Chapter Text
love is weird. and messy. gig never really gave it enough thought. he'd never considered it a possibility for him before.
when he did think about it, probably because something stupid reminded him of it, he'd brush it off. stuff like love was a weakness. a distraction. unnecessary.
gods don't need love; especially not him. death does not love. should not feel. he is destruction, and that's all there is to him. that was his one purpose, and that was the only thing that mattered to him in the slightest.
'gig? '
oh great, she's awake. sorta. it's his soulmate's drowsy thoughts that break him out of his own. she's tired and he can feel it, the soreness of her/their body after a rough battle. but she is resilient. this was the everyday. this was nothing to her.
'gig.' she says--no, thinks pointedly at him, since he hasn't responded. hasn't sent a thought to her back.
it's strange. this space. there was a common ground for the both of them where they could converse, a sort of bridge to their minds and souls. it's strange but it doesn't feel wrong to him, and he knows she's gotten used to it by now, and she's actually rather open with her thoughts. for some unknown reason, this pleases him, since she shares thoughts with him that she'd never say out loud or share with anyone else. not even to the stupid cow.
he thinks it's because of their weird relationship that she's open with sharing her thoughts with him.
'what's the matter, kid? bad dream? scared of the dark?'' he thinks back, even though jabs like that don't work on her. she completely ignores this.
'is something troubling you?' the voice of her mind is as quiet and neutral as her physical voice, but in this odd realm where their souls meet, he feels the worry behind the words. it washes over his soul, the foreign emotion emanating from hers. she cares, genuinely so.
what the fuck.
she must've sensed him deep in thought, because for some damn reason, maybe because even higher powers wanted to fuck with him, she was very attuned to his soul. and he just had to share the body of someone with a legitimately pure soul who cares about him - a technical parasite and god of death and destruction - instead of getting someone who was just an asshole that he could manipulate. damn you Haephnes, this has got to be your fault.
'go back to sleep and mind your own damn business, kid.' he senses her thinking to herself, still feeling waves of worry for his well-being coming from her. stop being so damn nice, I don't need you to worry about me. he thinks to himself privately.
'okay.' she shifts slightly on her bed, and he can feel her slowly sinking back to sleep. 'get some rest too.' she adds as a final thought, and then she's gone, slipping back into peaceful slumber.
if he had control over her body, he would've rolled their eyes. he doesn't need much rest, having no body of his own and all, but he agrees she's got a point. anything to get out of thinking about stupid, unnecessary, shitty ass topics.
his mind feels the tug of sleep, and he gives in to it. though he technically didn't require sleep, he could still rest without thinking, and it was as good as sleeping anyway. his thoughts and worries drift to nothingness for now, and there are no more thoughts shared between the two of them for the rest of the evening.
---
revya wakes up early, still feeling sore from yesterday's encounter. gig wakes up with her, mind still half in rest mode. why the kid woke up so early even when she was bone tired, he has no fucking clue.
'the good never rests.' revya thinks as she sits up on the bed. her joints crack as she stretches her arms up, and she moves to stretch her neck as well.
'thought it was 'there's no rest for the wicked'.'
'it is. that's why the good never rests too. how can we?' she muses, her footsteps the only sound in the room. she's gone past the initial embarrassment of bathing and changing while sharing a body, and quickly changes clothes without much thought. gig finds himself politely thinking of anything else while she changes, and curses inwardly. revya's touched regardless.
'no battle today,' she thinks gratefully, and gig notices that she's wearing more casual clothing: a simple white top and her usual pants. not the green battle top she usually donned. 'we're all just staying here for now and talk strategy.' they're at some inn at some random place (he didn't pay much attention), and most of their team (army/slaves) was grateful to sleep in a proper bed after a long time of sleeping in shitty makeshift camp beds.
'wow it's a fuckin' miracle, kid.' they barely ever had days off, what with the end of the world and war and missions and all. but that was to be expected when you're stuck with the chosen saviour of the world and shit. 'go eat a shit ton of hotpods for me will ya?'
she hums as she walks to the inn's mess hall which was basically the entrance to the place, he realises. vitali was already there, eating breakfast and reading a book at one of tables. he looks up as she takes a seat.
"good morning." vitali says politely. he'd already ordered breakfast for her, as the two usually woke up at the same ungodly hour in the morning. for some reason vitali's thoughtfulness for revya irritates gig.
"good morning." revya says back with a smile, reaching for some bread and ham for her plate. gig aggressively thinks 'hotpods' at her and she sighs. 'be patient.' she thinks back.
"I'm dying here, kid!" he whines aloud and vitali looks up from his book again.
revya rolls her eyes. 'so dramatic.' she does get some hotpods for him, and he's pleased as she eats a slice, already nagging her to eat another. it's not that she doesn't like them, it's just that he loves them more than she does. he knows revya favoured more savoury and meaty foods. he thinks she's blind to the greatness of hotpods.
'am not.' she objects. 'I like them too. but I need more meat for my strength.'
'ok fine whatever just eat more.'
'shut up.' he can feel the deadpan in her thoughts and he finds it amusing. almost cute. almost.
wait, what.
that wasn't what I fucking meant!!
'are you okay? what's stressing you out?' revya interrupts his internal screaming. thank hotpods she didn't hear that earlier thought or his soul would've died right there.
he searches her thoughts just in case she's tricking her, but her mind was distracted with tactical plans, unit arrangement, mannequin purchasing, and mentally listing which supplies were running out. she doesn't bother concealing her thoughts to him, but he throws up a mental wall as hard as he can in panic, hoping she'd never be able to pass through that barrier and hear his sudden weird as fuck thoughts about her.
'nothing, kid. heh.' he thinks, and he can tell she senses the beat before he responded.
'you suck at lying.' she points out, but she doesn't pry further. she finishes her breakfast in silence, lost in her own thoughts that he didn't bother reading. he was too caught up with his own, still mentally cursing himself for even having that thought.
---
after the strategy meeting had dissolved into friendly conversations amongst the army members, the kid decides to slip away to relax in the inn's hot spring. it's empty, and revya feels relieved, simply glad she could enjoy a bath in peace.
she sighs in content as she sinks in and settles in the hot water, already feeling her body relax from its tense state.
gig also feels a portion of what she feels, but not entirely as vivid. he thinks it's because he's not entirely controlling her body. actually he can't ever, period. she won't let him; that was crystal clear now. but he could focus on her senses and feel feedback stronger if he wanted to. he relaxes as well, sharing the feeling her body's experiencing at the moment.
it's an open air bath and the sky is filled with twinkling stars. she looks up in wonder, sinking a little more so that the water was up to her chin. he can sense that she feels peace and clarity; something she's been craving for quite some time now. he's glad she finally has it (though he won't tell her that). he tucks that thought into the private sectors of his mind where he knows she can't reach.
"feels good to be alone." she says after a long silence. he knows she means it's nice to have peace and quiet without that stupid cow yammering their ears off at every waking moment.
"yeah. no annoying cow. no other annoying sister-loving cow. no vitali appearing outta nowhere and scaring the shit out of me." he says. "just alone times with the baddest of the bad!"
"you, me, and the stars." she agrees simply. the way she says it with a gentle voice sends a would-be shiver up his imaginary spine. if he had his own body maybe. hell he might've blushed from the tone of her voice and the pure, blissful happiness she feels in that moment. could souls blush? he feels like that's probably something a god whose job was to deal with souls should know.
"uh. yeah, kid. don't get sappy on me." she grins and sits up properly again, the water back at her chest. she stares at her own bare skin for a moment, a portion of her front covered by a small towel. gig tries to ignore this. keyword try. it's pretty difficult to politely ignore something when she's staring right at said thing.
"sorry," she says, eyeing her reflection on the water's surface. "i appreciate our alone time."
"i can sense it, kid." he reminds her. her thoughts scramble away into her own private corner, and he realises belatedly that she was actually embarrassed. she blushes, though it's not obvious due to the steam already heating her face. "hey, hey. there's nothing wrong with that!" he finds himself saying, suddenly trying to console her for some reason while she starts to act aloof.
she doesn't say anything, and her mind retreats into a barrier which he couldn't get through. it was her who was throwing out a mental wall this time, and it feels like standing outside a large locked door; knowing you can never open it, but wishing you could anyway.
"i like being alone with you too, soulmate." he tries to coax her back out of her shell, but he feels her cheeks heat up further. still no response. "you're the only one on this miserable galaxy who can understand me. you should be thanking me. heh."
'do i, really?'
the thought comes and goes as quickly as it came, and leaves him wondering if he just imagined her responding or not.
revya absently twists her index finger around a damp lock of hair, which had tumbled out of the towel that gathered the rest of it in place. she gently tugs at it for a moment.
"thanks?" she says after a while. the door opens a little for him and he feels anxiety rolling out of it. doubts, fears, worries, more embarrassment.
"you're good company, kid. don't doubt it." he doesn't understand why he needs to tell her this. shouldn't it be damn obvious? 'i mean it.' he emphasises, switching back to their telepathic way of communicating.
he can't really fathom how she'd ever doubt this. it was fact. there's no one he'd rather spend his time with. no one else's presence he'd want. sure at first he'd bemoaned that she was the unlucky bastard who he had to share a vessel with, but now he finds he wouldn't have it any other way. he genuinely likes being with her. likes making his shitty and crude jokes, and how she'd fight off a smile and admonish him for such humour. he finds that he enjoys the presence of her soul, likes the pure light that shines from it, likes how it fits in contrast to his own. like puzzle pieces made to fit each other perfectly.
he feels right at home with her, in one vessel. as if this was right where he belongs, with her by his side.
fuck.
he must be in love.
love?
???
what. the. fuck???
she must've picked up on his thoughts from his sudden wave of panic over his realisation, but he's still freaking out because no way in hell is this happening. not to him. what the fuck. he's the fucking god of death not some fucking dumbass who could feel things and fall in love.
'I'd hate to interrupt your breakdown, but,' revya's inner voice smoothly cuts through his scattered incoherent thoughts. 'I don't think it's that weird--that you feel, I mean.'
he's too busy experiencing a BSoD to form any semblance of a response.
'I'm very flattered.' she thinks quietly; if it were a spoken voice it would've been a murmur. he strains to focus on her inner voice, some sort of dread hanging on his soul. 'don't worry. i'm not rejecting you.' she adds, sensing his dread. her soul seemed to further wrap his in a warm light, and he can feel the purity of it washing over him as if it were trying to cleanse him of the darkness that corrupted it.
"go back to stargazing." he grumbles, thoroughly embarrassed at this turn of events. it's unfair how quickly she can regain her composure; especially when she was the one in his situation just a few moments ago. he doesn't make a quip or insult, unwilling to acknowledge her needless reassurances.
they wordlessly agree to drop the topic for now (mostly for his sake).
revya runs her hand over her arm, feeling the smooth skin in the hot water; the motion creating large ripples through out the previously still surface. they watch her disturbed reflection until the water stills once more. gig knows that she's savouring simple pleasures, like the feel of the steaming water against her bare skin, because she has no time to. even slumber longer than five hours was already a god-sent gift in revya's life.
the good never rests.
he wishes she could.