Castles they may crumble

[berriedmemories]

WHO:XV Cast
WHAT: General catchall
WHERE: Probably mostly at the XV cottage
WHEN: spring/summer 2025
WARNINGS: blanket CW for depression (Noctis), suicidal ideation (Ardyn, Cor, Ravus), and general PTSD from a bunch of men that've been through hell. See subject lines for specifics

Comments

All of my memories keep you near.

[berriedmemories]

Ignis asks, at first, for someone to bring him clothes. Something warm and dry and not the absolute mess he's in. Noctis takes his hands and pulls him along into the bedroom, though. It's only for a moment, only to make sure Ignis doesn't end up getting sick or something.

Noct is still shifted strangely, portions of him thickly furred, soft and warm where he's been wrapped around Iggy the entire trek back. But as they step into the bedroom the fur finally begins to recede. The claws follow in short order so Noctis can start undoing the buttons of Iggy's shirt.

They need to get him out of the stiff wet clothes but Noct can't bring himself to keep going past those first few buttons. Just enough that he can put warm hands inside the damp fabric, settle them on Iggy's skin. Then he leans forward to press his forehead just below the other man's collarbones and lets out a breath far more shaky than he wants to admit. He'll get back to helping Ignis peel off the half frozen clothes but he needs to just... feel him, real and solid and present.

"I thought you were gone." Fingers curling, gripping tight to his sides, a sniffle Noct tries to pretend isn't there. "Like Dad."

[threevirtues]

Throughout the entire trek home, Noctis has held him close... and Ignis has returned the action in kind, although perhaps it's been hard to tell with how closely they've been all bundled together. After all, partially because of his personality and perhaps partially because of his duties, Ignis has never been quite the one to cling. This has been true even as they've started to date here, as much as that may have been in another lifetime of sorts.

But he's clung here. He's held close to Noctis here, all the long way back to the home they've made in this place, his fingers buried deep into thick fur and breathing in Noctis's scent from where he's put his face close to his hair.

There's no argument when Noctis pulls him along at the request of new clothes. No chiding that he can undress himself when those fingers carefully undo the first few buttons.

All Ignis does is raise his hand and cradle the back of Noctis's head as he buries himself against him, the two of them folding into each other like a car crash, metal twisting into itself to make extraction impossible.

"I apologize for the worry," he whispers, his other arm folding over Noctis's back. "If I had my way, I would never leave your side for a moment, Noct." Gently, reassuringly, his fingers stroke through messy black hair. "But when I do... I return to you always, as soon as I am able. I promise you that. I am here now."

[berriedmemories]

Noct breathes slowly, leaning more heavily against Ignis when those arms come around him. Iggy's fingers in his hair are enough to make some of the tension finally ease out of him. Another breath, steadier this time, and Noctis tips his head to press a soft kiss to chilled skin, just at the edge of Iggy's collarbone.

"I know... I just.... if we're in different worlds ASAP could be-" A shake of his head, brief and small so as to not disturb where they're leaned into one another. It could be a long time is the implication. Too long is what he doesn't say.

Finally, Noct shifts a half step closer, arms finally wrapping around Ignis in return. It's awful, the wet fabric of Ignis' shirt dragging over his fur but Iggy is so cold he doesn't dare shift back to being fully human just yet. No he just tucks his arms under that shirt, pressed tight to his boyfriend's back, and clings. Maybe unbecoming for a prince but... who the fuck cares.

[threevirtues]

Noctis's movements tug his shirt even more free of where it's been carefully tucked into his pants, and it strains awkwardly against Ignis's skin, stiff and still rather cool despite how close they've stayed close the entire time here. Yet Ignis doesn't protest it in the slightest. All he does is keep Noct as close as he can, and presses a kiss into his hair right back.

"Perhaps. And yet..." His fingers stroke through Noctis's hair. "All the worlds one could think of, and many more besides... Yet we are all here together, aren't we?"

In fact, him, Prompto, Gladio... they all managed to stick together, from their world to another to this one here as well.

What are the odds?

Beautiful fortunate ones, to Ignis's eye. So... "I dare say that such a situation is enough to make a man feel lucky." Lucky enough to say he'll always return to Noctis's side, no matter what may happen.

[berriedmemories]

Noct presses his face more fully against Ignis, squeezes him so tight for a long moment, just leaning against him physically as much as he always has emotionally. "I've always been lucky to have you." Murmured quietly against his skin. For longer than Ignis is probably entirely comfortable with, given the way he's still shaky with the adrenaline, Noctis simply clings to him. He takes a deep breath after some time, though, steeling himself and finally allowing space between them again.

His claws fumble on the last few buttons but he does manage to finally get that half frozen shirt off his boyfriend. The slightly more challenging buttons on Ignis' pants he will have to do himself, his claws too thick and clumsy to combat how snug Ignis' pants are. "I'll get you something cozy... yeah?"

He's hesitant to step away entirely. Doesn't want to take his hands away, as though Iggy might just disappear if he turns his back. In the end he only does let go because Ignis needs room to take his pants off and he can't do that with Noct hovering so damn close. It's all of 5 steps to the wardrobe where Noct can collect one of Iggy's heavier sweaters.

And if Ignis needs to sit down to pry off frozen socks and shoes, to shimmy out of stiff fabric, he may just notice something new on his nightstand.

[threevirtues]

For him, it has mattered so rarely what he wants in the face of Noctis's needs. And he can tell, clear as day, that Noct needs to hold onto him after everything. Both what he's gone through today, and what he's yet to go through in the present that Ignis has just left.

Other things, as well. Things that Ignis dreads to think about right now, and yet which won't stop haunting him.

And maybe Ignis needs this as well, to hold onto Noctis and feel the warmth of his body that is only made a touch wet from tromping through the snow holding onto Ignis. He might not be as obvioux, but he needs it too, and indeed only pulls away from Noctis when his prince does. "It would help a good bit with this weather," he agrees. Fortunately, foresight even as a teenager had ensured he had plenty of large and thick sweaters to put on - something to take into consideration the bulk of his wings in case he couldn't put them back.

Obviously not a problem now, but... that just will help make him feel a bit warmer and more snug.

In the meanwhile, indeed, he has to sit down if only so that he can force off his socks and shoes. Yet he barely even gets that far before he notes something on his nightstand. That endeavor is abandoned swiftly enough, and Noctis will find Ignis with the card in hand, a soft look on his face.

"...My neediness as a teenager really did make you fuss, didn't it?" he murmurs, as though he didn't admit this under great pain while wings ripped out of his back.

[berriedmemories]

Noctis turns from the wardrobe to see what Ignis is looking at and his cheeks flush a little when he realizes what is in his hands. He hesitates for a brief moment before clambering onto the bed from the opposite side, pushing himself across it until he can kneel behind Ignis. A thick cream colored sweater gets set on the bed beside the other and then Noctis is leaning in to drape his arms over Ignis' shoulders, pressing himself against his boyfriend's back.

Ignis is exhausted, that much is clear from the way he doesn't let himself stop, from the subtle little shakes in his hands, the hiccups like this in his focus. It's a miracle Noctis has gotten him to be still for so long as it is, he's definitely pushing it like this. So he doesn't let himself put too much of his weight on Ignis, just rests there against his back, warm and solid, letting himself hold Iggy for once instead of the other way around.

"I don't get to fuss over you much... It's just... it's something I could do when there wasn't really anything else." It was as much for him as it is for Ignis. Something nice for him that he clearly cared about and a way to channel the frantic energy that came with the sort of helplessness that Noctis is all too familiar with. For all the power that is supposed to come with his position he has found himself unable to do a damned thing about most things in his life. It drives him mad and has certainly threatened to drag him into a deep depression more than once. The little tokens he can make for the people in need that he cares for so deeply at least means he has some outlet for the emotion so he doesn't simply shut down.

He'd never have forgiven himself if he did that to the others when they were just as worried about Iggy as he was.

[threevirtues]

Even without truly leaning against him, just this close, and it's all too easy to pick up on even more ways that give away how rattled and exhausted Ignis is. There'd been little signs of it all the way back home, of course... and yet maybe some of it had been easy to miss in their movement, how they were all so close as to jostle Ignis. And maybe some of it only can come out back in a place they can call home.

Something to truly tell his subconscious that they are out of the flooded battle zone which Altissa had become.

So, now, it's easier to feel the way his entire chest seems to shudder when he inhales, how iron-stiff his back is from pure tension, and every little tremble from an over use of adrenaline that will not stop for at least a couple hours yet. Despite that, Ignis so carefully sets the card back down in its place. In its place, he takes Noct's hand.

"I like to think I hardly need fussing," Ignis says, opting to not say if he does now or not. Instead, he remembers himself, and raises one foot up so that his free hand can begin the process of tugging free his shoes and socks. His toes are all pins and needles.

"But you know that I will always be glad to help you with whatever you want. And I think there are far worse things, than being the recipient of such wonderful cards."