katleept

Title: "Friends Forever After"
Author: Pirate Turner
Dedicated To: Our beloved Jareth -- we miss you, baby, and want you back -- and our long lost but not forgotten Joxer
Rating: PG
Summary: Though she tries, Gabrielle can not always be strong for her beloved Xena, especially when it comes to the loss of a loved one.
Warnings: Femme Slash, Drabble
Word Count: 333
Date Written: 6 October, 2010
Disclaimer: Xena: Warrior Princess, Gabrielle, and Joxer are © & TM their respective owners, not the author; are used without permission; and may not be used without permission. Everything else is © & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

She knew she needed her to be strong and to stand beside her, but sometimes she couldn't stand. Sometimes she couldn't even fall, and it was all she could do just to breathe, like now as she walked away from the burning pyre carrying their oldest and dearest friend into the far distance of the setting sun with strangled breaths marking her every forced footstep.

Xena was waiting for her, and she held out her arms to her love as Gabrielle neared her. "Xena," Gabrielle spoke, struggling just to think clearly enough to force coherent words out of her usually overly-eloquent mouth, "I . . . I can't . . . " She couldn't always be strong like Xena needed her to be to keep her own tears from falling. She couldn't always live up to the role put to her as Xena's lover. She couldn't . . .

Then she saw the unshed tears shimmering in Xena's beautiful, blue eyes. Xena gave her a sad, reassuring smile and whispered, "It's all right, Gabrielle," and Gabby fell apart, landing, shaking, into Xena's waiting arms and letting her tears soak her armor, skin, and hair.

Xena stroked her back as she cried, and finally her own tears began to fall. They would miss their friend, but they would see him again beyond the veil of life and death, in whatever the afterlife had in wait for them. They would see him again, and, living or dead, they would never forget him.

Xena kissed the top of Gabrielle's trembling, blonde head and held her close as her own tears finally began to pour. They would cry enough tears to fill a never-ending river this night, but even if they filled Styx itself, they could never cross it to bring back their friend. What was done was done, and they could never go back. They could only go forward and hope to see him again one bright and shining day in the morrow of ever after.

The End