Okay so I may have been reading a lot of chocobros headcanons lately and I may have fallen slightly in love with everyone's ideas of how Ignis would interact with an s/o. So, naturally, I turned it into a story opportunity! Woot woot!

Spoilers: Will slowly work its way through the entire game, so expect spoilers for all significant events. This will start long before the game, though, and switch perspectives between Ignis and Aria when I deem it fit.

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Funerals were a confusing matter for children, and for young Aria it was even moreso; her father had died as one of many, and while all were being honoured at this ceremony, she knew only one really mattered to her. She stood at her crying mother's side as her father's torn Crownsguard jacket was presented to her, and when the ceremony was over, she walked among the citadel grounds trying to absorb the reality that her father was never coming home.

It was supposed to be a simple trip. Her father had been assigned to guard Prince Noctis, but there had been a daemon attack. No one but the prince himself had survived, and he and the king were in Tenebrae. To facilitate the prince's recovery, her mother had told her. She also told her that Aria should be proud of her father for dying in the line of duty.

"Don't see how I could be proud of him for dying at all..." the young girl muttered, kicking a stone across the grass and pulling on her shoulder-length, chesnut hair. Her mother had pulled two of the front sections back into braids for the occasion, but they were already coming loose.

She didn't quite notice that the rock she'd kicked had bounced off someone's shoe, or that the someone in question had heard her mutterings. So when he appeared at her side, she jumped, so startled she almost forgot to listen to him when he spoke. "The way someone dies does matter... but I imagine it's difficult to see when it's this fresh."

A brow was raised at the bespectacled boy, but then she dropped her eyes. "Yeah, I guess/"

He seemed about to say more, but then Aria's mother's voice came from behind her. "Aria! It's time to go."

"Coming!" She turned back to the boy, offering a nod. "Bye."

"Goodbye, and I'm sorry for your loss."

Halfway to turning away, she paused, managed a sad smile. "Thanks."

And she ran back to her mother to return to their now too-empty home.

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Yeah, Aria's dad was one of the guards killed when Marilith attacked Noctis as a kid. I was deliberately vague for her age here because the sources I find can't seem to agree on how old Noct was at the time of the attack.