#Kingo notices Gil starts hanging around the Boss more and more

[softquietsteadylove]

Hello, Love!

I don’t know if you are familiar with that but you know these days when you have such high anxiety and doubt about yourself? And that one friend who is your little light at the end of the tunnel?

How about Thena has this moment and Gil is there to hear her out and helps her calming down?

Would love to see some comfort moment between them!

Choose the AU.

"Boss?"

Thena winced as the knock and gentle voice came. She should have known he was still here, and she should have really guessed that he would just be able to sense that he should come to her office.

Gilgamesh had a bizarre sixth sense for when she was feeling less than her best.

He hadn't been in her unit long. Hell, the unit hadn't existed long, by this time. But every time she seemed to hit a wall with the brass, or they came back from a mission she was less than happy with, he seemed to know.

He would kind of drag his feet in leaving, hang around a little later than necessary. And then he would inevitably end up at her office door like this, asking to come in with such a soft tone.

How was she supposed to say no?

"Come in, Gilgamesh," she sighed, standing above her desk, staring down at the files she had been slapping around for the sake of her frustrations.

He poked his head in so timidly for a man of his stature. His shoulders followed as he slipped in unassumingly. "It's kinda late, isn't it?"

"I could say the same to you," she raised her brows at him, tipping her head to the side faintly. He didn't back down, though. Gilgamesh was frustratingly unintimidated by her. "It's a bad look for the team to be here later than the boss."

"Sorry," he smiled faintly, gripping the strap of his bag over his - truly massive - shoulder. "But, I mean...the question still stands, doesn't it?"

Damn this man and his emotional perception. She had no idea how he wasn't in the interrogation or psych branches. But she had to count herself lucky for that.

He looked around her office, which he had been in a handful of times before. As her chosen second in command, he had been in it more than anyone else, even the runner up being Kingo. "That's a lot of files."

Right, her migraine. She looked behind her and around the room, files simply stacked as tall as they could go without falling over. "Yes."

He chuckled faintly. He was also the only one not afraid to laugh in her presence, which she both respected and resented about him. He really seemed to see her as just some person--a real human, instead of the Goddess of War. "Seems like a lot to put on your plate."

"Well, that is what happens when you start your own division team," Thena sighed. She knew this came with the territory, perhaps she didn't think that it wouldn't be quite this...heavy.

"Is it just standard paperwork?" Gil shrugged, drifting closer to a file withing his reach. He kept his eyes on her, waiting for her to hiss at him or something. He picked it up, "reports and personnel files?"

"It is," she admitted, and didn't even want to do that much. But he was already reading the damn thing. "Paperwork for me to file, things that had to be filed before I was even the team leader, things for me to file now that I am. It's about six months worth of paperwork that has to be done within two weeks."

"That hardly seems fair," he frowned, setting the file down again.

"And does the agency prioritise fairness?" she eyed him. "Mister-Suspended-For-Rescuing-A-Cat?"

He chuckled, and his smile was so infectious and welcoming. It was hard not to smile when he smiled at her. "Okay, you got me there."

Thena looked back down at her desk. "Don't mind me. It's just some dirty work that has to get done. I knew it would come with the territory when I applied to have the Special Ops team designated anyway."

"Did you know you would be taking it on yourself though?" he frowned, even stepping closer to her desk and the chair that was across from hers.

"Yes," she sufficed to say. Didn't she do everything alone?

"That doesn't seem like the purpose of a team."

She frowned up at him as he swung his bag down to the floor to lean against her desk, seating himself as if he were just so at home in her office. "Excuse me?"

"Well, I guess the other guys don't have the clearance for all this," he shrugged as he picked up another folder of papers waiting to be signed and reports waiting to be reported.

"Gilgamesh," she said sharply, but her usually razor sharp tongue really just bounced right off this guy. Her crossed arms tightened and her frown deepened, "Gilgamesh!"

"I'm not saying it'll be fast, but doubling one is still twice as fast, right?" he went on, even picking up a pen - her pen! - to scribble his name on the papers. "Y'know, Kingo's really good at forging handwriting. If you have stuff you know only needs your name, I bet he could help-"

"Gil!" she barked, and finally, he looked up at her. She leaned over her desk, assuming the posture that usually worked to help her assert a certain predatory stance. He didn't even blink. "Go home."

He didn't even humour her, just looked back down at the paper.

"Gilgamesh, that is an order."

"It's almost midnight."

What? No, it wasn't. Thena looked over her shoulder at the clock above her desk. Fuck, it really was getting past 11:45; she hadn't even realised. She looked at him again, scribbling away, "all the more reason for you to leave."

"Not unless you're leaving with me," he looked up at her, "ma'am."

Her eye twitched; she needed sleep. She pulled out her chair roughly, "I could write you up for insubordination."

"And do even more paperwork?--I wouldn't," he snorted.

Fuck, he was right. Thena grabbed another pen for herself and aggressively swiped her signature over another paper. She glared at him, "you don't have to do this."

"I know," he admitted immediately, under no delusion that he would be rewarded for his disobedience. "Just doesn't seem right to bury you under all this. You can tell everyone you did it all yourself, if it's for your reputation. But I can't let you take this on alone."

He had such a tender heart. It was part of why she picked him, sure, but she didn't think she would ever have to be on the receiving end of such...tenderness.

He looked up at her, catching her glowering at him, and smiled.

Thena looked down at her paper, slashing through it with another signature. Her heart did a somersault in her chest. Perhaps she was more fatigued than she had initially thought. "Did you at least eat something?"

"I did," he volunteered between papers, "I'm sure you didn't."

That wasn't any of his business. "If I didn't?"

"Well, if you didn't," he shrugged, looking down at the done stack of papers to his left, "I would say I have some leftover lunch in my bag. But I'm sure my team leader is responsible enough not to starve herself while she's-"

"Okay, enough, just give it to me," she growled at him. And again, her snarling did nothing but encourage him. He bent down with a grin and handed over a perfectly wrapped riceball. "Please don't tell me you hung around here this late just to catch me doing paperwork."

"No, of course not."

Right. No, of course not, that would be ridiculous. She chewed her bite before asking, "so...what then?--why are you here?"

He smiled at her again, even more gently than last time (and yet the affect on her accursed heart was just as bad). "I was looking out for a friend."

Thena looked down at the rice ball. It had been in the fridge all day, but pulled out long ago enough that the rice wasn't hard. It was delicious, actually. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a friend.

She'd had teammates in her days in the academy. They had hated her. Trusted her, maybe, feared her, absolutely, but they certainly didn't like her. Even last she worked with Minerva, she wouldn't have called them friends (no matter what Minerva had to say about that).

She smiled; maybe having a friend wouldn't be so bad.