if something comes on the way (we face it as one) - thisfairytalegonebad (2024)

Chapter 1: “Pull over. Let me drive for a while.” - Ignis & Noct, canon verse

Chapter Text

Ignis brought his hand up to his face again to rub at his eyes for what must’ve been the third time within the past fifteen minutes. Gods, he was so tired, all he wanted was to lie down and get some sleep.

It was no use. They still had another two hours to drive before they could settle in for the night. By now, Ignis deeply regretted his own offer of driving to their destination. At this point, he’d probably even let Prompto drive if it meant he’d get to relinquish the driver’s seat.

He glanced into the rear mirror at Noct and Gladio and then at Prompto next to him. Unsurprisingly, all three of them were fast asleep, weary from the previous night which they had spent hunting nocturnal creatures.

With a quiet sigh, Ignis turned his attention back to the road. He was already struggling to keep his focus on driving as it was, and the lack of conversation did not help improve his state of wakefulness either; he couldn’t afford to get distracted if he wanted to arrive safely.

Briefly, he considered turning the radio on to give himself some background noise at least, but he didn’t want to risk waking the others, so he dismissed the thought. They needed the rest, and he’d just have to make do without the radio.

Only two more hours. That was nothing. He’d gone longer without sleep during his high school days when the workload of school combined with his responsibilities at the citadel and the additional reports he read in order to attend the meetings in Noct’s stead had left no time for sleep. Now, it hadn’t even been 48 hours yet, this should not be a problem.

...except, back at the citadel, he hadn’t spent the days - and the nights - fighting, exhausting himself physically, mentally and emotionally as he did now. He also hadn’t spent most of the hours during which he did get to sleep on the cold, hard ground at a haven, and he hadn’t gotten injured, sometimes critically, nearly every other day.

Alright, so perhaps this was not like the other times he had run on zero sleep. No matter. He’d just need more coffee.

He removed his right hand from the steering wheel and blindly felt for the last can of Ebony he knew was in the cup holder. When he found it, he struggled to open the can with only one hand, and before he could succeed, a hand snatched the coffee from his grip.

Startled, he looked into the rear mirror, only to find Noct blinking at him sleepily. “Noct. Give it back,” Ignis said, having no patience left for such nonsense. It was coffee, or them all inevitably crashing and dying in a fireball. Noct’s choice.

“How much longer?” Noct asked, making no move to return the coffee.

“About two more hours. Give me the coffee.”

“Pull over. Let me drive for a while.”

Ignis twisted in his seat to look at Noct directly. “You need to rest.”

“So do you,” Noct argued. “I slept for a few hours, when’s the last time you slept?”

“You have never slept enough,” Ignis pointed out, neatly dodging the question.

Noct sighed impatiently, making Ignis feel like their roles were reversed for a second. Usually, he was the one exasperated with Noct, not this way around.

“Specs, stop arguing. Let’s switch, I can drive the rest. I’ll make it an order if I have to.”

Ignis glared at the rear mirror, knowing he had already lost. Noct knew he wasn’t going to argue against a direct order from his prince, and Noct knew that Ignis knew too. Besides… the thought of sliding into the backseat with Gladio and sleep sounded heavenly just about now.

“Fine,” he huffed, bringing the car to a stop at the side of the road.

They traded places, Noct with the coffee still in his hand. He gave the can a sceptical look before popping it open and chugging the entire thing.

“Ugh,” he muttered, sticking his tongue out childishly.

Despite his exhaustion, Ignis let out a not very dignified snort. “Thank you, Noct. Do wake me up if you need me to take over again.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now sleep.”

And so Ignis did, leaning back into the seat and after a moment of consideration, slightly against Gladio’s shoulder. Within seconds, he was asleep.

Chapter 2: "It reminded me of you." - Prompto & Noctis, Brotherhood era

Chapter Text

Noct pulled out two lunchboxes, kept one for himself and set the other one down in front of Prompto. “Here. Specs said he didn’t have much time to make lunch, so he said to invite you for dinner tonight.”

Prompto opened the box, closing his eyes blissfully at the smell that came from the food. “Not much time? This is still better than anything I have ever made. Are you sure he’s human?”

Already shoveling his own, vegetable-free food into his mouth, Noct shrugged. “Probably not. Who knows.”

A lot more slowly than Noct, Prompto started eating too, albeit with some more manners than Noct, the literal prince. With his free hand, he pulled his phone from his pocket and typed out a message to Ignis to thank him for both the food and the invitation.

“You don’t have to text him every time to say thanks, you know.”

“Yeah, well. He doesn’t have to make me food either, but he still does. Least I can do is say thanks,” Prompto argued. Ignis insisted it was no trouble at all for he cooked for Noct anyway, but Prompto had still made it a habit to send a little thank-you message every day. He liked to think Ignis appreciated it, too.

“Whatever. I’m not stopping you,” Noct said between two bites. “But he’s probably even grateful because it means he gets to feed vegetables to someone.”

“Vegetables are good for you, Iggy isn’t just trying to torture you with them, y’know.”

Noct let out a groan and pointedly did not reply.

With a grin, Prompto went back to enjoying his food, and they sat in silence for a while. That was, at least until Prompto noticed Noct kept kind of glancing at him out of the corner of his eyes and quickly averted his gaze every time Prompto looked.

“What?” he asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

“Nothing,” Noct replied entirely too quickly. A few beats of silence, then, “I, uh. I got you something?”

Prompto lowered his fork, unsure if he’d heard correctly. “You… got me something?”

“Yeah, just… hang on,” Noct muttered, rummaging through his bag with his head a little farther inside the bag than necessary in a failed attempt to hide his blush. “Here.”

He thrust something at Prompto, who accepted it before he properly looked at it.

“Oh!” he gasped in delight when he realized it was a small plush keychain. Not just a keychain, but a chocobo keychain, with soft, fluffy feathers and all.

“Noct, why… You didn’t have to!”

Noct shifted uncomfortably, studying the stray crumbs on the table instead of meeting Prompto’s eye. “Yeah, I know, I just saw it in that store the other day and I got it for you when you weren’t looking. It, uh… it reminded me of you.”

Oh.

Great, now Prompto was blushing too. He was beginning to understand the sudden fascination with the crumbs now.

“That a jab at my hair again?” he tried to cover up his own abashment, hoping his voice didn’t actually sound as high-pitched as he thought it did.

"No! Just... just take it and shut up!"

They were both blushing like crazy at this point. Prompto knew he was probably looking like a lovesick idiot, especially with the soft smile he couldn't quite suppress, but he couldn't bring himself to care much. Especially if Noct, who always made such an effort to appear aloof and listless, went through the awkwardness of giving him a present... that had to mean something, right?

"Thanks, Noct."

“Glad you like it,” Noct mumbled, still with pink cheeks but a pleased little smile on his lips.

“I love it,” Prompto corrected, fastened the keychain to his backpack and silently vowed to never take it off again.

Chapter 3: "No, no, it's my treat" - Gladio & Ignis, Brotherhood era

Chapter Text

Gladio rounded the corner and ran straight into someone. He was barely swayed, but the other person pretty much bounced off him and would’ve crashed to the ground if not for his quick reflexes that allowed him to grab them by their arms and steady them before they fell.

“Someone appears to be in a hurry.”

Ignis, Gladio realized. Whoops.

“Sorry, Iggy. Didn’t see you there. You good?”

“Just dandy. I was looking for you, in fact.”

“Yeah?” Gladio grinned. “Miss me?”

Ignis breathed out through his nose in a sort-of concealed laugh. “Yes, actually. It has occurred to me that it’s been quite a while since we’ve last had the chance to catch up, so I was wondering if you were free this evening.”

“Well, it’s not me who’s always busy,” Gladio pointed out good-naturedly.

Ignis sighed and shifted the folders in his arms in order to bring up his hand and fuss with his glasses. “I know. My apologies.”

“No sweat,” Gladio waved him off. “Tonight sounds good. Lookin’ forward to it!”

Ignis smiled. “As am I. Well then, I’ll be on my way. Have a good day.”

“Yeah, you too,” Gladio said,lifting his handas a goodbye before he, too, continued his way to the training grounds where he was headed, picking up his pace when he realized he was almost late for training with his dad. Crap. He absolutely did not want to spend his evening running laps again like last time he’d been too late.

A bit winded, he burst out of the changing room once he’d finished putting his training clothes on, glancing at the large clock as he came to a halt in front of his dad and sighed in relief when the hour changed just about two seconds after his arrival.

Clarus glared at him, obviously wanting to say something but unable to since Gladio was not technically late. Instead, he lifted his sword and attacked, and Gladio spent the rest of their training trying very hard not to get himself sliced open.

Once they were done - Gladio even received rare words of praise from his father which made him glow with pride for the rest of the day - Gladio was ready to drop, but there was still the meeting with Ignis. It was only late afternoon, but after training with his dad, the plan was usually to go home, lie down on his bed and never move again. He was more than willing to sacrifice that for a meeting with his friend, of course, but that didn’t mean that moving didn’t f*cking hurt.

Ignis had shot him a text while he’d been training and they’d agreed to meet at eight for a drink, so he left after dinner, cursing the fact that he hadn’t bothered to get his licence yet. Driving would’ve been a whole lot less annoying than walking, with the ache that was already persistent in his muscles, but it couldn’t be helped now. At least the place wasn’t far, but maybe he could still annoy Ignis into giving him a ride home later.

Ignis was already there when Gladio arrived, because of course he was. He was sitting at their usual table, not having ordered anything yet. When he spotted Gladio, he lifted his hand in a little wave.

“Hey,” Gladio smiled as he heavily plopped down on the chair. “Long time no seen.”

“Ah yes. What a couple of dreadful hours it has been without you,” Ignis deadpanned, but his mouth twitched with amusem*nt.

Gladio grinned and flagged down a server, and after they’d both ordered their drinks, he leaned forward in his seat a little. “So, how’s life been treating you?”

“I’ve been busy, as always, but Noct has been making an effort to make my life a bit easier lately. He’s been doing well in school, and he attempts to read the reports from the Citadel, too, if you can believe it.”

“No way. Did someone kidnap and replace him without us noticing?”

“You should give him more credit,” Ignis chided. “He still struggles with his reports and usually has me explain them to him afterward. It is not less work, but rather than me doing the work for him, I now do it with him. It is… nice.”

“I’d bet,” Gladio agreed. He’d been noticing an improvement in Noct’s training, too. If anything, the kid seemed less eager to piss him off the second he stepped foot onto the training grounds. He still complained, but Gladio couldn’t actually remember the last time their training had ended in a shouting match. Huh. “You think that’s that Prompto kid’s doing?”

Ignis nodded. “Certainly. Prompto is good for him. I am very glad about it.”

Gladio took a sip of his drink and hummed. “Yeah, me too. Hey, I don’t think I told you yet, but I finally beat Dad for the first time last week.”

“Oh? That’s fantastic! What did he say?” Ignis asked, sounding both pleasantly surprised and kind of proud.

For the next ten minutes, Gladio launched into the events of last week’s training and how his dad had been pushing him extra hard ever since- a wounded pride, Gladio joked.

Ignis asked questions about the techniques Gladio had used, and Gladio answered them, and then the conversation shifted to a different topic. For the next two hours, they chatted comfortably, ordering some more drinks a few times until Ignis called it quits.

“I still have to drive,” he explained when Gladio teased him about it despite knowing very well that Ignis could absolutely hold his own in a drinking match against him.

“Yeah, about that. You think you could drop me off at home? I feel like everything hurts, even things that shouldn’t be able to hurt.”

“Of course. Shall we head home, then?” Ignis suggested.

Gladio nodded. As much fun as the evening had been, he was dead tired. And he had to train some new recruits tomorrow, something that could either be a lot of fun or an absolute pain in the ass depending on how well they ended up doing.

He reached for his jacket to pull out his wallet, but Ignis grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“No, no, it’s my treat. I was the one who invited you, after all,” he said, placing his own wallet on the table as he got their server’s attention.

“Cool, thanks, Iggy,” Gladio said and pulled his arm back. “I’ll be paying next time, then.”

He watched as Ignis paid, then he followed him out to the car. He had to squeeze himself into the passenger seat, groaning when he realized Noct had been the last one to occupy the seat and everything was set for a much smaller person. Damn that prince and his scrawny ass.

“Are you all settled?” Ignis asked mildly after having watched Gladio’s struggle with the seat in amusem*nt.

“Yep,” Gladio confirmed.

The ride home was silent save for the radio, but Gladio didn’t mind. It was a comfortable silence, after all, always was with Ignis.

“Thanks for the ride,” he said once Ignis dropped him off in front of the Amicitia residence. “Good night.”

“Good night to you too.”

Gladio waved to him through the window, and Ignis waved back before he pulled out of the driveway and disappeared into the night.

Chapter 4: "Come here. Let me fix it." - Noctis & Ignis, canon verse

Chapter Text

The Balouve Mines were a complete pain in the ass, and Noct was more than done.

The goblins weren’t hard to defeat, but they were really, really annoying. Surprisingly clever, too, locking doors right in their faces and tearing through the mine in their carts. At this point, Noct was using attacks way stronger than necessary to defeat these little bastards, he hated them and he wanted them in pain.

The downside of the goblins being easy to defeat was that they generated a false sense of security. Sure, they were a nuisance, but not much more than that. There weren’t any other daemons either which was unusual, normally these places would be crawling with creatures sometimes not even Specs had heard of before. Unusual, maybe, but Noct wasn’t complaining. His ancestors had made it a habit to have their tombs located in the most inaccessible places they could possibly find, maybe the royal arm that was supposedly hidden in these mines was easy to retrieve for a change.

Oh, he couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Right at the bottom of this damn mine, there was another of these samurai daemons, f*ck knew what it was called. Maybe Specs knew, but Noct couldn’t ask him. Partly because he was too busy warping out of the way every time that thing attacked, but mainly because Specs, along with Gladio and Prompto, had been knocked right out with some ridiculously strong strike from the samurai daemon.

Basically, Noct was on his own now. He couldn’t stay still for long enough to heal his friends without getting hit himself, and if he got hit too, it was over for all of them. He had no choice but to battle this daemon all by himself.

Just great.

Lamenting the fact that Ignis was down and therefore couldn’t come up with a strategy to fight the daemon, Noct resorted to his favourite but unfortunately riskiest technique of warp-striking at an enemy as many times as he could handle it.

The managed to do some damage to it before he had to take a moment to catch his breath and use an elixir to heal his minor wounds and give himself an energy burst to keep warping. He didn’t have too many left, though, and even though his warp-strikes did some damage, he’d probably run out of elixirs and ethers before the daemon was dead.

“sh*t,” he muttered to himself, quickly searching the Armiger for something to use. There were a few flasks of elemental magic left. He didn’t know for sure what this particular daemon was weak to, but all the other samurai daemons they had battled in the past had reacted especially negative to lightning. It was worth a shot if nothing else.

He summoned a flask and flung it at the daemon as hard as he could and released a breath of relief when the daemon momentarily went down, spasming with the effects of lightning magic. It was starting to look a little worse for wear in general if Noct wasn’t mistaken. He really hoped he wasn’t.

Too fast, way more quickly than expected, the daemon was back on its feet and then, faster than Noct could blink, it rushed forward and stabbed him.

Right through the chest.

As if that wasn’t enough, it was lifting him up. On the sword that was currently sticking through his chest.

Noct screamed. The pain blinded him, his lungs suddenly felt as if they couldn’t fit any oxygen in them, and he thought he was going to die right then and there.

He didn’t die, regretfully. It would’ve been better than the pain that followed as it drew the sword back and threw him onto the floor.

As he hit the ground, he screamed a second time, much weaker than the first time but just as anguished. It felt as if the pain was going to drive him insane, but he gathered himself long enough to pull a phoenix down from the Armiger.

A faint sigh of relief escaped him as the magic washed over him and reduced the blinding, all-consuming pain to a more tolerable level. It still hurt like hell, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of literally being skewered alive. That combined with the energy the phoenix down gave him enough strength to reach for another flask and throw it at the daemon.

Whilst it was incapacitated, Noct gathered all his remaining energy and aimed another warp-strike at the thing. It was all or nothing, honestly. Noct knew he wouldn’t be able to keep fighting after that, but the daemon was looking kind of wobbly and slowed down. If he was lucky, that last strike would be enough to take it down for good.

His sword connected, he warped, and they both came crashing down onto the ground. The impact made his chest scream with pain and he was left gasping desperately.

Next to him, the daemon let out a horrible screech before it disintegrated into nothing.

Thank the gods, Noct thought, because he didn’t have the energy to say it out loud. Black spots were eating at his vision, but he couldn’t pass out just yet.

Thankfully, Gladio was lying only a few steps away from him. Noct half-crawled towards him, completely undignified, but he really couldn’t be bothered to give a sh*t right now. It took him a few seconds to summon a curative, and once he held it in his hand barely able not to drop it, he gave it to Gladio who regained consciousness with a gasp.

“What- Noct, f*ck, what happened to you!?”

“It’s fine. I defeated it, not dying anymore. You gotta check on the others, I’m… ‘m gonna pass out now, ‘kay?” Towards the end, he was starting to slur his words, but he managed to say what he wanted to say before his eyes closed and he was giving in to the exhaustion. Only through a thick fog, he heard Gladio cuss at him, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care.

Being stabbed through the chest, besides horrible pain, a general feeling of disorientation from the blood loss, near heart attacks for your friends once they found out what happened and a near death experience for yourself, unfortunately came with torn clothes.

Noct held out his shirt in front of him, mournfully studying the gaping hole. Damnit. His chest was all fixed up thanks to the phoenix down and whatever else his worried friends had forced upon him post-battle when he’d been unconscious, but sadly, the magic didn’t extend to clothes.

“Ugh,” he said. He’d liked this shirt! Yes, it was just a regular black shirt, but it had fit just right and the fabric had been nice and soft. Somehow, the torn shirt pissed him off even worse than the fact that he’d nearly died.

To his right, the door opened. In came Ignis, carrying two large bags full of groceries. They were staying at Galdin Quay until Noct was well enough to travel again and Ignis was taking full advantage of it by exchanging all sorts of recipes with the local chef and the well equipped kitchen in the hotel room allowed him to try a few of them. Noct was glad he did that, at least that way he wasn’t constantly on his case about, well, having almost died.

“I see you’re up and about, Highness,” Ignis said as he set the bags down and came closer to give Noct a scrutinizing look. “How do you feel?”

“Fine,” Noct said. It wasn’t really a lie. He only felt a little worn out after three days of resting, but he figured he could just let Specs drive (as if Specs let him behind the wheel right now anyway, ha) and squeeze in another nap until they reached their next destination. “We can leave today.”

For a moment, Ignis didn’t look like he believed him, searching his face for any trace of a lie. When he apparently found none, his gaze fell on Noct’s ruined shirt and his eyes softened.

“Come here. Let me fix it.” He held out a hand and took the shirt when Noct passed it to him and gave it a once-over. “Hmm. This’ll need some work, but I believe I can sew it right up, you won’t even notice a difference.”

Noct smiled, small but genuine. “Thanks, Iggy.”

Chapter 5: "I'll walk you home." Prompto & Gladio, brotherhood era

Chapter Text

Gladio is almost disappointed when Prompto, after a glance at the large clock at the wall, nearly drops his gun in shock and explains that he should’ve gone home ages ago.

Since Prompto’s going to take the Crownsguard exam this year, Gladio has been tasked with his training. At first, it was kind of weird. Prompto was awkward, clearly terrified of Gladio, a bit clumsy when it came to weapons, and completely untrained.

That last part especially wasn’t his fault, but usually, people had at least some basic training when they were paired with Gladio. Even Noct was introduced to some form of training at a very young age, usually coupled with physical therapy after his accident.

But Prompto came to him with absolutely zero understanding of weapons or combat, and so their first couple of lessons were purely theoretical. Teaching the theory to him wasn't difficult. In fact, he was an amazingly quick learner, and it was refreshing to educate someone who would actually listen for a change.

Still, even though the theory was crystal clear, Prompto wasobviously not comfortable with the classic weapons. They tried swords and daggers and even a broadsword once, though Prompto had nearly chopped off his own foot when it turned out to be way too heavy for him to lift. So, yeah, weapons didn’t work out too well.

Until Gladio let him shoot.

He didn’t think much of it at a time, just remembered the guns in the back of the armory and thought, well, why not give it a try. The Glaives he usually trains with all look at guns with scorn and call them ‘a coward’s weapon’, a sentiment Gladio personally doesn’t agree with. It takes some serious skill to fire a gun accurately in battle, and if it could save the King’s or Noct’s life one day, it doesn’t matter if someone wields a sword or a gun.

Either way, Gladio decided to let Prompto try himself with a gun. And watched as the kid fired at the targets, completely oblivious to Gladio’s delighted grin that grew wider with every shot. It wasn’t perfect, Gladio didn’t expect it to be. But considering it was the first time Prompto pulled a trigger, it sure was really f*cking good.

After that, Gladio would usually him go through some basic training first since he’d still have to prove himself in direct combat, as well as some self-defense because that kid was just so damn scrawny and it only felt right to give him the means to protect himself if needed. And afterwards, he’d let Prompto have fun with the targets and occasionally chime in with some tips.

Now that he's found his weapon, Prompto has grow more confident during training, will crack a joke every now and then, and is just a walking ray of f*cking sunshine in general. Gladio looks forward to training with him every week because it's just impossible to be in a bad mood with Prompto in the room.

Today, Prompto immersed himself completely, focus complete with the tip of his tongue poking out and all, and neither he nor Gladio noticed the time until now.

“Your parents gonna get mad? I can write them a note, say I held you up,” Gladio offers.

“No, uh,” Prompto says, cheeks red as he scrambles to put the gun away properly and gather his stuff. “I’m just, I think I gotta get that next bus or there won’t be any until tomorrow morning.”

Gladio frowns and looks at the clock. He has no idea what the bus scheduleislike, perks of being nobility, but considering the time Prompto usually leaves… “When’s that bus leaving, exactly?”

Prompto looks up barely long enough to glance at the clock, too busy shoving his street clothes into his bag. “In, oh sh*t, in like, exactly two minutes.”

Two minutes to pack up and get to the bus station on the other side of the citadel. Yeah, sure. Gladio rolls his eyes and goesto tower over Prompto with his arms crossed. “Look, you’re not gonna catch that bus. And it’s cold out, if you go home in your gym clothes, you’ll get sick.”

Prompto throws another pleading look to the clock as if that would somewhat make it run more slowly, but then he slumps and sits back on his heels in defeat. “I… ah, sh*t, you’re right. Guess I gotta walk home, then.”

“Can’t your parents pick you up or something?”

Something flashes in Prompto’s eyes and almost makes Gladio wish he didn’t ask. It’s gone very quickly, though, and when he answers it’s in his usual cheerful voice.

“They’re on a business trip, they won’t be home for a while. It’s fine, though. I’ll just walk and call it extra exercise.”

“You don’t need extra exercise after more than three hours of training,” Gladio points out.

He mentally goes through the list of people with a car and a license, someone who could pick Prompto up and deliver him to his home safe and sound. It’s not a surprise who the first person who comes to his mind is.

“I can call Iggy, I’m sure he’ll drive you home,” he says. He knows Iggy will drive Prompto home, recently he’s started mothering him almost as bad as he does with Noct.

Prompto shakes his head, determined. “No! Noct said it’s his day off today! I can’t disturb him on his day off!”

Gladio thinks Ignis would drive Prompto anywhere even if he were on his honeymoon or whatever, but fine, he’s not about to make Prompto feel guilty by calling him if he doesn't want to. Also, he kinda has a point, Iggy deserves to chill on his rare off days.

Jared would be an option, but it’s pretty late so he’s technically off duty now. Would be kind of a dick move to drag him out of the house and make him play driver at this hour.

He’s already familiar with Prompto’ stance against taking any kind of financial aid from his friends, so he doesn’t even try to offer to call and pay for a cab, either.

“Well, guess we have no choice. I’ll walk you home,” he decides. “Don’t want your scrawny ass kidnapped or anything. But first, you gotta throw on some warmer clothes because I won't put up with you if you get sick.”

“You don’t have to walk me home!” Prompto protests. He looks very flustered and Gladio thinks it’s hilarious.

“Well, tough titt*es, I’m doing it anyway. Clothes, c’mon.”

Gladio marches towards the changing rooms and pretends he doesn’t notice the look of gratitude and relief Prompto gives him.

Chapter 6: "Have a good day at work/school." - Noctis, Prompto & Ignis

Chapter Text

Ignis glanced at his watch again and sighed impatiently. “Noct, please do get up. You’ll be late for school.”

From below the blankets that covered a vaguely prince-shaped lump came a groan of great misery.

At such dramatic antics, Ignis could only roll his eyes, but he did smile in amusem*nt when Noct finally rolled off the mattress with the most impressive bed-head Ignis had seen in a while.

The prince dragged himself towards the bathroom with excruciating slowness, but at the window, he stopped to look outside with a frown.

“Something the matter, Highness?”

“Can we pick Prompto up today?” Noct asked, now slightly more awake and his brain apparently in working order. “It’s raining and his first bus is often late so he misses his second bus and has to walk all the way to school and he’s gonna be soaking wet by the time he gets there.”

Ignis blinked before a knowing smile pulled at his lips. “Of course. You’ll just have to let me know where he lives.”

Not that Ignis didn’t technically know Prompto’s address. It had been part of the background check they’d done as soon as he had entered Noct’s life, of course. But Ignis had a feeling Noct wouldn’t appreciate his extensive knowledge about his friend, so it was probably for the best to feign ignorance.

Noct paused. “Uh…”

“You don’t know where he lives?”

“I’ve never been to his place!” Noct was quick to defend himself, even though it hadn’t been an accusation at all.

“Would you mind asking him, then? And perhaps inform him that we’ll pick him up, too? We wouldn’t want to miss him,” Ignis said as he collected a few stray textbooks from the table in the living room. He attempted to pack them into Noct’s bag, only to frown in distaste as he found yesterday’s empty lunch box in the bag. “Noct, how many times have I asked you to unpack your lunch box and give it to me so I can clean it before it starts walking around?”

Noct grumbled something and didn’t even bother looking up from his phone. He was most likely acting on Ignis’ suggestion to text Prompto, though, so Ignis let it go.

Finally, Noct tossed the phone onto the couch and disappeared into the bathroom. It didn’t take him long to reemerge, put on some semi-clean clothes and look at Ignis like he was about to be led to his own execution. “Okay, I’m good to go.”

“Did Prompto give you his address?” Ignis asked. He herded Noct out of the door and towards the car once he’d made sure the door was locked properly. It was raining heavily now, Prompto would indeed be soaked if he had to walk to school today.

Noct shook his head. “Said he doesn’t want you to have to drive all the way to his house. I told him it’s no problem, but he wants to take his first bus and meet us at the bus station.”

He didn’t sound very pleased with Prompto’s decision, Ignis noted with fondness. Despite his aloof attitude, Noct cared a lot, and the thought of Prompto potentially ending up wet and cold was obviously bothering him.

“Well then, let’s not keep him waiting.”

Traffic was rather slow, as usual at this time of the day. But since Ignis always bullied Noct out of bed ahead of time, they still made it to the bus station before Prompto’s bus arrived.

Prompto’s eyes lit up when he stepped out of the bus and saw Ignis’ car. He hurried over, hoodless jacket pulled over his head and careful not to step in the puddles.

“Hey!” he said cheerfully when he plopped down in the backseat next to Noct. “Thanks for picking me up. You didn’t have to, but still, thanks!”

“Not at all,” Ignis said mildly. Soon, Prompto’s excited chatter and Noct’s tired replies filled the car and Ignis tuned them out to focus on the road.

They reached the school about twenty minutes before class started, a fact Noctis regularly complained about. Those were twenty more minutes he could spend sleeping, he’d whine, but Ignis wasn’t about to show any mercy. Not if it meant Noct got to school in time, anyway.

Thankfully, the rain had died down a bit so the boys wouldn’t get too wet on the way to the school building. Still, Ignis advised them to take the large umbrella that was stored in the car and that was big enough to fit both Noct and Prompto under it, in case the weather got worse throughout the day.

“Have a good day at school,” he said once they had collected their belongings and were ready to go.

“Thanks. Bye, Specs.”

“Thanks, Iggy! Uh, you too! Have a good day at work, I mean.”

Ignis smiled. “I’ll try. Now, get inside before you get wet after all.”

He watched them hurry inside, huddled beneath that big umbrella, before he pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the Citadel.

Chapter 7: "I dreamt about you last night." - Noctis & Ignis, world of ruin

Chapter Text

Noct barely has time to climb out of Talcott’s truck, still unsteady and with shaky muscles, before Prompto is in front of him and throws his arms around him. He squeezes him so hard it almost hurts, but Noct doesn’t mind. He hugs back just as fiercely and for a moment, they just cling to each other.

“You’re back. I can’t believe you’re back,” Prompto whispers in Noct’s ear. He sounds like he’s trying to convince himself Noct is real, but there’s something else in his voice that makes Noct wonder if he knows.

The very second he parts from Prompto, a heavy hand lands on his shoulder and he’s facing Gladio.

“Look at you! All grown up!” He squeezes Noct’s shoulder and yanks him against his broad chest that somehow seems to have gotten even broader over the past ten years, what the f*ck.

“Good to have you back,” Gladio rumbles and leaves his arms around Noct for a tad longer than he would have ten years ago.

Noct really can’t say he minds.

Last, there’s Ignis. In between hugging Prompto and Gladio, Noct couldn’t get a good look at him yet. But now he takes a moment to study his appearance and can’t quite keep his eyes from lingering on Ignis’ scars.

They’re faded, nothing like the freshly healed wounds all these years ago, but it’s obvious they’ll always be visible. Briefly, Noct wonders how long it took for them to properly heal, for the pain to pass. He wonders for how long Ignis had to suffer.

He swallows the lump in his throat and steps forward. “Specs. It’s good to see you.”

Ignis reaches out, fingers brushing against Noct’s cheek. His eyes aren’t visible behind the visor he wears now, and Noct knows they’d be empty, unseeing, but he remembers the fond look Ignis used to give him so perfectly as if he were receiving it right now.

“I dreamt about you last night. I saw you return, I saw-” Ignis says, barely louder than a whisper and his voice breaks. “You look so much like your father.”

Noct blinks in surprise. He hasn’t exactly had access to a mirror yet, but if Ignis says he looks like his dad, then it must be true. The thought of his father makes his chest ache, but he knows he can’t dwell on these emotions right now.

“You put on the ring, didn’t you. Back in Altissia. It’s how you lost your eyesight,” he says. It’s not a question. He’s just asking Ignis to confirm what he already knows.

“I did.”

Gladio and Prompto don’t look surprised at the confession. Maybe Ignis told them at some point, or maybe they figured it out on their own. It doesn’t really matter, anyway.

“You believe it could be magic left over from the ring?” Ignis asks.

“Yeah. It’d make sense, right? The ring is powerful enough, that must be it.”

But in the end, it isn’t really important how Ignis knew. What’s important is the task that lies ahead. Noct dreads it, but even more, he dreads having to tell his friends about his fate. How do you tell those who love you, the people you love more than life itself, that you are to die for the sake of mankind?

There isn’t an answer to that, not really. And… Noct wants to pretend, just a little longer. He knows he has to tell them, just not yet.

Despite having spent ten years doing absolutely nothing, Noct is exhausted, and so they decide to stay in the caravan at Hammerhead for a few hours before leaving for Insomnia to let him sleep.

But even though Noct feels bone-weary, sleep doesn’t come. Gladio and Prompto are actually asleep before him, which almost makes him laugh. But judging from the way he’s breathing, Iggy isn’t asleep yet, either.

A few minutes later, when Noct is almost ready to give up on sleep altogether, he hears the rustling of Ignis’ sheets as he gets up and quietly leaves the caravan.

Noct doesn’t think before he slips out of bed as well and steps outside to look for Ignis.

He finds him only a few steps away, sitting at the table in front of the caravan, and for a moment it almost feels like they’re back on their journey ten years ago. Almost, but Noct can’t shake the awful knowledge of what is to come.

“Hey,” he says and joins Ignis at the table. “Can’t sleep?”

“So it would appear,” Ignis sighs. “Today has been eventful.”

“Tell me about it. Nothing like crawling out of a crystal after ten years, right?” Noct snorts at his own joke. It sounds pretty surreal, after all.

Ignis smiles. “I can only imagine.”

“Talcott said you’re fighting again?”

“I am.” Ignis’ tone is nonchalant, but Noct doesn’t miss the pride that lies beneath it. “I daresay I fight better in the dark than most.”

Noct laughs. “That’s so cool. Do you remember that superhero guy from these comics Prompto and I used to read? You’re basically him now.”

Ignis arches an eyebrow in that way that means he’s judging Noct hard and says, completely dry, “Why, thank you. Being cool was my only goal.”

They’re both grinning now and probably looking pretty stupid, but Noct doesn’t care. He wants to cling to this sense of normalcy and familiarity for as long as he can.

But then, of course, Ignis speaks again, and the lightheartedness is entirely gone from his voice.

“Noct, I…,” he says, falters, then tries again. “I know. About… the prophecy. About your fate. And I can’t-”

Noct’s heart breaks along with Ignis’ voice. He hates that Iggy knows, he wants to know for how long he’s known but he doesn’t want to hear the answer. He doesn’t want to hear it, because he knows it already. He doesn’t want to hear for how long Ignis has been living with the knowledge of Noct’s fate.

He still forces himself to ask. “How?”

“Pryna,” Ignis replies. “Back in Altissia, Ravus and I reached the Altar right before she died. She delivered a vision to me. I- I saw you die.”

Since Altissia. Ignis has known since Altissia, he’s been living with this knowledge all this time. Now, Noct also understands why Ignis approached him, back then when they were still recovering in the Leville, and he asked him if he really wanted to carry on with this journey.

Noct makes a choked noise. He wonders if Iggy’s been carrying this burden all by himself, or if he’s told the others at some point, but he doesn’t ask.

“Your dream last night, did you…”

“Yes,” Ignis confirms, sounding hollow and so unlike the Ignis he knows. “I saw you die once again.”

And there’s really nothing Noct can say that would express everything he’s feeling. Fear, guilt, resentment. He’s feeling a lot, and he doesn’t have the right words, and so he says, “I’m sorry.”

Ignis shakes his head. “No, I’m sorry. We’re sorry. We vowed to stand by you, yet in the end, we fail.”

Noct is aware of the tears that gather in his eyes, but he pays them no mind. “It’s not failing! You vowed to stand by me, you can still make good on that promise. Stand by me until the very end. Please.”

Ignis is crying too. Tears are streaming down his face, but his voice is steady as always when he speaks again. “Of course, Noct. We will remain right by your side, no matter what.”

Smiling through the tears, Noct asks, “You got my back?”

“Always.”

Chapter 8: "Take my seat." Prompto & Noctis, road trip

Chapter Text

In theory, Noct knew that Prompto had a pollen allergy. It wasn’t as severe as Gladio’s, who kept sneezing during pollen season even with his meds, so Noct had really only witnessed it once. Prompto had showed up in school with red, teary eyes, a raspy voice, and wearing a pair of glasses instead of contacts like usual. As it turned out, he hadn’t realized he’d run out of his medication and couldn’t buy any before school started.

Noct had felt pretty bad for him back then. Apparently, so had the teacher. Prompto made it through exactly one and a half lessons that day before he was sent home. But aside from that one time, Prompto was usually fine with his meds. It’d been long enough for Noct to pretty much forget about the allergy.

That was why it kinda came as a shock when they ran out of antihistamines and both Gladio and Prompto had to deal with the consequences.

There was an issue with the delivery, the cashier at the gas station informed them. He was very apologetic about it, but that didn’t change the fact that they couldn’t get any meds, not even at any other store since they were all affected by the missing delivery. Not unless they located the delivery truck that was apparently lost somewhere along the way, as it seemed to happen pretty often these days.

Grimacing in sympathy at the thought of his friends who were currently waiting in the car, Noct told the guy they’d handle it, waited for Ignis to pay for his three packs of Ebony, and trudged back to the car to inform the other two about the problem.

“Ugh,” Prompto said, voice stuffy and rough.

Gladio just sneezed in agreement.

Overall, they both looked pretty miserable, Gladio more so than Prompto. Noct liked to tease him about it, how he could take a sword through the chest no problem but some tiny little pollen were enough to render him useless. Looking at him now, he didn’t have the heart to. His Shield was slumped in the backseat, eyes closed in an attempt to ease the burning and itching a bit, but it probably didn’t help much. He’d given up on talking hours ago, it’d just make his already raw throat hurt worse. It was a pretty heart-wrenching sight, really.

Prompto was doing a little better. His allergy wasn’t as severe, but he was visibly suffering too. He was still talking, not as much as normally but still in his usual cheerful tone. He wasn’t really fooling anyone. He didn’t look like he could fool anyone, either. His fair complexion let the redness around his eyes and nose seem more severe than Gladio’s tanned skin. Not even the glasses he was wearing did anything to hide it. Every now and then, he’d sneeze and sniffle and then carry on with the conversation as if nothing was wrong.

Noct opened the door to the backseat and moved to get it, but then he hesitated. “Hey, Prompto. Take my seat. More room in the back. You can lie down or something,” he said, casually.

Prompto looked like he wanted to protest, but then he smiled weakly but with gratitude. “You know what? That sounds great, actually.”

Slowly, he peeled himself out of the passenger seat and shuffled around the car. “The Prince of Lucis holds the door open for me. I’m honored!” he joked. The effect was kind of lost when he sneezed immediately after, though.

Noct rolled his eyes at him. “Yeah, yeah, just get in and shut up.”

Prompto tried to wink at him, which didn’t work all that well with his teary eyes, and climbed into the backseat next to Gladio. He didn’t even bother sitting up properly. Instead, he dropped his head into Gladio’s lap and sighed in relief.

“This okay, big guy?” he rasped, looking like he was very unlikely to move even if Gladio told him to get off.

Of course, Gladio did not tell him to get off. He just hummed in agreement and dropped his big hand onto Prompto’s stomach.

Noct threw them another glance before he walked over to the passenger seat. It didn’t look like they were gonna move or speak or look vaguely alive anytime soon, so it was probably best to just leave them alone.

“Seems like it’s up to us now, huh, Specs?” he said

“Indeed,” Ignis replied and took a sip from his coffee. “I do hope whatever foes await us aren’t too strong for us to fight by ourselves.”

Noct shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. Gonna show these two we can handle things without them.”

The cashier hadn’t been able to provide much information about the truck’s whereabouts. The only thing they had to work with was the route it was supposed to take, but there was no way of knowing where exactly it got stuck. That meant they had to drive the whole route and hope they were able to locate the truck somewhere.

For several hours, they drove, without any trace of the truck. Noct was starting to feel really bad for Prompto and Gladio. Aside from the occasional sneezing, they weren’t making any noise, and it was hard to tell if they were asleep or not. For their sake, Noct kind of hoped they were.

After a while, it started to rain. Whilst Noct normally wasn’t keen on getting wet when running around in the woods, he was now grateful for it. The rain would wash away some of the pollen in the air, hopefully making his friends a little less miserable. Still, that damn truck had better show up soon.

He was just about to voice his frustration to Ignis when dark tracks on the road near the Fallgrove caught his attention. “Specs, you see that?”

“I do. Let’s have a look, shall we?”

“Mm. That better be our truck,” Noct agreed. “Think these two are gonna be fine while we’re gone?”

He glanced at the backseat, but he still couldn’t tell if they were awake. Ah, well. He’d just lock the car, they’d be alright.

The truck had probably been hauled off by daemons, but it was easy to follow the path of broken twigs, flattened grass, and the deep, very obvious tracks the wheels had left.

Noct groaned when he spotted the truck, surrounded by hundlegs. “Can’t anything be easy for once? Specs, how do we do this?”

“Hit and don’t get hit yourself.”

“Very helpful. Let’s do this.”

An annoying but not particularly hard fight, a couple of potions, and a couple more antidotes later, the only things left of the hundlegs were their, well, legs.

Noct gathered them and dismissed them into the Armiger to sell later and walked up to the truck.

“Seems like the cargo is fine.”

“The driver wasn’t so lucky,” Ignis commented.

“Yeah…”

The truck driver’s tragic fate dampened Noct’s mood considerably. He just wanted to get this over with. Gather the supplies, get back to Gladio and Prompto and stuff them with meds until they felt better. Fortunately, Ignis seemed to agree. They emptied the truck quickly and without much talking, and soon they were back by the Regalia.

Noct’s plan had been to give Prompto and Gladio the pills as soon as they returned, but now they were definitely asleep. He stared at them for a moment, considering if he should wake them. No, he thought, it could wait until they were at the motel they’d definitely be staying at tonight.

The sun was already low, so he and Ignis hurried to load everything into the car and head for the nearest motel before the daemons came out. Delivering the supplies to a gas station could wait until tomorrow, Noct decided, selfishly. Like hell he’d make Gladio and Prompto sit in that car any longer than necessary.

If Ignis pushed the speed limit a bit, neither of them said anything about it. As the last sunbeams were starting to disappear, they finally reached the motel, just in time before nightfall.

Noct rounded the car and opened the door on Prompto’s side whilst Ignis did the same on Gladio’s side. “Prompto. C’mon, rise and shine. We’re at the motel, you can go back to sleep in a minute.”

Prompto blinked and muttered something Noct didn’t catch. He didn’t seem entirely awake, so Noct helped him out of the car and half-carried him to the motel. He wondered if that was how the others felt when they tried to wake him up in the morning.

Ignis had gone ahead and paid for their rooms. He’d left Gladio in the car once it’d become clear he wouldn’t be up and walking on his own anytime soon, but now he was hauling him out with some effort. Noct didn’t exactly envy him; he was already struggling to support a nearly limp Prompto.

Eventually, they dragged their pretty much unresponsive friends into the room and deposited them in one of the two double beds.

“Here, take this,” Noct said once he caught his breath, handing Prompto his medication. When Prompto barely managed to hold onto the pill, Noct didn’t even try to give him the glass of water. It was easier to just hold it for him, he thought.

He made Prompto drink the entire glass before he was satisfied and let him burrow into the blankets and pillows and Gladio.

“Gladio all set?” he asked, turning to see if Ignis needed help, but Ignis just brushed his hand through Gladio’s hair and straightened up.

“All set,” he confirmed. “We’d best head off to bed as well.”

Noct all but collapsed onto the other bed, not even bothering to take off his clothes. “Oh yes, definitely. Night, Specs.”

Of course,Ignis bullied him into getting up again and changing out of his clothes after all, but it still wasn’t even five minutes later that he fell asleep as soon as his eyes closed.

He definitely deserved it.

Chapter 9: "I saved a piece for you." Noctis & Gladio, brotherhood era/pre-game

Chapter Text

There were few things Noct hated more than fancy events he had to attend. Maybe vegetables. Vegetables and fancy events were probably about the same level of horrible. Right now, he ranked fancy events even above the vegetables, mainly because he was currently headed to one of these events with only Gladio for company.

Cor was driving them to some tiny little kingdom that held its annual festivities and insisted on the King of Lucis attending. Noct didn’t even know whose idea it had been to drag him along, which was fortunate for them because he might have tried to have it count as treason. It should definitely count as treason, it was basically Torture of the Crown Prince after all.

Alright, so maybe he was being a bit dramatic. But he knew from experience that these events were usually horrible. Boring, exhausting, and full of shallow, stuck-up nobility and politicians and whatnot. They all tried to have conversations with him because it was good for their prestige if they were seen talking to him, and he had to act like he didn’t hate every second of it.

Sometimes, when it was his dad hosting an event, he got to drag Prompto along, and Ignis would be there too, which made it at least a bit more bearable. But this time, it was in a foreign country and didn’t call for either a civilian or his advisor to attend, which was why he only got Gladio to share his misery.

Except, Gladio didn’t even look all that miserable about it. If anything, he enjoyed making fun of Noct for having to attend and didn’t seem to mind having to go himself all that much. Then again, he wasn’t required to talk to anyone like Noct was. Gladio’s only job was to stand beside him and look intimidating. That wasn’t half as horrible as having to play nice all evening.

So, yes, this whole thing was deeply unfair. Noct shot a glare at Gladio who was sitting next to him in the backseat, but it went unnoticed as Gladio was too engrossed in his stupid book.

Noct sighed and pulled out his phone, alternating between texting Prompto and playing King’s Knight for the rest of the ride.

“Don’t even think about it,” Gladio said as Noct longingly eyed the flutes of champagne across the room.

“Why not?” Noct argued, even though he knew exactly why.

Gladio rolled his eyes. “Try again when you’re legal.”

Ugh.

At least Gladio wasn’t drinking either. Gladio never drank on the job, which was… technically always. So basically Gladio never drank, period. Either way, it meant Noct wasn’t the only one who had to endure this whilst sober.

His dad, on the other hand, was happily drinking the champagne that was offered to him. He still looked and acted more regal than Noct could ever hope to be, but there was the tiniest blush on his cheeks that definitely came from the alcohol. Seemed like he didn’t really want to be here, either. Ha. Served him right for dragging his poor son along.

Trying very hard not to look like hehated everyone and everything, Noct made his way over to the buffet. There would be cake, and that would just make this night a bit more bearable.

Gladio followed suit, looming behind him like a shadow.

He was almost at the buffet - and had discovered an amazing looking cake with fruit and stuff and he really, really wanted it - when he saw someone rapidly approach him.

“sh*t,” he muttered and tried to escape, but Gladio grabbed the back of his jacket and said, “Oh no, you don’t.”

“Traitor,” he hissed at Gladio, just before the guy came to stand right in front of him, way too close - seriously, what about personal space - and reeking of way too much cologne.

“Prince Noctis!” he exclaimed and immediately launched into an introduction followed by some nonsense Noct was pretty good at tuning out. It was enough to smile, nod politely, and occasionally giving a noise of agreement. He knew that from experience; most of these nobles loved to hear themselves talk and didn’t actually care what he had to say.

The guy - Noct had already forgotten his name or what he did - talked and talked and didn’t appear like he was going to stop soon. Every time he shut up for a moment and Noct thought he was finally free, it turned out the dude was just taking a breath to dive right back into his tale. Or the next tale. Or the tale after the next tale.

Noct was going to die.

He tried to shuffle away a few times, closer to the buffet because he still wanted that cake, but the man just followed and got back into Noct’s personal space right away.

If only Ignis were here, Noct thought wistfully. Ignis would take mercy on him and come up with a smooth way to get him out of this conversation. But Gladio enjoyed seeing him suffer, the sad*stic asshole. There was no way he was helping him escape; he was probably enjoying himself way too much right now.

By the time the man finally, finally shut up and left, Noct thought his face was going to fall off from all the fake smiling. He watched as the man walked away, half-expecting him to turn around and come back to ramble at him once more. But as it turned out, the reason why he was leaving was that he’d discovered Noct’s dad nearby. Of course. The only thing worth more than being seen talking to a prince was being seen talking to a king.

Noct caught his father’s eye and gave him a sh*t-eating grin, to which his dad responded with an eyebrow raised in confusion right before the man reached him. By the time understanding and dread dawned on his face, it was already too late to leave.

Laughing to himself, Noct turned around to finally get himself some of that cake- only to find that the platter was empty.

“What. The f*ck,” he said.

“Language, your Highness.”

Gladio sounded way too f*cking gleeful, and Noct spun around, ready to give him a piece of his mind. That prick from before had really talked at him long enough for everyone else to eat all the cake, the only thing that would’ve made this evening a bit better, and Gladio had the nerve to laugh at him after leaving him at that guy’s mercy for f*ck knew how long.

He opened his mouth. And closed it again when a plate was shoved into his hands. A plate with a slice of fruity cake.

The way he stared at it was probably pretty dumb. At least Gladio seemed to think so, judging from the way he was laughing at him again. But this time, Noct couldn’t even be mad at him.

“I saved a piece for you. Saw how you were ogling that cake. I’m not a monster,” Gladio said, and after watching Noct with a grin for a while, “You could say thanks, you know.”

Noct would have said thanks, but, well. His mouth was full of cake.

Chapter 10: "I'm sorry for your loss." Gladio & Prompto, roadtrip

Chapter Text

“Hey, where are you going?” Prompto asked when Gladio opened the caravan door and took his jacket with him.

It was evening, but not quite bedtime yet. Noct was already curled up in one of the tiny beds with his back turned towards them. He wasn’t asleep yet, Prompto could tell, but he didn’t say anything.

Ignis was tapping away at his phone but looked up when Prompto addressed Gladio.

“Just…” Gladio said, making a vague gesture with his hands. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Don’t stray too far. The daemons get awfully close to inhabited areas these days,” Ignis said, but he didn’t try to stop Gladio so it was probably alright.

Gladio nodded and left, closing the door behind him with just a tad too much noise.

Prompto turned to Ignis. “Is he okay?”

“It is… difficult to be completely okay in times like these,” Ignis replied, not really easing Prompto’s worries.

“I guess…” Prompto sighed. He pulled out his phone to play some King’s Knight, but he couldn’t really focus on it so he soon put it away and stood.

“I’m gonna-” he announced, gesturing much like Gladio before, and slipped out too without waiting for a reaction.

It didn’t take long for him to find Gladio. He was sitting on the bench outside the Crow’s Nest, looking angry and sad and more lost than Prompto had ever seen him, and he absolutely hated it.

“Hey. Care for some company? Only if you want to, I can leave if you’d rather be alone,” he hurried to add. He didn’t want Gladio to feel obliged to let him stay, but something about Gladio being like this just felt so very wrong and he very much wanted to fix it.

“No, it’s fine. You can stay.”

Prompto sat down on the bench, not quite close enough for their shoulders to touch, but close enough to make his presence obvious.

“Whatcha thinking about?”

Gladio’s jaw clenched as he seemed to debate with himself, but then his shoulders slumped and he leaned his head back against the wall.

“My dad.”

Dread, shame, and guilt hit Prompto like a punch in the gut. Of course. If the King had fallen, that meant his Shield had been broken. That thought was already terrible enough on its own but became way worse when he replaced Shield with Gladio’s dad. But he hadn’t even thought of it, too preoccupied with Noct’s dad being dead and the general f*cked up-ness of the whole situation to consider the other people who died.

“sh*t, Gladio. I’m sorry for your loss, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Gladio said softly. He sounded tired. Gladio never sounded tired. “I grew up with the idea. I accepted it.”

Prompto stared at the ground before him, trying not to think about how horrible of a thing that was, especially for a kid. “But that doesn’t really make it easier, does it? I mean, I can’t imagine it does.”

Gladio was silent for a long time, but when he replied, he wasn’t just admitting it to Prompto but to himself as well. “No, not really.”

Prompto, to make up for the lack of something to say to comfort Gladio, leaned into Gladio’s side a bit and hoped he wasn’t overstepping a boundary.

“I’m just glad Iris is safe,” Gladio said, making no attempt to push him away. “And that I’m older than her. That I’m the Shield, not her. I’m not sure I could bear the thought. There… weren’t many Shields who died of old age in the past.”

Prompto nodded. “A King dying before his Shield is shameful, right?”

Even after being friends with Noct for years, Prompto was still trying to get the hang of all the royal business. But one thing he had understood pretty quickly was that honor was a pretty damn big deal.

“It’s the greatest shame,” Gladio confirmed. “If anything short of an illness or age kills a King, the Shield has to be killed first. Being a Shield who failed is a fate worse than death.”

The way Gladio said it, solemn but detached, sent shivers down Prompto’s spine. That sounded like such a big burden to bear, and to have a child carry it from the day they were born was… Prompto couldn’t even imagine how that felt.

“Do you think everyone at the Citadel was killed? I mean. What about Iggy’s uncle? You think he survived?” he asked, trying to change the subject but accidentally directing it in an equally depressing topic. Damn.

Gladio shook his head. “Dunno about everyone, but I think Iggy’s been trying to reach his uncle. No luck yet, so I don’t think he made it.” He paused. “sh*t, what about your parents?”

Surprised, Prompto blinked before he processed Gladio’s words. “Oh, don’t worry, they’re fine. They weren’t in Insomnia during the attack. They extended their trip so they were only gonna come home sometime next week anyway.”

Gladio’s eyes narrowed. “Did you talk to them yet?”

“Not… exactly,” Prompto admitted, squirming under Gladio’s observant gaze. “I texted them to tell them I’m okay and tried to call them, but they didn’t pick up. They texted back, it’s fine. Really.”

“It isn’t,” Gladio insisted. “They don’t deserve you.”

With a nervous laugh, Prompto turned away a little so Gladio couldn’t see the redness on his cheeks. “Yeah, well. I’ve got you guys, so I’m good.”

“You sure do,” Gladio said. That terrible look from before was almost gone now and he finally looked like Gladio again. “We should go back inside and get some sleep.”

“Yep,” Prompto agreed and let Gladio pull him up from the bench.

Chapter 11: "You can have half." Noctis & Prompto, road trip

Chapter Text

Noct shivered. Pulled his jacket around himself more tightly and snuck a glance at Prompto. Returned his attention to his phone and narrowly avoided getting his avatar killed. Shivered again.

Why was it so damn cold, anyway?

They’d rented the caravan at the outpost right by the waterfall Talcott had told them about. It was already pretty late and with the sun, all warmth had completely disappeared. At first, it had been a welcome change from the heat back in Lestallum, but now it was just annoying. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they could’ve just sat inside the caravan until the food was ready, but they’d kind of pissed Ignis off earlier that day and he’d all but kicked them out so he could cook in peace.

Gladio was off buying supplies from the gas station, having wisely fled the scene as soon as they’d arrived. Noct supposed years of working together with Ignis had resulted in some sort of sixth sense for when it was better to leave. Not that it was very hard right now to figure out Ignis should be avoided for the time being even without a sixth sense. Point was, Gladio had volunteered to do the shopping and f*cked off before anyone else had the chance, so Noct and Prompto had nothing better to do than to play King’s Knight in the freezing cold.

Even worse, Noct was the only one freezing his ass off, because today, all his friends seemed to be smarter than him. Prompto, right before Specs kicked them out, had snatched a blanket from one of the beds and dragged it outside just in time to avoid getting it trapped in the caravan door when Ignis slammed it shut.

And now, the bastard was snugly wrapped in his blanket without a care in the world, while Noct was about to become a royal popsicle. How was that fair?

The answer was, it was not fair. It was not fair at all, and Noct wondered if it could be considered treason to let your king freeze to death. Maybe even regicide. He’d have to look into it later.

“It’s cold,” he voiced his complaints.

Prompto didn’t even look up, the traitor. “Yeah, I mean. There’s an ice cave like, right below us. Wouldn’t expect it to be warm.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t like it.”

Prompto shrugged. “You don’t have to like it, buddy. But that won’t make it any warmer.”

Noct groaned, loud and dramatic because of course Prompto had to try and use reason on him, but Prompto seemed utterly unimpressed. And he especially didn’t even seem to consider giving up the blanket for Noct, either, which was even worse.

With an unhappy frown, Noct looked at his phone again, but his fingers were reaching a point where they were almost too clammy to properly play. Also, his battery was almost empty, no doubt draining faster due to the cold, so he reluctantly turned it off and clumsily shoved it into his pocket.

Heaving a sigh, he lifted his gaze to eye Prompto and his blanket again, only to find Prompto staring at him and trying very hard not to grin. It wasn’t really working; the left corner of his mouth was twitching comically.

“What,” Noct snapped.

“Bet you’re real envious of my blanket just about now, aren’t you?”

Noct gritted his teeth, mainly to stop them from chattering embarrassingly. “Shut up.”

The bell at the shop door across the street dinged as Gladio shouldered it open and marched over to the caravan, looking in a way too good mood considering Ignis was pissed and an ice age was about to begin.

“Watch this,” he grinned, waving an entire case of Ebony at them. He opened the caravan door and called, louder than necessary so Prompto and Noct were bound to hear it too, “Hey, Iggy, I got you something!”

“He doesn’t really think it’s that easy, right?” Prompto laughed, leaning forward in anticipation of getting to watch Gladio getting physically thrown out of the caravan. Or stabbed in the face. Or maybe even both, depending on how bad Iggy’s mood still was.

The door was closed again. With Gladio still inside. And no sounds of any face-stabbing coming from inside. Instead, there was normal, civil conversation, too quiet to understand from outside but definitely not at all murderous.

Incredulously, Prompto turned towards Noct. “Ignis can be bribed?!”

Defeated, Noct shrugged. It probably looked pretty weird, because he was shivering quite a bit at this point. Good. He hoped it made Prompto feel guilty. “I think Ignis will do anything for you if you help him reach his goal of replacing his blood with caffeine.”

“Shouldn’t you be kind of worried about that? One of your most trusted men is corrupt, how can you be sure he’s not gonna sell you to the Nifs for a case of Ebony?”

“Ignis is not gonna sell me for a case of Ebony.” Noct paused. “Maybe two cases.”

“Okay, yeah, that’s fair.”

Prompto pocketed his phone and threw Noct a long look. Finally, he sighed in mock defeat and lifted the corner of his blanket just a tiny bit in order to keep the warmth from escaping. “Fiiine, you can have half. But no hogging or I’ll send you right back out into the cold.”

As fast as possible with his stiff, frozen limbs, Noct scrambled out of his chair and dragged it towards Prompto, plopping down and huddling as close to Prompto and the precious blanket as the arm rests allowed. “Oh, thank the gods!”

“Don’t thank the gods, thank me! The gods would’ve left you for dead. You owe me your life,” Prompto told him, poking him in the side like a f*cking nuisance.

“I could’ve made you. Make it a royal order,” Noct mumbled. The warmth was already surrounding him, and it felt absolutely wonderful. His hands were still cold, though, so he shoved them between Prompto’s back and the chair to warm them up, digging his fingers into his spine when Prompto started to complain. That, of course, didn’t stop the complaining, but it still felt good to have revenge.

Slowly, Noct was starting to warm up. When the caravan door opened again, he was already dangerously close to being warm enough to doze off despite Prompto talking at him the entire time.

“Dinner is ready,” Ignis said. He shivered and rubbed up and down his arms, looking surprised. “Oh dear, it’s become rather chilly. We’d best eat inside, then.”

He vanished, leaving Noct to gape at the open door in utter betrayal.

“Is he serious?”

Next to him, Prompto was cackling so hard nearly fell off his chair.

“He left me out here, and now he realizes it’s cold?! Oh dear, it’s chilly- my ass!” Noct ranted, mocking Ignis’ accent and only succeeding in making Prompto laugh more. “I should have him thrown into a dungeon!”

“Noct, buddy,” Prompto wheezed, “You don’t have a dungeon right now. I don’t even think the citadel has one.”

“I’ll build one, just for him!”

Still laughing, Prompto got up, wrapped the blanket tightly around Noct’s shoulder and grabbed his hand to pull him up. “C’mon, let’s go inside. Y’know, before the food gets… cold.”

Chapter 12: "Take my jacket, it's cold." Ignis & Gladio, post-Altissia

Chapter Text

Zegnautus Keep was a f*cking nightmare, Gladio decided.

The place was a godsdamn maze packed full with daemons, the floors were littered with things for Ignis to trip over if Gladio wasn’t fast enough to stop him, and Ardyn kept taunting them. Even worse, there was absolutely no trace of Noct. Plus, they were still missing Prompto.

Gladio wasn’t prone to anxiety, but this place paired with the worry for all three of his friends had him practically vibrating with nervous energy. He couldn’t wait to haul ass out of here, but unfortunately, they were still a long way from getting to leave.

It was also real damn cold.

Gladio himself didn’t really notice, or rather, he didn’t mind enough to notice. It was cold, because this whole country was a godsdamn fridge. But he wasn’t feeling cold.

Ignis, on the other hand…

Of course, Ignis wasn’t complaining or anything. Gladio was waiting for him to say a damn word, but at this point, he was sure the moron would rather freeze to death than admit he was feeling cold. Not that he needed to admit it, the shivering was kind of speaking for itself.

As for why Gladio hadn’t said anything about it yet, well. That was mainly out of spite, even though he would never say that out loud. He was mad at Ignis for not speaking up and just f*cking bearing everything without complaint. And he was pissed at himself, Noct, and Prompto for not realizing that, whilst Iggy’s beloved coeurl print shirt had been safe in the Armiger back in Altissia, his jacket had been absolutely destroyed during whatever the f*ck he’d put himself through at the altar. And none of them had even f*cking thought to get him a new one.

So now here they were, stomping around ignoring the fact that Ignis was about to f*cking freeze.

Gladio cast a careful glance at Ignis, who was following a few steps behind trying to navigate through the narrow corridors. Still shivering, jaw stubbornly set, it was clear he wasn’t about to admit his defeat anytime soon.

Rolling his eyes dramatically, Gladio came to a decision. His only options were to wait until Ignis stopped being stubborn (not happening), let him freeze to death or catch pneumonia and then have him die from that (not in a million years), or stop being stubborn himself and being the one to address it (happening, apparently).

He stopped, letting Ignis catch up with him.

“Something wrong?” Ignis asked, head slightly tilted. He’d started doing that since Altissia, keen on making up for the lack of his sight by paying greater attention to sounds.

“You mean besides” Gladio gestured wildly at themselves and everything around them, “everything?”

Ignis frowned, but didn’t say anything.

Gladio sighed deeply, slipped out of his heavy leather jacket, and held it against Ignis’ hand expectantly until his fingers closed around it.

“Gladio, what is it?” Ignis demanded, clearly frustrated with the lack of insight on what was going on.

“Take my jacket, it’s cold. You’ve been cold the entire time, you should’ve said something.” It came out more accusatory than Gladio had intended. Somehow, that seemed to happen to him a lot lately.

“I did not say anything because there was nothing to be done about it,” Ignis snapped. Trying to hand the jacket back, he continued, “Take it back. You’ll only get cold yourself.”

“No can do. I’m still wearing a sweater, that’s much better than your flimsy shirt. I won’t be responsible if you catch your death in this damned place so you’re keeping the jacket.”

Ignis kept holding the jacket out to Gladio, no doubt preparing himself to out-stubborn him.

Gladio wasn’t having it. He was neither in the mood nor were they in a position to have a staring contest. Not to mention the unfairness of such a contest; with Ignis unable to see, there would be no reason for him to look away first.

Already hating himself for that thought only two seconds later, Gladio sighed again. If this was how Iggy had felt every single day putting up with the three of them, he was starting to understand why the guy was constantly chugging caffeine to keep up his energy levels.

“Just take it. I won’t get cold, promise.”

Another beat passed before Ignis lowered his arm in defeat. “You’ll tell me if you need it back.”

“Oh, you mean like you did?”

Ignis glared, but he did put on the jacket, and that was good enough for now.

“Ah, isn’t this heartwarming?” Ardyn’s annoying voice sounded over the speaker.

“Shut your f*cking mouth,” Gladio growled at the ceiling. He couldn’t remember having ever hated a person as much as he hated this bastard, and every time he heard that voice, he remembered how bad he wanted to deck him square in the face. “C’mon, Iggy. Let’s go.”

Ardyn only laughed and then the transmission cut off, but Gladio knew their every step was being watched. Even more reason to get out of here as fast as possible.

He shuddered for reasons that had nothing to do with the cold.

The next door he approached opened, but instead of revealing another corridor or nearly empty storage space, it lead into a dorm room. The uncomfortable looking beds with the thin mattresses and shabby blankets were the best thing Gladio had seen all day.

“Hey, Iggy! Check this out!” he called over his shoulder. “It’s a dorm room. We’re gonna rest for a while before we continue.”

Ignis frowned as he entered the room. “Are you sure? We don’t have time for that.”

Gladio already plopped down on the nearest bed. If Iggy wanted to keep going, well. He’d like to see him try to get him off this bed first. “We can spare a few minutes. That f*cker is playing a game with us, I doubt he can continue without us. Plus, we’ve been walking around this place all day. I dunno about you, but I’m beat. Any more fighting without rest and we’re gonna end up getting ourselves killed.”

Ignis, looking reluctant to sit down, finally nodded in defeat. “You’re right. Just a few minutes, though, not longer.”

“Sure thing.” Something across the room caught his eye and he hauled himself off the bed despite his initial plan of not moving until they had to leave. “Oh, Iggy, you’re gonna love this.”

In the mini-fridge he’d found, there was one lone can with a very familiar design. He pulled it out, cracked it open after making sure it hadn’t expired yet (of course it hadn’t, that stuff would probably survive longer than any of them) and handed it to Ignis.

Ignis’ look was one of disbelief and pure delight as he took one sniff and immediately started chugging the whole thing without so much as a breath in between.

Feeling as satisfied as Ignis looked, Gladio let himself fall back onto the bed, ignoring the worrisome creaking of the metal frame. It felt good to be lying down.

Just for a few minutes.

Chapter 13: "Sorry I'm late" - Gladio & Noct, Brotherhood era/pre-roadtrip

Chapter Text

“Just accept it, you’re never gonna beat me in anything shooting-related,” Prompto teased after he was done celebrating his victory, again.

Noct groaned, shoving his shoulder into Prompto’s. “Shut up. We’re gonna play a racing game next, and I’m gonna make you cry.”

“Not that I wouldn’t love to prove you wrong, buddy, but I gotta go. My shift starts in,” Prompto pulled out his phone to check the time and made a face, “ten minutes, so I really should get going.”

“What?” Sudden dread washed over Noct as he grabbed Prompto’s phone to see for himself. “sh*t!”

“Huh?”

Noct quickly slid off the stool and shoved the colourful arcade gun back into its holster, looking around for his schoolbag. “I was supposed to be at training with Gladio like twenty minutes ago. I completely forgot!”

“Aw, man, he’s gonna kick your ass. Or worse, make you run extra laps,” Prompto said, sounding half sympathetic and half amused. “Better hurry up then.”

“Yep, see you,” Noct called over his shoulder as he ran out, almost tripping over his own feet and down the front stairs in his haste to leave the building.

The arcade wasn’t that far from the Citadel, but he’d still be over half an hour late in total. A year ago, he wouldn’t have cared. Gladio would have yelled at him and told him to run laps or do a million push-ups, and Noct would have scowled at him and probably run off the training grounds. If he would have bothered to show up at all, that was. Chances were that, since he was already late, he would have gone home to sleep straight from the arcade.

Then, Ignis would have given him a lecture, maybe threatened to tell his dad about it, but nothing would ever have happened since his dad didn’t have time to deal with his bullsh*t anyway. And the next time Noct didn’t feel like training, the entire thing would just have repeated itself.

But now, for the past two or three months, things had been kinda different between him and Gladio. Better. They were both making an effort now, ever since Ignis had finally had enough of their constant fighting and locked them in the changing room after yet another training session gone wrong. He’d refused to let them out until they’d talked it all out, and he refused to budge even when Noct tried to make it an order. So they’d talked it out because neither of them wanted to spend the night in a smelly changing room and there had been no doubt that Ignis would just go home and leave them there at some point.

Noct still rolled his eyes when Gladio criticized him or told him to stop slacking off, and Gladio still snapped at him when he didn’t get a move right after the second time. They both still said things that were uncalled for, but they both did their best to apologize to each other afterwards, once they’d both cooled off a bit.

And what was perhaps the biggest change in Noct’s behaviour was that he finally took training seriously. He made sure to show up on time, and he didn’t storm off to sulk anymore. Gladio, he’d found out, was in return more lenient with training hours, willing to reschedule when Noct was genuinely not feeling capable of getting out of bed, and sometimes he let him off early when a session went especially well. Gladio would even take him out for fast food after training every once in a while, and then they’d just hang out and talk while they ate.

Training sucked less that way, but what Noct really liked about this whole thing was how they were closer outside of training. Kind of like they were actually friends. It was nice, he thought, and definitely worth putting some effort into things.

And now, he’d gone and forgotten about training. He was going to be late, and Gladio was going to be mad. Even worse, Gladio was going to be disappointed.

Yet another thing he wouldn’t have cared about a few months ago. He wouldn’t have given a damn about Gladio’s feelings, or maybe it would even have felt like some sort of victory knowing he’d managed to irritate him enough to lose his cool on him.

Now… the thought of disappointing Gladio didn’t feel like a victory at all.

Gladio glanced at the clock again, just to make sure he had the time right. He did, of course, and he dropped his gaze again with a frustrated sigh.

He’d thought he was finally getting through to Noct, he really had. Him skipping training again all of a sudden felt not unlike a punch to the gut, even though he would never have admitted it out loud. He’d started to look at the kid like a friend instead of a job, and he’d kind of thought Noct was sharing that opinion.

He grabbed his phone from where it was lying next to his water bottle again, opening his and Noct’s text history and scrolling through his three unanswered texts from the previous thirty minutes. Just as he tried to decide if there was even a point in sending another one, the door burst open, revealing a very red-faced Noct.

The kid was breathing heavily, and there was a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead. He dropped his bag on the floor and leaned forward with his hands on his thighs as he tried to catch his breath, looking very much like he ran here all the way from… wherever the hell he’d been.

“Sorry I’m late,” he gasped, taking in a few large gulps of air before he was able to continue without sounding like he was about to drown. “School was out early so me and Prompto went to the arcade for a while. I didn’t mean to skip training, I just completely lost track of the time.”

Gladio studied him, all irritation he’d felt earlier already gone from his chest. Instead, there was relief, and something not unlike the fondness normally reserved for Iris.

The thing about Noct was that he couldn’t really lie. Aside from a few white lies (like that time Iggy had told him about when Noct had found a kitten and was trying to hide it from Citadel staff) he never did lie, and when he tried, he sucked at it pretty bad. And then, even when he would still regularly skip training, he’d never bothered to make up excuses. He would simply mutter “whatever” under his breath, or say nothing at all, and that would be the end of it. The fact that he had an excuse at all now was pretty much all the proof Gladio needed to know he was telling nothing but the truth.

“Looks like you already started without me,” he said with a smirk. “I think we can cut the warm-up phase short today.”

Noct looked up sharply, having clearly expected a different response.

Gladio lifted an eyebrow at him. “What? Do you want to run laps?”

When Noct shook his head so hard he almost gave himself whiplash, Gladio snorted. “Thought so. Go catch your breath and get changed. I want you here in five minutes.”

Noct still looked kind of surprised, but he grabbed his back and disappeared into the changing room without complaint.

Grinning to himself, Gladio took his phone and typed out two quick texts; one to Jared to tell him not to expect him at dinner, and another one to Iggy letting him know he didn't have to wait up because he and Noct were going out for burgers after training.

Then he put the phone aside and started doing his own warm-up routine until Noct joined him.

Chapter 14: "May I have this dance?" Ignis & Gladio, pre-roadtrip

Chapter Text

Ignis sighed heavily at the message on his phone. At first, he hadn’t even known to whom the unknown number belonged. Only after he’d inquired, Ardalio had revealed his identity, although he seemed a bit vexed that he wasn’t saved in Ignis’ phone yet.

Ardalio was the sort of person who thought everyone should know him, should want to listen to what he had to say, and should feel honoured if he elected them worthy of his attention. A handsome young man, no doubt, but way too full of himself. He was only a few years older than Ignis, but due to his father being a rather important member of the council, Ardalio hadn’t had to work particularly hard to earn a position in the council himself.

Unfortunately, Ignis had, as it appeared, become one of those lucky people who were blessed with Ardalio’s attention. More, the man was asking him to be his date for Noctis’ upcoming birthday party. Ardalio was smart, to attend the party with one of the people closest to the Prince would be a valuable boost to his reputation.

Ignis, naturally, had no intention of going to the party with Ardalio. That did mean he would have to find a date for himself, though. Up until now, he had simply planned to attend the event alone, but claiming he already had someone else to accompany him was the only valid excuse he had to avoid having to accept Ardalio’s proposal.

He put the phone down with the screen against the table and went back to his work. Ardalio could wait until he’d found himself a date. That way, Ignis wouldn’t have to lie to him, he justified to himself. And maybe Ignis was leaving him on read was because he liked the mental image of Ardalio’s indignation at not being replied to immediately, too. Just maybe.

“Gladio, a word?”

Training seemed to have gone well; both Noct and Gladio were in a good mood. Gladio even held his hand out for Noct to give him a fist bump before he sent him off to the changing room.

Perfect circ*mstances for Ignis to make his request.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“You wouldn’t, perchance, happen to be in need of someone to accompany you to Noct’s birthday party?”

Gladio grinned at him. “Iggy, are you asking me to be your date?”

“I suppose I am.” Ignis smiled back. “You would do me a favour if you accepted.”

“So, that’s how it is.” Gladio wagged his eyebrows knowingly. “Out with it, who asked you?”

Ignis made a face. “Ardalio. Although he didn’t exactly ask. His message made it sound more like he had elected me. An honour, I’m sure.”

Gladio laughed. “What, and you don’t appreciate it? Anyone else would be thrilled to go with him.”

“Well then anyone else may gladly have him,” Ignis said dryly.

“Your loss,” Gladio said with a shrug. “If you’re wanna settle for me instead of him and his big ego, go ahead. Actually, I’m kinda glad you asked. Dad’s been hounding me for weeks already, said I should go with one of the girls who think it would be cool to participate in breeding future Shields. But I ain’t stupid, I know how this sorta thing goes. I go to the party with one of them, her family thinks that basically means I’ll marry her.”

Relieved, Ignis nodded. “We wouldn’t want that now, would we. That reminds me, Noct is bringing Prompto as his date.”

“Really?” Gladio whistled. “Damn. The nobles are gonna hate that.”

There was no doubt that a commoner accompanying Noct to the party would cause some outrage among the nobility of Lucis. Countless families had tried to introduce their daughters and sons to Noctis before, to no avail. As a result, Noct had gained a reputation of being unapproachable and indifferent- a reputation he happily embraced if it meant not having to put up with people trying to make them notice their children. Prompto’s presence at Noct’s side would mean all those who had been rejected by Noct before would be forced to admit that the issue did not lie with Noctis being unapproachable at all.

Ignis should probably have discouraged him, but he found himself looking forward to the reactions of those attending the party too much to tell Noct not to invite Prompto. He also didn’t have the heart to tell Noct his best friend couldn’t be at his birthday party. And since Prompto clearly intended to remain in Noct’s life, the birthday party was the best opportunity to introduce him to Noct’s world beyond video games and fast food.

“I’ve no doubt about it. Either way, thank you for accepting my proposal. I really was not looking forward to spending the evening with Ardalio of all people.”

“No problem. Not like you aren’t helping me out here too.” Gladio smirked. “Pick you up at seven?”

Ignis rolled his eyes. “We aren’t going to a prom. And you needn’t pick me up.”

For such a hulk of a man, Gladio sure could pout. “You’re a killjoy, Iggy.”

“Damn, Iggy, who dressed you? The Fairy Godmother?” Gladio said when he, true to his word and not at all impressed by Ignis telling him not to, picked Ignis up at seven. He gave him an appreciative once-over, then offered him his arm in an exaggerated gesture. “Looks good! Ready to go?”

“Yes, but remember I need to be home before midnight, lest the magic loses its power and you figure out who I really am,” Ignis played along, holding on to Gladio’s arm. “And, thank you. You look rather handsome, yourself.”

“Watch us steal Noct’s spotlight. Are we allowed to be hotter than the prince?”

“I doubt Noct would mind not being in the spotlight,” Ignis pointed out. “And, since he isn’t a bride, I’d say we are allowed to be hotter than him.”

As it turned out, Noct was holding his own pretty impressively in terms of hotness, but as Ignis had seen him in a formal setting before, it was Prompto who was the real surprise.

Of course, Ignis had been the one to take him to buy a suit, so he’d seen him wear it already. But surrounded by nobility and royalty, he was pleasantly surprised to see how nicely Prompto fit in despite his lack of experience in this particular world. He seemed a bit anxious, a bit bouncier than usual from nerves, but mostly he looked thrilled to be there.

“Wow, kid, I didn’t think you could pull off a suit. Looks like I was wrong,” Gladio teased, punching Prompto lightly in the shoulder.

“Thanks! I feel like I’m someone really, really important,” Prompto gushed. “Ohh, do you think I could get one of those champagne flutes? They’re so fancy!”

“Well, considering you’re the Prince’s escort tonight, I would say you are an important person,” Ignis told him. “That doesn’t change the fact that you are underage and won’t be getting any alcohol, though.”

Prompto pouted, but Noct patted his shoulder with playful sympathy. “Don’t worry, we can still try all of the food. The stuff without veggies is really good, you’ll see.”

“The stuff with veggies is also really good, you just don’t know how to appreciate food,” Gladio said dryly. “Anyway, Prompto, has he told you you’re going to have to dance yet?”

Prompto groaned. “Don’t remind me! Noct’s taught me some stuff, but I’m really not looking forward to it.” He eyed Gladio warily. “You don’t know how to dance, do you?”

“Don’t encourage them!” Noct hissed, elbowing Prompto, but it was too late; the devilish grin already formed on Gladio’s face.

“I don’t know, Iggy, do I know how to dance?”

Ignis resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Yes, Gladio, you know how to dance.” To Prompto, he said, “He may not look like it, but Gladio is a great dancer. In fact, he’s even my favourite dancing partner.”

“Yeah? Show me,” Prompto demanded.

“Later,” Gladio promised. “For now, let’s check out the food. I’m starving.”

“It’s later and people are dancing. Show me.”

Prompto had been distracted first by the food, then by all the people who wanted to talk to him. He stood his ground pretty impressively, winning the nobility of Lucis over with the natural charms he likely didn’t even know he possessed. Soon enough, they might even forget he was a commoner. But by the time people were starting to dance, he was beginning to look a little tired of the constant attention. When the music started playing, he immediately latched onto it, remembering Gladio’s earlier promise.

He’d earned the show, Ignis figured. They might as well indulge him for a while.

Gladio seemed to agree as he delivered an exaggerated bow before Ignis and held out his hand. “May I have this dance?”

“Certainly,” Ignis said, and let himself be led to the dance floor.

As usual, Gladio took the lead. The music started out rather slow, leaving not much room for impressive moves. But when it picked up eventually, he grinned at Ignis, mirth sparkling in his eyes.

“Let’s show the kids how it’s done,” he said, and then the world around them blurred as he whirled them across the floor in a rapid series of footsteps.

Ignis hadn’t been joking when he said Gladio was his favourite partner to dance with. He led easily but firmly, and with Ignis’ own skills, he was sure they were a sight to behold. Both of them had been required to attend dancing classes a few years ago. Neither of them had been particularly looking forward to it, regarding it more as a necessary evil. They’d elected to go together hoping it would make the time pass more quickly, but instead, they figured out dancing could be a lot more interesting than they gave it credit for, provided one had the right partner.

Gladio was going all out, clearly showing off by pulling out some of the fanciest moves in their repertoire. Ignis would have loved to see Prompto’s face now, but there was no time to stop and check as he was focusing on keeping up with Gladio.

It took a considerable effort not to break into laughter; dancing with Gladio was just so fun. There was something about dancing wildly in a formal setting like this; a chance to get away with something they couldn’t do otherwise.

By the time the dance ended, they were breathing hard, but that didn’t stop Gladio from dipping Ignis deep, ending their impromptu performance as dramatically as possible. He held him steady for a moment, hands securely around his waist before he pulled him back up and let go of him.

Trying to catch his breath without being too obviously winded, Ignis rejoined Prompto and Noct with Gladio trailing close behind him.

“So, whatcha think?” Gladio asked, winking at Prompto. His cheeks were flushed and there was a happy grin on his lips. Obviously, he’d enjoyed it just as much as Ignis had.

“Dude!” Prompto said, sounding shocked and impressed and in complete awe. “That was amazing! You two looked like gods, it was the coolest thing ever!”

Noct didn’t look nearly as impressed and made sure to roll his eyes at them to let them know how very much not impressed he was, but even he didn’t bother hiding his smile. “They’re extra, that’s what they are.”

“Prompto did want to know,” Ignis retorted. “We simply showed him what he asked to see.”

“Yeah, like you didn’t go out of your way to impress him. Some of these moves I’ve never even seen you guys do before,” Noct snorted- thankfully, there wasn’t anyone close enough to have heard him make such undignified noises.

“Man, how am I supposed to dance now? I won’t get anywhere near their level,” Prompto moaned, shoulders slumping dramatically. “Your dad’s probably gonna throw me into the dungeon because I embarrassed his son.”

“We don’t have a dungeon,” Noct explained patiently, slinging an arm around Prompto and steering him towards the dance floor. “If anything, you’d just go to prison.”

Prompto’s squeak of distress was mercifully drowned out by the music.

Chapter 15: "I made your favourite." Noctis & Ignis, brotherhood era

Chapter Text

Ignis sighed when he pulled up to the building and there wasn’t any light in Noct’s apartment yet.

He wasn’t a morning person by any means; coffee usually did most of the work to make him appear presentable in the morning, and nearly a lifetime of having to get up at a time when most people were still sound asleep had done the rest. He was used to it, but it hadn’t come to him naturally as it did to Gladio. The man, somehow, was able to jump out of bed at four in the morning perfectly cheerful and irritatingly talkative. Ignis could definitely not relate.

So it wasn’t that he didn’t understand Noct’s aversion to the early hours of the day, because he did. He really did, but he still wished he didn’t have to deal with a grumpy, irritable Noct almost every morning- provided he managed to rouse him at all without dumping a bucket of cold water over him.

Chugging the last of his coffee, he made his way to the elevator, nodding at the Crownsguard stationed at the entrance as he passed.

If the task of waking Noct didn’t take too much time this morning, he might make pancakes to brighten Noct’s morning a bit, he mused as he unlocked the door and let himself in.

“Noct, it’s time to get up,” he called, opening Noct’s bedroom door and, to his utter surprise, finding Noct blinking up at him instead of being dead to the world like he normally was in the morning.

Quickly, he made his way over to the bed. “Noct, are you feeling alright?”

Putting his hand on Noct’s forehead brought no answers to the strange behaviour; he didn’t appear to be running a fever.

“If you get up in time, I’ll make pancakes for breakfast,” Ignis tried, since Noct evidently wasn’t sick.

But Noct just curled in on himself and, in the smallest voice Ignis had ever heard from him, said, “I can’t go to school today.”

Ignis paused. “May I sit?”

When Noct didn’t object, he sat down on the edge of the bed and rested his hand atop Noct’s leg. “Is there anything you would like to talk about?”

Miserably, Noct shook his head. His eyes were dull and he seemed completely drained like he hadn’t slept all night. “I just can’t today. Please don’t make me go.”

Ignis’ heart nearly broke when he finally understood.

He was well aware of other people’s opinions, that they thought he had to be harder on Noct in order to prepare him for his future duties. He knew Gladio thought he was too soft with him, and he knew the only thing that kept Noct’s teachers from punishing him for slacking off in school was the fact that he was the Prince.

But he also knew that the greatest mistake he could make at this moment would be to force Noct to get up, get dressed, and go to school this morning.

Noct wouldn’t ask to stay home because of nothing. He might not be physically ill, but depression was an illness all the same. Far be it from Ignis to force him to do something for which he so clearly did not have the energy today.

“Very well,” Ignis said, reaching out to brush his hand over Noct’s hair very gently. “Rest. I’ll work from here today if you don’t mind. If you need anything, I’ll be in the living room.”

“Thanks,” Noct whispered. He buried himself deep in his blanket and closed his eyes, but when Ignis was about to leave the room, he opened them again. “Can you… let Prompto know? I don’t want him to worry.”

“Of course,” Ignis promised. He closed the door softly and went to set up a place to work on the table in the living room. Staying here meant having to cancel a few meetings as well as his own training today, but his duty was still first and foremost to tend to Noct, which was precisely what he would spend the day doing, whether people liked it or not.

As Noct wished, he also sent a message to Prompto informing him that Noct wasn’t feeling well and would not be attending school today. Then, he put his phone away and got to work.

Occasionally, he’d glance at the closed bedroom door, wondering if Noct was doing alright. He was most likely asleep, though. It was a running joke among their group that Noct spent most of his days asleep, like a cat, but the truth was that he often had trouble sleeping. Especially when his depression was bad he’d spend hours and hours lying awake during the night and only be able to fall asleep in the early morning. And once he finally did fall asleep, he was unlikely to wake for the next ten to twelve hours.

Still, Ignis succumbed to the urge after two hours and checked in on Noct, cracking the door open just a bit to peer inside. Like he had thought, Noct was fast asleep with only a mop of black hair peeking out from under the blanket. He didn’t stir at the sound of the door, so Ignis quietly left.

Back at the table, he checked his phone and saw that Prompto had replied, wishing Noct a speedy recovery and offering to drop by tomorrow if Noct wasn’t feeling better by then.

As the day went on, Ignis slowly worked through his full email inbox, typed out a few new emails to the recording clerks of the meetings he had missed to ask for a transcript, and prepared his documents for upcoming meetings.

Around dinner time, he closed his laptop and pulled out his recipe book instead. Noct hadn’t eaten in twenty-four hours, and Ignis had skipped lunch himself. Unintentionally, of course, but it was startlingly easy to forget about the time when one was immersed in their work.

He pushed aside half-empty takeout containers and pizza leftovers in the fridge, searching from the ingredients he’d need to make a rice bowl with chicken and egg. It was one of Noct’s favourites, and it was classic comfort food. Perhaps it would even help Noct feel a bit better.

Upon mentally going through the steps of the dish and determining how much time he’d need, he decided to make a batch of the tarts Noct had eaten in Tenebrae all those years ago and that he still hadn’t managed to get right even after countless tries. Noct might not be hungry enough to eat them today, but they were still lovely a day or two later so there would be no harm in making them.

When everything was ready, he carefully prepared a bowl for Noct - not too much, he wasn’t likely to be very hungry - and took it to Noct’s room on a tray along with a glass of water and a single pastry.

After he set the tray down on the nightstand, he reached for Noct’s shoulder and shook him gently. “Noct? Noct, wake up. It’s time for dinner. I made your favourite.”

Beneath his hand, Noct stirred, groaning softly before he opened his eyes and blinked blearily at Ignis. “’M not hungry…”

“I know,” Ignis said, “But please try to eat a little.”

Noct looked at him like he was asking something impossible from him- and perhaps right now, it was.

“It doesn’t have to be the whole plate,” Ignis soothed. “Just as much as you can manage.”

Finally, Noct nodded, not meeting Ignis’ eye. “Okay. Thanks.”

Ignis smiled, relieved. If Noct was going to try, that was already enough for him.

“You are most welcome.”

He left Noct alone after that, giving him space instead of breathing down his neck to make sure he ate. It would accomplish nothing, he knew, even though he itched to take care of him, to ensure he was fed and to try everything he could to make him feel better. It was what Gladio affectionately called his ‘mother hen instinct’, and usually, he was not afraid to act on it if it meant his friends were taken care of. It had taken him some time to accept that there wasn’t much he could to do make Noct feel better when he felt like this, though.

In silence, he ate his own portion of the food. When he bit into the pastry, he knew right away he had once again failed to recreate the recipe, even without Noct telling him so. His notebook came out, as did his pen, to add a note to the recipe and cross out another. Better luck next time.

Ignis washed the dishes, washed them again when he convinced himself they weren’t clean yet, opened his laptop to answer a few more emails, sent a text to Cor to apologize for missing training. Finally, he deemed it long enough since he brought Noct his food and went back to the bedroom.

Unsurprisingly, Noct was asleep again. But when Ignis went to collect the tray, he found the bowl almost empty and the pastry was gone.

Relief pooled in his chest and he abandoned the tray for a moment in favour of leaning down and pressing a kiss to Noct’s hair.

“Good night, Noct,” he said softly. “I’ll be on the couch if you need me.”

Chapter 16: "It's okay. I couldn't sleep anyway." - Gladio & Prompto, post-Altissia

Chapter Text

The sound of something shattering followed by a string of colourful curses startled Prompto awake. He shot upright, flailed, and nearly fell off the bed but managed to catch himself just in time.

Concerned, he looked at Ignis’ still form next to him, but he was still out cold. Ignis had developed a fever earlier in the evening, but when Prompto carefully felt his forehead to check his temperature, he was relieved to find that the fever at least hadn’t gotten any worse. He also seemed to be at peace for now, unlike a few hours ago when he’d been tossing and turning and muttering incomprehensible things to the point of Prompto worrying he’d somehow roll off the bed in the middle of the night.

He had yet to properly wake up, though. He’d spent most of the first day post-injury unconscious. Then, he’d woken for a few minutes, disoriented and unresponsive, before slipping into something more sleep-like. Ever since, he’d been mostly sleeping, and now he was running a fever. Overall, his condition was pretty worrying, and they hadn’t even had the chance yet to tell him about the extent of his injuries.

Still, right now, Prompto was satisfied with his state and decided it was safe to leave him alone for a moment. Quietly he slipped out from under the covers and out the door, to the room next to theirs where Noct was also unconscious and Gladio was keeping watch. In theory. Whatever just happened in that room wasn’t supposed to happen, though, so Prompto summoned his gun before he entered. Just to be safe.

A quick scan of the dark room provided only Noct, lying on the bed just as terrifyingly still as he had ever since they brought him and Iggy back to the Leville.

There was light in the bathroom. And Gladio. And a broken mirror.

“Hey, big guy? You okay?” Prompto asked, dismissing his gun in favour of hurrying over to Gladio’s side. He didn’t look okay, so the question was kind of pointless. People didn’t just break mirrors because they were having a great time.

“Fine,” Gladio said curtly, convincing exactly no one.

“No offense, but I don’t believe you.” Prompto’s eyes fell on the blood on what was left of the mirror, and then on Gladio’s hand. “sh*t, did you break that mirror with your fist?”

He tried to reach out, but Gladio pulled his hand away and took a step back. It reminded Prompto of an injured animal; an awful way for Gladio to behave.

“It’s fine,” Gladio repeated. A potion appeared in his good hand. “I’ll just take a-”

“No!” Prompto snapped, quickly snatching the potion away from Gladio and sending it back into the Armiger. “Are you insane? There’s still little pieces of mirror stuck in your hand!”

Gladio’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything.

Prompto tried to reach for him again. This time, Gladio let him.

“You left your post. You should be with Ignis.”

It was an accusation, clearly intended to either hurt or intimidate him, but Prompto refused to play along. Everything had already gone to sh*t, he wasn’t going to start a fight with Gladio on top of it all when each other was all they had left. Instead, he gingerly took Gladio’s hand to inspect it closely, because he wasn’t about to let his friend walk around with glass in his hand.

There were definitely splinters of the mirror glass stuck inside, so he pulled their rarely used first aid kit from the Armiger, found a pair of tweezers, and got to work.

“Iggy’s fine, his fever hasn’t gotten worse. And the doctor said he’s not likely to wake up anytime soon, anyway.”

Gladio gritted his teeth as Prompto had to dig a little deeper to get one particularly deeply lodged shard out, but he didn’t try to pull away.

“The doctor also said he might get his eyesight back,” he said darkly.

Prompto paused, allowing Gladio to take back his hand and cradle it protectively against his chest. “You think he won’t.”

“Have you seen him? He went and got half his face burn off! We already f*cking bathed him in potions and they barely did anything. These wounds aren’t normal, and he’s not gonna get his f*cking eyesight back,” Gladio exploded. To an outsider, he would probably sound insensitive and, well, like a massive jerk. But Prompto heard the pain masked by anger, saw the flash of grief in his eyes.

“Yeah…” he said simply, helplessly, because he’d been thinking about that too. Iggy’s injuries were bad, really bad, and if they hadn’t reacted to the potions by now, there was no sense in continuing. The potions had fixed up his bruises, broken ribs, the cut on his head yet hadn’t even touched the burns on his face and his left arm. Prompto wasn’t stupid; he knew what such an injury so close to a person’s eyes did to them.

Still, to have Gladio state it so blatantly made it feel much more real all of a sudden. Like there was no going back from now, a harsh reminder that nothing was ever going to be the same again. Gladio wasn’t one to sugar-coat things, and most of the time, Prompto appreciated his honesty. But somehow he had still hoped he’d get to pretend, just a little longer.

sh*t.

Taking a deep breath, he gestured for Gladio to give him his hand again so he could remove the remaining shards.

Aside from Gladio’s occasional sharp intake of breath, the room was silent as Prompto worked. Finally, he pulled out the last fragment and immediately applied a potion to it.

Gladio sighed in relief, flexing his fingers to test his ability to move them. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any lingering damage- Prompto didn’t even want to think about the possibility of yet another member of their group dealing with a permanent injury.

“Let’s get on the balcony for a bit, yeah?” Prompto suggested when Gladio fell silent and stared at the floor, or more like right through it. He didn’t stick around for an answer, opting to wait on the balcony instead. If Gladio wanted to join him, he would. And if he didn’t. Well. Prompto wasn’t gonna force him.

Altissia had taken a good beating during Noct’s fight with Leviathan. There were ruins everywhere, buildings were flooded, others were missing their roof or had collapsed. Prompto couldn’t imagine anyone was happy about them still being here, but First Secretary Claustra must’ve felt some kind of gratitude for them trying to keep Leviathan safe from the imperials. Or maybe she just had more empathy than they gave her credit for, but no matter what motives she had, Prompto was grateful. He didn’t want to imagine having to travel with both Noct and Ignis out of commission.

The people of Altissia were already working on rebuilding the city, but it would probably take a long time to restore it to its former glory.

To think that just a few days ago, being here had felt like a holiday. Prompto had been happier than ever, and now…

There were footsteps approaching, and he hastily scrubbed at his eyes as hot tears threatened to spill. He wouldn’t cry now, not in front of Gladio.

“Hand feeling okay?” he asked, taking extra care to make his voice sound cheerful. He had a feeling to be cheerful would be his job for the time being, even though he wasn’t yet sure how he’d manage.

“Yeah. Thanks for fixing it. I owe you,” Gladio said.

“No, dude, you don’t owe me anything. It’s what friends do, right?”

Gladio paused. “…Yeah. Did I, uh. Did I wake you? Earlier, I mean.”

“Nah, it’s okay. I couldn’t sleep anyway,” Prompto lied.

“Okay. Okay. Sorry, I don’t- it’s just-” Gladio cut himself off, hissing in frustration. “This is… bad, Prompto. Worse than… well, not worse than Insomnia falling, but it’s definitely up there.”

“Yeah,” Prompto said. “I get it. It’s wrong, I don’t know how we f*cked up so bad.”

Gladio made a strangled noise. “Not we. I did. I f*cked up. I should’ve- It shouldn’t’ve been Iggy, it should’ve been me.”

Because he was the Shield, not Ignis. It was his position, his one purpose, and now Ignis was going to serve as a permanent reminder that he hadn’t done his job. Prompto understood, and his heart ached for his friend.

Back in Insomnia, he’d looked at the three of them with admiration and, even though he was ashamed of it, envy. He used to feel insignificant, with all these people having their positions and serving important purposes and Prompto himself was only there because Noct kept him around, for as long as he felt like keeping him around.

But now, witnessing first-hand how far their sense of duty went, how Gladio’s and Iggy’s lives barely mattered to themselves in comparison to Noct’s, and the crushing feelings of guilt that came with the knowledge of having failed… Prompto was suddenly very, very glad he hadn’t had to live his entire life with that sort of pressure.

“Iggy and I…” Gladio continued, making Prompto snap out of his thoughts, “We’ve always been partners. I had his back, and I knew he had mine. My weaknesses were his strengths. And now… I don’t… I don’t know how to deal with this alone, Prompto.”

Prompto’s eyes burned, and he had to swallow a few times to keep himself from choking on his words. “You’re not alone. I promise. I’m not Iggy, I know I’m the weakest out of all of us, and I’m not very valuable in battle. I can’t take Iggy’s place, I know that, but I’m gonna do my best to help. Promise.”

Gladio sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. “I know. Thanks, kid.”

There wasn’t much to say, no words to make any of this better. Prompto knew his words hadn’t done anything to help Gladio, and he couldn’t even take it to heart. Somehow, he doubted there were any words that had the power to make Gladio feel better. Hell, Prompto couldn’t think of any words to make himself feel better.

“I think I should…” Prompto gestured at the balcony door awkwardly. “Y’know. Check on Iggy.”

Gladio nodded wordlessly.

Prompto went back inside but paused halfway through the door, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. “Try to get some sleep?”

“Yeah. You too,” Gladio said. He didn’t follow Prompto inside.

Prompto didn’t think Gladio would actually attempt to sleep, not if it meant taking his eyes off Noct. But there wasn’t much he could do; Gladio was way too f*cking stubborn, and Prompto didn’t have the physical strength to wrestle him into bed and keep him there.

He stalled for a few more moments before giving up, softly closing the door behind himself as he returned to Ignis’ room.

Ignis was still exactly where he’d left him, although the covers had somehow slipped down to his hip as he’d moved in his sleep.

Carefully, Prompto tucked him back in before he climbed into bed with him again. After a few seconds of contemplation, he decided that nothing mattered anymore and gently rested his head against Ignis’ shoulder.

“Goodnight, Iggy,” he whispered and closed his eyes. This time, he didn’t try to stop the tears.

Chapter 17: "Watch your step." - Gladio & Ignis, World of Ruin

Chapter Text

Prompto wasn't sure how much he liked bringing Ignis along. He did, of course, like the idea of him and Ignis and Gladio running around kicking ass like they used to.

(Except Noct is missing, his mind supplied, but he stubbornly ignored that.)

He'd also seen first-hand how much Iggy had improved with his training. Aside from changing his fighting style a bit, you could barely tell anything was different from before. And if you'd never seen him fight before, you wouldn't even question him one bit, in fact, some of the newer hunters had been surprised when they'd learnt he was blind.

Still, Prompto thought it was natural for him to worry. He was allowed to worry. Ignis was his friend, the last thing he wanted was getting him hurt doing something stupid.

So, yes, if he was being honest to himself, Prompto wasn't too happy about the idea of Ignis tagging along on their next mission.

Gladio on the other hand... Gladio was absolutely furious.

Of course, Prompto kind of understood him. The guy was a natural big brother, his protective streak was insane, and his stubbornness nearly unmatched. Certainly didn't help that Iris had recently started leaving the safety of Lestallum to hunt some daemons herself, either. No matter how capable she (or Ignis, for that matter) was, Gladio had thrown a fit until she'd whacked him upside the head and told him, in no uncertain terms, that if he happened to die, she'd become the one who'd have to put her literal body between Noct and danger. That she had gone through the same training he had, and that he'd long been doing "Shield stuff" when he was her age.

That had shut him right up, although he was still clearly not happy with her decision. And now, Ignis announced he wanted to run around stabbing daemons in the face too. Fun stuff.

Still, even though Prompto felt bad for Gladio, he also understood Ignis. How many times had he, himself, felt useless next to his very capable friends whilst he was simply... kinda present. How happy he was every time he landed a lucky shot and prevented one of them from being chewed on by a voretooth. And how thrilled he was still upon everyone just accepting him as a hunter without question, now that the sun was gone and everything was going to sh*t.

For Ignis, who had been capable and badass and a fighter all his life, being sat on the sidelines whilst everyone he cared about was out risking their life... must be horrible for him.

So he'd taken Iggy's side and pretended not to notice the hurt and betrayal on Gladio's face, and now they were going to explore some ancient cave system, just the three of them.

At least they would be there to protect Ignis in case things turned sour. He'd told Gladio exactly that when Ignis wasn't around to hear it. Told him how Ignis would just go off on his own if they didn't go with him, and that'd been enough for Gladio to make up his mind and choose the lesser evil: be with Ignis as he recklessly put himself in danger, as opposed to Ignis recklessly putting himself in danger on his own.

The mood was still weird, the tension between Ignis and Gladio still heavily weighing down on them, and Prompto had given up on trying to fill the silence with mindless chatter quite some time ago.

Soon enough, his mood was just as sour as Ignis' and Gladio's, and when his flashlight gave a few desperate flickers and then died, he didn't even bother keeping the frustration out of his voice as he threw his hands up and exclaimed, "Oh, come on!"

"What?"

"My flashlight just went out," he said, quickly catching up with Ignis and Gladio - Gladio insisted on scouting ahead and was adamant that Ignis stayed sandwiched in between him and Prompto – so he could benefit from their flashlights.

"Here," Ignis said, already taking off his own flashlight and handing it to Prompto. "Take mine. I don't know why the two of you insist I wear one, anyway."

"Well, it's coming quite in handy just about now," Prompto pointed out, fastening the flashlight to his shirt. "Thanks, Iggy."

The cave system became harder and harder to navigate the deeper they went. For one, several paths were blocked due to rockslides and forced them to turn back and try a different way. Additionally, the rocks around them seemed less stable than near the entrance, and after the third time of almost getting hit by some random falling rock, Prompto was getting real damn sick of the place.

Still, he wasn't even able to tell anything was wrong until Iggy's head snapped up. "Watch out!"

Prompto only caught a glimpse of Ignis tackling Gladio to the ground before an avalanche of rocks rained down. Without Iggy's warning, which had given him enough time to leap backward, he would've been buried.

Instinctively, he curled up in a ball and waited until the rumbling of the falling rocks stopped, and miraculously, he didn't get hit.

Rattled but unhurt, he uncurled himself, helplessly staring at the rocks separating him from his friends. No chance of getting through, either.

"Guys!" he yelled, "Gladio! Ignis!"

For a terrifying moment, he heard nothing, but then he faintly heard Ignis' voice. "We're alright. What about you?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm good!"

"Good," Ignis called back. "Try to get back to the entrance. We'll see if we can find another exit somewhere. Be careful!"

Ignis quickly checked himself over for injuries, coming up with none save for a couple of would-be nasty bruises.

Gladio, too, confirmed that he was more or less alright. "Hit my shoulder something awful going down. Not sure how much use it'll be in a fight, but I'll be fine."

After making sure Prompto was alive and well, Ignis stood up, dusted himself off, and extended a hand to help Gladio up.

And frowned when Gladio didn't take it.

"Gladio?"

"Ah, sh*t, my flashlight!"

"What about it?"

"It broke. Damnit!"

Despite their situation, Ignis felt a vindictive grin creep upon his face. Oh, the irony.

"That's unfortunate," he said.

"Unfortunate? It's dark as hell down here, I can't see sh*t!"

"Oh no, what a nightmare," Ignis said, drier than a river bed in the middle of Leide during the summer months.

He could practically feel Gladio's death glare as he ground out, "Oh, shut up."

Allowing himself another small grin, Ignis once again searched for Gladio's hand and hauled him upright

“So, uh. What do we do?” Gladio asked. “Seriously, it’s pitch black in here, I can’t even see my own hands in front of my face.”

Ignis sighed. “Gladio, you seem to have forgotten that, unlike you, I don’t need light to navigate anymore. You will have to follow my lead I’m afraid.”

“Iggy-” Gladio said, sounding very uncomfortable.

“No, Gladio,” Ignis said, voice raised slightly but still calm. “You need to trust me. I am capable, I know what I am doing, and you are useless in the dark. I will not discuss this any further.”

Gladio knew a lost battle when he saw one. “Fine. Lead the way.”

Ignis took a few seconds to orient himself before moving, Gladio’s hand resting on his arm, just like Ignis' own hand had once clasped Gladio's arm when he'd still been new to his disability.

Despite Ignis’ guidance, Gladio stumbled often, losing his footing and almost tripping over some rocks several times. He was none too happy about it, too, cursing under his breath and grumbling and generally being insufferable the entire time until Ignis snapped at him to be quiet if he didn’t have anything useful to contribute.

They did run into some weaker daemons, nothing compared to what was crawling around on the surface these days, Gladio was still entirely unable to fight. Earlier, he’d been forced to switch to a regular sword instead of his familiar broadsword already since the cave was too narrow to properly use it, which, whilst still a weapon he’d been trained with, had already put him at a disadvantage in combat. And now, with nothing but darkness surrounding them, he was rendered completely out of commission.

Ignis, on the other hand, finished them off quick and clean, a wave of satisfaction washing over him as he dismissed his daggers and went to collect Gladio. Oh, how the tables had turned.

Of course, he didn’t rub it in Gladio’s face. Despite his annoyance at the man, he knew Gladio was simply being overprotective and couldn’t bear the thought of any harm coming to him. And now, he had no way to protect Ignis, had to be protected himself- Ignis knew the feeling all too well.

So instead of making a snide remark like part of him would have liked, he simply guided Gladio’s hand back onto his arm and led him forward once more.

“Come on. Watch your step.”

The cave floor was littered with rubble, they had to climb over pieces of rocks frequently and were exhausting themselves fast. It was hard to keep track of the time; by the time Ignis slowed them to a stop, it might as well have been several hours they'd been down there already.

“Hold on a minute,” he told Gladio, listening intently.

“There’s wind,” he said after a moment when he heard the gentle noise again.

Even though Gladio claimed he couldn’t feel a thing, Ignis followed the fresh air with a certainty that left no room for arguments.

The exit was barely an exit at all. Rather, it was a very tight hole in the rubble, tight enough that Ignis worried Gladio might not fit through at all, but with enough squeezing on Gladio’s and shoving on Ignis’ part, they were both able to slip through.

Next to him, Gladio inhaled deeply. “Gods, I’ve never been so happy to breathe fresh air. Still can’t see, though. We’re too far away from any street lamps.”

Ignis sighed. “We’re going to have to wait for Prompto either way. We don’t know if he made it out yet.”

“You think we should go back in?”

“I do, but...” Ignis pinched his nose in frustration. “We have no clue where we came out, and neither of us can see- we wouldn’t be able to find the entrance we went in earlier even if we tried.”

Gladio made a frustrated noise. “You mean we just gotta wait here and hope he didn’t die in there? Just great.”

Ignis went to answer, but the telltale gurgling of a red giant just a little to the side caught his attention. “Look out,” he said, grabbing Gladio’s arm and pulling him away. “I’d rather not fight that one right now.”

“Afraid it’s too late for that, Iggy,” Gladio growled into his ear, the crystalline sound of the armiger momentarily interrupting the red giant’s noise as he summoned his broadsword. “f*cking thing already spotted us.”

Taking on a battle stance, hands closed around his daggers, Ignis readied himself as the red giant charged at them. “Looks like we don’t have a choice, then!”

Gladio ran past him, his sword clashing against the red giant’s. “At least its sword is bright enough that I can see now!”

Small victories, Ignis thought as he narrowly avoided the huge sword crashing into the ground beside him. The heat radiated off it and burnt against his face, but he didn't have time to dwell before the red giant lifted it to strike again.

Ignis dashed past the red giant and slashed at its leg, catching it a good few times before it swirled around with a roar and struck again.

“I’m not sure we can take this thing,” Gladio yelled at him as he once again dodged the gigantic sword.

“We have no choice!” Ignis yelled back, but he agreed- there was no way the two of them could take this thing out. Gladio was hurt, even if it wasn’t serious. And even when there had been four of them, red giants had always been a special sort of challenge and left them sore and exhausted and in need of curatives more often than not.

Fleeing wasn’t an option because a red giant was a lot faster than they were, and squeezing back through the hole into the cave wouldn’t work either without the red giant chopping them in half as they tried to get through.

For now, they’d have to keep fighting and pray to the gods for a miracle it seemed.

“Hey guys, need some help?”

And a miracle it was, a miracle that came in the form of none other than Prompto.

“Prompto!” Ignis and Gladio exclaimed in unison.

Shootingrapid fire at the red giant with whatever weapon he was wielding at the moment, Prompto was able to stun it enough to give Gladio and Ignis the opening they desperately needed to turn the fight around.

Even with Prompto as backup, the battle was long and exhausting and left all three of them collapsed on the ground once the daemon dissolved in a hissing cloud of smoke at last.

Taking a few long moments to breathe and will his sore limbs to move, Ignis hauled himself onto his feet and called out to his friends, “Is everyone alive?”

“Wish I weren’t,” Prompto groaned.

Gladio made a similar noise as he, too, forced himself to get off the ground. “Only just.”

Ignis made his way over to Prompto, extending a hand to help him up.

“Thanks, Iggy! Man, I’ve never been so glad to see you guys! How’d you make it out?”

Patting the dust off his clothes, Ignis stayed pointedly silent and waited for Gladio to admit his judgment was wrong.

“Barely, and only thanks to Iggy, actually,” Gladio said sheepishly. He gave Prompto a brief summary of the events in the cave, finishing with a sincere apology to Ignis.

Allowing himself a little smirk, Ignis made his way over to Gladio and clasped his good shoulder in a firm grip. “You’re forgiven, though I hope in the future you’ll have a little more faith in me. I’m hardly helpless, everyone who helped me train made sure of that.”

Aranea and Iris certainly hadn’t gone easy on him to say the least, nor had Cor the few times they had trained together. It was only thanks to them he was standing where he was today, alive and unharmed, as were his friends. He’d have to find a way to thank them for it, he thought.

“I saw,” Gladio chuckled. “I was just worried, you know. Didn’t want to see you hurt or anythin’. But that didn’t give me the right to be such an ass about it.”

“I know,” Ignis said, bumping his shoulder against Gladio’s. “Now, what say you, gentlemen, shall we get out of here?”

“We sure are pushing our luck here,” Prompto agreed, marching ahead to where they’d left their vehicle.

“How is your shoulder?” Ignis asked Gladio. “Still hurting?”

“A little. Should be alright with some rest. Gonna let Prompto drive back I think.”

“Ah, so fate did not let us perish in those caves, but now we’ll succumb to Prompto’s driving skills,” Ignis sighed dramatically, laughing when Prompto yelled back, “I heard that!”.

Despite the fatigue, the sore muscles, and the bruises, Ignis felt lighter than he had in months. He had missed his friends, as they had surely missed him. Getting trapped in a cave and nearly being maimed by a giant daemon had been entirely worth it, he decided as he fell into a light jog to catch up with Prompto.

Chapter 18: "Here, drink this. You'll feel better." - Gladio & Noctis & Prompto, brotherhood era

Chapter Text

When Prompto had first come into Noct's life, people in the Citadel had expressed concerns about the possibility of the peasant boy having a negative influence on their Crown Prince. There was a reason why he rarely took Prompto to the Citadel; Prompto didn't deserve to deal with their disapproving glances and hushed remarks when they thought Noct couldn’t hear them.

(They never did care about Prompto overhearing, however).

Noct had wanted his own place anyway, but his then-budding friendship with Prompto had been what'd really made him push and fight until his father would allow him to move out. That, of course, sparked an entirely different discussion because, after all, if the Prince was to spend less time with noblemen and more time with a commoner, and that was just bound to affect their young, impressionable Prince.

The truth was, Noct was the negative influence. Really, didn't people remember he used to get Ignis to sneak out with him all the time when they were kids? Everyone knew Noct was the real culprit despite Ignis always taking the fall, although everyone seemed to conveniently forget about that part now.

Nowadays, his bad influence mainly consisted of persuading Prompto to just stay on the couch and play video games instead of doing homework, or exchanging little notes during class. Ignis let it slide because Noct's grades were still alright, and the teachers let it slide because they were cowards who thought his dad would have them executed if they dared tell him no, but even without his royal status preventing him from any consequences, those things were truly harmless.

This time, though, Noct was going to be in big trouble if anyone found out what they were up to last night- and going to find out they were.

Because see, Noct, to this day, had never been allowed to try even a single glass of champagne at any formal gathering he had to attend. And he had to attend a lot of them. It was unfair, Noct always thought, because whenever rulers from other places brought their kids to anything, they'd be allowed to (provided they weren’t like, five). Only his own father - and Ignis and Gladio too, those killjoys – had objected.

It'd never been his intention to get super drunk. He'd just been curious, and some classmates had recently started bragging about the parties they attended and how they got so drunk they barely remembered their own names. The parties Noct truly couldn’t care any less for, but he’d been extremely curious if alcohol felt anything like everyone kept saying.

Prompto, after some pestering from Noct, had admitted to never having tried anything either. But unlike Noct, he didn't seem too bothered by it and had only agreed to buy some booze from one of the older students because Noct had wanted to. But once they were in Noct's apartment, certain that Ignis was heading home for the night, and that there was no danger whatsoever of being found out, curiosity had gotten the better of him, too.

What Noct hadn't accounted for was that the media wasn't lying about feeling like absolute sh*t the next day.

It wasn't that he wasn't used to waking up in pain; on days his chronic backache flared up, waking up sucked even more than usual. But he wasn't used to this throbbing pain like that one time he'd hit himself in the head with the handle of Gladio's broadsword during training, his mouth feeling like sandpaper, and the unsettled feeling in his stomach as if the slightest disturbance would make it turn.

He couldn't stop himself from groaning when he blinked his eyes open and the light stabbed into his skull. Even making the damn noise hurt, somehow.

The small part of his brain that was still capable of thinking instead of lying down in a corner and sobbing in pain supplied that perhaps he shouldn't have picked a night that preceded a morning of training with Gladio to drink himself stupid.

The mere thought of training made him want to curl up and die. No way he'd be able to stand an entire two hours of Gladio beating the sh*t out of him- hell, he wasn't even sure he could stand in general.

As he lay there pitying himself, a groan not dissimilar to the one he'd made upon waking up came from somewhere next to him. Painstakingly, he turned his head and blinked at the mop of blond hair next to him.

Oh. Right. Prompto.

"Dude, I think I'm dying," Prompto slurred out, eyes squeezed shut.

"Mmmsame," Noct mumbled, feeling vaguely guilty for making Prompto suffer the same way he was suffering. But then again, at least he wasn't alone in his misery. A small comfort.

After lying silent and motionless for a couple minutes, Prompto let out another heavy groan and quite literally rolled out of bed, dragging himself towards the bathroom with determination Noct could only admire. As Prompto wobbled off, Noct realized they were both still wearing their regular clothes. They hadn't even managed to change into their pyjamas before passing out, how pitiful.

Somehow, the throbbing in his head had subsided a little since waking up, and even though he still didn't really want to be alive, he no longer felt like he'd gone straight to hell.

Purgatory, maybe.

Either way, he felt okay enough to roll over and grab the water bottle next to his bed (and mentally thanking Ignis a thousand times for always putting water on his nightstand. If he'd had to get some from the kitchen, he might just have started crying).

After drinking some of the water, slowly and carefully so his stomach wouldn't complain, he still had a headache and he still felt slightly sick, but at least his mouth was no longer quite so dry.

He kind of needed to go to the bathroom too, but he couldn't find the strength to get up so he simply lay there existing, vaguely aware of Prompto plopping back onto the bed at some point, and then just he sort of drifted in and out of consciousness for an indefinite amount of time.

The next thing he knew was a loud banging sound from outside the room as the door to his apartment was flung open and a familiar booming voice bellowed, "Wakey wakey, get your ass out of bed immediately or so help me!"

The volume of Gladio's voice nearly made his skull explode, and Noct curled in on himself whining desperately. Beside him, Prompto was making a very similar noise.

Yes. Crap. Training with Gladio.

With a steadily growing sense of impending doom, he listened to Gladio stomp into his living room, stop dead in his tracks, and mutter under his breath, "Oh, they did not."

Yep. Noct was dead. Prompto may just live, because Gladio actually liked him, but Noct was definitely a goner. Death by the hands of his own Shield; what a way to go.

Gladio waltzed into the bedroom and shoved the bottles they'd emptied yesterday right in his face- only one bottle, but unfortunately, it was strong stuff, especially for one's first time drinking. In hindsight, they should probably have gone for something like beer or wine or champagne instead.

"Care to explain?"

As if the empty bottles combined with their obvious misery weren't explanation enough. Noct wanted to roll his eyes, but he just knew that would make his head hurt worse.

"Please don't tell Ignis," he mumbled instead.

"Yeah? Gimme one reason why I shouldn't."

Noct sighed. "Don't wanna disappoint him." He could perfectly imagine the look on his face. I’m not mad, Noct, just disappointed.

Gladio snorted. "But it doesn't matter if you disappoint me, huh?"

"Not what I meant. You're already disappointed now."

"Got a point there. Well. Guess training's cancelled, then. I hope you know that I could make you train, though, if I wanted to. But I won't, because I'm not a monster. Next time you won't be so lucky," Gladio threatened.

"Thank you," Noct managed pathetically. "Now, can you leave us alone to die?"

Gladio grinned, like the asshole he was. "You wish. My training partner for this morning just bailed on me, and the rest of my day is free. I think I'm just gonna spend it here."

Noct groaned again - easily in his top three sounds of this morning - but ultimately accepted his defeat. There was no reasoning with Gladio, the guy was as stubborn as they came.

Gladio peered at the other side of the bed where Prompto was still curled up. "Hey, you alive there, Prompto?"

"Hi, Gladio." Prompto's hand came up to weakly wave in Gladio's direction.

Laughing, Gladio wandered out of the room and went to do... something, Noct didn't know what but he was making a lot of noise and it wasn’t helping his headache.

Noct grimaced and tried to tune him out, but soon enough Gladio sauntered back into the room and told both of them to sit up.

"Drink this. You'll feel better," he said, shoving one glass each into their hands.

Inside, there was an aspirin fizzing and bubbling. Noct could have kissed him, if only that didn’t require him to get up.

The rest of the day went by in a sort of daze. Noct and Prompto remained in bed for a while, focusing on simply existing, but at some point, they felt good enough to join Gladio on the couch. A TV show was playing on low volume, some historical romance that Gladio was eager to explain was based on his favourite book series. Apparently, it had “just the right balance between bloody battles and tender romance”, and that sentence alone from Gladio’s mouth was enough to make Noct want to go straight back to bed, if only he hadn’t already flopped down on the couch.

By the time the episode was over, Noct had to admit the show didn’t completely suck, and Prompto was pretty intrigued, so they agreed to watch another one. Gladio was delighted.

“Guess we should have dinner, if you two feel up to it,” Gladio said halfway through the episode. “How do you two feel about cup noodles?”

After getting confirmation in the form of some vaguely affirmative noises, Gladio rose from the couch and wandered into the kitchen.

Waiting for the water to boil, he leaned against the counter and fished his phone out of his pocket.

Ignis [5:38 p.m.]: Is Noct alright? Why is he not reading my texts?

Gladio grinned, completely unsurprised. He tapped out a quick reply and pressed send, and within seconds, Ignis’ status switched to online and typing.

You [6:52 p.m]: He’s fine. Felt a bit under the weather this morning so we skipped training. No need to worry
Ignis [6:52 p.m]: Is he getting ill? Shall I bring him anything?
You [6:53 p.m.]: Nah, he’s gonna be right as rain tomorrow. Spent the day at his place, he’s better already

The three little dots indicating Ignis was typing appeared and disappeared several times before a reply came in.

Ignis [6:54 p.m.]: If you say so. If you would be so kind to let him know I’ll be stopping by around supper time tomorrow, that’d be appreciated.
You [6:55 p.m.]: Sure thing

Shoving the phone back into his pocket, Gladio poured the now boiling water over the three cups of noodles and carried them back into the living room.

“Got until tomorrow night to get rid of the evidence, kid,” he announced as he set the cups down on the table. “Iggy says to let you know he’ll be here for dinner.”

Noct rubbed his hand across his eyes tiredly. “Sure, yeah. I can do that.” He hesitated, then asked carefully nonchalantly, “Did you tell him anything?”

Shovelling a forkful of noodles into his mouth, Gladio raised his eyebrow at him. “Course not. Think I can’t keep a promise?”

Noct sunk back into the couch, looking away sheepishly. “Just makin’ sure,” he muttered. “Thanks for the food.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Prompto echoed.

“Sure, just,” Gladio grinned. “Don’t tell Iggy.”

Chapter 19: "Can I hold your hand?" Ignis & Prompto, post-Altissia

Chapter Text

Prompto hadn’t really been sleeping well those past few days. It would take hours and hours for him to fall asleep, and when he did, it wasn’t restful. He didn’t get to complain, he supposed, being alive and not critically injured and whatnot, which was more than could be said about half their party.

Having trouble sleeping meant that, despite it being way past midnight, he was still awake when Ignis woke with a start next to him.

Not counting that one time he had woken but hadn’t realized anything going on around him, this was the first time Ignis was awake since they found him at the altar. A mixture of relief, and utter dread pooled in Prompto’s stomach as he quickly sat up and reached out towards Ignis, only to think better of it and pull his hands back just before they made contact, trying not to catch him off guard. Twisting to turn on the light, he tentatively said, “Iggy?”

Ignis gasped, weakly trying to sit up but failing spectacularly. Not surprising, after having spent so much time practically unconscious. Prompto was no expert, but it would probably take a while until he got his strength back.

Right now, there wasn’t a trace of strength left in Ignis; all Prompto saw in his face was terror and disorientation.

“Noct,” he croaked, voice rough from lack of use.“Where-”

His hands moved up, attempting to touch his face, his eyes, but Prompto caught them just in time to prevent him from poking at his wounds.

“Iggy, stop,” he said, gently squeezing Ignis’ hands. “Noct’s okay. You’re okay. You’re hurt, you need to take it easy.”

Ignis’ head turned towards him, staring with wide, sightless eyes-

Eye, actually.

Prompto’s heart sank. The doctor had warned them that Ignis probably wouldn’t be able to open his left eye anymore, but Ignis had just unknowingly proved it. And his other eye… Prompto didn’t have to be a doctor to tell there was something seriously wrong with it.

“P-prompto?” Ignis asked, voice cracking. It made Prompto’s heart ache, to hear him like that.

“Yeah, it’s me. You’re safe, I promise. I’m here, and you’re safe,” Prompto assured him, still holding his hands, hoping the touch would be reassuring. For a moment, it seemed like Ignis was going to work himself into a panic, so Prompto quickly started talking to him. Later he couldn't recall about what, but it helped keep Ignis grounded.

Remembering Ignis’ cracking voice and how he hadn’t drunk anything in days, Prompto quickly filled the glass on the nightstand once he was sure Ignis was still all there, helped him sit up enough that he wouldn’t choke, and propped him up against a few pillows.

“Here. It’s water. Don’t drink too fast.”

Ignis took the glass with shaky hands and drank, and then asked about Noct again.

“He’s fine. Just needs a lot of rest, he really wore himself out. He’s sleeping next door.”

“Gladio?”

“Also fine. He’s with Noct, keeping watch. Hasn’t left his side once.”

Ignis nodded, relieved. “And you?”

Prompto smiled, touched at the concern directed at him, but the smile fell as he remembered that Ignis couldn’t see it. “Alive and kickin’”

Ignis was silent for a moment as he took in all this new information. Then, he asked the question Prompto had been dreading from the very start. “I… heard you turn on the light. Why can’t I see it?”

Closing his eyes in defeat, Prompto took a deep breath. He’d hoped, selfishly that he wouldn’t have to be the one to tell Ignis about the extent of his injuries. He’d hoped that it would be a doctor or even Gladio, and felt ashamed the very second he thought it because the gods knew Gladio had enough on his plate already. Ignis deserved to hear it from someone he trusted, but gods, anyone but him. How do you even tell your friend he’ll probably never see again? There was no gentle way to break the news, Prompto knew, and knowing Ignis, he’d appreciate a straightforward answer.

Regardless of his feelings about the matter, it was up to him now, and Ignis deserved the truth.

“Iggy… You got hurt. Really, really badly. Your eyes were… burnt, I think. The doctor used a lot of medical terms I didn’t understand, but it’s… bad. They don’t think you’ll get your eyesight back.”

Again, Ignis hand came up to his face, slowly and carefully. This time, Prompto let him, closely watching his every move.

“I see,” he said, tracing over his right eye and then, with the briefest moment of hesitation, moved along to the left one. He winced when he touched the wounds that had yet to heal, and his hand fell back onto the mattress. “So that was the price.”

“The price?” Prompto asked, confused, but Ignis didn’t elaborate.

“I would like to see Noct,” he said instead, which was really not a surprise.

Oh, how Prompto hated to deny him this.

“Uh, maybe not right now? It’s kind of the middle of the night, he’s not awake anyway, and like, no offense, but you don’t really look like you’re up to walking right now. I’m not really strong enough to catch you if you like, pass out in the hallway, and I really, really don’t want you to crack your head open?” he rambled, hoping sincerely Ignis wouldn’t insist. Gladio would have his head if he let Ignis fall and give himself a concussion on top of everything else.

For a moment, it looked like Ignis was going to put up a fight, because he was Ignis and more stubborn than anyone else Prompto had ever met, but then, his shoulders slumped in defeat. “Alright. Tomorrow, then.”

Quietly, Prompto released a breath. Tomorrow wasn’t going to be much better, but at least he could get Gladio to help him haul Ignis over to Noct’s room. “Of course. Tomorrow. Promise.”

Ignis nodded. He was still propped up against the pillows but slowly slumping over; it was crystal clear just how badly hurt he was. He looked exhausted to his very bones, just the sight of his wounds made Prompto hurt all over in sympathy, and his right eye was starting to slip closed again. He wasn’t going to be awake much longer, Prompto could tell that much.

“Hey,” he said, very gently. “I think you should get some more rest. Let’s get you lying down, yeah?”

When Ignis didn’t protest, Prompto helped him lie back down. Then, he pulled the blanket back over him, turned the light off, and shuffled as close as he dared.

“Hey, can I… hold your hand?” he asked, very quietly, half hoping Ignis was still awake to have heard and half hoping he wasn’t.

For a moment, no reply came and Prompto assumed Ignis had already fallen asleep, but then Ignis replied in an equally soft voice, “You don’t have to do that.”

“I know, I know, just,” Prompto whispered, “Pretty sure it’d help me sleep.”

He was sure Ignis didn’t believe a single word he’d just said, but it wasn’t entirely a lie. He did mainly want to avoid Ignis waking up before him and having nothing to orient himself by, but Prompto himself craved the reassurance of Ignis being there, being alive. There had been a point at which this was more than they'd dared to hope for.

His heart skipped a beat when he heard fabric rustling and Ignis’ hand tentatively found his.

Wasting no time, Prompto grasped it firmly and pretended not to notice how weak Ignis’ grip was.

“Sleep,” he said. “I’m gonna be right here when you wake up, and tomorrow we’ll go see Noct.”

Ignis didn't answer, likely already asleep. Good. He needed all the rest he could get to heal.

Prompto closed his eyes and listened to Ignis breathing, but sleep wouldn't come to him. A word kept replaying in his head, and he couldn't make sense of it. The price, Ignis had said, but the price for what?

He had a feeling Ignis wasn't going to tell - and Prompto wasn't sure he even wanted to know.

Chapter 20: "You can borrow mine." - Gladio & Noctis, roadtrip

Chapter Text

Noct didn’t love chocobos as much as Prompto loved them - he sincerely doubted that was even possible - but he still liked them a lot. They were big and fluffy, most of them liked cuddles, and with the right amount of treats you could win them over pretty easily. As a child, he’d even briefly gotten riding lessons, before his accident, but back then they’d been a little too big and lively for him.

There weren’t many negative things to be said about chocobos, except maybe the smell. But a pretty big problem with them was that they were prey animals (even though Noct had seen what an agitated bird could do with a kick to the head, anything preying on them was either very brave or very stupid), and that meant that even the calmest chocobo still spooked relatively easily. Not all that convenient considering Noct and his friends mostly used them to hunt all sorts of spooky stuff.

He got to experience that prey behaviour first-hand when a pack of voretooths showed up out of nowhere and startled his poor chocobo so badly he nearly got thrown off. He managed to right himself before he crashed to the ground, but the birds were already running for their lives. There was no use in trying to control them now, all they could do was to hold on and hope they eventually stopped. Preferably before they ran into the road and got hit by a car.

Prompto’s chocobo, who was the fastest of the bunch, ran ahead while Ignis closely followed. Noct’s own bird raced blindly after them with some distance, unable to catch up. Gladio’s chocobo, carrying the heaviest rider, brought up the rear, with Gladio yelling something Noct couldn’t understand over the wind rushing in his ears.

And then, because apparently, they didn’t have enough problems already, a drop ship rapidly lowered itself onto the ground, effectively cutting Noct and Gladio off from Ignis and Prompto.

In a desperate attempt to stop the chocobo from running straight into the airship, he yanked at the reins and tried to steer left. The panicked animal hardly even reacted, only when they were mere moments away from crashing into the hard metal the bird swerved to the left and away from the ship.

Noct clutched hard at the saddle with his legs and risked a quick glance behind himself, confirming Gladio was still following.

He was, but unfortunately, so were the voretooths. Due to the near-collision with the dropship, they’d gained on them again; the one leading the pack caught up with Gladio’s chocobo and closed in from the side, startling her into sharply changing directions.

Gladio, caught by surprise by the sudden movement, was flung off her back and slammed hard into the ground. Within seconds, the voretooths swarmed him.

Noct swore and warped off his chocobo, driving his blade deep into one of the beasts. Gladio was still on the ground, unmoving - giving Noct a very, very bad feeling - so he focused on luring them away from him instead of fighting them with Gladio caught in the midst of the fight.

Fortunately, voretooths didn’t belong to the most intelligent of beings, so they easily followed as he warped away, yelling and waving his sword at them to rile them up.

One by one, he finished them off, thanking the gods they weren’t harder to fight - their strength lay purely in numbers and reckless, ferocious attacks, but Noct, fuelled by adrenaline and worry for Gladio, diminished them quickly and efficiently.

By the time he was done, he was struggling to catch his breath, his back ached something awful and he barely had any stamina left. But Gladio was still on the ground and damn, that definitely wasn’t good.

Warping back as to not waste time, he fell to his knees at Gladio’s side.

“Gladio, hey,” he urged, nudging his shoulder lightly, and then again a little harder.

Gladio opened his eyes after the fourth nudge and blinked at him, confused and sluggish. “Huh?”

“You got thrown off a chocobo and I think you were out for a bit. You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Gladio said reflexively, then winced when he tried to move. “Ow, f*ck.”

Noct furrowed his brows. “I think you hit your head pretty hard. I’m gonna-” he started, stretching out his hand to summon a potion, but Gladio grabbed it before he had the chance.

“Wait. You okay?”

Noct rolled his eyes, shaking Gladio’s hand off his arm. Almost as bad as Ignis, gods. “I’m fine. I’m not the one who fell off a chocobo. You need a potion.”

He reached for the Armiger, frowning when he didn’t find any potions. “sh*t!”

“What?” Gladio’s speech was a little slurred, and yeah, that didn’t help ease Noct’s worry at all. f*ck.

“We’re out of potions. We had some left, but the other two must’ve used them just now. There’s nothing!”

Gladio groaned and pushed himself up, not protesting when Noct hurried to help him. “It’s fine, I’m fine. We’ll just-” he said, vaguely gesturing at… something, Noct didn’t know what. Gladio didn’t elaborate either, just fell silent and stared off into space.

Noct helped him move until he was leaning against a rock whilst they figured out what to do- or, whilst Noct figured out what to do. Gladio’s brain was concussed to hell and back, probably didn’t need to expect any smart inputs from there for a while.

His first instinct was to call Ignis, but when he tried to do that, it sent him to voicemail. The same thing happened when he dialled Prompto’s number. Not a big surprise, reception out here was spotty at best, and even if they’d picked up, Noct still wanted to get somewhere safe as soon as possible. The area had a lot of voretooths and he wasn’t keen on meeting them again. He wasn’t sure they’d survive an encounter with any drop ships, either, and if they waited long enough for it to become dark, they wouldn’t stand a chance against the daemons. Waiting around to be saved by the others definitely wasn’t an option.

Gladio was being worryingly silent; whilst conscious, he didn’t seem very aware of what was going on. There was a trail of blood slowly trickling down from his temple, but the cut didn’t look serious. Small mercies.

“I’m sorry, I can’t heal you. I used up all my energy in that fight,” Noct said, more for himself than Gladio because he didn’t think Gladio was taking in much of what he told him. “I don’t- I don’t know how to get you out of here. I can’t carry you. Just… uh, hang on, I’ll try to call the chocobos.”

He moved away from Gladio so he wouldn’t give him hearing damage on top of the concussion and blew the whistle. The chocobos had run off in a blind panic. Where to, he had no idea. The area was wide and mostly flat and he couldn’t see them, so he figured they’d gone pretty far away. If they were still agitated, they probably wouldn’t come, but it was still worth a try - and frankly, kind of Noct’s only hope right now.

But their luck, it seemed, had run off along with the chocobos. He blew the whistle two more times but no chocobo appeared.

Gritting his teeth, he returned to Gladio’s side, gently shaking him when he saw his eyes were closed again. “Gladio, hey, stay with me. We gotta get out of here… do you think you can walk?”

Gladio took a few seconds to process the question, but then he said, “Of course,” with significantly more confidence than Noct felt at the moment.

Getting him to stand was an endeavour in itself, and once the feat was achieved, Noct wasn’t so sure they could actually manage to get somewhere safe before nightfall. Even though Gladio was somewhat more lucid now, he was still unsteady on his feet and leaning quite heavily on Noct.

Biting back a groan, Noct took a step, testing both Gladio’s and his own stability. His back and leg hurt, but they held, so he pushed on.

Just as Noct had resigned himself to either walking the entire way to Hammerhead with Gladio leaning on him like this or dying horribly at the hands of daemons, something behind him said “Kweh!”

Turning around as quickly as he could without losing his balance or causing Gladio to fall, Noct turned around and closed his eyes in relief. His chocobo was looking at him with expectant eyes, feathers a bit ruffled but looking none the worse for wear, thank the gods. Gladio’s chocobo was nowhere to be seen.

“Okay, big guy, you’re getting a ride,” Noct muttered, hauling Gladio over to the waiting bird.

Gladio lifted his head with some difficulty, squinted and said, “My chocobo isn’t here.”

“You can borrow mine,” Noct said impatiently, getting Gladio to hold onto the chocobo instead of him and taking a deep breath once he was free of the extra weight.

With a lot of swearing and not all that much help from Gladio, Noct eventually managed to get his friend situated on the saddle.

“Hold on tight,” he instructed, tugging at the chocobo’s reins to get him moving.

His back was aching something awful, and he sure was regretting not putting on that knee brace Ignis was always trying to get him to wear just about now, but it still beat having to haul Gladio’s weight around.

Speaking of…

Throwing a subtle glance over his shoulder, Noct frowned. Even though he was still conscious, Gladio wasn’t looking too hot. Normally, injuries didn’t manage to keep him down, but Noct supposed a head injury was different. After all, Gladio had to be really out of it, he’d never be so compliant and docile otherwise.

Hopefully, a potion would fix him right up - if they ever made it to Hammerhead, that was.

It shouldn’t have been very far now. But then, Noct had never been good at navigation, and the sun was already lower than he would’ve liked. He tried calling Ignis again, but now his phone wasn’t even getting any service in this damned desert.

Muttering a string of curses until he ran out of breath, he limped along, hoping he was actually going in the right direction. Damn. Guess he should have listened to Gladio’s outdoor lessons after all. The only thing he remembered was the moss growing north thing, and only because Gladio had gone into a half-hour explanation about why that actually wasn’t true at all. And even if it were true, there weren’t any goddamn trees in this goddamn desert, anyway.

For a while, he kept his head down and focused on not stumbling over his own feet, so when he looked up and saw the familiar mist of a haven a bit further ahead, he kind of wanted to start crying on the spot. It wasn’t Hammerhead, it wasn’t even the haven closest to Hammerhead, but it was a place to safely spend the night. And if he was lucky, his phone might even work again.

Gladio’s condition put a significant damper on his joy about the haven. Staying here was better than being eaten alive out in the wilderness, but Gladio needed help, and the sooner he could get it the better. If Noct himself were in any better shape, he’d consider leaving Gladio there and heading to Hammerhead on his own. He still wouldn’t be able to make a potion, but he could at least get Gladio some traditional medical care. But the way he was feeling now, he wasn’t sure if he could make the trip, even on his chocobo. And even if he did, he’d never make it back before nightfall, and as much as he hated to admit it, a run-in with even the weakest of daemons would probably kill him.

Gladio slid off the saddle easily enough when prompted. He was even doing well enough to help with walking, so Noct got him up onto the rock pretty smoothly.

The moment they reached the middle of the haven, Noct’s legs gave in and they both collapsed onto the hard ground. Noct landed with his back twisting awkwardly, but at least he got his hands beneath Gladio in time to make sure he didn’t bash his head into the ground again as they went down.

“You okay?” Noct asked, out of breath and so, so tired.

Gladio grimaced and lifted his hand to his head, wincing as he accidentally touched the cut on his temple. “Mmm, been better. I think I need to…” he trailed off, already tipping backward.

Once again, Noct hurried to assist Gladio in lying down. Gods, the guy was just trying to kill off all his brain cells today, wasn’t he?

Once Gladio was on the ground and hopefully staying there, Noct fished his phone out again, thrilled to see the reception sign in the upper left corner, along with several messages from Prompto and Ignis. Wasting no time, he selected Ignis’ number and prayed he’d pick up.

The phone barely finished its first ring when Ignis’ voice sounded through the speaker. “Noct! Noct, are you alright? Where are you? Is Gladio with you?”

Noct closed his eyes, holding back tears of exhaustion and relief for the second time today. “I’m fine. Gladio got a concussion but we’re out of potions. He needs help. We’re at a haven near Hammerhead, not the one right behind it, the one a bit further away. Uh, near the road. Can you come?”

He was aware he sounded pathetic, but he didn’t care. Right now, he only wanted Gladio to be okay, he wanted Ignis and Prompto with him, he wanted some painkillers and oh, by the gods, he wanted to sleep.

Not yet, though. Not until the others were here, not until Gladio was gonna be okay. He just needed to hold out a little longer.

“Merrioth Haven? Of course. We’ll fetch a potion from the car, we won’t be long,” Ignis assured him. “Just stay put and look after Gladio.”

Doing as he was told, Noct remained sitting at Gladio’s side despite every fibre in his body screaming at him to curl up on the ground, watching Gladio’s chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm.

Gladio’s eyes were closed, but Noct wasn’t sure if he was asleep, passed out, or just resting. His hands itched to reach out, to shake him and check if he was still responsive, but he resisted. Gladio had taught him that not being allowed to let concussed people sleep was pretty much just a myth too as long as they were being monitored. And seeing that Noct was monitoring him pretty damn closely, he didn’t think it would be too bad to let him rest.

Noct wished he could help him somehow, but for now, all he could do was wait.

True to Ignis’ words, it wasn’t long until Noct spotted two chocobos with riders sprinting towards the haven, with a third chocobo following close behind.

“Noct!” Prompto yelled, waving his arms and nearly falling off his chocobo in the process.

With what little strength he had left, Noct lifted one hand and gave a little wave back.

“We found Rosie, we were worried when we saw her all upset and you guys nowhere to be found,” Prompto exclaimed as he climbed onto the rock.

“Is she okay?” Noct asked. Rosie didn’t look injured, just tired and agitated, but Gladio loved that bird. He wouldn’t forgive himself if she got hurt.

“She’s fine, pretty spooked when we found her, but when she recognized us she calmed down. How’s Gladio?”

“Also gonna be fine, I think. He needs a potion, though,” Noct said with a gesture towards Gladio.

Ignis was already checking him over, making him sit up and checking his pupils and asking him questions. Once he was satisfied, he closed Gladio’s fingers around the potion and crushed it.

Immediately, Gladio’s expression cleared up and he raised his hand to his head with a groan.

“Damn. This isn’t an experience I’d like to repeat.”

“You can say that again,” Noct muttered, but the relief to see Gladio alive and well almost let him forget the struggles of the past hours. “How’re you feeling?”

Gladio shrugged. “Head still hurts. Just need to sleep it off and I’ll be as good as new. I’m not helping with the tent tonight, though.”

“Of course not!” Prompto jumped up and patted Gladio’s shoulder. “Iggy and I can handle it, right, Iggy? You two just chill out.”

Noct didn’t need to be told twice. Even if he wanted to, he wasn’t sure if he could even move. He was committed to just kind of existing flat on the ground for the rest of the night, but Ignis made him get up and lie down on one of the sleeping mats, claiming he’d just hurt worse in the morning if he stayed on the hard ground. He also wouldn’t let him have any of the good painkillers before he’d eaten anything. Noct supposed that was fair, but damn, he did wish he could pop some pills and go to sleep already.

Once he was situated there near the fire, he had to admit his back felt a tiny bit better, though, so he kept his mouth shut and watched Gladio instead.

Sitting in a camping chair, Gladio looked worn out and tired, but infinitely better than he had for the majority of this afternoon, so Noct wasn’t going to complain.

“What?” Gladio asked, catching his eye. “Something wrong?”

“Nah. Just glad you’re alive.”

With a grin, Gladio said, “Yeah, only thanks to you. You did good today.”

Warmth rose in his cheeks that had nothing to do with the fire and Noct quickly looked away.

“’S nothing.”

And, really, even though he was exhausted and in pain and the day had been absolutely horrible, in the end, it really was nothing if it meant he’d gotten his friend to safety. His friend, who was ready to lay down his life for Noct every single day, who looked out for him and had his back no matter what - for him, the struggles of today truly were nothing.

Chapter 21: "You might like this." - Gladio & Prompto, road trip

Chapter Text

Gladio woke with the sun.

It was convenient. He never had to set an alarm, which came in handy now that they were all glued together day and night. Noct might actually try to kill him if he subjected him to an alarm at five in the morning every day. Not that it wouldn’t be funny to watch, but even Gladio knew that would be a little too mean.

He sat up, cracked his neck, and rubbed at his arms. It was a little chilly in the tent still, but with how hot it got during the day in this region, he knew to appreciate the cool morning air as long as it lasted.

Grabbing his phone and his sweatpants, he crawled out of the tent, careful as to not bump into the others.

Today, he was even earlier than usual since they had gone to bed when it had barely been dark out last night. It was only just starting to get light outside; the birds were already singing even though the sun wasn’t up yet. Ignis would get up in a bit, but for now, even he was still sleeping soundly.

He hopped off the haven and started stretching, taking care to go through all the exercises properly. He didn’t do them every day now, not like he used to back at the Citadel. Between cave crawling and spending hours and hours in a car, sometimes there just wasn’t enough time and energy left to do stretching exercises. He didn’t have to worry about getting out of shape, at least; all that running around and wrestling the local wildlife made sure of that.

When he finished up, he considered if he should do some calisthenics exercises or go for a run, but they did their fair share of running anyway, so he ended up deciding on the calisthenics like he did most days, now.

Turning to get his water bottle from the haven before he continues with his exercises, he froze on the spot.

On the horizon behind the tent, he stared right at what was sure to become one of the most beautiful sunrises he had ever seen in his life.

Wasting no time, he marched towards the tent, pulled the flap open to crawl inside, and went to shake Prompto’s shoulder.

“Mmmwhat?” Prompto mumbled, still half asleep.

Gladio shook him again, more insistently this time. With his other hand, he fished Prompto’s camera from his bag. “C’mon out, kid. Quietly, don’t wake the others.”

Prompto, too sleepy to question him, clumsily crawled after him. Gladio almost felt bad for dragging him out of bed like that, but the pictures he’d get to take would more than make up for it.

He grabbed Prompto by the hand and pulled him up. “You might like this,” he said and physically turned Prompto towards the sunrise.

Blinking a few times then squinting against the sun, Prompto gasped. “Oh!”

“Beautiful, huh?”

“Uh, yeah! Hang on, I need to get my-”

“Way ahead of ya,” Gladio announced and pressed the camera into Prompto’s hand. “There you go.”

Prompto immediately got to work, completely immersed as the light changed almost by the second. After a few minutes and several hundred pictures later, Gladio actually started fearing for the camera’s memory card, but Prompto wasn’t looking like he was about to stop anytime soon.

Gladio left him be and went to do his exercises a few meters away.

By the time the sun was up and the colours had disappeared from the sky, Gladio was done with his exercises and joined Prompto on the edge of the haven.

“Can I see?”

Prompto looked up at him, surprised. “Uh, sure, if you want? I mean. I was gonna show them tonight by the campfire anyway, but you can get an exclusive early look.”

“Bring ‘em.” Gladio sat down, leaning in to get a closer look at the camera.

The pictures were beautiful. It was hard to do the real thing justice if you had seen it just minutes before, but Prompto managed just fine. He’d always taken pretty good pictures, since Gladio had first met him, but the more challenging stuff like capturing moving things or even taking selfies mid-battle had taken some more work. Since their trip had first started, his photos had gotten a lot better, though, and it was safe to say he could probably even make a career out of it if he wanted to.

Prompto clicked through the photos and Gladio made sure to comment on them. He knew Prompto took pride in his photos, but he also knew the kid didn’t think they were worth mentioning aside from asking to go visit a panorama spot and sharing the photos of the day. And, yes, maybe they didn’t appreciate his photos enough, not verbally, anyway, but Gladio was sure he wasn’t the only one who looked forward to going over the day’s pictures every night around the campfire. There was something calming about it, some normalcy in their trying journey.

After an insane amount of sunrise pictures, it seemed a new subject had caught Prompto’s attention.

“You took pics of me?” Gladio laughed. He wasn’t that surprised, Prompto took pictures of them all the time, but man. That sunrise had been right there.

To his credit, Prompto only blushed a little. “Uh, yeah? Not my fault you were posing like a model!”

“I was working out!” Gladio corrected, unable to contain his laughter. “Not myfault I just happen to look like a model.”

Prompto rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide a grin. “Yeah, the gods substituted the modesty for good looks when they created you.”

“Can’t have everything,” Gladio shrugged and gestured at the camera. “Well? Go on, any more candid shots of me?”

There were, in fact, a few more candid shots of him, with a couple more sunrise pictures peppered in, and a selfie for good measure that Gladio immediately made fun of.

Prompto pushed him away, pouting, but then he said, “Yknow, I was gonna take as many pictures as I could on this trip and then make an album when we got back to Insomnia. Figured it could make a nice wedding gift to Noct. Obviously, that’s not gonna happen now, but…”

He trailed off, so Gladio picked up. “You should still make that album. You took some really nice photos on this trip, would be a waste to let them collect dust on a memory card.”

Prompto smiled at him. “Yeah. I might make four albums, though. One for each of us. Whatcha think?”

Gladio bumped his shoulder against Prompto’s. “Sure, that’d be cool. Might have to make several volumes if you keep going at this rate, though.” He reached over and snagged the camera out of Prompto’s hands, ignoring the protests and changing the setting to close-up photos.

“Here, let’s add another one.”

He hauled Prompto against his side and held out his arm, angling the camera so the both of them were in the frame, and snapped a picture.

Satisfied, he handed the camera back to Prompto and stood. “There you go.”

Laughing to himself when Prompto yelled after him to compliment his “selfie game”, he went to go offer his help with breakfast to Iggy, who had since emerged from the tent,

It was good to hear that, he thought, that his selfie game was decent because he fully intended on taking more of those. He was really, really looking forward to that photo album.

Chapter 22: “It’s not heavy. I’m stronger than I look.” - Gladio & Prompto, roadtrip

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you got this?” Gladio asked, eyebrow raised as he watched Prompto struggle to pull their camping gear from the car. “It’s not gonna rain tonight, we can just sleep under the stars.”

“I got it!” Prompto snapped, grinding his teeth in a rare display of annoyance - a testament to how long a day they’d all had. “It’s not heavy. I’m stronger than I look! It’s just stuck.”

As if Gladio didn’t know exactly how heavy their stuff was, given that he was usually the one lugging it around.

“Alright, I’m sorry,” Gladio said, figuring he didn’t need to rile Prompto up any more. “Here, let me see where it’s stuck.”

Prompto grumbled a little under his breath but moved to let Gladio peer into the trunk.

“Should come free now if you give it a good tug”, Gladio said, pushing down on the gear with his uninjured arm while Prompto pulled so it didn’t get caught again.

Indeed, this time, Prompto pulled it free with ease, lifted it out of the trunk with a little less ease, and carried it towards the haven with - well, actually, he wasn’t struggling nearly as much as Gladio had expected. Huh. All the training and now real-life combat seemed to pay off after all.

Gladio shut the trunk and followed, deciding not to mention the way Prompto swayed a little under the weight. They’d had a long day, and Prompto, though uninjured, had to be exhausted like the rest of them. This wasn’t the time for jokes at his expense.

Back at the haven, Gladio checked in with the other two. Noct, spread out on the ground and already asleep, was doing alright but had no intention of moving anytime soon, as half-coherently managed to inform Gladio when prodded awake. At least he wasn’t injured, but having pushed himself to the point of stasis, chances were Noct was going to spend the next 24 hours reenacting Sleeping Beauty.

Ignis sat next to Noct, head no longer bleeding thanks to the bandages they’d wrapped him up with, but he was definitely still dazed and was slow to react when Gladio nudged him gently. He did, however, answer any typical post-head-injury question Gladio threw at him, which had to be enough. Not good, definitely worrying that he wasn’t up and about and trying to cook at all, but all things considered, this was probably as good as he was going to be until they got a potion into him.

Once he was neither of his friends was on the brink of death just yet, Gladio unfolded two camping chairs for him and Prompto and deposited them by the fireplace.

…the fireplace, which was distinctly lacking a fire, would continue to lack a fire if he didn’t think of a way to start one that didn’t require the use of two hands like his trusty flintstone did.

Gladio sighed, making a mental note to finally teach the others how to start a fire once everyone was back on their feet.

They’d told him the story of how they’d nearly burnt down their tent trying to start a fire by tossing a firaga flask at the firewood when he had been away challenging Gilgamesh. He had laughed at them back then, mental image too funny to not grill them about every chance he got. Prompto and/or Noctis respectively, or maybe collectively, coming up with an idea like that was funny enough but not very surprising, but what made it truly hilarious was that Ignis had actually let them do it.

…though it looked like Gladio was forced to admit that maybe the idea wasn’t terrible, it was just the execution that sucked big time.

Mind made up, he wandered off the rock and to one of the elemental deposits just below the haven.

He had never been the most gifted at using magic and later had mostly given up on it as both Noct and Ignis were more than proficient in its usage. Still, he had undergone the basic training and retained enough from it to know what he was doing as he pulled an empty flask from the armiger and focused on the Crystal’s pulsing magic.

The result was a laughably weak fire spell, one that would’ve barely singed the hairs off a voretooth’s back if applied in battle, but that, at the very least, meant that he wasn’t very likely to burn their tent down tonight.

Gladio climbed back up the haven, made sure Prompto was properly busy with the tent and tossed the flask into the firewood as carefully as possible.

The flask exploded with more force than planned, but the wood was on fire and his eyebrows were still intact, and he didn’t think anyone had witnessed him using the very same trick he’d given the others sh*t for.

Content with himself, he wandered over to Prompto, who was struggling to put up the tent by himself but handled himself pretty impressively once Gladio held the poles for him.

Once the tent was standing, Prompto threw himself down next to the fire, groaning dramatically as he spread out like a starfish.

“That’s it, I’m done for today.”

Gladio grinned. “Guess dinner’s up to me, then?”

“Yep. About time you pulled your weight, big guy,” Prompto said, rolling over to go poke at Noct.

Noct, no more coherent than the last time they’d managed to wake him up, declined the offer of dinner with a mumble neither of them could quite make out, but the fact that he fell right back asleep two seconds later spoke for itself.

Ignis, who was awake but still dazed, turned fairly green at the very idea of having to eat anything, so Gladio just made him drink some water before helping him lie down inside the tent.

After a moment of consideration, Gladio resorted to just dragging Noct into the tent by his ankle, earning himself a weak scolding from Ignis and zero reaction from the Prince himself.

“Guess it’s just us for dinner,” Gladio said, nudging Prompto with his boot. “How do you feel about Cup Noodles?”

“Not quite my idea of a romantic dinner for two, but alright,” Prompto sighed, finally hauling himself into a sitting position. “How’s your arm?”

Gladio moved the arm experimentally, range of motion restricted by both the bandages and the sling it was resting in. “Definitely felt better. Think the wrist is broken and the rest is bruised to hell and back, but at least it doesn’t seem like anything’s out of place. Really can’t wait to get my hands on a potion, though.”

The problem with relying on potions was that you kind of forgot how to deal with pain and, more importantly, the restrictions that came with being injured. More than once since they’d made camp, Gladio had instinctively attempted to use his arm and immediately regretted it as his body informed him just why that was a terrible idea. They definitely had to be more careful in the future; today had been a close call Gladio’d rather not repeat anytime soon.

That said, Prompto had handled himself and his incapacitated friends remarkably, and Gladio was determined to let him know as much.

“You did good today,” he said, pouring the water over the noodles and handing one cup to Prompto.

Prompto immediately got that deer-in-the-headlight look on his face, the one that appeared every time he was complimented. Maybe they should compliment him more, Gladio thought. Get him used to it.

“You mean that?!”

“Sure. Fighting, but also picking up the slack when the rest of us was out of commission.” Prompto had, after all, jumped into the driver’s seat without hesitation and absolutely floored it to get as much distance between them and the Red Giant that had materialized out of nowhere, and then continued to drive them to the nearest haven, dodging daemons and imperial troopers alike.

“Think we should let you drive more often.”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Prompto exclaimed. “I’m a great driver, you guys are just mean!”

“Eh, I wouldn’t say you’re a great driver… but you’re not entirely terrible. Tell you what, I’ll put in a word for you next time.”

Prompto toasted at Gladio with his noodles. “I’ll hold you to that!”

Chapter 23: "I'll wait." - Prompto & Noctis, brotherhood era

Chapter Text

Prompto woke up with a throat so sore he could barely swallow, a body that somehow felt too hot and too cold simultaneously, and the single worst headache he’d ever experienced in his life.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise - half his classmates were sick in bed, and Prompto had always managed to catch a seasonal cold at least once a year, but this was worse than any other cold he’d experienced before.

Moving his arm to grab his phone took all his willpower. He didn’t even try to stop the pitiful groan that escaped him when his shaking hand brought the phone to his face and the bright light all but stabbed into his brain.

His alarm hadn’t gone off yet, but a squinty-eyed look at the time told him it would soon. Not that it mattered, though. There was no way he was going to school like this, not when he was almost doubting his ability to drag himself to the bathroom.

Instead, he typed out a hopefully somewhat coherent message to his teachers, then a short, way less coherent text to Noct, and then he shoved his phone under his pillow and almost immediately fell back asleep.

When Prompto woke again, he felt no better, but thankfully he didn’t feel worse, so he counted that as a win.

It was now light out, but Prompto didn’t have it in him to let the bright phone screen assault his poor head again to check the time. Instead, he rolled out of bed and heaved himself to his feet, closing his eyes as a wave of vertigo hit him with no warning.

Thankfully, the white-out was short-lived, and though his head still pounded like crazy, he felt at least stable enough to make his way to the bathroom.

The bathroom, where the medicine cabinet with those blessed painkillers and cold medications were located.

Prompto ripped the cabinet door open and blindly gathered whatever pills he got his hands on. He was starting to feel less stable standing by the second, so the plan was to bring the contents of the medicine cabinet to his bed and then figure out what to take and how much of it once he was horizontal and at less risk of passing out.

Luckily, his brain was functioning enough that he remembered to shuffle by the kitchen to grab himself a bottle of water before he went and crawled back into bed and tried to figure out which pills would make him feel less sh*tty.

Distantly, as he lay back and hid under his blanket - now, he was just cold - he thought that he should’ve made himself some tea. Tea would’ve been nice right now - with honey and lemon to help battle the virus and soothe his throat - but before he could figure out what to do about that, sleep claimed him once more.

Prompto’s next transition into the world of the living was perhaps the most brutal yet, not because of his throbbing head or the fact that he couldn’t even swallow without wanting to cry, but because the ringing doorbell zapped lightning straight through his brain and made him jerk upright so suddenly he almost tipped sideways and right out of bed.

Before his poor, overcooked brain even processed what was happening, the doorbell rang again, as if that somehow made him more likely to go open it, yeah, no, not a chance.

And then, his phone rang from where he’d stuffed it beneath his pillow early this morning. Coincidence? Maybe, but there weren’t a lot of people who usually called him, so he dug the phone out from beneath his head and read-

“Noct?” Prompto winced, both at the way his throat felt as he spoke and at the way his voice absolutely sounded the way it felt. Ugh.

“Hey, I’m outside your door. Can you let me in?” Noct’s voice sounded through the speaker. He sounded… something, Weird. Different than usual, but Prompto didn’t really feel like figuring out just what Noct sounded like. Better to just let him in, maybe then he’d let him go back to sleep.

“There’s, uh. There’s a spare key,” Prompto managed. “Under the doormat.”

A pause, rustling of fabric, and then, “Found it.”

Prompto blinked, and suddenly Noct was standing next to his bed, brow furrowed as he stared down at him.

“You didn’t reply to any of my texts,” Noct explained. I was worried, he didn’t say, but it was obvious even to Prompto’s fever-fried mind.

Aww.

Still-

“You shouldn’t be here,” Prompto half-said half-coughed. “You’ll catch whatever I have.”

Was infecting the Crown Prince of your country with some icky disease a punishable offense? Assassination attempt, perhaps? Prompto certainly felt like he was about to die.

“The flu, probably,” Noct said. “Iggy says it’s flu season.”

“Cool,” Prompto said, and then, “You shouldn’t be here. You’ll catch the flu.”

Irritatingly, Noct all but ignored him and instead chose to sit down right on the bed and stick his hand on Prompto’s forehead.

His nice, cool hand, on Prompto’s too-warm, gross, sweat-sticky forehead… it felt nice. Before he realised what he was doing, Prompto leaned into the touch and found it strangely hard to collect his thoughts.

“Hey,” Noct said, and Prompto opened his eyes again - when had he closed them? And when had Noct removed his hand?

Noct stood. “I’ll make you some tea. Uh. You got any tea in the house?”

Prompto nodded. “Kitchen cabinet, far left. Herbal,” he croaked with some effort.

“Okay. Be right back.”

“Put some lemon and honey in it,” Prompto tried to call after him, but instead, only a breathy little noise came out. Well. Tea without lemon and honey it was.

True to his word - or maybe untrue, Prompto didn’t actually know how long Noct was gone, given that he had fallen asleep again - Noct reappeared by his bedside with a steaming cup of tea.

“Careful, it’s hot,” Noct warned, setting the tea on the nightstand in order to help Prompto into a more upright position.

And hot it was, but the heat soothed Prompto’s raw throat even though it burnt his tongue, and gods, there was honey and lemon in it, Prompto wanted to cry.

Instead, he sipped the tea slowly and tried to focus on Noct, who was telling him what he’d missed in class.

By the time the tea was gone, so was Prompto’s energy, and he found himself already nodding off again.

Plucking the cup out of Prompto’s hands, Noct stood, hovering awkwardly for a moment.

“You don’t have to stick around, you know,” Prompto said. He’d be fine with a few days of rest, he had his medicine, he’d had something to drink, and once he felt a little better, he could make some broth or something so that he wouldn’t starve.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll wait,” Noct said, determined.

“Wait? For what?”

“’Til your parents come home. You shouldn’t be alone, so I’ll stay.”

“My… parents?” All Prompto could do was blink at Noct as he processed the words. “Gonna be a long wait.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“They’re not coming home tonight, or anytime this week. They’re on a work trip,” Prompto said, wishing Noct stopped saying stuff he had to verbally reply to. Yes-or-no questions only, please. Gods, his throat hurt so bad.

Several emotions flashed across Noct’s face in rapid succession, but the only one Prompto really managed to pinpoint was anger.

“Okay. Okay. I can’t just stay here for the night, it’s, uh, it’s a safety thing, against protocol, whatever. So you’ll come with me. I’ll call Ignis, we’ll go to my place, you stay with me ‘til you’re better.”

Before Prompto had a chance to argue, Noct was already calling Ignis, who, as always, picked up almost immediately.

Prompto zoned out for a bit, not quite by choice, and only zoned back in when Noct’s hand landed yet again on his forehead.

“Specs is picking us up, alright? You should sleep until he gets here. I’ll wake you.”

“Didn’t have to…” Prompto muttered, eyelids heavy as lead, but he drifted off before he could hear Noct’s answer.

The trip to Noct’s apartment was a blur. Prompto vaguely remembered Noct helping him down to the waiting car - in his pyjamas, Six, hopefully, no neighbours had seen that -, and the next thing he knew, he woke in a bed that was not his own.

From his left, also on the bed, soft music was playing. A bit belatedly, Prompto recognized it as the King’s Knight battle theme.

The noise’s source soon noticed he was awake, uncurled himself, and paused the game in favour of feeling Prompto’s forehead yet again.

Really, Prompto thought, that couldn’t be a reliable way to get someone’s temperature.

“Should probably use a thermometer for that,” he croaked.

Noct frowned. “How’re you feeling? You look…” he trailed off.

“Less foggy,” Prompto told him truthfully. He still felt like absolute sh*t, but at least he was more or less lucid and didn’t feel like he was going to immediately fall back asleep.

“You think you can eat? Specs made you some soup. I can get you a bowl.”

Prompto considered the offer and decided that yes, actually, soup sounded pretty good right now. Especially Iggy’s soup.

He told Noct as much, and soon, he held in his hands a bowl full of the most delicious broth he had ever tasted. Figures. Only Ignis could make something as simple as chickatrice soup taste like a gourmet meal.

When the bowl was empty, Prompto had enough energy left for exactly two rounds of King’s Knight, after which his character died tragically as his eyelids began to close on their own once again.

Noct plucked his phone from his hands and set it on the nightstand for him.

“You should sleep.”

“Hmm…” Prompto agreed.

Distantly, he registered Noct turning off the bedside lamp and closing the door behind him.

If Prompto had had enough time to worry about forcing the Crown Prince of the kingdom to go sleep on the couch in favour of leaving the bed to his peasant friend, he would have protested. As it was, he only burrowed deeper into the blessedly soft pillows before his eyes shut and he fell into a more peaceful sleep than he’d had all day.

Chapter 24: "Just because." Ignis & Noctis, brotherhood era

Chapter Text

Ignis stood in the hallway, feeling more unsure of himself than he had in years. His hand brushed against the door, lingering before pulling away as he reconsidered. Noctis had made his wishes perfectly clear - and yet, it took all of Ignis’ willpower to not walk right back into the apartment and… then what? Noctis was clearly not receptive to any sort of productive discussion. Anything that would be said now would be aimed to hurt; Noctis tended to lash out when angry, and Ignis couldn’t honestly say there wasn’t at least a small possibility he’d slip up and do the same, with how off-kilter he was feeling.

No, right now, it was better to step away.

Ignoring the ache in his chest, he moved away from the door and went to press the elevator button with more force than necessary. As he waited for the elevator, he pulled out his phone and typed up a message.

You [20:23]: Would you please be so kind as to pick up His Highness for school tomorrow? See attached his schedule for the day.

Ignis sighed and stepped into the elevator, keeping the phone in hand rather than tucking it away. Gladio usually responded within a couple minutes unless he was training, and Ignis knew he was free tonight.

Sure enough, when Ignis climbed into the driver’s seat of his car and placed his phone in its holder, there was a message waiting for him.

Gladio [20:27]: Sure. What’s up? You sick?

You [20:28]: Noctis and I had a disagreement. He has stated in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t wish to see me for the time being.

Gladio [20:28]: sh*t. Must’ve been one hell of a disagreement. You good?

Ignis’ mouth pressed into a thin line. Briskly, he locked his phone and started the car. His phone screen lit up again, but he ignored it. Gladio meant well, he knew, and his question came from a place of concern, but Ignis was not in the mood to discuss the issue any further.

He hardly even understood what had occurred, himself.

Noctis had been in a bad mood from the moment Ignis had set foot into the apartment. In retrospect, it was obvious, and Ignis should have noticed. But his own day had been stressful, frustrating, and exhausting, and so he hadn’t realised things were just about one wrong word away from going downhill fast.

It was unexpected in more ways than one. Firstly, Ignis had failed to pick up on the prince’s terrible mood and therefore wasn’t prepared for an outburst, but more importantly, it was unlike Noctis to get angry like that. Usually, their arguments were much more subdued, with Ignis being forced to keep calm despite his frustration from trying to get through to Noctis, who in turn either completely tuned him out or gave him listless one-word replies that were obvious attempts to get Ignis to just stop talking.

Ignis wondered what had left Noctis in such a terrible state. He half considered asking Prompto if anything had happened at school, but dismissed the thought the very second it entered his head, knowing Noctis would consider it an inexcusable breach of trust.

For now, there seemed to be nothing Ignis could do about it, especially seeing as Noctis had all but ordered him out of the apartment. He would simply… have to wait until Noctis elected to speak to him again, however long it would take.

Once home, Ignis went straight to bed, not bothering with making dinner. He had, after all, already spent the better part of the afternoon preparing supper for Noctis, who had taken one look at it, discovered a speck of something green and leafy, and refused to eat even a single bite.

Looking back, Noctis whipping out his phone and ordering a pizza instead had been Ignis’ last straw tonight.

Ignis sighed, not for the first time that day, and finally opened the chat with Gladio. There was one more message now, sent a few minutes after the one Ignis had ignored in the car.

Gladio [20:29 p.m.]: Don’t worry about tomorrow. I’ll pick him up.

Gladio [20:40 p.m.]: Hey, if you wanna talk about anything, just say the word. I’ll be glad to listen.

It was a testament to Ignis’ own mental state that he considered, for a very brief moment, taking Gladio up on his offer. Gladio wasn’t quiet about his dislike of Noctis’ attitude. Surely, he’d understand, surely, in him, Ignis would find someone on his side.

He dismissed the thought as quickly as it had entered his mind, thoroughly ashamed of his moment of weakness. Instead, he replied “Thank you for taking over my duty” and ignored the second text, not bothering to make up an excuse Gladio would see through within seconds.

Morning came, and Ignis felt… unbalanced. Off-center in a way he rarely did. Normally, he woke up, got himself caffeinated enough to function, and then drove straight to Noctis’ apartment to get him up and ready for school.

Today, he woke up, got himself caffeinated, and then… just sat at his kitchen table, practically vibrating with nervous energy and having nowhere to channel it. His schedule so unexpectedly cleared, he didn’t have to be at the Citadel until nine, although he was still planning to arrive early and get some work done.

He simply. Could not bring himself to get up and out of the door.

It was a cruel sort of irony, he thought, that the one time he got a free morning, he couldn’t even enjoy it for the circ*mstances that had led to it.

He scoffed, abruptly slamming his empty coffee cup onto the table.

“Get yourself together, this is ridiculous!” he said out loud, standing up with so much force the chair nearly toppled over.

Grabbing his laptop bag, he walked out of the apartment before he could change his mind.

Coming to the Citadel early had been a mistake. Everyone knew to never book Ignis before nine in the morning. No matter what, that time was reserved for the Prince alone.

Ignis could practically feel their stares when he walked to his office around half past seven.

He ignored them, of course, but the damage was done, and he was not looking forward to the rumours and whispers his unusual presence was already bringing forth. Noctis had, after all, an impressive track record of tutors, nannies, and whoever else had attempted to work with him. No one had ever expected Ignis to last this long in the moody Prince’s service.

“Do you think the Prince dismissed him?” a young Crownsguard had whispered to his comrade when he had believed Ignis out of earshot.

And indeed, were they really rumours if they were true?

Certainly, Noctis had not formally dismissed him from his service. But dismissed him he had, and where did Ignis even go from here?

Focusing on the reports before him quickly proved to be a fruitless endeavor. Ignis read the same sentence over and over, retaining not a single word, and finally slammed the file shut in frustration.

It wasn’t like he and Noctis had never had a disagreement before. They’d practically grown up together, there were bound to be conflicts every now and then.

But none of them had ever quite felt like this.

For the next few days, Ignis let Gladio take over Noctis Duty like the coward he was. It meant Noctis was probably being fed a diet consisting of solely Cup Noodles and takeout, and Ignis hoped Gladio wasn’t being too harsh to Noctis about their argument, having somehow gotten it into his head that this whole mess was Noctis’ fault alone as if Ignis had not severely spoken out of turn as well.

After the third day, Gladio had offered via text message to “kick Noctis’ ass” if Ignis thought he needed it, an offer Ignis had shut down really damn quickly. Instead, he let Gladio know he didn’t need anyone to fight his battles for him, ignored Gladio’s rebuttal of “Yeah, but maybe you could use someone to talk to”, and buried himself in non-Noctis work.

Of course, this strategy was bound to fail at one point, and that happened nearly a week after he and Noctis had initially fought.

Gladio: [15:17]: Hey Cor spontaneously booked me for training with the new recruits, so I can’t get the kid to school tomorrow. Sorry!

Ignis pursed his lips as he stared at the text, as though its content would change if he glared at it long enough. It wasn’t like he’d thought he could simply avoid Noctis forever - this was, after all, his job, and if he wasn’t performing his job, then by all means he should be dismissed.

Well. It looked like Noctis was simply going to have to deal with Ignis in his apartment again, whether he liked it or not.

Ignis tried not to think about what he would do if Noctis sent him away again.

Ignis let himself into Noct’s apartment, surprised to hear the sound of an alarm going off in Noctis’ room. Usually, the Prince never even bothered with alarms, instead counting on Ignis to wake him up on time.

Gladio was unlikely to have considered being Noctis’ personal alarm clock part of taking over Ignis’ duty, though. Most likely, this new development was his doing.

Well. It did give Ignis an excuse to avoid the Prince for a little longer, instead starting on breakfast as he waited for Noctis to get up.

The alarm went off a few more times - being immediately silenced each time - but eventually, something stirred behind the closed bedroom door and eventually in the living room.

Ignis heard the steps come to an abrupt halt behind him.

“Ignis.”

“Highness. Gladio was scheduled with the new recruits this morning and therefore unable to collect you. I hope this is acceptable.

Noctis said nothing, watching Ignis with an unreadable expression before he nodded and trudged into the bathroom.

The rest of the morning continued in a similar fashion, with Noctis wordlessly picking at his breakfast and Ignis busying himself with the dishes, followed by a car ride spent in silence apart from the quiet music on the radio.

Ignis hated every second of it.

Noctis hadn’t thrown him out of the apartment, which was something, he supposed. Still, he didn’t know what to do with the silence, Noctis’ refusal to initiate a conversation - and Ignis knew better than to push, that never did go over well - and the tension that made the air around them almost too thick to breathe.

At least Noctis still bothered to inform Ignis that he was going to the arcade with Prompto after school instead of simply standing him up. Though that was most likely for Noctis’ own benefit, considering the last time he hadn’t texted beforehand, he had been escorted home by an entire squad of Glaives who had been dispatched to investigate the Prince’s disappearance.

It meant that instead of another car ride in silence, they spent a car ride with Prompto chattering a mile a minute, no doubt either having been informed of their argument by Noctis, or simply picking up on the tension between them. Either way, he was doing his best to lift the mood and fill the silence.

Ignis was immeasurably glad for it.

Still, once they dropped Prompto off, it was once again just the two of them in the car, and any discomfort Prompto had managed to alleviate with his presence returned in full force.

Ignis couldn’t help but notice Noctis was different from that morning, though. Still silent, but nervous and fidgety somehow. More than once, Ignis looked in the rear mirror to catch Noctis quickly looking away as though he had been watching him.

Back in the apartment, Ignis lingered despite not being needed any longer - Noctis and Prompto had eaten at the arcade, so he wouldn’t need to take care of supper that night. And yet, something kept him from walking out the door. They needed to settle their differences, he knew, but, well. Noctis was notoriously allergic to discussing his feelings in any way, and Ignis, while perfectly content to discuss Noctis’ feelings, wasn’t so keen on sharing his own either.

Similarly, Noctis, instead of flopping down on the couch or vanishing in his bedroom like he normally did, took a suspiciously long time taking his shoes off and then hung up his jacket with immeasurable care.

By the time Noctis started randomly searching his bag, Ignis couldn’t take it anymore.

“Noctis-” he started, but was interrupted by something being shoved unceremoniously into his hands.

Ignis could only stare at it, trying to process what he was holding.

A… coeurl plush?

“You… got me a toy? Why?”

Noctis shrugged, not meeting his eye. “Just because.”

Ignis looked at the plush, then at Noctis, then back at the plush - a bright purple monstrosity clearly from an arcade claw machine, good gods - and set it down on the dresser by the entrance, very gently, acknowledging it for what it was.

An apology.

He hesitated for only a second but then stepped closer to Noctis and tentatively spread his arms.

Relief flooded him when Noctis practically barreled into him and pressed his face into his chest.

“Coeurls aren’t usually purple,” Ignis said, hand coming up to cradle the back of Noctis’ head.

“It goes with that shirt you like so much,” Noctis mumbled into Ignis’ shirt - a non-coeurl one that was better suited for work. His arms were wrapped tight around Ignis’ waist, and he didn’t seem at all inclined to let go anytime soon.

“Very thoughtful. Thank you, Noct.”

They stayed like that for a while, neither really wanting to be the one to break the embrace.

“You do know those machines are rigged, yes? How many tries did it take you to get this?”

Noct made a sound that was somewhere between a snort-laugh and a choked sob.

“Don’t ask. I think the arcade workers were judging me.”

Ignis smiled into Noct’s hair. “Well, in that case, I shall treasure it until the day I die.”

Many months later, Ignis packed the last of his things for the journey to Altissia. And there, safely tucked into the corner of his travel bag, sat a bright purple coeurl plush.

Chapter 25: "Look both ways." - Prompto & Ignis, Brotherhood era

Chapter Text

Prompto wasn’t afraid of the dentist, per se. Sure, he didn’t find it very pleasant - who did, anyway? - and they always scolded him for chewing up the insides of his cheeks and for brushing his teeth too hard and it made him feel like he was failing as something as basic as caring for his teeth. But he didn’t have a dentist phobia or anything like that.

With that said.

When his dentist had told him his wisdom teeth needed to go, he’d maybe definitely kind of panicked.

He’d opted to have all four removed at the same time when asked. If he needed to sit through that, of course he didn’t want to do it more than once.

So he’d made the appointment and then, for the weeks leading up to the appointment, tried very hard not to think about the date he’d marked in his calendar with a single word - “teeth”, written in red ink.

A problem for Future Prompto, definitely.

Tragically, Future Prompto eventually did turn into Present Prompto and, with the appointment only two days away, he reluctantly and miserably dug out the information pamphlet he’d been given.

Most of it was stuff that wouldn’t be relevant until after the procedure, and he was too jittery with nerves to actually absorb any of it, but then one sentence in particular caught his eye.

If you are sedated, you should bring someone with you to accompany you there and also to take you home, as you won ’t be able to drive or travel alone. You should have someone with you for 24 hours following the procedure.

Prompto blinked. That… was going to be a problem. His parents weren’t scheduled to come home for at least another month, aaand this was probably something he should have figured out beforehand.

He could get away with pretending there would someone be waiting for him at home no problem, but he wouldn’t have anyone to accompany him. If anyone asked, maybe he could just say someone was waiting for him in the parking lot, and then he’d take a taxi home or something.

Prompto sighed and tossed the pamphlet aside.

Well.

Another problem for Future Prompto, who thankfully wasn’t yet him.

“Did you bring someone to take you home?” the lady at the front desk asked him, peering behind him as if there were someone trailing behind him she hadn’t yet seen. Which was kind of ridiculous with how short Prompto was. Had he brought someone, she would’ve seen them before she’d seen him. That growth spurt everyone had predicted to hit him during puberty had yet to show itself. Aaany day now.

…okay, he was rambling in his thoughts. Better put a stop to that, before he started rambling at her out loud.

“Uh. Kind of? I mean. They’re waiting in the parking lot,” he said, hoping it didn’t sound as much like bullsh*t as he thought it did.

The lady gave him a smile that he himself had used many times on customers - the Customer Service Smile that didn’t show how truly dead inside you were.

“I’m sorry, but could you ask them to come wait for you? You’re probably going to need assistance getting to the parking lot.”

Prompto smiled back nervously. “I, uh, I think they went to run some errands in the meantime? They’re probably not there yet.”

“Well, that’s- oh,” the lady cut herself off, frowning down at his file.

“Something wrong?”

She looked back up at him, offering him another apologetic smile. “Sorry, I just saw that you’re a minor. In that case, we definitely can’t do the procedure without an adult present.”

sh*t.

“Okay, I get that, but. Hm. The thing is. I kinda lied earlier?” Prompto said, avoiding eye contact by studying the very dead plant in the far corner of the lobby instead. “There’s no one waiting in the parking lot. I was just gonna, I dunno, catch a taxi or something.”

The lady’s smile was starting to look pretty strained.

Prompto thought he could relate.

“We ask people to bring someone with them for good reason. You should have been given a pamphlet explaining this.”

“It’s not that I didn’t take it seriously!” Prompto hurried to explain. “My parents just weren’t available today, that’s all.”

The lady’s Customer Service Expression broke for a split second before she plastered it back on, but her eyes looked a little softer now.

“I understand that, but is there anyone else you could possibly contact? Otherwise, I’m afraid we won’t be able to do the procedure today, but we’d still have to charge you because the cancellation would be on such short notice.”

Prompto hesitated. “There’s. Someone. I could maybe call. Gimme two minutes?”

With shaky fingers, he dug his phone from his pocket and scrolled through his lamentably short contact list.

Ignis picked up on the second ring.

“Prompto?”

“Iggy, heeey,” Prompto said, hoping he sounded cheerful rather than hysterical. “What’s good, man?”

He could practically feel Ignis’ questioning stare on the other end of the line.

“Prompto. You never call. What’s wrong?”

Okay. Right to business, then.

“Well, I was, I’m kinda supposed to be getting my wisdom teeth out today but they won’t do the procedure without an adult present and I was wondering if you could maybe come here so they’d do the thing?” he rambled, all in one breath.

Ignis was silent for a moment, then, “Send me the address.”

Prompto had to swallow twice before trusting his voice enough to speak.

“Cool. Cool, that’s. That’s really cool of you, thank you so much!”

After ending the call, Prompto turned back to the front desk.

“So, good news.”

The lady looked like she very much wanted to go home.

Prompto could definitely relate.

Prompto felt floaty and weird and his mouth was fuzzy and it also kind of hurt but also not . It didn’t hurt in a way that actually registered, which was a very strange sensation.

He also kind of felt like crying from the very second he laid his eyes upon Iggy, who sat in the waiting room and got up to steady him as soon as he was led out of the room and into the lobby.

“Iggy,” he slurred. “Iggy, you’re here.”

“Of course. I said I would be, didn’t I?”

Technically, he hadn’t said that. He’d just told Prompto to send him the address.

Prompto wanted to tell him that, but his mouth wouldn’t cooperate, so he just nodded and focused on not tripping over his feet as Ignis led him down the stairs with a steadying hand on his arm.

Once outside, Ignis released him in order to grab the car keys from his pocket, but Prompto barely even noticed the absence of his touch.

Thinking took a lot of focus and his ability to focus was kind of escaping him right now, so he just. Didn’t think. Instead, he kept putting one foot in front of the other, fascinated by the way his shoes kept appearing and disappearing in his vision with every step he took.

“Prompto!”

There was an unexpected pressure on his arm and then he was unceremoniously yanked backwards, nearly toppling over as a result of the sudden shift.

Mere centimeters from his face, a car sped by, the accompanying gust of wind tousling his hair and making his eyes water.

“Look both ways!” Ignis scolded, guiding him safely across the road and to the car.

“I’m sorry,” Prompto mumbled, probably due to all the cotton in his mouth. Had he been more lucid, he would’ve winced at how pathetic he sounded. “Sorry, Iggy.”

“It’s alright,” Ignis said gently. His hand left Prompto’s arm and came up to brush his wind-swept bangs out of his eyes with more care than Prompto knew what to do with.

Before he knew it, his eyes were overflowing with tears and he sniffled pathetically.

Good gods. Had that been in the pamphlet too?

Ignis, bless his heart, didn’t hesitate at all before reaching for Prompto with both arms, drawing him against his chest very gently.

“Shh, you’re alright,” Ignis muttered into Prompto’s hair, his hand running up and down his back in soothing motions. “I’ve got you, I promise. Let’s get you home where you can rest, hm?”

Once the effects of the drugs they’d pumped him full of wore off, Prompto would feel like he was going to die of shame at this ridiculous display, and he was in for a few days of pain that even the prescription strength painkillers he’d gotten wouldn’t quite be able to keep away.

But right now, all doped up and tucked safely into Ignis’ chest, receiving affection and care that was still so foreign to him, he thought he couldn’t possibly feel any better.

The next day, Prompto was in the middle of a race in Mario Kart with Noct (“It’s gonna distract you from the pain, trust me.”) when a previously forgotten memory of drugged Past Prompto suddenly flashed in his mind.

“Oh, sh*t, I totally got snot and everything onto Iggy’s shirt!”

Chapter 26: "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." - Prompto & Noctis, road trip

Chapter Text

Noct dismissed his broadsword in favour of one of Prompto’s guns and fired a shot, head pounding and vision swimming, he lined up for another shot - but then, the warm feeling of healing magic washed over him and his mind cleared up instantly.

Ignis, who had administered the smelling salts, was already turning away from him again, rushing towards Prompto…

…Prompto, on the muddy ground, gasping and writhing in pain. Gladio was by his side, talking to him more gently than Noct had ever heard him speak to anyone other than Iris and Rosie, his chocobo. He held both of Prompto’s arms in a firm grip, holding him down so he didn’t hurt himself further.

His right leg was bleeding profusely, blood spurting from his thigh in rhythmic bursts.

For a long moment, Noct couldn’t decipher the scene before him, couldn’t parse what had injured Prompto this badly, until his gaze fell on the cadaver of a killer wasp and it all made sense.

He had done this.

Noct had injured Prompto like this, in a bout of confusion caused by the killer wasps’ toxin.

He couldn’t move, stayed rooted to the spot and could only watch as Ignis dropped to his knees behind Prompto and pulled him flush against his chest, rubbing soothing circles into his chest and whispering gentle reassurances into his hair.

The awful noises Prompto made reminded Noct more of an injured animal than his best friend, and he already knew the sound would haunt his nightmares for weeks to come.

“Hold him still,” he heard Gladio say. "The bullet hit an artery, but it’s still inside. It needs to come out before we can use a potion.”

No time for a sedative or he’ll bleed out , was left unsaid.

Noct felt sick.

Prompto made a distressed noise and Ignis curled around him, shushing him quietly. His hand moved to stroke Prompto’s hair, repetitive, soothing motions.

“Starting now,” Gladio warned, and Ignis’ other hand came up to cover Prompto’s mouth.

Right. There were still beasts around, Noct noted distantly. If - when - Prompto screamed, they’d be alerted, and they couldn’t afford to take that risk.

And, oh, scream he did as Gladio started to dig out the bullet without hesitation. Even muffled by Ignis’ hand, Prompto’s pained cry tore through Noct’s body like lightning, shaking him to his very bones and he felt his knees go weak.

Gladio worked fast but not hurriedly, all his training in field medicine paying off. It still took him a decent amount of time to get the bullet out, all while Prompto sobbed desperately, eyes squeezed shut and head thrown back against Ignis’ shoulder

Noct wasn’t sure how long it took - realistically, it couldn’t have been more than a minute or two, but it felt like an eternity until he finally heard the tell-tale sound of a potion being shattered against Prompto’s leg.

Noct let himself sink to the ground, still unable to tear his eyes away from his friends.

Prompto’s breathing sounded harsh and he was shaking like a leaf, silent tears streaming down his face. Ignis was gentle with him, whispering reassurances into his ear that were too quiet for Noct to make out, one arm wrapped tightly around Prompto’s chest and his other hand still in his hair.

Gladio granted Prompto a few moments to catch his breath before he started prodding at his leg, quizzing him about sensation and his range of motion, which Prompto answered in a quiet, shaky voice until Gladio nodded and let go of his leg, visibly relieved.

They’d barely set foot into their hotel room at the Leville when Gladio clasped Noct’s shoulder and kept him from going any further.

“C’mon, let’s go get that bounty.”

It was the kind of tone that left no room for argument, and even though Noct knew it was a thinly veiled excuse to catch him alone, he nodded mutely and trudged after Gladio.

He really wasn’t in the mood for a lecture - for nearly killing Prompto, for freezing up afterwards instead of helping him - but it was foolish to hope Gladio would go easy on him.

Not that he didn’t deserve the chewing out.

Gladio didn’t try to talk to him until after they’d been paid by the tipster.

“It wasn’t your fault, y’know,” he finally said after he’d bought them both some meat skewers from a street vendor and steered Noct towards the parking lot.

“Yeah? Did you miss the part where I put a bullet into Prompto’s leg with my own hands?” Noct snapped.

“Don’t be dramatic. You weren’t in your right mind. Those damn wasps scrambled your brain good.”

Gladio conveniently left out the part after his confusion had lifted, when he’d all but frozen up and just watched, uselessly, as his friend bled out.

Noct swallowed, feeling nauseated as the visual of Prompto’s blood dyeing the ground red within seconds came to his mind once more.

“I almost killed him.” It came out as a whisper, but Gladio still heard him.

“You were confused, Noct. That’s not something any of us could control,” Gladio said, uncharacteristically gently.

“He shouldn’t-“ Noct cut himself off, tried again. “He’s not even supposed to be here. The only reason why he has to fight and get into dangerous situations with barely any training is because I asked him to come. Whose fault is it if not mine?!”

Gladio sighed. “Noct, if he weren’t here, he’d most likely be dead already. Cor gave us a rundown of the state of Insomnia, me ‘n Iggy. The area where Prompto lived- it’s almost completely destroyed.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Noct’s voice came out strangled.

“Yes, because if he’s here, then at least we can protect him. You can protect him. Yeah, maybe he wouldn’t be fighting daemons and weird monsters if you hadn’t asked him to come, but maybe he wouldn’t be doing anything because he wouldn’t even be alive.”

“I still froze up, though.”

Gladio shoved his shoulder, hard enough to make him stumble.

“Are you trying to make this difficult? It’s, well, it’s not good that you froze up, but it’s understandable. Most people would have. What’s done is done now, Blondie’s just fine and probably already talking Iggy’s ear off, and the only thing you can do now is to push forward and do better next time.”

“Hoping there won’t be a next time,” Noct muttered. He handed his skewers to Gladio, who happily took them. Even though he felt marginally better, he didn’t think he could stomach them just yet.

Besides…

“I’m gonna head back,” he said, tone deliberately casual. “Are you coming?”

“Nah,” Gladio waved him off. “You go have your talk with Blondie. Tell Iggy to meet me by that food place he wanted to check out.”

Noct’s cheeks reddened at his intention being caught so clearly, but he nodded and stomped off towards the Leville.

When he entered, Ignis was in the kitchen making something that suspiciously looked like hot chocolate - never mind that it was like a million degrees in Lestallum - and Prompto was in bed, pale and shaken but otherwise fine.

“Uh.” Noct said stupidly. “Specs. Gladio says to meet you by... That place you wanted to check out? He didn’t give me a name.”

“Ah, yes, I know the one,” Ignis said, pressing a mug of steaming hot chocolate into Noct’s hands. “I’ve been wanting to try their wine in particular. Tenebrae’s finest, I’ve heard nothing but praise for it. Give this to Prompto, will you? There’s more if you want some.”

And then, Noct was alone with Prompto.

Slowly, he carried the mug over to the bed, but once he was there, he found himself suddenly unable to do anything but stare at Prompto.

“Noct?” Prompto tried. “Hey, buddy, you good?”

And just like that, Noct’s eyes began to sting and before he knew it, hot tears were rolling down his cheeks.

“Whoa, hey, Noct.” Prompto leaned over and hurriedly took the mug from his hands. “Dude, it’s fine, don’t cry. C’mon, sit down.”

Noct sniffed, feeling utterly pathetic. He sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at his hands - he couldn’t bear to look Prompto in the eye.

“Prompto,” he started, feeling all choked up. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

Soft hands grabbed his, and then he was being unceremoniously pulled down onto the mattress.

“Hey!”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it,” Prompto said, eyes big and earnest as he looked down on Noct. “I even got a cool scar out of it. My first real battle scar, dude! Wanna see?”

Not waiting for an answer, he stuck his leg out from under the cover and pointed at the newly acquired scar.

It was somewhat star-shaped and way smaller than it had any right to be for something that nearly killed him.

Noct reached out with a trembling hand and gently touched the scar with his finger, tears once again blurring his vision.

“Noct, seriously, stop making that face. Gladio patched me up real good, and Iggy’s been so nice to me all day! Is that what you feel like all the time? I’m jealous!”

Noct let out a choked laugh. “Iggy’s always nice to you. Sometimes I think he likes you better than he likes me.”

Prompto shrugged. “Yeah, well, I eat my veggies and I help with the dishes. You set the bar pretty low, dude.”

Noct laughed again, more steady this time. “Yeah.”

Then, he cleared his throat and turned onto his back to stare at the ceiling.

“I really am sorry, though. And I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Okay, apology accepted. Even though I don’t think you got anything to apologise for. Not like you did it on purpose,” Prompto was quick to reassure him. “And, yeah, it was scary, but I know you and the guys won’t let me kick it just like that. I’m doing more dangerous sh*t than ever, but I also feel safer than ever because I know you guys are there.”

“Dude, that’s so sappy,” Noct said, but he couldn’t quite hold back a smile.

He still felt guilty - would feel guilty for a while, he knew, possibly forever.

Not just about Prompto, either, about Gladio and Ignis too. The three of them, in danger every day just because of him. It was a tough thing to accept, and Noct wished he knew how his Dad did it. Knowing people were risking and giving their lives to protect him…

It was a burden Noct didn’t know how to bear.

Chapter 27: "Try some." Noct & Gladio, Brotherhood era

Chapter Text

Noct couldn’t remember the last time he and Dad had spent time together, really spent time together, not just spoken on the phone or sat beside each other in a meeting.

He understood, of course, that Dad was busy running a country and all, and he’d spent his entire childhood coming to terms with that, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t at least a little bit salty about it.

So, when Dad called him on a random Tuesday afternoon and offered to take him out for dinner that same evening - really take him out, to a restaurant, not just dining together in the Citadel’s big hall, Noct said yes before he even properly thought about it.

When the call ended, Noct set his phone down, enough of a half-smile on his lips for Ignis to ask, “Good news, Highness?”

“Dad wants to go out for dinner tonight,” Noct told him, and then, apologetically, “Sorry, I know you already planned for a meal.”

Ignis waved his hand in dismissal. “Nonsense. I haven’t started yet, so there’s no harm done. You just enjoy your dinner with His Majesty. Will you be requiring a lift?”

“No, Dad’s sending a car.”

“Well then, I suppose that means I get tonight off,” Ignis concluded. “Whatever shall I do with this much free time?”

Noct laughed. “Knowing you, you’ll probably spend it working anyway.”

His mood drastically improved and his spirits lifted, even his Old Lucian homework almost completed itself, earning him praise from Ignis who, once Noct was done, left for his well-deserved evening off.

If Noct spend a little (a lot) longer than usual to pick his outfit for the evening, well, it wasn’t like anyone was around to judge him. His hair was stubborn as always, and he half-wished he’d kept Ignis around to help him tame it, but after a few more tries, he got it to look decent enough. Dad would approve, he thought, and that was really the only goal here. That, and he wouldn’t look bad in the inevitable paparazzi photos, which meant Ignis would approve as well.

Once it was time to go, he took the elevator downstairs, greeted the Glaive in civilian clothing whose turn it was to hang around the lobby and catch anyone looking suspicious, and made for the black car already parked in front of the building.

“Hey, kiddo,” Gladio greeted him when Noct slid into the backseat next to him. “Lookin’ sharp.”

Noct rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and you’re wearing a shirt. How long’d it take them to make you put that on?”

Here was the thing: Dinner with Dad outside the Citadel never meant dinner with just dad . It meant dinner with Dad and Clarus and Gladio, an entire bunch of Crownsguard placed strategically around the restaurant and a handful of hidden Glaives outside for good measure.

Noct would never stop feeling guilty about Gladio having to put his entire life on hold every time Noct wanted to go somewhere, but this, at least, was just dinner, and Gladio wasn’t immune to good food.

In fact, Gladio was already looking at the restaurant’s menu on his phone. Safe to say he was excited.

“Nerd,” Noct muttered under his breath, earning himself an elbow to the ribs. “Ow!”

Noct helplessly stared at the menu, as if it would magically start making sense to him if he just tried long enough.

Because of course, when Dad picked an authentic Accordian restaurant, that meant so authentic that the menu was completely written in Accordian, full of dishes Noct had never heard of and probably couldn’t pronounce if his life depended on it.

Gladio, who was really more of a nerd than people gave him credit for, had ordered his food with perfect pronunciation and without having to think, because he actually spoke some Accordian and also he had already looked at the menu in the car beforehand.

Suddenly, Noct very much wished he had done the same instead of making fun of him.

It was too late for such regrets, though. Everyone else had already ordered, and the poor waitress’ smile was starting to look a little strained as she waited for Noct to get his act together and pick a dish.

Quickly, Noct searched the menu for the dish with the name he was least likely to butcher horribly.

“I’ll have the… ca-po-nata. The caponata, please,” he said, closing the menu with feigned confidence. “Thank you.”

“An excellent choice,” the waitress said, visibly relieved as she collected their menus.

Gladio’s devilish grin immediately destroyed any hope Noct might’ve held of having made a good choice.

What the f*ck is this, Noct desperately wanted to ask as he stared at the steaming bowl of… he’d already forgotten the name. Wanted to ask but couldn’t, because he was the Prince, dining with his dad the King.

His Shield nearly straining a muscle in his face from grinning so hard did not help him feel any better, thank you very much.

Vegetable stew. He’d ordered a traditional vegetable stew.

Meanwhile, Gladio had on his plate some kind of delicious-looking roast meat, and Noct was forced to admit that maybe it would’ve been a good idea to check the menu beforehand after all.

At least his dad didn’t seem to notice his predicament, too busy arguing with Clarus about the bouquet of the wine they were having.

Still, he couldn’t just not eat. He had to at least try and eat as much of it as he could, and then maybe he’d get away with claiming he was full. Even if that meant he couldn’t have dessert.

Mentally steeling himself, Noct loaded up his fork and shoved it into his mouth before he could second-guess himself.

Okay, this isn’t so bad, he thought and ate another forkful. It took all his willpower to keep himself from shuddering. Okay, yeah, it was that bad. The taste was one thing, but the texture…

Miserable, he stared at the plate, distantly wondering how he was ever going to eat enough of this to make everyone happy.

“Tasty, Your Highness?” Gladio asked innocently, the teasing edge hidden just well enough that Dad and Clarus wouldn’t notice, but Noct very much did.

“Very,” Noct deadpanned, resolutely digging his fork into the stew again.

“Mine’s great,” Gladio supplied helpfully.

“Awesome. Happy for you.”

“Here. Try some.”

Gladio cut off a big piece of the meat on his plate and placed it on Noct’s.

Noct risked a glance at Dad, but Dad seemed more interested in wine tasting than in watching his son embarrass himself over some vegetables.

Small blessings.

“What are you doing?” he hissed at Gladio, who was in the process of shovelling a significant portion of Noct’s stew onto his own plate, cheerfully ignoring the murderous glares his own father shot him.

“Sharing,” came the unperturbed reply. “It’s custom in Accordian culture to share dishes.”

Noct wasn’t sure if Gladio was just bullsh*tting him. But seeing as the result was considerably less vegetables and more meat on his plate, he didn’t really care much either way.

It turned out the vegetable stew, while still not great, was much easier to stomach if it could be eaten in between bites of roast meat.

Noct very deliberately did not make eye contact with Gladio on the ride home. And yet, he could feel the smug looks his Shield was giving him.

“Well, whatever smartass comment you’re sitting on, just get it out of your system!” he finally snapped.

“I share my food with you, and this is how you repay me,” Gladio lamented.

“Shut up.”

“Aw, don’t be like that. Y’know, maybe next time you could stand to be a bit more of a nerd to make sure you’re not ordering vegetable stew again.”

Gladio’s low chuckle swiftly turned into a hiss of pain when Noct’s elbow connected with his ribs.

Noct only felt a little bad about it.

Chapter 28: "Drive safely." - Ignis & Noctis, brotherhood era

Chapter Text

“I think it’s a bad idea,” Noct said, eyes stubbornly on the floor.

In front of him, Ignis sighed, the kind of sigh that meant he thought Noct was being unreasonable and difficult, but in this case, Noct was absolutely convinced that Ignis was the unreasonable one.

“It’ll just be a few days, Noct. I’ll be back before you even know it. In my absence, Gladio will take you to school in my stead, and I’ve forbidden him from feeding you nothing but Cup Noodles all week, so you’ll probably get to eat takeout every day.”

It’s not about that, Noct wanted to yell, did Ignis seriously think he was just worried he wasn’t gonna be fed when he was away?

“Is your uncle going?” he asked instead, still refusing to meet Ignis’ eyes.

“No.” Another sigh. “He and my parents are… on bad terms.”

Noct scoffed. “Yeah, because they treat you like sh*t.”

“Noct-”

“Forget it.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Noct saw Ignis stepping closer.

“Noct, please. I don’t wish to part ways when you are angry with me.”

The childish side of him almost made him want to remain stubborn so Ignis wouldn’t go, but the pleading edge in Ignis’ voice made it impossible not to give in to him.

“’M not mad at you,” he muttered and closed the distance between them, pressing his face against Ignis' chest and wrapping his arms around his middle.

“I’m glad,” Ignis said and easily folded him into a hug.

Don’t go, Noct wanted to tell him, they don’t deserve you, but all he managed was, “Drive safely.”

Ignis laughed, soft and low, and pressed a kiss to Noct’s hair.

“Always.”

Going there had been a mistake, Ignis thought as he drove through the night, caffeine being the only thing keeping him awake. It wasn’t terribly late yet, but it was already dark and he hadn’t slept well the past few days, especially not at his parents’ house.

Realistically, he knew he should’ve waited until the next morning to go home, but he couldn’t stand the mere thought of spending even a minute more in his parents’ house. It had only been two days, and he’d been meant to stay for nearly a week. But from the moment he’d walked through the door, he’d heard Noct’s voice in his head, telling him what a bad idea this was, and his parents had seemed determined to prove him right.

Noct had been right, of course. Ignis was going to have to apologize to him.

Keeping his eye on the road, he pressed his thumb to his phone to unlock it and started dictating a message to Noct.

Coming home later tonight. Thought you’d want to know. Sleep well, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

He hit send and then, just before he made to lock his phone again, he hesitated.

“Call Amantius Scientia.”

His uncle picked up on the second ring.

And that was really the thing, wasn’t it? Ignis had still been a child when he’d come to the Citadel, and a very young child at that. As such, he hadn’t understood the implications of parents sending their four-year-old son to a foreign country to live with an uncle he’d never met before.

For months he’d waited for a phone call that never came, and after his uncle had tried to gently make him understand that it wouldn’t come, he’d continued to hope in secret for many more years to come.

In his childish naivety, he’d tried to come up with reasons why his parents never called. They were busy, he’d reasoned, but then, so was his uncle, and yet he always made time for him. So perhaps the fees for calls outside the country were too high - never mind that his parents had more money than they knew what to do with. And once they’d fled Tenebrae and come to live in Lucis instead, and still they never called, he finally realised the truth, painful as it was.

The truth was that his parents didn’t care for him, never had, and they were perfectly happy to gloat about their son who was to be the Lucian prince’s advisor to anyone who asked or didn’t ask, but they had no interest whatsoever in him as an actual person.

It was a truth he’d known for a long time, but he’d gotten careless - he’d let himself forget. But being back there, in that loveless house with those loveless people… It was a painful but necessary reminder that his real family was back home in Insomnia, waiting for his safe return.

“Uncle.” His voice wavered, just slightly, but he had no doubts that his uncle had picked up on it right away. “I just wished to let you know that I’m currently on the way home. I should arrive in a few hours.”

“At this hour?” Ignis could practically hear his uncle’s frown over the phone. “What did they do?”

Ignis sighed. “Nothing.”

It wasn’t a lie, they hadn’t done anything. But that was precisely the problem. They hadn’t done anything , nothing that indicated that they were in any way happy to see their son, that they had missed him, that they were interested in his life. They might as well have been two strangers whose house he’d walked into by mistake - and for what it was worth, they were nothing more but strangers to him.

“Ignis.”

“Really, Uncle, they haven’t done anything. I’m… not sure what I was expecting when I agreed to visit, but I should have known better.”

His uncle sighed, the original version of the very sigh Ignis had adopted himself and often used on Noct.

“None of that is your fault, I promise you this. They’re simply terrible people who have never cared about anyone or anything but themselves, and I wish you had never been involved with them in the first place.”

Ignis rubbed his temple with his right hand and reached for the can of ebony in the middle console, hoping that the caffeine would stave off his building headache, but found it devastatingly empty.

Cursing under his breath, he started to keep an eye out for a service station at which he could pull over and buy more coffee.

“This was the last time I’ve been involved with them in this lifetime,” Ignis told his uncle quietly, like a confession. Perhaps it was, if not to his uncle, then certainly to himself.

“Now that’s a sentiment I can agree with,” his uncle laughed, the sound filling Ignis with warmth. Even when reduced to a tinny voice from a phone speaker, his uncle, who had never wanted or intended to have children, who people viewed as stuck-up and unapproachable, offered him so much more care and affection than his own parents.

If Ignis had any doubts left about his decision to cut his parents out of his life for good, his uncle’s laugh washed them all away at once.

His uncle stayed with him on the phone for a while longer, until Ignis spotted a service station and pulled over, wishing his uncle a good night and promising to come see him the next day.

Noct had also replied to his message with a thumbs-up emoji, and had sent a second message to the group chat mere minutes later.

Noctis [20:49]: spontaneous hang out at my place, who’s in

Prompto [20:52]: oooo sick should i bring anything?? 👀

Noctis [20:53]: just your controllers

Prompto [20:53]: okidoki

Gladio [21:01]: Sure I’ll bring the beer

Gladio [21:01]: Just kidding you punks ain’t getting beer

Noctis [21:05]: @Specs

Noctis [21:05]: you’re coming right

Ignis smiled, touched by the unsubtle attempt to organise something to cheer him up.

Noct had been unhappy about Ignis going to see his parents from the moment he’d learnt about it. His concern had been sweet, but Ignis had tried his best to convince him that he needn’t fret, he’d gotten over his parents’ neglect years ago and he could handle facing them again.

Evidently, Ignis had been very wrong, and Noct had been right all along. Going to see them had been a mistake, but at least it wasn’t a mistake he was going to make a second time.

You [21:38]: Of course. I’ll join you in approximately two hours.

Noct [21:39]: ok

Noct[21:39]: drive safely

Two hours later, Ignis opened the door to Noct’s apartment, exhausted and suffering an intense headache. He just wanted to sleep, but going back to his own, empty apartment after the emotional turmoil of dealing with his parents wasn’t even an option. Not when his friends were right here, waiting for him even though it was the middle of the night and they surely had to be tired.

“I’m home,” he called as he made his way to the living room, smiling when Noct scrambled up from the couch and into his waiting arms.

“Good to have you back,” Noct muttered, pulling back to eye him critically. “You okay?”

Ignis looked at him, really looked, at the honest concern in his eyes despite his best attempts to conceal it.

Next, he looked at Gladio, sat on the couch next to Ignis’ usual spot - which had been left empty for him - munching on a forkful of Cup Noodles and very pointedly not meeting Ignis’ eyes.

He looked at Prompto who had jumped up and run to the kitchen the moment he’d heard Ignis come home, who knew more of parental wounds than he cared to admit, pouring hot water over a bag of Ignis’ favourite herbal tea into his favourite mug.

He thought about his uncle, his voice still clear in Ignis’ head, supportive and kind, who had taken him in and raised him when his own parents hadn’t wanted him.

He looked back at Noct, who still stuck as close to him as he could while still trying to not look like he was sticking close to him.

Ignis smiled.

“I am now.”

Chapter 29: "Well, what do you want to do?" Prompto & Gladio, brotherhood era

Chapter Text

One thing Prompto had learnt about Gladio by now was that he could be extremely convincing once he set his mind on something. So it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Prompto ended up being roped into dinner and movies at the Amicitia estate during the long weekend brought about by a bank holiday.

The second Gladio had found out that Prompto’s parents were absent more often than not, this weekend being no exception, Prompto had seen the resolve in his eyes, the exact moment he had decided that wouldn’t do. Big brother indeed, Prompto thinks, helplessly accepting the invitation - not that he had much of a choice to begin with.

“I should warn you, Iris loves having guests. She’ll insist on entertaining you the whole evening,” Gladio told him on the drive there. Prompto knew now why Noct had Ignis drive him everywhere, not Gladio. His driving was jerky, with abrupt braking and accelerating and sharply taken turns.

It would’ve been endearing, the big guy so excited about getting to show off his family, if Prompto hadn’t been so damn nervous. He’d never met Iris, but it sounded like she was basically just a younger version of Gladio, with the same friendly, extroverted personality and the same level of touchy-feely-ness.

Then, there was Jared, the family’s butler, and his little grandson Talcott. Prompto had briefly met Jared a few months back when Gladio wouldn’t let him walk home in the dark after a prolonged training session and had called Jared to drive him home. He seemed like a very kind man, almost like a grandfather to Gladio and Iris.

Clarus Amicitia, though.

Before starting Crownsguard training, Prompto had thought there couldn’t be a man more intimidating than Cor Leonis. Then, Cor had taken over training Prompto and the other recruits, and while he was definitely intimidating and Prompto did not want to get on his bad side, he’d seen the man’s lips twitch into the slightest hint of a smile when one of the recruits had lost his balance during the obstacle run and fallen right into a pool of water. Another time, Cor had cracked a joke so dry it had taken them several seconds to even realise he’d made a joke, and the first time he’d praised Prompto, by name and everything, he’d thought he would simply melt into a puddle right there on the gym floor. Cor was intimidating, yes, but Prompto had seen evidence that he was human and at least somewhat approachable.

He was scared sh*tless of Clarus Amicitia.

The only times he’d met the man had been as the King’s shadow, not speaking, not smiling, not displaying any kind of emotion, just pure stoicism. Where the King was surprisingly warm and fatherly, Clarus was a complete mystery to Prompto, and he’d secretly been glad he didn’t have much to do with the man.

Until Gladio decided Prompto needed to have dinner with them, apparently.

By the time Gladio pushed open the doors to the mansion and shouted “I’m home!”, Prompto was just about ready to throw up from sheer nerves. Only thanks to his subconscious he managed to shake Clarus’ hand and stammer out a more or less acceptable greeting.

Then, he was quickly rescued by Iris, who dragged him towards the dinner table by his arm and showed him where he could sit. Relieved he didn’t have to see Clarus’ reaction to his… well, everything, he happily followed along and let himself be sandwiched between the two Amicitia siblings.

Jared was an exceptional cook - no better or worse than Ignis, just different in a way that was no doubt caused by the years of experience that separated them - and Gladio had clearly told him about Prompto's preferences when it came to food, It was deliciously spicy, just a touch less than Prompto would've made for himself, probably to spare everyone else's taste buds, but still spicier than he’d expected.

It tasted like ash in his mouth.

Prompto did his best to force himself to chew and swallow and smile and compliment Jared on the food, but his enthusiasm sounded just slightly off even to his own ears. He hoped fervently that Gladio wouldn’t pick up on it, or anyone else for that matter, not when they were all so nice to him.

The air was relaxed. Gladio and Iris were bickering just the way Prompto had always imagined siblings to, making Talcott laugh and Jared shake his head at them with barely hidden fondness. And Clarus Amicitia, while still intimidating - Prompto couldn’t look the man in the eye for more than a few seconds - turned out to be much less serious and stone-faced in the presence of his family than when he was silently shadowing the King.

Prompto’s jitters had dissipated over the course of the dinner, calmed by the warm, familial atmosphere. His nervousness had turned into relief, but then, inexplicably, it had transformed into bone-deep sadness.

Whenever Prompto saw to dinner for himself at home, he'd pretend he didn't mind eating in silence. He'd turn on the TV or pull up a random stream of a video game on his laptop, just to fill the silence. He’d tell himself he appreciated the peace and quiet, the opportunity to cook what he wanted and not have to consider someone else's taste. And he'd convince himself the reason why he turned on all the lights and left them burning even when he went to bed was to ward off burglars, not because the lights helped him pretend there was someone else still awake and watching over him as he slept.

It worked, for the most part, but sometimes he just couldn't fool himself any longer. Like when Noct invited him to stay for dinner and Ignis could be persuaded to put his work aside for a while and join them for a meal, or when he and Noct scarfed down a pizza during a gaming session, and Prompto caught himself wishing for it to last forever.

None of those situations had ever hit him quite as hard as the Amicitia family dinner, though, and he was completely unprepared for it.

He'd managed to choke down most of the food and now it sat heavy in his stomach. The warmth of the family's chatter around him that had felt like a comforting blanket at first was wrapping itself tighter and tighter around him until it threatened to suffocate him.

Rapidly, he shot to his feet and claimed he had to use the bathroom, turning down Iris' offer to show him the way, and all but fled the dining room.

Iris’ offer turned out to be reasonable with the sheer number of doors in the manor’s hallway, and by the time he found the bathroom, he really did feel like he might need it soon with the way the food churned in his stomach.

He staggered to the sink, closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.

"Pull yourself together, man," he whispered to himself. Only him, he thought, he was the only person who could take a dinner invitation from a friend and turn it into a self-pity party.

Opening his eyes, he stared at himself in the mirror for a few long moments and, to his utter horror, felt his eyes fill up with tears.

"sh*t, no-" he whisper-exclaimed and hurriedly wiped them away, but they wouldn't stop. Rapidly, his vision became blurry with tears that resisted any attempt to staunch them.

Still, he tried, desperately dabbing at his eyes with a wad of toilet paper, cursing his pale face that always turned bright red and blotchy the second he even shed a single tear.

Once his eyes finally stopped watering, he stuck some more toilet paper under the cold tap water and pressed it to his eyes and nose to hopefully lessen the redness a little. It worked, a little, and considering the light in the dining room was rather dim, Prompto was almost certain no one would be able to tell he'd cried.

Taking one more deep breath, he stepped out of the bathroom and immediately collided with a broad chest.

"Hey, you good? You've been gone for- what's wrong?"

Gladio's expression changed from curiously concerned to openly worried within a split second. It would've been sweet, really, had Prompto not been so focused on not appearing like a weirdo who cried in his friend's bathroom, holy sh*t.

But apparently, his face didn't hold up in the bright hallway nearly as well as he’d hoped it would in the dining room, and Gladio saw right through him in a heartbeat.

Prompto opened his mouth, then closer it again, because, sh*t, how could he even explain himself? Claim the vet had called to let him know his hamster had died? Gladio knew he didn't own any pets. His grandmother, then?

Gladio didn’t give him much time to think of a good excuse. With a gentle but firm hand on his shoulder, he pulled him away from the hallway and into a random guest room, away from prying eyes.

“Come on, what’s wrong?” Gladio asked again. His hand remained steady on Prompto’s shoulder, strong and warm and grounding.

Frantically, Prompto tried to come up with an excuse, something to explain his weird behaviour. Because how could he even begin to explain that sitting at the dinner table tonight had made him feel like an intruder, had made him long for a family of his own, had ripped the wound in his chest his parents had left over the years wide open until it bled, and had made him wish so badly for a place to belong?

But Gladio was looking at him with so much concern that eventually, the only words that spilled from Prompto's lips were nothing but the truth.

When he finished, again on the verge of bursting into tears, he couldn't meet Gladio's eyes, instead choosing to study the painting of a flower hanging behind the bed with an interest that would've put any art collector to shame.

Which was why Gladio's arms around him caught him completely by surprise and his nose collided painfully with Gladio's chest for the second time that night. Only this time, Gladio’s arms tightened around him and folded him neatly into his chest, and it was almost enough to send Prompto over the edge right then and there.

"I'm sorry" Gladio rumbled. "I shouldn't have made you come here. Should've asked how you felt about it first. Didn’t even give you a choice, did I?"

Prompto shuddered. He'd ruined the night by being an absolute weirdo about a family dinner, and here Gladio was, apologizing like he had done something wrong. sh*t. Prompto didn't deserve any of his friends.

"Not your fault," Prompto mutters into Gladio's shirt. "You did nothing wrong, I'm the one who made this weird."

Gladio gently peeled Prompto away from his chest and held him at arm's length so he could catch his eye. "You're not making anything weird. I get it, don't worry about it. Tell you what, we can make this a weekly thing if you want, you can-" he broke off when he saw the devastated look on Prompto’s face. "Or not. Yeah, let's not do that."

He pulled Prompto back into his arms, which, in turn, threatened to start a new round of tears on Prompto's part.

"Well, what do you want to do?" Gladio asked gently, patiently.

Prompto sniffled and closed his eyes, focusing on Gladio's arms around him. Gladio wouldn't make fun of him, he reminded himself. Gladio was safe.

"I just want something of my own," he said, so quietly he was afraid Gladio didn't even hear it.

But he did.

"Gotcha," Gladio's hand was running up and down Prompto's spine now, soothing in a way that made Prompto's knees go weak. "We'll do a thing with the guys, then. With Noct and Iggy, make it something recurring. I'll work out the details, you don't worry about anything. We'll have our own thing. That sound good?"

Prompto nodded into Gladio's chest, now crying in earnest. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd. I think I'd like that."

"Okay, good. Hey, do you wanna stay here for the night? If not, I can drive you home. Either way, I'll make an excuse for you, tell them the wine didn't agree with you or something."

The thought of staying here and having to face Gladio and his family again in the morning didn't sound particularly appealing to him. Now that the sadness was disappearing, embarrassment set in full force - he could barely handle Gladio seeing him like this.

But returning to his empty apartment sounded downright unbearable right now, so he nodded again and croaked, "I'll stay here, please."

"Okay," Gladio said, finally releasing him. "You get settled here, I'll get you a shirt to sleep in and be right back."

We’ll have our own thing. It sounded almost too good to be true, but Gladio had said it with such conviction that Prompto couldn’t help but believe him.

Chapter 30: "One more chapter." Noctis & Prompto & Ignis, Brotherhood era

Chapter Text

“If you wish to try out your game before supper, I strongly suggest you put your phones aside and get to work.”

Noct flinches, only barely managing to catch his phone before he drops it on the floor.

“He’s not even looking at us, how does he know?!” Prompto whispers at him, furiously gesturing at Ignis’ back with his own phone.

“Hell if I know,” Noct mutters back. “He’s always like this, dunno how he does it.”

Ignis doesn’t react to that, but there’s no doubt he’s heard. Noct can practically see the pleased little smirk he won’t allow anyone to witness, the bastard.

The game lies on the table right in front of them, still in the bag but deliberately placed just so that they can peek inside and see the shiny case, still wrapped in plastic and everything.

It’s not even officially out yet, at least not for people who aren’t game reviewers, and Noct was fully prepared to wait out the remaining days until his preordered copy arrived in the mail. He’s been looking forward to it, sure, but because he didn't expect to get it early in the first place, the anticipation remained mostly in the back of his mind.

Today, however, Ignis came sauntering in with several bags full of groceries and the one smaller bag that’s currently taunting Noct from across the table.

Turns out, if you’re purchasing for the Crown Prince of Lucis, you can get your hands on a game early if you promise them the Prince is gonna write a review for it. Who knew?

(Honestly, Noct’s a little mad he didn’t think of that himself. So many games he could’ve had early access to, and somehow Ignis, who hasn’t held a controller in his life - apart from putting them back where they belonged, Noct - was the one to think of it. Go figure.)

Prompto damn near lost his mind when he saw the game (game s plural, actually, because obviously, Ignis got a second copy for Prompto too), and Noct lost his mind in a slightly cooler, more aloof kind of way, but then Ignis dropped the bomb on them: the gift comes with a caveat.

“The exam isn’t even for another two weeks, Specs, come on, ” Noct pleads. “We’ll even start tomorrow, promise.”

Prompto, quietly vibrating in his chair next to him, nods furiously, even though Ignis is still pointedly facing away from them.

“Oh? And you suppose you can put the game away long enough to start studying tomorrow?” Ignis challenges. He’s chopping something at a frightening speed - Noct saw the carrots peeking out of the grocery bag, no matter how finely Ignis tries to cut them to hide them in the food.

Noct opens his mouth to tell him that yes, if they could just try it out now then they could wait a little to keep playing after, realises that Ignis won’t believe a word he says (because none of it would be true) and closes his mouth again.

With a frustrated groan, Noct lets his head drop onto his hands. It doesn’t even produce a dramatic thud or anything, it just hurts his knuckles, ow.

“Fine,” he huffs, because there’s really no arguing with Ignis, picks up his pen and stares at his textbook.

Prompto slumps in his chair, defeated, and grabs his own pen. He’d never argue against Ignis, even though he’s long since stopped being scared of him. So Noct’s been fighting a lonely battle from the very start, and without a reliable ally, all hope of convincing Ignis is lost.

Easier to just get it over with, then.

Reluctantly, he starts reading, highlighting the important passages and copying them into his own notebook. Prompto, meanwhile, starts at a different chapter so they can later swap out their notes. It’s a pretty efficient system, even though sometimes it takes longer to decipher Prompto’s chocobo scratch than it would to just read the whole thing himself.

For a while, they work in silence and Ignis chops, and the radio, set to Specs’ favourite station, plays quietly and it’s honestly pretty nice. The peaceful atmosphere almost makes him forget about the game, at least until he finishes his notes for the chapter he’s been reading and his eyes stray to the bag again.

“Specs,” he tries again, and this time, Ignis actually turns around. Score. Now, if he can get Prompto to get out his famed puppy eyes, they might just stand a fighting chance.

“Yes, Noct?”

Ignis’ face is the picture of innocence, as if he doesn’t have a clue what Noct is going to ask - or beg, maybe - of him.

“We’ve finished our chapters. Don’t you think that’s enough?” Noct holds up his notes for emphasis, then goes to grab Prompto’s notebook too for good measure and holds that up too. “See?”

“I do.” Ignis nods thoughtfully. “And how many chapters have you managed in total?”

“Five, between the two of us,” Prompto pipes up. And, yes, here come the puppy eyes. Noct knows Ignis isn’t immune to them, no one is.

Ignis observes them carefully, leaving them hanging for an answer just long enough to make Prompto squirm in his seat.

Finally, he lets out a long-suffering sigh and says firmly, “One more chapter.”

Out of habit, Noct groans, but it’s honestly a better deal than he hoped for. Prompto’s puppy eyes did something after all, it seems. And one more chapter isn’t so bad, if they split the work, they’ll be done in no more than half an hour.

“Deal!” he says, determined, and flips the page to the next chapter with renewed energy.

They do manage to negotiate a short break to start the game’s download first so that they can start playing immediately once they’ve finished. Fueled by the prospect of getting to play their new game, they’re done in no time at all, and they’re on the couch before Ignis can even finish telling them that they’ve done a good job.

“Oh man, Noct, I knew there had to be some benefits to being friends with you!” Prompto sighs happily, controller in hand and eyes trained on the screen.

“What, my personality not reason enough?”

“Sorry, but I’ll take this game over your sparkling personality any day.”

Noct shoves him into the arm of the couch for that and immediately earns himself a pillow to the face, but their tussle is immediately forgotten when the game’s title screen appears.

“Hey, Specs,” Noct calls towards the kitchen as he clicks through the game’s main menu. “Thanks for the game!”

“Yeah, you’re the best! Thanks, Iggy!” Prompto echoes.

“You’re most welcome.”

Ignis sounds pleased with himself, and Noct kind of wants to make fun of him for being a big softie who isn’t fooling anyone, but he did get them early access to the game and he even lets them eat dinner in front of the screen - “But this is an exception, do not get used to it.” - so Noct decides to let it go.

Just this once.