Still, having a word for his new profession didn’t make him any more likely to scream it from the rooftops. Whenever anyone asked about what he did, he only ever talked about the daycare itself. It felt like having a ‘day job’ and some secret night life, except the night life came with him wherever he went and made his breasts tender and his feet ache. But even though the people he ran into frequently in the city clearly didn’t know why his weight fluctuated so frequently, and even though his body was usually sore in at least two places and had more than a few new stretch marks... he found that he was actually really happy.

Though he never would have imagined enjoying his new job, there was something about being pregnant that never failed to make Prompto smile. It was a hard job; on his body, on his mind, but it was also the most rewarding experience he’d ever had. Bringing new life into the world, spreading joy the way he did? He wouldn’t trade it for anything, even though he knew most people who found out would think he was strange for it.

But just because most people didn’t know about it didn’t mean nobody did. Trainers obviously heard from somewhere to bring some poke-semen to their local daycare and it wasn’t exactly illegal or unheard of. Prompto could usually tell which trainers knew by the way they looked at him; a glance down at his belly, up to his face, back down to his belly, and then usually an uncomfortable look or flushed cheeks as they realized that, not only was he likely pregnant, but they’d been staring. 

He usually noticed the weird looks, but tried not to let them get to him too much. They never made him feel great, of course, but he’d gotten it all in the few years he’d been working at the daycare.

But when a particularly dashing trainer took one look at him and then his swollen stomach, cheeks red and clearly nervous, he couldn’t help but feel a small pang of distress. The guy was unfairly attractive and, sue him, Prompto’s pregnancy hormones were particularly wild. It wasn’t a great feeling when a guy you would have gladly pinned down and made out with was judging your occupation and the fullness of your figure.

“Welcome to Highwind Daycare,” he greeted anyway, customer service smile right in place. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Mystery Trainer said, smile kind of awkward in an annoyingly endearing way. “I’m going somewhere without a lot of water for a few days and… I mean, what’s your policy on water pokemon?”

“We have a large pond on the premises for the smaller ones and access to a lot on the lake for the larger ones. We can’t promise all-day out of pokeball for the larger ones, though, if they need to be fully submerged. Those get a few scheduled hours a day.”

Mystery Trainer nodded, seemingly thoughtful. His eyes kept straying down toward Prompto’s stomach and then snapping back up.

“Right. Uh, that’s fine. I’ve just got a few small to mid-size water types on me.”

“Great,” Prompto said, smile a little more forced with every downward glance of Mystery Trainer’s eyes. He not-quite-waddled over toward the main desk for the necessary paperwork and was glad when the table hid his stomach from view. “Just fill out these forms.”

Mystery Trainer’s name was, evidently, ‘Noct’ according to the forms, and he seemed way more collected after Prompto had hidden his stomach, though his smile still seemed a little weird as Prompto collected the forms, the deposit, and the two pokeballs.

“Alright, Noct,” Prompto said, “see you in…” he quickly scanned the form, “five days.”

Noct smiled wider than before, though his cheeks were still kind of red, “Bye! Uh… Prompto,” he replied, eyes lifting from Prompto’s nametag to his eyes. He couldn’t help but flush a little himself as he noticed how blue the trainer’s eyes were.

==

Noct’s pokemon were well behaved, which was always a blessing. It didn’t matter as much with water types who spent all their time in the pond, but Prompto couldn’t help but check in on them a little extra. Their trainer may have been kind of weird, but he was gorgeous and, fine, Prompto wanted to make sure he was happy when he came back.

The Goldeen wasn’t much for socializing, but the Chinchou would occasionally swim up to the surface long enough to have its head gently touched before darting back down again. It was pretty cute, and kept Prompto entertained for a while each day. By the fifth day, it was harder to sit on the edge of the pond and lean over to touch its head, because his stomach had only grown even wider, but it seemed to realize that and stuck around longer to compensate.

When Noct came around that day, seeming to be in high spirits, he did a literal double-take when he saw Prompto and immediately reddened. To save them both unnecessary embarrassment, Prompto stepped behind the counter and pasted on a smile. This guy was so lucky he was hot as hell.

“Hi,” Noct said, at the same time that Prompto recited his customary greeting.

“Had a good trip?” He asked after as he grabbed the two pokeballs he’d set aside just that morning.

“Yeah,” Noct said, “but I missed the water. Travelling is nice and all, but if there’s no fishing it’s pretty dull.” He seemed to hesitate as his pokeballs were held out to him, but deposited them on his belt after a moment. “Were they okay?”

“Perfectly behaved, not to worry! Thanks for coming by, and consider us next time you need a hand!”

“Oh, yeah, I will,” Noct said, and smiled. “Thanks, Prompto.”

He looked back once on his way out.

==

Prompto didn’t see Noct again until a month later. Stomach relatively flat after his latest birth, Noct wasn’t nearly as weird when he came strolling into the daycare next. Sure, he glanced down at Prompto’s stomach and seemed surprised to find it flattened, but he must have gotten over the shock of it relatively quickly.

He handed over a single pokeball, and came to pick it up a few days later… only to drop another one off in its place.

Like that, he became a regular almost overnight. Usually leaving just one or two pokemon, he dropped them off for only a handful of days at a time.

“You’re here a lot,” Prompto pointed out a few weeks into their new routine. Noct’s cheeks reddened.

“I like it here. I mean, my pokemon seem to.”

It was no surprise to hear that Noct enjoyed his time there, even if he tried to cover it up; every time he came to drop a pokemon off he would loiter as long as it seemed he could, chatting with Prompto about the places he was going and the pokemon he’d seen. Truthfully, Prompto had started looking forward to the visits. His coworkers were nice to talk to, but there was something about talking to Noct that he thoroughly enjoyed, now that they’d gotten over the awkwardness of their first few meetings.

His journey seemed so amazing; travelling around to so many new places, meeting so many new people, seeing so many new pokemon, and training them to tackle the gym challenge. It wasn’t a life that Prompto thought he could ever have, but hearing Noct talk about it made it seem more and more appealing.

“Y’know, you don’t have to leave just ‘cause I’ve gotta get back to my schedule,” he offered one day, a little bashful. “Customers aren’t really supposed to come behind the desk but you’ve spent enough money here I think it’ll be okay. If you’re not in a rush to some new city, anyway.”

“Nope!” Noct said, cheeks slightly pink and smile in place, “no rush. I could help out, if you want?”

“That’s pushing it a little too far, hotshot. You don’t get to feed the pokemon on your first day.”

==

After that, their routine changed again. Noct would still come by every few days, but instead of rushing out as soon as Prompto dragged himself back to work, he would sheepishly follow Prompto behind the counter to talk. It made his shifts go by quicker than anything and a few times Noct would wait until Prompto was closing down for the night to leave himself.

It was one such night a few months into their new routine. They’d been talking for hours, even as Prompto closed up, and Noct had finally wrestled the broom out of his hands. Only this time, instead of going their separate ways, Noct offered to walk him home.

“Isn’t it way out of your way, dude?” Prompto asked, unsure, as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

“Nope. I’m staying at the local pokecenter and it’s pretty close to everything.”

“That’s definitely not true.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Noct said, “Unless you don’t want me knowing where you live. That’s cool, too.”

Prompto found that he really didn’t mind. Noct had somehow become his closest friend in a matter of months from the odd stolen afternoon. Any amount of time he got to spend with him felt like a gift.

“Just don’t come break in later,” He joked as they settled into step.

The walk was peaceful, especially with the sun setting. Though he technically lived in a city, the daycare was far enough removed from the hustle and his apartment was close enough to the outskirts that he hardly had to worry about noise or traffic. That was probably how they ended up relatively undisturbed the whole walk, and probably why Noct felt comfortable enough to ask something he’d clearly been meaning to for a while.

“So… the thing you do for the daycare…” He started, trailing off with purpose as he glanced at Prompto’s belly. The belly in question wasn’t very big, but it was definitely growing. It wasn’t the first time it had been openly acknowledged by another person, not by any means, but it was the first time Noct had openly acknowledged it. Hearing him talk about it made Prompto think of those first few days, when Noct couldn’t stop staring and he’d assumed it disgusted him.

“What about it?” Prompto asked, attempting to hold back the building dread.

“I just,” Noct said, “I guess,” he paused, “Do you like doing it?”

It certainly wasn’t what Prompto had expected him to ask. Taken back, he was quiet for a moment.

“It’s a job,” he said, “I mean, a weird job. A really, really weird job. And maybe I’m weird for doing it, but it pays pretty good and it’s helping people. A really weird way to help people but… I guess… yeah. I do. Like it.”

When he was done rambling it felt like all his energy had been taken from him in a rush. His pace slowed, his guarded eyes watching Noct warily because one wrong move could ruin the best friendship he’d probably ever had. But Noct just nodded, smile strangely relieved.

“Good. I guess I was kind of worried because your boss is pretty intimidating and it’s not the sort of job you should feel pressured to do.” With that, Noct kept walking as if Prompto hadn’t just almost had a heart attack.

“So,” Prompto said as he hurried to catch up, “uh, you don’t think I’m weird for it?”

“Weird?” Noct asked, brows furrowed. Somehow he was the one leading even though he didn’t know where they were going. “No.”

“But before, you… er. I mean, when we first met you were kind of staring, dude.”

Noctis looked sheepish now, cheeks pink as he almost nervously glanced at Prompto and then away.

“Was I? Sorry.” He paused for a moment before quietly admitting, “I just thought you were really cute.”

It wasn’t the first time Prompto had been called cute, but hearing it from Noct; a man he found drop-dead gorgeous and super fun, that was definitely different. He couldn’t stop his own cheeks from reddening, or the smile from growing on his face.

“And then you got to know me and realized I’m just some strange dude who gets pregnant for money, right?” His tone was definitely teasing, but there was some amount of hope in there, too, along with more than a little anxiety. He hadn’t even considered Noct liking him like that, but now that the thought was out there, he couldn’t help but want it.

“Actually,” Noct said, voice casual, “I got to know you and realized that you’re definitely as cute as I first thought, and are actually super easy to talk to and really fun to be around.”

Prompto was definitely blushing when Noct finished speaking, and nudged at Noct’s leg with a foot.

“Dude,” He said, honestly unsure of what to say.

Noct stopped walking and reached for his hand. His eyes were soft.

“I think you’re pretty great,” he said, and gently squeezed the hand he’d taken, “and if it’s weird that I really like you then we can pretend I never said anything. But, I’ll be in town for another couple days and if you want to go to dinner tomorrow, that’s cool too.”

Prompto couldn’t believe any of it was happening, especially after they’d both openly talked about the fact that he was, currently and when they met, pregnant with a pokemon. Somehow, despite that and all other factors, Noct wanted to take him on a date. Noct actually wanted him.

He could feel his hand getting sweaty, where Noct was holding it, but just as the expression on Noct’s face started to fall, he gripped back and tried on a smile.

“Careful, I’m eating for two right now. You better only make dinner promises if you really mean them.”

Noct’s smile was more relieved than Prompto could have expected, and wider too.

“Good thing I mean them,” he said, and the two of them fell back into step as if romantic confessions were normal occurrences between friends.