Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: PG
Summary: Xena and Gabrielle freed each other with their love.
Warnings: Femme Slash, Established Pairing
Word Count: 1,793
Date Written: 13 July, 2011
Challenge: For the DiteysBlessings LJ comm's July challenge for "freedom"
Disclaimer: Xena, Warrior Princess, Gabrielle, these versions of Aphrodite and Hercules, and all other recognizable characters mentioned within are & TM their rightful owners, none of which are the author. 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.
Gabrielle wandered away as Xena removed Argo's bridle and set about freeing him for the night. The Warrior Princess watched her love walk off, her darkened, blue eyes shimmering with unspoken concern. Gabrielle had been pensive since their last fight, and Xena knew that it was the first time the young bard had been around true and vicious slavery. She'd heard tales of enslavement before, Xena was sure, but had simply never encountered such herself. Seeing it for the first time was always hard on everybody, but Xena had dealt with such, and with freeing the enslaved after she had met Hercules, so many times that it had almost become old hat to her.
She watched as Gabrielle walked to the side of the hill and gazed out over the sleeping village below before deciding she'd be safe and turning her attention back to her horse. She'd brush Argo down for the night, release him to run, and then try to coax her beloved Gabby into talking. The warrioress' lips twisted in amusement.
That was a first time. She'd never had to urge the girl to talk before. She had always been so open and bubbling with every thought that ran through her imaginative brain. Xena smiled sadly. She had complained about Gabrielle's nonstop talking before, but now she missed it. She'd get her back to it soon, she decided.
Gabrielle wrapped an arm around an ancient oak tree and leaned against its bark as she looked out over the sleeping town. She had been one of those quiet villagers not long before, but meeting Xena had changed everything for her. Her green eyes gazed out at the growing dark as the golden rays of the setting sun cascaded in shimmering ripples through her long, blonde hair. Yet the shadows she saw were not of the coming night.
She could still hear them. The jerks' angry yells as they had commanded their slaves to obey them or be whipped to death had been echoing in her ears ever since they'd fought the slave owners in the last town from whence they had just come. She shivered, remembering how viciously cruel and full of hatred they had been and how scared and pitiful their slaves. There had not been a single slave whose bones she had been unable to see poking right through their meager clothing. They had taken both men and women and all ages. She cringed as she remembered seeing a baby whipped right out of her mother's arms when that mother had refused to go with her master.
A small smile crept across Gabby's soft, pink lips. That had been what had spurred Xena into action. Her beloved heroine had been simply watching and waiting for the right opportunity to strike until she had seen the baby be taken. She had flipped through the air so swiftly that Gabrielle had not even known what was happening until Xena, the baby held protectively in her arms, had almost defeated all the enemies. She had called to Gabby, and Gabrielle had opened her arms just in time to catch the baby she'd thrown so trustingly at her.
Freedom had always been important to Gabrielle, but she had never really witnessed such a complete loss of it until that town. Now she knew, more so than ever before, how lucky she had been in her quiet, little village to have the freedom of reading even if she'd not been welcomed to speak her mind and her elders had planned out her life for her. She had been safe. She had had the right to eat and drink as she pleased, to read and to write, to enjoy the simple freedoms of walking through the woods, feeling the brook splash over her bare feet, and the breezes float over her skin if she had chosen.
She had been free, and yet she thought, thinking again of her beloved Xena and all the changes she had brought into her world, she had not even known what freedom was. Now, thanks to her love, she was truly free to be her own woman, and she was trusted, trusted not only to live her own life and make her own decisions but to also save others. She had not been expecting Xena to throw that baby to her, but yet at the same time, she had seen the certainty in her life partner's gaze when she had tossed the child to her. She had known she would catch her and protect her from whoever tried to break away from Xena and come after the child.
Xena had trusted her. Xena had let her become her own woman, and now at last, Gabrielle knew, she was truly free. She could do whatever she wanted whenever she desired, and that was a thrilling knowledge. The slaves had been grateful that Xena had freed them, but Gabrielle was far more thankful for the freedom her love had given her and everything else she'd done for her along their journey already.
"You're quiet," Xena's quiet, calm voice observed from behind her.
Gabrielle gave a start and then a small smile. "I didn't hear you come up," she admitted, glancing over at where Argo, released from his entrapments, grazed.
Xena did not answer her but instead stepped up behind her and wrapped her arms around her. Gabrielle leaned into her embrace, her head resting on her armored bosom, and together they watched the sun set. "Are you okay?" Xena asked at last.
Gabrielle smiled up at her, silver moonlight reflecting in her shimmering, green orbs, as she looked at her with gratitude, happiness, and love shining openly on her face. "More than okay," she told her. "I've just been thinking. I thought I was free in the village. I was, but I wasn't."
Xena quirked an eyebrow in question but let her go on. "I mean," Gabrielle attempted to clarify, waving her hands empathetically as she spoke, "I was free to do most of what I wanted. I could read, study, and write whatever I wanted and go, mostly, where I wanted. There was nothing I absolutely had to do except marry that boy and stay out of the men's plans."
"I wasn't trapped like those slaves, but I was trapped. I was going to live out the rest of my days in that village, reading about all these great adventures and wanting to be a part of them but never daring to try anything that the characters in my stories did." Her eyes lifted to hers. "Until I met you," she said, gazing deeply into her beloved's baby blue eyes. "You gave me courage, Xena, to reach for my dreams, to leave my village and look for real adventure instead of just reading it forever."
Xena smiled. "I seem to recall," she said, running her fingers through Gabby's soft, blonde hair, "that a certain young bard didn't give me much choice."
Gabrielle laughed and lowered her head a bit. "Maybe that's true," she admitted, "but I never would have dared to try it if not for you. The first time I saw you, I was amazed." She searched her baby blues as she talked. "I saw this woman, tall and beautiful and so full of courage. I'd never seen any one like you before, never thought I'd ever meet a woman like you."
"A man with your courage, yeah. But a woman?" She shook her head, and her blonde hair fell around Xena's stroking fingers in cascading ripples. "It never would have occurred to me for that to be possible, for you to exist."
She could tell from the way Xena's eyes danced and her smile twisted and became a bit tight that she was suppressing a laugh. "Well, I do exist, Gabby, for better or for worse."
Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "I know that," she told her. "I guess . . . " She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "I guess what I'm trying to say," she explained, "is that, until today, I didn't realize how good I had it in my village, but even then, I was still trapped. You freed me. You gave me the courage to really live my life. You've showed me so many wonderful things, and we've gone through such amazing adventures, Xena!" She shook her head in quiet amazement. "You've given me my dream life!"
"Life is hardly a dream," Xena commented quietly.
"For me," Gabrielle said, closing out the small distance that had remained between them with a single step, "with you, it is. I love you!"
She kissed her then, and when finally Gabrielle's heated lips let up from hers, Xena found herself breathless. She held her to her, her arms gently laced around her small waist, and gazed lovingly into her eyes as she made an admission of her own. "You weren't the only one trapped, Gabby. I was too. I wanted to be good, but I didn't think I really had it in me. I was scared . . . scared I couldn't be the good person I want to be . . . scared my dark side would get the better of me."
She cupped her love's beautiful face and again ran her fingers through her hair. "But I'm not scared any longer now that I've got you with me. I know I'm doing right every time you look at me with that light in your eyes. I know I can keep doing right and I will, because I'm not about to do anything to jeopardize our friendship. I want to keep you with me forever, or at least as long as you want to stay, and I'll keep doing whatever it takes to stay the woman you want to be with."
Gabrielle smiled brightly, her eyes shining with happiness, love, and adoration. "You don't have to try so hard," she told her. "You'll always be the woman with whom I want to be. You'll always be the only one I'll ever love!"
"I love you too!" Xena declared a split second before Gabrielle's lips took hers again. They held to each other as the greatest freedom of all, true love, crashed through their souls and hearts. They kissed deep and long into the night, celebrating that freedom and the love they shared and knowing that, no matter what came, they'd always have each other at their sides and the grandest adventure of all granted to them by sharing their lives with their soul mates forever more.
Unheard by the Warrior Princess and her beloved bard, laughter bubbled and tinkled merrily. "That a girl, Xena!" Aphrodite announced. "That's My good girls!" She watched Her two favorite women as they loved, laughed, adventured, and lived together always.
The End