The Unseen Army (Gilan x Reader)

Hardly A Bother

Y/N snuck her way up to the stables and crouched beneath the window from which the warm light was spilling out of. From inside, she could just barely hear Gilan rustling around, likely grooming Blaze.

Carefully, she rose up and peered into the stable. Sure enough, there was Gilan with one hand on Blaze's neck as the other swept his flank with a brush. But then, suddenly, Gilan froze where he was, sensing something or someone behind him.

The girls stomach dropped. What if he didn't remember her? What then? Would he throw the saxe knife again and this time right at her?

Gilan slowly turned his head until his eyes met the girls. Then, they softened and a smile broke on his face. "Oh, hello."

"Hi." Y/N replied, uncertain.

Gilan turned back to Blaze, trying to suppress a smile. Was she spying on him?

"Halt bore you already?" He asked, trying to sound nonchalant. But, he knew all too well his voice had betrayed him. She had been spying on him and that was enough to make Gilan giddy.

"No, he—" Y/N was almost too relieved to speak. So, he did remember her. "He asked me to come check on you."

"Well, that'd be a first." Gilan laughed as he tossed the brush into a bucket and exit Blaze's stall. "Why are you hiding in the window, anyways?"

"Oh—" Y/N felt her cheeks flush and she tried to hide her face. "I didn't want to bother you."

"You're not a bother," Gilan double checked the stall doors of the horses to make sure they were locked and then he exit the stable, closing the door behind him. "It's nice having someone else around. You don't have to try and pretend you're not there, alright?"

"Ok." Y/N wrapped her arms over herself and began walking with Gilan back towards the cottage.

"Good thing you got here when you did, huh?" He held his palm up which then collect the falling snow. "Would've been a cold night."

"Yeah, definitely." She smiled at him and then sped up, hoping to get back to the cottage quicker.

Gilan had a strange sense about this girl—like not everything was what it seemed. She seemed quite confident in her ability to get by on her own and handle whatever task Crowley had given her, but there was an anxious edge to her. Regardless of that fine, uneasy sense, he couldn't help but look at her and yearn for a friend. The way she smiled, how she stomped the snow off of her boots and how she held the door to the cottage open for him. Gilan had Halt, and that should have been enough. But it dawned on him now how desperate he was for a friend of his own age.

But she wouldn't be here for long, and that saddened him quite deeply.

"Ah, Y/N, you're back." Halt spoke up, strangely cheerily, from the table in the cottage.

Gilan watched as the girls face went pale and she bundled the coat in her fists that she'd just taken off. Slowly, she turned towards him with wide eyes.

"I've made my decision." He leaned forwards on the table and clasped his hands together. "We will have you as you train with us as a messenger exclusive to the Ranger Corps."

Y/N loosened the grip on her coat and moved towards Halt.

"I do have one question though," Halt tilt his head. "What is it that made Crowley think you would make a good messenger of all things?"

Halt knew he had to throw Gilan off of the girls scent a little bit. If he didn't really highlight the whole idea that the reason she was sent here was to train as a messenger, then he knew Gilan would come at him with an endless stream of questions.