Title: Sovereign
Fandom: Xena: Warrior Princess
Pairing: Xena/Gabrielle
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,214
Summary/Description: How to create a princess. Xena, Gabrielle, and the demystification of the process.
Warning/Spoilers: No warnings. Spoilers for 1x10: Hooves and Harlots.
A/N: 31 days, May 10th: in fur and gold. Coda to 1x10. First Xena fic; I am nervous and excited. :3
Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue.
Predictably, Gabrielle tires before her mouth does. She is well into the second part of the epic saga of Xena, Warrior Princess and Gabrielle, Amazon Princess, when her feet begin to drag, and her eyelids struggle to hold themselves up against the weight of her exhaustion. Xena rolls her eyes, grabs her friend by the arm, and pulls her into a clearing. Fortunately (or unfortunately; it depends on whose side you're on) this action jerks her more or less back into wakefulness.
She gives a stretchy yawn, and blinks contentedly at Xena as the latter goes about gathering dry sticks for their fire. And suddenly, she jerks forward with an expansive gesture, stilling Xena's hands.
"Whoa whoa whoa, just hold on a minute there!"
Xena stares at her blankly, a thin piece of dry wood in her hand, several others nestled in the crook of her arm. Gabrielle's response is to grin widely. Xena doesn't know for sure why she's looking so smug and self-satisfied, but she has the feeling that she's about to find out, whether she wants to or not.
"What," she says, thinning out her lips in exasperation at whatever is going to come.
Impossibly, Gabrielle's smile brightens even further, and she nimbly wrests the firewood away from Xena. Or at least, the warrior supposes, that is what she envisioned herself doing. In reality, she grips the sticks and pulls; none of them budge.
Xena's brow twitches in a repressed expression of amusement. Gabrielle wrenches again, with the same results. She frowns, clears her throat, straightens out her shoulders and is about to try again when Xena's voice interrupts her.
"Gabrielle, what are you doing?" Her voice is flat, if amused, and she ends on a sigh. The blonde takes a deep breath, as if gearing up for one of her long-winded explanations, and Xena thinks it would be prudent to remind her: "Get to the point. Sooner, rather than later."
Gabrielle snaps her mouth closed, and Xena waits, impatiently. Her friend is still holding on to the firewood, and it is almost completely dark in the clearing. The moon is weak and listless tonight; Gabrielle's hair has given up its golden shine for pale silver luminosity.
She clears her throat once again before beginning.
"Well, I just thought that, you know, since I'm an Amazon Princess now and everything—" Here, she pauses briefly to waggle her brows. "—I should be helping out more often with the daily duties! Sharing the load, you know, so you won't have to do everything." Once again, she adopts that proud, satisfied look. "We're almost equals, now."
Xena blinks. The girl gets stranger and stranger with every passing day.
"Not even close," she snorts, pulling the firewood away from Gabrielle's grasp with one short, quick jerk. She would have fallen face forward into the dirt, but Xena steadies her by the shoulder before she can. "Don't let that title go to your head too quickly, now. Besides," she says, looking up with a smirk, "helping collect dry wood is your idea of sharing the load? Being equal?"
If Gabrielle were the pouting type, she would be doing so at that moment. She isn't, however, so what she actually does is plant her fists on her hips.
"Hey, I know you think I can't do anything at all, but you had to have been watching me today! I helped give those warmongers a beating! Yargh!"
Xena doesn't smile outright, not even when Gabrielle picks up the staff gifted to her by Ephiny and jabs the air enthusiastically with it. It is a struggle, though.
It is true; she'd seen glimpses of her friend's fight. And Xena has to admit; though she is still clumsy on her feet, leaves herself open far too often, and doesn't know much about controlling her movements... she is more than passable, for a beginner. Ephiny and her Amazons have done a fine job, in a very short time.
She doesn't say this, however. What she says, is:
"If you want to make yourself useful, get out the last of the salted pork."
Xena has yet to really mull over the events that transpired over the past few days. Gabrielle, trying to protect the body of a fallen soldier in a gesture as selfless and brave as it had been incredibly stupid. Having the right of caste passed along to her; an honour that the girl probably didn't even begin to comprehend. Putting a stop to the senseless war that had been about to spill over between two formidable camps, and somehow becoming the Queen of the Amazons somewhere along the way.
Queen. Xena scoffs lightly. It had been the necessary action to take at the time, of course, but she has no true need for the title. Any claims to royalty are wasted on an ex-warrior.
Gabrielle feels a little differently about being a princess.
As Xena prepares the fire, and watches bright orange flames come to fruition amidst the wood and rise up to eat the air of the clearing, she sees the blonde carefully fingering the material of her new clothes. It is a soft, appreciative exploration of the brown leathery cloth; the belt at her waist that once cinched Terreis', and the necklace at her throat that had once been covered by coarser, curlier blonde hair.
"You know," she began, handing over Xena's share of their small meal with a distant look in her eyes, "when I was little, I would sometimes dream about being a princess." She pauses, smiling sheepishly at her friend. Her eyes are very warm, with the flames for fuel. "I mean, what little girl doesn't? And I would dream of being waited on hand and foot by servants, of being covered in all these luxurious furs, and being laden with piece after piece of heavy golden jewellery."
She pauses, apparently caught up in the rapture of remembrance. But then she touches her staff, traces the cruel curved beak of it, and comes back to herself.
"But you know what?"
Xena feels a small smile twitch at her lips.
"What?" she asks, because she knows Gabrielle will tell her anyway.
Gabrielle beams back, lips stretching over white teeth.
"I think I like this kind of princess even better. Fitted and trained for battle, and knowing that I can take care of myself, and other people, if need be. It's a good feeling; I want to keep it."
Xena's face betrays no emotion, but that little kernel of grudging respect that she's had for the girl since day one grows just a little bit bigger. One day, she'll realise that she had the spirit of a princess lying dormant in her all along; it just took a bit of cultivating to get it going.
"Go to sleep, Amazon Princess," Xena says, throwing a twig in her direction. "I'll be keeping watch."
"Nooooot so fast, Warrior Princess." Gabrielle wags a finger vigorously, rising swiftly out of nostalgia. With her tilted chin and pseudo-imperious gaze, she really does look like a princess. "I think I should take the first watch. I have to start somewhere, right?"
Xena rolls her eyes again. It's almost affectionate, but she ignores that sentiment as she reaches for another twig.