She's beautiful. They knew it the first time each of them saw her, the princess of their kingdom. For Gladio, it was days after she was born. He still remembers it, the sight of the newborn princess bundled up in a soft blue and white blanket. It might even be the first memory he has. It's certainly the first he can recall. For Ignis it's different. She was five, quiet, and shy. He was confident enough at eight, and well aware that he had a duty to her. Like Gladio, he was meant to protect her. But he still loved her the moment he saw her, standing behind her father's legs, too nervous to look out past him.

Prompto saw her for the first time in elementary, when all he had was an empty house to return to and no friends to his name. He remembers her being surrounded by people, but there was something terribly alone in her gaze that he knew all too well. He didn't get the courage to talk to her for years, and when he did, he was a terrible flirt and worse yet, one that tripped up on his words but kept plunging the dark road of social awkwardness.

Gladio really didn't like Prompto when he first met him, and neither did Ignis, who first alerted him to the strange blond tailing after their girl. A private meeting with King Regis a few days later confirmed their wariness— Prompto Argentum, son of Verstael, general of the Niflheim army. Placed in Lucis for unknown reasons, allowed to remain because all intelligence showed that he was no threat.

Trying to separate Noctis from her first friend without strings attached was like trying to part a cat from its fur. The situation didn't end well.

They got used to him, and soon enough it seemed like Prompto was meant to be there as well. Noctis even ensure that he had a place in the Citadel when he came calling.

The first time they discovered he had snuck in to her newly acquired apartment and stayed though, would remain embedded in all their minds, because it hadn't ended up like any of them thought it would. Ignis had stopped by to check on the princess, ensuring that she was fed another day (because in truth she was a lazy cook, and though she had talent for taste, she often forgot key details such as the importance of specific temperatures) and that she had read her reports. Gladio had come with him because they were planning a night out (and contemplating asking Noctis along) and was the one to first notice anything suspicious.

Because Prompto muted the TV in Noctis's room, thinking for some obscure reason that they would be drawn to the noise rather than the sudden silence. Noctis's sudden look of shit had been enough for Gladio to tear into her bedroom, expecting to find something massively inappropriate going on. Instead he found the blond clad in chocobo pajamas, gazing terrified at him on the bed.

At the end of it all, they all stayed the night. They fell asleep in her massive bed, and the next morning the two eldest rushed out in their own terror, because if the King found out…

Ironically, they now spent every night sleeping next to her. The positions varied, depending on when they went to sleep and who had to get up in the middle of the night for a bathroom trip. Inevitably, Gladio pulled her into his arms, an action which sent him into a tirade of apologies the first morning he awoke like that. Prompto cuddled without shame, apparently having had the opportunity before. Ignis also had his closeness with the princess, as it wasn't unusual for positions to shift and for Noctis to crawl over him in her sleep.

It was, Ignis bemoaned, highly inappropriate for a woman engaged to sleep in the same tent as three other men, but the one night they tried to put her in her own, all three men crawled, one by one, into her little tent. Fueled by their own anxiety, they couldn't let her out of their sights. It wasn't long after that that the truth began to make itself known- they all loved her, they had all fallen for her, and yet none of them could or should have her.

But, until the day came that she belonged eternally and forever to someone else, she was theirs.

Ignis knows Noctis has been stressed. The absence of her father, with whom she shared a bond so strong she collapsed at the moment of his death, had taken its toll. His suggestion that they eat out as a treat to cheer her up had been a good one, he was sure of it, because she had looked happy, though still tired, still rather pale.

How was he to know that the food would make her sick?

Gladio was threatening the chef, paranoid of some plot to kill her highness, and Prompto was trying to coax her out of the bathroom where she had been vomiting for the last hour. Nothing had helped, no medicine would stay down long enough to work.

At least she wasn't crying, because Gods help the chef if she cried. He wouldn't live past Ignis's vengeance.

"Noooct? Hey- wouldn't it be nicer to throw up at camp? If you just come out-"

"Go away", her voice was muffled by the locked door.

"Perhaps we should just leave her alone?", Ignis questioned lowly, mostly to himself, because surely she must be feeling crowded?

"But she doesn't like being alone, why would she like it when she's sick?", Prompto had immediately sprung up in her defense.

They stood in the narrow hall waiting, until Gladio had long since finished with the cook, the waitress, and even a few choice patrons. It was a miracle they hadn't been thrown out.

"Noct, babe? Please come out", the tank asked with a sigh, considerably more gentle with her than he had been with the diner's inhabitants.

There wasn't a sound, and then Prompto's phone dinged, and he glanced down at it.

"Oh. Oh." He looked back up at the door, and then at his phone.

"What? What is it?", Gladio asked, reaching out for the phone, but Prompto danced away.

"Be right back!"

Ignis couldn't help the glare he sent after the blond. If she had texted him… He checked his own phone, but there was nothing. Why Prompto?

The blond returned mere minutes later, a black satchel in hand.

"Uh, Noct? I've got it… I'm gunna hold it at handle level…"

The door opened and the satchel was snatched faster than Gladio had ever seen her move. That was saying something, after the many times she had warped to their defense. Prompto shrugged off their glares, an awkward little smile on his face that had a hint of true happiness, probably because he had been trusted with the mysterious satchel.

Noctis came out some minutes later, looking worn down and too pale, circles standing out darkly under her eyes. Her hair was in disarray and swept back in a style Gladio would have enjoyed if she hadn't looked so miserable.

"Okay", she said, "let's go. Stop standing here."

"Are you sure you're okay highness? If you need assistance…", Ignis was shot down with a withering look and narrowed blue eyes that dared him to continue. Noctis, it seemed, had been feeling overwhelmed by their attention.

Ignis wasn't the only one to sulk at being denied the basic privilege of caring for her, and the group trudged out to the car. They got going, Ignis speeding for a haven that would offer the privacy from the empire's dreadnoughts they so desperately needed.

It wasn't until they were eating and Prompto left his phone unattended that Gladiolus crouched next to her chair and looked her dead in the eye.

"I could have gotten a box of tampons for you."

And the secret was revealed.

Author's Note: I should be asleep because I have finals in the morning, but I'm not, because my brain is stubborn and I live to test my limits. Enjoy this fem!Noctis and her lovestruck boys, it won't always be as carefree as these two shorts imply, nor will the boys always be as straight-laced in love with her. There are a mass of complications here. Additionally, for the detail which inspired Prompto Gets the Text, was the thought that the menstrual cycle is a valid concern for Noctis running around like this, and is usually rather unpleasant. Additionally, she was likely on birth control in Insomnia, and was no longer able to access it later. For any female who knows, getting off of birth control, especially unexpectedly, can suck like hell. As with my style, I am devoted to keeping things as realistic as possible. If there's something that catches your interest about the possibilities of a fem!Noctis, hit me up in a review or PM me. There will be more! Oh, I had to bring it up right quick- who else thinks that Loqi and Prompto could be brothers? Loqi appear so randomly and so young to be running around with the authority he has that I could only assume he has important connections. We only ever see Ardyn, Aldercapt, Aranea, Ravus, and Verstael around, as well as a few older commanders. And Loqi had pep! Let me know what you think!