Where Eternity Begins

Xena was lying on the couch, making patterns on the ceiling from the sunlight reflected off the diamond on her finger.

She lifted her head.

“How’d you get in?”

Ares looked down at her, amused. “I opened the door.”

“Oh that’s right – you can do that.”

Ares grinned, then lay down on the floor beside the couch, looking up at Xena. He grabbed the hand which held the diamond, and pressed it to his lips. “Still like it?”

“Yep.”

“Still like me?”

“Yep,” Xena answered again, and her mouth curved into a smile. She bent her head down and found his lips. Ares slid his arm up around her waist, and gave her a tug, so that she tumbled off the couch and onto him.

“You’re full of good ideas today, aren’t you?” Xena challenged him, lifting her head an inch from his face.

“Oh yeah . . .”

There was a crash, and then the front door swung open, followed by Gabrielle, her arms filled with shopping.

“Oh, sorry guys,” she said without remorse. After all, it wasn’t as if she didn’t interrupt them ten times a day already. “Hey, can you get the rest of the stuff out of the car?”

“I thought Lin Qi was helping you?” Xena questioned, grabbing a few bags from Gabrielle as Ares reluctantly headed out the door.

“Yeah, he’s coming up with another load of shopping. Hey, Xena, I’ve got great news for you!”

“Yeah?” Xena inquired, raising an eyebrow. “Anything like my news?”

Gabrielle shrugged casually. “Oh, no – but it’s about you, anyway. Mum was saying that, seeing you guys are both Greek, if you were going to go to the orthodox church and get married, she could let you have Uncle Nick’s reception place at nearly half price . . .”

“Hey Lin Qi,” Xena interrupted, as Gabrielle’s boyfriend stumbled into the flat, barely visible behind boxes of groceries. Ares appeared behind him, with a few bags in his own arms. “Is that it?”

“Yeah. Xena, were you planning on having a Greek wedding?” Ares asked, a small grin on his face.

“Nope. Gabs, I thought you knew my parents didn’t even get around to getting me christened orthodox – I thought they were just lazy, but maybe they always knew I was a pagan.”

Gabrielle was horrified. “Don’t ever let my mother know! The only reason I was allowed to flat with you was because she thought you were a good Greek girl . . .”

“Oh, she’s good all right,” Ares drawled, dumping the shopping on the counter, and managing to grab Xena’s hand in the very next movement. “But I’d agree – don’t let your mother know.”

They finished putting away the groceries, and settled down on the couch with all the junk food Lin Qi had managed to slip in without Gabrielle seeing.

“So you won’t be getting married in a church. Where were you thinking of having it, then?” Gabrielle asked.

“Hey, I’ve got a great idea!” Lin Qi suggested, leaning forward enthusiastically. “Why don’t you have like, a surfing wedding? That would be so cool! Everyone could just dress up in their bathers, and you guys could come in wetsuits, and leave on jetskis!”

Ares looked mildly interested for the first time; even Xena looked thoughtful.

“NOOO! No no no no!” Gabrielle wailed. “This could be my one and only time to be bridesmaid, and there’s no way I’m doing that in a bikini! And let’s face it, you’ve just got the perfect figure and colouring for that whole white wedding dress look, Xena, and Ares would look great in a charcoal suit, and don’t pretend you don’t like dressing up, Xena, because you do!” She paused for breath. “But it’s your wedding, of course, you can do what you like.”

Xena grinned. “Oh, of course.” This whole wedding thing was getting a bit complicated, in her opinion, and the idea of popping down to the beach, getting hitched, and following it up with a surf wasn’t bad. On the other hand, there was a little image in her mind of Ares dressed in a modern suit, cut just exactly right, and his face when he saw her in the perfect dress . . .

“It might be a bit cold for a surfing wedding,” she said finally. “But I’ll keep it in mind.”

“So what have you planned, so far?” Lin Qi asked.

“Well, I’ve worked out the bridesmaid problem. Apart from my one soulmate, best friend, and standby through eternity, I’m going to have Gabrielle, ” Xena said, grinning at her.

“And what about you, Ares? Any of your brothers around to be best man?” Gabrielle asked.

“Not that I know of. And if you even suggest calling up Hercules . . .” Ares began, narrowing his eyes. Gabrielle raised her hands.

“I wouldn’t even know where to look. So, this isn’t going to be a big family wedding, then . . .”

Ares shook his head. “What happens at weddings, anyway? They didn’t have them back in our day, did they?”

Xena rolled her eyes. “Sure they did! Herc – er, I mean, Gabrielle got married, anyway.”

“Well, I obviously wasn’t invited then, was I?” Ares retorted.

“You were married?” Lin Qi interrupted. He placed his beer carefully down on the coffee table. “I didn’t know that.”

There was an awkward silence.

Xena cleared her throat. “Um . . . it was a long time ago. A long, long time ago. Anyone want pizza for lunch?”

“A previous marriage in a previous life doesn’t constitute bigamy, you know,” Xena told Gabrielle.

“I know, I know. He’s fine about it, really,” Gabrielle told her gloomily. “Anyway, he thinks he might have been married in his previous life too.”

“He’s still not too clear about it?”

“Nope. I think he needs a near-death experience – and if he hangs around us, he’ll probably get one, sooner or later. I’m sure he’ll discover that his true love is an Egyptian princess, and he has to go off and find her . . .” Gabrielle sighed. “Maybe if the boat hadn’t sunk I would’ve made it to Egypt and met up with her.”

“Gabrielle, you’re getting stranger by the second.”

“Sorry. Here, lift your arms, will you?”

She complied, and Gabrielle fastened the last of the tiny hooks which held the soft white dress together. “There.”

Xena turned around, and stared at herself in the mirror. Gabrielle had been right – she’d always liked dressing up.

“Wow.” Gabrielle uttered a low sigh. “Oh, Xena. You look just beautiful. This dress is perfect . . . Ares is going to pass out on the floor when he sees you.”

“Well, at least Lin Qi’s offered to be his best man, so he’ll have someone to pick him up and brush the lint of his suit,” Xena rejoined, still staring at her reflection. Then a small smile came over her lips. “You think he’ll like it?”

Gabrielle gave her friend a careful hug. “I know he will.”

A horn sounded outside the window, and they both jumped.

“My dad’s arrived . . . it’s time to go. Are you ready?” Gabrielle asked her friend, brushing back a final curl from her face.

“After a few thousand years, I couldn’t be readier,” Xena told her. “Let’s go!”

The car made its way slowly to the beach, where a bunch of surf lifesavers, unrecognisable now they were wearing clothes, stood chatting on a grassy clearing by the sand. A small car pulled up, and two men jumped out, straightening ties, and brushing back hair that refused to stay smooth.

“The celebrant said she’d meet us over there, by the rose-bed,” Ares said, moving awkwardly in his new suit. “That’s funny – I thought she said she’d be wearing blue.”

“Maybe the dress was in the wash,” Lin Qi suggested, fixing his cuffs. “Though it’s pretty odd to wear hot pink to a wedding, isn’t it?”

They began heading towards the woman, who had her back turned to the pair.

“And didn’t she have dark hair?”

“Oh, no,” Ares groaned. “I don’t believe it!”

“Hey, bro! Thanks for inviting me to your wedding – not! You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to organise this switch!”

Ares gulped. “Ah, Lin Qi? I’d like you to meet my sister – this is Aphrodite.”

“So, looks like we got that family wedding after all. But will this wedding be legal?” Lin Qi mused, while Ares paced back and forth. “I mean, under Australian law, can a goddess marry?”

“I don’t know what the problem is,” Aphrodite shrugged. “It’s a wedding – it’s most appropriate that the goddess of love turn up.” She narrowed her eyes at her brother. “I bet Gabby invites me to her wedding!”

“Gabrielle’s getting married again?” Lin Qi uttered, horrified. “No one tells me anything!”

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “To you, loser. Mortals are just so clueless . . .”

“She wants to marry me?” Lin Qi murmured incredulously, and Aphrodite shook her head in despair.

“Look, if you screw this up, I swear . . .” Ares threatened in a low voice.

“What? From what I hear you gave up your godhood again to save your girl from drowning. I don’t think you can threaten me with anything. Anyway, why would I want to screw things up?” Aphrodite added. “It’s all about love, isn’t it? It’s not like Xena killed my husband or anything . . .”

“Xena killed your husband?” Lin Qi repeated, wide-eyed.

“She wiped out my entire family, and I’m starting to understand why,” Ares growled. “If you ruin this for Xena, I’ll make sure you’re no longer known as the goddess of love, but as the goddess of – bad hair, or something. I’ll found a whole line of hair salons devoted to destroying your reputation!”

Aphrodite took a sharp inward breath – and then she grinned. “Oh, Ares. That is so sweet. Don’t worry – I wouldn’t ruin your day, for the world. I just wanted to know exactly how crazy about Xena you really were . . .” She pointed over towards the carpark, and they saw a small dark-haired woman slamming her car door. “I just delayed things a little, that’s all.”

Ares breathed a sigh of relief, and then tensed again, at the sight of another car pulling up. “They’re here.”

The celebrant just made it before the violins started up. “I’m so, so sorry . . . I never oversleep . . . I don’t know what happened!” Then she frowned at Lin Qi. “He’s got lint on his suit. What kind of best man are you?”

Ares didn’t hear anything more. The rose-bed disappeared, and all the guests, and even the sound of the sea. She was there, walking towards him, a nervous smile on her lips, her hands gripping a bunch of flowers like the hilt of a sword. Then her eyes found his.

"If you'd explained about the honeymoon, I think I would've gone for this marriage thing a lot sooner," Ares murmured, pressing a kiss against Xena's bare shoulder.

"And if I'd even begun to imagine what you'd look like in that suit, I wouldn't have put it off a single day," Xena told him, moving his hands to the buttons of his shirt. Then she stopped. "Lin Qi said something interesting to me, today."

"Really?" Ares asked, trying to work out how to undo the hook at the back of Xena's dress. "I think he said something interesting to Gabrielle, too, from the look on her face."

"He said that you saved me, once again, by giving up your immortality, when we drowned that time," Xena went on.

"Oh, that. Well - I thought you'd noticed I wasn't exactly shining with godhood recently," Ares said casually, his eyes darting anxiously to her face.

"And I thought that was an illusion, for my benefit," Xena told him. She took pity on him and began unfastening her dress herself. "So I'll never lose you to war again?"

Ares smiled, and lifted her out of the dress and onto the bed. "Looks like you've got a lifetime with me, Xena."

"Another one, anyway," Xena amended, then sighed as he moved over her, his lips settling on hers. "If this is the beginning of eternity . . ."

" . . . it's not a bad place to start," Ares finished, gasping himself as her hands moved over him.

Xena smiled. "Not bad at all."

...h.o.m.e...
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