CHAPTER 01

a chance meeting

Morgan gaped at his family, at his wife, all the people who were supposed to love him and finally, he snapped. After yelling at his father, who'd started all of this by revealing his desperate attempt to hide the truth, how Michael wasn't Kiki's cousin, from Kiki, so he wouldn't lose her to his brother too, like he seemed to lose everyone to Michael, the golden boy, the favorite son.

"Fuck this." he muttered quietly as he turned, holding his jaw where his father punched him back after he'd thrown the first punch. Picking up his blazer, he turned and walked out the door, ignoring the calls of his mother in law. He didn't feel like hearing her right now, he didn't feel like dealing with any of them right now.

Everything hurt, his heart was literally breaking in two. What hurt the most though is that Kiki hadn't bothered to even leave the room when he did just now. She'd been distancing herself throughout the entire argument and one look into her eyes told Morgan all he needed to know.. He'd officially lost her.. To his brother, no doubt.

Hey they had kissed a while back, more than once.

He found a bar that he knew would accept his lack of id, for money instead, and he signalled the bartender to 'keep 'em coming' as he sat there, thought about everything he'd ever went through, wondering when he'd ever be good enough for someone to love, someone to want, someone to need around.

He thought for a moment about ending it all, but he couldn't do that, he was too chicken, really. He thought about going back and just beating the hell out of his older brother, but he didn't want to do that either, because no matter what happened after tonight, they were going to be brothers forever.

"I'll take that bottle to go." he growled drunkenly as he placed money on the bar and took the bottle, stumbling blindly to the door and out into the night.

He was walking, or tripping every other step, more like it, when the headlights blinded him and he staggered, tripped and fell down. The car stopped maybe a few feet in f ront of him and he heard someone shouting at him in another language, angrily.

–

Today had been one hell of a long day for Zara. She'd had 2 classes back to back, then she had to turn in her piece for the paper, and then she'd had an audition for a musical she wanted to be in. Right now, all she really wanted to do, more than anything, was get home and strip down, fall into her big bath tub and just soak with some relaxing music.

Most girls her age were just now starting college, they were probably out partying. But having been adopted and raised by two of the most 'childish' people she'd ever met, Zara hadn't ever really been the 'let your hair down and get wild' kind of girl.. Unless, of course, she was dancing. That's the only time the wild side came out of the quiet and reserved 19 year old Brazilian American female.

She flipped through the radio station idly as she drove into town and then it happened.. A taller black haired male staggered drunkenly out of the nearest bar, and directly into the path of her car. Luckily, she hadn't been going as fast as she might have been normally, if it'd been a longer day, and she'd been more tired than usual. She quickly slammed on brakes and her Eclipse convertible came to a stop far enough away from him that she could see when he tripped and fell in the road.

"Is this idiot insane?" she muttered to herself in disbelief as she parked her car, turned on the fhashers and walked to where the guy lie.

She blinked and gasped a little when she saw him again.. Morgan Corinthos.. She hadn't seen him since his parents sent him to some boarding school while they were in high school. But he was still as ruggedly handsome as he'd been then and she held out her hand while giving him an angry speech in Brazilian AND English.

"You s-should have l-left me there, damn it." he growled roughly as he looked up at her, blinked a little, the crooked grin coming easily when he remembered her.

"I-i remember y-you.. I-i think."

"That's nice, but let's get you off the fucking asphalt, okay?" she said as she hauled him up off the ground and slid her arm around his back, his arm around her shoulder as she looked up and said "Do not throw up in my car, okay?"

"Y-you g-got prettier" he drawled as she blushed a little, shook her head and opened her passenger door, waving off some curious onlookers as she called out stffly, "Nothing to fucking see here, move along, people." and shut the door behind him after leaning in, belting him in.

His hand gripped her wrist and she flinched away, but then he said quietly, "W-why'd you stop?"

"Because, you big idiot, you were about to get ran over, if not by me, then by the next person who came whizzing through. "

His eyes roamed her small slightly toned and curvy body and he leaned in and brushed hair out of her eyes. "Y-you.. Your hair looks better long. Y-you should keep it that way."

"Where am I taking you?"

"Not to my wife's house. I'm gonna leave her.. S-she's in l-love with my f-fucking brother. And d-dad's out, I-i kinda punched him just now before I-I stormed out of my reception... I – I don't wanna hear my mom's shit tonight.."

She rolled her eyes in mild annoyance and biting her full lower lip, she looked at him and said "I'll take you back to my loft for tonight."

He managed a smile, nodded and gave her a thumbs up as he squeezed his eyes shut because everything was spinning, he felt good and numb, but everything still fucking hurt at the moment.

"So.. It sounds like you've had a shitty day."

"M-mhmm." Morgan said as he asked, "Y-you?"

"Me what?"

"A-are you married?"

She laughed a little, the sound crystalline, tickling his ears, making him grin the sideways cocky grin she'd fallen completely head over heels for in high school.

"No... Not me.. I'd rather give everybody else advice than even attempt to have my own love life. Besides.. I attract all the assholes in the free world, seems like."

He nodded and then said quietly, " I – I bust my as-ss and t-try to be a good guy.. But every time I do, my brother does it better.. My family hates me."

"Morgan, don't say that."

"A-aww.. now that's n-not fair, y-you know my name a-and I- I can't remember y-your name.." he mumbled as he leaned lazily against her, so maybe the world would STOP spinning, making him sick to his stomach as she managed a smile and then said quietly, "My name's Zara."

"T-that's a p-pretty name."

"You're not gonna be sick on me, right, Morgan?"

He shook his head, but he was getting paler and paler by the second.

They were only a street away from her small loft apartment on the less than glamourous side of town, a side he'd probably die before he breathed in, if he were sober, so she was happy when she pulled into her space in front of her 'loft' on the ground level, and he leaned heavily on the door, laughing and muttering drunkenly about how cars were getting 'too damn complicated to operate'

"Just give me a second, okay? I'll get it." she said as she walked around and opened the door, then leaned in again, their bodies brushing slightly, her nose filling with his expensive cologne and his system getting a jolt from her soft smooth skin and the cotton candy smell of her perfume. She unfastened his belt and held out her hand.

Once they were inside her loft, he looked around, smiled a little. This place had a warm lived in feel. It wasn't designer decorated, it was just bright, colorful, warm, inviting. He picked up a picture sitting on a bookshelf and smiled as he asked, "Y-your parents?"

"My adoptive parents, yes."

"Is this E-egypt?"

"Yeah.. My dad.. he traveled a lot for work.. Took me and my mom during the summer when it wasn't too dangerous."

"T-too dangerous?"

She gave a little laugh and said "Let's just say the mob isn't the only element of crime in good old Port Charles and leave it at that, shall we?"

"Ahhh."

"Yeah."

She walked through a beaded doorway and into her room, grabbing a pillow, and a blanket, then sighed as she realized that thanks to tonight's little unexpected surprise, her long hot bubble bath and sleep would probably be postponed, because she couldn't just leave him in there, drunk and heartbroken, probably sick as all get out before it was all over with.

She just wasn't that kind of girl.

Morgan looked around the pictures in the room, gaped at one of her in a bikini on a beach with a few other girls he thought he recognized from Madison Prep, the year or two he'd been there. He quickly sat it down, raked his hand through his black hair as he turned, bumped into her a little.

"W-where's your bathroom? I'm gonna.. I'm gonna be sick."

She helped him down the hallway and then stood in the pale blue and white tiled retro style bathroom as she wet a rag with cool water, held it to the back of his neck. "T-that.." he groaned as he continued to vomit, "F-feels good."

She nodded and then said "Empty now?"

He held up a finger and she groaned, turning her head.

"Better now." he muttered as he stood, his face going red with embarassment beneath his normally dark tanned skin.

"Okay, let's get you settled in on the couch." she muttered as she stood in front of him, looking up.

"You're prettier than I remember." he said again as she shook her head, looked down. "I 'm not pretty. You shouldn't be saying all this."

"If it's true, then hell yes, I'll say it." Morgan said calmly as he asked, "You don't take compliments well, do you?"

"Truth?"

He nodded and she shook her head and said "Not really."

She helped him into the living room and got him settled in on the couch, then went into her own room, flopped across the oversized bed, letting out a long breath.

Of all the ways she'd pictured seeing him again, of all of her racy fantasies, of all the scenarios, she never thought she'd run into him when he was at probably the hardest point in his life, and the lonliest in her own.

The phone rang and she called out, "Let it go to voice.. My ex is a douchebag, he's been calling lately."

Morgan raised a brow as the voice recorder recorded at least 4 minutes of a guy swearing angrily and drunkenly at her, demanding she come back to him, or she'd be sorry she ever met him, saying basically that if he wasn't with her, nobody else would have her.

"Wow. You weren't lying when you said you drew assholes to you." he muttered to himself in the dark and for a moment, toyed with picking up and telling the guy on the other end a few facts of life.

Or just giving him Kiki's number, hell, she liked to get around, apparently.

She lie in her bed, wincing as she remembered everything the guy on the phone put her through, and reminded herself why letting guys in was not a good idea. She always got hurt, or they got bored and left her. She wasn't enough for them, apparently.

She got the distinct feeling that it'd be a long night, one of her longest running crushes lying in the next room, on the couch, shirtless.

"The shit I get myself into." she muttered before she finally fell asleep, wondering if he'd even still be here in the morning..