limited his field of vision.
Noctis notices how tired his friend is and nudges him again on the shoulder to make sure he doesn’t fall asleep on him right there.
“What’re you doing up? Nightmare again?” Noctis asks quietly as he continues to gaze at the ocean view in front of him.
Prompto sighs heavily with the rest of his body drooping in response. “Yeah, I woke up with my heart pounding and couldn’t get myself to calm down. That and you weren’t in bed so I got up and tried to look for you.” Prompto points back over him where their balcony was. “I saw you out here from our room and I saw that the other key and your stuff was gone so I snuck out to see you here.”
“Wow, how romantic,” Noctis teases, tapping on the boardwalk for Prompto to sit next to him.
“Guess that’s what this place’ll do to ya,” Prompto chuckles, becoming more awake now. Prompto turns around to Noctis and taps him on his shoulder to get his attention. “What’s got you up? Normally, you sleep like a log.”
Noctis throws his head back. “Ugh, I couldn’t sleep all night. Guess my thoughts just took over and I couldn’t make them stop. So, I came out here…” Noctis trails off. “What time is it now?”
Prompto pulls his phone out from his pocket, yawning. “4:37.”
“So guess I’ve been out here for over two hours now playing King’s Knight, trying to pass the time. Figured I’d be asleep by now but look at where we are now.”
“Another one of those nights again?”
“Yeah…” Noctis slowly gets up and pulls Prompto up with him. “Wanna go back in?”
“Nah, I’m awake now, unfortunately.” Prompto responds with his arms crossed.
“That makes two of us, I guess,” Noctis huffed as the light outside kept growing brighter and the sounds of the waters crashing into the deck, indicating it was high tide already.
“Hey, Noct, let’s go by the beach,” Prompto grabs lightly on the edge of Noctis’s jacket. Noctis turns around and sees that Prompto pulled out his phone, pointing to the camera. “We can even do a photoshoot, it’ll be great with the sun rising in the background.”
Noctis is weak to Prompto’s grin and puppy-dog eyes and couldn’t find it in him to say no. Either way, it’s not like he had something else better to do and it looks like they were going to start their day soon anyways.
“Seaside supermodels?” Noctis teases as they continue walking up the stairs.
Prompto’s eyes glistened. “Hell yeah, seaside supermodels!” Prompto throws his hands in the air as Noctis playfully swings his arm around Prompto’s waist, to which Prompto didn’t spare any energy trying to fight. Afterall, there’s no one to stop them.
They enjoy a quiet walk across the boardwalk, with the floorboards creaking and the soft clicks from Prompto’s phone echoing. The light seabreeze pushed Prompto’s baby hairs away from his face, somehow making his bed head even more prominent than before. Noctis enjoys seeing his friend content, doing what he does best. Nothing more, nothing less.
The duo go to the Regalia first to get Prompto’s fancier camera from the trunk and then head over to the shoreline. Noctis sinks down into the sand, embracing its soft, grainy texture as he overlooks the sun rising in front of them. Prompto plops down in front of Noctis, frequently looking behind him as he continues messing around with the settings on the camera, enough to get the perfect shot that he wanted.
Prompto stands up and takes some pictures of the landscape, carefully examining each picture before taking the next one. Noctis couldn’t help but smile with a light blush tainting his cheeks that luckily his hair is able to cover.
Prompto turns around and glances at Noctis, who was busy enjoying doing nothing. He couldn’t help but notice the light on his face highlighted all of his best features. How photogenic, he thought to himself. He smiled and held his camera up to his face. Click!
He lowers the camera and lingers at the photo. Only true Lucian, unfiltered beauty caught on film. Prompto grins even wider, incredibly blessed that he got such a good photo of Noctis. He reminds himself of how they became friends in the first place as he presses the save button on the camera.
He looks up from his camera and finds Noctis...asleep? His unkempt, black hair crowds his face as the strands blow in the wind’s direction. No wonder he didn’t hear my camera go off, Prompto chuckled as he tiptoes even closer to Noctis.
Wearing a devilish grin, he picks up his phone this time and opens up his camera app and carefully takes a picture. Oh I’m totally saving this and showing it to Lady Lunafreya.
At least, with the way that things already were between them, he hopes his best friend still gets married to maintain the peace with the Empire.
Prompto knows that he and Noctis can’t still be together after all this. Even now on the road, it takes every inch of their will power to try to maintain their relationship as friends. But they both know that it hasn’t gone that well. Nights where they’ve snuck out together in Lestallum, snuggled together in their shared bed whenever they crashed at motels, to sleepless nights playing games and feeling each other up..all these memories flood Prompto’s head as he recounts each one. He sets his camera down next to him as he nudges Noctis to open up his arm to allow Prompto to take his place.
Noctis flutters his eyes open and notices Prompto at his side. He smiled to himself as he extended his arm outward, making space for Prompto to come closer. Prompto follows his lead and wraps his arms around Noctis’s body, placing his head on his chest. Neither of them would dare pull off this kind of PDA but they thank their sleep deprived brains this time.
The loud, steady thumps of Noctis’s heart comforts Prompto. On days where he’s had bad anxiety to particularly bad days where he needed to be grounded back to reality, it was a familiar sound he’s grown to be habituated to. Now, he has to learn how to figure out how to live without it.
For Noctis, the warmth was comfortable. Never did it ever feel like it was out of place or forced. It was awkward at first, but over time he came to love and want Prompto’s closeness and intimacy. Tracing the outlines of his muscles to idly locking their fingers together is all habitual to him as well. To think he’s going to have to abandon this soon is a thought that he didn’t want to resurface again.
Noctis feels an indentation in his cheek. He turns his head over, locking gazes with Prompto.
“You look deep in thought,” Prompto points out as he moves his index finger to trace the furrowed eyebrows. As soon as Noctis realizes, he softens his expression, bringing his hand behind his head to meet Prompto’s.
“I guess,” Noctis huffs out. He can’t try to hide anything from Prompto, they know each other too well.
“Was it why you couldn’t fall asleep?” Prompto strokes the loose strands from Noctis’s hair away from his cheek to get a better look at his face.
Noctis couldn’t help but furrow his eyes, rubbing his eyes out of exhaustion.
“Marriage. Your dad. Our home. I...I couldn’t even imagine how you must feel about it all.”
“Well having you guys eases the pain. But with you...I can just forget for a little bit...and I l-like it a lot.” Noctis flushes, cringing at how cheesy he can get with Prompto.
Prompto softly grins, appreciating the rare words of affection as he deepens their embrace.
“I know we already talked before this trip about how we can’t keep doing this.” Prompto wails his hands around, drawing circles around the both of them. “But just know even after all this, I’ll always be by your side.”
“Damn right you better be.” Noctis chuckled.
Prompto feels his and Noctis’s body sink further into the sand beneath them. They just desperately need a moment to enjoy the present, even if it’s not for long.