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Chapter 17: Fool

Gladio swiftly opened up your hotel room, relieved to see everything was still in place. The first thing he did was stalk over to his side of the bed and feel around underneath his pillow. The feeling of what felt like a cellphone inside the pillowcase itself rather than under it, piquing his curiosity more. He pulled out the cellphone to see it was yours, clicking his tongue in seeing it had a passcode. As he racked his brain for possible passwords, the others looked around the room for other clues to what had happened.

"Any luck on her phone Gladio?" Noctis asked, plopping down on the couch.

"Nope," Gladio replied. He knew you wouldn't have given him your phone if he couldn't unlock it. Pulling out the piece of paper you wrote your message on, Gladio saw nothing else but the original message in your handwriting.

"It didn't give you a hint when you got it wrong the first few times?" Ignis asked curiously. Gladio blinked a few times and decided to try it out. After inputting random words twice more, just as Ignis suggested, a hint popped up.

< My number ;) >

"Please tell me you know her number big guy?" Prompto whined after reading the hint behind Gladio. 

Gladio frowned. "Nope," Had this be a different situation, Gladio would have relished in the reactions from the others. The trio of youngsters groaned in disbelief, with Iris throwing her hands up in the air. Mia was giggling while Trent looked a little relieved. Ignis remained quiet with a raised eyebrow. 

"How, in all the of Eos, is that possible?" Iris exclaimed, her jaw practically hanging open.

"It just never crossed our minds? We've been together the entire time we've been in Lestallum?" Gladio reasoned, knowing very well his answer was not going to be accepted by his little sister.

"Really? Not even when you guys were chatting at Moonlight?" Noctis asked, his eyebrows knitted together. Gladio shrugged, tapping your phone on his chin as he chuckled to himself, keying in what he believed to be the password, and grinning when your phone unlocked.

"What the-?" Iris gasped, "How'd you figure out the password? Did you know this ENTIRE time!?" 

"No, I did not you little squirt!" Gladio rolled his eyes as he kept Iris at arm's length as she tried to grab your phone from him, despite failing to reach past his shoulder. Gladio frowned seeing an audio file with his name on it on your phone's home screen. You are a little too good at this (Your Name). The sound of you clearing your throat from the audio file stopped everyone in their tracks.

"I figured you lot would be noisy like a gaggle of cockatrice chicks, so now that I have your attention, let me fill you in," Like a magical spell, your voice created a wave of relief over the entire group, who remained silent as you cleared your throat again. "You are probably insanely confused and concerned, but you needn't be. Trent and Mia should have returned by now from the little errand I had them run after their date by the outlook," 

Gladio looked to the married couple to see their eyes wide in shock. I guess they didn't know they were on an errand. This only meant they were in the dark as the rest of the royal retinue.

"I sent Trent and Mia away to the Vesperpool to retrieve something for me and keep it safe," Gladio paused the audio file, looking directly at Trent and Mia who exchanged confused looks.

"You wanna explain before I continue this?" Gladio asked, holding your phone up. "Your reactions tell me that you weren't aware you were sent to investigate something at Vesperpool,"

"Flor sent us there talking about a little scavenger hunt she had set up for us on the mini islands of the Vesperpool. So we took her Chocobo up so we could swim across those mini islands," Trent explained, looking to Mia when she bit her lip. "Mia? What do you know?"