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thejusticelounge2014-11-08 07:12 am
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2014-11-08 07:12 am
soft-boiled eggs
In the morning, Kyle crawls into bed behind Zee and pushes his freezing cold nose into the back of her neck as he tries to wrap his limbs around her for warmth. "Space's cold," he snuffles in his most petulant voice.
Zee’s shoulders hunch, trying to protect her neck from the intruding cold of Kyle’s skin. She swats a hand at him for good measure, not yet awake enough to move away from him. The challenge of properly recognizing Kyle is also difficult when he feels like an ice cube instead of his usual warm self.
It’s only by his whining that she start to actually wake up. Rolling over in his arms she smiles sleepily up at him, “You’re like subzero right now, c’mere.” she presses herself against him and rubs her hands against his face in an effort to get him warmed up.
It’s the reaction he’s hoping for, because when she turns towards him, all of Kyle’s favorite things about Zee face him. He smiles and kisses her brow, her collarbone, the corner of her mouth - and then nuzzles his face into the pillow of her breasts.
"Mmm," he says, muffled against her pajama top. "Now this is cozy."
She grins as Kyle settles against her breasts, and rests her chin on the crown of his head, feeling satisfied. “Missed you.” Zee hums, even if the phrase is understood between the two of them by now when they reunite after time apart, it never hurt to remind him.
Lightly she rakes her fingers through his hair. She can smell the metallic scent of space that still clinging to him. “How was it?” she asks Kyle softly, still staying tentative towards Green Lanterning following Kyle’s long grounding on Earth.
"You tooooo," Kyle sing-songs against Zee’s skin, as he’s managed to find a gap between the buttons of her pjs. He wraps his arms around her tighter, always just a little thrilled to hear her say it.
But he keeps clinging, opening his eyes to focus on a tiny pink mole on the curve of her shoulder. ”It…it was eventful,” Kyle says quietly, and he pulls himself out of the warm cocoon to look up at her. “I’ll, I mean - it’s - ” He takes a deep breath, then lets it out hard and short.
"Well let’s, let’s talk about it later. I wanna tell you," he adds quickly, so she knows he’s not dodging the topic and hoping it’ll be forgotten. "I do, just…not now. Right now I just wanna soak in all my Zees. Mm. I’m glad you were still in bed, nena."
She sighs softly at the start of Kyle’s answer, her face pinching for a second as he lets out a breath of his own. There’s some frustration in not hearing how things went right away, as she doesn’t like being left to her imagination. It’d been running wild for too long lately. It’s only Kyle’s promise of just not now that keeps her comfortable.
Zee curls her fingers around the shell of his ear. She catches on it between her fingers, and rubs against it slightly as she nods, “Okay, we’ll save it for later then. There’s no rush,” her expression relaxes, easing back to where it had been.
"Of course I’m still in bed. My days have not been the most encouraging to wake up to lately…wait. What time is it?" she asks with a start, firmly pushing up against Kyle to check her alarm clock behind him. While her enthusiasm for days was lower than usual, she still needed to be active, and to be doing something. For Zach’s sake and her own.
Kyle twists to glance at the clock, then back at Zee, at her sudden alertness and wide blue eyes, a far cry from her sleepy warmth a few seconds ago. He reaches up and strokes her tousled hair back from her face.
"It’s ten thirty in the morning," he murmurs, sitting up slightly. "Madame Minxx got the kids to Tower School, you musta slept right through it all." He smiles a bit, saying, "Ten’s kinda early for you, but. Uh, we can get up, get coffee going and alla that?" He sits up more, scratching his jaw, and then at his ear where she’d rubbed it.
"Everything okay?"
Finally seeing the time, Zee sinks back down on the bed. She nods at the mention of Madame Minxx, “Of course she did. She’s like a real life Mary Poppins- from the books, not the movie.” a distinct clarification there. Mary Poppins in the novels was a far less saccharin character, but still no less impressive in her childrearing skills.
"Yes, can we please do coffee and breakfast. Let’s do that." she smiles planning out their meal to him, "I got fresh bagels yesterday, I’ll split one with you if you want. Or you can have your own. Or eggs. There’s always eggs."
By now Zee’s rolled out of bed, too jazzed up by breakfast to stay put (although breakfast in bed would be nice). But, her excitement doesn’t keep her from dodging his question. If anything, having Kyle was perfect. She’d needed to vent about this for days. “I want to say no- that everything is not okay, but really it’s not gotten life or death bad just yet. It’s…I’m basically having to pull a fixer with everything that Zach’s dealing with, but so far I have next to nothing for who was impersonating him,” she shakes her head in frustration, and slowly pulls back long tendrils of her hair into a loose ponytail. “I feel like I need to keep pushing to look for things, but I’m apprehensive, because everything with Zach and me seems to be a family deal. You can’t involve one of us without the other. So, what do you think? Not okay or am I just stressed up to my eyeballs?”
Kyle slows in getting up and pauses as he sits on the edge of the bed, listening to Zee talking. He hadn’t quite expected her to launch into the things she was saying - usually they were used to being either extremely blase or a bit more silent on their personal issues - but here is Zee, talking. Talking about stuff she’s dealing with, that Kyle hadn’t realized.
That it was about Zachary Zatara was eclipsed by the warm feeling of pleasure over the sharing, and so Kyle was able to revise his thoughts before he blurted out something brash and testy about Zee’s cousin.
"But what can you do for him, corazon?" he asks as mildly as he can, choosing to concentrate on her role rather than his ire over Zachary Zatara. He follows her into the kitchen, watching the silk tie of her robe flip back as she loops it, like a pale tail. "What I mean is - you’re thinking the impostor is tied to….to you somehow? You aren’t really thinking…" Kyle grabs the water carafe for the coffee, filling it with the brita’d water as he glances over at Zee.
"…you think it really does - it actually might have to do with Sindella? You found anything so far?" The idea that this is tied to Zee’s mother settles like a rock in his stomach, and he watches Zee closely, waiting for her speculation.
"About all I can do now is play sheriff. If it’s some run of the mill magical hijinks, I can handle it. Humiliate or obliterate whoever is trying to pick a fight with Zach." Zee shrugs, "But something tells me this isn’t that simple, although whoever was acting like Zach is more powerful than him. They pulled off magic he can’t do. Plus the entire accident. It’s not just damaging to his image, Kyle. He’s had…personal loss with car accidents. It feels targeted to me.”
Zee opens the fridge, “Did you even want eggs, or juice or something?” she’s heard Kyle’s question over Sindella, and had decided to stick her head into the fridge, not letting Kyle see the way her mouth puckers, and her eyes water at the mention of her mother’s attention now falling to Zach. After a few seconds rummaging around, She grabs a bottle of cranberry juice, closes the fridge, and answers him, ”I’d love to tell you I’ve found no traces of Sindella, but I haven’t even dared to look down that rabbit hole. I don’t even want to know if it’s her at this point, but still,” her voice becomes higher, growing uncomfortable as she speaks. ”I need to figure it out for Zach’s sake.”
She sets the juice container on the countertop, freeing up her arms to fold across her chest. Zee pumps her shoulders as she adds for Kyle’s benefit, “I know he’s an ass, but he’s my family. I can’t let her hurt him. I don’t want to think it’s her, but what choice to I have? Go on living thinking she’s gone when she’s not? Because clearly that didn’t work the first time, my mom is like freaking invincible, and selfish. It’s a fantastic combination.”
Shaking her head, Zee laughs quietly to herself, finally glancing over at Kyle to see how he’s taking this all in, “Although Zach has made it perfectly clear he does not give two shits about my personal drama. He just wants out, like everything else.”
It might’ve been his silence as she talks, but it really is like Zee’s read his mind. Or, really, that she just knows him very, very well. With the coffee percolating, Kyle boils some eggs - just for a minute - and finds those bagels Zee had mentioned, popping a couple in the toaster. While he waits, he takes her proffered glass of cranberry juice and drinks it. A recent change in taste - because Zee liked cranberry juice, Kyle grew to like it as well.
"Well I think you’re awesome for doing what you’re doing," Kyle says finally. "And I’ll help you out, any way I can. I hope Zachary appreciates how much you’re trying to fix his problem for him." He shakes his head again, frowning as he takes another gulp of juice. "You feel guilty, don’t you. Like somehow this is all your fault." He levels a look at her, unable to suppress all of his irate thoughts. To soften his expression, Kyle steps over to Zee and squeezes her shoulder, then leans down to kiss it. "He’s made you think you’re to blame for alla this, hasn’t he."
The soft-boiled eggs are nearly done, and Kyle moves over to rescue them from their watery bath. One of the few things he’d perfected was a soft-boiled egg - although it’s not exactly something many people enjoy eating. Still he prepares two for each of them to dip the buttered bagels into.
"Y’know what he doesn’t realize is that these things happen not because of the League or the Titans. They happen happen because he’s Zachary Zatara. Blaming it all on you and making it your problem won’t stop these things from happening. He’s a relative to Giovanni Zatara and he’s famous and he’s literally magical. Things…are bound to happen to him. Things happen to all of us. The more he keeps up this ‘me versus everyone else’ attitude, the worse it’s gonna get when something else happens…sabes.”
"Of course I feel guilty, Kyle. Wouldn’t you?" she moves her hand over his waist, drumming her fingers against him briefly, "I think he’s projecting. He’s trying to make me feel bad because he feels bad. It’s what we do to each other, like family guilt or something."
As Kyle finishes off breakfast, Zee slides into her barstool. She watches Kyle as he works, thinking how it feels like he’s reading her mind on how she feels towards her cousin and his current situation. “He kind of has a point though, the Sindella stuff is all me.” she argues back with him softly, as it’s not really a point she feels the need to argue. Zee would be more than happy to share the blame.
"Yeah, I hope he realizes that. But I can’t totally tell. When I asked him about leaving hero work, he kept pushing on how he wanted to concentrate on his work. He still said he’d be there for me on magical issues, but that’s sometimes hard to believe," she drags a portion of her bagel through her soft boiled egg and lets the yolk soak into it. "Things are always bound to happen to us, that’s just the nature of how we work. This whole situation is like some stupid PSA like, don’t forget you’re here forever. Even if you don’t want to save an ungrateful public anymore."
Zee leans in her seat towards Kyle’s, and jabs her fork at a portion of his cooked egg white, “You know, outside of the whole thing in Texas, at least you’re still managing good press as GL. It feels like everyone in the League is on some public most hated list or something.” she smirks, “William’s gotten so annoyed with my twitter feed or whatever it is.”
No matter how many times Kyle hears Zee talk about her and Zach, he’ll never understand how their dynamic works. It just sounds like Zee is used to being disappointed in Zach, and doesn’t expect anything more or better…but at the same time feels responsible for him and for his well-being.
But ultimately, it’s not really for him to understand. So he reaches over and squeezes her hand.
"As long as you’re okay with…doing what you’re tryina doing for him. And as long as you guys - both you and your cousin - are gonna be okay. With each other, I mean. And if there’s anything you need to start looking into, it’s who the hell would bother to impersonate Zachary Zatara like this. Like y’know? It’s just weird."
He pulls over his WT tablet, settling into their early morning routine of breakfast, company and updates. Kyle drinks his coffee and flips through the newsfeed idly. “Well - I mean - what I do tends to be a bigger deal out in space than down on Earth. I got lucky with El Paso. Oh which reminds me!” He glances up at her with a slight smile, slightly anxious to be sharing with Zee, but also excited about it. ”About what I did on mission. I was actually following up on another inci…dent…”
Kyle fades off, frowning as he scans a news article on his tablet. He turns it to face Zee - in it are two rather egregious artworks of both Zee and Zach, and then basically a long screed from Gordon Godfrey lambasting the Zataras and also taking his usual potshots at Mar’i.
"Cape Registration Act??" Kyle sputters, pointing it out to Zee. "What the hell is this all about? Have you seen this??"
"It is weird, I agree…because I’m still not seeing what anyone, at least anyone with powers, could get out of it. Even from my mother’s point of view, there’s not much to gain." Zee muses softly. As Kyle gets out his tablet, Zee toys with her phone, taking particular note of her oddly empty calendar. Not good.
"Oh right right right, you’re a hotshot in space. Should I get some subscriptions to some trashy space gossip magazines to keep up to date on you?" Zee teases Kyle lightly. As Kyle jumps subjects she sits up straighter, eager to hear what he wants to share with her now, "Is it the incident I’m think…" she begins slowly, but the question never completes. Kyle’s frowing, and not looking at her, "What’s wrong?" and the tablet is turned her way.
She glances over the article. The artwork alone (Bat nipples. They drew fucking bat nipples on her.) should’ve tipped her off to how she’d be feeling once she’s read enough. “No I haven’t seen that. I haven’t heard anything about that.” she takes an angry bite of the remainder of her bagel, shouting through her mouthful, “DIS ESH SHUCH BULLSHET!”
She wants to throw a tantrum. To storm around the apartment and throw pillows and shout and scream because this was so beneath her. This was such a waste of her time and energy to deal with. But that’s what they’d probably want her to do, to freak out. Instead, Zee leans back against her stool, trying to defuse her anger over the situation. After a while, she finally manages to swallow her large bite, allows herself one outburst, snapping, “I fucking hate this,” and that’s enough. She drags a hand over her face, slowly trying to calm down, and move past it. Deep breath. Count backwards from ten, nine eight…”I’m sorry, you were starting to talk about you. What happened with you. I’d much rather hear about that.”
"Yellow Lanterns," Kyle says, rubbing his eyes vigorously, suddenly feeling very, very tired. No amount of coffee was going to help. He felt the need for 16 hours of straight-up sleep…that, or a recharge on his ring. He has a feeling it’s gonna end up being the latter. He opens his eyes again, absorbing Zee’s reaction as he continues. "They’re back. But they were - they were trying to be covert." Kyle’s mouth twists in anger and his usual feeling of revulsion at anything the Yellow Lanterns do, as he crushes the piece of bagel clutched between his fingers, turning it into mushy dust.
"They weren’t so much razing densely-populated areas like last time as they were trying to…slither through ‘em. I dunno how to explain it. And anyway, unfortunately there wasn’t much I could do for now, not by myself. There were at least five teams of two, Zee. Five teams across the sector and I’d be loco to take any of them on. Especially because of the fact that they weren’t hurting anyone, which meant that with the Oan laws it means that even if…ahhhhh. Anyway." He waves a hand, tipping his chair back as if to get more perspective.
"Anyway, boring Lantern politics. Bottom line is, I can’t make any move alone, so put a call out to the Corps and then told ‘em I was headed back to Earth. I have this planet to look after and I got a feeling it’s about to get ugly here, Zee. Real soon, and real fast."
He glances down at the tablet again, then pulls his fingers on the screen, enlargening that artwork of Zee. Kyle smiles slightly, crookedly as he looks up at Zee, then back at the artwork and then back to his girlfriend.
"They got a pretty good artist’s rendition of you, I gotta say," he says, his smirk turning somewhat mischievous.
At the confirmation of Yellow Lanterns, Zee reaches out her hand to rest of Kyle’s knee, squeezing it gently. ”Keeping a low profile doesn’t seem like something they’d do. But then again, I don’t take out Yellow Lanterns like you. What do I know.” she frowns, “Do you think maybe they’re a part of planning something too?” for his sake, she hoped not. But that hope didn’t feel like it was worth much lately.
"So, since they didn’t do anything and you didn’t do anything it was just kind of surveillance?" she asks, "How’d you feel about it? I mean I know you don’t like them, obviously but…you know," she wants to push on the subject of Yellow Lanterns, with everything with her mother happening all at once, it felt like Kyle’s situation had been put on pause. She wanted to make sure he wasn’t bottling it up.
"At this point, I sort of want things to come to a head. All this waiting for a tipping point is exhausting for me." the entire ordeal over the last several months had been exhausting for all of them. Maybe she should put into practice the help she’d offered Jason, try dosing herself with a sleeping potion more often to try and make up what she’d been missing.
Zee scoffs at the artwork, “Please, you draw me better than that. And you don’t give me Bat nipples. Like what the hell is that?!” her fingers drum against his knee, and she matches Kyle’s mischievous smile, “And hey, you get to see the real deal. Not some dumb rendition of my gorgeous topless figure.”
"Well obviously this ‘artist’ has likely never seen a real lady before, like, ever, but…" Kyle drags Zee’s stool closer to his, wrapping his arms around her once she’s close enough to hug. "…I am the lucky fella who gets the real deal. I missed you. And my two favorite planets…" Kyle grins as well, kissing Zee on her cheek.
With breakfast over, he releases her to clean up, talking as he packs the milk and other sundries away. ”Some kinda surveillance was exactly what I thought too. Which ties into their behavior last time they were here. I mean, not that Yellow Lanterns have much reasoning as far as I’m concerned but, tearing up cities and then skulking about months later…seems like they’re switching up strategies for hopefully they same results.” Kyle turns and looks at Zee grimly. ”They’re searching.”
Cleaning over, Kyle heads into the living room, flopping onto the couch. Eating over, he feels exhausted. ”And believe me, I might sound all logical and calm about this, but I’m not. I’m…” He reaches his hand out to Zee, beckoning her to sit close to him. ”I’m terrified. I - I dunno if I can handle this all on my own. I wish the others were here, on Earth…” He looks momentarily sad, somewhat lost. Kyle grips Zee’s hand tighter. ”But hey - I’ve done crazier things all on my own Lantern steam. Right? That wasn’t so long ago. I’m sure I can handle it. I’m sure of it.”
Kyle smiles at Zee, leaning in to kiss her again, this time on her pink mouth. ”And even if not, at least I can die knowing just how hot your gorgeous topless figure really is. And I get to see that whenever you want me to. Mm.”
Zee laughs lowly, teasing, “And your two favorite planets really missed you too!”
She watches as Kyle busies himself around the kitchen, occasionally flicking her wrist here and there to help him out. How he came directly from space and jumped right into making them breakfast and cleaning up she would never know. If she was in Kyle’s shoes, she would’ve been reuniting with her queen size bed by now.
"No, their amount of reasoning seems about equal to stereotypical frat bros. Show up, trash the place then take off. Them laying low after all that destruction is one serious about face. It doesn’t make sense. They don’t seem like a strategy making kind of group…and even if they were what could they possibly be after. They promote fear, right? Do you think that has anything to do with what’s been going on? Because there’s a lot of scary shit going on."
Zee gladly follows Kyle’s motion, curling onto the couch right up against him. His nearness is comforting, and him voicing his concerns for his wellbeing, is oddly something to find solace in as well.”I’m sure you can, Kyle. You can handle this, I know you. Right now, you’re sounding calm and logical because you’re preparing yourself. Like we all are,” she curves a hand against his cheek, his scruff rubbing up against her palm in it’s usual way, “What’s that crazier thing you’ve done?” Zee asks, a low and curious hum in her voice.
"You’re not going to die because I’m here." she asserts confidently, "That’s totally not happening on my watch. At least not until I get to see if you start going bald I have bets made," a playful smirk pulls at the corners of her mouth, "Also because who else is going to draw me naked and be accurate about it?! Only you."
Kyle gives in completely to nuzzling against Zee’s hand, kissing her palm as he slides his hands underneath her pj shirt. But he only gets his arms around her pliable waist before he slumps back heavily on the couch, going all boneless and carrying Zee with him. He is so in the mood, but he’s also. So. Tired. Therefore, laying like a dead trout on the couch, holding a bundle of soft, amenable Zee on top of his prone self will have to do for now.
"Oh just stupid Lantern crazy things. Not so much frat boy as army boy. But anyway - Sinestro was pretty controlling, he was really organized when he led the Yellow Lanterns. Scarily so, really, which…well. Fits the modus opera…operation of a Yellow Lantern," Kyle muses, rubbing his nose on the crown of Zee’s head. "But thanks for the vote of confidence, sweetheart. I mean it, no sarcasm here! I like how you see me as a Lantern, I really do."
Yawning widely, Kyle tries to keep his brain functioning as he rubs up and down Zee’s back. She’s so responsive to his touch, and it’s such a turn-on…but Kyle’s fighting his eyes from shutting right now.
"Wait. Are you telling me that if I die you’ll bring me back? Like a zombie? Like - like a Jason Todd? Honey I knew you were enchanting but I didn’t know you were so ghoulish! Issat why you got your little crush on the guy? Post-mortem fetish?" It’s easy to tease Zee, mostly because Kyle knows how well she takes it and also because, in space, he’d been giving a lot of thought to that whole Jason Todd situation. When he wasn’t busy hunting Yellow Lanterns, of course.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t hear her response, because a few seconds later, Kyle lets out a rather soft but quite long snore.
Kyle is being an absolute tease, but Zee doesn’t completely mind. She can tell he’s finally hit the wall as he slumps back against the couch, dragging her with him. So, she kisses along his t-shirt instead, staying comfortable on top of him. As he rubs along her back, she shifts her hips, and runs her hands along his shoulders just enough for him to notice, teasing him back for being so tired.
"What?" Zee giggles, "You think I want to reanimate you if you die? You know that’s one of the few things I haven’t tried before." she shakes her head, nosing against his soft shirt, "It’s close to Halloween, it brings out the best in me, what can I say?"
At Kyle’s mention of Jason, Zee goes into full blush, ducking to rest her head against Kyle’s chest and look out at the living room rather than to see him grin at her light embarrassment, “That’s not why I have a crush on him!” she insists, “I don’t wanna sleep with dead people. I don’t do death.”
Resting her head against his chest, she waits for his reply, ”You’re not even listening to me are….you.” by now Zee’s finally noticed Kyle, snoozing away. With a sigh she casts, “Teknalb. peels.” and she falls back to sleep against Kyle. Investigating things with Zach would have to wait for today.
Zee’s shoulders hunch, trying to protect her neck from the intruding cold of Kyle’s skin. She swats a hand at him for good measure, not yet awake enough to move away from him. The challenge of properly recognizing Kyle is also difficult when he feels like an ice cube instead of his usual warm self.
It’s only by his whining that she start to actually wake up. Rolling over in his arms she smiles sleepily up at him, “You’re like subzero right now, c’mere.” she presses herself against him and rubs her hands against his face in an effort to get him warmed up.
It’s the reaction he’s hoping for, because when she turns towards him, all of Kyle’s favorite things about Zee face him. He smiles and kisses her brow, her collarbone, the corner of her mouth - and then nuzzles his face into the pillow of her breasts.
"Mmm," he says, muffled against her pajama top. "Now this is cozy."
She grins as Kyle settles against her breasts, and rests her chin on the crown of his head, feeling satisfied. “Missed you.” Zee hums, even if the phrase is understood between the two of them by now when they reunite after time apart, it never hurt to remind him.
Lightly she rakes her fingers through his hair. She can smell the metallic scent of space that still clinging to him. “How was it?” she asks Kyle softly, still staying tentative towards Green Lanterning following Kyle’s long grounding on Earth.
"You tooooo," Kyle sing-songs against Zee’s skin, as he’s managed to find a gap between the buttons of her pjs. He wraps his arms around her tighter, always just a little thrilled to hear her say it.
But he keeps clinging, opening his eyes to focus on a tiny pink mole on the curve of her shoulder. ”It…it was eventful,” Kyle says quietly, and he pulls himself out of the warm cocoon to look up at her. “I’ll, I mean - it’s - ” He takes a deep breath, then lets it out hard and short.
"Well let’s, let’s talk about it later. I wanna tell you," he adds quickly, so she knows he’s not dodging the topic and hoping it’ll be forgotten. "I do, just…not now. Right now I just wanna soak in all my Zees. Mm. I’m glad you were still in bed, nena."
She sighs softly at the start of Kyle’s answer, her face pinching for a second as he lets out a breath of his own. There’s some frustration in not hearing how things went right away, as she doesn’t like being left to her imagination. It’d been running wild for too long lately. It’s only Kyle’s promise of just not now that keeps her comfortable.
Zee curls her fingers around the shell of his ear. She catches on it between her fingers, and rubs against it slightly as she nods, “Okay, we’ll save it for later then. There’s no rush,” her expression relaxes, easing back to where it had been.
"Of course I’m still in bed. My days have not been the most encouraging to wake up to lately…wait. What time is it?" she asks with a start, firmly pushing up against Kyle to check her alarm clock behind him. While her enthusiasm for days was lower than usual, she still needed to be active, and to be doing something. For Zach’s sake and her own.
Kyle twists to glance at the clock, then back at Zee, at her sudden alertness and wide blue eyes, a far cry from her sleepy warmth a few seconds ago. He reaches up and strokes her tousled hair back from her face.
"It’s ten thirty in the morning," he murmurs, sitting up slightly. "Madame Minxx got the kids to Tower School, you musta slept right through it all." He smiles a bit, saying, "Ten’s kinda early for you, but. Uh, we can get up, get coffee going and alla that?" He sits up more, scratching his jaw, and then at his ear where she’d rubbed it.
"Everything okay?"
Finally seeing the time, Zee sinks back down on the bed. She nods at the mention of Madame Minxx, “Of course she did. She’s like a real life Mary Poppins- from the books, not the movie.” a distinct clarification there. Mary Poppins in the novels was a far less saccharin character, but still no less impressive in her childrearing skills.
"Yes, can we please do coffee and breakfast. Let’s do that." she smiles planning out their meal to him, "I got fresh bagels yesterday, I’ll split one with you if you want. Or you can have your own. Or eggs. There’s always eggs."
By now Zee’s rolled out of bed, too jazzed up by breakfast to stay put (although breakfast in bed would be nice). But, her excitement doesn’t keep her from dodging his question. If anything, having Kyle was perfect. She’d needed to vent about this for days. “I want to say no- that everything is not okay, but really it’s not gotten life or death bad just yet. It’s…I’m basically having to pull a fixer with everything that Zach’s dealing with, but so far I have next to nothing for who was impersonating him,” she shakes her head in frustration, and slowly pulls back long tendrils of her hair into a loose ponytail. “I feel like I need to keep pushing to look for things, but I’m apprehensive, because everything with Zach and me seems to be a family deal. You can’t involve one of us without the other. So, what do you think? Not okay or am I just stressed up to my eyeballs?”
Kyle slows in getting up and pauses as he sits on the edge of the bed, listening to Zee talking. He hadn’t quite expected her to launch into the things she was saying - usually they were used to being either extremely blase or a bit more silent on their personal issues - but here is Zee, talking. Talking about stuff she’s dealing with, that Kyle hadn’t realized.
That it was about Zachary Zatara was eclipsed by the warm feeling of pleasure over the sharing, and so Kyle was able to revise his thoughts before he blurted out something brash and testy about Zee’s cousin.
"But what can you do for him, corazon?" he asks as mildly as he can, choosing to concentrate on her role rather than his ire over Zachary Zatara. He follows her into the kitchen, watching the silk tie of her robe flip back as she loops it, like a pale tail. "What I mean is - you’re thinking the impostor is tied to….to you somehow? You aren’t really thinking…" Kyle grabs the water carafe for the coffee, filling it with the brita’d water as he glances over at Zee.
"…you think it really does - it actually might have to do with Sindella? You found anything so far?" The idea that this is tied to Zee’s mother settles like a rock in his stomach, and he watches Zee closely, waiting for her speculation.
"About all I can do now is play sheriff. If it’s some run of the mill magical hijinks, I can handle it. Humiliate or obliterate whoever is trying to pick a fight with Zach." Zee shrugs, "But something tells me this isn’t that simple, although whoever was acting like Zach is more powerful than him. They pulled off magic he can’t do. Plus the entire accident. It’s not just damaging to his image, Kyle. He’s had…personal loss with car accidents. It feels targeted to me.”
Zee opens the fridge, “Did you even want eggs, or juice or something?” she’s heard Kyle’s question over Sindella, and had decided to stick her head into the fridge, not letting Kyle see the way her mouth puckers, and her eyes water at the mention of her mother’s attention now falling to Zach. After a few seconds rummaging around, She grabs a bottle of cranberry juice, closes the fridge, and answers him, ”I’d love to tell you I’ve found no traces of Sindella, but I haven’t even dared to look down that rabbit hole. I don’t even want to know if it’s her at this point, but still,” her voice becomes higher, growing uncomfortable as she speaks. ”I need to figure it out for Zach’s sake.”
She sets the juice container on the countertop, freeing up her arms to fold across her chest. Zee pumps her shoulders as she adds for Kyle’s benefit, “I know he’s an ass, but he’s my family. I can’t let her hurt him. I don’t want to think it’s her, but what choice to I have? Go on living thinking she’s gone when she’s not? Because clearly that didn’t work the first time, my mom is like freaking invincible, and selfish. It’s a fantastic combination.”
Shaking her head, Zee laughs quietly to herself, finally glancing over at Kyle to see how he’s taking this all in, “Although Zach has made it perfectly clear he does not give two shits about my personal drama. He just wants out, like everything else.”
It might’ve been his silence as she talks, but it really is like Zee’s read his mind. Or, really, that she just knows him very, very well. With the coffee percolating, Kyle boils some eggs - just for a minute - and finds those bagels Zee had mentioned, popping a couple in the toaster. While he waits, he takes her proffered glass of cranberry juice and drinks it. A recent change in taste - because Zee liked cranberry juice, Kyle grew to like it as well.
"Well I think you’re awesome for doing what you’re doing," Kyle says finally. "And I’ll help you out, any way I can. I hope Zachary appreciates how much you’re trying to fix his problem for him." He shakes his head again, frowning as he takes another gulp of juice. "You feel guilty, don’t you. Like somehow this is all your fault." He levels a look at her, unable to suppress all of his irate thoughts. To soften his expression, Kyle steps over to Zee and squeezes her shoulder, then leans down to kiss it. "He’s made you think you’re to blame for alla this, hasn’t he."
The soft-boiled eggs are nearly done, and Kyle moves over to rescue them from their watery bath. One of the few things he’d perfected was a soft-boiled egg - although it’s not exactly something many people enjoy eating. Still he prepares two for each of them to dip the buttered bagels into.
"Y’know what he doesn’t realize is that these things happen not because of the League or the Titans. They happen happen because he’s Zachary Zatara. Blaming it all on you and making it your problem won’t stop these things from happening. He’s a relative to Giovanni Zatara and he’s famous and he’s literally magical. Things…are bound to happen to him. Things happen to all of us. The more he keeps up this ‘me versus everyone else’ attitude, the worse it’s gonna get when something else happens…sabes.”
"Of course I feel guilty, Kyle. Wouldn’t you?" she moves her hand over his waist, drumming her fingers against him briefly, "I think he’s projecting. He’s trying to make me feel bad because he feels bad. It’s what we do to each other, like family guilt or something."
As Kyle finishes off breakfast, Zee slides into her barstool. She watches Kyle as he works, thinking how it feels like he’s reading her mind on how she feels towards her cousin and his current situation. “He kind of has a point though, the Sindella stuff is all me.” she argues back with him softly, as it’s not really a point she feels the need to argue. Zee would be more than happy to share the blame.
"Yeah, I hope he realizes that. But I can’t totally tell. When I asked him about leaving hero work, he kept pushing on how he wanted to concentrate on his work. He still said he’d be there for me on magical issues, but that’s sometimes hard to believe," she drags a portion of her bagel through her soft boiled egg and lets the yolk soak into it. "Things are always bound to happen to us, that’s just the nature of how we work. This whole situation is like some stupid PSA like, don’t forget you’re here forever. Even if you don’t want to save an ungrateful public anymore."
Zee leans in her seat towards Kyle’s, and jabs her fork at a portion of his cooked egg white, “You know, outside of the whole thing in Texas, at least you’re still managing good press as GL. It feels like everyone in the League is on some public most hated list or something.” she smirks, “William’s gotten so annoyed with my twitter feed or whatever it is.”
No matter how many times Kyle hears Zee talk about her and Zach, he’ll never understand how their dynamic works. It just sounds like Zee is used to being disappointed in Zach, and doesn’t expect anything more or better…but at the same time feels responsible for him and for his well-being.
But ultimately, it’s not really for him to understand. So he reaches over and squeezes her hand.
"As long as you’re okay with…doing what you’re tryina doing for him. And as long as you guys - both you and your cousin - are gonna be okay. With each other, I mean. And if there’s anything you need to start looking into, it’s who the hell would bother to impersonate Zachary Zatara like this. Like y’know? It’s just weird."
He pulls over his WT tablet, settling into their early morning routine of breakfast, company and updates. Kyle drinks his coffee and flips through the newsfeed idly. “Well - I mean - what I do tends to be a bigger deal out in space than down on Earth. I got lucky with El Paso. Oh which reminds me!” He glances up at her with a slight smile, slightly anxious to be sharing with Zee, but also excited about it. ”About what I did on mission. I was actually following up on another inci…dent…”
Kyle fades off, frowning as he scans a news article on his tablet. He turns it to face Zee - in it are two rather egregious artworks of both Zee and Zach, and then basically a long screed from Gordon Godfrey lambasting the Zataras and also taking his usual potshots at Mar’i.
"Cape Registration Act??" Kyle sputters, pointing it out to Zee. "What the hell is this all about? Have you seen this??"
"It is weird, I agree…because I’m still not seeing what anyone, at least anyone with powers, could get out of it. Even from my mother’s point of view, there’s not much to gain." Zee muses softly. As Kyle gets out his tablet, Zee toys with her phone, taking particular note of her oddly empty calendar. Not good.
"Oh right right right, you’re a hotshot in space. Should I get some subscriptions to some trashy space gossip magazines to keep up to date on you?" Zee teases Kyle lightly. As Kyle jumps subjects she sits up straighter, eager to hear what he wants to share with her now, "Is it the incident I’m think…" she begins slowly, but the question never completes. Kyle’s frowing, and not looking at her, "What’s wrong?" and the tablet is turned her way.
She glances over the article. The artwork alone (Bat nipples. They drew fucking bat nipples on her.) should’ve tipped her off to how she’d be feeling once she’s read enough. “No I haven’t seen that. I haven’t heard anything about that.” she takes an angry bite of the remainder of her bagel, shouting through her mouthful, “DIS ESH SHUCH BULLSHET!”
She wants to throw a tantrum. To storm around the apartment and throw pillows and shout and scream because this was so beneath her. This was such a waste of her time and energy to deal with. But that’s what they’d probably want her to do, to freak out. Instead, Zee leans back against her stool, trying to defuse her anger over the situation. After a while, she finally manages to swallow her large bite, allows herself one outburst, snapping, “I fucking hate this,” and that’s enough. She drags a hand over her face, slowly trying to calm down, and move past it. Deep breath. Count backwards from ten, nine eight…”I’m sorry, you were starting to talk about you. What happened with you. I’d much rather hear about that.”
"Yellow Lanterns," Kyle says, rubbing his eyes vigorously, suddenly feeling very, very tired. No amount of coffee was going to help. He felt the need for 16 hours of straight-up sleep…that, or a recharge on his ring. He has a feeling it’s gonna end up being the latter. He opens his eyes again, absorbing Zee’s reaction as he continues. "They’re back. But they were - they were trying to be covert." Kyle’s mouth twists in anger and his usual feeling of revulsion at anything the Yellow Lanterns do, as he crushes the piece of bagel clutched between his fingers, turning it into mushy dust.
"They weren’t so much razing densely-populated areas like last time as they were trying to…slither through ‘em. I dunno how to explain it. And anyway, unfortunately there wasn’t much I could do for now, not by myself. There were at least five teams of two, Zee. Five teams across the sector and I’d be loco to take any of them on. Especially because of the fact that they weren’t hurting anyone, which meant that with the Oan laws it means that even if…ahhhhh. Anyway." He waves a hand, tipping his chair back as if to get more perspective.
"Anyway, boring Lantern politics. Bottom line is, I can’t make any move alone, so put a call out to the Corps and then told ‘em I was headed back to Earth. I have this planet to look after and I got a feeling it’s about to get ugly here, Zee. Real soon, and real fast."
He glances down at the tablet again, then pulls his fingers on the screen, enlargening that artwork of Zee. Kyle smiles slightly, crookedly as he looks up at Zee, then back at the artwork and then back to his girlfriend.
"They got a pretty good artist’s rendition of you, I gotta say," he says, his smirk turning somewhat mischievous.
At the confirmation of Yellow Lanterns, Zee reaches out her hand to rest of Kyle’s knee, squeezing it gently. ”Keeping a low profile doesn’t seem like something they’d do. But then again, I don’t take out Yellow Lanterns like you. What do I know.” she frowns, “Do you think maybe they’re a part of planning something too?” for his sake, she hoped not. But that hope didn’t feel like it was worth much lately.
"So, since they didn’t do anything and you didn’t do anything it was just kind of surveillance?" she asks, "How’d you feel about it? I mean I know you don’t like them, obviously but…you know," she wants to push on the subject of Yellow Lanterns, with everything with her mother happening all at once, it felt like Kyle’s situation had been put on pause. She wanted to make sure he wasn’t bottling it up.
"At this point, I sort of want things to come to a head. All this waiting for a tipping point is exhausting for me." the entire ordeal over the last several months had been exhausting for all of them. Maybe she should put into practice the help she’d offered Jason, try dosing herself with a sleeping potion more often to try and make up what she’d been missing.
Zee scoffs at the artwork, “Please, you draw me better than that. And you don’t give me Bat nipples. Like what the hell is that?!” her fingers drum against his knee, and she matches Kyle’s mischievous smile, “And hey, you get to see the real deal. Not some dumb rendition of my gorgeous topless figure.”
"Well obviously this ‘artist’ has likely never seen a real lady before, like, ever, but…" Kyle drags Zee’s stool closer to his, wrapping his arms around her once she’s close enough to hug. "…I am the lucky fella who gets the real deal. I missed you. And my two favorite planets…" Kyle grins as well, kissing Zee on her cheek.
With breakfast over, he releases her to clean up, talking as he packs the milk and other sundries away. ”Some kinda surveillance was exactly what I thought too. Which ties into their behavior last time they were here. I mean, not that Yellow Lanterns have much reasoning as far as I’m concerned but, tearing up cities and then skulking about months later…seems like they’re switching up strategies for hopefully they same results.” Kyle turns and looks at Zee grimly. ”They’re searching.”
Cleaning over, Kyle heads into the living room, flopping onto the couch. Eating over, he feels exhausted. ”And believe me, I might sound all logical and calm about this, but I’m not. I’m…” He reaches his hand out to Zee, beckoning her to sit close to him. ”I’m terrified. I - I dunno if I can handle this all on my own. I wish the others were here, on Earth…” He looks momentarily sad, somewhat lost. Kyle grips Zee’s hand tighter. ”But hey - I’ve done crazier things all on my own Lantern steam. Right? That wasn’t so long ago. I’m sure I can handle it. I’m sure of it.”
Kyle smiles at Zee, leaning in to kiss her again, this time on her pink mouth. ”And even if not, at least I can die knowing just how hot your gorgeous topless figure really is. And I get to see that whenever you want me to. Mm.”
Zee laughs lowly, teasing, “And your two favorite planets really missed you too!”
She watches as Kyle busies himself around the kitchen, occasionally flicking her wrist here and there to help him out. How he came directly from space and jumped right into making them breakfast and cleaning up she would never know. If she was in Kyle’s shoes, she would’ve been reuniting with her queen size bed by now.
"No, their amount of reasoning seems about equal to stereotypical frat bros. Show up, trash the place then take off. Them laying low after all that destruction is one serious about face. It doesn’t make sense. They don’t seem like a strategy making kind of group…and even if they were what could they possibly be after. They promote fear, right? Do you think that has anything to do with what’s been going on? Because there’s a lot of scary shit going on."
Zee gladly follows Kyle’s motion, curling onto the couch right up against him. His nearness is comforting, and him voicing his concerns for his wellbeing, is oddly something to find solace in as well.”I’m sure you can, Kyle. You can handle this, I know you. Right now, you’re sounding calm and logical because you’re preparing yourself. Like we all are,” she curves a hand against his cheek, his scruff rubbing up against her palm in it’s usual way, “What’s that crazier thing you’ve done?” Zee asks, a low and curious hum in her voice.
"You’re not going to die because I’m here." she asserts confidently, "That’s totally not happening on my watch. At least not until I get to see if you start going bald I have bets made," a playful smirk pulls at the corners of her mouth, "Also because who else is going to draw me naked and be accurate about it?! Only you."
Kyle gives in completely to nuzzling against Zee’s hand, kissing her palm as he slides his hands underneath her pj shirt. But he only gets his arms around her pliable waist before he slumps back heavily on the couch, going all boneless and carrying Zee with him. He is so in the mood, but he’s also. So. Tired. Therefore, laying like a dead trout on the couch, holding a bundle of soft, amenable Zee on top of his prone self will have to do for now.
"Oh just stupid Lantern crazy things. Not so much frat boy as army boy. But anyway - Sinestro was pretty controlling, he was really organized when he led the Yellow Lanterns. Scarily so, really, which…well. Fits the modus opera…operation of a Yellow Lantern," Kyle muses, rubbing his nose on the crown of Zee’s head. "But thanks for the vote of confidence, sweetheart. I mean it, no sarcasm here! I like how you see me as a Lantern, I really do."
Yawning widely, Kyle tries to keep his brain functioning as he rubs up and down Zee’s back. She’s so responsive to his touch, and it’s such a turn-on…but Kyle’s fighting his eyes from shutting right now.
"Wait. Are you telling me that if I die you’ll bring me back? Like a zombie? Like - like a Jason Todd? Honey I knew you were enchanting but I didn’t know you were so ghoulish! Issat why you got your little crush on the guy? Post-mortem fetish?" It’s easy to tease Zee, mostly because Kyle knows how well she takes it and also because, in space, he’d been giving a lot of thought to that whole Jason Todd situation. When he wasn’t busy hunting Yellow Lanterns, of course.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t hear her response, because a few seconds later, Kyle lets out a rather soft but quite long snore.
Kyle is being an absolute tease, but Zee doesn’t completely mind. She can tell he’s finally hit the wall as he slumps back against the couch, dragging her with him. So, she kisses along his t-shirt instead, staying comfortable on top of him. As he rubs along her back, she shifts her hips, and runs her hands along his shoulders just enough for him to notice, teasing him back for being so tired.
"What?" Zee giggles, "You think I want to reanimate you if you die? You know that’s one of the few things I haven’t tried before." she shakes her head, nosing against his soft shirt, "It’s close to Halloween, it brings out the best in me, what can I say?"
At Kyle’s mention of Jason, Zee goes into full blush, ducking to rest her head against Kyle’s chest and look out at the living room rather than to see him grin at her light embarrassment, “That’s not why I have a crush on him!” she insists, “I don’t wanna sleep with dead people. I don’t do death.”
Resting her head against his chest, she waits for his reply, ”You’re not even listening to me are….you.” by now Zee’s finally noticed Kyle, snoozing away. With a sigh she casts, “Teknalb. peels.” and she falls back to sleep against Kyle. Investigating things with Zach would have to wait for today.