Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Altissia was beautiful. The buildings were laced with the blinding white of marble, delicately aged from the seasons, twisting around the city like a delicate, ivory crown. The sound of running water all around them gave it a peaceful atmosphere, something else to focus on instead of the din of people chattering and music in the distance that sounded slightly off tempo. The scent of heavily perfumed blossoms hung heavy in the air, teasing a sneeze at the back of Noctis's throat as he breathed it all in: water, flowers and food alike. The architecture was considerably older, different from home, more rustic, held a different kind of charm to it all, and...and well...

Noctis completely deflated as he looked around himself. Gladio and Prompto were just as enamored as he was, and Ignis carried a small smile on his features, but they still had to figure out how to navigate the place in between their awe and admiration. The charm from first floating into the city was starting to waver, and the closer they got to it all, the more elaborate and overwhelming the place became. It unfolded before them like a maze, full of twisting turns and dark pathways into alleys that led into deeper parts of the city, and not all of them looked pleasant to traverse. The buildings towered over them like giants, blocking the horizon completely from sight. Noctis felt his mouth go dry as they finally stepped out into the thick of it all, his hands clammy as his gaze settled upon nothing but unfamiliar faces.

“Remember, you'll wanna find yerselves at Maagho,” Cid rambled beside them, stepping in next to Noctis with a kind smile. “My old buddy will be there, 'n I'm sure he'll be willing to give ya a hand. I'll be around for a bit, if ya need me. Good luck to ya though, boy.” Something seemed to dim in the old man's eyes, and Noctis felt himself shrivel beneath their gaze.

“Thanks, Cid,” he murmured, allowing himself to be clapped on the shoulder by a surprisingly strong grip. Getting on the years or not, Cid was still full of life and strength, and Noctis was grateful for the few extra seconds the hand seemed to linger upon his shoulder, helping to ground him and feel less anxious.

Cid was gone within mere moments, though, and the noise from the crowds seemingly returned to full volume in Noctis's ears. He looked around with a sigh, glancing back at the other three with a vague gesture for them to follow.

“Dude, whatever that it is, it smells amazing,” Prompto piped up behind him, his hands clashing down onto Noctis's shoulders as he steered him off their imaginary course. “Can we go wherever it's coming from? Please? Pleeeeease?”

“Dude, knock it off,” Noctis laughed, waving Prompto's arms away with a jerk of his head in the general direction of the main street. “We gotta go to Ma...mahhoe? Mah...”

“Maagho,” Ignis chipped in, adjusting his glasses as he peered off into the distance. “I do believe Master Cid said it was a restaurant as well. I can ask the citizens for general directions if you'd wish, Noct.”

“Aww, man,” Prompto whined, already twirling off to go stand by Gladio. “At least it's a restaurant, too. I'm hungry, dude.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Noctis sighed, giving Ignis a small shake of his head. “I'm sure we can find it easily. It can't be that hard to get around this place.”

Gladio snorted, a noise Noctis opted to ignore for the time being as he set himself back on track. It was still early in the day, white clouds painted across bright blue; they had plenty of time to kill just in case they did get lost. Noctis was determined not to do that, of course. If he could learn to navigate the roads and back streets of Insomnia, he was sure he could learn the ins and outs of Altissia.

But as they walked, the sun rose higher and higher in the sky, dragging along and burning the four as they made their way through alleys and twisting roads, running up one set of stairs and down another. Noctis was sweating his ass off and his legs were tired from all of the wandering around, but he refused to admit he was lost. He would not give in. He was determined to find this place on his own and-

“Dude,” Prompto panted, hands on his thighs, “just admit you're lost. Please, buddy. We're all dyin' here.” He fell to his knees and collapsed back onto his rear as he turned his face to the sky. Noctis was forced to a grinding halt, and he grumbled, shaking his head with his hands on his hips.

“I'm not lost. I'm just-”

“Lost,” Gladio grunted, arms folded over his chest, his brows furrowed in a frown of displeasure. “C'mon, Noct. Just buck up and ask for directions already.”

A moment of silence passed between the four, and Noctis looked to Ignis in exasperation. Ignis merely shrugged, glasses held in one hand as the other fanned his face. “You can either ask for directions, or we can finally make use of the gondolas. I've noticed they have routes spanning to all corners of Alitissia...”

He gestured to a board beside them, the paint chipped and faded from exposure to the sun. Brochures and ads covered the surface of it, and each advertisement listed instructions for which port to take to reach the right shop or café. Noctis quickly scanned each piece of paper before Maagho stood out in bright orange, italicized letters. He gave the directions a quick once-over and turned on his heel to gauge which street they were on.

“We're already next to the dock we'll want to use,” Ignis mused, arms crossed. “I've made sure to veer you along the proper streets already. The next challenge is just finding the dock proper and getting ourselves onto the gondola in question.”

Noctis blushed, but luckily the heat from the sun burning his cheeks would hide his embarrassment, his wounded pride. “Thanks,” he conceded, falling into step behind Ignis. The man offered him a small touch upon the shoulder, fingers trailing the length of Noctis's arm, before he wandered off in the direction of the docks. The other two followed with audible sighs of relief, and Noctis was content to bring up the rear as they walked.

For as prideful as he could be, Noctis was inwardly overjoyed Ignis had finally stepped up and offered to take the lead. His left leg was complaining loudly after so many flights of stairs, his muscles seizing and adding a limp to his step he couldn't be bothered to hide any longer. He sighed, giving into the limp to ease as much weight as he could manage away from his aching joints.

Ignis guided them along the last few meters with ease, gently urging everyone onto the docks where they spread out and proceeded to wait. Noctis took the opportunity to lean against the railing, ignoring sharp, splintering wood and how it threatened to dig into his skin.

“Are you all right, Noct?” Ignis piped up, stepping in close to him and leaving the other two to talk between themselves. Noctis glanced up from the rippling water, looking instead into Ignis's eyes with an idle shrug.

“I'm fine. It's damned hot out here, though,” he sighed, leaning his head back, letting the breeze catch his hair and cool the sweat that had pooled around his neck. It was gone all too soon, but it helped momentarily as the gondola continued to be nowhere in sight.

“We should take a moment to rest up at Maagho,” Ignis continued, leaning a hip against the railing with his eyes cast towards the sky. “We still have a considerable chunk of daylight left to us. We'll have plenty of time to gather our bearings after our meeting with Master Cid's acquaintance.”

Noctis instinctively stepped in closer, Ignis's gravity drawing him in with the scent of coffee and expensive cologne. “Maybe we can sneak out at some point, have some time for just the two of us,” he suggested, gazing down at the boards between their feet like a child guiltily asking their parent for sweets before dinnertime.

Ignis chuckled, closing the distance to wrap an arm lazily around Noctis's shoulders. “We'll see. There are more important tasks at hand demanding our focus, I'm afraid.”

Noctis sank, and Ignis pulled him closer to his chest. Hotter than Titan's balls or not, Noctis appreciated the gesture, and he took the moment to lean against Ignis and let himself drift away.

Moments like these were rare too, even if they were technically in a relationship. Innocent friendship as young children had turned into infatuation, and that infatuation had turned into a sort of love that had taken them well into their teenage years to really confess and discuss. Either way, the mutual trust had always been there between the two, lingering like a familiar scent that calmed and reminded one of home. Growing up together had rendered the two inseparable, but neither complained about it. Rather, they lamented their fate in uneasy times like these.

Despite how close they were, though, Ignis offering comfort out in the public eye like this was rare. Noctis soon found himself clinging to the man's slender waist, his eyes watching the sparkling sun dance on the gentle waves of the river that split the city in two. Or was it thirds? Fourths? He didn't know, and he didn't really care. His eyelids were growing heavy, and Ignis was a pillar of soft, cushioned support that he couldn't take his mind, or his body, off of. He just wanted to stay there forever, cradled into the man's arms as he listened to his heart beat and allowed the rays of the sun to warm his skin.

All too soon, Ignis was guiding a dazed Noctis into the gondola, palm to the small of his back as he made sure their weary prince didn't trip and hurt himself. Noctis was grateful, because...because well, he hadn't even realized he'd lost himself and slipped away. He didn't think he even had it in himself to fall asleep while he was still standing, but he learned something new every day, he supposed.

He settled into the back seat with a heavy sigh, rubbing at his eyes and just barely avoiding a soft slap to the cheek delivered from the back of Prompto's hand. “Hey buddy! Getting some beauty sleep?”

Hearing the click of Prompto's camera, Noctis grumbled irritably, turning to face his friend with his cheek pressed against his palm. “It would be nice,” he grunted, voice quiet as his eyelids started drooping again. The rocking of the boat was just so soothing...

“Real quick,” Prompto piped up, scooting closer to Noctis, “did you hear everyone talking about Luna's dress? Apparently it's on display here. I know you and Iggy kinda...but like...maybe we should see it anyway?”

Prompto's voice wavered, and he tapered off the moment Noctis's eyes really opened and met his.

“...Did you happen to catch where it was on display?” Noctis asked, leaning close to Prompto on pure habit alone as his friend moved to take a selfie of them together.

“Some shop in the upper district,” Prompto replied, flashing the camera a wide smile that Noctis tried, and probably failed, to imitate. “It's in a window, apparently. It's supposed to be a memorial? I don't know...it's up to you in the end if we go to see it or not.”

He nudged Noctis's shoulder with his own, offering him a soft, kinder expression before he stood. Noctis offered him a blank look, settling back into the cushions of his seat as he watched the boy wander over to the other two, joining in on their conversation and butting into their personal space.

Thinking of the dress left a bitter taste in Noctis's mouth, mixed feelings swirling in his gut as he mulled it over in his mind. It only figured they would have the dress here. It was probably tailor made and sewn together in some shop back in the depths of the city, sent out to Tenebrae when it was ready for the big event. An event that went up in flames the moment Insomnia had, but he digressed.

Noctis sighed, chewing his lip as he watched the city float by across the water. It probably wouldn't hurt to pay the dress a visit, really. The wedding wasn't something that they talked about often, but it was also a pretty informal event that Noctis and Luna had discussed hastily over their book with Umbra's help. They would do it for show, and only show, really. Noctis already had someone in his life, and Luna had her own life and duties as the Oracle. A romance between the two never had blossomed once in all the years they had known each other, but Luna remained a very dear friend held close to his heart. He loved her, but not...not in that way.

Their relationship as King and Oracle was something they'd forged a definition of together: to always look out for each other, even if their years of knowing one another had been spent miles and miles apart. With everyone after their heads these days, too, it was more important than ever to try and meet up and figure out a plan to fix this mess. To fix their messy destiny and hopefully forge something anew, in an age where they could just...

Damn it, this was hard, and Noctis was too tired to expend this much brain power. Luckily for him, he felt the bump of the gondola against the docks, dragging him out of his stupor to focus on the task at hand.

“I do wish you would have changed,” Ignis lamented, stepping behind Noctis once he was off the boat and steady on his feet. “Your casual uniform is still formal enough, but...” He bit his lip, shaking his head as he dusted the dirt from the back of Noctis's jacket, tugging on the loose strings that hung from the hem in admonishment. “I suppose we are only meeting with an acquaintance.”

“Exactly. It's fine, Ignis,” Noctis insisted, reaching out to stroke Ignis's shoulder soothingly. “You worry too much for your own good, Specs.” He smirked, and as the man opened his mouth to argue, another voice calling Noctis's name caught his attention.

A man awaited them behind the bar in the center of the dock, tall and slim with skin the color of deep umber. Bottles of beverages in myriad colors sparkled in the soft, golden glow of the lights, and the red velvet stools around the island counter were pleasantly plush. The four happily took their seats, Noctis closest to the stranger as he greeted the man with a handshake.

“Welcome, Prince Noctis,” he greeted, his voice a deep purr, his eyes kind, yet stern and demanding of respect. Noctis met them as best he could before he could only really focus on the man's nose, intimidation forcing him to shy away and look elsewhere. A soft laugh slipped past the man's lips, and he leaned forward onto the counter with a warm smile on his features. “The last time I remember seeing you was when you were just a babe. It's good to see you again, after all of these years. The name's Weskham, by the way.”

Noctis self-consciously huffed and ducked his head in embarrassment. “Yeah, I...can't say I remember your face,” he admitted with a shy laugh, though Weskham just shook his head.

“I bet you don't! Ah, but that's a story for another time, unfortunately. I don't doubt you have questions for me,” he inquired, dark eyes sparkling in the low lights that hung from the rafters above them. Noctis nodded, and with Ignis's help, they delved into the questions that had settled at the backs of all their minds the moment they set foot in Altissia.

Weskham was warm and open as they chatted with him, telling them about the Empire's habits and their recent activities around the city. It left Noctis's heart feeling heavy and uneasy, but at least he knew Luna was there in the city with them, safe and sound under the control of Accordo's government. At the end of the day, it just really sounded like they needed to tread carefully with the Empire slinking around in the shadows.

A spark of hope dared to ignite in Noctis's chest as he went quiet and the others carried on the conversation. The last time he'd told Luna anything was when he left her the note back in Cape Caem, saying they were on their way to Altissia.

Realistically, at the end of the day, Luna was his end game, the solution to this problem that hopefully came with an easy fix. Finding and meeting up with her meant they could somehow derail the turn of recent events and delay everything for just a while longer, hopefully giving Noctis time to come to terms with what was happening. No, what was going to happen if he kept this course she was laying out for him. Acquiring the power of the Six before the Empire could harness them just made sense, but Luna was doing it for another reason, and he-

“Excuse me?”

The authority in the woman's voice and Ignis's hand smacking his side had Noctis falling back into the present, and he cleared his throat awkwardly as he faced their new guest.

Terror. Terror was evident on both his and Prompto's faces.

Noctis immediately shied himself away behind Ignis, though he managed to talk enough pleasantries with this woman who introduced herself as the head governor of Accordo. She wasn't there for mingling and long conversations, at the very least; only to talk of treaties and compromises if Leviathan were to be summoned in her city. All things that made sense in the reality of things, but the words left heavy stones in Noctis's gut. They were sharp and seemed to dig into the sides of his organs, twisting there and frothing in anxiety from the sudden weight of his tomorrow.

It hadn't been outright said, but it was heavily implied the ceremony was to be held the next day, under Luna's frantic insistence.

The reality of the situation crashed down onto Noctis's shoulders, and suddenly a fun trip to Altissia turned into something he'd rather puke about. Noctis felt himself slide back onto the stool, the words of tomorrow's planned schedule barely registering in his ears as they were spoken around him, echoing from one end of this plane of existence to the other. It was suddenly so easy to focus on the sound of the water, to relax underneath the sound of gently lapping waves hitting wood, and his world swirled out from around him and he felt like he was somewhere else. Somewhere better.

His somewhere better was a comfort, a way for him to detach from what was going on around him, but Ignis wasn't letting him have his time alone. No, Ignis was gently shaking Noctis by the shoulder, and reluctantly he forced himself to focus. Shaking his head, he looked up to meet Ignis's eyes, only to find nothing but unexpected comfort and quiet compassion hidden in their depths.

“Noct, I think it's about time we head elsewhere. Mr. Weskham has arranged a room for us, and Prompto mentioned a dress you said you would like to see...?” His words were genuine and soft, and Noctis felt them wrap around himself like a blanket. They had him nodding, a mechanical movement that felt all too habitual, but easy to give into.

“It's the wedding dress,” he managed to say, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck in embarrassment. This wasn't how a king should act. He couldn't help it, but he needed to get himself pulled back together. It felt almost impossible when he himself felt like he was everywhere all at once, and each part of him just wanted to sleep, but he managed. He managed in the form of standing back up, offering Weskham a wave and a quick hug over the counter top.

Their goodbye was said between them, almost bittersweet, but the man reassured Noctis they would meet again. And that next time, they could talk of his father over drinks. It was a nice image, and it helped fuel Noctis that little bit more for stepping down onto the dock and seating himself into the next gondola that was already waiting for them.

This time Noctis sat quietly beside Ignis. He seemed keen on staying close this time around, offering another arm around the shoulder, their thighs touching between them. Noctis leaned into his side, nuzzling close underneath his armpit as he watched the water for about the billionth time that day, letting himself be carried off on waves of his own erratic thoughts running wild in his head.

On one hand, he wanted to just relax and not worry about things until they arrived tomorrow. After all, he had Ignis with him, offering warmth and support and, for once, wasn't hounding him about anything. On the other hand, though, he couldn't help but just focus on what tomorrow would entail, and how it would go. Plans would be made on the fly, Luna would deliver a speech, and Leviathan would be at their font door in no time, waiting for Noctis to prove himself.

Or whatever it was the gods liked to see the mortals do.

He sighed, reaching for Ignis's hand. The man shot him an inquiring look, but the silence between the two stretched on for as long as their ride would last.

Fortunately, it lasted quite some time. Ignis held Noctis wordlessly the entire ride, his thumb brushing over Noctis's hand as the gondola sailed on. When it was time to disembark, Ignis continued to hold his hand, helping him up and onto marbled pathways that were almost pink in the atmosphere of the setting sun.

“I think it's this way,” Gladio grunted, jerking his thumb in the direction of an elaborate staircase, the railings threaded with pink and white blossoms the size of Noctis's fist. The other three nodded in agreement, and with Prompto's soft humming to accompany them, they scaled the granite stairway.

A balcony of sorts awaited them at the top; it wasn't anything more than an elongated platform, the signs of a shop at the end with twisted, wired chairs paired with small tables that overlooked the scenery of the city. A small group of people was already gathered around a window set into the walls on the right, and even from as far away as they were, the striking white of sheer, shimmery fabric caught Noctis's eye.

“This is it,” he said, waving for the others to follow him. They weren't in his immediate peripheral vision, but he could hear their footfalls behind himself as he slid through the throng of onlookers and claimed a spot near the window for himself.

It took him a moment to actually face the memorial. He did what he could to distract himself at first: fixing his glove, adjusting his hair, looking to the sides to make sure no one was encroaching in on his personal space...

He finally squared up and faced the dress, though, blushing slightly at how he physically cringed away from it.

It was beautiful.

There was no doubt about that.

Seeing it made his chest hurt, though. Deep down, he never really bought any of that peace bullshit the Empire wanted to pull over with the treaty and the wedding. Especially after recent events and learning he had had a right not to trust it, he was sure no one else did, either. The fact of the matter still stood that it would have been nice, though. Whether he and Luna really loved each other like this or not, his father still would have been around, and they would have been in a very different situation than they were now. Things would have been better for all of them, from himself to his friends, to their families and what Insomnia used to be.

All of this would have been different.

It still could be, but...

Noctis let out a breath, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

“It looks nice,” Ignis offered after a beat, providing Noctis a distraction in the form of a gentle touch upon his shoulder.

“I suppose,” he said, looking off to the side as he stepped in closer against his lover. “It'd look nice on you, at least.”

Ignis blushed, something he moved to hide as he readjusted his glasses on his face. Noctis allowed himself a soft snort, looking around himself for Prompto, who, predictably, had his camera held out. “Are we all good?” Noctis asked, motioning to Gladio who had camped out near the pillars.

“One sec,” Prompto said, angling his camera almost upside-down as he snapped a few more photos. Noctis watched in exasperation as the "second" ticked on into minutes.

“Come on, already,” Noctis griped, reaching out to grab Prompto by the back of his jacket. Prompto yelped in protest as he was dragged along, the crowd parting mindlessly for them as they made their way towards the balcony once again. Noctis, quite frankly, was happy to be out of there. He felt like he could breathe again, even if the guilt of gazing at swathed, gossamer fabric still hung heavy in his chest. It was just a dress.

It was just a dress.

“So...on to our hotel?” Ignis asked, hand on his hip, his gaze seemingly fixed on the horizon.

“I think so, yeah,” Gladio replied, rolling his head with his arms stretched idly out to the sides. “Either that, or we can all meet up there later.”

“Oh!” Prompto bounced on his heels, camera balanced in hand as he tugged at Gladio's sleeve with the other. “Yeah, yeah! There's some amazing spots I wanna visit before the sun completely sets. Wanna come with me?”

The two melded into their own bubble, and Noctis was left with Ignis by his side. He glanced out over where Ignis seemed to be looking, noting the buildings and how some glistened in gold, silver, reds and blues and...well, all colors of the rainbow, really. It was beautiful, but Noctis found his eyes wandering back to Ignis, from the curve of his waist to the slender length of his legs, and finally up to his lovely face.

“Wanna do something?” Noctis asked, tracing the spots on Ignis's face with soft eyes. “Weskham said our hotel was the Leville, right? It sounds like one of the nicer places. I'm sure there would be a restaurant or something nearby I could take you to...”

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Ignis clipped, head tilted to the side and lips curved upward in a smile. “In which case, if you are, I would love to. We never did get our opportunity to fetch a bite to eat at Maagho.”

Noctis nodded, reaching for Ignis's arm. “Yeah. We'll find something. I remember seeing some stuff on those brochures on that sign earlier,” he said, walking with Ignis back down the staircase. “Pretty sure we'll have to use the gondola again, though. And I could stand to take a shower...”

He made a face, using two fingers to pinch his shirt and tug it away from his skin. He warily sniffed at himself, and...and yeah, a shower was a good option. Where Ignis still smelled like coffee and warm vanilla, Noctis smelled like he'd run a marathon and rolled in the dirt a bit. It was gross.

Ignis chuckled, nodding his head thoughtfully as he ran a hand along Noctis's lower back. “I think I can be patient enough for that. If there are any shops nearby, I can pick up supplies we're low on.” He hummed thoughtfully, a noise Noctis found he could listen to all night long.

Fortunately enough for him, Ignis seemed to be in the mood for humming tunes. It felt ridiculous, getting onto yet another gondola, but the lullabies resonating from Ignis's throat helped pass the time. Noctis attempted to hum along, something that made Ignis smile as he read through whatever article on his phone, but he gave up after a while. He hated drowning out the sound of Ignis's voice, especially when it was soft and soothing and meant for only his ears.

It lulled Noctis into a light nap as they made their way to their hotel, the night encroaching and the city lighting up around them. The hotel itself was situated on a pier, multiple docks spreading out from the pathway in front of it to offer phenomenal views of the walls of water, and to offer additional leisurely joyrides that didn't offer any sort of end destination. As Noctis had predicted, a restaurant swathed in sparkling fairy lights was settled on the corner down the street from the hotel. People crowded around the doorways, dressed in glimmering dresses and pressed suits, and they all held an air of sophistication about them as they disappeared inside. Noctis made a mental note of it, though he refrained from pointing it out to Ignis just yet.

The Leville was on their immediate left, though, and Ignis was guiding Noctis through the doors with a comforting arm wrapped around his waist. He made mention of Weskham for them, getting their room situated and leaving directions for the bellhops to let Prompto and Gladio know where their room would be.

“Shall we?” Ignis asked, turning to Noctis with the keycard in hand. Noctis nodded, falling into step beside Ignis once more, eying the room number upon the plastic surface of their key.

Room 15, it seemed.

It was near the end of the first floor, situated in the back in a nice, secluded area. Ignis popped the door open with a continued hum, and together they passed through the threshold and into their room.

Chapter Text

The room wasn't anything to write home about. It was one of the cheaper ones, with the usual double beds flanking a nightstand. It was nicer in the way of having two extra nightstands on either side of either side of the beds, but aside from that, the elongated sitting area, and the more fully fleshed out kitchen, it was just the same as any other hotel room.

Nonetheless, it felt good to walk into something that felt vaguely like home after a day like theirs. Noctis let out a deep breath, the heels of his hands digging into his eyes as he turned to face Ignis.

“So uh...I'm gonna shower, okay? Cid had our stuff from the Regalia brought over here, right?”

“It should be on its way momentarily, yes,” Ignis said, perching himself upon the edge of a deceivingly plush bed. Noctis nodded, gesturing to the bathroom door as he walked towards it.

“Okay. Mind dropping my stuff off in here for me? And uh...wanna change into something nicer? I mean, what you wear is always nice, but like...” He trailed off, offering Ignis a few awkward hand gestures. “There's a nice restaurant down the street. Fancy...nice.”

Pink touched the tips of Ignis's cheeks as he cleared his throat and nodded. “Of course. That sounds like fun, Noct.”

Noctis managed a smile, and the gods be damned, why did he feel so awkward about this? He'd spent many nights with Ignis in his bed, the both of them naked and pressed right up against each other underneath the comfort of their blankets. They had lived together for literal years, and Ignis made a daily habit of cooking for his incompetent ass, a talent he'd picked up out of sheer necessity because he knew Noctis didn't have the talent nor the motivation to do it himself. He and Ignis were the very definition of a well-aged couple who loved each other dearly, living together under the same roof and all, yet the moment the mere idea of a date popped into existence...

Noctis shut the bathroom door and leaned his weight against it, and he forced himself to breathe. With Lunafreya having been driven between the two like a stake until the peace treaty fell through, it was understandable that he would feel awkward, right? Especially when this was something they really never touched base on back home. Noctis was usually too tired to want to go out, and Ignis really did seem to enjoy staying indoors, curling up on the couch with some book or another in one hand, a glass of wine in the other.

Noctis tilted his head to the side with realization, and he lifted a shoulder in half a shrug to the air. He would make a point of getting a bottle of wine for Ignis. The Six above only knew how much he'd needed it, too.

But that was beside the point. The point wasn't standing around and lamenting either; it was finally kicking his boots off and skinning out of his clothes, and finally slipping underneath a steady stream of hot water. Once Noctis was situated, he allowed himself to relax a little bit, hanging his head underneath the flow and breathing in the steam that billowed out around him.

The weight of his heavy head dragged him to his knees, and Noctis sighed as he sat down proper on the bathtub floor. He leaned to the side against the wall, trying not to think about previous strangers who had inhabited the same stall and had their way with it in some form or another. The idea of someone getting fucked against the wall where he was leaning was unpleasant, but the idea of Ignis fucking him there instead wasn't.

Maybe they'd have to do that later.

They would have to do something later, because Noctis could feel the knots forming slowly and painfully underneath his tense flesh. He reached up in a vain attempt to rub one away, to at least try and adopt a more relaxed mantle so he could offer Ignis a good time and a peaceful atmosphere. He remembered the man clamoring on and on about Altissia, and since they finally had a moment's peace in what seemed to be the man's favorite place on Eos, Noctis really wanted to make it special for him.

It was just hard chewing through the guilt the entire city seemed to force-feed him. Between Luna, Weskham, the dress, the Empire and Leviathan, and everything else that washed over him in waves of bittersweet memories, it was tough. His responsibilities as a king seemed to weigh even more heavily here than they did anywhere else. Noctis swallowed hard at the ball in his throat as he tried to mull over the mixed feelings in his gut.

He really had to act like a king. He couldn't stop thinking about it, and how important it was to everyone around him that he show some elegance and dignity toward the whole situation. Prompto didn't quite understand the responsibility like the other two did, but even he was aware of the fact that Noctis's people needed him, and that he needed to be diplomatic in this turn of events.

But as he sat there, a hand running through his soggy hair, it was just impossible. His father never once forced him into personal lessons on what the title entailed, and Noctis had never personally requested them, either. All of his life they had just been father and son, with a father who tended to be busy more often than not and a son who liked to fuck himself over. Prompto had been the worst influence, with underage drinking and sitting around doing nothing, getting high in the comfort of his apartment and gorging on snacks that Ignis had left on the counter. Noctis was a prince without the sense of dignity and poise, and in times like these, it really did show. It was like an ugly bruise to the ribs that hurt every time he breathed, like a stain against his skin that wouldn't go away.

It was embarrassing.

Wallowing in self-pity never helped anyone, though. Noctis sucked his trembling feelings back into his mouth, swallowing them down as he finally got to his feet. Tomorrow was just a day he'd have to deal with when it came, but that bridge was hours in the future, and the one he was currently on had Ignis waiting in its center.

He pushed everything else to the side, hands frantically scrubbing the sweat and grime and guilt of the day away from his face and body. Ignis took a moment to step in and hand him the rest of his products, and Noctis was almost tempted to ask him to join him in the shower.

Ignis was out the door before his lips could form the words, though, and Noctis just silently worked at shampooing his hair and rinsing himself off as quickly as he could manage. Despite the embedded urge to hurry up, he still loitered underneath the water for quite some time, taking deep breaths and clearing his mind in steam that now smelled like chilled berries.

His mind was in a haze as he finally stepped out of the tub, offensively-cold air biting at his skin and making it prickle. Noctis immediately wrapped himself up in a fluffy towel, moving to sit upon the toilet before a pile of fabric caught his eye.

Noctis wouldn't have been the first person to suggest draping his dad's old suit across a toilet lid, but the bathroom was tiny, and he was sure Ignis wanted to put it in a place where he would notice it. The fact that Ignis had even bothered to pull it out as a suggestion for him to wear was touching, though, and Noctis reached down to trace the familiar pinstriped pattern emblazoned against the dark fabric.

Noctis liked to think he was strong, but the lump in his throat formed before he could swallow it down. He didn't know how Cor had managed to grab the last few belongings of his father like this and deliver them safely into Noctis's arms, but he'd been beyond appreciative of the gesture. Noctis hadn't done much with the gifts, though, instead just shoving them into the bottom of his suitcase and pretending they weren't there.

It was for good reason, really. All of the emotions he'd managed to suppress in the shower came washing back over him in an instant, and he was almost to his knees again as memories of his father clouded behind his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to ask physical permission to borrow this suit from his dad, to see what would surely be a warm smile cross his features as he nodded and allowed Noctis to take it. He wanted his father to see him wear it finally, since every time he'd tried before he'd just been too short and small for it.

He wanted to see the look in his father's eyes when he finally squared up and mentioned his date for the night would be Ignis, but...but...

Noctis reached up with trembling hands to rub at his eyes, digging into the corners to stem his tears. There was nothing he could do. At the very least, slipping on the suit might offer him a comfort he didn't have access to any longer. Noctis squared his shoulders and resigned himself to drying himself off, making quick work of the task before clumsily slipping into his underwear and socks.

Suits were...a mystery. Figuring out the layers and the buttons offered Noctis a distraction, and the tie was an entirely different story on its own. He wanted to do it by himself, but it took a tutorial from his phone and several minutes of cursing before he finally got the knot to look decent. All he had left was his hair and his usual routine he'd picked up in the mornings, but, being more familiar with those tasks, he was soon done and stepping awkwardly out into the main room.

Ignis glanced at him from where he sat, and Noctis could visibly see his green eyes slide down to his chest. “You didn't do that right,” Ignis chided, setting his magazine onto the polished wood of the table in front of him. He was before Noctis in mere seconds, squinting as he reached out to smooth the wrinkly tie. “I was wondering what was taking you so long.”

“It wasn't just the tie,” Noctis mumbled, his gaze flitting back and forth between the wall and the patch of skin on Ignis's chest he could see peeking through the top of his unbuttoned shirt. It looked like Ignis had chosen to wear his Glaive uniform, judging by the look of steel toed boots clad around his calves. “I thought you didn't like that outfit.”

“Hm?” Ignis hummed, looking between himself and Noctis. Realization dawned on his features and he clicked his tongue, offering Noctis a shrug and a pat to the shoulder once he was finished with Noctis's tie. "Oh. I just don't like to wear it frivolously. Tonight seems a good enough excuse to don the garb, however, seeing as I am serving as the Prince's royal escort in a foreign land."

“Ah.” That made sense. Noctis rubbed at the back of his neck as he offered Ignis's cheek a soft kiss in appreciation. He stepped back to really look him over, and he had to swallow hard as his gaze seemed unable to lift itself from Ignis's legs. “It looks really good on you. I can't remember the last time you wore it...”

“I hadn't put all of it on until now,” Ignis mused as he idly adjusted a glove, leaning on one leg with the other stretched out. He was doing that on purpose, and Noctis could feel the heat rush downward. “There's never too many excuses to really wear your royal combat uniform. That was mostly saved for the Kingsglaive, of which I was not. But, as I said, I am your guard, and I'd like to make that clear.”

Noctis nodded, unable to find it in himself to argue. “I like that,” he said, turning to his discarded pile of clothes upon the bed. He fussed with his pants a moment to retrieve his wallet from the depths of a pocket, then slipped it into his new jacket. “Well, uh...shall we head out?”

“We shall,” Ignis purred, reaching for his own coat to slip onto his shoulders. It fit his form perfectly, and Noctis allowed himself another few moments of staring and admiring just how good Ignis looked. Those boots lifted him up another inch or two compared to Noctis's height, and he found he liked it. A lot.

Noctis just liked those boots a lot in general, really. He was pretty sure he could have written a five-page essay on how they looked on Ignis's legs, waxing romantic poetry and all, but that was something best saved for another time.

Ignis moved to guide him carefully along by the small of his back, keys in hand and hotel card handed over to Noctis. “I've already sent Gladio and Prompto a text,” Ignis said, gently shutting the door behind them. "I told them not to stay up too late for us. Suggested they order another room for themselves, even, if they should be so inclined."

Noctis nodded, and was inwardly glad he didn't seem to be the only one with dirty thoughts dancing circles in his head. Or at least he hoped so, anyway. Ignis was a hard book to read. “I appreciate it, Specs.”

Ignis smiled, and Noctis smiled back as they walked down the hallway. The plush carpet muted their footsteps, and no one seemed to be around at the receptionist's desk, giving them a sneaky escape back out into the nighttime air. It was crisp and cool and smelled of spices and sizzling meat, and Noctis felt his stomach rumble in anticipation for their soon-to-be meal.

Noctis felt like he was sixteen again as he reached for Ignis's hand and laced their fingers together. Feeling Ignis's brush over his own had Noctis relaxing, enjoying the affectionate way Ignis squeezed his hand and even swung their arms back and forth between them.

He leaned into Ignis's side as they walked, noting the lack of stares and turned heads gossiping behind cupped hands. In fact, he hadn't really noticed that since they had stepped into Altissia, and he supposed pretending to be dead helped with all of that. Still, it was nice, and it gave him ample opportunity to smother Ignis's arm in small hugs and nuzzles of the cheek without fear of being noticed.

The walk to the restaurant was short, yet pleasant, and the cobblestone trail led them right to the entrance. The bustle Noctis had noticed earlier seemed to have calmed down, but he could hear a myriad of voices in the background, and the seats they could see from entrance looked to be full.

“Would outside dining be all right for the both of you?” piped up a voice from beside Noctis, and he turned to greet a small woman with bright, blonde hair and equally bright eyes offering them a smile. “Otherwise, I can seat you inside at the next opening.”

“I think outside will be just fine,” Ignis spoke up, a delicate and polite smile on his features. Noctis nodded along, grateful for the lack of having to talk on his end.

“Right this way, then,” their waitress cooed, reaching over the counter they'd been waiting at to grab two menus. She tucked them underneath her arm and gestured for them to follow her as she led them through a side entrance and into a small courtyard. The noise from inside was instantly muted the moment the door shut, and aside from the occasional table with one or two patrons, the area itself was relatively quiet and empty. At the moment, anyway. Noctis had a feeling their evening rush wasn't quite over yet.

The girl led them along to a table at the edge of the courtyard, one that faced the lake in the center of the city, offering a lovely view of the waterfalls. A waist-high fence encompassed the area, woven through with strands of yellow and white lights that lit the area up in a soft, warm glow. The same blossoms Noctis had taken note of in the city were placed as centerpieces upon the tables and grew freely from bushes around the perimeter, and vines crept along the metal of the fencing and grew up the wooden arches that hung over their heads.

“Can I start you two off with something to drink?” the girl asked as Noctis and Ignis seated themselves, a small notebook in hand as she looked between the two.

Noctis looked to Ignis with a shrug. “Bottle of wine?” he asked, earning himself an approving nod from his partner.

“I think a simple Merlot will do,” Ignis mused, and their waitress scribbled something down onto her notepad.

“The name's Claudia, by the way. I'll be right back with your drinks and I'll take your orders if you're ready!” she said, her voice smooth and almost whimsical as she made her way back towards the building.

Noctis watched her leave before he slouched in his chair and turned to face Ignis. “So, uh...I can already tell you I'm not gonna have any idea what all of this is.”

Ignis laughed, his menu already open and eyes flitting from side to side. “Don't worry,” he murmured, “I'll order something for you.”

Noctis blushed, but he was grateful all the same. He picked the menu up anyway, glancing at its glossed pages and and foreign words he was glad Ignis understood. The photos made sense, but aside from that...

“Well,” Ignis said, clearing his throat as he set his menu down, “that was easy.”

Noctis quirked an eyebrow, glancing up from squinting at a photo of a dish that seemed to be on fire. “Yeah?” he asked, doing the same as Ignis and finally letting his menu fall shut.

“You're easy to order for,” Ignis teased as he tapped the toes of their shoes together. “I spotted a nice dish that's mostly pasta, sauce, and meat. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.”

Noctis nodded, leaning his weight onto his elbows against the table. Silence fell between them, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Noctis went about to taking in the sights, feeling Ignis's gaze follow him as he did.

“Is it what you were expecting?” Ignis asked, leaning forward towards Noctis with a curious expression.

“No,” Noctis laughed, letting his gaze fall to the white tablecloth. “I mean, I remember how you said it was bigger and more elaborate than Galdin. I wasn't expecting something this big, though.” He traced little circles into the fabric, raising his gaze to the pink blossoms at the center of their table.

“Are you enjoying yourself, at least?” Ignis asked, genuine concern lacing his quiet tone. Noctis just shrugged, his shoulders slouching the moment they fell back into place.

“I suppose, I mean-”

He was cut off by their waitress, who gently intruded with their drinks in hand. She set both their drinks between them, leaving the bottle of wine slightly to the side for easy access. Noctis sat back as he listened to Ignis request their orders, his ankle pressing gently against Ignis's boot.

It didn't take Ignis long at all, and their waitress was soon disappearing once again. The sound of running water filled the space between them, and Noctis occupied himself with picking at the button on his sleeve.

“That really does look quite fetching on you,” Ignis offered, tilting his head to the side, his eyes picking Noctis apart. Noctis ducked his head shyly, reaching out to rest his hand on Ignis's to give him something else to focus on.

“I'm just glad it fits. Thanks for reminding me of it, though. I was probably gonna come here in my usual stuff...” Noctis managed a laugh, reaching for his glass of wine after a moment. A sip turned into a mouthful, and a mouthful turned into multiples before his glass was nearly finished. He caught sight of Ignis giving him a rather concerned look over the rim, and Noctis quirked an eyebrow.

“Noct, you know what happens when you have too much-” Ignis started, only to be hushed by a wave of Noctis's hand.

“It's fine,” he said, giving Ignis what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “I just need to ease up a little. Long day, yeah?”

Ignis was quiet for a good moment before he nodded, and much to Noctis's surprise, he picked up his own glass and downed it. “Yeah.”

Noctis stared, but the charming wrinkle on Ignis's nose and the way he grimaced was adorable. He allowed himself a soft giggle as he relaxed back into his chair and reached for Ignis's hand. “I've been enjoying our time here, by the way. It's even more beautiful seeing it with my own eyes. And it's nice having you here too, of course.”

He flashed Ignis a small smile from underneath his bangs, something that was returned almost tenfold. “I'm so glad you've gotten to experience it,” Ignis murmured, turning his palm up against Noctis's. “Altissia was always my favorite place to visit...Tenebrae too, of course, but Altissia has such a peaceful charm to it. It leaves a lasting impression.”

It was hard to say if Noctis really felt the same about the place, considering the general uneasiness that lingered in his gut, but he could see where Ignis was coming from. It was hard to talk about those lingering feelings, especially when Ignis just looked so content and happy. Seeing him smile helped ease Noctis into one of his own, and as they continued drinking, he could feel his tense posture and anxiety wane.

Their food came after about their second glass, and they giggled and laughed their way through dinner. Ignis managed to get Noctis to try his own dish, and while he wasn't fond of the peppers, he had to admit it was good. What Ignis had chosen to order for him was even better, though, and Noctis ate it fondly until he felt he was ready to burst.

Looking down at his finished plate only made him realize this was the most he'd eaten in weeks. Maybe Altissia really wasn't that bad.

They lingered there for a short while after finishing their meals, and they shared a small dessert between themselves before they left. It had been some kind of spiked gelato; probably the last thing their already-tipsy asses needed, but it was good anyway. The sticky sweet kisses definitely made it worth it.

Their final mistake before they finally left was ordering yet another bottle of their wine, and only under Ignis's drunken insistence did Noctis finally pay their bill. Miss Claudia received a hefty tip, and they were off, stumbling and knocking against each other enroute back to their room.

“I really hope...I really hope Gladdy 'n Prompto got another room.” Noctis hiccuped, his arms around Ignis's waist as they walked. “Like. 'Cause you're pretty tonight, Ignis. You've looked good all day long. I kind of want to just ride you until the sun comes up, you know?”

Ignis choked, and Noctis knew he had done well. “I...well, I would let you, but with matters we must...we have to attend to tomorrow...” He shrugged, waving one hand in front of Noctis's face as he pushed the hotel doors open with the other. “I think...an hour or two at most.”

Noctis could work with that. He hurried Ignis down the hallway, a hand already working at the buttons to his jacket. Somewhere in his hazed mind he felt kind of guilty doing something like this in his dad's suit, but the thought was smothered the moment their room's door was open.

Ignis leaned Noctis back against the door, their mouths meeting in a kiss. Ignis's breath was hot and his lips tasted like chocolate and wine, and his teeth came down around Noctis's lower lip in the most pleasant bite. Noctis was eager to succumb to the motions already, lips parted in a breathy sigh, hips arching up to press against Ignis.

Ignis closed the distance between their bodies, his hands finding home on Noctis's hips. Ignis slipped his tongue down into Noctis's mouth, moaning deeply as he held him close. They both moved against each other, hips pressed flush as their tongues slid together in the wet cavern of Noctis's mouth.

Noctis moaned as they stayed together like that, his leg wrapped around Ignis's. He barely registered the fact that they were alone in their room, and he hoped it'd stay like that. Ignis was all he could focus on, all he wanted, and he made a point of it by shoving the man backwards towards a bed.

Ignis gasped into Noctis's mouth as the back of his knees hit the mattress, and he was tumbling backwards with Noctis on top of him once they hit the comforter. Noctis undid the front of Ignis's coat in mere seconds, his cold fingers slipping underneath the man's shirt. Ignis moaned softly and writhed, Noctis's fingers teasing over the nubs of his nipples as their lips continued to move against each other's.

Noctis's weight was nice, but Ignis found himself taking the prince by the biceps and flipping him over sooner than later. Noctis was in no position to complain, his bruised lips covered by Ignis's mouth before he could utter a word in protest. Ignis hiked a knee between his legs, rubbing his groin and relishing in the feeling of Noctis squirming underneath him.

Ignis pulled away from Noctis's mouth, forcing himself to breathe. His head was swimming, and so was Noctis's, and they took a moment to just gaze into each other's eyes. “I love you,” Noctis uttered, his voice hoarse, his hands reaching out to cradle the sides of Ignis's face. “I love you so much...”

In any other sober moment, Ignis would have allowed emotion to take over and he would have teared up, but this was different. He was desperate and so was Noctis, and he just nodded in agreement as he dove back in against Noctis's neck to kiss and bite at firmly. It turned Noctis into a squirming mess, his voice hitched in his throat as his hands grasped at Ignis's hair, his shoulders, his waist and hips and anywhere else he could reach. Noctis's fingers sought for openings, rubbing where they could manage to slip past the thick leather that clung to Ignis's skin.

After a few moments of groping, Noctis finally reached down to undo the front of Ignis's belt, grasping at it and tugging it firmly to the side. Ignis followed suit, his expert hands baring Noctis and his hardening cock to the cold air that was quickly warmed between their bodies. Noctis managed to follow along, dragging Ignis's pants down his hips and positively groaning at the sight.

What other clothing they might have still had upon their bodies was completely forgotten, Ignis keen on reaching into his pocket to grasp at a small vial. In the few seconds it took to find and grab it, his lips were working at Noctis's neck, shamelessly marking the pale length as he pressed their dicks together.

Noctis was a mess against the blanket, his fingers tangling in Ignis's hair as he rolled himself upwards against the man's frame. Everything was so hot, and his chest heaved and shuddered at the feeling of sparks being traced against his skin everywhere Ignis touched. He bared his neck for Ignis, moaning quietly and begging for more.

Ignis's hand pressed into Noctis's shoulder, holding him firmly against the mattress. He leaned back from Noctis's neck, gasping softly as he worked the top of the container off in his free hand. A viscous fluid was soon on two fingers, and Ignis pressed them carefully inside of Noctis, well aware of the sudden stretch and pressure they would offer. Noctis babbled nonsense into the air, arching his hips against those two fingers and dragging them deep nonetheless. They'd done this so often that two at once didn't even hurt anymore, and Noctis hugged Ignis close by his shoulders as he greedily humped his hand.

Ignis allowed him a few moments of the motions, spreading his fingers wide and making sure Noctis was nice and relaxed. He indulged the prince in a few seconds of pushing in deep, pressing the pad of a finger against his prostate to hear Noctis practically sing in pleasure. It was good, and Ignis captured Noctis's lips in another kiss, his moans hot and wet into his own mouth.

“C-come on Ignis,” Noctis breathed, his tone pitched and begging as he jerked his hips against Ignis's hand. “T-this is good, but I...I want...”

“You want more, I know,” Ignis murmured, biting along Noctis's jaw as he adjusted himself over his lover. Noctis's legs were as wide as they could go in the confines of his trousers, trembling as they hung waiting in the air.

Ignis wasted no time in slicking the length of his girth, pushing forward into Noctis and breaching his puckered hole. Noctis waned, his muscles tensing and simultaneously relaxing as he sank into the bed. Ignis pressed in deep, leaning his weight against Noctis to keep him in place.

“You're high, Tightness," Ignis slurred, rocking his hips subtly back and forth. Noctis was quickly turning into even more of a mess, his face buried in the side of Ignis's neck as he rolled himself up and down against the blankets. They moved slowly together, Noctis's hand keeping Ignis pressed in close and tight by the ass. Ignis aimed for an angle that would have him thrusting against Noctis's sweet spot each time, and with practiced fluidity, he found it in a matter of seconds.

Noctis leaned his head back against the mattress, and Ignis used his leverage to grab Noctis's wrists and hold them above his head. Noctis only breathed out in pleasure, his navel dipping as Ignis thrust harder, his moonlit eyes boring into Ignis's as their foreheads met in the middle.

“H-harder,” Noctis huffed, clutching Ignis's hips with the sides of his knees. “I-I wanna...” His words slurred off into drunken nonsense, his voice catching beautifully in his throat. Ignis was always happy to follow an order, and he did as he was told with barely any hesitation.

The slick slide of Noctis's walls around his cock had them both groaning in unison, though Ignis kept his tone in check as Noctis merely grew all the noisier. It was music to Ignis's ears, urging him to move harder, faster, and to spear into that one spot he knew would unravel his prince in minutes.

Noctis cried out with each thrust, biting his lip as he writhed underneath Ignis. He clutched at every part of Ignis he could manage, with his legs and with his own hand curled around a wrist he could just barely reach. Ignis only reciprocated in pressing him harder against the bed, his thrusts growing more firm by the second. It wasn't long before Noctis was being utterly pounded into the mattress, his broken cries muffled by Ignis's lips, his grip tightening around Noctis's wrists hard enough to bruise.

The pressure was building and soon became too much for Noctis, and he was coming out in hot ribbons between himself and Ignis. The universe unfolded before his very eyes, and colors blossomed at the edges of his vision and blinded him as he came. He bucked up against Ignis and clenched around him hard, gasping nonsense and crying out Ignis's name as he dragged him deeper, deeper, oh so impossibly deeper into himself.

Ignis couldn't hold back at such a sweet release, and soon he too was coming inside of Noctis, adding to the slickness as he painted the boy's insides white. He muffled his own cries of ecstasy against Noctis's mouth, burying his tongue deep inside of it as they both came down from their high, giddy and laughing breathlessly as they slumped against each other.

“Holy fuck,” Noctis breathed, rubbing at the bottoms of his eyes when Ignis finally let go of his hands. Ignis only grunted something incoherent, lifeless as he lay against Noctis's body. They were both a mess, and a load of laundry was definitely called for after all of this, but Noctis...wasn't feeling it. He just wanted to bask in the warmth that was his lover, holding him close and tight in his arms and listening to his ragged breathing.

It seemed Ignis was of the same mindset, for he was rolling Noctis over after a while to cuddle him from behind. “I could go again,” Noctis absently muttered, his heavy eyelids betraying the words slipping from his mouth.

“I'd rather not try to start relations with what's basically an unmoving corpse,” Ignis breathed, nuzzling behind Noctis's ear. Noctis snorted, curling up after he idly kicked his shoes off of his feet, his pants dragged lazily back up around his hips. It was uncomfortable, and he felt bad for making this kind of mess on his dad's suit, but he was too drunk to care. Too drunk and too happy about being with Ignis.

“You'll wake me up when I need to be up?” Noctis asked, his voice quiet and husky.

“Of course I will,” Ignis answered, his hand on Noctis's chest to feel his heart beating. Noctis didn't answer, but he pressed closer to Ignis, content to lie there in the dim lights with his lover. Whatever the morrow might bring, he was sure it couldn't nearly be so bad as he was anticipating if he had Ignis by his side.

Chapter Text

Morning came all too soon. Sunlight ghosted through slanted shutters, breaching the confines of the dusky room and illuminating Noctis's face. It eventually woke him, and he grumbled, his hazy mind processing the environment around himself as he sat up.

A motion done quickly once he realized where he was and remembered what he was supposed to do. He was alone on the bed, Ignis having disappeared and leaving Noctis by himself. Panic gripped at his chest as he got to his feet, patting his pockets for a phone that just wasn't there.

“It's not time yet, Highness,” came a soft voice from the bathroom, and Noctis immediately felt his shoulders slouch as relief washed over him. He ceased his frantic patting, turning to face Ignis who was stepping out from what looked like a finished shower. His purple animal-print shirt was loosely buttoned around his torso, his wet hair slicked back and a small smile adorning his features.

“I was going to let you sleep in. My apologies for forgetting about the windows,” Ignis said, moving to the small excuse of a kitchen to put together a pot of coffee. “You can go back to sleep, if you'd like.”

Noctis watched Ignis walk away, and while he was tempted to take him up on the offer, he shook his head in response. “No, if I'm awake, I think it's probably best I try and stay awake.” He sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck as he looked to the floor. “I was having some strange dreams anyway.”

“Oh?” Ignis glanced behind his shoulder, his fingers pressing all of the right buttons on the machine without him having to look. An impressive talent, as always.

“Yeah,” Noctis replied, fidgeting with his jacket and looking anywhere but Ignis's eyes. “Last night was nice, but I still just can't shake the feeling that something's gonna happen, you know? With Leviathan and Luna, and the empire on our tail, and just...all of the stuff...”

Eloquent words befitting a prince, that was for sure. Noctis sighed again as he slouched down into a chair. Ignis was silent, but Noctis could hear his soft footsteps as he wandered over to where he was sitting.

“It's understandable, Noct,” Ignis murmured, coming to a stop behind Noctis and bending over to rub his shoulders. “If it's going to be anything like Titan, it's no wonder you're feeling like this.”

Noctis grunted as he leaned into gentle hands that helped ease the tension in his muscles.

"Would you like any coffee? Meanwhile, I'd suggest a change of clothes. I'd like to do some laundry and send off our belongings before the summoning." Ignis tugged at Noctis's loose tie, and Noctis couldn't help but blush as he leaned into the motion.

“Yeah,” he muttered, clearing his throat as he waved Ignis's hand away. “Just lemme get dressed here. Have you heard from Prompto and Gladio by the way?”

“They're next door,” Ignis explained, moving away and closing the distance between himself and the kitchen once more. “Probably still asleep, but I told Gladio what time I'd like to get moving.”

Noctis nodded, mostly to himself as he slipped out of his suit. The poor thing was wrinkled and stained, settling guilt into his stomach with squeezing claws. He shrugged his vest off, bringing it warily to his face for a sniff. The odor immediately made Noctis scrunch his nose and toss the garment to the bed as he quickly peeled the rest of his clothing off.

He left the suit where it landed, sad and limp, as he changed back into his regular clothing. He sighed in contentment as his jacket hugged his shoulders, relishing in the feeling of the soft fabric and the small, familiar comfort it offered. The suit was nice, but it was just painful to look at after having worn it for so long. It made his mind wander to older days, a place it shouldn't have been with more important things encroaching upon him and demanding his attention. That, and he just felt bad he'd had sex while wearing it.

Ignis was quick to bring him a mug of coffee though, offering Noctis a distraction as he urged him to sit back down.

“Camelia said she would be awaiting us at her estate, yes?” Ignis asked, his own hands cupped delicately around a drink of his own. "I would like to attend the meeting at your side, should she allow it. If not, are you confident you'll be fine by yourself? If you'd like, I could help you practice...?"

Noctis shook his head, chewing the inside of his cheek in between sips of blackened coffee. Not his preferred way of drinking the stuff, but it helped wake him up and keep him grounded. Kind of.

“I should be okay. It can't be that different from talking with my dad. Even if when we were by ourselves, he still kind of sounded...like that,” Noctis laughed, tilting his head to the side with a rather bitter grimace. Ignis kept quiet, but he reached out to soothingly rub Noctis's thigh.

“I'm sure you will be fine,” he murmured, giving Noctis an earnest look over the rim of his glasses. "And if you truly bungle things, well. There will be ample time proceeding the ceremony to mend affairs between Accordo and the King of Lucis.”

He smiled, and Noctis couldn't help a small puff of laughter. “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, waving his hand through the dust particles floating slowly through the air. Noctis allowed himself a short while to get lost in watching them catch the rays of golden light shining in through the windows.

Ignis bustled around Noctis shortly after finishing his coffee, picking up their laundry and tucking their sparse belongings back into suitcases and bags. Noctis watched most of the time, offering a hand to help here and there when Ignis really needed it. Admittedly he was pretty sore, their little tryst from last night having rendered him awkward. His leg protested loudly the more he moved around, but it was his fault for not paying attention to things the night before. The headache of a hangover was ever a constant reminder that he hadn't been in the right mind last night, either.

The physical discomfort was a nice reminder of Ignis and his love, though, so Noctis couldn't bring himself to complain too much about it. He could still feel Ignis's lips on his, the way they roamed his skin and how it felt to have Ignis completely surrounding him, in him...

It was one of the few things that seemed to help keep him going through the day. After laundry was done and everything was completely put away, Noctis wanted nothing more than to flop back into bed and go back to sleep; but Ignis was ever a gentle motivator, guiding Noctis down the hallways of the hotel by the hip and making sure he met up with Gladio and Prompto outside. They were waiting in the seats that were scattered across the lakefront, Prompto excitedly chatting about something as he poked through his camera reel with Gladio.

Noctis wandered up behind them, taking note of dark bruises splashed across the skin of Prompto's neck. Thankfully Ignis had already wandered off to deliver their things to wherever it was he was taking them; Noctis smirked as he stepped in behind Prompto, reaching out to slyly pinch at one of the spots on his skin.

Prompto yelped, reaching up to smack his hand over where Noctis's had been. He whimpered as he hit himself right where it was tender, and he spun around in his seat to give Noctis a hurt, dewy-eyed look.

“Nooooct! I don't to that to you, man,” he whined, rubbing at his neck with Gladio's raucous laughter in the background. “Geez, dude, that hurt!”

“That's what you get for always taking photos of me tripping and falling on my ass,” Noctis said, quirking his eyebrow as he sat down at the table beside the other two. “I think it's a fair trade.”

Gladio snickered, pulling his phone out of his pocket and looking pleased as punch. Prompto gave Noctis a wounded look and opened his mouth to say more before Ignis cut him off.

“Are we all ready to head out? Our Highness is being paged,” he said, holding a hand out to Noctis, his other waving his phone through the air. The playful atmosphere was immediately snuffed, and for as much as Noctis would have liked to procrastinate, they had places to be.

Everyone mumbled in agreement, and Noctis took Ignis's hand to drag himself right back onto his feet. The other two stood up and stretched, and it was with Ignis's guidance did they find themselves all back in a gondola.

From yesterday's experiences, rides in the gondola usually took forever. It was easy to lose himself in the gentle rocking motion of the waves underneath the boat, to admire the sparkling sun on the surface of the water. Today was an especially beautiful day as well, not too hot and not too humid, with a gentle breeze that playfully tugged at Noctis's hair.

But this ride in particular went all too quickly, and the four soon found themselves docking at the center of the city where they needed to be. Noctis grumbled, rubbing at his leg as he glanced around the crowd of people milling about the shops and stalls that lined the streets.

“It's on the main street, right?” Gladio asked, arms crossed as he peered over the crowd. “'Cause if it is, I think I see the entrance. It's along that wall down there.”

Noctis followed Gladio's line of sight, standing up on his tip-toes to get a good look at what the guy was talking about.

A stone wall seemed to cut itself through the market, high and intimidating and covered in ivy. Noctis remembered it from the day before, but he hadn't thought too much of it at the time. But sure enough, down the way there seemed to be something inlaid into the wall, a small group of what looked like guards standing around and keeping watch.

“Well...if there's one thing RPGs have taught us, it's go where the obvious guards are standing,” Prompto sighed, his arms crossed, camera in hand. Noctis snorted, but he nodded along.

“That's probably her estate. Let's go.”

Despite their destination being literally right there, Prompto managed to stop the group for a photo; Noctis had distracted himself at a stall and bought something to eat for breakfast; Ignis found some kind of exotic coffee; Gladio idly looked at flowers for Iris...

All in all, it took them an additional fifteen minutes to finally traverse the path and get themselves directed to Camelia, a process that seemed to happen in a matter of seconds, whisking Noctis away on a political wind while the rest of the group was asked to stay behind. Which was fine, considering Noctis had been expecting that, but it certainly put a damper on his mood as he entered Camelia's office.

It was nice, at the very least. Swathed in shades of red and accented in the striking white of marble and black fabric, she waited for him at the center of the room behind her desk. The air smelled of cinnamon and nutmeg, and she greeted Noctis civilly enough. Once pleasantries were exchanged between the two, though, what little of the peaceful atmosphere they had created between themselves vanished as Camelia opened upon her speech.

It was the usual stuff, the things Ignis had already mentioned off-handedly. Except it was much easier to talk about than sit through, if Noctis had to be truthful. Camelia was a nice enough lady, but she was stern, and she called for strict terms. They were hard to argue with, considering the state of her city was at risk. The empire was mobilizing their forces as well, news to Noctis but unsurprising nonetheless. If anything, it was news that he poked at with a cheeky comment, managing to glean out of Camelia an excuse for wanting to fight them by his side. After that fact had become clear, Noctis managed to relax for the rest of the meeting, and it wrapped up under pleasant terms between the two and with mutual trust to boot.

“You're just like your father,” she called out after Noctis, stopping him in his tracks as he made to leave.

Noctis halted, turning on a heel to face a kinder, softer expression. Camelia stepped forward, closing the distance between them slowly. “I'm glad, too. I was dreading the idea of having to deal with a sniveling whelp.”

Noctis managed a laugh, completely floored at such a simple statement. “Ah, thanks,” he said, tone awkward as he fought the urge to fix his hair, rub his neck, or...do...something.

Any conversation that might have been on the tips of their tongues was halted, interrupted by the presence of another guard who'd come into the room. It was time to scatter, and it was time to set things in motion. Camelia offered Noctis another handshake, a lingering touch coupled with a reassuring goodbye that left him feeling lighter at heart. Whether she meant her kind words or not, his anxieties had swelled in his chest like a growing balloon; but knowing he wasn't completely alone in his endeavor was comforting.

Ignis and the others waited outside in the entryway. Accompanied by a guard, Noctis made his way to them and explained the situation and what their jobs would be in the coming hours. Camelia supplied them with earpieces to keep track of each other, and they were reassured their belongings were already long on their way back to the mainlands ouside of Altissia.

With nothing left to worry about, Noctis mentally prepared himself to be on his way to the northern part of the city. He was told Luna was there, prepping for a speech to calm the hearts of the citizens after news of Leviathan's summoning was spread around the city. While it wasn't something Noctis was told he had to see, some deep seeded desire in his heart tugged him in the general direction and demanded he go.

It'd been years since he'd last seen her. He couldn't even remember what she looked like, let alone what she sounded like.

He took a deep breath, sliding his sweaty palms against the sides of his thighs. Quick goodbyes spread between the others as they all lingered in a group hug that Noctis buried himself into. Ignis, Prompto, and Gladio were such a warm, comforting and constant presence in his life. It felt like his heart was being wrenched from his chest with every step they took away from him, leaving it behind to flutter weakly against his breastbone. Noctis took a deep breath, and called out to them one last time.

“See you on the flip side, right?” he laughed, a vain attempt at sounding casual, playful.

“Yeah, buddy. We'll see you soon.” Gladio sounded a little more somber, but Noctis reassured himself the man was just getting into the mindset for their new jobs. Prompto smiled and nodded along nonetheless, but Ignis...

His gaze lingered on Noctis's. Noctis could see something flicker in his eyes, even with so much distance between them. Noctis latched onto them, moving forward against the restraints of a guard trying to usher him outside. The guard was very insistent on Noctis being there for Lady Lunafreya's speech, unwilling to let him go and allow him to distract himself.

Noctis just couldn't take his eyes off of Ignis, though.

Noctis meant to call out to him. His throat closed on him at the last second, tight and painful and rendering him speechless as he managed to mouth an I love you instead.

Ignis nodded, and it took everything Noctis had inside of himself to refrain from calling out to him, to try and get his lover to come back stay with him. He tried, the gods be damned, but with the commotion sweeping them farther and farther apart from each other, Noctis couldn't manage the words in the end. Instead he watched Ignis for as long as he could, a sorrowful gaze cast over his shoulder as he watched the man's back before it disappeared through another door.

It was silly. They were aware of what had to be done today, and Noctis knew it was coming, but yet...

With irritable, hastily given instructions, the guard pointed Noctis in the right direction. Heavy, fading footsteps settled in Noctis's ears, and he was alone.

The streets were empty where he stood, nothing but the sound of rustling leaves and the ripples of water in the distance to keep him company. Noctis reached up to hastily wipe at his eyes, his nose catching on the coarse fabric of his glove as he forced himself to hurry along.

He was pathetic. He had been determined to take this day step by step and meet everything at face value. It had been easy, at first. He'd gotten up (and early, too!), and the meeting had gone by just fine. Being on his own all of a sudden while the plan fell into place was almost a little too much for Noctis, though.

Noctis was pathetic, and he was codependent, and he had convinced himself that was okay. The others had reassured him it was okay, too. They were inseparable. They would always look out for each other, as cliché as that sounded. They were Noctis and his Crownsguard, and while they had their ups and downs, they always fell back in place together again.

Noctis didn't like being on his own, and he wasn't afraid to admit that. He felt lost as he stumbled down the street, his leg still rearing its ugly head and sending a wave of pain from his hip up into his back. He dug his fingers into the flesh of his thigh, his nails biting at his pale skin. Oddly enough, it was comforting.

Focusing on the sensation as he walked, Noctis eventually found himself in a wide, rectangular plaza surrounded by fruit trees. They had all blossomed out into white flowers that cast their sweet aroma to the wind. The occasional petal danced along between the people milling about, and Noctis followed one into the center of the throng. A tall, wide building framed the scene at the north, and Noctis could only assume that was where Luna had been staying.

No one bothered him, and Noctis didn't pay any attention to them. He kept his gaze forward, fixated on a marble podium raised at the top of a set of stairs. He waited, and he waited, ignoring the increasing volume around him as more people crowded their way into the plaza. He didn't know how much time had passed when he finally saw her appear. Fifteen minutes? Twenty? It didn't matter. What mattered was that she was actually there, alive and in the flesh.

Luna looked vastly different from what he remembered, but Noctis managed a smile as he watched her situate herself at the podium. The years, despite being spent in the shadows Tenebrae underneath the heel of the empire, had been good to her. She was glowing in the sunlight, her blond hair swept up in a messy ponytail that still managed to look elegant around her features.

The tattoo of the full moon glimmered upon her neck, catching Noctis's eye with every movement she made. He hadn't paid attention to the moon in...well, forever. It only figured the events of what was about to go down would occur on the night of a full moon, though. Rumor always had it mischief waited until the nights were glowing in silver.

Noctis chewed the inside of his lip as he watched Luna, letting his gaze trail the full expanse of her markings. The Mark of the Oracle truly was something beautiful, and it graced her arm in silver lines and shadowed shades of phases soon to come. She wore it with pride, her outfit leaving it for all to see so they could know it was really, truly her.

The deafening noise around Noctis seemed to vanish in an instant when Luna cleared her throat. The crowd of people collectively leaned forward in anticipation, and Noctis could have sworn he could hear a pin drop on the other side of the clearing.

Luna's voice rang out beautifully through the air. Amplified, it was soft and gentle, full of compassion despite the words her tongue carried. She talked of encroaching darkness, of a plague that consumed all and would take over the land. She was somber, her blue eyes carrying a wisdom beyond her years and a weight Noctis knew was a difficult burden for her to carry on her own.

Yet as Noctis gazed upon her, she was an entirely different person from the one he once knew. Despite ill tidings of illness and a world covered in darkness, she still glimmered of hope. Her soft words carried out her personal promises of keeping the world bathed in light, of how she would sacrifice her very self to keep their star from dying and to keep the darkness at bay.

It was a beautiful speech. Noctis found himself whispering Luna's name underneath his breath, and he dearly wished he could have gotten a moment to be alone with her. The years had changed things between them, drastically so, but a moment's peace to actually get to see and hear her talk in person would have been nice. It'd been so long since he'd last gotten to see his friend with his own two eyes.

Luna caught his gaze, and the world ceased to move for a split second as they looked at each other. So many years apart, with only the comfort of ink against paper to know the other was still alive...it was surreal.

Luna seemed to be thinking the same thing as she looked at Noctis. She still wore a smile, though it waned the longer they gazed upon each other. Finally Noctis nodded, waving his hand rather awkwardly at his side. She had a covenant to forge, and his earpiece was ringing to the tune of his vibrating phone.

Luna's gaze lingered, and Noctis hoped he managed to offer her a reassuring smile. It seemed to suffice, and he only caught a glimpse of her dress dragging along the ground before she disappeared into the building behind herself.

“Yeah?” Noctis said, finally dragging his thumb across his phone's screen.

“Hey, buddy! You in place?” came Prompto's voice, a welcome sound among the stress of the situation.

“Yeah. Right where I should be,” Noctis said, his eyes rising to the sky.

“Good. Don't forget what you gotta do,” Gladio grunted, his deep voice almost sounding winded.

“The same goes for you,” Noctis droned, catching sight of something glinting ominously against the sky.

“It seems the Imperials are here,” Ignis sighed, and Noctis found himself subconsciously nodding along to his words.

“Are the civilians out?” Noctis asked, pursing his lips as he started counting the airships. There seemed to be about eight of them, hovering quietly as they watched, like a pack of vultures waiting for their opportunity to swoop in. People began to panic around him, filing out of the plaza and being directed this way and that by the army of Accordo.

“Just about,” Ignis answered, “but don't worry about that. Just make your way to the rendezvous point. We'll meet you there.”

“Gotcha.” Noctis hung up without another word, an ache in his heart as he did. Despite the prospect of seeing the others again, and seeing them very soon, it still pained him to have to think of them operating on their own. He was being silly and irrational because they were more than qualified to handle things on their own, but he sighed anyway, resigning himself to just being needy.

Noctis took a deep breath, clearing his head to focus on his own echoing footsteps as he traversed stairways and ran through enclosed balconies. The Empire's soldiers had already descended into the city, their lifeless bodies jumping out of crevices and alleys and swinging at him with mechanical precision, effectively blocking his way. Exerting himself before the showdown with Leviathan was the last thing he wanted to do, but it was a necessary evil if he were to meet the others on time and complete the last step of the covenant.

Noctis slashed through metal coating, slick, greasy oil splashing onto his skin as he fought onward. The soldiers at least came in stuttered waves and only a few at a time, and glancing out to the horizon answered his question as to why.

A wall of water from where Leviathan was summoned was rising up into the sky, threatening to block out the sun. Leviathan's voice rang throughout the city, loud and clear, foreign to the ears and turning his blood to ice in his veins. Noctis could vaguely make out what she was saying, but he couldn't imagine what the scene would have to look like for someone who wasn't used to this kind of thing.

Even Noctis had to stop in his tracks, staring out at the horizon with wide eyes. Leviathan was huge. Larger than Titan and Ramuh, she towered upwards with seemingly no end, the water and clouds alike swirling around her as she made known her rage. Rain started to pour across the city, swollen clouds dumping raindrops the size of a fist onto the stone. Noctis attempted to shield himself from their torrential onslaught, but fuck, they hurt as they slapped mercilessly against his skin.

His phone began to buzz in his pocket, and he quickly yanked it out as he took shelter underneath a quivering overhang. He watched the sky as he answered, noting the patches of blue that still lingered and passed over the city.

“Hey!” came Promto's voice, urgent and loud in Noctis's ear. “No questions. I'm gonna need you to jump.”

Noctis's indignation was cut off before he could even voice it.

“I said no questions! Just jump over the balcony!”

Prompto hung up, and Noctis was left with a sudden vertigo. Why? Why was this necessary? Noctis had never been afraid of heights, but surely Prompto would know he had a general uneasiness with them. Looking over the nearest railing proved how high up he happened to be, too, the ground hundreds of meters away. He would certainly be killed if he failed an emergency warp-strike and hit the ground. Prompto was nuts if he thought Noctis was going to just jump-

He swallowed hard, steeling himself as he pressed against the railing. The wind picked up, tossing his hair about his head as he looked down, down at what was certain death if he messed up. He trusted Prompto, but this...this was almost a little too much.

Noctis took another deep breath, counting to three, before he finally stepped up onto the ledge. He threw one leg over the railing, then the other, and with a cry of panic and fear he smothered back down into his chest, he jumped.

The sheer instinct to warp somewhere safer was strong. The wind whistled in his ears as he fell, and his heart thudded in his chest as adrenaline slowly took over. The ground was approaching fast, yet the seconds seemed to stretch out before Noctis, dragging on as he found himself in some sort of limbo.

A limbo that ended with a dull thud as he hit something hard. Prompto's cry of triumph rang Noctis's ear as he helped him onto a strange contraption that only Prompto could have found and deemed usable.

“Like your new ride?” Prompto asked, eyes glimmering and blond hair soaked around a grin. After the initial shock had passed and Noctis could move again, he slowly nodded in response before he was laughing.

“Where did you get this thing?” he yelled, the rain picking back up with Leviathan's roar resounding in the distance.

“The Nifs! They won't be missing it, right? I figured we'd borrow it for a while!”

The drone shuddered underneath them, and Noctis held onto it for dear life. How Prompto had managed to get this thing up and going like this, he had no idea. Cool? Yes. Would Noctis have preferred they done this in a different scenario that wasn't a war zone and meant life or death? Absolutely.

The drone did its job well, though; with Leviathan's wrath shaping up to be something no one had expected, Prompto explained that a full evacuation was required and they couldn't stay behind. He knew Noctis needed a way to get closer to Leviathan, and this was the best plan he and the other two had come up. While Noctis was grateful, he couldn't help the heavy weight settling deep in his heart once again.

But, while having the others there would have been nice, this was a job for him, and him alone. Noctis had no one else to rely on at the end of the day if he were to receive Leviathan's power. So it was finally with a somber goodbye and an exchange of good lucks that Noctis and Prompto parted ways.

Prompto had managed to get Noctis as close to Leviathan as he could manage, the drone sputtering and almost giving out on the two as it approached Leviathan's head. Noctis launched himself at her, his shaking fingers grappling for a hold on her slick scales that surrounded her eye. She refused to quit moving, knocking Imperial ships out of the sky and tossing rubble into the air, her attention focused entirely on the destruction of the city.

Noctis called out her name, ripping it from the very bottom of his lungs. Her glassy eye turned to him, flecks of green and blue swirling together in a murky abyss boring deep into his own gaze. Things went quiet for a second as she listened to his pleas for her power. The roaring of both water and blood filled Noctis's ears while he waited for her answer, his knuckles white as he held onto her for support.

Suddenly Noctis was weightless, his body flying through the air before it landed unceremoniously some few hundred meters away. He crumpled against broken pavement, gasping in pain as Leviathan made her answer very, very clear. She would be just like Titan, it seemed.

If she wanted a fight, then she was going to get one.

But as time went on, Noctis's focus quickly started to dwindle. Noctis fought, and he fought, his muscles screaming and his lungs begging for mercy as another onslaught of salty water crashed into them. With every warp Noctis performed, exhaustion settled heavily into his bones and rendered his stamina to almost nothing. He was in the water more often than not, his body thrown against the ruins of the city. His muscles strained, his chest heaved, yet despite his best efforts, his careful strikes to places he assumed were Leviathan's weakest points were all for naught.

Leviathan reared her head, spewing seawater and knocking over the last remnants of the city. She was a titan amongst children's playthings, rendering the city to rubble and then pebbles. While Noctis did his best to hold onto what little hope he had left in him, seeing the Hydraean continue to rage like this made everything feel so impossible. She'd risen an impenetrable typhoon around herself, the storm in the sky raging with an intensity that made it hard to see. Raindrops stung his skin, the wounds he'd suffered screaming from both the salt of the water and the reality of the situation being rubbed into them.

Noctis was on the ground, barely able to support himself with just a knee as he looked around. The sky was swollen and rolling with angry black clouds, lightning lacing through them and splitting the scene in half. The water rolled up onto what little of Altissia was left, violent and frothing and taking more of the city with each receding wave. The tide only rose with every second as Leviathan continued forward, the wall of water she had summoned and the storm within moving with her.

Noctis had to stop her, and quickly.

From the corner of his eye he could still see Luna watching fearfully as Noctis flung himself at the Hydraean over and over again. He managed to launch himself at Leviathan a few more times, the last remnants of his adrenaline spurring him recklessly forward. A messy blow to scales as hard as diamonds proved to be a fatal mistake; one of Leviathan's fins crashed against Noctis's midsection and sent him flying once more.

He hit the ground with a sickening crunch, the back of his head slamming against the sharpened edge of a piece of debris. It nearly knocked Noctis out, his vision fading at the edges as he fought to keep a hold of himself. The world was spinning, and he expelled seawater from his lips as he hoisted himself onto an elbow.

After what felt like an eternity of struggling, Noctis managed to lift his head, his vision just barely focusing upon Luna in the distance. He'd landed close to her, and he started scrambling to his feet in an attempt to reach her before he realized something was wrong.

The silhouette of an Imperial engine was behind her, and so was...so was Ardyn. His dark clothes camouflaged him against the backdrop, but Noctis could see those yellow eyes glinting from underneath the man's hat. He held a dagger in his hand, dripping with blood, as Luna crumpled to her knees.

Noctis was helpless as he watched Ardyn crouch down beside Luna, his features twisted in amusement as he talked with her. Ardyn's eyes remained on Noctis the entire time as he struggled along the broken pavement, trying to fight his way to Luna to help her. His muscles screamed in agony, and he wanted nothing more than to just lie there and give up, but he had to do something...

Ardyn was soon standing, his laugh ringing out clear amongst the din of the destruction of the city around them. Noctis watched as the man disappeared into the engine behind him, watched as it slowly ascended into the sky and left them both behind.

Luna was struggling to get back to her feet, one hand wrapped tight around her midsection as the other reached for her trident. Noctis tried to call out to her, but his voice quivered, and it was weak and easily lost to the roaring of the rain and sea.

Noctis felt his strength draining, through his skin, out of his hands and spilling out onto the ground around him. His vision wavered, a constant whirl that made him feel nauseous, his body bruised and suffering as he finally closed his eyes. He could feel himself fall back to the ground, and the distant, far-off cry of Luna's haggard voice was the last thing to reach his ears before everything went black.

Noctis was aware of a sudden surge of energy pushing him through a blur. His body seemed to move of its own accord, and somehow, Leviathan eventually accepted defeat and went down. She settled into the dark, murky state of his mind, carving out a space of her own where she settled into and went quiet. Everything was finally quiet, and the darkness once again swirled up around Noctis and dragged him down, farther and farther, cradling him. It was almost loving, like an embrace from his mother or father, and Noctis felt something plush against his skin as he floated there. Consciousness was only an arm's reach away.

He didn't reach for it. In fact, as he lie there, the scenery seemed to shift around him. The darkness gave way to something dull, dark blues and greens settling in around him underneath an overcast sky that blanketed a meadow. Noctis couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was familiar. It was peaceful. It felt like what he would call home.

Noctis felt so small, so vulnerable as he gazed at his new surroundings. Nothing made a sound. No matter how hard he tried to move, his legs wouldn't listen to him. He glanced down and saw the legs of his younger self, unresponsive and in need of the wheelchair that had bound him for far too long.

Noctis fell to his knees, almost as if realizing he shouldn't be standing caused any strength he had in his legs to disappear. He hit the ground with a thud and actually felt like crying, but someone's soft and gentle tone was calling out to him, soothing his wounded emotions.

“Noctis?” Luna spoke up, causing him to jerk in her direction. She was some few yards away, looking just as young as he did. His desire to question why was instead replaced with a comfort and a familiarity he hadn't gotten to feel in years. She looked just like he remembered her, still playful and happy, not yet dragged down by the weight of her duties.

Noctis felt a smile creep onto his features as he reached out for Luna despite himself. “You're here...”

“It seems you do, but...do you remember the blossoms of Tenebrae? Those bright blue flowers that went on as far as the eye could see...” Her voice wistful, she dipped elegantly to the ground to pluck a blossom from the depths of the grass. She didn't look at him, instead keeping her eyes fixated on the far-off horizon and the mountains that broke the view against a lifeless sky.

Noctis watched, his hands lowering and eventually falling to his sides.

“Noctis, I...” Luna bit her lip, conflict darkening her eyes.

“What is it?” Noctis asked warily, reaching for her hand and getting to his feet. He turned to face her properly, concern written across his face as he tried to meet her eyes. Luna avoided his, the flower in her hand swaying in the silent breeze.

“Noctis...” she started after a moment of silence, her eyes drifting from the ground to his. “This isn't right, Noctis.”

Confused, Noctis took a step forward, finally closing the distance between them, close enough to grasp at her fingers. Suddenly Luna seemed far away, flickering just out of his outstretched fingers as she turned to face the other direction.

“I want you to find the flowers, Noctis. You'll find answers there. If you seek them out, you'll find that the they will bloom for you still, from hill to vale, just as they always have.” Luna turned to face him, grief etched across her features. “Can you do that for me, Noctis?” She was older now, hugging herself as she gazed pleadingly in Noctis's direction. Red bloomed from her palm that lie on her waist, blossoming out like a rose in the morning's rays.

“I...will you be there?” Noctis implored, though his voice trembled. He already knew the answer. He didn't want to accept it.

Luna shook her head, her eyes swimming with tears. “Would that I could,” she breathed, the air around her warping, swirling in brilliant shades of blue, “but I'm afraid it's not possible. Just know that I loved you, Noctis. I cherished every moment I had with you, your father...and I know he'd want you to have this.”

Her voice trembled, and as she spoke, Noctis felt a burning sensation against the back of his neck. It trailed downwards, a steady trickle of what felt like molten lava carving its way down his skin. Gasping for air, Noctis fell to his knees. “Luna, wait,” he rasped, attempting to crawl to her, to latch onto her elongated dress and just have a few more seconds with her.

“Luna! Wait!”

“Noctis,” Luna said, her fading voice coming from all directions, “do not fret. When the world falls down around you, and hope is lost...” Her lower lip began to tremble, and Noctis forced himself to move faster against the fading ground, but she only seemed to move farther away with each step he managed to take. An inky blackness was behind her, too, reaching out with delicate tendrils that seemed to tug her back into it.

“If you find yourself alone, amid a lifeless place,” she continued nonetheless, her fingers releasing the blossom she'd been holding onto, “look to the distance. Know that I am there, and that I...I watch over you always, Noctis.” Her voice broke, and Noctis stood there, stunned. The blue from the flowers that had been there just moments ago washed over him, and the sickly scent of blood was soon to follow as red streaked through, turning the air purple and hazy. He could feel his body being dragged backwards and away from Luna's fading form, like a current was tugging at him to move elsewhere, and to move on.

“Luna!” he called out after her, his voice stricken with grief. “Luna, wait! Please, I...” He reached out for her, clawing his way through the space between them in a vain attempt to get closer. “All I wanted...all I wanted was to...”

Was to save you.

But Luna was gone, swallowed by the darkness, and Noctis was left alone with himself. The flower she'd sent his way bumped against his hand, and the petals peeled and drifted away to reveal a familiar glint of blackened metal. It was his father's ring. The Ring of the Lucii.

Noctis closed his fingers slowly around it, his chest heaving with body-wrenching sobs. He squeezed his eyes shut, choosing to ignore the changing scenery around him and how the fingers of fate seemed to refuse to let him go. All he could focus on was the metal biting into his cold hands, the way the ring seemed to suddenly fill him with a hair-raising whisper from eldritch horrors.

When next he opened his eyes, Noctis was met with a scene that forced him to his knees once again. The area around him was completely black, a strange mist filling a dark void that emitted no light and offered no sound. He wasn't focused on that, though; his eyes were locked with the ones of the giant before him, a man clad in gleaming armor with a gaze that bored deep into his very soul. Noctis's fingers trembled around the ring, and his mouth and throat went dry.

Noctis felt like he was paralyzed, unable to move underneath that gaze. It flicked from side to side, looking Noctis up and down slowly before he could hear a voice in his ears. It was a voice of nightmares, guttural and bone-chilling, sending a shiver up Noctis's spine and rendering him scared. Terrified.

The world's end is nigh. The King of Kings must stand to take his place upon the throne; yet it would seem another soul hath paid a price to relieve him of fate's burden.

The giant's hand came forward, and Noctis flinched helplessly away. His eyes fluttered open only to see it had created a platform for him, bringing Noctis close through the haze that lazily wrapped around the two.

The Revelation of Bahamut was written in the stars, a prophecy unchanging. Yet the sacrifices of many for their King are on different terms. A fate changed, a destiny rewritten...a second chance of which a King has not yet proven himself worthy.

Bahamut's last words stung, piercing Noctis to his core. He hung his head as he listened, the fraying ends of his mind unable to grasp the situation and pick apart what Bahamut meant. A second chance? From what, and for whom?

Questions that were ignored, as Bahamut held Noctis out with narrowed eyes.

Find your blessing. Prove your worth. Then, the contract will be sealed, and an exchange of power will come to pass. Remember well the blood spilled on your behalf.

Bahamut let Noctis go, sending him whirling out into empty space. Noctis gasped, reaching out for anything with one hand. He was alone again, floating through an endless void with no way out. He cried out silently, begging for someone or something to save him.

At wit's end, voice gone and throat hoarse, his mouth spilling blood, Noctis truly didn't know what to do. Bahamut's words rang uselessly in his ears. The strange pain lashing down his back throbbed with an unspoken threat, and his skin felt hot and feverish.

He almost thought the white pinpricks against the black canvas of the void were a trick upon his weary eyes; though as he watched, the spots flared out and glimmered like stars, elongating and stretching out around him. They seemed to start spinning, bleeding down and out towards Noctis in a blinding river of light.

Noctis was helpless as he watched. The light continued to flow towards him, lapping at his ankles and gaining volume. Soon the light was at his knees, then his hips and waist, and it burned. Six above, it burned. Noctis clawed at his skin, crying out desperately as the light drowned him, blinded him, and swallowed him whole, filling his ears with with a deafening silence.

Noctis shot up from the cushions he'd been lying upon, a physical, body-wrenching scream ripping its way out of his lungs and crashing through his teeth.

Chapter Text

Noctis was left gasping for air, fingers clutching at foreign bedsheets underneath himself. At first they felt rough and unpleasant, soaked in sweat and tears, but he forced himself to breathe and relax. He'd only just woken up from what appeared to be quite the coma, and he reached up to brush his fingers through matted hair as he struggled for breath.

Steadily, his surroundings came into focus to his tired eyes. He was in a bright room, decorated in lacy whites and soft creams with a quaint little sitting area a few meters away from the foot of his bed. Heavy blankets had been tugged over his body, which was devoid of everything except his boxers. He smelled awful, his own stench catching his nose by the throat and making him gag a bit. Everything seemed to be falling back into some semblance of normalcy, but it only made him wonder just how long he'd been out like this...

“Highness?” came a voice from the corner of the room, nearly startling Noctis out of his skin. He turned to face the source of it with surprise, startled to see the back of Ignis's head poking up just above the crest of a rather comfortable looking chair. He sounded different, unrecognizable to Noctis's unsteady string of incoherent thoughts.

Noctis immediately felt relief wash over him anyway, cleansing his grimy soul as he made to slip out of the bed. “Ignis,” he breathed, fighting to untangle himself from the sheets and land on unsteady feet. He could see Ignis turning to face him, waving a hand rather insistently at the air by his side.

“Highness, wait...you should stay there. I...” Ignis's voice was grim and disjointed, unlike his usual poetic way of speaking. It had Noctis flopping back onto the edge of the bed, his dark eyes concerned as they bored into the back of Ignis's head.

“Are you hurt?”

Noctis was met with silence.

It stretched out for several long minutes before Ignis heaved his shoulders in a somber sigh. Noctis watched closely as Ignis started moving, watching the way his hands seemed to brush along the arms of the chair and steady his posture before standing. Ignis seemed to be struggling. Noctis scooted across the bed, his awkward legs splayed out on either side of him and feeling as new as a fawn's on day one.

“Ignis,” Noctis breathed, soft and pleading as Noctis reached out for his lover. Something was wrong, he could just tell, but without being able to look Ignis in the eye, he...

Noctis watched Ignis finally stand and turn, and any words he had left to say vanished in an instant. Ignis kept his head turned to the side, his expression meek and sorrowful as he fought to face Noctis properly. The sunlight caught his skin and illuminated it, illustrating deep, angry gashes of fresh scars against pale flesh that blossomed over the side of his face like a flower.

Noctis sucked in a sharp breath, physically recoiling at the sight.

“Ignis, you're...you're hurt, Ignis...” he breathed, tears welling up in his eyes, his vision blurring worse than it already was.

Ignis sighed, reaching cautiously behind himself for a cane he'd had propped up against the side of the chair. "It's nothing, Noct," he attempted to reassure, in a tone that was anything but placating. "Since you've woken, however, I'll go and deliver the news to the others..."

Ignis trailed off, awkwardness lacing around each syllable he spoke. Noctis's throat was tight, the ball forming hard like a stone and difficult to swallow down. Any inkling of any dreams or memories of days past slipped completely from his mind as he reached out for Ignis, leaning forward just enough that his fingertips brushed over Ignis's knuckles.

Ignis shied away, a knee-jerk reaction that revealed his face in full to Noctis. His eyes were swollen shut, that much Noctis could see, behind dark sunglasses that were perched on his nose. Ignis made a face as he realized what he'd done, but he didn't do much about it. He clasped the end of his cane with both hands instead, his face turned to the floor as the quiet settled around them like a fresh blanket of snow.

“Sit with me,” Noctis finally managed to choke, reaching out again for Ignis's hands and desperately holding onto them. Grief greater than he could have ever imagined weighed him down to the core, and every movement he made felt like slow motion as the world persisted at normal speed around himself. Thankfully Ignis seemed to be moving just as slow as he was, and he cautiously made his way towards the bed, nearly tripping over the corner of it.

Noctis flinched as he watched, reaching out to catch Ignis and break his fall with weak, trembling arms of his own.

“What happened?” Noctis asked, his voice barely a whisper as he leaned closer to Ignis. He smelled of redcurrant and something more citrus, like he'd accidentally delved into a different shampoo and cologne from the usual. Ignis carried it well, reminding Noctis of their summer nights spent together, but the implications as to why left him heartbroken.

Noctis watched as Ignis fidgeted with his glove, his fingers tracing the outline of the clasps that held them in place. “It was...a sacrifice for the greater good,” he muttered, turning his face away from Noctis. He was hiding a secret behind those lips, and Noctis watched it flicker across his face with every word he spoke.

"While I do regret choosing such a reckless path, I do not regret the success of your mission. I'm sure there are yet many things all four of us regret, not the least of which is our lack of preparation for what came to pass." Ignis kept his face turned away, his hands working anxiously in slow circles against the tip of his cane. "I must now be taking my leave. The others have been awaiting your waking for quite some time. It would be prudent to deliver the news promptly."

Ignis got to his feet, ignoring Noctis's hands and how they clutched at his arm. It felt like an eternity had passed before Ignis finally approached the door, where he turned ever-so-slightly with a grimace in Noctis's direction. "And, ah, I believe Umbra left you something on the bed..."

Noctis furrowed his brows, unable to tear his eyes away from Ignis as he slipped through the door. They lingered on the polished wood, unblinking as his body sagged forward and into itself.

He didn't know what was going on. He didn't know what was happening. Everything felt so surreal and out of his element all of a sudden, and he just wanted to know why. He could barely remember what had happened before he'd woken up. He had been sure Ignis would tell him, but Ignis had left, carrying with him what little life the room held within itself. Without Ignis the air just felt stiff, and the silence settled into Noctis's ears unpleasantly.

He sniffled quietly, finally tossing his gaze over a shoulder. Ignis had mentioned something from Umbra, but what? He reached out to toss the blankets to the sides, looking underneath them for some mysterious gift, some clue as to what it could be.

After some struggling, Noctis tossed a pillow behind him, and that was when he saw it. The leather-bound diary had been slipped underneath his pillow, the golden swirls etched into the surface glowing warmly in the sunlight cast across the bed.

Noctis's lower lip trembled as he looked at it, fingertips reaching out to trace the swirling design slowly. They eventually caught the edge and forced the book open, revealing years and years of words and pictures exchanged between himself and Luna. The last page offered the message he'd sent to her before Altissia, and behind even that, in the very back of the diary, was a sylleblossom.

Freshly pressed, its colors bled out into the paper it'd been squeezed against. Its soft aroma wafted up from the pages, filling the front of Noctis's head with bittersweet memories.

Suddenly Luna's fading voice was the only thing he could remember from Altissia.

Noctis fought for air, his shoulders trembling as he looked around himself. Yet another glint in the light caught his eye, and he turned to find the Ring cast aside in the bed beside himself. He stared at it, unable to bring himself to reach out and grab it.

Eventually he found himself turned onto his side, the book clutched to his chest with the Ring held tight in one hand. He'd slowly moved into position after what felt like five years, dragging the blankets over his head and smothering himself in the scent of forced spring and mountain air. It made him feel sick, but it also helped comfort his quivering nerves. Everything stopped feeling so rough and unpleasant on his skin as well; it seemed the universe was trying to take pity on him, caressing him in the warmth of a bed-shaped cocoon.

He huddled there well into the night, the Ring biting into the skin of his palm and making him bleed. He stared unblinking into nothingness, refusing to answer the door when someone came knocking, asking if he needed anything. Just anything.

Noctis didn't need it, though. He didn't need anything.

Consciousness faded in and out for about the next week. Noctis managed a shower somewhere in between a solid reality and a fuzzy dream. He always wore something of Ignis's as he went straight back to the bed, the soft sigh of disappointment from his lover and the irritated clicking of Gladio's tongue trailing after him.

Noctis wanted nothing more than to lie there in soft down and the gentle white of a try-hard cloud. He just wanted to close his eyes forever and forget his life was even a thing, that it ever held any sort of meaning and that it needed to go somewhere. He just wanted to give up and give everything back to the people who had done so much for him. He wanted to give it all back and shut the voice up that constantly yelled into his ear that they had sacrificed all of this and more for him.

He'd never asked them to. If anything, Noctis had always just asked them to leave him alone.

Noctis had never wanted some divine words of a prophecy spun thousands of years back in the past. He'd just wanted to live a normal life as a kid with his dad, who'd kick the soccer ball around with him occasionally in the yard. He just wanted a dog named after his favorite King's Knight character. He just wanted to be back home, cracking a smile and his first legal drink with his dad right there beside him.

Noctis curled his fingers into the sheets, clutching at their comfort and milking out his stay in them for as long as he could. The cogs of the machine demanded they start moving all too soon, though, and Gladio was grunting about some tomb on the way to Tenebrae. Why they were going to Tenebrae, Noctis couldn't remember. But they'd all agreed on finding the tomb first, and working out some kind of plan for what to do next afterwards.

Two weeks later, and their plan was set in motion.

Prompto had tried his best to keep the group talking during that time, to keep the atmosphere light and the tension to a minimum. Noctis appreciated the gesture, though at this point, he wondered what the point of all of this even was anymore. He supposed he let it show. The others had taken notice, trying to entice him into conversation and ask for advice on what to do, but the most Noctis could offer was a half-hearted grunt and a shrug. He didn't have anything to say. He didn't have any plans for what they should do next.

It irritated Gladio. Where he once offered looks of subtle sympathy, they were soon replaced by expressions of contempt, bordering on loathing. Noctis could see barely restrained words behind his lips each time he approached him for a conversation. Except conversation wasn't really the world for the exchanges they'd tossed between each other these days. Noctis was silent as Gladio went on about how they'd need to start thinking about a course of action after the tomb, where they'd need to go and what needed to be done. Did they chase down Ardyn and confront him? Did they fall back for the time being and consider an alternative?

Gladio asked and he asked, and he inquired and he nudged and he pushed Noctis until something finally snapped.

Noctis was unmoving where he sat, eyes watching the landscape slide by outside of the train's window. The sun was setting and everything was cast in a golden glow, leaking into the car and warming the faces of himself and the other two in the seats beside his.

Prompto sat by Ignis, rubbing his arm and offering him small conversation here and there to keep him occupied. Prompto extended the invitation to Noctis, but he ignored it, instead settling against the corner of the seat and the train's wall and pulling his jacket a little more tightly around himself. He wasn't in the mood for words, and he definitely wasn't in the mood for looking at the scars bespattered across Ignis's face. It was selfish, and Noctis knew it, but the guilt when he looked at Ignis was too much for him to deal with right now.

He sat there and instead ignored the sounds around him. Noctis allowed his eyes a moment to flutter shut, his thick eyelashes fanning out across his cheeks and fluttering from the unrest he felt. The rocking of the train car was soothing, and he wanted nothing more than to fall asleep to its rhythm and not have to think for a while, but it was impossible to relax. Tenebrae was on its way, but more importantly, so was Cartanica.

Noctis sighed, the sound of heavy footsteps mingling in with the rest of the background noise. He was completely unaware of Gladio's looming presence until it was directly over him, a hand upon his hip as he glared down at Noctis with seething irritation.

“It must be nice to not give a shit about what's going on around ourselves.”

Noctis jerked up at such a venomous tone, his gaze finding Gladio from the corner of his eyes. Great.

“You know, if I got to sit around on my ass and sniffle about how sorry I was for myself, nothing would get done.” Gladio's words were harsh, each syllable booming a little more loudly than the last. Noctis made to flinch away, to turn away from Gladio and ignore his presence entirely, but the man's grip was on the back of his jacket and dragging him upright before he could stop it.

“Damn it, Noctis! Do you not care about what's going on right now?” Gladio yelled, his face mere inches from Noctis's. Noctis turned away, pawing at Gladio's grip on the front of his shirt in a desperate attempt to scramble free.

Prompto watched in horror from behind Gladio, on his feet and shifting his weight back and forth between them anxiously.

“Let me go, Gladio,” Noctis growled, shooting him a pointed look from underneath his bangs.

Gladio's grip only tightened, refusing to let Noctis get what he wanted. “Don't you give a shit about anything or anybody other than yourself?” he grunted harshly, his eyes wild and on fire in the light of the setting sun. “For fuck's sake Noct, Ignis went blind for you! Luna didn't sacrifice herself so you can refuse to grow the pair needed to put that damned ring on and act like the man you were trained to be for this job!”

Gladio threw Noctis backwards, and he hit the seat behind himself with a stuttered cry of pain. His bad hip was the one he happened to land on, and Ignis's cry of frustration and pleas for Gladio to quit fell on deaf ears.

“You're a coward, Noctis!” Gladio continued, ignoring Ignis as he pointed a finger down against Noctis's chest. “You were never a king, and you never will be! I don't know why I ever bothered with you. We should just leave you in whatever pit Cartanica happens to hold.”

The final words were spoken in a low growl, and Noctis watched as Prompto attempted to pull Gladio away from him. Gladio fell back by Prompto's hand, turning abruptly to walk down the train's aisle and disappear into another car entirely. Noctis's lower lip was trembling despite himself, and he wrenched himself to his feet, practically running in the opposite direction Gladio had gone.

Prompto called out after Noctis, but Ignis held him back, urging him not to follow after their emotional and wayward Prince. He just needed some time to himself, and Noctis was grateful for the lack of another person trying to jut into his personal space as he found an empty car at the train's rear.

He flung himself into the nearest seat, choking on dry sobs as he dug the ring from his pocket. Gladio had every right in the world to be angry. His entire life's calling was to be Noctis's shield and make sure he was safe, and ultimately, assure that he was on the right course. Gladio had gone out of his way more often than not to make sure Noctis was comfortable and unharmed. Gladio only had so many scars partly because of Noctis, and the real kicker?

Gladio hadn't even liked him in the first place. But somehow, they'd grown closer together, and Gladio...he'd become irreplaceable. He was probably just as scared and wrought with guilt and grief as Noctis was.

Noctis just wanted some sympathy though. Everything had seemingly happened all at once, and what was an opportunistic and romantic trip to Altissia had ended in hellfire and misery. They were all still dazed from it, scrambling out from underneath the rubble to recover their place in the world and figure out what it was they had to do from here on out.

It was confusing, and Noctis was terrified.

The ring seemed to wrap invisible tendrils around his fingers and arms, lacing up and constricting his throat. Whispers of a world unimaginable constantly emanated from it, for Noctis's ears only and haunting him through the nights. His father had never talked about this. All Noctis knew of the Ring was his dad's early deterioration, and the curse it carried with it that made the air slip from his lungs.

Six above, Noctis was scared. Coupled with the flickering images of his fever dreams from back in the hotel, he didn't know what to do. Every step he took forward felt like six taken backwards, and all the while he simultaneously felt like he wasn't moving at all. Just running in place, with no one but himself in the emptiness he suddenly felt inside.

Noctis sat there for a while. Somewhere over the speakers, he heard their next stop would be Cartanica. He really debated not going, just leaving a note for the others to find while he ran off somewhere else, somewhere no one could find him and his life could stop this rampant crusade of agony and heartbreak he was inflicting upon the others. Maybe if he looked hard enough, searched everywhere he could, he would find an astral who could bring everyone back that had sacrificed all for him.

Ignis deserved better, too. Noctis was so, so grateful he was still alive, but the pain of his injury continued to spear Noctis's heart with a wooden stake. Ignis had always taken so much pride in everything he'd done and accomplished, and all of that had required his impeccable eyesight. Noctis remembered the day he'd first gotten his damned glasses, and how thrilled he was at thirteen years old to be able to see the distinct definition of the leaves in the trees, to be able to see the individual blades of grass and the blossoms in the palace's courtyard.

Noctis would have given everything to reverse their situation. But instead he just sat there, trembling underneath the weight of an uncertain responsibility and ignoring it as he shoved it back into his pocket. He was shaking too much to really want to sit around any longer.

Noctis wrapped his jacket a little more tightly around himself once more, hugging his waist as he walked through doors. Door after door, scrutiny of strangers constantly on him as he walked past elders and youth alike. Their stares made him shrivel into himself. He could have sworn he heard someone whisper about the Oracle, in hushed, surprised tones that made him walk all the faster through the aisles.

Noctis bowed his head, hurrying through the next door and bumping unceremoniously into someone. He glanced up, a stiff apology on the tip of his tongue before he saw who it was. Gladio had caught him with both hands on Noctis's shoulders, and the awkward silence between the two turned from seconds into a solid minute.

Gladio finally brought his hands back to himself and pushed past Noctis. Noctis averted his gaze, keeping it in front of himself before he continued down the train.

He saw Prompto mere moments after he saw Gladio, and he offered Noctis a sympathetic smile before trailing off where Gladio had gone. Noctis refused to watch him go too, keeping his eyes diligently forward and to the far wall of the car he was in. He made to keep going, to find the dining car to maybe grab something to eat, but...

Ignis was still where he was, sitting all by his lonesome. His head was pressed to the window, and his chest rose and fell with slow, steady breaths. He was unmoving, and Noctis's heart twisted in his chest at the sight.

Noctis clenched and unclenched his fists at his side, biting the inside of his lip. Ignis deserved to have someone sit with him, but would Noctis really be who he wanted to see? Who he wanted to spend time with? Ignis had insisted time and time again that none of this was Noctis's fault, but deep in his heart, he knew it was. Why Ignis still even wanted to be with him was a complete mystery to Noctis.

But in the end, love prevailed, and Noctis found himself slipping down into the seat beside Ignis. He only made a soft noise of recognition as Noctis scooted in close, reaching out to hug his arm and nuzzle closer.

“You should stay behind.”

“You know I won't.”

Noctis shut his eyes, shaking his head. “Ignis, you have to. I don't know what Cartanica will be like, but I doubt...I doubt it will be easy for you. Please just stay-”

“Noctis.” Ignis's tone bit into his very being, and Noctis shut up despite the words wanting to roll off of his tongue. “Stop being ridiculous. You know I'll manage somehow.”

Noctis kept quiet, the inside of his lip bleeding at this point. “Why?” he finally asked, leaning back to look into eyes that seemed forever closed. “I just...you don't have to. You didn't sign up for this, I...I want you to leave, Ignis, so I don't have the opportunity to keep hurting you!”

Noctis's voice was pitched, breathy and heavy with oncoming tears. Ignis turned to face him, reaching out to feel for the side of his face with furrowed brows.

“Noctis, I have been by your side for seventeen years. And while you may have frustrated me beyond belief, belittled my efforts made on your part, argued with me and have gone out of your way to hurt yourself to spite everyone around you, I will not leave you. And you know precisely why, do you not?" Ignis said, his voice stern, yet gentle, belying the hurt that slipped through nonetheless. Noctis made to argue, but he was hushed by a gloved finger.

“It is because I love you, Noctis. I would walk to the ends of the earth blinded or worse if it meant I could stay by your side.”

Noctis searched Ignis's face, though it didn't twitch nor did it contort into any other expression aside from the neutral one it held. Noctis lowered his head, and he pressed his face back into Ignis's side and took a deep, shaking breath.

They sat like that in silence, Ignis's hand gently moving up and down against Noctis's spine. He remarked softly at one point he felt thinner, and that he was sorry he couldn't cook anything for them lately. Noctis immediately reassured him that it was all right, and that that wasn't the reason why he hadn't been eating as much.

Ignis hummed softly in understanding. He kept humming after that, soft and gentle lullabies that both soothed Noctis's aching heart and made it writhe all the more.

“I'm sorry I can't put the ring on,” Noctis muttered after a stretch of silence, voice muffled into Ignis's shirt. “I...I just...”

He shook his head, pressing as close to Ignis as he could manage.

“No, Noct, it's all right. I know. We've all seen what it did to King Regis...” He shifted underneath Noctis's weight, moving to wrap both arms around his frame. “Gladio's just scared. We all are.”

Nothing but the sound of quiet chatter from strangers and the sounds of the car traveling over the rails filled the space between them once more. Everything still whirled violently inside of Noctis, but cradled against Ignis like this, it managed to calm and he felt slightly better.

“I, um,” Noctis started, poking his head just high enough up to look out the window, “I've been remembering dreams. From when I was out after Leviathan and all that.” A bit of a 180 from their previous conversation, but it was a stifling weight on his chest that Noctis really needed to talk about.

“Oh?” Ignis ran his fingers through Noctis's hair, his glove having since been abandoned on the table between them. “Would you care to elaborate...?”

Noctis felt self-conscious about it, uneasiness washing over him. He didn't know why, but the flashes and images he remembered just seemed so...so unrealistic and silly, like he was clambering for a way out of all of this. He didn't even know if he was remembering them right. At the moment, the strange, prophetic words that echoed ominously in his head just seemed like an excuse to run away from the path he was suddenly slammed against.

He cleared his throat, pressing his nose into the crook of Ignis's shoulder. “I...I saw Luna. She gave the ring to me, but she didn't seem...happy? About it. I don't know, it was like she just...didn't want to do it. Like she was trying to do something else. And then after that...” Noctis sighed, reaching up to slowly rub at the corner of his jaw. “I saw someone else. Something else. It towered over me in armor you'd kind of expect to see in King's Knight. It spoke to me about...a changed prophecy. A different fate. I don't know, this,” he sighed heavily again, shaking his head irritably, “it all sounds dumb, I know.”

Just talking about it made his back itch nonetheless, a strange sensation that tingled from the knob at the base of his neck to the dip in his lower back. It vexed him, really. Every time he reached back there to rake his nails across his skin, all he felt was the familiar taut flesh of his scar. He couldn't reach very high above that, though...but the skin at the base of his neck did feel different, like there was something being imprinted. He didn't know. He didn't have a mirror, and no one else said anything, but it wasn't like they were looking at him very often these days, either.

Ignis didn't chastise him, though. Instead he clicked his tongue thoughtfully, tapping a finger against the back of Noctis's head. “That is very strange indeed. What do you think it might be?” he asked, trailing the finger down against Noctis's neck, gooseflesh erupting from the touch sliding across his skin.

“I...I don't know,” Noctis admitted. “I haven't been thinking about it much. It just feels kinda like a ploy to not have to deal with what's going on right now, you know?”

“And if it's not?” Ignis mused, tracing a circle around the knob at the back of Noctis's neck and making him shiver.

“It...it wanted me to go to Tenebrae. To find the flowers there. Or, well, Luna did. The other thing wanted me to prove myself, but I don't know what it meant by that.” Noctis pouted, his anxious fingers working at the soft fabric of Ignis's shirt.

Ignis was quiet for a long time as his fingers dipped below Noctis's shirt, tracing circular patterns against his skin as they moved down his spine. “This is rather curious,” he mused. “This wasn't here before. Remind me what Luna's mark looked like again...?”

Noctis cleared his throat awkwardly. “It was the phases of the moon,” he offered, looking up at Ignis's face. “I thought you knew that. No one knows why each phase corresponds with the moon in the sky...?”

Ignis nodded along. “Ah, yes. I just wanted to make sure...” He trailed off, his fingertips lingering against Noctis's skin. “Have you looked in a mirror recently?”

“No?”

“Ah. I suppose if you had, you'd be looking only at your front.” Ignis sighed, pulling his hand back with his expression contorted into a thoughtful frown. “Explain the second figure in your dream to me. Don't leave out the details, no matter how preposterous they might sound.”

Noctis nodded, though he swallowed hard in embarrassment. This was a welcome distraction compared to what he'd been doing and thinking, but he still felt rather awkward about it all. As to why, he didn't know, considering Ignis was his closest consort and lover, but...

He explained the being anyway, from how large he'd been to the color of his eyes. Even Noctis was surprised he'd remembered so much; he remembered in vivid clarity the gleaming of the swords behind the man, glittering in golds and deepened blues and fanned out behind him like a pair of wings. He explained how the armor the being donned matched the scabbards of the swords behind him, and he described the voice he had heard, low and guttural, raked across burning coals with a whisper virulent in the smoke.

Ignis listened quietly, rubbing slowly at Noctis's shoulders as he spoke. “What you describe sounds like one depiction of the Astral Bahamut.”

“But why would I dream about that?” Noctis asked, already grasping for excuses as to why he'd conjure up such an image in his mind. He'd read the Cosmogony a lot when he was a kid, which possibly explained all the vivid imagery he'd managed to conjure in his mind's eye, but...

“I personally don't think you simply dreamed it, Noct,” Ignis continued, leaning his head to the side, the toe of his shoe tapping against the cold steel of the car's floor. "After all, with such divine forces at work at the summoning, I'd hesitate to label all of this a mere coincidence. I believe it would be wise to heed the words you have been given."

Noctis stared at Ignis, incredulous. For a man who'd cursed the gods, gone out of his way to ensure they were never a topic of discussion between the two, to suddenly defend the words of a fever dream's illusion...well, Ignis sounded just as unsteady as Noctis did with this whole business.

“I...I wouldn't even know where to start,” Noctis muttered, looking down at Ignis's necklace. It was nestled into the hollow of his throat, brushing against the top of beautifully sculpted clavicle bones. He pressed a gentle kiss to one, brows knit together as he leaned forward to hug Ignis around the waist. “I'm just so...lost, Ignis. I don't know what to do.”

Ignis stroked some of the downy hairs at the base of Noctis's neck, gently twirling them around a finger as he sighed. “It might take some time until my eyesight returns, but...until then, I would want nothing more than to be your Guiding Fire through this, Noctis. You've been very distant, but if you would allow me to help you, I'm sure we can find an answer to all of this together.” His words were soft, his tone as gentle as a wind's chime on a summer night's breeze.

Noctis always had a habit of forgetting what Ignis's true purpose to him was. Years of companionship and affection kind of diluted the whole adviser role Ignis was supposed to carry. But despite that, Ignis always went out of his way to make sure he was there when Noctis needed him most, offering help and answers and guidance whenever he could. It was a huge reassurance in times like these, and Noctis nodded, balling his fingers into the fabric of his love's shirt.

“Let's just focus on Cartanica for now,” Ignis murmured, a soft coo to his voice as he cradled Noctis's head close to his chest. “I'm sure Gladio will come around eventually. For now, you needn't worry about anyone but yourself, Highness. We're not going anywhere, especially not me, no matter how hard you may try to push me away. I've always been here for you, and I always will be.”

Noctis sniffled, nodding in response to Ignis's soft, sweet, kind words. He was truly undeserving of them, of Ignis, but yet he insisted on staying there until the very end.

“I always know I can count on you,” Noctis mumbled, forcing a laugh through his sniffles. He leaned back to rub at his nose, thoroughly embarrassed at how he'd been acting. It was still hard to pick himself up and hold his head up high, but he really needed to try better for the others. For Ignis especially. Noctis wasn't the only one who had to be craving some sort of reassuring companionship. Noctis needed to quit neglecting him.

Ignis cracked a small smile at the words, a beautiful sight after so many days of somber expressions and gloomy sighs. “Here,” he murmured, holding a small pack of tissues out to Noctis as the conductor's voice rang out over the speakers.

“We've arrived in Cartanica.”

Chapter Text

Cartanica was a small, dusty town. It was between two rolling hills, the town itself facing the drop of a cliff that offered a wide, spectacular view of old construction and ruins beneath their feet. Metal rails and staircases clung to the cliff side like ivy, digging into stone with artificial roots and refusing to be shaken free by the constant whirl of the wind.

Dust and dirt were everywhere, but it was golden in the last few rays of the day's dying light.

Noctis watched the the sunset somewhat wistfully. The moment they had all departed from the train, Gladio had led Ignis off towards the run-down hotel at the station's end, and Prompto had wandered off elsewhere, camera in hand. Ignis had been the only one to murmur some sort of parting words to Noctis; everyone else had left him alone.

He sighed, his seat on the bench hard and unforgiving, the edge cutting the circulation from his legs where he sat. He was uncomfortable and hungry, he was sweaty, and the wind kicked up dust in his eyes; yet still he sat there, until long into the night.

Prompto had sat with him a while sometime after the moon had surfaced. They sat together in silence, leaning against the other and offering what comfort and warmth they could manage as the night chilled around them. Prompto muttered something here and there about how he hoped Noctis's ancestor put this next weapon somewhere easy, how clear the sky was, how big the moon looked. Noctis didn't say anything in return, but he listened, and he was grateful for Prompto's company while it lasted.

But soon Prompto was yawning, and he snapped one last photo of the moon with tired eyes. Admittedly Noctis was exhausted, too, but he bade Prompto farewell and good night as the guy finally left for whatever room he'd be going to in the hotel. Noctis watched him leave before his eyes slid down to his hands, clasped around the smooth metal of his ring.

The area emptied itself of the last few remaining stragglers who'd been shopping and haggling, and soon it was just Noctis, still on the bench with his sad eyes cast skyward as he watched the slow dance of the infinite stars.

He'd fallen asleep out there. Noctis felt himself sink lower into a darkness unknown until it was all around him, a vast expanse of nothing. His lidded eyes fluttered as what felt like waves washed over him, gently tugging him this way and that, and the water filled his ears with a soothing noise. He could hear a chime somewhere in the distance, tinkling gently in a soft rhythm his heart seemed to adopt.

Slowly the scene settled all around him, and he was with his father in northern Lucis in a private area only they knew about. It was their vacation home away from the city, away from the Citadel and the burdens they carried upon their shoulders back home. Here, they could just be themselves, father and son in a moment that happened all too rarely. The last time Noctis remembered being there was when he was seventeen, going on eighteen, and it was an excuse only made possible because of his birthday.

Noctis sat on the shore of the lake behind their cabin, the clear, crystalline water washing over his pale, slender legs. His dad was talking, laughing, as he tested out Noctis's new fishing pole. He used it with surprising ease. Though his lips moved, Noctis couldn't hear anything from his dad as he fished. He was laughing, and he kept looking to Noctis, his kind, warm eyes crinkled in a smile. Something caught the line, and he was soon focused on his catch, and Noctis left him there.

He walked the perimeter of the lake, nothing but the sound of the wind and the water in his ears. The trees swayed around him, but they, too, stayed silent. Birds fluttered their multicolored wings in the sky, streaking through the blue scarred by white-grey clouds. In the distance, it looked like rain was called for. Again, though, nothing made a sound except for the water, and the mysterious chime that seemed to be getting louder the farther around the lake he went.

Eventually he came upon a gap in the trees. It was the only visible gap, compared to the rest. Surrounding him were trucks thickened by the years, benighted and seemingly impenetrable. The gap he'd found was much more welcoming, flanked by two giant old trees that wove a roof with their branches over the tunnel they seemed to form. Little white flowers grew at the base of their trunks. Noctis tilted his head, hugging himself tight as he stepped through into gap.

The sound of the waves lapping at the shore immediately stopped, and all was silent, save for the gentle rhythm of the chime. With each step Noctis took, it only grew louder and louder, guiding his weary feet along some invisible path. The tangle of the trees grew thicker overhead, and while there was a definite murkiness to the surroundings and nothing made noise, Noctis wasn't scared.

He pushed forward until he found himself in a meadow. He brushed branches and leaves to the side as he emerged on the other side, gazing around himself with wide eyes at the new sight before him. The sky was an inky blue, and the moon hung directly overhead, swollen and ethereal and casting its glow onto the silver grass below it.

Stars glittered around the moon, which, upon closer examination, was not the moon Noctis was used to. No, it was different, bigger, the craters in all the wrong places and yet more familiar to him than his own moon. Gazing upon it made his back itch and his heart feel heavy, homesickness lingering on his tongue and tasting of salt and blood and bittersweet memories.

Noctis gazed upon it with dewy eyes as he approached the center of the field. Flowers tinkled and chimed around him, and it was only then had he realized the sound was coming from the flowers themselves. They were as blue as the sky, and they shimmered underneath the light the moon offered. He bent down to touch one, plucking it gently from the depths of the grass. His fingers touched something cold and smooth as he did so, and as he held the flower out between his forefinger and thumb, he discovered it was made of glass. The blossoms arced upwards in an elegant curve, before they hung their somber petals and continued to sing a song of worlds unknown.

Suddenly a voice could be heard, and he looked around himself, to the rolling darkness that was coming in from all sides. As it came upon him, swallowing him whole, the only words he could make out were soft and gentle, yet insistent and encouraging:

Find me.

He woke to a rude, pinching sensation on his cheek. Noctis grumbled, reaching up to swat at whoever was bothering him.

“You can't sleep here,” came a rather dull, unamused voice. “I suggest you leave, or else I'll have to detain you.”

Noctis blinked his weary eyes, sleep clouding his vision as he attempted to focus on who was harassing him. It was a man with a rather strong jawline, with a nose that was large and aquiline. The rising sun cast a harsh glow against his features and heavily shadowed his eyes, making them look even more severe and intimidating than necessary. He slapped at Noctis's cheek with the back of his hand, his head tilted to the side with his lips pursed in one thin line.

“Go on,” he said, making sure Noctis was on his feet, “elsewhere. I'm sure you've somewhere to be.”

“All right, all right,” Noctis groaned, rubbing at the red, irritated skin on his face as he limped away. His neck was sore and his joints creaked, and his legs felt like static was clinging to their skin and digging in with millions of tiny claws. It had him hissing through his teeth as he had to pause to collapse his weight against the side of a sun-blistered pillar.

From the looks of it, the sun had breached the horizon about an hour ago. The landscape was swimming as the heatwaves danced in the air. Noctis's hair clung to his sweaty forehead, and he raked his fingers through it and tossed it back, desperate for a breeze to come along and cool his searing skin. He played with the idea of heading inside to wash himself off, but the moment his glazed eyes settled on the building of the hotel in the distance, he could see three figures emerging slowly from the entrance.

They were all too familiar. Noctis sighed, slouching farther down against the pillar and accepting the bitter taste of defeat. Prompto called out to him, and Noctis glanced up, feigning a small smile as his friend ran up to him.

“Hey! We're gonna grab some supplies but before we head out, damn, buddy, are you okay? You look like you died and were forced to come back to life half-dead or something.” Prompto clapped a hand against Noctis's shoulder, and Noctis snorted, waving a hand before he used it to stifle a yawn.

“I accidentally fell asleep on the bench. I'm fine,” he muttered, pulling himself away from Prompto's grasp. “I'll meet you guys at the elevator. I need a moment to clean up.” The others looked unamused, but they directed their gazes elsewhere and moved on ahead.

“Oh. Okay...”

Prompto pouted, but Gladio urged him along by the arm. His blue eyes still followed Noctis over his shoulder, but Noctis wasn't paying attention as he hobbled down the path towards the hotel.

If it looked dingy and shady from afar, it was a lot worse up close. Noctis could barely wrangle his friends' room number from the receptionist, who eyed him with a rather unpleasant look on her harridan features. Eventually he was given the number and allowed in, with a sharp warning thrown his way about the room only being available until noon, or something.

Noctis really didn't care. He keyed the door knob lazily and let himself into the room. The immediate odor of must and stagnant water hit his nostrils, and Noctis coughed, covering his nose with his hand as he looked around. The beds were messy and the blankets were crumpled, and a can of Ebony framed by the telltale styrofoam of Cup Noodles was in the trash by the door. His companions had definitely been in here.

Noctis spent as little time in the bathroom as he could manage. He dragged his fingers down his face, the water as cold as he could make it, the moisture clinging to his skin. Even if it did smell a little funny, it still felt good to wallow in the oily feel of it against his cheeks. He leaned heavily against the sink with a sigh, his eyes on the grime-encrusted mirror in front of himself.

He reached for the light switch, but stopped halfway, his eyes still focused on his smudged reflection. He did look like hell, he wouldn't argue with Prompto about that, but he remembered Ignis's words from the other day.

Ignoring the bags underneath his eyes and the red skin of the hollows around them, Noctis turned around, tossing his jacket to the tiled floor. He reached behind himself and tugged his shirt over his shoulders, just enough to hike it up to his neck and expose his back. Rippled muscles and scarred sinew graced the ridges of his spine, prominent as it stuck out at a curve against his thinning frame.

Without a doubt, though, there was something more there. Noctis squinted, squirming a leg up onto the counter, the edge biting into his inner thigh as he leaned closer.

Deep, red gashes seemed to have sunk into his skin. They were inflamed and irritated, welting an angry crimson against the knobs of his spine. They formed a specific pattern, a line of circles that started at the base of his neck and trickled down, down past the hem of his trousers to where his spine tapered off. His scar was dark, but the marks were even more so, and Noctis could feel a chill in his bones as he looked upon himself with...with fear.

Noctis swallowed hard around the ball in his throat. Slowly he let his shirt fall back down, a soft whisper against his skin as it settled back into place. His eyes fell to the floor, his head heavy with the implication of what the mark could mean. It was possible in his fight with Leviathan that he'd just been thrown against the right thing, against something that had dug into his skin and threatened to scar just so, but...

Even he knew that wasn't right. Noctis wrung his hands out in his lap, glancing back at himself in the mirror, his eyes on the worn, black fabric of his shirt. The skin stretched over his bones physically itched, and a dull pain running down his back had kept him up more often than not the past few nights, not to mention his strange dreams. Even he had to admit there was something more going on here, and the answer that everything seemed to point to scared him.

Noctis stepped back outside some time later, the sun still as harsh as it had been the moment he'd left it. His jacket slung over his shoulder, he used his hand as a makeshift visor to block the light from his eyes. He could see Prompto at the edge of the station, leaning against the railings as he looked out over the horizon. Gladio and Ignis were dabbling in the little shops that laced the perimeter of the station, and Noctis ignored them as he made his way towards Prompto instead.

Prompto didn't say anything, but he nodded to Noctis as he approached. He wasn't doing anything aside from just standing there, blue eyes fixed on the horizon with the wind ruffling his hair, and Noctis was content to do the same. Together they both watched the birds in the distance, black spots against an endlessly azure sky free of the puffy white of clouds. The wind picked at the ground below them, the golden grains of the sands and dusts swirling up into the air.

“We're ready,” grunted a voice behind them, and Prompto visibly jumped. Noctis turned just enough to see Gladio eying them with a neutral expression. Dangerously neutral. Ignis stood beside him, cane in hand and in Gladio's shadow with his face pointed towards the ground. He remained silent, shoulders hunched. He just looked smaller. It broke Noctis's heart.

Wordlessly, they all slowly made their way to the elevator they'd been directed to the day before. The tomb was supposedly nestled in the swamps of an old mining site underneath the town, in an area hidden in the mountains with a convoluted path made back in the day. No other road or pathway existed that led to the swamps, and the few people they'd asked about the surrounding area all told them the terrain was rough and unforgiving. Noctis was concerned about Ignis's safety, and he wanted to slam the man down onto a bench and demand he wait, but he relented. Ignis would only argue, and it'd make the rift that had somewhat formed between them deeper and more unpleasant to get over.

The ride in the elevator was a quiet one, and the walk to the old construction site was equally so. Towering walls of sandstone flanked them, offering a shade that crept onto the dusty path for them walk beneath. The air was dry and hot, but Noctis noted a definite moisture and heavy humidity that seemed to settle in around them the farther in they walked.

The entrance to the site came into view, and a notable stench wafted towards them as they paused at the gates. It reminded Noctis of the stomach flu, and he shoved his shirt over his nose in a vain attempt to stem the offending smell. A towering, metal fence blocked them from entry into the swamp, but Gladio pushed through the group with a small key in hand. The owner of the land had been some older guy, still in contract with the government and allowed to come and go through the property as he pleased. Thankfully he was understanding about their situation, and had gifted Gladio the way in with no trouble.

Noctis sighed and the gate squeaked open, and he found himself gazing down a pathway that zigzagged against the curve of the basin. Vegetation clung to the floor of the basin like a green carpet, and a pond of placid water glimmered dully at the very bottom of the path. Giant, abandoned machinery could be seen at the bottom, sinking into the stagnant water that covered the ground like a mosquito-infected blanket. Noctis wrinkled his nose at the sight. This wasn't going to be a fun trip for any of them, Ignis least of all.

“Well?” Gladio asked after a beat. “Gonna lead the way?”

Noctis gave him a look of pure disdain, but he turned away wordlessly. He was the first to start walking the path, slow and cautious on the steep slope. It seemed to be comprised entirely of loose gravel and sand. He slipped more than once, dipping down quickly to catch himself on his hands before he took an embarrassing spill.

Worry pricked at his heart each time he did, and he turned around subtly to make sure Ignis was still doing okay. Prompto seemed to have stayed behind to help him, his own arms wrapped firmly around Ignis's and making sure he was steady as they walked. The usual klutzy blond seemed steadier than ever at the moment, doing better than even Noctis on the slope. Jealously reared its head at the sight, at the lack of Prompto being incompetent, slipping, falling, and dragging Ignis down with him, but he swallowed the feeling down before it could twist itself out into something worse. Prompto was taking care of Ignis, and that was all that mattered at the moment. Ignoring the taste of copper on his tongue, Noctis faced forward again, working slowly at the twisting, winding path.

Reaching the foot of the basin felt like it took an eternity. They were all already exhausted, and the clearing just looked even bigger once they were up close and in it. Everything carried an awful odor, and the buzzing of various insects filled Noctis's ears in an unpleasant way. He swatted a few of the pests away from his arms, grunting irritably at the itch that was already prickling his sweat-slicked skin.

The other three seemed keen on suffering in silence, and Noctis didn't waste any more time loitering about and looking at their surroundings. There wasn't much to look at anyway, aside from what looked like the main hull of a machine on the other side of the pond. He sucked in a deep breath and set foot in the water, his face scrunching in disgust as the mud sucked at his shoes and threatened to trip him.

He paused, glancing around once more, his ears open for any indication of an attack. Anything could have been hiding in the water or flora, but nothing appeared, and certainly nothing made any noise. Noctis kept moving, developing a steady pace that got him closer and closer to the other side of the water.

“Hey!” Prompto called out from the back, his voice small and his tone awkward. “Can you slow down, buddy? Ignis is having a hard time here...”

Noctis physically flinched and stopped, turning to wait for the others to catch up. Ignis looked displeased, whether at having to be babied or having to walk though such filth, but either way, Noctis's stomach sank and the world seemed a little less bright. “I'll go a little slower,” he muttered, sincere, as he reached out to pat Ignis on the shoulder.

Gladio snorted gruffly and crossed his arms over his chest. “Like hell you will. All you can apparently focus on right now is yourself.”

Noctis glared at him, biting his lip to contain his retort. It battered against the back of his teeth, but Gladio didn't edge him on, and Noctis kept his mouth shut. Gladio's eyes were sharp, though, picking Noctis apart and watching his every move. Noctis heaved a sigh, turning away from what was surely righteous judgment to help Prompto ease Ignis onto a dry patch of land at the edge of the pond.

A sudden violent splashing sounded behind them, and Noctis turned swiftly to see a swarm of angered beasts emerging from the depths of the water. Their scaled hides glimmered, iridescent in the weak rays of the sun that spilled over the edges of the cliffs high above them. Their white teeth snapped, their volatile snouts swinging every which way and towards them.

Noctis jumped in front of Ignis, his sword materializing in a flash of brilliant white light. “Get him to safety!” he called to Prompto, the blade of his weapon catching between the maws of the reptile who'd lunged at him. He grunted underneath the weight of the creature, exerting his upper strength into a blow that caught the creature by the jaw, its green blood spraying out towards Noctis and spattering against his face.

He shielded himself, stepping back as Gladio moved in front of him. He could hear Ignis huffing behind him, in addition to Prompto's gentle insistence on moving somewhere out of the way. Gladio and Noctis moved together, the tension between them gone as they danced a choreography of combat they'd forged together over the years of their youth.

Together the two chased the creatures back into the depths of the foliage, their snapping jaws proving to be of no use against the wide, flat blade of Gladio's weapon. Noctis's own weapon dripped free of their entrails as he flicked it away back into nothing with a grimace.

“Hopefully our future squirmishes are just as easy as that one,” Gladio grunted, looking to Noctis from the corner of his eye. Noctis met his gaze, feeling himself wilt underneath it.

“Yeah,” he agreed, his voice a low mumble.

Gladio walked away, leaving behind himself a shame that Noctis wallowed in. The absence of loathing in the atmosphere had been nice, and Noctis knew it was only there to prove a point about how he was acting, but it suffocated him. It clung to the inside of his throat with each breath, choking the words back from the tip of his tongue as he approached the group.

Prompto appeared to be fussing with some kind of generator. He'd perched himself and Ignis near the machine, and he'd crawled inside of it, the occasional clatter and ding of something against metal ringing out into the air. Ignis sighed as he listened, and Gladio just watched with arms crossed. “What're you doing, Prompto?”

“Ah! I'm...uh, here,” came Prompto's voice, his hand sticking through the window of the machine's door. “I was finding a key! I think I found the right one. Looks like there's a few generators around here, so if we can get one going, it should give us some light in case we're down here late.”

Noctis pursed his lips, swatting idly at the air around him. Prompto made a good point, but the quicker they could wrap up their business in this infested pit, the better.

He watched anyway as Prompto slid out of the machine's hull and scaled the frail metal steps two at a time toward the generator tucked away against its side. He fussed with it in silence, leaving the other three on edge as they waited. A snap of metal and a quiet whir soon filled the air. Noctis noted the tips of the thick posts encircling the pond begin to illuminate, as did others in the distance. They seemed to be floodlights, and their buzzing was soon mingling with that of the insects' in the air.

“There!” Prompto clapped his hands together, offering Gladio and Noctis a weak smile. “Should make it easier with watching our steps...”

Gladio grunted, lifting his shoulders in a shrug. Noctis nodded, though his gaze was on Ignis. He was poking at the ground with his cane, the tip sinking into the mud and tracing lines against the dirt. Noctis watched curiously, but Ignis didn't create anything he recognized. Or at least, he hoped it wasn't anything he was supposed to recognize.

Either way, the group began to move along, warily stepping deeper into the swamps.

As it turned out, turning on the generators would have been a necessity one way or the other. The giant abandoned machine had shifted over the years and blocked the one path that would offer them a way deeper into the basin, which proved to be the excuse of an extended stay in this watery, smelly hell. They backtracked, and Prompto poked at the one generator they had found earlier before he found an old, worn and wrinkled note. “Apparently there's a key for a couple of backup generators in a shed around here, somewhere...”

Resigned, the four made their roundabout ways in the golden glow of a path the newly-lit lights offered them. Whatever creatures lurked in the shadows kept to themselves, and all was quiet as they trekked through mud and water and other unpleasant things no one wanted to talk about. Noctis did his best to lead the group and yet stick close, but every so often Gladio's voice would ring out through the air, irritated and sarcastic as he chided Noctis for “wandering off too far.”

Once dusk had settled in and everyone was thoroughly exhausted, finally, and luckily, the soft, glimmering blue of a haven's runes shone through the black-imprinted leaves. With renewed vigor, the group hurried toward it and quickly pitched their tent. Under a subtle drizzle of rain, they all quietly agreed on delving into their never-ending stash of cup noodles for dinner that night.

Of course, what could have been a pleasant meal together was simply...not. Gladio sat on the edge of the haven and ate by himself; Prompto huddled close to Ignis on the opposite side of the fire, chatting with him quietly and describing what their surroundings looked like; Noctis sat in his own seat, exhausted and weary and left alone with his thoughts; and eventually, one by one, everyone made their retreat into the tent. All but Noctis, anyway, who continued to sit outside, wrapped in a blanket Prompto had offered him. Slowly he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, the rain turning into a steady downpour around him.

Noctis managed to sleep for what felt like hours. Ignis was the one to nudge him awake, concern on his features as he tilted his face down towards his soaked prince.

“Are you all right?” he asked, his tone soft. “You never came in last night. I didn't think you'd actually sleep out in the rain...” He clicked his tongue, slowly but surely wrapping a dry blanket around Noctis's shivering shoulders.

“I'm fine,” Noctis muttered through chattering teeth, hands curling into the downy fleece of the blanket he and Ignis usually shared. Ignis was always the first to rise out of all four of them, but Gladio and Prompto were fussing with the tent in the background, and Noctis heaved a small sigh. So much for getting a little alone time with Ignis. “I assume we're leaving soon?”

“We are, yes,” Ignis mused, pressing the palm of his hand to Noctis's forehead. “If you feel we must stop at any point, please say so. Don't let Gladio interfere with your rest. You should have been welcome in the tent...”

Ignis trailed off, turning a heavy frown Gladio's way. Noctis glanced in that direction, too, but Gladio was busy talking privately with Prompto about something. Once they noticed Noctis was up, though, any conversation abruptly died out and the air between the four of them was quiet and still once again.

Noctis was still soaked to the bone by the time everything was packed up, but he ignored it as he set them off down the path from yesterday. The rain still fell, cold like ice and soaking through their clothes. Gladio made his few comments here and there, which Noctis answered quietly underneath his breath. At this point, he was ready to shove the big guy off of the nearest cliff. The relentless rain was warmer than he was.

But the shed was soon in sight, at the end of a carved path set against a stone outcropping. A few lost feral hounds attempted to block their way, but they were easily scared off from their blades and the loud cracks from Prompto's guns.

One retrieved key later, they were back on their way to where they had originally entered the basin, an area that now spiraled above them. Thankfully there was a path from the shed to some old, rickety metal stairs, and soon they found themselves back at the old machine, now with power coursing once again through its old, artificial veins.

It took some button-pressing, brainstorming, and a general knowledge on how cars apparently worked before they finally managed to complete their goal. Noctis kicked the area where he assumed the engine was, and the machine came to life with a frightening roar of its engine. Prompto worked quickly to move its crane to the side and back the wheels up as far as they would go in the pond. It wasn't much, but from where Noctis was observing the blocked path at the top of the hill, it was enough to create a small opening for the four to slip past.

Noctis waved his hand, and Prompto killed the machine's engine for the last time.

“Whew! There's that,” he said, wiping his hands against his thighs. “Guess there's nothing left to do but find the tomb now.”

“I'm glad,” Ignis purred, a cheer to his voice that surprised even Noctis. He glanced over at Ignis, and sure enough, he carried a small smile on his features, one that brightened even a day this bleak.

“Shall we be off?” he asked, and Noctis nodded, reaching out to Ignis and help him down the puddle-ridden path that led to the depths of the basin.

Halfway down the slope, though...

“Are you sure you're ready for this?” Gladio grunted, reaching out to grab Noctis by the shoulder and bring him to a rough halt.

Ignis looked less than pleased as Noctis was forced to let him go, but he stood by his side, exasperation slipping from his lips. Prompto wandered up behind Gladio, concern in his sparkling eyes as he shifted his weight from foot to foot nervously.

“Are you sure you're gonna have the balls to face your ancestor and convince them to lend you their power?”

Noctis gaped, and he felt something shift deep in his core. Red hot anger phased before his eyes, and before he realized what he was doing, he reached out and shoved Gladio roughly away from himself by the biceps. “Do you think this is easy for me?” he yelled, the volume of his voice surprising even him. It was haggard and pitched, desperate as it clawed its way up from the very bottom of his lungs. “Do you really think I wanted everyone to sacrifice what they did for me? Do you really think I wanted that?”

His voice cracked, eyes wild, and Noctis could feel his lower lip trembling despite the anger shaking him deep to his core. “For fuck's sake Gladio, I know! Just leave me alone already, would you?”

Noctis turned, glaring over his shoulder at his shield. Gladio looked taken aback, blinking in surprise, but he lacked the shaken response that Noctis had been so desperately aiming for. Gladio shook his head, tossing it back with a loud grunt resounding in his throat. “Whatever you say, Noct.” His voice deepened, dragged against the stones and resounded in the air between them. “Whatever you say, buddy. But remember you're gonna have to face reality at some point or another.”

Noctis scowled, his frown cutting deeper into his features than it did Gladio's ego. He clenched his fists at his side, holding his breath as he attempted to restrain his anger. It bubbled inside of him, lapping up against his breastbone, and tempted him to spit fire. He couldn't tear his gaze away from the spot where Gladio had been, and he couldn't calm the pounding of his anxious and upset heart.

“...Let us go,” Ignis muttered, breaking the silence that had formed between the three still standing in the small clearing. The trees rustled airily around them, blocking the flow of the cold rain, and Noctis was tempted to follow their gentle whispers back towards the entrance and run the distance back to Cartanica. Unfortunately they'd made it this far, and going back now would equal a knife to his heart and his companions'.

“Yeah,” he muttered, slowly bringing his gaze back to the others. He looped his arm around Ignis's waist, holding him close and encouraging him to rest his vulnerabilities against his support. Noctis could feel him shivering, and it renewed the sense of urgency within himself he'd needed. Ignis leaned against Noctis's side, and together with Prompto, they led him past the open maw of a cave's entrance.

“This place is huge,” Prompto muttered, looking around in awe as they passed the threshold. “But it...it really stinks.”

“Suspiciously so,” Ignis agreed, pulling himself away from Noctis with a thoughtful frown. “It's almost like...”

“Over here!” Gladio called out, knee-deep in murky water that seemed to have trickled down from the grounds above them. It formed an ugly lake laced by the dismal grey of dying trees, and the stench of something rotting refused to let up the further in they went.

Noctis and the other two wandered over to Gladio, wary and slow as they waded through the murky shallows. Noctis was the first to approach him, noting the distinct flash of white marble hidden in the roots of a giant tree, and covered in something that looked like...egg sacs?

“What is this?” he asked, nose scrunched in disgust as he reached out to run his fingers across a pulsating membrane.

“I don't know, but I don't think I-!” Gladio stumbled, and Noctis nearly fell on top of him as the ground rumbled to life underneath them.

“Uh, guys!” Prompto cried out, the sound of panicked splashing soon filling the air as he stumbled over to Gladio. “We've got company...!”

Noctis whipped his head around, following Prompto's line of sight into the distance. The water opened up and was suddenly a cascade around a rising orb, which grew larger and larger at the center of the lake. It bloomed like an ugly flower, petals the shape of writhing tentacles whipping out around it in unhinged vengeance. The creature emitted a roar, and a dusky, nebulous cloud escaped from its mouth and filled the air with the unmistakable stench of malboro.

“Oh shit,” Noctis hissed, summoning his Armiger around himself on muscular instinct alone. “Gladio, try to knock it over and distract it! Prompto, provide cover fire and keep Ignis safe!”

The others yelled something in agreement, and Noctis launched himself at the gigantic creature with all the summoned strength of his acquired ancestors. Everything was solid at first, the usual crisp outline of a fighting style he'd learn to meld with when he'd acquired his first weapon; but after the moment passed, it was harder to ignore the subtle flicker in his armory's shining depths, and he tried to ignore his fingers slipping past the weapons' crystalline outlines and how it proved impossible to grab their solid hilts. He tried to blame all of his falling, stumbling, and messy hits on the fact that he was just tired and worn out, his brain hazy and making it hard to concentrate on the blurring image before him. The noxious stench from the creature definitely wasn't helping, the way it filled his lungs and withered them from the inside out. It wasn't long before Gladio was choking out a demand for retreat.

Noctis barely managed to see which direction Gladio was referring to, an issue it seemed Prompto was sharing. All of them scattered out in different directions as the malboro writhed and thrashed, its newly-hatched young hot on their heels. Noctis heaved as he slashed through their thin membranes in his escape, the sounds of their ripping entrails and screeching cries filling his ears.

He flashed to the edge of the lake, tearing himself away from the onslaught of slicked tentacles wrapping themselves around his legs. His cheek hit the mud hard as he crashed into it, his chest heaving as he took in mouthfuls of the pungent air. He glanced around himself, finding Gladio some few feet away, Prompto just past him. His brain whirled as he tried to process who the missing member was, before it clicked and he yanked himself back up to his feet.

“Ignis!” he cried out, panic edging onto hysteria as he looked frantically around the darkening clearing. “Ignis! Where are you?”

“I'm right here!” came his response, a faint echo across the rippling surface of the lake. Ignis was by himself, standing his ground as he faced the rampaging malboro. It roared, flailing its tentacles over its head as it turned its seething fury towards Ignis. Noctis started running for him, tripping through the water as he mustered up the strength to move faster, to build up an effective strike aimed at the malboro's side.

But he was too slow, and Noctis was forced to a halt as he watched the malboro close in upon Ignis.

Noctis cried out his name again, a sharp cry that rendered his throat raw. Everything happened in an instant, only a sliver of silence before the malboro suddenly erupted in the sharp crack of an explosion.

Noctis threw his arms over his head, the impact of the heatwave from the flames blooming out in petals and blistering his skin. “Ignis!?” he called out, desperate eyes scouring the scene of the dying monster and its young for the familiar flash of his lover.

Ignis stumbled into view, careening against a boulder. Noctis pushed himself the last few meters toward Ignis, catching him in his outstretched arms before he lost his balance and tipped into the murky depths of the lake.

“Ignis,” he breathed, hugging the man close with a smile that made his face hurt. “Oh Ignis, I thought you were...”

“I'm all right,” Ignis cut in, his voice a flutter against Noctis's ear as he leaned against him. “I'm all right, Noct. Something had to be done. I merely took it upon myself to do it.”

He hugged Noctis tight, taking a moment to regain his sense of balance before pulling away. Noctis continued to hold onto his arms, palms flat against his biceps as they scrambled for the shore. Joined with the others, Noctis cast his gaze to the burning lake and waited for the flames to calm. He was on edge, the threat of another attack possibly imminent, but as the dying screams finally faded from the air and left a comforting silence, Noctis let his worries leave his body in one harsh exhale. Prompto looked like he wanted to cry as he took a moment to sniff at his armpit.

“Burn the eggs, if there's any remaining by the tomb's door,” Ignis muttered, his nose turned up into the air, his delicate features twisted into something more than just disgust. “Best to fry them before they're a problem. I'm sure they're everywhere.”

Noctis grunted in agreement and flicked his wrist towards the door. The remaining sacs went up in a haze of green-and-black smoke, and it smelled awful, worse than rotten eggs and sulfur and other such not-so-pleasant things. Noctis could practically see his life flashing before his eyes as he accidentally inhaled a mouthful of the miasma. He coughed roughly, covering his mouth with the back of his fist as he waited for the noxious cloud to dissipate.

The walls were bare and the coffin itself was chipped and cheap, and the weapon gracing its surface was covered in slime and moss. Water as deep as the lake leaked into the marbled walls, and in such a tightly contained space, the scent was even worse. Whoever this guy was, he must have known he was about to be a huge asshole, shoving his tomb in a place like this.

Noctis digressed. He finally approached the coffin, contempt steaming his blood. At least the weapon was there, unlike a certain greatsword no one ever wanted to speak of again.

Noctis held his hand out for his new weapon, his eyelashes fluttering shut. The white flame of the power before him flickered in his mind's eye, and he reached out to it with every ounce of his being, his energy mixing with that of his ancestor's.

When he finally came upon the flame and touched it, a pain lashed out and shocked through his very core, and Noctis stumbled backwards with a gasp. His eyes flew open and the connection of his concentration was lost. The weapon hadn't budged at all. Noctis swallowed hard and glanced from the blade to the empty space over his shoulder, where the other three would normally have been, were they not awaiting him outside. He couldn't help feeling grateful that nobody else was there to see what was going on.

Noctis faced the weapon again, worrying at his lower lip. It was just a mistake, right? He was tired, exhausted.

Noctis took another deep breath, splaying his legs out in a more defensive stance as he closed his eyes once more. He reached out to the untapped power before him, and a heavy weight seemed to settle around him and on his shoulders as he fought to forge the connection again.

A strange pain edged at the lining of his chest, but Noctis continued to push. The weapon shuddered before it launched into the air, a slight quiver about it as it hovered awkwardly. It dipped once before it finally came for Noctis, and it threaded the ends of their contract together in a haze of white light and another lightning-shock of pain. It hit Noctis with a force that knocked him down onto his rear end, and he cried out in pain as it blossomed out from his core. His chest constricted and breathing was more than a labored chore, and he clawed at his throat as oxygen seemed to dissipate.

Colors bloomed in front of his eyes, spreading out like a hazed kaleidoscope. The edges of his vision fuzzed into a sickly black, and Noctis thought he was nearly gone before the pressure on his chest seemed to lift. Noctis heaved for air as he fell to all fours in the murky water, his limbs trembling and an electricity coursing like fire through his veins. His mind whirled, and despite the ease of breathing he'd been granted, fear still clutched him by the throat. He'd had difficulties asking his ancestors for their power before, but once they'd relented, they'd relented. They'd never done anything quite like this.

Luckily, the other three were quiet where they waited outside. Noctis took a few more deep breaths before he pushed himself back onto his feet, awkward hands brushing away the algae and stray plants that had twined themselves around his arms. He cast his gaze over his shoulder to the coffin behind himself, his eyes catching the distinctive char of a burn brushed against the grey stone. He swallowed, his mouth dry as he traced the outline of the weapon's sheath with his eyes. He felt weak and weary the longer he looked at it, but at least he'd managed to attune with his ancestor's essence. One fewer worry, and all the better knowing Gladio wouldn't be chewing him out over it. He'd just have to close the door before the others could look inside and get suspicious.

As Noctis stepped warily back outside, Ignis made a noise of recognition and held out his hand. “Ah, it seems Noctis is done. May I have a moment?”

Noctis blinked, his weight suddenly dead against the door as he made to push it back into place. “Uh...yeah?”

“Good.” Ignis took a deep breath, and Noctis noticed the fireflies in the clearing and how they blinked awake. They cast a soft glimmer onto to the surface of the water, shimmering through the leaves and shining on the flowers just barely kept alive by the luminescence of various fungi. One firefly in particular had landed on Ignis's shoulder, its soft, yellow glow like a star, and Noctis's eyes softened as he watched Ignis square his frame and take a deep breath.

“This is asinine.”

Prompto choked, and Noctis blinked. “I'm sorry?”

“All of this. This pointless blithering between you and Gladio needs to come to a halt.” Ignis sucked in a deep breath, a hand on his hip as he gave Gladio a pointed look. “I'm sorry Gladio, but there are just some things we'll all have to deal with. Especially my...”

Ignis's tone grew softer, somber like the soft wind on the last night of summer. His expression relaxed, and for once, he almost looked like the man he was before he was blinded. “My eyesight will not be coming back. This much I know for sure, now. But despite this, I would remain with you all. Keeping quiet only proved how quickly you all turn into a mess without my help.” He screwed his lips to the side, and Gladio huffed indignantly.

“Iggy, that's bullshit, you know I can't let you-”

The sound of a wet smack echoed in the air, and Gladio flinched to the side. Prompto was standing next to him, hand trembling as it hovered at his side. The unmistakable patch of red on Gladio's cheek stood out and began to welt, and Noctis whistled lowly as he quickly averted his gaze.

“Gladio, just shut up for a moment?”

Ignis cleared his throat after a moment, albiet awkwardly. “I, erm. Of course, my staying with you all depends on what Noctis thinks as our future leader, but...”

He turned to Noctis in question, a slow and gradual motion. The firefly took its leave, shining its gentle light over Ignis's features one last time. “I know all of this is rough on you, Noctis. I know you will take up the responsibilities when you're ready for it. So please, just for now...let us all continue on our way and get along. There is more at hand here that deserves our attentions that are being focused on senseless arguing instead.”

Noctis shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his head hung low. Noctis looked to Gladio from underneath his matted bangs, and he saw his red eyes glinting in the dimming light as they looked back at him. A moment passed between the two.

“...All right,” Gladio lamented, rolling his eyes to the other side of the clearing. “Okay, Iggy. But if you get hurt...”

“Then I will accept my limits, and I will bow out and leave you three to be. But for now, let us be out of this mess, and let us go find the nearest shower and rest up.” Ignis took a deep breath and nodded, seemingly happy with himself and his little speech.

“Yeah!” Prompto piped up shakily, clutching his arms against his chest as he shivered. “I really hate it here. I just want a soft bed now...”

Prompto's voice dimmed in the distance, the sounds of sloshing water filling the clearing instead. Gladio was on the blond's heels, and Noctis could hear the accusations passed back and forth between the two as they walked away.

But Noctis's eyes were on Ignis.

“You didn't have to do that,” he muttered, reaching out to take Ignis's hand in his own.

“But I wanted to. So hush.”

Noctis pouted, something that melted into a smile as their fingers laced together between them.

The moon was high in the sky when the group crawled out of the basin, ragged and worn and smelling of at least a week's worth of missed showers. The dry air felt good against their oiled skin, and the lack of humidity the farther along they walked was a blessing.

The path was dark and shrouded in shadows, but a quick flick of their flashlights had the trail illuminated as far out as they needed the light. The air was dusty, quiet, and it lulled Noctis into a false sense of security. Enough so that Gladio was currently keeping Noctis close to his side by an arm wrapped around his neck, his “punishment,” a way of keeping him close to the group. Noctis grumbled unhappily as he pawed at the tattoos lacing down Gladio's arm, but he was grateful to finally have the man willing to be so close to him again.

Noctis leaned against Gladio's sturdy frame for as long as he would let him. Prompto was occupied with Ignis again, one arm wrapped around Ignis's waist as he made grandiose gestures through the air with the other, singing Ignis's praises for saving the day. Ignis was giggling quietly behind a cupped hand, and Noctis listened fondly to the rather crudely-made song. It made for a much more pleasurable experience as they wandered the path back to the elevator.

A flicker in the shadows caught the corner of Noctis's eye. He turned around, immediately scanning the dark path behind them. Gladio's arm loosened around his shoulders as he slowed his pace for Noctis, looking over his own shoulder, alert and ready. “What was it?”

“I don't know,” Noctis said, his eyes still scanning the shadows against the cliff sides. “Must have just been seeing things...”

Something dragged across the ground, the whisper of movement the only sign it was even there before it descended upon the group. It hissed through wide jaws filled with teeth, its tail glinting in the light of their flashlights. In in a flash of glittering scales it lunged for Noctis first, and before he had the chance to summon his weapon, Gladio was throwing him to the ground and shielding him from the impending attack.

Noctis heard a sickening crunch, and the metallic scent of blood filled the air as Gladio went slack. Heart pounding, Noctis shoved Gladio off of himself, his eyes quickly finding the daemon as it slithered towards Prompto with inhuman speed. Noctis was faster with his strike, his sword piercing its hide in a flash of palliated blue. The daemon emitted a blood-curdling screech, its tail pinned to the dirt. It lashed out towards Noctis again, what it lacked in strength made up for with incredible speed. Luckily Prompto was faster, and he aimed a careful shot at its head. The daemon died screeching, dissolving into nothing underneath Noctis's blade in a mess of liquefied void. The noise fell on deaf ears as Noctis scrambled back to Gladio.

Gladio was on his back, an arm draped across his fluttering navel. Noctis crashed to his knees beside the man, eyes flicking from his waning features to his torn abdomen. Despite the darkness combined with the black fabric of Gladio's shirt, Noctis could still see a deep stain blooming out into the cloth like a flower. Blood glimmered in the low light between Gladio's fingers, and his breathing was wet and ragged in his chest. Gladio sputtered, flecks of crimson spraying from his lips and splashing across his chin.

“Fuck,” Noctis breathed, his hands clamping over Gladio's. “I...Ignis, he's been stabbed, I don't know what I should do!” he cried, his voice pitched, his clamming fingers failing to stem the river of blood pouring from Gladio's open wound. Everything had happened so suddenly, and panic clutched his chest in tightened claws.

“Where was the point of entry?” Ignis asked, his voice the calmest thing in the area. Noctis could hear Prompto whimpering between retching, and honestly, if Noctis wasn't the only one who could see at the moment, he'd be doing the same thing.

“B-behind him I think,” Noctis managed to reply, watching the blood carve through the dirt beaneath Gladio like a stream. He was bleeding freely, and the color was fading fast from his cheeks. “Damn it, Gladio!” Noctis whimpered, hands curling tight around callused skin. “Please hold on...”

But Gladio was quiet, his breathing requiring more and more effort as the seconds ticked by. Noctis tugged his shirt away from his wound, and Ignis was at his side. A first-aid kit was in his hands, and he grimaced as his knees hit the pool of blood spreading out from Gladio's body.

Noctis mopped at the blood with Gladio's shirt. It smeared listless and sticky over his skin, which lacked the usual bronze of his sun-tan. The skin was almost pitch black, veins throbbing and pressed against the surface of Gladio's flesh. Noctis's hands were trembling as he pushed the shirt farther up Gladio's chest, noting the black tendrils and how they splayed out over the expanse of his chest. They swirled into his blood, and the black spread through his veins as quickly as he bled out.

“Oh no,” Noctis breathed, shaking his head as he watched. “No, no no no...”

Ignis's potion only seemed to bead against the broken skin of Gladio's wound, rolling away from it like oil mixing with water. Any spell he might have tried made Gladio's body tense and convulse, his navel permanently stitched inwards. Noctis pat Gladio's wound, attempting to shove his innards back through the barrier of torn skin. The blood only pushed past Noctis's trembling fingers with violent force.

"Prompto,” Noctis pleaded, tossing his jacket to the hunched-over blond. “Keep him from bleeding out, I have...I have to...”

He didn't know what he had to do. Instinct seemed to take over, though, and he pushed Ignis to the side as he scrambled up onto Gladio's chest. He straddled it, hunched over to the point their brows were pressed together, Noctis's frantic breathing mingling with Gladio's faint puffs of air. He could see the wispy black creeping up into his neck, tracing the veins and mixing into his jugular. Noctis swallowed hard and squeezed his eyes shut, clearing his mind and focusing on Gladio's presence underneath him.

The roaring of panic in his ears dimmed, and everything seem to fade out aside from Noctis and Gladio. Everything went dark except for them, and Gladio was at the forefront of his mind, his life slipping away between his fingers. But Noctis held on, and he watched as a brilliant, white light spread from the palms of his hands across Gladio's skin.

It was a faint flicker at first, but the harder Noctis pushed on it, the more he forced himself to concentrate on it, the stronger and brighter it grew. It was like a star was suddenly in his hands, hot as molten lava as it washed out across Gladio's skin. The power enveloped Gladio and caressed him in a thin veil made of starlight, and Noctis watched as the life quickly returned to his amber eyes.

Noctis pushed harder, clutched Gladio more tightly in his hands, and he kept Gladio's fevered skin close until he could feel the man squirming underneath himself.

Just like that, the light was gone from his hands and Noctis was left gasping for air. The darkness swirled over his glazed eyes, and everything went out for good as he hit the ground.

Chapter Text

Noctis was in the meadow again. The moon was as bright as ever, waning against the sky where its other half disappeared into the void behind it. The stars were like jewels, and he could hear soft whispers carried on a wind that seemed to come down from the sky. They laughed at him, they encouraged him to keep moving, and they pitied him. One star in particular twinkled a bright, shimmering blue, and he stared at it for a long time as he sat in the silver grass.

He was aware of a noise behind him, something akin to the soft rustling of fabric. But every time he turned towards it, there was nothing there.

The stars' gentle lilt soon became restive, and Noctis was soon aware of the flashing lights of fireflies. Except they weren't fireflies. Their flashing was arrhythmic, and their colors were from all ends of the spectrum. Noctis watched the orbs float past his face, noting the lack of substance within their glowing depths.

They were just orbs, incorporeal and unchanging. Like the stars, they, too, whispered, and Noctis clambered to his feet to follow them. They all drifted towards the center of the meadow, coalescing in a lazy current that swirled over the grass. Their tight-knit mass created a brilliant light, and Noctis watched as more of the strange, ethereal orbs floated in from the surrounding trees.

Noctis was enchanted. Their colors danced against the blades of grass and reflected from the iridescent petals of the crystalline flowers surrounding him. It was almost as though he were underwater all of a sudden, watching the ripples reflecting along myriad surfaces and dancing along to some song unknown. Colors washed over his skin like small rainbows from glass prisms, and he watched them, enraptured.

The orbs started to move more quickly, and with a more uniform purpose. Their movements had them climbing higher into the sky, coming together until their individual colors were almost indistinguishable. The light hurt Noctis's eyes, and he covered them with an arm as he watched through fluttering lashes.

The light climbed higher and higher into the sky, eventually leaving the ground entirely. Noctis could hear a song in his ears, a far-off hymn that chilled him to the bone. He watched as the light flared out like fireworks and filled the meadow with colors indescribable.

A second ticked by, and it was all gone.

He woke up with a start.

“Gladio,” Noctis gasped, choking on air as he attempted to rise onto his elbows. His vision was swimming and the lights sparkled at the penumbra, reminding him of the time he had to go under for his wisdom teeth surgery. Man, that was a long time ago.

Noctis was forced back into the pillows by a hand on his chest. It was firm and insistent, and soon Prompto's worried face was all he could see.

“Whoa! Hey there, buddy,” Prompto laughed, awkward as he perched at the edge of the tiny bed. They were in one of the train cars. Noctis could only presume it was one of their rooms from before Cartanica.

Noctis groaned as he relaxed, throwing an arm over his strained eyes. “What the fuck happened?” he slurred, his voice dipping and rising to meet all sorts of octaves. He cleared his throat in a vain attempt to quit that, and thankfully Prompto was handing him a glass of water to help.

“Well,” Prompto started, shrugging his shoulder. “That depends on how much you remember. You've only been out for a couple of days, but haha, man...you uh, you had us going again there, for a moment. Ignis is especially stressed out, and-”

“Prompto,” Noctis interrupted.

“Uh! Yeah, right, sorry.” Prompto laughed again, raking a hand through his hair as he slumped. “Right. You remember anything before falling asleep?”

Noctis blinked, shifting his gaze to the underside of the bed above him. “...We were attacked,” he finally muttered, faint flickering images playing at the edges of his mind. “By a daemon. It got Gladio. He...”

Noctis's expression fell, but Prompto's looked hopeful.

“Hey! He's actually all right. You pulled some really rad mumbo jumbo out of your ass and you uh, you saved him, buddy. We don't know how you did it, but...Gladio was gone, there. But now he's walking around, and he's actually pretty worried about ya. He's been sitting with you all night long these past couple of nights, Ignis too, and I've just kinda-”

“Prompto,” Noctis interjected, allowing a small laugh to mingle with his words. “Prompto, just...slow down. Wanna tell the others I'm awake so we can all talk?” The giant catoblepas sitting on his chest really needed to be addressed. It was getting sad and depressed. Just like him, really.

Prompto nodded enthusiastically, and before Noctis could really quite register it was happening, he was throwing his arms around Noctis with a sob. “Don't do that again!” he cried, nuzzling deeper into Noctis's shoulder. “We're all worried about you, but...but Noctis, you gotta...”

Prompto's voice trailed off into incoherent babbling. Noctis breathed an exasperated laugh, but he held Prompto close around the waist and murmured soft reassurances that he was fine, and that everything was going to be okay.

Eventually Prompto called the other two in. Gladio practically materialized out of thin air, his entire frame taking up the tiny doorway. Ignis pushed him inside, muttering something about hearing the whispers of staring strangers, but Gladio didn't seem to care.

With all the poise and grace of a dying garula, Gladio flung himself at Noctis, effectively pushing Prompto out of the way. Noctis felt the back of his head crack against the iron frame of the bunk bed, and he heard Ignis yell something about being careful, but it was all drowned out by the sound and feeling of Gladio actually crying against him.

Noctis felt really, really awkward.

“Hey, there, buddy,” he mumbled, stroking the palms of his hands against Gladio's back. Noctis could feel his friend's powerful muscles rippling underneath his skin, and he chanced a small glance down at the man's lower back. Of course, the skin was covered up by the thin fabric of his tank top, but it looked smoothed, lacking signs of bandaging or stitching.

Just to be safe, Noctis dipped his hands down along Gladio's back anyway. A hiccup smothered itself against his shoulder, and Gladio was pulling away with an earnest look in his deep, amber eyes.

“Nothing's there. I mean, a big scar is there, but Noct, you...” He sighed, turning his face in the direction of the window with a sniffle gently tugging at his nose.

The sun was setting, it looked like. It always seemed to be setting these days.

“You saved me, Noctis. I don't know how you did it, but...you saved me. I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and everything, man.” Gladio went quiet, sliding his somber gaze to Noctis once more. Noctis offered Gladio a small smile, reaching up to rub at the tense muscles in his shoulders.

“I need to talk about that,” he offered, taking the moment to speak. “I've told Ignis about everything already, but...”

Prompto and Gladio listened to every word Noctis spoke without interruption. There wasn't much to explain, but he described his dreams in what detail he could offer, and he lifted his shirt for the other two to see the mark graced upon his back. It was darker in color now, and according to Prompto's shaky voice, the moon was half full. He told them of the last weapon for his Armiger, too, and how it had felt like it almost killed him when he tried to attune himself with its essence.

Noctis sighed as he turned his gaze back over his shoulder, offering the incredulous looks upon his friends' faces a shrug. “I don't know,” he finished, twiddling his thumbs in his lap. “I'm at a loss here.”

Prompto flopped onto the bed beside Ignis. “Whoa,” he breathed, tilting his head to the side, looking like a puppy wondering where the ball he'd been playing with had suddenly gone. “Like...even I would have just said it was probably just a weird dream, but if you're actually getting the mark...”

“Not being able to use the Armiger like you have been up until now is rather concerning, too,” Ignis mused, his face to the floor, his elbows resting upon his knees. “I don't know much about the prophecy, but I'm sure it didn't entail you losing the very powers needed to see it to its completion.”

“Not to mention the miracle he pulled off when he saved me,” Gladio grunted, his hand on Noctis's lower back. It was steadying and it was warm, offering the dull ache in his muscles a moment's reprieve.

Silence fell between the four. Noctis could practically see the gears turning in everyone's heads, and he attempted to follow suit. Being as exhausted as he was, though...

“Let's save this discussion for tomorrow,” Ignis muttered, leaning upright with a sigh. “It's getting late. We'll have all day tomorrow to figure out our next course of action.”

The other two grunted something in agreement.

“I'll be in the room right next to yours if you need anything,” Gladio reassured Noctis with a pat to his shoulder. They shared a soft smile, and Noctis uttered a gentle thank you. He squeezed Gladio's hand before he was off, and Noctis watched the door slip shut behind Prompto as they disappeared for the night.

“Well,” Noctis started, “I'm glad that's finally off my chest.” He sighed, flopping back into the pillows he'd been lying on. They were soft and fluffed, and one smelled vaguely like Ignis. He cuddled it close on instinct as he turned to face his partner.

“I am too,” Ignis replied, leaning his weight on a hand at his side. “But are you feeling all right? You've been running a fever. Ah, let me...” He leaned forward, and with Noctis's help, a bare hand pressed itself against his forehead.

“Ah. It must have run its course.” Ignis breathed a sigh of relief, and he moved to sit down by Noctis instead. Noctis immediately leaned against his side, arms pressed together as their thighs brushed between them. Ignis was warm and smelled like coffee, and Noctis nosed into his armpit and inhaled his scent deep into his lungs.

“Sorry about all of this,” he said, his voice muffled against Ignis's shirt. “For everything. Things were supposed to be a lot more simple than this. Then everything...”

Noctis was hushed, and Ignis brought him closer by an arm wrapped around his waist. Noctis took the bait and scooted up into his lap, straddling his thighs as he fought the urge to pout. Not like Ignis could see it, so there wasn't any use in wasting the energy to do it.

“I'm just grateful we're all still very much alive,” Ignis remarked, brushing the pad of his thumb along Noctis's lower lip. “To feel your breath coming forth from your lips, to hearing the other two bicker over breakfast, I could ask for nothing more at the moment. Life happens, Noct, and mistakes are usually a package deal. One mustn't keep looking behind himself though, but rather keep his eyes pointed to the future, no matter how hazy it may look at the moment.” He smiled, holding Noctis close by the hips. “You are doing fine, Noctis. No one is going to leave you.”

Noctis let out a quivering breath at those words. It was a silly childhood fear he'd managed to repress over the years, but it was an underlying constant that itched at his skin. Noctis hadn't even noticed the caprice, the atmosphere heavy around where he sat.

“Is it that noticeable?” he laughed, his tone disquieting.

“It's always been easy to pick up on your moods. Maybe even more so, with my eyes the way they are now.” Letting his cane fold into itself, Ignis set it by the pillows before he adjusted himself and Noctis back into their cushy depths. Noctis moved with him, draping his body against the warmth that radiated from his lover.

“I can...I can try to help with that,” Noctis offered after a beat, reaching up to flick at the edges of Ignis's glasses. “If I could bring Gladio back from the brink of death somehow, then I would...I would have to be able to do something like this, right?”

Ignis shifted underneath him, as if suddenly uncomfortable. The tension in his arms was unmistakable, and Noctis rose, moving to straddle his slender waist. “Do you want me to try...?”

Ignis swallowed hard, his face turning to the dusky metallic wall the beds were pushed against. “I...you've already expended enough of your energy, Highness, I could not ask you to do something like this for me...”

Noctis shifted, catching Ignis's chin gently in his fingers. “I think a two-day nap has me feeling at least marginally better. At least let me try, okay? This is just as important as saving Gladio was.”

Ignis bit his lip, his teeth grazing the fresh scar on the plump skin. Noctis leaned forward, brushing his own against Ignis's mouth with a hushed reassurance. He could tell Ignis wanted it, but he could also tell Ignis didn't want to come off as selfish. Noctis could also tell he wasn't trying to be too hopeful about the situation, and neither was he.

But Ignis leaned into the motions all too readily, his breath fanning out against Noctis's lips as they pressed their brows together. It was such a familiar motion to lean into, despite the inherent oddity of it; it was almost like an instinct was telling him this was how he had to do it.

Noctis cradled Ignis's head at the sides, his fingers buried in the soft, brown tresses that crowned his head. Noctis pressed another kiss to the scar on Ignis's nose, squeezing his eyes shut as he made to focus on nothing but the man before him.

At first, nothing seemed to change. He could still hear the bustle of people moving about their business outside, and he could hear the faint din of their idle conversation as it disappeared into the other cars. He could feel the bed underneath them, the soft white sheets and how they pressed against the skin of his legs. He could feel Ignis barely breathing underneath himself, his chest rising and falling as he sucked in each breath in anticipation.

Noctis focused on his breathing instead, matching it to the rhythm of Ignis's own when it finally happened. The rest of the world fell away as Ignis became the center of a starry void. The same white light he'd seen with Gladio emerged from the centers of his hands, washing across Ignis's face and lacing patterns from each of the moles on his skin and spreading across the myriad scars. The light enveloped them both and caressed them in a warm chrysalis that held them both together.

Some few moments later, the light faded along with what little strength Noctis had. He fell forward with a grunt, grateful for the cushion that was Ignis before him. Consciousness danced a circle in his head and made him feel nauseous, but after a few deep breaths he managed to hold on and keep himself afloat.

Noctis leaned back with a hazy smile, his fingers dragging against Ignis's cheeks. “Did it work?” he asked, quiet and hopeful as he watched Ignis's lashes flutter.

Slowly, one eye opened, but it...

“No,” Ignis said, his eye sliding down to the space between them. It was a dark blue, like layers of cataracts had stacked themselves one hundredfold over the other. Yet tiny pinpricks of silver shone through, giving Noctis the impression of the night sky in his lover's eye. It was beautiful, but it was so...it was so bitter. Defeat and soul-crushing disappointment had never clutched his throat this tightly before.

“I'm sorry, Ignis, I'm so sorry,” Noctis choked, the tears welling in his eyes and making his vision swim before he could help himself. “Ignis, if I could trade places with you, I...”

He shook his head, leaning his cheek against the gentle caress of Ignis's hand. Ignis's thumb swiped at the tears underneath Noctis's eye, catching the glistening drops before they fell off of his skin.

“Noctis,” Ignis murmured, shaking his head as he wrapped his arms tight around Noctis's trembling shoulders. “Noct, sweetling, I would never ask that of you. I did not place undue hope in the matter. I'd accepted the outcome some time ago. It's just reassuring knowing I can still open at least one eye, and see the faint light of the setting sun from what I assume is our window.” His voice was soft, washing over Noctis's ear like a gentle, spring breeze.

Noctis hiccuped, turning his face to see what Ignis was referring to. Sure enough, Ignis held his face towards the wall, his eye transfixed on the window.

“Yeah...yeah, you're looking at the window, Specs,” Noctis said, his voice quiet as he settled against Ignis's shoulder. He took a moment to glance up into his face again, tracing the outlines of the scars that were now less inflamed against his skin. Noctis reached out and pressed a finger gently to the side of his lover's face, tracing the blooming petals of the scar wrapped around his still-closed eye.

Ignis leaned into the touch, a soft, quivering sigh slipping past his lips. They parted and Noctis's eyes lingered upon the gentle slope of his lower lip, to the line of the scar that graced it. It was then Noctis realized just how long it felt like since their last moment spent together, completely alone in each other's arms like this.

“You never did tell me how this happened,” Noctis mused, turning to face Ignis properly once more.

Ignis flinched away from those words, Noctis's touch, but he didn't shake his head or move away. He just sighed, his hands sliding slowly up Noctis's sides and resting against his ribcage.

“I...I went back for you. The plan was unhinged, and you were in the fray much longer than any of us had anticipated. Gladio insisted I wait and put my faith in you, but sitting idly by was something I simply could not do.” Ignis bit his lip, worrying at the inside of it as a terse silence stretched out between them.

“By the time I made it back into the city, that's when I...I made a mistake. That man, Ardyn, was there, awaiting my arrival with his ship. He feigned innocence. I hesitated. And, ah...” Ignis's expression fell, and Noctis's heart ached.

“Everything just happened so fast. I saw you still fighting the Hydraean, but the Chancellor stopped me before I could make any advances, and the last thing I remember feeling is...something akin to an explosion across my face. Everything went black after that. You and I were rescued together.”

Ignis looked positively ashamed. Noctis cradled his face in his hands, his expression fallen into one of sympathy, guilt, and utter adoration.

“Ignis, you...you're too loyal for your own good,” he whispered, leaning forward to press their lips together. Ignis hesitated, completely still underneath Noctis's touch.

A swipe of Noctis's tongue against his lower lip had him melting sooner than later, and he reached around behind Noctis to clutch him close by the shoulders.

Noctis was granted entry, and his tongue played at the roof of Ignis's mouth as they pressed close together. Teeth clicked awkwardly as they mouthed at each other, desperate, hands groping for every ounce of flesh and inch of skin they could find.

Ignis fell against the pillows, and Noctis closed the distance between them as he straddled his hips. Noctis moved his own in a gentle, undulating motion, hands slipping underneath Ignis's shirt as Noctis enticed the sweetest noises from the back of his throat.

The pads of Noctis's fingers brushed over the sensitive nubs of his nipples, and Ignis jerked with a force that had Noctis faltering.

“Are you okay?” he breathed, his mouth still flush to Ignis's. “We can stop if you want to...”

“N-no, it's fine, it's just...” Ignis exhaled hard, his eye fixed on the bunk above them. “I can feel what you're doing, yes, but not being able to see it...”

Ignis's tone was soft, barely above a whisper as he spoke. Noctis leaned back, and the realization of the situation hit him like the blunt edge of Gladio's sword.

Touching and feeling were all great parts of sex. But when you were used to having all five of your senses intact, lacking one out of the blue had to make for a scary experience. Fighting unknown horrors and trekking a perilous path to prove yourself was one thing, but being open, exposed, and at the mercy of someone else during such a vulnerable act was something entirely different on its own.

Noctis's expression softened, and he caught Ignis's plush lips in another, gentle kiss. “We'll take it slow,” he murmured, resuming his earlier motions. Ignis's breath stuttered and his fingers tightened in Noctis's shirt, his chest heaving underneath his hands.

Noctis mouthed at Ignis's lips, his own trailing away along his jaw. Where lips brushed against soft skin, fingers were soon to follow as they cradled the side of his face. Noctis reached down between them to unbutton Ignis's shirt, slow and steady before the cloth slipped away like fabricated water.

He dipped down low, mouth trailing wet kisses along the strong pulse in Ignis's neck. It fluttered underneath his touch, and Noctis bit at it as hard as he dared. Soft, light marks were left behind as he continued to move, lower and lower along Ignis's chest.

Ignis gasped as a tongue flicked out against a taut nipple. He writhed as he clutched Noctis close by the downy tresses of his hair, and he savored every sensation of the wet tongue swirling around his sensitive mounds. Noctis worked at the other with a free hand, two fingers having been sucked between his lips to get his skin slick.

Ignis was whining, soft little noises Noctis never got to hear aside from the rare moments where he really needed to get off. Ignis was usually so calm and cool, guiding Noctis by the lower back to where he wanted him to be. His fingers trembled against Noctis's head this time around, and flashes of white teeth clenched around a whitened knuckle as he sucked air in through his nose.

Noctis watched his expression carefully as he moved lower. His fingers continued to tease at Ignis's perked nipples, but his mouth trailed downwards to the soft patch of pubic hair comprising his happy trail. He kissed it wetly, and Ignis's abdomen clenched at the cold sensation. Noctis watched gooseflesh spread out across pale skin as he finally slid his hands downwards to hook them into the hem of Ignis's jeans.

Tight. They were always so tight. Between Ignis being shy and the constricting denim, Noctis fumbled with the garment for much longer than he would have liked. Nonetheless, Ignis relented in the end with an airy sigh, and Noctis tossed the fabric to the side without a care.

Ignis's briefs were soon to follow, and the scent of his musk enveloped Noctis and filled the front of his chest.

He never felt more at home than when he was between Ignis's legs.

Noctis watched his cock twitch as he traced the inner skin of Ignis's thighs, soft and downy against his fingertips. The pads of his fingers dug into the hollows at his hips and Ignis trembled, his eye fixated on some spot above Noctis upon the ceiling. Noctis was reminded of a cat, but he quickly brushed the thought to the side as he dipped forward.

He was slow at first, his slender fingers wrapping around the thickening girth of Ignis's cock and tugging. The skin was pliant, soft underneath his palm as it dipped up and down along Ignis's length. Ignis writhed with barely contained-whimpers of ecstasy, his legs wrapping tight around Noctis's shoulders.

“Is this good?” he breathed, kissing the inside of Ignis's thigh.

Ignis swallowed hard with a nod, reaching down to awkwardly press his hand against Noctis's face. “Real good,” he murmured, his fingers sliding up into his bangs.

Encouraged, Noctis pressed forward. He wrapped his lips around the pretty heart-shaped head Ignis had to offer, the tip of his tongue pressed flush to his slit, and the man positively jumped off the bed at the sensation. The grip in Noctis's hair tightened and kept him close, unwilling to let him go or even tilt his head to make sure Ignis was doing all right.

The insistent force behind Ignis's hand was strong, and Noctis melted underneath it with a moan.

Noctis loved their sex. Sure, he loved it for all the right reasons in the way that it felt good to get off and experience that one moment of euphoria, but there was something different with Ignis. Years of awkward dancing and stuttered communication finally led Noctis down a path he'd never admit out loud, but with his face pressed between Ignis's thighs like this, he lived to just be used.

Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum found himself settled on a pedestal his whole life. Ignis was the worst offender for that, bowing down at his every word and whim, practically tossing rose petals at his feet everywhere he walked. Ignis loved him and the feeling was mutual, but it was tiring. It left Noctis nihilistic, bitter and unbending against all of the special treatment lavished upon him by strangers and family alike. It left a deep-seated urge in his gut that fermented there for years, unexplained and filling him with a sense of unrest until finally, one day...

Ignis was nineteen and Noctis was seventeen. They'd fooled around before plenty of times, but this time was different. Noctis had convinced those slender fingers to wrap around his neck, clutching him tight as Ignis finally let go and pounded him into the mattress. Words Ignis didn't dare repeat in the daylight slipped past his bruised lips and washed over Noctis's ear, driving him to the brink of an orgasm that left him shattered and filled with a realization that sank into his bones.

Noctis just wanted nothing more than to be used. To be full of nothing but a bruised love that refused to let him go, that let him feel normal for once.

He was so hollow inside, and Ignis molded himself perfectly to fit the niche Noctis had clawed into himself. Ignis was the one constant in his life that never wavered, his axis that he clung to when the world trembled and fell out from underneath himself, an orbit that kept him close to the sun that was his love. For as cheesy and cliché as Noctis could make this out to be, Ignis was the one thing he needed more than anything else in this world, and it was with a breathless voice and errant pop of his lips slipping away from Ignis's girth that he asked, “Marry me?”

Ignis immediately halted the roll of his hips, the soft cry of protest slipping past his lips turning into one of surprise. His expression was suddenly imperceptible, and the bed wavered out from underneath Noctis as the room began to spin.

He'd asked this before, right?

He was pretty sure he had. At least once, when they were both kids.

Right?

Right...?

Noctis could feel himself blushing, and he leaned down again, desperate to hush his mouth on thick veins.

“I will,” Ignis breathed, catching Noctis's face with awkward fingers slipping across his nose and eyes. “Noctis,” he continued, dragging him up by the shoulders, urging him to crawl up and over his body, “yes, Noctis, I will. You know I would without hesitation.”

Ignis's gaze shifted just right, and Noctis didn't know if it was just mere coincidence or if Ignis was actually trying, but they locked eyes and a moment of blissful ease passed between them.

“Ignis,” Noctis said, choking on the word despite himself. “Ignis, I...I love you, Ignis,” he whispered, gripping the sides of his face tight, their lips crushing together again.

Hips flush against the other's, words melted into strained moans and harsh gasps as they moved. Noctis tossed his shirt elsewhere, his pants following suit before he held Ignis closer to himself. Noctis could feel Ignis's heart beating against his chest, and he savored the taste of his life coursing through his veins as he beleaguered his attentions onto his skin.

The only break was when Noctis pulled away to grab the vial of lube in their belongings, his dewy eyes tracing every line and subtle frown on Ignis's features.

“You're beautiful,” Noctis murmured, mouthing the words against the scar that framed Ignis's face. “You are so, so beautiful...”

He could hear Ignis's breath hitch, and he could see the delicate sheen of tears glazing his blinded eye, but he didn't pull back. Ignis rose into the kisses and mouthed at Noctis's lips, dragging him down against him and grinding.

Noctis could feel both his and Ignis's cocks weeping freely as he reached down to grab the girth pressed against his thigh. He popped the top to their lube in one swift motion, dripping the viscous fluid onto Ignis's length and smearing it down to the base.

Ignis cried at the sensation, his fingertips digging into Noctis's skin as he pumped him. Noctis reveled in the faint bite of pain, and he moved to hover over Ignis's hips, eyes squeezed shut as he lowered himself onto his length.

Preparation beforehand would have been a good idea, but Noctis was impatient and notorious for being a little masochist anyway. He tensed around every inch of Ignis's dick, clenching it tight before he finally slid to the base with one long, hard exhale.

Noctis shivered as he sat there, hands curled upon Ignis's chest, using his weight to keep him in place. The sharp stretch of pain from Ignis invading his body soon melted and gave way to pleasure, and Noctis hissed as he rolled his hips languidly back and forth.

The motions had Ignis groaning, the palms of his hands sliding down the expanse of Noctis's abdomen to rest on his hips. He clutched at him tight, and slowly they moved together, meeting in the middle with the dry smack of skin against skin.

“Ignis,” Noctis whined, his breath catching in his throat as he moved faster. He dipped his back, leaning over Ignis to bury his face in sweat-matted hair. Ignis clutched at him, his hands sliding up the elegant curve of Noctis's back and tracing both the scar and the tattoo they found there.

Noctis's words were buried in Ignis's hair as he moved harder, faster, fingers digging into his skin as the world turned to static in his eyes. He could feel every nerve in his being start to fray, and he fucked Ignis harder into the mattress, making it groan and squeak as if nearly breaking in half.

Noctis cried out Ignis's name again, and again and again like the lyrics to a song he'd forgotten he loved so dearly. Ignis matched his cries and his noises and buried them in Noctis's neck, biting at it with a severe intensity that made the skin break and weep with blood. They held onto each other like they were the last things left in this universe to hold onto, and with the feeling akin to the sound of shattering glass, Noctis hit his high and sprayed out across Ignis's abdomen in hot, white ribbons of gossamer seed.

Ignis was soon to follow, thrusting into the clenching walls of Noctis's ass and painting them with slick that added to the lube. Noctis gasped and trembled as he pulled away, falling against Ignis's chest where he took a moment to breathe.

Sober sex after what felt like an eternity of abstained touches left him over-sensitive, and each brush of Ignis's lips against his ear and skin left him a shivering mess. It was a good while before they both calmed, turning into each other's arms with deep breaths and faint gasps as they fought to recollect themselves.

“We'll...we'll talk more tomorrow?” Ignis asked blithely, his voice tipping up to reach an awkward octave that made Noctis giggle.

“Yeah,” he replied, voice tired as he nuzzled into Ignis's shoulder. “But once we're in Tenebrae, I'm marrying you. The rest we'll figure out from there.” A yawn followed his exhausted words, trailing off into the stars that now glittered in the dark sky.

Ignis kept quiet, but he didn't argue. His arms wrapped tight around Noctis instead, cradling his head close to his chest as he listened to his lover breathe through the night.

Chapter Text

The four sat at a table, silence encompassing them.

A grunt was offered here.

A small shrug was offered there.

Prompto's eyes brightened, mouth widened, finger poised in the air...before it all fell back down, and he cast a long face to the scuffed wood between them.

His stomach rumbled, and Noctis's followed suit.

“I could really go for a box of donuts right now.” Prompto pouted, crossing his arms over his middle.

Noctis nodded in agreement. “A burger sounds nice, too.”

Ignis sighed, and Gladio rubbed his face with the palm of a hand, two fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. His stomach, too, joined the chorus of helpless rumblings that now served as the background anthem to their lives.

Ignis sighed once more, tilting to the side with his hand falling limp around his cane. “I apologize for my lack of cooking, I...”

He was shushed by Noctis's hand smacking unceremoniously, gently, against his mouth. Ignis jerked in surprise, making to pull away, but Noctis's hand persisted.

“There was a diner cart,” he mumbled, ignoring the muffled noises coming from behind his hand. Gladio quirked an eyebrow, amusement dancing across his face as he watched. “I'm sure they probably don't have the best things in the world to offer, but do we wanna break and get something to eat?”

Noctis finally let go of Ignis's jaw, and the man turned, a look upon his features that made even Prompto pale. “Excuse me,” Ignis retorted, tapping his fingertips irritably against his cane. “But I-”

“I was going to offer a solution, because it's fine I haven't been able to make anything in a while, considering we're on a damn train?” Noctis finished for him, turning his own, dark eyes to his lover with an irritably quirked eyebrow. “Seriously, It's fine, Ignis. What would you like?”

Ignis frowned, his eye cast upon Noctis. Prompto watched as he turned from livid, to irritated, to annoyed, and finally, to mildly sated as he finally withered and nodded.

“I'm sure I'll be content eating whatever it is they serve us.” He adjusted his glasses, and in a manner very much matching something Noctis would do, Ignis stuffed his mouth against the palm of his hand and looked back towards the window.

Noctis grinned, leaning in to plant a big, wet smooch on the side of Ignis's face. Prompto scrunched his nose and stuck his tongue out at them, and Gladio finally got up, snorting as he waved a hand before wandering down the train's aisle. “Get a room, you two,” he called over his shoulder, Prompto yelling something in agreement as they both wandered off.

Noctis's actions softened, and he wrapped his arms around Ignis's shoulder in a quiet apology. “Sorry, buddy. I can't just let you wallow in misery over something you can't help, you know?”

Ignis only muttered something in response, but he relaxed back into Noctis's arms with the billionth sigh of the day slipping past his lips.

“I found a hidden stash of Ebony in our bags this morning. I was gonna keep it a secret until tonight, so you'd have something to run on tomorrow, but I'll get you a can now. You look tired.” Noctis pressed his cheek to Ignis's and watched as the man's expression visibly lit up.

“Thank you, Noct,” he murmured, turning to brush his lips against the corner of Noctis's mouth. Ignis's fingertips played at the fringe at the nape of his neck, holding him close as he indulged his lover in a little kiss. Noctis lingered before pulling away, his fingers rubbing a small circle into Ignis's lower back.

Compared to the last few days, the train was considerably empty. Putting the horizon just outside the windows on for comparison made it less of a mystery, though; the landscape was covered in snow, a bright white against a sky that had clouded over, dark and grey and swirling with blizzards visible even from where Noctis stood. It was incongruous, the unrelenting heat of the sun against what were once desert sands seemingly ineffective as the snow continued to creep down the surrounding mountain peaks.

The rumors Ignis had heard of longer nights seemed to hold some value to them, as well. The sun was already low in the sky, and Noctis could hear idle chatter in the background of what it meant. He remembered Aranea's words from before, that darkness was coming, but...

It filled Noctis with unease to think about it, and he shook his head as he focused on his more immediate goal instead. The less he thought about it, the better. He had other things to worry about at the moment, his rumbling stomach and Ignis's own neglect being a few of them.

Noctis wandered the aisles and soon found Prompto and Gladio. They offered him a little smile and nod, their own trophies already in hand. It was for the best; Ignis wouldn't have to be on his own for too long, and Noctis wasn't entirely sure what he even wanted to eat. The menu the guy behind the counter had to offer wasn't full of great things, either, and Noctis scanned it with some disdain before he finally settled on something that sounded akin to a meat pie. Ignis usually liked those, right?

But man, he could really go for a cake. He was sure Ignis could, too. Damn Prompto for waving the idea of tooth-rotting sweets around and filling his head with other ideas.

Noctis sighed heavily, bowing his disappointed head as he slid onto a stool at the counter. He felt awful, all hot and clammy and sweaty and shivery. The sudden fever he'd been battling with since he'd last woken up from his whole ordeal with Gladio had been manageable at best, but now it seemed intent on digging its claws into his very chest and clinging. It made it hard to do something as simple as walking. He kind of just wanted to put off all talk of what to do in Tenebrae until they actually got there.

Ignis offered an idea along the lines of Noctis's new powers disagreeing with him, fighting for dominance over what he already had. It was a pretty sound conclusion; Noctis was inclined to agree with him as another violent shudder wracked its way down his spine, making him feel like he'd done nothing but throw himself off of a cliff all day long. Elixirs and potions didn't seem to work any miracles on him, no matter the amount he ingested, and other medicines just felt like chalk in his mouth as he tried to swallow them down.

It was just something he'd have to deal with, he supposed, but it was awful.

Noctis buried his face in his arms, his entire body slouching uselessly over the counter top. He'd felt fine sitting back there with the other three, but standing upright had everything tilting on its axis, the room a constant spin against his eyes. It was nauseating, and closing his eyes only offered some mild comfort in an uneasy darkness.

Requesting a glass of water, Noctis leaned back and slapped at his cheeks. The sooner they got to Tenebrae, honestly, the better. He still wasn't exactly sure what it was he was so determined to find there, but at this point, it just needed to happen. Hopefully this wasn't going to get any worse, because Noctis didn't exactly fancy the idea of keeling over dead before they managed to even reach Gralea.

The sound of his skin slapping skin was the only thing Noctis focused on, distracting him from the rustling of a man sliding into the seat next to his.

“You do know there's a medical car near the front.”

Noctis immediately jerked to the side, his eyes quickly finding the shape of a hunched and rather dark-looking man at his side. He squinted, his mind reeling, but before he could point out the similarities to the man next to him and the one he'd seen the day before Fodina Caestino, he was speaking again in honeyed tones that invoked feelings of uneasiness along Noctis's nerves.

“But, if there's anything I've learned from my time on this star, there's not much out there that could help you...so you might just have to sweat it out for a bit, if you can last that long.”

His voice was a deep purr, dark, washing over Noctis's ears and filling them with frantic memories running wild through his head. The man next to him was definitely the conductor that had woken him up, but now he sounded different. He sounded more like...

Noctis gaped as he stared into the man's eyes. He recognized their golden hue from when they hovered over Luna's failing body.

“What are you doing here?” Noctis growled, sliding down from his chair. The atmosphere seemed to darken around them, turning a sickly green at the edges that made Noctis's stomach churn.

Ardyn's form came into view, his red hair tossed carelessly around a mockingly sympathetic look. “Shh, shh Noct,” he murmured, reaching out with both hands to steady him. “You're fit to pass out again, at this rate. We don't want that now, do we? Go ahead and sit down again, yes, just like that...”

Ardyn eased Noctis back onto the stool, and he was helpless to stop him. His body felt weak, his muscles lifeless, and his skin felt strangely cold where Ardyn's fingers had lingered. Any words of protest died on his tongue, and a soul-crushing fear swathed every nerve in his body and told him to run.

Yet Noctis couldn't move. He slouched, and Ardyn clicked his tongue softly as he took Noctis by the chin. “Oh, you poor boy.”

He shook his head, titling Noctis's from side to side, leaning forward until their noses almost touched. Ardyn's eyes bored into his own, flitting from side to side, seemingly searching for something more in the depths of Noctis's. “I think that girl would have done you a better mercy by letting you follow the path of the prophecy. Unless you can find someone to help calm the rage of the storm within you, you're in it for the long haul. You're going to be nothing more than a bag of bones, dragged around by your ankles as you leave your friends to founder in the dark.”

Ardyn hummed, fingertips brushing underneath Noctis's eye and sending a shiver down his spine. “Go to hell,” Noctis managed to spit, a gossamer thread hanging from his lips that Ardyn seemed eager to sweep up with his thumb.

“You know, I was going to have so much fun with you. But this might be even better. You'll probably take care of yourself, a lost little lamb, before I could! Hah! Wouldn't that be something?” His dulcet tone bit into Noctis's skin, sickening him to the core as Ardyn leaned closer, closer, his lips brushing against the shell of his ear as he spoke.

“But I can't allow that. For now, let's play a game, eh? I'll give you but one goal. You just need to figure out what that goal is, and then you come find me, and I'll give you back what I've taken.”

Noctis shivered, and Ardyn leaned back with an unctuous smile. His hand tapped Noctis's shoulder, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

Noise rushed back into Noctis's ears, and a vertigo swept over him that left him with his head between his knees. Noctis was very close to retching, his body trembling as he fought to steady himself. Making sense of the situation seemed far beyond his grasp, and his mind whirled with what had just happened. None of that had felt real, and it left him toeing the line one felt between wakefulness and sleep.

Either way, Noctis needed to find the others and tell them what had happened.

Unsteady, he slid to his feet. Whereas he only felt slightly unwell earlier, now he felt on the brink of losing consciousness again. He was seeing things in twos, and the voices of the passengers sounded far off and ethereal, like something clawing through a stone wall trying to get to him. It made it hard to concentrate, and he stumbled haphazardly to the nearest door and practically fell through it.

Noctis was halfway down the aisle before he noticed something was wrong. Glancing up with weary, confused eyes, he managed to glean that he'd entered the same train car he'd just been in.

He blinked.

Noctis turned on his heel, hurrying back to the door he'd just slipped through. He pushed through it, only to find himself...in the dining area. Again.

Okay.

This was ridiculous. He was obviously running a fever, and he was probably delirious. All sorts of confused passengers were probably watching him walk circles in the doorway, coming in and out only to find himself in the diner car all over again.

Noctis took a deep breath and pushed firmly through the door once more, and what he saw...was, well, what he'd been expecting, honestly. The same damn car.

His heart began to race as he frantically looked around himself. No one seemed to be moving, and everything was completely still. The air was dark again, the same green tint Ardyn had seemed to carry with him lacing the edges of his vision once more. All was silent, too, aside from the faint rumbling of the train riding the rails.

“Noctis!”

Noctis jumped and turned, eyes wide.

“Prompto?” he called out, trying to pin down where his friend's panicked voice had come from.

“Noctis!” Prompto called out again, once more before everything went eerily quiet. Noctis's palms were sweaty, his throat was dry, and panic mixed with the fever burning the inside of his forehead. He felt like he was ready to fall over at any second.

“Prompto, where are...Prompto, what's going on?” he yelled, only to be met with nothing.

Noctis blinked once, and everything seemed to snap back to normal.

A lady next to him eyed him suspiciously, and judging from the tone in her voice, she'd been asking him to move out of her way for some time now. Noctis cleared his throat awkwardly and obliged, stepping out of her way and farther into the aisle.

With a forced trot he entered the next car, and relief washed over him as the subtle differences of a new car met his eyes. Noctis pushed on, the knowledge that his friends would be in the next car over motivating him, but as soon as he passed through the threshold, he was met with the same car as the last.

He heaved a sigh, turning quickly on his heel to slam back through the door.

Again, the same car he was currently stuck in.

Noctis sucked the air in harshly between his teeth. The sky was darkening outside, and the landscape moved along at a crawl. Everything felt so sluggish, and the ache in his head was almost unbearable now.

“Noctis!” Prompto called out again, his voice right next to him. But Noctis couldn't see him, and his voice was ragged as he yelled for Prompto in turn.

The next time Prompto called for him, it was farther down the aisle. It seemed to be drifting, and Noctis ran after it, forcing his tired legs to move as he pushed through door after door.

Noctis followed Prompto's voice to the back of the train. He slammed through the final door only to be met with the subtle glint of light reflecting from the Regalia's surface, with no sign of Prompto to be found. Prompto's voice had completely died out at this point, leaving a radio silence ringing in Noctis's ears.

Noctis spun around, chest heaving as his mind scrambled for a solution to all of this. Ardyn was here, and he seemed to be the one behind this...whatever this was. Finding Ardyn seemed to be the best solution to the problem, but finding his friends was his priority. Especially if Prompto needed him...

But Noctis's vision wavered, splotches of black dancing against the lenses of his eyes. Noctis caught himself on the nearest wall, wrapping an arm tight around his middle as he squeezed the light away from his vision. The world felt like it was tilting, threatening to send him tumbling away from the surface of the earth and into the errant stars below him.

A hand touched his shoulder, and Noctis yelped in surprise as he tugged himself away.

“Noct, it's just me,” Ignis breathed, stumbling forward to get his hands on Noctis again. “I'm glad I found you, I heard Prompto yelling for you, and I tried to run after him, but...”

Ignis turned his head, looking to the door with a thoughtful expression. “Do you know where he went?”

“I don't, no, I-I've been...I must be delirious, or something, 'cause I...” Noctis shook his head, taking the opportunity in hand to lean against Ignis and his comforting weight. He felt the man's hand brush against his forehead, gently pushing his hair aside.

“You are running a fever,” Ignis mused, wrapping his arms tight around Noctis's shoulders. “But that isn't the only thing that's been going on. I heard Gladio yell something about Ardyn as he ran the other way to look for Prompto.”

Noctis nodded into Ignis's armpit. “Yeah, he's here. I thought I was just seeing things, but he's...he's definitely here. I don't know where he went, though, he's been...ugh, gods, my head is killing me.”

Ignis cooed gently in response, patting the area around them. He led Noctis to the nearest crate he'd found, urging him to sit as he stood before him.”If worse comes to worst, we shall wait here. Gladio knows where I am, so we could simply await his return and figure out what's going on from there. Are you feeling all right, though?”

Ignis's hands cradled the sides of Noctis's face, his thumbs pressing gently into the back of his neck. Noctis relaxed into the touch with a nod, his lashes fluttering as he gave himself a moment to breathe.

“Yeah,” he muttered, balling his hands into fists against his thighs. “I don't know, I just...Ardyn found me in the dining car. He touched me, and everything seemed to just go downhill from there.”

Noctis looked down at his arms, and he physically recoiled at the sight.

“What's wrong?” Ignis asked, his voice thin. Noctis only stuttered incoherently as he gazed upon ribbons of inky black lacing up his arms, settling into his pale flesh like a tattoo.

“I-I don't know,” Noctis stammered, reaching for Ignis's hand. He put it on his own arm, but there wasn't much to feel aside from a slight abrasion. “My skin is black, for some reason, like there's something underneath it, crawling up...”

Noctis shuddered at the thought, and he tried clawing at his arms to get it to come out. Ignis grabbed his hands and stopped him, sitting down beside Noctis with concern etched into his features.

“Noctis, calm down. We're almost to Tenebrae. Even if we don't find Prompto, Gladio surely will for us. Until then, keep your wits about you and stay with me, okay?” Ignis grabbed Noctis's face again, forcing him to look him in the eye. Together they breathed for a moment, Noctis's fingers clutching his forearm before he relaxed.

“...Yeah, okay...I just. I'm sorry, I don't know what's going on,” he said, his voice strangled. His eyes lingered on the black on his arms, noting the way it caressed his muscles and completely enveloped his fingers. His hands adopted a dull throb like they were swollen, his skin taut with his veins protruding against it. It didn't hurt, per se, but it was uncomfortable. Noctis couldn't help a whimper as he leaned against Ignis, burying his face into the comforting warmth of his shoulder.

“Ardyn told me he wanted to...to play a game,” he muttered after a beat, his dark eyes looking to the Regalia and basking in the small comfort she offered. “He said was going to take something. At first I didn't think much of such a stupid statement, but you don't think he meant he was gonna take Prompto, do you...?”

Ignis's lips pursed, drawing into a thin line as he sighed through his nose. “If he is here, and he spoke to you like that, then...it may be so. If that's the case, we'll just have to rely on Gladio to move ahead without us and meet us at Gralea instead, if he does not find Prompto.” He shook his head, moving to run his fingers through Noctis's hair.

Noctis leaned away from the touch, distraught at the idea. “But I should be helping! We can't just leave them on their own, especially with the rumors going around about the days getting shorter,” he argued, pouting as he looked into Ignis's face. He looked as troubled as Noctis did, but he turned a more stern expression his way before he could argue more.

“Noct, we'll just have to trust them. They're aware of your situation just as much as they're aware of the one outside. And right now, finding out what's happening with you is more important. Especially since your condition seems to be determined to take a turn for the worse.” He bit his lip, his hand coming to a rest on Noctis's shoulder. “It'll be all right, Noctis. We'll keep in touch with Gladio, but this is only if he doesn't find Prompto. I'm sure he will, eventually.”

They both went quiet. Noctis fiddled with the hem of his shirt, his eyes still lingering on his arms, at the deepening brands upon his skin. They laced up his biceps and to his shoulders, but they seemed to stop there. He itched at them, his blunt fingernails catching against the tendons in his wrist and tugging his skin outward. It felt dry, almost, resistant to moving around too much.

“Can we try and head for our room?” Noctis asked, his throat dry as he talked. “I want to see if an elixir will help this, and I...I still wanna get you your Ebony.” He deflated, but Ignis's small chuckle made him feel a little better.

“We can move, yes, but we'll have to be careful. Lean on me as much as you need to.”

Ignis stood and so did Noctis, and he leaned carefully against the man's side as they ventured back out into the main cars. Everything seemed to be normal, untouched and undisturbed. The lights cast their harsh, fluorescent hue against the insides, lighting the way back towards the bedrooms. Noctis glanced outside, only to be met with a suffocating darkness that offered not even the light of the moon and the stars.

He described it to Ignis, clutching his arm tight as they walked.

“Mm,” he hummed, tilting his head to the side. “I've heard talk of that, too. The nights growing longer, and darker, somehow. I thought the latter was merely a fluke, but perhaps it's something that's just now coming our way...?”

Concern laced every syllable of his words, and Noctis swallowed hard. He didn't want to think about that. This was a discussion best saved for all four of them, so they knew what to do and where to go. Speculating in broken groups and getting lost and confused was the absolute last thing Noctis wanted to do. Hells, even losing the other two for just a short while filled him with an incredible anxiety.

But their room was soon upon them, and Noctis turned Ignis gently inside. The door slid open with the subtle noise of metal gliding against metal, and hushed any outside noise once it was shut.

Ignis perched himself on the edge of the bed, and Noctis sat down beside him, shaking fingers grabbing the bag stuffed underneath their bed. He tugged the zipper open and dug frantically inside of it for a vial of their usual stuff, pulling the elixir out with his breath held tight inside of his lungs. He popped the top and let the substance drizzle over his arm, waiting a second to see what it'd do.

Almost immediately his arm began to burn, and he stifled a cry into the heel of his palm.

“Noct,” Ignis breathed, turning towards him, his hands held out in concern. Noctis rubbed his arm against the sheets in a dire attempt to free himself of the elixir, smearing both it and a strange, black stain into the sheets. His flesh visibly sizzled and steamed, and Noctis bit his knuckle as he waited for the pain to ebb.

“Not good,” Noctis finally gasped, shaking his head as he held his arm out to Ignis. “Elixirs are useless, apparently. Counterproductive.” He managed a small, rueful laugh, but Ignis kept quiet as he reached for the bag.

Somehow, despite his lack of eyesight, he wrapped Noctis's arms up in the soft, white linen bandages they kept around for Just In Case. Noctis's arm still throbbed, and the black settled into his skin stretched out further against his chest, but he felt moderately better after a moment passed by.

“Did Ardyn do this to you?” Ignis asked, his careful and gentle fingertips tracing Noctis's arms. “I would put my own healing skills to use, but... If our standard curatives only made matters worse, I would be risking hurting you further.”

Noctis shook his head, curling his fingers around Ignis's hands when they drifted within reach. Thankfully the black stuff didn't seem to be contagious, clinging only to Noctis instead. “I...I don't know. I wasn't paying attention, but knowing him, that's probably the case.” He bit his lip, chewing the inside of it anxiously. “I'm sorry I kept letting him get so close.”

“No, Noct,” Ignis immediately argued, gently massaging the insides of his palms. “This is hardly your fault. That man has been on our tail since the very first day we met him.”

They both sighed, and Noctis nodded reluctantly. “I just thought he was some creepy dude. I didn't know he would follow us like this. ”

He waved a hand uselessly around himself. “He had some kind of magic. This is gonna sound stupid, but it felt like I was stuck in the same train car, no matter how many doors I went through. Did that happen to you, or...?”

Ignis shook his head, and Noctis felt his stomach sink. “I don't think so. Though I'm starting to worry that's what happened to Gladio.”

Noctis looked to the door anxiously, shifting his weight around where he sat. He wanted to be out there, helping Gladio look for Prompto. As it currently was, though, he could barely stand.

Ignis seemed to read his thoughts and pulled Noctis closer to himself, urging him to rest against his chest. “I've texted Gladio we're in the bedroom. He'll know where to come. We'll just have to be patient and wait.”

Noctis only grunted, but he relented. If he were frustrated, Ignis had to be doubly so. Not being able to see and forced to sit around and wait was much worse than what Noctis had to be dealing with. Not only was he just sitting there waiting for Gladio and Prompto, he also couldn't see what was wrong with Noctis...

He could feel Ignis still rubbing his arms, an anxious sort of tic to the action. He seemed keen on rubbing them firmly; Noctis only realized then that he was helping to keep sensation in them. Noctis asked quietly for more, holding his arms out proper for Ignis to keep touching, to keep rubbing and massaging.

The minutes continued to drag, and Noctis felt slightly better after sitting there for a while. He'd grabbed an Ebony for them to share, and they nursed it between themselves, letting the caffeine settle into their systems and help keep them a little more alert. Only words of hushed comfort were offered in the silence, keeping it from growing too unbearable as they awaited the news of their friend.

Yet patience was never one of Noctis's virtues. If he couldn't sleep his time away, he had to be doing something. With Gladio's accident so fresh in all of their memories, the longer he had to wait, the more it felt like his arm was being torn away from him.

“Let's just walk around and see if we can catch a glimpse of him?” Noctis offered, looking up into Ignis's face, his tone pleading. “You'd think if Ardyn was still around, we'd know, right...?”

Ignis worked at Noctis's biceps, his fingertips tracing gentle circles into the muscle. “I suppose taking a quick look around the premises wouldn't hurt us,” he muttered, reaching for his cane at last. “But if we see anything suspicious, we must turn back. You and I are in no position to try and fight back against anything right now, especially someone with powers like Ardyn's.”

Noctis nodded, already sliding to his feet. He felt steadier this time around, at least, and Ignis became less of a crutch as he guided him through the door. The hallways were mostly empty now, and the car's occupants were all just people reading the papers or listening to the radio for some sort of news. After Altissia, things had gone kind of...well, more than awry. Everyone was lost and confused, and understandably so.

Noctis ignored them as he kept walking. He'd catch the occasional lingering glance, heard an idle whisper here and there about this or that, but he held fast to Ignis's arm as they continued to make their way towards the front of the train, determination in every step he took.

Almost there, Gladio reappeared through a door. Sweat ran down the sides of his face and he looked panicked, somewhat mild relief crossing his features when he saw Ignis and Noctis standing before him.

“Prompto's gone,” he gasped, out of breath as he clothed the distance between them. “I...I don't know where he went, but he's gone. I looked everywhere.”

Chapter Text

Panic settled deep in the pit of Noctis's stomach.

“Then we have to go back, we have to find him,” he argued, just barely keeping the tone in his voice from breaching hysterics. He broke free from Ignis's grasp and made to walk past Gladio, his mind set on the front car to get the train stopped.

Gladio clapped his hands down upon Noctis's shoulders, stopping him in his trembling tracks before he could even make it past Gladio's wide frame. “No, Noct. You and Iggy need to do whatever it is you're planning on doing in Tenebrae. I'll stay behind and keep looking for Prompto. If he fell out onto the tracks somehow, I'll even walk them to see what I can find.”

“Are you stupid?” Noctis interjected, smacking weakly at Gladio's wrists in a vain attempt to pull himself away from his grasp. “You already got hurt once, I can't let you go out there by yourself! The daemons will get you again, and you'll...you'll...”

The train came to a lurching halt, and Noctis felt himself fall with it. Two pairs of arms immediately grabbed him, keeping him upright and steady as the train came to a screeching stop.

“Noct,” Ignis murmured, his voice soothing, a hand running through Noctis's hair and lingering upon his forehead. “Trust in Gladio like he trusts you. I know it's rough, but with your current condition...”

Ignis grimaced, and Gladio grunted as he watched Ignis press the back of his hand to Noctis's forehead. The black had moved farther upwards, blossoming out and wrapping around Noctis's neck in a brilliant display of mock petals. Every vein was highlighted and his skin grew lighter, pellucid even in the train's dim lights.

Ignis cradled his pallid face, and he nodded to Gladio. “I will take care of him. We'll find out what's behind this, and hopefully find an answer to it all. Just...be careful out there.” The hand pulled away, but only for a moment before it returned to the side of Noctis's head. “There's the keys. Grab what you need from our room and the Regalia, and meet us back here at Tenebrae's station before the morrow.”

“Gotcha. I'm a phone call away if you need me,” Gladio replied, his tone resigned, a sort of sorrow in his eyes as he looked back down at Noctis's hanging head. “I'll be back soon, buddy.” He offered Noctis one last pat on the shoulder, coming to a still as he hesitated. Ignis pulled away as Gladio moved in, engulfing Noctis in a tight embrace he managed to weakly return.

Tears threatened to choke Noctis's voice, but he cleared his throat as he pulled back, his darkened eyes gazing meaningfully into Gladio's. “Just come back to me,” he murmured, his hands lingering on the firm, steady muscle of Gladio's forearms. Gladio only nodded quietly, lingering for a moment longer before Noctis watched him disappear down the aisle, the sound of creaking leather fading with his presence.

Noctis inhaled sharply, turning back to face Ignis. His heart hung heavy against his breastbone, and it was all he could do to ignore the feeling of a blade being shoved between his third and forth rib. “I can walk again. Let's go,” he muttered, reaching out to carefully take Ignis's arm. It was something immediately offered as support, and Ignis clutched his cane tight in his free hand.

The sound of it clacking against the metal flooring offered a pleasant, white noise for Noctis to focus on as they walked. The exit to the current car they were in lay at the far end, a short walk from where they currently stood, but it felt like a lifetime before they finally reached it. The stairs leading down to the raised cement of the station felt like the slope of Ravatogh, and Noctis fell into Ignis's arms with a stifled grunt when he finally reached the base.

“I can't wait to start walking through Tenebrae,” Noctis mumbled, face buried in Ignis's shoulder, his arms wrapped tight around the man's neck. “What a team we are. A blind man and a king who's supposed to-” he cut off, biting his lip as he stifled another noise of discomfort- “a king who's supposed to be wearing this damned ring already, leading his people to salvation. Not someone who's using said blind man for all of his support.”

He limped closer to Ignis with a weak chuckle, a noise returned to him rather blithely. “If it means I'm still of some use, then this is fine,” Ignis said, holding Noctis close by the armpits. “It is my duty to serve and aid you in times of need. If we both must tread a wary path, then I'm happy to do so, so long as you're by my side. Just be my eyes, and I'll be your legs.”

He smiled, his face tilted towards Noctis's. “In all seriousness, just use me as long as you need my support, Noct. I really do not mind.”

Noctis made an airy noise caught between a laugh and his usual noise of disapproval. “I...if you say so, Specky,” he relented, pulling away just enough to readjust their positions. Ignis was at the ready with an arm wrapped tight around his shoulders, encouraging Noctis to lean in and hug his own waist for support. It wasn't ideal, and it smooshed them against one another rather uncomfortably, but it allowed them to move through the station with only some minor staring. They had been a common enough theme on the train; Noctis could only assume the other passengers had gotten used to their presence and were keen on leaving them be.

They didn't get far before a voice called out to them, though.

“Hey, shrimp! What the...what the hell happened to you two?” Aranea asked, the sound of her heels echoing through the station's cavernous ceiling as she approached them. “You both look like you were literally just shit out of a daemon's ass.”

Noctis snorted, and Ignis grew tense underneath his forced embrace. “You could say that,” he muttered, offering Ignis a comforting touch to the hip.

“Seriously, what happened?” she asked, her eyes wide and full of genuine curiosity. “I can call for a medic, If you need it...”

A moment of awkward silence passed before Ignis cleared his throat, lifting his shoulders in a defeated shrug. “I lost my eyesight after the fight with the Hydraean. Noctis had a...visit, from the chancellor.”

Aranea tilted her head, waiting for more. Between the defeated looks upon their expressions, she quickly learned she wouldn't be getting much else. “Well,” she started, leaning back, “that sucks. Anything I can do for ya?”

She gestured for them to follow along, and Noctis took the bait with a gentle nudge aimed at Ignis's back. “Uh, yeah...what's been going on lately?” A bit of a dumb question, but luckily Aranea was full of information. Usually.

“No doubt you've heard the rumors of the longer nights, no?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder to Noctis with a quirked brow. “Well, those aren't just rumors anymore. The empire's gone radio silent on me, but it's not like it matters much since I'm doing things on my own now. The chancellor got weird last time I saw him, and I can use my resources for better anyway, with everything going to shit now.”

She led them along a stone bridge, the railings arced gently over the maw of an open ravine. The cliff sides below them were covered in ivy, stretching down into a dark mist that swirled with the wind. In the distance, Noctis could see the buildings of Tenebrae's capitol, but they were dark, their once ivory-white structures blackened and fading into the night. Noctis's eyes caught the glimmer of fire in the distance, and his mouth felt dry as he looked back to Aranea.

“Truth be told, I don't know what happened here. All I do know is that there's people looking for safety, and no safe way forward into the rest of the continent.” She sighed, coming to a halt on the opposite side of the bridge. It dropped them off on a fading stone pathway, one that disappeared as the trail wound itself around the mountain and clung against its side.

“So everything's a dead end here, huh?” Noctis asked, biting the inside of his cheek. “Do you know where Ardyn went?”

Aranea shook her head. “I can only assume he's in Gralea. I've got my men here who decided to leave with me, and they don't know much more than I do.” She offered Noctis a shrug, her features softening as she looked him over.

“Anything you need me to do?” she asked again, adjusting her weight almost impatiently. “None of us can stay here for long, but I can help out in, literally, any way I can.”

“Getting the citizens away from here might be a good start,” Ignis offered before Noctis could speak. “Our other member, Gladio, is looking for Prompto. If you could assist in that as well, we would be grateful."

“Hey, no problem. Where's he at?”

"Likely the train, still. He had volunteered to walk the tracks to see if Prompto was left behind somewhere."

Aranea nodded, casting her gaze back to Noctis. “And anything for you?”

“How safe is Tenebrae right now? We need in.” He rubbed at his cheek a little self-consciously, his gaze dancing through the area around Aranea's head. “There's...some unfinished business I have, I guess.”

Aranea clicked her tongue, but she glanced behind herself. “It should be relatively empty around the city. As long as you don't try to go in, I can keep two of my men here with a ship for you. Just don't stick around for too long, of course.”

Noctis nodded, relief washing over him in a brief, soothing wave. “Thanks, Aranea. I really appreciate it.”

“Hey, no problem. Just go find Biggs and Wedge, they're the two going over supplies on the other side of the clearing.” She flashed them a smile, reaching out to tap the back of her hand against Noctis's cheek. “And take care of yourself, okay? We don't need you dying on us.”

“I'll try not to,” Noctis laughed, wincing as he adjusted his weight around Ignis's frame. “Thank you, though. Good luck out there. And uh...” He paused, his voice growing thick and threatening to break on him. “If you see Gladio, and we haven't returned by tomorrow...take him with you, okay? Find his little sister and take them to Lestallum, or...something.”

He looked to Ignis, his shoulders adopting the weight of the long night that stretched out before them. Ignis nodded in agreement, his grip around Noctis squeezing him close.

“Can do. Be careful out there,” Aranea said, her tone final as she turned away. Noctis watched her leave, his heart dropping further and further into the recesses of his body. He felt hollow and he felt sick, but still he turned Ignis towards Biggs and Wedge, and they took a moment to exchange pleasantries and numbers.

When they found themselves on their own again, everything was eerily quiet as they approached the start of their new path.

“Well,” Noctis muttered, gazing up the slope, “here we are. You sure you wanna come along for the ride...?”

“Of course,” Ignis said, adjusting his glasses idly. “I can't just leave you on your own. If anything were to happen to you, I...”

Noctis shushed him, and he ceased his arguing. “Well, if I happen to lead you astray, you can always revoke that marriage proposal for revenge.”

Ignis clicked his tongue, but he carried a smile on his lips and a crinkle to his eyes that helped ease Noctis's nerves tremendously. “Just lead the way,” Ignis murmured, bending over to press a kiss to his temple.

Noctis took his first deep breath of many, and he stepped out onto the dark path with an ever-loyal Ignis at his side.

The verdigris mountains of Tenebrae were to their right, and technically, all around them, but the view of the city was on their left, cradled tenderly between the summits. Faint, obscure stars glimmered in the sky above them and graced the horizon, peaks of old castle and rustic buildings slicing up like dark knives against the celestial view. A fire raged within the city's limits still, and Noctis could hear far-off voices in the distance, either yelling from panic, or screaming in horror as the daemons descended upon their earth.

Noctis tripped over himself, his grip tightening around Ignis's waist before he went down completely. “Sorry,” he muttered, righting himself before he pushed onward. “I really hope the daemons keep away from us...I don't wish them on the others, but being unable to summon my weapons and being in this state, just...”

Ignis sighed a noise of agreement, his cane pressed against the cliff side and clicking against the rocks as he used it for temporary support. “I certainly hope so, too. I would do my best to keep them at bay, but alas...it will take some time to get used to my disability. I'm afraid we're both just a couple of liabilities.”

Noctis snorted, but he didn't argue.

“Do you know where we're going yet, Noct...?”

The question hit him over the head like a sack of bricks, and with as sudden as it was, it left him momentarily speechless. “I, uh,” he stammered after a second, letting his gaze wander back to the horizon. He slowed Ignis to a stop and leaned heavily against him, using the opportunity to relax and breathe in as much of the thin air as he could manage. The sound of the wind rushed along the sides of the mountains, and it played at his burning cheeks, caressing them gently as it tugged his hair away from his face.

...In fact, the wind seemed to blow rather insistently down a fork in the path ahead of them. “I don't know,” he finally muttered, “but I think I have an idea of where we need to be. I just...need to follow my gut, I think.”

He could see Ignis's features tighten in the darkness, but he didn't say a word as he simply nodded instead. “Let us be on, then,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Noctis steeled himself and took a deep breath, swallowing his guilt as he carefully guided both himself and Ignis down the slope.

Their time in Fodina Caestino was a cakewalk compared to this trek. The slope inclined dangerously downwards after just a few short moments of walking, and the stones slipped from underneath their shoes, rolling over the edge and into the mist. The sound of their landing never reached Noctis's ears, and he swallowed hard as he gently urged Ignis to hold a little more tightly onto him.

The wind eventually died, and in the silence and suffocating darkness of their surroundings, Noctis was beginning to wonder if any of this was a good idea. The farther down they went, the more he considered calling Biggs and Wedge. They could take their things to Gralea and figure out a solution to his problems there instead. Ardyn had done this to him, and Ardyn could surely fix whatever it was he had done.

Except that wouldn't have been the best choice for any of them. Ardyn was unpredictable, an enigma swathed in a terrifying mystery, and running into his open, waiting arms was the last thing Noctis wanted to do. The idea made him cling to Ignis a little harder, craving his warmth and stability and utter comfort he had to offer at the moment. The world was starting to spin again, and Noctis knew if Ignis hadn't been there, he'd have fallen over and it all would have been over right there.

But Ignis clung to Noctis a little more tightly in return, his steady footsteps guiding them slowly down the slope. The sensation of the wind guiding him had faded into the mists below them, but it was replaced with a tug against his breastbone he couldn't ignore. An instinct probably best ignored, but considering the fact nothing had attacked them thus far, Noctis could only assume it was safe for them to keep going.

“I think we're on the right path,” he panted, just barely keeping himself upright as they continued to slip down the slope. “I can't really explain how, but it...it just feels right.”

“I trust your judgment,” Ignis murmured, his voice winded and strained. Noctis knew Ignis could handle a lot, but guilt once again pierced his heart the farther they went.

But they carried on silently, hugging the cliff side as their path spiraled downward. The mist was swirling up around them, hugging their skin and chilling them both down to the bone. For Noctis, it felt wonderful; poor Ignis began to shudder underneath Noctis's arms, and it was all he could do to hug him a little tighter and share as much warmth as he could manage.

The sound of a cascading waterfall could be heard in the distance, and the resonating echo of splashing water soon followed suit. With every step the mist grew thicker, but their path still lay before them, untrodden and dangerous as it led them into the mouth of a large clearing.

The darkness and heaviness of the fog made it impossible to see much ahead of them, but their path evened out at the shore of a lake. The surface of the water rippled and danced, clear and crystalline and with a dulcet sound to Noctis's ears.

Moisture beaded on their clothes and skin, catching in their hair and weighing them down.

“Where are we?” Ignis breathed, keeping a tight grip upon Noctis's forearm.

“Some kind of basin,” he answered, awed as he continued to look around the clearing. “It's pretty big, but the mountains have it secluded. There's a waterfall to our right, and I think I see some trees off in the distance...maybe a forest?”

Ignis's fingers tightened and loosened their grip, forming a bit of a rhythm that actually kind of hurt. Noctis took Ignis's hand and held it instead, squeezing it in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. The ache in his chest had grown tenfold since arriving down here, and a tug at his breastbone seemed to want to lead him towards the trees. Benighted and foreboding, the mist swirled in their depths, but something about them told Noctis they were safe.

“Let's go,” he said, his tone insistent as he started pulling Ignis along.

”Noct, are you sure about this?” Ignis blurted, falling into a slow trot to catch up with Noctis. “We haven't a clue what awaits here, and daemons could be waiting for us at every corner. We must be careful, Noct, I don't think anyone could reach us down here if something were to happen-”

“I see runes,” Noctis interjected, stopping Ignis with an arm to the chest. “I mean, sorry, it's just that the runes from the havens are here. They're set against a path leading into the trees, we should be fine...”

A distant howl resonated through the trees, low and mournful; something Ignis jerked his face towards, something Noctis opted to ignore. “Come,” he pleaded, keeping his voice as gentle and soft as he could manage. “Please, Ignis, just let me look around for a few moments?”

Ignis sighed, though a firm grip lingered around Noctis's hand. It kept him in place when he tried to pull ahead, and he stumbled backwards into an embrace unwilling to let him go.

“Noct, just give us a moment. I trust you wholeheartedly, but it's dark, and we've come a long way. It would be the better idea to head back up and get some help before we continue on our own.” He gripped Noctis tight by the sides of his face, squishing his cheeks in a manner that shot him 12 straight years back into the past, when they were still young and Ignis didn't have any other clue on how to scold him and make him listen.

Noctis grumbled as he wriggled in his grasp, reaching out to smack Ignis's hand away by the wrist. “Ignis, it's fine! If you want to call Biggs and Wedge, go ahead, but I...but I don't think I have the time for that,” he confessed, his voice wavering as he held his arms out. “Just feel me, Ignis! Everything is numb and on fire at the same time, my heart won't stop pounding and feels like a rock in my chest, and I feel like everything is going to go black at any moment. I don't know what's out here, but I have to keep going, Ignis! Luna...”

His voice broke, and his nose and lips began to tremble. “L-Luna wanted this, Ignis. I have to see what she was talking about, I owe it to her, okay?” Noctis hurriedly pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes, catching the tears before they could tumble down his cheeks. “If you want to go back, I'll wait with you until help arrives, but I need to be here. I...”

He leaned forward after a moment, balling his fists into the front of Ignis's shirt. Ignis inhaled sharply, wrapping his arms around Noctis's back apologetically, letting the silence fill the space between them instead.

“If that is how you feel, Highness,” he started, slowly and cautiously, “then I will remain with you yet. You are right, there is something wrong, and if...if it lies in that forest, if it can help you, then we must try.” Ignis sighed, but his grip around Noctis tightened. “I'm here for you, Noct. Go on when you feel ready to do so again.”

Noctis let out a shaky breath, nodding against Ignis's chest. He felt small and vulnerable, fit to collapse at any moment. Every muscle in his body trembled, only adding to Ignis's own shakes.

Noctis was afraid, honestly. They were stuck down there. He didn't know what was wrong with him, why his strength continued to dwindle like this. He didn't know why any of this was happening at all, and he didn't know why he'd suddenly stopped hearing the whispering of the ring inside of his pocket. He was terrified of what lay ahead, and he was even more scared of the possibility of there just being nothing. But fate had gotten him this far, his instinct tugging him along in what he hoped was the right direction. He just had to keep trusting in himself and Luna, and he had to muster up the strength to walk the last stretch to his possible, and hopefully final, destination in this journey.

Noctis just needed to go.

He inhaled, slowly and carefully, holding his breath for a few seconds before he finally let it go. “Come on,” he muttered weakly, hugging Ignis's waist and stepping to his side. “We have to be close now...”

Ignis nodded tersely, but he didn't say another word. Noctis felt weak, his head swimming as he moved to take another step. The lights of the runes before him were the only thing he could really see, and he was grateful for their presence. Everything was spinning for what felt like the hundredth time, threatening to throw him to the ground and grind his cheek against the dirt.

Ignis held him up, a little more than he should have had to. He moved Noctis's arm around his neck instead, keeping him close and steady by the hip as they walked. The occasional noise, grunt, and howl from some far-off animal could be heard in the distance, but that was where they stayed: far away from them. The trees rustled around them, carrying a gentle chime that seemed to come forth from their very depths.

Noctis glanced up when he could, and he noted the trunks of the trees growing thicker, lighter in color. The ones at the edge of the forest had been smaller, darker and a little more...well, scary. But the trees Noctis saw now were almost silvery, and he blinked rapidly as he noticed a certain glow.

The light blew forth from the trees and seemed to rest in an aura around them in the mist. It continued to swirl, a gentle lilt to its movements that made the light reach out and glitter as it washed over their skin.

“Can you see this?” Noctis grunted, forcing him to stretch upright so he could see better into the trees. “There's lights, like...this is gonna sound dumb, but there's lights coming from the trees.”

Ignis glanced around, blinking his eye slowly. “It's very dim, but yes,” he mused, swinging his cane carefully against the ground. “It seems to be a little warmer, too...”

Noctis nodded, pressing his head to Ignis's shoulder. It was starting to feel more humid, like they were walking into the middle of a rainy summer's night. The leaves above them were starting to thin as well, opening up to a sky and lacing the view with their rustling, merry tones. Even the leaves shimmered in the lights from the trees, iridescent and glowing in colors of blues, pinks, and silvers as they waved in the wind.

It was all so beautiful, and Noctis had to admit his breath was stolen by the sights. Occasionally he thought he saw something move in the corner of his eyes, but even the flitting images of creatures unknown didn't really bother him here. Here, it just felt warm, and it felt safe. It almost felt like home.

They walked, and Noctis kept his eyes to the sky as they did. Ignis panted quietly at his side, and he allowed their pace to slow, offering a small reprieve for them to regain their energy. It let him focus more on the stars, too, to strain his ears as he thought he caught the sounds of far-off voices.

The stars glittered like gems, dancing in place and casting a stronger glow onto the ground before them. The singing Noctis heard sounded so familiar, bringing forth faint memories and images of his strange dreams he'd been having over the last few weeks.

“Do you hear that?” he whispered, his voice carried off on the next breeze that stroked their skin.

“No,” came his expected reply, but it didn't matter. The moon had come into view, appearing from seemingly the dark, inky blue hues of the sky itself. It was so large, hanging swollen and heavy above Noctis, waning to the pattern set against the flesh of his back. It tingled as he gazed upon the cosmos, stretching out in a sea of stars that went beyond even the ones he could easily see.

A river of brilliant colors splashed itself against the sky like a river, and colors indescribable hit his eyes and nearly sent him to his knees.

“We're here, I think,” Noctis croaked, his voice catching in his throat as he gazed around them. “We're not out of the trees yet, but we're...we're actually here, Ignis, I...”

“So it's real?” Ignis asked, his tone incredulous as he attempted to look around. “I never doubted you, Noct, but to actually discover something akin to what you've been talking about...”

Noctis swallowed his words back down, not wanting to cave into excitement and relief just yet. He could see the area where the trees thinned, and he pushed Ignis on towards them, his chest heaving as he walked.

Ignis kept up with his speed, abandoning all use of his cane as he allowed Noctis to guide him instead. They wove through bending trunks, smacking leaves out of their way before they breached the outer lining of a wide, open...meadow.

Noctis's voice immediately hitched, and a surge of raw emotion hit him like a tidal wave. Tears welled up in his eyes as he gazed around the clearing, noting the sparkle of hundreds of colors in the silvered grass. He looked down at his own feet, and by his boot rest a small, white flower.

He bent over to pick it up, much to Ignis's shock. His hands patted frantically at Noctis's back before he realized what he was doing. Noctis plucked the flower from the depths of the grass and quickly stood up, caressing the small object between his thumb and forefinger and admiring the sheen of its crystal petals.

“Here,” he breathed, pressing the flower into the palm of Ignis's hand. “We're here, Ignis, and I...”

Reality crashed around him at that moment, and he felt the air drain from his lungs. “I don't know what to look for...”

“Perhaps we should move forward?” Ignis suggested, waving a hand out in front of himself. He was met with nothing, and he brought it back to himself, focusing on the feeling of the flower in his hand instead. “This is-”

“Shh!”

Noctis reached out, tugging Ignis close to his chest as he noticed a figure in the distance. “There's someone here,” he whispered, gently pointing Ignis's face in the direction the shadow stood.

Chapter Text

Ignis tensed, and Noctis blinked.

And just like that, the figure vanished, a single light in the dark suddenly flicked off.

“It's...gone?” Noctis muttered, wrapping an arm a little more firmly about Ignis's shoulders.

“Where did it go?” Ignis asked, discomfort evident on his features as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“I don't know. I...I guess I'm not sure there was even someone there. I just saw something and assumed it was...” Noctis trailed off, waving a hand uselessly through the air. “I guess let's go? There's no other way but forward for us...”

Ignis nodded, and Noctis watched him swallow hard. This was a strange situation for the both of them. They were both a wet, shivering mess, and each gentle caress of the wind tugging at their clothes and hair only made them jump like skittish kittens.. The whole place was beguilingly peaceful, and Noctis dug his fingers into Ignis's clothes as they started forward.

The deeper they went towards the center of the meadow, the more they could hear. The flowers chimed and tinkled with each wave of air that washed over them, and the steady rill of water could be heard faintly in the distance. The air only seemed to get warmer as they moved on, too, and the scent of something sweet and floral filled the front of his head and tickled a sneeze from the back of his throat.

Only it devolved into a coughing fit, and Noctis urged Ignis to pause with him as he doubled over, a hand clamped firmly over his mouth.

A black liquid dripped from his lips and leaked through his fingers, staining the already inky skin wrapped around his hands. Once he could breathe, Noctis shuddered as he wiped the gross, vile substance onto his clothes, his breathing ragged as he leaned against Ignis and buried himself against his shoulder.

“Noct...?” Ignis whispered, his fingers brushing through the tiny, feathery hairs at his nape, the palm of his hand caressing him close.

“I'm all right,” he gasped, stifling a cough into the back of his throat. “Let's...let's keep going. If we don't find anything soon, we can leave, but...”

But something grounded him there. Beyond the voices in the sky, even further from the chimes in the silver grass, there was something else. It was a colder, more desolate feeling that settled in his very core and weighed him down. It was the wistful feeling one got when a song came on that reminded them of a loved one passed away, one lost to the stars and the waves of the ocean along the coast. It asked him to stay, quietly, politely, and kept him rooted where he stood.

Noctis felt the hair on the back of his neck slowly rise.

The subtle sound of something moving caught his ear, and something ethereally tendril-like blossomed out from behind him, caressing him in a cold embrace that sent a shiver down his spine.

A substance akin to candle smoke, yet much more firm, wrapped around his limbs, brushing against his skin, adopting the feel of a diaphanous fabric. It was cold, chilled like ice, and it made him feel even more numb than he originally had.

Slowly, Noctis turned.

His grip immediately tightened around Ignis, who perked up in apprehension.

“Noct?” he asked, his tone cautious, careful. No doubt he'd been feeling what Noctis had been feeling, but without any visual sensory input to add to the equation, the permutations as to what could have been happening were no doubt beyond him.

Especially when the outcome of the situation led them right to...to this.

Standing at eight feet high, a mostly-humanoid creature stood before Noctis. It towered over him, gazing at him with eyes that shone a dark, eerie purple through the hollows of the skull of an animal he didn't immediately recognize. Bleached white and dazzling underneath the moon, two horns protruded from the tops of its head and arched up against the sky in elegant curves. The peaks splayed out like jagged branches from a dead tree, sharp and pointed, draped over with silver chains with various baubles and ornaments hanging from their shimmering lengths.

Its robe covered the entirety of its body, the pattern of its mindless flowing reminding Noctis of the mist hanging heavy between the trees. It was a deep grey, fading to pitch black at the center and translucent at the edges as it flared out and tugged itself along with the wind. Noctis couldn't see past the fabric, nor did he think he wanted to, given the state of what he could already see. The creature held a solemn look in its eyes, unblinking and lacking anything other than the glow of the color inside the bone. Noctis stared into them and shuddered, recoiling against Ignis and holding him a little more tightly against himself.

“We, um...we've got company.”

Ignis parted his lips, but he was immediately hushed by another voice.

Soft and gentle, yet empty and solemn, it breached out to them in tones light and gracefully feminal. It was almost soothing, if not for the fact it filled Noctis with a sense of desolation and misery.

“The lost soul unknown to me hath ultimately found itself here. I have awaited thy presence, should it ever appear."

'She' turned her head to the side, her one, glowing eye unblinking as it looked into Noctis's own.

“Uh,” he started, dumbly.

“Who are you...?” Ignis interjected, his cheeks pale and his lips taut against his teeth. His grip curled tight into Noctis's waist, and he grimaced as Ignis pulled him closer.

A moment passed before the creature tossed her head, the chains joining the gentle chimes of the meadow around them.

"Long forgotten to thy world, though even past years arduous and long, a name remains. I do believe thee and thine would call me Etro."

Noctis blinked, before a light went off over his head. Suddenly slack-jawed and mouth agape, he couldn't help but stare as the cogs turned themselves over slowly in his head.

“Etro?” he asked, incredulously. “I...I thought there were only the Six Astrals, and..."

He looked to Ignis, who looked just as surprised and caught off guard as Noctis was.

A soft chuckle emanated from the skull that made up Etro's head, a soft, sad noise as she shook it from side to side. "Ah. So there are, as I would prefer it remain. In an age forgotten, mine presence afeared your kind, enough for thy people to erase mine name from tome and scripture. Whence afore I failed to understand, the reason now lies clear: mankind holdeth no reverence for expiry. 'Twas merely a matter of time before thy people preferred I not exist."

Her voice trailed off with the wind, as light and evanescent as the edges of her robe. It was like she wasn't even there, comprised of nothing but smoke and mirrored illusions, her voice distant and quiet as if made up of the wind itself.

“Where...are we?” Noctis asked, glancing around their surroundings somewhat bashfully. He'd faced his gods before, but this was different. His own gods so far had been more primal in nature, their reasoning simpler and the actions behind their motivations mostly transparent, thanks to Luna.

If this was really Etro, though...then this was an entirely different situation, which was, apparently, on its own plane of existence.

Noctis swallowed hard, waiting in anticipation for his answer.

One that was stalled as Etro glanced away from him, her eyes scanning the distant horizon instead. “Mine own province,” she finally answered, her gaze slowly drifting heavensward. “A realm of mine own, away from prying eye, where those deceased may find their peace. A quiet realm of vales and sooth. Thou hast heard thine own tales, hast thou not...?"

She locked eyes with Noctis again, sending a ripple down his spine. Ignis instinctively clutched him a little closer, his own voice piping up to save Noctis the embarrassment of trying to recall myths from a childhood he'd long since forgotten.

“You were more a lullaby, a nursery rhyme, than anything,” Ignis started, "but some stories were perhaps less full of childish fancy. They say you are the keeper of the Unseen Gate, that you send the souls of the dead skyward through it. The origin of Etro's Lights, yes? A rumor circulating among people with near-death experiences. A phenomenon able to grant certain powers, or so it was said, in days of yore."

Etro slowly nodded along to Ignis's words, turning to face him instead. "Thy people are possessed of many narratives. This would seem the most common." She blinked once, before turning her face back to Noctis's.

"The tale holdeth some merit. It is not entirely untrue. Times hath changed, however, and with them the object of thy worship. Thy Kings once pleaded succor from me; though as fear began to permeate the masses, their monarchs sought new gods, and I faded, as the stones, with time. I understand man hence prays to the Draconian and his pantheon."

She sighed, a subtle ripple through her being that made Noctis shiver again.

“So,” he muttered, looking around, “did I just somehow kill us to get here, or something? Because I'm...still not really getting it, I don't think.”

Ignis made a noise, but he didn't object to the question. Etro merely chuckled at his musings, though, and she shook her head from side to side.

"Nay. I've merely made a path open to thine mortal eyes. Heeded thee mine beckoning call, and found thee thyself here, alive and hale. Though...excuse mine trite presumptions, but by mine reckoning thou hast come hence to make thyself...whole, again. Even mine own withered eyes can see this thing raging inside of thee." Her head tilted, and the circle of color in her socket seemed to shrink and thin, like a cat's pupil. “All that is known to me is that I was to expect thy presence. Thou mayst share thy story, and without hesitation. Worry not; none else but I and the dead reside here. None but we may hear thy words."

Noctis bit his lip, his head spinning. He honestly still felt fit to pass out, but he supposed that was the last thing he wanted to do, in a condition like this. Talking and distracting himself was the best way to go, the best way to keep himself on his two feet, conscious and able to offer what he could. How a goddess of death would be able to help him, he didn't know, but...he'd run out of chances to take, here.

He cleared his throat, and with stuttered, jagged sentences, the missing details dutifully filled in with Ignis's help, he started from the beginning.

Etro listened quietly, the dusky purple in her eyes varying in shape depending on where he was in the story. Large and dilated with surprise; small, almost halved and solemn with her head bowed in respect when the situation called for it. She didn't utter a word until Noctis took a deep, finishing breath, slouching ever forward from Ignis's shoulders.

“And then that guy, Ardyn, he...he did this-” he gestured toward his arms, his eyes heavy as he gazed upon them-”and we found ourselves in Tenebrae, where Lun- I mean, the last Oracle wanted me to go. Then I kind of just...followed my gut, and here we are.”

A lackluster finish for a pretty anticlimactic story. With his train of thought heading in a million different directions at once, it was kind of hard to make things coherent and string them together in a way that made sense. All Noctis knew was that he was exhausted, and that his world continued to dim with each passing moment.

Ignis adjusted his hold around Noctis, encouraging him to lean, instead of hang. “We're...at the end of our rope, here,” he muttered, his one eye fallen to the ground. "Quite frankly, I'm surprised such an entity as yourself even awaited us here in what I'd surely thought was a fever dream. Yet here we are, and here you are, and...I suppose this is the part where we beg your assistance."

Etro was silent for some time; unmoving, save for the gentle ripple of her cloak as it billowed at her feet. Noctis watched it intently, unable to meet her judging eyes as they looked him over.

Finally, she spoke, her voice quiet in his ears. "Thou art dying, King of Lucis. Yet not only one path doth lay before thee, despite what the whispers of thy people and the legends of thy past may lead thee to believe. Thou art possessed of a choice. It is merely thy own whim to choose the path thou takest."

Noctis perked up, his spirits lifting with his head. He didn't quite understand yet, but he leaned forward nonetheless, his own eyes struggling to make contact with the goddess's before him.

She leaned down, coming closer to him so they were face to face. Ignis squirmed as he felt something cold touch his skin, Etro's cloak reaching out to caress them in a hold that surrounded them in its chilled depths.

"Bahamut's prophecy is but one of many. The fleeting, fickle circumstances of man are yet beyond his ken, young and naive as he is. One grand star weaved of thousands of years of words and outcomes, and yet he expecteth thou to follow a single path at his behest, all to correct his own trespasses. Little one, thou hast choices thou art deserving of knowing...but only should thou truly desirest to know them, their inevitabilities, their burdens."

Deep and demanding, something slithered forth from Etro's robes and tapped his shoulder. Thin and skeletal, it resembled the shape of a spider's leg and sent his skin crawling towards the ground. He shuddered as his flesh turned to ice, static clinging to the surface of his bones as a feeling akin to freezing cold water rained down from overhead.

He met Etro's eyes once more, noting a glimmer in their depths in the space they shared. Noctis looked to Ignis, but he was quiet, slowly reaching out to place his palm to the side of Etro's head. Noctis almost expected Ignis's hands to just phase right through, but his fingers met the rounded ridges of bone, sliding against the surface as they began to tremble.

Etro kept still, allowing Ignis to touch her as much as he pleased.

"Thee and thine hath been met with a misfortunate turn in thy fate, but it is not too late to change its tide, to birth something anew of the ocean into which thou hast been thrown." She turned her head, guiding Ignis's fingers along the elegant curves of her horns, letting him trace the chains that dangled from their structures. "Wilt thou take hold of thy destiny and change it so?"

Even if Noctis had been in a state to deny the question, he didn't think he would have. His father had never explained the prophecy in full to him, and neither had Luna, but it was one of those things that had haunted him since a very young age. Realization on what it could mean dawned on him in his early years, from the room his father avoided to the treatment he'd been handed during his life back in Insomnia.

Even when they were younger, Luna had always skirted the topic and changed it to something else. Her honeyed words helped him realize a greater purpose, but belying her gentle expressions and kind words was a pain she must have been hiding all of these years. It was...unfair. Especially considering her ultimate outcome.

Nothing had really added up back then, though, and it was almost like he was raised without a care, to not have to worry about carrying out the blood of a line so important. It hadn't really mattered to him then, and he hadn't thought much of it until now, but...

Things were different. Things had changed and he'd lost ones close to his heart, and with his life force slowly, yet steadily, dwindling away, something needed to happen.

“What do I need to do?”

Etro blinked, nodded, and she leaned back before slowly turning around. Ignis's hand, devoid of anything to touch, returned to his side as he adopted a somewhat rather awkward look upon his features, his fingers twitching restlessly.

“Follow me,” Etro murmured, looking over her shoulder at the other two, the charms clicking gently against the side of her skull. Noctis nodded, wordless as he moved to help guide Ignis in the right direction.

They tailed after Etro for some time, and Noctis's gaze wandered as they walked through the meadow. There was more to it than what his dreams had showed him, the grass revealing winding paths that laced off into the trees, swathed by the darkness and mists that hung within their depths.

Yet nothing was really dark, per say. There was always a twinkle of something between the trunks of the trees, their own leaves glowing in the pale moonlight and casting a soft glow onto the ground underneath them. They shimmered as they danced upwards against the sky, and Noctis found himself looking upon it once more with furrowed brows.

The stars were different, comprised of constellations unknown to him. An entirely different interstellar map was laid out before him, the moon in the center of it all. Its craters sat differently upon its surface, and it took up a much larger space in the sky compared to their own moon as it sat at the horizon's edge. All things he'd noticed before, but...in person, it filled him with a sense of awe. A certain homesickness that seemed to linger in his chest, squeezing his heart in talons unforgiving.

A sigh slipped past his lips, and Ignis turned his head towards the sound.

“Are you doing all right?” he asked, his tone hushed. Etro didn't seem to hear them, nor did she give any sign that she would be eavesdropping if they talked. So Noctis nodded, carefully leading Ignis through the grass and past boulders the size of small cars.

“It's just strange,” he admitted, keeping his voice just as quiet as Ignis's. “I really did feel like there was something here for me, but this wasn't what I was expecting...I kind of want to doubt what she...she's been saying, but I'unno...” He shrugged, looking to Ignis with a small smile that strained the border of hopeful and defeated. “Part of me is too tired to argue, while the other says it's fine. She's...been kind to us so far, even if she isn't who she says she is. But I'm inclined to believe her words anyway.”

Ignis nodded, albeit slowly. “That she has,” he mused, warily toeing the ground where small creeks had begun to weave their way through the ground. The water sparkled, clear and crystalline and tinted blue against the colorful stones that lay underneath its surface. The stars were reflected upon the water's glossy surface, dancing atop the small waves that rolled and splashed themselves over the rocks.

Different flowers lined the shores, soft pinks and purples in their heart-shaped petals, splaying out like veins upon a wrist. They reminded him almost of the flower Gladio was named after.

At the thought, Noctis's heart grew a little wistful.

The creeks steadily began to grow, all draining themselves into a lake that Etro eventually led them to. Wide and just as beautifully clear, the water rolled across the surface and lapped at the shore in gentle, rhythmic sounds. It filled his ears and made him feel tired, reminding him of the fountains back home that he used to camp out by and nap against.

Too high-strung to really sleep, though, Noctis continued to follow Etro to the edge of the lake. A structure began at the shore, the beginning of a bridge made from a material that looked like a mix of glass and porcelain. It arched gently over the water and met two other bridges at the center, where they formed a circular building that hovered over the water. Noctis could see warm, yellow lights within the gazebo's interior, and Etro gestured to it with a nod of her head before stepping up onto the bridge, her footsteps ethereal and gliding.

Noctis carefully guided Ignis up beside him, easing his free hand towards the railings. Even they were carved and sculpted to resemble climbing ivy, and the surface of the bridge held a rainbow iridescence that shone in all shades of the rainbow underneath the moon's light. Noctis found himself describing the scene underneath his breath as they walked, an obviously excitable tone to his voice once he noticed the fish in the water.

Or well...fish wasn't quite the right term for these creatures. They looked like what Noctis had always assumed dragons to look like, just much smaller and luminescent as they darted between the flora underneath the surface of the water. They were huge for fish, though, varying in size from the length of his arm to about the size of his torso. They shone in darker hues of purples and blues, and their fins trailed behind them in wispy lengths that were mesmerizing to stare at.

Noctis had been so preoccupied with the fish that he felt himself collide against something awkwardly. Ignis backed away, but Noctis had smooshed right up against Etro's backside and gasped. He felt like he'd just been doused in ice, and he muttered a quick apology as he hurriedly stepped away from Etro's form and the strange, wispy, rubbery feel she held about herself.

She only chuckled as she stepped to the side, her eyes curved in something that resembled a smile. “Here,” she said, letting Ignis and Noctis walk into the center of the gazebo. Around the edges were plush, velveteen chairs, dusted silver and looking to have been barely used. Considering Etro's size, and...well, her only company being that of the dead, it made sense anything resembling a human contraption was going to be used.

But as Noctis sat down, something more came into view. Flickering at the corners of his eyes were pale, ghostly images, humanoid and varying in shape. Looking directly at them only served to make them disappear, but if he moved his eyes forward and tucked the images into his peripheral vision, he could make out faces and arms and legs as they, too, sat upon the chairs around them.

Unlike him, though, they sat completely still like statues. He swallowed hard, turning his gaze to Etro instead.

“Worry not about them,” she offered, her voice quiet and gentle as she turned in place, the outer edges of her robe flaring out, almost as if she were gesturing around herself. "They are merely resting, before they carry out the rest of their voyage. They shan't bother thee, just as we will disturb them not. As for now..." She stopped, facing Noctis head-on with a more neutral expression to her eyes. “A choice will be made, here, in the presence of the ones who know no judgment. Speak freely thy opinions, and I shall grant thee the repercussions afore I deem it proper to offer my aid unto thee.”

She nodded, and Noctis did in turn.

"A power unlike thine own, gifted unto thy veins where now it runneth hindered. A gift from a young maiden, ensuring thy survival. Dost thou wish to partake in its blessing, or wouldst thou walk onward without its aid, inevitably sacrificing thyself to the Crystal and the hands of the Draconian?"

Slightly confused, Noctis only shook his head quietly. Again, the details of the prophecy had never been disclosed in full detail to him, but from the sounds of things...

He sighed, and shook his head again. “Can you...can you explain, maybe?” he asked shyly, leaning against Ignis's side, the flickering images at the edges of his vision seemingly getting closer. “You're talking about the prophecy, right?”

Etro nodded, her glowing eyes seemingly growing dim. "Bahamut's prophecy, bequeathed when the Kings of yore and the Oracles forged a treaty, when a being both King and Oracle was forsaken, cast aside to live forevermore in misery. That is the one who doth seek thy power, thy destiny, that thou might end his plight in sacrifice. In this, two must pay the blood price, in exchange for the excursion of the Scourge from this star."

She blinked once, and Noctis nodded.

"Choosing to forsake this fate will merely prolong the star's own. While no dire repercussions will be present, thou doth leaveth the task of banishing the darkness to thy progeny. Forevermore shall the darkness plague thy star until the selfsame prophecy resurfaces to quell it." She tilted her head, and the chains upon her horns caught the light and blossomed in tiny stars along their lengths. Noctis swallowed hard, but he nodded again, refusing to open his mouth just yet.

Ignis shifted beside him, words he wanted to speak evident on his own lips. He swallowed them down for the time being, and Etro took a moment to raise her voice once more.

"Of course, thou mayest revoke the Oracle's blessing and give thyself to thy fate as Chosen King. Or thou mayest succumb to the darkness consuming thy soul, and pervert thyself into the very entity that wishes to destroy thee. All paths must be trodden by thine own feet, though I fear thy time runneth short. While time doth stand still within this domain, the same cannot be said of thy realm. Pray chooseth the path thou desirest, and with haste, afore further misfortunate happenstance befalleth thy realm."

A gust of wind blew through the gazebo, and in a haze of smoke, Etro was gone.

Noctis blinked, looking around in confusion as the figures at their sides disappeared, too.

“Uh. I, ah...”

He looked over his shoulder, to the shorelines, but it seemed Etro had erased herself completely.

“Where is she?” Ignis asked, keeping a neutral expression to the floor.

“I...I don't know.” Noctis blinked, and he blinked again, and a third time for good measure, just to make sure the bleariness against the lenses of his eyes wouldn't be leaving any time soon. He sighed heavily, rubbing at the side of his face with a shrug. “I'm sure she'll come back when we're ready...”

Ignis nodded in agreement, his hands working anxiously at the end of his cane. “She's probably giving you time on your own to think about things. A chance to discuss it amongst ourselves, perhaps...”

A sudden flash of light caught Noctis's eye. He turned his head just in time to see a brilliant pillar of light streak against the sky, illuminating the dark blue expanse in brief tones of washed-out hues before disappearing altogether. Ignis turned to face its general direction, but they both kept quiet as they sat there.

“So,” Noctis finally murmured, “I'm assuming Etro was trying to say I need to choose one or the other. The whole Oracle business, or the powers of the Lucii.”

He cast a sullen gaze to his lap, where his hands were clasped and as dark as ever. “And...I'm assuming, if I keep the ring, I'm gonna die anyway.”

“Your life in exchange for ridding us of the Scourge...” Ignis sighed, leaning his head back, his unseeing gaze cast to the ceiling of the gazebo. “I'll admit, I know the prophecy in full. Yet I've continued to stay by your side, the way we have been...and it's been utterly selfish of me. And quite frankly, I...” He trailed off, and Noctis blinked in surprise.

“You knew?”

The subtle sounds of Ignis shifting his weight could be heard, and he slowly cast a guilty expression to the floor. “I...had overheard your father talking with someone else. I was younger, and I needed to see him for my own grandfather. He was talking of the prophecy with Clarus at the time, and I had eavesdropped. It was wrong of me, but at the time, I think that's what...I think that's what helped cement proper my feelings for you.””

He took a deep breath, his knuckles white as he clutched his cane closer to himself. “I'm sorry, Noct, I probably should have told you. It's been eating away at me for years, but I just so desperately wanted to ignore it as much as you wanted to ignore your duties. It's probably why I pushed so hard, thinking I could trick myself into believing it wasn't going to happen if I just helped you as much as I could into...into acting like a normal king.”

He went quiet, and his upper lip began to tremble.

Any anger Noctis might have tricked himself into feeling at the moment disappeared in the instant he saw Ignis deflate, and he shook his head as he reached out for his quivering lover.

“No,” he whispered, pressing his lips to a shaking nose as he wrapped his arms tight around Ignis's waist. “No, it's fine, it's...it's a mess, you know? It's...it's fine, I know I would have preferred I didn't know back then anyway, because I was too busy with you, yeah? We were together, we were happy, and I'm glad you kept it that way...”

Tears brimmed at the edges of his own eyes, and Noctis sucked in a sharp breath as he continued to shake his head. “I'm just...I'm just really glad you stayed, even though you knew. You knew, and you stayed by my side...”

Ignis buried his face into Noctis's shoulder, and the rest of the world ceased to matter. Noctis held Ignis close, doing his best to keep his broken and ragged lover together in his arms. Not much still made sense in the light of recent developments, and Noctis's weary head was still struggling to wrap itself around the finer details of what it all meant, but it didn't matter.

Nothing else mattered aside from staying alive for Ignis.

Ignis had sacrificed all for him: the chance of having his own life, his own career to pursue, his own time to himself for his own hobbies and wants and needs. Ignis was his own person, yet he'd always insisted on devoting entirely all of it to Noctis and his life, to serving him until the bitter end when their inevitable goodbye would close their case and lock it away in the dark.

Ignis had no one else aside from Noctis, and the reality of it all hit him with enough force to collapse his lungs. Noctis inhaled deeply, fighting his tears back as he pressed his cheek to Ignis's head, his fingers stroking the protruding ridges of his spine.

Ignis was alone, he was damaged, and until now, he was living with the eventual outcome of Noctis fading from his life entirely. He'd been living with this knowledge, keeping it holed up within himself, coping with its weight through the excessive amounts of caffeine and impossible tasks he'd given to himself to keep his mind busy. He'd been living with the knowledge his lover was destined to die, and...

Maybe that's why they'd never grown as close as they could have.

A sad reality, one Ignis had been facing all on his own.

“I should have told you,” he continued, his words muffled against Noctis's chest. “I should have told you, I should have...”

But he trailed off, and Noctis's heart broke in two. He felt it sink to the very center of the lake they'd found themselves in, but he was going to be damned if it he was just going to let it drown there.

“Ignis, it's all right,” he muttered, pulling back to press his lips to tear-stained cheeks. “Everything's going to be okay. I can...I don't know what will happen if I try to do what Luna wanted, but I need to try. I have to, so I can...so I can be with you. So I can be with all of you...”

Ignis stilled, reaching up to hold Noctis's hands against his face. A moment passed before he nosed into the palm of his hand, and he nodded, quiet as the last of his tears dripped down his scarred face. They caught the light and sparkled, and Noctis continued to sweep them away with gentle motions of his thumbs.

“I hate to continue to be selfish, but I...” The rest of Ignis's words died at the tip of his tongue.

Noctis only nodded, leaning in for another embrace. Ignis was all too keen to lean into it, and they held each other as the implications to his chosen action were muttered quietly between themselves in the dim, warm light of the lanterns around them.

Chapter Text

Their decision didn't come easily.

“So, essentially, I'll become the Oracle,” Noctis repeated, the fifth time in a twenty-minute span.

“That's correct, if my own assumptions aren't wrong,” Ignis patiently answered, his voice soft, his gaze directed out over the water. “That just leaves me wondering what will become of your current...state, of being. The power of the Lucii is no easily malleable thing. I imagine it can't just be ignored or eradicated.”

Noctis sighed, his tired, weary mind beating a sign into his brain that read in bold letters, NO CONCENTRATING ALLOWED. He rubbed at his eyes firmly, the heels of his palms digging into the corners and coming back coated in a viscous black. He grimaced as he wiped the stuff away onto his shirt, pointedly ignoring the dark, growing haze that continued to leak into his veins.

“I suppose Etro will let us know. Right now it's just a matter of finding where she went.”

“She still hasn't come back to us?” Ignis's tone was anything but surprised, and Noctis offered him a shake of the head, a quiet sigh.

“No. I don't know where she went. Or how to call her, but...”

At the moment, he didn't quite care about that just yet. Unspoken words still hung in the air between them, dancing across tongues and sticking to the lining of their throats and refusing to budge. Noctis cleared his quietly, his gaze darting from Ignis at the corner of his eye, to the boarded floor beneath them as his numb fingers slowly worked themselves in his lap.

“The world itself might die, you know. Luna could only really contain the Scourge, and if it's gotten too bad, I don't know what just I could do...”

His words weighed heavily on his heart, and Noctis could hear Ignis suck in a heavy breath. “That's...a bridge we'll cross, once we get there,” he started, slowly. Yet that answer wasn't good enough.

Noctis turned to him, a little desperately as he reached for Ignis's hands. “It's a bridge we're already halfway through, Iggy,” he pleaded, scooting closer with fear bubbling like a heartburn inside his stomach. “I can't walk this path only to fuck you guys over, I...I need to know there's gonna be some kind of reassurance at the end of this road, something to let me know I'm not making a mistake, here.”

He shook his head, his words spilling out between trembling lips. “Damn it, Ignis, I don't care what happens to me in the long run. But if anything's gonna happen to you, or the others, I...I can't just sit by and watch you guys become the next Luna, or end up like my dad, or all of those other people, and I...”

Noctis forced himself to take a deep breath, to wipe away the errant tear that had slipped free and ran its course down his cheek. “This is gonna change things. And I don't know if it'll be for the better.”

He went quiet, and Ignis squirmed as his hands worked anxiously at the base of his cane. “I almost prefer the Noct who pointedly ignored his royal callings,” he muttered, something of a half-hearted laugh raking its way up from his diaphragm. It scraped against the ceiling of the roof that hung over them, resounding sadly in Noctis's ears before a quiet sigh followed its lead.

“I...as your adviser, it's only natural for you to turn to me. But I have to admit, Noct, I...I don't know. I've never read about anything like this in all of the texts I've consumed, never once heard a situation similar to this pass through the lips of another human being. All I had were children's fairy tales, the legends of old still passed down through religious scripture. I'm just as lost as you are, Noct, and I'm terribly sorry. I really am.”

Ignis hung his head, the shadows from the lanterns making him appear much older than he needed to be. The weight of this decision hung just as heavily upon his shoulders as it did Noctis's, and it was nearing the deadline for them to finally decide. Noctis could feel it weighing heavily in the air around them, smothering his lungs and piercing his heart. It was growing harder to breathe and his vision swam, inky swirls of black leaking into the edges of his eyes and obscuring the irises.

“Either way,” Noctis huffed after a beat, voice quiet, “it doesn't matter. We just need to get Etro, because if we keep talking, I don't think I'll be making it out alive one way or the other.”

Ignis's eye widened, but he nodded. “Of course. Shall we look for her...?”

“That won't be necessary,” come a third voice from the dim, smooth and deep, rippling through the very core of Noctis's existence as Etro, quite literally, stepped out from the shadows. Her robes swayed with the invisible winds, the charms upon her head chimed with every movement, and the glow in the void of her eyes was warm and kind. She appeared to be offering Noctis a smile, her head tilted to the side as she continued to walk forward.

“Thou mayest rest easy. Though thou art unsure of thy decision, thou canst take comfort in knowing it will not lead to this star's demise; for each thing that is taken, another taketh its place, preserving the harmony of the world, retaining the planets' alignment. Dost thou understand?"

She crouched low before Noctis, and while, again, he didn't understand much of what came from her...mouth, he kept quiet and nodded.

“Thy power as King is delicate, like a flame burning full bright, requiring a balance and constant host to keep unto itself, bright and alive. It must be passed from one soul to the other, and thou must understand the repercussions, the grave risks, if thou art to do so. Thou surely must want for more time unto thyselves, and while I wish I could grant this wish, time is running out. So I must query hence: be it thy will to give thy power to another capable soul?”

Noctis swallowed hard, looking to Ignis, whose features just worked themselves as he visibly grinded his teeth.

“...Yes,” he finally muttered, his anxious gaze flicking back to Etro's. “But who will get it...?”

“The nearest vessel, whose flesh still pulses with the lifeblood of the planet, whose heart is pure and wholly devoted unto thine. A basic pact of trust must be formed, a new bond between thee and thy new vessel. For the King and the Oracle exist as one, their powers hand in hand, an eternal salve to the universe's hurt for as long as it is scarred by the Scourge.”

Noctis swallowed hard, his panicked gaze finding home upon Ignis's face again. He was much more alert this time around, leaning forward, his fingers slack around his cane.

“So it...it has to be someone I know?” Noctis asked, his words as thin as paper, just as easily carried off with the wind. “Someone I trust...”

Etro nodded, her warm gaze turning somber.

“I trust thou already hast thy solution. Hither with us, a most gracious happenstance indeed, for once more, thou art running out of time, and I lack the option to offer unto thee another choice.”

The floor swayed out from underneath Noctis's feet.

The gravity of the mere suggestion took him by the throat, and he looked to Ignis one more time.

Was that even possible?

The Oracle was different, a power not necessarily passed down by blood, but from being chosen by the gods. Noctis did suppose the Ring could transfer the powers of the King to another, but only temporarily, and not without a greater sacrifice. The powers of the Lucii demanded a price in blood, no matter who wore the ring, no matter who wielded the power. Even the Glaives were not saved, for their blood was needed to use the powers themselves, as was once given by his father.

His father...a man too young, who had looked forty in his twenties, seventy in his fifties, dragged down by the years of responsibility and wielding a power that was much too great for any of them. His father had rotted from the inside out for years, bearing a silent burden comprised of not only his own, but his son's, the people closest to him, the people of his country he'd cared so deeply for...

And the idea of Ignis even so much as touching something like that terrified Noctis. It was a death sentence.

“I can't let that happen to Ignis.” He shook his head, his eyes desperate, his voice nothing more than a mere, weakened rasp. “I-I know others who would know it better than us, we'd just have to find them, but please...please, not Ignis.”

Etro stared into his eyes, slowly moving to stand. She'd gone quiet, eerily so, and the silence settled between the three of them like a blanket of snow. It held a tension that made Noctis's breath frost in the air before him, and for a moment, he was afraid he'd angered the god in their presence.

But before Noctis could say anything in reconciliation, Ignis's quiet voice perked up, deadpan and monotone as he spoke. “Don't listen to him,” he muttered, a blind hand finding itself upon Noctis's thigh, stroking the inner seam sewn into his pants. “He is weary, and his mind surely isn't intact. This would be my choice, and my choice alone, and if I'm the only solution, then I accept the consequences.”

Another moment passed before Etro visibly sighed.

“I am truly sorry. Thou must understand, little one, I am. I know the legends of thy power, the belying lies that linger underneath the surface of fortune and wellbeing. I know the hurting, the suffering, that the bloodline hast caused thee. But thy companion hast made his decision, and I warned thee that all consequences must be accepted, did I not?”

Noctis swallowed hard, turning his shameful expression to his lap instead. He wanted to argue, he wanted to scream, he wanted to kick and flail and demand another solution, to choose another path he'd been given. But Ignis's words echoed in his ears, the desperate, tear-ridden pleading in hushed tones for Noctis to stay by his side, to live instead of sacrifice, so that they might both live to see their wedding day.

It was hard, and Noctis felt his body quivering, but he nodded.

“Just so long as he doesn't have to wear the ring yet.”

Ignis looked his way, and Etro nodded. “Of course. The ring is only needed when harmony hath once again been restored to our star, whether it be now, or a decade in thy future.”

Her words were soft and gentle, and Noctis felt the wispy caress of something against his cheek. He glanced upwards, and his eyes met with the clear grey of Etro's robes as they wrapped around him; though what he thought was meant as a gesture of comfort turned into something more sinister as she inched closer to him.

What noise had been heard in the background faded the closer she got to him, and the feeling of being submerged in an icy lake gripped his entire core as the sensation settled into his muscles. It penetrated deep, even through his numb limbs and made him feel, in a way that felt like his arms were being torn from his body. He wanted to cry out, the tears filling his eyes urging for a quick escape, but he was paralyzed with fear once he noted the robes opening up for him.

Otherwise a dark void, it was partially filled with the glint of bones that glittered like stars. A rib cage like butterfly's wings spread out before him. The bones were dotted with black masses, writhing against the sparkling enamel and full of their own little eyes that bored a hole in his very soul. Organs, as deep a red as crimson-splashed blood against white itself, decorated themselves against the inside of the cage like the blossoms of flowers.

There was more to Etro, but the sweep of something hard and cool against his eyes had him tumbling through the dark, into her being where everything ceased to exist.

–

The sudden disappearance of Noctis had Ignis on edge, his hands patting the warmth of the seat where his lover used to be. “Where did he go?” he asked, breathless, as he cast his unseeing eye wherever the lights shone. They didn't offer much in the way of sudden clarity, and Ignis bit his lip as he made to get to his feet.

“Etro-”

“He is fine. It is thee thyself that we must worry for hence, for our time is short, and there is much to be done. Come this way, with me, young one.”

Something cold brushed against Ignis's shoulder, and he balked before he could properly stand. It touched his skin with a silent horror, brushing over the goosebumps like little spider's legs tickling his flesh. Except much larger, and much more horrifying to a blackened gaze.

Ignis shuddered before he finally found the courage to stand, his cane flicking to the ready and resting against the floor. Though it'd be hard to lead a blind man along without a helpful touch to the shoulder, and Etro led him along with whatever she was using pressed firm against his muscle.

Ignis did his best to ignore the sensation. He focused on each footstep instead, careful and calculated, the toe of his shoe the first to hit the hard wood, before the soft, dense dip of the mud at the shore of the lake. Noctis had done well to describe the scenery to him, leaving out the nasty surprise of accidentally stepping into the water and allowing it to soak through the leather of his shoe.

Honestly, it was a little much. Ignis took a deep breath, fighting the urge to just tip over and cry. While tempting, he was a man of dignified elegance, picking up the royal slack where Noctis let it hang, and he was determined to uphold his mantle and keep himself composed.

Etro kept quiet, though, her touch ever a constant upon his shoulder. They walked for a while, through underbrush that glided against the fabric of his jeans, through the soft leaves that brushed against his cheeks. Branches caught in his hair, trying to tug him from Etro's given path; but still he remained at her side, the occasional chill of a breeze caressing him with an errant promise in its hold.

Eventually she came to a stop, her hold upon Ignis's shoulder urging him to do the same."We are not far from where we were,” she reassured him, letting Ignis go to hover in the void that was his personal space. “A moment to be secluded and clear the worries of thy heart is necessary, however, before I pass unto thee the means to carry out the line of the Lucii.”

Ignis swallowed hard, squeezing his cane close, basking in the physical comfort of something familiar. “Of course,” he murmured, keeping his face low as he spoke.

A moment to gather his thoughts turned into just a moment of silence, but Ignis was glad for it. The copse they had huddled in offered a pleasant sound to his ear, of rustling leaves outlined to the sound of water lapping at a distant shore. The air was sweet, evocative, as he was reminded of humid summer nights with Noctis at his side, both perched upon the balcony of their old home that looked over Insomnia.

Nostalgia hit him like a truck, and Ignis cleared his throat as he quickly made the images dissipate. Where things once were, they were never going to be the same again. It was to expected, to grow older and look upon the past with some sense of idyllic longing. In this scenario, though, Ignis couldn't help but feel it just wasn't going to be like that. The incorporeal form of the situation was strange and foreign, a concept he'd never considered, never even dreamed of, until now.

The parable was unsettling, and for once, Ignis's adrenaline was telling him to run in the other direction.

If it weren't for the fact that Etro had whisked Noctis off on a wind of uncertainty, he would have.

“Art thou ready?” Etro asked, her voice solemn. Ignis nodded, and once again, he was being led elsewhere, away from his last, lingering doubts of insecurity. Almost immediately a wet sensation formed around his ankles, but Etro urged him further, out into what he could only assume to be a pond of some sort. Ignis could hear crickets, the gentle splashing of the water as it lilted over the shore at his disturbance. Rocks shifted underneath his feet and almost sent him tumbling into the water.

Etro held tight, though, and he did the same onto her. It was all rather cliché, as the water swallowed his chest whole. It stopped at his shoulders, licking at his neck and freezing him down to the bone. He started to shiver uncontrollably, but he took a deep breath instead, and let the quiet caress of Etro take over his shoulders. As unsettling as it had been before, something brushed against his neck and gripped it tight, a blossom of lights like fireworks erupting in the black of his gaze.

All too suddenly Ignis found himself on his knees, the wind knocked out of his lungs, the water rushing into his mouth, a voice ringing in his ears that struck him to the core of his very being.

What is this? it asked, deep and booming, a physical manifestation of thunder itself.

“A bargain,” Etro answered, her own voice cold, steeled. “One power in exchange for the other. This is thy newest vessel.”

A multitude of other voices broke out in a chorus of outraged cacophonies. It filled Ignis's ears through the rushing of water, filled his mouth with the metallic taste of blood. The ground shook, and the original voice spoke again with a roar.

She who is a goddess no longer can simply not come back from the dead and demand sacrilege against the prophecy!

Words abruptly cut off, Etro's voice flared with a sudden interruption, and a burning sensation ripped its way down Ignis's spine. “Thou forgetest thine origins! To be silenced and accept the outcome is what is necessary for this star, lest thy current vessel perishes and we are all obliterated. To accept this decision is the one choice to be made, and I will see it done!””

The voices rang out once again, but Ignis's concentration was cut short. His flesh felt as if it were being flayed, his limbs as if they were being burnt off, his only solace found in the water around him as it kept him steady. The current slipped past his skin and calmed the fever threatening to burn him alive, keeping everything at bay as he silently called out for some kind of relief.

Consciousness was no longer with him as he lost his grip upon the world soon after, and his final breath ended in a spray of bubbles as he floated to the surface of what surely was his final resting place.

When next Noctis awoke, it was a with a violent shudder that left him gasping for air.

“Noct?” immediately came a panicked voice from beside him, a hand fumbling as it sought out the space between his shoulder blades. It pushed at him insistently, slipping to a shoulder where it rolled him over onto his back. Noctis was vaguely aware of the sensation, his lungs heaving, a sharp pain in his chest that weighed heavy like a rock.

Noctis did his best to breathe around it, his unseeing eyes cast to the above. His eyelashes fluttered, his lids desperately trying to work the vision back where it belonged. A good moment passed, punctuated by the soft Noct? that clung to his ears, before the lights above began to fizzle back into existence.

The soft glint of metal was soon to follow, and Noctis felt everything hang over him like a watercolor. Everything was a little more vibrant, and everything was a little lighter. Ignis's voice still called his name, worried, heavy with the onset of tears, and Noctis finally looked to him with an outstretched hand.

“'M here,” he muttered, his palm lacking the grace of a gentle lover as it grabbed onto Ignis's shoulder. “I'm here...what, what happened?”

“Noct,” Ignis breathed, his sigh of relief brushing over Noctis in a sweet wave of reassurance and breath that hadn't been brushed in quite some time. It tickled Noctis's nose and made him giggle, and maybe he was a little out of it, but he felt good.

“I'm not quite sure what happened,” Ignis started, his hands cupping Noctis's cheeks, his fingers brushing over his forehead, “but Etro had taken you away somewhere. She brought you back, obviously, but she told me to follow her. I was...hesitant, at first, but I complied. I do not know where we went, but all I know is that I'm soaked, and quite frankly, I've been out cold for some time myself. But she preformed a ritual, and there's...there's a terrible weight in my chest, and the ring is with me, now. I...”

Ignis trailed off, his eye dropping to Noctis's chest. He sounded confused and lost, and there was a certain weight to his words that sounded like a brick dropping with every syllable he spoke. Though hazed, the memories prior to blacking out were coming back to Noctis, and he furrowed his brows in worried confusion as he managed to hoist himself up onto an elbow.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his hand falling from Ignis's shoulder to his neck, tracing the collarbone to the cleft in the middle. Noctis could feel Ignis's heart fluttering from there, and he slid the palm down to cover it as he scooted closer.

Ignis swallowed hard, unable to find it within himself to pull away. He leaned into Noctis's arms and stayed there, quiet, letting the silence be his answer for the moment. For as jarred as Noctis felt, like he'd been twisted in every direction at once and tugged apart, he was sure Ignis had to be feeling much worse.

“I'm fine,” Ignis managed after a beat, shaking his head in tandem with his words. “I do not know where Etro has gone yet again, though. I'm doubtful she will be returning this time around.”

Noctis nodded, and he took the opportunity to glance at their surroundings. They were in the same structure over the lake as before, the sky was still its same inky blue, but the moon was less full now, waning to a close before it started anew in its cycle of rebirth.

“I think it's time to go,” Noctis muttered, unable to help the pull of sorrow as it wove its way around his sternum. “I mean, honestly, I wish she was here, but...”

Ignis visibly grimaced, his eye darting to the side as he hefted them both up onto their feet. “I'm sure it's fine. Let us be off, and assess the damage that's being done back home.”

Noctis nodded in agreement, his eyes lingering on Ignis's face.

“Your glasses are gone.”

A moment's hesitation, before a nod in acknowledgment.

“I know.”

“Where did they go? Don't you want them...?”

“There will always be a replacement,” Ignis sighed, running a hand down his mud-streaked face. Man, the closer Noctis looked at him, the worse he started to look. He wanted to sit him down and make sure everything was fine, but Ignis was rather forward as he began to tug them along.

“How are you, by the way?” Ignis asked, an arm around Noctis's waist as he led them down the lakeside path with surprising ease. Noctis looked once, twice, and a third time just to make sure one eye was still shut and the other was still the way it was, and...it was all the same. Noctis babbled nonsense a moment as they moved, but once everything started to settle a little more, he realized he could move, much easier than he had been able to before.

“Better,” he started, lessening his hold on Ignis. Of course, Ignis wasn't having it and gripped Noctis a little more tightly, but he wasn't complaining. He was tired, his muscles screamed in protest, and above all; he just wanted a bath.

“I'm glad to hear that,” Ignis mused, slowing their pace as he offered Noctis a sad smile. “I'm afraid I've forgotten the way out of here. You might have to take the lead for a bit, if you don't mind.”

“Not at all. I just...have to remember where the exit is, too,” Noctis laughed, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned circles where he stood. They were back out in the main part of the area, where the meadow sprawled and danced underneath the eternal evening's breeze. The flowers still sang their gentle song, the stars above dancing and singing with them. Noctis was almost tempted to grab his phone and take a photo, but something told him it would be a useless endeavor.

He gazed at the trees instead, at their thick trunks that didn't seem to offer any opening. Feeling a little hopeless, Noctis spun once more before deflating.

“Well fuck.”

“Mm?” Ignis tilted his head upright, towards the sky as he, too, seemed to be looking around for something.

“I...I don't know where to go. Here,” he muttered, taking Ignis's hand before leading him along in some direction.

A few steps towards the trees, and a third voice was calling Noctis back by the name. Blinking in confusion, he came to a halt, turning on his heel to face...

“Dad?”

At a loss for words, Noctis was gazing upon the ethereal form of the man he'd lost not so long ago.

“My son.” Regis bowed his head, a soft smile on his flickering image, unmoving save for the subtle motion of his cold, blue lips.

Ignis turned to face Noctis proper, though he didn't follow as Noctis found himself stumbling forward.

“Dad?” he repeated, barely-contained joy, hope, ecstasy coating every syllable he spoke. “Dad, is that...is that really...”

Regis nodded, solemn as he stood a little straighter, looked a little younger, looked a little more torn up-on the inside than he used to. Noctis's own emotions mirrored the feeling, and his quivering hand was met with nothing as he reached out for his father's hand.

Regis cast his eyes downward, following the motions of Noctis's hand with guilt behind his dead eyes.

“I'm sorry,” he offered, tilting his head in a way so the starlight caught in his hair, the moonlight replacing the warm brown of his irises.

Noctis shook his head, stepping back once as he forced his hands to his side. “What are you doing here?” His voice was thick, and the air was suddenly cold and abrasive against his skin.

Regis visibly worked at the words caught in his mouth, his gaze sliding to the side of Noctis's head. Noctis turned, attempting to catch it with his own once more, but he watched his father slouch and shake his head, his greyed hair covered his eyes.

“I have to let you go, Noctis.” He shifted, looking once to the side, to the sky, back to Noctis with his expression warped. “I've been offered the chance to say goodbye. I knew I shouldn't have, considering you've accepted things on your own. I watched you do what you could to overcome the obstacles laid at your feet. I should have let you go. But considering our last words, I...”

Regis sucked in a breath, nursing his tone before he continued. “I'm proud of you, my boy. I know our power weighed a great and heavy burden on you, even since you were young. I lamented every day of your existence. I hope you know I did my best to be there for you.”

Noctis made to step forward, but every motion he took, his fathered mirrored with a step backwards. He couldn't help the tremble in his upper lip, the blur in his vision as he attempted to reach out again, the words sticking in his throat and refusing to breach his lips.

“I love you, Noctis,” Regis continued, the same pain Noctis felt evident in his own voice. “I was able to be there for you, through the ring. But that time is over, and it is time for us to part for good. I'm so proud of you, my boy, and I hope you get the life I wasn't able to provide you.”

The wind picked up, and Noctis did nothing more than just stare into his father's eyes, his words washing over him like the bitter taste of a cold medicine.

“Please, Noctis,” Regis continued, quietly, “I know I won't have to worry about you. But please, do what you can, for yourself. And remember, my son...I will be here. I promise.”

Regis suddenly stuttered, and he covered his eyes with a hand before turning away. Noctis watched with frantic eyes, the sensation returning to his arms and legs as he started forward again.

“Wait,” he called out, his words hitting his father's back like a brick wall.

“Wait!”

But once he picked up the proper speed, the vaulting motions of his limp-hampered run, Regis was gone. The wind blew him away back into the darkness, and Noctis fell to his knees with a dull thud. The air warmed and the voices of the stars came back to his ears, the gentle light of the moon washing over his pale skin in a sort of sympathetic caress.

Noctis stared into the distance, the joy, the relief of finally being able to leave wiped clean. He just felt empty, his lips mouthing the words he'd wanted to say--should have said, before his father left him. He muttered them over and over again, until it was too much.

Noctis clutched his chest and bit back a sob, a violent shudder rippling down his spine, a motion only quelled by Ignis's gentle touch to his shoulder, the fingertips dipping against the skin at the back of his neck.

No words were said, just gentle touches exchanged where they mattered most.

Eventually Noctis picked himself back up again, the tears dripped against the flowers where they silently held them.

“I'm sure he knows,” Ignis murmured, his hand squeezing Noctis's shoulder. “He only had so much time. I'm sorry, I was trying to avoid the situation, but...I suppose it was inevitable.”

“It's fine,” Noctis replied, waving a hand to the wind. “It's...it's fine. Let's go.”