Where to begin? *taps chin with index finger.

My thoughts:

Xena is half jealous, half smug. Jealous because, even though they haven't known each other long, we know Xena is starting to have feelings for her. She's still reserved. Still heavy into redemption and that whole 'my past is why we can't have nice things' phase. A little bit of the non-possessive version of 'if I can't have her no one will'. Smug because Gabrielle's behaviour has just confirmed that she is, in fact, a kid. A petulant one at that. Far too young for Xena and Xena is telling herself 'I told you so' probably followed by 'bullet dodged, check'.

Gabrielle's brief smugness backfires. She was hoping for more of a reaction from Xena. She's still very much in her hero-worship phase, though it's starting to branch off to... something else. We imagine at this point Gabrielle's experiencing a bit of confusion and she will for some time. She attaches herself to random boys in an effort to 'punish' Xena for various 'injustices' as Gabrielle perceives them, anyway. I think it's amusing to note that, in the event of an argument, Gabrielle turns from words to actions and Xena turns from actions to words.

I know it's much later in the series, but we don't see Xena show quite the depth of jealousy for other men as we do for other women. I mean, those few odd male interests, Xena just brushed off. No threats whatsoever. Enter Najara and we got a live version of Celebrity Deathmatch. Enter Brunhilde and I thought we'd get a repeat of Akemi if Gabrielle hadn't reassured Xena she was the only one.

Anyway, circling back to my first comment, I think Xena didn't make a huge thing out of it was that she knew. She knew now was not the right time, but perhaps sometime in the future, it would be the right time. I mean, the woman can fish. She knows all about patience.