Chapter Text
Getting in trouble wasn't one of the things Ignis Scientia was usually keen on doing. He liked living his regulated, on duty basing, life with no one disturbing him. No one besides the crown prince, of course.
He liked having the same constants every day. Leaving home in the morning, passing by Noctis' apartment to check on him, driving to the palace, got to conferences and meeting in Noctis' place to write down all the important information and then heading back to Noctis' apartment. In fact, every day varied from that point on, depending on the prince's mood, but those were planned deviations. Nothing like the mess he had gotten himself into at the moment.
To be honest, it wasn't even his fault. Maybe he had decided to participate in this more than stupid plan, but it hadn't been his idea, at least. Another person had been responsible for planing their “mission”. To be precise it had been the plan of Gladiolus Amicitia, the shield to Noctis and the man standing right next to him.
“And you are entirely sure, you know what you're doing?” Ignis asked, as Gladio began to rummage through one of the cupboards in front of them. The two men were currently in one of the palace's storage rooms. In fact, it was the room where the magical objects belonging to the royal family were stored away inaccessible to common servants.
Gladiolus turned to him, a challenging grin on his face. “Just because you have no idea, what I'm doing? Trust me, I practise using magic with the prince once a week. The only thing I couldn't teach him was teleporting!” the older one praised himself, shaking a small vial in his hand. Ignis couldn't suppress a slight smirk.
“So how come, Noctis always asks me for advice when it comes to magic. And he tells me he's always the only one attacking with magic and you only seem to be defending yourself with weapons?” he teased back. Deep down he was seriously concerned, though. If something unplanned happened down here, they would have to deal with it or explain it to his majesty.
Ignis was just about to voice his concerns when Gladio started to speak again, pretending to be hurt by his words. “Look, I can use magic! It's just not my strongest point! But I understand more about it than Noctis, I'd say.” he laughed the last few words.
“So if it isn't your “strongest point” then what are we doing here? Do you wish to end up it trouble?”
“For the sake of the Six, Iggy, relax for once. No one's gonna catch us and nothing will go wrong.” he turned to Ignis again, “I just wanna fetch a few things, I can use for training with Noctis.”
Ignis still didn't quite like the idea of this. It could get the prince hurt for one thing. Even if the vials and other items were labelled, it was no warranty that it would contain the exact same thing. They would have to try things out and this was something Ignis would only highly reluctantly do. And considering a whole other thing: What was he even needed for here? Doing this was not what he'd had in mind when Gladio asked him to come with him to some “Crownsguard stuff”.
“I still don't think that we should tarry at this place, anyway. What did you altogether bring me here for?”
Ignis looked over to Gladio, who had now bent down to search for something at the bottom of the cupboard. His shirt stretched tightly over his broad shoulders and his sleeves rid up his arms, exposing more of his tattoo. After finally seeming to find what he'd been searching for the taller man stood up again and said: “Well, you're good with magic and I thought, if someone was ought to be testing this shit it should be you.”
Except for that being quite the weak reasoning, Ignis couldn't help but feel a little flattered.
“You are mistaken if you think that I put ourselves and our careers in danger by doing something as careless as this. Besides I must admit, I have not seen a least half of these items ever before in my life.” he was actually somewhat ashamed of that. After all, Gladiolus had brought him here (even though it wasn't one of the man's best decisions) because he had hoped Ignis would be able to help him with the magic.
“So that means you do know about half the stuff in here, so let's start looking through it!” Gladio grinned and knelt down to the floor. He set the box, he had been holding, down and opened it.
And Ignis knew that all of this was still a bad idea and they would probably get hurt or caught or something, but...
He just couldn't bring himself to reject Gladio any further. The man was kneeling on the floor in front of and had obviously fun. Sighing, he decided to surrender, for some reason he didn't really know himself and let himself sink down next to the other.
“This one seems to be some icy potion.” Gladio pointed out and handed a flask over to Ignis. The assumption had been correct. He could not only tell by the label, but also by the temperature. So cold he nearly dropped the glass when it touched his hand, despite wearing his gloves.
Since he couldn't find any description of it's use, it was clear to him, in which category to sort it.
“I strongly believe it's made for combat, probably for throwing at your opponent.” he explained to Gladio, who nodded understandingly.
“So, what do you think, can I use this one on Noct, or will it just kill him off?” Gladiolus asked half jokingly. Ignis frowned a little, even though he knew Gladio was not serious about this.
“You of all people shouldn't be joking about the Highness's safety, Gladio.” he scolded him, but looked at the vial again sceptically.
“I assume we wouldn't find out, unless we tried it...” he murmured then, already setting it back down. However, his plans were crossed be Gladiolus, who had already snatched it out of his hold.
“Then we'll do exactly that. There's a lot more of those, so it won't be that valuable.” he said and jumped to his feet.
This man had to be absolutely crazy. At first sneaking in here without permission of any sort and then messing around with things that could possibly cost a fortune, for all they knew.
Apparently the sorrow on Ignis face was more visible than he thought because suddenly he felt a big hand resting on his shoulder.
“Come on, Iggy. If it was really that precious, there wouldn't be at least a hundred of them lying around in the first closet in the storage room. I wouldn't even try and test them if I thought they were actually dangerous. So let's have some fun!” Gladio encouraged him with a big grin.
Ignis knew the other man was probably right. And he was also somehow curious about it. Of course, he knew a lot about magic, but he hadn't had the chance to try out more than the summoning of weapons and his elementary powers, yet. And who knew when he'd have another chance to do so.
“Alright, but please be cautious with it. And we won't try much.” he made himself clear, voice stern and not leaving any room to argue.
“Alright! So let's see what this one is capable of doing!”
Gladio walked to an unoccupied place and waited for Ignis to join him. Ignis walked up to the taller man and looked at him expectantly.
“Ready, set, go!” Gladiolus called before throwing the flask a good six metres away from them. Ignis sucked in a breath and let his glance flick to Gladio for a second, who looked excited, but also ready to do something if the thing was stronger than they estimated.
As soon as the vial made contact with the hard stone floor, it shattered into pieces, which flew everywhere. But despite the faint sting on his hand, he had held up to protect his face, he hadn't much time to focus on the glass. A big light blue cloud had emerged from it and was emitting bright flashes of coldness.
The cloud moved closer to them and the cold started to become painful. Ignis was just about to take a step back when it slowly began to fade. A few more weak flashes came out of it and eventually it vanished completely, leaving the floor frozen over.
It was until then, when Ignis realised he had been holding his breath and let it out in a slightly shaky manner. He was shaking violently from the cold and he couldn't even imagine, what Gladio, who wore his shirt open, was feeling.
He looked at him and nearly laughed at the sight. Gladio's eyebrows and beard were frozen and tinted in white, his lips and nose a slight blue colour. When Ignis looked down the rest of his body, he didn't, to his delight, find more blue patches.
For some reason he did notice that Gladiolus's nipples had grown hard during the procedure. His cheeks tinted with a light pink as he noticed that.
“Like what you're seeing, Iggy?” Gladio teased and flexed his chest. Ignis coughed awkwardly and tried to hind his face by pushing glasses up.
“I was simply concerned about your well being.” he retorted and looked away again, eyeing the frozen part of the hall instead.
“Of course you were.” Gladio laughed.
“It looks like we've made quite the mess. Hopefully all the other magical tools are immune to the cold.” Ignis said. After all it was not just the floor, which was frozen, but also a great number of the shelves and drawers. Daemons, who used fire-magic were usually sensitive to ice, so Ignis hoped the ice potion wouldn't ruin all the fire ones in here.
“They would, protect them enough in case something in here just fell over, wouldn't they?” Gladio tried to sound confident, but Ignis heard a bit of doubt in his voice.
“I suppose so. We're in a war, the King shouldn't leave such delicate weapons and elixirs unprotected. A small convulsion could cause the same scenario we just did.”
He really thought so. King Regis was a highly intelligent and foreknowing man. Ignis knew he wouldn't store his magic away incautious in any way. Which made him actually feel even more bad for messing around with it. After all he had the Kings trust on his side and was just, in this very moment taking full advantage of it.
The only thing that made him feel a little bit better, was the knowledge that Gladio was going to use the things they took to train Noctis. And Noctis health was Ignis top priority. Knowing how to fight off daemons hadn't harmed anyone's health yet.
“So...Do you think I could use this one on Not?” Gladio asked after a few moments. “I mean the glass chips were pretty nasty.”
It was only now, that Ignis noticed the small red spots on Gladio's arms. There were even small blood smears at some points. But Ignis knew Gladio could handle them very well.
“Not as nasty as a daemon attack, I presume. It should be save enough.” he answered.
“Alright! Let's look at some more.” Gladiolus grinned at him and Ignis followed without any further words of protest.
* * *
Gladio and Ignis had been in the storage room for about two hours now, trying out several other vials and other weapons. Gladio even found a well hidden box of fire arrows, but Ignis forbid him to use it strictly. He would have just killed themselves. What had he even been going to shoot them on?
Despite that, Ignis actually had some fun. He didn't exactly know why, himself. Doing something prohibited excited everyone, apparently. And he knew he wouldn't have to take all the punishment alone. Other than years ago, when Noctis had made him sneak them out of the palace.
Not that he hadn't enjoyed those days as well, they had just always been filled with the constant fear of getting caught.
These nostalgic thoughts had him actually zone out for a minute. His mind snapped back into reality when Gladio called him.
“Look at this one, Iggy!” he said and threw a small casket at him. Ignis gasped and lurched forward to catch it in time. And of course he did, but it could have gone terribly wrong.”
“Be careful!” he scolded under his breath, taking a closer look at the box.
It didn't look very flashy. The edges were a little time-worn, with scrapes marking the dark wood. It's fastener was decorated with miniscule ornaments and even more miniscule gemstones.
Suspiciously plain in a hall full of sparkling glass and crystal vials and bottles.
When Ignis opened it, he found two tiny bottles, looking like the ones you kept small amounts of alcohol in. He took one of them into hand and inspected it closely. But no matter how hard he searched for something, he couldn't find any description of the content. And neither did it feel particularly hot or cold, nor send any electricity through his hand.
“I cannot find any indications of content. It doesn't feel magical, either.” he informed Gladiolus and held the box out for him to see.
“They look like shorts.” Gladio commented as soon as he saw them. “They do, indeed. But I don't believe they were made for drinking.”
Actually Ignis didn't just 'not believe' it. He was certain.
However Gladio still seemed to consider the possibility of them being something drinkable.
He opened one of the bottles and brought it to his nose. After he sniffed a few times he looked Ignis straight in the face.
“It's alcohol. Just smell it!” Gladio said and gave the flask to Ignis. It wasn't alcohol. He was absolutely sure of that, but took a sniff to content the other.
The scent was sharp and bit his nose immediately. It also dazed him a little, make him lift it to his face once more.
“It does smell of alcohol.” he spoke stunned, blinking his eyes a few time, to get rid of the fuzziness of his mind. If it really was something alcoholic, it was extremely strong. No wonder it came in the small bottles.
“So, do you recall any kind of magic that smells of alcohol? Because I don't.” And Gladio was kind of right. Basically, magic wasn't supposed to smell of anything at all. It was supposed to feel hot or cold or something. Or even make some noise. He had heard of some cases, fire magic had gone bad and began to smell like ash, but this stuff smelled downright acrid. He told Gladio all of that and the bigger one grinned at him.
“You're up to drink one with me?” the second bottle was now in Gladio's hand and he swung it around to underline his words. Ignis doubted he was meaning this in earnest.
“Are you seriously considering that?That could be anything!” he said firmly, the sting in his nose and slight doziness still not gone. “Even it really is alcohol, it is too strong. We'd get drunk from that.”
“You really think I could get drunk from that? It's like a millionth of my body weight! And you could do with getting a little drunk, anyway. Noct has to get on your nerves sometimes!” Gladio tried to persuade him with a cunning grin.
“Currently you are getting on my nerves. We both know it's a less than wise decision and we're not gonna do it. So we either continue your search for magic or we return to our rooms. It's getting late.” Ignis said with a voice that didn't admit contradiction.
Gladio pretended to pout at him, but agreed. Ignis knew Gladio was clever enough not to drink the stuff himself. He had gotten special education just like himself, after all.
“Then we go. I have enough stuff to piss prince charmless off with.” the man agreed and held the box, which contained his items of choice, up. Ignis gave him an approving nod and they started to make their way out of the storage basement.