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Ignis Scientia often thought he must be the happiest man alive.
He was making a decent living doing something he truly loved. Cooking had long been a passionate hobby of his, and when he was given the opportunity to start baking muffins and cookies for a newly started-up bookstore’s little cafe, he leapt at it. Over the years he perfected his recipes, but never stopped reaching for new inspiration. Now he was an equal partner in the ownership of Carpe Librum, though Ignis still preferred to spend his day-to-day time baking and cooking when possible, rather than being caught up in the tedium of management. Thankfully, as one of the owners, he had the ability to hire someone to take care of those more irritating tasks.
He had added soups and salads, sandwiches and paninis, but what drew people from all parts of Insomnia were his incredible cookies and rich coffee blends.
As well as being professionally satisfied, he was also incredibly gratified with the remarkable direction his personal life had taken over the years. While Ignis had always been a very private person, not terribly prone to making friends easily, he now had, dare he say, a thriving social life.
One of his good friends was a barista at his shop. A cheerful man a couple years younger than Ignis himself, Prompto Argentum seemed perpetually overfilled with a good-humor that spilled over in his sunny smiles and bright laughter. While he couldn’t cook to save his life, Prompto was a wizard with their coffee and tea menu, having quickly become an expert at crafting even the most painstakingly meticulous drinks requested by customers, and he regularly came up with new inventions to try out on the seasonal menu.
Prompto’s best friend was a young man named Noctis. Yes, that Noctis. The Crown Prince of Insomnia himself. Ignis had taken a while to get over his feeling of being flustered in the presence of royalty, but Noct had made it easy, preferring casual camaraderie to formal respect. The Prince had declared that a friend of Prom’s was a friend of his, and so Ignis found himself regularly included in movie nights, and invited to gaming nights. While he enjoyed the former greatly, he often suspected the younger men only invited him for the latter because they knew he’d bring food. Ignis was not very good at video games.
Yes, he was a truly blessed man to have found two such wonderful friends.
And then there was Gladiolus.
Ignis hardly knew where to start in describing that man who was, unequivocally, the love of his life.
He had met Gladiolus Amicitia when interviewing for the position as baker. The owner of the bookstore had immediately struck him as being one of the most outgoing and friendly people Ignis had ever met. As he got to know the man deeper, first as an employee, he learned how fiercely loyal the large man was to those under his supervision. If a clerk came in obviously under the weather, Gladio would send them home with pay. If a customer got overly obnoxious in the cafe, Gladio was there to politely, but firmly, eject them from the premises.
When their professional relationship shifted to include a burgeoning friendship, Ignis was delighted. He had already known of Gladio’s unabashed love of reading - the man owned a bookstore, for Astrals’ sake - but that was nothing compared to the intellectual joy of debating over the merits of various tomes, arguing about the characterizations, disputing alleged historical facts.
Gladio had a younger sister, Iris, who started working part-time at the store when she was a teenager. The girl was, simply put, a delight, filled with a bubbly enthusiasm for life that was so contagious, Ignis always found his mood lifted on the days she worked. He also loved to watch the two Amicitia siblings together. Oh, they’d bicker and tease and occasionally raise voices, but there was such a depth of love between them. It was an unbreakable bond forged not only by the blood they shared but the time they had spent together. Gladio at times had served as a pseudo-parental figure while their own father was tied up with work. Their mother, regrettably, had died when Iris was a mere babe.
Their friendship deepened gradually over time, built stronger by a wealth of shared experiences, more and more of which were outside the store they both devoted their lives to. After Ignis bought out half the business, Gladio had surprised him by asking him out to dinner.
Surprised him, but not shocked him. While Ignis might not have been that experienced in romance, he wasn’t blind to the way Gladio had been looking at him. Those heated looks had been happening with greater frequency as the months passed. Ignis thought it was exceedingly respectful how Gladio had waited to pursue him until they were on equal footing professionally, until he was no longer Ignis’s boss. It was exactly the sort of considerate behavior Ignis had come to expect from him.
As the months passed after they started dating, Ignis’s happiness grew in such leaps and bounds, there were times he was convinced it was all an elaborate dream. How could he have gotten so lucky?
And now here he was, two years after the first time Gladio had taken him out, preparing for their anniversary dinner. Ignis had insisted they could stay in, he never minded cooking, but Gladio was quite insistent.
Well. While Ignis didn’t really delight in attention from strangers, and had thought he would do this without an audience, nothing was going to stop him from asking Gladiolus to marry him.
They way Ignis saw it, Gladio had dictated the pace of their relationship, and Ignis didn’t mind - he had readily agreed when the other man asked him out, he was thrilled when Gladio brought up becoming exclusive, and he joyfully accepted when his boyfriend had asked him if they could move in together.
But Ignis thought it was his turn to do the asking. His turn to put his heart on the line.
Though, he was fairly confident in Gladio’s answer.
Ignis spared a few more moments to look himself over in the mirror. He wore a new suit he’d handpicked and gotten professionally tailored for the occasion, the jacket and pants a deep charcoal gray, the neutral color accented by the deep violet shirt he had chosen. His hair was styled to his usual exacting perfection, the front gelled up, giving the already tall man an illusion of further height.
After brushing an imaginary piece of lint of his shoulder, Ignis took a fortifying breath. Well. He was ready.
Traffic was light, and he made it to the restaurant almost comically early, but Ignis didn’t mind. It was a pleasant evening, and he meandered up and down the sidewalks as he waited for Gladio to appear. Ignis knew his partner was walking over directly from work, so he strolled in that direction and was soon rewarded by the wonderful sight of Gladio smiling when they saw each other.
“Hey, Iggy,” Gladio said, pulling the shorter man in for a warm hug.
“Gladio,” Ignis replied, brushing his lips against the other man’s sun-bronzed cheek in greeting before drawing back to smile at him.
They chatted idly about their days as they resumed walking hand-in-hand towards the restaurant Gladio had booked. The streets weren’t terribly crowded, and Ignis enjoyed the cooling sensation of the fresh air on his unaccountably flushed face and neck.
Gods. He was really doing this.
As the twosome drew closer to their destination, Ignis felt his stomach clenching. It was a Friday night. The place would be packed. He’d had a whole speech prepared, but he hadn’t meant it for anyone else’s ears. And what if Gladio despised the engagement gift he’d procured? To be shot down in public, the idea was just-
“What’s wrong?” Gladio’s concerned voice broke into Ignis’s introspection. Clearly, he wasn’t maintaining as good of a poker face as he’d hoped.
“It’s nothing,” Ignis lied. Badly.
Gladio’s brow furrowed and his steps slowed, his hand clasped with Ignis’s pulling the other man to a halt beside him. Gladio led them to a little bench set back from the street a fair margin and sat, tugging his boyfriend down to sit beside him.
Leveling a concerned, but loving, look at Ignis, Gladio spoke simply. “Okay. Spill.”
Ignis caught his lower lip in his teeth, worrying at the skin a moment as he tried to think of an excuse. This wasn’t the way this evening was supposed to go. He had a plan, damn it! But now, with his anxiety exponentially rising every passing second, he was growing frantic. Ignis rapidly ran through possible scenarios in his head, but couldn’t think of a single excuse that would get Gladio to relent his questioning and lead him the rest of the way to the restaurant. And even if he did, Ignis couldn’t remember a single one of the honeyed words he’d prepared.
Six take him, this was a disaster.
“Iggy,” Gladio’s voice had softened, and Ignis looked up when he felt his partner’s large hand warmly cup his cheek, thumb brushing over the porcelain skin in loving reassurance. “Take a breath.” Gladio smiled, his warm amber eyes patient. “I’ve got you.”
Ignis heeded Gladio’s advice and took several breaths, maintaining their visual connection.
He didn’t swear often, even in his thoughts. But he felt the occasion warranted a good colorful metaphor. He ran through several, cursing inventively in his head, as he kept his eyes locked to Gladio’s, taking deep, even breaths, until he felt his heart-rate start to slow down, the near panic-attack averted.
This was just another example of how well Gladio was always taking care of him.
‘Fuck it’, Ignis thought almost gleefully. ‘No more waiting’.
Ignis shoved a hand gracelessly in his pocket, and pulled out a rectangular shaped box the size of his palm. Still looking at Gladio, he smiled.
“I had more eloquent words prepared for you, darling, but perhaps simple is best.” Ignis opened the box, revealing a simple, elegant silver necklace, the pendant a small, polished emerald nearly the exact shade of Ignis’s eyes. Ignis looked down at the sparkling gem for a moment, taking one final, deep breath, then raised his eyes to meet Gladio’s once more.
“Marry me?”