Chapter Text
Noctis arrived to his training session on time, as usual. He skulked into the room, his mind obviously elsewhere, and Gladio caught a glimpse of Ignis as the door closed behind the pouting prince.
“You're late,” Gladio lied, and stood with his arms crossed in the middle of the room. His sword leaned against his hip, in easy reach should Noctis decide to start the session first.
The sullen prince shot him a tired glare. “No, I'm not.” He shrugged his jacket from his shoulders, balling it up and tossing it in the corner before leaning into a slow stretch. “I'm not Prompto.”
Gladio chuckled. The blond boy had started self-defense training with him recently, in an attempt to make himself indispensable to his best friend after school life had ended. Prompto always dedicated himself fully to the training sessions, but was indeed notoriously late. “You're definitely not Prompto,” Gladio said with a smirk. “That kid always looks like he wants to be here.”
Noctis shot him another withering glare at the chuckle. “Yeah, well, Prompto doesn't have to worry about graduate-level politics lessons with the stodgiest professor in Insomnia.”
The laughter burst from Gladio at the thought of poor Ignis trying to keep Noctis engaged for an entire day's worth of lectures. “That he doesn't,” he admitted, eyeing Noctis as the prince summoned his sword in a flash of ethereal light. He unfolded his arms and reached for his own sword, bringing it up to rest easily on his shoulder. “But who knows? Maybe he'd be better at that ruling stuff than you would.”
Noctis growled loudly, his eyes flashing as he warped forward in a not-quite sneak attack. Gladio swung his sword around to block the strike at the last moment, locking eyes with Noctis as the prince let his anger out. “What is your deal with Prompto today, anyway?” Noctis ground out, just inches away from Gladio's face. He pushed back into a flip to land squarely on the floor, then moved to circle Gladio as he looked for an opening. “You got something to say about him?”
This time Gladio kept his laughter quiet, focusing instead on Noctis and the intended attack pattern. “Only that he's a great student, when he shows up on time,” he shot back, his eyes tracking the prince around the room. “He's got a drive for this stuff that I like to see.” There was a shuffle in Noctis' step, he noted, as the prince's anger rose. “I might have a new favorite student.”
Noctis sidestepped deliberately, fumbling the execution but turning the movement into an attack anyway. He rushed at Gladio with a shout, then disappeared in a flash of blue ether to warp ten feet above Gladio's head and dive downward.
Gladio had seen the move before, however, and easily slid out of the way before Noctis was truly a threat. He swung his own sword around to catch Noctis with the flat of the blade as the prince landed, then spun to wrap a lazy arm around the younger man's neck and shoulders.
“Or maybe,” he said casually, glad that their positions meant Noctis couldn't see his smirk. “I'm just tryin' to make you so angry you mess up.”
Another growl tore from Noctis' throat, and he ducked down and flung his blade forward to warp away from Gladio. “Don't you have anything better to do?” he sniped back as he rolled into a crouch.
Gladio straightened again and shrugged. Riling up Noctis was notoriously easy, but he was one of the few people who could actually get away with it. He knew that one day Noctis would grow strong enough, fast enough, to make Gladio eat his words. He was also fairly certain that today was not that day.
“Seems like looking for holes in your defense is a pretty good use of my time,” he said as he watched Noctis warp to a hanging point near the ceiling. Gladio inwardly sighed; it was one of Noctis' favorite perching points, and it meant the prince would launch into another familiar series of attacks. “You'd make a pretty poor king if a couple words knocked you on your ass.”
He could see Noctis' eyes narrow, and then it was a blur of blue as the prince warped away. Gladio turned around to block the attack incoming from behind him, only to find nothing but another blue trail. Immediately he snapped into full alertness, his stance widening as he tried to follow Noctis' movements. The prince couldn't keep it up for too long – he was nowhere near powerful enough to keep warping for more than a handful of times.
But despite turning in a full circle, Gladio still couldn't catch a sight of Noctis' actual form. At least, not until it rushed him from the right, just at the edge of his peripheral vision.
Grunting with the effort, Gladio hefted his greatsword around to deflect the blow, only to have it followed by another in a surprisingly calculated counterattack. He found himself conceding ground to the furious prince, backing up from each consecutive blow until his back was flat against the wall. Then, before he could pull his sword up to knock Noctis away, the prince and his blade were at his neck.
“Knocked on my ass, am I?” Noctis growled, his eyes glinting dangerously. He was leaning against Gladio with the whole of his weight, which wasn't very much when compared with Gladio's significant size. Still, the weapons instructor had to concede that Noctis could have easily defeated him if the prince had been so inclined.
That just meant it was time for another type of lesson.
“Not yet, at least.” Gladio watched the question flicker across Noctis' face as he knocked his sword arm aside and wrapped his hand around the prince's waist. With one hard motion he'd yanked Noctis even closer, so close that he could feel the heated breath against his skin. He dropped his sword and fisted his hand in the prince's shirt, ignoring the clamor of the giant weapon as it hit the floor. Confusion turned to utter bewilderment as Noctis tried to make sense of this tactic, and Gladio enjoyed watching the emotions play across the prince's face in the brief moment he held them there together.
A brief moment that seemed to last an eternity, only broken when Noctis finally spoke. “What are you doi-”
Then, convinced that Noctis was properly distracted, Gladio kissed him.
He heard the prince's sword clatter against the floor, but most importantly, he felt that now-freed hand fold onto his shoulder, holding on to him as much as he was holding the prince in place. Gladio knew, grimly, that this lesson was going to be even rougher than he'd originally planned. Still, he couldn't help but be encouraged when Noctis was the one to deepen the kiss, pushing his tongue past Gladio's rough lips to explore further.
Seconds that felt like forever passed, until they finally broke away, Noctis panting hard from the exertion of his attack. He pushed back from Gladio, taking a step away to eye him warily. “What the hell was that about?”
“It was to show you,” Gladio rumbled as he crouched down to retrieve his sword from the floor, “that it can be easy to be knocked off guard if you let yourself get caught up in your emotions.”
“Not that,” Noctis countered, annoyance creeping into his voice. “The, you know, the thing, that just happened. That.”
Gladio shrugged. “The kiss? Same deal. 'Cause if that's how you're gonna react to that kinda thing in combat, then anyone can have you close enough to gut.”
“That's bullshit,” Noctis spat back as he bent down to pick up his own sword. “I only let you do that because you're you. Anyone else would've been dead.”
That was exactly what Gladio thought he'd hear. “Oh yeah? So why do I get the special treatment? I'm your trainer, you can't let your guard down around me.” He couldn't help the trace of pride and anger that crept into his voice. “You should know that.”
He could see that Noctis had something he wanted to say, but was struggling with having to say it at all. Continuing the lesson at this point wouldn't help much of anything, so Gladio propped his sword up against the wall as he waited for the prince to hash out his thoughts.
“I'll let my guard down around who I want, when I want,” Noctis eventually said, every word carefully chosen and enunciated. “Because when it comes to who I trust on that level, only I can truly make that choice.”
Gladio crossed his arms and nodded slowly. “Well said,” he murmured, giving Noctis that rare bit of praise. “But why do you trust me that way?”
Noctis gave him a sideways glance. “C'mon, Gladio. I know you. You're not that dumb.”
Snorting, Gladio raised an eyebrow. “What's that supposed to-” he tried to continue the banter, but then Noctis' hand was at the collar of his shirt and their lips were pressed together once more. The prince's lips were hot and demanding, and Gladio could feel the point that Noctis was trying to make. This time he let his hand slide down to Noctis' hip, holding him still so they could enjoy the moment fully.
This time it was Gladio who ended it, watching as Noctis immediately turned his head away. “Does Prompto know?” he murmured quietly.
The silence that followed the question hung heavily in the air. “...can't I just have both of you?” Noctis replied, the edge in his voice practically visible.
Gladio laughed again, a full-chested chortle that commanded Noctis' immediate attention. “Oh, is that how it's gonna be?” he teased. “You're lucky I'm willing to share, Your Highness.” He could see the retort forming in the prince's head, and successfully silenced it with his lips.
~
This magic moment, so different and so new
Was like any other until I kissed you
And then it happened, it took me by surprise
I knew that you felt it too, by the look in your eyes
~