Halbarry: the Origin

4: The Visit

(AN: Sorry about the crazy length of the last chapter, I just couldn't help it! Thanks for reading!
P.S. You're welcome for the tiny bit of Halbarry in the last one there. Promise there'll be more!)

Hal rolled out of bed and onto the floor. He groaned. He had meant to roll onto the other side of the bed. It was not his day.
After getting dressed, Hal decided to make himself some eggs while his ring charged in it's power battery. He'd figured out how to charge the ring while he did other things, it was quite handy.
"Shit," Hal muttered. He was out of orange juice. Hal liked orange juice with his eggs. After rummaging through his refrigerator for a moment, he found some nearly expired Naked Juice.
"Carol," Hal thought as he pored the juice into a glass. His on-again off-again girlfriend Carol Ferris liked that kind of juice.
As Hal ate his eggs, he realised he was humming Good Morning by the Beatles. He smiled. He'd just remembered something that made his day a hell of a lot better. Barry was coming by after he got off of work. That's why Hal had been humming a Beatles song. Barry loved the Beatles.

Hal looked through the wanted ads for a while before he went to his job as a Target cashier and worked a shift. The whole day, he sang and hummed some of Barry's favourite songs.
Oh, right. He used to work for Carol. See, after Sinestro went evil and tried to destroy the Green Lantern Corps, which had taken quite a while to thwart but eventually it had worked, Hal had returned to Coast City to find that he no longer had a home or a job. Amazing what a few months' unexplained disappearance will do for your private life.
Fortunately, Hal had been able to secure a stocking position at Target and find a low-budget apartment building. He was only a deadbeat for a short while, at least.
Hal shook his head and turned his attention back to the line of customers he was ringing up. He smirked. The people he was helping were a father and daughter, and they were wearing Green Lantern t-shirts. Hal wished he could get a royalty payment or two for all the merchandise, but sadly that was not allowed.
Hal had to settle for a "nice shirt." and a wink.
The dad smiled, and so did his daughter. "Thanks, we're big fans of the city's legendary super hero."
Hal smiled and handed them their last bag. "I'm sure he'd be very happy to hear that. Have a nice day."
Hal was caught off guard by the next customer. He hadn't even noticed him when the man started speaking.
"I have to admit, Green Lantern is a pretty good superhero. I think my favourite is the Flash, though. No offence."
Hal's eyes lit up. He knew that voice. "Barry!" he exclaimed. "You're early, I haven't finished work yet. I haven't even cleaned..."
Barry laughed. "Since when do you clean? And since when do you greet me with anything but a sarcastic comment? I was actually planning on doing that for you, that's why I'm early. I told Singh I had to see my sick grandmother..."
Hal smiled as he scanned Barry's purchases. "You know, I have been feeling a bit under the weather..." Hal trailed off. Barry was buying something very un-Barry-like. "Uh, Barry? What the h-" Hal stopped. He hated that he couldn't curse at work. "What the heck is this?"
Hal was holding up a copy of People magazine, staring in bewilderment at his best friend. Barry blushed.
"Uh, Iris likes Benedict Cumberbatch."
Hal laughed. Of course, /Iris/ had wanted the magazine, not Barry. That made a lot more sense. Then, Hal realised something. That was the first time he'd laughed since before the Sinestro war.
Hal shook it off and took Barry's credit card. It was just a laugh, nothing special.
"Aren't you going to ask if I want to start a Target Redcard today?" Barry asked, innocently fluttering his eyelashes.
Hal rolled his eyes. "Do you?"
"No."
"That's what I thought. Take your bags of crap and go, Allen."
Barry laughed and picked up his bags. All he'd bought was the magazine and three boxes of Cliff energy bars.
"Isn't three boxes a bit excessive?" Hal asked as Barry turned to walk away.
"I was hungry! Don't judge, I ran all the way here."
Hal had no reply to that, so he cupped his hands around his mouth and called "Good day, Sunshine!" He couldn't hear it, but he saw Barry's shoulders shake a little in laughter. Score.

When Hal got back to his apartment after work, he almost didn't recognise the place.
Barry had cleaned everything. Everything! He'd even watered Hal's lame excuse for a houseplant, Bruce. Hal slowly spun around around in a circle, admiring his surroundings. He was about 67% sure the apartment had never been that clean.
Strike that. 89% sure.
Barry silently padded up behind Hal, startling him when he said "I got bored waiting for you."
"Fuck, Barry!" Hal replied, half scared and half amazed. "You're making me look bad..."
Barry laughed. "You do that to yourself."
"True," Hal conceded. He still couldn't bring himself back to his usual levels of cockiness and sarcastically-asinine-ness.
"Hey," Hal said, a thought suddenly occurring, "Wanna get pizza?"
"Out or in?"
"You pick."
"Wow, letting me pick? We'd better eat in, something is obviously wrong with you."
Hal laughed and pulled his cell phone out of his ring's pocket dimension. "Shut up," he said to Barry before dialling Papa John's. (AN: haha! Get it? Like Geoff Johns?)

About a half hour later, the two best friends were sitting on Hal's couch eating pizza off of sections of the pizza box. Barry had offered to run to the store and buy paper plates once he'd found a lack of the regular kind in Hal's cabinet, but Hal refused to let Barry spend money on him. He already felt bad enough, not being able to afford a proper guest bed.
They chatted about this and that for a while. Barry told Hal about work at the CCPD and Hal told Barry about his exploits against Sinestro. They didn't talk as much about the newly formed Justice League as much as Hal had thought they would, considering the amount of time it consumed in each of their schedules. Even if Hal was off-planet most of the time.
After a while, Hal got bored. It wasn't Barry, it was what they were talking about. As much as he liked to pretend otherwise, Hal liked to hear about Iris much more than he liked hearing about the CCPD. He wanted to make sure that his friend was as happy as he could possibly be.
"How's your love life, Bear? Anything exciting or juicy I need to hear about?"
Barry blushed and smiled as he suddenly took a profound interest in the pineapple that coated his pizza. He was apparently doing quite well. "Um, well, funny you should ask that... See, something happened the other day that I wanted to tell you about..."
Hal finished his slice and set his cardboard on the ground. He needed to hear this. "What?"
Barry laughed. "Sit back in your chair and I'll tell you! You're practically in my lap!"
Hal smirked and sat back a little. Just a little. "Was that an invitation?"
"Shut up, you poop. I said I had something /important/ to talk about."
Hal mocked surprise but said nothing. He really did want to hear Barry's big news.
Barry took a deep breath. "I asked her to marry me."
"OhmyGOD BARRY HOLY SHIT ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW WHAT DID SHE SAY WHAT AM I SAYING IF COURSE SHE SAID YES WHO WOULDN'T SAY YES TO YOU oh my God what if she said no WHO AM I KIDDING I KNOW SHE ACCEPTED OHMYGODBARRYWHYWONTYOUTELLMEWHATSHESAID!" Hal's words exploded in a rush.
Barry nodded with a grin, unable to speak due to uncontainable happiness. He had obviously been quite worried that Hal might make fun of him. Hal was /not/ the type to get married.
Hal smiled almost as large as Barry. "I'm so happy for you, I really am. So, when's the wedding?"
Barry laughed. "October. But I um... I wanted to ask you something first."
Hal smirked. "Why Bear, I'm flattered! Of course I'll be your best man!"
Barry gave his best friend a hug. Hal had been right. "Suck on that Oliver," Hal whispered.

It wasn't until after Barry had left the next day that Hal noticed something strange. Something...off about the way he felt around Barry and about Barry's engagement announcement. It wasn't jealousy, no, Iris wasn't really Hal's "type."
And Hal did /not/ get jealous easily.
It was almost anger, but not quite. Hal decided to ignore it and press through. If anything, it would go away over time.