"...A... child? " his voice articulated on the most incredulous note possible, as if trying to check if he had heard her right in the first place.
"A child..." she soon echoed, her tone low and grave as it generally was when she was talking about some life and death situation...
" A child..." he stressed- pensively this time- and for a moment there, despite his renowned self control when it came to unexpected news, Ares genuinely felt his heart drumming unbearably loud against his temples...He had actually indulged himself in believing that after all those endless eons of living on this damned planet, nothing could take him by surprise any more...Boy, was he wrong!
In the futile attempt of making some sort of logical connection with any reasonable fact that could have pushed her into asking that of him, he finally let the itchy question pop out, still a bit insecure about the idea of actually bringing up the subject again , especially after having taken the decision of not pressuring her about it...
"Does this mean that you're willing to accept my marriage proposal?"
"No..." the barely murmured response was promptly offered, brutally cutting off the suspense, and, it's quite needless to say that the awareness of it shocked him worse than an icy cold shower during a polar winter day...
"No..." his voice echoed again, feeling suddenly silly for having opened his mouth in the first place...Their rather one sided conversation, it was like some ridiculous game children were generally playing around the age of five...when one had to rapidly repeat what the other had said, using the same tonality and the same mimic...It was making him nervous and he hated the feeling...
Nonetheless, noticing his discomfort, with an almost expert psychological precision, the Warrior Princess rushed to intervene.
"Not yet..." she added, just to complete the sentence a few short seconds later, moments that for the mixed up War God though seemed to have lasted far more than a full of events century...
"Ares...I'm not ready to be your wife...And I certainly don't wanna rush into it... just like that..." the tricky explanation was again delivered with no delay, making the handsome Olympian instantly arch both of his eyebrows in utter surprise and confusion.
"Xena...let me see if I got this right...So...you're not ready to marry me, to become my wife but you are ready to be the mother of my child?! Am I missing something here, cause Honey, I really wanna understand how your mind works?!" he broke out, completely ignoring any initial intention of doing his very best to avoid snapping at her.
...He did have a clue about where her unusual request came from, and the mere concept of that being true felt like worms eating his heart out, but somehow, in the furthest corner of his brain, he refused to believe that she could actually lower herself to that extent...
"You said that you'll be patient with the wedding part...That you can wait..." her mild tonality instantly brought him back to reality.
"Yes..." the line came out almost automatically.
"So I don't have to decide anything right away..." she stated, stressing the last words...
"No...you don't...Still...that doesn't answer my question...Where does the presence of a child fit into all this?"
"Ares...look...it's ok if you don't want to...It was probably a bad idea anyway..."
Taking an avid gasp of air as if wanting to say something else, the Warrior Princess just rose from the bed, ready to leave- turning her back on a complex problem like that, sounding obviously much more appealing and comfortable than just facing it properly...Ares's iron like grip around her wrist made sure to give her a new perspective on things though, keeping her put despite her every intention to avoid his piercing, persistent gaze...
"Don't "Ares" me! And look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you Gods damn it!" he barked on the harshest of tones, making Xena instinctively lift her gaze to meet his...
When she did, the God was but seconds away from slapping himself at the sight of that fine layer of unshed tears covering the now dark beryl of her irides, scintillating like only the purest diamond dust ever could.
"Sweetheart...nothing would make me happier than you giving me a child...It's just that...you're still so young..." he softly added, wisely deciding to keep his suspicions to himself for the time being...
"Young?! Ares most women of my age have two even three children!" she defensively protested and for a moment there the God really had the impression that it was not his Conqueror standing before him anymore, definitely not his Warrior Princess whose name was on the lips of every village and city in Greece, but rather a moody, spoilt brat who refused to take no for an answer...
...Contrary to his sky high standards, he was soon to discover that couldn't help adoring her even for that...
"Yes...but on the other hand you are not "most women.." are you, now? You are the Chosen of War...the Commander of my armies...A child would get in the way..."
"In the way of what?!" she unexpectedly cut him off, almost shouting in his face "Of your larger than life plans of dominion?"
"Of your future!" he simply responded in a surprisingly calm voice, paying no mind to her overly emotional reaction.
Again, for a couple of endless minutes that seemed to stretch their seconds towards eternity itself, a painful, chocking silence filled the room, covering with it's thick veil both a deeply hurt Xena that was hardly managing to control her frustration and anger and the barely holding himself together War God who was ferociously fighting with himself with all that he got to restrain himself from giving into her ever so tempting proposal...
In any other circumstances he wouldn't have hesitated one millisecond to fulfill her ardent desire, and he was well aware of that... But now, with all the fiasco that had been clouding his judgment lately, with Athena and Alecto just waiting for the slightest mistake, for the right chance to attack, with a Chosen who's mind was as labyrinthine and obscure as the Fates' will itself, he didn't want to risk anything, not even her own safety... Gods knew he would have decapitated her in less than a blink had she ever dared use their child against him...
"I can decide by myself how I want my future to be..." she mumbled, more to herself then for the God to hear.
The moment she bowed her head in defeat though, the faint trace of a resigned smile hardly managing to curve the corners of her lips, he made sure to gently cup her cheeks and raise her face up again:
" It's not a "no" , Princess, ok? It's definitely not a "no"...
'Well it's obviously not an "yes"
"Just...let me think about it for awhile..."
"What? You're not ready to be a father?" she mockingly retorted using his own words and slashing tonality against him.
He couldn't help but admire her cunningness and her ever so irritating causticity...She was so much like him in so many ways...
"By all Olympus you are something else! " and he had meant to make that phrase a bit longer, provided he wouldn't have heard his ditsy Sister's voice calling on the most desperate of tones throughout the aether, a tone that definitely made him curious to find out in just what mess had she gotten herself to this time...
"Would you mind if we continue this conversation later, Darling? Dite's calling, and judging by the utter despondency in her voice it should be important...?" he inquired, lightly caressing her face.
"Oh...Dite..." Xena shortly articulated, obviously on a very displeased note, the image of the two kissing passionately just inches away from her, still haunting her memories despite her best efforts to erase it from her troubled mind.
"You could come with me if you like...Maybe a change of scenery would do you good..."
"No thanks...I'd rather go and eat something...It's evening already and I haven't eaten anything all day long..." she promptly answered changing the subject...
As her next observation soon followed, the God just bit his lower lips nervously, praying to all deities that she wouldn't start digging for details...
"It's strange though...I don't feel hungry..."
"Well...you know what they say...Love can feed the...famished? And Zeus knows you received plenty of... love ...today" the very uninspiredly uttered line left the God's lips, making him break into a wave of heartful laughter as soon as he realized how obscene that must have sounded.
Consequently, only a few merry notes managed to escape his throat that, soon, a huge fluffy pillow was roughly colliding with his head, covering him in white fluffy feathers from head to toe...
A satisfied smirk on her face, a still fuming Xena finally rose from the bed, rolling her eyes while heading for the door.
"Do you have any servants around here?" she questioned on a cold note that involuntarily made the War God's relaxed body tense visibly.
"Aleena will be waiting for you in the main hall...If you need anything else just call"..
Soon the room which they had both shared for the past couple of hours was empty again, a disturbing noise of the large heavy door being slammed against it's wooden frame, and the familiar woosh of Ares' supernatural exit being the only sounds that a long, lone echo was still replaying a few moments later...