Gladio raised an eyebrow as Lunafreya's dogs ran around, happily yipping. "You sure it's a good idea to bring them?"

Lunafreya just smiled, balancing her trident on her shoulder.

Noct leaned down to ruffle Umbra's fur. "They'll be fine. Won't you, boy?"

Ignis glanced over to Prompto, noting that he seemed to have formed a particular attachment to Pryna. The dog seemed to considerably brighten his mood. "Hey, guys, we should hurry if we don't wanna get caught in the rain."

Ignis frowned. "The forecast said nothing of rain."

"Trust me, dude." Prompto tapped his knee. "It's gonna rain."

"Yeah, I can confirm that his new sixth sense actually works," Gladio said. "He says it's gonna rain, you can bet it will."

Very well. "Best we get going, then." He gestured to the elevator that led into the mine.

"Ready when you guys are," Noct said cheerfully.

This was so entirely odd. Noctis was cheerful and full of energy. Prompto was mostly silent and reserved.

Ignis was fairly certain he'd heard Noct utter less words in a month to him than he did to Lunafreya on the elevator ride down. Not entirely unexpected, though. Twelve years was a great deal of time to catch up on. Noct could be forgiven his focus being primarily on her, so long as he didn't become too distracted in combat.

Ignis took in their surroundings as the elevator doors slowly opened.

My, what a cheerful place. Not that mines were known for being paradises, but the area around resembled a desert, only with less heat and more humidity.

"Well, this is a nice change." Noct looked around, seeming pleasantly surprised. "Most of the other tombs we visited were in caves."

"Ehh, I preferred that one that was like five feet from the road with only grass guarding it." Prompto made a face, slapping at a bug on his neck.

"Yeah, pretty sure we all preferred that one," Gladio noted. "But this is better than another cave."

"Let's just hope nothing tries to adopt Prompto this time." Noct tossed a grin over his shoulder at Prompto, who was in the back of the group.

…Why was Prompto in the back of the group? Ignis shifted his focus from the others' discussion about some snake that had kidnapped Prompto to Prompto himself. If he had been subject to prior unfortunate events while looking for tombs, he should have been in the middle of the group. If his responsibly and confidence had been boosted in Ignis' absence, he should have been at the front, chatting or taking pictures. And if it was his uncharacteristically poor mood, then he should have been walking with Pryna since she seemed to be his greatest source of comfort.

Ignis observed his friend's gait for a few moments before realizing his suspicions were correct: Prompto was hurting. Emotionally and physically. He was trying to hide it, but he was favoring that leg just a tad too much. But why now? His knee had seemed fine for walking before, unless… ah. The downwards slope and unevenness of the path they were on. That was entirely different than walking on flat ground.

Gradually, Ignis fell back to walk with Prompto as the others kept laughing at one another's quips.

"If you need to stop, tell me. I'll come up with an alternative reason to give them," Ignis said lowly.

Prompto's eyes were wide as he looked at Ignis. "I'm fin–"

Ignis hit him with a glare. "There is no shame in being injured, Prompto. You have no need to pretend you're well when you aren't. And if that won't convince you, know that a more leisurely trip would benefit Noct and Lunafreya as well."

Prompto sighed. "Okay, fine…"

Good. He was reassured. Now if only Ignis could take his mind off his troubles further. "So, what's this about a snake adopting you?"

"Oh my gosh." Prompto rolled his eyes. "That's not even what happened – he keeps telling it wrong!"

"Oh? And the true events?"

Prompto launched into an explanation, and Ignis smiled. Prompto's focus was away from his torments at the moment. Much better.

"Look alive!" Gladio shouted, summoning his weapon.

Ignis and Prompto both had their own weapons in hand instantly. Gurangatch. Several of them. Ignis hesitated. He… who should he prioritize? Normally Noct, yes, but Gladio had been covering him well on his own for a while now, and Ignis didn't want to throw off any patterns they'd developed while he was gone. He wasn't sure how Prompto's gained experience had affected his style, but the blond wasn't at the top of his health at the moment. And Lunafreya… would she stick close to Noct, or hang back out of the chaos where he wouldn't need to watch for her safety as much?

They really should have discussed this prior to entering the mine.

Noct had already warp-struck into the fray, and Gladio was sprinting to catch up with him. …And Lunafreya was following behind him. Fabulous. Fighting in a swamp would do wonders for her health, he was sure. And Prompto was charging in as well, half sliding down the hill while taking some very precise shots. Well, well. He had improved.

Ignis joined them in the area below, but hung on the outskirts of the battle, flicking daggers as he observed his team.

Gladio seemed stronger. More resilient. Prompto was more graceful, even with his injury. Lunafreya was very keen on stabbing anything that got near Gladio or Noct if she was close enough. And Noct… Ignis sighed. While his movements were obviously more honed, he was being entirely overly extravagant in all his attacks. All his normally "cool" moves were amplified with new levels of flourish that were so clearly for show that they couldn't even be practical anymore.

"Noct, will you quit dancing with the damn thing and kill it?" Gladio snapped, fending off some very large teeth with his shield. "You can impress your fiancée when she's not about to get her head bitten off!"

Noct dropped to the ground just long enough to toss the strongest glare Ignis had ever seen him use over his shoulder at Gladio before he was gone again, this time striking normally. Ignis could have been mistaken, but he was almost sure he'd seen Noct's cheeks turn red. No doubt he was embarrassed that his act had been outed so blatantly.

Ignis swallowed a chuckle. Prompto was less subtle and his laugh rang around the swamp, his voice carrying well with all the water.

"Man, shut up," Noctis yelled with another glare.

Lunafreya was biting her lip as she tried not to laugh herself.

This was… good. After all every single one of them had been through, this was fantastic, actually. Seeing everyone in such high spirits… If only he could keep it that way. Well, he was going to try his damn hardest.

"Prompto, you're up!" Noct rolled out of the way of a monster.

"All in bullet time, baby." Prompto took a calculated shot, ending the beast's life.

Still, there were several more.

"Hey, Ignis! Been a while, huh? Wanna team up?" Noct flipped over a mouth that nearly caught him.

"But of course."

It had been far too long. Ignis let his daggers sail with precision, marking all the weak points on the Gurangatchs' bodies for Noct to warp-strike. Like no time had passed at all, Noct followed his nonverbal instructions to the letter, hitting each spot perfectly.

Luna stabbed another monster with her trident just as Gladio beheaded the last one.

"None the worse for wear." Ignis shook his hands, loosening his wrists up.

"Bring on the next one!" Gladio grinned.

Splendid. Synchronization and high spirits all around.

Much to Ignis' relief, their day of mud wading and monster fighting came to an end just as the sun was vanishing. The haven they found was near perfectly placed in terms of timing, and setting up everything was delightfully easy with so many people and the assistance of the Armiger.

Prompto even volunteered to share the workload of fixing dinner but dozed off in his chair when it came time. Ignis let him sleep, hushing the others when they got too loud with their jesting. He only nudged him awake when the meal was ready, brushing off the younger man's apologies. Prompto still seemed down, but Ignis assured him that he wouldn't turn down a helping hand at another meal, and the blond perked up after that, saying he'd help with dessert.

Ignis didn't have the heart to wake him when he near dozed back off into his plate. Eventually, Noctis nudged their sleepiest party member partially awake and guided him into the tent before returning to spend a bit longer with the rest of them.

Ignis greeted Noct with another attempt at that tart when he returned. It seemed fitting, seeing as he and Lunafreya were finally reunited.

But, as always…

"Nope."

Lunafreya shook her head as well, looking somewhat guilty.

At least Gladio was pleased. "You know, I almost wish you would keep getting it wrong, 'cause I'm pretty fond of taste testing these things."

Ignis sighed. "Thank you, Gladio. I'll take that as consolation."

"Prompto's pretty fond of them too," Noctis said, licking some jam from his thumb and pointer finger. He frowned then. "What's with him crashing so early, anyway? He's seemed kind of down lately. Like, more than he was when he almost died."

So Noct had noticed.

Gladio sat back in his chair. "Lost a lot of sleep in Altissia. You know him. He was drowning in worry with you both out."

Noctis seemed to accept this as an answer, but Ignis found himself less than satisfied.

Whether Gladio liked it or not, he was going to get to the bottom of this.

When Ignis was awoken later by a soft whimper, it took him a few moments to remember he was back with his usual comrades, but within moments he was fully alert and rolling over to check on Prompto.

More nightmares. Ignis had hoped the more cheerful day might spare him this tonight. It would appear Prompto would be granted no such relief.

Ignis maneuvered over to Prompto's side, careful not to wake the others along the way. He began his low humming of the chocobo song as soon as he reached his friend. Noct would no doubt sleep through the noise, as would Lunafreya. He wasn't sure about Gladio. Nevertheless, he kept humming until Prompto was no longer twitching and whimpering.

Ignis let his voice fade out, glancing up as he felt eyes on him.

Gladio was propping himself upright on one arm, his face grim. "He's been having nightmares?"

Ignis arched an eyebrow, though he wasn't entirely sure Gladio could see his face that well in the dark. "You didn't know?"

"He never said anything…"

"I can't imagine why that would be with you acting so dismissive of his obvious trauma."

"I am not dismissive!" Gladio snapped. Ignis motioned for him to keep his voice down, and Gladio's next words were quieter. "There's just nothing I can do about it."

"Well, what you are doing is certainly not helping, I can tell you that."

Gladio was silent after that. They didn't exchange any more words that night.