Chapter Text
It was a cold night, the neon lights were shining and the street was busy.
“Did you hear of that guy who everyone's been talking about?” A girl, with red hair, asked excitedly.
“What are you talking about?” Her friend was not really interested.
“Prompto, of course!”
“Prompto?” The blonde girl asked, holding herself back from being rude. “Who's he?”
“The idol! Like, you know, he's getting attention because of that song everyone is listening to.”
“That one we overheard in the grocery store?” She inquired in surprise.
“Yeah!”
“So, what about it?”
“People are saying that Prompto will be in the award show in December. And guess what, he's going to compete with Noctis!”
“You're kidding me, right?! That kiddo competing with Noctis? Come on, Noctis has won this award for over seven years!”
“I know! I know! It's just... People are saying he's going to win, and maybe he will even become more popular than Noctis!”
“That's bullshit! No one can take Noctis from his throne. It's like a soldier is going to overthrow the king!” The blonde yelled, drawing the attention of people passing by.
“I know, right?” The red-haired girl laughed. “Hey, let's have a look over there!”
She pointed to the noisy bar and the two headed towards the place.
The young boy sighed, a little depressed. His blond hair was covered by the cap and his freckles were hidden by the scarf. Prompto continued on his way until he reached the residential area, and the building of modern architecture displayed its forty floors with grandeur.
Prompto took the elevator to the thirty-sixth floor, heading down the hall to his apartment, unlocking it with the password and keys. He put the convenience store bag on the counter in the kitchen and turned on the TV, starting to make the microwave lasagna.
"The showstopping idol Luna confirmed her presence at the Golden Crystalli awards. Her performance is expected to be almost an hour long and with great production! Rumor has it that Noctis and Luna will perform together. Besides... Luna's agency has revealed a new talent under their label, but there is no confirmation of Prompto's presence in..."
The lasagna was ready and Prompto hurried to turn off the TV, sitting on the couch and starting to eat. The silence was deafening but he was already used to it.
After long minutes, the boy could hear the doorbell, the annoying sound was enough for him to get up and answer the door.
“Oh, hello.” The tall man wearing a fancy hat over his violet-red hair said in a soft, seductive voice.
“Ardyn.” Prompto smiled a little, silently asking the newcomer to enter.
“You are eating instant food again.” Ardyn looked disappointedly at the leftovers on the center table.
“It's just... I... Eh...” Prompto scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.
“What is tormenting you?”
“I went for a walk, and... Some girls were talking about me. Like, you know.” He shrugged, an uncomfortable smile on his face.
“Noctis.” Ardyn assumed.
“Yeah. It's just... We know people think Noctis and I are, don't know, rivals. But, I don't even know him! We never met or talked.” The boy said in frustration.
“You have similar concepts, the same age. People sell this story about you being a copycat and that poor prince Noctis needs to defend his image.” The man had an acid tone in the last sentence.
“But, I am not like him,” Prompto said with his head down, thinking of more things than he could say.
“Well, I have bad news for you then.” Ardyn took on a more playful tone.
“What is my disgrace now?” Prompto joked, afraid of the answer.
“I came here to tell you about your schedule this week.”
Prompto sighed in relief.
“Oh, cool. I thought you were going to mention that I had some event with Noctis or something like that.” The blond laughed happily.
Ardyn's eyes widened, and he stopped himself from laughing cruelly.
“So... Monday you have an appointment with Mr. Iedolas.”
“Just great...” Sarcasm.
“Tuesday and Wednesday you have photoshoots. Thursday I booked a massage and physiotherapy for you.”
“Good. Nothing like a massage after all week of rehearsal.” The youngest looked glad. “But wait, what about Friday?”
Ardyn smiled, looking devilishly suspicious.
“Oh, no.”
“Friday you will be a special MC on the Noodles Show... With Noctis.”
“Fuck.”
“Language.”
“Oh my.” Prompto corrected himself, using a bit of sarcasm.
The boy crossed his arms and started to overthink the situation. Ardyn laughed softly at the little pout Prompto was doing, messing up his blond hair.
“Do not think about it, not going to change anything.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“So, I come to pick you up in the morning. Sleep well, dear Prompto.” Ardyn walked to the door, waving slowly.
“See ya.”
Prompto was alone again. He went to his room, lying down.
“I'm going to meet the beloved Prince Noctis... This will only be bad for me.”
•••
Ardyn took Prompto to the TV station in the morning, the cooking show would air at 3 pm. They arrived early for a quick rehearsal with Noctis, but the hallway to the rehearsal room felt longer than usual and Prompto began to tremble.
“Prompto,” Ardyn called after him, sighing in frustration. “There are no monsters in this room.”
“I-I know… I'm just thinking.”
“Then you should stop.”
“Sorry.” He whispered, even though he knew Ardyn wasn't mad at him.
Prompto stopped at the door and took a deep breath, preparing to open it.
“Here we go.” The boy closed his eyes and pushed the door harder than necessary.
When he was sure he was inside, the blond immediately bowed, not looking around.
“Nice to meet you!”
“Empty,” Ardyn warned scornfully.
“Oh.” Prompto lifted his head, surveying the room with no sign of life.
“Will you do this?” The older one asked as soon as the blond sat down.
“This?”
“Humble yourself like that.”
“I'm just trying to be polite.” He said nervously.
“No need to be so polite, it is just Noctis, not a real prince.”
“All right...”
Prompto got up, went to the water dispenser, and filled a glass of water. As soon as he started drinking, Noctis entered the room, accompanied by two men – one was tall and the other wore glasses. The dark-haired boy was wearing a dark blue linen shirt tucked into his black pants. He wore an expression of disinterest, and when his eyes met Prompto's, the blond felt the jet of water escape his mouth.
“I'm sworry.” Prompto covered his mouth in desperation and bent over so fast his spine popped. “I'm water, sorry to meet you, nice for the Prompto.”
Ardyn hid his face behind the hat in disbelief.
“Hum.” Noctis didn't know what to do exactly, he took a look at his clothes to make sure the clumsy blond boy hadn't hit him.
“Alright, boys. Let's get it started.” The production assistant came into the room in a hurry, she was carrying a folder and wearing a headset microphone.
The men accompanying Noctis backed away and struck up a conversation, though the bespectacled man always turned his attention to the boy.
Noctis approached the assistant and Prompto did the same, afraid to be less than a foot from the dark-haired boy.
“Okay, starting. You guys are going to make a fettuccini with shrimp and pistachios, it will be very simple, a chef will help you both, so don't worry. What we really want from you two is entertainment, there are some slogans and a skit about the sponsors, got it?” She spoke the words in a hurry and the two young men could only agree.
“I separated your lines, here.” She handed them the papers in the briefcase. “I'll let you memorize the text and come back in a little while to see how you are doing.”
And so she left the room without hesitation.
Prompto took a look at his lines highlighted in orange and began to memorize what he had to say. After a while, Ardyn took the papers and let the blond speak the lines himself, only helping when necessary.
Noctis read the entire text himself, easily memorizing what he needed to say and setting the right intonation.
“All right, boys. How are we?” The production assistant came back and seemed in more of a hurry than before.
“Good,” Noctis responded and Prompto just nodded.
“Okay, let's take a look at how this looks with you guys together?” She suggested, and the boys agreed, even though the blond was lacking in confidence.
“One, two, three and...”
“Ding ding ding!” Noctis started in a lively rhythm, he had an appropriate posture and made funny gestures, the black haired one was already used to that whole idea of propaganda. “Prompto, what if our audience wants something faster?”
“Ah, o-our dear v-viewers can try a d-delicious Cup Noodles.” Prompto's tone was clearly uncertain, even so, the blond got the attention of the tall man accompanying Noctis, but perhaps not because of his acting.
“Whoa, right! But Prompto, what is Cup Noodles?” Noctis had a cute tone, looking confused.
“C-Cup N-Noodles is a delicious noodle accompanied by fresh and very well-selected ingredients.” The blond tried to imitate Noctis' amused tone, which was already much better than his uncertainty. “What do you like, Noctis?”
“Hum...” The dark-haired boy put his index finger over his mouth, seeming to think. “I like beef.”
“Then you will like this one.” Prompto pretended to deliver a Cup Noodles to Noctis.
“Do you have a chicken one?”
“Yeah!”
“Curry? Seafood? Shrimp? Tomato?” And within seconds Noctis had a pile of invisible Cup Noodles in his arms. “Wow! That's amazing. I bet our dear viewers will love this suggestion!”
“They sure will.” He smiled, but that was Prompto's main problem, his forced smiles really did look forced.
“Prompto, dear, will you do it?” The assistant asked worriedly. As soon as she started to speak, Noctis immediately reverted to his expression of disinterest, totally destroying his cute image. “Doesn't look good...”
“I-I can fix it.” The blond hurried on, quickly bowing in apology.
Noctis glanced at his wristwatch and sighed wearily, starting to tap his foot.
“Noctis, great as always. I'll take you to the dressing room.” He looked satisfied, approaching his companions. “Prompto, dear, take another look at the text, alright? I'll be right back to take you to the makeup.”
She smiled uncertainly and escorted Noctis and his group out of the room.
The blond sighed in a mixture of anguish and frustration, sitting down next to Ardyn, and going over the text.
“Smile.” The eldest ordered out of the blue.
Prompto smiled, for real. Ardyn tilted his head, not understanding.
“Did not understand why she said that.” He commented, sounding uninterested. “Why did you smile like that? Your smile looks normal in photo shoots.”
“I... Have a method.” The youngest looked away nervously.
“Which is?”
“I look at you.” His voice faltered, afraid of the older man's reaction. “Your face makes me want to laugh. I-I mean...! It's not like you're ugly, just funny...”
“That is offensive.” Ardyn raised his hand and Prompto stopped talking immediately. “You sure it is just that?”
“Oh...” Prompto hesitated. “It was just a little different from my expectations.”
“Noctis?”
“Yeah... Apart from the text part, if he spoke three words, that was a lot. I thought...”
“You thought you would meet him today, you would become best friends, and his fandom would stop attacking you?”
“Perhaps...”
“You'd better stop daydreaming. If he does not think you are weird, that is something, Squirtle.”
Prompto laughed embarrassed, hiding his face.
When the urge to stick his head in the ground like an ostrich passed, the boy went back to reading the text, creating recent memories of the menager's face to use later, looking like an idiot. Ardyn smiled small at Prompto's effort, shifting his gaze to the papers and frowning bitterly.
“I hate cute concept.” He muttered irritably, revisiting some memories.
Ardyn left Prompto at home when it was dark. The boy's first reaction when he entered the apartment was to fall face down on the sofa, grunting in despair, what a disastrous day.
First, in the dressing room, even with the makeup artist using almost an entire bottle of foundation, she couldn't fully hide his freckles; later, when he went to put on his dolman, the clothes were twice as big as he was, and the costume designer's attempt to make the clothes smaller only made the situation worse.
Second, during the show, Prompto couldn't explain how many times he had dropped the ingredients, let alone why he put red wine in the recipe that clearly called for white wine. But that didn't even seem like the worst part, with just under five minutes to go before the end, the blond managed the feat of dropping his fettuccini on Noctis, and the dark-haired boy who had a rehearsed smile the entire program made the scariest face that Prompto had the misfortune to witness.
When the director finally finished the show, Noctis didn't even think to look at the blond's face, changing clothes and leaving as quickly as possible.
On the way back to the company, Prompto began to cry, disappointed in himself; Ardyn had to park the car to calm the boy down. And even when he stopped crying, he tried to find a problem on himself.
He shouldn't have, but he gathered the strength to pick up his cell phone and open the social media, starting to read what people were saying about him. Internally agreeing with all comments.
“Who am I to disagree...”
☆
- [5 hours ago: +545, -89] "On this side we have a very successful singer, actor, producer, dancer and philanthropist; on the other side we have Prompto"
- [1 hour ago: +324, -123] "Noctis, dear, who let you host the show with this beggar?? lmao"
- [3 hours ago: +157, -42] "Look at this, it was clearly on purpose. Fucking envious."
- [47 min ago: +162, -145] "Guys, guys, I understand why Prompto was dropping things so much today. He was so nervous :( afraid to put everything in his mouth and go back to looking like a pig lol"
- [16 min ago: +93, -19] "No, but really, I wonder what Prompto's fandom consumes. The kid has no talent, no charisma and is uglier than a monkey lol"