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Two men scurried across the floor with large lighting stands the size of four fully grown men nestled between their arms with firm yet cautious grips. Others quickly side-stepped out of the way with silent nods of acknowledgment as the men passed each other. It was the kind of efficiency Ignis craved on a visceral level and the cooling respect Noctis’ father commandeered from nearly everyone within Eos who weren’t drooling at the knees of the Nilfheim empire.
The room was cluttered with metal laced equipment and dusted with enough people to occupy a small school. Yet Noctis could hear his own breath chattering, and the scraping of his shoes whenever he shifted felt deafening in the silence.
Flashes of deep purple and shades of pacific ocean water showered into the room. Noctis strained his neck peering up where four periwinkle clad uniformed women trapezed on thin metal rail scaffoldings suspended from the ceiling. He had become accustomed to teleporting after being thrown off cliffsides by his arms in training that the height and distance should not have left him impressed, but he struggled keeping his mouth off the floor watching them dance around each other. Their hands were tucked into square metallic frames holding lightbulbs bigger than tonberries. They seemed fearless suspended there, adjusting the lights to the silent commands of a woman standing directly below them.
Noctis did not know her name. She was tall for her youthful face, with hair the colour of spun arachne silk. She moved without a sound. Elegant by the pulls of her arms in the direction of who she commanded with precise, sharp snapping motions in various rhythms that clearly defined different requirements from her staff.
Every few minutes she snapped a command and either the lights’ colour would change or the direction would shift. She bent forward after and the shuttering click of a camera echoed into the deep recesses of the warehouse they were in. Noctis pressed his arms deeper into his pockets to stop himself from inching forward out of sheer curiosity.
His ears flushed when the woman finally stepped aside and Noctis was able to get a clear view of the stage in front of her.
It was a sectioned off area with curtains of wool textured fabrics of various blues raining off the back wall. Underneath was a single graying chair with a backing and armrests. Prompto sat, slouching with his arms pulled up and his hands tucked behind his head. He had angled his right arm away from his face for the camera and Noctis’ throat contracted staring at the blond’s toned upper arms flexing.
The woman clapped her hands and Prompto shifted to look at her. She pressed her hands together and started moving her fingers swiftly. Noctis blinked rapidly trying to concentrate on her fingers but she was clearly confident that Prompto wasn’t having the same problem. The blond nodded confidently when she paused.
Noctis yelped a curse in his head then hastily slapped a hand into his mouth to smother his whimper when Prompto tilted in the chair and pulled off the loose-cut jeans he’d been wearing. He threw it into the outstretched hands of an assistant before falling back to lounge on the chair as he had before. He stretched his legs and arched his back just enough to have the long sleeve shirt he wore ride up his torso, leaving his lower stomach exposed. Noctis felt a bubble scratch the inside of his throat as he traced his best friend’s long pale legs up to the hem of the white boxer briefs they gloriously made Prompto wear.
Assistants quickly moved several clusters of young dendrobeum orchids onto the set. Most were arranged by Prompto’s hips. Somehow, the contrast of the wine tinted petals made Prompto’s skin appear softer than Noctis already knew it was.
“Woah, settle down, kid. Try not to drool completely through your hand there,” Gladiolus’s deep baritone voice abruptly teased into his ear.
Noctis jumped away, flushing. He hissed in his own mind about the possibility of tying a damn bell in the man’s braided hair.
Out of respect for the silence of the studio, Gladiolus merely tilted his head cheekily and pursed his lips in a taunting pout. Noctis hands shook in his pockets. He really wanted to punch Gladio in the gut as routine for them after a tease, but he didn’t want to become a distraction to Prompto during the photoshoot.
The entire reason he was even allowed to stay plastered to the back wall of the warehouse as it was happening was only due to his royal status and Prompto’s promise that Noctis would be a bat dangling from the rafters - out of the way and unnoticed. So he sucked it up and pressed his back to the wall, strategically facing the exact angle that would let him watch the small section of the stage that remained clear of smog when they turnt on several smoke machines. His eyes widen and his jaw slacked as he stared at Prompto sliding the shin of his leg seductively slow up his other thigh.
Gladiolus, being the little shit Noctis knew he was, chose that exact moment to stand a little closer to Noctis. He rested an elbow on Noctis’ shoulder and leaned down. His long hair brushed into Noctis’ face and slapped him in the eye.
“Gladio. Move,” Noctis murmured, then shoved the muscle covered behemoth to the wall and stepped forward. “You’re blocking the view.”
“What view?” Gladio chuckled under his breath. “All I see is Prompto.”
Noctis’ jaw dropped and he huffed, offended. “He is the view!” He hissed.
“Sure this isn’t a private photoshoot you ordered from that woman for your own private collection there, Noct?” Gladio asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
Noctis nervously shifted, looking around him. Thankfully none of the other workers were near then, since the back wall was far enough away from the main stage. Noctis reigned in his excessive need to throw his future Royal Shield out of the studio via teleporting him into a sewer pipeline across the city by shoving his hand under Gladiolus’ shirt. He twisted his fingers into the man’s tawny skin, pinching it between his fingers so tightly Gladiolus crumpled to a half kneel. Then threw himself to the side, out of arm’s reach.
Gladiolus glared at him, clicked his tongue then faced the side exit door. “Anyways Ignis is busy tonight with reports for your old man.” Noctis snorted at the next in line for the Royal Shield using such a disrespectful term to their king. “He left enough money in your apartment for a double pizza order.” Gladio stepped half out the door. “You two need a ride back?”
“Nah. We’ll take the train,” Noctis said, shrugging. “Prom said we should explore this area while we can before summer ends for good and ‘all the summer romantic vibes escapes through the crevices of his desperately grasping hands’.”
Gladio frowned with an arched eyebrow. “The fuck?”
Noctis rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced. “He might’ve nicked a romance novel you left on the sofa three years ago.”
“Sweet fuck, Noct,” Gladiolus said, but he let a soft smile tug his lips. Despite all the teasing, Noctis trusted Gladiolus to not judge him for how he looked with Prompto. “You know...” Gladiolus pursed his lips and partially covered the side of his face with his hand. “I could accidentally leave behind some more mature titles if you need the help that bad.”
Noctis flushed. His eye twitched as his resolve crumbled into metaphorical sawdust. He twirled behind Gladiolus and kicked him in the lower back and watched with a smug look as the goliath crashed through the half-open door. He rushed forward, grabbed the door handle and slammed it shut.
The resounding explosion of sound from the door slamming vibrated into the metal wall paneling. It bounced from surface to surface and Noctis noticed with a grimace as some of the staff flinched, nearly dropping whatever equipment they were handling.
“Noct?” Prompto called.
Noctis turned around and winced guiltily. He pressed his hand and rubbed them together, “Sorry.”
Prompto shook his head, laughed and walked off the stage towards him. “It’s fine. The photography portion is already done.” He waved to the area around the stage and Noctis noticed the assistants gathering the materials from the set and storing them away in knee-high wheeled trunks.
“So, everything’s done?”
“For me, yeah.” Prompto was handed the jeans he took off as he walked by, but he strutted to Noctis’ side in deliberate cat-walk swaying steps. He grinned when he could obviously tell Noctis was eyeing him like a slow, up tilting video camera. “Take a picture, dude. It’ll last longer.”
Noctis snorted and thumbed at the woman in charge. “I think she’s already done all that for me, man.”
The blond stepped up to his best friend and swung an arm around the prince’s broader shoulders. “You good to go?”
“Um...” Noctis eyes were glued to Prompto’s bare legs. He’d been waiting by the back wall for a full sixteen hours. He couldn’t be blamed sliding his arm around Prompto’s hips. When Prompto smiled and pressed closer, Noctis let himself rub the smooth upper thigh at his fingertips. “You good with walking out like this?”
“Yeah. They gave the go ahead to just wear this out,” Prompto said, beaming. “She said it’s a customary bonus for being such a good model.”
“You sure?” Noctis looked at Prompto seriously. “That’s on top of your modelling pay, right? You sure it won’t be turned into your modeling fee ‘suddenly’?”
“Yeah, yeah. We signed a contract for it all last week. Iggy handled the paperwork and everything.”
A relieved sigh filtered passed Noctis’ lips and his shoulders lowered. Ignis often drilled into Noctis’ head with a jackhammer about all the legal matters he expected Noctis to learn as the crown prince, but he was grateful for it more and more lately. He nuzzled the side of his face into Prompto and snickered. “But I actually meant, are you ok with walking out pantless?”
Prompto flushed. “Oh.”
“I mean,” Noctis coughed not-so-subtly into his fist. “I don’t mind, but we’ll end up just going home straight.”
“Bro,” Prompto drawled. “You know damn well neither of us are ever going to go home ‘straight’.”
“Ah, men.”
They locked eyes for a solid thirty seconds, before falling over themselves laughing. Eventually, Prompto used Noctis as a stand to lean against as he put on the pair of jeans.
They laughed the entire way out of the studio to the train station.