daysofthunder | a lot can happen in twenty seconds [ff15 au]

a lot can happen in twenty seconds [ff15 au]

At some point during the night, Rox woke up and slid out of the bedroom to grab her discarded shirt and bra. She didn't know if Rinka and Aurene were home, and she didn't check. If they had come home maybe they had noticed, maybe they hadn't. Hopefully, they hadn't noticed yet. She knew when she'd passed out in Nyx's arms they hadn't been home, but at this point it was the wee hours of the morning.

She was surprised when she returned to see a handsome, disheveled, bleary eyed Nyx sitting up in bed. Her recovered clothes were discarded and she jumped him. She got him all hot and bothered again and more intimate catching up was had, though this time, Rox made an effort to keep down her volume.

~~~

Rox heard rummaging in the kitchen. She lay draped over a hot, hard, delicious male in her bed. Muscles she'd forgotten existed were sore from the hungry, relentless activity of the evening and night before, but she savored every ache. Because it was Nyx. She opened one eye and peered at the handsome bastard who still slept soundly. She had worn him out, she thought with a pleased smile, quite proud of herself.

But as much as she wanted to snuggle, whichever of her daughters was in the kitchen making food—probably Rinka in all honesty—had awakened her empty stomach. It growled quietly in protest to all the exercise and the lack of calories. Of course, that rumble woke up her bladder, and Rox had to grudgingly and sleepily force herself away from the ridiculously tempting heat of the stupidly gorgeous man in her bed.

She wobbled a bit on her way to the bathroom and after cleaning up, grabbed the first shirt on the floor and tugged it on. Rox realized with a small smile it was Nyx's shirt as it slipped off her shoulder and hung down to her thighs. Good enough. She winced a little as she headed to the kitchen.

Rox patted Rinka's head when she passed by, yawning. She hadn't looked at herself in the mirror. So Rox was unaware that her auburn hair was an utter disaster from sleep and Nyx's hands, and bruises littered her neck and exposed shoulder. "Good mornin', baby," she said, her voice hoarse. She blearily blinked at a cupboard for a mug.

Coffee, yes. And food. She grabbed one of the mugs and put it down before leaving it behind to open the fridge. She lounged drowsily against the open door and stared blankly inside.

She didn't want to cook. Leftovers?

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That seemed to be the dynamic between Rinka and everyone she was even remotely close with. Which, honestly, was fun to watch for Aurene and was a good sign for Nyx.

"How good are you at cooking?" Aurene asked curiously, wanting to know if there was going to some sort of chef game show competition in the house with the new addition of Nyx.

"Mom and Rinka taught me a little bit, but I feel better with baking. The measurements ... Safer for me," Aurene admitted. Plus, you know, sweet things. And bread. Lots of bread. What could she say, she loved her carbs.

She didn't know how much Nyx knew about her and Rinka's conditions, but he was going to find out she was a little trauma-filled autistic child soon enough anyway.

Rox herself didn't know if Nyx could cook. If any cooking had been done and shared among the kingsglaives when she'd been a part of it, she'd been the one to mostly do it. Just like Nyx had said the evening before when he had called her out on it; she had kind of mommed her fellow glaives too. To her, comrades-in-arms took care of each other.

She had spent so long trying not to think about it, but now with Nyx back in her life... She couldn't help but wonder how badly losing her connection to the glaives had damaged her. Thank the Six she'd had Rinka, and then Aurene, to stave off the loneliness.

"Everyone has their strengths." She slide an amused glance toward Nyx, knowing he was just playing along with Rinka ribbing him. "Aurene bakes better than both of us, and Rinka has already surpassed me in cooking great food." They were still young, but they practically didn't need her anymore. "Too bad we're making cake and not Aurene's chocolate chip cookies. But we have them on a limit. Because if she bakes them they will be all Rinka and I will eat for days."

Rox chuckled. "Now I only hold the secrets to making ice cream and old school Galahdian cuisine." And the former wasn't even that either girl couldn't do it. It was just easier to buy it. Besides, Mom's hardcore 'trenches ice cream' didn't taste as nice.

"At least someone in this city holds that secret. Lib is still salty about not getting good Galahdian food around here."

Rinka blushed with the compliment and mumbled something into her food, avoiding everyone's gaze. For all her boasting she was still surprisingly shy about the fact that she enjoyed cooking at all, and that like her mom, it was less about the food itself and more about sharing it with people she loved, even if for a long time that had been a very small pool of people.

A pool that had grown exponentially since Aurene met Prompto.

Luckily Nyx was about to make her feel a lot better.

"Well... I don't burn water?"

Code for: I can feed myself. Doesn't mean it's good.

Rinka let out a snort that she tried to cover with a cough.

"Mom's gonna have to teach you how we do things around here then."

"If that's the case then consider me a willing student."

Aurene leaned back in her seat while munching on her food.

"I get the feeling you're a willing student if Mom's involved, whatever it is," she commented. Now that she was seeing this for what it was, she was going to take every opportunity she could to join in on the playful hazing. She was also keeping an eye on her phone while trying not to be too impolite about it, just in case Prom or Noctis texted to say they were close.

A blush stole up to Rox's cheeks at Aurene's comment. Her gaze flickered to Nyx and then back to her food as she ate another bite, though she was pretty sure Aurene was right. "To be fair," she said after swallowing. "I don't think there's much I can teach." She taught her daughters, yes, but the things she'd taught them were practical skills that Nyx mostly already knew. Self-defense, combat, survival skills. Things that were taught to her when she was a child surviving in the hellscape of war. Taught to Nyx too. "Except for cooking."

She thought for a moment about cooking with Nyx and felt her cheeks warm up again. "Warning though, girls. You may not want to be in the house if I'm doing cooking lessons with Nyx. Not," she quickly added, "because we'll be inappropriate. But mostly because," her blush darkened. "I think it's kind of romantic and I might act uh, unusually..."

Cute? Girlish? Mom was mom. Not a peer. Not yet anyway. She was the hard ass who protected them and would fight any and every monster to protect them, human or otherwise. She didn't know how her daughters would react to their mother being... lovey-dovey with the man she'd waited for, albeit unintentionally.

"You're already acting--"

Rinka stopped herself, deciding that, while the hazing was normal among them, this was also the first time she'd seen her mom so happy and content, the least stressed she'd been in a while, and Nyx really did act as though he wanted it to continue. Wanted to be the one that was making her smile like that.

He could have left at any point this morning, could have decided this little family wasn't worth his time, but he was still here, giving Rox looks across the table that could only be described as loving.

"If you're worried about us seeing a different side of you, Mom, don't be. We want you to be happy and we like seeing it happen," Rinka finally settled on saying.

photog: i swear to the six i could bring down titan himself on noct and hed still sleep through it

"Though if you want us to clear out and give you two some privacy, you only need to say the word," Aurene added. She was happy to see her mom happy, too. She barely knew Nyx but already he was scoring points with the girls, just by making Rox happy.

She glanced at her phone when she got that text.

aurene: No surprise there lol. Did Sleeping Beauty finally wake up? If not maybe we can get Rinka to give him a kiss and be his Prince.

Rox felt more heat crawl up her face, but she was grateful her girls weren't weirded out by her behavior. They could've seen it as Nyx taking her from them, or have been grossed out that their mother suddenly got a sex life, even though she'd always been frank and open with them about the mechanics of that kind of thing. Unlike other moms, Rox hadn't used euphemisms to talk about periods, sex, hormones or threats. Both her girls responded to honesty and bluntness, and Rox had been mostly raised by gruff career soldiers who had been equally blunt.

Though Astrals knew they'd struggled through explaining her period.

She smiled at Aurene. "I will, but I don't think it'll be necessary." If Nyx and her started kissing a little too much in the presence of her daughters, she was absolutely positive both would skedaddle quickly. She then turned her gaze to her eldest. "Thank you, baby." Her smile turned rueful. "To be honest, I honestly thought I'd given up on Nyx years ago. I was surprised to find out I actually still carried a torch."

Her gaze moved over to Nyx. "I certainly didn't think he still carried one for me, of all people."

Edited 2024-05-17 00:35 (UTC)

Rinka's more 'cringe' reactions were really just. Teenagers being teenagers and her being a pain. Really, she couldn't be happier for her mom.

But that did lead her to ask.

"Why did it take so long?"

Her bicolored eyes leveled at Nyx. He didn't squirm under her gaze, as intense as it was, but he certainly had to cough suddenly and rub the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Uh. Well. Full disclosure. I was an idiot. Thought I had more chances than I did, flubbed the chances I did get, sat on my ass for entirely too long and nearly lost out entirely until that night when we brought Prompto here. That was the kick in the pants I needed, but then I got stuck on a bunch of missions because my CO was salty about using the Glaives to find one civilian kid."

"Who just happens to be the princes' best friend. You really got shit for that?"

"Sure did. Drautos is a hardass on the best of days. Anyway, I finally slapped down a time off request just so I could come here and actually have a conversation with Rox, and, well..."

"You were shirtless in our kitchen the next morning."

Nyx laughed and held his hands up in an amused shrug.

"More or less."

The part about his CO giving him shit for utilizing the Glaives to help find Prompto irked her for obvious reasons related to her own feelings for the guy, but on a logical level she supposed she understood why he was upset ... Still, Prompto was important to Noctis and that should have been enough reason to get the Glaives involved. Aurene looked visibly irked at that comment, and she sat back with her arms folded over her chest.

Don't worry, Nyx, she's not irked at you, She's irked at your CO for not considering her bestie/love interest important enough to look for when he was in danger. Thankfully they had found him in time to make sure he got the care he needed. She actually was grateful to Nyx for helping as much as he had when that whole thing happened.

"I guess fifteen years of building sexual tension will do that," Aurene finally said. What? She had no reason not to say it. It took less than two years for her to be lusting after her best friend, she could only imagine how bad it would be for these two.

Rox leaned back, now that she had cleaned her plate of food and had at least three pieces of toast, and shot Nyx an amused glance. He summed it up nicely, but it certainly made it sound lighter and less devastating than those years had been. But Rox had never hidden the truth from her daughters. Rinka had asked and while Nyx's answer was certainly his side of things, it wasn't hers.

She turned back to her daughter and crossed her arms. "Yes, and no, Aurene," Rox said quietly. "His first flub gave me hope he'd show up one day. The rest of the glaives, the only family I had left, had cut me out. When I saw Nyx again... Well, let's just say I thought he had cut me out too. So if there was sexual tension, it kind of died there. But, I guess, unconsciously I just measured up every guy I met to Nyx and found them all...just not him." She shrugged.

"I messed up too," she added, looking over to Rinka this time. "I should've demanded he talk to me and not ignore me. I should've called him out. I didn't. Instead I went home, licked my wounds, took care of the only person, and not long after that two little persons, who loved me. My one attempt to really move past him... Well, yeah." They'd already talked about it. "After that I just gave up because it wasn't worth the damn energy. Nobody was Nyx and I couldn't have Nyx, so fuck it." She shrugged again. "What surprised me was how easily it was, after all this damn time, to fall right back into talking to him." And finding him stupidly attractive.

"Of course, thanks to Drautos, I spent a month convincing myself that he really didn't care because he'd came back and was just as quickly gone." She turned back to Aurene and motioned to her phone. "If it wasn't for Prompto and Noctis, I figured Nyx would never have come back into my life."

Her attention went to him and she gave him another rueful smile. "So I owe the boys. For, if nothing else, giving me the chance I never took myself."

"You should thank them," Rinka commented, directed it mostly at Nyx because even if Rox had also remained quiet when she could have spoken up, it was that night that prompted him to even try to do anything regardless of how long it had taken him to actually get around to it.

"Intended to. Though I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna get an annoyed eye roll from his highness," Nyx smirked lightly. He finished up his meal and stood to start taking plates to the kitchen. Least he could do was offer to be on clean up duty so the girls had a clean place to make their cake.

"Probably. Especially if Prompto is making Prince Grumpypants get up early on a weekend to come over here."

"I did suggest maybe Rinka could give Prince Sleepyhead a kiss and be his Prince, but still haven't gotten a response to that," Aurene added with a smirk, glancing at her phone again to see if anyone had responded or if there was an ETA on when the guys would be here.

Well, she'd certainly get a response from Rinka soon enough, if anything.

photog sent a picture

Sleepy Noctis, one eye half cracked open, reflection in the mirror as he had a toothbrush in his mouth and a middle finger at Prompto's phone camera.

Well, at least he was up.

"You told him what?!" Rinka squeaked, "Damn it, Aurene, that's not funny!"

Despite her protest, Nyx was absolutely laughing.

Aurene was also laughing. Sorry, Rinka. It's funny. She then opened up the picture that Prompto had sent and she started laughing so hard she could hardly breathe. She handed the phone to Rinka so she could see.

Here you go, sis. For being a good sport. Enjoy your Prince being so very un-Princelike. Aurene will just try to calm down enough to breathe while you get a good look at that.

Rox hid her large smile and her own chuckles behind her hand. Her heart went out to her oldest to be caught up in the situation she was in with the prince, but she couldn't help but be proud of her youngest for learning so well from her big sister. Seeing Aurene tease and laugh was always a balm for her worried heart. She may not have been able to protect Aurene from the terribleness of her childhood, but she had tried so very much to teach Aurene that she was loved and accepted and free to be true to herself.

It was always rewarding to see the results of that. Maybe Nyx was right. She'd done a good job with her beautiful girls.

And while she didn't see the picture of the prince, Rox couldn't help but add, "Honestly, the prince would only be so lucky to get a kiss from our Rinka. She's a warrior princess after all," she said gently, tossing Rinka a wink.

Rinka did snort softly at the picture, and her anger did seem to simmer some. She grabbed her own phone and added to the group chat under the picture.

spitfire: oh look prince charmless is finally awake

Rox's comment got her groaning all over again, though.

"Mooooom!"

Aurene finally stopped laughing, or at least, the laughter had become more manageable and had dissolved into giggles. She took her phone back and smiled at the message Rinka had added to the group chat.

"Mom's right, he'd be lucky to get a kiss from you," Aurene added, resting her head on her hand and propping it up on her elbow.

"I'm sure he thinks so, too." They could all see just how much the two really liked each other, though it was really unfortunate that the situation around them meant they could likely not be together. Aurene shouldn't have been joking about it, but sometimes it was too easy.

Besides, Rinka was more than free to fire off some comments about her and Prompto in retaliation, if she wanted.

Rox's gaze went to Rinka and her heart ached for her daughter. She understood what Rinka suffered all too well. Certainly it was a different situation. Nyx was no prince. But circumstances stopped them from following their hearts, and in the end they'd grown apart never really recovering from their longing.

She didn't want that fate for Rinka. Either someone would come along that would mean more to her than the prince did now—after all, she was still young—or they'd have to find a way to be together.

Rox didn't know if she could help, but maybe she'd find a way. "I'm sure he does," Rox agreed with Aurene.

If Rinka was actually bothered by all of it, she certainly had a damn stiff upper lip about the whole situation. She never talked about it. She still hung out with Noctis on a regular basis. They behaved as any friends would, though there were lingering stares when they thought no one was looking.

If she was being completely honest with her family, she'd shed her tears in private more times than she wanted to count. She always made sure she was put together after, though. Much like her mother, she refused to let anyone else see her pain.

A hold over from when she was little, teased for being different, for having one gray eye and faint streaks of white in her hair. When she reacted and cried, they got worse, meaner, pushed her more.

So she stopped crying, and got angry instead.

As far as she was concerned whatever she and Noctis had right then, that was going to have to be enough.

"Whatever! Keep it up and no one's getting cake!"

Aurene was the one making it, but Rinka felt she'd made her point.

"If I do the dishes for you, will I still get cake?" Nyx asked, even going so far as to dramatically bat his eyelashes at her. Rinka scowled.

"... yes."

"Don't worry, you'll get cake anyway," Aurene said. Undermining her sister's authority, sister gonna sister. She did feel bad for her sister, but it wasn't like there was anything any of them could do about it.

"But doing the dishes is appreciated, Please do that." She added as an afterthought, not wanting Nyx to give up on that. If they could get someone else to do the dishes that would be even better.

She turned her attention back to the group chat.

aurene: got an idea of when you two will be here??

She was excited to see Prompto, okay. And Noctis. But obviously more Prompto.

Noctis, now dressed, finally flops down to check out his phone.

[503 UNREAD]

feesh: Why are there 500 messages on my phone? Did the Emperor lay an egg or somethin'? Someone give me the short n sweet version.

Edited 2024-05-17 04:16 (UTC)

spitfire: you'd know if you didn't sleep twenty three hours a day your royal bed lump

photog: be nice. or do you just not want to talk about why the rest of us were having a moment earlier ;)

spitfire: ugh fine

spitfire: that glaive guy is here

spitfire: as in he stayed over

spitfire: with our mom

spitfire: and was shirtless in our kitchen until about an hour ago

spitfire: like he's still hanging out

photog: she means ulric

spitfire: what

photog: there's a lotta glaives you gotta be specific

spitfire: yeah yeah point is we're making cake now get your scrawny asses over here

aurene: we have to properly induct mr. ulric into the household with a "congrats on the sex" cake. what flavor of cake should we make?

Seriously, guys, these are important decisions. Aurene looked up at her mom and Nyx. That actually was a good question.

"What flavor of cake do you two want?"

Rox preferred chocolate. Yes, she was a basic bitch and she didn't care. She wasn't much of a cake person herself, she liked cheesecake better, so she stuck to what worked for her.

She looked over to Nyx. But... She didn't know what he liked. Sweets never came up. She'd made some food back in the day, but nothing sweet. Gods. Even after all this time, there was so much to learn. She really did know nothing about him did she? Well, maybe once upon a time she had. But so much time changed people.

"I like chocolate. I'm basic," Rox said. "What would you like?" she asked him softly.

a lot can happen in twenty seconds [ff15 au]

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That's like, thinking about his dad having sex! Oh wait...

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