me, after watching kh back cover: just fUCk me Up w feelings about ava & gula's relationship why don't you, now i have to write a self-indulgent hurt/comfort

3 days of work later: 1772 words

me: ...thanks brain

Ava watched in indecision, chewing her lip, Gula's silent internal struggle with the weight of the dinner table.

To any other onlooker, it should have been plain to see a Foreteller easily and diligently assisting with the repair of a townhouse that had been swarmed a few days ago. And certainly, it wasn't that Gula couldn't move the table at all—he hauled it finally over to the gaping doorway (the door itself had gone missing, torn off its hinges) as Ava continued to wring her hands.

No, it was what any other onlooker could not see: the way Gula favored his wounded side, how his breathing would every so often hiss tightly, in and out with careful restraint; the beads of sweat that dripped down his chin and the brief moments when he would slump against the nearest surface, believing no one watched—as he did now with a low sigh, leaning the forehead of his mask against the doorframe and closing his eyes. He looked frailer than Ava had seen him in a long time.

Ava stepped into the room. The clack of her shoes on the solid floor prompted Gula to immediately stiffen and straighten, although to her relief he relaxed slightly at seeing it was her.

She offered a smile and took a place beside the table. "May I help?"

Gula hesitated before returning a smaller, fragile one. "Go ahead."

Together, silently, they grasped their sides of the table and turned it 180 degrees, shuffling it cautiously through the doorway and onto the cobblestones. A minute later, the table was settled beside a growing assortment of furniture arranged out of the way of the street, and they both sat down beside each other for a brief respite in two of the remaining whole chairs.

Carefully, Ava folded her restless hands into her lap. "Gula, I'm worried for you."

Gula barked a laugh and looked away. "So that's it? You've come to lecture me?"

"No -"

"Because Ira's done that enough already for me to be quite tired of it."

Ava looked towards him, detecting a tone tight and frangible to his voice. His face was at too sheer of an angle to examine his expression; to her growing distress however, Gula's hands trembled in a familiar way, knuckles white as he gripped the armrests in a vain attempt to cease the shaking.

At a loss—Gula had always fled in the past whenever he'd become this emotional—Ava laid a hand impulsively atop one of his and found it as frigid as a carving of ice. She ensconced it within her own, not failing to miss his tensing shoulders. "I know. I was there."

Ira had been merciless. In his soft, low voice, he had systematically interrogated Gula, the other Foretellers observing as a kind of jury, over the course of a day until he had wrung him dry, and then gone on to coolly tear apart every piece of information Gula had provided, finishing with the topic of the Lost Page.

"How do we know for certain that the Master really made this your role?" Ira had asked, looking down upon Gula sunken into the chair—long ago, he had been confident and acerbic with his replies, but hours had passed since then, and he'd been severely weak from his injuries since the start.

Yet a spark of it had remained as Gula had gazed upwards. "I've been honest," he'd said slowly, "and I'll be honest again. You've heard all the facts and speculation I have. What more do you want?"

At that point, Aced had slammed his hands down onto the table, jumping up and glowering. "Gula! Ira is the one asking questions here and not you. Answer him, now."

Minutely, Gula had flinched, and Ava's hand had flown to her mouth, twisted with concern.

There was a new weakness to Gula, she'd observed with horror: residing within that near-imperceptible flinch of fear, within the soft, careful restraint of his voice that followed—residing, she'd realized, within his desperate plan to break every rule the Master had set out for them and summon Kingdom Hearts.

Ava feared for him. She would trust Gula with not just her life, but the lives of her Dandelions if need be—yet that weakness could lead to darkness.

And if one of them, the Foretellers, became tainted...

Ava set grim thoughts aside and wrapped her hand around his more tightly, as if she could heal the fracture of his heart through force of will alone. "Your injuries. You haven't been resting, have you?"

Gula glanced at her, sardonically raising his other hand. "Did all the heavy lifting give it away?"

"A bit, yes."

Gula looked away again, his mouth twitching up at the corner; and as his hand pulled away, immediately Ava loosened her grip, assuming that he was withdrawing. But instead his hand merely turned over, and after a pause she returned to holding it again, palm to palm, as his hand slowly warmed under hers from ice to a simple chill.

Together, for a brief moment in time, they sat and looked silently out onto the street.

"Ava," Gula finally began, then stopped.

"Yes?"

Gula let out a long breath, gazing into the horizon, and squeezed her hand. "Thank you... for being concerned about me. There's too much going on for me to rest right now, but I promise I'll take a break eventually."

Ava studied him for a moment, his hand cool beneath hers, his face a shade still too flushed, and firmly decided to change tack (as it were). "No."

Gula looked at her, taken aback. "What?"

"You're taking a break now."

Still Gula blinked. "What? No. I still have to finish moving furniture—"

Ava leaned over to place a finger over his mouth. "Shush."

His lips frowned. "But—"

"Shhh."

Finally he fell quiet, smiling quizzically.

"The people already here can move furniture perfectly well without your help, Gula." She gave him a pointed look at this—Ava already understood that his purpose here was not truly to help them, and the Light forbid if she allowed him to wear himself out or injure himself further. Recognizing her reproach, his smile became crooked in return, acknowledging and accepting it with no complaint.

Finally did Ava turn fully in her chair towards him, her finger still over his mouth and his hand firmly in hers. "Do you trust me?"

Bemused, he nodded.

"Good. Then for today and tomorrow, all of your Union's business will be going through me."

His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak.

Ava insistently shushed him again, and he obeyed. "No objections. I'm not suggesting that you would break a promise, but I know your plans and I know you, and Gula, you need rest now. You're still injured and you're exhausting yourself."

"Oh, so I'm an invalid now?" Gula mumbled from under her finger.

Ava smiled and ignored him, finally pulling back her free hand. "If anything serious happens, I promise I will contact you—but from now until midnight tomorrow night, I am unofficially in charge of the Leopardos Union. Go home and relax, Gula, please. You need the rest. You trust me, remember?"

"I may be reevaluating that answer." But he smiled and squeezed her hand.

"Hah hah."

They gazed at each other for a moment.

Gula looked away first, stretching out his free arm with a soft groan, and adjusted his mask. "Well, anyway. Since someone is demanding that I rest instead of work, I think it's about time I should go."

"I was far from demanding!"

"Yes, of course, Miss 'Shush, No Objections, I'm Taking Over Your Entire Union For Two Days.'"

Ava scoffed. "You're unbearable."

"Excuse me? First you had the gall to take my entire Union right out from under me, and now you're comparing me to Aced?" Gula harrumphed, pretending to turn up his nose. "Ava, please."

Ava was agape. "Gula, you did not."

"Did what?"

Incredulous, she met his eyes and together the two burst into spontaneous laughter, at a volume outrageous enough to startle away nearby birds as both cackled alongside the other like madmen.

Ava was tearing up. "I can't believe you, Gula -"

"I'm sorry Ava but you said it and I had to," Gula gasped.

Eventually however, they calmed down by degrees, their mirth faded, and Ava studied quietly the decimated townhouse nearby, both hands in her lap (it felt strange now without Gula's hand in hers). Now that the moment was over, she felt worn down instead of relaxed. It had been a long time since they'd been able to laugh like that—and if recent developments were to continue, it would yet be a long time until the next.

"Gula," Ava said.

He frowned, detecting her change in mood. "Hm?"

"I just want to make sure I've said so out loud. If you... ever have a problem, or need someone to talk to... I'm here."

For a moment, Gula didn't reply.

Ava glanced at him. "Gula?"

He was grinning. "Ava, you're always the wisest of us that sometimes I forget how much of a softie you are too."

"Hey!" Ava faced him and frowned. "I was trying to be serious."

"I know. And I appreciate it, I really do." Gula's smile faded into something gentler. "You shouldn't worry about me so much. I'll be fine, I promise."

Ava nodded, but something in her stomach still twisted with concern; Gula always had kept to himself, even around her, and it seemed that the pattern would continue still. "If you say so," she murmured. "Go get some sleep, Gula. Your color looks horrible."

"Didn't I just tell you to stop worrying about me?" Nevertheless, Gula stood and placed his hands on his hips. "If you break your promise and you don't find me if something happens 'for the sake of my health,' Ava, I'll never forgive you."

Ava hid her chuckle behind a hand. "But you trust me?"

Gula grumbled something indecipherable for a moment. "Light help me but I do," he finally mumbled. "May your heart be your guiding key."

"And the same to you."

At Gula's will, a portal bloomed open nearby. Briefly he waved before, hobbling slightly in favor of his injured side, vanishing into the lane between. For a moment longer Ava gazed at the space where he had just been, before she stood with a firm assurance and began to wend through the gathering of broken furniture back to the townhouse. So help her, in two days' time, there would be no work left undone.

i'll be honest with you & admit that gula is lowkey in love with ava

but 1. he's a loner piece of dumb (who canonically lives in random empty houses instead of the clock tower like everyone else), 2. he knows ava is pretty much never interested in others like that, much less him, & 3. they're all too busy and stressed out trying to prevent an actual apocalyptic war that will destroy the world & probably kill them from taking place. not really conducive to romantic confession time tbh.

(im sorry gula)