"So, how's your boyfriend?" Batman asked about a week later when they were sharing watch duty.
Hal was prepared for the question.
Not that he had anticipated the question. Everything he knew about Batman suggested the guy wasn't interested in idle chitchat or gossip and Hal had thought that after their initial conversation the other man would forget about the whole subject and never mention it again.
The thing is after staring at Bruce Wayne's photo for longer than he was proud to admit, the Lantern had finally given in and pulled up his computer to find out a little more about the gorgeous billionaire he had claimed to be dating. There was a lot to be found. Several hours later Hal was several miles deep in a blackhole of Bruce Wayne videos, news articles, interviews and photographs.
By the time he emerged, Hal was ready to consider himself something of an expert on Bruce Wayne.
So, he hadn't expected the question. But he was undoubtedly prepared for it.
"Bruce? He's good. Got a charity auction tonight. Probably gonna buy some new paintings for his mansion. He loves art you know?"
Hal once again felt a smug satisfaction at the surprise on Batman's face. Clearly the guy thought he was gonna catch him out with that question.
Bring it fucker I'm ready.
"I think I read something about that. It's for impoverished children, right?"
"Animal shelters." Hal corrected confidently.
"Ah, right."
"There's a galla for the children next week. He's very caring. Does so much charity work. It's no wonder you mixed them up."
Batman turned back to his screen, his shoulders shaking gently in what Hal might have though was a laugh if Batman were capable of humour. "My mistake."
…..
It became a somewhat regular thing after that. Not too often exactly. But every now and then Batman would ask about how things were going with Hal and Bruce.
Hal was getting quite invested in the narrative, embellishing his fake relationship with all sorts of fun details. Nothing so elaborate that he would be caught out of course. He was smart enough to keep his lies in order. But he was having some fun with it. Creating the kind of romance, he had always secretly dreamed of.
….
"We had a picnic in his conservatory."
"Did you?"
"Yeah. It's this beautiful glass dome. I cooked. A couple of dishes I picked up when I was traveling with the air force. I've always liked cooking, and he loves good food so it works out. We packed a hamper and set it up just before dusk, ate as the Sun went down then laid there under the stars."
Batman gave him a curious head tilt that Hal was beginning to see more and more from him recently.
"Sounds nice."
"It was."
….
"We went to Sicily for the weekend. Flew out on his private plane to a little airport a friend of mine owns. He dressed down in jeans and a hoody so people wouldn't recognise him and we just walked around enjoying the sights."
Hand in hand, Hal thought to himself wistfully; no rush to be anywhere else, or with anyone else.
"Well, Sicily is pretty nice this time of year."
Hal twisted his swivel chair to stare the other man down with a raised eyebrow.
"Aside from missions, have you ever even been out of Gotham?"
Batman smirked.
"Not recently."
….
"He's teaching me to dance."
Hal actually was learning to dance. Sadly, he was learning from a regular teacher and not his fake boyfriend. Too many videos of Bruce twirling his dates across the dancefloor at parties had stirred up a yearning in Hal. He wanted to be the one on that arm, spinning and swaying together. God how he wanted that.
"You any good?"
"I'm getting better."
….
"We had a movie marathon, just cuddled together in his tv room. He has a full-scale movie theatre in his mansion too; but the tv room was more intimate." In his minds eye Hal was picturing popcorn and mugs of hot chocolate with cream but he didn't feel the need to share every little detail with the other hero.
"What did you watch?"
"Moulin Rouge, Chicago and La La Land."
"You like musicals?" Batman grinned. He looked pleased for some reason.
"Yeah. Not as much as he does though. He had a Broadway karaoke party once you know? Should do another one. I can show off my Le Mis repertoire."
"I'm sure that would be quite the sight."
….
"He has a party tomorrow. Celebrating Wayne Enterprises 60-year anniversary and all the projects they've funded through it to help Gotham. Lots of big faces are going to be there."
"Are you going to be there?"
It was a fair question.
According to Hal's stories the two of them had been together well over six months at this point. Long enough for it to be considered official. By that logic he should be attending an event like that as Bruce's date.
It was a perfectly reasonable and fair question.
It wasn't Batman's fault that Hal's brain was a dick.
Conjuring up images of Tanya May who had been so embarrassed when her friends discovered she was dating the poor kid who wore hand me down clothes that she cried and refused to ever talk to him again.
Of Billy Anderson who was never ready to come out of the closet on the arm of Hal Jordan, but practically skipped out just two months later with his new wealthy, successful, neurologist boyfriend.
Of the Colonels daughter who would sneak out to meet with him every Friday night but refused to even look at him at the stations Christmas dance.
It wasn't Batman's fault that Hal had gotten way too invested in this whole stupid thing.
This moment had been building for a while, Hal realised.
That as time went on, all the confidence he'd had at that start had begun to fade.
Somehow, he'd managed to reduce himself to nothing more than a dirty little secret in his own fantasy romance story. Even his fake boyfriend didn't want to be seen with him.
God he was pathetic.
What the fuck had he been thinking? Bruce Wayne probably wouldn't give him a second glance if they met in real life.
And to muddle things even further, with everything he had learned about the man, all his charity work, all his interviews, the way he treated people, the benefits he offered all his employees even when he didn't strictly need to; some small part of Hal was offended on Bruce's behalf. Offended at the suggestion that Bruce would treat a lover the way Hal's lies were making it seem he was being treated.
Bruce was good. He wouldn't do that.
Unless Hal really was just that shameful.
The hurt bubbled up inside of him and spilled over.
"My boyfriend isn't ashamed of me." Hal snapped, aiming for rage and instead sounding pained.
Batman flinched back, looking startled. "What? I never said…"
"My boyfriend is not ashamed of me!" Hal shouted again, hitting angry this time. "I'm not some fucking secret he's hiding…that's not…" He floundered for a moment. Unsure how to go on. "Fuck you!" He settled on at last turning around and storming away.
This whole thing had been a mistake.
….
Hal stopped talking about Bruce Wayne after that.
Batman stopped asking.
