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“I think he knows,” Barry said, bursting through the door of Iris West’s apartment in the east district of Central City.
It was something Barry had thought ironic up until now, when the run to her new place had added an extra two milliseconds for him to think about all the events that had conspired in recent weeks; and, in Barry’s current state, two milliseconds of time to think about how a certain someone looked in green spandex could be dangerous.
“Who knows what? Is it a certain brunette lantern who has a fixation with the color green? Has he finally realized that you’ve been in love with him for two years?” Iris quipped in mock shock back at the blond, her eyes not raising from the laptop she was typing on.
“Iris, please, I’m going insane,” he whined.
She sighed and finally looked up to meet his gaze. “Bartholomew Allen,” her tone softened when she saw the frantic look in his eyes, “Barry. I am in the middle of writing one of the most important articles of my career. You know I love you more than anything, but I don’t have the time tonight to listen to you complain about your unrequited love for Hal, just to have me give you the same advice I have been giving you for the past two years.”
Barry shook his head, “You don’t understand Iris, it’s different this time! He’s-He’s… doing things! To me!” He sputtered out.
Iris raised one curved eyebrow and smirked at him.
“What? No, not like that,” the scarlet speedster turned an extraordinary shade of red. “Goddamn it, Iris! Get out of the gutter I need help right now!”
She finally broke into a fit of laughter, causing Barry to huff out a sigh and throw himself down on her couch. Eventually, the journalist calmed down enough to comfort her clearly tormented best friend.
“Alright, I’ll bite. What happened?”
Barry looked up from burrowing his face into her couch. “I told you it’s not just one thing! It’s like there’s a bunch of things that just keep – happening!”
“Well, start from the beginning,” she said, taking off her glasses and leaving them on the coffee table. At this point, Iris considered herself an expert in the field of Barry Allen and Hal Jordan; she figured she could work through this round of Hal-pining in about an hour and get back to her article, so she didn’t want to get too comfortable.
Barry looked at her sheepishly.
“What is it?” she asked him confused.
“Well… I just ran halfway across the globe to get here and I’m kind of starving.”
She threw a pillow at his face, and even with his superspeed, he could never escape the wrath of Iris West and a cushion.
“Fine,” she growled out, picking up her phone, “I’ll order a pizza,” she held up a hand before Barry could interject, “I’ll make it three. But you’re paying, and I better be getting an exclusive interview with The Flash to make up for the time I’m losing on this article.” She glowered at him.
Barry just beamed and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “I love you so much, you know that?”
Iris sighed and finally closed her laptop, moving to a comfortable position on the couch. She knew it was going to be a long night.
______________________________________
Barry and Hal had been tracking this – well, Barry still didn’t really know what kind of creature it was. All he knew was that it had been running amuck in Central City and leaving a sticky, tar-like substance in the giant footprints it left behind. He was glad that Hal had decided to come by and surprise him, even if he didn’t need the help fighting a giant tar monster.
He just liked Hal’s company.
“Shit, Bar, talk about big-foot,” the lantern scoffed. “These have to be T-rex footprints!”
“Hal,” the blond facepalmed, “for the last time, dinosaurs are extinct.”
“Hey! You haven’t been to other planets, Bar; I have seen dinosaurs… or – well – dinosaur-like… aliens.” Hal grumbled and pointed his right fist at the footprint. “Ring, will you scan this footprint for any known matches?”
“No known matches in the Guardian database,” a metallic voice replied.
“Damn it,” Hal grumbled and bent down to check the foot print.
“Here, let me try the earth-way and message Oracle at the Watchtower,” Barry murmured, already enamored with the lightning bolt sticking out of his costume that acts as his Justice League communicator. “Hello? Oracle, come in, It’s Flash.”
Static.
“Oracle? Hello?”
No response.
“Well, I guess we’re gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way,” Hal grimaced. He looked up at Barry and flashed him a grin. “It shouldn’t be too hard for a forensic scientist and a space cop to track down where some footprints lead, huh?” he asked as he slung his arm around Barry’s shoulder.
It sent a jolt of heat straight to Barry’s stomach and he got that warm fuzzy feeling he’d been getting for the past two years every time Hal so much as looked at him.
“Yeah,” the speedster smiled and ducked out of the hold to hide his blush. “So, let’s see which way the toes – or, well, what we could consider toes – point and we can follow the direction it leads; there might be some more footprints that way.”
Hal gave a lazy two-fingered salute, “Whatever you say, Sergeant.”
Barry rolled his eyes and got to work, bending down to the footprint to try and get a physical analysis of the sample. If he could get an idea for what substance this mystery monster was made of, he might be able to get a good idea of how to disable it-
There was an ass in his face. The blond had been so caught up in his work that he didn’t realize there was an actual butt in his face – and not just any butt. It was Harold Jordan’s perky, beautiful, spandex-clad ass.
Barry physically recoiled and would have fallen in a pool of tar left behind by whatever this thing was, but Hal laid out a construct and caught him lightning fast.
“Woah! Bar are you okay?” the lantern practically jumped over the tar pit to get to him.
“Y-Yeah, I’m great,” Barry stuttered out, trying to hide the incredible flush that he was feeling. It wasn’t that he fell. It was why he fell. He could never let Hal know that the reason he was almost part space-asphalt was because he got caught checking out his best friend’s ass. That’s just not what friends do to each other.
“Well, be more careful next time okay? I’m not always here to catch you when you’re clumsy,” Hal gave a playful wink and continued, “It looks like it was heading north, so I’m gonna fly that way. Catch me if you can.” Hal grinned and was off at a supersonic speed, leaving Barry stunned for a few moments.
How was this his life?
The speedster sighed and quickly collected his sample so he could join Hal north of the city. When he arrived at the next footprint, he found the lantern there, crouched low with his butt straight at Barry. He cursed at the way his suit suddenly became a little pitched and tried to focus on anything other than what was right in front of him until he realized something.
Was Hal’s suit tighter than it was before? The lantern’s suit was always pretty tight – something Barry never complained about – but this looked off somehow. You could see every outline of every muscle on Hal’s body. Barry shuddered at the thought and didn’t even notice until Hal was almost standing on top of him.
“Are you alright, Bar?” he asked with serious concern. “You seem a little off today,” the brunette said with a quirk of his head.
“No, I’m good,” Barry said, regaining his composure. He gave Hal a soft smile, which he returned.
“Alright, just let me know if- “
There was a loud crash from somewhere to the east of where they were.
“Shit! That would be him. I’ll go straight to him, you make sure all the civilians are safe and then flank him,” the lantern said and flew off without a second glance after Barry nodded. He would have to worry about Hal’s ass later. He had people to save.
Barry ran around gathering people and placing them in safe locations while listening to the sound of Hal battling it out with their mysterious, maybe space, tar monster. After the few civilians who lived in the area were safe, Barry made his round back to the place where he knew the fight was going on, but there was nothing.
There in the middle of a tar-strewn battlefield was Hal and a small construct prison that was holding a tiny little; well, Barry didn’t know what it was, but it was alien of some sort. He could hear it screaming in a foreign language at Hal as he was approaching, and he almost got all the way to them until Hal turned around to beam at him.
In a suit that was lewd.
If the lantern had been naked, he would have been more clothed.
“Hal,” Barry managed to sputter, “your suit- “
“Oh, yeah, I got a little space-tar on it, but its nothing to worry about Bar,” he gave him a toothy grin, “the nice thing about having a suit made out of pure will is that it isn’t dry clean only.”
“No, I meant- “
“I’m going to take this guy up to Guy and the sector jail. I figured it was the least I could do since I kind of made a mess,” the lantern looked around sheepishly. “I’ll stop by after I drop him off. I kind of need to borrow a shower. I think I may have possibly forgotten to pay my water bill,” he gave a nervous laugh.
“You can use my shower, Hal,” Barry said without thinking about how he was going to have to handle the knowledge of what Hal looked like – practically – without clothes while he was taking a shower in his own home. He would think about that later.
“You’re the goddamn best, Bar,” Hal beamed at him and pressed flush up against him in a hug.
Honest to God, Barry had to stifle a groan that came out of his throat. “Mhm. Yeah, I’ll see you there, bud,” he barely managed to croak out.
With a wink and a lazy salute, Hal was already flying towards the atmosphere before Barry could even wave. All Barry could do was watch the speck disappear and facepalm after it was finally out of view.
What the hell just happened.
______________________________________
“Okay, you know I love you Bar,” Iris said between bites of her first slice of cheese pizza, “but it literally just sounds like you were being a sleezebag creep.” She finished her response to Barry’s first story with a slurp of the coke she was drinking.
The blond looked at her with wide, shocked eyes “I swear to God, Iris, his suit was getting smaller! I can’t just imagine how he would look naked! Who does that?” he asked her, trying to cover up the permanent blush that his face had adopted in the past hour.
“Oh, you would be surprised what kind of imagination guys have when it comes to that sort of thing,” Iris quipped, rolling her eyes. She reached for another slice of pizza.
“I was not being a pervert to my best friend, Iris! I swear it just kept getting smaller it wasn’t me!” Barry hid his face in the pillow Iris threw at him earlier.
“Okay, one, I’m offended you consider Hal your best friend over me,” she said with a pointed gaze in his direction, “two, did you ever just ask him about it?”
“What?” he asked, horrified. “Of course I didn’t ask him about it! Then I really would have been a pervert.”
“Well, what happened when he came back to your house? Did you finally work up the nerve to jump in the shower with him?” she smirked at him.
It was Barry’s turn to throw a pillow back at her.
“Shut up,” he grumbled.
“Oh, so it did happen?” she responded, shocked.
“No, it didn’t,” he said, stressing the last word. “He came over and took a shower and then he left. We were going to have a movie night, but it ended up being later than we expected when he got back.” Iris shot him a glare. “I had to be at work the next morning!” he put his arms up in a defeated motion.
Iris threw her head back and let out an aggravated sigh. “Jesus Barry, when are you going to learn to let life happen and not miss potential dates with incredibly hot superheroes because you need some beauty sleep.”
“Well I didn’t just give up! We planned it for the weekend,” he answered defensively. He didn’t appreciate that; he wasn’t a workaholic. He just worked a lot. Hmph.
“Oh? And how did that go?” Iris asked while wiggling her eyebrows at him over her second slice of pizza.
“Geez!” Barry shouted and walked over to the fridge. “I’m getting another coke,” he grumbled.
______________________________________
“Hey Bar, while you’re up could you grab me a coke?” Hal asked as he smiled at him over the back of Barry’s red couch. He had always made fun of Barry for all the red, but the speedster couldn’t help it – it was his favorite color.
“Yeah, no problem,” Barry said, his heart filling with warm at the image of Hal in his house. It never felt more like home than when Hal was here. He was glad that he rescheduled their movie night; he wouldn’t have missed this feeling for the world.
“Oh! These are those new ones that have the old-timey bottle on them, huh?” Hal said in wide-eyed amazement when Barry handed him his drink. “When did they come out with these?”
“About two months ago,” he responded, picking up the remote. “I think you were off-world.”
“Oh,” the lantern trailed off looking down. “I guess I miss a lot when I’m off-world,” he said in a guilty tone. Barry’s head snapped up and was about to comment but Hal interrupted him before he could, whatever trace of sadness that had passed through him, gone.
“What are we watching tonight, Bar?” he questioned while opening the top of his coke.
“Hmm,” Barry sipped on his drink. “I dunno. I know we talked about watching the new Star Wars movie that you missed,” he hummed softly with a smirk, knowing full well that was all the brunette had been talking about for the past three days.
Hal’s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas “Can we? Please oh-my-God, Barry I will fucking love you more than anyone else in the world if you tell me you have it. Please,” he practically begged.
Barry laughed and grabbed the DVD case for Solo that he had hidden in between the couch cushion. Hal practically leapt into Barry’s lap to grab the movie from him, sending the speedster into a fit of giggles.
“Bartholomew Allen, I fucking love you,” Hal exclaimed, not even looking up from the case. If he had brought his attention even relatively close to the blond, he would have noticed the incredible blush traveling down his body.
“I love you too, Harold,” he managed to get out between Hal’s squeezing and fighting the embarrassment – and, or – love he felt for his best friend. “Alright, get off me, we have a movie to watch.”
“Sure thing, Bar,” the lantern finished with a wink.
They got about halfway through the movie and Barry was in a sugar-induced coma laying on his sofa next to Hal. Hal was stretched out with his feet near Barry’s side and the speedster had his legs slung over the top of the sofa and he was seconds away from falling asleep when his eyes caught a little motion from across the couch.
His eyes shot wide open the moment he saw it happen again. He wasn’t crazy. Hal had shoved the neck of the coke bottle into his mouth. Barry sat up, agape.
“Hal?”
Hal’s eyes shot to him, coke bottle gone. “Huh?”
“What on earth are you doing?”
“I’m,” Hal shot him a confused eyebrow, “watching the movie?”
“No, I meant,” Barry stuttered out, “you know, nevermind.”
“Alright, dork,” Hal rolled his eyes at him with an affectionate smile.
Barry was just tired, sad, and horny – he had decided upon the last adjective begrudgingly. He didn’t like to admit it, but it had been awhile. He settled back into the couch and Hal changed positions so that his legs were wrapped around Barry’s torso, causing Barry to gulp down the lump in his throat. He turned his eyes back to the movie but maybe caught two minutes of the film before noticing the same familiar motion across the couch.
Hal had goddamn deepthroated his coke bottle. Deepthroated.
Barry squeaked and Hal turned to look at him, bottle almost magically gone again.
“Bar, are you okay?” Hal asked innocently, as if he hadn’t just been assaulting a glass bottle.
“Am I okay?” Barry screeched, incredulously.
“Um, yeah. That’s what I just asked,” he huffed with a little laugh.
“I’m great. I’m really just fantastic,” the speedster stared at Hal, slack jawed. What the hell is happening. Maybe he should really just go to bed.
Hal rubbed Barry’s side in the spot he knew the blond liked from countless physical therapy sessions. “You’re jumpy. You sure you’re okay, Bar?” the lantern asked with serious concern.
Barry melted guilty into the touch. Here his best friend was, comforting him, and all he could do was have sleepy visions of him deepthroating a coke bottle. Again, deepthroating – Jesus, what kind of freakish friend was he? He sighed into Hal’s touch.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” he managed a soft smile. “I think I’m just tired.”
“Go to bed,” Hal spoke softly. “I won’t let the sleep monster get you,” he grinned, breaking the precious moment.
Barry rolled his eyes and flung a half-hearted arm towards his best friend but gave in anyway. He burrowed deeper into the couch and closed his eyes, not even noticing when Hal placed a blanket over his sleeping form a few hours later.
______________________________________
“Okay Bar, that’s pervy.”
“Again, Iris, I swear that I’m not making anything up! I thought I was just tired, but when I put it together with everything it makes complete sense!” Barry explained frantically.
Iris just raised both her eyebrows at him. “Deepthroating? You’re telling me that you didn’t imagine the man you’ve been pining over for two years deepthroating a coke bottle in a sleepy haze while he was wrapped up with you on a couch?”
Barry didn’t know if his face could possibly get any redder, “I know it sounds bad.”
“Bad?” Iris practically gawked. “Barry, bad doesn’t describe that.”
Barry sighed, “Okay, maybe you’re right. Maybe I am just a horrible person,” he looked down dejectedly.
Iris softened. “No, Bar, I didn’t mean it like that,” she wrapped her arms around him. “You’re one of the best people I know. You aren’t bad, you just have it bad.”
He looked up at her. “Are you sure?” he asked timidly.
“Yes, I’m sure,” she said softly and gave him one more reassuring squeeze. “If you are a bad person, Barry Allen, then we are all in deep shit,” she finally broke out into a giggle.
He eventually broke back a smile. “Thanks. I mean, I know it’s not normal to think about your best friend like that but, Iris – “
“I know, you swear, you weren’t just being a horny mess because you haven’t gotten any in two years,” she waved him off as she got up off the couch and picked up his empty pizza boxes. “You’re such a dork when you’re in love.”
Barry winced at the name. He was hoping Iris wouldn’t have caught it, but her journalistic eye catches everything.
“What?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” he brushed over the topic.
Iris groaned and threw her head up in the air. “Something else happened didn’t it?”
He smiled sheepishly at her.
“Damn it, Barry, how much shit have you and Hal gotten yourselves into in the last two weeks? Wasn’t he off-world part of that time?” she deadpanned.
“Yes,” he mumbled, looking anywhere but at her.
“You mean to tell me that in the past two weeks Hal has been off-world doing magic space-cop things, and he still managed to see you multiple times?”
Barry nodded, hesitantly.
“Jesus Christ you two are hopeless,” she sighed, walking towards the kitchen. “I’m getting a glass of wine; I feel like I’m going to need it.”
______________________________________
Barry was nervous. Hal should have been here about three hours ago according to his last message. The speedster was almost ready to zeta-travel to the Watchtower when he finally heard the faint knock on his front door. Barry did his absolute best not to superspeed over to the door, but it was only a half-hearted effort.
Barry opened the door and Hal practically fell into him, causing Barry to sway backwards before regaining his balance and catching the lantern.
“Hal? Geez, Hal, are you okay?”
“Mmm, yeah, Bar. M’just tired,” the other man slurred. Hal looked awful, and that was saying something, because Barry thought Hal looked good all the time.
“What happened?”
“T’was nothin’, I – was – just was – haven’t slept in five days,” he mumbled into Barry’s shoulder.
“Hal, c’mon let’s,” Barry struggled to pull his dead weight into his house and close the door, “you need to get a shower and then you can go to bed, alright?”
“No, I wanna sleep,” Hal whined and made a dive for the couch.
Barry barely caught him with much difficulty– the brunette weighed a lot more than Barry thought he would. He would have to tease Hal about that tomorrow.
“Nope, shower it is,” Barry said in that no-nonsense tone he only used when Wally was acting out. He dragged Hal up the stairs and practically had to strip him down and throw him into the shower. When he got everything off but Hal’s underwear, he balked.
“I… Uh… Hal,” Barry said, looking away blushing profusely.
“Hmm? At leas’ buy me dinner first, Bar,” he said grinning at Barry through sleepy lashes. Even when he could barely stand, he was still an asshole.
“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Barry rolled his eyes and turned the warm water on. He had contemplated shoving Hal into a cold shower, but he wasn’t heartless. Quite the opposite, in fact. “Alright bud, I’ll be downstairs whenever you get done. You know where your drawer is in the dresser,” Barry said as he walked out of the bathroom.
“Wait, Bar,” Hal said with a miraculous sense of clarity that had not been present in the past thirty minutes of sleepy complaints. “I have a drawer here?”
Barry froze. Shit. He had meant to tell Hal the last time he was here, but he fell asleep watching the movie. Shit.
“Uh, yeah,” the blond sputtered out, “I uh- I know that you said last week that you ended your lease because you weren’t here enough and couldn’t afford it and that you were just going to live in your room at the Watchtower. I um. You’ve left some stuff here so I just, made you a drawer. I know I forgot to ask and I’m not asking you to live here, but I just know that living in the Watchtower isn’t great and you don’t have to and if you want your stuff back you can- “
Barry was cut off by strong arms around his shoulders and a face in his neck.
“You are the fucking nicest person I know, Bar, I swear to God. If anything ever happens to you, I promise to get you down as a Saint in the history books.” Hal muttered into Barry’s neck.
Barry felt his neck warm, but he wasn’t the one flushing. The thought of that implication almost made Barry’s stomach do a backflip on a kickstand, but he kept his calm.
“Um. Thank you,” he responded, hiding his beaming grin in the lantern’s hair. He gave Hal one more squeeze before pushing him back toward the bathroom. “Get a shower so you can get some sleep.”
Hal gave his signature lazy, two-fingered salute and headed back towards the bathroom. He stopped and cocked his head slightly when he got to the threshold, turning back his head to look Barry in the eyes. “Hey Bar,” his voice softened. “Thank you,” he finished and closed the door behind him, leaving Barry staring at the spot where Hal had just been.
Barry couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he went downstairs to make Hal a cup of coffee. He took his time, giving Hal some space to get ready after he heard the water turn off. The blond had to stifle a yawn and checked the time on the microwave in the kitchen; it read two twenty-three. Geez, no wonder he was tired. He was just glad that he didn’t have to work tomorrow.
He climbed back upstairs and knocked on his bedroom door. “Hey Hal, I made you a cup of coffee if you want it.” There was no answer. “Hal?”
Barry opened the door to find the brunette sprawled out across the top of his bed and his breath hitched in his chest. Hal had not found his drawer.
He had found Barry’s.
Well, one of them, at least. The lantern was lying face-first into one of Barry’s pillow and wearing Barry’s softest S.T.A.R. Lab t-shirt and sweats. Barry’s heart nearly burst at the sight, and he couldn’t help but walking over and sitting on the bed next to the man. He put the coffee down on the nightstand and held his breath as he slowly ran a hand through Hal’s hair. Hal didn’t wake up, but he moved into the touch, sending a whole new wave of emotion Barry didn’t know he was capable of having spiraling through his body.
“M’Bar, go to bed,” a sleepy murmur croaked up from the bed.
Barry was caught so off-guard that he jumped up off his own bed. Shit-shit-shit he was caught, he needed to get out of here before something bad happened.
“Barry,” Hal whined and wrapped his wrist around Barry’s forearm.
“Okay, okay,” Barry huffed through nervous laughter. He climbed into the other side of the bed and turned his back to Hal. “Goodnight Hal,” he said, his heart beating faster with the thought of the other man in his bed.
Hal rolled over and threw an arm over Barry and the speedster tensed. “Dork,” he whispered to Barry before his breath evened out in slumber. Barry gulped and tried to figure out how to worm his way out of this situation. Sighing, he decided he didn’t want to disrupt Hal’s sleep and ultimately settled back into Hal’s arm; it may be self-indulgent, but hey, he justified it for Hal. He hadn’t had sleep in five days, and Barry was going to be damned if he woke him up.
With that thought, he burrowed back into the covers and Hal, falling asleep quicker than he had in his entire life.
______________________________________
“Well, what happened after that?” Iris was practically on top of him, eyes wide.
“Nothing!” Barry pushed her off of him.
“You can’t just tell me that nothing happened when you were cuddling with Hal Jordan in a bed all night! What happened the next morning?”
“Iris,” Barry groaned and threw himself into the couch for the fourteenth time that night, “we were not cuddling! Nothing happened. I woke up and he was gone.”
“He just left?” she asked incredulously.
“No, he left a note,” Barry defended, “he had lantern duty.” Barry wasn’t happy when he woke up either, but he understood; it just made him sad.
“Oh my God, you have got to learn how to pull a move.”
“Iris!”
“What,” she shrugged, finishing her third glass of wine with a triumphant gulp. “It’s the truth. You’re obviously going to have to make the first move. He obviously wants something with you if he slept in your clothes and in your bed. With you.”
“Again, he did not sleep with me; he slept on me,” Barry grumbled. The speedster sighed and moved to put his head in his hands slowly. Slower than Iris has ever seen him move, even before he got his powers. “And that’s just the problem. I-I don’t know.”
She sobered up, instantly. “You don’t know what, Bar?” she asked, voice softening like he was some sort of caged animal.
He kept his gaze focused on the ground. “Iris, I love him more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my entire life. Even when I was in love with you for four years, I never felt like this,” he admitted. “I’m scared. I don’t know what he wants, but I can’t just be another conquest for him. I don’t think Hal would ever treat me that way, but I’m just scared. I can’t live without him in my life – he’s my best friend,” he barely managed to breathe out, still looking at the ground. “I will deal with it every day for the rest of my life if that’s what it takes to keep him there,” Barry finally looked up at her with certainty.
“Barry, I’m sure that he- “
“No, don’t worry about it,” he interrupted her with a vacant smile, “I’m gonna go home. You need to get some rest and finish your article. I know that,” he stood and pointed at her head, “is not going to be fun tomorrow. I love you, I’m gonna head out. I’ll text you in a minute when I get home.”
“Bar, wait, don’t- “
“Talk to you tomorrow.”
Before Iris could blink, he was gone and her entire apartment was exactly as she had left it, pizza boxes gone.
“Fuck, Barry! Jesus!” Iris huffed out at the door where he had exited at a speed faster than anything else on earth was capable of reaching. “Guess I’m gonna have to fix this shit, too,” she stumbled to grab her jacket and keys from the coat rack.
______________________________________
Oh, Hal knew.
To be fair, he hadn’t known for the past two years, but it made sense; he and Barry had always shared a bond he knew wasn’t normal. At first, he thought it was just all the time he spent with the other man running around fighting criminals in spandex. He thought it was just pent up sexual aggression and one go around after a mission he would be okay – but then he realized he didn’t want any of that. He wanted to be with Barry all the time in every way. He loved Barry, and the thought scared the absolute shit out of him.
He wished he had known earlier, but he knew now, and he was just too afraid to break the fragile balance they had developed walking on eggshells for the past month. Every time he saw the blond for the past three weeks, he had been trying to hint to him that he wanted to run over and simultaneously marry him and jump his bones.
The coke bottle may have been just a little too much, though, he thought with a smirk. Nah.
Hal knew he had a bad track record with relationships; okay, he had a bad track record with people in general, but he was willing to throw all of that away for the blond speedster. God Barry was just so – Barry. Hal didn’t know of a word that could describe what the speedster was to him. Barry was his partner in everything, and he had been through Hal as Parallax.
God, Hal shuddered at the thought. Barry had held him and talked him down so many times since the night it all ended, always telling him that it wasn’t his fault. Always telling him that he had saved so many lives and how good of a person he was. Barry was – quite literally – the reason Hal had any willpower left in him, and he could never explain that adequately enough for the speedster not to run away from him as fast as possible. Hal couldn’t blame him, either. So instead of dealing with all of that, he did nothing.
He knew why he was up at three in the morning thinking about all of this – he was standing on Barry’s front porch, debating whether to knock or head back to the Watchtower; he had just come back from a mission and the first person he wanted to see was Barry.
What he didn’t know was why he was getting a call from Iris West.
“Hello?” he answered, hesitantly. He and Iris had always had an odd relationship. He thought it extended from the fact that she thinks he’s absolutely bad news for Barry – she wasn’t wrong.
“Where are you, I need to talk to you right now,” came a heavy-breathed reply.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just had to catch a cab and run all the way down to Barry’s house at three in the,” she stopped. “Oh. You’re here too.”
Hal turned around to face the one and only Iris West.
“Why are you here?” the both asked over each other.
Hal gulped and looked down, causing Iris to narrow her eyes.
“You need to get your shit together,” she said to him bluntly, and Hal’s eyes bugged out of his head.
“What?” he choked out.
“You,” she swayed, and he caught her, “need to get. Your shit together – with Barry.”
“Iris are you drunk?” he wheezed out.
“It doesn’t make any difference,” she mumbled, “you need to get on Barry. Well, not on him. But you need to fix it and just kiss him and tell him you love him already because he thinks that you know – which I assume you do since you’re at his front door at three in the morning,” she rambled on. “He was at my apartment for four fucking hours telling me how much he loves you and all this stupid shit he thinks you’ve been doing and I’m sick and tired of you both not getting together already it’s been literal years.”
Hal was stunned; did she just say what he thought she had. He felt his heart speed up and the unmistakable surge energy that came from his ring every time he thought about Barry.
“And actually, maybe get on Barry, I don’t care what kinds of positions you do, really, just be gentle he’s never really been with a guy – if you hurt him, I’ll castrate you,” she slurred.
Even though she wasn’t aware of what she was saying or doing, Hal still blushed furiously. He was so absorbed in his thoughts about Barry he didn’t even notice Iris was walking away.
“Iris, where are you going?” he chased after her.
“Home,” she said nonchalantly, “you and Bar need some alone time,” she hiccupped and wiggled her eyebrows at him.
Hal groaned. He really wanted to talk to Barry, but he needed to make sure Iris got home safely or the blond actually would never speak to him again. It was also three o’clock in the morning – he didn’t want to wake Barry up.
“Alright, I’m gonna take you back to your apartment, alright?” he asked cautiously, approaching her stumbling form. “You just need to tell me where it is.”
“No, you need to stay here and talk to Barry,” she emphasized and threw her arms around herself.
“I will, I swear,” and he really meant it, “but if I let you walk home drunkenly, Barry would never talk to me again.”
She giggled. “Okay, you’re right.”
Hal rolled his eyes scooped her up and green light enveloped the both of them. He would fix this tomorrow, and there was nothing in the heavens or earth that could get in his way.
“Alright, where is your apartment?”
Iris just pointed east and giggled, causing the lantern to let off a string of expletives. It was going to take a long time to get to tomorrow.
______________________________________
“Hal, I swear to God if you tell me it was dinosaur aliens again, I’m kicking you out of my house right now,” Barry shrieked over his Chinese takeout. He was sprawled out on his couch while Hal was reenacting a scene from his latest space escapade.
Hal held up his hands in fake surrender. “I would tell you that, but since you refuse to believe the truth, I guess I can’t say,” he barely managed to choke out through a fit of laughter.
Barry tossed a pillow at his head that narrowly missed taking out Hal’s own container of chicken fried rice. “You are so full of shit.”
“Did the Barry Allen just… say shit?” Hal gasped out in fake indignation. “I guess I really am a bad influence,” he said with fake dejectedness.
Barry threw the last pillow on the couch at him. “I curse all the time!” And that sent the lantern into a fit of laughter.
“Bar, you call it cursing. Cursing. We don’t live in seventeenth fucking century Salem! You aren’t walking around cursing people!”
“Okay, that’s it,” Barry said, getting up to grab the remote from Hal. “You are hereby banned from watching anymore historical dramas on my Netflix account while you’re on world. Forbidden.”
That really got Hal’s attention, and the brunette instantly tackled Barry back onto the couch. “Awe, come on Bar, you can’t do that, I haven’t finished Reign yet,” he whined.
Barry smirked at him until he realized how close they were, and any of the fleeting confidence he had from teasing Hal had all but disappeared. They were inches from each other. All it would take would be for him to just move forward slightly and he would finally know what Hal’s lips tasted like after a night of takeout and laughter.
“Barry, I,” the lantern whispered out, stuttering. It made the blond’s heart stutter. “You wanna go somewhere?”
There was a pause.
“What?” Barry laughed out a little nervously and Hal moved off of him.
“I – um – wanna go somewhere. With you, but I don’t have a car,” he finally got out. “I can drive, um, but we should go somewhere.”
“Alright, weirdo,” the speedster glanced at him warily. “But there’s absolutely no way in hell you’re driving my car. I’ve seen the way you fly planes. Or fight. Or exist, really,” he grinned at the other man.
“Hey! I am the best damn pilot Ferris Air has ever had!” Hal protested.
“I know, I was just pulling your leg,” he smiled back at the lantern.
“Okay, new rule,” Hal shot back, “you aren’t allowed to watch anymore fifties musicals, because you always sound like you’re eighty years old.”
“Hey!” Barry yelped as Hal raced past him and grabbed his keys off of the hook.
“Well, c’mon then twinkletoes, we don’t have all day,” Hal winked at him. Barry grumbled and grabbed the keys from Hal before some disastrous occurrence happened and he had to explain to his insurance agent how his car ended up in the nearest lake.
He must be a professional lantern wrangler by now because he managed to get Hal into the car and in a seatbelt before four jokes were made about his driving – it was a new record. When they finally pulled out of the driveway and onto the main highway after a few minutes, Hal was all radio silence. He had already put in the location he wanted to go in Barry’s GPS and the speedster had no idea where it led – something odd because he thought he knew every single nook and cranny Central City had to offer.
Barry’s leg had been bouncing for the past forty seconds at this most recent red light and all of a sudden it stopped. Huh, that was weird. Barry didn’t remember telling his leg to stop bouncing – oh.
Oh.
Hal had his hand on Barry’s thigh, keeping it in place. It wasn’t forceful; in fact, it was the most calming touch the blond had ever thought he had felt. There was so much comfort in the way Hal circled his thumb over Barry’s leg that his heart rate actually slowed down. Barry had never been able to slow down his heart rate around the other man before, and Hal managed to do it in one motion. Hal gave him a small smile and Barry felt his heart squeeze.
“So, where we gonna go?” Barry whispered into the dark.
“It’s a surprise.”
“You know I hate surprises.” Hal actually looked a little guilty, but Barry eased up at little bit. “But I can make exceptions,” he finished with a smile back at him. The lantern looked instantly relieved. His hand on Barry’s thigh said he was calm and collected, but the blond couldn’t help but notice the way Hal’s other hand tapped quickly on his right knee.
______________________________________
Barry’s first thought was shock. He was baffled he had never discovered this cliff that overlooked the entirety of Central City; he would have to make it a part of his daily run. His second thought was confusion as to why Hal had brought him up here – that he would figure out later.
“It’s beautiful out here, Hal.”
“Yeah?” the lantern gave a sheepish grin. “I’m surprised you haven’t already found it.”
“Honestly, I am too,” Barry chuckled back. “How did you find it?”
“It’s beautiful and it’s high in the air, what did you expect?” Hal grinned. His face grew a little more serious. “I really love it up here, ya know? I don’t ever feel more comfortable or in my element. It’s like being in the air gives me this – strength. I know it sounds stupid.”
“No, it doesn’t sound stupid,” the speedster was gentle. Hal never gave him this much to work off of, and regardless of what the other man had planned, he wasn’t going to let it go to waste.
“Um, but there’s another reason I brought you up here,” Hal finished seriously before Barry could get too jovial.
“Okay?”
“So, Iris talked to me last night.”
Shit. Goddammit. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He was going to jump off this cliff right here and now, but he was going to go grab Iris first and take her with him. Jesus Christ I can’t believe she-
“Barry? You still with me?” Hal asked, hesitantly.
“Uh…” Barry cleared his head and focused his eyes on Hal, “Yeah.”
“Well, I talked to Iris last night and it really illuminated some things for me.”
This is it; this is where he ends your friendship.
“And I wanted to say that I – I, well,” Hal stalled looking back over the edge up to the sky. When his eyes came back down to meet Barry’s, there was the will that made him the fiercest Green Lantern in history.
“Goddammit Barry, I love you.”
“What?” Barry almost fell over.
“Bartholomew Henry Allen, I love you,” Hal said, and this time it got louder, “I fucking love you, alright? I – I don’t know what else to say or how to say it. I’m not good at this,” he gestured back and forth between the two of them, “this kind of stuff. I know I’m an asshole and that you deserve so much more than some smartass who can’t even manage to keep his bills paid. You’re my best friend and I don’t want to lose you, but this last mission? You were all I thought about. Jesus, Bar, you made me a drawer,” Hal’s voice broke. “No one’s ever made me a drawer.”
Barry sat there stunned for a while. Out of all the things he thought Hal would say, he didn’t think it would be about the drawer he made.
“Hal, you can have as many drawers as you want,” he whispered out.
There was a rush and his stomach pitched forward when the brunette wrapped his arms around him and put his forehead against his.
“Jesus fucking Christ, that was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me,” Hal’s voice hitched with every word. “Can I?” he whispered, his voice barely audible. They were both so scared any wrong move would make the earth give way under his feet. Barry nodded and they both leaned in delicately.
The kiss was both nothing like Barry had ever experienced and everything Barry had felt up until this moment. It was slow and sweet, their lips barely grazing; there was no hunger or desperation. It didn’t have the fervor of every other first kiss he had been through – it was thoughtful and careful, but so certain in movement. It felt like he had been kissing Hal his entire life. When they both pulled back, Barry was the first to speak.
“You aren’t going to lose me unless you run away. Please don’t run away.”
Hal nodded, “I’ve ran away from a lot of things in my life, but I will never run away from you. Besides, you could catch me if I was running,” he grinned at Barry.
The speedster laughed and put his forehead back against Hal’s. “So, Iris told you, huh?”
“Well, actually, I’ve known for about a month, but she drunkenly told me all the details when I flew her home last night.” Barry’s eyes went wide, and then they were furious.
“You bastard,” he punched Hal in the shoulder, hard.
“What the fuck, Bar?” the lantern was shocked.
“I was right! You knew the whole damn time and you were doing shit to me! Your suit, the bottle! Iris said I was a perv, but I was right!” Barry was huffing and blushing until it finally hit Hal.
He fell to the ground in a laughing fit and Barry jumped on top of him, still smacking him.
“You absolute bastard!”
“Hey, Hey,” Hal threw his arms up in front of his face still laughing like a crazy person, “you can’t hit your boyfriend.” Hal froze after realizing what he just said.
Barry, however, grinned and pulled him back up into his arms. “Boyfriend, huh?” he said, stressing the word.
“I mean, um, yeah, I guess. I mean, if you want to try I- “
Barry cut him off with a kiss, this one just as meaningful as the last one.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’d like to try that,” he said into Hal’s lips, both of them still grinning. Barry suddenly pulled back, looking at him very seriously. “Wait, how do you feel about Christmas lights?”
Hal laughed and pulled him back in close. “We can leave them up until January, you dork.”
Barry grinned and gave Hal one last kiss.
“Let’s go home and make you another drawer.”