hashtag_chocobro | Around the Island, then Nina's Room at the Arms; Friday Morning [09/04].

It had taken Prompto an hour at most to get back to Fandom after he realized he'd gotten a voicemail from the sheriff yesterday. Also? By the way, dude? 'She's in one piece'? SHE'S IN ONE PIECE?!?? Where did you learn to leave voicemails because telling someone that his sister who had been missing pretty much all summer to go to war in her world with some really shoddy contact methods was, at the very least, in one piece was not going to help him with the whole flailing and panicking and freaking out and immediately wanting to go find her and fuss over her for pretty much a million years.

In one piece! Thanks, buddy!

Okay, okay, so all in one piece was good, he knew that, but that probably could have been phrased a whole lot more encouraging and comfortingly!

And because of this, Prompto did know that Nina probably needed rest, and he was definitely going to let her have that rest, but he could hardly just stay at home in Insomnia knowing that Nina was back and safe (AND IN ONE PIECE); he definitely would be useless to the boyos in that state of mind, so he arranged a portal, he arranged his own room at the hotel, and then spent pretty much the rest of the day pacing back and forth and figuring out what sort of questions he might ask her, wishing he'd brought more potions with him, trying to think of a clever way to trick her into maybe not going and doing that whole war thing again, and generally wearing a groove into the floor of the hotel room that he hoped maybe Noct could kind of pay for if they charged for that sort of thing.

He got, maybe, a little bit of sleep, and, the moment dawn broke, finally decided to put all that nervous energy into a run around the island. Which was, as tired and nervous as he was, kind of nice. Familiar. He missed this place a lot sometimes, so just doing his old routine of his morning jog was a good way to go into this, he figured.

Then he swung by J,GoB to pick up exactly the kind of breakfast that Ignis would totally disapprove of, a few drinks, and then headed back up to the hotel to shower quickly, then headed down to the room the front desk had told him Nina was in.

Knocked on the door.

Dropped his voice into a much deeper, gruffer, totally disguising octave, before grunting out, "Room service!"

[[ for the little sis! Or anyone who might want to catch him on his jog! There's OCD! Because I'm that nerd. ]]

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He sort of figured she might.

"So those were clearly the coolest squirrels," Prompto decided, with a conclusive nod.

"They really are," she said, finishing her tart. She was maybe a lot hungry. "And it was neat discovering that doing radio here means I can speak squirrel back home. Mukumuku and I met up in a tree."

"Who'd've thunk all that radio was actually good for something after all?" Prompto asked with a small snicker.

"That sounds like a good place to meet a squirrel," he added, then hesitated slightly before asking, "What were you doing in the tree?"

That, at least, wasn't terrible.

"I'd found out who the survivors of the attack on the Youth Brigade were," she said slowly, picking up her other tart. "That's why I left, in the first place."

She couldn't remember if he knew that.

"But I was staking out one of their houses to see if they'd show up when I met Mukumuku."

All the attempts to keep him updated had been so jumbled and sporadic that Prompto only had a vague, at best, idea of what had been going on. But none of it really matter much at that moment, anyway. All the mattered was that she was back.

"Typical spy stuff," he said with a playful shaking of his head. "I really should have guessed as much."

"I like typical spy stuff," she said, resting her head against his shoulder. "I'm good at it."

Literally the best at it, though she didn't know that.

"The best," said Prompto, who also didn't know that, but he didn't need to know it to believe it in that moment, tilting his head towards her on his shoulder.

"What're you going to do now?"

Nina was quiet and thought of fire.

"I don't know," she said, then added: "I haven't checked Portalocity yet."

Because if it was open, she would go. She'd have to.

"Why would you need to check--?"

But his brow hadn't even started burrowing all the way before he filled in his own blank.

"Oh. So, it's still...?"

"Maybe," she said, shifting so she could draw her knees up to her chest, setting her half-eaten tart down to the side. "I didn't order the portal that brought me back. Like, it just appeared out of nowhere. I barely even saw it before I hit the beach."

Nina was quiet for a moment.

"It saved my life."

Prompto set down his doughnut, too. There wasn't a whole lot left, but he definitely wasn't hungry anymore.

Plus, he needed to be able to hug Nina again.

"Well, thank gods for portals, then."

She leaned into the hug for all she was worth.

"I'm okay now," she said, partly to reassure him and partly to reassure herself. "You can't even tell I was hurt."

Which meant she had been hurt, which he knew, of course, but to hear it straight from her...

Prompto squeezed her a little and then snorted a dry laugh. "All in one piece," he murmured.

"I'm going to have to make sure and thank Liam at some point before I head back. I...wish I could have helped."

Of course, he also knew there was really no way he could have, but that actually only made it feel way worse.

"You'd have hated most of it," she told him. "I hated most of it."

Really, even though she'd nearly died at the mercenary fort, it was the only battle that she understood. He couldn't leave a military fort standing.

But...

"I'm glad you're here now."

"Me, too."

And he knew she wasn't wrong, either. He hated a lot of the stuff he knew he'd have to do back home, too, and he was lucky. He didn't have to be out there like all the grunts or even regular Kingsglaive.

"I can stay as long as you need me to, too."

That made her huff something that was almost amused.

"If Ignis and Gladio decide they need you back, they're just going to tell you to bring me with rather than let you stay here."

That was going to earn a huff right back.

"They'll tell me to bring you so that it lessens the chances of you getting eaten by another portal that sends you back," he said. "It wouldn't have anything to do with me. In fact, they'd probably say I can stay, they'll just take you."

"Noct would never stand for that," she said loftily. "And I don't think the others would either--you've gotten a lot stronger."

It was hard to miss the arm gains when she kept getting hugged.

"Maybe."

He'd been working on some new weapons, too, but he still didn't sound too convinced, nor would he probably ever be. He was a good shot and a barcode, at best.

But that wasn't the point here.

"Either way," he gave her another squeeze for good measure, "I'm here, okay?"

Nina did not envy Ignis for the uphill battle he must've fought in the reality where he and Prompto got married. Not even a little.

"It means a lot that you're here," she admitted, closing her eyes briefly. "I'm sorry I was gone so long. Did you get any of my texts?"

She'd tried so, so many times to reach him.

"A few of them," Prompto said, "but not very many. And I wasn't sure if I should respond, I didn't want your phone going off at an awkward moment or even if they'd come through..."

She sighed.

"Given how terrible getting anything through was, it was probably best not to answer," Nina admitted reluctantly. "But if it's ever working properly and I'm texting you, it's fine to answer."

Around the Island, then Nina's Room at the Arms; Friday Morning [09/04].

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