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“I’ve picked out a shirt for you,” called Ignis into the closed bathroom door with a knock, “It’s on the bed.”
“Thanks Iggy,” said Gladio through the shower stream, “I’ll be done in a sec.”
He could stay under the cold shower stream for the rest of their trip, and away from Altissia’s stifling heat and humidity, but Gladio made quick work of his shower, quickly lathering himself up with soap and letting the cold water seep into his scalp for only as long as it required to rinse his shampoo out.
From the research Ignis quoted with odd fascination at campsites and motels on their way to Altissia, the port city was its liveliest in the summer. The streets were teeming with tourists flitting from one attraction to another, and locals were in a perpetual state of revelry or relaxation, depending on what that day desired. The Prince and his retinue arrived just days before one of the city’s famous fireworks displays that marked every end of every month in summer, and Gladio would call their arrival a meaningful coincidence, if it weren’t for Ignis’s subtly interested remarks during their drives, or the habit he had formed of reading travel articles of the port city before falling asleep in his sleeping bag while Gladio embraced him from behind, his chin on his lover’s shoulder as he read along with curiosity.
Since they had arrived, Ignis kept all three men to a tight schedule to fulfill any important errands the days prior, leaving enough time to attend the display that evening. Gladio couldn’t help but smile when he watched Ignis flip through a travel brochure on their first night, and he couldn’t help his grin under the shower either when he could hear Ignis puttering about their hotel room through the bathroom door, ordering Noctis and Prompto around to make themselves presentable, down to picking out the clothes Gladio would be wearing.
Ignis never wanted for much, especially not for something for himself, and when he did, he found ways to frame his desires in a way that would not inconvenience the others, only seeking them out when they neatly lined up with their bigger priorities. To see him so excited and eager for something as simple as a fireworks show made Gladio’s heart melt under the Altissian sun.
He reached out for the plush hotel towels on the hand rail and he dried himself off, before slipping on a clean pair of underwear Ignis had left for him and stepping out into their hotel room. The sun had already begun to set, casting the room in an orange hue, and the chatter of crowds outside spilled into their room through their open windows, whilst a busker and his trumpet played a dreamy tune that crept in with the humid summer air.
He stepped over their bags and walked across the threshold to the adjacent parlour. It had been a peculiar, but welcome choice to have splurged for the more expensive room option, made more peculiar when it was Ignis who proposed the idea, and grew odder still when neither Noctis nor Prompto protested. But why would they?
From the bathroom, Gladio walked past the bed where a plain white button up was laid out. Despite the muffled hubbub he heard from the bathroom during his shower, only Ignis remained, with his hair unstyled and his glasses on the parlour table. His brows were drawn together, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt with one hand, and typing something out on his phone with intense focus with the other. Whatever it was, it must’ve distracted him from putting on his pants that hung across the back of the ornate sofa, and from the lack of total awareness that he stood in front of a window that opened out into Altissia’s streets in his partly-done up shirt—his buttons mismatched with the holes to boot—his boxers and his socks in their garters.
The sound of Gladio’s still damp bare feet broke Ignis’s concentration from his phone and from his war with his shirt buttons.
He raised his head gingerly and bright green eyes gleamed against the sunlight when they met Gladio’s, his skin aglow. Outside, a guitar joined the busker’s trumpet, and their chorus floated into the room just as Gladio’s heart played its own rapid beat.
They were so close.
When Noctis was married and crowned King, Gladio would have done his waiting, and he could put the ring Iris helped him pick out in Insomnia to good use.
“Your shirt’s on the bed,” said Ignis, placing his phone on the parlour table, “Best you get dressed soon.”
“You’re one to talk,” said Gladio. He circled his arms around Ignis’s waist, pulling him closer against him to nuzzle against his collarbone and inhale in his fresh scent, “Your shirt isn’t even done up properly.”
“Gladio, please,” Ignis brought his arms to Gladio’s chest to push him away, but the other man only hugged him tighter, “We can’t keep Noctis and Prompto waiting.”
“Where’d they go?” The buskers outside continued to play, and Gladio kept his arms around Ignis’s waist, slowly shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“They’ve gone ahead to the docks to find us a good spot to watch from.”
“So it’s just you and me,” muttered Gladio against his neck, shifting his weight more deliberately to the music and bringing his hips slowly into the movement.
“We need to get going soon,” said Ignis.
Gladio released his embrace to place Ignis’s arms around his neck.
“Just one song,” said Gladio, and he smiled when Ignis began to sway despite the small scowl on his face.
They swayed and shifted their feet across the parlour, to no beat nor step they’d learned in any formal lesson, with only the music from the buskers outside guiding them.
“This isn’t any dance I know,” said Ignis.
“Neither,” said Gladio, “But we’ll figure out the steps when the time comes.”
“When what time comes?” asked Ignis with a curious tilt of his head.
Ah.
It wasn’t the right place nor the right time to answer that question.
Gladio stayed silent, pressing their foreheads together as they continued their clumsy half-dressed dance, before Gladio slowly pulled one arm away from Ignis’s waist, to sneak a hand between them to undo Ignis’s mismatched buttons.
“And what do you think you’re doing?” muttered Ignis.
“Fixing your shirt,” Gladio leaned in for a kiss, and it was ample distraction for him to undo the rest of Ignis’s buttons let his shirt hang open, "There,” he left another tender peck on his lips, “All fixed."
“We need to get going soon,” said Ignis again, but it lacked his earlier insistence.
“The show isn’t like what? For another hour?” He laved Ignis’s mouths with kisses that he received and reciprocated despite his protests, and Gladio smiled into each one as his hand drifted under his shirt, running up the smooth skin of his back, “I can be quick.”
“ Can being the operative word,” said Ignis, “Whether you will is another question entirely.”
“ We will be quick, promise, I'll make sure you get your fireworks baby," muttered Gladio in his ear, and the pet name was all it took for Ignis to melt in his arms, “I haven't had you to myself in so long."
He slid Ignis’s shirt off his shoulders, pulling away to quickly but neatly fold it and place on the parlour table.
"A man after my own heart," said Ignis.
They kissed for as long as the buskers worked through a second tune, and Gladio relished the taste of Ignis on his tongue for a few songs more as he guided him to lie down on the sofa. The evening sea breeze picked up, and his hairs stood on end as tune after lilting tune weaved in and out of the sounds of Ignis's pleasured moans.
Long legs clamped around Gladio’s waist, holding him in place as he thrusted, his pace inside Ignis fast, fevered, and hectic, the sting of nails digging into his back urging him faster and harder in his heat, and Ignis’s moans grew higher and louder, until they were breathless gasps that mixed in with the humid air.
One of Ignis’s hands gripped the back of the sofa, while the other dug deep into Gladio’s back, his head thrown back against the sofa surrounded by his mess of hair, eyes glazed over and mouth agape, the corners of his lips twitching up to a faint but blissed out smile. Ignis was always a sight to behold no matter what he did, but away from prying eyes and alone with Gladio, was when he shed all notions of self-image and propriety, and that was when he was just downright gorgeous.
A loud cry from Ignis followed nails dragging along Gladio’s back, and Gladio’s name had never sounded sweeter than on Ignis’s tongue when he gasped his release, spilling into Gladio’s hand and all over the dewey sweat between their joined bodies, and it was his sweet music that pulled Gladio over the brink inside him.
He captured Ignis’s lips, swallowing his low moans until Gladio’s continued drag inside him eased into a complete stop with Gladio’s hips pressed flush against him.
A small explosion shot out from outside their open window, and a flash of light whizzed upwards, before exploding into a flurry of bright tails briefly illuminating their room. A series of more small crossette bursts followed in quick succession, and in their blinking lights shooting up to the sky, Ignis looked up at him, his gaze soft and affectionate, and his smile vibrant through his bitten lip.
And like the crossettes firing from the docks outside, the words burst forth from Gladio's chest.
“Do you want to marry me when this is all over?" said Gladio. His pulse thumped through his ears, and bright blinking yellow light fizzled away, giving way to red flickering strobes of light.
Suddenly regaining his focus, Ignis’s eyes widened in shock. He dropped his head back onto the sofa, and covered his eyes with his arm.
“You've ruined it,” he groaned.
The pulse in Gladio’s ears quickened, and it seemed to beat in time to the rapid flicker of the red strobe lights, his stomach tight and wound up.
Had he misread everything?
“On the docks—” Ignis released a deep and shuddered breath, “I was going to ask you then— But you— you held us up—” he shook his head, before letting it drop back down on the sofa, “Noct and Prompto have been helping me plan this for weeks.”
“You were gonna ask me? ” Gladio collapsed on top of Ignis and his deep sigh of relief almost knocked the wind out of him. He squeezed his arms between Ignis’s back and the sofa, hugging him tight and rolling to lie them on their sides, so Ignis could see the wide smile on his face, “Gods, Iggy, don’t scare me like that,”
“Did you think I was going to say no?”
“Are you?”
Ignis scoffed, and his eyes shifted to the side, “No.”
“How about yes?” tried Gladio,
“Do you even have a ring?” Ignis asked, his brow furrowed in skepticism, "This isn’t just some snap decision is it?”
“Of course I have a ring! Have any of my decisions ever been— " And to prove his point, Gladio hurriedly pulled out of Ignis, eliciting a low groan as he did, before scrambling to squat by his bag, while Ignis leaned over to watch him rummage through his bag for velvet box tucked within its inner pockets, “Did you think I was raised in a barn— Aha!”
With the velvet box in his hand, he stood in front of Ignis buck naked, then lowered himself to one knee on the cold and decorate tiled floors of their room in the Leville.
“There!” he said, brandishing the box with an extended arm towards Ignis. He opened the box with a flourish, and looked straight into Ignis’s eyes with firm determination, “Ignis Scientia, are you gonna marry me, or what?”
Bright, multicoloured lights shaped like peonies filled the night sky behind Ignis as he sat up on the sofa and planted his socked feet on the floor, his mouth drawn into a thin line, shoulders squared and his arms crossed against his bare torso.
The peonies exploded in low, regular beats, one as they hit the sky, then another as they burst into smaller sparks of petals, and Gladio could’ve mistaken them for the booming in his chest.
“Of course it’s yes Gladio,” Ignis said in a small voice. His shoulders relaxed and he looked up to meet Gladio’s gaze, “It’s always been a yes.”
Another spark burst in the petals of a peony, and Gladio's heart burst in his chest, a bright relieved grin spreading across his face.
“I know it’s not the big gesture you were expecting. I was gonna do it after, when Noct’s married off and we’ve got one less thing to worry about. But I guess the moment just hit,” Gladio put the velvet box down on the table beside him, taking the silver band out delicately between a thumb and forefinger, and held the back of Ignis's hand to his lips before slipping the ring on his finger.
“And when the moment hits,” he added with a casual shrug as he ran a thumb over the back of Ignis’s hand, “It hits.”
Ignis's expression was hard to read in the dark as he looked down at the shining band around his finger. But then Gladio’s pulled back onto the sofa, and Ignis's lips crashed against his.
“It was perfect,” Ignis said before kissing his lips again,“You couldn’t have done it any better," he punctuated each reassurance with a frantic kiss on his face, "I would've said yes, with or without the ring my love," he pressed another soft kiss to Gladio's lips, then he sat back and slumped against the sofa and ran his hand through an already mussed up head, "But I had it all planned out for you."
Almost perfectly too, into their heavily packed itineraries and schedules, all so that tonight could happen. Gladio would also hazard a guess that the choice in accommodation had something to do with that too, and the thought almost made him buzz with excitement.
Ignis just failed to take into account that Gladio had wanted this as much as he did.
"You can still ask me," said Gladio.
Ignis looked at him, his arms crossed and his mouth pressed into a thin line. Petulance wasn't the kind of expression one would see on a groom to be, but it only endeared Ignis to Gladio even more to know that to ask Gladio to marry him was something that had been culminating for so long in that complicated mind of his.
"I already said yes,” muttered Ignis.
Ignis never asked for much, especially not for himself, and if asking for Gladio's hand in marriage was one rare desire he allowed himself to have, then Gladio would grant him this.
"It doesn't mean I have," said Gladio.
"Don't be ridiculous love. It doesn’t matter, I’m just being unreasonable. ” Ignis gave him a small smile as he ran the back of his fingers along Gladio’s jaw, “You’ve already made me terribly happy.”
"It's not ridiculous," said Gladio with a grin, "I asked if you wanted to marry me. Nothing in there said I wanna marry you ."
Ignis held his head in one hand and laughed, and it pulled Gladio in to kiss him again.
"Do you really wanna live with that ambiguity?" said Gladio, and Ignis’s knowing smile meant he’d struck straight into his weakness, "Won't hurt to check right?"
Ignis's warm hands cupped his jaw.
"I don't know how you managed to worm your way in that you know exactly which of my buttons to press."
"And yet you wanna marry me ."
With another soft chuckle, Ignis’s soft lips found Gladio's mouth again, kissing him softly once, before he straightened up and looked straight into Gladio’s eyes, and his tender gaze had hardened.
"Right. Get dressed," Ignis’s voice was stern as he rose to his feet, and he looked intimidating for someone completely naked except for his socks, his garters around his shins and for his underwear which he shook off his ankle, "If you don't delay us further, we can still catch the finale."
It made Gladio’s heart swell to witness Ignis for once, be so stubborn about what he wanted, and he couldn’t resist wrapping his arms around him in another embrace.
"There are dinner reservations on the line here Gladiolus!"
"Dinner reservations! You went all out didn't'cha!" he rubbed his stubbled cheek against Ignis's before he finally let the man pull himself away, "You better be prepared to sweep me off my feet Iggy!"
"And for your sake Gladio," said Ignis over his shoulder, and the alluring narrow of his eyes could make Gladio break his word and hold them up until the sun rose, "You better act surprised."
Ever helpful in Ignis’s grand schemes, Noctis and Prompto found a spot right by the end of the dock facing out into the water, and Gladio and Ignis worked their way through the crowds with their hands clasped tight in each other’s, sitting beside their two friends to watch what was left of the display.
There had been no need to act surprised.
Gladio had been so enraptured by the fireworks display and the beauty in his arm and the ring he wore on his ring finger, that when said beauty pulled him up to his feet and got down on one knee, the wind was knocked out of Gladio’s gut again.
"Gladiolus Amicitia, would you do me the honour—" Ignis loudly declared, his voice trembling over the alternating explosions of the grand finale of dazzling flowers and pistils, overlaying beaming bursts and clusters of light of countless colours, “And the utmost joy, of being my husband?” he almost yelled over the successive explosions.
"Holy shit, is the big guy crying?" yelled Prompto over to Noctis, followed by the flash of his camera going off anyway.
"I think he broke him," said Noctis with a barked out laugh,
"Oh come now Gladio," Ignis smile was reassuring from where he knelt on the dock, and the streams down Gladio’s face flowed even harder as he sobbed into his elbow.
“—Specs is marryin’ himself an ugly crier—” muttered Noctis, but it went unheard over the explosions behind them. The other spectators on the dock clambered around. One person kneeling in front of another always bode well.
"So is that a yes?" Ignis said loudly, his head tilted to one side with a smug smile.
"You already know its a yes," Gladio blubbered, before pulling Ignis up into a tight embrace and a tear-soaked kiss.
Because when the moment hits, it hits.