Work Text:
“You get there at the same time to argue better, now ?” Barry asked, raising an eyebrow as Hal took a seat next to him at the meeting room’s table and Bruce said a word to Diana.
They had heard their shouting match and doors slamming behind them long before Bruce and Hal had made it to the meeting room, ten minutes late. Barry had silently wondered how Clark could stand it, with his super-hearing. He hoped the poor alien kept earplugs close to hand.
It was probably even worse for J’onn. He looked quite troubled whenever Bruce and Hal found themselves in the same room, now that Barry thought about it. Bruce and Hal were very certainly plotting each other’s death whenever they caught sight of each other.
Hal was all flushed from the screaming and still intensely looking at Bruce. The creased collar of the Lantern’s impeccable uniform contributed to Barry’s impression that their verbal sparring may have turned slightly physical. The speedster sighed.
Bruce could probably feel the burn of Hal’s gaze through his cowl but didn’t show any uncomfort despite Hal’s clear attempt at telekinetic murder. It even seemed to Barry that Bruce was smirking, not missing any occasion to provoke his teammate. He must have won their fight. Barry wished he and Hal had gotten the memo - they were working on the same team.
“Stop staring,” he told his friend, nudging him in the ribs, exasperated when he saw that Hal’s eyes were still focused on Bruce.
He quite looked like a predator waiting for his prey’s fatal momentary lapse of attention.
Many people wished their lover paid them half as much attention as Bruce and Hal paid to each other. Bruce didn’t look troubled in the least but J’onn was showing signs of uneasiness, getting more and more fidgety every second.
“He…” Hal protested.
“He looked at you wrong once, and you’ve felt personally offended ever since, I know,” Barry sighed.
He knew it had been intense dislike at first sight for his teammates but he had hoped that the situation would improve and that they would eventually stop acting so childishly about it and put their differences aside to work together.
It wasn’t much of a success. Last time Barry had walked on them working a case together, they had been standing so close to each other, he had been worried they had just been at each other’s throats, despite Hal’s denial.
“It’s not -”
Before Hal could finish his sentence, Bruce had cleared his throat, loudly, interrupting the speech Clark had just started about the new security measures.
“Can we have some silence ? Or do you think the security of your team is so above you, Lantern ?”
“Oh, he’s so going to pay for this,” Barry heard Hal mutter to himself under his breath, a dangerous smile playing on his lips.
More worryingly, Bruce returned his threatening smile -Barry was half-convinced it was the only kind of smile the man could produce effortlessly-. This couldn’t end well. Barry shook his head and focused back on Clark’s intervention.
Bruce and Hal were adults. They could deal with their problems on their own.
Bruce must have thought the same thing, because he called for Hal at the end of the meeting.
“Lantern, can we have a word ?” he exiged at the end of the meeting, gesturing to the door with his head.
Hal rolled his eyes at him.
“As if I had nothing better to do,” he grumbled, following Bruce, looking like the picture of reluctance.
Barry hoped they would find a soundproofed room, for the sake of everyone else’s ears. It was probably a good time to leave the Watchtower.
“I don’t understand,” Barry told Hal one evening they were spending together, drinking beers on his balcony.
“There are many things you don’t understand,” Hal said, cursing himself silently when he realized he had sounded a bit too much like Bruce, but his friend didn’t seem to pay attention to his wording.
He laughed instead.
“Come on, Hal. You’re both geniuses in your own way, you’re on the same team and you believe in the same things. You’ve gone through similar experiences, are very compassionate people and both have a twisted sense of humor. I really don’t get why you hate him so much.”
“Why do you make this about me and not about Bruce ?” Hal said, trying to distract Barry.
He didn’t want to talk about how much he disliked Bruce. It was funnier when Bruce could hear him and it felt disloyal to do it when he wasn’t there.
“I’m sure he has Clark to tell him what I’m telling you,” Barry argumented.
Hal turned his head a bit to hide the soft smile that had made his way to his face. He knew for a fact that Clark was indeed advocating for a truce between Bruce and him on a regular basis. Bruce was finding it quite tiring. Personally, Hal thought it was hilarious.
“So am I going to get a lecture about playing nice with Bruce again ?” Hal said, still visibly amused.
“You should take it more seriously.”
This animosity between his friends could put them in real danger in the field. It was important that they had each other’s back, no matter their feelings about each other.
“Why ?” Hal asked, his piercing gaze focusing on Barry’s face.
“We’re a team. We can’t survive if we don’t actually trust each other.”
He didn’t want Hal to go against one of Bruce’s orders in the field just because he thought the other guy was stupid. It would certainly end up getting them both killed.
“That’s a non-issue,” Hal said seriously.
Barry had to be certain he and Bruce could work as a team. If he wasn’t sure of it, it would put all of them at risk. He would be too concerned about Hal not following orders or Bruce not listening to Hal and not focused enough on his own task.
“What ? So now you’re going to tell me you trust Bruce ? After you’ve discussed about every point he made about our next mission ?” Barry snorted.
“If you can’t discuss orders, you’re on a shitty team,” Hal observed.
Yes, Bruce had yelled, and it was what the others remembered. What he wanted them to remember, since he had yielded on some points Hal had made and made a few others pass as his own later in the discussion. Bruce listened to Hal a lot more than others were giving him credit for. He had just been a lot louder about the parts he wasn’t willing to concede to Hal and it was what most of them would remember.
“It wasn’t about the team. I mean, probably a bit, but some of your points… You were trying to get under his skin. Why are you doing this ?” Barry said.
Hal had always liked that, in Barry : he had a good perceptiveness.
“Maybe I just like it,” Hal said truthfully, knowing Barry wouldn’t believe him and short on plausible explanations.
“Hal,” Barry said reproachfully, frowning.
“Bruce and I, … we don’t always see eye to eye but I would never put the team at risk and he wouldn’t ever. I thought you knew better than that, Bar,” Hal said softly to ease his friend’s concerns.
Playing on Barry’s guilt was a dick move, really, and he would have to apologize for that at some point.
“I just wish you two would be getting along better,” Barry said, giving him the puppy eyes.
Barry was quite good at it, it worked wonders on women. And guys, Hal suspected, but they had never discussed that.
It didn’t work so much on Hal, who had learned to immunize himself against Bruce’s own puppy eyes with the years.
“I’m afraid us two can’t get along any better,” Hal said, shrugging.
Sweet, placid Barry was going to kill him when he found out. Slowly.
“Hey love, I’m home,” Hal said, leaning against the open door of Bruce’s study.
Bruce’s eyes had brightened when he had noticed his husband’s presence and Hal couldn’t help but smile as he put the paper he was reading aside and went to greet him with a light kiss.
Hal stroked his cheek slowly.
“Hi, baby,” Bruce murmured against his lips. “How did it go ?”
“Barry thinks I hate your guts so much I could do something as stupid as discuss your orders in the field. He’s worried about the state of our relationship,” he added.
“I’m not. Are you ?” Bruce asked, intertwining their hands.
“No. Isn’t it a bit fucked up to let them believe we hate each other ?” he asked.
Bruce laughed and kissed him once more.
“Babe, we’re fucked up. And the first arguments were real. If they just kept assuming we were arguing instead of having wild hot sex in the Watchtower’s cupboard, that’s on them.”
“It was kind of a mix of both at first. But now we’re just making up arguments,” Hal pointed out.
Bruce made a face.
“So you weren’t angry about the Xudarian thing ?” he asked carefully.
He wanted Hal to see his point but he wasn’t too willing to give Hal ammunition against him.
“Of course I was. You could easily have gotten yourself killed,” Hal said, clearly displeased.
“Then it wasn’t lying. Just exaggerating our arguments a bit. We would have had them in private anyway. We’re just getting the unpleasantness out of our systems.”
Hal took a closer look at Bruce, reaching for his face and pushing away a rebellious strand of hair.
“Bruce, you know I don’t mean it when I call you awful names, right ? You know that ?” he asked, dread filling his heart.
The thought was unbearable. Had Bruce thought, all this time, that he would, that he thought… A smile from Bruce appeased him.
“Of course, I know. It’s you,” Bruce said, and Hal pushed him against the wall of his study to kiss him better.
“Do you realize how stupid it was ?” Bruce shouted, taking off his cowl in an impetuous move as he barged into the medbay and took a seat on a medical bed next to Hal was sitting trying to put his shirt back on one more time before giving up on the idea and conjuring his uniform with a few changes to accommodate his arm.
Leslie had just finished checking up on Hal and bandaging his arm, allowing visitors in. Hal had apparently broken said arm but he was fine otherwise. He knew he had been lucky.
It had been quite a fall but it hadn’t been like he could have avoided it. He looked back at Bruce, who was checking him up hungrily.
He was looking devastated, Hal quickly realized. He wasn’t really angry, he’d just had the fright of a lifetime. Bruce had had far too many of those for only one life but Hal didn’t feel like it justified yelling at him for doing what was right. What Bruce would have done himself if he had could.
“It’s just my left arm. Leslie said it’ll be fine in no time,” he said, to ease Bruce’s concerns, in an annoyed tone. “There was a kid, Bruce ! A kid ! Do you realize ?” he added, because Bruce would never leave a kid in harm’s way if he could prevent it.
He could understand that. Should.
Bruce let a frustrated groan out. Clark was standing next to him, probably to prevent him from throttling Hal if he felt the urge. Dinah had sat on the other side of Hal in support and Ollie was standing next to her.
Barry was leaning against one of the opposite pieces of furniture, as were several other Leaguers.
It was strange, arguing for real with witnesses around them. Hal was getting accustomed to more staged fights but they were having a private scene. No one should have to see that, even if they didn’t seem fazed.
The crowd had almost made Hal forget he was arguing with Bruce, but Bruce reminded him.
“And have you thought about your kids ?” his husband said, raising his voice.
Hal could tell he hadn’t had a single thought for their teammates, since Bruce’s eyes hadn’t left him.
His words hurt nonetheless. Shock painted itself on Hal’s face. That wasn’t how they usually argued. They didn’t use the kids for arguments.
“That was low,” he stated, crossing his arms on his chest and wincing at the action.
“I’m sorry,” Bruce said in a softer tone, reaching for Hal’s good wrist and squeezing it lightly. “I didn’t mean…”
“I know. It’s you,” Hal said, smiling. “We’re just not used to fighting as ourselves anymore.”
He was about to kiss Bruce, having completely forgotten about their audience, when Dinah intervened.
“Wait, wait. Since when are you two friends ? And did you say kids ?” she asked.
She was the only one who had dared asking but it was quite clear the others were wondering what exactly was going on.
“We’re not friends,” Bruce said before Hal could think of something.
Their teammates looked at them with curiosity. It seemed more on brand for Bruce and Hal, but they were actually sitting close, and Hal let his head bump against Bruce’s shoulder familiarly.
“We’re not ?” Hal asked, slipping his good hand into his. “You could have fooled me.”
“Okay, we’re great friends. We’ve also been husbands for three years,” Bruce said, looking fondly at Hal.
There. Barry and some others caught it, the loving smile he hadn’t been aware was in Bruce’s range.
“And co-parents,” Hal said, smiling brightly at Bruce.
“And co-parents,” Bruce repeated dutifully, kissing the crown of Hal’s head.
“Seriously ?” someone asked.
Bruce and Hal shared a look. Hal nodded. Bruce cupped his face and kissed him passionately while staying mindful of his injured arm.
“Seriously,” he said as they pulled apart, a bit out of breath. “Don’t scare me like that ever again,” he murmured in Hal’s ear.
Hal nodded. He couldn’t promise that but he understood. Bruce’s kiss has been more than a little desperate.
“You couldn’t act any friendlier with Bruce, uh ?” Barry said, resisting the childish urge to roll his eyes at Hal.
“Would you believe it if I said I was sorry ?” Hal said.
“Not when you’re smiling like a lovesick fool,” Barry retorted.
There wasn’t an ounce of regret in Hal’s eyes.
“Wait, you weren’t arguing that time I walked on you in the meeting room.”
Bruce and Hal shared an amused look. No, they hadn’t been arguing.
“Yeah, nevermind, actually I really don’t want to know. Hal, next time you’ll pull that kind of stunt and get out of it alive, I’ll murder you,” Barry said, sounding very sincere.
“That would be counterproductive.”
“It was really scary, Hal,” Barry insisted.
Hal would probably hear Bruce’s “Lantern !” cry for the rest of his life. Bruce had thought it was the end. They all had. Him included. It was starting to hit him and he looked down at his and Bruce’s intertwined fingers, squeezing them tightly.
“It’s getting late and it’s been a demanding afternoon. We should all go home,” Bruce said in an authoritative tone that didn’t leave room for protests.
It was quite amusing, really. It was the same tone he used to send Damian to bed.
“We can stay in your quarters or mine, if you’d rather,” Bruce told Hal once all the others had left.
Hal’s head was still resting against his shoulder and Bruce had wrapped an arm around Hal even if he was quite aware that his armored embrace couldn’t be very comfortable. Hal was just seeking familiarity.
Hal shook his head and pulled on Bruce’s hand as he stood up, dragging him with him before looking at him with a tired smile.
“There’s no place like home.”