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Everything had happened so extremely fast. At first they had been making very good time towards the lights of the outpost they were heading to, and the next thing they knew they were completely surrounded by a group of daemons, most troublingly, a pair of nagarani. Exhausted and filthy, they resigned themselves to fighting their way through, the promise of a hotel bed waiting for them when they were finished a rather effective enticement.
Ignis had fallen into a rather comfortable (all things considered) rhythm of daggers, polearm, dodge, change target, repeat, and was pleased to note that things were honestly going quite well. He’d seen to the dispatching of several of the lesser tarantulas and ice bombs while the other three focussed their efforts on the nagarani.
Of course, the good fortune obviously had to come to an end, as abruptly and chaotically as the battle began. One second, Ignis was cleanly dispatching a tarantula, and the next Gladio was shouting at him to look out and diving in front of him to intercept the petrification spell the remaining nagarani flung in his direction.
Swearing, Ignis joined Noctis and Prompto in finishing her off in a puff of purple smoke before turning his attention back to Gladio’s statue-like form, knowing Noctis could take care of the few stragglers with a few well-aimed warp strikes.
‘Does anyone have any curatives?’ Ignis asked when his own foray into their stores in the aether proved unfruitful.
‘I thought that was why we were heading to the outpost,’ Prompto shook his head, looking worried. ‘We’re clean out.’
Ignis swore again, knowing they had gotten themselves into quite the predicament. He sighed. ‘These spells are rather long-lasting. And I really don’t think we’ll have much luck carrying him, especially now he’s essentially stone.’
‘Yeah, she got him rock hard for sure,’ Prompto quipped before becoming abruptly serious. ‘Okay, so what do we do? Last time it was Noct, so we just carried him to the campsite, but the spell took all night to wear off! You’re not saying we’re gonna wait out here all night are you?’
‘No, all four of us will almost certainly attract unwanted attention out here,’ Ignis said pensively. ‘Yes, this is what we’ll need to do: you two will need to carefully make your way to the outpost and fetch a few curatives to bring back here. I’ll stay with Gladio to ensure nothing unsavoury comes along to happen upon him.’
‘Iggy, you can’t stay here all alone!’ Prompto argued. ‘That’s insane.’
‘Well, I’m certainly not leaving Gladio here all alone,’ Ignis shook his head. ‘And we can’t all stay here, numbers tend to attract daemons more than anything. Provided you are both expedient, I should be fine here with him.’
‘He’s right Prom,’ Noctis said quietly before Prompto could have a chance to argue back. ‘Plus, if we hurry, we can still get a good eight hours in before Specs starts trying to force us back out looking for the car.’
Prompto shrugged. ‘Kay. You’re sure Ignis?’
Ignis nodded. ‘But do hurry. I don’t foresee myself enjoying my time out here with a Gladio statue for company. He’s not much for conversation.’
Chuckling appreciatively, Noctis and Prompto set off towards the lights of the nearby outpost, leaving Ignis and the motionless Gladio alone in the darkness of the trees. Ignis heaved a weary sigh and leaned against a tree facing Gladio, frowning at the stone figure of his best friend.
‘Why would you do that, Gladio? They needed you far more than they needed me.’
He eyed Gladio’s petrified figure, now afforded the chance to properly admire the chiseled muscle across the entirety of Gladio’s body. He shook himself before he could get too carried away. Staring, even if the subject of attention was too petrified to notice, was simply unacceptable, especially when accompanied by such inappropriate thoughts. Gladio was his best friend; it would not do for Ignis to entertain such ridiculous fantasies about him.
Instead, Ignis moved his attention to Gladio’s face, an expression of abject fear on his face and Ignis took a moment to wonder at it. He had never seen that expression on Gladio’s face before and wondered just what had caused it. It certainly couldn’t be the thought of Ignis being hit by the spell; not only was it silly to have himself decommissioned from battle in Ignis’ place, but Gladio had absolutely no duty to him – he was Noctis’ shield, not Ignis’. As much as Ignis would love to think Gladio did this out of some sort of love or affection for him, but he knew it was more likely this was merely an instinctive reaction on Gladio’s part.
Ignis sighed again and moved forward to eye something that had caught his attention on Gladio’s stony cheek. He reached out and ran his index finger along the mark he knew to be a cut on Gladio’s cheek and tutted. ‘Oh Gladio. You need to stop getting yourself hurt so recklessly like this. Being Shield to Noct is one thing, but that does not mean you need to throw yourself into to way of all blows coming towards all of us. I absolutely hate seeing you this way. You’ve no idea how much it hurts the heart of the one who loves you so hopelessly.’
Figuring he was only hurting himself more in venting his feelings like this, Ignis went back to lean on the tree, eyes scanning the trees for the boys or daemons, doing his best to keep his attention from drifting too frequently back to Gladio.
Finally, after Ignis had mentally tortured himself more than enough for being so careless as to have gotten Gladio into this mess, Prompto and Noctis returned, looking out of breath from running.
‘Man I hate running,’ Noctis wheezed, bending at the waist to try and catch his breath. ‘But we got some gold needles, and some remedies if those don’t work.’
Prompto held out a package containing a gold needle. ‘Here Iggy, give him a little prick, will ya?’
Ignis thanked him, ignoring the quip, and went over to Gladio to prick the needle into his forearm, very much ready to have his friend back to normal.
‘Gods I hate that,’ Gladio stretched gratefully the moment he was able to. ‘Thanks guys. Good fight, otherwise.’
‘Yeah, so let’s get us to a hotel,’ Noctis smiled. ‘I’m ready to flop right into a nice fluffy hotel bed.’
‘Oh yeah, cannonball for me,’ Prompto agreed. ‘Let’s go.’
The two boys led the way back towards the outpost, but Gladio fell into step next to Ignis, watching him for a moment before reaching out to grab his hand. ‘You’ve never been petrified before, huh?’
‘Can’t say I have, today would’ve been the first if not for you,’ Ignis looked down at their linked hands, confused. ‘Er, why?’
‘You know petrified people can hear and see everything going on around them, right?’ Gladio appeared to be biting back laughter as Ignis felt his entire face go red. ‘Aw, no, don’t freak out or be embarrassed Iggy, it’s a hundred percent okay with me if you wanna confess your undying love to my petrified ass.’
‘Not just your ass, although it is quite the specimen,’ Ignis began to relax under Gladio’s soft gaze. ‘Er… can I take this,’ he held up their linked hands, ‘to mean you’re quite alright with that?’
‘Yeah, Iggy,’ Gladio chuckled quietly. ‘I’d be kissing you right now, astrals know I’ve been dreaming of doing that for a while, but I refuse to share our first kiss with those two assholes.’
‘We won’t look, promise,’ Prompto piped up from ahead, grinning over his shoulder at his two friends. ‘Go ahead, make out.’
‘No way, wait till I’m asleep at least,’ Noctis also turned to grin at his friends and mentors. ‘Seeing my pseudo parents making out might turn me to stone.’
‘Ah yes, what a truly petrifying experience that might be for you,’ Ignis rolled his eyes.
‘Don’t worry, he’s enough of a gold-plated prick to be able to cure himself,’ Gladio winked at his oft-annoying charge. ‘No need to waste any of our limited supplies on him.’
A chorus of laughter saw them the rest of the way to the outpost, the comforting lights of the Three Z’s Motel welcoming them warmly. Ignis had never been happier to be in civilisation. Not only had they had one hell of a night, but he and Gladio clearly had some more talking to do. Talking that would hopefully lead to kissing.
He wondered if it would be too forward to get two hotel rooms, but listening to Noctis and Prompto complaining about how they wanted to be comfortable after such a gruelling battle, he knew they weren’t going to be given much choice without a tired tantrum or two. Ignis really wasn’t in the mood to argue, and well, whatever benefits arose after that were really just completely unintended side-effects. Ignis looked sideways as he accepted their room keys to catch sight of Gladio grinning mischievously and wondered just what was awaiting him on the other side of that door. Well, whatever it was, Ignis thought, allowing himself to be led towards their room as Noctis and Prompto broke off to their own, it was sure to be far from a petrifying experience.