Just One More Time...

"Hmm?"

"You know; `when I'm a god again, you and I will rule Olympus together . . .'"

"That doesn't sound like Ares," Xena snorted. She looked down at her bucket, smirking. Her method was filling it up so much faster than Gabrielle's.

"I can just imagine it," Gabrielle told her. "You guys standing outside the front door at the end of a date. `You dematerialise first.' `No, you!' 'You go first!' 'You!'"

"Mmmm," Xena sighed, imagining the softness of an invisible kiss." Er -I mean - are you kidding? All that responsibility, let alone being interrupted every few minutes by some prayer or petition - we'd never get a second to ourselves!" Then she frowned. "On the other hand . . ."

On the other hand, they'd been sharing the farm with Eve and all her friends for the last week. Eve had made a lot of friends on her last trip east, and they all wanted to really experience a Typical Greek Farm. All twenty-seven of them. Which was nice, except rooms were short in the little farmhouse, and it meant that Xena, Gabrielle and Eve had to share the loft, while Ares slept in the tiny attic room. Xena and Ares had had no time to - be alone. Not for a week. And a week was a very very long time.

“On the other hand, we haven’t had a second to ourselves in ages. There is a definite possibility I could be tempted to the dark side.”

"So what you're saying, Xena, is that the only thing standing between you staying, and you leaving me for ever is - a good night's sleep?" Gabrielle asked thoughtfully. "That's sad. Very sad."

"I've said I'll never leave you, haven't I?" Xena protested. "Even in death . . . I'll come back as a ghost and haunt you!"

Gabrielle got up, picking up the heavy bucket of milk, then hesitated.

"What are you doing, Gabrielle?" Xena asked suspiciously.

"Well, in the interest of the Greater Good - and our continued friendship - I'm going to do something about freeing you two up a little."

"Oh?" Xena asked, raising an eyebrow. "What exactly do you mean?"

"I'll take your daughter and her friends out on a long picnic today. And leave you two to guard the house. Alone. All day."

Xena blinked back tears. "You really are the best friend a girl could ever have . . ."

“You sure you don’t want to come, Mother?” Eve asked with concern. “I know those raiders have said they’ll come and burn down the farm while we’re gone, but you don’t want to miss out on the picnic, do you?”

“I’m just thinking of the cows, hon,” Xena reassured her. “Who knows if those marauders will let them out before lighting the roof? You go on, Ares and I will make sure nothing happens while you’re gone.”

“Nothing. Nothing at all,” Ares agreed hastily.

“Well, if you’re sure . . .” Eve faltered, then turned to see all her friends piled on the large farmwagon, with Gabrielle holding the reins of a very strong horse. “I’ll see you later.”

Xena and Ares waited until the wagon had turned the corner and was out of sight. Then they raced into the house, and flew up the staircase to the one room which boasted a double bed.

"Uh - no offense Xena? But this time I'd really like to do it without your armour . . ."

"Hang on. Where did Eve get that idea about the raiders?" Xena asked, hesitating at the door.

Ares shrugged. "Who knows? Probably Gabrielle said something so that you and I staying here alone would seem less suspicious. "

Xena relaxed. "You're right, of course." She waited a little longer till Ares was actually bouncing on the bed with impatience. "Hmm? What's the problem?"

"Do you know how far light has to travel to illuminate me for you?" Ares asked inconsequently. "And you only have to walk five steps to hold me . . ."

The tiny smile on Xena's lips grew, and she took the five steps in an instant.

"I've missed you . . ."

Crash!

"No no no!" Ares wailed. "I'm not going to wake up and find myself back in that temple in Amphipolis!"

"That wasn't an explosion, Ares," Xena pointed out, rolling from his arms and moving stealthily to stand beside the window. "That was -"

A fiery arrow hissed past her, landing on the roof of the barn.

"That was the raiders trying to burn our cows," she finished wearily. "Come on - let's save the world one more time . . ."

"Look, I was completely naked. You had your armour on! Of course I got out the window after you . . ."

"Since when has being naked ever been a problem?" Xena argued. Then she sighed. "Well, at least they didn't burn the barn down. Even if it was Greba who stopped them."

"She does throw a mean frying-pan, doesn't she?" Ares agreed, then winced as Xena managed to elbow him. "Ow! I'm sure you throw them better, I was just saying . . ."

"Yeah, well stop talking and start focusing on the matter at hand, here."

"You think I'm not focused? I'm completely focused."

"Then -" Xena said with a flourish, holding up a pair of manacles, "how come I'm out of my chains and you're still hanging there by your ankles?"

Ares stared. When the raiders had managed to capture them, and throw them into the castle dungeon, he really had despaired of having his way with Xena - that day, anyway. But only ten minutes later and she was free from her bonds.

"How . . ."

"Autolycus taught me a thing or two," Xena told him, winking.

Ares froze. "About chains, right? I mean . . ."

Xena uttered a low laugh.

"Oh yeah, about chains -"

Ares managed to flip himself the right way up out of pure frustration.

"But not about anything else, you mean, don't you?"

Xena took pity on him and flicked the lock. "It was under the most innocent of circumstances, Ares."

"You knew him that young?" Ares wailed. "That's it - as soon as we're out of this castle, I'm going after him . . ."

"He's dead, Ares."

"Great. So it looks like another trip into Tartarus is scheduled -" Ares began, before grabbing onto the chains and performing an impressive double flip, landing firmly with both feet onto the ground. "Saw some acrobats do that, once," he admitted.

"Save it, I've heard all about it from Gabrielle," Xena told him, rolling her eyes. "All right, we need to make some commotion so the marauders run in to torture us some more. Then we'll lock them in here, and go home."

Ares hesitated, looking around at the dungeon. "It seems a pity to waste the only time we've had alone together in weeks . . ."

Xena raised an eyebrow. "You've got a point, there."

She pushed him back against the wall facing the doorway, and then slid her hand inside his vest. "Where is it again? Oh -"

"Yeah, you've found it," Ares agreed in a strangled voice. "Oh - ok, you were talking about my pendant."

Xena tugged it off, and used it to flick the lock in the door. "All right, where was I?"

She moved back to him and slid the pendant back around his neck, following its path down his throat and over his chest with her mouth. Then she gave him a wink, and bit down on his nipple.

Ares gave a yell that echoed through the dungeon. Moments later the guards fell through the door with a crash, followed by the rest of the maurauders who had been gambling in the stairwell. Xena and Ares trussed them up and slammed the door.

"Am I that predictable?" Ares grumbled.

Xena looked at him speculatively. "Yes, yes you are," she assured him.

"Dinner's ready, Ares."

"I'm not hungry."

Xena looked over at Gabrielle, a small frown wrinkling her brow. "He's been sitting up on the roof for an hour, Gabrielle."

"Lucky he fixed it, then, isn't it?" she snorted unsympathetically. Then she sighed. "Here - take him up some of this pie, all right?"

Xena pulled herself up onto the roof carrying the covered dish, and edged along the thatch quietly.

"Look, I'm sorry, Ares," she began. "You were right! We should have stayed a little longer in the dungeon . . ."

"Damn right," Ares interrupted.

"But I thought the kitchen was going to be so much better!" Xena finished sadly. "All that honey and wine . . . how did I know that the original occupants of the castle were hidden in the cupboards, and were going to honour us as their rescuers and benefactors in a major ceremony in town?"

Ares shrugged.

"And even then, I had hopes. I told them we needed a room and some privacy to get cleaned up, and they gave us the best one in the local tavern."

"Huh."

"Well, who knew the raiders would escape from the dungeon and head directly to the tavern to rob the town?"

"You could've left them -"

"The room was on fire, Ares. Admittedly, so were you, but only figuratively speaking . . ."

A silence fell between them.

"Well, there's always hopes of another picnic tomorrow, I guess," Ares said, moving his hand over Xena's. He'd finished the pie and was feeling much better.

"That's right - apparently the one today was a real success," Xena agreed, brightening.

A drop of rain fell on their joined hands. They sighed together.

"Come on - we'll have to go inside before we're both soaked," Xena told him, sliding over to the open window. "Here -"

She swung herself into the only room in the farmhouse that held a double bed.

The room was empty. Except for the hundred tiny candles which dotted the floor and the side table. And the scrap of parchment on the bed.

"Dear Xena, I've taken your daughter and her friends over to stay the night in a Real Greek Townhouse - Virgil's place. Good luck. Love, Gabrielle."

"Have I said before she is the best friend a girl could ever have?" Xena murmured as Ares climbed in the window behind her.

"If you have, I've never listened," he told her honestly, before sweeping the scrap of paper to the floor. "Promise me there'll be no marauders tonight."

Xena nodded, her mouth a little dry as she watched Ares strip himself of everything but his pendant. "There'll be - er - no marauders tonight."

"And no one hiding in the cupboards, either."

"There'll be -" Xena gulped as Ares proceeded to remove her armour, followed by her tunic. "There'll be no one in the cupboards, I swear."

"And definitely - most definitely - no fires."

"Well . . ." And Xena's voice took on a husky tone as a breeze flowed in through the open window, quenching the hundred small flames. "I can't promise that . . ."

She felt her mouth fall open and her head fall back as he pushed her onto the bed and moved over her.

"Promise," Ares ordered her, as he pressed small kisses to her throat, and then looked up again at her eyes. "Promise."

"No fires?" Xena repeated, then uttered a wordless cry as his lips slid down, over the soft skin of her breast, his teeth grazing her nipple.

"Promise me -"

Xena opened her mouth to answer, but gasped instead, gripping his shoulders, closing her eyes, and falling into helplessness as his mouth moved lower, his arms holding her tight.

"Promise me."

Xena's eyes flashed, and she dug her fingers into his flesh and flipped him over. "Oh, there'll be fires all right," she told him, and grinned. "Figuratively speaking . . ."

...h.o.m.e...
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