You’re probably gonna be mad I’m asking, but what happens to Cloud-as-Prompto when Cor and the other citadel adults figure out his home situation?
*sigh-laughs* I’m not mad, I’ve known for a while now that Tumblr is filled with enablers and the moment I yote a new AU into existence it would get asks about it XPP. Alright then buckle up NEW FICLET:
-It takes them a while to figure it out, not because Cloud/Prompto is … particularly hiding it, he just makes sure to never mention it because he doesn’t want any drama and the adults at first assume everything is fine.
-When Prompto stays over for sleepovers with his new friend the Prince, they are mostly concerned with security, not with the boy’s home life. They assume his parents gave permission, because- well- the Citadel, of course their child would be safe there.
-But then he keeps coming over for sleepovers more and more frequently, to the point one day Cor sits up and realizes he hasn’t seen anyone take Prompto HOME in about two weeks now and THAT raises red flags. He discreetly asks around and all the servants confirm that no, Prompto hasn’t gone home in two weeks. He goes to school with Prince Noctis and then comes to the Citadel with him.
-Alarm bells fully ringing now, Cor goes to ask Prompto about it himself, because surely there’s an explanation that isn’t the one poisoning the tip of his tongue.
-Prompto looks up from the video game he’s playing with Noctis when Cor enters, and something in Cor screams. He’s been politely avoiding the boy for the most part, one because his job does genuinely keep him busy and two because he doesn’t want to … put expectations on the boy that shouldn’t be there. This is not the baby he gave away for the boy’s own safety, not the baby he grew so attached to hauling him out of the lab and to safety in Insomnia over the course of months. This boy is one who has been raised from age 1 in a loving, proper home environment, who has no memory of who Cor is beyond the “Immortal” persona the media touts. Cor SHOULD be looking at a happy, gentle child, if a shy, quiet one from all reports of the servants.
-So why is he looking into the eyes of a soldier?
-Noctis pauses their game and bounds up, eagerly asking why Cor has come to visit. Cor idly pats Noctis’s head without taking his eyes off Prompto, who stares back with assessing blue eyes. There is warmth there, a sort of trust Cor assumes must come from Noctis’s stories (because there is no way the boy remembers those months on the run, no way), but aside from that spark, there is no childishness. No naivety. He doesn’t see the shyness the reports mention, he sees the cool assessment of a soldier, watching the world for threats.
-Cor begins to feel sick.
-He hides it and gently asks Prompto about what he’s noticed, about the two weeks of unbroken sleepover, and does Cor need to call his parents? Is everything alright? They DO know where he is, don’t they?
-Prompto shrugs, like it doesn’t matter. He tells Cor that everything is fine, Zack (Prompto’s nickname for Noctis, though Cor has no clue as to the logic behind it) just wanted him to stay over this long, that’s all. No, Cor doesn’t need to call his parents, everything is fine, he likes being in the Citadel with his friend.
-Prompto doesn’t answer the last question. Cor asks it again. Prompto’s gaze flickers away with something akin to … hurt. Not the guilt of a child, but the unease and simmering anger of someone who is thinking “why now? Why do you care now?” and Cor feels dread as Prompto shrugs.
-That’s not an answer, he tells Prompto.
-Prompto sighs and shrugs again, “I left them a note. I don’t know if they’ve read it by now or not. Depends on if they came home before heading to their next conference.”
-And Cor’s world drops out from under him.
-Cor asks more questions until Prompto seems to get distressed and suddenly Noctis is there, bristling protectively, a too-old glint of magic in his eyes that only happens when a genuine tantrum of all tantrums is on the way. Noctis tells Cor to get out and Cor evacuates. He has research to do anyway.
-It takes him a week to compile all the clues and reports and evidence (a week Prompto spends with Noctis, a still unbroken “sleepover” that is now alarming in its length). It takes him several hours in the training room before he is sane enough to present his findings to Regis.
-He glares at Regis and Clarus the entire time they read. Tries very, VERY hard not to sound accusing when he asks what they want to do now (tries hard not to let his fury leak into his voice or manner, his urge to scream at them because THEY were the ones who vetted the couple that adopted Prompto, THEY were the ones who were supposed to know what decent parents looked like and pick a good home life for the baby Cor brought home, not the child soldier, not Cor, and look at where it’s led).
-He is mildly gratified by the look of guilt on Clarus’s face and the horrified anger on Regis’s.
-The Argentums are a very respected couple, upstanding members of their community, hard workers, and donators to charity. They are well liked by their colleagues and peers, trusted by their employers to the point they get sent often on business trips on behalf of the company, and while they are by no means RICH, they are comfortably middle class.
-None of the people Cor’s agents had interviewed, not even the ones who considered themselves close friends of the Argentums, even knew they had a child. If it weren’t for the school attendance records, yearly checkups at the local hospital, and periodic purchase of toys for Christmas and birthdays, there would be no evidence that Prompto Argentum even EXISTED.
-Toys were not a replacement for love and presence in a child’s life, and the Argentums were definitely NOT doing that.
-“Cor-” Clarus starts, Cor growls at him, feral and furious and hurting, his fingers itching with the memory of holding the child he saved from that lab, his heart shuddering with the memory of how the boy had reached for him and cried when he handed him off to what Cor had been PROMISED would be loving, gentle parents.
-“You will FIX this,” Cor snarls wetly.
-Regis nods, his magic unfurling to settle on Cor’s shoulders like an apology and sympathetic anger all in one, “We will contact child services immediately and have him removed form their custody. I will personally ensure this is kept quiet and away from the media. The Argentums are not … unreasonable people. Once they are shown the evidence of their own- their own neglect, I’m certain they will give him up without a fight. We’ll find suitable-.”
-“You will give him to me.” Clarus and Regis stop and stare at Cor. Cor who’s hands are balled into shaking fists and his lungs stinging with the fury he thought he’d worked out in a training room, “We did it your way and Prompto has been neglected all his life. Give him to me.”
-Regis’s lips thin in worry, “Cor, raising a child is- a huge responsibility, they require a great deal of time-,”
-“Time the Argentums never spent?”
-“There is also security to think of, it has been seven years since you broke into that lab, but there is still a chance someone will look at his age and realize what he is.”
-Cor can feel his teeth grinding, “Just say it’s because he’s Noctis’s friend. I took him in for security purposes, to ensure the prince’s best friend was well protected. He can even keep the Argentum surname. He looks like them, no one will think of the lab baby that disappeared.”
-Clarus reached out and gently touched Cor’s shoulder, “And if he does not want to live with you? You’re a stranger to him, Cor. A FAMOUS and intimidating stranger.”
-Cor comes so close to punching Clarus in the mouth it’s a miracle he doesn’t. He shakes off Clarus’s hand and storms out, back to the training rooms to try to get a measure of his sanity back.
-The entire process is kept very, very quiet. With the king himself backing the order and Prompto’s original origins weighing in the back of their minds, the Argentums fold to the claims and give up Prompto without a fight. Cor thinks there is genuine regret and heartbreak in their eyes, genuine surprise and horror when their crimes are listed before them. As if they hadn’t realized until that moment just how MUCH time they spent away from the house and the little boy they claimed to love. Cor feels nothing but anger toward them.
-Prompto is informed of his removal from their custody only after the fact and he goes very, very still. Something cold lingers in blue eyes as he quietly asks if he’s going to be placed in the foster system. Cor is angry again that Prompto doesn’t ask about his parents, doesn’t demand to go back to his “mom” and “dad” (is angry that he calls them “the Argentums”, like he never thought of them as parents in the first place). Noctis is clinging to his best friend with wide eyes and instantly begs Regis to adopt “Cloud” so they can be brothers. Regis smiles sadly and explains he can’t do that, it would put a spotlight on Prompto that he doesn’t need, and that Prompto deserves to go to new parents who can spend time with him.
-“I don’t want them.” Everyone stops and looks at Prompto. Prompto glares at the floor, works his jaw and carefully outlines each word on his tongue before saying it, “I don’t want to go to new parents. My last ones didn’t care, what will make the new ones any different? They’ll keep me away from Zack. Or just want to adopt me for my connection to the royal prince. I don’t want new parents.”
-Regis reaches out a hand and starts to gently explain that Prompto HAS to have parents, that this time will be better, Prompto just hunches his shoulders and glares harder at the floor. There is something cold and broken in those blue eyes, something Cor KNOWS down to the fibers of his soul.
-Why do I bother saying anything when I know no one will listen to what I want anyway? My opinion doesn’t matter.
-I don’t matter.
-He’d seen those eyes in the mirror for a very, very long time until he ran away and joined the Crownsguard at thirteen, desperate enough to MAKE something of himself, to BE someone, that he was willing to risk death in the military. If only because joining was HIS choice, not someone else’s.
-Cor is speaking before he can think better of it, “What do you want then?”
-Every stops and stares at him. Noctis is already beaming hopefully at Cor, and Prompto looks … surprised, wary. Cor kneels down in front of the seven year old, equalizing their heights as much as he can, and murmurs seriously, “You need a guardian of some kind, it’s the law. But if you don’t want new parents, what DO you want? Is there anyone- is there anyone you would prefer as a caretaker? One of your teachers, or … even one of the servants here in the Citadel? We could ask if they would be willing to adopt you. At least until your age of majority.”
-Prompto stares at him, the looks down at the floor. He blinks rapidly as tears start to form and mutters something Cor could have sworn was “stupid child hormones” under his breath before sniffling loudly and ….
-Reaching out to tentatively hook his fingers around Cor’s sleeve.
-“Can I … pick you?” Blue eyes peer at him shyly, cautiously, “Can I pick you as my guardian?” And Cor feels like his chest is going to burst.
-He wants to say yes instantly, but instead he asks, “Are you sure? You don’t know me. I am the Marshal of the Crownsguard, my duties will keep me very busy. I WILL make time for you whenever you need, but I won’t be able to spend as much … as much time with you as you deserve.”
-Prompto’s lips twitch into something like a smile, “You’re safe,” he whispers and then looks away like he’s embarrassed. Then he opens his mouth and shatters Cor’s world, “You took me away from the- the men in white coats, and the cold, and the green.” The boy shudders with MEMORY that he should have and glances at Cor again, “I trust you.”
-And Cor can’t breathe.
-Regis and Clarus both look like a stiff wind could knock them over (just like how Cor feels) and Regis manages a strangled, “You were just a baby…”
-And Prompto shrugs, lets go of Cor’s jacket to fidget with the band around his wrist (that covers his barcode, covers the one visible remaining sign of the trauma and experiments they had done to him and oh ASTRALS how much does the boy remember), “It hurt a lot. People remember things that hurt better than they remember nice things. It was cold, and … scary. They kept making me sick. Then Cor came. He picked me up and took me away. He brought me here and … I know the Argentums weren’t very good parents. But they never hurt me. They never-” Prompto’s eyes blow wide and his breath stutters like he’s remembering something truly terrible and he shrinks mindlessly into Noctis’s tight hug, shaking like a leaf in genuine terror before he shakes his head and looks pleadingly at Cor, “I trust you,” he whispers again and its a knife to Cor’s heart, “please. Don’t send me away this time.”
-Noctis is still clinging to Prompto like a protective limpet, so when Cor reaches out and snatches Prompto against his chest, he’s clutching Noctis as well, but he doesn’t CARE. Because Prompto REMEMBERS the lab and the flight, somehow he remembers (has to remember, because the Argentums were never told any of that, there was no one but Cor to tell Prompto about those things and Cor hadn’t spoken to Prompto in all those seven years) all the trauma and fear and that Cor had LEFT him and Cor knows he will never forgive himself for this.
-But he will make it right.
-“Okay,” he breathes into Prompto’s hair, “You can stay. You can stay with me.” He inhales shakily, raises his head and GLARES at Regis and Clarus, daring them to disagree this time. Oath or no oath, king or no king, Cor will fight them this time if they try to take Prompto away.
-Regis dips his head in a shaky acknowledgement, still off-balance from the revelation that Prompto remembered “I’ll have the paperwork brought up.”
-Cor buries his face in Prompto’s hair again with a shaky sigh and a tight squeeze. Prompto is his.
-He’s never, ever letting go again.
