#but I think it's high time Kro and Gil got into it

[softquietsteadylove]

is it bad that i wanna see gil absolutely fuck kro up in circus au 👀

Kro roared, charging at Gil from behind and tackling him to the ground. Gil was about as well built as they came, but Kro wasn't exactly small or delicate either. "Get your filthy hands away from her!"

But he swung wildly--blindly. Kro swung his fists like a man who had only ever been in a fight against someone he knew he could beat. He only played winning games.

But Gil hadn't always been so strong. There had been a time when he had just been a kid, trying to protect a hutch of bunnies from the boys in the schoolhouse. There was a time when he had been an awkward young man begging his classmates not to throw rocks at pigeons and rats. There was a time when Gil wasn't a fighter.

But Thena made him want to be. And he had been in fights before. He had fought battles he hadn't known he would win, against those he knew were bigger and stronger.

Gil rolled them over, still trying to get them away from the tables, the supplies, from Thena--everything. He got himself on top of Kro and swung with intention.

Every blow communicated everything he wished he could say. From the first time he had met Thena and then been mortified to learn who her husband was. From the first time she'd said his name to the time he had learned it was she who had insisted on hiring him.

All the way to the touches, the looks, even the kiss. The first one and the one they had shared in the sleeper car where she would later sleep in the same bed as her husband. Gil had always thought of himself as a good man. Never would he have guessed he would be wanting for another man's wife. But if loving Thena was wrong he would walk clean into hell of his own free will, but only if she would send him off with a kiss and that smile of hers.

"Come on, break it up!"

"Get 'em apart, they'll kill each other!"

"Bastard deserves it!" Gil barked, although not definitively at someone. He felt hands clawing at him to pull him away but all he could see was Kro under him, his eyes black and his face bloodied.

Kro pushed his palm up and into Gil's face. "Get off me!"

"Gil!"

He paused. His fist was poised up in the air, ready to swing down again. But he looked away from Kro, his vision clearing and letting him see Thena looking at him. His eye was swollen too, from Kro's wild haymaker. He blinked. "Thena?"

She marched forward, past the men trying to keep the lady back from the violence. She moved them away, grabbing onto his shirt to haul him up and away from her husband. "Get off him, Gil--won't help."

He stumbled as she pulled him. His knees felt hollow and his vision was hazy. "A-Are you okay?"

"Me," she scoffed at him. She touched his face, careful of the swelling already starting. "What were you thinking?"

He let her lead him like a stumbling calf over to the water pump. "Couldn't let him treat you like that."

"So gallant," she scoffed again, but her fingers were feather light on his skin. She met his eye, although she was looking particularly stern. "I told you not to fight him."

"He's saying shit-ah!" Gil flinched back as she applied faint pressure to his - now - bad eye.

"Sh," she whispered, moving to the area around the eye. "He says shit constantly. I live with him, recall?"

He recalled it constantly. He glanced over, but the guys were already hauling Kro somewhere else, probably the medical tent. He did get a few good hits on the bastard. "Isn't he going to ask where you are?"

She sighed. She knew very well that he was right, but she didn't make any move to join the man in question. "You need to get ice on this, wash off. If the eye gets worse you should see med."

Gil didn't even spare a glance to see if they were being watched or not. He raised his hand, gently pulling hers away from him. A reasonable enough action but the way they lingered in contact with one another wasn't. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. What if he hurts you because of this?"

She tilted her head at him. "I told you he wouldn't."

Gil's eyes drifted down again, brushing up her sleeve and against her arm.

"Don't," she whispered.

"Too late."

It was too late for both of them. She did spare a look to make sure they weren't being watched. Or at least, if anyone was still lingering, then they were unlikely to say anything.

Thena put her hand on his chest, under the guise of sliding it up to his shoulder. She gave it a squeeze, "how is it?"

It was the shoulder he had hurt catching her. "Like new."

She cracked at least a little bit of a smile at that. Her hand squeezed his shoulder again before she put some distance between them again. "Gil, we can't go on like this."

He had dreaded hearing her say those words.

"Monster or not," she shook her head, tears in her eyes, "he's my husband."

Maybe it would be a better idea for women to be able to leave their husbands. "Wish he wasn't."

Thena turned her head, letting herself hover a little closer. "Me too."

"I could kill him."

She smiled at his joke. Well, it was mostly a joke. "You wouldn't."

"I wouldn't?"

She patted his chest once more before taking a step back, truly giving the image of moving away from their little bubble. "That heart is too soft."

He was starting to wonder about that, though. But it did nothing to help them now. He also leaned away from the well pump. Everyone had dispersed, possibly to let him and Thena talk. He was still a little wobbly, probably from Kro punching him in the ear instead of the cheek on one side.

He walked over to the pens, happy just to take a seat on the bale of hay. He blinked as a grey snout floated down into his periphery. He puffed out a laugh, patting the nose with his less swollen hand. "I'm okay, boy."

Angus whinnied gently, nudging at him.

"Ah, I know, I know," he smiled down at his knees. He had gotten himself into hot water this time. He didn't know what was supposed to come next. He had attacked his boss, over a matter involving his boss' wife. He would be fired at least, and at most, Kro would kill him next time he saw him. "I shouldn't have."

Angus didn't offer any condemnation of his actions. If anyone wanted to get rid of Kro more than him, it was this horse.

"We'll figure it out, buddy," Gil promised, resting his temple against the size and weight of Angus' snout. He sighed, "bud?"

The horse's nostrils twitched.

"Next time you see that guy," Gil gave the equine's grey fur a kiss. "Give 'im hell."