CHAPTER THIRTEEN: CHANGE

"What exactly are you doing here, Hal?"

Dressed in his Flash suit, Barry crossed his arms. He was busy and patrolling the city when Hal had interrupted him, flying out of nowhere dressed in his Green Lantern uniform, with a grin on his face. Barry liked the guy, but there were times when he wanted to smack him in the face and one of the times was now.

"Man, I come back after two months of being away and that's what you say to me?" Hal almost pouted.

"You interrupted me while I was patrolling," Barry stated bluntly, leaning against the wall of the alley. Both of them were standing across from each other, temporarily hidden from the eyes of the world. The sun was shining brightly over their heads. After all, it was the middle of the day.

"Well, sorry about that." Hal didn't look sorry at all. Still smiling, he asked, "How've things been here? No alien invasion or anything?"

"Nope, nothing much has happened," Barry replied. After a short pause, he added, "Did you talk to Alex before you came here?"

At the mention of Alex's name, Hal's eyes brightened for a second for a second before his expression returned to normal. "No. Why? Did something happen?"

Barry scratched the side of his head, suddenly looking sheepish. "Well, I don't know if she wants me to tell you. But I personally think you should know before you go see her. Otherwise, she might blow up at you and that's no joke. She's been real tense."

"What happened?" Hal asked, a slight frown appearing on his face. Since the invasion, he had developed a strange, protective instinct when it came to Alex. It was weird, but at the same time, he didn't want to see her hurt.

"Well, it starts from..." And so Barry told Hal the whole story as Alex had told him. From her parents leaving her to her accident and the most recent news; that she had a brother for sixteen years that she only recently learnt about. As Barry went on, the frown on Hal's face deepened.

"Geez, I don't even know what to say to that."

"I didn't either when she told me way back when," Barry said. "But I think when you see her, you'll know exactly what to say to her."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hal asked, seeing the strangely amused look on his fast friend's face.

Barry was the one smirking now. "You know exactly what I'm talking about Hal. This thing the two of you have going on..."

"There's nothing between us!" Hal said, a little too quickly. "Nothing at all."

"You said that way too quickly. You like her, don't you?"

"What's this gotta do with you? Not that I like her or anything like that."

"Alex is like a sister to me. And the thing is, she's had her heart broken many times. I don't want to see her go through that again, especially with you," Barry stated, jabbing his thumb towards Hal.

"Look I don't know what kind of a person you think I am," Hal started to say. "But I'd never do anything to hurt her. She's different."

Barry tilted his head slightly, thinking. "You should go and see her today. And by today, I mean today."

"Don't you worry about that," Hal replied. "I was going to see her after this. I know it's her day off."

"Good then. You should go now and I should be getting back to patrol," Barry said, getting ready to run. Hal just nodded towards his friend.

"And Hal?" Barry asked, looking straight into the Green Lantern's eyes with an ominous stare. "Don't even think about breaking Alex's heart because if you do, I'll find you and I'll kill you."

Hal felt a shiver run down his spine. The speedster could be scary when he wanted to be. "I'll never do that."

"Good," Barry nodded. He turned away, staring straight out the alley. "See you around, Hal." With no warning, he zoomed out of the alleyway, leaving Hal staring after him as his hair suddenly fell into his eyes. The Green Lantern rolled his eyes. 'Drama queen.'

Okay, so maybe watching Bambi and Lion King back to back was a bad idea. Both of the movies had always made Alex emotional and today was no different. She had been in a mood to clean the house, when she had found her uncle's old DVD player and a bunch of DVDs lying in a box in his cupboard. And of course, she loved being distracted so she had immediately grabbed the two titles at the top, taken the DVD player and then hooked into the TV in the living room.

But yeah...Alex would one hundred per cent recommend watching Bambi and Lion King back to back if someone wanted a good cry. She sniffled a little, wiping her eyes with a silly smile. "Can't believe I still cry during Bambi."

With a shake of her head, Alex got up from the couch. She turned off the TV and kept the remote on the center table in the room. She took a small glance at the pictures kept on the mantle above the flatscreen before she left the room, humming the lyrics of 'Circle of Life' under her breath. She entered the small hallway, making her way towards the stairs.

As Alex started making her way upwards, the doorbell rang. By the time, she got to the door, it had been rung two more times. "Who the hell- ?"

She reached for the doorknob, twisting it around to open the door, and then let out a shriek when she found herself face to face with Hal Jordan, who she hadn't seen in two months.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Hal grabbed her shoulders, steadying her. "It's just me. Please don't freak out."

"Fucking hell, Hal! I wasn't expecting you to be here," Alex said, stepping a little backwards. "At least give me a little warning the next time."

"I just thought I'd surprise you," Hal smiled sheepishly. "Since I came back."

Then it sunk in.

Hal was here. He was actually here. He was back. Alex didn't know what came over her, but she threw her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug while unintentionally using her super-strength. Hal stiffened but a moment later, he also wrapped his arms around her.

Alex never would have thought she'd say this, but this hug felt incredibly soothing, as though Hal's presence was washing away her worries. The hug lasted a second too long, but as she pulled away, she wished that it was longer.

"Welcome back," Alex said, smiling brightly. Yeah, she felt happier now. "Come in, come in."

She stepped aside, letting Hal enter as she closed the door behind them. She watched as he stared around, glancing at everything in sight. "Wait, you live here alone? Man, this is bigger than my apartment."

"It's not my house," Alex replied, shrugging her shoulders. "It belonged to my grandfather originally who left it to my uncle, who then left it to me."

"So it's technically yours, then."

"Yeah, but I still like to think of it like my uncles. It's just a thing I do."

Hal looked like he wanted to say something dumb, but didn't say it, stopping himself as he remembered what Barry had said to him. Alex was a little wound up and anything said wrong could set her off. But as he studied the expression on her face; to him, she looked nothing like that. She looked happy and normal, and not too emotional.

"Hey, when did you come back?" Alex asked as she walked somewhere. Probably the living room, if he was guessing it correctly.

"Yesterday evening and then I just crashed for the night," Hal explained, keeping his hands in the pocket of his leather jacket. "Went to see Barry this morning then went home and then I came to see you."

"You went to see Barry first?" Alex paused in her path, meeting his eyes with a freakishly calm stare. She narrowed her eyes, looking weirdly suspicious at him. After a short moment of silence, she added, "He told you, didn't he?"

"What?" Hal stated in surprise. 'How did she even know-?' "How did you even know that?"

"So he did," She let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I had the slightest feeling Barry would do something like this. Didn't know how. Didn't know when, but I knew he would do it. What exactly did Red tell you?"

"He told me about your parents and your brother that you didn't know about," He said, frowning. "I'm sorry about it. You shouldn't have had to go through that. You didn't deserve it."

"Does anyone?" Alex asked, her eyes holding a strange amount of sadness that very nearly broke Hal's heart.

"No," He said, "No one does."

Alex smiled sadly as she picked up her walk again. "Don't pity me or feel sorry for me. I don't need that from you or anyone. I hate that. Now, come on, let's just sit down and you can tell me all about this mission of yours."

Hal immediately knew she was trying to change the subject. He wasn't going to say anything now, but maybe he would ask her later. No, he would definitely ask her later. Not that he was trying to make her sad or anything like that.

"So, where did you go?" Alex asked. "And did the mission go well?"

"Well, that depends on how you define well. It was strange though. I met another type of Lantern. A blue one."

"There's a Blue Lantern too? How do they work?"

"It's kind of complicated but..."

Time passed by way too quickly and when Alex checked her watch next, it was around seven thirty in the evening. The sun had already set and the sky had turned completely black with a few grey clouds scattered about. But Hal still hadn't left; not that Alex wanted him to leave. They had spent time talking about random stuff, flirting with each other half the time.

And now Alex was giving him a tour of the house, which was almost done. The only part that was left was the upper floor, where her room and her uncle's old room were located. She felt incredibly awkward taking him there, but then shook it off. There was no need for any kind of awkwardness between them. They were fine.

"So," Hal asked, as they walked back into the hallway. "Where are we going next?"

"Upstairs," Alex said. She stepped ahead of him, climbing the stairs slowly, well aware that Hal was staring right at the back of her head. Once on the upper floor, she guided him past the cream colored door of her uncle's room and stopped right in front of her own room.

"My room," She said, pointing towards the door with her thumb. "It's a little bit messy, but I hope you don't mind."

"Nope, never," Hal replied, too quickly. A sheepish smile covered his face as Alex looked at him with a questioning look. She placed her hand on the doorknob, twisting around and pushing it so that the door would open.

The moment Alex stepped inside, she felt a certain degree of comfort. Her room was her safe place; it was the one place in the world where she could be whoever she wanted to be. To her younger self, inviting Hal would have been an intrusion upon her privacy but at this point she didn't care. Hal was...well, he was something.

Behind her, Hal whistled appreciatively. "Nice room you got here."

"Well, it's technically my home base so," Alex replied with a shrug, stepping further inside. A few papers were scattered on her desk and her cupboard was half-open, but otherwise the room was impeccably clean. Her bookshelves were surprisingly in order, but then she remembered she had cleaned them up two days ago. (And so, she facepalmed herself)

"But I bet it's nothing like Oa."

"No, it's way better than that place," Hal said with utmost honesty. "It looks a little too movie-like, not that that's a bad thing."

"Huh, thanks," Alex replied, watching as he wandered over to the shelves, skimming over the titles that were present. Some of them were books related to her course, but others were novels, stories and gifts from people who thought she liked books. And she did, but these days, things were so busy for her she hadn't even touched half of the books on either of the two shelves.

Then Hal's eyes wandered over to her desk, more specifically, the part of the wall above her desk that was covered in a polaroid collage of herself and her uncle. There was also a picture of Alex's eleven year old self, with two crooked front teeth grinning widely at the camera.

"Oh my god, is that actually you?" Hal stated in surprise, a teasing smile on his face. "That chubby cheeked, blonde girl with pigtails is you?"

"Puberty hit me hard," Alex replied with a straight face, even though internally she was slightly freaking out.

"It sure did," Hal said as he picked up the frame, staring at the picture and then Alex and then the picture again. "You look nothing like you do now. What's wrong with your teeth?"

"There's nothing wrong with my teeth!" Alex said defensively. "A bunch of kids were playing basketball, if I remember correctly, and somebody smacked one straight into my face, which dislocated my jaw and almost took out my teeth. And that really fucking hurt."

"Ouch," He said, offering her a sympathetic look. Not that he had ever dislocated his jaw, but having things smacked into your face was never fun. Especially when that was being thrown by some alien you had somehow managed to piss off. (Kilowog still blamed him for that incident.) "But, I can't deny the fact that you look adorable here."

Alex felt her cheeks grow warm. "T-thanks."

That was where her sentence ended. That was where it should have ended. But the silly part of her brain spoke out again, out loud in fact. "And now?"

Hal immediately turned around, the look on his face slightly shocked. "What?"

"And now?" Alex repeated her words again without thinking. She tended to do a lot of things without thinking around Hal. "How do I look now?"

"I, uh..." Hal started to say, but stopped himself. His expression was completely unreadable. He slowly turned away from her, keeping the photo frame back in its original position. When he looked back at Alex, the smallest of smiles were present on his face.

"You look incredibly gorgeous now."

Stunned, Alex couldn't speak. Whatever snarky reply she had thought of disappeared from her mind. "I...um...wh...me...gorgeous? Psht, don't joke around, Hal."

"You think I was joking?" Hal said, striding forward so that he was right in front of her. And by that, she meant right in front of her. Barely a couple of centimetres away. "I wasn't joking, Alex. Trust me."

"I trust you," She replied, suddenly breathless.

"Trust me enough?" He asked, stepping even closer and leaning down a little. Now, there was almost no distance between them, their face mere millimetres apart.

Alex's reply dried in her throat as Hal raised his hands to her cheeks, caressing her lips with his thumb. She wasn't sure what he was thinking at this point, but there definitely was a mutual connection between them. His stare was intense and the look in his eyes was unfamiliar, but she couldn't look away. She could feel her heartbeat just rising and rising. Alex hadn't yet realised how close his lips were, even as he gently brushed them along her bottom lip.

'Do something! Do something! Do something!' Every part of her mind was screaming at her, but unfortunately for her brain, right now, her heart was in control.

Alex almost said something stupidly dumb when she felt Hal's lips press firmly against hers. She almost melted into her shoes at the incredible sensation. It took effort for her to resist, but even as she did, Hal gripped the back of her head with his free hand, bringing them even closer. Subconsciously, she pressed herself closer to him, wanting more and more of whatever this was.

Catching his breath for a second, Hal pulled away, forehead resting against hers. Part of Alex wondered if he had planned this for the day of his return. But then all thoughts were wiped from her mind as he kissed her again. Her arms fell to her sides, completely limp as she slowly leaned towards Hal.

She didn't know what to make of any of this. Whatever they were. Whatever they would be now.

He strayed from her mouth, trailing kisses till he was kissing the sensitive skin of her skin. Alex unintentionally gripped his back, clenching the back of his leather jacket with a tight grip. It felt so good. Why did it feel so good?

"H-Hal," She tried to say, but he cut her off with another kiss. "Wa-wait."

"What is it?" He murmured against her lips, slightly breathless. "Do you want to - "

"No," Alex immediately shook her head slightly. "B-bed. Move to -

Wordlessly, Hal kissed her again as he slowly guided her towards the bed. And as she stumbled onto the bed, she knew things were gonna be different now. Everything would change and you know that, she didn't mind at all.

Change was good.

Especially this kind of change.

^^ me rn 😂😂

Writing that almost-but-not-quite smut was incredibly awkward and I had to keep on looking over my shoulder to make sure nobody from my family saw what I was writing lmao. I don't really have anything much to say here, except that I hope I didn't screw up Barry's characterization in the beginning part of the chapter.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!