Chapter Text
Cor frowned as he cautiously approached the strangely - unguarded side door to his target. The First Magitek Development Facility had come to his attention during his last detour into Gralea when he’d overheard some lab techs bitch about a certain Verstael Besithia, aka the creator of the MT soldiers, making them move to the facility in the middle of nowhere.
His own poking into the facility had revealed it to be well - guarded and staffed, with Besithia receiving almost 85% of Niflheim’s military funding. Cor had expected to find the Magitek facility hard to infiltrate and had prepared accordingly. A fake id as a new guard, a second - hand uniform, and some careful hacking (courtesy of one of their spies) had all been done to get Cor into the facility.
And yet…
When Cor had arrived at the facility, he’d found it to be silent. No guards were in sight, and while there were visible lights on in the facility, Cor had been scouting the outside for possible escape routes and had seen nothing indicating any patrols, or even movement in or out of it. His instincts screamed at him that something was horribly wrong and Cor was inclined to trust them.
Thus his cautious approach to the facility.
It looked abandoned, with no sign of any guards and a fine dusting of snow showing the door hadn’t been used since the last snowfall. A snowfall that had happened three days ago. “What the fuck is going on here?” Cor mumbled to himself as he swiped his fake id through the reader. It blinked green within seconds as the pneumatic door hissed open.
The hall beyond was empty as well, the lights illuminating all corners of it until the secondary door he saw a few meters away. Cor’s instinct screamed louder and part of him wanted to turn around before it was too late. But doing so would mean possibly losing important information that would help Regis.
Cor snorted to himself and stepped into the facility, tightly controlling his emotions as the door shut behind him. He pushed forward, keeping a hand on the hilt of his katana as he did so. Cor came across the first corpse, a scientist if the lab coat was anything to go by, slumped against a locked door.
He took a closer look at the killing blow, a neat slice through the scientist’s trachea, and frowned at the odd end to the injury. It looked as though the blade had been pulled out mid strike. Had the attacker been interrupted? Cor filed it away before looking through the pockets for any key cards he might need. He found one marked as level 3 and slipped it into his pocket as he rose to continue on his way.
He found more corpses as he went deeper into the facility, and not a single living person. Documents were strewn across tables and desks as though the occupants had left in a hurry. Blinking alarm lights flared in some areas but there were no sounds coming from any speakers which made the whole experience almost surreal for Cor.
Somehow the whole thing was starting to scare him more than the thought of Gilgamesh and his near-death in the Tempering Grounds. Cor shook his head and refocused on checking through the documents he found.
Two pages in and he tossed the whole mess that was Besithia’s madness into the armiger for someone else to deal with because if Cor kept parsing through it? He was going to burn everything down and go hunting for Besithia no matter how long it took.
Human experimentation. Purposeful scourge infection of victims. Cloning!
Yeah, Cor was hoping he came across the insane beast so he could have the pleasure of separating his head from his shoulders.
Although, as Cor looked around at the increasing number of corpses surrounding him, it seemed more like that whoever had come before him had already done so. A pity but as long as the bastards who’d been working on these abominations masquerading as science were dead.
When Cor got to the cloning rooms, he took one look at the half-decomposed bodies floating in greenish liquid and hurried out of it. His hand itched to grab one of Regis’ firaga quadcasts to destroy what was left of the poor children who’d never known anything other than pain, but that could come later, when he was ready to get out.
Wark.
The sound made Cor go still. Was that a chocobo? Impossible, why would a chocobo be here, alive nonetheless?
Wark wark wark. Then a child’s bright laughter.
Ramuh! Was there a child still alive here?
Cor didn’t hesitate as he sprinted down the corridor towards the continued sound of a chocobo and a child. Doors slammed open as Cor growled, trying to pinpoint where they were. Then he found them.
A black chocobo holding a moogle plushie, apparently playing with a blond toddler sitting in front of it. As soon as Cor slammed the door open, the chocobo was up on its feet and standing between the toddler and Cor.
Something told Cor that he needed to be careful unless he wanted his epitaph to say ‘death by chocobo’. Cor slowly raised his hands and watched as the toddler peeked up at him with bright blue eyes from behind his fluffy protector. “Easy there. I’m a friend. I won’t hurt the kid...uh your chicabo.”
The black chocobo tilted its head and Cor shivered. He had no idea what he was seeing but he knew this; that was no ordinary chocobo. His conviction grew as the chocobo gave an all too human huff before turning to push the toddler towards Cor with an encouraging wark. The gleam in its eyes told Cor in no uncertain terms that if Cor hurt the child, he was going to regret it.
It was a good thing Cor had no intention of doing so. Carefully he knelt down and greeted the toddler, trying to modulate his voice the way he’d seen Regis and Clarus do with their kids. “Hello there, my name is Cor. I’m going to get you out of here, okay?” The toddler was gently pushed onwards until he was close enough for Cor to touch.
Now that he could get a closer look at the kid, Cor knew he wouldn’t be staying in the facility any longer. The boy, blond haired and with a bright if somewhat hesitant smile, was thin, too thin. There were blood specks on the too-large shirt he had on, but Cor knew it was old blood. He glanced over at the chocobo, which rolled its eyes at him!, before carefully taking the boy into his arms.
The toddler stilled at the touch for a moment before relaxing and snuggling closer to Cor. A small fist grabbed onto his shirt as the boy buried his face against his chest. Cor internally swore as he saw the barcode sprawled across the white wrist. He closed his eyes for a moment, burying the anger and horror deep within his mind.
“Alright. I have no idea what you are Bird, but I’m going to get out of here then burn the place to ash. I don’t care if you come with me or not but I’d suggest you leave.” Cor said to the black chocobo. Another human huff and the chocobo simply passed by him into the corridor, looking back at him and jerked its head in a clear ‘well come on’ gesture.
Cor looked down at the boy safe in his arms and muttered, “Regis is never going to let me live this down. Following an Ifrit-damned chocobo.” Still, he readjusted his grip so he would be able to grab his katana without dropping his charge. Then he did the second craziest thing and followed a black chocobo out of the waking nightmare that was the Magitek facility.
Walking through the snow was slightly easier with a chocobo making a path, and a raging fire warming his back.
“Shiva’s tits!” Cor swore as he swung his katana at the garula, neatly cutting through it thick hide and opening its throat. However his attention was firmly on the Astral-Damned black chocobo currently warping using what looked like one of the fucking Royal Arms Regis had grabbed years ago!
Worse than the fact that a chocobo could warp was the fact that Cor could recognize the very Lucis Caelum warping style in its movements.
“How the fuck do you know how to warp?” Cor asked as he wiped his blade clean before banishing it in order to pick Prompto, a name his chocobo mother had written into the snow when Cor had wondered about it. The toddler giggled as he made a grabbing motion towards his ‘mother’ though Cor knew the chocobo was male.
Said chocobo rolled his eyes again as he allowed Prompto to grip its feathers as Cor transferred the boy onto his back. Cor grumbled as he massaged the bridge of his nose, he could feel the headache growing by the second. “Of course you won’t say anything. You can read, write, and now you can warp. What next? Are you going to turn into a human?” Cor paused, eying the chocobo and half expecting that very thing to happen.
When it didn’t, Cor sighed and started walking back to the dead garula so he could grab what they needed as proof they’d done the hunt, and for a couple of meals. He glanced occasionally at the admittedly adorable sight of Prompto laughing as the chocobo walked around, collecting herbs and peppers like he’d done every time they’d come across them.
Every day brought new questions about the chocobo. What he was, why he’d been at the facility, why he’d looked so sad when they’d passed by Altissia on their way back to Lucis. Cor had long given up on understanding the Bird and firmly decided he was throwing the mess to Regis as soon as they got back to the Citadel.
Cor couldn’t wait to see his friends' expressions when he did.
“Cor?”
“Regis.” Cor smirked as he fed Prompto some kind of mashed up fruit and veggie compote. Prompto seemed to enjoy it so Cor simply scooped some more.
“Why is there a black chocobo reading your reports?” Regis said slowly as Clarus closed the door behind them.
Cor shrugged, “The bird wanted to plus he knew where the documents were..”
“What?” That was Clarus.
Cor shrugged again as he presented another spoonful of compote to Prompto. “By the way, he can also warp and access the armiger.”
“WHAT!” The double shout didn’t bother Cor but obviously did Prompto as the boy went still for a moment before throwing himself at Cor crying. Cor glared at his friends as he started to rub Prompto’s back in comfort, and was satisfied as both men looked regretful. His anger turned to satisfaction as Prompto’s main protector rushed over and started pecking his friends, wings flared out as he warked and snapped his beak.
Clarus tried to step in front of Regis but the movement merely made the chocobo summon the thirteen royal arms he had. “Bird.” Cor spoke up as the arms twirled around his friends. “Don’t kill them. I don’t want to deal with the paperwork.” The chocobo closed his wings and tilted his head thoughtfully. After a few seconds, he sighed and nodded, the arms disappearing.
Prompto slowly stopped crying, sniffling as he buried his face against Cor’s chest, something he liked to do when he was upset. Cor gently smoothed the boy, “It’s okay Prom. Those two are my friends. They’re just a bit stupid sometimes.”
“Stu..pid?” Prompto frowned as he repeated the word.
Cor nodded sagely. “That’s right. Stupid.” Prompto hummed then nodded firmly as he repeated the word a few more times.
Regis and Clarus slowly made their way to the other couch, keeping an eye on the chocobo who’d moved to sit by Prompto, preening the boy’s hair carefully. “I think it might be better if you start from the beginning.” Regis finally said.
Cor made sure Prompto was okay before he started speaking. The more he spoke, the paler Regis and Clarus got as Cor told them about the Magitek facility, the human experiments and the cloning. Cor had already given Monica all the documents he’d taken so he knew a report would be made soon.
Regis was pale and muttering to himself by the end of Cor’s report. Clarus had his arms crossed, he stared at the chocobo then said. “So you think this bird was the one who killed everyone in the facility?” He jerked backwards as the chocobo swiftly responded by striking at him.
Cor grinned, he was starting to feel a lot better about bringing the Bird into the city. “Oh, I don’t think so. I know so.” The chocobo made a few more false strikes before returning to preening and playing with Prompto. Cor smiled softly as Prompto was given the same moogle plushie Cor had found him with, to gnaw on. “Though that does remind me. Are you ever going to give us a name to use or do you expect us to call you Bird or Chocobo for the rest of your life?” Cor pointedly asked.
The black chocobo huffed, rolling his eyes again but did get up and make his way to Cor’s desk. Regis and Clarus stared in disbelief as the Bird grabbed a pen, dragged a paper to the floor, and wrote something down. The Bird tilted his head right then left, obviously examining his writing since writing with his beck was harder than carving what he wanted to say in the ground.
The paper was dropped on Regis’ lap with a pointed glare before he returned to Prompto’s side. Regis gingerly picked it up and narrowed his eyes to read what was on it. “So your name is Night Light?”
Night Light rolled his eyes but nodded reluctantly. Cor huffed, “A fitting name for a black chocobo.” He didn’t flinch as Night Light struck at him, his beak stopping just short of hitting him. The glare was impressive however and Cor smirked in reply.
Regis passed a hand over his face, sighing deeply before asking. “What now?” He frowned as he watched Night Light and Prompto. “The royal stables will be able to accomodate Night Light but Prompto will have to be placed with someone.” Night Light reacted just as Cor expected, moving to hide Prompto from view, his feathers fluffing up in warning.
“I plan on adopting Prompto.” Cor told them. “As for Night over here -oh hush, Night Light is a mouthful- I need to buy a place anyways, so I can grab something with enough backyard, or that’s close to a park, for him..” Night nipped at Cor before dragging something out of his armiger and eating it.
There was a puff of smoke that quickly dissipated to show a miniature version of Night. Prompto shrieked in delight at his new mini-sized mother, climbing down to grab him into his arms. “Bo! Small Bo!” Prompto turned to Cor, lifting Night up to show him.
Cor reached out and pulled Prompto into his lap with a smile, “Yes. That’s our chocobo. His name is Night. Do you like it?” Prompto nodded eagerly, running his fingers through Night’s feathers with renewed fascination.
He glanced up at his friends and rolled his eyes at the soft expression they had. Regis pouted for a few moments before he pushed himself back on his feet. “I’ll send you the paperwork for the adoption soon.” His lips twitched and Cor knew he wouldn’t like the next few words. He was right, “I’ll put in the request for paternity leave while I’m at it.”
“Don’t you dare Regis!” Cor hissed, eyes narrowing as he glared at him.
Regis’ grin widened, “Ah, but I’m afraid it’s mandatory for all new parents to at least be off for a month after becoming parents.” Clarus had turned away from Cor, his shoulders shaking in a vain attempt to stifle his laughter. Cor turned his glare on him and raised his middle finger, though not before making sure Prompto was still completely focused on Night.
Clarus and Regis made their escape not long afterwards as Prompto started yawning and slumping on Cor, half using Night as a pillow. The chocobo was bearing the cuddles with an exasperated sort of fondness, but then, that’s what Night had always done when it came to the kid.
As the door clicked shut, Cor slumped against the back of his couch, rubbing a hand over Prompto’s back absentmindedly. His gaze was fixed on the door as he looked deep in thought. He was brought back into the present by the insistent poking from Night. Cor looked over and saw Night looking at him with a questioning look, botherline worried. Cor smiled and said, half to himself, “It’s good to be back home.”
Regis had followed up on his mandatory paternity leave. Cor had initially been annoyed at it but within a week, he was very glad of it. Cor hadn’t realized all the things he needed to arrange in order to give Prompto everything he needed to be healthy and happy. He thanked the Astrals for Aulea and Flora, the ladies having jumped into action and sending Cor the basics of what he needed for Prompto the same day as he had arrived.
He’d started looking for an actual house after that first night, too. Prompto had hated the barracks, shivering and hiding his face in the crook of Cor’s neck as he’d walked through the stark halls filled with equally stark soldiers. Night had been perched on Cor’s other shoulder and tried his best to calm Prompto down, with little success.
They’d only spent the first night in Cor’s room and even then, only a few hours before Cor had decided that asking Clarus to stay at the manor was a better idea for Prompto. Clarus had been delighted to have Cor and Prompto over, two connected rooms prepared and ready by the time they’d arrived. That’s where Cor found all of Aulea’s and Flora’s gifts.
And that’s where Prompto met Gladio the next morning. Cor hadn’t been sure how Night would react to the boy, as he’d been wary of anyone except Cor and, oddly enough, Jared approaching Prompto. Yet the moment Gladio stumbled downstairs with Flora, Night had given a happy wark and pushed Prompto towards the older boy. Cor had still watched warily as Gladio was introduced to Prompto, knowing the boy wasn’t always comfortable meeting new people, but it went well.
Well enough that Prompto was happily playing with Gladio as soon as breakfast was done, the older boy introducing Prompto to building blocks in the playroom. Night was back to his normal size and allowing the boys to lean on him as they played. Cor nursed his second coffee as he watched his son make his first human friend, a smile pinned to his face.
“He’s been good for you.” Flora said as she moved to stand beside Cor. “I think I’ve seen you smile more in the last hour than in the last year.”
Cor hummed in agreement as he took a sip. “It’s hard not to smile when Prompto is amazed by even the simplest things.” Flora looked sharply at him which had Cor signing to her in Lucian sign language. ‘ Found him in a lab. I’m pretty sure he’d never seen the sun before I grabbed him. ’
Flora hissed in reply, her gaze firm as she turned to watch their boys playing freely. “I imagine they’ve been dealt with appropriately.” Cor’s smile turned vicious for a brief moment, disappearing when Flora replied in kind. She then clapped her hands together and nodded to herself. “Good! Since dear Prompto appears to be comfortable with Gladio, it leaves us free to do some shopping.”
Cor scowled, “I can do it on my own Flo.” She simply laughed as she headed upstairs to get dressed. Cor sighed and drained his coffee. He knew Clarus’ wife well enough to know there wasn’t any other option.
The next few hours were spent being yanked from one store to the next, Flora dominating the attention of the staff as they got the rest of what the ladies deemed essential items for a toddler. 15 sets of casual clothing, 5 set of play clothes, 5 set pyjamas, 3 sets of formal wear-Cor had argued against buying any formal stuff since Prompto was NOT going to be on tv but Flora had rolled her eyes, told him he’d thank her later and ordered them anyways.
Toys, bedding, comforters, arts and craft supplies; Cor felt overwhelmed by the time they had finished “For today, anyway.” as Flora declared. Having Night all but laugh at him once they’d returned to the manor had Cor giving the bird the finger even as he picked up two squirming kids. They ate together, Prompto telling Cor all about his games with his new best friend while Cor was busy. Cor had to keep reminding Prompto to eat as he went from story to story without taking more than a few bites of the mac-n-cheese Jared had made.
The afternoon was filled by a realtor coming to speak with Cor, filling out paperwork, and playing with Prompto. It left Cor exhausted at the end of the day but also very satisfied. He smiled as he watched his son snuggle with his moogle plushie Momo. Night was preening himself in a nest of blankets Gladio and Prompto had spent part of the evening creating after watching a documentary on chocobos. Cor brushed some hairs out of Prompto’s face, whispering a good night before going to bed.
A week later, Cor held Prompto in his arms, Night once again perched on his shoulder, as they entered a house Cor thought might be a good fit for their weird little family. It was a two-story house with an unfinished basement that had a door to the backyard, and thus would likely make a great area for Night to use. The place had enough rooms for Cor, Prompto, and an office plus extra for unlikely visitors. It also had corridors big enough for Night to walk through the house in his regular size.
Cor knew it was the right place the moment Night jumped off his shoulder and started poking around, nodding to himself every once in a while. He turned to Prompto and asked, “Want to explore?”
“Yes!” Prompto exclaimed as he threw his arms up in excitement. Cor followed behind as the two energetic bundles explored together. By the time they were done looking through the house and backyard, Cor had already negotiated a price with the realtor and was signing the paperwork.
The movers, and a couple of interior designers Aulea sent, brought everything in a day in advance, leaving Cor with only an overnight bag for both of them. Prompto had enjoyed choosing the colors for his room, Gladio ‘helping’ by choosing samples at random for Prompto to look at. The soft pink color hadn’t been what Cor expected but seeing Prompto laughed as he ran his little hands over the walls. Night had also gotten Cor to get a bed for him, a circular one that Night was currently surrounding with blankets and pillows.
The housewarming party was also the first time Prompto met Noctis, in an adorable moment of staring at each other before Gladio grabbed them both and insisted on being shown around the house. Cor had been surprised when Night had taken one look at Noctis and retreated back to his nest. He took a moment to go down and check on him, “Everything alright Night?”
Night shook his head and quickly picked up the alphabet blocks that Cor had picked up initially for Prompto, then bought half a dozen when Night had used them to argue with him, in order to write: im fine just realized something . That had Cor frowning and he sat down beside the weirdly human bird that Cor was half-sure was the result of some mad experiment to give animals human-like intelligence.
Cor hesitated for a moment before reaching out and petting Night, the general demeanor of the bird making Cor think he was sad and maybe lonely? Usually Night only allowed Prompto or Gladio to pet him but this time, Cor felt him lean into the touch. They stayed that way for a bit longer before Cor managed to get Night to go back up with him, if only to keep an eye on the kids while the adults drank and talked. (And if Cor quietly told Prompto that Night was feeling lonely then that was their little secret.)