via
https://ift.tt/2Oi2FnkGreat questions! Sorry for the late response, you probably know from Discord that my immune system was being a brat again.
So after the initial reunion, Ardyn is going to have a lot of emotional baggage to work through (that’s his nibling, the boy he thought forever lost to him, the boy he thought his brother had raised to hate him or at least forget him) (and his only true friend in recent memory is back too, the man he watched fade away as he remained unchanged, frozen in time, eternal). But he also can’t work through it immediately. There are hundreds, if not thousands of children, traumatized children with impossible memories and a massive language barrier, children who need homes and medical attention and therapy and care. So he gets those things for them, coordinates with Child Services and hospitals and clerks and the Resistance, works himself to the bone to get these children what they need.
And then, when the worst is past, when these children have a future—
He crashes.
He tucks himself into a cot in the lab and shakes and cries and desperately tries not to think.
He’s alone—but not for long.
First, it’s Leo who slips in to check on him, who knows that Ardyn will neglect himself for their benefit. It’s Leo who sees the state he’s in, and thinks no, not on my watch.
It’s Leo who finds Prompto. And it’s Prompto who drags as many of his siblings as he can find to Ardyn’s little corner, who sits outside the door and leads them all in a song he half-remembers from his childhood, a simple rhyme that reminds him of home.
And Ardyn hears, gets up, opens the door, and lets them in.
Ardyn falls asleep with Prompto tucked against his chest, the others in cots around them.
In the morning, he’ll finalize the last details. But for now, he sleeps, knowing he’s loved for the first time in many, many years.
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