Can you write a story which thena and gil a childhood best friend but one day gil got kidnapped and everyone assume his dead but not thena her family even sent her to a mental institution to make her better, Year after year past she still can't accept gil is gone, then one day Gil appear in front of her out of nowhere and was like "Sorry to keep you waiting"
"Hi, I'm Gil."
She could always remember him being like that--so warm and open and inviting. She had met him as just a little boy, her age, maybe a year older. And when kids are young like that, one year can be a huge difference to overcome, but young Gil had come right up to her, a gap between his front teeth and the biggest smile she had ever seen.
"Wanna be friends?"
The would become the very best of friends. Always together, always doing something, or nothing, so long as they didn't have to be apart for it. He would play anything with her, even if it was a game 'for girls', or 'babies', like her brother would say it was. Gil would collect butterflies with her, or help her learn to braid hair, or set up elaborate tea parties. They did everything together.
Even as they got older, and even as they gained other friends, nothing came between them. Ikaris still always insisted it was dumb that Gil liked playing with his baby sister more than him, but neither of them cared. And Sersi and Makkari never minded Gil playing with them.
Not even starting school divided them. They weren't exactly in the same class, but recess and lunch were their little moments of reprieve. Gil would share the snacks and lunch he got as a growing boy, and Thena would happily trade away the parts of her lunch she didn't like but knew Gil enjoyed. Everything else could wait, whether it was school, or their own circles of friends.
They were barely 11 years old when Gil went missing.
"Hi sweetie," she could remember a police officer kneeling down in front of her. "Do you remember the last time you saw your friend?"
"Lunch," she had answered, feeling completely numb. She had already assumed something was wrong when Gil was nowhere to be found when it was time to walk home together. "We always have lunch together."
"And do you always walk home the same way?"
There were plenty of questions like that. Thena could remember Gil's family and hers mulling around their home, police officers walking in and out all evening. Gil was missing--just vanished in the few minutes no one from the school had eyes on him and before she rounded the corner from her classroom at the back of the building to join him.
If she had been with him just a minute earlier, it could have saved him.
Everyone told her not to think that way, of course. She was put in counselling, but her determination that Gil was still out there somewhere was 'something to keep an eye on'. The word 'obsessed' was tossed around plenty as well, but Thena had more important things to worry about: Gil.
Makkari and Sersi were worried too, but their support exceeded their concerns. They supported her when she said she wanted to go into criminal psychology. They supported her obsession with true crime and morbid and macabre curiosities. Even if they were worried, they understood why she was possessed by the idea of understanding what would make a person do something like that. And more importantly, learning about what would happen during, and then after the abduction.
For all those calling it a sick obsession, it served her well. It drove her like nothing else. She excelled, advanced quickly and aggressively in all she did. Who cared what the reason was? At least she was doing something, unlike everyone who had inevitably given up on him.
The officers who had hounded her with questions?--gone. The judge who deemed the case cold?--nothing. Her own family--Gil's own family! Ikaris believed it too, but every time he tried to tell her to give up for her own well being they just got into a huge, violent fight over it. So he stopped trying to convince her.
Once she had enough knowledge to begin her own investigation, then it was a bridge too far. The worry could no longer wait, and everyone decided that she needed help. Sersi and Makkari pleaded her case, but her parents deemed her mentally unfit. Even Ikaris stood by as she was hauled away into the back of a van, kicking and screaming for all of the neighbours to whisper about.
Let them watch, she figured. It was a good opportunity for her to remind them that they had failed an 11 year old boy because of their blind eyes.
"Go on."
Thena lifts her eyes and then looks back down at her lap. They ask her this every year, around the time Gil disappeared. There are plenty of other routine appointments through the year, but they only bring up Gil and her past at this certain time.
If she just admits that there's no way he's still alive, and that her obsession is a coping mechanism, then she gets to go home.
"He's alive," she claims outright, nailing another stake in her coffin. Her eyes are clear as she looks at the psychiatrist who then scribbles something in her notes. Thena narrows her eyes at her, "I know he is."
"Tell me more about Gil," the psych asks of her, switching tactics instead of locking horns with her. Not that it gets anyone anywhere.
Thena sighs. She has nothing better to do, staring out the window of the office and at the leaves changing. "Gil was...the best."
"Gil was sweet. He was sweet in a way boys usually aren't, especially so young. But he liked playing quiet games or drawing or playing house more than he did roughhousing. Other kids called him names for it, of course, but he didn't care."
She smiles.
"We would play house, and he would braid my hair and wave me off to work," she laughs at the memory of how they thought the world worked back then. "I would come home and he would have a beautiful pretend meal set out for us. He would put on whatever music we could find and ask me to dance for our anniversary."
"That sounds very sweet."
Thena glares at the woman for interrupting her blissful trip down memory lane. But she continues. "Gil was always sweet. Even when we got older, started school, he never stopped spending time with me even though I was a girl, or I was younger than him. He would defend me from older children and I would defend him from just about anyone else."
"He wanted to be a chef," Thena says, and her throat tightens and she chokes on her air. Because he would have become such a brilliant chef, and he would have that smile he always had, and she doesn't even know what he looks like now.
"It sounds like you two loved each other very much."
Thena doesn't bother answering that. No one understands, anyway. Everyone likes to think of their friendship as this precious thing of the past, like they were such angelic things. Everyone acts as if her memories of Gil are all she has left of him.
"Thena," the therapist shifts in her seat as she tries to breach more dangerous territory. "I know how much you love Gil. Can you tell me how this time of year makes you feel?"
Not this bullshit. Thena resists the urge to roll her eyes, looking out the window again. The leaves are changing, and it makes her think of the leaf Gil saved for her the morning he disappeared. He gave it to her before school, claiming he'd never seen a leaf the colour of her hair before.
She still has it. It's one of her few possessions, pressed into an old and worn copy of Robert Frost work. She sighs, "Gil liked poetry."
The therapist resigns herself to being ignored.
"He liked making things rhyme, rudimentary literary devices, jokes and brain teasers," Thena smiles again, now just speaking aloud to herself. "I told him he could be a poet. He said it wouldn't pay well, and then how would we do things like pay mortgages and have two cars?"
"He really thought of everything."
He did. Gil was very forward thinking as a child. He always considered every possible angle of something, despite looking more like a kid who would act first and think later.
All the more reason to believe that he wouldn't have just wandered off with someone, or that he would have found a way to escape if he did get plucked off the street somehow.
"Thena-"
"I believe that's our time," she cuts the therapist off, standing and beginning to walk out the door on her own. She's been here long enough that they aren't quite as strict with her.
"Indeed," the psych stands as well, at least giving her the respect of sending her off properly. "I'll see you next week."
"Can't wait," Thena mutters as she heads for the common area. Sometimes she wonders if prison would be better than this place. At least prisoners are allowed to keep things in their cells.
It'll be winter soon, and she'll think about Gil, wonder if he has to endure winters in some terrible little cellar. Or maybe he did manage to get away, because he was always clever. Maybe he managed to find a new life for himself somewhere.
After a trauma like that, maybe his mentality was so affected he wouldn't be her Gil anymore anyway. A morbid thought, but she didn't study psychology for some delusion that he could be completely unaffected by it all.
She has been in this mental institution for years now, too. Her parents don't want anything to do with her, and she could be released if they weren't funnelling money in to keep her here. All they want is to hear that she's forgotten about Gil completely.
Well, it's never going to happen, so her parents can go to hell.
Thena arrives in the common area, devoid of anyone else this close to meal time. The food is awful anyway. She would rather starve and think about Gil's cookies he would make every winter.
She leans on the windowsill, looking out at the trees. "These woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep."
"And miles to go before I sleep."
She doesn't turn to look at who's joining her. She doesn't much care, and she doesn't recognise the voice, although it is familiar.
"And miles to go before I sleep."
It is familiar. It's soft, and gentle, deeper than she imagined it. Soft steps come closer to her.
"And be one traveller, long I stood," it continues until it's right behind her, "and looked down one as far I could."
"To where it bent in the undergrowth," Thena finishes and frowns. She knows why she knows this poem, and plenty of others from the same volume. But it's rare to find someone else who does.
"Your hair's so long, now."
She stares at the window as gentle hands run through her hair, mindful not to hurt her as they start to wind the locks together. Her throat tightens and she chokes on her air, "y-you still remember how to braid?"
He just chuckles, and it's when she hears the hint of his laughter that she realises this is real. She hasn't finally succumbed to this hell around her and lost it.
She turns. Her hair is half braided down her back, but Gilgamesh is standing there, still just a year older than her, but looking completely unlike he once did. But it's definitely Gil. "You're here."
"It's our anniversary," he smiles at her like when they were children, playing house in her backyard. He holds his hands out, "sorry to keep you waiting."
Hi! I have a request about Zombi au👀 how about when they settled into the new place they meet up with druig and Makkari and they we're just all getting along in the instant and one time they having lunch conversation Makkari suddenly tell how Ikaris roughly handled thena on the supply run when Gil is still pass out and then Gil is not happy about it that thena needed to calm him down before he could kill the guy and assure him she already handled it. Thankyou ❣️❣️❣️
"Hey, you."
"Hey," Thena looked up as Gil circled behind her, his hand drifting over her shoulder as he sat down with a tray of food. "How's cooking duty?"
"Getting there," Gil answered simply. "I don't have the best inventory yet, but there haven't been any complaints."
"I'll say, this shite is better 'an anythin' we've had yet!"
"Gil, this is Druig," Thena introduced, only after Druig had taken the liberty of complimenting the food and then loudly shovelling in another bite. "He also worked here under Ajak in the beginning of things. He worked in psychiatry apparently, but he also is quite good with agriculture."
Gil smiled at the man eating like he had been famished for days, and then at the woman who gave him a cheeky kind of wave and smirk. "Uh, hey."
"Makkari," Thena smiled, putting down her fork and raising her hands. "She's deaf, but she's their top runner. She can cross the entire city in two hours, apparently."
"Whoa, that seems," Gil furrowed his brows, but Makkari grinned, signing something back to Thena. He would have to ask her to teach him during their off hours.
"She was a track champion, she says," Thena smiled, translating in real time as Makkari's hands flew at lightning speed. "She could have gone national if she hadn't been disqualified."
"Disqualified," Gil looked at them both, but Makkari didn't seem particularly bitter about it. She lifted her arms and made bunny ears with her opposite hands, a few times even.
Thena laughed, shaking her head as well as she lifted her fork for another bite, "stealing."
Makkari practically rolled right out of the cafeteria seat in her laughter at Gil's face.
"Extra food," Druig clarified, relieving Thena of translation duty. "Don't worry, she won't nick any of your valuables."
Makkari gave him a wink and a shrug.
"She won't," Thena raised her eyes at the woman across from her (across from Druig, really, but in her eye line). "Because she likes you."
Gil smiled sheepishly, picking at the meal he himself had prepared. "That's what everyone says when they're hungry."
Thena nudged him gently, under the table and away from the eyes of their new comrades. "You know very well that's not true."
He finally took a bite of food, looking around at those whom Thena had befriended in her short time here and without him. She didn't usually end up talking to people, let alone liking them. "How was the run today?"
"It was okay," she smiled, eyes searching him for a deeper worry under his light tone. "Makkari and I went into some higher hotel rooms close by--I told them about the mini-fridge trick."
"I can't believe we never considered 'em," Druig said with only half a mouth full this time, "all this time."
"Thena's smart like that," Gil praised freely and openly, looking at the woman beside him instead of eating his bean salad. Not that she noticed.
It could have gone better.
Thena did look up at Makkari but didn't bother speaking up, resuming eating instead.
Gil frowned at her, "what?"
"It's nothing," she shrugged, reaching for her bottle of water.
Makkari looked at Gil, it did go well, until a certain someone started arguing with Thena over whether to take the stairwells or use a dumbwaiter system in the elevator shafts to get the supplies down.
Gil leaned behind Thena, asking Druig with his eyes to please translate for him.
Druig looked at Makkari, and then at Thena, who must have given him a hell of an expression. He swallowed his massive bite slowly. "Uh, well, it was mostly smooth sailin', apparently. Nothin' to worry about, big fella."
Gil frowned, though. He put his fork down and slid his tray away from him, only so he could slide Thena's tray away from her. She stared at the table, as if trying to figure out what had happened to her meal. She turned and looked at him the way she would look at the devil himself. "Thena?"
She just glared at him, lips pursed (cutely). "It was nothing."
He slid her tray even further away from her. He knew there wasn't much that could break the iron will of the Goddess of War. But withholding her food - so long as it was made by him, which was kind of sweet - was the one way. "Thena, what happened?"
She eyed the tray, knowing he would not make getting it back easy. A faint huff escaped her as she tossed her fork down, "Ikaris and I got into it, nothing worth dragging up again."
"What do you mean," Gil said quietly and evenly, his hands already tightening around the edges of her tray, "got into it?"
"Blondie here is cocky, that's what she means."
"Ikaris, not now," she turned in her seat, all too prepared to bark at him about minding his own business. "It's water under the bridge."
He glared her down, though, crossing his leanly muscled arms at her in his navy t-shirt. "I said we should use a dumbwaiter to get the food up and down. But GI Jane here said it would be better to carry the shit all 'emselves down seventeen fuckin' flights of stairs."
"You can't rely on the cables in elevator shafts anymore!"
"Okay, okay," Kingo patted Ikaris' shoulder beside him, "don't wanna go starting this again."
Gil stood. "What happened?"
"Uh," Kingo looked around, as if he would find a glowing door that would help him escape another scuffle.
"What," Gil repeated, having no problem standing nose to nose with the obstinate guard, "happened?"
Ikaris looked down at Thena, who was still seated, determined not to rise to his bait (as Gil was). He scoffed, "she's savvy out there, but she's got wee arms to be doin' heavy liftin', no? I got my hand around her whole bicep."
Gil tilted his head faintly, trying to absorb what Ikaris was saying. He had held Thena's arm? He had held her by the arm? He had gripped her by the arm? He had fit his entire hand around Thena's slim upper arm?
"If she bruises it's only 'cause she has as much meat on those bones as a pigeon."
Gil grabbed Ikaris by the front of his shirt, backing him up into the seats behind them. Ikaris' knees bent, making him grab the edge of the table behind him. Gil leaned over him heavier. "Don't you ever touch her!"
"Gil!" Thena rose, eager to intervene as others in the cafeteria started gasping and whispering.
"Don't ever put your hands on her!" Gil roared in the guy's face. He didn't care. He didn't care that he was making a scene or making a powerful enemy. He didn't care if he got kicked out for this. "If anything - anything - ever happens to her out there I will kill you!"
"Easy!" Kingo yelled, trying to pry the much larger, much stronger Gil away.
"Come on!" Druig growled, also trying to drag Gil away from Ikaris.
"I mean it!" Gil barked at him, "if anything ever happens to her it's your head!"
"Gilgamesh!" Thena moved between them, pushing against his chest as Kingo and Druig attempted to pull him by the arms. She pressed her fingers into the divet between his pectoral muscles. "Stop it!"
He was out of steam, anyway. But he was still glaring at Ikaris as he picked himself up, huffing and glaring, obviously ready to go on if he was let go. Gil was all but panting, light headed from the adrenaline rushing through him. He couldn't help it. All he felt was rage looking at this bastard.
"Gil," Thena attempted, raising her hand to his cheek and forcing him to look at her, "hey."
He blinked, the edges of his vision expanding again.
"Look at me," she whispered, her thumb against his cheek, "I'm right here."
She was right here, unharmed.
"I'm fine," she assured him, making him look at her instead of over her head at the man he was frankly ready to beat to death.
Gil carefully raised his hands. He knew everyone was watching him. They had seen him lose it twice now, if not more, considering how long he was out of it during his recovery. They probably thought he was some monster of a man.
But he ran his hands over Thena's arms gently, as if just touching her would make the bruising that asshole was talking about appear before his very eyes. Her skin was so soft. "Y-Yeah?"
She nodded, still holding him, grounding his senses in her instead of his rapid heartbeat and boiling blood. "Yeah."
Gil let go of a long breath, letting the rest of his energy leave him. He was exhausted, and he was still on dinner and cleanup duty for the night. "Okay."
Thena smiled, satisfied that he was feeling calmer about the whole thing. She let him pull her closer until she was tucked against his chest, which he would argue was the safest place in the world for her. She pressed her cheek against his clavicle and the collar of his t-shirt under his unbuttoned flannel. "It's okay, Gil."
Druig stepped away from him tentatively, hands still at the ready, "all right, then."
"Come on," Kingo patted Ikaris as he picked himself up. He looked at Thena and Gil, neither apologising nor condemning them. "Let's go."
Ikaris did give them one last glare before storming off.
Gil watched him go. He didn't like that guy, no matter how nice Sersi was. But once he was far away enough, he resumed burying his nose in Thena's hair. "Sorry."
She rubbed his back, as if soothing him after a nightmare, "you're okay."
"What is going on in here?!"
Thena pulled away, looking up at Gil with wide eyes. He was not to say a word.
"S-Sorry," Druig stood as Ajak made her way over. "Me'n Ikaris...y'know."
Ajak gave him a look, but the fact that she so readily believed him really spoke to how well the guard got along with most here in the hospital colony. "How many times, Druig?"
"Aye aye," he nodded, like a teenager getting scolded after curfew. He sat himself back down, "won't make a peep, mother dearest."
Ajak just rolled her eyes at him, despite what she claimed to be a very strict rule about in-fighting. She looked at Gil, leaning against Thena's shoulders. "Everything okay?"
She most definitely knew that it was Gilgamesh involved in the fight, not Druig.
Gil smiled, hiding his fists in his armpits, "great!"
"Hm," she pinched her lips together, at him and then at Thena, "I trust the matter was resolved?"
Thena just nodded, but Ajak seemed to accept the silent promise to her that the fighting was at least done for now.
"Right," the doctor sighed before rushing away to her next fire that needed squashing, her white coat flaring behind her.
Thena looked up at him. "That was too close for comfort, wouldn't you say?"
Speak for yourself, that was the most fun I've had all week!
Thena just glared at the petty thief and friend across from her.
He sighed, sitting down with her and trying to ignore the stares focused on them. He slide their trays over again, half pushing his into her space for her to take what she liked from him. "Sorry."
Thena nudged Druig's shoulder faintly as she picked up her fork again, neither looking at each other, "thanks."
"Nothin'," Druig shrugged, also not looking as he resumed eating his corn (while Makkari resumed stealing bites of his canned fruit).
"You sure I can't come with you?" Gil asked her gently, no longer having any appetite. He hovered closer to her than necessary, even running the back of his knuckles up and down her bare arm. "I'm no 'you', but I'd be better than that guy."
Makkari nodded eagerly.
"That's for Ajak to decide," Thena said gently to dissuade him from his overprotective argument. "And besides, who would make these delicious meals then?"
He sighed. She was appealing to the chef in him, but he would rather crawl through filth with her than serve a hundred strangers his best three course meal. "Come on."
"Not to pick sides, but T's right, big guy," Druig piped up, again with his mouth full. T? "I ain't eaten like this in a dog's age, and I bet the rest of 'em here'll get how invaluable you are right quick."
No one else here talked like that.
"I can handle myself," Thena assured him more quietly. She even let him pull her knee so her thigh could rest against his. "You don't think I would let him grab me and not nail him right in the nuts, do you?"
Gil chuckled. No, of course she had gotten in a shot directly to his biggest weakness. That was the Goddess of War he knew (and loved). Thena leaned in gently as he pressed a kiss to her hair, "of course not."
Imagine Sersi's horror upon hearing her 5-year-old niece Titantia pleading with her to open the door after some mothers decided to lock her up because she had defended her new friend by his mistreated son. Sersi had always been a devoted teacher as well as a protective aunt to Titantia and jack.
Sersi: Titania are you there baby?
(Sersi's in panic mode)
Titania: open mommy open
(Titania banging the door crying)
Sersi: OPEN THIS DOOR NOW!
(Sersi yell to the mother's behind her, One of the mother signal the maid to open the door, Sersi try to make a calm expression when she burst in the door to calm Titania who cling tight on her, The other mother's keep there distance watching the scene.)
Sersi: It's okay darling I'm here it's alright
(Calming titania down but her face it's all red in anger)
Titania: Th-they lock me here mo-mommy the-they said I'm a bad girl but i promise you I'm not mommy I'm not.
(Titania said between sob tilting her head to sersi like she's trying to convince her she's telling the truth but sersi didn't even needed her to explain she already know it from the start)
Sersi: I know, you are the most good girl i ever known also the bravest I'm sorry sweetie you been through this, why don't we go home we will have our own party i promise.
(Sersi smoothing Titania, when she give her little nod sersi carry her outside the house then she put her down for a moment leaving a kiss on her head)
Sersi: Wait for me here Sweetie i just forget my purse i be right back.
(Sersi left Titania with sally outside the house, When she get back inside the other children were in the other room and all the mother's is in the living room she walk in already taking off her ring and earrings.
Mother1: She punch my son in the face so we just teach her some lesson it's not proper for a young girl punching a boy in the face
Sersi: uh-uh
(Not caring)
Mother2: She just over reacting with all her crying she should be discipline
Sersi:uh-uh
(Taking her coat off)
Mother3: You should even thank us
(Sersi close the door and turn to look at them and smile )
Sersi: oh sure thank you then.
.
.
.
Titania outside the house hearing a loud noise inside the house like someone doing a construction all of the sudden, and then Sersi came out smiling sweetly at her she carry Titania again she said good bye to sally who turn white already, before sersi leave she turn the living room in metal so that the mother's gonna have one hell of a problem to go out not to mention the damage that sersi made of them it's lucky if one of them could stand and ask for help.
Sersi: I'm really sorry Titania this happened
Titania: It's okay mommy sersi i had fun! Besides i made new friends so I'm happy
Sersi: really? Well I'm glad you're happy but i still would like to make it up to you, how about we go to arcade i buy you many tokens as much as you like, and daddy ikaris wanted to watch movies with us.
Titania: Yessss please!!!!
(Titania giggle hugging sersi look like she already forgot what happened)
Titania: I saw you in the window your naughty mommy sersi
Hi can you write a full on pregnancy journey between thenamesh and the eternals find out about it as well and gilgamesh is helping thena through giving birth
By all odds, Eternals cannot reproduce. It's not in their physical makeup--they're not organic beings. But there are timelines, and universes, and powers beyond mortality. The Elemental Eternal is proof of that. With her evolution comes exceptions.
She doesn't turn the Illusionist Eternal human, she returns life to the Strongest. And with his renewed life, came an unprecedented circumstance.
The Warrior Eternal became pregnant.
Without Ajak's guidance, they only had so much insight. Phastos performed every scan and test, Druig assessed what he could at the subconscious level, Sprite even tried constructing an early image of the fetus in a sort of ultrasound. Kingo proclaimed to have knowledge from playing a doctor - once - but was denied acknowledgement.
But none of them knew how to bring an immortal life into the world--or if it would, in fact, be immortal at all.
Sersi had brought her sister's dearest love back to life, forsaking even her own loved one. Thena, upon hearing the news of her new role in life, had grasped Sersi's hand. The Alchemist was confused until she saw the tears in her sister's eyes, whispering, "I'm sorry, I know how much you wanted this."
Sersi burst into tears, wrapping her arms around Thena's shoulders. She had always dreamed of transmuting life in its rawest sense. In this way, she somewhat felt that she had.
So, with the family of Eternals with only themselves, they embarked on raising this new form of 'life'.
Sersi was the only one who even remotely knew what to expect. She told what she knew, did further research. Phastos and Makkari concentrated on reading every material the human world - and beyond - had to offer. Druig was quietly attentive, never admitting to concern but always hovering nearby and commenting on if Thena or the budding consciousness she was harbouring desired something.
Gilgamesh was beside himself.
For all the years upon centuries upon millennia he had spent by Thena's side, they had never had to consider this a possibility for them. And while he usually had the typical minutia to worry about - Thena's general well being, health, Mahd Wy'ry - he now had a whole other set of problems.
He was beside her every second, reluctant to so much as look away from her and their child. Everyone told him he was being excessive, including Thena herself. But he refused to leave her again. He promised her as much, anyway. He stayed close, made sure they both knew he was there.
He cooked nutritious meals, made sure they got their rest. He was a little more insistent with his brothers and sisters than they were used to. Either he was asking Phastos and Makkari for what they had read about pregnancy or he was asking Druig how the baby 'felt'.
He asked Sprite for illusion 'ultrasounds' so often that she eventually stopped obliging him, saying that unless Thena asked, she was no longer their ultrasound machine.
Sersi threw herself into tending to Thena, and their child to whom she would be a second mother if anything happened to Thena. Sersi attempted to forbid her from saying such things, but Thena said that she had heard of such practices before, and if it had to be anyone, it could be no one but Sersi.
Phastos had complained that he had an actual child, and that Jack was even fond of Thena (for some reason) and vice versa! Thena said that yes, she was very fond of Jack too. But he and Ben would have their hands full with their human child, no less whatever immortal creature she spawned (her own words).
"Are you sure about this?" she could remember Gilgamesh asking her about halfway through. It was nowhere near the normal number of months for a human gestation, but they had to assume that their advanced cell strength and regeneration was translating into the growth of the baby.
"It is far too late to ask that," she answered, her hands on her stomach, swollen to accommodate their child.
"I mean," he shifted, taking hold of her hand next to the bed she nearly constantly occupied. Although she denied it, she had to all but be on bed rest, supplying the baby with not only her Cosmic Energy but much of her physical energy as well. "We don't have any experience in this--none of us. Are we sure we can get through this?"
Thena looked up at the ceiling, seriously considering the reality of their situation, and the question related. She patted her stomach, a subconscious motion she had taken on in the last two weeks. "Yes."
Gilgamesh chuckled, kissing her hand, "that easy, huh?"
"Hm," she smiled, relishing the small but heavy affection. "It will in no way be easy. But we can do this, is what I'm saying."
He sighed, tilting his head at her, "you'll be doing the hard part. I can be here as much as I can, but there's nothing I can do for the pain of what you'll go through."
None of them had any concept of what it would mean to give birth.
Thena let him moved the back of her hand to his cheek, always cooler to the cheek than his warmer skin. "I have no fear."
"I know you don't," he lamented more than complimented, "but maybe, just this once-"
"Gilgamesh," she said softly, pulling his eyes to hers. Her still and unwavering eyes, "I do not fear this. I will endure anything to bring this being to life."
Gil's eyes watered, "I don't want you to have to."
"Be that as it may," she soothed, moving her palm to his cheek, "I choose to allow this life shelter within me, and I have already decided that it is this life that takes precedence now--over my own, over anything else."
He shook his head, "Thena-"
"I'm sorry."
He blinked through his tears, although Thena's always became glassy.
"I have experienced living without you," she admitted, her throat tight with the difficulty of such words, "no matter how brief. I know that I am asking something unbearable of you."
Gilgamesh buried his burning eyes within the warmth of her palm.
"But the young one comes first, before all else," she insisted. She brushed his tears away and forced his eyes back to hers, "swear to me."
He nodded, unable to say it just yet. To speak such an unthinkable thing was too much for him. He had only just died and come back to life within the same twelve months. And now life threatened to both give him the greatest gift and take away his greatest treasure?
"I will be with you," she promised, rubbing her belly with her free hand again, "in a way."
That was the last they had spoken of the potential worst possibility.
The birth was hard. It took all their resources to keep everyone calm, let alone actually help with the process. Makkari and Sersi did their best, Sprite insisting that she couldn't possibly stomach the reality of what was happening. She could be heard whispering to Kingo the fear that they would lose Thena this time.
Phastos kept an eye on Thena's health, although the actual act of birth had taken more strength from the Warrior Eternal than they ever could have anticipated. All the equipment at their disposal was just barely keeping her conscious as her body prepared to, in a way, deliver its own form of Celestial.
"Thena, come on, just stay with me," Gilgamesh would whisper, his lips always close to her skin, her hair, something. He held her hand, which would have broken with her efforts were it not for his exoskeleton.
She stared upward, delirious from her efforts, her pulse thready and her skin covered in a cold sweat. "When?"
"Almost there, Thena," Sersi promised on her sister's other side, dabbing her flushed skin, "I promise, just a little more."
Makkari waved, it's time!
"Come on, Thena, one more deep breath," Sersi pleaded, squeezing her shoulders as Makkari got into position.
"Almost there," Gil whispered to her, "then you can hold our baby."
Thena's pupils widened. The baby.
A shrill cry broke the air. Breath was held as Makkari held the tiny life, washing it off and wrapping it up as Sersi had told her. There was no 'cord', like Sersi had told her, but she watched as a golden thread of energy dissolved into the air. She tilted her head.
There's no belly button, Makkari shrugged, as if that were all that significant a detail. But other than that, she's beautiful.
Sersi's eyes lit, "she?"
Makkari shrugged again but smiled as she handed the baby over to Sersi first, I guess--looks an awful lot like Thena not to be.
Sersi blinked through her tears; it was true, the little bundle looked like a tiny Thena, even with wisps of the same sun glow hair.
"Sersi," Thena struggled just to lift her arms, "please."
"Here," she whispered, leaning down carefully and depositing the baby into Thena's arms and over her lap. "Look at her, Thena, she's perfect."
"Perfect," Gilgamesh whispered, gazing upon a child of his own. He had always gotten along with human kids, maybe even gotten attached to a select few, like Jack, or Odin's little pup once upon a time. But this--this was entirely different.
"Oh," Thena blinked, her voice unmistakably melted and sweet. She smiled, "she has your eyes."
Indeed, the little one blinked and had massive, warm brown eyes, like the Strongest Eternal himself. She looked up at Thena, and then over at her father, who only dissolved further.
"Hello little one," Gilgamesh whispered, as if even his voice would be too much for his new treasure to bear. He offered his finger to her itty-bitty hand.
She was already capable of a strong grip.
"She incredible," Sersi whispered to her sister, pressing her lips to Thena's hair. "What will you name her?"
Thena gazed at her child.
Makkari and Phastos also looked over amidst the work of making sure Thena was stable and going to fetch the others.
"Olympia has always been home in our minds," Thena spoke gently, "even though there is no such thing. And yet when I say it, I still think of home--the same feeling I get when I think of Australia."
Gilgamesh leaned over, pressing a kiss to her temple.
"There shall be an Olympia," Thena declared, her eyes meeting that of her child, already so wise. "You shall be the meaning of home now, little one."
"Olympia!" Sersi gasped.
Thena looked up at her, "you are crying even more than Gilgamesh."
"So?" Sersi sniffled, barely able to see through her tears at all.
Thena let Gilgamesh take Olympia from her arms, just enough for her to recline in the bed more. "Let them in, they should meet her."
"Oi Sis!--you-"
Gil glared at the doorway, "keep your voice down."
Druig clapped his jaw shut, his teeth clacking loudly.
Kingo chuckled, for once, the most tactful of their chaotic little family. He strode in, Sprite clinging to him nervously. He smiled at Thena, "you made it."
She smiled back at her most opposite but undeniably dear brother. "You did too."
Gilgamesh tilted the bundle in his arms, although he obviously wouldn't be letting anyone else try holding her just yet. "This is Olympia."
Kingo smiled still, as if having anticipated the name that was preinstalled in all their heads. "She's beautiful, you guys."
"Gilgamesh," Thena spoke up from the bed, but he shook his head, already knowing what she was going to ask of him. He turned away, leaning over his bundle of joy. She let out a faint laugh as Kingo made his way to her bedside, "you'll have to hold her later."
He allowed the selfishness, "I think he's earned the right to hog her for a little."
"Oi sis," Druig greeted all the same, although in a whisper as he scurried over to her other wide with Makkari and Sersi. "How you doin'?"
She was still smiling, elated to be on the other side of her trauma, no matter how beautiful. She let her brother pat her shoulder, "I have experienced worse...I think."
Druig snorted, "well, for what it's worth, I've never considered you tougher."
Thena looked over to where Gilgamesh was protectively huddling over Olympia, protecting her from her own Uncles and Aunts. She puffed through her nose faintly, "if you can get close enough, take a look at her. See what she's thinking."
Druig regarded the baby curiously. Even after heading a commune for two hundred years, he had never met a baby quite like this. He waved his hand vaguely in her direction.
Warmth
Makkari rubbed his back as he swiped at his eyes. Different, huh?
He nodded, slinging his arm lazily around her shoulders. They deserve this.
Makkari watched as Gilgamesh returned to Thena's side, still refusing to let Kingo and Phastos so much as tickle Olympia's cheeks. They do.
"Come on," Sprite grumbled, choosing instead to go over to Thena's side instead of crowding the baby and baby holder.
Thena looked at her youngest - most tentative - sister. "So?--what do you think?"
Sprite pursed her lips petulantly. She eyed Olympia, and her crowd of admirers. She tilted her head, "she's prettier than I imagined."
Thena took neither offense nor humour, but smiled. "You can meet her when you're ready."
And she did. Sprite warmed to the little life, just as she did to rejoining Kingo and even the human Karun instead of the isolation of secrecy.
Kingo and Phastos easily became the most eager to dote on their new little Eternal, although Gilgamesh insisted that he be the only apple of her eye. Druig managed to sneak into her good graces, with Thena's help getting past Gilgamesh's defenses.
Gilgamesh still barely leaves her side, even months after her birth. Despite her short gestation, she seems to age according to the Earth's rotation, as far as Phastos can test.
"Ajak would have loved you," Thena whispers down to the child sleeping in her arms. Whenever she lacks sleep, she does this--walks the halls of the Domo with Olympia for comfort. Her grey robes swish around her as she takes a seat in the awakening chamber. "She would still be crying even now, I'm sure."
Olympia sleeps as soundly as her father does. Apparently this is odd for a baby, which Thena doesn't think makes sense; they need sleep, so why would they be unable to achieve it?
Thena looks up at the looming statue of Arishem. "He has done me no kindnesses. If anything, he has cursed me in many ways."
Olympia doesn't mind. She has no awareness of her mother's ailment, and with the presence of their family to help, she will never witness the uglier consequences either.
Thena smiles down at the little one, though, "but I have you. And I will endure any curse for that."
She looks up at Arishem again. "Not that he had any part in that. If anyone game me you, besides your father, it is in fact godmother Sersi."
Olympia remains unbothered.
Thena presses a kiss to her tiny head, growing more white-blonde hair by the day. "You will learn in time. I will make sure you know of Ajak. And that you never know of Ikaris."
She dislikes even uttering his name in her child's presence.
Not that Olympia minds that either.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?"
She smiles as Gilgamesh rounds the corner, his grey robes also swaying in the ambient air of the ship. "I wanted to walk."
He comes over to her, checking on their little sunburst and then her. "Come back to bed. I'll hold her if want to look at her while you fall asleep."
She lays her head against his shoulder, "perfect."
Thankyou for tagging me! @softquietsteadylove ❣️❣️❣️
Currently reading: The Australia Chronicles/How to build a house, on a wednesday, in a cafe I just want to reread it, also I'm reading Seven Seas of Rhye, I always read if I have a spare time it's my stress reliever.
Last song: Enchanted- Taylor swift, I don't know why but this song always make me sad and relax at the same time.
Currently watching: One Piece- live action Zoro character is really killing it I love him already.
Current fic: Mostly just Thenamesh fic by @softquietsteadylove I love to reread her fic it's amazing she's awesome.
Next on my watchlist: walking dead mostly cause of carol and Daryl and private practice cause I'm done with grey's anatomy and maybe I rewatch criminal minds cause why not.
Current obsession: Angelina jolie's Twin they are so cute when I saw a picture in IG she's like Angelina jolie mini me, oh and I'm obsess with Zoro and Robin.
Hiiiii could I ask a fic of a ghost face fic with the eternals I loved Scream and I would die to read Thena and Gil in a situation or a storyline like that!🥹😍🖤🖤🖤
(Happy birthday my dear, sweet @dalhia28! You have been such a supporter of mine from the beginning and I am always happy to see you around)
"Sersi," Thena hissed at her, gripping the Elemental Eternal's shoulders as she cried, "there's no time for that."
"Thena," Sersi sniffled, reeling from the idea that not only was their reunion with their family a stage for Ikaris' betrayal of them, but now he was picking them off one by one. "I-I can't-"
"You can," Thena said more resolutely than she could really feel at this time. But they didn't have the luxury of time--not to grieve for Ajak, or Sprite, or Kingo. "We have to."
Thena pulled Sersi to her feet. The statue of Arishem was too open an area. Ikaris could be silently floating around anywhere in the labyrinthine ship. They were at a disadvantage being split up from one another.
She had to find Gilgamesh.
They were all scattered around the ship while they were conceiving their plan. Thinking about it now, perhaps that too was part of Ikaris' plan. Maybe all this time he had been watching them like a predator, thinking to himself how weak his family was and how easy it would be to hunt them just like Deviants.
Thena kept Sersi close to her, her shield in front of them and her blade in her hand. It would be held aloft, ready to be swung. But Sersi was clinging to her hand like a trembling child.
She couldn't be angry with her--the poor thing had watched the man she loved - her ex-husband - shoot down their own right in front of them. He had told them himself of the murder of their leader and 'mother' by his own hand.
No one would blame Sersi for her tears.
Thena stopped, pressing Sersi's back to the wall with her. The corridors of the Domo were narrow, barely wide enough for two people.
Ikaris passed by.
He never was the best hunter of them. His vision was good, but he was too arrogant to make full use of his hearing, the way they were all able to feel the air bend around them.
Thena squeezed her eyes shut as the air compression and sound of Ikaris firing his lasers sounded one hallway away. The wall he was aiming at clearly relented against the force. Sersi flinched.
"Come on out," his accent drawled as he floated through the new door he had made for himself. He was moving away from them, but it was undeniable that the echo of his sinister tone felt right on top of them. "I'll make it quick, love. For old time's sake."
What a wretched man he was. The Soldier Eternal no longer, nor even an Eternal brother, now he was just Arishem's little murderer.
Thena brought Sersi with her by the hand, although she was highly aware of the sounds Sersi made when she moved. Her clothes made sound, her shoes did (Thena was still barefoot), she wore a pendant that dangled loosely around her.
She still had to find Gilgamesh.
He was somewhere deeper in the ship, healing from the fight in the Amazon. She had to get to him before Ikaris did. If he was able to be woken from his healing, perhaps he could even help them try to move the rest of them to the healing bay. At the very least, their bodies.
Thena paused at every corner, listening for every wisp of air, every moan of the Domo's metal body, every possible sign of movement. She nodded to Sersi.
Sersi's tears were dried, which was already admirable. Sersi was always the one with the most human heart, but it couldn't be said that she was weak in any way. If anything, how human she could be at times was something that made her stronger than most, Thena would say.
Thena nodded her head, telling Sersi to find refuge in Phastos' lab, just outside the healing bay with his equipment. She might find refuge in the greentank, which could offer organic material for her to connect to (it might calm her to be around material she couldn't transmute).
The healing pods were humming, one in particular engaged and glowing gently. Thena dispelled her Cosmic Energy into the air, walking over to it.
Her sweet Gilgamesh.
He had nearly given his life to save her in the rain forest. She would have done the same for him, of course, but it didn't make watching it any easier. And here they thought their worries were over after killing that monstrosity.
The monstrosity they had thought killed Ajak.
Thena knelt down to the pod, tilting her head at the image of him. His face was so still. The lights blaring on his face in the echochamber gave distinct lines and bends to his face. She raised her hand slowly, her fingers nearly trembling at the tips.
Her hand went right through him.
"Thena!"
"Gil!"
Of course. Of course he hadn't been able to kill them all going so undetected. Not even Ikaris could be in two places at once. They had seen him shoot Kingo, and then found Sprite's body, seeing the blood. But seeing meant little when it came to the Illusionist Eternal.
"Easy, Thena," Ikaris muttered, his arms locked around her head and his elbow driven into her. "You know very well not even your thick skull can withstand me at point blank range."
Gilgamesh knew it too, revealed from under Sprite's shroud with a knife to his throat. They were each other's insurance policy--Gil and Thena would never do anything to endanger one another.
Ikaris had always been behind Thena, his eyes focused on her. Sprite had rushed right to the healing bay and woken Gilgamesh with the knife ready, telling him that if he made one wrong move, they would toss Thena's body at his feet.
The perfect hostages.
"Gil," Thena managed to squeak out as Ikaris held her head. If she were human her neck would have already snapped. She could feel the heat building in his eyes against her hair.
"Please," Gil whimpered. He was softer than she was--he had no problem begging and pleading with their assailants for her life. "Let her go. I'll help you."
"Shut up," Sprite's once light and lyrical voice barked at him. "We don't need your help--we don't need anyone!"
Oh, Sprite, of course. Kingo had been right, in his oddly perceptive way of seeing the world through his own lens. Sprite, the unseen and even worse the unacknowledged.
"Tell us where the point of emergence is," Ikaris directed Thena, his eyes both on the back of her head and on Gil and Sprite by the door. "I don't care who. You tell us, we'll spare the other one."
"Thena!"
"Don't move!"
Thena's ear was ringing after Ikaris shouting in it. But Ikaris' lasers were far too deadly, and even with too many targets to look at, it would take a fraction of a second for him to kill all of them.
"Not a muscle," Ikaris glared at Sersi, completing the triangle between Ikaris holding Thena and Sprite blocking off Gilgamesh. She held her hands out, having skidded to a halt at the sight of that familiar and menacing glow. "Or I'll fire straight through both of 'em in one shot."
He could, and they all knew he was capable of it.
Thena's mind raced. They were limited on options. Ikaris wanted the point of emergence, and killing them was merely...a series of steps for him. She could tell him, doom humanity, and for all she knew, still not see Gilgamesh's life spared. The same could be said if he bent first.
"Please," Sersi whispered. Her tears returned. "Please don't do this."
She looked at Ikaris, who had far too many balls in the air. His stance kept shifting as he held Thena's head tight. His eyes cooled slightly, "just tell us, Sersi. Just...you could come with us."
Sersi shook her head faintly, baffled and probably disgusted that he would ask that.
"No, she can't!"
Thena moved her eyes from Gil's teary ones to Sprite's suddenly enraged expression. This could work.
"You said it was just gonna be us!" the small Eternal spat, although rather than point at Ikaris in her rage her hand twitched, jabbing Gil in the neck just a little harder.
Thena flinched but Ikaris' grip held strong as well.
"Sprite," he growled at her.
"No! No, you said Sersi wasn't coming with us!" Sprite continued in her accusations. She glared at her sister, "you're ruining this!"
Sprite was just as old as the rest of them, and yet she really could embody that youth that kept her mind tireless and which Ajak had adored so.
"Sprite!" Ikaris repeated. Things were unravelling, "keep it together!"
"No, you said-!" Sprite whirled around at her partner in crime--the love she had who convinced her to turn on their family. She pointed the knife at him.
Thena let her knees go, dropping from Ikari's hold rather than wrestling free. She slipped away. Gil launched forward knocking Sprite's hand out of his way.
Ikaris fired but Gil called his exoskeleton over him, the same way Thena could hold a shield. He landed a punch to his face, shattering bone the way a bullet would.
"Sersi!" Thena called out, but Sprite was already lunging at her.
Sersi moved instinctively. Her body was designed to recognise the makeup of any material it touched--to react and reformat it. Her hand came up to block the knife, but all it did was fade to water and splash onto the floor around them and into their clothes.
"You bitch!" Sprite raged at her. She'd had enough.
Sersi pressed her palm to Sprite's soaked shirt. She could turn steel to water, why not water back into steel?
Sprite's body jerked as the water collected and, while not much, reformed a blade within her skin. She choked on the air in her throat, "S-Ser..."
The Alchemist scrambled back from what she had done. She looked from the bloodied body of their sister to Ikaris, whose head was half caved in from taking a direct hit from the Strongest Eternal. She looked away.
Thena and Sersi helped each other stand. Gilgamesh came over, bending over their smaller frames and placing his hands gently on their shoulders. The night was over.
"I-I can't-" Sersi shook her head, looking at the body of Sprite splayed on the floor, eerily similar to the staging of earlier. "I didn't-"
"No one did," Thena finished for her, pulling her sister's head closer to her. No one saw their betrayal coming, and no one wanted things to turn out like this, either. No one thought they could kill their own family.
Sprite sprang up.
Gilgamesh pulled them back, Sersi held her hands up and Thena materialised her shield. It happened in two seconds. But a glow of gold flew through the air, clean through the smallest Eternal's body from behind.
Kingo gripped the door frame, his shooting hand dropping heavily as his side continued to bleed from Ikaris' earlier inflicted wound. He looked at what remained of his family, "rough night, huh?"
Hiii, I was just wondering if you can make another stories of zombie au for the Thenamesh I really miss it, I have some idea of them being trap with a horde of zombie all around them they think that there's no way out of the situation and they saying good bye to each other or something like that before rescue has arrived or something again hahaha, just a suggestion thank you.
Thena pressed her hands to her ears as the banging increased in volume. She should have double checked the perimeter. She should have banged on some of these shipping containers and made sure they weren't full of these things. She should have been more careful, and then she and Gil wouldn't be in this mess.
She opened her eyes, seeing the aged and dirty flannel Gil was wearing. His arms were around her, protecting her as best he could in this hopeless a situation.
Sweet, perfect Gil. The best thing she could have found in the end of the world. The best thing she had ever found at all, maybe.
"I'm sorry, Thena."
She pulled away, looking at him in the dim light - just barely more than pitch black - of what small holes were rusting the corners of the shipping containers away. She blinked and shook her head, as if she hadn't understood the words he was saying at all.
"I'm so sorry," he repeated, practically whimpering, his chest heaving with panic. He blinked and she caught the sparkle of tears in his eyes. "I-I should have checked better, h-helped y-"
"No," she shook her head. No, Gil was at fault for nothing, and she would throw herself to those things outside before she let him believe he was. "No, Gil, you-"
"I shouldn't have-" he choked, pulling her tight against him again as their doom pounded on the rickety outside of their haven. "We should have just gone around. You wouldn't-"
Thena tried to find the words to argue with him. He wasn't making any sense. "No, Gil!"
"You would've made it," he blinked at her, his tears slipping down the apples of his cheeks. She wished she could have heard him laugh more. "You could make it if you weren't dragging me around with you."
"No!" she barked at him, not that it mattered how much sound she made now. If they were going to die in here, then whatever had kept her from saying this before didn't matter, right?
"You," she gulped, looking at him for all she was worth. This was what she wanted to see when and if she died. "You are the best thing that ever happened to me, Gil."
His tears built up again, "but-"
"No buts," she shook her head, forcing him to look at her and pass the words from her lips directly to him. "I am so glad...I am so lucky you found me by accident in that old sports store. Because I have been more sane in this time with you than I ever was in the real world."
"You are so sweet, and so kind, and in a time when you don't have to be," she laughed. Because she was never sweet like him, end of the world or not. But then she found him, and he did things like pick wild berries for her, and stand guard when it was her turn to bathe, and hold up heavy doors while she looted supplies for them.
"Never think you are anything less," she urged--demanded of him. She leaned in, pressing her forehead to his, and then her lips to his lips. "You are the very best thing left in this awful world."
Gil kissed her back, desperate and heartfelt. "Th-Thena, I-I-"
She bit her lip. She was crying too, now. She nodded, but she wanted to say it. If she could never say anything else, she had to be able to say this, right?--in these last moments, this last chance to tell him just how much he meant to her?
How much she loved him?
"Gil, I lo-"
They both flinched. What sounded like a gunshot sounded outside the shipping container serving as their shelter. It wasn't though--it was the backfire from a motorcycle driving down the other side of the road.
Gil held her, their chests moving wildly in the stress of it all. They clung to each other, but the pounding on the outside of the metal decreased, slowly but surely ebbing away. Gil dared to look up from the top of her head. He whispered, "they're following it."
It would have only passed for a few seconds, but it was just enough to draw the attention of those things. With any luck, they would go dormant again once the stimulation was over.
Thena peeked out from his chest. It was true, the dull and lifeless palms slapping against metal was growing quieter. She looked up at him.
They would live.
Gil let out a faint gasp, pressing a laugh of pure relief and hysteria into her hair.
Thena pressed her tears into the t-shirt under his flannel. She liked how he smelled. Under any other smells that clung to him during their travels, he smelled like a house. He smelled like coming home after a long day.
They waited until it was completely silent outside. Opening the door to the thing would probably wake them again, but with any luck it would be a manageable number. Nothing like earlier, at least.
Thena pulled out her knives, walking in front of Gil, as she always did. "Ready?"
"Ready," he said more surely than he usually did, standing beside her with his trusty iron skillet in hand.
She smiled at him--her trusty partner in all this hell around them.
"Hey," he whispered, looking down at her, barely more than a silhouette in the faint light. "What were you going to say?"
"Hm?"
"Before," he glanced back at the far corner where they had pressed themselves in their earlier terror. "What were you going to tell me?"
Thena blinked, a different kind of terror flooding through her. She tightened her grip on her knives. Maybe she could use the adrenaline to move quicker. "I'll...tell you later."
Gil couldn't see the warmth burning in her cheeks.
"Okay," he accepted easily, because he was Gil. He raised his skillet in his hand like a baseball bat, "I'll tell you mine too."
Thena smiled. She wondered what he would tell her come the time. And what would she make up so she didn't have to tell him that she was in love with him? "Deal."
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