By the Stars (Noctis x OC)

Years gone by

First day in high school, needless to say Aidin was excited. More about the fact that it was high school, not about the fact that it actually was school. Her dad had let her out of the car a few streets away, no one needed to see the fancy car the Royal Adviser used to drop his daughter off. Now she was standing in the yard in front of the school, looking it up and down, taking a few deep breaths, fixing her school uniform again before she made her way to the entrance.

But her determination was soon gone, as commotion started. Surprised she turned around, as the rest of the students flocked towards the main gate. As soon as she got as much as a glimpse of the car, Aidin let out a sigh and made her way over. There, standing in front of a fancy car, that clearly belonged to the royal house of Lucis, was a rather sleepy and moody looking Noctis. Flanked by none other than Ignis, she could only imagine what he had to go through to get Noct here.

Excusing and at the same time shoving her way through the masses of gossiping students, Ai finally managed to get to the front. As soon as the Prince saw her, his face lit up a little. Giving Ignis a short wave, he made his way over to her. "What are you doing here?", Ai inquired as soon as Noct had reached her."Wow, nice to see you too?", he yawned at her. "How about you wake up first? Seriously sleepyhead, did Ignis bribe you to get here on time?", she knew how hard it was to wake him up after all.

As they made their way towards the school entrance the crowd seemed to part automatically. No one wanted to stand in the way of the Crown Prince. 'Better for them.', Aidin thought, being woken up this early, Noct could be rather grumpy. Anyway, nothing exactly explained why he was here in the first place. The precious Prince, attending a public school. After what happened in Tenebrae back then, the King refused to let his son go out of the palace. And if he did he was never alone. Besides, after what her father had told her, the Prince was usually home schooled.

Inside the school she stopped and turned towards Noctis,"Which class are you in?". Now seeming a little more awake, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a rather crumbled piece of paper. "Uh, class 1-2, is that right?", he seemed to have serious problems reading the paper. Annoyed, Ai snatched the paper from his hands and took a look, "Noct, what the hell did you do with this? Did you chew on it or something?". The paper was barely readable.'It could be 1-2..could be', Aidin sighed. His arms crossed behind his head, the Prince just shrugged his shoulders. "Well, IF it is what this says, we're in the same class. So come on.", and with that she started to drag him along.

"Can't you slow down. It's way too early for physical activities.", Noct complained as they had finally reached the classroom. Turning around, Ai gave him a stern look. "Look Noct,this is a public school. You better get used to it. And could you stop staring at us, dammit.", the last words where directed at the group of girls standing behind the Prince. Said turned around and looked at the girls, which in turn started to blush furiously. Noticing that, Noctis' features hardened. He turned towards Ai again,"Let's sit down.", was all he said, before he went past her into the classroom. Taking another look at the girls, she hurried after him. Since he had picked a seat next to the window, she settled for the desk to his right.

She took a careful look at her best friend. He had turned to look outside the window, his chin resting in his left palm, covering his mouth. He was annoyed, Aidin could tell. No wonder, he had barely set foot into the school ten minutes ago and the female population had already fallen head over heels for him. She let out a sigh for what felt like the hundredth time today. It was always the same. The girls fell in love with Noct and in turn the boys would get jealous and badmouth him behind his back, at least that's what they thought they did. Noctis was fully aware of what went on around him and it hurt him. He would have never said it, but it was obvious. After all it was the very reason Ai was his only friend.

The first half of the day went on and was, luckily, rather uneventful. The teacher entered, introduced himself and asked them for introductions. As it was the Prince turn, everyone got really excited. But they where soon disappointed as he left it at a simple, "I'm Noctis.". Aidin would have laughed, if it wouldn't have been so sad. After all everyone assumed to know everything about him, be it through the news or the countless articles on the internet, so Noct didn't feel the need to say more. At lunch break, both of them decided to stay in the classroom. The school did not provide lunch, but her dad had packed her a few snacks and Noctis, of course, had delicious food prepared, probably Ignis' doing.

Classes went on and Ai could have sworn she saw Noct doze off a few times. As the bell finally signaled the end of their first day, both of them started packing slowly. They had come up with it at lunch, to avoid most of the students leaving. The Prince was already in a bad mood, no need to make it even worse. The classroom got emptier and they finally deemed it ok to go, but Aidin noticed the boy sitting in front of Noct was still there. He seemed to look for something, so she did not pay him anymore mind. Leaving school, both of them talked and Noct's mood seemed to pick up again, even though he was complaining about how boring classes where.

Suddenly someone slapped Noctis on the shoulder, surprising him, making him stop and turn around. Standing there was the boy from class earlier, smiling at Noct, "Hey there, Prince Noctis.". Said looked at him, confused to say the least. "I'm Prompto. Nice to meet you.", the blond went on, still smiling. Both of the ravenettes stood there, surprised and confused, till Noct smiled at the other boy, "Don't I know you?". Prompto gave him a shy little laugh and they went to walk on. Ai stood there for a few more seconds, till Noctis gave the other boy a shove and she heard a little laugh from him. 'Looks like I have to share from now on.', smiling to herself, she went to catch up with them.