Hi, so this is a random, very silly little thing I dreamt up in the shower the other day.
I wrote and still view this as platonic but I'm aro and I'm a lil weird about the ideas of what goes as platonic and what must be romantic, so. You're free to read this however you please, platonic or romantic even though I did not explicitly tag it as romantic.
It's really just pure fluff, please enjoy!
Prompto learns a lot of new things about his friends once they're stuck practically in each other's laps twenty-four hours a day.
For example, Noct is a hopeless slob who leaves his dirty socks all over the tent, and Gladio dumps two sugars into his tea, but arguably the most enlightening realisation is that only fifty percent of their group are morning people.
Noct is no surprise, obviously. Noct, if anything, is closer to a night owl, though he values his sleep too much to stay up late most of the time. So maybe night owl isn't the right description - he's more like... a really tired pigeon.
That still leaves seventy-five percent, though, and Prompto would have been willing to bet his camera that they're all morning people apart from Noct.
Turns out, Ignis is absolutely not a morning person.
Sure, he'll be up bright and early, often before any of them are up, already highly energised and buzzing around the haven preparing breakfast and mapping out the day's route in his head. And Prompto knows for a fact that, back in Insomnia, Ignis used to work such insane hours that it wasn't unusual for him to leave the house in the morning long before the clock even struck six.
So, Prompto has always just kind of assumed that he's a morning person because someone like Iggy can't be anything but a morning person, right?
Wrong.
He and Gladio - who, like him, actually is a morning person - have just crawled out of the tent to go on a run when Prompto freezes, staring in the general direction of their stove in awe, or more specifically, staring at Ignis in awe.
Ignis is… well, Ignis is making breakfast, but he's going about it in the least Ignis way possible. He's trudging around his improvised kitchen area almost aimlessly, squinting at a label with glasses-less eyes for far too long before he just discards the jar and shuffles over to the cooler instead.
There, it's much of the same, except he stares intently at the cooler's contents, finally grabbing something and carrying it back to the stove where it gets deposited but, to Prompto's knowledge, never used, at least not during the time he's watching.
Prompto observes this for a while longer, unable to believe what he's seeing. It's not all that strange per se, if it were Noct or Gladio or even himself moving around the kitchen as inefficiently as Ignis is doing now. But… this is Ignis, whose domain is the kitchen and who never does anything inefficiently.
Briefly, he considers approaching him, asking him if something's wrong, maybe offer some help, but… this is Ignis, who Prompto is still somewhat afraid of even though he's been nothing but kind to him so far.
So he does the most sensible thing and goes to Gladio instead.
Gladio is already waiting for him, dutifully doing his stretches before their run. "Alright, blondie?"
"I think something's wrong with Iggy," Prompto whispers, slightly paranoid that Ignis is going to hear him talking behind his back.
"Huh?" Gladio glances at the haven where Ignis has just left an empty plate inside the cooler and then forgotten to close it. "Nah, he's fine. That's just how he is in the morning."
"Wait, really?" That sounds fake, Prompto thinks. "How do you know?"
Gladio rolls his eyes at him. "How do you think? He slept over at my place sometimes. What, you think you and Noct got the monopoly on sleepovers?"
That's fair, even though Prompto has a hard time imagining Gladio and Ignis having a sleepover.
And then, he breaks into a delighted grin when the implication of Gladio's words catches up with him. "You mean that's just Sleepy Morning Iggy?"
Gladio huffs out a laugh. "Yeah, guess you could call it that. Better not to bother him or ask him questions before his blood is at least fifty percent caffeine, though."
Prompto squints at him, because Gladio can't just say that and not elaborate. "Why not?"
"'Cause there's a good chance he'll turn homicidal on you," Gladio shrugs. "Depends on how awake he already is."
That doesn't actually answer any questions. In fact, it just adds more, and that must show in the way Prompto is staring at Gladio because Gladio sighs and says, "Alright, watch this. I think right now he's still sleepy enough that it'll be fine, but if not. Well. Was nice knowing you."
With that, he hops up onto the haven and casually approaches the kitchen area where Ignis is still moving around not unlike a zombie in search of brains.
Eager to see what the hell Gladio hinted at, Prompto scrambles up the haven too but lingers near the edge, feeling it would be smart to keep his distance if Gladio's warning has any truth to it.
"Hey, Iggy. Sleep well?" Gladio calls, coming to stand in front of Ignis who just. Stops in his tracks and stares.
"Prompto and I are going on a quick run. Won't be long," Gladio continues, apparently not expecting an answer to his question.
Ignis barely reacts, just continues to stare at Gladio like he's some sort of apparition he can't parse. Finally, he makes a questioning noise, to which Gladio snorts.
"Me. Prompto. Run. Back soon," he repeats, and Prompto braces himself to become the witness of a murder because how dare Gladio speak to Iggy like a caveman.
But Iggy doesn't kill Gladio, in fact Iggy doesn't really do anything even after Gladio turns and hops back down into the grass, and it's so long before he starts to move around again that Prompto already begins to worry if Gladio broke him somehow.
"See? Too sleepy to comprehend anything, though I was pushing it a little there. If he'd been somewhat more awake, maybe had one coffee already, he wouldn't've been as chill."
Huh. So when you bother Sleepy Morning Iggy, you get like a 50:50 chance to spawn either Confused Morning Iggy or Pissed Morning Iggy.
Interesting.
Prompto makes sure to carefully file that information away in his brain for easy access - only ever to be used for good, of course.
Prompto, despite this new knowledge, doesn't actually get to see Sleepy Morning Iggy very often. Even though, as he now knows, Ignis doesn't like mornings and can't really function until he's properly hopped up on enough caffeine to kill a small animal, Ignis is still up before any of them most days.
It makes Prompto feel a little bad - he is a morning person after all, so it wouldn't be that much trouble to help Iggy with breakfast or something - but every morning he wakes up, Ignis is already out of the tent, dressed and ready to start the day with approximately three cups of coffee in his system.
One morning, though, they're all running a little late. They all slept in, even Ignis, and even though he's still up before the rest of them, Prompto only has to take one look at him to realise that he's still in the process of getting properly caffeinated.
Remembering Gladio's words of wisdom from a few weeks ago, he decides to listen to his sense of self-preservation and gives Iggy space, noting that Gladio is careful to do the same.
Noct, however, has never possessed any sense of self-preservation when it comes to Ignis. And so, after having dragged himself out of the tent in all his princely glory, bedhead and all, he trudges up to the stove where Ignis is working with less focus than usual and peers at the frying pan.
"Ew, Specs, why did you put peppers in there?" Noct demands as soon as he spots the (delicious-smelling) omelet in the pan.
Ignis stops stirring at once, turning towards Noct very, very slowly, and Prompto could swear that the temperature just dropped several degrees.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he spots Gladio quickly gathering some random stuff to go put in the back of the car, the traitor, and for a moment Prompto's inclined to do the same, but morbid curiosity keeps him rooted to the spot.
Good chance that he'll turn homicidal on you, Gladio said, but surely Ignis wouldn't actually murder Noct… right?
And for the moment, he isn't actively murdering Noct at least. In fact, he's not doing much of anything except stare Noct down with the coldest expression Prompto has ever seen on him.
Evidently, Noct does possess some sort of self-preservation after all because he visibly gulps and slinks away from the stove in shame. "Uh, I mean. Looks good, Specs."
And then, when Ignis wordlessly hands him a plate shortly after, Noct actually eats every single pepper without complaint.
Okay, so, Pissed Morning Iggy is absolutely terrifying and Prompto doesn't wish to encounter that particular Iggy ever again.
Definitely noted.
The power of fishing (and Gladio's manhandling) gets Noct out of bed at dawn, leaving Prompto alone with Ignis while the other two are off trying to catch a who-the-hell-cares fish.
They've had a long few days, they're all tired and looking forward to spending the day quietly and without any obligations. And so it's less of a surprise than it would normally be when Prompto wakes to Gladio and Noct already gone and Ignis still asleep.
He takes a moment to observe Ignis as he sleeps, even though he feels vaguely creepy doing so - it's just that it's a pretty rare sight, okay!
Then, he extracts himself from the tent as quietly as he can, knowing that Ignis is a pretty light sleeper, but apparently Ignis really does need his sleep because he doesn't even stir even when Prompto fumbles with the zipper for a minute.
The morning air is crisp and clear and the sunrise is beautiful. Prompto spends some time snapping pictures of the fiery red sky, of the dew on the plants around the haven and of the wildlife that only dares show itself when the world is still quiet.
Then, he wanders over to the cooking station, wondering if Ignis would be upset if he used his stuff to make breakfast. Ultimately, he decides to take the risk, putting on a pot of coffee as a peace offering.
Halfway through his preparations, he hears the tent slowly being unzipped. Hastily, he wipes his batter-stained hands on his (Ignis') apron and goes to pour some coffee into Iggy's favourite mug. Cream, no sugar.
"Hey, Iggy," he greets his friend once he's finally crawled out of the tent. He doesn't really expect an answer - considering Ignis literally just crawled out of bed, he's bound to get Confused Morning Iggy.
"Here, I made you coffee," he says brightly, pushing the mug into Ignis' hands. "I'm also making breakfast, but it's not ready yet."
Ignis stares at him seemingly incomprehensible, eyes flicking downwards to the steaming mug before returning to Prompto's face.
His gaze is so intense that Prompto starts to squirm, worried that messing with Ignis' kitchen made him skip the confusion and go straight to Pissed Morning Iggy, so he quickly says, "Uh, I didn't like, touch any of your special stuff or anything, and when I'm done I'm gonna-"
He cuts himself off mid-sentence as Ignis closes the space between them and wraps the arm that isn't attached to his coffee-holding hand around Prompto's back in the most gentle hug Prompto has ever received.
"Thank you, Prompto," Ignis murmurs, lips brushing against his forehead. His voice, though endearingly sleepy, is full of warmth and affection.
Prompto blushes so hard he thinks his head might explode.
No problem, he wants to say, and also holy shit, and what comes out instead is a strangled noise like he's dying, but Ignis either doesn't notice how flustered he is or graciously ignores it.
Judging by the cloudy expression on his face when he lets go of Prompto and goes to sit down in a chair with a sigh of pure bliss, Prompto strongly suspects the former, and that's just alright with him.
He turns back to the cooking station, glad for the opportunity to hide his bright red face. He's barely paying attention to the pancakes anymore, only managing to not burn them thanks to his subconscious stepping in.
Gladio only mentioned three types of Morning Iggy, but this… Prompto's absolutely certain he has just discovered a fourth, incredibly rare type of Morning Iggy.
"Hey, so, y'know how Iggy's weird in the morning?" he asks Gladio later that night, leaning against the rock of the haven in a hopefully casual way as he watches Gladio pick up herbs and stuff around the haven.
"Yeah. I'm the one who told you about it," Gladio reminds him dryly, not looking up from where he's studying some… blade of grass? "What's with that?"
"You mentioned three types, yeah? Sleepy Morning Iggy which is the default until you bother him, Confused Morning Iggy and Pissed Morning Iggy?"
Gladio snorts at the description. "Sure, call it that if you want."
"But have you ever seen a different type of Morning Iggy? Like a fourth type?" Prompto pushes. Either Gladio has been keeping this from him, ooor…
"Nope, haven't," Gladio grunts, finally leaving the poor grass alone. "Why?"
"Oh, just, no reason, thanks gotta go" Prompto chirps, not bothering to hide his grin as he saunters off, feeling immensely pleased with himself.
So it's true. He's the discoverer of the rare, elusive Soft Morning Iggy.
Entrusted with this new, precious information, he vows to lure this new type of Iggy out as often as he possibly can. The look on Iggy's face is reward enough, but if he gets a hug out of it too, well.
He's certainly not going to complain about that.
This entire thing was brought to you by the phrase "soft morning iggy" randomly popping into my head the other day and then just not leaving.
I'm just thinking, just because Iggy's up and ready to go in the morning and doesn't complain doesn't mean he has to be a morning person. And considering how much coffee the dude drinks to keep himself alive, I think he could very well just not be a morning person.
Anyway this was very silly but I had a good time with it so I hope you did too! Have a lovely day!