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Hal Jordan turned in the sheets, covered in sweat. Something about the sheets felt off, they were far too soft against his skin. He opened his eyes. He was right, those weren’t his sheets - or his room either : most of the furniture and decorations here would cost more than Hal’s monthly pay. He turned around but there was no one else in the bed even if it was clear someone else had slept there at some point.
Also, Hal was naked. The obvious conclusion was that he had slept with a woman. A rich one. He didn’t remember her though and it bothered him greatly. He wasn’t that kind of guy usually.
He did remember the names of all his previous conquests and even some of their interests. Clara was a mechanic who had two goldfish and liked rom-coms, Jackie collected keychains and pebbles, Samia was vegan and roleplayed, Deborah was a make-up artist and read thrillers.
This woman ? He didn't have a clue. Didn't even remember her name.
Ill at ease, he looked for his clothes. He found pants, nondescript socks, a pair of jeans and a green t-shirt : they felt like something he would wear, but were still unfamiliar. The “sleeping with a woman and not remembering it” part was bad enough, but he was starting to have a really bad feeling about this.
He didn’t find his shoes. Maybe next to the front door ? He sneaked out of the room, only to come face to face with a young teenager.
He gulped. So, he had slept with someone old enough to have a fourteen (?) year old child. Okay. No big deal. What could he say ?
“Hi," he tried.
“Good morning. Are you alright ? You do not look alright,” the boy said, tilting his head.
“Thank you, kid. You haven’t seen my shoes ? Or my jacket ?”
The pre-teen looked confused.
“Try the hall.”
Hal nodded and took a step forward before stopping.
“Which direction ?”
The pre-teen dared to laugh at him.
“You are really not a morning person, Hal," the kid said, frowning. "First left, then right, and right again.”
The kid seemed to be under the impression he had already been there before. And he called him Hal. However, Hal had no recollection of him.
“Er - thanks,” he said carefully.
Curiouser and curiouser, he thought. And that was before he heard the teenager’s parting sentence.
“Father's still in his office if you want to say hi.”
Hal did a double-take. So, he had slept with a married woman. A married woman with a kid who knew his name. And her husband knew about it ? What kind of household was this ? What was he doing here ? Had he been drugged ?
“Your Dad is - what ?”
Too much information to process. He had been too slow to question the kid though, who had walked away. Before he could wonder about his next move, a tall man - the kid’s Dad ? - went down the stairs quickly.
“Hal, it’s good that you’re awake. I was looking for you - League’s business.”
What was that ? A drug ring ? Hal’s head was spinning. There was something familiar about it all, but still a bit alien.
He followed the middle-aged man to his office. Well, a super secret office with super advanced technological stuff. He was a bit freaked out, to be honest.
He didn’t dare to ask about the man’s wife.
“Hi, Hal !” a woman on a screen said, and the poor man jumped.
Was it her ? She didn’t look like the kid in the corridor. Contrary to the man at his side, that she called Bruce. Apparently, she was Diana. They also worked with a Clark, and a Barry, and a Victor. Something about all their names was familiar.
But they kept talking about things he didn’t understand and he zoned out for a bit.
“Hal ?” Bruce called him after some time.
“Sorry ?” he said.
He was still trying to process what was happening, and he was going to be late for his job if he didn’t leave soon.
Bruce had stepped away from the screens with their teammates’ faces on them to get closer to Hal.
“Any informations a Green Lantern would know about those guys ?” he asked, brushing the nape of his neck with his lips.
Hal went very, very still.
“A - Wait ! What are you doing ?” he squealed.
“We agreed on no PDA when we can see it !” the guy named Barry groaned, covering his eyes with his arm.
Hal’s voice went higher and higher in a few seconds.
“No - What ? This isn’t what you think ! I am not - I - No ! Don’t !” he said when Bruce extended an arm towards him, confused.
Bruce nodded, looked at their friends’ wondering faces and took a quick decision.
“You’d have to deal with this on your own, I am afraid, it seems we have problems of our own here. Keep us updated,” he said before turning all the screens off so quickly nobody had the luxury to protest.
“Hal, I am sorry I didn’t ask before touching you but you look really upset, is there something else that is bothering you?” the man in black clothes asked.
“Something else bothering me ? Oh yes, there’s you, and the kid, and all this ! Not to mention your wife -”
Bruce looked at him strangely.
“My wife ?” he said slowly.
Hal started shaking a bit. The man was nearly a head taller than him, his chest seemed broader and he was pretty intimidating. Was it possible he wasn’t aware that Hal and his wife had slept together ? He looked really surprised.
“I don’t know if you are married, but I meant the kid’s Mom. Listen, I don’t know what’s happening. I - uh - I woke up in a room here and it feels like I have blacked out or something because I don’t remember how I ended up there or you or the kid at all and I swear I don’t remember her at all but maybe we’ve slept together ?”
Hal winced. The man kept his gaze on him. However, he seemed quite worried now so Hal decided to rush his explanation a bit.
“The kid doesn’t seem surprised when I went out of her room and you don’t seem to mind and I don’t know how you all know me and I don’t and I am not sure what my relationship with your wife is but er - sorry if I gave you the wrong impression or something but I am not gay. Not at all.”
He paused slightly but the lack of answer on the man’s part encouraged him to add something.
“It’s okay if you are though. And if your marriage is that kind of marriage, it’s okay. I am uh- very open-minded. I am just not interested.”
The man looked quite stunned.
“Not that you don’t look good. You do. I am just more into girls. And well - you don’t look like a girl. So I am not into you. So maybe it’s better if you don’t touch me. Er, sorry. About your wife and not being homosexual and not wanting a menage à trois and that kind of stuff," he added as an afterthought. “Don’t hit me ?”
“What ? Of course I am not going to hit you. And you should breathe. It’s fine.”
Hal offered him a tentative smile and scratched his forehead.
“I am glad you’re not mad.”
It was Bruce’s turn to smile.
“I can’t be mad at you for sleeping with my wife. I don’t have one. Or anyone else you could confuse as such,” he added when Hal was about to protest.
The younger man frowned.
“Oh. But there was a woman here," he insisted.
“Have you seen one ?” Bruce asked.
Hal thought about it. No, he didn’t remember even seeing her, but there had to be a woman of some sort. Of course, that man’s wife might have been a bit old for him, but who else ?
“No. I assumed - since I woke up naked in bed, I thought - oh, do you have a daughter ?”
Hal winced some more and this time the guy winced too. Maybe he was going to hit him finally.
“None that is old enough to sleep with someone your age. Hal, I don’t know what those aliens did to you but you shouldn’t dig for answers you’re not ready to hear yet,” he said prudently.
He had crossed his arms against his chest and was now leaning against a wall. The posture seemed very familiar to Hal - however for some odd reason he had thought for a second that the man was masked.
“Aliens ? What do you mean aliens ? You talked about them earlier too, with the other guys and that one woman.”
Until then, Bruce had seemed, at worst, mildly worried. Now, he looked - well Hal didn’t have a chance to analyse how he looked, because his face had gone utterly blank.
“Hal, do you even know what a Green Lantern is ?” he said.
His tone was so serious, Hal felt he should lighten the atmosphere, but he wasn’t sure he knew how.
“You don’t mean the kind of lights with a handle, right ?”
Bruce’s lips tightened and he shook his head negatively.
“What is the last thing you do remember ?” he asked.
He had smoothed down his voice and Hal couldn’t tell if it made him scarier or more comforting in all honesty.
“I - I was drinking a bit because I broke up with my girlfriend - Carol. It’s fine though, because we’re staying friends and she didn’t fire me - I’ve just started an internship in her firm, you know how hard it is to find a job when you’re twenty year old and have little experience -”
Bruce smiled at him a bit weakly.
“I can imagine. This mustn’t be easy - but I want you to try to trust me, Hal. You’re safe here, okay ?” he said.
He wanted to touch him but kept his hands to himself. Hal didn’t look like he would enjoy the contact.
“You and I - we’re something, right ?” Hal asked.
Bruce sighed. He didn’t want to lie to Hal’s face but the Lantern wasn’t making it easy. He didn’t seem like he could stomach the extent of their relationship at the moment.
“We’re something. I am not involved with a college-aged kid, though.” he said carefully.
Hal seemed to relax considerably.
“How did you find out ?” he asked quietly, eyes downcasted.
“What ?”
Hal barely met his eyes, blushing.
“That you - were gay ?”
“Lucky you, I had this conversation with one of my boys recently. I am not exactly gay, I am bisexual. I date people who are my gender or not.”
None of them talked for nearly a minute.
“Is it - good ? Sleeping with a guy ?”
Was he really having this conversation with Hal ? He knew the man was full of surprises but he really had never expected this one.
They had been sleeping together for years !
Bruce tried to keep in mind that Hal was, at the moment, like a twenty year old confused kid who needed some guidance.
“In a moral sense, it is neither good or bad. It just is. It doesn’t make you a worse or better person. If it’s about the feelings - it depends on your own sexual orientation and who your partner is.”
Hal threw him a dark glare. Bruce did his best not to shrug.
“I am not gay. I just thought it was an interesting question. So, how did you find out ?”
Bruce smiled a bit.
“I told my last partner I found out when I started dreaming of kissing him instead of killing him. The truth is, I fell in love with a boy when I was in tenth grade.”
Hal nodded.
“Was it scary ?”
“Very. But it’s fine, now.”
Hal yawned.
“I feel tired. Do you mind if I take a nap somewhere ?” he asked hesitantly.
“Why don’t you go back to my wife’s bedroom ?” Bruce said.
“Very funny.”
Bruce led him back to the master bedroom. He turned his back respectfully when Hal took off his jeans and slipped under the covers. The Green Lantern was asleep in a few seconds.
That wasn’t normal. Bruce touched his forehead. As he feared, Hal was far too warm.
He took Hal’s abandoned Green Lantern’s ring on the bedside table. and used it to send a message to other Green Lanterns.
Hence why their bedroom was full of them half an hour after. Each one of them was offering their advice loudly without listening to the others and Bruce felt like he was going to have a hell of a headache when Hal opened his eyes.
He looked at Bruce in confusion.
“Since when do we hold Green Lanterns’ meetings in our bedroom ?” he asked.
He was about to stand but Bruce prevented him by telling him he wasn’t fully clothed.
“Do you remember what happened before you fell asleep ?” the dark-haired man asked his lover.
The other Green Lanterns had shut up to listen to Hal’s testimony and the couple more or less forgot about them.
“Oh ! Oh, Bruce… I'm sorry I worried you. I'm back, now.” Hal said, hugging his partner.
“What happened ?” the Dark Knight asked, half because he wanted to know and half because he wanted the Green Lanterns he had called gone.
“Well, before the amnesia part, I was on Skr-13.7 for some negotiations between two of their tribes. The thing is, their chiefs wanted to keep their identities secret so they drugged me. They wiped this out of my memory successfully. However, it meant I couldn’t have access to my other recent memories for a bit.”
He took Bruce’s hand in his.The other Green Lanterns cleared the room after a few more minutes of conversation. Soon enough Bruce and Hal were left alone in their bedroom.
“Next time you summon my coworkers, be sure I'm at least wearing pants,” the latter observed.
His partner hummed in agreement, but there was something else he wanted to discuss.
“You agreed to this ?”
Hal nodded sheepishly. Bruce sat next to him on the bed and sighed.
“For my defense, I didn’t realize it meant you would have to deal with my sexual identity crisis.”
Bruce laughed lightly.
“It’s fine. It was weird at first. Especially when you kept apologizing for sleeping with my non-existent wife when I was quite certain I was the one who had been shagged senseless by you last night.”
The pilot had hid his face in his laughing lover’s neck.
“That’s so embarrassing.”
The Dark Knight had kissed his head and brought him closer to him, holding him in his arms.
“I don’t mind. I love you. And it’s nice when you don’t recoil in fear when I try to be affectionate with you," Bruce said, kissing his partner’s neck.
"I love you too. But as much as I wouldn’t mind you to be affectionate with me right now, I thought the League needed us ?”
Bruce smiled.
“They managed without us. They updated me when you were sleeping.”
Hal kissed him.
“Nice. You do remember my question on gay sex ?” he asked, crawling on his partner’s lap.
“My answer is still the same," Bruce said, divesting him of his t-shirt.
“Well, I am quite sure about my orientation right now and I feel like you would know how to make it good," Hal said, helping him out of his shirt.
“Really ? What makes you think so ?”
Hal cupped his face gently
“Four years of married life,” he said, before kissing him again.