There was a rustling on the couch as Marty tried to get comfortable. He'd just finished classes for the week and was relaxing in Titans Tower. He probably could have gone home or to the airfield, but he wanted some place quiet and figured the Tower would be the place to go for a bit. Marty was knee deep in a new novel about Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen. It was one of those pulp novels that Jay Andrews had gotten him hooked on. Marty mentioned that he liked the first one after Jay let him borrow it and next thing he knew, the whole series was waiting for him on his bed at the Tower.

The sensors chimed as they registered a Titan's approach to the Tower. Marty sighed. It was probably Sebastian or Enrique. And while Marty didn't mind seeing them, he was hoping for a quiet afternoon off. He willed his ring to transfer the display feed to a holoprojection. It was Lydia's codes that activated the sensors. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Conflicted. His relations with her tended to range from tepid to down right volcanic depending on the things that came out of his mouth.

He hopped up and walked over to the mirror, straightening out his hair a little. He might not be into her like that, but she was still cute and he didn't want to look like a total slob. Marty plopped back down into a sitting position on the couch and pretended like he hadn't moved.

As she had been warned, Lydia was quite alone sometimes at her new apartment. May was off on a mission somewhere and she had been getting by fine the last few days coming home to an empty place. But today was different. She didn't have school to distract her, or work or patrolling to keep her busy. She could go patrol some more, but she'd get listless and bored within moments and that was really a bad thing to be when you were supposed to be saving people. So she figured she'd go to the tower and see if anyone was there she could train with or just generally be around. She liked people. She was a people person. But there were days where she didn't want to hang out with her civilian friends because she had to be very aware of the things she said. It was exhausting.

And if all else failed, the lighting in her room at the tower was fantastic this time of day. Perfect for art, be it sketching or otherwise. Maybe she'd even try a few of the painting techniques Sebastian had shown her. She did have on her painting clothes just in case, and overalls were totally making a comeback.

She hovered outside for a moment while the tower recognized both her and her codes before heading in to see who was about. She tried not to sigh too disappointingly when she saw Marty on the couch, reading a book. She looked around for a few minutes more, not wanting to get into a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent at the moment, hoping there was someone else about. No one. Not a single person.

Marty had his moments, she was sure. But half of the things that came tumbling out of his mouth got under her skin quicker than anyone else. It probably had something to do with her knowing him for what seemed like forever. Her mom used to take her to Ferris Air when she was younger and her dad had her tag along a few times when he'd meet up with Marty's dad. And he'd been a pain in her ass ever since.

"Hey, Marty..." she waved as she walked in, heading for the fridge, suddenly looking down at her overalls as she opened the door like they were the worst thing ever invented. She bit her lip while she stuck her head in the fridge, mentally yelling at herself that damn it, she looked cute in these overalls and not to be so self conscious and she would not, would not change them even though she could in the blink of an eye. "Grab you anything to drink from the fridge?" she asked, grabbing herself a water.

The sigh was the first thing he'd heard even before the greeting. Marty knew that he was probably the last person she expected or even wanted around. He was trying to decide whether that hurt his feelings or amused him. Then Marty looked up from his book. "Oh. Hey, Lyds. I didn't hear you come in." There was a pause. That was an obvious lie. She'd know he heard her entrance. The computer practically announced it to him. Martin Jordan kept his cool though and marked the page in his book. He smiled at Lydia and nodded. "Uh, yeah. A coke would be good, I guess." A slight effort of will and an emerald hand extended from the ring and hovered near her. No sense in letting her shake it up on him.

He noticed she was wearing her painting overalls. Marty had seen some of Lydia's work in the past and while he did like giving her a hard time, she was very talented. His father said that she inherited that from her father. Kyle Rayner was a great artist and Hal had some of his work around their house, including several collected editions of his comics. Now, all he had to do was keep his cool and not say anything stupid. Walt was supposed to be the fastest man alive, but he would joke that Marty sometimes amazed everyone with his ability to piss Lydia off faster than even he, the Flash, could keep up with.

After a moment, he reached over and moved his school bag off the couch, so Lydia had a place to sit if she wanted it. He highly doubted it though. He was a Green Lantern. He certainly wasn't afraid of Captain Marvel. He'd faced far worse cosmic threats in his lifetime than a 17 year old, energy spewing blonde. He was just having trouble remembering when that was at this particular moment in time. Marty looked up at her from the lowered section of the room. "I didn't realize that I'd have company today. I take it you had the day off too?"

Of the few fun tricks Enrique had taught her, one of Lydia's favorite things was moving a part of her body so fast, it looked like it barely moved at all. She obviously wasn't as good at it as a speedster, but to the normal human perception, she could get away with it. So when she saw the glowing green construct of a hand, she grabbed the coke and gave it a quick buzz. James was a devious, sneaky and downright vengeful brother at times, she'd learned her lesson well when she'd tried this on him. All that spy training had come in handy. Marty was a different animal. She felt she could see retribution coming well enough in advance if it was coming from him.

She shut the fridge as the coke floated back to Marty and opened her water, making her way over to the couch. She plopped down where his book bag had been like nothing was wrong with the pop she'd given him.

"Yeah, and my apartment is empty and completely clean so I got bored. Decided to see who was about." she watched him open the can and jumped away at the last moment as it exploded. She let out a small snort before giggling at his now coke covered person.

"Sorry! Enrique likes to shake all the cans. I forgot if he had done that with this batch."

"Yeah, I finished my classes and got bored, so I decided to flee the campus for a bit and read. I just felt like getting out for a  bit." It wasn't a complete fiction. He just wanted to get away for a bit. He didn't quite feel like taking something into the air or leaving the planet, so he settled for the Tower. He smiled at her. She did make those overalls look good. Very few girls he knew could pull off the overall look. "Planning on getting some painting done today? I can duck into my room if you need the space."

Marty popped the top on the coke and it exploded on him. Marty made a face at her and then paused to analyze the situation. Lydia moved. She knew the can would explode. He knew enough about suspects to know that she was the primary one here. A slight use of will power and a construct took two cans out of the fridge, shaking them as they floated. Marty knew Enrique well enough to know that this wasn't him.

He decided to make a bit of a distraction, by raising his voice. She knew it would probably be coming, but he could distract her long enough to make it work, hopefully. "Oh, please. I know you did it, Lydia. You're always doing this kind of crap to me."

The construct drifted over to her and popped the tops on both cans and they exploded as well. Payback was a bitch. "Whoops. How did that happen?"

"Just because I jumped out of the way, you automatically think I did it. I have super human ref-" Her retort was cut short by a deluge of pop just exploding over her head. The shriek of surprise and anger she let out was deafening. The murderous glare she leveled at Marty was even worse. She had just showered that morning and now her hair was going to be a sugary, sticky mess. He was so dead. So very dead.

"MARTY!" She screamed at him then threw her water bottle at him abs blasted it just before it hit him, dousing him in water. Then she flew to the fridge abs grabbed more ammo. "YOU ARE SO DEAD! WITH A CAPITAL D!" She proceeded to throw more cans of coke at him and skeet shooting them so they'd explode and cover him in coke too.

The water caught him by surprise and two or three of the cokes. Marty managed to throw a shield up to block the rest. He returned Lydia's glare. "Me? You're the one who started this!"

Marty was fuming. Lydia started this and Marty was merely retaliating. How typical of her to do this, Marty thought. Well, if she wanted to clean up, then Marty would oblige.

He forced his will into the ring and willed the energy inside it to bring his thoughts to life. A construct manifested and linked to the sink, flipping the tap on. The small robotic hose started spraying water at Captain Marvel. "Let me help you clean up and cool off, hot head."

Putting her hands up in a futile attempt to keep the water at bay, Lydia flew around trying to get away from the now constant stream of water. She threw a few blasts at his constructs, trying to break them before diving behind the couch for cover.

"That's cheating, Jordan!" She shouted at him, peeking over and grabbing a pillow for ammo. If he kept it up, he'd water log the whole damn place abed then they'd really be in trouble. And she really didn't feel like cleaning up his mess.

"You're a big," she stood up and tossed a pillow at him. "stinking," and another pillow. "dirty," and another. "CHEATER!" She grabbed what she thought was the last pillow and raised it over her head. It was just a bit heavier than the last few that she threw and that have her pause enough to look up. She had the whole couch over her head in one hand. This was why she tried not to ever get angry. She forgot how much she could pick up on a whim.

With an angry yell, the couch crashed back down and Lydia glared at Marty. She was mad, both at herself and him. But Marty was an easier target. Again she started to glow, energy coming off her in waves. But it wasn't her normal yellow photons, no they were starting to turn a bright emerald green. The water was turning into steam as she glowed brighter still, a blast forming in her hand.

"Martin Jordan of Earth, you're a real pain in the ass!" She hurled the blast at his construct, it's bright green streaking through the air. As it got closer to him, it started to take a shape, however briefly, of a missile before it struck home.

Lydia went out like a light, standing there very confused at looking at her hand like it was an alien. What the hell was that? Suddenly she felt very very tired.

Shouting and laughter. That's all that could be heard in the common room. Lydia was shouting at him and calling him a cheater. Marty was just laughing at her, batting away the pillows. That just seemed to make her angrier. Marty was mildly concerned when she hefted a couch over her head, his eyes growing wider as he contemplated what was about to happen. Granted, the ring would allow him to survive the impact, but he was more concerned about the damage to the Tower. The water and soda, he could fix with his ring. A couch out the window... Less fixable.

As the blonde Titan started to glow, the water on her turned to steam. Marty looked more concerned as her energy was no longer the same color as usual. It was a very familiar emerald color. He held his ring up, about to analyze it when the ring started speaking. "Power level: 84.3%, 86.7%, 89.1%, 92.5%" The energy blast formed a construct and then smashed into the water construct, breaking it. As Lydia's aura disappated, Marty's ring finally quieted down around 94%. Marty stood there with his mouth slightly open. He thought his ring could only be charged by a battery or another ring. He had never gotten a charge from another living being before.

There was a lot that Marty didn't know about Lydia's powers, but he was fairly sure a person couldn't just release Green Lantern energy with a thought outside of slight exceptions. He looked at the tired girl. "How the hell did you steal my powers? That shouldn't be possible."

"Partial Kree genetics make energy absorption and release possible. Hypothesis: Helen Danvers has been exposed to Green Lantern energy through her father, Hal Jordan and yourself. Small amounts may have been stored in subjects cell structure and released in current burst. Scans confirm residual energy signature of willpower energy type." The ring chimed in with its mechanical voice.

"Huh... I didn't know you could do that."

"I didn't steal your powers!" She tried to argue back indignantly. Even when she was fall down tired, she'd still argue wth that idiot. Of course she didn't steal his powers, that was ridiculous. Luckily, she was vindicated by his own ring. Slumping to the floor, Lydia listened to the ring explain how that had all happened. She could absorb all sorts of energy, she knew that. But to be able to recreate it like that, to have that specific energy still with her...

Lydia hung her head, her face obscured by her hair. "I had...no idea either." Her voice cracked at the end though she tried to hide it. She was just tired, she told herself. But it hit her right in the gut. She had more than just his notebooks and sketches left of him. She had his potential. Sure the ring said it was just Lantern energy in general, but it had started wth her dad.

She sniffed and stood up, turning away from Marty. He didn't do so well with tears and she really didn't feel like showing him any. She brushed a quick hand over her cheeks and took a deep breath. And then another. The breaths shuddered on the way out. Get it together, Danvers.

"I'm going to go...change. Then I'll help you clean up. Ok?"

The events of the last five minutes were mindboggling. Marty didn't even remember why he was angry with Lydia. Something about coke and water and things he could clean up with his ring in a minute or two. She looked tired. Marty remembered how exhausted he was the first time he used his ring. It was draining, asking the ring to give life to your thoughts. It always took something out of you, but eventually you got used to the sensation. It was a bit like building up stamina for exercising. This was similar, but somehow entirely different.

Marty had no idea how Lyds powers worked and this might be a million times worse. She tried to hide her cracking voice, but Marty caught it. He wasn't good with this sort of thing. He'd rather be on Qward itself fighting the entire Sinestro Corps naked, without his power ring, than deal with a crying girl. She stood up and turned her back to him, no doubt trying to put on that stupid brave face she always did.

There was some sort of comment about helping clean up after she got changed. Marty walked over and put his hand on Lydia's shoulder. "Lyds..." And then he was wrapping his arms around her, trying to comfort her. In that moment, all Marty cared about was making it better. He had the potential to overcome great fear. Good time to use it, he thought to himself. "It'll be alright. I promise."

She was fine. She was! She was ok. Perfectly fine. She just needed to sit alone in her room and cry for awhile. Our paint, or draw, or sleep for a thousand hours. Good lord was she tired. That's probably why she couldn't get her eyes to do leaking and her breath to even out. It had nothing at all to do with finding out her dad had left her a little gift. Nope. Nothing at all.

Then Marty put his hand on her shoulder. And her mask slipped. And then he hugged her and she cracked. Lydia latched onto him and started crying. She didn't particularly mind that it was Marty at this moment. It actually felt good to cry, and there was the mild panic Marty would be in. Him and tears had always been diametrically opposed, but right now this felt good.

"I know it's going to be ok...(hic) I just thought (hic) that all I had from him (hic) was his art." Lydia pulled back slightly, wiping her face. She pulled away and sat on the couch, lying her head back against the back of it. Covering her face with her hands, she sighed.

"Sorry...I'm just...really tired. And hungry. Is this why you're always so cranky?" She teased.

It all happened so fast. Lydia went from brave face to sobbing mess in Marty's arms. This rarely went well for him. He never really knew what to do. But then again, who really did when things like this happened? He gave her a reassuring squeeze and then kissed the top of her head. Marty decided not to say anything. Speaking was where he seemed to get into trouble around her. And that was bad. Especially when her brother could find fun ways to kill him and probably had plans for it 'just in case'.

The teenage power house said some things that hit Marty. He hadn't thought of it that way. Another gift from Kyle that Lydia never knew she had. Marty squeezed her again and planted another kiss on her forehead. Then he felt her pull away, feeling the warmth of her body slowly fading from his. Marty watched her sit on the couch and cover her face with her hands. The comment got a little chuckle out of him.

Marty smiled and spoke softly. "That's what it feels like every time I ask the ring to give life to my thoughts. It's like any stamina that you'd build up with a workout regimen. You eventually get used to it. The first time I used my ring, I almost passed out in the middle of my training class. The fact that you're still upright is rather impressive."

There was a momentary pause, while Marty willed the ring to break down the water and soda, transforming them into energy and absorbing them with the ring. He looked around, everything looked dry and remotely clean. It was one less thing Lydia would have to worry about. "If you're hungry, then we should get some food. If you can stand my company for a bit longer, that is."

On any other day, the gentle kiss to her forehead, from Marty of all people, would have seemed strange to Lydia. But right now it was a nice comfort. It calmed her down a lot. More than she liked to admit.

This whole thing was strange to her, them not yelling at each other or being mean. It was nice, very nice in fact, just weird to her. But she wasn't going say anything about it, she was enjoying having an actual, civil conversation with Marty. It was such a rare thing.

"I'm only upright out of sheer force of will. Must be that Danvers stubbornness." she grinned. "And I would love to build up stamina for that, but I have no ungodly idea how that even happened." Her head rolled to the side as she looked around at the mess they'd made...or lack thereof. She gave Marty a warm smile at that, wondering how much he was an hour so he could clean her apartment.

"Surprisingly, Mr. Jordan, I do not want to run screaming in the other direction. Couldn't even if I wanted to anyway. Though I do think we should at least change out of our at clothes." Lydia stood up and the world spun. She wobbled on her feet and grabbed the arm of the couch for stability. Stubbornness could only get her so far.

There was no yelling. Just pleasantness towards each other. Marty had to admit that it was a nice sensation. Lydia was actually pretty cool when she was nice. He liked it, though he'd never admit it to anyone's face. He was fairly sure Walt would have things to say that Marty was going to need to hit him for. She actually wasn't all that bad looking when she wasn't screaming at him.

The mention of her replying at his offer made Marty grin. "Well, I'd let you use my ring of course. You can train with it until you know how to use it. In theory, it should be the same idea. And then if it ever happens again, you'll already have the training to control it and not fall over in combat." He watched her look around the room and tapped the ring with his hand. "I try not to make a mess I can't clean up with this."

Lydia was still wobbly on her feet and Marty's hands slipped around her waist to steady her. "That's probably good, because I think a stiff breeze would knock you down right now." The suggestion to change clothes was probably a good idea. Marty had some spares in his room here. He imagined Lydia did the same. He didn't want her to go by herself though. At this rate, she'd fall over and die and it would be his fault, somehow. "Well, at least let me help you to your room. I don't want anything to happen to you on the way