DISCLAIMERS: I don't own 'em...Universal / MCA / RenPics, yadda, yadda, do. No prophet is being made from this... ;) If I were, with all the stories I've written just for Xena, I wouldn't be worrying about, well, everything now would I?

I'm in a weird mood, and since I want to warm up a little before I really start in on RRL part three, I thought this would be good.

This fiction portrays a loving and equal Sapphic relationship between Gabrielle and Xena. That means THEY'RE GAY. You don't like that? It's illegal where you live? I pity you and suggest you move on, either story-wise or out of the area.

There's hardly a story here, no big tough baddies, no fearsome creatures...just the warrior and bard by the fire. No horizontal mambo, either, so yer SOL if that's what yer looking for. If you want a sex-filled PWP without leaving the AURYN (aren't you cute?), head to The Vacation.

SPOILER / SEASON / OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION: No spoilers / Classic (early seasons) / there are more sheep than people in New Zealand. Told you it was important...

"In Her Kiss" by Magenta
copyright 2001, Kimyoo Films
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

She sat, staring into the fire unblinkingly, trying to formulate a plan. This was one of the most terrifying situations she'd ever encountered and she didn't quite know how to deal with it. She'd fought off armies all by herself, she inspired fear in whole nations with the mere flick of her wrist, and she'd hung out with Joxer...and she knew there was nothing more trying than spending time with the wanna-be warrior while restraining the urge to dip a toe into the pool of darkness in her soul as she imbedded the round killing thing into the flesh of his chest...or head...or hands...

But this was far more frightening.

She closed her eyes to will back a wave of fear as she noticed her blonde traveling companion was coming back to camp after taking a swim in the near-by lake. She felt herself smile as she noticed that Gabrielle was trying to be quiet, but she forgot that she was upwind, sending the scent of their soap wafting toward the warrior.

*If I let her surprise me, she'll know I let it happen...if I don't, she'll be disappointed...if I do, she'll think something's up...if I don't, she'll be disappointed,* Xena smiled to herself as she made her decision, then picked up her whetstone and sword and began the regular, hypnotic sharpening.

Gabrielle made her way slowly towards the form of the warrior, smiling mischievously. Things have been tense lately, for a while now, actually, and the bard couldn't figure out why. She was sick of tiptoeing around her best friend and resolved to sort everything out tonight.

She stepped up behind Xena, then brought her wet hair over to the expanse of bare skin above the battle dress and dripped the cold lake water onto her back.

"Jiminy Zeus and all to Hades anyway!" she shouted, arching her back away from the coldness, not expecting cold water on her warm back. Xena gave Gabrielle her patented, sarcastic, 'That's funny, yes...' look, an unamused smile to complete the picture. The bard giggled as she swung her head forward, away from the warrior, a couple of times to get more water out of her hair.

"I know you knew I was coming, but I definitely surprised you with that, huh?" the bard asked as she sat on her bedroll to comb her hair.

*With that and many other things,* the warrior thought as she gave Gabrielle a mysterious smile and finished with her sword. *Okay, so it's no big secret that I love her. I'm in love with her. I want to spend the rest of her life with her. I think she wants that, too, but am I willing to risk losing myself to her? I already have...so that was a dumb question...
*This is ridiculous. I'm Xena and I'm afraid of loving a sprightly, caring, fiery, passionate Amazon queen. WHY? Why am I so afraid to confront her about this?*

"Something wrong, Xena?"

The warrior blinked and looked at the bard, whose smile belied the concern etched in her dark jade eyes.

*Bloody hell...caught like a hind in front of a carriage,* she thought as she took a deep breath and said, "Well,seethere'sthislittlethingthat'sbeenbotheringmeanditswhenwekissedwellIkissedyouandIreallylikeditandwanttodoitagainbutIdon'twanttoscareyouorshowyoumaydarksidethoughyou'veseenitandI'mmadlytotallyandcompletelyinlovewithyouandwouldliketodoverywonderfulverynaughtythingswithyouandsharetherestofmylifewithyousowouldyoulikeafreshrabbitorsomethingI'llberightback."

With that, Xena stood and rushed out of the clearing, afraid of what she just said. Gabrielle, meanwhile, tried to compute what exactly her friend just said to her, not moving a millimetre lest she break the spell of Xena's words.

She didn't hear anything from the campsite. No crying, no cheering, no breathing. No one stirred, not even a cute little Poteidaian bard.

*Oh Gods...have I done the right thing? Maybe she quietly gathered her stuff and left...* Xena peeked around a tree and saw that Gabrielle hadn't moved...like, at ALL... *Maybe she's scared that if she leaves, I'll hunt her down and all that Conqueror centaurpucky.*

*Uh...hmm...did she...? Is she...? What'd she say? What the bloody Hades did she say?? Naughty things with me? Huh?* Gabrielle frowned as pieces of the literary torrent unleashed from the stoic and quiet Warrior Princess filtered into her mind. She smiled and stood to follow her as noisily as possible...

*Oh Gods...is that her? Is she following me? Maybe she's got her stuff and is trying to find her way out of wherever I've lead her, and she's scared and confused and she hates me and what am I going to do???*

Not wanting to watch the light of her life fade away into the distance, Xena leaned with her back against the tree and slid down to a seating position, various grasses, twigs, rocks and grains of dirt getting into her leather unmentionables and causing her a discomfort she didn't notice in her heart-felt pain.

She picked up a twig and twisted it round and round, trying to wring it as if wringing her heart of all the tears that made themselves apparent on her cheeks.

The bard heard Xena's sobs and her heart constricted. *So she did...she is...she said that...AND that...and the images THAT conjures up...oh yeah...* With the kind of smile that would have lit a fire under a Eunuch's kettle, Gabrielle rounded the tree and stood in front of the bawling warrior princess, looking down at her.

"I'm sorry, Gabrielle, please don't leave me, I...I'll...forget it ever happened..." the warrior pleaded, not wanting to see the anguish she knew must have been on the bard's soft Goddess-given features.

Slowly and gently, the bard took the twig from Xena's hands and stepped forward, putting her feet on both sides of the warrior's hips. Even slower, teasingly, she lowered herself to sit in Xena's lap.

Utterly and totally confused, the dark warrior moved to stand, to get herself away from Gabrielle before she could contaminate her, but the bard stopped her, pressing her body close to the object of her desire.

"You're not going anywhere...unless I go, too...or I say so."

The authority in Gabrielle's voice sent shivers and vehement compliance through Xena's body. Slowly, the bard leaned forward and pressed her own full, soft lips against the warrior's. It was soft, sweet, tender, but hardly tentative...at least, not as far as Xena had imagined it would be.

Too surprised to really comprehend what was going on, the dark warrior sat there, stiff as a board, blue eyes wide open looking at the close-eyed wonder on her best friend/traveling companion's face. Green eyes opened and bored into shocked blue. A mischievous glint shined in those emerald depths as the bard's velvety tongue tickled Xena's upper lip.

That caught her attention.

Within the space of a sigh, Xena had closed her eyes and accepted Gabrielle's questing tongue into her mouth. She returned the kiss, pouring all the feeling she could into it, memorizing everything, even the annoying cricket on the fifteenth tree to her left. With her legendary, lightning-fast skills, Xena grasped her chakram with her right hand and threw it, making it bounce all around until it finally embedded itself in the tree just above the cricket, scaring it into beating a hasty retreat.

She had, after all, stopped being the blood-thirsty, kill-everything-that-moves kind of gal.

Gabrielle giggled into her mouth, but they never separated. The bard clawed frantically at the warrior's leathers, desperate to get closer...to exchange the confines of clothing for the confines of her hands, lips and tongue.

Finally, they broke apart and Gabrielle began to feast on Xena's neck, marking her...and the former Destroyer of Nations didn't care. She craved more of the marks, wanting only two things in life now: to belong to Gabrielle only, now and forever...and to prove to the bard that she was indeed worthy of the love she so willingly giving her.

"B-b-bedro-oh-olls..." the dark one managed to breathe as the bard did gloriously stimulating things to her throat.

"It took me this long to get you here, Warrior Princess, you're not...WE'RE not going anywhere," she said as she leaned back, pulling Xena on top of her.

The warrior smiled as she let Gabrielle take control, rip her leathers off and love her...really love her, like the bard always said she deserved.

She smiled as she realized how perfectly they fit together, how wonderful the bard’s tongue felt against her own, and exactly how much she loved the precious little bundle in her arms and the words of a very wise person flitted through her mind before all rational thought was stripped away by the power and love behind Gabrielle’s kiss...

"...If you wanna know If she loves you so It's in her kiss..." - The Shoop Shoop Song (with pronoun switching by Magenta ;) The Beginning... =)

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