Just One of Those Days

Disclaimer: Blah. Blah. Not mine or yours, I think they're Universal's.

Warnings: Subtext, maybe, perhaps.

Summary: Xena is having a bad day and Gabrielle tries to help her out of it. Set in the early seasons when Gabrielle still has her staff.

In a green shady forest, in a valley of Greece, a woman sits calmly breathing in meditation. Her thoughts are blank and she feels a strange calm in the world around her. The rustle of the leaves, the gentles caresses of the wind. She can smell the faint anise that hangs in the air that is a result of her trudging through some bushes earlier. She waits calmly for Xena who she spotted quite a way back, walking along the path up to the forest. This is their usual designated spot to meet. It is off the beaten path of where two paths of different sections of a nearby village meet. One goes toward the marketplace and the other to their trusted blacksmith. On their travels passing through this area, they never hesitate to do some needed resupplying. Xena gets Argo new horseshoes, and Gabrielle gets more supplies for the healer bag and for their meals. Xena usually takes longer of the two. She often shows up last. This particular day is no exception.

Xena's steps are heavy and a scowl inhabits her beautifully sculpted face. The blond sitting in the forest already senses her mood and can hear it in her steps. She remains seated meditating and her eyes still closed, but she greets her friend.

"Xena. Thought you'd never make it." she attempts to hide a smile tugging at her lips, delighted in her friends return.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm here. You should be glad Greece is still standing." the dark irritable warrior complains.

"Sethos give you a hard time about pushing Argo too hard?" she asks, looking up from her meditation pose on the ground.

"No, it's not that. I ran into a couple that just annoyed me. I don't know, maybe I'm just having a bad day, but they just irked everything in me." the warrior answers, gritting her teeth. She pauses for a moment as if trying to calm her eagerness to destroy things. With closed eyes and a clenched fist, she continues.

"Do you ever feel like you just want to hole up in a castle, surrounded by a moat with crocodiles? You know, keep the outside world away?" the tall woman muses.

"No, can't say that has crossed my mind. Why?" the blond pushes the question, a bit worried for her friend's mood.

"I just feel like people disappoint me. I try to like them at first, but the more I get to know about them, I just find so many things that I can't understand." Xena explains, hoping to put to words her feelings.

The blond adopts a look of concern and places her hand onto Xena's boot, hoping to make a connection to her. "What happened?"

The brunette sighed deeply and continued, "I've seen worse bloodthirsty warriors, but at least you know what to expect from them. It's when you don't expect it that it cuts so deep."

Gabrielle patted and lightly grazed her hand on the side of Xena's leg, hoping to coax the words from her.

"A few leagues back, a group of bandits surrounded a couple and had them at knife point."

"Did you stop the bandits?"

"Of course. It's not the bandits that bothered me it was.." Xena mumbles and her voice begins to taper off so much that Gabrielle doesn't hear any of the rest of the statement.

Gabrielle rolls her eyes in response. "Xena, you know I didn't hear any of that."

Xena begins again, "What bothered me was not that they were ungrateful- which they weren't by the way- it was that they treated me like less than a person for what I do and have done. At first they were really grateful and treated me nicely. But then, they asked me my name and I told them. At that point, they told me how it was wrong to live the way I do."

Gabrielle lifted her brows in confusion, unsure what was meant by the couple's words. Xena, noticing, began to clarify.

"You know. A woman traveling, being a warrior, who is not settled down and raising kids at my age." Xena explains, huffing and pacing along with her annoyance. "Sometimes I just want to run them all through with my..."

"Now Xena. Let's not be rash, people tend to be ignorantly hurtful. Sometimes they don't even realize it. I just really think we have to turn a blind eye sometimes. Otherwise, we could lose our temper and what then; people end up crucified, and their heads on the end of spears. Forgive and forget, I say." Gabrielle smiles, hoping to calm the beast that was pacing underneath Xena's skin. Gabrielle feels calm and collected and hopes to share the feeling with her friend who will probably snap at any moment.

"Ignorant is not the word I would use, I think I prefer the word assho-" the brunette began, but was cut off by her companion.

"Xena, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all." Gabrielle interjects, hoping to hone Xena's patience and help her calm.

Reaching for her friend, she pulled her by a leather strip of her skirt and forced her to sit cross legged beside her. A sneer formed on the brunette's face as she shook in her anger and irritation.

"This really is not going to help. Meditation is not going to help me right now. I'm so angry I could.." the warrior mumbled through a clenched jaw.

"People get caught up in thinking that the way things work in their mind, is how everything should be. They try to enforce it all around them. Unfortunately they start to hurt people in the process. All you have to do is remind them that they have stepped out of line."

Xena pauses her friend's words by placing her fingers onto her friend's forearm, as the sound of a wagon came closer, interrupting their chat. Getting to her feet to see the passer-by, she scrunches her nose in distaste when she realizes it was the couple she had been talking about. Even worse, they were coming their way. She did her best not to fume when she finds them right alongside their position just off the beaten path.

"Ho there Xena! I thought you might be headed back to your home. You know, if you wait too long, the part of you that make babies will shrivel with age." The man spoke, as he talked down to her. "And who is this young girl, is this your sister?"

"Does she look like my sister?" Xena tersely responded, attempting to keep her anger in check.

"Oh then, this must be Gabrielle." he continued, "I've heard of her as well. She is your travel companion."

Gabrielle, upon hearing her name actually being known, jumped up from her spot in the grass and greeted them with a smile.

"Yes, that's me! I chronicle all Xena's exploits." she announced with a smile.

The wife of the man scooted close up to get a closer look at her. "You know, young lady, you ought to stay away from her." the lady began, motioning in the direction of the scowling warrior.

"She's a bad influence. It's not natural what she does. She's not natural. I'm pretty sure you will probably end up one of her her exploits. Then you'll be a used maiden no one will want. I mean, look at you, you are already on a path to Tartarus." the woman stated.

"Oh, no, we help people in need. We live a life of adventure. It's actually really nice." Gabrielle explained.

The woman looked her up and down disdainfully and zeroed in on the blond's exposed stomach. "That's not ladylike at all. Muscles are for the menfolk. Women should be soft, dainty, and proper. You would do well to find a man to take care of you, this warrior doesn't seem to. She could never provide you a home or a family"

Gabrielle's blood began to simmer, she was all for staying calm and giving people the benefit of the doubt, but this woman had crossed a line. Not only was this stranger insulting her, but she was insulting Xena too, and their way of life. She knew their life wasn't perfect, but she had grown to love it and she cherished every bit of it together. The young woman decided it was time for her to make this woman see the error of her ways.

"What you are saying is not very nice. Just because you think there is a certain way a woman should live doesn't mean we have to live by your rules. I suggest you keep your close minded words to yourself. In fact, why don't you continue on." the blond said the through gritted teeth hoping the couple would take their leave.

"Well, why I never!" the woman spoke, lifting her nose in the air. "You obviously don't know what you are missing. It's nice to be taken care of and not worry about being on the road. I don't understand why you would rather travel with this murderer."

She could see Xena's countenance change from anger to a bit of sadness. Xena had been really sensitive lately about not being able to protect Gabrielle from hardships, and the idiotic comments of the woman cut especially deep in light of all the trials they had been facing. The expression and sadness on her friend's face flipped a switch in the blond. The hurtful and ignorant statements combined together loosed her tongue of wrath and a fierce protective streak.

"Look, if you don't have anything nice to say. You should keep your mouth shut. You should be so lucky that Xena here came to rescue you, since your husband wasn't doing so well now, was he?" the strawberry blond accused.

"We don't need to follow any guidelines of how you think we should live our life. We live it as we see fit, and none of your ignorant comments is going to change that." Gabrielle pointedly informed them.

"Oh and.." Pulling a stunt surprising Xena and even herself, she took a step that was sure to shock the two. "Besides, I don't need anyone else. Xena is an amazing woman. She gives me all I've ever needed and more." she announced with a wink, before pulling Xena down to her by the breastplate and engaging her in a quick, quite rough, but pleasurable kiss. Pulling quickly away from the dizzying kiss, but still intent in her actions of ridding themselves of the couple, Gabrielle raised her staff and aimed it at the husband's throat.

"Now get the hades out of here before I beat you with my staff." the young woman threatened.

The husband and wife reacted in a haughty expression combined with outrage at Gabrielle's words and actions. It seemed they still thought they were right and nothing had been learned, but they moved their cart forward and away from the two women, because of Gabrielle's words.

Xena stood by as the cart passed, stunned. What had just happened? Did the bard just do that? Simultaneously the strawberry blond wondered to herself the same thing. She quickly shook off the feeling and tried to change the subject.

"I think you've got the right idea of wanting to go into hiding. What's say you and me find a nice spot in the forest and start digging out a moat?" the younger woman offered, still shaking in anger. She was a bit embarrassed that she herself was now fuming after just giving Xena a lecture on patience and forgiveness, but the couple had touched a nerve when they spoke ill of Xena.

"Actually Gabrielle. I think I've changed my mind." the older woman responded.

The blond turned with a look of incredulity to her friend and questioned the change right off. "What? But these thickheaded jerks are a dime a dozen. Right now I'm really ready to become a hermit." Gabrielle answered, all previous sense of peace gone because of the incident.

"Well, Gabrielle. If I was a hermit, I would have never met you, now, would I?" Xena said, placing her hand onto Gabrielle's shoulder and bestowing a sweet smile to her friend. "I think venturing out into a world populated by morons is not so bad with you by my side."

The kind words melted the anger thrumming through the bard. She gave the warrior a side hug for her off hand comment and leaned her head onto the armored shoulder.

Looking up at the warrior, Gabrielle blushed happily. Both their angry or unhappy moods were successfully lifted. They stood waving at the offensive couple from afar.

They both were filled with the thought that it was a thing of beauty to find solace in each other from the world at large. As long as they had each other, no ignorant or close minded individual could hurt them.

The End