#he's kind of a scaredycat and he gets startled easily and he's clumsy

[softquietsteadylove]

Hello! I would like to make a request. Since I really liked your 5+1 things may I request another one? You can choose the AU :)

Five times Gil hid an injury from Thena, and one time he couldn’t hide anymore.

Would be awesome! And thank you for writing so many Thenamesh ones! ❤️

Little accidents were bound to happen, even in the end of the world.

"Gil?"

Gil startled, rushing to hide his little cut in his finger. He felt embarrassed.

Thena was such a badass, and she already had all the knowledge and skill needed to survive in what remained of the world. She didn't really need him. He was pretty sure she didn't really want him either.

"How is the food coming?" she asked quietly, in the same cool and even tone she said everything else. He was lucky, though--without her he would probably still be trying and failing to find a safe little spot for himself in a mall somewhere.

"It's good," he rushed to smile at her, pressing his palm closed, "nothing's spoiled."

Thena made somewhat of a face he was pretty sure was relief. But he would have to get better at reading her tiny little micro-expressions. "That is good news."

He had guessed right! He laughed, "finally, some good fuckin' food."

She didn't laugh at that, just offered a solemn agreement. Maybe it made sense that her meme knowledge before the end of everything wasn't a top priority.

Gil snuck his finger into his mouth to lick the blood clean. He had to be careful, sure there was something to be said about even the smallest amount of blood being a risk to have in the open.

But he was strong.

That was a big part of what he had going for him in a world like this, and he knew it. He wasn't a survivalist, he wasn't even a camping kind of guy. He wasn't brave and he certainly wasn't a fighter. But he was strong.

Gil pulled and pulled at the boards nailed over the doorway. Thena was on the other side of the office building looking for the odd supply. She had a very good mind for how to find supplies that people would forget about, like water in hotel mini fridges and snacks in office vending machines.

Thena was smart, and cunning, and she was a hell of a fighter.

Gil pulled at the wood more, trying not to verbalise his strain. The stairwell would be better for them to get back down and out than the crumbled elevator shaft they had used to get in.

"Gil?" Thena arrived, leaning over him, "are you okay?"

He chuckled, ignoring the muscle in his shoulder he definitely pulled getting the stupid boards ripped away from their escape. "I got it."

She smiled, though, and he felt a little repaid for his efforts already. She slipped away the little bags of candy into her pockets and helped him up, "I told you that you could."

Gil covered up how it wrenched his muscles for her to pull him up by his left arm. He chuckled, "you're always right, huh?"

"You don't have to go that far," she answered, although he was pretty sure she was humoured by his statement.

Gil followed Thena into the stairwell, hoping there were no more boards to pull off. Maybe he would suggest just kicking in the next ones they found.

And he liked helping Thena.

She wasn't used to letting someone help her out the way he was. She preferred to handle things herself. He was trying to convince her to rely on him a little more, but that didn't mean she had adapted to it overnight.

"Careful!" Gil called up to her as she moved from one branch of the tree to another. She looked down at him just to give him a very unamused glare. He sighed, "okay, okay."

It wasn't like she was stories off the ground, she was trying to get some low hanging apples out of a gnarled old tree.

Still, Gil couldn't help but feel nervous any time she was up off the ground that high, whether it be scaling the shelves of a supermarket or climbing a tree for sour little wild apples.

"Thena, really," Gil frowned, watching her stretch out her arm for a particularly plump and red one further down. It did look good--maybe it would even taste better than disgusting. But it wasn't worth her getting hurt. "Just leave it."

"I can get it," she grumbled, less down at him and more just to herself. She inched out into the branch a little more, like a cat testing its luck.

"Thena, please," Gil walked closer, positioning himself as directly under her as possible. "It's not-!"

Thena yelped as the branch snapped clean off under the weight she was putting into her hands in front of her. She tumbled forward, out of the tree and straight into Gil.

Gil grunted as a bundle of bones toppled over and into every soft part he had to offer. Thena was lithe and delicate, with the grace of a predator. But man, it felt like she was all elbows at the moment.

"Gil!" Thena exclaimed, scrambling to rid him of her body weight (as if she didn't weigh as much as a couple of grapes). She crawled off of him and leaned over to inspect the damage, "are you okay?!"

Everything hurt. "I'm fine."

"Gil, really," she frowned, that worry knot between her eyebrows forming like a storm cloud.

"Really Thena," he laughed. He would probably looked like he had been jabbed with a blunt object. "I'm fine."

"I'm so sorry," she practically whimpered. The only thing that made her feel worse than actually needing his help was when it did more harm than good.

"Thena, honestly, I'm okay," he promised her. It wasn't so much of a lie--they were pretty mild injuries, all told. A few bruises, maybe his back would be a little sore.

She had just barely managed to not knee him in the balls, so he considered that escaping unscathed.

Some were actually kind of a big deal.

They had run into other people travelling again, and again, the exchange hadn't been...friendly in nature.

At least they hadn't split up this time, as per Gil's insistence. He knew having him with her slowed Thena down but he couldn't stomach the thought of arriving to her as a hostage again.

They had come out of the fight alive, but he was keenly aware of a cut on the underside of his bicep. It was a very tender area, and the muscle kept stuttering the more he agitated it.

There was nothing that would help that but time, though. He was actually lucky she hadn't noticed it as of yet. And he planned to keep it that way, specifically for her peace of mind.

Thena always ended up drowning in guilt when something happened to him while they were on the road. She seemed to have developed this protectiveness over him that - while he utterly adored it - he didn't always agree with.

It wasn't her job to protect him. They were...partners. Or something.

So he kept walking with her silently as they tried to put the fight out of their minds. Thena wasn't a talker anyway, and at least this injury wasn't making him limp or breathe weird. That one she had sniffed out a mile away.

"Hey."

Thena looked up, curious but maybe a little charmed as he held his hand out to her--the injured one. She slid her hand into his gently and silently, walking through the nothing around them.

It wasn't the first time they'd gone hand in hand, and it wouldn't be the last. And it actually felt kind of nice to have his arm stretched out.

"You were right," she said barely louder than a whisper, "about not splitting up."

He had his own protectiveness about the woman with him, whether she knew it or not. He still wasn't a fighter, but he was capable of more than a few punches if it came down to her life. "We work best together, I think."

She smiled at him, although he could tell she was still deep in thought over it all, "I think you're right."

Gil tightened his hand around her, drifting a little closer. His arm was back to being a little cramped against his side, but he just wanted to be closer to her.

And some of them were just too small to bother mentioning.

Gil pulled his hand back with a hiss, immediately popping his finger in his mouth. He had been reaching back as far as he could to see what might be hiding in the back shelves. Shelves he didn't realise were rusted and jagged all over.

He sighed, returning with nothing to show for all his rooting around except a scraped finger he would not be telling her about. "Find anything?"

"Not much," Thena commiserated with him, producing the singular can of olives she had found under some of the restaurant's old equipment. "I imagine there's a reason these are still here."

Gil winced; he hated olives. "Might not be worth the trouble."

Thena nodded, both of them looking around the once operational kitchen. Supply runs being a bust was always a hard loss.

Gil looked around them too. It was different enough from his old one, but it was still a restaurant kitchen. "Looks so familiar, in a funny way."

Thena looked at him with those bright green eyes of hers.

He chuckled, rubbing his pricked fingertip against the others. "Never thought I'd get to be in one again."

Thena smiled gently. He talked about his past life more than she ever did (which was never). But she always seemed to like it when he did. "I bet you made food I'd kill for, now."

"I don't know about that, but it was definitely worth more than 14.95."

Thena laughed, and did he ever love that sound. It made the entire world around them seem a little less bad. She tilted her head at him in a distinctly cute way. Her ponytail sure was getting long. "I'm sure it was priceless, even back in those days."

He blushed.

"I wish I could have-" Thena cut herself off. There was no sense talking in those terms of 'could have' or 'would have' or 'wished'. There was only now, and tomorrow. She shook her head, smiling at him again, "we'll have to find some decent ingredients for you at some point. You can really show me what you're made of."

He would make her the grandest feast of her life someday, if he had to search every last corner of the earth.

But he couldn't hide them all.

Thena trudged along at a snail's pace. She didn't have much of a choice, completely without a better way of moving Gil within the confines of the city.

When he had first shown signs of his fever, she had at least been able to get him in a car and drive for the longer stretches of highway. She could keep him in there, let him rest, recover what of his strength he could.

She wasn't a doctor, but she knew he had a hell of a fever, couldn't eat or drink much, not that she had much to spare for him. But at least if he had a fever, he was alive. And if he was alive, then he wasn't one of those things.

"Shit," she cursed, lurching and landing against one of the walls along the street. She lowered her center of gravity and adjusted Gil on her back. Poor guy's hands were bound in front of her with his feet dragging on the ground as she used all of her strength just to pull him a block and a half.

The hospital was in sight, at least.

Never had Thena wished more to stumble upon someone--anyone. One of those groups of people who always seemed to be floating around and who would happily take in a strong, decent guy like Gil.

They wouldn't want her, and they never did. But that wouldn't matter; she would leave Gil with them to live his life the way he was supposed to--with good people, happy and healthy.

Thena blinked as new tears rose in her eyes. She couldn't afford the dehydration. She would have to get on the road again before nightfall.

"Stop!"

"Please!" she called out, her voice raw from giving Gil all the water she had to spare. She coughed as she dragged him up to the gates of the parking lot, where they had sectioned off an area for safe passage. "Please, help him!"

The two in the watch tower looked at one another.

Thena coughed some more and stumbled as her knees finally gave out under her. She held Gil's hand in front of her, "please! You don't have to take me! B-But him--he's not bit, he's just sick! You have to help him, please!"

Her vision was fading. She was at the end of her rope.

"Get out there! Help them!"

Thena nearly collapsed as the weight of Gil left her back. She watched as best she could as the two keeping watch pulled him into the hospital, away from her. "G-Gil!"

It was barely more than a squeak.

Thena swayed, catching herself on her palms. She was exhausted, and everything hurt. It had been hurting for days, since she started carrying Gil small distances at a time. But she could live with that if it meant getting Gil the help he needed.

If she had to carry on by herself then so be it.

"Sersi, help me get her upright."

Thena tried to keep her eyes open as she was manhandled. They were helping her inside, like they had done with Gil. No stretchers to spare, huh?

"I can't believe she carried him here from that wasteland."

She would have carried Gil across what remained of the world.