Xena and the Fairy Folk

Disclaimer - Xena: Warrior Princess and Gabrielle are the property of Universal and Renaissance Pictures. No copyright infringement was intended .The other characters, except for the odd Amazon here and there, are mine.

Violence and lots of it. This is a Xena story after all. Though most of the ouchy stuff in this story is written as comedy.

Subtext - There is no subtext in this story at all. It's all main text. There are a whole lot of women in love with other women in this story. If you have a problem with that, read something else.

Thanks to my girl for the editing and to my mate, Nic. This story was originally started as a birthday present for the Xena fan that has everything. So Happy Birthday Nic. Sorry it's not gift wrapped!!

Gabrielle was pissed off. Standing in the middle of the small room she was sharing with Xena, hands on hips and taking Xena's broad back to task.

"What in Hades was that all about? You bolted up those stairs like you were being chased by a three headed dog; you practically pulled my arm from its socket dragging me along behind you. Did you have to be so rude? It's not as if we get to meet people all the time without you having to kill them. It's nice to meet someone new, AND I liked her, AND I'm looking forward to meeting her friend, AND I'll bet her manners are better than yours as well."

"I don't get to talk to new people that often. My social life is usually limited to Joxer and the bloody Amazons. Most of the time it's just you and your horse and I've gotta tell you, if conversation were food, I'd be lying dead of starvation in the road if I had to rely on you two."

Xena was standing looking out of the only small window their room afforded, not wanting to turn around and face the wrath of her traveling companion. She knew she had behaved badly and was as cross with herself as the bard was.

"Damn, damn, damn, idiot, idiot, idiot, #@*&##@#@)*%##^*." Xena had seen Gabrielle throw her arms around Nic and had lost the plot. She knew in her heart of hearts that there was nothing in the embrace other than Gabrielle's wonderful warm personality reaching out to someone in distress. But it had made her see red. "When did this get so hard?"

The problem was that Xena knew full well when things had started to go haywire. A while ago Gabrielle had left Xena to go home and marry "that man" and Xena was forced to realize that she was in love with her sweet natured friend and had probably been so for quite a while. After she had realized the extent of her feelings she had decided to never let Gabrielle know how she felt. For a number of what Xena thought were good reasons: It had almost broken her heart when Gabrielle had left her to marry Perdicus and she was trying to protect herself from any more pain. But, more importantly, she was trying to protect her friend. Gabrielle was obviously a 'straight' girl and Xena was petrified that if Gabrielle found out how she felt about her, the little Bard would run for miles in the opposite direction and Greece would be filled with stories of 'Xena, Warrior Pervert'. Gabrielle's friendship was too important to lose, "… and damn it! Surely I have more self-control than that".

Xena dragged herself away from her morbid thoughts to notice that the room was suddenly suspiciously quiet. "BLAST." She didn't have to turn around to know that Gabrielle was still standing in the middle of the room hands on hips, red in the face and now waiting for an answer.

"So what now, tell her the truth? Tell her I got jealous and freaked out?" Xena slowly turned around to face the one person in the world who could make the Warrior Princess shake in her boots.

"Well?" Gabrielle's hands were still on her hips but her expression was starting to soften. Xena's face was a mix of conflicting emotions and it wasn't often that her guard went down long enough to let the Bard see that something was wrong. "She could have a damn axe sticking out of the back of her head before she'd tell me she was in pain".

But in the last few weeks Gabrielle had noticed Xena's odd behavior and she knew something was up. She didn't know exactly what, but something was definitely wrong and the one thing Gabrielle hated most in the whole world was Xena not telling her "what in Hades was going on".

"Look Gabrielle I'm sorry. We've been riding pretty hard lately and getting into some pretty serious situations. I'm tired and grumpy and sometimes…….."

Xena's voice just faded away and she stood facing her companion with a totally lost expression on her face that Gabrielle had never seen before. The anger disappeared completely from the little redhead to be replaced with concern.

"Oh Xena I'm the one who should be sorry, shouting at you like that. I forget sometimes that you carry everyone's problems around with you until you can make them all better. It must get hard sometimes. Gods I'm sorry, I always take it for granted that you're made of iron."

Gabrielle stepped forward and put her arms around Xena's waist and snuggled in. It wasn't long before she felt the warrior relax and accept a hug. Not something that happened often. "Yep, definitely something wrong!"

"Come on; let me look after you tonight." With that, Gabrielle stepped away from the warrior and took one of her hands. She led Xena over to the bed and sat her down. "Here you take all this stuff off and get ready for bed and I'll make some tea."

Xena watched her friend fussing around the room and slowly started to remove the small armory that was her clothing. Lying down on the bed in a simple shift she was soon joined by the Bard who was carrying two steaming mugs of herbal tea. Handing one to Xena and putting hers down next to the bed, Gabrielle then started changing into her sleep shift. She didn't notice the blush that colored the warrior's cheeks as she quickly looked elsewhere. "Interesting mug, very interesting mug."

It wasn't long before the "sleepy time herbs" as Gabrielle called them started to have an effect on both women. Xena was kind of enjoying being relaxed for the first time in ages, lying half asleep in a dozy fuzzy haze, listening to the regular breathing beside her. Gabrielle's ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime, at the drop of a hat had always amused the warrior. Sleep was just something Xena didn't need a great deal of, and even when she was trying to catch a few candle marks, part of her was still alert to the world around her. Secretly she envied the Bard's talent for slipping into oblivion.

Just as Xena was about to slip under the final grey cloudy layer into sleep she felt Gabrielle shifting against her. Rolling onto her side, the Bard unconsciously slid an arm across the Warrior's middle to pin her to the bed, with her face nuzzled up to the side of Xena's.

Xena was suddenly wide awake. Warlords and bad guys she could cope with, but one little traveling companion's arm was another thing entirely. As 'experienced' as Xena was (and she was PLENTY experienced) she had no way to deal with the way Gabrielle made her feel. "Warrior Princesses just DON'T do love OK!!"

As Xena tried to force herself back into an uncomfortable, fitful sleep, she didn't hear the reply whispered on the wind. "You'll learn princess, you'll learn!" Nor did she hear the soft lilting laughter that followed.