For the prompt thingy: How To Save A Life.
He forced a smile that he didn't feel. "Hey big guy, you had any lunch ye-"
"Not now," his friend growled, shoving his way past him.
He winced, stumbling backwards on a still tender leg, and his smile fell. "Maybe next time," he called out after the retreating back, trying to add some bounce into his voice.
It's okay, he was just busy. They all were.
"Hey, Iggy, do you want t-"
A sharp voice cut him off. "I'm rather busy right now, perhaps tomorrow?"
He looked at his friend, sitting in a dark room doing nothing, and his shoulders slumped. "Sure, Ignis. I'll see you tomorrow."
Just like he'd seen him yesterday.
"Hey I need some help on a hunt, do you think y-"
"I'm afraid I'm occupied for the next several days. Maybe ask Gladiolus?"
"Gladio what do you think abo-"
"Do you think Noct is okay?"
"You need to eat dude, please."
He blinked and it'd been five years since Noct- since.
On the other side of the square, he can see Iggy and Gladio sitting together.
They seemed happy - smiling and comfortable.
He turned back to the hunters he's planning with and forced a smile. Someone slapped him on the back. He laughed.
He didn't look at his friends.
"Apologies Prompto, but we have a meeting with Dave that we really must be getting to."
Gladio spots him on the other side of the market and lifts a hand automatically, calling out.
A blond head turns towards him and then looks past him, the kid and his ridiculous facial hair breezing past him to join a laughing group at one of the market stalls that absorbs him easily.
He frowns. "Why did Prompto ignore us?" He asks Iggy.
His boyfriend hums, distracted by haggling. "Pardon?"
"Blondie- he just walked right past us without even a wave." Since when had the kid just ignored his friends?
Ignis blinks behind his darkened lenses. "Perhaps he is busy." He frowns. "Though it has been a while since I last spoke to him. Several months at least."
That can't be right, the kid is always bugging them, always asking them to do things with that sunshine bright smile as if they aren't busy trying to keep the world together for when Noct gets back.
And when Gladio thinks back, surely he can remember speaking to Prompto.
Except... it's been nearly a year since Prompto last came up to him and asked him to do something and when he thinks back he can't-
"How long has it been since we had an actual conversation with him?" He wonders. The kid had always had the bad habit of asking when they were busy or too annoyed to deal with him without Noct as a buffer and while he's sure they've hung out at some point he can't remember when.
Prompto laughs from across the market, bright and happy, and one of the group ruffles his hair and Gladio-
Gladio stares, his stomach sinking.
The group moves past them. Prompto doesn't even glance at them. He doesn't look back.
Somewhere along the way, he realises, in the bitterness and the business of the years, they'd lost a friend.
