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softquietsteadylove · 2 years ago

Note

For the Ice Queen/Tyrant King AU:

Thena and Gil visit the grave of his mother before the wedding.

An emotional and soft moment between them :)

"I used to come here with Dad and Imo when I was little."

Thena looked at him, curiosity piqued by the first words he'd spoken since getting in the car. She held onto his arm as they walked, his hands in his pockets.

"Dad always used it as an excuse to bitch and moan about shit, especially about how I was the reason she was here in the first place."

Thena frowned, holding onto him just a little bit tighter. She leaned her head against his arm, "hm...I could kill him."

Gil smiled, leaning his head against hers, "nah, it's okay, Sweetness. Success is the only revenge that actually works in this family."

She had asked if this was even a good idea--her coming with him to visit his mother (in a sense of the word). She had worried that it was more of a family affair--even asked his aunt if it would be disrespectful for her to come.

Imo had told her that she was a part of the family, now, so what did that matter? She also told Thena to call her Imo, from now on.

Gil had grinned from ear to ear.

"When did you come here last?" she asked him gently, not letting him sit in silence but not chatting just for the sake of it, either.

"I guess it was with Imo, last time I was home," Gil shrugged beside her as they turned down another walkway. "I come when I can, but I can't really leave business just to visit."

Thena nodded with full understanding; it wasn't safe to, whether his mother was already passed or not.

Gil looked at her with a smile, pulling his hand out of his pocket just to link their fingers together, "I have a lot to tell her this time around."

Thena stopped beside him as they arrived at a particular grave marker and grassy knoll behind it. She bowed with him, offered her prayers and respects with him, in Korean and everything.

"Hey, Ma."

Gil took in a breath. "Sorry it's been a while. It's been a crazy year and some, so I think you'd understand. I got shot!"

"Gilgamesh," Thena scolded beside him. She squeezed his hand, "give your mother a proper explanation."

He smiled; that was his Ice Queen. "So...this is Thena."

"I know I've talked about her before. It was probably as just--oh, we had a meeting today and the Ice Queen is doing well, sort of thing. I was in denial back then, but you probably knew. You would have told me how obvious it was that I was already head over heels for her."

Gil peeked sideways at Thena, who rolled her eyes at what she definitely thought was embellishment on his part. He chuckled.

"You'd love her though, Ma," he continued, smiling at the stone with just a name in Hangul carved into it. He had long become accustomed to speaking with it as if he could picture his mother's face--it was one of the things that pissed his father off the most when they would visit her together.

Imo never minded.

"You'd love her because I do," he raised Thena's hand to his lips, moving his thumb over her ring. "But you'd also love how tough she is. You'd love how she doesn't let anything intimidate her and how smart she is. You'd love that I have her to keep my head on straight over there while I'm doing business."

"You'd love her because she's perfect," Gil whispered, squeezing Thena's hand as he felt his throat tighten. "You'd love how perfect she is for me. She's smooth and calculated, but there's one hell of a heart under that porcelain shell of hers. And I'm lucky that she gave it to me. I...I haven't always been the most careful with it."

Thena finally snuck her eyes over to him, but stayed silent.

"I know, and you and Imo would both kick my ass if you knew the whole story, too," Gil sighed. The look in Thena's eyes when she accused him of lying about loving her; he would never forget it. "But I righted my wrong--I took responsibility, just like you taught me. And you were right; good things come to those who stand for what's right."

"And she's the best damn thing I've ever found," Gil swallowed, blinking a few times. "I'm sure you would just kill Dad if you knew what he had tried to pull with the daughter of that business partner of his. You and Imo always were talking about how he was going to run your hard earned business into the ground. Imo's still got a handle on things, though."

"And hey," Gil sniffed, finding a smile again, "Imo loves her too!"

Thena looked at him again, about to accuse him of exaggerating.

"I've never seen Imo like anyone," Gil chuckled, finally tearing his eyes away from his 'mother' and to the woman beside him. "But I think she took one look at you and knew that you were right for me."

Thena shook her head at him.

"Really," he whispered, looking forward again. "You know how Imo is, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified to find out she was in America to see us. But I was shocked when she accepted that I wanted to stay with Thena instead of coming home. I mean, it was basically giving us her blessing. She even told Thena to call her Imo--that she's part of the family!"

Thena smiled.

"Dad doesn't know yet," Gil said in a quieter voice, his face drawing down again. "And he won't. He's never getting anywhere near the woman I love. I think you'd support me in that."

The grave marker didn't have a reply, but he really got the feeling of agreement.

"He doesn't need to be in my life, he doesn't have to know my business," Gil stated more for himself than anyone else, present or not. He squeezed Thena's hand again, "he doesn't have to meet my wife."

"Gil," Thena squeezed his hand back.

He looked up again, some lightness returning again. "We're not married yet. Well, not officially, I guess. Far as I'm concerned, we've been married since the very first time we-"

"Gil!"

"Sorry, Princess," he chuckled, turning and kissing Thena's warm, pink cheek. "But you already know I've been down bad for you since before then."

She chose to roll her eyes at him again instead of dignifying his claim with a response (whether denial or confirmation).

"But yeah," Gil looked at his mother's grave again, "this is the woman I love, Ma. She wanted to meet you--and I wanted her to meet you, too, even if it meant coming over here. Even if Dad knew we were here, even if our enemies knew we were flying over."

He looked at Thena beside him, in a simple white sundress with her hair loose around her shoulders. She wasn't here as the Ice Queen, just Thena: his fiancee and the woman he loved.

"Some things are worth the risk," he concluded, feeling he had told his mother the most crucial parts he wanted to. He had neglected to discuss the poisoning and the shooting and such, but that was business. They were here for a family matter. He looked at Thena again, "anything you wanna add, sweetheart?"

Thena took a long look at the stone before them before stating very plainly, "I love Gilgamesh."

Concise, his Ice Queen.

"I love your son," she elaborated in a whisper-soft tone. "I certainly hadn't expected to. But I'm sure you knew better than anyone that not loving him is...just impossible."

Gil blinked away a few tears again.

"There isn't much I can promise," Thena confessed in a surprising admission of fragility. "Imo may like me, but I doubt anyone else will. And my family...doesn't exist anymore. I don't have much to offer."

Thena very literally controlled the global diamond market--was one of the riches human beings on the planet (off the record). And only she could see that as 'just business' and set it aside from herself enough to think she had nothing to offer in a marriage.

"But I'll love him," she said with conviction, gripping his hand. She was shaking. "I will love him every second of every minute we have. I already do--I love him so much I can't breathe. It rewrote the world I knew and every cell in my body. But against all odds...I suppose I find it worth the risk."

"I know how special you will always be to Gilgamesh. And I promise that I will take care of him. I will stand by him through every decision and every consequence. I was willing to go through with a ceremony here with your family, actually...not that I had mentioned it."

Gil grinned; he already knew that, but still.

"He worries about me meeting his father," Thena peeked over at him before addressing his mother again. "I am not so fragile as to fear someone as cowardly as someone like him."

Gil held in a laugh. His Dad would shit a brick if he knew this woman - a powerful business mogul whom he had never met - had called him a coward to his late wife.

"I would rather face down his father and his whole empire than have to meet Imo for the first time again," Thena let out a breath at just the thought. She smiled, though, "I can see why Gilgamesh turned out to be such a good man. He had such wonderful women raising him, it was never in question."

Gil's eyes watered again.

"So, I suppose I would like to thank you," Thena mumbled, some shyness coming over her. "I don't remember my own mother, but...I promise I will do my best to honour you all the same."

Gil watched Thena clutch at her lace shawl laid in the crooks of her elbows and dangling around her legs.

"Thank you for having me," Thena bowed again before looking at Gil, holding her hair back against a breeze, "are you okay?"

He nodded, leaning forward to kiss her forehead, "thanks for coming with me, baby."

"Hm," she sufficed to say as they slowly came away from his mother's grave and made their way back to the entrance to the cemetery again. "I did want to meet her."

Gil moved his hand from hers, only to unfold her shawl and pull it over her shoulders so it could drape over her arms, which were only partially covered by billowing linen sleeves attached to her dress. "I don't want you to burn, Ice."

Thena held onto his arm, leaning her head against him again as they made their way back to the car. "It would be worth it."