Chapter Text
He was exhausted. His bones ached, his muscles burned, he was almost entirely out of energy, as was his ring. It’s genuinely a miracle that Hal was standing right now. He would’ve gone to Coast City, really, but then he’d have to deal with his landlord and the fact that he had no food and-
He groaned as he collapsed onto the bed, barely taking the time to slip off his ring before pulling the blankets around himself. He probably should’ve taken time to sit down in the clinic two halls down. In his defense, though, it would’ve been cruel to postpone the reunion with his bed over some scrapes. Clean bandages could wait and it hadn’t been that long since he changed them. His eyes shut and he drifted off, wrapped securely in the blankets surrounding him.
Maybe it wasn’t ‘some scrapes’, maybe it was worse than that. But nothing bad happened! Beyond waking up and barely having enough energy to look around the room. He took a deep breath, skin pulling against the suturing thread in his side. So, it was definitely more than a scrape. But sleeping was clearly the priority when he got back. If he were in the situation again, and let’s be real he probably would be, he’d do the exact same thing.
Hal laid there for a few minutes, giving himself time to wake up before he was pushing himself free of the blankets, rubbing his eyes and pulling up the edge of his shirt to check the damage. Just some bleed-through, he was fine. He let it fall back into place as he got up. Depending on the time he could probably make it to the medical room, get all fixed up, and run away before having to do any work.
Obviously that’s not what happened. By the time he got there Barry had already sped around the base, nearly knocking Hal over in the process, and he went around it twice more just for good measure.
Hal settled on to the doctor’s stool, almost slipping off as Barry buzzed past him into the room. Noise going alongside him, talking, Hal realized while catching a few ‘how’s and ‘batman’s. Most of his words blurred together as Hal’s face pinched, “Bar, I love you, I didn’t process a single word that just came out of your mouth,” Barry let out a laugh, a melodic sound after so long of hearing nothing but cosmic noise and alien howling.
Hal pulled out the various things he would need; cotton balls, non-stick bandages, and the like. Barry held out a dixie cup of water for him, which he gladly took. He talked while Hal went through the motions. Updating him on everything from his last meal to Justice League missions he’d missed. It was calm, fast, but calm. It gave him a certain sense of normalcy before the door opened and Barry stopped talking.
Hal looked up at him, an almost betrayed look crossing his face at the loss of something to listen to. He turned to look at the door, Batman stood there watching both of them. Barry burst into a cacophony of noise once more, greeting Bruce then explaining what they were doing and how he had just been telling Hal about Iris. Bruce’s head moved slowly to more directly stare at Hal, causing Barry to quiet down. Hal could feel the man's eyes cross him over. He would blame his friendship with Oliver for the lack of thought behind his next words, “You checkin’ me out?”
Barry snickered next to him and Bruce’s frown ever so slightly deepened. He waited for a moment, settling the room into silence. “Lantern.”
“Spooks,”
“Mission coming up. One week.”
Hal nodded, “Any more details?” Bruce produced a file out of god knows where, crossing the floor to hold it out, making a small hum as he waited for Hal to take it. When it was in his grasp he immediately passed it over to Barry so he could finish putting the bandage on. “What is it?”
“Notes.” Hal hesitated and shook his head with a silent laugh, “Man, do you ever stop talking?”
Bruce waited for a moment before turning on his heel and leaving, the door shutting behind him. Hal’s nose scrunched in confusion and he shot a gaze to Barry who had been relatively silent throughout the entire exchange. He waited for a second, two, three-
“You so like him”
There it was.
Barry had been set on the idea that Hal was madly in love with Bruce for a few months now. Hal rolled his eyes and snatched the folder away from him, “Pretty sure I just insulted him, do you think he knows what a joke is?”
“You totally like him, you’re in love, I can see it in your brain!”
“If you can see my brain we have a problem and I should probably go to the hospital.”
Turns out the ‘notes’ were just that. Meticulously taken, extremely detailed, and all in Bruce’s mostly illegible handwriting. There were lines where Hal could tell he had slowed down and made sure each letter was clear, then there were lines where he’s pretty sure the pen didn’t leave the paper between one word and the next. It was just one long scribble. Although the fact that Bruce had written any notes for Hal made him hold back a smile. His mind focused more on the fact Bruce had thought of him rather than deciphering what he’d written. Barry’s idea that he liked Bruce wasn’t exactly out of nowhere but he wasn’t in love with the guy.
Hal rolled his eyes at one of the scribbled lines, pulling out his phone to take a picture before sending it to Dick. If anybody could read Bruce’s handwriting it would be his eldest son.
While he waited for a response he got up and went to the kitchen. It would’ve made sense for him to get groceries before settling in at home but beggars can’t be choosers. He was left staring into the fridge, the only real choice here was to order but that sucked. That costed money, side-note, why is everything so expensive? As a defender of Earth he shouldn’t have to choose between eating and paying rent.
He fished his phone out of his pocket, scrolling through takeout options. The fridge began beeping at him and he shut it with more force than he had intended. Maybe he could convince Barry to play delivery man for tonight, they could hang out, it would be great.
About thirty minutes later, one pleading phone call, and an apology to Iris, Hal and Barry were sitting together eating Tokyo takeout.
“Thanks, again.”
“You should be thanking Iris” Barry said around a mouthful of dumpling. He was right, she probably deserved something for letting Hal interrupt their night. Barry took a sip of his drink, smiling slyly towards Hal, “Speaking of people we love…”
“No”
“Yes, we have to talk about you two!”
“There is no ‘us two’” His phone chirped and Barry’s head snapped towards it. Hal picked it up to check, it was probably just Dick. Barry still read it over his shoulder, Hal hadn’t seen him move. “Manta inactive – Aq. unbothered” Also wb gl!
“Is this about Bruce?”
“We’re failing the bechdel test right now, Barry.”
“We can’t fail the bechdel test, Hal, we’re both men. Which defeats the entire point of-”
“We’re failing it even more now.”
Barry laughed and moved back to where he had been sitting, Hal shot Dick a thank you. Allowing their conversation to continue. This time it was Hal's turn to talk. It hadn’t been that long, maybe a week or two, since they last saw each other so there wasn’t much to say. Or much that he could say while respecting personal privacy and confidential mission details.
When they were done with that Hal turned on the news in the background. They kept talking for a while longer before Barry got up and declared he had to go. Hal made a weak promise to take him out for drinks later and walked him the four steps to the door.
After Barry had left he locked the door and cleaned up. His mind drifting to the text from Dick, did Bruce always keep tabs on other people’s villains? It was a very Batman thing to do. Plus he had abbreviated Aquaman’s name, he didn’t do that in mission reports so were these copies of Bruce’s personal notes?That made them a bit less heartwarming; but he had obviously taken the time to write certain things out. Did he do that regularly or was he thinking of Hal?
He huffed, he was probably overthinking it all. Finding meaning where there wasn’t any. Hal pulled a change of clothes from his dresser. Barry’s idea that he liked Bruce maybe had some solid backing. As much as he hated to admit it. He gathered up his Pajamas; an old shirt and some comfy pants, before going to take a cold shower. Hopefully that would help his teenage-boy-with-a-celebrity-crush brain calm down.