Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine. Just playing around with them a bit.
Spoilers: Takes place after "Lyre, Lyre".
Author's Note: This is now a full story! 4 chapters so far, and more to come!.
Feedback: Any and all comments are extremely welcome. :)
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Dream a Little Dream
by Xedra
Joxer flinched in his sleep a split-second before his eyes popped open. He sucked in a breath and stared blindly at the smoldering campfire a few feet away, his attention focused on the fading images of his dream. His heart pounded frantically and after a long moment he blinked.
He lay frozen while his eyes darted back and forth, trying to see as much of his surroundings as possible without having to actually move. The moment he realized he was really awake and what his eyes were searching for and not wanting to see was only a dream, he sighed and sat up with a groan.
Rubbing at his bleary eyes, he felt a bubble of laughter rise up in his chest. He grinned and wiped his brow, shaking with silent laughter. He reached for the canteen strapped to his pack, flicked it open and took a long drink to soothe his dry throat.
"Bad dream?" a quiet voice asked from close behind him.
Joxer started slightly and turned to see Xena quirking an eyebrow at him while she brushed out Argo's mane. How the warrior managed to looked fully rested and ready to face the day at the crack of dawn, the gods only knew.
He grinned and shook his head, "No -- well, yeah, but not exactly." He rested the canteen next to his leg and wiped the dribble from the corner of his mouth. "Not my dream."
Xena paused mid-brushstroke and blinked at him. "Come again?"
Joxer lifted his arms in a hard stretch and gave a jaw-cracking yawn. He waved a hand dismissively as he blinked his watery eyes. "Jett had a nightmare." He snorted a soft laugh. "Boy, did he ever."
Xena looked puzzled and the slightest bit wary, wondering if that ridiculous helmet he wore didn't do as good a job protecting his head as she thought.
"For as long as I can remember my brothers and I have shared dreams," Joxer explained. "Not all dreams, just really vivid ones. Mostly nightmares when we were little, but as we got older, if any one of us had any particularly, um..." his ears went beet-red as he cut his eyes away from hers, "passionate sort of dream, we'd all know about that, too." He shrugged, "It's a triplet-thing, I guess."
Xena took a moment to absorb this bit of information, then smirked, "That must get pretty interesting."
Joxer snorted. "To say the least. Jett's fantasies are more like nightmares to me and his nightmares..." His mouth curled in a half-grin, "they're pretty funny, actually. And Jace, well..." he scratched the back of his neck, shifting uncomfortably, "he hasn't had any nightmares since we were kids."
Xena considered the alternative and bit back a chuckle, but her voice was laced with amusement, "I see."
Joxer grimaced as a rather frightening image of Ackmar The Meatman's four very large, very undressed sons lined up and dancing in strange synchronization in the middle of Aphrodite's temple flashed before his eyes. "I wish I didn't have to."
On the heels of those images came others, ones he tried very hard not to remember. Those dreams were dark and primal, filled with sweat and pain, sometimes even blood. They showed him a side Jett's nature that disturbed and sometimes scared him. Joxer felt his hands grow cold and shuddered. "By the gods, I really wish I didn't." He took another long drink from his canteen.
Xena's sharp eyes caught the emotions playing across his face and kept the glib comment she'd been about to make to herself. She finished with Argo's mane and stepped over to start on her tail.
Xena's lips twitched in sudden amusement, recalling how Joxer had woken up. "So Jett had one of his funny nightmares?"
Joxer sputtered his water on a laugh, visibly relaxing. "Bananas!" He swallowed and waved his hands to indicate the whole camp area, "Everywhere! Dropping from the trees, covering the ground, just piles of them and this huge fear of taking a step in any direction and squishing them." He chuckled and shook his head, "Jett could never stand anything squishy under his feet or between his toes."
He grinned over at Xena and they both burst out laughing. They didn't even bother to look and see if their noise would wake Gabrielle since she slept like the dead.
He laughed harder, closing and tossing aside his canteen. "Oh, and one time he dreamed a pair of boots followed him all across Greece! He'd run and run or try to ride away, but they'd always be right behind him, these dirty old brown boots with, uh, oh yeah, these big flashy buckles on them. I think they were even dancing at one point." He moved his hands alternately to mimic the dancing steps. "Yeah, some kind of jig with lots of high kicks."
He grinned sheepishly at Xena, "I know I shouldn't laugh. He's my brother and the dreams really do terrify him, but come on, bananas and boots? And he has the nerve to laugh at me because I'm not the killer he is?" He rolled his eyes and huffed in amused exasperation.
Xena finished with Argo and patted her rump affectionately. She patted Joxer's head with the same kind of affection as she passed him to sit on the large log they'd rolled next to the fire. "You know, you might not want to mention this dream-sharing thing to Gabrielle."
"Huh? Why not?"
Xena smirked, "Considering the way you feel about her, don't you think she'd wonder about the dreams you're sharing with them?"
Joxer looked over at the sleeping bard and felt his cheeks burning. "Oh. Right." Her reaction to that would be nothing short of a nightmare.
