Chapter 1

There were some things in this world that she could just do without but at this particular moment in time, everything simply seemed to be annoying her even more than usual. She wasn't willing though to admit the reason behind her grouchy mood over the last few days, not that it would have made a difference anyway. So instead of being cooped up in that conniving bastard's temple for one more second, the Warrior Princess had decided to take a small walk, a means she thought was going to clear her head. Boy was she wrong though and she certainly couldn't have predicted what was going to unfold either as she slowly made her way down the stone temple steps, pulling her black cloak around herself tightly to ward off the cold.

The woods around his temple were absolutely breathtaking at this time of year- the fresh fallen snow was covering the trees and ground in a stunning blanket of white. As she made her way through the newly fallen powder, heading in no specific direction, Xena couldn't help the long breath she had released, everything was just so beautiful...

After walking aimlessly for the better part of an hour, trying to get a certain someone off of her mind, Xena suddenly heard the sound of playful laughter in the distance. Although she knew that she should probably just ignore it, curiosity got the better of her and she soon headed in the direction that it was coming from. She stayed out of sight as she neared closer, peeking out from behind a nearby tree that was close enough to see and hear what was going on but far enough away not to be seen by the unsuspecting duo.

"Come on, Lena!" the man shouted out encouragingly as he waited patiently, "It's not that bad, you're going to love it!"

"I'm scared, Arius!" the girl shouted back, sitting on the top of the small embankment looking rather terrified at how unbelievably high it really was.

"There's nothing to be scared of." he teased, a light grin forming on his face with how frightened she actually was.

"That's easy for you to say!" she angrily yelled, not liking that he was enjoying her discomfort.

"Don't worry, I'll catch you if anything bad happens…" he sweetly told her, holding his arms out open ready to do just that, "… I promise…"

It was as if that was all she needed to hear and after hesitating for a few seconds more, she soon slid down the mound on her rickety little wooden board. She shrieked out of excitement, the cold wind blowing hard against her face but her excitement was short lived when her board hit an unexpected bump and it knocked her off from the impact. Arius, seeing that things had taken a rather unanticipated turn of events, quickly reacted and as she came skidding down towards him, he moved into position and swiftly grabbed a hold of her as she tumbled into him, knocking him off of his feet and the two of them slid down the rest of the way together.

By the time they had reached the bottom, Lena was holding on to Arius for dear life, her head firmly nestled beneath his chin, her eyes shut tight as her body trembled from the fear that had gripped her as she waited for that inevitable doom. But despite what she thought was going to happen, she just felt the soothing touch of Arius running his fingers through her hair and she slowly pulled her head back to look at him. He had an amused look upon his face as their eyes met and he softly began to lovingly stroke her cheek.

"I told you, I'll catch you…" he whispered against her lips before capturing them softly with his own, "… I'll always catch you…."

After watching the display of the love that was clearly held between the pair, Xena rested back against the tree, not wanting to intrude on their private moment any longer. Observing the way that girl had put all of her faith into him with his simple little promise to catch her if something bad happened was hitting far too close to home for the Warrior Princess's liking . She herself had put that same blind faith into someone who had vowed to always be by her side…

That couple had undoubtedly spent Solstice together, and Xena couldn't help but picture herself in the same situation and for a moment while she had been watching them she could actually see it. It was made even more simple with how strikingly similar their names were to her own and she could clearly see the vision in her head.

In spite of how wonderful the thought might have been, it didn't change reality or the fact that she had spent Solstice by herself. She just couldn't believe it, that arrogant bastard had actually left her all alone on a day that was supposed to be spent with the ones you held most dear. She should have known better really and the foolish hope that he was actually going to come, she should have just banished it from her head the moment it started to rear its nasty little head.

That would have saved her the humiliation of putting herself through the embarrassment of actually making his priestesses prepare a small meal that she had planned to surprise him with. But after convincing herself to reconcile and putting on his favorite crimson dress, the one that made him have a hard time focusing when he saw her in it, he didn't even bother to show up.

She had sat there for hours waiting, listening to the snide remarks from his priestesses as they came in from time to time to see if she needed anything. She tried not to let it bother her though, not wanting anything to ruin this and frustratingly ignored them, anxiously clutching and unclutching the small gift she had for him, eager to prove those sleazy harpies wrong.

Nonetheless, after the candles had nearly melted all the way down, she finally realized that he wasn't coming and a lone unchecked tear had made its way down her face before she hastily wiped it away before anyone had the chance to see it.

Xena vainly tried to push the memory from her mind, that had been two days ago, the wound was still fresh in her heart and she certainly didn't want to relive it so soon. Hearing the couple's giggles once again, and finding the whole thing completely nauseating, she just groaned out annoyed and quickly started to head away from them.

How could she have been so stupid?! It wasn't like they were actually on speaking terms at that time, a heated argument had seen to that a few days prier on how she had changed their plans with how they were going to proceed with her army without his knowledge. But it was Solstice damn it, how could he have done that to her?!

"Where's the fire Warrior Babe?" came a bubbly voice a few feet away from her.

That had caused Xena to stop dead in her tracks, she was certainly the last person she wanted to interact with at that instant. She groaned inwardly, knowing that it wasn't going to be easy to get rid of her.

"What do you want Aphrodite?" came her harsh question, turning around and sending the Goddess a not so pleasant glare for her being there.

"It's nice to see you too." she happily replied, not letting her sour mood get to her, she was planning on fixing that anyway.

"I don't have time for this." Xena firmly retorted , turning her back to her and getting ready to leave, not caring whether the Love Goddess had heard her or not.

But before she could even take two steps though, Aphrodite was there in front of her, swiftly stopping her little retreat. As the Warrior Princess was glowering at her, the laughter of that pathetic couple came flittering through the air once more and Xena just huffed out annoyed by it.

"Aaawww, young love…" she dreamily stated, holding her hand against her heart as she got a faraway look in her eyes, "… wasn't that just the sweetest thing you've ever seen?"

Xena just narrowed her eyes at her, so the Goddess had been following her, she didn't appreciate that very much. That only made her suspicious as to the reason for this visit, the last thing she wanted to talk about was Ares and least of all with his sister.

"I'm really rather busy so if you don't mind." she bluntly let her know as she once again started to head in the opposite direction from where the Goddess was standing but just as before, Dite appeared in front of her again.

"They are just so perfect for each other…." came her cheery remark, "… the way they have put their faith in one another…" she sighed out awe-struck, an irritating giggle of her own making its way out of her mouth, "… reminds me of another- even more perfect- couple."

Here we go, exactly the conversation that Xena didn't want to have. She just cast the Love Goddess a menacing glare, hoping that she would take the hint and just drop it if she knew what was good for her. But Aphrodite didn't let her little intimidating look scare her, actually it was making her a bit nervous but she had certainly came to her with a purpose and she wasn't going to let Xena frighten her out of it. The Goddess had been dealing with Ares for all these years after all, and a few threatening looks wasn't going to do the trick.

"So… where's the Stud Muffin?" she innocently inquired, discreetly looking around for a moment as if he was suddenly going to appear, already knowing the answer to that question.

"I don't know and I don't care." Xena growled out, turning from her for a third time but not before Aphrodite had seen the anger and then pure sadness that had formed in her eyes the moment she had mentioned him.

It was way more serious then she had originally thought it was. Ares was going to owe her big time for helping to clean up the gigantic mess he had made with his Princess. He had broken her heart into a million pieces when he refused to show up. The Goddess just couldn't believe it, she had watched Xena prepare her little surprise for her completely idiotic brother and she herself had been just as as excited to see how things were going to turn out. She had waited with equally, if not more baited breath for the War God to arrive. She thought it was just so sweet, how Xena was sitting there, looking like a princess, eagerly waiting for her prince to appear.

But as that worried frown started to form on the Warrior Babes face, the Goddess began to grow anxious too. What in the world could have possibly been keeping him? She knew that they had fought but she never would have guessed that Ares would dare leave her alone, especially not on this day. As that sadness slowly seeped into her sapphire eyes more and more, one that was caused from a broken heart, the Love Goddess quickly went to seek where her air headed brother was dwelling.

Hurriedly sensing where he was at, Aphrodite materialized in his throne room on Olympus, which was looking a little worse for wear, just to find Ares passed out drunk on his throne. That was how he had decided to deal with their little quarrel and the Love Goddess just shook her head with how he was acting like such a child. Only Xena could put him in such a state and she just couldn't help but think how completely cute it was. The powerful Olympian brought to his knees by a mere mortal woman. So unbelievably cute!

…Still, this was not just any woman, no….this was the one who had carefully managed to get Ares to give up the one thing that the Goddess was starting to think was impossible for anyone to do. The Warrior Princess had done it though, and she took it from him and now she carried it around with her and although Aphrodite was absolutely ecstatic about it, she also feared it in a way, because she knew that Xena truly held the power to destroy him.

With hast steps though, she made her way over to him and shook him roughly to try and wake him. When that didn't work- given that desperate times called for desperate measures- she had to take things to the extreme , so she silently prayed that he was too drunk to remember her doing it and she slapped him across the face and that snapped him right out of his slumber.

The War God had looked around a bit dazed at first, silently wondering just what had happened to his throne room and then a small smirk appeared on his face at the memory. His Princess was just such a spit fire and always made his blood rage wild throughout his body. After thinking of all the different ways that he could go about slithering his way back into her good graces, several reprehensible fantasies that ended up with them having to be alarmingly close to one another ran through his head and made that arrogant grin grow even more. About five minutes later, his eyes slowly turned towards the Goddess, finally taking notice of her.

"Hey Sis… what brings you here?"

"Don't 'Hey Sis' me." she sternly told him, shaking her head in disappointment, "Do you not remember what today is?"

"Um… should I?" he asked puzzled, the outrageous amount of wine that he had consumed was making his memory just a tad bit unreliable at the moment and he wasn't quite sure what she was talking about.

"Ares!" she whined, attempting to pull him up before things were really too late because she knew that once he saw her then his priorities would be set straight and she wouldn't have to kick his butt, he would be doing that all by himself.

Having succeeded in getting him to his feet- which was actually the hardest thing she ever had to do in her life and she had to resist the urge to cry when she broke a nail trying to lift him, all in the name of love, right..? she rapidly made a portal appear in front of him that contained Xena back in the War God's temple. She let out a satisfied breath, gosh who knew trying to keep a love from dying was going to be so physically taxing? The Goddess considered charging them for her services, the anxiety and stress it was causing her alone was irremediable, but with these two they needed all the help they could get.

"By the Gods…" he whispered out shocked, "… she is absolutely breathtaking…"

Mission accomplished, no heartbreak was going to be happening on her watch and she patted herself on the back for a phenomenal job. But that congratulation was short lived with the next set of words that came tumbling out of her brother's mouth, right before she felt that unmistakable sting form within her chest.

"Why is she crying?" Ares suddenly asked alarmed, the image sobering him up faster than any remedy could as he noticed the way his darling Xena had quickly wiped away a stray tear before she got up and walked over to the hearth and threw what she had been holding into it.

"Oh no…" Dite murmured, turning her focus to the portal and her smile faded as she watched the Warrior Babe start to leave the room as her heart began to fall to pieces.

The Goddess had clutched her chest, not liking the terrible feeling that she was now getting. She had been too late after all and then she turned to Ares and swiftly hit him against the head, this time not caring if he got angry with her over it. He could be such an idiot sometimes and he was totally not her favorite person at that moment.

"Ouch, what was that for?!" he angrily asked, gently rubbing the spot where his sister had just hit him.

But he never took his eyes off of the portal while he stared on as his precious Princess walked out of the room. He could feel the hurt that was coming from her and somehow he knew that he had been the one to cause that.

"I screwed up, didn't I Dite?" he faintly questioned, already knowing the answer to that question as he felt Xena's pain.

He felt like he had just lost her forever and truth be told, it hurt like nothing he had ever known before. He wasn't sure how he was going to fix it, he wasn't even sure what it was that he had done but he was certainly going to try.

In response, she just shook her head sadly, why couldn't things just ever be simple with these two? Well, she did like a challenge and they had certainly made her work for her happy ending and by Rhea herself she was going to get that happy ending one way or the other. Nothing was going to get in her way, even if she had to tie them up together in the same bed for eternity until they reconciled then she was going to get it.

"Just leave it to me Bro…" she encouragingly stated, wrapping her arm around his shoulder and pulling him closer, "… I promise, you'll have your Warrior Babe back in your arms where she belongs before you know it."

As confident as his sister had sounded, somehow Ares knew that she might just end up making things worse but he was at a loss on how to even begin to mend things with his precious Xena.