Out by Galactica Point; Early Saturday Morning [04/10].

[chef_chocobro]

That morning when Ignis woke up had been (quite thankfully) markedly different, and not just because he had been the one that wound up sleeping on the couch after a signficant bit of awkwardness when his and Prompto's little games of tempting fate and the potency of this whole pollen nonsense had gone...a bit too far. Things were definitely going to be a bit awkward at the so-called 'office' on Monday.

It hadn't gone far, or anything like that, before it was decided that it should be called a night and in seperate spaces and perhaps Prompto would need the more private of the two option. He took Ignis's room, Ignis took the couch, Ignis was up ridiculously early, which was par for the course, and noticed the difference in the air (and in his own flesh) immediately. Got up, freshened up a bit, made himself some coffee, and decided to make himself sparse in the likely event that Prompto would need a bit more time to himself.

Coffee in hand, then, he made his way out to a nice spot along the beach where he might contemplate the events of the last few days (and, really, he'd only experienced a small slice of it! Woe to those who had been dealing with it since the very beginning of the week!) and how perhaps he might be a little more willing to take warnings volleyed at him by Summer and Seivarden a bit more seriously in the future. Still, it was an interesting experience, and it made him thoughtful as he sipped his coffee and looked out at the incoming day and the ocean waves.

Peaceful. Calm. Reflective. Practically perfect, really. Which, of course, meant it was all about to be spoiled.



"Dad?" a voice called out from somewhere behind Ignis. "Dad! There you are!"

Before Ignis's brain could even process the absurd notion that this exhaultation was directed at him, there was suddenly an impact. A small body throwing itself against his legs, wrapping arms around him, and he looked down to find a small child of about six, clinging to him and grinning up at him brightly.

A mop of unruly blonde hair. Glasses.

Ah.

As soon as Ignis looked down at the child, the eyes behind those glasses went wide. "Dad! Wow! Your eyes!"

At least previous alternate-future children had by Prompto and Nina over the years helped him to understand what might be going on right now, because that meant he could be fully perplexed by a statement like that.

"My...eyes?"

"Yeah!" the child responded, his grin still bright and slightly crooked in a way that Ignis was used to seeing on a certain other freckled face. In fact, the more he looked at the kid, the more it was Prompto's face, but younger, staring back at him, in an uncanny way. "They're not all burnt up and everything! It's almost like--Oh shi--Err, I mean, SHOOT! That portal took me back, didn't it? This is that island! Where Dad and Aunt Nina went to school and you worked for a bit! That means they've got to be here, too, right? Dad and Aunt Nina? Can we go find them? Dad? What's the matter, Dad?" He started to tug a little bit on Ignis's arm. "Are you okay, Dad?"

Okay was...definitely not a word to describe it, and Ignis, in fact, wasn't exactly sure how he would describe it, as things like Aunt Nina and burnt up eyes were sort of taking precidence in his head at the moment, and his coffee was entirely forgotten while a small child who, if he looked closely, absolutely had the barcodes he'd expected he'd see on his wrists, was tugging at his arm and trying to get his undivided attention.

Ignis remembered the coffee, and he took a long, very slow sip, realized that the mug was now empty, and wasn't that a shame...



[[ and the post is definitely open! ]]

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[hashtag_chocobro]

Just around the time when Prompto was wondering what he should do with himself and if that something involved finding Ignis, he received a message from the man himself, suggesting that he come join him down over at Galactica Point. So Prompto breathed out nervously, figuring this was all going to be about some sort of talk and clearing the air before it festered into something else, because Ignis was definitely not the type of guy to just sort of pretend like nothing happened, no matter how much Prompto would prefer that route. Breathed out, braced himself, gave himself a little bouncing pep talk that he'd been through worse things before, he could do this, it was going to be okay, and then...headed over.

The steps of his approach got even slower when he saw that Ignis wasn't exactly alone, either.

[kid_chocobro]

Even though he knew he was getting a little too big for stuff like that, Spero was letting his dad hold him for a little bit while they were quietly talking about a few things, and he turned his head when he thought he saw someone approaching. And as soon as he saw who it was, he let out a little sound and tried to squirm his way out of Ignis's arms so he could get to his feet and go running toward him.

"Dad!" he called out, which was literally all the warning he was going to get before Spero took an almost flying leap to throw his arms around him.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Aaaaaand that was a kid flying at him at top kid-speed, and Prompto, who really felt he should have expected something like this considering he'd spent the morning with Seivarden and her kid, was so not ready for it, but it was a real testiment to his reflexes that he somehow managed to actually catch the kid, who snuggled into him for a hug.

"Uhhhhhhh," he said.

"Hey, there, little buddy?"

He wrapped his arms around the kid in kind while mouthing a good what the fuck over his shoulder at Ignis, who hopefully had a little bit of an explanation.

Okay, okay, not that one was really needed, this wasn't his first rando kid, but the details could probably use some clearing up over here.

[kid_chocobro]

Pffft! He wouldn't even need an explanation from Ignis! Spero had it covered, as he pulled himself back a little bit so he could grin at Prompto face-to-face.

"I went through a portal and went back in time and wound up in the place where you and Aunt Nina went to school, and where you and Dad taught stuff and...and...and Dad doesn't have burnt up eyes because there's no darkness yet!"

Which was...a hell of an explanation, and his smile grew a little bigger as his hands reached out to squish Prompto's face a little and he laughed.

"You look funny without your beard."

And because Spero apparently had the attention span of a gnat and his dad was taking way too long to process this and respond, anyway, he asked, "Can we go see Aunt Nina now? She should be here now, too, right?"

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Erm." Yeah, that was a lot to throw at a guy this early in the morning even under normal circumstances. "I mean, yeah, she's around here somewhere, we can go looking for her, for sure. Or just text her, I'm sure she'd love to see you, too. But, uhh, burnt eyes? Darkness?"

The questions were actually going over Spero's shoulder now, toward Ignis. Sorry, little guy, but someone tended to be a little more streamlined in his answers.

"You don't think he's..."

How much of this sort of thing could you talk about in front of your fake kids? Should he cover Spero's ears or something? So he just mouthed out One of THOSE futures.