Hi guys,I want to thank you all for reviewing and reading my story so far…So here it is: my second chapter.

Chapter 2:Causing pain

Ares POV

"What do you think you are doing?!" I screamed at her as hard as I could...

On the other hand it would have been saner to ask what in Tartarus was I doing, standing there like a statue, unable to move an inch to stop her...

Hearing my words, she looked at me with the most hateful gaze she was capable of, a drilling gaze that beyond any shadow of doubt could have burnt a mortal alive...

... The liquid in the bottle was all swallowed by the sand though way before she could answer my question, and by the looks of it, she didn't appear too happy about it..

"I'm sorry Xena but I can't let you do this, I just can't." I whispered to her in an honest tone, and for once, I had spoken the truth. I was more than aware that I was unable to live without her ...maybe in broken pieces, yes, but then again that was definitely not a good way for a God to spend eternity, was it?

Fates know that when she and that irritating Blonde of hers died that day because of Caesar, my heart almost stopped at the realization that it was far too late for me to make a difference...any difference ...My whole world broke apart at the thought that I would never get to see her again...and still, there she stood...two years later... I was not planning to let her slip through my fingers...not this time, not ever again.

Somehow it seemed that we were always ending up dancing within the line of the same circle...

Without giving her a chance to utter any protest, and clearly without asking for her permission, I transported us to one of my fortresses in Macedonia.

I had always been very fond of that quiet, isolated place for two reasons...The first was due to the fact that nobody was allowed to enter or leave it unless I granted them permission to do it...and the second had everything to do with the extremely pleasant memories of us together. Ohh and what memories, those were!

I took a good look at her face the first instant she opened her eyes to gaze around, waiting for her to literally explode with rage, but, her reaction managed to surprise me... After having taken her time to depict where we were and after having seen all that was to be seen, her face suddenly change it's expression...But there were no yells, no violent outbursts...She had always been an unpredictable woman...

"Sweet memories flooding your mind?" I nonchalantly asked, watching in wonder how those beautiful irides turned cold the following second...

"Why did you bring me here, Ares?"

Always the professional…right to the point.

"Well…I somehow felt the need to turn back the hands of time for a few hours..."

"Didn't know that you were the nostalgic type...So, what does that have to do with me?"

"Our common past...History..."

"I so happen to hate profoundly our "common past "...Not one day passes by without a constant reminder of how bad you were for me, of how hard you tried to get me kill my own mother, switching bodies with my worst enemy in order to force my hand into doing what you wanted, sacrificing right about anyone just for the sake of luring me back into your fold, coming onto my best friend so that…"

"Yeah well...enough said... No excuse there...A God must do what a God must do...You aren't the easiest mortal to deal with, anyway...Never were...but I was talking about something else actually...Some considerably more pleasant memories... " I added, approaching her slowly , never breaking my gaze while I softly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

Needless, to say that the effects of my following move were a bit different from what I had imagined them to be...

"Kiss this." she groaned spitefully, her breath lingering romantically on my lips for a few more seconds before I finally felt the strong impact of her forehead, squashing my nose...It's a good thing that Gods don't bleed I guess...

"Not your favorite subject probably…Ok...we could leave it aside for now, but still, you shouldn't forget that I did save your life today...You could at least thank me...It's common sense, you know...?"

At that point I suppose I was becoming impatient...How could she fail to see that all the nasty stuff I did to her in the past had the only purpose of keeping her close to me, of giving me an excuse to still be a part of her life? It's not like she had ever left me a choice now, had she? No…as stubborn as a mule...that's how she was when it came to our relationship.

"You saved me? You've got to be kidding me...Did I ask you to do that? No, I didn't...Plus, you didn't actually save my life, we can both agree on that... What you saved is in fact the living image of your sick idea of possession...With your favorite dolly dead, you couldn't have been playing your little game any longer now could you? The world would be a boring place without me, isn't it? Well Ares, I'm sorry but I owe you nothing...you should have let me die...And I'd rather be dead than have a debt with you." Her words slashed their away towards my heart, making it bleed almost immediately.

I sometimes hated myself for what I felt for her...I was so weak in her presence, it was the most pathetic thing...

I remained quiet for a couple of minutes looking out the window and trying hard to abstain myself from loosing my temper...Violence was not the right approach when it came to her and by Olympus no one knew that better than me...

"Nice little speech...but can't say I'm convinced given the fact that you don't believe it yourself..."I retorted, staring at her with the same amount of sarcasm painted on my face...

"Oh but you're wrong...I do believe it...with all my heart."

The evry second her words reached my ears all hell broke lose inside of me...

"Damn you!"I yelled, gripping her shoulders so fast and hard that she didn't have the time to move an inch... I could feel my nails grazing her perfectly soft skin, just like her words had the nasty habit of grazing my heart, leaving a mark on it each time we got into a fight...

And then it happened again...that uncontrolable passion building inside me like raging fire...she was so close to me, so irresistibly close...her breath mixing with mine, so addictive ... it was almost imposssible for me to not kiss her there and then.

My anger proved to be overwhelming though...Fury quickly won the battle.

"Why do you keep doing this, huh? Denying us each and every chance?" I screamed at her in frustration, my eyes refusing to leave her lips, those luscious, inviting lips..."I would do everything to have you back….to have things the way they were..."

My fingers were now savagely digging into her shoulders, shaking her as if she were a rag doll...Before I knew it her face turned chalk white and her body crumbled to the floor at my feet.

I froze...