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1.
The first time Hal hugged Bruce, it was on the field.
Bruce had been helping him with a case when a situation had arisen on the docks. Bruce had offered to tag along and Hal had accepted his help a bit reluctantly.
Later, Bruce wouldn't remember mucg about this day. There had been an explosion, he was quite certain of it. It had hurt. Hal had called for him in the comms but Bruce hadn't been able to talk. He had tried to form some reassuring words but they had died on his lips. He could hear the worry in Hal's voice, could hear his teammate shouting his vigilante name but he didn't feel well, didn't feel right, he needed a minute, he…
Everything had gone dark without a single warning.
Or maybe the dizziness and the unability to focus, to utter a single word and to move a toe had been it. It was hard to tell.
When Bruce had woken up, Hal was sitting on his legs and practicing CPR on him.
There were tears and burns on his uniform and there was a bleeding cut on one of his cheeks but Hal seemed fine otherwise.
"Fuck, you're breathing. You're alive," Hal mumbled.
The Lantern had looked quite frantic. Bruce had tried to say something, anything really, but Hal had shocked him into silence.
Despite their respective injuries, the Green Lantern had hugged Bruce to his chest.
Bruce had never seen him cry before, but Hal had started sobbing uncontrollably as he held him tight and Bruce had held him back until the sobs subsided.
Bruce would later learn that Hal had lost a few Lantern friends in a similar way around that time.
"My legs," the Dark Knight had ended up saying after some time.
Hal wasn't a lightweight and he couldn't feel them.
"Sorry, sorry," Hal had mumbled, getting up and helping Bruce up too. "We should take you to a doctor. Your heart stopped. Not for long but…"
"I'm fine," Bruce said but his friend glared at him.
"I'll go to Leslie when I'll be back to Gotham," he amended to pacify Hal.
"Right."
" Are you fine ?"
"Sure," Hal said.
Bruce had grabbed his wrist.
"Hal."
"Shut up," Hal had said, pushing him away before pulling Bruce back to him by his cloak and smashing their lips together.
They were both breathing hard when Hal let go of Bruce's cloak.
"See you, Spooky," he had said with a troubled smile and he had flown away before Bruce could stop him.
They had gotten together a few weeks after that.
2.
"Ummm. Human touch. At this point I would be happy to hug Jack," Hal groaned as he wrapped himself around Bruce.
He had been gone for three months. It wouldn't have been a problem before he got to touch Bruce all the time but since they had started seeing each other, Hal thought about Bruce all the time too.
As a couple, they were very tactile. As teammates keeping their relationship a secret, they were very much not.
It drove Hal mad sometimes, to keep away from Bruce when all he wanted was to be at his side.
They could deal with staying apart for a few days, when they were working and dealing with their cases but Hal leaving for months at a time for space often took a toll on them.
Knowing it was necessary didn't make their separation easier.
"You know how to make someone feel special," Bruce said, turning around to kiss Hal.
He had missed Hal's touch. Hal wasn't the only one feeling touch-deprived when he was away in space even if Bruce got regularly hugged by Steph -and Dick, when he was around and not mad at Bruce.
"You know you're the person I like to hug the best," Hal murmured.
There had never been much hugging with Bruce's previous conquests.
He had been aware of Hal's need for physicality long before they could even consider themselves friends but had not taken into consideration that it would apply to them when they got closer.
The first time Hal had stayed the whole night, Bruce had woken up to Hal snuggled up against him.
It had shocked him into stillness until Hal opened an eye, grumbled something and buried his face into the crook of his neck as if what he was doing was perfectly normal.
For Hal, it was. Bruce had refrained from jumping many times in the early days of their relationship as Hal brushed his arm, grazed his hip, played with his hair and slid his arm around Bruce's waist.
Hal never did it in uniform though, which made Bruce realize he was probably hyper aware of his surroundings when he was on duty - Hal certainly didn't notice how often he was touching Bruce in casual settings.
Or maybe he knew, since he was always careful to stay away from Bruce when they were meeting other Leaguers in a relaxed context.
Bruce had also realized that he was encouraging Hal. His lover was rubbing off on him - Bruce caught himself reaching for Hal, bumping knees with him and squeezing his arm more often than he cared to admit.
Bruce had thought about breaking things off then, since it seemed quite obvious he was falling for Hal. Hard.
But as he thought about it, laying in bed at night, Hal had moved in his sleep, muttered something about clouds and bad visibility, bumped his head against Bruce's shoulder and locked legs with him, letting out a relaxed sigh.
Bruce had stroked his lover's hair smoothly and never suggested breaking up afterwards. He had yet to regret it.
3.
"The warehouse should explode any minute now," Oracle informed them as Bruce got out of it with the last of the intel they had needed.
He joined Red Robin and Spoiler on the roof of a building far enough to not be affected by the oncoming explosion and close enough to the docks for them to have a front-row seat.
They both looked like they'd been a bit roughed up. There were tears on their costumes. They had just put their rebreathers away when Bruce joined them.
The Scarecrow's goons protecting the warehouse had been long gone but the fear gas they had spread in it would still be in the air for a while.
"Where's Red Hood ?" Bruce asked abruptly.
He hadn't taken his rebreather off yet, prefering to check the kids' positions with his binoculars first.
"With Robin," Tim supplied, but Bruce hadn't seen him at Damian's side when he had checked on his youngest's position.
"No. I thought he was with you," Damian informed them through their comms.
Bruce went very still for half a second before he grappled down the building in record time.
"B, what are you doing ?" Oracle yelled in his ears.
"Call an ambulance," Bruce yelled back at her as he started running towards the warehouse.
Not again.
"B !" he heard Tim cry out.
"Spoiler, you're the oldest on the scene. You listen to Oracle, you stay with Red Robin and Robin and you keep them safe," Bruce told her through his comm as he ran to the warehouse.
"I -" Stephanie started saying helplessly.
All Bruce could think about was "not again".
"Can I trust you ?" he snarled at Stephanie.
"Yes. Yes, you can," Stephanie said, gesturing for Tim to follow her as she took the direction of Damian's position under Oracle's guidance.
She didn't seem too happy with Bruce. His tone had probably been too harsh and chances were the young adult would call him out on it later. Well, that was not the more pressing issue at hand.
Jason. You'd think dying would have convinced the boy to stay away from the most perilous situations but you'd be wrong.
"Hood !" Bruce had yelled upon entering the warehouse again, hoping Jason would hear him, either through his comms or with his own two ears if they had somehow been damaged as they fought Scarecrow's goons.
No answer.
"Jason !" Bruce tried again.
The gas obscured his vision. He didn't know which direction to take, he only knew he didn't have much time.
And then he heard the sobbing. That was how he found Jason.
The kid was prostrated in a corner, a hand pressed against his side.
His mask was at his feet, cracked. There was blood running down his forehead but it looked superficial. As far as he could tell, Jason was mostly fine physically.
"Robin…" Bruce muttered to himself as he knelt next to his son.
Jason was babbling incoherently, tears running down his face and pressing his hand over his stomach as if trying to compress the wound.
Bruce pushed Jason's hand away from his wound to assess the damage and let out a relieved sigh when he couldn't find any. The toxin. Without the filter of his helmet, Jason would have been exposed to a large quantity of fear gas. It was a wonder he wasn't clawing at his skin.
"Jason, you're okay. Take my hand," Bruce said.
"Bruce ? Get out, get out, get out. It's all going to explode and I can't walk. I think -" Jason said in an instant of lucidity, clawing at Bruce gauntlets.
"I'm not leaving without you," Bruce said stubbornly, lifting him in a firearm's carry with some difficulty.
Jason wasn't as light as he had been in the past and too heavy to be carried bridal style and some dreadful memories would have prevented Bruce from doing it anyway.
Physically, Jason could probably have walked but his hallucinations would prevent him too.
"Some people are just not supposed to grow old. Save yourself," Jason groaned.
The boy probably felt the pain. Probably remembered it. Bruce had never hated the Scarecrow as much as at the moment.
"That's what I'm doing. I can't lose you a second time. Now shut up," Bruce grunted.
He hoped Stephanie had managed to prevent the others from looking for them in the warehouse. There was no assurance they would make it.
"I'm going to die again," Jason mumbled as Bruce looked for the exit.
The gas didn't help. It was too thick to see through it.
"No," Bruce protested harshly.
He'd crawl with Jason in his arms if he had to but the kid was going to survive this.
"He's there. In my head. I can see him. And it hurts, it hurts but he's laughing. Please, Bruce," Jason sobbed.
"Shhh," Bruce grunted.
Where was the exit ? It should have been there. He was almost certain… Or… ?
"I don't want to die again. I want to go to uni this time. I want to…" Jason said feverishly. "I want to…"
"Jason. You're going to live and get a fucking doctorate if you want to," Bruce said, finally locating the exit.
He got them out and he kept running as far as he could from the warehouse with Jason in his arms.
They did felt the blast as the warehouse burst into pieces maybe half a minute after Bruce had got them out of there. It projected them to the ground, separating them.
"Jason," Bruce groaned, sitting up as they were joined by the rest of the family, reaching an arm out for the boy.
Tim was already administering the ancient Robin an antidote for the fear toxin. Jason threw up heavily on the docks, Stephanie supporting him through it.
He was already regaining some color.
"Bruce ?" he mumbled.
"Here. I'm here, Jason," Bruce said and for the first time in a very long time, his son collapsed into his arms.
"What -" Jason muttered as he opened his eyes.
He was wrapped in a blanket burrito-style. Not any blanket. Jason recognized this one. Martha Wayne had made it, it was Bruce's old blanket.
Bruce had wrapped it around Jason countless times when he woke up screaming from nightmares.
Jason had always responded well to being wrapped in a made-up cocoon of blankets.
The last time it had happened, he couldn't have been older than thirteen. He had cried out in his sleep and put his fist in his mouth, biting his knuckles to keep quiet as tears ran down his juvenile face.
It had been too late for that, Bruce must have heard him because the door had creaked open not long after. Jason had pretended -quite badly- to be asleep and Bruce had carried him to his room before wrapping him in blankets - including the one from his mother's -.
He had wiped Jason's tears and had laid next to him, wrapping his strong arms around the blankets surrounding Jason.
There had been papers spread all over Bruce's bed that he had set aside and Jason had later realized that he probably hadn't woken his guardian up.
Bruce didn't sleep much.
Wow. Jason hadn't thought about his early days at the manor for a long time. He tried to sit up, still a bit drowsy but he was held down firmly.
"Shhhh. You're safe. Go back to sleep," a familiar voice had murmured.
Bruce. Oh God, Bruce had his arms wrapped around Jason as if he was a kid again and had been holding him in his sleep. Maybe Jason had made it out of that warehouse alive but his dignity had not, apparently.
Jason hesitated for a second. The embarrassment won and he pretended to be asleep. He was so good at it this time that he did fall asleep again.
Bruce wasn't there anymore when Jason woke up once more. The young man felt a surge of panic until he perceived the voices at the door of the room.
He had always had good ears.
"You weren't supposed -" Bruce was saying in a quiet tone.
Despite his words, it didn't sound like a rebuke.
"Dick called me. I hadn't realized you'd told him about us."
Jason knew the voice but was unable to identify it at first. He turned on his side as silently as he could on the bed to try to get a glimpse of Bruce and his unexpected guest.
He was curious to know who Bruce would let get this far in the Manor, who Bruce would deem worthy to grace the threshold of Thomas and Martha Wayne's bedroom.
"I hadn't," Bruce affirmed.
Jason could see him now. His body language was very open, especially for Bruce.
He couldn't see the other man as well, but even without his Lantern suit, it wasn't hard to recognize Hal Jordan.
He had a hand on Bruce's hip. It didn't even seem that flirtatious a gesture, it looked more like a casual touch. Not only were they lovers, as the Lantern's words had let Jason suppose, but they had been for a while.
"Smart kid. How's Jason ?" Jordan asked and even if he could probably not see the young man in the dark of the room from where he stood, Jason closed his eyes.
"Sleeping for now," Bruce said, and something in his voice made Jason think Bruce knew he was awake.
The hand on Bruce's hip moved to his arm, stroking it gently.
"How do you feel ?" Hal said.
His tone was very caring.
The intimacy of the scene hit Jason as Hal's free hand reached for Bruce's face and his thumb stroked Bruce's jaw. Bruce leaned into the touch.
The casuality of Bruce letting his forehead resting against Hal's wasn't lost on Jason either.
Jordan really cared for Bruce and Jason would have sworn that B loved him back.
A sudden thought hit him suddenly. Was Bruce letting him see this because Jason had been in such a vulnerable state in front of him and it was his way to reciprocate ?
"They're alive," Bruce said quietly.
So quietly indeed that Jason estimated he had hoped the young man wouldn't hear him.
"I'll stay tonight," Hal said just as quietly, his thumb still stroking Bruce's jaw.
Bruce kissed Hal's wrist. Jason was growing slightly uncomfortable. Whatever Bruce was for him now, he had been some kind of father figure at some point of his teenagehood and seeing him flirt was always plain weird.
He missed what Bruce said but it made Hal Jordan's smile.
"Take care of Jason. I'll check on the rest of the pups," he answered back.
"The pups ?" Bruce asked, injecting surprise in his tone.
"That's what baby bats are called."
"Hal ?"
It was stunning how much emotion Bruce could put in this single syllable.
"Um ?" Hal asked, pushing a too long streak of hair away from Bruce's face.
"I'm glad Dick called you but your obsession with bats is getting slightly overboard."
Hal laughed quietly, muffling the sound against Bruce's shoulder and wrapping an arm around him. Bruce hugged him back.
"Yeah. I've noticed. Do you mind ?" Hal said against Bruce's ear, but still loud enough for Jason to hear it.
"Not really." Bruce said. "It works in my favor."
"We're good, then. See you later," Hal said, and he left the room after kissing Bruce's cheek.
Bruce went to sit on the bed again.
"How do you feel ?" he asked, echoing Hal's earlier words.
Jason turned the bedside lamp on to keep his hands busy.
"Where are my guns ?" he said, because he didn't want to answer Bruce's question and he wasn't sure what he should ask about first.
"Not in your grandparents' room. You know there is a no gun policy in this house."
Grandparents. Jason had always struggled to see Martha and Thomas Wayne as such, even when his relationship with Bruce wasn't so strained.
It wasn't the first time he was sleeping there. He used to go there when Bruce was leaving for slightly longer missions with the League or followed a lead for one of his cases abroad.
He also hid in there when he was mad at Bruce.
“I swear -” Jason said, making an attempt at standing up.
"Your guns are in the Cave for safekeeping. Sit down. Alfred will kill us both if he finds you wandering in the Manor instead of in your bed."
"I'm fine," Jason grunted.
"Obviously," Bruce said, smirking.
Jason rolled his eyes at him as the overgrown teenager he was.
"Are those Eccles cakes ?" Jason said, spotting the plate on the nightstand.
"Alfred brought them earlier," Bruce said as Jason bit into one.
"That was Hal Jordan," he said, since Bruce didn't seem about to leave and it might be the fastest way to get rid of him.
"Yes. Hal and I are dating," Bruce said.
Jason blinked at him. He hadn't expected that.
"You're surprised," Bruce noticed.
"Not by your choice of partner, you seeing a Leaguer isn't a surprise. I just wasn't expecting blunt honesty," Jason said, taking another bite of cake.
He didn't offer any to Bruce.
"We don't advertise our relationship but we don't lie about it either."
It sounded surprisingly healthy, considering Bruce's dating antecedents. Jason almost told him so but wisely decided to stay out of it.
4.
Bruce had been sitting at the Batcomputer for about five hours when he was interrupted.
He had identified the footsteps, heavier than most of his kids' except from Jason's, but still quite light for a man of Hal's bulk, long before Hal had spoken up.
Bruce had straightened up and stood up to greet him.
"Hey. Can I get my husband back or are you going to work all night ?" Hal had asked, hugging Bruce lightly -you wouldn't want to hug the Batsuit too tightly-.
Most people may have gone for a kiss then but Hal had always had a thing for hugging and Bruce had a thing for Hal.
Husband. The change was recent and Hal loved to remind him of it at every turn.
Bruce hugged Hal back. He loved to be reminded of it.
"I'm almost done," he promised.
"I'm not," Hal murmured, kissing him messily.
5.
Bruce had come here too many times along the years, and knew his surroundings all too well.
He knew the white vein going through his mother's gravestone that always had made him think of a bolt of lightning, the smell of freshly cut grass, the roughness of the marble under his fingers just as well as Dick's laugh, Tim's footsteps or Damian's frown.
It was all too familiar.
The grief, the ache, the tears were too familiar too, washing off the good memories.
The silent darkness of an alley slowly replaced a sunlit parlor filled with laughter in Bruce's mind.
He closed his eyes. He felt a hand squeezing his shoulder and turned around.
The kids never came here. Only Alfred did and it wasn't his presence Bruce was sensing.
He didn't ask how Hal had known. Either Bruce's old mentor had called him or he had remembered the date. It didn't matter.
Hal should have been working. Flying like he loved to do. Bruce couldn't bring himself to tell him so. He couldn't talk.
"C'mere," Hal said, opening his arms to him, and Bruce did.
He let Hal wrap him in a fierce, protective embrace.
They were still there, tightly enlaced, long after it had started raining.
+1
Bruce had accepted the news very stoically when a Green Lantern presenting himself as Tomar-Tu showed up at the Watchtower.
You didn't need to be very sharp-minded to know he would be the bringer of bad news - the Corps usually used their human Lantern to communicate with the League.
The Xudarian had told the Leaguers there his father had served alongside Hal (Tomar-Re, if Bruce remembered well and he knew he did) and that he had too and that it only felt natural for him to announce to them that the Green Lantern 2814-1 was no more.
Bruce had listened to what the Lantern had to say about his husband's bravery and how much he was appreciated by the other members of the Corps without saying a word or showing any emotion even when Ollie had started shouting and threatening the poor alien and Barry had hid his face behind his hands.
He could feel his heart break a little bit more at each sentence.
The heart had this amazing capacity. You thought it couldn't possibly break anymore and you were always wrong.
A heart could break infinitely.
Bruce didn't move when Ollie finally grabbed Tomar-Tu by the neck and Clark had to separate them.
Dinah's repetitive "Hal can't be dead"s were starting to grate on Bruce's nerves.
He wished it was true, but he had feared this for far too long to expect it was.
Bruce had thought his relationship with Hal had been a positive thing but it hadn't been. Not entirely. Hal was dead and he could barely function.
Well, for now he more or less could, in an automatic way. He could pretend that he wasn't devastated. He could thank Tomar-Tu and tell Ollie he was being ridiculous and ask practical questions about what happened and Hal's body and… He could.
That wouldn't last long.
When Tomar-Tu had finally left, Bruce had felt his last defenses collapse as the League reunited in the meeting-room reluctantly.
Hal's usual seat next to Barry, that was usually also taken when Hal was busy elsewhere, had been left empty and Bruce hated himself for having let his gaze wander there as they were wont to do without thinking about it.
He had cleared his throat and started talking, measuring every word coming out of his mouth. Each one tasted like dust.
He hadn't said two sentences when there was a knock at the door and a familiar face showed up.
“Hey, I’ve just come back, I’m going to head home and I'll report back in…" Hal said, waving from the doorstep.
"Is everything okay ?” he asked when he noticed the heavy silence in the room.
Bruce pushed his chair back and closed the few steps separating him from Hal. He pulled his husband to him roughly and held him tight, burying his cowled face against Hal's neck, breathing him in. Hal's arms automatically wrapped around Bruce, his right hand cupping the nape of his neck.
"What happened ?" he asked. "Alfred ? The kids ?"
Bruce shook his head but couldn't answer, too busy holding Hal against him. Hal looked around to see if anyone could bring him an answer, only to meet perplexed and shocked faces.
It could have been their reaction to figuring out Bruce and him were together, but they had looked like that even before Bruce went to hug him.
"Ah, we thought you were dead," Diana said.
"Ah. I can see why there could have been a misunderstanding with the Corps. We should discuss that, after. Bruce ? Hey," Hal said softly.
Bruce grumbled something and let go of him before taking a step back.
Hal was alive. He was fine.
"Mm, okay, does anyone else want a hug, then ?"
Hal had thought it was a lame distraction from the fact Bruce had hugged him in front of the rest of the League and that they wouldn't take him up on his offer but he was crushed to death by Barry before he could register it.
"It's okay, Bar," Hal said, patting his back.
Bruce was still looking at him as if he was going to disappear into thin air.
Almost every Leaguer went to hug Hal. Hal very bravely did not cry out when Diana bruised his ribs. He looked at Clark warily but thankfully for him the reporter had more experience hugging humans.
They all stayed in the meeting room afterwards. Everyone was looking at Hal, who decided against taking a seat and leaned against a wall.
Bruce stayed next to him.
"Can you explain what happened ?" the Dark Knight asked in a very soft voice.
He wished he could just take Hal home but the others were going to have questions.
"We got visitors from another dimension on Oa. One of them was some version of me."
"Have you two met ?" Bruce asked.
"Briefly. It's okay, B. Harry was already deeply wounded when he changed dimensions and the traveling had probably not helped. He knew he wasn't going to make it. I suppose seeing him die would have been troubling but I wasn't there, I got a message from a friend. Others must have heard Green Lantern 2814-1 was dead and assumed it was me."
For a second, Hal had forgotten he wasn't talking only to Bruce, but murmurs reminded him where they were. And how close they were.
They should be more careful.
"So, you're fine ?" Barry said.
"Absolutely fine. Do you want Superman to X-ray me ?"
"I wouldn't be against it," he heard Bruce mutter in his back, low enough for the others not to hear, except for Clark, who smiled at Hal.
"Your right shoulder is at the very least bruised," Bruce commented in a louder tone.
"Hence why I'm favoring my left one, um Mr Holmes ?"
"Information you tried to keep from us, Captain."
"Are they flirting ?" he heard Zatanna ask Dinah in an incredulous tone.
Dinah shrugged and looked back at Hal expectantly. Bruce noticed his husband squirming under the weight of their teammates' gazes.
"That hug with Bruce-" Ollie started, a sign that he was either a thoughtless idiot or a very brave man.
Bruce tended to lean toward the former.
"What of it ?" Hal hummed since Bruce didn't look like he planned to answer this anytime soon.
Indeed, Bruce had been waiting for Ollie to dare finish his sentence, hoping he wouldn't.
"Are you dating ?" Ollie asked bluntly, encouraged by Hal's question.
"No," Bruce said, because they were well past this stage.
His eyebrows and Hal's had a discussion that Hal concluded with a shrug.
They usually didn't lie about their relationship but didn't offer information about it gratuitously either.
"We're married," Hal said, putting a hand on Bruce's armored shoulder.
After that, the room erupted into chaos for a few minutes. In the meantime, Hal leaned into Bruce's side. It was discreet enough that it didn't feel excessive but also noticeable enough to assert their relationship in front of their teammates.
Bruce's arm wrapped around Hal's waist possessively. It owed him a surprised glance from his lover. Bruce was usually not one to show much physical affection outside of the bedroom, especially not in public even if Hal tended to think he had improved in that regard lately, especially in front of Alfred or the kids.
Well, Bruce had basically thrown himself into Hal's arms less than half an hour before in front of all of their friends so PDAs were maybe not completely off the table.
"Missed me ?" Hal said with a smirk.
"Shut up," Bruce growled before kissing him to muffle his laugh.
Their conversations often went that way. It wasn't long before the room went silent again.
"Are they… ?"
"Oh."
Bruce barely noticed the newfound lack of chatter. He was holding a very much alive Hal into his arms and at that moment, that was all that mattered, the whole League be damned.