Would you look at that, that's 1/10th of the story. Enjoy! (This one's Gladio & Prompto during the road trip)
"Hey, where are you going?" Prompto asked when Gladio opened the caravan door and took his jacket with him.
It was evening, but not quite bedtime yet. Noct was already curled up in one of the tiny beds with his back turned towards them. He wasn't asleep yet, Prompto could tell, but he didn't say anything.
Ignis was tapping away at his phone but looked up when Prompto addressed Gladio.
"Just…" Gladio said, making a vague gesture with his hands. "I'll be back soon."
"Don't stray too far. The daemons get awfully close to inhabited areas these days," Ignis said, but he didn't try to stop Gladio so it was probably alright.
Gladio nodded and left, closing the door behind him with just a tad too much noise.
Prompto turned to Ignis. "Is he okay?"
"It is… difficult to be completely okay in times like these," Ignis replied, not really easing Prompto's worries.
"I guess…" Prompto sighed. He pulled out his phone to play some King's Knight, but he couldn't really focus on it so he soon put it away and stood.
"I'm gonna-" he announced, gesturing much like Gladio before, and slipped out too without waiting for a reaction.
It didn't take long for him to find Gladio. He was sitting on the bench outside the Crow's Nest, looking angry and sad and more lost than Prompto had ever seen him, and he absolutely hated it.
"Hey. Care for some company? Only if you want to, I can leave if you'd rather be alone," he hurried to add. He didn't want Gladio to feel obliged to let him stay, but something about Gladio being like this just felt so very wrong and he very much wanted to fix it.
"No, it's fine. You can stay."
Prompto sat down on the bench, not quite close enough for their shoulders to touch, but close enough to make his presence obvious.
"Whatcha thinking about?"
Gladio's jaw clenched as he seemed to debate with himself, but then his shoulders slumped and he leaned his head back against the wall.
"My dad."
Dread, shame, and guilt hit Prompto like a punch in the gut. Of course. If the King had fallen, that meant his Shield had been broken. That thought was already terrible enough on its own but became way worse when he replaced Shield with Gladio's dad. But he hadn't even thought of it, too preoccupied with Noct's dad being dead and the general fucked up-ness of the whole situation to consider the other people who died.
"Shit, Gladio. I'm sorry for your loss, I'm so sorry."
"Don't be," Gladio said softly. He sounded tired. Gladio never sounded tired. "I grew up with the idea. I accepted it."
Prompto stared at the ground before him, trying not to think about how horrible of a thing that was, especially for a kid. "But that doesn't really make it easier, does it? I mean, I can't imagine it does."
Gladio was silent for a long time, but when he replied, he wasn't just admitting it to Prompto but to himself as well. "No, not really."
Prompto, to make up for the lack of something to say to comfort Gladio, leaned into Gladio's side a bit and hoped he wasn't overstepping a boundary.
"I'm just glad Iris is safe," Gladio said, making no attempt to push him away. "And that I'm older than her. That I'm the Shield, not her. I'm not sure I could bear the thought. There… weren't many Shields who died of old age in the past."
Prompto nodded. "A King dying before his Shield is shameful, right?"
Even after being friends with Noct for years, Prompto was still trying to get the hang of all the royal business. But one thing he had understood pretty quickly was that honor was a pretty damn big deal.
"It's the greatest shame," Gladio confirmed. "If anything short of an illness or age kills a King, the Shield has to be killed first. Being a Shield who failed is a fate worse than death."
The way Gladio said it, solemn but detached, sent shivers down Prompto's spine. That sounded like such a big burden to bear, and to have a child carry it from the day they were born was… Prompto couldn't even imagine how that felt.
"Do you think everyone at the Citadel was killed? I mean. What about Iggy's uncle? You think he survived?" he asked, trying to change the subject but accidentally directing it in an equally depressing topic. Damn.
Gladio shook his head. "Dunno about everyone, but I think Iggy's been trying to reach his uncle. No luck yet, so I don't think he made it." He paused. "Shit, what about your parents?"
Surprised, Prompto blinked before he processed Gladio's words. "Oh, don't worry, they're fine. They weren't in Insomnia during the attack. They extended their trip so they were only gonna come home sometime next week anyway."
Gladio's eyes narrowed. "Did you talk to them yet?"
"Not… exactly," Prompto admitted, squirming under Gladio's observant gaze. "I texted them to tell them I'm okay and tried to call them, but they didn't pick up. They texted back, it's fine. Really."
"It isn't," Gladio insisted. "They don't deserve you."
With a nervous laugh, Prompto turned away a little so Gladio couldn't see the redness on his cheeks. "Yeah, well. I've got you guys, so I'm good."
"You sure do," Gladio said. That terrible look from before was almost gone now and he finally looked like Gladio again. "We should go back inside and get some sleep."
"Yep," Prompto agreed and let Gladio pull him up from the bench.
Y'all ever think about how Gladio is a shield destined to fail and how much guilt it'll cause him and he's been raised for this impossible task since he was born and then you have to lie down for a bit? Yeah.
I'm also on Twitter ( Butterfly_OnIce) and Tumblr (thisfairytalegonebad), and even on Discord too (thisfairytalegonebad#2939) and I'm always happy to chat, about my fics or your fics or these boys or literally anything!
