Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me. They belong to whoever owns the rights to Xena: Warrior Princess.


"Just Right"

Gabrielle was out in the woods one day, looking for herbs and wild berries. While she was in the woods, she got tired, and looked for a place to rest. Finally, she came upon an old temple that looked deserted, and she went inside. She found a fur rug by the fireplace, and curled up to sleep. After 10 minutes of tossing and turning, she decided that this 'bed' was too hard. She then went into the next room and curled up in a fancy throne. With her feet over one arm of the throne, and her back against the other arm, she again attempted to sleep. Once again, after about 15 minutes, she gave up on this type of 'bed', and went looking elsewhere in the temple.

After a few minutes of searching, Gabrielle found a bedroom containing the most magnificent bed she had ever seen in her life. It was made from wood as black as Xena's hair, and had pillows as plump as Salmoneous' belly. And its sheets... oh how soft... like the marshmallows that Autolycus stole from Zeus' grocery bag.

"Yippee!" cried Gabrielle, as she ran to the gigantic bed, and jumped in. "Ooh, cuddly..." she said, as she drifted off to dreamland.

Meanwhile, the owner of the temple came home from his long day at work. Yawning loudly, he stretched his muscular arms to the ceiling, the expansion of his mighty chest pulling apart the front of his leather vest. The tired but still devilishly handsome man strutted into his bedroom, and to his delight, his bed was already occupied. He tiptoed closer. Was it an angel? With Gabrielle's golden hair spread across the pillow, she did indeed look rather angelic.

"Aw," he said. "She's so cute when she's sleeping... A perfect end to a difficult day helping mortals with their wars." Putting on his special jammies... the ones with black teddy bears on a red background, he climbed into bed. He was very careful not to disturb his lovely guest. Cuddling up to Gabrielle, he put his strong arms around her so she couldn't escape, and then Ares sighed, "Just right."

"What did you say, Ares?" mumbled Gabrielle.

"Good-night, sweetie," said Ares, tugging her closer to his chest.

"Night," said his wife.

-The End-