Xena and the gang had a very eventful week converting the temple into a residence. It was decided that Xena would stay in the head priest's quarters while Gabrielle stayed in the acolyte's room which was also to be used as Amyntas' nursery. Early in the week, Xena had sent Mikal to let Greba know that she would be picking the infant up by the end of the week. Xena moved a third cot into the girls' room when Cyrena recovered enough to the leave the hospice. Estor, the baker, took Dalin in, he had plenty of space at his place and could use the extra pair of hands. Gabrielle earmarked one of the bedrooms as a classroom which left an extra bedroom for storage. The throne room was converted into the communal living space and dining area.
Xena hoped they would be able to convince people to come settle the city-state now that the threat of plague was gone. Gabrielle promised that she would do her best to get some folks from Potidea to come back with her. She had planned to go check on Lila as soon as Xena returned with the baby.
Although Xena had dreamed of Ares nearly every evening, being in his temple was definitely having a powerful effect on her, he had not dared to show his face again. She had avoided the secret room at all costs. She stood staring at the throne which sat atop the room's entrance when Gabrielle came in carrying a basket of eggs.
"Karina gave us a few eggs in exchange for some of that wood you chopped yesterday," she noticed Xena's eyes were focused on Ares' throne, "everything okay, he hasn't been bothering you has he?"
"What?" Xena hadn't realized that she had been staring at the throne."Oh! Him? No, no, it's not, not that, just thinking that's all." How could she tell Gabrielle that of course he had been "bothering" her but not at all in the way that the bard was implying? He had stayed away like a good god but his presence throughout the temple was reeking havoc on her emotions.
"Do you wanna get rid of it?" Gabrielle gestured toward the throne, "it's pretty ostentatious and it has to remind you of. . ."
"No," Xena blurted out a little too quickly. There was no way to get rid of the throne without revealing the door beneath it. Unfortunately, that very visible reminder of the temple's former resident would have to stay in place, even if looking at it all day drove Xena batshit crazy.
"We could always have it reupholstered," Gabrielle suggested.
"It's fine the way it is, cost a fortune anyway and it matches the couch."
"Oh, I see, you gave him that throne, huh?"
"I did," Xena answered honestly. Gabrielle didn't like the longing she heard in her friend's voice. "It was a long time ago. I was trying to prove myself to him. I was trying to outdo another of his favorite warlords. Little did I know all I really had to do to get his attention was to walk away from him."
"Oh, I'm sure you had plenty of attention from him before you left, you're a beautiful woman, Xena."
"Yeah, but it was mostly just war, conquest, and sex."
"And you miss what? The sex?"
Xena faced her friend, she knew this would be hard for Gabrielle to hear, "Maybe all of it. Don't you see that's the problem. He thinks things could be different between us now. I am not sure they could."
"And if they could?" Gabrielle wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer but she felt compelled to ask.
"I don't know. Look, I don't want to talk about this. I'm gonna go fishing."
"Fishing, yes, fishing will fix everything," Gabrielle shrugged her shoulders as Xena walked away.
Xena returned two hours later with a basket full of fish. She and Iason were cleaning the mess of them when they saw Malkus riding into town. He carried Amyntas in a sling at the front of his torso. Nan followed behind Malkus' roan mare.
"Hello," he called out,"thought I'd save you the trip and see if you all needed any help with the remodel. I'm handy with a hammer and a nail."
"Go get Gabrielle, Iason," Xena wiped her hands on a rag and stood to greet Malkus. "Greba didn't come with you?" Xena was having a hard time believing that the desperate housewife let her handsome husband out of her sight for one minute.
"It's hard enough to travel with one babe, two would be out of the question."
Gabrielle came running out of the temple. Iason and Daria followed. She smiled at Malkus and reached up to take the baby, "Good to see you Malkus. You didn't have to bring him."
"As I was telling Xena, I thought I could be of some use."
"Hi Amyntas," Iason cooed to his little brother, "you want me to take him and show him his new room?" he asked Gabrielle.
"You know I think that's a great idea, why don't we go together?" They headed into the temple.
Xena turned her attention back to cleaning the fish. Malkus dismounted and grabbed a bag from his horse's back. "I brought you some vegetables, I didn't know how bad things were over here, other than what Mikal told me." He sat the sack on the ground near Xena's boots.
"Thank you, you've saved me a trip and this town can use all the fresh food it can get. Luckily, they have some stores put up. But no one really got a garden out this year because of the plague. This'll really help."
"Good, now what can I do?"
"I think we have almost everything done with the temple. Marta could probably use some help down at the shrine to Artemis, Daria can show you the way, Kallias is already there and you can meet the other children."
Daria took Malkus' hand, "Don't worry, Xena, I'll take care of it," she said with pride and confidence.
"I'll send someone when dinner is ready," Xena called after the them.
Xena finished with the fish and took them into Gabrielle so she could work her culinary magic on them.
"Can you take them to the kitchen? My hands are kind of full," Gabrielle said as she saw Xena come in with the bowl of trout. She was trying to get the baby to drink from the bottle that she had improvised. He wasn't taking to it and was getting fussy.
"Sure, then I'm gonna go down to the river for a bath."
"Yeah, you need one, you smell like fish guts."
"Yah, yah, yah," Xena mock laughed at her friend. "Can you send Iason over to get the others when dinner is ready."
"Sure, but it may be a bit," she answered and Amyntas wailed out as if on cue.
"Take your time, I need a good soak anyway," Xena replied, and time to clear my head, she thought but left that part unspoken. She had thought that fishing would have helped take her mind off of Ares but it didn't. She just kept thinking about what a colossal bitch she had been to him. He had been trying to help and she had pushed him away. Malkus had offered his help and she hadn't run him out of town. No, she graciously accepted whatever help he could offer. She worked so hard to fight for a better world and she believed with every ounce of her being that people could change. She, afterall, was living proof. So, why did she have such a hard time accepting that Ares could change? I mean, hadn't she seen him do things that she would have sworn him incapable of? Xena left the fish on the kitchen work table, ran into her bedroom, grabbed a drying cloth and some soap, and headed back to the river.
The afternoon sun danced across the running water making the surface sparkle. Xena stripped down and jumped in. It was still spring and the water had a bit of a cold bite to it but swimming upstream quickly warmed her body. She swam for a few minutes and then let herself float back downstream. When she reached the place she had originally entered she walked back to the bank and grabbed the hunk of soap. She waded back in until she was chest deep in the river. She dunked her head into the water getting it thoroughly wet and then resurfaceed. As she lathered the soap in her hands, she brought it up to her nose and was pleased and the soft lavender fragrance.
Suddenly a live current ran through her body. She eyed the bank trying to locate the god she knew was lurking nearby. Not finding him there, she looked across to the other bank. The tingles along her skin told her he was closer than the bank.
"Enjoying the show?" she realized that he was standing directly behind her but she didn't give him the satisfaction of turning to face him.
"Immensely," he answered without a trace of shame. "Here let me help you with that," he said and reached around her body to take the soap out of her hands. She could feel his hot breath against her neck when he spoke. His strong bare chest pressed firmly against her back. She knew she should protest but she didn't want to. Occasionally, she allowed herself the guilty pleasure of such stolen moments and she decided this time she would indulge a little.
Ares lathered the soap and worked it through her dark tresses. Handing her back the soap, he massaged her scalp gently starting at her temples and working his way to the base of her skull.
"You are so delectable, Xena. Do you know how I ache for you?"
"It's fairly evident right now," she purred and swiveled her hips so that her ass brushed along his hardening cock.
"It's not nice to tease me, Xena," he warned, "give me back the soap."
She handed him the bar and he ran it along her neck and shoulders. She moaned in delight.
"You're so tense, Xena, what in Tartarus has got you all worked up?"
"Been working a lot lately, getting the temple in order."
"Ah, yes, my temple that you ran me out of it, Seems I remember something about that," she could tell he was still hurt by her rejection but he was trying to play it off.
He ran the soap under the water and down her back. When she leaned back into him, he took it as a sign that he had permission to wash the front. He brought the soap up to her breasts and began to give them the same treatment that he had used on her back, rubbing the soap in gentle circles.
She sucked in a deep breath at the sheer pleasure of him caressing her with the soap. Subconsciously, her legs parted. He turned her to the side and dipped her head and upper body back into the water to rinse the soap from her hair. He held her with one strong arm as he worked the soap out with the other. When he was satisfied that her hair was free of soap residue, he stood her back up but facing him. He handed her the soap, indicating that she should clean him.
If only she could clean him. Was that what he was suggesting? Here she had been reveling in the sexual delight of him touching her but he had only been washing her. If anything, she'd been the one to act brazenly, grinding herself on him. She was beginning to think that he wasn't the problem but that she was.
She took the soap. She would give it an effort. If he could muster enough control to bathe her then surely she could do the same.
"Wet your hair," she ordered.
There was no cocksure smile on his face,no sinister sneer of victory. When he emerged from the water all she saw was serenity. She worked the foamy soap into his hair. He had worn his jet hair short the last few years but recently he was letting the curls grow out in the back. She had always loved his long hair. It added to his bad boy demeanor which drove her mad with passion. Surprisingly, however, the short hair left her just as breathless. When she had finished the lather, she instructed him to rinse it out. He complied and she set to work massaging the soap along his square shoulders and down the contours of his magnificent chest. The hairs of his chest helped create a rich lather.
"Ahh," he moaned as she worked the soap across one of his nipples. He tensed and she felt his cock jump against her thigh. She didn't know how he was restraining himself because she was about to lose it. But when she looked up at him he looked back at her as if she were an angel sent to cleanse his soul. Could things be clean between them or would there always be shame? Worse, she wondered, if it were the shameful things that aroused her? It couldn't be only that, she told herself, because she was just as turned on by him in that moment as she had ever been on the battlefield or during a post-battle tryst.
She dropped the soap and snaked one hand around his neck bringing the other up to caress the beard that ran along his jawline. "I'm sorry," she said and she pulled his mouth down to hers for a tender kiss.
When she broke the kiss, she had tears in her eyes which pissed her off. She didn't want to cry in front of him.
"Thank you," he hooked his finger and ran his knuckle along her cheek.
"Ares, look, I don't know how to deal with this, with you . . . with us, but I do know that I shouldn't have discarded your offer to help the other day."
"It's okay, Xena, I understand, I haven't always made it easy for you. ."
"No, but I haven't always given credit where credit is due, either. Let me make it up to you," she offered.
"You just did."
"No. I mean, look if you're interested, why don't you have dinner with us tonight?"
"Dinner with you? At the temple? With Gabrielle?"
"Yes, please, the kids keep asking about you anyway. I know the food won't be up to your Olympian standards. . ."
"Maybe not, but the company will be better," he retorted.
Xena smiled and shook her head. "Don't tell Aphrodite that you'd rather eat grub with a bunch of mortals than have her feed you ambrosia and nectar."
"Our secret," he pressed a finger to his lips and winked at her.
"One of many," she winked back, "now let's head back to our temple."
Our temple, had he heard her right? He certainly liked the sound of it.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Xena realized the implications of what she had said but the words were out there and she couldn't deny the truth in them. In many ways, the Amphipolis temple would always be their temple, just in a different way now.
She was tempted to walk hand and hand with him back into town but resisted the urge. Baby steps, she told herself, baby steps.