The Big Damn List should probably be wrapping stuff, but this decided to be written.
Title: In All Seriousness
Fandom: Justice League
Characters: Beetle, J'onn, Booster (mention)
Prompt: "Brown." (fanfic100), "I'm broken." (un_love_you)
Word Count: 411
Rating: R?
Author's Notes: Based on the DC One Million crossover "event," when Ted was helping out in Montevideo after a Rocket Red suit exploded and took a bunch of people with it. (It's the sixth paragraph down under "Plot details.") Or...at least partially based on it. I kinda remember it, but I didn't bother to reread it before writing this, to make sure it would fit. *shrug* If not, AU! Haha! *facepalm*
I had fleur_de_liz make sure this was "break-your-heart" enough. She wibbled. I took that as a yes.
In All Seriousness
"There goes the neighborhood," Beetle mutters, more to himself than to J'onn, as he looks around.
J'onn feels anger flare up in him at the man's lack of seriousness in the midst of such carnage. Over a million dead in a single act of senseless evil, and Beetle is making jokes. He opens his mouth to sharply reply when--
--Beetle stumbles, grabbing J'onn's arm to steady himself--
--he feels.
At the sudden unexpected contact, J'onn feels everything.
He feels Ted's horror at his surroundings and the knowledge that someone did this, that someone did this to prove a point.
He feels Ted's knowledge that there's a Kord installation within the blast radius, that the people who worked there and lived in the area (people he knew) are probably now among the countless dead. He'll have to contact families, or at least make sure they're contacted.
He feels Ted's instinct to make quips to lighten the situation fighting with his knowledge that now is neither the time nor the place, and self-recrimination for his earlier words.
He feels Ted's exhaustion from being up for two days straight now, not even able to catch a nap between a deadline at work and this latest crisis.
He feels that after they're done here, Ted will go home to the apartment he's been sharing with Booster. There, he'll let Booster hold him together while he breaks. He'll let Booster wipe his tears away and kiss him gently. He'll let Booster lay him out in their bed and tenderly make love to him until he no longer sees endless fields of death every time he closes his eyes. And he'll let Booster wake and soothe him when the nightmares come.
He feels Ted's struggle to reconcile his lack of interest in or attraction to men with his relationship with Booster and wishing he could understand what makes the blond man different, why he couldn't have fallen so hard for one of any number of beautiful women he's known in his life. Why him and not her?
He feels Ted's conflicting emotions, insecurities and fears and dark humor and flagging self-esteem and hope and denials and grief and overlaying it all an overwhelming sense of I have to do something. And...
"Sorry, J'onn," Ted says with a weak smile that doesn't reach his eyes.
...And J'onn can't for the life of him remember why he had been about to chide the man for not taking this seriously.
Fandom: Justice League
Characters: Beetle, J'onn, Booster (mention)
Prompt: "Brown." (fanfic100), "I'm broken." (un_love_you)
Word Count: 411
Rating: R?
Author's Notes: Based on the DC One Million crossover "event," when Ted was helping out in Montevideo after a Rocket Red suit exploded and took a bunch of people with it. (It's the sixth paragraph down under "Plot details.") Or...at least partially based on it. I kinda remember it, but I didn't bother to reread it before writing this, to make sure it would fit. *shrug* If not, AU! Haha! *facepalm*
I had fleur_de_liz make sure this was "break-your-heart" enough. She wibbled. I took that as a yes.
In All Seriousness
"There goes the neighborhood," Beetle mutters, more to himself than to J'onn, as he looks around.
J'onn feels anger flare up in him at the man's lack of seriousness in the midst of such carnage. Over a million dead in a single act of senseless evil, and Beetle is making jokes. He opens his mouth to sharply reply when--
--Beetle stumbles, grabbing J'onn's arm to steady himself--
--he feels.
At the sudden unexpected contact, J'onn feels everything.
He feels Ted's horror at his surroundings and the knowledge that someone did this, that someone did this to prove a point.
He feels Ted's knowledge that there's a Kord installation within the blast radius, that the people who worked there and lived in the area (people he knew) are probably now among the countless dead. He'll have to contact families, or at least make sure they're contacted.
He feels Ted's instinct to make quips to lighten the situation fighting with his knowledge that now is neither the time nor the place, and self-recrimination for his earlier words.
He feels Ted's exhaustion from being up for two days straight now, not even able to catch a nap between a deadline at work and this latest crisis.
He feels that after they're done here, Ted will go home to the apartment he's been sharing with Booster. There, he'll let Booster hold him together while he breaks. He'll let Booster wipe his tears away and kiss him gently. He'll let Booster lay him out in their bed and tenderly make love to him until he no longer sees endless fields of death every time he closes his eyes. And he'll let Booster wake and soothe him when the nightmares come.
He feels Ted's struggle to reconcile his lack of interest in or attraction to men with his relationship with Booster and wishing he could understand what makes the blond man different, why he couldn't have fallen so hard for one of any number of beautiful women he's known in his life. Why him and not her?
He feels Ted's conflicting emotions, insecurities and fears and dark humor and flagging self-esteem and hope and denials and grief and overlaying it all an overwhelming sense of I have to do something. And...
"Sorry, J'onn," Ted says with a weak smile that doesn't reach his eyes.
...And J'onn can't for the life of him remember why he had been about to chide the man for not taking this seriously.