An intense, terrifying sense that he was falling jolted Kyle wide awake. His eyes snapped open, and it only took a second to realize he was sliding off the bed.

Kyle made a frantic grab for the sheets, and his fingers met skin instead. He groaned internally and used the sleeping body beside him to haul himself back up. Wally had shoved him off the bed again. There wasn't any room to lie down, so Kyle rolled over Wally to his other side and stretched out again. He swore that the redhead fought wars in his sleep with how much he moved around.

"You ass," Kyle croaked out fondly. He reached out and swept a hand down Wally's shoulder. The touch seemed to make Wally's body regret its decision to kick him out of bed, because it turned over and groped blindly for him. Kyle helped him out and scooted a bit closer, exhaling in breathy laughter when the unconscious speedster fumbled to fuse his body with Kyle's. Their legs tangled together under the covers, and Wally pulled Kyle half on top of him.

Kyle had no intention of resisting. The redhead was still fast asleep, so Kyle curled one arm over him and settled in against his chest to go back to sleep for a few more hours. Wally's arms wrapped around his waist, fingers gripping his sides protectively.

'That's it,' Kyle thinks helplessly as he noses his face into Wally's throat. 'I'm done for. I never wanna wake up beside anyone else ever again.'

He drifted in and out of sleep for awhile, half-dreaming things like being late for work or being back in high school and losing his class schedule. But something - some weird ringing noise - kept drawing him back awake, so he gave up trying and just listened to his boyfriend's breathing instead.

Kyle traced patterns over Wally's smooth skin with his fingertips, imagining drawing stark, black lines of paint all over his body. Heat coiled in his stomach at the thought, and he made a mental note to suggest it to Wally later that night. He heaved a content sigh and couldn't help the goofy grin on his face as he watched Wally sleep.

He's too gorgeous like this - hair all mussed up, ginger eyelashes resting against his cheek, freckles standing out more sharply than usual across his nose, expression relaxed and elegant. Every now and then, his eyebrow would twitch in response to some dream stimuli, and his mouth would quirk upwards - having a good dream, Kyle hoped.

He imagined dragging a wet brush head down Wally's chest in whorls of emerald green, lining the contours of his stomach with deep blues, highlighting his ribcage violent crimson. Kyle grinned to himself, biting his lip and shifting his hand to lie over Wally's heart. He'd happily spend all his time looking at Wally until the world ended.

It wasn't until another noise startled him awake that Kyle even realized he'd fallen asleep again. It wasn't a ringing this time but a high jingling sound like keys. He burrowed into Wally's neck with no other thought than completely ignoring it and spending the entire day in bed.

Slow footsteps echoed through the apartment and down the hall to their bedroom. And that was when Kyle's eyebrows pulled together in groggy confusion. He cracked one eye open at a time and twisted around in bed to look over his shoulder at the blurry figure hovering at the other end of the room. Kyle blinked the sleep from his eyes and lifted his head to get a better look.

Hal Jordan was standing in the doorway to the bedroom in his iconic flight jacket, bag slung over his shoulder and sparse key ring dangling from his fingers.

Kyle went deathly cold as all the blood drained from his face. He shot straight upright in bed and gaped at the senior Lantern in abject horror.

Hal stared right back at him, lips pursed and jaw stony, one eyebrow quirked high in irritation to frame the look of murder in his eyes.

Kyle didn't move a muscle - didn't even try to breathe - afraid that one errant twitch would make him pounce. It didn't help that Hal was staring at him like a jungle cat, expression tight and ready to snap.

Hal's keys clinked together when he clenched his fist, and that broke the tension. He turned around and moved back down the hall without a single word. Kyle held his breath a few moments longer until he heard the sound of a duffel bag being dropped on the floor.

"Wally!" Kyle wheezed as all the air left him in a rush. He shook his boyfriend awake, glancing at the door again to see if Hal had come back. "Wally, get up!"

"Whutizzit…?" Wally rolled over to press his face into Kyle's arm, eyes still firmly shut.

"Hal's here!" Kyle shoved him away, his voice a hissed whisper.

"Huh?" Wally was already falling back asleep.

Kyle straddled his legs and physically pried his eyelids open, "Hal. Jordan. Is. In. Our. Kitchen."

Wally jerked upright so fast that he almost knocked their heads together, "What?!"

"Yes," Kyle got off him as Wally scrambled to throw the covers off himself. "He had a key; he let himself in or something."

"He's early!" Wally picked a shirt up off the floor and jammed it over his head, still sleepy but grinning ear to ear and radiating excitement.

"…What?"

Wally tugged the hem down over his hips and flashed Kyle one bright smile before disappearing out the door, "I told him he could stay with us for a few weeks - y'know, until he gets back on his feet."

Kyle felt like he might throw up.

Less than a month ago, they got Hal Jordan back. Parallax caught the attention of the Justice League when the fear entity traveled just a bit too close to Earth. The League mobilized as many heavy hitters as they could and went out to meet him, which Kyle had known really meant 'eliminate him'. Wally and anyone else deemed too close to the situation were purposely left in the dark and left behind. They weren't even made aware of what happened until the fight was over.

Luckily, the League was able to stop Hal without killing him. The Spectre managed to wrest every last trace of Parallax from Hal's soul and restore him, but no one could save him from a trial on Oa. John and Guy brought him back to the Guardians' home planet, and Kyle monitored the outcome for Wally while the two-week trial raged on, sending and receiving messages through his ring. Hal was eventually cleared of all charges and reinstated as a Green Lantern, and then he was allowed to return to Earth.

And apparently, he was here - in Kyle and Wally's apartment. Right now.

Kyle knew that Wally hadn't seen Hal face to face yet, but he didn't know that they'd spoken somehow. He wished that his boyfriend had given him a heads up. Kyle had been warned by Guy and John that Hal found out he and Wally were together, and he wasn't happy about it. When he told Wally about it, the redhead just waved it off and told him not to worry - but it was hard not to when he found out that the man who'd single-handedly decimated the entire Green Lantern Corps hated him.

It didn't look like John and Guy had been exaggerating either.

Kyle sucked in a deep breath through his nose and carefully tip-toed down the hall after Wally, making sure to keep out of sight. He could hear Wally's thundering footsteps come to a halt, and then he heard the speedster's musical laughter joined by another, much deeper voice. It was foreign-sounding and full of a strange hollowness that raised the hairs on the back of Kyle's neck, but he kept moving closer and closer until he was right outside the kitchen. One more step…and there they were.

Then it struck Kyle full in the chest that this wasn't the sort of moment he should intrude on. Wally had both arms wrapped tightly around Hal's neck, face buried in his shoulder, and Hal was holding onto him just as desperately. Neither were laughing anymore - just clutching each other close as if…as if they hadn't seen each other in years and never thought they would again.

Kyle felt awful. This wasn't about him meeting the terrifying 'in-laws' and maybe getting a vaguely threatening shovel talk. This was about Wally being reunited with someone that he loved like family.

Kyle loosened up and even managed a small smile when Hal pushed Wally out to arm's length and looked him up and down like a proud parent.

"Shit," the infamous Lantern chuckled, voice tight with emotion. "Look at you, kid, you're taller than me now."

Wally beamed, unconsciously squaring his shoulders and drawing up to his full height, "Almost. I think you've still got a couple inches on me."

Hal waved it off with a laugh and reeled Wally in for another hug, "We'll round down and call it even, yeah?"

"Sounds good," Wally agreed as he locked his arms around Hal in return. Kyle saw his eyebrows pull together just slightly, and then he was blurting out, "I missed you so much - there are so many things I wanna tell you."

And Hal looked guilty when he heard that, "I missed you too, kid."

They pulled apart reluctantly, and Hal jerked his thumb at a pile of fast food bags and coffees sitting on the counter behind them, "I picked up some breakfast on the way over. How about you catch me up on your life while we eat?"

At the sight of hot food, Wally practically started salivating. In a dash, he had the lid off one of the coffees and was pouring sugar into it and cracking a mischievous grin at Kyle still standing in the doorway, "Well, if we're going in order of importance…"

Oh no.

"Let's start with Kyle!"

Very slowly, Hal's eyes swiveled from Wally all the way around to lock dead on Kyle. He blinked once. Twice. It was very much like having a bird of prey assess how quickly it could eat you. Kyle felt his body entering fight or flight mode, and he started to sweat. Hal crossed the distance between them in a few long strides, "Oh, I've heard about Kyle Rayner already."

Something about how Hal used his full name made it sound like it belonged on a hit list.

Wally was oblivious to the underlying tone of the exchange, laughing and going a bit pink around the ears, "Yeah? I bet John told you, didn't he?"

"He sure did," Hal replied absently, not taking his eyes off of Kyle for a second, still coming closer and closer. Kyle took a step back and collided with the wall behind him with a low thump. He swallowed hard and stared back at Hal with wide eyes, wondering if this was it. This was the day he would die.

Hal held out one hand towards him, the corners of his mouth turning up in a dark smile. Kyle could've sworn that his brown eyes turned almost black in the shadows of the hallway - black like the black holes in space that Hal probably wanted to throw Kyle into. "I hear you're Wally's new boyfriend, Kyle. It's very nice to meet you."

Very reluctantly, Kyle grasped Hal's hand and shook it firmly, trying not to yelp when the Lantern's fingers closed around his like an iron vice, "Uh, yeah, you too. Nice to…meet you."

"Oh man, I need a picture! Two of my favorite people finally meeting!" Wally declared gleefully right before he left the room in search of a camera. "I'll be right back!"

The strangled 'No!' was squashed when Hal suddenly jerked Kyle closer. His whole body tensed up for a fight when Hal grabbed his other arm to hold him in place, leaning in over his shoulder until Kyle could feel his breath on his ear, "You and I are going to have a little talk very soon. And at the end of that talk, you will know exactly what's going to happen to you if you ever break his heart. Understand?"

"Y-yessir…" Kyle managed in a hoarse whisper.

"Good," Hal replied sunnily. He turned around and slung a heavy arm around Kyle's shoulders, steering him into the kitchen like they were old friends. Wally reappeared a few seconds later with his camera held up and a triumphant grin, completely unaware of what just happened.

"That's perfect, guys!" Wally trotted back a few steps to get the two of them centered in the shot. "Stay right there. Okay, smile on three. One…two…"

It ended up being Wally's favorite picture - framed, hung on the wall next to the stairs, looked at every day. Even though Kyle's relationship with Hal improved by leaps and bounds over the next several months, he could still look at that picture and see the petrified, bone-deep look of fear in his eyes.