Work Text:
Barry hadn’t thought that this mission was going to be so unbearable. Not because of Hal, no- God knows he loves Hal. It was his feelings for Hal that made the mission so hard. Five nights alone together in a car, staking out an old warehouse that they were sure the Legion of Doom was using to store some of Toyman’s latest terrors.
“See anything?” Hal asked from the driver's seat on day three, hands shoved in the pockets of his old flight jacket.
“If I see something, we’ll both know.” Barry felt tired. He felt like he needed a good shower and sleep, so much sleep. Unfortunately, stakeouts for the Justice League didn’t get him out of going into work at Central City’s crime lab the next day.
He looked over at Hal. His friend seemed tired too, with dark circles clearly visible under his eyes. He wondered how he was flying in the state, or if he even was.
“How do you handle the exhaustion from these nights?”
Hal glanced at him. “Not well. Carol’s been on us nonstop about getting these planes we’re testing to a safe and steady mach 10, so it’s not like I’m getting sleep during the day.”
“Safe and steady? How many have you crashed?”
He chuckled. “For the sake of your sanity, you don’t want to know.”
They didn’t see anything that third night, napping in shifts.
Hal picked Barry up from his lab on night four, driving a different rental car from the day before. Barry dragged himself out of the archives and down to the man waiting for him in a 2004 Honda Civic.
“Have a good day at work, sweetheart?” Hal asked sarcastically, causing Barry’s heart to miss a beat.
“Just the best.” He recovered and joked back as he sat in the passengers seat. “I’m expecting meatloaf for dinner.”
Hal laughed and tossed him a greasy fast food bag. “Sorry, doll. No meatloaf, I’m afraid Big Belly Burger will have to do.”
Barry looked in the bag, seeing a large assortment of burgers and fries, enough to feed a not-so-small family. “You remembered my order?”
“Yeah.” Hal started driving. “I know your order for every restaurant in Central.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep.” He popped the ‘P’ as he turned onto the side road that lead to the alley that they were going to be sitting in for the night.
“Gosh, I don’t know any of your orders.” Barry mumbled guiltily.
“Don’t worry about it dude. I don’t really have any, I always get something new. I’ll try anything once.”
Barry felt a bit more at ease as he dug into his food.
The next several hours passed in relative silence as the two men watched the warehouse. There were a few short lived games of truth or dare (though the dares were often less than interesting due to the nature of the mission) and five napkins filled with tic-tac-toe.
Currently the two sat in silence, searching for any movement in or outside the building.
It was Hal who broke the silence. “You know, we should do this again sometime.”
Barry couldn’t help his look of disbelief. “Should we?”
“Yeah, but instead of watching some crumby warehouse it could be a movie.”
Barry stared at him, then decided to take a risk. “Hal Jordan, are you asking me out on a date?”
Hal smirked. “If that’s what you want it to be, then yes.”
Barry thought for a moment. Thought of what it could be like to date Hal, his best friend who he’s been in love with for so long. He thought of those flirtatious comments and smirks and those gorgeous brown eyes directed at him. Sure, he was a hopeless romantic, but the hopeless part felt like it was beginning to slip away.
“I would love that.” He said with a smile, looking over at the pilot.
Hal smiled his sunny smile. “I would like that too.”
***
The next night was easier to handle, both excitedly spitballing ideas for their date. What restaurant they could try and which movie they should watch. Barry could feel the excitement shooting through his limbs like lightning.
Of course, now that they were enjoying the stakeout, they see someone enter the warehouse. Both went into mission mode like flipping a switch. When a light flicked on inside the warehouse confirmed that someone was in there, they suited up and took off. Catching villains by surprise made the job much easier than normal. All Barry had to do was run in and tie up the startled Toyman, Hal checking for weapons before handing him by his pants on the marque of the warehouse in the slightly immature way he does. Barry didn’t even break a sweat.
***
Barry liked their date much better than he liked the stakeout. Dinner was sweet, at a little family diner that served amazing burgers and shakes. The drive in movies were playing Top Gun at seven, and when Barry suggested that to Hal he answered the most enthusiastically Barry had ever seen him. They watched the movie in the bed of Hal’s pickup, sharing a blanket and a large bag of popcorn. Barry swore that if it took a hundred stakeouts to have another night like that, they’d be worth it.