"Sorry I'm late", Gladio & Noct, Brotherhood era/pre-roadtrip
Didn't think we'd be here again so soon after the last chapter, but here's an update. Enjoy!
"Just accept it, you're never gonna beat me in anything shooting-related," Prompto teased after he was done celebrating his victory, again.
Noct groaned, shoving his shoulder into Prompto's. "Shut up. We're gonna play a racing game next, and I'm gonna make you cry."
"Not that I wouldn't love to prove you wrong, buddy, but I gotta go. My shift starts in," Prompto pulled out his phone to check the time and made a face, "ten minutes, so I really should get going."
"What?" Sudden dread washed over Noct as he grabbed Prompto's phone to see for himself. "Shit!"
"Huh?"
Noct quickly slid off the stool and shoved the colourful arcade gun back into its holster, looking around for his schoolbag. "I was supposed to be at training with Gladio like twenty minutes ago. I completely forgot!"
"Aw, man, he's gonna kick your ass. Or worse, make you run extra laps," Prompto said, sounding half sympathetic and half amused. "Better hurry up then."
"Yep, see you," Noct called over his shoulder as he ran out, almost tripping over his own feet and down the front stairs in his haste to leave the building.
The arcade wasn't that far from the Citadel, but he'd still be over half an hour late in total. A year ago, he wouldn't have cared. Gladio would have yelled at him and told him to run laps or do a million push-ups, and Noct would have scowled at him and probably run off the training grounds. If he would have bothered to show up at all, that was. Chances were that, since he was already late, he would have gone home to sleep straight from the arcade.
Then, Ignis would have given him a lecture, maybe threatened to tell his dad about it, but nothing would ever have happened since his dad didn't have time to deal with his bullshit anyway. And the next time Noct didn't feel like training, the entire thing would just have repeated itself.
But now, for the past two or three months, things had been kinda different between him and Gladio. Better. They were both making an effort now, ever since Ignis had finally had enough of their constant fighting and locked them in the changing room after yet another training session gone wrong. He'd refused to let them out until they'd talked it all out, and he refused to budge even when Noct tried to make it an order. So they'd talked it out because neither of them wanted to spend the night in a smelly changing room and there had been no doubt that Ignis would just go home and leave them there at some point.
Noct still rolled his eyes when Gladio criticized him or told him to stop slacking off, and Gladio still snapped at him when he didn't get a move right after the second time. They both still said things that were uncalled for, but they both did their best to apologize to each other afterwards, once they'd both cooled off a bit.
And what was perhaps the biggest change in Noct's behaviour was that he finally took training seriously. He made sure to show up on time, and he didn't storm off to sulk anymore. Gladio, he'd found out, was in return more lenient with training hours, willing to reschedule when Noct was genuinely not feeling capable of getting out of bed, and sometimes he let him off early when a session went especially well. Gladio would even take him out for fast food after training every once in a while, and then they'd just hang out and talk while they ate.
Training sucked less that way, but what Noct really liked about this whole thing was how they were closer outside of training. Kind of like they were actually friends. It was nice, he thought, and definitely worth putting some effort into things.
And now, he'd gone and forgotten about training. He was going to be late, and Gladio was going to be mad. Even worse, Gladio was going to be disappointed.
Yet another thing he wouldn't have cared about a few months ago. He wouldn't have given a damn about Gladio's feelings, or maybe it would even have felt like some sort of victory knowing he'd managed to irritate him enough to lose his cool on him.
Now… the thought of disappointing Gladio didn't feel like a victory at all.
Gladio glanced at the clock again, just to make sure he had the time right. He did, of course, and he dropped his gaze again with a frustrated sigh.
He'd thought he was finally getting through to Noct, he really had. Him skipping training again all of a sudden felt not unlike a punch to the gut, even though he would never have admitted it out loud. He'd started to look at the kid like a friend instead of a job, and he'd kind of thought Noct was sharing that opinion.
He grabbed his phone from where it was lying next to his water bottle again, opening his and Noct's text history and scrolling through his three unanswered texts from the previous thirty minutes. Just as he tried to decide if there was even a point in sending another one, the door burst open, revealing a very red-faced Noct.
The kid was breathing heavily, and there was a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead. He dropped his bag on the floor and leaned forward with his hands on his thighs as he tried to catch his breath, looking very much like he ran here all the way from… wherever the hell he'd been.
"Sorry I'm late," he gasped, taking in a few large gulps of air before he was able to continue without sounding like he was about to drown. "School was out early so me and Prompto went to the arcade for a while. I didn't mean to skip training, I just completely lost track of the time."
Gladio studied him, all irritation he'd felt earlier already gone from his chest. Instead, there was relief, and something not unlike the fondness normally reserved for Iris.
The thing about Noct was that he couldn't really lie. Aside from a few white lies (like that time Iggy had told him about when Noct had found a kitten and was trying to hide it from Citadel staff) he never did lie, and when he tried, he sucked at it pretty bad. And then, even when he would still regularly skip training, he'd never bothered to make up excuses. He would simply mutter "whatever" under his breath, or say nothing at all, and that would be the end of it. The fact that he had an excuse at all now was pretty much all the proof Gladio needed to know he was telling nothing but the truth.
"Looks like you already started without me," he said with a smirk. "I think we can cut the warm-up phase short today."
Noct looked up sharply, having clearly expected a different response.
Gladio lifted an eyebrow at him. "What? Do you want to run laps?"
When Noct shook his head so hard he almost gave himself whiplash, Gladio snorted. "Thought so. Go catch your breath and get changed. I want you here in five minutes."
Noct still looked kind of surprised, but he grabbed his back and disappeared into the changing room without complaint.
Grinning to himself, Gladio took his phone and typed out two quick texts; one to Jared to tell him not to expect him at dinner, and another one to Iggy letting him know he didn't have to wait up because he and Noct were going out for burgers after training.
Then he put the phone aside and started doing his own warm-up routine until Noct joined him.
Today I learnt that writing the dynamic between Noct and Gladio is actually really, really hard, ESPECIALLY during the Brotherhood era. Was kind of surprised because other combinations of the boys are no problem, but this specific combo was kind of a mess, lol. I think it's giving me so much trouble because their personalities/ways to deal with problems just clash. It's an interesting dynamic for sure, but definitely a challenge to me. Anyway, I think there must have been a point at which they solved their issues with each other because they're obviously friends by the time the game starts. And it wouldn't be an immediate thing, they'd both need to work on themselves to properly get along, so I tried to capture that here.
It's been a while since I dropped off a chapter I didn't really like, but we're 13 chapters into this project now so it was bound to happen at one point or another. It's alright, though, because this is supposed to have a hundred chapters in total, and it'd be an absolute miracle if I loved every single one of it. I'm sure the next one is gonna be better already~
I'm also kinda tempted to find a way to write about Ignis locking them in a room and making them talk it out in one of the future chapters. Sounds like it could be fun, but we'll see.
For now, thanks a bunch for reading. Y'all folks keep me going 33
