Prompto's Voicemail.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"~~Prompto's phone~~! But, aw, man, bummer! You probably juuuust missed me! But don't sweat it, dude, just leave me a message! I'll try to get back to you faster than you can say 'chocobo.' Haha, okay, so maybe not that fast, but you get what I mean. See ya!"

**BEEEP!**

Comments

[bookbeltof_love]

It was Wednesday, Nina had a party to plan (she, uh, probably ought to tell Prompto at some point, but she wasn't sure if it would go down better for Sidon to tell him or not…), and she was up to her pretty little eyeballs in her own self-inflicted work and picking out her classes.

But, like, it was Wednesday and Nina didn't want Noct to think that just because the summer things were over that she was going to stop talking to him.

Which was why Noct was, out of the blue, getting a text: What do you think I should get Prompto for his birthday???????????????????????????

On the surface a simple enough question except that, like, Nina had thought about it and realized she'd… never bought a birthday gift before? And Prompto deserved a good present and how was she supposed to pick out a good present with no experience?

So Noct was also getting a lot of panicked looking emojis. To emphasize the seriousness of her question.

Then, since she was busy badgering hot guys in a different universe, Nina also wrote Ignis a… rather lengthy email. It was more like a novella, since she'd been hoarding questions for… a few months. Mostly because the idea of trying to get it all into text format was just, like, way too exhausting and email was better for longer things, it really was.

She knew that, when meeting the guys that she'd been giggly and bubbly and, in her opinion, totally adorable, but that she'd also probably not come off as the smartest since Nina rarely came off as particularly brilliant when talking to people… so this email was likely to be a bit of a surprise (though perhaps less than it could be; she wasn't sure what Prompto had told them) but, like, anyway…

Other than the intro ("Hi Ignis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!") and the outro ("You're the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"), there was not a single punctuation mark either extraneous or out of place but was, instead (and after the opening pleasantries of having enjoyed meeting him and the guys in Insomnia), a series of increasingly complex questions she had about the development of Insomnia's infrastructure and the impact of that on the rest of the kingdom, particularly given the war going on and the increasing divide between those who lived inside the wall and those who lived outside of it… and the request that, if he could point her in the right direction for these answers that would be, like, totally amazing because she knew he was busy and she didn't want to waste his time, that'd be great!

And she didn't add, but she sort of hoped that, like, if he did have time that he'd answer her himself.

Either way, Nina didn't really expect an answer from either of the guys any time soon (and was tragically sad that she had nothing she could reasonably text Gladio about) and was happy enough to just send it all off and go back to working on The Party.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Even though Ignis found himself terribly busy with all the preparations for the prince's birthday, he read Nina's message with interest and ensured that he took the time to respond to her. His response easily matched her in length, even with his distracted state, and she would find his information to be clear, precise, and helpful, as she was likely coming to expect from him by now. His response was by no means exhaustive, however; he had rather enjoyed finally getting the opportunity to meet Nina, and he thought she was a very sweet girl, and well-intentioned, but they were still a nation at war, and he had to be cautious of what sort of information he divulged, even (or perhaps especially) to Prompto's friends from school. But it was extensive, covering a good deal of ground, providing for her a multitude of links to articles and information regarding the topics she seemed interested in, as well as divulging a few of his own (official and public-friendly) thoughts regarding a few of them.

Since he was being so cautious, he was not likely to be sending Nina much that she couldn't dig up all on her own, as it was all very much public knowledge and easy to access, with the exception of his personal opinions. And even those seemed very polite and above-board. But, then again, that...might have just been the fact that it was Ignis

And as for Noctis?

How should I know???? He probably need some new socks or something....

But, not too long after that, another message followed:

Seriously, though, it's Prompto. You could get him anything, and he'd love it. especially if it's coming from the heart

or something

[bookbeltof_love]

You're his bestie and you suggest SOCKS?!?!?!??!?!?!?!

Noctis, no.

And I can't, like, get him SOCKS FROM THE HEART???????????????????

Oh my gosh, Noctis. Why. And yes, yes you were getting a few gifs of people headdesking and facepalming. Just to drive the point home.

Besides it, like, gave her something to roll her eyes about as she re-read Ignis' reply and… honestly, the blandness of it (Nina could recognize toeing the official party line just fine, thanks) was both a little depressing and rather reassuring at the same time.

Because, like, Prompto could argue with her until he was blue in the face but this, right here, was comforting knowledge that she'd been right and that, like, she wasn't really friends with these people.

Even if, like, she was a bit sad that he hadn't been right. It would have been nice to have more friends.

So Nina's own response was in a similar vein to his. She thanked him graciously for the time and effort he'd expended on directing her to places where she could begin her search and his opinions of some of the resources, hoped that she hadn't inconvenienced him too badly, and wished him well for the preparation of Noctis' birthday—since they knew she knew it was coming up. Only at the end of it did she veer even vaguely personal with a mild request that, if he thought of any books she might find interesting in the future, she'd always be interested in a referral, no matter the topic.

Then she signed off on that with another thanks, a ton of exclamation marks, and hit send.

Then flopped down on her bed and heaved the greatest of sighs, before brightening slightly with the consoling thought that he'd at least answered her and didn't seem to dislike her.

But, really, it was such a gloomy thing that she'd been right and Prompto had been wrong. Not unexpected.

But gloomy nonetheless and a little lonely.