tushanshu_logs | [Closed] Walk Away

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[Closed] Walk Away

Characters: Jack Frost, Oliver Queen / PART TWO: + Kyle Rayner / PART THREE: + Connor Hawke / PART FIVE: + Zatanna Zatara
Date: Following this showdown and Jack's horrible excuse. Exact length of time to be determined.
Location: One of Tu Vishan's abandoned villages (as outlined here) near the shell's edge, a few hours outside Keeliai and by the mountains.
Situation: Taking issue with Oliver's plan of action, Jack has brought him outside the city to see if he can't get his head on straight. Part Two & Three: After their return, there are still some things to answer for.
Warnings/Rating: Ollie's probably not happy, so associated warnings there.

Jack had been out to these areas several times since his arrival, so he flew straight and unerring across the barren landscape, stirring up heavy storm clouds in his wake, pregnant with snow that was only partially intentional, reacting to his emotions. When they finally touched down at the outskirts of a burned husk of a village, Jack dragged Oliver's unconscious form into the most complete building. It wasn't great, but it had four walls and most of a roof and that was good because Oliver was heavy and it didn't help that Jack couldn't stop replaying their conversation in his mind, over and over.

"What if someone starts coming after you the way you're going after these kedan?!"

"Then I kill them."

"Wrong answer."

So when the man awakes, he will find himself under a blanket but sans boots (and said footwear being nowhere to be seen) and Jack sitting in the windowsill, looking out at a thick curtain of falling snow and humming something of a song under his breath.

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Blue eyes flick up to Kyle, a sliver of steel in the look he gives him. "That's between him and me," Jack answers. "And that's not why I wanted to talk."

Kyle returns it with steel of his own. His body language, instinctively, slides into the stillness before a fight - not a physical one, but he knows this isn't going to be easy on either of them. He can always question Oliver later. Upside down off a fire escape, probably, he thinks viciously.

He doesn't want to hurt a spirit, and he doesn't want a spirit to hurt him, either. He doesn't reply, he simply nods for Jack to continue with the conversation.

Jack's fingers curl on the metal chain links supporting the swing he's seated on, frost forming whorls against the grey surface, but he doesn't break Kyle's gaze.

"Tell me how you know him," he says. "Oliver Queen, or... or that archer."

'He's my best friend's dad.' That's the answer that comes the easiest, and protects the rest of the League.

"He's not old enough to be anyone's dad," the winter teen returned, his voice level. He wanted Kyle to be the one to bring up that he knew a different Oliver.

'Uh, yes he is. Even I'm old enough to be a father.' The way he says it, he does sound like a parent, if an estranged one. Then, he feels an ache in his heart. How many times had he told Jenny he wanted kids? How happy had he been to hear she might be pregnant?

How soon might his child have become an orphan?

He doesn't speak more or look away, but his expression does soften.

"I didn't come here for jokes!" Jack snaps. "You didn't see him that night, or worse you did, I don't know. He wasn't even-- he wasn't the person he is."

Now his expression shifts into genuine and complete confusion. 'What night? What happened? Is he okay?'

"Four nights ago," he said. "When he was out and looking for trouble? Because of you."

'He - what?'

Kyle's confusion helped rein in Jack's own scattered and tumultuous thoughts and he gave a long exhale, hoarfrost curling through the air. "Okay. Just-- don't say anything for a minute. Let me try again."

Without waiting for Kyle's assent, he started speaking again. "Not long after Oliver first got here, I saw him clean up a few problems in the bad parts of the city one night. It shouldn't have been any different than the dozen other people who patrol around in masks and costumes -- I know, I watch -- but he didn't do it like the others. He was... was venting, something. So when he came back to our suites, I caught up with him. I wanted to see if he was all right, but he couldn't see me at first. That's why he stabbed me that night, but it was an... an accident. A reaction."

He pauses, takes another breath and holds this one for a moment. "Four nights ago, he did the same thing but... but it was worse. He could've killed those kedan if I hadn't stepped in, and I don't think he would've thought twice about it. Maybe he even wanted to, because he was angry. So I had to stop him before something bad happened that he couldn't take back."

He bristles, but he listens. He knew Oliver was different - Oliver killed. They had to work on that (understatement of the year, Kyle reflected to himself briefly before tuning back in to what Jack was saying).

'Four nights ago.' He mentally counts, and it leads him back to their conversation at the party. Oliver had clammed up on him then, even if Kyle's anger had been completely justified. He's the first to break the stare, looking down at the ground, (anywhere, please let him be anywhere but here, listening to this) before he bites his lip.

'Oh hell.'

Jack's voice sharpens, tone commanding that Kyle's not done having to listen quite yet.

"And he said that you two had argued. That you had said if he didn't stop that you and he were done and that you'd stop him, and that was why he'd tried to do those things. When we were in that alley and we were fighting I asked him what he would have done if someone had gone after him like he was doing to those kedan, and he said he'd kill them if it happened."

Then it hits him - that Oliver had internalised the parts of the conversation that he shouldn't have.

'That idiot.' He doesn't sound angry or confused any more, just tired. And the conversation is over at this point, there's no more he wants to hear. He's done having to justify himself, especially if his words were taken out of context like that.

No you don't, says his bitterness. You don't have to do anything. You're not his babysitter. If he wants to push people away, let him. You're not responsible for his well-being.

I. Owe. Hal. he hisses back at it. He'd have done the same for me.

'Where is he? I have to smooth this out.'

"No," Jack says, standing from the swing. "There's more. He said that everyone knew a different Oliver, not him; the one you mentioned, your friend's father. That he thought that Oliver was better, could do a better job than him, that being this Oliver wasn't good enough."

Jack's hands curl into frustrated fists. "He said that people were afraid of him because he killed but he's the one who's afraid, Kyle. Because he isn't the person everyone else is expecting him to be, he's afraid."

Of course Oliver's the one who's afraid. Kyle knew fear. Kyle could see it in Oliver almost constantly. What he'd been afraid of... it was becoming clear. Maybe he'd already known this, in his heart, and now it was being processed properly.

Inhale. Exhale. Stay calm, Rayner. You can handle this.

You're way out of your league, kid. and he doesn't want to think about whose voice that is. He shuts it away. Not afraid. Not the one who's afraid.

I'm not afraid. I can make this work.

His fist clenches. 'I'm going to talk to him.'

"I think," Jack retorts, his voice brittle as his namesake, "that maybe should try getting to know this Oliver Queen first, before you try to make things better."

'I am getting to know him. I'm used to meeting alternates, especially younger ones. I know two Zatannas, for crying out loud.' Why did she like him? He suddenly realised maybe it was because he really thought of them as two separate people, alike in only certain ways, but not enough for him to make assumptions about her personality.

He had been the one who'd helped out younger Hal when that incident had happened (he'd made a mess of it, in hindsight, but it had been him who took charge).

He was used to it. Maybe not as well as he wanted to be, but he was used to it.

"Well then maybe you should start by not thinking of him as 'an alternate'," the teen shot right back.

But then his hands uncurl and hang limp at his sides, and he releases a long sigh and there's more than a trace of distress in his tone.

"Kyle, please. I think of you both as friends and I'm not mad, I'm worried. I know you wouldn't have meant to hurt him but you did and it's never going to be something you can fix if you keep seeing him as 'the other Oliver'. He's just... Oliver, okay? That has to be good enough."

He offers the Lantern a weary attempt at a grin, causing the papery blisters around his eyes to crinkle. "He could use a friend like you, I know he could. Now you... you can be his friend for both of us, right?"

I can make this work.

'It is good enough.' He sighs. 'Look, I'm not mad either. You really shouldn't have taken off like that.' He cuts off, remembering the last time he'd been kidnapped, what he would have done to someone if they'd sprung that on him. It's an unpleasant thought. 'Next time... just call me, okay?'

He needs light. Kyle looks at his ring, and the weight of the title Lantern feels heavy. He should add something to this. An explanation. A truth. Something.

'Can you keep a secret? I like him better than the one I'm used to.' He doesn't know why he says that, even if it is the truth.

"I know," Jack answers, and there's a genuine note of contrition in his voice. "I didn't think-- well, of anything, really. Other than to get him somewhere safe. I... was afraid too."

But he glances back up at Kyle, the tremulous beginnings of an actual smile appearing. "Really?"

He nods in sympathy. Being angry about that only seems completely pointless now.

'Really.' He smiles back, weakly, wondering how the hell he's going to explain that to Connor. Even if his friend would understand (and forgive, if need be), it was still not something you said out loud.

It wasn't something you said when the other Oliver - G.A. Dick van Dyke version - was dead.

'I'm going - to let him be for a while. He needs to recover. I can't really talk to him right now if it's going to make things worse.' A pause. 'We'll sort this out.'

"Thank you Kyle," Jack replies and feels a weight he hadn't realized was still sitting in his chest finally lift.

"I'm-- I'm going to leave him alone. I don't think... he wouldn't, not after-- i-it's just better if I didn't bother him again."

'Give him time.' He smiles, wider. Tries to, but he can't help looking at the burns and the neck injury, and he points to them. 'Do you... want me to have look at those?'

He starts to shake his head but it becomes a nod without his consent. "Yeah, maybe that's a good idea."

Jack reaches up to the side of his neck, cupping it across the ice formed there and it falls away to reveal a fairly serious cut... and one that seems as though it should have had much more serious consequences.

Edited 2013-03-02 01:51 (UTC)

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