hashtag_chocobro | Room 303; Monday Afternoon [04/15].

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Room 303; Monday Afternoon [04/15].

The last few days had been kind of a whirlwind, trying to get used to the idea of this tiny little person that was apparently his and Yang's supposed future daughter, while simultaniously spoiling her rotten, taking about a million pictures, and teetering on the edge of asking a zillion questions, because Prompto had them, he had sooooo many of them, but every once in a while, Lulu would say something (such as "It's nice to hear you laugh so much, Dad. I mean, like, really laugh" or at one point where she just sort of smushed his face and asked if grinning like that all the time made his face hurt) that made him think that there were answers in there that he might not really want to know. And Lucy, for the most part, was all brightness and sunshine and excitement that even he had trouble keeping up with...until suddenly, she wasn't, and she was serious and thoughtful in a way that was a little bit startling and disturbing on a face so young and so cute.

So Prompto tried not to think about it and he tried to do what he did best, which was deflect and distract with some shopping trips and getting some food and some candy (so, so much candy, and don't tell your mom, okay? She'll kick both our butts), and then back to his room to play some video games ("How are you even this good?" "Eat space dust, Old Man!"), and, when that got a little boring, Lucy found the container of spare parts and electronics that Prompto kept around when he wanted to tinker around with stuff, and quickly started sorting through them until the room was pretty much covered with them and she was quietly working away at putting stuff together, with occasional bursts of talking about how this was kind of like this one thing she made with Aunt Ruby, and this was like this one thing she'd made with him and her mom, and this was kind of like what she wanted to make for herself, but she still wasn't convinced she wanted to stick with ranged attacks because melee weapons were just soooooooo much more interesting. And big. Really, really biiiig.

Prompto's own tinkering wasn't going nearly as productively, since he was spending most of the time still stuck in that slack-jawed fascination that hadn't left him since Saturday morning.

[[ door and post are very, very much open! ]]

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Nina did not really want to meet any of Prompto's future kids. (Radio had said one, but she knew good and well that radio was… radio.) Sure, she knew intellectually that he was happily dating someone else but a crush was a crush and it kind of sucked, like, a lot to have that it was totally unrequited rubbed in her face quite like this.

Especially when she appeared to have no children of her own to visit her and Vette and Sidon's child only had stories of her to go by. (Sure, Nok'talis was young, but Nina was hardly the sort to be reasonable about things like that!)

And yet…

Well, it was nothing but the most morbid of curiosities that had her going to visit Prompto.

Maybe she was dead in his timeline too? (Ignoring the fact that she was not confirmed dead in any timeline…)

"I come bearing Mooby's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she announced, since feeding Prompto never went wrong and she figured a kid would like burgers and fries too. "Good afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And Prompto, who usually took a lot of pride in his ability to blatantly ignore and deny that any such crush existed, had never yet felt exactly that stab of dread and fear in his chest as he had in the moment he'd heard that voice. Which he usually loved hearing and would be very excited about, especially when involving the word Mooby's, but the realization of...everything about this weekend paired up with the fact that he hadn't really actually talked with Nina since texting her a warning about potentially finding out through squirrels that he was waking up naked in Yang's bed was...

...hoo boy.

Thankfully, it seemed that little Lulu there was pretty useful for more than just being the cutest thing ever in existence. She was also an excellent distraction, as she looked up, eyes lighting up, and set down the little digitalized pea-shooter she was trying to put together.

"Oh, good!" she stated, scrambling up from where she was sitting next to Prompto on the floor, surrounded by bits and pieces and parts. "I'm famished."

No, she didn't know who the heck this person was.

But she'd brought food and her dad was there so it was probably okay.

And, yeah, Prompto was just going to be here, trying to remember how to breathe or just see how this went, whichever came first.

Edited 2019-04-15 16:11 (UTC)

And she'd never actually done that radio, having given into the urge to track down what note Prompto had been warning her about beforehand and then just having not felt well after that, hadn't mustered up the energy to do radio at all. ~~Actually, RL intervened, but it suits this narrative really well.~~

"Well, we can't have that!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina said, since she… didn't really know what to say to Prompto so, yes, excellent, thank you small child whose existence left her deeply conflicted on so many levels. "How are you supposed to… make whatever it is you're making on an empty stomach???????"

She was going to clear a space with her foot, to set the food down.

"What are you making anyway????????????"

Prompto, for his part, was getting a bright, professional smile. Nina was lying her ass off about how happy she was to be here. But let it never be said that she wasn't brave.

And stupid. So very stupid. This was a terrible idea, she was already regretting it.

Oh, cool. The lady was bringing the food over to them, so Lucy just plopped right back down on her butt where she was sitting and grinned over at her.

"It's a pea-shooter," she explained. "I'm going to set it up so that all I have to do it, like, adjust the time on this old watch interface so that I can time it and stuff and control how far it shoots!"

It would not be able to do any of that stuff, except for the shooting of peas, but Lulu was nothing if not ambitious.

But, at the moment, none of that was nearly as interesting as food. "So," she said, clearly itching to start digging into the bag but trying her best to be polite, "who are you? Do you just come and bring my dad food? If so, that's pretty cool. I wouldn't mind someone to just bring me food. And it's not Cup Noodles, either, so Mom won't get mad."

Prompto was mostly missing that bright, professional smile, his head ducked as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and realized that if he just let Lucy go on like that, it was probably just going to make things worse. "Uhhh, Lu, honey, this is my friend Nina," he offered. "Nina, this is Lucy. She's, uhhh....my kid.

"From the future!" he added quickly, realizing that very important part. "I don't know! Apparently, it's a thing that happens here after prom?"

That really, really he felt someone should have warned him about, because he was not ready, he was so not ready, why did this place have to do this to him??

And follow it up with...this!

"Go ahead and dig in," Nina said, since the kid, at least, hadn't done anything wrong even though Nina felt like she'd been stabbed in the heart by Lucy not knowing who she was and Prompto calling her just a friend.

Her life was a perfect teenage tragedy, it really was.

"It's nice to meet you," she added, with a smile. "Like your… Dad said, I'm Nina!!!!!!!!" And for 'Dad', there, while Vette's predicament had been met with laughter, she just raised her eyebrows at Prompto, a bit frostily, though she was trying really hard not to be moody at him right here and now. "Oh my gosh, Prompto, do you know how young a Dad you'd be if she wasn't from the future???????"

She needed to stop that emphasis on 'Dad' but it just wasn't happening.

"Besides," she said loftily, "I've already met Vette's child. I'm prepared!!!!!!!!!!"

She was definitely not.

Don't feel too bad, Nina. Because Prompto had been painfully aware of the fact that Lucy, while she had plenty to say about Yang and her family, had barely a word of a mention of any of his other friends, either. At least one reference to 'Uncle Gladdy' (brb, dying forever, btw) in reference to a particularly grumpy looking pug when he took her to the shelter for puppies (and fair point, it was pretty clear she at least knew Gladio), but the lack of anyone else, Noctis especially, was a bit unsettling. But he was trying not to think about it. It was okay. It was fine. Clearly, they just spent more time in in Yang's world than his...

...she spent more time there, anyway, because he was also picking up things that suggested he wasn't around that much, either.

But again, trying not to think about it, and while Lucy started digging eagerly into the food, he was going to just latch onto something that would hopefully steer the conversation clear, clear away from what was sitting right in front of them.

"Vette?" he asked. "Vette...and Sidon's?"

VETTE AND WHO ELSE'S, PROMPTO?? Come on!

…
………………….

……………………….. ……………………. ……………… …… …… .. … .

Nina felt entirely justified in giving him a completely unfeigned look of 'have you lost your mind?!?!??!?!??!?!'

Honestly, Prompto!

"Who else would she have a kid with?!?!?!??!?!?!?!"

If nothing else, this gave her a moment to not dwell on the terrible spiral she'd been caught in for the last few days.

Soooo....Distraction successful? Mission accomplished!

"I don't know!" Prompto threw up his hands a little. "I mean, I figured, but this whole thing is weird!"

"Who's Vette and Sidon?" Lucy asked around a bite of her burger, while also taking one and handing it over to Prompto, in case he forgot, because sometimes, he needed all the help he could get. "More friends of yours from schoooool?"

See? See, Nina? She didn't know them either!

Nina was… actually, no, that didn't help at all.

"What, like, did you leave school and then just ditch all of us?!?!??!?!?!?!"

Nina, this was maybe not a conversation to have with a kid in the room?

She took a breath. Calm. She could be calm. Honest.

"Yes," she said, "Vette and Sidon are good friends of your Dad's too. At least, like, we're supposed to be???????????"

But she was not feeling the love right now.

And now Lucy was looking a little dubiously between this Food Lady and her dad and to the food, because she was totally doing that thing people did when they were trying to be nice but they really weren't, and now she sort of wished she hadn't been so distracted by the food, because what if it was poisoned??

So now Lucy was definitely fishing out another burger out of the bag and handing it over to Nina and refusing to take another bite until she at some, too.

Either way, what she was saying was clearly stressing him out, and he did not need that!

"Mom and Dad don't have much time for friends from school," she pointed out. "They're very busy and important people."

Besides, her dad didn't even have that much time for her, usually, so she didn't know why this food lady was getting so worked up about it. His whole world broke, though, so it was kiiiind of important? But she also knew that he didn't like to talk about it, and probably less so when he was all young and it hadn't even happened yet, she bet.

Yeah, she was on to you, small child that Nina didn't want to think too hard about.

But the food wasn't poisoned, so with a polite thank you, she was going to take that bite of it, frowning at Prompto because it seemed rude to frown at the kid.

"That's what friends are for," she said, finally, shifting her gaze to Lucy. "To help out when people are busy. To look out for them. To pick up the slack. Remind them that there's more to life than being busy and important. That being happy and silly and relaxed is also a thing."

So, like, this wasn't sitting well with her.

"...yeah," said Lucy, having no problem at all frowning at Nina, but her eyes danced with a bit more uncertainty toward her dad. "I know what friends are..."

All her attention then zeroed in on Prompto, because she really did not know what else to say or do, but he was her dad, and this was supposedly his friend, so he should know, and Prompto just sort of looked back at her with a hopeless look at first before he realized that he really probably should step in and at least try to make this a little less awkward, especially as he was starting to pick up a bit on what Nina was putting down.

"I think," he ventured, cautiously, trying to ignore the knot in his stomach that told him he was pretty much going only make this worse, "that what Lucy is trying to say, is that sometimes, when we all leave and go back to our own worlds, it can make it a little more difficult to keep in touch with old friends," each emphasis there was a pointed glance at Nina, but that last part, he tried to hold a firmer gaze, "especially when we all know that sometimes, getting back and forth between worlds is impossible for some people."

Really, Nina, their best friend couldn't even get home despite her best efforts. Was it really that out of the realm of possibility that something like that couldn't happen in the reverse?

"And what I think Nina is trying to say," he added, now looking at Lucy, and, okay, so, he couldn't really look at her sternly, because he couldn't look at her without melting, but he tried, and only wound up rubbing the top her head as if in apology for going all Dad on her, "is that, even with all of that, the friends we make in life are some of the most important connections we can make, and, if something happens that gets in the way of that--"

That apologetic look was now turned toward Nina, with the faintest hint of a smile, the kind that felt all the guilt of something he hadn't even done yet, but still felt really, really bad about right now. "---we should never forget that, no matter what."

...hey, that...that actually wasn't too bad!

...he hoped.

Maybe he didn't fail at this whole dad thing after all.

If Prompto thought that some stupid portal system was going to stop Nina from getting where she wanted to go, he really had no idea of anything.

And maybe his words—admittedly pretty great words, stripped of any of her feelings on them—were good for Lucy, but honestly, they just made Nina feel bad and twisted and ugly because if he hadn't forgotten them, then why didn't his kid know of them?

Didn't they even write letters? Why had all her friends in these futures gone off and left her behind, a small, petty footnote in their stories? Was she worth that little? Even beyond the mess of her (unrequited) feelings for Prompto, this whole weekend was… it hurt.

And because she couldn't burst into tears around his kid, from a future where she didn't exist or matter or whatever, Nina scrambled for something to say.

"Wow," she said, and if her smile was shadowed by her eyes, there was still a smile there, "look at you, sounding like a proper dad. I'm impressed."

It was kind of charming, if it didn't leave her feeling so very sad and small and alone.

Nina.

Nina.

Prompto knew you better than that by now, and while he did turn a very bright shade of incredibly proud red at her words, he knew she was probably just saying them to cover for something else. And he was about to respond, but Lucy had abandoned her hamburger for a moment to all but climb up on his lap, throw her arms around his shoulders that was perhaps a little more defensive and possessive than she'd really meant, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Of course you are," she stated firmly. "Because my dad's the best dad. I don't care what anyone else says."

Ohgod, Prompto couldn't help thinking amidst all the miserable melting over why she had to go and do that, did that mean enough people said he wasn't?

He cleared his throat and wrapped one arm around her to hug her back. "Hey...hey, Lulu? You remember where the common room was right? I think we're gonna need a lot more ketchup for these fries, you wanna go see if you can hunt some down?"

Which sounded like a pretty obvious trick to get her to leave for a while, because she'd seen the to-go packets in the bag and there were plenty. Lucy sucked in a breath, looked over at Nina with a frown for a moment, and then back to Prompto with a nod. "Okay," she said. "I'll go look. But it won't be long," fair warning if they were planning to be all grown-up-like and talk, probably about her, "so...you know..."

But she scrambled back up to her feet, tossed her ponytails, gave one last warning, lingering glance at Nina, because she was going to be really, really, really mad if she wound up ruining all her fun time with her dad being all fun because the world hadn't broken yet, even if she did bring hamburgers!, and left.

That was when Prompto realized that he'd been holding his breath, and was unable to let it go until she left. And when he did, he glanced over to her.

"Hey," he said, leaning forward and whispering even though the kid had clearly left, but she was sneaky, she could still be lingering outside the door, "I know this is really weird, Nina, but maybe...just...try not to make it any weirder? I honestly have no idea what's going on in her world, I've kind of been too afraid to ask, because...Nina..."

He winced, trying to push himself to finally put the thoughts that had been plaguing him into words. "When I look at her, sometimes, I see...there's just something there....something really....bad happened, I think. Like, really, really bad..."

And, somehow even quieter, he added, "I don't even think she knows who Noctis is."

And if Nina knew anything about him, she should know how much that meant.

Nina, who'd been all set to be indignant and angry (as a refuge from tears, because anger was less horrifyingly world-ending than crying in front of Prompto) as he got rid of his kid and told her not to make it more weird...

But then he'd continued and wow, that knocked a lot of the anger out of her sails. (Though, it had to be said, it did very little for the hurt because emotions were fickle and unreasonable that way.) Not even knowing Noctis? He'd told her about Noctis in their first conversation--if only to say he was sending pictures back to him--she was pretty sure.

So it was a very muddled, very confused about how to react to any of that Nina, who blurted, "Do you, like, need a hug??????"

Because it sounded like, maybe, he might.

Even if she was still hurt and mad and weirded out by all of this, after all, Prompto was her friend first and foremost.

"No," Prompto said, groaning miserably, but it was followed quickly by a "Yes," and then a "Maybe; I don't know. All I know is that I am freaking the fuck out, Nina! And I can't freak out in front of Yang or Lucy, but...A dad? I can't be a dad! And in a future where something really bad happens? Are you kidding me? Something so bad, she doesn't know who Noct is? Or you? Or Vette? I mean, that can't be real, right? It can't be real. I mean, Yang and I only just...." Er... "...started dating, and she's graduating in two weeks. Who even knows what's going on after that? We haven't even had that discussion!

"But then," he said, because he was far from finished just yet, "then, if it's not real, than that means Lucy's not real, and the whole idea of that is just...just...I've only known her, like, three days, and she's the most amazing little person I've ever met in my entire life!

"It's so messed up!"

So...maybe...just maybe...he didn't send Lucy out of the room just then for her sake so much as his own, because, seriously.

Seriously.

WTF.

Yeah, sure started dating, but there were more things to worry about than that particular semantic argument.

(That she really didn't want to think about anyway.)

"It's totally messed up," since no disagreement there, "and, like, you're doing a pretty good job holding up in front of her, if that makes you feel better." Nina honestly wasn't sure if it would or not. Nor was she sure about the whole hug thing, though she was leaning over to poke at his leg anyway as she settled against his bed, legs primly crossed at the ankles.

Nina took a breath. It was easier to be level headed when he wasn't shutting her out, somehow, and she wondered, concerned, if that made her a terrible person or not.

"Like, you're not asking questions, because you're scared and I get that," she ventured, "but maybe, just maybe, the reason Lucy's here is so you can ask those questions and maybe change things for the better?????????????????"

Even if she was (very badly and not at all entirely) resigned to the whole not-being-into-her thing, Nina was pretty sure there had to be a world and/or timeline option out there for Prompto where all of his friends weren't footnotes.

It actually did help, a lot, to hear that he was doing a good job of holding it together in front of Lucy, because, hey, that's what he did. He was the Hold It Together Guy. To the point where he already felt a little bad about just letting loose on Nina like that at the first chance he got, but, at the same time, damn, it felt good to just let some of that all out, and to know that there was someone who would listen and hold it together for him for a change, and he let out a slow, calming breath.

"Thanks, Nina," he said, tilting his head back a little to look at her there on his bed and smile a little crookedly, and then quieted a little to give it all a little more thought. "So...do you think...maybe I should ask her? I mean, if there's a way...isn't that, like, going to create some sort of, I don't know, time paradox or something? Like, and it throws everything off because I know something that I shouldn't know? Or what if we're already in a time paradox? And the whole point is that I'm supposed to know this stuff that I'm not supposed to know..."

Prompto really needed to stop playing so many video games.

"What if...it's something I can't change?"

And, of course, that barely had enough time to settle before a very loud voice came from outside the door, belting out words in a certain familiar tune.

"~I'm walk-king down the HALL right NOW~
~I'm coming into the room,
~With ketchup, ketchup, TOO~OOO!~"

Loudly.

So very, very loudly.

Hey, sometimes Lucy knew when a good warning was necessary, okay?

That... that was certainly a song, it really was.

Nina wanted more time to just... think about what she was going to say, but it was obvious that she wasn't going to get the chance.

"Then you ask, find out about it, and Vette and I and Sidon and Yang will help you change it," she said quickly, and reasonably, and also (unreasonably) proud of herself for including Yang in there just because she was important to Prompto. "If you can't change it on your own, that's what the cavalry is for, duh!!!!!!!!!! Your boys back home will help too!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It... it would be one hell of a road trip, though, if all of them came along. They'd also need a bus, not a car.

Or some heavy duty modifications to the Regalia...

But she and Vette and Sidon and Yang could help. The boys back home. Uncle Gladdy...

Okay, Prompto had to snort a little and grin softly at that, but what really made a difference was how, the moment Lucy swung around in through the door, it was like a switch had been flipped and his face lit up bright as ever, while he pushed himself up to rush over to meet her. "And so the ketchup queen returns from her quest victorious!" he announced, swooping in to pick her up and toss her over in his arms on her side as she shrieked in delighted protest. "Not that there was any doubt, of course."

He settled her against her hip, looking very serious for a moment, which only made Lucy giggle more as she tried to look just as serious. "Run into any Grimms on the way?" he asked.

"No," she said, giggling still.

"Any daemons?"

"Nooooooo," the giggling got worse.

"Well, then," Prompto looked thoughtful. "How about...gremlins!"

And then there was tickling gremlin bites, which were the worst!, and Lucy was reduced to a squirming mass of giggles and shrieks until, suddenly, with a dramatic gasp, her whole body went limp and still in Prompto's arm.

"Oh, no," he said, using the time where Lucy was 'lifeless' to send an apologetic smile over to Nina; sorry, Nina, but he really needed this right now. "She's dead. R.I.P., Luce. You put up a good fight, but, in the end, you were no match for a gremlin."

"Hey, that's not true!" Lucy, suddenly resurrected, lifted her head in protest. "I'll kick any gremlin's butt!"

Nina's own smile was rather more wistful than she might have liked it to be but, well, he'd just have to cope with that on top of everything else he was coping with.

"Unfortunately," she said dramatically, since ridiculousness seemed to be the game of the moment, "neither of you are prepared for the true evil--"

She snagged the bag of food--which, not so coincidentally, still had all the fries in it and posed.

"--which, as we all know, means your ketchup hunt was futile as the fry thief has struck again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Or for the first time. Something like that?

Mmmm. Yeah, right. Nice try, Food Lady. But Lucy, who shifted to be straddling Prompto's hip, one hand on his shoulder, the other protectively twining her fingers in the hair at the back of his neck, narrowed her eyes and responded with a sullen look to suggest that people who upset her dad did not get to play.

Which did not escape Prompto's notice, so he grinned a little and hitched her up a bit to get her attention as he stated, "Well, then, I guess we really are in luck, because we're perfectly equipped with just the thing that's best for vanquishing fry thieves. Know what that is, Lucy?"

Lucy's narrowed eyes were on Prompto now, because this felt sort of like a set-up or a trap, but she did trust her dad implicitly. "No," she said. "What?"

"Easy," said Prompto, turning a devious smirk toward Nina. "We squirt her with ketchup."

Lucy gasped.

Oh, how quickly the Nina-can't-play tables have turned!

Nina wasn't going to hold it against the kid that she wasn't nearly as good at mood hopping as Prompto and she were. After all, that was a skill honed by...

Probably terrible self-esteem issues but she was going to pretend it was a skill honed by practice and the kid was just going to have to, like, get good at it.

Nina's mouth fell open in horror that was both real and mock.

"You wouldn't dare!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Oh, wouldn't we?" Prompto asked, and he would have chuckled at the challenge, but he was discovering it was harder than he thought to be holding a squirming eight-year-old that was trying very hard to get the bottle of ketchup he was trying to keep away from her because he knew once Lucy got it, Nina and her clothes were a goner. "We'll give you one last chance to repent, Fry Thief, before I unleash the wrath of the Ketchup Queen upon you!"

"No redemption!" Lucy squealed. "Only destruction!"

Okay, now he had to chuckle a little. "And she is...clearly out for blood."

And Nina... Nina had a choice to make.

She could cement her status as super unfun and repent her crimes and end the game neatly. Or she could go all in, hope it made up for making things weirder and suffer through the ketchup stains she was going to have to get out of her clothes later.

"The lass has the right of it!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina said, in her most evil-witch-queen voice as she scrambled to her feet, wobbling on the mattress. "Only fools fall for offers of redemption!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Given, though, that she was on Prompto's bed and in Prompto's room and all, though, she was grateful that it would only be herself, her dignity, and these clothes that would be sacrificed.

"This shall be a battle to the death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And that was Nina, lobbing fries in their direction.

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Room 303; Monday Afternoon [04/15].

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