Title: Q and A
Characters: Callisto, Gabrielle
Prompt: # 089. She
Word Count: 599
Rating: PG-13ish(?)
Disclaimer: Xena: Warrior Princess and all associated characters are property of Renaissance Pictures. I'm just playing with them.
Author's Notes: Suggestion of f/f pairings, so if that bugs you, don't read.

"You know what? I think it's past time that you and I had a little talk."

The pain of the fist pulling at her hair, wrenching her head to the side, provided a counterpoint to the cool metal edge pressed against the flesh of her throat, not so hard as to break the skin, but just barely.

"Here's a better idea, let's not."

The pressure increased infinitesimally, still not drawing blood, as the other woman yanked her head further down. "Hush, hush, I didn't say you could talk yet."

"As I was about to say," she continued. "It occurred to me the other day just how alike you and I are."

"You and I are nothing alike!" That earned her a sharp rap on the temple with the pommel nut.

Instead of returning the dagger to her throat, she started tracing idle patterns along her neck with the point. "Oh but we are, you see two simple village girls, content to live out a simple pointless existence, happy in our ignorance of the greater world. Until Xena comes into our lives and changes everything."

Between the pounding in her head, the strain in her joints from holding this unnatural position and that dagger lazily making its way up and down her neck it was hard to formulate a coherent thought. "Not true," she managed. "I hated it there."

"Yes, it's a terrible curse, living with your kind loving family. I don't know how you ever survived."

"They were the only reason I stayed as long as I did. Home was too small, too…not me." Why was she telling her this? "I wanted, needed something different. Something other than just becoming someone's wife and dying in the same house I was born in."

"You could have has that with the Amazons," she pointed out, twisting her fist so it tugged at her hair. "After your foolhardy trick with arrow they would have welcomed you, you could have had, power, status, anything they could give you. If you'd only stayed. But you didn't. Why I wonder?"

"Because…" Did she have to keep doing that with the dagger? She couldn't think. "Because…"

"Because they weren't Xena," she supplied. "Because being an Amazon would have meant giving up on Xena, and I don't think you're anymore willing to do that than I am. Only difference is why."

"Have we covered the part where you're insane yet?"

An amused chuckle. "Maybe I am. But the thing is I know what I want. I want Xena, broken, bloody and at my feet, begging for release, for death. But you, how do you want her?" Her breath was warm on her skin, as she whispered in her ear. "A proud smiling teacher, a confidant, a sister in arms. Perhaps something different, something more. Perhaps you want her in your bedroll, between your thighs. Or maybe, just maybe, you want her moaning, fingers tangled in your hair, begging you for release." Suddenly, briefly, the dagger point was replaced by the tip of a warm, wet tongue darting along her neck. "My question, Callisto, the only question, is whether you follow Xena is because you want to be her, or because you want her?"

She didn't know what surprised her more, the tongue, the question, or the sudden rough hand in the middle of her back, shoving her to the ground. She looked up and brown eyes met green. "I-"

"Hush," Fingers stilled her lips and an incongruously gentle kiss was pressed to her forehead. "Don't answer yet, we'll talk again soon enough."

And then she was gone.