DISCLAIMER:
Xena and Gabrielle belong to Renaissance Pictures, my fantasies belong to me.

WARNING:
This story does contain a graphic love scene between two consenting adults over the age of 18 (How the hell old are they anyway?) If this offends you, close the file and delete it as fast as you can. If you live in a state that prohibits this kind of material, get the hell outta there! If you are under 21...call me... (:D)

Anyway, a little thing...for the ladies of the <Censored>.

The story inspired by a great piece of art. My humble thanks to the artist herself who chooses to remain anonymous.

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The Kiss
by Patricia L. Ennis

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     I watch her all the time now, taking in her movements as though they are
the air I need to live. I watch when her hair flies around her face and she
brushes it away so casually, as though it isn't the silk of clouds I would die to
have across my cheek.

     Her skin glistens as she works, cutting wood or practicing with her sword,
and I feel my palms begin to ache to run across that dew.

     I watch her when she rides, when she walks, when she fights, and when
she talks. I am most addicted to her smile, and the way it changes her face.
Her eyes so blue get bluer still, her face so stern, then like a child. I've never
seen her look that way with anyone but me.     And though I know it's just my
heart, painting what I want to see, I believe it anyway.

     Sometimes she glances up and smiles, to show me that she knows I'm
watching, I only grin and look away, her closeness becoming too much to
bear.

     I don't know when I fell in love, I only know I have. And it's not because
she let me follow, it's not because she's saved my life, it's not even because she
is the most glorious creature I have ever seen, the Gods on Olympus included.

     I love her for the person she is, dark and light combined. I love her for the
things she does, to make up for her faults.

     And I love her because I can't help myself. I swear I used to try. Until I
grew accustomed to the bittersweet ache her hands would cause, when she
touched me unaware. Until I grew used to her eyes cutting though my heart.
I'm still not used to what her smile does to me...I don't think I ever want to be.

     Tonight she stopped to make camp early, the sun just grazing the mountain
tops. Why? She didn't say and I didn't ask. I was happy to sit beside the fire,
spinning tales for her while she ate. Once or twice she laughed out loud and I
knew I would gladly spend my life to hear that laugh every day.

     Now I lay beneath my blanket, the moon and stars above, watching as she
hones her sword in the dying light of the fire. Her armor is laying to the side,
her leathers hanging near to dry. She sits so straight, her bearing proud, yet
somehow warm in the same breath. Chestnut hair, loose around her
shoulders, flying softly in the wind. Her eyes intent upon the metal and mine
upon her face.

     With breathless courage my eyes dip lower, sliding down over tan, firm
skin, to rest in wonder at the hollow of her throat, so delicate on a woman so
strong. Then further still, a pause at her breasts, before falling to the legs
tucked gracefully beneath her.

      I didn't notice when the movement stopped, I didn't miss the sound. It was
not her stillness that made me aware of her.

      It was the blue burning into my skin.

      I should have looked anywhere but her eyes. I should have known that she
would see exactly what was haunting my soul. Or exactly who. I should have
known, I should have stopped, but I didn't do either one.

     Her eyes were dark under the moon, only tiny flashes of the color I had
come to love. I caught my breath when she didn't smile, she didn't laugh and
look away. I felt it quicken when I saw my own eyes, reflected back in hers.

     She rose so slowly, before moving closer, as though to give me time to turn
away.

     In truth, if I'd had a choice, I probably would have, so wild was my
reaction that I feared it more than any other creature. But desire drowned out
the fear inside me, running through my veins like quicksilver, and wrapping
around my heart.

     She stopped a short distance away, her hands pulling the shift from her
skin. It fell to the ground beside her feet and she looked down at me with
something in her eyes that I have never seen there before.

     Want....hope...and fear...

     I rose to my knees and pulled off my shirt, her own hand beating mine to
the leather at my waist. I knelt there, shaking like a leaf, as gentle hands slid
the clothe off my hips. For a moment, we stayed just like that, two women
naked, kneeling in the grass. I saw her shoulders tremble ever so slightly, and
leaned forward, closing my eyes.

      I was breathing hard before she even touched me, anticipation riding
through my body. I wasn't prepared for her gentleness. The shyness of her
hand as it slid along my cheek. I traced the back of it with my fingertips as she
turned my head to the side.

     At first it was just a breath, a warmth upon my cheek. Then a softness that
made me ache as her lips closed on my mouth. Just a touch, light at first, a
lingering caress of her cheek on mine, before she pulled away....

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Xena took a deep breath and laid the parchment down, her jaw hanging a little lower, the only indication of the surprise she felt. She looked over at the ground where Gabrielle slept, making sure she was really out before pulling the saddlebags closer. She hadn't meant to read the passages, so carefully written in the bard's perfect hand, it had only been an obstacle between her and the dried meat. She didn't know why she had unrolled it... But now, it had ended and she needed to read the rest. She needed to know where Gabrielle's heart had taken her, and if she dared to hope...

Her search gave her nothing. There was only the one. She read it again, and then once more, trying to will the pounding of her heart to cease.

"Why did you stop, Gabrielle?" She whispered, her heart aching to wake the girl and ask her.

She moved quietly to sit beside her, pulling soft hair across her knee. She studied the girl's peaceful face, stroking on finger along her jaw and suddenly, she understood.

Gabrielle had stopped because she didn't know what came next...

Xena sat there a moment longer, her eyes caressing the young woman's form. She knew on warm nights like this, Gabrielle slept in her shirt and nothing else. A slow, sensual smile played at her lips as she pulled her shift up over her head.

Moving slowly, so as not to wake her, she slid beneath the bard's blanket, lining her body along Gabrielle's back. The younger woman shifted and Xena froze, her heart up in her throat. After a few moments, her movements stopped and the warrior pressed the length of her body against the sleeping bard, trying not to laugh out loud at how much leg extended past the smaller woman's feet.

For a moment, there was nothing, and Xena wondered if she would just continue to sleep. She draped one arm around Gabrielle's stomach, her palm very close to the edge of her breast, and smiled when the bard's breath became sharp, her throat releasing a whimper that told her all she needed to know.

"Xena?" She whispered, her voice barely audible. In that one word, the warrior recognized everything she had missed. She had heard her name said just that way, so many times before, and yet she missed the passion, the wanting...the love it held within it.

She buried her lips in red-golden hair, her hands running up Gabrielle's back, pulling the shirt with it. "Yes, Gabrielle?"

"What...what are you doing?"

Xena didn't answer, she simply pressed closer, her breasts rubbing against the middle of Gabrielle's back. "Hmmm?'

"Oh..." Gabrielle's back arched, her hand reaching behind her to rest tentatively against Xena's thigh. When she started to pull it away, her shyness drawing her back, Xena reached down and covered it with her own. She dropped her lips to the bard's throat, biting lightly against her skin and leaving small marks in her wake.

"Oh..." The word was much softer this time, just a breath lost in the night air. Gabrielle turned over and stared into blue eyes made dark with passion. She reached out one hand slowly and touched the warrior's lips. "Is this real?" She whispered. "No...don't tell me, I don't want to know if it's not."

"It's real, Gabrielle." She took the Bard's hand and placed it against her chest so that she could feel the wild pounding of her heart. "I'm real."

Gabrielle smiled, her face tightening slightly as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Thank the gods. I didn't know what I would do...I thought I was being stupid. Just a silly little farm girl, what could a woman like you want with a girl like me?"

Xena raised herself to her knees, remembering what Gabrielle had written. She pulled the bard up with her, reaching out to cup her chin gently as the moonlight streamed down around them, bathing their hair in an ethereal glow. "What could I want with you?" Xena laughed as her voice caught. "Oh, Gabrielle. You are as much responsible for who I am as anyone...including me. You are my eyes that see with wonder, you are the purity in my heart. It's not what I would do with a girl like you that terrifies me. It's what I would do without you."

Gabrielle smiled, joy pumping through her heart. "I love you," She whispered. "I always have...it just took me a little while to realize it."

Xena nodded. "I love you, too."

Slowly, so slowly that it made both of their hearts ache, Xena moved closer. Gabrielle closed her eyes when the warrior's face was less than an inch from hers. She began to shake when she felt soft lips against the corner of her mouth. The remained there only for a moment, before moving to cover her mouth completely. She parted her lips without being asked, allowing Xena to taste the depths with her tongue. She found it sweet...so sweet.

Xena groaned, sliding her hands down soft, firm skin to cup around Gabrielle's buttocks. With a strong tug, she fell backwards, pulling the bard down on top of her.

For a moment, Gabrielle didn't move. Her entire body tingled wherever her skin touched Xena's, reveling in the completeness of soft on soft. She had been held, grabbed and fondled by men (Which usually heralded their unconsciousness as soon as Xena saw it.) and even held in love by Talas and Perdicus, but nothing had ever felt like this. This all consuming hunger for the exquisite softness beneath her. "Yes..." she whispered.

With a smile, Xena rolled over again, pinning the bard beneath her. She stared down into her eyes for a moment, losing herself in the love she saw there, then lowered her lips to once again possess her mouth. With barely controlled patience, she slid her hips between Gabrielle's legs, groaning when she felt damp hair against her stomach. She flicked her tongue across a nipple, before closing her mouth around it completely.

"Goddess..." Gabrielle whimpered.

"Yes, you are." Xena brought her left hand up to cup Gabrielle's other breast as her mouth feasted. She alternated from one to the other as the bard writhed beneath her. Each whimper drove her further, each moan like hunger in her heart. She moved her body to the side and up on one arm, allowing moonlight and chill air to touch Gabrielle's hard abdomen.

"No...Where'd you go?" The bard opened her eyes and gazed at her.

"Shhh." Xena placed one finger over her lips before allowing it to trail down her throat. It wandered down the valley between her breasts, stopping for a short time atop each one, running over the swollen nubs gently. Then she trailed it down Gabrielle's stomach, following each hard muscle, each well cut line. "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?" Xena breathed.

Gabrielle turned her face away, hiding an embarrassed smile. "No." She ran her fingers up Xena's arm. "I didn't think you'd notice...I've been...working on it."

The warrior shook her head, leaning down to kiss the muscles around her navel. "Gabrielle, you were beautiful before. You're beautiful now. It's not these that make you that way." She splayed her fingers across the muscles of her abdomen. "It's your heart, your smile...oh, goddess....your eyes." She swallowed. "You didn't think I noticed? I've noticed every day for the last year. But I always thought, she's a fresh young girl...what would she want with an old warlord like you....with so much to make up for..." Gabrielle started to speak but Xena silenced her with a kiss. "I know...now. When I read what you wrote...I.." She shrugged. "Thank you."

"Thank YOU." Gabrielle sat up and kissed her neck. "You let me come with you, let me share the adventure that is your life. And you let me love you, whether you knew I did or not. You gave me the one person in my life, that I know will be in my heart until the day I die."

Xena felt a tear roll down her cheek and did nothing to stop it. Wordlessly, she pushed Gabrielle back against the ground, replacing her fingers with her lips against the bard's warm belly. Passion and love came together in her heart, causing it to sell painfully as she laid her cheek against soft, damp curls. She nuzzled against them, inhaling deeply as she spread Gabrielle's legs wider to settle her shoulders between them. With a gentleness she didn't know she possessed, she placed her lips against the bard's flesh, shuddering when Gabrielle cried out above her.

"Gods..."

Xena's tongue flickered out, caressing her labia, Gabrielle's nectar thick on her lips. "Sweet." She moaned. "So very sweet." She parted her slowly, savoring the tastes and textures beneath her mouth, her ears savoring the sounds of Gabrielle's passion. The body beneath her shook as she found a spot more sensitive to her touch. Xena's tongue pushed harder as she brought her hand up to slip two fingers deep inside of her.

Gabrielle's head slammed back against the ground, but she didn't notice the pain, she hadn't been able to see for the last few minutes anyway. It felt as though her entire body, her entire heart was focused on the mouth against her and the fingers stroking from deep inside. "Xena..." She whispered. "Yes..."

The warrior continued, quickening her pace until her mouth and fingers moved in unison, both curling against the sensitive flesh they so lovingly caressed. With each stroke she felt her own pleasure growing, her body mirroring Gabrielle's, and she knew she would never love again, never touch another body in joy, and feel the way she did now.

"Oh..." Gabrielle's voice was more forceful this time and she knew the bard was close to the edge. She opened her eyes to gaze at the body above her and saw lean abs tightening, her hands digging furiously in the earth beside her. She thrust one last time, her tongue fluttering quickly against the sweetness it adored, and Gabrielle shuddered violently, her back raising off of the ground before falling back against it. Xena laid there a few minutes longer, breathing in her scent, until she heard the sound of tears and climbed quickly into her arms.

"What's wrong, Gabrielle?" She took the bard's face in her hands, her stomach dropping at the thought of having hurt her. "Tell me."

"Nothing." Gabrielle smiled. "Nothing is wrong. That was wonderful...My heart just hurts...that's all...I don't think I ever believed..."

Xena nodded, pulling her close to wrap her arms around her tightly. "I know what you mean." She said softly, her lips tasting the curve of her ear. "I love you, Gabrielle."

"I love you, too." She pushed Xena down and laid her body along the length of her. "And I think it's my turn for an ambush..."

The End

:)