I never read much Xena fic, but I remember that from Hercules: TLJ fandom, which considering it was allegedly set in ancient Greece amused the hell out of me.

I'm with you on smarmy gen though, it's so often h/c-filled and lovely, but the authors so often feel they need to put in "but we're not gay because that would be wrong" or put in evil gay characters, or have the characters have random meaningless sex with hookers to prove they're not gay (Starsky & Hutch fandom is special).

Plus, while I might buy Hercules as Ace, I really, really wouldn't for Iolaus given his enthusiastic appreciation for sex in canon. Which would be an interesting fic in itself, an asexual romance between those two, then Iolaus having awesome lady friends to have sex with.