shatteredlenses | LifeAfter Inbox

He's still adjusting to the idea but Gladio doesn't have plans to go anywhere. Maybe if things had gone differently he'd be more concerned about getting home but as it stands right now? Knowing that he'll go right back to where he was? He's holding onto this with all he's got.

Which is why his fingers burrow into Iggy's hair when he leans in for that kiss, holding him long enough to to make it linger before letting him sit back up. "Don't go thinking I'm too generous. This is totally selfish."

"See when that lovely violet egg Leo's napping around hatches and grows up I want someone to go riding with so... kinda had to get you one too, huh?" He's grinning as he says it, that's clear in his voice, excited and eager.

So he did. That was... Shion hadn't known it possible, but he was the first to admit that he knew very little about love.

After all he could love many people and consider them family so perhaps romantic love could be bigger than for just one person.

Ardyn was a love that would ultimately end in sadness, but that didn't change how he felt. Shion understood that, very well.

But during the darkness? The way Ignis spoke it sounded like something Gladio knew and Ignis didn't...

"The darkness... Is that something that happened on Gladio's world but not on yours? Or not yet at least..."

"Ah, apologies. It's something that hasn't happened yet. The time Gladio comes from is ten years in the future for me. When you look at those from my world," his voice softens slightly and gains a sad tone, "I'm the farthest in the past. I've learned so much, so much that could save so many lives, and I have no idea if I will ever be able to use any of it."

It's so frustrating. Especially when one of those lives saved could be Noctis'.

He suddenly stops walking and gives Shion a curious look, "Do you think it strange I've fallen in love with two men from so far in my future? They are the people I know from my time, yet they are also not."

A soft laugh slips from Ignis' mouth once the kiss ends, "You aren't suppose to tell me that part, Gladiolus. Wait. So there is another?" He turns from Gladio then, facing toward the nook where he knows Leo tends to sleep. The tigerlily has grown quite a bit and he looks concerned, "He's not too heavy for the shell, is he?"

Honestly, Ignis is sure Gladio would have shooed Leo away if he was any threat to either of the eggs, but for some reason he's already feeling very protective of the new members of their little family.

Geez, one would think they were their kids or something.

"I don't mind," Ignis repeats confidently, one hand raising so it can weave its way into Gladio's hair. "The me who didn't like it was a different man than the one who is here with you now, and I dare say, this me has much better taste than that one."

"He's not on them, Igs." He's laughing as he says it and then he's scooping the egg up out of Iggy's lap to put it back beside the other.

"Come on, come here, babe." Come sit with him and feel both eggs and Leo's lazy rumbling too. Because seriously this is the cutest thing ever and Gladio is dying a little.

He shook his head, he didn't think it was strange at all. Even if Gladio and Ardyn came from a slightly different version of Ignis' world it was not too strange that Ignis loved them.

"You already said that you think you have always loved Gladio, the one from your world and so here... where you... things are different." He still knows very little about Ignis' world. But Ignis had already said that he had seen anything that wasn't helping Noctis as selfish.

Here he could act more freely and so when this Gladio turned up it was not surprising that Ignis had fallen in love.

"Here you can just be... you are able to aknowledge those feelings for them."

Gladio hums softly, enjoying the feel of Ignis' fingers in his hair. It's so nice as is the reassurance. It gets another kiss to his hair and a squeeze around his middle. "I think so... hope so anyway."

"Just being. It's funny. I hardly know what that means, but I'm doing my best to learn," a small smile crosses his face as he starts to walk again. If he's honest, Ignis finds himself enjoying the lessons he needs to learn this. It's true, some of them are painful, but the happy ones make the pain worth it. Especially, if he is able to bring others joy through his learning.

"What about you? Has being here given you time to acknowledge feelings you weren't able to before? That Tower you and Aster have mentioned being at doesn't exactly seem the kind of place to allow you much time to process your thoughts."

"Of course, he's not!" How stupid do you think he is, Gladio? "But you didn't say how tightly he was wrapped around them."

There's more than one way to crush an egg, after all!

Still, Ignis doesn't fight as his egg is taken from him and Gladio pulls him down to sit. He frowns a little, but that frown really has no staying power when faced with Leo's happy purrs. Gently, Ignis trails his fingers over both the eggs and the contently sleeping tigerlily.

"He reminds me a little of Noctis, you know. Most happy when he's sleeping."

Ignis sighs contentedly, relaxing into Gladio as much as he dares with the man still recovering from his injury, "I don't know if I have the right to ask you to trust me yet, but I promise we'll find a way to make all this work."

"Feelings are difficult." They really were, the swirling emotions that threatened to drag him down, towering rage, fear that choaked him. But also hope and love. They were just as capable as overwhelming him as more negative emotions.

"I feel like I have been learning to acknowledge and understand my feelings since I left my city." In West Town, in the Tower, here. "The Tower was... there wasn't much time where we weren't... But I found Aster and Reno. It was a bad place but there was love there and friendship. We wouldn't have survived if we hadn't formed bonds between us."

And here? Sometimes Shion felt like he was going backwards. He had lost control more times than he should have. His emotions were... difficult. Especially when they came to love, romantic love. It was familliar but so different than the love he felt for Aster, his mum, Reno. So much more complicated.

"Would... if you could see all your futures, of all the possible worlds. If you knew that you would be left..." He shook his head, his words weren't... He wasn't making much sense.

"Would I be teasing you if he was going to hurt them?" Honestly, Iggy, calm down. The eggs are fine, Leo's fine, everything's fine.

"Sleeping or causing trouble." Gladio smiles as he says it, scritching hard just above Leo's tail and Ignis will feel it in the way the tigerlily rocks from the strength of the scritch. He laughs when he gets an annoyed tail flick and one golden eye opens to glare at him for the offense.

"Yeah, just like Noct.

"I'll always trust you, Iggy." And he squeezes a little, regardless of his injury. "You don't have to ask. Whatever it is we'll find a way because we trust each other."

Ignis can't help but chuckle at that, "I've never heard a more true statement. Emotions are extremely difficult, even for those who have been free to learn theirs all of their lives. Intense situations bring out both the good and the bad in people. If the bonds that form during those times can survive both things, then you know they are of the strongest kind."

After losing his vision, Ignis' own bonds with Prompto grew stronger--at least, that's what he's been told--and he doesn't doubt this since his bonds with Prompto have grown stronger on the island as well. There isn't a much more intense situation than losing one's vision and Ignis is quite certain it brought out his worst qualities along with his best.

Shion's unfinished question leaves Ignis puzzled, his head tilting slightly as he tries to figure out what he means. Eventually, he has to shake his head, "Please, take your time and try to explain your question. I'm afraid I'm not sure what you're trying to ask."

Aside from it having to do with seeing the future, that is, and that is something that always causes a knot of dread to tighten in his stomach.

Listen, if both Prompto and Noctis are going to tease him by calling him 'mum,' then he is going to bloody well mum!

Except 'dad' seems to have things well in hand, so for now Ignis is just going to smile contentedly at Leo's annoyed tail flicking, "And you're bothering him early in the morning instead of letting him sleep. Yes, this all feels very familiar."

He chuckles suddenly, then, turning his face into Gladio's shoulder, "Oh, Prompto's going to be so thrilled. He will never stop taking pictures just like he did with Coco."

And that too is very, comfortingly, familiar.

No sense at all. Shion blushed and was silent for a moment as they approached the temple and the garden there. "It's alright. It's just silly anyways..." He shook his head, it was difficult to put his thoughts into words. He wasn't even really sure what his thoughts were.

"We're at the garden now, do you know if Soma had any other friends who aren't here anymore? We could put his tree near their markers."

He's looking around for a good place to put a tree, somewhere it would get pleanty of light and be able to grow upwards.

"No question is silly. If you need more time to think on it, that's fine, but I hope you will ask me it once you have figured out how you want to say it." As much as talk of seeing the future makes him feel dread, if Shion feels the need to speak of doing the same, Ignis is probably one of the better qualified people to talk to about it.

Ignis frowns slightly when Shion asks about Soma's other friends. Aside from Ardyn and himself, Soma hadn't really interacted with that many people... Wait, there was someone else.

"Has a marker been set up for Asch? I'm not sure how close they were, but the group of us worked together sometimes. Me, Asch, Soma, Ardyn. Especially while we were on Monsun."

Of course 'dad' has things handled!

Gladio laughs at the comparison though. Yeah, yeah that all sounds about right. "Yeah, Prom showed me some of the photos from when Coco was bitty. Cute little fluff."

And now he'll have 2 more fluffs to take pics of. It's so close to normal it's actually really reassuring.

"I recall once not long after Coco hatched, he went out to get some water for Shion while he was visiting," Ignis relaxes against Gladio and closes his eye as he tells the story. "Shion and I had time for a full conversation before we realized Prompto hadn't returned. It turned out, he found Coco sitting on rock looking out over the water and just had to take photo after photo until he got it just right."

He laughs softly, "It's sure a good thing Shion wasn't all that thirsty."

"Asch was the first." Shion's voice was soft and he led Ignis over to where the marker for his friend was.

"Me and Aster knew an Asch... not this one. An Asch from a different world. He was in the tower and was close to Aster and Reno. I knew him well also. When we came here..." He smiled sadly.

"We are used to meeting people who look like people we know but are from other worlds but still it was... comforting to be near someone we recognised. Asch... this Asch was friendly despite the fact it must have been strange for him. When he disappeared..." Shion shook his head.

"I didn't know this Asch as well as I knew Asch in the tower but being remembered was important for him. It's a basket with red flowers, and sea shells spelling out his name. We can plant Soma's tree next to it."

"An Asch from a different world."

It's so strange to talk about there being different versions of people out there, but it's not something Ignis can deny must be. After all, as much as he would like to believe every version of Noctis gets pulled from his death to go into space like the once who is currently with them did, that doesn't feel like it's the right answer. Logic argues it would be simpler if it were, but he also knows that simpler isn't necessarily the answer.

He stops walking a moment to rub his nose, but before he can start walking again, Shion is explaining about the care that was put into making a memorial for Asch and he almost can't handle it. His hand drops to cover his mouth as as he blinks back tears. Once he's mostly pulled himself back together, he nods and speaks in a slightly shaky voice.

"T-that will be perfect. I think he'd like it very much."

And Ignis knows he likes the idea very much too. Now, he will be able to visit both of them at the same time and neither has any chance of being forgotten.

Gladio laughs at that too, a little harder than Ignis, grinning at Prompto's predictable ridiculousness.

"That sounds adorable. Once these two hatch we're never going to get anything worthwhile out of him. Two chicks? And Coco on top of that? He's doomed."

Shion realises that Ignis has stopped and looks around to see Ignis struggling with tears. He waits a moment, letting Ignis compose himself and then steps towards him, reaching out to take his hand and squeeze it.

"I think he would, I hope so..." Jaune had been disturbed that there was a memorial for a him that wasn't him. He had told Shion that he wouldn't want to be remembered. But remembering wasn't just got the one who had gone, it was for the ones who had been left behind as well.

Hopefully making this memorial would help Ignis understand how he felt for his friend and come to terms with him being gone.

He led Ignis over to where he had left a pile of coconut shells, baskets and sea shells.

"We can probably plant the seed directly into the ground, but we probably want to make a marker of some kind as well..."

Despite the fact that it hurts now, this will be deeply cathartic later. It may takes Ignis a while to realize just how much it is so, but it will help and he will be glad he did it.

He lets Shion lead him to the supplies, thinking about what he would like to do for the marker. It could be something different--something to make this uniquely Soma--but the apricot tree will do that already. Some things don't need to be improved upon, and he has come to like sea shells a great deal. He still carries the one Luna gave him when they first arrived almost a year ago. Thanks to her and Aster, the shells have become tied to both comfort and memory in his mind. There really is nothing else he can think of that would be better to use for the marker.

"There are more shells, yes? I think spelling his name with those will work."

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