#immovable irrevocable irreplaceable

[softquietsteadylove]

Gil braiding Thena’s hair when her mind is going a little funky and just generally being sweet and kind and loving to her when she is feeling low. That’s it, that’s the whole prompt!! Pls feel free to make me sob like a baby over this tyvm, love your works so so much!!! 🥰

Thena hadn't spoken in over three hours. She was always dazed after an episode, and this one had been rough.

Rain didn't happen often in their part of Australia. And when it did, it tended to be the storming variety. Thunder and lightning had come over them, rain washing out the landscape and the skies going dark. Not only had the thunder been so on top of them that it felt like the house was rattling, but lightning had struck around them without so much as a tree to draw it.

Gil had fought her for hours, rain pouring down around them, washing away the evidence of their wounds just as fast as they came. He'd only managed to escape by pulling them to the rain basin and completely submerging them. He had done so a few times before to shock the Mahd Wy'ry out of her. It had worked, but that didn't mean he liked doing it.

He had brought her inside, run a hot bath for her, run his fingers through her hair as he whispered soft nothings to her. And now she was in front of the fire as he brushed her hair out gently.

"Gil?"

"Yeah?" he answered, although nothing came after it. He gave her shoulder a squeeze, "I'm right here."

Thena looked around for another second before looking up at him. Her eyes were still a little foggy, but they were green, and that was all that mattered to him. "Gil?"

"Hey," he whispered with a smile.

Thena tilted her head at him. Her hand raised up, hovering close to him but never actually touching. "Gil."

He nodded, cautiously drifting closer to her touch. "I'm here."

Thena stared at him, letting her fingertips touch first, then pressing her palm to his cheek, "my Gil."

"That's me," he smiled at her with the fire casting shades of red over his skin. He turned his head, kissing the thumb against his cheek. She nodded, not startled, not confused. "C'mere."

Thena let him pick her up off the floor, scooping her up into his arms on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck, the sleeves of his shirt slipping up her slim little biceps. "How long?"

"At first, not long," he told her honestly. There was no use lying about it, and she didn't need to be coddled. Taken care of?--certainly. Protected?--he would do absolutely anything. But she didn't need him to lie to her, so he wouldn't. "It's been a few hours since you got back, though."

Thena just set her head against his shoulder, pressing her forehead to his cheek. "I've been thinking."

"Anything to share?" he asked, perfectly ready to accept it if she said no. He adjusted her in his arms, reaching for her hair.

"I love you."

Gil looked at her with just a hint of surprise on his face. He smiled, though, combing his fingers through her hair. "I love you, too. I thought you knew that."

"I think I did," Thena sighed, still weighed down by the day's events. Her eyes drifted down as Gil carefully sectioned out her hair and wove it over her shoulder. "I know I did."

"What made you think about it now?" Gil whispered, braiding her hair gently, moving his fingers over every plait.

"You, here," she murmured vaguely before looking down at her braid again, "this."

You: Gilgamesh, her trusty partner, for thousands of years. A soul so entwined with hers that they shared a singular heartbeat. Here: Australia, where they had made a home, all their own and completely separate from their family, and Arishem, and any greater mission or higher purpose.

This: braiding her hair over her shoulder, like he did any time he felt like it. In soft moments like these, after hot baths, or on cold nights.

Them: here, like this, just being together--together in a way no other Eternals had been or still were. They weren't like Ikaris and Sersi, but they weren't like Druig and Makkari either. They were something completely different in a lot of ways.

"Done," Gil smiled, tying off the end of the braid and moving the ends of her blonde curls between his fingers. He looked at her, "how do you feel?"

"You're here?"

"I'm here," he promised, leaning his head against hers with only the fire and their heartbeats to fill the silence. He let her lean in, just touching her lips to his before settling against his chest: the safest place in the galaxy for her to find rest.

"Then I'll be fine."