Zeus felt his face cloud. Ares, acting chivalrously? Or with any decency at all? He had been seen as a mindless brute in antiquity, a battle-hungry glutton whose bloodlust was only outstripped by his cruelty. Had they been wrong? Zeus had never given much thought to the actual nature of his fellow gods, more colored than he would have liked to admit by the way mortals saw them. The more he turned it all over in his mind, the more he saw and realized. He had never had the patience to try and understand Ares, but it made sense that he would see a woman in trouble and intervene. What had his father been, if not the premier womanizer? His sisters, his mother, his own daughters had all experienced the negative effects of Zeus and his philandering in one way or another.<br/><br/>"Convincing Athena is like pleading with the stars to change their places. A fanciful idea that always ends in failure." He let her hand fall to his knee, still holding it gently in his own. "You are, as ever, right. I will begin with Eileithyia, and then Hebe and Heracles, and then Eris. We'll see how it pans out with the rest of them, though. I think for now just bridging the gap between myself and my family will be enough." He squeezed her hand gently and smiled at her, his expression coy. "But as for our immediate future--what do you propose? I don't imagine I should invite myself to stay the night, especially if the girls don't know yet. Even so, I find myself unwilling to leave you. Very unwilling." He leaned forward to kiss her, his lips soft even as they pressed greedily to hers.