One moment, it's just him and the guys on a trip to Japan for Noct's big wedding. Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, childhood friend, brilliant medical researcher and heir to a medical empire even more impressive than Crownsguard Inc., super gorgeous put-together babe--Prompto's wanted to meet her for years, but she's been busy working here on the other side of the world with Dr. Izunia and his dad. One moment, he's snapping away at tourist attractions and random passersby alike. One moment, they're happy.
The next, they're peeling out of Kyoto in the fancy car Ignis rented, screaming and shooting down moaning hordes of undead just like one of Noct's video games.
Then, they find the girls--almost a year later, but it still feels like the blink of an eye. All of them are leaner, all of them permanently exhausted, but the girl with the pink hair and the kitty hat points to him and calls him Tori-nii! and he almost forgets that the country, the world, likely everyone they love is dead. He would die for any one of these tiny girls without question, and there isn't even a discussion about not taking them along as they continue to look for Luna--Luna and the hope for a cure.
Rii-san's the one Ignis teaches how to drive the new car Prompto hotwires. Gladio's basically adopted Kurumi, training her in all the deadly wrestling moves he drilled into Iris. Noct and Mii-kun have struck up a quiet, unlikely friendship, and Prompto's happy to see she doesn't take any of his whining.
Prompto and Yuki-chan, of course, get along like a house on fire.
All in all, now that it's eight of them together, things aren't so bad. Even though ammo's limited for the one gun they have, Noct and Iggy and Gladio looted, like, an actual sword store, and anyway, running away always works best. Lunafreya's research facility is up in Hokkaido, so they drive and they run and they forage, and with Yuki-chan to cheer them on and cheer them up and Rii-san to take half the burden of mothering off Ignis, their life is just... better.
And then they reach Niflheim Labs, and it's all blown to pieces.
They don't take the girls with them. There's safety in numbers, yeah, but Ignis silently points out the military tank inside the fence and it's just not even a question. The four of them are all trained Crownsguard security (eh, sort of, in Prompto's case), and the girls are not. So it's only the four of them who discover the desperate men and women who'd once parachuted in as part of the first response against the epidemic, who face the guns and knives and shouting, who run deeper into the complex because they have Luna.
It's only the four of them who find the zombie experiments they've had the surviving scientists working on. It's only the four of them who see what's become of Ravus Nox Fleuret, Lunafreya's brother. It's only the four of them who freeze as he lunges at Noct.
It's only Prompto who screams as he pushes his best friend out of the way, who feels merciless teeth sink into his shoulder. Someone shoots and Ravus is gone--Gladio and Ignis yank off his thermal shirt to see the damage, Noct's holding his hand so tight his bones creak to try to stop him from shivering because he knows, he knows what a bite does, and then--
Safeties click. The ex-soldiers talk, cold and smug. Ignis and Gladio are forced aside, and then so is Noct, kicking and yowling like a cat, give him the anti-virus, you bastards, there's still time! He's dead. He has to be dead, and Prompto curls his trembling arms over his head to block it out.
And then they laugh.]
Well, maybe he doesn't need it after all. Why don't we test that? Nice and scientific.
[They throw him in an empty operating theater where they can watch from the windows but he can't get out. He's not sure how long he rattles the door, getting bloody handprints on everything. In the end, Prompto just curls up in a corner on the cold floor, sobbing, arms wrapped around himself, aware of the bite, aware of how cruel this is, to leave him here and wait for him to turn.
He cries himself to sleep eventually.
Prompto sleeps through Ignis and Gladio ensuring Noct's escape. He sleeps through Noct returning to the girls and begging for their help. He sleeps through the beginning of the rescue, through Noctis lighting Molotov cocktails and snapping swords against guns, the wrath of a god of storms. He sleeps through Mii-kun retrieving Lunafreya's keys.
He stirs when the commotion starts to reach the floor he's on. He sits up as a gentle girl's voice sinks in, the lock turns, the door opens.
And when Rii-san finds him, he presses himself against the wall, shaking like a leaf without his shirt, and the mark on his wrist--a bar code and the same logo she's seen on all documents related to the outbreak--is stark against his pale skin.]
Hey Rii-san you ready for some ZAMBIES
One moment, it's just him and the guys on a trip to Japan for Noct's big wedding. Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, childhood friend, brilliant medical researcher and heir to a medical empire even more impressive than Crownsguard Inc., super gorgeous put-together babe--Prompto's wanted to meet her for years, but she's been busy working here on the other side of the world with Dr. Izunia and his dad. One moment, he's snapping away at tourist attractions and random passersby alike. One moment, they're happy.
The next, they're peeling out of Kyoto in the fancy car Ignis rented, screaming and shooting down moaning hordes of undead just like one of Noct's video games.
Then, they find the girls--almost a year later, but it still feels like the blink of an eye. All of them are leaner, all of them permanently exhausted, but the girl with the pink hair and the kitty hat points to him and calls him Tori-nii! and he almost forgets that the country, the world, likely everyone they love is dead. He would die for any one of these tiny girls without question, and there isn't even a discussion about not taking them along as they continue to look for Luna--Luna and the hope for a cure.
Rii-san's the one Ignis teaches how to drive the new car Prompto hotwires. Gladio's basically adopted Kurumi, training her in all the deadly wrestling moves he drilled into Iris. Noct and Mii-kun have struck up a quiet, unlikely friendship, and Prompto's happy to see she doesn't take any of his whining.
Prompto and Yuki-chan, of course, get along like a house on fire.
All in all, now that it's eight of them together, things aren't so bad. Even though ammo's limited for the one gun they have, Noct and Iggy and Gladio looted, like, an actual sword store, and anyway, running away always works best. Lunafreya's research facility is up in Hokkaido, so they drive and they run and they forage, and with Yuki-chan to cheer them on and cheer them up and Rii-san to take half the burden of mothering off Ignis, their life is just... better.
And then they reach Niflheim Labs, and it's all blown to pieces.
They don't take the girls with them. There's safety in numbers, yeah, but Ignis silently points out the military tank inside the fence and it's just not even a question. The four of them are all trained Crownsguard security (eh, sort of, in Prompto's case), and the girls are not. So it's only the four of them who discover the desperate men and women who'd once parachuted in as part of the first response against the epidemic, who face the guns and knives and shouting, who run deeper into the complex because they have Luna.
It's only the four of them who find the zombie experiments they've had the surviving scientists working on. It's only the four of them who see what's become of Ravus Nox Fleuret, Lunafreya's brother. It's only the four of them who freeze as he lunges at Noct.
It's only Prompto who screams as he pushes his best friend out of the way, who feels merciless teeth sink into his shoulder. Someone shoots and Ravus is gone--Gladio and Ignis yank off his thermal shirt to see the damage, Noct's holding his hand so tight his bones creak to try to stop him from shivering because he knows, he knows what a bite does, and then--
Safeties click. The ex-soldiers talk, cold and smug. Ignis and Gladio are forced aside, and then so is Noct, kicking and yowling like a cat, give him the anti-virus, you bastards, there's still time! He's dead. He has to be dead, and Prompto curls his trembling arms over his head to block it out.
And then they laugh.]
Well, maybe he doesn't need it after all. Why don't we test that? Nice and scientific.
[They throw him in an empty operating theater where they can watch from the windows but he can't get out. He's not sure how long he rattles the door, getting bloody handprints on everything. In the end, Prompto just curls up in a corner on the cold floor, sobbing, arms wrapped around himself, aware of the bite, aware of how cruel this is, to leave him here and wait for him to turn.
He cries himself to sleep eventually.
Prompto sleeps through Ignis and Gladio ensuring Noct's escape. He sleeps through Noct returning to the girls and begging for their help. He sleeps through the beginning of the rescue, through Noctis lighting Molotov cocktails and snapping swords against guns, the wrath of a god of storms. He sleeps through Mii-kun retrieving Lunafreya's keys.
He stirs when the commotion starts to reach the floor he's on. He sits up as a gentle girl's voice sinks in, the lock turns, the door opens.
And when Rii-san finds him, he presses himself against the wall, shaking like a leaf without his shirt, and the mark on his wrist--a bar code and the same logo she's seen on all documents related to the outbreak--is stark against his pale skin.]