"Thanks for the help," Barry said as he and Hal watched the armored police vehicle drive off with Captain Cold. Barry knew he could have taken Snart on his own, but having a Green Lantern show up out of nowhere was pretty nice.

It took some weight off, especially since he and Hal worked so well together. It never mattered how long Hal would be gone, doing heaven-knows-what in space. Whenever he returned, the two of them still fell in sync during a battle. Some heroes had trouble with Hal's impulsive tendencies and recklessness, but Barry knew what to say to bring him back. Well, usually. No one could truly tame Hal Jordan.

"That was a cakewalk," Hal said proudly, arms crossed.

"You almost lost your ring," Barry said.

"'Almost' being the keyword, Flash. I didn't lose it. And what about you? You were a popsicle when I showed up!"

Barry laughed. "I think you're exaggerating a little bit. So what brings you to Central City? I thought you were still working off-world with the corps."

Hal made a face that almost looked like a pout. "I am. I got some intel on some stuff going on here on Earth, then I heard about the Captain Cold attack on the news and decided to say hi."

That sentence made Barry pause. When did Hal ever watch the news? Barry pushed the thought off. "Need a hand with anything? My shift is over and I don't have any league duties tonight."

"What? You got a free evening for once and you wanna throw yourself into another mess?" Hal shook his head and clicked his tongue as he threw an arm around Barry's shoulders, leading him into a nearby empty alley. "You work too much, Bar."

Hal looked around and upward, making sure there were no peering eyes before he let his Green Lantern uniform vanish. In its place, the pilot wore jeans, an old white t-shirt, and his signature pilot jacket. Barry followed his example, and within seconds was dressed in a red sweater vest with a white shirt and black slacks. They looked like night and day.

"What are you doing, Hal?"

"Leading you some place where you don't have to think about work so much," Hal said vaguely. His arm lingered on Barry's shoulders as they kept walking through the alley.

Barry had a feeling he knew where this was going. "You know I can't get drunk."

"No, but you got me, and I'm a distraction."

Barry pouted. "You got that right."

Just how well did Hal know this city anyway? Barry knew every inch of it as well as he knew his own hands because he lived here and ran through it everyday. Hal didn't live here. He'd been here before, on multiple occasions, but not usually long enough to memorize much of it. However, here he was, leading Barry straight to a downtown bar. Barry supposed that for Hal, that was somehow fitting.

"You could at least try to look happy about it," Hal teased, giving Barry a grin.

"I thought you had some mission here?"

"Eh, it can wait."

Barry sighed, still under Hal's arm. "If you say so."

It was a Saturday night, so the bar was packed and noisy. Hal and Barry managed to snag a table in a corner. While Barry was sitting with pretty decent posture, Hal was leaned back in his seat, stretching his legs pretty far underneath the table. The lantern must have decided he didn't want to get too drunk tonight, because he decided that beer was his drink of choice. Barry followed suit.

"What's new, Bar? Any juicy forensic stuff? League stuff I've missed? Take Iris on any hot dates recently?"

Barry frowned, looking down into his glass. "Iris…hasn't returned my calls lately."

Hal's grin evaporated as he gave Barry a concerned look. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Listen, tell me more about this mission of yours. Must be pretty big if they're sending you instead of Simon and Jessica."

Hal made that face again, that almost-pout, as he stared past Barry. "Just recon. Could be something, could be nothing."

Barry rose an eyebrow. "Just recon?"

"Yeah. You got enough on your mind, I won't bore you with the details."

Barry realized what was happening. They were both deflecting. Barry was deflecting because he didn't want to talk about Iris since it was still pretty fresh, but what about Hal? Why was Hal deflecting? It was clear he was lying about whatever this so-called "mission" was, but why? It wasn't like him to lie to Barry. If anything, he was usually most honest with Barry. Something else was going on with him and Barry wished he knew what it was. He could help Hal if he needed it.

Even if he had to talk about Iris.

He picked up his glass, taking a healthy sip of his beer, wishing it really could get him drunk. He firmly set his glass on the table again, looking right at his best friend. "Hal, I find it really odd that you would be sent for a recon mission when there are two lanterns on this planet already."

Thank goodness everyone else in the bar seemed to be too wrapped up in themselves to pay attention to them.

Hal blinked at Barry, clearly caught off-guard, and shifted a bit in his chair. "Alright. Fine. I came for something else."

"For what?" Barry asked, softening his tone.

Hal hesitated. "Some...one else. But…let's just say that my timing sucks. As usual."

Barry frowned as he watched Hal down most of his beer. Was this about Carol? Hal had other girlfriends here and there, but things like this were almost always about Carol, so he couldn't imagine it was anything else. In any case, Barry didn't need to pry for every detail. It wasn't necessary.

"I know the feeling," he said with a sympathetic smile. He held up his glass. "Well, in any case, it's good to see you. It's been awhile."

Hal's expression warmed as he, too, held up his glass and clinked it against Barry's. "You too, Bar. Glad I could catch you."

Barry set his glass down, giving Hal a slight grin. "I gotta ask...did you really hear about Captain Cold on the news?"

Barry was expecting Hal to deflect again, but he didn't. Instead, the lantern laughed. Where a few seconds ago his expression had been hardened and saddened, it was now light. There was still some of the heaviness there, but at least a bit of it had vanished for the moment. There was something that was actually pretty nice about hearing Hal Jordan genuinely laugh. Not one of those cocky laughs during battle, but an actual laugh because he knew he could never lie to Barry Allen no matter how hard he tried.

"I asked my ring to give me a breaking news feed from some major cities. Well, except Gotham. Bats is on his own."

Was that really so hard to admit? It was so simple. "You do care," Barry teased.

Hal scoffed. "Don't push your luck."

"Says the biggest luck-pusher of all time."

Hal opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. His speechlessness caused Barry to burst out in laughter.

"Now there's something we don't see everyday," Barry said. He managed to stop laughing enough to reach for his beer again, taking a big sip.

Hal had finally stopped staring off into space, his eyes instead now fixed on the blond in front of him. Sometimes, he noted, Barry could look like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders but when he smiled just right, he looked a lot lighter. The trouble was he didn't smile that way often. Hal felt silly for staring, but it was such a rare sight to see Barry that way, even if it was just a couple of seconds, and even if the reason he was laughing was at his expense.

But this was why he was here, wasn't it?

"Ha, yeah...guess so," he said idly.

It was habitual for Barry to drown himself in his work. Hal might teasingly scold him for it from time to time, but it was just how Barry operated. He could hardly help himself, it just always felt like there was something to be done. If he wasn't analyzing materials from a crime scene he was chasing one of the rogues through the streets. If he wasn't doing that, he was on some crazy mission with the Justice League. When would he have time for anything else when he was constantly being pulled in several directions?

He knew Hal didn't have it easy, but the lantern's focus was often more narrow because of the nature of being a Green Lantern and Barry sometimes envied that just a little bit.

Only a little though, because he didn't know what he'd do with himself if he wasn't trying to figure out how he still managed to be late all the time even though he's the fastest man alive.

So even though he'd just gotten home from working his day job, it seemed only natural that he suit up and patrol Central City for the evening. Grind, grind, grind just as always.

Before he changed into his Flash uniform though, he heard a knock at the door and hid his Flash ring. He hadn't been expecting anyone and had no idea who it could be. Iris? No, that….wasn't likely at all.

When he opened the door, it was Hal. He was carrying a plastic bag.

Barry blinked. "Hal? What are you doing here?"

Hal's face was stern. "Are you working today?"

"No, I actually just got home, but I—"

Hal pressed his hand against Barry's chest, pushing him back inside. "Good. We're having a movie night."

Barry didn't fight off Hal pushing him, but made a face at him nonetheless. "Hal, I still have to do my other job."

"City's fine. I already looked around."

"Did you check—"

"I checked everything. Come on." Having successfully gotten them both inside the house, Hal shut the front door behind him.

Barry wanted to be mad, but it had been a while since he'd seen Hal. Hal was nice to have around, but why did he have to make everything so difficult? "You could have called."

"And let you find a way to worm out of movie night? No thanks. Okay, listen, I got four movies. I'll be nice and let you pick the first one, but we're definitely watching Super Space Adventures 4 after that. It's classic. You've seen that, right? I had one of those plastic laser sword things as a kid. Carried it in my bag and everything, until my mom got rid of it. I was so mad. Do you know how much those things would be worth now?"

Hal really seemed to be excited about this, and his rambling was oddly endearing. Maybe taking a night off wouldn't be so bad after all. Hal did say he looked around the city for trouble, right? He wouldn't lie about that. Plus, it was pretty rare these days for them to hang out, and often when they did, trouble seemed to show up, except for that time over a month ago when Hal dragged him to the bar. And that was only because Hal had showed up to help him get rid of trouble.

"Well, I have some bags of microwave popcorn….," Barry conceded.

Hal's face lit up. "Perfect! Get that going and I'll put the movie in. I changed my mind, we're watching Super Space Adventures 4 first, but I promise you can pick after that."

Barry shook his head, leaving for the kitchen to get the popcorn started as Hal took control of his TV. There were so many questions Barry had, but maybe they weren't worth answering. Hal was usually only on Earth these days for important lantern business and pretty much never had time off. Or maybe this was one of those rare times when he did? Or maybe Hal had come here for some important business and decided to hang out with Barry before leaving later? That actually sounded more likely and would also explain why Hal showed up out of nowhere.

Maybe Barry should let himself enjoy the evening off.

Within minutes, the pair were sitting on the couch, sharing a massive bowl of popcorn as the movie started. While Barry wasn't particularly passionate one way or another about these types of movies, Hal looked like he was having the time of his life.

About halfway through the movie, Barry found himself pulling his phone out from his pocket. Not for any particular reason, just to check on things. He was so used to be interrupted when he was trying to relax that he was almost shocked that either the station or the league hadn't called him yet. He opened a news app on his phone to see if anything was breaking when Hal suddenly snatched it from his hand.

"Hal! What are you doing?"

"What are you doing? I told you before, you work too much. Relax and watch the movie."

"I just wanted to check some headlines…"

"I have scanners placed around the city. If something happens, you'll know when I do," Hal said sternly. He paused, but when a thought occurred to him, he looked at Barry curiously. "What, are you expecting a call from Iris or something?"

Barry's expression fell considerably. He started to speak and stopped, looking away. It took him a second to figure out how he wanted to answer. "I, ah….no, I'm not. Let's just say I don't expect any calls from her anymore."

Hal's face fell as well, as though it pained him. "I'm...sorry to hear it."

Barry shook his head. "It's my own fault. I know I never told you what happened, but…."

Oh, no. They weren't doing that. Hal waved his hand dismissively. What good would it be for Barry to have him talk about it again? If he needed to get it off his chest it was one thing, but his tone suggested that right now he wasn't in that kind of mood and had felt guilty for leaving Hal in the dark. But Hal wasn't going to force Barry to talk about something that was still hurting him if he didn't want to.

"Don't worry about it. I get it. Things happen."

"Yeah." Barry paused, hesitating. "Have you talked to Carol lately?"

Hal shifted uncomfortably in his seat, redirecting his attention to the movie. "Tried. The conversation ended with her throwing me out of her house."

Barry looked over at him. "What did you do?"

"Something stupid," Hal said, proceeding to take a handful of popcorn.

Barry didn't say anything, which made Hal look over at him and give him an exasperated expression. "Bar, you're supposed to say that I didn't do anything stupid."

Barry's expression deadpanned. "I'm sorry to hear things didn't work out with Carol." Again. Hal and Carol seemed to have such chemistry but could never get it quite right for one reason or another. Sometimes it was themselves, sometimes it was outside forces. Barry couldn't quite tell which of that was the case this time, or maybe it was both. Hal was off-world a lot, especially since Earth wasn't in his sector anymore. As far as Barry knew, he didn't even have a sector anymore. Maybe that was part of it too. Then there was the fact that Hal was terrified of commitment...

But it wasn't his place to speculate. Hal hadn't speculated about Iris. It was only fair. Why was Barry even so curious?

Hal forced a shrug, keeping his attention on the movie. "It's for the best. I never know when I'm going to be on Earth, but I try to make the best of the time I'm here."

Huh, Barry thought.

"Everything okay with the corps?" Okay, so, Barry was more interested in talking to Hal than he was in watching the movie.

Hal nodded, not seeming to mind. "A few shake-ups, but good. You'll never guess who we ran into recently. Zod."

Barry's eyes widened. "What? Does Clark know?"

"Yeah, we talked. After I got my ass kicked by Zod, that is. He disappeared somewhere though, and we can't find him, but as far as I'm concerned that bastard can stay wherever he is."

"Jeez, Hal."

"All in a day's work. Don't worry about it. We're on it."

Maybe Barry should have been a little more welcoming when Hal first showed up. Hal was right, they didn't get to enjoy times like this very much but when they happened, it meant a lot to Barry. Truthfully, he was already in considerably better spirits than he was before Hal had showed up, and they weren't even doing anything particularly noteworthy. Just sharing mediocre microwave popcorn and watching a cheesy, thirty-year old action movie. The two of them knew better than most that either of them could disappear at any moment, and yet Barry still had trouble letting Hal talk him into simply hanging out.

But he was glad he'd given in. Not everyone enjoyed Hal's company, but his presence was oddly reassuring for Barry. Like a reminder that everything he was worried about was somehow going to work out.

"What do you wanna watch after this?" Hal asked.

Barry found himself smiling a little. "You know, Hal, I think I'll let you pick."

They played movies well into the night, sometimes watching and sometimes ignoring it in favor of each others' company. Barry found that his favorite parts were the parts where they were able to talk, and Hal just seemed to be enjoying himself all through the night. They talked about everything and anything, and it had been entirely too long since Barry was able to have conversations like that with someone. The last time he had, it was...also with Hal. Go figure.

Barry tried to stay awake, he really did, but eventually the night caught up with him and he found himself dozing off on the couch. The popcorn bowl had long since been emptied by them both, the last movie was playing, and he was tired and content. His plan had been to offer Hal his place to sleep for the rest of the night and morning, but he didn't quite make it that far.

At some point in the dead of night, he woke back up, still halfway sitting up. It wasn't dawn yet, so he couldn't have been asleep for that long. The last movie they'd put in was on the DVD menu screen, it being the only light in house.

He cursed himself for falling asleep and looked over to check on Hal on the other side of the couch but….Hal was gone.

A knot formed in his chest. Guilt? Disappoint? Something else? He got up and looked around the house to see if Hal had maybe gone into the kitchen or was taking a shower or something but….he was nowhere.

Frowning, Barry made his way back to the living room and shut off the TV. He grabbed his phone to check what time it was when he noticed that he had an unread message from an unknown number.

"Had to run. Catch you soon. -Hal"

While he couldn't help but feel a bit….negative about it, he supposed he should be thankful that Hal stopped by at all. And he was, but something about waking up to Hal being gone really made his heart sink a little bit.

Figuring he should get some more sleep while he still could, he shuffled off to his bedroom. Though, he couldn't help but feel like he might be lucky if he managed to get any sleep.

Sometimes, Barry would run for the sake of running. It was something he did more often when he was younger, but even now it was still a nice release sometimes. Running had long become a process to help him think or calm him down. Though sometimes, it was just nice to feel the world pass him by.

Nothing out of the ordinary had happened today. Work was fine, Justice League things were pretty quiet, no major crisis in Central City. Yet still, for whatever reason, he was feeling restless, so he decided to go on a cross-country run. Of course, a "cross-country run" for a speedster was quite a literal term.

Maybe his restlessness was just because he still missed Iris. But what could he do? He'd made mistakes and had tried to rebuild that bridge, but she simply wasn't having it. It had been about a few months now since he told Hal that it was officially over, which had been the first time he'd said it out loud. He'd hoped that it would have gotten easier to accept after that. Well, it was, but it also wasn't.

The hardest part was coming home alone at night. An empty house just didn't feel like a home. It just didn't feel right. Hal had gotten on his case about working too much, but at least when Barry was working (at either of his "jobs"), he was making himself useful. Being at home alone just made him feel pathetic.

It was too bad that Hal wasn't able to live on Earth anymore. Hal was one of the few people he could relax around that hadn't decided he was no longer worth their time.

Thinking too much about that made him feel more alone, so he pushed the thoughts out of his mind and just ran. He figured he'd head west and make a large loop back around to Central City. He disliked the desert, so best to get that over with first.

It didn't take long before he hit California. He figured he'd head north along the state's coastline on his loop, which, before too long, placed him right in Coast City.

Hm. Coming here was probably a bad idea. Well, it didn't matter either way. He'd be out of it quicker than anyone would know he was here.

A flash of green flooded his vision. He was forced to halt in his tracks as a green wall construct about three times his height appeared in his path on a secluded side street.

"There you are! Do you know how hard it is to find you when you're going that fast?"

Barry looked up to see Hal floating over him. "I didn't know you were back home."

The wall construct disappeared as Hal descended, meeting Barry on the street. "I am now. Don't see you too often in these parts, Bar."

Barry rubbed his shoulder idly. Hal finding him here in his hometown of all places probably looked a bit strange. "I, ah, was running…"

Hal just laughed, playfully punching Barry in the shoulder. "I know, dummy. But hey, since you're here, wanna grab a bite to eat? I know a place."

Barry gave a half-smile. "I'm actually pretty hungry."

"Dude, you're always hungry. Come on, follow me."

Hal had intended for burgers and milkshakes to be his treat, but sort of forgot that he hadn't been on Earth in about a month and as such, had no money on him. Whoops. Barry didn't mind paying though. It was actually pretty nice that Hal had turned up and offered to hang with him for a bit. For Barry, it was a much better way to spend his evening than just mindlessly running.

Currently, Hal had no apartment in Coast City. His situation was….weird. He would have liked to take Barry back to his place to just chill for a bit, but when he realized he couldn't because he didn't have one, he got an even better idea instead. The sun was setting, so it was the perfect time to watch it at a lookout point just outside of the city.

It was one of Hal's favorite spots, so the two of them sat on a bench together, eating burgers and drinking milkshakes. Barry's share of the burgers was significantly larger, but, well….speedster metabolism and all that.

"What brings you back this time around?" Barry asked between large bites.

Hal answered quickly. Too quickly? "Checking on the rookies."

"So you probably won't be here for long then," Barry said. It wasn't a question. At this point, it was an expectation. Hal never stayed on Earth long anymore. Okay, yeah, it bummed him out a bit, but Hal didn't need to know that.

The only reason why Hal's pout wasn't more obvious was because he could hide his expression behind his burgers. "All the more reason to make the most of my time. What's new with you, Bar? How's the league? Bats swallow his pride enough to say he misses me yet?"

Barry laughed. "Not quite. I wouldn't hold your breath. You can hardly get him to admit he misses his own kids."

Hal laughed with him. "Sounds about right." Heh...unable to admit you miss someone. Yeah, Hal wouldn't know a thing about that. Not at all. Part of him wondered what the use was anyway. As much as he almost hated having something in common with Bruce, he understood it. Relationships of all kinds, even with the people closest to you, could go awry at any moment. For Hal, it felt like they often did. His entire relationship with Carol was proof enough of that. Whenever he wanted to tell someone he missed them, it felt like it always had been after he'd screwed up, which always seemed like the worst time to say it. And what if they didn't miss you back? Well, that just sucked. Why make things weird by saying something so sentimental? Hal was terrible at that kind of stuff anyway, so why bother? Even if it was….

"Hal? You alright?"

Hal blinked, looking back at Barry. "Yeah, why?"

"You looked….like you were thinking pretty hard there for a minute."

Hal leaned back on the bench, sipping his milkshake. "I just miss this city, you know? You, Bats, Supes….you guys always return back home. My home is Mogo right now."

Barry set his burgers and milkshake aside, looking over at Hal with a concerned glance. His voice was soft. "Hal...I know you're not based in this sector anymore, but no matter where you are….no matter where you're working….your home is right here."

Hal looked back at him, but he found that he could hardly take the look in Barry's eyes and the softness of his tone and quickly directed his gaze back to the city. If he didn't know any better, he would almost say that it even scared him a little. But that was ridiculous. Hal Jordan knew no fear.

By "right here," Barry undoubtedly meant Coast City, or even Earth, but Hal couldn't help but take those words in another way.

He'd never been able to call someone, a person, home before. In his mind, now wasn't that time either. It was just...too complicated.

Hal didn't really have a home. Literal or figurative.

"Yeah," he said quietly, forcing an answer. "Thanks, Bar."