Wanted to update in honor of Valentine's Day!

This oneshot takes place in the "What Does M.T. Stand For Anyway" universe by jonphaedrus on AO3. It's an excellent series and I highly recommend you check it out.

As always I own nothing.

Ignis Stupeo Scientia considered himself to be a professional, if nothing else. Which was why his gigantic crush on the princess of Lucis was a point of shame for him. He had pledged his life to serve her, to be her strategist, her servant. He wasn't supposed to find her attractive. But there was something about her that just warmed his heart, like when she tried to make thank you breakfasts for him or helped him in the kitchen. For all her faults, Noctis was a very responsible and compassionate person. She'd make a fine queen someday, he decided. Spending time around her was never awkward for him. After all, he'd known her for their whole lives and any tenderness would hardly be construed as romantic intention by the princess. That didn't hold true for others though. Gladio and Prompto finding out was possibly the worst part about the whole ordeal. They'd teased him about it, yes, which was what he'd been expecting. Then they'd tried to be helpful. This was arguably infinitely worse than the teasing. Ignis had never had siblings, but he imagined this was what it was like to be embarrassed by them. Iris sympathized, thank the Astrals. He could always complain to her after a long day of meddling on the part of her brother and Prompto.

"You get used to it." She said, shrugging. "At least Glady didn't try to threaten you. He always does that when guys are interested in me. I guess Noct is different though."

"Would it be too much to hope that they'll get bored and quit?"

"Don't hold your breath." Iris said with a wry smile. Ignis groaned and covered his face with his hands.

"Hey, cheer up." Iris patted his back. "If you're lucky and keep everything bottled up, maybe you can keep this a secret until you die."

"Surely you're joking."

"No shit genius." She said. "Seriously, it's not that big a deal." Ignis gave her no response, choosing to get up and go try to cook his feelings away.

.

.

.

He took it back. Ardyn finding out was the worst part. The princess' strange great uncle had a strange habit of matchmaking, something Ignis had learned from Aranea on one of their many trips to MT. At the time, Aranea had been complaining about how Ardyn had surreptitiously set her up with a mechanic named Cindy. So of course Ignis had tried to keep his crush a secret from the man. But, of course, Ardyn had found out somehow. After all, he hadn't been the Royal Spymaster for nothing. At the MT Valentine's Day party Ardyn somehow separated Ignis and Noctis from the group and managed to lock them in a storage closet. The last thing Ignis saw before the closet was plunged into darkness was Ardyn smiling his shit-eating grin. He'd never dreamed evil would have such impeccable eyeliner. Now he was locked in a closet with the one person he could not be stuck in a closet with.

"So..." Noctis slumped against the wall of the closet.

"I do believe your uncle has had a bit much to drink." Ignis said, trying to sound calm and composed.

"Understatement of the century." Noctis snorted. "He probably started drinking the second I told him Dad was coming."

"That seems rather likely."

"But I don't think he shoved us in here without a reason." Noctis looked up at him, a sharp glint in her eyes. "So what are you hiding?"

"M-Me?" Ignis couldn't help but stutter. "I'm not hiding anything!"

"You're stuttering."

"I..." Well, she had him there. "Fine. He locked us in here because he learned I have developed romantic feelings for you." There was a moment of silence. Ignis studied Noctis' face closely. The princess stared at him, eyes wide, then went bright red and sunk down to hug her knees to her chest.

"Noct? Are you quite alright?"

"I'm fine." Noctis' voice came out a little muffled from behind her knees.

"Are you sure? Your face is-"

"I'm not blushing, you're blushing!"

Ignis couldn't help but laugh.

"I do hope you two are getting on alright in there~" Ardyn's sing song voice leaked in under the door.

"Let us out!" Noctis sprung up and banged on the door.

"My my Noctis. Such fury." Ardyn almost sounded offended. "I think you two might need to talk things out." Then his footsteps went in the opposite direction and he was gone.

"Noctis," Ignis couldn't believe he was saying this. "Your uncle is right. We need to talk."

"No we don't." Noctis started to pat the door. "If I ran this hard enough we can get out." What had prompted this? She had been alright up until he'd confessed. Had he done something wrong?

"You'll hurt yourself." Ignis grabbed her arm. "Please, I'm worried." Noctis looked at his hand and then up at him, slumping a little.

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Well we can't very well sit in here forever, now can we? I doubt your uncle will let us out until we actually talk."

Noctis slumped even more because she knew he was right. Sure, Cor would eventually come to find them, but it was unlikely that Ardyn himself was going to let them out until he had what he wanted. The man was so difficult sometimes. Well, all the time was more accurate.

"Fine." Noctis muttered. "We can talk."

"Good." Ignis let go of her arm. "Now, why are you acting so strange?"

"Because this is weird and I have to be dreaming." She said.

"What?" Ignis frowned. He had to have heard her incorrectly. Dreaming? What did that have to do with any of this?

"This is weird, and it can't be real because I've had this exact dream at least 5 times."

"You...You've dreamed of me confessing to you?"

"No! I mean, yes. I mean- ...Yes."

"So...my feelings are returned?" He was trying not to laugh out of sheer relief.

"...Yes." Noctis hunched her shoulders. "I didn't think this was actually going to happen though! I mean, we basically grew up together. I thought..."

"You thought what?"

"I thought you'd think it was weird. That I was weird." She avoided his eyes. "Queens aren't supposed to have crushes on their advisors."

"You know, I was worried about that same thing." He took her hand. "I will never judge you for not being perfect. No one is, and holding you to that standard wouldn't be fair to you."

"I should've known you'd say something like that." She laughed and looked up at him. "You've always got my back."

"Now and forever."

.

.

When Cor finally came to let them out, the two were slumped against the back wall of the closet, Noctis sleeping with her head on Ignis' shoulder.

"See? I told you it would work." Ardyn said. Cor took him back to the apartment to give him a long lecture on why it wasn't okay to lock kids in closets.