Peace Offering (Hal)

[Hal Jordan]

Gotham generally was the crazy hotspot, not that deranged psychos couldn't pop up in any city in any state, but somehow Gotham seemed to have the bigger monopoly on them; it really made you respect people like Dinah and Dick a bit more for sticking around in a place like Gotham. Hal loved his hometown just as much as those guys but Coast City was always so lively and vibrant, not without its share of criminals mind you, but the place was particularly a festival of goodwill for the large majority; it just begged to be loved. He supposed it took so real work loving Gotham through the years. Hal was already done with his dinner but Sin apparently having too good a time to finish off the last slice of hers too quickly.

"Cheap shot." Hal smirked slightly at Dinah's jab at his trusty green fists of fury. He was no fighting master, he could maybe hold his own for a bit but if anyone in Dinah's class of fighter decided to get serious with him Hal wasn't even going to kid himself into thinking he stood a chance. He figured a dojo would be a great fit for Dinah but maybe her flower shop was more than just a fit and more than a job, it could definitely be much more serene and worry free than having to persistently teach others the functionality of martial arts. Still Hal knew there was a certain level of joy the woman could get from her own dojo; though truthfully the same could be said about a flower shop. Hal laughed at his own mental wrestle over the idea and was glad that it wasn't his duty to come up with an answer. "Do whatever you want." Either way it'd work out for her.

All in all Dinah seemed to be getting along better than ever and Hal honestly was happy to see that. After everything that was going on with her and Ollie Hal had to admit that he was unsure of how his interaction with Dinah would be tonight given how close he was to the woman's estranged husband, but that hardly seemed to be a factor that was affecting her. She was back in her hometown, she had Sin again, and now she was looking to get another business off the ground; things weren't all gumdrops and rainbows for Dinah but in this current moment, eating pizza and laughing with a friend, she was definitely in a much better than she had been in the last few months.

[Black Canary]

Damn that Hal. He just showed up with pizza and made her reconsider what she wanted to do with the less chaotic aspect of her life just when she thought she had it figured out. Or maybe... maybe he had inspired something even better. "I've got it," Dinah decided, snapping her fingers and holding up her index finger as though she had come up with something brilliant (which she had). "I'll pull a Mr. Miyagi and take on martial arts students so they can do my work at the flower shop. It's perfect." Sin paused her war against the pepperoni in order to give Dinah an intrigued look. "Who is Mr. Miyagi?" she asked, and in that moment Dinah fully realized just how sheltered the poor girl had been throughout her childhood. "Only the best martial arts teacher who's ever lived," she explained. "In a movie, at least. We'll watch it sometime."

Sin seemed satisfied with this answer, though she quietly repeated the name under her breath as Dinah had often seen her do when she wanted to remember something important. The blonde finished off her slice of pizza and wiped off the grease onto her napkin before addressing Hal again. "What about you?" Dinah asked. "What've you been up to besides the usual drunken debauchery?" Wait, did that count as referencing the voicemails? If it was then she was doing a terrible job of keeping up her end of the bargain, though Hal probably hadn't expected any less. The two of them had been friends for so long that giving him a hard time was second nature by now. She tormented him about his reputation with women and he teased her about her inability to do anything remotely domestic, among with whatever else either of them could think of at any given moment. Both were guilty of plenty of things that could be turned against them by the other.

Still, behind the teasing, Dinah was genuinely curious to know how Hal was doing. He was one of her best friends and yet she had allowed so much time to pass between now and the last time she had seen him. It wasn't fair to him to be pushed away just because of his friendship with Ollie, though she was sure that he probably felt at least somewhat unsure of how to behave around either her or her soon-to-be-ex-husband. It wasn't like he hadn't been around for one of their splits before, though breaking up when everyone knew they would be back together within a few months was different from a divorce.

[Hal Jordan]

Hal's eyebrows went up as Dinah declared she had it all figured out, he was all ears. A small smirk pushed at one corner of Hal's mouth at the woman's followed words, it appeared that she did have it all figured out and at least had found away to make things work for her in both regards. "You do know how to cheat the system." Hal laughed, at least Dinah would have a form of release though that didn't involve roundhouse kicking criminals on a nightly basis. Hal's laugh was suddenly cut short though by Sin's question. Now in all fairness Sin was a young child, she had been kept a virtual prisoner for damn near all her short life, but still there was no excuse for the girl to not know who Mr. Miyagi was. "What?" It was the only word formed in response to Sin's question. "What?" Hal had to repeat himself once he'd heard Dinah's answer.

"I so blame you for this, Dinah. Not knowing who Mr. Miyagi is? That's a pretty big sin...uh, Sin." He shook his head but smirked. "I'll bring it over the next time I visit. Promise." He told the young girl with a smile before his eyes went to Dinah in a kinda asking for permission look. "Me?" Hal was somewhat shocked that topic had suddenly switched to him. It'd been a while since he'd had a conversation talking about his own life, thanks to the elephant in the room that they were currently ignoring. "Ha ha. You suck at keeping deals, by the way, but I've been well enough. Just work work work mostly. Social life for Hal Jordan is shot, tragic I know. But honestly? I kinda prefer it that way, I do miss spending time with you guys but life beyond the green mask and ring gets pretty tough to juggle. For now I'm thankful for moments like this and enjoy just living one life. Y'know, minus the occasional drunken debauchery." Hal smirked, able to tease himself as well, but his did mean everything he had said.

Being social and keeping up a life as Hal Jordan was pretty taxing stuff, especially when two of his closest friends were going through a divorce that was not the smoothest. For the time being forgetting about Hal Jordan the guy and only focusing on Hal Jordan the hero was easy and pretty comfortable.

[Black Canary]

Hal's outrage at Sin's lack of cultural awareness warranted two raised palms from Dinah. "Hey, hey, we've been busy with more important things," she protested. "Y'know, like Sin learning English?" "And Pokemon," Sin nodded eagerly, obviously pleased to finally have been able to drop her favorite subject into the conversation. Dinah had silently been betting herself how long it would take. If there was ever an opportunity for Sin to mention Pokemon, she would find it. "Yeah, though I didn't teach you that one," she pointed out to the young girl, then glanced morosely at Hal before muttering under her breath, "still can't figure that darn game out."

Sin, whose hearing was generally too good for anyone's well-being, smiled secretively. "You will never defeat Charizard," she boasted, then reached for her glass of orange juice with both hands. Dinah grinned and, in response to Hal's pleading look, gave a care-free shrug of one shoulder. Sin had been exposed to more than enough violence in her short life, but rather than attempt to shield her from the world, Dinah preferred to show her the better aspects of it. The Karate Kid was a good movie and it demonstrated that martial arts didn't have to be about pain and death. Besides, if Sin was going to learn about American culture, it was kind of a biggie.

The blonde leaned back in her chair as Hal responded to her inquiry, and she bit the inside of her cheek at the acknowledgement that her attempts at keeping their deal were failing miserably. At least she wasn't bringing up the most awkward part of the voicemails, which was less the fact that Hal had been drunk and more so that he had apparently been checking her out at one point or another. Then again, that wasn't so awkward; Dinah wasn't so ignorant as to think that she could dress up in a leather bodysuit and fishnets and not have people taking a little too long to look at her. "Yeah, well, you love me anyway, right?" she smirked. If her cooking wasn't enough to tarnish their friendship, her inability to not make fun of him wouldn't be, either. "That's good, though. The whole juggling thing can get a little insane, but it sounds like you're handling it pretty well." She reached for the jalapeno that came with the box of pizza and nibbled at the end of it. "It's been weird not having you at the round table. Too busy or do you just miss having Tall, Dark, and Grumpy to duke it out with?" "Who is 'Tall, Dark, and Grumpy'?" asked Sin. Dinah, who was chewing on another bite of jalapeno, set the pepper down so she could hold her hands on either side of her head, her index fingers extended in an imitation of Batman's infamous 'ears.' Sin immediately nodded in understanding.

[Hal Jordan]

Well Hal could not deny that learning english was important, and Sin was speaking it pretty well so obviously time had been well spent. "Kids still love Pokemon?" Hal asked with a marginal look of disbelief. He hadn't really put much thought into the craze but he certainly didn't think that its popularity would have been this long lasting. Some fads are hard to kill. For a moment Hal just sat there watching Sin, it was odd how being around the child kept a smile coming to the Lantern's face. Hal wasn't really the type to plan out relationships, evident by his long line of 'one nighters', so kids was never anywhere on Hal's mind, but Sin didn't make the idea of children sound/look too terrible.

Pizza was all gone and the drinks were mostly dry now, though Sin still had a pretty large glass of her orange juice. Closing the cardboard box that was now empty, once Dinah had taken the lone jalapeno that had remained, Hal used his ring to break the box down and crush it so that it'd easier fit into Dinah's trashcan. Delivery and clean up; he was a hell of a guest. "Eh." Hal responded jokingly to Dinah's question whether Hal loved her. "I'm sure it'd be a lot weirder if I were there." Hal glanced down at the tabletop. His departure from the league wasn't really the smoothest. Dinah hadn't been there when Hal called it quits but he thought at least the others would have told her, but maybe they saw no reason to.

"I just decided that the League and I have different opinions of how things need to work." He spoke again when he finally looked up to Dinah. This time it was much harder to keep Roy, Lian, and Ollie from coming up; his departure from the league was around the same time and almost directly connected. Hal cleared his throat a bit awkwardly and pushed forward with the convo. "Anyway, what's going on with that? He comes back from the dead hasn't taken the cowl back? And he's got a kid?" Hal was a little out of the loop with Dinah's personal life but he was completely clueless as to what was going on with Bruce.

[Black Canary]

Sin looked at Hal as though he had just said something mildly offensive. "I will love Pokemon for all time," she said gravely. "It is the game of a warrior." Dinah pursed her lips and lifted her brows, then glanced from the girl to Hal. "She played with Barda," she stage-whispered, knowing the explanation would be enough. Barda and Sin got along famously but Dinah was afraid to ever let the other woman babysit, since she was trying to integrate Sin into the real world and relating everything to being a warrior generally didn't help with that goal.

After finishing off the jalapeno, she winced slightly as she leaned back in her seat and tossed the stem into the trash several feet away. As she resettled in her chair, Dinah twisted her lips and nodded in understanding at Hal's response. She could appreciate having a different idea of how things should go than the rest of the League - hell, even when she had been in charge it never seemed to operate the way she wanted it to - but the dynamic of the team now was a lot different than it had been in the past. Without the Big Three, along with several other founding members, it almost didn't even feel like the JLA. Dinah had to silently admit that although she was relieved to not have to see Ollie every time she was with the rest of the team, it was strange to not have him there. "I know, I just thought..." she shrugged one shoulder and drew her knees up to her chest, her feet hanging halfway off the edge of her chair. "A lot of things have changed." For better or for worse had yet to be fully determined.

Perhaps she shouldn't have brought it up. Hal's was definitely a face she missed seeing at the table, but if he hadn't rejoined the JLA, then the reasons he had left presumably still applied. The change in subject was welcomed, and the mention of Bruce and his own personal drama brought the grin back to the blonde's face. "Oh god. You have to see him. This kid is exactly like Bruce," Dinah laughed, recalling her brief experience working with Damian Wayne. "I've never seen a more serious ten-year-old in my life. He does that glare - you know, the one where it looks like he's trying to rip your soul out - but on him, it's hilarious." Not that Dinah would ever say that to Damian's face. Fighting off Bruce Wayne's sword-wielding, slightly sociopathic son was not on her to-do list.

"I don't know why he hasn't taken the cowl back, though," Dinah continued on a slightly more serious note as she stretched her legs back out and rose from the table. "Dick's been doing a great job, and if I had just come back from the dead, I wouldn't be against taking a little break. But then again, with Bruce you can never really apply normal people logic." She stiffly reached out to gather everyone's plates and glasses. "Anyone want dessert? I have ice cream in the fridge and I swear I didn't make it." Sin's hands flew in the air and a bright grin took over her face. "Me!" she cried. "With syrup!" Evidently, not even severe trauma could dampen a little girl's desire to have ice cream and maple syrup.