#frostbitten gladio

[chippersweetbaby]

sometimes it's fun to go out and have ice battles with giant monsters in the middle of the night. no matter what prompto says

[ragewerthers]

That’s Cold, Dude

Summary:  It's a frigid night at camp and tempers are flaring up. Between shuffle kicks, angry caterpillar wars and sock warping... will they survive the night?

A/n: This is for my friend @bgn846​!

She sent me some wonderful prompts for our F3S and this was the first one I wrote as I couldn't pick between two of them! XD

In it she asked for a cold night at camp... how do the boys cope?

I hope that you enjoy this silliness!

You can also read on AO3 at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21678931

Enjoy! :D

Word Count: 1753

-----------------------------------

Had they pissed off Shiva?

Were they trapped inside Glacial Grotto?

Was it beginning to feel a lot like Christmas?!

Whatever was happening one thing was certain.

It was freezing.  Teeth chattering, nose sniffling, toe numbingly freezing.

Three of the four occupants of the hastily put up tent were currently shaking so badly in their sleeping bags that it sounded like someone wearing a windbreaker suit was doing power laps around their campsite.

Schwickschwickschwick….

The noise was almost as annoying as the biting cold and before long, the silence was shattered by a sneeze and a growl.

“Th-that’s it!” Ignis hissed into the dark, his breath creating a swirling mist in the frigid air.  “We aren’t d-doing ourselves any f-favors like this.  Noct… Prompto are… are you two awake?”

“Y-Yeah… I think Prompto m-might be dead though,” Noct’s muffled voice supplied before the sound of a shuffled kick and a yelp could be heard.

“D-Dude!  I’m n-not dead!  I’m c-conserving body heat b-by not talking!” Prompto said, the sound of another shuffle kick being heard before Noctis yipped.

Schwick… thud…

“Ah!  You ass!”…. 

Schwick… thud, thud kick… 

“St-stop!  That hurts!”

SchwickthudscwickkickyTHUD!

“That’s enou-aachoo!!!” Ignis whisper yelled before having to muffle another sneeze into his sleeping bag and groaning miserably.  Glancing over he could just make out the other two.  The best way to describe the scene was like watching two angry caterpillars fighting to the death.  Noct and Prompto’s sleeping bags were bundled up well over their heads as they shuffled toward each other in cold induced fury.  Sighing heavily Ignis shook his head.  “You’re a-acting r-ridiculous,” he grumbled as the two puffed up caterpillars slowly backed down from one another and slowly settled down into an uneasy peace… for now.

“H-He started it,” Prompto mumbled, hiding his face almost completely back into his sleeping bag.

“Yes, well I’m f-finishing it,” Ignis warned, hearing a delighted little chuckle from Noct.

Schwick KICK!

“OW!  Iggy?!?!” Noct cried out in betrayal, but instantly stopped his snickering.

Settling back down, Ignis took in a deep frigid breath and closed his eyes.  “The most l-logical thing to do would… would be to restart the haven’s fire,” he began, eyes glancing over to Noct.

“........ what?” the Prince asked, not enjoying the look he was getting.

“Seeing as you ha-have the ability to warp… and use f-fire magic… you would be the most… logical choice to do the task.  Not to mention the quickest to go out an-and come back,” Ignis explained, hearing a gleeful little chuckle from the far end of the tent that he knew could only be coming from their gunner.

Noct didn’t seem to miss the giggle as well, but right now he was more focused on pleading his case then muffle kicking his boyfriend.

“But, Iggy!  I’m… I’m cold… and if I go o-out there then I’ll b-be even colder.  You… you don’t want me t-to be even colder do you?” he asked, pouting and trying to give his best puppy eyes to his other partner, hoping he could melt that heart of his.

Ignis was unmoved.

Noct knew he had to switch tactics fast before he was physically tossed from the tent to achieve his task.

“What about Prompto?!”

“What?!  What about Prompto?” the gunner squeaked, instantly sitting up as Noct looked over his shoulder and gave him a glare where his eyes peeked out from his sleeping bag before looking back to Ignis and putting on his innocent expression once more.

“Prompto is cl-closest to the entrance and the smallest.  He won’t have to open the… the tent flap as far and c-can shuffle out there to l-light the fire.  N-not to mention he was the l-last one to check it.  He should’ve added m-more wood to it b-before we went to bed,” Noct mumbled, adding just enough whine to his voice to sound like he had been personally wronged and Prompto should totally sacrifice his comfort to make up for his own.

Ignis opened his mouth to respond, but before he could…

“You jerk!!!” Prompto seethed, his voice another muffled hiss as he all but dived onto Noctis, knocking the air out of the Prince with an ‘Oof!’ before another sad and sleeping bag induced fight took place.

With a deep sigh, Ignis sat up to intervene in this pathetic tussle…

Schwick KICK!

All movement ceased.

Prompto lay frozen over Noctis, still enveloped in his sleeping bag cocoon with the Princes head in a headlock.

Noctis, caught under Prompto, had his teeth biting into the fluffy fabric of his friends sleeping bag near his neck.

Both of them had their eyes, glancing down to where their feet had unintentionally collided with the advisors shin….

“.... oh…”

“.... no….”

Two minutes later….

“T-Titan’s dick!  It’s… f-freezing out here!” Noct gasped as he and Prompto tried to hastily relight the haven’s fire.  Both now stood bouncing from foot to foot around the smoldering fire after being unceremoniously tossed from the tent.  Clad in nothing but their sleep clothes, which sadly consisted of nothing but boxers and t-shirts, they wondered how their boyfriend could be so cruel… and yet….

The look of murder in Ignis’s eyes after they had kicked him… it was safer out here facing frostbitten buttcheeks then going back into that tent at the moment.

Prompto was holding a flint and knife in trembling hands, trying to spark the flames to life while Noct tried to summon any sort of magic flask he could.  Sadly, with the winds of the tundra barrelling down on you it was hard to concentrate on anything other than the loss of feeling in your extremities

“Shu-Shut up, dude!  If… if you hadn’t ki-kicked Igg-... Igg….. Iggy we wouldn’t b-be here!” Prompto squawked back, dropping the flint and trying to find it in the darkness, cursing to every astral there was for the cold.

“You… You kicked him t-too!” Noct snapped back, the anger giving him just enough focus to finally call forth a flask from the armiger.  He was so overjoyed that he forgot the argument for a moment as he raised it high in the air.

“St-Stand back, Prom!  Noctgar m-make fire!!!” he cried triumphantly as he threw the flask into the pit with dramatic flare.

The fire soon sparked and crackled to life, singing Nocts boxers, but who cared?!  They had fire!

Finally, finally they could head back in and ask for forgiveness from the Adviser.

One minute later….

“That...”

“Sneaky...”

“Bastard!”

Upon achieving their goal of finally fanning the flames of life giving warmth back into the haven, Prompto and Noct had assumed it was safe to return to the tent… only to see that the Adviser had apparently already figured out a means of warmth...

The fourth member of their party…

Gladiolus ‘I’m a human furnace’ Amicitia.

Currently, the Shield was still asleep, oblivious to the plight of his fellow tent mates and partners.  Well… two of them.

Ignis was currently snuggled up to the man’s right side and looked snug as a bug in a rug.

This meant that there was still one more side of the human heat blanket to claim.

Nocts eyes slowly glanced to Prompto.

Prompto’s eyes slowly glanced toward Nocts.

All was still…

All was calm…

… for two seconds.

“I’m the Prince damn it!  I get the warmth first!”

“You’re an ass so you get shit!”

All manners, kind words and logic were tossed out the tent flap as the mayhem twins wrestled to claim the spot next to Gladio.

Noct currently had Prompto in a headlock and Prompto had his arms around Nocts waist, both trying to wrestle the other to the ground so the free party could dive into the warm and inviting spot.

Slowly, Noct could feel himself losing ground as he began to get dragged to the other end of the tent so he did what any good, royal blooded human would…

He cheated.

Bringing a hand down he sent a quick tickle attack against Prompto’s exposed side, sending the poor gunner into a startled giggle fit.  Instantly, the blonds arms shot back to cover his sides and Noct took his chance!  Picking up a discarded sock  he threw it toward Gladio’s side and in a flash he warped into the safety and comfort that he had fought so valiantly for.

Prompto glanced up, slack jawed at the betrayal he was witnessing in front of him.

“That…. That’s just cold, dude!” he chided, watching a cheeky little grin appear out from under the blanket Noctis had snagged to drape over himself.

“No… this is warm and comfy… and won fair and square,” he mumbled gleefully.

Prompto couldn’t help it now.

He pouted… and he pouted hard.

He pouted like a five year old denied candy!

He pouted like a chocobo denied it’s leafy greens!

He pouted like…

“Hey, Sunshine…,” a deep and sleep roughened voice murmured in the dark, startling Prompto from his pout-athon as he glanced over.

Gladio’s warm, amber eyes were looking at him, the hint of a smile touching the corners of his lips as he tilted his head, signalling Prompto to come closer.

“Still got a spot for ya,” he murmured sleepily, patting his chest and if Prompto didn’t think that his eyelashes would freeze shut, the gunner probably would’ve wept.

It took all of two seconds before Prompto made his way over to Gladio, cuddling up onto the mans chest and feeling the way Ignis and Noct instantly wrapped an arm around him and Gladio in turn.  Noctis even being so kind as to share his blanket.

With the haven’s fire now happily crackling away outside the tent and the four of them currently in the worlds biggest cuddle pile… it wasn’t long before they were all finally able to nod off.

Ignis, hidden away against Gladio’s shoulder...

Noctis burrowed right into Gladio’s side...

Prompto tucked under Gladio’s chin…

and Gladio surrounded by the three men he loved more than anything in the world.

Ten minutes later....

Eyes snapping open, Gladio realized that while he adored nothing more than being able to give comfort to the ones he loved he hadn’t taken into account one thing.

His bladder.

“Uh… guys?”

Silence.

“Guys… I know you’re comfortable, but I gotta... go…”

Silence… and a snore from Ignis that they all agreed they would never mention.

With a deep sigh, Gladio closed his eyes and resigned himself to his fate.

Oh the things a person does for those they love.

[thekindmagic]

Next headcanon is regarding confusion. While you the player have a bit more control over Noctis and can help him to not catch his friends in the crossfire, the others don't get that luxury. I never really payed much attention to it until I saw Ignis stumble towards Noctis and pull his knives. Then I started thinking about it too much. What do /you/ think goes through their minds if they've hurt one of their friends?

For Noctis, I thinkhe sort of retreats into the Armiger when he’s got this status effect? Itleaves him vulnerable and sort of half-conscious, which is why he stumblesaround and is harder to control, but it keeps him from attacking his friends.

(He didn’t know todo that the first time, of course: He had an ice tri-cast in his hand and theworld was spinning and he panicked and he woke up to the other guys having barely pulled through. Gladio with icecrystals coating his skin still trying to warm Prompto up and keep him awake.Ignis, shivering and frostbitten, fumbling towards Noctis to make sure he’s okay. Every time Noctis feels confusioncoming on now, he shuts down.)

Prompto is the oneyou have to watch the most carefully in situations where confusion could getpulled. He hasn’t had any training, his mental and physical resistances arebasically zilch, he scares pretty easy even when his head is on straight, andhe has guns. He can be fine one second,and then as soon as the status effect hits, he’s panicking and drawing onwhatever’s nearby. Letting it ride is not anoption, because if he accidentally lands a shot, someone is going down. Noctis is the one who always has to tryto handle him, because he can warp to doge the bullets - the general strategyis to pin him down and get his guns away.

(He shoots Gladioonce - it’s the wakeup call to everyone that confusion is a very real problem when it comes to Prompto.Gladio is okay, the bullet just grazed his leg. He handles it very casually,barely acknowledges it. Prompto still has a panic attack when he comes to,though. It’s every fear he’s ever had about being a mindless MT, turning on hisfriends… Gladio gets down in front of him and tries to calm him down, repeatingthat he’s fine and it’s no big deal, but none of them know the real source ofthe panic yet, so it’s hard to help.)

Gladio can usuallyhold off long enough to shout out a warning, but once he’s gone, he’s gone. It’s easiest for everyone to just keeptheir distance - confusion doesn’t mess with Gladio’s ability to fightmonsters, they just keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t need healing andtry to leave him to his own devices until he snaps out of it.

(He hits Ignis,once. From behind too, which makes him feel about ten times shittier about itafterwards. Ignis’s reflexes are ridiculous, he reacted in time and just endedup with a cut along his side that healed alright with a potion and somebandaging, but it could have been bad.Ignis is very professional about the whole thing, which kind of just makesGladio feel worse, because he feels like his impulsivity is what makes him moresusceptible to confusion in the first place. He’s quiet for days, and holdsback in battle for a while - not taking opportunities, missing easy strikeswhen his friends are nearby. Ignis has to give him multiple mini-lectures tohelp him sort it out.)

Ignis has impeccableself-awareness and mental control, he can feel the ailment coming on and evenresist it to a degree. That means his friends are more likely to try to reasonwith him than to avoid or incapacitate him. This is a mistake. The more they call out to him, the more he fixates onthem, the more his fear of hurting them overloads his control, and the more hisagitated brain focuses on them as his targets.

(He, of course,winds up stabbing Noctis. He can feel it as it’s happening. Noctis’s wide-eyedshock as he doesn’t think to dodge is going to be burned into Ignis’s headforever. Ignis manages to wrench back some control at the last moment and landhis blow to the shoulder instead of anywhere vital. The sound Noctis makes isgoing to stay with him, too. You’d think Noctis would be the one with lingering#issues after this, but Noctis has been there, he gets it. It’s Ignis whospends weeks flinching away every time Noctis gets close to him.)

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welcome back, gladio.

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