Chapter Text
“Hey, Noct.” Gladio gripped the Prince’s arm as he walked by, effectively stopping his twig collecting. “Have you talked yet?”
“To who?” Noctis asked with a tilt of his head. Gladio groaned in mild frustration as he pointed to a woman posing for a silly photo with Prompto while Ignis was cooking in the background. “Oh, Phila. Yeah we’ve been talking, you’ve heard most of our conversations.”
“Have you talked about it yet?” Gladio asked again, the whole issue with the engagement was a touchy subject for the recently broken up couple but everyone knew the Prince and the Captain actually had to talk about it at some point if they wanted to keep their friendship awkward-free as it used to be.
“Not really. Phila seems to be holding up fine so I haven’t really thought-“
“You may be a Prince but sometimes you’re a real idiot you know that?” Gladio sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose but he dropped the conversation leaving poor Noctis very confused about why he brought it up so suddenly.
Later that night when all save one were asleep Noctis found his sleep disturbed by an ‘accidental’ kick. He opened his eyes long enough to watch Gladio step out of the tent, naturally his curiosity piqued and he shuffled closer to the tent flap to hear the impending conversation.
“Aren’t you up a little late?” Phila giggled as Gladio sat next to her on her log.
“Just wanted to see how you were holding up.” Said warrior chuckled as the woman turned back to the night sky, auburn hair hiding her face and subsequently her emotions from her long standing friend.
“I’m doing alright.” She shrugged, fully aware that Gladiolus, the master of observation, was not buying it for a second.
“I can see right through you, Phil. You know I’m here if you need to talk about what happened.” Gladio offered, hoping that she would take the hint and just spill already but no, Phila just huffed and crossed her arms.
“I don’t particularly want to talk about it. After all it’s not the most enjoyable topic right now.” Unfortunately Phila’s voice did not hold as much strength or authority as she had hoped. Gladio picked up on that fact right away and rested a big hand on her scarred shoulder.
“Want and need are two entirely different things. Talk to me.” It wasn’t an order per say, more like a friendly suggestion that she really couldn’t refuse.
“It was inevitable. I was just kidding myself thinking that we could last.” Phila shrugged, earning a frown from her friend.
“That’s dodging, Phil, tell me how you’re actually feeling. Trust me you’ll be better off for it.” This time it was an order and Phila finally turned to face the bigger man with a playful frown.
“Since when did you become my therapist?” She huffed.
“Since you started needing one. Now tell me the truth. How do you feel right now?” Gladio’s tone was much gentler now, something akin to a person trying to lure out a frightened kitten. Phila frowned in earnest now, a sad look glazing over her eyes as she sighed.
“I feel like-“it was hard to put it into words, how does one describe losing the love of their life after all? “Like I’ve forgotten the words to my favourite song.” Phila sighed, “I’ve forgotten how to hum the tune and move to the beat. It’s all so hard now.”
“What’s hard?” Gladio asked as Phila got to her feet and started pacing.
“Life! It used to be so easy. I used to be excited to wake up every morning because I knew Noct was waiting for me to leave the house and if I didn’t I knew he’d come looking for me. If something was wrong he would always fix it even if he didn’t know how just him trying fixed everything. I used to know that I would always be the one to look after him when something was wrong in his life and now that’s someone else’s job.
“Now it’s so hard. I struggle to find a reason to get out of bed in the morning, most of the time these days it’s my duties as Captain that wake me up and sure once I start spending time with my friends I forget for a while. But then I go home and it all comes crashing back.”
“What comes crashing back?”
“How much I miss him!” The tears she refused to shed before were coming full force now and it was all Phila could do to stop herself sobbing. Never in her life did she think she would cry in front of one of her subordinates, even if he was her closest friend.
“He is right in the tent you know?” Gladio’s attempt at a joke got a strangled giggle from the woman but she still shook her head.
“Not that sort of miss. I miss being able to hold him and kiss him and tell him how much I love him and what I love about him. I miss waking up in the morning and the first thing I see being his face, the first thing I hear being his voice. I miss everything about him.” Phila sighed again as she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her coat, “I will always be his but I should have known better than to think he could ever be mine.”
Silence hung in the air as Noctis sat shocked at what he had just eavesdropped on. He knew Phila had taken the unexpected announcement hard, if handing him back the ring he’d given her was anything to go by, but he hadn’t realized it affected her this much. Phila had always been able to bounce back quickly from emotional and physical blows so Noctis just never thought she would hold onto it for this long. He had to talk to her, to tell her that it was just as hard on him and that, as she had once said to him, nothing could change how much he loves her.
When it seemed Phila wasn’t going to continue talking anymore, Gladio gained his feet and drew the small woman into a tight, squeezy hug, one which she returned full force.
“I’m one hundred per cent certain this is tearing Noct up as well and if it’s not, I’ll tear him up myself.” Gladio joked again and Phila responded with another giggle as she sniffed.
“Thanks, Gladio, I do actually feel better after getting that off my chest.” Phila smiled, her first real smile in days and the big softy returned it whole heartedly.
“That’s good. Anyway, those rings under your eyes won’t go away on their own. Go get some sleep.” He suggested and Phila nodded with a yawn.
“Yeah, I might just take your advice this time.” She joked before heading over to the tent and crawling in. Phila couldn’t help smiling as she scanned the sleeping faces of her friends and her eyes landed on the love of her life, sound asleep. Fate may have separated them but, she decided, she could be happy with still being by his side as his friend.
As the guard-Captain was quickly drifting into sleep, the topic of her last conversation was mentally preparing what he was going to say to her when the sun came up.