C&C leads to joy, joy leads to inspiration, inspiration leads to more fics

<Part 1>
 

    Upon Olympus, eyes are always watching you. Each God waiting for another to err and a chance to step up the social ladders of the Greek pantheon. Only a very few are exempt from the power mad struggles. Zeus and his children, the elder Gods like Tythes and Gaea, and those such as Strife and Cupid who are loyal to their father and to themselves.

    Of course, just because these Gods do not seek more power, doesn't mean that they aren't targeted by those who do. Even the strongest God lets their guard down at least one fatal time. Ares was not the first to learn this the hard way, although his story is by far one of the more interesting.

    The first part in this story that makes it different from the others is a mortal. A clumsy mortal with a heart bigger than all of Greece, and an undying devotion to his God.
___________________________

    "Here fishy fishy. . ." Joxer grinned and shot his hands into the water.

    Xena and Gabriel watched with annoyance as his foot slipped and he fell head first into the river. "JOXER!!!"

    He looked up from under his soaked hair and blinked, "Gabby?"

    "You scared all the fish away you idiot!"

    Xena sighed, "We have two already Gabriel."

    "Well don't expect me to offer mine to that clutz, this is only twentyith time this month."

    Joxer watched them two women walk back to their camp and slowly stood. A tiny wriggle in his shirt made him pause and he reached into the twisted cloth to pull out a small trout. He smiled softly, "At least I'm eating tonight."

    Xena and Gabriel weren't always nice to him. Not at all nice mostly. . . and they didn't really treat him like a friend, I mean what kind of friends would allow their friend to chew on twigs for a week because they wouldn't share their meals and he found fishing nearly impossible? Still they at least let him tag along and that was more than anyone else had ever done for him, so why should he give up what little the Gods had offered him? It was something. He was greatful.

    A low groan upset his introspect and Joxer searched the area until he saw a flash of pale skin amongst the briars on the other side of the river. "Hello?"

    Another pain racked groan.

    "Hang on! I'm coming!" He speared his fish onto a stick and forged across the water carefully. "I'm coming!"

    The briars cut his hands as he pulled them away from the prone form and he found himself staring at tight, curly black hair mottled with blood, and a very familiar face. "Ares!"
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    Ares was in pain. Not God-like pain, this was bone deep mortal agony! What had happened?! The last thing he recalled was his temple on Olympus, he had just returned from battle and sat his sword down to clean his armor. . . //My Sword!//

    Sure enough his link to the powers of war, his sword was gone. Mortal. //No I can't be. . .// He truggled to sit up and growled at the pain lacing his whole body. //Damn it! Damn it to Hades.//

    "Ares?"

    //Oh great! Just great! Someone who knows me found me! This is going to be pleasent!//

    "It's ok. I've got you. Can you sit up if I help a little? I cooked a fish for you, it's small but it'll help you get your strength back."

    Kindness was not what the God had been expecting. He struggled to open his eyes and groaned when the light hit them, but then he was shaded. He looked up into a concerned and familiar face. "You. . ."

    "Shh! Don't talk! You need to drink something first, your throat is all dry."

    Ares nodded and allowed Joxer to lean him against a tree before running to the river and returning with his hands cupped, holding the water. He placed them at Ares' lips and smiled unsurely, "I know that my hands are a big drop from the golden cups I've seen you use, but I don't have any cups, not even wooden ones. I'm sorry."

    Ares drank from the cupped hands and closed his eyes again.

    "Are you hungry? I cooked that fish. Here."

     The God of War found himself being fed like a child from the hands of his daughter's pet fool. Gods how low had he fallen! //I have to regain my sword.//

    "Xena and Gabby are leaving now, I made them angry again. I'll stay with you though, I'll help you get well again."

    "Tired." He murmered and instantly Joxer was at his side, lowering him onto the bedrole he'd laid out.

    "Sleep well My lord."
____________________

    Joxer's stomach was aching so badly it was hard for him to keep walking, let alone to help Ares walk, but he kept going, telling himself that it was only a little further to the cottage Ares was directing them to. The power reserves of his Aunt Hestia. According to Xena each God had a special place where they kept their excess power and went to recharge. Most didn't let the other Gods know of their place but Ares and Hestia were more close than most.

    When the small, thatch roofed cottage came into view Joxer almost moaned in relief. So close.

   An older woman with a distinctly nurturing look came out of the door with a startled exclamation. "Ares! What happened to you?!"

    The God was unconcious again so she lead Joxer inside and let him lay him on the bed of the guest room. The mortal refused to leave until he was sure that his God needed nothing. Then he was pulled into the main room by the Goddess of the Home fires.

    "What happened?"

    "I found him by the river, he led me here."

    "That's a five day walk."

    "His powers aren't working, he can't . . . do the God thing."

    "You carried him all the way, didn't you." She smiled softly and Joxer found himself blushing, he'd never had a grandmother who cared for him, and Hestia's soft question made him long for a real family. //Ares must take this for granted, having so many reletives who care like this.//

    "Actually, Ares is quite a lone wolf." She smiled.

    Joxer blushed, if she could read his thought then. . .

    "It's alright." She hugged him, "You helped Ares. You're very welcome here. Almost family."

    "Tha. . . Thank you. Is Ares. . ."

    "He'll heal just fine. You did the right thing bringing him here."

    "I guess I'll go now. I. . . he's safe right?"

    "He is safe."

    Joxer made one step towards the door and felt the room spin as he crumbled, oblivion calling. Darkness without pain. He welcomed it.
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    Ares opened his eyes slowly and found Hestia sitting by the bed side. Joxer lay prone beside him and the goddess was running a cool cloth over his face.

    "What happened to him?" He asked.

    She smiled, "Ah. You're awake. Feeling better? That knock on your head was a bad one."

    "I feel fine." He swallowed and lay back as the room wavered before him, "Just a little dizzy."

    She nodded and handed him a cup of wine, "It was the poison. Someone tried very hard to make you dead nephew."

    "My sword. . ."

    "Is lost. It's been the talk of Olympus. Discord tried to steal it and. . ."

    "She did this?!"

    "She tried. The power was too much. She's dead."

    Ares snarled, "Good riddance!"

    "After it blasted her back into the elements, the sword vanished. There's a search going on now, but no luck so far."

    "Damn it! I need. . ."

    Hestia pushed him back to the bed and glarred at him in all her motherly glory, "You will stay in bed until the wound heals. Mortals are fragile Ares, and for now, you are mortal."

    "What happened to . . . the mortal who found me?"

    "Joxer." She offered.

    "Joxer."

    "He was exhausted and undernourished. He hasn't eaten in ten days and he must have kept guard over you all night and day since he found you. He just collapsed and hasn't woken up since."

    "Why. . .?"

    "Some mortals are very caring creatures."

    "He fed me. Every night." Ares contemplated this and frowned softly. Why would a mortal do something so kind for a God who'd only caused him and his companions pain.

    Hestia smiled. "Sometimes, mortals are more Godlike than we are." Was her soft answer and Ares was left with a peculiar feeling in his chest. //What is wrong with me?//

<Part 2>
 

    Joxer woke slowly, the world carefully righting itself until it looked the way it should. He rolled onto his belly and pushed himself up reeling from the dizzy pain. Swaying unsteadily, the mortal did manage to get off of the bed. . . Before Hestia pushed him right back down onto it.

    "Wha. . ."

    "You need to rest. And eat. Here." the matronly Goddess helped him to sit up and offered him some nourishment. "I don't quite understand what you did to yourself. Could you explain it too me?"

    "What?"

    "You hadn't eaten for ten days when you came here."

    "I guess. . . I mean I try 'not' to dwell on it when it happens."

    "This happens a lot?"

    Joxer shrugged, "I'm not good a fishing and Xena and Gabriel can't share with me because I scare the fish away and they only have enough for them. . . that sounds a lot worst when I tell it to someone."

    "Oh I'd say it sounds like it is." The Goddess of hearth fires' eyes were burning.

    "Xena has a lot on her mind! And Gabriel needs her strength to keep up with Xena. They don't mean anything by it."

    "And what of you?"

    "I get to tag along sometimes. It's enough."

    "Is it now?"

    Joxer blushed, "I thought I loved Gabriel for a long time. . . but she . . . I'm through with that."

    "You've been hurt."

    "It's no big deal. How is Ares? Is he going to be ok?"

    Hestia smiled, "He's gone to lecture his daughter about caring for his followers."

    Joxer jumped up and vaulted to the end of the bed. He tripped and tangled in the bed clothes and ended up somersaulting onto his face and skiding across the floor.

    "Child you can't get out of bed yet, you aren't well."

    "He can't! He can't go anywhere near Xena! She'll kill him!"

    The Goddess smiled, "You truly care about him."

    "He's my God!"

    "He is mortal now."

    "He's still my God."

    Hestia was very pleased with that answer. Ares had been alone much too long and it looked like now he had finally stumbled upon someone who could care for him unconditionally and did. Now if only they could get through this without Xena killing the presently mortal God of War.

    "Please, bring him back." Joxer pleaded and Hestia smiled soft. "Please?"

    "Will you sleep if I bring him back here?"

    "Yes."

    She walkd into the other room and snapped her fingers and Ares stood slightly stunned and highly aggitated before her. "Done."

    "What In the Underworld are you doing?! Why did you bring me back?!"

    "Joxer needs you." Hestia said it quietly and Ares immidiately went silent.

    "What happened?"

    "He was worried about you."

    "Stupid mortal! What right does he have to worry about a God?!"

    "He can't sleep until he knows you're safe, and he can't heal if he doesn't sleep."

    Ares nodded. If Hestia said something was necisarry then it was. She was the only goddess he had even known who didn't play games. He quietly walked into the spare room and crouched beside the mortal who was still sprawled out painfuly on the floor in a twist of blankets.

    "Ares!? You can't go to Xena! I don't want . . ." He grimaced in pain and Ares scooped him up into his arms. The God deftly untangled his would-be protector and lay him carefully onto the bed once again before opening the sheet over him and tucking him in safe.

    "You shouldn't get so worked up. You're horribly malnurished, I don't see what you were thinking, mortal! One day without food would not have killed me you know."

    "But you needed it, the poison. . . I didn't know what to do, so I tried to keep you strong."

    "At your own expence."

    "Not a great expence."

    "I will be the judge of that."

    "Sorry."

    Ares' face lightened a bit and he shook his head, "You are such an odd mortal."

    "Oh." Joxer tried to keep his eyes open but with a full belly and a soft bed for the first time in so long, it was a loosing battle. He just didn't want to break the fragile friendship Ares was showing him. Didn't want to leave Ares.

    "Sleep." The mortal-God smiled softly, "I'll be here."

    Joxer yawned and blinked up at him blurrily, "You won't go away again?"

    "Xena can wait."

    "Thank you." He was asleep almost as soon as the words had left his mouth.
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    Hestia nodded at her nephew as she entered the room with food for the three of them an hour later. "He should be eating too. He's too skinny."

    "He isn't skinny, he's slim."

    The elder woman smiled, "Oh Ares, you really have it bad don't you."

    "What?"

    She smiled in understanding, "He has a . . . unique look to him. But the real prize is his heart. Such kindness and still capable of even more."

    Ares nodded absently then his eyes shot wide open and he spun to face his Aunt, "What are you suggesting?!"

    "That maybe a mortal has touched you more deeply than any God has."

    "You mean love."

    "Perhaps in time, for know, compassion. caring."

    "I am War! I don't do compassion and caring and I definitly don't do love!"

    "If that were true you would be a very shallow God Ares." Hestia kissed his cheek. "When he wakes up, see if you can get him to eat a little bit, then maybe you could offer a token to him for saving you."

    "I don't have my powers."

    "I don't think you will need them for what he will request."

    "How. . .?"

    "Trust me."
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    Ares thought about what his Aunt had said to him, but he couldn't quite touch her meaning. Was she suggesting that he might 'care' for Joxer?! Xena's little tag-along? It didn't even merit thought! Did it?

    He looked at the sleeping human and tried to sort out what he felt. Hestia was wrong about his apperance. The young man was slim and well muscled, strong if clumsy, but endearing. His mouth looked wide when he was constantly moving it, but now that the lips were closed, it wasn't large at all, in fact, the slightly thin, soft lips and the laugh lines framing it made it look boyish and imp like. Tempting even. The jaw was strong and sported an endearing cleft, the face slim and clear skinned. His nose was nicely proportioned but bent a bit in the middle where it must have been broken at one time. His forehead looked too high but only beacuse of the way his hair was cut. Ares was tempted to lengthen it then realised that he was as good as mortal for the time being. Still, all and all the mortal looked almost handsome without his ridiculous armor on. That would be, Ares thought, the first thing to go.

    //What am I thinking?! The first thing to go? Do I think I'm keeping the dolt?!// He stood angrily and stomped to the window. He wasn't angry at Joxer though. He was upset with himself. //I have been alive for centuries and I'm contemplating a mortal like a fledgling with his first lover. Disgusting! War shouldn't feel tender emotion. It isn't part of who I am!//

    Joxer stirred slightly as if Ares very thoughts were loud enough to wake him, "L . . . lord Ares?"

    "How do you feel?"

    "Better." He smiled softly and blushed a bit. "I didn't mean to burden you."

    "You would rather have feinted on some road side?"

    "It's happened before."

    Ares grit his teeth, "Xena. . ."

    "No! It was my fault! I. . . I'm just really clumsy."

    "No you aren't."

    Joxer gave him a look that said Ares was being thick.

    The God decided to change to subject, "Aunt Hestia said I should offer you a token for helping me."

    "Oh! No! I don't need anything!"

    "There has to be something."

    Joxer thought a moment and looked up hopefully, "Could you not confront Xena while you're mortal?"

    "WHAT?!"

    He flinched and closed his eyes tight, waiting to be hit, "I don't want her to hurt you, or you to hurt her."

    All of the rage vanished and Ares looked at the trembling mortal in wonder. //I offered him a token, and he used it to help me. Such a human I have never known before.// "Granted."

    Joxer lept up and grabbed Ares in a strong hug, "Thank you!"

    The God stiffened and looked down at the still healing man child before him. His heart seamed to melt layer by layer and finally, hesitently, he returned the hug. "You are welcome."
 
 

~tbc~