"So, you guys got anything special planned for today?" Iris asks setting a stack of pancakes on the center of the dining table.
"Yeah, we thought we'd do somethin' special for the big guy." Noctis says picking up three pancakes "Just wondering if you were up for helping Ignis make the cake." He adds drowning his fluffy cakes in syrup.
"You think I wasn't?" Iris laughs sitting next to Noctis "I just haven't decided on what flavor the cake should be yet." She says sighing.
"What about a Cup Noodle cake?" Prompto pipes up as he snatches the syrup from where it sat in front of Noctis.
"Ew." Noctis says laughing "You're kidding right?"
"Well sort of."
"Hmm. What about about a cake that resembles the cup? So that way it is indeed a Cup Noodle cake. The flavor however should blend well..." Ignis gasps snapping his fingers "That's it!"
"Hmmm. What's it?" Came the sleepy voice of Gladiolus who had made his way downstairs.
"I've come up with a new-Gladio!?" Ignis says sounding surprised.
"Pfff. New Gladio." Prompto snickers causing Noctis to smile "Can't wait to see him."
Ignis glares at the younger boys as Iris jumps up to her feet and hugs her older brother "Oh happy birthday Gladdy!" She says stansong on her toes as Gladio bends down so she could kiss his cheek.
Gladio hugs her smiling "Hmm, thanks Iris." He says ruffling her hair as he sits down next to Ignis "Whoa who made this?" He asks gesturing to the stack of pancakes.
"Ignis and me, I know it's your favorite second to Cup Noodle." Iris says watching as Gladiolus takes some for himself not bothering with syrup.
"So what's today's plans?" Gladiolus asks.
"Oh nothing much, just a simple hunt tis all." Ignis says sipping some Ebony. "Hmm..." Gladiolus nods "Well I was actually hoping that you could train Prompto to use a greatsword." Ignis says standing looking over at Prompto who looked overjoyed.
"Me train Prompto? What about the hunt? Are you and Noct gonna be doing it?" Gladiolus asks causing Ignis to nod "Indeed, we will be taking up the hunt."
"But we need you to train Prompto for this other hunt we planned to take up." Noctis says quickly "It requires us to all use swords, which Prompto doesn't know how to do correctly." He adds.
"Just for today we promise. You teach Prompto and we'll take care of the quest." Noctis says standing up motioning for Ignis to follow "Iris you comin'?" He calls to her as he reaches the door.
Iris nods as she waves goodbye to him "We'll be back later Gladdy." She says sprinting out of the old house with Gladiolus shouting out after her to come back.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine. She's with Noct and Ignis." Prompto says standing up collecting the plates that had been abandoned tossing them into the sink. "Hmmm, yeah but I would feel better with her here. The gods knows what trouble she and Noct would get into." Gladiolus says rubbing his temples.
"You forget, Ignis had eyes on the back of his head. He has that weird sight thing that people say moms have." Gladiolus sighs as he stands up he knew that Ignis would watch out for his sister and so would Noctis, but he couldn't help but worry about her.
"Come on, let's get this over with." Gladiolus says as he storms out of the house.
"As hey I remember these." Noctis says lifting up a large red plastic hand "Use to drive my old man crazy with this." Noctis says swinging the hand several times causing it make a loud clapping sound.
Iris laughs as she picks up a little egg shape electronic "Hey Noct remember these? She says hitting the 'try me' button. A little potato shaped creature pops up begging for food "Oh yeah, I kept killing mine...mostly because it kept beeping." Noctis says smirking which causes Iris to look surprised. "What? Noct that's so mean. I thought you loved animals?"
"I do, just not videogame ones. Ha, you should've seen Prompto though. Every time it beeped he was checking on it." Noctis laughs as he picks up a softball tossing it into the air and catching it. He sighs "This would be so much easier if he was a tech guy. We could've just gotten him a game and called it a day..." he grumbles "I mean, I don't want to get him any ol thing but what could we get him that's not Cup Noodle?" Noctis says frowning.
"What about a Cup Noodle hoodie?" Iris suggests causing Noctis to look at her surprised "Do they even have those?" He asks "They should, let's go check the novelty shop." She says grabbing his wrist tugging him along.
Meanwhile, Ignis was scanning the aisles for the needed ingredients to make this unique cake. Ignis frown as he looks at the image of the infamous noodle cup that Gladiolus loved so much. The chef had already planned on using fondant to make the noodles and the other little vegetables in the soup. Picking up some vanilla beans he thought that would best suit the noodles in the cake replica.
He sighs setting the beans into the basket with a frown "This is going to prove harder than I thought..." He mumbles to himself looking back at his phone. "Perhaps a butter cake with a chocolate icing..." He says looking at the image of the soup.
Back at Caem with Gladiolus and Prompto, the larger man swings the sword at the blonde who lifts his own in an attempt to block only to be knocked to the ground seconds later. Gladiolus groans as he watches Prompto struggle to get to his feet only to fall back down feeling winded "You can't be serious." He says earning a laugh from the gunmen.
"You don't think they have a greatsword sword out there that isn't so heavy do you?" Prompto asks looking up.
"What, you mean like a not-so-great greatsword?"
"Well when you put it like that it sounds stupid."
Gladiolus simply laughs as he helps Prompto to his feet. "You think Iris is okay?" Gladiolus asks pulling out his phone checking for texts before texting his sister "I'm sure she is. You know you worry to much." Prompto says taking out his own phone feeling it vibrate followed by a 'Kweh' sound.
"Gotta be. She's my little sister." He says causing Prompto to hum a bit "Wish I had siblings." He says softly responding to a text.
Promptos' phone 'kwehs' several times in a row causing Gladiolus to look at him curiously "Someone's popular today." He teases earning a laugh from Prompto who responds to the text.
'Prompto you guys still training'
Prompto sends a gif of the 'yee' dinosaur.
'Leave Caem, we're on our way'
Prompto sends a gif of Ness nodding with his iconic 'Okey'
"Hey, Gladio I'm hungry. Can we go to the Crow's Nest?" He asks. The larger man nods storing his phone "Yeah, do you have the Chocobo whistle?" He asks as Prompto pats himself down feeling for the whistle "I think it's in the cabin. I'll be right back." He says running back into the house.
Gladiolus rubs the back of his head waiting for Prompto to return when he suddenly heard the sound of gravel crunching. He looks up only to see a massive pink Chocobo walk up to him. It's left eye was blind with a long jagged scar over it, and it's beak was chipped and rugged "Nissin?" Gladiolus says sounding almost surprised.
"Wait if you're here then where's...?"
The rugged Chocobo looks behind itself only to see a blood red Chocobo come running up which trips over it's feet stumbling flapping its wings struggling to stay upright. The clumsy Chocobo stands shaking it's feathers out and happily chirps when it sees Prompto.
"Hey Axel!" Prompto shouts running up to the bird rubbing it under its chin. "So you were able to find the whistle." Gladiolus says hopping onto the birds back.
Prompto nods and hops into his own Chocobo and the two head out to the diner.
At the restaurant Gladiolus and Prompto sat in a booth, Gladiolus was checking his phone and Prompto was trying to make a house out of his waffles eating any part he cut off to make structure look correct.
Gladiolus sighs as he was sent to voice mail on Noctis' phone "What are they doing that Prince Can't-Answer-My-Phone is too busy!" Gladiolus gripes picking up his mug of beer. "Maybe, they ran into that infamous Gilgamesh guy." Prompto jokes which earns him a glare "Or maybe they don't have a signal?" He says pouring syrup over the structure.
"Hmmm...eat your food and stop playing with it." Gladiolus says as he looks at his phone this time calling Ignis.
The phone rings twice before it's answered "Iggy wha-Talcott?"
"Where's Ignis?"
"Oh. Well is Noct there, and what about Iris?"
Prompto only watches as Gladiolus talks on the phone before he hears a click on the window, he turns only to see Nissin, Gladiolus' chocobo, motion with its head to come here.
"Be right back." The blonde says standing and exiting the restaurant. Outside standing next to his greenish gray chocobo was Noctis.
"Noct, dude you got the goods?"
"Yeah, we're setting everything up now. Keep the big guy busy for us until we call you guys."
Prompto nods "Gotcha covered!" He says smiling "I will keep him busy." The gunmen says with a thumbs up.
He waves goodbye to the prince as he renters the resturant.
Gladiolus looks over to him he was no longer using his phone "Where'd you go?" He asks him curiously.
"Went to check on the Chocobos." He says sitting back down to continue to eat, he noticed that Gladiolus had a second mug of beer. Curiosity causes Prompto to reach for the mug that sat next to Gladiolus "Is beer any good?" He asks.
"Mm-hmm" Gladiolus nods "It's the drink of the gods." He says smiling. "Can I have some?" Prompto asks innocently causing Gladiolus to laugh "Didn't think you were the type to drink. But I gotta say no. You still aren't old enough, the only beer you should be drinking is the one with root in front of it."
Prompto puffs out his cheeks in annoyance hating that he wasn't allowed to have a taste.
The two left the restaurant only to spend the next hour walking around taking pictures with the photographer snapping photos of whatever he saw.
They returned to the old house in Caem late in the afternoon, after getting a call from Noctis.
When they entered the house the first thing Gladiolus and Prompto noticed was just how dark it was inside. Gladiolus' hand fumbles on the wall as he struggles to find the light switch.
And once the lights are on he heard a resounding "Happy birthday Gladio!"
The Shield could only stare in absolute shock, he wasn't expecting...this.
The entire downstairs was decorated with a large banner with 'Happy B-Day Gladio' on it. There was a green table cloth with a cake size Cup Noodle on it. Next to the cake was several presents.
Everyone was standing next to the table and Prompto urged Gladiolus to go over as he set to work to getting his camera ready for a group photo.
Once in position Prompto joins the others and the camera snaps the photo. With that out of the way they delve right into the party.
Gladiolus couldn't help smiling a sappy smile at the sight of the cake "Aww man, only if they made them this big." He says as Ignis lights the candles on the cake "I'm sure they will eventually, and you shall be the first to know."
With the candles lit everyone begins to sing happy birthday to Gladiolus making him continue to smile. Once it was over Gladiolus blows out the candles.
"What did you wish for Gladdy?" Iris asks making her brother hold his finger up to his lips "Can't tell ya, then it ain't coming true." He teases.
"I bet it's for some cup noodle." The prince teases as Ignis cuts into the cake "No matter what the wish may be, we all agree that we would like for it to come true for you." Ignis says earning around of 'yeahs' from everyone.
"Now..." Ignis says handing Gladiolus a slice of cake who happily eats it "I do believe it's time for your gifts." He says looking over at Noctis who picks up his gift to Gladiolus "You don't know what it took to get you your size." He teases as Gladiolus opens the gift.
He sees a large white hoody and lifts it up examining the front only for him to burst into a fit of laughter yanking the prince into a hug "This is absolutely the best!" He says "Now I can eat and wear Cup Noodle." He says showing everyone his Cup Noodle hoodie.
"Here you go." Ignis says hand him a box. Gladiolus takes it thanking him as he sets it on the table. Upon opening it he finds that there are several books inside, to be exact books from his favorite author. Each book was signed and even came with a letter directed towards him "I-Ignis, where did you? How did you?" He failed to find the words he was looking for, so he settled with hugging the other.
Ignis only laughs as he returns the hug "You are most welcome." He says happily causing Prompto to rush up with a gift of his own "Happy birthday big guy!" He says lifting up the large gift which Gladiolus lifts with ease.
Gladiolus opens Promptos' given gift only to find a large duffel bag, opening that Gladiolus finds a tent. This one is black and based off the manual it's triple the size of their current one.
Gladiolus' eyes light up, he was a sucker for camping and this was great. He had always planned on buying a bigger tent but never got around to it "Can't wait to test this baby out." He says before thanking the blonde.
Iris was the next one to approach her brother smiling "Gladdy, I got you something that I think you would like." she says happily. Gladiolus didn't have time to respond for she races upstairs only to return minutes later with what looked like a cage under a blanket.
"What is it?" He asks curiously poking the object, it did feel like a cage "You'll see." She says smiling.
Gladiolus shrugs removing the blanket, revealing a large rectangular cage, sitting inside of it with all the fixings for a caged animal sat a small fluffy creature with bat wings and a antennae with a red ball at the end.
It was a Moogle.
Gladiolus couldn't resist, he was like Prompto when it came to Chocobos. The big guy just loved how cute and small Moogles are. He opens the door of the cage and pulls out the creature holding it gently he watches as it hops in his palm "Kupo?" it squeaks.
"Iris this is the best gift ever! He says hugging her and giving her a kiss on top of the head.
"Knew you'd like it."
Gladiolus simply laughs turning to his friends he thanks them again for the party.
And later that might he stayed up playing with his Moogle.