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“I’m not jealous,” Gladio said, wrinkling his nose.
“You’re absolutely jealous,” Noctis retorted, not letting him get to the second part of his grand opening statement, mostly because he was a brat, and he had his head pillowed on Ignis’ lap.
Gladio knew from experience that was an excellent place to be, provided you were still and didn’t distract Iggy from his reading, mostly because he was prone to run his fingers through hair when he was focused on something, like a little soothing gesture to keep him from throwing his book out the nearest window. Exactly just as he was doing at the moment, fingers tracing the frankly ludicrous spikes Noctis had taken to coax his hair into, while his eyes ran across the pages of the digest that Noctis was supposed to be reading in the first place.
Gladio scoffed.
“If I was,” he said, and then glared when Noctis snickered at him, “which I’m not, but even if I was, you share beds with him.”
Noctis gave Gladio a suitably scandalized look.
“Gladiolus Amicitia,” he said, eyebrows arched, “surely you’re not implying I’d fuck my best friend.” Noctis ignored the fact Ignis snorted at that, in what sounded vaguely like even though you would. “My married best friend.”
Gladio gave him a dry look.
“That would carry a lot more weight, you realize,” he said, one eyebrow arched tauntingly, “if I didn’t know that wedding was a scam.”
“He’s got you there,” Ignis pointed out, tugging at Noctis’ hair, before putting down the binder on the side table and picking up a fresh one.
“Okay, fair,” Noctis sighed, and then squirmed a bit further down the couch, so Ignis could shift and cross his legs before Noctis curled up in place again. “And… okay. Fine. Truth?”
“If your highness could be arsed?” Gladio snarked, folding his arms over his chest.
Noctis wrinkled his nose.
“Screw you, Gladio,” he said, with absolutely no bite whatsoever. “I thought about it. For a while.” He shrugged and tried to not overly lean on the fingers once more twisting in his hair. “’cause I do love him. I do. And for a while I wondered if… you know, I loved him the same way I love you, guys.”
Gladio waited for him to continue, and when Noctis didn’t, sighed and went to sit at the opposite edge of the couch, nudging him over so his legs were sprawled over Gladio’s lap.
“But?”
Noctis squirmed, and not just because he was trying to find his place again.
“But by the time I figured out… you know, all of that, he’d gone and gotten married, so,” Noctis shrugged and pretended not to lean into the touch, when one of Gladio’s hands absently rubbed over his knee. “Too little too late, I guess.”
“I mean,” Gladio began, frowning, “his wedding is a scam…”
Noctis shifted enough to hide most of his face into one of Ignis’ thighs.
“Nah,” he said, “he’s not interested.”
“You sound very certain of that,” Ignis ventured, lips twitching. And, when Noctis didn’t reply right away, he tugged at a few strays of hair, not sharp enough to hurt, but reproaching enough. “Noct.”
“You sound like you’d be game to try,” Noctis retorted, looking at Gladio with an arched eyebrow. “I thought you were jealous.”
“I’ve never been jealous a day in my life,” Gladio snorted, looking suitably offended by the mere idea. “I make people jealous, not the other way around.”
Ignis made an amused noise in the back of his throat, but didn’t take his eyes off his report, or his fingers off Noctis’ hair.
“Right,” Noctis replied, squinting a little. “Of course.”
“The point, I believe,” Ignis said after a moment, when it became apparent both Gladio and Noctis had reached a stalemate, glaring at each other, “is that we had agreed to talk about these things.”
“When it’s relevant,” Noctis said, not quite sulking. “Which this isn’t. So there.”
“You have a crush on Prompto,” Gladio said, head tilted to the side, “I think that’s pretty relevant.”
“You have a crush on a new Glaive every other week,” Noctis shot back, ignoring the way Ignis tugged reproachfully on his hair again, “but you don’t see me calling that relevant.” He tilted his chin up defiantly, as Gladio spluttered. “Even when one of those happens to be Prompto’s husband.”
“It was the one time!” Gladio snarled, and then shoved Noctis’ legs off his lap, which would have resulted in Noctis rolling off into the ground, except he warped right into Gladio’s arms in retaliation. “Noct!”
“You love me,” Noctis said, arms wrapped around Gladio’s shoulders.
“At the moment, I’m reconsidering,” Gladio deadpanned, even as he held the Prince in his arms and didn’t seem to have any intention to let go any time soon.
“And I love you,” Noctis went on, undisturbed, eyebrows arched, and then grinned when a corner of Gladio’s lips twitched in acknowledgement. “And we both love and live in fear of Ignis’ wrath.”
“As well you should,” Ignis agreed, report forgotten as he folded his hands over his knee and gave them both a long suffering sigh. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about this?”
“I’m fine,” Noctis said, and actually sounded like it, and then he leaned in and bumped his forehead against Gladio’s. “And of course Gladio’s fine, since he’s never ever jealous.”
“Right,” Gladio replied, giving Noctis a skeptical look.
Ignis sighed again.
“Very well,” he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Dinner, then?”
Noctis shrugged, still placidly sprawled in Gladio’s arms.
“I mean, we could always order takeout,” he said, teasing. “Something greasy and terrible and utterly unhealthy.”
“Hilarious,” Ignis deadpanned, and nodded over to the corridor leading back to their shared room. “Food will be ready in five.”
“You could walk, you know,” Gladio said, as he stood up, Noctis still in his grasp.
“I mean, I could,” Noctis agreed, smiling lazily, “but that’d deny my Shield a chance to show off how strong and brave he is.”
“Still reconsidering,” Gladio snorted, but did not, in fact, drop Noctis off his arms.