Title: Strength Is A Virtue
Author: TW
Fandom: Xena/Hercules
Pairing: Ares/Joxer (implied C/S, Ap/H)
Rating: NC-17, as per request.
Disclaimer: Not mine. :’( I’m only playing. I’ll put ‘em back when I’m done. Promise.
Warnings: Smut. Lots of it.
Notes: Done for the AJCS Solstice Scribbler. Merry Christmas, whomever this is for!! 0.o I couldn’t get any of the bonus
challenges in…sorry, dear. It just didn’t fit. :P Also, this is coming out in two parts. I’m really sorry, I tried, but…
*sigh* Real Life just got in the way. It should be finished by this weekend. I really am sorry.
Dedication: For the person who asked for this in the first place, and for my son, Iain, who is, as always, my source of
inspiration, just by being there.
Part 1
@>~’~~
Aphrodite watched sadly as her brother moped down the walkway of his garden. It wasn’t very often that Ares went out there,
but when he did, ‘Dite usually took notice, since it meant that there was something on his mind.
She made her way into his garden, watching him all the while. ‘Dite came up to where Ares had stopped and sat down on a
stone bench. She sat down next to him, and put a hand on his arm.
“Ar? Is everything ok?” she asked softly.
Instead of getting a verbal response, Ares leapt up from the bench, and spun away. “Don’t!” he shouted, retreating across
the path.
Aphrodite was confused. “Don’t what?” she asked him, getting up, and walking towards her brother.
Ares backed away rapidly, almost tripping over his feet in his haste. That made Aphrodite pause, since she was obviously
distressing him.
“Don’t get near me. I don’t want to hurt you. I hurt anything I touch. Anyone. I don’t want it to be you. Go away,
just…just leave. Go. Please.”
Aphrodite stared at the babbling War God. This wasn’t like Ares. This wasn’t like him at all. Dite moved forward one step,
stopped herself, and sighed. “I’ll go, Ares. Call me if you need me.” She flashed out in a flurry of pink rose petals and
sparkles.
@>~’~~
“Cupid?” Aphrodite called, reappearing in her son’s temple.
She head masculine laughter down the hall, and headed towards the sound.
“Cupid?” she said again, knocking on a door from behind which the giggling seemed to be coming.
There was a rustle of movement, some footsteps, and the door cracked open. Cupid’s blonde head peaked around the corner.
“Yeah, mom?”
“We need to talk…something is up with Ares. Strife?” she called, raising her voice so that the other occupant in the room
could hear her. “I need you too, sweetie!”
“All right, ‘Dite. We’ll be right there.” The door shut suddenly, and more giggling came from the room.
Aphrodite smirked as she got a little zing of energy from those two, and went back to wait in the main temple space.
About ten minutes later, a rumpled looking Cupid and a satisfied looking Strife came into the temple proper.
“Now, what do you mean, Mom? Something’s up with Ares?” Cupid asked, materializing some wine and three goblets.
Aphrodite accepted the goblet she was handed. “I mean I was just over there. He wouldn’t let me touch him. Said something
about hurting anything or anyone that he touched.”
Strife’s expression suddenly got very dark, and he vanished without a word. Aphrodite and Cupid stared at the place he had
been, then at each other.
“When he looks like that, there’s usually a reason. I’d bet he’s gone to figure out what’s up,” Cupid said, then took a sip
of wine.
Aphrodite took a sip of her own wine. She dearly hoped that Strife could discover what was wrong with Ares. Having him
paranoid like that was just not a good thing.
@>~’~~
Strife reappeared in a clearing, down on Earth, somewhere in Greece. No mortal or god could see him, which was exactly how
he wanted it. He hunkered down and watched the five people in the clearing, hoping for a clue.
@>~’~~
“Gabby, could please pass me-“
“Joxer, I told you not to talk to me!”
“But I just-“
“I don’t care! Don’t talk to me!”
Joxer sighed. He knew that Gabrielle was mad about being knocked into the river, but he hadn’t done it on purpose. How was
he supposed to know that thug would be right there, and that he would trip and run into Gabby?
Iolaus sighed, and handed Joxer a piece of travel bread, which he was pretty sure the man had been about to ask for. Joxer
gave him a grateful smile, then ducked his head and went back to eating.
“Gabby, maybe you ought to be a little easier on Joxer,” murmured Xena, looking disapprovingly at her friend.
“Well, he should have been easier on me, and not knocked me into the river. It’s his fault I’m all wet. I don’t want him to
talk to me! Period!” said Gabby, angrily.
Strife shook his head from where he sat in a tree. The girl was just a harpy. That’s all there was to it. Now, all he had
to do was get Joxer’s attention, and get him away from the group. He materialized a rock that had a rune etched into it, and
tossed it towards the man.
*clunk*
“What was that?” asked Iolaus of Joxer, who looked a little confused, as the stone bounced off his back plate.
Joxer turned around and picked up the stone. He saw the rune, and knew immediately who had thrown it. “Uh…it’s nothing.
I’ll be right back. I’ve got to…uh…you know.”
Iolaus nodded, though not at all fooled, and turned back to the group. Joxer made his way into the woods near the clearing,
in the approximate direction of where he thought the stone had come from.
“Strife?” Joxer whispered, his entire demeanor changing. He stopped shuffling, straightened up, and seemed to start
radiating waves of reassurance.
Strife jumped down to the forest floor, cat-like, becoming visible as he did so. “Heya, Jox. We’ve got a problem.”
Joxer instantly came alert. As he did so, his armor shimmered away, leaving Joxer clad in leather pants and a white linen
shirt. “Is it Cupid? Bliss? What’s wrong?”
“They’re fine. It’s Ares. Somethin’ is up with him. ‘Dite went to talk to him, and he ran away from her, something about
hurting anyone or anything he touched.”
Joxer sighed. “I’d be willing to bet I know what brought this on. Let’s go, shall we?”
Strife nodded, and flashed away. Joxer followed, in a subdued flash of gold.
Iolaus blinked from where he was hidden behind a tree. Joxer? A God? A problem with Ares? This was shapping up to be an
interesting day.
@>~’~~
“Ar?” whispered Joxer softly, slowly walking towards the other god. He had appeared in Cupid’s temple, following Strife’s
power signature, and had gotten Aphrodite’s accounting of what had happened. He’d immediately left for his lover’s temple,
and hunted the other god down. He was now staring, heart-broken, at the man, curled up in one corner, rocking back and
forth, talking to himself.
“Ar?” he whispered again, coming a little closer. ‘Dite had warned him, but he was still unprepared for the violence of the
reaction that his approach caused.
Ares scrambled to his feet and scurried away, muttering, “No, don’t touch, can’t touch, hurt you, don’t want to hurt you,
bad, go, leave, no touch.”
Joxer sighed. This certainly seemed like what he half suspected, a curse laid by someone. The question was, laid by who and
how did he fix it?
Ares had curled up in another corner, and was once again muttering to himself. Joxer sighed again, and snapped his fingers.
All at once, both Ares and Joxer were in Ares bedroom. Ares was laying on the bed, belly up, arms and legs shackled with
Hephastian chains. This was going to take some work.
@>~’~~
tbc