Hestia took a step back, her hands guarding her face as a huff left her lips. Sweat beaded at her forehead, a few drops running down her neck. She bounced a bit on her feet to get her confidence back up as Zsasz took a slow and deliberate step towards her. "A fight is more than just throwing punches, Hestia. Especially in Gotham." Before she knew it, he had kicked off a dress shoe at her, and her concentration broke. He pinned her against the wall, a yelp coming from her throat from the sudden movement.

"And you're dead." He said, a twisted smile dancing upon his lips. "You're too straight forward, too stiff. Imagine that you're water instead."

Hestia fought back a snicker before kissing his nose. "Water? So I can just slip away and hide?"

Zsasz's eyes held a dangerous stare as he tightened his grip on her. "This isn't a joke. Things are becoming unstable between Falone and Maroni, and I have too much work to always come to your rescue. Falcone has protected you long enough, and it's time you learned how to hold your own in Gotham."

Her head nodded as she straightened her smile out. "You're right, I'm sorry. I asked for your help." She inhaled sharply before gesturing towards the mat. "Again."

Zsasz stepped across the mat and she took up her place once again. Water. Water. Water. He made a lunge at her and she narrowly moved out of his grasp before bringing her elbow up into his side. He made a slight grunt, his jaw tightening and she managed to land another hit before she was placed squarely on her back, the jolt knocking the wind out of her. She rolled over slowly and managed to straighten up before raising her fists again. "You sure you're alright?" His voice was smooth, almost taunting.

She nodded as a few of her curls jostled from her ponytail. "I thought you said you wouldn't go easy on me."

This was probably not the best answer for her to give him, but she didn't know that until her arm was twisted sharply behind her, her cheek colliding against the mat. His knee came down in the middle of her back to hold her down. "No crying, now. I know it's painful, my dear." Hestia could feel the heat rising in her cheeks out of frustration as she attempted to wiggle free from his grasp. He held it firm for a moment before letting her go, his hands instantly running gently over her back and shoulders as he placed gentle kisses against her neck.

"Don't coddle me." She snapped as she turned sharply.

"You can't allow yourself to get emotional in a fight."

She pursed her lips as her eyebrows dipped towards her nose. "How do you keep from doing it?"

Zsasz shrugged. "I just do."

"That isn't helpful, Vic." She steeled herself again. "Do you have time for another round?"

He made a teasing glance at his wrist, but he wasn't wearing a watch. "I'm on my time, currently Hestia." He took a step towards her, his hand snaking around her side before resting his hand on her bottom. "We can continue doing this for as many rounds as you desire, or…" His eyes gave her a thorough once over. "We can spend our time with more enjoyable sensations."

She made a strange face before poking his chest playfully. "We're working, Victor. We can always play later."

He seemed disappointed as he shrugged. "Suite yourself."

-{X}-

"That last one might have been a bit much." Hestia commented as she dabbed Zsasz's cheek to clean it up. "You won't need stitches at least."

"You hit me with an ashtray. You don't even smoke." He muttered.

She held an ice pack to his cheek. "You did say that there's more to fighting than throwing punches." She placed a kiss on his forehead. "Especially in Gotham."

He rolled his eyes from the wink she gave him. "Why do you have an ashtray?"

"I had it for Falcone's visits. He used to use an old mug, but I made that one for him in a ceramics class back in high school." She shrugged. "It was here when I moved in, and I decided to keep it."

Zsasz seemed to lose himself in thought as she started dialing on her house phone to order them some pizza. He watched her carefully as he often did. The way her lips moved when she spoke, and how she always carried a smile in her voice over the phone. Whenever she was in thought, she would run her thumb over her fingernails, and she had a habit of biting her lower lip. "Pepperoni, one half with mushrooms." Her nose crinkled a bit as she confirmed their order, a small bite to her lower lip as she gave a polite thank you.

Her tongue clicked against her teeth. "Are you alright with beer? I'm all out of soda."

He heard the question, but he had a few of his own, and Victor Zsasz had trouble with patience at times. "I don't understand your relationship with Don Falcone."

Hestia blinked a few times as she slid him an open bottle of beer. "What do you mean?"

"You've always been so against him, but then you keep a ceramic ashtray?"

She sighed as she plopped down in the chair across from him. "I never wanted to be like my parents, I suppose. My father had no sense of control, he was sporadic and brash, and it got him into trouble. And my mother," she huffed before taking a sip from her own beer, "she didn't have a single thought of her own. I still don't understand how she became a doctor. Falcone recognized that I do have some of that...violence that my father had, but he had his rules. I just wanted to be a doctor so bad, and make Gotham different than it was when I was growing up."

"Gotham's like a cancer." Zsasz commented.

Hestia nodded. "I suppose that it is. I have always greatly admired Carmine. I even might look up to him as a father figure, but I wanted so badly to hide who I really was. That's why it has always been a difficult situation for us." She took another sip, this time, she made a face. "Did they change the recipe for this? It's awful."

Zsasz raised an eyebrow as he took a long drink from his own bottle before setting it down on the table. "It tastes how it normally tastes."

She shrugged as she forced herself to drink more of it. "I have a love-hate relationship with Carmine, to sum it up." A song played over the small radio in her kitchen, and her face lit up. "I haven't heard this song in years!"

He watched her carefully as her foot began to tap, and he stood. He held out a hand and she took it, questions filling her expression. "If you tell anyone that I did this, I'll have to kill them." He commented as he began to dance with her, his hands resting on her waist. He placed his forehead down on hers as he moved smoothly with her to the music. She was still giggling over his comment, and that strange fluttering in her chest started once again under his stare. Hestia started to realize that Zsasz still had this light hearted, goofy side even through all the sulky darkness he was known for, and whenever she got to witness the more human parts of him, she felt as if she were gazing into another universe.

The pair continued to dance to the next few songs until their pizza arrived. From there, they moved into her living room to put on some cheesy old horror movie. They sat lazily on her couch, and Zsasz lifted a slice of the pizza before picking off the mushrooms. "Why would you even take that slice?" She laughed as she nudged him with her elbow. "I got the mushrooms for me."

"I'm still going to eat the mushrooms. I just don't like them on the pizza, it makes a weird texture." He defended as he popped one into his mouth.

-{X}-

The pizza box laid empty on the coffee table before them, the title screen of the movie looping over and over in the darkness of the living room. Zsasz shifted a bit as he stirred, his hand resting on Hestia's shoulder. He wasn't sure at what portion of the movie he had dozed off at, but she had dozed off at least twenty minutes before he had. He carefully freed himself from her, despite the small noises she made in protest. His arms slid underneath her body and he lift her, his voice lowly muttering to her to keep her from waking fully. Her head rested against his shoulder as he walked down the hall to her bedroom.

He balanced her in his arms as he used one of his legs to nudge the blankets down to clear room for her. He rolled her carefully into place and he pulled the blankets over her, his lips resting on her temple. Glaring red numbers from her bedside table let him know it was just a little after eleven. His fingers slid into his coat to retrieve his phone. He didn't have any missed calls or messages, and he took the opportunity to get a bit of extra rest. He knew the current tension in Gotham would eventually explode, and he wouldn't have many opportunities to lay next to Hestia.

He shrugged out of suit, his dress shoes kicked off lazily at the foot of the bed. The blankets were cool against his skin, and he laid on his side to look at Hestia's face. Her eyes danced behind her eyelids, and he wondered what it was like to dream. He hadn't really had a dream himself in years, as he never really slept. The corners of her lips twitched, and he ran his fingers through her hair. She seemed to shift closer to his warmth, and he helped her by closing the space between them, his arm draping over her middle.

Victor Zsasz wasn't a man to show the more hidden parts of himself, but he found that he felt safe with Hestia. He didn't like to think about what would become of him if someone were to ever take her away from him. It was this sense of vulnerability that he disliked about her, but it also let him know he wasn't entirely what people believed him to be. He didn't need to world to know he was multifaceted, as long as she did. They could think him a wild animal, but as long as she looked at him the way that she did, he knew he was more than that.

Her soft breathing eventually lulled him to sleep, and for once in Victor Zsasz's life, he had somewhere he belonged.