"Good morning!" he announced his presence.

"Oh, good morning," she was glad to see him so carefree today. Judging from his smiling appearance, he’d had a much better night’s rest than she had.

“Where are the others?” he asked, noticing the table was only set for two.

“Well," Gabrielle said skeptically, "apparently they rode out this morning before either of us was awake.” She flipped the eggs and tried not to smile. “They left a note, over there.” She pointed to the door.

“We’ve heard there’s trouble with Ares a few villages away. We’ll be back later.” Iolaus looked at the paper and suddenly started laughing. Gabrielle was surprised at his reaction.

“What’s so funny?”

“They’re so tired of making up excuses to leave us behind, now don’t even give one?”

Gabrielle laughed at his assesment. “Do you think there actually is anything to what they said?”

“Of course not. Ares is just a convenient excuse. They can always blame him.”

“If there really were anything wrong, they’d have told us.”

“Would they?” Iolaus asked, his eyebrows arched. Gabrielle turned around. "I don’t think it’s them trying to be alone together, as much as they’re trying to be tactful."

"Tactful?! Xena?" she laughed at his assesment. "I’m sorry, I don’t think you’re right."

"Could you get anything out of her last night?" he asked skeptically with his arms folded.

"No," she admitted, putting the plates on the table. "What about Hercules?"

"Same," he confessed. She motioned for him to sit and he joined her. "I think they left us here alone on purpose."

"On purpose?" she smiled as she took a bite of the food. "Why would they want to do that?" she was definately flirting with him. He smiled and decided not to answer as he took a bite of bread. His not answering didn’t seem to phase Gabrielle. She smiled and stood up to get some butter.

How to ask her, he wondered. Should he make it all romantic and subtle? Maybe he should take her out for a picnic in the woods. It’s a beautiful day out, and she loved the outdoors. Or maybe he should wait until tonight… cook her dinner – no, bad idea. He didn’t want her getting food poisoning while he was asking for her hand! No, better to keep it simple, he decided. Gabrielle wasn’t into the big shows of emotion. She’d probably prefer if he just took her for a walk somewhere and he’d turn to her and say