Title: Something New
Author: Aresbitch
Pairing: G/A (strongly G/A)
Summary: Ares experiences something of a paradigm shift. AU of OAHAF
Disclaimer: Not mine, not by a long shot. Just having fun with characters belonging to other people.
Notes: I had strong reservations (as an X/A shipper) about posting this as is. But in the end I decided I was secure enough of my ship to comfortably play with other alternatives. I tried to emulate JollyApe in making it explicit without the explicitness - hopefully I succeeded since there's sexxing going on in here. Thanks to LK for the quick lookie-loo, all mistakes are mine.
~~
It's such a rookie move for a god of war. Getting tangled up with Gabrielle while trying to haul fish out of the pond and failing miserably.
She'd laughed. It was soft, to be sure, but it carried on the slight breeze that had picked up at sunset. It burned, that snicker, and when she came close enough he'd stuck his bare foot out and tripped her, purely out of spiteful mischief, the kind he used to specialize in during his formative years.
Only she managed to grab firmly onto his elbow and then he'd gotten a face full of fresh water and an armload of squirming, furious pocket-sized warrior.
Then he'd tried to untangle them only to have her slip again and fall right into his body, driving them back into the water and making him painfully aware of how much of a little girl she no longer was.
He froze, afraid to move, afraid she'd move, and somehow the water got warmer.
Or maybe it was him.
Dripping water from the wet strands of hair clinging to her forehead, the setting sun inflamed her blue eyes until they seemed to glow, almost like Xena's eyes.
She was staring down at him, breath coming out in ever increasingly shorter puffs of air and he had the almost psychotic thought that if he reached up, just a little, he could maybe taste the water on her mouth.
It was evidently something that occurred to her as well because both of them broke apart at the same time, wading out of the pond and making their drippy, silent way, back to the farm.
~~
Now, at their dinner that did not include fish, Gabrielle is avoiding his gaze just as studiously as he's been avoiding hers since coming out of the other room in clean breeches.
It makes the accidental brush of her fingers while she passes the wine skin almost unbearable all of a sudden.
She and Xena have a comfortable rapport, and he watches as they laugh over a shared memory, feeling foul and uncomfortably itchy in his inescapably mortal skin.
He knows what it is that makes his skin feel too small for his bones, he just can't accept that it's because of the irritating blond who helps Xena stay on this path of most resistance.
Then she strips a piece of chicken from the bone and stuffs it delicately into her mouth and he watches her chew with strong teeth, her jaw moving and her throat working.
He tears off a hunk of bread and puts it in his own mouth, chewing and chewing but it doesn't go anywhere.
The firelight glints off her hair and he wants to wrap it in his fist and drive her head back on a pillow.
He swallows, and bites off another piece, tasting none of it.
~~
After the dishes have been cleaned and stored, Xena rises and wanders out to the front of the farmhouse to sharpen and oil her sword. It's a soothing ritual, one that he's been present for in the past, even when she couldn't see him.
Now he sits by the broken window and listens the swoosh of her sharpening stone against her blade, smells the oil she uses, and watches Gabrielle out of the corner of his eye as she wanders from the hearth to the table.
"Where are your scrolls?" he asks suddenly, watching as she jumps at the suddenness of his question.
She looks down, a little uncomfortable, and shrugs.
"I lost most of them when we were…"
Her voice trails off and he heaves a sigh, waiting.
"When you were crucified?" he asks finally, tired of waiting for her courage to take hold of her.
She narrows her eyes and glares at him.
"Yeah, then."
Getting up, she walks into the other room.
He hears her sweeping after a time, and the sound disrupts the hypnotic swoosh of Xena's sharpening stone.
~~
"I never had a chance to thank you," she says a little later, gazing at him with too serious eyes. "For saving my life."
He looks at her without speaking. He doesn't know what made him put his hand on her ruined head that last second. For certain he couldn't face Xena's grief a second time, afraid of what she might do if Gabrielle really had died along with Eve. But there was a smaller thought in the back of his tangled mind, a brief objection.
It was Gabrielle.
So he moved his hand, just an inch or two.
It meant no more than that, he thinks now.
"You were an afterthought," he mumbles with a curl to his lip.
She turns away and watches the glowing embers of the dying fire, getting lost in her thoughts.
~~
When they agreed on the sleeping arrangements, he was sure it would be Xena who kept him up, tracing her profile by moonlight and wishing for different things.
But it's Gabrielle's breathing that sounds so loud in his ears. The soft scent of her freshly washed hair that drifts into his nostrils and winds around his mind.
She flops over again, changing positions, and he catches her hand before it lands in his lap again.
Jerking fully awake, she lifts her head and looks at him and he sees that she hadn't been that deeply asleep to begin with. There's none of the cobwebs that cloud the mind when waking up, no brushing away of dreams from her eyes.
She holds his gaze and quick as a snake he lifts his head, mouth colliding with hers like a wagon wreck.
She jumps, even as her tongue brushes his.
As though the Furies possess him again, Ares clamps a hand to the back of her head, lest she change her mind, and drives her back until her spine hits the edge of the bed. Not giving either one of them a chance to think, he pushes with his legs and both of them fall over the side of the bedding, landing with a dull thud on the floor below.
They both freeze, terrified that they've woken up Xena.
When her breathing remains steady, he raises his free hand and grabs the fist coming at his cheek. Gabrielle snarls when he catches it, and he cuts it off with another kiss, deeper this time.
She's different than Xena; her mouth doesn't possess him the same way. Xena is fire, burning him with her passion, driving him to greater acts of madness and promises so grandiose, Zeus would fall from his throne laughing at the War God's hubris.
Kissing Gabrielle is like taking a deep draught of the finest wine of the fall harvest, made from the sweetest grapes, warmed by the sun and nurtured by the rain.
He catches her jaw with his fingers and indulges in the feast.
Above them, Xena softly snores and he stops, just for a second, wondering at the insanity gripping him. He's betraying her, the woman he gave his godhood to save.
And who then walked away from him, again.
When Gabrielle's hand collides with his chest, pushing him away or bringing his attention back to her, he's not sure, he grunts low in his chest, suddenly angry, and knocks it away.
He grabs her hips and twists, turning her quickly over onto her belly and covering her slight body with his, sliding between her legs. She makes a noise he's willing to bet she hasn't made since her wedding night, and braces her elbows against the hard floor.
Grit and years of dust cling to their skin as he reaches between them and removes barriers. When there's nothing separating them, he caresses the warm press of her flesh, the honeyed heat of her center and when he slides in, he bites his lip to keep from groaning, one hand over her mouth in case she has the same urge.
He's not afraid of being caught, reminds himself that neither of them are doing anything wrong. Xena doesn't belong to either of them. Not really. She belongs to the Greater Good, a hostage to her past. There's no room for anything or anyone else. Not children, not lovers.
Or love.
And he doesn't want to share this, whatever it is catching and growing between him and Gabrielle, especially not with Xena. Even if she's the root of it.
So he keeps a hand over Gabrielle's mouth, feeling her teeth in his skin, and they tangle limbs as he strokes deeper. He marvels at the contrast of her pale flesh against his bronze, and the softness of her skin against the rough bristle of his.
He leans down on the elbow propped against the outside of hers, and opens his mouth against her shoulder, biting gently as he thrusts harder against her.
Her body feels like lit fire, burning him from beneath, all the way inside, and he goes deeper, hand sliding from her mouth to cup her cheek, pull her head back so that it's cradled against his bent face.
The brush of her eyelashes against his cheek are like butterfly wings, and when he slides a hand up to cup a breast, her breathing goes ragged and she is suddenly racing him to the finish line. He almost laughs, almost, before swallowing hard and changing the angle just enough that her breath catches on the edge of falling over, and he goes over right behind her, holding her tighter against him, trying so hard not to give them both away.
When he finishes, heart racing and skin damp, he finds her breathing as raggedly as he is, just as spent.
He moves so that his weight isn't keeping her down, in case she wants to move away from him. He doesn't want to feel her struggle to get away; sure she'll think this was a mistake now that it's over.
He braces himself for her rejection.
But all she does is pull her underthings back up over her backside, and then she turns and reaches with both hands, for his breeches, and pulls them back up as well, covering him gently.
He takes a chance and gazes down at her face, sees past the satisfaction making her eyes droop, to the acceptance lurking underneath.
If not for anything that might come tomorrow, than for what has passed between them tonight.
Quietly, they both climb back into bed, Ares first, then Gabrielle.
He lies on his back, and she curls up softly against his side, just as she was before.
~~
The next morning, Xena is already gone when they wake up. There is a new bashfulness between them, an awareness of each other not present before. They quietly dress in spite of a mutual need to touch, and go searching for her.
She's packing up the horses, and when they pile out of the cabin, she turns and gazes at them standing next to each other on the porch.
She gives the saddlebags a tug to test the knots, and then nods at them before turning and heading for the barn to gather more supplies.
~~end~~
Looking forward to more from you!
well done
now if you don't mind i'm going to 
for awhile.
