#and from then on Thena takes more interest in the tournament of champions than ever before

[softquietsteadylove]

A Thenamesh Gladiator AU!

there are a few kingdoms. And every kingdom has 3 strong gladiators. And I think once a week or once a month there is this big competition between the kingdoms. And the winner gets a big price. So Thena is a princess in her Kingdom and Gil is one of her Gladiators. And she has a crush on him.

One day the Kingdom of Eros challenges Thenas, if he wins the competition she will marry him. If she wins she can choose who she wants to marry.

"Fetch my mother, tell her he has awakened."

"Yes, my Lady."

Gilgamesh groaned as he did his best to pull himself up on the cot provided to him. All he remembered was the last fight dragging on for far too long. The opposing gladiators were freakishly strong this year. Even he was having trouble with them. Gil startled, "d-did I lose?!"

"No," she soothed, kneeling down on a pillow next to his cot. She raised up a bowl, tilting his head to offer him water. "You won."

He let out a sigh, the relief reaching so deep it was in his bones. He was a champion of plenty of tournaments before this one, but losing this time especially was not acceptable.

"But I want you to forfeit."

Now he did shoot up in bed, although his bones and wounds screamed at him for it. He doubled over, holding his bruised ribs. His hand met bandaging, which still had some traces of blood on them.

"You see?"

Oh, did he. It seemed whenever they were together, all he could see was her: Thena.

"You were lucky to emerge alive after your last fight," she frowned at him, sitting back on her knees on the pillow (which she must have moved to his bedside herself). "If mother were not the master healer she is, I'm sure you would be in the same state as your opponent."

Gil had no sympathy for his opponent--not for the gladiators chosen by the visiting prince, nor Eros himself. He was the very reason Gilgamesh had to fight harder than ever before. "Princess-"

"Gilgamesh, I am quite serious," she persisted, pinning him under her glare, as green as the Adriatic Sea. "You are in no state to fight Kro."

Kro was quickly becoming a name in this tournament as Prince Eros' champion. He was also becoming known for his cruelty in battle.

"I'll get some sleep and I'll be fine."

"You could sleep for a month and not be ready to fight that monster," Thena argued, setting down her ceramic of water rather roughly.

Gil raised his brow at her, "I didn't realise you lacked faith in me, my Lady."

"Gil," she cut him off, and his given name was effective in silencing him. Her hands fisted in the fine, draping white fabric of her dress. "That man is a creature not of man's make. He...he will kill you. And he will make me watch."

"Hey, hey," Gil shook his head, rushing to comfort the shaken princess. He had seen her worry about him before, but he had never seen her so genuinely frightful. "That won't happen. I won't let it."

Thena lifted her head, looking at him with those eyes again. "And are you so omniscient? That you could control a man without honour or even a human heart in his chest?"

Gil sighed. His poetic princess was right, he couldn't guarantee that the fight tomorrow would go his way. He was not only exhausted and injured, but he was emotionally invested. And any expert on battle would say that it was a weakness for him to bear, not a strength.

"Please," Thena whispered, looking down at her trembling hands. She squeezed her eyes shut, a tear falling onto her robes. "I don't want you to get hurt, Gil. I-I couldn't bear it if you were..."

It was a funny conflict of feelings, feeling overjoyed that she would care so much as to weep over him, but not wanting to see her weep at all. He reached out, tipping her chin up to look at him. "Do you remember when we first met?"

She smiled, blinking away tears a princess couldn't afford to shed. "You were walking into the Colosseum. Plenty of gladiators had looked up at us before, but you smiled, and then you waved. I suppose I found it too tempting to resist waving back."

Gil smiled as well. He did treasure that memory; the first instance in which he had seen the Thena behind the crown. And he liked what he saw. "No, I mean the next time--when we met properly."

It had been after his first fight. He was arguably the strongest of the new gladiators in training, but initiation was also to fight a lion. He had not exactly come out unscathed.

But he had also refused to kill the lion. It was cruel and barbaric he stated proudly. It wasn't that poor creature's fault that it had been captured, now forced to fight off strange men for its meals.

Thena had been the one to declare the end of that practice. She had ordered the lion's release, as well as the tending of Gilgamesh's wounds. It was then that he had first spoken to her. He was being tended to a cot much like the one he was lying on now.

The glowing princess had knelt down, as close to him as the bars separating them would allow. She was royalty, and to be so close to a lowly trainee would be beneath her, after all. But he had watched her raise two fingers, hooking them over one of the gate bars tenderly.

"Are you hurt?"

Every time hearing her voice was like hearing it that first time; he never tired of it.

"Nah," he had chuckled, taking on such a casual tone with the princess that the medics tending to him had gasped in horror. "Not so bad."

But she had smiled.

Thena looked up at him now, a long way from that first night she knelt by his side in the bowels of the Colosseum. "I asked what I might do to help your healing."

"And I said?" he raised a brow at her, still relishing the feeling of her skin against his thumb.

Thena dropped her eyes, offering exasperation with her reluctant smile. It was faint, but it was true. "My smile was help enough."

"See?" he chuckled, letting his fingers pull away from her oh-so reluctantly. Maybe he could keep the feeling of touching her in his mind as motivation. "I'll be better before you know it."

She shook her head at him, her golden locks tousling beautifully around her shoulders. "Mother will not let you go back into battle because of a smile."

"And I'm not going to let that ingrate marry you."

Thena sighed, as if she could have somehow forgotten about the outlandish circumstances of this year's prize. Her hands folded on her lap again. "I suppose I have no desire to fulfill that agreement either."

"So it's decided," Gilgamesh said with absolute certainty, regardless of the pain in his side or the burn of his hands from gripping his sword. "I'll fight tomorrow. And I'll win."

Thena stared down between them, neither agreeing nor having another argument in her against it.

"I'll win, Thena," he insisted, reaching down to take one of her hands in his. The golden bangles around her delicate wrists clinked in contrast to the leather guards that sat around his. "I promise you. You'll be no one's prize."

She managed another smile, giving his hand the faintest squeeze in return. "Are you saying I am no prize?"

Gil inhaled. He knew that she was offering a joke to lighten his mood in return. But he couldn't resist; he raised her hand to his lips. "No, you are not the prize. The prize is getting to live, just so I can see that smile another day."

The princess stared at him, silent after a little poetry of his own. "Gil-"

"Gilgamesh," the queen greeted as she walked in, although she blinked when her daughter rushed to stand so quickly she swayed to gain her balance. Ajak tilted her head, "Thena."

"Mother," Thena greeted her, sounding breathless as if she had run here as well. Her hand toyed with her luxurious golden hair. "I was--we were awaiting your arrival."

"Right," Ajak muttered, going to the gladiator's side to check his wounds. There was already a pillow at his bedside (how convenient).

Thena watched quietly, her hands perched on the edge of the cot.

Ajak kept quiet as Gilgamesh's fingers snuck ever so subtly over to just barely brush against Thena's. She could choose to ask them about it, if she so desired. She was the queen, after all. And she had witnessed her daughter's fondness for this warrior in particular before.

But hopefully the fight tomorrow would go well. And she would have to be silent no longer about Thena's obvious love for the Champion Gladiator.