Final Fantasy XV- Life on the Edge

Never Again

-Gladio POV-

Ignis's eyes dimmed as he reminisced the painful memory.

"I- I'm sorry." I said as I felt an anger build up. He stared for a second.

"Y-yeah, me too." He said in a soft tone with his eyes begining to water.

"Iggy... Don't do that, its not your fault." I placed a hand in his shoulder and pulled him into me. He put his head in my neck and sobbed.

"It was the fault of my own, the way I was dressed I was asking for it."

"No one wants to be raped. Just breathe, it wasn't on you. You don't dress in an invitational way" I reassured him.

"I'm more intelligent that that, I knew that I..." he squeezed onto me tighter and sniffled, I rubbed circles on his back.

"W-when did this happen?"

"A short time before I first was introduced to you." He let out a whimper and snifled again.

"I wish i could've been there. That guys is gonna get what he deserves."

"He had some knowledge on me, what if he locates me and does it again?"

"It won't happen, I won't give anyone the chance."

"R-really?" He lifted his head and looked me in the eyes. His were puffy and red from the sobbing. I took one of my hands and wiped away his tears with my finger.

"Never again." I put my forehead against his, resulting in him giving me a weak smile.

"It's very relieving to get that off my chest. Even Noctis and Prompto are unaware of the previous trauma I went through."

"Why didnt you tell them?" I asked as he backed out of the embrace a little. He hesitated for a moment before giving a somewhat reasonable responce.

"Well..." He cleared his throat, "this occured approximately two years ago. Noct was in the prime time for maxing out his training. I didn't need him to have a distraction preventing him from improving." I rose an eyebrow at him.

"There's more to it then that, Iggy." He looked away from me frowning.

"There just may be."

"Is that the reason you always have a blank facial expression?"

"Oh, no. I have always expressed myself with no expression whatsoever."

"You've always been dead inside?"

"I've simply never been a smiler. I'm not what you are referring to as dead on the inside."

"Were you embarrassed about getting used, were you scared? Iggy, you can tell me, I wont judge you. You aren't any less of a man."

"If I were being honest..." He didn't finish his sentence and instead nodded his head.

I pulled him back for a hug and then laid down pulling him on top of me. He let out a sigh of content as we laid there for a minute. I went back to rubbing circles on his back and found myself nodding off after not too much longer. I woke up to the sound of Prompto and Iggy having a battle of who gets to answer the others's question first? I smiled to myself and then slowly started motivating.

"The beast is awakening, run!" Prompto yelled causing me to chuckle.

"Yeah... Wassup." I said  groggily stretching as I left the tent.

"It's about time we head out." Noct said.

"Indeed." Ignis agreed placing a cup down of what I assumed was coffee.

"But I just... Uh, y-yeah! Let's go kick ass!" I started to complain, but cut myself off thinking of all the times I got on prompto for bitching.

I looked at Iggy before we started leaving, to my surprise, he was still shirtless.

"Oh, wait! Iggy, I have your jacket still. Do you want to put that back on?"

"I didn't even realize he wasn't wearing a shirt still." Prompto said giggling.

Iggy looked down at his bare abdomen and then back at us.

"Ah, yes, I would love to feel modest once again." I shot Iggy a smile and went to grab his jacket and give it back to him.

I gave it to him and then we all walked towards the regalia. As we were walking I noticed Promto had a little pep in his step.

"Hey, why are you so happy?" I asked causing him to look over at me.

"What do you mean? I'm always happy!"

"You just have a little more pep in your step than you usually do." His eyebrows rose and his face turned a little red. He looked away from me.

"I-I didn't notice." Ignis hummed curiously at Promto's answer and I was silenced by my cluelessness.

"Shut up, specs."

"My trapt is shut."

"What the hell is happening?" I asked.

"N-nothing, you don't know anything!" Prompto studdered out.

"He may not, but I'm pretty sure the man to your left does." Iggy said pointing to Noct. Noct put his finger to his mouth in a shushing gesture and then we all entered the regalia.

"Here we go." Noct said hopping into the driver's seat where Iggy usually would sit.

We started driving and the ride was somehow even quieter than usual.

"How's everyone doing?" I said scratching my neck and looking around the car at everyone.

Noct looked normal, besides a smile that was on his face, Iggy looked like he was thinking about something, that something being literally anything -only he knew- and then Prompto. Prompto looked fidgety and had a worried or troubled look.

"Doing good." Noct said happily as we took a turn.

"Yeah I'm, uh, we're good." Prompto was nervous for some reason.

"You don't sound good." I spoke slowly so he fully heard the concern that laces my voice.

"Oh, no, I really am good. Uh, what about you Iggy?" He rushed out the word as if he was being timed it something. I looked over at Iggy who didn't reply to anything, his eyes didn't even move, he was very deep in thought. I scrunched my eyebrows and then leaned over And tapped him on the shoulder.

He blinked a couple of time and then slowly looked over at me.

"Yes?" He questioned shaking his head a couple of times.

"Are you ok?" He didn't say anything, he just nodded and then went back into his own world.

"We're almost there guys." Noct told us as we went under the tunnel.

"Cool, maybe things will be less awkward when we have our feet on concrete instead of the old girl's floorboards." Noct hummed in agreement while Iggy and Prompto remained silent.

We parked about fifteen seconds later and I felt a rush of relief. I quickly opened up the door and looked at the people and scenery around me. I smiled overall good feeling the galdin quay had. It was also pretty good that the weather was the not-too-hot-not-too-cold type.

"Iggy? Iggy? I-Iggy?" I heard Noct snapped his fingers a couple times.

"Ignis!" Prompto yelled next.

I turned around and saw Prompto and Noct outside the car next to Iggy's opened door. He was sitting there completely still, staring intently at nothing that is worth staring intently at. I worked over and in-between the two of them.

"Oh, Iggy~" I cooed, gently placing my hand on his shoulder like I did earlier. He immediately laid back a little in his seat and whipped his head towards us. All of us jumped a little and stared wide eyed. Iggy looked around confused and then cleared his throat.

"Ah, we have arrived. Let's do something productive, shall we?" He said taking my hand off his shoulder and pivoting to get out.

-To Be Continued-