Justin and Gabrielle in the Shadow of the Gods, 1
It's true. I have written a sequel to Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle. There are no words to convey how very, very sorry I am to do this to you.
For those who were spared the horror of missed the first part of this story, you'll find it here. All thirteen chapters. Seriously. I should be ashamed.
This time I can share the blame, because
gmta_nz , instead of simply being the passive recipient of the dedication of this fic, beta'd it. She actually took it seriously and helped me make it better. For instance, under her tempering influence, I decided to leave the plot holes, so prominent in the original story, out of the sequel.
I also promise Brian and Justin will have sex prior to the thirteenth chapter. I have learned my lesson.
For those who find such things distasteful, be aware that this story contains the following:
roc_abs , who joins me and
gmta_nz in the Xena/Gabrielle-Brian/Justin love. I of course dedicate this story to them, whether they like it or not.
No ancient Greek gods were harmed during the writing of this chapter.
I suppose I've put it off as long as possible. Think hard before you click...
Justin and Gabrielle in the Shadow of the Gods, Chapter One
By Xie
Justin settled his ass more firmly into Brian’s lap, and stuck his tongue even further into Brian’s mouth. Brian was clutching at Justin’s shaggy blond locks with desperate fingers, sucking on Justin’s tongue with the frenzy of a starving man offered food.
Brian tried to get his breath, but Justin’s tongue was obstructing his esophagus, so he had to break away for oxygen. Justin tipped his head back, his arms locked around Brian’s neck, and Brian saw his pale throat, marked with the still-healing scar left by the tip of Callisto’s knife. Seeing it gave him a strange pang in this chest, and he resolved again to consult his doctor about this recurrent heartburn he’d been experiencing, no doubt due to stress, and possibly the excessive consumption of coffee.
Justin looked at Brian’s face, and saw the haunted look in his eyes. He gently stroked Brian’s hair and kissed his forehead. “What’s wrong, Brian?”
Brian shook his head, and grinned at Justin, glad the blond teen was easily distracted. “Nothing getting my dick up your ass in the next four seconds won’t fix.”
It worked, and a few minutes later, Brian was walking towards the bedroom, Justin’s arms around his neck, his legs wrapped around his waist.
___________________
“Xena?”
“Mmmdghiohoh?” The brunette architect’s voice was thick with sleep.
“Xena, the sun’s been up for hours, are you just going to sleep all day?” Gabrielle’s voice was happy and full of energy. Xena contemplated having her bound and gagged.
A thought that actually woke her up quite thoroughly.
Xena sat up and squinted at the blonde standing at the foot of the bed. Gabrielle’s short hair was freshly washed, due to her obsession with the wonders of modern plumbing. She was wearing a short brown suede skirt, brown cowboy boots, and a rust colored, midriff-baring tank top.
Xena once again felt a large number of her brain cells become fully alert. “Good morning.”
Gabrielle glanced at the floor to ceiling windows of Xena’s spacious modern loft. “It’s almost noon.”
“Like I said, good morning.” Xena got out of bed, and stood in front of Gabrielle, naked.
Gabrielle looked up at Xena’s face, then down to Xena’s full breasts, then back up to Xena’s face. She threw her arms around Xena’s neck, stood on her toes, and kissed her. “Good morning.”
The next thing the blonde knew, all her clothing was thrown all over the room, her boots had knocked the bedside lamp off the stand, and she was clutching at fistfuls of Xena’s long, dark hair.
It really was, she thought to herself, a good morning.
___________________
Later that day, Gabrielle was sitting in the kitchen, drinking orange juice and eating French toast smothered in syrup, with a side of microwaved sausage. “I can’t believe,” she said, her mouth full, “that this method of cooking can possibly be safe. It just doesn’t seem possible to fully cook food without heat. My mother always taught me…”
Xena refilled her coffee cup, and looked with disgust at the plate of food in front of Gabrielle. “Gabrielle, didn’t your mother ever teach you not to talk while you chew?”
Gabrielle stared at Xena. “No.”
Xena sighed. “I didn’t think so. So, what are you doing today, that got you up so early?”
Gabrielle swallowed, then speared a little more sausage and put it in her mouth. “I’m going to Brian’s loft and teaching Justin some relaxation techniques.”
Xena sighed. “He still won’t leave the loft?”
Gabrielle shook her head. “Not unless Brian’s with him. And not just with him, but practically wrapped around him. I met them at the diner the other day, and Justin almost passed out when someone bumped into him.”
The two women sat there and contemplated Justin’s severe post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on by being thrown out of the house by his parents when they found out he was gay, then being drugged and kidnapped by a corrupt police official and his psychotic, immortal assistant, who activated an ancient spell to put Justin in a bottle with Gabrielle, and then used Justin in a ritual sacrifice intended to destroy Xena. Although rescued at the last minute by the three of them, and safe now in Brian’s loft, the boy had some issues.
___________________
Justin sat in the booth at the diner, and didn’t lift his eyes from the table. Gabrielle had come by that afternoon, and he’d felt a little more confident after she’d helped him with some breathing exercises she said she’d learned in India. He tried not to think about the fact that she’d learned them two thousand years ago. He’d seen her use them when they were stuck in the bottle, but he’d never tried them himself. They helped.
Feeling better, he’d agreed to go out when Brian asked. Right now, Brian’s friends Lindsay and Melanie, the mothers of Brian’s son, Gus, were sitting across from him. Brian was next to him, his hand on his back, making small, soothing circles. He was holding Justin’s other hand in his.
Justin’s breathing was shallow, and he was very pale. Brian folded his lips inward as he watched the teen try to tell Melanie about how he’d been thrown out of his family’s home when his father found out he was gay.
“Then he said he was going to send me to one of those reprogramming places, where they give you electric shock and try to change you to straight.” Even though his voice was shaking, for the first time Brian saw a hint of anger under the surface. “I read about them on the Internet. Parents put their kids there, and the kids can’t get any mail or make contact with anyone outside the place. It’s like being tortured and brainwashed. And he said I had a choice: Go to this place, or never come home again.” Justin bit his lip, and steadfastly didn’t look at anyone.
Lindsay had a tear in her eye as she reached across the table to pat Justin’s arm consolingly. But the blond flinched away even from her motherly touch. She and Melanie looked at each other, and Mel’s eyes softened.
“Justin, I’m going to do my best to get you declared an emancipated minor, but you have to be able to show you can support yourself. Debbie says they can give you a job here at the diner, busing tables, as soon as you’re feeling up to it…” and here her eyes met Brian’s, and he shrugged helplessly… “And it might be best if we said you were living with Debbie, too.”
Justin’s head snapped up. “Why can’t I stay with Brian?” His fingers tightened on Brian’s.
“No, no, Justin, you can stay with Brian. We might make it look like you’re staying with Deb, just while we go through the hearing. Okay?” Melanie looked worried.
Justin nodded, catching his full lower lip in his white teeth. He told himself not to cry. He had to tell himself that every day, and every night, too, when the dreams came.
Brian shifted in the seat next to Justin. The teen had been fearful and clung to him from the day he’d brought him home from the hospital, but in some ways he was worse, not better. Justin was afraid to talk to a shrink, knowing that there were parts of his story that no one who hadn’t seen them would believe - in fact, Brian had seen them and he almost didn’t believe them. But Brian was sure that Justin needed more help than he knew how to give him.
When they got home, Brian went to the computer, while Justin went into the bedroom to lie down.
Brian stared at the computer screen, looking at a page full of search results on PTSD. He started reading.
___________________
It had taken Gabrielle a while to find someone who could re-create her Amazon fighting staff. Xena had finally found a craftsman who did custom work for the local Renaissance Pleasure Faire, and he was happy to sit and chat with Gabrielle about her adventures in Elizabethan England. He didn’t seem to find her stories in any way unusual. Xena pinched the bridge of her nose, and tried to will her headache away.
Xena had taken Gabrielle to her gym, and the blonde bard had been enraptured with the wide variety of equipment available to help her hone her fighting skills and enhance her already world-class set of abdominal muscles. One day she’d coaxed Justin into coming with her, and showed him some of the most basic self-defense moves she’d learned from the Amazons.
Justin was sitting on the exercise mat on the floor of the gym, rubbing his damp face with a towel, when a bottle of water appeared in front of his face. Thinking it was Gabrielle, he grabbed it, and took a drink. Suddenly a man stepped into view. Justin looked up… and up… and up, his eyes traveling past long, muscled legs in black sweat pants bunched at the crotch, to a rippling abdomen straining the fabric of a tight black tank top, to a chiseled face with dark, hungry eyes under short-cropped, dark hair.
Justin felt his pupils dilate with fear, and his face grow pale, but the man just looked concerned, and crouched down next to the teen. “Are you okay? Can I get you something, help you up?”
Justin looked into the man’s eyes, then blushed and looked away. “No, thank you, I’m fine. I thought you were Gabrielle.”
The man’s eyes flashed oddly for a moment, but Justin decided he’d imagined it when they crinkled up with a smirk a second later. “That’s the first time I’ve been mistaken for a girl.”
Justin blushed again, taking in the muscles roping down the man’s arms. “Thanks for the water.”
The man smiled, and stood up. “My name’s Erik.”
“I’m Justin.” He blushed yet again.
“See you around.” The man - Erik - walked off.
Gabrielle came back a minute later. “Who was that man you were talking to?”
Justin shrugged. “Some guy, he gave me a bottle of water.”
“Hmmm. Well, okay, let’s try that one flip again, okay?”
___________________
Brian was glad Justin had gone to the gym with Gabrielle. It was the only place he’d gone without Brian since he’d gotten out of the hospital. Maybe because she’d helped save his life, maybe because of the time they’d spent in the bottle together, Justin seemed to trust her.
Brian pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, stuffed his workout clothes in his bag, and headed for his gym. He’d been feeling a little slack lately. And having Justin in the loft all the time, waking up every night to find the boy in the grip of a nightmare, having Justin not able to go anywhere without him - not even to walk down the street - was getting a little claustrophobic. And although Brian wasn’t complaining, being the recipient of all the pent-up sexual energy of a teenaged boy who had been kept in a state of enforced virginity by a spell cast by a psychotic god was almost enough to wear even him out.
Almost.
Brian’s arms were shaking with strain as he pressed the weights upwards. Just when he was almost at the top, he saw a strong pair of hands in leather weight lifting gloves slip around the bar. He glanced back and saw a tall, dark haired man, built like a Greek god, grinning at him.
Brian didn’t smile back. “If I needed help, I’d have asked for it.”
The man looked like he was going to laugh, but at the last minute, he didn’t. “Sorry. It looked like you could use a hand. I should have known you’d never take on more than you could handle.”
The guy walked away, and Brian shook his head. Asshole. But hot. Definitely hot. He gave one last heave and set the weights in the rack, and headed for the shower. And wondered, what did the guy mean, he should have known? Brian had never seen him before. He was sure of that.
__________________
Later that night, the man who’d introduced himself to Justin as “Erik” walked into a large, dark room on the top floor of an old warehouse down near the river. He threw himself casually across a throne-like upholstered chair, and grinned insolently at the woman sitting at a table across from him.
“Well?” she growled at him.
His grin widened, and he swung his leg over the arm of the chair. “I found the humans. The boy was as easy to read as a child lost in the woods.” He leered at the memory of Justin’s fair skin blushing when he smiled at him. Then he shook his head. Time enough for that later. “Gabrielle was nearby, but I didn’t see her. But he mentioned her name. I’m close. And the other human, he had the feel of Xena about him, but I didn’t see any sign of her. As long as Xena and her irritating little blonde keep mixing with these predictable mortals, it’s only a matter of time until we track them down.”
Alti smiled in the dim light at Ares. “And when you do, you’ll have your powers back. Until then, keep hunting.”
Ares stood up, towering over the woman, who looked at him without fear. “Yes. My godly powers. Finally, after all these centuries, to feel that rush again. To stand at the head of an army. To conquer. To vanquish. To rule.”
Ares laughed and strode from the room. Alti watched him go. Her rough voice was just a whisper. “To destroy.”
Continued here....
For those who were spared the horror of missed the first part of this story, you'll find it here. All thirteen chapters. Seriously. I should be ashamed.
This time I can share the blame, because
gmta_nz , instead of simply being the passive recipient of the dedication of this fic, beta'd it. She actually took it seriously and helped me make it better. For instance, under her tempering influence, I decided to leave the plot holes, so prominent in the original story, out of the sequel.
I also promise Brian and Justin will have sex prior to the thirteenth chapter. I have learned my lesson.
For those who find such things distasteful, be aware that this story contains the following:
- A gorgeous Greek god (not metaphorical but actual) without his shirt
- Explicit lesbian sex
- Sympathetic portrayals of Lindsay and Melanie (but no sex)
- A few rather gruesome plot points
- Plot. Yes, PLOT! Xie wrote something with a PLOT!
roc_abs , who joins me and
gmta_nz in the Xena/Gabrielle-Brian/Justin love. I of course dedicate this story to them, whether they like it or not.
No ancient Greek gods were harmed during the writing of this chapter.
I suppose I've put it off as long as possible. Think hard before you click...
Justin and Gabrielle in the Shadow of the Gods, Chapter One
By Xie
Justin settled his ass more firmly into Brian’s lap, and stuck his tongue even further into Brian’s mouth. Brian was clutching at Justin’s shaggy blond locks with desperate fingers, sucking on Justin’s tongue with the frenzy of a starving man offered food.
Brian tried to get his breath, but Justin’s tongue was obstructing his esophagus, so he had to break away for oxygen. Justin tipped his head back, his arms locked around Brian’s neck, and Brian saw his pale throat, marked with the still-healing scar left by the tip of Callisto’s knife. Seeing it gave him a strange pang in this chest, and he resolved again to consult his doctor about this recurrent heartburn he’d been experiencing, no doubt due to stress, and possibly the excessive consumption of coffee.
Justin looked at Brian’s face, and saw the haunted look in his eyes. He gently stroked Brian’s hair and kissed his forehead. “What’s wrong, Brian?”
Brian shook his head, and grinned at Justin, glad the blond teen was easily distracted. “Nothing getting my dick up your ass in the next four seconds won’t fix.”
It worked, and a few minutes later, Brian was walking towards the bedroom, Justin’s arms around his neck, his legs wrapped around his waist.
___________________
“Xena?”
“Mmmdghiohoh?” The brunette architect’s voice was thick with sleep.
“Xena, the sun’s been up for hours, are you just going to sleep all day?” Gabrielle’s voice was happy and full of energy. Xena contemplated having her bound and gagged.
A thought that actually woke her up quite thoroughly.
Xena sat up and squinted at the blonde standing at the foot of the bed. Gabrielle’s short hair was freshly washed, due to her obsession with the wonders of modern plumbing. She was wearing a short brown suede skirt, brown cowboy boots, and a rust colored, midriff-baring tank top.
Xena once again felt a large number of her brain cells become fully alert. “Good morning.”
Gabrielle glanced at the floor to ceiling windows of Xena’s spacious modern loft. “It’s almost noon.”
“Like I said, good morning.” Xena got out of bed, and stood in front of Gabrielle, naked.
Gabrielle looked up at Xena’s face, then down to Xena’s full breasts, then back up to Xena’s face. She threw her arms around Xena’s neck, stood on her toes, and kissed her. “Good morning.”
The next thing the blonde knew, all her clothing was thrown all over the room, her boots had knocked the bedside lamp off the stand, and she was clutching at fistfuls of Xena’s long, dark hair.
It really was, she thought to herself, a good morning.
___________________
Later that day, Gabrielle was sitting in the kitchen, drinking orange juice and eating French toast smothered in syrup, with a side of microwaved sausage. “I can’t believe,” she said, her mouth full, “that this method of cooking can possibly be safe. It just doesn’t seem possible to fully cook food without heat. My mother always taught me…”
Xena refilled her coffee cup, and looked with disgust at the plate of food in front of Gabrielle. “Gabrielle, didn’t your mother ever teach you not to talk while you chew?”
Gabrielle stared at Xena. “No.”
Xena sighed. “I didn’t think so. So, what are you doing today, that got you up so early?”
Gabrielle swallowed, then speared a little more sausage and put it in her mouth. “I’m going to Brian’s loft and teaching Justin some relaxation techniques.”
Xena sighed. “He still won’t leave the loft?”
Gabrielle shook her head. “Not unless Brian’s with him. And not just with him, but practically wrapped around him. I met them at the diner the other day, and Justin almost passed out when someone bumped into him.”
The two women sat there and contemplated Justin’s severe post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on by being thrown out of the house by his parents when they found out he was gay, then being drugged and kidnapped by a corrupt police official and his psychotic, immortal assistant, who activated an ancient spell to put Justin in a bottle with Gabrielle, and then used Justin in a ritual sacrifice intended to destroy Xena. Although rescued at the last minute by the three of them, and safe now in Brian’s loft, the boy had some issues.
___________________
Justin sat in the booth at the diner, and didn’t lift his eyes from the table. Gabrielle had come by that afternoon, and he’d felt a little more confident after she’d helped him with some breathing exercises she said she’d learned in India. He tried not to think about the fact that she’d learned them two thousand years ago. He’d seen her use them when they were stuck in the bottle, but he’d never tried them himself. They helped.
Feeling better, he’d agreed to go out when Brian asked. Right now, Brian’s friends Lindsay and Melanie, the mothers of Brian’s son, Gus, were sitting across from him. Brian was next to him, his hand on his back, making small, soothing circles. He was holding Justin’s other hand in his.
Justin’s breathing was shallow, and he was very pale. Brian folded his lips inward as he watched the teen try to tell Melanie about how he’d been thrown out of his family’s home when his father found out he was gay.
“Then he said he was going to send me to one of those reprogramming places, where they give you electric shock and try to change you to straight.” Even though his voice was shaking, for the first time Brian saw a hint of anger under the surface. “I read about them on the Internet. Parents put their kids there, and the kids can’t get any mail or make contact with anyone outside the place. It’s like being tortured and brainwashed. And he said I had a choice: Go to this place, or never come home again.” Justin bit his lip, and steadfastly didn’t look at anyone.
Lindsay had a tear in her eye as she reached across the table to pat Justin’s arm consolingly. But the blond flinched away even from her motherly touch. She and Melanie looked at each other, and Mel’s eyes softened.
“Justin, I’m going to do my best to get you declared an emancipated minor, but you have to be able to show you can support yourself. Debbie says they can give you a job here at the diner, busing tables, as soon as you’re feeling up to it…” and here her eyes met Brian’s, and he shrugged helplessly… “And it might be best if we said you were living with Debbie, too.”
Justin’s head snapped up. “Why can’t I stay with Brian?” His fingers tightened on Brian’s.
“No, no, Justin, you can stay with Brian. We might make it look like you’re staying with Deb, just while we go through the hearing. Okay?” Melanie looked worried.
Justin nodded, catching his full lower lip in his white teeth. He told himself not to cry. He had to tell himself that every day, and every night, too, when the dreams came.
Brian shifted in the seat next to Justin. The teen had been fearful and clung to him from the day he’d brought him home from the hospital, but in some ways he was worse, not better. Justin was afraid to talk to a shrink, knowing that there were parts of his story that no one who hadn’t seen them would believe - in fact, Brian had seen them and he almost didn’t believe them. But Brian was sure that Justin needed more help than he knew how to give him.
When they got home, Brian went to the computer, while Justin went into the bedroom to lie down.
Brian stared at the computer screen, looking at a page full of search results on PTSD. He started reading.
___________________
It had taken Gabrielle a while to find someone who could re-create her Amazon fighting staff. Xena had finally found a craftsman who did custom work for the local Renaissance Pleasure Faire, and he was happy to sit and chat with Gabrielle about her adventures in Elizabethan England. He didn’t seem to find her stories in any way unusual. Xena pinched the bridge of her nose, and tried to will her headache away.
Xena had taken Gabrielle to her gym, and the blonde bard had been enraptured with the wide variety of equipment available to help her hone her fighting skills and enhance her already world-class set of abdominal muscles. One day she’d coaxed Justin into coming with her, and showed him some of the most basic self-defense moves she’d learned from the Amazons.
Justin was sitting on the exercise mat on the floor of the gym, rubbing his damp face with a towel, when a bottle of water appeared in front of his face. Thinking it was Gabrielle, he grabbed it, and took a drink. Suddenly a man stepped into view. Justin looked up… and up… and up, his eyes traveling past long, muscled legs in black sweat pants bunched at the crotch, to a rippling abdomen straining the fabric of a tight black tank top, to a chiseled face with dark, hungry eyes under short-cropped, dark hair.
Justin felt his pupils dilate with fear, and his face grow pale, but the man just looked concerned, and crouched down next to the teen. “Are you okay? Can I get you something, help you up?”
Justin looked into the man’s eyes, then blushed and looked away. “No, thank you, I’m fine. I thought you were Gabrielle.”
The man’s eyes flashed oddly for a moment, but Justin decided he’d imagined it when they crinkled up with a smirk a second later. “That’s the first time I’ve been mistaken for a girl.”
Justin blushed again, taking in the muscles roping down the man’s arms. “Thanks for the water.”
The man smiled, and stood up. “My name’s Erik.”
“I’m Justin.” He blushed yet again.
“See you around.” The man - Erik - walked off.
Gabrielle came back a minute later. “Who was that man you were talking to?”
Justin shrugged. “Some guy, he gave me a bottle of water.”
“Hmmm. Well, okay, let’s try that one flip again, okay?”
___________________
Brian was glad Justin had gone to the gym with Gabrielle. It was the only place he’d gone without Brian since he’d gotten out of the hospital. Maybe because she’d helped save his life, maybe because of the time they’d spent in the bottle together, Justin seemed to trust her.
Brian pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, stuffed his workout clothes in his bag, and headed for his gym. He’d been feeling a little slack lately. And having Justin in the loft all the time, waking up every night to find the boy in the grip of a nightmare, having Justin not able to go anywhere without him - not even to walk down the street - was getting a little claustrophobic. And although Brian wasn’t complaining, being the recipient of all the pent-up sexual energy of a teenaged boy who had been kept in a state of enforced virginity by a spell cast by a psychotic god was almost enough to wear even him out.
Almost.
Brian’s arms were shaking with strain as he pressed the weights upwards. Just when he was almost at the top, he saw a strong pair of hands in leather weight lifting gloves slip around the bar. He glanced back and saw a tall, dark haired man, built like a Greek god, grinning at him.
Brian didn’t smile back. “If I needed help, I’d have asked for it.”
The man looked like he was going to laugh, but at the last minute, he didn’t. “Sorry. It looked like you could use a hand. I should have known you’d never take on more than you could handle.”
The guy walked away, and Brian shook his head. Asshole. But hot. Definitely hot. He gave one last heave and set the weights in the rack, and headed for the shower. And wondered, what did the guy mean, he should have known? Brian had never seen him before. He was sure of that.
__________________
Later that night, the man who’d introduced himself to Justin as “Erik” walked into a large, dark room on the top floor of an old warehouse down near the river. He threw himself casually across a throne-like upholstered chair, and grinned insolently at the woman sitting at a table across from him.
“Well?” she growled at him.
His grin widened, and he swung his leg over the arm of the chair. “I found the humans. The boy was as easy to read as a child lost in the woods.” He leered at the memory of Justin’s fair skin blushing when he smiled at him. Then he shook his head. Time enough for that later. “Gabrielle was nearby, but I didn’t see her. But he mentioned her name. I’m close. And the other human, he had the feel of Xena about him, but I didn’t see any sign of her. As long as Xena and her irritating little blonde keep mixing with these predictable mortals, it’s only a matter of time until we track them down.”
Alti smiled in the dim light at Ares. “And when you do, you’ll have your powers back. Until then, keep hunting.”
Ares stood up, towering over the woman, who looked at him without fear. “Yes. My godly powers. Finally, after all these centuries, to feel that rush again. To stand at the head of an army. To conquer. To vanquish. To rule.”
Ares laughed and strode from the room. Alti watched him go. Her rough voice was just a whisper. “To destroy.”
Continued here....