WHAT. Husbands take the dog for a walk and chat about how to torture their younger selves. WHERE. The beach! WHEN. Prompto’s birthday! WARNINGS. None, they’re fluffy and domestic. STATUS. Complete! FANART.here!
Gladio had long since gotten used to Vallo's whims and since they'd managed to make it decades at this point without something completely tragic, he was inclined to just roll with the punches. Even when the punches was being transported with Ignis to the past, along with their daughter, to find their other two husbands barely in their twenties.
If nothing else watching Prompto trip over himself and blush beet red every ten minutes had made it more than worth it. Among other things.
Getting to take Henruit out to the beach too was pretty damn nice. Something Gladio had been missing since the dog had passed in their time. It'd been easy enough to convince Ignis to tag along and the afternoon was perfect for it. Still warm as Gladio tossed the tennis ball into the water for Henruit to swim after.
"We need to hit up that noodle place too before we get sent back. You know that hole in the wall one down by the library?" A pause as he wrinkled his nose a little. "Can't remember the name for the life of me though."
“Oh, Mian.” Ignis clearly remembered as he immediately pictured the place and just how much sauce they liked to put on noodles for him. He’d missed that. “I miss their Sichuan noodles so I can agree to that, yes.” Plus he knew it would make Gladio happy, and a good noodle night had ended up some of their better date nights over the last two decades, when the four of them crammed into a hole in the wall and closed the place out with laughter and good noodles.
Henruit came leaping back from the water and onto the sand and brought the tennis ball right back, which Ignis threw again for him. Just close enough to get the pair sprayed by water as it flew off when Henruit lept for the ball, and he sighed and smoothed a hand over his borrowed shirt. “Perhaps I should have suggested the park instead.”
"Yeah, that's the one," Gladio confirmed. Happy to have the name to go with the place, though it brought up the idle thought of how many other little things from this time period he had forgotten. The big stuff was still there of course, but all those little day to day things that tended to get lost in the shuffle.
He just laughed as the ball and Henruit ended up splashing them a little. But he did turn to Ignis to try to help smooth down the shirt. "I'll take it to the cleaners for you after," he offered and let his hands cup Ignis' face before he leaned in to steal a languid kiss.
"Besides," he added as he pulled back, a grin on his face, "he was always happier at the beach." The words spoken with a little amount of sadness behind them as he glanced back to the dog jumping happily in the shallow surf.
“I appreciate that.” Ignis smoothed his own shirt down and used it as an excuse to trap Gladio’s hand with his own. He held it to him and brought it up for a kiss of his own, though far more tame than Gladio’s had been. “It’s worth it, of course.”
A wicked little smirk played at the edges of his mouth. “We should stop by the shelter and bring something home for them, come up with some excuse about it being a poor animal on the side of the road. Give them both a treat and a taste of their own medicine before we hand the chaos back to our younger selves in a few days.”
There was a soft smile as Ignis kissed his hand. Even after all these years, the physical affection they were able to give so freely between them filled him with more joy than he thought possible.
Gladio laughed at the suggestion, eyes wrinkled. "Damn between that and your food challenge I'm starting to wonder what kind of grudge you have against yourself," he teased. "But yeah, I'd be down for bringing home something fluffy for Prom and Noct to fawn all over." They were cute at this age. They were still cute, but they were far more prone to the dramatics in their younger years.
Ignis let that wicked smirk grow to something a bit more, shamelessly not bothered by picking on himself. “Merely trying to help speed along the fact that he can learn to unclench now and again.” He as if it wasn’t Ignis himself twenty years prior. As all things, it took time to learn to loosen up a little, and no doubt Ignis never would have been able to do it without his husbands. But he had managed to let go of the control just a little since then, and it had been a good choice.
“Besides, with Prompto’s birthday, we can spoil him a little. He’s missing out on the versions of us that he’s used to.” And no doubt when they come back, they would make it up to him. But in the meantime, Ignis knew that very little made Noctis and Prompto as excited as animals did.
"Mmmm…" Gladio hummed in agreement and brushed the back of a hand across Ignis' cheekbones. "I don't know - sometimes you're fun when you're clenched," he teased lightly and leaned in to steal another kiss.
"He might be, but he's also been throwing us the thirstiest looks so maybe us being here is part of the birthday present," he said with a little laugh. But Gladio knew what Ignis meant. Even if they were still Gladio and Ignis, there were years of history separating them. It'd been much the same when Noctis had been the older one - there was still the love there and it had been fun to see, but he remembered being happy when their Noct came back.
"But a dog sounds nice," he said. "Full grown? Or are we unleashing a puppy on our younger selves?"
Ignis flushed with embarrassment. “Is that how that is?” Even after so many years of marriage, all of them could still make him flustered with just a well-placed joke. At least the beach was less populated today, so the gratuitous displays of affection weren’t something he was inclined to shy away from.
“We are blessed with the fact that he finds us attractive no matter the age,” Ignis agreed with a smug little smile. “I don’t know that I want to be especially cruel to my younger self, but I think we should go check it out and find one that’s right.” Henruit ran back up to them on cue, toy proudly on display in his mouth. “And to find out who gets along with this one the best.”
Gladio gave him a warm, albeit teasing, smile at the flush - not as easy to come by these days but always a thrill when he could coax it out. "Yeah, that's how it is."
He kneeled down to Henruit and gave the dog a generous heap of ear scratches, grinning a little as Henruit dropped his ball and licked his face. "What do you think, bud? Want a little brother or sister running around?" Gladio asked, like he would receive a reply.
"Alright, let's go get this birthday present," he said as he stood back up and clipped Henruit's leash back on. "I'm saying right now though it's a veto on anything tiny and yappy," between Henruit and Bass, whatever they found needed to be at least big enough to not get stepped on and crushed.
Ignis slipped an arm under Gladio’s and across his back, not at all ashamed by the fact that he let his hand slowly linger across Gladio’s skin before it found purchase on the other side. “I wouldn’t be so hasty in that decision. What if it’s clearly the perfect dog for Prompto? What if it’s fluffy like a chocobo? What if,” Now he was trolling to try and get a rise out of Gladio. “Henruit picks that one as his very favorite.”
Though even trolling, all were likely scenarios, and could very well result in something tiny and yappy. And he knew once the other two were attached, anything picked would be there to stay. “It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve taken in something tiny and yappy, I’m sure we’ll manage to find our way regardless.”
Gladio just gave Ignis A Look at the hypotheticals. He knew though he was nothing if not weak and would go home with whatever was deemed the appropriate dog for them, even if it happened to be the size of his hand.
"Look… I just don't want to step on the poor thing in the middle of the night," he said with a light laugh.
"If I tell Prom you compared him to a chihuahua do I get to watch you make it up to him when he makes that sad face of his?" he asked Ignis with a wink. He moved Henruit's leash to one hand and slipped his other around Ignis as they started the walk back.
He took a moment to drop a light kiss to the top of Ignis' head. "You're right though, we always do find our way."