[Prompto isn't the smartest. He isn't the strongest. He can't read people, really, he can only listen to what they say and make his best guess as to what they're feeling, what he thinks he'd need in their shoes. For years, he's been less of a confidant and more of a distraction, a mood-maker, an escape from the weight of the kingdom his hero-friends carry on their young, bowed backs.
But this reluctance, this--this dread, it isn't something he has to interpret from the outside. This is his. For twenty years, Prompto lived in fear of discovery, that the people around him would find out he was something other than the facade he presented them. That the smiles they gave him would change to something else. That the truth of him would burden them. That he'd be unwanted once more.
Are you afraid of that? He wants to know; he wants Akira to understand that if someone like Prompto could expose that and come away with a world of acceptance and love, then Akira himself has nothing to fear, that his friends will tell him he doesn't have to be the person he's always been to still be one of them--to be theirs. But the way Akira's still flinching away from the conversation, it's like the conversation hurts him. Like pushing too close will push him away.
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But this reluctance, this--this dread, it isn't something he has to interpret from the outside. This is his. For twenty years, Prompto lived in fear of discovery, that the people around him would find out he was something other than the facade he presented them. That the smiles they gave him would change to something else. That the truth of him would burden them. That he'd be unwanted once more.
Are you afraid of that? He wants to know; he wants Akira to understand that if someone like Prompto could expose that and come away with a world of acceptance and love, then Akira himself has nothing to fear, that his friends will tell him he doesn't have to be the person he's always been to still be one of them--to be theirs. But the way Akira's still flinching away from the conversation, it's like the conversation hurts him. Like pushing too close will push him away.
So, softly, Prompto asks:]
Are you afraid of what they'll say?