fandomtownies | The Photo Hut; Monday [09/19].

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The Photo Hut; Monday [09/19].

So. Prompto had managed to make it to Monday.

Maybe it was kind of silly, especially since it wasn't always true, but there was something about making it to Monday that really made him feel like he was in the clear. That this wasn't a fluke, or some weird Fandom thing, that he actually was back. It wasn't just some elaborate dream or a figment of his imagination or anything like that. He'd been out and talked to people, he'd done a whole weekend's worth of stuff, and he was still here on Monday, this might actually have some staying power. Especially since...

He'd tried Gladio and Ignis on their phones again, a few times, still to the same result: nothing. He'd even finally bit the bullet to pull up the portaloicty app, just to see what was available, and, sure enough, nothing was available. Not only did it appear that he was really back, but it looked as though he was just as stuck here as he had been stuck in Eos these past ten years.

Which, really, true to what everyone said, if you were going to be stuck somewhere, this was actually a great place to be stuck. And the fact that barely any time had passed while he was gone was just...astonishingly lucky, especially with Liz and the baby, and just thinking about all the things he might have missed if Fandom wasn't so uniquely fucked up...

He just kind of wished he could know. What had happened. After he left. Not knowing was kind of killing him a little bit, but he supposed it was only fair. At least now he really knew what it felt like for Liz...

And with Liz out running some errands, Prompto found himself restless with all of it again, and that had him going downstairs to the Photo Hut. Not necessarily to work (although, really, if he was sticking around, he could pick up his old Monday shifts easily enough, why not get started now?), but just to sort of...remember, what it was like. To sort of marvel over the fact that he'd actually set up some of these displays and stocked some of these shelves and they were still the way he left them. He sort of did a little tour, trying to pick out what had changed, and, eventually, he found himself just sitting on the counter, legs dangling over the side with his hands between his knees, shoulders sunk in, as he just....sat. And thought about time. And how, as the sun started to come in through the windows, they should make sure to invest in some really good shades, but he also hopes that this whole light sensitivity thing would go away with time, he just needed to get used to the whole sun being a thing thing again...

The Photo Hut is open(-ish)!

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Liz had been out most of the morning doing the shopping but she thought Prompto would like a coffee from the Perk and so she picked him up a large pumpkin spice latte and a small cappuccino for her and came back carrying
the tray with the coffee and several bags of groceries.

She opened the door and stopped, she wasn’t surprised to see Prompto in the store but it was still one of those things that she never thought she’d see again.

“Hi,” she smiled brightly up at him.

And Prompto, who'd just been sitting there on the counter with his mind lost in thoughts and memories and uncertainties, looked up at the sound of the door opening and blinked, needing a moment to pull himself back into the present.

"Hey," he said, almost so soft it might not have even been heard, his grin slow but in utter awe that something as simple as Liz walking through the door at the Photo Hut was even a thing again.

And then his brain slowly registered that her hands were full and jerked out of it. Quickly, he pushed off the counter, to his feet, and hurried over, reaching for the grocery bags.

"Here, let me get that," he said, already taking them, not about to take no for an answer, especially as a wave of guilt for her having gone in the first place hit him. She shouldn't have had to exert herself like that! And he felt like a total jerk for not thinking of it now. "I didn't know you were going to get so much, or else I'd have gone with you! You shouldn't have had to carry all this back, Liz!"

Liz gratefully accepted the help, “thank you,” she said softly, “I didn’t mind carrying the bags,” she told him.

“They weren’t really that heavy,” she added, “but I was able to get quite a few things that we needed for the kitchen,”

Which was basically everything real.,

"Heavy or not," Prompto stated with certainty, "there's still a lot of them, and I mind you carrying them, when I've got two perfectly good hands that aren't doing anything else right now, anyway."

He was absolutely taking most of the bags, but he wasn't leaving Liz completely empty handed. And without an exchange, either, as, when he took the last one, he leaned in for a kiss on her cheek.

"And I can help put them all away, too," he added.

Just because he was there and he could.

“Thank you,” Liz smiled up at him as he leaned in and kissed her cheek. “that would be nice if you could do that,”

She did feel a bit bad about the bags, “sorry,” she said softly, “I didn’t want to disturb you, I know that everything is a lot for you right now,” she added.

“Oh and I got you a coffee from the Petk,” she told him, still carrying the tray of coffees,a large pumpkin spice latte,”

"See, now," he said, "I have to help. I'm not afraid to earn my coffee..."

But he gave her a smile, a small, grateful one, one that was also delicately trying to avoid having to go into how overwhelming all of this...even just her getting him coffee like that...was for him at the moment. He'd already put her through four...almost five...months of worrying already; he didn't want to add on even more if he could help it.

"But thank you," he said. "I appreciate that.

“You’re welcome,” Liz smiled up at him.

“I even got a small cup,” she told him, handing Prompto his cup of coffee, “I mean mine’s just a cappuccino, it’s what I’ve been drinking when I’ve had coffee,”

“It’s one of the things I’ve been careful about having,” Liz told him.

"Probably a lot of things," Prompto noted, "that you need to be pretty careful about right now..."

Things he was probably now going to be spending a significant amount of time now googling on his phone, maybe putting together a list of questions for the doctor during that check-up of hers coming up, too...

"Including," he added, pointedly, tilting a grin her way and lifting the bags in his hands for emphasis, "lugging groceries back and forth from T&C. I mean...I'm here now, right? Might as well put me to good use..."

And with more things to do, he'd have less time to just get...caught, in all his thoughts.

Liz did manage to look sheepish at that.

“I guess I’m still not used to having help,” she admitted, “I mean, Dr. Lecter prepared all the food and everything for me so I didn’t have to worry about what I could and couldn’t eat,”

She just wasn’t going to bring up the last few weeks where she had barely eaten anything. She was sure that would only make Prompto worry.

“I won’t do anymore big grocery trips by myself,” she told him, hoping that would reassure him.

Would only make Prompto worry was putting it very mildly.

"We should go together next time," he suggested, with a faint, encouraging smile, as a new worry bubbled up, that he was possibly being too overbearing or attached, but he really couldn't help it. He really did plan on making these last few months up to her, in the best way he could, but what if it was too much? What if she just got sick of him, or realized how much better it was without him just hovering around her all the time like this? "I mean, it's open twenty-four/seven, right? We wouldn't even have to go during the day, at least...at least until I get more used to sunlight again."

Which...he really hoped was soon; this light sensitivity suuucked, but he did have to remind himself that it could be a lot worse...

Liz nodded and gave a smile at that, “I would like that,” she told him, “I didn’t …I know that this a lot for you right now and you were wonderful coming to the picnic with me yesterday, I thought another major outing outside would be too much,” she told him.

There was a pause.

“I’m sorry for making you worry,” she said softly.

But Prompto smiled at Liz, as soft as her voice was, and lightly shook his head. "You didn't make me do anything," he assured her. "I was going to worry anyway. Worrying's what I do best.

"Besides," his smile grew a little more, "we're in this together...right?"

Why else would he have been brought back now, if not for this?

Liz returned the warm smile, “we are in this together,” she agreed, a hand going to her stomach, “I still can’t believe this happening, that you’re here and we’re going to be parents,” she said happily.

"I'm gonna be honest," Prompto admitted with a breath of a laugh, "I'm still kind of wrapping my head around it..."

Like, he was still just coming to terms with the fact that he was even back. There was still a lot of work to go on the whole baby thing. And the whole consequences of what might have happened back in Eos after he left...

“It must have been quite a shock when I told you,” Liz said softly, “especially after everything you’ve been through,” she paused, “I …I know this is selfish of me but I’m still glad that you’re here with me though …even though you must be so worried about everyone back in Eos,”

"....I still can't get through to them," Prompto admitted, shaking his head a little. "And I've tried. I even checked the portalocity app today...absolutely nothing to Eos, but...there's a good chance the hubs have been down ever since Niflheim took over the city. Even if..."

He faltered a little, not really sure if he should go on; Liz had enough to worry about right now without him adding to it everything he'd been going through, but if something did happen, she should know...

He drew in a deep breath. "Even if....everything....worked out," and it felt strange to use those words, because everything working out meant that Eos would be saved, but Noctis would have sacrificed himself for it....but that was still better than the alternative, where they'd all have been doomed, "...it'll probably still be a while before they got them going again."

If they even bothered. For all he knew, the others probably figured he was dead. Disappeared without a trace, no body to be found. The only reason they would bother, then, would be because of Ignis. But Ignis was a pragmatist, above all else, and after ten years...

Liz listened to Prompto talk, she knew how hard everything was for him and that talking about it would help .

“I’m so sorry,” she said softly, “I …is there anything that I can do to help?”

She remembered her earlier conversation with Summer and she wanted to be better and be there for Prompto and do more to help.

Prompto smiled gently at that, with another shake of his head. And a moment, just to look at her, something he was pretty sure he was never going to get sick of doing again, even if he felt like he'd been doing it for almost four days straight.

"You just being here," he told her, "is already more than I could ever ask for."

“I’m not going to go anywhere,” Liz assured him, with her own gentle smile. “I’m going to be right here,”

It was the least she could do after everything.

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The Photo Hut; Monday [09/19].

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