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The moment Prompto finishes his self-defense training, and actually moves on to offensive training, he finally feels like he’s accomplished something huge in his life. That’s not to say being part of the Crownsguard doesn’t always feel like a dream. But being told that he should take care of himself first doesn’t help his self-esteem. He’d never complain though. He pours himself into acing his self-defense course and manages to finish a few weeks early.
Offensive training excites him way more than anything, even though his arms feel like deadweights after every session. Surprisingly, he picks up on firearms quicker than anyone expected, but sword training is a whole different problem. He can’t seem to gracefully swing a blade, and he still flinches when Gladio comes at him with the training swords. Prompto’s not one to give up, though, so he takes it upon himself to hole himself up in one of the training rooms late at night and wail on a dummy until he’s confident enough that Gladio won’t immediately strike him down.
Prompto’s leaving one of these extra practices late at night when he comes across another occupied room and cracks the door to peek in. Inside are Gladio and Ignis, warming up for what seems to be a training session. Not an usual sight considering Ignis’ busy schedule started at the crack of dawn, and this is probably the only time he has to dedicate to training.
Briefly, Prompto considers stepping in and greeting the two retainers he now considers friends, but once the two take their stances, Prompto decides to watch from the door as the two spar. Obviously, he’s seen Gladio fight during their training sessions, but the lifelong fighter significantly holds back and stops short of hitting Prompto, even with the training swords. On the other hand, Prompto hasn’t as much as seen Ignis around the training facilities, so he’s curious to watch the advisor fight.
A flash of blue reveals the retainers’ chosen weapons: the usual broadsword for Gladio and a pair of daggers for Ignis. Gladio groans when he sees the blades but doesn’t say anything else as he lunges forward to attack. The maneuver is one that often throws Prompto off in practice: Gladio attacks head on, which Prompto successfully dodges, but while he’s feeling good about not being hit, Gladio sweepss his legs from under him and he’s down on the mat.
Ignis, though, isn’t fooled by the move as he steps back from the initial swing and fucking does an aerial cartwheel to get out of the shield’s reach. Prompt can feel his jaw drop and his head crane forward as his eyes glue themselves to Ignis.
Their first round doesn’t last too long as Ignis stops his left blade before it can pierce Gladio’s jugular, but every second of it has Prompto floored. It’s not that he’s never seen anyone else flip as they fought; Noctis used to do it a lot more before he mastered warping and even Gladio did a bit of it when he showed off to the Guard.
But Ignis looked more natural than anybody. If Prompto didn’t know better, he would have assumed the royal advisor had trained to be a gymnast before picking up weapons. The way he backflips, cartwheels, and springs across the room seems like it’s as much effort as breathing. It shouldn’t make sense with how tall Ignis is, but the display is the most amazing thing Prompto’s ever seen.
Definitely doesn’t help his four-year crush on Ignis.
Prompto ducks out of the room before either one can see his red face and starts the long trek home. On the way home, his curiosity gets the best of him, so he looks up articles on gymnastics. It’s something he’s always found super cool; he gushed for a full five minutes the first time Gladio did handstand pushups (shirtless, of course) in front of him. The shield had chuckled and offered to teach him how to do a handstand, but he’d been too embarrassed to fall on his face in front of the intimidating man.
It feels way too late to take Gladio up on his offer, but Prompto suddenly feels a determination to learn how to do something remotely acrobatic. He doubts he’d ever be able to bust it out in battle like the others, but he’d still like to try.
Once he’s home and locked in his bedroom, he attempts a handstand. Unfortunately, all that he manages is knocking over his bedroom lamp and having to clean lightbulb shards off the floor.
Maybe Noctis can help him out.
However, Noctis is probably the worst teacher ever, which Prompto really should have seen. The young prince has little patience for someone learning what comes naturally to him. His ‘teaching’ consists of walking around on his palms telling Prompto ‘how easy it is.’ Noctis doesn’t even seem to have ever heard of ‘walking before you run’ because once he’s holding onto Prompto’s legs to steady his handstand, he tells his friend to start moving.
Prompto lifts a hand.
Noctis lets go of Prompto’s legs.
Noctis gets a bloody nose.
Fifteen minutes and about a thousand apologizes later, Noctis settles onto his couch with his left hand pressing a tissue to his nose and pulls Prompto down to sit with him. Not just sit with him though, Noctis wraps his arm around Prompto’s waist and maneuvers him so they’re both lying across the couch.
“Uh… you okay, buddy?” Prompto looks up at his best friend.
Noctis’ cheeks appear to redden a bit, but he shrugs and checks the tissue to see if he’s still bleeding. “Just trying to stop you from apologizing so much.”
“With, uhm,” Prompto readjusts so he’s not leaning his whole weight on Noctis. “Cuddles?”
Noctis rolls his eyes. “Whenever we share a bed, you wake up all over me.”
“Yeah, but I’m asleep when that happens.”
Noctis groans and suddenly he’s off the couch and storming into his bedroom. The door closes behind him, and Prompto hears the sound of the lock clicking into place.
No matter his best friend’s bad teaching and bizarre behavior, Prompto is still determined to learn how to do a handstand. Looks like he’ll be spending even more time at the training facility.
-
A week after he first saw Ignis fight, Prompto has thrown his practice sword to the side and is trying his best to do a handstand. His method consists of nothing more than placing his palms on the ground and kicking his legs up, which always ends with him falling onto his face or flipping over to his back.
It’s become a routine. Palms down. Legs up. Thump. Get up. Palms down. Legs up. Thump.
Anyone one else would have probably given up at this point, but Prompto’s always been stupidly determined, and he vows to keep it up until he can balance for just 3 seconds. He’s concentrating so hard on learning how to do a handstand, he doesn’t realize that his constant falling on the mat has attracted attention.
It’s not until he flips over to his back for the umpteenth time that he spies Ignis leaning against the entrance’s door jamb with an amused look. It’s clear that the older man had just finished his own training as his hair is slightly wet and swept over his forehead. He’s dressed in a dark t-shirt and jeans, but because it’s Ignis they’re tailored to his body. Prompto thanks the Six that his face is already red from all the falling because the last thing he needs is for Ignis to learn of his dumb crush.
“May I ask what it is you’re doing?” Even Ignis’ tone is playful as he approaches Prompto in a few quick strides.
Prompto gets to his feet a little too quickly, which has him lightheaded and he stumbles to the side. Ignis notices this and puts a hand on his arm to steady him. Prompto stares at the hand a little too long and blushes when Ignis repeats his question.
“Well, uhm, I was trying to do a handstand? Gladio offered to teach me a couple of years ago, but I think the offer passed. So, uh, I asked Noct, but he’s a pretty bad teacher.”
Ignis laughs lowly. “Ah yes, I wouldn’t doubt Noct’s impatience when it comes to teaching. Though I’m sure Gladio would be more than happy to assist you.”
Prompto grimaces at the thought of falling on his face throughout sword training only to have it paired with more falling on his face trying to do a handstand. And knowing Gladio, he wouldn’t stop until Prompto could do 100 handstand push-ups.
“Does that idea displease you?”
Prompto frantically shakes his head. “N-no! It’s just. Well, to be honest, I saw you and Gladio sparring the other day, and I dunno, you looked really cool doing all those flips, and I don’t think I could ever be as amazing, but I thought I could at least learn how to do a handstand.” He curls his lips around his teeth and bites down as his face turns even redder. He really needs to learn how to filter himself. Especially around Ignis.
Ignis brings a hand to his mouth to hide the smile tugging at his lips. “I see.” He regards Prompto with a look that makes the blonde fidget from nervousness. “I’d be glad to be of assistance, if you so choose.”
The excitement of being able to learn from the object of his affection overcomes the nervousness from being around him, and Prompto immediately perks up and bounces on his toes. “Really? Fair warning, I’m super bad at balancing. I’ve been at this for, like, a week.”
The royal advisor shrugs. “That may be, but what you may lack in natural ability, you make up with determination.”
Prompto blinks up at Ignis and resists the urge to confess his undying love for the older man. “Dude… you’re way too nice.”
“Not a word I’ve heard often to describe me,” Ignis confesses. “But I’d like to make it clear that I’m not one for saying words just to be kind. I honestly believe you have the strongest resolve of anyone I’ve ever met.” At this point, Prompto’s cursing the Six and doing his best to bite his tongue. In the end, he does just that and simply nods as a reply. “I must run for now, but we can begin tomorrow.”
Prompto bites his lips and nods again. Until his heart stops hammering in his chest, he doesn’t trust himself to another word to his crush. Ignis gives him another amused look and bows his head slightly before leaving.
Once the older man has been gone for a few minutes and Prompto’s heart stops threatening to burst out of his chest, Prompto realizes that he’s agreed to make a fool out of himself in front of his longtime crush. He lies face-down on the mat until the motion-sensor lights shut off.
--
Over the next couple of weeks, Ignis and Prompto spend an hour a day working on a handstand. True to his word, Prompto is terrible at keeping his balance and has to work on simple balance exercises before they can even work on a handstand.
They’ve been working in secret, not for any real reason, but because Prompto’s afraid that Noctis or Gladio will try to teach him again if he lets them know. Also, he doesn’t think he’d be able to talk about it without blushing. Along with trying to balance comes Ignis’ steadying hand on him. In his mind, he likes to imagine that the touches linger longer than they should, but he tries to push it out of his mind and work on the real goal.
A perfect handstand.
Ignis is really the perfect teacher as he never shows off as Gladio and Noctis tend to do and never gets frustrated when Prompto struggles. He seems to genuinely care that Prompto overall improves his balance and not just for the handstand. Though the task sometimes feels silly to Prompto, Ignis takes it very seriously and his concentration never waivers during their sessions.
Prompto wants to kiss his stupid face.
On one of the rare days that the four of them train together, Prompto has trouble keeping his eyes off Ignis. Several times, he almost gets bowled over by Noctis who appears to be doing a cartwheel between every strike of his sword. Gladio, too, is a little out of control as he does a strange maneuver where he’s doing a one-handed handstand while swinging his great sword in the other hand. It’s quite out of character for them, and any other day Prompto would call them out on it, but now that he’s aware of how acrobatic Ignis is and how his crush is intensifying, he pays it no mind.
They’re taking a short break to catch their breath when an odd feeling of confidence comes over Prompto. His usual clumsiness during sparring has all but disappeared as he hasn’t hit the mat once. He’s generally feeling strong today, so while Gladio teases Noctis for his odd fighting style, Prompto plants his hands on the ground and kicks his legs up.
One…
Two…
Three…
Four…
Fi-
He topples over, but that can’t wipe the huge grin that breaks over his face. He looks over at the other three who have been watching, and while Gladio and Noctis look confused, Ignis looks absolutely proud.
“Who taught you that?”
“Where the hell did you learn that?”
“Well done, Prompto.”
Though spoken simultaneously, Ignis’ is the only one he really hears and the only one that makes his heart swell. Without much thought, he half-crawls, half-shuffles over to Ignis and kisses him on his slightly parted lips. Ignis doesn’t kiss back, but he doesn’t push Prompto away, which is why it takes him a few seconds to realize what he’s done and pull away. Ignis looks surprised, something that Prompto expects. But his face quickly morphs, and he looks… pleased?
Noctis scoffs and slightly slumps. “Of course, it’s Specs.” He stands up and grabs his sword. “Almost sprained my wrists with all those damn cartwheels.”
Gladio sighs and follows after Noctis with his own weapon. “Toldja you were trying too hard.”
“Oh, please,” Noctis bites back. “I don’t think I’ve seen you wear an actual shirt in a month.”
As they stalk away, Prompto looks back at Ignis, thoroughly confused. “What’s that about?”
“Nothing to worry about,” Ignis assures him. “They’re just conceding to an agreement the three of us made a while back.”
Prompto tilts his head to the side. “Still confused here.”
Ignis smiles. “Don’t let it bother you.” He leans forward to return the peck Prompto had given him. “Your handstand was fantastic. I told you your determination makes you a great student.”
Prompto flushes and ducks his head. “Yeah, well, you’re kind of the perfect teacher.”
“I’ve a feeling we may be interested in more than just a mere student-teacher relationship.” Ignis quirks an eyebrow, and godsdamn, it’s the most attractive thing Prompto has ever seen.
Prompto stares, wide-eyed, at Ignis who’s completely unfazed by his statement. “Uhm… y-yeah! That would be… you’re not just trying to be funny, right?”
“Again, not a word oft used to describe me,” Ignis muses. “But, I am completely serious. Perhaps we can spend some time together outside the practice rooms tonight.” Prompto nods eagerly and leans forward to kiss Ignis again. He’s so excited that he could probably do a back-flip.
But that’s a lesson for another day.