#and being bummed when Thena wasn't there

[softquietsteadylove]

How about more wildfire au? Maybe something tense?

Gil watched with a scowl. Two trucks, five men in total. He wasn't sure what they were doing here, but no one ever found his cabin 'by accident', it had to be said.

And Thena was in there.

They had gotten to a point where he could radio in and ask how she was doing without her telling him to shove it up his ass. He considered that a win! Every once in a while he would radio while she was in the shower or having a nap, and the worry that would consume was probably best kept to himself.

The five men walked calmly, looking around them and at what surrounded the cabin in its little clearing. They didn't seem to be here for any trouble, but Gil didn't want to rule anything out. They went up the stairs and knocked on the door.

Gil tensed, gripping his hatchet in his hand.

As soon as the door budged the men flooded into the cabin, their larger bodies obscuring Thena's tiny frame completely.

Gil ran from where he was hiding and up the driveway, almost slipping a few times in his hurry. "Thena!"

There were loud shouts coming from inside the cabin, the door left wide open.

"Thena!" Gil repeated as he slid over, hatchet raised, ready to defend his temporary and cranky roommate. "Get away from-"

"White Wolf! White Wolf! White Wolf!"

Thena laughed as they hoisted her above their heads, cheering her name. She patted their heads, pushing at their faces while she was seated on their shoulders. "Okay, boys, that's enough!"

"Well goddamn, Thee, we had to go through a hell of a lot of trouble to find this place!" More than one of them jostled her in a friendly matter as they set her on her feet again. They pushed and shoved, squeezed her shoulders and ruffled her hair. And each gesture would be reciprocated in the form of a punch on the arm. "When you hide away you hide the fuck away!"

"Hey Thee," the tallest one bent over to get closer to her face, "where's my welcome kiss?"

"Who the fuck are you?!"

Six heads turned as Gil tossed his hatchet aside loudly and pulled his own damn front door closed. The men traded looks, already looking agitated, "we could ask you that, buddy."

"Boys!"

Gil had to admit, he was impressed when one word from Thena had the men's backs straighter than a lightning rod. He watched as Thena parted the sea of meatheads and moved closer to him, as if to shield him from her little wolf pack.

"Leave him be," she said more quietly, but she obviously didn't need to shout to get her point across.

"But Thee-" Gil didn't like their nickname for her.

"Gil's been good to me, that's all you need to know," she said with some finality to it. She stared down each of them, "and it's his property you're barging into here."

The men - her boys, as it were - all looked at him. Gil didn't even blink, not willing to let any weakness show to the pack of wild animals with him. He shrugged a little, "it is my cabin."

The men nodded between themselves. Obviously their concern was with Thena, and Gil probably couldn't blame them for being wary of some guy who had suddenly offered her a home out in the middle of bum-fuck-nowhere while she was injured.

"So, you're the boyfriend?"

Thena positively smoked the big guy in his smallest ribs, hard enough for him to double over. "He's not some boyfriend."

"Okay," he wheezed, trying to catch his breath after the bony little rocket of a punch.

Gil wasn't sure if he should be grateful for her defense or offended by the vehemence of it. "Yeah, I'm just...a patrol fighter."

The most softly spoken one gestured among them, "we're Thee's old search and rescue team. Some of us have even been with her since the Montana fires a couple years back."

Gil nodded. They were more than just a work team. Out in the wilderness, even the most unwilling had no choice but to trust their crew. But these guys...they truly and deeply were bonded.

"Boys," Thena took a more stern tone and nodded her head between them. She looked back at Gil, and he really thought she looked at him a little differently from how she looked at them. But what did he know. "Gil. Gil--boys."

"Uh, hey," Gil greeted, although he didn't feel the need to move away from Thena to shake anyone's hand.

"Hey man," the tallest - the inappropriate one - nodded his head at him, as did the rest. "Sorry to, uh, bust in like this."

"We didn't expect to get word from Thee until she was on the move again. She said she was holed up in some cabin and..." the soft spoken one shrugged, "this is the only one for miles."

He supposed they had a point. Thena had basically gone completely off the grid, but obviously the bond with her team hadn't suffered from whatever made her leave in the first place. They were here for her, not for any trouble. He swallowed the lump in his throat which had crawled its way out of his twisted stomach, "no hard feelings."

Thena, however, crossed her arms at them, "still not a single fucking manner between the lot of you."

The quieter one shrugged, sliding away from his rowdier comrades. He was leaving them to the slaughter.

"Aw c'mon, Thee, we said we're sorry," the big guy practically whined at her. "How 'bout I...make it up to you?"

Thena herself gave him a pat on the cheek (maybe more like a gentle slap). "You keep asking that but I'd sooner fuck a wild bear than let you cop a feel."

Gil blushed.

"Why's the boyfriend allowed to!"

The gentle slap turned into a harder one. "Not the boyfriend!"

"Then why're you wearing his sweater?"

Gil blinked, but they were right, she was wearing his sweater. It was just a thick knit sweater he liked to wear around the house, but she had it on over her long sleeves and yoga pants.

She looked cute in it.

"Okay boys," she declared, skipping over the sweater comment entirely. "Patrol's in ten, party's over, say goodnight."

"Fine," the big guy grumbled but gave Thena an undeniably gentle pat on the shoulder, "glad you're okay, Wolf."

Gil stood back as the team gave Thena their well wishes and then filed out in an orderly fashion. He gave them all the same uncomfortable half-smile he would give a stranger at the gas station.

"Take care of yourself, Thee," the quiet one said, although between looking at her and looking at Gil, it felt a little like he was saying it more to him than her. "See y'around."

Gil nodded to him; at least the quiet one hadn't made any sex jokes.

Thena inhaled once the door closed behind them. She watched them pile into the two trucks again and slowly make their way back to the main road. "Sorry."

Gil blinked, surprised not only at the apology but at the quiet tone of it. She toyed with the sleeves of his sweater, obviously and hilariously long on her.

"I didn't exactly invite them in, but I guess they were a little worked up when I radioed the station to check in with them."

Gil shrugged easily, as if he hadn't been ready to fight every single one of them if they hadn't been on Thena's good side. "That's okay, they're happy to see you. I was a little surprised when I saw them pull up, but no harm done."

Thena still looked a little annoyed by it all. "I was always telling them not to traipse in places uninvited. They barged into my room enough times before I had to start beating it into them. Roughhousing is the only language most of them speak."

Gil rolled his eyes but chose to skip over the barging into her room comment. It technically wasn't his business--since he wasn't a boyfriend or anything. "Well, they could have wiped their feet, but that's okay. They're all search and rescue, right?"

Thena nodded as Gil moved inside properly, kicking off his boots and slipping on the birkenstocks he wore around the house as slippers. "Some of them were jumpers with me back in the day, too."

Gil chuckled, "then I can't be too mad at them if they're like your family, right?"

Thena smiled at him gently, maybe still energized from the reunion as she hovered close to him, "I guess they are. You can still be mad at them, though."

"Deal," Gil laughed as he sat down in his chair with a groan. It had been a long day, and the adrenaline draining out of him was pulling him deeper into the seat.

"Are you okay?"

He would be lying if he said he wasn't charmed by her softly asked question. So, they were becoming closer. He smiled, "I'm okay."

He had been completely terrified that something might happen to Thena in his absence. Not that she was helpless by any means, but it was hard not to feel protective of the woman who slept in his bed, shared his food, whom he heard trembling after her nightmares in the dark. Muttering about what made her quit search and rescue in the first place.

Thena shifted in her chair, angling herself away and changing her smile to a more playful one. "It was sweet of you to come charging in, all knight in shining armour."

Gil blushed, but also employed rolling his eyes as a means to avoid the feeling behind it, "okay, ha-ha, funny. I was worried, I'll have you know."

"I know." She was up and out of the chair before he could look at her. She moved behind him, and he almost felt as if she had put her hand on his shoulder, but maybe he had imagined it. "I'll put some coffee on."

Gil turned himself to try and look at her, "kinda late for coffee, ain't it? What about tea?"

"I'm not making your fucking leaf water, it's coffee or nothing."

Gil chuckled. That was more like the White Wolf he was used to. "Hey, Thee?"

"Don't call me that."

"Thena?" he tried again, and she did poke her head out of the kitchenette to look at him. He grinned, "that sweater looks good on you."

"I changed my mind, make the coffee yourself."

[softquietsteadylove]

I just read the little ballerina and boxer one and wanted to ask you if you can continue it. Maybe Gil showing up to one of her shows and invites her to dinner afterwards. And of course, he brought a single flower, because one flower says more than a thousand.

Hugs and much love! 🖤✨

"Bye Miss Thena!"

"Goodnight, girls," Thena bid her little goslings goodbye, the young women flitting out of the dressing room and already laughing about the cast party about to take place. Everyone was on their way for it, and as the newest troupe of performers making their debut, they would be the toast of things.

Thena was just looking forward to going home and getting some hard earned rest. Then, she could finally wake up to her normal life again. No more rehearsals, no more gruelling days of endless practise. She could go to the studio again.

She could see Gilgamesh again.

She hated to admit it, but she had missed even just seeing him in the hallway deeply over the past two weeks. The most intensive rehearsals required full commitment and attention, and that meant leaving classes to Sersi while she was chained up in the Eternal Theatre all day and most of the night.

She never used to think of it that way before.

But she missed the less pressured atmosphere of teaching classes with Sersi. She liked keeping a more normal schedule. She liked getting to see Gil's big, bright smile and his cute little wave in the mornings.

Thena groaned, running her fingers through her hair and throwing her scarf around her neck. She could torture herself more with those thoughts when she was home, preferably sinking into a hot bubble bath.

"Uh, sorry," he poked his head in with a sheepish smile, "door was open, so..."

Thena blinked as he walked in, one hand behind his back and the other in his brushed back hair. He looked rather dashing in a suit. "Gil?"

"Hey," he smiled at her, and the ache in her feet faded from her mind. "You were...wow."

Thena gulped, feeling her cheeks flood with warmth. She looked down, not-so-accidentally burying her nose in her scarf. "You're sweet."

"Well, you were, though," he shrugged, stepping in a little closer. He looked around him, seeing the many, many bouquets of flowers set around the counters. "But I guess you knew that."

Thena looked at the bundles of mostly red roses and arranged bouquets, shrugging at them. "It's a standard practise on the last night. Not all of them are for me, mind you."

"So a good number of them are?" he raised a brow, and she offered a more sheepish smile. He blushed, rocking back on his heels as he pulled out his hidden hand. "It's no bouquet, but-"

Thena gasped. It was a rose - singular - white in colour, clipped of thorns and leaves, bare stemmed save for a shimmering green ribbon tied in a bow around it.

Gil handed it over to her delicately accepting hands, his shyness showing through as he looked everywhere but at her. "I figured you'd get plenty, so maybe this would stand out...or something. And they offered me a white ribbon to match it. But I saw the green one and i-it matched the colour of your eyes, so I chose that one instead."

Thena's eyes were wide, bouncing between the flower in her hands and the beautiful man presenting it to her.

"I don't-"

"It's perfect!"

It wasn't the first time their words overlapped, and once again, Thena felt as if she was saying far too much within the two word sentence. But she pulled the flower as close to her as she dared, not wanting to rustle a single petal. It really was perfect, just like the gifter.

Gil flushed red to his ears, his laugh bubbling out of him. "O-Oh, good! I, well, uh-"

Thena looked up at him again from sniffing the rose gently. It was sweeter than any of the nameless, faceless bouquets around her from nameless, faceless people. "Gil?"

He tugged at his tie, clearly unused to it. "I was wondering...if - maybe - you'd, uh, wanna get dinner--sometime! Doesn't have to be tonight--you probably have a party, or something, with-"

"I'm free."

It was quieter than she thought it would be, but somehow she just couldn't get the air to stay in her lungs.

Gil looked surprised by her interruption, but he clearly didn't mind at all. He smiled, a sureness - a confidence - falling over him as he stepped closer still. He reached out, pulling her hair out of her scarf and fanning it out behind her. "I never get to see you with your hair loose."

Thena's eyes fluttered closed as he used the proximity as an excuse to kiss her forehead.

Then the flirtatious smirk faded against the brightness of his usual megawatt smile. "It's cute!"

Thena reached for her purse hung over the back of one of the chairs, hoping that maybe her blushing would subside a little (somehow, in the three seconds it took her to do it). "Well, where were you thinking of going?"

"I guess wherever you want to go," he shrugged, happily claiming her hand in his as they started to walk out of the dressing room. "I don't know if you want a big, huge meal or if something lighter would be better."

Thena laughed faintly, feeling his fingers squeezing tighter around hers. "If I had another show tomorrow I'd suggest something quite light. But I'm free as of tonight, so maybe something richer than usual wouldn't be the end of the world."

"If that's the case, I know this great Korean barbecue place."

"Sounds-" Thena startled as the backstage door slammed open.

"Miss Thena, are you coming to--oh!"

"Don't interrupt, didn't you see her boyfriend looking for her earlier?"

"Yeah, they probably have a date planned!"

The door closed again but the damage was done. Thena sighed; she was going to kill her little goslings for this.