Work Text:
Kyle falls in love as easily as breathing. Kindness is a love language, and smiles carry promises that steal Hal’s breath away more often than not. He doesn’t know what Kyle sees in him, doesn’t know why the other Lantern would ever pick him when he could have anyone else; Hal is a broken wreck of a man, with blood-stained hands, and Kyle - Kyle’s gentle, and kind, with the heart of a dreamer and a desperate desire for love. Kyle’s already been hurt by the world, and he doesn’t need Hal ruining him, like he ruins everything.
He’s so young, and innocent, and yet so burned, but he keeps reaching into the open flame that is Hal Jordan, ready and willing to take his hand. Kyle had proven over and over again how unafraid he was to get burned with every attempt he’d made to get past Hal’s walls, and bring back that little ember of goodness still inside him.
And he’d stoked that ember into a blaze.
Out of everyone, it was Kyle who brought him back. It was Kyle who showed him that little bit of unrestrained kindness that brought what little good remained of Hal to the front. It was Kyle would offered him his hand, who didn’t try to drag him back or beat him down, but instead wait patiently, over and over again, until Hal made the conscious decision to take back that part of himself that he’d buried deep after so much tragedy and loss and drag himself back into the light.
Kyle becomes his guiding light, and Hal doesn’t even notice. A beacon in the dark, always lit and ready to guide him home, and without even being aware of it, Hal falls in love.
Maybe at first, it’s a level of protectiveness over the younger Lantern, and even quite a bit of hero worship. Hal may be known as the greatest Green Lantern, but Kyle? Kyle is the greatest Lantern. He embodies emotion, lives and breathes them to the point where he’s become the White Lantern, the wielder of the entire spectrum and an avatar of life, and while he may no longer have the White ring, he still has the title on his very long and impressive resume. Hal admires him, looks up to him even. Undoubtedly, Hal would kill for Kyle, for his smile, and his light - he’d die for him too, though he’d always look for another angle if it meant that Kyle would be happy.
Kyle is a treasure, and Hal treats him that way.
Sure, they snark and poke at each other for their own amusement - Kyle’s a little shit in his own right and Hal’s never been one to stand down from a challenge - but they always have each other’s back. And by the stars, it was a good view too.
Hal falls in love with the young Lantern who guides him back to the light, who stands by him and reaches for him, and Hal returns those little things tenfold. Hal returns the favour; he defends Kyle, he cheers him on, and if anyone had a bad word to say about him, they’d have Hal to deal with. Kyle falls in love so easily, so desperately, that Hal worries that by returning his feelings he’s taking advantage of him, that he’ll hurt him like he’s hurt so many people; but then Kyle turns those big green eyes on him, lays those delicate artists’ hands on him, and all the worries and fear melts away, bringing forward the Man Without Fear, and Hal takes what’s offered. Every single time. Since Parallax, since the Spectre, Hal has kept careful control of himself, but Kyle - Kyle knows all the buttons to push, every lever to pull, that makes Hal feel like the impulsive young man he had once been. He reminds Hal of that swoop that always came with flight, the weightlessness and the rush of adrenalin.
This thing with Kyle - Hal wouldn’t give it up for anything. Hal grasps at it - at him - with his blood-stained hands, and he can’t bring himself to let go. He would, of course, when the day came that Kyle realized that he deserved better than Hal - someone younger, more worthy of him, who would hold Kyle’s hands with a fragileness that Hal doesn’t possess, who can look at art and see the same stories Kyle does - but until then, Hal will hold Kyle close and thank him for every moment he had given him.
Kyle gives so much that sometimes Hal is terrified that someone will take more than Kyle has. Kyle is selfless, giving, and he thinks with his heart, and that can be a dangerous combination. Someday, Kyle will give so much that he has nothing left, and he’d do it with a smile, because that’s the kind of person he is.
Because Kyle is a hero.
The ring feels heavy on his finger, and Hal sighs. Unable to sleep, he lifts his hand, staring at the faint glow of the power ring sitting innocently, and damningly, on his hand. It’s a sign of a lot of things; of responsibility, of failure, of second chances he doesn’t know yet if he deserves, and even after so long of having it back, Hal still doesn’t know how it came to be.
Kyle is a hero, one many of them could strive to be more like, and Hal doesn’t know what he did to deserve him. He doesn’t understand what he did to make the solid, warm presence next to him become reality. He doesn’t know why, out of everyone, Kyle could have chosen him . Hal was a wreck, anyone could have told him that, any one of his many exes could have told the younger man just how horrible he was, and how Hal would never deserve such goodness in his life.
Kyle may not have been perfect, but he was pretty damn near it, and Hal - Hal was broken in so many different ways. He’s too old, too damaged for Kyle, but it was still Hal who Kyle had given everything to.
“What are you thinking about?” A sleepy voice draws Hal from his head, and he turns his head to meet Kyle’s foggy eyes as the younger man rolls over, throwing his arm - warm, solid, and alive - over Hal’s hips.
“Nothing.” Hal assures him, lowering his hand into Kyle’s inky hair and smoothing his fingers through the sleep-mussed waves. “Go back to sleep.” He looks dangerously attractive this way, eyes half-lidded and gleaming in the faint moonlight streaming through the blinds, bare skin surrounded by messy sheets, and face faintly flushed. There’s dark marks scattered across his skin like large freckles, stretching across his shoulders, down his chest, and up his neck, and Hal finds himself staring at the one he had placed just high enough that Kyle’s uniform wouldn’t fully cover it. A physical sign of what they had been getting up to during Kyle’s Earth leave.
Kyle hums thoughtfully, but the more he blinks, the more the lingering sleep fades from his eyes, and he splays himself dramatically across the lower half of Hal’s body, cheek resting on his stomach and he stares up into Hal’s gaze. “Nah.” The younger Lantern says lightly, and the way the moonlight catches his face makes Hal wonder if he really was completely blind to the meaning of art, with the way it steals his breath away and makes Kyle’s eyes glow. “I’m awake now.”
Hal huffs thoughtfully, hand settling on Kyle’s lower back, tracing his fingers around the little mole near his ass that tended to stand out when Kyle wasn’t wearing clothes under his uniform, and he smiles slightly at the shiver than travels up the younger Lantern’s spine in response. “It’s your leave.” He points out playfully, getting a petulant look in response, “You really should be sleeping.”
Kyle scoffs, before straightening, throwing a leg over Hal’s hips pointedly, hands on either side of the older man’s head, “I could think of dozens of other things I could be doing right now.”
Hal’s eyes spark at the challenge, and he shifts his hands to Kyle’s hips, thumbs rubbing at the other Lantern’s navel, tracing wiry muscles formed through intense training but softened by an artists’ lifestyle. “I’m sure you could, beautiful.” Hal purrs, getting a cheeky grin in response.
“The question is if you can keep up, old man.”
Hal twitches, because that hits a little too close to the thoughts that had haunted him earlier, and Kyle’s brows furrow in response, his playfulness melting away.
“Hal?” The younger man probes, green eyes darting across Hal’s face, searching and categorizing what he sees. “You okay?”
“You deserve better,” Hal finds himself saying, “I’ll ruin you.”
Like I ruin everything else. Hal doesn’t say. He's a broken, ruined wreck of a man with gray at his temples and lines starting to carve themselves into his face. He's already made it so much further than his father before him, and Kyle - Kyle who sees the good in everyone, including someone like Hal - deserves so much better.
Kyle’s expression ticks down to a faint frown, eyes flaring stubbornly. “You won’t.” His chin sets in determination, brows furrowing, and he sits up.
Hal sighs, throwing his arm over his eyes, “I hurt you,” he whispers. “I manipulated you - hurt you. Used you.”
“Parallax did.”
“I was Parallax.” Hal says bitterly, meeting Kyle’s eyes from the crook of his elbow. “Everything Parallax saw, everything he did - that was me. Parallax wasn’t even there until after I’d already destroyed the Corps, Kyle.”
“And you’ve gotten your redemption, Hal. Parallax is a virus that could have infected any of us, just because of our connection to the power battery.” Kyle tells him, expression so earnest that Hal wants to believe him. “You wanted to redeem yourself so badly you changed the spirit of vengeance into the spirit of redemption.” The younger Lantern smiles, and a part of Hal quivers in fear at the genuine love in Kyle’s eyes. “You won’t hurt me, Hal. I know you won’t, even if you don’t. And do you want to know why I know?”
Hal’s voice is hoarse when he responds, “I’ll bite.”
“Because you’re a good person.” Kyle says unhesitatingly, “And I believe in that.”
“Well,” Hal’s laugh is shaky, and neither of them draw attention to it as he gathers himself, “if the Torchbearer believes so.”
Kyle’s smile is like the sun peeking through the clouds on a rainy day, signalling to the world that somewhere there would be a rainbow. He leans down again, gently sweeping their lips together. Tender and sweet, and all the things Hal never thought he’d know until Kyle.
“I know so.” Kyle tells him, and it carries as much weight as their Oath.
Maybe someday Hal will be able to believe in himself as much as Kyle seems to.