It was really unexpected, really. Nemesis wasn't expecting the God of War to give her a red rose.
"Why?" she whimpered. Tears almost fell from her eyes.
"Because I really, really love you…" Ares whispered. He looked away from her; he didn't want her to see him blush.
Nemesis frowned. "Why?"
"I said-"
"I meant, why do you love me? I thought you loved Aphrodite," she replied, hurt. She'd already heard about Ares' adulterous affair with the Goddess of Beauty. And also the part about them being caught in the golden net.
The God of War didn't reply immediately. He merely lowered his head in despair.
"It wasn't a choice. My father didn't want my brother to marry Aphrodite in the first place. He sent me to seduce her, against my will," he replied hoarsely. "My father doesn't care if I'm humiliated. He doesn't care about me at all. He knew that I loved someone else, but he didn't know that someone else was you."
Nemesis was taken aback. The next thing they knew, silence enveloped them.
"I'm sorry, Ares… I can't," she whispered, just audible enough to be heard by him. "I can't accept your love."
Ares looked dejected. "I… I understand. You don't like me because I'm not good enough for you…"
"No! You don't understand!" she snapped at him. "Every days, every hour, every second, I have to keep reminding myself that you already belonged to everyone else and I could never have you! And now, you're here and you've told me that you love me? How should I react to that? Angry that you have lied to me? Happy that you actually return my feelings toward you? Confused? Humiliated? I don't even want to know!" She couldn't hold her tears back any more, and they now fell freely.
Ares placed his hand on her shoulder; the effect seemed to calm her down. A little bit. Nemesis stopped crying, but her cheeks were now wet from her tears.
"I swear on River Styx that I truly love you," Ares said, somber. "And I would never, ever, try to hurt you."
With that, he gave her kiss on her cheek. Nemesis seems to relax at his touch.
"What happen to us now?" she asked, uncertain.
Ares just gazed into her pale eyes. "I don't know…"
The myths never mention about Ares' relationship with Nemesis. It was like the two gods didn't want anyone – even the other gods - to know about their closeness at all.
A/N:The idea is if Ares was manipulated by Zeus to do 'stuff' with Aphrodite (you know, the usual stuff in mythology) but Ares already fallen in love with Nemesis, way before his humiliation with Aphro. After that canon event in mythology, Ares came to Nemesis and confess his love to her, only to find out that Nemesis already heard about his incident and thought that his love to her is another lies.