I'm gonna walk right across this town

[blindsider]

[ It is the evening of the last day of exams, and Ignis Scientia has no choice but to party. He's earned it, really, after a year of hard work and some blisteringly challenging exams which he suspects he's done well on nonetheless. So he goes, and he has fun. There's drinks, and dancing, and then more drinks in a different bar with a different sort of dancing. His friends seem determined to visit as many different bars in one evening as they can manage, which is fine by him. The brief walks from bar to bar serve as a kind of interlude in which everyone has to take a brief break from drinking, if not actually sober up.

As the evening wears on Ignis has his first blue drink ever and his first on-fire drink ever, a process for which he is handed a plastic straw and urged to imbibe the drink through it “quick, before it catches fire too”. He loses a button from the top of his shirt, recaptures his glasses after a small woman with hair dyed the bright orange of a free-range egg yolk puts them on and walks away, eats a chicken wing handed to him by a stranger and is dragged into the women's restroom in order to participate in an animated discussion about whether one of his friends should go home with the young man who is so clearly trying to convince her to do so. And it's fun, it really is, but the more he has to drink (and the more he dances, and the more he sees his friends making out with one another or people they've collected on the way, though he's too drunk to make that connection now and will be too embarrassed to do so once sober) the more he just misses Nocts. He receives only minimal bullying about leaving early, and the cab ride to Noct's apartment building – unfortunately – is not sufficient to sober him up. The result is that he's not remotely quiet when he lets himself into Noct's home, humming to himself as he makes multiple unsuccessful attempts to unlock the front door before finally getting it open, and loud when he calls out as he cheerfully steps inside, hair fallen down from its usual vertical style and a smear of glitter rubbed over one cheekbone. ]

Evening!

Comments

[blindsider]

You did! You did very well.

[ He beams at Noctis, carefully wiping his hands clean before he gives his own bloody but miraculously healed knee a desultory swipe and throwing the cloth aside to clasp Noct's hand in his own. He means to use it to help Noct up, but he can't resist just holding it for a moment. ]

One day I'll work up the courage to tell you what I want is for us to take care of each other. One day when I'm not pissed, and you'll believe me. Come on, up we get.

[linkstrike]

[ oh.

it's probably stupid for something like that to have such a profound effect on him, but he feels the heat flush into his cheeks all over again. it seems very unfair that ignis can undo him with such a simple sentiment, but... it's such an earnest thing that it twists his chest into knots. ]

Yeah, I'd -- [ with a touch of shyness in his voice. ] ... I'd like that too.

[ and if he keeps his hold on ignis' hand even after he's been safely helped back to his feet? it's important to make sure that ignis doesn't lose his balance and stumble, that's all! ]