#amicitia blood is damn strong and ignis will often apologize to their son for 'making you as ugly as your dad'

[moonraccoon-exe]

That must be hard when fem!iggy (blind) gave birth with her child 😭😭

(This is one of the entries on the “newest” half of my inbox, but I couldn’t resist this one either, hnnnfdgndfg)

Ah, yes, the story of the moment lady Ignis gave birth and the encountered feelings among the expected joy.

It happened a few years after she and her friends had managed to defeat the Chancellor at age thirty (when the prince was twenty-eight). The light returned to the world, and the reconstruction of Insomnia, Accordo, Tenebrae and Niflheim started. The King’s Shield and his Royal Adviser, if not free from all their duties seen as they still had a life of serving the now ascended King Noctis, at least were now free from the pressure of the World of Ruin and a decade dedicated to be prepared for the moment when the True King would return. So, in a world of peace, the Shield and the Adviser married a year after the light returned to the world.

And year and half later, the news made it at first only in their intimate social circle, and quickly spread through the capital city, only to be spread all over the kingdom and from there to all around the globe, and it was cheered mostly by all the Lucians: the news that the living legends the Shield of the King of Light, Lord Gladiolus Amicitia, and the Adviser of the True King, Lady Ignis Scientia, were to be parents.

Both Gladio and Ignis had planned it, and they had started trying only months after their wedding, but each time it resulted in the same: negative. Negative after negative after negative. Both had themselves tested, and none seemed to have any medical problems of infertility. None known, that is; while the medics assured Gladio was fine, Ignis did show a few troubles, but nothing they had ever seen before.

Gladio blamed the Chancellor and the ring of the Lucii. He claimed that the fact that Ignis only showed scars on the face did not mean there could not have been other damages they did not know about, internal one included. They were not a hundred percent certain of how the ring or the Chancellor’s magic worked, so the events of Leviathan could have damaged her more than they were aware of.

Still, they did not lose hope. Gladio never pressured her, but they tried if she asked him. And that was how a year and half after marrying, their goal became a reality.

Iris Amicitia, new head of Crownsguard now that Cor was head of the new generation of Kingsglaives, was first to know.

It had been a month since the night that Ignis assumed was the one successful intercourse that resulted in her pregnancy. It had been wonderful; Gladio had been especially gentle with her, had pampered her all throughout the moment with a rain of sincere and soft kisses all over her face, shoulders, arms and all of her body, he had taken a few moments to kiss her tummy and blow raspberries on it claiming that ‘maybe your tummy’s just stubborn; I’ll convince it with my charm’, and he had held her in all moments as they made love, had praised and admired her when she took the top, held her and kissed her all the time when he retook the top so Ignis could ‘just focus on feeling good, I’ll do all the job’, and he never stopped reminding her how much he loved her.

Ignis had experimented a few symptoms only, and so few and tiny that they were easily shrugged off as just a normal, spontaneous and fleeting nausea or just that the Cup Noodles had done bad to her stomach once. But, like every time they tried, Ignis got a test to see if it was positive this time. Modern tests could have told her only two weeks after the moment of pregnancy, but she had been scared at first; scared to try it once more and, for the thousandth time, hear that it was a negative.

Gladio was always the one who would take the test and read it for her. But Ignis was exhausted of putting Gladio through this torture; having him read what she thought was her failure, hear that little hint of disappointment in his voice that, even though she knew was not disappointment in her but rather the situation, felt like her own fault nonetheless. She was exhausted of raising his hopes every time she handed him the test and have it all collapse when he always said ‘Negative’.

That one day, with a little grain of hope that maybe the spontaneous nausea and the one bad stomachache night were a little more than they seemed, and both scared of telling Gladio and wanting to surprise him later in case it would be what she hoped, she had gone to her sister-in-law. Iris did not always spend the night at the Amicitia manor, what with her own apartment, but that one morning, Ignis took her chance not knowing how longer it’d be before Iris would be there, and shyly and a bit fearfully approached her.

The adviser felt a little silly, fearing so much to hear the one word she had heard for so long by now, and for once she felt like what the world had always expected from her when she was much younger and that she never gave them; a fragile princess about to cry in the need of a hug.

She was sat at the edge of Iris’ bed, hugged to her tonberry plush toy, after having handed her the test. Her sister-in-law waited a bit, maybe checking to make sure she knew how to read the symbols on the test.

And that’s when Ignis, expecting the entire opposite, could not and did not know how to react to this new scenario.

‘Positive.’

Prompto was there to film Gladio’s reaction when they told him. They told him that they had a gift for him. The four friends, the King, his Shield, Adviser, and Crownsguard Prompto shared dinner together, all alone, because while Gladio was oblivious to it, the other three knew that the couple would really enjoy of intimacy.

After dinner and laughter, and after some teasing and an eager Gladio like a child during winter celebrations, Prompto started filming and they handed him a little package. He showed some playful and faked disappointment at the little size of the package, and as falsely and playfully he ‘nagged’ Ignis for not buying him something bigger (because they had clarified that ‘well, it’s not a gift from all us; Iggy’s who’s got the surprise for you’).

Gladio laughed when he saw the tiny green blanket. He took it from the gift paper and started asking if this was one of Ignis’ sarcastic gifts “from the once that you called me a Big Baby? I don’t fit here! What am I supposed to do with a blanket this size?”

All that Ignis did, off-camera, was to smile and tell him ‘Well, make a guess’.

It took Gladio only a few more seconds. He was laughing after what he thought was a joke, while unwrapping the tiny blanket to see it full size. It was only as large as most of his forearm, but as the laughter faded, his smile also started fading. At the same time it did, a gleam of recognition and understanding started growing in his eyes, at first tiny, and bigger with every second that passed, blanket in hands and eyes scanning it.

A few seconds later, Gladio’s smile was entirely gone and he stared at the blanket as if though he had just read on it that all the people he loved were about to die; shocked, and as if terrified. His eyes started gleaming in a very literal way this time. And, a few seconds later, he looked up.

“…Ignis” he called in a very, very tiny whisper, broken and shaky. He was looking at his wife with the most pained expression that any of them had ever seen on him since Ignis’ injury all those eleven years ago. Gladio’s mouth opened and tried to gesticulate, mute, shocked, and his eyes were full of tears. “…are you…pregnant?”

The last word was so tiny, even tinier than the already tiny whisper he was already speaking with, that he mouthed it more than he actually said it, and he lost the breath afterwards, but he didn’t take the eyes off his wife.

Ignis can’t be seen in the video, but she, eyes full of tears as well, only puts the head down and whispers a very little and breathless ‘Yes’ while nodding; she had thought she had gotten over the overwhelming feelings, as she already had a whole morning and evening aware of this, but apparently she was only beginning to feel the real weight of it.

Gladio said nothing afterwards. What he did was to breathlessly gasp like he was suffocating, put a hand to the table and the other up to his mouth, and he dropped the head lightly, and he started trembling and crying. It was absolute silence except for Gladio’s little pained whimpers that say he’s trying to control himself but it takes more of his might than he has. He trembles and cries, and sometimes he cleans his eyes with the tiny blanket, but he ends up covering his eyes with a hand, and sobs, crying more and unable to say anything.

In the video you can see the Shield doing nothing but tremble on his spot, sniffle and cry, some noises, and then Iggy appears to sit at his side, to hold one of his hands and then to bring him into a hug. Gladio hugs her back immediately as if it had been a reflex, and as soon as Ignis first hugged him he let out a shameless sob and started properly breaking into tears.

It was no secret that Gladio had always wanted to be a father, ever since he was a teenager. His condition, of course, was for the kid or kids he would have to be only from the one only true owner of his heart and life, not anyone. And ever after a few years of being with Iggy, he knew she was the one, respected her when she said she did not want any, respected when she switched to ‘only needing time’, and then it was only silly to think about having any kids when they had to spend ten years not only fighting to survive but also searching for a way to save their king while also preparing themselves for the final encounter. Not to say that they did prepare for the one dark scenario where they would not survive said final encounter, not wanting to leave their child with no parents.

And then, free from that risk, with all the struggles to get Iggy pregnant, after three decades of life always wanting to be a dad, of course Gladio would react like that. He knew he may be overreacting and that others would just laugh it off, but that night when he was told he was going to be a dad, he was entirely sleepless, not out of fear or the shock, not even joy, just out of love. He spent all the night caressing Ignis’ belly; there was no bump there, no movement, the creature was still only a tiny fetus, but it was there and that was enough to him. He was going to be a daddy, and it was Iggy who carried with his child. Gladio was ecstatic.

Which, needless to say, made of him the most overprotective and loving of husbands all during pregnancy. Ignis had always playfully complained ever since they became a couple back when she was nineteen that Gladio was ‘too clingy’. You should have seen him along the nine months, oh my god. She used to say that she ‘carries with Gladio more often than I’m carrying the baby’. The man pampered her twenty six hours a day, breaking through the logic of time because what was time compared to his love for his wife and their kid!?

Gladio went on through life as the proudest daddy-to-be to have ever existed. He always showered the belly with kisses and spoke to it long and good, he always caressed it at nights (unless Iggy asked him not to, the nights she felt too physically sensitive), he attended to every single one of Iggy’s food cravings no matter how weird, pampered her when she felt sick or exhausted from symptoms, and took oh gods so many photos of her through pregnancy, the belly each day bigger and more beautiful, like her.

Gladio would always adore hugging her from behind, hands flat on her belly, round and big, and rest the chin on top of her head, closing the eyes, and adoring of this hug, because he was hugging not only Iggy, but his entire family that way. He always brought Iggy’s pregnancy to conversation, with his family, his friends, his co-workers, and even with people he did not even know.

‘That’s nice and all, sir, but do you want fries with this or not?’

Iggy was spared from her job as the King’s adviser three months before the child would be born. Gladio was spared two months before the scheduled date. You should have seen the Baby Shower a month prior to it; they had this game where the proud parents opened the gifts and Gladio tried guessing who gave it to them. For each mistake, Iris would draw something on his face with a marker. It was hilarious to watch the strong and imponent Gladiolus Amicitia squirming and childishly complaining under his sister’s wrath with a marker.

And then the day arrived. While Gladio overreacted and insisted Ignis stayed in bed all day, she always reassured him that even though the day was close it did not mean she had to stay in bed 24/7; she was pregnant, not agonizing. So, it happened while Iggy was drying the dishes that Gladio was washing; a little huff, a hand to the belly, and Gladio froze in the spot just staring at her.

“Oh, gods…” Ignis breathed out and turned to look at him. “I think the baby’s coming.”

Gladio took her to the hospital, and, indeed, the baby was coming. The poor Shield, he had witnessed the Fall of Insomnia at age 23, he had traveled across all Lucis fighting for his and his friends’ lives every day during months, he fought a god of war on his own, he survived in a city during war in ruins where two gods fought, almost lost his dearly beloved in his own arms, he traveled into the heart of the Empire, survived a hoard of daemons, ten years of endless night and more daemons, he even fought an Astral and defeated it…but, the poor thing was a nerve wreck in the moment Iggy started with contractions. He was a paranoid mess, not knowing where to go, what to say, looking around everywhere, talking in either almost yells or little murmurs, he was like a terrified kitten among chaos. Not even Ignis was as nervous.

It would become hilarious after the moment had passed, though it was not as funny while living it, this of helping Iggy through the contractions. Due to the same reason of a little more troubles than the average to get pregnant, it was only natural the contractions would affect her a little more than the average too. She had claimed all over the eight months since she was conscious of the news that she had done all that Gladio did too, hence giving birth would be ‘a child’s game to me’.

Well, there’s Iggy, with hoarse loud groaning while clawing at Gladio’s skin or gripping at his hand so tightly the Shield swore for a week that his bones were broken. The poor woman did struggle during birth, and had to go on with natural rather than surgery.

It took quite a while, and the closer she was to giving birth the worse the cramps and contractions grew. At some point Gladio had to round the bed and offer her his other arm because the first was already bruised enough and he could not stand more of her accidental wrath on it. Iggy was already sweating even before the baby had started properly coming out at all.

Gladio stayed with her all the while, and, despite his own panic, his fatherly and lovingly instincts rose naturally, and he kept shushing her, cheering on her, congratulating her for the strength and always cheering for her that she could do it, that she was doing phenomenal, that he was proud of her, and he kissed her face when he thought it appropriate.

Giving birth was some troubles, too. It’s a very natural thing, so it’s supposed to be easy, and Iggy is a tall woman with wide hips, but it was still some troubles with the contractions and the cramps. The pain got a bit too bad, even with medicines already helping, and she once (but only once) stopped pushing, exhaustedly letting the head swing to a side (towards Gladio), and she whispered to him that she could not do this.

Gladio, however, was only triggered deeper into his lovingly instincts and he continued cheering on her with the most concise and appropriate words that worked best on her, little touches, and always holding her hand, even when Gladio himself was a bit terrified. He was badly triggered into terror whenever Iggy showed some weakness in something; the woman was the bravest person that Gladio had ever known in his life, so the fact that she had said she ‘could not do this’, it was terrifying. But Gladio’s instincts of helping her were much bigger than the fear, and in the end he did a wonderful job at giving her the support she needed of.

And after all these troubles, ever since the struggles with only trying to get pregnant, the child was finally born. The priority to Lucian doctors, like it should be everywhere on Eos, is to immediately hand the baby to the mother; the trauma of abandoning their safe haven in the womb is shocking enough, so it’s absolutely necessary to place them on their mommy’s chest as soon as they’re born; that’s so they can hear her heartbeat, which is their constant and only real companion when in the womb, not to say the smell of mommy and her warmth and voice are the most they’re familiar with, so yeah, quite important (unless the baby needs some non-conventional medical intervention, of course).

It was a precious baby boy that cried so loudly the doctor and nurses were absolutely sure the entire hospital could hear him.

“…you can’t ever ask if it’s yours or not, Gladiolus Amicitia” Iggy said breathlessly, recovering from all the pushing and effort, hugged to the baby that screamed and bawled in roars. “Listen to him. He’s…definitely yours…”

Gladio did not catch it at first, but then he laughed. Well, Iggy had finally stopped cursing and threatening him (please understand her, raging out was only natural with the contractions) and was back at joking.

The doctors made sure that the baby was as fine as he could be, and then left them with some space while the little creature recovered, as well as the mother, who had lost a bit more blood than the safe measures but nothing that threatened with her life. And that’s how a rather shocked but happy Gladio was left with the newborn and a sweaty, numb, panting and completely exhausted Iggy holding him close.

Gladio was too shocked to react as he would later do when he’d exit the room and find Noctis and Prompto standing there, because part of him still could not believe it. Slowly and eye widened the entire time, he stayed at a side of the bed, very close, a hand to one of Iggy’s forearms since he could not hold her busy hand, and the other caressing her short hair. They stayed absolutely quiet, and the baby calmed down very quickly. His were the only noises in the room besides Iggy’s panting that softened and calmed with every second that passed; the tiny and timid baby whimpers quietened along his mommy’s breath.

All that Gladio was doing was stare at the baby and nowhere else. Such a strange concept, a newborn. It’s one of those strange things of the cosmos and life, how marvelous life was that it could allow this strange concept; a baby. An entire living creature with a very complex system…born from him and Iggy. This was an entire human being, who could think and feel and who had twenty individual fingers that he could move and an entire system of nerves and a very complex everything inside him that worked fine, with a very complex brain that worked faster than the speed of light and a pair of wonderful eyes that, while not yet, could catch light and adapt to it and a mouth and maybe he was just overreacting but it’s suddenly to him such a wonderful and very beautiful thing that’s far beyond his comprehension and suddenly the only word he can tag it of is ‘sublime’.

So he’s staring and nothing else, too marveled by this concept, and even more marveled at the idea that he did this and Iggy did this and this is their child and that he’s a father now, he’s a father now, dear Six, he’s a father now!! He’s a dad, he’s finally a dad, and this tiny little thing, soaked and reddish and tiny (‘so tiny, is this normal?’), already with a funny lock of hair, this tiny little thing, this is…this is his son. He’s a dad now, and this is his son, dammit!

Iggy’s hands hold him very carefully but firmly, like only a mommy could do, and he’s in realization of how much of a very, absolutely wonderful mommy Ignis would be to this tiny little thing, how she never needed to hold any newborn before to master this merely out of instincts and her natural protective and careful attitude, how much of a wonderful mommy she’ll be, and he drowns admiring her because she’s an excellent warrior, an excellent adviser, and now an excellent mommy too, is there something this goddess, who said yes to him and how is he so lucky, can’t do?

The little baby’s pressed to her chest, and Gladio’s not sure if he’s awake or not, as he still cannot open the eyes, and has gone very quiet. Gladio’s staring a lot, watching the way his tiny body moves with each breath, as if making sure he’s breathing, the tiny movements of his fingers, and it’s marvelous.

After a very long while of caressing Ignis’ hair and staring at the baby, Gladio is taken out of his shock and he turns to look at her. She’s been very quiet all the while as well, but there where Gladio has been smiling, she looks rather…upset.

His first thought is that she’s exhausted, and damn she is exhausted. She’s holding the baby and caressing his back very, very tenderly with a hand, but her blind gaze is lost in nowhere, her good eye is teary, and there’s no smile on her face. It’s like she’s not there, absolutely lost in either thoughts or her feelings, and moving the hand without noticing. The sweat’s gone, but a few of her locks of hair are still a little damp. She looks wrecked and so exhausted.

“You did wonderful, Iggy” Gladio murmurs to her, still smiling, and moves some of her hair away of her forehead. His first reflex was to tell her ‘I wish you could see him’, but he swallows the words before they’re out and changes them, not making a big deal out of it. “He’s…precious…”

Ignis smiles for only a moment, a tiny and slightly forced smile that leaves as soon as it arrived, and she doesn’t reply, not even with a nod. She’s still not focusing her blind eye anywhere, and when she blinks, a tear rolls down her cheek. Gladio looks at her, not sure he understands, and his smile starts disappearing. Slowly, his expression transforms from confusion to concern, staring at her, and seeing her drop another tear.

“…hey, Iggy” Gladio calls in a tender murmur, and moves a hand to her face to catch a tear midways down her cheek, cleaning it away. “Are you alright? I know you’re exhausted, but…you also seem…a bit upset…”

The adviser quietly sniffles once and her good eyelid flutters a bit, and she lets out a tiny breath, as if getting prepared to say ‘It’s nothing’ but not saying it. Gladio gives her some moments, caresses her face to clean the shy tears, and she lowers the head a bit.

“…I am so sorry, Gladio, my dearest” Ignis whispers to him with the voice broken. She knows it’s useless coming up with excuses to him, so she doesn’t even try. “…I am ruining the joy…”

“Do you want to talk with me about what’s bothering you?” Gladio asks her as tenderly as he’s been speaking to her during this small conversation.

It took Iggy a long pause while she thought about it and while, honestly, she gathered the strength to not feel like a bother and just open up to him. She’s been with Gladio for more than a decade, and she knows him since they were kids, heck, this is the love of her life, she can trust him and she knows it. But it’s still quite hard for her to speak it because, on a side, she doesn’t want to make him feel bad, and on the other side she fears that saying it aloud will make it hurt even more. So, as you can understand, it took her quite a while and great effort before she said it.

“…it’s just…” she murmurs with the voice broken and weak. She pauses and lowers the head a little more, blind eye still staring at nowhere. “…I wish I could see him…”

It’s the words but also the way they were given in such a fragile murmur, like a withered petal about to break, how the already painful phrase came out so weak and as the most fragile thread of a voice from such a powerful and strong woman…it absolutely breaks Gladio’s heart. He literally feels some pinch inside and his chest contracts as if the heart was really breaking inside him, and he understands.

Iggy doesn’t often complain about being blind. While it’s not something she’s happy with, she always says that it’s useless and only a bother to complain or feel bad about it because it’s not like it’s something somebody can ever fix, so she just lives like that. Not happy, rather just resigned to it, no complaints.

Except a few times. There were some chosen moments in which Ignis did admit, whether to just herself or to Gladio, that she does desperately wishes she could recover her sight, some chosen moments in which she does feel sorry about her injury. Their wedding, for example. While used to it, she sometimes still reminds Gladio how she misses to see his face and eyes when they make love; it was such an important thing to them, a particularly and especially significative thing to only them above the average ‘I want to stare at you during this’, something that’s a whole story on its own, it’s impossible that it doesn’t cross her head when they do it. His smile. His reactions, like the moment they told him he was going to be dad. The moment Noctis first worn the crown.

And now this.

“I know…he’s been alive for only a few minutes” she tells him and pauses to sniffle. “And I know he must look terrible; soaked, reddish, eyes swollen, maybe even slimy-looking” she smiles a bit, but the curve of her mouth remains sad. “Noctis would describe him as a ‘wet wrinkled potato’, perhaps” she used one of her own hands to clean her new tear, but it returns to hold the apparently sleeping baby. She sighs very softly through the nose, and her smile starts fading as she talks. “But he’s my baby. He’s the baby I had with you. Even if he was the most horrible and terrifying of sights…I’ve never wanted to see someone this badly before. This is my son, and I can’t even see him. I don’t often complain about it, but…right now, I do feel some…desperation to be able to see. Even if just one minute. Even if only one single minute so I could see him, even if only once…”

Gladio doesn’t know how to reply or if it’s prudent to say anything at all. Because he, like Ignis, knows there’s absolutely nothing anyone can do about her blindness. King Ravus, granted some of the Oracle’s magic after Lunafreya’s passing, had tried with not much success (it helped a bit, and she can see some shadows as if a healthy eye hidden behind the eyelid all the time rather than full darkness). This is not a “I’m sad because of this” “don’t worry, we can fix it like this” scenario. It’s a “I’m sad because of this unfixable thing literally nobody can do anything about”.

She’s resting the mouth against the baby’s head, and her hand still strokes his back very tenderly, sometimes the back of his head too. The tiny baby’s breathing calmly and heavily, fingers sometimes curling or uncurling on him, peacefully asleep and comfortable on his mama’s chest. Gladio looks at one and then the other in absolute silence, taking his time on each, and feeling bad for the woman that he loves with such a heavy burden on her. He considers that she has suffered far more than enough for a life; he wants Ignis’ happiness with absolute desperation and devotion, and he hates every time something makes her sad.

“I’m so sorry, Gladio” she murmurs after a while, still with shy tears escaping her one by one. “This was supposed to be the most joyful moment for us so far in our lives, and I’m…going sad all of a sudden, I’m so sorry…”

“No, don’t be” Gladio murmurs even softer than he had been doing until now, and he stands up from the chair to sit at the edge of the bed, softly and slowly and being careful to not cause her discomfort. He caresses her hair back and away of her forehead and he gives it a long-lasting and soft kiss. “It’s how you feel, and it’s okay. Thank you for telling me.”

Ignis swallows and closes the eye, trembling a little. It hurts, that Gladio is so understanding and always knows what to say, but it hurts in a very good way, because it lets her feel freely and not refrain. Gladio knows that she doesn’t need lies or to be reassured and told that everything’s fine; she just needs to express what she feels, not feel judged for it, know it’s fine, and Gladio also adds a ‘thanks’ only for telling him. Ignis never forgets how much Gladio loves her, but sometimes she re-remembers just how pure his love for her is, and it hurts in the prettiest of ways.

She, trembling a little and feeling some more hurt of the good kind that will clean the heart afterwards, nods in silence. Gladio smiles at her and gives her another kiss to the forehead, and says nothing, because he knows that’s just what Iggy wants; company, not nice words.

And that’s how they stay, an exhausted Ignis crying silently for a short but truly sad minute, holding the little baby, who stays peacefully asleep on her chest, and Gladio switching his attention between one and the other, caressing her hair or caressing the baby’s tiny arm or face with a finger.

After what feels like forever, and as Ignis eventually stops crying, after more and lingering silence and a proud dad staring at his baby or at who gave him the honor of being the mommy, Gladio knows it’s the moment that Iggy has stopped crying, so he caresses her face again, cleaning the damp paths of her cheeks.

“I guess the only option I’ve got is that you describe him to me from now on…”

“And I’ll gladly comply” Gladio smiles at her, and a hand comes to rest on top of the one that she keeps pressed to the baby’s back. “I’ll tell you each new thing that I discover about him as he grows, every mole, every birthmark, every color that I see on his hair or his eyes. I’ll describe him to you whenever you ask me to. All the days of our lives if you want me to.”

Iggy smiles and leans against the hand that Gladio kept on her cheek, softly closing the eyes for a moment.

“…right now he’s a newborn, so…there’s not much to describe, but…” Iggy’s voice is still a fragile thread, and she still sniffles from pause to pause. She still sounds sad, but she also sounds very exhausted, physically talking. “…for example…his…hair?”

Gladio takes some moments to look at him. He’s been smiling all this while. His gaze turns warm the more he looks at his baby, and he doesn’t take the eyes off him when he replies.

“It’s still a little damp…but…I think his hair is more like mine…”

He hears Iggy let out a little sigh.

“My baby…” she says as if lamenting. “Already with an ugliness point to himself.”

It took Gladio a moment. He first slowly nodded, warm gaze and smile still there, and slowly his brain processed it. His smile faded and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. And then he turned to look at Ignis, puzzled, not sure that was a joke or not. Ignis looks serious and still exhausted, but there’s the ghost of a playful smile at the corners of her lips. Gladio still takes some moments. But, then again, that’s such an Ignis thing to do; not hide the sadness under jokes, rather keep the spirit so alive she can joke even when sad. Slowly, Gladio starts smiling.

“Ignis?” he calls. “Are you calling me ugly?”

“I’m not saying you’re ugly” Ignis replies, voice still quiet. “But there’s a reason everybody finds some relation between you and a behemoth.”

Gladio tenses the shoulders at that and raises the head a little, like putting the guard up, but he’s smiling.

“Th-that’s…that’s because I’m big and strong, not because I’m ugly!” Gladio complains. “Everybody desires me. I’m the hottest man on Eos. You can’t be serious.”

There’s a pause that lingers. Ignis doesn’t reply. Gladio’s smile fades and he blinks.

“You’re not serious, are you?”

“All I’m saying” Ignis says, and while she still sounds exhausted, the sadness is slowly fading from her voice, “is that if the child must resemble one of us, I hope it’s me.”

Gladio lets out a playfully offended moan of disbelief.

“But I’m handsome like the hero of old stories!”

“I know, Gladio, dear, I’m not saying you’re not” Ignis tells him in a reassuring voice like this is a serious issue. “But I’m more like a goddess.”

“Wow, okay, I thought mood swings would go away along pregnancy.”

“I could start crying again if you want to, then.”

“No, I didn’t mean-!” a sigh. “Back at Sass Queen Iggy, I see.”

“I never renounced to the crown, dear, I only dropped it for a moment.”

As any response, Gladio laughs and shakes the head, but leans closer to her to give her yet another kiss to the face. She smiles as response and closes the eye while he kisses her. There’s a pause and no words are shared, and the mood changes again. The joking was only an intermediate, Ignis’ usual escape whenever she wants to get rid of the sad air but has no idea how to switch to neutrality, using a happy interlude in between. He’s still close to her face during the silence, and gives her yet another kiss.

“Thank you, Gladio” Ignis murmurs to him and Gladio breaks apart. “For all of this. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner to help me through this. You too did fantastic…”

Gladio smiles and rests the forehead against Iggy’s.

“And I certainly couldn’t have asked for a better father to my baby…” she whispers, eyes closed. “I don’t think I’ll ever be at peace being unable to see him…but, as son of the most wonderful man that I’ve ever known, I don’t need to see him to know he is and will be a precious boy with a heart as pure and warm and his father’s. That’s not seen; it’s felt.”

The Shield, currently not a Shield and only a dad (because now he is a dad!), smiles at her. He receives the compliment as more than just that, and feels moved, happy, loved. He kisses her tired lips, that barely react at all. Iggy’s been drifting into sleep ever since her tears stopped. No wonder she could pass out any second now, what with the huge effort she did to give birth to…this tiny creature; her son. Gladio’s son. Their son.

He still has a hand on top of Iggy’s, which is on top of the baby’s back. He feels it raise lightly, and hears the baby take in a deep breath mid-sleep, and it’s absolutely wonderful. He still has yet not felt the real weight of the overwhelming of emotion this brings to him, how much he’ll explode out of emotion later; his feelings are being reined in, because, on a side, he’s still touched by sadness about Ignis’ sadness, and on the other side he’s on protective instincts; the love of his life is physically paining and absolutely exhausted, and the tiny creature (his son, his baby, the new love of his life in another way that’s as beautiful and impossibly huge) is just minutes old and he by instinct wants to stay nearby as if to make sure they’re both safe, so the flood of emotion has to wait for later on.

Right now all he can do is keep caressing Iggy’s hair, sat at the edge of her bed, and stare at the so beautiful baby in her arms, how peacefully he sleeps, and how much, how desperately, frustratingly, impossibly much Gladio already loves him…

He had meant to reply to Ignis’ words, but suddenly finds it impossible. There’s a huge knot in his throat that’s been there longer than he realized, there’s tears in his eyes, and he feels so much joy for their baby, and sadness from Ignis’ own sadness, and joy from how much he loves his now family, and sadness from how a part of him, too, wishes Ignis could see the baby, even if only once…

Overwhelmed in emotions of all sorts, all that Gladio does is to keep the hand on the one that Ignis keeps to the baby’s back, feeling how that more fragile hand untenses and goes more and more limp with each second as Ignis drifts to sleep, and caresses her hair to help her find the so well deserved and so needed rest that she needs.

Gladio kisses her forehead when he finally hears her taking in a deep breath that lets him know she’s finally asleep, and continues to stare at the baby.

It’s hard. This issue about Iggy’s blindness. It’s always hard, but it’s especially harder right now. But that’s how their lives have been so far; hard.

But, just like how their lives have been so far, they always make it through, together, and love is something that’s never missing. And, to Iggy, a family is not built of what can be seen, but rather what can be felt, and Gladio has the most beautiful and purest of loves to give. What Ignis is unable to see, Gladio gives in the form of love.

So, to them both it’s a bit sad, maybe, but the little flaws won’t compare to the joy and absolute love that Gladio and Ignis give to each other, and, now, that they give to their son too, as a family.

*makes itsel cry*

Aah, this was very pretty to write. Thanks a lot, dear anon. I enjoyed it from head to toe and I hope you’ve enjoyed, too!  ( ´ ▽ ` )

Support Coonie with a coffee, please? ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ