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Chapter Text

Noctis Lucis Caelum and Lunafreya Nox Fleuret were childhood sweethearts.

When Noctis was seven, his mother's health began to fail. The doctors advised that the warmer climate to the north-west might do her some good, and so it was arranged for Queen Aulea to go stay with the royal family of Tenebrae, who apart from being political allies were also close personal friends of the Caelums. It was decided that Noctis would go with her, in the hopes that he might forge friendships with the younger Nox Fleurets, Ravus and Lunafreya.

Noctis lived in Tenebrae for two years, his father visiting them as often as he could get away. Slowly his mother recovered her health, nurtured by Tenebrae's fresh air and the constant attentions of Sylva, who was not only queen of Tenebrae but also the Oracle, a very powerful healer with gifts from the Astrals themselves.

For Noctis, it was a change of pace. He and Luna and Ravus attended lessons with a tutor, and then they were free to walk the dogs and explore the mountains, finding perfect picnic spots among the syllablossoms and bringing bouquets and flower crowns home to their mothers. Ravus usually didn't come with them, and that was fine with Noctis.

"Someday, I'll be the Oracle," Luna told Noctis with confidence one afternoon while they were walking Umbra and Pryna. "Gentiana says so, anyway, and she's always right."

"Is she?" Noctis was skeptical. He'd seen the mysterious woman in the halls of Luna's manor, but hadn't had a chance to speak to her. Something about her was unsettling.

Luna nodded. "She's really nice! She's a Messenger from the Astrals, you know. She hears their voices more clearly than even my mother."

"Do they have anything to say?"

Luna shrugged. "Not to me. Not yet. But someday, once I'm older and Mother retires."

"You'll be a great Oracle," Noctis said, though he was paying more attention to Umbra and the dead mouse he'd found than their conversation, now. "You can come visit me in Insomnia, and I'll introduce you to Gladio and take you to all the best restaurants in the city."

"I'd like that," Luna smiled wistfully. There weren't many children around her own age, just Ravus. Having Noctis to play with was wonderful, and more friends would be even better.

"Then it's a deal." Noctis smiled at her, and held out his pinky. Luna beamed and hooked hers through it to seal the promise.

Just before Noctis' tenth birthday, Sylva declared that Aulea was well enough to return to Insomnia. Noctis found himself torn in two directions; he missed Insomnia and Gladio and getting to see his father every day, but he didn't want to leave Luna and Umbra and Pryna. (Ravus could go trip and die, though. He was a jerk.)

"We can write to each other," Luna promised, and gave him a beautiful journal bound in black leather, the pages inside alternating between lined and completely blank. "Umbra and Pryna are Messengers too, so they can bring letters back and forth even faster than the post would, and there's always texting too."

"I'll miss you, Luna," Noctis bit his lip, sternly telling himself he was much too old to cry.

"I'll miss you, too," Luna smiled, only a little watery herself. "Maybe we can visit again soon."

(They did, as often as they could, but it was a long trip between Tenebrae and Insomnia, and soon they both became very busy with growing up.)

Prompto Argentum became Noctis' best friend at age fourteen-and-a-half.

It was something of a miracle, actually, because in a roundabout way it was Luna who brought them together. Regis and Aulea had decided that instead of acquiring new tutors for Noctis once he passed primary school, they would send him to an actual, real school for junior high and high school with the hope he would learn to get along with his peers. He wasn't totally alone; he had Gladio and Ignis, but they were both in the grade above him. Everyone else was too in awe of Noctis' status as prince to talk to him much.

There wasn't anything quite as disheartening as his nervous classmates stuttering and calling him 'Your Highness' all the time.

And school was boring, anyway. Noctis spent most of his class time writing notes to Luna or dozing off sitting up.

Until one day at lunch, when Noctis was single-mindedly scooting all the carrots to one side of his stew, and someone came up and sat down beside him. Noctis looked up, expecting Ignis to tell him to eat his damn carrots, and instead he found himself staring into the face of a stranger.

A very nervous, but determined looking stranger, with a freckled nose and black-framed glasses and fine blond hair that stuck up in sixty different directions, like a chocobo's crest. There was a chocobo patch sewn onto his backpack, in fact, and a chocobo-shaped pin on the collar of his shirt. Noctis blinked. The other boy blinked back.

"...Hi," Noctis said finally. "Yes, I'm the prince."

"I know," the boy's voice cracked nervously, and he turned bright red, clearing his throat. "I'm Prompto."

"Okay..." Noctis tilted his head slightly. "What do you want?"

"Uh," now Prompto looked confused, picking absently at a loose thread on his sleeve. "...To eat lunch? With you?"

"Oh," Noctis shrugged. "Go for it, I'm not stopping you. Most people want, like, a picture or an autograph or for me to ask my dad for some ridiculous favour."

"That's stupid," Prompto said without thinking about it, frowning a little.

Noctis grinned. "Yeah, kinda. Hey, do you like carrots?"

"Sure, they're not bad," Prompto stopped and stared as the Crown Prince of Lucis started scooping all of his carrots into Prompto's bowl. "...Okay then."

Later, Prompto told him about rescuing Pryna, and Luna's letter. Noctis couldn't even be a little annoyed, because he didn't think he'd have become friends with Prompto without her. In return, he showed Prompto the journal he and Luna sent back and forth with the dogs, and Prompto's photos became a regular feature.

Nyx Ulric was a lot of 'firsts' for Noctis.

His first real crush, his first kiss, his first blowjob (giving and getting, holy shit), and his first official Kingsglaive. Not necessarily in that order.

He already had Gladiolus and Ignis, of course, but they were different. They had actual titles, Prince's Shield and Prince's Right Hand, guard and adviser. They were technically the first of his Kingsglaive, but they had different duties and would never really be included in the group that would grow into Noctis' personal royal guard.

The day after his sixteenth birthday, once all the celebrations both public and private were done, Regis called Noctis into his personal study. Clarus was there, and he stayed put when Regis gestured for Noctis to take a seat, and that's how Noctis knew this was going to be Official Royal Stuff.

"Noct,"Regis said, and Noctis' shoulders relaxed a little. Royal Stuff, but not like super serious Royal Stuff, then. Regis must have seen his posture shift, because he huffed a little but couldn't hide his smile. "Noct, you're old enough now that I think it's time you started building your Kingsglaive."

Noctis sat upright in a hurry. That was serious Royal Stuff. "You think?"

"I do," Regis chuckled. "Besides your Shield and Hand, and someday your Queen, your Glaives will be the men and women closest to you at all times. It doesn't hurt to begin building those bonds, those friendships early. I first met Titus when I was about your age."

Noctis tried to imagine Titus Drautos as a young man, fresh from Niflheim and staring at Insomnia's lights like a tourist, and gave up. "Prompto," he said instead.

Regis sighed, and instead of answering he shuffled around in his desk drawer and handed a smirking Clarus a ten-dollar note. "Mr. Argentum will be a part of your Kingsglaive, obviously, but that's not what I had in mind for the moment. He's very young, and has had no formal training. What you need, first, is a core to build your Glaive around. A leader. Someone who will step into Titus' role as Glaive Commander at the same time you step into mine as King."

"So what are you proposing, then?" Noctis frowned, stung at the insinuation that Prompto wouldn't make a good commander for his Glaive (even if it was kind of true; Prom would trip over himself trying to give orders).

"Pick one of my Glaive as your own, preferably one of the younger ones. It needn't be forever; if you find you don't work together well, you can select someone else until you find the right fit. If none of my current Glaive meet your needs, I'm sure Cor has some Crownsguard he'd recommend for the post."

"I guess it makes sense to start now then..." Noctis mused. He sat back in his chair. "...How do I know who to choose? How did you know to choose Drautos?"

"I didn't," Regis chuckled. "But there is I method that I found worked for me. Have you ever noticed that most of my Glaive aren't Lucian-born?"

Noctis blinked, took a quick tally of his father's Kingsglaive in his head and realized he was right. Accordan, Nif, Galahdian, Tenebraen... "Why?"

"Because," Regis said, and years and years later Noctis would look back on this as the most important advice his father ever gave him. "They don't follow me because I'm the King. They follow me because I'm Regis."

Noctis picked Nyx, and not entirely because Noctis already kind of had a crush on the swaggering young Galahdian and he looked really good in the Kingsglaive uniform. Mostly, he picked Nyx because the way Nyx looked at him reminded him of Prompto. Nyx respected his station as prince, to a point, but he wasn't in awe. He didn't bow and scrape. He called Noctis "Highness", just that one word, a warm twist to his lips that made the title into an endearment. When they were alone, and Noctis asked him to just call him by name, Nyx's little sardonic smirk widened into a full-blown smile.

"Noct," he said, with a little flourishing bow that would have been gravely insulting coming from anyone else.

Noctis knew he'd made the right choice.

And, well. Nyx was hot, and confident, and not intimidated by the fact that Noctis was the prince - that last one was important, and rare. Noctis could count those people on one hand. Ignis and Gladio, who were playing a fantastic game of Gay Chocobo and everyone seemed to realize it but them. Iris, who was adorable and a sweet girl, and Noctis was probably going to invite her into his Glaive when she got a little older but that was Gladio's sister and Noctis knew that prince or no he'd get murdered if he made a move on her. Luna, who Noctis missed so much that sometimes it physically hurt, but who was all the way in Tenebrae and had enough on her plate since she'd stepped up officially into her mother's place as Oracle. And Prompto, who was his very best and closest friend, and cute as hell, and it wasn't like Noctis had never thought of it or that his dick wasn't interested (it was), but he refused to risk that friendship over a boner. He was more confident that he could keep things professional with Nyx, even if the 'with benefits' part didn't work out.

Luckily, it worked out.

("Is that an order?" Nyx had asked the first time Noctis caught him alone, his voice low and gravelly. Noctis' heart had nearly stopped in horror before he saw the wicked gleam in Nyx's eye, recognized the teasing smile hiding in the twitch of his cheek. Noctis let out a wordless snarl, embarrassed at being so easily spooked, and grabbed Nyx by the collar to yank him down the short distance needed to kiss him. He hadn't been sure, up until that moment, that Nyx would even be receptive to that sort of relationship. He needn't have worried. Nyx's hands came up, one catching at the collar of Noctis' shirt, the other cupping around the back of his head to keep him close. He tilted his head, teeth nipping at Noctis' lower lip, and Noctis was fucking gone.)

For about six months things were blissful. It turned out Nyx did know the meaning of the word 'discretion', more or less, and it helped that it was literally his job to be with Noctis for most of the day, odd hours included. It was easy enough to steal moments for increasingly affectionate kisses, and Nyx patrolling the royal wing at midnight was an opportunity just begging to be exploited.

It was only a matter of time, really, and Noctis should have expected it, but somehow he didn't. Ignis came to drag him out of bed for an early morning meeting and let himself into Noctis' rooms, as he always did. His mind on other things and expecting to find Noctis still sound asleep, Ignis didn't bother to knock before opening his bedroom door and stepping in to catch Nyx literally with his pants down.

"...Hi." Nyx held Ignis' gaze defiantly, pulling his pants the rest of the way up and buckling them swiftly. It did absolutely nothing to hide the marks Noctis' teeth had left along his neck and shoulder.

"...Ah," Ignis cleared his throat, regathering his composure. "Good morning, Glaive Ulric."

Nyx grinned. "What, no lecture?"

Ignis stared him straight in the eye. "I believe I shall leave that to his father."

Nyx's expression froze, and on the bed Noctis choked and began trying to smother himself in a pillow. "Ignis!"

Ignis maintained his stony stare for all of five seconds before it cracked, a slight smile lifting the corner of his mouth and signalling that Nyx's heart could resume beating. "Noct, I have no desire to be in the room when His Majesty finds out you are sleeping with Sir Ulric." He paused, pushing his glasses up his nose. "That said, you are only seventeen-"

Noctis groaned and threw the pillow at Ignis' head. Nyx snatched his shirt and jacket from where he'd flung them over the back of a chair and fled.

It wasn't like Noctis was a bad kid, honestly, but he was, maybe, the tiniest bit spoiled. Growing up the only son of a peaceful and prosperous kingdom, he was used to getting what he wanted, even if he had to work a little for it first. Right now, this was exactly what he wanted.

And then, a month past his eighteenth birthday, events started to spiral out of control.

Luckily, they weren't exactly spiraling down.

First, Prompto officially joined Noctis' Glaive and began combat and warp training.

"C'mon Prom," Noctis laughed as his best friend reappeared in a shower of ash, narrowly missing tumbling into one of the stone pillars scattered around the warp training arena. "It's not that hard!"

"Says you!" Prompto whined, hauling himself back to his feet and bending to retrieve the short dagger he was using. "Some of us haven't had a connection to the Crystal since we were born."

A kukri came spiraling down from somewhere above them to lodge itself into the pillar, and Prompto managed not to flinch as Nyx appeared beside him in a similar shower of cinders and ozone. "You're doing good," Nyx reassured him, and Prompto was a little envious of the fact he didn't even seem out of breath. "You haven't puked yet, though I wouldn't try warping without your contacts."

Noctis nodded. "Ignis says warping with glasses is a Bad Idea, but warping without them is even worse. He face-planted into a tree and broke his own nose."

"He what?" Prompto gaped, remembering the couple weeks in high school when Ignis had basically disappeared from life and only communicated through text messages and audio calls. "Is that what happened? Wait- Ignis can warp?"

"Badly," Nyx snickered.

"Gladio and Iggy are both technically Glaive too," Noctis explained. "They both connected to the Crystal and swore to serve me, same as you. Ignis is really good with handling magic and spells, but not great at warping."

"I'm the other way around," Nyx added. "I can warp all day, but if I try to cast anything I end up setting myself on fire."

"What about Gladio?" Prompto pressed, imagining all the cool moves Gladio could probably pull with that giant sword of his. But for some reason, Nyx and Noctis both started snickering.

"For some reason, the Amicitia family is just really bad at warping. Dad thinks that way way back, they were chosen as the Line of Shields because they have a natural resistance to magic, and that makes it harder for them to handle magic themselves."

"Clarus and Gladio both heave up their guts if they try to warp," Nyx smirked. "I wouldn't believe it, except I've seen it myself."

Noctis muffled a laugh at the look on Prompto's face, all his preconceptions shattered. "C'mon Prom, let's call it a day and go over to the firing range for a bit. Nyx, wanna come?"

Nyx shrugged, sheathing his kukris and already popping the top clasps on his uniform jacket. "Sure, let's go."

Then, at some point, Nyx and Prompto started going for their morning runs together, since they both kept inviting Noctis and Noctis liked sleep way too much to get up in the morning for exercize, no matter who was doing the asking.

It was after one of these runs while they were washing up in the Kingsglaive locker room that Nyx's phone lit up with an alert. He grabbed a towel, wiping water off his face and hands as he walked over to scoop it up out of his bag. It was a text from Crowe, with a link to the website of one of Insomnia's most notorious tabloids. Bemused and expecting some ridiculous headline about the Kingsglaive plotting to overthrow the government, Nyx clicked to open the link. "Oh shit."

"What?" Prompto leaned over his shoulder, and went very quiet as he saw the photo, framed up under the banner headline - PRINCE NOCTIS HAS A BOYFRIEND?

The photo had clearly been taken with a zoom lens and blown up, but there was plenty of detail to identify Noctis, his head turned and profile clearly on display, his school bag slung over his shoulder and Nyx's hand resting protectively on his lower back. Nyx had his back fully to the camera, and he wasn't in uniform - he'd picked Noctis up from school, and they'd decided to stop for drinks at the cafe Nyx's old friend Pelna ran. But the metal and glass beads in Nyx's hair marked him as an obvious Galahdian, and it took less than a day for someone on the Mooglenet to dig up a press photo of Regis with Nyx standing guard behind him in full Kingsglaive uniform, his braids draped over his shoulder.

"Shit," Nyx said for what felt like the hundredth time in those twenty-four hours, staring down at his phone. Someone had put up a post of the two photos side-by-side, red circles and arrows highlighting all the identical beading patterns. "This is bad."

"Um," Noctis came over to lean against his shoulder. No one else had said anything, but the rest of the Glaive had been shooting them both long, amused looks all through training. Nyx went still. This was the first time Noctis had been this affectionate in public, and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to react, especially in the wake of this tabloid mess. He made a strangled sound, and Noctis settled his chin on Nyx's shoulder. Prompto was openly staring (Nyx wondered how Noctis possibly missed the longing look on his face), and Crowe was grinning at them like an idiot. "You know my dad sleeps with Clarus, right? Like full on old man gay sex? And my mom knows and totally doesn't care?"

Prompto started coughing, and Nyx choked on air. "I thought that was just tabloid rumour!"

The sly grin that curled across Noctis' face did nothing to reassure him. "Exactly." He shrugged, lacing his fingers together against Nyx's side, enjoying how warm his skin was after hard training. "It's only a scandal if we let it be a scandal, and my dad's really good at PR."

"So?" Nyx managed, forcing himself to stay focused on Noctis and not the rest of the Glaive loitering and openly watching whatever this was.

"So..." Noctis tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling, pretending to ponder. "If the media wants to think I'm dating my Glaive, let them. Though it might be the first time they've gotten something right."

And that was apparently that.

Except it wasn't, because there was Prompto.

To the northeast of Insomnia, a chain of islands formed the semi-autonomous region of Galahd. Nominally a part of Lucis, functionally they were self-governed by their own system of clans spread across the islands, with a council that met every month and traveled once a year to Insomnia to meet with the king. The landscape of Galahd was lush and wild, not inhospitable but almost too hospitable, the thick forests populated by mountain coeurls, venomous snakes and poisonous frogs, and a whole array of beautiful birds found no where else in the world.

According to Galahdian legend, long ago Ramuh walked among the islands. His lightning struck the trees, starting fires and displacing the birds, scorching and even killing them. Finally, one bird braved the storm and flew down to land in front of Ramuh, demanding that he stop his lightning from striking their trees.

Ramuh was impressed that this simple bird cared so much for her homeland and her fellows. He agreed to shield Galahd from the worst of his storms, and appointed her to be the guardian of the islands from that day forth. He strung beads on her tailfeathers to give her her name, Garuda, and she has protected the islands and all who step on them ever since.

The people of Galahd were few, especially compared to the vast population of Insomnia, but they had a distinct culture, an easy-going nature required to prosper in lands so wild. They were a proud people; in Insomnia you could mark a Galahdian by the tiny tattooed bird feet, the beaded braids in their hair. The position and number of tattoos, the pattern and materials of their beads, marked all kinds of things about where they grew up, what they had accomplished, who their family was, if you knew how to read the code.

It often rained in Galahd, Garuda's wind bringing clouds off the sea to douse her children in warm rain. If you lived on the islands, you got used to the wet. But today it was coming down even harder than usual, pounding on the tin roof of the bar hard enough that the barman didn't think his cook would hear him even if he yelled.

He was a tall man, solidly built with a square jaw and ashen hair, most of it left to hang loose except for the gather of braids he wore on one side. There were no customers with the storm, so he leaned against the bar with his chin on one hand, idly flipping through last week's edition of Insomnia Now!. Trashy tabloids were a guilty pleasure for him, so he had them delivered every week along with his produce imports. He could just browse them instantly on his phone, but there was just something great about the old-fashioned blurry newsprint that made them feel more authentic.

He stopped, staring down at the two-page spread in front of him, sure that he was seeing things.

But no. He'd know those beads anywhere, couldn't help reaching up to finger the carved tube of copper that hung at the end of one of his own braids. He and Nyx had gone through their Trial at the same time, the only two in their year. Thirteen summers old during the Solstice Festival they'd climbed to Garuda's Temple, spread their arms to receive the winds' blessing. He still remembered the feeling of bubbling joy, the wind sharp in their faces and Nyx laughing in wild abandon. When they turned away from the cliff at last, breathless and grinning, the beads had been waiting on the altar behind them, gleaming in the sunlight where there had been no beads before.

He and Nyx were the only two people alive with those exact beads.

"Hot damn," Libertus couldn't help the silly grin spreading across his face. "Nyx what the hell have you gotten into?"

"It's the saddest thing I've ever had to watch."

Crowe looked up from her latte and arched an eyebrow. Usually, she drank coffee black - even the sludge that came out of the ancient, eldritch machine in the Kingsglaive off-duty lounge. But once a week (usually Thursday, for various reasons) she and Nyx exercized their rights as Senior Glaives and ditched training to hang around in Pelna's cafe and shoot the shit instead. In Crowe's opinion, Pelna was the only person in Insomnia capable of making a drinkable latte, so his were the only ones she drank.

Pelna's cafe was experiencing a slight surge in popularity since the prince had been spotted there on multiple occasions, but he still kept a booth set aside for them. He and Nyx had bonded during Nyx's very first week in Insomnia, when the lights and the noise really got to him and he was seriously questioning his decision to move to the city in the first place. He'd been walking through the streets in a pouring rainstorm one evening, one argument with Drautos away from buying a ticket back to Galahd and telling Libertus he was right and Nyx should never have left.

But then he'd heard music drifting through the night, real music with drums like the pounding raindrops and the soaring whistles of pan-pipes, and his head came up. Ahead of him, standing out like a bright jewel among the drab, tightly shut buildings on either side, he saw the cafe. All the windows were wide open, in defiance of the Insomnians and their weird aversion to getting wet despite living on a man-made island, and colour and light and blessed Galahdian music spilled out. As Nyx got closer, his heart already finding the rhythm of the drums, the rhythm of home, he could see the young man who turned out to be Pelna perched on one of the counters, legs crossed around his drum to hold it steady and grinning like the sun. In front of him, the tables and chairs had been pushed back, and a handful of men and women spun in a dancing circle, patterns Nyx didn't quite recognize, but knew like an old friend.

He pushed the door open, the bell jingling even over the music. The girl playing the pipes stopped to blink at Nyx owlishly, and a couple of the dancers paused long enough to give him searching looks - him standing dripping in the doorway in his black Kingsglaive- issue overcoat, hungry for something that wasn't food. But Pelna just beamed. "Good to have you, brother!" And as soon as the rest of them got a good look at the beads in Nyx's hair, the tiny sparrow tracks down his throat that marked his clan, the suspicion melted like sugar under the rain.

Most of them were from Galahd itself, the largest island in the chain, and Nyx's clan inhabited one of the smaller ones, but they welcomed him in with open arms anyway. They taught him the dance they'd been doing when he walked in - it was the Dance of Windswept River, which Nyx knew, but apparently half the steps varied from island to island.

He hadn't laughed so hard in weeks, stumbling through the dance steps like he hadn't since he was small and still learning what his feet were, and he never thought about moving back to Galahd again. When Crowe arrived the next year - bitter and stubborn after another fight with Libertus and determined to follow in Nyx's jumping footsteps if it killed her - Pelna offered to give her a place to stay until she could find her feet.

"It's so sad," Nyx continued, taking a sip of his own coffee. (Cream and sugar for him; he didn't quite have Noctis' sweet tooth but he wasn't about to drink the engine oil that Crowe called coffee either.) "Prompto keeps giving him these looks, and Noct is completely oblivious. It's worse than watching Scientia and Amicitia, I swear."

"Huh," Crowe contemplated that. "Have you ever considered that you're the problem?"

"Wait, what?" Nyx sighed, resisting the urge to thunk his head down on the table. "Oh, because Noctis and I have a Thing."

"And Prompto is a sweetheart who wouldn't want to get in the way." Crowe nudged her foot against Nyx's under the table. "So honestly, I think this is on you."

"You just want to watch the resulting chaos," Nyx growled, but he knew she was right. Garuda damn her, she was right. "Here's the problem," he glanced around, making sure no one was close enough to really overhear. The last thing he needed right now was another tabloid scandal. "I don't exactly want to give up my Thing with Noct."

Crowe snorted. "You're not the type to move aside gracefully in the face of True Love," she agreed, and then watched the way the expressions twitched across Nyx's face. Now that was interesting. She leaned forward, latte almost forgotten and suddenly a lot more sympathetic. "Nyx, are you in love? I thought you were just..."

"I don't know," Nyx hissed at her before she could go any further, wiggle her way any deeper into motivations he still didn't understand himself. "I like things the way they are now. But Prompto's a good kid, he deserves a chance."

"With Noctis, or with you?" Crowe arched an eyebrow again, thinking of the way Nyx had taken Prompto under his wing the moment the younger man had officially joined the Glaive. She grinned when Nyx's eyes widened, like that angle hadn't quite occurred to him. "Or both?" She waggled her eyebrows suggestively, and laughed at the flush that spread across Nyx's cheeks. "Hmmm, I might pay to see that; Noctis Lucis Caelum with a man on each arm..."

"If you guys are going to gossip so loudly," Pelna paused by their table, arms full of a tub of dirty dishes. "Please don't do it here. I have enough reporters hanging around as it is."

"Aww, Pelna, I thought you wanted more customers?" Crowe teased, mercifully turning her attention away from Nyx. He had enough to think about as it was.

Nyx spent most of the rest of the week mulling over his conversation with Crowe. She might have been halfway to teasing with her 'suggestion', but now it was jumping up and down and waving flags in Nyx's face. He'd been noticing for awhile the way Prompto kept stealing long looks at Noctis, the way he shivered every time Noctis slung an arm around him or leaned against his shoulder. But now, Nyx started paying attention to the way Prompto looked in regards to himself.

And holy hell, he'd thought Noctis was being dense, but apparently he had no room to talk.

Well then, he thought. To hell with it.

It took him another week to decide what he was going to do. And Nyx wasn't exactly a subtle person, in public or in private. To be honest, this Thing with Noctis was the most serious relationship he'd had in years (and the longer it went on, the harder it was to deny that it was a relationship, no matter what either of them chose to call it). And after pondering all the different polite, proper, diplomatic angles he could have gone at it, he shrugged and threw them all away. Direct was what got results, so direct it would be.

"I think Prompto has a crush on me," Nyx said, as casually as he could manage. It was late in the evening, he was off duty for the night, and he and Noctis were sitting together on the balcony in Noctis' suite, watching the last rays of sunlight disappear behind the mountains far to the west.

Noctis snorted, heavy and drowsy where he was leaning against Nyx's shoulder. "Anyone who's seen you with your shirt off has a crush on you."

"Including Drautos?" Nyx grinned at the way Noctis wrinkled his nose, and pinched him lightly on the thigh. "I'm serious, Noct."

"Well..." Noctis chewed on his lower lip. He was still leaning against Nyx's shoulder, but a little more hesitantly, not nearly as sleepy as he'd been ten seconds before. "What do you want to do about it?"

"That's what I'm asking you," Nyx paused, laced his fingers together with Noctis'. "Because anything I decide to do, I don't want to lose this," he squeezed Noctis' hand lightly, watched a flush spread across his cheeks. "And it effects you too, because I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one Prom's got a monster crush on."

Noctis made a sound low in his throat, burying his face in Nyx's shoulder. Nyx grinned, but let him have the time he needed to think. The sun was truly gone now, so Nyx laid back to stretch out on the cool stone and watch the stars come out overhead, pulling Noctis down until the prince's head was resting on his chest. Noctis wiggled a little, but then settled, one arm draped over Nyx's stomach. There weren't as many stars in Insomnia as there were in Galahd. The ever-present lights that gave the city its name drowned out all but the brightest and most determined. Nyx amused himself by filling in the gaps, mentally tracing the constellations he could only barely make out.

For awhile they lay in comfortable silence, until Noctis mumbled into his neck. "So, what? Threesome?"

"Sure, why not?" The casual answer must have surprised him, because Noctis shifted against his side, and Nyx tightened his arm around his back. "Noct, when you lured me into your bedroom and kissed me while I was on duty I had no idea what the fuck it was going to lead to. For whatever reason, you decided to take a chance. Why not do it again?"

Noctis paused, then murmured in a small voice. "He's my best friend. I don't want to risk it."

"And I'm disposable?" Nyx should probably have been offended, but mostly he felt amused instead. And Noctis huffed, breath warm against Nyx's neck.

"No, idiot, but if you'd decided you didn't want to fuck me, we could have both taken two steps back and no harm done, right? But Prom, he's... it's complicated."

Hidden in the deepening darkness, Nyx smiled, one hand coming up to run gently through Noctis' springy hair. "Because you love him?" He felt Noctis tense against his side, but tightened his hold and pressed on anyway. "Or because of Lady Lunafreya?"

It wasn't official yet, but Regis and Aulea had been in talks for months about arranging for a royal engagement between Noctis and Lunafreya. Nyx knew that Noctis detested most of the eligible Insomnian girls of sufficiently high rank, and of course there was the history he had with the Tenebraen princess. Nyx had yet to actually meet her; by the time he'd joined Noctis' Glaive, Lunafreya was so busy with her new duties as Oracle that she and Noctis had to settle for writing. Umbra seemed to like him alright though, always wagging his tail and leaning against Nyx's legs begging for scritches when he visited to deliver their correspondence, so Nyx figured that must be a mark in his favour. And in the last few months, Nyx had been on duty to overhear a few phone calls between Noctis and Lunafreya, enough to know that Noctis definitely didn't object to the idea of marrying her, maybe even looked forward to it. She still held a big place in Noctis' heart, even if they hadn't been able to see each other as often as they wanted recently.

Noctis propped himself up on one elbow to stare down at Nyx, breaking him out of his thoughts. Even in the darkness, Nyx could see the look of disbelief on his face. "Because... you idiot." And then he leaned down, and he was kissing Nyx like - and okay, yeah, maybe Nyx was an idiot.

"Noctis," he breathed when they broke the kiss, not letting him pull back too far. He still had one arm wrapped around Noctis' waist, his free hand curled at the back of his head. He licked his lips, and watched Noctis' gaze flick down to follow the motion. "If it's me you're worried about, don't be. I've always figured this was a temporary thing."

"What?!" Noctis surged upright, breaking out of Nyx's hold. For a second Nyx lay there with empty arms, then he sighed and sat up as well. This was not the conversation he'd planned to have tonight, but here they were.

"Calm down, I'm not going anywhere. I swore an oath to you for life, remember?" Nyx reached out, rested his hand on the hunched curve of Noctis' shoulder. "I'll always be your Glaive, but we can't exactly keep fooling around once you get engaged."

"Why not?" Noctis twisted to face him, jaw set in that mulishly stubborn look he definitely inherited from Regis. "I don't care about any fucking scandal, Nyx. They're going to say things about me whether I'm actually in bed with you or not. I'm not going to stop just because-"

"I think you owe it to Lady Lunafreya to be a proper husband," Nyx interrupted as gently as he could, despite the twist of pain in his chest.

That shut Noctis up, his eyes going wide as though he hadn't thought about that. Then his expression melted a little, chewing on his lower lip. He sunk over to lean against Nyx's side again, and Nyx sighed and wrapped his arm around him, soothing a hand over his shoulder. What had been his point with this, again? "You're nineteen, Noct. Time to do some growing up."

For a few minutes the two of them sat in silence, and Nyx tried not to feel regret. Noctis wasn't his, and he'd always known that, but damn if he hadn't gotten attached.

Then Noctis seemed to reach a decision, because he sat up straighter, eyes fixed on some distant point on the horizon, the lights of Insomnia dancing below them.

"Dad told me once that kings and queens have to be both the most selfless and selfish people on the planet. Selfless, because we have to live for our people and their happiness, do whatever it takes to keep them safe. But kings and queens are still people, and they have to be selfish too, keep a few things just for themselves, or they won't be able to handle the strain of rule."

He must have sensed Nyx about to say something, and held up a hand to stall him. "You're my selfish thing, Nyx. You and Prom, and a little bit Iggy and Gladio too. You guys are mine, and you make me happy. I love Luna, but I love Prompto too, and I love you, Nyx. And if... if Luna can't handle that, then I'll find another queen."

Nyx swallowed hard around the lump in his throat, and reached out to tug Noctis back into his arms. Noctis fell against him, and for another moment they sat there, breathing in each other.

"...So," Nyx finally managed, and had to clear his throat. "...About Prompto."

Noctis grinned against his throat, bright and wicked, and Nyx realized oh yeah, this was love. "Threesome."

Chapter Text

It wasn't quite as simple as that, of course.

Now that they were on the same page - at least about Prompto, and how cute his ass was - Nyx and Noctis fell into easy conspiracy. Over the next week, they discussed and discarded a dozen different plans.

("I'll pretend to be faint, and let Prompto catch me, and then-" "Noct, you never faint, and if you pretend to after warping practice Ignis will think you're dying." "Fine, then what's your idea?" "Let's dangle a new camera...")

But in the end, it happened at the spur of the moment.

It was late on a Friday afternoon, and the Glaives were finishing up a warp training session that had devolved into a game of tag. If anyone (that is, Clarus) asked, they would say they were testing their stamina, how many warps they could do in a row before they face-planted into stasis, but even Drautos would admit that yeah, it was a game of tag. A game of tag that even he got into, that particular day, and he was a force to be reckoned with because he usually fought with a sword and could fling training daggers three-quarters of the way across the training arena when he chose to.

Noctis showed up just at the tail end and paused in the shadows, watching. In some ways, being the prince was still isolating even inside the Citadel, because he was pretty damn sure that Drautos would not be laughing like that as he tried to pin Nyx's scarf with a dagger if he knew that Noctis was watching. Nyx was grinning like an idiot too, doing his best to stay one step ahead of his former boss as they pinged between stone pillars like pinballs.

Ten meters above them, Prompto, Crowe, Tredd and Axis were hopping back and forth on the tops of the pillars, half-tag, half-balancing act. Crowe and Axis were blatantly cheating, using a Galahdian wind-blessing that Noctis still hadn't managed to get Nyx to properly explain to him to spend far more time hanging in the air than they had any right to. The rest of Regis' Glaives were at floor level, no one quite daring to warp upward in case they ran smack into Drautos and Nyx's path.

Everyone was panting and sweaty from a good session, half of them had shed their uniform coats already and the sun was low enough it was casting long shadows across the arena. Hanging from halfway up a pillar, Drautos squinted up at the sky, then pulled his dagger free and let himself drop to the ground instead of warping again, signaling they were done for the day. Several Glaives flopped to the dusty ground right where they stood with dramatic groans.

Nyx laughed, still hanging from a pillar himself, and then twisted around to look upward when a shadow appeared over him. It turned out to be Crowe, smirking and running with unfair lightness down the vertical face of the pillar toward him. Nyx's laugh turned into a squawk of surprise and he flung his second kukri on instinct to warp away from her. She smirked in triumph and snatched his first one from the pillar on her way past, landing easily on the ground and flipping it around to offer back to him, hilt first. He rolled his eyes and took it, ruffling a hand over her hair.

"Um..."

Everyone looked upward, squinting against the sun at Prompto, still perched on top of one of the pillars. He waved. "Can someone toss me an ether so I can warp down?"

"Just jump," Nyx called up to him. "I'll catch you!"

Prompto leaned over to look down at him. "That's twenty meters, man."

Nyx grinned, visible even at the distance. "Do you trust me?"

Prompto chewed on his lower lip for a moment, then jumped. Nyx pursed his lips, and a step behind him, Crowe did too, and they both whistled a high, clear note that resonated and carried on the sudden upswell of air that caught Prompto mid-fall. He flailed a little in surprise, and the gust wasn't enough to catch him, but it slowed his fall enough that he whumped into Nyx's arms much more lightly than he would have, enough that Nyx actually caught him and wasn't knocked to the ground.

"What the hell?!" Prompto didn't screech, but it was a near thing, and Nyx laughed and lowered him to his feet, keeping a hand on his shoulder to steady him. "I didn't know we could do that!"

"We can't," Nyx said, tugging lightly on the collar of Prompto's Glaive uniform. "We can. Well, we can ask." He gestured at himself and Crowe this time, and then flicked his hand sideways to encompass where Axis was standing with another Galahdian Glaive. "It's a blessing, for those of us that seek it."

Prompto blinked at him, wide-eyed. "...Huh. So you... asked the wind to catch me? What if it had decided not to?"

Nyx shrugged. "I would have broken my tailbone when you knocked me on my ass." Prompto squawked in protest, and Nyx burst out laughing again, slinging his arm around the younger man's shoulders. "It's fine! Come on, let's go get cleaned up."

Prompto was definitely blushing, especially as Nyx kept his arm around his shoulders as they walked toward the showers. Nyx caught sight of Noctis still lurking in the shadows and raised an eyebrow fractionally. Noctis jerked his thumb upward, and Nyx nodded understanding.

By the time they'd finished washing and changing, Noctis was gone. Nyx caught Prompto's elbow before he could leave. "Hey, want to come grab dinner with me and Noct? He said something about a video game tourney?"

Prompto grinned, earlier embarrassment apparently forgotten. "Oh man, that sounds great. All I wanna do is collapse on his couch and not move again ever."

"That does sound good," Nyx agreed. "Until training Monday morning." Prompto groaned, and Nyx snickered. "Go on up to Noct's rooms, I'll grab some food and catch up with you." He saw the question on Prompto's lips and winked. "What Ignis doesn't know about dinner won't hurt us."

Prompto brightened with a nod and practically skipped off toward the elevators. Nyx watched him go, then pulled out his phone to text Noctis and warn him that Prompto was indeed on his way up. He took his time, actually leaving the Citadel to grab skewers from one of his preferred Galahdian stands. He didn't get a text back from Noctis, which hopefully meant things were going well. Though Nyx wouldn't be disappointed if he got back and they really were just playing video games; Prompto was right about collapsing on the couch and not moving ever again.

All told, it was almost half an hour later that he strolled down the corridor toward Noctis' rooms, a bag of delightfully greasy and spicy skewers cradled in one arm. He fished out his keys with the other - Noctis had long ago given him one to his private suite. He stopped for a moment to listen at the door, but this was the Citadel and almost everything in the royal quarters was heavy, old wood and stone, deliberately soundproofed, or both. Nyx shrugged and unlocked the door.

"I'm back!" he called as he stepped inside, and heard Prompto squeak and the sudden rustle of cloth from around the corner in the living area. Nyx headed in that direction, not even trying to hide his grin.

The television was on, the video game console's menu music toodling along, but the controllers were laying abandoned on the coffee table. Noctis was sitting on the floor with his back against the couch, both hands curled in Prompto's belt to keep him from bolting at Nyx's appearance. Prompto was straddling his lap, his knees on either side of Noctis' hips. His Kingsglaive jacket was tossed almost at Nyx's feet, and he was hurriedly pulling his t-shirt down and trying to flail off Noctis' lap without kicking him. "N-nyx!" Prompto's voice cracked in his panic and he swallowed, his face bright red. "I- shit, I didn't mean to-"

"I did," Noctis said, tugging harder on Prompto's belt. "Prom, quit it- Stay-"

Nyx shook his head in amusement, setting the bag of skewers down on the coffee table. He was still wearing his own boots and jacket, which wasn't ideal, but Prompto was going to have a heart attack if they drew this out, he suspected. He stepped over Noctis' legs and dropped down behind Prompto, Noctis' bony shins digging into his thighs. He shifted a little, wrapped his arms around Prompto's waist to help hold him down on Noctis' lap and pressed his chest right up against Prompto's spine. "Stay," he echoed, his lips nearly against Prompto's ear, and felt him shudder in surprise.

Noctis leaned back against the couch a little, watching them both with a lazy smile, his eyes half-lidded and beautiful. He reached up to thread one hand in Prompto's hair and pull him in, and with Nyx leaning against his back Prompto didn't resist. He made a low, pleading sound into the kiss, and then a louder one when Nyx's teeth found the crook of his neck.

"There we go," Nyx murmured against his neck, shifting a little more firmly against Prompto's back now that he wasn't about to spook. "We've got you, Prom."

"A-apparently," Prompto let out a slightly high-pitched laugh when Noctis let him up for air, his cheeks still burning pink. "This is really happening... right?"

Noctis huffed laughter, lips curling lazily. "Damn right it is, but not on the floor. Nyx, you're heavy."

"It's all muscle," Nyx protested, but he rolled off Noctis' legs to settle beside him instead, and took the opportunity to start unlacing his boots. He nodded at the bag he'd brought in. "Skewers, done Caicias-style, even. Eat."

Prompto swallowed, still off-balance as Noctis dove for the bag. "This is..."

"Domestic?" Nyx guessed, and reached out to grab Prompto's wrist and drag him down between him and Noctis. "Get used to it."

Heat flooded Prompto's face again as he looked back and forth between them. "But you two are..."

"Uh huh," Nyx tried to be patient as he leaned in to steal a kiss of his own. Sooner or later, Prompto would get it. It might take several days, and lots of kisses, a blowjob or two, and the condoms Noctis had stashed in his bedside table, but he'd get it eventually.

(He did.)

On Noctis' twentieth birthday, he held a press conference on the steps of the Citadel.

Prompto figured he'd be announcing his engagement to Luna, which everyone in Noctis' inner circle had known about for almost a year, so he didn't bother to ask Noctis ahead of time what he'd be saying.

He and Nyx were both on duty, and it felt weird to be standing on this side of the camera flashes. Gladio and Clarus were flanking the podium, standing at easy parade rest while they waited for Noctis and his parents to descend the Citadel steps, and Prompto really hoped he got a chance to take pictures of Gladio in actual formal armour before the man shed it in every direction the second he was allowed to. Prompto was further back and to one side with a fair view of the press corp, mirrored by Crowe on the king's side and members of the Crownsguard around the edges.

He was focused on watching the press and the crowds behind them for any sign of trouble, but he knew as soon as the royal family stepped into view, because the press photographers started going crazy. Later on he got to see the photos and the footage; Noctis in his sleek suit and half-cape and a pair of elegantly tooled wyvern-leather bracers that Prompto found out were a birthday gift from Cor. Regis and Aulea walked a step behind him, arm in arm and with genuinely warm, proud expressions.

(The newspapers all talked about how calm and dignified Noctis looked; Prompto could tell he was dying of nerves and pretending to be Ignis instead, but at least that translated into 'dignity'!)

Nyx and Drautos had followed the royal family out and took their positions at the top of the staircase, where they could see almost the entire crowd and all their own men. If any trouble started, they'd be in a good position to see what needed to be done to quell the threat, while the Shields took charge of the monarchs' immediate protection. Nyx and Drautos were also capable of warping in closer very quickly, so it made sense to station them the furthest back. Prompto broke parade rest only very briefly to glance back and make sure they were where he expected them to be, then returned to his passively neutral watch. When he was in uniform, he might as well be a part of the building as far as the public was concerned, but Prompto was finding he kinda liked that. It was easier to concentrate when he knew he was part of the backdrop, and no one was really looking at him.

The Caelums paused to let the press get a few good photos of all three of them, and then Noctis stepped up to the podium. As he prepared to speak, there was a slight disturbance in the crowd about twenty feet back from the press line.

Prompto tensed, saw Gladio doing the same out of the corner of his eye, stance shifting subtly in case he needed to bodily shield Noctis. Prompto's arms shifted behind his back, his left hand flicking the catch on the sheath around his right wrist, loosening his throwing daggers in case he needed to snatch one and warp even as his gaze zeroed in on the commotion.

It was a group of teenage girls, young and rowdy and excited, nudging and goading each other until they all took a deep breath and screamed in slightly ragged unison, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOUR HIGHNESS!!"

Laughter rippled through the parts of the crowd close enough to hear, and Prompto relaxed. The press even got a few good pictures of Gladio snickering, and Noctis blushing pink, thrown off the start of his speech by the unexpected well wishes. "Uh, thank you?" He cleared his throat and managed a smile, and Prompto absolutely did not envy his place in the spotlight at all. "Thank you. And thank you all for coming today; if it was me I'd probably just stay in bed and watch it on tv."

Another ripple of laughter, and Prompto could have sworn he caught Clarus twitching like he wanted to pinch Noctis. Regis was still beaming in pride.

Noctis glanced down at the notes on the podium, then squared his shoulders and looked up to properly face his audience. Suddenly it was the Crown Prince of Lucis standing on the steps in place of the slightly slouching Noctis Lucis Caelum, and an eerie sort of hush fell over the entire square. Noctis had made short speeches and addresses before, usually during banquets or tacked onto the end of Regis' appearances. This was the first time he'd headlined a press conference on his own.

"I've been very fortunate to grow up in Lucis, in Insomnia, during a time of peace and prosperity that's almost unrivaled. But I've studied our history, and I know that peace can cost a lot; a lot of labour, a lot of time and effort, a lot of diplomacy and understanding. And peace is an agreement, too, not just between nations, but between you and me. As prince, and someday as king, part of my job is to understand the people I rule. Otherwise, how can I make decisions for the good of the kingdom?"

He paused to flip a page in his notes, and Prompto marveled at how silent such a huge crowd could be, waiting for his next words.

"For a thousand years, there has been a tradition in the line of Lucis. Maybe some of you have forgotten, because it's been awhile since the last royal heir turned twenty." (A few laughs from the crowd, and the press cameras caught Clarus smirking this time, and Regis grinning as he bowed his head in concession to his son's words.) "For the next year, from today until I turn twenty-one, this year is not for me, it's for you. I'll be leaving Insomnia to travel; from Galahd to Galdin Quay, the Vesperpool to Alstor Slough and everything in between. I need to learn how people live, what they eat, how they party, so I can begin to learn how to lead them."

He paused again, and there was a tentative cheer from the crowd. But Noctis flashed a quick grin and held up a finger. "Sorry, not quite done. That was only half the big announcement. Maybe I should have led with this, but as of this morning I, Noctis Lucis Caelum, am engaged to be married to Lunafreya Nox Fleuret of Tenebrae."

There was no stopping the roaring cheers this time, and Noctis conceded defeat, falling silent while he waited for the noise and yelling to die down enough for him to speak again. For Prompto's part, he was hearing the words but not letting himself think about them too much right now, too concentrated on doing his job. There would be time to freak out about travel plans Noct hadn't told him about once the conference was over and they were all safely back in the Citadel.

"Moreover," Noctis continued once he could be heard again. "Luna and I will be making this journey together. She's on her way to Insomnia as we speak, and after an engagement ball next week, we'll be setting out. Our wedding will be roughly a year from now, in Tenebrae. She feels as strongly as I do that connecting with our people is important, and so we look forward to meeting you all. So..."

He smiled, and watching the footage later, it took Prompto's breath away as for the first time he could remember, he saw both sides at the same time; both Noct and the Prince grinning at the crowd, raising a hand in a lazy salute. "See you on the road."

The crowd roared, but Noctis didn't wait, turning away from the podium and bowing slightly to his parents as they parted to let him up the steps. Regis and Aulea stayed back to answer a handful of questions, mostly with enigmatic 'there will be further details later's or 'you'll see's.

Gladio had pivoted to follow Noctis back up the steps, and Prompto fell in at his other shoulder. They climbed the steps in silence, not that they could have heard each other over the rising noise of the crowd now that the press conference was over and they were free to discuss and dissect. Nyx waited for them on the top step, still at parade rest but grinning like an idiot. He finally broke form to clap Noctis on the shoulder as he pulled the Citadel door open with his other hand.

"You did good," Nyx said as the four of them walked into the relative quiet of the entry hall; even the Crownsguard usually stationed here were outside to help direct the crowd. Out of habit, they all turned down the hall toward the locked elevators that would take them up to the council chambers and private studies and, beyond that, the royal quarters. "I wish I'd been closer."

"There were some pretty epic facial expressions," Prompto confirmed. "I hope somebody got good photos."

"I'm positive I heard mom laughing," Noctis mused, just relieved that the whole thing was over and done with. He fished his phone out of a hidden pocket somewhere in his suit and dialed as they all piled into an elevator. Nyx swiped his I.D. card to unlock it and the doors slid closed with a chime.

"Iggy, what the hell, I haven't seen you in like eight hours." Noctis complained into his phone as the elevator swept them all upward. Gladio was trying to wiggle his way out of his ceremonial pauldrons without whacking any of the rest of them in the head, and Nyx and Noctis both swatted at his hands.

"My apologies," Ignis' voice sounded tinny through the speaker. "I've been trying to iron our plans as smoothly as possible, and I didn't think you'd need me hovering with your father already there. I caught it on the television though, you did very well."

"Thanks," Noctis smiled, and Gladio leaned over his shoulder.

"Hey Specs, are you in the Citadel? His Majesty wants a private word with the travel party, minus the beautiful bride, of course."

"I'm in my office," Ignis confirmed. "Shall I meet you in the king's study?"

"Please." Noctis hung up and tucked the phone back into his pocket.

Prompto chewed on his lower lip for a moment, then decided he couldn't take having the door of the king's study shut in his face, and leaned over to punch the elevator button for the private quarters. He'd wait in Noctis' room, or something.

"Hey," Noctis caught his wrist before he could hit the button, and raised his eyebrows. "Where do you think you're going?"

"...Not on a roadtrip?" Prompto guessed, and Noctis and Gladio gave him almost identical disbelieving looks.

"Proooooooom!" Noctis draped his arm over Prompto's shoulder and dragged him against his side, burying his face briefly in the shoulder of his uniform. "Of course you're coming! I wanted to surprise you, and then sorta forgot you'd be on duty and hear it all anyway."

Prompto relaxed, and shot an amused look at Nyx. "Even Noct thinks we go deaf when we hit stance."

Nyx snickered and Gladio burst into laughter. "Better for us, maybe he'll let important intel slip."

Prompto nodded solemnly, Noctis still draped dramatically against his shoulder. The 'Kingsglaive plotting to overthrow the government' headline still came up when the tabloids were having a slow week, and it had become something of a running gag among them.

The elevator reached the office floor and the doors slid open. They met Ignis coming out of his own office, shuffling through a folder full of papers, and Noctis let them into his father's study. It was a fairly large room, cozy, designed to be a place that Regis could confer with his most trusted in both security and comfort. Ignis dropped his file on the king's desk as Nyx crossed to open the curtains and let some light into the room. Prompto hadn't been in here nearly as often as the others, and perched on the edge of a settee positioned to one side of the door. He relaxed a little when Ignis patted his shoulder on his way past to help Gladio out of the last of his Shield armour, when Nyx came to sit beside him and offer him a reassuring smile.

Noctis circled around behind the big desk, messed with the height of his father's chair, sat in it, put his feet up on the desk, and smiled like a smug cat.

(Prompto dove for his phone, which was a terrible excuse for a camera but better than nothing and managed to snap a few photos.)

The door opened a few minutes later, just as Gladio stripped off the last pieces of his armour with an explosive sigh of relief. He was left standing in the shiny, elegantly tooled grieves and the close-fitting, padded shirt and trousers he wore underneath to keep the armour from rubbing his skin raw. Clarus stepped in and paused, frowning in disapproval at the discarded pile of his son's armour.

Regis prodded his Shield gently in the back so he would move inside. He slipped around Clarus, Aulea still on his arm, and laughed when he saw Gladio looking sheepish. "Clarus!" he chided gently. "Don't make that face. I remember you needed to be threatened to get you into full armour when you were that age."

Clarus sputtered indignantly at the accusation. Aulea stepped away from them, gliding across the room with the soft rustle of her gown and the light scent of her perfume to accompany her. She circled around the desk, leaning down to hug Noctis where he was still lounging in his father's chair.

"Look at you, ready to be king already."

"Hardly," Noctis' cheeks tinted pink, especially with the way his friends were grinning at him, but he shifted enough to get one arm around his mother's waist and hug her back. "Just keeping it warm for him."

Regis snorted in amused disbelief, making his way across the room to reclaim his seat as Noctis hurriedly rose from it. Once he was standing, Aulea pulled him into a proper hug, mercifully brief for his dignity before she let him go. Regis reached out and ruffled Noctis' hair despite his yelp of dismay, both of them taking the rare moment of privacy away from the public eye to indulge in both teasing and open affection.

Noctis managed to escape and circled back around the desk to rejoin his friends. Nyx and Prompto scooted aside on the settee, and with a grin Noctis dropped down to make himself comfortable between them. Clarus narrowed his eyes at the three of them, but Noctis just gave him a blinding and completely unrepentant grin, and Clarus huffed a bit but held his peace.

Clarus walked over to sit in what had become over the years unequivocally His Chair, positioned behind the desk and angled toward the window where he could sit and read while Regis excavated the mountains of paperwork that appeared daily on his desk. Ignis and Gladio found seats in the more ornate, formal chairs set out for guests, but scooted them back a little to include the three on the settee in their circle. Aulea perched on the arm of Regis' chair, leaning over his shoulder as he flipped through the folder that Ignis had brought.

"This is a good plan," Regis said approvingly, looking up. "Rough, but you can refine it as you go."

Noctis groaned dramatically. "Ignis, you traitor. You're keeping a schedule?"

"Hardly," Ignis couldn't help the faint smile. "Merely an itinerary. There's no need to set exact dates for things, and as His Majesty said, we can refine it along the way."

"I asked Ignis to come up with a loose route for your travels," Regis spoke up, drawing all their attention back to him as he folded his hands serenely on his desk top. "Because there is another element to this roadtrip that so far only Noctis is aware of."

The four of them - Ignis, Gladio, Prompto and Nyx - exchanged surprised glances, and then looked at Noctis. He nodded, looking a little apprehensive. "The Royal Arms."

Prompto and Nyx were sharing cluelessly blank expressions. Gladio looked like he was struggling to remember something he'd been told but not paid attention to. Only Ignis frowned, sitting up a little straighter in his chair.

"Your Majesty - forgive me, but, Lucis is not at war."

But Regis smiled, nodding approvingly at him. "That is true. And it is true that most public record only takes note of the Royal Arms when the monarch has need of them in a time of war. But what is less widely known is that every royal in the line of Lucis takes up at least a few Arms in their lifetime, just in case."

"I see," Ignis looked mollified, and relieved that they weren't about to be briefed into some hidden war brewing under the surface.

"It's part of the traditional yearlong walkabout thing," Noctis said. "I'm learning about the people and earning their respect and loyalty, but I'm also seeking out the approval of my ancestors. If I'm not fit to be king, I won't be allowed to gather the Royal Arms."

Aulea saw the looks of blank confusion Prompto and Nyx were still wearing, and nudged Regis. "Ah, my apologies," he nodded to them. "Of course you wouldn't know, I doubt Noct would've had need to tell you until now. The Royal Arms are the weapons wielded, honed and passed down by the kings and queens of Lucis. There are, I believe, about a hundred at last count, though some have been lost to time or disaster. Each heir of the line of Lucis seeks out half a dozen or so and asks that king or queen past to bless their reign."

"...That sounds like a lot of pressure," was all Prompto could think to say, and Regis chuckled dryly.

"Not unlike when you swore your oath on the Crystal. When a monarch dies, the Arms they acquired disappear back to their resting places to wait until they are needed again, and the monarch's own preferred weapon is transformed into a new Royal Arm. Now then," he spread out the map that Ignis had brought, not letting any of them dwell on his words too closely. "There are a couple Arms I'm aware of that I did not gather myself, so they should still be in their places waiting for you, Noctis." He marked a couple places on the map, and Ignis leaned forward to look.

"Those are fairly close to here, we'll be able to reach them quickly."

"There isn't a need to rush," Regis reassured them all, though he was looking at Noctis. "And how many you ultimately acquire is up to you. Wielding the Royal Arms can take a heavy toll, and a good king also knows his own limits and doesn't try to exceed them for the sake of bravado."

Noctis nodded. He'd heard stories of his grandfather often enough not to want to follow in his follies.

"Besides," Regis continued with a lighter tone. "You have all year. There are duties to perform, but I also hope you truly enjoy the trip. I have very fond memories of my own year abroad." Behind his shoulder, Clarus was actually smiling, the corners of his eyes crinkled in agreement.

"Who else went with you?" Prompto asked, curious and not as nervous about speaking up as he would usually be, with Noctis warm and reassuring against his side. "Was it just the three of you?"

"I didn't go," Aulea said, smiling despite regret. "Regis and I weren't engaged until after his return. Roselind and I spent a fantastic year of our own spinning our way through Insomnian high society." Her lips curled in a smile that looked very much like one of Noctis' most wicked, and Clarus turned pink at the mention of his wife.

"I had my Shield and Hand, just as Noctis will. Cor came along as well, and my old friend Cid Sophiar."

"Hand?" Prompto asked. He knew that was Ignis' title, but was a little fuzzy on the exact specifics.

"King's Right Hand. He means Weskham," Noctis supplied, and Prompto nodded. He'd run into the dignified chamberlain a few times, but hadn't been aware he held a title, let alone one that important. "Drautos didn't go with you?"

"I didn't meet Titus until we got to Gralea on our trip." Regis chuckled in memory. "We got a little enthusiastic and decided while we were out that far we might as well make a diplomatic visit to Niflheim. It went... not poorly, but not well," he decided. "And there might have been a few misadventures of a sort." Clarus snorted, and Regis twisted around to narrow his eyes at his Shield. "Of a sort. And anyway, by the time we were leaving Titus had helped us out a few times, so I offered to let him come along and see Insomnia."

"We had to buy a second car," Clarus sighed. "In Gralea. I'm surprised we weren't out- right banished when Cid started arguing with the Niff mechanics."

"I stopped him from hitting anyone with that wrench," Regis said, affecting a slightly wounded air. "Anyone who didn't deserve it, anyway."

"I have wondered for years if it was a blessing or a curse that I missed out on that trip," Aulea told no one in particular. "Noctis, please be kind to your bride."

Noctis grinned, remembering some of the scrapes he and Luna had gotten into as children in Tenebrae. He didn't think she'd completely grown out of that adventurousness even with her duties as Oracle, or at least he hoped she hadn't. "I don't think it's me you need to worry about, mom."

"Speaking of cars, with six people you'll need two from the start," Regis pulled himself out of fond memories and back to the task at hand. "Your Star should be able to handle the distances with no problem, Noctis, and I had thought to loan you the Regalia as well."

"Really?" Noctis beamed, and Regis nodded with a kind smile.

"I can do without her for a year. Just make sure you only stop in Hammerhead for repairs; Cid will literally commit regicide if he finds out someone else touched her."

"I might let him," Clarus said dryly, earning wide-eyed stares of disbelief from the younger generation, despite the gleam of good humour in his eye. "He did basically rebuild her from scrap after that time with the bandersnatch. I'm pretty sure there's still parts of her tied together with anak sinew."

Noctis wrinkled his nose in disgust, earning another laugh from Regis.

From there, the planning dissolved into finer details, and Prompto tuned a lot of it out. Nyx was better qualified to bring up security concerns, and Ignis had supplies and money well in hand. Gladio and Clarus had their heads together in the corner refining training ideas - they'd probably be doing at least a little hunting here and there, and fighting wild animals was very different than fighting human opponents.

After awhile, Prompto noticed Noctis had curled up a little with his head on Prompto's shoulder, heavy enough that he could tell he was dozing. "...Hey," Prompto whispered, and Noctis murmured that he was listening. "Thanks for bringing me along." Noctis' hand found his and laced their fingers together, giving it a little squeeze.

Prompto knew he was blushing, and luckily he missed the warm, approving little smile Aulea threw their way.