The Scars We Carry

Embarrassed

It took a bit for Prompto to pull himself off the ground. His body ached and when he tried to stand his ankle felt weak and he instantly fell back on his but. Everything was just great. Prompto thought as he looked down at his ankle. As he pulled up his jeans. it was starting to swell and bruise already. Shivering slightly he pulled himself up from the ground using the fence. Trying to regain his strength just enough to get somewhere out of the cold. He finally was able to feel the damage his body had taken. His throat was bruised on the inside that it hurt to swallow, his chest and side hurt with every breath, and his legs ached along with his ankle. Holding his stomach, he walked around the house to the side where he found the shed, or what he called when he was a young child, his little safe place. He pulled his keys out and unlocked the shed. Prompto hadn't been in the shed in a long time seeing he's been at school whenever his father was home. Reaching in he pulled the chain and the light flickered on. The shed had a sleeping bag rolled up in the corner, a sketchbook, pencils, and some canned food. Not the ideal place to hang out and sleep, but it will do until the morning. Shutting and locking the door behind him he slowly settled himself on the floor and unrolled the sleeping bag. Reaching for the far corner of the small shed he pulled out a phone charger and plugged it in. As he pulled his phone out of his pocket he saw he had three missed calls from Gladio. He sighed and called him back. He knew Ignis must have said something to him about what he said about his father and knew the shield was worried, maybe hearing his voice would help the adrenaline that was pumping through him, but he knew it was the only thing keeping him from curling in a ball and passing out. the phone rang twice before the shield answered. "Hey Gladio.." Prompto said softly. Damn his voice sounded strained from the damage to his throat. "Hey Prom is everything ok, I called you a few times and you didn't answer." Prompto tried to think of a way to answer but was cut off by loud slams on the shed door followed by some drunken yelling. Prompto dropped his phone and ran to the door. As he reached the door it swung open knocking the teen down to the ground. his vision was blurry and his head seemed to ring as he was dragged out of the shed by his swollen ankle. He cried out in pain and dug his nails into the wooden floorboards as he was dragged out the door into the night. He was pinned down by his father's weight. His lungs seemed to tighten with the extra weight on him and the pain in his head hurt even more with the cold. His father was shouting at him, but nothing he said sounded more than a grumbled bunch of gibberish to him as the world around him moved in slow motion. His father was shouting at him and ripping his wristband off of him and holding his wrist tightly in his hand crushing it in his fist. The next thing Prompto sees is a flash of blue and the weight of his father is no longer on him. His chest drew in breaths painfully as he felt his upper body be lifted and Ignis's face was close to his. He had to read his lips in order to understand what he was saying. "Prompto can you hear me?" Ignis asked looking at the gash on the side of Prompto's head. As Ignis looked at the blonde's eyes and saw how dilated they were. Taking that into account Ignis slowly picked up the fragile kid in his arms and looked at the two other men who were busy yelling at the man that was just on top of their friend. "Noctis, Gladio, let's get going," he said firmly as he made his way to the car. The shield obliged and headed to the car but Noctis spoke up. "So what are we just gonna forget what just happened!" he shouted and raised a fist to the man who flinched away. "If you hit him, my prince you are no better than him," Ignis stated and carefully laid Prompto in the back seat laying the blonde's head on Gladio. "we have to get going now my prince," Ignis said and without another word, Noctis got in the car quietly.

The car was quiet for a moment before Noctis spoke. "so do we take him to a hospital?" he asked looking at Ignis. Before he could respond A small whimper of disapproval came from the back seat. As much as Prompto was happy that his friends came to his rescue he was embarrassed and ashamed by it. Here he was asked to be in the crown's guard yet he can't even help himself against his father. "just......need.....rest..." the blonde managed to get out before he went back to focusing on his breathing. Not really liking the blonde's response, Ignis drove to Noctis' apartment. As they lifted Prompto out of the back seat Ignis looked out the window of the car. "I'll run to the store and get some first aid supplies, get him inside and on the couch, we have to get the injuries under control before anything else and do not let him fall asleep," Ignis said before speeding off. Following his adviser's advice as Gladio made his way up carrying him up the stairs, Noctis ran up and unlocked the door and cleared off the couch that was under a few heaps of clothes that he knew Ignis would lecture him about later. As Gladio entered the apartment with Prompto and got him on the couch they could see just how pale he was along with the dark bruising on his throat. His hair was sticking up all over with grass in it, and his face was pale with a few dark spots shaped like fingerprints lining his jaw. Even though covered mostly with clothes covering him they could tell he was hurting. "Let's get this jacket off of him," Gladio said slowly lifting Prompto by his shoulder making the young teen groan and whimper in agony. With Noctis's help, they got off his leather jacket and the dark bruises covering Promptos arms made the prince's stomach turn. "who the fuck does this to their kid.." Gladio said as he eased Prompto back laying down. Noctis shook his head and ran a hand through Prompto's being careful to avoid the spot caked in blood. "How could we have not seen this.." Noctis said clenching his fist "He's been my friend for four years and I even knew him in middle school how..." as he spoke and tears welled in his eyes a strong hand was placed on his shoulder. "Honestly kid we didn't see it because Prompto didn't want us to," he said softly as he looked down at their friend who was more in a daze than paying any attention to what they were talking about. "If he wanted us to see it then he would of let it show, but I think deep down he was ... I don't know, embarrassed," Gladi said as he slowly started to take off his own shoes seeing he forgot. "why would he be embarrassed by that?" Noctis questioned following his shield to the entryway. "It's not like he wants it or anything if I knew he was being hurt..." his thought processes were cut off by Gladio chiming in. "you would have stepped in like you just did and made things complicated, I know Prompto if our friend, but sometimes things aren't that easy to tell even if from the outside it seems like the better thing or the easier thing to do."

Silence filled the apartment for a while after the conversation between the prince and his shield. The only time someone spoke was to try and keep Prompto awake by soothing touch to his uninjured hand and cupping his face to get him to focus. Just as Prompto was about to close his eyes another time Ignis returned and hurried over to Prompto with a rather large amount of bags. The first thing he did was hand a few things of Cup Noodles to Gladio and asked him to prepare them seeing Ignis would be too busy to cook that night, and seeing they had dinner at seven and it was almost eleven o'clock he expected someone was hungry. Returning his attention to Prompto he examined his head and wrapped it once he was able to determine the was no brain injury other than a concussion. Ignis worked smoothly as he started with his head and moved down to his throat. he could tell that there was bruising on the outside, and on the inside as well. continuing working he lifted the teen's shirt to see the dark purple bruising forming on his side and felt his chest for any cracked or broken ribs, luckily there were none, but the twisting in discomfort still showed the bones were at least bruised along with his skin. Prompto's arms had small cuts on them nothing a small bandage couldn't handle, but his right wrist and hands were another story. his wrist was broken and his fingers were cracked and bloody probably from fighting back or getting away. after wrapping them up he moved his way to his legs only, again finding a scrap from falling. the last major injury he had was his ankle, it was broken and already starting to turn a dark purple. After taking care of his injured Ignis covered the young boy in a warm blanket and let him drift off into sleep seeing he needed it.