Work Text:
And for him, the sky shall weep.
A Final Fantasy XV fanfiction.
With each day that passes, he loves it more.
The sands under his feet, the sounds of the waves. The scent of the sea.
With each day that passes, he hears it more.
The clacking of wood, of machinery.
The sound of shoes of new wooden floors.
Voices. He hears them more and more with each passing day.
The remains of civilization that emerge from under the threat of the shadows.
A tug at his fingers distracts him from his thoughts. A bite, finally.
Even when the waters had cleared, it took years for the fish to return to the sea. Of course, Ignis himself wasn't helping in those matters.
This sentiment was echoed by the head chef as he'd brought the haul to her.
"My! You've almost fished up the entire sea, sir!"
"I do hope the quality is up to standard."
"Yes, this will do nicely. Thank you."
As he leaves, more words sneak into earshot.
"He never stays for very long, does he?"
Part of the job description as a hunter.
"Hard to tell, but he's actually ex-Crownsguard."
...Hard to tell? Had his personal appearance deterioated to that extent? He didn't think so. Hopefully not.
He had to represent them well. Him, well.
"..."
Ignis stops this train of thought and just keeps walking.
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He moves mostly during the day. That hadn't changed. Mostly.
Save for the missions he undertook, which usually dealt with dispatching the last of the daemon stragglers.
"These...ugh, what are these?!"
"Iron Giants, with a hint of Ronins mixed in. They're among the stubborn ones clinging to these parts." Ignis says, dryly. The hunters with him sounded younger than he was. Dave's been recruiting them fresh out of high school these days. "Best keep on your toes."
"Agh!"
"And don't stray too close to them. Withdraw to guard the gunslingers against sneak attacks; the numbers are a bit worrying for a simple recon group and we need them to pick them off from a distance."
"Understood!"
The clamoring to the left.
Alarmingly fast.
"Move back!"
"Wha-"
Ignis pulls him aside just as a gigantic fist strikes that very same spot.
"An impatient lot, these are." He says, a mirthless tone, "Fall back!"
"Yessir!"
Ah, he could hear it all around him.
The sounds of carnage. Of the clashing of swords and guns.
With each day that passes, he loves it more.
"..?! Sir?!"
And he rushes headlong into the heat of the battle.
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With each day that passes, he loves it more.
The warmth of the sun on his face, as he awakens.
By the time he does, the restaurants, the outposts, had already come to life,
With people milling around, talking of ordinary, painfully ordinary things.
Before he could stop himself, out of habit, he would mill around the outposts, trying to find the best food. Working around the flavors in his mouth and how they tied together, how they would under his intrepretation.
Of course, who was the one who would benefit from it?
After breakfast, Ignis heads back to Galdin Quay.
"...Hm? Ah, hello there." He says to the Chocobo sneaking up behind him. It's one of the more affectionate ones of the bunch. It's possibly one of the few regular ones he employs.
The journey is slow without cars, but he prefers not to take any.
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He stayed in the area, because he still had work to do later.
He says as much to Dave, discreetly.
"It's going to be difficult to handle. Much more so than anything the new ones can handle."
There's a pause. Ignis frowns. "Dave?"
"I hear ya. But are you sure about this? From what you described, it doesn't sound like something a single Hunter can handle."
"Let alone a blind one?"
"You've shown yourself capable of feats that my boys or even me can do. It's not that."
"...I'll be fine. It'll all work on somehow."
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Red Giants, Ronin and the odd Psychomancer.
He leaves his Chocobo outside Dave's hut, and tells him to return her if he's not back by day's end.
But he doesn't go. Not just yet.
As the sun sets, he sits on a bench. Closes his eyes, more out of habit than anything.
On shaky sands, dry land, rocky terrain and icy tundra.
No matter where he goes, he feels it.
The warmth of the sun on his face, his skin.
The nostalgia of it.
It makes it hard to breathe.
He exhales. And the warmth is gone.
Time to get to work.
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Taking up the sword has proved useful in the long run, for those enemies his lance and daggers couldn't slay.
It's still difficult to adjust to.
He pulls the blade out of the Giant's skin and grits his teeth. Clamorous noise, from the left, the right.
Surrounding him on all sides.
It pounds in his head. The noise.
His legs are as lead, and the weapons are heavy in his hands.
Everything in him hurts.
His blood runs cold.
His heart a leaden weight in his chest.
Everything...
hurts.
And as he thinks it, he feels it.
The warmth of the sun.
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With each day that passes, he loves it more.
The world that he'd left behind, for them to protect.
With each day that passes, it's easier to love.
With each day that passes,
He slowly,
Starts.
To forget.
With each day that passes, he hates himself more for it.
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When he's aware of it, he's back at Dave's shack.
He actually never made it that far back.
He'd lost his bearings by the time he'd finished the battle so he'd wandered around for a while, lost.
Dave was the one who'd found him.
As they make their way back, he hears a familiar cry alongside him.
"Your bird's the one that lead me to you."
"...Apologies, Dave."
"I'd offer to make some tags for you, but I don't think it'd make a difference."
No it wouldn't.
Dave knows this already.
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"So you'd disobeyed my orders, then."
"Huh?"
"Dave said that my Chocobo was the one who'd found me. I'd left her tied up at Dave's post and he's not exactly the type to be careless with her."
"Uh...noooo?" Says the young Hunter and Ignis sits in silence for a couple of seconds before he relents, "Fine, yes, okay! It was me!"
"...I figured as much." This...seems like a familiar type of dialogue.
From long ago.
"Huh? Are you laughing?"
"I'm certainly not in any physical state for it." Ignis says, and his tone is back to normal.
He'd lost a lot of blood, apparently. He was told that.
"I just...well, I heard that you were going back in alone and...I saw something weird."
"Something weird?"
"I saw you covered in a glowy, blue light. It almost..." He pauses.
"..."
"It almost looked like magic."
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He remembered when the sun had risen for the first time.
He remembered the dying screams of the demons.
He remembered how his weapons suddenly felt so much heavier.
And of course.
He remembered the pain.
Their potions, now useless. Their swords and guns a lead weight at their side.
The magic...had disappeared.
What...could stop the pain then?
"It...hurts."
He remembered saying. There's a smile on his lips and everything inside him feels so, so numb.
He's blind already.
But staring at this light...it hurts.
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It had been a couple of years since the death of the king.
With it, the Starscourge was erased.
With it, the 10-year night had, at last, come to a close.
With it, the Crownsguard had officially disbanded.
But one of them still wanders the plains. Near the Crown City, on the bay of Galdin Quay, Lestallum...everywhere.
Still wearing the Crownsguard colors, taking whatever hunting jobs were left.
The hunter with blinded eyes. He worked with groups on the rare occasion, but often worked alone.
They talk about him for none of those things.
When Ignis wakes up again, he hears rain.
It's colder than usual. Dave offers to let him stay there until he recovers.
Ignis takes him up on it. He doesn't like rain all that much.
But he doesn't like staying still either.
It makes him think.
The numbness in his body starts to lift, a bit.
"He saw it...didn't he."
The hunter from the Crownsguard.
In a time where magic no longer existed, this hunter was blessed by the king's power even now.
"It's nothing nearly as romantic as that."
It's the static of magic clinging to his daggers, it sometimes builds up in response to the daemonic energies.
It's nothing nearly as romantic as it seems.
It's cold.
But even now, he feels it.
The warmth of the sun stroking his cheek.
"They've told strange tales of me because of you, Your Majesty." He says to no-one. Because there's nobody there.
In his head, Ignis could almost hear him chuckle, just a bit.
"...Hardly a laughing matter."
The warmth is everywhere. Surrounding him.
Holding his broken, tired body in an embrace.
It hurts.
His heart hurts beyond any single would he'd ever received in battle.
He missed him so much.
And all Ignis wants to do is call his name.
When he wakes back up, the spell will be gone.
He'll go back to living, in the warmth that he'd left behind.
It's a promise that he can't break after all.
But for now...now he just wants to rest.
Ignis.
In the voice of his friend, the king he loved.
A phantom caress on his cheek, his lips.
All he wants to do is close his eyes and dream.
"Noct."
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