XWP - Reunited, Awakenings 7
Hunter Ash
ripperbard7@yahoo.com
frost29@post.com
Rating: NC-17
pairing: Xena & Gabrielle
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Hercules looked up from his wood pile and leaned on his ax as the warrior approached the cabin, carrying a sleeping bard, her boots crunching in the light snow.
“Did you kill her or work it out?” he grinned and was pleased with her blushing face.
“We worked some of it out. It’s going to take a long time to heal.”
“I know. I’m hoping that Iolaus’ nightmares will start to settle down now that Gabrielle’s back and well.”
“He loves you very much,” Xena commented.
“I know, I’m not sure he’s ready for that though,” the demi-god muttered.
“You almost lost him that day and I lost Gabrielle for over a year. I was a fool to wait all that time to tell her how I felt.” Xena urged and then shrugged with a smile.
“Iolaus is inside with Sasha.”
“He’s quite taken with her,” Xena grinned.
“Yup,” he grinned back. “Nikki’s in there too.”
“Good, I’m going to let this one sleep. I’m not sure she’s made it through an entire night in two years.”
Xena carried the sleeping bard to their bed and gently laid Gabrielle on the sleeping furs and tenderly covered the woman. She looked up and saw Iolaus playing with Sasha near the fire, rolling a wooden ball back and forth with her, his left arm in its permanent sling. He grinned at the sight of Gabrielle sleeping and nodded in agreement that he thought this was a good sign along with Hercules.
Xena noticed Nikki watching as well. Xena nodded towards the door and Nikki nodded in agreement and grabbed her cloak.
Iolaus caught Hercules coming in as the two women headed for the barn.
“Did you take away their weapons?” Hercules asked with just a hint of humor.
“Nikki’s in love with Gabrielle.” Iolaus commented, going back to playing with Sasha.
“Yup and I’m not sure what Gabrielle told Xena either.”
“You think there’s something between Nikki and Gabrielle?” Iolaus asked with a frown.
“I don’t know, Brutus said Gabrielle had to do a lot of things to survive. I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned to Nikki for comfort. You’ve never seen the Arena, that’s a very hard life for anyone, especially Gabrielle.”
“Gods, no. Nothing can come between them.” Iolaus shook his head in disbelief.
“I hope so, my friend.” Hercules leaned down and ruffled his friend’s hair fondly and was pleased when Iolaus grinned up at him. Gods, had he fallen for his best friend? Hades, why not? He loved Xena as well. Then the demi-god frowned to himself, this felt different.
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Xena motioned to the hay bales she and Gabrielle had been sitting on early in the morning and Nikki carefully sat down, holding her crutch close to hand. One positive thing about being a cripple, she thought, you always had a weapon at hand.
Xena sat down on the other bale, facing the Norse Amazon.
“You love her.” Xena said simply.
“Yes,” Nikki admitted, watching Xena’s hands carefully. “She’s not in love with me, though. I know that, warrior.”
“You were lovers,” Xena stated.
Nikki stopped breathing for a moment. “Yes, did she also tell you why?”
“Yes, at first it was to protect her, then it was something else later.”
“Yes,” Nikki admitted. “I wasn’t exactly unwilling to make love to her.” She heard Xena growl. “I also know it was hard for her. It was your name that she bit into a blanket to keep from calling out when that bastard was watching and listening, it was your name I had to cover her lips from crying out in a nightmare every night. It was your face and your eyes she looked for every single morning. Not mine, Xena. She never loved me, and, give her credit, she never pretended to.”
“You still want her.”
Nikki laughed loudly. “Get some reality, Xena! Of course I do! Hasn’t everyone that’s ever met her?”
Xena did have to grin at that one.
“That doesn’t mean that I would act on those feelings ever again. We’re not in the same situation and she doesn’t think of me like that. Yours is the only body and soul she’ll ever want again. Later as time went on, we sought each other for sex but there was friendship and nothing more. I held her while she cried afterwards but it was you she was crying for.” Nikki told the warrior.
“What happens now?” Xena asked.
“I can either make my way back to the Amazons or go further north and seek my parent’s people out.”
“You can travel and stay with us when we go north,” Xena offered but Nikki shook her head.
“You know I can’t do that. There’s nothing between Gabrielle and me and there never will be but it’ll always be there, Xena. Always. I’ve shared her body with you. I have to find my own mate and keep my friendship with both of you. If I stay I don’t think that would last.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, you’ve been a good friend to Gabrielle and I know that.”
“She’s my Queen.” Nikki shrugged.
“Didn’t she tell you that she’s not Queen anymore?” Xena grinned.
“Of course, from the very beginning but that didn’t matter. Once a Queen, always a Queen.”
Xena grinned, shaking her head.
Hercules grinned to himself when they walked in. At least neither of them appeared wounded nor dead.
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“Nikki, how am I supposed to say goodbye to you,” Gabrielle demanded as they walked along the trail leading south.
The Amazon Viking had already said her farewells to Xena, Hercules and Iolaus a few moments before. She had been surprised when Xena hadn’t protested her lover walking Nikki down the road for a ways to make her own good-byes.
Nikki tried to smile. “Don’t you dare make me cry, damnit,” she teased the small woman beside her.
Gabrielle smiled a sad smile and stopped. Nikki turned to face her.
The bard wondered how to say goodbye when she couldn’t even sort out her feelings right then. Nikki had been her trainer, her friend and sort of lover. The woman had saved her life on many levels and Gabrielle felt guilty for using the Amazon’s love and attraction to the bard to stay alive.
Nikki smiled and lifted Gabrielle’s chin to look gray eyes into green ones. She gently wiped away a tear from the bard’s cheek.
“You could stay and go north with us.” Gabrielle whispered and then shook her head herself. “No, I know you can’t. I’m sorry.”
Nikki raised the bard’s chin again and grinned. “You are no longer Dancer and no longer Brie the gladiator. You have to find Gabrielle again and I can’t help you with that. I have myself to find. I love you and probably always will but my mate is someone and somewhere else.”
“I’m sorry about everything,” Gabrielle whispered, hugging the tall woman.
“Nothing to be sorry for. We were in a position of survival and I found a friend, a friend who helped me get my freedom. Thank you.”
“Thank you for training me and keeping me alive.” Gabrielle smiled as she pulled back out of the embrace. “You’ll always be my friend.”
“Thank you, my Queen.” Nikki grinned and then leaned down and kissed the bard lightly on the lips and then climbed up on her horse.
With a grin she was gone down the road at a fast trot, leaving the small bard to watch. Gabrielle frowned and began walking slowly back to the cabin where Xena waited for her.
The bard felt lost. She wasn’t Dancer, the gladiator; she wasn’t Brie, Roman slave but she didn’t feel like Gabrielle either. Her boots crunched in the light covering of snow on the ground. Hercules wanted to move north as soon as possible to avoid the deepening snow. Gabrielle wasn’t sure how she felt about that. The bard knew they had to get out of Roman territory, so they couldn’t return to Greece but she wasn’t sure she wanted to go North either. Gabrielle didn’t know where she wanted to go and didn’t feel like she belonged anywhere.
She was surprised to find Hercules and Iolaus gone when she returned to the cabin. The bard raised her eyebrows at the sight of Xena cooking at the fireplace while Sasha played on the floor next to her Mom with some blocks of wood. Xena smiled at her mate as Gabrielle pulled off her woolen cloak and stamped her boots against the doorway.
“You okay?” Xena asked as Gabrielle pulled up a chair on the other side of Sasha.
“Yeah, feels weird. Nikki and I were side by side for over a year, the only time we weren’t was when I was in the Arena.”
“She’s a good friend.” Xena commented, stirring a pot.
“Yes, I seem to have a good number of them.” Gabrielle smiled. “Where’s Herc and Iolaus?”
“They’ve gone hunting for a couple of days. I think Hercules is giving us some time alone here and some time alone for them.”
Gabrielle raised her eyebrows again. “Is he going to tell Iolaus how he feels?”
“I don’t know. They seem to be a lot like us, everyone knows but them.” Xena grinned.
“A couple of days,” Gabrielle repeated.
“Yup. Are you okay with that?”
Even though they had talked two days earlier and Xena had even made love to her, Gabrielle still felt the wall between them and was getting more and more frustrated as to how to knock it down. “Yeah, I know we need it.”
Xena watched as her mate began absently pulling on her tunic hem, an obvious sign that Gabrielle was nervous and distraught. The warrior waited. Gabrielle’s head dropped.
“I need you, Xena,” she whispered and the warrior was kneeling in front of her in a flash. Gabrielle looked into her mate’s blue eyes with tears threatening to flow. “I want you so badly that it hurts physically but I freeze every time I start to reach for you. Help me!” she suddenly pleaded and Xena took the small bard in her arms.
“Shhhh, it’s all right, little one. I’m here, I’m not going anywhere as long as you’ll have me,” Xena whispered, stroking the blonde’s hair and holding her tight.
After a few minutes Gabrielle pulled back, wiping tears away. She attempted a grin at her mate.
“I don’t know how to get past this,” she admitted.
“A little bit at a time, my love.” Xena smiled reassuringly.
Sasha laughed and threw a block of wood, hitting her mom in the ankle. “Ouch!” Xena growled and turned, quickly grabbing her daughter and swinging the laughing little bundle in her arms and began tickling the little one.
Gabrielle couldn’t help but grin. Watching Xena with the child had been a revelation to the little bard. She was seeing sides of Xena that the warrior didn’t even know about. The bard grinned even wider and moved down into the floor on the fur with her two loved ones, laying on an elbow, watching the two play.
Xena grinned, watching as Gabrielle began to relax. She surprised the bard by handing over the still giggling Sasha and went to the fireplace and stirred the pot of deer stew. Gabrielle laughed as Sasha tackled her and sat on the bard’s very firm abs.
“Oooofff!” Gabrielle teased, holding Sasha’s hands and rocking her back and forth with her legs.
“I wanted to be there when you were born, Sasha, so badly.” Gabrielle said to the blue eyes that looked so familiar.
“I wish you had been, my love.” Xena commented, walking over and grabbing bowls off a shelf. To the bowls she added spoons, a loaf of bread, some cheese and a bottle of wine.
“Knowing you, it wasn’t your usual birth. Tell me about it.” Gabrielle grinned over her shoulder at Xena, dishing out the stew into the bowls.
Xena grinned back. “Actually it wasn’t a simple birth. Well, the birth was, the place and timing weren’t.” While they ate Xena told her mate the circumstances of Sasha’s birth. The raid on the steading, the quick flight to the hunting cabin with Xena in labor. Gabrielle grinned at the thought of Xena bouncing around in a speeding wagon while in labor. She got a piece of bread thrown at her for that giggle.
Xena lost her smile as she described the battle at the cabin, the strange woman warrior coming to their aid. Sasha, Axel’s wife of their adopted Germanic family, helping deliver the baby and then standing beside Iolaus in defense against the raiders and falling to an ax. Of Ketli the Mouse, a small boy burying a hatchet in the neck of a raider and stabbing another with a sword. A boy only a few summers old. Xena told her mate of the warrior woman finishing off the raiders, suffering what must have been devastating and fatal wounds only to disappear.
“Do you think she was a Valkyrie, like Ketli said?” Gabrielle asked.
“I don’t know. They don’t seem to have many personal visits from their gods up here and everyone was amazed by the story.” Xena shrugged.
“I could get used to the gods not bothering us,” Gabrielle grinned.
“Even though Sasha is the daughter of one?” Xena asked seriously.
“As long as he stays out of our lives until the end of time, I’d be happy.” Gabrielle stated, handing Sasha another piece of bread.
“I’ll agree to that. I wonder if we can ever go back to Greece.” Xena frowned.
“He found me at Lycrassis’ school.” Gabrielle whispered and, watched Xena go pale. Gabrielle closed her eyes, remembering. “He taunted me about Nikki,” Gabrielle whispered and focused on Sasha and helping the little one get more food in her than on her. Xena waited, watching the tears begin to fall from her beloved’s eyes again.
“He offered to zap both of us out of there, to anywhere we wanted, if I told him where you were and why you left Greece.”
“Terrific. I guess he hasn’t given up,” Xena muttered.
Gabrielle laughed a bitter laugh. “Hardly.”
“Why didn’t you tell him and get the Hades out of there?” Xena asked with a frown.
“I couldn’t tell him where you were and why you left Greece!” Gabrielle protested.
“You could have taken the chance that he wouldn’t be powerful enough outside of Greek and Roman territories and gotten out of that pit.”
“No, I couldn’t!” Gabrielle stormed to her feet and began pacing. “I couldn’t do that, Xena. I didn’t even think about it.”
“Then why do you doubt your love for me now?” Xena asked softly and the bard stopped dead, a shocked look on her face and then she frowned.
“Is that what I’m doing?” she whispered.
“You won’t forgive yourself for everything that happened and you won’t forgive me for not finding you.”
Gabrielle was on her knees in front of Xena’s chair in an instant, removing the warrior’s bowl and grabbing Xena’s hands. “No, that’s not it. I probably would have beaten you senseless if I thought you were putting yourself in danger for me again with Sasha on the way,” Gabrielle protested.
“Then forgive yourself, little one! I’d rather have you alive than a corpse on some fire heap outside a Roman villa,” Xena urged.
Gabrielle closed her eyes and buried her head in Xena’s hands. “I keep seeing the faces, every time I close my eyes. The men who hurt me, the men I killed, Caesar, Lycrassis, all of them.”
“You’re free, Gabrielle. You’re back with me,” Xena whispered, kissing the top of the bard’s head.
“I’m not back with myself, Xena.” Gabrielle looked up into the blue eyes, her face reflecting the feeling of loss that was overwhelming her.
“We have to find a way to settle Brie, Dancer and Gabrielle together. You can’t go back to what you were, little one. You’ve been through too much.”
“How do I get those damned faces out of my thoughts?!” Gabrielle suddenly demanded.
“The ones you killed or the ones who raped you?” Xena asked softly.
“Both,” the bard whispered.
“You don’t.” Xena said bluntly. “That’s what wakes me up at night and then I find you holding me and comforting me. It eases with time but it never goes away.”
Gabrielle frowned and Xena stood up and walked up behind her bard and wrapped her strong arms around her lover as Sasha began banging her spoon in her bowl. Gabrielle grinned at the sight of the little one covered with food.
“Your other little one is calling, my love.”
“Ack!” Xena quickly kissed Gabrielle’s neck and then bent and scooped up her daughter. “Bath for you!” she grinned and Gabrielle followed.
As they waited for water to heat up for the small tub Xena began removing her little daughter’s clothes while Sasha grinned and resisted. “Hey you! Come back here!” Xena said playful, lifting her daughter in the air and getting a delighted squeal from the youngster.
Gabrielle poured water into the wash basin and watched Xena begin the task of bathing Sasha and attempt to keep most of the water in the tub without getting everyone and everything soaked. Gabrielle grinned and then lost her smile.
“Want to talk about it?” Xena asked.
“Why not. You asked me the other day how I felt after a match, after I killed someone,” the bard began and the warrior nodded. “I told you I usually threw up and wanted a bath. That wasn’t it totally.” Gabrielle turned and walked over to the fire and Xena waited for her to continue.
“During the match I was Dancer, nothing existed but the match. The other fighter or fighters. I felt..... I felt, alive. Does that make sense?” Gabrielle turned to her warrior.
“Yes,” Xena nodded.
“My skills kept me alive. It was like a dance, a deadly dance and I was good at it and my body responded to that. The thought of having just killed someone sickened me but the dance, it made my blood sing.” Gabrielle closed her eyes to the admission.
“I understand that,” Xena said simply.
“You asked if I felt the need to bed someone or kill someone else after a fight,” Gabrielle opened her eyes and they were narrowed. Xena wasn’t sure where this was going but the tension in the air was suddenly very thick. She pulled Sasha out of the water and into a warm towel. She moved carefully to a chair by the fireplace to dry the youngster off.
“Yes, it’s common after a battle,” Xena said carefully.
Gabrielle’s jaw clinched and she turned back to the fire.
“Are you still feeling guilty that you turned to Nikki for that?” Xena asked softly.
Gabrielle turned, tears filling her eyes. “You knew?”
“Yes, my love. You would throw up after a match and then find Nikki. A sense of desperation tearing at your soul and body, needing human contact and sexual release, it would hit you like a tidal wave.” Xena carefully kept her eye on Sasha, letting the bard absorb the description. When she glanced up Gabrielle’s hands were tight fists and her eyes were closed. The struggle evident on her face.
“Let it go, Gabrielle. You’re human, I don’t blame you for anything that happened while you were gone.” Xena spoke softly, beginning to dress Sasha, wishing she could hold Gabrielle right then but unsure if the bard would let her.
With a yell of anger Gabrielle grabbed her cloak and was out the door.
Xena sighed and began rocking her daughter. “Time for a nap, Sasha, while your other mom works off some energy.”
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Xena sighed as Sasha finally drifted off to sleep. She carefully wrapped a blanket around her little one, grabbed her cloak, and then her sword and went out, following Gabrielle’s footprints in the snow to the one room stable.
The warrior wasn’t surprised to find the little bard practicing with her sais, her body already bathed in a light sheen of sweat and her breathing was a little heavy. Her eyes flashed as Xena entered the stable and dropped her cloak off her tall shoulders.
Xena carefully placed the sleeping child in the middle of a small haystack, arranging the blankets and hay to make a nest for the little one.
“Go away, please,” Gabrielle growled.
“Nope, not this time, little one. You need some practice?” Xena pulled the sword out of its scabbard.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Gabrielle growled again and Xena could see Dancer in the eyes.
“You’re used to practicing, why not with me?” Xena approached cautiously, swinging her sword a couple of times around her wrists and then over her other hand, catching it easily in her hand again. Beginning a dance of weapons.
Dancer’s eyes narrowed as her body leaned slightly back, taking a defensive position. “Xena, I’m not... I don’t....” Gabrielle tried to talk past Dancer’s control.
“It’s all right, let it go.” Xena’s experienced eyes sized up her smaller opponent with a nod of approval. Nikki had trained her little mate well, she thought. The small Greek moved like a Dancer, a deadly one. Xena grinned and launched herself forward with a series of sword strikes and found each of them neatly parried or blocked, she quickly twisted away from the blunt end of one of the sais, sliding just past her jawline. Both warriors separated and began circling, each looking for an opening.
Again the warriors met in the center of the room, sword and sais flashing. Xena realized quickly that the bard had been taught to go for crippling moves as soon as possible and barely dodged a heavy blow aimed for her shoulder but didn’t avoid a closed fist alongside her eye from the other direction. She quickly reacted with a kick that sent the little bard back several feet.
Xena knew she could take Gabrielle but didn’t want to end it just yet. Dancer’s eyes were still flashing with the pent up anger of a hundred matches in the Arena and weeks of repeated beatings and rape. She brushed aside a trickle of blood flowing from a cut above her eye. Xena grinned to herself, at least when Hercules pushed her into releasing some of that anger she hadn’t been armed. Xena was facing a deadly opponent who was armed. Countering that was the fact that it was Gabrielle, her mate. Xena was counting on Gabrielle coming through and conquering Dancer.
Xena just hoped that she didn’t get too injured before Gabrielle won out. Also that she wouldn’t have to hurt Gabrielle.
Gabrielle lunged forward and Xena reacted with a parry but found empty space as the gladiator dived forward into a roll and came up under Xena’s sword with her sais in the warrior’s ribs. Fortunately, Dancer was still in control enough to use the blunt end. Xena stumbled back and instinctively struck out with her free hand, catching Dancer across the jaw and sending the smaller woman stumbling back. Xena held back from rushing to her mate in concern as Dancer spit out blood, touching a split lip.
The Dancer was on her again with a shout and Xena blocked two strikes and found herself holding the gladiator to keep from hurting either of them. She dropped her sword and grabbed Dancer around the ribs and held tight.
“Come back to me, Gabrielle,” Xena whispered.
Dancer yelled in anger and bent her legs enough to launch herself back into the warrior, taking both of them to the floor. Xena lost her grip and found herself in a wrestling match with the small woman. The warrior quickly grabbed Gabrielle’s foot as the small fighter dived for her sais and yanked the blonde back. Xena growled in her throat as Dancer kicked out with the other foot and caught her in the chest.
Xena was finding herself at a distinct disadvantage. She was holding back and holding back a lot to keep from hurting Gabrielle. Her mate, however, was lost to the Dancer and wasn’t holding back much.
Dancer grabbed the sais and Xena decided it was enough. She didn’t fight back as the smaller woman tackled her to the floor again and straddled the warrior, a foot on Xena’s sword wrist. Xena looked up into Dancer’s eyes and the sais held over her throat.
“Gabrielle,” she said simply.
Dancer blinked.
“Gabrielle, kiss me.”
Xena watched the shift in Gabrielle’s eyes from Dancer to bard and the fear start to overwhelm her lover. Gabrielle’s foot shifted and Xena gently reached up and removed the sais from her mate’s hands. She shifted underneath the smaller woman and pulled Gabrielle down on top of her, pinning the bard against her with her strong arms.
“No, don’t run from this. It’s part of you now. Kiss me and let that part of you go. I want you, now!” Xena whispered and pulled Gabrielle’s head from behind and forced the bard’s lips to her own.
Gabrielle resisted a moment and then attacked her lover’s lips with a passion that even surprised the former Conqueror. The bard laced her fingers through Xena’s hair and her tongue demanded entrance roughly. Xena moaned and obliged, both tongues fighting for dominance in their new exploration of each other. It was as if she was making love to Gabrielle for the first time.
The bard pulled back, sitting back on Xena’s legs, breathing heavily. Xena looked up into the heavy lidded eyes.
“I want you now, Gabrielle. I want you to take me, claim me! I want your hand inside of me and your teeth in my neck.” Xena sat up as Gabrielle moaned and closed her eyes. “Now!” Xena grabbed Gabrielle’s face with her hands and brought the bard’s lips back to her own, roughly. She pulled back slightly and let Gabrielle feel Xena’s tongue taste the blood from the bard’s split lip.
Gabrielle growled and claimed Xena’s lips again, pushing the warrior back onto the hay they had landed on. As her mouth was working on bringing more moans out of her warrior, Gabrielle’s hands were moving all over Xena’s body, sending shocks up and down the warrior’s body. The bard’s hands grabbed at Xena’s tunic and pulled it up with a growl and off of her warrior. Before Xena could move, Gabrielle’s teeth grabbed one of her nipples roughly, her hand following suit with the other nipple. Xena cried out and felt her body arching and her loins responding with incredible wetness.
“Yes!” she hissed as Gabrielle’s hand began tugging impatiently at the warrior’s belt. She claimed Xena’s lips again roughly as her hands worked at Xena’s belt and trouser drawstring. Xena raised her hips as Gabrielle pulled back and yanked the warrior’s trousers down with a growl and then pinned her back to the floor.
Xena wasn’t sure if she was seeing Gabrielle or Dancer in the eyes any longer. She moved to grab Gabrielle’s tunic and the blonde growled again and grabbed Xena’s wrists with one of her strong hands and held the warrior’s hands over her head. Xena felt a moment of ..... what? Fear, panic? Desire? All of them?
Gabrielle kissed Xena deeply and the warrior could feel the bard’s soul reaching out and grabbing her and her body responding as well as her heart. She felt her back arching as the bard’s other hand grasped one of her nipples and then the bard started kissing her warrior from her lips to her nipples, first one then the other and back to Xena’s lips.
“Please, I need you!” Xena whispered.
Gabrielle let go of Xena’s hands but growled when the warrior started to reach for her. The warrior smiled and let the bard continue with her attack upon her body and in a moment her back was arching, she was biting her lips and moaning as Gabrielle bit one of her nipples and a hand went between Xena’s legs, discovering how wet the warrior was.
With another growl Gabrielle entered Xena, causing the warrior’s hips to buck of their own accord and the warrior to cry out. The dark warrior grabbed fistfuls of hay as her body rocked with the rhythm that her bard was setting and Gabrielle’s teeth moved up to her neck, finding the spot that always drove Xena insane. Somewhere in the back of her mind Xena realized that it was her own voice she was hearing crying out, begging the small bard for more and more, her body begging as well.
Xena’s consciousness fled as she felt the bard’s small fist claim her totally and the teeth threaten to break her skin and claim her blood as well. Everything centered on the rocking sensation and the fingers playing inside of her, threatening to expand the hand inside of her. Xena felt sweat running off her body as her breathing became more and more labored.
Gabrielle moved slowly down along her warrior’s body, between Xena’s legs, slowly moving her fist inside of her mate, her own eyes heavy with desire. The warrior almost screamed as Gabrielle’s other hand found her clit and began massaging the tender and enflamed erotic spot. Xena felt tears falling from behind her closed eyes and her body shaking, hands trembling, opening and closing with the spasms that were wracking the rest of her body.
Gabrielle, feeling the muscles contracting and trembling inside of Xena, increased her speed and bent down to kiss the warrior for a moment and then turned her tongue to her warrior’s clit. Time seemed to stop for the warrior as her body and soul rose higher and higher and Gabrielle tried to hold on. Xena couldn’t tell how long her body shook and begged and climbed, pinned to her bard. She felt like her soul was only held on Earth by her connection to Gabrielle and the hand filling her and sending her higher.
Xena felt everything go red as a scream was ripped from her body involuntarily, her body taking over totally, giving over to her bard. Wave after wave assaulted her, like being tossed about on waves of a rough sea.
As Xena struggled to breathe again she opened her eyes and found her bard holding her, soothing her, wiping tears away from her warrior’s face.
“Oh gods, what was that?” she grinned.
She was pleased to see Gabrielle blushing and reached up to touch her mate’s face gently.
“I’m sorry if I was a little rough,” Gabrielle said softly.
“Don’t apologize, damnit. I knew what I was doing,” Xena grinned.
Gabrielle arranged herself next to her warrior, snuggling into Xena’s shoulder, sighing with contentment with the familiar comfort.
“You knew?” Gabrielle whispered.
“I’ve been there, remember?” Xena smiled.
Suddenly Gabrielle was leaning on an elbow and looking deep in Xena’s eyes. “You’ve been there,” she repeated. “After a battle or a fight, right?”
“Yes,” Xena admitted, feeling the beginning a blush coming to her face.
“Why didn’t you turn to me if you were feeling that way?” Gabrielle asked with a frown.
“I was afraid,” Xena admitted in a soft voice.
“Of what?” Gabrielle demanded.
“Of hurting you. I was afraid of losing control and hurting you, physically and emotionally. Things can get out of hand when the blood lust hits.”
“No kidding, wait till you see your neck,” Gabrielle grinned. “Xena,” the bard hesitated, looking down at the warrior’s hands.
“What, little one?” Xena smiled.
“How’s your energy level now?” Gabrielle said boldly, blushing all the same.
“Let me show you.” Xena grinned and rolled the bard onto her back.
“Xena,” the warrior hesitated, looking deep in green eyes. “Don’t be gentle, please.”
Xena closed her eyes and moaned, feeling the fire of passion overcome her again. Her energy level hitting a new high. The warrior answered with a moan and quickly began stripping her mate of her clothing. As she reached for Gabrielle she felt a growl leave her throat and heard an answering one from her mate as her hand reached between Gabrielle’s legs and she claimed the bard’s lips at the same time with her teeth and tongue.
As several fingers entered the bard, Gabrielle bit down hard on Xena’s shoulder and her nails dug into as well. Xena, what little conscious thought leaked through her passion fogged mind, reflected that Gabrielle seemed to enjoy those teeth. Left over remnants from being a bacchae?
Xena moaned and roughly added more to her hand and rhythm and bit down on the bard’s neck, almost drawing blood herself. Her thumb found the bard’s clit and Gabrielle cried out, almost pulling Xena over her own edge again with just the sound.
“Yes! Take me!” Gabrielle growled, tossing her head back in passion.
Xena growled and shifted slightly, causing the bard to whimper when Xena removed her hand from the bard. Xena turned the bard into her and quickly entered Gabrielle from behind and biting down on the bard’s neck from behind. Gabrielle cried out, grabbing the hay, hands flailing as if grasping in drowning. Xena pulled back to whisper in her bard’s ear.
“I remember the bacchae, my love. This is how I wanted you to take me right then, so badly. Remember how I moaned as you drank from me? I felt your body connect to me right then, I could feel your passion. It wasn’t just the blood. I should have taken you right then after that fight.”
Gabrielle moaned, arching back into the warrior.
“Xena!” she cried.
“Yes, my love?” Xena smiled, nibbling on the bard’s ear, slowing the rhythm of her hand, pulling a frustrated cry from her mate.
“Take me, damnit! Now!” Gabrielle pleaded and then gasped as Xena added more fingers and increased the speed and depth of her thrusts. Gabrielle cried out, almost screaming right then as her body began to shake at Xena’s hand. “Gods, yes!” she growled and then did scream as Xena bit her neck again.
Xena felt the bard’s body thrashing and bucking, her hips rocking back to meet Xena’s fingers, demanding more and more and the warrior moaned, pulling the bard’s body close to her, whimpering with the contact of skin to skin and the bard’s rising passion.
“Oh gods,” she whispered, feeling her own edge approaching again as she took her mate higher and higher until Gabrielle was crying and whimpering, wordlessly begging for release. The bard bit her own lip, opening the fresh wound and tasting her own blood, and suddenly she felt like a lightning bolt went crashing through her. She screamed again.
Xena felt her own body thrusting against the bard, matching Gabrielle’s rhythm and then the bard’s muscles contracting again and again as the bard screamed her name and curled into a fetal ball in the warrior’s arms. Xena cried out with her own release with Gabrielle and then curled around her mate.
“I love you, Xena,” the bard whispered
“I love you, Gabrielle,” the warrior whispered, using her sword to grab her cloak and spread it over them.
Xena didn’t say anything about the scars on her mate’s back from lashings of a whip nor about the scar of the gladiator brand on her shoulder. They could handle that later, she thought, nuzzling down into sleep with her love.
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When Hercules and Iolaus returned two days later they both raised eyebrows at the sight of the cut above Xena’s eye, bruise along her jaw and the bard’s cut lip and black eye but said nothing when the women didn’t volunteer any information. They also took in the massive bruising at each woman’s neck and decided they probably didn’t want the details of those bruises.
Xena and Gabrielle also noticed, with smiles, similar bruises on the necks of the Greek warriors.
