in_sidon_we_trust | Zora's Domain, Hyrule. Thurdsay [12/27 FT].

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Zora's Domain, Hyrule. Thurdsay [12/27 FT].

After the long, somewhat dangerous, undeniably scenic journey back from Rito Village to Zora's Domain, it was the final day for the Hyrule trip, and Sidon had arranged for his friends to arrive to a wonderful party held in their honor. He and the other Zora had hung up bright and colorful banners and he'd convinced someone from the Wetland Stable to come up to the Domain to prepare a feast: Fish Pie and Seafood Paella, but also non-fish meat dishes, like Poultry Pilaf and Spicy Pepper Steak. And, of course, Creamy Heart Soup to celebrate the closeness of their friendship! There was Fruitcake and Nutcake, fresh bread and Honeyed Fruits. Some of the Zora had tried their hand at a little cooking themselves, but the results were a little dubious. Either way, the royal guests would certainly be eating well tonight!

And then relaxing in the peaceful Domain over stories of their adventure out into Hyrule, or perhaps some excitement to return to Fandom, or whatever else, as their final evening settled into a crisp, clear night,

[[ and the final Hyrule post! No OCD on this one, and a big gigantic thank you for everyone making the slog through the holiday fog to make for another great adventure in Hyrule!]]

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Maybe Prompto could save them both the trouble and just fling himself off the side now?

But he was able to meet Nina's smile with one of his own, not too dissimilar to hers, really, as he nodded. "An excellent choice," he complimented. "Always wise to have a tragic escape route when not just dinner talk is involved."

And with that, to help not prolong the torture any longer than necessary, he stoop up, bowing slightly with an inviting sweep of his arm. "Ladies first, of course."

"I couldn't think of how else to put it!!!!!"

Put that way, really, it did sound ridiculous. 'Not just dinner', honestly, what had she been thinking?

Nina got up, still clutching her tiny Hylia, and did her best to sound superior (it wasn't a very good attempt today) as she said, "Ladies first, of course, but do keep up, will you??????"

As she began heading off to seek out a convenient place to… honestly, maybe she'd just fling herself off the cliff. Oh, but then he'd probably follow, out of despair, and then Vette would have to kill them both, which would make Sidon sad…

All told, the cliff was probably a terrible idea. She was still going for it.

Edited 2018-12-27 17:21 (UTC)

The thought crossed Prompto's mind that, instead of keeping up, he could just flee, go hide out in the mountains for a while. He'd miss the portal back to Fandom, sure, but this definitely didn't seem to be a bad place to just hang out for a while, if it meant being able to avoid what he expected was going to be some berating on what an insensitive tool he'd been, but, hey, it's not like he was any good at this whole making and being friends stuff. What did she honestly expect from him, anyway? He was just some loser Nif nobody who just happened to get lucky a few times; he didn't even have friends until two years ago and even then, it was just the one. And this was why puppies were better, puppies didn't need to talk, they just needed pets and love and food...

...well, not just, but his mind was clearly wandering as he followed Nina, hands in his pockets, wishing he knew how to just stop his brain and he didn't remember these gazebos being so far away, he was pretty sure they were much closer than this, but then they were there, and he was chewing his lower lip again, and he tried leaning against one of the pillars, but that felt awkward, and so he straightened again, then wished he was still leaning, and, man, they just needed to get this over with.

"...so," he said, an unconscious echo of the start of the conversation Nina's had the day before, electing to rub a hand against the back of his neck instead of fidgeting like he wanted to.

Did he really think she and Vette would just let him disappear into the wilderness? And once they went to Sidon with it, there'd be search parties out, for certain. Honestly, Prompto, that was a terrible escape plan.

Nina made a face at his echo of Vette's starting gambit. He couldn't possibly know—Vette wouldn't've said anything, she didn't think, because otherwise Prompto wouldn't be acting like this…

She shook her head, shunning her own over-active thoughts, and set Hylia down, to the side. This… this sucked. This was hard.

Yelling at Vette had been way easier. But she didn't want to lose his friendship and Vette was right, in that much, that she really did have to talk to him.

"I'm sorry," she blurted, before she could think better of it. "I've been, like, the worst lately and I'm super sorry about it."

Okay, so most of the worst had been all in her head, but she was still sorry about that too.

Prompto blinked a little in surprise, because out of all the possible thing that had being going through his own head that might come out of Nina's mouth just then, sorry definitely hadn't been one of them. His brow creased in confusion, too, because he didn't really know what to do with sorry, especially not in a way that required moving to a more private secondary location.

So he just shook his head a little and shrugged slightly. "It's fine, Nina," he said. "You've been fine."

Was...all this just about last Thursday? Did...that mean she didn't get his text? Or maybe it meant she did?

"I'm sorry," he added. "I honestly didn't mean to...I mean, I didn't know...I guess I just..."

Man, he was bad at this. He winced a little, figuring he should straighten a few things out in his head before going forward. "Is this about last week?"

She fidgeted, clasping her hands behind her back.

"Yeah, mostly????"

Mostly. That wasn't super clear but really, most of the whole mess had been in her head anyway, so… whatever…?

So there...was more than just 'sorry', just as Prompto feared. Because 'sorry' could have just been said down there at the feast.

"...mostly?" he asked.

And instantly regretted it, but it was too late now.

"For the record, like, it is totally Vette's thought that this conversation would be a good idea that caused it to happen," Nina said, because really, she had no problems throwing Vette under the bus at this point.

And then maybe herself off the cliff.

"Vette cornered me yesterday," Nina admitted, "and we had a… well… there was some shouting involved??????" She shrugged a bit, crossing her arms and looking away from him. "She was mad because I was avoiding her. And you. And she wanted an explanation why and I…"

Nina blew out a breath.

"And it's about last week but it's not really about last week????? And it's mostly me being stupid?????"

Which Vette had also yelled at her for calling herself that but, well, Vette wasn't here.

Oh, yeah. Prompto had kind of noticed their little pow-wow there; it was kind of hard not to, considering the Rito seemed to think even less of walls than the Zora, and each level was practically built right on top of the last. But he had very consciously tried not to.

But he needed to think about this for a second, because, if he didn't, he'd probably say something stupid.

He...was probably going to say something stupid, anyway.

But speaking of stupid...

"You're not being stupid," he said, first and foremost. Kind of unfair and maybe a little selfish, but not stupid, he didn't want her thinking that. "I was. I guess I just wasn't thinking."

Which wasn't true. He had been thinking, just...all the wrong things, apparently.

"And you shouldn't be mad at Vette," he added, since he was not so much the throw-someone-under-the-bus type as he was the shove-someone-out-of-the-way-to-get-crushed-by-the-bus-himself type. "She didn't do anything...except maybe listen to my dumb ass."

So that...covered last week, right? He...didn't know what the 'not really about last week' part was, though. And he didn't know if he wanted to.

"You're not dumb!!!!!!!!" Nina said, in a flare of temper. "And you--you didn't do anything wrong!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, okay, sure, I'd have liked to have been invited and I can pick locks just as well as Vette can, but you didn't know and I was busy anyway..."

Nina was seriously considering the cliff. Look, it had to be less painful than this.

"It is stupid," she said, shoulders slumping. "And it wasn't either of your faults. It was all me and because... because I was jealous, I guess," no guessing about it, she'd been green-eyed all the way through, "because you guys just get each other and then the more I thought about it the more I realized that you wouldn't have called me because why would you and I..."

This sounded so dumb. So dumb. If Nina had thought there was anyway she could get away with it, she'd shove him, then run off to cry somewhere because oh god this was awful.

"Like, I mean... I just... I want to help," she muttered, finally, and mostly to her feet. "You two are the real first friends I've had and I don't... I don't know what to do. I was trying to figure it out, by avoiding you guys, I guess, but that didn't work out so well."

Somebody please put her out of her misery.

Hoo, boy. There was...a lot to unpack with that one, wasn't there?

But Prompto was mostly just...confused. First real friends? How was that even possible? Well, okay, sure, he could get how it was possible; he was about Nina's age when he finally made friends with Noctis, wasn't he? And he hadn't had any friends before that, but that was totally different. He was a sad loner who didn't talk to anyone, who didn't do anything but eat his feelings, play video games, and take photographs, but Nina was Nina. She was all bright and bubbly and sweet, cute and soooo dramatic and fun...

But that jealousy part, now, that was something else entirely, just as confusing and almost a little...frustrating? Because, yeah, okay, gun to his head, Vette was easily his best friend here, but even then...they weren't even that close. It was like having one good eye in a room full of blind people.

"Okay," he said, holding up his hands now that he felt he had some sort of order to his thoughts. "Two things. One: how is that even possible? The friend thing, not the..." He waved his hand a little, because just saying it seemed all sorts of weird, "...jealousy thing. But that does lead me to Point Two: Nina. You and Vette do things without me, like, all the time."

"I know," she said, a bit resentfully. She hated having to talk about this. Hated that it was, like, probably really needed? "And that's mostly because I drag her into it. She doesn't ask me to do things."

Which was a different problem, really, but not one that she wanted to talk about now.

"It's not about doing things," well, mostly not, "it's about..."

Maybe she should have bought new shoes while they'd been out and about. Or an ankle bracelet or something. Since she was busy staring at her feet and all, it would have made the view at least more interesting.

"Being needed," she said, finally. "No one needs me. No one ever really wants to be friends with the Academy's charity orphan who lives in a dorm all year around because there's no where else to go. That's lame, that's pathetic, that's something they don't want to deal with. So... so when you called Vette, you needed her, and then I had to read about it on radio, after Sabine had told me that day that I wasn't the sort of girl she thought could fight, it just made me feel..."

Small. Pathetic. Worthless.

Nina hugged herself, hoping he'd think it was just that she was cold.

"Useless," she settled on. "And that upset me. So it's stupid, since neither of you did anything wrong. I just..."

She shrugged.

Well, shit. Now Prompto just felt bad for getting upset a second ago, and now she was all cold, too, and all he had was this dumb Rito shirt and no jacket to offer her. But he did have the wing clips that they'd put in his hair, so he took a second to pluck those out and then handed them to her.

"Here," he explained. "The Rito said they'll actually help against the cold."

Which he realized, after the fact, might just only make her feel useless all over again, but, so help him, he couldn't see a girl being cold and not want to help her.

"And you're not useless," he added firmly. "Anyone who says you're useless clearly hasn't met you. Trust me. I would have totally reached out to you if Vette had just told me to get bent. I'm honestly kind of surprised she didn't. And I just went to her first, because, y'know, I guess...I don't know...I didn't really want to bother you with my dumb shit if I didn't have to."

Once he said it, it sounded like a weak excuse, but it was the truth, anyway.

"And I get it," he felt the need to also add, nodding slightly, looking away, "about feeling like the useless charity case. Believe me, do I get that one..."

She blinked as he handed her the clips. That was... honestly, that was sweet of him, but then he'd be cold too and that was no good either.

"Thank you," she said, clipping one of them into her hair, but then she offered him the other one back. "You should keep one, though, so you don't get cold either."

Nina studied him, quietly, as she considered what else he'd said.

"I am a charity case, through and through," she admitted, since that... that wasn't even painful, really, just the truth. "But... you too???? I'm not, like, very good at the whole really friends thing yet, but I think that... part of being friends is bothering each other with our dumb shit sometimes."

"No, it's okay," Prompto waved the offer off, "the shirt and the pants do the same thing, I'll be fine."

He would just lose his set bonus, and it wasn't even that cold, anyway.

"And, yeah, it is," he agreed, "but not, like, all the time, that's a good way to get rid of friends, too...But fine." Here, Prompto pulled out the start of one of his crooked grin. "I promise, from here on in, I'll bother you with more of my dumb shit, okay?"

...as for the other stuff, well...he'd rather leave it hanging on a lighter note than getting into all of that, but he and Nina could probably have an...interesting chat, by the sounds of it, on the subject of charity. It was surprising, if he was honest, but oddly comforting, too, that there was something in common there.

And that was an evasion, after she'd said so much, but really that was what Prompto tended to do, at least a little, when things got weird and emotional. He just deflected until he didn't have to.

But she wondered, and would keep wondering, about him being a charity case too, since he didn't want to talk about it.

"You'd better," she said, though her smile was more relieved than anything else and she certainly didn't sound like she was ordering him about on this matter. "Or... or else I'll tell Sidon you hurt my feelings!!!!!!!!!"

Then she giggled. It was a bit anxious, her giggling, but real enough despite that.

Evasion was practically Prompto's middle name.

"And I'll just send Vette to go distract him," he said, loftily, seizing on the opportunity to talk about something lighter now that it seemed they'd managed to make it out of the woods a little. "Then what?"

At least for now.

"Then...," she paused, using the excuse of putting the other clip into her hair to scramble for an idea. "Then I'll tell your friends at your home!"

How she would do this? No idea.

And they'd probably just be very confused at a totally cute girl calling them up and complaining about Prompto.

Honestly, Prompto wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Nina did manage to figure out a way to do it, which was why this whole useless thing seemed so absurd to him.

But the thought of Gladio splitting his well-muscled side laughing over the scenario playing out in his head was indeed sobering.

He gave her an expression that could probably best described as wibbling.

"I am going to involve you in so much dumb shit," he vowed, "you're going to get absolutely sick of it."

Feelings were extremely dumb and Nina had never been useful to friends before, so...?

She burst out laughing at his expression.

"Never!!!!!! And, like, we can include you in more of our dumb shit, if you want???????" Nina looked at is face and started giggling again. "Like, I just wasn't sure on where you stood on, ah, some kinds of dumb things."

She and Vette tended to do not exactly legal things after all.

"Well," said Prompto, who didn't really know exactly where he'd stand on not exactly legal things, in the long run, "how're you going to know if you never bother asking, hmmm?"

That... that was a good point.

"This is true," she conceded. "Though it would mean you being willing and able to drop everything at a moment's notice too, and with your raids, we don't want to interrupt that!!!!!!!!!"

Not when it was spending time with his friends!

If Nina kept this up, Prompto was going to start thinking she was just trying to pull out any excuse she could find not to invite him along...

"We can always reschedule a raid," Prompto told her. "Plus, it'll help make me seem all important, with other, cooler things to do than just sit around playing video games all night."

And that wasn't the case at all!

"Oh! That's true!!!!!!!" Nina clapped her hands together. "Which would help you out, if you had to be all 'see you, guys, got a thing'!!!!!!!!!"

She liked this idea, really. It was a funny way of being helpful, but it was very Nina.

"Though, like, I guess I shouldn't barge into your room and ask if you want to do a stupid thing then, the way I announce it to Vette... we'd need, like, codewords or something..."

Yeah. Sorry, bros, duty to all my cute ladyfriends calls was a phrase that Prompto would never get tired of having to use, if it ever came to that point.

"Codewords, huh?" he said with a grin. "I could be down with some codewords."

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