It's been 84 years, hope you all are doing alright. Happy New Year to everyone, may it be better than the last one.

Writing has been tough, and this one has been sitting almost finished in my drafts for a while now, but it's completed at last.

Enjoy some BOYS *curtains open*


Prompto wasn't sure how much he liked bringing Ignis along. He did, of course, like the idea of him and Ignis and Gladio running around kicking ass like they used to.

(Except Noct is missing, his mind supplied, but he stubbornly ignored that.)

He'd also seen first-hand how much Iggy had improved with his training. Aside from changing his fighting style a bit, you could barely tell anything was different from before. And if you'd never seen him fight before, you wouldn't even question him one bit, in fact, some of the newer hunters had been surprised when they'd learnt he was blind.

Still, Prompto thought it was natural for him to worry. He was allowed to worry. Ignis was his friend, the last thing he wanted was getting him hurt doing something stupid.

So, yes, if he was being honest to himself, Prompto wasn't too happy about the idea of Ignis tagging along on their next mission.

Gladio on the other hand... Gladio was absolutely furious.

Of course, Prompto kind of understood him. The guy was a natural big brother, his protective streak was insane, and his stubbornness nearly unmatched. Certainly didn't help that Iris had recently started leaving the safety of Lestallum to hunt some daemons herself, either. No matter how capable she (or Ignis, for that matter) was, Gladio had thrown a fit until she'd whacked him upside the head and told him, in no uncertain terms, that if he happened to die, she'd become the one who'd have to put her literal body between Noct and danger. That she had gone through the same training he had, and that he'd long been doing "Shield stuff" when he was her age.

That had shut him right up, although he was still clearly not happy with her decision. And now, Ignis announced he wanted to run around stabbing daemons in the face too. Fun stuff.

Still, even though Prompto felt bad for Gladio, he also understood Ignis. How many times had he, himself, felt useless next to his very capable friends whilst he was simply... kinda present. How happy he was every time he landed a lucky shot and prevented one of them from being chewed on by a voretooth. And how thrilled he was still upon everyone just accepting him as a hunter without question, now that the sun was gone and everything was going to shit.

For Ignis, who had been capable and badass and a fighter all his life, being sat on the sidelines whilst everyone he cared about was out risking their life... must be horrible for him.

So he'd taken Iggy's side and pretended not to notice the hurt and betrayal on Gladio's face, and now they were going to explore some ancient cave system, just the three of them.

At least they would be there to protect Ignis in case things turned sour. He'd told Gladio exactly that when Ignis wasn't around to hear it. Told him how Ignis would just go off on his own if they didn't go with him, and that'd been enough for Gladio to make up his mind and choose the lesser evil: be with Ignis as he recklessly put himself in danger, as opposed to Ignis recklessly putting himself in danger on his own.

The mood was still weird, the tension between Ignis and Gladio still heavily weighing down on them, and Prompto had given up on trying to fill the silence with mindless chatter quite some time ago.

Soon enough, his mood was just as sour as Ignis' and Gladio's, and when his flashlight gave a few desperate flickers and then died, he didn't even bother keeping the frustration out of his voice as he threw his hands up and exclaimed, "Oh, come on!"

"What?"

"My flashlight just went out," he said, quickly catching up with Ignis and Gladio - Gladio insisted on scouting ahead and was adamant that Ignis stayed sandwiched in between him and Prompto – so he could benefit from their flashlights.

"Here," Ignis said, already taking off his own flashlight and handing it to Prompto. "Take mine. I don't know why the two of you insist I wear one, anyway."

"Well, it's coming quite in handy just about now," Prompto pointed out, fastening the flashlight to his shirt. "Thanks, Iggy."

The cave system became harder and harder to navigate the deeper they went. For one, several paths were blocked due to rockslides and forced them to turn back and try a different way. Additionally, the rocks around them seemed less stable than near the entrance, and after the third time of almost getting hit by some random falling rock, Prompto was getting real damn sick of the place.

Still, he wasn't even able to tell anything was wrong until Iggy's head snapped up. "Watch out!"

Prompto only caught a glimpse of Ignis tackling Gladio to the ground before an avalanche of rocks rained down. Without Iggy's warning, which had given him enough time to leap backward, he would've been buried.

Instinctively, he curled up in a ball and waited until the rumbling of the falling rocks stopped, and miraculously, he didn't get hit.

Rattled but unhurt, he uncurled himself, helplessly staring at the rocks separating him from his friends. No chance of getting through, either.

"Guys!" he yelled, "Gladio! Ignis!"

For a terrifying moment, he heard nothing, but then he faintly heard Ignis' voice. "We're alright. What about you?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm good!"

"Good," Ignis called back. "Try to get back to the entrance. We'll see if we can find another exit somewhere. Be careful!"


Ignis quickly checked himself over for injuries, coming up with none save for a couple of would-be nasty bruises.

Gladio, too, confirmed that he was more or less alright. "Hit my shoulder something awful going down. Not sure how much use it'll be in a fight, but I'll be fine."

After making sure Prompto was alive and well, Ignis stood up, dusted himself off, and extended a hand to help Gladio up.

And frowned when Gladio didn't take it.

"Gladio?"

"Ah, shit, my flashlight!"

"What about it?"

"It broke. Damnit!"

Despite their situation, Ignis felt a vindictive grin creep upon his face. Oh, the irony.

"That's unfortunate," he said.

"Unfortunate? It's dark as hell down here, I can't see shit!"

"Oh no, what a nightmare," Ignis said, drier than a river bed in the middle of Leide during the summer months.

He could practically feel Gladio's death glare as he ground out, "Oh, shut up."

Allowing himself another small grin, Ignis once again searched for Gladio's hand and hauled him upright

"So, uh. What do we do?" Gladio asked. "Seriously, it's pitch black in here, I can't even see my own hands in front of my face."

Ignis sighed. "Gladio, you seem to have forgotten that, unlike you, I don't need light to navigate anymore. You will have to follow my lead I'm afraid."

"Iggy-" Gladio said, sounding very uncomfortable.

"No, Gladio," Ignis said, voice raised slightly but still calm. "You need to trust me. I am capable, I know what I am doing, and you are useless in the dark. I will not discuss this any further."

Gladio knew a lost battle when he saw one. "Fine. Lead the way."

Ignis took a few seconds to orient himself before moving, Gladio's hand resting on his arm, just like Ignis' own hand had once clasped Gladio's arm when he'd still been new to his disability.

Despite Ignis' guidance, Gladio stumbled often, losing his footing and almost tripping over some rocks several times. He was none too happy about it, too, cursing under his breath and grumbling and generally being insufferable the entire time until Ignis snapped at him to be quiet if he didn't have anything useful to contribute.

They did run into some weaker daemons, nothing compared to what was crawling around on the surface these days, Gladio was still entirely unable to fight. Earlier, he'd been forced to switch to a regular sword instead of his familiar broadsword already since the cave was too narrow to properly use it, which, whilst still a weapon he'd been trained with, had already put him at a disadvantage in combat. And now, with nothing but darkness surrounding them, he was rendered completely out of commission.

Ignis, on the other hand, finished them off quick and clean, a wave of satisfaction washing over him as he dismissed his daggers and went to collect Gladio. Oh, how the tables had turned.

Of course, he didn't rub it in Gladio's face. Despite his annoyance at the man, he knew Gladio was simply being overprotective and couldn't bear the thought of any harm coming to him. And now, he had no way to protect Ignis, had to be protected himself- Ignis knew the feeling all too well.

So instead of making a snide remark like part of him would have liked, he simply guided Gladio's hand back onto his arm and led him forward once more.

"Come on. Watch your step."

The cave floor was littered with rubble, they had to climb over pieces of rocks frequently and were exhausting themselves fast. It was hard to keep track of the time; by the time Ignis slowed them to a stop, it might as well have been several hours they'd been down there already.

"Hold on a minute," he told Gladio, listening intently.

"There's wind," he said after a moment when he heard the gentle noise again.

Even though Gladio claimed he couldn't feel a thing, Ignis followed the fresh air with a certainty that left no room for arguments.

The exit was barely an exit at all. Rather, it was a very tight hole in the rubble, tight enough that Ignis worried Gladio might not fit through at all, but with enough squeezing on Gladio's and shoving on Ignis' part, they were both able to slip through.

Next to him, Gladio inhaled deeply. "Gods, I've never been so happy to breathe fresh air. Still can't see, though. We're too far away from any street lamps."

Ignis sighed. "We're going to have to wait for Prompto either way. We don't know if he made it out yet."

"You think we should go back in?"

"I do, but..." Ignis pinched his nose in frustration. "We have no clue where we came out, and neither of us can see- we wouldn't be able to find the entrance we went in earlier even if we tried."

Gladio made a frustrated noise. "You mean we just gotta wait here and hope he didn't die in there? Just great."

Ignis went to answer, but the telltale gurgling of a red giant just a little to the side caught his attention. "Look out," he said, grabbing Gladio's arm and pulling him away. "I'd rather not fight that one right now."

"Afraid it's too late for that, Iggy," Gladio growled into his ear, the crystalline sound of the armiger momentarily interrupting the red giant's noise as he summoned his broadsword. "Fucking thing already spotted us."

Taking on a battle stance, hands closed around his daggers, Ignis readied himself as the red giant charged at them. "Looks like we don't have a choice, then!"

Gladio ran past him, his sword clashing against the red giant's. "At least its sword is bright enough that I can see now!"

Small victories, Ignis thought as he narrowly avoided the huge sword crashing into the ground beside him. The heat radiated off it and burnt against his face, but he didn't have time to dwell before the red giant lifted it to strike again.

Ignis dashed past the red giant and slashed at its leg, catching it a good few times before it swirled around with a roar and struck again.

"I'm not sure we can take this thing," Gladio yelled at him as he once again dodged the gigantic sword.

"We have no choice!" Ignis yelled back, but he agreed- there was no way the two of them could take this thing out. Gladio was hurt, even if it wasn't serious. And even when there had been four of them, red giants had always been a special sort of challenge and left them sore and exhausted and in need of curatives more often than not.

Fleeing wasn't an option because a red giant was a lot faster than they were, and squeezing back through the hole into the cave wouldn't work either without the red giant chopping them in half as they tried to get through.

For now, they'd have to keep fighting and pray to the gods for a miracle it seemed.

"Hey guys, need some help?"

And a miracle it was, a miracle that came in the form of none other than Prompto.

"Prompto!" Ignis and Gladio exclaimed in unison.

Shootingrapid fire at the red giant with whatever weapon he was wielding at the moment, Prompto was able to stun it enough to give Gladio and Ignis the opening they desperately needed to turn the fight around.

Even with Prompto as backup, the battle was long and exhausting and left all three of them collapsed on the ground once the daemon dissolved in a hissing cloud of smoke at last.

Taking a few long moments to breathe and will his sore limbs to move, Ignis hauled himself onto his feet and called out to his friends, "Is everyone alive?"

"Wish I weren't," Prompto groaned.

Gladio made a similar noise as he, too, forced himself to get off the ground. "Only just."

Ignis made his way over to Prompto, extending a hand to help him up.

"Thanks, Iggy! Man, I've never been so glad to see you guys! How'd you make it out?"

Patting the dust off his clothes, Ignis stayed pointedly silent and waited for Gladio to admit his judgment was wrong.

"Barely, and only thanks to Iggy, actually," Gladio said sheepishly. He gave Prompto a brief summary of the events in the cave, finishing with a sincere apology to Ignis.

Allowing himself a little smirk, Ignis made his way over to Gladio and clasped his good shoulder in a firm grip. "You're forgiven, though I hope in the future you'll have a little more faith in me. I'm hardly helpless, everyone who helped me train made sure of that."

Aranea and Iris certainly hadn't gone easy on him to say the least, nor had Cor the few times they had trained together. It was only thanks to them he was standing where he was today, alive and unharmed, as were his friends. He'd have to find a way to thank them for it, he thought.

"I saw," Gladio chuckled. "I was just worried, you know. Didn't want to see you hurt or anythin'. But that didn't give me the right to be such an ass about it."

"I know," Ignis said, bumping his shoulder against Gladio's. "Now, what say you, gentlemen, shall we get out of here?"

"We sure are pushing our luck here," Prompto agreed, marching ahead to where they'd left their vehicle.

"How is your shoulder?" Ignis asked Gladio. "Still hurting?"

"A little. Should be alright with some rest. Gonna let Prompto drive back I think."

"Ah, so fate did not let us perish in those caves, but now we'll succumb to Prompto's driving skills," Ignis sighed dramatically, laughing when Prompto yelled back, "I heard that!".

Despite the fatigue, the sore muscles, and the bruises, Ignis felt lighter than he had in months. He had missed his friends, as they had surely missed him. Getting trapped in a cave and nearly being maimed by a giant daemon had been entirely worth it, he decided as he fell into a light jog to catch up with Prompto.


Hope you liked my joke I stole straight from ATLA *bows* ngl, 50% of the reason why I wanted to write this one was so I could use that joke somewhere.

Next one is also pretty much done, just needs some editing, but like. I've said that in the past and still taken an unholy amount of time to post again so that probably doesn't say much.

Anyway, I hope to see you all soon, thank you for sticking with me and this story 3