Uploaded November 2012 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

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This was meant to be for Shipping Wars, but I get that it's probably too late to count. My laptop broke, not sure why, blah blah, thought I'd lost everything but we recovered the hard drive, and bam! Here's my Noctis/Zack angsty 'Seperation' themed thing.

It also has a story. Whoops.

Zack and Noctis are together and happy- despite Noctis being in a position of power within the aristocracy/monarchy, little fuss is raised about him and Zack being an item. Etro, goddess of death and all that, repeatedly tries to tempt Noct into making a deal with her since she evidently fancies the idea of having a ~prince~ doing her bidding, but Zack is adamant that Noct stays away from her, no matter what happens.

A war breaks out, and even though Noctis manages to avoid Zack having to be conscripted/drafted for it, Zack rebels since he doesn't want to sit around feeling useless and runs off to try and fight. Trying to follow him, Noct gets there too late, and finds his dead body, understandably breaking down.

However, while mourning, he decides he can't watch him be buried, and goes and gives in to Etro in exchange for Zack's life- binding them both to Etro. For a while, he tries to keep poor Zack oblivious as to what's happened, pretending nothing has changed- but struggles to outright lie to him, which is what catches him out, as well as the fact that he's behaving oddly without meaning to and refusing to let him out in public . So when Zack jokes about Etro... he doesn't respond, leading Zack to come to the horrified realisation that the dreams he's had about dying and Etro all happened, were all real.

Zack snaps at him and leaves, but finds out pretty fast that his death and resurrection are big news, and a lot of people, convinced it's unnatural, want him dead. Cornered by soldiers, he picks up his sword and tries to fight them off. Eventually, Noct realises that Zack must be in trouble, and he dashes off to try and help. By the time he gets there, there are only a few soldiers left, but his arrival distracts Zack and they manage to hold him down.

Noctis lets the heart of Etro take over, and slaughters them with minimal effort. When Zack shouts at him for being an idiot and taking on that sort of power for selfish reasons, for a moment he moves as if to attack him, causing him to back off. Noct resists enough to not harm Zack, but the strain causes him to pass out.

When they return home, although he's guilty for abandoning him, Zack tells Noctis that he just can't stand to be with someone he can't trust, that they can't be together anymore. Sick of the lies, and hoping to escape his enslavement to Etro by getting out to fight elsewhere, with a few apologies he leaves as Noctis starts to regain consciousness, dazed and confused.

When Zack leaves, he doesn't wake up again until footsteps fall within that chamber again.

It isn't Zack. But the heart takes over, and even if he doesn't want to move, doesn't want to do anything, he stands up. He doesn't have a choice.

Bonus thingie don't know if it still counts:
My NOTP is Riku/Xion.
Simply because I can't see any grounding whatsoever for it. While I think Xion's character is flat and dull, there at least might be some inclination towards putting her with Roxas or Axel or Namine or someone who she spent time with. Even though Riku had a lot of cutscenes with her, he was either beating the shit out of her, or talking about getting Sora back. I just... couldn't see chemistry there at all, and to me it seems like people desperately trying to pair Riku off with a girl, because omfg ew the yaois...!

Anyway. Ahem.