Chapter Text
Shirts Optional
The heavy grey sky promised rain, and Ignis had neglected to bring an umbrella. He was usually particular about checking the weather before he left his apartment, but this morning he’d been distracted by thoughts of the previous night. He knew Chase could be intense, but last night had been rough to say the least.
Ignis had been ready to end their relationship for a couple of weeks. Longer, probably, if he were being honest with himself.
Sitting in his comfy office at the Citadel, he was still trying to process what had happened.
They had gone to dinner at 'The Towers', an upscale restaurant a few blocks from Caleum Hotel, then Ignis insisted on a walk in the nearby Sapphire Park. He didn’t exactly want to break up with Chase in public, but felt more comfortable than doing it in one of their apartments. A feeling that should have raised alarm bells long before tonight.
They walked through the park, lit by soft ground lighting illuminating tall, sprawling trees. Ignis paused by a large weeping willow tree that leaned precariously over a small pond and pulled out of Chase’s arm which had been around his waist. The dark-haired man stopped and turned to Ignis, his face quizzical.
Despite his determination and surety that ending the relationship was the right thing, Ignis hesitated. He didn’t enjoy hurting other people and he was fairly certain Chase would be upset by what he was about to say.
“Chase,” he began, his eyes focused over Chase’s shoulder at the leaves of the willow moving in the gentle breeze. Taking a deep breath, he met Chase’s light blue eyes, his certainty wavering. “I think we need to break up.”
Chase brows dug in deeper towards his nose as he continued to look at Ignis silently. Finally, he said, “You think?”
“I know,” Ignis said with more conviction.
“You don’t sound very certain.”
He should have anticipated it. People never second guess Ignis Scientia’s words, but Chase had a habit of calling all of Ignis’ decisions into question. Not in the manner of challenging one to be better or to think outside the box, rather Chase questioned Ignis in a way that spread doubt and caused him to question his decisions. Ignis’ effectiveness as Noct’s retainer relied on Ignis making sound, confident decisions. Chase’s constant questioning undermined that role and had begun to affect him at work. This was only one of Ignis’ many reasons for ending the relationship.
Bracing himself, he replied, “I am. I don’t feel about you the way I used to and it isn’t right to continue in a relationship that I can’t see going long-term.”
Again, Chase regarded him silently. Ignis stared back, trying not to fidget under his now ex-boyfriend’s gaze. Chase had always had a knack for making Ignis squirm and not always in a pleasant way.
When he finally did speak, his words shocked Ignis.
“No,” Chase said simply. He didn’t raise his voice, didn’t even look angry or hurt. He just looked confident and not a little condescending.
“Excuse me?” Ignis asked, not comprehending the direction the conversation was going.
“You’re not breaking up with me,” Chase replied coolly.
A chill went through Ignis that wasn’t quite anger. “I’m quite certain I am, Chase.”
Chase moved forward and took Ignis’ hands in his. “Ignis, love, I know you. You’re just having one of your moments. You always do this when things start to get too intense.” Chase smiled warmly at him and for a second, Ignis started to believe him. He had had trouble in the past with intense relationships. He’d left a number of them whenever things got too serious. He used to think he’d left them because they just weren’t a good fit together. His relationship with Chase was the longest one he’d ever been in. Chase hadn’t let Ignis give up on their relationship just because things got difficult. Just like he wasn’t letting Ignis end their relationship now.
As if he’d been struck on the head with a brick, he pulled his hands from Chase’s grasp and stepped back. “No. This isn’t that,” Ignis said firmly, straightening his shoulders and lifting his chin in the same way he did when Noct was being obstinate. “I’m not breaking up with you because things are intense or difficult. I’m breaking up with you because I’m no longer happy in this relationship.” His voice was firm as he finished speaking.
During his speech, Chase’s eyes had gone hard. It was a look he’d seen on Chase before, but had always attributed it to his passion and the intense way he approached any situation. It’s a trait that has served him well as a surgeon, but what Ignis used to see as passion, he now saw as possessiveness and carefully controlled anger. He didn’t recall exactly when he started to notice the difference.
Actually, he did. It had been when he and Chase had gone on a double date with Gladio and Elias. Seeing his relationship side by side with another one, especially one involving someone he respected a great deal, had shifted his view. He’d started to pick up on all the little things Chase did that were manipulative and controlling. He was ashamed he hadn’t noticed it before. But as they say, love makes one blind.
“You’re making a mistake, Ignis.”
“I disagree.”
“Fine. If that’s how you want it to be,” Chase said. “But I want you to know, Ignis,” he continued, his eyes and voice softer, “I still love you. And when you’re ready to admit that you’ve made a mistake, I’ll be here.” Chase then gave him a sad smile. Ignis stiffened as Chase leaned towards him and kissed him gently on the cheek before walking back the way they’d come.
Ignis stood there, under the willow tree, the sound of traffic a constant hum in the background, and stared at Chase’s retreating form. He remained where he was for several minutes before finally starting his walk home.
A knock at his office door pulled him out of his head and back to the present.
“Come in,” he called as he attempted to shuffle papers into orderly piles on his desk. He was surprised, and more than a little pleased, when it was Gladio who came marching into his office.
“Hey, Ignis,” Gladio greeted him enthusiastically. “You ready?”
Ignis’ mind went into overdrive as he desperately tried to remember what he was supposed to be ready for. Gladio must have noticed because he started laughing, his deep, warm voice filling Ignis’ modest office space.
Ignis glared at Gladio, but there was no malice in his eyes. “If you insist on laughing at me, then I’m afraid I’ll have to cancel whatever it is I’m meant to be doing.”
Gladio struggled to contain his amusement, then propped himself on the edge of Ignis’ desk. Gladio was by no means a small man, and this meant he took up close to a quarter of the desk space; his muscular thighs resting on a pile of personnel documents Ignis was reviewing.
“Sorry, Iggy. You just looked adorable with that deer in headlights look.” Gladio flashed Ignis a grin. “An intelligent deer in headlights,” he added before Ignis could dispute the comparison.
He found himself smiling back at Gladio. “So, what was our appointment about again?”
“Lunch, Iggy. We are going to lunch.”
“Oh! Right.”
“I knew you’d forget so I planned to show up early as your own personal calendar reminder.”
“You’re certainly more insistent than any calendar reminder.”
“Harder to ignore, too.”
“Indeed,” Ignis replied dryly. “Let me just finish this email and I’ll be ready.”
“Sure thing.” Gladio got up and plopped himself casually on the small loveseat tucked in under the window between a dark wood file cabinet and a tall bookshelf.
Ignis finished the email he’d been in the middle of to the head of the Communications department before his mind had uncharacteristically wandered. He locked his laptop and glanced over at Gladio lounging on the loveseat as best as his tall frame could manage. The soft, overcast light through the window brought out the lighter, almost auburn, tones in his otherwise dark hair. He gazed out the window, his angular jaw appearing soft. Ignis wondered briefly what he was thinking about. It was then that Ignis realized he’d been staring. Giving himself a metal shake he cleared his throat as he stood.
“Ready?” Gladio asked as he looked over.
“Yes. Thank you for waiting.”
Gladio scoffed at Ignis. “You know you don’t have to be so polite with me, right?”
“I would think it disrespectful to do otherwise.”
“You didn’t think it disrespectful to knock me on my ass in training last week.”
“That’s different,” Ignis said primly.
“Is it?” Gladio challenged, one eyebrow raised as he led the way down the Citadel hallways.
Instead of answering Ignis asked, “Which restaurant are we going to? You seemed rather eager to choose the place this time.”
“You’ll see.”
“It’s a noodle house, isn’t it?”
“Whatcha got against noodles?”
“Nothing, actually.”
“Yeah well, it’s not a noodle house. This time,” Gladio finished sheepishly.
Ignis took pity on his friend. “I really do like noodles, Gladio. I was just teasing you. You wanted me to be less polite.”
Gladio chuckled. “Yeah, I know. But I really am taking you somewhere else. You seemed like you had something important to talk about, so I figured we should go somewhere a bit quieter.”
Ignis fell silent, remembering that the lunch had been his idea originally. Disturbed by the particulars of how his relationship had ended, he had messaged Gladio that night asking if he’d be willing to do lunch the next day. After Ignis had assured him he was fine, Gladio had insisted on choosing the place.
As the pair exited the Citadel, Gladio waving amicably at the guards at the side gates, Ignis gazed up, realizing again that he’d forgotten his umbrella.
“Gladio, you didn’t perchance bring an umbrella with you?”
Following Ignis’ gaze, he answered, “Nah. Didn’t think of it.” Turning back to Ignis he said playfully, “if it rains, I’ll hold my shirt over your head to keep your hair dry.”
“Any excuse to get your shirt off, hmm?” Ignis scoffed. He could feel heat coloring his face at the thought.
“You betcha. This way.”
Gladio led the way through crowded sidewalks, deftly dodging a group of rowdy teenagers that Ignis was sure should have been in class. He tried to predict the restaurant Gladio was taking him to by narrowing down the list of restaurants that were within a reasonable distance from the Citadel for a lunch time meal. Before he was able to narrow it down further by eliminating noodle houses and the like, Gladio had stopped in front of 'Serenity', a Tenebraen style restaurant several shades posher than he’d been expecting.
Gladio grinned at Ignis as he opened the front door. “See. Told you it wasn’t a noodle house.”
“I stand corrected, Gladio.”
Once inside, a hostess showed them to their reserved window table in a quiet corner of the restaurant. The window looked out over a small courtyard that had been created in the center of the building.
Ignis glanced distractedly at the menu, unable to decide between the oak-smoked Devil Gar and the Fisherman’s Paella. He had a momentary pang as he remembered that Chase had always been too ready to choose for Ignis whenever they went out to eat. The mix of longing and indignation threatened to sour his appetite.
“Iggy?”
Gladio’s voice pulled him back to the present and he looked up to see the waiter looking politely at him and realized they’d been waiting for at least a full minute.
“The Devil Gar, please. Thank you.”
“Yes, Sir.” The waiter took the menu from Ignis and headed off towards the kitchen. Feeling embarrassed at how distracted he had been all day, he reached for his water.
“So,” Gladio began. “What is it you wanted to talk about? You’re not breaking up with me, are you?”
Ignis literally choked on his drink.
“Woah, sorry, Iggy. You alright?”
“Yes, I’m fine, thank you,” Ignis said roughly as he wrangled his throat back into cooperation. “That’s just, uh,” he cleared his throat again. “Almost exactly what I wanted to talk about.”
Gladio’s amber eyes widened in a mix of shock and confusion. “Um…?”
“Not you,” Ignis hastened to clarify. “Chase. I broke up with Chase last night.”
“Oh, shit, Iggy. I’m sorry.” Gladio’s face morphed into such genuine concern Ignis had to lower his gaze and adjusted the silverware on the table, which were already perfectly placed. “You doing okay? I didn’t know things were bad between you.”
“Yes, well,” Ignis paused as the waiter returned to bring them their drinks and an appetizer of beanball croquettes, which Ignis assumed Gladio must have ordered while Ignis ruminated over the menu. After giving the man a polite nod, he continued, “I really hadn’t realized how bad things were between us either. It really wasn’t until we went to the spring market fair with you and Elias that I started to realize how…” he hesitated as he searched for the right word. “Wrong he was for me. The way you and Elias treated each other, the way you were with him. I realized that was something I wanted.”
It was Gladio’s turn to awkwardly clear his throat. “I feel like I should tell ya that uh, Elias and I broke up.”
“Oh! Gladio, I had no idea.” Ignis could feel his face flush. “I wouldn’t have brought it up if I’d known.”
Gladio waved his hand in a dismissive gesture as he reached for a croquette with the other. “It’s no big deal, Iggy. It was amicable. I didn’t see a reason to really say anything, since we really hadn’t been dating all that long.” He shoved a croquette in his mouth, and took a drink before continuing. “But we’re here for you, not me. Tell me what happened.”
Ignis again toyed with silverware. “As I said, I broke it off last night. I guess I just wasn’t happy any more. And after seeing you with, I mean, seeing you and uh…”
“Elias,” Gladio said amused. “You can say his name, it’s okay.”
“Of course,” Ignis felt himself blushing again and was irritated by the frequency of it today. “Well, the way you were with Elias; it made me realize that Chase’s behavior towards me was, perhaps, less than loving.”
As Ignis saw Gladio sit up straighter and and his face go hard, he started to regret his words.
“What do you mean, ‘less than loving’?” Gladio said flatly. “Do I need to kick his ass? Or bury a body?”
“No, of course not, Gladio,” Ignis insisted quickly. Astrals, the last thing he wanted was for Gladio to storm up to Chase’s apartment threatening violence. That wouldn’t end well for any of them, least of all Gladio if his father found out. “I’m not sure I worded that well.”
“You always word things well, Iggy,” Gladio interrupted.
Ignis gave Gladio a bemused smirk, “Thank you.”
Gladio didn’t seem even half convinced. If anything, Ignis thought he looked more suspicious than before. The taller man stared hard at Ignis as if trying to glean more information by pulling it from Ignis’ eyes. Ignis stared right back, knowing if he flinched, Gladio would latch onto it and then Ignis would have to figure out how to discreetly get Glaido out of jail for assault without Clarus or Cor finding out. Not a challenge Ignis was currently interested in taking on.
“Okay. So, you wanted to have lunch just to tell me that?”
Ignis flinched inwardly realizing he had wanted to tell Gladio more about his misgivings about the relationship, but foolishly hadn’t accounted for Gladio’s protective streak. He’d seen the man puff up when it came to his sister, Noct, and even Prompto, but he hadn’t expected Gladio to do it with him.
In an effort to redirect the conversation, he responded with, “Is it so hard to accept that I also wanted to have lunch with my friend?”
He could see immediately that Gladio hadn’t bought the diversion. “How’d he take it?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Iggy, coy doesn’t become you.”
This whole lunch conversation had gotten out of hand and Ignis refused to give Gladio more fuel. So he lied. “He took it well. He said he was sad that I felt that way, but that he respected my decision.”
Ignis felt like shit. He never lied to his friends. He tried to console himself that Chase had, more or less, said those words. In some shape or form. Ignis was just leaving out the detail of Chase blatantly not accepting his breakup and telling him he’d be there when Ignis was ready to come back.
Before Gladio could respond, the rest of their food had arrived and Ignis launched into a discussion about the spices he could taste and how it compared to some of the Galahdian food he’d had last week. He was relieved when Gladio let the matter drop and jumped in with a story his father told him once about when he and Regis had gone to Galahd.
An hour later, they exited the restaurant to a deluge falling from the sky.
Ignis let out a resigned sigh. “I knew I should have gone back for my umbrella.”
Flashing Ignis one of his best grins, Gladio whipped off his leather jacket and shirt and draped it over Ignis’ head.
“Gladio, really!” Ignis exclaimed, his face now for certain on fire. They were still in full view of the restaurant and several passersby had paused to look at the now, half naked giant standing in front of an expensive restaurant, grinning like a fool as the rain plastered his hair to his head.
“Hey, I promised you. Let’s go.”
Before Ignis could argue, Gladio dragged him out into the street back in the direction of the Citadel. Unable to do otherwise, he clutched at Gladio’s clothes to keep them in place. If the fool was going to run around half naked, Ignis might as well take advantage.