ForevaXena's FanFic . . .

Splinters Of The Soul by Diamonddog

Disclaimer: This is an original work of fanfiction copyright 2000 by me.

Subtext: These stories are intended for mature audiences over the age of 21. These stories do include romance and conspicuous love between pairs of consenting female adults. If this stuff offends you, run away screaming now! If this is illegal in your town, vote.

Convolution Alert: This story is an Uber-Xena story (sort of), but it winds its way through several simultaneous stories.  To make it easier on the reader (sort of) I've identified each section with the name of the incarnation of Xena native to that place.

Dedications: I want to thank the two people who made this story possible. 

To my soulmate Dianne, I just want to say thank you.  Putting up with an obsessive, compulsive writer is no easy task.  Thanks for helping me brainstorm and thanks for putting the kids to bed alone and still smiling when I finally managed to join you.  You make me understand what love really is every day of the week.

Send all feedback to: daemonddog@prodigy.net

Part 27 of 27

Epilogue III- Jezz and Vixie

Jezz and Xena exchanged warrior handshakes, both their eyes cutting back to the red-blonde twins as they whispered and giggled and rolled their eyes at the warriors.

Xena grinned crookedly.  "I’ll be glad to be back home, but I know those two will miss each other."

 "I’m not sure we could handle the two of them."  Jezz quirked her lip wryly.  "I had my hands full with one," she muttered softly.

Xena’s left brow vaulted, but she did not ask.

"I take it everything went well for you last night?"  Jezz probed with mocking innocence.

Xena stretched and rolled her shoulders.  "Amazing what a good night’s sleep will do for you."

Jezz snorted softly.  "You’d better find a quieter lover if you’re going to try that line.  She was definitely not talking in her sleep when she was screaming your name at the top of her lungs."

Xena tried to look impassive, but a pleased crook at the corner of her mouth betrayed her.

Amused, Jezz shook her head.

Xena raised a wicked eyebrow.  "I wouldn’t bring up voices crying out in the night, if I were you.  As I recall…"

Jezz actually blushed as she held up a halting hand.  "Enough.  I got the message.  But, nothing could top those two…" Jezz indicated Tygre and Cris at the other end of the compound, Cris sitting in Tygre’s lap as they teased one another through hand-fed breakfasts.

Xena smiled wickedly.  "I wouldn’t say that."

Jezz raised an eyebrow, unsure whether Xena was teasing her or bragging about her own prowess.  Xena chose that moment to revert to stoic silence and left her counterpart wondering.

Gabrielle stared at Vixie wide-eyed.  "You said that to Jezz?"

Vixie nodded smugly.  "Oh, you betcha I did.  And then I…" Vixie leaned closer to her twin and whispered intently, grinning as Gabrielle’s eyes widened even further.

"But I thought you’d never been with anyone before," Gabrielle pulled away and said, swallowing hard.

"I hadn’t," Vixie assured the bard, "But I’ve spent the last few years hanging around Amazon warriors.  And if nothing else, Amazon warriors love to brag.  I’ve heard it all."

"And Jezz just let you…?"

Vixie grinned at Gabrielle’s furrowed brows.  The bard was her senior in years, but Gabrielle had led a comparatively sheltered life before she had met Xena.  Gabrielle did not understand Jezz’s seemingly odd behavior.  It didn’t fit her image… of Xena, Vixie realized, glancing at Jezz’s twin, now clothed in her leather and armor, her sword nestled securely against her back and her chakram resting within easy grasp.

Vixie considered Gabrielle’s shy recounting of the bard’s first night with the warrior of her dreams and was not surprised by Xena’s furious passion.  It fit the warrior.

Tygre’s approach, one-arm wrapped possessively around Cris, stilled their conspiratorial whispers.

"Time to get you two back to your world and head back to our own," Tygre said, her casual disregard for the kind of power she was about to wield almost frightening.

Gabrielle’s gaze slid away from Vixie.  The bard knew in her head that the actual time that they had spent together had been short, but her heart was blind. Tears were imminent.  "I guess this is good-bye," the bard said softly.

"Not without a hug, it’s not," Rye said as she joined Vixie and Gabrielle in the center of the compound, Cyn at her side.  Sliding past her queen, the Amazon second embraced the bard tightly.  "I’d tell you to stay out of trouble, but I’d be wasting my breath, wouldn’t I?"

Gabrielle’s hand fluttered to her mouth.  She choked back a laughing sob, nodding at the older amazon.  "Trouble’s what we do best.  But I guess you know that now, hunh?"

Stepping backwards, Rye chuckled and clapped a hand on the bard’s shoulder.  "Yeah.  But I’m kinda glad I was there for all that trouble.  I would never have believed otherwise."  The older Amazon shot a significant glance at the shaman beside her.

Cyn’s lips curled enigmatically at the warrior’s words.  She usurped Rye’s spot as soon as the Amazon faded back to their queen’s side.  Her long dark-skinned fingers cupped the bard’s face gently.  She stared deeply into Gabrielle’s glistening green gaze and wiped an errant tear from her cheek.  Closing her own eyes, Cyn whispered, "The Amazons of your world have chosen their queen well.  You are an amazing woman, Gabrielle.  And you will do many more amazing things in your life."

Gabrielle laughed brightly.  "Traveling with Xena, I’m not sure I could help being a part of amazing things."

Cyn’s eyes opened slowly.  "No, Gabrielle.  You will do amazing things."  She stared intently at the bard until Gabrielle shifted uneasily beneath the weight of the shaman’s knowing gaze.  Cyn blinked, breaking the spell.  She hugged the bard tightly.

"Good-bye, Cyn," Gabrielle said softly.

The shaman pursed her lips into a quirky smile, her eyes gleaming.  "Let’s just say till we meet again."

The bard’s eyes widened, but Cyn had slipped back to Rye.  Gabrielle could not help grinning when she saw Cyn’s fingers wrap around Rye’s and the uncharacteristically shy smile that lit the older Amazon’s face.  Apparently, the last night had been good to quite a few people.

Cris watched Rye approach Gabrielle with Cyn in tow.  She could almost hear the swelling music of a melodramatic farewell filling the compound and shook her head.  She could really do without this maudlin display.  It was not as if they were losing their lovers.  As the thought crossed her mind, she caught a stray glance from Jezz out of the corner of her eye.

Cris frowned.  She and Jezz had not spoken civilly since she had returned with Tygre.  Unsure whether she was acting in her own interests, for Jezz, or just making an attempt to do the right thing, she leaned heavily against Tygre’s side.

The white-maned warrior’s eyes slid over Cris with a sensuous surety that wreaked wild havoc with Cris’ resolve.  "Yes?"  Tygre’s voice was low and molten.

Cris trembled.  She never wanted to stray from the simmering acetylene glow radiating from the demigod’s possessive gaze or the rumble of liquid fire in her voice, but the feeling that there was something left to be handled with Jezz nagged at her like fingernails on a blackboard.  With a soft snarl and a disgusted sigh, Cris knew that this was something she had to do.

Besides, she trusted the dark heart of her warrior.  Tygre would never let her go, not even if she wanted to leave now.  Last night had changed things between them.  Tygre had given Cris a piece of herself, and the blonde warrior knew that, by accepting it, she had sold her soul to the sorceress.  Forever.  And still Cris felt she was the luckier of the two and knew exactly why Vixie had vowed to stay with Jezz no matter what the Destroyer did.

The Destroyer.  Jezz.  It was ironic that now that she had no stake in the writer’s life, she finally knew and understood the tragedy that had haunted the woman whose life she had shared for years.

"I need to talk to Jezz for a moment," Cris said evenly.

One delicate alabaster brow vaulted, but Tygre inclined her head in acceptance.  "I’ll be watching."  Threat or vow, the white-maned warrior’s tone was unreadable, but Cris’ body tingled, feeling Tygre’s claim on her from the inside out as her lover’s hooded gaze followed her across the compound.

Xena and Jezz watched as the blonde approached, but the armored warrior left Jezz’s side before Cris reached the writer.

"Looks like this is the end of the line for us," Cris began.

"Cris…" Jezz tried to interrupt, but the blonde held her hand up to silence the writer.

"No apologies, Destroyer."  Cris’ purposeful use of her sobriquet made the muscle along the writer’s jaw jump, but she closed her mouth and listened.  "We both got what we really wanted, what we really needed.  You never made me any more miserable than I made you.  I know that.  I wasn’t the one you needed to share your past with, but I couldn’t accept that at the time.  Let’s just call it even and move on."

Jezz opened her mouth to respond, but Cris wagged a threatening finger at her.

"Just nod for "yes" or shake your head for "no".  I think emotions are running just a little bit high around here right now, and you know how I feel about that."

Jezz smiled gently and nodded.  Cris could not tell for sure, but, as she walked back to the white-maned incarnation of the warrior whose eyes devoured her more completely with each step she took closer, Cris could have sworn that she had seen a tiny portion of the grayness that darkened her counterpart’s lift and fade. 

Wiping her own damp cheek with a swipe, Vixie took a deep breath and hugged Gabrielle tightly.  "Take care of yourself.  And Xena."

Gabrielle nodded, but she couldn’t speak around the lump in her throat.

They both parted with tears in their eyes.

"I’ll miss you," they managed simultaneously.

Xena folded the sniffling bard against her.

Jezz slid up behind Vixie, casting a dark meaningful look at Xena over her lover’s head.

Remember your promise.  The alien thought floated silently in Xena’s mind.  If anything happens, you’ll return… and do what needs to be done.

Xena nodded, shimmered, and the warrior and the bard were gone.

Tygre and Cris followed.

Vixie sighed against Jezz.  She missed Gabrielle already.

The dark of night came quickly.  Silvery slivers of moonlight played peek-a-boo behind a thick latticework of slumbering clouds.  The southern winds of the day had receded, replaced by a chilly gusting night breeze that whistled softly through the main compound of the Mirror F.

Pony lifted her head, eying the two women sleepily.  Surrounded by more people than she had ever seen in her ten months of existence, the shaggy white puppy was not getting the twenty hours of sleep a day to which she was accustomed.  With children to chase, squirrels to guard against, and endless hands willing to pet her, Pony was exhausted.  Her primary people would just have to guard the cabin themselves.  Her head flopped back down to the cool wooden floor, soft brown eyes disappearing as she drifted into dreams.

Their naked bodies wrapped in a thick colorful blanket, Vixie leaned against Jezz in front of the fireplace, watching a stream of sparks crackle up the chimney as Jezz used a poker to rouse flames from red-orange embers.

Neither spoke, but the silence that enfolded them was as warm and comfortable as the blanket they shared.  They were together.  Intimate strangers.  Timeless lovers.  Aware that they stood at the threshold of their shared life, in unspoken accord they let the magick of the moment flow through them.  No questions.  No answers.  They basked in the stillness, knowing that it would not last, sipping slowly at the fragile aural oasis.

Vixie’s gaze gleamed like viridian coals as she stared at the beautiful dark-haired woman beside her.

The Destroyer.  She repeated it over and over in her head, but she found it difficult to attach that epithet to the serene creature sprawled languidly against her.

Her thoughts returned repeatedly to Xena.  Vixie could imagine the armored Destroyer of Nations wielding sword and chakram in a frenzy of wholesale slaughter, but the rabid joy Vixie imagined lighting the warlord’s face contrasted distinctly with Jezz’s molten dispassion and arctic rage. 

Vixie wondered. 

Jezz and Xena shared fragments of a splintered soul, but the ex-warlord and the Destroyer were estranged by two millennia.

Where Xena came from, warriors slept with their swords close at hand.  Privacy was an illusion rather than an expectation.  People were owned, but the land was not.  Death was quick and common.  Life was a cheap commodity, and killing was often necessary for survival.  Gabrielle had seen more death in two seasons with Xena than Vixie could even contemplate.

Xena would never surrender her fury.  She could not afford to. 

Except to Gabrielle.

Vixie stared at the woman resting easily beside her, gently stroking a stray raven lock away from her brilliant blue eyes, rewarded by a tiny smile from the writer that warmed Vixie’s soul.

She could see that Jezz walked a different path.

Time had melded the ancient warrior spirit they shared with twentieth century values, and Jezz had inherited the advantages of two thousand years of philosophical evolution as well as the curse of her primal birthright.  Relentlessly stalking her psyche, wraith-like shades and raging neural impulses mingled, knifing just below the surface of Jezz’s cerulean gaze in an intricate dance.  Killing was murder.  Vigilante justice was immoral.  Life was priceless.  The ideals that had made Gabrielle a visionary had become reality, among the human majority at any rate, leaving Jezz to carry the burden of social guilt.

To drift seamlessly between the seen and unseen, between humanity and the Nightfolk, the Destroyer understood both the value of life and the ruthless necessity of extinguishing it.  The Destroyer straddled two worlds that shared a single space, separate yet indivisible, superimposed atop one another, bleeding their essences back and forth at the edge of perception, their most common battleground the shadows swirling within the pale blue eyes of the champion they shared.

Jezz would never surrender her control.  She could not afford to.

Except to me. 

Vixie smiled at Jezz in the quiet of the cabin and reached for her lover.

Jezz eluded her young queen’s grasp with a graceful shrug, grinning wickedly.  Vixie saw the serpent rising behind the writer’s shadowy blue gaze and shivered.

Surrendering control was a two-edged blade, she realized as the writer stalked up her body on all fours, blue eyes glowing like a cat’s.

They could talk in the morning.

Epilogue IV- Raven and Jasmine

Raven crooked her lips playfully under a vaulted brow, lying on her side watching Jasmine’s nose twitch in her sleep as the slender blade of grass the warrior held between two fingers tickled back and forth.  Jasmine’s hand swatted at the intrusion clumsily as she blinked to wakefulness.  The blade of grass had vanished, and Raven stared down at the bard with angelic innocence.

"Morning."  The warrior smiled softly, her fingers stroking the red-blonde mane fanned beneath the bard’s head.

Jasmine grunted noncommittally before rolling to her side and curling into the warrior’s still unclad body, burying her face in the crook of the warrior’s shoulder with her eyes closed tightly.

"It’s almost afternoon," Raven prodded.  "Are you going to sleep all day?"

Jasmine grumbled an incoherent response and nuzzled more deeply into the warmth of the warrior’s body.

"Keep it up, bard.  We may be camping in this spot for weeks."

Raven felt the bard grin against her shoulder.

"Oh, you still in the mood to celebrate our return to hard ground and bedrolls?"

Jasmine rolled on to her back and unveiled bright green eyes and a lazy smile.  "It wasn’t a dream, was it?"

Raven stared into the woods thoughtfully.  "No.  And I have the chakram to prove it."

Jasmine laughed.  "You could not believe it all happened either?"

Raven shook her head.  "It was pretty unbelievable."

Jasmine snuggled into the warrior’s lap, pleased to feel strong arms encircling her waist and holding her tightly.  "But we’re home now."

"Oh yeah."

"And maybe, if we’re lucky, we won’t be seeing Morgan anytime soon."

Raven nodded.  "Or Arial."  Raven leaned down and pressed her lips softly to her bard’s.  "Maybe we’ll have some peace and quiet for awhile."

Jasmine snorted.  "Sure we will.  Peace and quiet and Raven.  What’s wrong with that sentence?"

Raven grinned and absently scratched her jaw.  "With you with me?  ‘Quiet’ definitely is out of place."

Jasmine elbowed the warrior playfully.  "So do you think everything worked out for the others?"

Raven mulled the question over thoughtfully.  "I don’t know.  I hope so.  I think if Gabrielle and Vixie have anything to do with it, Xena and Jezz will be just fine."

"You’re right there."  Jasmine laughed softly.  "What about Cris and Tygre?"

Raven frowned.  "That’s tougher to say.  That’s tough to even think about."

Jasmine nodded, her red-blonde brows crinkling.  "How could that happen?  You never…"

"No," Raven interrupted.  "I never thought about Morgan like that."

"You think she ever thinks about you like that?"

Raven let her fingers play down the bard’s spine as she considered Jasmine’s question.  "No, not like Cris and Tygre.  I think things got twisted in Morgan’s head.  If she had any sexual thoughts about me, I’m sure they were hardly romantic.  More like power and sex."

Jasmine pondered Raven’s words silently.

The dark-haired warrior tipped the bard’s chin up, drawing her brilliant green gaze back from her inner landscape and back to the soft blue eyes staring back at her.  "Hey, I have a wonderful idea."

Jasmine giggled.  "I bet you do.  Don’t you ever think about anything else?"

Raven snickered.  "Very funny, bard.  No.  I was thinking about paying a visit to the Amazons."

Jasmine’s brow vaulted.  "The Amazons?  Why?"

Raven smiled gently.  "Just thinking about us.  Watching our counterparts made me realize how lucky we were, how much we have gone through, how much stronger we are for having survived everything, and how much I love you."

Jasmine blushed.  Those words had never ceased to lose their power over her.

Raven’s blue eyes burned with sudden intensity.  "I want…" The warrior faltered, uncharacteristically tripping over her tongue.  "I mean that…" She glanced away, took a deep breath, and then let her blue eyes reach for Jasmine softly.  "Will you be my lifemate, Jasmine?  I want to be bonded, like Amazon lifemates.  If that means that I have to join the tribe, fine.  But I don’t want there to ever be questions about who we are and what we mean to one another.  We belong to each other, and I won’t hide that any longer."

Jasmine’s stared at her lover in wonder.  She had long ago acceded to Raven’s desire to keep the depths of their relationship a secret.  Bonding would mark them both as Amazons and lifemates.  Jasmine could not believe Raven was willing to wear so much of herself so openly, but the eyes that gazed back at her did not waver.

Raven fidgeted slightly as the silence grew.  Finally, impatiently, she jiggled the unclad bard on her lap.  "So will you be my lifemate, Jasmine?"

Jasmine looked startled.  She had answered the question several times in her head as she had marveled at the warrior who was her life.  She had thought that she had responded aloud at least one of those times.

"Yes, Raven.  I want to be your lifemate… and more.  I never want to be without you.  In this life or the next…"

Raven grinned openly and broadly and began wriggling from beneath the bard.

"Where do you think you’re going, warrior?"

"To get dressed.  Saddle Tilly.  Pack."

Jasmine groaned.  "Now?"

"I don’t want to be late for my own bonding, so rise and shine, bard!  Rise and shine."

Jasmine grumbled playfully, but it was the happiest moment of her life.

Epilogue V- Morgan and Gabriella

Morgan watched Raven and Jasmine as they rode north, the bard wrapped happily around the tall dark-haired warrior who had haunted Morgan’s thoughts for so many seasons.

She heard the soft approach of footsteps behind her but did not turn, allowing the bare muscular arms of the red-blonde woman to tighten around her slender waist.  The blonde warrior did not smile, but she did not avoid the contact either, watching moodily as the warrior kicked the palomino warhorse into an easy canter and the bard tightened her hold on the woman she loved.

"I haven’t forgotten her," she mused softly, shading her eyes with one hand against the warm afternoon sun.

Gabriella smiled against the sharp bones jutting from the lean warrior’s back.  "It was only one night.  Give it some time, Morgan."  Gabriella pressed her lips to the tense muscles left bare by the blonde’s chain and leather armor.  "You forgot her last night, and that’s a start."

Morgan’s lip crooked wickedly at the memory.  Gabriella was no goody little innocent bard, and both their bodies bore the marks of the rough passion they had shared.  Morgan stretched, enjoying the pleasant protests of her bruised and raked flesh as she pulled the memories closer.  She grinned even more broadly when the red-blonde woman behind her mimicked her motion and groaned softly into her back.

"I won’t make you any promises," she warned the woman whose arms enfolded her, unsure whether she could have said those words if she had been staring into the dark gleaming green of Gabriella’s hellfire gaze.

Morgan could not deny that the woman touched her deeply, stirring the embers of her ashen soul and revitalizing it like a fresh wind.  She had wanted the red-blonde woman badly last night, and wanting anything but Raven’s misery had felt strange.  Obtaining what she wanted had felt even stranger.

She had awoken with a satisfied smile and a naked woman wrapped around her body.

Her body had ached deliciously, and her first thought had not been of Raven.  She had awoken with the need to prove the reality of the night before, and the morning had passed quickly as she and Gabriella added to the criss-cross tapestry that they had begun the night before.

After they had awakened and bathed in the cool river, Gabriella had offered to hunt up some lunch for them, surprising the blonde warrior with a small wild pig that she had hauled effortlessly back to camp, skinned, and cooked efficiently.  She had left with no weapons, and their breakfast had not died peacefully.  Morgan knew that the woman was more than she seemed, but, curiously, it did not matter.

Morgan had a gut feeling about the red-blonde hunter who had shared her bed and body.

Gabriella had not made her forget Raven.  That was true.

But she had made the blonde warrior remember Morgan, remember the dreams of a young girl who had always wanted more from life than a farming village, a husband, and children.  Remember the girl who had raced plow horses in the field and sharpened arrows for the homemade bow that she had kept hidden in the copse of trees close to their hut.  Remember how she had felt when she had heard wandering bards tell tales of the warrior princess and the Amazons and even the bloodthirsty bacchae. 

Morgan covered the red-blonde’s hands wrapped tightly around her waist with her own, interlacing their fingers.

Morgan smiled a smile that almost reached the blue of her eyes and watched as Raven and Jasmine disappeared across the far horizon.

Forgetting did not seem as important as it had the night before.

Remembering.  That was the secret.

Finding the girl she had been and making new memories with the mysterious red-blonde hunter who had sacrificed her past and future to weave their lives together.

Morgan nodded to herself.

"So where do we go from here?" Gabriella murmured into the ash-blonde mane of her lover.

Morgan’s brows furrowed then she laughed out loud.  The novelty of her response delighted her.

"I have no idea," she grinned, eyes dancing manically.  "Let’s just see where we end up."

Epilogue VI- Xena and Gabrielle

Gabrielle snuggled closer to the dark-haired warrior on the log.  The campfire was crackling cheerfully, glinting on the blue-gray blade of the double-edged sword as Xena dragged the sharpening stone slowly down its length.

"Xena?"

The warrior smiled wryly.  "Gabrielle?"

"We didn’t dream all that, did we?"

The warrior stopped mid-stroke and eyed the bard with a lifted brow.  "I don’t think so," she drawled thoughtfully as she set the sword and stone gently on the ground, "But I can think of one way to make sure…"

Gabrielle saw the wickedly playful gleam in the warrior’s eye a heartbeat too late and found herself whisked into the arms of her love and carried to the bedroll they now shared.  Rather than set her precious cargo down, Xena folded the bard more tightly against her breastplate, one hand shifting to bring the bard’s head closer so that she could cover the waiting lips with her own.

"Oh, it feels like a dream to me," she growled softly, the golden firelight illuminating the dark gleam rising in her clear blue eyes, "A beautiful dream."

"Xena?" The bard’s tone was more serious.

Xena set her lover down on the bedroll gently and sprawled beside her, cradling her head on her elbow as she lazily traced abstract patterns on the bard’s well-defined abdomen.

"Why didn’t you tell me how you felt?"

Xena sighed heavily and kept her eyes on the finger moving over Gabrielle’s taut flesh.  She did not answer for a long time, and Gabrielle was beginning to wonder if she had fallen back into stoic warrior mode when she finally spoke.  The words were barely whispered, but the trembling emotion resonating through them made them sound very loud.  "I was afraid to lose you, Gabrielle.  You’re the most important thing in my life, and I did not want to frighten you."

"Frighten me?"

Xena lifted her eyes to stare into the glowing emerald suns that warmed her world, her own eyes murky and dark.

"Because you weren’t sure that I felt the same way?  Or because you weren’t sure I could handle all that warrior princess passion?"  Gabrielle teased the moodiness from Xena’s expression with a gentle smile.

Xena smirked.

"Hey, I handled you just fine!"

Xena leaned closer to the bard and whispered, "Gabrielle, you passed out."

"You handle things your way, and I’ll handle them mine," she snapped playfully, eyes dancing with the memories of that night.  "Besides, you cheated that night."

"Cheated?"  Xena raised a skeptical brow.

"As I recall, I did not get much of a chance to…" Xena pursed her lips beneath a slender vaulted brow, amused as the bard scrambled for the words.  "To…"

"Yes?" the warrior drawled provocatively.

"To… well, you know what I didn’t get much of a chance to do.  You were the one doing it all!"

Xena chuckled sensually as her finger wandered further down Gabrielle’s body, tracing the hem of her wraparound skirt with a suggestive leer.  "As I recall, I wasn’t doing it all.  You were very… athletic…"

Gabrielle blushed.

"Besides, you deserved it for taking advantage of me."

"Taking advantage of you?" Gabrielle sputtered indignantly.  "How do you figure that, warrior princess?"

"Pumping me for information when I was obviously intoxicated and then using your ill-gotten goods to drive everything but your naked body from my mind?"

Gabrielle blushed brightly then frowned and shoved the warrior, hard.  "You knew it was me at the Widow?"

Xena grinned knowingly but said nothing.

"How did you know?"

Xena shook her head.  "I didn’t know at the time, but, after you fell asleep, I saw the whiskey bottle stashed in the corner.  I realized Jezz had set me up and that you were the mysterious date who ran out on me.  What happened to the woman I was throwing darts for?"

Gabrielle rubbed her knuckles absently.  "I… ummm… decked her."

Xena laughed.  "A blow for the greater good?"

Gabrielle glared at the warrior but could not maintain the glower, smiling sheepishly instead.  "You made quite an impression on her."

"Mmmmm."

"What do you mean ‘mmmm’?"

"That was a ‘hmmmm’.  It means ‘oh’."

Gabrielle frowned at the smirking warrior.  "That was definitely not a ‘hmmm’.  It was an ‘mmmm’, and you don’t usually go mmmming around for no reason.  Were you mmmming at that woman?  She wasn’t even that cute."

Xena leaned into Gabrielle, eyes dancing playfully.  "Gabrielle, you know you’re the only woman that I ever ‘mmmm’ at."

Gabrielle shook a finger in the warrior’s face.  "And that’s another thing.  No more mmmming at bad boys.  I know you had a weakness for them in the past, but no more mmming, okay?"

"Bad boys?  You think I have a weakness for bad boys?"

Gabrielle rolled her eyes.  "Get real, Xena.  The entire known world knows you have a thing for bad boys.  Ares, Marcus…"

"Hercules wasn’t a bad boy…"

Gabrielle frowned.  "True.  But no mmmming at Hercules either.  From now on, all the mmmming we do will be at each other."

Xena nodded with mock seriousness.  The warrior did not mention Gabrielle’s penchant for mmmming at the good boys, or marrying them, but Gabrielle seemed to see into Xena’s thoughts and past the insincere nodding.

"Okay, okay.  I won’t mmmm either, okay?"

Xena smiled brightly.  "Mmmmm…"

"Xena!"

"Hey, I was mmming at you, Gabrielle," she argued, her devilish crooked grin inciting the bard further.

"Xena, I’m serious."

"So am I," she purred deeply and pulled the bard into a passionate press of bodies and lips.

Gabrielle groaned.

Xena mmmmed.

Gabrielle managed to growl a muffled, "Xena!" around the warrior princess’ tongue, but then she forgot completely about their discussion as she felt the temperature rising far from the campfire.

The End ?