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The Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Green Arrow had helped a reluctant Batman out after wizards had claimed Gotham's docks.
They hadn't suffered much from the battle but Bruce had been touched by a spell that had stunned him. They had taken him back to the Batcave and interrogated the wizards they had captured - they had assured them that only his true love could help to lift the curse.
They had shared those informations with Alfred and Bruce's kids, hoping they could identify someone who'll be Bruce's true love but the kids had told them to call Hal instead.
He was on monitor duty at the Watchtower and seemed quite surprised when Barry called him.
"We thought a magician would be more appropriate but the Robins said we should call you first." Barry was telling him through the comms.
"What's going on with Bruce ?" he sighed.
If the kids had wanted to call him, you could be certain that Bruce was in deep trouble. The mention of magic wasn't good news either.
"A Sleeping Beauty type of curse." Barry said.
Hal groaned. Not again.
"Have a magician confirm it is, I'd rather not kill Bruce accidentally. Give me a few minutes and I'll be there. Someone should replace me at the Watchtower." he said.
"You're coming here ?" Barry said, sounding puzzled.
"That'll work better that way." Hal retorted.
Apparently his best friend hadn't figured out yet how come that the kids had asked them to tell Hal specifically.
Hal would have thought that Barry or another of their teammates would have figured it out by the time he got to the Batcave but their questions showed it wasn't the case.
"So what can we do ?" Barry asked, looking at Hal hopefully.
"Is there a way to counter the spell ?"
"Do you know someone who could be Bruce's true love ? Selina ?" Arthur questioned.
"Surprisingly, I didn't come here because of my great knowledge on spells or on Bruce's lovers. I am here because I can wake him." he said, shaking his head.
And did Arthur really thought Selina was Bruce's true love ? Hal felt a bit insulted there.
"What ? But -" Diana said, frowning at him.
"I'll make it short. One, Bruce and I are a couple. Two, I am his true love, no matter how stupid it sounds. Three, I've actually done that before." Hal said as he sat on the bed next to Bruce and moved some strands of hair from his forehead.
"Are you ready ?" he asked Alfred before the rest of them could react.
The butler nodded and Hal kissed Bruce softly on the lips. Bruce blinked before he sat up and pulled Hal on his lap.
"Hey." Hal said.
Bruce just grabbed his face and kissed him ferociously. Hal's laughter filled the room.
Suddenly, Bruce stilled, looked at Alfred retreating from his reach with a needle in his hand and granted Hal a betrayed look.
"See you soon." Hal said, pushing Bruce down the mattress and kissing him one last time before the anesthetic kicked in.
"What did you do ?" Diana said in an horrified tone.
"You've never seen anyone being released from a sleep-inducing spell, have you ? One of the side effects of the spell is an uncontrollable lust for the person waking you." Hal told the others as Alfred injected another product in one of Bruce's veins.
"Bruce would have ripped my clothes and his apart in a matter of seconds if I'd let him." he added. "I usually am not against it but he wasn't in his right mind and he would never forgive himself if he hurt me. I had to put him to sleep. The second injection is to counter that little side effect of lifting the curse."
"You've done that before." Arthur said tentatively.
"Yes. I didn't know of the side effects then. I kissed him awake and things started getting - well I just thought emotions were running high and it wasn't like we never had life-affirming sex before." Hal said.
"So you just decided to get along with it ?"
Hal nodded. Resisting Bruce's touch had never been his strongest suit.
"We didn't get very far before I stopped things. We were kissing and I'd just got rid of my shirt when I felt a sharp pain. Bruce had bitten me hard. Too hard for it to be a simple accident in the heat of the moment, blood was running down my shoulder. It was quite obvious that something was wrong and I still had my Lantern ring on. I restrained him until I could get him to sleep with Alfred's help." Hal remembered.
"You were lucky it didn't get further." Oliver said.
"No. When we talked about it, Bruce said that he knew something was off and that he bit my shoulder to warn me." Hal said.
He couldn't erase the hint of admiration in his voice. Knowing Bruce would even fight magic to protect him was always heartwarming.
"How long ago did it happen ?" Barry asked.
"Not long before we married. First time I met Alfred. I wasn't even wearing a shirt and my shoulder was a bloody mess." Hal said, a small smile on his lips as he ran his hand through Bruce's hair.
"And how long have you been a couple ?"
Hal shrugged. It was a bit hard to say.
"We've been sleeping together since the beginning. At first, it was just scratching an itch and relieving some tension. Casual fucking. Bruce was still seeing Selina occasionally. We stopped seeing each other when I started dating Carol but when she broke up with me, Bruce and I resumed our relationship." Hal summarized.
"We started planning encounters instead of merely enjoying the times we were thrown together by chance. I spent more time in Gotham, Bruce came to Coast City. We started having dates. He stopped seeing Selina. We broke up once. Got back together. Married not long after. Have been married for four years." Hal finished.
"Wow." Oliver whistled. "The beginning ?"
"We didn't even like each other that much at first. Or we thought so. Funny how things seem different with the years."
Would Hal have believed it if he had been told he would someday be Bruce's "true love" all those years ago ? Probably not.
"You could have told us." Diana said reproachingly.
"A bit rich coming from you, don't you think, Princess ?" Hal said sardonically.
"What does he mean ?" Arthur asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
"It doesn't matter." Diana said quickly. "So, Bruce's kids know ?"
"They better. We're family." Hal said, looking toward the part of the Batcave they couldn't see from there.
He couldn't hear them arguing, which meant they were probably eavesdropping on them.
"Does it mean that you have kids ?" Oliver asked, his eyes widening.
It made Hal laugh.
"Sort of. This family doesn't really do labels. If you ask them, they probably would shrug and say that they have a Hal, the same way they have a Bruce and an Alfred."
He smiled at the thought. Bruce started stirring on his cot.
"Hal." he murmured, still half-asleep. "Not the ants."
"I promise. No ants." Hal said, squeezing Bruce's hand.
Bruce murmured something else and seemed to come back to sleep.
"I love you too." Hal answered quietly.
"Maybe we should go." Oliver said and Hal felt grateful for that.
"Right. See you at the next meeting." Arthur said.
Diana and Barry said their goodbyes and they finally all left.
"They're gone, you can stop pretending you're asleep." Hal eventually said, patting Bruce's arm.
Bruce sat up next to Hal and smiled at him.
"I thought they would never leave." Bruce said.
"Don't complain, you were asleep for most of it. I had the dubious pleasure to tell them everything about our relationship."
"Everything ?" Bruce said with amusement.
"Probably more than you would have told them." Hal admitted, worrying his lip.
Bruce's hand closed on his wrist.
"Hal."
"Um ?" Hal said, turning towards him.
"I don't care about what you've told them." Bruce said, kissing Hal's nose.
Hal smiled at him through his eyelashes.
"I know." he said. "Bed ?" he suggested.
"I thought I was the one who was supposed to be overcome with passion." Bruce said, taking his husband's hand and leading him out of the Cave nevertheless.
"Give me a few minutes and you will be." Hal affirmed.
"Is that a promise ?" Bruce asked.
"Yes, it is." Hal said, pinning his husband against their bedroom's door.