A Cure for Writersblock; Drabbles and Oneshots

Urgent Prompt: Gladio

"Look at me. I promise. I'll get you out of here." Gladio said, his tone as serious as the look in his eyes.

"I—I can't!" You cried, clenching your eyes shut to avoid having to look down. You were inside some fucking cave doing god knows what, even though you begged to not have to go in there. Everyone thought you were just being a chicken like Prompto...and maybe you were, but it was because you knew something like this would happen.  You had been forced over the edge of the rocky walkway during an attack, and were clinging to the edge of a rock by your finger nails as you tried to find a foothold. It was too muddy and slick for your feet to stick in anywhere, and anything solid you found would crumble away and fall into the vast and dark cavern below. You couldn't see the bottom, and you couldn't hear the rocks you kicked out of place hit the ground, so you could only assume the drop went on and on.

"You've gotta hold on, kid." Gladio said, lying flat on his stomach near the edge and trying to grab at your hands as you inched further and further down as your grip began to give under your weight. You were about a foot out of his reach, and the gap was only getting wider.

"I can't! I'm slipping!" You clenched your jaw as you struggled to keep your fingers pressed into the sloshy clay rocks. Your hands were cramping and burning, and you could feel your nails breaking and straining under your weight, but you had nothing else to hold on with 

"I could use some help here!" He called out to the others, but they were busy trying to keep the goblins away from the two of you.

"Gladio!" You had tears brimming in your eyes, thought you weren't sure if they were from fear or from the pain of trying to keep yourself from falling.

"I will get you out of here alive, don't you give up on me. Don't you dare." He said strained to reach for you. You tried to lift a hand up to meet his, but as soon as you did it put too much weigh on your other hand an it began to slip down the rocks. You had to put your other hand back on the wall to keep from falling. "You keep still. I'll get to you, I won't let you fall." He called out, seeing that you were on the verge of getting hysterical.

"I can't hold on, I—"

"Yes, you can." He sat up, and stabbed his sword into the ground and grabbed hold of the blade so he could have something to hold on to while he lowered his torso over the edge. His palm split again the blade of his sword, but he grit his teeth and fought through the pain to make sure he got to you before you gave up. "Come on, ≈≈≈≈≈. Don't let go." He said through his teeth as his fingertips got closer to yours. 

He told you to stay still, but he was so close and you were about to slip anyway, so you jammed a foot into the clay and did your best to jump up enough that you could get his hand. Your fingers brushed his, and he clamped down his hand around yours as soon as you made contact. You were able to bring your other hand up to his wrist and adjust so he had a better grip on you, but you were still worried you would slip right out of his grasp. You were covered in mud, and didn't have enough finger strength to hold onto him, so all the work was on him. You could see the obvious pain on his face, but he wasn't giving up.

"I've got you. It's gonna be okay. I've got you." He repeated as he began to try to pull you up. He started by pulling himself up as best he could with the hand that was on his sword, and from there he was able to get onto his knees and use his back as leverage. It wasn't proper form to lift with his back, but he did it anyway because he wanted his hand off of that blade, and you back on solid ground as quickly as possible. He yanked you up from the edge, and wrapped his arms around your back to hug you into his chest as he let himself roll backwards onto the ground to rest for a moment. You fell limply against his chest, breathing heavily and feeling the sweet relief of something solid beneath you.

"Everyone okay?" Ignis asked, rushing over now that the goblin numbers were low enough that Noctis and Prompto could handle it on their own.

"Everyone's okay." Gladio said, stroking your hair with his good hand while he let the bloody, sliced up one fall onto the ground beside him.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, you're alright?" Ignis asked as he knelt beside Gladio and began to wrap up his hand with a spare handkerchief.

"I'm alright." You nodded, though you were too tired to even lift your head up from Gladio's chest. "Just get me out of this fucking cave."