Summary: A little vignette about fighting. Xena/Ares, set sometime after "Ten Little Warlords."
A/N: I don't own Xena, Gabrielle or Ares. Thanks to LadyKate for beta reading!
Centre of Gravity
By XenaAmber
She shouldn't enjoy it as much as she did.
Xena had a lot of reasons to be annoyed at that particular moment. She was hungry, dirty and she could feel a bruise coming on from the last seven times Gabrielle had dumped her butt-first on the forest ground. Surely, she thought, after almost two hours of sparring practice, the bard ought to have mastered the block-jab-turn-throw technique she'd been begging Xena to teach her since they'd chased off the latest band of thugs earlier in the day.
Xena had been fighting three men, who had all attacked at the same moment, and her improvised response had left one unconscious, one on the ground clutching his shoulder, and the third staggering off balance with plenty of room for one last kick to put him out of commission completely.
The movements weren't that complicated, but they required perfect coordination and timing to succeed. Gabrielle was generally a fast learner, and had greatly improved since their earliest days together, but for some reason this particular combination just wasn't sinking in. Her tousled blonde hair and red face suggested that she'd had enough, yet every time Xena suggested taking a break, the bard insisted that she'd get it on the very next try.
"I just can't turn around as fast as you do. Show me again, and this time do it slowly enough so I can actually see your feet."
She could be annoyed by now, and probably would have been with any other student; but Gabrielle's bright-eyed, determined expression and the quiet peace of the moment mattered much more than her bruises.
"You want to bring your back foot across so you can push off it as you turn around," Xena commentated as she moved. "Then as soon as the weight is on that foot again, you use your front foot to sweep them off balance-"
Gabrielle was so intent on the progression of Xena's back foot that she didn't notice her front foot sneaking out towards her own ankle until it was too late.
"-and then you just use your arms to twist them around, and you've got them." Xena finished, smirking as she caught Gabrielle before the younger woman could fall. Matching bruises really wouldn't be a good look.
"And at some point you can pull all that off in an actual fight?" Gabrielle asked dubiously.
Xena released her friend as she pondered her answer. "It's not about remembering how to do something," she said. "If you do it enough times, your body just learns how, and eventually you do it without thinking at all."
"But how do you get to that point without thinking about it all the time?" The bard paused, before adding wearily, "Unless you're you."
"There's no shortcut. It just takes practice." Xena looked around her, taking in their quiet campsite and the gathering darkness. "But we're done for the day, so I wouldn't worry."
Gabrielle groaned as she stretched out her shoulder, and then gulped a couple of mouthfuls from her nearby waterskin. "Probably a good idea. I'm starting to feel sorry for those guys you clobbered earlier, if this is how I feel and you weren't even trying."
"I'm going hunting. How about if you start a fire?"
Gabrielle nodded, and the warrior princess set off into the forest, moving silently as she watched out for dinner. She settled into a crouch by the edge of a small clearing that she suspected would be good territory for rabbits. The breeze rustled the tree branches above her and made the surrounding shadows dance, and she briefly savoured the solitude she rarely experienced nowadays, but didn't really miss.
Then she shivered.
As she got to her feet and drew her sword, she knew she was smiling, and as her sword locked with the suddenly-visible blade of the god in front of her, his expression mirrored hers.
"Thought you might want a real work-out," he said, swinging both of their weapons around in a wide arc.
She didn't reply. There was no need. Their movements spoke for them: wild sword thrusts, agile feet dancing out of each other's reach, kicks, jumps, and turns. Where Ares could best her in sheer strength, she used her superior mobility to move in and out of his striking range. After a rapid exchange of blows, she disarmed him, throwing her own sword to the side a moment later, as they progressed to hand-to-hand sparring. All the while, their eyes glinted at each other in a familiar rivalry.
Xena didn't know how long they fought, but the dappled light had just about gone when he launched a spinning kick at her with such speed that she fell to the ground, breathless. She rolled onto her back and saw him looking down at her.
"I forgot you're probably tired after your little lesson earlier," he said nonchalantly as he stepped forward, extending his hand to help her to her feet. She shivered again.
"Not that tired." She took his hand, squeezed it lightly, and without warning, yanked him off balance and pulled him down next to her. They stared at each other for a long moment, eyes sparkling, and then, involuntarily, she started to laugh.
"Falling for me again, Ares?"
"I was going to help you up, and this is the thanks I get?" She raised an eyebrow at his bemused griping, but did not pull her hand away from his.
"Maybe I like you better down here."
She really shouldn't enjoy it as much as she did.