FFXV Kinkmeme

((And here's the end! Thank you so much for all your encouragement; it really kept me going with this.))


There’s a moment of absolute silence.

“You murdered someone,” Noctis says.

“I was convicted of it some months ago,” Ignis says. “This isn’t a new development.”

Prompto hovers for a moment in the space between them, uncertainly, and then edges away to unstrap Gladio from the bed.

Noctis tries to swallow. It feels like his mind is catching fire, slowly, unstoppably. “Why? For revenge?”

“It wasn’t revenge,” Ignis says. “I merely thought I’d keep an eye on him, after the incident. I didn’t have any intention—”

“You’re trying to tell me you strangled him by accident?”

“I learnt he was planning a further attack on you,” Ignis says.

Noctis feels like he can’t breathe.

“I have never lied to you about this,” Ignis says, quietly.

There’s a silence. It’s probably a few seconds. It seems like years.

And then the sound of guards still searching the prison cuts into Noctis’s awareness, and he remembers where they are.

“Look,” Gladio says, wandering over, rubbing his head, “I know time is of the essence and everything, but can we just head back to the cells real quick so I can punch Aranea?”

It’s said too lightly; it’s clear that he heard their conversation. Noctis knows what he’s really saying. Stay on track. Now’s not the time to think about this.

It does kind of seem like the time to think about this. He’s about to break Ignis out of prison. The fact that Ignis actually did commit murder suddenly seems very relevant.

But he could stand here and think about this for hours, and he knows deep in his chest that he’d never leave Ignis here. He can’t do it.

“Okay,” he says. He takes a breath. Looks at the window, which is clearly not designed to open. “Someone’s going to notice when I break the window. You need to hold on to me. Be ready.”

When everyone is in position, Noctis breaks the window with another blast of magic. He hurls the pencil as hard as he can in almost the same motion, and he counts every heartbeat until it passes the razor wire, and then he warps.

-
They pause to catch their breath in an alleyway, when they’re a good distance from the prison. Ignis begins outlining next steps: stocking up on as much food as possible before wanted posters are released, finding some form of transport. Cindy’s grandfather owns a garage and is famed for treating former convicts generously, although escapees might be another matter.

Noctis is barely listening. He looks around. They’re all here. Gladio. Prompto, the guy they did all this for.

And Ignis, the friend who once killed a man for Noctis. The friend Noctis can never look at in the same way again.

You do inspire the most extraordinary loyalty, Ardyn seems to whisper in his ear.

Maybe Prompto would be better off on his own. It’s not that Noctis doesn’t trust Ignis; he may not know Ignis as well as he thought he did, but he still knows him better than to think he’d harm Prompto. Noctis doesn’t trust himself. He made a man into a killer, however unintentionally. He can’t be sure it won’t happen again.

Noctis looks at Prompto. Braces himself to say you’d better find your own way from here.

He bested a god, and he’s not strong enough for this.

“Let’s go,” he says, instead.