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1.
“You need to send people who are married,” Hal told them, uncompromisingly.
The League had been discussing the Xrizan situation for nearly two hours and most of his teammates looked like they were about to doze off at any time.
“I know marriage is important for them -” Clark started saying.
Hal shook his head and interrupted him.
“It’s more than that. They’d never take a single person seriously. That person would be considered like a child. In their culture, you’re supposed to marry when you hit maturity. If you don’t, it’s considered highly suspicious,” he developed. “That could indicate character defects.”
Bruce was glaring at him, probably because he already knew where this would lead, contrary to the others.
“Surely they can make an exception for foreigners,” Arthur argued.
Hal sincerely doubted that the Xrizans would be as understanding as Arthur seemed to think.
“Maybe they could make an exception but it would be a bad strategic move for us. I’d rather they take what we have to say about not launching an attack on their neighbors seriously. We need them to consider us as potential threats,” Hal insisted.
He had already formed an opinion. He was not above being wrong occasionally but, in this instance, he knew better.
“Oliver and Dinah have no space knowledge,” Clark remarked. “Uh, not much practical space knowledge so we can’t send them there,” he amended as Dinah threw him a dirty glare.
It hadn’t been Hal’s plan. Hal wouldn’t trust any of them to pilot a spaceship for any length of time. Hal sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
“Of course we can’t send Ollie and Dinah. Oh and our alien friends love paperwork even more than Spooky here, so a marriage certificate would be handy. One that looks like a real one,” Hal said, and for a second his eyes and Bruce’s met again.
“You know their customs the best. You have to go.” Bruce said, frowning.
He had already come to this conclusion a few minutes before.
“Yes and I need you there too,” Hal said.
Bruce sighed. It was the point he had been planning to argue against but he didn’t have many arguments to back up his refusal. He knew Hal was making the cleverest choice and that it wasn’t his fault it would interfere with his current case.
Of course, Dick could take over but it didn’t mean Bruce had to like it.
“You said -” Clark tried to remind him.
“I know, but it’s not like we have other married couples around, ” Hal cut him off, looking sideways at Bruce to make sure he got his point. “I have the space knowledge, Bruce has the acting skills. It should work.”
If there was another reason for his decision, the others didn’t need to know about it.
“Do you know anyone who could forge the necessary papers for you two ?” Clark asked.
"The job description is space cop, not space delinquent," Hal reminded him.
"Right. I didn't mean -" Clark said, looking apologetic.
Hal brushed it off.
“Xrizans are not ones to be easily fooled, but I know a guy or two,” the Lantern admitted.
He did. He just wouldn’t have to contact them.
“I’m not doing this with you,” Bruce tried weakly but it was more for show than anything else.
He shouldn’t have bothered, really. When Hal was like that, he was impossible to stop.
“Of course you are. It’ll be fun and we haven’t taken a vacation in ages,” Hal pointed out.
The last time had probably been for their honeymoon, and they had to cut it short because Hal had a Lantern emergency situation. Bruce looked at him with this half-exasperated and half-affectionate look Hal treasured.
“Because you’re making a habit of taking vacations together now ?” Arthur asked, an eyebrow raised, and Hal finally remembered there were other people in the room.
“Jealous ?” he asked with a smirk, and their friends laughed.
2.
Bruce had started getting concerned when Hal had yawned for the first time during the meeting. He had come back home the day before but his last mission for the Corps had left him utterly exhausted.
“Hal,” he called when the meeting ended and their teammates started leaving.
“Um ?” Hal said, looking at Bruce in a certain way that encouraged the vigilante to send the Lantern straight to bed.
Hal didn’t make eyes at Bruce when they were around the conference table.
“You’re dead on your feet. Go back home, I’ll take your shift,” Bruce told him.
He’d have to make a few calls to have Gotham covered, but the city could do without him if it meant Hal could get some much needed rest.
He was usually careful not to put Hal on monitor duty so early after a mission but he had been quite busy when Diana had offered to organize the next shifts. Until then, it had gone smoothly but he should have checked with her to prevent something like that from happening.
“I could kiss you right now,” Hal said, leaning on the table slightly.
Bruce wasn’t sure he wouldn’t, in his tired state, but he couldn’t let him.
“Please refrain from doing so, we’re in public, honey,” he said instead, his words far softer than his tone.
He heard people laughing around them but his piercing gaze didn’t leave Hal.
“You’re no fun,” his husband said when he finally looked away from Bruce, and their friends laughed again.
3.
"Where are you headed to ?" Barry asked Hal when he told him he couldn’t stay any longer.
"The Manor,” Hal asked, only hesitating briefly.
He and Bruce had worked on joint cases often enough not to make it suspicious.
"Your wild hot affair with Bruce, um ?" Barry said, amused.
Hal tried very hard not to choke on his coffee, which made Barry quite proud of himself. If only he knew, Hal thought.
"Something like that,” he said, smiling brightly and his friend shook his head at him.
Hal couldn’t wait to share this anecdote with Bruce.
4.
"I would have thought you’d like her,” a familiar voice observed in a playful tone.
Hal turned around and accepted the flute his young trainee had handed him gracefully. He hadn’t thought anyone had noticed his awkward exchange with Dinah’s cousin but Jessica apparently had.
She sounded quite amused, which was understandable : Hal had tried not to be rude when he had spurned her advances but the lovely blonde had been quite vexed.
People probably rarely said ‘no’ to her. She was a young, pretty, rich heiress not shy about what she wanted.
“But maybe you like them from a humbler background. I do, they tend to be less spoiled. Have I told you about that time I dated the CEO of a local company ? Never again,” Jessica swore.
She must have spoken a bit too loud because some passersby gave her a strange look. Well, you didn’t find many people from humble backgrounds at parties thrown by the Queens.
“It actually didn’t have anything to do with her, Jess,” he said, a bit uncomfortable.
Bruce’s money -their money, Bruce would argue- had always been a sore subject between them.
“What, then ? She’s not your type or something ?” his fellow Lantern asked, curious.
Hal considered telling her the truth. He knew Bruce wouldn’t mind, they had already talked about this.
“I already have someone,” Hal explained, gesturing towards Bruce, at another side of the room.
He was talking to a lovely woman with an elaborate hairdo and a purple dress that Hal recognized as a friend of Dinah but he caught Hal’s eyes and nodded at him.
“Oh,” Jess said. “She’s very pretty and I love her dress,” she said nicely.
“She’s-” Hal repeated, confused, before he understood that Jessica hadn’t thought he was talking about Bruce.
So much for honesty. He and Bruce had already tried mentioning their couple relationship a few times around trusted ones but their friends kept taking it for a joke or just had a gift for misunderstanding them. He was about to correct Jessica when she excused herself to go and wish Dinah a happy birthday.
5.
"What I feel for her, it's just so strong. I’ve never thought I would ever love a woman so much. You know what I mean ?” Barry said.
Hal sighed and prayed for their teammates to make it there early. He didn’t have anything against Iris, actually. He even quite liked her, truth be told. She was bright and funny and Barry’s match in many things.
Sadly, she turned his friend into an emotional mess and if Barry said anything about the scent of her hair again, God helped him. He was still getting Bruce through Emotions 101, he didn’t need another student.
“Um um,” Hal said sympathetically, throwing a look over his shoulder, but he didn’t know the couple that had passed the door.
Clark, Bruce and Dinah were supposed to join them over drinks to celebrate Barry’s recent promotion.
"No, seriously, help me out here. Have you ever fallen that bad for someone ?" Barry eventually asked.
Hal must have listened more attentively than he thought, because he was able to answer rightfully.
"Yes,” he said in full honesty.
"Carol, uh ? Sorry,” Barry mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck, obviously quite embarrassed.
Hal frowned. His friends still seemed to think that his relationship with Carol was a touchy subject after all this time. It wasn’t like he enjoyed talking about it much, but he had long been over it. Of course, they didn’t know about Bruce.
Well, Barry was going to find out, Hal decided, and maybe his friends will start feeling less sorry for his lovelife.
"No. I mean, maybe, at some point. I was very much in love with her when we were dating. But I wasn't thinking about her."
Barry opened his mouth and closed it, apparently did some thinking, and reopened it again as Hal checked the clock facing him and then the door in his back, but it was early and their friends had not made it yet.
“Who were you thinking about then ?” Barry finally dared to ask, and Hal reported his attention to his friend..
The Lantern took a sip of his beer, savoring it before answering.
“My current partner,” he said, choosing to break things down to his friend slowly.
“You’ve said you were taken last time a girl had hit on you at a bar. I thought you were just letting her down nicely but it’d seem you weren’t. How long have you two been seeing each other ?”
Barry wasn’t using any gendered pronouns and Hal had to wonder if he had guessed that Hal's lover was male.
The door of the bar slammed shut in Hal’s back and Barry jumped slightly but he didn’t look away from Hal.
“Two years, more or less,'' he said, taking another sip of his drink, knowing the reveal was close.
A bit less, actually. They had been married for almost eight months.
“Can I get a name or is it, like, super secret stuff ?” Barry eventually asked, apparently a bit annoyed at Hal for letting him in the dark.
“Bruce,” Hal said without hesitation this time.
“Hal,” Bruce’s voice answered at the same time and Hal, who had his whole focus on Barry, nearly jumped. “Barry.”
Barry looked at Hal in utter puzzlement and Hal could only wonder about what was happening in his mind. Had he realized Hal hadn’t said Bruce’s name in greeting but because it was the actual answer to his question ?
“How did you know he was here ? I didn't notice him until he was right on us and you had your back to him !”
Ah. He hadn’t. Hal considered banging his head against the table.
“I have super senses,” he said, crossing his arms on his chest, as Bruce took the seat next to Barry.
“What were you talking about ? You seemed quite engrossed in your conversation.”
“Nothing you should feel concerned about,” Barry said, and here Hal had to snort. “But our conversation is certainly not over, Hal.”
The Lantern rolled his eyes at him.
+1
“Could you two stop bickering like an old married couple for once ?” Dinah said tiredly.
She hadn’t been able to sleep in the last thirty hours and was dreaming of a shower. Now, if Hal and Bruce could just stop arguing so they could put an end to this unnecessarily long meeting and come back home.
Her remark had the merit of making them stop arguing for a hot second.
“Hey, we’re not old,” Hal observed, completely missing the point.
“And you’re not married. I know, it’s an analogy,” Dinah sighed.
Ollie put his hand on her back in silent support. He was too tired to talk, which was a rare occurrence.
“Actually…” Hal started saying and Dinah blinked at him.
Was he really going to argue with her about figures of speech ? She wanted to die. No, better, she wanted Hal to die and this meeting to end. They had been at it for what felt like hours.
“... we are,” Bruce finished before he could get the chance.
“That was my line,” Hal pouted.
“What ?” Dinah asked, confused, at the same time Barry spoke up.
“You are… what ?” the Flash asked, looking just as perplexed but in much better shape than her.
So, she wasn’t going crazy, Hal was just not making sense. She sighed in relief. Sleep deprivation was a bitch.
“Married,” Bruce supplied. “To each other,” he added, when he got no reactions.
“Was it supposed to be a joke ?” Ollie finally asked, looking just as confused as Dinah, as the room came alive again.
“Not for us,” Hal said, and Bruce wrapped an arm around him silently, defying anyone to make a comment.
“We’ve tried to tell you but you weren’t very receptive,” Bruce added.
“Oh my God,” Barry muttered, and Dinah noticed his gaze and Hal’s meeting and the Flash blanched.
Hal had that annoying self-satisfied smirk on his face that never failed to grate on Bruce’s nerves. Or turned him on, Dinah wasn’t quite certain, now.
“Wait, how long have you been married ?” she asked, no longer struggling to stay awake.
This was way too interesting.
“Remember the alien invasion about a year ago ? It was our honeymoon,” Hal offered.
“So, you’re together. Okay,” was all Ollie was able to say.
Dinah couldn’t tell if it was shock or fatigue. She gently intertwined their fingers. Only then did she notice that Hal had reached for Bruce’s hand in much the same way, the white of his gloves contrasting strikingly with the dark of Bruce’s gauntlets.
They were still answering all the questions that were thrown at them as Dinah watched them with a newfound fascination.
“How could we not see it ?” Dinah said quietly, but apparently not quietly enough because she felt Bruce’s razor-sharp gaze settling on her.
“We only see what we want to see,” Bruce said in a soft tone.
It hadn’t sounded reproachful but Dinah had felt her heart break in thousands tiny parts at his words.
“No, we didn’t -” she started saying before backpedaling. “I’m sorry. We see it now,” she said, looking around to make sure the others allowed her to speak in their names.
“And that’s all that matters,” Hal assured them when Bruce stayed silent, glaring at him slightly.
“That’s all that matters,” Bruce echoed with a sigh, squeezing Hal’s hand. “Now, if we could come back to the matter at hand -” he started saying, and a familiar collective groan filled the room.
Hal just shook his head and let go of Bruce’s hand but stayed at his side until the end of the meeting.