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When Noctis opened his eyes, he was blinded by just how bright the sun was, so much so that he had to cup his hand against his forehead in a makeshift visor. When the blurry blotches of light in his eyes cleared into something far more human and blond in nature, he smiled, and then he was blinded again by the toothy grin Prompto sent him in return.
“This place is AWESOME!” Prompto shouted. “What should we do first? Let’s go see the chocobos—no, wait, let’s ride the gondola—or, WAIT, that moogle over there is totally waving at us, let’s go talk—!”
“Prompto.”
Noctis could almost visibly see the restless energy bouncing around within the blond. He stepped forward and dropped his hands on either side of Prompto’s shoulders with a huff.
“Relax a little. We have plenty of time to do everything.”
“Everything?” Prompto repeated. It was a clarification, and Noctis knew that if he agreed, Prompto would hold him to the promise and they wouldn’t make it to their hotel room until the sun rose tomorrow and his feet gave out from exhaustion.
It filled him with a strange sense of relief to realize he didn’t care.
“Everything.”
“Okay,” Prompto said. The way his eyes shined when he pried Noctis’ hand off of his shoulder and took it in his own made Noctis want to kiss him, but he was too shy to do it in front of all the crowds gathered at the entrance. “I can chill. I’m totally chill.”
Noctis almost snorted in response, but Prompto’s hand was warm in his own and it was very distracting, and all he managed was a weak sort of hiccup. “So…” he said instead. “Where do you want everything to start, Blondie?”
Prompto bit his lip as he thought about it—something Noctis refused to admit aloud he found endearing—before he tightened his hold on Noctis’s hand and started leading him away from the docks.
“Why don’t we just see where the wind takes us?”
Noctis let Prompto guide him without protest. He was about as excited as he could possibly be to be here, and if Noctis was one hundred percent pumped up to see the sights, he knew Prompto must be at some inhuman two hundred percent or something. He should probably keep an eye on him just to make sure he didn’t spontaneously combust from it all.
They walked down a set of golden carpeted stairs together, hand in hand, confetti falling from the sky around them and balloons flying in the air. Prompto was quiet for all of thirty seconds on their walk before he gasped and took off running, yanking Noctis along with him.
“It’s Wiz!” Prompto yelled.
The startled “what?” in Noctis’s throat died when Prompto stopped short in front of the man, kick starting a conversation spoken so fast that it sounded more like bees buzzing in his ears than actual words. He offered Wiz a short wave and then repositioned himself ever so slightly behind Prompto in an attempt to avoid conversation.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like Wiz—he didn’t have a problem with the guy, really—he just wasn’t very good at talking to people if he didn’t have anything important to say. So he stayed quiet, letting Prompto ask why Wiz was here (“to look after all the chocobos, of course!”), and tried to remain patient while the two talked each other’s ears off.
He ended up squeezing Prompto’s hand five minutes later, because he was really starting to get bored just standing around and it’s not like Wiz was some long-lost uncle that Prompto just had to catch up with right now.
Prompto seemed to get the message (thankfully) and found an exit out of a conversation that somehow moved to whether they thought it’ll ever be possible for humans to learn how to speak chocobo. Noctis couldn’t help but think that it was just so Prompto to ask if it’s possible for him to learn how to speak bird talk as opposed to the other way around, and the thought made him chuckle under his breath.
Just as Prompto said his goodbyes, Wiz reeled him right back in by casually mentioning that they should try out the chocobo races. The way Prompto spun right back around hook, line, and sinker made Noctis think that he would be an easy fish to catch, but he quickly brushed the thought away because one) Prompto was not a fish, and two) if he started thinking about fishing he would want to go fishing and that’s not what they came here for.
“Noct.”
Noctis didn't wait for him to ask.
“Yes, of course we can race.”
“Score!”
* * *
The walk from the finish line back to the main section of festivites left Noctis tense, gritting his teeth and nursing his shoulder like a wounded animal, and if Prompto didn’t stop making half-assed attempts to mask his laughter he might just growl like one too.
“I totally kicked your ass, dude!”
Noctis didn’t have the heart to tell him he let him win. Because he did. Really. There’s no way he lost a chocobo race to Prompto (he did) and just refused to admit it (definitely did).
Noctis rolled his eyes and rubbed his arm. “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Laugh it up.”
“Oh, I will definitely be laughing. I can’t believe you fell off your chocobo!”
The embarrassment of passing Prompto and shooting him the smarmiest grin he had only to lose his balance and crash into the deck is something Noctis very regretfully realized he would never live down.
Prompto didn’t even hesitate (no worried glance back or anything!), he just kicked his chocobo into high gear and ran off for the finish line, laughing all the way. At least he didn’t fall into the water, because then he’d be a wet loser and they’d probably have to leave the carnival entirely because Prompto suffocated on his own laughter or something and had to go to the hospital.
The thought was not wholly unappealing right now.
Though Noctis wished he could erase the last fifteen minutes of his life, Prompto did set a new course record and won them their first three choco-mog medallions (plus a pity one for Noctis). He would have been proud of his amazing, courageous, record-defying boyfriend (Prompto’s words) if he wasn’t so busy wallowing in self-pity.
“Noct,” Prompto said, and Noctis wanted to shoot him a glare but Prompto looked genuinely concerned now and the muscles in Noctis’s face relaxed. “Are you okay?”
Noctis dropped his hand from his shoulder. “I’m fine.”
He shouldn’t fault Prompto for laughing at him. He wanted to think that if it had been Prompto who fell down, he’d have stopped and made sure he was okay and been a real knight in shining armor about it, but he knew that was a pretty lie and he would have done exactly what Prompto did: laugh and win the race.
So when Prompto brushed his hand against Noctis’s shoulder and asked, “Are you sure?”, Noctis offered him a crooked smile and said, “Yeah. I’m really fine.”
To which Prompto wolf-whistled and grinned “You’re tellin’ me,” and then Noctis blushed and pushed him away and the laughter that rang out into the air was no longer one-sided but completely and utterly mutual.
* * *
“Kupo!” came a feminine voice.
Some cast member in a giant moogle costume approached them, and Prompto sidestepped away from Noctis just enough for its attention to center on the unlucky prince. It reached for Noctis’s hand with its own two bulky white paws, and the little voice in the back of Noctis’s head that asked if moogles had paws or hands or just… stubs was drowned out by a chorus of “Kupo! Kupo!”s.
Noctis stared blankly as the moogle shook its head and waved its hands in the air.
“I think it wants you to dance with it,” Prompto said. His tone laced itself with shameless amusement. Noctis shot him a gaping, are you serious? look that Prompto simply shrugged at. Not helpful.
Unable to walk away and potentially crush some poor innocent moogle’s dreams, Noctis lifted his arms into the air and stumbled through a dance he knew none of the moves to. “L-Like this?” he asked at one point, and he hoped he was doing it right because the moogle chose to bounce on its feet from side to side instead of answering.
He tried to follow its lead, finishing off the dance with a spin, and very pointedly ignored the flash in his eyes and the clicking sound that accompanied it. The moogle clapped for him, “kupo!”ing again, and Noctis sheepishly rejoined Prompto with a hand in his hair and deep blush on his cheeks.
“I… cannot believe I just did that.”
Prompto looked at him the same way he looked at baby chocobos. “That…” he started, his eyes wide and his mouth parted in surprise, “…was the cutest thing I have ever seen.” And then he squealed. Like, actually squealed.
“Yeah, well,” Noctis said, and he felt hot and embarrassed and very lowkey wanted to die on the spot, “Let’s see you do it.”
“No way, dude,” Prompto snorted. “I really don’t think I could beat that.” He lifted his camera up and flipped it around for Noctis to see, pointing at the mini Noctis with his arms spread wide on the screen. “I could never be that cute. I mean, I’m pretty cute, but you totally got me beat, buddy.”
“Definitely the contest I wanted to win,” Noctis deadpanned. Then there was a tap on his arm, and when he turned the moogle offered him three choco-mog medallions.
“See what those are? Cuteness coins.”
Noctis sighed.
* * *
Prompto yelped when he saw the first photo challenge sign around Altissia. His camera slipped through his fingers in his excitement, and Noctis had to dart down and catch it before it shattered against the pavement.
“My hero,” Prompto swooned.
“What happened? I’ve never seen you drop your camera before.”
“Uh,” Prompto stumbled through a reply. “Just have slippery fingers, I guess.”
Noctis blinked slowly. “When did you get sweaty-hand-syndrome all of a sudden?”
“I just, um,” Prompto stumbled again, and he avoided eye contact for a moment before shooting Noctis a shy smile with pink-tinted cheeks. “I’m really excited to be here with you.”
Oh.
* * *
Catching baby chocobos was so not as easy as it sounds.
Noctis tripped over his own foot darting for the third one, and, in theme for the day, Prompto laughed and took a photo of him lying defeated on the ground.
Unlike the races, however, Prompto did not saddle up on a baby bird and fly away while Noctis rolled around and groaned on the concrete (though it’d have been one hell of a sight). Slipping his camera away, Prompto held out a hand for Noctis and helped lift him off the ground, lingering close as he regained his balance.
“Are you hurt?”
Noctis brushed some dirt off his jacket and shrugged. “Just my dignity.”
Prompto lifted Noctis’s hand to his lips and kissed his knuckles. “A kiss for your dignity, then,” he said. “To make it all better.”
Noctis thought he’d been making a right fool of himself all day so far, but when Prompto looked at him with that dopey, love struck look of his, he found it hard to get all that worked up about it.
“You’re like a chocobo,” Noctis said, and he didn’t realize he said it aloud until Prompto blinked at him and actually responded to it.
“Is this a jab at my hair?”
“You set my soul at ease.”
Prompto obviously didn’t know how to respond if the blank blinking, minute-long pause, and following incoherent stuttering were anything to go by. He was blushing when he found the baby chocobo and lifted it into his arms, though, and Noctis mentally started a checklist on who would get embarrassed the most throughout the day.
Noctis: 2
Prompto: 2
He evened up the score, at least.
* * *
“… he who spots them with his eyes shall earn himself a handsome prize.” Prompto’s voice went all high-pitched as he hit “handsome prize,” and Noctis had no doubts about where this was going.
“A photo contest, huh?” he said, grinning at Prompto. “We could do that.”
“Hell yeah we can!” Prompto shouted back. “You can find all the moogle dolls,” he said, snapping a picture of each of the clues on the notice board, “and I’ll take all the pics!”
“Way to give me the hard job.”
The sarcasm in Noctis’s tone did not go unnoticed, but all Prompto did in reply was stick out his tongue at him. “Complaining about it won’t make it any easier. Iggy’s not here to lend us his four eyes, so you’ll have to make do with just your two!”
“And what’s my motivation for such a daunting task?”
Prompto stared at him. “Uh, my happiness?” The “duh” went unsaid but was certainly implied. Noctis put a hand on his hip, hmm-ing it over. His expression dripped with mock disinterest, and Prompto’s jaw dropped in offense. “Wow, dude. Someone won’t be winning any awards for best boyfriend any time soon.”
Noctis shrugged off the act and offered another crooked smile. “I’m just kidding, Blondie. Of course I’ll help you.”
“My hero, Noct,” Prompto cooed. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to Noctis’s cheek, his breath ghosting over the skin. “Thank you.”
The way Prompto whispered into his ear made Noctis’s entire body freeze up, a very ironic descriptor since he was certain his temperature had also shot up a thousand degrees higher than the recommended amount, let alone a humanly possible one. He curled his fingers into his hands and mentally added a point against himself to his list, then tilted his head to meet the blond in a real kiss.
Just before their lips touched, Prompto pulled away and wagged his finger in Noctis’s face. “Ah ah ah,” he teased, and then jumped back and set off in a new direction. “Find me a moogle and maybe you’ll get one!”
Noctis buried his frustration and opted to smile smugly at the insufferable, backwards-walking dork who was probably two seconds away from tripping up a set of stairs.
“That a challenge, then?”
Prompto blinked once and then decided to roll with it. “Yeah, okay,” he said. “One kiss for every moogle you find me.”
“And when we find them all?”
Prompto smirked. Which was weird because Prompto didn’t really smirk. Smile? Every day. Grin? Totally. Beam? Definitely. But smirking was not something Noctis typically associated with his best friend.
“I’ll give you the kiss you actually want.”
“Wait—What?”
Prompto laughed and spun around and ran up the stairs before Noctis had a chance to process that he just got conned out of a real kiss again.
But he always did like a challenge.
* * *
Noctis found the first moogle only ten minutes into their search.
It was just sitting there on the windowsill of one of the walkways, up another flight of stairs. If they’re all this easy he’ll be kissing Prompto in no time, he mused, and the thought gave him an inflated sense of pride that would probably bite him in the ass when he couldn’t find the rest.
“Found one!” Noctis called to Prompto.
“Just a sec!” Prompto called back, snapping a picture of one of the carnival cast members for another photo challenge. She posed for him beside a cardboard cutout of a moogle on a chocobo’s back, and when he lowered his camera she smiled and waved him over.
“How about a photo, sir?” she said. She wore a moogle beanie with a little red gem that bobbed when she gestured to the cutout, and it was only then that Prompto noticed the moogle and chocobo were missing faces.
“Noct!” he yelled. “Take a picture with me!”
Prompto handed the woman his camera, briefly pointing at the right buttons before he huddled behind the cutout and stuck his face through the hole in the chocobo’s head.
“Oh, uh,” Noctis said, unable to mask his surprise. He rubbed the back of his neck and lined up next to Prompto, adding another point to his mental checklist because damn it all if this couple stuff didn’t embarrass the hell out of him. “Like this?”
He shouldn’t have been embarrassed at all because he and Prompto would have totally taken this picture together even if they were still just friends, but they weren’t and he knew it and he couldn’t stop thinking about how this was the sort of photo couples took and then stuck on their fridge with a magnet. It embarrassed him even more when he realized that he wanted to stick this photo on his fridge with a magnet.
Should that count for two points then? He thought it should count for two points.
Noctis: 5
Prompto: 2
He was really failing.
“Smile for the camera!”
Noctis snuck a glance at Prompto right before the camera flashed, and the grin on the blond’s face filled him with so much warmth that when Prompto took his camera back and checked the photo, Noctis saw himself beaming like a man who just won the lottery.
* * *
“Don’t forget about the moogle I found.”
Noctis felt Prompto’s lips against his cheek right after the shutter clicked.
“I would never.”
* * *
“Is that… Aranea?”
Noctis resisted the urge to “pff” at the absurd question because what the hell would Aranea Highwind be doing at a carnival? Prompto seemed serious enough about it though, bumping Noctis’s arm and pointing up to one of the buildings streaming with lights.
Pointing up. Like, way up.
Noctis’s mouth dropped open in a very un-princely fashion when he saw the dragoon standing atop said building and overlooking the city.
“The hell is she doing up there?”
Prompto shrugged and snapped a photo. “Seeing the sights?”
Noctis crossed his arms and made a point to close his mouth. He could practically hear Ignis tease “Catching flies, Noct?” and he briefly allowed himself a second to stop and thank the stars that it was just him and Prompto for once.
“She’s definitely got one hell of a view.”
“Hey,” Prompto said, in a tone that screamed “I’ve got a great joke,” but on a scale of one to ten was probably a solid zero point five. “Do you think there are any high winds up there?”
Noctis groaned. “That was bad.”
“Aw, I liked it.”
Noctis really did “pff” this time. “Because you came up with it,” he shot back, and Prompto waved his hand in Noctis’s face dismissively.
“Details, details.”
Prompto went back to snapping photos, so Noctis let his eyes wander over the crowds and watch over some of the festivities. He wasn’t sure how they managed to make confetti continuously fall from the sky or where all the music kept coming from with no discernible source, but it surrounded Altissia in a very dreamy atmosphere he found he liked, so he chose not to dwell on meaningless questions.
Prompto’s stomach growled at that moment, and the blond froze with his camera hanging midair at how loud it rumbled. “Holy shit, dude,” he tried to kid, “I’m think I’m hungry.”
“No way,” Noctis quipped. “What gave you that idea?”
“Oh ‘em gee, Noct,” Prompto whined. He put his camera away and shot Noctis a pleading look. “Shut up and find me something to eat.”
“There’s a café right around the corner. Let’s just go there.”
“Sweet!”
* * *
They passed by a chocobo mascot dancing nearby the café, surrounded by onlookers and tourists and screaming kids with candies and balloons in their hands, and it took approximately half a second for the light bulb in Noctis’s head to flip on. He nudged Prompto’s arm, catching his attention, and pointed at the costumed bird with a smirk.
“You should dance with him when we’re finished.”
Prompto blinked. His cheeks turned the barest shade of pink, almost unnoticeable against all the lights blaring around them. Not enough for a point on the list, but enough for Noctis to know that if he played his cards right, he could get Prompto to that point.
“Y-Yeah, right," Prompto stuttered. "Totally." His voice betrayed his obvious apprehension at the idea, the small catch in his words sending a jolt of unbridled anticipation through Noctis. Maybe he shouldn't have felt so much pleasure in Prompto's nervousness, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't excited to be on the other side of the stage this time.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I!”
The downright mischievous look in Noctis’s eyes made Prompto gulp. “Good,” the prince grinned. “I look forward to it.”
Prompto was so close to blushing by then, but Noctis was nothing if not fair and he refused to cheat and tally the point just because he wanted Prompto to lose his imaginary game. Instead he took Prompto’s hand and led him the rest of the way, and when they spotted a moogle doll balanced atop the sign reading Square Enix Café, Noctis reveled in the kiss Prompto very hastily gifted his cheek.
Good things come to those who wait, right?
* * *
It was only afternoon when they settled down in the café, but the waiter rambled at them for so long before he showed them to their chosen table that at one point, Noctis legitimately thought they wouldn’t eat until nightfall, if they ever made it to their table at all.
Thankfully, by some grace of the Six, the waiter shut up long enough for Noctis to order the Kupoberry Cheesecake for himself and the Golden Chocobo Tart for Prompto, and though he half expected the man to go off on a tangent about their choices, he breathed a sigh of relief when he only nodded and scurried off to fetch their meals.
“If we’re lucky the food will get here faster than we did,” Prompto scoffed. Noctis felt that it said something that even Prompto couldn’t stand how long the guy chattered away.
“No kidding.”
They sat together in one of the back corner tables, secluded by flowers and shrubs and an umbrella popped out above the table. Prompto picked it because there was a giant chocobo plush adorning the corner of this section, and Noctis readily agreed because it was about as far away from everyone else as they could get. He had no excuse for such antisocial desires save for the fact that he was the most happy when he was alone with Prompto, and that was good enough reason for him.
Prompto wasted no time in shuffling his chair from across Noctis to directly next to him, in a very un-subtle but dumbly endearing sort of way, and Noctis couldn’t help the smile that broke out onto his face.
“Too far away for you?”
He thought calling him out on the move would embarrass the blond, but Prompto laced their fingers together between their legs and breathed out, “Just wanna be with you,” and it was Noctis whose heart ended up racing.
Prompto rested his head against Noctis’s shoulder and closed his eyes without another word. If he could feel the heat Noctis was sure he was radiating off of himself, he didn’t mention it, and if Prompto was comfortable cuddling up to the sauna that was Noctis then the sauna would happily have him there.
They stayed like that until the waiter returned with a tray of colorful plates and steaming coffees, content to wait out the minutes quietly soaking in each other’s warmth. “One Kupoberry Cheesecake, kupo!” the waiter said, sliding the plate in front of Noctis. “And one Golden Chocobo Tart, kweh!” Prompto’s plate met him with a clink, scraping across the tabletop.
“Thanks!” he replied.
Noctis itched to dig in, but he held out long enough for the waiter to slide two hot drinks down and dismiss himself with a bow and a, “Enjoy your meal, sirs!”
The cheesecake was sweeter than Noctis could have possibly imagined. It tasted like it was made almost entirely of sugar and, though he was certain the berries were going to stain his teeth red, he savored every bite. Prompto, meanwhile, stared at his drink in front of him, and Noctis swallowed before he asked him what the problem was because he had no intention of accidentally spitting food in his boyfriend’s face and tallying another point against himself.
“The cream is shaped like a heart. It’s so cute I sorta don’t want to mess it up.”
He stared at it for another fifteen seconds before he pulled out his camera, snapped a photo in a flash, and then downed half the drink in one go.
Noctis held his head in one hand and fiddled with his fork in the other. He kept eyeing Prompto’s plate as they ate, and when the blond took another bite he snuck his fork in and stole a piece for himself. Prompto didn’t even react. He stole a piece of Noctis’s cheesecake right back, and they ended up sharing what was left of the treats, picking off each other’s plates and mixing the desserts together on their forks.
Licking berry sauce off his lips, Noctis idly thought about how it’d be nice to have Ignis recreate the dishes for them again sometime. And that thought gave him an idea.
“Hey, Prom.”
“Hmm?”
Noctis lifted his hand, snapped a finger up in the air and, in his best attempt at an accent, called out, “I’ve come up with a new reci-peh!”
Prompto burst out laughing. His snorts and giggles drowned out the noises of the crowd in and out of the café until all Noctis could hear were the sounds of Prompto’s delight. It made him happier than he’d ever been before and he didn’t even care how sappy it sounded to admit. He could spend the rest of his life sitting in that café listening to Prompto laugh and love every year, month, day, hour and minute of it down to the last second.
He loved Prompto’s smile. He loved the way it made his eyes crinkle in the corners. He loved the goofy expression it left on his face. He loved when he was the one who put it there.
He loved Prompto.
“Noct?”
“Huh?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Noctis confirmed, and he met the confused look Prompto sent him with a confused one of his own. “Why do you ask?”
“You were staring at me.”
“Oh.”
Oh.
“Is there something on my face? I have berries on my nose, don’t I? I can’t believe you didn’t tell me, Noct, how long have I been sitting here with food on my face while you laughed at me beneath that smug stare?!”
Prompto’s hands darted up to his rapidly reddening face to try and wipe off some nonexistent berry stain he dreamed up, and Noctis hoped he would remember to add a point to his list because it was hard to concentrate on his stupid imaginary game when Prompto was being that adorable. He reached his own hands out to pull Prompto’s back down, and he left them clasped together even after he could see Prompto’s freckled face again.
“There’s nothing on your face, doofus.”
“Then why were you…?”
Noctis swallowed his aloof, cool guy façade and silently asked the butterflies in his stomach to flutter the hell on out.
“I was thinking about how much I love you.”
“Oh.”
Prompto’s face went from red to scarlet so fast Noctis almost worried he burst a blood vessel. But he was smiling and he didn’t look like he was in any pain so Noctis figured he could probably put that fear to rest.
“I love you too.”
“I know.”
“Oh, dooo youuu,” Prompto teased.
Noctis shot him his trademark crooked smile and kissed his hand.
“Yeah. I do.”
* * *
On their way out of the café, the sight of a familiar teal tie and icy blond hair caught Prompto’s eye.
“Hey, it’s Dino,” he said, and he tugged on Noctis’s jacket sleeve. Dino must have been playing some type of game with the other guys at his table because they all kept throwing their hands into the air and cheering. “Should we say hi?”
Noctis looked from Prompto, to Dino, and back to Prompto.
“Nah.”
* * *
As promised, Prompto let himself be approached by the chocobo mascot just outside the café. Noctis didn’t think the smile on his face was fake (Prompto did love chocobos, after all), but he could still feel the nerves radiating off his blond friend. He almost felt guilty for pressuring him into it, but that thought was quickly overshadowed by his own eager anticipation to watch Prompto's attempt at whatever passed for dancing amongst the chocobos these days.
“Kweh!” the chocobo called. It gestured for Prompto to stand next to it, and Noctis chuckled at how Prompto looked like he fit right in beside the yellow bird.
“Go Prompto!” he yelled, and Prompto shot him a look that screamed shut up!
The chocobo faced the wall and showed Prompto a move where it spun halfway around and opened its arms wide, something Noctis found mildly annoying (and totally unfair) because the moogle he danced with had him running on blind instinct. Then again, Prompto hadn’t whistled at him or called him out by name when Noctis danced, so maybe they were even.
Because Noctis was definitely whistling at him. And he had actually called him out by name without really thinking. Oh well.
Following the mascot’s lead, Prompto jumped and spun around until his back faced the crowd, and then he twisted his chest around in time with the chocobo and met eyes with Noctis, his face plastered with a grin.
Noctis thought he looked ridiculous(ly cute).
He held up Prompto’s camera (which he totally did not swipe when Prompto wasn’t looking), shouted – “Come on, Blondie, I wanna see you shake that tail feather!” – and clicked just as the crowd burst into cheers and lighthearted laughter.
That did it. Prompto stumbled and turned beet red and hastily made his way through the crowd, and when he met up with Noctis again he was doing the same neck rubbing motion the prince always did when he was embarrassed.
Noctis: 5
Prompto: 5
Prompto looked like he had a protest on the tip of his tongue, but Noctis would never know what choice words Prompto had waiting for him. He held Prompto’s camera out, grinning, “I think you beat me,” and when the chocobo offered them three choco-mog medallions for participating, Noctis teased them before Prompto’s face and said in his best “I’m-looking-to-get-punched” voice—
“Would’cha look at that? Cuteness coins.”
* * *
Prompto had his revenge when Noctis found their third moogle doll.
“Found another one!” Noctis called, and instead of replying with the “Sweet!” or “Nice one, Noct!” Noctis expected, Prompto instead slapped him on the ass and winked, lining up the shot without a word.
Noctis yelped, and blushed, and he cursed internally because now he was losing again.
The kiss on his neck that Prompto offered as a reward helped ease some of the pain, though he narrowly avoided tallying a second point against himself because he was expecting cheek kisses and Prompto knew his neck was sensitive.
…
Wait.
Shit.
He totally knew what Noctis was doing.
* * *
Daylight was just beginning to fade, but the sun wouldn’t set for a couple hours yet and Altissia was so brightly lit up that neither of the pair concerned themselves with the time. They walked down a set of stairs, lined with trees encased in lights and fallen confetti coloring the concrete, and then turned the corner to a whole new sight.
Prompto snapped a photo of someone in a Kenny Crow costume, bouncing around with a bottle of Jetty’s in his hand. Claw. …Whatever.
“Another challenge complete!” Prompto cheered.
Noctis strained his eyes to see past the Kenny Crow, because he was sure he could see something reflecting pink and there was no explanation for something pink on a grey statue unless—
“That’s a doll!”
Noctis meant to run past the blatantly drunk mascot (whoever was inside either didn’t give a shit or gave too many shits about being in character), but a winged hand pulled him back and before he could even process what had happened there was a mouthful of Jetty’s pouring down his throat.
This was it, he thought. He was going to choke to death at a carnival in front of his boyfriend. What a way to go.
Before he could curse the gods for letting him die in such a pathetic way, the weight of the mascot behind him disappeared without warning and the bottle went flying from his lips. A distinct "Oomph!" rang out into the air, and a hand caught his own flailing one as he went careening backwards alongside the sound of breaking glass and splashing Jetty's.
Prompto pulled him into his arms before he fell, and Noctis didn’t have to look up to feel the glare the blond was shooting over his shoulder.
He dug his fingers into the back of Prompto’s vest, untrusting of his own balance, and twisted his head back just enough to see the Kenny Crow mascot moaning and writhing on the ground. It took a few seconds for the scene to process in Noctis's head. His brain slowly pieced together what must have happened and then replayed the fantasy of Prompto storming towards the mascot and knocking him to the ground over and over again like a record on a constant loop.
Half-collapsed in Prompto's arms, Noctis was suddenly struck by the thought that this must be what it feels like to be rescued by a prince, and even if in reality it was the other way around, he found the idea of Prompto being his knight in shining armor ridiculously appealing.
His hands fell from Prompto’s back down to his waist, and he stood up straight again, regaining his extra inch in height above his blond hero.
“Hey, uh,” he mumbled. “Thanks.”
“Got trained for a reason, right?” Prompto grinned. “I’m supposed to protect you.”
“Yeah, well—”
“I want to protect you.”
The admission made Noctis blush. Again.
He was definitely going to lose.
“So, I, uh. I found a doll.”
Prompto went to go take a picture of it, casually stepping over Kenny Crow on the way. He might have “accidentally” kicked him in the face as he did so, but if anyone ever asks him he won’t admit to it.
When he returned to Noctis and leaned in for his kiss, Noctis shook his head and offered Prompto’s cheek a kiss of his own. And then he bowed and looked up at Prompto from under his lashes and said, “My hero, Prompto.”
Prompto beamed beyond the flush on his cheeks.
“You can add another point for me.”
He definitely knew.
“I did.”
* * *
On their gondola ride to the arena, Prompto fell into his go-to position of crossing his legs and leaning all his weight into Noctis. Sparing him a glance, Noctis wondered how he was ever oblivious to Prompto’s feelings for him, because he always sat like this and holy shit if his body language wasn’t telling him everything he needed to know.
Now that they were together, Prompto must have had a confidence boost or something because halfway through the ride he sighed dramatically and let himself fall completely into Noctis’s lap. The loveseat they chose wasn’t really made for laying, but Prompto made himself comfortable enough with his knees in the air and his hands splayed out against his stomach.
When Prompto finished shuffling around, Noctis absentmindedly raised his hand and ran his fingers through the blond’s hair, letting his eyes drift over the far away festivities from their place on the elevated waterway. Prompto closed his eyes when Noctis fell into a rhythm, and he wrapped Noctis’s free hand within his own when it fell idly to his chest. Noctis could feel the steady, gentle beating of the blond's heart beneath his fingers, and it lulled him into a deep sense of relaxation and ease that had long ago become foreign to him.
For a moment, Noctis wondered if their potential PDA bothered the gondolier, but he figured the man had most likely seen couples make out back here before (or worse) and he probably found Noctis and Prompto pretty tame in comparison.
And since Noctis did not want to think about what might have happened on the loveseat he was currently relaxed in to, he let the thought drop entirely.
“You’re comfy,” Prompto mumbled, and while he found the whole thing very sweet, Noctis hoped Prompto didn’t fall asleep on him because one) they still had to go see the fireworks show that night, and two) if anyone got to take a nap it should be Noctis.
“Hey,” he said. “Don’t fall asleep.”
“M’not.”
“I’ll throw you overboard if you do.”
Prompto opened one eye and frowned at him. “You wouldn’t.”
“You wanna bet?”
“You won’t ‘cause then I’ll pull you in with me and your hair will get all messed up.”
“You think I care about my hair?”
Prompto closed his eye again and rolled over to bury his face in Noctis’s stomach. “You care about your hair just as much as I care about mine,” he said, his voice muffled by Noctis’s shirt. “Way too much.”
Noctis traced his hand up Prompto’s arm and gave in.
“You’re right.”
“’Course I am.”
* * *
Prompto found the fifth doll on his own.
When they reached the arena, Noctis knew the second he saw the chocobo plushes lined up behind the reward attendants that he had to win one for Prompto.
So while he was fighting cactuars and shooting down targets (something Prompto would have been ten times better at, but there was no way he was letting the blond win his own gift), Prompto went meandering about and spotted the doll up high on a pillar.
He snapped a photo and bounced up behind Noctis at the rewards stand, wearing a smug grin more commonly found on the prince. (Or Gladio).
“I found a doll all on my own,” he boasted. “Guess that means I should kiss myself.”
One of the attendants handed Noctis a chocobo plush as Prompto approached him, and he flipped around as fast he could while throwing it behind his back in the hopes that Prompto wouldn’t see it just yet. His heart threatened to pound right out of his chest, even more so when their eyes met, and Noctis huffed in a way he hoped would sound nonchalant (to keep up appearances) and also calm the circus in his chest at the same time (to avoid a sudden and humiliating death).
“Well, while you were off taking photos, camera boy, I chose to place my efforts elsewhere.”
“Yeah, Noct, I saw you playing games while I searched high and low all by myself.”
“If you’re not interested in what I won, then I guess I’ll just keep it for myself.”
Prompto’s eyes flashed with interest. “You won something?”
“I did,” Noctis said, and then he sighed and shrugged and drew out the rest of his words. “But if you don’t care…”
“Noooct.”
“Here,” Noctis conceded, and he shoved the plush into Prompto’s chest before he let himself get any more worked up about it. “It’s for, uh. You.”
Prompto gasped in a very squeaky, helium-filled like manner, his eyes widened in recognition, and he looked back and forth from the chocobo to Noctis like he might cry. Noctis really hoped he wouldn’t because he wasn’t totally sure how to deal with that sort of thing.
Locking the chocobo in a death grip in one hand, Prompto thankfully did not start crying and instead threw both his arms around Noctis and buried himself in the crook of his neck. A much preferred response, if Noctis had any say. Skin on skin contact with Prompto was always better without the saltiness of tears dividing them.
“Noct, I can’t—you did that—for me? Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Prompto repeated over and over. “I love it—I love you—I’m never gonna let it go.”
Noctis wrapped his arms around Prompto in return, pulling him in and rocking them back and forth until they were pressed together so tightly they’d have to fuse into each other to be any closer. He was half-tempted to try.
“I wanna kiss you so bad,” Prompto whined. “But I promised I wouldn’t until we found every doll.”
“S’okay,” Noctis said, and though part of him really wanted Prompto to throw his challenge to the wind and finally give him what they both wanted, a stronger part of him thought it’d be cheap to cheat when they only had one doll left.
“Ughh, why’d there have to be six moogles anyway?”
Prompto leaned back enough to meet Noctis’s gaze and pouted, until his violet-blue eyes glimmered with an idea and he started attacking Noctis’s face with kisses everywhere but his lips.
“Thank.” A kiss to his left cheek. “You.” Another to his right cheek. “So.” His nose. “Much.” His temple. “Noct.” His chin.
“Okay, okay,” Noctis laughed. He felt lightheaded and ticklish and kinda silly, but most of all he felt happy. “You’re welcome, Prompto.”
“Hey, Noct.”
“Yeah?”
Prompto pulled away and started a half-skip to the entrance, cuddling the chocobo to his chest and biting his lip as he eyed Noctis. “Let’s go find that last doll,” he said, and then he spun around and hurried for the doors in an attempt to spur Noctis into doing the same.
It felt like Prompto took all the air in Noctis’s lungs with him when he parted from his embrace, but Noctis found enough air left to breathe out a single word.
“Please.”
* * *
The sun was setting by the time they made it back to Listro Park.
Noctis reached a hand out to help Prompto off of the gondola, hopeful he wouldn't trip and knock them both to the ground. It was a justified concern, seeing as how the blond was heavily distracted clicking through his camera, searching for the photos he took of the contest's clues earlier in the day, not to mention his natural clumsiness that left Noctis diving for him more times than he could count.
With that in mind, Noctis moved his hand to rest on the curve of Prompto's back and guided him through the populated, lit-up park even after they safely stepped down on solid land.
“Home is an intrepid soul, seeking treasures unforetold,” Prompto read off his camera. “Perched atop his feathered friend, he ventures ‘round the riverbend.”
“So it’s on a chocobo," Noctis said. "‘Feathered friend,’ and all.”
“Guess so,” Prompto nodded. “And if he ‘ventures ‘round the riverbend,’ he’s… on one of the gondolas?”
“Which means we just have to find the gondola with a moogle on it.”
“Right… ‘cause that’s totally gonna be easy.”
Noctis shrugged and clapped Prompto's back, running down the closest flight of stairs two steps at a time and landing on the lower floor with an "Oomph!" He then tilted his head back to Prompto, the blond halfway down the stairs with his camera still hanging in his hands and his chocobo tucked under his arm, and shot him a confident, bright-eyed grin.
“Wouldn’t be a challenge if it was easy.”
* * *
“It’s Gentiana.”
“What?”
The irony that it was Noctis making unbelievable claims now did not escape him. Prompto spun around from his search to follow Noctis’s arm up to a nearby balcony, and his mouth gaped open at the sight of Gentiana standing amidst a sea of roses.
“What’s she doing here?”
Noctis took a page out of Prompto’s book and suggested she was just “seeing the sights?”, and while Prompto recognized the jab at his previously less than helpful answer, he ignored it and took a photo of their spirit friend instead.
“Wow, love the lighting!”
He meant it, too. The lights lining the buildings combined with the stars against the evening sky made Gentiana almost glow. It was sorta breathtaking.
“Come on, Prompto, let’s keep looking.”
“Yeah, right behind you!”
* * *
Noctis found the last moogle back at the beginning of it all, riding the gondola around the docks. Prompto almost screamed in relief when Noctis pointed it out, and he ended up snapping two pictures for good measure because it took so damn long to find.
They practically ran hand in hand back to the contest board, scrolling through the photos of all the dolls so fast the attendant had to ask them to calm down enough for him to see more than a series of blurs. Prompto took a very deep breath at that, and while he managed to get through all the photos slow enough for the attendant to see, he couldn’t stop his thumb from shaking against the buttons.
“Congratulations, sirs,” the man said. “You got them all.”
He handed them six choco-mog medallions (which meant they had more than enough for the fireworks voucher), and then he reached behind the stand and pulled out two hats.
“We’re only supposed to give out one free hat per photo collection,” he said, and then he leaned in and whispered, “so this is a secret between you and me, alright?”
Prompto shouted “Thank you!” in all the excitement, so Noctis kicked his foot in an attempt at subtlety and his voice fell to a whisper as he corrected himself, “Right. Sorry. Thank you!”
There was a chocobo face on the front side of the hat and a moogle face on the back, with little yellow wings on the sides and a bouncing red gem hanging off the top. Prompto took two seconds to squeal over how cute they were before he slammed one onto his head. Noctis wasted no time in reaching a hand out to take the other, but Prompto moved it out of his grasp in a split-second impulse and threw it onto Noctis’s head himself, yanking the visor forward as leverage and colliding his lips with Noctis’s own.
Noctis nearly moaned into the kiss, and to hell with his stupid game, he decided. He lost and he didn’t even care that he lost because Prompto’s chapped lips against his and Prompto’s trembling hands in his hair and Prompto himself were the only things that mattered.
His own hands reached up to cup the back of Prompto’s head, and he deepened their kiss without a care in the world for who saw.
* * *
When they redeemed their fireworks voucher, the gondolier assigned to them offered to bring them out onto the water a few minutes early, so they could find the perfect spot before the fireworks officially started. So they sat together on another loveseat, Prompto’s chocobo in his lap and his camera in his hands, guided through waters reflecting all shades of yellows and pinks and whites.
Noctis’s heart raced in anticipation. The night air was cool, even chillier on the water, and when his arm brushed Prompto’s and Prompto shivered Noctis sent him a worried glance and asked if he was okay.
“Just kinda cold,” Prompto said, and he tried to brush it off. “M’fine.”
Noctis rejected the obvious lie and shrugged his jacket off, swinging it around Prompto’s shoulders and letting his arm stay there to leave no room for protest.
“Now you’ll definitely be fine.”
“Won’t you be cold?”
“Not with you.”
Prompto pulled Noctis’s jacket tighter around his arms and leaned his head in the crook of Noctis’s neck. “I think I lost,” he mumbled, and Noctis shook his head, the tips of Prompto’s hair tickling his chin.
“Nah,” he said, and his voice buried itself in affection. “I lost.”
Fireworks lit up the sky above them, flashing every color of the rainbow with each popping noise that filled the air. Some of them burst in lines of sparkles. Others formed silhouettes of moogles and chocobos, fading away into the stars of the sky only to be replaced by more. It was loud and blinding and left a heavy feeling to the air, but neither of them paid such petty complaints a moment of their time. It was beautiful, and they were together, and that was the beginning and end to the checklist of things they cared about that night.
The lights danced off Noctis’s face, and Prompto shifted in his embrace just enough to hold his camera up and take a shot of Noctis’s profile, illuminated against the water. Noctis looked back at him when he heard the shutter, and he gestured for Prompto to hold the camera out farther while he pushed them even closer together.
Prompto got the idea, and they both beamed at the camera together before he clicked the snap button and saved their mutual selfie.
Leaning back in the loveseat, Noctis let a moment of impulsivity take over and readjusted their positions to slide Prompto over his lap and pull him flush against his chest. Prompto sunk into the embrace with ease, settling himself between Noctis's legs, and he nearly vibrated with happiness when Noctis wrapped his arms around his stomach and rested his chin in the curve of Prompto's shoulder.
They stayed like that for the rest of the show, Prompto taking photos of the fireworks from every possible angle he could manage without leaving the warmth of Noctis’s arms, and Noctis reveling in the rare contentment he felt, able to breathe easy buried in the presence of his freckled everything.
“I wish this moment could last forever,” Prompto confessed, when his arms grew tired of holding his camera high in the air and he dropped it to his lap, sinking further into Noctis's chest. "Sounds pretty corny," he laughed, like he expected a tease in response and wanted to play off the cheesiness of his words. "But it's what I feel."
“Mm... it is corny. But it’s s’okay, though. We’ll have more.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah,” Noctis said, quietly, and he took one of Prompto’s hands and rubbed absentmindedly at his fingers, tracing invisible lines over the skin until he finally interlaced them with his own and left them to rest atop his thigh. The fireworks continued to pop and light up around them, and he pressed his forehead against the crown of Prompto's head with a soft smile playing at his lips.
“I do.”