fandomtownies | The Photo Hut; Monday [01/03].

With how much New Year's had thrown Prompto through an unexpected loop, he was actually really looking forward to just getting back into the Photo Hut that Monday to sort of signal things getting back on track and in order, and he could focus on the store and taking stock of the equipment and figuring out what he'd need to borrow for his class. A nice, firm focus on something that didn't have anything to do with Yang, something that even managed to distract him a little as he scoped out some newer things that must have come in while he was away in Insomnia that definitely needed some closer attention and that he might have to consider picking up before he left, because now he was getting ideas.

And, in between all that, working on some lesson plans and thoughts for class and letting himself just feel that excited anticipation that sometimes made him wonder if maybe he really wasn't cut out for all this Kingsglaive stuff and his real calling was something more like this. And if it wasn't for the fact that not being at Noctis' side for pretty much ever sounded like the worst thing in the entire multiverse, he might have even considered it.

The Photo Hut is open!

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The last few days had been a lot more social than she had expected and she felt rather drained from it but it was Prompto’s first shift back and even though she had seen him a few times already since he’d been back, she still wanted to come down that morning and visit for his shift.

“Hi,” she said with a warm smile as she approached, hoping her tiredness didn’t show that much.

And even with everything else he'd been thrust into going through since Friday night, it hadn't escaped Prompto's notice that Liz had really been putting herself out there these last few days, especially at the picnic yesterday, which only seemed to add to his guilt. But it also added to his desire to make it up to her...somehow...eventually. He didn't know how, not yet, but he had determined he would...when he figured it out.

But for now, he was just kind of glad to see her come down (not that he had expected she wouldn't, or anything) in a space that, really, in a way, was just kind of their, without anything to remind him of any mistakes he'd made in the past.

(Although he was not going to be able to shake the idea that this would just end up reminding him of mistakes he was going to make in the future).

"Hey," he greeted back, a soft and grateful kind of smile in return, and he lifted up the small list he'd been compiling. "Things I might borrow for my class," he explained, and his grin grew with a faint chuckle. "If I can still get manager approval, anyway."

Liz’s smile widened, “you definitely have manager approval,” and despite her lethargy she let out a laugh.

“Also if you need me to order in something specific for a class, I can do that as well if you’d like,” she offered.

"I really don't think we'll be getting into anything quite that in depth," Prompto admitted with a laugh, "but I'll keep that in mind."

And as he looked over at her, with a faint smile of gratitude just for this moment and appreciating it, he did start to notice how tired she looked, and the smile softened a little. He'd been so caught up in his own stupid head to really notice how taxing this weekend had probably been for her.

"So, how are you feeling?" he asked gently.

Liz hesitated for a bit and then considered that being more honest with how she was feeling was something she should work on.

“I’m a little tired,” she finally admitted, “I think the weekend took more from me than I expected,”

"It was kind of a lot," Prompto allowed, with no small amount of sympathy...and feeling the same, for an entirely different reason, but he tried to chase that away. He had to stop thinking about it! "Between New Year's, the welcome picnic...."

He slid a sly grin over at her.

"You coming out of your cocoon as a total social butterfly," he added, his tone lightly teasing, but then he nodding up toward the apartment.

"You should go rest," he said. "Relax. Take it easy. I'm pretty sure I can handle things down here all by my lonesome."

Yeah, Prompto, because that was why Liz came down on Mondays, because of the store...

Liz bit her lip as she looked back in the direction of the apartment, she knew she should get more rest especially because she had class that evening but on the other hand …

“Are you sure?” she said softly, hesitating, “I …I don’t mind staying down here …with you…keeping you company…” she blushed.

"And I definitely don't mind you keeping me company," Prompto stated. Especially if she was going to go and be all cute and blushing about it and making him realize that the only downside to sending Liz to go rest was that...it meant sending Liz to go rest.

"But," he added, with emphasis, because it was definitely a big but, and he smiled softly, "I don't want you pushing it when you don't have to on my account..."

Liz gave a tired smile, “I …I don’t mind, I …haven’t been sleeping all that well lately,” she admitted. “Then the weekend…”

She realised as soon as she had said it that if she didn’t want Prompto to worry about her being down here when she should be upstairs in bed that was probably not the thing to tell him.

Well, Prompto definitely didn't love the sound of that, and his face pretty much said as much with a concerned frown, but....if you asked him, if she was already having trouble sleeping, it wasn't going to do much good to just have her go up there and think about how she couldn't really sleep well, right?

Unless that was what she wanted to do. In which case...

So, instead of just getting stuck in his head dwelling on it, he just asked, "Think there's anything I can do to help?"

“Just being here is enough,” she tried to assure him, “I …I think I need to talk about it at my next session with Dr. Lecter, though…it’s …it’s usually never this bad,” she admitted.

That last part just deepened the furrow of worry in Prompto's brow all over again, with a nice added bonus of wishing even more that there was something else he could do. He could at least offer another encouraging sort of smile, and reached out so he could add to it by taking her hand.

"Well, if you do think of anything else," he said, "just let me know, and I'll be on it, okay?"

"I will," she promised him with that small smile and felt comforted when he took her hand, "I'm sorry, for being like this," she added quietly.

[so sorry for disappearing, first shift back in the new year and ended up having to stay back already]

Well, a comment like that just meant that Prompto was going to squeeze Liz's hand in response a little extra hard there. And his look, at first, was a little reproachful, but without a lot of heat, because gods only knew that that sentiment was a familiar enough one for him to get it.

And enough that he was going to then grin at her a little, and playfully roll his eyes as he teased, "Oh, yeah, right, because this is clearly just so hard for me right now. Totally torture!"

With another squeeze of her hand and a steady smile as he looked over at her to hopefully assure her that he wa just teasing there.

[[groooooossssss. but it's all good! ]]

She held tightly onto his hand, trembling a bit but she did manage a soft smile and a shaky laugh in response.

“It’s…” she started to say and then stopped, “I…thank you,” she said softly, “for …for helping me through this,”. she paused and added, “for …being here,”

"And anything else you need," Prompto added, as a reminder, because he really wanted to make sure that she knew she'd try his best to do even more than just being there, if he had to, because sometimes just being there literally did feel like the least he could do.

And he looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, because there was something about all this that was putting a lot of what he'd been thinking about this weekend into perspective, too, and he gently rubbed his thumb against her hand as he hesitated before adding, softly, "Thanks for letting me be here..."

The Photo Hut; Monday [01/03].

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