Good evening! This one barely fills the prompt but none of today's prompts sparked much inspiration so I tried to go for something a little different with the outsider's POV (kind of) by writing from Iggy's uncle's point of view.
Prompts:
No. 16: "Would you lie with me and just forget the world?"
Gurney | Flatline | "Don't go where I can't follow."
Warnings: None
Amantius Scientia never wanted children, although it was less of a conscious decision to not have them and more a result of his circumstances - a bachelor, married to his work and perfectly happy that way. It wasn't that he disliked children, not at all, but he would be lying if he said he felt comfortable around them.
That's why it surprises everyone around him - but perhaps most of all himself - that, when his sister makes plans to send her six-year-old son, his nephew, off to Lucis all on his own, Amantius fights tooth and nail for the boy to come live with him.
His sister and her prick of a husband plan to send the child to the same prestigious boarding school the Citadel's highest officials' children attend. But the boy is six years old and Amantius won't stand by and watch as they ship him off to a boarding school to grow up without any warmth or affection.
Amantius stays up all night to put together a dossier which he brings directly before the King himself and goes out the very next day to buy an entire stack of parenting books.
His nephew - Ignis - arrives just two weeks later, and Amantius very quickly realises that his newly acquired parenting books are proving to be rather useless because Ignis is anything but a normal child.
When they have Ignis meet Prince Noctis, the boys get on like a house on fire. The little prince looks at Ignis with awe in his eyes as Ignis quietly tells him stories about the stars, and Ignis in turn handles the excitable child with saintlike patience and care.
One day when Amantius goes to pick him up from his afternoon with Prince Noctis, he notices Ignis isn't carrying the book he left with this morning.
When asked about it, Ignis shrugs and tells him, like that explains anything, "Noct said he liked it."
Amantius frowns.
"So he made you give it to him? Ignis, you don't have to do that just because he's the Prince."
"No," Ignis says firmly, "He didn't make me. He just said he liked it, so I gave it to him."
Amantius is not certain what to make of that.
Amantius is a very busy man, which does not make for the best circumstances to raise a child, but he does try his best.
However, his best is not always enough, which is a painful lesson he has to learn when he's startled awake one night by a heavy thud next to his bed - Ignis, with fever-bright eyes and a cough that rattles his small frame.
Amantius has always considered himself level-headed, able to remain calm even under pressure, but staring at his nephew now, burning up with fever, he feels a sense of panic entirely unfamiliar to him.
In his agitation, he gathers the sick child in his arms and calls the first person he can think of who has a son of similar age.
"Yes?" a drowsy, barely awake Clarus Amicitia snaps into the phone as he picks up on the third ring, sounding very much like he wishes to climb through the receiver and tear Amantius' head clean off.
Amantius cannot be bothered to apologise as he recounts the night's events to Clarus, and by the time he's finished, Clarus sounds a little more sympathetic to his cause.
He tells him Ignis will be fine as long as his temperature does not go over 40 degrees and then hangs up on him.
In the morning, Amantius is informed by the royal family's very own doctor that Ignis suffers from pneumonia.
"Pneumonia," Amantius repeats flatly. "How did he get pneumonia overnight?"
"He didn't," the doctor says. He's likely been sick for a few days already."
Amantius turns his incredulous gaze to Ignis who lies propped up by a whole heap of pillows.
"Ignis, why didn't you say anything?" Why didn't I notice anything? Why didn't anyone?
Ignis looks at him like he's the one being unreasonable and simply says, "Noct wants to see the meteor shower tonight, so I couldn't get sick now."
It's at this exact moment that Amantius knows that this child is hell-bent on setting himself on fire if it keeps Prince Noctis warm.
Over the years, Amantius questions the good sense of everyone involved in the decision to make Ignis advisor to Prince Noctis more than once as he watches Ignis bend under duties and responsibilities no child his age should have to bear.
The problem is not that Ignis has trouble setting boundaries, no, the problem is that Ignis doesn't seem to consider anything that concerns Prince Noctis a boundary that needs to be set.
The boy pours his entire self into ensuring the little Prince's happiness, and it all comes crashing down when the royal convoy is attacked outside the Wall.
The King is unharmed and Prince Noctis is alive, but just so. When the severity of his injuries become apparent, King Regis whisks him away to Tenebrae, putting his entire hope into Queen Sylva and her healing abilities.
Without Noctis, Ignis is lost, aimlessly wandering the Citadel quiet and pale as a ghost, not knowing what to do with the free time Noctis' absence leaves in his schedule.
He's withdrawn, won't speak unless spoken to, and even then his answers are as short as he can keep them without getting reprimanded by his tutors.
Amantius catches him trying to sneak out of their apartment with his backpack soon after the royal family's departure. It breaks his heart to explain to Ignis that he cannot possibly follow Prince Noctis to Tenebrae, much less on his own.
He gathers Ignis in his arms and for the first time since the disaster, Ignis weeps into his shirt with all the pain and sorrow of someone who has just lost everything that is dear to them.
Prince Noctis returns with the ability to walk unassisted but without his cheerful, innocent personality. What remains is a mere shadow of the formerly happy child, and Ignis pours his entire self into trying to lift the Prince's spirits.
One day, Amantius is sitting in a meeting when his phone goes off. What is concerning about that is the fact that his phone is set to silent for his official work number but not the private one reserved for emergencies.
No one else's phone is going off, so the emergency must be concerning Ignis.
He hastily excuses himself and hurries out into the hallway, answering before the door is even fully shut behind him.
On the other side of the line is Noctis' nanny, informing him that Ignis is throwing a tantrum and needs to be picked up as soon as possible.
When he bursts into the room the nanny indicated, he quickly discovers that Ignis isn't in the middle of a tantrum but a full-blown panic attack.
He's too worked up to speak, so the nanny explains that Prince Noctis was taken away for his therapy appointment and Ignis did not react well to having to stay behind.
Amantius leaves with his distraught child in his arms and signs Ignis up for therapy that same afternoon.
A few therapy appointments later, Ignis is diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and abandonment issues born both from his parents' choice to ship him off to a foreign country on his own and from Prince Noctis being injured while separated from Ignis then taken away only to return broken and traumatised.
Amantius has never been the violent sort, but he has never itched to punch something this intensely before in his life.
Ignis grows from a stressed child into an even more stressed teen, and Amantius does the best he can to keep him from burning out, with limited success.
At least he isn't alone in his quest anymore. Gladiolus Amicitia has recently befriended Ignis and seems to consider it his personal challenge to get Ignis to loosen up and have some fun every once in a while.
When Ignis announces to him over supper one night that he is going to start Crownsguard training next month, Amantius is hardly surprised. Ignis is to be Prince Noctis' advisor, there is no need for him to be trained in anything but basic self-defense. But of course, Ignis won't risk having to stand by and entrust Noctis' safety to someone else entirely, not even if it's Gladiolus. No, Ignis is not content with being an advisor, he's training himself to be Noctis' Hand.
The position of the Hand of the King is rather outdated due to the extensive skillset it requires. Therefore, a Hand's duties were split among various different positions many generations ago, and there have only been few people since who took on the position.
So no, it is no surprise at all that Ignis is striving for the position of the Hand, and while Amantius has no doubts at all that he can achieve his goal, he cannot help but wonder just how much of himself Ignis is going to give up in the process.
Prince Noctis is to marry Lady Lunafreya of Tenebrae, sailing for Altissia in less than a month, and of course Ignis is going to follow him without question.
Amantius has not been sleeping well, lately. Tension with the Empire has been high and he cannot shake the feeling of dread when he thinks of inviting the enemy beyond the Wall.
He sees Ignis off, naturally. Reaches out to adjust the collar on Ignis' shirt, even though Ignis has not required it since he was a very small child and there is nothing wrong with the collar in the first place.
Ignis is taller than him now. Amantius knows this, of course, and yet looking at him now, he has to blink a couple of times to get rid of the wetness in his eyes as pride and fondness swell up in his chest.
"My dear boy," he says, voice thick with emotion as he reaches out to tug Ignis into an embrace. "I am proud of you. Never forget that."
Ignis' arms come up to return the embrace.
"Thank you, Uncle."
He doesn't just mean for the parting words, Amantius knows.
Reluctantly, he lets go of his boy, patting him on the shoulder before he lets Ignis be off.
And watches as he walks away, towards Prince Noctis who is waiting for him.
*takes a long drag of a cigar* I'll be honest with y'all I don't vibe with this one at all. I had stuff in mind and then it didn't turn out at all the way I wanted it to and now it's kind of a mess. Maybe if I revisit it in a couple of weeks I'll look at it differently, but for now, I'm not a huge fan. But, well, if this is really gonna have 31 fics then there's bound to be one or two I'm not thrilled with I suppose, and so far I really did like everything I put out, so.
Amantius means "the loving" in Latin which I know because the internet said so, I don't actually speak Latin, so y'know, don't take my word for it. I named him that in one of my other fics and that's just his name now.
See you tomorrow, ft. Prompto!
Have a great day, take care ️:3