Noctis wasn't a child, but he was afraid. In the course of a few hours, things went from fairly normal on a tough hunt to two of his friends and family being lost out in the darkness with daemons, then getting a phone call finding out that they were both hurt, being forced to wait until morning to go find them, then feeling utterly helpless once they had, to finding out that one had done this to the other. Noctis had never been good at dealing with major emotions and this had been a roller coaster of them.

He wanted to wrap his arms around Ignis and cry, but he knew (thought) he couldn't. He had to be strong and couldn't act like a little kid over this. So he pulled back. Walled up. It wasn't a great emotional response.

Prompto was hugely relieved to hear that Gladio was okay, and Noctis showed the same before turning his head away and nodding. "Good." Dinner was, in the end, only for three because as predicted, Gladio passed out hard not two more pages into his book. Noctis, however, snuck in there and spoke to his unconscious Shield while no one could hear him.