This is a long one, lads! I really like it, though, and I hope so do you.
Have some mild Gladio whump, some mild Noct whump, and some bonding. Chapter 20, weeee!
Noct didn't love chocobos as much as Prompto loved them - he sincerely doubted that was even possible - but he still liked them a lot. They were big and fluffy, most of them liked cuddles, and with the right amount of treats you could win them over pretty easily. As a child, he'd even briefly gotten riding lessons, before his accident, but back then they'd been a little too big and lively for him.
There weren't many negative things to be said about chocobos, except maybe the smell. But a pretty big problem with them was that they were prey animals (even though Noct had seen what an agitated bird could do with a kick to the head, anything preying on them was either very brave or very stupid), and that meant that even the calmest chocobo still spooked relatively easily. Not all that convenient considering Noct and his friends mostly used them to hunt all sorts of spooky stuff.
He got to experience that prey behaviour first-hand when a pack of voretooths showed up out of nowhere and startled his poor chocobo so badly he nearly got thrown off. He managed to right himself before he crashed to the ground, but the birds were already running for their lives. There was no use in trying to control them now, all they could do was to hold on and hope they eventually stopped. Preferably before they ran into the road and got hit by a car.
Prompto's chocobo, who was the fastest of the bunch, ran ahead while Ignis closely followed. Noct's own bird raced blindly after them with some distance, unable to catch up. Gladio's chocobo, carrying the heaviest rider, brought up the rear, with Gladio yelling something Noct couldn't understand over the wind rushing in his ears.
And then, because apparently, they didn't have enough problems already, a drop ship rapidly lowered itself onto the ground, effectively cutting Noct and Gladio off from Ignis and Prompto.
In a desperate attempt to stop the chocobo from running straight into the airship, he yanked at the reins and tried to steer left. The panicked animal hardly even reacted, only when they were mere moments away from crashing into the hard metal the bird swerved to the left and away from the ship.
Noct clutched hard at the saddle with his legs and risked a quick glance behind himself, confirming Gladio was still following.
He was, but unfortunately, so were the voretooths. Due to the near-collision with the dropship, they'd gained on them again; the one leading the pack caught up with Gladio's chocobo and closed in from the side, startling her into sharply changing directions.
Gladio, caught by surprise by the sudden movement, was flung off her back and slammed hard into the ground. Within seconds, the voretooths swarmed him.
Noct swore and warped off his chocobo, driving his blade deep into one of the beasts. Gladio was still on the ground, unmoving - giving Noct a very, very bad feeling - so he focused on luring them away from him instead of fighting them with Gladio caught in the midst of the fight.
Fortunately, voretooths didn't belong to the most intelligent of beings, so they easily followed as he warped away, yelling and waving his sword at them to rile them up.
One by one, he finished them off, thanking the gods they weren't harder to fight - their strength lay purely in numbers and reckless, ferocious attacks, but Noct, fuelled by adrenaline and worry for Gladio, diminished them quickly and efficiently.
By the time he was done, he was struggling to catch his breath, his back ached something awful and he barely had any stamina left. But Gladio was still on the ground and damn, that definitely wasn't good.
Warping back as to not waste time, he fell to his knees at Gladio's side.
"Gladio, hey," he urged, nudging his shoulder lightly, and then again a little harder.
Gladio opened his eyes after the fourth nudge and blinked at him, confused and sluggish. "Huh?"
"You got thrown off a chocobo and I think you were out for a bit. You okay?"
"I'm fine," Gladio said reflexively, then winced when he tried to move. "Ow, fuck."
Noct furrowed his brows. "I think you hit your head pretty hard. I'm gonna-" he started, stretching out his hand to summon a potion, but Gladio grabbed it before he had the chance.
"Wait. You okay?"
Noct rolled his eyes, shaking Gladio's hand off his arm. Almost as bad as Ignis, gods. "I'm fine. I'm not the one who fell off a chocobo. You need a potion."
He reached for the Armiger, frowning when he didn't find any potions. "Shit!"
"What?" Gladio's speech was a little slurred, and yeah, that didn't help ease Noct's worry at all. Fuck.
"We're out of potions. We had some left, but the other two must've used them just now. There's nothing!"
Gladio groaned and pushed himself up, not protesting when Noct hurried to help him. "It's fine, I'm fine. We'll just-" he said, vaguely gesturing at… something, Noct didn't know what. Gladio didn't elaborate either, just fell silent and stared off into space.
Noct helped him move until he was leaning against a rock whilst they figured out what to do- or, whilst Noct figured out what to do. Gladio's brain was concussed to hell and back, probably didn't need to expect any smart inputs from there for a while.
His first instinct was to call Ignis, but when he tried to do that, it sent him to voicemail. The same thing happened when he dialled Prompto's number. Not a big surprise, reception out here was spotty at best, and even if they'd picked up, Noct still wanted to get somewhere safe as soon as possible. The area had a lot of voretooths and he wasn't keen on meeting them again. He wasn't sure they'd survive an encounter with any drop ships, either, and if they waited long enough for it to become dark, they wouldn't stand a chance against the daemons. Waiting around to be saved by the others definitely wasn't an option.
Gladio was being worryingly silent; whilst conscious, he didn't seem very aware of what was going on. There was a trail of blood slowly trickling down from his temple, but the cut didn't look serious. Small mercies.
"I'm sorry, I can't heal you. I used up all my energy in that fight," Noct said, more for himself than Gladio because he didn't think Gladio was taking in much of what he told him. "I don't- I don't know how to get you out of here. I can't carry you. Just… uh, hang on, I'll try to call the chocobos."
He moved away from Gladio so he wouldn't give him hearing damage on top of the concussion and blew the whistle. The chocobos had run off in a blind panic. Where to, he had no idea. The area was wide and mostly flat and he couldn't see them, so he figured they'd gone pretty far away. If they were still agitated, they probably wouldn't come, but it was still worth a try - and frankly, kind of Noct's only hope right now.
But their luck, it seemed, had run off along with the chocobos. He blew the whistle two more times but no chocobo appeared.
Gritting his teeth, he returned to Gladio's side, gently shaking him when he saw his eyes were closed again. "Gladio, hey, stay with me. We gotta get out of here… do you think you can walk?"
Gladio took a few seconds to process the question, but then he said, "Of course," with significantly more confidence than Noct felt at the moment.
Getting him to stand was an endeavour in itself, and once the feat was achieved, Noct wasn't so sure they could actually manage to get somewhere safe before nightfall. Even though Gladio was somewhat more lucid now, he was still unsteady on his feet and leaning quite heavily on Noct.
Biting back a groan, Noct took a step, testing both Gladio's and his own stability. His back and leg hurt, but they held, so he pushed on.
Just as Noct had resigned himself to either walking the entire way to Hammerhead with Gladio leaning on him like this or dying horribly at the hands of daemons, something behind him said "Kweh!"
Turning around as quickly as he could without losing his balance or causing Gladio to fall, Noct turned around and closed his eyes in relief. His chocobo was looking at him with expectant eyes, feathers a bit ruffled but looking none the worse for wear, thank the gods. Gladio's chocobo was nowhere to be seen.
"Okay, big guy, you're getting a ride," Noct muttered, hauling Gladio over to the waiting bird.
Gladio lifted his head with some difficulty, squinted and said, "My chocobo isn't here."
"You can borrow mine," Noct said impatiently, getting Gladio to hold onto the chocobo instead of him and taking a deep breath once he was free of the extra weight.
With a lot of swearing and not all that much help from Gladio, Noct eventually managed to get his friend situated on the saddle.
"Hold on tight," he instructed, tugging at the chocobo's reins to get him moving.
His back was aching something awful, and he sure was regretting not putting on that knee brace Ignis was always trying to get him to wear just about now, but it still beat having to haul Gladio's weight around.
Speaking of…
Throwing a subtle glance over his shoulder, Noct frowned. Even though he was still conscious, Gladio wasn't looking too hot. Normally, injuries didn't manage to keep him down, but Noct supposed a head injury was different. After all, Gladio had to be really out of it, he'd never be so compliant and docile otherwise.
Hopefully, a potion would fix him right up - if they ever made it to Hammerhead, that was.
It shouldn't have been very far now. But then, Noct had never been good at navigation, and the sun was already lower than he would've liked. He tried calling Ignis again, but now his phone wasn't even getting any service in this damned desert.
Muttering a string of curses until he ran out of breath, he limped along, hoping he was actually going in the right direction. Damn. Guess he should have listened to Gladio's outdoor lessons after all. The only thing he remembered was the moss growing north thing, and only because Gladio had gone into a half-hour explanation about why that actually wasn't true at all. And even if it were true, there weren't any goddamn trees in this goddamn desert, anyway.
For a while, he kept his head down and focused on not stumbling over his own feet, so when he looked up and saw the familiar mist of a haven a bit further ahead, he kind of wanted to start crying on the spot. It wasn't Hammerhead, it wasn't even the haven closest to Hammerhead, but it was a place to safely spend the night. And if he was lucky, his phone might even work again.
Gladio's condition put a significant damper on his joy about the haven. Staying here was better than being eaten alive out in the wilderness, but Gladio needed help, and the sooner he could get it the better. If Noct himself were in any better shape, he'd consider leaving Gladio there and heading to Hammerhead on his own. He still wouldn't be able to make a potion, but he could at least get Gladio some traditional medical care. But the way he was feeling now, he wasn't sure if he could make the trip, even on his chocobo. And even if he did, he'd never make it back before nightfall, and as much as he hated to admit it, a run-in with even the weakest of daemons would probably kill him.
Gladio slid off the saddle easily enough when prompted. He was even doing well enough to help with walking, so Noct got him up onto the rock pretty smoothly.
The moment they reached the middle of the haven, Noct's legs gave in and they both collapsed onto the hard ground. Noct landed with his back twisting awkwardly, but at least he got his hands beneath Gladio in time to make sure he didn't bash his head into the ground again as they went down.
"You okay?" Noct asked, out of breath and so, so tired.
Gladio grimaced and lifted his hand to his head, wincing as he accidentally touched the cut on his temple. "Mmm, been better. I think I need to…" he trailed off, already tipping backward.
Once again, Noct hurried to assist Gladio in lying down. Gods, the guy was just trying to kill off all his brain cells today, wasn't he?
Once Gladio was on the ground and hopefully staying there, Noct fished his phone out again, thrilled to see the reception sign in the upper left corner, along with several messages from Prompto and Ignis. Wasting no time, he selected Ignis' number and prayed he'd pick up.
The phone barely finished its first ring when Ignis' voice sounded through the speaker. "Noct! Noct, are you alright? Where are you? Is Gladio with you?"
Noct closed his eyes, holding back tears of exhaustion and relief for the second time today. "I'm fine. Gladio got a concussion but we're out of potions. He needs help. We're at a haven near Hammerhead, not the one right behind it, the one a bit further away. Uh, near the road. Can you come?"
He was aware he sounded pathetic, but he didn't care. Right now, he only wanted Gladio to be okay, he wanted Ignis and Prompto with him, he wanted some painkillers and oh, by the gods, he wanted to sleep.
Not yet, though. Not until the others were here, not until Gladio was gonna be okay. He just needed to hold out a little longer.
"Merrioth Haven? Of course. We'll fetch a potion from the car, we won't be long," Ignis assured him. "Just stay put and look after Gladio."
Doing as he was told, Noct remained sitting at Gladio's side despite every fibre in his body screaming at him to curl up on the ground, watching Gladio's chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm.
Gladio's eyes were closed, but Noct wasn't sure if he was asleep, passed out, or just resting. His hands itched to reach out, to shake him and check if he was still responsive, but he resisted. Gladio had taught him that not being allowed to let concussed people sleep was pretty much just a myth too as long as they were being monitored. And seeing that Noct was monitoring him pretty damn closely, he didn't think it would be too bad to let him rest.
Noct wished he could help him somehow, but for now, all he could do was wait.
True to Ignis' words, it wasn't long until Noct spotted two chocobos with riders sprinting towards the haven, with a third chocobo following close behind.
"Noct!" Prompto yelled, waving his arms and nearly falling off his chocobo in the process.
With what little strength he had left, Noct lifted one hand and gave a little wave back.
"We found Rosie, we were worried when we saw her all upset and you guys nowhere to be found," Prompto exclaimed as he climbed onto the rock.
"Is she okay?" Noct asked. Rosie didn't look injured, just tired and agitated, but Gladio loved that bird. He wouldn't forgive himself if she got hurt.
"She's fine, pretty spooked when we found her, but when she recognized us she calmed down. How's Gladio?"
"Also gonna be fine, I think. He needs a potion, though," Noct said with a gesture towards Gladio.
Ignis was already checking him over, making him sit up and checking his pupils and asking him questions. Once he was satisfied, he closed Gladio's fingers around the potion and crushed it.
Immediately, Gladio's expression cleared up and he raised his hand to his head with a groan.
"Damn. This isn't an experience I'd like to repeat."
"You can say that again," Noct muttered, but the relief to see Gladio alive and well almost let him forget the struggles of the past hours. "How're you feeling?"
Gladio shrugged. "Head still hurts. Just need to sleep it off and I'll be as good as new. I'm not helping with the tent tonight, though."
"Of course not!" Prompto jumped up and patted Gladio's shoulder. "Iggy and I can handle it, right, Iggy? You two just chill out."
Noct didn't need to be told twice. Even if he wanted to, he wasn't sure if he could even move. He was committed to just kind of existing flat on the ground for the rest of the night, but Ignis made him get up and lie down on one of the sleeping mats, claiming he'd just hurt worse in the morning if he stayed on the hard ground. He also wouldn't let him have any of the good painkillers before he'd eaten anything. Noct supposed that was fair, but damn, he did wish he could pop some pills and go to sleep already.
Once he was situated there near the fire, he had to admit his back felt a tiny bit better, though, so he kept his mouth shut and watched Gladio instead.
Sitting in a camping chair, Gladio looked worn out and tired, but infinitely better than he had for the majority of this afternoon, so Noct wasn't going to complain.
"What?" Gladio asked, catching his eye. "Something wrong?"
"Nah. Just glad you're alive."
With a grin, Gladio said, "Yeah, only thanks to you. You did good today."
Warmth rose in his cheeks that had nothing to do with the fire and Noct quickly looked away.
"'S nothing."
And, really, even though he was exhausted and in pain and the day had been absolutely horrible, in the end, it really was nothing if it meant he'd gotten his friend to safety. His friend, who was ready to lay down his life for Noct every single day, who looked out for him and had his back no matter what - for him, the struggles of today truly were nothing.
I was looking at flower names to name Gladio's chocobo and I was kinda obsessed with the idea of giving her a fancy latin name but then just have him call her by some ridiculously cute nickname derived from the name (sort of like calling her Anemone, Annie for short, but even more ridiculous, yknow) but as I was writing, I kept thinking of her as Rosie and figured I'd change it once I was done writing. But then I got attached to the name and now the girl is named Rosie. Ah, well. At least it's still a flower.
Anyway, have you ever fallen off a horse? That shit really hurts, and is also really dangerous if you happen to fall in an unfortunate way. Once as a kid I split my helmet and gave myself a concussion falling off a horse, and then I saw double for a month. And another time like three years ago, I fell off a horse in a way that bruised my tailbone or whatever tf and I almost fucking died trying to sit or even lie down to sleep, lmao. So, yeah, falling off your mount is ouch, and I'm kinda annoyed with how easily people in media get up after a nasty fall off a horse :D
One last thing - fic turns 2 in ten days, woo! I'm really proud :D
As always, thanks a bunch for stopping by, I hope you all have a wonderful week!
