Joxer and Gabrielle came into the town down the road the next day just around noon. Far from pretending that the meeting last night didn't happen, Gabrielle was going on and on about it to Joxer, who was slowly getting tired of hearing what a jerk Ares was.

"I mean I can't believe that he thought he could convince me to be a warlord just like that." The two had left their horses at the inn and were just walking around the center of town.

"Yeah, we've established that Ares is a jerk..." Joxer was interrupted by a small boy who was about seven years-old walking up to them.

"Excuse me sir and miss, are you talking about Ares the God of War?" He asked in a small voice. Gabrielle smiled at the sweet kid.

"Yes we were, why?" She asked.

"Because I think the God of War is the best god on Olympus! He's great. Do you know him? Have you ever met him?" The boy asked excitedly. Gabrielle and Joxer exchanged a look. So it was one of those children.

"I'll handle this Joxer." Gabrielle told him. Joxer nodded.

"So I'll...ah go over there to...get some food." Joxer left. Gabrielle knelt by the boy.

"Well...I...uh...have met Ares before." She started. The boy looked at her in awe.

"Um...I don't think you'll want to worship Ares," she told him tactfully.

"Why not? He's cool. What's he really like?" Gabrielle sighed; the boy was hanging on to her every word. She led him to a fountain in the center of town square, sat on the edge of it and pulled the boy up beside her.

"Um Ares is...uh." She tried a different track. "Well Ares isn't really... Ares..." Try as Gabrielle might, she couldn't think of anything suitable to say about the God of War in front of a child. "Well let's just say that Ares isn't...a...nice guy. What's your name?" She added when she realized that she hadn't asked the obvious question yet.

"Kavier." Gabrielle smiled at the boy.

"Well Kavier, I think the words `not nice' is best thing I can say about Ares."

"I'm crushed." Ares appeared sitting on the rim of the fountain on the other side of Kavier.

"Not really but you would be if you dropped a boulder over your head Ares." Gabrielle smiled sweetly at Ares over Kavier.

"Well..."

"You're Ares!?" Kavier's shout interrupted Ares's retort. Ares was about to tell the little worm to bug off when he realized that being nice to the kid might score some points with the bard.

"Yeah. Hi kid." Ares put out his hand and Kavier shook it.

"Kavier!" All three of them turned and saw a woman gesturing at the boy.

"Sorry, I've gotta go. My mom is calling me." Kavier skipped off. Just before he reached his mother he turned around a waved. Gabrielle waved back, turned and glared at Ares. Somewhat reluctantly Ares waved too.

"Guess what mom? I just met a god!" They could here Kavier talking excitedly to him mother as they walked back home. Smiling, Gabrielle turned and looked at Ares.

"That was nice Ares." Gabrielle screwed up her face in confusion and touched the back of her hand to his forehead. Ares reached up and pulled her hand away.

"What you think I can't be nice unless I'm sick?" Ares asked, standing up.

"Yes." Gabrielle shrugged as she also stood up. They both started walking towards the inn slowly.

"So how's your day?" Ares looked down at her.

"What do you want now?"

"Are you implying that I always want something?" Ares asked mockingly. Gabrielle looked at Ares.

"Okay, okay. But I swear, I don't want anything this time...well not really." Ares promised. Amazingly a part of Gabrielle actually believed him. They walked through the front door of the inn and she led him back to her room.

"Nice place," he said to make conversation.

"It looks exactly the same as the one I stayed in last night Ares," she reminded him.

"Oh...yeah." She shook her head at him.

"So what do you want?" Gabrielle smiled at him as she sat on the bed.

"If I said that I was...uh...attracted to you, would you believe me?" He asked, getting right to the point.

"No," she said quickly. He sighed.

"Well I am," he said, looking at her. She looked skeptical at first but then when she saw that he meant it her face brightened up with a million dollar smile.

"Really?"

"Yes, really." He sat down next to her and took her hands. They looked at each other for a while. "So..." He broke the silence.

"So..." Gabrielle wasn't really sure what to say.

"What now?"

"Well..." She thought. "I still have a few years before I want to get into a relationship, so I would say that we should wait a while longer before we...Can you do that?" It wasn't what he expected but he was happy with it.

"Sure." He stood up. "A year is nothing to a god. So what do we do until then?"

"We stay the same way we are now." She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Okay," he answered. Without any warning she stood up and jumped on him with her arms around his neck and legs around his waist.

"We'll start that after this." She told him, kissing the god. They stayed like that for a while before breaking off. He set her down on the bed again.

"Oh by the way Ares, when you were mortal, did you get injured really badly anytime?" She asked.

"No..." He replied slowly.

"Pity." She grinned at him and he grinned back.

"Gaining a bit of weight there aren't you blondie?" He asked. She picked up a pillow and threw it at the god.

"Until next time Gabrielle." He disappeared and the pillow hit the wall behind where he was standing.

~~~~~~~~~

'Oh bother,' thought Aphrodite, who was watching this scene from her temple.

"Now those two are going to flirt for a whole year," she muttered.

~~~~~~~~~

End

End Notes: Yes that's the end. Thanks again Gabs for doing the beta thing. Anyway I'm not writing a sequel to this because it's basically finished... not like some of the other G/A fics out there which end tragically. You know who I'm talking about... :)