Chapter Text
Noctis leaped over the door of the Regalia, too rushed to open it, hands flying to the wheel. Behind him, he heard Ignis burst through the same doors he ran through, screaming, roaring, the posh tones of his voice echoing through the streets as his fine shoes slapped against the parking lot. He heard Gladio join in, bellowing his full name—not just Noct, as he usually called him, but Noctis—as he came barreling behind Ignis.
Noctis’ hands shook as he drew his keys from the pocket of his suit and shoved them into the ignition. The engine flared to life, waking like a dragon under the hood. He always let Ignis drive. Why did he let Ignis drive his own car more than he did? Everything felt foreign and strange under Noct’s hands, as if he’d never driven it before at all, though maybe that had more to do with his hands themselves feeling foreign, like even they didn’t belong to him.
He looked over his shoulder, past the trunk, toward Ignis, who was closest. There was so much anger behind the glass frames of his spectacles, but that wasn’t all Noctis saw. He saw worry. Fear. Hurt. And for an instant, Noctis hesitated, guilt holding his foot above the accelerator.
But Ignis was gaining, fast. And even if the fear in his eyes held him back the same way it held Noctis, Gladio was an unstoppable force. If Noctis wanted to get away, to escape, to be free—
There was just no time.
Noctis slammed his foot down, throwing the car in reverse so hard he swore he felt the pedal crack the floor.
He twisted the wheel around, nearly hitting Ignis, forcing him to stop so short it disturbed his normally-perfect hair. Too close, without even a window between them, they exchanged heartbreaks—Noct’s filled with as much guilt as sorrow—and then…he was gone. The moment he threw his car in drive, his old life faded away in the rearview mirror over his view of the road, Gladio halting just a few steps past Ignis as he reached for his arm.
Noctis allowed himself just that moment for his gaze to linger, for the guilt to crush his heart, and then…then he had to keep his eyes on the road.
And that meant no looking back.
Noctis' hands took what felt like an eternity for his hands to stop shaking, but once they had, the reality of what he'd just done settled hard in the pit of his stomach like a lead weight. The road ahead was vast. Nothing but desert. And he was alone. More alone than he'd ever been, in spite of the constant ringing of his phone. He didn't even have a plan. He'd just...bolted.
He needed to change out of his suit. And...he needed to eat something, even if he felt like he was going to throw up. He'd only feel worse as the day went on if he didn't have something in his stomach, and he didn't want to imagine feeling worse than he already did.
A quick glance through the windshield gave Noctis something he'd lacked from the moment he'd left that morning: A heading. He followed the directions on the billboard, took the next exit, and rolled to a stop in a dusty parking lot.
Backpack slung over his shoulder, he stepped out of his car and made his way into the air-conditioned building. That was the first thing he noticed. The air conditioning. It felt crisp and surreal compared to the too-hot, grounding air of the desert outside.
The second thing Noctis noticed...was him.
He'd thought he was too far east of L.A. to bump into celebrities, certainly too far east to find them in old-fashioned diners with names like Takka’s Pit Stop, but there he was.
Prompto Argentum.
Happily taking his first bite into a steaming plate of scrambled eggs.
Huh, Noctis thought blandly before walking right past that celebrity sighting and into the bathroom at the end of the aisle so he could change.
And yeah. Yeah, he knew who Prompto Argentum was. Gladio might have accused him of living under a rock, but he’d had a childhood. Just like everyone else in his generation, he’d grown up watching cheesy Prompto Argentum family shows after school. He’d heard Argentum’s voice work in My Little Chocobo. He’d been forced to watch, with the rest of the world, as Prompto Argentum moved from being on The Daigoro Channel all the time to being on the radio all the time to occasionally starring in big comedy films playing himself. Which, in Noctis’ opinion, was how you knew someone hit it big. When they reached a point where just their presence was enough to make any situation feel bizarre enough to get a laugh, there was nowhere left to go.
And Noctis was definitely laughing. Not out loud, of course. And as he adjusted his leather jacket in the bathroom mirror, he didn’t see himself smiling, either. But somewhere, deep down, where no one could see, he did find it funny. Another layer of surreality to add to the air-conditioned liminal space of the diner.
He thought to himself that it was just bound to be part of the story, when he got through the shit he was going through and a story was all it was anymore. You know, “After narrowly escaping the worst day of my life, I walked into some diner in the middle of nowhere and saw Prompto freaking Argentum sitting at the bar in a stupid baseball cap like all he needed to cover up to hide from the paparazzi was his hair.”
Then Noctis realized he didn’t have anyone to tell stories to anymore, and it stopped being funny.
He returned to the dining area, one backpack strap hanging loose on his shoulder, and lowered himself into one of the booths. There was already a cheap, laminated menu waiting for him there.
He’d barely taken a glance at it before his phone began to ring again.
Noctis set his menu down with a growl and reached into his pocket. Sure enough, the name “Ignis Scientia” flashed up at him. “Gladiolus Amicitia” would probably follow suit in a few minutes if he didn’t pick up—which was his intention—followed most likely by a simple “Dad” after a while and, if Noctis was really unlucky, maybe even a “Lunafreya Nox Fleuret”.
He slapped his phone on the table and let it buzz away, rattling the cutlery and the napkin container.
“Hey, there! What can I get for you?”
Noctis lifted his head to find that a server of the diner had appeared at his table without his notice. The server set a glass of water down in front of Noctis and cheerfully took a pad of paper from his pocket. Cheerfully, but…nervously. Noctis eyed the badge pinned to his front.
Takka. So this was his Pit Stop. Huh.
Takka shifted his weight from one foot to the other, like he could bolt at any minute. His eyes darted to Noctis’ phone, still buzzing away on the tabletop. “…Aren’t you gonna get that?”
“Uh, no,” said Noctis. “But I’d like to get, uhhh…” He lifted up the menu he’d barely looked at before his phone started ringing, debating for less than a second over whether to get one last healthy meal in honor of completely destroying his oldest friendship with someone who cared about that kind of thing.
Instead, Noctis went in the opposite direction.
“The Breakfast Bash,” said Noctis. “With an extra side of hashbrowns. And no spinach in the omelet. …Please.”
Takka took one more hasty look at Noctis’ wildly buzzing phone before scribbling his order down. “You want coffee with that?”
“I’d…rather have tea, if you’ve got it.”
“Milk?”
“Please. In the tea, and a glass of it.”
Noctis’ phone gave one last neglected buzz before going silent.
“I’ll get that right out to you.” Takka looked one more time at Noctis’ phone, then turned away and disappeared in the direction of the kitchen.
He’d barely walked out of sight when Noctis’ phone started to ring again.
“Ugh…”
“Hah!”
Noctis blinked. That buoyant chuckle came from the bar. Surprised, he sent a glance toward Prompto Argentum.
As he thought, Argentum was watching him, eyes twinkling with amusement, fork trapped in a grin between his upper teeth and his bottom lip.
As Noctis’ eyes met his, his grin widened, but he said nothing, instead turning his attention back to his eggs.
All right. That definitely added to the surreality of being in the same diner as a celebrity. Having them judge you for not picking up your phone.
But whatever. If Prompto Argentum wound up being the one with the story at the end of the day, about the weird guy in the booth behind his chair who wouldn’t pick up his phone, it was no skin off Noct’s nose.
He leaned his chin into his hand, scanning the walls of the diner, eyes landing on every little detail they could in a desperate search for entertainment, lacking their usual distraction of King’s Knight. At least, until the phone—blessedly, as Ignis would have said—stopped ringing. For about five seconds before the man himself called again.
Prompto Argentum twisted around in his seat, still grinning. “You know, you could just turn it off. Or dismiss the call?”
Noctis smirked back, because the day was surreal enough already that he might as well. “What, and give them the satisfaction?” Which was as good of an excuse as anything else when the real reason was harder to articulate. The truth was more that Noctis…didn’t want to give Ignis confirmation that there was anyone on the other side. As weird as that felt to admit. Something like that.
Argentum seemed to take his half-truth happily enough, though. He just smiled that edgeless sitcom smile, a bright splash of morning sunshine in an old roadside diner. Noctis assumed that was a good thing. He also assumed that that would be that, that Prompto Argentum would smile at his snark and that would be the end of it.
Instead, Argentum patted the barstool beside his own. “Why don’t you join me up here?”
Noctis cocked an eyebrow. All right, another thing to add to his story for his hypothetical future audience. “Love to, but I think the guy who took my order would have a panic attack if he came back with my food and didn’t find me where he left me.”
Without warning, without asking whether it was okay, without even wondering, it seemed, whether Noctis was trying to let him down gently, Prompto Argentum took his plate off the bar, stepped down from his barstool, and cheerfully carried himself, plate and all, to Noctis’ booth, inviting himself into the seat across the table and making himself comfortable.
Okay, thought Noctis. Pretty bold. But he somehow doubted Prompto Argentum was used to people telling him no.
Why he’d willingly submit himself to the constant ringing of Noctis’ phone, however, was beyond him.
“So!” Argentum, who was sitting across from Noctis at his table in a diner as if they’d been friends their whole lives and there was nothing weird about what was happening at all, speared a chunk of egg off his plate and popped it into his mouth, like he’d made his mind up in advance to talk with his mouth full. “What are you running from?”
Noctis leaned against the back of his seat. “Who said I was running from anything?”
Argentum stopped chewing, eyes darting to Noctis’ phone as it silenced itself, the screen going black for only a moment before illuminating the caller ID once more. God, give it a rest, Ignis.
Argentum snorted.
Noctis sighed. “All right. You got me.”
“So what is it?” asked Argentum. “Crazy ex-girlfriend?”
“Not…” Noctis shifted, uncomfortable. His seat felt too hot all of a sudden. “…exactly.”
“But close enough.” Argentum’s eyes twinkled brightly. “Right?”
Noctis sighed by way of answer.
Argentum leaned back, bouncing cheerfully in his seat. “All right! Got it in one!”
“Why do you want to know?” asked Noctis.
“Me?” Argentum leaned forward, perching his elbows on the table. “Ah, you know. Just curious. Little bored, little lonely. Making conversation.”
Noctis’ phone stopped buzzing.
He looked at it.
So did Prompto Argentum.
3, 2, 1…
BZZT
Aaaand there’s Gladio.
Argentum laughed, bouncing in his seat. “Man, she is really persistent.”
“Actually, those are my friends,” said Noctis. “Yelling at me for bailing. Or trying to, I guess.”
“Yeah?” Argentum’s smile shrank, but not like he was disappointed, and not like he was sad. More like he was curious. He leaned forward further, one hand flat on the surface of the table. “So how far are you willing to ditch?”
“Like…” Noctis rested his chin on his fist. “You mean how many miles am I willing to put between me and them to make sure they’re off my tail?”
“Yeah.”
Noctis shrugged. “Not sure. Guess we’ll find out when I get there.”
Bizarrely—as if the whole scenario weren’t bizarre enough already—Argentum seemed excited by the prospect. His eyes widened, the glimmer in them all the more vibrant. “Do you need a—? Oh, shit.”
Just as quickly as Argentum had begun to shine with all the brightness of the sun, he darkened, eyes flicking over Noctis’ shoulder.
Noctis twisted around, following Argentum’s line of sight to a man standing in the doorway of Takka’s Pit Stop.
He stood tall, with thick, heavy clothes that looked much too warm for the arid Nevada weather. Beneath the brim of his black hat, he wore an easygoing smile, though there was something about it Noctis didn’t like. It was the same sort of feeling he got when someone locked eyes with someone on the street and immediately knew he was about to be on the business end of a scam by the way they lit up.
“You know him?” asked Noctis, but when he turned around, Argentum was gone, the only trace of him being a half-eaten plate of eggs and 2000 gil in coins. Presumably for the eggs.
So…Argentum definitely knew that guy. And was stealthy as hell to disappear without a trace while Noctis had has back turned. Why he was so urgent to get away remained a mystery.
But it was none of Noct’s business, so he went right back to ignoring his phone with a drink of his ice water, using it to wash down the disappointment.
The next time Noctis saw Prompto Argentum was at a gas station.
He wasn’t that low on gas, not yet, but he wanted to make sure he wouldn’t run out in the middle of the desert, so he’d climbed into his car, pulled it into the gas station right next to Takka’s, and lo and behold, there was Argentum, chatting up the pretty young thing with the Searchlight Service Station logo on her back. Apparently, when he made a break for it, leaving Noctis to explain the situation to an anxious Takka himself, he hadn’t gone too far.
Prompto Argentum swayed his weight from foot to foot as he talked to the service station employee, expression flashing back and forth between bright and bouncy to somber faster than Noctis could follow.
Noctis would have liked to say that he marched up to Argentum, celebrity status or no, and called him out for just ditching him like that, leaving him to deal with Takka while he grumbled nervously about whether the change was a tip or whether that would be stealing, but…no. Noct finished filling up his tank, set the nozzle back in place, and climbed into the driver’s seat.
What was worse, when the woman he was talking to grabbed the back of her hat and pointed in Noctis’ direction, calling Argentum’s attention to him, Noctis waved at him. Nice and casual, like everything Argentum did was fine.
In his defense, though, when he saw Argentum start toward him in his rear-view mirror, he didn’t stop. He didn’t turn around. He just drove on.
He did watch, however, as Argentum reached out, half-following his car the same way Ignis had that very morning, only to use that same hand to bury his face as Noctis drove out of reach.
Hell, maybe Argentum felt bad about ditching Noctis. There were few other reasons Noct could think of for Argentum dropping his ass unceremoniously onto the pavement and flopping back, arms outstretched on either side, earning a hearty laugh and a gentle, playful kick from the woman he’d been talking to before Noct showed up.
And that apparent guilt, Noctis told himself, was the reason he didn’t pick a fight the third time he and Prompto Argentum crossed paths.
He’d decided he deserved to go fishing. A quick look on his phone told him he had to drive all the way south to pick up a fishing pole, unless he wanted to go back to Vegas, which was the last thing he wanted, and then he had to drive nearly the whole way back to Vegas anyway to actually find a spot to fish because he was in the middle of the freaking desert. He didn’t exactly have his pick of lakes and rivers.
What had started out as a plan to just put the pedal to the metal and drive as far as his car would carry him turned into a full-day trip back to where he’d started.
But whatever. That was fine. It wasn’t like he had anywhere to be anymore.
So he took his new pole to Lake Mead and wandered until he found a spot far enough from the marina that he could be alone. At least, he was supposed to be alone. But he wasn’t that lucky. Of course not. Because the universe had an agenda that day.
And that agenda’s name was Prompto Argentum.
Again.
He sat at the edge of the water, tucked into a ball, arms wrapped around his knees, eyes on the lake’s surface.
Noctis was fully prepared to turn around, to find another spot, to go anywhere else—because at this point, he’d be surprised if Argentum didn’t have him arrested for stalking—but before he got the chance, Argentum turned his head, wide eyes catching the moonlight.
When he caught sight of Noctis, they widened further still.
“Whoa!” Argentum rubbed his eyes and wiped at his face, like he was making sure he didn’t have ketchup anywhere, before sending Noctis a sparkling grin. “Imagine running into you out here.” He laughed, like they were old friends. Like they knew they were both headed to the same spot and there was a perfectly reasonable chance of running into each other.
“Yeah,” said Noctis cautiously. “Fancy that.”
Argentum smirked, resting his chin on one of his knees, fingers drumming on the tops of his boots. “Say, you’re not following me, are you?”
“Uh.” Yep. There it was. The exact accusation he was waiting for. Noctis took a step back. “Sorry. I’ll just go—”
“Oh, my god, that was a joke.” Argentum pointed at Noct’s hands. “I see your fishing pole, dude. I’m not an idiot.” He gestured at the spot by his feet, adjacent to the water. “You wanna fish here? I promise I won’t scare them away.”
Noctis stole a glance at the water. Probably the one thing that could make him stay, regardless of how weird he felt about it. He shrugged and made his way to the edge of the rocks. He had been invited, after all.
He scanned the water, feeling Argentum’s eyes on his back all the while, and found a serviceable bit of lake—something that looked like where fish would congregate—before casting his line out to the surface.
Argentum let out a low whistle. “Nice cast. I mean, not like I’m an expert or anything, but that looked really, uh…smooth.”
Noctis furrowed his brow, forcing his eyes to stay on the water. “…Thanks.”
Argentum sat up a little straighter and drummed his hands on his knees. “…So, like, how skittish are the fish here? Can I, uh, talk quietly without scaring them away?”
“Knock yourself out,” said Noct.
“Cool,” said Argentum. “So, uh, nice night, huh? All these stars.”
Noct kept his eye on the water, seeking the reflection rather than the sky. “Less light pollution out here than in L.A. Even with the Marina.”
“Yeah…” Prompto leaned back, propping himself up by his arms and stretching his legs out until his heels touched the edge of the water. “So what are you doing out here, anyway?”
“Fishing,” said Noctis. “Duh.”
“Your friends still calling you?”
“They slowed down around noon.”
“Where are they calling you from?”
“Vegas, probably.”
“So, uh, let me ask you one more time…” Argentum leaned forward, crossing his legs. He seemed to move around a lot. “What are you doing out here? As in, why aren’t you answering your friends’ calls and heading back to Vegas?”
“You said it yourself.” Noctis shrugged a shoulder. “I’m ditching them.”
“So is this as far as you’re willing to go?” asked Argentum. “‘Cause I gotta tell you, man, this isn’t that far from Vegas.”
“It’s where I’m willing to stop for tonight,” said Noctis.
“Yeah?” Argentum started to bounce one of his feet, boot tapping lightly against the stone beneath him. “You got a hotel room already?”
“Not yet.”
“You want one?”
Noctis froze, hand on his reel. The fish eyeing his lure lost interest. And for the first time since the moment his hands first clasped a fishing pole, so did Noctis.
He whipped around, boggled.
Argentum smiled at him, the breeze carding through his hair, a pleasant smile on his face as if he’d just offered Noctis the last of his french fries rather than an entire hotel room.
“All right,” said Noctis. “What is this really about?”
Argentum lowered his eyes to the stone he sat on. “Who said it had to be about anything?”
“Because people don’t just offer to pay for total strangers’ hotel rooms,” said Noctis. “You don’t even know my name.”
“Guess you’re right about that.” Argentum lifted his head, though he was still unable to meet Noct’s gaze for longer than a second. “So… Hi… I’m Prompto…”
“Yeah, I know,” said Noctis. “Nice to freaking meet you, Prompto Argentum. I’m Noctis. What the hell is with the hotel thing?”
Prompto laughed. “Man, right to the point, huh?”
“I’m not exactly on the lookout for a sugar daddy,” said Noctis. “Especially not right now.”
“What?” squeaked Argentum. “No! No-no-no-no-no—!” He dissolved into helpless, anxious giggles. “Sorry. No. Absolutely not. Why would you think—? No.”
“So what do you want?” asked Noctis. “You don’t expect me to think you’re just doing this out of the goodness of your heart, right?”
“So you thought I wanted—? No!” Argentum paled. At least he seemed more human when he was flustered. “I just thought we could— You know, maybe we both have things someone else wants and—”
“You’re not making yourself seem any less suspicious,” said Noctis.
Argentum covered his face with his hands, fingers splayed and overlapped in a messy lattice mask. “I’m really not, huh?” He dropped his hands with a sigh, eyes pleading as they returned to Noctis. “Look… It’s just that you have a car.”
Noctis raised an eyebrow. “And you don’t?”
Argentum smiled sheepishly.
“Okay.” Noctis reeled in his line and attached the hook to one of the loops, where it couldn’t swing free and hurt someone. “How the hell did you get here from Searchlight?”
“A very pretty mechanic lady offered to give me a ride as far northeast as she could reasonably go.”
“Nice,” deadpanned Noctis, unimpressed. “Did you get her number?”
Argentum sighed wistfully, perching his chin on his hand. “If only. But no. And don’t distract me. You have a car.”
“Most people do,” said Noctis.
“But most people aren’t trying to get away from something.” Argentum climbed to his feet, dusting off his tight pants on the way up. “You’ve been ignoring just as many calls from Vegas as I have. So I figured, you know…if you’re running away, and I’m running away…maybe we could run away together?”
Noctis set his free hand on his hip. He looked Prompto Argentum up and down. Really looked, for the first time. “Why are you running away?”
Argentum crossed his arms, bouncing near-weightlessly from one foot to the other, rocking from heel to toe. “Why are you running away? More specifically than just kind-of-sort-of-related-to-an-ex-girlfriend-maybe.”
“It’s private,” said Noctis. “And…complicated. I don’t feel like talking about it.”
“Hey, ditto!” Argentum laughed. “And that’s the great part! We don’t have to talk about it.”
Noctis narrowed his eyes.
Argentum raised his eyebrows. He looked innocent enough, but…he was an actor. So he was probably a damn good liar, too.
But, really, what did Noctis have left to lose?
“What are you proposing, exactly?”
“Two-week road trip,” said Argentum, holding up two fingers. “I pay for everything—food, hotels, gas, repairs if we break down, even your way back home if you decide you don’t want to stay at our destination—and you provide the car. That’s it.”
“That’s it, huh?” Noctis frowned. “And what is our destination?”
“New York Cit-ay,” crowed Argentum proudly. “Got a show there, so you know, the TOA is non-negotiable. But everything leading up to it is. Got anywhere you want to go? We’ll fit it into our schedule. Like me? I want to spend one day in Chicago ‘cause like, I’ve been, but I’ve never been without being shoved from place to place. Let me be a tourist just this once, you know? Also, Chocobos. Gotta ride me some Chocobos at some point.”
Huh. Prompto Argentum was a Chocobo boy. Not what Noctis expected. “Why don’t you just rent a car yourself? I mean, if you have the money to take some guy across the entire country, you have to have the money for that.”
“I could,” said Argentum. “But it’d be totally lonely, right? I mean… Just today was lonely, and that was with a brief-yet-lovely afternoon with a total babe. Getting to know a total stranger over the course of two weeks while traveling the country, seeing the sights? Sounds like an adventure to me!”
“Or a nightmare,” said Noctis. “How do you know you won’t hate me?”
“Guess I don’t.” Argentum rocked his weight from foot to foot. “But…I’ve got a pretty good feeling about you, so I’m willing to take the shot. If… If you are.”
Noctis pressed his hand into his face, splaying his fingers wide as if covering himself gave him enough privacy to think.
And gods help him, he was thinking about it. About going on a cross-country tour with a total stranger. Whether he was a celebrity or not, that was weird. Noctis wasn’t even a people-person, and he’d just dropped all the people he did like.
But…maybe that was part of why he was considering it. Maybe, deep down…Noctis was scared of being alone.
When it came to the practical side of things, Noct knew Argentum was good for it. Unless something big had just gone down that tabloids hadn’t caught wind of or Noctis was too busy with his own crap to catch the headlines, a trip like this wouldn’t even make a dent in Argentum’s pocketbook. And Argentum probably wasn’t a serial killer. He had too much to lose and not enough to gain when the world already knew who he was.
“Are you on drugs?” asked Noctis, lifting his head.
Argentum started, but subtly. His face slackened, a croaked sound blurted out of the back of his throat, and he froze, his hair moving more under the wind’s tugging hand than any other part of his body.
“That wasn’t an insult,” said Noctis, clarifying. “Just a question. No offense—if you are, that’s your business—but I don’t really want to spend two weeks in a car with someone who’s going to spend half the ride irritable because they’re craving something we don’t want to get caught with.”
Argentum relaxed, and his face lit up. “Nope. Clean as a whistle. My manager never even let me drink.”
“You’re kidding,” deadpanned Noctis.
Argentum shook his head, grinning. “It conflicts with the whole Daigoro Channel Image, you know? The one thing I’ll be craving on this journey is the occasional hit of that sweet, sweet bean juice.”
Noctis narrowed his eyes. “You’re not one of those assholes who snaps at everyone before they’ve had their coffee, right?”
“Nope!” Argentum shifted his weight and rubbed his arms despite the warmth of the wind. He was clearly nervous, but that didn’t dampen his chipper attitude. “I’ll just be a little groggy sometimes.”
Noctis narrowed his eyes. “Are you a morning person?”
“Yes,” said Argentum automatically, only to see something in Noct’s face that made him rethink it. “But I’m not the kind of morning person who thinks everyone else should be, too, so I’ll be happy to let you sleep in. Do you want to sleep in?”
So far, Argentum had managed to keep his spirits high, but Noct could see that facade chip away little by little with every question he asked. And from what Noct could see, there was a hell of a lot of anxiety under that mask.
“Yep.”
Argentum laughed nervously. “‘Yep’ you want to sleep in, or…?”
Noctis rested his fishing pole on his shoulder, careful of the hook. “‘Yep’ I think this is the best possible way a day like today could have ended.”
Argentum’s eyes widened.
“You can breathe now,” said Noctis. “Tonight, I fish for a little longer and we get a hotel. We can talk about the specifics of the trip tomorrow.”
“R…Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
Argentum laughed. Breathless and light-as-air turning into jubilant and way too fucking loud.
“Quiet,” said Noctis, though he felt himself smiling as well. That kind of cheer was contagious. “You’re gonna scare the fish— Whoa!”
Prompto Argentum, without warning or hesitation, picked Noct up and spun him around like no one had ever made him that happy in his life. “Oh man oh man oh man! You won’t regret this! I promise! I’ll prove it! These are going to be the best two weeks of your life, just you wait!”
Noctis doubted it. He knew what it felt like to be stuck in a car for days at a time.
But he’d already made up his mind, so he’d just have to wait and see how the next two weeks with Prompto Freaking Argentum would pan out for himself.
