“Please,” he said, not looking up. “Please take me with you.”

  His request was met with stunned silence before he heard footsteps coming towards him.

  “Prompto, get up,” Prince Noctis said, his voice decidedly annoyed. Prompto rose his chest, but remained sitting on his feet, looking up at the young man standing before him, daring to hope (ouch!) that the irritation on his face wasn’t a prelude to refusing his request. “Seriously, man, get up. I can’t talk to you while you’re on your knees like that.”

  He really did seem annoyed. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Prompto stood.

  “Why do you want to come with us?” the prince asked.

  “I don’t-” Prompto started, but then he clenched his teeth shut. He saw the prince’s expression change, become closed off as he started to give that answer. “I don’t know” was his standard safe response; if he needed to answer something he would say ‘I don’t know’ to avoid thinking about it. But if he was going to travel with the Lucian prince, if the prince was going to trust him to travel with him, he at least owed him a proper response.

  Prompto took a deep breath to steady himself, then said, “I can’t go back to Niflheim. That no longer became an option when I didn’t take the opportunity to kill you. But I can’t stay here either, I…” he grit his teeth at the pain that was flaring up. “I don’t want to stay here. I have no superior, no orders to follow. The only goal is to survive, and I’m not very good at that. I need… I want-” Prompto broke off when a particularly painful burst shot through his head, ringing in his ears. The prince was patient, waiting for it to pass, and Prompto rode it out before continuing. “I want to follow your orders, to support you,” he finished.

  “You know that I’m essentially at war with the Empire, right? If you follow me, you’ll eventually have to fight your friends,” the prince said, concern in both his voice and his expression.

  Prompto, though, shook his head. “Not friends. Units. Killing them won’t be a problem.”

  Prince Noctis looked confused at that, but he gave a small shrug and clapped a hand to Prompto’s good shoulder. “Welcome aboard then.”

  The effect was immediate. Prompto instantly felt as though a weight was lifted and he dared to smile a little. “Truly?” he asked, wanting to ensure he had heard right.

  The prince laughed. “Of course.”

  “Noct, a word?” Ignis asked from where he and Gladio were standing by the car.

  “Go get your stuff. I’ll convince these two,” the prince said as he turned back to his advisors.

  Prompto, relieved, feeling as though things were where they were meant to be once more, hurried to do as he was bid.

  -l-l-l-

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing, inviting a Nif along with us?!” Gladio immediately demanded.

  “I’m afraid I must agree with Gladio,” Ignis said, albeit more calmly. “It’s one thing to help him when he was injured. The boy seems pleasant enough, but let us not forget he is the enemy. It is quite another to be welcoming him permanently into our midst. Have you really thought this through?”

  “Yep,” Noct said, leaning against the car nonchalantly.

  Gladio was spluttering too much to respond to that, but Ignis said, “Then please enlighten us.”

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  “For one thing, outside the initial attack where he was under orders to do so, he’s never once attacked us. He’s helped us. Twice,” he said, ticking off his finger as he counted. “For two, he’s a Nif willing to defect. That means he can give us all kinds of information on our enemy that we never would have gotten otherwise, or if we did, it would be old and unreliable at best.”

  “What’s to stop him from lying to us?” Gladio asked, finding his voice once more.

  “Nothing, but I don’t think he will. He wants to go with us, he literally threw himself on the dirt begging it. I don’t think he’ll put that in jeopardy, it was too real, too raw. And three, surely you’ve noticed that weird wincing thing he does? I wanna know what that’s about.”

  “There’s more at stake here than your curiosity,” Gladio pointed out.

  “I know that!” Noct snapped, getting annoyed now.

  Ignis held up a hand to forestall the bickering and said, “I believe Noct may have a point, at least about the knowledge that could be gained. If we could somehow predict the enemy’s movements, we could gain the advantage.”

  “Ha! See?”

  “Noct, stop being childish. And Gladio, Noct has already said yes to the boy. It would be cruel to turn around and say no now,” Ignis said.

  “Cruel? Cruel?! It was cruel when the Nifs invaded our home unprovoked. It was cruel when the Nifs levelled towns outside the wall. It was cruel when the Nifs killed thousands of non-combatants. It was cruel when the Nifs killed my father, your uncle Ignis, and, worst of all, Noct’s father, our king! But no, none of that matters, let's just invite the enemy along, let's have a great big fucking tea party and pretend none of it happened!” Gladio roared.

  “You done?” Noct drawled.

  With a growl, Gladio step forward but Ignis was ready, stepping between the two. “That’s enough!” he snapped. “This is easy enough to solve. Prompto,” he said, turning to the stunned gunman nearby. The others seemed surprised by his presence, but Ignis had seen him hesitantly approach. “Were you part of the forces that attacked Insomnia?”

  Prompto shook his head. “Before coming here, I'd never left the Empire. And we only arrived a day before we attacked you.”

  “Wait, a day before? How’d you know we'd be there?” Noct asked.

  Prompto shook his head again. “I don't know,” he answered honestly. “Our unit was briefed on your fighting abilities on the trip over, then we were dropped off at a haven. We were ordered to stay on that ridge and watch for your car, to shoot when the melee units started their attack. That's all I know of it. We…” he hesitated, not wanting to sound disrespectful, but then made the decision to continue, anyway. “We don't question our superiors,” he said quietly.

  “What, never? Even when your orders are immoral?” Gladio demanded.

  Prompto looked Gladio in the eye as he answered calmly, “No, never. That sort of insubordination is stamped out early. You would question an order your king gave you even if you found it distasteful?” he asked, though his face was deadpan, the question almost rhetorical.

  “Of course I would,” Gladio snapped.

  Prompto rose a disbelieving eyebrow at that, but then he remembered that they were only discussing this now because they didn't want to follow the orders of their prince.

  “And then you would obey,” Ignis said. Gladio turned to stare at him. “We both would,” he continued.

  “I know you don't trust me, and that's fine. But I will share what I know of the Empire, their units and numbers. I have no phone or radio, no way to contact anyone without going on foot. And I swear, I will obey Prince Noctis’s orders,” Prompto said, trying to sound as confident and convincing as he could. He had to convince them, he had to! If he couldn't… Well, he didn't want to think about that.

  The prince, at least, was smiling at him, and Ignis was nodding, but Prompto kept eye contact with Gladio. The group seemed to have completely different dynamics than what Prompto was used to and even though he was fairly certain that the prince could order his bodyguard to obey, that didn't seem like it was going to happen. Gladio had to agree of his own volition.

  They stared at each other for what seemed like a long time before Gladio finally sighed and said, “Fine. On two conditions.”

  “Oh, this I’ve got to hear,” Noct muttered.

  “Noct,” Ignis warned. Again.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Noct said, waving his hand dismissively; he wouldn’t say anything. For now.

  Gladio was ignoring both of them anyway, focusing all his attention on Prompto. “First,” he said. “You sit in the front where I can watch you.” Prompto nodded; he had no problem with that. “And second, if we’re really doing this, then we’re not going to… our previous destination with him, not yet. I don’t want to be shot in the back in some tight tunnel where no one will ever find our bodies,” Gladio said, though this time he looked to Noct for confirmation.

  “Sure, sure,” Noct said, opening the back door and sliding into the seat.

  Ignis helped Prompto put his armour and the bag of supplies they had provided him in the boot (only just managing to fit it all) and then soon enough they were all on their way, the trio now four.