#Ajak and her salad must endure on the daily

[softquietsteadylove]

Thena watches her gladiators while they train. And she certainly enjoys watching her champion while he trains 👀

Ajak smiled to one of their many advisors before they bounded off. She turned to Thena beside her, "do you remember a single word they said?"

"Do you?"

"Thena," Ajak frowned, although her daughter was not nearly as chastised by her tone as she might have liked. Thena turned her head faintly, looking out into the courtyard as they walked. "You cannot avoid them forever."

"Forgive me, Mother," Thena smiled tightly. Usually, she did her best to avoid royal duties all together. But she had made her mother the promise that, if she were allowed to stay by Gilgamesh's side while he recovered, that she would never deny her mother again.

A promise she still did not regret making, no matter how many meetings and banquets and diplomatic invitations she had to endure. Gilgamesh was alive and well, and she had kept her promise to her mother since.

"Speak of the devil."

Gilgamesh, former Champion and now Captain of the Guard, was training the new recruits. Newer, younger gladiators who would need to know how to handle themselves in the ring in the name of Queen and Country.

"He is a fine teacher."

Ajak eyed Thena beside her, not that her daughter was paying attention to anything but the man directing their new gladiators. She cleared her throat, "there are questions, my dear--about your marriage?"

"What about it?" Thena mumbled, head practically craned so she could watch Gilgamesh as he gave a lesson on wrestling, seeming about momentum and using an opponent's size against them.

Ajak huffed; Thena had developed somewhat of an impertinence about her since the Eros debacle. Ajak halted her steps, since Thena had come to such a natural halt herself. She tugged at Thena's dress, "about it happening, dearest. You are expected to choose someone now that you have all the power in the world to do so."

Thena continued to ignore her.

Ajak had been trying to get her daughter to consider marriage for years already. She was more than of-age, but the Queen also had vowed to never force Thena into something she truly did not want. And marriage seemed to be at the very top of that list. They were lucky she took the throne and had Thena when she was as young as she was. She had half expected to hand over the throne by now.

Thena tilted her head, admiring the Captain as he...worked.

Ajak sighed, shaking her head faintly. It was so plain to see, and yet Thena had not even mentioned a fondness for the Champion who fought for the freedom of her hand rather than the possession of it. Even Ajak could recognise the romance of such an action.

"You could choose him, if you wish."

Thena finally looked at her, torn from her revelry of watching a bunch of men - one man, rather - horse around. "Hm?"

Driven to distraction; Ajak nodded her head towards Gilgamesh, "I am sure he would find it most agreeable."

"H-" Thena blinked, her head moving between her mother and their chosen and promoted Captain of the gladiatorial forces. It happened a few more times, just for good measure, "G-Gilgamesh?"

Ajak laughed faintly, patting Thena's arm; she wasn't sure when her daughter had become so much taller than she. "Have you not even considered it, dear?"

Thena looked back at the Champion himself, who had his head thrown back in laughter with his troops. Her hands wrung in front of her, "I...I suppose not."

Horseshit. But Ajak held her tongue and tried a more gentle approach with her remarkably stubborn child-turned-grown-woman. "I would approve greatly. Not that I think that matters to you at all."

"Mother," Thena furrowed her brows at her as she patted her hands into submission. "Of course that would matter to me."

"Well," Ajak turned her eyes back to the Captain, who caught her eye this time. She offered a smile.

"Hup!"

Gilgamesh stood upright and dipped to bow to their queen and princess, the rest of his troops following suit.

Ajak moved into the sun of the courtyard, still holding Thena's hands and incidentally dragging her along. "Your training seems to be going well, Captain."

"Yes ma'am," Gil responded with a happy smile, despite speaking with the revered Queen Ajak herself. He looked at the recruits behind him, crossing his arms, "they have a ways to go, but I believe they will fight well for you."

"And you?" Thena asked eagerly, nearly cutting off the end of his words with her own, "are you healing well?"

Ajak nearly rolled her eyes; she had healed him herself, and it was weeks since he was able to leave a bed.

"I am," he smiled at her gently, though, his voice going as soft as a lily petal. "Thanks to you and your mother, my Lady."

Thena smiled.

Ajak took in a breath. This required more direct action, and for once, it seemed Thena was not in any mood for directness. She drew her shoulders up faintly and turned to her daughter, "Thena, I have another diplomatic meeting."

"Oh, yes," she agreed, per her promise. But her disappointment rang out from her like a gong. "We shall-"

"You can skip this one, dear," Ajak uttered quickly. This would need to happen fast. "It shall be brief, and nothing but politics. Perhaps the Captain would escort you inside for me?"

Gil startled but straightened his shoulders, "o-of course, my Lady!"

"Very well, then!" Ajak smiled at them before all but dropping Thena's hands from her arm and dashing away. She spared them a wave as she picked up the billowing white of her skirts to move as swiftly as possible. "You have my full faith, Captain."

Thena frowned at the odd statement from her mother, following her even more odd behaviour. "It is a walk; I would not think it required any strength of faith."

Gilgamesh shrugged, though, holding out his arm, bent at the elbow. "Still, it is escorting the royal princess. I'm honoured."

Thena smiled, indulging him as she settled her fingers delicately in the crook of his elbow. "Very well, then, Captain."

"Uh," a young voice cracked, "sir?"

Gil eyed his young bucks over his shoulder, "you can conduct yourself in my absence, right? I have important business with the Princess."

"Yes, sir!"

"Important business?" Thena murmured to him as they took their leave back into the shade.

He bent his head closer to her too, like children snickering about their teacher, "breaks are very important, my Lady."

The two laughed between themselves as he guided her back inside and out of the harsh daylight. Thena cleared her throat, moving her hand further from his bicep and more to his forearm. "How are you finding your new position, Gilgamesh?"

"The promotion was kind, my Lady," he smiled at her as they strolled at a leisurely pace through the open and breeze halls of the palace. "I've never been so rested."

"But do you like it?" Thena clarified, her eyes imploring the truth out of him. "Training the recruits?"

He chuckled, smiling at her more gently (if at all possible). "I love it, Thena. And I know it's because I needed time to heal after my fight."

It was a consideration most were not afforded, given the nature of their profession.

Thena sighed, eyeing his chest place in memory of the scars still there, "you should not have to fight after what you endured."

Gilgamesh shrugged, though, back to smiling blithely. "Part of the job, my Lady."

"Gil."

"Thena," he replied, laughing again. He patted the hand of hers on his arm with his other hand. "It was generous of your mother to promote me. I don't take it for granted."

"Yes," Thena agreed, warmth stealing into her cheeks. It was she who had suggested the promotion to get Gil out of the barracks and into a more comfortable position, both in work and life outside of it. "Mother is generous in spirit."

"You've had a lot of meetings since the tournament, huh?" Gil asked, more and more casual and comfortable the longer they walked together.

"Unfortunately," Thena sighed, also losing the polished edges she wore as Princess. She looked at Gil - just Gil - with a smile that was just Thena. "And they are all terribly boring."

Gil let out a laugh that echoed through the palace halls. Thena stared at it openly.

"Our advisors are demanding I select a spouse," she confided in him as they left the more open halls along the palace walls to the interior. "You would think Mother was abdicating tomorrow, based on their urgency."

"I'm sorry, Thena."

She looked at him in shock.

"I didn't mean to put that kind of pressure on you," Gil frowned in the softer light of the room. "It didn't occur to me that being free to choose would-"

"No."

He looked at her in shock this time.

"Don't ever apologise for that," she shook her head at him. "You...you have given me something no money in the world nor the crown itself could give me."

"Without you, I would be under the same expectation to marry, except that they would be chosen for me. If not selected by our advisors, then any challenging prince looking for a prize."

Gil frowned at the mention of Eros, even now that that particular thorn was removed from their sides. He gave her hand a squeeze, "I would never have let that happen, Thena."

She smiled faintly, her head tilting and her hair tumbling off her shoulder, "I know you wouldn't have. It is for that exact reason I will never have enough gratitude to gift you."

"Well, I don't know about that," Gil smiled at her, his lighter mood restored, "the fancy new bed I have in my palace room is pretty nice."

Thena did not manage to catch her laughter before it escaped, "Gil."

"Really, I mean it's nice, and the sheets!" Gil continued until Thena gave his arm a light shove with the back of her hand. It seemed to possess no force at all, and yet he looked at her as if it would rouse him from sleep. "Really, Thena, you've done more than enough. I'm the one who should be thanking you."

Thena just sighed as he brought her hand off his arm and up to his lips in a kiss. It was more gentle and reverent than any from a suitor could hope to achieve.

Ajak watched from behind one of many pillars offering her cover as she spied on the Gladiator who so possessed her daughter's heart.

"My Lady, we really should-"

Ajak shooed away the guard about to blow her cover. She really did have a meeting she had to go to. But this was far more important.