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https://ift.tt/2DnF3KJcharlottedabookworm:
hamelin-born:
charlottedabookworm:
hamelin-born:
charlottedabookworm:
hamelin-born replied to your text post:
Prompto had probably (quietly) confessed to Noctis, one of the best friends he’s had in several centuries (and so familiar in a way that was fucking TAUNTING him, really, just - why?) that he has full-on amnesia regarding his early life, so - Noctis might actually believe Nyx when Nyx shakingly confesses that this is his little /brother/, he thought he was /dead/, just - what happened to him?
(And oh, it’s going to break everyone’s heart when Prompto comes back to himself just enough to start brokenly begging Nyx in Modern Lucian for their parents, for Father and Faeder, and Nyx’s face just. Freezes, and they KNOW without words what must have happened to their parents.)
@hamelin-born
Noctis hadn’t ever expected to make any friends at school.
He’d always been the Prince, too different, too royal, for most kids, and pretty much everyone wanted to use him in one way or another. That’s not to say that he helped, not when he didn’t reach out to any of them either, and he had people that he could talk to or do assignments with but he didn’t have any real friends outside of Iggy and Gladio.
Not until Prompto.
Prom, who had transferred in during the last year of middle school. Who was in Noctis’ class in high school, who looked at Noct and say Noct instead of the Prince of Lucis. Prom who was Noctis’ best friend.
Prompto, who had once confessed that he remembered very little of his early life - that something had happened, he’d been injured, and he’d forgotten pretty much everything before that injury.
He had told Noctis what little he could remember, during quiet nights when they had both curled up on the sofa playing video games. Talked about the two fathers that he could barely remember but knew had loved him. Talked about the brother that he had looked up to, who was a bit of an idiot but always had time for him. And he had told Noctis that he didn’t remember their names or what they looked like but he still missed them, that sometimes he wasn’t sure if they had actually existed or if he had made them up.
Once, just once, before they fell asleep, Prom had mentioned that something about Noct reminded him of them - just a little. Noctis never said anything about it and Prom never mentioned it again, though Noct caught him looking at him sometimes - brow furrowed and some unnameable emotion in his eyes before it was gone again.
(Sometimes, Prom reminded Noct of Clarus and Gladio - of the way that all three of them automatically scanned a room when they entered it, looking for threats, the way that he would sometimes push Noct slightly behind him on crowded streets. It was the little things but the resemblance was there)
Still, Prom was his best friend.
And seeing his best friend screaming in the arms of a Glaive, a Glaive that he looked up to, was heartbreaking.
Nyx Ulric was on his knees, tears streaming down his face as he clutched Prompto tightly, rocking them both back and forth even as Prom babbled into the Glaive’s shirt in a musical language - one that Noct didn’t understand but Nyx definitely did.
“What did you do to him?” Noctis demanded roughly, taking a step forward, because Prom had been fine before Nyx had appeared.
Nyx shook his head violently, not letting go of Prom and ignoring his tears. “Nothing.” He snapped, glaring at him, before he bit his lip. “I just- He’s my brother. He’s my brother and I thought he was dead, I watched him die, and what happened to him?” His voice shook and the Glaive looked so confused and earnest (and he looks so young, only a couple of years older than Noctis despite the fact that Nyx has been in the Glaive for over a decade), peering at Prom with disbelieving eyes and heartbreak on his face, that Noctis couldn’t help but believe him.
This is the brother that Prom had told him about - who Prom had loved above everything, who he had looked so sad when talking about.
He opened his mouth to answer - because Noctis doesn’t know but then neither did Prom, that was the problem with memory loss - when Prom’s babbling suddenly switched to a language that Noctis understood.
“Please, Nyx. I want father and faeder, where are they? Why aren’t they here? I need them. Please.”
And Nyx just shuts down.
He kneels there, frozen, with his face shuttered but something dark - something very much like broken desolation, like heartbreak, like a festering wound that had just been ripped open - in his eyes and Noctis’ knows.
Prompto carries on begging, pleading for people who will never come, and Nyx tries to comfort him but Notis can’t look away from the grief and loss and betrayal that was etched into Nyx’s features.
#Noct takes one look at Nyx and knows that the parents that Prom had loved so much were dead#and he can’t help but remember what Prom told him - that his father had loved chocobos and had given him a plushie on every birthday#and that his faeder used to take him gardening - just them#and he remembers the sad grief on Prom’s face when he talked about these people who he could hardly remember but loved anyway#and his heart breaks for his best friend
@charlottedabookworm
*sobs endlessly* Oh, Prompto. Oh, Nyx. Oh, Noctis.
I think. I think it falls to Noctis to tell Nyx, later on. How Prompto had told him that there had been an accident or something, how Prompto didn’t remember much of his early life, and - Nyx just. Holds his brother close, and closes his eyes. He can’t - he can’t even imagine. He can’t. His brother, oh his little brother who he thoughts was dead, over two thousand years dead, oh my brother…
And just. These descriptions of what Prompto remembers - his kind faeder, his silly father, the chocobos, the gardening, and - Prompto knew not to hope. He knew that, after two thousand years, there was no chance that his family was alive. He hoped - he hoped, at the most, that one day he would remember. That he would remember being loved, that he would remember more then - more then snapshot images and emotions. And - now he does. Now he does, and all he can do is cling to his brother and cry.
A brother. He has his brother again. And Nyx is thinking something very similar as well as he mourns for his parents all over again, for their lost home - he mourns for the pain his brother has suffered, and the reunion is bittersweet on his tongue.
And now I’m just. Imagining Prompto rolling over, and staring up at Nyx with empty eyes. “They’re dead. Aren’t they.” And he starts to tremble. “Uncle killed them, he killed them, he killed all of us, why? Why, Nyx? I thought he loved us, but he killed us!”
(Cor needs to drop by to take a look at the designated-Crownguard-trainee and friend to his Royal Highness who suffered a traumatic breakdown and has just admitted to longstanding memory problems and just. Stop.)
@hamelin-born
He doesn’t know what to do. How can he explain to his brother – his brother who was alive and Nyx ha watched him die but he was here – that their parents are dead. That he had sacrificed himself for nothing.
How does he explain to a boy murdered by those he trusted that those same people went on to murder their parents?
Nyx was Crown Prince, was trained in words and diplomacy and politics by his father for all that he had hated it, and he has never – in all of his two thousand years of life – been as lost for words as he is now. He kneels, frozen as his brother begs for people long dead, and all he wants to do was weep. What is he meant to say?
And then Prom takes the choice out of his hands.
“They’re dead. Aren’t they.” He says as he rolls over in Nyx’s arms, but it isn’t a question. Prompto already knows the answer, as much as he doesn’t want to admit it. He just stares down at the empty eyes of his little brother as the kid starts to tremble, and Nyx feels his heart break a little more. “Uncle killed them, he killed them, he killed all of us, why? Why, Nyx? I thought he loved us, but he killed us!”
Nyx can feel the people around them still, but he doesn’t dare to look up at the Prince – at the youngest surviving member of their Uncle’s line and isn’t that ironic – or at anyone. Instead, he looks at his brother, unable to take his eyes away for fear of this being a dream.
He closed his eyes against the burn of tears. “I know. I know, little bird.” It’s hard, to force the words past the lump in his throat, but his brother needs him.
“He killed us. We loved him, and he killed us. Why, Nyx?”
“I don’t know, little bird, I’m sorry, I just. I don’t know. They killed you and they killed father and they killed faeder and they wanted to kill me and I don’t know what is worth that price. What prize is so amazing to make someone kill off their entire family.”
“I hate him, Nyx. I hate him, and I hate that I still love him. He killed us, why do I still love him? Why do I still love both of them?”
—
(Once his brother has cried himself to sleep, Nyx turns to Noctis.
The Prince does him the favour of not even pretending to be confused, stepping forward and lowering his voice. “He told me that something had happened, that because of it he’d lost the majority of his memories. All he had was impressions from before the accident.”
Nyx scoffs.
Accident. Yeah. Right.
He could still see his Uncle’s blade falling, could still feel the bruises from the shove that his Shield had given him as he pushed out of the way. He could remember the warmth of his brother’s – his little brother’s, the kid who loved Chocobo’s and used to crawl into his bed at night and that he’d used to dare to climb trees – blood on his face and the sudden, horrified realisation that he could see his spine. He can remember the bond between then snapping, can still hear the anguished cry that had ripped itself out of him as his little brother died at the hands of those that they’d trusted.
He remembered dull, empty eyes and a crumpled form on the floor in a puddle of cooling blood and his Uncle Gil standing over the body of his youngest nephew, a cold look on his face. He could remember the sneer on Uncle Somnus’ face as he had looked down at Prompto, and Nyx could remember the hatred that that had sparked in him.
That had been no accident.
It was murder.
Exhaling a shaky breath, he pulled Prompto closer – closing his eyes to try and wipe away the image of this boy dead, in front of him, having sacrificed himself for him without a thought. Prom was alive, his brother was alive. He wasn’t dead.
(But he had been)
Nyx couldn’t even imagine forgetting like that. The years had been bad enough, even with the memories of happier times – faded and aged but still there – to cling to.
His brother hadn’t had that – had been yanked back from death without his memories – and it made Nyx want to weep for Prompto.
“Oh, little bird, I am so sorry…”)
the reunion is just so bittersweet - because they have each other again but they can’t help but remember everything that they’ve lost and it hurts and yeah - you’re right - Cor needs to go visit them out of curiosity - he has to maybe Noct refuses to leave his friend and Cor needs to speak to him and when he walks in you have Prom curled up in a ball - reaching for Nyx even in his sleep just like he had used to and Nyx is there and he’s clutching Prom and acting like a guard dog but he also can’t help but keep glancing down at his brother in awe and Cor walks into this and he sees his sons for the first time in two millennia and just can’t believe it ‘Nyx? Prompto?!“ he says as the files hit the floor and Nyx’s head jerks up at the familiar voice and he stares in shock ‘Faeder?’
@charlottedabookworm
The more Noctis et al hear of Prompto and Nyx’s ramblings/frantic attempts at comforting each other - the less this sounds like the (terrifyingly common) story of refugees and immigrants who have lost everything to the war. This - this sounds like a straight up-and-up murder, one perpetuated by a family member - Noctis just. Can’t imagine it. Can’t picture it; one man turning on his entire family, for - what? (Oh, the irony). He can’t imagine anyone trying to hurt Prompto that way.
And Nyx was. Everything Noctis sees in Nyx’s bearing and manner indicates that the Glaive thought his brother was very, very dead. Exceptionally so. Nyx is muttering something about Phoenix Down and why would he - why would they - unless they didn’t, unless it was HIM, He hated father, but could He - He might’ve. And - it shakes Noctis to the core, because. Because it implies that Prompto really was dead. (He’s. Technically correct. Noctis is just underestimating the time scale; he thinks that Prompto would have been dead only as long as it took for a Phoenix Down to revive him, whereas it was anything but. And Nyx is just. He can’t believe that Bahamut would actually deny Prompto access to the Beyond just because of who his father was.)
…honestly, everyone’s assumptions that Nyx+Prompto’s family were victims of a murderer provides a good reason for Cor to stop by. This sounds like a crime, and Cor is a law enforcement official - more or less.
Cor wants to laugh and cry and collaspe and sob, but his sons, oh his sons, and he takes them into his arms and all three of them crazily wonder for a moment if they’re dreaming before they decide ‘fuck it’ and go for it. It is a loud, messy, and exceptionally ugly reunion, and all three of them flinch when someone else tries to intrude. “I thought you were dead“ “I watched you die” “He told me you were dead!”
Noctis is. Happy for his friend, although somewhat - BSOD. Prompto’s dad is Cor? Cor was - wait a minute, this means that Cor had a family, a family that got killed by his own brother-in-law, and Cor - Cor’s a good man, he didn’t deserve this, Prompto didn’t deserve this, Nyx didn’t deserve this, this is so fucked up.
@hamelin-born
It sounds bad, from an outside perspective. Well, it is bad. And it’s even worse than Noct et al think. This isn’t the innocent story that Noct and Ignis and Gladio and even Prom had half expected, when they would theorise about where Prom had come from. They weren’t refugees separated by war, it wasn’t that simple. Noctis looks at Nyx’s face when he says the word “accident”, he sees the sneer on his features, hears the scoff and the faint, scornful “accident” and even without everything else that he’d seen he’d be able to piece some of it together.
But he listens, and he learns, and he fights back the guilt he feels at – not quite eavesdropping, because both know that he’s there and it’s a public area, for all that they seem to be in their own world. Still, Noct listens and this sounds like murder, sounds like betrayal by the hands of someone that they’d loved.
And Noct can’t quite believe that. He loves his father completely, the man is the only blood family that he has, and he loves Cor and Clarus who are basically like his uncles. He can’t imagine anyone one of them betraying him like that.
Why would a man turn on his entire family? What was worth that?
(And yeah, the irony is almost tangible. That’s your ancestor Noct, and he did it for a throne)
Still, Noctis doesn’t have all of information – he doesn’t realise that Prom was dead for days, that when Nyx said that he’d watched him die that he’d meant it literally, that he’d been bared entrance to the Beyond because Bahamut was an arse. He doesn’t realise that this all happened millennia ago. He doesn’t yet know that they’re family – distant family, but family all the same.
He doesn’t know when Cor walks into medical – responding to his frantic text because his best friend’s family had been murdered. What if the murderer was still out there? He had to do something?
(once again, the fucking irony Noct)
Noctis doesn’t know, not really, but as everything in Cor’s arms clatters carelessly to the ground – as the stoic man that he’d grown up around practically sobs and throws himself across the room to wrap Nyx and Prompto in his arms – as he watches one of the strongest men he knows slide to his knees and bow his head and beg forgiveness in a broken voice to the two boys on the bed, he understands a little more.
And, as Nyx yanks him up, as he and Prompto wrap their arms around the man that they call “faeder” and they babble over each other, saying that they all believed the others dead, an image starts to form in his mind.
Noct looks away from the image that they make, clutching each other as though they are the last hope in the world, his eyes burning with some nameless emotion. He wants to know what’s going on, wants to know why he didn’t know that Cor had children, why they had all believed each other dead, what happened to Prom’s other parent, but all that can wait a while.
He’ll let them have this moment. They deserve it.
why do these reunions always seem to happen in front of a royal? (because the angst when they finally learn that all of the pain was caused by their ancestor is delicious) anyway - Cor & Nyx & Prom - none of them deserved any of this fuck but nobody deserves this especially not from /family/ they reunite and they clutch at each toher and they talk in a mishmash of the languages that tehy used to speak and modern languages and the first person to try ot interrupt them will get their head bitten off by two Shields and a former Crown Prince (Cor still bows his head and tries to apologise - still calls Nyx HIghness and offers his life for his failure - but this time this time it is both Prom and Nyx that yank their faeder up and tell him it wasn’t his fault - taht he had /died/ for his king) Regis probably appears alongside Clarus by the time that the three of them have calmed enough to talk and then they have to explain what had just happened - why they believed each other dead - and Nyx probably takes the lead as a former Prince and his father’s heir but all through it neither of them let go of each otheri think - of they had their way - neither Cor nor Nyx would ever let Prom go again - and he might let them also - imagine Noct’s face when he finally realises that this makes his best friend /family/
@charlottedabookworm
Noctis is. Assembling a picture in his mind - one that he doesn’t like the image of (and one that bears only a certain tangential relationship to the Actual Truth, but then again, who would actually *believe* The Truth?) Because Cor - cor has never spoken of his family. He’s never given a single indication of having a spouse or children, and watching him literally breaking down - well. It’s disturbing.
Regis, when Noctis quietly asks him, will wearily confirm that once, long ago, Cor did have a family. He never met them. Cor never speaks of them. All that Regis knew is that Cor had had children, that he had had a spouse, and that they’d been taken from him - that Cor believed himself to be alone, to be the only one left. (Noctis probably has the idea that Cor had - well. Had tried to keep his personal life and his professional life strictly separate, for his family’s protection, if nothing else - he hadn’t even introduced them to Regis et al for fear of what said association might lead to. Cor tried so hard, and - and it failed miserably.)
And now, Cor’s children have been returned to him. He has his sons back.
And now I just. Just. Well. Have the mental image of Noctis and/or Regis quietly asking the three men huddled together, refusing to let go of one another, about the only one missing. About Cor’s mysterious spouse, whom he has never spoken of. And the three of them - the three of them choking back tears and choking back ugly laughter as they finally, finally broach memories that have gone unsaid for literally centuries as they share stories of Ardyn. Ardyn, as a man and a father and a husband, not as a king.
They don’t give his name. But they talk - they talk about how Ardyn loved chocobos, and how he insisted on naming a gold one ‘Obsidian’ and a black one ‘Hyperion’. How he had the biggest sweet tooth, and used to demand that Cor make him tea because even though he was perfectly capable of doing the same, he insisted that Cor’s tea just tasted better. How he was flamboyant and somewhat petulant at times, and how he used to lose himself in books for hours - but how after the boys were born, rather then go on research binges, he’d read to them - although Cor had to interrupt whenever Ardyn decided to change the story halfway through, because that was just boring. How he could be silly and sweet and he loved them with all of his heart.
(It’s the first time Regis has ever heard Cor talk about his husband beyond a simple statement that he existed and that he was murdered, and Regis is - well, fascinated into this glimpse of Cor’s private life, and the man he loved. Noctis is equally as enthralled.)
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