Training. PG. July 22, 2006. 400.
"Oww, what the-" Abruptly the angered cry was cut off, in favor of, "Xena, she hit me!"
Turning to the commotion, Xena gave a stern glance at the sulking God of War and grinning bard. One of Gabrielle's scrolls was lying at Ares' feet, he was rubbing his head irritably, and Gabrielle was fiddling with her saddlebags.
She sighed, addressing the bard - there was no way she'd get an accurate account out of Ares, especially when he was pouting. "What did he do?"
Refraining from the urge to stick her tongue out at Ares' outraged look, Gabrielle replied cheerily, "He's been rifling through my scrolls again. They," she glared, "were in chronological order."
Cutting off Ares' exclamations of protest and/or innocence (with the extreme possibility of fireballs being formed) with a raised hand and trying to keep a calm demeanor, Xena continued, "And why did you hit him?"
"I'm training him." Gabrielle gave a little smirk, which was too reminiscent of Xena's own.
Ares was irate, no, he was beyond irate. The insult was too high to simply incinerate her - he'd have to think of an appropriate punishment. "Training me?!" He was the God of War and who did that little Blonde think she was?
Stunned, Xena raised a sculpted eyebrow, trying to discern if Gabrielle was telling a really bad joke. "Training him?"
"Yeah. I thought that I'd encourage him when he did a good deed." Gabrielle frowned, "But that was too hard." She smiled again, "So now, every time he does something stupid I chuck a scroll at his head."
Xena was floored by this logic. "Well, that's... one idea..." She caught the hurt puppy-dog look on Ares' face, "But really, he might be a bit old to be teaching new tricks." If there was sarcasm, Xena kept it carefully masked in her normal voice.
Gabrielle shrugged, dumping her scrolls out on her bedroll to reorganize.
For the thousandth time, Ares reminded himself that Xena would be quite unhappy if he reduced her friend to a pile of ash. Brushing past Xena to glare at Gabrielle from the other corner of the clearing where, hopefully, she couldn't hit him with any more heavy pieces of parchment, Ares spoke, voice low, "I like your methods better."
Eyes going wide, Xena turned quickly to avoid Gabrielle's curious gaze and any potential blush that might be blooming. Training indeed.
