Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“47!” Prompto yelled randomly. Noctis jerked at the noise and dropped the gas pump on his foot.

Prompto was a blur as he cleared the distance between Takka’s and the garage, becoming visible only when he’d wrapped his arms around a tall, very dangerous looking bald man.

Noctis’ foot was probably swelling in his shoe, but he knew danger when he saw it. He returned the pump to its cradle and hobbled over to join them.

“What are you doing this far out of the city?”

“Taking Prince Noctis to his wedding. Remember when I told you I was training with the Crownsguard? This is why!”

The man’s eyes landed on him when he walked up next to Prompto.

“This him?”

“Oh, yeah! This is Noctis. Noctis, this is my Uncle 47.”

“47? That’s not a name…”

The man’s eyes narrowed, and Noctis found himself caught up in a glare so vicious he thought his face might melt off.

“Nice to met you Mr. 47…”

“... Prompto. What are you using?”

“For a gun? Oh, the citadel gave me one. It’s a-”

“I am well aware of the firearms selection in Lucis. They don’t have many options.”

“PROMPTO!” Another voice yelled. Noctis didn’t even get the chance to turn his head before Prompto was jumped by a girl in a uniform. She catapulted herself hard enough to knock them both of them over and they rolled twice before she got him in a headlock. They both both screamed and laughed as they rolled around in the motor oil stained concrete.

“Victoria.” 47 said, “Leave him alone.”

Neither of them responded to to his orders. The noise alerted Gladio and Ignis, who peeked out from the corner store but didn’t approach.

“Victoria!” 47 barked. “Get up!”

Victoria relinquished Prompto’s head and the two struggled to push themselves up as they giggled like kids.

“Can we eat at this place?” Victoria pleaded, “Please, we haven’t seen each other in ages.”

47 frowned, “Fine. But we need to get moving Victoria.”

Prompto turned to him. “You wanna join Noct?”

Noctis found himself agreeing only because the man was creepy and every nerve in his body was telling him not to leave Prompto alone. He felt the man’s eyes on his back as he informed Gladio and Ignis of what they were doing before joining them at the diner.

“We were just up north. We were going to come visit, but 47’s got a job so we’re going to turn around.” Victoria said between slurps of her milkshake. Prompto had ordered a sandwich,Noctis got some jambalaya, and 47 got a steak that he only half ate. “Will you take pictures of Altissia for me?”

“What you’ve never been?”

“No. He never accepts jobs from there.”

“Never anything challenging enough.” 47 said.

“We could take a vacation there you know. Oh, we could go with them. See the wedding.”

“No.”

Ignis passed by the window. Noctis tried to project some sort of mental plea signal to get him to come in, which he had to have succeeded in because ignis entered Takka’s diner and walked over.

“Hi Iggy.” Prompto said. “This is my Uncle 47 and my cousin Victoria!”

“Hello Mr. 47.” Ignis said. There was a lull where a polite person would say hello back, but 47 looked straight into Ignis’ eyes and said nothing.

“Hi Iggy.” Victoria chirped.

“Hello. I don’t mean to intrude, but we must move on to Galdin Quay…”

“You are not intruding.” 47 said. “Victoria we’re leaving.”

“Awww.”

47 got up and placed a thick wad of gil on the table as Victoria quickly chugged the last of her milkshake.

“Before I go.” 47 reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket. Ignis flinched at the motion, and then tensed even further when he saw 47 produce a silenced pistol. “Use this. Lucian engineering is… inadequate.”

“Uncle 47 I -”

47 set it on the table. “Take care of yourself. I doubt these fools will.”

Victoria waved and they drove off in a luxury Lincoln heading north.

“Charming fellow.” Ignis said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Yeah, he’s great.” Prompto replied, as if he didn’t notice.

Chapter Text

Noctis spent thirty minutes looking for Prompto in the crowd of people all dressed in one of three outfits. He checked on rooftops, behind buildings, and near the hotel before he gave up. Of course only after giving up did he find Prompto with a group of people near the leap of faith.

They were all in their own costumes. Most were good, except for the one that turned up in a full ball gown. He had a feeling she wandered in from a different event somewhere else. But he decided not to say anything as he approached the group.

“Oh hey Noct.” Prompto said when he saw him. “These are my cousins.”

“I didn’t know you had cousins.” Of course Noctis didn’t know Prompto had an uncle too, so he decided to accept that there was much about Prompto he didn’t know.

“Well they’re not my real cousins.” He explained. “This is Evie, Aveline, and Faith.”

They all nodded in acknowledgement, and Noctis got a good look at them which was what made him realize that Faith was just wearing a jogging outfit. So one good outfit in the group.

“You take the jump?” Evie asked. “We were all going to see who could climb the fastest.”

“Sounds cool. I haven’t seen Prompto take a leap.”

“Because I don’t trust any of these people to build a box of hay that won’t kill me.”

“Well I’ve always wanted to die.” Faith announced. “Time me.”

Aveline took out her phone and timed the climb. Faith wasn’t too bad as far as Noctis knew. She didn’t look like she climbed often, but when she got to the top she completed a fairly impressive swan dive.

Next went Evie. She looked like she knew how to climb and she did so without hesitation. One foot after the other, quick and precise. At the top she leisurely walked backwards then spread her hands out as she fell. Prompto went next and he completed the climb with a level of agility Noctis didn’t expect. Noctis never thought exactly how Prompto kept up with him despite his constant warping, but apparently Prompto was spiderman and he didn’t need to worry about it. Once Prompto hit the top he canonballed down into the hay.

Aveline was just about to climb up when there was some kind of commotion nearby. She paused then looked into the disorganized crowd as people quickly parted to make way for two people to stumble through.

On closer inspection only one person was stumbling. The other was half upright while the other wanted his face to make contact with the floor. Noctis looked back to Aveline who had the most unimpressed look on her face. Behind Aveline, Evie hid her face in her hands.

“Looks like grandpa’s having fun.”

“You have a grandpa?” He asked Prompto.

“He’s everyone’s grandpa.” Prompto replied. “And like everyone’s grandpa he gets wasted at social events.”

Prompto looked significantly more amused at this than Evie or Aveline. Out of the corner of his eye Noctis saw Faith take a seat to watch the show.

“Jacob!” Evie berated the halfway upright man. “You were supposed to watch how much he drank!”

“Ah did!” Jacob said. He stood upright and with that action brought the old man to a mostly standing position as well. It appeared Jacob was more sober than Noctis first thought while the old man carried a brown bottle. “I watched him drink half a fifth of rum and then we called it a day.”

“He’s old Jacob! He shouldn’t be drinking nearly that much”

“Lazzy!” The old man slurred. He took a big swig from the bottle of brown liquid he was holding. “Ah knoe hata ‘old mah liikqua!”

“See! He’s fine!”

“No he’s not! Please take him to the hotel Jacob. Put him on his side!”

The two obviously siblings continued to argue as the old man mumbled to himself. It all seemed pointless since the man kept drinking out of his bottle as the two argued, but no one else stepped in so Noctis refused to say anything.

People around them went back to their prior activities, but eventually Gladio seemed to have gotten bored with whatever his prior activity was and decided to walk over. He glanced at the arguing group in confusion before trying to cross the divide to him and Prompto. It was this attempt that drew the old man’s attention. His negative attention. In a flash the old man busted his bottle over a table until jagged edges remained and broke away from Jacob to drunkenly stalk towards Gladio.

“Ets yu ya dam, beg bahstard!” He slurred.

Gladio, for what it was worth, did not look at all threatened by the drunken old man swinging a broken bottle at his bare nipple. The man’s moves were telegraphed so well that Gladio only needed to step back to send the man crashing down on the ground and the bottle launched out of his hand mid swing.

He lay on the floor as his group of grandchildren looked completely unsurprised by the events. Evie gave one dark look to Jacob which spurred her brother to pick up the old man’s body and walked him to the hotel.

The rest of the group carried on as normal and Gladio walked over to talk to them.

“Who was that?”

“Prompto’s grandpa.”

“You have a grandpa? Is he always like that?”

“Adopted. And you haven’t seen anything. You should see him around Christmas.”

Chapter Text

Of course the only girl out fighting daemons at night would be a girl who knew Prompto. Noctis knew it before the fighting even stopped.

She popped out of the grass when they startled the daemons and subsequently worked with them to clear them out. In that ten minutes Prompto seemed to almost abandon him, working well with her to defeat an iron giant. He fired his gun and she stabbed at it with a spear until it died. They worked so well together that when Prompto gathered her up into a hug after the fighting was done Ignis let out a pained sigh.

“Another relative?” Ignis said. He sounded tired. Prompto’s family was becoming a hot button issue given how strange each and every one of them were.

“Yeah! This is my sister Aloy!” He gestured excitedly towards her. She had bright red hair and wore clothes made of a simple leather. Clearly this was not a blood relative.

“We’ve graduated to sister.” Gladio joked. “When are we gonna get a twin?”

“Shut up! She’s as much my sister as Iris is yours!”

“I’m going to go back to book a caravan.” Ignis interrupted. “Would you like to stay with us?”

Noctis could tell that this was an invitation born of politeness rather than any genuine desire to share a cramped space with another total stranger.

“Sure, thank you for the invite.”

They piled into the car and Ignis stomped on the accelerator so they could get to Wiz’ farm before midnight. This left a good opportunity for Gladio to lean back and put his arm around the back of Alo’s seat. She didn’t notice, however, since she and Prompto were immediately wrapped up in their conversation.

“I’ve reconnected with the Nora.” She said. Noctis recognized that name, they were a small tribe of people who lived outside the wall. He didn’t know much else about them. “They’re alright. I’m definitely not like them.”

“But Rost would’ve been happy you tried.” He said. “Is your mother there?”

“No. They won't tell me about her. But why are you here traveling? I figured you’d hunker down at a place like Lestallum.”

“Oh, I have to protect Noct. I’m a crownsguard now!” He said proudly.

“Barely.” Gladio said. He had his annoying, flirty voice on. “Got his uniform two days before we left for Noctis’ wedding.”

She turned towards him. “To the Oracle? You excited?”

“Sure. She’s a nice girl.” He tried to play it cool, but his heart still sped up at the thought of marrying Luna. They just had to get enough money and he’d see her again.

“That’s interesting. I couldn’t imagine being married right now.”

“I can’t imagine you dating someone right now. I remember the last guy to even try to ask you out got shot down flat. I think he went home and cried.”

She shrugged, “He was stupid. Only stupid guys seem to think I’m available.”

Gladio slowly retracted his arm. Noctis tried not to laugh too hard at the sight.

“So, how do you know Prompto?” He asked since Ignis seemed very intent on not doing that.

“My guardian used to babysit him. And his parents used to babysit me. Honestly there was, like, this group of ten adults who would pass us around when they were busy at work.”

“My parents never babysat anyone though.”

“Nope. But didn’t you have fun hunting with me n’ Rost?”

“Hunting?” That was surprising. Noctis didn’t picture Prompto for the type. “I didn’t know you used to go hunting Prom?”

“Yeah Rost thought it was important.” The lights of Wiz’s chocobo farm were visible in the distance. “I could probably survive out here on my own if I needed.”

“You’re always complaining when we have to go in a cave Prompto.” Gladio goaded.

“Yeah because caves are always hiding terrible things that I hate. But I can skin a garula and make a pair of pants out of it.”

“We’re here.” Ignis announced, putting an end to that conversation. Noctis was very happy to be at a place where he could sleep, but when he crawled into bed after a small meal he found himself unable to to that. Gladio was in the bunk above snoring and Ignis was more dead to the world than a corpse. And yet Noctis was frustratingly awake.

He got up out of bed to find the caravan door ajar. Aloy had volunteered to sleep outside since she apparently hated the caravan interiors, and Prompto always fell asleep at the tables playing King’s Knight. So they were both out there awake and talking.

Noctis shouldn’t have eavesdropped, he knew it was wrong, but they were talking about some sports team from Lestallum that he knew nothing about and it was a nicer sound that Gladio’s snoring. He decided to listen for a little while until he felt more tired and then try to sleep again. Leaning back against the wall he closed his eyes and listened as a relatively light conversation about a national sports team went to the several, smaller teams and the finally took a change he did not expect.

“So… it turns out my mother used to play for that team.” She said, her voice wavered a bit as she delved into the sensitive subject. Then she sighed and there was a long pause where Prompto was completely quiet. “Prompto, it turns out I’m a clone…”

“A clone?”

“Yes, of a Niflheim scientist called Elisabet Sobeck. I found the records at an old base and one of the Nora elders confirmed when I confronted her.”

“But you’re still you, ya know?” Prompto said. It sounded hollow to Noctis’ ears. Like Prompto didn’t completely believe what he was saying. “No matter how you came here you’re still you.”

Aloy sighed. “I hope you’re right.”