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

[warmgaze]

Oh, don't worry, I hope to give you many more.

[Plurk demands cheek kiss so a cheek kiss you get, Ardyn. It's a long way to Gralea, yet.]

[scourgingstars]

[And thank heavens for that, because you're getting pulled into another kiss before they head off to the showers.]

[warmgaze]

[Oh hell yes. He's going to have a Pavlovian boner for the taste of licorice at this rate.

To the showers! Where there's nothing at all weird about cramming one reasonably tall and one very tall person into a space meant for one, this is surely fine. Ardyn's skinny.

At least they can put their clothes straight into the Armiger, that's handy.]

Mmm... I've got everything from soft cloth to steel wool, tell me your limits.

[scourgingstars]

I can't say drawing blood is a good idea when that blood is an infectious plague. But I-...haven't had meaningful human contact in two millennia. Please--touch me, do whatever you want with me, I don't care. Just don't leave.

[warmgaze]

That, I can definitely do.

[No hesitation as he runs a hand down Ardyn's neck onto his shoulders. He can definitely touch this all over.

Scrubby sponge first, somewhere in the middle, see how that works.]

Though I think I preferred it when you dressed a little more conservatively. Easier to get you in and out of.

[scourgingstars]

Mm...just means you have to work a bit harder.

[warmgaze]

Is this two vests? You're ridiculous.

[He starts working on those vests, leaning in for a brief kiss.]

And I know pleated collars like this weren't in fashion in early Lucis, when the hell is it even from?

[scourgingstars]

Mid-to-late Solheim, somewhere around there. Doesn't matter.

[He shrugged the coat off, bringing his hands to Ignis' shoulders for a kiss to a familiar spot on his throat as if he remembered it even after two millennia.]

[warmgaze]

[Wonderfully familiar. He leans into the touch.]

Doesn't matter as long as it comes off, you mean.

[Meanwhile, here's Ignis in a familiar button-up and slacks, undoing the vests and motioning Ardyn to shrug that off as well.]

[scourgingstars]

It's far from difficult to figure out. [He lost the vest in a quick motion, wandering hands moving to unbutton Ignis' shirt.]

...it's been so long. I-...missed you.

[warmgaze]

I missed you, too.

[He leans in, just short of resting his head against Ardyn.]

Nowhere as long, of course, but intensely.

[scourgingstars]

Then allow me to make up for that lost time, while I've still sentiment enough to try.

[Deathly cold hands pushed Ignis' shirt open and off his shoulders, the occasional bite in a kissed trail from collarbone to jawline.]

[warmgaze]

Mmm, gladly.

[Beat.]

I stashed some condoms in your Armiger, by the way. Partially out of mad hope and partially because I didn't want to deal with Noctis questioning why they were in his.

[scourgingstars]

...

That is an astonishing amount of foresight and I don't know whether to be impressed or terrified.

[warmgaze]

I put high value on being as prepared as possible.

[He leans forward and nips at Ardyn's neck - only the tiniest amount of teeth, he's not going to talk about condoms and then immediately break skin like a fool - before shrugging out of his unbuttoned shirt. That also goes into the pink Armiger, because he doesn't need Noctis questioning his rumpled clothes, either.]

Come on, shirt off.

[scourgingstars]

[The shirt came off perhaps easier than it looked, Ardyn covered in vastly more scars than his younger self had been. But he didn't call any attention to them, instead opting to thread a hand through Ignis' hair and pull him into yet another kiss as if the touch-starved immortal simply couldn't draw close enough.]

[warmgaze]

Mmm...

[Poor taste or not, Ignis hums contentedly into the kiss, running his hands down the back of Ardyn's shoulders. He missed this, the intimacy of it only more thrilling because of the contrast with how he probably should be reacting. The lure of the taboo had held no appeal to him until now, because now instead of only a thrill it also means safety, warmth - a place to let go that he desperately needed.]

[scourgingstars]

[Cold as he was, Ardyn responded much as he had when he was still human; arching into the touch with his own hands wandering along Ignis' arms and sides, coming to rest on his hips and squeezing lightly.]

I want you. Desperately. Please.

[warmgaze]

I think I may need you. At the very least I doubt we're going to get into the shower first.

[He shivers lightly and presses closer, chest to chest.]

[scourgingstars]

You doubt correctly, I think.

[Ardyn pushed back against him, guiding Ignis to step back against the nearest wall while pressing a biting kiss to his throat.]

[warmgaze]

[Oh, that's good. That's really good, even as he winds up on his tiptoes against the wall because Ardyn is that much taller now, a delicate position indeed with the train still in motion.]

At this rate I'd be surprised if we managed to get all our clothes off.

[And yet here he is, flushed and tilting his head aside to give Ardyn better access to his neck, glancing swiftly to be sure the door is locked before his glasses inevitably wind up knocked out of place.]

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn's hands slid back to Ignis' waist to keep him steady and turning his attentons to the juncture of neck and shoulder. Whether the door was locked or not there was a pulse and brief shimmer of magic in the air which Ardyn called no real attention to.]

[warmgaze]

Ah -

[He feels more than sees the shimmer of magic, wrapping around them, and his breath hitches as Ardyn bends down over his neck again. It's soon forgotten under that attention, his toes curling in his shoes.

The most frightening predator is the one you don't even want to escape from.]

Ardyn -

[His breath keeps deserting him before he can get a coherent thought out.]

[scourgingstars]

Mm...

[Ardyn hummed contentedly against Ignis' throat, trailing kisses and bites up to his jawline while wandering hands pinned him back against the wall.]

...tell me what you want.

[warmgaze]

[Damnable gods, doesn't he already know? He should, because Ignis only has the most general, fuzzy idea.

But he still manages to make that fuzzy idea into words, with the urgency of an order that may well be life or death.]

You, condom, now, slow again later. Is your plan this time to drive me as mad as you are?