#he and Druig here like that can't possibly be Thena's new boyfriend

[softquietsteadylove]

Hi! Would you do something soft for your Fic „Passing Notes“? The soulmate au was just amazing and underrated! ❤️

"That can't be him."

"Nah, can't be," Druig murmured in agreement with Dane, also leaning around the corner to peek at the one person already seated at a table for six people. "Right?"

"Right," Dane mumbled, crouched down next to the younger man. He worried his lip as he stared at the man with his phone in his hands. "Can it?"

"Mm," Druig sighed, pulling back on his skepticism. "Kari did say he was supposedly a big guy."

"She hasn't met him either?" Dane asked, referring to his own testimony from Sersi also being third hand.

Druig shook his head. "T's been secretive about 'im, far as I can tell. This is the first the girls are meetin'im too. They said they've peeked at some pictures of 'em together, though."

"On Thena's phone?" Dane couldn't help but ask, his disbelief clear. Thena wasn't really a...picture taker. Druig just nodded. It was hard to imagine Thena as being so infatuated as to take couple photos with her new partner, soulmate or not.

"Guess we'll have to see for ourselves, mate," Druig tugged at his leather jacket before straightening up. He sniffed and twitched his nose, as if preparing to go intimidate the mountain of a man waiting for them and their respective partners.

"Right," Dane followed with only some reluctance. Perhaps the large gentleman was very nice. According to Thena, he was sweet, although Dane had some trouble reconciling how a person as frightening as Thena could find someone who had no terrifying qualities themselves.

He - Gil, apparently - looked up and offered them a sheepish kind of wave.

"How ye doin'?" Druig nodded as a form of greeting as they arrived at the table. "Druig--I'm Kari's."

"Dane," he leaned forward to offer his hand much more formally than Druig's greeting. "I'm Sersi's partner."

"It's great to meet you guys," Gil smiled widely, although his nervousness hadn't quite left him completely. "I've heard all about you."

"Good things, I hope," Dane chuckled in light conversation. He felt just as nervous as the man across from him, and he wasn't meeting anyone for the first time. "We've heard about you as well."

"As much as the girls can get, that is," Druig amended as he pulled out a chair and immediately slouched down lazily in it. "I'm surprised we're even meetin' you, to be honest."

Dane gave Druig a look.

But he just shrugged, hands still in his jacket pockets, "T's never really been one to mix her different circles."

But Gil wasn't intimidated by the vague and slightly defensive statement. He smiled, "yeah, I guess that's Thena. I was surprised when she suggested I join you guys, too."

Dane fidgeted with his napkin on his lap. "H-How's the cookbook business going? That's how you met, I hear."

Gil tilted his head, as if already catching some of Thena's habits for himself. He let a dreamy kind of smile warm him from the inside out. "Yep--walked right into her office and discovered the mark on my shoulder wasn't bullshit after all."

Druig raised a brow at him, but didn't interject.

"The book's almost ready to print, so she tells me," Gil continued, coming out of his shell a little more so long as Thena was the topic of discussion. "I tried to convince her to be in some of the photos but she said that would be silly."

Dane couldn't help but smile at the slight pout on Gil's face. It was such an innocent expression in contrast to the biceps bulging in his t-shirt sleeves as he crossed his arms.

"T acts like she's allergic to fuckin' photos," Druig snorted out a laugh. He gave Gil a curious look as he laid the bait, "at least with us."

"Well," Gil blushed faintly, toying with his phone in his hands as if itching to show them but holding himself back. "I've managed to sneak her into a few. At first they were just for me, but I managed to get her to agree let me use one or two on the restaurant's instagram."

Dane and Druig immediately pulled out their phones under the table to look.

"It's only--hey!"

Druig and Dane also rushed to stand as their girlfriends finally arrived together. Their greetings were brief and comfortable, although all four of them were watching from the side at the real point of intrigue.

"Hey, Handsome," Thena said ever so softly, probably only intended for Gil to hear.

He caught her hand en route to his, clasping it gently and bringing it up to his lips, "hey, Beautiful."

All four of her friends just stared.

"How was your day?" Gil asked still in a hushed tone, taking her purse from her and slipping her coat off her shoulders and over his arm.

"Mm, uneventful," she recounted factually, letting his hands trail over her without a hint of her usual resistance to any physical contact.

"Come get off your feet," Gil nudged her into the booth seat where he had been sitting. "I warmed it up for you."

"Ew," Druig commented liberally, only to get slapped on both arms by Sersi and Makkari on either side of him. "Oi!"

"Sorry we're late," Sersi fluffed her hair out of her scarf as she took a seat across from Dane and beside Thena.

Her fault, Makkari pointed out freely on the other side of the blonde and across from her own soulpair.

"Don't worry about it, we just got here," Gil replied blithely, not mentioning that he had been here long enough before Druig and Dane to actually secure a booth seat for all of them.

Thena's eyes rose to Gil's. He gave a positively tiny shrug, to which she replied with an even slighter shake of her head. Both messages got across regardless as she looked down at her menu. "What's good, here?"

"I've had the risotto before, which was lovely," Sersi leaned over, pointing out each item she and Dane had eaten before.

Makkari, from the other side of her, tapped the calamari, would you share some with me? Druig won't eat it.

Thena just nodded, to Kari's utter delight. She looked up at Gil, "hm?"

"Hm," he made the sound right back at her, almost as if it were an answer on its own. He leaned forward though, "you could try the mac and cheese."

The rest of the table traded looks (which they thought were subtle, and most definitely were not).

"I know, I know," Gil laughed, although Thena hadn't looked skeptical of his recommendation at all. "It seems simple, but I've had it here before, and it's surprisingly impressive for how it sounds."

"Go on," Thena nodded, happy to listen to Gil talk about his second favourite thing to talk about: food.

The rest of the table remained confused.

"I've worked with the guy in the kitchen now," Gil obliged, he and Thena staring at only each other across the table. "He makes the bechamel with smoked paprika instead of nutmeg, so it gets this smokey and really faintly sweet undertone. Then, while he makes the roux, he adds lobster stock instead of just milk, so it's actually pretty light for such a creamy dish. It's a little like marry-me chicken, in that sense."

"A little like what?" Dane blurted out.

Thena just nodded at the explanation, though. "That does sound lovely."

"I'm gonna get the balsamic chicken, so you can try some of that, too!"

Druig looked at Makkari, who shrugged. Thena wasn't really a sharer of food, either. One time he had tried to steal a a bite off her plate without asking and had nearly lost a finger for it.

"That's perfect," she continued to just smile at him as if they were the only ones present. "Thanks, Handsome."

The big guy blushed again.

Druig leaned back in his seat to look at Dane past Gil's back. "I don't think I can eat after th-oi!"

Thena made no apology for kicking Druig under the table.