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One would think fighting a small horde of goblins and getting paid very generously would motivate everyone in the group to complete the bounty as fast as possible, but that didn’t seem to be entirely the case.
They had been out searching for the creatures nearly an hour now and they didn’t seem to be making any progress. They typically let Ignis be the one directing them on where to go, but for some reason, he wasn’t as expeditious as he normally was. If the other three did say so themselves, he actually seemed to be off entirely.
“You good, Iggy?” Gladiolus asked.
Prompto and Noctis, who had been noticing the strange behaviour as well, turned to Ignis in curiosity.
“What? Yes, I’m fine,” he answered dismissively. “Let’s get this done quickly, or we’ll be up all night.”
Prompto crossed his arms, searching Ignis’ face for any sign of him not actually being fine. “Well, yeah, but like… you’re usually uh… more on top of the navigation part of things.”
“I’m… I apologise for my distracted behaviour. I do have things on my mind that are likely causing it.”
“What kind of things?” Noctis asked.
Ignis busied himself with scanning the area for the goblins, so as not to feel obligated to make eye contact with any of the others. “Nothing serious. Just… I was considering trying a new dish.”
Noctis scoffed. “Really? That’s all it is?”
“That’s all.”
Gladiolus shook his head. “No, no. You don’t ever let that stuff distract you.”
As if the Six had decided to give Ignis some mercy, he was freed from the questioning by Prompto suddenly gasping and pointing into a small patch of forest. “There they are!”
Everyone’s eyes followed where he was pointing and took notice of the creatures as well.
“Ugh,” Gladiolus grunted, summoning his weapon. “Let’s just get this over with.”
—
Sure enough, they easily made very quick work of the mob. It was too late now to go claim their reward for the bounty, so they wouldn’t be getting any fancy hotel rooms for the night. It was gonna be another camp out.
As usual, Gladiolus was thrilled, happily setting up the tent and setting out the camping chairs.
Prompto and Noctis were crouched beside the makeshift fire pit they’d created, trying to get a flame going.
“Can’t you just like… use your magic or something?” Prompto muttered, feeling exhausted from being up so late.
“I don’t think I’ve got it in me right now,” Noctis replied with a sigh.
“Hm… I think you’re just being dramatic.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Flicking another match across the matchbox, Noctis scowled as he was once again unsuccessful, the match snapping in half.
“Lemme try.”
“No, I got this.”
“You’ve broken three matches, dude.”
“Would you have some faith in me?”
Prompto reached for the matches, Noctis quickly pulling them away. They continued their little scuffle until Prompto fell onto Noctis and they continued bickering.
Normally, Ignis would’ve cut in by now, but he wasn’t even paying attention until they’d fallen over. He sighed as he glanced over at the two. “Alright, that’s enough.”
“You’re gonna let him go through our only box of matches without even lighting a single one?” Prompto complained.
“Maybe if you weren’t breathing down my neck, I wouldn’t have such an issue with it.”
Ignis exhaled. “Why don’t we—“
The two younger men kept up their arguing, drowning out Ignis’ half-hearted attempt at getting them under control. They didn’t fight often, but if they did, it was usually something stupid and inconsequential like this. Not to mention the group’s lack of sleep probably made them a bit more irritable as well.
Gladiolus finally decided to step in, his voice booming over the others’. “Knock it off already, dammit!”
This immediately silenced the two.
“We don’t need to worry about a fire tonight. It’s not a big deal. We should be getting off to bed now anyways.”
“Uh, yeah. Okay,” Prompto relented. “Sorry, Noct.”
Noctis nodded. “I’m sorry too.”
“Great,” Gladiolus huffed. “Now get in the tent and go to sleep already.”
“Okay…” they both said in unison as they made for the tent.
“Thank you,” Ignis said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Gladiolus turned back to Ignis and crossed his arms. “Not a problem. Now… what’s goin’ on with you?”
“Just the same as them. I just need to sleep.”
Gladiolus raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure that’s it?”
“Yes. I am sure.” He began walking towards the tent, past Gladiolus before he could get another word in.
Feeling worn out himself, Gladiolus decided to just leave it for the night and worry about everything tomorrow. There was no point in trying to sort things out when they were all so exhausted. With an uncertain frown, he shook his head and followed the others to the tent.
—
Ignis had no idea what time it was when he suddenly snapped awake. He sat up quickly, immediately wishing he hadn’t as he suddenly felt a harsh cramp twisting in his gut, causing an ill-sounding gurgle to bellow from it. He winced and exhaled deeply. He felt warm. Being in the tent, packed in like sardines with the other three had him suddenly feeling incredibly nauseous.
Quickly stumbling out of the tent, he lowered himself into one of the camp chairs, running his fingers through his sweat-slicked hair. He didn’t ever have issues with sleeping in the tent with the others. He supposed that the discomfort he was feeling for the entire previous day must’ve begun to catch up with him.
He put a hand over his stomach as it groaned. The cramping intensified once again and he was clenching his teeth at the pain. He attempted to sort through everything he’d eaten in the last forty-eight hours, but thinking about any sort of food only served to ramp up his nausea.
An acidic belch rumbled up his throat and coated his tongue in bile. He clamped a hand over his mouth and shakily got to his feet, hurrying as far away as he could from the tent before he dropped to his knees and retched, sending vomit splattering onto the dirt below. He did everything in his power to avoid making too much noise. The last thing he needed was everyone being woken up by him.
He gagged again and coughed, gasping for air. Everyone is resting. They need the rest. You cannot be too loud. He thought. The next retch was unfortunately quite guttural and harsh sounding, making him seriously worry he might’ve at least woken up Prompto, who was the lightest sleeper of the group.
Trying desperately to catch his breath, he turned his head back to the tent, not noticing any movement or light. A feeling of relief washed over him, unfortunately still overshadowed by his nausea. His stomach gurgled weakly as he quiveringly struggled to his feet, stumbling a bit.
He glanced down at the vomit splattered on the ground and quickly covered it with dirt before taking an uncoordinated walk back to the tent.
Laying back down, he rubbed a hand over his grumbling belly, still feeling extremely unwell. The best he could do was drink some water and just try and get some sleep. It took a while to finally start drifting off as the cramping still made an appearance here and there, but he was finally too exhausted to stay awake.
—
Prompto grunted softly, face scrunching up as he was awoken by something. He was barely registering anything around him, but he thought he saw someone leave the tent. He groggily glanced at his other companions, noticing Ignis was missing. It must have been him then.
Following that was a series of half-dreams as he drifted in and out of consciousness. He kept being pulled from his sleep by strange noises here and there, but he was ultimately too tired to focus too hard on them. After a little while, he had begun to fall back asleep. One final time, he was disturbed by Ignis returning to the tent and laying back down.
Prompto thought he heard something else. Like a weird rumbling sort of sound. But he chalked it up to being in his dream and wiped back out.
—
The following morning saw the group packing up earlier than expected. They were in a hurry to claim their bounty reward after realising they were dangerously low on curatives.
Ignis cooked a quick breakfast for them before they headed out. The other three had not failed to notice that he had barely touched his own food. Not to mention the paleness to his complexion and his generally disheveled appearance.
Every time he was questioned on it, he would brush it off. It had gotten to the point that he was getting frustrated. As unwell as he felt, he knew he just needed to keep going. He would be able to rest at night.
“You want me to drive?” Noctis asked as they headed for the car.
Ignis raised an eyebrow. “Why would I want you to drive?”
“Uh, I dunno. Just… wondering.”
“No need. I’m perfectly capable.” He had taken to making an effort to sound like his normal self. He mustered up as much strength and energy as he could to make the others believe he was fine. He was never the one to become ill. If it wasn’t Noctis, it was one of the other two, but never him.
He was convincing enough that not only did the others think he was doing better, but Prompto was beginning to think that maybe he’d just dreamed whatever went on last night.
After collecting the gil, they continued on their journey. Driving for a long time was far from ideal. Especially since nearly every bump they went over no matter how small stirred up Ignis’ stomach. He could only grip the steering wheel and muffle his sickly sounding belches as the others chatted among themselves. He did his best to engage with them as well, but it was becoming difficult.
After stopping by an outpost, the group was surprised to leave with a lead on the location of a royal arm. They had a good amount of daylight left, so they figured they could at least locate where it was being held before they went to bed. They’d worry about retrieving it tomorrow when they had a full day.
They were unfortunate enough to have a run in with a group of sabertusks. As much as Ignis was able to hide his illness when in casual conversation, it was considerably more difficult when in the heat of battle. He wound up taking a few hits. Keeping up this act was getting to be impossible.
The others certainly noticed the way he lagged behind and was considerably less agile than usual. Now Prompto wondered if maybe he hadn’t just imagined what he saw last night. They knew it would be impossible to keep Ignis from continuing on. He would likely say something along the lines of ‘we’ve still got plenty of daylight. Let’s make the most of our time’, but by this point, he was looking very unwell.
As Ignis carried on, the other three exchanged knowing glances, wondering who would be the one to say something.
Prompto leaned in towards Noctis to whisper a suggestion. “Say you’re not feeling well.”
Noctis nodded and readied himself to put on the act.
“Ugh… guys, uh…” He was floundering a bit. He never considered acting to be his strong suit. “I’m not feeling good. Maybe we should call it for tonight?”
Gladiolus played along. “Oh, poor princess is tuckered out.”
Noctis glared at him.
“Yeah, why don’t we go grab some dinner? We can actually afford to stay at a hotel tonight too.”
Prompto perked up at this. “Oooo! Yeah, let’s go!”
Ignis approached Noctis. “What isn’t feeling well?”
“Uh… my stomach again,” he replied.
“I see…” He pressed the back of his hand against Noctis’ forehead and gave a slightly confused look. “You don’t feel feverish.”
“Yeah, I dunno… just… feel not great.”
Ignis hummed and decided to take advantage of this opportunity. Truthfully, he had no desire to continue on, but he had to keep up the act. He was suddenly quite grateful to Noctis’ sensitive stomach for getting him out of this. He was so looking forward to getting some rest.
—
After they’d gotten their hotel room, Ignis and Gladiolus immediately headed out to pick up dinner, leaving the younger two back in the room.
“Hey, Noct,” Prompto began.
Noctis glanced up from his phone. “What’s up?”
“So… we’re all on the same page as far as Iggy obviously acting weird, right?”
“Definitely.”
“Well… last night, I think I might’ve heard him get up. Like… really late. Or early in the morning… whatever, it was dark and everyone was asleep. He sounded kinda… I dunno. Winded?”
“Winded?”
“Yeah, he was breathing kind of weird and he got up and left the tent. I dunno where he went, but when he came back, I thought I might’ve heard him sounding pretty uncomfortable.”
“Huh… that’s a bit concerning.”
“Right? I thought I dreamed it but… he really doesn’t seem well, so…”
“Well he definitely doesn’t want to draw any attention to himself. So it’s best we don’t confront him about it.”
“What should we do then?”
“Go to bed early. He’s not gonna rest until everyone else is in bed. Dude’s always looking out for everyone but himself…”
Prompto frowned. “Yeah… but I wish he wouldn’t neglect his health, ya know? He can totally be vulnerable with us, especially if he’s not feeling good.”
“Look who’s talking.”
“Man, whatever… that’s different.”
“Different how?”
Their conversation started going a bit in circles as Prompto defended his own actions that were very similar to Ignis’ when it came to feeling ill. It devolved into a playful argument as they wrestled each other.
When Ignis and Gladiolus returned, they had to explain that they weren’t actually fighting like the previous night. This was a relief to Ignis, who was in no mood to deal with their bickering.
The two older men were also noticeably quieter overall. As they all sat down for dinner, Gladiolus kept glancing over at Ignis occasionally.
Again, though he was masterfully composed, Noctis noticed the slightest bit of strain on Ignis’ face. Noctis also kept an eye out, curious of how much of his dinner he would eat. To no one’s surprise, Ignis barely touched it. He moved it around on his plate to make it look eaten, but he’d maybe only eaten a small bite or two.
“We should probably get to bed early tonight,” Ignis said conversationally, which drew everyone’s eyes to him.
“Huh? Why?” Noctis asked.
“Just to get a head start on tomorrow.”
It seemed to take them a second to realise what he was talking about. They’d been so focused on him, they’d already forgotten the super important dungeon they were gonna have to go through to find a royal arm.
Prompto nodded. “Oh, yeah! Yeah. Definitely.”
“Works for me,” Gladiolus agreed.
“If I wasn’t eating right now, I’d already be asleep,” Noctis said with a shrug.
Ignis was incredibly relieved that everyone was so complicit. They truly did need to rest up for their mission tomorrow, but he was desperate to shake off this illness.
He took a drink of water, trying to keep his hand from shaking so much. He managed to muffle an ill-sounding grumble from his stomach by clearing his throat, but to his shock and horror, he was unsuccessful in hiding the huge belch that rumbled up his throat.
The others looked at him in shock.
“Woah, nice one, Iggy!” Prompto laughed.
“Yeah, wow,” Noctis agreed.
The humiliation he felt was unmatched, but he was thankful that it was at least this group of people it happened around. He was very eager to get dinner over with now. Even more than previously.
Unfortunately, the younger two had gotten a bit rowdy now. They were discussing… something. Ignis honestly couldn’t even focus on staying upright, let alone whatever the others were talking about.
Gladiolus participated here and there in the conversation, but still kept an eye on Ignis.
When they’d gone out to get the dinner, Gladiolus finally insisted that Ignis tell him what was wrong. It didn’t take too much convincing, as it seemed the advisor was already worn down enough. He admitted he was feeling a bit under the weather, but not to make a big deal of it or tell the other two. He didn’t like lying or making Gladiolus have to lie as well, but he was adamant that it really wasn’t anything too serious at all. Just that they should get some rest that night.
Despite their efforts, Noctis and Prompto had figured out on their own that something was wrong. And while Noctis found it impossible to stay awake, Prompto secretly stayed awake by pretending to sleep.
About two hours after they’d all gone to bed, Prompto was starting to nod off. He kept shaking his head to will the sleepiness away. He had to stay up. If something happened again with Ignis, he wouldn’t be able to brush off everyone’s concerns anymore because Prompto had proof.
His diligence was rewarded several minutes later when he finally heard someone stirring. He blinked open one eye and saw Ignis sat up in bed.
His breathing sounded a bit laboured. He groaned quietly and rubbed his eyes. Prompto could only see so much in the dark room, but he could see the way Ignis had his head in his hands, breathing unevenly.
His stomach gurgled angrily and caused a few burps to bubble up his throat. One of which sounded particularly acidic. He groaned in discomfort and flopped back down on the bed.
Prompto was seriously worried. He’d never seen or heard Ignis like this before. He’d never seen him in any way other than cool and composed. But he was really sick. Rolling to his other side, back facing Ignis now, Prompto deliberated. Should he call Ignis out the next day? That was… a very intimidating idea. Ignis could already be scary, but sick Ignis was probably a whole other ballgame. He could bring it up to Noctis, but he didn’t know if anything would come of it. This was difficult.
He eventually began drifting off, occasionally hearing sickly rumblings and uncomfortable groaning.
Prompto felt so bad for him…
—
When morning came, Ignis was in a hurry to get on the road. He avoided any conversation and tried to stay out of anyone’s sight. When they all packed into the car, the others could tell why.
Ignis was pale. He had dark circles under his eyes and a visually uncomfortable expression. He dodged any questions from the others and pulled out of the parking lot, heading to the location of the ruins they were planning to investigate.
They were hardly a mile down the road before Ignis suddenly pulled the car over. He tried so hard to fight off this sickness, but it was too powerful. The others questioned him, but their confusion turned to panic when Ignis opened the car door and vomited onto the dirt below.
“Oh shit!”
“Oh my gods, Iggy.”
“Dude…!”
Their voices all overlapped as Ignis did his best to tune them out. He wanted to just carry on. He needed to. They couldn’t afford any setbacks, but Astrals, he couldn’t do it anymore. His entire body was aching. He felt overheated and freezing at the same time. His stomach was a mess of horribly sharp and painful cramps twisting incessantly. He wasn’t sure he’d ever been this sick before. If he had, he couldn’t remember when. This was beyond unbearable.
Prompto quickly grabbed a water for Ignis as Gladiolus and Noctis moved closer to Ignis to comfort him.
Gladiolus rubbed a hand over his back and Noctis had gotten out of the car, avoiding the splash zone but staying close.
Catching his breath after another painful retch, Ignis shakily sat back up and shrugged off the comforting. “S-stop it. I’m fine now. Really.”
Noctis furrowed his brow in frustration. “You’re not fine, dude. You’re throwing up. You’ve been sick for the past few days and trying to avoid acknowledging it only made things worse.”
Ignis’ stomach gurgled painfully and he cringed, putting a hand over it and scowling at the way it was slightly bloated. “I… I…”
Prompto leaned over the top of the open car door and handed Ignis the water. “You always take such good care of us. Let us take care of you for once.”
Ignis covered his face with his hands and tiredly ran them down his face before sitting back and exhaling deeply. “We can’t afford to waste the time.”
“You recovering from this is not a waste of time,” Gladiolus argued. “We’re going back to the motel and taking some time off to help you recover. No objections.”
Noctis nodded. “Yeah and I’m technically the king now so you literally have to do what I say. And I say, you seriously need to rest.”
Ignis was too weak to argue anymore. His face scrunched up in pain before he lurched forward again, another wave of vomit splattering on the ground. Maybe he did need to rest. He had a job to fulfill and he could not do it when he was in this condition.
It was strange to be looked after like this. Noctis took over driving and Ignis sat in the back with Gladiolus, trying to even his breath as he massaged his temples.
Back at the motel, Ignis felt very unhappy about accepting all the attention. He usually was the one to pick up medicine, but it was Gladiolus this time. He was usually the one to grab ice packs and blankets, but this time it was Noctis and Prompto. They all made a genuine and sincere effort to ensure Ignis was comfortable and on track to recovering.
He wound up not getting sick again after that last time, and finally got some proper rest. He had apparently slept for eight and a half hours before he finally woke up, feeling so much better.
Every step of the way, his traveling companions happily cared for him, reassured him, and although it was an unusual feeling to experience, feel so deeply loved.