He wants to make a joke, maybe something about Noct's saddest scrappiest beard. (Still better than Prompto's goatee though, sweet Shiva.) But the more Ignis goes on the clearer it becomes how much this hurts him, pains him in ways Gladio can't understand. It hurts, seeing him like this and it hurts more knowing that the Ignis he knows, the one that's been keeping apart from him all these years, has been bearing this pain alone for so long.

There's nothing he can do for the Ignis he knows and maybe nothing he can really do for this Ignis but he can't sit by and ignore his pain. So Gladio pushes up onto his knees so he can shift himself, less beside and more behind Iggy, throwing one arm around him and crushing him against his chest in a hug, half dragging him onto his lap when he drops back down to the ground.

"You could've told us so you didn't have to suffer alone, idiot." And it's easier to focus on Ignis and how much he's hurting with all of this than have to acknowledge how many lives were lost because they didn't act sooner. Because they held out hope that Noctis would return before things got too bad. Before entire regions worth of people were lost to the darkness.