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Ignis was the smartest man Noctis has ever met. He completed his first college course when he was twelve, pursued five different degrees by the age of seventeen, framed his sixth master’s diploma at twenty, and essentially was the human personification of every seat on the King’s council all rolled up into one cooking expert of a man.
Ignis, in the most disgustingly simple definition, was not dumb.
However, once Noctis realized his love for Ignis, he came to the conclusion that all of that meant nothing and Ignis was the biggest moron to ever exist.
“Your cheeks look a little flushed, Highness. I hope you’re not coming down with a fever.”
Ignis caressed Noctis’ blushing cheeks with the pads of his thumbs and Noctis was sure his soul had escaped his body. Ignis’ green eyes were aglow with worry and Noctis swallowed to try and wet his parched mouth.
“No! No, just, the room’s a little hot today, with the heat. And summer? The sun’s out, so, yeah.”
“Hmm,” Ignis hummed and leaned his forehead against Noct’s.
Noctis swore that he could hear the choir of the Astrals in the back of his mind.
Ignis pulled back a little to stare down at the prince and Noct tried to instinctually follow him to reclaim their connection, but stopped himself before they knocked heads. “You’re internal temperature isn’t higher than normal, and you’re forehead feels fine. But I want to stay overnight to make sure you don’t succumb to sudden illness, alright?”
Noctis’ face erupted into a grin and he threw his arms over Ignis’ shoulders in a hug.
“Yes! Stay forever, please!”
Ignis laughed but gently pushed Noctis away.
“There’s no need for that level of caution. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I’d rather be confident that you’re not sick than simply hypothesize it.”
“I—sick?”
His crush nodded and turned away to walk into the kitchen. “I’ll make you some soup as a premeasure for your health. And it’ll be filled to the brim with vegetables, Highness, to give you all the nutritional value it can. So I don’t want to hear a word about it.”
“Ignis!”
***
Noctis confided in Prompto that he loved Ignis and his best friend submitted himself into being the self-proclaimed best wingman for getting the two together.
“Just give him some coffee chocolate: he’ll be swooning in your arms in no time!”
The chocolate Noctis found had the best reputation in all of Eos, and a price tag to match, but the loan’s worth of money he’d put on the Citadel credit card would be worth it if Noct could get Ignis to smile at him.
The prince and Prompto waited until Friday night to give Ignis his gift. Prompto came over as usual, under the pretense of a typical Friday game night, and waited for Ignis to come by. They choreographed that Prom would draw Ignis’ attention to the fact that Noctis wanted to talk to him, nudge the two into Noctis’ bedroom, wish them a pleasant night, and shut the door to give them their privacy.
It was supposed to be a foolproof plan.
But when Ignis did walk through the front door of Noctis’ apartment and Prompto brought up that Noctis had something to give him, Ignis’ expression shifted from a warm greeting to narrowed suspicion.
Ignis glanced between the two, squinting his eyes a bit at Prompto first, then settled on the box Noctis was offering him.
Ignis took a minute to just stare at the box, then finally sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What are you apologizing for?”
“Wha…” Noctis stuttered. “Nothing! This is just for you.”
“I won’t be mad, Highness. I just need to know if I should write another formal apology to your father again.”
“I didn’t do anything this time!” Noctis said as Ignis placed his hand on Noct’s shoulder.
“We can work this out together.”
“I’m not trying to bribe you!”
Ignis and Noctis did eventually end up in Noct’s bedroom, but it was at Ignis’ insistence that they talk about the values of honesty and Prompto quietly ran out of the apartment once Ignis began his ‘I know you love them, but you can’t take in all the shelter cats again’ speech.
The chocolates were forgotten until the morning when Noctis found them melted in a pool on his living room table.
***
Eventually, Gladio needed to get involved and he suggested that Noctis get a bit more physical to show his love for Ignis.
“Just get on top of him. It’s pretty hard to misinterpret a boner.”
So Noctis invited Ignis to watch a movie with him on a Saturday night after sending out a private email, from his dad’s computer-Noctis knew the password, to all the Citadel staff forbidding them to give Ignis work that night in order to make sure that his crush was free.
Ignis agreed to the easy invitation with a small smile and a whispered “we haven’t done this since we were kids” underneath his breath.
Noctis had borrowed a random DVD from Prompto and put it in without caring what it was about. He dimmed the lights once Ignis was settled onto the couch and sat on the other end to ensure that there was enough space to enact all of Gladio’s suggested moves.
The opening credits hadn’t even finished playing before Noctis reached for Ignis’ hand between them and laid his own strongly over it. Ignis glanced over at him and offered a smile, but quickly placed his attention back onto the screen.
Noctis shuffled a little closer to him, inch by inch, until he was close enough to throw his arm over Ignis’ shoulder. The taller man opened his mouth to say something, but Noctis pushed him onto his back before any words could come out.
The prince crawled over Ignis with all the sensuality Gladio had instructed him to have and Ignis looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Ignis,” Noct whispered as he licked his lips and traced over Ignis’ cheekbones with a finger. “Are you…okay with this?”
Ignis swallowed slightly and turned his head away with a blush.
“I think so. I just never expected you to take such a notice of me like this.”
“Oh Ignis,” Noct purred and leaned down with the intention of trailing his lips over Ignis’ neck. “I always notice you.”
His crush shivered slightly and the motion was glorious for Noctis’ growing arousal. Ignis looked back at Noct before the prince reached his neck.
“Well, thank you for saying that. The nights have been getting colder lately, but I know how much you enjoy your air conditioning.”
“…Wait, what?” Noctis asked and sat back up quickly.
Ignis shivered again. “Your apartment is always freezing, Highness. I’m honored that you’re willing to share your body heat with me to keep me warm.”
Noctis’ brain was short-circuiting but he still tried to save the mood.
“Well, I know a way to really warm you up.”
Ignis’ eyes lit up with happiness. “You’re even willing to raise your thermostat for me? Oh, Highness, you are too kind tonight.”
“I…” Noctis tried, but the atmosphere was ruined. “Yeah, I’ll go raise that right now.”
“A nice eighty-five, perhaps?” Ignis asked with hope tilting his voice.
“You got it.”
***
Noctis was practically vibrating with frustration and the only thing stopping him from screaming at the top of the Citadel was the fact that he knew once he started he would never stop.
Noctis, Prompto, and Gladio had tried everything they could think of to get Ignis to understand that Noctis loved him.
They tried setting up a date at a beach, but Ignis thought that Noctis had wanted to go fishing and they spent what was supposed to be a romantic evening together driving from stall to stall in an effort to find a rare fishing lure.
Noctis had reserved a seat at the most luxurious restaurant in Insomnia for him and Ignis, but when Ignis had called to check on their reservation and found out it was just for two, he had assumed Noctis had forgotten to get seats for Prompto and Gladio and changed the reservation. They came by, all smiles and greetings, without realizing that the night was supposed to be a dinner for just Noct and Ignis.
Noctis had even outright said that he loved Ignis to the man’s face, but all he got for a response was a “that’s not surprising. We grew up together; it’s expected that you’d have some care for me.”
Noctis was at his wits end. How could someone as smart as Ignis possibly be this oblivious?
The prince just got done banging his head on his against the wall when Ignis walked through the door and hummed in sympathy.
“Lost in King’s Knight again?”
Noctis leaned his head against the plaster and peered at Ignis from the side of his eye.
There were really only two options left for him at this point. Either accept that his Advisor would never catch on to Noct’s feelings and the prince would forever live his life being cockblocked by Ignis’ blindness, or kiss him. Right now.
The worst that could happen would be Ignis thinking that Noct was giving him CPR, but you know. Whatever at this point. At least he’d get a kiss out of it.
So with that thought spurring him on, Noctis walked straight up to Ignis and stared up at him with all the determination of a man on his way to war.
Ignis blinked down at him and tilted his head. “Highness?”
Noctis grabbed him by the front of his pristinely ironed shirt and pulled him into a bruising kiss of clashing teeth and shoving tongues.
They went at it for a full minute until Noctis pulled back, panting from a lack of air, and Ignis stared at him with wide eyes as he brought a hand to cover his lips.
“Was that…are you trying to tell me something, Highness?”
Noctis let out a hoarse scream from the back of his throat and pulled at his hair.
Ignis licked his lips as a blush overtook his face and he turned away to avoid looking at Noct.
“I theorize that…I can unravel more of your intention if you gave me another kiss, Noctis.”
“Finally,” Noctis moaned and grabbed the back of Ignis’ neck to guide him back down. “I’ve been trying to tell you this forever.”
Ignis laughed. “Well, if you have, you’ve been very subtle about it this whole time.”
Noctis moaned again and decided to kiss Ignis again rather then go into the definition of subtle with him.