Chapter 17: Basic Truths

"Niflheim is rejoicing today as Prince Alexander is to be crowned," Noctis stared with unseeing eyes towards the television as the reporter stood in front of the tower. "Dignitaries from all over Eos have gathered together in celebration, as the lost future leader has been found. Emperor Aldercapt has expressed how Alexander returning home had been a gift from the Guardians."

Prompto had been featured on every news report for the last month in preparation for his coronation in Niflheim. He had to watch his lover every single day move on without him. He had to see him turn into his worst enemy, and look just as gorgeous as he always did while doing so.

He couldn't bring himself to shut it off, because that would mean not seeing him. That would mean that they were really were enemies, and he was going to go yet another day without kissing him. He would have to admit that not only was this all his fault, but he hadn't been strong enough to do anything about it.

Prompto was gone.

He had left him, even after swearing he never would.

He was a liar.

"Are you planning to eat today?" Ignis questioned, and Noctis felt the weight dip on the couch he was curled up on. "This isn't healthy you know. You can't always just be watching him."

"Why?" Noctis managed hollowly. "It's what I do best. I've always been watching him." His entire life from getting helped up by him had been about watching the other part of his soul. He refused to believe it was a coincidence that they were both princes. He refused to believe that they weren't meant to unite all of Eos.

"Are you going to eat?" Ignis questioned again. "I made your favorite. All the grease a growing boy could want."

Noctis' hand clenched in the blanket as he watched Aldercapt embrace his fiance after driving a pole through his chest. After he had tortured him for every second he had lived there. Now Prompto hugged him. Now he let those murderous hands touch him.

"Noct...It isn't healthy," his guardian tried. "We need to have a plan on how we're going to get Prompto back. We need to be going to the crypts."

"Why?" he managed. "Prompt gave me the ring. I have my father's power if I want it." The ring was currently nestled against his heart. It was just another reminder of all the secrets his best friend had kept from him. Even after swearing he would never lie again. Even after swearing he wouldn't leave him. He had given up everything for him. He had lost Luna for him, and he couldn't even keep his promise. "Please go," he whispered, voice a broken plea as his eyes stung with tears.

"Noctis…" There was such pity in his voice that it made his chest hitch in shame. He wanted to turn the other way, but that would mean taking his eyes off Prompto's face, and that would truly break him.

"He promised," Noctis sobbed, not able to stop now. "He swore that he wouldn't leave. Not like everyone else." He was trembling by this point, feeling nauseous as he hadn't consumed anything besides whiskey in days. "He was going to kill me. He would have. He would have…"

"Shit," Noctis heard a voice say from the entryway, and he fought the arms wrapping around him and yanking him up into a strong chest. "No!" He screamed as he fought Gladio's embrace. "I can't see him...I can't…" he actually did scream when Gladio grabbed the gun Noctis had been curled up with and shot the screen.

"What did you do!" he yelled at his bodyguard, beating at that chest as he felt his sanity begin to slip. "Don't take him from me!"

It was pathetic. Of course he knew how pathetic he was being. How weak he was being, but he couldn't help it. He was broken. He was broken without Prompto, and so achingly lonely. "Noct," Gladio tried placatingly. "You have to stop this. It's enough."

"Don't tell me what I have to do!" he screamed, knowing he sounded like a petulant child as he shoved away from Gladio, standing on his feet for the first time in days when it wasn't to pee. "I am the King of Lucis!" he screamed, manic anger exploding. "You will not tell me what to do! You will tell me that I simply have to get over him!"

"Why?" Gladio questioned. "He's clearly over you." he motioned to the busted tv. "You that masochistic that you want to watch him as he is now?"

"He's still mine!" Noctis screamed, not being pushed since it had happened. Gladio always was good at getting under his skin.

"He's not yours," the man argued. "He's Niflheim's prince. We were stupid and didn't realize that sooner. We thought we could keep him when Ardyn always had this ace up his sleeve."

"Traitor," Noctis hissed at the way Gladio spoke about their friend.

"I'm the traitor?" Gladio questioned. "He infiltrated your court, killed your fiance, and now is going to control the very kingdom who killed your father and took away everything in your life."

"Stop it," he wouldn't listen to this. He couldn't if he was going to keep any of his sanity. "He loves me. Ardyn is controlling him."

"Noctis," Ignis spoke softly, obviously not sure which side to take. "I don't think Ardyn is controlling him."

"He has to be," Noctis argued, shaking his head. "Prompto wouldn't have done that." He remembered the sword stabbing down to kill him. He remembered the look of utter indifference on his face as he did so. "He told me he loved me." He was all of five years old again, sobbing over his dead mother. Luna had helped him through that time. He didn't have her now.

"LIsten kid," Gladio tried. "I know you're hurting. I know this sucks, but we need you to get over it." He motioned to the door. "We need to go to the tombs and power you up, and then we need to go to Niflheim during that coronation. There will be higher security, but it will also be a mad house. We should be able to get in and take Ardyn out."

"And what about Prompto?" Noctis questioned, wiping furiously at his red eyes. "You going to try to kill my fiance, Gladio? You going to touch him?"

"Are you?" Gladio questioned back.

"Gladio," Ignis warned.

"No Ignis!" the bodyguard barked. "He needs to hear this! We've been tip-toeing around him for weeks now. There's a very real possibility that in order to save Lucis he's going to have to fight Prompto...or Alexander as he's calling himself."

"Don't call him that," Noctis growled, practically vibrating as a blue light began to flicker on his fingertips.

"Why?" Gladio questioned. "It's his name. Alexander Aldercapt. He's all the entire continent of Eos can talk about!"

"Both of you stop. This isn't helping anything," Ignis tried to be the mediator between them. "Noctis, we do need a plan. The coronation is a solid idea."

Noctis' breath shuddered as he thought about going to Niflheim to watch Prompto get truly taken away from him. "And what then?"

"We try to turn him back, Noct," Ignis replied.

"Of course we're not going to try to kill him, kid." Gladio seconded. "He's one of us."

"You just said!" Noctis tried, but Gladio interrupted.

"Yeah I said," he agreed. "Got you moving, didn't it?" he asked. "Now go take a goddamn shower, you stink."

Noctis glowered at the pair of them, running a hand through his greasy hair and feeling disgusted with himself as he ran his tongue over his film covered teeth. "I'm scared."

"You can beat him," Gladio assured him. "You're strong. Noctis, you're so strong."

"That's not what I'm scared of," his voice was broken as he considered going to Niflheim, seeing Prompto, and the other rejecting him again. Of knowing that the love of his life was well and truly gone.

"We're all scared, Noct," Ignis said quietly. "But we're in this together. We won't leave you." Noctis nodded to them, knowing they were just trying to do what was best for him. Knowing that he really didn't have any other choice, but to go to the tower. He knew all of this, and so he nodded at the lie. They were going to leave him too...everyone did eventually.

Noctis had done what he needed to. He ate when they told him to eat. He killed when they told him to kill. He got powerful with Tatiana's tutelage. He was dead inside. He was achingly dead without his light. He couldn't give up though. He had tried that, and they had shot his television for his efforts.

They had spent the day flying over the wasteland that was Niflheim, and Noctis wondered what all the effort was for. Why were they fighting so hard for this place? Why did Ardyn make this his last stand? He was willing to drag Prompto back to lead this decrepit wasteland. There had to be more to this story. There had to be a reason why the nights were lasting longer and longer.

He pulled the dark hoody up over his hair as they landed, the ship masking as one of theirs as they bribed a city official to let them store it. The city was a madhouse. He fought his way through the crowds, eyes never leaving the dark luminous tower that led to his Guardian. The tower led to the two men he despised most in this world.

They would prepare tonight, and in the morning while the celebration was underway they would climb the tower and kill the Emperor. They would kill him before he ever had a chance to name Alexander as his heir. After that. He would put Ardyn in his grave right next to Prompto's sorry excuse for a father.

Gladio grabbed him, dragging him into a corner. "Listen. You need to stay out of sight. You're on a wanted poster on every shop. Ig and I are going to go get Magitek armor. We'll be invisible."

"Going to get me a nice shiny set?" Noctis questioned hollowly, not able to take his eyes off the tower where Prompto was probably eating dinner with his new family.

"Kid…" There was pity in his voice again. There was always pity lately. "Just don't drink yourself to sleep tonight. We need you focused for in the morning. You have to fight."

"Don't I always?" Noctis questioned back, waiving off the concern. "I'll be hiding in the hotel room and pretending I don't exist." Hopefully someone would put him out of his misery and he wouldn't very soon.

Gladio just shook his head, and Noctis let himself be yanked forward into a hug. "Just stay out of trouble."

"No trouble," he promised, heading into the hotel, and if he stopped at the bar for a bottle of whiskey first, well, Gladio would never know.

Noctis hugged the empty bottle to him in the scratchy hotel bed. He was trying to be good. He was trying to listen to Gladio and Ignis. He was trying not to go after his lover. It was hard. It was nearly impossible. Yet, he was still trying.

After all these years of being terrified of this place, he was here now and drunk in an empty hotel bed. He didn't know what he had been expecting. He didn't know why it felt like being abandoned all over again by the fact that Ignis and Gladio hadn't come back yet with his suit that would allow him to go after Prompto.

"Gladio told you not to get drunk," Turns out, he needn't ever have even bothered. Noctis' heart skipped as he glanced towards the entrance to see Prompto leaning against the doorway.

"Prompt…" he managed, half assuming he had gotten so drunk he was hallucinating. Prompto's hair was still dark, but he had put contacts over his eyes to turn them blue again as he watched him. "How'd you know I was here?"

"I'm not stupid," Prompto answered, continuing to watch him appraisingly. "Even if I didn't know you, the three of you did little to cover your tracks." He stepped closer. "Besides...I can feel you."

Noctis' held his breath as the bed dipped, and he began to tremble as a hand slid up the back of his leg, a body pressing behind him. He felt so familiar. He felt just like Prompto, and he had missed him so much. He tried to turn over to face him, but an arm threw itself across his chest, pulling him close and kissing the back of his neck.

"Prompt…" he repeated, tears of hopefulness coming to his eyes. "Is it going to be okay?" He needed it to be okay. He needed to feel less broken. He needed Prompto to come home.

Prompto kissed the shell of his ear, pulling him closer. "No," he said dispassionately. "It isn't, Noctis." Hands roamed down his body as his heart broke. To think a few weeks ago he had been talking to him about marriage. "You shouldn't have come here, but you did. So I think it's time we had a little talk and got some truths out in the open, don't you?"

"What truth is that, Prompt?" he asked him, blinking angrily at his tears. "That you lied to me my entire life? That you abandoned me?"

"Mmm…" Noctis shut his eyes as lips pressed to his pulse. "That's a good place to start. You always were so clever when it came to battle strategies." Prompto's hand trailed down his stomach, and he gasped as those lithe fingers pushed down into his dark jeans. Noctis reached back, hand fisting in dark spikes as Prompto palmed his cock, beginning to stroke him as he shifted into the hold. "Do you know why everybody leaves you, Noct?" Prompto questioned, and Noctis found himself reacting despite himself, cock almost half hard as that hand pumped him in his jeans. "It's because you're defective."

"Stop it," Noctis managed, but he didn't pull away from the touch. He couldn't pull away when he had been aching to touch Prompto for weeks.

"I don't think you want me to stop," Prompto whispered vindictively into his ear, fingers reaching down to cup his balls as his thumb stroked teasingly up and down the length. "You're defective because you're Lucian. You, who had the world given to you every day of your life, cannot keep anyone, can you baby? Your mom...your dad...Luna…" No matter how pathetic he might feel for doing it, Noctis couldn't stop the stream of tears from leaving his eyes as Prompto fully wrapped his hand around his cock. "Now I left you too. When Gladio and Ignis inevitably give their lives for you tomorrow, well...then you'll truly be alone." Noctis shut his eyes in pain as the pleasure he was receiving with it warred in his mind. "Because you're weak."

"I'm not weak," he managed, knowing he was as he reached down to undo his own jeans to give Prompto room to work.

"Remember Noct, no lies here tonight. We both know you are. We both know that if I asked it you'd join me. You'd abandon your friends and your kingdom, and you'd be mine." Prompto's free hand began to card gently through his hair. "If only I wanted you, huh? But let's move on to your second truth, shall we?"

Noctis remembered back when Prompto would stay over in highschool and he had had yet another fight with his father. He would stroke his hair until he fell asleep, and Noctis had always wished it would lead to more. A thumb swept across the head of his cock, precum rolling down it as Prompto continued to tear him apart.

"You're going to lose tomorrow," Prompto assured him, and Noctis was bucking back into the strong body by this point, twisting at the infuriatingly slow pace Prompto was stroking his cock. "If you pursue this I will have no choice but to kill Gladio and Ignis, and baby? I'll have no choice but to kill you." Pleasure overwhelmed him at the thought of escape after all this pain, and he came into that cruel hand, as if his body couldn't help itself as he curled up into himself as a hand wiped the cum on his hip.

Noctis spun, not able to help himself as he fought through his revulsion to pull Prompto to his lips. It tasted like a good-bye. Prompto let him kiss him, kneading their lips together without any sort of response, before he pushed him away. "Leave," he managed, kissing Noctis' head. "I'll kill you if I see you again."

Prompto went to pull up, and Noctis grabbed for him, feeling beyond pathetic as his hands were grabbed and he was pushed back down. "Don't go. Please. Prompto I'll do anything...just don't go."

Noctis moaned as he was kissed again, shutting his eyes in pain as that body pulled up from the bed after a brief pass of lips. "Noctis, don't be pathetic." Were the last words he said to him, and he didn't even have to look to know his best friend, his lover, was gone. He curled up into himself, covered in his own shame, and knew that he had to stop Prompto before the coronation. He had to bring him back. Because he couldn't be alone. Prompto was right, he'd do anything to get him back.

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