[ The gesture doesn't go unnoticed. Ignis cuts the sausage in half with his salad fork and pushes the larger half over to Noctis' side. His half he eats in one go so he doesn't have to say anything before he can think about it, first. Were he younger, more insecure, he thinks he would have worried about the utter lack of an answer there. Now, he realizes they're likely both doing the same thing: feeling each other out.

It's a conversation that needs to happen, but perhaps shouldn't be happening in their bed. There's no way to put it off now, though, so Ignis polishes off the salad with one more bite and then focuses on his coffee. ]

I think that the Council will push you for an answer within the next two years, maybe sooner. I think...I think that my love for you is not dependent on our status or any children, but part of me thinks the idea of expecting you to do anything outside of living your life is unspeakably unfair. The world, of course, isn't fair, but I want to believe that everything you've been through means you've earned the right to choose without people fighting you on it. I think that we've held off on the idea of marriage for various reasons, but it...is related to this and we should, perhaps, talk about what it means.

[ Before, he wasn't sure if he could maintain a relationship with Noctis in secret, keeping to shadows while Noctis rules from the throne during the day and Ignis sneaks into his room at night like the mistress no one can speak of. Isn't something better than nothing? But now...he's not sure what it means that if Noctis is forced to marry, Ignis would likely request that it be broken off, for both of them. It's a sobering consideration to make, but he doesn't think he's strong enough to experience sweet and then never be able to have it again. Maybe that makes him less of a good man than he'd like to think of himself as.]

I think that regardless of what you do for the crown and for your people, I will always be by your side until my last breath, in one way or another.