MNB: Giving in.

A/N: Venting piece I guess. Zeus is acting like a fool but he's very conflicted. He is also aware of how much of an asshole he really is, but his feelings for Asma are real, raw and sometimes toxic.

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4th of July,

He got into a fight. Typical for Zeus, troubles had always been his middle name. The reasons were never the same but somehow always revolved around one thing: his pain. He was a walking bleeding wound. Of course, he would always find a reason to hurt himself. From his tender age to his adulthood, the handsome son of the wealthiest entrepreneur of New-York City always got himself into fist fights. That got him excluded ten and thousands of times from prestigious schools up until his father contributed enough to one of these so they wouldn't kick Zeus out. If it wasn't because someone insulted his mother or his father, it was because they mocked him for his pretty looks, for his well put manners, for the adoration girls had for him. They always found something to pick up and destroy him, along with his self-esteem. Zeus, when he was young, always played a role in satisfying his father and trying and fitting into this posh society he was so different from.

As an adult, it didn't change much. Even after he received that almost fatal gunshot in the chest, Zeus was still ready to throw a punch at whoever insulted him, or someone he cared about. This time it was Irina, the Russian supermodel he was engaged to. Many chose to ignore that she was more than a pretty face. She had a kind heart, a loving personality and yes, on top of it all, she also had a brain. Far away from the spotlight, the blonde model did prepare a Ph.D. in biochemistry. Yet, people reduced her to a pretty face and associated with her stereotypes attached to models. He couldn't let those A-list celebrities insult her in his presence and get away with it. So of course, he punched that male actor in the face, kicked and bit until his face was bruised and his fists were soaked with blood.

4th of July, a day he was supposed to celebrate with friends, turned into a living nightmare but he didn't care much. He already knew that tabloids would have a field day and that negative publicity would impact on his business but he trusted Madeleine and Karina to work on a PR stunt that would switch the focus to what good he did to society. Yet, that night he was miserable. He went to that charity event with Asma. She represented his company alongside with him, was stupidly gorgeous that evening in that beautiful red dress he couldn't stop staring at and her dyed pink hair tied in an elegant bun. She watched with horror the fight unfold in front of her and tried to intervene but Zeus pushed her away so she wouldn't get caught in the heat of the battle and end up injured just like he was.

He was thrown out of the gala, bloody and with his eye slightly swollen. She followed him and quickly dragged him into the car. They didn't say anything but he could see she was furious. Of course, she would be. It was supposed to keep the feds off of his back and make the public see him as sympathetic despite the shitty reputation he had. Zeus Olympus was known as being an asshole extraordinaire and maybe, if he had complied and kept himself in check he would have earned some love from the public but as usual, he fucked everything up. He fucked this PR stunt and he pissed her off. Yet, Zeus refused to let someone insult Irina. It wasn't for his ego that he tried to defend the woman, it was for her honor. She didn't need to be dragged into his shit, so of course, he defended her.

They drove to his huge flat and she forced herself into the place. As curiously as it was, he wasn't living with Irina whose parents preferred they didn't share the same room until they were married -it had less to do with her virtue and everything to do with the money they could make by selling photos to tabloids-. She went to the kitchen and made him sit on a stool while she grabbed some frozen meat she decided to apply to his wounds.

"You have been reckless Zeus! How little do you consider the empire you've built to throw yourself into a fight?' She scolded him, unable to refrain from doing so. He looked up to her face, his big blue puppy eyes gleaming apologetically at first.

"I know." He said, furrowing his brows as she pressed the cold meat against his cheek. She was close, dangerously close and he relished in the sweet scent of hers that was filling his nostrils. "You could have been injured."

"I don't care about it. I care about you ruining the efforts you've been making for months now. You brought attention to yourself and now the feds would once again be after you." She ran her hand through her forehead and then closed her eyes tight as she tried to focus. Truth be told, she cared about him more than about the feds finding him. She was worried something happened to him during the fight.

"You should care about it. It wouldn't have been fair if you were caught in between punches." He outstretched his hand to grab her wrist but she took a step away and shook her head.

"Don't touch me. I do the touching, I make sure your face can still be kissable when you'll appear with Irina." It broke her heart to say the blonde's name but the reality was that Zeus was engaged to Irina.

He proposed out of the blue and in the reaction of hearing that his ex-fiancée had a baby. He had to expect Margot moved on in her life. He had to expect that she would not dwell in the past and would try to build herself back up. He acted like a fool and an asshole when he deserted her after she miscarried. Yes, he blamed himself for what happened, but it shouldn't have blinded him completely. He should have supported his fiancée through the whole ordeal instead of running away and taking all the blame for him. Zeus knew that it had been his worst mistake and tried to make amends with her years later but it still wasn't enough. She had moved on, she still talked to him because their bond was a strong one and she still was his childhood best friend, but something broke between the two of them and an e-mail (with the occasional phone call) was the only contact she allowed him to have. Of course, he'd propose to the closest person he ever had. The sweet and clever Irina.

"Asma..."

"I'm serious. She wouldn't want to kiss you if you looked ugly. Let me fix your face." She tried to be rational but he could hear her heartbreak through her broken raspier voice. She had confessed her love for him prior to his engagement during a drunken night at this exact place. She had told him that despite him being an asshole, she saw the good in him and fell in love with the whole package. She put herself out there and he didn't say anything. Worse, the morning after he learned about Margot's pregnancy and he proposed to Irina hours later. Of course, she felt humiliated. She felt useless, she felt broken.

"Can we not talk about Irina?"

"Hard not to talk about her when you've proposed Zeus. It's... it's incredible. I have tried my very best to be enough for you I have tried to reach the level you require to be with you. I am smart, I am pretty, I dress better, I am caring and I am in love with you and you seemed to feel the same way. I don't care about your wealth or the troubles you might have with justice. I care about you. I am in love with /you/ and yet.. yet it's still not enough... How do I win? uh? How do I win Zeus? I am stuck with a job I actually love and I'm good at which forces me to stay with you 24/7...I can't quit because nobody would hire me and after several years without a job, I'm not--" She couldn't finish her sentence, he grabbed her neck and cheek with his large hand and crashed his lips into hers. Her eyes grew wide as if she'd been electrocuted and she dropped the meat on the floor while her shaky fingers grabbed her dress. Had he just kissed her? Had he...

"You are more than enough Asma. I am the one who doesn't deserve any of it."He started out. She was still looking at him with her eyes wide open as she didn't buy any of his words and he quickly saw the disgusting form on her face as he kept talking. "You're right, I chose Irina and I shouldn't have. She was.. she knows me Asma. She knows the good, the bad and the ugly and stuck by me. I have been knowing her for years now, six to be precise. You.. you're new. You're this hurricane I do not know how to handle and you're here, all flames ablaze and I don't know what to do Asma. I don't know." He tried to kiss her again but she pushed him away.

"I knew you were heartless but I never knew you were a monster. You just can't help yourself now can you Zeus?" She said as she left the building, leaving behind a distressed Zeus who realized that he indeed had made a huge mistake. He shouldn't have kissed her, despite him knowing full well that it was all she had ever wanted. He shouldn't have stolen that kiss from her, their first kiss to say the least under such disrespectful circumstances. As she slammed the door behind her, Zeus ran his hand through his hair and cussed himself out.

Why was he like this?