It wasn't the first time they'd lost Half, and it certainly wasn't the first time he'd gone radio silent on them with no response from his ring. But it had been a long enough time period for the Guardians and other corps members to accept he probably wouldn't be coming back, that the chances of him being dead far outweighed the chances of him being alive.

John had been the one to tell Guy, his words soft and slow like he was trying to comfort a child before they'd even gotten upset. Knowledge sat behind those deep eyes of his, knowledge of something Guy wouldn't let him voice, something that Guy wouldn't even let himself voice. Guy hated it, hated that it was even a thing. He hated that he thought he needed to hide this, that he was so worried about others finding out, that he he couldn't just man up and fucking do something about it. But most of all, he hated Jordan for not being there to see it or acknowledge it.

"Someone needs to tell Carol," Guy had muttered, already rising to leave.

John moved to stop him, to say something, but Guy had raised a hand, face empty of his usual emotions.

"Please," Guy said, practically whispered, pleading for John to understand. "Let me take care of this."

John looked back at him, clearly fighting with himself, before he sighed. "I'm here Guy. Whatever you need, I'm here."

Guy left with little more than a nod, head both far too busy and far too empty to allow him to think straight.

Carol had taken the news about the same, immediately shutting down, demanding Guy tell her Hal's last known location, demanding he tell her when they'd last heard from him. She had every intention of going after him, and Guy would too if it weren't for the fact that he had none of the answers. Hal's mission had been on a need to know basis, most likely for this very reason.

She'd yelled some more, calling upon her ring so her pain could be personified and their fight could become physical. It was only later that Guy had marveled at the irony, that he had been left nigh apathetic and empty and the news, feeling too little, and yet Carol was left feeling far too much.

The fight, if it could even be called that, hadn't lasted long at all, just long enough for them to get over the first emotional hurdle, to move past the anger. Carol wasn't one for physical contact, not outside of a spare few people, but Guy's arms around her shoulders had felt grounding in a way nothing else could at the moment. He'd felt real, solid, unmoving.

that fight lead to an understanding between the two, one they couldn't name. They couldn't voice why they were connected, they just knew they were.

Until one night, when the alcohol got to be a bit too much and their lips a bit too lose. They were talking about Hal again, the things he'd done, the shit he'd pulled.

The words, "I loved him so much" were barely out of Carol's mouth before Guy gave his slurred response of "Fuck, me too."

They'd stared at each other in shock for who knows how long. It had been accepted that Carol had moved on from Hal, that him always being away in space made it impossible for her to foresee any kind of relationship together, and as for Guy, well, he wasn't exactly known for pursuing other men.

Despite how drunk they were they'd managed to pull the conversation into safer territory, away from the brown eyes of a man they apparently both loved.

But the topic returned the next time they went for drinks. Then again when they went for dinner. And again. And again. And again.

And then came the night neither could remember, the one year anniversary of Hal's death. They knew the night had started out normally enough, or as normal as a death anniversary for the man you both loved could be: meeting up, making small talk, asking how things were as they liquored up. But then at some point it got hazy, the alcohol more than they meant it to be, and for how much of a heavy weight Guy might be, he couldn't for the life of him figure out where it'd become too much.

It was probably just the fact they were having some of Kilowog`s alien brew. That fucker always knew the stuff that would land you right on your ass.

What they did know, was waking up tangled together on Carol's bed, with a sharp pain in their heads, an obvious discomfort in their nether regions, and a suspicious lack of clothes.

What was most surprising, however, was how neither freaked out. They barely moved from their initial position, still staring at each other as they tried to keep the world from spinning.

An hour later they were finally able to sit down, to have the conversation they needed to like the adults they were.

"Fuck it, why not," Carol said with a lazy raise of her brows. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Guy stared back, confused to all hell. "What do you mean?"

She gestured between them, twirling her wrist as she did. "Us," she said like that answered anything. "I don't hate you, I assume you don't hate me."

He nodded slowly, still not quite getting it.

"Let's see where this goes."

He stated, the words running over themselves in his head. "You mean like, us, like together?"

She nodded, laying back down. "We've got a bit in common, and you're not that bad on the eyes. Why not. Besides it's not like..."

"Like he'll come back."

"Exactly."

He didn't know how to feel about such an arrangement, he was hardly processing the fact that they'd apparently slept together the night before, how was he supposed to manage this?

But he'd also learned to never look a gift horse in the mouth. So he leaned down and let Carol guide his face into a kiss, and let her pull him closer for a bit more.

*

They manage for a few months. Guy's limited availability on Earth helped keep them from getting too over exposed to each other. Their understanding grew, and what started out of convenience quickly morphed into something they were both actively invested in. But Hal was still a thought lingering at the back of Guy's mind, especially when he'd go to Ferris Air and see all the pictures of the man hung up, all the reminders of what he couldn't have. It was then that Carol offered up a chance to let him know what it was like, to feel what she'd felt so long ago.

As strange as the concept of fucking, or being fucked, by a construct of your dead love interest might be, Guy had agreed. Just once he told himself, just once and his itch would be scratched.

And scratched it was.

They didn't bring out the constructs much if ever after that, still preferring to keep their activities to themselves and what they had on hand, but they couldn't deny how much that night had set them off, how it had allowed them to connect in a way they hadn't been able to before.

It was just their luck that as they were coming upon the two year anniversary of Hal's death, and the one year anniversary of their relationship, that Hal came back.

*

Being on Earth felt weird to Hal, after nearly three years away from his home planet, off on the other side of the universe, he struggled to really connect to it anymore. Yeah there were things he recognized, others he'd missed, places and people he loved, but at the same time he felt like he'd been left behind, forgotten. Whatever little Hal shaped hole had once existed was gone. In the years he was gone everything had just...kept going.

This wasn't the first time he'd experienced such a thing, let alone the first time he'd died, but this time felt so much more final, more concrete. He'd known the world wouldn't stop in his absence, his friends and loved ones wouldn't put their lives on hold just because he wasn't there, especially not with him being presumed dead. But knowing and seeing were such vastly different things.

And one of those things may as well be burned into his brain.

He hadn't meant to see anything, hadn't meant to intrude. But after everything he felt if there if there was anyone he needed to see, to check up on and assure them he was alright it'd be Carol. He'd flown to her apartment, landed on her balcony with the full intention of doing just that. But he never got a word in. He couldn't even be sure the occupants of the room ever realized he was there.

God he hoped they hadn't.

Guy and Carol, the two twisted together, hips gyrating and thrusting and doing everything to rub against the other, Carol's familiar moans of pleasure mixing in with Guy's, the pounding on the headboard against Carol's bedroom wall setting a steady tempo for the two. Hal had been unable to do anything, frozen to the spot as the two continued on, unaware of his presence.

Carol pulled Guy's head down, whispering something in his ear, and Hal was almost convinced he'd been found out. He was halfway to speaking, to explaining himself, when Guy let out the most debauched moan he'd ever heard, his back arching and face dropping into Carol's shoulder as he slowed down his thrusting.

Had he just cum? Did Hal seriously just watch as his teammate, his friend really, climaxed while inside his ex?

The smirk on Carol's face told him no, not quite. He was close yes, but that wasn't what had happened.

No, what brought such a display from the red head was in fact the violet construct stretching him wide.

Guy shuddered, pushing himself back up, more sweat working its way down his body. Carol's smirk got wider, more toothy, and she said, something that seemed to be "Big enough darling?" If Hal was reading her lips right.

Hal reached back, stumbled really into the railing behind him. He needed to go, needed to leave, now, before he did something. What that something was he had no idea, but he wouldn't give himself a chance to do it. Not with how clamy his skin felt, his suit much too tight all of a sudden. He wouldn't give himself that chance, not with the erection he refused to acknowledge, not with the want he felt building in his chest, and certainly not with the unwelcomed idea that shot right through his dick.

Oh, to be between those two, it'd be so good.

He took off, careful not to go too quickly so as to not disturb the two inside. He wasn't thinking that, no, never. This was Carol and Guy he was thinking about for crying out loud. He just needed to clear his head, go fly a bit, take a plane out for a spin, see Ollie and Barry and Dinah and whatever he did, when he finally gets down to dealing with the problem residing in his pants, he won't think of how good Carol's legs looked wrapped around Guy's waist and thighs as she pulled him closer, or think of the way Guy moaned, how he looked when stretched wide by a construct cock.