fandomtownies | Furnado Animal Shelter; Friday [05/03].

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Furnado Animal Shelter; Friday [05/03].

Okay, soooo....the last few days pretty much sucked, and things were apparently fixed now, but it definitely didn't feel like it to Prompto, who still hadn't managed to find Vette and Sidon, who still felt bad about taking the forcefield down in the first place (you should really know better, buddy, would you have tried to pull that shit back home?), who was really just hoping his dumb mistake didn't wind up killing two of his best friends, especially since radio hadn't even mentioned them, like, at all, no matter how many times he listened to it, and it was all just terrible, terrible, and yet the newbie picnic was still happening tomorrow and he had to try and put on a happy face like he wasn't worried about anything and like all this was okay and it wasn't, it so wasn't, he didn't know what he was going to do...

...he didn't even show up to work today to work.

He just showed up because he needed to be buried in puppies.

Even if they were really bad at actually crushing him to oblivion like he always hoped they would, but he figured even they agreed that death by puppy was too good a death for the likes of him.

He didn't even have the heart to tell them that they should probably stop licking him all over his face because he only smelled like bananas as a very persistent after-effect of his and Norman's hastily crafted spell, he didn't even taste like bananas, but they seemed like they wanted to keep trying anyway, and who was he to say no?

Furnado is open!

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Imagine Vette's surprise when she'd realized what today was.

She'd spent most of last night right on into the morning just... showering. Showering a lot. And trying not to think about how she'd spent the last few days. By the time she was ready to head out, her toes were a little pruny and she'd actually run out of soap. There was a nasty bruise at the back of her head where her lek had been twisted, and she was minorly convinced that she had some kind of weird concussion situation going on, but her thoughts were actual thoughts, which was nice, and now she smelled strongly of spring freshness, thank you cheap soap stuff.

So. Friday, huh?

She had to see a guy about an attempted rescue, then.

"Knock knock," she announced as she stepped into the shelter. "I'm looking for tickets to the Gunshow? I heard here's the place."

Prompto groaned, because the last thing he wanted right now was to deal with people over puppies, and his response was simply automatic. "Gunshow's cancelled," he called out miserably. "For good! And--"

It was precisely that moment where his brain caught up. That voice! That familiar chirping that he'd convinced himself he'd never hear again except for the constant replaying of her final words in his head over and over and over...

...he had to give her credit; they'd been hella good final words, too.

"Vette?!" Prompto sat up suddenly, for getting for a moment that he'd been covered in puppies and sending a fee of those puppers flying, which did not help things and managed to make that soaring heart of his plummet right back down into his stomach. "Ohmygod, puppies, I'm so sorry!!"

Torn between betrayed puppy eyes staring back at him and a bestie literally back from the dead, Prompto panicked a moment before scrambling up with a hurried, "Ireallyamsorry, Ipromiseyouallthetreats, justgivemeasecond, who'sagoodvoy, you'reagoodboy, oyesyouare!" Then all but vaulting himself over the pen to rush toward the door, where you were so getting glomped with the biggest hug in the whole world, Princess, like, SERIOUSLY.

"Ohmygod, you're okay!" He gushed. "You're okay!"

But he pulled back, hands on her shoulders a moment to look her in the face to confirm it. "You're okay!"

Hugging again. Then back out to look at her, just in case he was hallucinating or something. "I looked everywhere for you guys! Where were you? Where's Sidon? He's okay, too, right?"

And then he laughed, almost a little hysterical, because of course Sidon was okay, Prompto would not be standing here breathing right now if he wasn't. But they were okay! They did it!

Ohmygod, Prompto was not going to stop hugging you now, Vette, never.

"I'm so glad you're okay."

Babbling? Was he babbling? It felt like he was babbling, but, whatever, it didnt matter.

Well, they would have been better final words if they actually had had it from there. But that was just nitpicking, really. And Vette wasn't about to nitpick. Not when she could cling to Prompto like a little warm blanket made of chirps and trauma, anyway.

"I'm okay," she promised, squeezing him tight. "I'm okay. Sidon's okay. We're okay. Are you okay?"

She also compartmentalized trauma like a champ.

"I'm okay," Prompto said, immediately, the blatant lie about that sort of thing just as natural as breathing, but the hug and that squeeze and the squeeze he gave her back was unlocking something in him. "I mean, you guys are okay, so I'm okay...now....I mean...mostly okay. Kind of. Yes, I'm okay, I'm fine, everything worked out, right? So it's okay. I just..."

Okay, babbling more. Babbling wasn't helping. Deep breath, Prompto. Deep breath and a deep, deep sigh of relief, and how about letting her go for two seconds so that she could breathe, too? "I'm just so sorry, Vette," he said. "If I...if I'd have known...we just got so caught up...we weren't really thinking...we...I..."

He shook his head, arms falling limply, loosely to his side. "I'm just so sorry, Vette. I should have...I should have done more. Or less, I guess, if you really go back. I honestly wasn't sure I really believed it would even do anything, we were just sort of fucking around."

And he should have known better to just fuck around with forcefields.

"Hey, if you didn't do it, it would've been me and Sidon anyway," Vette pointed out, giving him one more good squish before leaning back a little. "We were already looking for a way through. I don't take being held prisoner well, you know? Even if my cage is island-sized."

That one more good squish was almost enough to send him over, but he sniffled a little, blinked back the tears that were quickly threatening to make everything really blurry right now, and laughed a little, morosely, in an effort to clear them up. "Yeah, well," he said, "we could have at least waited a little, y'know? Maybe not just try to take care of ourselves?"

Because that was the crux of it, wasn't it? If they'd have just waited, or went to go find someone else, then maybe things would have turned out differently. Or maybe they wouldn't. Maybe then even more people would have gotten hurt, because those things were able to take out Sidon and Vette, who knows what they could have been capable of? The fact of the matter was that they didn't know, there was no way of knowing, what was done was done and it was still all his fault (okay, and maybe Norman's, too), and he had to wear that on his shoulders forever now.

And all of that had cycled through his brain about a million times before, but it hadn't been with Vette standing right there in front of him like she was now, and so the blinding tears were right back, just like that, and he was throwing his arms around her and squeezing her all over again.

This time hoping she didn't mind that there seemed to be a very localized leak in the roof that was falling right on her shoulder and only her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but I am not going to be able to help myself from just hugging the crap out of you right now. And you're just going to have to deal with that."

"Hey, when do I ever complain about hugs? You give good hugs. Dork." And hey, there were worse things than a wet shoulder, anyhow. She squished him again, because she was right there and he was right there, and maybe they both kind of needed it. And then, because it was something her sister would have done when she was sad, back when she was still a part of Vette's life, she dropped a chaste little kiss right there on the top of Prompto's head. "Mistakes were made. I'll kick you in the shin for it later, when you aren't expecting it, okay?"

Okay, now, come on. That little kiss on the top of his head was so not fair, and it might have completely undid him if he wasn't making sure to be hell-bent on being annoyed over the fact that it almost completely undid him with its unfairness, seriously, Vette, how could you, but, ohmygod, he was so, so glad she could.

"I think," he said, "that you actually need to kick me in the shins right now, and again, whenever you can, whenever you see me, from here on in until pretty much eternity. Free pass. All the shin-kicking you need and all the shin kicking you don't, too, Princess."

"Tell you what," Vette said, grinning a little as she leaned back again, "help me pick out a kitty, and we'll call it square."

Look, just because she could act fine didn't mean she was. She just wasn't going to let Mister Marinated-in-Guilt see, either. He'd probably already done enough self-flagellation for the whole entire island.

He had, it was true, but don't you worry, Vette. There was still loads of self-flagellation inside the boy yet!

"I'm pretty sure there's some sort of 'no adopting immediately after a crisis' policy here," he said, although he really had no idea, "but I think there may be a pretty solid 'Sorry I got you attacked by vampires' clause in there somewhere."

That grin was the saddest, most apologetic grin in the history of ever, right there.

"You really want to, though?" he asked. "After all of Nina's poking about a pet, you think this is time, huh?"

"I held out like a champ," Vette replied, putting her nose into the air for a moment. "And I figure if I don't find the perfect one, at least we'll have spent a while playing with kittens, right?"

Sorry, puppies. You'd get your cuddle time too, promise.

"Yeah," Prompto gave a soft snort, which matched the softness of his smirk pretty nicely, really, "I think maybe just window shopping right now's a good idea, anyway. You might want to bring Sidon with you when you actually decide on one; half of those cats think your boyfriend is foo--"

Oh, hey, maybe taking the conversation in a direction that mentioned things trying to eat Sidon was not the best life choice, there, Prompto, buddy.

"---oooooood," he finished off sheepishly, starting to turn a little pink before focusing all of his attention on their new quest. "But for now?" he declared in a valiant effort at recovery. "To the kittens! Sorry, pups, but don't worry, I'll be back, I promise!"

Vette's expression went maybe the tiniest bit wry. Because it was either wry or haunted, and haunted was a bad look in front of Prompto right now.

It was hard to forget watching Sidon go down, though.

"To the kittens," she agreed, throwing an arm into the air in something approaching triumph. "And then back to the puppies. Because space, those big eyes are a danger."

"I know, right?" said Prompto, tilting his head in the direction he was about to lead Vette to where the kitten awaited to get their chance to climb all over them, even if approximately half of them would insist on being completely disinterested and ignore them.

And, in that moment, of them just being there, having a normal conversation about puppy eyes, he wanted to just hug her all over again, and he was already trying to think of a million different ways to make this all up to her, but, for now, this was good. This was important. Right now, they just needed cute things to help them remember sweetness and happiness and mushy stuff like that.

"It's honestly a shocker that I ever get any work done around here with all those eyes all the time."

"And here all I get at work are scrappy pieces of metal," she wasn't going to be calling them the 'bitey bits' for a while, no, "and Chopper."

Who was, unto himself, a terror.

"I might have to start coming to pester my boys at work more often," Vette decided. "Brace yourself, Gunshow, you're going to be pestered so much."

... It didn't seem to bother her that both of her boys worked on days she was working. Vette clearly wasn't one to let a little thing like 'other commitments' stop her.

Employment around this island was sort of a fluid thing, anyway, what with no one knowing when they might wind up as an animal or five years old or someone else entirely. The sort of attendance and sick day policies that would make corporations weep, really.

"Oh, no," he said, chuckling despite the oh-so-dramatic hand over his shocked heart, "not pestering. I don't know if I can handle pestering."

But, no, seriously, yes, please, all the pestering in the entire world, even if he so didn't deserve a single ounce of it, but that never stopped him from taking up as much of what he can before it was probably all swept away from him once everyone wised up.

...especially now that everyone should be wising up to it just about now after this whole ordeal. Who even knew how much longer he could pull this off?

"What can I say?" Vette flashed him a brilliant smile. "I'm pesty."

Was that a word?

It was now!

"It's a trait I've been perfecting for years, and you're gonna be helpless in the face of it. Just warning you now."

"I already am helpless to it," Prompto said, and he'd meant it in the same jocular, joking tone, but there was just far too much truth weighing it down for it to actually come off as anything but entirely serious. Like, she had complete power over him right now. He was completely, utterly, miserably devoted to her every whim after what happened, and all he could do was just trust that she didn't just turn around and use that power to destroy him.

But it would be totally fair of her if she did.

"But I don't believe for a second," he added quickly, in a tone that managed to hit the teasing mark much more effective, "that you've been working on perfecting anything. You can't convince me that your peskiness," so totally words, "is anything but one hundred percent natural second nature for you."

Edited 2019-05-04 12:20 (UTC)

"Well, there, you've got me all figured out," Vette teased, leaning to bump her shoulder lightly against his. "I'm a natural born pest, it's been my strongest feature ever since the very start. Pesterpesterpester..."

Those 'pester's were being delivered in time with light, playful pokes to his ribs, absolutely.

And each one of those pestering pokes was going to get an increasingly squirmy squirm out of Prompto until he couldn't help laughing and squirming pointedly out of range.

"I'd be careful if I was you, though," he warned her, without a single lick of fire in it. "Pester too much, you're bound to get pestered," and here came a pointed poke at her shoulder, "right back."

"Oh noooo! Retribution!"

Was Vette making a point of giggling like a little kid as she wiggled away from that poke? You bet she was!

Which was adorable and almost too much, Vette, seriously, forget taking home a puppy or a kitten, right now Prompto kind of wanted to pick you up and put you in his pocket and keep you safe and never let anythign bad happen to you ever again, and this time he actually wouldn't chicken out about it and make sure of it.

But, instead, he was going and picking up the fluffiest of the kittens currently in reach and holding it out for her to take. "And look," he said, "now my retribution is furry and snuggly and has claws."

Vette was totally gasping in delight as she reached for that fluffy, fluffy retribution, bringing it to cuddle her face right into that fluff.

...

"Pffth. Pbbbth pffft."

Fur. She was not used to fur.

[With Shannon's permission, yo, this is chronologically BEFORE Vette's thread, please! :D ]

After dealing with Norman, Nina knew good and well that she was in no shape to confront Prompto.

She was too angry and, unlike Norman, Nina loved Prompto. Which made everything worse, in so many ways. Careless, thoughtless, stupid—those all applied to Prompto too, right now.

But she still needed to know he was alive and unhurt, so she swung by Furnado and looked in the window for him.

She wasn't going to go in. She didn't dare, especially not if he was there, surrounded by animals. It was one thing, to toss Norman around in a shop full of books and things. It was another thing entirely to do it in a shop full of animals.

Nina wasn't going to do that, so she wasn't going to in.

As soon as she spotted him, she'd leave.

And… and she'd figure out how to actually deal with him later.

To be fair, careless, thoughtless, and stupid could easily describe Prompto on any given day. Not always, of course, but he had his moments.

And if Nina had enough foresight to look under the puppies when she looked through the window, she'd see him there, splayed and almost motionless while the dogs tried in vain to figure out where on him that banana smell was coming from, mostly only moving to turn his head when a dog's tongue got a little too close to his own mouth.

Blech. Ugh.

But fair.

Yes, but most days that didn't put other people at risk of their lives. It was a pretty important distinction.

Nina watched the puppy pile, and his—it had to be him—sporadic movements for a few minutes.

Then left.

It was hard to leave, when she wanted to go in, but Nina knew the limits of her own temper. He was alive and likely to stay that way until she could deal with him.

She was so relieved he was okay, she was. And that… that was probably okay, wasn't it? Even though she was so furious with him too?

Nina didn't know.

"Babe?"

Yeah, Yang was checking in on her cowboy. Because she knew Prompto, and knew he was probably blaming himself for all this.

Yeeaaaah....Yang sure had his number, didn't she? But hers was definitely another voice that sent a wash of relief over him, though it was maybe followed by a little bit of mild panic. It couldn't feel great, really, dating the guy who let a bunch of people get bitten by vampires, after all, but he liked to think if this was a break-up conversation, she wouldn't have lead with babe, that would just be mean, or maybe it was just to soften the blow?

But...

But, if he had Yang's number (and he kind of felt he did, by now, even if it still mystified him why she was even with him to begin with), she was going to be a little less out of the 'good job letting a bunch of people get bit by vampires, cowboy' field and a bit more in the 'good job helping to let me go punch vampires, cowboy!' one.

"Heeeeeeeey, baaaaaaabe," came his voice from the likely usual suspected spot. "Over in the puppy pile..."

Where else, really?

Well... yeah. SHE GOT TO PUNCH A VAMPIRE IN THE FACE. IT WAS AWESOME.

"Shocking," she drawled, climbing into the pen with him. "Hey, puppies! Can I join you and snuggle up on Prompto for a bit? You can all get love too."

Yeah, puppies, move over. Puppies were forever, but girlfriends could drop you in you a second and this one would have every good reason to, so he was taking as many of those snuggles while he still could.

He was very careful and apologetic toward them, though, as he shifted some over to make more room.

"Did you get the chance to kick some major vampire butt, babe?"

Dumb question, he knew. Of course she got to kick some major vampire but. And that fact was one of the few things he was clinging to in an effort to convince himself that everything wasn't all completely awful.

"I punched a vampire boss in the face and he was all 'who ARE you people?!?' and then I did it again," Did Yang sound utterly gleeful? Because she was. "It was awesome."

Yang dived right in, snuggling up with Prompto and letting herself be blanketed with puppies. "So. Spill, cowboy. Why are we being sad in the puppy pit?"

If he was honest, Prompto was actually finding it a little bit harder to just be sad in the puppy pit now that Yang was there and they were surrounded by puppies. If he nuzzled into her hair a little bit with a sigh, well, could you really blame him? It was nice, and there was just so much of it, it really couldn't be helped.

"I wish I could have seen you in action," he said. "I bet it was amazing. But...." Another sigh. "I was too busy trying to make sure, you know, I hadn't accidentally gotten two of my best friends eaten by vampires and everything. Because of the whole....you know...." He waved a vague gesture in the air before settling that arm around her, "...'hey, let's take down this mysteriously appearing forcefield, there's no way that could possibly backfire!'....thing."

He grunted a bit, faced yet again with how stupid it sounded when said outloud, and he really hoped she knew he was a complete idiot before this, because, hoo, boy, did he have some news for her now...

"That's why we're being sad in the puppy pit," he concluded.

And, now that she was closer, if Yang just so happened to notice a strong banana scent and a faint shimmering glitter to Prompto's skin...yes, that was actually a thing right now. No, her eyes and her nose weren't just playing tricks on her.

Edited 2019-05-03 21:20 (UTC)

Yang just sighed, and stroked her fingers through his hair and down his neck and shoulders while he hid in her hair.

"Babe. A mysterious force field appeared out of nowhere on an island full of Weird, around graduation, when shit gets Weirder," she pointed out. "If you and Norman hadn't been clever, I probably would have been with whatever group tried punching it to turn it off. Because honestly? After spending two years here, my first instinct wasn't exactly 'oh cool, there's actually a forcefield to protect us? why hasn't it turned on before?' it was 'fuck someone's trying to lock us IN and make us sitting targets."

"You did the best you could, with the complete lack of info you had, and because the force field came down, we were able to send scouting parties out into town rather than focus on it, and we discovered the problem faster."

"...and I did get to punch a lot of vampires to help my friends, which was awesome."

Prompto was quiet for a moment as he listened to her, except for the faint breath that went along with the small smiles here and there, over the fact that she'd pretty much thought the same thing about that stupid forcefield that he had, that she really genuinely seemed to have had a good time punching things, which wasn't a surprise, of course, but it was always good to hear it.

"Yeahhhh," he finally said, sighing now himself, "I know. I know, and that's what almost everyone has said, too, but, I mean....people still got hurt, Yang. Not just Vette and Sidon, either, but the fact that it was Vette and Sidon and they got hurt because they were protecting me and Norman...I mean, Norman's not a fighter, so someone had to make sure he was safe, and we had to go tell everyone and all that stuff, but I just...maybe I should have stayed and fought, too. Maybe it would have turned out differently if I had helped them..."

Even as he said it, though, he knew it wasn't true. He didn't have his weapons. And he was crap for fighting without his weapons, and that, really, if he thought about it, which he had, a lot, was sort of the crux of all of this, wasn't it? He'd done something rash and he wasn't able to help when it all went to shit because of it.

"We just should have been more careful," he added, as if by way of conclusion. "Talked to someone first, or....something, I guess."

Which even that fell a little flat. Hadn't Vette mentioned that she and Sidon were trying to take it down, too? If it hadn't been them, it would have been someone...

Guess he just got to be the lucky schmuck.

"Of course Sidon stayed. He's Sidon. Protecting his people is who he is. You never would have been able to convince him to run, not when he had a duty as Prince to serve and protect."

"And, I mean, if you want to work on your hand-to-hand, we can do that, babe. Totally. But... give yourself some credit, okay? You and Norman figured out how to disable a potential threat, and then you got Norman out of there when things went bad. Vette and Sidon made a call to protect your retreat, and that was their decision. Hunters don't always come back in from the mission. But that doesn't make it the fault of their partners."

And, hell, even if he had his guns with him, Prompto was pretty sure he wouldn't have been much more than another victim, considering they were able to take down Vette and Sidon in full fighting form.

But he wasn't about to tell Yang that.

He was quiet for another long moment. Everything she was telling him right now was stuff he wanted to think, wanted to believe, but from himself, he just couldn't do it. It helped, getting in that second opinion.

"I'd like that," he finally said. "To...work more on my hand-to-hand. I should do that. I need to do that. I need to get better. I..." He laughed a little derisively. "I need all the help I can get."

He just...wasn't like all of them. Like Yang and Sidon and Vette, who'd pretty much grown up in these worlds where they had to be tough and strong to survive. He wanted to be that strong; it was the first thing he'd ever really wanted in his sad, cushioned, lonely life, but maybe he just wasn't cut out for it like they were...

He had to try, though, right? What else was there to do, except going back to that sad, lonely existence...?

"I can hear your brain spinning," she said quietly.

"--Prompto, I...look. I blamed myself for a really long time when Summer, my mom, didn't come in from a mission. She was super mom. Baker of cookies and slayer of monsters. But she was gone, and it felt like my fault. If I'd been old enough to watch Ruby alone, Dad and Qrow might have been able to go out on that mission with her. If I'd been stronger, I could have been on that mission with her. We'd still have a mom, instead of Ruby having a rock on a hill to talk to instead of Summer reading her bedtime stories. Dad shut down. It was...not good. I nearly burned out a few times trying to manage everything, and I was a kid."

"Then I found out that Summer? Wasn't the first time I'd lost a mom. I had a different bio-mom than Ruby. But she left, right after I was born, and that felt like my fault too. Because maybe if I had been a good baby, or a pretty one, she would have wanted me. Maybe if I could prove I was strong like her, she'd come back."

"And because I kept pushing myself; for answers in why I wasn't good enough that I lost two moms, pushing to be better, and I pushed and I pushed until I was so spun-up in my own head and exhausted that I almost got killed, and Ruby along with me."

"So just...don't keep punishing yourself, okay? I know how that goes. And it doesn't help anything."

And he was quiet after all that for another long moment. Prompto was; his dumb loud spinning brain, apparently, not so much. And that dumb loud spinning brain couldn't help going back again and again to thinking that the reason she was this incredible, strong person was because she'd pushed herself through all of that...and all that was different, anyway. All that was demonstrably something that wasn't her fault...

He softly pressed a kiss into her shoulder.

"I don't really know what else to do," he admitted quietly. "Keep training, I guess. Get better. Do better, next time. Try to find some way to kind of make it up to them. None of it seems enough."

None of it ever seemed to be enough.

"I'm just saying. Don't burn yourself out trying to do better. If you do, you won't be in a position to help later." Yang closed her eyes and squeezed his hand. "You didn't make Sidon and Vette make their choices, any more than I made the decisions for Summer and Raven. Okay?"

"Okay," Prompto said, dutifully but also sincerely, squeezing her hand back. "Thanks, Yang."

He definitely wasn't going to stop trying, but...at least now that he had permission from someone to do so, he might be able to actually stop every once in a while.

"You thank me now cowboy, but I can be a real drill sergeant about hand-to-hand training," she chuckled.

"...Later. Now it's puppy nap pile time. I vote one of us goes and locks the door and flips it to closed and we take a nap with puppy-blankets."

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Furnado Animal Shelter; Friday [05/03].

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