[FFXV Fic] Can't Hold It In

Decided to make some doodles to go with this oneshot I wrote out which took inspiration from a sentence prompt list! I had pulled random sentences and applied each of them to the chocobros. This first one that I wanna share is of Ignis.

I plan to post the oneshot sometime in January, but the art is exclusive to Patreon ;3c

Here are the original prompt sentences: https://justpush.tumblr.com/post/182843939068/one-sentence-birth-meme

This is set in a verse 2 ending setting. You can kinda pick up the rest through context, but the short of it is: Noctis and Ignis are married, Noct is king now and they are trying to keep the pregnancy on the down low (I tried to design Ignis some clothes to hide his full term bump and it is very much NOT possible I am realizing).

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"I don't think I can hold them in much longer!"

Ignis desperately pleaded on the phone with the midwife, he sequestered himself to the corridor from the kitchen to the ballroom. He thought he could hold out, the pains had not been all that terrible at the start of the evening. This would be one of the last public appearances he would make before he went on an overseas business trip where he would be completely unreachable for the next couple of months settling matters of an entirely arbitrary precedent. Really, it would involve a lot of him hiding in the upper floors of the citadel as he recovered from bringing forth his and the King's new heir.

None were the wiser except those made to be in the know. He had a lot of opportunities to wear his counselor's robes and sit behind tables that covered and hid his midsection. The downside had to be that while the citadel was expansive and offered plenty of variety to move around, he was all too familiar with the spaces and thus became increasingly cagey. Most outings had to be done in secret and with extra protection escorting him. Never had he felt more like a caged canary than now...

So of course he would thrust himself headlong into one of the last opportunities to be part of a social event before he was locked away in the tower. And of course, he had to be in denial that these pangs in his stomach were indeed contractions.

"Ignis, I need you to breathe," the midwife instructed him, and he even waited until he heard Ignis audibly breathe in and then blow into the mic of the phone, "You need to focus all your strength into not pushing, you hear me? No matter what."

That sounded nigh impossible, but while leaning against this wall he pressed his legs together.

"I'll make my way down there as quickly as possible," And from what Ignis could tell, he already heard the ruffling of a jacket and jingling of keys, "Where is his majesty?"

"I-In the ballroom," Ignis swallowed as his head knocked back onto the wall, "I'm here alone right now."

"You need to get him by your side right away."

Ignis blanched, "If... If I do that, then ou-our cover..."

"Ignis, that doesn't matter right now. You either need him or someone you trust and feel comfortable with to be by your side right now. I don't want you to be alone out there."

Someone whom he trusted... That seemed a little more plausible to reach. Ignis swallowed as he felt another contraction, and again that urge to bear down. His whimper came through the receiver.

"Breathe, focus on breathing."

Ignis tried, pulling air in through his nose and blowing out through his mouth. His feet slowly gave out from under him and he sank down to where the wall met the floor. With his knees bent up he could only feel his body want to give way to the urge, "Please–I need–"

"You are going to be just fine, Mr. Caelum-Scientia," The midwife insisted, "I want you to hang up and make a call to someone who can get to you right away. Do you hear me?"

Ignis's hearing was fine, it was his vision that had failed him. He gripped at his cape and pulled desperately on it to exert some of that frustration out somewhere else, "H-hurry..." He huffed as he pulled the phone back to end the call. He continued that breathing, pained and panicked.

As it crested and sunk back down into that valley between contractions, he slacked and pulled his phone back up. If there was anyone who he could rely on right now, it was-"Call Prompto."

He held the phone to his ear and waited as it rang. While waiting, he brought his hand up to rub over his rounded abdomen, it was heavy and sore. The longer the phone rang, the more desperately he began to pray for some deity to pull some divine intervention and either bring the midwife in now, help ease his need to push, or to get Prompto to answer dammit!

"Yo Iggy, what's up!"

Ignis sobbed out in relief.

"Whoa, hey man, you alright?"

He heard Prompto try to play off a little laugh at the end, because he had to mask any issue with Oh he's just being dramatic about something, not to dismiss Ignis, but to throw off concern with the company he kept.

"Kitchen. Now." Ignis then set the phone away before Prompto could respond and had to bite back a cry from another contraction. They were incredibly too close now, he wasn't sure what he would do as soon as the midwife got here, because the moment he stood up the child would simply fall right out of him. That would be ideal, a quick and easy labor. He knew that there was more to it than that, but any inclination of moving felt like a torturous task. He bunched up the fabric of his cape and this time stuffed it in his mouth, because no amount of evened breathing was going to stop him from bellowing out in pain and sorrow by this point.

He chewed into that thick fabric and whined out loudly with each exhale, he was straining hard to not push, but his body was tight and hot. The only balm to his overheating body was how cold the floor was, which wasn't ideal to be giving birth on...

For as strong-willed as he wanted to be, this was not possible. He couldn't wait, he couldn't hold out, he made it up in his mind that as soon as Prompto got there, he would desperately plead for him to help hide him somewhere private and just get this baby out himself. He could hold out a few minutes more. Just a few.

Footsteps came down the hall, slow and orderly. Ignis heaved and huffed like an animal, writhing here on the floor. For Prompto to have the gall to take each step so slowly when he clearly saw him in this kind of pain was absurdly the cruelest thing that he could-

"Mr. Scientia?"

Ignis froze. He froze up and let the beads of sweat drip down his forehead and along the side of his nose. That... Was not Prompto's voice.

"Mr. Scientia, are you alright?"

Ignis let the fabric go from between his teeth, any hope of crawling away and hiding quickly diminished. He couldn't tell who this was, but he knew that he could not let them see him so disorderly.

"Dear gods, man, you look a fright! Can you hear me?"

"I-" Ignis swallowed, and quickly composed himself, though his disheveled appearance was something he could do nothing about, "I'm fine... I... Slipped."

He pressed against the wall, and then got his feet underneath of himself. His hips ached and for a second with one knee up and the other providing support, he swore he felt something engage with his pelvis.

The mysterious guest came to his side and offered to lift his other arm. Ignis could not refuse, and rose far more quickly to his feet than he had hoped, "oof, you're heavier than you look!"

"T-the robes," Ignis huffed, "They tend to add on a few pounds." Despite his best effort he could not stand completely straight and kept a hand on the wall. He knew any second another contraction would take him.

The guest looked Ignis over, "Should I call for help-"

"No." Ignis deeply sniffed, "I already have help coming. Thank you."

For as much as Ignis wanted to just snap and tell this stranger to go away, he would thankfully be relieved to hear other hurried steps come down the hall.

"Ignis! There you are!" Prompto called and then saw the fellow stranger, "Ah, Mr. Scisco!" Prompto stopped short of Ignis and shifted from foot to foot.

"Argentum, will you need help taking Mr. Scientia somewhere to sit down?"

Prompto feigned a smile, "Ah? Oh nah nah, I got 'im!" He then quickly slotted himself between Scisco and Ignis, "Just uh... Tell the king we're going to the lounge."

"Do not tell the king of such," Ignis wheezed.

"Yeah okay bud, sure," Prompto slipped his arm around Ignis and helped to haul him away, "I got it from here, sir!"

They hobbled quickly down the hallway, something that made Ignis want to scream but tried to fake having hurt his hip in lieu of covering his awkward gait. When Prompto checked back over his shoulder to ensure they were out of earshot, he then dropped his voice down low, "Ignis, oh my god, what? What??"

"Just. Hurry..!"

They slipped into the lounge, thankfully with not a soul in sight nor to be heard, and Prompto brought Ignis over to sit on one of the couches.

"Prompto," Ignis huffed, "It's happening."

"Do you need me to call the midwife?"

"No," Ignis panted, "I already did. But this child will not wait," he shifted with the thick fabric of his cloak and got his feet up on the couch, "I cannot wait."

When Prompto caught on, he panicked, "Whoa! Iggy wait, hold on!!"

Ignis cared not to listen to any of Prompto's begging as the contraction came and tore from his a proper yell. Prompto looked around frantically, he didn't want to stir anymore of a fuss by running around the citadel like a headless chocobo. When Ignis's cry broke, he gasped, "W-what? What's wrong?"

"M-my waters--" Ignis had not a chance to recover, and threw his head back, "Bloody hells! It's coming!"

Prompto now began to fret, he looked ready to take flight and run off, but Ignis grabbed hold of his jacket.

"Pants-my pants, please Prompto..."

Quickly understanding the assignment, Prompto went down to Ignis's legs and pulled up the robes so that he could then yank down the pants, and true to what he'd said, seemed to be soaked at the groin. When Prompto looked back down to Ignis's underwear, he got green around the gills.

"I-Iggy??" Prompto gulped, "You, it's, is that the-"

Ignis yowled again, silencing Prompto's stupid questions as he reached down to pry off the soddened briefs, where then he nearly gagged at just how swollen and bulging Ignis's privates looked.

While Ignis could strangle Prompto right now for such a childish reaction, he was far too aware of what was happening down there. No amount of visualization needed to inform him of the very real painful stretch that he felt making him feel as though his hips were about to break in two. When he took a break from pushing, he was back to panting and swallowing back the rising bile in his throat.

Prompto's hand found Ignis's, and oh, what a perfect opportunity. Ignis gathered his strength and his courage as the next contraction came and he clenched down on Prompto's hand, getting a surprised yelp from him.

"Mmh! Uhuh, yup," Prompto was on the cusp of tears, "Y-you got this, specs, you're doing it..!"

The pep talk was more helpful than being nauseated by his bits, though that would make for some trouble come when the baby was being born. Now Ignis had hoped more than ever for Noctis to be here, whether he would be much more help or not, the least he could do is kiss and dote on him to help keep him sane. Prompto was trying, bless him, but the man was entirely too scared and about ready to barf.

For as worried as Ignis was to give birth on the floor of that hallway, it sure was taking him a while to push passed the widest part of the head. The sensation was too much for him to bear. After giving a rather pathetic effort to push one more time, he fell apart on the couch and lost his last shred of dignity as he turned his head to cry.

Prompto quickly tried to coax Ignis out of this, "Hey hey, come on Ignis, you're doing good!"

"I want Noct," Ignis seethed and hiccuped.

Prompto brushed back Ignis's hair to smooth the fraying strands from his face, "Yeah, me too," Which was not very comforting, "B-but hey, he's gonna be here! He's like... Literally a few rooms down. He's gotta be here any minute."

Ignis regretted telling Mr. Scisco to not inform the King. In fact, he probably is going around telling every other person but Noctis. Had he heard, he would've been here by now, but being this far into laboring and pushing, Ignis knew that he wouldn't find any relief anytime soon.

On the next contraction, he sniffed and took hold of Prompto's bruised hand, gathering the strength and effort then to bear down and push with an astounding amount of strength that he had been saving up. His face was a brilliant scarlet hue as he held his breath in the effort. Slowly he felt the head inch out, slowly it stretched him even wider than he could imagine going. Though sure enough, he felt the head slip out, and left Ignis breathless with the sudden sensation.

"What?? What happened?" Prompto asked, far too anxious to check.

"Head is... Out.." Ignis swallowed, "Need... move m-me down, my legs are not... wide enough..."

Prompto was more than happy to help from the upper end of things, as he carefully scooted Ignis down so as to let one foot push against the arm of the couch and then he hiked his other foot up over the back cushions. And just as he prepared for another round, the door of the lounge flew open.

"Ignis??"

"..! Noct-"

Noctis warped to be right there, catching himself on the couch and coming in to shove Prompto out of the way, who was happy to give up his position.

"Ignis, I'm so sorry," Noctis breathed heavily and gathered up Ignis's shoulders to hold him and kiss his face, "Gods, had I known..!"

"That would require me being not so stubborn," Ignis commented and hugged his arm back around Noctis.

Prompto was rubbing his sore palm when he looked up to see that in marching after Noctis were Gladio and Cor, while Gladio kept a watch at the door, Cor stepped up alongside Prompto.

"How far is he?" Cor asked, removing his gloves and rolling up his sleeves.

"Um," Prompto gulped, "H-head's out."

Cor silently cursed as he slipped between Noctis and Prompto to get down to Ignis's legs instead.

Now that Noctis was here, Ignis found his hand to hold and succumbed to another contraction, biting down on his lower lip while he pushed. This time, he had some help at the other end with Cor fearlessly reaching down to gently guide the heir in twisting around and getting their shoulders free. Noctis winced at the grip Ignis had on him, but kissed his temple and whispered affirmations, ones he had been practicing to give for months now in preparation for this moment.

"Ignis, you're brilliant, your strong, your gorgeous," Noctis whispered comforted, "You can do this, you've faced far greater challenges than--"

Ignis threw back his head with a final cry as Cor shortly announced, "I got it!"

Noctis blinked and suddenly felt all that time preparing... He then cut to the chase, "Ah-hah! Ignis, you did it!"

Though neither of them were fully prepared in that moment for then to have Cor lift up a gurgling and mewling newborn. They were both stunned silent as they looked over the baby.

"A boy," Cor proudly said, "Lucis has itself a new prince."

The child cried and screamed, and before he went on to place the infant into his parents' arms, Prompto shrugged his coat off to offer for wrapping the baby in.

"Don't worry, I can get it drycleaned later," Prompto said as he draped it over Ignis's stomach, right where Cor would place the baby down.

Noctis helped bring the new princeling up to be held in his and Ignis's arms, where he cried up at the two of them. Noctis gave a watery chuckle and kissed all over Ignis's face.

"Gods, he looks so much like you," Noctis said weepily.

Ignis relaxed significantly and rubbed the upset infant's back, "And he sounds like you."

Noctis let out a louder laugh before he gave Ignis a proper kiss.