Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Noctis is nine when he finds out Cor has a son.

It’s strange; He thinks he would have remembered something about it, the way his dad and uncle Clarus gossip all the time. They’d talk about Cor frequently, like how the ‘Immortal’ nearly tripped and died over his own coffee table, or how he’d almost stabbed Clarus after a game of uno, or how he ‘secretly’ recorded early morning soap operas on his office TV. Cor called them lots of words Noctis wasn’t allowed to use when he’d found out they knew, but mostly referred to them as gossipy old ladies when he was sure they were within earshot.

But they never mentioned anything about him having a son. Noctis feels like he would have met him already if he did have one, like he’d met Ignis, Gladio, and Iris. Clarus constantly gushed about his kids, much to Iris’ delight and Gladio’s immense embarrassment. There was hardly a family dinner when Clarus didn’t pull out his wallet to show off the baby pictures they’d all seen a million times. Even Ignis’ uncle, who Noctis only really saw rarely, spoke about how proud he was of Ignis, and what a fine gentleman he was growing into.

Yet Cor never spoke about his son. Noctis wouldn’t have ever known he even had one… if not for one fateful night.

It’s been nearly a year since Tenebrae, and the events before that which are still… murky, to Noctis. The doctors keep telling him it’s normal to forget things after such a scary event, but Noctis still worries. What he does remember are horrible flashes of metal in the dark, and screams, and red… Why could he remember those parts, but not the faces of the people that day, or how they used to laugh and smile? What if he is forgetting other things, too? He doesn’t think he is… but how can he be sure?

His visit to Tenebrae had been nice… for a while. Queen Sylva had healed him and he got to meet Luna. She told him a great many things about the gods, and had two really cute and excitable messenger puppies to keep them company. Her guardian, Gentiana, kept looking at him strangely, somehow seeing him with her eyes closed, but besides that his time in Tenebrae had been a great reprieve. He still couldn’t walk well, but from how his dad and the doctors worried, he thinks maybe it could have been much worse… Noctis tries not to think about it.

And then Tenebrae fell, and he never saw Luna in person again.

He doesn’t remember that night very clearly, either.

When they finally get back to Insomnia, everything is strange and different. His dad and uncle Clarus don’t gossip anymore, everyone is on edge, and there’s whispers of war and politics Noctis can’t or doesn’t want to understand.

And after it all, Noctis is still stuck in the hospital. He doesn’t get to see Ignis, Gladio, or Iris as often as he used to. When they do get to visit, Ignis is always a pile of refined stress, trying too hard to keep Noctis’ spirits up, and Gladio always looked ready to cut someone in half… At least Iris kept her cheer, blissfully unaware and too young to understand.

His dad comes by often, always sure to carve out a good chunk of the day to be at his bedside. If it isn’t him, it's either Clarus or Cor. Clarus treats him like Gladio in a way, telling him how strong and proud he is of him, and to keep his chin up. Cor was quiet and stoic at first, like he didn’t really know how to entertain a kid, but eventually cracked. He started talking to him, asking him his likes and dislikes, even brought in a retro gaming system for them to play together.

But for the rest of the time, Noctis sits in his hospital suite, mostly alone. He can walk, but only barely, leaving him in a wheelchair any time he isn’t in bed or doing physical therapy. He hated therapy, with all the annoying doctors and nurses that smiled at him too sweetly, but even he had to admit it was helping.

What it didn’t help were his nightmares. Dark dreams of blades and scales and fire that would dance behind his eyelids at night. Carbuncle showed up often, brushing the bad dreams away with a squeak and a swish of his fluffy tail. Noctis would still wake in a cold sweat sometimes, but found his nightmares to be distant and foggy, likely thanks to Carbuncle.

Which brings him to tonight. Noctis had woken from one such nightmare, long past his usual bedtime. It's dark out; the moon hanging low and stars glittering outside his hospital window, and he can tell by the clouds that it might rain tomorrow. Far above the city glimmers the Wall, protecting them all with layers and layers of magic. Inside the hospital is quiet, all the lights dimmed except for the nurse's station down the hall. His door is cracked open a little, letting indistinct voices filter in. One of them he thinks he recognizes.

Noctis shuffles to the edge of his bed, leaning over to peer curiously out the crack in the door. He sees Cor, speaking with one of the nurses. Why is he here this late? Is he checking on Noctis or something?

Cor steps away and strides down the hall, and Noctis ducks back in bed, expecting him to check in and scold him for being up so late. Instead, much to his confusion, the man walks right past and continues further into the hospital. He’s carrying a bundle of bright yellow flowers. Which is… weird. His dad had told him only royalty and those close to the Crown are treated here in the Citadel since it is safer than a normal public hospital. Is there someone else hurt here, too? Somebody Cor knows? Does Noctis know them too, if they are close to the Crown?

Burning with questions and too wired from his last nightmare to go back to sleep, Noctis shuffles off the bed and transfers over into his wheelchair. He’s still not very good at the move, but manages with only a small twinge of pain in his back. He unlocks the wheels and rolls himself to the door.

Peeking out, he can just barely see Cor as he ducks in the very last room at the end of the hallway. Now determined to find out what the man is doing, Noctis quietly opens the doors and follows him. The wheels of his chair barely make any sound, only squeaking lightly if he turns too quickly. The nurses are still talking down at the nurse’s station, their voices somber.

“Poor boy…”

“Do you think he’ll wake?”

“Only time will tell…”

Noctis pauses, confused. They didn’t mean him, did they? Noctis had apparently been asleep for a long time when he was first injured. He doesn’t remember most of it, but it had worried a lot of people. Still, with Carbuncle’s help he’d woken up just fine. Injured, but fine.

He rolls up to the door, finding that Cor had left it slightly ajar. Noctis peeks inside, belatedly wondering if he is being too nosey, but too curious to care.

Cor is there, quietly replacing wilted flowers in a vase on the bedside table with the fresh bundle Noctis had seen earlier. Cor tosses the old ones in the bin before taking a seat in the chair nearest the bed. Noctis can’t see the figure on the bed from where he is, but it's late at night and they don’t say anything, so he assumes they must be asleep. Cor’s voice is soft, but Noctis still startles when he starts to speak.

“Hey, kiddo. Have a good day?”

The steady hum of a breathing machine and the beep of a heart rate monitor are the only things to answer him. Cor continues anyway.

“Had an assignment today near that park you like, the one past your school? Some lady’s dog came up to me, and I knew you’d want a picture, so I took one.” Cor leans forward, the screen of his phone lighting the dim room. He tilts the picture so whoever is in the bed can see. There’s no movement from the bed, or any sort of reply. “It’s blurry, I know... We can’t all be aspiring photographers.”

Noctis leans in, interested. He’s never heard Cor speak like this, all soft and gentle. Noctis has seen glimpses of it, maybe, when Cor would watch videos with him or played videogames on the old retro console. Usually Cor is just so serious all the time.

His voice goes softer, and Noctis scoots up a little closer to try to hear, only to accidentally bump the door with a wheel.

Cor’s voice stops.

Uh oh. Noctis scrambles to back up, only to have the door swing open a second later. Cor blinks down at him, looking somehow unsurprised.

“…Your Highness,” he greets flatly.

“Hey Cor,” Noct replies sheepishly, giving a little wave.

Cor sighs, moving to usher him back. “Come on, back to bed. You shouldn’t be awake at this hour.”

But Noctis just peers past him, too curious to mind the reprimand. He finally gets a clear view of the figure on the bed, only to be completely surprised to see… a kid. A young boy, just like him.

“Who is he?” Noctis asks, rolling past Cor and into the room. Cor hesitates, but lets it happen, hovering just a step behind. Noctis looks back to Cor when he doesn’t get an answer. The man seems uncertain, and sad… It’s strange to see such an expression on what Noctis knows to be one of the strongest and bravest men in Lucis.

Finally, soft and quiet, Cor answers. “His name is Prompto.”

Noctis rolls to a stop at the bedside, right next to the sleeping boy. Only… he’s not sleeping at all, Noctis realizes. At least, not in the traditional sense.

The boy, Prompto, in lain gently atop the hospital bed, bundled away under thick blankets. Beneath them Noctis can see the shape of many tubes and wires as they spill out from all sides. Strapped to his face is a mask, with another tube going down his throat. Machines beep and hum all around him, but despite the noise the boy’s eyes stay firmly closed.

“Prompto…” Noctis repeats, trying the name on his tongue, finding that he likes the sound of it. “What happened to him?”

He thinks maybe he shouldn’t have asked… It must’ve been bad, for Prompto to end up like this. He’s so very pale, and thin; the boney fingers of his hands rest featherlight atop the mattress, the color of them nearly matching the white sheets. He’s blond, a rare sight in Insomnia, and his hair is long and brittle looking. He looks like he’s been here a while, maybe even longer than Noctis.

Cor is quiet for a long time. Then, “He was hurt, like you,” he hesitates. “…but in his case… nobody came for him until it was too late.”

Hurt, like him…? Noctis stares at the blonde, lost in thought. The spin of a blade, shining scales, fangs-

“A daemon…?” he hears himself ask.

Cor’s face goes shuttered and blank, his lips pressing into a thin line. He shakes his head and looks away, muttering darkly, “…they may as well have been.”

“…W-who?”

Cor just sighs, clenching his eyes shut and rubbing a hand down his face. He looks suddenly exhausted, and Noctis doesn’t think it has anything to do with the late hour.

“Don’t worry about it, Highness. There’s nothing for it,” he says, and reaches for the nurse’s buzzer. 

Then he stands and takes Noct’s wheelchair by the handles, steering him around to the exit. “Wh—hey!” Noctis protests, but Cor just keeps pushing him to the door and away from Prompto. “I want to stay!”

“Perhaps another time,” Cor says, then emphasizes: “During the day.”

Okay, it is pretty late, and Noctis is starting to get tired again, but he still doesn’t want to leave. This is new and interesting, and his room is lonely and boring. He thinks… maybe Prompto must be lonely and bored, too. Cor ignores his whining until the nurse arrives to answer the buzzer.

“It seems the prince got lost,” Cor tells her. “Do you mind returning him to his room?”

“I didn’t get lost!” Noctis protests, but the nurse just smiles and starts wheeling him away.  He twists around in his chair to glare at Cor for his betrayal, but finds Cor has chosen to stay back in Prompto’s room. “Wait! I want to know more about him! Who is he?”

Sure, he knew Prompto’s name, but not who he is or why he is in the Citadel, or who he is to Cor. How had he been hurt? How long has he been sleeping? Would he ever wake up? Noctis is brimming with questions, and Cor had answered so few.

Then, so quiet that Noctis nearly misses it, Cor answers. His voice is soft, sad, broken…

“…He’s my son.”

Chapter Text

“Can I go see Prompto?”

They’re the first words out of Noctis’ mouth the next morning. He’d hardly stopped thinking about the boy since meeting him last night.

Cor, who’s just barely a step in the door, just gives a resigned sigh.

“You said I could during the day!” Noctis reminds him, indignant. “And it’s day now, so you have to!”

Cor’s eyebrow twitches up in amusement. “I suppose I did say that.”

Noctis falters a little, “So, can I…?” He really wants to go, but adults have a terrible habit of telling him to rest, your highness or don’t strain yourself, and Noctis half-expects Cor to say something similar.

But Cor simply rolls his wheelchair closer to the bed and offers him a steady hand to hold onto as he transfers over. “Let’s go say hi.”

Noctis barely refrains from vibrating out of the seat in his excitement. The nurses they pass as Cor pushes him down the hallway are giggling and hiding smiles behind their clipboards, but the prince doesn't notice.

Then, they’re at the door, Prompto’s room waiting just beyond it. Cor holds the door open and lets Noctis push himself inside.

Prompto looks much the same as last night. Still and silent, save for the respirator that breathes for him and the machines nearby that beep and blink. There are small changes: a shifted wire or tube here or there where a nurse may have moved them, or the tidy fold of the blanket of freshly-made bedding. Prompto’s long hair is brush aside slightly, as if someone had tucked it gently away.

“Hi,” Noctis greets the boy, rolling to a stop beside the bed. He’s happy to see Prompto again, but now that he’s here he’s unsure what to do. Cor settles into what must be his usual spot, the chair by the bedside. He looks tired.

“Can you tell me more about him?” Noctis asks tentatively.

Cor actually brightens a little, though his eyes never leave the sleeping boy. “He… he’s a cute kid. Bright. Kind. A bit shy. Loves chocobos, videogames, and…” here Cor pauses, reaching to the bedside table. It has a drawer in it, something Noctis hadn’t noticed before.

He pulls out a small red object, made even smaller by the man’s large, battle-worn hands. It’s a camera: well-used, but well-taken care of. The plastic casing is glossy and unscratched.

“…And he loves photography. He used to - ” Cor swallows, and corrects himself, “…He takes pictures all the time.”

He says it like Prompto not laying bedridden, like the boy is up and smiling and snapping photos of all the cheery things he sets his sights on. Noctis can almost imagine it: A smile on Prompto’s face instead of an oxygen mask, his eyes open and bright instead of closed and sunken. Noctis doesn’t know the color of his eyes, but imagines them sky-bright, like summer days; or like a sylleblossom, full of happy memories.

Noctis picks at the arm of his wheelchair, deciding he hates the words “used to.” He hates thinking in the past-tense, like nothing can ever change.  Noctis used to be able to walk. He used to not have nightmares. He used to just be a kid, unaware and uncaring of his title as prince, until the Empire… Until that murky night nearly a year ago.

Now everything is different, and used to implies nothing can be done about it. As if the consequences are set in stone, Astral-writ, and permanent.

Noctis is determined to prove them wrong.

Can he walk? Not yet.

Can he sleep peacefully? No, but he’ll get better.

Can he be a good prince? Yes. And he can be a kid, too.

So he looks to Prompto, still sleeping, and thinks: He will get better. He’ll wake up, and smile, and take a thousand photos in a day, and Noctis will be standing right there alongside him when he does.

“Hey, Prompto,” Noctis addresses the sleeping boy. “Can I see your camera?”

There’s no response, of course (yet, he reminds himself), but Noctis simply turns to Cor expectantly. Cor, who’d been staring at the little red camera with a defeated air, looks up, startled.

“Your highness…” He starts, unsure.

“Do you think he minds?” Noctis asks, carefully keeping the words in the present tense. Prompto might not be able to speak right now, but Noctis trusts Cor to vouch for him. If he thinks Prompto wouldn’t want someone using his camera, he won’t push for it.

“No, I…” Cor offers softly, looking to Prompto as if to confirm it with him, “I think he prefers it to be used.”

The man holds onto the camera a minute longer, before carefully handing it to Noctis. The prince takes it gently with a quiet awe, treating the camera with great care. It looks larger in his small hands, and Noctis can almost imagine it is Prompto holding his camera instead of himself.

That in mind, Noctis finds the small power button and presses it. The small device awakens, the screen brightening with a Loxton logo, followed by a cheery little chime. The lens spins open, the screen on the back displaying Noctis’ legs and shoes, before the prince holds the camera up in both hands and twists around.

The flash is blinding, leaving him blinking spots away, but well worth the picture taken.

“There!” Noctis says, turning the camera so Cor and Prompto could see. The screen shows Noctis with his face half off-screen, Cor looking startled in the background, and Prompto sleeping off to the side. All three of them, together.

“I’ll take a photo every day,” Noctis declares, determined. “So when Prompto wakes up he’ll have lots to look at!”

“Yeah,” Cor chokes out, voice tight. His eyes are suspiciously wet. “Yeah kid, I’m sure he’ll love ‘em.”

Noctis spends the rest of the day taking the perfect photo for Prompto, which turns into nearly a dozen or more. Some of them are blurry, or he accidentally gets his thumb in the frame, or it’s at an odd angle, but he falls asleep feeling accomplished regardless.

It’s not until he wakes up once again in the early hours of the night, tugged from the images of twisting scales and fire by Carbuncle, that he gets an idea.

Carbuncle’s figurine sits where it always does at night: next to Noctis on his pillow. Carefully Noctis picks it up, thinking.

“Carbuncle?” he whispers to it, uncertain. “Can you hear me?”

The little fox only ever appears in his dreams, so he’s not sure if the fluffy guardian could help him while awake. That, and the guardian only seemed to talk to him through phone messages. That doesn’t deter the rising hope building in the boy’s chest, nor the idea blooming in his mind. He smiles at the small statue.

“Do you think you could help a friend of mine?”

Noctis rolls his wheelchair up to Prompto’s bedside.

It had been incredibly easy to sneak out of his room again, the nurses apparently unaware of their prince’s newfound tendency to wander. It’s later than when he’d snuck out to follow Cor the night before, but just as empty. The most he heard was quiet chatter from the nurses station down the hall.

Prompto’s room is dark now, the moonlight from the window the only source. The night, and the quiet, makes Prompto appear as if he’s merely asleep and nothing more.

“Hi, Prompto,” Noctis whispers to his new friend, “I have someone I’d like you to meet!”

Carbuncle’s statue seems to glimmer in the moonlight as he gently lays it on the pillow next to Prompto’s head. “This is Carbuncle! He helped me when I was really tired, so maybe he can help you, too!”

He leans forward, mindful of the wires, and rests his head in his folded arms atop the edge of Prompto’s bed. “We had lots of adventures together. Traveled through forests, giant toy rooms, and the Citadel…” He yawns, suddenly feeling rather tired. It’s been a while since he slept a full night through. “There were monsters sometimes, but Carbuncle and I beat them with cool magic powers!”

Noctis closes his eyes with a smile, starting to drift off without meaning to. “I bet we can help you with the monsters, too…”

The first thing Noctis notices upon waking is that he’s standing upright.

His legs are under him, fully supporting his weight like they hadn’t done in almost a year. It’s so startling that Noctis promptly gasps and stumbles backward, landing on his butt in a puff of dust.

“What…?” Noctis stares at his legs, then at the unfamiliar surroundings. “Where am I?”

The answering squeak makes him jump, and he turns to find one very familiar and adorable fox.

“Carbuncle!” Noctis exclaims, throwing his arms around the fluffy companion that had appeared at his side. So this is a dream! That explains a lot, like why he can stand, as well as the unknown location.

Carbuncle squeaks again, wiggling free and nosing into Noctis’ jacket pocket. In it, Noctis finds his cell phone, Carbuncle’s usual means of communication.

“Heya, Noct! Nice to see you again!” The little fox’s messages pop up as he hops in a cheery circle around him. The little fox had saved Noctis from a nightmare just a bit ago, but such a lucid dream like this hasn’t happened since Noctis was hurt. “Ready to help your friend?”

Noctis gasps. “This is Prompto’s dream?” He looks around excitedly for his friend.

Surrounding him is an urban landscape with paved roads, crosswalks, and concrete buildings. It looks vaguely familiar, but he can’t place why until he spots one very familiar landmark in the distance. Four giant spires carve into the sky, along with a beam of light glowing from the center, making the building unmistakable:

“The Citadel… We’re in Insomnia?” Noctis asks, a little in awe. He’s never been allowed to visit most of the city outside certain secured areas. This place looks residential, the buildings only two or three floors tall instead of the large skyscrapers that fill the center of the giant city.

“Looks like it!” Carbuncle replies, “This must be Prompto’s neighborhood!”

Noctis looks around some more, hoping to spot the blond boy. Oddly, he doesn’t see anyone at all. In fact, the streets are eerily empty, nothing but a quiet breeze shifting the dirt and leaves around. Not a soul in sight.

Maybe if he walked around some, he might find him. Noctis stands, a little wobbly. Even in a dream he’s not used to standing or walking, not without pain or falling over. He shuffles forward, eyes on his feet, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. A grin spreads across his face, loving the feeling of walking on his own.

Carbuncle trots along in front of him, leading the way. He hopes the little guy knows where to go, because Noctis is definitely lost.

“Oh, a school!” Carbuncle squeaks, after walking for a while.

Noctis looks up, surprised. It’s his school. Or at least, the one he used to go to before he was hurt.

He frowns. There are those words used to again.

One day, he will go back to school. He’ll walk right through the doors, no wheelchair needed. And Prompto will be right there beside him! Determined, he starts forward.

“Do you think Prompto and I go to the same school?” Noctis wonders as he walks past the gate.

The front yard is almost exactly as he remembers it: one large sidewalk leading to the front doors, with branching paths to each side carved out of the green lawn. Trees and other greenery dot the paths and corners of the building, which is three stories tall and fairly modern, at least by Noctis’ standards. It has the same polished concrete and glass windows that he’s used to seeing closer to the center of the city.

“Maybe! Let’s check it out!” Carbuncle replies, prancing ahead.

“Hey, wait!” Noctis jogs after him, stumbling a little.

Carbuncle disappears around the corner of the school, back where Noctis knows there to be a shed for the gardener’s supplies. It was one of his favorite hideaways whenever his classmates got too nosey about his life as a prince.

Now he would almost welcome even a single one of his nosey classmates. There’s nobody around at all, just like the streets and neighborhoods he walked through to get here. It is honestly starting to creep him out how empty this place is. Is this really Prompto’s dream? Where is he, in this lonely place?

Just as he thinks that, he sees a flash of blond.

There, sitting curled up by the shed, is a pale blond boy.

At first, Noctis thinks it might be someone else, not Prompto. This boy is heavyset compared to the terribly thin boy he’d last seen in the hospital bed. Instead of an oxygen mask and scrubs, he wears glasses and is dressed in a white and green shirt with cargo shorts. The hair color and the pale skin tone matches, although there are more freckles than he remembers.

The boy's shoulders are shaking, his face buried in his knees. Is he… crying?

Noctis walks forward, unsure if this is Prompto but unwilling to leave someone to cry alone in this empty place. Of course, he doesn’t watch where he’s going, and his already wobbly legs trip over a bar that had been left out. He tumbles forward with a yelp, landing face first in the dirt.

“Ouch…” he mumbles, propping himself up on his elbow. At least dream-falling doesn’t really hurt.

There’s a gasp and a shuffle, then a hand appears in his field of vision. From the wrist hangs a familiar red camera. “Are you okay?”

Noctis looks up. The eyes he meets are brighter than sylleblossoms, like the skies as they shimmer through the Wall on a summer day. He stares, even as he takes the boy's offered hand and lets himself be helped up.

Could this be…

“…Prompto?”

Chapter Text

The boy’s eyes go wide. “How do you know my name?”

Noctis grins, excited. “So it is you!”

“Um, y-yes,” the blond says, still confused, “I’m Prompto, but… who are you?”

Oh, right. He should probably introduce himself, even though it’s a bit strange to have to do that at all. In the waking world, it seemed everyone knew Noctis’ name. Or rather, his title as prince. That didn’t seem to be the case with Prompto.

“I’m Noctis,” he says, leaving off his title.

Prompto tilts his head in thought. “Sounds kinda familiar. Do we know each other?”

“Er… Sort of?” Noctis isn’t sure how to explain to Prompto that he met him in his hospital room, and that they are both actually asleep. Instead, he just says: “We’re friends!”

He realizes he probably should have asked Prompto if he wanted to be friends first, judging by the way the boy’s expression opens in surprise.

“But I don’t have any…” he starts, baffled, then cuts himself off. “You... want to be friends?”

“Yeah!” He’s about to say more, or maybe ask why he’s so surprised, when a small squeak comes from below them. Prompto startles, and they both look down to see the fluffy form of Carbuncle. “Hey! Where did you disappear to?” Noctis chides lightly, noting how Prompto’s eyes light up in delight.

The blond kneels down, tentatively, to see the tiny fox closer.

Noctis bends to scritch Carbuncle gently in that perfect hard to reach spot behind the gem, causing the messenger to trill happily. “This is Carbuncle, another friend of mine.”

“So cute!” Prompto says, offering a hand for the little fox to sniff.

“Yeah,” Noctis agrees, “I wish I could see Carbuncle more often, but I usually only see them when I’m having dreams.”

Nightmares, actually. But Carbuncle has the amazing habit of turning any nightmare Noctis has into a restful sleep more often than not. Of the few times he couldn’t, where Noctis found himself too deeply buried in scales and sharp teeth, Carbuncle acted as a lifeline; pulling him free and into the waking world.

“…Dreaming?”

Noctis looking up from Carbuncle to see Prompto staring at him, confused.

“Yeah,” Noctis nods. “In dreams like this one.”

Prompto’s eyes go wide, and Carbuncle squeaks. When Noctis checks the phone for messages, the text reads: “Careful, Noct!”

“We’re… dreaming? This is a dream?” Prompto whispers, looking around the area with a flicker of fear.

Around them, the air shivers. The skies, overcast with clouds, shift for the first time since Noctis had seen them, becoming turbulent to match the sudden wind whipping past them. Leaves and dirt whirl across the ground in a chaotic dance.

“Prompto?” Noctis reaches out, gently taking his pale hand, and Prompto startles.

The wind stops. The skies, spinning dizzily, cease.

Noctis pays little mind to the once again frozen world, focusing on his friend instead. “Are you okay?”

Prompto blinks, seemingly coming back to himself. “Y-yeah, I… I’m asleep?” he asks again.

“Yeah…” Noctis says, carefully. He’s not sure what caused the storm earlier, but heeds Carbuncle’s warning. “Carbuncle helped me reach you. It’s kind of their thing. Dreams, I mean,” he tries to explain. The little fox squeaks in confirmation.

“A dream…” Prompto murmurs again, looking dazed.

The skies shift once more, and Noctis watches them worriedly. Instead of darkening to another gale, however, the bleak clouds start to lighten. The smallest slivers of sunlight start to peek through, chasing shadows from the edges of the buildings.

“Sorry,” Noctis says. He hadn’t meant to upset Prompto, and in hindsight he probably should have eased into to the whole you’ve been asleep for ages part. Then again: “I thought you knew?”

Whenever Noctis was asleep, or back when he’d originally been hurt, he almost always immediately knew he was in a dream. Carbuncle, he supposes, helps with that. Having a magical fox guarding and guiding him is a dead giveaway.

Prompto, perhaps unsurprisingly, shakes his head. “No. I didn’t know… I thought,” he cuts off momentarily to stare around him with new understanding, or maybe relief. The clouds above continue to lighten. “I thought everyone left, or that I was a ghost or something.”

Noctis is appalled at either of those options. “No! No, just asleep,” he reassures quickly.

“But… how?” Prompto wonders with no small amount of trepidation. “I’ve been here for… I don’t even know how long. I should’ve woken up by now… right?”

Time in dreams is strange, Noctis knows. Sometimes what feels like days can be a mere hour in the waking world. He isn’t sure how long Prompto has been in the hospital, either. Long enough for Cor and the nurses to hold doubts of him ever waking.

But he can’t tell Prompto that. Not with him looking at him so hopefully.

Carbuncle squeaks, startling them both. Noctis checks the message, and upon seeing what it says, shows it to Prompto. “Don’t worry, Prompto! We’re here to help you wake up!”

The blond boy looks confusedly between the phone and the fox. “You speak through text messages?”

“Yep!” is the reply, followed by a bunch of sparkle emojis.

Noctis grins and explains. “It’s magic, just go with it.”

“R-right,” Prompto says. He’s smiling, despite his bewilderment. Noctis thinks it’s simply because Carbuncle is too cute to frown at. “Dreams and magic foxes. That’s… pretty cool, actually.”

“Thanks!” Carbuncle squeaks happily. “Now, let’s help you out of here!”

“But… how?”

Noctis hums contemplatively. “Well, if it’s anything like my dream, we just have to find your safe space. Then you’ll wake up!”

Prompto frowns. “Safe space?”

“Yeah, like a place where nothing can hurt you and where you can just be yourself.”

If anything, Prompto looks more lost than before.

“I don’t know about anything like that…” he says, uncertainly.

Carbuncle trills, concerned. A message pops up on the phone. “We’ll help you find it. Sometimes they can be really well hidden!”

“It’s true!” Noctis says, trying to reassure. “My safest place is the Regalia, my dad’s car, and we searched for what felt like forever to find it.” He honestly has no idea how long; dream-time makes very little sense. In fact, in his own dream, he’d been able to change the time of day or even the weather by simply stepping on giant buttons that were embedded in the ground.

He hasn’t seen any buttons around in Prompto’s dream, but, he notes, the sun has not changed position at all since he got here. He’d been wandering for a while with Carbuncle before he found his friend, yet the sun was completely still in the sky and almost entirely smothered by thick clouds.

“A car…? I’m not usually allowed—” Prompto cuts himself off. “I-I mean. My parents usually use the car for business trips, so I don’t use cars much.”

That doesn’t sound right. Insomnia is a huge city which is almost impossible to not use a car in some areas. But what really bothers Noctis is that Prompto said his parents were away often enough not to drive him places or help him get around such a big place.

His next thought is: Cor wouldn’t do that. Noctis know the man works long hours at the Citadel sometimes, but he doesn’t hardly ever leave the city unless it’s to escort Noct’s dad for kingly duties.

He wouldn’t leave his kid to walk home alone.

Noctis hesitates, knowing he’s clearly missing something here. “Well, your safe space could be anywhere or anything. A car was just an example.”

“Let’s look around!” Carbuncle chirrups, ever cheerful. “I’m sure we’ll find something.”

The little fox hops away with optimism, heading toward the front of the school and pausing at the corner of the building to wait for them to catch up.

“Do you have any favorite places you like to visit?” Noctis asks as they walk together away from Prompto’s hideaway by the shed.

“Oh, um. Not really?” Prompto says hesitantly, like he’s nervous about voicing his opinion. “I come here during school sometimes just to get away for a bit, you know?” From what, Noctis wants to ask. “There’s a park in my neighborhood I play in sometimes, or maybe the corner store I get suppers at? The owner doesn’t like me, but he has a really cute cat!”

Noctis notes that none of these places are his actual home.

“Okay, let’s start with those,” Noctis says, carefully holding back his questions. He looks back at the shed behind the school as they walk away, at how the shadows lick at the corners of every brick, and how the air leaks loneliness. He decides, immediately, that this isn’t any sort of safe space.

Not if he found Prompto crying there.

They visit the corner store first. It’s in the same direction Noctis had come from, but on a different street. It is also, like everything else in this strange dream, entirely devoid of people.

“Where is everyone?” Noctis wonders aloud, looking around curiously. In the waking world, he’d never visited a small grocery store like this one. The Citadel had its own food deliveries, along with a team of chefs to prepare the meals, so seeing the prepackaged convenience food lining the shelves is somewhat humbling.

Curious, Noctis reaches out to pick up a plastic wrapped sandwich. Oddly, it doesn’t have any weight to it, nor does the plastic wrapping make any sound. There is no shadow cast as he holds it in his palm.

“I’m not sure,” Prompto admits, and Noctis looks away from the sandwich to find the blond staring despondently at the cat bed tucked behind the checkout counter. It’s empty, save for a few stray tufts of orange fur. Carbuncles sniffs it pensively. “I’ve looked everywhere, but I haven’t found anyone since I woke up here.” He scrunches his nose, “Or, well, I guess since I fell asleep?”

Noctis understands how confused Prompto must feel. In his own dream there had been magical forests, giant playrooms, and the occasional Astral passing through. There’s nothing like that in Prompto’s dream... it was difficult to tell the difference between here and reality. If it weren’t for the uncanny lack of people and animals, that is.

That, and sometimes things seem a bit… off.

Noctis blinks back to his hand and startles. It’s empty; the sandwich he’d taken had returned to the shelf where he found it, as if it had never been moved in the first place.

Trapped, like a photo or memory, in time.

Like Prompto.

“What’s wrong?”

Noctis startles for a second time, looking up to find Prompto watching him worriedly.

Prompto, who does not look anything like his waking-world counterpart. Prompto, who speaks of parents, but knows nothing of safe spaces. Prompto, who thinks fondly of cats and parks, but never had a friend to show them to before meeting Noctis. Prompto, who had been crying alone in a world where the sun spins across the sky as much as the wind stirs and people roam. Which is to say, not at all.

A boy stuck in time.

“Nothing,” Noctis says, instead of voicing any of his worried thoughts. The longer he’s here, the more questions press on his tongue. But, he decides, his questions can wait until after Prompto wakes up. “Let’s check the park next.”

“Okay!”

The park, as it turns out, is on the same street Noctis had appeared in.

The play area is lush, surrounded with trees, bushes, and grass. At least, it is in the areas that aren’t so heavily trafficked. The main attractions are a set of swings, a large slide, and a wooden climbing frame. All structures look well-used, which is odd, because nobody is around to use them.

Except for Prompto, who grins and jogs happily over to the swings. Carbuncle hops after him, only to take a detour and climb to perch atop the climbing frame like the tiniest, cutest, fox-king.

“C’mon, Noct!” Prompto calls, “The swings are my favorite!”

Prompto kicks off the ground and swings high, and Noctis grins and goes to join him on the neighboring swing. Until he notices the swing’s shadow hasn’t moved. Prompto’s shadow leaps in a steady curve over the ground, but the shadow of the swing he’s sitting in remains still.

Noct sits gingerly on the second swing, shifting slightly. Sure enough, his own shadow moves, but not the swing’s.

He stops moving. Above them, the motionless sun watches like a baleful eye from behind the clouds.

“Does Cor bring you here to play?” Noctis asks, his voice coming out more uneasy than he means it to.

Prompto slows to a stop, confused.

“…Who’s Cor?”