ffxv_kinkmeme | Prompt Post Round Five

Welcome to Round Five of the FFXV Kink Meme!

Closed for prompts | OPEN for fills

Please have a look at the extended rules here.

The important rules in short:

Post anonymously.
Negative comments on other people's prompts (kink-shaming, pairing-bashing etc.) and personal attacks of any kind will not be tolerated.
Don't be an asshole.
One prompt per comment. Warnings for common triggers and squicks are encouraged, but not required.
Prompts should follow the format: Character/character, prompt.
Keep prompts to a reasonable length; prompts should not be detailed story outlines.
Fills should have the word "Fill:" at the start of the subject line.
Otherwise please avoid changing the subject line.
No reposting of prompts from previous rounds, please.
No Meme-Police. Only ffxv_kinknator and ffxv_kinkhelper and ffxv_kinkmod are allowed to mod the meme. If you spot a rules violation, don't comment in the thread, report it on the Ask a mod post.

Please direct any questions or report any problems to the Ask a mod post.

Prompt, write, draw, comment, and most importantly have fun!

(You can also check out our Pinboard for Filled or Unfilled prompts)

If you'd like to advertise a fill, head on over to the fills post! This is, of course, entirely optional.
New Prompts are Closed for this round. Please wait until 11/13/2017 for Round Six.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From: (Anonymous)

Month 4

Despite his reservations, what Gladio arranged turned out not to be that bad. Visitors came in a steady trickle – never enough to be overwhelming, never staying with Prompto long enough to wear him out. There were games for the kids in the yard, and beer and barbecue, and Ignis cooked and baked as much as he could, as if expecting an army to drop in. Prompto thought that was alarming, but Gladio said to let him. It keeps people asking for recipes instead of how he feels.

Gladio put a bunch of camp tables together in the living room and upended boxes of pictures onto them, for visitors to sort into albums if they had a few spare minutes. Prompto had never been into gritty war photography or documenting wreckage and disasters; he liked portraits and wildlife shots and landscapes and animals being adorable. He could hear laughter as pictures were passed around, and people asking Gladio or Ignis for stories or explanations. Gladio let it slip that Prompto and Ignis had tied the knot, and there were congratulations after that , and people expressing regret that there weren't any wedding photos (Ignis found hard to bear with good grace or without correcting their misunderstandings).

Prompto had almost forgotten how close their community of survivors was. He'd let himself become isolated by illness, but he belonged to these people, with their quiet send-off messages. Wait for me on the other side, they said in lieu of goodbye. Say hi to my mother – my kid – my buddies.

"It's weird," Prompto told Cindy, after she told him to look Cid up for her and give him a big hug from his best girl. "I'm dying because I'm not human enough." She was one of the few people he'd trusted with that secret; she gave his hand a gentle squeeze now. "I don't even know if I can pass over."

She cut off that line of talk with a click of her tongue. "People ain't the only things with souls," she said, like that was an obvious truth. "You think there's no puppies and kittens in the beyond? Hell, I'm sure the prince's gorgeous car is there. He better not let you drive it." She dropped a kiss on Prompto's forehead to take the sting from her teasing. "You've got a pretty soul to match the rest of you. D'you remember that time..."

He did remember, that and all the other stories people kept reminding him of as they wandered in and out, sometimes clutching pictures. Memories swirled around him like a snowstorm, so much that he got lost a little at times. Which was okay: it distracted him from thinking about how he wasn't going to be making any more memories. No more roadtrips, no more hunting, no war, no camping out under the stars with Gladio, no fishing, no chocobos, no Ignis at his side or in his bed or touching his hair.

He got a lump at the back of his throat when he thought about how one day, suddenly, after Noct was dead and gone, he'd picked up his camera again and started taking pictures because life went on, even after the deaths of kings, and heroes, and villains, oracles and prophesied saviors, parents and friends and brothers by the thousands. Others would continue on after Prompto walked away, off to where the sky was always blue and the shoreline went on forever.

After a couple of weeks of friends paying their final visits, Prompto stopped being hungry. With Ignis distracted by all the activity, Gladio was the first to notice. Prompto shook his head at dinner, after having turned away breakfast and lunch as well, and Gladio bit down hard on his lower lip. He looked furious, but then he sat down on the far side of the bed, out of view from the front room, curled up, and cried into his knees. Prompto managed to reach over and pat his head in a way that hopefully felt consoling, leaving his hand there when his arm started protesting.

"So much for magical thinking," Gladio said finally, grabbing a facecloth from the bedside supply to wipe his face clean. "Shit."

Prompto took a couple of breaths; sometimes he couldn't figure out how to speak, other times he didn't have the coordination for it. He'd said all he wanted to anyway, mostly. But: "Ignis," he got out, and then when Gladio looked alarmed, managed, "not today. Tomorrow."

"Promise," Gladio said, with a superstitious fervor, like Prompto was committed, now, to sticking around one more day.

Maybe, Prompto thought.

He didn't wake up in the morning. He missed part of the afternoon as well, and only managed to rouse because he thought he heard his mother talking on the phone with his homeroom teacher again. He always got in trouble for skipping school. He should stop doing that.

But when he opened his eyes, Ignis was there instead. He had one earbud in to listen to something while he rubbed Prompto's fingers gently. Or at least that's what he seemed to be doing. Prompto couldn't really feel his hands or his feet. Probably something to do with how the cold had seeped in. Not that he minded: freezing to death was supposed to be a good way to go. Better than stabbing or daemons, anyway.

After a while, Gladio wandered in and noticed his eyes were open. He stared at Prompto in a weird way until he observed a blink, and then said, "He's awake."

"Oh."

Ignis fumbled to turn his phone off and get rid of the headphones. Gladio moved swiftly to do it for him, saying he had two working hands and, "Go make nice to your husband, I got this."

"It's not a real marriage," Ignis murmured, his stock response, before turning back to orient himself to Prompto. Gladio snorted the way he always did, and Prompto felt a bit lightheaded, as if in another time he'd be really pissed off around now.

"Is," he said, but then got derailed. Ignis was trying to tempt him into drinking something, and he had to say no to that. He was doing a crappy job of keeping alert, and he could feel everything around him starting to fade out again. But still. "This is real."

Gladio clapped a hand on Ignis' shoulder. "There." He rubbed soothingly, as if that could even put a dent in Ignis' stiff posture. "Kiss and make up." He gave Prompto a wink and then hitched a thumb over his shoulder. "I'll go put the coffee on."

Ignis kept quiet until Gladio started opening cupboards, and then in a rush he said, voice low and urgent, "You've always been my way through the darkness. You lighten my burdens and show me the world anew. I should have told you that, even though we forwent a proper ceremony and vows."

Prompto liked the sound of that; he thought he might be smiling. "Kiss," he reminded Ignis.

Ignis set his visor on the side table and then leaned over, timing his kisses to not get in the way of Prompto's labored breathing, each press of his lips gentle, a familiar comfort that eased Prompto back into the tide of his dreams.

Waking and sleeping became the same thing, and as the night passed Prompto became exhausted and restless at the same time. Simply breathing was a harsh effort, and time had come unspooled, or perhaps disconnected. He was freezing, Glacian ice inside his bones as the room around him wavered like a mirage on the road. He couldn't see the pictures on his wall in the glow from the nightlight, but he knew the memories were there, watching him. He was sorry.

Ignis, still seated at his side but dozing, stirred, and his movements to Prompto's eyes were like a disjointed rotoscope. One moment he sat, and the next he was standing over Prompto, touching his forehead and his hands, and then he was speaking, gone and there again.

"Hey," Prompto said, or tried to, but the person picking him up wasn't Ignis.

"Yes, we know." That was Ignis, sounding put-out. He was buttoning his black coat, and Prompto thought he could see rows of gold buttons for a moment, and the rain on his face. "Where's his hat?"

Gladio answered – Prompto wasn't paying attention – and then he was wrapped up in blankets and mittens and scarves, as if the cold wasn't already burning through his veins. Outside, the street was rough, and Ignis muttered in annoyance as they turned onto the path to the sea. Prompto leaned his head back against Gladio's strong shoulder and looked up. The stars were spinning and falling like fireworks, one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. He wished Ignis could see.

They came to a stop where the sand was dry above the high-tide mark. Ignis sat and Gladio passed Prompto into his arms, fussing before sitting down himself at Ignis' side, Prompto's legs in his lap. The waves hissed up the shore, the stars fell, and Ignis was talking steadily, words carried off by the wind like candle smoke up to the gods.

They were waiting for something, but Prompto couldn't remember for what. He was forgetting a lot. Sometimes he forgot to breathe, and Ignis rubbed his chest to remind him, his breath hot across Prompto's cheek, like fire.

Gladio rumbled something, and Ignis curled his hand around the side of Prompto's face, telling him to open his eyes, the sun was rising. Prompto watched the light limn the water with gold and his chest tightened, like Gladio was hugging him the way he used to, before... before. Ignis was still talking, and Prompto didn't want him to stop. He wanted so much that it hurt, and he couldn't even hold Ignis' hand in his own, or say anything. He'd wanted to say something.

He didn't remember what it was, staring out over the water until the chill wind raised goosebumps. He got up, rubbing his arms and stretching out limbs stiffed by cold, and started walking off along the shoreline. The path was familiar by now, but everything seemed clearer today: the sky brighter, the bridsong chirpier, the water clearer, sleek silver fish drifting through the depths. He scooped up a few stones and skipped them out as far as he could, and then clambored over some tumbled-down rocks in his way, taking a good look around from the top.

He'd never come this far before.

Just on the other side of a small creek was a jetty out over the water. It looked weather-worn but serviceable, and someone was sitting at the end, fishing. As Prompto watched, the man looked sharply in his direction, and then waved.

Prompto figured it was good to make friends in a new place, and he made his way over, calling hello when he got close.

"Don't scare the fish," the man called back, probably scaring the fish even more. He set his rod down and jumped to his feet, and suddenly Prompto knew who he was.

"Noct?"

He got a hug for that, tight and fierce. "Been a while," Noct said. "Or has it?"

"I don't know," Prompto said. He couldn't bring himself to feel worried about all the holes in his memory, not here with the fresh air and blue sky and Noct clinging like an octopus. "Days? Years? Does it matter?"

Noct took a deep breath and let him go. "Luna's going to want to ask questions," he warned. "But you'll probably have answers by then." He shrugged. "If not, you can play with the dogs, I guess."

Luna. "I always wanted to – " Prompto started to say, and then cut himself off with a laugh. "I guess I do remember."

"I missed you," Noct said. In this place he didn't look young or old, which Prompto thought suited him. He'd never had enough time; he'd had so much time stolen from him. "Didn't think you'd be the first of us to make it here."

"The second," Prompto reminded him. But he didn't like remembering that.

"Whatever." Noct put his hand on his shoulder and gestured at the lake. "Help me catch lunch, and we'll talk."

Prompto didn't recall enjoying fishing much, but he felt the familiar weight of his camera in his vest pocket. He slid it out like an old friend. It felt like ages since he'd taken a picture.

He pulled Noct close, cheek to cheek, and snapped a picture of them both, laughing, blue sky above and endless days before them.

end

(the soundtrack for the fic is here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRzef2XzKSy5t3skqsRzNTiofsdxgyRjh Thank you for reading!)

From: (Anonymous)

Authoranon, I'm crying and I can't stop. This story hurt me so much: Prompto having to die too soon, he and Iggy didn't get their chance to be together longer, Prompto reminding Noct that he was the first one to die... I loved how you wrote everyone, what you wrote, but at the same time I want to spend the rest of the day sobbing into my pillow.

Thank you for writing this.

From: (Anonymous)

*hugs you, hands you a baby chocobo chick* Thank you for reading, and I'm sorry for the tears. (That7s why it took me so long to finish writing!) <3 <3

From: (Anonymous)

I quite literally cried reading this, and maybe it's because I lost a close family member in a similar way a few months ago, but reading this was good because it felt more real than most times people write about death from lingering illness. I've read other fics where people die like this and they just made me angry for all their inaccuracies, but this one felt so much like my own experience (well, except less awful, but I don't want to read about awful haha) that I'm glad I read it, and I'm glad that they have an afterlife where they can be together.

From: (Anonymous)

((hugs)) I'm glad it read as realistic but not awfully so; I was worried that it would hit too close to home for many people, and I don't want to hurt anyone. I think canon suggests everyone gets to be together after death, and I cling to that: everyone deserves eventual happiness! Thank you for reading. <3 <3