"Why won't you let me do it for you?"Joxer looked up from the huge pot of soup he was stirring. He must have been concentrating too hard on his cooking to not sense his lover's appearance. "Because I like making soup myself."
Ares scowled. "That's *not* what I mean, although I would do that, too." He glared at Joxer, who sighed before putting down his big spoon and carefully moving the cauldron further from the fire.
"I know, love. If I let you..." He hugged Ares tightly. "Welcome back. I missed you. And *you* won't let me go with you."
"I can't. You know that." Joxer felt Ares relax in his arms. "It's too dangerous on the battlefields. I won't risk you. Bad enough I'm going to..."
"Now you're being morbid. Kiss me instead." He tilted up his face .
"I can't get away with anything...oh, yes." Ares shook his head, and did as he was told, with so much passion and need that it belied their ten years together. Joxer responded with all the desire that two-weeks abstinence could produce, stroking Ares' powerful arms and delighting in the tickle of his beard and mustache.
A god can kiss indefinitely, but a man sometimes has to breathe. They parted long enough for Joxer to lead him to their bed and sit him down. "How did it go?"
"Gods, I missed you." Ares began exploring Joxer with his hands...as if he hadn't mapped him thoroughly years ago. "You have a gray hair."
"I have several. That bad?"
"Worse. You expect deaths in a war. That's part of the purpose, but this...this was butchery." Ares closed his eyes. Joxer could tell he saw the battlefield again. "Time was...time was...time was, I would have thought it glorious. Nothing was even decided. They just...straggled home."
Joxer could do nothing more than hold him. "I *know* you did your best to make it...less so."
"It's not enough. It's all so...I'm tired of death, Joxer. And you won't let me stop..." Ares pulled away.
Joxer sighed. "I don't want it. I don't need it."
Ares took both his hands in his. "I want to give it to you. I want to give you everything - wealth and power and...everything. Eternity. Why won't you...you're worse than Xena. Xena turned it all down. You...you take me but nothing else."
"I don't want anything else. Just you. If I took those things, I wouldn't be me, and you'd wonder if I was only in it for them." He forced a grin. "I said this before, you big lug."
"Then I'll become mortal. Live here with you...make soup. Help you do...what you do."
Joxer leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "No, you won't. I won't let you. Let's...we have now, and that's all anyone ever has."
Ares looked at him in wonder. "Why did I waste so much of your life going after others? How can you love such a fool?"
"Because I'm one myself. Please...we have better things to do than talk about *this*."
Joxer winked at him, and then licked his ear.
Ares grinned and growled, pinning him to the bed and covering him with kisses while Joxer fumbled with his leather vest.
"Wait...your soup!"
"It'll be simmering for hours...Get back here!"
They wrestled joyously on the bed, kissing and stripping off the other's clothing. Joxer was pleased that Ares finally realized that this was much more fun than simply having the clothes go poof.
When everything settled, Joxer found himself laying full length on Ares, staring into his deep, beautiful eyes. He grinned. "Got you just where I want you."
Ares answered the grin with one of his own. "I surrender."
"You better."
He began to kiss Ares' chest, frantically trying to taste and touch every broad inch of it, sucking on each nipple until the god in his arms moaned and rubbed their erections together and made Joxer still more frenzied in his touch and his kisses.
He worked his way down Ares' shivering body, licking and kissing and tasting him until he reached his goal. Granted it was difficult to miss, as it stood up straight, tall and dark red, but it was a goal. And he reached it...engulfing it in his mouth with the ease of long practice and eagerness of need.
Ares howled, which was pure music to his ears, as he moved his tongue up and down the shaft, and sucked on the head, drinking in the fluid as it dripped out. Oh, yes, he'd missed this. Ares belonged in his mouth.
He could feel Ares' hands on his head, pulling and stroking his hair. Oh, yes. Ares was ready to go, and with a final hard suck and a twist to his nipples, Ares went, exploding into Joxer's mouth in rush of salty and sweet and above all *Ares*. Who needed ambrosia?
He gave the shaft a final kiss as he released it, and moved lower, licking behind his testicles and then into the area between those two firm, beautiful cheeks. Ares lay back, bent his knees and spread his legs to accommodate him, moaning sweetly.
This, too, tasted of Ares. Joxer felt his own arousal growing as he licked and sucked at this, his lover's most private area. The place that belonged to him, and him alone. He knew without looking that Ares was aroused again, and took a moment to smile before giving one last suck that made his lover scream.
Then he pulled away, and found the jar of ointment they kept by the bed. He scooped up a handful and began to prepare the god lying in front of him, open in total surrender.
When all was ready, he applied the ointment to himself and positioned himself properly. He slowly, carefully took possession - or retook it, Ares would say. He entered him finally, those powerful muscles willing relaxing around him and then gripping him with heat and need. They began to move together, pouring sensation upon sensation, Joxer inside Ares, his hand wrapped around Ares' erection, aiming himself to *that* place inside his lover.
He began to move faster, his body's needs forcing him, urging him to drive more and more deeply inside as Ares thrust his own body up to the same rhythm, a dance of love and passion played out on Joxer's homespun blanket in his simple house.
Finally, he lost the rest of his control and spent himself, letting wave after wave crash through him as he collapsed in Ares' arms, as Ares also succumbed to the pleasure and cried out.
When he was able, Joxer crawled forward and wrapped his arms around him again, kissing him lightly. "I love you." His voice was hoarse. He must have also screamed, but he didn't remember.
"Love you, too, Joxer."
Joxer smiled and drifted off to sleep with his head on Ares' chest.
When he awoke, he was clean, and alone on the bed. He opened his eyes slowly. It was getting dark and the room was filled with the odor of lentil soup. He pulled himself up. Ares was sitting by the hearth, stirring the soup.
"Hello, sleepy head."
"Hello. I seem to have domesticated the God of War." He stretched and got out of bed. He found his scattered clothing and put it on. Then he walked to Ares and kissed him on the forehead. "Smells good."
"You made it."
"To think I was using it to make people ill...and now..."
"And now the ravening hordes will devour it. It doesn't help for long, you know."
"It helps enough. Sometimes one meal is enough." There was a knock on the door.
"Joxer! It's time."
The voice was that of a young woman from Joxer's village. Ares shook his head and snapped his fingers to change his appearance. Then they both opened the door to a long line of ragged people fleeing from Ares' latest battlefield, and the God of War and his lover began dishing out bowls of soup.
The End
Copyright 2000 Debra Fran Baker and NightRoads Associates