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Bruce hadn’t expected to hear one of his teammate’s voices in his ear that night. After all, he wasn’t taking part in tonight's mission - he had had to make an appearance as Bruce Wayne at the gala organized by the mayor’s wife.
“Hey B, do you have a minute ?”
Bruce almost didn’t recognize Barry’s voice - he sounded exceptionally nervous.
“Has something gone wrong ?” Bruce asked.
He was crouching on a roof, looking at a transaction happening on the docks through his binoculars. Nothing illegal had happened yet but the night was still young and Bruce had gotten his intel from Oracle - she was seldom wrong.
Bruce had been surprised by Barry’s attempt at contacting him. Any of his teammates working on the same mission -meaning Hal, Dinah, Ollie and Diana- seemed a more obvious choice. If Barry couldn’t ask them for help…
“Flash ?”
It couldn’t be good. Bruce didn’t wait for Barry to speak again before heading back to the Cave.
“Ah, um, it’s okay. I mean, Hal took a blow to the head during our mission but he’s alright.”
If it was all, Barry would probably not be calling him. It wasn’t the first time Hal took a blow to the head and felt a bit queasy about it.
“Has Leslie seen him ?” Bruce asked impatiently.
He didn’t want to show how much he cared but the fact that Barry was calling him instead of Hal himself wasn’t very reassuring.
“Leslie said it was just a concussion but I thought it would be better to call you. Leslie wants him to rest in the medbay but Hal’s been asking about his Bruce ring and its absence seems to stress him out. You wouldn’t know what he’s talking about ?” Barry asked.
Bruce could sense his curiosity. Chances were Barry may have figured out what Hal was asking about. Bruce couldn’t think of many other explanations justifying Hal asking for a Bruce ring.
In any case, it didn’t really matter. If the absence of his wedding band made Hal feel uneasy, Bruce would take it to him.
“Actually, I do. Tell Hal I’ll get it and that I’ll be there soon,” Bruce said.
“Bruce !” Hal exclaimed when he saw his husband entering the medbay. “Ow. My head hurts,” he complained immediately, as if the sound of his own voice had been enough to give him a headache.
Ollie, Barry and Diana were still in the room.
Barry said something about getting coffee for everyone and insisted for Ollie to help him to bring all the cups back. Diana was talking on the phone in a corner of the room and excused herself.
“I bet,” Bruce said softly, sitting on the edge of Hal’s sickbed.
He had changed into casual clothing before going into the medbay. Hal responded well to touch when he needed to get comforted and the armor wasn’t great for that.
He let his hand graze Hal’s. Barry, who had come back toward them to ask if Bruce wanted to order something specific, eventually decided he’ll get a black coffee instead and closed the door behind him without asking.
“You came,” Hal said.
“I did,” Bruce said, brushing a strand of hair away from Hal’s eyes.
“I couldn’t find my ring,” Hal said, frowning in confusion.
He looked a bit lost. The hospital gown didn’t help.
“Here,” Bruce said, retrieving the metal band from his pocket. “You’ve left it on your nightstand.”
Hal took it gratefully and put it on. He looked more at ease the second it made contact with his skin and sighed in relief.
“Barry said it wasn’t there,” he said. “I thought I had lost it.”
If Hal had sent him to his quarters to look for it, it explained why Barry had sounded so awkward on the comms. He must have realized there was some of Bruce’s stuff in Hal’s room.
The blueprint for the next Batmobile was probably still spread on the desk, he had shown it to Hal and made some adjustments to it a few days ago. There might be a copy of Gotham’s Gazette on the nightstand, next to a copy of a file Bruce was working on.
“I meant your nightstand at home,” Bruce said.
Somehow, Hal’s fingers had gotten intertwined with his. Bruce couldn’t tell on whose initiative.
“Oh. I didn’t remember that,” Hal said.
He was still frowning. Bruce couldn’t resist soothing the lines on Hal’s forehead with his free hand.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Might be your concussion. Your memory will get better in a few days,” Bruce assured him.
“Do you have yours ?” Hal asked.
“Yes,” Bruce said, taking it out of his pocket.
“Can you put it on ?”
Bruce shrugged. Their teammates weren’t idiots. They would notice the platinum band on Hal’s ring finger and know what he had meant by Bruce ring, whether Bruce wore his own or not.
“Done,” he said, just as Ollie and Barry entered the room again.
Bruce looked at them as they registered his closeness to Hal and their matching bands. Their jaws dropped collectively. Diana, who had just ended her phone call, didn’t look as surprised.
“So, you two…”
“Yes,” Bruce said shortly.
“Oh. They didn’t know,” Hal said, as if he just remembered that.
“It’s okay,” Bruce said, squeezing Hal’s wrist.
Hal radiated uncomfort. He looked at their friends.
“Of course,” Barry said. “It’s, um, absolutely okay,” he said, elbowing Ollie. “Right ?”
“Right. It’s just… unexpected. You could have told us you’ve gotten married.”
Bruce felt Hal intertwining their fingers again. Before any of them could say anything else, Bruce gestured for the door.
“We can talk about it later, but Hal needs rest,” he said.
He had been firm but he hadn’t known if it would be enough to get rid of their teammates. However, it seemed to have worked as there was no protest and soon enough the door was shut again.
“Will you stay until I fall asleep ?” Hal asked, looking down at their hands.
“I’ll stay the whole night,” Bruce promised, and Hal looked up to smile at him sleepily.
He did look like he needed a good rest, indeed.
“I’d kiss you if I felt any better,” he said regretfully.
His eyes were already closing on their own.
“I’ll put it on your slate,” Bruce assured him as Hal settled more comfortably, letting his head hit the pillow.
“As long as you don’t forget to collect,” he murmured.
“I won’t,” Bruce said, amused.
Hal was asleep before he could hear his answer.
Bruce stayed at his side for a little while, watching him sleep, before deciding it was time to talk to their teammates for a bit.
He had wondered if they would camp in front of the door waiting for him or if they would have gotten tired of waiting and gotten home.
He found them in the meeting room. He could have avoided them but Bruce knew he couldn’t avoid them forever and thought he’d rather do it without Hal in case some opposition arose.
He managed to make it to his seat without being interrogated about his relationship to Hal.
“I suppose you have questions,” Bruce finally said after five minutes of tense small talk.
“Yes !” Ollie said, and Bruce sighed internally.
Of course Oliver would think Hal could do much better. He was probably not wrong but that didn’t mean Bruce wanted to hear it.
“Why didn’t you tell us ?” Ollie asked.
Bruce hadn’t expected that question. Not from Oliver, anyway. He had thought Green Arrow would say something about him and Hal having nothing in common and had Bruce brainwashed Hal or something ?
Maybe he could have more faith in Hal’s friends. Our friends, he could hear Hal say.
“We’ve only been married for a few weeks.”
“I didn’t mean the wedding, I meant your whole relationship. You know, most people start dating, tell their friends, move in together, have a housewarming party, get serious, send wedding invites and get married in that order. I assume you didn’t just decide to marry Hal out of the blue one morning ? So why didn’t you tell us ?”
Bruce could have told him that it was a bit more complicated than that.
At first, he and Hal hadn’t been dating. They had never put words on it but they were just friends that slept together. Had dinner and watched movies sometimes. Went on walks occasionally. Nothing romantic. Nothing worth telling their friends about.
Hal was spending more and more time at the Manor but it was only for practical reasons.
They were quite deep into it when Bruce noticed that they were kind of dating. When he decided to talk to Hal about it, his teammate had laughed at him for two whole minutes. Until he saw how serious Bruce was, did some thinking of his own and came to the conclusion that they were indeed dating.
Hal had looked just as shocked as Bruce had felt upon realizing it.
“Okay,” Hal had said slowly. “It doesn’t change anything, does it ?”
Bruce had to admit it didn’t.
A few weeks after that, he had even suggested that since they’d apparently been dating for so long and Hal already spent quite some time at the Manor, he could as well move in.
Hal had told him he was crazy, and started bringing his stuff the next Saturday.
“It was complicated.”
It wasn’t really the word for their relationship. Their relationship had been anything but complicated. It had been surprisingly easy to develop an intimate relationship with Hal that effortlessly became domestic.
It was the labeling part that had been challenging. They had dated unknowingly for years. Hal moving in had only been a minor change to their routines - they had already been living more or less together.
The wedding part had been a bit different. More planned. Well, Bruce had seen it as a natural step in their relationship.
Hence why he had mentioned it one Summer morning as they were taking breakfast together in the sunroom.
Hal had been sitting on a chair, drinking from his coffee mug, bathed in morning light.
“What ?” Hal had asked, smiling, before taking a sip.
Bruce had been staring at him intensely. It wasn’t that unusual, Bruce often looked at Hal as if he was a puzzle.
“We should get married.”
Hal had spat out his coffee.
“It makes sense,” Bruce added.
“Only you,” Hal had grumbled, wiping down the table with a tissue.
“What do you mean ?”
“Romance’s apparently dead,” Hal said, rolling his eyes at him. “Believe it or not, most people don’t just randomly tell their partner they think they should get married one day over breakfast.”
Bruce was still looking at him intently.
“You don’t think we should ?” he asked as Hal took another sip of coffee.
Hal laughed at him, but not in a mean way. You could feel warmth in his laughter.
“You realize it’s probably one of the worst proposals that had ever been made in all of human history ?” Hal asked, biting in a piece of toast.
“And ?” Bruce asked.
His own breakfast had stayed untouched.
“Knowing you, it could have happened on the battlefield so I imagine I can consider myself lucky,” Hal said, smirking.
He had finally abandoned his breakfast to lean against the counter right next to Bruce.
“Hal…”
“Shh,” Hal said, cupping Bruce’s face before kissing him. “You already know my answer. Obviously it’s yes. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’ve just agreed to about every mad thing you’ve asked concerning the progression of our relationship.”
Bruce had laughed at that and they had spent some more time kissing until Tim made an appearance and requested that they get a room.
“Bruce ?” Diana called and Bruce snapped back into reality.
Diana, Barry and Ollie were all looking at him. Ah, yes. He was telling them about him and Hal.
“Sorry, I was… Maybe we should have told you. Things had just always seemed to happen so fast between us.”
They had been together for more than five years. Nearly six, now. For Bruce, it seemed like they had shared their first kiss the day before.
“Who knows ?” Barry asked softly.
“Our families and Leslie. That’s about it. No, Clark knows because his kids are… friends with mine. And Diana must know, I presume.”
Diana didn’t even bother to look embarrassed, holding Bruce’s gaze.
“Don’t be mad at him. He’s not good at keeping secrets from me. Besides, he didn’t know about the wedding.”
“We didn’t really plan for anything. It just felt like it had to happen,” Bruce admitted.
The others were looking at him strangely now.
“Oh my God. You really love him,” Ollie said.
“We got married, that shouldn’t surprise you,” Bruce remarked, frustrated.
“And yet,” Ollie retorted.
Bruce decided it was enough and stood up.
“It’s been half an hour and I don’t want Hal to be alone and confused if he wakes up. So while you’re debating my ability to love, I’m going to check on my husband, if you don’t mind,” he said, walking to the door.
“Wait, I didn’t mean - alright, it was bad. But you have to understand that -” Ollie said.
Bruce wouldn’t have stopped to hear more of this but Barry interrupted Oliver and Bruce felt compelled to listen to what he had to say.
“Ollie, just shut up,” Barry sighed. “Bruce, he meant that we’re very happy for you and that it’s great that you ended up telling us.”
Bruce nodded. He could hear the reproach in the end of Barry’s sentence but the only thing that mattered was the support in the first part.
“Just one more question. Can we share that information with the others ?” Diana asked as Bruce opened the door.
She was asking if she could tell Clark that he and Hal were married, Bruce realized.
“Yes, as long as you prevent them from harassing Hal as he recovers from his concussion,” he said just before closing the meeting room’s door behind him.
He could feel the comforting weight of his Hal ring on his left hand as he walked down the hallway to the medbay.