keelywolfe (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
keelywolfe) wrote2005-06-23 11:50 am
keelywolfe) wrote2005-06-23 11:50 am
FIC: Six Days, Seven Nights 4/6 (Connor/Kyle, NC-17)
Six Days, Seven Nights
by Keelywolfe
Fandom: DC Universe
Pairing: Connor/Kyle, (Green Arrow/Green Lantern)
Rated NC-17 (I'm gonna say yeah. *G*)
Notes: Day four, and this is longer than I meant. Oh, well.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. Just playing with them. Thank you.
Summary: Someone's not sleeping very much anymore.
Day Four
*
5:17 AM
Connor still wasn't sure why it was called a blowjob. There didn't seem to be much blowing involved with it, just a lot of sucking and licking and oh, fuck yes.
He wasn't in much of a position to worry about the name, but he had managed to decide that this was, without question, the best way he had ever been woken up.
"Ohhhh," he tried very hard not to groan as Kyle feathered his tongue ever so sweetly down the side of his cock. He had a double fistful of the sheets and Connor was going to keep holding on to them otherwise he was going to have them in Kyle's hair, and he was going to pull that hot, hot mouth down. Not that he was worried anymore about waking Kyle up. The past few days had taught him that it was possible a tactical assault with a cast iron pan wouldn't wake him up and now he knew the secret to bringing down this Green Lantern. All he needed was to find him when he was sleeping.
He'd heard Mia get up earlier and go downstairs, and please, please, let his father still be sleeping and not possibly hearing any of the little shuffly-bed moving noises. It would be very bad to move, the chance of making those sounds louder was entirely too close. Somehow, Connor had forgotten how to tell his lower half about that because his hips were on a mission, they had their orders and they were to get deeper into that oh, tight, wet and Kyle did this slippery little thing with his tongue because he was a rotten bastard --
His brain informed him, vaguely, that his hands were very much in Kyle's soft, soft hair that smelled a lot like Mia's shampoo, holding him down while he worked his tongue on Connor's dick like he'd been training for it.
There was just enough light creeping in from the window for Connor to squint downward and it was a huge mistake in a sea of bad ideas. The paler sight of his hands clenched in the dark, silky hair, Kyle's lashes dark smudges against his cheeks and his mouth, lips reddened, swollen and stretched around him and why hadn't anyone told him how pretty Kyle really was? They should have warned him, he should have to wear a sign, and oh, damn, fucking hell, all the swear words he'd ever heard seemed appropriate at just this second.
He could, oh, wow, feel Kyle swallowing around him, one hand stroking the underside of Connor's shaking leg soothingly. Kyle pulled off with a wet noise and scootched back up the bed, draping his arm over Connor in the traditional manner. Kyle sighed contentedly, another job well done by Green Lantern, and soon was snoring again.
Connor didn't move until the cool air started getting uncomfortable on his wet skin and then he arranged his underwear back into the proper position and gingerly slipped out of the bed.
Once again, his world had changed in strange and mysterious ways. Connor knew men who had returned from the dead, he'd fought against invading aliens and now, never again would he be able to say he didn't know if Kyle gave good head.
It was getting to look like he was going to need more therapy than Kyle when this was finally resolved.
Kyle rolled over in the bed and made a hurt-sounding little noise, his hand sweeping over the sheets. It was enough to make Connor decide to make a hasty retreat. Meditating in the basement seemed like a much wiser choice today. He skinned quickly into the feeble protection of a fresh pair of pants and a shirt and fled.
Maybe he needed to invest in a suit of armor.
*
6:10 AM
It was possible he was expecting too much out of his meditating skills to hope they'd help him resolve this issue, Connor decided. Though it wasn't like any of the monks had given him any tips on how to focus his thoughts on sex and Connor wasn't entirely sure he knew anyone he could ask about it. He and Nightwing weren't really that good of friends.
When he finally gave up and went upstairs, he found everyone in the living room going through their traditional morning routines. Mia was doing sit-ups. Ollie was working on the computer in the corner and Kyle was…eating that disgusting chocolate cereal of Mia's and watching some cartoon about a living sponge.
His feet were bare. It was sort of annoying that Connor even noticed that he had very nice feet. He sat down in a chair and snagged a book off the coffee table, resolutely not looking at, or thinking about, Kyle's pretty feet…pretty?
Dammit.
"You have such a full life, Kyle," Mia panted out. She stopped long enough to pull one of her socks off, rolling it up and tossing it with decent aim at Kyle's head. It bounced off his forehead and narrowly avoided the bowl in his lap. "When do you find time to work out?"
"I don't," Kyle mumbled around a mouthful of cereal. He picked up the sock and tossed it at Connor. It fell short by at least two feet.
"Weak!" Mia laughed. "But you know, you don't look like someone who doesn’t exercise. I've seen you in your uniform, you know."
"Some of us are born this beautiful, beautiful."
"Oh, yeah?" Mia grunted, flipping over to work on her quads. "So how do you handle the hordes of New York?"
A faint green light came from Kyle's hand and Mia was abruptly suspended in a air atop a large glowing throne. Four large, green skinned men in loincloths that each bore a startling resemblance to Superman were at the corners, holding her up.
Connor finally looked up from the book he was pretending to read, just in time to see another flare of green. A crown appeared on Mia's head, tilted in a rakish angle. The Superman clones glistened with sweat as they marched slowly around the room. "Nice attention to detail."
"Thanks."
"Please stop molesting the underage set with your brain, Green Lantern," Ollie said, sparing them a glance. Kyle discreetly stuck his tongue out but lowered Mia back to the floor. "And he's yanking your chain, Mia; he uses the exercise room up at the Tower every day."
"No, he was yanking my chain with those babes, until you made him stop," she grumbled. "I need to get ready for school anyway. Connor, if you aren't too busy today, could you get some of my prescriptions filled? I'm not out yet but the pharmacies plow through this stuff like candy."
"Sure." Anything to get away from Kyle's bare feet and half-naked constructs. Bad enough he was thinking terrible, wrong things about Kyle. If he started lusting after Superman he was going to have to just die. Maybe he could be reincarnated as someone whose life made sense from time to time. It would be a nice change.
*
10:45 AM
Pharmacies always smelled like nail polish remover to Connor which pretty much sealed the deal on his dislike of them. He understood the necessity of medication, especially in Mia's case, but the aisles dedicated to candy-colored pills, painkillers, decongestants, antacids always seemed about ten miles past overkill.
It was an argument not worth pursuing and normally he wouldn't be browsing through them but the pharmacy was busy today. Usually sitting quietly to wait would suit Connor just fine but today he was restless and his thoughts kept drifting back to things he wasn't supposed to be thinking about so instead he was examining the shelves of bandages. Next to the plain ones were the bright cartoony ones for children and he couldn't resist getting the box that had ones emblazoned with phrases like 'Princess' for Mia. Hey, they were medicated and waterproof, it was a practical purchase.
Further down the aisle were other bright packages but further inspection revealed that they weren't bandages, and much as he adored Mia, he wasn't going to bring her a box of condoms. He'd never even bought a box for himself and it occurred to him suddenly that maybe that wasn't a good thing.
Condoms and lubricant would be a perfectly normal purchase. If he did meet the right woman someday he'd need to be prepared, otherwise he'd be raiding the stash in his father's room and just the thought of that would make sure sex never happened.
He'd just had no idea that there was such a selection to choose from. How did people ever manage to have sex? Colored, textured, flavored? He wasn't aware that people would want to taste a condom.
Against his will, his brain chose to flutter back to that morning and Connor shifted uncomfortably. Okay, he supposed he could see why someone would want them to taste decently.
But what about those ones, ribbed for her pleasure? Did they even make ribbed for his pleasure – stop, Connor. Don't even think it.
Warming? Wasn't it warm enough, it had seemed pretty – stop it. Speedstrip? He'd always thought people wanted sex to last longer and he sure knew why – knock it off and just keep walking down the aisle…did that box say glow in the dark?
"Did you need help, sir?"
Connor's central nervous system made a fairly decent try of jumping out through his skin. A young woman in a blue smock was standing next to him with a shiny, helpful smile on her face. "No, no, I – that is –"
"Dearden?" A woman in a lab coat called from the counter.
"Here!" He fumbled out his wallet and handed the woman some kind of bill that must have been enough and the very second she gave him his change, he snatched up the small white bag and went to find something that would stop him from thinking for a while. Possibly a lobotomy.
The cashier watched him leave and sighed. All the cute ones were gay.
*
6:57 PM
If there was one thing Connor had managed to learn over the years, it was this. If you couldn't subdue your thoughts with meditation or discipline, you could always beat them into submission with exercise. So far, the plan was working perfectly. A few hours of hard training and Connor's brain had run up the white flag.
It left him able to sprawl on the couch and watch mindless television. The living sponge show wasn't on but there were some old MASH reruns and Connor could enjoy the show so long as Ollie wasn't around to go into a frothy rant about the war. It was a good thing he rarely watched television, debating shows with his dad would be enough for anyone to throw their set out the window.
Klinger had just failed another attempt to get out of the army when the doorbell rang. And again. Either Mia couldn't hear it through her headphones or she was taking a nap and Connor sighed before heaving himself off the sofa. His muscles all but creaked from the earlier abuse. Connor didn't care. He was thought-free and planned to stay that way the rest of the evening.
He opened the front door to find Kyle on the doorstep with an overnight bag over his shoulder and his jeans were tight enough in just the right places and he was wearing a tank-top, and all of the banished thoughts came winging right back into Connor's brain. And they brought friends.
Someone help me.
They stood there for several minutes, Kyle looking rather embarrassed, and he finally said, "I keep ending up here, anyway, I thought I may was well just…be here. Before I fly into a jet engine or something on my way here."
There was a frayed little hole at the seam of Kyle's jeans, right near his hip, exposing maybe a quarter inch of skin. It was almost hypnotic and Connor flinched when Kyle shifted a little, holding up his bag. "I even brought clothes."
He couldn't see the hole anymore but there was a smattering of freckles on Kyle's arm, leading up to his shoulder.
"Connor?"
Connor started, blinking. "Oh, yeah. Um. Sure. Come in." He shuffled back enough for Kyle to come inside and watched as he toed off his shoes.
"Cool," Kyle was entirely too cheerful, like someone who'd had plenty of sleep the past few nights. Oh, yeah, gee, he had.
Bastard.
He followed Kyle into the living room and watched him commandeer the most comfortable section of the sofa. But that was just fine, because Connor could sit in one of the other chairs. Far away. Before his brain attacked again.
"Hey, we could patrol together! I haven't wandered around Star City since the alien thing. Not awake, anyway."
And spend the evening watching Kyle in skintight spandex before they went to bed. Together. There were layers of no to that statement that could be peeled back to the core of the planet.
"Actually, tonight's my night off," Connor blurted, a little desperately.
Kyle blinked. "A Thursday?"
Okay, it was odd. Thursday was the day before payday when people were low on cash and crime tended to be on the heavy side until Monday when people were too tired or hungover to be more than a little surly. But his dad thought he needed to stay out of the game for a night because he was, 'acting kind of funky'. Funky wasn't a word he'd ever had a working definition of but he'd take his dad's word on it being that he was the resident expert on how sex affected people.
"Yeah, um, I was going to go to a couple of bookstores." Just stay calm, do not think of the spandex and all will be well. "They get new stock in today."
"Cool." Kyle hopped up. "Can I come?"
It was Connor's turn to blink. It got him a fairly disgusted look.
"Hello, artist? Reading is one of the many important things I do to keep in fashion."
Ah, yes. Well, Kyle had already managed to go with the bisexual stereotype, even if he didn't know it. May as well go for broke.
*
9:14 PM
So it wasn't such a bad idea. Kyle made a pretty good book hunting partner and as a bonus, he had a driver's license so they didn't need to wait for the bus. Plus, he picked up the beverage tab with a reasonable amount of equality.
It took a little while but slowly, Connor's brain was stepping back into the realm of normal. The store they were in now was a little more in the fashionably chique range than he usually preferred but it was hard to argue when they made such good tea. Even he could occasionally fall prey to the material.
Sipping at a cup of it and sitting in one of the artfully shabby chairs with a book made him feel relaxed for the first time in almost a week.
"They have a lot of pretty good bookstores around here," Kyle murmured from around a corner where he was browsing. The eclectic collection of books he'd bought had surprised Connor, possibly more than it should have. If nothing else, he was learning not to underestimate Kyle.
"They really do," Connor agreed. "Roy came with me once but he didn't really enjoy it as much."
"There's a surprise. Let me guess, he made you go to a strip club after." Connor choked on his tea. Wide green eyes appeared around the corner as Kyle looked at him in disbelief. "He did, didn't he. Oh, my God, he totally did! He took you to a strip club?"
"So?" Connor said defensively, scrunching down in his chair. "Maybe I like strip clubs."
"Connor, I wasn't even there and I know exactly what you did. You drank club soda and tried not to look at anything that jiggled. "
Ouch, and he thought Roy was accurate. Still, here he was, thinking of his friend in a new, broadminded manner and Kyle went right for the squeamish Connor ploy. It didn't matter if he was right, could someone at least think for a moment he might enjoy breasts?
"How do you know?" Connor demanded. "Maybe I was tucking bills with the best of them. Maybe I go to the strip clubs every night and…and unload a wad of cash! Maybe I'm an addict and I need to go to a meeting, because I. Like. GIRLS!"
The bookstore was eerily silent. Connor realized that most of the patrons were either concentrating on their books so fiercely they seemed on the verge of igniting the pages or unabashedly staring at them. Or rather, him.
Kyle grinned at him and shrugged. "Thanks for clearing that up for us, pal."
*
10:07 pm
Connor unlocked the front door in silence and Kyle followed him in much the same way into the living room. Without a single word, Connor tossed the bag with his new books on a side table and half a dozen strips of paper into the trash can beside it. Kyle stooped to rescued one of them and neatly tucked it into one of the books like a bookmark.
"At least call the redhead, she was pretty."
"She was a therapist and she told me the first part of dealing with a problem was admitting you had one."
Kyle winced. "Oh, sorry."
"I hate you. It's very important to me that you know that."
"No, you don't." Kyle flopped down in a chair and propped his feet on the coffee table in a way that would give Ollie a nosebleed were he here to see it. "Everyone loves me. I'm charming, heroic, hot."
"Chronically single."
"Glass houses, Connor." A little frown line appeared between Kyle's eyes. "Are you all right? I mean, I wasn't actually trying to be an asshole, earlier, I just –"
"I'm tired," Yes, that was a little testier than he meant and Kyle's little flinch made him feel guilty for it. A little. "Look, let's just go to bed." I did not just say that. I did NOT just say that, please, I did not.
"Sure," Kyle said, a little subdued.
Connor grabbed one of his books and held it like a shield in front of him as he followed Kyle up the stairs. The piece of paper with the phone number waved like a cheery little flag between the pages.
He wondered if Superman could hear his heart pounding. He wondered if Kyle could.
"Connor, do you think we should just sleep in the same bed?"
He was never going to fall asleep.
*
End day four
by Keelywolfe
Fandom: DC Universe
Pairing: Connor/Kyle, (Green Arrow/Green Lantern)
Rated NC-17 (I'm gonna say yeah. *G*)
Notes: Day four, and this is longer than I meant. Oh, well.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. Just playing with them. Thank you.
Summary: Someone's not sleeping very much anymore.
Day Four
*
5:17 AM
Connor still wasn't sure why it was called a blowjob. There didn't seem to be much blowing involved with it, just a lot of sucking and licking and oh, fuck yes.
He wasn't in much of a position to worry about the name, but he had managed to decide that this was, without question, the best way he had ever been woken up.
"Ohhhh," he tried very hard not to groan as Kyle feathered his tongue ever so sweetly down the side of his cock. He had a double fistful of the sheets and Connor was going to keep holding on to them otherwise he was going to have them in Kyle's hair, and he was going to pull that hot, hot mouth down. Not that he was worried anymore about waking Kyle up. The past few days had taught him that it was possible a tactical assault with a cast iron pan wouldn't wake him up and now he knew the secret to bringing down this Green Lantern. All he needed was to find him when he was sleeping.
He'd heard Mia get up earlier and go downstairs, and please, please, let his father still be sleeping and not possibly hearing any of the little shuffly-bed moving noises. It would be very bad to move, the chance of making those sounds louder was entirely too close. Somehow, Connor had forgotten how to tell his lower half about that because his hips were on a mission, they had their orders and they were to get deeper into that oh, tight, wet and Kyle did this slippery little thing with his tongue because he was a rotten bastard --
His brain informed him, vaguely, that his hands were very much in Kyle's soft, soft hair that smelled a lot like Mia's shampoo, holding him down while he worked his tongue on Connor's dick like he'd been training for it.
There was just enough light creeping in from the window for Connor to squint downward and it was a huge mistake in a sea of bad ideas. The paler sight of his hands clenched in the dark, silky hair, Kyle's lashes dark smudges against his cheeks and his mouth, lips reddened, swollen and stretched around him and why hadn't anyone told him how pretty Kyle really was? They should have warned him, he should have to wear a sign, and oh, damn, fucking hell, all the swear words he'd ever heard seemed appropriate at just this second.
He could, oh, wow, feel Kyle swallowing around him, one hand stroking the underside of Connor's shaking leg soothingly. Kyle pulled off with a wet noise and scootched back up the bed, draping his arm over Connor in the traditional manner. Kyle sighed contentedly, another job well done by Green Lantern, and soon was snoring again.
Connor didn't move until the cool air started getting uncomfortable on his wet skin and then he arranged his underwear back into the proper position and gingerly slipped out of the bed.
Once again, his world had changed in strange and mysterious ways. Connor knew men who had returned from the dead, he'd fought against invading aliens and now, never again would he be able to say he didn't know if Kyle gave good head.
It was getting to look like he was going to need more therapy than Kyle when this was finally resolved.
Kyle rolled over in the bed and made a hurt-sounding little noise, his hand sweeping over the sheets. It was enough to make Connor decide to make a hasty retreat. Meditating in the basement seemed like a much wiser choice today. He skinned quickly into the feeble protection of a fresh pair of pants and a shirt and fled.
Maybe he needed to invest in a suit of armor.
*
6:10 AM
It was possible he was expecting too much out of his meditating skills to hope they'd help him resolve this issue, Connor decided. Though it wasn't like any of the monks had given him any tips on how to focus his thoughts on sex and Connor wasn't entirely sure he knew anyone he could ask about it. He and Nightwing weren't really that good of friends.
When he finally gave up and went upstairs, he found everyone in the living room going through their traditional morning routines. Mia was doing sit-ups. Ollie was working on the computer in the corner and Kyle was…eating that disgusting chocolate cereal of Mia's and watching some cartoon about a living sponge.
His feet were bare. It was sort of annoying that Connor even noticed that he had very nice feet. He sat down in a chair and snagged a book off the coffee table, resolutely not looking at, or thinking about, Kyle's pretty feet…pretty?
Dammit.
"You have such a full life, Kyle," Mia panted out. She stopped long enough to pull one of her socks off, rolling it up and tossing it with decent aim at Kyle's head. It bounced off his forehead and narrowly avoided the bowl in his lap. "When do you find time to work out?"
"I don't," Kyle mumbled around a mouthful of cereal. He picked up the sock and tossed it at Connor. It fell short by at least two feet.
"Weak!" Mia laughed. "But you know, you don't look like someone who doesn’t exercise. I've seen you in your uniform, you know."
"Some of us are born this beautiful, beautiful."
"Oh, yeah?" Mia grunted, flipping over to work on her quads. "So how do you handle the hordes of New York?"
A faint green light came from Kyle's hand and Mia was abruptly suspended in a air atop a large glowing throne. Four large, green skinned men in loincloths that each bore a startling resemblance to Superman were at the corners, holding her up.
Connor finally looked up from the book he was pretending to read, just in time to see another flare of green. A crown appeared on Mia's head, tilted in a rakish angle. The Superman clones glistened with sweat as they marched slowly around the room. "Nice attention to detail."
"Thanks."
"Please stop molesting the underage set with your brain, Green Lantern," Ollie said, sparing them a glance. Kyle discreetly stuck his tongue out but lowered Mia back to the floor. "And he's yanking your chain, Mia; he uses the exercise room up at the Tower every day."
"No, he was yanking my chain with those babes, until you made him stop," she grumbled. "I need to get ready for school anyway. Connor, if you aren't too busy today, could you get some of my prescriptions filled? I'm not out yet but the pharmacies plow through this stuff like candy."
"Sure." Anything to get away from Kyle's bare feet and half-naked constructs. Bad enough he was thinking terrible, wrong things about Kyle. If he started lusting after Superman he was going to have to just die. Maybe he could be reincarnated as someone whose life made sense from time to time. It would be a nice change.
*
10:45 AM
Pharmacies always smelled like nail polish remover to Connor which pretty much sealed the deal on his dislike of them. He understood the necessity of medication, especially in Mia's case, but the aisles dedicated to candy-colored pills, painkillers, decongestants, antacids always seemed about ten miles past overkill.
It was an argument not worth pursuing and normally he wouldn't be browsing through them but the pharmacy was busy today. Usually sitting quietly to wait would suit Connor just fine but today he was restless and his thoughts kept drifting back to things he wasn't supposed to be thinking about so instead he was examining the shelves of bandages. Next to the plain ones were the bright cartoony ones for children and he couldn't resist getting the box that had ones emblazoned with phrases like 'Princess' for Mia. Hey, they were medicated and waterproof, it was a practical purchase.
Further down the aisle were other bright packages but further inspection revealed that they weren't bandages, and much as he adored Mia, he wasn't going to bring her a box of condoms. He'd never even bought a box for himself and it occurred to him suddenly that maybe that wasn't a good thing.
Condoms and lubricant would be a perfectly normal purchase. If he did meet the right woman someday he'd need to be prepared, otherwise he'd be raiding the stash in his father's room and just the thought of that would make sure sex never happened.
He'd just had no idea that there was such a selection to choose from. How did people ever manage to have sex? Colored, textured, flavored? He wasn't aware that people would want to taste a condom.
Against his will, his brain chose to flutter back to that morning and Connor shifted uncomfortably. Okay, he supposed he could see why someone would want them to taste decently.
But what about those ones, ribbed for her pleasure? Did they even make ribbed for his pleasure – stop, Connor. Don't even think it.
Warming? Wasn't it warm enough, it had seemed pretty – stop it. Speedstrip? He'd always thought people wanted sex to last longer and he sure knew why – knock it off and just keep walking down the aisle…did that box say glow in the dark?
"Did you need help, sir?"
Connor's central nervous system made a fairly decent try of jumping out through his skin. A young woman in a blue smock was standing next to him with a shiny, helpful smile on her face. "No, no, I – that is –"
"Dearden?" A woman in a lab coat called from the counter.
"Here!" He fumbled out his wallet and handed the woman some kind of bill that must have been enough and the very second she gave him his change, he snatched up the small white bag and went to find something that would stop him from thinking for a while. Possibly a lobotomy.
The cashier watched him leave and sighed. All the cute ones were gay.
*
6:57 PM
If there was one thing Connor had managed to learn over the years, it was this. If you couldn't subdue your thoughts with meditation or discipline, you could always beat them into submission with exercise. So far, the plan was working perfectly. A few hours of hard training and Connor's brain had run up the white flag.
It left him able to sprawl on the couch and watch mindless television. The living sponge show wasn't on but there were some old MASH reruns and Connor could enjoy the show so long as Ollie wasn't around to go into a frothy rant about the war. It was a good thing he rarely watched television, debating shows with his dad would be enough for anyone to throw their set out the window.
Klinger had just failed another attempt to get out of the army when the doorbell rang. And again. Either Mia couldn't hear it through her headphones or she was taking a nap and Connor sighed before heaving himself off the sofa. His muscles all but creaked from the earlier abuse. Connor didn't care. He was thought-free and planned to stay that way the rest of the evening.
He opened the front door to find Kyle on the doorstep with an overnight bag over his shoulder and his jeans were tight enough in just the right places and he was wearing a tank-top, and all of the banished thoughts came winging right back into Connor's brain. And they brought friends.
Someone help me.
They stood there for several minutes, Kyle looking rather embarrassed, and he finally said, "I keep ending up here, anyway, I thought I may was well just…be here. Before I fly into a jet engine or something on my way here."
There was a frayed little hole at the seam of Kyle's jeans, right near his hip, exposing maybe a quarter inch of skin. It was almost hypnotic and Connor flinched when Kyle shifted a little, holding up his bag. "I even brought clothes."
He couldn't see the hole anymore but there was a smattering of freckles on Kyle's arm, leading up to his shoulder.
"Connor?"
Connor started, blinking. "Oh, yeah. Um. Sure. Come in." He shuffled back enough for Kyle to come inside and watched as he toed off his shoes.
"Cool," Kyle was entirely too cheerful, like someone who'd had plenty of sleep the past few nights. Oh, yeah, gee, he had.
Bastard.
He followed Kyle into the living room and watched him commandeer the most comfortable section of the sofa. But that was just fine, because Connor could sit in one of the other chairs. Far away. Before his brain attacked again.
"Hey, we could patrol together! I haven't wandered around Star City since the alien thing. Not awake, anyway."
And spend the evening watching Kyle in skintight spandex before they went to bed. Together. There were layers of no to that statement that could be peeled back to the core of the planet.
"Actually, tonight's my night off," Connor blurted, a little desperately.
Kyle blinked. "A Thursday?"
Okay, it was odd. Thursday was the day before payday when people were low on cash and crime tended to be on the heavy side until Monday when people were too tired or hungover to be more than a little surly. But his dad thought he needed to stay out of the game for a night because he was, 'acting kind of funky'. Funky wasn't a word he'd ever had a working definition of but he'd take his dad's word on it being that he was the resident expert on how sex affected people.
"Yeah, um, I was going to go to a couple of bookstores." Just stay calm, do not think of the spandex and all will be well. "They get new stock in today."
"Cool." Kyle hopped up. "Can I come?"
It was Connor's turn to blink. It got him a fairly disgusted look.
"Hello, artist? Reading is one of the many important things I do to keep in fashion."
Ah, yes. Well, Kyle had already managed to go with the bisexual stereotype, even if he didn't know it. May as well go for broke.
*
9:14 PM
So it wasn't such a bad idea. Kyle made a pretty good book hunting partner and as a bonus, he had a driver's license so they didn't need to wait for the bus. Plus, he picked up the beverage tab with a reasonable amount of equality.
It took a little while but slowly, Connor's brain was stepping back into the realm of normal. The store they were in now was a little more in the fashionably chique range than he usually preferred but it was hard to argue when they made such good tea. Even he could occasionally fall prey to the material.
Sipping at a cup of it and sitting in one of the artfully shabby chairs with a book made him feel relaxed for the first time in almost a week.
"They have a lot of pretty good bookstores around here," Kyle murmured from around a corner where he was browsing. The eclectic collection of books he'd bought had surprised Connor, possibly more than it should have. If nothing else, he was learning not to underestimate Kyle.
"They really do," Connor agreed. "Roy came with me once but he didn't really enjoy it as much."
"There's a surprise. Let me guess, he made you go to a strip club after." Connor choked on his tea. Wide green eyes appeared around the corner as Kyle looked at him in disbelief. "He did, didn't he. Oh, my God, he totally did! He took you to a strip club?"
"So?" Connor said defensively, scrunching down in his chair. "Maybe I like strip clubs."
"Connor, I wasn't even there and I know exactly what you did. You drank club soda and tried not to look at anything that jiggled. "
Ouch, and he thought Roy was accurate. Still, here he was, thinking of his friend in a new, broadminded manner and Kyle went right for the squeamish Connor ploy. It didn't matter if he was right, could someone at least think for a moment he might enjoy breasts?
"How do you know?" Connor demanded. "Maybe I was tucking bills with the best of them. Maybe I go to the strip clubs every night and…and unload a wad of cash! Maybe I'm an addict and I need to go to a meeting, because I. Like. GIRLS!"
The bookstore was eerily silent. Connor realized that most of the patrons were either concentrating on their books so fiercely they seemed on the verge of igniting the pages or unabashedly staring at them. Or rather, him.
Kyle grinned at him and shrugged. "Thanks for clearing that up for us, pal."
*
10:07 pm
Connor unlocked the front door in silence and Kyle followed him in much the same way into the living room. Without a single word, Connor tossed the bag with his new books on a side table and half a dozen strips of paper into the trash can beside it. Kyle stooped to rescued one of them and neatly tucked it into one of the books like a bookmark.
"At least call the redhead, she was pretty."
"She was a therapist and she told me the first part of dealing with a problem was admitting you had one."
Kyle winced. "Oh, sorry."
"I hate you. It's very important to me that you know that."
"No, you don't." Kyle flopped down in a chair and propped his feet on the coffee table in a way that would give Ollie a nosebleed were he here to see it. "Everyone loves me. I'm charming, heroic, hot."
"Chronically single."
"Glass houses, Connor." A little frown line appeared between Kyle's eyes. "Are you all right? I mean, I wasn't actually trying to be an asshole, earlier, I just –"
"I'm tired," Yes, that was a little testier than he meant and Kyle's little flinch made him feel guilty for it. A little. "Look, let's just go to bed." I did not just say that. I did NOT just say that, please, I did not.
"Sure," Kyle said, a little subdued.
Connor grabbed one of his books and held it like a shield in front of him as he followed Kyle up the stairs. The piece of paper with the phone number waved like a cheery little flag between the pages.
He wondered if Superman could hear his heart pounding. He wondered if Kyle could.
"Connor, do you think we should just sleep in the same bed?"
He was never going to fall asleep.
*
End day four