Surprises (Working title)

Chapter 3

A/N: I'm apologising in advance 'cause I'm gonna ruin everything in this chapter, if it wasn't obvious at the end of the last one ;^; I'll fix it with so much fluff eventually. I'm actually kinda sorry, A: This is mean, B: It's not well thought out but it works so screw it. 

With Christmas right around the corner, Ignis was far busier than usual, picking up the slack of his coworkers. Noctis was all high spirits for once and even got up earlier than usual, namely to get his chores and homework out of the way so he could relax over the holidays. Prompto often joined him and relished in the fact he was able to enjoy Ignis' cooking so much, well, more than he usually would anyways, he practically lived at Noct's house at the moment. Gladio on the other hand remained beside himself, he tried to be as cheerful as the others, or as resourceful and organised as Ignis was even at this time of the year, but he just settled for training harder and longer to work out his frustrations.

Unfortunately Noctis and Ignis were on the receiving end of those sessions and it's a wonder the two are still standing. Even his Dad tried cheering him up and that was saying something, if Clarus Amicitia was trying to be an optimist and appear happy, it was a serious deal.

"Hello...? Earth to Gladdy! You coming or what?"

Gladio blinked a couple of times and shifted his gaze to Iris, closing his book on his lap to give her his attention. It's that or she'll hit him with it. "Where?"

"To meet up with the guys, duh! Noct and Prompto finished their homework and Iggy's off work early, so are you comin' or am I gonna have to make another excuse for you?"

"You go ahead. I've got shit to do." Gladio murmured, Iris just huffed and turned on her heel to leave.

"Y'know... You keeping moping around feeling sorry for yourself, but you stopped to think how he might feel about it? I told you to speak up or you'd regret it." Gladio sent her a warning glare and she took that as a sign to stop talking, so she left without another word or a second glance.

Earlier that week Gladio had found out in the worst way that his fears came true. He'd overheard a conversation Ignis' uncle was having with some other noble folks, not that he was intentionally eavesdropping at all, he was on guard duty for that room but the door was left ajar. For the most part he tried not to listen but when Ignis' name came up it was all too tempting and nigh impossible not to eavesdrop. They were discussing marrying him off in a few years to some woman from Altissia, apparently they knew each other already and it seemed like the simplest solution for his nephews situation.

With each word that was spoken, Gladio's heart sank farther and farther until he couldn't bear to listen any longer, excusing himself to escape to the bathroom. What made him most upset is that this wasn't new news, it was to Gladio but apparently Ignis was already aware of the arrangement. He was hurt that his friend hadn't told him about the engagement, not only that but he was hurting because he hadn't piped up about his own feelings beforehand, if he had thing's may have been different.

Thus explaining why Gladio was in such a foul mood, not wanting to be around Ignis at the moment. The boy seemed to have caught onto it quickly though since he changed his training and sparring sessions to be with Nyx instead, unintentionally adding salt to Gladio's wound and dooming some poor sap to the Shield's relentless assaults, Ignis could handle them because he was fast, flexible and agile, the new guy... Not so much.

Gladio was wrenched out his internal pity party by his phone ringing, assuming it was Iris he just picked up without looking at the caller ID.

"What'd you forget now?"

"I beg your pardon?"

That was certainly not Iris. "Ignis? Sorry. Thought it was Iris calling, need something? Kinda busy." That sounded harsh even to his own ears, but no taking it back now.