Owner	Pose
Kyle Rayner	The apartment is a lot more empty than it used to be. He didn't change the lock, it was easy enough to get in. HIs computer stuff for Youtube and Patreon takes up the living room. He used to have a roommate and a large Tv. Both of those are gone. His cat, Emerald, is nowhere to be seen. NOr is there a litter box. The Refrigerator is full of empty. A 6 pack of beer, some eggs, some veggies, and a jug of water.     This place used to be fun. Connor would be making food too spicy for Kyle to eat. They were friends. They had a sweet little cat. Now, the whole apartment just seems pathetic. Small. Empty.     Seems his pace trips have a real financial cost too.
Jade	Jennie-Lynn isn't so sure of her reception in this place. The last time they spoke... was heartbreaking. Both his and hers. She walks the apartment with a sense of sadness at the fact that it feels no longer lived-in. Perhaps they've both been gone too long. But she feels... like she owes him an apology. And it's one that needs to be made in person. So she lowers herself to the couch to sit. Just sit. And wait for Kyle to return. The fact that thre are some eggs and veggies are at least an indicator that he's been here very recently. And if he's on Earth, this is where he comes.
Kyle Rayner	About 10 minutes later, a key turns in the door. "Honey. I'm ho-ooome." Kyle singsongs almost bitterly. She sees the keys sail from the door to land in a plastic bowl on the bookcase. "152 times, not a miss." he says to himself. The door shuts, and Kyle steps in.     It's like a double barreled shotgun blast to the face, seeing her sitting there. Relief and happiness wash over his face, only to be replaced by hurt and pain, then a careful neutrality. "I don't owe you money, do I?" It isn't said bitterly. "I settled all my debts before I went to space." In case he didn't go. That explains why some of his nicer things are gone; he likely pawned them. That is Kyle though, making sure it is right before he goes. "Want a beer, Jen?"
Jade	The rapid shift of expression across his face leaves her momentarily hopeful and then less so. "No... you don't owe me anything. And no... I don't need a beer. Thank you." She moves to stand up, her hands clasping nervously in front of her. Nibbling the corner of her lip, she asks quietly, "Are you... okay? I mean... the invasion and everything...?" She trails off rather lamely.
Kyle Rayner	"I have a couple new scars." Kyle allows. "Nothing major, and I will get this sorted on Oa at some point. I'm still pretty." he walks into the kitchen and bends over to get a beer. He shuts the door. He leans to one side, and pulls down a photograph. He hands it over. "Here." It's jade with the cat. "She's fine. Mom has her." His left hand twists the top on the beer right off. He's still strong. He maybe looks a little more trim and thin. Maybe.     "What can I do to help you, Jen?" he asks with a small, sad smile.
Jade	She doesn't move to take the photo, though a small smile quirks the corners of her lips at seeing the cat. She loves that cat. Her green eyes flicker upward from the photo to his face, and he can see the sorrow in her expression. She's never been good at hiding her emotions. "Probably nothing... except hear me," she tells him honestly. "I came to tell you that I'm sorry. I didn't... really understand the lure of letting space take over. Not... until now." She looks away from him, her hands still clasped. "It was hard to come back. Hard to find my headspace. To be Jennie and not Jade. And I didn't really appreciate //how// hard. I... just wanted you to be whole, Kyle. And I thought ..." She pulls in a breath and looks back at him. "I just came to tell you that I'm so sorry." There's just nothing else she //can// say.
Kyle Rayner	"There are planets that have people on them because I don't draw like I used to." Kyle answers Jade quietly. "That sounds like such bologna. I know. It sounds full of myself, and egotistical, and just bad. But, it's the truth." Kyle takes a long swallow from his beer. He very tentatively holds out a hand to her. "Ke-keep the photo. Emmie always liked you best."     His eyes close. "For my part. I'm sorry too. I should have shown you." Holy crap. She got an apology. An honest to goodness, real, genuine apology. He looks aside, and his teeth worry at his lower lip. "I do miss it. But... duty, Jen. I have a duty. People look to the skies, and they need something up there to provide them with strength. Sometimes, well, sometimes that's me."
Jade	She nods slightly. "I know..." She finally does know. It's clear in her deep green eyes. The regret, the sorrow as she takes the picture from him. "Sometimes... it has to be us. I just... hated that all of it seemed to mean more to you than I did," she admits softly, looking down at the image. "I was losing you to the Lantern Corps and I didn't know how to stop it. And I couldn't... keep watching it. You were like one of those soldiers who goes off to war, and every time you came back... there was a little less Kyle. I needed... a balance. And I couldn't seem to find the words to explain what I needed."
Kyle Rayner	He just looks aside at that. "You... I..." He walks to the sinks and puts the beer in there. He doesn't pour i out. He just puts it there. His hands press at his temples. "You can't just say that, Jen. I love you. I always have, and I always will. Since I met you in a coffee shop. From that moment, it's just Jen. You can't... you don't lose me. I had to eat, Jen. I love to make art. I need to put a pencil in my hands sometimes. I mean, it's a need. But I mean, this luxury?" he says it with irony, and gestures at the apartment. "I gotta live. I can't keep a 9-5. I mean, what am I supposed to do?"
Jade	Jennie-Lynn shrugs slightly. "Freelance, same as I did. Draw for fun just some of the time, maybe?" She crosses her arms and says, "I didn't think I was asking for that much. But I understand a little better now why you thought I was." The admission is hard. "I've been following leads in space for six months. It's... really hard to come back. It's hard to basically have to start looking for jobs as soon as I got here. And then realizing that some of them... I could be called out in the middle of, which would kill my professional life." She shrugs a little. "It's a hell of a lot harder to balance, I think for you, than I realized. Up til now, all of my stuff has really been here." On earth, or at least in the local stars.
Kyle Rayner	"I respect that. You really shouldn't venture that far out." Kyle doesn't get man or nasty about it. "I mean, I can auto translate, and flash a ring, and have some legitimacy. You're just this gorgeous green girl with a moral imperative." He pulls in a long breath. "I'm not trying to be bossy, or mean. I just now need to worry about you in space." He worries?     "I thought you were fine, safe and sound here." He frowns a bit. "Just where have you been?" He walks over and the move is maybe unexpected, but familiar. A hand on the small of her back that slides to her derriere to pull her against him. She has to look up to see his face, but it feels familiar. He is a little skinnier than she remembers.
Jade	Jennie shrugs slightly. "Chasing down rogue parademons, making sure there's nothing in nearby space that will bite us in the butt in the immediate future," she tells him quietly. "Following up on a few rumors." When he tugs her against him, she doesn't resist... but she doesn't throw herself into his arms either. Instead, she reaches up to hug him, both arms wrapped tightly around him. "I'm sorry, Kyle," she whispers. "I just came to tell you that." Clearly she had no expectation of him allowing her to step back into his life. "You don't have to worry, I promise." She pulls away just enough to look up at him. "I just needed you to know."
Kyle Rayner	"Well then. I guess I'll just have to see you in action. I'm tracking down some pirates. They have a tendency to take the piracy a little too far. Go figure. Space combat is lethal by nature. When I have actionable intelligence, you and I will go handle it, okay?" he starts to hoist her up by that grip on her backside. "Just don't expect anything better that dutch for a little while, okay?" he asks. "Paying half a year's worth or rent really tapped me out." He is pulling her really rather dangerously close to his mouth. "You gonna kiss me? I've got beer breath."
Jade	There's a slow blink. "Wh... what?" The dawning of that hope in her green eyes is a beautiful thing to behold. And she pulls back a little farther, to see him as she wraps her legs around his waist automatically. Leaning down to put her forehead to his, she murmurs, "I can't believe you're stupid enough to say that." Then she kisses him ... and damn, but the woman can kiss. She kisses him with every iota of missing him that she's felt in the past months.
Kyle Rayner	"Just shut up and ki--hmphLe!" Well played, Jen. You win. He leans back on the counter to get a little support as he fiercely kisses her back. His hands roam over her back. It's not an overt sexual act, more a re-acquainting of his hands and her form. He pushes off the counter and walks over to the couch as she kisses him and sort of flops there. Her atop him, his arms about her.     How often did they fall asleep like this? His kiss is long, sweet, and longing. Finally, he breaks it off. "Okay.. I'll draw a little. Sometimes." He whispers. "Just no more break ups. 'kay?"
Jade	She doesn't let him up for air until they're plunked on the couch. And as she stretches out atop him, curling herself easily into him with one leg between his, Jennie-Lynn grins at him. "I love you too." Break-ups suck! But she won't make him a promise she's not entirely sure that //they//, as a couple, will be able to keep. Not yet. She does, however, offer quietly, "You know.... I have an apartment. Being as you're hardly ever here anyway.... it's big enough that we could share it. Then maybe the expenses wouldn't be so bad." She might not promise no break-ups, but she's... offering an opening of her life that they haven't talked about before.
Kyle Rayner	It's natural to sort of fall onto the couch. His hand tangles in her hair. He closes his eyes contentedly. She can feel tension ease out of his shoulders. His pulse slows, his breathing deepens and slows. "Okay. So... we are partners." he says, sort of poking up. "Just try not to call me Kyle in uniform, okay?" He spares her the warmest of smiles that he can. "You want me to move in with you?" he asks her. "You must have really missed me." There will be no dealing with him now. None.     He actually thinks it over. "Kind of a big step. You need to be sure. It isn't like I will just be able to step back out and get out. I mean... this is a palace." he looks the place over. He makes a slight face. "I will start packing tonight." He says quietly.
Jade	She might not be entirely certain. It's there in her face. But Jennie tells him quietly, "I think we should have talked about it before... because you can't //draw// for fun if you're always struggling to find work for //pay//, Kyle. And I just... kind of assumed that you were taking extra freelance work." There's a kind of pained grimace. "Or I would have offered a lot sooner." Her own work does well enough that when she falls short, she has a cushion. It never occurred to her, really, that he didn't.
Kyle Rayner	"Well. Basically. Yeah. Patreon is great. Except it sort of locks me into doing the stuff I am already doing. It's a trickle of steady income every week that amounts to a good chunk of my income. Youtube is a lot the same. I do a lot of space videos there, drawing things, and explaining how the universe works, at least as well as I can. But it is very dry. It isn't a comic book, certainly, and it isn't you." He has drawn her a lot. Often. She has almost all of them. He might have a couple.     His view of her is very flattering. He purses his lips. "Okay. We revisit the arrangement after three months?" he asks her. "If it isn't working, we figure out what we are going to do?"
Jade	"That sounds fair," Jennie tells him with a soft smile. "Three months with no strings on it and we'll figure out if it can work." She leans down and kisses him softly. "We'll make it work out. It's just sharing space as well as free time. We were doing that anyway, just .. not in the same apartment before."
Kyle Rayner	"You were over a lot." Kyle gives her a warm little look after very thoroughly kissing her back. He gives a little nod of his head. "You already know I don't keep a lot of clothes." Nope. BLack suit. Gray suit. A bunch of t-shirts, and about 5-6 shirts with collars. Boy needs a makeover. "Other than my kitchen, and my art supplies. I'm good. I can also cheat how I pack." He gives her a long look. "Ummm. Okay. Uhm. You do mean to, umm, share a room?" he makes sure. "And can I bring my couch? Its way more comfortable than the one you had." Ugly as hell, but it is cozy.
Jade	Oh Lord.... Jennie eyes him. "The ugly couch has to come? Hrm... that might be a dealbreaker." She's teasing, though. Or at least mostly. "I... Are we together again?" she asks. "If we are... then it seems like maybe sharing a room is the thing to do. If we're not sure... maybe you should stay in the other room until we are?"
Kyle Rayner	"Well. Do you still steal the covers and snore?" His tone is teasing. Kyle tries to defuse a little tension with humor. There is this look on his face.     "No. I am sorry. That didn't work last time. how about we go with this?" Kyle looks really uncertain for a moment. He swallows, and pushes that fear aside. "It's always you, Jen." he says finally. Immediately he looks vulnerable and uncertain. "It's always been you. It always is you, and it will always be you." His fear hand slides up to straighten his hair. His other hand holds her a little tighter. "So... you tell me what you want, and that is just going to be the way it'll have to be." He slowly closes his eyes. "And hurry up and talk, because I am super-mega-ultra-vulnerable right now."
Jade	Oh.... oh god! Jennie stares at him, because Kyle //never// lays out his feelings. Ever. For a moment, she is too stunned to even breathe, much less give him an answer. And then she lays her head down on his shoulder and says softly, "I can't promise I'm not going to hurt you again. I suck at this stuff. But... I would like you to move in with me. Even if we need to revisit to make sure it's still working."
Kyle Rayner	He is still profoundly uncomfortable. "What I am saying, Jen, is this. You tell me what you want? I'll do it. You tell me what the price is to have Jen in my life, and I will pay it."     Kyle pushes out a long breath. It's a little beer-scented. "Because let's be honest?" Kyle keeps his voice low. "This?" His hand slides from her hair for a moment to indicate the apartment. "This. This is not working." Ouch. His man-pride.     He looks aside. "Besides. mom says letting you go was the dumbest thing I have ever done. She had a list of dumb things. it was a little humiliating. I think she likes you more than she does me, sometimes."
Jade	Awww! That's awful! Jennie shakes her head. "Your mom loves you to itty bitty bits, stoopid," she informs him in an amused voice. "She just... knows that I do too." She nuzzles his cheek. "I //want// us to ... go back a few months so that I could tell you in better words what I meant. So that none of this happened. But I can't have that. So ... let's just go forward from here. Move in. Let's figure it out, okay?"
Kyle Rayner	His tone is quiet. "There really hasn't been anyone else." Kyle gives a pained look. Oh. OH! He pauses. "I did it on a Shia'ar Smasher, but she had a girlfriend." He admits it gently. "So, uhm.. yeah. You know everything now. I haven't been to Oa in a bit. I just sent a ton of data up to the living legend. We're all good here."     No one else at all? Just what the hell has Kyle been going through?
Jade	Jennie reaches her arms around him and merely holds him tightly. She'll draw him out about what's been happening. In time. But right now is about... reconciliation. Re-learning one another's quiet spaces. "I love you, Kyle."
Kyle Rayner	"I love you too." Kyle allows, sighing softly. "You want me to get the cat back from mom, don't you?" He looks t her sideways. "Mom will miss her, I think, right up until I tell her that Emmie is moving in with both you and me. That cat will be on the front porch waiting for us." He rolls his eyes.