#Everyday Thena asks Phastos and Ajak what progress they're making

[softquietsteadylove]

The human au is very interesting! Would you do another one? Maybe they get attacked by the deviants and Thena is a bit too late to protect Gil and he gets hurt badly while he saves a kid?

The last thing he remembered was that little girl, standing in the middle of the chaos, looking up at the wall. But whatever they were fighting out there was big.

Gil was forbidden from leaving the gates when they were under attack, even to help get people inside. Partially by Ajak's order and strongly enforced by Thena, it was simply too dangerous for him to be out there.

He was as good as human, now.

He had run over to the girl, protecting her with his own body as a section of wall crumbled from the outside in. Human or not, he was still bigger than she was, and he could still protect humans, even if he was one.

"What happened?"

"You saved a young child," Ajak smiled down at him. She must have healed him, because the pain in his body was screaming.

"Some of the wall fell around and," Sersi grimaced, "on you."

"Don't worry, pal, the kid's fine," Kingo reassured.

Gil's eyes moved around them all. He could even see Druig and Ikaris on the outskirts of their little group. He groaned, "Thena?"

Looks were traded. Ajak looked behind her and nodded her head before looking down at him again. "You should rest, Gilgamesh."

The rest of the Eternals took their leave, leaving the Warrior Eternal to take their place to be the one and only in his vision. He looked up at her, trying to read the expression - or lack thereof - on her face.

"Are you in pain?"

Yes, he was in agony. He blinked at her, "not bad."

Still, she just stared at him, "you lie."

He watched as she moved around Phastos' examination table. He grunted as he tried to sit himself up, "that makes two of us."

"Gil," she put her hand to his chest.

He huffed, flopping back down again. He would have smacked his head on the table if not for her hand cradling the back of it. "Please?"

Thena kept her hand pressed on his chest, but did eventually move one to his back to help him up. "You must move gently. You were gravely injured, Gilgamesh."

He winced as his body took on its own weight again. "I don't remember."

"Perhaps because the gravity of your injury is blocking your memory."

He looked up at her. That eerily still expression was gone but it was replaced with an even worse on. "You're mad at me?"

"Do not trivialise this, Gilgamesh," she scowled at him. He did have to consider himself lucky. If he were anyone else he would be getting a lot more hell than just this. "You were nearer death than I have ever seen you."

He attempted a smile, "I saved that kid, right?"

Thena looked away. She had no argument to that, nor would she shame him for it, no matter her feelings on the issue. Her approach changed direction, "you were told to stay within the walls."

"I was, technically," he pointed out, not that it was helping his case.

She glared at him, "Gilgamesh."

"Hey, I'm the one injured here," he countered, but that just worsened things again. Her fists clenched and she leaned on the edge of the table. He frowned, "Thena?"

"I cannot be in two places at once," she conceded, and it sounded like she deeply and truly resented having to admit such a reality. She finally looked at him, eyes screaming what she could not. "There is only so much I can do to protect you."

Gil sighed, although his broken and then healed ribs protested. "You're protecting me day in and day out, already."

"Does that displease you?"

"I'm not saying that," he cut in quickly. He held out his hand, and was relieved when it seemed that this at least remained the same for them. He brought it to his lips. "How do we make this work?"

Thena bent herself to kiss his lips this time, gentle in a way that made them both want to cry.

"I can't go on like I'm made of glass," he stated aloud that which everyone had been avoiding saying. "And you know it."

"And what would you have me do?" she whispered, locking their fingers together. "Allow you to walk into harm's way when you are mortal?--something you would never allow to happen to me if I were in your place?"

She used that argument often. And she was right; if she had mysteriously turned human overnight he would nary let her out of his sight, let alone onto the battlefield.

And keeping her from fighting would hurt something inside of her, no matter how safe he kept her.

Thena touched her forehead to his, "I know you want to help."

"I can't do nothing, Thena."

"Of course not," she accepted, deeply saddened by his happy declaration. "But I will not watch you die, either."

Gil ran his hand over her cheek. It felt the same, even if he had no Cosmic Energy under his skin. He could still feel hers, though, as if rising to just under her skin, calling out to him. "I promise you won't."

Normally she would scold him for making a promise over which he held so little control. Now, all she did was lean into his touch. "I was too late, today. If that happens again-"

"It won't." Now he was just lying to her. But he tipped her lips to his again. "Hey."

She indulged him, looking into his eyes with her green ones.

"Y'know," he murmured, "this doesn't have an end in sight. Are you really ready to face...what if I never-"

Thena placed her finger upon his lips, then her own lips. She smiled, "am I prepared to have a human for a partner, you mean?"

He blushed.

She inhaled against his cheek. This was the most she had touched him in weeks. "If it's you."