Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Being a vampire in Insomnia wasn't easy. True, it could have been much worse, Prompto could have burst into flames under the sun (he didn't, he just got killer sunburns) or died if he so much as got close to garlic (thank all the Astrals he could eat it just fine). The vampire part wasn't too hard to deal with. He had to down some blood on the regular and mind his strength. There was a butcher that let him buy animal blood for cheap, so dinner wasn't an issue.

The in Insomnia bit was what made things hard. Vampires were a Niflheim thing. Genetically engineered soldiers, humans infected with a rare sickness, human-daemon hybrid, the theories on their origin were many and no one knew which was true. Not even Prompto. He only knew he had come from Niflheim because vampires were a Niflheim only event.

Insomnia's restrictions on citizens with Niff heritage were more lax than they should be, according to some, but laws on vampires were strict and clear. No vampire was allowed into the city. If one was to be found inside the Wall, they would be detained.

Prompto didn't have it in himself to disagree with the law. He drank blood to live. It was natural for normal people to be afraid of something like him. He behaved, he had never hurt anyone, but there was no denying that he was... well, a monster. Hard not to feel like one when he was drinking a big glass of blood and his fangs were out and ready to bite into someone's throat.

He tried to think of vampirism as a gross illness. Something inconvenient, but it didn't have to hold him back. He could live his life in an almost normal way. Granted, illnesses didn't make people literal monsters, but back when he had started losing weight he had found a lot of people saying that being too negative was bad for one's health. He had to be as positive as he could.

So far, he had been pretty good at hiding his nature. His parents were the only ones who knew. And possibly the butcher he got blood from, but he was a Niff refugee and had never commented on Prompto's choices.

Now, it could probably be considered a suicide for him to try to befriend the Crown Prince of Lucis. It was also super arrogant of him, because Noctis Lucis Caelum was a whole Prince with magical powers and everything and Prompto was, well. He wasn't sure if he had the right to even talk to him. Princess Lunafreya seemed to think he did, or she wouldn't have sent him that letter, and Prompto decided to trust her. Even if she probably didn't know what he was.

But worthy or not, Prompto was here illegally. If the Prince wasn't trained to recognize vampires, his retainers had to be. All it would take was for one person to realize what Prompto was and he would be done for. Screw jail, they might just stake him for having dared to go near the Prince.

Somehow, Noctis didn't notice immediately. Neither did he notice after two days, or three, or a week. Stranger even, he seemed to like Prompto. When Prompto had decided to approach Noctis part of him had thought the Prince would brush him off in five minutes. Yet here he was, sitting near Noctis at break.

"I'm telling you the third is the best in the series."

Prompto rolled his eyes. "No way. Nothing can beat the second."

"Did you even play the third?"

"No, but I know no game will ever be better than the second."

"I'll force you to play and then you will agree with me," Noctis said.

"Nope," Prompto replied, and poked Noctis's side.

Noctis actually jumped. He stared at Prompto as if no one had ever poked him before. Considering who he was, that was a real possibility. "Don't."

"Don't what?" Prompto feigned innocence, and poked him again. They had been hanging out together to reach poking territory, in Prompto's opinion, and he was determined to rectify the lack of annoying friends in Noctis's life so far.

"Stop it!"

"Is Your Highness ticklish?"

"No."

If Prompto were to stop and think about it, he'd find it surreal that he would be screwing around like this with Noctis. But somehow Noctis was turning into not just a friend, but one of the best Prompto had ever had. It was kind of sad that Prompto had so few friends that knowing someone for little more than a week was enough to grant him best friend status.

But they understood each other. Noctis laughed at Prompto's terrible jokes. Prompto had started offering to eat the vegetables Noctis was given at lunch, because it turned out the Prince of Lucis was a big baby who hated green food. They had the same interests, even if Noctis's opinions on them weren't always right.

Prompto tried to get to Noctis's ribs. He might have managed if he had used all of his speed, but he was used to regulating himself around humans. Noctis grabbed his hand, stopping him.

Then, he frowned. "Hey, Prom."

"What?"

"How come your hands are so cold?"

Oh, shit. Prompto forgot about that sometimes. "Uh. Bad circulation?"

"Damn, you're like a corpse."

Not quite. Prompto's temperature was a solid thirty-two degrees. That was like, four degrees below human average. Not freezing cold.

But some people thought vampires were undead corpses. From Prompto's personal experience (himself) he could see how someone might come to that conclusion. Noctis might be informed enough to know vampires were alive, but he would also know that low body temperature was a dead give away.

Was this how it was going to end? Over a dumb game of poking each other?

But then the bell rang, and Noctis said nothing about how Prompto had to follow him to the Citadel to be arrested. He let grabbed his bag, and nudged Prompto. "Come on. We've got Lucian."

Prompto hoped his sigh of relief wasn't too obvious. Bad circulation, he had to stick by that. With some luck no one would notice it wasn't just his finger tips that were cold.

***

A month into their friendship, Noctis casually told Prompto, "Specs said he wants to speak with you."

"Your adviser?"

"That's Specs, yes."

Prompto knew who Specs was. His actual name was Ignis, and he was the one who came to pick Noctis up after school. He had to be only a few years older than them, but somehow gave the impression of being a consummated politician of forty. They had never talked. Ignis at times nodded gravely at Prompto while looking at him like he disapproved of all of his life choices. Or maybe that was just his face.

"Why does he want to talk to me?" Prompto asked, wary. He wasn't sure he wanted to speak with Ignis.

Noctis shrugged, tapping what Prompto assumed was a reply to Ignis on his phone. "Dunno. Can you stop five minutes after school?"

"Sure."

Was five minutes long enough for Ignis to tell him everything about Prompto that wasn't up to his standards?

Prompto followed Noctis to his car when school ended. He hoped he didn't look as nervous as he felt. Ignis stood by the car, hands behind his back, waiting for them. How did he manage to look like the most intimidating person in Insomnia?

"Hey, Specs," Noctis greeted.

"Good afternoon," Prompto said, without even stammering.

"Noct, may I ask you wait in the car while I talk with your friend?"

Even his accent sounded intimidating. He spoke like a movie villain. Prompto didn't think he had ever heard an accent quite like Ignis's, but he knew in his heart it would be a perfect villain.

Noctis opened the door of the passenger's seat, and threw his bag inside. "Sure."

Ignis took a few steps aside. Prompto imagined he had to follow him. There was the scent of some kind of perfume, which considering Ignis's overall look had to cost as much as Prompto's house. A good amount of it, not overwhelming. Prompto's sense of smell was downright supernatural, and he could still catch a whiff of Ignis's natural scent underneath the cologne.

Even Ignis's skin smelled elegant, somehow.

"My name is Ignis Scientia, Adviser in Training to the Prince."

And that was a fancy ass title too. "I'm Prompto. Prompto Argentum."

"Pleased to meet you, Mister Argentum," Ignis said, holding his hand out. Was that glove made of leather?

Prompto shook it, trying to go for firm-shake-but-not-too-firm-for-a-twig-like-him. "Just Prompto is fine."

"Very well." Ignis didn't say Prompto could call him by his first name, he noticed. "I'm here to inform you that the background check on you had been completed."

"B-Background check?"

"Anyone who becomes close to His Highness must be thoroughly investigated. I realize this is not something you would be used to, and that some among common people may consider it a violation of their privacy. However, I trust you understand why these measures are in place."

Prompto swallowed, eyes wide. It was sort of obvious now that he thought about it. They couldn't allow any rando to get all chummy with the Prince. Noctis hadn't said Prompto's background would be checked, but he probably didn't think he had to. It had to be normal for him.

Ignis didn't look like someone who half assed his job. If he was the one who had done the checks, Prompto was sure he hadn't missed a single thing. His school records, his adoption papers, the obviously fake birth certificate that said Prompto was born in Insomnia and not somewhere in the Empire. Had Ignis realized that some of those papers were forged?

And if he had realized that, had he found out about the rest too? Did he know what Prompto was? Ifrit's sweaty balls, Ignis must have found out. He was here with his judgmental gaze and perfectly styled hair to tell Prompto he was going to have his head put on a pike as a warning.

"You have successfully passed the checks."

"Uh- Uh?"

Ignis sighed, obviously disappointed by the dumb response. "There is no suspicious activity in your records. You have been cleared to visit Noctis's flat if you wish, or have him at your house."

Prompto blinked at him. "I can?"

"Yes, that is what I said."

So he hadn't found out anything? He didn't know about the vampire thing? Prompto had been yanked from despair to relief so far he was getting whiplash.

Ignis shifted slightly. "One last thing before I let you go."

"Sure."

"I hope I am not overstepping, but I must suggest you visit the doctor more often."

"The... doctor...?" Prompto repeated.

"I have found no medical records aside from your mandatory vaccinations. You should have a doctor give you a routine check once a year at least."

Prompto had no idea how the conversation had turned this way. He thought he should be a little offended Ignis even knew about his medical history, but he was too baffled for it. "I don't really get sick a lot, so I haven't had a lot of reason to go."

He didn't know if he could get sick in the first place. For all he knew, even the vaccinations might have been wasted on him.

"Still, I suggest you take my advice. I'll be taking my leave now, Prompto. Have a good evening," Ignis said, with an elegant nod of his head.

"S-sure, Mister Scientia." Was Mister even the right title? "Good bye."

He wouldn't. No way Prompto was ever risking going to a doctor. He would be found out in three seconds.

But the fact he hadn't been found out now was nearly unbelievable. He had been so sure he was done for. Thank all the Astrals that Ignis hadn't noticed anything. His birth certificate had to be a masterpiece of forgery if it had passed the attention of Adviser in Training and all. Bless whoever had made it.

Prompto was now a Crown-approved vampire. He giggled. He couldn't believe the kind of luck he had.

***

"Getting kind of hungry," Noctis said.

Prompto didn't take his eyes away from the movie they were watching. The cool action hero drove away from an explosion, the bad guy's car blowing up behind him. "Same."

"I don't have popcorn, but you good with some ice cream?"

"Sure."

Noctis got up from the couch. Prompto looked at him for a moment, and figured he'd follow him to the kitchen. Noctis had told him to act like he would in his own home when he was there, but Prompto couldn't help but feel he had to be helpful. The nerves he used to feel around Noctis had faded, leaving him comfortable around the Prince, but being at his place was still new enough to make him tense.

Prompto hadn't been at a lot of houses. He had had very few people invite him over in the past, and even less do so for a second time.

"I've got chocolate and cookie," Noctis declared.

"No fruit flavors?" Prompto asked, leaning against the counter.

Noctis took his head out of the freezer to glare at Prompto. "We're not all health nuts like you."

"I don't know if being willing to eat salads counts as health nut."

"No one who doesn't hate themselves eats salads."

It was a lost argument with Noctis. In two months of knowing him, Prompto had never seen him eat anything that resembling a vegetable. The most he accepted were fries, and sometimes pastries that had fruit on them. Prompto was starting to wonder how was Noctis not dying from lack of vitamins.

Some days Prompto kind of envied Noctis's ability to live on fried food and pasta and not put on any weight. He hadn't had to learn to appreciate salads, they way Prompto had needed to. At this point Prompto was so used to them that he ended up feeling weirdly gross if he didn't eat something green in too long.

Besides, it was nice to remind himself that he could eat vegetables. Lettuce was as far from blood as it could get, and it was a relief to Prompto that he could digest it. It made him feel a little closer to human.

Noctis grabbed two bowls, scooping a generous portion of ice cream in each. He handed Prompto a spoon that looked way too fancy to be in a high schooler's hands, and went back to the couch.

Prompto hesitated before following him, frowning down at the spoon. It was hot. Not burning hot, but warmer than it should have been sitting in Noctis's drawer.

He sat next to Noctis, scooping up some ice cream. He expected it to melt on his strangely warm spoon, but it didn't. Weird. Prompto stared at it for a few seconds, but nothing happened.

As soon as he put the spoon in his mouth, a strange itch spread over his tongue. "Dude, what's up with your spoons?"

"What? Nothing's up."

"It tingles."

Noctis frowned at him, looking confused. "No, it doesn't."

"Totally- Oh shit!"

Prompto's fingers were red. He dropped the spoon in the bowl, looking at his hand. Little dots had appeared where he had been touching the metal.

Noctis grabbed his hand, turning it over. "What happened?"

"I don't know! What are your spoons made of?"

"Uh, silver I think?"

Who the fuck had silver spoons in this day and age.

The royals did, apparently. They had enough spares to put them in the Prince's flat too. Prompto hissed as the tingling in his hand and mouth turned stronger. He had hoped the silver hurts vampires thing had been fake, but he also hadn't ever touched real silver before.

"Wait, did this happen because of the silver?" Noctis asked.

Prompto tensed. Shit. This was a dead give away, wasn't it? Noctis could do two plus two and realize it was sort of weird for the pale, cold guy to have this reaction to silver.

"Are you allergic to it?"

"Uh," was all of Prompto's intelligent answer. "You can be allergic to silver?"

Noctis shrugged, eyes fixed on Prompto's fingers. "There's a guard I know who is allergic to nickel."

"Oh. Guess I could be."

That was a perfect cover story. Noctis had no idea how grateful Prompto was for this bit of information. He didn't know people could be allergic to things like metals, but he was going to look into it as soon as possible.

Noctis took the bowl from Prompto's lap. "Alright, gonna see if I have another spoon. Sorry about that, dude."

"No problem. I mean, who knew?"

His tongue was getting a little numb. He hoped it was only temporary.

"You should try checking with a doctor."

Hell no. "I will."

Noctis opened a drawer, rummaging through it. "Well, look at the positives. Your hand was almost at a human temperature now."

"Not worth the itch." And also kind of concerning. Maybe he should wash it under cold water or something?

***

"Shit!"

"Noct?" Prompto called, head snapping up from his homework. A loud crash had come a second before the curse.

"I'm fine!"

Prompto stood up. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, but be careful. There's this stupid jar that fell down."

Prompto peeked inside. Noctis was on his knees in front of what looked like a shattered jar of... something, Prompto had no idea. Noctis had this extensive skin and hair care routine that he had to follow because Insomnia would fall if the Prince got teen acne.

"Do you have a rag somewhere?" Prompto asked. Half the bathroom floor was covered in white goop.

Noctis sighed. "Somewhere? Move the trashcan here."

Trying not to step into product with his socked feet, Prompto went to grab it and deposited it next to Noctis, who dumped a few large pieces of glass in it. He was about to tell Noctis he shouldn't grab broken glass with his bare hands when Noctis jammed a jagged edge right into his hand.

Noctis hissed, tossing the offending glass in the bin. He had managed to cut himself on his palm, just below his index finger.

Prompto didn't need to see the blood to know it was there. Its scent hit him in the face like a truck. He was about due for a feeding, and his mouth watered at the smell. Prompto had never had human blood, it was a line he could never afford himself to cross, but whenever someone was bleeding in front of him he found himself thinking about how delicious it would be. Much better than the pig blood he was used to.

The fact he could see the injury didn't help. The red drops were a lure, sliding so invitingly down Noctis's skin, pooling into the lines of his hand.

Noctis's blood smelled particularly good. Prompto tried not to pay too much attention to his oversensitive nose most of the time, but he had already noticed how nice Noctis's scent was. Now that his blood flowed freely Prompto found himself almost whining. If regular human blood was like dessert being dangled under his nose, Noctis's smelled like a slice of the most decadent chocolate cake in the world. With whipped cream.

"Prom?"

Prompto startled. Had he been staring?

"You okay?" Noctis asked. He turned his hand away while talking, hiding the sight of his blood from him.

"Y-Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't I be? I'm- Wait, are you okay? Sorry, fuck, do you have like bandaids here?"

Noctis's eyes narrowed. "Are you scared of blood?"

Prompto froze. "What?"

"You were staring at my hand real weird right now. Like it spooked you."

"Oh. Sorry. You should wash it, what if the product is like bad for the cut?"

Noctis got to his feet. He threw Prompto a knowing look before turning to the sink.

Being told he was afraid of blood was the most ridiculous thing Prompto had ever heard. He was way less afraid than the average person. But while somewhat insulting, it was also better if Noctis thought he had been frozen in fear.

His fangs itched to come out. Prompto ran his tongue over his teeth, making sure everything was in order. Noctis was cleaning the cut, the scent dimming as water washed the blood away, and it was both a blessing and a slight disappointment.

It was fucked up to think of how tasty your friend would be. Like, super fucked up. Prompto swallowed down his saliva, knowing he was in for a meeting with guilt and self-loathing when he went home.

***

Mister Rubores was used to Prompto's visits by now. Prompto showed up to his butchery after he was done getting groceries at the supermarket, to make the bag he would get here blend in with the ones he already had. He rarely bought much here. Even if he had the money for fancy meat cuts he wouldn't have the skill to cook it.

"Your usual?" Rubores asked, seeing Prompto come in.

"Yes, please."

Rubores went to the back. He was a tall Niff man, with blonde hair shaved short and skin almost as light as Prompto's. He came back with a plastic bag a minute after. "Anything else today?"

"Just this, thanks."

Prompto would never not be grateful that the butcher didn't speak much.

He paid, and started to head back home. It was only a few blocks to his place. The sun was getting low, the streets getting covered in shadows. Prompto liked this time of day. Not too bright, but not dark yet.

His eyesight got better the less light there was. His nearsightedness was at its worst at midday, but vanished with the sun. At night, Prompto saw further than he ever had during the day.

The times around dusk and dawn were the best. During the night, everything was in black and white. When the sun was low Prompto's eyes worked well, and there was still enough light for him to appreciate colors.

A wonder, then, that he didn't notice a giant of a man until they were right next to each other.

"Prompto?"

Prompto startled. "Yes? Oh, hi Gladio."

Gladio was sort of terrifying. Prompto had ran across him a few times at Noctis's, and every time his stomach had dropped. No man should be that tall and buff.

Gladio was also probably trained to snap the neck of any vampire he came across. Supernatural strength or not, Prompto didn't want to try his chances against him.

"What're you doing around here?" Gladio asked.

"Just going home."

He had never been alone with Gladio before. Not alone alone, there were other people walking down the street, but alone in all the ways that mattered.

"You mind if I walk with you for a bit?"

He would die, but aside from that no. "Sure. I- I mean, you can walk with me. If you want to?"

The corner of Gladio's lips turned upwards. "I'm warming down from a run, I was walking already."

That made sense. Gladio was wearing shorts and a tank top, the latter pretty drenched. He smelled of sweat, which for a vampire wasn't always a bad thing. A worked up human was a human whose blood was running quick, close to the surface, perfect for Prompto to sink his fangs in.

Not that Prompto would ever dream of doing that to Gladio. Besides, his fangs might snap in two if attempting to sink into those steel muscles.

"I'd never seen you run around here," Prompto said, trying to make some small talk.

"I come by sometimes. You run too?"

"A little."

"I'll give you a call next time I'm here then, if you don't mind a running buddy."

Prompto wasn't sure how good an idea that was. His workouts lasted longer than those of a human in his shape. He wouldn't want Gladio to notice something off. "Sure, but I'm not sure we're on the same, you know, level."

"I'd like to see what you can do," Gladio said, assuming, as Prompto had hoped, that Prompto feared being left behind. "Anyways, need a hand with that?"

"The bags? No, I'm fine."

"Come on, let me help."

Prompto could only squeal a protest as Gladio bent down to take the grocery bags from his hands. It was considerate of him. He couldn't know that behind his skinny arms Prompto might be as strong as him.

But there was the butcher's bag too. The one with blood. There was no good reason for a high schooler to be coming home with a bag full of pig's blood. If Gladio glanced down and saw it, Prompto would be toast. Goodbye world. At least there were worse ways to go than having his head crushed between Gladio's thighs.

But Gladio didn't inspect his groceries. He only grabbed them, and kept walking. "So. You and Noct have gotten pretty close, haven't you?"

"We could say that." Closer than Prompto had ever been to anyone else in his life, but Prompto's life was a very sad standard to go by.

"Half surprised the little shit didn't chase you off yet."

Prompto choked. "Are you like allowed to talk shit about him?"

"Not to the press. But you've been around long enough to know what kind of loser Noctis is."

The interrogation kept on until Prompto got home. He wasn't entirely sure it was an interrogation, Gladio was being very casual about it, but Gladio didn't look like a formal kind of guy in general. None of the psychological warfare Ignis engaged in with his perfect suits and expensive cologne.

At no point did Gladio call him out on being a vampire, which Prompto counted as a success. Prompto couldn't help but sneak glances at his precious bag, which Gladio blessedly never looked into. He was on edge, but he thought he managed to hold up conversation. Gladio was friendly, even joking around with Prompto. He was less scary to talk to than Prompto had expected.

That didn't mean Prompto wasn't relieved when they reached his house.

"This one?" Gladio asked.

"Yep. Thank you for the bags. And for, uh, the company."

Gladio grinned, handing him back his groceries. "No problem."

"We'll see each other, I guess?"

"Yeah, guess we're gonna both end up at Noct's sooner or later. Have a good evening."

"You too."

***

Prompto's house was a pitiful little place compared to Noctis's flat. It wasn't a bad house, but it wasn't an exclusive place in one of Insomnia's richest neighborhoods. Prompto's whole first floor could fit into Noctis's living room. The couch pillows were worn, with a few old stains that would never get away.

But Noctis didn't care about any of that, and after a while Prompto stopped caring as well. Hanging out was the same everywhere, in the end. They could play King's Knight while sharing Prompto's old couch just as well as anywhere else.

"Ha, suck it!" he shouted, watching Noctis's character go down. This was the third win in a row for him.

Noctis kicked him. "You cheated."

"How?"

"I just know you did."

Prompto cackled. "You have to git gud, buddy."

Noctis huffed, putting his phone back in his pocket. Sore loser. "Whatever. Do you have something to drink?"

"I've got some coke in the fridge."

Noctis stood up. Prompto was about to click on a mission, when he remembered.

It was feeding day. Prompto had drank most of the blood the previous evening, but he still had a little leftover.

"Noct, wait!" he shouted, jumping from the couch.

"Wait what?"

Prompto rushed to the kitchen. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He had had Noctis there before, but on days when he hadn't had blood in his fridge. How had he forgotten?

He stumbled into the kitchen, an excuse on his lips, but froze. Noctis had already opened the fridge. He was staring at it. At the contents.

"Noct?" Prompto whispered.

"Prom." Noctis swallowed. "What is this?"

Noctis held up a plastic bottle. Most of it was empty, but there were still a few fingers of dark red liquid. It was hard to mistake it for anything it wasn't.

"It's, it's, uh..." What could he pass it off as? Juice? Quick, what was a dark juice?

"Is this blood?"

Prompto's mouth snapped shut.

"Prompto, why do you have a bottle of blood in your fridge?"

Noctis's voice had taken a strange edge. Something concerned. Almost scared. Prompto's stomach dropped at the thought that Noctis, his best friend, his only friend, would be scared of him.

"It's a pig's, it's not-"

"Well thank the fucking Astrals it's not human," Noctis snapped. "Why do you have it?"

Prompto opened his mouth. He closed it. There wasn't anything he could say about this, no excuse. Of all things, someone opening his fridge at the wrong time was the worst that could have happened to him. Prompto's heart sped up. Which meant it reached around the normal speed of a human heart, because Prompto's tended to beat at a remarkably slow rate.

Noctis's hand on the bottle shook. "Prompto."

"I- I'm sorry."

"Sorry about what? What the fuck is going..."

Noctis trailed off. Prompto saw the moment the pieces started falling together in Noctis's mind. His eyes widened, turning to the bottle, then back to Prompto. His lips parted, mouthing soundless words for a few seconds.

"No," he eventually murmured.

"Noct..."

"Why do you have this blood?"

Prompto wet his lips. "Sometimes I... I gotta, well..."

"You're a vampire," Noct said, chest heaving.

The words were a stab to Prompto's chest. Worse even was the way Noctis stared at him, as if he expected Prompto to drop his fangs and jump him.

"I swear I never hurt anyone!" Prompto blurted. "Never ever. I just go buy that from a butcher every few days, but I only take animal. I don't- I don't bite people. I wouldn't dream of it, and I'm not with Niflheim, I swear! I mean I know I should be, but I've always lived here and I never left Insomnia before and-"

"Prompto!"

Prompto flinched, startled out of his babbling. "Yes?"

Noctis took a deep breath. "If you're... then why befriend me? Of all people?"

It was a good question. Not the first Prompto would have asked, but a valid one.

"I've got to show you something, alright? Be back in thirty seconds," Prompto said, and ran before Noctis could say anything. He climbed the stairs two steps at a time, launching himself in his room.

He had kept Lunafreya's letter all these years. It was folded in a box on his shelf. Prompto fumbled with the lid, taking it out. He gave himself enough time to breathe in deep, and then ran back to Noctis.

"Here," he said, offering the letter.

Noctis had shut the fridge. He wasn't holding the bottle in his hands anymore. He glanced at the paper, studying it for a moment before taking it from Prompto's hand.

Prompto wrung the hem of his shirt as Noctis unfolded the letter. "I found this dog back when I was a kid, it was wounded so I decided to take it in and help it. Then one day it vanished, and I thought it had gone back to its owner, and then I got this letter in the mail."

"Luna asked you to be friends with me," Noctis said, eyes skimming over the words.

"More or less?"

"So that's why you hang out with me?"

Prompto swallowed. "Well, at first? But you like the same games as me, and the same comics, and you're just... You're cool, Noct. I would have liked hanging out with you even without any letter. But I don't know if I would have approached you otherwise. I figured if a Princess said that I could be your friend even if I'm this, then it meant I was allowed to try."

That was the main reason Prompto had taken the letter out. To show Noctis that he wasn't some freak arrogant enough to think he was worthy of talking to him. He had had permission. Lunafreya was the Oracle, so her word had to count for something.

Noctis closed his eyes. "So, let me see if I got this right. You're... a vampire."

Prompto nodded shakily. "Yes."

"You know what the laws are."

"Yes."

"But you still decided to befriend me, even if any of my guards could have figured you out and dragged you off."

"Yes."

"And decided the risk was worth it because you wanted to play King's Knight?"

"I never really had a friend to play with," Prompto murmured.

Noctis huffed. "Sounds like something you'd do."

Prompto didn't know how to reply to that. "I swear I didn't want to hurt you," he said instead, because he needed Noctis to know that. Even if Noctis would send him right back to Niflheim, he had to understand that Prompto truly wanted to be his friend.

Shocking him, Noctis snorted. "Yeah, well, clearly."

"Really?"

Noctis placed the letter on the table and stepped backwards, leaning against the counter. "Guess if you'd wanted to hurt me you would have done it already. You've been stalking me for ages."

"I haven't stalked you!"

"Alright. Looking at me with longing from a corner of the courtyard."

Prompto's lips parted in surprise. "You remember that?"

"Course I do. You just never brought it up, so I didn't either," Noctis said. "Also, you can't stand to bite into ice cream shaped like an animal's head."

"Don't you feel guilty when they stare at you with those big eyes?"

Noctis shook his head. "You make a shitty bloodsucker."

"I didn't ask to be one," Prompto snapped.

"Yeah. You didn't." Noctis took a deep breath. "Fuck, seems obvious now. You're cold. You get sunburn if you spend five minutes in the sun. The damn silver."

"That stung, yes."

Noctis's eyes flickered over Prompto's face. He didn't look scared anymore. There was a frown on his face, but it was better than those wide eyes from before. "They taught me how to spot vampires. They'd never mentioned they... you... could be so normal."

"And what did they say?"

"Lots of things. Something about merciless enemies coming at me with outstretched fangs. Not." Noctis gestured vaguely at Prompto. "Do you even have fangs?"

"The fangs are retractable," Prompto said.

"I heard about that."

Prompto swallowed. "Do you want to... seem them?"

Noctis nodded. "Sure."

Willing himself to stay calm, Prompto opened his mouth wide. He never dropped his fangs in front of others, and for a moment wondered if he wouldn't end up freezing. But in the end, they came easily. He let them drop slowly, not wanting to scare Noctis again if he pushed them out all of a sudden.

"Wow," Noctis said, once they were all out. "Where do you fit those?"

Prompto shrugged. He had no idea where the fangs went when not out. Vampire biology was not something one studied in school.

"That's kind of cool," Noctis commented.

Prompto let the fangs retreat back into his face. "For real?"

"Yeah. It's kind of gross to see them go in and out, but they're badass."

"Uh." Prompto had never thought of them in those terms. They were proof that he was a monster, but he supposed he could see where Noctis came from.

Noctis took a step towards him. "Are we cool, then?"

"What?"

"Do you want me to repeat?"

Prompto blinked, shaking his head. "You just found out I'm a vampire."

Noctis nodded. "I'd say."

"Aren't you going to lock me in a dungeon, or put my head on a pike?"

"We haven't done heads on pikes in centuries, Prom," Noctis said. "And no. I'm not going to tell anything."

Prompto's mouth dropped open. He made a confused noise, words failing him. "Why?"

Noctis looked down. "You're my friend. It's a big shock, but I can't see you tearing someone to pieces. You're Prom, you're just..."

"A monster," Prompto finished.

"You- No. You're not a monster."

Prompto have a dry laugh. "That's kind of the definition."

"No. You've said it yourself, you didn't do anything. You're the same Prompto as before, except you have big teeth now."

"Had them all my life."

"You know what I mean."

Prompto really didn't. He was a vampire, a Niflheim monster. Had he not ended up in Insomnia, he might have become one of their soldiers. They would have sent him to rip members of the Kingsglaive to pieces, and Noctis's father would have given orders to put him down by any means. Growing up in Lucis didn't mean he didn't need to drink blood.

Noctis took a few more steps towards him. Then, his hand landed on Prompto's shoulder. "You're my best friend."

"Am I?" Prompto whispered, disbelief lacing his voice.

"Who else would it be?"

"Dunno. Ignis. Gladio."

Noctis's fingers squeezed his shoulder. "I love them, but they're not you. They work for me. I can't run off to the arcade with them or play King's Knight while we pretend we don't have homework."

Prompto didn't know what to say. He had tried not to think too much about what would happen if Noctis found out about him, but acceptance had never been an option. Not even his parents accepted it. They took care of him, but he knew he would never be the child they had wanted.

Instead of speaking, he took a step forward and wrapped Noctis in his arm. He didn't squeeze how he would have wanted, because he didn't want to break Noctis's ribs. Hugs were a complicated thing when one was a vampire. Plus, it wasn't as if Prompto had hugged anyone in a while.

Noctis's hand patted his back. He didn't push Prompto away in disgust, no, he hugged back. "We're buddies, right?"

Prompto nodded against Noctis's shoulder. "Yeah."

And wasn't that unbelievable.

Chapter Text

Things had been going well enough since Noctis had found out. Way, way better than Prompto would have ever imagined. They still spent time together at school, and Noctis even invited Prompto home. It had taken Prompto a couple days to truly accept that this wasn't a bizarre dream, and Noctis wasn't going to turn around and send the Crownsguard on him.

It was a relief Prompto. It was also sort of maddening.

Sure, Noctis had said he accepted Prompto's nature, but they hadn't talked about it since. Which shouldn't bother Prompto, because he didn't want to talk about it. The more they ignored it, the better. The last thing Prompto wanted was for Noctis to force him to explain more about the vampire side of himself.

At the same time, it drove Prompto insane. Was Noctis trying to forget? Were they supposed to never acknowledge it again? The fact that Noctis knew could mean Prompto could relax a little, not needing to be so secretive about everything, but maybe Noctis preferred to ignore it. Prompto wouldn't blame him. In his place Prompto would also not want to remember he had a friend whose energy drinks were stored in people's veins.

Those were the thoughts that kept Prompto from enjoying an otherwise wonderful day. He and Noctis sat together at Noctis's kitchen table, ignoring the homework open in front of them. They had played a couple rounds of King's Knight, and then moved to each of them scrolling through social media in silence. Occasionally one would grab a pastry from a tray. It was that dessert Ignis kept making in slightly different variations, Noctis's house was always full of them.

It was an afternoon like many others before. Yet Prompto's leg couldn't stop bouncing under the table. He didn't want to make things tense, but things felt tense. The memes on his feed weren't entertaining him as they usually did.

"Hey, Prom."

"Hm?"

Noctis turned his phone towards him. "This is you."

Prompto looked over. It was the picture of a black cat, staring at the camera with wide eyes and a supremely dumb expression.

Its too long canine teeth weren't fully covered, sticking out like two tiny fangs.

Prompto opened and closed his mouth. When out, his fangs stuck from his mouth in exactly the same way. He swallowed, and glanced at Noctis's face. Noctis had the flat expression he wore whenever he was waiting for Prompto to get his dumb jokes.

"Dude," Prompto said, choking up.

Noctis's eyes widened slightly. "Uh, you okay?"

Prompto was okay. He was great. His best friend was showing him cat memes about his vampirism. That was like, the ultimate act of acceptance. There was nothing that could peak the love carried by cat memes short of a marriage proposal. Prompto was going to scream.

"That looks like such a stupid cat," he said, somehow not tearing up.

"Yeah, that's why I said it's you."

Prompto didn't even kick him under the table. He found himself grinning.

Noctis put down his phone. He cleared his throat. "So, what can you do with them?"

"Do?" Prompto repeated.

"With the teeth."

"What do you do with teeth?"

Well, Prompto's fangs weren't regular teeth, but the point stood. Granted, the fangs could do a few things a human's teeth couldn't, but in the end it was all about biting. He didn't shoot lasers from them.

"Can you open cans with them?" Noctis asked.

Prompto blinked. "What?"

"Look, maybe it's dumb, but can't you try?"

Talking about the fangs had Prompto tense up the slightest bit. However, it was hard for him to grow truly and fully anxious after the cat picture. The part of him that wanted nobody to know anything about his vampirism warred with the part that would do anything to make his friend happy.

Which was how he ended up standing in front of a counter, a can of tuna in hand.

Noctis crossed his arms, leaning against the fridge. "You're not going to end up drinking the tuna oil, right?"

"Why would I do that?"

Noctis shrugged. "Dunno how it works."

"Dude, they're not straws."

Prompto cleared his throat, looking at the can in his hands. He could do this. It was a dare, not too different from the ones he and Noctis did all the time. Like when they had wanted to see how well Noctis could catch food with his mouth and ended up with peanuts scattered everywhere on the kitchen floor. Or that time Prompto had put on as many pairs of underwear as he could on top of each other until no more could fit.

Noctis had already seen his fangs. That didn't stop Prompto from being nervous as he pushed them out. He didn't look at Noctis as he did. Think of the cat, he told himself. If that cat could look cute with those teeth so could Prompto.

Anyways, how was he supposed to this? Could he just jam the fangs into the top and rip it off? Prompto rose the can to his mouth. He experimentally pressed his fangs on it, testing how firm it was.

The problem was that Prompto never used his fangs for their intended purpose. He knew how to bite stuff, in general, but this situation left him stumped. A first attempt at piercing the can had him grimace and pull back.

"Can't do it?" Noctis asked.

Prompto tried again. He rested his fangs against the top of the can, and his bottom teeth against the side for leverage. Nothing budged when he tried to close his mouth. He huffed through his nose.

"Come on man, push."

Prompto said something that might have been, I'm trying, but ended up sounding pretty garbled.

"They're tougher than regular teeth, they should break that."

Prompto took the can away. "I think I know that better than you."

There was a pause. "Dude," Noctis wheezed, and burst out laughing.

"Noctis!" That was what Prompto tried to say, at least. It came out more like, Nokteef.

Noctis snorted. "You sound so weird."

"You try speaking with these things," Prompto said, trying to make all the words come out right.

Noctis just kept laughing.

Prompto glared at him, and turned back to the can. "Fuck off, asshole."

"Affhole."

He was taking out his frustration on this can. His fangs had left two small indents before. Prompto got back in position. With a drawn out groan of effort, Prompto put all his jaw muscles into it.

There was a small pop, and Prompto found his left fang sinking into the can.

"Did you do it?" Noctis asked, having recovered from his laughing fit.

Prompto slipped his fang free with a shake of his head. "Look at this."

Noctis whistled. "Not bad. Now you just gotta open-"

The sound of the front door being unlocked made them both jump. Prompto retracted his fangs so quickly his face hurt.

"Noctis?" Ignis called.

"Hey, Iggy."

"H-Hello," Prompto gasped. He didn't look suspicious, did he? Better rub a hand on his mouth just to be sure.

Ignis stepped into the kitchen, and stopped. His eyes flickered over the still open homework, to Noctis and Prompto standing by the counter, to the can Prompto held. Prompto prayed this looked like regular teenager weirdness, even if he didn't know what else it should look like.

Ignis sighed. "I will go to the restroom for a minute." And when I get back you two will better be taking care of those equations, was implied.

Noctis and Prompto glanced at each other after Ignis left. They both burst into uncontrollable giggling.

It was probably going to be alright.

***

Prompto wasn't sure when Ignis had started cooking for him. At some point he had ended up finding himself staying at Noctis's for dinner twice a week, with Ignis making him the best food Prompto had ever eaten before.

Noctis said that Prompto must have triggered Ignis's mother hen instincts. Maternal wasn't how Prompto would have initially described Ignis. More like terrifying, panic inducing, with the piercing gaze of a coeurl about to pounce. However, Prompto thought he was starting to see it. A little. Mostly when it came to Noctis.

They were on first name basis now, he and Ignis. Prompto would have never dreamt they would have gotten to this place.

There was a delicious smell coming from the kitchen. Which was normal, when Ignis was cooking, but this was unusual. It was sort of like meat, but not cooking meat. Rather it was fresh, bloody meat, with a coppery tang that made Prompto's mouth water for all the wrong reasons.

Ignis had asked earlier if Prompto was alright with eating tartare. Prompto had said yes. He didn't know what it meant, to be honest, but Prompto wasn't picky and Ignis had yet to cook something Prompto hadn't liked. Whatever it was, it would be good.

"Dinner is ready," Ignis called.

It was nice to be called for dinner. Prompto's parents were home so rarely, and even when they were Prompto was often left cooking for himself. It probably said something about him that such a simple thing made him feel warm and fuzzy inside. Something that one might bring up to a therapist.

"You said you made tartare, right?" Noctis asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Yes. Prompto, I do hope it's to your tastes. If it isn't, I can whip something up."

Prompto grinned, sitting at the table. "Anything you cook is up to my tastes."

Or, not cook. The dish in front of Prompto held a small pile of what looked like grind meat. There was a soft scent of onion, like it had been mixed into it.

"What's the green bits?" Noctis asked, poking at a few suspicious pieces in his tartare.

"It's capers, Noct. I assure they taste of nothing but salt."

Prompto took up his fork. "You're down for raw meat, but not a vaguely green bit?"

"Yep. Also, why wouldn't I be alright with raw meat?"

"I feel some people might find it gross." Prompto glanced at Ignis. "Not me, though. I'm totally down for it."

Noctis huffed. "Everyone eats sushi, right? And that's raw meat too, basically."

Well, Prompto couldn't argue with that. He took a forkful of tartare, and put it into his mouth. And it was so good. The blood had been drained from the meat, but there was still enough of its aftertaste to make Prompto shiver. And vampire aside, whatever Ignis had put in it was delicious. There was the onion and the capers and a bit of lemon and something else Prompto couldn't quite identify and it was wonderful.

He pointed at his food with the fork. "Ignis, this is great."

Ignis smiled. "I'm glad. But I must suggest you eat slowly, raw meat can be somewhat heavy on the stomach."

So was blood, most likely, but Prompto digested that just fine.

Were he by himself, Prompto would have felt guilty about eating something like this. Too close to blood. But this tartare had to be some fancy dish, or Ignis wouldn't have made it. Noctis liked it, and from the way he had dug into it Prompto figured he had eaten it before. If the humans liked this, then it was fine for Prompto to like it too.

After dinner, it was time for Prompto to go home, but Ignis stopped him as he made to grab his things. "May I talk to you for a moment?"

"Yeah, sure."

Ignis made him sit in the kitchen. "I see you greatly enjoyed dinner."

"When do I not?"

"Not many people would dig into tartare with such enthusiasm."

Prompto shrugged. "I'm not picky."

Ignis hummed. "Prompto, when did you last had your blood work done?"

His what? He wasn't sure how they had gotten here, but the honest answer would be never. "A while ago?"

"Are you still not taking care of your health?"

"What's this about?"

"I noticed you have a strong preference for little cooked red meat," Ignis said. "Between that and your paleness, I worry you may suffer from iron deficiency."

"Uh?"

"It's not uncommon for people who have some kind of deficiencies to crave foods that contain the substances you need. The body knows what it needs. Red meat is quite iron rich."

Ignis's explanation was very logical and understandable. Prompto was stuck somewhere between laughing and crying.

"I'll see about that blood work," Prompto said, somewhat weakly.

Ignis nodded. "I recommend it."

As soon as Prompto had left Noctis's flat, he took out his phone.

dude ignis thinks im iron deificient

Noctis's reply came seconds after.

well he's not entirely wrong

No, but Prompto was hysterical thinking about it. Iron deficiency, of all things. If only Ignis knew the kind of iron intake Prompto had.

***

Hanging out with one person was something Prompto hadn't done often before getting to know Noctis. Hanging out with an entire group of people was a little wild.

He sat with Noctis, Ignis and Gladio in a booth at a diner Ignis had declared almost tolerable. Prompto was against the wall, Noctis next to him. He was almost sure Gladio was trying to trap Ignis with his bulk, making sure he didn't run the moment the server presented him with food.

Gladio and Noctis were arguing about Noctis's training schedule. Prompto ate his fries, trying not to feel too much out of his depth. He and Gladio talked maybe once a month, when they happened to be at Noctis's at the same time. Prompto didn't mind hanging around with all the three of them, but there wasn't much he could add to a conversation about Noctis's responsibilities.

But hey, it was great that Prompto had been invited in the first place. School had ended two weeks before, and Prompto had feared for a moment that Noctis would forget about him now that they didn't hang out together every day. But apparently, summer loneliness was no longer a thing. Prompto was in the friend group, officially.

He looked around as Gladio and Noctis engaged in what seemed to be a kicking match under the table. There was a TV in the diner, with a news report on. The audio was off, but Prompto could make out the titles written at the bottom of the screen.

Vampire attack in Cleigne.

Prompto swallowed, looking at the serious face reporter speak. They didn't show any images, but Prompto could imagine the scene just fine. He had read about the aftermaths of vampire attacks before. Bloodless corpses with their throats torn out, those who had tried to fight back with their bones broken and twisted.

"Prompto?"

He startled, turning to Gladio. "Yes?"

Gladio raised an eyebrow at him. "You with us?"

"Yeah, sure."

Had someone asked him a question and he hadn't noticed?

Gladio turned around, looking behind himself. "What, is there a girl back there?"

"Do not start," Ignis said, not looking up from where he was cutting his hamburger into bite sized pieces. Figures he would be too dignified to eat with his hands. Not like Prompto, who had managed to stain his shirt with sauce the second he had tried to take a bite.

"Not flirting," Gladio said, but his words had lost the light tone. "Bad story, that one."

Both Ignis and Noctis turned to look at the screen. Great. The last thing Prompto had wanted was to draw attention to that.

Ignis hummed. "I heard. Do they know if it was an isolated accident, or if Niflheim sent specialized soldiers?"

Gladio shrugged. "Dunno. It's only been a few hours, I think."

Noctis glanced at Prompto.

Ignis turned back around, facing his food once again. "Hopefully it was only a lone vampire gone rogue."

"Won't matter much for those poor bastards."

"No, but would you rather have a single independent acting vampire or Niflheim's death units?"

Gladio grunted. "Whatever. The sooner they put it down, the better."

"Put it down?" Prompto squealed. He hadn't meant to, but it escaped him.

Gladio blinked at him. "What, wanna hold its hand and help it back to Niflheim?"

"N-no, but... Sounds like you're talking about some kind of animal."

"What do you call something that rips people to pieces?"

Prompto looked down at his food, mouth dry. His heart had started speeding up.

"Prompto's right," Noctis said. There was a small hard edge to his voice. "Vampires look human, and they act human too."

"And maul people to death."

Under the table, Prompto nudged Noctis's leg. A request, asking for him to stop. He appreciated what Noctis had tried to do, but if Noctis and Gladio were to have a debate on his humanity Prompto didn't want to hear it.

Besides, he knew what the answer was. He looked human, and acted human, but he was not. Prompto was well aware of what he could do and become if he let himself act on his instincts. He could fool himself into thinking he wasn't a monster some days, but Gladio was right. As much as it pained Prompto.

Noctis, thankfully, dropped it. Then Ignis started a rant on how the fries hadn't been fried properly, and that conversation was forgotten. Prompto thought he did a good job at pretending nothing was wrong for the rest of the day. He finished his food, even his stomach had closed up. Ignis threw him some weird looks, but it had to be about something else.

But then Gladio went back to the Citadel, Ignis left for some mysterious Ignis business, and Noctis and Prompto ended up back at Noctis's place. Noctis turned to him with a frown, and Prompto knew he either ran quickly or he was in for a Conversation, capital C and all.

"I'm sorry Gladio was being an ass," Noctis said.

Prompto pulled on a smile. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing. No one would like to be talked about in that way."

"He wasn't talking about me."

Noctis groaned. "Prom."

Prompto shrugged. "Look. I know it, alright? I know what I am. It's not nice to hear it, but... It can be motivation. To behave right."

Be a good little vampire who doesn't hurt people, or have Gladio Amicitia put you down like a rabid dog.

"Oh, shut up!" Noctis threw his hands up. "You know who also sucks? Regular, boring human beings. There's serial killers and rapists and that doesn't mean we're all monsters, right? They decided to do that. Those vampires are the one who sat down and decided to take bites out of people, it doesn't mean you're all like that."

It was a nice sentiment, but all it did was make Prompto's snort. "No offense buddy, but you really don't get it."

"What don't I get?"

"I need blood. There's not a choice in that."

"And you buy it from a butcher."

Prompto scoffed. He didn't want to say this, but he also couldn't keep it in. Noctis was a great friend, but Prompto couldn't just lie to him. He couldn't sit there and listen to Noctis defend him when he had no idea what Prompto was. "Yeah but you don't... You don't want to be a serial killer."

"No shit," Noctis said.

Prompto toyed with his shirt. "That's the thing, I... I smell the blood, Noct. It's like smelling Ignis's best food."

"You need it, of course it'd-"

"Human's the best," Prompto interrupted. His chest was turning tight. "I never had it, but... It smells so good. Like the best thing in the world. Just because I avoid getting any it doesn't mean that I'm not made to want it."

It wasn't a matter of good people and bad people. There were vampires who did what they were meant to do, and then there was Prompto, who played at being human like it would make it real.

Noctis paused. "I know vampires have a good sense of smell. I was told."

Prompto nodded. He had figured Noctis would know.

"Even if you do want people's blood, you didn't do anything wrong. You could... I don't know, you could buy from a blood's bank."

"Suppose I could," Prompto murmured.

"Or you could get a girlfriend."

Prompto frowned at Noctis. He wasn't sure what that meant, until Noctis wagged his eyebrows at him. "Dude!"

"Come on, that'd fix the problem."

"That's gross."

"Are you telling me you wouldn't go down on your girl? I thought you were better than that, man."

Prompto covered his face with his hands. He tried to tell Noctis about the worst sides of himself, and this was the reaction? Couldn't Noctis just scream at him in disgust like a normal person? "Shut up."

Noctis's hand ruffled Prompto's hair. "See, you've got plenty of options that don't involve people dying. Just because you thought of drinking people's blood it doesn't mean you did anything wrong."

"If you say so," Prompto said. He didn't know how to argue with Noctis had said, but he also didn't know if he could agree with it.

How had Noctis not chased Prompto away yet? He was cool with Prompto being a vampire, he was cool with Prompto saying he'd be down to chug human blood. What had Prompto done to deserve a friend like that?

Noctis wrapped his arm around Prompto's shoulder. "Anyways, I can't tell Gladio to get his head out of his ass about vampires, but I can annoy the shit out of him. Thinking about skipping training."

"He's gonna give you hell for that."

"I can deal," Noctis said. Then, after a moment, "wait, does that mean that you can smell it if someone is, you know, in that week?"

Prompto groaned. "I can and I hate it, thanks."

***

"This is the grossest thing I've ever seen."

"Thanks, buddy, really supportive there."

Prompto was good usually at keeping up with his anti-UV routine. Cover himself in the strongest sunscreen with the thorough and loving care Ignis used to butter up a pan, avoid being outside during the hottest hours, put on a ridiculous straw hat to always keep his face protected.

He had screwed up. Noctis had dragged him to the park at noon on a late July day, Prompto had left home the hat because he didn't want to look like a complete idiot today, and he was out of his usual sunscreen and had had to use a weaker one. They had went back inside after less than an hour, Prompto having turned a concerning shade of red. Even forty minutes had been more than enough.

Prompto's quick healing meant sunburns ran their course fast, and the peeling had started only a few hours after the damage. Noctis's aloe vera had done nothing to help. Prompto was an itchy, shedding mess.

Noctis put a hand on Prompto's arm, and pulled. Prompto felt nothing except a vague itch. With a disgusted expression, Noctis held up a ten centimeters strip of skin.

"Wanna keep it as a souvenir?" Prompto asked.

"It's horrible."

"You're the one who pulled it off, you know."

Noctis let the skin drop into the sink. "You're like a damn snake."

Prompto pushed his fangs out. He darted his tongue out between them, and made a hissing noise.

"Oh, yes, the Prompto python, the most terrible snake of them all."

"The Prompthon."

Noctis shoved him. "That's horrible."

Prompto hissed again.

***

Prompto checked his phone. How had he ended up coming to school so early? It was a good fifteen minutes before the time he'd usually arrive. He blamed this on first month of school energy.

"Prompto?"

He blinked up. A girl had stopped in front of him, looking at him. "Oh. Cecilia, right?"

She smiled. "That's me, yeah."

"How's it going?" Prompto asked, somewhat confused. He knew of her more than he knew her. They had a couple classes in common, but Prompto didn't think they had ever spoken aside from greetings and anxious, class wide last minute reviewing before a test.

"Good, I'm good. You?"

"The same, pretty much."

Cecilia nodded, looking down. "Listen, I... I wanted to ask you something."

"Sure. What is it?"

There was a moment of rather awkward silence. Cecilia rocked on the balls of her feet, biting her lip. Prompto was about to ask if she was alright when she spoke. "Are you free this weekend?"

"I think so?"

"Would you like to go out with me? We could see a movie."

Prompto's brain shorted. Was he being asked on a date? No way. There was absolutely no way. He was snapped between disbelief and excitement at the speed of light. Did Cecilia like him? Despite the fact he had never thought about her in a romantic way – or thought much about her at all, to be honest – his mind was filled with a perfect snapshot of the two of them holding hands in the darkness of a movie theater, maybe even leaning in for a small kiss-

Backtrack. First, that was kind of desperate and a little bit pathetic. Second, would it even be advisable? She'd notice how cold he was. And Prompto's face looked normal when his fangs were hidden, but if one touched his mouth they'd feel two bumps that shouldn't be there. It might be obvious that there was something wrong if he was kissed, and Astrals why was he jumping to kissing already?

He realized he hadn't said anything in a minute. Cecilia was staring at him, looking more nervous by the minute.

"I, ah, that'd be great, but I remembered I have to, uh, I already said I would go out," he squealed. Inside his head, he screamed at himself. When had he ever gotten asked out? When would he ever be asked out again?

Cecilia's face fell. "I see," she mumbled, and left without another word.

Prompto felt a little bit like an ass as he watched her go. The weird fantasies popped into smoke in his mind.

"What was that about?"

Prompto jumped out of his skin. "Noct!"

"Do you know her?" Noctis asked, unconcerned by the scare he had given him.

"She's in Maths with us."

"I didn't know you were friends."

"We're not." Prompto doubted she'd want to be now.

"So what happened?"

Prompto tugged at his shirt. "She asked me on a date, I think."

Noctis's eyes widened. "Really?"

"You don't have to sound so shocked, you know."

"And what did you say?"

"I sort of said I couldn't come."

"Why? She's pretty."

Prompto shrugged. "Yeah, but I also never really thought about her like that."

"Isn't that what dates are for? Trying things out?" Noctis asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Yes, but..." Prompto sighed. "I started thinking, what if she realizes there's something wrong? Like what if she touches me and sees that I'm freezing cold?"

"What, are you going to stay single forever because you're scared someone might notice you're a vampire?"

Noctis's voice had been low, but Prompto still couldn't help but glance around to make sure no one had heard. "It's not a stupid thing."

"I know, but one date should be safe."

Maybe. But if things went right, one date would turn into two and then three and then maybe a real relationship. Prompto had been nervous enough getting to know Noctis, fearing he might be found out. A relationship tended to involve a lot of touching, and especially touching around the area of his mouth, which wasn't quite the case with a friendship. It would be so much easier for a girlfriend to figure it out.

Besides, Prompto would feel guilty. He had before Noctis had found out, and he still did around Ignis or Gladio at times. There was no way he could handle lying to a partner about what he was.

Noctis sighed. "Come on, we'll be late for class if we stand around here."

***

Prompto looked forward to when his parents were home. He did. Maybe not the way he used to when he was a child, but everyone knew teenagers liked independence and all. It was the hormones that put a damp to things.

But he was happy they had managed to get home for his birthday. It was good to see that they cared. They'd given him some money as a present, and Prompto had to plan how to use. Normally he'd blow it on video games, but he already had three news ones waiting for him. One from Noctis, and then one from Ignis and Gladio each, and Prompto assumed Noctis had been the one to think about all three gifts because Ignis didn't get video games and Gladio was more the type to spend time hiking and wrestling behemots than to sit on his couch and play.

So yeah, good birthday. Gifts. Friends. Parents home. A cake too – Ignis had baked it, and Prompto had almost cried at his feet for it. Nothing to complain about. Now Prompto was free to enjoy his parents for a whole week before they left again. Which was. Amazing.

"Prompto?" his mom called from the kitchen.

"What is it?"

"Can you come here for a second?"

Prompto hopped off from his bed and went to see what was going on. His mom stood in front of the fridge, lips pursed. "Mom?"

"How often are you buying it?" she asked.

She didn't need to specify what it was. She never said the word blood around him, and he had went to buy some just the day before. "About once a week?"

"I was thinking, well. You're older now, you could try to see if you can space it out more. Once every two weeks, for example."

Prompto swallowed. He didn't know if he could. Feeding once a week had him feeling hungry by the time it was time to buy more blood. Going without for longer than that may not be too good.

But it could just be a matter of training. When he was a kid he couldn't have imagined going two days without the junk food he used to shovel into his mouth at every meal, but he had learnt to eat better. Prompto might be able to get his body used to wait longer between feedings.

"I'll see what I can do," he said, forcing a smile.

It wouldn't hurt to try. Even if Mister Rubores sold it cheap to him, blood was still quite the expense. It could save his parents some money if Prompto bought less.

Prompto was grateful to his parents. Many others would have been horrified to find out what the child they had adopted was. The Argentums had rolled with it. They had learnt through trial and error how to feed him, and made sure he understood how to hide. Sure, they weren't the most present parents, but Prompto could forgive them for being away so often.

They didn't really acknowledge what Prompto was if they could help it. Not like Noctis, who joked around and put Prompto's hand under his shirt when it was too hot and had gotten cheap steel cutlery to make sure Prompto wouldn't catch fire every time he ate at his place. With Prompto's parents the vampirism was the elephant in the room everyone pretended not to look at.

But it was alright. They made sure Prompto stayed alive, and had never really said anything bad about it. It was cool.

They would be gone again by the next time Prompto needed to buy blood, so they wouldn't have to find yet another bottle of blood in the fridge for a while.

***

"Noooct."

Noctis stretched out on the couch, making it impossible for anyone else to sit. "My couch, Prom."

"Let me sit."

"Losers don't get couch privileges."

Prompto huffed. He'd gone to the bathroom one minute and come back to this. It always got way too much to Noctis's head when he won something. One would think that ass would be too lazy to be competitive, but no, when it came to video games Noctis was always determined to be the very best. A few wins at Marius Kart, and this is the treatment Prompto got.

He tried to push Noctis's legs off. "You're a fucking tyrant."

"Suck it up, peasant," Noctis said, refusing to budge.

"I'm overthrowing you. The people want a democracy."

"The gods gave me authority."

"The divine right of kings is bullshit."

Noctis grinned at him, avoiding Prompto's attempts at conquering the couch. "That's treason talk."

"It absolutely is."

Ass. If Noctis refused to give him the couch, Prompto would make him.

He was all juiced up from his feeding the previous day. Prompto's strength decreased the more he went without blood, but today he was at his vampiric peak. He crouched down, placed his hands under one side of the couch. It was easy to lift it, tilting it to force Noctis to roll down along the length.

Noctis squeaked. "Prom!"

"I'm conquering this couch, Your Highness," Prompto said. Noctis was no longer lying down, pressed up against the opposite side of the couch to avoid falling backwards.

"What are you going to do, push me off?"

"You bet."

Noctis turned, making to climb back to Prompto. "I'm never going to leave this."

"You're going to."

"I'll never give this couch up to some tyrannical overlord."

"Oh, I'm the tyrant now?"

Their laughter froze on their face when they heard the sound of a door closing. Closing. Because Noctis forgot to lock the door all the time, which Ignis always scolded him for, but Noctis never remembered to do.

Turning a little to the side, Prompto was able to see that Ignis was standing in the entrance right then. They hadn't heard him come in. He was earlier than usual. Fuck.

"Hey, Ignis," Noctis said, with the most guilty voice imaginable.

Prompto only squeaked. He hoped the sound could pass off as a result of effort.

"What is going on?" Ignis slowly asked.

Prompto could joke about how he had been working out. He looked skinny, but the guns he packed were so powerful even Gladio should be jealous! Except it was a terrible story. That was a big, heavy couch, and Noctis was on top of it. There was no way someone with Prompto's build could hold it up with ease and laugh while doing it.

"Nothing," Noctis said. This was the future King of Lucis? Weren't political figures supposed to know how to lie?

"Nothing," Ignis repeated, his tone making it clear what he thought of that answer.

It might make things less awkward if Prompto put down the couch. He crouched down, lowering the furniture back to the ground. Only once he had let go he realized he should have let out a few grunts of effort, maybe pretended his arms were shaking, acted like he was struggling under the weight.

Noctis was on his feet as soon as the couch was back in place. "We were just fooling around, Specs."

Ignis was staring straight at Prompto. It wasn't the looks Prompto had gotten in the past few months, exasperated but vaguely fond. Ignis's gaze was sharp enough to cut, as if trying to dissect Prompto with his eyes.

Ignis was smart. Like super smart. He was barely old enough to start attending university, and already had a degree. No way he wasn't putting together the pieces.

"I see you did something about your iron levels," Ignis eventually said.

Prompto's...? Prompto remembered now. He had looked up iron deficiency symptoms after Ignis had brought it up. Weakness and exhaustion were some the key signs. Prompto had never confirmed he was suffering from it, but he certainly wouldn't have been able to do that if he had.

"Y-yes, I got... supplements," Prompto stammered.

It was a bad move. He hesitated before speaking, and he knew how bad a liar he could be. Ignis's eyes narrowed.

Noctis took a step forward. He had put himself between Prompto and Ignis, Prompto noticed. "Look, it was no big deal. Prompto's a bit stronger than he looks, no need to stand here and argue about it."

"Allow me to be rather surprised that Prompto can easily lift weights that would trouble most Crownsguard members," Ignis replied, clipped.

"Well, maybe the Crownsguard should do more weight lifting then."

"And since when does Prompto lift?"

Since never. Prompto talked about his runs, but he had never mentioned any other kind of exercise. Because he didn't do any. He didn't even have good PE grades, deliberately acting clumsier than he was to disguise his strength. Ignis knew that, because at some point Ignis had started knowing more about Prompto's school results than his parents did.

Ignis turned back to Prompto. "Why do you have no medical records, Prompto?"

Prompto couldn't answer. He knew his lack of defense had to be confirming the picture that was starting to form in Ignis's mind.

"Go home, Prompto."

Prompto blinked, turning to Noctis. "What?"

"Go home."

Noctis's voice had turned hard in a way it never was. It was a tone that didn't allow for any argument, final and severe.

"Noctis," Ignis started.

"Ignis." And Noctis almost never used Ignis's full name. "We can talk about this after Prompto's gone back to his place."

Ignis straightened up. "I think he should stay right where he is."

"Noct, what..."

Noctis turned to Prompto. "I'll text you later, alright? Just go."

Prompto should have insisted on staying. Noctis seemed to be about to argue with Ignis for his sake, and it would be right for Prompto to stick around for it.

But the way Ignis was looking at him made Prompto want to scream, and so he took the coward way out.

He walked home as if in a daze. Ignis was, well, maybe not quite his friend, but they got along well enough. Prompto wasn't close to him like he was with Noctis, but they chatted, even joked together sometimes. Ignis seemed to have taken Prompto under his wing to a certain degree.

But Ignis was loyal to the Crown beyond words, and he never broke rules, let alone laws. It was his duty to report Prompto. As a concerned citizen, and as a servant to the Crown who had noticed a potential danger near the Prince.

And Ignis didn't tolerate being lied to.

Prompto's house was, as usual, empty. There was nothing to take his mind off of things. He paced back and forth, trying to get rid of the mounting anxiety, cold despite never feeling cold. What would they do to him? Interrogate him? Lucis didn't have the death penalty, but surely someone would be willing to make an exception for the vampire who had put Noctis in danger.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Even if Noctis knew, Prompto shouldn't have relaxed that much. He should have kept up his human facade at all times, making sure there was no risk of anyone walking on what they shouldn't have. Instead he had gotten caught. And he had put Noctis in trouble too, because Noctis had known for months and hadn't said anything about it.

He was a breath away from crying when his phone buzzed. Prompto took it from his pocket with clammy hands, checking for a death sentence.

Ignis said he's not reporting you

he's mad tho

but i made him promise he wouldn't say anything to my dad or the guard

Prompto's knees gave out.

He reread the texts while sitting on the floor of the living room. Ignis wouldn't report him. That wasn't possible. It had to be an hallucination.

for real?????

yep

took a while but he gave his word

you ok?

im not having a panic attack

that's good i guess

sorry i chased you away i thought it would be easier if it was just us

dude you saved my life

i cant be mad

thank you so much you have no idea

No idea of what, Prompto didn't know. He felt like a deflated balloon. Tomorrow he was going out and start knocking on doors asking if people had heard of the Lord and Savior Noctis Lucis Caelum. Right now he may just have a fit of hysterics.

no problem

couldn't let my buddy get deported

thank you

but you're not in trouble right

iggy might make me vegetables for a month but i'll live

don't let it get to your head but you're worth a leaf or two

And wasn't that enough to make Prompto sniffle a little.

The danger might be gone, but there was still no way Prompto was going to relax soon. Let alone sleep. It was early for that, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to turn his brain off that night.

He could pace some more. That'd be nice.

Prompto was on his way to wear through the floor when his doorbell rang. He froze. It was getting late, no one should be stopping by. Unless it was the Crownsguard here to arrest him. But Ignis had given his word, so it couldn't be.

It was much worse. It was Ignis himself.

"May I come in?" he asked when Prompto opened.

Prompto squealed something that sounded like, "sure."

He wondered if Ignis had also promised not to murder Prompto himself. His face certainly promised violence.

"Where can we sit?"

Prompto led Ignis to the kitchen, where he could put an entire table between the two of them. He didn't think Ignis had ever been inside his house. There could have been far better circumstances for that.

Ignis was still looking at Prompto with those piercing eyes. It made all the anxiety Prompto had managed to wear off build up again.

"Noctis gave me quite the speech," Ignis began. "It's nice to know all those lessons in dialectics were not wasted."

Prompto didn't say anything. It might be safer for him not to interrupt.

"Has he already informed you of the outcome?"

"He said you won't report me," Prompto murmured.

Ignis nodded. "Noctis was adamant that you are not a danger to him, nor to others. I am forced to agree on that, I cannot imagine you hurting anyone. Then again, until a few hours ago I had not imagined you could ever be a vampire either. In hindsight, it's infuriating how many signs I missed."

Prompto had the feeling he should apologize. He had lied for his own safety, but he had still lied.

"I have a few questions for you."

"Shoot," Prompto said.

"First of all. How do you acquire blood, and how often?"

Under the table, Prompto wrung his hands together. He didn't look at Ignis as he spoke, trying to rely the facts neatly, as if he were answering a question in class. "I buy animal blood from a butcher. Pig's, usually. I've tried beef and garula too, but pig's cheapest. And, uh, once a week? I'm trying to see if I can push a bit, but right now that's the schedule."

"Are there consequences to going without for too long?"

"I get all weak and woozy. Like, tired all the time, struggling to get out of bed stuff. And I get super hungry, too."

There was no way for Prompto to skip blood entirely. He would have loved to, but he was scared of what might happen. Not just because he might starve. The more time since his last feeding, the more enticing people smelled, and Prompto wasn't too keen on finding out if he could be pushed too far.

Ignis hummed. "Very well. Do you know anything about your biological parents, or your origins?"

Wouldn't he like to. "I was adopted when I was one. Don't really remember much."

"Have your parents not told you anything?"

"No." Prompto paused, eyes darting to Ignis. "And please don't get them in trouble. I know they shouldn't have kept me, but they're good people, I swear."

"I had no intention on doing that, but I must know any detail you have."

"I got nothing."

Ignis adjusted his glasses. "Prompto, I personally reviewed your legal documents. Your adoption papers are in perfect order. So is your birth certificate, and the name listed for your biological mother belongs to a defunct Lucian citizen. I found no signs of forgeries or irregularities, and I was very thorough in my research. Do you understand the security concerns this raises?"

A big one. If someone was able to smuggle a baby vampire into Insomnia and leave no trace... Prompto had never given it much thought from the security standpoint, but he could see why Ignis would be alarmed. "Sorry. I really have no clue. All my parents said is that they had been told I had some Niff heritage when they adopted me."

"And they took your vampirism in stride?"

Prompto shrugged, trying to act as if hearing the word hadn't made his heart skip a beat. "They say I was much more normal as a little kid. When they found out they decided to keep raising me."

Prompto didn't remember a time before knowing he was a vampire. He wondered sometimes how his parents had felt the first time they had seen fangs in their little boy's mouth.

"I see," Ignis said. He sighed. "I am displeased, Prompto."

Oh, Astrals. Being gutted would have been less painful. "I'm sorry."

"In truth, I'm more angry with myself than with you. I should know how to recognize the signs of a vampire."

"To get rid of us," Prompto said.

Ignis paused. "You're leaving me stumped. While I was taught vampires are able to pass as humans, it was always through the lenses of them being Niflheim citizens and therefore hostile to Lucis. The option of a vampire that was not my enemy due to politics alone was never presented to me."

"I don't know anything about Niflheim," Prompto said. "Aside from what the news say, I mean. I'd never do anything to help them."

"Believe me, the possibility of you being a spy did not even cross my mind. Your abysmal lying skills make it all the more frustrating that I did not catch on."

It must have been the sheer absurdity of the situation that had prevented Ignis from noticing. As he had said, Lucian vampires were not a thing. A vampire that lived in Insomnia, attended high school, and acted like any regular teenager wasn't a possibility anyone expected.

"Can I still see Noct?" Prompto asked. Because that was the concern, and Prompto didn't think he'd be able to stand it if Ignis forbid it. Prompto would stay away if ordered, but it would hurt. Now that he knew what it was like to have a friend he could always rely on he couldn't go back to being alone.

"At this point I wonder what would happen should I even attempt to keep you apart."

"So I can?"

"You may keep spending time with Noctis," Ignis conceded. "But I will be observing you, Prompto."

Prompto nodded. "I'll be good, I swear. I'll make Noct do all his homework and stuff."

"Don't make promises you can't keep. And, Prompto?"

"Yes?"

"I understand why you would hide your nature, but don't you dare lie to me again."

There was a clear promise behind those words. Prompto would heed that.

Ignis stood up, adjusting the sleeves of his shirt. "Very well. My curiosity is satisfied, for now. Goodnight, Prompto."

"Goodnight to you."

Prompto stood on his door as Ignis drove off. His eyes darted around, as if expecting to see a man in uniform hiding behind a corner.

Prompto couldn't say that he was happy with how the conversation had gone, but it could have been much worse. Ignis would keep his secret. He was allowed to see Noctis again. It was better than Prompto would have ever imagined.

However, Ignis was mad at him. Prompto had thought he and Ignis were building some kind of friendship, or at least some kind of mutual respect. Now he had spoken to Prompto with the same cold politeness he had used with him in the first months of knowing each other.

It hurt, but it was how it was. He hoped Ignis would cook for him again, and not just because of the food itself.

Chapter Text

"Good evening."

Prompto squared his shoulders. He sat on the couch with his back ramrod straight, so much one would think he was about to have an audience with the King himself.

Next to him, Noctis remained in his lazy sprawl, slumped against the armrest, legs spread wide. "Hi, Iggy."

"Hi," Prompto squeaked.

Ignis walked into the room, stopping at a small distance from the couch. "I take it the two of you have already finished your homework."

"Yep. All done," Noctis said.

"All of it?"

"Prom insisted."

Prompto gave Ignis a wide smile. "We gotta be ready for that test next week, no?"

Ignis raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. He turned to go to the kitchen, as if that was all he cared to find out.

Ignis's reaction to finding out about Prompto's vampirism, it seemed, was to act as if nothing was wrong. He went through all his usual motion. Almost every day he would pick up Noctis from school, giving Prompto a lift if Noctis had invited him over. Then, he would leave for a couple hours and return once it was time to prepare Noctis's dinner. It was all very normal.

Except his eyes were always on Prompto. Prompto could feel it. Ignis tracked all his movements. No doubt he wanted to cataloge Prompto's behavior further than he had done before, marking down everything in his mind, looking for tells of his nature that he had missed.

Under that scrutiny, Prompto was on his best behavior. He pushed Noctis to do his homework as soon as they got home, so that when Ignis came back they would be finishing or finished already. Whenever Noctis offered something to eat or drink, Prompto would make sure to wash the dish or glass. He made it a point to go home before dinner time, so that Ignis wouldn't have the trouble of cooking for him as well.

Noctis said it gave him second hand anxiety to watch, and that Prompto should relax, because after all Ignis had promised he wouldn't report him. Prompto didn't think Noctis really understood. Noctis had known Ignis his whole life, and Ignis's life had revolved around Noctis since he was a child. Even if Noctis made Ignis mad, Ignis would always forgive him. He may get angry, give Noctis a few lectures or maybe the silent treatment, but in the end Noctis would never have to fear their bond breaking.

Prompto didn't have that same luxury. Ignis might have agreed to let Prompto be, but that didn't mean they were good. They hadn't made peace, and Prompto had no idea if Ignis had cared about him enough to forgive him.

Noctis's phone buzzed. "Gladio's coming by," he said, looking at the text.

"How come?" Prompto asked.

"I lent him a game the other day. He's nearby so he's passing by to give it back."

Prompto raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know Gladio liked video games."

"Not really. He wanted to try Assassin's Creed to see why I like it so much, but I'm betting he's gotten his ass kicked so much he's giving up."

Prompto checked his phone. He should go home in about half an hour. Gladio's presence might give him an excuse to leave.

"Will he be staying for dinner?" Ignis asked from the kitchen. The scent of alcohol tickled Prompto's nose. Ignis must have decided it was time to give the counters an in depth cleaning. He did it sometimes, complaining about Noctis's abysmal hygienic standards. Not that he was entirely wrong, Prompto wasn't sure if Noctis knew how to use any cleaning supply more advanced than a wet wipe.

Noctis tapped on his phone. "I'll ask him."

"There should be enough to feed him as well."

Both Noctis and Prompto got distracted when a shout came from the TV. They had put on some terrible documentary Noctis loved, about a man going to catch giant dangerous fish through every corner of the world. Prompto watched as the fisherman try to wrestle something massive out of the water.

Noctis hummed. "I really don't think that's the right kind of rod for this."

Prompto patted his arm. "I trust you on this, buddy."

Astrals, that fish looked horrifying. It made Prompto wonder what was up with people who liked fishing. He had went with Noctis a couple times, and found the whole thing incredibly boring. Prompto wasn't sure what was so good about a hobby where one spent hours waiting while looking at the water and then risked dragging out an animal big enough to bite off your hand.

Noctis started muttering something about rods and lures. Prompto didn't try too hard to listen. It wasn't as if Noctis needed his input on this.

Well, to be honest, it was good for Noctis to have an outdoors hobby. Get that vitamin D and all. He was almost as pale as Prompto.

The terrible fish documentary was ending when the doorbell rang, signaling that Gladio had arrived. Ignis went to let him in.

"Sup, guys," he greeted.

"So, what'd you think of the game?" Noctis said, skipping any pleasantries.

Gladio walked up to him, and bumped the case on his head. "It's unrealistic as fuck."

"No, and here I thought it was so historically accurate."

Prompto snickered, changing the channel.

"People don't climb walls like that," Gladio said.

Noctis snorted. "Maybe you can't. If you didn't have all that weight to drag around you might be able to."

"Well, if you're that good, I'll make sure to make you climb the Citadel tomorrow."

Oh, Noctis had done it.

Prompto stopped, catching sight of one of his favorite realities. Lestallum in Love. He never managed to catch the new episodes on TV while they aired, he always had to watch them later online. Alexis, one of Prompto's least favorite competitors, was airing her grievances about how Prima didn't want her. Good, the girl was so annoying.

Gladio nodded at the TV. "You watch that?"

Prompto froze, and looked up at Gladio. It wasn't very manly to watch a dating show, was it? "Uh..."

But Gladio didn't seem to be judging him for it. In fact, he seemed somewhat eager. "I've been keeping up with it. Lara's my favorite."

Prompto brightened. "Oh, she's such a babe. Too bad she keeps picking terrible ones."

"I know, it drives me crazy."

Gladio plopped down on the couch next to Prompto, forcing him to shift to the side towards Noctis. Noctis, for his part, groaned. "Gods, there's two of them."

It turned out Gladio was a true connoisseur of dating shows. He self described himself as a lover of love, which Prompto didn't struggle to believe, considering how popular Gladio was with the ladies. Finally someone who appreciated the intricacies and drama of reality show romance.

Prompto got so distracted discussing what it would take for Alexis to be eliminated that he lost track of time. He only remembered when Ignis called for someone to give him a hand with dinner.

"Iggy save me," Noctis said, for once in his life jumping to his feet and rushing to help out in the kitchen.

Prompto froze. "Uh. I should go, I think."

Gladio looked at him quizzically. "Why? Hasn't Iggy cooked for you as well?"

Had he? Damn it, Prompto had been trying not to be a bother. Of course if he was here Ignis would end up cooking for him as well, because Ignis was polite like that.

"Ignis says not to get the couch dirty," Noctis said, coming back with two dishes. He handed one to Gladio and one to Prompto, and went back to get his own.

Prompto looked down at the food. Pasta with what looked like sausage, perfect for the cold weather outside. There was a fork already in it.

"'t's good," Gladio declared, having stuffed his face without hesitation.

"Do not speak with your mouth full!" Ignis scolded.

Noctis passed in front of them, going for the free seat on the couch. "Yeah, Gladio, you're a fucking animal."

"Apologies, Your Highness," Gladio said, as Prompto once again shuffled close to him to accommodate Noctis. "Damn, Blondie, are you always so cold? Do you even have blood in your body?"

Before Prompto could say anything to deflect, Ignis's voice came from the kitchen. "I believe we had established you are the human furnace."

Noctis's knee bumped into Prompto's.

Prompto looked down at his food, stabbing a couple fusilli. Ignis had just stepped in to help Prompto pretend everything was normal. He'd cooked for him, too. Granted, it would have been weird for him not to, but still it made something flutter in Prompto's chest. Maybe not all was lost.

Eating between Noctis and Gladio, Prompto almost felt like one of the guys again.

***

Prompto waved water droplets off his hands. He stepped towards the drier, but before he could reach it, the lights flickered off, and the arcade's bathroom was left in complete darkness.

Prompto blinked. He looked around. No light came from under the door that led to the arcade itself. There was laughter, and a few surprised shouts. A blackout?

Wiping his hands dry on his clothes instead, Prompto went to check what the situation was. All lights were off. People were taking out their phones, using them to light a small area directly in front of them. Prompto blinked. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw confused faces looking around.

He should go back to Noctis. When he'd gone to the bathroom he had left him alone, something that Prompto would no doubt get scolded for if Ignis knew. But hey, Prompto was fairly sure there were plain clothes Crownsguard in the arcade. Noctis was probably not completely unsupervised.

Before he could start making his way through the crowd, his phone buzzed.

where are you

leaving the bathroom now

coming to get you

do you want me to come to you

no stay there

i'll come

The last thing Prompto needed was for Noctis to start wandering. People were turning agitated by the blackout, if Noctis tried to move Prompto would lose him for sure. As it was, he remembered where he'd left Noctis. He could find him.

"Excuse me," he said, as he began to weave through people. He did his best to move around, but others kept bumping into him. Being the only one who was able to see was annoying.

Noctis was waiting by the last shooting game they had been playing, looking down at his phone. He jumped when Prompto tapped his shoulder.

He nodded towards the exit. "Iggy says power went out in a few blocks."

"Damn, anyone knows what happened?"

"Not yet. A problem with the power grid probably, but they don't aren't sure how bad it is." Noctis sighed. "I was beating my high score too. Now it's all lost."

"Guess I'll only have your word for it."

Noctis kicked Prompto's ankle. "I was totally beating it."

"Sure." Prompto leaned against one of the machines, looking around. "So what do we do? Stay here and wait?"

"Hold on, Iggy's sending me a whole instruction manual. He says he doesn't like me to stay in a crowd in the dark, it's too risky. You know, wouldn't want someone to step on my foot. He's coming to pick us up, but it might take him some time to get here, cause the traffic lights are also toast."

"Want me to lead you home?" Prompto asked. "I don't really, you know, need lights."

Noctis looked up from his phone, blinking at him. "You can see like this?"

Prompto shrugged. "Pretty well."

"That's cool." Noctis put the phone away. "You know what, let's get outside. It's too crowded in here."

Prompto led Noctis through the people and to the exit. He breathed in relief once he was out. The crowd was getting nervous, and it was suffocating to be inside with all those people shouting and moving.

The only lights outside were those of the cars, everything else was out. Prompto could see some buildings in the distance that were still illuminated, but everything nearby was dark. He hoped this would get solved soon. It was January, after all, people would freeze without heating.

Prompto, for his part, was fairly at ease in the cold night air. Well, late afternoon air, but at that time of the year it was basically the same thing. Cold bothered him little. A jacket was all that he needed to stay cozy.

Not like Noctis, wrapping his scarf around his face. "Shit, it's dark."

"You can see the Wall like this," Prompto said, pointing up. The magical barrier's shimmer was often hidden by the night lights, but now it could be made out easily.

"Let me call Ignis, see what we should do."

They stood at the far corner of the arcade, away from people slowly streaming out. Prompto bounced on the balls of his feet as Noctis talked. Some people headed home or to their cars, using their phones to guide them. Some were also calling someone. A few people had stopped, looking in their direction. Probably wondering if the person they could sort of make out was really the Prince.

"Do you want us to just stay here?" Noctis was saying. "Look, I can figure out where I'm going even without the lights. I know the roads." A pause. "Prompto's with me. He can help me figure out the way." Another pause. "Let me ask; Prom, can you read signs like this?"

"Um." Prompto looked around. "Yeah? Shop signs are easy enough. Street signs are a bit harder, but I think I can manage."

"He says he can." Pause. "Alright, will do."

"What did he say?" Prompto asked, when Noctis put down.

"He said if we can move to the Pious King's road. It'll be easier for him to get us than if we stay here."

"Alright, follow me, Your Highness. I shall be your guide in the dark."

"Show me the way, brave leader."

There were quite some people on the streets, trying to figure out what was going on. Seeing Insomnia in the dark was surreal. Appropriately, the city never slept.

Prompto's steps were light. Something about the situation was exciting. A blackout was a big problem, for sure, but the sheer strangeness of it was putting him in a weirdly good mood.

Vampires were creatures made for the night. Vampires were also Niflheim natives, and Niflheim was known for having a much colder climate than Lucis, with long winter nights. The cold and dark were, in a sense, Prompto's natural habitat.

The thought dampened his mood.

As they walked, something started prickling at the back of Prompto's head. Not a physical itch. Something more akin to how one would feel when being watched.

When Prompto realized that, he turned around, looking behind them. There were plenty of people moving chaotically, but no one in particular caught his eye.

Prompto frowned. No one could watch them during this blackout. Even if they could, Prompto should be used to being observed. People always followed Noctis with their eyes, and Prompto as well by proximity. It made him anxious, but not... unnerved.

When they reached the agreed upon meeting point, Noctis stopped to call Ignis again. Prompto had to wonder why Ignis had made them come here, where roads were still shrouded in the dark, rather than reaching him outside the blackout area. His eyes jumped from person to person, not knowing what he would hope to find. People running, people on their phones, a mother trying to usher her scared small child home, a middle aged woman digging through her purse, a man standing under a broken lamplight, a-

Prompto's eyes fixed on the man. He was standing still, turned into their direction. Staring at them.

Their eyes met. Prompto's breath caught. He was sure that man was looking straight at him, despite the darkness.

The man looked surprised.

"Iggy will be here in five."

Prompto flinched, turning back to Noctis. "Is he?"

"There's bad traffic, but he knows a shortcut." Noctis tilted his head. "Are you alright?"

"I..." Prompto turned around. The man wasn't looking at them anymore. He was crossing the street, away from them. "You ever feel like someone is watching you?"

"All the time. Why?"

Prompto swallowed. "It's nothing."

"If you say so," Noctis said, not sounding convinced.

Prompto might have imagined that. He followed that man with his eyes until he disappeared. Just a coincidence. Still, the feeling of unease remained until Ignis pulled over next to them.

Noctis immediately climbed in. "Any news?"

"Concerning ones," Ignis said. "The damage is being surveyed. It should hopefully be solved before morning."

"Is that concerning?" Prompto asked.

"It is, when foul play may be involved."

"What?"

Ignis drove slower than usual. "It hasn't been confirmed yet, but it seems someone might have set off some controlled explosions."

"Are they sure?" Noctis asked.

"The lines were damaged in three different places, all at the same time. It's too much of a coincidence. And some who were near the locations reported having heard some bangs right before the lights went out."

Fuck. Who could have been? A Niflheim cell? Some anti-monarchy terrorists? Whatever it was, Prompto didn't like the sound of that.

"I have orders to bring you back to the Citadel," Ignis continued. "Prompto, I will drop you off by your place after I've seen Noctis to safety."

"S-sure."

The rest of the drive was tense, silent except for Prompto's occasional nervous babbling. Gladio was already waiting out of the Citadel when they got there, together with a few Guards. They flanked Noctis as soon as he got off.

Gladio nodded at Prompto. "You sure you want to be home on your own? We can arrange you to stay here for the night."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Prompto's house shouldn't have been affected by the blackout. Besides, Prompto would feel the opposite of safe there at the Citadel.

"Ignis," Prompto started, as he was taken home. "I think I- I'm wrong probably, but there was something weird."

"What is it?"

"While we were waiting for you, I could have sworn there was this guy looking at us. Real staring. Not that it's weird, people stare at Noctis all the time, but I'm not sure he should have been able to see us. I mean, I don't know how well p-... people see in the dark, but..."

Ignis took a moment to reply. "Do you think it might have been a vampire?"

"I don't know."

Prompto's heart did its version of hammering. He had never met another one. Part of him thought, sometimes, it would be nice to meet someone else like him. They could exchange notes.

But the chances of another Lucian vampire? Low. Very, very low. Maybe there were vampires native of Altissia or Tenebrae – which were, after all, Imperial territory, even if allowed some autonomy. Most vampires would be from Niflheim. A Niff vampire would have no reason to be come to Insomnia, or at least, not a good one.

"Could you describe this man to me?" Ignis said.

"Kinda, he wasn't too close. Looked... maybe thirty or something? Light skin. And light hair, but I don't know what color, colors are hard in the dark. Wait, are you going to draw a picture of him?"

"My drawing skills are passable at best. I will raise the possibility of an enemy vampire." Ignis hummed. "A blackout would put a vampire at a tactical advantage."

Prompto shifted in his seat. "Do you think he knew me and Noct would be in the area? That it was... an assassination attempt?"

"It's not impossible," Ignis said, after a pause. "This is likely a terrorist attack, but harming Noctis would be a definite pro for them. That is why I made you move to that place, I suspected if I had asked to cross outside of the blackout area there might have been someone posted to intercept you. I hadn't considered the possibility of a vampire. The presence of another one might have been unexpected enough to make them falter in their plans."

Prompto could see how that would be the case. The Prince's best friend was the last person in the world anyone would expect to be a vampire.

As expected, Prompto's neighborhood was fully lit up. Ignis stopped right in front of his house, diligently putting on his blinkers even if he had pulled over for a second.

"Thanks for the lift," Prompto said.

"It was no trouble. Let me know if anything unusual happens."

Unusual? Did Ignis expect the other vampire to hunt Prompto down and find his house? No way Prompto would be able to sleep with that possibility. Could Prompto even hope to defend himself against another vampire? If the other guy was full of blood, he could snap Prompto's back like a toothpick.

"Prompto," Ignis said.

"What?"

"When is your next feeding due?" Ignis asked, staring straight ahead.

Prompto froze. "Uh. Two or three days?"

Ignis nodded. "If the Crownsguard is to search for a vampire, it is possible the sale of blood may be put under control. I doubt it would be thorough to the point of finding you, but if you'll allow I'd prefer to be the one to bring you blood until the matter is resolved. As a safety measure."

Prompto gaped for a moment. "You would do that?"

"I know how to be discreet."

"I... Thank you."

"You're welcome. Good evening, Prompto."

"Bye, Ignis."

Prompto rushed into his house. He hadn't expected Ignis's readiness to help him. Cover for him to that point. It was way more than Prompto would have asked.

The relief, however, wasn't quite comforting on its own. There may be a hostile vampire around, who might have attacked Noctis had he not been shocked by Prompto's presence. Prompto didn't think he would have been able to protect Noctis from another vampire.

He could only hope this would be resolved soon.

***

True to his word, Ignis brought Prompto blood two days after the blackout. It was garula's. The taste was slightly different from pig.

The blackout itself was entirely resolved by noon of the next day. Many people suffered from some degree of hypothermia due to the heating going out. It was officially confirmed the accident was due to a Niflheim terrorist cell. Insomnia was put on high alert until the threat was resolved.

Noctis was confined to the Citadel for the time being. He wasn't happy about it, he told Prompto via text. Prompto was technically cleared to go to the Citadel to visit Noctis, but he declined. If there was ever a time for him to go strolling through it, it wasn't when there was a Niff emergency ongoing, with the palace full of... vampire hounds, or whatever they used to hunt them down.

Ignis came once a day, officially so that he could take Noctis's homework from Prompto. He also kept Prompto updated on what was going on. Without too many details, of course, the operation was top secret.

Thirteen days after the blackout, Ignis showed up with a particularly severe face. He took out his phone, and held it out to Prompto. "Is this the man you saw?"

It was. The man's hair had been blonde, after all. Prompto's face went numb. The man's skin was a pale grey, and not the regular pallor he would expect from another vampire. Prompto had seen enough detective shows to figure out the metal surface the man laid on had to be a morgue's table.

"The Kingsglaive found and raided the terrorists' headquarters," Ignis said, putting the phone back in his pocket. "He was a vampire, as suspected."

"Is it over then?" Prompto asked.

"I cannot say yet. There's no guarantee we caught all of them yet."

Prompto nodded. "Could be hiding anywhere."

"Indeed." Ignis clasped his hands behind his back. "I apologize for showing you such a crude image, but I wanted to ensure there were no other vampires on the loose."

Prompto gave a nervous laugh. "This city isn't big enough for two of us."

Ignis's shoulders tensed a little. Prompto wasn't sure what sort of emotion the gesture betrayed. More than a year of knowing him, and Prompto still struggled to interpret Ignis's impassible face. Had Prompto's joke made him uncomfortable? The Kingsglaive had just killed a vampire that might have wanted to assassinate Noctis, Ignis wouldn't want to be reminded there was another always at Noctis's side.

"You have made me realize I harbored some... unfounded prejudices."

That was... bad? "I... I'm sorry?"

"Why should you be? If anything, I should be the one to apologize. Prejudices are quite distasteful and ignorant things."

Prompto picked at a loose thread on his shirt. "And you wouldn't want that."

"I strive to be neither, thank you." Ignis inclined his head. "Forgive me if I held some misguided beliefs."

And what was Prompto supposed to make of that? Why was Ignis apologizing to him?

"Why are you apologizing?" Prompto asked. "I'm... I mean, whatever you thought, that's probably true, no? I do kinda drink blood to live."

"Hardly the most difficult dietary requirement to satisfy."

Yeah, well, making Noctis eat a balanced diet had to be way more complicated.

Ignis cleared his throat. "You have been nothing if not a loyal friend to Noctis. If being a vampire influences something other than your basic biology, then surely it must be a positive influence, as you are a far better person than many humans I deal with on a daily basis."

Prompto was stunned. A compliment from Ignis was a rare thing to come by. There was no way Prompto had just heard what he thought he had heard.

"Now stop picking at your clothes," Ignis snapped.

Prompto let go of his loose thread and stuffed his hands in his pocket. "Sorry. Won't do it again."

"Good. I believe Noctis should be allowed out of the Citadel in a few days. No doubt he will let you know when."

Noctis had been whining about being confined all the time, Prompto was sure he'd be told immediately when the Crownsguard let him out. Prompto couldn't wait to see him again. Loneliness was starting to get to him. People had school had been asking him how Noctis was, but none of them had actually tried to invite Prompto over, or include him beyond some chatting at break.

But as Ignis made to leave, Noctis wasn't the biggest concern in Prompto's mind. "Wait, you meant that?"

Ignis raised an eyebrow. "I don't recall ever being dishonest with you."

"No, I mean yes, I mean..." Prompt took a shaky breath. "You know what I could do to someone, right?"

"Yes, I do. You, on the other hand, do not know what I could do to someone."

Prompto didn't want to find out either. He was sure it was very painful.

Ignis's features softened ever so slightly. "Everyone I know has the potential to be incredibly deadly. That includes Noctis, even if he pretends not to pay attention to his training. It would be unfair to hold it against you."

Maybe, but Noctis wouldn't eat someone. There was a difference there.

But if there was one thing Prompto knew, was that arguing with Ignis was pointless. His mind couldn't be changed. If he had decided that, for some reason, despite the fangs and the blood drinking and the lying, he liked Prompto, then he did. It would be stupid of Prompto to argue against it, wouldn't it?

He didn't understand. Ignis shouldn't be alright with Prompto being a vampire. He should tolerate him at best and only because Noctis wanted Prompto around.

Prompto went to his room, hugged his favorite old chocobo plushie, and cried. He couldn't help it. There were so many emotions bubbling up in his chest that he didn't know what to do with. What had he done to deserve this acceptance?

***

No one could say Prompto wasn't trying. He had said he'd try to drink less blood, and he was doing his best. At first he had only done it when his parents were around, but a diet he kept once every three months wasn't a diet at all. The point was to get himself used to needing less.

He was thirsty, but it was fine. When he had started losing weight, he had been hungry a lot, his body craving the fries and take out he used to stuff himself with every other day. It had taken time and determination to learn how to eat healthy. At first he had thought salads were the ultimate punishment food, but after a few weeks he had found himself enjoying them.

So. Prompto could get used to less blood, too. He had kept his diet for two months now. There weren't exactly a lot of vampire nutritionists around, but Prompto figured it was a matter of minding his body's reaction and going slow about it. Make it feeding once every eight days at first. When that had worked, he had pushed it to nine.

He was trying to go for ten now, and it wasn't easy. It was the ninth day. Prompto was determined to be strong. Tomorrow he would be able to go and buy himself a blood bag, but he had to endure one more day.

Being thirsty for blood wasn't like being hungry, or regularly thirsty. It was a craving, like when you're not quite hungry but still feel the urge to buy a giant hamburger and swallow it like a snake. It was accompanied by an itch that started from the place Prompto's fangs hid in and then spread to his whole gums. And a terrible sense of exhaustion. It made him drag his feet as he walked, but at the same time he grew antsy if he stayed still for too long. Like his body was demanding that he go out and hunt, but do nothing else.

"You alright, Prom?"

Prompto turned to Noctis. He had zoned out, his mind focusing on the thirst. "I'm great. Why?"

Noctis shrugged. "You look a little off."

Prompto laughed, trying not to let it come out as nervous. "I'm a chocobo in a pool full of fancy greens."

That was a bad metaphor actually. Being at school was horrible. At home, Prompto could make himself ignore his urges in the safety of his room. But here he was surrounded by the world's most unethical snacks on all sides. All the smells were hitting him like a punch to the nose.

And especially Noctis. He was the best smelling juice pack in the world. The magic in his blood tingled on Prompto's tongue. Prompto had done his best to sit as far as he could without it looking suspicious, but it didn't take the urges away.

At least they were done for the day. They weren't spending time together this afternoon, Prompto would go home on his own, and it was a blessing. He was going to lay in bed, fangs out, and hopefully pass out. All he needed to do was wait for Ignis to get here to take Noctis home, and then he could escape.

The sun was too bright today. It was like putting off feeding made all of Prompto's senses sharper, and his eyes didn't enjoy the light. He had spent the day squinting.

"Fuck did you say?"

Prompto and Noctis turned, hearing the shout. Two boys were arguing. They were pushing each other around on the school yard, screaming things about each other and their respective mothers. A friend of one of them was trying to calm them down, putting himself between them. However, most people were happy standing around, letting this unfold until a teacher showed up.

Noctis leaned close to Prompto, bringing an uncomfortable wave of his appetizing scent. "Wanna place a bet?"

Prompto snorted. "Gambling about illegal fights can't be Crown approved."

"What can I say, I'm in my rebellious phase."

And fists started flying. Prompto knew fighting wasn't good, and that someone should definitely break them up, but it wasn't going to be him. He was happy playing innocent bystander for now.

At least, he was until in the struggle, an elbow ended up colliding with a mouth. Way too hard. The boy who got hit stumbled back. The scent of fresh blood snuck up on Prompto, making his lips part.

Now that boy was turned right towards him. He touched his mouth, grimacing. His lip was split, bright blood dripping down on his chin, and Prompto's eyes zeroed on it. The world might have been fuzzy and out of focus, but the blood. Oh, it was so clear.

Prompto was glad everyone was too busy looking at the fight, because that way no one noticed him covering his mouth, or anything else weird about him. Because Prompto's control slipped. He was hungry, and he'd spent a day smelling everyone's blood, and the sight had made him lose the fight against his biology. His fangs pushed out without his control.

Eyes wide, Prompto turned away. That was bad. He tried to make the fangs retreat, but they didn't. Saliva filled his mouth, his brain screaming at him to bite. Feed. No, no, no, no, he'd been doing so good-

"Prom?"

Prompto shook his head, making a panicked sound.

Noctis put a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

Prompto looked at him, shaking. Noctis was frowning in worry and confusion, and it would be so easy to jump him and bite down on his neck.

"Teeth," Prompto gasped, still covering his mouth.

"Teeth?"

Prompto nodded, his heart beating faster with every second he couldn't get his fangs under control. "Teeth!"

At that moment, Ignis's car stopped in front of them. Noctis grabbed Prompto by his arm and dragged him to it, shoving him inside. Whether he had understood or not what was wrong, he must have figured it was better for Prompto to not be in public.

"Prompto?" Ignis asked, turning around to look at him. "Noct?"

Noctis slammed the door shut. Prompto thanked every Astral that this car had darkened windows. He let his head fall back against the seat.

The problem was that being locked in a car with two people meant being assaulted by their smells. But that was better than being out there. Here, Prompto could drop his hand, gasping for breath.

"Hey, what's going on?" Noctis asked.

Prompto swallowed, trying to get rid of his excess saliva. "Sorry. Slipped."

"Slipped? I've never seen you slip before."

Prompto grimaced. "Doesn't usually happen."

"I would hope not," Ignis said. He appeared very calm for someone who had a fangs out vampire in the backseat. "What caused this?"

"Just... Some blood."

"You mean because that guy got punched?" Noctis was frowning at him. "You don't have this reaction to a couple drops of blood."

Prompto shrugged, trying to play it cool, despite feeling anything but. "I was thirsty."

"What, haven't you been drinking?"

"I have!"

"Do you normally get thirsty enough to lose control over your body?" Ignis asked.

Prompto swallowed. He realized now that this didn't look too good. Even if for still incomprehensible reasons Ignis had decided not to care that Prompto was a vampire, he could always change his mind. He wasn't Noctis, whose self preservation instincts were on eternal vacation. If Prompto got all toothy whenever he was thirsty Ignis might decide that he was a problem after all.

He cleared his throat, shifting in his seat. "It's been a little longer than usual."

"Why?"

"I'm, uh, dieting?"

"What do you mean dieting?" Noctis blurted.

"It's just, I figured that I could try pushing it a little?"

"But why?"

Prompto shrugged. "Blood costs."

"You have money problems?"

"No," Prompto said. He wasn't swimming in money, but he wasn't going to starve anytime soon. "But I still figured I could save a bit. You know, a little less blood, a little more gaming."

Noctis didn't look convinced. "So how long has it been?"

"Uh, I'm trying once every ten days? I guess I moved a bit too fast."

"Why now?" Ignis asked. "Am I wrong in assuming you kept your previous schedule for quite a long time?"

Prompto kind of wanted to hide in the trunk for the rest of the ride. This felt way too much like he was being interrogated.

Why now? Well, his parents had asked, for starters. And aside from that, it felt right to try. Prompto had two people who were willing to keep his secret. Noctis would end up in a world of trouble if someone were to find out he had been hiding a vampire, and Ignis would surely end up fired, if not jailed. Prompto had to give something back. There wasn't a whole lot he could do for the Prince and his Adviser, but maybe he could work to make himself a little less vampiric.

Ah, but it would be way too awkward to explain that. "I'm not a kid anymore, you know? I thought I could have more... self control."

Which was more or less what his parents had said.

Ignis sighed. "That is nonsense."

Great.

"I cannot say much regarding the nutritional requirements of a teenager vampire," Ignis said, Lecture Voice on. "However, a growing body in general will need a high amount of food to fuel itself. I would expect your metabolism to be at its fastest now. If you were to get yourself used to feeding less, it would be more advisable to do so later in life."

Prompto looked down at his knees. Blood wasn't like proper food. Prompto knew at his age he burnt calories at the speed of light, but blood wasn't calories. Although, to be honest, Prompto had no idea what it did for his body.

It wasn't that Ignis's words didn't make sense, they did, but Prompto didn't like it. It was frustrating not knowing how his own biology worked.

"Also," Ignis continued, "as I said, I cannot call myself an expert on vampires-"

"But you have read every book and article on them you could get your hands on," Noctis murmured.

"-I have looked through what studies there are on how much and how often blood is required. Reliable information is scarce, and I found nothing pertaining to age related changes. That being said, it seems on average an adult vampire feeds once between three and five days."

"Three to give days?" Prompto squealed.

"Of course, there are many variables to consider. Age, body mass, the amount and type of blood consumed during each feeding session, all of this may lead to different requirements. Given your slight build, it's possible your needs are scarcer than average, but I would still say your previous schedule of once a week was barely acceptable. I suggest you don't attempt this again."

It figured Ignis had done his research on this. Prompto rubbed his hands on his pants, not knowing what to say. He suspected now Ignis would be quizzing him regularly to see if Prompto was feeding enough.

Noctis huffed. "Dude. What were you thinking?"

"Bonding."

"Bonding?"

"We can be malnourished together."

Noctis pushed his shoulder. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"He means that the hardest part of my work is ensuring you do not prematurely die of scurvy," Ignis replied.

Prompto snorted.

Noctis couldn't argue with Ignis, so instead he took his outrage out on Prompto, putting him in a headlock. Prompto gasped, and shoved Noctis away. "Not when the teeth are out!"

It would be way too easy to bite Noctis on accident if they had a small scuffle.

"Speaking of, I suggest you work on getting your fangs under control before we reach Noct's place," Ignis said.

Right. It would help a lot if Prompto wasn't surrounded by so much wonderful, amazing scent. Could he roll down a window a little? The air was thick enough to almost physically coat his tongue.

***

Prompto walked fast, hoping he wasn't late. He shouldn't be, but he couldn't help but check his phone for the time over and over, wanting to make sure he wasn't wrong. People talked about how first dates were hard, but never about first hanging out anxiety. Or was Prompto the only person who got nervous the first time he had to go on a bro outing with someone?

Once at the movie theater, he didn't have to struggle to figure out where to go. Gladio towered above the crowd. Was he shirtless? Prompto wasn't sure that was allowed at the movies, but he also doubted anyone would try to enforce any rules when it came to a wall of muscle Gladio's size.

"You made it, Blondie," Gladio said, spotting him.

"Of course I did. Couldn't skip out on this."

It had turned out that in addition to their shared passion for trash TV, Prompto and Gladio were both fans of movies Prompto would describe as 'epic' and 'full of emotion' and Noctis described as 'cheesy' and 'nothing of this makes sense'. Gladio, for his part, was an intellectual. He understood things like extreme displays of emotions, star crossed lovers, fairy godmothers who were also zombies, art basically.

Which was why they had decided to go watch a movie together. They weren't quite friends, but well, that was how friendships were built, right? Prompto could deal with going out with a friendly acquaintance.

Prompto had prepared himself. He had tissues to take care of any manly tears. He had snacks money. He had drank his blood two days before so that he would be sure he wouldn't do anything weird next to a man who had been trained to chop vampires into small pieces since he had been born.

"Want to grab something to eat?" Gladio asked, nodding towards the inside of the movie theater. "We've got time to get some popcorn before the movie."

"Sure."

They found the right room and seat without issues. Prompto chatted the whole time. He totally didn't babble nervously. But it was hard not to feel inadequate while walking side to side with someone like Gladio. Not even the first few days with Noctis had been so nerve wracking. Maybe because Noctis was, in the end, just another nerd. If he hadn't been the Prince, there would have been no difference between Noctis and any boy in their school.

Meanwhile Gladio was... Astrals.

Like, Prompto did worry for a second that the seats at the theater wouldn't be big enough for him.

The various pre-movie ads started. Gladio mocked the voice of a man talking about how great a fast food chain was. Prompto snickered.

Then, horror movie trailer time. Prompto recognized it from the first three seconds, those brief shots of teenagers going to camp in the woods with that creepy music that let you understand said teens were going to be brutally slaughtered. One of them said there was no need to camp at a Haven, classic cliche. Prompto was too much of a wuss to watch most horror movies, but he knew enough to recognize the common tropes. Dumb teens go sleep in the woods and get attacked by daemons or-

Prompto flinched at the brief shot of a monster running. A girl screamed, showing off two characteristic puncture wounds on her neck. One boy crawled in a dark tunnel, his face disturbingly pale.

Vampire movie. Prompto let out a slow breath, trying not to clench his hands too hard on the armrests. It wasn't the first movie of that kind Prompto had caught sight of, but every time a new one came out a bitter taste coated his tongue.

"Hey. You good?"

Prompto flinched, turning to Gladio, who was looking at him with a frown. "Yeah."

"You got really tense all of a sudden."

Prompto shook his head, putting on a smile. "It's nothing."

Gladio studied him for a moment. "Are you afraid of vampires?"

Prompto shifted on his seat, looking away.

"Don't worry. They're way rarer than movies make you believe," Gladio said. "Besides, the thing about them turning people with a bite? It's a lie. Never saw a vampire movie that was accurate."

Prompto decided not to answer.

Thankfully, the movie itself was good enough to chase his bad mood away. The action sequences were spectacular, and the plot twists so satisfying. Prompto almost became emotional when at last the heroine managed to escape the grasp of the pirate duke, riding a turbo dolphin to return to her beloved.

"A masterpiece," he declared as the credits rolled.

"Damn straight," Gladio commented.

***

"I'm going to have a heart attack," Prompto whispered.

"No, you will not," Ignis hissed back, sounding as stressed as Prompto felt.

Why had Prompto said yes to this? It was a bad idea, it was such a bad idea. Come over to the Citadel, Noctis said. I've got important Prince stuff to do and have to stay here for a few days and will get bored to death without you, he said. No one will suspect anything, he fucking said.

Ignis had volunteered to lead Prompto in. Officially, it was because it wouldn't do for Prompto to stroll into the Citadel without a guide, and the guards wouldn't question his presence if he was with Ignis. In practice, Ignis was there as emergency measure in case someone noticed something strange about Prompto and they needed to come up with a believable excuse.

Prompto was about to explode. No one should be able to tell what he was. He had asked Ignis to check if he smelled at all like blood before leaving. In theory nobody should touch him and realize how cold his skin was.

But what if someone figured out? What if Prompto lost control over his fangs? What if the Crownsguard were trained to develop a sixth sense that set off when around a vampire? Gods, his heart was going to burst out of his chest. He hoped he could pass his stress off as a normal Ifrit's-balls-I-may-meet-the-King stress.

Why had he accepted? He should have said that he couldn't come, as he had done every time Noctis had invited him to the Citadel before. But Noctis had sworn nothing would happen. And maybe Prompto still felt guilty about having said no to keeping Noctis company during his birthday party, which Noctis described as a party for everyone but himself.

On the surface, Ignis looked as calm and collected as he always was. Prompto may fall for it, hadn't Ignis given him instructions no-stop on the way here.

Prompto forced himself to smile at the guards posted at the entrance. They looked at him, but didn't smile back. That didn't make him any more nervous, no. He was fine and peachy and not going to run away screaming.

"How far is Noctis's room?" Prompto asked.

Ignis led him to an elevator, weaving between people going about their business. "The Royal Family's private chambers are in an a section not accessible to the public. We must stop at the fifteenth floor, and then take another elevator."

Prompto could handle that. The elevator doors closed around him and Ignis. He looked up at the ceiling, and sighed.

"Remain calm," Ignis said.

"You've told me twenty times already."

"And you have yet to listen."

"How am I supposed to calm myself down?"

It was a miracle Prompto hadn't exploded yet.

Next elevator. Ignis had to swipe a keycard before pressing the floor number. That must mean they were going to a restricted area.

When they got off then, the hallway was almost empty. There were some guards posted along it, but no one walking around. The closest guard turned to them, her eyes lingering on Prompto.

"I am accompanying His Hignesses's friend," Ignis said.

The guard nodded, and went back to looking straight ahead.

Prompto didn't know if he could ever stand to live or work in the Citadel. Vampire stuff aside, this place was stressful. Armed guards everywhere, security pads, it was no wonder Noctis would decide to stay on his own.

But there was no denying that the building was beautiful. The floor was covered in a carpet so elegant and clean Prompto wondered how could they allow people to walk on it. Paintings adorned the walls, and in all corners was a statue. The sight of Insomnia's roofs from the windows was incredible.

"Ah, Ignis!"

From the way Ignis froze next to him, Prompto knew he hadn't imagined the voice.

Ignis turned around, and bowed, one hand to his chest, his motions smooth and well practiced. "Your Majesty."

Prompto did his best not to let his panic show on his face. King Regis Lucis Caelum was walking towards them. Prompto's first thought was that he looked a lot more normal in real life than on TV. A middle aged man with prematurely greying hair, leaning on a cane to take weight off a bad leg, if it weren't for the fancy clothes he could be any man Prompto could find on the street.

That didn't help the cold knot of terror in his chest. This was the King. The man who held the greatest power over this country. A single word from him, and Prompto would be thrown in the dungeons. He was so scared the rest of the hallway faded, his attention zeroing on the King.

The King smiled at him. "And you must be Prompto."

Prompto bowed as Ignis had taught him, praying his back wasn't too stiff, or that he hadn't put the wrong hand on his chest. "Y-Your Majesty."

"No need for these formalities, I'm not here to give you any orders. I only wanted to meet my son's best friend. Noctis tells me so very little of his life."

"I'm... I'm just Prompto," Prompto said. He regretted that as soon as it left his mouth. It sounded so stupid.

"No one is just anyone," the King said. Which, of course he'd say that, he was just the most important man in Lucis. "I heard from Ignis you managed to push my son to be a little more studious."

Prompto glanced at Ignis, looking for help, but it didn't come. "Well, it's... I guess homework goes by faster when you do it with a friend?"

"I suppose it does. Do you and Noctis have a lot of schoolwork to do?"

"Some. Your Majesty." Fuck, when was he supposed to use the title?

The King nodded. "Hm. Well, I won't keep you too long, you're here to see my son and not to be bothered by an old man. Besides, I should go back to my work."

The tall man by the King, that Prompto had sort of noticed but completely ignored, leaned in. "Your Majesty does have a meeting in ten minutes."

"Do I?" the King said, and Prompto could have sworn the King sounded the same exact way Noctis did when he was trying to pretend he had forgotten Ignis had told him to read a report. "I'll better go, then. It was a pleasure to meet you, Prompto. Ignis."

"Your Majesty," Ignis greeted.

"Goodbye, Your Majesty?"

As soon as the King had turned a corner, Prompto grabbed on to Ignis's shoulder. Ignis wasn't big on physical contact, but Prompto needed to lean on something or he would end up face first on the floor. Were his knees shaking?

"Prompto."

"Sorry, Iggy, but I'm gonna fall over."

"I'm happy to provide assistance, but I'd rather do so without a broken shoulder."

Prompto let go, realizing he had allowed his strength to slip. "Shit, sorry."

"No harm done," Ignis said. He put a hand on Prompto's arm, steering him away. "Now come on. Noctis is waiting."

Prompto walked on autopilot, allowing Ignis to pull him. "I just met the King."

"You did."

"I met the King. And some important dude that can talk to the King."

"That would be Clarus Amicitia."

Prompto's head whipped around, even if the two had disappeared from view. "That was Gladio's father?"

"Indeed."

"But his hair is so short."

Ignis look at Prompto with a pained expression. "This will come as a shock to you, but haircuts are not genetically transmitted."

Of course. It had been a stupid thing to say. But Gladio's dad had looked so... How you'd expect a politician to look. And very much not like someone related to Gladio. Then again, the King had also looked like a regular man, and not as a King capable of using magic Prompto could only dream of.

"Here we are," Ignis said, as they came into view of an elegant wooden door.

Noctis was inside, playing with his phone on his bed. A bed that could fit about six people, although a smaller one would have been ridiculous in this room. Prompto's entire house could fit in here.

"You made it," Noctis greeted them.

Prompto made a beeline for his bed, needing to sit. "I just met your dad."

"Oh, you did? He wasn't annoying, wasn't he?"

Prompto was this close to hysterical laughter. "He didn't arrest me."

Noctis snorted. "Why would he arrest you?"

"Uh, excuse me? Have we forgotten about the teeth business?" Prompto said, pointing at his face. Then he froze. "Wait, your room isn't tapped right?"

Noctis nudged him with his foot. "Don't worry, no one's listening in. Your secrets are safe in my humble room."

"You call this humble?!"

***

In hindsight, Prompto should have stayed on his guard. Things had been going well for a few months, with no vampire related accidents, and Prompto had sort of started assuming he didn't need to worry all the time. He should have recognized that period for what it had been: the point in the video game where you find six health packs because a boss is behind the corner.

He and Noctis had wanted to see a concert. It wouldn't have been a big deal for everyone else, but of course with Noctis everything had to be planned in advance. In the end, Noctis had been allowed to go, so long as Gladio and Ignis were there to murder anyone who looked at him weird.

And the concert itself had went well. Prompto's ears were ringing by the end of it, even if he had put some cotton in them to block the loud music. His nose had gotten filled with so many terrible smells. But it had been worth it. It had been amazing. The music, the energy, definitely one of the best moment of his life.

"I have been deafened," Ignis declared, after they left.

Gladio laughed and clapped his back. "You need to unwind more often."

"Have I unwinded tonight? My apologies, it shall not happen again."

"Not to be a bother," Noctis started.

"You? Never, Your Highness."

"Funny. But I need to take a leak."

Gladio shrugged. "Find a secluded wall."

"Gladiolus!" Ignis hissed. "Are you suggesting the Prince of Lucis urinates on a wall?"

"Look, it's crass, but it's a life experience. Every man should do that at least once in his life."

"Your priorities astound me."

In the end, they did take the Prince of Lucis to piss on a wall. They found a darkened alley, which wasn't hard, this wasn't the most elegant part of Lucis. Ignis called himself out of the vulgarity of it all, and waited at the corner, while Noctis and Prompto went to do their formative experiences in mild illegal and very disgusting behavior.

And Prompto didn't pay attention, as he zipped himself up again, to the group of people coming in from the other end of the alley. Just some drunk guys who were having a night out. They made to walk behind Prompto and Noctis, as if they were just trying to pass by.

But then they stopped.

"Isn't that the Prince Noctis?" one asked.

Noctis glanced at him, and then looked away. It was how he acted whenever someone he didn't know tried to approach him about being the Prince.

The man didn't take the hint. "Too good to talk to me, Majesty?"

"That's what you call the King, not the Prince," Noctis said.

"What do I care? Rich assholes, both of them."

Some drunk laughter.

"Why don't you go take your political opinions somewhere else?" Gladio said. He had been arguing with Ignis, but now he stepped forward, straightening himself up.

It was a testament to how drunk the men were that the display didn't intimidate them at all. "Shouldn't the royals listen to the people's thoughts?"

"If you have a complaint, you can go fill a form."

"Right, wouldn't want to bother the prince with dumb shit," a man said, and raised his hand as if to ruffle Noctis's hair. Noctis took a step back. Gladio's hand shot up, latching around the man's wrist.

Gladio glowered at them. "Watch it."

The drunk man took a step back. Gladio let him go, but kept glaring at him.

And then things went to shit. Another man, not liking how his friend had been treated, swung a punch at Gladio. A dumb move, Gladio blocked with ease, but it agitated the others as well. One was drunk enough to slip out a knife from his pocket, and what kind of luck was it, that they ran across the one group of drunks who had knives?

Gladio pushed Noctis back. However, he wasn't fast enough to avoid getting hit. The scent of blood exploded in Prompto's nose. Gladio grunted in pain, but stood his ground despite the wound.

Another man tried to get Noctis from the other direction, using the distraction of Gladio having gotten hurt. It was Prompto who stepped in now. He grabbed the man by his arm and yanked, throwing him backwards. The drunk seemed surprised that someone Prompto's size could have moved him, but he didn't give up, and tried to attack him.

And Prompto had never been in a real fight. He blamed the shock of the situation, and the adrenaline he had left from the concert, and the fact Gladio was bleeding enough to make his head swim. Prompto bared his fangs, and let out a guttural hiss. The other man paled, and with a shout he ran off.

Prompto closed his mouth. The man was drunk, if he remember this the next day he would think it had been a dream. Right? It wasn't as if an actual vampire could be going around with the Prince.

But before Prompto could think about whether this had been a good or bad idea, he was spun around, and pressed against a wall.

"What the fuck was that?"

Prompto's eyes widened. It seemed all the drunk men had decided it was best to scram, maybe after realizing that having his face sliced open would not slow Gladio down. So Gladio could focus his attention on Prompto instead. Prompto, who still had his fangs half out.

"What did you do, Prompto?" Gladio growled.

He couldn't be seeing him well. They were away from any streetlamp, and Gladio's left eye was closed. The wound ran right over it, and had Prompto been less scared for himself he would be terrified Gladio might have lost that eye.

"Let him go!" Noctis shouted, trying to pull Gladio away.

Gladio ignored him. "Where did that sound come from?"

"I..."

"Answer me!"

"Gladio, if you don't get off of him..."

"All of you quiet down!" Ignis shouted.

The shock of Ignis raising his voice was enough to make them all shut up.

"We can't make a scene here where everyone can see. And you need a doctor."

"I'm fine," Gladio said.

"You are not fine. We are all getting to the car."

"But-"

"Now!"

No arguing with that tone. They took a side road, trying to avoid being seen. Ignis took out a handkerchief, handing it to Gladio so that he could press it on his wound.

They all piled in together, Ignis on the driver seat, Gladio in the passenger's, and Prompto and Noctis in the back. As soon as the doors were closed, Prompto realized this would be hell. The smell of blood filled the entire space in a matter of seconds, so intense it was suffocating. He swallowed, hands gripping his own thighs so tight it hurt.

"We are getting you to the hospital," Ignis said.

"I don't need it."

"The injury might have damaged your eye."

Gladio took the handkerchief off. "It's fine, I'm just getting blood in it."

"What did you think you were doing?" Noctis demanded. "You could have knocked that man out in a second! Why did you take the hit?"

"I can't attack a crown citizen!"

"The crown citizen was attacking us first."

"That doesn't... Why is everyone focusing on me?"

Noctis kicked his seat. "Because you're bleeding out."

"So we're all going to pretend Prompto didn't make a sound like a rabid daemon?"

Prompto pressed himself against the door, trying to disappear.

"We are aware of it, and we all agree your injury is a bigger concern than Prompto's vocal skills," Ignis snapped.

Gladio sputtered. "He-"

"He was helping us protect Noct. Now, since you insist on not going to a doctor, we will all go to Noct's apartment so that I may at least give you stitches."

That was the end of the conversation. Prompto could feel the weight of Gladio's glare on him from the rearview mirror, but he didn't meet it. He fixed his eyes on his knees, and focused on keeping himself under control. His fangs pressed so hard against his gums it hurt.

He had fucked up. Gladio wouldn't forgive him this. There was no way he would be as understanding as Ignis or Noctis. The fact his first reaction had been to put Prompto up against a wall was proof enough of it. For the whole car ride, Prompto's stomach twisted itself in knots.

He didn't look at Gladio when they reached Noctis's building either. Ignis steered Gladio inside, not giving him time to do anything. Prompto thanked the Astrals Ignis was there to keep things under control, because without him Prompto would be dead in a ditch by now.

It had been nice while it had lasted. Prompto and Gladio had been on a promising path towards friendship, and now that was over, together with Prompto's life probably.

"I'll take the stairs," he said, when Ignis dragged Gladio into the elevator. No way he was getting into such a small space with someone with an open injury.

Noctis stopped by his side. "I'm going with him."

Ignis made the doors close before Gladio could say anything.

As soon as they were gone, Prompto took a deep breath and allowed his fangs to slip out. Someone may walk in on him, but that didn't matter. He was screwed either way.

Noctis's hand came to rest on his shoulder. "Hey. You good?"

"No."

"It's going to be fine."

"It's not!" Prompto snapped. "Gladio's going to kill me."

"No he won't. If he does, he'll have no one else to talk about his dating shows to."

Prompto shook his head. "Don't joke. He's going to send me right over to the dungeons, because that's his job and he could never handle having someone like me near you."

"You're not a-"

"I'm a monster! I- I growled at that man like an animal just now. And I'm- What Gladio's gonna do to me is making me more worried than Gladio's wound, and that's a shitty thing to do!"

Noctis grabbed Prompto by his shoulders and shook him. "Stop that. The big guy won't put you in jail. I'm not letting him."

"He's not going to accept this," Prompto said.

"Look at me." Noctis stared at Prompto with hard eyes. "He can think whatever he wants, but I will always outrank him. If I tell him that the law is fucked up and I will ignore it, he would have to betray me to report you, and he's loyal to me first. He doesn't get to be my Shield and then put my friend in trouble for no reason."

Prompto worried his lower lip with his teeth. He didn't deserve this. What had he done, for Noctis to be willing to force Gladio to pick between his loyalties? "Thanks, Noct."

"Come on. Let's go up."

In the apartment, Ignis had locked himself and Gladio in the bathroom. They were arguing, although their voices were kept too low for even Prompto to hear. Not that he wanted to. He sat in the kitchen, staring at his hands.

"I didn't even ask you if you're alright," he said.

Noctis plopped down next to him. "I'm as good as can be."

"I'm sorry the night ended up like this."

"Not your fault." Noctis paused, and swallowed. "I'm sick of not being able to walk around like a normal person because someone might try to murder me."

Prompto reached out, squeezing Noctis's shoulder. "They were looking for a fight. I mean, they had knives. If not you, someone else."

"But why settle for someone else when you can stab the Prince?"

Prompto couldn't argue against that.

"And now Gladio's gotten his face sliced open because of me," Noctis said, and buried his face in his hands.

Prompto didn't know what to say about that either. Taking the hits for Noctis was Gladio's job, and he would be ready to suffer something a lot worse than a bad cut. But Noctis hated the idea of others having to sacrifice themselves for him. Especially when that someone was his friend.

Eventually, Ignis and Gladio emerged. Gladio's face had been cleaned and bandaged. His uncovered eyes immediately fell on Prompto's mouth, and the fangs he hadn't bothered to retract. Prompto turned away, unable to stand that.

"You knew," Gladio said.

Noctis shrugged. "I did."

"You and Ignis both knew that Prompto is-"

"He's Prompto!" Noctis shouted. "And he can hear what you say."

"That he does." Gladio stepped forward, and sat down on the chair in front of Prompto. "So. Where did you come from?"

Prompto stared at a place between Gladio's collarbones, trying not to shiver at the chill in his voice. "Niflheim, I guess?"

"And how did you get here?"

"Dunno."

"You don't know how you managed to get past all the restrictions around Insomnia?"

Ignis sighed. "I told him what you have said to me already, but he didn't seem to listen to any of it."

"It's fine," Prompto said. He wouldn't believe himself either. "I've been here since I was a toddler. No clue how it happened."

Gladio remained silent for a moment. "What do you want?"

"Uh. Not being deported sounds nice?"

"We'll see about that."

"We're not-"

"Shut it, Noct," Gladio snapped. "I'm talking to him now. What was your plan getting close to Noctis?"

Prompto flinched, and at last raised his eyes. "There was no plan."

"You became friends with him just because you felt like it? You're telling me that the one vampire in Lucis goes to befriend the Prince just because?"

"Yes."

Gladio stared at Prompto. After a few seconds, he turned away, crossing his arms. He looked furious.

"You're not doing anything to Prompto," Noctis said.

"You've made it clear you want all of us to break the law so-"

Ignis cleared his throat. "If I may, Noct hasn't made me do anything. I have decided to help hide Prompto of my own will."

Gladio closed his mouth.

Ignis put a hand on Gladio's shoulder. "I insist you return to the Citadel now. Noctis is safe here, and you must report what happened."

"And him?" Gladio nodded towards Prompto.

"He can spend the night here," Noctis said. His voice challenged Gladio to argue against it.

Ignis spoke up before Gladio could. "An acceptable decision. If you will, Gladio?"

Gladio stood up, his chair loudly dragging against the floor. "Fine. Since this is the end of it, I'll go. But I'm watching you," he snarled, pointing his finger at Prompto. "Don't think I'm done here."

Prompto said nothing. To be honest, he was half surprised Gladio hadn't physically attacked him. Ignis must have used all his diplomatic skills on him.

"He'll calm down," Noctis said.

Prompto wasn't so convinced about it.

But was he safe now? Was Gladio going to keep the secret?

Noctis stood, and touched his shoulder. "Come on. Let's go to sleep."

That may be for the best. Noctis lent Prompto some clothes, and they both settled down in Noctis's large bed. As was usual for him, Noctis passed out as soon as he hit the pillow. Prompto for his part was left lying in the dark for an hour as his heart settled down, trying not to move to avoid bothering Noctis, and doing his best to ignore his scent.

Chapter Text

A phone ringing rudely woke Prompto up. It wasn't his own. He wondered blearily if Noctis had forgotten his at his place before remembering where he was, and what had happened the previous night, and why he was hearing Noctis's ringtone. His eyes shot open. The shapes of Noctis's furniture greeted him.

Noctis wasn't stirring. He was face down on his side of the bed, dead to the world. Normally, Prompto wouldn't have answered Noctis's calls for him, but he figured people would worry if Noctis didn't answer this morning. He had to climb halfway over Noctis to get to his nightstand, and Noctis didn't seem to notice.

Prompto blinked at the bright screen, making out Specs. Ignis wouldn't care if it was Prompto on the phone, so he answered. "Hello?"

"Prompto. I presume Noctis is still asleep."

Prompto yawned. "Yeah."

"Unrealistic for him to wake before the fourth call."

"Uh, what call is this?"

"The first. It is a minor shock for me."

"I bet. 's everything alright?"

"You and Noctis are both to come to the Citadel. Gladio and I explained that yesterday's was most likely an unfortunate accident rather than a planned attack, but Lord Amicitia insists on receiving your statements."

Made sense. The man couldn't have liked seeing his son come home with his face sliced open. "How's Gladio?"

"Irritable and on painkillers, last I saw him, but otherwise fine."

Prompto rubbed his eyes. He had rolled back to his part of the bed, but his legs were still halfway on top of Noctis. Who still hadn't noticed. "That's good."

"I will come get you both in about one hour. Please have Noctis standing by then."

"I'll do my best."

With a whole hour, he might even get Noctis dressed.

"Thank you. I'll see you then."

"Yeah. Bye."

Prompto dropped the phone on his chest. Statement. Citadel. That could be trouble. He was still a little bleary, but he was going to be shaking in fear soon at the thought of talking with authorities.

With a sigh, he turned to Noctis. "Hey."

No answer.

Prompto nudged him. "Wakey wakey."

Still no answer.

"Come on." Prompto forcefully rolled Noctis on his back, patting his shoulder. "Don't make me wake you with a kiss."

Noctis let out a breathy groan. Progress.

Prompto waited for more signs of life. When they didn't come, he pushed the blankets off. That alone wasn't quite enough to convince Noctis, but Prompto shoving his freezing hands under his shirt was.

"Prompto," Noctis whined, trying to defend his stomach.

"Iggy called. He says we need to go to the Citadel."

Noctis made a sound not unlike a broken squeaky toy. "This afternoon."

"He said he's coming now."

Noctis groaned.

But then, he seemed to either remember what had happened the night before, or his brain started to come back into gear. Noctis was not physically able to wake up in less than half an hour, but he did stop complaining. His sense of duty must be beating his eternal sleepiness.

By the time Ignis came, they had both dressed and had a quick breakfast, and Prompto had had enough idle time to get nervous. What had Gladio and Ignis said? What could Prompto add that hadn't already been told? Was he prepared to be interrogated by the Crownsguard?

No, no, it was just a statement. Not an interrogation. He would be made to sit down in one of the Citadel's fancy rooms with a dainty tea cup and have a polite chat with a secretary or something.

Unless the Crownsguard suspected something. Gladio had said he wouldn't snitch on Prompto, and he wouldn't go back on his word, but could something have slipped? Had Gladio's father noticed a different kind of annoyance than that of the wound? No, if they had found out Prompto wouldn't have been allowed to sleep in the same house as the Prince for the whole night.

"How's it going?" Noctis asked when Ignis at last arrived.

"If by 'it' you are referring to Gladio's face, he has been checked over by a Citadel doctor who declared he is most likely going to have a scar, but should sustain no lasting damage past that," Ignis said. "The Crownsguard insists on identifying the attackers. The incident appears isolated, aggression is still a crime."

Noctis nodded. He looked somewhat alert now, a small frown on his face.

"We have agreed that the attackers became discouraged after seeing Gladio would not back down from the fight," Ignis explained. No mention of Prompto's growling trick. "Prompto, if you are asked to describe them, say it was too dark to see."

"Don't we won't to identify them?" Prompto asked, confused.

"Yes, but can you guarantee you are able of giving a description that would match up with what a human would see in low light? You are untrained. Saying you do not remember anything would be less suspicious than accidentally adding details you shouldn't have been able to see."

Ignis had a point, as he always did. Well, all Prompto needed to do was say he hadn't seen anything. Shouldn't be too hard.

At least, he didn't think it was, until he got separated from Noctis and Ignis and led to an office. Which wasn't an interrogation room, but the environment still was austere. The room was less decorated than the rest of the Citadel. Shelves filled only with what looked like important documents and books, a wooden desk, armchairs that were comfortable but plain.

On the other side of the desk was one Cor Leonis. The Cor Leonis. Cor the Immortal. Even people who knew nothing of politics and government figures knew who the Marshal was. He had a reputation.

In real life, his gaze was even sharper than it looked like in pictures. He ordered Prompto to sit, and then stared at him in the eyes for a few seconds, not saying anything. Prompto was reminded of those cop shows where the suspect is left to stew in their own thoughts to make them nervous before the real interrogation starts.

Sitting there, the anxiety that had been building in the back of Prompto's mind began to run down his spine and pool in his stomach. The Marshal had to be able to smell lies like a trained hound. Would he be able to realize it if Prompto didn't tell the whole truth? Worse, could he tell Prompto was hiding something just by looking at his behavior, before Prompto even tried speaking? He couldn't red minds, surely?

"Tell me what happened yesterday night," the Marshal said after five eternal seconds.

Prompto swallowed. "We were coming home from that concert, and Noctis said- Well, doesn't matter, but we turned in this alley and it was, uh, very dark, and at first there were no people there, but then those guys came by, I think they didn't see us at first? Or didn't realize who we were, at least. Well, didn't realize who the others were, it's not like they could have recognized me."

"And then?"

"Well, I guess one of them recognized Noctis, and they were really drunk so they were probably already looking for a fight-"

"They didn't say anything?" the Marshal interrupted. "No explanation for why they decided to attack you?"

"N-no. They made some fun of Noctis, and then Gladio stepped in to tell them to shut up, and I guess they didn't like it. So one... he went at Gladio, and then one had a knife and cut him."

"What did you do?"

"Me?" Prompto squeaked. The Marshal's eyes seemed able to dig a hole directly into his skull and look inside of it. "N-not much. I'm not trained like the others, and I don't get into fights usually. I wouldn't know what to do."

I totally didn't bare the fangs that I don't have and absolutely didn't make any kind of ungodly noise with my mouth.

The Marshal raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. "And how did the fight end?"

"They run off. I guess they got scared of Gladio, maybe? Like he's wall of muscle, and he didn't back down after they sliced his face which is kind of..." Prompto trailed off. Kind of what? Badass? Cool? Terrifying? This was Cor Leonis he was talking to, he was the kind of man who... who...

Who hunted vampires in his free time and killed them with his bare hands.

Yeah, he wouldn't find someone standing their ground after being cut that impressive.

"I see." The Marshal lowered his eyes for a moment, writing something on a paper. "Could you recognize those men?"

Prompto shook his head, maybe with a little too much energy. "No, sir. It was dark. I mean, maybe if I heard their voices...?"

"And you don't remember anything of their faces?"

"N-no."

The Marshal stared at him. Prompto forced himself to hold his gaze, because people said liars always looked away. Hidden by the desk, his hands clamped on his thighs hard enough he might bruise himself.

"Are you certain you would not be able to recognize them at all?" he asked.

"N-nossir," Prompto said. He was this close to starting to squeak like a mouse.

The Marshal let out a sigh, and then nodded. "I see. If you remember anything else that may be useful, let Ignis or Gladio know."

"I will."

"You can go now. A guard will take you to Noctis's room."

"Already?" Prompto blurted.

"Why? Is there anything else you need to say?"

"Nossir."

"Then go," the Marshal said, waving a hand. "And consider getting some training, being close to a member of the royal family isn't safe. Ask Gladio, if you don't know anyone else."

"So he'll teach me to resist getting knifed?" Prompto asked as he stood up.

"Hopefully he'll teach you how to disarm people first," the Marshal replied in an annoyed voice. He didn't seem thrilled by what Gladio had done. "Now go."

Prompto nodded. "Yessir. Uh, goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Prompto didn't run out of the office like he had all the daemons in the world chasing him. Nor did he faint against the Guard tasked with leading him around. He considered it a success.

Noctis wasn't in his room when Prompto got there, but Prompto was given permission to wait there anyways. He decided the best course of action was pace a hole in the expensive floor until he didn't feel like bursting out of his skin anymore.

***

Noctis and Ignis kept him updated on Gladio's condition. In a handful of days they took out his stitches, and he seemed to suffer no permanent consequences. Aside from the fact he was going to scar. It could be a negative thing, for sure, but Prompto thought badass facial scarring would fit well with Gladio's whole character.

Knowing Gladio was fine didn't mean Prompto was in any way prepared to find him standing outside his house on one nice Saturday morning.

"We're going for a run," Gladio said, not bothering with greetings. Prompto didn't have it in him to say anything about it, not with Gladio's hard voice or the scowl that had to be pulling at his healing skin.

"Um, now?"

"Do you have anything else to do?"

"I suppose not."

"Good. Get dressed."

Prompto almost replied with a yessir. He rushed upstairs, going to grab his workout clothes, belatedly realizing he hadn't invited Gladio in. Well, Gladio could wait five minutes at the door. Or would that be yet another strike against Prompto?

His stomach was somewhere in the vicinity of his knees as he changed. He had planned to have a lazy morning at home, but Gladio's appearance had filled him with too much adrenaline for him to mourn it.

Why a run? Did Gladio want to lead Prompto somewhere secluded where he could quietly dispose of his body? But Gladio had been in a tank top and shorts, he couldn't be hiding a weapon somewhere. Unless he could take Prompto out with his bare hands. Or, did he have access to that pocket dimension thing that the royals had?

Gladio was leaning against the door frame, arms crossed, when Prompto came back down. "I'm ready. Where do you want to go?"

Gladio appraised him for a moment. His eyes focused for a moment on Prompto's bare legs and arms, as if he was trying to judge how much strength he could pack. "Wherever. You lead."

Prompto could take them down his usual running routes. Sure. He did a few stretches that were for the most part perfunctory, his body not needing an extensive warm up. Gladio also stretched his legs, but didn't put much effort into it. Prompto wondered if he had already gotten ready before getting there.

"So. Do we go?" Prompto asked.

Gladio just shrugged.

Prompto began to jog. Gladio followed at his side. He didn't speak, didn't even look at Prompto as they left Prompto's street.

What was the point? They had ran together a couple times in the past, although in a more companionable way. Prompto was sure they had ran on this same road too. Chatting a little, until the effort was enough for Gladio to decide it was better to save his breath and Prompto pretended he was growing tired as well.

Maybe that was what Gladio wanted to see. If he knew anything about vampires, he must have guessed that Prompto hadn't grown as tired as he had pretended to be those times. It could be a test of Prompto's real abilities.

So Prompto decided there was no use in pretending. If Gladio wanted to know, well, Prompto didn't have anything to hide anymore, and he figured some honesty between them would be good. He breathed and ran as came natural to him. Soon the scent of Gladio's sweat started pooling in the air between them, and by the time Gladio's carefully regulated breath began faltering Prompto was still doing well.

"Break," Gladio eventually grunted.

They slowed to a halt in a park. Prompto heard the distant sounds of some children playing, but no one was close to the two of them. He took a deep breath as they stopped. His shirt was beginning to get damp in a rather gross way. Were he alone, this would be around the time he would turn around and jog back home.

Gladio's face was red, and his breath coming hard. His tank top was sticking to his back and chest. All in all, he looked like someone who had pushed himself further than he usually did in his workout.

"You've got some lungs," Gladio said, hands on his hips.

Prompto shrugged. "I guess."

Part of him felt proud that he could outlast someone as fit and trained as Gladio. However, it wasn't really a fair competition to begin with.

Gladio shuffled, and started walking a little. Prompto followed him. He bit his lip as Gladio moved and stretched, working out the effort.

"How did you do it?" Gladio eventually burst.

"Did what?"

"Hide it for all this time. You're the worst fucking liar I have ever seen. Thought you were, at least."

Prompto shrugged. "I've had a lot of time to practice that specific lie."

"Guess you did." Gladio shook his head. "You even hid it from Iggy for a while, I heard. Congratulations, not many people can fool him."

Prompto wasn't sure what to say. Gladio was a man who wore his emotions plain for everyone to see. Explosive anger, Prompto would have dealt with. But Gladio's voice was restrained. Bitter, yes, but the extent of his anger was unclear.

Gladio put his hand on his hips, and rolled his neck. "I don't like being lied to."

"And what was I supposed to do?" Prompto found himself snapping. "Tell you? I don't want to be deported, thank you. Or have my parents deported either."

Gladio's head whipped towards him. "You are still here, seems to me."

"I'm here because Noct and Iggy bullied you into staying silent! In another occasion, what would you have done?"

"If you had-"

Prompto interrupted him, words pouring out of his mouth now that they had started going. "I'm not doing this on purpose, you know? I didn't wake up on day and think shit, you know what I need in life, fangs. I'm a- I don't know, a refugee, I don't even know how I got here, but I'm not different from all the people in the Niff district."

"Except you suck blood," Gladio said.

Prompto threw his hands up. "And I've never hurt anyone for it! I go to the butcher like you go buy a steak. Or, like your butler buys you a steak. But I don't want to be treated like a traitor because of something I can't control."

He stopped, his throat having turned tight. It wasn't fair. Maybe it was a little, because Prompto knew what he was and what he could do, but he'd never wanted to be a vampire. Other people didn't have to lie to everyone, scared of what could happen if they were found out, knowing their friends may turn against them if they ever found out about their natures. He turned away from Gladio, worrying his eyes may show his emotions a little too clearly.

"Let's make something clear," Gladio said.

Prompto nodded. "Sure." He had had two people accept his nature, he figured a third would be asking for too much.

"I don't like not knowing where you came from, or that it took me so long to notice. I should be trained for this, you know?"

"Yeah."

"And I'm not even beginning to understand why you would think it would be a good idea to make friends with Noctis. Congrats on making the worst decisions possible in your situation."

"Thanks."

"Hey. Look at me."

Gladio reached out to him. Prompto jumped back, moving out of reach, too tense to let himself be touched. It did have the effect of making him look up at Gladio, however. Who was staring at him with a scowl Prompto couldn't quite decipher.

"We're making a deal here," Gladio said. "I'm not going to report you, I'll cover your ass, and I hope you understand what this means in my position."

For Noctis's Shield not to say that there was a vampire around the Prince? It would be bad if someone found out. Prompto wasn't sure if Gladio could lose his job, but maybe Iris could still be trained in his place.

Gladio continued. "But you are promising me right now that if something happens to Noctis on your watch, you put all your vampirism to use and make sure he's safe."

"You don't need to make me swear for that."

Prompto would take many bullets for Noctis without a moment of hesitation.

Gladio studied him, and then gave a solemn nod. "Don't make me regret this."

"Don't tell me you doubt in my skills."

"I'd like to know what your skills are to begin with. Clearly you have been keeping those to yourself as well."

Not like Prompto could go around parading them.

Gladio nodded again. "Keep yourself free next weekend."

"What?"

"I want to know what I'm risking my ass for. You're going to show me what you can do, without holding back."

Prompto paled. Did Gladio want to do more than see how far Prompto could run? Was he going to test him like Prompto was one of the Crownsguard recruits? No way Prompto could do that. This morning had already unnerved Prompto so much that he'd need the whole week to calm down, he couldn't do it again.

He wasn't given time to protest. "I'm going back home," Gladio said.

"What, wait!"

"I don't have all morning for you, Blondie. I'll call you."

Which was already better than having Gladio show up unannounced at his home.

"Do I have to- To prepare something?" Prompto asked.

Gladio replied only with a dismissive snort.

***

Prompto wanted to cry. When he had agreed to train with Gladio, he hadn't thought that would be at the Citadel. Gladio was making him come after hours, when the Crownsguard was done training, assuring him nobody would be around.

Still. Citadel. Being openly a vampire in the Citadel.

At least Prompto had come by a few times now. The guards at the entrance barely spared him a glance. Gladio was waiting for him there, and led him deep through hallways Prompto wasn't familiar with.

"So what will we do?" Prompto asked.

"This and that," Gladio replied.

"Oh. Alright. Yeah, can do that. I'm ready for everything. Do you guys have like, a big gym in here? I mean, you gotta if you train in the Citadel, but all the movies make it look like the Crownsguard goes to run in the rain somewhere in the desert."

Prompto needed to run off some nervous energy and babbling was a good way as any. At least Gladio ignored his words as they walked.

The training grounds, it turned out, weren't anything too fancy. Or, Prompto was sure everything here was fancy, but it didn't look all that different from any other gym. Except way cleaner. There were climbing ropes, marks on the floor, a bunch of blue mattresses in a corner, nothing extraordinary.

They were alone, as promised. Did Gladio have the authority to book the whole place if he needed it?

"Alright. We've done the running already, so we're testing the rest."

Prompto did as Gladio told him. Some basic exercises, push ups, pull ups, squats. They weren't Prompto's favorite thing to do, but he still had an advantage when it came to natural endurance. On the other hand, he sucked at climbing up a rope. There was a technique for that and Prompto didn't know it, and superhuman strength did little to make the situation better.

Then Gladio whipped out the weights. Despite the situation being tense, Prompto was privately glad about being able to lift with ease weights that Gladio had to move around with a grunt of effort. Size wasn't everything.

Given Gladio's baffled expression, he hadn't been ready for the display. Prompto hoped he wasn't giving him muscles image issues, but then again, Gladio could stand to be the inadequate one every once in a while. Payback for how much anxiety he was giving Prompto.

"When was the last time you... drank?" Gladio asked, as Prompto put down the forty kilos weight.

Prompto swallowed. "Uh, four days ago?"

"You are stronger right after, right?"

"Well, yeah. It kind of fades after a bit."

Prompto almost said it was like a performance drug, but decided against it. He still wasn't clear on where he stood with Gladio.

With a huff, Gladio scratched his head. "It's wrong to see your skinny ass lift like that."

"I'll have you know I worked for this skinny ass."

"How so?"

Prompto hesitated. "Oh, it's- I, um, I might have been a bit rounder back in middle school? Had to work a bunch of it off."

Gladio crossed his arms, frowning. "With a nutritionist, I hope."

"Do you think I can go to a nutritionist?"

Gladio looked to the side, making a face.

"I mean, I know it's better to have guidance and all of that," Prompto said. He played with his shirt. Talking about his weight loss was always uncomfortable, especially with someone who as far as Prompto knew had been gifted with a perfect body from birth. "But I came out of it well, right? I ate the right amount, got used to doing exercise, and got pretty hot, didn't I?"

Gladio looked conflicted for a moment, as if not knowing what to say to that.

"What's happening?"

Both Prompto and Gladio jumped. There was a man at the door, looking at them with one eyebrow raised.

"Dad," Gladio blurted.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.

"Isn't that mister Argentum?" Clarus Amicitia asked, speaking to his son but clearly looking at Prompto.

"Y-yes, sir," Prompto squeaked, hoping he wasn't speaking out of turn.

Gladio cleared his throat. "We were doing some practice. No one had booked the training grounds at this time."

"I see that. I was just wondering about the reason?"

Prompto wanted to whimper and hide somewhere. Maybe behind Gladio. He had only seen the King's Shield a couple times before, and while he had never been anything but polite to Prompto he was still terrifying.

"It's, well," Gladio cleared his throat. "Prompto has been telling me he would like to enter the Crownsguard after he graduates."

What?

The King's Shield turned to Prompto. "Is that so?"

"It's, um, I haven't decided anything yet," Prompto said, and that technically wasn't a lie. He had absolutely no idea what he was going to do after high school, and he preferred not to think about it if he could help it. "But it's a possibility."

"I thought I could test him a little," Gladio said.

His father hummed. "I see. But I wonder, are the weights necessary?"

"Those, ah-"

"Gladio was showing me how much he can lift," Prompto quickly said.

"Really? And here I thought that was just what you did to show off to girls."

Gladio coughed. "Dad, please."

Prompto couldn't help but snicker.

"Alright. I'll leave you to it," the King's Shield said. "But clean up after you are done. Will you come home afterwards?"

"Yeah, I don't have anything else."

The King's Shield nodded. "I'll see you later, then. Mister Argentum, don't let my son pull a muscle."

"I won't, sir."

Clarus left, and Prompto let out a shaky breath. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Hardly the first time in my life I've lied to my old man. Let's wrap this up, before someone else come asking questions."

Prompto could agree with that. Gladio made him go through a few last exercises, and then told him to help put everything back in place.

"You know," Gladio said, picking up a couple weights, "you could do that actually. Try for the Crownsguard."

Prompto dropped the weight he had been moving.

"Hey, watch it. The floor breaks."

"Sorry. But- Seriously? You mean that?"

Gladio shrugged as best as he could. "We've established you want to make sure Noctis is alright. With your skills, it should be easy to pass the tests."

"Isn't that the problem?" Prompto laughed, taken aback. "People would notice that's it's too easy. And I can't- You guys are trained in hand to hand combat, right? I can't do that. What if I hurt people?"

"You have a point," Gladio said.

"And besides, you'd want me to join? Someone like me?"

Gladio paused. He took a long breath. "You're alright."

"I am?" Prompto asked.

"Look. I'm not... unreasonable. I don't like being lied to, and don't think I forgot what you could do. You are dangerous, and that's not debatable." Gladio huffed. "But I've grown up around the best soldiers in the entire country. I can't say you are that much more dangerous than everyone in my family."

"Ignis also said something like that."

"He wasn't wrong. And you're." Gladio turned fully to Prompto, and gestured towards him. "You cry over children movies."

"If it's sad it's sad."

"Yeah, well, that's not cold blooded killer material."

"Then are we alright?" Prompto asked. He almost didn't dare.

After a long moment, Gladio said, "you're on thin fucking ice, and just because Noct would mope forever if I chased you off."

Prompto would count that as a massive win.

Honestly, it wasn't a declaration of friendship, but Prompto could work with that. Gladio had lied to his father to cover Prompto's ass, that had to mean something. Then again, Gladio's ass would have also ended up in trouble if his father had found out what was really happening.

When they left the training grounds, Prompto was surprised to run into Noctis a couple hallways down.

"Noct," Gladio said, sounding equally surprised. "Don't tell me you're here to train."

"I'm not. A birdie told me you were torturing Prompto."

Prompto and Gladio exchanged a glance. Surely the Shield hadn't gone tattling to the whole palace?

Gladio cleared his throat. "It wasn't torture."

"You say that every time."

"It wasn't all that bad," Prompto said. "We were just... testing some things."

Noctis glared briefly at Gladio, but his attention quickly moved to Prompto again. "Wanna come up to my room?"

"Dude, I'm all sweaty."

"And I have a shower."

Well, if Noctis was offering.

"I'll leave the two of you then," Gladio said. "Have fun."

After they got into the nearest elevator, Noctis turned to face Prompto with his eyebrow raised. "You want to get into the Crownsguard, then?"

"Did you and Gladio's dad talk?"

"My dad and Gladio's are worse than a pair of grandmas. Always gossiping."

"Wow. But we just made that up. Gladio wanted to check the superpowers."

Noctis crossed his arms. "He hasn't been giving you a hard time, right?"

"Nah. I think we've actually got an understanding."

"Well, that's good." Noctis sighed as the elevator dinged. "And I was already looking forward to having you at my orders."

"Isn't everyone in this county technically at your orders?"

"Some people are more at my orders than others."

Prompto glanced to the guards they passed as they walked down the hallway. Those guys sure had to listen to a lot of bullshit on their job.

In the privacy of the next elevator, Prompto continued, "besides, probably not the smartest idea to even try. Wouldn't want to break someone's spine on the first day."

"True. But maybe you could try ranged weapons? No one's gonna notice anything wrong with those."

Prompto laughed. "Dude, come on. I can't see shit during the day, can you really imagine me with a gun?"

"Well, you'd be deadly in an enemy crowd."

***

Prompto clicked his pen absently. History class was boring. Noctis was possibly asleep in his seat, so Prompto couldn't even toss him notes. Mrs Affeci was droning on and on about some war that had happened four hundreds years ago. No matter how much Ignis insisted that history was important, Prompto couldn't find it in himself to care.

"...this conflict is noted for one particular thing," she was saying. "It was around this time that we had the first confirmed sightings of vampires in Niflheim's army."

Prompto's pen clicked a little too hard.

"We have documents from previous times talking about vampires, of course, but there's debate on when they first appeared and how common they were. Now, we have first hand reports about vampires within the army. This leads some to think this is when Niflheim started making vampires."

A girl raised her hand. "Make? Aren't vampires a kind of daemon?"

"We're getting there."

Prompto hadn't been turning his book's pages as the teacher spoke. He caught up, and there it was. An entire paragraph dedicated to theories about what a vampire is and who made them.

Oh, Astrals help him. With some luck, they'd skip over this section quick.

The teacher cleared her throat, looking at the page for a moment as if to refresh her memory. "While we all know what vampires are, there is still debate on how they came to be. Some people think that they are a kind of daemon. Others believe they may be hybrids between daemons and humans, and there are also theories about them being the result of some form of yet unknown magic. Since we don't have proof of them having existed in ancient times, many consider them to be artificial creatures that were in some way made."

None of this was news to Prompto. He knew all the theories, from the daemon theory to the artificial creature to the blight brought upon the land by Ifrit himself. He knew that in the past centuries vampire numbers had remained low, but they had increased sharply in the last few decades, which made a lot of people wonder whether the Niffs were breeding them.

It was all very difficult to study, as vampires were concentrated in Niflheim and Niflheim didn't like to share their scientific findings with anyone else. The oldest vampire remains found outside of Niflheim were less than a thousand years old. No one knew if Niflheim had older bones.

Another raised hand. Prompto stared down at the book. Vampires were one of those things that just fascinated high schoolers. "Sorry, I don't know how relevant this is..."

Mrs Affeci closed her eyes. "Go on."

"But how do they do in Niflheim? I mean, they can't just have vampires roaming about eating people."

"There should be laws in place," the teacher said. "About how vampires, uh, interact with humans."

Prompto had researched those too. All vampires in Niflheim were required to register with the government, and regularly be checked to ensure they hadn't harmed anyone. Apparently Niflheim hadn't used to like vampires either. There had been times when vampires were strongly segregated, but they were better integrated with society now. Possibly due to how useful they were to the army.

"But they have to kill people at times," a boy said.

"I'd imagine they do, yes."

Someone else piped up. "How can the Niffs feel safe with vampires around? Where do they even get them blood?"

"I'm afraid I'm not an expert on vampires," the teacher said, sounding as if she had resigned herself to her class being overtaken by vampire speculation.

"Wouldn't it be better to like, cull them?" someone said. "I get the Niffs want them for the army, but they're putting in danger their whole population like that."

There was a laugh from the back of the room. "I don't think the Emperor cares."

"They're still people, you know?"

Prompto had been trying very hard to convince his chair to devour him. He froze when Noctis spoke up.

The rest of the class fell silent too. Noctis rarely bothered to participate during class, and Prompto could feel the quiet awe at the fact that the Prince was speaking.

Noctis straightened up in his chair, looking around like a small frown. "They can still think and feel. They're not animals."

"Well, yeah, but they're still... vampires," the other guy said, laughing nervously.

"So?"

Prompto managed to meet Noctis's eyes for a second. He hoped he conveyed the message that he would rather die than hear this conversation continue, in whatever direction it was heading.

Noctis looked away. "The death penalty is wrong regardless of who it targets. Even if it's vampires, you can't just ask for a whole group of people to be put to death."

Good to see Ignis's impromptu ethics lectures were sticking to Noctis.

"Thank you, Your Highness," the teacher said in the awkward silence.

Noctis made a face. He hated teachers who insisted on calling him by his title.

The lecture returned on the original topic, although that did little to ease the knot in Prompto's stomach. He knew what people thought of vampires, he knew. It wasn't a surprise. Still, it was never good to hear some of your classmates wished you dead.

After the class was over, Prompto managed to push Noctis away from where other people would hear. "You shouldn't have done that," he whispered.

"Yes, I should have. I couldn't let people keep talking that way about you."

"They weren't talking about me."

"Weren't they?" Noctis asked.

Prompto grimaced. "Look. I appreciate that, buddy, but what if they go tell people and tomorrow we have a news article about Prince Noctis supporting vampires?"

"It's called sticking up for minorities and I hear people like it when royalty does it."

"Pick another minority next time."

"Alright, I'll find a new one to talk about in my next interview."

"I'm serious, Noct," Prompto said. He squeezed Noctis's elbow, maybe a little more than was needed. "You can't get in trouble because of me. What if someone asks you why you are defending vampires? Are you just going to tell them about the morality of the death penalty?"

Noctis frowned. "I..."

"I appreciate you sticking up for me, but you can't get in trouble because of that." Prompto swallowed. "If you want people to defend, try with Niff refugees in Insomnia, alright? They get their fair share of bad press, and it's close enough you can think about me if you want."

After all, Prompto was a Niff refugee. Technically. Probably.

Noctis sighed. "Alright. But you can't tell me I'm just supposed to smile and keep silent while people talk about my best friend as if he was a monster."

I am, Prompto's mind whispered. He was, and that wasn't something that could be changed, no matter how Prompto behaved or what Noctis said. Prompto still couldn't quite see at times what it was that made Noctis trust him so much.

But he appreciated it. And he couldn't risk Noctis ever getting in trouble because of it.

***

"Prompto! Come down a moment!"

Prompto groaned. He was trying to study here. There was a lit chapter that would not get inside his head, and now his dad was interrupting his flow. His parents just had to come home for Prompto's exams.

"What is it?" he asked, hopping down the stairs.

His dad was in the kitchen, holding up the bottle containing Prompto's blood stash. He dangled it as if it was something horribly gross which, well, it kind of was. The sight made Prompto tense.

"That's my blood," Prompto said.

"Wasn't there another bottle when we got home?"

"Yes, that was," Prompto did a mental count, "a week ago. I had to get another."

His dad sighed. Prompto didn't like this. Things with his parents had been getting harder lately, especially when it came to Prompto's vampirism.

"I thought you had said you were trying to get less."

Prompto put his hands in his pockets, and looked away. "Tried. Didn't work out."

"So you gave up?"

"I... I felt sick."

Which was easier to say than to admit lack of blood got Prompto dangerously close to losing control. He should be able to tell these things to his parents, he thought. They were his family. Yet Prompto knew would never understand the way Noctis did. As much as they had done their best with raising him, they had always tried to push the matter away whenever possible.

He had tried to keep up appearances when they were around, to drink a little less than needed. However, it was a bad idea. Prompto disliked having to feed as much as his parents did, but the risks of going too long without blood far outweighed any benefits.

"Prompto," his dad said. "Don't you remember when you lost weight?"

"Yeah."

"That had to be hard too. I'm sure it must have been difficult to find the determination to go through with it. Why can't you do the same for this issue?"

Prompto grit his teeth. His dad had never cared about Prompto's weight when he had been fat, aside from the occasional comment about how he could lose a little. He had never taught Prompto how to take proper care of his body. No, he and his mom had let Prompto figure out how to feed himself while they were away, magically expecting a kid to know that getting take out every day wasn't healthy.

"You know that's different, right?" Prompto said. "It's not pizza and fries. I kind of need that to live."

His dad frowned. He dropped the bottle back in the fridge, and crossed his arms. "I don't like that tone."

"Sorry. But it's true. I can't stop feeding."

"Are you absolutely sure about that?"

"Dad, I told you. It makes me sick."

His dad shook his head. "Prompto, listen to me very well. Me and your mother supported you as best as we could when you were a child, even if it was dangerous. You do understand what could happen if someone found out?"

"Course."

"You're older now. You should have better self control."

"Do you really think this is like candy?" Prompto snapped.

"Prompto-"

"I'll die if I don't drink that! I'm not drinking it because it's tasty, I need it!"

His dad didn't seem to like that answer. "There's people who live their lives without ever eating meat, or animal products."

"Are you telling me to go vegan?"

"I'm telling you to put more effort," his dad snapped. His voice was starting to rise. "Whatever nutrients are in blood, I'm sure you could find in other food groups. Is it iron? There's supplements for iron. Would you rather struggle a little more, or have me and your mother go to jail because we've been harboring you?"

Prompto flinched. "And what about me then?"

"What about you?"

"I know what's going to happen to you if I get caught," Prompto said. He used to have straight up nightmares about it when he was a kid, his parents being taken away. Every day he was aware of how much trouble he could bring to everyone around him. "But I'd also get deported, or jailed, or worse."

"Are you saying you only care because it affects you?"

"No!" That wasn't what Prompto had said at all. He would just like some recognition. Every argument was about his parents, and how at risk his parents were, and what they did for him, but no one ever bothered to talk about what would happen to him.

His dad scoffed. "It doesn't sound like you care much either way."

"What's going on?" Prompto's mom asked. She was at the kitchen door, looking worriedly between him and his dad.

"Trying to get Prompto to understand how much of a danger it is for him to continue buying blood whenever he gets the itch."

"I understand the dangers!" Prompto snapped. Why was it so hard for them to understand? They both kept acting as if he had chosen this, as if with enough effort Prompto would magically turn into a normal human being.

"Don't shout," his mom chided.

Prompto bit his lip, frustrated.

With an annoyed sigh, his dad rubbed the base of his nose. "Prompto, do you realize how lucky you have been not to get found out yet? What if you have to change butcher one day? What happens when you'll move out and have to share a house with a roommate or a girlfriend?"

"I'll... figure it out."

"Figure it out? You're almost done with high school. When do you plan on thinking about it?"

His mom stepped up, placing a hand on Prompto's arm. "We're worried, Prompto."

About me or about you, Prompto didn't ask. Did they seriously think he never found himself worrying about these things? That he didn't stay up at night with a pit of anxiety in his stomach, wondering what would happen if he ever had to share a house with someone else?

"You don't look like you worry," his dad said, and what would he know? He was away most of the year and called home once every two weeks to ask how was school going. "You even went and made friends with the Prince."

"What does Noctis have to do with this?" Prompto asked.

"Don't you realize how dangerous being friends with the Crown Prince is?"

Prompto gaped. His parents had never complained about him befriending Noctis before. They had seemed concerned at first, but they'd gotten over it fast. There had been no complaints on their side for all the time Prompto and Noctis had been friends. Hell, they had met Noctis too a couple times.

"You never had a problem with Noctis!" he said.

His parents exchanged a glance. "In any other situation, we would be happy you have him as a friend," his mom said. "But what if ever finds out? Have you ever wondered about that?"

His dad shook his head. "What we're saying is that you keep making decisions that don't look like you care."

"Noctis wouldn't do anything to me," Prompto said.

"I know you're friends, but do you really think that if he found out-"

"He knows. He doesn't care."

Silence fell over the room. "What?" his dad asked.

"Noctis knows I'm a vampire, and he's helping me hide."

"You told the Crown Prince?"

Prompto shrugged. "He... figured it out."

"He- Prompto!" His dad's voice was definitely raised now. "This is exactly what we've been arguing about! What was going through your head? Did you not think of the possible consequences?"

"I did, and it went well! Noctis has known for ages, and he's been covering me."

"Then let's be glad he doesn't care about the law!"

"Why can't we glad he likes me instead?" Prompto snapped. "Can't we be happy I have a friend who doesn't hate me for something I can control?"

"I don't know if I'm glad someone is encouraging you-"

"Encouraging me?"

"Let's all keep our voices down, alright?" his mom said. "Your father is right. You've not just put yourself in danger, but us too."

Prompto had had enough. "If you didn't want danger maybe you should've adopted legally instead of getting a smuggled Niff baby."

His mom visibly flinched at that. Prompto realized immediately the he had pushed too far with those words. "Is that it? Are you saying it was a mistake for us to keep you hidden so long?"

"That's not what I-"

"You could try to be a little be grateful at least," she interrupted.

"I'm not going to show gratitude by starving myself to death!"

He couldn't deal with this anymore. It didn't matter what he did, so long as he didn't magically stop feeding his parents wouldn't be happy. They knew he had no choice. Why couldn't they see his point of view? Why were their worries so important, while Prompto got treated like a horrible son for not showing worry in the appropriate way?

They couldn't hope Prompto's vampirism would fade like some teen phase. Did they think Prompto could spend his whole life pretending, never telling anyone else what he really was? It had worked out when he was a child, but it wouldn't have lasted.

"Come back here!" his dad shouted, as Prompto turned to leave the room.

Prompto didn't listen. He ran up the stairs and quickly put his shoes on.

His dad followed him up. "What are you doing?"

"Leaving."

"What?"

"I'm leaving," Prompto repeated, putting his phone in his pocket.

His dad's eyes were large, shocked. "And where would you go?"

"I don't know. Noctis's place. Under a bridge."

"Do you think this is the mature way to-"

Prompto was angry enough not to care that he had to shove past his dad to get down the stairs. "I can't stop being a vampire. I can't put effort into it, I can't! And I can't hide it from everyone for the rest of my life! This isn't something you can sweep under the rug forever."

He ignored his parents calling him as he left, slamming the door behind himself. For good measure, he jogged down the road, only stopping once he had put some distance between himself and his house.

It wasn't true that Prompto didn't care. They'd know it too, if they bothered to talk to him sometimes. He knew they couldn't come home more often, that they had their job to keep them away, but they could bother calling more. Maybe try having a conversation with him that went past grades and how much money they were sending him this month.

He had to wonder sometimes if he was why his parents had accepted such demanding jobs in the first place. So they had an excuse not to see the monster child. Of course they thought he could stop drinking blood at will, they always avoided the matter as much as possible. The only times Prompto remembered his parents asking him questions about vampirism was when he had been a child and they had needed to gauge what was or wasn't safe.

Prompto stopped a few streets over. He was breathing hard. Where was he going? He hadn't even grabbed his wallet as he left.

He took out his phone, pulling up Noctis's number. Prompto didn't want to impose, but right now he also wouldn't know what to do. He pressed call, and waited.

"Prom?" Noctis answered after a few rings.

"Hey, I'm- I'm not bothering you, right?"

"No. Did something happen?"

Prompto swallowed. "I kind of had a bad argument with my parents."

"'Bout what?"

"Oh, you know. That thing. About me," Prompto said, looking around. There weren't a lot of people, just some kids walking home and one man with a dog, but it was better not to say some words in public. Maybe his nerves were a little frayed after the argument, too.

"Oh. Can I do something?"

"You mind if I come over? I kind of ran out of the house."

"Shit, don't worry. Do you need Ignis to come grab you?"

It would be a while to Noctis's place. He could grab public transport, but burning off energy may be for the better.

He sighed. "Nah, I'll get there on my own. But it'll be a while."

"You sure you don't want a lift?"

"Fresh air will do me good."

"Alright. See you later."

With that, Prompto started making his way to Noctis's house. He ran some of the way there, figuring he might as well get some exercise out of this. Even if his jeans weren't the best running clothes.

As he walked, his feelings cooling off, he wondered if he had overreacted. His parents were worried. Maybe he should have been calmer, explained his point of view better. Ignis always said that eloquence was the best way to solve any argument. While Prompto was at Noctis's he could try making a powerpoint to show his parents when he went back home.

He did hope he wasn't imposing on Noctis this way. Noctis had probably been studying too, but there was a chance he might have had princely business to take care of. Prompto shouldn't bother him just because of an argument. Teenagers argued with their parents all the time, right? He knew Noctis also had plenty of arguments with his dad, and he didn't run off to Prompto's place every time.

Then again, Noctis had his own place that he didn't share with his family.

It was mid afternoon when Prompto got to Noctis's place. He texted him he was there, and Noctis immediately opened the door for him.

"What happened?" Noctis asked, as soon as he saw Prompto.

"It's dumb," Prompto said, dropping down on Noctis's couch.

"Yeah, parents often are."

Prompto snorted. "Guess so."

"Come on. Tell your buddy what happened."

Prompto did. He explained the issue with the blood, and how his parents were pushing him to take less of it.

Noctis frowned, sitting next to Prompto with his elbows on his knees. "Don't they know what going without blood does to you? Like, aside from starving?"

"No."

"Why don't you tell them?"

Prompto groaned, rubbing his face. "I just... How would they react? If they knew that I lose control when I'm without blood? They'd get even more mad."

"It's their fault if they don't understand. They should help. You're their son, it's their job to make you feel better."

"I just don't know how to tell them."

They were so focused on their own idea of what Prompto should do and how his body should work. How was Prompto supposed to change their minds? When they weren't even around most of the time to see what he meant?

Noctis's arm wrapped around Prompto's shoulders, pulling him close. "Do you want me to go and order them to behave?"

"What are you gonna do? Be nice to your illegal vampire son?"

"Sure. Gonna make it law. If you obtain a child illegally, at least be good to them."

Prompto snorted into Noctis's shoulder. "I'm sure everyone who gets children illegally would follow that law."

"Yep. I'm a legal genius."

"Thanks, Noct." Prompto sighed. "I just don't get it. There's parents who will justify everything their kids do even if they turn into serial killers, so why is it- It's not like I do it on purpose."

Prompto's breath hitched. He had seen school bullies have their parents protect them blindly, acting as if their precious little babies were fully justified in beating the shit out of someone, and he knew it wasn't right, but he would like a little of that blind parental love too.

"I know you don't."

"Do you think it's because I'm not, you know, theirs? Because like, they couldn't be expecting it. It couldn't have been easy for them to find me, and then it turned out I was a vampire."

Noctis's hand squeezed. "It doesn't matter, Prom. You're their son, they're the ones who wanted you, and they had to want you a lot if they went through all the trouble of finding you illegally, right?"

"But they still thought they were getting a normal child."

"Sucks to be them, then. You get a child, you know it may not turn out how you want. If you want to grab an illegal Niff baby, you accept he might grow fangs."

"Still. It's true it'll get them in trouble if I'm found out."

"And? Again, they're the ones who broke the law. No one forced them to raise you at gunpoint." Noctis paused. "And besides, you'd get it a lot worse than them. They should worry about you more than about themselves."

Prompto sniffled. What Noctis said made sense. Prompto would probably say the same if he and Noctis's places were swapped. It didn't make Prompto feel much better.

"Come on, let's watch one of your dumb realities, alright?" Noctis said. "And I'll tell Ignis you're here for dinner, and that he needs to make you something good."

"No need-"

"Yes need. Go on, find something about people marrying strangers for the views."

Prompto relented, grabbing the remote and looking for a channel with some comfort junk TV. He remained pressed against Noctis's side. Thinking about it, Prompto hadn't had a lot of people there to hug him when he was down in his life. It was nice to let Noctis's body heat warm him up.

By the time Ignis arrived, Prompto had cheered up. He and Noctis had found some ridiculous documentary on extinct sharks who may actually still be alive today, with Noctis trying to use his scarce knowledge in science and vast knowledge in fish to call the narrator an idiot.

"Prompto," Ignis greeted, walking to them. "Will you be spending the night?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to-"

"Yeah, he's staying," Noctis said.

Alright then. Prompto knew that tone. It was the princely tone of I decided, and you can't do anything to change my mind.

"Very well. I would not usually ask so close to dinner time, but would either of you be interested in a snack?"

Both Prompto and Noctis perked up.

Ignis smiled. "I assumed so," he said, and went to the kitchen.

Prompto relaxed back into the couch. It was nice to have people try to cheer him up when he was down.

He sniffed. Did he smell blood? Ignis must have cut himself while cooking. Strange, but even he wasn't always perfect.

But then the smell moved to that of hot chocolate, and Prompto forgot about that. It wasn't quite the right season, but Prompto wouldn't say no to some comfort food of any kind today. Ignis was a saint.

Sure enough, when he called them over there were two mugs, each of them topped with a good amount of whipped cream.

"Aren't you getting any, Iggy?" Prompto asked, as Ignis handed him one.

"I'm alright, thank you."

"Admit it," Noctis said, grabbing a chair. "You stuffed yourself with whipped cream while we weren't looking."

Ignis turned his nose up. "I did not."

Prompto snickered. He rose the mug to his face and, wow, it smelled pretty good. Different than usual hot chocolate. Had Ignis used some kind of spice in it? It made Prompto's mouth water.

He took a small sip, mindful of the temperature, and his eyes widened. It tasted like chocolate, but it also tasted like... blood?

"Did you put anything in it?" Prompto asked.

Noctis made a confused noise. "Did he?"

"Just in Prompto's," Ignis said, and now that Prompto was thinking about it, weren't there more dirty bowls than there should be?

"Is there blood in my chocolate?"

"Noctis mentioned the argument was due to your parents finding blood at home. As it is your scheduled feeding time, I thought it best to purchase some so that you wouldn't skip."

"Oh."

That was considerate. It shouldn't be a shock, Ignis was always considerate. But he must have gone out of his way to get blood from somewhere, and instead of just dropping Prompto the bag he had made him actual food with it.

"Does that like taste good?" Noctis asked, looking skeptical.

Prompto took another sip. "Yeah. It's probably just me, but yeah."

Ignis hummed. "There are in fact various traditional uses of blood in human cuisine, including in combination with chocolate."

"Really?"

"Yes. I came across a few recipes, and I have been interested in experimenting with them. But I will be sanitizing that mug thoroughly later."

Prompto nodded. Noctis had to drink from this too.

He took another sip, and his fangs decided it was a good moment to drop. Prompto almost choked, trying to cover them. "Sorry."

"No worries," Noctis said. "We don't mind."

"Indeed. It is only a natural reaction."

Prompto busied himself with drinking, not wanting to get emotional about his friends again. Which actually needed some planning. Mugs weren't made for people with a set of additional, protruding teeth. A straw would be easier.

But Noctis choking with laughter seeing Prompto's chocolate covered fangs was worth the struggle.

***

Planning for the future was a real problem. And that was leaving aside Prompto's parents too. After that explosive argument, Prompto had stayed at Noctis's place for a couple days, until his parents left again. Things had remained tense after. There hadn't been more fights and they sent the usual amount of money, but Prompto had gotten the feeling he should find a good source of income soon.

Noctis said if Prompto's parents so much as thought about kicking him out he was going to get legal custody of Prompto himself, but Prompto would rather find a better solution first.

So Prompto graduated high school, and set to finding a job. He considered university, and then decided to set it aside. Out of the options, nothing inspired him much. Except the photography degree, maybe. His plan was to earn money for a year or so, get a better idea of where he wanted to be in life, and pay his education with the savings.

Not that working retail earned him all that much, but Prompto told himself he could only improve from there. It was just a way to keep busy until he decided what to do with himself. Anything to fatten up that resume, right?

But the more he thought about it, the more an idea settled into Prompto's mind. Photography was a good option, but there was also something distinctly discouraging about how people spoke about arts of any kind. He was good with computers, but not sure whether he would want to sit in front of one for eight hours a day every day. Unless it was to play videogames, of course.

He could... try the Crownsguard.

Prompto absolutely blamed Gladio for ever making him think about it. In many ways, it was an attractive choice. Devoting his life to protecting his best friend had a cool sound to it, and Prompto cared about Noctis more than enough for it. Prompto wouldn't mind the training necessary to join. The Crownsguard was always hiring, and it also paid reasonably well.

It would be a great plan, if not for one certain obvious fact.

"I would not recommend it," Ignis said, when Prompto asked him about it.

"How- How good are the background checks?"

Ignis sighed. "For most people, rather thorough. For you, I reckon the previous checks were more than enough, and I doubt anyone could find evidence against you when I didn't. But that is not our problem. For starters, the Marshal oversees training from time to time, and if someone can spot a vampire that would be him. Perhaps your endurance could pass off as a result of your lifestyle, but-"

"But there'd be no hiding my strength," Prompto finished.

"Is joining the Crownsguard really what you want to do?"

"I don't know, Iggy. It sounds like the best possibility I have. There's nothing else that really attracts me. And I think- Being Crownsguard would be more meaningful than getting shouted at by clients for the rest of my life."

"I am sure there are many career choices that can make you move past working at a diner," Ignis said. "But..."

"But?"

"Let me think about this for a while."

And that was how, two weeks later, Prompto found himself once again in the Citadel's training grounds. This time, he was with both Ignis and Gladio. They had guaranteed him that no one would show up – Gladio said his dad was swamped with work, the King rarely came down to the training grounds, and the Marshal was apparently out of Insomnia on some important and probably top secret assignment. Everyone else, Gladio and Ignis assured, they could intimidate away.

"I think this is a bad idea," Gladio said.

"We won't know how bad until we try."

Prompto was not feeling very encouraged.

Gladio sighed. "Come at me, Blondie."

Prompto was skeptical. Both he and Gladio were wearing protections, more for Gladio's sake than Prompto's. This way, even if Prompto landed a hit on Gladio, there would be layers to make sure no one got hurt.

Prompto really couldn't believe he was the one who risked hurting the utter beefcake Gladio was.

He tried aiming a punch at Gladio's stomach. Half assed, and very awkward. Not like Prompto had done a lot of punching in his life.

Gladio slapped Prompto's arm. "The hell is that?"

"A punch?"

"Put some strength into it. Just because you're not trying to punch through me it doesn't mean you should go at a slug's pace."

Prompto tried again, a little faster this time. Gladio still parried, but this time he took firm hold of Prompto's wrist and forcefully straightened his arm.

"This is how you throw a proper punch," he said. "And your body should also move with it."

Ignis, standing off to one side, sighed. "We're not here to instruct him on martial arts. We merely need to help him control his strength."

"It's a whole lot easier to know how to control your strength if you also know what you're doing," Gladio replied.

"He's supposed to be inexperienced."

"Knowing how to throw a punch right isn't lots of experience. I'd say it's weirder for someone his age to have never punched anyone before. And we still need to see his actual strength."

"I don't want to hurt you," Prompto murmured.

Gladio looked at him with a pained expression. "Just try."

This time, Prompto tried punching Gladio for real. He didn't put all of his strength into it, but he still managed to hit Gladio square in the stomach. Even with the protections, Gladio huffed.

"Alright," Gladio said, grunting. "Speed was good. Try keeping that up, but put less strength behind it."

Easier said than done. To someone like Gladio, with a lifetime of training, changing the strength behind his blows might come naturally. Prompto had no idea how he was supposed to do that. Gladio tried to help, but it was clear that Prompto would need much more than an hour or two of practice to be able to spar with a human being.

Ignis also tried offering advice, but for once his instructions didn't help. Gladio was used to training with recruits, he knew how to help someone get in tune with their body. Ignis had his fair share of fighting knowledge, but it wasn't his job to impart it to others. Between the two of them, Prompto was getting more confused than anything.

In the end, they called it a day when Prompto hit Gladio's nose a little too hard. It wasn't broken, according to Ignis, but Gladio's eyes definitely watered.

"I'm so sorry," Prompto said, for the tenth time, taking his gloves off.

"Stop that. First thing I tell the recruits, if you're sparring and you get hit, it's your own fault for not protecting yourself."

"Besides," Ignis added, "a crooked nose would fit well with Gladio's style."

"Say what you will, Iggy, but only one of us gets girlfriends here."

Ignis rolled his eyes.

"What do we do now?" Prompto asked.

"Tell us, Prompto, how is your aim outside of your games?"

And that's how Prompto was led to a different area of the palace and found himself with a gun in his hands.

"Like this," Gladio said, adjusting Prompto's stance. "Careful about recoil, but you should be able to take it."

"Are we sure about this?"

"Worst thing you can do is shooting the wall."

Prompto looked at the target in front of him. He didn't like this. The gun scared him with the awareness of its danger. Gladio was right, Prompto couldn't hurt anyone so long as he shot in the general direction of the target. Still, all the worst possibilities ran through his head. What if he shot on accident while lowering the weapon and hit his own foot? Was that possible? What if the gun exploded, Prompto had seen it happen in movies and stuff.

Gladio stepped aside. He and Ignis both adjusted their earmuffs, looking at him. Prompto sighed. He made sure his ears were also protected, and took up the gun. Get in the right stance. Take off the safety. Aim.

Gladio and Ignis said this was their best chance. If Prompto proved to be good with firearms, they could try pushing so that Prompto could avoid close combat training. Prompto didn't like receiving special treatment, but he also recognized it would be the smartest choice.

The lights were bright. Certainly they helped most people, but they made it way harder for Prompto to figure out what he was doing. But Prompto would have to learn to cope with the light if he wanted to have a chance.

Prompto focused on the target, and shot. Astrals, this thing was loud. And there the recoil was, it wasn't all that much but he did feel it. The first bullet actually didn't do too bad, making a hole a little off to the side. Prompto readjusted his grip, knowing what to expect now, and shot again in rapid succession.

When he ran out of bullets, Prompto took a good look at the target, squinting to make out the holes. Huh. Not only had all the bullets hit the target, but most of them were pretty close to bull's eye.

Prompto lowered his earmuffs. "Is this good?"

"Well damn," Gladio commented.

Ignis stepped in the booth next to Prompto's, getting a closer look. "I cannot say I oversee many new learners, but that looks quite good to me."

Gladio slapped Prompto's back. "We may have hope for you."

They taught him how to reload, and made him shoot some more, trying to move the target too. It turned out that either Prompto had the best beginner's luck, or he was pretty talented with this thing. When they turned off the lights, he actually managed to hit the central part almost every time.

Gladio said there were still many doubts about whether or not Prompto could hope to join the Crownsguard. There were many, many other questions. Recruits also had physical examinations, and neither Ignis nor Gladio knew how to make Prompto skip that part entirely.

But maybe there was a little hope.

***

"And Argentum keeps on winning!" Prompto shouted, successfully obliterating Noctis's character again.

Noctis groaned, throwing the controller down on the coffee table. "Screw this."

"He wiped the floor with you there," Gladio commented.

"Why don't you come play in my place?"

"Nah. I like seeing you lose too much."

Noctis squealed in protest, with all the dignity befitting their future King.

Prompto took a sip of his beer. Such an amazing feeling, being a legal adult. Beer kind of sucked to be honest, but the novelty of being able to buy it still hadn't worn off. Not that Prompto had entirely followed the law back in high school, but when you were an illegal citizen some illegal drinking was a minor misbehavior.

There were a bunch of snacks Ignis had made them. Prompto kind of felt they should be called something fancy like entrees rather than snacks, because Ignis never did anything halfways. He had not accepted mere store bought chips for their little party. But he had had to cave on the take out pizza, if anything because Prompto's oven was a tiny thing that needed to be changed sooner rather than later.

They didn't usually meet up at his house. Noctis's place was more spacious. But they'd ended up at Prompto's this time, and Prompto still hadn't gotten over feeling shy of where he lived around them, but they had never made any comments about it. He figured Gladio might enjoy the rustic living. Compared to the Citadel, at least.

The doorbell rang.

"That would be the fake food," Ignis said.

"When will you stop calling it that?" Noctis asked, as Prompto got up to open the door.

"When I will be given proof their cheese is not melted plastic."

The delivery guy had to be thinking he was bringing food for a lot more than four people, given the stack of pizza boxes he had. But Noctis was a bottomless pit, and Gladio needed fuel to run his behemot body around, and Prompto figured that he could stuff himself to the brim once in a while, and so he returned to the living room carrying a small army's worth of pizza.

"Who got vegetarian?" Noctis asked in disgust, opening the first box.

Prompto placed the rest down haphazardly on the coffee table. "I did."

"Why?"

"Eating healthy is a lifestyle."

"Allegedly," Ignis commented.

"Iggy, I'm not accepting criticism from someone who wanted... how many toppings was it again?"

"Six," Gladio said. "Pepperoni, ham, olives, what were the rest?"

Ignis defensively took a slice of said pizza. "I am hoping that they will cover the low quality of the base ingredients."

If that worked for him. Prompto, for his part, liked the way his once frozen zucchini tasted on the plastic cheese.

"If you could make any topping common place," Noctis started, "aside from the ones you find everywhere, what would it be?"

"All products worth being on a pizza have already been tested," Ignis said.

"Lame. I was thinking tempura shrimp."

Prompto almost choked on his slice. "And how would you even eat that?"

"With my mouth."

"Ramuh's balls, Noct, you're a riot."

"I think working at that sushi place warped your brain," Gladio declared.

Noctis shrugged, replying while chewing. "Actually, I warp my brain all the time in training. You know, with the rest of me."

Ignis reached out, and moved the remaining beer cans away from Noctis. "How much has he had to drink?"

"Just one. Didn't think it'd be enough to make him stupid."

"Our Highness never ceases to surprise us."

Prompto flinched when he heard the front door unlock. The others also froze, looking at him with questioning eyes.

"Prompto? We're- Oh."

"Mom!" Prompto squeaked. "I didn't know you were coming back tonight."

Why were his parents here? Sure, they didn't always warn before returning, but this was just bad luck.

"We didn't think to call," she said. His dad stood by her, and both looked at the scene, as if unsure what to do. After all, it wasn't as if they had ever found Prompto having a party at home before.

They seemed torn between wanting to say something, and unsure whether they could tell the Prince of Lucis not to eat pizza on their couch.

"Hi," Noctis said, with unfiltered coldness. He had never liked Prompto's parents too much, but after Prompto had started arguing with them more often Noctis's dislike had only increased.

"Mrs Argentum, Mr Argentum. Apologies, we didn't mean to intrude," Ignis greeted, with all due politeness.

Prompto's dad cleared his throat. "We should have, ah, warned."

Yes, you should have, Prompto thought.

Their gazes fell on Gladio, as if trying to gauge him.

Gladio got up from the couch, and held his hand out. "Gladiolus Amicitia. Noctis's Shield, glad to meet you."

"My pleasure," Prompto's dad said, shaking the offered hand slowly. From his face, Gladio had squeezed a little too much. He didn't know if Gladio had done it on purpose, or if painful handshakes were just a side effect of being Gladio.

"Should we leave?" Ignis asked. He was way too diplomatic all the time.

Noctis looked at the food. "Can we finish eating first at least?"

Prompto's parents nodded awkwardly, before gesturing to Prompto to come talk with them in the other room for a moment.

"What's going on?" his mom asked, once they had put a closed door between them and the others.

Prompto crossed his arms defensively. "We were hanging out."

"At our home?" his dad asked. "While drinking?"

"We weren't going to get drunk, and I would have cleaned anyways."

As he always did, because no one else other than Prompto was around to do it.

His dad was frowning. "You could have warned us."

"You could have warned me!"

"Usually you ask before telling people to come over," his mom said.

"I- You're never around! Sometimes you don't even pick up the phone! Since when is it a problem if I have people over?"

His parents never cared if Prompto had Noctis come by every once in a while. Was it the beer? A couple cans of beers weren't enough to get anyone to the level where they thrashed the place.

"It's still our house," his mom added.

"Not like you are ever around to use it. Maybe sometimes I don't feel like being alone all day."

To their credit, his parents did look at least a little bit guilty. "And do they all... know?"

"They do, and they don't have a problem with it."

His parents looked even more uncomfortable then. Prompto didn't understand them. Shouldn't they be happy he had people who accepted him? But no, it would only count as a win if Prompto managed to rewrite his own biology.

Prompto had heard that there came a moment in people's life where you sort of accepted your parents' mistakes, or at least accepted that you would never be able to make them change. He didn't know when that point came, but for now all Prompto could feel was massive disappointment.

"I'm going back with the others."

Noctis poked Prompto in the side when he returned to the couch. "Everything alright?"

"Sure. We can keep eating," Prompto said.

The other three exchanged a glance. Then Gladio shrugged, and put half a slice in his mouth in one go.

Prompto looked at this slice. "You know, that thing we were saying, what kind of toppings we would like?"

"Yeah? Do you have suggestions?"

Talking just loud enough to be heard in the other room, Prompto said, "I want raw meat. Nice and dripping blood. Blood pizza."

Gladio choked on his food.

Noctis laid back against the couch. "I'll pass on that, but you're valid."

"If you truly crave that, I may try to make it for you," Ignis said, although he looked somewhat skeptical.

"Won't it fall apart if it gets too soaked?" Gladio asked, even if with a little more hesitance than the other two. It was rarer for Prompto to be open about his vampirism in front of him, not to mention he probably didn't know what issues Prompto and his parents had had, and he looked rather confused by the development.

"I'm not a pizza engineer. Iggy?"

"I am fairly sure that the job descriptor of pizza engineer does not exist. However, I reckon that by calculating the right amount of moisture it may work."

Prompto couldn't say he could hear his parents' scandalized gasps from the other room, but he liked to imagine them. Maybe he'd ask Noctis to bunk up at his place to avoid the incoming rant.

***

As it often happened, things went to shit when everyone least expected it.

Prompto, Noctis, Ignis and Gladio had been spending some time outside, on a nice summer evening when all of them managed to have free time. Meaning Prompto had free time and Noctis didn't have any royal function to attend. Ignis and Gladio's job was technically to be around Noctis, so it wasn't as if they ever actually had free time, but it was as free as it could be called.

They had been walking, laughing and chatting in one of the supposedly safer areas of Insomnia, when the bomb went off. Prompto slammed his hands on his ears, deafened by the boom. Something hit his head, hard enough to make him cry out. Dust filled the air, pieces of road falling down around them.

People were screaming. Dust clouded Prompto's vision and filled his nose, but still the smell of blood hit him. Someone had to be hurt. Unsurprising, because there was a hole, and what Prompto could see of the road also looked distinctly bent outwards.

He turned around, ears ringing. Gladio had pushed himself between Noctis and the dust, while Noctis tried to get past him to see what was happening. Ignis coughed, but a dagger had appeared in his hand.

"What's that?" Prompto shouted, barely hearing his own voice.

"We're getting out of here," Gladio said, or at least Prompto thought he was saying. He had Noctis's arm in a grip, and basically dragged him backwards, to the closest alley.

That they had to move away was obvious. If this had been a bomb, if this had been a terrorist attack or something, it couldn't be coincidence that it had gone off right when the Prince was walking by. But how could anyone have predicted that they would come here? Yes, sometimes they came to hang around this area, but...

Had this been planned? Where there multiple bombs scattered around the city? Or had they left it here, waiting for their chance? Was someone hiding in the crowd, having set it off at the right moment?

"What's going on?" Noctis shouted.

"Bomb," Gladio replied, as if it weren't obvious.

"It could also be a mere gas leak," Ignis said. "But its timing is suspicious."

Prompto shook his head, trying to get his ears to work properly. "Hold on, hold on, if someone is trying to- to bomb Noct, how'd they know we would be here?"

"This is a problem for a later time."

Ignis took out his phone. The Citadel would know what happened quickly, but they had to be told the Prince had been walking right next to the area of the explosion. Ignis's eyes darted this way and that, as if expecting something to show up.

Prompto couldn't blame him. His heart was also racing, expecting a new threat to show up. In the main road, people were running and screaming, coughing from the dust in the air. They had been so close. The explosion had been at barely a hundred meters from them, close enough that they had risked being crushed by debris.

He rubbed his forehead, where something had hit him. Blood. He hadn't even noticed it. It was lucky vampires were hardy. Prompto had never broken a bone in his life, not even that time as a kid when he hadn't looked before crossing the road and he'd been hit by a thankfully slow moving car. Maybe a human would have had his head cracked open by that.

"You're bleeding," Noctis said.

Prompto turned to him, about to tell him it was nothing, but Noctis was staring at Gladio instead. Blood stained his shoulder. With the dust, Prompto hadn't even realized it was Gladio who was bleeding.

Gladio pushed his tank top to the side, checking the wound. There was a large cut there, oozing blood slowly. "Nothing dangerous."

"We're lucky none of us was injured more severely," Ignis said, putting down the phone. "Gladio, Prompto, are you both feeling alright?"

"Nothing a potion can't fix," Gladio replied.

Prompto gave a thumbs up. "Takes more than a rock to take me out."

"What do we do?" Noctis asked.

"That entirely depends on-"

Someone ran into the alley. Prompto turned to look, and his eyes widened. "Gun!" he shouted, as the stranger raised the weapon.

It happened in a flash. Ignis was the closest one, and he launched himself at the man. Prompto also rushed forward with a shout. He didn't know what he would do, just that he couldn't let this guy get to Noctis.

The man aimed the gun at Ignis, but before he could shoot a dagger buried itself in his arm, forcing him to drop the weapon. Then Ignis was on him, and the blade pierced the assailant's chest next.

Prompto halted next to them, the smell of blood slamming into his nose. "Did you- Holy shit Iggy, did you just-"

Ignis straightened up. He had just killed a man. Prompto had never doubted that Ignis could do that, he was trained and all, but knowing wasn't like seeing. He had just planted a dagger in that guy. Prompto had never seen anyone die before, and now there was a dead man on the ground.

But Prompto couldn't freak out now, at least not because of that. There were- terrorists, or assassins, or something, and they were definitely out for Noctis.

Gladio swore, looking around. "We need to get away from here."

"Are we being hunted down?" Prompto asked, feeling closer and closer to panicking. "Is there some kind of plot going on?"

"We'll decide that once we get Noctis to safety," Gladio said.

"I'm here too, you know," Noctis commented.

Ignis took a potion from the Armiger, handing it to Gladio. "Drink this. I've called the Marshal, but we will have to move on our own."

Noctis nodded at Prompto. "Give him one too."

"Me? I'm doing fine," Prompto replied, sounding somewhat hysterical.

"You're bleeding."

"Yes, but how do we know the potions won't hurt me worse?"

It had never been relevant before, but Prompto had wondered about it. The Crystal was meant to be holy, and vampires were most decidedly not, so for all Prompto knew a healing substance made from the Crystal's power might make him burst into flames.

He wasn't feeling too lucid. There was a dead man right there, and he had a head wound, and there was so much blood in the air Prompto's fangs were aching, and Prompto felt a little dizzy. But he couldn't allow himself that now. Keep his cool now and panic later, that was what a Crownsguard would do, right?

"It's a concern I must agree is valid," Ignis said. "This would not be the best moment to test it. Prompto's wound doesn't seem worse than a cut, and it will heal fast enough."

The four of them ran out of the opposite end of the alley. By going through small, side alleys, they may increase their risk of being attacked by these people spotted them, but going through a large main road was too exposing.

They ran through a route Ignis seemed to make up on the spot, and for a while it worked. People were running in the opposite way, going towards the explosion. Some spared a few glances at them, but none tried to follow. Ignis took them away from the city center, reasoning that if the attack had happened there, then any other enemies also had to be in that area.

Except whoever these people were, they were organized. They turned into an alley, and found five people waiting for them. How had they guessed where they were going? Ignis had agreed with the Marshal on a meeting point, could they have managed to listen to the call?

Ignis and Gladio had their weapons at hand. But before they could do their job, a flash of blue shot past them and towards the attackers, who already had their guns drawn.

"Noct!" Gladio shouted.

Noctis reappeared behind the attackers, and stabbed one.

Chaos ensued. Prompto didn't know what to do. He had no connection to the Armiger, nor did he own weapons, and even if he did he wouldn't normally carry them around. What was he supposed to do? He could only watch as the others fought.

They were terrifying to see. Gladio's sword cut off someone's arm, and the sight flipped Prompto's stomach. There was so much happening and all he could do was to try to stay out of the line of fire.

Up until the unmistakable smell of Lucis Caelum blood burst in the air, and Noctis fell down with a shout, clutching his shoulder.

Prompto's vision tunneled. Before he knew it, his fangs had dropped, and he rushed forward so fast he barely noticed it himself. A guttural hiss left his throat. He found himself on top of a man, not sure how he had gotten there, and the man stared up at him with the most terrified expression Prompto had ever seen.

He couldn't maul a man to death. No matter what, Prompto wasn't an animal. But the situation had made him lose his right mind, and it was easy for him to grab the other's head and bash it against the ground.

Then pain exploded in his side, and Prompto rolled off with a shout. He clutched his side, finding that it was quickly getting drenched in blood. Fuck, had he been shot? Why was vampire skin not bulletproof?

"Prompto!"

Tears of pain clouded Prompto's vision, but he could recognize Ignis above him.

Things were quieter now. Had they killed all the attackers? Prompto couldn't tell, too busy trying to ignore the burning pain. Shit, it was bad, getting shot in the side was worse than in the leg, what if they'd hit something important?

"Prom!" Noctis also entered Prompto's field of view. "Prompto, you with us?"

Prompto took in a shaky breath. "You good, buddy?"

"Me? You've got a hole in your side and you ask about me?"

Yes, because Noctis was important, and Prompto was just Prompto. Noctis took the priority here.

Although it was getting a little hard to worry too much about Noctis. The pain was worse than anything else Prompto had ever felt.

He wasn't going to die, right? It couldn't be that bad. But Noctis and Ignis were looking at him as if it were just that bad.

Distantly, Prompto heard Gladio bark something that sounded like a stay back. They'd been in the middle of the city. People must have heard the gunshots.

And Prompto was lying there, fangs still outstretched, and he could only hope his friends were covering his face from anyone's view. He had gotten shot, and dying wasn't even his first concern. His life was pretty fucked up, wasn't it?

He whimpered when something pressed on the wound.

"We have to keep you from bleeding too much," Ignis said.

Right. Bloodloss. Despite the pain, Prompto started giggling. At least, a vampire dying of bloodloss was pretty funny. If Prompto kicked the bucket here, Noctis should totally meme his death to honor Prompto's memory.

"Is he going hysterical?" Noctis asked.

"I hope not."

"Iggy, how bad is it?"

Prompto wasn't sure if he wanted to hear that.

"I don't know. Bad, but we have his healing to consider."

Prompto had forgotten about that. But, to be fair, he was in atrocious pain and possibly losing his mind a little.

Then a new voice came, shouting at someone to move away. A familiar voice. Prompto couldn't recognize it at first, but then a lifetime of worrying about his nature broke through the haze.

"No no no," he whimpered. "Not the Marshal, no."

Noctis's eyes were also wide, and he shot to his feet. Prompto's breaths were short, panicked. He couldn't retract his fangs, he tried but they were out of control, stubbornly refusing to bend to Prompto's will.

Then the Marshal came into view, and Prompto thought he might have a heart attack just there and then. His face was unreadable. The Glaive standing behind him, on the other hand, was staring at Prompto with open shock. This was bad, bad, bad, maybe it would be more merciful to just let him die where he was-

"Carry him in the car," the Marshal said.

"Cor-"

"Do as I say, Your Highness."

Someone was lifting Prompto. Gladio, he realized. He was pressing some kind of bundled up fabric to the side of his face, probably hiding his fangs.

Prompto kept whimpering. He was too terrified to even care about the pain now, trying to push out of Gladio grip and- He couldn't run like this, but he also couldn't be taken to the Citadel.

"Stop wriggling," Gladio said.

Prompto didn't listen, but there wasn't much to do about it in his state. He got loaded into the car, made to sit up with Gladio still pressing against the wound. A second later, Noctis scrambled up on the other side of Prompto. He was still bleeding. Prompto took notice of the wound of Noctis's shoulder, but then returned to his previous panic when the Marshal got in the car.

"We're going to the Citadel," he declared.

Ignis was in the passenger's seat, and started speaking. "Sir, Prompto-"

"Clearly needs some help if you don't want him to bleed out right there."

Please let him. Or maybe kill him faster, so that he wouldn't be in pain anymore. But don't bring him back to the Citadel, he would be deported, he would-

"Should we try with the potion?" Noctis asked.

"It's not gonna work on him," the Marshal said. "They don't do anything to vampires."

Prompto didn't know whether he should be relieved. He didn't want to die, but the alternative might be even worse.

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"You're already bleeding. Give him some."

Silence fell upon the car. Prompto had to delirious, because there was no way the Marshal had just told the Prince of Lucis to feed Prompto his blood. That wasn't real. He was getting hallucinations already.

But then fingers that smelled delicious were waved right under Prompto's nose. "Don't make it weird buddy, but I need you to lick me, alright?"

"I can't," Prompto whispered. He couldn't drink Noctis's blood. Not even like this. He couldn't drink human blood in general, but not Noctis's so deliciously smelling one in particular. What if it was addictive? What if Prompto couldn't go back to the blood he used to drink, if he became a monster proper?

The fingers pressed against his lips. "Come on."

And Prompto's self control was already frayed as it was. His mind screamed at him not to do it, but his pain clouded his mind too much, and his body knew what it needed to make the agony stop. Without his permission, his tongue darted out and licked Noctis's blood off his fingers.

Astrals, it was good.

Prompto wasn't able to stop himself, quickly lapping all of it off Noctis. It was the best thing he had ever tasted, better than Ignis's cooking, better than any other blood. Like every flavor in the world, wrapped together perfectly. So good it made Prompto forget about the pain and the fear.

He opened his mouth wide, and the fingers suddenly drew back.

"Woah, buddy, I said lick, not eat."

But then Noctis rearranged himself. There was a tearing sound of fabric being ripped, and Noctis's injured shoulder was right in front of Prompto's face, half straddling him.

"Are you sure he can control himself?" Gladio asked.

"Can't," Prompto whispered. There was so much blood there. He should be worried sick about Noctis, but instead he was beginning to salivate so much he would soon start looking like a rabid coeurl.

"Yes, you can," Noctis said. "You'd never hurt me."

"Noct..."

"I trust you, Prom."

Noctis angled himself so that Prompto only needed to lean forward a little. How was Prompto supposed to control himself? He lapped right across the wound, catching all he could, not even caring about Noctis's pained hiss.

It would be so easy to bury his fangs in Noctis's pale, soft skin. Prompto could drink him dry. He was sure he would never feel full, not with whatever magic in Noctis's blood made it so incredibly good. Every instinct Prompto had worked to ignore in his life now screamed at him. Bite.

But Noctis trusted him. He was Prompto's best friend, the first who had accepted Prompto's nature. Prompto may be too out of it to stop himself from drinking, but despite it his brain was still able to slam the breaks on the part of him that told him to maul Noctis. Just licking. Cleaning off everything he could, like Noctis's shoulder was a dish and Prompto was lapping the remaining whipped cream of his cake in that way that disgusted Ignis so much.

At last, Noctis drew away. Prompto fell back against the seat, swallowing. He tried to savor the taste for however long it remained on his tongue. It was fucked up, but Prompto loved it. Everything else had faded, including the-

"Holy shit. It did work."

His shirt was being pushed away. Fingers prodded at his side, and Prompto winced. However, it wasn't as horrible as before.

"That's... wow," Noctis said. "Prom, you're healing."

"What?"

Gladio whistled. "It's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen, but this hole is closing up pretty fast."

Prompto tried to look. He bent forward a little, staring at his side. There was a lot of his own blood there. And there was definitely something that looked like a hole too. The skin around it seemed to wobble, trembling as if ants were running underneath it.

He looked back up at the roof of the car. "I'm gonna throw up."

"I let you eat me, and that's your reaction? I'm hurt."

Prompto turned to Noctis. "How's the shoulder?"

"Honestly, I think you did something. It's hurting less now."

"Vampire saliva has painkilling properties, as well as a mild healing effect. You should know that."

The three of them flinched, remembering the Marshal was still in the car.

"Now drink a potion. The injury doesn't look too dangerous, but I'm not taking back to your father with that hole in you."

Noctis complied. Prompto glanced at Gladio, who for his part was staring at the back of the Marshal's head. The Marshal, for his part, had his eyes fixed on the road.

Prompto's fear returned tenfold. He was screwed. They were going to toss him back to Niflheim, and then Niflheim would put him to death for having been friends with Noctis. There was no getting out of this one. How messed up, for the Marshal to tell Prompto how to heal just so he could be punished.

"I swear I wasn't-"

"Prompto's never hurt anyone-"

"I take responsibility for-"

Prompto, Noctis, and Gladio all shut their mouths after having spoken over each other.

The Marshal sighed. "Yes, Ignis has told me all of that already."

Had he? Prompto had been so taken by what was happening that he hadn't heard Ignis's voice.

He hissed in pain, tensing as his wound tugged in a painful way. Whatever was going on down there, Prompto didn't want to know the details.

"It's heart warming how loyal the four of you are to each other," the Marshal said, in the least warmed voice Prompto had ever heard. "But we just had a terrorist attempt on Noctis's life, and that is a little more important than what Prompto would or wouldn't do."

Well. Prompto couldn't quite argue with that. Still, wasn't the Marshal freaking out at least a little? Was he going to just throw Prompto in the dungeons and wait a few days to deal with him? Please, no. Prompto wouldn't be able to handle that.

"With all due respect, you are taking the news of Prompto's nature rather... flippantly," Ignis said.

"Would you rather I drag him out of the car by his hair and stab him?"

No, but at least it would be over soon.

Noctis leaned forward. "Cor, please. Don't tell my dad about this. Prompto's my best friend, he's not a spy."

"Noctis. Can we discuss it later?"

"No. Look, alright, someone tried to kill me, big deal, we're in war. It's gotta be like the sixth assassination attempt of my life."

"Seventh," Gladio murmured.

"Whatever, you start losing track of them after a while."

Prompto was pretty sure Noctis was the only person in this car who had lost track of the attempts to his life.

"But I've only got one Prompto, alright? I can't let you take him away. Cor, he's my friend, he's not a monster or whatever. Don't tell me you made me save him just so you can put him on trial."

The Marshal let out a long sigh. The sound weighed down on Prompto's shoulders.

"Ignis. Did you do the backgrounds checks on Prompto?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. I assure you I was very thorough, and found no signs of irregularities within his documents. After learning that his adoption must have been illegal I controlled further, and I can say that the paperwork was the best forgery I have seen in my entire life. Everything seemed in order, from the birth certificate to the adoption papers."

"And what can we deduce from fake documents that are so well done that they look like official ones?"

"That-"

Ignis paused. Prompto could hear the gears turning in his head from the backseat.

Then, Ignis began to speak slowly. "That the person who made the forged documents has to be extremely familiar with how the official ones look, and that they may even be involved in producing those documents as part of their work. However, for someone to have the means to forge so much paperwork, and make it look so perfect..."

"Are you saying whoever smuggled Prompto here is some kind of government official?" Gladio asked.

"That would have been me."

There were about three seconds of utter silence.

"What?" Prompto shouted. He leaned forward, trying to look at the Marshal's face. Except doing that pulled at his wound, and he had to lean back with a hiss.

The Marshal glanced at him from the rear view mirror. "Stay still. You aren't entirely healed yet."

"What do you mean you smuggled Prompto in?" Noctis asked.

"Went on a mission in Niflheim. Found him. Brought him back. There isn't much else to say about that," the Marshal replied.

It was Gladio's turn to lean forward. "You- You found a baby vampire, dragged him to Insomnia, forged a bunch of papers and put him up for adoption?"

"I don't find it that hard to understand."

"And what about my dad? Or the King? What did they say?"

The Marshal hummed. "They let me."

Yeah, no, Prompto must have passed out back in the alley. No way. Nope. This couldn't be real. He was dreaming it.

"Marshal, while I repeat I have the utmost trust in Prompto, giving a vampire up for adoption to an unsuspecting family does not seem like a wise decision."

"Didn't know he was a vampire back then, to be fair," the Marshal said. "I knew there was something strange with him, but it only came out after a few years."

"Were you surveilling me?" Prompto asked weakly.

"At first. I haven't for some years now."

Prompto was either going to start crying or to laugh so much he suffocated. He wasn't quite sure which one yet, but it was going to happen.

It was Noctis's turn with the disbelieving questions. "So dad has known Prompto was a vampire the whole time? And Gladio's dad too?"

"No. I didn't keep them updated."

"Why?"

"They told me to handle it. I did. It wasn't relevant for them to know."

Prompto found himself wondering whether the Marshal had realized what Prompto was and proceeded to never mention it to the King because he didn't want the King to tell him he had fucked up. But no, that sounded like what Prompto would do to avoid getting Ignis or Gladio on his case about something. The Marshal had to be way more mature than that.

And that was what had Prompto tip over and start laughing. Either this was the weirdest dream of his life, or reality made no sense anymore. It was just- just-

Ouch. Kinda hurt to jostle his wound like that.

"So what do we do now?" Gladio asked.

"Start with getting his face clean and his teeth back in his mouth."

That may be a good idea. They were going to the Citadel after all, and most people wouldn't react well to the sight Prompto made. Presumably. Who knew, maybe he'd get there and find out he had fallen in a parallel universe where everyone loved vampires! Anything was possible today!

"What about the Glaive that was with you?" Ignis asked.

"Ulric will deal with the bodies. And he knows when he should keep his mouth shut. Now tell me what the hell happened."

Ignis launched himself in a thorough report of what had happened before the Marshal had found them.

Figuring his input wasn't needed, Prompto turned to look at Noctis. His shirt was hanging off his shoulder. The potion had fixed his injury, but there was still plenty of smudged redness where it had once been.

Holy shit, Prompto had drank Noctis's blood. That was fucked up. Worry came chewing at the back of Prompto's mind, wondering what would happen now. Was he officially a monster? But Noctis had offered, it wasn't as if Prompto had jumped him and bit chunks out of him. That counted for something, right?

Noctis followed Prompto's line of sight, then grinned. "Hey bro, do I taste good?"

"I'd take you over a pig any day," Prompto said, and that was a little too true.

"Nice," Noctis said. "But no offense, your tongue inside of my wounds was kind of pretty gross."

Prompto laughed, still feeling a little out of his mind. "Aww, didn't you like being so intimate with your me?"

Gladio gave Prompto a half hearted slap on his thigh.

When they got to the Citadel, Prompto had managed to put his fangs back in their place, and sort of rubbed off the blood from his face with a rag Noctis found somewhere into the Armiger. He still winced when he had to get out of the car. Despite Noctis's kingly blood having kicked Prompto's system into overdrive, his side still ached. He'd need some days of rest, for sure.

He still had to make quite the horrid picture, because the Crownsguard who came to greet them looked at Prompto as if he were a ghost.

"Gladio, Ignis, go report to Clarus at once," the Marshal ordered. "Noctis, you go to the infirmary and then to your room."

"But-"

"No buts. I want to know where you are. Guards will be stationed with you at all times until we solve the problem."

Noctis pouted, but didn't argue too much. He marched off to the infirmary, two Crownsguard trailing him.

"Uh, sir, what do I do?" Prompto asked. He was left alone there, and didn't know where he should go.

The Marshal turned to him. "I'm taking you to my office."

"Sir, isn't the boy injured?" a Crownsguard said.

"He's fine. Come, Argentum."

Prompto trotted behind the Marshal, who thankfully didn't walk too fast.

"How is the wound?" the Marshal asked, once inside the closest elevator.

"Stings a bit, but fine. I think."

"Good. Tell me if it gets worse. I'd rather avoid doctors seeing you if possible."

Prompto nodded. It was sensible.

He remained silent for the rest of the way. There were a lot of questions running through Prompto's mind now that he was getting moderately sure he wasn't imagining all of this, but he didn't know where to start. Nor did he know where he stood with the Marshal now. Also, standing up was making him dizzy.

It was a relief when they reached the Marshal's office, and Prompto was allowed to sit down on an armchair.

"Do you have a phone?" the Marshal asked.

"Uh. Yeah, of course."

Kind of a dumb question, really.

"Alright. Save my number."

Prompto almost dropped the phone taking it out of his pocket. "What?"

The Marshal raised an eyebrow.

"Uh. What, sir?"

"Save my number," the Marshal repeated. "I have to go speak with the King now. I want you to text me if you feel sick. Immediately. There's little I can do for you except for giving you more blood to speed up your healing."

"That's alright. Sir. Thanks. I mean, you didn't have to offer, it's all very kind and- And you probably know that already, sir."

The Marshal mercifully didn't comment. "I'll see you later, Argentum."

"Sir?" Prompto blurted, as the Marshal was at the door.

"What?"

"Thanks. For smuggling me."

The Marshal gave him the smallest hint of a smile. "You're welcome."

He left, and Prompto allowed himself to slump down into the armchair. Better not to nap now, but he wanted to. With the adrenaline leaving him and the effort his body had made to heal, Prompto was ready to crash.

But more than the adrenaline from the fight, it felt like that of an entire lifetime. Prompto hadn't been brought here by some shady child dealer, but by the Marshal of Lucis. Illegally, but... Did that mean Prompto's status was officially protected? Did that mean no matter what, Prompto was a Lucian citizen?

Prompto smiled widely. Maybe he could apply for the Crownsguard after all.