The sun was starting to set when Gabrielle finally reached what seemed to be the last house of the village.

She was glad her trip with Argo was over. Ironically, just like with the horse's predecessor, the original Argo — they just didn't have the best chemistry. Argo would let Gabrielle ride her, but not without making it abundantly clear that she was very much looking forward to the end of the ride.

The house didn't come across as too well-kept, but it didn't look run-down, either. Actually, the stone exterior was in a good shape; maybe it was the yellowish-gray color of it that gave it the shabby vibe. The grayish planks of the door could definitely use some work, though, as well as the hinges, Gabrielle thought as the door creaked open with the sound that made her wince.

A tiny silhouette appeared in the doorway and started making her way towards the newly arrived guest.

There was something about the old lady that put an instant, warm smile on Gabrielle's face.

"You must be Gabrielle," the gray-haired lady of the house welcomed her with a warm smile of her own.

"And you must be…"

"Pelagia. Come along inside, dear, you must be tired after the ride. I bet the unruly golden beauty over there gave you a hard time," Pelagia stated, glancing over at Argo. Was it that obvious? "Oh, I can tell she isn't yours, my girl. Moreover, I could bet I know who she belongs to," Pelagia said, raising her eyebrow knowingly, making Gabrielle's eyes widen in bewilderment. "Come, let's take her to the stables so she can sulk on her own."

Gabrielle followed the old lady; past the shaded lawn along the right side of the house, until the sunny backyard came into sight.

By the gods, it was beautiful. The setting sun was playing in the leaves of the surrounding shrubs and little trees, making her want to just sink down on the grass and—

She almost choked, covering her mouth with her hand.

A bit to the right, there were stables, indeed. But in front of the stables, there were two ropes of laundry, and the basin between them, and over the basin, folding the laundry — so clumsily it made her wince — was no one other than the God of War himself.

#

Ares saw her stifled laugh, but didn't let it get to him. He'd gladly see how loud she would've laughed if she'd known why the sheets needed washing in the first place.

Besides, he had grown somewhat immune to that kind of humiliation over the last several days of having to deal with the old witch and it didn't bother him half as much as it used to. Although sometimes, when Pelagia opened her mouth, he could still surprise himself with the amount of self-control he was capable of.

"Your friend seems like a smart lady, but this husband of hers… he's more useless around the house than mine," Pelagia spoke, leaning towards Gabrielle, but making sure every word reached him. Of course, they old hag loved the young one, just as he predicted.

Gabrielle smiled. "Oh, they're not married. He's… a friend of ours."

"Hmm." Pelagia raised her brows. "Well, forgive me if it didn't occur to me — judging by how much of a mess they leave the bed in, I was convinced they were newlyweds," she added callously, making Gabrielle gulp.

Take that, Blondie. Ares grinned until his cheek muscles hurt.

There she was, the blonde pain-in-the-ass, approaching him, her brows furrowed. He straightened, folding his arms across his chest, challenging her with a glare.

"Ares…" she started sheepishly. "Thanks for sending for me."

He groaned inwardly, something in those annoying green eyes of hers now making him feel a tiny bit bad for what he wanted to say to her just seconds before. "I did it for her," he said flatly.

"How is she?"

"Better," he replied vaguely.

"I'll go check on her," Gabrielle uttered on a loud exhale, looking to Ares and then Pelagia, before walking back towards the front of the house.

Pelagia followed; he couldn't help throwing her a vicious glare when she walked past him. She raised her eyebrows, ostensibly not looking at him. He snorted.

He closed his eyes and listened, until the front door creaked, and he was alone again.

His arms sagged.

It was over.

Xena and Gabrielle would be gone any day now. He should make plans too; he should actually leave before them. He wouldn't stomach being here after she was gone. It was getting heavy already.

His chest tightened painfully.

Why the fuck was he so miserable?

He knew it was inevitable, and he knew he should be grateful for those three days, which was a generous amount of time; three times more generous than he'd expected. The time which made him experience life, and her — in ways he hadn't known before; the time which even allowed them to address old wounds, some of them.

How come he was now more devastated than he was when he came here?

The afternoon was warm and eerily quiet; not a single blow of wind, not a sound; or maybe his thoughts deafened out the noise; or maybe he was going deaf because of drinking; or age, or both. When he focused, he could hear his pulse in his ears.

His eyes opened and he instantly regretted it. Of course, his daily misery couldn't reach full bloom without it — the inescapable globe of rich orange was halfway behind the horizon; the only witness to his misery, indifferent.

He looked at the empty ropes, and the basin at his feet, full of freshly folded sheets, bloodless, bright and plain, like new canvas; like yesterday never happened.

Right now, he wished it hadn't.

#

"Gabrielle…" Xena pulled her into a tight embrace. Much tighter than Gabrielle would have expected after Pelagia warned her about the muscle fatigue — and somewhat more emotional than usual, Gabrielle couldn't help but notice.

She was alive and in one piece, and didn't look too bad; some minor bruises along the jawline, but brownish and fading already. Apart from the obvious need for a bath, Gabrielle would say it wasn't too bad at all.

Turned out that Gabrielle had a good hunch about it all — somehow, she had felt it in her bones, having gotten that message from Ares, that Xena was being well looked after. It was quite odd, but somehow, she knew that Ares would've never let anything happen to Xena. Those two might've had their tumultuous history but when push came to shove, they would always have each other's back. That was why Gabrielle knew she could take her time to see to it that the things at the Amazon village took a good turn, so she was now able to bring Xena the good news — maybe not the best, considering that Eve wasn't here with her, but still good; and definitely way better than bad.

"How are you?" she wiped the strand of damp, black hair that was stuck to the cheek Xena must have slept on just now, and tucked it behind her ear, trying to ignore the red and purple marks covering half of the neck.

"Way better now that you're here," Xena's hand grabbed hers, squeezing it. "Where's Eve?" she asked cautiously.

"She uhm, stayed," Gabrielle started carefully. She wasn't looking forward to going through the whole story in detail, but she felt the need to be thorough so that there was no doubt about why Eve wasn't here.

"What do you mean, stayed?" Xena frowned.

"Not as a prisoner," Gabrielle added to put Xena at ease before the rest of the story. And she told her; how the Amazons attacked Ares' army, how Gabrielle had freed Eve from the Amazon prison in the midst of the chaos of the battle, how Gabrielle prompted Eve to escape, and how Eve joined the battle instead.

It had given her chills to see Eve fight; it reminded her of Livia and it chilled her to the bone, especially the battle cry — she had goosebumps right now at the mere memory of it.

She was glad Xena hadn't been there to see that.

There was that heaviness about it all that was now weighing Gabrielle's chest down; and worst of all, she couldn't let it out without crushing Xena down with it as well. But she had to tell the full story, even though she knew that — no matter how well she was going to hide her heavy heart from Xena — Xena was going to find her own way to her own heaviness, regardless.

She was right.

Xena froze when she heard it; that Eve decided to stay at the Amazon camp to repent for her crimes against the Amazon nation. Gabrielle didn't have to specifically clarify it for her, Xena knew, and said it out loud herself; that Eve had meant to accept the highest punishment — give her life for the sins she committed. That was the moment when Xena broke down. Gabrielle knew and understood, how strongly it resonated; the mother-daughter path that was so full of thorns in the same spots of the way.

Luckily, the Amazons had decided that they weren't going to go through with Eve's trial — not after she had saved so many Amazon lives in the battle with Ares' army. They wanted to stop at banishment, but Eve wouldn't have it — stubborn as her mother — she convinced Varia and Queen Marga that as long as Ares was alive and mortal, he would keep coming back, and it would be only wise and reasonable if she was allowed to stay and reinforce the tribe in case of future attacks. She even offered to train the young warriors. Since Varia had been entranced by Eve's fighting skills from the start — however strong her resentment was — she eventually persuaded the Queen to accept Eve's offer.

"I'm proud of her, Gabrielle," Xena said through tears.

"I know," Gabrielle smiled lightly, sniffling. "Me too."

They kept on lounging on the bed some more, until their faces dried off and Gabrielle remembered the purple bruises on Xena's neck.

"Xena… are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"I mean, you wanna tell me what happened here?" Gabrielle asked, knowing what the answer would be; but if she wanted to have Xena share anything as soon as tomorrow, she had to ask now, to give Xena the usual time to warm up to the idea of having a big talk.

Predictably, she heard a classic groan in reply.

"Gabrielle, we'll talk tomorrow — if we start now, I won't get any sleep, and I'm worn out already."

"Yeah, sure…" Gabrielle said with sarcasm, leaving the bait.

"What…?"

"Nothing, we'll talk tomorrow," Gabrielle replied, raising her eyebrows in innocence.

She just couldn't help it, Xena was just asking for it sometimes; and seriously — it was quite incredible how Xena never stopped falling for this, after all the years they've known each other.

"Gabrielle, please… don't go all sulky on me now, it's bad enough I've had to put up with Ares for three days."

"Was it hard?" Gabrielle asked, curious what mortal Ares was like, apart from the newly acquired skill of doing laundry.

Waiting for reply, she had to suddenly bite onto the inside of both her cheeks at once — not to burst out when she saw Xena's cheeks turn a glowy shade of crimson. She wasn't sure she had ever seen Xena blush like that. Come to think of it, Xena didn't blush.

Ok, it was enough, Gabrielle didn't have the heart to keep the teasing going. "Was it hard, to have Ares around for so long?"

"Oh, you know…" Xena started casually, but then added, exasperated, "Gabrielle — it's worse than ever — apart from being the usual pain in the ass he's now more emotional than a pregnant woman, and I think he's developing a drinking problem."

"He seemed pretty domesticated when I saw him today." Gabrielle chuckled at the vision of the war god folding fresh bedsheets, which he had much likely had to wash, too.

"What?" Xena asked with a frown.

"Domesticated, as in — the-God-of-War-folding-laundry-in-the-backyard kind of domesticated," Gabrielle said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"He did what?" Xena furrowed her brows in such a shocked grimace it was impossible to hold back laughter.

Gabrielle wiped her eyes, shaking. "Xena — I swear I had to do my best to keep it together. That view — it instantly made up for the nightmare of riding Argo all the way here."

"You brought Argo?" Xena asked, her eyes shiny.

Gabrielle melted, seeing the reaction. As much as she didn't have warm feelings for the horse, seeing Xena's sheer love for the animal always disarmed her.

"I did, and you know what I had to go through, Xena, so you owe me big time," Gabrielle said, wiping the rest of her face dry with her palms, letting out a noisy breath.

"What do you mean he was folding laundry?" Xena frowned in such confusion that Gabrielle felt the tears of laughter form again.

"So, you don't find it funny," Gabrielle half-asked, half-stated, wiping her eye corners.

"I do, I just — I didn't know," Xena said in confusion, trying to defend herself. "Actually — now that I think of it — he did mention Pelagia making him do some unspeakable things this morning…" Xena said thoughtfully.

"Xena… please… my jaw hurts already..."

"…he was pretty secretive about it, though."

Several fits of joint laughter later, Gabrielle hugged Xena goodnight, kissing her on the warm, sweaty forehead, and realizing only just now that her bangs were pinned up above her forehead. "Oh — this looks nice…"

"It's just practical," Xena clarified briefly.

"Of course, it is."

"What…?"

"Nothing, it's not like I would suspect you of trying to doll up," Gabrielle teased.

"I hate having hair stuck to my face when I'm hot and sweaty all the time," Xena explained in an exasperated voice, completely missing how Gabrielle's lips pursed with a stifled chuckle.

Gabrielle was pretty sure she knew the reason for Xena's being hot and sweaty all the time.

But that talk had to wait for tomorrow.