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For as long as he could remember, Hal Jordan had been surrounded by an aura of the vividest green.
In his world, having a visible aura was a very ordinary thing for humanoids.
His mother's was yellowish and his father's a dull brown. His brothers' were pretty but common blue shades.
Green was one of the most common colors, with blue and red. Hal's Green ? In his 26 years on - and even off - Earth Hal had never seen anyone with such a vibrant aura.
Hal had unraveled the color's mystery the second he had become a Lantern. Before he met other human Lanterns, he thought his aura's color was customary among them. It wasn't. Some have purple or orange or royal blue ones but nothing as noteworthy as Hal's.
In the League, he had seen incredible auras. Some were exceptionally thick, some were white, some reminded Hal of Pratchett's eighth color.
Nothing compared to Batman's, though. The blackest black was pooling around him. Black auras didn’t have a good reputation, their owners were often believed to have been cursed and were feared - maybe not without reason for Batman.
You’d think that having auras would make the vigilante work with the double identity thing complicated, but aura’s suppressants and drys were quite popular in town.
For Hal, it meant his civilian aura was toned down to a less vibrant, less impressive green. For Batman, as Hal would learn later, it meant his civilian aura was a soft blue, pretty but ordinary.
Some League’s members did it the other way around : they kept their usual auras for civilian life and changed them for superhero work.
The thing with auras was that they could match. People with matched auras were deemed soulmates. Souls so in harmony that auras matched. You wouldn’t know your aura matched with someone else’s if it wasn’t for the change of color that happened a few seconds after you had skin-on-skin contact for the first time with your match.
The legend pretended that you could only match with one person, but considering the very high number of matches, Hal doubted it. More than 80% of people met their soulmate. 75% of them married them, but about 15% of those ones divorced.
Anyway, first contact meant exchange of colours until second contact, which made you aura go back to normal.
Hal had been working for two years with Bruce in the Justice League when they matched. Some belligerent aliens had decided that Gotham was a good place as any to start a war. The Justice League had worked things out and the aliens had been dealt with.
Back at the Watchtower, Hal had winced slightly during the debriefing session. It was enough for Bruce to notice and escort him to the med-bay after. Hal had only protested weakly before baring his torso. Bruce had had a single look at his back, sighed and fumbled into his suit to find some ointment of some sort.
He had put his gloves off and massaged the ointment into Hal’s skin for a few seconds before stopping abruptly.
Hal had let out an involuntary small whine at the loss of contact before turning back. Bruce was looking at his hands with concern, which could easily be explained by the familiar green who had taken possession of his usually black aura.
Hal had only needed a second to check his own to confirm what was obvious - Bruce and him were soulmates and his aura was now darker than it had ever been, almost putting a shadow to the green of his uniform.
His reaction was to bolt. A more logical step would have been to touch Bruce again so they wouldn’t be bothered by the change of color in their auras, but Hal had panicked.
The sight of a frazzled shirtless Green lantern surrounded by black energy chased by a glowing Batman would have been something to behold, if anyone else had stayed at the tower.
“Jordan !” Bruce had called.
“No, no, no… Why. No. Not possible,” the man had muttered under his breath, still running to who knew where.
“Jordan, please.”
He slowed, the unusual politeness making him hesitate for a second. That second was enough for Bruce to tackle him.
Second contact was made, and both had their trademark colors back in seconds.
“Oh. Thanks,” Hal said, realizing that the solution to their problem had been right under their nose.
He twisted under Bruce so they were face to face. Well, face to cowl, anyway. Which was probably stupid because Hal couldn’t look at Bruce without blushing, apparently.
“I - um. Can you - ?” he gestured to their pressed chests vaguely.
Bruce stood quickly and offered a hand to Hal.
“I didn’t see that coming, I must say," Hal chuckled awkwardly.
“You didn’t ?”
“Wait, you did ? Bruce, you did ?”
“It was a possibility.”
“What - what do you mean ?”
“You have certain qualities that I find desirable in a soulmate.”
“Certain qualities you - what ? Is it Brucian for 'I like you' ? Am I tolerable enough ?”
The other man glared at him through his lenses and turned around. Hal’s voice stopped him before he had the time to go out of the room.
“Next Thursday, 8 o’clock. The nice place near my flat. I can’t guarantee that I will not have a call from the Corps at this time but - yeah, so, is it a good time if you don’t mind going on a date with me ? To maybe discover some others of my qualities you might find desirable ?”
“Smoothness isn’t one, apparently. Thursday sounds good, though.”
“Thursday it is, then. Good night.”
In an impulsive move, his lips grazed Bruce’s. A second later he was pinned against a wall and kissed hungrily.
“Easy, caveman. And I was the one accused of not being smooth,” Hal laughed as they separated in order to breathe.
Bruce’s cowl had somehow disappeared during the process. Their foreheads were touching. Bruce was sighing.
“Hal, just for once, could you shut up ?” he growled.
“Make me,” Hal whispered into his ear.
Bruce didn’t need to be asked twice.