[AN - Hi other A!Anon! I was nearly done with this part so I figured I would post it now, but just to let you know that I can't wait to read your fill as well :D Not edited so apologies for any grammar mistakes, etc.]
Come Back Down
Of all the things Nyx didn't expect to see on his evening wallguard shift, the Crown Prince falling at his feet – literally – was up there at the top with Garulas sprouting wings and flying over the Citadel.
It looks almost intentional, with the way the young man gracefully falls from the sky and, warping the last few feet and barely avoiding breaking several important bones, landing in a very regal heap, skidding only once along the tarmac before coming to a dazed stop.
Nyx doesn't approach at first; takes a glance around for any assassins or would-be assailants that might be tailing the prince. Nothing comes. Birds sing, and car engines thrum along the nearby highway, but there are no shouts or hurried footsteps that normally accompany a threat to the Royal family's lives.
When Nyx looks back, the prince is picking himself off the floor, looking very much like the cat he used to have whenever she took a tumble off her windowsill perch: a little too perfectly unruffled, and hoping that pretending it didn't happen would erase the fact.
“Didn't...mean to do that.”
The prince – Noctis, Nyx recalls – is already on his feet and dusting off his jeans, and he jumps just the tiniest bit when Nyx speaks, whirling round as he finally notices his audience.
“You lost, Your Highness?”
“Not exactly.”
The comment makes Nyx grin and Noctis scowl in response. Nyx holds his hands up.
“I'm not laughing at you.”
“You better not be.”
Noctis doesn't grace him with a threat but Nyx figures he doesn't have to. He expects Noctis to leave now that he's rectified his error but the young man makes no move to warp or even walk away. He turns away from Nyx, surveying the barren border plaza before turning back to him.
“You the only one out here?”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
Noctis isn't used to having things withheld, Nyx can see, by the faint tone of impatient curiosity that is bleeding into his voice. Astrals help them if the boy ever got captured.
Nyx doesn't mean to bait him, really, but jibes slip off his tongue easily with no filter, and he finds himself sort-of-not-really surprised when the prince tilts his chin up and does an admittedly compelling impression of King Regis's serious voice.
“Take me back into the city. South of the Citadel. Glaive.”
“So you are lost?”
Nyx ain't sure what Noctis wants in that district – suburban. Far enough from the main city to be comfortable, but not too far to be inconvenient. Expensive – but he's becoming slowly sure of one thing.
The prince doesn't want to go home.
Nyx can roll with that.
“Alright, alright, I finish in a half hour. If you can wait, I'll take you, but I'm not leaving this post, not even for you.”
“....Fair enough then.”
It's almost too faint for him to see, but Nyx fancies he sees Noctis smile as the prince approached and flops down onto the floor in the shade of Nyx's shadow.
“You comfy there, Your Highness?”
“Absolutely.”
And as if to prove his point, Noctis leans his head back against the stone, closes his eyes, and falls promptly asleep.
* * *
Nyx should have known from that first day that this was a bad idea. “Just taking Noctis home” had turned into a short trip to McDonalds (and Nyx was sure that it was highly illegal or at least punishable by something to take the Crown Prince to McDonalds) and then his own home, and once he had let Noctis through the front door he had immediately taken up residence on his sofa – declaring it to be the Comfiest Sofa He Had Ever Sat On – and had closed his eyes as Nyx firmly locked his bedroom door to get changed.
He was sure that taking the single heir to the throne to his shitty apartment was probably illegal, too, but Nyx couldn't bring himself to care.
“Where did His Highness say he wanted to go?”
Changed and feeling a heck of a lot more comfortable doing this in jeans and a baggy old shirt, Nyx approached the sofa and leant over Noctis, frowning when the Prince didn't react. There was no way he had fallen that deeply asleep in – he checked his watch – two minutes and thirty-two seconds.
“Your Highness. Noctis.”
Running out of ideas, Nyx raised a hand and outstretched his index finger, moving it steadily towards the fleshy part of Noctis's cheek and he grinned when the prince caught his wrist, the tip of his finger close enough to feel warmth radiating off him.
“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty.”
Noctis's grip tightened hard enough to make Nyx wince as he snickered at his own joke, but he didn't push him away.
“Lemme stay here.”
Nyx stops laughing.
He can think of a good thirty or so reasons (and he's darn sure there are plenty more he hasn't thought of) that this is a Terrible Idea and he is a Terrible Person for even entertaining it, but he finds himself nodding and acquiescing all the same. Noctis can stay for as long as he likes, and no, it's no trouble at all so long as he doesn't mind that the heating only works in summer and that the occupants above and below may or may not be crazy axe murderers.
Noctis shrugs though Nyx's half-arsed attempt to put him off and Nyx mirrors the motion after five minutes, satisfied that he has done his best and yes he means that sincerely, officer.
They stay in a comfortable silence for the evening, Noctis mostly napping or playing some game on his phone whilst Nyx takes care of a few chores and completes his paperwork. They order pizza after it gets dark, and Nyx is finishing off the last piece when the prince finally seems to come back to reality.
“Is that King'sGlaive stuff?”
“Sure is.”
Nyx can see Noctis scrunching his face up out of the corner of his eyes.
“I figured there wouldn't be so much paperwork.”
Nyx thinks that that statement is applicably to a whole bunch of stuff.
“Yeah well, there is when you're the best. Gotta keep the boss happy even when you're a hero.”
Noctis meets his grin with an utterly deadpan look, and Nyx finds himself fighting another laugh.
“What, you don't believe me?”
“You don't exactly sell yourself as a paragon of honesty and humility.”
Noctis is definitely smirking now, and damn if it isn't a good look on him. Nyx holds his hands up in surrender.
“Well, gee, you got me, Your Highness. What can I do to redeem myself, Your Royalness?”
Noctis rolls his eyes as he gets up from the sofa, leaving a prince-shaped groove in the cushion. “Feed me pizza.”
He leans in close enough for Nyx to see the darker flecks in his irises, and a faint mole to the left of his mouth, and Nyx opens his mouth to reply but is interrupted by the doorbell. Noctis pulls away and slides into the least broken of his two dining chairs, leaving Nyx to fetch the pizza and bringing to the table. Smart move, considering the trouble it might stir to have the Prince answer his door so late in the evening...
“You not eating?”
Noctis already has half a slice of pizza in his mouth, and it's on the tip of Nyx's tongue to enquire as to whether Noctis skipped the dining part of his etiquette lessons when his stomach grumbles and he reluctance lets it go in favour of reaching for a slice before it gets cold.
“Brat.”
He says fondly when Noctis is licking his fingers clean, and Noctis looks up, grinning just a little behind his hand, and Nyx knows then that he is fucked and that there is no coming back from this.
Noctis grins back at him savagely and leans across the table as Nyx watches his mouth form words.
“Right back at you.”
[I'm sorry it's mostly banter and little substance...I promise all manner of hairplay and maybe kisses will be about in the next part!]
[Fill] Noctis+or/Nyx - Safe Place - Come Back Down (1/2)
Not edited so apologies for any grammar mistakes, etc.]
Come Back Down
Of all the things Nyx didn't expect to see on his evening wallguard shift, the Crown Prince falling at his feet – literally – was up there at the top with Garulas sprouting wings and flying over the Citadel.
It looks almost intentional, with the way the young man gracefully falls from the sky and, warping the last few feet and barely avoiding breaking several important bones, landing in a very regal heap, skidding only once along the tarmac before coming to a dazed stop.
Nyx doesn't approach at first; takes a glance around for any assassins or would-be assailants that might be tailing the prince. Nothing comes. Birds sing, and car engines thrum along the nearby highway, but there are no shouts or hurried footsteps that normally accompany a threat to the Royal family's lives.
When Nyx looks back, the prince is picking himself off the floor, looking very much like the cat he used to have whenever she took a tumble off her windowsill perch: a little too perfectly unruffled, and hoping that pretending it didn't happen would erase the fact.
“Didn't...mean to do that.”
The prince – Noctis, Nyx recalls – is already on his feet and dusting off his jeans, and he jumps just the tiniest bit when Nyx speaks, whirling round as he finally notices his audience.
“You lost, Your Highness?”
“Not exactly.”
The comment makes Nyx grin and Noctis scowl in response. Nyx holds his hands up.
“I'm not laughing at you.”
“You better not be.”
Noctis doesn't grace him with a threat but Nyx figures he doesn't have to. He expects Noctis to leave now that he's rectified his error but the young man makes no move to warp or even walk away. He turns away from Nyx, surveying the barren border plaza before turning back to him.
“You the only one out here?”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
Noctis isn't used to having things withheld, Nyx can see, by the faint tone of impatient curiosity that is bleeding into his voice. Astrals help them if the boy ever got captured.
Nyx doesn't mean to bait him, really, but jibes slip off his tongue easily with no filter, and he finds himself sort-of-not-really surprised when the prince tilts his chin up and does an admittedly compelling impression of King Regis's serious voice.
“Take me back into the city. South of the Citadel. Glaive.”
“So you are lost?”
Nyx ain't sure what Noctis wants in that district – suburban. Far enough from the main city to be comfortable, but not too far to be inconvenient. Expensive – but he's becoming slowly sure of one thing.
The prince doesn't want to go home.
Nyx can roll with that.
“Alright, alright, I finish in a half hour. If you can wait, I'll take you, but I'm not leaving this post, not even for you.”
“....Fair enough then.”
It's almost too faint for him to see, but Nyx fancies he sees Noctis smile as the prince approached and flops down onto the floor in the shade of Nyx's shadow.
“You comfy there, Your Highness?”
“Absolutely.”
And as if to prove his point, Noctis leans his head back against the stone, closes his eyes, and falls promptly asleep.
* * *
Nyx should have known from that first day that this was a bad idea. “Just taking Noctis home” had turned into a short trip to McDonalds (and Nyx was sure that it was highly illegal or at least punishable by something to take the Crown Prince to McDonalds) and then his own home, and once he had let Noctis through the front door he had immediately taken up residence on his sofa – declaring it to be the Comfiest Sofa He Had Ever Sat On – and had closed his eyes as Nyx firmly locked his bedroom door to get changed.
He was sure that taking the single heir to the throne to his shitty apartment was probably illegal, too, but Nyx couldn't bring himself to care.
“Where did His Highness say he wanted to go?”
Changed and feeling a heck of a lot more comfortable doing this in jeans and a baggy old shirt, Nyx approached the sofa and leant over Noctis, frowning when the Prince didn't react. There was no way he had fallen that deeply asleep in – he checked his watch – two minutes and thirty-two seconds.
“Your Highness. Noctis.”
Running out of ideas, Nyx raised a hand and outstretched his index finger, moving it steadily towards the fleshy part of Noctis's cheek and he grinned when the prince caught his wrist, the tip of his finger close enough to feel warmth radiating off him.
“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty.”
Noctis's grip tightened hard enough to make Nyx wince as he snickered at his own joke, but he didn't push him away.
“Lemme stay here.”
Nyx stops laughing.
He can think of a good thirty or so reasons (and he's darn sure there are plenty more he hasn't thought of) that this is a Terrible Idea and he is a Terrible Person for even entertaining it, but he finds himself nodding and acquiescing all the same. Noctis can stay for as long as he likes, and no, it's no trouble at all so long as he doesn't mind that the heating only works in summer and that the occupants above and below may or may not be crazy axe murderers.
Noctis shrugs though Nyx's half-arsed attempt to put him off and Nyx mirrors the motion after five minutes, satisfied that he has done his best and yes he means that sincerely, officer.
They stay in a comfortable silence for the evening, Noctis mostly napping or playing some game on his phone whilst Nyx takes care of a few chores and completes his paperwork. They order pizza after it gets dark, and Nyx is finishing off the last piece when the prince finally seems to come back to reality.
“Is that King'sGlaive stuff?”
“Sure is.”
Nyx can see Noctis scrunching his face up out of the corner of his eyes.
“I figured there wouldn't be so much paperwork.”
Nyx thinks that that statement is applicably to a whole bunch of stuff.
“Yeah well, there is when you're the best. Gotta keep the boss happy even when you're a hero.”
Noctis meets his grin with an utterly deadpan look, and Nyx finds himself fighting another laugh.
“What, you don't believe me?”
“You don't exactly sell yourself as a paragon of honesty and humility.”
Noctis is definitely smirking now, and damn if it isn't a good look on him. Nyx holds his hands up in surrender.
“Well, gee, you got me, Your Highness. What can I do to redeem myself, Your Royalness?”
Noctis rolls his eyes as he gets up from the sofa, leaving a prince-shaped groove in the cushion.
“Feed me pizza.”
He leans in close enough for Nyx to see the darker flecks in his irises, and a faint mole to the left of his mouth, and Nyx opens his mouth to reply but is interrupted by the doorbell. Noctis pulls away and slides into the least broken of his two dining chairs, leaving Nyx to fetch the pizza and bringing to the table. Smart move, considering the trouble it might stir to have the Prince answer his door so late in the evening...
“You not eating?”
Noctis already has half a slice of pizza in his mouth, and it's on the tip of Nyx's tongue to enquire as to whether Noctis skipped the dining part of his etiquette lessons when his stomach grumbles and he reluctance lets it go in favour of reaching for a slice before it gets cold.
“Brat.”
He says fondly when Noctis is licking his fingers clean, and Noctis looks up, grinning just a little behind his hand, and Nyx knows then that he is fucked and that there is no coming back from this.
Noctis grins back at him savagely and leans across the table as Nyx watches his mouth form words.
“Right back at you.”
[I'm sorry it's mostly banter and little substance...I promise all manner of hairplay and maybe kisses will be about in the next part!]