Chapter 5, "Fallen Angel: The Awakening of the Warrior Princess Within"
"Are you all right?"
The dark-haired woman did not move, nor did she even flinch when the shorter woman standing in front of her poked her in the arm. Gabriella frowned slightly and glanced at the clock on the wall. A good five minutes had passes since they'd kissed and Xena hadn't moved or spoken. The taller woman's blue eyes were trained on Gabriella, but that was about it.
"Great. I killed her," Gabriella lamented jokingly with a shrug. Xena blinked then and appeared to be clearing some spider webs from her brain. She cleared her throat a touch sheepishly and finally spoke.
"I...uh..."
"It's OK, you don't have to talk yet. Maybe you should sit," the blonde offered and helped her companion take a seat in a nearby chair. "Would you like some water?"
Xena shook her head, which caused a few strands of dark hair to tumble across her shoulders. She took a deep breath and looked back at the blonde that knelt before her.
"I've...it's...never been like that before," she managed quietly. Gabriella smiled knowingly and placed her hand on the woman's knee in a comforting gesture.
"I realize it's probably a bit much for you all of the sudden like this."
"No, no...well, I mean yes it is pretty out of nowhere," the dark-haired woman began. "But what I meant was, it never felt like that with anyone else. That...good."
"Oh," Gabriella stated, a touch amazed. She sat back on her heels and stared at her own hands. Finally, after a brief moment of contemplation, she brought her green eyes back up to look into Xena's own blue eyes, a very mischievous glint to them. Xena shuddered just from the sight. "I can show you some other things that will feel a lot better than they ever have, too." Xena gulped.
"I...uh...think I need to...um...drink some water after all," she whispered hoarsely.
"Of course," Gabriella answered. She squeezed the knee that lay trembling under her hand and got to her feet intending to get the poor woman a glass of water when suddenly she found herself catching an unconscious Xena who had fallen out of the chair.
"Good Lord!" she grunted as she held onto the dark-haired woman. Carefully, Gabriella lowered Xena onto the floor and then rushed into the kitchen for water and a moist towel. She certainly hadn't anticipated Xena's passing out. Sure she had been a little straight-forward and perhaps a bit too coming-on, but had thought that certainly a woman like Xena could have handled it--one way or the other. Hell, even she had admitted that she had felt something between the two of them. Gabriella was sure her aunt had been right, that this was something more than "meant to be"--something timeless. A bond that had brought their souls together throughout time.
Oh geez, you sound like such a sappy romantic, Gabriella scolded herself mentally. But admittedly, there was something there. She had thought to treat this like all of her other conquests, but when she'd first looked into the fathomless depths of this woman's endlessly blue eyes--well, suffice to say that it was definitely not another conquest...or at least, not one anything like any of the previous ones. Who had conquered who, really?
Kneeling beside the prone form of her new friend, Gabriella placed the moistened towel on her brow, making sure to brush aside a few errant stands of hair. Then she took Xena's head in her lap and proceeded to lightly massage her temples. After a few moments, the dark-haired woman's eyelids fluttered open to reveal rather dazed eyes.
"Where...what...oh, hi," she mumbled. Gabriella smiled down at her and continued with her work.
"There's some water, if you still want it. You passed out." Xena took the cup in her hands and took a hesitant sip from it. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. You think you can get up?"
"Actually," Xena began softly. "What you're doing is really very nice, if I could just lay here a while longer...then I'd feel better." Gabriella laughed and continued with her ministrations as Xena closed her eyes and just enjoyed the attention. She still felt pretty dizzy, so getting up actually wasn't such a great idea, but the head massage definitely added incentive to stay put.
They were both so absorbed by their respective activities, that neither one heard the footsteps coming down the stairs. Ares came to the landing and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the two women on the floor, the new one with his wife's head in her lap. One eyebrow rose in amused shock briefly before he decided that "enraged husband mode" would be more effective. He stomped across the room and stood hovering menacingly over the two.
"What the HELL is going on here?" he demanded. Green and blue eyes snapped open and stared up at him in surprise. Xena tried to sit up but had to lower herself again when a wave of dizziness came over her.
"She fainted, calm down," Gabriella explained reasonably. She'd dealt with jealous husbands before. Ares brow furrowed in thought.
"Xena's never fainted before in her life. What happened?" he asked skeptically.
"I was telling Gabriella about how great you are in bed, and when the memories flooded over me it was too much, I just--" here she snapped her fingers for emphasis. "--passed out!"
Gabriella tried desperately to restrain a fit of giggles that was threatening to overtake her. Xena smiled brightly up at her husband. Ares grinned handsomely and puffed out his chest a little in an unconscious gesture of pride.
"Well then, that's understandable. But why were you telling her about our sex life?"
Xena paused in thought for a moment and Gabriella looked down at her, a look on her face saying that she was wondering what excuse her companion would come up with now. After a split second, Xena's blue eyes looked back to her husbands, a great deal of mirth hidden in their depths.
"Well, I was asking her if she knew the meaning of a particular French phrase that I had heard earlier--she's so good with foreign languages!--and she told me it was something that could make a person's sex life a lot better. When I told her that mine couldn't possibly get any better, she asked why and naturally I had to explain things to her. That's when I passed out."
Gabriella had a feeling she knew where this was going and it was all she could do to keep from laughing out loud. How did Xena know about her love of languages though?
"Oh really? And what phrase was that?" Ares asked, his eyebrow hiked up so high it nearly touched his hairline. He crossed his muscular arms over his chest and waited for the answer. Xena grinned innocently and replied,
"You ever heard of a 'menage a trois?'" ------------
Chapter 6, "Destiny: Viva la Revolution!"
"Menage a--what?"
"Trois."
"It's French," Gabriella added for good measure. She beamed happily up at the dark man that hovered over her and the woman whose head was currently in her lap. Then she leaned down and whispered in Xena's ear. "How did you know about my love of languages?"
Xena answered her only with the elevating of a single black eyebrow and then turned her ice blue eyes back on her husband. The look of utter confusion on Ares' face was priceless.
"Oh c'mon, Ares, you've been around. Surely you know what it means," Xena asked teasingly. The executive inhaled sharply and shook his head.
"What on earth has come over you, Xena? I told you to make Gabriella leave, she's a bad influence on you."
Gabriella chuckled. "No, I'm afraid I can't take credit for this. If only." Xena decided then, a bit reluctantly, that she should at least sit up and take her head out of the blonde's lap. Both women stood then and faced the taller man at eye-level. Well, Xena was at eye-level anyway. Gabriella had a lovely view of Ares' clavicle unless she tilted her head up a little.
"And Ares," Xena began, lowering her voice to a seductive contralto. "She's my friend. You cannot tell me when she should leave."
"What's come over you?" Ares growled. He leaned in then and spoke directly into his wife's ear. "I thought we were going to play 'warlord and slave' tonight?" Xena chuckled softly and brushed the back of her hand against his cheek.
"I've got a headache," she offered mockingly. Ares stood back and straightened himself, eyes narrowing dangerously.
"You are MY wife, damnit! And you will do as I say!"
"See Xena, this is what I was talking about. What gives him the right to talk to you like that?" Gabriella interjected. Xena had been about to give in and throw herself at her husbands' feet, figuratively speaking, but when she felt Gabriella's reassuring touch on her back, her resolve strengthened and she looked the dark man right in the eye.
"I'm afraid you can't push me around anymore, Ares," she asserted. Her husband clenched his jaw tight and just about spat, he was so aggravated.
"You've lost your mind, woman. I'll not have you talking to me like that in my own house! The whore leaves, now!"
"Excuse me?" Gabriella shot back, a touch annoyed. Xena stepped forward so that she was in between her husband and the fiery blonde.
"Ares, listen to me. You've known since the beginning that I was no submissive housewife, that I was different from the other girls. That's why you claimed to have married me. But now that I dare to stand up to you there's a problem. You're a hypocrite."
There was a rather lengthy pause then as Ares' gaze steeled and he took a few deep breaths.
"So is this it?" he asked finally.
"You know as well as I do how difficult divorce is. I suggest you two work through this," Gabriella suggested rationally. Both Ares and Xena looked at the little blonde, and then back at each other.
"You 'friends' can work things out yourself tonight. I'm going to go get a motel room or something. I need to get out of here for a while...to think," Ares said, his tone cool. The dark-haired woman nodded slightly and sighed. As he turned to grab his hat and jacket from the rack near the door, Ares turned back to face the two women again, his expression serious and dark. "If you're at all interested in continuing this partnership, Xena, the irritating little blonde is to be out of your life by tomorrow. Otherwise..." his voice trailed off, leaving Xena to decide how the sentence would end, and he walked out of the house and shut the door behind him.
"I don't know if I'm ready to just leave him," Xena spoke after a brief silence had passed.
"It's not an easy thing, to have been taught to be dependent and passive all your life and then realize that it's not for you. It's especially hard to start over when you don't have much of a base to go off," Gabriella said reassuringly as the two found seats on the couch.
"Ares has been a part of my life for so long, he's taught me much of what I know. I realize that he's ultimately bad for me, but how do you just walk away from someone like him?"
"You just make up your mind to do it and than do it," Gabriella continued, her forest green eyes full of compassion. "Peter and I have an understanding. He's a good man, so I lucked out. Like I said, we're good friends but that's it; the marriage is a cover of sorts that lets us both do what's best for us without the rest of the world butting in and being it's lovely self."
"Sounds like a good deal," Xena said wistfully. Gabriella brushed a hand across Xena's jawline and looked her in the eye.
"It is, but I'd rather we not have to do that. I'd rather live in a society where being myself was OK. Wouldn't you?" Xena nodded. "That's what I'm fighting for, secretly right now, but soon there will be a revolution, Xena. A revolution for women. You could be a part of that. You could be a great leader, I see it in you."
"I'm no leader, Gabriella," the dark-haired woman replied softly.
"Yes you are, you just don't know it yet," the blonde went on. "You have to meet my aunt some time. She has this gift that allows her to see into peoples souls. She told me I'd meet you, Xena."
Xena said nothing, just gave a slightly disbelieving look to the woman seated next to her.
"That aside," Gabriella chuckled quietly. "Join me in this mission. Help our cause, help us make it OK for women to be themselves."
The beseeching look in the blonde's eyes bore right into Xena's very soul, searching out her true self and embracing it with great warmth. Xena was powerless to resist.
"All right."
Gabriella smiled beautifully and enveloped Xena in a hug. "Wonderful."
The decision made, Gabriella helped Xena to pack up some of her things and then offered to let the dark-haired woman stay at her house for a while.
"I feel so strange doing this," Xena said.
"You're strong. It'll be OK."
"He'll come after me."
"Then we'll face him...together," Gabriella offered and put an arm around the taller woman as they walked out the front door and down the walkway. The blonde lived about two blocks away. Xena took a deep breath, grinned slightly, and walked with as much confidence in her stride as she could muster.
"So what do you revolutionaries call yourselves?" Xena asked as the two strolled on down the dark and quiet street.
"Feminists."
"Interesting. So if I join you, do I get to fight the minions of evil and oppression with a sword and my sharp wit?"
Gabriella stopped in her tracks and gave her companion a thoroughly befuddled look. "What?"
"I don't know," Xena answered, shrugging. "Just sounded good."
"Well, you can use a sword if you like," Gabriella said, laughing. "But as for me, I prefer to avoid bloodshed."
Xena took a moment to consider something and then said, "You could just fight off the bad guys with a stick or something. Knock 'em over the head maybe."
"Sounds good," Gabriella agreed, grinning happily. They turned the corner that would lead them to her house. "Well, it's settled then. We're a team."
"Heh," Xena chuckled and smiled. "I guess we are."
The crescent moon cast its' silvery light down upon the sleeping Earth as it had done for centuries passed. The things it shed its' glow upon had changed quite a bit over the many years, but somehow the silver hue always found itself falling upon the shoulders of two women, reflecting off one set of green eyes and one set of blue, who forever walked side-by-side, planning a revolution.