Stars in the Night Sky [NOCTIS X READER]

CHAPTER 17 - NO REST FOR THE WICKED

Your ears were ringing.

Your consciousness returned to you gradually. First, it was your sense of touch--you could still feel wind whipping through your hair and dragging strands out of your tightly-woven braid. Then it was your sense of hearing, with the wind roaring in your ears and the train rumbling on the tracks. Finally, it was your memories.

You remembered the train. Ardyn, Prompto falling off the train, Adelaide jumping after him-

Addy-

You tried to sit bolt upright but only managed to get about halfway there before the dizziness hit you like a truck. The back of your head was pounding where Ardyn had smacked it. There'd be a sizeable bump there for a few days, you were sure. You looked around, blinking several times to see clearly--the landscape was different now than when you'd been knocked out. There were more trees. A vast forest spread on your right and a clifface on your left, overlooking a magnificent canyon, alive with flora and wildlife alike.

"Oh thank the Six," the hand on your shoulder startled you for a split second. You looked up, meeting the electric blue eyes of Noctis, whose face was paler than usual. His hand was shaking on your shoulder. "You okay?"

"Addy," you could only say in the panic of waking up. "Prompto--where-?"

Noctis' expression went dark and unreadable. "I...I don't know. Gods, I...How could I do that to him? Six, we gotta tell Autumn and Gladio." He didn't even allow you the luxury of trying to comfort him. He immediately dug in his pocket for his phone, tapping around desperately on it. His hands were shaking violently.

Staggering to your feet and shaking off nausea, you reached out to grab Noctis' hands in both of your own. He tugged a little, but the effort was made without a lot of thought or pressure behind it. His grip was white-knuckled around his phone.

"Hey," you said quietly, despite knowing that on the roof of a train precariously speeding through an uneasy mountain pass was not a good place to share a heart-to-heart, but you needed Noctis to calm down before he did anything else. "Look at me. Noctis, look at me."

Noctis obeyed you the second time you said it, looking down at you. His chest was heaving with every breath and you did your best to muster up any kind of reassuring smile. You got what Noctis was struggling with--the worry and the fear must have been overwhelming, but he must have been swallowed in guilt, too. But it wasn't like Ardyn had just fooled him on that roof. He'd fooled you all.

"Breathe," you reminded gently, braving forward to pull his head down to your height and gently bump your forehead to his. "Match your breathing to mine. We'll think about everything else once you can."

Noctis obeyed after a tense moment, inhaling deeply with you and exhaling to your same breath. Together, you stood outlined in the setting sun with the canyon before you and the forest at your backs. The wind whipped your hair around in every single direction, making Noctis' jacket flap and the ties of your Kingsglaive jacket flail wildly. You closed your eyes, focusing on the presence of Noctis in front of you, the feel of his forehead against yours, and used that to pull yourself back from that horrible snapshot of Prompto and Adelaide falling and into the present.

Clumsily, Noctis grasped at your hands, one impeded by the thickness of his glove at the other hard to maneuver around the phone in his hand. But you managed either way, tightening grips around each other as Noctis' uneven breaths slowly eased back into normalcy.

Together, you managed to soothe your nerves, trying to think calmly and rationally. At the very least, you realized Prompto and Adelaide weren't alone. They would have each other which was far better than the alternative. They would be okay. And, once you were off the roof of a speeding train, you'd figure out their next step. Right now came first.