Chapter VIII - Seaworthy - Part 3
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“Sorry I freaked out.” Six breathed once everyone took their place in the car.
“Stop talking about it.” Noctis sighed, not wanting her to keep beating herself over it, “You’ve seen us freak over pretty much everything. Besides, you travel around with four weirdos all day for the past I don’t-even-remember-how-long-anymore days, you’re entitled to it.”
“I am?” she raised her eyebrows teasingly, catching his point right away.
“You know what I mean.” he grunted.
“I do.” she smiled, making his cheeks turn pink at the sound of her voice, “Thanks, love.”
“Hey, listen.” Prompto turned around in his seat, looking back at them all excited, “I have got this insatiable urge to take a photo with a chocobo. Can we go? Like right now?”
Six and Noctis exchanged a couple of stunned looks, laughing at the blond’s eagerness before the Prince gave his answer, “If you really want to, sure.”
“I do, I really do!” Prompto smiled brightly, “Oh man, where should I get the shot?”
Gladio followed the side road, bringing the Regalia into a stop at Wiz’s Chocobo Post. The blond photographer almost running out before the car had even fully stopped.
“Take a shot from here.” Noctis showed him the row of chocobos and Prompto agreed right away, “Good call. Now it’s picture time!”
“The gang’s all here, see? Us?” he smiled proudly at the picture he had taken before making his way to the car again. His needs to take a picture and see a chocobo up-close both sated.
“I might have asked before,” Noctis said, passing Ignis one of his Ebony cans when back on the road to Caem, “but is Ebony all that good?”
“I might have answered before, but Yes it is!” he looked back at the Glaive, laughing at his enthusiasm before taking a sip, unable to hide his own smile as she seemed to be doing a lot better.
It was late noon when they finally reached the lighthouse.
“Really looking forward to Iris’ cooking.” Prompto thought out loud as he exited the car, stretching his limps as Ignis looked at him through his eyelashes, mocking irritation behind his voice, “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“Oh, don’t be like that.” the blond blushed in embarrassment, “It’s different when a girl cooks for y-”
“Well, then I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” Six was quick to join in the teasing.
“Oh, man.” he ruffled his hair before starting to catch up with Noctis and Gladio, already making their way to the house where Talcott and Iris waited for them.
“Finally ready to set sail.” Noctis commented once the house was in view.
“Altissia, baby. Big city, here we come!” Prompto shared in his excitement. After everything Six had told them about the beauty of the floating city, the boys were all eager to see it for themselves.
“How ya doing, Talcott?” the Prince asked; the kid’s eyes lit up at the sight of them all coming back.
“Good, Prince Noctis.”
“Hmm? What’s that there?” Six commented, seeing the boy’s figurine on the table behind him.
“Oh, this thing? It’s a cactuar figurine.” he smiled up at her, cheeks turning a light shade of pink, “I really like cactuars.”
“Oh...” Noctis nodded as the kid continued. “You can buy them in different places, and in different colors. I wanna finish the collection, but I still need a yellow and a blue one. I guess you wouldn’t have seen them at any shops, have you?”
“Uh, sorry, no.” Noctis answered before Six had the chance to, “Never paid attention to them before.”
“Oh, well, of course you wouldn’t.”
“But I will from now on. If I see the colors you’re missing, I’ll grab ‘em for you.”
“Really? Thank you!” the boy’s eyes were as big as a puppy’s when the company moved further away.
“Where can we find them?” Prompto asked almost right away, they all wanted to help do this for Talcott.
“We won’t have to look.” Six smiled, having everyone look at her, “I have both of them in the car, along with my things.”
“You do?” Noctis frowned his brows at her before realizing what she meant, raising one of them in mock judgment.
“Well...” the Glaive’s cheeks turned red almost immediately when she saw the rest shared his look, “Yeah.”
“Why?” Prompto almost sang.
“Everyone’s got a hobby.” she muttered before starting for the car, the boys close behind her, snickering about how awkward the mighty Glaive seemed over her ‘hobby’, “I can’t always collect swords, you know.”
“Yellow, from the Chocobo Post and blue from Lestallum.” She looked at the figurines before giving them to the younger boys, thinking they’d want to be the ones to present them to Talcott.
“Hey, Talcott. We got ya the goods!” Noctis said proudly as both him and Prompto showed the kid the figurines. Talcott’s eyes sparkling right away with glee.
“What? Really? Whoa… Yessss! I got them all now! Thank you so much, Prince Noctis!”
“How do you feel, momma?” Gladio wrapped his arms around her, hugging her from behind and letting his chin touch her hair, seeing the smile and calmness Talcott’s reaction brought out in her, “That feels a lot better that keeping them for myself.” she answered.
“I never really had you for a hoarder, ya know.” he laughed, earning an elbow to the side before she turned around, “It’s a hobby.” she laughed.
“I know, I know.” he mirrored before kissing her.
“We should go see how the old guy’s doing. Everything should be ready by now and the sooner we leave the faster we’ll reach Altissia.” the Glaive turned her attention to Noctis once he was done talking with Talcott about how fascinating cactuars are.
“Right.” the Prince nodded and they all started for the lighthouse where Cid waited for them, a bark stopping them just before they stepped foot inside.
Noctis dropped down on one knee, petting his loyal friend and taking Luna’s notebook, reading her message and placing his own before sending him away and joining the rest on the elevator.
Everyone was waiting at the hidden harbor.
“Look, Prince Noctis,” Talcott pointed out, “Even the marshal came to say goodbye!”
“I guess it’s goodbye for now.” Iris smiled sadly, “The Regalia is already below deck. Hopefully she will serve you well across the ocean, as she did here.”
“Something I gotta get off my chest.” Cor started speaking as the company made their way next to him, Six’s eyes falling on the old picture of them on the table between them.
“What’s that?” Noctis asked.
Cor let his arms unlock from his chest and move to his sides as he spoke again, looking at both Prince and Glaive as he did, “I’m sorry. Sorry I wasn’t there for your father. I swore an oath to protect the king, but I wasn’t strong enough to uphold it.”
“Cor, it-”
“Ain’t nothin’ nobody could’ve done to stop what happened.” Cid’s voice cut her words as he made his way to the couch next to the marshal, the latter’s eyes never leaving the ground.
“Yeah, I realize that.” Noctis answered with a low voice, just because he believed it, didn’t mean it hurt any less.
“But you need to realize just what you mean to the people by your side.” Cid continued, taking a seat, looking at the same picture she did.
“I do.”
“Even if they can’t solve your problems, you can’t hide what’s goin’ on from ‘em. It hurts like hell. Remember- those ain’t your bodyguards, they’re your family.” everyone took a step ahead, keeping their heads high at Cid’s words as well as the first smile he’d blessed them with, “Trust in ‘em. Always.”
When everyone was ready to set sail, and Prompto had taken one final group picture, Cid found his way on the captain’s seat of the boat, “Waitin’ for an invitation? Get your asses on board!”
Talcott and Iris came to see the boat off, Six and Noctis looking down at them and smiling their goodbye, “Hey! Your Majesty!” Talcott called out.
“What’s up?”
“Please come back soon! We need our king!”
“Yeah! Count on it!” Noctis used his hands to yell back at the boy before waving as his Glaive smiled, seeing the boat get out on the open waters.
Altissia was just a boat ride away.
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