unfatalist | Inbox

Oh, no, that wasn't directed at you. That was directed entirely at him, in his absence.

[evidently he and noctis also are going to need to have a Talk]

Let me guess. Regular kisses weren't working well enough?

I dunno, I think it worked fine. The ice shard definitely melted with them, anyway. I-I think he was just teasing me. Maybe.

[Sorta hard to tell with Noct's emotions all messed up.]

...Ah. You were the one able to get it out of him, then.

[He glances down at the pasta, poking at it almost sheepishly.]

I managed to hold it at bay, but not rid him of it outright.

Oh, Iggy, I don't think...

[Prompto twists at his fingers in front of him, struggling to word it.]

I mean, I don't know for sure. If this was a fairy tale thing, it's not a story I know. But I kinda figured, it... it was gonna take all the people who love him to fix it.

[Still pink, he drops his gaze.]

The ones who're here, at least.

...Oh.

[Wise words from Prompto Argentum, their resident expert on fairy tale things. He makes a good point, too — that's an interpretation of what happened that Ignis legitimately hadn't thought of, being too hung up on the one particular that he hadn't been able to do it all by himself.]

In short, none of us alone could have...?

[Prompto looks at him, then nods.]

I wouldn't even have known to try if you hadn't figured it out with him first. If you guys hadn't ever... if you hadn't told him how you felt back when you did and--started flying kites and all, who knows what could've happened to him this time?

Perhaps you would've been the one flying kites with him, instead of me.

[It's an almost absentminded remark, but once it escapes him, he doesn't look as though he wishes he could take it back. It simply hangs there in the air, just like that: a thought, to be taken for what it is, and nothing more.]

If things had gone differently?

Ignis!

[Somehow, he chokes on fuck all and turns to cough into his hand, which might explain why his face turns red (redder), except that it spreads all the way through his ears.

He remembers how it felt to kiss him, as cold as Noct was, as nervous as he felt--the shape of his face between his hands. Pepperidge Farm remembers.]

C-come on, he doesn't think of me like that! Things would've had to go pretty differently, don't you think?

You might be surprised.

[It's not like he's about to kiss and tell, because he is a man of integrity who understands discretion.

Kissing and implying, on the other hand, now that's fair fucking game when he wants to gush a little about bae and has nobody to gush with.]

We talk about you sometimes. When we're kite-flying.

[Prompto stares at Ignis, and the hand that's come up to cover the entire lower half of his face does nothing to hide how hotly he's blushing.]

--What?

[Is that normal? Do people normally talk about their good buddies when they're sucking face? Should he be doing that??]

It's not altogether unheard-of.

[IT IS WHEN YOU'RE A PERSON WHO STILL DEFINES THIS RELATIONSHIP AS "GOOD BROS"]

We've talked about other people we find attractive, on occasion. Your name tends to come up.

[Only two modes of being are left to Prompto: the cottony blankness of incomprehension, and hECKING DYING.

So both his hands are over his cheeks now as he squeaks.]

? --??? Wha, how? Since when?

Since when...what? Have I found you attractive?

[He shrugs a little, idly tapping at his chin.]

Well, let's see. How long have we known each other, again? However long we've known each other, minus about two weeks or so.

Nuh??

[Now Ignis is just enjoying this, the rat bastard. Still, a guy who can't string two syllables into a word can't lodge a formal complaint, and at the moment, Prompto can't even really string together two sounds to make a syllable.

It wasn't really a specific question, since when. Since when was this a facet of reality?--is the basic gist. But what Ignis answers blows him straight out of the water again.

What he's implying under all this teasing, on purpose or not (and when does Ignis ever do anything by mistake?), is that not only have he and Noct talked about whether or not Prompto's hot stuff and come to some kind of casual agreement. No, what Prompto's getting out of this is that Ignis, independently of Noct, thought--thinks--he's good looking.

Since high school.

Maybe it's all fun and games for Ignis, but the earth is shifting under Prompto's feet. He stares at Ignis through his fingers, and only the inanest of thoughts make it to Voicetown.]

Tw... Why two weeks?

For those two weeks I was more preoccupied with deciding whether or not I was going to have to kill you and dispose of your body in a ditch.

[Ignis you're leaning too hard on the deadpan again.]

Is it really so surprising? I have eyes. And, I would like to think, the ability to recognize when something that meets them is attractive.

[There is an irony to Ignis using the "I have eyes" justification but let's just pretend like we didn't notice it so as not to Debbie Downer this interaction.]

But I--

[He's still having trouble forming the mouth-sounds we call words. He moves his hands to the sides of his face, then lets them slide nervelessly down.]

I wasn't--I--

[It occurs to him, bizarrely, that when he was fifteen, Ignis was only seventeen. Desperate to communicate why exactly this is blowing his mind, he gestures to Ignis's... everything.]

You? Thought. I was attractive?

...I think I'm actually starting to feel a little insulted, by the repetition.

[He doesn't sound insulted, though, just bemused. On the stove, the pasta is nearing a perfect al dente, and he fishes one of the noodles out of the pot on a fork in order to taste it.]

What part, exactly, is so unbelievable? Help me understand.

No, I don't mean it in a bad way! I, I just...

[Groaning impatiently at himself, Prompto turns away, rubbing furiously at his face like he can wipe the blush off. Or the stupidity, maybe.]

I'm not... I'm okay, I guess? But I'm not... special-looking, or anything. Definitely not in high school. And I didn't figure--look, even back then, all of you were stupid hot, you know? So there wasn't any reason to look at me. Well, except for doing my pre-best friendification background check or whatever. Crap, really lucky I passed that, in retrospect...

Ah, right, of course. Because it's ancient Insomnian law that certifiably hot people are only allowed to experience romantic interest in other certifiably hot people.

[Hmm. Another ninety seconds, maybe, on the al dente. Good, that should be just enough time to finish his thought before inevitably needing an excuse for an escape, after what he's about to say.]

...The thing I've always been most attracted to about Noct is his smile. When we were both young, seeing him smile made me feel good, and I wanted to protect that smile of his. Then, when I was older, I started to realize that it wasn't just that I liked his smile. It's that I liked the way it made me feel when he smiled at me.

[He shrugs.]

Your smile was what I noticed, too.

[Prompto's reaching for the colander once more when it tumbles out of his suddenly useless fingers.]

My--?

[He gapes at Ignis, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, forces his stare back down at the colander, but then looks up again.]

When? ...A-asking specifically this time.

You made Noct laugh.

[There it is — the perfect al dente. Now he's free to fuss with the pasta and not have to actually look at Prompto, up until he realizes that he has to drain the pasta, and for that he needs —

Shit. The colander.]

I don't recall the exact particulars. I...don't think I was made privy to them, actually. You had something on your phone, and you were fairly hanging off of his shoulder, and you were laughing at it. It made him laugh.

[...what if he finds a fork and just picks every piece of this pasta out of the pot SINGLE-HANDEDLY instead of needing the colander. WHAT IF.]

Perhaps, those times when you thought you weren't special, you were overlooking the things about yourself that are.

...

[Almost as involuntarily as a choice made in a dream, Prompto picks the colander back up and offers it to Ignis, looking at his hands instead of at him.]

So you liked me... because Noct liked me?

[He ventures the thought slowly. It doesn't really seem to encompass all the facts, but it's close enough to what he's always thought that, if Ignis agrees, this will all--well, it'll sort of make sense again.]

I liked that you made him happy. But you're attributing a bit too much cause and effect onto him, I think.

[Equally eyes-averted, he gratefully takes the colander and gets it set up, just in time to rescue his pasta before it loses its al dente and goes oversoft.]

To say "because" implies that my liking you was contingent on Noct liking you. Or, was the result of it. It's more that I liked you on your own merits, but Noct was the opportunity that created my exposure to it. If that makes sense.

...And you think I'm. Cute?

[IT'S AS CLOSE AN APPROXIMATION OF WHAT'S BEEN SAID AS HE CAN GET OUT OF HIS MOUTH WITHOUT EXPIRING WHERE HE STANDS]

A-and you've talked about it with Noct?

Like most people, I have "a type", and you fit into it rather neatly. So yes.

[...]

And I think both he and I are in general agreement that you're cute, yes.

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