Two Souls
Iolaus hung in the warm blackness. It caressed his skin with a gentle velvet touch, brushing softly across his pectorals and deltoids, out along his arms and over his outstretched palms. His legs hung down below him, his upper thighs barely covered by ragged, soft, black leather. His lower legs were crossed and his bare feet, relaxing together, gently swayed back and forth. His whole body spiraled slowly through the thick nothing, his head hung backward, allowing his curls to cascade like a golden waterfall, behind him. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes so that he could just be.
He sensed her walking across nothing toward him. Each step made him tingle as a gentle ripple of power trickled down across his forehead, then slowly caressed its way over his smiling face. It ran down his neck, across the vee of his throat and down onto his chest. Like waves of honey, the energy passed his chest, causing him to catch his breath once or twice and carried on down, over his abdomen, through his loin cloth and faded out across his thighs. It engulfed him and he moaned gently.
Slowly, Gabrielle approached him, watching all the while. Her black wings unfolded of their own accord, sensing this moment. Each time one of her black heels clicked into the air, her emerald eyes poured her soul gently onto his forehead. She began to tread lighter and lighter, the wings lifting her legs from the ground until finally she bent her knees, her leather boots creasing gently. She lowered her hands across her face, caressing her neck with the backs of her fingers, down onto her upper chest, gently resting on her breasts encased in soft leather for a moment, and then out, to mimic Iolaus in a cruciform.
He reached both hands forward, gently spinning passed her, a jester's mask appearing on his face. A harpsichord began to play, accompanied by a light stream of lute. The music drifted across space from all parts of him into Gabrielle's open mouth. Her tongue licked her lips slowly as they filled with blood. Her mouth filled with strawberry and chocolate flavours. Her wings fluttered gently as she was consumed in a world of sensual tastes.
Now he was behind her, just slightly lower, like two worshippers their faces supplicated to the darkness. The shared heat of their bodies wrapped around them, adding to the warm caresses of the air. It slowly formed a twisting red mist which swirled, first, through Gabrielle's open legs, then around Iolaus's cheeks, up around her abdomen and back around his relaxed shoulder muscles. Finally, it curled gently into both their noses allowing them to smell the rich musk and sweet jasmine.
Gabrielle pulled her arms in and placed them across her chest, golden slave bracelets growing from the skin on her wrists. Her short hair began to grow and straighten until it flowed down the muscles of Iolaus's chest and abdomen, reaching his waist. The golden sheen melted into him, as he breathed deeper and slower. Her wrists locked together and she sighed, releasing her deeper self. He raised his head, his hair falling forward and opened his eyes for the first time. He exchanged the deep crystal blue of his eyes for her gold, the colour coating her leather and wings giving them a raven sheen.
Finally, they turned to face one another as they dropped slowly through the surface of a bubble, drifting in the dark. Their eyes exchanged emerald and blue words for a moment; a poem of vision. Iolaus reached for her and his hands merged with her locked wrists. He pushed forward and his chest entered hers. She, in turn, took a step forward and blue and gold merged, shaping and reshaping. Wings folded in and legs tucked up: arms gone. Then, the bubble was empty. Gently, slowly, it burst. From the top down, the filmy surface pulled back, the sphere becoming an uneven hemisphere. A single white light appeared at its middle, sparkling occasionally. It burned so very brightly in the darkness that welcomed it. The light from it whispered a story.
Once upon a time, all people had four legs and two heads it shone.
Gabrielle woke Xena.
"He's dead," she whispered.
Then, she began to cry.