Dewdrops At Dawn (Prompto)

Chapter 4 - "I Think I'm Cursed"

"Alexus?! W- what are you doing here?" Prompto me asked in pure shock.

He immediately removed his gun from my neck and stared at me in his bewilderment.

"I'd like to ask the same thing, but first I'd prefer to get off the floor first if you don't mind." I said.

Realizing the position we were in, he hastily backed up and looked around at the other two in his confusion as he sat across from me.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you! I just thought that- I mean, you didn't have a light and- I should've been paying more attention! T- There were so many daemons here that I thought you were one and- I'm sorry, super very sorry!" He said all at once trying to apologize, bowing his head down.

Sitting up as he rambled on, I didn't say anything right away from my shock in finding him, or rather being found by him. He quickly stood up and reached out a hand to help me up which I took.

"Guess you're not dead after all, huh?" Elea said with a big smile and a big slap on his back which surprised him and made him stumble a step forward from the force of it.

"I'm not going down that easily. Takes a lot more than a few daemons of that size to take me down." Prompto said with a shrug when he fully stood up again.

"Wait... You took that big daemon out, all by yourself?" Yura asked in pure shock.

Brushing off the dirt from my clothes, I looked back up at him. He was covered in soil and parts of his clothes were torn. He had also gotten a few scrapes from fighting, but he looked generally okay for the most part.

"So is it just the three of you guys?" He asked me, making me nod once.

"Yeah. She told the others to wait on standby while we came to look for you." Yura informed him.

"You're pretty strong to be able to take something like this daemon all by yourself. Feels good to have someone tough like you on our team!" Elea said in praise.

I took a step closer towards Prompto. There was something off that didn't fully convince me that he was alright, he hadn't moved one of his arms since we showed up.

"What were you doing all the way out here? You fought this huge daemon alone?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"I had to get it away from Annie who was being carried by Talcott after her injury. I had no choice but to get it's attention back into the cave where it came from. I didn't want to put the others in danger." He explained.

Letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding on to, I had mixed feelings about seeing him in person after everything that happened earlier today. The fact that he seemed safe and sound in front of me made me happy, but put himself in danger... He put himself at risk, and that's what made me angry. I didn't want to bury another one of the people I've been fighting alongside with. Not him of all people.

"Not gonna lie, I really thought this was it for a moment there. Like, damn. 'This isn't how I wanted to die' kinda thing. It sure was a tough one." Prompto said, trying to make a joke about it.

"Give me a few pointers when we make it back to camp, I want to learn more on how to fight better from someone strong like you." Yura said.

"Sure thing!" Prompto said with a thumbs up.

"I can't believe you..." I started off with, not able to hold back my frustration at him for not taking everything as seriously as he should.

"What about?" He asked me in confusion.

"Why'd you go after it alone like that?!" I said, raising my voice at him while closing the distance between us. "We're supposed to be in this fight together! We're on the same team, aren't we?! Why didn't you wait for someone?!" I asked, my voice louder than before.