Oil & Water (GirlXGirl) ✓

22

The women had been lying in the grass for some time.

Xena smiled softly to herself when Venus imitated her actions and laid back in the grass. She knew the smaller woman was slowly but surely getting used to her. Xena liked this, as she too was getting used to Venus. Her presence alone was a great deal of comfort for Xena. She couldn't think of anything else that she enjoyed as much as being with Venus, cooking for the younger woman and just taking care of her. Making Venus happy made Xena happy.

"What's your favorite color?" Xena asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Black." Venus replied softly, which didn't surprise Xena.

"What do you like to do in your free time?" Xena asked again. She genuinely wanted to learn as much about the woman as she could.

There was a moment of silence.

"I don't know."

This reply filled Xena with a strange sort of sadness.

"Tell me a bit about yourself."

For the longest time there was no reply, Xena turned her head slightly to look at Venus. The smaller woman was lying back, staring up at the sky. Xena was beginning to think that she had somehow crossed the line, that Venus would go back to being completely mute.

"I don't really know what you want to know," Venus suddenly said, "what kind of things do people talk about?"

Xena was taken aback by this response. She got the feeling that Venus didn't really interact with many people.

"Um, anything really." Xena replied, now turning back to stare up at the sky. "What college you went to, what foods you like to eat, your family, anything really."

There was another moment of silence.

"Well... I didn't go to college. For food, I like to eat the food you make and bring for me, and family..."

Xena waited, but Venus had trailed off. It didn't seem like she was going to revisit the topic. But a curiosity had overcome Venus, so she tried to probe a bit more. "You asked me once if I liked the woman that adopted me," Xena began thinking back to one of the earlier interactions she had with Xena. "Was there a reason for that?"

Venus sat up then. "It's getting a little chilly, I think we should go back."

Xena instantly knew that she had somehow hit a nerve. She could see it in Venus' body language. The woman had been so relaxed a few seconds ago, but now she was slowly closing up, suddenly recoiling into herself.

Xena racked her brain desperately for something she could do to stop this from happening. She suddenly heard the light jingle of an ice-cream truck nearby. "Hey, do you want ice-cream?"

To Xena's relief Venus nodded her head. She picked up on a brief excitement in the smaller woman's features.

"Wait here." Xena instructed, before getting to her feet and running to the ice-cream truck.

Turns out the truck was a little farther from where Xena had anticipated. She had disappeared out of Venus' view completely when she finally got to the truck. Furthermore, there was a que and a deep irritation set within Xena.

A couple of minutes passed before Xena finally made it to the front of the line.  "Hey, could I have two ice-creams. A chocolate and vanilla one, please."

The ice-cream man nodded at her and went to make the order. Xena watched a bunch of children nearby eating their ice-creams, which they had basically smeared all over their faces. Xena laughed slightly at the sight before her.