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Noctis leans against the tree, grateful for the support. He’s at the edge of the haven, just close enough to the blue lights of the runes. Ignis and Gladio are out purchasing ingredients for dinner that they hadn’t been able to forage from the area, leaving him and Prompto to keep an eye on camp. Prompto, of course, has to use the bathroom and is out behind some tree in the relative area. Within shouting distance for safety’s sake because Iggy and Gladio would kill them both if they were to be separated and attacked by fiends just because of a bathroom break.
He kinda wishes Iggy and Gladio would hurry up. His stomach kinda hurts. Eating food’ll probably help. He just has to hold out till Iggy gets back and finishes cooking.
“Prom, hurry up,” he calls. The faster he’s done, the sooner he can go sit down in one of the camp chairs.
“Wha一 we just got here!” Prompto protests. And okay, yeah, that’s fair.
“Sorry. Just… nevermind.” He just doesn’t feel good. He shouldn’t rush his friend over that when camp isn’t that far. He closes his eyes while he waits and listens to the wind breeze through the tree leaves. It really is nice out today, the heat not as scorching as usual.
A twig is snapped somewhere in the distance.
“Uh. Noct. Did you hear that?” Prompto, ever the scaredy cat, whispers.
“Probably just a rabbit. Fiends travel in groups, they’d be noisier than that.” He opens his eyes to keep lookout anyway and immediately wishes he hadn’t.
The clarity of his mind stretches like taffy as the world becomes a spread of bright lights. He squeezes his eyes shut, the lightheaded-ness dimmer. He suppresses a groan because what in the hell was that about? He was perfectly fine two minutes ago. He’ll be fine if he keeps his eyes shut and lets the moment pass. After a few long moments he cracks open his eyes to check if reality has returned to normal. No dice.
Six, he isn’t gonna pass out, is he?
With a groan he shuts his eyes closed as the world whines loud for a few moments. He counts to fifteen, thirty, forty-five in his head before trying once more.
Prompto’s in front of him. Or at least he thinks Prompto’s there because some kind of enormous blur is obscuring everything else. He makes out the blond hair and freckles but nothing beyond that really seems to stick.
Is Prompto talking to him? This seems like the kinda time where everyone should and would talk to him. Can he even hear clearly right now? He can’t really figure out what’s going on or if anyone’s actually speaking. He should test his own voice to be sure. What should he say? And how’s he gonna explain some random words as anything other than ‘oh sorry I didn’t mean to say hello or whatever it was I just said, I just need to make sure my voice and hearing are working properly, I’m fine don’t worry about me’ ?
He settles with a random noise that he’s sure sounds pathetic. He comes out muffled, like he’s using his hands to cover his ears.
A hand lands on his shoulder一 Prompto, probably一 and he doesn’t need to hear the question to answer it.
“‘m fine,” he lies. He is far from fine. But it’ll pass, he just needs to get back to camp. “Let’s get back to camp.”
He starts off in a direction, the question of it being the right way thrown out as soon as it enters his mind. The sunlight aggravates his swimming mind again and he daydreams of crashing to the ground and hitting his head on a tree root or something.
He doesn’t know how long he takes staring at the dirt and a tiny bug on a journey before his mind catches up and actually processes what happened.
He didn’t imagine that. He actually fell. He blacked out and hit the forest floor. That just happened.
“Noct! Noct, can you hear me?”
“Y-Yeah,” Noctis mumbles, pushing himself to his feet. Ugh, he’s all sweaty and shaky now.
“I called Ignis and Gladio, they’re on their way.”
What? When did he have time to do that?
“They’re gonna meet us back at camp, c’mon.” Prompto starts pulling on his arms and he has to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. It’s easier than he expected, like hitting the tree root snapped him out of whatever stupor he was in before.
Maybe it’s the right side of his head aching. Numbly, he wipes it with his fingers and feels a little relief when there’s only a little bit of dirt coming away. He checks a few more times to be safe and still no blood. He lets out a sigh of relief, and it comes out clear to his ears, if a little weak.
They make it back to the haven and Prompto is immediately shoving him into a chair, grabbing a bottle of water from the cooler to shove into his hands and fleeting away again, digging even further into the cooler for a moment.
Noctis doesn’t drink from the bottle, choosing to press it to the quickly-forming bump on his head. The spark of pain is quickly soothed by the colder temperature. Prompto must’ve found whatever it was that he’s looking for because he’s pulling the water away from his head.
“Noct, that’s for drinking,” he says, throwing him a shaky grin. “Here.”
An icepack is pressed into his face, slightly covering his eye. Something small drops into his lap next to the bottle and, when he properly looks down to see it, a granola bar.
“You better eat it.” Prompto says, dramatically stern. “Don’t think I didn’t see you picking at your breakfast this morning. Cuz I did.”
He huffs a laugh. “Thanks, Prom.”
“No prob.”
He eats it slowly, in no way wanting to make his stomach ache, which had disappeared after he fell, return. He crumples the wrapper absentmindedly in his hands, picking at it with his fingers as Prompto holds the ice pack for him.
Crunching leaves and twigs break the silence and they both turn, tense. Just because the haven runes ward of daemons doesn’t mean they ward off the average fiend. But then Ignis and Gladio break into sight, not quite running, but certainly not taking a stroll either.
Ignis beelines for them, “Noct, are you alright? Let me see your head.” Noct sits still and lets Ignis fuss over him, hissing out in pain when he presses on the injury with his fingers. “My apologies, Noct, but I have to check.”
“It’s一 fine.” He hates how weak his voice is. Iggy watches him and Noctis politely diverts his attention to Gladio and Prompto’s conversation.
“You did good, kid,” Gladio nods.
“I feel like I didn’t do enough.”
“You jumped right into action. Like a true crownsguard.”
Prompto lets out a laugh and he can hear the nervous energy being expelled with it. “You think so? I was super freaked when I saw him fall.”
“You did a splendid job, Prompto,” Ignis supplies. “When not sure what to do, you didn’t waste time by guessing the proper procedure and instead contacted us who have more training in these kinds of things.” Prompto still doesn’t look too sure of himself.
“Thanks, man,” he says. Prompto’s gaze snapped to him. “If you’d just left me there, I would have been screwed. I’m glad you were there.”
“I’d never leave you!” Prompto snaps, face red. “You don’t know how scared I was after you fell. You weren’t responding to me at all at first!”
He blinks. He doesn’t remember Prompto speaking right away at all.
“...you don’t remember that?”
“No,” he replies. “That’s… really scary, actually.”
“You’re telling me.”
“That’s further proof,” Gladio huffs. “A crownsguard needs courage to act when they’re scared. Seems like you got plenty of it.” He tilts his head in thought. “Well, when we’re not in caves, anyway.”
“Oh, shut it, Gladdy!”
Gladio scowls. “Don’t call me that.”
“Boys,” Ignis drawls, and they both quiet. “Noct, sit still for a moment while I check your eyes. I need to make sure you don’t have a concussion.”
“Is that necessary?” Prompto draws closer. “It didn’t seem like he had one to me.”
“One can never be too careful.”
“Just let the mother-hen do his thing.”
Ignis’ mouth tightens for a moment, but he doesn’t argue, pulling a small flashlight out of the armiger from their stash of other first-aid items and shines it into each eye a few times.
Noct can’t help but to make a joke. “So, doc, am I dying?”
“I’m afraid not. Perhaps just a tad dehydrated. Be sure to drink some water lest you experience another fainting spell. And be sure to rest.”
Gladio snorts. “I think Sleeping Beauty’s got that part covered, Iggy.”
“Quite.”
He groans.
“Don’t worry, Noct,” Prompto digs an elbow, albeit gently, into his side. “We’ll always pick you up when you fall.”
“Thanks, fellas.”