Chapter Text
Becoming an omega, it seemed, had done nothing to break Noctis' bad habits from before: as per usual, he was the last to wake that morning, greeted only by the sight of the empty caravan and the sunlight streaming in through the cracks in the blinds.
He sighed, scratching absentmindedly at his stomach, as he swung his legs off the bottom bunk. Two days since they'd all learnt of Niflheim's invasion, and so much had happened already since then.
Somehow, he'd managed to sleep ok in the end, despite the thoughts which had plagued him of all his recent losses - Insomnia, his father, Luna… his independence as a beta - but the morning brought with it different discomforts, i.e. the fact his 6'6" Shield had chosen to spend the night cramped on the backseats of the car rather than share a sleeping space with Noctis as an omega.
Noctis yawned, clicking out his neck as he tried to get his sleep-addled brain in gear and all his thoughts on Gladio in order.
Gladio was an alpha, which meant he was supposed to naturally react to an omega's heat pheromones: if the reaction was strong enough, Gladio - that is, the alpha - would go into a rut, losing all self-control and become overtaken by desire. The alpha and omega would be drawn together in a lust-fogged daze and then… they'd have sex. Sometimes not even being aware of the fact, just deliriously going at it like a pair of animals until they collapsed from exhaustion.
Noctis gulped, shifting uncomfortably at the thought of Gladio having wild sex with an unknown omega, and tried to ignore the reactionary throbbing in his groin.
Biological instincts weren't the point though - they were just a starting point for the facts, and where Noctis needed to go from in order to work out what must be the reason for Gladio's recent distance. The easiest answer was simply that Gladio didn't want to sleep with him - he didn't want to be affected by Noctis' omega pheromones and forced into doing something he didn't want to - and that was fair enough… But things weren't that simple, just because of who Gladio was: the latest in a long line of Amicitias, sworn Shields to the Crown, and famous for their invulnerability to scents due to years of training since childhood.
Noctis leant his elbows on the bed, glaring down at his pants and willing any arousal to disappear: this was serious, not the time to start daydreaming. He needed to know what the reason was for Gladio's discomfort so he'd have a chance at fixing it. Years-long crushes on Gladio aside, Noctis needed his Shield by his side now more than ever. So what was it? When had the awkwardness begun?
Noctis frowned, deciding to start from the beginning - from when his three friends had started to suspect he was an omega. Prompto had mentioned something about an omega's scent at Hammerhead, mistaking it for Cid, but it wasn't until Keycatrich Trench that they all began to question if it was Noctis himself.
Honestly, most of the tunnels were a blur in Noctis' memory, he'd been so disoriented from the bombardment of new scents as well as his fever… But he knew they'd somehow made it to the tomb and reclaimed the Royal Arm. That was when he'd possibly gone into heat (none of them knew for sure, seeing as the symptoms came and went so quickly - maybe it was just his body reacting to the sudden change in secondary gender), climbed all over Gladio, then fainted right after…
Except that was ok though (logically, not actually ok), because Noctis could blame it on how any new omega in heat would behave after smelling an unbonded alpha's pheromones. Gladio understood that - he understood Noctis' loss of control as being unavoidable - so Gladio couldn't have been avoiding him because of it. It wasn't as if clinging to Gladio had given away Noctis' feelings for him, so it couldn't have been Gladio wanting to avoid him because of the awkwardness of not feeling the same.
In addition, Gladio hadn't put out his pheromones at all after that, so Gladio couldn't have been avoiding Noctis for fear of getting jumped. No alpha pheromones meant no omega reaction…
So did Gladio just feel awkward because it was Noctis himself doing the rubbing and grinding? Because Gladio found Noctis that disgusting?
Noctis collapsed completely onto the bed again, forearm covering his face, utterly dejected: that thought was way too sad to entertain more than necessary. Besides, before all this, Gladio had been plenty touchy-feely with hugs and headlocks and pats on the cheek… So if it wasn't that, then why else would Gladio not want to be around him?
If it wasn't because of Noctis coming onto Gladio, or the way Noctis reacted to him as a prime alpha, then what was left? The opposite? Of Gladio's reactions to an unbonded omega?
That made even less sense though, because - as already established - Gladio was renowned for his amazing self-control: he boasted about it so much, how he'd never come across an omega's scent to affect him yet. And why was that? Because of his secret trick: Gladio's unrequited first love, giving him the strength to ignore any scents which came his way. Noctis knew for a fact Gladio didn't have any feelings for him - no way could Noctis be that first love, he would've noticed for sure - so then… Did that just mean Noctis' pheromones were that strong?
But they weren't, because Prompto's overpowered them - that was how Prompto had helped Noctis out back at the Prairie Outpost… And before they'd left Insomnia, that night in Noctis' apartment, Gladio had proven he was unaffected by anything Prompto put out…
Noctis scrubbed at his hair in frustration. This was all too damn confusing; he was just going around in circles. The crux of it was that Gladio was feeling awkward around him and Noctis didn't have a clue what to do about it.
He stood up, deciding he'd better find the others rather than stay in the caravan feeling sorry for himself, and paced resolutely towards the door.
Alphas and omegas emitted pheromones which gave them animalistic attraction to each other and, to curb those instincts (as Ignis and Prompto had out of love), had the option to bond as a mated alpha/omega pair: that was pretty much the extent of Noctis' knowledge on the matter. He wished he'd shown more interest in biology class when they'd been taught everything in more detail, but as a beta with the weight of needing to learn how to run a kingdom on his shoulders, Noctis had just never been interested enough to give it priority. It had never affected him personally before.
Noctis paused, one hand on the doorknob, as he rolled this basic implication again around his mind: if he went into heat, and his pheromones were strong enough, Noctis had the potential to trigger Gladio's rut and they could end up sleeping together… Was that really such a bad thing? Noctis squeezed the doorknob as he forced himself back to reality: yes, of course it was a bad thing, why was he being such an idiot. Fantasising about having sex together was probably the worst way to rid their relationship of any awkwardness.
Swinging the door open, Noctis almost tripped down the stairs when he saw Gladio right there in front of him, their gazes meeting in wide-eyed surprise; Gladio had a paper bag in one hand and he was already halfway up the steps, which put the two of them at just about face level.
"H- hey," Noctis struggled to regain his balance, hurriedly grabbing the doorframe to steady himself. A definite burst of lemon fizzed around him as Noctis swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry (Gladio was close, way too close, and imagining sleeping with him just now had definitely geared Noctis up in all the wrong ways).
"Sup," Gladio's stupid gorgeous face broke into an apologetic smile as he stepped backwards to allow Noctis down the stairs. "Was just coming to find ya."
"Right," Noctis tried not to stumble as he automatically followed Gladio down.
That had given his heart a shock; he hadn't prepared himself yet to see Gladio again so soon - especially early morning Gladio, looking positively radiant, with his loosely brushed hair and tight-fitting tank and stupid rugged stubble perfectly accenting his jaw.
"Brought you breakfast," Gladio sniffed, handing Noctis the bag. "Got you a pastry but they were out of chocolate milk."
"Right," Noctis repeated, mentally kicking himself for the dumb response. This wasn't how his first meeting again with Gladio was supposed to go, but he really hadn't accounted for being so thrown off guard by his crush on the alpha: becoming an omega had definitely heightened his feelings, whether he was able to sense any alpha pheromones or not.
"Left the lovebirds to enjoy some quiet time together," Gladio folded his arms, hands now empty. He shrugged, looking away, "Mind if I keep you company while you eat?"
"You don't usually ask," Noctis attempted to lighten the atmosphere with a joke - painfully aware he must be about to start leaking lemonade scents any moment now, Gladio looked hot enough to eat - though his joke ended up sounding more sulky than amused, Noctis was worrying too much about his free-flowing pheromones not giving him a break.
"No, I don't…" Gladio looked back at Noctis again, eyebrows furrowed. "But, you know…" he trailed off.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
Noctis took out the pastry, to keep himself busy, and forced himself to take a bite even though he didn't really feel like it. At least the awkwardness was quashing down his horniness: no betrayal of fizzy lemons just yet.
He looked down as he ate, unable to hold eye contact.
Gladio cleared his throat.
The silence stretched on, steadily becoming more and more awkward, until Noctis couldn't take it anymore.
Maybe if he just started off simple - by apologising for his anger last night - the right words would come by themselves after?
"Sorry," Noctis and Gladio both said together.
"Wha–" Noctis couldn't help but burst out laughing at the timing, some of his tension flying away with an undignified snort as a small spritz of lemon followed it. "What're you apologising for?"
"What're you talking about?" Gladio scoffed back, his shoulders visibly looser. "Because I was a jerk last night."
"What?" Noctis blinked directly at Gladio, but was interrupted before he could go any further.
"Look, I was wrong," Gladio held up his hands in surrender. "You're new at this omega thing and I'm supposed to be supporting you, not making you feel like shit because of it. If I needed time alone to work on myself, there're better ways I could've done it."
Noctis just gaped: he hadn't been expecting this turn of events for sure. Gladio was supposed to keep up his metaphorical wall and Noctis was supposed to have to work at breaking it down - Gladio wasn't supposed to just come out with a wrecking ball and knock it down himself from the inside.
"This is the part where you say I'm forgiven," Gladio cocked his head to one side.
"Y- yeah," Noctis finally stuttered. "I mean, no, you don't need to– It's fine," he frowned, mostly from disbelief. This was almost too easy, especially after all the time he'd wasted fretting in the morning. "We're fine?" Noctis' eyebrows angled up in confused apprehension.
"We're fine," Gladio exhaled, nodding in agreement. "I had the night to stew and get myself sorted - my life of Shield training wasn't for nothing." He hesitated for only a moment then lightly punched Noctis on the upper arm. "Wanna sit somewhere while we wait?" Gladio motioned towards the plastic tables and chairs.
"Sure," Noctis followed in a semi-daze, taking a seat and another absentminded bite of pastry. "You mean wait for those two to finish up whatever they're doing?"
"Yeah, that," Gladio got himself comfortable, stretching his legs out and rubbing at the side of his neck. "Think Iggy wanted to stock up on more supplies… But I meant more while we wait for the car to finish airing out."
Noctis smiled, the relief from not having Gladio trying to keep away anymore making him more relaxed than usual. He could definitely smell lemons, popping sweet bubbles around him, but he didn't even care right now: Gladio was back to normal and they could go back to their usual teasing banter.
"C'mon," Noctis grinned, opening the bottle from the bag he'd been given (a tropical energy drink) and taking a sip, "you don't smell that bad, even if you did spend the whole night in there."
"Thanks," Gladio gruffed, rolling out his shoulder while still rubbing his neck. "You know what I meant: not really helping anything if I stink up the backseats with my alpha pheromones."
"Aren't you keeping your pheromones in though?" Noctis took another long sip, tipping his head back.
Gladio laughed, as if Noctis had just said something completely ridiculous, "All night? I know I'm good but I'm not that good." He rolled his eyes, kneading now at where his neck met his shoulder. "Can probably manage during a nap but not a deep sleep… And not for that many hours, either."
Noctis just blinked. He was being serious - he'd honestly thought Gladio had completely blocked his scent off somehow. Noctis' confusion must have been noticeable through his silence because Gladio paused his self-massage to raise an eyebrow.
"Noct," Gladio's tone was a mixture of concern and disdain, "what exactly do you think 'keeping your pheromones in' is?"
Noctis shrugged blankly. He was past being embarrassed about his alpha/omega cluelessness. "Like… putting a lid on them? Holding your pores closed? I dunno, you just do it."
Gladio sighed, bringing his hand down to rub over his beard, then shook his head fondly.
"Noct, keeping your pheromones in takes a lot of effort. It takes practice, and even then not everyone ever gets the hang of it - it's why suppressants were so important back home."
"You mean… you get tired the longer you do it for?" Noctis asked.
"That's right," Gladio smirked. "And you've gotta consciously do it. Think of it like gas building up in a balloon - the fuller it gets, the harder it is to blow up, and eventually you're gonna reach your limit. You gotta keep letting the pheromones out every so often or you'll burst."
Noctis' eyes went wide. Burst?
"No, not literally," Gladio hurriedly explained, smirk turned to a full-on grin, "just that you'll have an uncontrollable release and find it even more difficult to keep 'em in for a while afterwards. Not ideal, really."
"I had no idea," Noctis laughed sheepishly.
"Yeah, you're in for a pretty steep crash course on this stuff," Gladio chuckled, resuming pinching at the base of his neck.
They were both silent again for a moment, but the silence this time was definitely companionable unlike before. Noctis found himself surreptitiously looking up through his lashes at Gladio, watching as his handsome Shield closed his eyes while he massaged, looking even more attractive than ever now things were fine again between them. Gladio's expression was a little tight - the edge of his lower lip between his teeth as he lightly bit down - and when he let out a quiet grunt from either pain or effort, Noctis had to struggle not to gulp in response: the image had been almost sexual.
"You got a pain in your neck?" Noctis blurted out, as he felt the telltale fizz of citrus spike the air and hoped to distract Gladio from its presence.
"Yeah, you," Gladio replied easily, cracking open one eye to grimace at Noctis. When Noctis narrowed his eyes in a mock glare, Gladio continued, "Nah, must have just slept funny."
"Yeah," Noctis snorted, "it was pretty funny how you chose to take the car rather than a bed."
"You're not gonna let me live it down, huh?" Gladio sighed theatrically, clearly in good humour.
"Nope," Noctis grinned, still relieved he wasn't being blamed for Gladio's discomfort, but even then… "Here," he squeezed what was left of his energy drink in his palm, infusing it with healing magic, "use this."
"Really?" Gladio raised an eyebrow. "You wanna waste a curative on this?"
Noctis pressed the bottle against Gladio's chest.
"One, it's not a waste, two, it's not even a full one - I drank at least half already - and three… it'll help my conscience: it'll make us even for your rough night."
"Well, when you put it like that…" Gladio smiled, defeated, and used the potion on his sore neck.
Looking out towards the gas pumps (not one to bask in the glory of doing someone a favour), Noctis wondered how much longer they had to wait for the Regalia to be deemed clear enough. He found himself thinking about Gladio's scent - that natural, fresh pinewood-like smell, reminiscent of a forest but somehow delicious - and thinking about how much he actually wanted to smell it again… It almost felt like a distant memory, in that Noctis couldn't quite picture its exact fragrance, just that it was really really good. But he knew Gladio was trying his best to keep all his pheromones in right now, so there was no chance until… what? What Ignis had said about himself? Until Noctis got used to different scents?
"It's not painful, is it?" Noctis abruptly turned to Gladio. "Keeping your pheromones in, I mean."
"Nah, not painful," Gladio smiled softly back, appreciative of Noctis' concern. "Gets vaguely uncomfortable after a while, but that's about it."
"You know…" Noctis looked away again, wondering if what he was about to ask was stupid. "I get you're doing it for my sake, but… maybe you shouldn't. I'd rather–"
Gladio's phone rang just then, interrupting Noctis mid sentence. The older man pulled it out, apologetically, but when he glanced down at the screen and saw who it was, his face broke out into a blinding smile: "It's Iris."
"Take it," Noctis nodded, heart skipping a beat at Gladio's bright expression, and stood up to give his Shield some privacy.
Gladio nodded in thanks before doing just that, launching into a conversation with his younger sister.
Turning away, Noctis wandered towards the centre of the outpost.
That was close: not only had he just been about to ask Gladio to stop holding his pheromones in, he'd almost said, 'I'd rather have your scent be the one I get used to first, rather than all the strangers we're gonna meet out here', and thinking about it rationally now, that would have sounded really dumb. Gladio and Ignis both knew a lot more about pheromones than Noctis did, and if this was their plan to not overwhelm him, then who was he to think he knew better?
Maybe it was because a tiny part of him deep inside was secretly thinking he wouldn't actually mind having an excuse to jump Gladio again - that, oh no, Gladio's alpha pheromones were just so irresistible that Noctis couldn't help himself - and that, Noctis was sure, was his stupidest daydream yet.
"Hey," Gladio came jogging up behind Noctis, joining him as they headed towards the shop Ignis and Prompto must have been inside.
"Iris ok?" Noctis asked, as casually as possible, trying to forget how he'd just been fantasising again about getting frisky with Gladio.
"Yeah, they're almost all settled in Lestallum," Gladio smiled. "It's a bigger place than she expected - not as big as the Crown City, but probably the next largest on the continent. Gonna take some getting used to, but at least she's got old man Jared with her… And Talcott, for company more her age," Gladio finished with a chuckle.
"I bet it puts your mind at ease she's a beta," Noctis knew how protective Gladio was of his sister, and the things he'd left unsaid.
"Yeah, I'll say," Gladio sighed, raking one hand through his hair. "Don't think I'd be as relaxed about leaving her up there alone for this long otherwise."
"We should go visit her," Noctis decided, as he saw the faint glimmer of concern flash across his Shield's features; he belatedly realised Iris was Gladio's last family member left alive - he must have been eager to see her again, comfort her even.
"Lestallum would be a great place to search for clues about the other Royal Arms," Noctis added, so as to not make his intentions too obvious (Gladio hadn't brought up any mourning for himself yet, so Noctis didn't want to force the matter until his Shield was ready - if he even wanted to at all… Noctis was still neither here nor there on his own feelings).
"Yeah…" Gladio looked thoughtful, weighing up their duty against his personal wishes. "I guess so… Might be a chance we could pick up some suppressants for you, too." He looked Noctis once over as they came to a stop just in front of the shop. "If they're meant to be lucratively priced out here though, maybe we should go on some more hunts first: save up some more gil."
"Sounds like a plan," Noctis nodded, just as the shop doors slid open for Ignis and Prompto to emerge.
"Morning, Noct," Ignis greeted.
"Heya!" Prompto beamed at both Noctis and Gladio in turn. "Aww, good to see you guys all close again!" a sweet waft of flowers diffused their way.
Gladio scoffed, and Noctis knew they all expected him to play coy and deny it, so Noctis surprised even himself when he murmured a soft, "Yeah," and subconsciously leaned to rest his head on Gladio's bicep.
It was only for a moment, but Noctis almost thought he caught a hint of pinewood at the touch - but then Gladio was laughing brashly and pulling him into a playful headlock, Noctis' own lemon drowning out any other possible smells.