FFXV Kinkmeme

"Breaking News!" Ignis cried, bursting into the apartment in a rush of purple and black, his puffy winter coat unbuttoned and flapping. Basil, sitting on the couch with a newspaper in his hands, waited patiently while Ignis tried to wrench off his gloves. "Mrs. Amicitia had a baby!"

"Oh, yes," Basil said. "The staff sent round a gift basket last week."

"She was the ugliest baby I've ever seen," Ignis said, lining up his shoes next to Basil's. He caught Basil's disapproving look and said, "In a cute way."

"All babies look ugly and wrinkled at first," Basil said. "What did they name her?"

"Iris! Gladio cried." Gladio cried a lot, actually. Ignis and Noct had to hug him all afternoon just because Iris opened her eyes and looked at him once, and he threatened to start up all over again when she whimpered in her sleep.

"Good tears, I hope."

"I think so." Ignis hung his coat up on the rack, which Basil had lowered so he could reach, and put on his house slippers. "He says he feels like he was always supposed to be a big brother." He climbed onto the couch and pulled out his latest book assignment, which was called Physics For Beginners and had a tendency of making him feel like he'd opened up the top of his head and let someone else rummage around.

"Do you have siblings?" he asked Basil. Basil shrugged.

"I was an only child," he said. "My mother was too busy with me to consider having another."

Ignis ran his hand over the book. Something pushed at the back of his mind, just like it did when he read about black holes and gravity, like he was reaching for the edge of a handhold on a cliff.

"Do you think." He stopped, his tongue heavy, fingers fiddling with the corner of the page. Basil's newspaper crinkled. "Someone said that. That when I was born, my mom and dad didn't want me. Do you think I was just... too small? Like Iris? And maybe they'd, I don't know, maybe they'd want me later?"

Basil folded his newspaper. He ran a hand through his hair and leaned over his knees, propping himself up on an elbow.

"They would have to be monsters," Basil said, "to take one look at you and not love you."

Ignis took a breath. It came out shaky and thin, and Basil scooped him up with an arm, tipping him sideways. He let out an indignant shriek, and ducked out of the way as Basil tried to muss his hair, over and over, until Ignis was laughing and kicking the edge of the couch.

They had hot chocolate that night as a treat to celebrate Iris' birthday, and Ignis went to bed in a room where the ceiling glowed with small lights in the shape of constellations, which Basil had carefully pinned up a few weeks before. He hugged his cactuar plush close, wriggled in the comfort of his quilt, and let the sounds of Basil rattling about the apartment send him to sleep.

Ravus still hadn't apologized. The Queen had petitioned to let him stay, and King Regis had apparently had a private audience with Ravus that left the prince in a furious, gloomy mood for days. Whenever the two of them passed each other, Ravus pretended Ignis wasn't there, which was just fine in Ignis' opinion. Noct, in his way, took a small revenge in pretending Ravus wasn't there, either.

It didn't help that after the incident, Luna's letters arrived at the Citadel addressed to Ignis alone. He had a whole drawer full of them, bursting with pressed flowers and questions about his new life, as well as a few pieces of gossip from home.

A piece of the cliff broke off near the waterfall, Luna wrote once. There was a family of chocobos hiding on the other side. Can you imagine? Chocobos in Tenebrae!

One thing kept popping up in her letters, like a chorus in one of the bouncy rock albums Basil liked to play. Mother is quiet. Ignis couldn't interpret what she meant by that, but it clearly troubled her. He wasn't sure how to comfort her, though. The Queen was always quiet, wasn't she?

"Dad gets like that sometimes," Noct told him one afternoon, while they sat on a park bench and threw grapes at the ducks. Ignis ate every other grape, and the ducks surrounded them like the Council in the Lucian throne room, eager and honking softly.

"Things can get really busy," Noct said. He tossed a grape into the water, causing a round of excitable quacking. "Dad's all by himself without Mom, so he has a lot to think about. Sometimes he won't talk at all for days. He just lies down and sighs."

Ignis rolled a grape in his palm. "Kings shouldn't have to be alone," he said. "Not like that."

"Kings of Lucis do," Noct said, with a sullen, bitter edge to his voice. "All of us."

"Not you," Ignis said. He leaned forward, pulled by a force that wrapped itself around his heart and made even the cool air itself burn bright and hot. "I won't let you. I'll go to college and become a Master at everything, and then I'll come back and help you out so you can have fun."

"But I thought you wanted to be an explorer," Noct said. "Or a star guy."

"Astrophysicist," Ignis said, savoring the word. "I can be both. Why not?"

Noct's eyes widened, and he smiled. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, you'll be like one of the old wizards, from before Lucis got civilized. The companions of the king."

"Yeah!" Ignis said.

"Yeah!" Noct shouted, and hugged him, upending the bag of grapes. The ducks lurched onto the grass in a flurry of feathers and snapping beaks, and the boys had to climb over the back of the bench to avoid getting pecked by an overenthusiastic bill.

"I have an idea," Noct said, dragging Ignis into the shade of a willow tree. "You know how Dad can share magic with his advisors?"

"Sort of," Ignis said. It wasn't so much sharing as it was passing on the magic of the crystal through the king, like electricity through a battery, but Noct's eyes always glazed over when Ignis or the king started going into it.

"Well, Dad taught me how to do it," Noct said. "I mean, I'm not supposed to until I'm ready, but we're ready, if you want to. We can make it like, a pact. A promise."

"Of course," Ignis said.

"Great! Ok, here goes," Noct said. "So I need you to take my hands."

Ignis was shaking. He could see himself already, tall and full-grown and dressed in black robes, with fire at his fingertips and Noctis at his side. He took Noct's hands and gripped them tight.

"Okay," Noct said. "So all I have to do is--"

Ignis opened his eyes.

There was something wrong with the sun. It was cold and white and square, and there was something pebbled over its surface, like ripples on the water in Altissia. Ignis squinted, and the sun faded into a simple overhead light, framed by plain grey ceiling panels.

"Ignis?" That was Basil. What was Basil doing in the park? Why did the park have a ceiling? Ignis swallowed and winced: His mouth tasted foul, and his tongue was fuzzy, like he hadn't brushed his teeth. He tried to sit up, and a hand went to his back, gently helping him rest against a pile of... pillows?

"Ignis," Basil said, and Ignis blinked at him. Basil's brown skin was ashen, with purple bags under his eyes, and his hair looked like he hadn't used any product in it in a while. Ignis immediately tried to stand in alarm, and jerked when a wire attached to the crook of his arm held him back.

"Basil?" Ignis asked. "What's wrong? Are you ill? How did we--Noct and I--"

"Yes," said another, deeper voice from Ignis' side. "What were you and Noctis doing?"

Ignis looked to his left, where King Regis was sitting next to a blue and white cot, looking almost as harried as Basil. Noctis sat in the cot, sheepishly picking around the vegetables on a plastic tray, and gave Ignis a pained grimace.

"We were..." Ignis strained to remember. "We were trying to make a promise."

"Ah," King Regis said. "Ignis. Son. Can you do something for me?"

"I can try, your majesty."

"There should be a tickling in your palms," King Regis said. "The way it feels when your hand falls asleep, but deep inside. Can you sense it?"

Ignis thought about it. There was... something, more like a buzzing, warm and not entirely unpleasant, under the skin. He nodded.

"Good. Now, I want you to close your eyes. It's imperative--imperative means gravely important--that you do not open them until I say. Close them now."

Ignis scrunched his eyes shut as tight as he could.

"Imagine pushing that tickling feeling up to your fingers," King Regis said. "Good. Good, now hold it there."

"Uh oh," Noct whispered.

"Good gods," said Basil.

"Close your hand, son," King Regis said, "and open your eyes."

Ignis obeyed. His hand looked perfectly ordinary, and the buzzing was back in his palm, barely noticeable unless Ignis concentrated. King Regis raised an eyebrow at his son, who sank into his pillows.

"Congratulations, Noctis," the king said. "You've created a Glaive."

-

Both Ignis and Noctis, the king said, in a quiet voice that showed exactly how furious he truly was, were in utter disgrace. They were not allowed to play together without supervision, Noctis was banned from comic books and video games for three months, and they both had to write an essay on a book called "Lost At Sea: The Misuse Of Magic In The Fiftieth Century." Ignis also had to start magic lessons with the king as soon as he recovered, which scared him much more than the essay. He was still far too anxious around King Regis, and feared he'd finally tipped him over the breaking point.

The biggest surprise came the next day, however, when Noct and Ignis were interrupted from the thought of the acute misery to come by a nurse at the door.

"You can always say no," the nurse said, and Ignis and Noctis glanced at each other. "But his highness has claimed family rights."

"His highness?" Noct asked.

"Ravus?" Ignis said.

They both sat up as the door opened. Ravus had his hair pinned up in a ponytail, and his hands twisted the cloth of his coat as he stepped forward. Noctis leveled a scathing glare his way, but he looked to Ignis instead, his mouth working strangely.

"I heard you were." Ravus cleared his throat. "Unwell."

"I'm doing better, your highness," Ignis said. "Thank you."

"I knew Luna would worry," Ravus said, in a breathless rush. "She does care about you. Of course, she doesn't answer my letters, but I thought if I addressed it from you, perhaps she would--did you truly commune with the prince's magic?"

"That's what his majesty says, your highness," Ignis said. He clenched his hands under the sheets. What could Ravus do with Noct there and a nurse at the door? All the same, he wished Basil were with him to hold his hand.

Ravus' breath caught. "You. You actually. You could have died," he said.

A seed of bitterness bloomed in Ignis' throat, like the sting of pepper. "And?" he said. "I'm no one."

"Don't say that," Noct said. "You're my best friend."

Ravus hesitated. He rocked on his heels, and when Ignis flinched despite himself, Ravus' face fell. He looked almost as young as Ignis, then, and for a moment, Ignis thought he could see a softness there, a lost and bewildered boy who couldn't figure out how to react.

"Take better care of yourself," Ravus said, and, before Ignis could think of a thing to say, went staggering out of the room.

"Yikes," Noct said, when the door shut after him. "He's got problems."

"Yeah," Ignis said, and rubbed at his palm, testing the hum of magic in his hands. "I wonder what they are."

-

Magic lessons were a disaster. The king tried, truly tried to teach him, but every time Ignis was told to throw fire or freeze the ground beneath the king's feet, he went stiff with terror and couldn't move an inch. In the end, one of the king's Glaives had to step in, a young man with braided hair and the tattoos of a man of Galahd.

"It's easy," he said, bringing fire to his hand while Ignis struggled to warm his fingers. "When you get the hang of it, it'll be like learning how to swim. You'll never forget."

Ignis wasn't so sure about that. He did learn how to dip into Noctis' armiger, a magical space where he and Noct could pass contraband comic books back and forth, but with anything other than fire, Ignis was a disaster. He was also banned from practicing in Basil's apartment, on account of some of the mistakes Noctis made when he was first starting out.

Out of all of the things to come out of his and Noct's pact, however, there was one thing that Ignis could have never suspected.

It happened in early spring, when Ignis and Noctis were no longer officially in disgrace. Ignis was sitting at lunch with Basil, reading the newspaper over his shoulder, when a page ran in from the main hall. Heads turned through the dining room as she trotted over to Basil, her hat sliding down her black hair. She bowed, and it fluttered to the floor.

"His majesty requests your presence," she said, and looked up at Ignis. "Both of you."

Basil held Ignis' hand as they walked down the corridors to the throne room, swinging it a little as they went.

"You don't think I'm in trouble again?" Ignis asked.

"Should you be?" asked Basil, with a sideways grin.

"Not that I know." Ignis pushed his shoulder up against Basil's side, and Basil let go of his hand to wrap an arm around his shoulders. They were still walking that way when they entered the throne room, where the king, Noctis, Gladio, half the Council, and Ravus were waiting. Before them, on the dais, stood--

Before them was--

In a white gown was--

"Ignis!"

Lunafreya Nox Fleuret raced down the steps of the dais, her skirts fluttering about her legs like the wings of a bird. She'd grown since Ignis last saw her, shooting up like a skinny weed, and her hair was cut short to her shoulders. Ignis stumbled forward, and Luna collided with him hard enough to send them reeling into a pillar.

"Oh, Ignis!" she cried. "I'm so glad to see you. Let me look at you." She pulled away. "Oh, I missed you." She laid a hand on his cheek.

"I missed you, too," Ignis said, in a very small voice. "Why... How did you..."

"Mother sent me," Luna said. "Ravus is due to come back anyways, but she sent me specifically. Ignis, you won't believe--If I'd known! It's fantastic!"

"What is?" Ignis asked. A few feet away, Ravus was craning his neck, trying to listen in. Luna beamed.

"It's Mother," Luna said. "She wants to make things right, Ignis. She wants to bring you home."

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(Cinderella plot incoming!)