Inexorable Love Part 2 - Xena & Gabrielle
Inexorable Love - Part 2: We Need To Talk
We Need to Talk
Xena sat in the pond she had found and thought about the incident. Although shocking in every way, what disturbed Xena most was that this was not the first time. The lack of control during sleep when in a close proximity with Gabrielle drove her crazy and she angrily cursed her libido for threatening the best friendship she’d ever had. She knew when it had all started - that damned kiss. It was supposed to be a goodbye kiss. Just in case.
Just in case she wouldn’t come back after she’d died. But that chaste yet soft exploration of her little bard’s lips had unleashed all the emotions she felt for the young woman.
Of course, they hadn’t talked about it. They never did about anything intimate. She knew it was fear of the unknown - for both of them.
Deciding that the water had eradicated any remaining arousal, the warrior got up, letting the cold droplets stream down her bare body. She waded through the rippling water and threw on her still sweat soaked shift.
As she’d guessed, the blonde woman was acting as if nothing had happened; running a hand through her long, sun bleached blonde tresses.
Preparing their substantial oatmeal breakfast, Gabrielle glanced up at her friend and smiled. Yet the smile, despite itself, had not quite reached Gabrielle’s eyes. There was a tension around the green orbs suggesting an unwanted awkwardness. Xena didn’t know how to react to this, so she grinned back shyly, attempting to get the all-too-sudden feel of her sidekick’s moist inner walls out of her mind.
Four candlemarks later, the women were trudging through forestland, getting closer to Doriskos with every step they took.
Gabrielle opened her mouth to say something, but decided not to for the fifteenth time over the last league traveled. After waking up several times in amorous situations with Xena, this was by far the most embarrassing. What made it worse, was that this time, she was that close to waking Xena up and making her finish what she’d started. That close… She let out a frustrated breath and focused on the road ahead of her.
“What were you going to say?”
“Nothing. Just that it’s too quiet and… It’s too quiet.” The bard fell silent again and sighed, feeling a desolate gap already forming between the two of them. Xena glanced at her friend and she felt herself go through the same mutual, emotional turmoil. Gods we are so damned stubborn. Thinking of the only way to cure the awkwardness besides the obvious - and that was just risking way too much, she reached out and wrapped her arm around the smaller woman’s waist, pulling her closer towards her. Gabrielle beamed a smile for the first time in days and returned the gesture, snuggling into the embrace, glad of the warrior’s comforting offer.
“Well isn’t this touching.” A raspy voice spoke from behind them. Xena whirled around to find roughly thirteen foul-smelling, sullied, armed men. The barely visible blue and green colors of Axon peeked through the mud and sweat that caked each man.
“Doesn’t Axon understand by now that sending men to me is a waste?” Xena snarled, rattled that she hadn’t sensed the brigands’ rude onset. This distraction has got to stop, she scolded herself.
Axon’s second in command, Kosmas, glanced at Xena, moving his eyes from his eyes to Gabrielle, who leant against her companion. “So it would seem.” He raised his eyebrow at both of them.
Xena snapped. Her pride was battered by his remark and she felt her privacy intruded so she lashed out. He unsheathed his jagged edged sword and charged at her. A quick glance at Gabrielle told her that the storyteller was successfully dumping her slow opponents on their behinds. Curling her leg around the back of Kosmas’s, Xena quickly took his legs from under him. With the wind abruptly knocked out of him as he landed on his back, the large man lay motionless. Recovering his composure, he moved to jump up but found himself stopped by a six foot female warrior straddling his chest. She placed her sword blade against the flesh of his neck.
Xena’s eyes searched around hastily, finding the blonde thwacking her staff against a soldier’s skull. Good. Going in for the kill, Xena increased the pressure of the blade against her enemy’s throat. It was empowering. Empowering to notice the gradual trickle of blood trailing down Kosmas’s clavicle, the gash just below his epiglottis spurting the tepid liquid. Staring him in the face as she felt a crush of bone, she glanced up once more to see how her bard was doing. Xena’s head suddenly snapped back against her shoulders as the second in command tangled his grubby fingers through her long raven hair from behind her back, yanking it as hard as he could muster. In frantic desperation from having his throat broken and cut open, he slashed as much flesh as he could, gurgling in both pain and determination.
Xena felt the hot burning sting of her opponent’s dagger cutting a slice into her cheek. She leaped off him in reflex, another searing pain shooting through her upper arm as the jagged blade lacerated through her skin. In blind fury, she took a chance and dove forward, her sword aiming for his gut while she landed once more on the dirty fighter. She was too quick for him and her sword buried itself into Kosmas’s chest as well as the ground beneath him. His greasy brown hair was plastered against his face and his cheeks, and his eyes glazed over, gazing hauntingly up at Xena. Getting off of him as fast as she could, she unhooked the chakram, which up until now was had been hung at her hip. She glanced to both her right and left, swiftly calculating the angles in her mind. Sensing movement behind her, she delivered a forceful punch to her aggressor. She felt him slump against her back, and then heard him plummeting to the ground out cold. She didn’t even want to see his face. Bringing her arm back with a power and strength that baffled most Xena released the chakram with an implausible force. As she took down the remaining eight brigands with the lethal spinning disc, she felt hot jets of blood dripping from her cheek.
The tip of the grizzly soldier’s blade had efficiently cut open the fleshy cheek tissue from the base of Xena’s lower left eyelid to her mid cheek, aligned with her mouth. The steady flow of blood in her line of vision made her light headed. Shaking the blood from her face she saw Gabrielle ducking away from the chakram, which was speedily slicing through the scalps of the remaining men. The last thud sounded as a younger man dressed in blue and green fell to the blood covered ground.
Xena slid heavily down the side of a large tree trunk in exhaustion.
Gabrielle’s breath caught as she observed the action, remembering the last time she’d seen the woman she loved do the same thing. Rushing over to the warrior, she knelt down beside her to check the extent of her injuries. Xena’s eye were shut, blood was pouring down the whole of the left side of her face. The scarlet stream, in Gabrielle’s eyes, made the woman look even more beautifully heroic. Her breathing was regular and she seemed relatively calm. She just looked relieved that the fight was over. And Gabrielle had never seen anything more stunning. Gabrielle breathed a sigh of relief. Hesitantly, she inched her hand closer to Xena’s head, light brushing the blood away from the warrior’s eyes, the bard leaned closer and brushed her lips against her best friend’s forehead. She lingered there, giving her friend as much love as she could through the kiss. Leaning back she gazed at the woman whose closed eyes fluttered open and looked into the sea-green ones with such intensity and devotion, Gabrielle wanted to cry there and then. Xena let a slow grin spread across her face. There was an adolescence that Gabrielle knew was very rare so she mentally took a snap shot of the scene before her and stored it away in her memory. There was also an infectious quality about the smile and she couldn’t help but respond with her own nose wrinkle, forever thanking the gods for Xena’s safety.
“Ow,” Xena murmured in a childish like manner causing her sidekick to chuckle softly.
“How many times have I told you not to play with lacerated blades, Xena?” The bard admonished. She rummaged through her saddlebag, pulling out some cotton gauze, laying it tenderly against Xena’s cheek. Looking introspectively for a second, she lost her smile, its fading brisk and she gently continued to absorb the slowly clotting blood using the already sopping cloth.
“Hey,” Gabrielle heard the hushed tone, then felt a soft stroking on her forearm and glanced down at herself, then up to capture Xena’s questioning gaze.
“Could you not have sat on a rock instead?” Gabrielle’s voice broke - her attempt at the sardonic humor failing miserably. Xena stared in confusion until she suddenly realized. Her body spontaneously jerked away from the tree trunk, circling her arms around the blonde’s shoulders, drawing her closer. Gabrielle’s pulse was beating rapidly and Xena could feel the vibrations through her chest as if they were her own when Gabrielle nuzzled closer, sitting in-between her legs.
“It just reminded me,” the small woman choked back a sob.
“I know,” Xena soothed, “I’m sorry…” She whispered as she stroked her friend’s back. She let a tear fall, the sting of salt hitting her open wound as intense as the emotion.
She thought back to that day. The day she’d just given up, her body lifeless against the trunk as she fell into a semi-conscious state.
Begging Gabrielle to take her to Mount Nestos as a last resort.
She really was sorry. Sorry for causing her best friend so much sadness and it made her heart ache because she knew that the pain wouldn’t go for a long, long time.
Xena kissed Gabrielle’s forehead lightly, feeling the blonde strands moving against her lips and rested her chin on top of her Gabrielle’s head.
Their bodies began to rock gently and although Gabrielle found herself momentarily soothed, a harsh frustration continued to lie deep within her.
“Xena.” She attempted to break the embrace but she found herself trapped. “Xena,” she repeated insistently. “We need to talk.”
We Need to Talk
Xena sat in the pond she had found and thought about the incident. Although shocking in every way, what disturbed Xena most was that this was not the first time. The lack of control during sleep when in a close proximity with Gabrielle drove her crazy and she angrily cursed her libido for threatening the best friendship she’d ever had. She knew when it had all started - that damned kiss. It was supposed to be a goodbye kiss. Just in case.
Just in case she wouldn’t come back after she’d died. But that chaste yet soft exploration of her little bard’s lips had unleashed all the emotions she felt for the young woman.
Of course, they hadn’t talked about it. They never did about anything intimate. She knew it was fear of the unknown - for both of them.
Deciding that the water had eradicated any remaining arousal, the warrior got up, letting the cold droplets stream down her bare body. She waded through the rippling water and threw on her still sweat soaked shift.
As she’d guessed, the blonde woman was acting as if nothing had happened; running a hand through her long, sun bleached blonde tresses.
Preparing their substantial oatmeal breakfast, Gabrielle glanced up at her friend and smiled. Yet the smile, despite itself, had not quite reached Gabrielle’s eyes. There was a tension around the green orbs suggesting an unwanted awkwardness. Xena didn’t know how to react to this, so she grinned back shyly, attempting to get the all-too-sudden feel of her sidekick’s moist inner walls out of her mind.
Four candlemarks later, the women were trudging through forestland, getting closer to Doriskos with every step they took.
Gabrielle opened her mouth to say something, but decided not to for the fifteenth time over the last league traveled. After waking up several times in amorous situations with Xena, this was by far the most embarrassing. What made it worse, was that this time, she was that close to waking Xena up and making her finish what she’d started. That close… She let out a frustrated breath and focused on the road ahead of her.
“What were you going to say?”
“Nothing. Just that it’s too quiet and… It’s too quiet.” The bard fell silent again and sighed, feeling a desolate gap already forming between the two of them. Xena glanced at her friend and she felt herself go through the same mutual, emotional turmoil. Gods we are so damned stubborn. Thinking of the only way to cure the awkwardness besides the obvious - and that was just risking way too much, she reached out and wrapped her arm around the smaller woman’s waist, pulling her closer towards her. Gabrielle beamed a smile for the first time in days and returned the gesture, snuggling into the embrace, glad of the warrior’s comforting offer.
“Well isn’t this touching.” A raspy voice spoke from behind them. Xena whirled around to find roughly thirteen foul-smelling, sullied, armed men. The barely visible blue and green colors of Axon peeked through the mud and sweat that caked each man.
“Doesn’t Axon understand by now that sending men to me is a waste?” Xena snarled, rattled that she hadn’t sensed the brigands’ rude onset. This distraction has got to stop, she scolded herself.
Axon’s second in command, Kosmas, glanced at Xena, moving his eyes from his eyes to Gabrielle, who leant against her companion. “So it would seem.” He raised his eyebrow at both of them.
Xena snapped. Her pride was battered by his remark and she felt her privacy intruded so she lashed out. He unsheathed his jagged edged sword and charged at her. A quick glance at Gabrielle told her that the storyteller was successfully dumping her slow opponents on their behinds. Curling her leg around the back of Kosmas’s, Xena quickly took his legs from under him. With the wind abruptly knocked out of him as he landed on his back, the large man lay motionless. Recovering his composure, he moved to jump up but found himself stopped by a six foot female warrior straddling his chest. She placed her sword blade against the flesh of his neck.
Xena’s eyes searched around hastily, finding the blonde thwacking her staff against a soldier’s skull. Good. Going in for the kill, Xena increased the pressure of the blade against her enemy’s throat. It was empowering. Empowering to notice the gradual trickle of blood trailing down Kosmas’s clavicle, the gash just below his epiglottis spurting the tepid liquid. Staring him in the face as she felt a crush of bone, she glanced up once more to see how her bard was doing. Xena’s head suddenly snapped back against her shoulders as the second in command tangled his grubby fingers through her long raven hair from behind her back, yanking it as hard as he could muster. In frantic desperation from having his throat broken and cut open, he slashed as much flesh as he could, gurgling in both pain and determination.
Xena felt the hot burning sting of her opponent’s dagger cutting a slice into her cheek. She leaped off him in reflex, another searing pain shooting through her upper arm as the jagged blade lacerated through her skin. In blind fury, she took a chance and dove forward, her sword aiming for his gut while she landed once more on the dirty fighter. She was too quick for him and her sword buried itself into Kosmas’s chest as well as the ground beneath him. His greasy brown hair was plastered against his face and his cheeks, and his eyes glazed over, gazing hauntingly up at Xena. Getting off of him as fast as she could, she unhooked the chakram, which up until now was had been hung at her hip. She glanced to both her right and left, swiftly calculating the angles in her mind. Sensing movement behind her, she delivered a forceful punch to her aggressor. She felt him slump against her back, and then heard him plummeting to the ground out cold. She didn’t even want to see his face. Bringing her arm back with a power and strength that baffled most Xena released the chakram with an implausible force. As she took down the remaining eight brigands with the lethal spinning disc, she felt hot jets of blood dripping from her cheek.
The tip of the grizzly soldier’s blade had efficiently cut open the fleshy cheek tissue from the base of Xena’s lower left eyelid to her mid cheek, aligned with her mouth. The steady flow of blood in her line of vision made her light headed. Shaking the blood from her face she saw Gabrielle ducking away from the chakram, which was speedily slicing through the scalps of the remaining men. The last thud sounded as a younger man dressed in blue and green fell to the blood covered ground.
Xena slid heavily down the side of a large tree trunk in exhaustion.
Gabrielle’s breath caught as she observed the action, remembering the last time she’d seen the woman she loved do the same thing. Rushing over to the warrior, she knelt down beside her to check the extent of her injuries. Xena’s eye were shut, blood was pouring down the whole of the left side of her face. The scarlet stream, in Gabrielle’s eyes, made the woman look even more beautifully heroic. Her breathing was regular and she seemed relatively calm. She just looked relieved that the fight was over. And Gabrielle had never seen anything more stunning. Gabrielle breathed a sigh of relief. Hesitantly, she inched her hand closer to Xena’s head, light brushing the blood away from the warrior’s eyes, the bard leaned closer and brushed her lips against her best friend’s forehead. She lingered there, giving her friend as much love as she could through the kiss. Leaning back she gazed at the woman whose closed eyes fluttered open and looked into the sea-green ones with such intensity and devotion, Gabrielle wanted to cry there and then. Xena let a slow grin spread across her face. There was an adolescence that Gabrielle knew was very rare so she mentally took a snap shot of the scene before her and stored it away in her memory. There was also an infectious quality about the smile and she couldn’t help but respond with her own nose wrinkle, forever thanking the gods for Xena’s safety.
“Ow,” Xena murmured in a childish like manner causing her sidekick to chuckle softly.
“How many times have I told you not to play with lacerated blades, Xena?” The bard admonished. She rummaged through her saddlebag, pulling out some cotton gauze, laying it tenderly against Xena’s cheek. Looking introspectively for a second, she lost her smile, its fading brisk and she gently continued to absorb the slowly clotting blood using the already sopping cloth.
“Hey,” Gabrielle heard the hushed tone, then felt a soft stroking on her forearm and glanced down at herself, then up to capture Xena’s questioning gaze.
“Could you not have sat on a rock instead?” Gabrielle’s voice broke - her attempt at the sardonic humor failing miserably. Xena stared in confusion until she suddenly realized. Her body spontaneously jerked away from the tree trunk, circling her arms around the blonde’s shoulders, drawing her closer. Gabrielle’s pulse was beating rapidly and Xena could feel the vibrations through her chest as if they were her own when Gabrielle nuzzled closer, sitting in-between her legs.
“It just reminded me,” the small woman choked back a sob.
“I know,” Xena soothed, “I’m sorry…” She whispered as she stroked her friend’s back. She let a tear fall, the sting of salt hitting her open wound as intense as the emotion.
She thought back to that day. The day she’d just given up, her body lifeless against the trunk as she fell into a semi-conscious state.
Begging Gabrielle to take her to Mount Nestos as a last resort.
She really was sorry. Sorry for causing her best friend so much sadness and it made her heart ache because she knew that the pain wouldn’t go for a long, long time.
Xena kissed Gabrielle’s forehead lightly, feeling the blonde strands moving against her lips and rested her chin on top of her Gabrielle’s head.
Their bodies began to rock gently and although Gabrielle found herself momentarily soothed, a harsh frustration continued to lie deep within her.
“Xena.” She attempted to break the embrace but she found herself trapped. “Xena,” she repeated insistently. “We need to talk.”