@novuscaelum:

"My Mom says you're a one woman army. How can you be a whole army by yourself?" the six-year-old asked. "Don't you need lots of people to help you?"

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Unprompted | always accepting

❝She said that, huh?❞ Hadley pauses briefly, mid re-racking some training gear, a smile briefly tugging at her lips. So, the Queen still recognises her work? Good to know.

❝It's a figure of speech. Means I'm good at what I do.❞ She glances down at the boy, not bothering to question why he's in the training halls in the first place like most might. He's the Prince, after all; and besides, it's not her concern. As long as the boy doesn't accidentally injure himself on her watch, that is. ❝It's fine if you wanna hang out in here, but hands to yourself, got it? You need to be at least double digits to go touching sharp objects.❞

Posting for the Starter Call from Novuscaelum

    “Alright, now the first thing that I have to say is this: don’t tell your father what we’re doing.” Prompto made sure to use his most stern face as he looked down at the 13 year old kid beside him. Novus wasn’t his, but he loved him just the same, just as he did with Iggy’s little ones. He always made sure to buy the best presents (with what he had) and to always be one of the first to volunteer if they needed something. He felt like this was his right, to be one of the first ones to start showing Novus what he may be able to do. Plus, maybe Prompto just wanted to spend some time with the kid.

❛ i know i ruined your life. i suffer for it every day. ❜

Quotes That Broke Me starters | accepting but VERY SLOW

The king didn't know if the entire room had gone silent or it was just him. No one else seemed to matter if there was anyone else there at all. "N-- Novus..."

The ache in his knee didn't matter; he needed to lower himself to the floor, trying to take his son's hand carefully in his own. "Don't ever think that of yourself. Ever. Alright?"

How did he even-- Where did he begin? " You didn't-- I was terrified to have children. The idea... I didn't want to saddle anyone with what I'd been expected to do. To be responsible for putting the world back together. Your mother and I, and your uncles, we... talked about that for a long time."

Noctis tried to move aside the idea that his fears were founded. "I was still scared, but the world... it's gotten so much better. A better place to grow up in, and you... you never ruined anything, Novus. And we've got a big family, right? Many people who love you very much. Not because they have to, not because you're a prince; because we love you. You didn't ruin anything."

Maybe it was over-dramatic, he didn't... he didn't know. "But please, Novus, if there's something hurting you, tell us."

@novuscaelum x

Her son's sweet babbling and the clicking of her own heels against the marble floors has become the siren's call of her day's end. As long as she can help it, Novus is never beyond her arm's reach - though here and there, duty must will out. This past hour away from him has felt like an age, but now his nanny has been kindly dismissed and the evening is their own once more, all is right in the world.

❝You have much to say, don't you, my darling boy?❞ Novus is carried into his nursery, just off the King and Queen's own room. It is bathed in the golden glow of sunset, and the sound of gentle piano music emanating from the shelf near his seldom-used cot (for he almost always rests in a moses basket at his mother's side, where she can watch over him.) She settles in a rocking chair close by, her precious child held securely in her arms as she remains unperturbed by his grip on her hair.

Every second she spends with him is meaningful beyond the telling of it. A chance to bask in her ever-altering motherhood. He will not be this small for very long - soon, he will be crawling all over the citadel. And then walking, then running. He will learn to speak, and ask so many questions. He will want to explore his home, and then his city, and before long, the whole world will lay at his feet. But for now...his whole world is merely this very moment. The comfort of his mother's embrace, the way new sounds feel on his tongue, the colours and shapes in his room. And the one eternal truth that will always remain: here he is safe, and loved, and wanted.

❝You have such curious eyes,❞ she utters adoringly. ❝Oh, you had a wonderful time with Nanny, didn't you? Come, now. Tell Mama all about your day.❞

@novuscaelum liked for a starter from ravus!

He can see Lunafreya in his eyes. The ex High Commander gave the smallest of huffs as he tilted his head. He wasn't meant to be around children. He barely knew how to stand being around other adults. "What is you need, little one?"

If Luna got to punch Noctis then the three-year-old wanted to join in too! "Yaaah!" Except instead of punching his face, the kid hit the very edge of his thigh with both hands outstretched since it was the closest thing he could reach. "I got you, Daddy! Mommy and I got you!"

Luna could punch me and I'd thank her for the opportunity || @novuscaelum

Luna could throw a good punch when she wanted, and Noctis was fine with letting himself be on the receiving end of one every now and then. She had to be so composed for public appearances anyway; a bruise that could be done away with a simple potion was nothing.

Novus, on the other hand...well, he was three years old. His tiny hands against Noct's thigh felt more like a nudge than a punch. It was way more adorable than threatening. But that didn't mean Noct wasn't going to ham it up to encourage Novus and make him laugh.

❝ Ugh...you two got me, alright... ❞

Dropping to his knees and clutching his chest in dramatic fashion, Noctis let out a theatrical groan.

...Before looking directly at Novus with a devilish grin and tickling him.

❝ But I'm gonna getcha back. ❞

"Hey, my whole family is fine supervising themselves."

"I beg to differ, young prince." The general sniffed. "I've been witness to your father, the king, and one of your... uncles... bickering over whether or not it was fair to split a peanut butter cup but cutting out a circle in the middle instead of cutting the entire thing in half. Bickering, may I add, which was ended by your mother, the queen, simply plucking said peanut butter cup from both their hands and eating it herself."

● – ||  @novuscaelum sent: "Guess what? I get to learn cursive this year." Novus piped up at dinner with the first day of school having ended. "I dunno what I'm gonna use it for since I can't read it but I get to learn it and-" he paused putting a bite of food in his mouth. "We get to learn lots of other stuff too but that's all in the syll-thing that got mailed home."

● – || Noctis sat at the dining room table with Novus, enjoying his own little afternoon snack while his son did the same . It would seem that they both survived the first day of the school year . There were [ [ m a n y ] ] more to go , but the first step was usually the hardest in every adventure .

" Cursive is a useful writing form . It leads way to a different form of handwriting , and even signatures on documents . " He mused as he watched Novus , " As far as what else you're learning this year , I'll look at the syllabus . I'm sure it's all useful information . "

He was sure it was all about history of the world , handwriting and more . He was certain there was math and science mentioned , as well . The topic that always interested him growing up was history . He had to wonder if Novus would have the same interest as he got older .

" Do you have any homework ? Or are you homework-less seeing as it is the first day of school ? "

@novuscaelum:  The six-year-old wasn't completely sure what the item he'd come across was, though now that he was by himself he could take a closer look. Sitting on the ground, Novus held a sheathed kukiri blade in his lap running his fingers along the fine worn leather edges of the sheath until somebody burst into the training room which made the knife disappear behind his back watching carefully though he seemed to relax a bit once he realized it was Nyx. "I can leave if you're gonna train..." the Prince said as he stood backing up against the wall, hands still behind him, not wanting to disturb the adult if he was in a bad mood. Inch by inch, he moved towards the door hoping he could make it outside without any difficulties...

Nyx was frantic! He had just set his kukri down right after sharpening it and sheathing it. His eyes were off of it for five seconds and then he looked back to grab it and it wasn’t there! He ran around, trying desperately to look like he was okay whenever he saw someone. The last place to look was the training room, where he saw the young child, looking panicked when he saw him. The boy being being the Prince Novus. 

Before he could even greet the boy, he was interrupted by his small voice. He was silent for a moment, not showing much emotion. This he noticed his hands behind his back, looking like he was hiding something. There could only be one reason why he was doing that. 

He smiled genuinely, breathing a sigh of relief before kneeling down in front of him. Yet he kept a distance away so as to not scare the child with all the scars on his face and his blind eye. “No, it’s alright. I’m just looking for something very important to me. A kukri. It’s like a really big knife. Have you seen it?”

@novuscaelum said: “hey stupid! ” he'd missed Squall and while the four-year-old knew it wasn't a great name to call people it'd at least, hopefully, get his attention. "Where'd you go?"

 Squall wheeled around on his heels at the sound of the small voice behind him, fixing the boy with a surprised look before brows furrowed with disapproval, approaching him and squatting down onto the balls of his boots. He gave Novus a small nudge to his chest.

 “Hey now, those are some big words for someone who wrote his Ns backwards the last time I saw him,” he teased the boy with a half smile before his expression softened into an apologetic one; he’d left a bit abruptly, he knew. 

  “I had to leave on Crownsguard business,” he explained, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye. Were you a good boy for your parents and Ignis while I was gone?”

"Daddy?" the five-year-old appeared in the throne room doorway rubbing his eye since he'd just woken up. "I can't sleep...can I stay with you? I had a funny dream about a giant doughnut rolling through town and it's on top of our house. Can you go get it so we can eat it?"

Luckily for Novus, Noctis was just finishing up for the night. His last meeting had finished a little while ago and he'd just been going over a few last details with Ignis, so there was nobody there to tut and shake their heads as the young Prince came bounding in.

Not that Noctis would have cared even if there had been. His own father hadn't been able to spend as much time with him as they both would have liked, so when his children were born, Noctis had promised himself that they would never experience that.

"A giant doughnut, huh? Sounds scary," he hummed as he pushed himself up from his throne, stretching to work out some of the soreness from his muscles. With a few quick strides, he was standing in front of his son, a hand moving to ruffle his hair. "I don't know about that, but I'm sure we can scrounge some hot chocolate from the kitchen. If you still can't sleep, we can watch a movie. Sound good?"

❛  but why?  ❜ (Ravus)

🐝  *  ―  𝑻𝑾𝑶 𝑾𝑶𝑹𝑫 𝑺𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑺.

"It's dangerous." the taller man scolded his nephew. "You can't just wander off by yourself." His voice soften due to him being a child and didn't know any better but the child reminded him so much of Noctis is was annoying. What an upstart, Ravus thought to himself.

"If anything happened to you...everyone will be sad." and angry but he didn't want to scare the boy to much.

" Hunting is not an easy job and not one for a child. It takes years of study and training."

"I don't trust Chocobos."

Prompts From Leverage | accepting but forever slow

The theatrical gasp seemed necessary. To the point where it wasn't entirely a joke, but Noctis supposed that not everyone could be a member of the chocobo fan club. Card-carrying or otherwise. (It was right behind his driver's license.)

"A son of mine doesn't trust chocobos?" Both hands over his chest, Noctis really sold it. Kind of. Or tried to, in the way that not actually having been a theater kid but a prince exposed to political mind games could manage. "Well, alright, you can't really trust them with food that much... but they prefer vegetables, so that's a bonus. But they seem pretty trustworthy otherwise, don't they?"

@novuscaelum:

⛺ Build a blanket fort with your muse.

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Mega Fluff [accepting]

Luna places the final blanket atop the others. With her bed and Novus' emptied into their living room, the royal suite is in utter disarray - but she can confidently say it is worth the hassle it will be to put everything away. As her son seems so happy - to play this game specifically or to spend time with her, she cannot say. Nor does she mind. Luna would move heaven and Eos for that smile; what are a few blankets to that?

❝I believe it is time for the finishing touches,❞ she says, reaching for the pile of plush toys ready to join them in their little fortress. ❝Is there anything further you'd like to add? Also, do not forget to choose a password. Every good blanket fort has its own password.❞

"I know what you're trying to do."

Prompts from Leverage | accepting but the slowest

"Ha ha, I sure hope not..." Spoken mostly to himself, under his breath, nerves not made of solid sleet but certainly honed by years of needing to keep his hands steady. Novus had managed to sneak up on him at the worst possible time--

But that was just kids, he supposed. Gently, gently, he finished lowering an elaborate vase onto a table and then slowly backed away two full steps before looking at the prince.

Alright, well. Time to fess up like an adult. "Okay, I might have had a really dumb accident with this vase here, and I didn't want to make your mom upset so I tried to replace it. Looks mostly the same, right?" He couldn't... tell. Exactly. Even tilting his head to see a different angle.

Cool. Enough being an adult. He extended his hand for a pinky promise. "Buy you an ice cream if you don't tattle on me?"

"Can I go fry eggs on the Regalia dashboard this summer, Dad? I saw a video on how to do it and everything."

What are the kids even doing these days || @novuscaelum

His son's question earns a raised eyebrow, at first. It's such an odd, seemingly random request, and so far in advance of summer, too. Noctis has to wonder where on Eos Novus got the idea...

Then again, he's done his fair share of stupid shit, too. He might not have even had the forethought to ask Regis to do this experiment first, if it were him. At least Novus has the courtesy — that means he's at least doing something right as a father.

❝ Aaand we're believing everything we see online...? ❞ He asks the question not to deride the young prince; rather, just to remind him. A sigh eases into a knowing smile.

❝ Tell you what. If you remind me in the summer, we can try it with one egg. As a science experiment. But I want to watch, just to make sure we don't make a mess. And, uh...don't tell your mother. ❞