Morning crept sweetly across the land. Xena awakened at the first glimmer of dawn. As always, her first thought was for Gabrielle, and a quick glance proved that her beloved was still soundly asleep as always, her mouth slightly open as she snored quietly. It was the most beautiful sight in the world for Xena, and she smiled fondly as she rolled off the blankets. Her muscles protested as she stood up, but that too was normal-- you didn't lead the sort of life Xena led without waking up sore fairly often. She heard the tinkle of the stream they were camped beside and headed for it gratefully. A bath would help, and maybe she could talk Gabrielle into giving her a back rub later. She started to stride off--

And caught sight of her naked body and froze.

Ahh. Now she remembered why she was so sore, and it had nothing to with a battle the previous day. Xena's hips, breasts, midriff, calves and feet were covered with henna designs, souvenirs of a most incredible session of lovemaking. The tattoos had darkened overnight into a rich mahogany brown, contrasting beautifully with Xena's tanned skin. Really, she reflected, they didn't look nearly as bad as she'd feared they would, although she was glad Gabrielle had limited herself to the skin covered by her clothes and boots. It wouldn't do for her enemies to think she'd gotten prissy and vain in her old age...

Gabrielle let out another snore. Xena looked down at her. The bard was slumbering so innocently, just as if she hadn't teased, titillated, tormented and tortured her lover the night before. Her green top was nearby, still lying on the ground where Gabrielle had discarded it. Xena bent down to pick it up. A slow smile came over her lips, a smile that must have been identical to the one Gabrielle wore when she painted Xena's sleeping body.

Turn about was fair play, was it not?

 

---

 

Gabrielle woke up with what can only be described as a smirk on her face. She lay for a moment with her eyes closed, replaying her memories of last night. And what memories they were! Xena's expression when she first saw her newly decorated body...the look in Xena’s eyes when Gabrielle told her she couldn't move and Xena had agreed...the sounds she had made as Gabrielle followed her artwork downward...Gabrielle knew these memories would haunt her erotic dreams for the rest of her life. When she finally opened her eyes, she was a bit disappointed to find that Xena had already risen and was nearly dressed. Gabrielle had been hoping for another look at her handiwork. But alas, the stunning warrior was already undercover. The only tattoo showing was the one Xena had originally agreed to, a pattern circling her upper arm, and Xena was now in the process of slipping her leather armband over it. Gabrielle caught her eye and arched her eyebrow pointedly. Xena smiled and shook her head, but chose not to comment. Instead she greeted her love with a dull practicality. "About time you woke up, sleepyhead," she said. "We've got a long way to travel today if we're going to make it to Amazon Territory in time for Solari's and Tawanda's wedding."

Gabrielle pouted. "I thought for sure you'd want to sleep in this morning," she said. But she got out of bed anyway and started munching on the camp bread Xena had set aside for her breakfast. As she ate, the warrior finished packing Argo's saddlebags. All Gabrielle had to do when she finished eating was to climb on the horse. And away they went.

It was a pleasant day for riding. Gabrielle endeavored to forget her normal Argo-induced anxieties by burying her face into Xena's hair, and the smirk she'd woken up with kept creeping back onto her lips. Frankly, she lost track of their surroundings until late that afternoon, when she suddenly noticed that Argo was heading west, not north as she should have been. "Xena?" she asked inquisitively.

"I'm taking a small detour," the warrior replied. "There's an inn I know not far from here. I thought it might be nice to spend the night under a roof."

Gabrielle frowned. It wasn't that she didn't welcome a chance to sleep in a bed. It just seemed so odd for Xena to suggest it. Gabrielle's warrior beloved actually seemed to prefer the forest floor to a feather mattress. "O--okay," she answered blankly.

Xena smiled. "The inn has a very nice bathhouse," she added.

"Oh!" Gabrielle's eyes opened wide. There were few things she liked as much as a bath, a whole big tub full of soapy water, and it had been way too long since her last one. She grinned, imagining it. Then suddenly it occurred to her why Xena would want the benefit of some healing warmth, and she cuddled a little closer, hiding her smile against Xena's strong back. *Got some sore muscles, have you princess?* Gabrielle thought. *Very well, I'll let you take me "slightly" out of our way so you can soak, and I won't even say anything about it. But later you're going to owe me.*

They were the inn's only customers that night. That late in the summer, it wasn't worthwhile for traders to journey to farmers who were spending all their time in their fields, and the harvest fair traffic hadn't gotten started yet. Gabrielle was pleased to hear that they would have the bathhouse to themselves, and raised suggestive eyebrows at her beautiful companion. But Xena only yawned. "I'm tired, Gabrielle. You go ahead without me."

Gabrielle was disappointed, but she understood. She kissed Xena quickly in the shadow of the inn's stairway and then went to the bathhouse on her own.

 *** 

Gabrielle soaked in her bath for almost an hour. Then she stretched out on the stone floor for nearly an hour more, enjoying the bath house’s steamy warmth. Xena was going to be really sorry she missed this. At long last Gabrielle yawned, pulled herself off the floor and went to get her clothes. Maybe she could talk Xena into coming down for a little while before they left in the morning.

Her clothes weren't where she'd left them.

Gabrielle cursed and went over every single inch of the bathhouse, but her clothes simply refused to be found. In the end she grabbed her staff, wrapped a towel around her naked form, and went scurrying across the inn's courtyard, very thankful for the inn's lack of other customers. *Can't very well thrash any oglers if I have to hold up this towel with one hand* she thought, and looked both ways before she entered the inn proper. Fortunately, even the owner had given up and gone to sleep. Gabrielle hastily climbed up the stairs to her room.

She could hear Xena humming softly to herself as she turned the knob. Good! The warrior was still awake. "Xena!" Gabrielle exclaimed as she entered and closed the door quickly. "You'll never believe what someone did.." Then her mouth dropped open, and she stopped in her tracks, staring.

Xena was sitting directly in front of her, naked as the day she was born with the exception of the henna tattoos, lounging seductively on the very edge of the bed. Her long legs were stretched out in front of her so that the candlelight played off of every gloriously muscled inch. Her shining hair covered her breasts, veiling them from Gabrielle's view. "Hello, Gabrielle," Xena purred, flourishing one of Gabrielle's quill pens. "Did you have a nice bath?"

"Uh. Uh, yes, yes I did," Gabrielle replied uncertainly. Normally finding Xena in such a pose would have left her anything but uncertain, but the confident smirk on Xena's face, combined with another vivid flash of memory from last night, made her wonder just what exactly her warrior had in mind. "Xena, what are you doing with my quill?"

Xena very maddeningly didn't answer. She just set the quill down, reached behind her, and produced a green string which Gabrielle knew instantly was the lace from her favorite top. The bard's eyes widened. "You took my clothes, didn't you."

Xena smiled impishly. "Naturally."

"Why?" Xena's eyebrow arched, and Gabrielle blushed. "Uh, never mind," she said. "I guess I know why." Gabrielle's eyes roamed around the room. There wasn't a scrap of clothing anywhere to be seen-- not even Xena's leathers. The saddlebags that contained their spares were conspicuously absent too. "Xena, what did you do with them?"

"I just packed them up and put them down with Argo," Xena said innocently, toying with the string in her fingers. "This is a small room, you know. We didn't need a lot of clutter."

"Our clothes are 'clutter'?"

Xena slowly uncrossed and recrossed her legs, noting with delight the look on Gabrielle's face as she followed the motion and tried, unsuccesfully, to keep from staring at the soft dark triangle of hair that was revealed and hidden once again. "For tonight, they are. I wanted you completely at my mercy.  I figured if you weren’t dressed, you wouldn’t try to run."

"Oh..." Gabrielle's heart started beating faster. Her cheeks felt heated, and she had to work hard to suppress the surge of pleasure that ran through her. "Oh you do, do you. Is this my payback for yesterday?"

"Mmmm-hhmm. I have something special in mind." The seductive look left Xena's eyes as she suddenly looked at Gabrielle with concern. Gabrielle could take any liberties with Xena that she wanted, they both knew that. But Xena was well aware of the problems that could occur when a warrior took a younger, less experienced woman for a lover, and she never wanted Gabrielle to be trapped into doing anything she didn't want to do. "If you're agreeable, that is."

"Mmm." Gabrielle smiled. She was used to the question by now. She felt a flush of warmth prickle over her skin. "I am. Oh yes, I am. Tell me-what do you want me to do?"

Xena dropped the shirt lace on the floor and flipped her hair back over her shoulders. The sudden revelation of full breasts and hard nipples made Gabrielle's breath catch, especially when Xena approached her. "Absolutely nothing," Xena whispered, and kissed her on the lips.

 *** 

"Absolutely nothing" had a catch, Gabrielle soon discovered. It meant... well, that she was allowed to do nothing. Absolutely. Xena required her to hold completely still while she... also did nothing, most infuriatingly. The warrior princess perched on a chair, just looking deeply into Gabrielle's eyes, while Gabrielle tried very hard not to squirm on the bed. The bard could have sworn she could feel the heat coming from Xena's body, across the room though she was, and she wanted badly to get up and throw herself at her. But this was a test, a game, and she would enjoy playing it to the end. She bit her lip and forced her muscles to stay put.

Xena saw Gabrielle pulling her lower lip in between her teeth, and hid her own grin. *Time to start the show.* She raised her arms and yawned with studied negligence, listening with amusement to Gabrielle's sharply in drawn breath. As she brought down her arms she pretended to catch sight of the mendhi on her arms. Thoughtfully she studied the patterns on her wrists, twisting and turning them in the candlelight. "You know, you really did a very good job on these," she said. "I think they become me. What do you think?"

A strangled sound came from the bed as Gabrielle nodded vigorously in agreement. Xena stood up slowly, pretending to examine the rest of her body. "They're really very, very good," she murmured as she bent over to trace the design meandering up her left ankle, making sure Gabrielle had a generous view. Slowly, slowly her hand traveled up her calf, skipping lightly over her bare thighs and starting up her hip, always following the lines Gabrielle had set down. Gabrielle gasped when she got to her breasts. Xena stayed there a long time, drinking in the look on the bard's face as she traced with her own fingers the path Gabrielle's tongue had taken the night before. "Yes, very good," she concluded with a sigh, then dropped her hands and picked up the quill she'd abandoned earlier. A diabolical gleam came to her eyes. "But I think I can do better."

Gabrielle's mouth dropped open. "Xena," she said, forced into speech by her disbelief. She hadn't expected this. "You can't--you're not going to cover me in ink."

The diabolical gleam shone brighter. "Oh, that's exactly what I'm going to do," Xena growled, coming closer. "Unless you tell me where you stashed the extra mendhi paste, that is."

"I-- there isn't any more," Gabrielle peered up at her warrior cautiously to see how she would take this news. "I used it all up on you."

"Hmmm." Xena considered this, turning the quill over in her hand. "There's no hope for it, then. But maybe--" her eyes twinkled-- "just maybe, I can think of something better to do with this."

Gabrielle swallowed hard. Xena leaned over her, her breath caressing Gabrielle's skin as she whispered "No moving, remember," in her ear. Gabrielle nodded obediently, her throat suddenly dry. "Close your eyes," Xena whispered seductively, and Gabrielle did, feeling the warrior's fingers brush lightly over her eyelids. She squeezed them tight, and waited.

Xena didn't leave her hanging long. Gabrielle heard the bed creak as Xena eased her weight onto it, then she felt the lightest of tantalizing touches as Xena ran, not the inked edge of the quill as Gabrielle had been expecting, but the feather end over Gabrielle's cheek. Gently, gently, the feather brushed over the bard's face, down the curve of her neck, over her shoulder and down her arm to the fingers of her left hand, which clenched and opened despite Gabrielle's earnest desire to keep still. Xena lingered a long time over that hand, tracing each finger and tickling each tip, which were suddenly alive with an awareness Gabrielle had never known. She moaned quietly. Xena smiled and turned her attention to the bard's legs, caressing the smooth muscles until she reached Gabrielle's feet. She gave each callused sole a quick touch, eliciting a twitch and another moan, then spent a minute admiring Gabrielle's beautiful toes before leaning close. "Roll over," she whispered.

Gabrielle suppressed a murmur of disappointment-- she'd been hoping that after Xena reached her feet, she'd work her way back *up*. Specifically, back up to her breasts, which were painfully hard-nippled and quivering with anticipation. But Xena's will was law. "Keep your eyes closed," Xena reminded. She helped Gabrielle turn over safely in the bed, keeping her from rolling onto the floor. Once she was stretched out again Xena touched the feather to the base of her skull and swished it back and forth down the vertebrae, noting once again how Gabrielle's entire skin flushed when she was aroused, clear down to her buttocks. Xena contemplated the rosy mounds for several minutes, minutes that had Gabrielle holding her breath. What on earth would Xena do next? When Gabrielle felt the cool liquid touch of the writing side of the quill dance across her skin, the breath escaped in something halfway between a yelp and a moan. Resistance had faded-she wanted nothing more than to spread her whole skin out across the bed, be the ultimate canvas for her lover's vision. Her fingers found the bedclothes underneath her and gripped them hard.

Xena finished inscribing her message-- three small words plus the bard's own name-- and put the quill aside. Using her considerable strength she picked Gabrielle up and cradled her in her arms, sitting down with the bard across her lap. Gabrielle buried her face in Xena's shoulder. Xena ran her hand across Gabrielle's breasts before dipping into the juiciness between her thighs.

It was impossible to say which woman was more aroused. Gabrielle was in heaven, moaning as long strong fingers explored her sex, but Xena was as well. The scent of Gabrielle's arousal and the feel of her excitement did things to her body no other lover ever had. One look at the bard's face told her the younger woman was lost to the world, feeling nothing but the pleasure Xena was giving her, and the knowledge made Xena's own lower fires burn. She spread the bard open with a low soft growl and rubbed her palm hard against the waiting clitoris. "That's it, Gabrielle," she commanded, knowing how the sound of her voice always added to Gabrielle's pleasure. "Come for me. I want you to. Come *hard*."

Gabrielle gave a jerk and buried her face in Xena's shoulder, coming with a cry. Xena dropped her hand, glistening with Gabrielle's juices, to her own swollen clit. It took less than a heartbeat for her fingers to set off the orgasm she knew was waiting. Sated, overcome with pleasure and love, Xena let her body relax, though she still kept her arms protectively around the younger woman. They collapsed backward onto the bed, their bodies intertwined.

 *** 

Sometime late a sleepy voice spoke up. "Xena?"

"Mmm?"

"Thank you."

The warrior smiled happily into the top of Gabrielle's head, fitted so perfectly under her chin. "You got exactly what you deserved, and don't you forget it," she replied with a yawn.

That provoked a soft chuckle from the bard. "I guess I did," she said, and sleepily raised her head to try and look at her backside. "What did you write on my butt? I can't see."

"You don't need to," Xena said, stroking the soft blonde hair. "I tell you the same thing almost every day."

"Oh." Gabrielle dropped her head back to Xena's chest and cuddled up even closer. "I love you too, Xena."

They fell asleep together.

The End

7/7/2001