Author: Pirate Turner
Dedicated To: My beloved Jack
Rating: R
Summary: A thief steals Gabrielle's Solstice dinars on the eve of the holiday.
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Femme Slash, Holiday fic
Challenge: None
Word Count (excluding heading): 2,003
Feedback: Yes, please!
Archive: WWOMB, -- Anybody else, ask, and I'll probably grant permission.
Disclaimer: Gabrielle and Xena: Warrior Princess are & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: This is the nineth in a series of 12 Days of Christmas fics written with my beloved Jack in mind but also shared with you, our readers and, hopefully, our fans. They will be unbetaed the first time they're sent out, as Jack does the betaing, and he'll know nothing of these fics until they hit his box. Happy Holidays, however you celebrate! :-)
"So, any way, I just think that we should move on. I mean, if we can get there ahead of them, that will give us -- well, really, you -- a big advantage that could certainly be used. They'd never think of you getting there before them and would be completely off their guard and you could -- "
Xena suddenly stopped her beloved in mid-sentence as she gently pressed a finger to the blonde's lips. "Gabrielle," she asked, her blue eyes intently searching her green orbs, "what happened today?"
Gabrielle waited for Xena to remove her finger before answering, "I don't know what you mean by that, Xena. Nothing happened today. I just had time to think, and the Solstice is really just another day. We can celebrate any time. It can be here, there, anywhere. It doesn't really matter. What does matter is that you stop those warlords from -- "
Again Xena stopped Gabrielle, this time with a question whose firm tone told Gabrielle there'd be no dismissing it. "Since when is the Solstice just another day for you?"
"What do you mean?" Gabrielle feigned innocence.
"Gabrielle," Xena spoke slowly, her eyes never moving from her love's, "whatever happened today, I want you to tell me."
"Xena, I told you I just had time to think and -- "
Xena cupped Gabby's face in her hands, her grasp tender and the strokes of her fingers loving and reassuring. "Gabrielle," she spoke a final time, a single brow raised.
Gabrielle knew that look well, and she sighed and hung her head. "I don't have anything for you for the Solstice."
"You know that doesn't matter to me," Xena countered, "but you just had a bag of dinars you'd saved this morning. What happened to them?"
"I . . . " Gabby gave a soft sigh, unable to admit to her heroine that she had been so easily targeted and stolen from. How could she find the words? How could she tell her that whereas she was a strong, mighty, brave, cunning, and nearly invincible warrioress, her love was but a fool, so easily conned?
Xena knew in an instant what had happened. Her lips set in a firm line. Anger darkened her face. Fury boiled in her blood. To steal any one's Solstice money was a crime well worth her special brand of punishing, but to steal the dinars that her beloved Gabrielle had worked so hard to save on the very eve of the Solstice?! Her yodeling cry to war raised inside her throat, but she silenced it as she reached out, pulled Gabrielle to her, and kissed her.
Gabby gasped as Xena covered her mouth with such rapidness that she was left truly breathless. Her green eyes were wild and questioning as she kissed her love back, but Xena's baby blues traveled the town instead. She smiled knowingly against Gabby's mouth as she saw a hooded figure quickly making his way for the alleys. She broke from Gabrielle's mouth with her trademarked scream blasting forth and sent her chakram flying.
Xena's chakram bounced off of the side of several buildings, curled around a bright green and red banner that a pole was flying, and continued on its journey, taking the banner with it. Finally it collided with the feet of the man who had made himself Xena's target. The banner whipped around his feet as the chakram brought him down. The man cursed and reached for the banner, but before he could even touch it, Xena was in front of him, the tip of her sword pressed to his jugular.
Deadliness danced in Xena's blue eyes as she called to her partner. "Gabrielle, is this the man who stole from you?"
Gabrielle walked cautiously to Xena's side, her green eyes wide in wonder. "How did you know?" she asked.
Xena gestured with her head and touched the man's flesh with the tip of her sword. "Is this the man?" she repeated.
"Yes," Gabrielle replied, looking down into the thief's terror-stricken face.
"I-I-I-I di-did-didn't know sh-she was yours!" the thief stammered out.
"You do now," Xena told him, her voice low and even.
"I do, and I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I never would have stolen from her if I'd known she was yours!" He slowly reached into his pocket, drew out the bag he'd taken off of Gabrielle, and tossed it at the blonde's feet.
"That's not the point," Xena stated.
"Wha-What do you want from me? I'll do anything! Please just let me live!"
Gabrielle grinned down at the frantic thief. She found she couldn't help enjoying his prostrated position after the despair he had put her through throughout the day and long into this night. "Next time," she advised him knowingly, "you should really put more thought into your target."
"I'm not usually a thief!" the man cried. "I'm a poor father just trying to scrape together enough dinars to buy his kids something special for Solstice!"
Gabrielle looked to Xena. Xena's gaze remained stern. She was not moved by his story at all, especially since she didn't believe it in the slightest. Yet she saw the look in Gabrielle's gaze and turned to face her, placing a booted foot on top of the thief's chest for good measure in keeping him still. "Gabrielle," she asked, "what do you want?" It was, after all, Gabrielle who had been stolen from, and if she wanted her to let him go, . . . she would, in the name of the Solstice, but she'd certainly keep an eye out for any excuse to grab him again in the future.
"Maybe he's got kids," Gabrielle spoke pleadingly, "and maybe he doesn't." She shrugged. "I don't know, but what I do know, Xena," she continued, stooping and retrieving her bag of coins, "is that in just a few hours, it's going to be Solstice, and if I don't get moving now, I won't stand a chance of getting you anything."
"Gabrielle," Xena said softly, "you know I'm not concerned with presents."
"I know," Gabby replied, looking at her lovingly as she spoke in an equally soft tone, "but I am, Xena. The Solstice is one of the few excuses I can use to actually buy you something, so let me go get you something while there's still something to be had." She looked down at the man. "And as for him, maybe he is just what he claims, and maybe he's just another lying thief. I don't know, but maybe just for tonight, you can let him go?" She asked, looking hopefully up into her love's face. "I know he stole from me, and normally I'd really want you to punish him too, but maybe, for tonight, scaring the mess out of him's good enough?" She sighed when Xena remained silent, weighing her words. "I just don't want to be thinking about what you might be doing to him and whether or not he really is what he claims to be while I'm fighting the last minute crowds shopping for your Solstice present."
With her foot still on the thief and her sword still pressed against his throat, Xena leaned forward and gently kissed her love's supple, pink lips. Gabrielle smiled up into her eyes when they parted. "Is that a yes?" she asked with a teasing grin.
Xena nodded, smiling. "It's a yes. Go ahead, and I'll catch up to you."
"Okay, but remember no peeking and you have to let him go."
Xena solemnly held up a hand. "Promise." Her eyes twinkled as she watched her beloved partner.
Grinning from ear to ear, Gabrielle turned and ran back to the nearest string of shops. She ducked in and watched while Xena returned her attention to the thief. Then she ran out and back to the weaponry shop, knowing where Xena's true love of material things came first.
Meanwhile, Xena glowered down at the thief. "You're a very lucky man."
"I know!" he cried with a relieved smile that began to fade as Xena remained silent, her boot and sword still firmly in place. Then, in a small pipsqueak of a voice, he asked hesitantly, "You are going to let me go, right?"
"Oh, of course," Xena said with a smile and a gentle, beguiling shake of her torso. The man's grin returned as she stepped off of him and returned her sword to its sheath. "I always keep my word when I give it to the woman I love." Her blue eyes suddenly narrowed as she told him, her lovely smile still in place but taking a dangerous twist, "But I said nothing about letting you go unscathed, and you did steal from the one person whose goodness is better than anything you or I could ever hope to attain."
The man gulped, fear draining the color out of him. With actions as fast as lightning, Xena leaned down, applied the pinch, and whispered, "If you scream, I'll take your tongue just as swiftly as I've put this hold on you." Then she slammed her boot down into his groin. She heard the soft sound of a most important bone breaking as she scraped her foot across his tender area. It was a small break, one a healer could fix easily but one that would remain a reminder to him forever. She released the pinch, and he clasped both hands immediately over his mouth to keep from allowing the scream that welled within to burst free.
"That's a good boy," Xena spoke, grinning wickedly down at him. "Make sure you stay that way, because next time, it'll be more than your sword." She walked away, her head held high, her smile beaming, and her eyes shining with her plans of catching Gabrielle under the mistletoe later that night. The man writhing in pain on the ground behind her was not the only lucky one, she knew. She was the luckiest of the lucky for she had Gabrielle and her love, and there was no better present that she could ever ask for, not on this night nor on any other.
She whistled a merry tune as she walked down the street, her grin only growing as the people crowded away from her. She paid for an apple and was still crunching on it when she stuck her head into the smithy. "Gabrielle?"
Gabrielle jumped almost as high as the counter. She whirled around, one hand on her staff and the other resting over her rapidly-beating heart. "Xena!" she exclaimed. "You're not supposed to be spying!"
"I'm not," the Warrior Princess promised with a grin. "I just wanted to say I love you."
"I love you too," Gabrielle answered, beaming both from the declaration and the surprise. Then she turned to the blacksmith and whispered urgently, "Wrap it fast." Her eyes were still twinkling when Xena strode forward into the shop and claimed her favorite gift: a deep, passionate kiss from Gabrielle's sweet, loving lips.
When they parted, Gabrielle did not turn from Xena as she felt the blacksmith place the package she knew was hers into her hands. Instead she stayed where she was, leaning close into Xena's protective, strong, and sensual body, her forehead resting against her love's, their mouths but a fraction of an inch apart. "Merry Solstice, Gabrielle," Xena whispered, her hot breath tickling Gabrielle's flesh.
Gabby beamed back at her love, who was also her best friend, her heroine, and her leader in all things. "Merry Solstice, Xena. I love you!" She placed the long package into Xena's hands and grinned temptingly. "But no opening your gift until in the morning."
Xena fingered the colorful wrapping paper but left the string that bound it all together alone. The brightness of her smile matched her love's completely. She thought she might know what was in the box, hoped she was right, and looked forward to finding out, but she also knew that, no matter what the pretty present contained, it could never match the one she already had. "I love you too," she repeated and kissed her again.
The End