Room 303; Thursday Afternoon [12/12].

[hashtag_chocobro]

Oh, man! What a week! Prompto was definitely feeling like he'd been through the wringer a few times and then some, but it was all sort of an oddly good feeling, too, because the training had been tough, and the subesequent mission that followed had been nerve-wracking and stressful, but they did it, and they'd done it well, and it was hard not to feel totally accomplished and maybe, just maybe...feeling like this all wasn't just some big mistake and he really was on the right path, he really would make an excellent Crownsguard, even if he was miles and miles behind Noctis and Ignis and Gladio and everyone else. Maybe he actually did belong there after all.

He was riding that high a little bit once he finally got back to Fandom, relieved to finally get a little bit of R&R after all that rigerous training. At least, he hoped so, because, knowing Fandom, he'd probably tumble straight out of training and into chaos, though he hoped whatever he did find was just more of the holiday silliness that Nina had oh-so-handwavily kept him updated on through multiple texts and messages and videos. He was almost a little disappointed to not run into any cute beverage-distributing bears or squirrels in santa hats on his way back to the dorms, but, at the same time, he felt a little too tired to have truly appreciated it, anyway.

"Ahhh," he sighed as he burst into his room, threw aside his bags to take care of later, and then just headed straight for his bed, where he did a little turn before plopping down onto it with an even deeper, more content sort of sigh. "Dorm sweet dorm..."

And he was just going to revel in that moment for a bit, before pulling out his phone and shooting off a few texts to interested parties to let them know that he was back, and then he tucked his phone away and just stared at the ceiling and enjoyed not moving for the very brief amount of time he suspected he'd have before a certain sister came bursting through the door. He had to cherish this little blip of peace and quiet while he could.

[[ because I'm ready to have at least someone back! Door and post are open! Feel free to mod getting a text if'n you like! I may be a bit slow here and there but I've missed you guuuys ]]

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[seriesofbaddecisions]

"That kind of trip, huh?" Sabine said from the doorway.

[hashtag_chocobro]

What emerged from Prompto at that moment was half groan, half whimper, half chuckle (yes, he knew how many halves that was!), which should have been more than enough to confirm Sabine's guess, but he still added, for good measure, "Definitely that kind of trip, yeah..."

There was a sigh that followed, though, that was complete contentment, no halves about it, and he lifted his head enough to look at her, grin crookedly, and then, somewhat reluctantly, push himself up so that he was sitting up a bit on his elbows. "Hey, Sabine," he greeted. "How's it going?"

He'd ask if he missed anything really good, but he knew that he didn't, because Nina would have assaulted his phone with all caps and punctuation if he had.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Decent enough. You got back on one of our actual normal days, which is a little unfair," she said lightly.

It wasn't normal, but she probably wasn't going to figure out the bread thing for a while.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Unfair?" Prompto asked. "Or just really good timing? Honestly, though, I think I might be a little disappointed. I've already missed some pretty good ones, if Nina's texts are anything to by. Like, this more than makes up for missing free soda from adorable bears that don't actually want to eat your face. I mean, come on. Bear hugs, Sabine. Literal ones!"

And don't get him started about the tiny horses!

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Sabine would be kind, and nit bring up penguins that did tricks,

"Okay, but there were wine showers."

[hashtag_chocobro]

"I meeaaaannnn....." Prompto said, shrugging his shoulders a little as he held up his hands, shifting them in the air to imitate the great balance that was Life at Fandom. "That's not too bad, in the grand scheme of things, right?"

And none of it seemed like it even got close to the hellish nightmare that had been the summer, too, so honestly, he'd take wine showers any day of the week if that was all it was.

"Was it at least good wine?"

Asking the important questions!

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Sabine turned her hand over in the so-so gesture. "Not my taste, personally, and it made things like hand washing sticky. Thus defeating the purpose of hand washing."

She wore gloves, but still.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto gave his own gloved hands a speculative look and then shrugged, settling them back behind him on the bed. "I guess that could get annoying," he allowed. "But at least it's just for one day. We were in the field for a couple days and good luck washing anything at all!"

Which wasn't true. Ignis had insisted they could wash things just fine, but Prompto had been pretty skeptical and/or conveniently deaf to these details.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"What did you have to do?" Sabine asked, since they hadn't really talked about this. "In the field, not about washing."

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto's lopsided grin went a little wistful, despite the relief to be back for a bit and probably having a good while before he wound up going on another training bout like that again. Exhausted as he was, mentally and physically, it had really been something special.

For him, anyway, though he figured it was pretty much just another drill for everyone else in the Kingsglaive.

"Recon mission to an enemy base," he said. "It was just a dinky little one, but it was the first time I've ever been to one. That was kind of the point, to get all us newbs to get our toes wet a little, y'know? It was really weird, but...really cool, too. Got to get in a few good sniper shots, too."

Even if it had felt a little...strange, really, if he thought about it too much. In a different dimension, that would have been him getting shot at by Lucan soldiers, probably.

Which is why he wasn't going to let himself think about it.

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina was super not even going to try to subvert the narrative today, no, as she, rather predictably, burst into the room with a shriek of glee and clutching his liberated kitty pillow.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And then she was going to fling herself at him.

Because that was what one did when they were happy to see someone was back!

The kitty pillow would, at least, cushion the blow?

[hashtag_chocobro]

Well, thank the gods for high-pitched warning and very soft pillows, because Prompto had just enough time to brace himself for the impact. Not that it did any good with how sore he was, but he took the flying sister missle as well as he could, with only a little bit of grunting and complaint in his groaning laugh.

And a bit of a hug back, too, of course, only a light one, because aaarrrmmmmssss.

"If I didn't know any better," he teased, "I'd think you might have actually missed me!"

Which would have normally been silly, but it was Nina, she was allowed, even if she at least had the courtesy of knowing where he was going and what he was doing, a courtesy she didn't bother paying back on her trips, a-hem.

[bookbeltof_love]

Well, she was trying to get better about that… at least she'd remembered to tell him she was leaving last time!

Nina laughed.

"Of course I missed you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she protested, her beaming smile not going anywhere. "Why wouldn't I?????????????! How'd it go????????????????? Are you okay???????????????????"

[hashtag_chocobro]

"It went...well," Prompto said, after a moment, that faintly wistful grin flooding back to his face. It was honestly going to be a while before that whole warm fuzzy feeling in his chest about it all faded...unless Fandom decided to hit him with one of those horrible things that always sucked any sort of good feeling at all out of him so effectively. But he was trying not to think anything like that if he could help it. "Really good, actually. And I'm fine, definitely okay, just really sore. And exhausted, Nina, you have no idea, I could probably sleep until Christmas at this point."

He wasn't going to. It was tempting, but this was good too.

[bookbeltof_love]

On the bright side, he was much more likely to be sabotaged by mistletoe or tangled in lights this time of year than anything truly bad…

"You just came in and collapsed, didn't you?????????????????" she asked, making no move to, you know, abandon her position here. "You need a hot shower and food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sleep, sure, but you can't sleep now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or, well, he could but she'd pout about it.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"I don't need a shower," Prompto said with a faint chuckle, shaking his head, "unless you're trying to tell me something, but I swear, I took one before I left!"

It had almost been one of the longest showers ever, but, honestly, this summer had given him more than enough of those...and half the reason it was so long was because he got to singing while he was in there and really got into a groove.

"But I could go for some food..."

Were the softened puppy dog eyes he was throwing at Nina even necessary? Probably not, and he knew it, but he just liked to throw them at her anyway, since he couldn't really get his stomach to grumble on command in an attempt for food-related pity.

[bookbeltof_love]

And she did appreciate them, she really did, her beaming smile melting into something softer.

"I guuuuuuuuuuuuuuesss I could find you something," she said, heaving a put-upon sigh that was totally fake. "Anything in particularly you wanted??????????????????????? I can check the common room or we can order in?????????????????"

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto took a second to calculate what the probability of getting smacked would be if he suggested she go and see if any of his Cup Noodles^TM were still in the common room, and had clearly determined it was too high to risk it.

"Pizza, maybe?" he suggested. "I'm coming off of a week and change of some primo Iggy cooking, remember, so I feel like anything else is going to be disappointing. But pizza around here rarely disappoints."

Which was good, because then you'd also be eating it for about a full week afterwards, too.

[bookbeltof_love]

At least they didn't charge for all the extra pizzas………..

"I'm pretty sure, like, I can feel Ignis' disapproval of this life choice from here, but…………."

Well, that wasn't going to stop her from digging out her phone and calling in to place an order. She didn't bother to actually ask what kind of pizza her brother wanted, just rattling off the order (which included garlic cheese sticks, salad, soda, and dessert in addition to the pizza he'd wanted because, like, if you were ordering pizza it was best to do it right).

Once she'd hung up, with a chirped thanks, she finished her thought to Prompto with, "Really, what Ignis doesn't know won't hurt him, right?????????????"

[grandpoobah]

After class, Grog came back to the room, and was pleasantly surprised to find it not empty. "Hey, you're back! How was home?"

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Exhausting!" said Prompto, but he said it almost triumphantly, with a laugh, clearly feeling accomplished about the whole thing and also feeling like that answer would never get old...or never cease to be applicable, either. He grinned a little before pushing himself to look up (and up) at Grog.

"But it's nice to be back," he admitted. "How were things here while I was gone?"

Of course, he had a pretty good idea thanks to Nina's endless stream of texts and pictures and video, but it would be good to get different perspective on it, too.

[grandpoobah]

"It's been really weird, but people keep saying things get like this every winter so..." Grog said, shrugging. "There's been a lot of animals running around and--oh!" He perked up considerably and reached under his bed. When he came back up, he was wearing a somehow goliath-sized Santa hat, and had another one in his hand. "There were fancy hats! You can have this one if you want."

[hashtag_chocobro]

"I like fancy hats!"

As long as he had a chance to style his hair to suit it, anyway. Prompto's grin grew.

"That's awesome, Grog, thanks! And, yeah, this month gets a little crazy. Honestly, I sort of forgot about it, so much has happened since last year, but...I don't think I missed the crazy mistletoe. Nina would have definitely told me about the mistletoe, but that one's a doozy. I'm sad I missed the bears with the cola, though!"

[grandpoobah]

"The bears were pretty adorable. I wanted to try to ride one, but I got talked out of it," Grog said. "What does the mistletoe do?"

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto thought, for a second, about Grog riding one of those bears, opened his mouth to make a comment, and then closed it again, thinking better of it. And feeling tempted to find whoever talked him out of it and give them a medal on behalf of all bears everywhere.

"It pesters you until you kiss someone," Prompto shook his head a little. "Apparently, it's a tradition here that if you get caught underneath mistletoe with someone around this time of year, you're supposed to kiss them, but, of course, the Fandom version makes sure you get caught under it with someone. I got stuck kissing two people last year..."

One of which was much more pleasant than the other, with all due respect to his best shark prince bro, of course.