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Padding out of the house, Eerie kept the cups in her hands as steady as she could. The path was lit but the ground was uneven and she was still half-asleep. She winced as she kicked a rock, glaring down at the offending object. “Ass.”
“Eerie?”
Looking up, she saw Gladio further up the path, exactly where she’d expected him to be. “Hi.”
“You should be resting,” he said, starting toward her.
“Stay there. I’m fine.”
Gladio stopped, frowning at her. He took the cup she held out but set it aside to shrug out of his coat. “It’s cold.”
It wasn’t that cold but she let him fuss over her. “Thank you,” she murmured when he stepped back.
He half smiled before it faded. “What are you doing up, Eerie?”
She started to tell him that he wasn’t the quietest person but she swallowed it. He’d been off since he’d gotten to Caem and he didn’t need her teasing right now. She shrugged, grabbing his coat with one hand to keep it on her shoulders. “Wanted to talk to you.”
“You were asleep when I left,” he countered, “and you’ve brought spiced cocoa. That’s a bit more than wanting to talk.”
Her lips pursed. “You haven’t been yourself today,” she told him. “What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing, Eyra.”
She watched him pick up his cup and move back to where he’d been before. At the memorial for Jared. Pushing out her cheeks, she waited for a second before following. The last time they’d been here, they’d fought because he’d been going to face Gilgamesh. It wasn’t a memory she liked thinking about even if he’d come back. “Babe,” she said softly as she came up beside him. “Please?”
He blew on his drink and didn’t answer her.
She waited him out, looking at the memorial stone instead. It still hurt to know the old man was gone. He’d been so kind to her whenever she’d visited Gladio’s house and had helped her adjust to dating one of Insomnia’s elite. She’d been in shock when Gladio had called her to tell her the news and a part of her still didn’t believe it.
She frowned a little, noticing the small candles that were placed near the large stone. “What are those?” she asked, leaning forward.
He caught her arm and pulled her back. His sigh washed over her when she looked up at him and she knew. She’d seen them in his house, in front of the small memorial they had set up for his mother and uncle.
Eyra watched him as he kept drinking. If he was finally mourning his dad pushing him right now wasn’t a smart idea. Standing on her toes, she kissed below his jaw and murmured, “Don’t stay up too late, babe. I’ll see you inside.”
His chin dropped to look at her, his brow tight as she dropped back on her heels. “Eerie?”
Stroking his arm, she gave him a smile. “Night, babe,” she said softly.
She hadn’t even taken two steps before she heard the cup hit stone and his arms wrapped around her from behind. Her cup fell as he jerked her back to him. She heard him breathing heavily and a shudder ran through him.
Grabbing his arms, she closed her eyes and leaned into him. Tears stung at her eyes when she heard a quiet sob leave him and his arms tightened on her. “Gladio,” she murmured.
He didn’t say anything, burrowing into her hair.
She fell quiet, holding onto him and listening as he sobbed again. She shushed him gently when he choked and wriggled in his grip to face him. Wrapping her arms around him, she tugged his shirt out of pants and slowly started rubbing at his lower back. “Shh, love,” she soothed. “I’ve got you.”
It wasn’t easy to rock someone that was a foot taller and weighed so much more than her but she did the best she could.
“Sorry,” he said thickly, pulling away a little.
The lights shone on the tears on his face and he did nothing to hide them, or what he was feeling, from her. “There’s nothing to be sorry about,” she said quietly. “Do you…want to talk?”
His face scrunched before he shook his head. “I don’t know what to say,” Gladio rasped. “He was doing his job, shielding his king. Sometimes we die in the line of duty.”
Her fingers dug into his back a little. “That doesn’t mean you have to be okay with it.”
“Yeah, it does,” he countered. “I can’t be Noct’s Shield if I’m stuck on all this shit.”
“Your father dying isn’t just ‘this shit’, Gladio. Otherwise you’re gonna break like this again.”
She watched his jaw flex before he slumped a little. “He really liked you.”
Eyra blinked, surprised at the change of topic. “What?”
“He told me not to fuck up what we have,” he continued. “That he’d personally kill me if I did.”
A startled laugh left her. “He wouldn’t have done that,” she laughed. “He loved you so much.”
“It was the thought that counted and I’m not so sure he didn’t mean it.” He paused. “He never got over Mom dying,” he said softly. “It broke his heart to lose her. He loved her more than anything.”
Her own heart tugged at that. It hadn’t been hard to see that Clarus had mourned Dahlia every day, no matter how he hid it when he was in public. Iris had been so young when she’d died but Gladio had told her about his parents, about his mother. At least enough to know how committed they were to each other.
Gladio inhaled deeply, shaking his head. “Didn’t think much about losing him,” he admitted. “We were safe in Insomnia. Never really crossed my mind that I’d lose him like that.”
She almost wished Nyx hadn’t told him about what had happened in the throne room and to his father.
“I can’t really stop to think about what I’ve lost,” he said, his brow tightening. “Noct’s better now but there’s still too much riding on everything and I can’t….”
She stared up at him as his hands moved to run over her hair before cupping her face with the strands still between his fingers. “Gladio?”
“I love you,” he breathed, his voice cracking. “I love you and I can’t….”
Lifting on her toes as he bent over her, she kissed him back, not surprised at how hard it was. She hauled his shirt up when he lifted her off her feet and a noise left her. “I love you too,” she whispered against him. “You aren’t going to lose me, I promise.”
His eyes squeezed shut. “When this shit is over, you and me need a fucking holiday,” Gladio said lowly. “I don’t care where you want to go. We’re going. For a week. Two weeks. A month. I don’t care. We’re doing it.”
She melted, bumping her forehead against his. “You’re not going to take a month off,” she murmured.
“Ignis can keep an eye on Noct.”
A small laugh slipped out of her and she rubbed her nose against him. “We’ll talk about this when it’s over,” she agreed.
Gladio exhaled slowly before setting her down on the ground. “He’d want me to take you on a holiday. We never really went on a proper one because of everything. I’m taking you on a holiday, for him, for us.”
“Okay,” she said softly. “We’ll do it when this is over.”