More Trouble 2


By Briar

>

Disclaimer: I own no rights whatsoever to any characters from Xena: 
Warrior Princess, I am only borrowing them for the length of this story. 
This story is for the amusement and entertainment of my friends in the Ares 
and Xena Shippers club. I promise to return the characters intact when I am 
finished with them. I am making no money from this story.

The kidnapping of the children was the major topic of conversation for weeks thereafter. Strangers were checked out very carefully until their motives for being in town were proved to be ordinary and innocuous. It was strange to see how protective everyone was of the resident terrors. You'd almost think they belonged to every villager at once, which in a way they did. They had somehow become mascots for the town. Every prank was discussed in detail at every opportunity. Elderly women who had dealt with similar escapades in the past were quick to give advice. Younger women thanked the gods that their children weren't like them.

Ares came to call, and was discussing the problems he had been having with his granddaughter Laurel. "She needs someone to play with, I wonder if you'd allow me to take the two little ones for a weekend visit with her?" he asked finally. The three women looked at each other for a moment, then three heads began to shake while laughter bubbled up and out. "Have you any idea what you're letting yourself in for?" Xena asked at last. "I'm the God of War, I'm used to handling several wars at once, how much trouble can two children be?" "With the addition of Laurel, you're talking about three children. Each child you add, multiplies the problems you're letting yourself in for." Cyrene returned. "You don't have eyes ;in the back of your head, and there's no way you by yourself can watch three of them." Gabrielle added. The discussion went on for quite a while, and finally the women agreed. "But if you run into trouble, call for help." Xena added as he was leaving with the children. They were really excited at the prospect of staying with their friend Ares for a couple of days.

The first hour or so was all right, the children getting to know each other. Ares had been forced to restrict Laurel's power so that she couldn't throw fireballs at the mortal children, and had also told her repeatedly that she was to take it easy on them because of their mortal status. He informed her that these were the children of a friend of his, and he didn't want them hurt. She nodded her head in understanding, then promptly forgot his admonishments. She was only four, so it is no surprise, like others her age she had a short attention span. They had played rough and tumble games for a while, then demanded a story. Ares had told them a long drawn out story that had promptly put Jeb to sleep. He was sitting on Ares lap at the time, and after a while Ares felt a warm wet feeling on his leg. Jeb was only potty trained during the day, he still occasionally wet the bed if he was very tired. He was exhausted at the moment and had done what came naturally. The odor was easily identifiable and Ares gave a snort of disgust.

Ares snapped his fingers and both of them were dry again. He noticed that the odor lingered, so he snapped his fingers again....and again...finally the odor was gone. He carried Jeb into a room next to his. There were three small beds in the room. One bed for each child, with a washstand, a dresser and wardrobe to complete the furnishings. The furniture was all white. The colors here were pastels. He knew that Laurel hated the black in his room. She said it was too gloomy. Daphne had decorated the room with floral bedspreads on two of the beds and a plaid on the last one. They were in pastels of all the primary colors. The walls were a pale green, and the curtains were in the floral material of the bedspreads. Jeb was asleep, so he didn't care, but the girls loved it. Ares himself found it much too bright and cheerful.

The girls were getting along fairly well but Jeb, being so much younger, was feeling a little left out. He suddenly burst into tears and grabbed Ares by the leg. As the tears continued, his nose began to run, he simply wiped it off on the leather pants. Ares groaned, this was not going like he had expected. He gathered Jeb up into his arms, snapped his fingers to dry his pants, then took Jeb into the throne room for a while. He began telling him stories about where some of the weapons had come from, and who they had belonged to. About this time there were bloodcurdling shrieks from the other room. He jumped to his feet with Jeb on his hip and ran to discover the cause of the noise. The girls were shrieking in laughter. They had started tickling each other. For a moment there, his heart had skipped a beat, fear had struck a serious blow. He ordinarily had no fear for himself, but if anything had happened to any of these children, He would have been in deep doodoo. The families of all three children would have been out for his hide.

Things got reasonably quiet until after lunch. The children had then gone out into the gardens to play. Ares was using his mirror to check on a couple of wars in progress when a priest ran in with a frantic "My Lord Ares. The girls have climbed up into one of the fruit trees. They're too high for us to reach. Now Eve is afraid to climb back down. She is crying out for her mother. What should we do?" Ares gave a last disgusted look at the mirror then disappeared into the garden. As he appeared he could see the crowd gathered at the foot of a large fruit tree. How in Tartarus had they gotten to the first branches. As he got closer, he saw the upturned basket at the base of the tree, and saw the answer to his question. He strode firmly into the group. As various priests and priestesses noticed him, they fell back and allowed him free access to the base of the tree. From this position he could see two small girls up twelve or thirteen feet into the upper branches of the tree. The branches that high were much too small for an adult to use to reach the children. He climbed as high as he could, and called to Laurel to come to him. She hesitated for a moment, then began to feel her way back down. He told her where to put her feet, and she soon was within reach. He grasped her firmly and transported them both to the ground.

He then returned to the tree and called to Eve. She just clung on tighter and whimpered. He moved just a little higher, and encouraged her to be a big girl like Laurel. She peeked over her arm at him. "That's right, you're a big enough girl to do the same thing Laurel did. Come on, I'll tell you where the branches are, and you can just climb down to me. I'll carry you to the ground just like I did for her. The branches she was holding to were swaying in the wind from her weight, slight as it was, which did nothing for her peace of mind. He told her where the next lower branch was, and she slowly shifted her weight to feel for it. She found it easily, lowered her body by that much, and began to feel less fearful. He directed her to the next branch, then the next. Soon she was within reach. He grabbed her firmly, told her to let go, then transferred them both to the garden path. Jeb was waiting anxiously when they arrived. He ran over, hugged Eve, then hugged Ares.

It seemed to Ares that nothing more could go wrong. He was mistaken. It was only a short while later that the girls got into a fight. Jeb trying to stop them wound up on the floor, crying. Ares parted the participants, sat them both down in chairs, and told them to stay there for a while. He then lifted Jeb into his arms and comforted him. He was going to be very glad when this weekend was over. His nerves were becoming more and more frazzled. Supper time finally arrived, and they all sat at the large dining room table. It was only moments before the girls started a food fight which Jeb was more than happy to join. Food flew in all directions. They were using spoons as missile launchers. They suddenly stopped, looked at each other and grinned. The next assault was on Ares. All three of them mixed mashed potatoes with peas and let fly. He spluttered at the first incoming volley, then jumped to his feet and bellowed as the second volley arrived. "That's enough! Stop this behavior at once. We don't play with our food at this table." Three small heads ducked, three small lower lips stuck out, and three children began to cry. He was flabbergasted.

After supper Ares told them some stories. He took them all back to his quarters and sat them down on the twin divans. He provided glasses of milk, cookies, and some little cakes. The children were on their best behavior. It had taken him quite a while to get them to stop crying earlier and he had wound up feeling like a bully while they continued. It took a while before he noticed them grinning behind his back. He happened to look in the mirror just as Laurel and Eve exchanged grins. As he began to turn, they started whimpering again, but he wasn't fooled any longer. He informed them that he had seen the grins, and he wasn't going to play their games any longer. They had looked at each other and shrugged. It had been worth a try.

They had gone to bed quietly and gone right to sleep. It had been a very busy and exhausting day. The next day had gone much better all morning, but by the afternoon, they were back to their old tricks. They scrapped about everything. Even Jeb got involved. He took one of Laurel's favorite toys and hid it. She looked everywhere but couldn't find it. Then she got angry and slapped him. He started screaming until Ares arrived to see what the problem was. Ares soon found the toy and gave it back to Jeb. This set Laurel into a temper tantrum, "It's my toy and I want it back." she insisted. Ares informed her that slapping Jeb had been a mistake, and that she was being punished for it. Jeb gave a little grin and began playing with the toy. He tossed it in the air several times, then *accidentally* dropped it on the floor. It broke. Laurel began screaming again, and Ares returned to find out what happened. When he saw the broken toy he looked hard at Jeb who said "It was a accident," Ares picked up the toy, which reassembled in his hands, and put it away.

The day went downhill after that. Nothing seemed to go right. Ares was about to tear his hair out when Evander and Daphne arrived suddenly. Was he ever glad to see them. Laurel came running to see her parents, while the other two stood to one side. She told them that she had been having a great time with Eve and Jeb. Her mother looked questioningly at Ares, who grinned and shrugged. The other two were called over to be introduced. Laurel was on her best behavior and called each child by name as she presented them to her parents. Eve greeted them cordially, but Jeb was suddenly shy. He stood there looking at the floor. Daphne squatted before him, until he was forced to look up. She then greeted him formally. He suddenly grinned and hugged her. This came as a complete surprise to everyone. After the introductions were over, Ares prepared to return the two visitors.

When he arrived with the two children he found the three women nearly in hysterics. They had been discussing all the possible problems he might have had. He assured them that he had no problems over the weekend, but they didn't believe him. They knew the children much too well for that and had heard too many stories from Ares himself about the behavior of Laurel , his granddaughter, to even begin to believe him. They began to question the children and soon had a much better idea of what had actually happened.

Later that evening, as Xena was spending time with Ares, she asked him to tell her the truth. He tried to dismiss the whole subject at first, but had finally given in and told her some of the events of the weekend. "I thought so. I really couldn't see them behaving for anyone, not even the God of War. I'm glad you got through it without any major problems. She then kissed him on the end of the nose. He raised one eyebrow in query. She grinned at him and kissed him on the eyebrow. He bent and kissed her throat. Working his way down, he soon had her at a fever pitch. She was returning kiss for kiss until they got down to some serious loving. Much later she was laying in his arms and started laughing again. She informed him that what had happened with the children was nowhere near as bad as she, Cyrene, and Gabrielle had imagined. Then she began to fill him in on the scenarios they had thought of. He groaned, then began to laugh. She was right, it could have been somuch worse.

TBC