#she HATES daemon for whatever reason why is why so much of that bullshit surrounding ep 6 happened

[navree]

the weird thing about the sarah hess interview (there are a lot of weird things about that interview but if i talked about all of them this would be the length of a phd dissertation) is that, like, if you want us to give some sympathy to aegon and acknowledge the complexities behind him not wanting to rule but wanting it and his relationship with alicent and his siblings and rhaenyra and all that without the audience getting hung up on him being a rapist, don’t write him being a rapist? you are a writer on the show sarah, you’re the one who decides and this was an easily solvable problem

[captain-zajjy]

Solstice, Chapter 22 - A Final Fantasy XV Story

Pairing: Ignis x Female Original Character

AO3 | Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

A/N: Again, I’m really sorry for the long absence, but I think the break did me some good. 

Tagging @gudetamazing​ per request, and @roses-and-oceans​, @geochic03​, @bespectacled-girl​, and @blightyonfire​ for leaving such nice comments on this story in the past. And of course, my one and only beta and editor-san @calilumina! Hopefully I haven’t lost anyone with my long hiatus.

Valeria woke the next morning with a start, blinking bleary, heavy eyes at the unfamiliar surroundings. She wasn’t home - home, Insomnia, was gone. It wasn’t the abandoned country house of some stranger where she’d sought temporary refuge from the daemons; the daemons were still out there, but they couldn’t be close, not with all the light pooling beneath the door and the soft sounds of a child’s voice filling the hallway. She remembered, with a heavy heart, that she wasn’t in Ignis’s tiny apartment either; he had gone back out on the road to chase his wounded pride, gone and left her with Gladiolus Amicitia’s sister and the boy, Talcott, grandson of the Amicitia family’s butler.

Valeria couldn’t quite bring herself to resent Ignis for leaving her, but it still hurt, and it took her back to a time when she was ten years old, watching her father’s motorcycle take off down a quiet city street. He’d come back - once in awhile, whenever it suited him, not nearly often enough to fill the void he’d left behind.

She shook her head and rubbed her eyes, exiting the bedroom (Iris had slept in her brother’s room, allowing Valeria to use her bed while she stayed) and made her way to the bathroom with a deep yawn. As usual, she hadn’t slept much, and what rest she did have was plagued by nightmares of daemons and Magitek and Ignis screaming as he was torn apart.

Talcott was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a piece of dry toast with a small glass of orange juice that looked like it had been significantly watered down.

“Good morning!” Iris chirped. “Would you like some breakfast?”

Valeria shook her head and slumped down at the table, envying how well-rested and just plain optimistic the younger girl seemed. Ignorance, as they all say, is bliss. Talcott was rehearsing some kind of history report, and Valeria could only offer a wan nod when he turned to look at her, having only heard about a third of it.

“I think that’s an A plus, Talcott,” Iris said.

“Really?” They boy’s large, blue eyes were wide, eager.

“Seriously. I didn’t even know half of that stuff.” Iris handed him a metal lunchbox with a chocobo on the front of it. “Did you?”

“Oh, I...” Valeria shook her head. What had he been talking about? Something about the Caelum dynasty? “I’m more of a math person,” she offered, trying to disguise the fact that she hadn’t been paying attention.

“I hate math,” Talcott grumbled as he pulled on his backpack. “But Grandpa said I have to get good grades in everything, not just the stuff I like.”

“Yep,” Iris said, walking him to the door. “Have a good day at school!” she said with a wave, shutting the door behind him.

Valeria regarded Iris for a moment - still in her pajamas and slippers as she lazily scrubbed at a dish in the sink.

“Aren’t you going to school?” Valeria asked.

Iris looked up for a moment, then seemed to purposely put her head down. “No.”

Valeria didn’t know Gladiolus all that well, but from Iris’s reaction, she was almost certain this was an argument the Amicitia siblings had - probably more than once.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because it’s pointless,” Iris snapped, her cheerful demeanor giving way to something far more forceful. “How is learning, like, geometry going to help save anybody stuck out there?” She pointed toward the apartment’s window. “I want to help people, not....sit around.”

“There are plenty of ways to help people that don’t involve fighting.” They weren’t always glamorous, especially to a teenager, but that didn’t make them less valid.

Iris looked her in the eye. “I’m an Amicitia,” she said, both pride and expectation in her voice. “We fight. It’s what we do.” What had she called it? A family curse? Perhaps it wasn’t just the men who were affected by the weight of that family name.

Valeria merely shrugged. If her brother hadn’t been able to talk Iris out of it, there was no way a woman she’d only just met was going to.

“They say this isn’t going to last forever,” was all Valeria said on the matter. “Things will go back to how they used to be.” Mostly. Maybe.

“Whatever,” Iris replied, putting the dishes away. “I’ll fight then too. When Noct comes back...” Her voice trailed off, her eyes glazed over with a longing sadness Valeria immediately recognized, recognized because she had seen it in herself. She loves him , Valeria thought. She loves the Prince.

“He’ll come back,” Valeria offered with a smile. He’ll come back, just like Ignis will come back, like he promised.

Sometime well after the city chimes sounded that it was past noon, the door to the suite abruptly flew open, a bulky, tattooed man filling the entire doorway.

“Gladdy!” Iris shrieked, bounding off the couch and into her big brother’s arms.

Valeria pushed past them, her heart in her throat.Ignis. Where’s Ignis?

He was there, standing in the hallway behind Gladiolus, looking rumpled and tattered and alive and well. He was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen.

“Iggy,” she whispered, then threw herself into his arms with a pathetic whimper. “You came back. You came back to me.”

“I told you I would,” he replied, squeezing her tight. If only we could stay like this forever, Valeria thought, burying her face into his shoulder. But she became acutely aware of the eyes of the Amicitia siblings on them, and turned to see them both beaming at her and Ignis with knowing smiles.

Valeria felt her cheeks burning crimson as she quickly broke the embrace, her eyes fixed on the grubby tiled floor. Romance is a waste of time , her mother chided in her head. It’s not like that. The lie came to Valeria automatically; she’d programmed herself into believing her own bullshit. But she didn’t have to lie anymore, to anyone.

“Iris, forgive me for rushing off,” Ignis said. “But I’m afraid I’m simply exhausted.”

“Of course,” Iris said. “I’m just glad you guys are back safe and sound.”

Valeria thanked Iris for allowing her to stay, then led Ignis down the stairs and out of the Leville. Relief was crashing over her in waves, so violently that she stumbled as her knees grew weak.

“What’s wrong?” Ignis asked, his strong grip on her arm keeping her upright.

“Nothing.” Valeria turned to smile at him, the man she held above all others. The man she loved. You came back. “Nothing at all.”

After taking a shower and a long, peaceful nap, Ignis stood over the worn clothes he’d laid out on the bed, running his fingers over the stiff spots that signaled the presence of dried blood. More than just his gloves had been stained; there was spatter across the front of his shirt and sleeves of his jacket.

Fortunately, Ignis knew a simple solution for that; they’d slain enough beasts on the road that he’d had plenty of opportunities to field test a remedy. He grabbed a can of salt from the kitchen and carried his soiled things into the bathroom, asking Valeria if she needed the sink before proceeding to fill up the basin.

“No,” she replied, following him in - or half-in - the tiny room. The gentle touch of her hand on his back, the feeling of her body pressed close against his side, made his pulse quicken in such a way that he once would have lamented his body betraying him. But now, it just felt like he’d always known it, in his bones and in his heart, what his head had stubbornly attempted to deny all along. Even so, he wasn’t ready, not quite yet. There were so many things that frightened him, not the least of which were all the ways he’d been altered in the past few months.

“What are you doing?” Valeria asked, curious, as he dumped a generous amount of salt into the cold water in the sink. “Oh,” she said as he opened his mouth to reply, undoubtedly noticing the blood on the clothing he’d piled atop the lid of toilet.

“It’s best to soak the stains in salt water for a few hours, before laundering,” Ignis explained as he stirred the water with his hand, letting the salt dissolve.

“Really?” she asked.

“It’s worked in the past.” Ignis pressed a wet finger to his lips, testing the saline levels, before tossing in a bit more.

“Did you have bloody clothes often?” Valeria asked, her tone probing.

“It was animal blood,” he replied, fully aware of what she was getting at. Ignis hoped that, in time, he’d be able to forget the pathetic way the dying man had clutched at him, pleading for his life.

“It’s not animal this time?”

“No.” Ignis turned to grab his clothes, plunging first his gloves, then his shirt into the sink. Valeria stopped him with a touch on his arm before he could add the jacket.

“Wait a minute.” He heard her walk across the apartment and then return, taking the jacket from his hands. “Let me see if I can put this on a hanger, so you don’t have to put the whole thing in the sink. It’s silk isn’t it?” Ignis nodded. “I bet if I can hang it on the mirror, the stained parts will reach...Ah, perfect.”

“Good thinking,” Ignis said, quietly grateful for her narration of exactly what she was doing. He was growing accustomed to filling in the gaps of what was going on around him with suppositions and imagination, but it was frustrating, particularly for someone as analytical as himself, to have to rely on such an incomplete picture much of the time.

The clothes would need to soak for several hours; there was no reason for them to stay in the cramped bathroom, but they both remained where they stood, her chest pressed into the side of his arm.

“Are you hurt?” Valeria asked him quietly.

“It’s not my blood,” Ignis said. “What you said about the people out there - you were right.” Valeria said nothing, but slipped her hand into his. “Aren’t you going to gloat?” he asked, trying - and not really succeeding - to lighten the suddenly dark mood.

“Not about this,” she said. “I didn’t want to be right about this. They attacked you?”

“And tried to abscond with our supplies.” To think that common bandits would plague Lucis’s highways in this day and age... As he’d said, Valeria had been right, been right about everything. People were frightened and hungry and cruel.

“Did you kill them?” Her voice was quiet, flat, unreadable.

Ignis swallowed. “Yes.” He half-expected her to push him away in disgust, but she squeezed his hand.

“Have you killed anyone before?”

“Imperial soldiers.” Most of them had been Magitek, but some were flesh and blood, just like him. “These weren’t soldiers. I doubt they were even as old as we are.”

“You did what you had to do, Iggy.” Valeria rested her head on his shoulder. “They would have just kept hurting people.”

Ignis stood there, taking comfort in her words and her presence, until he realized exactly what she’d said.

“So did you,” he said.

“What?”

“You did what you had to. Whatever it was that happened to you out there, you don’t have to be ashamed.” He heard her inhale sharply, felt her grip falter on his hand.

“I...Iggy...”

Ignis shook his head, chiding himself for speaking so carelessly. “I wasn’t trying to conjure bad memories.” He slid a comforting arm around her back. “Would you allow me to take you out for dinner?”

Valeria let out a startled laugh. “What?”

Ignis grinned. “I happen to know of at least one restaurant in Lestallum that still exists - after a fashion. If you’d like-”

“Of course I would,” Valeria replied, her mood audibly brighter. “Just let me change my clothes.”

They walked past the market, to a street corner Valeria must have passed a dozen times, only now noticing the half-lit sign that said ‘Cafe ’ (or ‘AF’ if one was going by the letters that were still illuminated).

“Oh,” Valeria said, peering in the narrow windows. “It’s really crowded.”

Ignis shook his head. “I doubt most of them are patrons.” As Valeria pushed the door open, a bell dinging softly overhead, Ignis quietly added, “The owner has far too big a heart.”

The owner in question, a heavyset man of about thirty or so, looked up from the counter, a broad, excited smile immediately lighting up his face.

“Scientia!” he boomed, making his way toward the pair. Ignis stuck out his hand and the man shook it vigorously.

“My friend, Valeria.” Valeria was surprised when the man gave her the same vigorous handshake, threatening to wrench her shoulder from its socket. “Valeria, this is James, the proprietor of this fine establishment.”

“‘Fine,’ he says.” James let out a hearty laugh. “You’d be singing a different tune if your eyeballs worked, my friend.”

Valeria recoiled at the glib way the man spoke of Ignis’s blindness, but Ignis merely chuckled.

“The cuisine is quite fine,” Ignis said. “That’s what matters.”

“Yeah, you’ll have to forgive the ambiance,” James said to Valeria, shooing away a group of people loitering near a small table in the corner. “Move it,” he barked at them, although not entirely unkindly. “And don’t bother the paying customers.”

A few of the people regarded Valeria curiously, undoubtedly wondering just what sort of person went on a dinner date at a time like this. A date... The realization made her blush as she followed James to their table, but that’s exactly what it was. She was tired of lying to herself about these things.

“Here you are,” James announced with a sweeping gesture toward the table. “Give me just a moment.”

As he dashed back off toward the counter, Valeria took Ignis’s hand from her elbow and placed it on the nearest chair back; rather than take the seat, he pulled the chair out and motioned for her to sit, pushing it back in after she was settled. Valeria rolled her eyes, although she was hardly annoyed; you damned, chivalric fool, she thought as he felt his way around to the chair at the other side of the table. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

James quickly returned, spreading a blue and white checkered tablecloth across the tabletop and setting out napkins and silverware. He even placed a small, dented lantern in the center of the table, lighting the votive within with a match.

“Can’t leave this stuff out,” he explained. “I swear, they’ll pocket anything that isn’t nailed down.”

“But you let them in?” Valeria asked, scanning the crowd. They had the same tattered, defeated air that she’d had when she first entered the city.

“It’s the damned kids,” James said, then slapped his forehead. “Pardon my language. But I’m a real sucker for kids. Anyway...” he spread his hands in a welcoming gesture, “I’m afraid I can’t really host a menu, per se, not with the way the food deliveries have been, but I do have a nice cut of behemoth steak a Hunter dropped off yesterday.”

Steak? Valeria felt her jaw drop open even as her mouth began to water.

“That’ll be fine, James,” Ignis said, removing his gloves and tucking them into his shirt pocket.

“More than fine,” Valeria said.

“Excellent! I’ll get that started and bring you something to drink.”

Valeria turned to Ignis as James left, a smile spreading across her face. Steak, a restaurant, a date...and most of all, Ignis. Ignis came back.

“What?” he asked, his expression bemused.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“It seems as though you want to.”

“I...” Valeria tried to think of some eloquent way to dance around the subject, like they always did, before stopping herself. No more of that. “I’m just happy,” she said honestly.

A flush crept up the sides of Ignis’s neck, his ears. “I’m happy to hear it.”

“Is that bad?” Valeria looked around all the people crowded into the other corners of the restaurant, people who weren’t about to dine on steak, who had probably lost the men and women they loved.

“No.” Ignis shook his head emphatically. “Don’t feel guilty for being happy. Don’t ever feel guilty for that.”

Valeria felt something swell inside of her and had to look down, avert her eyes, busy her fingers with picking some lint off the tablecloth, lest she get all emotional in public.

“Iggy,” she ventured, still not able to look at him directly. He was too bright. “Have you been here before?”

“Well, I...” His eyebrows knitted together. “Obviously.”

“No, I mean before...” Valeria let that trail off, hoping he’d catch her meaning. Even if Ignis didn’t mind others cracking jokes about his blindness, she still felt hesitant to bring it up.

“Ah. No. Noct’s preferences leaned more toward the greasy spoon.”

“Oh, right.” Of course they did. “I could, um...describe it to you. If you’d like.”

The smile that played across Ignis’s lips was small, cryptic. “I would,” he said quietly.

Valeria looked around the small restaurant, suddenly wishing she had more of a way with words. She had asked, and yet she was uncertain where to begin.

“It’s not a big place.” She decided to start broadly and narrow down to the details. “There are maybe ten or fifteen tables, mostly for two.” Valeria wondered if, in the past, it had been filled with young couples, like herself and Ignis, shyly regarding one another over the golden light of a small lantern.

“The walls are exposed brick,” she went on. “Red. But there are patches where the bricks have faded pink from the sun. The floors are scuffed too. You know,” Valeria leaned with her elbow on the table, even though her mother would have snapped at her for that. “This whole town is kind of like that. Everything in Insomnia was so...slick . Perfect. The signs of wear here, I guess it should feel shabby, but I don’t know... I think it’s kind of quaint.” Romantic , she thought. It’s all terribly romantic. Or maybe that was just her present company.

“I always thought Lestallum was a charming town,” Ignis said, nodding. “Perhaps, because it is so unlike the Crown City and what we are accustomed to.”

He was right. Valeria wouldn’t want to live here forever, but it wasn’t the first time that she’d thought if things hadn’t been so dark and crowded and miserable, it would have been romantic. Romantic. She pushed away how that word made her blush, every time, and continued to describe the restaurant’s layout and decor to Ignis. She’d just gotten to the tablecloth when they were interrupted by James, setting down two glasses of water.

“Red wine’s the only real way to enjoy a steak, I know,” he said. “But water’s all I got.”

“It’s perfectly fine,” Ignis said.

Valeria turned to the restaurant owner. “If you don’t mind me asking, why bother to stay open?”

“You have any idea how hard it is to get a permit?” James asked the question like it was meant to be rhetorical, but when Valeria shrugged and stared at him blankly, he explained. “Figured you were a Crown City type. It’s tough to get a business off the ground here, unless you’ve got a connection to someone up in the Ivory Tower. And it’s even tougher when that business is male-owned, like this ‘fine establishment.’”

“Oh,” was all Valeria could say.

“I’ve always wanted my own place,” James went on. “Ever since I learned how to cook. Now, Scientia here tells me this catastrophe isn’t going to last forever. Even if it means hemorrhaging money and giving out more handouts than serving paying customers, well...that’s just what I’ll have to do.”

“I did say the Darkness might last quite a while,” Ignis added.

“Then I got quite a while of feeding freeloaders. Hell, maybe once all of this is said and done, some of ‘em will remember and come back as paying customers. Or even,” James’ eyes took on a faraway gleam, “investors. Ha!” James clapped Ignis on the shoulder. “Keep dreaming, right?”

“So that’s why all these people are here,” Valeria said, glancing at the listless crowd. “You cook for them.”

James seemed to shrug off the implication that he was running some kind of charity. “Can’t rightly throw food away when it’s about to spoil, not with so many hungry people in the city. But don’t worry - the steaks are fresh. I wouldn’t try to pawn off anything that wasn’t fresh onto my paying customers. Plus, Scientia would definitely call me out on that, wouldn’t you, friend?”

“Well, I-”

Before Ignis could properly respond, James went on. “First time he came in here, he had a twenty minute conversation with me about spices, and I thought, ‘Damn, James, you better step up your game.’ Speaking of, I better check on your supper.”

“That conversation was mostly one-sided, I assure you,” Ignis said after James had left.

Valeria snorted a laugh. “I believe it.”

“He might be overly loquacious, but he’s an excellent chef.”

“And a good person.” Valeria once again regarded the others, now shunted to the opposite side of the small restaurant. “I wonder what other businesses do with things once they go bad...” Convincing business owners to give away all their products to the starving might be a tall order, but surely they’d be willing to part with things that were on the cusp of becoming garbage.

Ignis cocked his head with a small smile. “I sense the gears are turning.”

“You can read my mind now?” Valeria asked playfully.

“After a fashion. Experience tells me that when your voice trails off like that, you’re usually hatching some sort of scheme.”

“‘Scheme’ sounds so nefarious,” Valeria said.

Ignis arched an eyebrow. “Yes. And?”

Valeria made a sound of mock outrage. “Iggy!” She gave him a playful swat on the wrist, but Ignis grabbed her hand, gripped it firmly, his expression suddenly serious.

“I’m not going to go back out there again. Not if it isn’t alright with you. The last thing I want is to cause you harm.”

“Iggy...” Valeria felt her lip begin to tremble. This man, this beautiful, wonderful man - what had she done to deserve him? “Your duty, I understand,” she babbled. He cut her off with the tight squeeze of his hand.

“Noct is gone. Gone where I cannot follow, and putting myself in harm’s way will not hasten his return. It’s been a struggle, but I...I think I’m beginning to accept that.”

“I’m sorry,” Valeria mumbled.

“As am I. My duty is to the King and the people of Lucis - and there are plenty of people right here that I can help.”

How very gallant. Valeria liked to tease him about that, but at the moment, she thought the man sitting across from her, holding her hand, was the very portrait of bravery and honor.    

“Tell me,” Ignis went on, his expression softening. “Will you be terribly cross if I give my dinner away to someone here who truly needs it?”

Valeria grinned. “Not at all. But I think James is going to be disappointed.”

Admittedly, she was looking forward to steak, but she followed his example, and the two of them ended up hand-in-hand in the market, sharing a bag of popcorn for dinner.