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“Is that a fucking crater over there?”
“Maybe?”
“What the fuck, is that where you landed?”
“Oooh, you want to ask me something?”
“I just did”
“Aw, come on. You know the line, just say it~”
Guy didn’t say it. What Guy did was stare in mild disgust at the man at his feet.
“No”
“Saay iiit~”
Even upside-down the idiot could make for a very convincing pout. But convinced Guy was not, so the man reached up to poke at his knee for good measure, the faint glow of his ring shifting the shadows on his face.
Guy scratched the sole of his boot on the dusty ground, shaking his head.
“Jordan, how long have you been layin’ here?”
Hal made another face. His head sunk in his shoulders and he dropped his arm back on his stomach, resuming staring up into the night sky.
“I don’t know, what time is it?”
Guy rose a doubtful eyebrow at the question, but indulged it.
“Half past ten”
“Oh, well, then…”
Hal frowned, and for a moment Guy thought his wrist moved just a bit, as if remembering the weight of a watch. But there was no watch of course, and the brain attached to the arm had clearly forgotten what watches were for, anyway.
“...few hours”
“Few hours” Guy repeated, kicking harder at the dust. Hal rolled on his side, to avoid getting any in his eyes.
“Why the fuck didn’t you call?”
There was no answer. Hal sat up, and all Guy could see for a while was the back of his old tee, caked in red sand, and a ruffle of bad pillow-hair.
Guy wasn’t much of a patient man.
“You come back to Earth, I know nothing of it, and I gotta spend God fucking knows how much time scanning with my ring for where you landed your ass.There’s this thing called a phonecall that you-”
“I lost my phone. I guess.”
The defensive tone wasn't lost on Guy, of course.He would have had something to say about that, but he was too pissed at being interrupted to derail from the previous argument.
“Ringcall, whatever!”
“I did ring-call you”
“No, your ring ring-called me!” and what the hell was even that phrase. Jesus. The worst part was that it actually made sense. Even Hal had to admit it, because he turned to look up at him. And for like, a millisecond, Guy imagined his face looking apologetic.
Trick of the green light, for sure. He only looked frowny, of the confused kind.
“It’s the same thing”
“You son of a bitch”
“Whoa, hey” strong words always had an immediate effect on Hal. Admittedly, anyone would have gotten nervous with someone of the bulk of Guy Gardner looming over them with a bad attitude. But the way the man shifted, Guy had seen too many fights not to recognize someone getting ready to throw down.
Lucky for him, Guy wasn’t at that point yet. A year ago, maybe. A year ago he’d been just mad. Now...he wasn’t going to think too hard about his feelings, thank you very much.
“It’s not the same damn thing!”
Hal felt light when Guy grabbed him by that miserable shirt, much lighter than he remembered. How long had it been, this time? Seven? Seven months. More things he wasn’t going to think about. The way Hal was glowering at him, if he did too much thinking and not enough talking someone was going to end up with a black eye.
And Guy had to hand it to Hal, lightweight or not, that someone could have been him.
“It’s not the same damn thing, asshole!” if Guy let go of the man it was just because he thought he’d driven the point across. Not because Hal’s eyes were getting too green, or because of this pressure swelling behind his forehead, like the start of a sneeze. Besides, he couldn’t shake the fool and point at him accusingly at the same time, and fuck if he deserved every drop of judging Guy could deliver.
“‘Cause if I get a call from a damn ring, and not from you, I’m gonna start worrying about what the hell happened to you!”
Hal...well, Hal’s face definitely did a thing at that. And Guy’s suspiciously timed headache vanished soon as the man dropped his stare to the ground.
“Oh” was all he said.
“Oh, my ass. You owe me an apology, half a day of work and 50 dollars for the gas I had to use to drive to the middle of no-where to look for your possibly unconscious body or someshit.”
There were a lot of things Guy wanted to ask, like ‘why did you land in a desert and sat in it instead of coming home’ but the fact that Hal was squinting in the dark now like someone desperately trying to remember how much was 50 dollars in the current economy hinted at the sort of answers Guy wasn’t sure he was ready to hear.
“Am I going to get any of these?” he asked instead.
Hal had the decency to look sheepish for a moment, at least. But of course things could never be that easy with him.
“I didn’t mean to...I mean, you could have just ringed me back, you know, to make sure…”
Guy clapped his palms together, loudly enough to make the other flinch.
“Not an apology. Try again.”
Jordan blinked, and then frowned. “I didn’t ask you to come over here!”
Another clap. It was worth it just to see the mix of baffled and offended look on the other’s face.
“Again, Jordan”
“Quit that.”
Of course Guy didn’t quit that.
“One last try, before I just leave you here?”
“Fuck you, Gardner”
Guy only smiled at the insult, watching the other man turn away and retrieve his jacket from the ground, swinging it over his shoulder like he was getting ready to just walk the last 200 miles to Coast City.
“An’ you wonder why people hate you”
That was a low blow, yes. Guy knew. He could see it, too, in the way Jordan's shoulders tried to square up and failed.
But there was no answer. No answer and no other sound but the crunching of sand under the other’s boots as he walked away.
Sweet Jesus Christ. What a disaster of a human being. Guy wasn’t sure he was more aggravated or amused at this point.
“Jordan!”
Nope, still marching away, of course.
“Jordan, where the hell are you going?”
“Home!”
“We live together, asshole! I’m gonna be there when you arrive!”
This time the fuck-you was not verbal. He wouldn’t have been able to see if not for Green Lantern Light. In darkest night, indeed.
“Bet you don’t even remember where your keys are!”
Well well, look at that. That did stop him. Guy was definitely leaning on the amused right now.
“I’ll…” Hal was trying to stay mad, clearly. But he was trailing off already, like his brain was still drifting too much to really hold onto anything.
“Suck it up and get in the car, Jordan”
Guy didn’t actually wait, neither to hear or to see what the other would do. Half because he honestly didn’t care, half because he was pretty sure Hal would start considering things like being cold and hungry in the next two minutes, tops.
He was already fastening his seatbelt when the car door clacked open and then slammed close.
Hal was a dark silhouette slouched on the seat, arms crossed tight in word-less and yet loud sulking.
Real mature. Guy’s kids were better at this, and he taught preteens.
He waited some more, but made no attempt not to stare. Fucker deserved to squirm.
“I...I do not remember where my keys are”
“Try up your ass, with your head”
Forget apologies. This was so much better. Guy grinned and leaned across the dashboard, fishing up a big keychain with a miniature F-16, practically basking in the waves of shame coming off the idiot as he dangled them in front of his nose.
Eventually Hal sighed and opened his palm, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
Guy started the car, in the most deliberately smug way he could manage. And he could manage a lot of smug.
“You’re a fucking piece of work, Harold.”
“Mhm.”
What, not even protests at his full name? Wow. He’d really KO’d him this time, and no punching involved.
Good.
The engine roared and Hal did liven up a little at the sound, though not in the way Guy had imagined.
“Hey. Hey, come on. Before we go. Say it?”
Guy rolled his eyes. This shit again? Thinking of it, it was typical Jordan, needing his ego stroked a bit after losing an argument.
Guy didn’t have to do it. Honestly, thinking about all the hours of driving still ahead he didn’t feel inclined to, at all.
But, okay. He’d won. He could be gracious, sometimes.
“Fine. Did it hurt, when you fell from the sky?”
Hal grinned, Guy snorted, cursing under his breath for the terrible joke.
Still, when the car rolled away in the night and Hal tilted his head out the window to look at the stars again, Guy was sure that the answer was yes.