Disclaimer: I do not own Green Lantern the Animated Series.
Razer, red, hot, angry, fire. He was the rage that fills men's hearts and the pain that lingers after. He was hate and malice, and ill will, and sadness. He smiled the most beautiful smile and cried the most painful tears. He was the kind of creature that did something all the way or not at all. He was the little red star in the blackest night sky, the one that turned against his own, the one that fell in love with a robot, the one that hated everyone and everything...except her. Aya made him question everything, even his love for Ilana. She made him learn, and broaden his mind, and she made him feel things he never wanted to feel. He loved her, in any form, as the ship, he loved the hum under his feet, at the makeshift man-hunter, he loved her lingering curiosity, as the destroyer of the universe, he loved her memory, and as Aya, he just loved her. He loved her innate curiosity; he loved her big blue eyes, and naïve nature. He loved the way she made him feel and the way she lingered and hovered awkwardly. He loved the way she reminded him painfully of his wife. He loved the pain, like a knife turning in his stomach when he looked at her face. She could never truly love him back, the memory of Ilana, the promise he made never to love again, she'd caused him pain beyond pain. Seeing her face, and wanting to cry, wanting to scream, wanting to hide from the world, and he loved it.
He loved her. He loved her with every fiber of his being, with every cell and atom. He knew he could never feel her skin, knew she was a robot, knew she was not Ilana and still, he loved her. He could never treat her the way he would a proper wife. Her thin fingers would never lace with his, would never caress his face, never hold a ring. Her eyes, big bright and blue, lit with curiosity, would never roam over his body the way he dreamed and longed for. Her green lips would never kiss his. His teeth would never nip her neck. But then, as he sat at the console, looking out at the stars, he felt her approach from behind. He heard her deafening silence as she slipped up, felt her eyes on his back. And as he looked at her, he felt the commonplace jab to his gut, twist of his heart, and wrench of his insides, as she smiled at him and his world shattered around her. She was the only thing that mattered in his universe. And he loved her and he felt the poke to his heart because of that love, like a warm prickling feeling that made him want to declare his love on bended knee and beg for hers in return. He wanted to push her against a wall and kiss her. He wanted to sing his teeth into her green flesh, marking her as his. But instead he turned back to staring at the unending sky.
The dark canvas was littered with stars, like a painting, splattered with whites, yellows, blues, and reds. He mused about long nights on his home world, spent staring at the sky, and dreaming of walking among them. And when Aya stepped up beside him, her line of sight following his, he felt a tug at his lips. A smile? A frown? A need to express and declare his love? His fingers twitched, wanting to hold her. For her, he'd write a message in the stars, he'd die a thousand deaths, and live a thousand more, he'd leave his ring behind to be with her, he'd give up the stars and the sky and all his dreams because she was the only thing he desired in this untamed, wild, unending vacuum of space, but instead, he stayed silent, did not move, simply stared out at the darkness of space and dreamed that one day, maybe, his dreams would come true.