DISCLAIMERS: I don't own any Xena character, Universal / MCA / RenPics does. The story is mine, mine, mine.

There is a bit of harsh language, and it's alt, but no sex. You've been warned... ;)

I actually started this story at the beginning of 2001 and in a rush, I finished it one slow night at work, the same night I wrote Conversations with Myself.

"Family" by Magenta
copyright 2001 Kimyoo Films
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"Xena...I have to tell her at some point. I'd rather her hear it from me than from, well, ANYone else!"

The warrior looked at the bard with that "Are you sure...?" question shining in her crystalline blue eyes.

"Yes, of course I'm sure...I'm not THAT impetuous..."

Xena nearly laughed out loud at that, and Gabrielle noticed. Xena covered herself by saying, "I just want to make sure that you know what you're doing...what might happen. That's all."

"I know, and I thank you, but I've been mulling this over for a while now and made a vow that the next time we were in Poteidaia, I'd tell them about us.
"Would YOU rather I not?"

Xena approached her lover and wrapped her arms around her, then pulled back to look into Gabrielle's clear green eyes. "You know the answer to that. When it comes to friends and family, anything goes, but everyone else? They don't need to know."

The bard rolled her eyes in annoyed playfulness. "Then trust me...I really want to tell her. I figure, I'll tell Lila cuz who knows what she'll think and it'll give me practice for mother whom I'll tell next, then I'll tell father because he'll be the hardest sell."

Xena hugged the blonde again and after a long moment, the bard pulled away. "If I don't do it now, I never will. Wish me luck, Xena!"

The stoic warrior blew Gabrielle a kiss, surprising and pleasing the young woman, then walked away to tend to Argo. It had only been a few moons since she and Gabrielle had become lovers in the physical sense of the word, but in that time, the willful bard had opened the dark warrior's soul, taken what she wanted and replaced what she took with pieces of herself, a trade Xena considered more than fair.

"I'm worried, Argo...what if Lila is less than accepting? What if she's so loud in berating her sister the next five villages hear? What if Hecuba and Heroditus search out my mother, whom I have yet to tell, by the way, and they come up with some sort of plan to...do whatever it would be that they'd do?"

*****

"Hi Lila!" the bard said as she walked into the family home, unannounced. She found that sometimes it was the best way to deal with Xena's inevitable presence: just surprise 'em.

"GAB!!" her brunette sister shouted as she dropped the dishes she was washing and ran over to her sister to envelop her in a hug. "When did you get here? How long are you staying? Where's Xena? Mom and dad are gonna be so happy to see you!!"

"Just now, a day or two for their anniversary, putting Argo up in the stables and where ARE mom and dad?" the bard asked when she didn't hear her mother squeak in happiness or her father grumble about the bastard warrioress infecting their barn with her presence.

Lila sat them both down and replied, "Well, it being their anniversary and all, dad took mom to a play...one of YOUR plays, by the way, that is traveling around."

Gabrielle frowned. "One of my plays?"

"Well, it's based on your scrolls...I think the company calls themselves Troupe Salmonella? Samsonite? Fer the love of Mnemosyne, what's that guy's name...?"

"Salmonius??" the bard said, turning a delightful shade of red in embarrassed anger.

"Yeah, that's the guy..."

"Lila, this is very important...do you know what play they're seeing? The name of it?"

The brunette sat there for a moment in thought. "I think it's called 'One Against an Army.'"

The bard exhaled in relief. "Good, that one's good, so long as Salmonius didn't do any rewrites...and it's good that it's just you here...I need to tell you something."

"What's up, Gab?" her sister asked, becoming serious.

Breathing to steady her nerves, Gabrielle grabbed her sister's hands and looked deeply into her eyes. "Xena and I are lovers. We're in love."

"Oh, is that all?" her sister asked, seemingly relieved. "I thought you'd say something like 'Lila, Callisto is on her way here with armies of the dead warlords Xena killed,' or something..."

The bard frowned. "How do you know about Callisto?"

"Oh, that was last week's play 'Return of Callisto'...they seem kinda out of order, tho..." the brunette commented as she stood to continue with her dishes.

"They are...but I mean...you don't care that Xena loves me and I love Xena??!" the bard asked, confused.

"Oh Gods, no...not after what I saw on that stage...I've actually become addicted to your stage plays. Luckily, 'One Against an Army' will be playing tomorrow, too, so I can catch it with Amboris," she said, quite nonchalant. "Why? Should I have a problem with you two being together?"

"Well, I know none of you like Xena, her being the Bitch of Amphipolis, Destroyer of Nations, etcetera" she said, trying to remind Lila who Xena was. "I mean, we are lovers, you know...physically intimate."

"Well, duh, Gab...I mean, it's obvious...even though it's not shown on the stage," the sibling replied. "Hades, I don't mind one bit."

Gabrielle sat there, mouth wide in disbelief as she watched her sister prepare plates of food for the bard and her guest. She pulled herself together enough to ask, "When will mom and dad be home?"

Lila looked out of the window and replied, "Well, by the looks of the stars, I'd have to say, soon."

As if on cue, they heard two pairs of footsteps, and animated discussion, approach the house and knew that it was them. Lila looked at Gabrielle and the two of them, genuinely smiling, went out to the porch to welcome them home, like they did when they were little.

"Gabrielle! Honey, I wish you had told me you were coming! We could have caught the play the next time it came around in a moon or two!!" squeaked Hecuba as she spryly leapt up the stairs and gave both of her daughters a kiss on the cheek and a big hug. Even Heroditus seemed in a good mood as he lifted his blonde daughter in the air and spun her around in a warm hug.

In the near distance, Gabrielle saw Xena leaning against the door frame to the barn. The warrior blew her another kiss and waved as she went back inside to see Argo. The bard herself was dumbfounded by how different everyone seemed. She turned around and headed back inside the house to confront her parents.

*I'm sure they'll be pissed, I mean...geez, they're my parents,* she thought as she watched her parents take off their coats and get some port.

"How was your trip back, Gabrielle?" asked her mother.

"Yes, and where's Xena? We haven't seen her since...uh...the last time we saw her," Heroditus stumbled with a smile that seemed apologetic.

"She's, uh, tending Argo...y'know, putting her up in our stalls," she emphasized, trying to elicit some kind of reaction.

Her father smiled, "Oh, that's good. Tell her she can use the good oats, the ones in Dongo's old stall."

Gabrielle's eyes bugged out of her head as her mother continued the thread of conversation by saying, "Oh, yes, and Lila can sleep out here so you two can be alone in your old room."

"So you know that Xena and I are together," the bard said, trying to comprehend what she was hearing.

Her mother looked at her, a wide and genuine smile on her face as she said, "Oh yes. Known that since, when was it, Heroditus? 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'?"

Her father nodded in agreement, his eyes sparkling as he said, "I had thought so before that, but I couldn't be sure...with that play, I was positive."

"You guys are taking a play as the word of Zeus?" the bard said, almost disappointed that she didn't get to defend Xena in some heated exchange of words between herself and her family.

Hecuba smiled and replied, saying, "Well, we hardly see you, and when we do, something always happens to drive you and Xena to leave early so we never get to hear about your life...not even in the letters you send home...but these plays...they're as close as we can get to you without having to travel on the road with you two lovebirds."

"Zeus! Doesn't anyone care that I'm fucking the Destroyer of Nations on a regular basis?!" the bard shouted.

Her mother looked at her disapprovingly and said, "You could've put that a bit better, dear, being a bard and all, and I'm sure it's hardly a one-way thing..."

"Mother!" exclaimed the blushing bard as she sat in a chair by a table and propped her head up on her arm, massaging her forehead. "My head hurts..."

"I'll go get Xena! Surely she's got something in her medicine bag," Lila piped in, extremely excited. Like a swift summer breeze, the bard's sister rushed out of the house to get the warrior princess from the stables.

*****

"I bet they're giving her Tartarus about me, Argo...about us...and the implications of being my lover, meaning she's gotta touch me and vice versa..." Xena said, continuing her conversation with Argo after watching her family walk up to the house. "At least Lila seemed to take it well."

"Xena? It's Lila!" the sister in question shouted so as to not take the warrior by surprise. She then stood by the doorframe to say, "Gabrielle needs some of your pain herbs."

In a flash, the warrior had her herb bag in her hands and was rushing into the house. She prepared herself for the worst Heroditus standing over a crying Gabrielle after he'd hit her and called her a disgrace to the family name, Hecuba shouting at the fallen bard, but the scene that greeted her was quite different. Hecuba and Heroditus were laughing merrily about something, drinking their port and when they saw the warrior, they didn't spit at her or take up sharp implements as weapons.

They smiled, genuinely at that, when they saw her...and no one was hitting anyone, no one was crying, no one was upset...except Gabrielle. Puzzled, and returning the smiles and warmth her bard's parents gave her, Xena walked over to the bard and took out the headache powder they had, then put a measured sum into a cup of water for Gabrielle to drink.

*Time to face the music...whatever tune this might be,* the warrior said as she stood to face Gabrielle's parents.

"Have a seat, Xena, please. I was just telling Gabrielle that Lila will be staying out here so you two can have the room to yourselves."

Xena's reaction was not unlike her lover's, with ice blue eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. "Has she told you about...us?" she asked, scared.

"We already knew all that, Xena," smiled Heroditus as he dragged a chair over to her. The warrior princess was tense in preparation of a chair being broken over her body, but that never happened. The father that once hated her merely put it down and gave her a warm squeeze on her bicep.

"Wow...you are strong," he noticed before asking, "Maybe you could help me fix the roof to the barn tomorrow?"

"Uh, sure...no problem," Xena replied, still scared.

"Oh now, Heri, they're tired after all that adventuring...let them relax a little," Hecuba chastised. "You don't have to do that, Xena, really."

The warrior smiled, even more puzzled than a few second ago. "No, it'll be my pleasure."

She leaned over to Gabrielle and whispered, "Uh, what's going on?"

"They don't care...they just don't care..." was the response she got. When she looked up, she saw the whole family watching them, approvingly, with wide, genuine smiles.

Xena cleared her throat and, not being one to shy away from a confrontation, said, "I'm sorry, but what's going on here? None of you is trying to throttle me for corrupting your virginal daughter or shattering your lives by taking her away and putting her into constant danger..."

The family laughed as Hecuba said, "Oh, you poor things...is that what you thought about us? Well, it's true, we did dislike you at first, but then we started going to Salmonius' traveling plays about your adventures every week and I've gotta tell you, I can't imagine my daughter with anyone else."

"I'm truly honoured to have you as my daughter-in-bondage, Xena. Oh, wait, that didn't sound right...but I think you know what I'm talking about," Heroditus blushed.

"Oh Zeus...they're so angry, they've gone mad," Xena whispered to the bard. "Maybe it's the Furies? Or Ares? Maybe Aphrodite is playing some kind of weird joke on us..."

Slowly, Gabrielle spun towards her family, then looked at Xena. Her eyes narrowed and that sexy smirk, the one that only the warrior of her heart got to see, bloomed on her face. Xena shook her head, glancing toward her family, as a bardly hand reached up to her neck and pulled her down for a very thorough kiss. She couldn't control herself as she felt Gabrielle's tongue demand entrance and war with her own for ownership of a property that was already hers.

Frightened blue eyes looked at the bard's family as her hormones threatened to take over and make love to Gabrielle right there in front of them. They weren't disgusted, they weren't even paying attention, trying to give the lovers' some privacy.

Hecuba looked over and smiled happily, then turned back to the brunette hair of her youngest daughter that she was brushing. "Geez, you guys...why don't you go to the room?" asked Lila, interested yet embarrassed by this publicly private show of affection.

When the bard and the warrior finally separated, with a loud, attention-getting lipsmack, Gabrielle noticed that her family didn't care. Xena herself was mortified.

"This has got to be some kind of dream...did you slip hensbane into the tea again, Gabrielle?" the warrior choked out.

"Nope...they just don't care," the bard replied. She didn't know whether to be relieved or to cry at the apparent lack of interest.

"This is no dream, Gab...and we do care," Heroditus said, annoyance clearly showing. Gabrielle was happy to see that. "I want you two to listen to me. Those plays let us see a part of Xena that you never let us see, daughter, because you were too preoccupied about us disliking her. You never really gave us the chance to hash out our problems with her, and I must admit, I was a little on the short side with her, too.
"We've seen the stories performed, we've searched out your scrolls and spoken to Cyrene in Amphipolis...and countless others who've been affected by the former Conqueror, both in a good way and a bad, so we could learn about the woman you love. And we've grown to love her as well.
"Anyone who fights off an entire army of Persians to save you has to be well worth the trouble that accompanies being involved with her," he finished as he stroked his daughter's cheek.

"I'll admit, I wasn't too keen on the idea of you being with another woman, the whole Xena persona aside, but if she completes you, what does it matter?" Hecuba spoke up.

Lila smiled, "I always knew you were a bit on the Sapphic side, Gab, and that's been fine with me. So long as you're happy, I'm happy and you're obviously happy, so..."

Finally, the bard came out of her little cloud and hugged every one of her family members. "I'm sorry, guys...I was expecting to be thrown out of the family and..."

"Shh...don't be sorry. Just be happy. We're so glad you're here!" said Hecuba as she gently pulled Gabrielle down to sit with them so they could talk about the plays and scrolls the bard's written, and to gossip about Xena.

The warrior sat to herself, not wanting to make her presence felt at all. Heroditus walked up to her and took the seat his daughter vacated. "The women of this family are pretty chatty, Xena...I'm glad you could put up with it...and I am truly proud to have you as part of my family. So...when are you and Gabrielle getting married? We want to be there..."

And the rest of the night was spend in conversation as the warrior and bard realized they'd been accepted by their families long before they had accepted their love for one another.

When everyone retired for the evening, Xena and Gabrielle sat next to the warm fire, Lila having passed out on the cot behind them long ago, the bard facing away from the warrior as she sat between her knees.

"I can't believe they're all okay with this," Gabrielle said as she rested her head back against the strong shoulder of her lover.

Xena smiled and whispered, "Me, too...and that my mother was so accepting, but then again, I suppose with me as a daughter, she kinda has to be."

The bard turned her head and kissed her warrior deeply. "Let's go to bed, Xena," she said. The dark woman smiled and stood, helping her lover up to her feet. They walked toward the bedroom with their arms wrapped around each other's waists.

"Looks like they get to find out how loud YOU get, my ever chatty warrior," Gabrielle said.

"And what about you, Miss 'I'm not through with you yet, Conqueror'?" The bard giggled innocently as she pressed herself against the door to close it as she pulled Xena against her.

"Are you complaining?”

“NO, no, no!”

The rest of the night was spent in each other's arms, whispering about their future together, their families, and making a promise to pay Salmonius a little visit about the plays very, very soon.

the end

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