Get in time traveller

[warmgaze]

[Altissia. The ring, burning into his finger, burning into his skull, and he knows the price without asking, knows before it's paid. The thing you value most, isn't that always how this works in fairytales?

Ravus. Noctis. Ardyn, and that little revelation barely enters his mind at the time, the familiar glowing signature of a warp in an unfamiliar color. The prophecy, the visions that hang in his mind, a last wish from a woman who spent her life to ensure it, Lunafreya's final message to ensure that Noctis would survive.

The last clear words he can remember clearly, You've a calling to fulfill, and then Prompto and Gladio's voices, concerned, in a blur...

And then nothing. Just the feeling of a ring's power, setting him alight from fingertips to crown -

It's still in him, that power. The ring of the Lucii binds to its wearers for life, knotting strands of light into their souls, be they kings or anyone else.

(He had expected to die. Living is harder.)

And in the depths of his unconsciousness, in the place where he knows the things that he hasn't had time to consider, Noctis and Ardyn and prophecy and all of that terrible weight -

From there, from the connection of the fire in his soul that will never go out, that can only be smothered and locked away in the dark, a voice says, what would you give to change fate?

And, of course, he answers, Anything.

----

In another world, Ignis Scientia wakes in Altissia, his face scarred, his vision burned away, and continues on.

In this one, Prompto Argentum enters the room just in time to see a flare of purple flame lick along his friend's body and leave nothing behind, not even a char mark on the wrinkled sheets.

And Ignis?

Ignis wakes, with a groan and a hand pressed to his face, in the back of a cart that trundles to a stop to pick up another passenger, a young healer with cheeks not yet sunken by pain and eyes not yet yellowed by plague. He wakes bereft, on some fundamental level, of the touch of magic that bound him to Noctis, the hum of energy that bound retainer to prince...

He wakes with the imprint of a ring on his finger, the memory of agreeing, and not the damnedest idea where he is.]

Comments

[burninglight]

And yet here I am, perfectly alive and reasonably functional.

[warmgaze]

And yet here you are -

[On some harebrained impulse, he reaches out, gloved fingertips resting on Ardyn's cheek.]

- bearing my scars. I shan't be forgetting that.

[burninglight]

...It's not so terrible a burden.

[A slow and gentle smile spread across Ardyn's face, head tilted just slightly into the touch.]

I'm only grateful I was able to help at all.

[warmgaze]

[And thus is how Ignis winds up cupping his cheek with one hand, terribly foolish action that it is.]

It is not a meaningless one, either.

[burninglight]

There's not a single scar I carry that's meaningless.

[Hazel eyes slid closed, Ardyn pressing gently against Ignis' hand in silent encouragement.]

Neither is there even one I regret taking upon myself.

[warmgaze]

Probably not. But how many of the original owners of those scars understand exactly what was done for them?

[Not many, he would wager, with the way that Ardyn tried to minimize and hide his pain from even his twin brother, even when it was (quite literally) written across his face.

(If he focuses on that, the Ignis doesn't have to focus on the warm weight of another human against his hand. Doesn't have to think about what this might mean.)

(Doesn't have to consider that he might do something reckless.)]

[burninglight]

When you phrase it like that, then it's only you.

[warmgaze]

As I thought.

[And then... he finds himself at a loss as to what to follow that thought up with. Because he can't deny that those scars mean something very important, even if he can't quite settle a finger on what.

What he wants, something only halfway acknowledged even to himself, is to pull Ardyn into his arms and hold him. Hold onto something, that proves that this dream he finds himself in is real.

He still can't reconcile this Ardyn with the one who gave him reason to don the ring in the first place. Who ever could?]

[burninglight]

Ignis...?

[Ardyn gently laid a hand over the adviser's--wanting something himself but not daring to voice it. He wouldn't, couldn't be selfish, least of all after Ignis had already laid down boundaries and declared his lack of interest.]

[...But still, Ardyn couldn't help wanting what he couldn't dare ask.]

What's wrong?

[warmgaze]

...Simply getting lost in my own thoughts. My apologies.

[...Fuck it. He drops his hand away in order to scoot closer and lean against Ardyn's side.]

[burninglight]

Oh-... [He leaned back against Ignis, a small and contented smile on his face.]

Alright. As long as you're certain there's nothing bothering you.

[warmgaze]

[Full body contact good. Satisfying, to the part of his brain that's so used to the others and misses them terribly.]

A few thoughts of home, but nothing terribly troubling.

[burninglight]

...what's it like, where you're from? If you...don't mind my asking.

[warmgaze]

...Not so different from here, surprisingly enough. I grew up in a big city myself.

[The same big city, actually, temporal displacement aside.]

I think that may be why I miss it the way I do. Everything is almost alike - and then I run into some magitek device, or look up and realize that the shape of the skyline is wrong, and I remember all over again. The wilderness is better, in that regard.

[burninglight]

I'm sorry. It must be terribly disorienting for you.

[Not knowing the half of it, Ardyn leaned his head lightly on Ignis' shoulder.]

[warmgaze]

[Not the half of it, indeed. The entire off-axis world rotates around Ardyn himself, now resting casually against his shoulder.

Just a friend. Maybe an attractive one, but ultimately not more than that. That's what he is to this Ardyn.

It's strangely comforting.]

It still doesn't always feel real. More solid by the day, but even so.

[Somehow his hand finds Ardyn's and curls their fingers together.]

[burninglight]

I wish there were some way for me to set your mind more at ease, my friend.

[He squeezed the adviser's hand gently, voice quieter and more sincere than Ardyn Izunia's could ever have sounded.]

[warmgaze]

...You do more than you know.

[burninglight]

And yet it fails to be enough, if you should be in pain like this. [Ardyn shifted position to curl his other arm around Ignis' shoulders, their other hands still interlaced.]

...I hate to see people suffering. I know it to be inevitable by mere human nature, but to see others in pain and knowing there are some pains even I lack the ability to cure is something I can barely stand.

[warmgaze]

Some pains simply take time to heal, as I'm sure you know.

[Unconsciously, he shifts a bit closer, relaxing some minute amount into the warmth of another friendly body.]

Wounds of the spirit are hardly that different.

[burninglight]

Is there truly nothing more I can do? Anything--name it and it would be yours.

[warmgaze]

You're doing more than enough like this. If that changes, you'll be the first to know, I promise.

[burninglight]

[Ardyn gave a slight nod in response, resisting the urge to push his luck further. Even though the urge to pull Ignis closer and give him some form of comfort and security was there, Ardyn knew his boundaries.]

[(Contrary to popular belief, he did have a sense of personal space.)]

[warmgaze]

[He should mind a little more, that they're pressed against each other like this. That he's starting to think he wouldn't mind getting closer.]

Mmm... Food. Before I fall asleep right here.

[burninglight]

Ah-...right, I'm sorry.

[Reluctantly, Ardyn pulled back as if he'd only just realized how close they had gotten.]