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A hum woke her up. Soft and sweet and light.
Iris shifted slightly so she could catch sight of Hal, sitting up in bed with a book in one hand and Barry’s head resting on his thigh as the other hand absently rubbed at Barry’s back. He was humming some tune Iris didn’t know and she shifted so she could press a kiss to his upper thigh. Her boyfriend grinned and placed his book face down on top of Barry, who made no indication of realizing he was being used as a human table. Iris pressed another kiss to his skin.
“Morning sunshine.” Hal whispered, his voice a rasp.
“Morning starlight,” Iris answered. That little blush he got whenever Iris called him by his silly nickname suddenly heated up his cheeks and Iris kissed his thigh again. He was so cute. Nobody expected Hal Jordon to be cute , but Iris saw it whenever he stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he read and whenever he woke up with a case of bedhead. “What were you singing?”
“Huh?”
“You were humming. What were you humming?” Iris rubbed her hand up and down his thigh, enjoying how the long hairs there shifted with each movement. There was a birthmark just over his knee, some fading dark blob the size and approximate shape of a dandelion puff. Iris traced it as she waited for Hal to answer.
“Just an old space song. The words are all—okay, so there’s this species of alien who speak in varying whistling and kind of crackling noises. Conversation with them is spotty at best, but god you hear them sing and it’s like you’re honest to god ascending onto another plane of existence, it’s beautiful Iris. I don’t know any words and I cannot dream about trying to actually sing it, but I always think about their damn songs.” Hal said with a sigh, a far away look entering those beautiful dark eyes of his.
That was that look of his that said he longed to fly.
The very same entered Barry’s face when he wanted to run.
Iris pressed a kiss to his birthmark.
It was lonely, sometimes, being the one who stayed still.
Who would have ever thought that Iris, who had climbed up trees to explore and watch as ants crawled towards some unknown treasure and had spent her teen years wreaking havoc on her father’s sanity, would be the one to stay still?
Hal broke out of his thoughts and gave Iris a handsome smile.
“Did you sleep well babe?” Iris asked as she made herself sit up, rubbing away any crust around her eyes. Her boyfriend reached over to help her, which only made her giggle at him as he tickled her face.
“It was—good.” He said with a shrug and a small frown. Like Iris couldn’t see the dark circles underneath his eyes. Hal must have been awake even before Barry had started cuddling up with him. “Hey, you know if Bart’s home?”
Bart either spent time with Max Mercury or with his Young Justice teammates with little regard of giving anyone heads up about where he was. Iris occasionally got a text from the kid—a bunch of emojis that told her absolutely nothing that she would spend minutes trying to comprehend before deciding if Bart was well enough to text then chances were he was just fine. Honestly, if she wasn’t such a great kid Iris would worry more about her rambunctious grandchild. Sure, Bart got into some shenanigans, but it was good for kids that age to hang out and get their energy out.
Iris hummed. “No clue.”
Hal sighed, seemingly put out. “So no crazy hot kitchen sex?”
“We eat there.” Iris settled a look on him, tamping down her smile from their age old playful argument. Barry, ever the talker, snored loudly enough that Hal and Lois shared a look as they held back laughter. “C’mon let’s get breakfast ready,” Iris said through her smile as she stood up. Hal sighed, but quickly followed, grabbing himself a pair of sweats before they got downstairs.
Breakfast, in a house full of speedsters, was always an ordeal.
“Think we can quit our day jobs and open up a pancake house?” Hal joked as the twentieth (give or take) pancake was set on the growing stack on the counter.
Iris laughed as she hipchecked him to make room for her station to make omelets. The stove wasn’t wide enough for two people cooking at once, but they’d done this dance enough that it wasn’t all too chaotic. “I doubt we have the energy to keep up with a whole pancake house. Besides, they're a little too dark.”
Hal clicked his tongue and raised a single eyebrow. He looked so ridiculous. Iris wanted to giggle at him, so she did as she threw mushrooms, cheese, spinach, and a sprinkling of kosher breakfast sausage that Hal kept on sneakily eating every few minutes when he should be minding the pancakes. She giggled, like some sort of lovestruck teenager, and when Hal moved to press a kiss to her lips she eagerly leaned up into it, cupping his jaw with her hand.
A few moments passed before Hal pulled back, a sparkling grin on his face as their eyes met. “Damn Iris, you’re going to make me burn my pancakes.”
She playfully pushed at his shoulder and Hal laughed, hearty and nearly contagious, his head thrown back and his Adam’s apple on full display. She bit her bottom lip and turned back to her omelet, not wanting to get too distracted by her boyfriend. Ugh. Stupid Hal Jordan with his pretty eyes and soft lips and bright teeth and enticing Adam’s apple.
They continued to make breakfast, munching on stray blueberries and strawberries and chocolate chips as they moved back and forth. They were about forty pancakes in when Barry tumbled down the stairs, wiping sleep out of his eyes and smiling softly at them both. “Would you look at that? I’ve got the best partners in the world.” A sudden kiss was pressed to Iris’s cheek and she was only beginning to smile when she saw the lightning fast blur of her husband press a kiss to Hal’s cheek.
In a blink of an eye Barry was sitting at the counter, a plate of pancakes on his lap.
“Good morning, my moonheart.” Hal sang out as he grabbed a fork and took a small triangle out of one of Barry’s many pancakes. “Hey, do you know if Bart’s home or not?”
Barry laughed and shook his head. “Nope. You are not getting crazy hot kitchen sex in this house. Face the facts that you’re dating an old married couple with kids who have no understanding of boundaries. There’s no way we could get away with crazy hot kitchen sex.”
Hal raised up both of his hands and began his passionate reply, Iris cracking up with each word and Barry shaking his head faster and faster the longer Hal went on. Looking at the two of them, she could feel as the restlessness that resided in their bodies began to relax. It would come back full force, Iris knew that it would because it always did, but for now they were content to eat breakfast and joke around and stay still and grounded.
As they cleaned up, a slow and mundane task that Barry willingly spent with the two of them, Hal began to hum once again. Iris set down her washcloth onto her shoulder and moved to wrap her arms around Hal’s waist. The man, who was in the middle of scrubbing at a pan, paused for a moment before continuing his song, his hum becoming much more clear and deliberate.
This time it was a song Iris could recognize.
Nirvana.
Not the most romantic, but Iris swayed back and forth nonetheless and Hal’s laughter broke through his humming. A chest pressed against her back and Iris laughed when Barry’s arms wrapped around Hal’s shoulders. It probably should have felt constrictive, but instead all Iris could feel was love and warmth. Hal continued to hum and Barry pressed deliberately loud kisses to Hal’s neck and shoulders and Iris let her fingers slip underneath the front of Hal’s shirt and trace over the long hairs of his treasure trail on his stomach.
“Seriously,” Hal laughed, “don’t say we can’t have crazy hot kitchen sex if this is how you’re going to be all morning.”
Of course, it would be then that a certain teenage speedster decided to show up with a screech about being traumatized and just wanting to have breakfast in peace. Of course. Because boundaries and notifications of location status was not a thing with them. Iris shared a look with her partners and mouthed “ this is why we can’t have crazy hot kitchen sex ” before turning towards their grandchild with an apology on her lips.