[ This is why he likes her. She treats all situations with the same sort of grace, but she doesn't hesitate to go straight for the throat. Ignis smiles thinly, glancing from her to the paperwork, not saying anything about the equally long drink she has from her glass. It can't be easy for her, whatever she needs to do. He understands that. ]

I can't tell if it hasn't worked at all or if I've miscalculated and it's worked too well.

[ If Noctis wants nothing to do with him, then so be it. Ignis is the one who left. He has no delusions about anything he's...owed. That said, the idea of losing Noctis is a nauseating one. If things are going to be like this forever, he's not going to stay. Maybe they need more time.

It's the inverse of before. Where Ignis had waited for ten years to see Noctis come back, Noctis has evidently waited one and found it too much. Ignis can't say he blames him. The one year felt a thousand times worse than the ten, sometimes. ]

I'm sorry. Truly. Neither of us had any intention of things...interfering with this new world that we have tried to build. It's my fault, for not breaking it off sooner once he had married you. I thought the time away would make things...easier when I tried to come back. I've never been as practiced at telling Noctis no as I would like; distance would help, I thought. If it's made things worse, know that was never my intent.