Chapter Text
In hindsight, Barry should’ve known better. He was a grown man. He’d been married, raised a kid, and widowed all before he’d hit thirty. A couple years down the road shouldn’t have mattered to his ability to make rational decisions, and yet he’d still gone and done it.
It’d been a slow night, the Rogues deciding to take a break in between their heists and the CCPD’s caller ID never popping up on Barry’s phone despite him being on-call. Hal announcing his arrival via a broken glass off of Barry’s counter honestly wasn’t surprising. Barry had just raised his eyebrows from his place on the couch– a blood spatter analysis in his lap– but the brunet only smiled sheepishly before he started cleaning up the mess without an explanation to his impromptu arrival.
The next twenty minutes hadn’t gone by so casually. Hal was clearly in a mood and dismissive to Barry’s questions about said mood. And so the blond had let it go, it was late and obvious to him that Hal had just wanted an escape from the outside world.
One beer long since gone and another opened but untouched, Hal had turned to Barry and quietly asked– nearly unintelligible over the sounds of whatever aviator movie the brunet had picked, “Do you ever think about getting married again?”
Barry had startled, hands clenched around the now closed analysis in his lap. A pregnant pause had hung in the air longer than what was probably comfortable before he’d been able to respond, “Why would you ask that?”
Hal knew that Barry had struggled with the concept of dating after Iris’ death. It hadn’t exactly been a secret between them that not only was Barry out of touch with the dating world but that it was hard for him to put his heart into actually building a romantic relationship with someone else after Iris. Barry couldn’t think of a reason why Hal would be bringing that up of all things.
Hal had glanced away and shrugged his shoulders dismissively, one hand reaching down for the untouched beer as the other pulled at the collar of his shirt– his jacket resting across the back of the couch, “Just wonderin’ is all,” he’d muttered.
And Barry had watched each movement with a detective’s eye. Trying to decipher Hal’s sudden change in attitude, the blond had completely foregone watching the rest of the movie– not like he was really paying attention to begin with– and studied each twitch and shift of Hal’s body. Barry may have been slightly off balanced by Hal’s question but he knew his best friend, and something was clearly eating at the other man.
Hal was only a couple sips into his second beer when it seemed like something had finally snapped and he’d set the beer down with a clang against Barry’s coffee table. He’d stared at the screen for a while as Barry became even more concerned for what could’ve caused the brunet to be in such a sour state.
“Hal-”
“Would you let me try something?” Had been the question that finally tumbled out of Hal’s mouth as he turned towards Barry. Jumbled and hurried like a breath after a long run, each syllable echoed the anxious shadows dancing across the brunet’s face as the TV’s light lit up Barry’s living room.
The speedster had frozen and stared stupidly at the other man as he tried to figure out what exactly “something” entitled.
And then Hal had hesitantly inched forward. Inch by inch he’d closed the gap between them, which wasn’t much to begin with with Barry’s criss-crossed legs resting against Hal’s right thigh as the speedster used the arm rest as support for his back so he could face the older man.
Warm breath had ghosted the side of Barry’s cheek as Hal angled his face, hazel eyes flickering up and down for Barry’s reaction. And then soft lips had closed over Barry’s own.
For a moment he’d frozen in place, brain completely short circuiting before he’d come back to himself to realize that Hal was pulling away– eyes downcast.
That wouldn’t do.
Closing the couple of inches that had opened between them, Barry had gently placed his own lips against Hal’s.
Freezing and unfreezing faster than the actual speedster in the room, Hal had wrapped one hand around the back of Barry’s neck as the blond opened his mouth to deepen the kiss. They moved against each other, Hal’s nose brushing against Barry’s own as the kiss turned into something more.
Hal had shifted closer, the hand on the back of Barry’s neck tightening as they fell against the armrest of the couch– the other hand wandering across Barry’s side. And Barry had let his own hands wander in return, one in Hal’s hair and the other around the back of the lantern.
They’d stayed locked together for more than a couple minutes, breaths turning into gasps and moans. A wandering hand wandered further than before though, and Barry had broken the kiss with a gasp of surprise as Hal’s hand snaked down the back of his sweats. The other man had stilled in place, the question of whether or not he’d gone too far hanging in the air.
But Barry had apparently long since discarded his ability to make clear headed decisions.
“Please don’t stop,” he’d whispered.
And that’s how Barry ended up on his back fifteen, twenty, some odd minutes later with his best friend moving inside of him. Hot pants and moans permitted the air as their chests rubbed together, sweat glistening on tan and pale skin alike as Hal pushed further into Barry’s body– deeper than he’d even gone himself, much less anyone else. It was an odd sensation at first, a burning stretch accompanied with the too full feeling of an intrusion into his body. But Hal had gone slow, almost too slow after Barry’s initial grunt of surprise and pain had stilled the other man. Hal apparently knew the blond’s body more than himself though, because with one well placed and paced thrust the next sound to escape Barry’s mouth had been that of a gasp of pleasure.
Despite knowing for the majority of his life that he wasn’t completely straight, Barry hadn’t done too much diving into his own sexuality. He’d started dating Iris almost immediately after finishing college and he hadn’t needed to think about his attraction to both sexes when he had the love of his life already declaring herself to him and vice versa. Hal though…Barry knew that the other man would flirt with anything– he’d seen it himself– but he also knew that Hal wasn’t exactly known to have long term relationships outside of the on and off thing he had with Carol. Even so, none of the flings that the brunet had mentioned to Barry had been the male kind.
So color him surprised when Hal led each and every step of their coupling. Experienced hands turning Barry into puttie underneath their explorations, and a sinful mouth doing things that the blond had never thought possible.
Barry couldn’t do much more than meet Hal’s movements and leave his own marks across the other’s body. He may have felt– and possibly been– inexperienced underneath the other man but he was going to try to give what he got. Hands plastered on Hal’s back and mouth latched onto his jugular– tender skin lightly grazing across Barry’s teeth with each thrust of Hal’s hips– Barry sucked a mark onto the pilot. He could feel the rapid pace of Hal’s heart and the harsh pants of air through his throat this way and it turned Barry on in ways that he didn’t think was possible.
“ Bear ,” Hal gasped as he lightly nudged the top of Barry’s head with his chin, “ Barry, ” he implored, “let me see you.”
With a harsh heave of air into his lungs, Barry let go of the other man’s throat and dropped his head down onto the mattress underneath them. Almost immediately, warm hazel eyes met his own blue ones right before a soft and moist mouth closed overtop of his lips in a tender kiss.
“Hal,” the blond whispered as said man broke the kiss with a light peck against Barry’s jawbone.
“You’re beautiful,” Hal whispered in return, like the words were something to be cherished and needed to be spoken quietly to protect them from the harsh world outside.
If it was possible, Barry could’ve sworn he’d grown redder than what their current activity was coloring him. He’d have never imagined Hal saying that, especially not when Barry was all gross and Hal was inside of him.
“Even all s-sweaty?” his response teetered off into a hushed moan, his jaw clenching down as he closed his eyes. Hal had moved his left arm from where it had been supporting his weight from beside Barry’s head down to shift the speedster’s right knee up to just underneath the pilot’s armpit. And the changed angle sent Hal even deeper than before.
“ Fuck,” Barry swore and tightened his grip on Hal’s back as said man languidly grinded his hips. The other man seemed to have realized the effect that the changed angle had on Barry and was dragging it out to the best of his ability. Listening to the way the other's breath stuttered though, Barry wasn't sure if Hal was trying to drive him crazy or if the brunet was trying to bury himself as deep as he could under Barry's skin to take up permanent residence there.
“Definitely all sweaty,” A soft chuckle whisted past Barry’s ears as Hal leaned down to rest their foreheads together briefly. Cheek brushing against Barry’s own as he moved down, Hal placed open mouthed kisses against the side of the speedster’s face– one dragging kiss for each word he whispered next. “ Naked ,” Barry’s cheekbone just underneath his left eye, “ underneath me ,” the edge of his jaw, “ or in that red, tight suit. ”
A hot shiver ran through Barry’s body as he turned and caught Hal’s wandering mouth in a deep kiss. If he could only put into words what the other man did to him.
As he became invigorated in their kissing, Hal’s thrusts shifted to an almost tender rhythm. And although the pleasure hadn’t diminished with the slower rhythm, Barry quickly noticed the different sensations that he could feel with the slower pace. When Hal had first entered him, Barry had been too focused on the overwhelming stretch and the later pleasure to take note of much more– but now he was very much aware of what felt like Hal pushing into his guts. If he didn’t know better– speedster abs being in the way and all– he’d bet it was visible against his stomach.
Momentarily breaking the kiss, Barry let his curiosity get to him, “Can you feel that?”
Hal gave him an odd look for all about two seconds before his eyes darkened. Shifting back slightly, Hal slid his right hand between their stomachs before grabbing Barry’s neglected cock with a teasing stroke of the appendage.
Momentarily forgetting what he’d even asked, Barry let his head drop down to the mattress underneath them with a gasp. Eyes closing, he rolled his hips in an attempt to get more stimulation from where Hal was leisurely assaulting him on both fronts. But the other man didn’t rise to the bait and let go of the blond’s cock with another teasing swipe at the head, and Barry had all about half a second to wonder if he was going to have to kill Hal during such a vulnerable moment when the ghost of fingers across the soft flesh of his belly startled him enough to open his eyes again.
Hal smirked at him as his hand came to rest on the skin between Barry’s belly button and pelvis– and then pressed.
Instantly, everything became ten times more intense– the slide of Hal’s cock, the pressure on that spot, and something even deeper that had Barry’s eyes lighting with uncontrolled speed. A guttural moan escaped his mouth as his left leg jerked up reflexively to give Hal more space.
And Hal took to the spread of Barry’s thighs like a drowning man seeing land in the Atlantic Ocean.
His thrusts quickened with an urgency as his body enveloped Barry like a canopy– his head moving to rest against the side of the blond’s own even as he contorted himself to continue applying pressure to that spot on Barry’s stomach.
Barry was practically being bent in half but he was doing it on cloud nine, “ Hal ,” he gasped. His hands scrambled across the brunet’s sweaty backside for a handle before coming to wrap around Hal’s shoulders– something to keep him from dropping into relative time or being shoved up to his own headboard. With each thrust, Hal’s hips jerked him across the too soft sheets and Barry could feel and hear the bed begin to creak with the lantern’s ministrations.
“ Yeah ,” Hal answered back, husky and strained, “I can feel that.”
Oh , was the speedster’s slightly delirious realization to why Hal had suddenly decided to press on Barry’s stomach. He wondered if the other man could feel himself through Barry’s skin. A hot flash shot through him and if he wasn’t already approaching his limit, Barry was sure the thought of Hal feeling himself through Barry would’ve moved him right towards it.
It wasn’t long after Hal switched his tempo though that the blond did reach his limit. With the constant pressure on his prostate and everything else, Barry was rapidly reaching his climax. His tensing stomach must’ve tipped Hal off to his ensuring orgasm because suddenly the other man had let off the pressure on Barry’s stomach and gathered the blond’s hands up to push them into the sheets. Back arching and hands either side of his head, Barry came against both of their stomachs with clenched teeth and a broken moan.
“Fuck, Bear,” Hal gasped in his ear as Barry reflexively clenched down on the other man. The brunet’s hips stuttered for a second before they picked back up with a desperation as he chased his own orgasm. Turning his head, Hal briefly latched his mouth on to the side of Barry’s neck and then pulled off as he straightened.
Through half lidded eyes and harsh panting, Barry glanced Hal’s face coming into view as the brunet studied the other. He’d never seen the lantern look so tense outside of League missions– what with his dark eyebrows pulled into a furrow and his lips just slightly parted enough to reveal the whites behind them.
Hips stuttering with one last sharp thrust, Hal’s eyes fluttered shut as his entire body shuddered with its release. Considering the brunet was still holding onto his hands, it came as no surprise to the speedster when he felt nails digging into the top of his hands, what did come as a surprise to Barry though was the foreign sensation of warmth pooling into the very same spot below his belly button that Hal had pressed down on only moments before. It was almost like a heated pad had just been set down on his stomach– but on the inside. A small gasp of surprise left Barry’s throat as he picked up his head– to do what, he wasn’t sure. The sight of Hal’s languidly grinding hips where there wasn’t any space left to move between their bodies had him laying his head back down though with a deep flutter in his stomach right on top of the easing warmth. With rapid blinks, the image of their conjoined bodies was practically burning itself onto the insides of his eyelids.
His attention was quickly averted though when Hal’s eyes opened and the other man heaved in a shuddering breath as his head drooped. Eyes drawn to a flicker of light, Barry watched as the sweat on Hal’s chest glistened with each breath and bit his tongue– thoughts of what else he could do with the appendage drifting lazily through his addled brain.
Blissed out and holding onto the sensations of the other man wrapped around and buried inside of him, Barry didn’t notice for quite a long moment that Hal wasn’t picking his head back up. The brunet’s breaths had quieted to soft drawls but the droop of his sweaty bangs stopped Barry from seeing Hal’s face and thus figuring out what exactly was distracting him.
The shame of spreading his legs so easily to his obviously distressed friend didn’t hit him until Hal had released his hands to grip the speedster’s hips to pull out without even so much as a look at Barry. Panic was seizing his chest in a near instant.
“Hal-” Barry tried before a surprised groan broke his call. Hal’s sudden withdrawal from Barry’s body feeling not unlike the other man was taking the blond’s guts with him. Hal’s head snapped up at the sound before he turned back away, climbing off the bed to the detriment of Barry’s quickening heart, “Hal, what's wrong?”
Hand closing around his boxers, Hal shook his head dismissively, “Nothing, it was…” he shrugged, dark eyebrows pinching with the pause of his words, “it was a good fuck, Bear. Really helped to get my mind off some things.”
Barry could practically feel the damage to their relationship in the air. Disbelief at the other man’s words still struck him though. A good fuck?
“So that was it?” Barry said in incredibility as he rolled to his side– or at least attempted, the sudden soreness in his backside hindered him for about a second, “You just come over for a fuck and leave?”
Yeah, Barry might not have even known what he was doing when he’d let Hal push him against the crouch– but it couldn’t have just been for sex. There had to be a reason to upend their friendship like this.
Hal’s face twisted up as he spared a glance back at the blond before continuing his clothes search, “Don’t act like you weren’t looking for some stress release. You can only be a prude for so long, not like Iris is gonna come back from the dead to-” he froze.
And that… that hurt. Barry didn’t have to hear the end of Hal’s sentence to feel the burn of betrayal hot in his veins. Barry’s struggles with starting a new relationship after Iris’ death had been a vulnerability that he’d discussed with Hal only because the other man was his closest friend . He’d thought Hal had understood just how much it took for Barry to open up about that.
“Bear, I– I didn’t mean that. It just came–”
“What the fuck is wrong with you.” Hal was turning towards him, but Barry was already getting up with a throw blanket off the end of his bed wrapped tightly around his waist. The speedforce thrumming underneath his skin as he stared down the other man. He wasn’t exactly expecting an answer but he still waited.
They stood there for a long couple of seconds. Hal’s mouth opening and closing with no sound escaping despite how important his word felt in that moment. Barry only snapped once he could feel the burning in the back of his eyes begin to actually produce something.
“Get out.”
Hal’s eyes widened, “Barry, wait. I’m sorry I–”
Surging forward, the blond put enough speedforce behind his arm to get his point across when he shoved into Hal’s shoulder, “I said get out!”
Hal stumbled, hurt flashing in his eyes for a brief second, “Bear-”
It took more than Barry had thought he’d need to ignore the look on Hal’s face as he shoved him once more towards the bedroom door, “Out!”
Finally, Hal gave the speedster one last panicked look before he went fleeing from the bedroom. A burst of green light signaling his uniform change before the slam of the back door announced his departure.
Barry only then let the tears free. Slowly backing up against the bed, he gingerly sat down as his breath picked up in the beginnings of a sob.
All he could think about was how much he should’ve known better.