"Man, these raids are exhausting!" Iris plopped down on the couch of the rather large living room. She picked up the television remote tentatively, but decided against watching anything. "Nothin' positive on T.V anymore." She thought. Iris looked down on the scattered magazines that were on her coffee table "Ugh, Note to self: never let Prompto read my stuff." One particular magazine caught her eye and made her re-live some rather painful memories. It was the Accordo Times magazine issue on Lunafreya, the cover was a beautiful picture of her in a white dress while the headline praised her for being "THE ORACLE EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW" with a little blurb detailing her marriage to Noctis. To her, Luna was always some perfect being, a Goddess who could do no wrong. Luna knew what to do and what to say at all times, everyone adored her. The worst part of Iris' feelings of Envy was the fact that no matter how hard she tried she could never demonize Luna. The Tenebraen women lived a painful life and still became the youngest Oracle to ever ascend. How could she compete with perfection?
She was shaken from her thoughts when a knock on the door signaled the arrival of her Gladdy and Noctis.
"Good shit out there, sis. You were like a mini Cor."
"Yeah you were amazing! What are you doing here all alone, when we're all hanging out downstairs? Come on! Prompto is showing us some pics and I bet there are some badass ones of you!"
"Sorry guys, I was cleaning up some magazines Prompto left lying around"
"Why do you have a magazine about Luna in your hands? You know we're not a thing anymore right?
"Yeah, but it bought back some painful memories from when I thought you and her loved each other!"
"Wow, really? I never knew that you were so jealous of her…"
Gladio sighed and shook his head a bit, the Shield always wondered how Noctis could be so clueless about well…everything. He held back his tongue because he felt his sister could give a better explanation.
"How could I have not been jealous?! I've been in love with you since the first time we met and ever since then I've been bombarded with details over you and Luna's marriage! Everywhere I went I heard people saying stuff like "The prince is so lucky having Lady Lunafreya as a future wife" or "Those two would make a perfect couple" I felt worthless because I knew I could never compare to her!"
Iris didn't realize that white hot tears were streaming down her face as her rant continued. Gladio crossed his arms over his chest and rocked back and forth on the couch, clearly uncomfortable with the events that were happening. Noctis' mouth was agape as he just realized the feelings of resentment Iris carried with her. He never knew that such a sweet and caring person bottled up this much pain.
"The worst part was the day I finally met Luna. It was a meeting between the two Royal families and Gladdy and I were there on guard duty. I have to admit, I secretly hoped that Luna was actually a bitch when no one was looking but nope, she was just as kind and wonderful and fucking perfect as she was on the cameras! Then, Luna and Noct left to hang out and Gladdy left to chat with some girls and I was just there! I could have never confessed my feelings to you, Noct because you already had the love of your life and I didn't want to bur-"
Noctis cut her rant off with an unexpected hug. The king let his girlfriend cry over his shoulder for as long as she needed. He had a feeling that Iris was holding in those feelings for a long time. When Iris finally looked up at him, he had to pause to process what he was seeing. Her beautiful face was covered in tender tears, in that moment he resolved to never let Iris cry like that ever again. Noct wiped some stray tears of her face before telling her exactly how he felt.
"Iris, me and Luna were forced to be together, no matter how much we liked each other as friends we knew that we could never love each other. When you're a kid and you're being told that you are going to have to marry some other random kid, you're not going to like it. I always had my eyes on you iris; I just knew that I couldn't act on my feelings. Luna never really liked me either…"
"How could she not like you? You're perfect…"
"Yeah, if you're into guys that have no muscles" Gladio injected himself into a conversation; he caught a glare from the King and laughed mischievously.
"Although your brother is being a dick, he does kinda have a point. Luna is into beefier looking men. In fact, the trip you just mentioned? I only went alone with Luna, so I could be used as a decoy!"
"Decoy?"
"Yeah, I was just used as a cover so Luna and Gladio could have sex" Noctis responded in the most casual way possible.
"GLADDY, YOU SLEPT WITH LADY LUNAFREYA?!" Iris almost turned blue in shock as Gladio and Noctis chortled.
"Yep, it was just a quickie to relieve some tension; me and Luna were never dating."
"I never thought Luna would be into casual sex. I thought she was a "true love" kinda gal."
"That's what Luna and I hated about our status. We were always supposed to be perfect. Luna is a great person, but if she did one remotely normal thing, it would scandalous. Both of us couldn't do any typical teenage stuff. It sucked! Besides, I don't think me and Luna would ever be compatible even if we weren't in an arranged marriage."
"Why?"
"She's freakin weird! When we were teens, she refused to give me her number and instead insisted we communicate by passing letters through her magical dogs! She always told me that Umbra and Pryna would "deliver our letters without fail" and I'm like "yeah, cellphones could do that too and it won't take two months with a phone!" plus she said she was into older men and I'm four years younger than her."
"Wow….I didn't know all this about Lady Lunfreya"
"And I didn't know that you held all this resentment towards her. Why didn't you ever tell me you felt this way?"
"I didn't want to add to your growing list of problems Noctis."
"Iris, I fell for you because you're one of the few people who treat me like a regular person and not royalty. I want to hear about your problems because I love you."
Gladiolus wiping away his tears and some undignified sniffling from the bigger man cause both Noctis and Iris to look at Gladio with confusion.
"Gladdy, why are crying?"
"It's just that this scenario remind me of my favorite novel, "Endless Dawn"! It's about a princess falling in love with her devoted knight instead of the Prince he was destined to marry. I'm sorry; I get really emotional thinking about it."
"Aw, that's sweet Gladdy…I think."
"Wait a minute, are you saying I'm a freakin' princess?! You know what, forget it. We have to go."
"Where are we going Noctis?"
"Altissia, I have to get the Leviathan's power and Nyx and Luna gave us a boat to go. We're heading out tomorrow."
"The empire is supposed to be there to" added Gladio "We best be better for anything"
"Don't worry dude, with all of us plus Nyx and Luna, it's going to be a piece of cake fighting off the empire!"
*this is going to be the last chapter before shit goes down. Also, even though I hate Luna, I decided to not treat her like garbage in this fic. I wanted to add more to her character but I don't know if it would considered OOC since the game gave her no personality*
