Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was awkward. It was horrible, it was heart-breaking, it was everything you could find in the same theme, the day Hal Jordan understood Carol had replaced him with Kyle.

He had never thought she would wait for him, as he was busy with intergalactic war…ok, it was lie. A part of him he didn’t like to admit had totally believed that. That one day, they would find each other again. That he could spent months, years in space, and that he would have a place to come home, even if they had broken up times and times before. They would find each other again and be happy, without green or pink ring.

Instead….

It’s like his last tie to earth has snapped.

He doesn’t come back for two years. They see each other, from crisis to crisis, but the good thing, when the universe is ending, again, is that nobody can make you talk about your feelings, or worse, try to apologize.

Then Kyle and he are thrown together in a space jail, there is a pirate queen and some space horrors, and Hal remembers why he likes the other man so much, stolen ex-girlfriend or not. Kyle is the best Lantern he knows, Kyle is a good man, a good friend, Kyle was the man he was supposed to be, and his replacement when he became Parallax, and Hal had forgotten, for a minute, how much he admires and respected him, and loved him even.

When the choice between their two lives is in front of him, Hal falls on his own sword without a second of hesitation.

It’s logical, in his mind.

The two of them are important for Oa, but there are other Lanterns, and their rings will pick other wielders, but Kyle has someone to come home, and he…he doesn’t have anymore, he never will.

He survives, even if he deeply regrets it for a moment when he wakes up, before Oa’s medics put their hands on him and painkillers in his veins.

That was very much not in the program, neither John sending him to Earth for rest and. Hal is pretty sure the other fears him suicidal and Hal lost the words to explain himself.

It’s been too long since the last time he was Earth-side, no more apartment as usual, and he’s ready to fall back to his brother’s couch, as Kyle catches up with him near Jupiter.

His ex-girlfriend and her new lover’s couch?

Hal is without fear, but that seems like a recipe for disaster.

But he goes, because the truth is, refusing would be admitting he was hurt by their decisions and their love.

He goes, ready to regret it to the end of his days and to never admit it.

So, a week after, when he wakes up between the two of them, his body deliciously tired, adjusting to the new parameters is a little difficult.

“Hal,” the voice of Kyle whispers, “I never thought I would tell that one day, but sometimes you think too much.”

Hal opens his mouth to protest, because talking back, even when he really shouldn’t, is like his trademark, but he squeaks when Carol; behind him, bites his shoulder, as a warning. Kyle seals his mouth against Hal’s, and Carol’s hands are already pushing the sheets and they will probably crash and burn, and never be capable of working together, they’re probably dooming the universe with awesome sex right now, but Hal has run out of resource against loneliness, and he let them curve themselves around him and take, open and theirs.