Good evening! I hope you had a nice weekend! Me personally, I wouldn't mind if it lasted a little longer ;_;
I chose to bully Iggy today, but Prompto doesn't walk away entirely unscathed either, though Iggy's certainly having a worse time.
This shit was right up my alley so I hope you enjoy!
Prompts:
No. 22: "They never saw us coming, 'til they hit the floor."
Glass Shard | Vehicular Accident | "Watch out!"
Warnings: Car accidents, obviously. Also some description of a broken bone, but it's brief and not too detailed.
Prompto is trying very hard to stay awake. They've been up for almost two days at this point and it's getting increasingly hard to keep his eyes open. In the backseat, Noct's been asleep for almost as long as they've been driving, and Gladio nodded off too a while ago.
It's very, very tempting to lean his head against the window and do the same, he doesn't remember the last time he's been so tired.
He can't just go to sleep, though, not if it leaves Iggy awake all alone while he's driving. That's like, rule number one, right? Someone's gotta stay awake to make sure the driver doesn't fall asleep.
That said, Prompto is starting to think driving to a hotel isn't worth it. Yeah, it's raining, and they'd probably freeze their asses off in the tent tonight, but it's not really fair to make Ignis drive all the way to the hotel just because they want to sleep in soft, warm beds.
"Hey, Iggy?" he starts carefully. "Y'know, I think it'd be fine if you just stopped by the next haven, get at least a few hours of rest. Then we can hole up at a hotel for like two days. Ooor we can even just stop in a parking area and sleep in the car?"
"I will not be sleeping in a car," Ignis replies indignantly. His hand reaches for the can of Ebony again - it's barely been five minutes since he's asked Prompto to open it for him, but it's already starting to sound empty.
"Okay, but-"
"Prompto, I'm fine," Ignis interrupts him, though not unkindly. "I appreciate your concern, but I'd rather prefer sleeping in a real bed tonight. But you needn't stay awake for my sake, you can go to sleep if you wish."
Prompto shakes his head and reaches for the radio to turn it up a little more, even if it might disturb the other two in the backseat. "Nah, I'll stay up with you."
Ignis smiles, drains the rest of his Ebony, then asks for another one.
Prompto hands it to him, leans his head back against the seat and watches the streetlights speed by as Ignis drives steadily through the night, eyes firmly trained on the road, hands perfectly placed on the steering wheel.
He's not sure when he drifted off, but he's rudely awakened by a deafening crash and a jolt that sends his entire body flying forward, ribs bruising against the seatbelt. His ears are ringing from the exploding noise of the airbag, and he's vaguely aware of shouting in the backseat.
"Holy shit, did we just crash?!" is the first thing that comes out of his mouth.
The windshield is broken in a spiderweb pattern and there's steam coming from the engine, and shit, isn't there a non-zero chance of a car blowing up after a crash?
They're also sideways on the road, so Prompto locates the button for the hazard lights and pushes it before he starts fumbling with his seatbelt.
His right shoulder twinges as he twists to do so, but he doesn't pay much attention to it, too fueled by adrenaline.
In the backseat, Gladio's checking on Noct who responds a few seconds later. Gladio's voice sounds weird, nasal as if he has a cold, but from the bits Prompto catches, they're both relatively uninjured.
Prompto himself feels mostly fine too, so that leaves…
"Iggy?"
There's no response, and when Prompto looks over to the driver seat, his heart sinks.
Ignis is slumped over the steering wheel, arms hanging limply at his side. Prompto calls his name again, voice rising with panic, and that gets Ignis to stir, thank the gods.
Finally, Prompto gets the seatbelt to release and immediately tears open the door. He stumbles outside and around the car, fumbling with the handle before he manages to open the driver's door.
"Ignis, hey, you okay?"
"P-prompto?" Ignis' eyes are wide and he blinks at Prompto like he's not comprehending what he's seeing.
"Yeah, yeah, it's me, I think we crashed, uh, are you hurt anywhere?"
"Hurt?" Ignis repeats. He seems confused, and Prompto fervently hopes he doesn't have a head injury, and gods, Prompto is not equipped to deal with this, at all, he's barely paid attention in his mandatory first aid class!
So he does the first sensible thing that comes to his mind and cries, "Gladio! You gotta come check on Iggy!"
Ignis starts moving like he wants to get out of the car so Prompto quickly puts his hands on his shoulders to keep him in place. He's torn between wanting to get him out of the car in case it blows up and keeping him put in case he's hurt his spine or something, and he can't remember the correct thing to do.
He nearly cries with relief when Gladio appears and takes his place, curtly asking Ignis a few questions then pulling him out of the car and depositing him gently on the ground.
Gladio's nose is kinda crooked and bleeding. It looks broken, and that explains why his voice sounds so weird, but he seems to be otherwise uninjured.
In the meantime, Noct has stumbled out of the car as well and comes to stand next to Prompto, paling when he sees Ignis on the ground.
"There… there was an anak, I think, I tried to avoid it but it ran into the car, I couldn't- couldn't brake in time, it came out of nowhere," Ignis rambles, and Gladio gently pushes him back to the ground when he tries to sit up.
"Shh, we'll talk about that later, okay? Right now, you gotta tell us if you're hurt."
Ignis stares at him with wide eyes and it takes him a few seconds to comprehend the question. "I don't- I don't know, I can't tell-"
"Okay, that's fine, let me check your pupils first, and then we'll see about the rest," Gladio quickly reassures him. He gets a flashlight from the Armiger and shines it into Ignis' eyes, but ultimately declares that he probably doesn't have a head injury.
Then, he starts prodding at Ignis in various spots. Ignis hisses when he pokes at his ribs, likely bruised or broken from the steering wheel.
Gladio continues the examination and then pauses. "Oh, Iggy, your wrist is broken."
He gently picks up Ignis' right arm, but he doesn't need to prod at it to see what's wrong with it. It's bent at an impossible angle and it's already starting to swell.
Prompto, who hasn't managed to contribute anything useful so far, frowns when he remembers the way Ignis kept both his hands firmly on the steering wheel at all times. If one of his wrists is injured from the impact, then chances are…
Unsteadily, he drops to his knees on Ignis' left side and runs his hand over Ignis' wrist, putting a little pressure on it just to see if there's a reaction, and sure enough, Ignis yelps and tries to pull his arm away.
"Both wrists, I think," Prompto says shakily.
The left one doesn't look as bad as the other one, from the outside, you can't tell it's broken. But the other one is almost definitely going to have to be set, and Prompto's stomach turns in sympathy at the idea.
Ignis is starting to shake now, trembling so hard his teeth are chattering, and while Prompto doesn't remember a whole lot of his first aid classes, he does remember that in situations like these, shock can set in.
"Need to get him off the road," Gladio says grimly. "Prompto, help me get him up."
Prompto moves to help prop Ignis up, but the moment he tries to push him upright with his right arm, pain explodes in his shoulder and he cries out, white spots littering his vision.
"Prompto?" Noct's alarmed voice appears next to him, and when the pain dies down to a more tolerable level, he becomes aware of gentle hands steadying him.
"Fine, fine, just, I think something's wrong with my shoulder," Prompto gasps. He tries to move his arm a little and the pain flares up again, though not as bad as before.
"Check his collarbone," Gladio commands from where he's still holding Ignis.
Noct gently runs his hand across Prompto's collarbone until his fingers come across a small bump, and when he relays that information to Gladio, he nods like he's already expected as much.
"Broken clavicle, happens a lot in car accidents. It's from the seatbelt. Think you can hold on a little longer, kid? I'll check you over once we've dealt with Iggy."
"Sure," Prompto says quickly. It doesn't even hurt as long as he doesn't move his arm, and Iggy's starting to get really, really pale so he'll wait as long as he has to.
With Prompto out of commission, Noct takes his place instead, helping prop Ignis up and then summoning a blanket from the Armiger which he drapes across Ignis' shoulders.
Ignis lets himself be manhandled without complaint, doesn't make a sound as Gladio puts his wrists into makeshift splints although Prompto can see from the way he's gritting his teeth that he's in a lot of pain.
"So what do we do now?" Prompto asks hesitantly. "Call Cindy?"
It's still raining so making camp is out of the question with how soaked they all are, Ignis needs medical attention - in fact, all of them should probably get checked over by a professional sooner rather than later - and the rain isn't doing Ignis any favours either with how much he's already shaking.
Gladio sighs. "Think we have to, yeah. We're close enough to Hammerhead and I don't see any alternative."
They can't just stay put, though, so they drag themselves a short distance to a small shelter by the roadside to wait for Cindy.
By the time she shows up, they're all freezing, Prompto's shoulder is twinging a fair bit even without moving it, and Ignis is barely lucid. Gladio has him tucked against his side to try and keep him warm, and they all keep talking to him to keep him awake, but it's clear that he needs to be somewhere that isn't the side of the road in the rain.
Cindy takes one look at them and ushers them into her truck, telling them in no uncertain terms that the car is going to have to wait until the next morning, and there's enough sense in that that no one tries to argue with her.
In Hammerhead, Cindy lets them have the caravan free of charge, leaving them to get settled while she goes to fetch the doctor from the Prairie Outpost.
They put Ignis into the bed and pile blankets on top of him to stop his shaking, and Gladio, true to his word, comes over to check Prompto's injury, but there's not much he can do except help him put his arm into a makeshift sling and tell him not to move it.
Prompto curls up with Noct on the other bed as much as he's able to with his injury, and despite his best efforts, he falls asleep before the doctor arrives.
I really wish I had more time to expand on this, it already grew away from me and I like the scenario so much it was really tempting to write more of it, but alas. Maybe someday I'll revisit this and do something more with it, but that's very maybe and also could be like two years from now so don't hold your breath, lmao.
There are some situations where I think you shouldn't just throw a potion at someone and call it a day. Two such scenarios would be when dealing with unspecified injuries like in this fic, or when the author is just really a fan of making it hurt and wants to drag the pain on a little longer. Both of those scenarios are valid reasons to not use potions :
No plans yet for tomorrow so no spoilers, sorry!
Hope your start in the next week is great!
