God of gods.

Hera ran a hand through his hair and placed the other gently on his cheek. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so happy and at ease with him. Things felt like they had all fallen back in place with him. “I wouldn’t go that far. I’m glad you feel that way though.” She leaned into his hand and smiled. “Well, you should have told me anyway.”

Zeus took in a long, easy breath, taking her in on the inhale and leaving his reservations with the breath’s release, searching her warm brown eyes for any doubt. “All right, but what would you have said?” he asked, voice barely more than a murmur. “If the moment we saw each other again, or even the first night we spent together again, if I’d told you my intention was to marry you. What would you have said? What would you have done?”

“Sure you did,” Amanda snapped. He probably felt guilty for getting her hooked on drugs. Actually, he never felt guilty for anything. “I am way too sober to deal with you right now.” She ran a hand through her hair. “She’ll try.”

Zeus rolled his eyes, shameless as always, looking back towards the closed door in the moment that followed, and they looked like they were safe enough. “Speak for yourself,” he smirked. He wouldn’t offer, but the man knew how to tease all too well. “Well are you going to be the one telling her? Because I’m certainly not.”

Hera wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed a big kiss to his lips. “Well, a little bit! You kind of just sprung it on me right now.” She smiled brightly. “Really?” she asked. She’d dreamed of marrying Zeus since she was sixteen years old and they first started dating. “Well, no. Of course not. I just…I was being cautious after last time. And we were apart for so long I wasn’t sure if you still felt the spark that I do.”

There was a warm sort of laughter that bubbled up with Hera’s excitement; he felt like a teenager all over again when she got like this, all twisted up in her joy, blissful and forward thinking. He didn’t know how he’d gotten lucky enough to hold onto her capacity for this, even after all the fights they had and the tears he was sure she’d cried. “I don’t know if there’s a man who doesn’t feel that, being with you,” he pointed out, hand moving to her cheek and running a thumb over the arch of her cheekbone. “I didn’t think it was anything new, otherwise I would have told you the first time I saw you again that I loved you.”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “That’s not why you brought us together,” she said matter-of-fact. “I’m not stupid. You wanted to piss her off.And you wanted to piss me off. So there you have it. We are both pissed off enough. And I am not watching her rip my contract in my face so that you can fuck whoever you want.”

Zeus hummed. No use denying that, though he had ulterior motives all the same, but getting into those didn’t further his cause either. “I saw an opportunity for a client I believed in to work and thrive,” he said, measured in his assessment and not entirely untruthful. “But she won’t do that,” he promised, taking on a smile more mischief than benevolence. “Because you’re you.”

“I suppose so,” she said, looking up at him her chin still resting on his chest. “Are you saying you want to marry me?” she asked, her face lighting up just at the thought. “I’d spend any time with you, married or not.” She leaned up and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. Realistically rushing back into an engagement with him would not be a good idea but she never thought realistically.

Zeus wasn’t sure what her reaction was going to be to that once he was clearer, so when she brightened up almost instantly, brown eyes warm with a new flame, he answered in kind with the wild excitement he approached all of life with. “I didn’t think it would be a surprise,” he pointed out. “My mind has never changed on that.” The kiss was reassuring to some extent, but he didn’t know how ready she was, didn’t know if she’d thought about this late at night or when times were hard. “Unless you were hoping this was something short, this go around.”

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped, properly turning so that she could give him a full glare. “Yeah, I’m mad at you. You help me get a job with your…whatever the fuck Hera is to you and still hit me up semi-regularly. Do my ignored calls mean nothing to you?”

Zeus smirked at the ambiguity, amused if nothing else by the fact that people really couldn’t handle the fact that they were back to this point in their lives, back and so strong together again. “She’s a talent, you’re a talent,” his eyes may have wandered, maybe. They shared some talents. “I didn’t mean to ignore your calls,” he said with a wink. “You know better than anyone how hard you have to work for what you want in this world, gotta be persistent.”

Hera was in her most favorite place in the entire world. Right in Zeus’ arms. There were times in her life though where that would have been her least favorite place in the world. In that moment though she wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. “We could try,” she said softly. Her lips curved up into a smile as he began kissing her. “Let them talk. I don’t care. Let the world know we’re in love.” She looked up at him, resting her chin on his chest. “What makes me not an honest woman then?”

He couldn’t help but laugh at her determination, as if he would force her to leave when things were so perfect in the here and now, but he leaned back into his earlier sentiment when she hadn’t understood. “Well, you’re all shacked up here, aren’t you?” he asked softly, smiling down as she rested her head, and right where it belonged. “Spending the holidays with a man you aren’t married to. Might have to fix that, I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

Charles was enjoying his last night from holiday break before going back to work, but unfortunately, things didn’t start as well for him this year as he planned. While having a fun time at a bar, a guy thought that he was hitting on his girlfriend. Maybe he was? Cheshire couldn’t tell. But before the other guy’s friend showed up, Charles mixed in the crowd of the place, then hiding in a cupboard, underneath the bar’s counter. Someone saw his gesture, causing him to whisper to them. “If a guy with a football shirt asks for me, tell them I left.” He giggled softly of his current state, then whispering again. “The new year just started, and I am already trapped in a closet.”

Zeus really knew how to pick ‘em, he thought to himself as the world around him seemed to shift straight to chaos. He was out to have a good time, enjoy himself, celebrate the end of the holidays and have an easy, fun time. Instead he was being hissed at from a man who’d just tucked himself into a cupboard while Zeus was trying to pour himself some cognac. The blond glanced up, looked around the bar and sighed. “If any of he fifty men in football jerseys come ask if there’s someone hiding under the cupboard, I’ll be sure to ask why they need to know.” The drunken giggle didn’t go missing on Zeus, and he rolled his eyes. “Have you spent the rest of the years in a closet, or is this just a bad night?”

Hera sighed happily as he ran his fingers through her hair. She loved having her hair played with, specifically by him. Zeus just seemed to know the exact way to do it. He never tugged too hard (unless they were in bed) and his hands always moved slowly. Hera had always felt at home wherever Zeus was. For a while she wanted to be as far away as possible from him but now all she wanted was to stay in his arms forever. “We could do this,” she said before pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. “Or we could just stay like this. Forever.”

Zeus smiled into her hair, smelling her perfume and her shampoo and his pillow, or the sense of it anyway, and knowing how long she’d been here and how long they’d been doing this again without killing each other was always an amazing feat, even when it felt like longer than it was. Right about now, Zeus was sure he would be happy to accept an eternity, and he wasn’t afraid of that. “I don’t know that we could do it forever,” he smiled softly, kissing her again and murmuring against her lips, “People might talk.” He kissed her cheek, then her jaw, then the lobe of her ear. “I’d at least have to make an honest woman out of you.”

Hera was perfectly content with the way her life was going. She loved the fame, she loved the fortune, and she loved Zeus. And she had all three of those things. Christmas had come and gone and it wasn’t nearly as hectic as Hera thought it would be. It was calm and passed by fairly quickly. She was currently nestled into Zeus’s chest, listening to the steady beating of his heart. “Hm? We could do that. We could do that now, if you’d like. I like to cook.” She leaned closer into him. “Or some other time. Some other day.”

Zeus grinned, carding his fingers through Hera's hair. It was a strange time of year, everyone prone to nesting, but it wasn't all bad, he supposed. It felt just a little more like home. He looked down at her as she moved in closer, smile closing to something soft. This did feel a but like home. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready to assess just what that meant, but in moments like these, he felt closer. "Doesn't have to be right now," he admitted, voice rumbling low. The hand around her waist pulled her ever closer. "Have you got a better idea?"

@thunderboltrecords​

“And what are you doing here?” Amanda asked, staring the familiar face up and down before rolling her eyes. “You’re off limits to me now. And I’m mad at you. So….move on to the next girls room. Because there are at least five other models here with their own dressing rooms that would love to be your next video girl if you drop your pants fast.”

Zeus couldn't be bothered to tug his face into a frown, the once vacant smile now sharper as she addressed him with the venom he could barely remember. She'd been sweet once, he thought, but that was never quite as exciting as a bit of a bite. "You're mad at me?" He asked, the corner of his mouth curling up into a grin. "If I'd wanted to find their rooms I would have. I wanted to check on you, Mandy."

“What a pity I am not offering you cognac then.” He didn’t let his cousins words get to him in any real way, but with the strangeness he’d been feeling lately, he perhaps wasn’t sure anymore if he wanted to humour Zeus’ jibes and general attitude. “You can just say no, and go home.” His demeanour had shifted slightly at his own words, as though Zeus was now the one burdening Dino with his presence. Like the flick of a switch, he had let himself turn on his irritability.

Zeus sighed, looking up to the stars and the sky, exasperated. Why couldn’t people take a joke? He cocked his head to the side, releasing the tension quickly building in his neck as he did so, and shot Dino a little look. “What’s got you on edge, anyway?” he tried, refusing to believe that it was his own fault. He was a good time all the time, and Dino seemed to be one of the only people in his family to see that; he wasn’t letting that one go any time soon. “We’ll have the wine if it’ll get you back to yourself, hit the streets after. There’s always something to do, and I’ve got a ticket to all of it.”

Despite being able to turn everything off this was harder. Hestia knew what loving someone was like. What trusting a touch again was like. Maybe he didn’t love her back , maybe she wasn’t curled up with Si right now living out a perfect story in her head - but it was still so hard. With a dry mouth she nodded. Family first - she reminded herself. “I was just in the neighborhood and figured we can get on a better foot . Vodka - straight.” She said simply . A drink of choice she used that numbed her quickly. Playing her part she gave a small smile , a small glance through her lashes his way.

Zeus didn’t think he was expecting any visitors when his phone buzzed, ringtone for the callbox going off, but he narrowed it down to three or four possible people before he answered and buzzed whoever it was up. None of those three or four had been Hestia Tavoularis.

On a normal day, he would have been tired enough of the usual shit in his life to ignore her completely, but he’d decided a while back to try and put some effort into being closer with Hera’s family, hadn’t he? And while he wasn’t sure why on earth she would be at the door of his building at this time of the day, none of the possibilities seemed good. She clearly needed something, or perhaps something had happened. Whatever it might have been, Zeus agreed and buzzed her in, throwing on a shirt and opening up a window to air out at least a bit of the dank stench of weed. He lit incense for good measure, though he wasn’t sure who he was trying to impress. He’d never made himself out to be too clean.

When the door of his condo was knocked on, he had to make his way from the kitchen, took a few to make it over to Hestia for that reason, but he figured she could wait an extra minute or so if she’d taken the time to get all the way to the building in the first place. Swinging the door open, he smiled, nice and easy though just as suspicious as he felt. “Hi,” he opened lamely. She’d never been an easy one to get along with. “What’s brought the littlest Tavoularis out to my little suite, and would she like anything to drink?”

Zeus and his brothers were ones of the few people who rarely actually pissed Dino off. He could annoy him, yes, but he could hardly ever recall a time where he’d gotten truly confrontational with Zeus or Si- Hades maybe. Zeus and Dino were much close in attitude than the others probably, but Dino was pretty sure that despite their similarities most everyone viewed them as very very different. He scoffed at the mans comments, rolling his eyes just slightly and pushed himself up onto his feet. “I scared a waitress and she dropped curry down me so I had to change into spare clothes.” He rolled his shoulders, his body having had a few moments on the step to recoup a little energy from the busy night. “What’re you doing wandering about at this time then?”  The natural I-am-older-and-therefore-you-are-a-child attitude. “Or did you just miss me? If you answer right I might have some beaujolais inside.”

Zeus had to laugh, shaking his head at the unbelievable yet perfectly predictable story from his cousin. Of course, there was always a mess to clean up or hilarity that ensued in Dino’s life, and as far as Zeus was concerned he could keep it. Zeus could hold onto the scandals and the dark corners while Dino enjoyed his fine wines and fine foods and the occasional bout of filth. “Taking a moment,” Zeus explained, looking up at the stars and the heavens. The stars were largely invisible with the light pollution of the city, and he was used to that, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t picture the clear cloudless nights of home in his present skies. “I’ve normally got somewhere to be until much later, thought I would take the night as it comes, see what all the fuss is about.” He turned back down, nose scrunched. “Now that I’m seeing the state you’re in, I can remember why I didn’t miss you, and more importantly why I don’t waste my time with this. You know I prefer a cognac, cousin.”

The green bills he was being offered were a charitable gesture, sweet but completely misplaced. He took no offence though. He looked pretty rough and worn out from the busy night. Not to mention he was quite literally sitting in a doorway. He glanced up from the step he was sat at to the figure standing before him, light from the closest street lamp falling upon them. “Thank you, but I am far from homeless. I’m just stargazing.” His accent always came out a little thicker when he was tired, drunk of excitable. “Best to give it to someone else.”

Zeus looked down his nose at his cousin, baffled by this display as he was with most of his cousin’s antics, but he couldn’t quite keep the fondness out of his voice. “You look destitute,” he scoffed, looking around them and glancing at the few other lost souls in the street. “I can’t be the first person who’s tried to give you money; or did everyone else tell you they were sorry but they didn’t carry cash?” Zeus tucked the wad of cash away into his pocket and glanced up at the stars all the same, wondering why people still saw as much magic in them as they did. “Only for family, you know how it is.”