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Flying through the air and landing with a thud on the mat Noct had the air knocked out of him. “Why the hell… are you trying to kill me… today!?” He panted as he rolled over to push himself up off the floor of the training room.
“I’m not trying to kill you princess, I’m making you stronger. You clearly want to learn more close combat training moves, so I’m just obliging.” Gladio quipped from his position a few feet away.
“I do NOT! Who said I did!?”
“Well I only assumed since you pulled that fancy grappling move on me last week that your interests had changed.”
“What fancy move!?” The prince huffed, and then he looked down remembering. “Oh that move, well it was just for the one time, you know, so I could make a bet with you I could actually win.”
“Nah… I think you just want to be better and that was your way of asking me to extend our training sessions.”
“NO! No it was not. I like everything the way it is now! Don’t add any more time!”
“We can practice all the other techniques we haven’t had time to perfect.” Gladio said talking to no one in particular and walking away.
Noct trailed after him looking horrified. “I said NO! Really I mean it. I don’t have time to do anything else!” He was starting to yell.
“Well you had time to learn that fancy move from Ignis and now you don’t have time for me? That hurts Noctis.” Gladio turned to him with a stern face.
“That was only temporary! Ignis said I would only need to train for a few weeks to learn the move, and then we stopped!”
Gladio raised his eyebrow and smirked at the prince. “Oh… so that’s who taught you.”
“Shit, shit, shit.” Noct groaned at his slip up. This wasn’t good Ignis had asked him to not tell Gladio about their arrangement.
“So let me get this straight, you seek me out first and make a bet that you subsequently lose, meaning I get to tickle torture you. Then, because you can’t leave well enough alone, decide you must have payback and enlist Ignis to help you beat me. Am I right?” Gladio was just grinning from ear to ear now.
“Don’t tell him I told you. Please. It was supposed to be a secret.”
“You should’ve thought about that before asking him for help. All so you could tie me to a chair to tickle me! I believe this whole situation is your fault and you’re obligated to help me with his punishment.”
Noct’s eyes went wide. “Wha… NO! He will murder me in my sleep, he will poison my food. He knows things about me, he will destroy me!” The prince whined. “You don’t understand, he thinks we are even!”
“He may be even with you but he’s not with me.” Gladio proclaimed with a smile. “You are going to help me get him whether you like it or not.”
Noct slumped his shoulders in defeat, he knew Gladio would make his life miserable if he didn’t go along with whatever plan he had. “Fine, but if I should die a mysterious death, it’ll be on your head.”
Gladio snickered. “You’ll be fine, how hard could it be to tickle Ignis Scientia?”
Ignis was beyond tired; his week had been long and full of stressful meetings that produced far too much follow up paperwork. On top of that he had voluntarily doubled his training regime with extra sessions from another trainer in addition to the shields. He felt dead on his feet and it was only six in the evening.
He was trying to prepare dinner quickly so he could make an early exit to go home and rest. He assumed Noct would have plans with Prompto later since it was Friday.
Hoping his already pounding headache wouldn’t become unbearable he started washing vegetables. Shortly afterwards he heard the door open and when he turned he was greeted by Noct standing in the entrance to the kitchen looking slightly stressed. “Noctis, are you quite well?”
“Sorry Specs, he made me do it.” Noct sighed with a frown. “I hope you forgive me.”
Ignis’ heart started to race unsure of the context of Noct’s statement. Before he could ask what his charge meant Gladio suddenly appeared next to the prince and made a rush at the advisor.
Initially fearing the worst he silently thanked the astrals for Gladio’s shit eating grin that was plastered on his face. Seeing him smile was the only indication that things were okay. He would have to tell the shield later how close he had come to witnessing Ignis call for his daggers in the bloody kitchen.
Now to the matter at hand, a six foot six chiseled giant about to collide with him. He managed to dodge the first attack but he suddenly understood Nocts stressed expression as he saw the prince try and grab him. He had been roped into helping even though he didn’t want to.
Being tired was not helping his situation, he was moving slower than he would’ve liked. Attempting to escape the confines of the kitchen he shoved Noct into the living room. Before he could slip around him to get free he felt arms around his waist pulling him backwards. Damn them for tag teaming him!
Attempting to wrestle someone on a tile floor wearing only socks is a disaster waiting to happen. Gladio wouldn’t give up his hold on Ignis’ waist even after they ended up in a heap on the floor. He would have to get creative to get the shield to let go. Noting he could reach his neck he dug his fingers in and started tickling him. It worked like a charm Gladio laughed loudly and flinched enough that Ignis could break his hold and wiggle away.
The advisor wasn’t expecting Noct to really join in but as he scrambled into the living room he was accosted by the prince and knocked down again. He used the same trick on the raven haired boy and tickle attacked his neck until he squealed and rolled off to the side.
“Gladio He’s cheating!” Noct yelled. “Stop giggling and get over here and catch him!”
The prince’s earlier expression of remorse was gone and replaced with determination. Ignis had seen the same look a few weeks before when he had trained Noct with a move to win a bet against Gladio. Now it was directed at him.
He had barely managed to get back up off the floor when the shield came at him again. This wasn’t going to end well.
Twenty seven and half minutes later all three occupants of the apartment were sprawled on the kitchen floor breathing heavily. Gladio was leaning up against a cabinet near to the sink with two large tattooed arms pinning Ignis in place to his chest. The advisors legs were trapped under Noct’s body, the prince had flaked out on his stomach to keep him in place.
Noct let out a dramatic sigh and turned his head towards the older boys. “You… you were like possessed or something Specs! Seriously that took forever!”
Ignis took a deep breath which was a tad difficult with huge muscled arms draped across his midsection. “What did you expect me to do, you both attacked me.” He shifted his weight a little trying to test his bonds. Gladio had managed to get Ignis’ hands secured behind his back with what felt like a belt. Once that happened it was only a matter of time before they were able to secure his ankles together thus ending the scuffle.
“Noct, can you find a safe place for his glasses?” The shield tentatively moved one of his arms and reached to remove Ignis’ frames off his face. The prince groaned as he lifted himself from the floor and reached out to take the glasses before wandering off into the living room.
“You should have told me to take them off earlier, what else could you both possible do to me?” Ignis lamented.
“We are going to tickle torture you now.” Noct announced when he came back in the room. “Especially after you made us work so hard to catch you!”
“Well I hate to disappoint you but I’m not ticklish.”
“Nah that’s not possible I remember you being ticklish when we were kids.” Gladio scoffed.
“Things change Gladiolus, deal with it. Now would you kindly set me free so I can cook dinner.”
Noct tilted his head at the exchange and walked to the fridge to get a water bottle.
Gladio snorted and shook his head. “Not happening. Hey Noct hand me a water too.”
The shield popped the cap on the bottle and nudged Ignis in the arm. “You need some liquids after running around like that.”
Ignis turned his head sideways to look up at the shield to berate him with a snide comment. The expression he was greeted with was kind and not mocking. He decided to keep his thoughts to himself and looked back at the water.
Gladio somehow managed to not spill a single drop on him as he guzzled over half the bottle. He gasped for air when he was done and leaned his head back on the shields shoulder. “Well you best get on with it; I’m not sure how long I’ll be awake at this point.”
“Noct grab his feet and let’s move him to the sofa.” Gladio instructed as he lifted Ignis under his arms and they walked into the livingroom depositing Ignis in a seated position in the middle of the sofa. Gladio pulled Ignis’ feet up on the coffee table. “So shall we Noct?”
Noct was smiling again and went to stand on the other side of the coffee table to reach his advisors feet better. “You’re going down Specs.”
“I doubt that.” Ignis muttered.
Noct dug his fingers into Ingis’ soles expecting squeals of laughter only to be greeting with a typical Ignis sigh. He tried again testing light and hard pressure with his fingers but nothing happened.
Gladio looked shocked; he had taken a seat next to Ignis on the couch while Noct tried to coax a sound out of the advisor other than annoyance. “Seriously, not even a twitch! Iggy either you’re so tired you can’t feel anything anymore or you’re a freak.”
Ignis huffed in response. “A freak, how kind of you.”
“Everybody has ticklish feet.”
“NOT ME.” He shot back.
“Noct, try his knees like you did with me.”
“Ohhh yeah good idea, maybe his feet are just broken we can deal with that later.”
Ignis rolled his eyes, they were insufferable, why did they have to bother him today of all days. He couldn’t put up a proper fight. “Ouch! There is no need to pinch me Noctis. Accept defeat and move on!”
“Really! So no go with feet and knees, even underneath.” Noctis sighed and walked over to sit next to Ignis.
“Ribs next.” Gladio announced. He started to unbutton Ignis’ vest as the man always wore too many layers of clothing. It was his modern day suit of armor, except made out of fabric.
“Gladio what are you doing?” The advisor cautioned.
“You won’t even feel if we try and tickle you through all this clothing we need access. Deal with it.” He retorted with a smile.
Noct was waiting patiently with raised hands and crooked fingers for Gladio to shove the vest aside so he could tickle attack. To no avail, even when the shield joined in Ignis merely looked put out that his vest had been unbuttoned.
They witnessed the same reaction when they tried his neck. Ignis even leaned his head from one side to the other so they could both reach without problem. “Told you, I’m not ticklish.” He sighed. “Would you kindly set me free so I can start dinner.”
Gladio leaned back into the arm of the sofa and looked at Noct. “I can’t believe it, he’s not ticklish. This can’t be right.”
“I remember he used to be ticklish when I was younger.” Noct looked a little sad at that admission.
“Oh! Wait… we forgot one last spot!” Gladio exclaimed smiling broadly. “His hips!”
“Oh astrals, leave me be.” Ignis groaned.
Noct looked confused. “What the hell are you talking about? We tried his sides already.”
“Nah, I’m talking about that sweet spot just below your waistline on your hips.” Gladio rucked his tank top up and tugged his jeans waistline down an inch. “Here.” He said pointing to his hip bone.”
Noct suddenly turned towards Ignis when a movement caught his attention. “Did you just flinch?”
Ignis ignored his question and stared off across the room.
“Gladio, he just moved… that might mean…” The prince never finished his sentence. He and Gladio instantly grabbed the sides of Ignis’ dress shirt and untucked it. Both of them moved in for the kill and started tickling the advisor’ hips.
Ignis was finally squealing and laughing. He went to curl his legs up to his chest to protect himself but Gladio bent his leg and placed his knee on top of Ignis’ thighs to keep him in place.
Since his hands were tied behind his back he couldn’t shove Gladio and Noct away. He tried to lean forward but the shield just held one hand on his chest and shoved him back into the sofa cushion while mercilessly continuing his tickling with the other.
Ignis couldn’t feel his face anymore from laughing so hard, he had tears streaming down his cheeks and he was gasping for breath. “Enough… please…. I can… barely… breathe.” He managed to spit out after what felt like an eternity of tickle torture.
“We did it!” Noct yelled. “That took forever, I thought you were broken Specs.”
Ignis moaned and started to lean sideways unable to hold himself up anymore. “I think… I’m broken… now.” He rasped closing his eyes. Before he fell over completely he felt hands on his shoulders pulling him upright.
“Noct untie his feet would ya.” Gladio then tugged the advisor forward to reach behind his back to free his hands. “Iggy? Are you falling asleep?
“Mmnn… need to cook.” He mumbled into Gladio’s shoulder.
“Nah no cooking tonight Iggy, we planned ahead and ordered take out. Take a nap we will wake you when it’s time to eat.”
“S’gonna get it?”
Noct came back around to help Gladio situate Ignis on the sofa so he could sleep. “Don’t worry about it Ignis, Prompto is coming over soon with the food.”
Ignis’ eyes popped open at that statement. “Don’t make poor Prom pay for that s’not fair.” He responded sleepily rolling his eyes shut again after speaking.
“No. no. no. Specs we gave him money to pay with, it’s not like that.” Noct worriedly responded.
Gladio was just giggling and shaking his head. “Sleep Iggy its Friday night stop fucking working for once.”
Ignis was aware of the feeling of soft sofa cushions under his body and he decided to focus on that and follow Gladio’s advice and let go. Exhaustion and sleep pulled him into a sweet slumber almost immediately.
The smell of one of his favorite dishes from their local take out joint lulled Ignis awake. He could hear Noct, Prompto, and Gladio laughing about something on the TV.
“Oh hey Ignis… sorry were we too noisy? Did we wake you?” Prompto asked from where he was seated on the floor when he noticed the advisor had rolled over on his side and opened his eyes. They had food spread out on the coffee table and pillows on the floor to sit on.
“No, you all didn’t wake me. I think I’m hungry.” He was still tired but felt so much better than earlier. His headache was gone and he was planning on falling back to sleep once he ate.
Gladio prepared him a plate and handed it over with a water bottle. “No caffeine for you, otherwise you’ll be all messed up.”
Ignis smiled and propped himself up to eat. “Prompto, I suggest you run and hide for a few weeks.”
“Wha? Why?” The blonde asked with wide eyes.
“Well, these two ruffians tickle tortured each other and then they ganged up on me. So I would only assume you are next on the list.” Ignis replied with a coy smile.
“Specs, leave my best friend alone!” Noct squealed. “I would never do such a thing.”
“I don’t think your statement holds any merit Noct.” Gladio mused with a smirk. “You were against helping me get Iggy back at first then once we got rolling there was no stopping you. I think you contributed plenty to the destruction of Sir Ignis Scientia today.”
Ignis laughed and looked at Noct to see his reaction.
Squinting and pointing a pair of disposable chopsticks accusingly at his shield Noct suddenly exclaimed. “Prompto, we may need to run away together. They are plotting I can tell!”