Work Text:
carry your heart
Gladio pauses with his fork raised halfway to his mouth, staring at Prompto like he’s suddenly turned into a chocobo. Prompto fidgets at his look, turning to Iggy for support, but Iggy just purses his lips before taking a casual sip of his water. It’s the first time they’ve all been in the same place for months, and he’s already ruined it. He must have ruined it. Gladio and Iggy are broken.
“Run that by us again,” Gladio rumbles, all…rumbly. Like a bear. Prompto briefly considers lying, passing it off as a joke maybe, but his friends know him too well. They’ll never believe it.
“I’m dating Dino,” he mumbles instead, spinning his bracelet around his arm. It’s a new one, different than the leather he’d used to hide his barcode for years, and the gems on it flash in the light.
“Yeah, you remember that time when he blackmailed Noct?” Gladio growls, putting his fork down so he can wave his hand in the air instead. “All the times getting rocks for him nearly got us killed?”
“He-he feels bad about it!” Prompto protests, which is a lie. Dino doesn’t have enough shame to feel bad about anything he does, as far as Prompto can tell. “And he’s really sweet!”
“And what about your thing for Cindy? Give up on her already?”
Prompto scoffs. “She’s married to her work.”
“Took you long enough to figure that out,” Gladio says. “So why Dino of all people? What’s so great about him?”
Prompto shrugs uncomfortably, toying with his food. He's not sure there's really any point in trying to explain it, because he doesn't really understand it himself.
"Everything?" he says hesitantly, waggling his eyebrows at Gladio when he snorts. "What? I'm not lying. Everything about him is great."
It's kind of a shame Gladio hadn't been drinking anything when Prompto said that, because he's pretty sure the spit-take would have been beautiful. Oh well. You can't have everything.
"Perhaps we should have breakfast with him in the morning," Iggy says. "We don't really know him all that well, after all."
Gladio's wide grin makes Prompto hesitate. "Uh, I don't know if…"
"C'mon, we're not gonna bite," Gladio says. He's still grinning. Prompto absolutely ten-thousand percent does not trust that smile.
"Fine," he mutters anyway, because he can't think of a good excuse not to. "But only if Dino wants to."
Dino, of course, does want to, even though Prompto warns him against it. Repeatedly. Because nobody should ever trust Gladio, and he has his doubts about Iggy sometimes too.
"Why wouldn't I want to get to know your friends?" Dino asks, looking up from the bracelet he's making. His soft smile still makes Prompto's insides flutter like nervous hummingbirds.
Prompto crosses the room and flops onto Dino's bed with a groan. "Because I think Gladio's going to try to murder you. Or embarrass you. I'm not sure which is worse."
"Well, I'm hard to kill." Dino chuckles softly, standing up and stretching until his back cracks. "And even harder to embarrass, as you may have noticed."
Prompto rolls his eyes, but otherwise doesn't dignify that with a response. It's impossible to embarrass Dino, and he knows because he's tried and only managed to embarrass himself in the process. He closes his eyes and rolls onto his back, listening to Dino wash his hands in the bathroom. Dino's footsteps on the carpeted floor are nearly silent, so Prompto doesn't realize how close he is until Dino's hands are on his shoulders. Prompto spreads his legs so Dino can settle between them, welcomes the weight of Dino's body pressing him into the mattress. The kiss makes Prompto dizzy and he curls his fingers in the bedsheets so he doesn't slide off the bed.
Dino pulls away slowly. "We don't have to go if you don't want to."
"What?" Prompto asks.
"Breakfast with your friends." Prompto can feel Dino's lips curl into a smile against his own. It's distracting enough that he can't quite figure out what Dino's referring to. "We were just discussing it, beautiful."
"What?" Prompto repeats, trying to pull back further so he can get some space and think. Not that he can go anywhere with the mattress behind him. Dino always does this to him, the jerk. "Whatever you want to do. Can you just focus?"
Dino's laughter huffs against his lips, but at least it's the last of the conversation for the night.
@-'---
Prompto manages to forget all about having breakfast with the guys until Dino pokes him out of bed early the next morning. He sends a quick text to Gladio asking what time they're meeting up before he stumbles into the bathroom for a shower.
By the time he feels like a living human again, Dino has managed to get dressed and fix his hair. And there's a text from Gladio bitching about how late Prompto's gotten out of bed. Prompto glares at it. It's not like time even has a meaning any more with the whole sun never rising thing.
He tells Gladio this. Gladio immediately responds that eight o'clock is still too late to be waking up. Prompto thinks a middle finger at him really hard but can't be bothered to emoji it. Especially since he still needs to get ready to leave.
"Are you sure you want to go to breakfast?" Prompto grumbles, staring longingly at the rumpled sheets.
"I don't think blow jobs count as a meal," Dino says, winking. Prompto feels himself blush and distracts himself by finding some clean clothes.
Well. Trying to find clean clothes. He'd only just gotten back the day before and everything but one pair of pants is too dirty to wear. Maybe Dino has something he can borrow, even if it will be too nice and too big to look good on him.
"You look absolutely delicious," Dino says when Prompto comes back out of the bathroom with his hair done. Prompto looks down to fix the rolled-up sleeve of Dino's shirt. "Perhaps just one little adjustment…"
Prompto's breath catches as Dino pops the top button on the shirt, but that's all he does before pulling Prompto up into a kiss. Prompto closes his eyes and leans into it, putting his hands on Dino's hips as his heart beats in his throat. He still can't believe Dino wants him. Dino could have anyone.
"Shall we go?" Dino's gaze is so intense Prompto can't hold it for long.
"Yeah, okay," Prompto whispers.
They walk through Lestallum with their fingers entwined, even though Prompto can't look at any of the other people on the streets as they do. He can't even look at Dino, because he'll be all smirky and smug as if he's lucky to be holding Prompto's hand or something. It's ridiculous; if either of them's the lucky one, it's definitely Prompto.
Gladio and Iggy are waiting for them at a table in the market, and Gladio's face darkens worryingly when he catches sight of them. He leans over to say something to Iggy, and Iggy's lips quirk up in an almost-smile that's honestly not any less worrying than Gladio's expression. Prompto takes a deep breath, feels Dino's eyes on him.
"Is everything all right?" Dino asks, his voice soft and close. Prompto nods jerkily. "I'm sure they're not that bad."
"You don't know them," Prompto says, but it's too late to clarify. He mutters a greeting to Gladio and Iggy and hears Dino doing similar, but he doesn't really process what they're saying. It's probably fine. It's not like they don't all know each other.
Dino's hand settles in between Prompto’s shoulder blades, rubbing his back soothingly, and Prompto gives him a grateful smile. Dino smiles back, a question in his eyes, and Prompto isn't sure what he's asking but the answer is almost definitely a shrug.
Dino orders breakfast for both of them and coffee for himself. Conversation is a little stilted as they wait for the food to show up, but Gladio doesn't try to start a fight with Dino or anything, so Prompto lets himself relax. Finds himself grinning as Dino talks about how he got to the city and complains about how hard it is to get good rocks to make jewelry these days. Interrupts to point out that his bracelets haven't suffered for the lack.
It's a relief when breakfast ends without a single attempt on Dino's life, but Prompto should have known it was too good to be true. Gladio claps a hand on Dino's shoulder as they all start to walk away, hard enough to make Dino stumble.
"Oh, hey, I nearly forgot," Gladio says, stepping close to Dino and looming like a Necromancer. His grin is even worse than the day before's. He looks like he's going to eat Dino. "Y'know, Prompto really means a lot to us."
"Gladio!" Prompto whines, hovering protectively at Dino's elbow. "Why are you doing this to me?"
"If you even so much as think about hurting him," Gladio continues as if Prompto isn't even there, "I'm gonna break every bone in your body. One by one. And leave you out in the dark for the daemons to finish off."
Prompto hears himself make a horrified little noise. That's the most awful thing he's ever heard in his entire life.
Iggy sighs. "He never does want to let me help." He gives Dino a tight smile, pats Prompto on the arm, and slides quietly past them.
"H-How is that scarier?" Prompto asks. "And seriously why are you like this?"
"Something about you just brings out everyone's protective side," Dino says, sliding his arm around Prompto's waist and pulling him close. He presses a kiss to Prompto's hair before he turns to Gladio with a smirk. "Though I assure you it's absolutely unnecessary."
Gladio points his finger right in Dino's face. "And it damn well better stay that way," he growls, and stomps off after Iggy.
"I'm so sorry about them," Prompto moans. "This is why I didn't want to have breakfast with them, I knew they'd try to scare you off."
"Oh, it's perfectly fine," Dino says. He cups Prompto's cheek and ignores the ensuing blush as he presses their foreheads together. "I'm not worried. I love you too much to hurt you."
Prompto's heart stops. Did he really— "W-what?"
Dino smiles gently, his eyes crinkling at the corners, but he doesn't say anything else. Prompto opens his mouth and tries to say something, anything, but nothing comes out. Instead he wraps his arms around Dino's neck and pulls him down into a kiss, tries to express his unspoken words with it.
He still wants to say them, though. "I-I—"
"Shh. I know." Dino kisses the tip of his nose. "I'll be here when you're ready to say it. Even if you're never ready."
Prompto knows he will be soon, but today he can only nod and hide his blush in Dino's neck.