For the Singer/Bodyguard AU, can I request that it is Gil’s first time hearing Thena sing in person, and he is just blown away by how good her voice sounds?
He could remember the first time he'd heard her live.
Gil was new to being private security--at least in the music industry. He was used to being part of a security team, but mostly for transportation or to guard museum pieces or money or something. He wasn't used to being the head - and in many cases only - security guard for someone.
But the singer who had hired him apparently wasn't the trusting type. She'd had guards in the past she didn't like and would end up slipping away from them, which only posed a risk to herself and to the label's brand as a result. So they finally let her pick her own security. And she had chosen him.
He didn't know what to expect, of course. He did a quick google search of her when he found out he'd be working for her. He had heard her songs on the radio or in malls before, and he had to admit that she certainly had a nice voice. Her music was a little more slow and maybe sombre for his taste, but it wasn't bad.
Then he met her.
Thena was so different from her public persona. She was beautiful, kind of solitary and reserved. Although she seemed less like the tortured artist type and more like...a woman who just wanted to be left alone.
The more he worked with her, the more he could see that Thena just wanted space. She liked things quiet, liked to take things at a comfortable pace when possible. She didn't like people being in her personal bubble, which was where he came in.
The more he was able to prove he could keep people off her back, the more trusting she became. The more she trusted him, the easier his job was.
The first live event he worked with her, he could tell she was nervous. He wasn't entirely sure why, either; he'd heard her in the studio, he knew she sounded amazing.
"There's always something that can go wrong," she confessed to him when he asked about it. "Sound can fail, my earpiece can short out, I can have a bad day--and then it just exists out there forever."
Thena decidedly did not participate in social media, mostly for the sake of her sanity. And also because she really didn't participate in anything social that wasn't mandatory.
"You'll be great," Gil refuted her pessimism, smiling at his client. Without the stage presence and the gowns and the tall heels, Thena was a lot smaller than she could appear.
She smiled at his encouragement, "I'm afraid I don't pay extra for being sweet."
Gil blushed.
But hearing her live...it was enthralling. He could watch from backstage, and of course there would be multiple angles for him to watch later. But the wind, and the lights, and the hair and makeup they did for her the performance.
He couldn't focus on any of it past her voice. Silken and soft, sometimes low and velvety and other times high and rounded at the edges. She was good, and the lack of studio polishing made it so personal--almost intimate.
He had heard her plenty of times. Not just in the studio for recording, but also just...in their daily lives. She might sing lightly to herself in the office, or hum along with a song while they were driving or being driven somewhere. He'd never told her he thought it sounded nice.
The crowd screamed their admiration, applauding long after she was backstage again. But Thena always looked like she couldn't even hear it. She had an entirely dissatisfied look on her face, snatching up the robe left backstage for her to wrap around her gauzy greek-goddess dress.
Gil came right over to her, creating a little bubble of space for them amidst the chaos of the next performer's preparation. He smiled at her as she started clawing her hair free from all the pins and clips in it. "Why the long face?"
Thena just shrugged, already eager to slip away from it all. "It went...fine."
"Fine?" Gil raised a brow. He had heard the vocalist had a perfectionism problem. Maybe it was part of what kept her wound so tight.
"I suppose I've done worse," she muttered, as if it were being dragged out of her. As if there weren't stands of people screaming her name - or a variation of it, rather - in adulation.
Thena paused in her rushing as Gil put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him curiously. They had become friendlier as they worked together, certainly, but they hadn't really had any moments like this before.
But Gil made sure she was looking at him--absorbing what he was saying, "you were great, Thena."
It took a second, but it worked. He saw the words sink in. It wasn't hordes of praise from strangers, or words of obligation during interviews or award shows or press. It was just a simple, real compliment, from someone she knew.
Gil's face brightened as a light blush filled Thena's cheeks. She looked down at her hands, muttering out a 'thank you' so soft that if he weren't looking at her lips he wouldn't have known she said anything. He laid his blazer over her shoulders as well, chuckling as it was almost as long on her as the fluffy robe. "Come on, let's get you back into some real clothes."
He didn't mention anything else about the performance, because he knew Thena was eager to put it from her mind. She'd probably ask if they could go through a drivethru on their way home. She had a weakness for fast food after a stressful day.
But as they exited the backstage door, and he held his arm out in front of them to keep people away and keep cameras flashing in her face to a minimum, he couldn't help but smile.
Thena felt free to tuck herself against him, leaning into him with all the trust she had to give.
