Shifting from being Noct's friend to dating Noct had been relatively smooth Gladio figured. But then he'd been half in love with Noctis for longer than he'd ever really be able to pinpoint, the fact this whole dating thing just meant he didn't have to constantly remind himself not to let his gaze linger, to hold back the affection in said gaze, made it pretty easy to fall into. There were moments when it felt like nothing much had changed, in that Noctis still drove him crazy half the time, they still knew exactly how to press each other's buttons, Noctis had always been a constant presence even before dating had become a thing, and they were just as quick to fall into teasing words than sappy ones.
But also - everything had changed.
Whatever ways Noctis had driven him crazy before paled in comparison to the weeks of making out on the couch but not yet crossing too many lines from there. And Gladio was pretty sure he'd never taken as many cold showers in his life as he had recently. The buttons laid out for Noctis to push had grown exponentially. The constant presence now more often than not included waking up with Noctis all but barnacled to him in the morning.
It was a nice feeling though. Letting himself give into it all, to not have to pretend like he wasn't as smitten as he was. To do dumb cheesy shit like making sure he came back from an early morning run with Noct's favourite pastries and not have it be just a "friends" thing.
Or the scene Noctis would soon walk into. He'd pushed the coffee table in the living room to the middle of the room, covered it with a tablecloth. Some blankets and the throw pillows on the floor to make comfy spots to sit on either side of the table. Candles lit and placed on the coffee table and the end tables, he'd even picked up a simple flower arrangement for the center of the table. And he was just finishing up with setting down the dinner that he was sure even Ignis might be proud of when he heard the door open.
"In here," he called out from the living room.
Noctis was starting to get the hang of this dating thing. It was all the years of being in each other’s back pocket, only now he could actually reach into Gladio’s back pocket. It was talking shit during training and then shutting each other up with heated kisses. It was addicting. And Noctis was trying very hard not to take too much.
Growing up royal and weighted down by prophecy had shaped Noctis to be naturally demanding. He needed what he needed when he needed it. But the last few years had softened his brattier tendencies. He’d grown. He cared about people and their needs. He especially cared about Gladio and he was determined to follow Gladio’s lead. He could handle slow. He might go slowly insane, but he could handle it.
He pushed his way into the apartment like someone who lived there, pocketing the key Gladio had given him and juggling a six pack of beer under one arm and an oversized kitten in the other. He hadn’t known the details of this date so he froze as he entered the living room.
“Uhh…wow. Glad I put on my nicer cargo pants.” He smiled, slow and pleased, his gaze tripping over everything in the room with a flush climbing up his neck. Bass leapt out of his arms to stalk around the living room. “Did you cook?”
The nice thing though about dinner at home was that even if he'd gone the cheesy candles and romance route they didn't have to be fancy the way they would have if they'd gone out. So Noct's "nicer" cargo pants fit in just fine with Gladio's "nicer" joggers. And Gladio knew that the trade off of somewhat surprising Noctis with a romantic dinner over the usual take out eaten on the couch was that Noctis was likely to show up for the latter, which was why he kept it casual himself.
He moved to Noctis and took a moment to slip a hand behind Noct's neck and kiss him. "It's been known to happen from time to time," he answered with a grin. "I'm no Iggy but I'm fairly confident I'm not gonna poison you," he joked. Really though Gladio was decent enough in the kitchen and had a few go to meals including the chicken and rice (vegetables omitted for his as picky as a five year old boyfriend) bake that was currently on the coffee table.
Gladio took the six pack to put in the fridge, grabbing two as he did to pour into glasses for them. "Thought it might be nice to do something a little nicer than take out on the couch," he said as he handed Noct a glass. Not that take out on the couch wasn't enjoyable either, hell, Gladio was fine with whatever they did. But there was something to be said about making an evening special.
It was almost embarrassing how much Noct enjoyed the simple domestic charm of the hottest guy he’d ever known making him a dinner set up like this and then walking over to kiss him first thing. He felt like he should be pinching himself. He followed Gladio to the kitchen with a dumb smile on his face instead.
“You know, I wasn’t really worried about poison until you said that,” he joked. His gaze tracked back towards the living room and the soft glow of the candles. Bass was stalking towards Henruit and the apartment smelled good and really, Noct had never thought he could have this. The dumb smile grew. He sat the glass he’d been given down on the counter but only so he could wrap his arms around Gladio’s waist and bury his face in his chest. “It is nice,” he said, muffled by Gladio’s shirt. “Really nice.”
He pulled back and looked up at him with wide eyes. “I mean, the food could be terrible and this would still be really, really nice.” There were probably better words, but Noctis Lucis Caelum wasn’t a wordsmith, okay.
Gladio still had his own glass in hand but his free one moved to card lightly through Noct's hair when he pressed into his chest. He laughed a little at the insistence at how nice it was but there was a warm smile given to Noctis. He brushed his lips against Noct's and brushed his thumb against Noct's cheek. "Thanks"
He settled his hand against Noct's shoulder lightly. Gladio shrugged a little, looking a bit nervous almost. All of this was pretty uncharted territory for him, the kind of dumb cheesy stuff he'd always wanted to do but never had a reason to. That the reason now was Noctis only made it better. "I just -" he paused briefly, "wanted to make tonight a little special," he finished.
He picked up Noct's glass to bring and nodded toward where dinner sat on the coffee table. "Let's eat?"
Now that Noct had gotten that out of his system, maybe he could be some version of cool. If he could just tuck away the memory of Gladio touching his face and kissing him, maybe. He doubted it very much, but he was going to try anyway. He looked around for anything to carry and ended up just grabbing some extra napkins off the counter.
“What’s so special about tonight?” he asked dumbly, trailing after Gladio. Bass leapt off a chair and raced around the coffee table. His paws were too big for his body, the gangly giant. Noct smiled at him helplessly and headed around to the other side of the coffee table. He dropped down to his knees and frowned. “Shit. I didn’t forget something, did I? You know Ignis was my walking talking calendar.”
Gladio set their drinks down and sat across from Noctis. He nudged his foot against Noct's leg under the table and gave him a quick grin that seemed to say he wasn't pressed in the least. "Been a month since our dinner at Gladin," he let Noctis know.
"And it's fine," he added with another quick grin, "I don't mind being the half of the relationship that remembers things." It wasn't something he just said either, he meant the words. Hell, it had really only hit him a few days before the fact himself. That Noctis hadn't made the same realization wasn't something he'd ever be upset about.
In addition to the anniversary of sorts, he also really wanted to move past the endless make outs on the couch but Gladio figured that could come up later.
Gladio took a bite of the dinner he'd laid out, eyed Bass moving toward the couch to hop up with Henruit and looked back at Noct. "You can just make it up to me later," he said with a sly smirk and a wink, teasing him.
“Oh!” Noct settled further down into the cushions around the coffee table, looking pleased. “Gods, has it really been a month already? I will make it up to you later. I mean, I can--I could--I’m sure I could figure out a way.” The stammering was super sexy, obviously. And the embarrassed wincing. He was unfortunately sure that Gladio would notice if he burrowed under the pillows and didn’t come out for a while. Sheer stubbornness and the growling of his own stomach kept him where he was.
“Uhh...about that--” Whatever Noct was planning to say was temporarily waylaid by his oversized kitten leaping onto the coffee table, claiming a roll off Noct’s plate, and making a run for it. “Hey! You little thief.” Noct fell sideways on the cushions, trying to catch Bass before he got out of reach. He missed by a mile. “What is it with you and bread, weirdo?”
Luckily for Noctis, the whole flustered looking like he wanted to crawl into a hole and never emerge didn't really bother Gladio. If anything he found it endlessly endearing, the fond amusement on his expression coming easy.
But like Noctis whatever he might have followed up with was cut short as the cat bounced across the table. One of their cups was knocked over and before he could even move to righten it and start cleaning the spilled liquid up there was a deep woof from the couch as Henruit bolted up and after Bass. Which was par for the course really. Henruit's tail though swept across the table, knocked a candle over which immediately ignited the leaves of the flowers in the middle.
"Shit," Gladio cursed as he clambered up to deal with it, which, well, was a bad choice in retrospect as his knee hit the table and knocked over the other candle, lighting a napkin to join the other small fire starting.
Everything happened so fast, Noctis forgot he could control fire. He’d been about to laugh, for gods’ sake, and maybe tease Gladio about is long legs, but then there was more fire. He startled back up to sitting straight and there was a good three seconds of him blinking big dumb eyes at the flames on the coffee table before his brain decided to jump start.
“Crap, right, got it.” He reached out to one of the fires, feeling the heat close to his palm, and absorbed the flame. But as he reached for the second one, he was interrupted by Bass meowing loudly and parkouring off his head to land on the sofa behind him. Afraid Henruit was about to do the same, Noctis raised his arms over his head like a shield. “Will you two please just chill?”
There was a brief moment where Gladio had visions of this turning into a full out inferno and wouldn't that just be a great end to this whole evening. But he was quick to shove the this will end in disaster thought away as Noctis extinguished the one fire. He grabbed his drink and poured it over the next as the pets beelined for Noct. His free hand managed to grab Henruit's collar just before he tried to follow after Bass - because there was no way that dog was clearing that jump.
He was quiet for a moment as the dust settled, then a laugh worked its way out - deep and rumbling. When it seemed Henruit wouldn't try to launch himself over the table and Noct, Gladio let go of the collar.
"So…" he started as he laughed. "Note to self - candles and pets don't mix," he added. "You okay?"
The tension in Noct’s shoulders bled out at the sound of Gladio’s laughter and he uncovered his head. There was a scattering of dishes and candle carcasses across the coffee table and a messy cat paw print on his plate. He looked up at Gladio and laughed with him.
“I can’t believe he used me as a ladder. I should’ve left him at my apartment, but I was sure I’d come back to a disaster zone.” Bass chose that moment to perch his front paws on Noct’s shoulder and purr, furry cheek pressed to Noct’s. Life with an oversized kitten was a whirlwind, he was learning. But he couldn’t pretend he didn’t love it. He petted the cat and then nudged him back to the sofa so he could push up onto his knees. “I’m sorry. All this work...Just give me a second,” he said, starting to clean up the burnt and soggy remains.
"Not like that one didn't help," he replied and nodded to Henruit now sitting back on the couch like he hadn't just blown through their dinner. Which was to say he wasn't pressed about Bass running through their dinner, or looking to assign blame to one of the over the other. "They're lucky they're cute?" he said with a smirk and a perked brow.
Gladio moved to the kitchen to grab some paper towels and kneeled down to start sopping up the mess with Noctis. "So much for romancing the hell out of you," he said with a bit of a laugh, though there was a note of disappointment in the words, as he piled a few wet napkins and paper towels onto his already soggy plate. Most of it sopped up, he piled the plates on each other and started to take them over to the counter.
"Still hungry? We could order something in? But maybe uh - you wanna blow out those candles on the side tables first," he suggested, figuring the last thing they needed was a repeat of potentially burning the apartment down.
“Aren’t we all?” Noct joked in response to the they’re lucky they’re cute. He finished up cleaning up the coffee table – or at least, he wiped up the last of the wetness and piled the dirty napkins on the last plate left on the table. But the bummed note in Gladio’s voice snagged his attention and wouldn’t let go. If Gladio looked back at him, he’d probably see the wheels turning in Noct’s head.
“Maybe this is a good night for giant bowls of cereal?” He blew out the candles and picked one up out of the holder, rolling it across his palm to adjust to the weight distribution. “Catch.” Noctis threw the unlit candle with perfect accuracy and warped with it, plastering himself to Gladio’s chest at the other end of the warp and hooking his legs around his boyfriend’s hips. He was a little glad he was lightweight for once.
“But also I could just be hungry for something…else?” The word carried extra emphasis, even if it was uncertain, and he coiled a hand up into Gladio’s hair to pull him closer to his mouth.
He didn't have a chance to address the cereal comment before being told to catch and Gladio turned just in time to get pegged in the chest with an unlit candle and barely a second later, Noctis. He reacted easily, hands moving to cup Noct's ass and hold him up. He was easy to drag into a kiss. He kept his hands under Noct and maneuvered them a little while they kissed so that he could use the counter to set Noct on gently, freeing up a hand to slip into Noct's hair.
Gladio broke the kiss with a coy smirk. "Something else was part of the plan," he admitted and started to drop soft little kisses along the side of Noct's neck. "Just wanted to - I don't know - make it special I guess, figured you deserved special," his lips dusting along Noctis' neck as he spoke, until he pulled back to look at Noct. He brushed a thumb along Noct's brow, gave him a sheepish sort of grin. "Which is probably super cheesy but…" he trailed off and let his hand sink back into Noct's hair.
The unsaid of this being different. Meaning something. So much more than any one night stand or fling that had come before.
“I just said I could be hungry for something else so clearly the cheese isn’t just you,” Noct snorted, embarrassed and pleased all at once. He draped his arms around Gladio’s neck and pulled back so he get a good look at him. The odds that Gladio made things special for just anybody seemed slim. He’d already talked about how he hadn’t started up anything serious at home, and why. It gave Noct a little thrill up his spine, knowing this was effort just for him.
“You deserve something special too, you know,” he murmured. “But I mean…” Noct glanced over his shoulder at the living room, where Henruit and Bass were currently partaking in the slowest chase scene ever. “I don’t think a lot of people could say they had this particular date, right?” His fingers massaged into the muscle in Gladio’s shoulder and he dropped his eyes. He spoke quietly but with feeling. “You wanna hear some real cheese? Every date with you feels special. It’s you.”
Gladio followed Noct's eyes to the pets and laughed softly. "Yeah, you got a point there," he agreed. And maybe there was something to be said about it not being perfect. Most of their lives had been aiming for some arbitrary sense of perfection. Doing the right thing, saying the right thing. Watching what they said where someone might overhear as to not come across as inappropriate for their positions. Room to just be themselves had been small and only getting smaller - at least before everything completely fell apart.
Gladio looked back at Noctis, smiled at the cheesy line that was anything but to him. A warmth spread through him at the words, the sentiment behind them that Gladio had spent years longing for. Hit again with the thrill of knowing that the feelings he had for Noctis were returned. That they were even here like this, Noct's legs hooked around him, his fingers pressed into Gladio's shoulder and Gladio hand tangled into the hair at the back of Noct's neck - it was special it and of itself.
He leaned forward, pressed a soft kiss to Noct's lips and smiled. "Might be cheesy, but I get it," he said as he pulled back a little to look at Noctis. "It's you," he repeated with a soft look and leaned back in to kiss Noctis again. A kiss that didn't take long to turn heated. Gladio pressed a hand into Noct's back, holding him close against his chest as he stepped back from the counter. His other hand moved back to under Noctis' ass. Not breaking the kiss, Gladio started to move them to the hall and down to the bedroom.