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[He waited, waited for Noct to notice, and then smiled when he did.]

Four months is a long time, y'know. Things can change a lot. People too.

I'm not the same guy from Eos. I mean, I am, I'm still Gladio. But I'm trying. Trying to be better. Someone you guys can rely on.

So for starters... I won't be bangin on your door at the asscrack of dawn demanding you train with me. [He smiled wider.] I'll let you know where I am. If you want to join me, you're welcome. Always like the company.

[Four months is a long time. Isn't that about the stretch of time between the start and end of their journey? A lot had changed then, too. Here as well- from the moment he'd arrived to the turning of the first new year had included so many new experiences. Getting to know his father, Ardyn, even the Founder King. Meeting the first Oracle, having Luna back for a while. Meeting Pyra, and many of the new friends from home he's come to care for. It's both alarming and incredible how much can change in less than half a year.

All of that is enough to get him to nod, smiling faintly. Yeah, he believes it. And it shows in how Gladio's acting.]

You are different. [Not enough to be unrecognizable- Gladio is Gladio, the core of him is there. It feels like someone's ground down on the sharp edges, leaving him a little wearier, but softer.] I guess I can get up once in a while. The sunrise isn't bad here.

[And he wouldn't mind training with Gladio again. It's been far too long, and no one else really knows how to push him the way Gladio can.]

Screw that. I've gotten used to sleeping in. [He grinned. Okay, not a total lie. He would still get up at 5 and he had started to go out on runs again now he was able. But he was also just as capable of turning around and going back to sleep. Maybe it wasn't the same on his own, but it had become a habit he'd learned to enjoy.

After breakfast though. If it's somethin you want, you can join me whenever.

[Because he would work out with or without Noct. He had no end of people who had offered to do that with him, or spar, but there were only three people he would directly seek out. One of them was at his side right now.

And he seemed to have accepted that difference in him. For that he was grateful. It was all he'd wanted really.]

Thank god. That's a concession I wasn't too keen to make.

[Somewhere in the universe Cor is facepalming about doing strenuous physical activity after eating, but screw it, Noct did his time. Ten years back home and then months here training with the Marshal... not to mention putting all that practice into real fights. He's doing okay. (He's... strong! In a fight! There, he'll say it. The rest he's still working on.)]

Maybe tell me the night before, though... so I remember to wake up. I might even be able to show you a few new tricks.

[Thing was, Gladio didn't always eat breakfast. That was just a time of day for him, but he figured it would be a more attractive time for Noct.]

How about this... I'll tell you times and days, and you show up when you want?

[He kind of hoped, giving Noct the choice, maybe he'd start small and show up maybe once a week, but maybe he'd try for more, since it was on his own terms? That was Gladio's hope. But if not it was fine. Once a week was better than forcing Noct into doing something he wasn't happy with.

He'd tried that tactic and it hadn't worked as well as he'd wanted.]

[It is indeed a more attractive time. Being in the city hasn't done his sleep schedule much good, and he doesn't always sleep well, unfortunately. Mornings are precious, and the fact that he's not getting dragged out of bed at 6AM like usual is amazing. "After breakfast" is vague, but he's known Gladio long enough to make reasonable assumptions about what that could mean.]

Huh... yeah, sure. I can do that. You've got a sword here, right?

[Actually come to think of it, he hasn't checked the armory since before Gladio's arrival. He'd hesitated to touch it until he fully recovered, to avoid accidentally triggering another incident (just in case, because Pyra said it would be safe but just in case), so if anyone had added weapons to it or moved anything in or out, he wouldn't have noticed.]

[Gladio considered the question, and then held out his free hand. When he closed his fist it was to close around the handle of the sword he had just summoned... He looked amused when he realised just what sword that was.]

Cor's sword... Guess I've got one here at least.

[The katana was long, the blade ornate, it was pretty to look at and he wasn't entirely sure he liked using it because of it's sentimental value. But he would.]

I've a tiny dagger at home too.

[There's a brief bit of tension that flares up in Noct's body language as the armory is accessed, but it fades after a few seconds as he recognizes that nothing happened. It felt normal, just like it always does. Seems as if it really is okay now.

Settling back against the couch, he smirks faintly at the addition.]

Trying to imagine you using a little dagger in a fight...

[Would it even be visible in those big hands?]

[With the arm around Noct's shoulders, he felt that tension... and it was only then that he realised what he was doing. He remembered what Pyra had told him. Noct had yet to actually say anything on the matter, but Gladio could have cursed himself.

It was the first time he'd tried to access the armiger for any reason. And he couldn't even apologise, since he wasn't supposed to know.

He let the sword go back and freed his arm when Noct sat himself back. He chuckled, nodded and held his hands about six inches apart.]

This big. Small, but well made. Might be good in an emergency. But in a fight?

[No, a small dagger would not help him much at all.]

[If it helps any, once the moment passes Noctis offers no indication that it was a problem; the sword returning to the armory garners no such reaction. He doesn't resist when Gladio pulls his arm back, but he doesn't move from his spot, either.]

Doesn't ring any bells. Where'd you get a dagger?

[Sounds more like something Ignis might carry. Though Gladio is also Mr. Survivalist, so having a pocket knife makes sense.]

Era.

[Grinning, Gladio leaned back as well, relaxing against the back of the sofa, he stretched his legs out in front of him.]

Met her a few days back. Crashed into her, actually. She did her best to gore me with her horns and castrate me with her tail.

That explains the selfie. [At least Gladio knows who the recipient was now?] She didn't tell me about the horn thrashing. Must've really made an impression.

[He'd only gotten Era's side of things, so he's kind of curious about what Gladio thinks now.]

[He groaned and tipped his head back, eyes closing.]

Can't believe she sent you that thing...

Yeah, bruises lasted a few days. Any harder she might'll done actual damage. [Or if he'd been lacking in a little less muscle.]

Good thing you're a tank.

[Meatshields are built to take the damage!]

Sounds as if she likes you though, so that's cool.

Hah yeah, yeah it is.

Think we worked out our differences though. [He tilted his head to look over at Noct.]

She's why I came here.

[Noct's brows furrow at that. Era hadn't mentioned anything.]

She was...?

She got it in my head I should talk to you guys.

Just had to work up the courage.

...Never thought we'd be the ones scaring you off.

[It's weird to imagine, and he's not entirely sure how to feel about it. He can't exactly criticize Gladio for doing the sort of thing he's often doing, but Gladio phrasing it that way strikes a chord.]

Scaring me, no.

It's just... when was the last time me and you had a heart-to-heart, Noct? When we sat down and talked about feelins and stuff?

[Go ahead, Gladio'll wait while you try and remember, Noct!]

Does here count?

[Because he's thinking back and trying to remember, but aside from the apology Gladio had offered last time - one he'd had some difficulty accepting - he struggles to recall. The moments where they'd come close had mostly been Gladio yelling at him for not stepping up enough. Doing his job, yes, but his job wasn't to have a gentle talk about feels with the royal he's protecting.

The longer he tries to think of a good answer, the more depressing said answer becomes.]

...Shit.

[They really don't do heart-to-heart, do they.]

[He gave a rueful smile and shrugged a single shoulder, but no, here didn't count. And he waited, and saw the light of realisation dawn in Noct's eyes. Sure they'd talked, bantered, but talking like this was something Gladio had never really done before.

At least back on Eos.]

Have to be strong, Noct. Got that drummed into me. Feelings are weakness. Can't show weakness. I was an idiot. And I did wrong by you.

Before here... I learned a few things. Learned to open up more. Sometimes it's okay to be weak. I learned to talk. But if I'd just come up to you the first day I got here and spilled everythin... Look how you reacted that first time I tried to touch you. I needed time to work up to it, and you needed time to get used to me being here. [That's why it took him so long to do this, even though he'd wanted to long before... He'd been afraid of the reaction he'd get.]

[Noctis winces, having no difficulty recalling his immediate confusion over Gladio's reach for his hand.]

I didn't mean to do that.

[He's not entirely sure if that's better or worse, if an intended response would be preferable over an instinctive flinch. He's not scared of Gladio, though maybe for a while he had been. Until they worked their way through the swamp in Cartanica he'd honestly begun to wonder if Gladio would help him out of danger like usual when they wound up in a fight. That worry had been unfounded - Gladio was committed to his duty no matter how he might've felt about his 'king' - but he couldn't deny that he'd felt it.

He shifts a bit in his seat, fingers twining in his lap again. If they're doing this now... he should probably be honest about it.]

You're not the only one who's felt like that. I couldn't keep it up the way you could, though... probably why we clashed the way we did. You called me out on everywhere I was failing.

[And perhaps why Gladio's words stung so badly back then. Healthy or not, the Shield was succeeding where the king could not. He'd felt pathetic, and the insults flung his way had rung true.]

I'm... glad you got the chance to open up like that. Keep it up, okay? It's not... bad. [A little surreal, different, but not bad.] Still working on that one, on my end. We're not our dads... we don't have to be the same kind of king and Shield that they were.

[Whether it had been meant or not, it had happened and Gladio'd had every intention of not doing it again...

He sighed.]

That's what I mean. I was an idiot. I treated you the way I'd been trained and expected the same results. It drove me crazy when it didn't work. Couldn't understand why... because I never thought to see it from your side.

[But now he did. He had. And he regretted so much... He wished he could go back and do things again. Maybe things would have gone differently? He looked down at his own hands then and gave a quiet laugh.]

You don't have to be the same, Noct... Don't have to ever open up if you don't want. Just needed you to know it won't be the same. I'm... trying. Trying to be better.

I know. It isn't like I haven't noticed.

[They learned over time what worked and what didn't, with him. Repetition, constant criticism, a demand for perfection, yelling- none of those were effective at getting Noctis to rise to the occasion and do better. The stubbornness would kick in, he'd get angry or frustrated or retreat into himself. Back when Gladio finally gave him a chance, due to saving Iris, they'd tried alternate methods: encouragement, competition, realistic challenges and goals. That train ride, Cartanica... it was like they'd forgotten for a while how far they'd come together.

Gladio's different here. But it's a familiar kind of different, one that he can work with and depend on. He can only hope to meet Gladio in the middle and hold on to the changes he's found in himself, too.]

I wanna be able to do it, though. Trusting you guys, being honest... I don't want to end up regretting stuff, later.

["Later" could mean a lot of things, admittedly. Later here, with them all together but drifting because he's failed to hold them together by hiding how he feels. Later on Eos, when ten years apart could break their tight brotherhood and leave far too many things unsaid. Later when he's gone and can't tell them anything at all anymore.

He'd prefer not to carry any of it to his grave, but he still hasn't decided about the big one when it comes to Prompto and Gladio. Does he ask, if he knows all the way up to the Crystal anyway? Would that give it away? Gods, he doesn't know.]

[Leaning to the side, Gladio pressed his shoulder to Nocts. He knew he'd tried being better, back home. And he knew at some point he'd failed and ruined everything. So he wanted to try a completely different track now. He wanted to try just being friends.

It had worked once. Maybe if he was lucky he could do the same here. But it was looking like it might have been harder this time around. The damage he'd done greater.]

You can trust me. But I get it, it'll take time. I'm willin to wait as long as you need.

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