The Photo Hut; Monday [01/17].

[hashtag_chocobro]

There was no doubt that Prompto felt absolutely terrible about it, but he was honestly a little glad for the chance to sort of escape downstair to the Photo Hut that morning...and for the subsequent days back in Insomnia to follow. He'd spent the whole time probably worried sick about leaving Liz alone after Saturday morning, but, at the same time....he couldn't stop thinking about how things could have gone. Stuff like that never really hit until you were that close to it, and from there, his thoughts just continued to spiral...

He'd been doing his best, though, to not think about it too much, or, barring that, to not let on that he was thinking about it as much as he was and to just act like everything was fine and he wasn't just carrying around this huge lump of absolute dread in his stomach right now. So when someone came in asking if they did repairs, while he wasn't entirely sure if that was a service they were offering, he agreed to take a look at his busted camera and see what he could do. Because, if anything, it gave him something else to focus on, something he was kind of good at and demanded a lot of attention, tinkering away at this guy's equipment at the counter to figure out what was wrong with it, and figuring, if anything, if it was beyond repair, maybe they could at least give him a good deal on a replacement or something.

The Photo Hut is open!

Comments

[flamesburned]

Liz had debated on not coming downstairs…to give Prompto space after Saturday and maybe he’d want the chance to reconsider their arrangement. She didn’t want that but she knew how risky everything was …that if Prompto hadn’t woken her up…

So she gave it quite a bit longer than normal before she decided to chance it and venture downstairs.

She hung back a bit uncertainly, not wanting to bother him since he was working and well he did work for her after all.

“Hey,” she said quietly, not moving very far from her spot where she had entered.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Honestly, if Liz hadn't eventually come down, then Prompto would have really panicked that he'd messed something up somehow, and then flailing about whether he should just go back home to give it space or stick around this week to try and fix it...

At least he was much better at fixing cameras than he would be at fixing something like that. But, thankfully, she did come down, and he felt rush of relief at that, because the fact that she showed up later than she usually did had him trying to keep his focus on the camera and tell himself that it was better if she slept in or was just relaxing and she probably needed some space from him, anyway, now that he was pretty much so there...

He looked up from the camera and over at her with a light smile that ignored all the stupid, complex things going on in his head just then.

"Hi."

[flamesburned]

Liz returned the smile, even though she still felt rather awkward …she had no experience with this, someone being there when she had a nightmare and everything to do with that …and she didn’t want to make it any worse …

“I…” she started and then stopped, not really sure what she was going to say, “er …” she tentatively moved a bit closer, “what are you working on?” she asked, nodding towards the camera.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto followed her eyes for a moment toward the camera and its various part he'd managed to remove so far, then shrugged a little, before looking back over. "Some guy brought it in," he said, "wondering if we did repairs. I told him I could at least give it a stab. Honestly, it doesn't really seem like a hard fix at all, either, unless something else pops up when I get in a little deeper."

[flamesburned]

“Oh,” Liz nodded, thoughtful as she considered “I don’t see why we can’t do repairs, I mean …it would make sense, to offer repair services,”

She didn’t have much experience actually fixing cameras but a project like that might be nice to try and work on once in a while.

There was a pause as she debated on what else to say, “how has the rest of your morning been?” since this was the first time she had missed most of his Monday morning.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Well, I'm pretty decent at tinkering around with them," Prompto offered with a gesture at the repair-in-progress, "so if you want to throw any at me, I'm here for it...

"And it's been quiet," he added, after trailing off a little and then giving her a faint smile, since that worked on both the business side of things and her not coming down as early as she had in the past. "How 'bout yours?"

He tried not to bother her or disturb her too much when he got up to get ready, squeezing in maybe a little extra jog around the island before getting started in the shop. It was definitely colder than he would have liked, but it helped clear his head a little....

Which hadn't really worked, like, at all, but, well...old habits, and all that...

[flamesburned]

“I can do that,” Liz nodded, smiling softly, “if you don’t mind,”

There was a pause as she considered, “and my morning was about the same, I …I tried to sleep a bit longer,” she admitted.

It hadn’t been much extra sleep but compared to how she’d been Saturday, it was at least a somewhat decent attempt.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Are you kidding me?" asked Prompto, with a small laugh. "I love this kind of thing. Well, as long as it's not anything too technical, I guess, but this one's looking like it's just a blah blah blah handwavey technical jargon. Easy fix, honesty."

And he leaned into that because it was easier than the other stuff, but he figured he'd have to come around it it anyway, and his smile softened a bit.

"And good," he said, "you should sleep in...when you can. I....I didn't wake you up at all, did I?"

He'd tried to be quiet! But stealth had not typically been one of his strong points.

[flamesburned]

Liz nodded as she followed Prompto’s explanation with what was wrong with the camera.

Then when he asked about if he’d woken her, she was quick to assure him that he hadn’t.

“No, you didn’t wake me,” she told him, at least she hadn’t woken up from another nightmare, “I was …well I managed to get a couple of extra hours,” she told him.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto's grin tilted into a smirk to hear that.

"Bet that must have felt pretty nice," he noted, a little playfully.

[flamesburned]

Liz nodded, smiling a little in response, “well, compared to how the last few weeks have been, it was nice,” she admitted, “and…I slept through, I didn’t keep waking up,” she added, either from nightmares or her having kept waking for fear of having one.

[hashtag_chocobro]

It was hard not to find that encouraging...especially after Saturday. "That's...really good, Liz," he said, even though she probably already knew that, but...maybe it would just be good for her to hear it, too, coming from him. Or anyone else, really.

But maybe, in that moment, he'd allow himself to think that it might be particularly good coming from him. Maybe. Just a little.

[flamesburned]

Liz visibly relaxed a lot to hear that, she had feared that it wouldn’t be much progress - only getting a couple of hours extra sleep but she did appreciate it coming from Prompto and she smiled.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, “I …I wasn’t …I know it doesn’t seem like a lot but…” her voice trailed off.

[hashtag_chocobro]

And look at that. That smile, the soft voice, that trailing off at the end...Prompto was definitely setting aside his little camera tools now and that quickly-becoming-familiar offering of his hand (this time with his fingers waggling a little as if to be more enticeing) was soon to follow.

"I mean, I don't know exactly how a few extra hours of sleep measures up," he admitted, giving her a crooked grin, "but I'd bet that's at least one step forward. Maybe even one a half."

[flamesburned]

Liz smiled shyly as she reached out to hold Prompto’s offered hand and she let out a laugh as he remarked about it possibly being one and a half steps forward. It was an actual proper laugh too, not even a nervous or shaky laugh like she had tended to do lately.

“I … I do feel better,” she admitted, “I suppose considering how much sleep I missed out on, anything extra is a bonus, right?”

[hashtag_chocobro]

And once Prompto had Liz's hand, he gave it a squeeze, and, in a move that would have him blushing two seconds after executing it, pulled it in to plant a kiss on the back of it.

"Even without what you've missed," he countered, "extra sleep is always a bonus!"

Which, considering he had regularly been dragging himself reluctantly out of bed to go jogging nearly every day before the break of day since he was fourteen? Yeah. He felt that one.

[flamesburned]

If it was any consolation Liz started blushing as well and let out another laugh as Prompto kissed the back of her hand.

"That's true," she said with a shy smile, "I've definitely been appreciating the extra sleep more, it's been really nice,"

[hashtag_chocobro]

And with that, a thought filtered through Prompto's head that sent his cheeks blazing behind every single one of the freckles scattered across his face. He bit his lip a little reluctantly against voicing it, but it was the laugh that pushed him toward it.

That laugh and what it did to him was probably going to be the death of him one day...

...if, you know, the fire didn't get him first.

But he clearly wasn't thinking about any of that, as he grinned over, then put on an overly thoughtful expression as he mused, "Hmmmm. Wonder if there's anything different that might've helped with that..."

[flamesburned]

Liz would like to think she wouldn’t be responsible for said death either literally or figuratively if it could be helped.

“well...” she said, still blushing as she pretended to think really hard about for a moment longer, “there may be one difference that might have helped,”