"There are paths that you can take through Hades that bring you back to where you started, did you know that?"
Xena raised a brow at her, smirking. "And how often have you visited Hades, lately?"
Gabrielle raised a brow back. "How often have you?"
Xena stared at her, then turned to pack up her sleeping roll. "Not often, I admit."
Gabrielle smoothed out her skirt, satisfied, then turned to do the same. She won more often now. Nowhere near enough that she could ever call Xena's bluff or beat her in a game of strategy, but the cool sarcasm, the biting remarks were becoming part of a language the two of them were developing rather than a measure of loss or gain.
They'd been on the road together six weeks, and already she could see that her presence provided something, fit somehow. The same faint hum along her bones, the day they met, was the same song that thrummed through her now whenever Xena challenged her and she knew not to back down. Knew Xena needed her to not back down.
She'd seen sorrow in her eyes, when she'd planned to follow Xena that first day, and Xena had threatened her, silkily. You don't want to make me mad.
She'd wanted to try, had wanted to see what would happen. Was disquieted to be absolutely certain that the result wouldn't be violence.
Her theory had already been tested several times. Every time she'd burnt dinner, every time she'd spooked Argo. Every time she'd woken Xena with a new story in the middle of the night, unable to wait until morning to talk to her.
Every time she'd braced, somewhere in the back of her heart. Every time, she'd been ready to be sent away with the soul-bruising realization that the belonging she'd sought was false treasure, a fool's quest. A stupid notion, to think she could be a friend to the Warrior Princess of legend.
Every time, annoyance or laughter or curiosity had flashed across Xena's face, before she'd helped to scrape the black char out of the pot or patiently calmed Argo, or blearily glared at her, before propping herself up one elbow to hear soft words rise up into the night alongside the smoke from the campfire.
"You aren't who I thought you would be." She said it bluntly, hiding her face behind her hair as she packed up.
"Who did you think I would be?" Xena sounded amused, but she could sense the tension under the words. Enough to make her glance up to see the warrior mask waiting to be donned, honed to a bleeding edge as any armour.
I'm not the only one waiting for rejection. She flicked back her hair, smiled sunnily in Xena's direction. "Well, you're a lot shorter, for one thin- hey!"
A bed roll caught her full in the face, knocking her over. Followed by a hand, helping her off the ground. "Keep it up, funny girl."
She smiled into curious, hesitant eyes. Took the offered hand. "I will."
Author's Note: I just started watching Season One again, and wanted to write A Thing.