Night Light {FFXV/OT4}

Sunburn

Chapter Four: Sunburn

-

Wiz didn't seem all too comfortable having a Magitek Trooper wandering around his outpost, but Noctis couldn't exactly fault the man for that. Despite the fact that Prompto was most definitely a human being, it didn't change the fact that this mysterious blonde had probably killed people in the past.

It was a prospect that kept nagging at Noct's mind despite how hard he tried to forget about it. He didn't want to believe it, didn't want to think that this seemingly innocent -and frankly, rather cute- male had killed people. Had taken lives, the lives of his people in fact. The idea of Prompto having killed people was bad enough, but the prospect of it being soldiers of Lucian blood just made it all the worse.

The Prince and his two retainers sat in their plastic chairs, watching the Trooper eat at such a fast pace he might as well have never seen food before. Noctis felt like the question was eating away at his very mind, lingering constantly in his brain. He knew he wouldn't be able to get rid of the constant unease he felt whenever he so much as looked at the soldier, not if he didn't find out, didn't know if this innocent looking blonde had ever killed people. So after much consideration, he decided the only thing he could do was to simply ask him.

"So, uh, Prompto.. have you ever killed anyone?"

There was an awkward silence for a few moments as everyone around the table tensed up. Ignis and Gladiolus stopped their murmured conversation and Prompto froze with his spoon halfway to his mouth, Ignis-made curry splashing back into his bowl as he went still. Even Wiz paused from where he was emptying the trash can -full of spoiled vegetables- into the skip, wanting to hear the answer to the question all four had been thinking, but only one had dared to ask.

The silence stretched for a moment before Gladio snorted, punching Noctis in the arm. "Way to be subtle, Princess." Noctis glared but said nothing, knowing he could have been more tactful, but he didn't see the point. At the end of the day he just wanted an answer; had Prompto killed people, or not?

Noctis basked in the wave of relief that crashed over him when the blonde shook his head. Prompto spoke after a few moments, stirring his spoon round in the curry distractedly, not meeting the eyes of the Prince nor his retainers.

"I've never killed any people, no.. just other Magitek Troopers, in training."

Ignis let a frown slip onto his face at that, although Noctis had a suspicion that it wasn't over the death of Niflheim Soldiers, but over the fact Prompto was playing with his food.

"Other Magitek Troopers? But they're people too, no?"

They were surprised as the blonde shook his head again at the question, having assumed that all the Soldiers would be just like Prompto: human beings.

"No.. they're all just machines and daemons. I was the only one to be human, although I was.. defective"

They all picked up on the hint of bitterness in Prompto's voice. Noctis was about to ask what he meant by defective but fell silent as he received a kick in the shin from Gladio, followed up by Ignis' pointed stare.

The Sheild spoke up in a friendly effort to change topic, as it was quite clear this current one wasn't something Prompto liked to talk about "So kid, if you're not a machine then you're not going to run out of power on us or anything, right? Or should we get you one of those Magitek Generator thingies?"

Prompto shook his head at that, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips. "Nah, actually.. I think the less contact I have with Magitek Generators the better."

Gladio raised an eyebrow at that response, watching as the blonde sighed. Prompto rested his head on his arms where he'd crossed them on the table, absently tracing small circles on the plastic tabletop.