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“ Hey, Ignis, where’s that new reel I just bought? I have a good feeling about this spot. I’m gonna catch myself a monster right here.”
Noctis pointed at the turbid waters with a determination Ignis wished the Prince had for literally anything else in life.
“It’s in the car.” He answered, always failing to avoid indulging his charge. “Wait here, I’ll fetch it for you.” At the very least, they would have a fresh catch for dinner. Before he made the short trek back to their parking spot, he searched out Gladio who was perched atop a large rock, scanning the area. “Gladio…”
“Yeah, I got this. Looks safe here. Go ahead.”
A short while later, with Noctis settled in at the rickety dock and Gladio keeping a watchful eye for any approaching threats, Ignis started searching the brush for herbs.
The task was monotonous but refreshing in its tedium as it gave Ignis the time to run through the endless lists in his head. Were their supplies in order? Weapons in good repair? What strategy would best serve when the next magitek engine whirred ominously above them? Would garlic be better with Lucian catfish? Or turmeric?
“ Hey, Ignis… ”
Ignis straightened his glasses and looked up at Prompto’s expectant face. He was bouncing happily on his heels like an excited little pup. “Yes?”
“Noct reeled in a big one! Can you cook it up for us later? I’m hungry already!”
“I was planning on doing precisely that. As soon as Noct is…”
“ Hey, Ignis !”
Speak of the daemon and he shall appear.
“Yes?” Ignis shouted over to where the Prince was fumbling with his rod.
“This line broke, do we have any more?”
Ignis sighed, slipped his notebook into his jacket and then gathered up the ingredients he’d collected. “Of course,” He tried not to sound irritated. But he didn’t try all that hard. “Though I’ve told you time and again to have a care for the condition of your equipment.”
Noctis was oblivious to the mumbled scolding and just waited for Ignis to get him another line.
When the Prince was satisfied with the new line and engaged in his task once again, Ignis decided to busy himself cleaning and prepping Noctis’ catch for supper. While not exactly a physical or intellectual challenge, he’d come to appreciate the preparation of meals. Cooking suited him as a means of recreation. It was useful, practical and it required its own sort of subtle artistry to master. Which meant he excelled at it. And which was more than he could say for the rest of his company.
“Prompto! Get over here and take a picture of this before I toss it back in.” Noctis proudly held up ‘the monster’ he’d apparently been looking to catch.
“Haha wow! Yeah, I’m on it Noct, just lemme find my tripod so we can all be in it…”
After watching Prompto rummage through their things, causing more damage than good, Ignis swooped in to intercede before any more havoc could be inflicted.
“Allow me.” He he offered tersely, finding the tripod immediately. He knew exactly where it was because he’d been the one who packed it.
After enduring fifteen different poses from ten different angles, Prompto got the shot and Noctis threw the giant fish back into the lake. When the sun started to set, Ignis began packing things away so they could move quickly to establish shelter before the dangers of night crept up on them.
“ Hey, Ignis. ” Gladio’s voice rumbled with annoyance. “Can you hurry up His Royal Laziness over there? We need to set up camp before dark. I swear that kid only likes fishing because he doesn’t have to move his scrawny ass at all to do it.”
“If you have issue with the Prince’s physical fitness, I’ll remind you, it is your responsibility to assure His Highness is in top fighting form.”
“Well if you didn't let him be so damn picky about food, I could bulk him up a little.”
“Can you two worry about your own asses and not mine for a change?” Noctis grumbled as he brushed passed his bickering retainers. He held out one last fish for Ignis to take, which he did, and then he started back towards the car.
Gladio was right on his heels. “It’s our job to worry about your sorry ass! My ass is perfect!” The shouted tirade continued all the way to the car with Gladio hurling insults and Noctis mostly ignoring them.
It was dark by the time they finished setting up camp but Gladio managed to humiliate Noctis into a training session while dinner was being cooked. When Ignis called them over to eat, the Prince returned with a limp and the Shield returned with a bloody nose.
Shamefaced, they both refused to meet Ignis’ scathing glare.
“ Hey, Ignis… ” They spoke in unison.
Ignis clenched his teeth. “I’ll get the curatives.” He had to stop himself from saying anything but that. He tended to Noctis first and then moved on to Gladio while Prompto and the Prince ate.
“You deserved this, I’m sure . ”
Gladio just shrugged and smiled. “If he can get in a good hit on me, I’ve done my job.”
Ignis cleaned up the blood with practiced ease and made sure his nose wasn’t broken. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to set it back to rights. Fortunately the damage was only superficial. Gladio patiently accepted the ministrations but just as Ignis was finishing he grabbed his hand to pull him into a suggestive whisper.
“ Hey, Ignis , I think I might need you to check me out more later. Make sure nothing else needs fixed up.”
Ignis rolled his eyes, took his hand back, and walked away as Gladio chuckled.
After cleaning up the remains of their food, snuffing out the fire, lighting the lanterns, and doing a final sweep of the camp’s perimeter, Ignis just stood for a moment and stared up at the sky.
“ Hey, Ignis , tomorrow we really need to find a nice room to stay in. I’m all sticky and gross.” Noctis yawned and then ducked into his tent, not waiting for a response to his decree.
Ignis directed his answer to the closed tent flap. “I’ll make arrangements in the morning.”
“ Hey, Ignis , dinner was AH-mazing!” Prompto patted him on the back as he too headed for his tent. “Can we have the leftovers for breakfast?”
Ignis didn’t even have time to answer before the next needy soul in his care called out a demand for his attention.
“ Hey, Ignis… ”
“ What ?” Ignis rounded on Gladio so quickly, he jumped back a step. “What could you possibly want now? What could any of you Possibly. Want. Now?”
“Whoa there, Iggy. Take it easy!” Gladio held up his hands in defense. Prompto promptly disappeared into the safety of his tent. Noctis’ hands briefly appeared from inside his, just to zip the flap shut. It seemed those two were content to let Gladio take the fall for their collective nuisance.
Gladio lowered his hands and folded them across his broad chest. “Alright. I get it. We’re on your last nerve. Time to decompress. Let’s go.”
“The only place I’m going is to bed .”
“Yup. My bed. Now.”
Gladio took him by the arm and attempted to lead him away to his tent. Ignis persisted in being stubborn for no reason other than the sake of doing so. It had been a long day full of pointless busywork that furthered their goals not at all and that served no purpose other than to coddle three grown men. And the only one of those men who had any legitimate claim to make demands on his time was the one who would be King. That is, he would be King if Ignis could manage to drag this unruly lot down the path to fulfill that destiny.
With thin lips and narrowed eyes, Ignis leveled Gladio a look that would have sent any other man running. “I’m going to sleep. Now unhand me before I undo the healing I provided for your nose.”
Gladio shrugged the threat off like it was nothing. Ignis wasn’t sure if it was the fact that they’d been together so long as to take the bite away from any anger directed at him, or if Gladio was truly too brazen to care. He suspected the latter.
“Aw come on. We both know you’re not gonna be able to sleep. At least not until you relax a little. Plus, I know you’d never mess with my face.” Gladio offered a cocky smile.
“You’re insufferable.”
“You knew that a long time ago, but you’re still with me.” Smugly, Gladio reached out and removed Ignis’ glasses.
“If you lose those…”
“...you probably have twelve other pairs stashed away somewhere so it doesn’t matter. After you.” Gladio ushered Ignis into his tent. As usual, Ignis couldn’t believe he was going along with it but he always seemed to succumb to the morbid curiosity of finding out where following Gladio would lead.
Back in Insomnia, it often led to stolen kisses in dark corners of the Citadel that left Ignis smoldering with arousal until nightfall or to frenzied encounters behind locked doors that left Ignis dazed and breathless until sunrise. The man never seemed to have an actual plan, operating on nothing but instinct and urges and always ready to draw Ignis in with him to a place where thinking wasn’t so important as doing .
Gladio was a situation he couldn’t control, neither by feat of strength nor force of will. So Ignis long ago learned to appreciate just giving in. At least sometimes.
When they were settled inside, Ignis held out his hand. “May I have my spectacles back now?” It was phrased more as an order than a request. An order that Gladio ignored.
“Nah. You’re not gonna need ‘em. Just lay back and relax.”
Ignis complied, though the slight blur of his nearsightedness combined with the darkness was hardly relaxing. He heard Gladio move around in the cramped space. No small task for such a large man, especially with Ignis squeezed in as well.
“Okay, here we go.” He announced. Ignis tried to make out what he was doing. When the flashlight on his phone lit up the tent, he saw Gladio sitting cross-legged with a book propped up in front of him.
Ignis pushed himself up on his elbows and squinted at the sight. “What are you doing?”
“I’m gonna read to you. I just got to the best part in this one too.”
He sounded much the same as when Noctis found a fishing hole or when Prompto snapped a perfect shot. It was endearing, but no less confusing.
“You’re going to... read to me?” Ignis wasn’t sure if he was amused, relieved or disappointed.
“Yeah. What did ya think I was gonna do? Get your mind outta the gutter Iggy. We nagged you all day. You’re tired and if Noct is a pain in the ass again tomorrow, which we both know he will be, I don’t want to have to save him from getting murdered by you, of all people, so just lay there and get some rest. Listen to the story. You’ll love it. I swear.”
‘Storytime’ wasn’t something Ignis had appreciated even as a child. He could absorb material faster just reading it on his own which would then free him up to move quickly onto the next task.
“ Ignis . Stop fucking thinking about it, close your fucking eyes and just listen to me read to you, okay?”
“Alright, fine.” Ignis laid back again, and he listened.
Gladio’s deep timbre was an octave lower than normal as he tried to keep his voice quiet. The hum of his words soon filled up the cozy tent. Outside in the distance, insects chirped and the wind whistled through the leaves of the trees. Ignis couldn’t say he found the story particularly riveting but, as Gladio had insisted, he found the passive act of just listening to be soothing. When no demands were being made of him, and nothing more was expected of him than to just enjoy the moment, he was out of his element, but the large presence of Gladio always seemed to provide a grounding sort of solace. Gladio was tasked with service to Crown, same as he, and they were all in this together no matter how many more times Ignis’ name was called out in one day than anyone else’s.
Soon, the chapter finished and Gladio reached out to nudge Ignis’ leg. “Want more?”
“I’d like something more…”
Gladio smirked in the shadows, closed the book and doused the light of his phone. The close quarters didn’t seem to hinder his movements at all now as he pounced to sprawl atop Ignis. For a man who wielded a two-handed weapon, Gladio was surprisingly deft at undressing them both before Ignis could ever object to his clothes being carelessly tossed aside.
If the listening had calmed Ignis’ earlier ire, the reading must have ignited an impatient fire in Gladio. Growls of heated need were the only sounds he seemed capable of uttering suddenly and Ignis, again, just let him have free reign. Insistent knees were pushing Ignis’ legs apart so Gladio could lay between them. Calloused hands grabbed at Ignis’ face, his waist, his hips. Sharp teeth bit at his ear, his shoulders, his nipples. Hungry lips wrapped themselves around his cock as the slide of a slick tongue teased him to distraction.
Soon it was Ignis with a litany of demands for Gladio. Faster, harder, more, more, more, until his mind exploded with white light and his back arched into the pulse of his climax. Gladio held him fast, sucking and swallowing and Ignis had to bite down on his hand to stop himself from shouting. After a blissful few more seconds of sensitive agony he finally came down from the high and Gladio eased away from him. He wiped off his mouth with the back of his hand and laid down beside him.
“ Hey, Ignis. ”
“Yes?”
“My turn.”