"Night of the Chakram" (Xena/Gabrielle - NC-17)

[erimthar]

Title: "Night of the Chakram"
Author: erimthar 
Fandom: Xena: Warrior Princess
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 5,101
Pairing: Xena/Gabrielle
Summary: Gabrielle and Spirit Xena discover that the chakram is much more than a weapon.
Warnings: Explicit lesbian sex. Takes place after the series finale and contains spoilers for it and the entire series.
Author's Notes: This story was first written, in its original form, back in 2002 when Xena fanfic (especially post-FIN) was still going strong. This version is heavily revised, although the first section (Xena recounting her past romances with women) is largely as it was then. Takes place several months after the series finale, A Friend In Need.



"You misspelled her name, Gabrielle. It's Akemi, not Akimi."

After several weeks, Gabrielle had finally learned not to squeal and knock over her ink pot whenever Xena's spirit suddenly materialized behind her and started a conversation. Still, it was a struggle. As she sat on the wooden floor of her cozy inn room, writing in her scrolls with a crackling fire to her left and the sound of winter rain beating on the shuttered window, she'd almost drifted into a trance of relaxation.

"You're worse than Aphrodite, popping in behind people like that," she said. "And what do you mean I misspelled her name?"

"Akemi," said Xena. "Alpha, kappa, epsilon, mu, iota."

Gabrielle looked down at her scroll in disgust. "Well, since I spelled it that way all through the first fifteen chapters, I guess it's going to stay that way. Until somebody invents white ink I can use to blot out the mistakes..."

Xena walked around to face Gabrielle -- the creaky floor making no sound under her phantom footsteps -- and knelt down to look at the scroll. "What are you going to call this one?"

"A Friend In Need, like you suggested."

"It's a good title."

"Depends on which friend you're talking about."

Xena smiled sadly at her. "You're never going to forgive me for that one, are you?"

Gabrielle sighed. "Xena, I'm not about to put another layer of guilt on top of you. If I do, you'll probably go banging on the doors of Tartarus, begging them to let you in so you can suffer some more. I forgive you...but I really, really miss you."

"I'm right here, Gabrielle...see?"

"I see. I hear. Sometimes I can even feel you, sort of. But the more I try to touch you, the more you slip away."

Xena leaned over the scroll and kissed the younger woman, who felt a slight, feathery touch on her forehead. "Gabrielle, when I said I'd always be in your heart, I wasn't just being poetic. It's your love that keeps me here, you know. I don't really have a body. You can see and hear me because your will to do so is so strong. The fact that you can feel anything at all when I touch you...well, let's just say I never completely realized how much you must love me until after I was dead."

Gabrielle couldn't help but gaze lovingly into ghost-Xena's beautiful blue eyes. "You know, I have to take care of myself now in the, uh, tension relief department."

"I know," said Xena with a wicked smile. "I've enjoyed watching you."

"Xena, you didn't!" Gabrielle blushed a brilliant scarlet.

"Oh, but I did. You're going to run out of spare quills pretty soon if you keep using them that way."

"Gooooddddsssss," moaned Gabrielle, burying her face in her hands.

Xena scooted over to sit next to her mortified partner. "Hey," she whispered. "Happy anniversary."

Gabrielle brightened. "You remembered..."

"Tsk, of course I remembered. Seven years ago today, I saved you from Draco, and then you saved me."

"Xena..."

"...and I have an anniversary gift for you. Which I'll give you, after you've finished correcting Akemi's name."

Gabrielle smiled down at her work. "You really loved her, didn't you? In spite of everything."

"I guess it was as close to love as I could get back then. Those days weren't exactly a dream of romance for me." She smirked. "I was a tigress in the sack, though."

A new interest suddenly sparked in Gabrielle's eyes. "You know what, Xena? I'd like to do an interview with you."

Xena gave her a curious look. "Interview? You mean like that weird guy with the funny-shaped box who kept asking us if we were lovers?"

"No...I want you to tell me all about the women you've loved, Xena. Everyone before me. I know about the men...Borias and Marcus and Caesa... um... and so forth, but it's the women I want to hear about."

"You want me to talk about loving other women? I wasn't really in love with any of them, Gabrielle. I just didn't know what I was looking for until... well, you."

"I want to know where your path led," urged Gabrielle. "It might help me understand things better."

"You haven't been the same since that poets' retreat with Sappho." Xena shrugged. "If that's what you want. I'll give you the quick tour."

Gabrielle took out a fresh blank scroll, prepared a new quill (and blushed furiously again when she saw Xena grinning at her), and began taking notes as Xena spoke.

"It started with M'Lila," Xena began. "She was the first woman I ever looked at with more than friendship. She excited me. It was almost scary, in a way."

"I wish I could have known her," mused Gabrielle.

"If you had, you'd probably have fallen in love with her instead of me."

"Xena, stop that."

"Okay, okay. I never had a chance to make love to M'Lila. I did get to kiss her, though. It was like stepping into a new world -- I'd never felt anything so soft and sweet and warm. And those Celts know how to kiss! I'd never had a lover lick the roof of my mouth before."

"Nhhhmmm," remarked Gabrielle.

"What did you say?"

"Uh, I was just thinking I need to go down to the market and get some new quills in the morning. Go on."

"You know how the M'Lila story ended... she died. The next one was Anokin, Alti's apprentice. She was so beautiful...it was like a surge of lightning went through me the first time I saw her. A week later, I had her in my bed. Just as Alti planned."

"So she was using you?"

"Alti was. Anokin...she was just completely crazy, I'm afraid. Alti had done such horrible things to her mind that it was anyone's guess who or what was looking out of those eyes. But when we made love, she became so gentle, so passionate...we were lovers for three weeks, and we must have made love a hundred times."

"Wow," breathed Gabrielle.

"Wow is right. We'd start, and we just couldn't stop until one of us passed out. I think maybe Alti was casting some spell on the sly...something to make our insides tickle. Whatever it was, I wish I could have bottled it."

Xena looked down. "And then Anokin died. Like M'Lila."

Gabrielle reached out to stroke what little of Xena's hair she could touch.

"But that was just sex," sighed Xena. "I couldn't love her...we were both too far lost. And then came Lao Ma."

"I always wondered whether you and Lao Ma were lovers," said Gabrielle.

Xena smiled. "We were as in love as any two people who never had sex. Well, I had sex. She didn't."

"Oooookay. You're going to have to explain that one," said Gabrielle.

"Well, one day during training she was showing me how she could drop a ball and stop it with her mind before it hit the ground. It was pretty impressive, but I thought it was a useless trick, of course. I was fidgeting, I guess, not paying attention. Lao Ma asked me what was distracting me. Well, I had a smart mouth back then..."

"Back then?"

"...and I said to her, I was just thinking what it would be like to strip off your kimono and lick every inch of your naked body."

"Mmmm," said Gabrielle. "The subtle approach."

"For me back then, that was subtle. But Lao Ma just looked at me...I mean, looked at me. I couldn't look away, it was like I'd grown roots. She had this little smile on her face. And then the strange feeling started...like a cold fire somewhere way down deep between my legs. It got more and more intense...I started shaking all over, my knees buckled. I still couldn't take my eyes off her. I though I was going to die...she was going to kill me for being so stupid. And then...I had the most blinding, mind-bending orgasm of my life. I mean, I never scream during a climax, but if I could have taken a breath, they would have heard me back here in Greece. And it just wouldn't stop...it must have gone on for at least a whole minute. I don't know why my heart didn't stop."

"And when it was over, Lao Ma walked over to look down at me. She said, You're still trying to look when you should be trying to feel. And she walked away. It was half an hour before I could even stand up."

"And that was the only moment of passion I had with her until I ruined what there was between us. And then she died. Like M'Lila and Anokin."

Gabrielle said nothing.

"Then, Akemi. With an epsilon," smiled Xena. "Sweet little beauty, a virgin when I met her. Her serenity, her poetry -- I guess she reminded me a little of Lao Ma, only with me in charge this time. At least, that's what I thought. It was she who seduced me, the first time we made love. That's never happened before or since."

"You can be a little intimidating at first," confessed Gabrielle.

"So it seems." Xena sighed with the memories. "Akemi made the sweetest little cooing noises when she released...so quiet and soft. She was incredibly sensitive. Her breasts, her neck, her thighs, her belly...I could even bring her off by sucking her toes."

"Me, too," commented Gabrielle.

"Really? You never told me that, Gabrielle..."

"I was too busy watching the fireworks going off in my skull. You have a talented tongue, Xena."

"Thank you," said Xena with a wicked grin.

"Anyway," she continued, "Akemi died. This time, I killed her. Are you beginning to see a pattern here?"

Gabrielle nodded ruefully.

"Akemi was the last one before you. Oh, and then there was Eris, but you were there too for that one."

"Hmmmm, yes I was," Gabrielle smiled. She reached into her pile of scrolls and pulled one out with the heading of Kindred Spirits. "Eris, the cute Amazon who wanted to take my place at your side, in every possible sense."

"At my side, and at my back, and my front, and on top of me and underneath me."

"So she had good taste. Xena, I'll never forget the look on her face when I told her, 'Eris, you'll never come between us,' and then you said, 'But Gabrielle and I have discussed it, and we wonder if maybe you'd like to come while between us....'"

"That poor girl," Gabrielle laughed. "All she could do was swallow hard and nod."

"Wellll, that wasn't all she could do. She was a quick learner."

"And a squeaky one. She looked so adorable the next morning, curled up asleep in between us in a naked little ball, sucking her thumb. Ahem. I left that episode out of the scroll."

"Good call," grinned Xena. "Anyway, I met you, and we got it right. All the pain was worth it. And there won't be any real death this time -- it's true, Gabrielle...we never die."

"It's times like this," said Gabrielle, "when I really wish I could hold you."

Xena smiled at her. "That brings us to the subject of my anniversary gift. Go and get the chakram, if you please."

Puzzled, Gabrielle walked over to her pack and drew forth the circular weapon with a curving yin-and-yang crosspiece. "I've tried practicing with this since I got back from the East, but I can't seem to get the hang of it. I have trouble even hitting a target on a direct throw, much less bouncing it off of everything in sight like you could. I guess that time on Mount Fuji was just a fluke."

"No," said Xena, "it wasn't. On Mount Fuji you were using it as a tool for love -- to save me, because you loved me."

Gabrielle looked at her curiously.

"This chakram...this balanced chakram..." said Xena "...it's us, Gabrielle. The yin and yang -- two opposites flowing into each other in perfect balance. Mine is the way of the warrior, yours is the way of the lover. So, while I can use it as a tool of war..."

"It becomes a tool of love in my hands?" Gabrielle looked at the chakram.

Xena nodded.

"But...what does that mean?"

Xena went over and sat on the bed, an umistakable gleam of lust in her eyes. "C'mere," she said to Gabrielle. "Bring that."

Gabrielle obeyed, feeling slightly numb. She sat down next to Xena. "Hold it out," directed the spirit warrior. The bard held up the chakram. Xena reached out and grasped the rim opposite Gabrielle's hand.

Gabrielle gasped as a sudden feeling of connection flowed through her. She felt as if she had just awakened from a dream. She looked over in wonder at Xena, who leaned into her and kissed her deeply.

It was all there. The soft taste of Xena's lips, the gentle suction, the kitten-like roughness of her tongue. She could even smell her lover's warm breath, flooding into her nostrils.

"Mmmpph," sobbed Gabrielle. "Xena...I can touch you...I can really touch you..."

"Yes," gasped Xena. "And I can touch you."

"H...Have you known about this all along?" Gabrielle was almost weeping with desperation.

"Mmm-hmmm," assented Xena.

"And you never told me until now?"

"Wanted to save it for a special occasion...can you imagine how good it's going to be, after waiting so long?"

"But in Japa, when I first met you after you died, you couldn't touch the chakram."

"Because we weren't in balance yet." Xena looked down at the ring of metal in her hands. "Sometimes I wonder where this came from, exactly, and whether it's a tool for me to use, or vice versa..."

Her musing was interrupted by a rattling clack as Gaby's red halter top, with its beaded fringe, smacked against the far wall of the room and slid down to the floor.

Xena looked at her in surprise. Gabrielle was eying her with a look of pure hunger, like a very beautiful (and very topless) jungle cat.

"Take your armor off, Xena," she growled breathlessly. "Take your clothes off. All of them. Now."

Xena smiled back at her. "Ghosts can't actually wear clothes, you know. What you're seeing as clothing is actually part of me."

"You mean you can't take them off?"

Xena had to laugh at the look of frustration on her flesh-and-blood lover's face. "Of course I can. As easy as this!"

She struck a sexy pose, and suddenly her boots and skirt and breastplate and leathers vanished into thin air, leaving her stark naked.

Gabrielle gawked at her. At no point had she ever forgotten how beautiful Xena's nude body was... those kissable breasts with big pinkish-brown areolae and prominent nipples. The sleek, creamy belly curving down to the glossy-black triangle of curls between her legs. The legs themselves, long and muscular, but sleek and shapely and feminine.

Xena let Gaby ogle her for five heartbeats, and then suddenly she was fully clothed again.

"What?" Gabrielle sputtered. "Your clothes are back. No. Not good. Back is bad."

"I thought it would be more fun to let you take them off me," Xena said with a coy smile and a very un-Xena-like flutter of her eyelashes. "If you really love me, you'll remember how to do it. I believe your best time was less than a hundred heartbeats. And those were fast heartbeats."

Gabrielle whined and fumbled at her red skirt, trying to undo it and slide it down her legs at the same time. But it got tangled with the handles of her sais, protruding from her boot-sheaths. Struggling, she toppled over onto her side. Xena just stood and laughed at the little blonde on the floor, kicking and squirming as she tried to free herself of her entanglement.

"You could help me, you know," Gabrielle said grumpily.

"No I couldn't. I'm a ghost, remember? Besides, it's funny. And sexy. I like watching your breasts jiggle when you struggle like that."

"Hmph," Gabrielle replied, even more aroused than ever. She reached into the tangle, extricated her sais, sent them clattering into a corner of the room, and in a moment had freed her legs.

Xena applauded as Gabrielle got triumphantly to her feet, and with a flourish unwrapped the cloth around her loins, sending it fluttering down to the floorboards. She quickly made the executive decision not to bother taking off her boots, and launched herself across the room at her warrior princess.

Gabrielle grabbed at the chakram in Xena's hand as she barrelled into her, and Xena became solid enough for Gaby to knock her over onto her back with a startled oooof. But then Gaby lost her grip on the metal ring, and fell through her lover's suddenly incorporeal form onto the bare floor.

"Damn, that's going to be annoying," she muttered, feeling around for the chakram. Then she gasped and went rigid as the sensation hit her. She was lying there inside Xena's spirit, almost completely engulfed by it. The sensation was like cold, tickly fingers of fog touching her all over her bare body. It tickled. A lot. And in some very ticklish places.

Her hand closed around the edge of the chakram, and Gabrielle let out a little ooop sound as Xena's solid body suddenly materialized underneath her, lifting her several inches off the floor. The delicious chill of the warrior princess's ghostly body was suddenly replaced by the warmth of her material one. The metal of Xena's breastplate felt cold against Gaby's bare breasts, but her nipples couldn't get any stiffer than they already were.

"There's another thing we're going to have to explore more thoroughly," Gabrielle whispered breathlessly.

"What?" Xena asked curiously. But any follow-up was lost as Gabrielle cradled her head with her free arm and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her.

Xena didn't have to breathe, even in material form, but she still found herself gasping when Gabrielle finally moved down to start in on her neck. "You were right," she huffed. "We can save the slow strip-tease for another time." And suddenly Xena's armor and clothing vanished, and Gabrielle found herself stretched out atop nothing but soft, smooth skin and strong, supple muscle.

Xena gazed blearily at the rafters in the ceiling of the inn room as Gabrielle passionately worked over her neck and shoulders with her lips and tongue and teeth. It was so wonderful to feel warm again, from her lover's squirming body and the nearby fire. She wondered if this body of hers was fully functional in the sexual way... but from what she was feeling right now, and the growing wetness between her legs, she guessed it was.

When Gabrielle started licking and kissing her down between her breasts, Xena took the opportunity to roll over on top of the blonde beauty, careful not to relinquish her grasp on the precious chakram. With her free arm, she pushed herself up to hover her chest just above Gabrielle's upturned face.

"Dangling and jiggling," Gabrielle whispered lovingly. "You remembered how much I love your dangling and jiggling."

"I remember," purred Xena. Gabrielle chose one dangling, jiggling breast and took its tip into her mouth. She began a lovely rhythm of in-and-out sucking, soon accompanied by a steady humming that made Xena's entire breast vibrate deliciously.

"And you remember how much I love your humming trick," Xena gasped.

"I remember how much you like it down below, too," Gabrielle reminded her. Xena shuddered at the thought.

Gabrielle sucked Xena for a long, wonderful time. As she did, she let her free hand range down the long, soft curve of the warrior woman's back, over the hump of her tight, muscular buttocks, and down the side of her sleek thigh. It brought tears to the bard's eyes to realize how much she'd missed this.

Suddenly, Xena rolled over again onto her back, pulling her lover on top of her once again with a grunt.

Gabrielle giggled. "Careful you don't roll us over into the fire," she said. "Our mortal flames probably can't hurt you, but they can roast my butt pretty thoroughly."

"Don't worry," Xena growled. "I enjoy your peach fuzz too much to singe it off. Now, lift up your tummy. I have an idea."

Gabrielle lifted up, and Xena slid the chakram right in between their two stomachs. "Now we can have our hands free," Xena explained. "As long as you don't go anywhere."

"Oh, I'm happy right here," the bard assured her.

They resumed their kissing, with the chakram pressed tight between Xena's sleek belly and those tight, firm abs Gabrielle was so justly proud of. As their kisses deepened, Xena thought she felt a warm, pleasant glow emanating from that metal ring and radiating into the core of her being, filling her with a sense of deep satisfaction, and safety, and closeness to this beautiful, wonderful young woman. How many people had ever been blessed with love so deep that even death couldn't keep them apart?

The last time Xena had felt anything like this had been when she was heavily pregnant with Eve. Lying beside the fire, gazing into Gabrielle's eyes as the young woman lovingly stroked and caressed her swollen belly with gentle hands. Sometimes those hands would wander lower, and bring Xena a moment of gasping release; sometimes they would just wrap around her, to hold her close through the night. Either way, those hands brought Xena the sweetest of dreams.

The warrior princess was so enraptured by the pulsing warmth in her belly, and the soft kisses raining on her face and neck and shoulders, that it took her a moment to realize that Gabrielle had opened her legs and planted her knees on the floor to either side of Xena's hips. She was gently, rhythmically rubbing her erect clitoris against her lover's mound, letting the curly black hair tickle her between her open, dripping-wet lips.

Xena pulled Gabrielle's hair aside and ran her fingertips from the nape of her neck, right down the length of her spine to her bottom. Gabrielle shivered violently and moaned, burying her face in the hollow of Xena's neck and shoulder.

Xena grabbed Gaby's buns with both hands, squeezing and kneading them as they rose and fell. Then one hand snaked down, past her buttocks and between her legs. With no warning, Xena slipped a long finger all the way into Gabrielle's vagina.

Gabrielle let out a sobbing cry as her body stiffened, and she stopped stroking Xena with her crotch for just a moment, before starting up again at twice the pace.

The blonde bard spasmed from head to toe as Xena's finger began rotating in little circles deep within her, first clockwise, then counterclockwise. Whimpering, Gabrielle bit Xena's shoulder hard enough to almost hurt.

After a few moments, Gabrielle's humping increase to a frantic pace, her movements as ragged and uneven as her breathing. She lifted her head up and gazed down into Xena's eyes, tears and sweat flooding down from her cheeks onto Xena's like a warm rain.

Xena watched her intently as Gabrielle gave out a loud, yelping sob, turned red as a beet, made a face like she'd just bitten into a very sour lemon, and burst like a dam.

Xena clamped her lips over Gabrielle's and let the bard scream and scream into her mouth, muffling the shrieks enough to prevent the innkeeper from pounding on the door. Gaby's toes curled inside her boots, and her fingers scrabbled desperately at the floorboards, searching uselessly for something to anchor herself. But she was lost, swept away like a swimmer in a tsunami, drowning in love.

When her ears stopped ringing and the swimming stars cleared from her vision, Gabrielle was surprised at how much energy she felt. The few times in her life she'd ever experienced a climax of such incredible intensity, she'd been so exhausted she could hardly move until she'd had a good, long nap. But now she felt so happy, so relieved, so wonderful that she felt she could just float away like a ghost with Xena.

But an idea had taken hold of her.

She pulled herself up so that she was sitting astride Xena's hips, not much caring that the remnants of her orgasm were dripping onto her lover's belly. As she lifted up off the chakram she put her hand on it so as not to break the contact from where it lay on Xena's sweat-drenched stomach.

Without comment, she reached out to find Xena's hand, and guided it in to take hold of the chakram along with her. She lifted it, along with Xena's hand, up to her face.

And then she stuck out her tongue, and licked it.

It was just a crazy idea that had come to Gabrielle, out of nowhere, in the midst of the mushroom cloud of pleasure she'd just experienced. The chakram was the symbol of their connection, the talisman that allowed them to cross the boundary between worlds with their love.

And besides, Gabrielle had always found the shape of it oddly erotic. The gaping circle, with the graceful slit across the middle that formed the weapon into its yin and yang halves.

While Xena watched her, mouth agape, Gabrielle ran the tip of her tongue all the way along that slit, from one end to the other.

Xena's eyes and mouth grew even wider. "G...Gabrielle," she gasped. "That can't be v... very sanitary..."

"No," Gabrielle purred. "Absolutely filthy, in fact."

Then she gave Xena her most sultry grin, and, keeping eye contact with her, traced the same route with her tongue again, back in the opposite direction.

Xena groaned aloud this time, her vision momentarily going out of focus. She moaned her lover's name.

"Shhhhh," Gabrielle whispered, reaching with her free hand to put her finger against Xena's lips. "Just watch."

The things the blonde bard did to that chakram with her tongue and lips were so erotic that Xena wondered if she had been possessed by some kind of succubus or spirit of lust. She licked a slow circle all the way around the outer ring, sometimes using the blade of her tongue and sometimes the tip. Then it was back to the curve in the center, tickling it along its entire length with wet, feather-soft strokes, then back the other way with a continuous, firm lick. Then little tongue kisses, all along the very edge of the blade, that made Xena hope Gaby didn't cut her tongue or lips.

Xena felt every bit of it in the very center of her soul. Gabrielle had done things to her, with her tongue between her legs, that had left Xena blind and deaf and nearly dead with pleasure. But this was deeper than that. This was like nothing she'd ever experienced before. Nothing.

Gabrielle felt Xena's body begin to shake and tremble between her legs. The lovely warrior reached out and grabbed hold of Gaby's thigh with one hand, while nearly losing her grip on the chakram with the other, it was shaking so much. Gabrielle peered at Xena through the ring of the chakram, gave her another seductive smile, and started in on the other side.

Incandescent light flooded Xena's body and soul as she felt the convulsion begin deep down inside her. "Aphrodite, h-help me," she whimpered through clenched teeth.

Sure thing, sweetie, replied a familiar divine feminine voice in her mind. Good things wait for those who come. Nice to hear from you again, by the way.

Aphrodite's words tickled inside Xena's brain and clit ... a little gift from the mischievous, beautiful goddess, no doubt. At this point, a kiss between the legs by the goddess of love was much more than Xena could bear.

Xena exploded with such force that she nearly pitched Gabrielle right off of her. She felt herself gush and flood and squirt as she pounded her fists hysterically, helplessly against the floor.

She was sure her screams would wake the entire house and bring everyone down upon them, but she didn't care. It didn't even occur to her than nobody but Gabrielle could hear or even see her. If anyone had burst in upon them, all they would have seen would be a beautiful blonde, nude except for her boots, kneeling in the middle of the floor and apparently enjoying herself a great deal. Perhaps not that unusual a sight, in an inn.

When the last spasm exhausted itself deep inside Xena, the chakram split into its two halves with a ping. With a squeak of surprise, Gabrielle fell backwards onto the floor between Xena's spread legs, clutching her half of the weapon.

"I guess it had all it could take," Xena said with a tired laugh.

"I know I sure have," Gabrielle agreed. "For now."

Gaby picked herself up, and pressed her half of the chakram against Xena's. The two halves joined together readily. Gabrielle set it aside on the floor.

"Gabrielle," Xena said, brushing tears and sweat-soaked hair out of her eyes, "I'm not a poet, so I can't really find the words to tell you how much I love you."

Gaby lay down next to her, and gazed over at her. "I am a poet," she said, "and I can't find good enough words either."

"But you'll have to find the words, right? You're going to write all this down?"

Gabrielle laughed. "Maybe I should. There's a lot of money in pornography, they say. I'd better buy a bunch more quills. Some for writing, and some for..."

"Hey, there's a lady present," Xena teased.

"Mmmm. It was a good title, by the way. For this story, as well as that one."

"What?"

"A Friend In Need."

"Does that mean you're in need?"

Gabrielle leaned over and kissed Xena on her ghostly lips, feeling the cool tickle of her lover's spirit against her.

"Not anymore," she said.