WHAT. Noct has a nightmare & Iggy comforts him WHERE. the chocobro house WHEN. first night of the plot WARNINGS. nightmare about snake daemon, PTSD, lingering magical/physical injury on a child ART CREDIT.here STATUS. complete
The snake daemon reared up. Her hiss reached down into his bones. Noctis tried to crawl away but his back screamed in agony. Tears tracked through the dirt on his face and he cried out for help. Nothing came out no matter how hard he screamed. The daemon's tail whipped out and grabbed his legs. She yanked him hard across the rocky ground, reeling him in like a flopping fish…
He woke up gasping, tangled up in the blanket they'd given him. Panic seized him and he thrashed on the sofa until he fell off onto the floor. The pain snapped him back into himself. He was in that nice house, the one he'd woken up in the day before. Everything was very strange, but people had been kind and he hadn't seen any signs of danger.
Ignis had been there. He'd missed him. Noctis had been in Tenebrae for months now, healing from the attack. He'd asked for Ignis many times only to have his father continuously put him off. He was supposed to go home soon and all he could think was that he would see his best friend again. Instead he'd woken here, a world away from Eos. But at least Ignis had too.
Noctis snuffled sadly, wiping his sleeve across his nose. "Ignis?" His voice was small in the quiet of the dark living room. He made a tiny pained noise as he tried to push himself up to a sitting position. "Iggy?"
Ignis had tried to stay out of the way. Polite, well-mannered, seen and not heard. He had already gone through quite a bit of schooling and training for his job as royal advisor, and it was something he took quite seriously. He’d been told about it from as early as he could understand, though Ignis hadn’t expected to get a friend out of the deal.
At first he’d been wary. He hadn’t wanted to get attached. But it happened anyway, the prince had a charming way about him and Iggy had never truly had a friend before. It was easy. But then Noctis had been sent away to Tenebrae for healing and Ignis was left back at the palace to continue his schooling. It had been dreadfully boring those few months.
He probably shouldn’t have had that thought, because the last time he’d thought about being bored, he woke up in a large house with a dozen animals and Noct. He slept on a sofa, but it was a very nice one, made up with comfortable pillows and blankets, and only a few feet away from Noct. That part he couldn’t complain about. He was broken out of sleep by the prince and sat up slowly, as his thoughts came back to him. “Your highness?” He whispered, not wanting to wake up the other members of the house, given there was an Amicitia among them. “I’m here. What’s wrong?”
Ignis’s voice brought instant relief. Noctis sat up a little straighter and was able to see Ignis over the tops of the blankets. He was tousle-haired and shadowy in the dark but as familiar as Noct’s own shadow anyway.
“I had a bad dream,” he whispered back. His father wasn’t here, they’d confirmed that much. So it was okay to admit he’d been scared. His dad wouldn’t give him those worried eyes that made him feel like he was already failing a world-altering test. Noct reached up a hand to pat around the blankets until he found Ignis’s hand. He clung to him with the shameless need of a child who found bravery in the dark with his best friend close by.
“And I fell down. Can you help me get back up there? My…my back hurts,” he added quieter. For some reason it was more embarrassing to admit he was in pain than to admit he’d had a nightmare and fallen to the ground. He didn’t like feeling broken. Not when everyone at home was always working so hard to fix him so he could save everyone else.
Ignis was moving before he responded. He was moving before Noct had even finished talking. His brain finally caught up to waking and was able to realize just what had happened - the guilt was there, that he didn’t hear Noct fall. That he didn’t wake up in time to help.
Ignis moved forward and braced his small hands around Noct and gently moved him. Usually it was someone larger that did this, but they worked with what they had, and Ignis wasn’t going to waste time by waking up Gladiolus. Ignis had a gentle way about him as he maneuvered Noct, but even he had to admit it wasn’t as effective as someone with muscles.
Still, he got the job done, and immediately took to the task of putting blankets and pillows all around the prince. “I’m sorry I didn’t wake up,” he whispered, that guilt finally seeping out. He settled in next to Noctis, fluffing the pillows. “Is it cramps? I could rub your back like before.”
Noct went easily, even as he grimaced in pain. He wanted to curl up into a ball against Ignis's side, but there was too good a chance he'd fall back asleep and he needed more time before risking the daemon in his head again. He settled instead for shifting around to lay on his stomach over Ignis's legs, offering up his twinging back.
"It's okay. I didn't really wake up until I was on the floor." He was trying for a joke, but it came out a little bratty with his own disappointment in himself. He thought he'd been doing better after Tenebrae. And he had. But ending up somewhere strange with the men in the other room - one being Gladio all grown up and the other being a stranger - was stressful, no matter how kind they'd been. Gladio would be his shield soon, was supposed to be anyway, and yet here he was a full grown man. It made him feel more out of place than ever.
"Do you think my dad will find us? They said no one has been able to come here on purpose but. He must be worried." Noct frowned petulantly. "If he's even noticed I'm gone anyway." It was unfair, but he wasn't feeling very fair about his father these days. Ever since Regis had saved his son from the snake daemon, he'd been distant. Moody. They were two peas in a pod and not communicating very well.
Ignis was quiet for a moment as he contemplated that question. Would King Regis find them here? He knew that the king would certainly look for his son, but things had been tense lately. Noct didn’t need to hear that, though, even as Ignis frowned a little. “I have no doubt your father is searching high and low for you. He loves you very much. I don’t know if this is outside of his reach, though. This place is … weird.”
Ignis let his hands go to work, though unsure as he was about it. What if he’d made it worse? He hadn’t been fully trained in this, only had picked up a few things and read more of how to help the prince while he was recovering in Tenebrae, in preparation for Noct’s return. The reality was much different, and Ignis had to steady himself as he started to gently work at the knots. “Do speak up if something hurts, please.”
Noct sighed. The people told them they wouldn’t appear to be missing at home, which upset him for stupid selfish reasons. He wanted his dad to miss him. To work to find him and not just keep being King like nothing was different. But even if Gladio was shockingly old and big now, Noct was sure he would tell the truth always. Even when it stung. “I guess it would be better if Dad wasn’t worried. He has enough to worry about already.”
He didn’t want to tell Ignis that his back almost always hurt, so he just nodded into Ignis’s thigh as he shifted under his gentle touch. “I won’t break on you, Iggy. I promise. It just aches? They said stuff about um, ling…lingering daemon infection and…uh…you know. Other big words.” Inflammation. Torn ligaments. Scar tissue pain. The list was long. A sharp twinge ricocheted across his lower back and Noct twisted his fingers into the fabric of Ignis’s borrowed pajama pants. “I’m glad you’re here though,” he mumbled softly.
Ignis furrowed his brow and glanced over at the kitchen bar where the medication they’d retrieved for Noct sat. He wasn’t supposed to touch it himself, not without knowing proper dosing, but he also didn’t like Noct being in pain. “I’d have to wake them up if you need any of the pills.” It worried him every single day that Noct wouldn’t make it back home, that things were more dire than the king had promised the country.
He worried a lot about many, many things. But having Noct close helped ease that, and he tried his best to massage as he’d been taught, to help things. “I’m glad I’m here too. I missed you.” Ignis wasn’t sure if he should admit that, but he didn’t have any other friends, just Noct. “It’s quiet around the palace when you aren’t there. And I have to feed the garden cats by myself.”
"No, no it's okay." Noct shook his head against Ignis's thigh and buried his face for a second. The guys had been very nice and he liked them, but they were also a lot. It was overwhelming to see a constant reminder in Gladio's face that they were not where they were supposed to be. And Prompto always looked a little sad, like he was waiting for Noct to say something he'd forgotten to say. But maybe he was imagining that.
"I don't want to be a bother. Well, not right now. Maybe in the morning." His stomach growled to remind him that he'd been too picky at dinner and it was now fairly empty in the cavern of his tiny belly. He contemplated how far away the kitchen was as his eyelids drooped under Ignis's care. "I missed you too," he murmured sleepily. "And the cats. But mostly you…and Betta. I hope you gave her extra snacks so she didn't think I died or something."
Ignis felt warm and comforted, to the point where his eyes were drooping a little too, and his hands stemmed off from their ministrations. He wasn’t in the most comfortable position like this, but Noct was, and that was what mattered more than anything. He let his head rest against a nearby pillow. “You’re not a bother. It’s okay to want things and ask for them.” Especially when you were a royal prince.
Ignis giggled quietly into the darkness of the room. Betta had eaten half of a finger last time he tried to give her a snack on Noct’s behalf. “She liked them but she misses you a lot. Hopefully you’ll be able to come home soon to see her, she likes you more than she does me.”
Noct might've laughed once at Ignis telling him he was allowed to ask for things, as if Ignis himself weren't already personally aware of his prince's neediness. Sometimes it was even demandingness, when Noct's moods shifted like bad weather, from pain or sadness or fear. He wasn't very good at regulating his feelings. Just the thought of being in a bad mood threatened to swallow him up right then.
He clung to Ignis's little giggle and the thought of the feral cat at home that scared off the gardener.
"Just the fact that she took them from you means she likes you more than most people, Specs." Noct shifted and rolled, trying to wedge himself into the space between Ignis and the sofa. He rested his head against Ignis's ribs and closed his eyes. "I hope I get to come home soon too. The treatments aren't changing anything now. And Lunafreya has her own stuff she needs to do."
“If you say so,” Ignis wasn’t so sure about Betta, even if Noct was. He thought that she just was happy to be fed by a hand, rather than shoo’d off by the Kingsguard around the castle. Ignis didn’t have the gentle touch that Noct seemed to have with animals.
He let an arm drape around Noct’s shoulders loosely, this warm embrace made it easy to let his eyes close, and try to ignore the feeling of sadness that settled into his stomach with the mention of Lady Lunafreya.
It was unfair. She was a lovely young girl, had been kind to Noct. But it wasn’t the first time he’d heard of her, and jealousy spiked with that worry that she might take him away from Ignis for good. He was still whispering when he spoke up again, but not just to avoid waking anyone else in the house. “Do you like her? Is she nice?”
Noct sagged a little more into Ignis and the sofa. He'd missed this especially. Ignis had stayed the night a lot back in Insomnia and whenever Noct had bad dreams, he would comfort him. Sometimes they would just fall asleep like this after watching tv together or playing games. He slept better when Ignis was already there, most of the time.
"Hm?" Oh, Iggy had asked about Lunafreya. "Oh, yeah. She's nice. Kind too. I had a lot of bad days and she didn't get mad at me for being grumpy." He hugged Ignis a little closer and mumbled the rest. "She's not you though. I'd rather be at home."
That settled Ignis, to the point where his eyes started drifting closed. He had a little smile on his face, too, but one he hoped Noct wouldn’t see. “Soon.” He hoped that was the case, anyway. Soon Noct would be home and it’d be like it was at the beginning, just the pair of them avoiding trouble in the halls of the palace. “Sleep well, your highness.”