Final Fantasy One Shot Collection

[FFXV - Gladiolus] Not going easy on you

When you had received the order to accompany Prince Noctis and the others on their trip to the wedding, you had been ecstatic. Not only because you'd finally see more of the world than just battlefields or because that would mean that you'd be able to evade Tredd's frustrating attempts at flirting with you - those were only minor reasons. What had really gotten you going was the fact that you'd be able to spend time with the man you had secretly liked for a long time now: Gladiolus Amicitia.

Being a member of the Kingsglaive had made it impossible not to cross his path from time to time. Even now, you could still vividly remember the first time you had seen him. The first thing that had impressed you was his enormous strength. You had never been the kind of person to deem someone's looks important, so the fact that he was unbelievably attractive had only been the second thing that you had noticed.

But from the first second on, you had been fascinated by this man. Your motives had not been romantically at the beginning, your main goal had been to fight him, to learn from him and maybe become at least somewhat as strong as he was. Only when your attempts at gaining his attention had begun succeeding - when he had started to train with you from time to time - had you begun to develop something like a crush on him. This feeling had only gotten stronger since then. By now, you were completely smitten with Gladio, which, to be honest, was quite annoying, because it had begun affecting your concentration during training.

So right now, you were fighting against your instincts which were urging you to stop repeatedly attacking him and savouring the sight of this glorious man instead. It made beating him quite difficult. Of course, you had never won against Gladio before anyway, but at this point you felt like you got worse and worse instead of improving.

What didn't help the whole situation was that Gladio wasn't holding back one bit. Sure, you'd never want him to, but it seemed he was intentionally trying to beat you hard. Also, he was constantly scolding you and giving you instructions that made you feel like you were a newbie to fighting. It was like he was angry with you for some reason you couldn't figure out.

You growled as his last blow threw you back a few metres. Fuck, you wanted to impress him, not be disgraced! It was just unfair, he was going easier even on Noctis than on you, so what was his problem?

Also, it wasn't like you were weak, quite the opposite actually. You were one of the strongest Glaives, that was also the reason why King Regis had chosen you to accompany his son on this journey. Because of that, and because you were quite close to the boys already. During your attempts to get to know Gladio, you had made friends with Noctis, his best friend Prompto and his 'butler' Ignis. But you had failed your initial goal, as it seemed that right now, you were a lot closer to them than to Gladio himself.

"Just what is your problem?", you hissed after you had regenerated from his last attack.

"One more time." Oh, so he chose to ignore your question! But you had had enough, you weren't interested anymore. There was no point in this, no possibility to improve when he didn't even provide you with the chance to learn!

"No, I'm done for today", you remarked. Angrily, you put your daggers away and made your way over to Ignis, to help him prepare dinner. Behind your back, you heard Gladio sigh loudly. Pff, fuck him too.  You did your best to ignore the painful sting in your heart, you didn't want to feel this way, like a stupid teenager in love.

On your way over to the camp you passed Noctis and Prompto, but you were not in the mood to giggle, not even when even seeing them jumping around like overly-enthusiastic children, trying to get a nice photo doing a cool pose. Instead, you wanted to occupy your mind with torturing carrots. And that was exactly what you did.