Ignite My Heart (Ignis X Reader)

Chapter 22

I continued to practice my walking with Ignis and eventually was starting to walk on my own. Well, actually more like stumble on my own. I still walk very slowly and tend to lose balance, but my ankle doesn't hurt nearly as much now. It's late at night and Ignis watches as I manage to walk around the room on my own. He's leaned up against the wall with his arms crossed across his chest, smiling at me.

"Excellent. You're getting better," he paused for a moment, "Would you like to try walking downstairs?" He asks smoothly. I stop in my place and just stare at him. I'm a bit nervous to, but after giving it some thought I nod.

He holds a hand out to me offering to help, but instead of grabbing it I just lower his arm back down to his side. "It's okay. I want to do it myself,"

He's hesitant at first, "Well, alright. But I'll be right beside you to catch you if you fall."

We head out to the stairs and everyone gets up from the dinner table below us. "Well, would you look at that?" Noct says rather impressed.

"Glad to see you moving again," Gladio adds.

"They grow up so fast," Prompto sniffles as he whips away a fake tear from his eye.

I give him a funny look, "I'm injured, not 2."

"Will you gentlemen stand at the end of the stairs?" Ignis asks as he wraps his arm around my shoulder and guides me the rest of the way. The others do as he asks and I stand there looking at my path. Were these stairs always this tall? I breath nervously, not sure if I should do this after all.

"Love?" I look over my shoulder at Ignis. "Are you sure you want to do this?" He asks as if sensing my nervousness. This question makes me all the more determined though.

I try to focus on Ignis' touch for a moment to calm myself. I close my eyes and take a few deep breathes. Finally, I nod and begin taking slow steps. As I descend I could hear the handsome man's footsteps follow me. I hold on to both railings for dear life as I walk. I almost stumble a few times which causes the boys to freak out a little each time. Luckily though, Ignis keeps his word and grabs my shoulders to keep me up when this happens. Eventually, I reach the last step and everyone congratulates me. I continue to walk around the room for them and they start talking about how much longer it might be until we head for Altissia. Then Gladio grabs my arm to stop me.

"Before we go to Altissia," he starts, "we need to retrain you."

I raise an eyebrow at him, "Excuse me?"

He crosses his arms, "We're gonna be dealing with the Hydrean. And Altissia is built on top of the water. This is gonna be way worse than Titan and we need to make sure we're all ready for it." I consider this for a moment. It has been a while since I've even been able to move. I might be a little rusty.

"So, you wanna start first thing tomorrow morning?" He asks. The others try to intervene, stating that it may be too early for this, but I disagree.

"I wanna leave soon. I think I can do this,"

Gladio smiles, "Alright. Bright and early."

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Training isn't so bad at first. We start out simple and practice running everyday. Gladio makes sure not to get ahead of me, so that I can take my time. Over time, my balance improves and I'm able to move just fine again. Almost as if the injury never happened. Then we start working on strength exercises. Gladio determines that I have lost a bit of strength, but not too much. We continue this for a while until one day he suggests an actually duel. I'm a bit hesitant about it, but of course I decided to do it.

The next morning, I head outside with all the guys and Gladio instructs me to practice summoning my weapons for a few minutes first. Despite it looking easy it actually takes a lot of mind power to use these powers correctly. I hold out a hand and focus hard to summon my sword. After a few seconds a great sword appears in my hand. I stumble and almost drop the weapon on Prompto. These things are too heavy to hold with just one hand.

"Hey! You almost hit me!" Prompto yelled. I could see he managed to move out of the way though.

"Sorry!" I unsummon my weapon which is a bit easier to do, "I meant to summon a regular sword..."

"Come on, Y/N. Focus." Gladio instructs.

I stand up straight and hold out both my hands on either side of me, trying to summon my daggers this time. I feel like I'm starting to sweat from focusing so hard. I try to imagine the two small blades appearing my hands. After a few seconds it works. I continue to summon and unsummon different weapons.

After summoning them all Gladio asks if I'm ready to fight. At first, he blocks all of my attacks and hits me in the back every time I try to attack him with anything. Once the sun is up fully we stop. I couldn't attack him at all. This goes on for a few days. I try and try again but continue to fail. But there's no way I'm giving up. After another one of our training sessions I stay outside and continue practicing on a tree.

I try different moves other than just swinging a weapon. There's just one move I can't seem to master though. I try to jump and strike down with my Javelin just like Aranea did, but I end up falling on my butt every time. After the most embarrassing fall I've had this morning I hear a slight chuckle from behind me. I look to find my handsome boyfriend.

"Iggy!" I yell. My face turns pink as I quickly stand up.

He coughs a bit and tries to regain his composure, "Excuse me." He stands up from the front steps and walks towards me.

"How long have you been sitting there?" I ask.

"Awhile," I look down in shame and embarrassment. He then takes my face in his hands and looks at me. "Would you like me to teach you, love?"

"Please?" He smiles and kisses my forehead. He summons his polearm and shows me how its really done.

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I'm practically skipping outside the next morning, ready to show Gladio my skills.

"Someone looks pretty confident this morning," Gladio says.

I smile and summon my polearm, "Maybe I have a few tricks up my sleeve?"

He chuckles and summons his great sword, "Alright. I'm not holding back."

He quickly charges at me and takes a swing, but I manage to jump high in the air like Ignis had taught me to yesterday. I look down to see Gladio looking around in a daze. He must not have seen me actually jump. As he unsummons his weapon I come striking down behind him and kick him down while he's in a daze. I then point the sharp end of my Javelin at his face.

"Told you had some tricks up my sleeves," He looks at me in utter shock and disbelief.

He moves my weapon away with his hand and stands up. "I wasn't awake yet. Let's go again," he said in an attempt to protect his manhood. We continue training the rest of the morning and I am doing great. I still get hit sometimes, but I manage to get more hits on him. Once the suns come up Gladio instructs me to stop.

"Wow, Y/N! That was amazing!" Prompto congratulates.

"Think she's ready for Altissia?" Noct asks Gladio.

"She's still a little wet behind the ears, but she's definitely ready," he answers.

As we all head inside Ignis stops me and turns me around to face him. "You were wonderful, Y/N"

"Thank you for teaching me," I mumble nervously. He lifts my chin up and kisses me softly.