Bigger Problems (I Touch Myself)

*****

I Touch Myself
By The Divinyls (off the soundtrack to Austin Powers)

I love myself, I want you to love me
When I fall down, I want you above me
I search myself, I want you to find me
I forget myself, I want you to remind me.

Chorus:
I donÕt want anybody else
When I think about you I touch myself
OhÉ
I donÕt want anybody else
Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!

YouÕre the one who makes me come running
YouÕre the sun who makes me shine
When youÕre around, IÕm always laughing
I want to make you mine

I close my eyes and see you before me
Think I would die if you were to ignore me
Any fool could see just how much I adore you
I get down on my knees, IÕd do anything for you.

Chorus

I love myself I want you to love me
When I fall down, I want you above me
I search myself, I want you to find me
I forget myself, I want you to remind me

Chorus

Spoken:
I want you. I donÕt want anybody else.
And when I think about you, I touch myself!
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

Chorus

*****

As she watched Xena and Gabrielle walk along the beach, Aphrodite had to admit that she didn't understand the blonde. Never had. Probably never would. So, there they are, facing down two very fine hunks who are more than well-equipped, and the Gabster not only doesn't give in to the moment, she looks downright put off at the idea. What was up with that chick??

"C'mon," she'd asked, as they'd cut out with the oil, "are you really gonna tell me those two guys didn't do anything for you??"

"Yep," the bard had answered, her face all tense.

Aphrodite just didn't get it. "You are wacko."

"Well, maybe I just happen to feel that some things are more important than sex."

More important?? The goddess was taken aback. "Sweetie, you don't know what you're saying! Sex is like... the big yes to everything!" Gabrielle had heaved a huge sigh and rolled her eyes. Aphrodite didn't bother to pretend she understood this. "Don't you ever just... you know... want to go into a town and jump the first guy you see? You can tell Aunt 'Dite..."

"No," Gabrielle had said, exasperatedly.

Raising an eyebrow, Aphrodite suggested, "Woman, then? That's cool... There's a lot to be said for-"

"NO." The blonde warrior had turned to face Aphrodite, then, and said, "I just don't think about it. Neither Xena nor I have the time, or the interest, to spend on sex. Okay? Some of us don't think the world revolves around it. OKAY??" In a huff, she'd turned and continued on her way.

Now Aphrodite finally understood why Blondie was always so uptight. Sheesh, only Hestia had a bigger stick up her butt! ...Well, figuratively speaking. Looked like the last time Gabrielle had really enjoyed herself was her wedding night, and how many years ago was that? And since then, she'd taken some kind of mental vow of celibacy. Tres uncool. Not only was she punishing herself, but her resultant 'tude was making everyone else's life miserable. No wonder Studmuffin hadn't gotten anywhere in the past couple of years.

She took a good, long look at the warrior bard as she walked. Both she and Xena were like a matched pair of statues, walking along staring straight into the horizon with identical stone faces. Ick. It was a sight enough to scare any man. After Blondie, Xena would have to be Aphrodite's next project. But for the meantime....

She considered Gabrielle. You could tell from the way she fought that she had all this energy and passion- so why was she keeping it all locked up inside? Maybe she should just go the easiest way and zap both the babes at once... Nah. Somehow she liked the idea of Miss Don't-Need-A-Man just aching for a nice big... Joxer. Giggling at the thought, she wiggled her fingers and made a few sparklies. "I am so cool," she sighed, and disappeared.

Gabrielle blinked, and looked about herself uncertainly. Something felt... different. She looked up at Xena, who looked back at her curiously. "Did we just... walk through a pocket of hot air, or something?"

"I didn't feel anything," Xena said dismissively. "Are you okay?"

Nodding, Gabrielle answered, "Yeah- I'm fine. Just felt light-headed for a second there. Nothing important." She smiled at her friend, and they resumed walking. And if Xena noticed that Gabrielle's walk was slightly looser, that she was swaying her hips a bit more as she walked, she didn't say anything.

*****

As they made camp that night, Joxer found them, and seemed well-relieved to hear that he'd missed another fiasco with Aphrodite. Gabrielle understood his nervousness when it came to the Love Goddess, after all she normally put him through; he seemed to be something akin to her whipping boy. However, for some reason, tonight she was feeling especially fed up with Joxer. Everything he said, she found a way to disagree with. Xena, too, bore the brunt of her sniping, and Gabrielle wouldn't even let her friends get away with shared "Who tied her panties in a knot?" looks without snapping their heads off.

Speaking of panties, Gabrielle's were chafing. That was the worst part. She couldn't find a comfortable way to sit, and her panties seemed unspeakably tight. She was tempted to wander out of the clearing and strip them off, but didn't have the nerve while Joxer was with them. She was having hot flashes, too. It really pissed her off, because although she tried to pretend innocence about these symptoms, she knew what they signified. Didn't mean anything though. She'd suppressed it this long, she'd keep suppressing it. The world did not revolve around sex, Aphrodite's opinions not-withstanding.

She crossed her legs and adjusted her skirt, taking great pains to smooth it just so. As she did, Xena started a conversation with Joxer. Her pregnancy had her acting quite out of character sometimes, and she was expressing all sorts of maternal instincts in various ways; starting conversations with Joxer (and Gabrielle, when the bard was in a better state of mind), doing the laundry for all three of them, and- strangest of all- she'd taken to sweeping the clearings they camped in. Sweeping. Gabrielle had questioned it once, and Xena had quite snappishly answered that she couldn't settle in a cluttered space. Neither Gabrielle nor Joxer ever brought the subject up again.

"So, what did you do while you were away, Joxer?" Xena asked. Joxer was, by unspoken agreement between the three of them, going to be there when Xena gave birth. They'd been together almost constantly since the Warrior Princess had found out about her condition; of course, he couldn't stay with them all the time, so he occasionally wandered off for a few days. Still, most of the time he was with them, and the arrangement was a fairly comfortable one. Xena especially seemed quite pleased with it, even if Gabrielle found it inconvenient at times, and found dealing with Joxer on a daily basis to be more than taxing.

"Well," Joxer answered, "not much... Y'know, righted some wrongs, sang some-" He stopped, grinning, as Xena tossed an apple at him. "Okay, okay, fine. Well, I figured we could use some money so I took a job at this tavern, washing dishes. I coulda done better but it was a small town."

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. Always bragging. She took out her sais and practiced spinning them, restlessly, as her friends kept talking.

"How was that? Meet any interesting people?"

Joxer shook his head. "I was in the back mostly. You wouldn't believe how dirty this place let their plates get." He made a face. "I was the best thing to come along there, lemme tell ya. Once I got started, nothing would tear me away from doing my job and doing it right."

"You sure are dedicated." Xena's voice held a note of bemused sarcasm, which Joxer took no notice of.

"Well, that's why they pay me the big money. I'd go in there each night- and did I mention how hot it was in there, with all the people packed together, and the fires on the stoves, and all the water making steam? I was sweating so much I looked greased up!"

Gabrielle caught a sai and held it in a firm grip, her face going flushed. She snuck a look at him. The idiot. 'Sex is the big yes to everything,' she heard Aphrodite say, and scowled.

"Anyway, so I'm in there sweating my butt off, and I'd spend each night just plunging my hands into that hot wet pit-"

"Who cares about your stupid job, Joxer! I've heard more interesting stories in a Hestian temple!"

Xena and Joxer both turned and stared at her. She stared back, biting her lip, and crossed her legs in the opposite direction.

"Gabrielle..." Xena began hesitantly, "do you need some time alone?"

The bard's shoulders slumped. "No. I'm okay. I'm sorry, Joxer, I'm a little tense lately..."

"Yeah, I noticed," Joxer snorted. Gabrielle glared at him, and he swallowed nervously. She looked downright dangerous.

She stood up. "Maybe I should go work out or something." She paced in a circle. "But I don't really want to. It's late, isn't it? That would be silly, working out now, I'd never get to sleep then." She sat down again, then stood up a moment later. "But I've really got to do something, I'm not going to sleep anyway, so..." She walked over to the horses. "I'm going to get the punching gourd out of Argo's saddlebag, Xena, it is in the saddlebag isn't it? Or did we lose that when we were in Rome? I know we haven't used it since then..."

Behind her back, Joxer gave Xena a wide-eyed questioning look, to which Xena could only shrug. A few moments later, Gabrielle came back and flopped to the ground in frustration. "We don't have it anymore. Figures."

Xena stood, with noticeably more effort than it normally took her. "How about a back rub, Gabrielle? You look like you could use it."

Gabrielle had to smile. "Thanks. That would be great." She shut her eyes as Xena began to knead her shoulders, trying to lose herself in it, but instead of helping to calm her nerves the feeling of hands running over her skin only heightened her problem. She opened her eyes and found herself staring directly at Joxer; he smiled, and she noticed for the first time that his eyes were brown. Not that that was a surprise, because they were a quite common shade of brown, but it was really just the fact that she realized she'd never actually looked at his eyes before. She frowned, tilting her head as Xena worked at the knot in her neck, and her gaze shifted to his lips. Hmm. She looked contemplatively at them for a few spare moments before realizing she was staring, and Joxer was blushing. Damn.

So she dropped her gaze, and it made it to the ground and settled on his hands. Long fingers. Hmm.

"You're really tense, Gabrielle," Xena said from behind her, moving her hands down the blonde's side. It felt like wildfire, and Gabrielle realized a moment later she was staring at Joxer's crotch.

And Joxer knew it, too, from the look on his face.

She turned her head, angrily, and out of the corner of her eye she saw him draw his knees up quickly. "Xena, your hands must be getting tired," Gabrielle said, somewhat breathlessly, and moved away from her friend. "Maybe Joxer should finish."

Oh, Gods! Why did I say THAT?! she thought, as Xena looked at her in surprise, and Joxer made a strangled noise behind her.

Xena shrugged. "Okay. My back hurts anyway." She returned to her seat on the log, and Joxer took Xena's place.

He hesitated before putting his hands on Gabrielle's back, and she could feel them radiating heat just above her shoulders. Her heartbeat quickened and she snapped, "You can touch me, Joxer, I'm not made of smoke."

"Sorry," he mumbled, and set to work. Now, Xena knew pressure points and had a great knowledge of the human body, and her hands were very strong, and all that combined made for a very sensual massage. However, Joxer... was better. Gabrielle had to strain not to moan aloud. She let her head roll on her neck, and felt each touch of his hands all throughout her body.

"That's... good, Joxer," she told him, mumbling, and very seriously considered asking him to massage down her front as well.

Shaking her head, she straightened, biting her lip and slamming her legs together in front of her. Xena watched them idly, tracing patterns in the dirt next to the fire. Gabrielle watched her, and considered requesting Xena's help with this little problem she was having. It could work. They were close enough to try things without necessarily making their situation overtly awkward, right? And besides, without experimentation, who knew what you did and didn't like? Had Xena been with women before? Probably- she'd experienced a lot in her life, maybe she could share even more intimacies. Better Xena than Joxer, right?

Except that Gabrielle ached for penetration, ideally- for some reason- by the man behind her, squeezing her flesh with damn near sexual intensity. "Wow, you've got a big knot right here," he said, and pressed his thumbs against the small of her back. She groaned aloud, her eyes drifting shut, and stretched every muscle in her body.

"Was that bad??" Joxer asked, some alarm in his voice, and she opened her eyes in alarm to find both Joxer and Xena staring at her in concern.

Embarrassed, Gabrielle leapt to her feet. "Yes," she said hastily. "Look, I'm just..." Unbidden, she remembered his cheerful comment: 'That's the first time I've ever had three feet in my pants!' She turned away from him and sped out of the camp. "I'm going on a walk, I'll be back later, don't come after me!"

*****

A sufficient way from the camp, she knelt and peeled her undergarments off. This was too much; it was just plain maddening. So much for forgetting it. Figured, that after she'd made such a self-assured comment to Aphrodite, she got hit with something like this! On her knees, she slid her hand between her legs. Wet already; no surprise. She felt like she was going to explode. Oh, the way Joxer's hands had felt on her back! This would probably only take a few moments, from her current level of arousal.

She teased herself a few moments, sliding her finger over her clit, then around the rest of her womanhood... A few more moments at her clit and then she plunged two fingers into her entrance, her legs shaking beneath her. After a few thrusts she added a third finger, bucking her hips, slow at first and then with increasing speed. Her body temperature was very definitely rising, her heart was beating at a frantic pace, and she was nearly there... but- not- quite....

Gritting her teeth in frustration, she added her other hand, working both her entrance and clit at the same time, losing track of which digits were doing what as they got lost in her slickness. She drew a deep, ragged breath, and plunged onward, doubling her pace. Still nothing. She had to slow for a moment to catch her breath and let her body rest, then threw herself back into it with all the fervor her young body had. Near tears with frustration, she buried her hands in her weeping sex and sank backwards, lying on her back and exposing herself to the stars. From this position she rocked, curling her fingers, thrusting at different speeds, lifting her hips in an aggression of sexual need, and again and again felt she was so near she could taste the orgasm- but it was denied her.

If only her blood hadn't been rushing in her ears the way it was, she would certainly have heard him approaching, but as it was she saw Joxer only when he nearly stumbled over her. Neither had the presence of mind to do anything but freeze in the positions they currently occupied.

"What- are you doing here...?" she asked weakly, staring up at where he stood, just above her head. Having thus broken the silence, she remembered to flip her skirt down and slam her legs shut. Nothing she could do about the wetness on her hands, though.

"I... Xena... sent me..." he said, hoarsely, and just kept staring down at her. From her vantage point, she had a clear view of the quickly growing bulge in his trousers.

She narrowed her eyes. "Go. Away."

He finally remembered to avert his eyes, turning his head and putting up a hand to shield her from his view. "I'm sorry! I won't tell anyone! I promise! We can pretend it never happened, in fact, pretend what never happened? I never saw anything! I wasn't even here!"

"GO AWAY!!!" she screamed, and he, still not looking at her, gave her a 'thumbs-up' signal and backed up a few steps before eventually turning and walking at a fast clip back to the campsite.

Gabrielle couldn't decide if she was mortally embarrassed, or frighteningly aroused.

*****

Xena looked up at the sound of Joxer crashing his way back to the campsite. Before she could ask him anything, he breezed by her, and kept going right out the opposite way. His expression was unreadable, but certainly strained.

A few moments later, Gabrielle stormed in, her hands clenched in fists. She was practically radiating anger, frustration, and... something else.

"You were... meditating, I take it?" Xena asked.

Gabrielle swung and looked at her intently. "Yes," she said after a pause. "Yes, I was meditating."

Raising an eyebrow, Xena said, "And Joxer interrupted you?"

The blonde woman scowled. "Yep."

"So you didn't finish, then." Xena's mouth curved into a smirk as Gabrielle growled, kicked some dirt, and pulled one of her sais out of her boots. She then stuck it firmly in a tree and stalked off in the same direction Joxer had gone.

Xena sighed. That girl really needed to get laid.

*****

She stopped when the campsite was well behind her, and looked about. No sign of Joxer. Not, of course, that she was chasing him; that would be absurd. She grimaced, and looked around in the dim light.

"He went thataway," said a female voice, and Gabrielle turned to see Aphrodite leaning against a tree casually. She was bathed in moonlight, probably through godly interference but the effect looked natural enough to be impressive.

Gabrielle didn't give a horse's ass. "I'm not going after him."

"Oh, sure, sweetcheeks. What-ever. But you probably oughta." In the moonlight, the Love Goddess's wink was very clear. "Otherwise, this will just get worse before it gets any better..."

"What?" Gabrielle knew she wasn't thinking very clearly, especially since for the first time ever she was finding herself distracted by Aphrodite's minimalist approach to clothing, but that hadn't sounded like a random guess on the Goddess's part. "What did you do?!"

With a giggle, Aphrodite bounded towards the blonde warrior. "Oh, chill out! You'll thank me for it in the long run." When Gabrielle growled and took a step towards her angrily, Aphrodite shrugged. "Okay, okay. You remember that talk we had earlier today?"

"Yeeeeahhh..."

"Well it occured to me that the entire reason you're always so totally tense is 'cause you aren't getting any! And you, Miss 'Tude, just weren't gonna do anything on your own- or am I wrong?"

Slowly, Gabrielle answered, "It wasn't in the plan..."

"Exactly. What kind of life is that? So I took steps to sort of speed things along. Trust me, babe, you'll feel so much better afterwards."

Gabrielle took all this in, and turned an intense glare on Aphrodite. "So you're saying that you think it's unnatural that I don't crave sex on a regular basis, so you put a spell on me to make me..."

"Horny. Hot to trot. Hungry for love. You got it, sweetie." Aphrodite grinned smugly, and crossed her arms.

"Never mind the fact," Gabrielle continued incredulously, "that I prefer having control over my own desires, and that I was quite happy not thinking about sex?"

The Goddess shook her head, her blonde curls fluttering and bouncing about her face. "That's just not natural. Everyone needs a healthy appreciation of lust. I wouldn't even exist otherwise!"

"And that would be bad because...?"

Ignoring her, Aphrodite continued, "And you, poor kid, you've barely even lived. I bet you don't even know what it feels like to have your sweat licked off your body, or to have sweet cream sucked out of your navel-"

Gabrielle frowned and covered her ears, breathing hard. "Stop-"

"Oh, honestly. You are so in need of one good hard fuck it's just not even funny." She smiled disarmingly. "Or more than one. But one's all it'll take to break the spell. 'Til then- 'til you find yourself a willing man, mind you- nothing else will get you off."

Panting, Gabrielle said weakly, "I'm not going to sleep with Joxer."

Aphrodite shrugged again. "Your call. I guess you could always run on into the next town and snag the first guy you see... Of course that's about two hours, and I think you'd be lucky to find a guy who has all his teeth, let alone one who's bathed in the past week." Seeing Gabrielle's look of despair, she laughed. "Oh, come on, it's not all that bad! You've got a man who's crazy about you, your willing sex slave, right over there... I mean, if you want a challenge, you can go someplace else, but take it from me- you'd be missing something."

"How would you know...?"

"Oh, honey, please! I'm the Goddess of Love- you think I don't know who my best pieces of work are?" She chuckled, and winked at Gabrielle again. "Enjoy yourself, Blondie. I'll be waiting for your thanks when you're done." With that, she left in a burst of sparkles.

Gabrielle was seeing red. The sheer arrogance of that Goddess... The first thing she'd do, once she'd taken care of her current problem, was... was... something. Something bad, to Aphrodite. She'd think about it later. For the moment, she set a purposeful walk in the vague direction the Goddess had indicated Joxer was in.

On his own, Joxer paced nervously and tried to remind himself that he hadn't seen anything when he'd not been where Gabrielle was. It was really quite hard- difficult to remember that for some reason. Not like she'd know if he didn't keep his promise, as long as he didn't tell anyone else, but he still somehow had the feeling she'd kill him if he didn't give the impression that absolutely nothing had happened in the least. And the only way he could do that was to not remember what he hadn't seen when he was not there.

A rustling behind him made him turn, and he jumped a mile when Gabrielle walked up to him with a quick, intense purpose radiating from every pore. "Ga-Gabby! Hey! Haven't, uh, seen you in a while..." he tried, backing away from her as she approached, the scowl never leaving her beautiful face.

She walked right up to him and stared unflinchingly into his face, then rolled her eyes. "It'll do," she muttered, and before he could ask what she was talking about, she started tugging at the ties on his pants.

"Ga-GABRIELLE! What are you-"

"Down," she ordered, and shoved at his shoulder. Unbalanced as he was, he fell promptly, and she immediately straddled his hips and continued to pull at the ties of his trousers, picking at a knot she didn't seem to be able to remove.

"Uh-"

She grumbled, "How do you get out of these, Joxer? Do you ever take them off?!"

"Uh-"

"Oh, never mind. I'll just work on your tunic first..." She slid a hand underneath the fabric of his shirt, and smiled. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all, smoothie... Can I rip this?"

"Uh-"

Finally, she stopped, and rolled her eyes. "What, Joxer? Spit it out."

He swallowed. "Uh- Can I ask, uh, what's going on?"

Deadpanning, she said, "You're getting lucky."

I knew THAT, he thought, but licked his lips and continued to look puzzled.

She sighed, and elaborated, wriggling her still-nude hips against him in such an overwhelmingly sensuous manner that he very nearly didn't hear her answer. "Aphrodite. Put some kind of whammy on me. Ooooooh that feels good, do that again."

He obliged, bucking his hips against her, before realizing that "Aphrodite" and "whammy" was one of those situations he had entirely hoped to avoid. "Wha- No, no wait Gabrielle- this isn't right." She let out a breath in frustration and rolled her eyes again, then turned her attention back to his pants. "No, I mean it. I mean- you know how I feel- but I don't want it like this, not with a spell-"

Now she saw, the knot just needed a little prying. She set about loosening it, and said, "Joxer, just because I'm horny doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing." The knot gave a little, and she licked her upper lip.

"Uh but- but- maybe- you should find someone- else? 'Cause I don't want things to get, y'know, weird-"

She silenced him by putting a finger to his lips, as the knot loosened enough for her to slide her finger through the loop and undo the tie completely. "Listen. I want you. I don't want anybody else. And when I think about you..." She trailed off, searching his face for something. She didn't know what. What she saw was complete devotion, and trust; he was completely under her power, all protests aside.

He kissed her finger.

She grabbed his head and pulled him into a devouring kiss, her desire completely overwhelming her now, wanting only to feel and taste as much of him as she could before this Gods-given moment was over. He took her embrace and returned it, diving his hands into her hair, plunging his tongue into her mouth even as she stripped off his pants and took his silken member into her hand, gripping it tightly. He broke the kiss to cry out in passion, and she wasted no time, guiding him into her entrance and establishing a desperate rhythm.

Joxer breathed in gasps, as Gabrielle slammed her body against and around his- he'd have loved to go more slowly, but evidently she hadn't been kidding when she said she needed this. Somewhere inside he'd sort of resigned himself to being her sex toy at the moment, probably a nameless, faceless piece of flesh, so he was happily surprised when she cried out his name and caught his mouth in another hot kiss.

In a situation like this, he'd always wanted to keep going and be the one to inspire hours of pleasure for his love. However, realistically speaking, he had a feeling a pace like this would probably only last for a few minutes- if that. She showed no signs of wanting to slow, though, so he held nothing back, just gripped her hips and went for broke, and she gasped and watched him and praised him and called him by his name and everything, so he was fully surprised when she came before him.

Gabrielle wasn't surprised, however. She'd been working towards it since she'd straddled his still-clothed groin, and although Joxer's cries of passion had certainly been pleasant distractions, her orgasm was the single-most goal in her mind. Not that this wasn't great. Not that she would have, in any way, preferred to do this by herself now that she was getting this. Because this was mind-numbingly great. Whether it was Aphrodite's spell, or the slightly "naughty" nature of doing this with Joxer, or just the fact that Joxer really was, after all, a really really great lay- who knew? Point being that it was a hell of an orgasm, and Joxer was going to have to put some salve on those scratches she was leaving on his shoulders, but from the grin on his face as he watched her he didn't care at all, so neither did she just now.

"Oh, man, that's hot," Joxer muttered, staring at Gabrielle as she came down again, panting and sweating and grinning like a fool- and bouncing, gee, that top really did leave nothing to the imagination... He let his head fall back as he came, and felt her hands over his face, heard her murmuring, "Oh, Joxer..." The pace slackened and he fell back to the ground, while she still sat atop him as they both caught their breaths.

He pushed his hair back from his brow and watched her until she opened her eyes, a glazed dopiness having taken hold there, and she watched him lazily for a second before grinning. "Thanks," she said, then patted him on the chest, stood, and walked off awkwardly in search of her underwear.

Joxer lay by himself, staring in the direction she'd disappeared in, and wondered what the hell had just happened.

*****

His back stung when he came back to the camp, hoping it was too dark for anyone to see the wet spot Gabrielle had left- or had she? When he got back she was cooking, humming to herself, and Xena was watching her with an expression of utter puzzlement.

"Don't tell me where you've been," the dark-haired warrior said as Joxer sat down.

He scratched his head. "I just had the strangest dream," he said, and she cocked an eyebrow at him.

Gabrielle turned and beamed at him. "You're back! And how's my favourite warrior man?" He blinked. Xena gaped. He blinked again, and Gabrielle tousled his hair. "Bet you're hungry. I made some stew for you." She thrust a bowl at him, and he took it uncertainly.

"Uh... You didn't have to..."

"Oh, you earned it," she said, then poured a bowl for Xena and one for herself, and sat down between the two of them. "You know Joxer, I know I don't say it enough, but you are a really good friend. I'm glad you hang out with us."

Xena scratched her nose in feigned disinterest as Joxer cleared his throat, and blushed. "Uh... thanks..."

Gabrielle didn't answer, just smiled and set about eating her stew. Why in the world had she thought Joxer was so dislikable up to now? Hadn't she been under the impression that he was just getting more and more irritating, or something? Now, in hindsight, she could see that he'd been getting more and more interesting all this time... Boy, she'd really been deluding herself. She made a mental note to be nicer to Joxer from now on, and then made an addendum to take Aphrodite's advice and relieve a little tension more often. The Goddess had been right, although Gabrielle wouldn't give her the satisfaction of telling her that to her face; just that brief experience had really cleared her head.

She looked at Joxer, who was pretending not to watch her, and smiled again. Yep, definitely worth relieving some tension once in a while.

*****

© 11/99 by Xebbie