Some Nice Quiet Beach in the Bahamas; Tuesday [01/10].

[hashtag_chocobro]

At the time, planning for a short, sweet honeymoon had made a lot of sense, but there was nothing to make Prompto wish he'd have gone in for a longer one that coming into their last full day here in the Bahamas. Which had been gorgeous and perfect and everything he expected it to be.

Well, except for the nightmares. He thought that, with the stress of the wedding now behind him and being in a literal paradise with the love of his life would sort of put a damper on all that shit, but he was still sleeping terribly, still plagued by all the intrusive thoughts of his tumultuous past and his uncertain future. But since this was definitely one of the few chances they'd be able to enjoy a trip like this, especially once the kid was born, he hoped he did a fair job of not letting it get to him, not letting it drag him down too much, not letting it interfere with Liz's enjoyment of their time here. Thankfully, it wasn't like they were out surfing or hiking every day. They were mostly just reveling in each other's company, attempting to get all their lovey-dovey sighing happily at each other and marveling over the fact that they were married out of their system (spoiler alert: they would fail) and basking in the sun. The only things getting a workout around here were their cameras.

Tired as he was, though, from the lack of any decent sleep, in the waking hours, Prompto really couldn't be happier, and it was a little bittersweet that it was almost over. All the more reason, he figured, to make sure to enjoy it, getting comfortable on the beautiful stretch of beach right outside their quaint little hotel, closing his eyes, and just soaking up the sun.

...and falling asleep practically within minutes.

Not even all the sunscreen in the world could save him now.

[[ for the ~wifey~! and NFB for distance, of course. CW for some disturbing dream imagery ]]

Comments

[flamesburned]

Liz had been enjoying spending time in the Bahamas with her husband, enjoying how peaceful this was and taking as many photos as she could, part of this all still felt surreal and that she was still scared that she would wake up and find that she had dreamt the whole thing and none of this was real.

She had had a bit of a slower start that morning, their daughter giving her a rare chance to sleep in but she did eventually make her way to join her husband at the beach, smiling when she saw him stretched out and sleeping.

She debated for a few minutes and very discreetly took out her camera to take a photo before she sat down to join him, she didn’t want to disturb him since he had seemed to be a bit tired but she thought that it might have been how stressful planning the wedding was, but she was content to sit there and just take everything in that they married, that they were on their honeymoon … just how perfect everything seemed to be.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Did perfect including snoring? Because Prompto, his body absolutely glomping onto any opportunity for some actual sleep, before some other dreams started to creep into his consciousness and ruin it all, was definitely snoring now. Softly, but undeniable, jaw hanging slightly open, as the dead weight of his arm slipped of the side of the lounge chair he'd been stretched out in, dropping his one hand into the warm sand of the beach.

[flamesburned]

Perfect did include snoring, Liz couldn’t help but let out a giggle at that as she continued to watch and there was another quick snap of the camera.

Hopefully her giggling wasn’t too loud because she would feel pretty bad if she ended up waking up her husband when it was pretty clear that he did need this sleep.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Your giggling was definitely fine, Liz. A sudden Category 5 Hurricane could have swept through the island right now, and Prompto would have probably slept through it at this point, that perfect combination of warmth and sun and salty sea air seeming to wrap him up in a comfy little cocoon for much needed slumber...

Unfortunately, the internal world was a little more difficult to ignore than the external world, in this instance, and it wasn't actually much longer after that that Prompto had fallen into sleep deeply enough for them to start crawling back out again.

A jangle of images, fusing together. He was in the Niflheim facility where he was born, the corridor of softly glowing tubes with beings that shared his face in various states of growth flanking him as his heavy steps echoed, but when he reached the end of it, he found himself in the throne room at the Citadel, Ardyn lounging in the seat that was rightfully Noct's as if he owned it. No, it wasn't Ardyn, it was Verstaal. No, it was Ardyn. No, it wasn't. Shifting like a glitch until they seemed oddly merged into one. And as he stood there, trying to figure it out, he felt a drip from above. Swiping a hand across his forehead, it revealed a dark smear of blood, and when he lifted his eyes toward the bodies strung up and hanging from the ceiling, he saw--

With a sudden, startled gasp, Prompto was roughly pulled out of his sleep, jerking himself awake, trying to catch his breath, and then almost immediately wincing at the brightness of the sun. It was so bright he could barely even see, which didn't help with trying to remember where he was, why was it so bright, what had happened to--

He breathed out slowly, settling back against the chair with his eyes closed. He'd just fallen asleep. It had just been another dream. He was safe and warm and fine in the Bahamas with his wife on their honeymoon. It was fine, it was fine, it was all fine....

[flamesburned]

Liz was immediately concerned and her smile fell, “Prompto?” she said cautiously, reaching out a tentative hand towards his shoulder, wanting to offer some comfort, “are…”

Asking if he was okay did not seem like enough, “I’m here,” she assured him instead, “I’m not going anywhere,”

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Bwuh?" asked Prompto, eloquently, as the sound of Liz's voice managed to help pull him from the last vestiges of that clinging dream. She hadn't been there when he zonked out, had she? No, he'd been by himself; just how long was he out for? He opened his eyes slowly again, lifting a hand to help block the brightness of the sun as he turned toward her, the details of her face in the glowing light manifesting as his eyes adjusted.

"Hi," he breathed out, so much more than just a word, with all the relief infused into it, and he smiled through it, if he hadn't just seen that face staring lifelessly down at him from where it hung the ceiling of the Citadel...

"Sorry," he added, shifting in his seat to sit up a little, now noticing her hand held out and reaching over to take it. "Guess I fell asleep for a little bit there..."

[flamesburned]

“You don’t have to apologise for anything,” Liz told him gently as she took his hand, giving it a squeeze, “did you want to go back to bed and try and get some sleep? It might be a bit more comfortable than here in the sun?”

[hashtag_chocobro]

To that, Prompto just chuckled, already in the process of trying to brush away any lingering effects of the dream, sweep them right under the mental rug for now,a s if they'd never even been there. The last thing he wanted was for Liz to start worrying, all because his dumb brain couldn't get the hint that they were on a honeymoon, here.

"It is way too gorgeous out here to sleep away our last day inside," he said. "Besides, I like the sun."

Even if the sun, clearly, by the way he was definitely sporting some sunburn, didn't seem to like him very much.

"I just kind of dozed off, that's all."

[flamesburned]

Liz was still a little worried but she honestly didn’t blame Prompto for not wanting to go back inside, “it is lovely out here isn’t it? I’m going to miss being here,” she admitted.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"I'm seriously half tempted to see about maybe tacking on a few more days and texting Summer to just do an emergency selfie lesson for my class tomorrow," Prompto said, his grin a little rueful, but...mostly teasing? There was definitely still a kernel of truth in there, though. "But I don't know if I'd want to miss doing the selfie lesson myself."

[flamesburned]

“The selfie lesson does sound fun,” Liz grinned at that, “I mean the last few days have been amazing here, even though I know i wouldn’t object to a few extra days,” she had to admit.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"You know what?" Prompto said, gaining a broad grin as he shifted in his chair again, so that he was turned more toward Liz. "Forget the whole farm idea. Maybe we could just ship off here once Fandom gets too small for us. Plenty of room for kids to run around; we can be fishermen." The grin went a little extra lopsided, to counterbalance the slight touch of sadness in it. "Make Noct proud."

[flamesburned]

Liz did smile at the idea of moving out here, even though it wasn’t quite a full smile at the mention of Noctis, “he would be proud,” she said softly, “it wouldn’t be that hard to learn how to fish right?”

Liz had really no idea about fishing.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"I mean," said Prompto, "if Noct could figure it out, I'm pretty sure anyone can."

Hey, sacrificing yourself to save the entire world still didn't exempt you from getting shit-talked by your besties.

There wasn't much sting in it, though. If anything, it just leaned a little toward sad.

[flamesburned]

Liz smiled softly at that, "then moving here and learning how to fish sounds like a great plan," she said, "I know I could get used to living here," she added as she took a moment to look around at the beach.