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year 5, quarter 3
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[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Caius joked that Noctis had made off rather well compared to the rest of the family, which made the prince quirk his lips into a half smirk. “I think the bar for that’s in hell,” he said with a slight chuckle. “But considering that the last three seem to be you, me, and Ardyn…” With that in mind, Noctis supposed he should just consider himself lucky to not have been locked away for 2,000 years. The astrals definitely weren’t kind to the Lucis Caleums who weren’t in line for the throne.
Caius also expressed some regret about not having full access to the armiger, which made Noctis shake his head. “You’re plenty strong even without the crystal’s full blessing. Gave me a run for my money on that beach.” It probably rang a little hollow coming from him when he was supposed to be the true king from the prophecy, but the prince really did mean it. To him, that destiny felt more like shackles leading him to some preordained fight with darkness. He’d have given anything to just be normal. Maybe the grass really was greener on the other side.
He really wasn’t expecting Caius to bring up him supposedly teleporting over to Eorzea though. “Seriously? That’s what Alex said!” Noctis sat back down on the abandoned couch with a groan. “He claimed we’d met before in his world. Knew a lot about me or I would have thought he was crazy. Eventually I just figured that maybe I was having memory problems about the trip like lots of people here seem to.” That was looking more and more likely if someone else had confirmed meeting him on Eorzea. He’d have to talk to this Renitra person if they ever crossed paths.
Caius admitted that he wasn’t certain how Cortez had absorbed the scourge, whether he’d been the one to bring it to Zephon or if it had already been here when he’d come into contact with it again. “I guess it doesn’t really matter. We’ll stop him either way,” Noctis said while rubbing the back of his neck. He had mostly just been musing out loud, but this really wasn’t the time for that. Especially when the blond kingsglaive looked dead on his feet.
Caius confirmed that he was going to go back to the clinic for a drink and a nap. He said he’d check on Ignis while he was there, and the prince nodded gratefully. “Thank you. We’ll head back there soon too. Just wanted to update Cindy on the situation.” He didn’t want to be away from his injured retainer for too long either. “You’ll…be okay on the way back, right?” He really did look exhausted. They could probably give him a ride if needed.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Tifa said that she’d at least gotten lucky with the version of Sephiroth that was here since he was taken before he’d done anything bad on Gaia. Privately, Noctis wasn’t so sure that was a blessing. It was great that he wasn’t a danger or anything, but the prince wasn’t sure how he’d react if a peaceful Ardyn turned up. That sounded like a good way to get Noct arrested before the misunderstanding was cleared up. He kept his thoughts to himself on that bit though.
Tifa gave him enough to react to anyway when she described Don Corneo for him. “That’s…really messed up. Not exactly brides if he throws them away the next day,” Noctis said with a grimace. “I hope you didn’t have to deal with him much.” He had no doubt that Tifa could take care of herself, but that still didn’t sound like the kind of guy she should have been anywhere near.
She encouraged his plan to check on Alex, which he appreciated since she was probably the only one who would. “Yeah, I just hope he’s not having a breakdown or something. I swear he wasn’t like that before, or I wouldn’t have brought him,” Noctis said with a frown. “Feeding the cats sounds like a good excuse to visit though.” He didn’t want to drag Tifa into anything else, but Alex hadn’t seemed to mind the bartender if she was around too.
She looked more confused than anything at his request for the baking lesson casserole to be free from vegetables. When she asked if he didn’t like them, he shivered much like Tifa had regarding Don Corneo. “Yeah, me and vegetables don’t really get along.” That was an understatement. Somehow he thought she would laugh at him though if he mentioned the time that he and Ignis had a deathmatch in a gas station parking lot over him not eating his greens.
Tifa said that he was welcome to visit at any time, which made Noctis hope that the streetlights wouldn’t show him getting a little red. “Thanks. Maybe I’ll take you up on that when Sonora calms down over the prison break.” He definitely didn’t want to bring any heat down on her bar after all, but it would be nice to visit after that.
She moved in a little closer so that he could warp them both down, and he appreciated the extra warmth given how chilly it was outside. Funny how he was only really starting to feel the temperature now that the wine was gone. Summoning the engine blade in one hand, he wrapped his other arm around Tifa’s waist before chucking the sword down towards the street. They shot after it in a blue streak before they were both suddenly standing safely down on the pavement. Noctis grinned faintly as he let go of her and banished his sword back into the glaive. “You handled that better than some kingsglaives do their first time, you know.” The prince himself had nearly puked, but that was a detail he didn’t want to relive tonight. Anyway, it was probably time to go upstairs and see what sleep he could still get before the jail break.
“Be safe going home,” Noctis said out of habit, since it was pretty late at night. Then he remembered that Tifa did martial arts, and he added an amendment to that. “I mean, I guess I should be more worried for the other guy if someone jumped you.”
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Caius joked that his height was a fair trade-off for not receiving the gods’ blessing, which almost made Noctis choke. “Yeah, yeah. Rub it in,” he said with a faint smile before shaking his head. “Anyway, trust me. You’re better off without the gods’ attention.” At this point, the blessing of the astrals was starting to look more like a curse than anything else. Particularly with what Caius had told him of Ardyn’s story. Still, with everything that had been brought to light today, it was looking like the blond man was next in line to the Lucian throne after Noct himself. He really needed to try to keep the astrals’ attention off of his last remaining family member. Let alone Ardyn’s attention.
Caius started to tell him a little more about the man who had tried to assassinate him back on Eos, and everything that he heard just made Noctis frown more. “Someone like that worked at the Citadel?” It was yet another thing that his father had never told him about, but maybe he hadn’t wanted Noct to know that those kinds of experiments had happened in their own backyard. The prince had probably been a kid at the time it all happened anyway.
Cortez was apparently also responsible for killing Caius’ family since his dad had been the one to initially get him arrested. And that was…a lot to take in. Especially considering that he’d apparently finished the job if he’d wound up killing Caius in the botched assassination attempt. “This guy’s a real piece of shit,” the prince said rather bluntly, frowning more at the description of how he was apparently consumed by the starscourge. “That’s really weird if we brought back the dawn in Eos. But if it happened to him here on Zephon…” That would make sense when the scourge was confirmed to be in Zephon. Ardyn likely had a lot to do with that, but if defeating this Cortez guy could help reduce the scourge even a little bit…
Honestly, it sounded a little like what had happened to Ravus when he had been turned into a daemon. Except Ravus had begged them to stop him, and Cortez had welcomed the change. What a creep.
Caius stopped his tale there and said that he’d rather tell him about his actual death over a strong drink. “Hey, fair enough,” Noct said, waving his hand to show that it was fine. “I at least know who to look out for now. That’s good enough for me.” The blond man was starting to look a little dead on his feet anyway. “This has been…a lot. You need a break? I know you just came initially to tell me about the scourge threat, and uh. Message definitely received.” The conversation had veered wildly off course from there, but Noct couldn’t say that he regretted it. He was learning more about his family history than he’d known existed. Caius just looked like he desperately needed to sleep this off.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Tifa mentioned how weird it was that they were somewhere entirely new and still having to deal with everything that had happened before. “No kidding. It’s stressing me out not knowing who could pop up next,” he admitted. So far he’d only encountered allies from Eos, but that could change at any time. He’d just have to be ready for Ardyn and the empire when and if they appeared. On her end, Tifa listed out a few names other than Sephiroth of people he should watch out for. The prince nodded along and then gave her a slightly concerned look when someone named Don Corneo apparently creeped her out so much that she actually shivered.“Uh…You okay?” He had about a thousand questions, but he wouldn’t push it in case she didn’t want to talk about it.
Tifa agreed to come by the Rising Stones to see the stray cats, which meant that she really was a cat lover since she was willing to brave seeing Alex for them. “I might make a stop there anyway once all this is over. Feel like I should check on Alex,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck with one gloved hand. Not the kind of thing he’d be telling Prompto about, but he didn’t want to leave things off with the other blond man without fully understanding what had gone down in Tifa’s bar. “The cats are definitely a good excuse though.”
Tifa humored his musings about space travel, and she even encouraged him by saying she’d be patient in their cooking lessons. She really was a good person, and Noct had to laugh when she said that if his attempts were too bad, then he could just pay for them to go out to eat. “Honestly that’s entirely fair. You’ve got a deal.” He was already mentally preparing to shell out the money. He didn’t doubt that Tifa would be patient, but she was probably underestimating just how bad he actually was. Ignis would probably pledge his allegiance to her if the prince actually managed to bake something at the end of this. “Er…by the way, you mentioned a casserole. Can we try something without vegetables?” He was absolutely petty enough to burn something that had too much green in it. Or beans. Beans were gross.
The bartender wished him luck tomorrow and said that she knew he’d be reunited with Ignis. “Thanks Tifa. Especially for letting us plan all this in your bar.” She put a hand on top of his when she said that she liked talking to him too, which surprised him a little, but he gave her a small smile in return. Her fingers were a little chilly from the night air, but his probably were too. “Guess we’ll have to pick a day for that baking lesson then.” He turned his hand over so that he could take hers as he got to his feet. Not that she needed help getting up, but sometimes he remembered his royal training. Sometimes.
“Ready to warp back down?” Almost as an afterthought, he sent their empty wine glasses back into his glaive. Until they were next needed at least. Actually, he should probably wash those upstairs before turning in.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Caius seemed to be feeling a little better after Noctis had knelt and officially recognized him. Maybe Cindy’s living room wasn’t the most formal of settings to do that in, but they were far away from their kingdom, and it had been more about the principle than anything anyway. Noct was saying that he didn’t mind if they wanted to consider each other family, and he hoped he’d made that clear.
For his part, Caius talked a little more about the person that he’d been before coming to Zephon. “...Yeah. I wish you’d gotten to open up to him too,” he said in reference to the archivist that he’d gotten somewhat close to. “I’ll see what I can do if I ever find a way home. Er. Maybe sometime you should tell me about that assassination attempt you stopped though. All things considered.” Changing things for Caius would only do so much good if he still died right in front of the prince while protecting him. That would be a terrible end after supposedly defeating Ardyn and restoring the dawn.
Caius didn’t think it would be a problem for him to be able to visit the sylleblossoms, so Noctis nodded his agreement. “Then…maybe I’ll hand it over when everything slows down.” That would be beyond hard. It wasn’t easy to let go, but he stood by his original thought that a field of flowers was a much better testament to Luna’s memory than anything else he could do with her final gift on his own.
His estranged relative laughed a little at being called ‘cuz,’ and Noctis pretended not to notice the way he wiped his arm on his sleeve. They’d all been there before after all, and Caius was having a rough time of it. Still, he was surprised when the man thanked him by using his nickname. He was used to hearing it from his friends—and even from Ardyn at this point as creepy as that always was—but the kingsglaive still called him ‘your highness’ more than anything else. Honestly, it was really nice to see him finally loosen up. It had probably been hard for him to see Noctis casually when the king that he had known had been so much older than him. But here? They were pretty much the same age, and Noctis hadn’t earned the right yet to be called king of anything. But he would someday, if he had anything to say about it. Until that day, he didn’t care what Caius or anyone else called him.
Thankfully Noct managed to break the tension even more with a joke about Caius’ height that made him laugh. Caius confirmed that his tallness came from his father’s side, which made the prince let out an over-exaggerated sigh. “Between you and Gladio, I think I’m the odd one out over here when it comes to Lucians. Do you think the crystal stunted my growth?” Not a serious joke, but it was pretty draining come to think of it.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Tifa agreed to be wary of anyone named Ardyn, though she also pointed out that she could just run any names past him first. “That works too,” he acknowledged, though the chancellor was the main person he’d want her to look out for. He didn’t think anyone else from the empire would come after him. What would be the point when they were away from Eos? He certainly wasn’t a prince of anything here. “What about you? Anyone from Gaia to watch out for other than Sephiroth?” Maybe the people running Shinra, but he had a feeling that could be similar to the leaders of Niflheim. They might not be much of a threat here on Zephon.
The bartender perked up at the mention of all the stray cats around the Rising Stones, and she seemed to agree that having one or two around the bar would be nice. “Yeah, bet the customers would love it. Plus you’d never have a rat problem,” he added. Honestly, he hoped she’d end up adopting one, but that was selfishly so he’d have the chance to visit a cat more. He’d have to bring by some fish if she did get one.
Tifa giggled at his confusion around space travel, and he peered up at the night sky when she confirmed that it was absolutely possible. “No kidding…” The night sky in Sonora was a pretty sad sight with all the light pollution. He could barely make out any stars, so the prince was currently having to go off memory. “You think if they manage space travel here, then we could find our way home that way?” In theory, Eos and Gaia were both out there right? Even if they were pretty far away.
Tifa consoled him on his cooking skills by saying that they could start with an easy casserole or a grilled cheese. “We can try,” he said a bit glumly. Not because he was reluctant to learn, but because he had a sudden vision of him accidentally setting her kitchen on fire. Hopefully it didn’t come to that. “We uh. Don’t have to eat it though if it looks too bad. I’ll pay you back for the ingredients.” The prince was only half joking unfortunately. He really didn’t have much confidence in himself. Then again, Ignis had always seemed pretty content to do the cooking, so maybe Tifa would be a more persistent teacher. They’d have to see.
She seemed surprised that so much time had passed, and Noct privately agreed. She was easy to talk to. Maybe they’d have more nights like this, and she seemed like she’d be okay with that too since she offered to bring the wine next time. “Next time then. Sounds good to me,” he said as he sipped the remainder of his final glass. He was definitely feeling the alcohol at this point, and it was a pleasant warmth against the chilly evening. “Glad you liked it. I’ve been trying to ration what’s in my glaive since I can’t restock from home, but…this felt like a good night for it.” Who knew if they’d even survive the breakout, and he couldn’t drink anything if he was dead after all. He wasn’t going to say that to Tifa though. “Thanks again for the company,” was all he said instead.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Tifa offered to send people from Eos his way in return, which made Noctis nod gratefully until an intrusive thought struck him. “Thanks. Er…if you ever meet a red-haired guy named Ardyn though, then just…run the other direction, okay?” The version of Sephiroth that Tifa had met on Zephon apparently didn’t remember anything that he’d done to Gaia, but Noctis wasn’t going to hold his breath on that for Ardyn. Especially when the chancellor would probably be all too happy to torment one of the prince’s friends.
Tifa picked up on the fact that he was a cat lover and explained that she used to have a big white cat named Fluffy. “White cats are great,” he said with a grin, though his favorite type had to be little black voids. They were usually pretty sweet. “If you ever want to adopt a cat here, I know there’s a bunch of strays around the Rising Stones. Prompto used to feed them.” Hopefully Alex kept that up, since his friend wasn’t likely to want to go back to that guild for a while. If not, then Noct could always swing by with some freshly-caught fish.
“I think you’d adjust to a sword pretty fast since you can already move around in a fight. Definitely have to get used to the weight though,” Noctis acknowledged. She was probably perfectly happy sticking with her fists anyway, but this was all hypothetical. Anyway, he was pretty distracted as soon as she described why they’d had an airship to begin with. “Space?” Noctis glanced over at Tifa, a little uncertain if she was messing with him or not. “Going up near the stars? That’s possible?” Even Niflheim hadn’t dreamed that big, though who knows what would have happened if the empire had survived? Personally Noct thought that they had enough problems down on Eos though without bringing them along to other planets.
Though honestly, that’s exactly what they were doing now to Zephon. Food for thought.
Tifa seemed to find it hilarious that he had once burned soup, and the prince let out a slightly long-suffering sigh. He was used to the guys giving him hell, so he wasn’t upset or anything. Not when it was objectively pretty funny. “I’ll do my best when you teach me.” Unless it involved vegetables, but that wasn’t likely when it came to baking. As long as she didn’t try to teach him carrot cake or something, and then their lesson would turn into the prince’s hell. Ignis would sure be happy though.
Tifa agreed that maybe they’d both needed this night up on the roof, and Noctis smiled faintly as he topped off both of their wine glasses for the last time. “Cheers then. That’s the end of the bottle.” He was glad she’d shared it with him though. They’d have to do this again sometime. Maybe to console themselves over how hopeless Noct was in the kitchen.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Caius expressed confidence that Noctis would make him proud if he ever found a way back, which made the prince rub at his neck self-consciously. He knew that the blond man spoke more from experience than anything else, but it still felt odd to have someone other than his three friends believe in him that much. Thankfully Caius lightened the mood with a joke about how he’d used to be before becoming a kingsglaive, which made Noct chuckle. “It’ll be weird to be the mature one for a change then. I’ll try to go easy on you though.” He was a bit of a chaos magnet himself at this point in his life, but he liked to think that he was getting better over time. He was definitely more responsible than when he’d first set off in the Regalia. It was hard not to be with everything that had happened.
Caius also expressed hope that Noctis would remember all this if he found a way back, but the prince wasn’t sure how to answer that. No one really knew after all. There was no point in worrying about that yet though. If Caius’ timeline was still the correct one, then Noct had at least ten more years to get comfortable around Zephon.
Caius also brought up a friend that he’d been meaning to start a garden with, and Noct nodded slowly at the idea that she might be a good candidate to give the seeds to. “As long as she lets me visit the sylleblossoms she grows,” he agreed before adding on a caveat. “Assuming there’s still life left in these little guys, but…something tells me Luna’s keeping them going.” He wasn’t quite ready to hand over the flower pressed between the pages of her notebook, but he thought that he might be once he could meet the mystery girl up in Sonora. Either Luna was alive there, or it was time to keep her memory going for everyone to see. A living field of flowers was way more personal than a single dead one tucked away in a book.
Noctis had expected that him kneeling and recognizing Caius as a Lucis Caelum might startle the other man, but when he glanced up, his new family member had tears running down his face. The prince ducked his head a little sheepishly to give the kingsglaive some privacy, but Caius tugged him back up to his feet instead. For a moment he thought that the other man might hug him, but he ended up just putting a hand on his shoulder, which was honestly the most Caius thing of all. It might have made him laugh if the emotions of today weren’t really getting to him too.
Caius thanked him before saying that he intended to keep the name Dragelion for now to honor his family. “Yeah, that makes sense. Especially if that’s your dad’s real last name,” the prince acknowledged. He didn’t actually expect Caius to go by his mother’s maiden name or anything. He had just wanted to make it clear that the guy didn’t have to feel like a mistake or a pariah in this half of his family.
Come to think of it, he might have felt the same way about Ardyn had the man not been a murderous psychopath but that was a train of thought that was best unpacked later. Or never. He had managed to avoid Ardyn so far on Zephon, so he could continue to hope that the man wasn’t even here. His presence wasn’t exactly subtle after all.
Apparently Caius’ thoughts weren’t too far away from Noct’s own, as he brought up the man who had helped kill his family. His presence here had been confirmed unfortunately, unlike Ardyn’s so far, and it sounded like the blond man planned to end things with him once they’d helped Lumina. “Let me know if you need anything with that,” he offered with a slight frown. He didn’t entirely expect to be taken up on that. This was a personal revenge mission, and plus his girlfriend was probably way better in the moral support category than Noctis was. He was pretty bad at that actually. The offer was there though!
Caius vowed to drive the scourge out of Zephon before saying that he would be honored if Noctis considered him family after that. Now it was the prince’s turn to give him a startled look before smiling faintly and glancing away. His circle of family had always been small. For a long time it was just him and his dad. Then no one. And then just…Ardyn. Given all of that, he wasn’t too opposed to making his circle wider.
“...Sure thing, cuz.” They weren’t actually cousins, but the word felt appropriate somehow. He honestly wasn’t sure how exactly they were related—his dad was an only child like Noct himself was—but he was pretty certain that his grandfather Mors had a few siblings in the history books. Maybe the family had grown out from there, away from the public’s eye.
Speaking of growing…
“Honestly I just have one more question with all of this,” Noctis said, looking upward at Caius rather seriously. “...How the hell did you get so tall? That has to be from your dad’s side, right?” The prince knew exactly one full-grown man who was shorter than him, and that was Prompto. Which was definitely a low bar to clear. Pun intended.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Caius gave a shaky laugh before pointing out that he had been at the siege on the capital. He’d told the story of fighting Ifrit to Noctis before, so the prince immediately knew what he was talking about, even if that hadn’t been what he meant. He wanted this version of Caius to be able to come home with the four of them someday, but maybe he had a point that it would be weird to have two of the same person running around. Time shenanigans were strange.
He also had to rub his neck and glance to the side a little sheepishly when Caius attributed who he was now to him and what he’d done for the kingsglaive. That brought up a lot of feelings that he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with. “If I ever make it back, then…I’ll do my best to do the same again,” he promised. That prompted a small smile as he wondered about the ramifications of that. “Makes me wonder if we’re stuck in a time loop though where I show up here and meet you, get old, and then go back and meet your younger self before you come here.” Not the most intelligent thing to say, but hopefully it would lighten the mood a little.
Caius did manage to pull himself together as he explained that he believed the citadel had been paying for them to live out on that farm in order to keep them safe from the prophecy. That earned a wince from the prince, but he did his best to stay objective on that front. “...So my dad thought he was keeping you safe,” he acknowledged as he let out a breath. “If he thought that marked everyone else in the family’s deaths…” It made sense on a level that was also incredibly depressing. “I was a kid when the old kings told him that I’d be the one to end it, so…the timeline lines up.” As much as he didn’t want it to.
The blond man also outlined some of the time on the chocobo farm where he’d grown up, and the prince chuckled a little as he described how he’d loved raising them. “I guess that explains Vordun.” He must have known how to hatch an egg pretty well at least. His expression changed to a frown though as Caius explained how he’d wanted to plant sylleblossoms for his mother and never gotten the chance to. “...I’d have liked to see that. A field of them in Lucis. Sorry you never got to see Tenebrae.” Luna had pressed them in between the pages of the book they used to write back and forth with, and there had been a final one that she’d left in there after she’d died. The thought made Noctis bite his lip as he weighed whether or not to say anything before giving in. “I have a pressed one still. I want to show it to Luna if she really might be here, but after that…maybe the seeds are still good.” Better late than never to start a field of flowers, right?
Caius finished out his tale by explaining what had happened to his family. It was all incredibly messed up, and Noctis wasn’t entirely sure what to say. He didn’t think there was anything he could say that would make the man feel better, but he did his best. “...Some people just take joy in other people’s suffering. Ardyn’s like that. Those people were like that. But you’re not like that. Whatever you had to do to survive.”
There was one more thing he needed to say, but he couldn’t do it while standing. Letting out a breath, he knelt down lower than it was usually proper for a prince to kneel, even if he knew that would probably startle Caius. “Our line failed you. And I’m sorry for that. I’m the only one left to take responsibility, and I say screw that line of the prophecy. I recognize you, Caius Lucis Caelum.” And then he absolutely ruined the moment by showing his youth again as he glanced up a little uncertainly. “Er. If you like your current last name, that’s cool too. It’s the principle, you know?”
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Tifa agreed that the trip around Gaia really had been good sometimes in spite of everything, and Noctis thought that he could relate to that. Even after Insomnia had fallen, traveling around Lucis with his friends had been one of the best times of his life. The whole experience had been a weird combination of not really wanting to move on and grow up while knowing that he had to in order to restore Lucis and make peace with everything that had happened. He still didn’t really know how to make sense of that time period. It was a lot of grief and denial, that was for sure. “I’ll keep an eye out for anyone from Gaia too. I’ll be sure to send them your way if I find anyone.” It was a little sad that Tifa hadn’t found any of her friends yet, but hopefully that would change soon.
She also explained how she’d started learning martial arts, and Noctis perked up a little at the mention of one of his favorite animals. Prompto got excited over chocobos, but the prince himself was always ready to go fishing for a stray cat in need. “You had a cat?” That was not at all the point of the story, but it was what had caught his attention first. “And he must have been a good teacher. I haven’t seen you fight yet, but it must be something if you took on a corporation and that Sephiroth guy. I’d go down pretty easy without a sword.” Hell, when he’d first gotten to Gralea, he had the Ring of the Lucii with him and he’d still nearly died without a sword. Tifa was something amazing.
“Wait, seriously? You guys had your own airship?” He mostly associated airships with Niflheim, but there was nothing inherently evil about them. A private one sounded downright convenient. That must have made getting around way easier. Now if only the Regalia could fly…Well, he’d have to talk to Cindy about that one.
Tifa seemed to think it was a great idea to bake something for Ignis, and Noctis grinned a bit sheepishly as he decided that he should give her fair warning. “You were a good student when I taught you how to fish though. I uh. Somehow burned soup once. Even though I was stirring it. And Ignis was watching me.” Not the proudest moment of his life. He and Specs had a good conversation during that at least, so getting up early hadn’t been entirely wasted.
“I think he’d like that too,” Noctis said warmly, glancing down at his wine when Tifa said she’d love to learn some new recipes from Ignis. Maybe meeting someone else who liked to cook would help jumpstart him into trying it again. Even if he’d have to go by touch and intuition now.
“...Hey, I’m glad you found me tonight by the way. Think this is what I needed before everything goes down. So…thanks Tifa.” Not the most eloquent, but Gladio didn’t call him Prince Charmless for nothing. He really did mean it though. He hoped to see more of the bartender after the breakout. Especially now that they had a baking lesson planned.
