Ollie sat at his kitchen table. There were arrows, fletching and twine scattered all over the surface. Dinah was going to kill him if she caught him making a mess on her new tablecloth, but he couldn’t change everything just because he was married.
The back door slammed open and Roy came racing in. “Did Dinah call you?”
Panic gripped Ollie and he stood, knocking a stack of fletching to the floor. He grabbed his bow. “What happened to Dinah?”
“Nothing happened to Dinah,” Roy said. He dropped onto a chair. “I just made her promise not to call you. I wanted to tell you.” He laughed—no, he giggled. Roy had just giggled like a twelve-year-old girl. “I wanted to see your face.”
Ollie frowned and sat down. “Okay,” he said warily.
Mia came into the kitchen. “Hey, Roy. What are you doing here?”
“He said he has something to tell me,” Ollie said. In fact, he looked to be about bursting with it.
“Oh, is it something good?” Mia plopped into the chair next to Ollie and leaned forward on her elbows to hear Roy’s news.
“Really good,” Roy said. “Though it might give the old man here a heart attack.”
“So spit it out!” Ollie said impatiently. Damn kid had to make a drama out of everything.
“I won a bet today!”
“That’s it? That’s what you had to tell me?” Ollie rolled his eyes and leaned over to pick up the fletching he had knocked on the floor.
“Well, yes. But the interesting part was what the bet was about. You know, one of those ‘will they/won’t they’ kind of bets?” He paused for a moment, grinning madly. “And we caught them going at it in the Kitchen today!”
“Oh my god, who was it?” Mia gasped.
Ollie rubbed his forehead. Like he cared which horny member of the Justice League was screwing another horny member of the Justice League. He only cared about one horny member of the Justice League and he had to get these arrows done and off the table before she got home, or he wouldn’t be able to take advantage of that horniness for a week. He picked up an arrow to continue his work.
“One of them was Hal.”
That got Ollie’s attention. The arrow slipped from his hand. “Hal?” He frowned at Roy. “He told me he was ‘taking a break’ for a while after ending things with Jill.” Shortest ‘serious’ relationship Hal had ever had. Ollie just figured he’d jumped in too quickly after the war and realized he’d made a mistake. According to Hal it had ended fairly amicably.
“Nope,” Roy said. “This has been going on for a couple weeks.”
That made Ollie frown even more. Why hadn’t Hal said anything to him? They’d even met for beers a few times. Sure, Hal had often seemed a bit quiet and on edge, but he had figured it was Corps stuff Hal was brooding over, stuff dealing with Sinestro and losing so many GLs in the war.
“So who is he banging?” Mia exclaimed. “Not Wonder Woman is it?”
Roy laughed. “Oh, no. Not even close.”
“Okay, I’m not in the mood for twenty questions,” Ollie said with a deep sigh. “Who did you see him with?”
Roy grinned. “Kyle.”
Ollie shook his head. “Kyle? I have to ask Kyle?” Was Rayner even on Earth right now? Last he’d heard, he was on Oa, partnered with Gardner. The kid should get a medal for that.
“No!” Roy exclaimed, throwing up his hands. “Hal was banging Kyle in the Kitchen.”
Ollie blinked. He was barely aware of Mia’s squeal, followed by the laughter of his kids. His brain was having trouble processing what Roy had just said. Hal was banging Kyle in the Kitchen. He ran that through his brain a few times, and it always came out with the same result.
“All right, very funny, Roy. Now get out of here. I have work to do.” As far as jokes went, that one was pretty lame. Hal banging Kyle? Yeah, right. You look up ‘Heterosexual Alpha Male’ in the dictionary, they had Hal’s picture there.
“I’m serious!” Roy said. “Go ask him yourself. He’s at home. Superman felt sorry for embarrassing them, and that Kyle only has a few days on Earth, so he’s taking monitor duty for Hal tonight.” Roy snickered. “Kyle gave him his doe-eyes. Supes is such a pushover.”
“Superman found them?” Ollie stared at Roy. Oh my god, he was serious? Hal was banging Kyle?!
“I found them, actually”, Roy said. The kid at least had the decency to blush a little. “Me and Wally. Then Supes came along.”
Ollie scratched his beard. Hal and Kyle. Kyle and Hal. He was still trying to fit the pieces together. It still wasn’t working. Kyle, he could see the possibility. Hal, though? Hal?
Mia was kind of staring off into space. Ollie elbowed her. “What’s up with you?”
She shrugged. “Just thinking. Hal and Kyle … I mean …” She smiled and nodded. “That’s pretty hot!”
“Oh, god,” Ollie groaned. He stood up and waved at the table. “You two clean this up for me before Dinah gets home. I’m going to go see Hal.”
“Ollie!” Hal said. He waved his friend into the apartment. “Come in.”
“Hal.” The first thing he noticed was the hickey on Hal’s neck — there was really no way to miss it. The kid must be a vampire.
“Would you like a beer?” Hal asked. He sounded nervous.
“Sure.”
Hal disappeared into the kitchen and Ollie went out to sit in one of the chairs in the living room. He looked around the place. There was a New York Rangers sweatshirt draped over the arm of the couch. A pile of cheesy comedy movies was on the floor in front of the TV. A sketchpad and pencils lay on the coffee table, along with a can that once contained something with way too much caffeine. The place was starting to look as much Kyle’s as Hal’s now. He wondered if they were living together yet.
Hal came back, beers in hand. Ollie took the proffered bottle, taking a swig before he looked up at Hal. “I heard something interesting from Roy today. Something about how he won a bet?”
Hal sat on the couch. “Yeah.” He kept his eyes on the bottle in his hands. “I wanted to tell you myself, Ollie, but I needed a little more time to … figure things out. But then …” He sighed.
“But then you left the Kitchen unlocked, and Roy and Wally walked in. With Superman in tow.”
Hal nodded slowly, then took a drink of his beer.
Ollie studied his friend. Hal was obviously conflicted about this. Why the hell was he getting involved with Rayner? “So. You and Kyle.”
Hal nodded. “Me and Kyle.”
Ollie caught the hint of a smile on Hal’s lips. Okay, so maybe there wasn’t all that much conflict. He supposed it was just difficult for someone like Hal—his whole life immersed in the military—coming out like this. Hell, his career could be on the line over this. “I thought Roy was joking at first.” Ollie shrugged. “I have to admit it’s pretty unexpected.”
“Yeah.” Hal shrugged, but the smile was there again. “Pretty unexpected for us, too.”
Unexpected for everyone. Except for Roy, apparently. How the hell did Roy know to make that bet? And what a way to get discovered! Ollie chuckled. “They found you in the Kitchen? I would have loved to have seen their faces.”
Hal snorted. “Easy for you to say. The whole fucking Justice League showed up once Batman came in and started yelling at us about ‘improper use of JLA facilities’.”
“Oh my god, Bats was there?” Ollie howled with laughter. Roy hadn’t told him that!
Hal frowned. “I’m glad you can can find this funny, Ollie.”
“Oh, come on, Hal,” Ollie said. “This is priceless! They walk in and find you — God’s Gift to Women — banging Kyle. Not exactly what most people expect to see when walking into the Kitchen. I’m surprised you didn’t give Supes a heart attack. Wally’s probably scarred for life! Roy … Well, okay, you probably didn’t harm Roy too much.” The kid had plenty of wild experiences of his own.
“There was no ‘banging’, Ollie,” Hal said. “It was … not ‘banging’.”
Ollie laughed. “If Roy hadn’t interrupted, there was no way Rayner was getting out of there without getting banged. I know you, Hal.” He smiled smugly and took another drink of his beer.
“You know me?” Now it was Hal’s turn to laugh. “I hate to break it to you, but Kyle’s got you all fooled with his innocent puppydog cuteness. It was just as likely I wasn’t going to get out of there without getting banged by him!”
Ollie stared at him, eyebrows raised. Well, those were words he never expected to hear from Hal Jordan.
The key turned in the lock and the door swung open. “Hey! I’m back.” Kyle came in, hands full of grocery bags. “I got us — Oh. Hi, Ollie.” He shoved the door closed with his foot. “I’m …” He looked back and forth between the two of them. “I’m putting groceries away.” He scampered into the kitchen.
Oh, yeah. They were living together. Ollie leaned close to Hal. “He has a key already? How many years did it take Carol to get a key? Did you ever even give Jill a key?”
“He’s always had a key,” Hal said. “We have keys. For emergencies. Even John and Guy have keys.”
“Uh, huh,” Ollie said. “You sleeping with them, too?”
Hal glared at him. “Don’t even go there.”
Ollie chuckled and glanced over his shoulder towards the kitchen. “He’s living here, isn’t he?”
Hal opened his mouth, looking like he was going to protest, but how could he with the evidence around him? Kyle’s stuff was all over the apartment—Ollie couldn’t remember seeing it like this with any of Hal’s girlfriends—and Kyle was putting groceries away like he owned the place. “He’s on Oa most of the time, and he still has his apartment in …” Hal stopped mid-sentence and sighed. “Yeah. I suppose he is.”
Bingo! Ollie leaned close again. “Seems like it wasn’t ‘living together’ or ‘commitment’ that was the problem for you, Hal. It was just finding the right person to live with and commit to.”
He watched that realization sink into Hal. Ollie smiled. Hal was brilliant in a fight, but he could be more than a little dense in the relationships department. Especially when he’d probably been denying himself what he really wanted until now.
Kyle came into the room and Ollie saw the look that passed between them. That settled any remaining doubts he had. Hal didn’t give his heart away easily, but he’d obviously given it to Kyle.
Ollie stood up. “Listen, Roy said you’re only here for a few days, Kyle, so I’m going to let you two …” He coughed. Better not to finish that train of thought. “Anyway, Dinah called me on my way here, and she wants you both over for dinner. Tomorrow okay?”
They looked at each other, in just a few seconds silently coming to a decision. “Sure. We’ll be there,” Hal said.
Ollie bit back a laugh. They could do that already? This was more serious than he thought! “Great!” Ollie grinned and clapped Hal on the shoulder. Then he turned to Kyle. “Take it easy on the old man, will ya kid?”
Both of them turned bright red. Ollie chuckled and let himself out.
On his way downstairs he pulled out his cellphone and called Dinah. “Hey, hon. I’m on my way home. And the happy couple will be over for dinner tomorrow.”
“So what do you think?” Dinah asked.
Ollie laughed. “Fifty bucks says they’re married within a year.”