Disclaimers
This story is written with the utmost respect to the cast and crew of Xena: Warrior Princess. It is written to express true love and commitment, not for profit.
If the concept of two women in love upsets you, please, don't trash the story, but if you must, there are other great stories out there.
(All characters portrayed are the property of Renaissance/MCA/Universal. No copyright infringement is intended. This story, however, is copyrighted to Darkone.)
Now and
Forever
[This is a
continuation of May I have this Dance?
And takes place the night after Sacrifice Part 2.]
By Darkone
Warmth.
Passion.
Desire.
Need.
Faith.
Hope.
Love.
How could one person inspire so much in another?
What did I ever do to deserve this? The way she smiles?
Gods, it melts me. Her voice.
The way she says my name in a whisper, or cries it out in ecstasy. I smile as I look down at her sleeping form, remembering her reaction when we walked in here a few hours ago….
"Xena! It's beautiful! Crystals shine in the walls, and...and is that steam?" Her hair whipping around as she looks the cave over. It was pure luck that we found this place. The clouds over head were pushing us hard, and we had little choice to find shelter.
She threw her bag down and walked around the cave's main abbey. She found a few crystals and held them up in the fading sunlight. "They're beautiful, don't you think?" She asked.
Her eyes or the crystals, I wonder? So, in order to keep her from feeling unheard, I smile and nod openly at her. She sits by her bags, turning her prize over and over, before placing it in her bag. She's so beautiful in everything she does.
Looking around, I could appreciate the cave's beauty and elegance. How does she do that? Make a cave, a cave of all things feel like the Halls of Athens? She never ceases to amaze and captivate me. Does she even know the power she wields over me? The love she inspires?
If she doesn't, I will tell her, over and over.
The steam from the warm crystal springs of the cave is covering us, as she gently pushes me back onto a soft bedroll. That smile again, and I am lost. The warm waters have cleansed our souls as much as they have our bodies. She kisses me softly as her fingers twine into my long dark hair, pulling back to gaze into my blue eyes with the sea-green depths of her own. Her eyes….
Her eyes, they set my body on fire with but a glance.
Love pouring from them as she smiles at me when we are near, or walking across a crowded room to be together.
The way her skin feels. So warm and soft, it glides like silk over my body. Her whisper-like caresses as she touches me in places and ways that have never been open to others.
Her muscles are so beautiful when they are lightly covered in sweat and straining in the throes of pleasure. I gain the most pleasure from watching her body move under or atop mine.
Her breasts feel magnificent as they press and slide against me, she then moves downward and I feel them slide over my abdomen. Her tongue tasting my skin, and setting it ablaze with all her love and glory. She slides down and she tortures my breasts in the most wondrous and loving of ways. It feels as if I may die from her sweet loving, a death I would gladly receive.
Her kisses are like the sweetest wine. My head spins and my heart races with each one. Especially when she kisses me below my ears. She literally transfers her soul into me as mine goes out to her. She holds me captive with each one I receive. Her kiss, what a delightful prison. I would gladly be her captive until the end of time.
She gently thrusts her hips against me, and I am undone.
Her name reverberates off the walls as I reach the peak of what this beautiful act has brought. I used to see this as a way of gaining control. But now, what bliss to be able to surrender, and gain so much more from the act of laying down your body, your guard, and your control. How did I ever live this long without her?
Lightning flashes and the sweat on her skin illuminates her body, and she continues her movements.
Thunder rolls, and she moans in agreement.
She releases my left breast from the hot recesses of her mouth and kisses the hardened nipple softly.
She rests back, astride my hips, her hands on my lower stomach as she gently rocks against me, my own body moving in a slow gentle rhythm. Still trembling, I reach my shaking hands up over her legs and up to her tightly toned abdomen.
When my hands cover her breasts, she throws her head back, moaning my name in absolute devotion. She tells me she is mine. Doesn't she realize? I am hers just as surely? She smiles down at me as I caress her hair, my hand coming to rest against her soft cheek. Lightning flashes again and her eyes close as she catches my hand, nuzzling her cheek inside its warmth. She gently kisses and sucks my fingers, and I gasp in wonder. The sounds of our lovemaking carry off the walls of this place. Our haven, our shelter from the storm outside.
My thoughts again turn to earlier this evening....
Rain, to some it is the most boring thing in the world. But to her? My sweet bard? It is like an inspiration to her. The rain is what brought us here, and what has brought us to this point. She just looked up from the fire and smiled when the rain started again. The love I had found there a few days ago was still there, but there was more. Oh so much more. Lightning flashed, igniting the golden flecks in her eyes, and causing her hair to shimmer.
"Xena? Can we go to the springs?" She asks in her soft voice. The light in her eyes takes my breath away, and steals my voice. I nod as she takes my hand and leads me to the warm springs in the back. She comes to a halt and tells me to do so as well.
"Here," is the only word from her lips. There are no commands in her voice. I hear the sounds of her walking away, and when she returns, the sound of a bedroll being placed. Next is the sound of her humming as she presses against my back, hugging me tightly. I nearly faint at the feel of her bare skin against my leathers.
"Allow me?" She asks as she begins caressing the shoulder plates of armour.
I only nod as she begins. She gently undressed me and placed soft kisses on every part of me before coming back to kiss my lips. My hands locked inside her hair, feeling the strands flow like an ocean of golden sunlight through my fingers. I knew then, there could be no other; no one could do the things that this sweet loving young woman could do.
Here, in this cave, in a warm crystal spring, she tamed me, and made me all the wilder with her taming. I will love this woman until the day I die.
The only thing I could ever hope for would be to be with her when we crossed over.
I descend into the warm waters and hold my arms up to her, and she takes my forearms, sliding her hands up my arms to my shoulders before standing in the warm waters. She bathed me and as her hands covered my body, she made soft sounds in the back of her throat, and kissed every scar she found.
When my hands had finished lathering her skin, and came to rest around her tight stomach, she moaned softly.
She turned to me in the water, smiling up at me; she put her arms around my neck, drawing me to her in a gentle kiss. "I love you, Xena."
Her kiss was not unlike the gentle kiss she gave me the other night, but slightly different. I could feel it; her need was drawing me in, igniting my own. I pulled back to look her in the eyes and she smiled again.
"He's not in there anymore. I'm free, Xena, completely and totally, free. Feel." She brought my hand to her heart, and I could feel the magnificent beating of it. "Do you know what's causing that?"
I shook my head, hoping her answer would set me as free as she now felt.
"You, Xe." The glyphic name she called me the other night.
The name she gives me as part of our coming together.
It completes me, and makes me whole.
"You've set me completely, and totally free, and now, my heart is yours. That and anything else I can give you." She drew me back for another kiss and I smiled, setting her up on the edge of the spring, her legs wrapping about my waist. I feel her warmth against my abdomen, and close my eyes, barely whispering…. "Are you sure, my love? I don't want you to rush into anything and regret it later." I whispered.
She wrapped her arms around me, pressing my cheek against her soft breast kissing the top of my wet head. She began stroking my hair out of my face and she smiled down at me. Her eyes were blazing desire as she whispered into my ear before sucking the lobe.
"The only thing I will regret tonight will be not making love to you, here, in this cave, with these springs. I know life is too short not to give your all to those you love. Xena? I want to give you my all. Everything."
I looked up into her radiant eyes, which had softened while she had spoken, the desire taking a slow burn, her love coming to the fore.
"Everything?" I asked in amazement.
A raised eyebrow, and a smile that were a mirror of what
I had done to her so many times before as she drawled in a sexy undertone.... "Everything."
Lightning seemed to electrify her, as her touch did me. Gods, this woman is every dream come true.
She lay back, and I feel one of my breasts press against the warm silk between her beautiful legs. She arches her hips against the slight invasion and draws me to her body, pressing my length against her firmly. With my hips gently gliding against her center, I kiss my way down her firm, strong body. When I reach her center, I give her a long, deep kiss, tasting her very essence as she moans the word again.
"Everything."
I open my eyes as I focus on what she is doing now.
She smiles down at me before sliding off me. On her knees, taking my hands, she coaxes me to my own behind her. She brings my hands to her breasts and slowly guides them over her body. I'm pressed tightly against her back as lightning flashes over her lightly tanned skin, almost making her appear like a silver goddess.
She brings my right hand down to the center of her need. She's so wet, and warm. She gently moves against my hand, her body sliding against me. She brings her hands up behind my head, and she giggles slightly as my tongue glides down her throat, before becoming a moan as I gently bite her skin.
Her nipple under my left hand is hard and erect, and I begin my torture of its twin, her breaths are short and ragged as she continues to move against me in our embrace. The sheen of sweat over our bodies is the most erotic sight in the dimly lit room, as I watch a single bead travel over her collarbone to the warm valley of her breasts. My breath catches as I hold her.
I map every inch of her body with my large hands. Drawing lazy designs on her skin, she rocks ever so slightly against me. I whisper how much I love and need her. How it will always be so. How it has been since that day she stood in front of my village and shielded me from their vengeful wrath.
I tell her how beautiful she is, at this very moment, and I hear her breath catch as she rolls her head back against my shoulder. My left hand traces a soft line down her throat to her breast, while my right hand trails up a soft lightly tanned thigh to enter her once more. Slowly, gently, I stroke her inner walls, listening to her breathing as she gives me her greatest gift. Not just her body, or her love, but her soul. I can feel her devotion coursing through every gentle pull on my fingers.
My left hand traces around her breasts, before coming to rest over her left nipple. Her body arches into my touch, hungry and wanting more, so I give her what she wants. Everything.
I want this moment to last forever. Her writhing against me, her body convulsing in a dance of passion and release.
"Say my name, love. Set us free in our absolute joy." I coax, needing to hear her, and I do....
I gently nip her throat and she screams then, lightning and thunder giving testament to our happiness:
"XEEEEEENNNNNNAAAAAA!!!"
I awake, screaming in anguish. I look around the cave. This place that inspires such beauty...
I remember every beautiful moment of that night, for it is not only burned into my memory, but my very soul. Her eyes, her skin, her voice. The sounds she made as we caressed each other through the night. I want to breakdown, and crawl inside myself, and disappear.
How I wish I could hate this place for what it gave me.
For it gave me more than that beautiful night, so much more. It gave me things that I thought were dead inside me.
Dreams, dreams of waking up one morning, looking into the sea-green eyes of my bard when we are old and gray.
Remembering our travels, instead of going on with them.
Lazily enjoying our homeland in peace.
But I can't work that hate up, for it only brings me love, for this was ours.
Our crystal springs, the place where one night, during a thunderstorm, with rain and lightning flashing, a bard conquered a warrior. Not with any force of arms, but with the weapons she knew best.
The very things she inspired within me.
The things I will carry with me until I can join her once again.
I look around the camp, and feel sadness threaten to steal over me.
One night, which was all the Fates saw fit to give us.
Shattering my dreams of holding her until our hair became gray and our eyes held the light of wisdom.
I want to throw myself down and cry, beg, scream my sorrow to the very gods we fought to save.
So much to say, and left unsaid.
How many times that night, did I say it?
How many times will it go unsaid?
The few times I said it will never equal the eternity it never crossed my lips.
"I love you, Gabrielle, and I'm not giving up on us. We'll get back to each other, won't we?" I whisper into the night as anguish encroaches on me again.
When the answer I want to hear doesn't come, that anguish threatens to overwhelm me, but it dies, and fades.
Instead, an indescribable joy fills me, and I smile in teary happiness. That one night, that is all I need. It will carry me until I can hold her again to my body. I will let that exquisite night guide me through the loneliness, and I lay back. Sleep comes easily, as I close my eyes. The dreams are sweet, as I relive that night, and revel in the joy of her love.
"I love you, Xena. Now, and forever."
Love still flickers in the night...