Sometimes Gladio has to get creative to get Noct up in the morning...As with the first chapter, this one was also partly inspired by the Duscae demo.

"Ahhh, give it a rest, you guys, it's useless," Prompto said, exasperated, as he flopped back against the floor of the tent, rubbing at his face. "He's not getting up."

Ignis was sitting patiently nearby, watching as Gladio attempted to rouse the prince for the hundredth time, only succeeding in causing a slight shift of weight and another annoyed groan.

"Come on, Noct," Gladio urged again, giving his shoulder yet another brief shake. "We've already given you an extra twenty minutes."

The prince only attempted to roll even further away in response—which was difficult, seeing how he was already pressed as far against the wall of the tent as possible.

"Ugh, turn it off, please, Ignis," Prompto pleaded, referring to the blaring alarm. "It's clearly having no effect on him, and it's only a couple beeps away from giving me an aneurysm."

Ignis reached for his phone, silencing it. "He must not have slept very well last night. I thought I heard him get up at one point."

"Yeah, he was tossing and turning all over the place," Prompto explained, having bore the brunt of more than one inadvertent attack of flailing limbs during the night. "He smacked me in the face at three."

"Probably not an accident," Gladio said. "I was about to shove one of my socks in your mouth, myself."

"Huh?"

"You were snoring."

"I was not."

Gladio snorted. "'Kay. Whatever you say, Snorsky Mcgee."

"...Snorsky Mc...what?" Prompto said, completely confused at the prospect of himself being a snorer and Gladio making such an absurdly unexpected remark about it.

Gladio turned his attention back to the prince. "Come on, it's time," he urged once more, willing himself not to lose his patience as he pulled the prince up yet again.

Noct just swayed, half-lidded eyes blinking heavily as he yawned for a moment before slumping to the side yet again. "Five more minutes," he mumbled.

Gladio sighed, his patience running thinner by the minute.

"Give it up, Gladio," Prompto said, holding his phone above him and tapping away at it. "It's no use. The tent could catch fire and he still wouldn't budge. I've found it's best at times like this to just sit back and relax with some video games and let him come to on his own in a few hours." He reached for a package of licorice nearby. "Oh, but don't eat too much of the leftover junk food, because if you're not in the mood for breakfast when he wakes, even if it's noon, it doesn't help his grumpiness any."

"We're not sitting around here until noon." Gladio stated.

Noct groaned. His way of telling them to shut up and stop talking about him.

"Hate to tell you this, but it looks like we are," Prompto said, tapping away at his phone and ripping into a piece of licorice.

Gladio thought for a second. "Hundred gil says I can have him up and ready for a brief training session in three minutes."

Prompto snorted. "Three minutes? You're on, dude." They'd had too many sleepovers for him not to recognize when his best friend was just not in a budging mood. This would be an easy win.

"I almost hate to resort to this, Highness," Gladio said, planting a solid poke into the prince's side, causing him to flinch involuntarily.

That caught Noct's attention. "Gladio," he mumbled, his voice thick with fatigue, "I swear to God, if you touch me..."

Gladio poked a couple more times, each eliciting another reflexive flinch from the prince. Noct swatted angrily at him, too groggy to land any actual blocking.

Ignis glanced up from his phone, hardly paying attention. Prompto continued to tear at the stale licorice, snickering. "I never knew Noct was ticklish."

"Oh, yeah. Deathly," Gladio explained. "Back when he was little and being a snot during training by refusing to participate, all I'd have to do is pin him down and tickle him until he either cried or peed his pants, and it would make him so mad, he'd immediately be up for sparring." He grinned. "Fond memories."

He poked again, easily evading Noct's slow and poorly-aimed blocks.

"Gladio..." Noct warned, his voice low.

"So easy to get a rise out of him." Poke. Poke. Poke.

That was it. Still too sleep-muddled to barely function, Noct launched a feeble attack at the bigger man. Which was probably the biggest mistake he could have made, seeing how Gladio had him down in half a second, completely pinned and restrained at the center of the tent.

Prompto barely managed to swing his legs out of the way. "Watch it!" he exclaimed, more fearful of them throwing off his current round in King's Knight than crushing him.

Entirely immobile and face half-smashed into the floor, Noct had a pretty good idea of what was coming next. He made another weak and now fear-tinged threat. "I swear to God, I'll kill you, Gladio."

"Yeah?" Gladio asked, accepting the challenge. He landed several more pokes into the prince's vulnerable sides. "Let's see you try."

Noct's face screwed up, trying as hard as he was now to keep himself from giving Gladio the satisfaction of laughing. That piece of shit. That massive, heavy piece of shit. He couldn't move, there was no escape. He'd kill him.

"Come on, Noct, just let it out and I'll let you up," Gladio taunted, launching a full attack. Ah, why was it so fun to torment his weaker companions? It would never cease to amuse him. Was he a little sadistic? Yeah. Did he care? No.

"Gladiooooo," Noct wailed, unable to keep the laughter back any longer. That son of a bitch. "I—swear—you—are—so—deeeeahahaha—" he could hardly get the words out for laughing.

"There you go!" Gladio said triumphantly. "Now beg for mercy."

"Stop—stop!—stoooop!" Noct knew the only person he could effectively appeal to at the moment, however, was his advisor. "Ignis! Please!" He was the only one who could get the massive piece of shit off him.

"Come on, Noct, show us some tears!"

"Gentlemen," Ignis finally broke in, lowering his phone. "Can we please commence with the day, for crying out loud?"

Gladio finally ceased his merciless attack on the prince, and after a few moments Noct managed to settle down. He lay there, exhausted and sputtering.

It was only a split second later, however, before the anger kicked back in and sprang him into gear. "Outside, Gladio. Right now." He didn't even notice he was shoeless as he stalked out of the tent.

Still smirking and more than completely amused, Gladio pushed himself up to follow. Before exiting, however, he turned to Prompto, still mostly immersed in his game, as a blind hand groped around the floor of the tent, searching for the package of stale licorice that had been knocked askew during the ruckus.

"I'll expect that payment by breakfast, Snorsky," Gladio laughed, throwing the flaps aside as he stepped out into the sunlight.

Ah, son of a bitch, Prompto thought dismally, nearly breaking a tooth on the newly-found licorice as he made a mental note never to bet against Gladio again.

Sweet and succinct. I don't know why, but I find the idea of a ticklish Noct so adorable. And the fact that Gladio has absolutely no regard for boundaries just cracks me up. Hope you enjoyed!