2
"You again?" Libertus sounded harsh, but anyone who had gotten to know him for more than a few hours could probably tell he didn't mean it
In their cases, Crowe was glad that Noctis had, because if he was anything like the nobles they normally had to deal with he would be getting Libs into trouble by now.
"What can I say, I like the view." Noctis nodded over at Nyx, who was stretching before the new recruits got there for warp training.
Nyx looked up at that, giving an exaggerated wink. "I'll make sure to put on a show just for you, highness."
Libertus snorted, shaking his head at them. "If his highness likes the uniform so much, we should get him into one, he spends enough time here." It had been a month of this...whatever it was between the two and Noctis was already becoming a common fixture around their headquarters.
That perked Crowe up, she had nothing much to do, here just to be a spotter for the training, and she just knew there was some potential mischief to be had. So, she grabbed one of the blank application forms and a pen, and slapped them down in front of Noctis.
"Think you can meet the criteria?" she challenged with a grin.
He laughed, picking up the pen and shuffling through the pages. "I don't know, this magic stuff seems really involved," he joked, jotting down the basic information about himself that most in Insomnia probably knew by heart.
"Don't worry, you seem like a bright kid, I'll help you out. And I'm sure Libs will, too. We better keep you away from Glaive Ulrich, though, horrible influence." Nyx made a rude hand gesture at her as Libertus laughed.
"Why does this thing ask about parents?" Noctis asked, making Crowe realized he was actually filling everything in.
Libertus looked it over, shrugging. "I don't know, background check? Next of kin?"
"Probably just copied it from some other form and never bothered updating," Nyx guessed.
Crowe could only vaguely remember those parts of the form, it wasn't like she'd had much to put in considering both her parents were deceased, and she also leaned over to get a look at what Noctis might actually be putting.
A laugh escaped her in a huff of air. "I don't know if that's a good joke or a cry for help."
He looked up at her, frowning. "What?"
She tilted her head, then tapped the section about his mother. "Putting Drautos down as her family name." Libertus let out a groan and Nyx gave a soft chuckle, apparently falling on the side of a joke.
Noctis, though, looked even more confused. "...Uh, that was her name?"
A long moment of silence followed, the three of them looking back and forth at each other around the prince as they processed that information.
"That's quite a coincidence, sharing a name with the Captain," Libertus said into the silence.
"I thought it was common for siblings to have the same family names?" The way he said it, like he was questioning his own beliefs, was what made Crowe realize it was true.
"You're the Captain's nephew?" She felt dazed by the words coming out of her mouth.
Nyx made a choked off gasping sound, hands falling from where they'd been playing with Noctis' hair. "Oh fuck."
Noctis scowled, looking at them. "Seriously? One, it's not exactly a state secret, two, you're more intimidated by that than me being the heir to the throne? You know my father could just...make you disappear, right?"
"Yeah, but the Captain's one of the people he probably has do that shit," Libertus unhelpfully pointed out. "Ifrit's balls, we've been lucky he's been away on those back to back missions."
"Why? He'd probably just yell at me and kick me out of here."
"And then castrate Nyx," Crowe gasped out, laughing.
Nyx looked not great at that thought.
"Look on the bright side," Libertus clapped a hand on Nyx's shoulder, "one of these snitches has probably already told him and by the time he gets back, maybe he'll have cooled off."
"Or thought of new, horrible ways to torture me."
"He's not going to hurt you. I'm nineteen, I'm not a kid."
Nyx made another, wounded sound. "Astrals, I'm fucking the Captain's teenage nephew."
There was a gasp to the side and they all turned as one, staring at the group of people who'd just overheard them. Mostly trainees, which was the best case scenario, except they'd been going over routes with some of the other veteran Glaives, who had definitely heard.
"You...what?" Tredd eloquently asked.
"Once more, I'd like to remind you, that I'm also the King's teenage son and that should scare you more!" Noctis whined, then grimaced. "Not that you should be scared at all, because it's my body and time, and I'm an adult."
It had already been a little awkward that Nyx was with a nineteen year old, but Noctis' life was so weird that age didn't seem like much of an issue when it was specifically the guy who could be their king at any moment. Not to mention no one could doubt that Noctis was the one with power over Nyx. And it probably helped that he and Nyx seemed about equal on the maturity level.
But Noctis being the King's son was like an abstract idea. They barely ever saw the king and didn't know if the king could even connect most of their names and faces, if he knew their names at all.
Drautos, though? They saw him all the time. He knew their names, their habits, had been to most of their homes. He knew where they slept and now had a reason to use that information against one of them.
"Dude," Tredd looked between them all, "you are so dead, Ulrich. And the Captain's going to take his time."
"I'm going to get nothing but suicide missions," Nyx muttered.
Noctis threw his hands into the air. "No one is murdering anyone here. I'll talk to Uncle Titus before he gets back."
"Uncle Titus," Nyx repeated, breathless and miserable.
The other Glaives couldn't even be bothered looking sympathetic. Luche, when he found out, even started a betting pool on how long Nyx had left to live.
And when the Captain did return even people who had the day off were in the HQ, and Pelna was supplying popcorn.
Drautos paused inside, looking around at all of them, then headed straight to his office. Like nothing had happened.
"Holy shit, does he not know?" someone whispered, all eyes now on Nyx who was trying to warp his way into the unforgiving ground.
An hour later, people were beginning to lose interest, when Drautos came out of his office, heading straight for Nyx. "Ulric!"
"S-sir!" Nyx straightened, giving a perfect salute like he rarely ever did.
"You were supposed to pick his highness up twenty minutes ago, are you standing him up?" There was an edge to his voice that promised horrible, horrible things.
Nyx frantically pulled out his phone, face going pale as he looked at the screen. "No, no, sir!"
Drautos crossed his arms, glaring somehow even harder. "Then what are you waiting for? And I better not hear about you wasting his time like this again!"
If it was possible, Nyx would have probably discovered the way to warp across the city right then and there. Instead, he scrambled away, nearly stumbling over the stairs as he left.
Silence descended, Drautos looking around at the assembled Glaives. "It was decided when I took this position that we wouldn't be advertising our family ties" he stated, and there was a dip in his voice that sounded a lot like pain. "That does not change the fact they exist. If Ulric takes one step out of line, he'll regret it. And if any of you use this against his highness..." he trailed off, not needing to get into details when their imaginations could come up with far worse things, individualized for each of them.
After that, Noctis once more became a fixture around the Glaive Headquarters. When Nyx still showed some anxiety over the Captain, Crowe pointed out that this was the most time he probably ever got to spend around his nephew, and they both had the dawning realization that Nyx was probably still alive because he was Drautos' direct line to Noctis, now.
"I can never break up with him," Nyx whispered, eyes wide.
"Uh, were you planning on that?"
Libertus, listening in, snorted. "He spent a whole night crying on my couch because he misinterpreted a text and thought the kid was leaving him."
"Hey! You promised you wouldn't bring that up!"
"Crowe doesn't count, hero."
She smirked. "Don't worry, we all know you two have it bad for each other. I'm only judging you a little bit."
"Thanks." Nyx didn't sound the least bit thankful.
"So, what are you doing for your anniversary? Better not disappoint or the Captain will probably have words."
His eyes widened in horror and he frantically checked the date, scowling as he remembered he'd only been seeing Noctis for a few months. She warped away with a laugh, narrowly avoiding getting skewered.