voidtreckerexpress | Party time for Party People and Party Spiders

The two were face to face and Gladio was standing at his full height. He hadn't heard what Tony said before that, but it didn't matter. The advisor was in front of Tony and he was giving the shield a hard look.

"I am no one's servant and you both need to calm down." His heart felt like it was being ripped out of his chest at the moment, but he didn't dare let either of them out of his sight. And he didn't dare show any more emotion than was already present. Silently he dared either one of them to try him at this moment. This was his past he was facing and his future stood behind him.

"And if it's a duel you're wanting Gladio, then you may deal with me and me alone." Ignis was not in the mood to deal with this. Inwardly he felt like crying but he couldn't in front of these two. He would do so later at his own leisure however.

Gladio blinked because all of a sudden Ignis was right in front of him, spitting mad if he was any kind of expert in Ignis' moods. But he waited, listened... Then grabbed for the advisor, but not yp hit. He pulled him into a tight embrace. "The hell? A duel? Iggy, your my brother, I'd never... I... You don't think we treated you badly? Please tell me you didn't."

Tony was standing there all ready to fight if need be (though he'd hoped he could just make the idiot sit and chew him out some more) when Gladio was getting up and Ignis was abruptly there in middle of all of it.

Damn, he must've had more to drink than he thought if he hadn't noticed the advisor so nearby when he'd made his jab. It had been something he'd harbored against Ignis' world for so long. It wasn't something the advisor was supposed to witness or have to defend.

He was stepping forward, ready to knock his fiance out of the way if he had to, but then Gladio was.. hugging him? He stopped short and stared in confusion. That wasn't the reaction he'd expected from this men Ignis had had to 'take care of' all these years.

Hearing Gladio's words just hurt him. He didn't want to see two people he loved so very much fight, so his hand curled into a fist and he very lightly hit the shield's shoulder with it. He made no effort to move and he made no effort to speak either because he couldn't trust his own voice at this point.

Why was he in the middle? What in the world had happened? Why were the two about to fight for no reason? Maybe his dreams of some sort of happy family was simply too impossible a standard, but Ignis wanted to give Madoka a family and he couldn't get it right? How did he fix this? What could he do?

Instinct caused him to shield Tony. Gladio could hit like a hammer and Ignis didn't know Tony's fighting capability without his armour, or hell even with it because they didn't get to fight alongside each other. So of the two, Ignis protected his mate and feared Gladio's fighting capabilities of doing more damage to Tony. The duel had been posed because the shield threatened to kick his ass and he had to keep the focus on him and not the man behind him.

Edited 2020-03-04 06:29 (UTC)

Ignis pulled away from him. The hit to the shoulder he could take, but him pulling away like that hurt worse than any dagger Ignis could have thrown at him. Then the way he moved, deliberately and strategically moving between himself and Tony, the same way he had seen him move between Noct and danger a million times before. And it made him realise that Ignis thought he was the danger. Did he really believe he was going to go for his fiance?

Gladio was very suddenly stone cold sober. Just like that. Everything came into crystal clear focus.

"I see..." Gladio spoke quietly, he steeled himself, guard up, the mask of the Shield in place. His expression completely blank as he took a step back. "I apologise." For what, he wasn't sure, but it was as much of a goodbye as he could muster at that moment. Because whatever he was, Gladio wasn't a stupid man. Sometimes impulsive, yes. Sometimes he said things he didn't always mean. But he had always been able to trust three special people to understand him. Clearly time away had caused at least one of them to distrust him, and with that knowledge firmly implanted in his brain, Gladio turned and left. He didn't want to cause Ignis any more trouble than he already had.

It cut deep to sense the pain Ignis had to be experiencing from that. He also knew when Ignis felt bad like this, he clammed up and easily got overwhelmed by the situation. It wasn't the best response for guys like Gladio and himself who could really use a more vocal reaction.

As Gladio was ready to march off, Tony stepped right in his path, putting a hand on Ignis to firmly keep him right where he was- and not between them. When he spoke next, it was with as much authority in his tone as Regis might have had.

"Stop it! You know he doesn't think that, I do. That was between you and me. Ignis, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have instigated that." However, he'd be damned if Ignis lost his freedom here because these two are back in his life. "I know this man is important to you."

"Gladio!" Ignis cried, feeling the man move away. He grabbed onto the back of the blue hoodie, trying to keep the other man close and not take off. To be fair, the fact that he was covering Tony was a compliment, though the other might never see it that way. He didn't distrust Gladio at all, he was trying to protect the one who wouldn't be able to handle the fight and keep the two from fighting. The shield didn't go to his full height for no reason.

Suddenly Tony was there and the advisor blanked. Why was he there? The apology had registered but he was too busy trying to hold onto his friend and brother. He wasn't letting Gladio go and let this fester. They'd just gotten each other back and he didn't want this to be between them. Why was everything turning on his head? He'd of course planned this to go so much smoother than it was. Wounded green eyes met Tony's and he refused to let his grip loose on the shield.

One moved in front and the other grabbed him from behind, and Gladio could feel anger bubbling up within him. He turned his narrow eyed gaze upon Tony, the tone he used pissed him off. He was nothing to him. Had no authority to try and order him around. Gladio was under no obligation to pay any attention to him. But he was also aware enough to realise they would soon cause a scene, and if Prompto came over...

"You..." He stared Tony down. "Back the hell off." Gladio looked over his shoulder to catch sight of Ignis holding him back. "And you... Let go. I'm done here." He'd reached his limit. Pulled from his life. Never to see Iris or Noct again, his whole life a damn waste. He had been raised for one purpose and now? Now what? Who was he without that purpose? The only reference points he had were Prompto and Ignis. And Prompto was acting weird and now this... Ignis... It was too much. The straw that had broken the camels back. Gladio was struggling. But none of that showed in his expression. His eyes were dark and angry, the only response he had to the world around him.

Tony's expression changed to something closer to pleading than obnoxiously arrogant. He gestured toward Ignis. "Please.. give him something? I know you're pissed off and done and I'll get out of the way, I promise, but please.. can't you see he needs to know he hasn't lost you?"

He knew how Ignis' mind worked. The man had trouble with ambiguity and feared being abandoned. "I'll even leave if it'll help." Whatever it took, just please be good to his fiance.

Ignis let go reluctantly and lowered his head. "Tony..just let him go." He felt worse and was now even more upset than he already was. He'd lost Gladio in the space of two minutes and everything was all wrong, so all he could do was give the shield some space. The other man obviously needed space and time and out of respect he had to give it. How this all had managed to turn upside down..the two were going to fight and that wasn't something that anyone should be getting into. They needed to get along and Ignis had such high hopes. He could clearly see the two fighting side by side instead of each other.

Maybe he would just go off by himself for a little while and wait for the shield to come around. Yes, giving the other time to think things through was best and Tony didn't need to defend him, that would probably just end up making things so much worse than they already were. He was the guilty party, but..well it didn't really matter at the end of the day. The truth was the truth, he'd turned on Gladio to protect Tony who couldn't handle the shield in a fair fight. The wound cut really deep but he would watch out for his brother and continue to help, regardless of anything else that happened.

Gladio's jaw clenched listening to Tony, at his side his hand was slowly flexing until finally balling into a fist. Give him something? Ignis wasn't a stupid man. At least he had never been one. The way he had reacted was unjustified. At no point did Gladio think he had done anything to make his oldest friend believe he was going to kick the shit out of his fiance. But somehow that's what they believed. And that hurt. At no point had Ignis' denied the claim that they had treated him as little more than a servant. Tony might have taken it upon himself to take the blame for that, but Ignis wasn't denying it...

He glared at Tony. The more the guy talked the more he really wanted to deck him, and it was taking all he could to keep himself from doing that. But then the back of his hoodie was released and Ignis spoke... and said no more than that. Gladio's back stiffened for a moment and in that moment there was a flash of pain, but since Ignis wasn't even looking at him he would never have seen it after it was quickly covered up again.

Until he caught sight of a flash of bright yellow over Tony's shoulder. Gladio's eyes tracked the movement, he knew that yellow. Prompto... The hand at his side relaxed as he watched Prompto chatting animatedly with someone he didn't recognise. He could have watched him all day. As if he'd summoned the blonde just by thinking about him, his head lifted and turned to catch Gladio's eye. A mad wave later and Gladio's lips were twitching, trying to smile... Instead he let his eyes close and then he took a deep, slow breath.

"You're an idiot." Gladio said, head turning to the side to make it clear he was talking to Ignis, not Tony. "You and Prompto are the only family I have here, Iggy. That's why it hurts. You thought I could hurt someone you loved." He was choosing to take Tony at his word now and that the whole 'servant' thing was his idea. "You've never been afraid of yelling at me before. This whole quiet bullshit... It doesn't suit you." Yelling orders, giving them direction, keeping them together, that had been what Ignis was good at. He was their pillar, their support, the one they had all looked up to. Ignis' had earned his respect back when they were kids and had kept it all through their teens and adult life. But he wondered when he had lost Ignis'. "I'm going to my cabin now. I'm not running away. I'm not abandoning you. But I am pissed. So give me time and I'll come and find you." It was the best he could offer. To Tony he gave the barest of smiles as he stepped past the man and didn't stop walking until he had found his way back to his cabin.

It was probably silly to wave that enthusiastically to someone he'd been hanging out with about an hour ago, but Prompto didn't care. He was happy to feel Gladio's eyes on him. It was a nice reminder that they were all connected still.

However, he notes the scene after his focus broadened to more than the one man and he quickly said a good-bye to the person he had been talking to. When he looked back, he didn't see the big guy, but he raced out of the room to find him anyway. He was just in time to see the door to one side shut, so he chased it.

"Gladio!" He called as he was running as fast as he could through the hall. "Buddy wait up!" This was totally safe to do after he ran into the large man earlier. Yep, great idea.

Gladio was nearing his cabin when he heard his name being called. For a crazy second he actually thought that maybe Ignis had chased after him, but quickly realised how wrong that was when he stopped and turned to see Prompto barrelling toward him at speed.

Prompto clearly didn't learn his lesson about running around. What if a door suddenly opened and knocked him out, or he tripped on something? At the speed he was going he was sure to do himself an injury. Gladio turned to try and intercept. "Slow down." He moved swiftly to the side and threw out an arm to grab him as he came past and let Prompto's momentum turn them around some more. "Where are you going in such a hurry?"

Wow was it a longer run from the gym to this last sleeper! He hadn't realized what a stretch it was. Whew.. well, he might not have been winded from it normally, but he was recovering a bit. That said, he was still going to fast and as he tried to follow Gladio's instructions of slowing down, he instead tripped on his costume and face planted right on the floor about three inches from within his friend's reach. His brightly color hood flopped over his face as he started to get up.

"I'm okay!" He quickly reported as he peeled himself off the floor.

Gladio had missed and Prompto went down. Immediately Gladio was on his knees and reaching for Prompto to make sure he was alright. "You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days. Are you sure you're okay?" He reached for the hood of the onsie and lifted it off and away from Prompto's face to get a good luck at him and make sure he'd not done himself any damage.

"Trains aren't places to run. What if someone had opened a door? You'd have looked like one of those cartoon characters." Gladio tried for a smile, he was trying to tease, but knew the smile wasn't fully there and he couldn't quite inject the playfulness in his voice that should have been there.

Fortunately, when Gladio lifted Prompto's hood all he had to show for it was a giggling doofus with a tiny red friction burn on the tip of his nose. "Hehe, okay okay! I get it, no running." He was totally going to run. "Hey do you think I'd have those little birds going around my head like in cartoons only they'd be chocobos? That'd be awesome! Oh! I met this cool guy yesterday. He is actually a birdman. Literally! He's about this big." He gestured but it was probably not a good estimate given Prompto was still flat on the floor.

"But speaking of running," he got to his feet and poked Gladio's chest with his finger. "You were running from the party. What happened? Did someone say cup noodles wasn't good? Because I will kick someone's ass for you!" Like Gladio would ever need Prompto to go fight his battles.. but still.

"Yeah, it'd be chocobo's." Gladio confirmed, finally managing that bit of a smile. It was hard not to. Prompto was infectious. It was that light that was helping to chase away some of the shadows around Gladio. At least, until the blonde sat up and poked at him with a threat of kicking someone's ass.

Gladio didn't remember doing it. If he was asked later, he would say that maybe he blacked out for a second. Because between one blink and the next he'd caught Prompto up in his arms to pull him into a tight embrace. His head dropped and face was pressed into the soft fabric of the onsie at Promptos shoulder. "... Just needed to be somewhere else." He spoke, words muffled but still audible.

Prompto awaited the laugh he was just certain would come from his joke about being the one to go do the ass kicking for a change- yes, he knew full well that was a silly thing to say, but Gladio looked like he could use it. Instead he let out a surprised squeak as he found himself in a Glady-Bear hug. It only took a moment for him to realize what was happening and he quickly pulled his arms around those strong shoulders.

It actually felt really good to be the one to do some comforting. He felt bad for his friend and wondered what had happened. Except, he wasn't above asking. "You don't have to say, but what happened? Are- wait, why don't we go back in my room? You have too many roommates."

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And for Ignis

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