Summary: Starting with their first date (and all the awkwardness therein), here are five dates where Hartley and Cisco went out together... and one where they stayed in.
Hartmon Fest 2019 – Mar 14th – going out
Notes: Since this one is finished, it gets posted early.
Five Times Hartley and Cisco Went Out On a Date (And One Time They Stayed In)
One
It's their first date and its at a nice restaurant. Cisco dressed up really nice just for Hartley, but he looks so uncomfortable. Hartley had been really excited about the venue, but after the third time he see's Cisco fidget with the collar of his shirt, Hartley is starting to think he made a mistake.
Not with asking out Cisco.
Not with wanting to see Cisco decked out in fancier than normal clothes, either, because Cisco looks stunning.
But it was too soon to go with a place like this. Cisco's not confident enough in how he looks yet and he's not confident enough in their relationship and... the place itself is just too fancy for Cisco's normal comfort zone.
In other words, Hartley's fucked up and needs to fix it fast.
"Cisco, how'd you like to go somewhere else?" Hartley asked quietly. Well, as quietly as he can but still be heard by Cisco considering the room's noise levels.
"I-I... no, this is fine, Hartley, really..." Cisco tugs at his collar again and, yeah, they need to go.
"You're not enjoying yourself here. I want us both to enjoy this date. So how about we tell our waiter to make our orders to go and then... there's a wine bar not far from here that's bring your own dinner. It's kind of a hole in the wall sort of place and pretty new, so it shouldn't be too busy..." Hartley can tell Cisco's hooked.
"Yeah, okay." Cisco looks more relaxed already. "If you're sure?"
"I'm sure," Hartley says, capturing Cisco's hand and pressing a kiss atop his knuckles. Then he flags down their waiter and gets their order to go.
Once the check is paid and they've got their food, they head out to the wine bar. Cisco leaves his jacket in the car and unbuttons the top of his shirt and loosens his tie and then realizes that Hartley is staring at him with a rather hungry eyes.
"Um, what?" Cisco squeaked, blushing.
"Just thinking you look more delicious than our food," Hartley told him, then led the way inside while Cisco blushed and stammered over the compliment.
They ordered a bottle of wine to go with their dinner and settled at a table in front of a fireplace to finally eat their food. The ambiance of the wine bar was definitely more Cisco's style. None of the tables and chairs matched, but the overall aesthetic was charming. The bartender - who was also the owner - was friendly and guessed at their wine tastes while helping them pick the bottle they were going to split. There were some pretty funny slogans on the wall behind the bar that made Cisco giggle when Hartley pointed them out. A few minutes after they've started eating, a guitarist shows up who plays acoustic covers of Eric Clapton's songs; both of them sing along to a few of the ones they know.
And when the night ended and Hartley dropped Cisco back off at his apartment, they shared a lingering kiss before saying good night.
Seemed he'd done a decent job salvaging the date after all.
Two
"Well, you've been complaining about being cooped up in the office all the time with the whole rush to finish the project this week, so I thought..." Cisco waved his hands towards the picnic basket full of food. "This wasn't a terrible idea, was it?" he asked, looking a little worried now.
"Nope," Hartley assured him, kissing Cisco on the cheek. "I've got a perfect blanket for us to use if you don't have one picked out already."
Cisco flushed and shrugged, "I was just going to grab a quilt, but... where's this perfect blanket?"
"At my place. Would you open a breach? Shouldn't take me but a minute to grab it."
In response, a breach was opened. Hartley darted through, then returned moments later with a bright yellow blanket that was all rolled up and had a carrying strap. "You'll like it once we get to the park. Which park are we going to?"
"It's a surprise," Cisco told him, grinning brightly. "Come on, to the car."
And to the car they went. But they passed several parks by and Hartley was starting to get confused when suddenly his face lit up. Cisco was turning the car into the Arboretum parking lot.
As soon as the car was parked and switched off, Hartley turned and kissed Cisco on the cheek. "I love this place." It was like a zoo for but for plants and flowers and Hartley loved how the place was in bloom nearly year round.
"They're doing the spring theme already, just finished setting it up this week," Cisco told him with a grin. "Alice and Wonderland. They're supposed to have dioramas from the book set up everywhere using the original art as well as new art based on the original artwork..."
Hartley kisses Cisco again because... this really is just perfect. "You're wonderful," Hartley tells Cisco. "Absolutely wonderful.
They grab the blanket and the picnic basket and head to the front entrance. Cisco insists on getting the tickets for both of them since it was his idea. And then they walk in, wandering around looking for the perfect place to picnic and detouring to check out the White Rabbit diorama. Hartley's not sure the word 'diorama' really cuts it, though. Because this thing is life size - larger than, actually - and people can walk inside to take in all the detail. Of course, there are flowers everywhere. It smells amazing and looks beautiful and Hartley keeps having to take pictures of everything. Especially Cisco.
Cisco looks gorgeous with his big grin on his face and flowers surrounding him and the sunshine coming down at just the right angle...
Hartley's pretty sure he has a new lock screen photo now.
Eventually they do move on and head over to a large grassy area where a few other groups are picnicking and Cisco sets down the basket at a place with a good view of a creek that winds through the area.
"This spot seems good. Hartley?" Cisco looked over in askance and Hartley kissed him on the cheek.
"It's perfect." Hartley unrolls the blanket and grins when Cisco laughs. The seemingly plain yellow blanket actually unrolled to depict Snoopy and Woodstock.
"That's so cute," Cisco enthuses, helping lay the blanket out and then moving the picnic basket to the center of the blanket.
They both settled down comfortably, and then Cisco popped open the basket. Inside are sandwich fixings along with a thermos of iced tea.
"I figured when we were done we could run this all back to the car and then spend a while wandering around and trying to find the rest of the dioramas," Cisco said.
"That sounds like an excellent plan," Hartley agreed, reaching over to hold Cisco's hand for a moment.
Three
They're back at the wine bar again. It's basically become their go to place for a low-key night out together. But this time it's not just Hartley and Cisco; they've brought Barry, Iris, Caitlin, and Ralph along too.
The group is seated on a couch, chair, and settee over by one of the faux fireplaces and methodically running through the flights of wine available for the evening's tasting event.
Hartley has reaffirmed his preference for sweet to medium dry wines and keeps passing off his dry reds to Cisco, who surprised Hartley by having a taste for those. Or the palate for it; whatever the wine-speak for preferring dry wines was. Cisco had been equally surprised that Hartley was not actually wine snob like most people assumed and he'd taken great pleasure in teaching Hartley what little he knew about wine terminology. And then they had fun comparing wine legs in the different glasses they'd tried during that second visit to the bar.
Though it turns out tonight that, out of all of them, Ralph is the biggest wine snob. He's got the nose for it, apparently, and can identify what the wine will taste like just from swirling and sniffing (inhaling, not sniffing, as Ralph keeps correcting them) the fumes (bouquet, guys, come on, get it right). He's also gone into detail about where you 'feel' the taste and they got him to gesture to the different places of his face a good three times before he realized they were trolling him a little. Hartley had to admit Ralph had a point about where the taste got 'felt' though. It was pretty weird once he was aware of it too.
When the flights are finished, they order two bottles of the drier wines and Hartley gets a glass of water. Even if he weren't driving, he'd be cutting himself off since too much alcohol messes with his hearing. But he likes the flushed hue Cisco's cheeks take on as his boyfriend gets a little tipsy. The way Cisco leans against him a little more, growing just that slightest bit more affectionate and cuddly.
"Think you've had enough?" Hartley murmurs against Cisco's ear when he drains his last glass and the bottles have run dry.
"Yeah, probably," Cisco agreed, snuggling closer into Hartley's arms.
Barry's getting another glass - trying out one of the more expensive dessert wines - but then Barry has his speedster metabolism going for him. Ralph and Iris seem done now too, as they've both asked for waters. Caitlin, however, has switched to Frost and she's trying out some fancy champagne that Hartley might try to steal a sip or two from just to see what it tastes like.
The owner's been serving them tonight and his double take when Caitlin became Frost was hilarious.
("Okay, a minute ago you were a brunette, right?"
"That's right."
"But now you're platinum blonde?"
"Yup."
"Okay, good. Just wanted to be sure the weed I did earlier isn't messing with me more than I thought."
Barry pretended that he'd heard nothing, since weed wasn't legal yet in their state.)
"Want some of my water?" Hartley offered.
Cisco nodded and sat up some as Hartley passed him the glass. He pecked Hartley on the cheek before accepting the water and then pretty much drained the glass. And then Cisco had to disappear to find the bathrooms.
"So how did you two find this place?" Barry asked.
"I heard about it from one of my coworkers," Hartley replied. "I, uh, sort of went too fancy on our first date and made Cisco pretty uncomfortable. But I remembered this place and salvaged things by having us get our food to go and coming here. Much more his style."
"Well, I'm glad you two are finally sharing this place," Iris declared, "because we're definitely coming here again."
"Tuesdays and Fridays he usually has live entertainment. It varies, but he's yet to pick a musician Cisco or I dislike," Hartley told them.
"Ooh, that sounds awesome. We should do this again on a music night," Ralph enthused, to which they all agreed.
"It's a little warm for my tastes," Frost interjected. "But Caitlin's pretty happy so I'm good."
Cisco came back and returned to his spot cuddling with Hartley, who brushed a kiss against his temple. It was a good night with good friends and they were both hoping to make it last just a little bit longer. (They were also hoping to get Ralph to do the 'you taste x in the wine here' thing again.)
Four
Hartley stumbles slightly as they walk out of the dark theater into the light of day. But Cisco catches him and they share a grin.
They'd just been to a quote and sing along for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - the classic Gene Wilder version, of course - at the Lounge Cinema near Hartley's apartment. It had been a lot of fun, competing to see who got the most quotes right and singing along with the words at the bottom of the screen, bouncy little ball jumping from syllable to syllable in time with the music. The whole theater had been kind of loud, but Hartley'd loved it anyway, even when he'd have trouble distinguishing the different sounds, because he could just look over and see the bright happy smile on Cisco's face.
"So, next month they're doing another one of these for The Three Amigos!" Hartley observed. "Want to get tickets for that once they're on sale?"
"Definitely. I love that movie," Cisco grinned and looped his arm with Hartley's. "My little buttercup has the sweetest..." he sang, giving Hartley an expectant look.
Hartley, of course, picked up the cue and filled in with, "smile," then verbalized the piano part, much to Cisco's delight. Then he switched to the sleepy cowboy song for a few lines, before adding, "the turtle is kind of my favorite part of that song."
"Mine too," Cisco agreed, laughing.
"I feel like we should be singing the Oompa-Loompa songs but now I kind of have My Little Buttercup stuck in my head."
"Want to just go ahead and watch The Three Amigos! tonight?" Cisco asked with a grin.
"Yes. Definitely, that sounds great."
Five
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Hart, I'm sure. I already made the reservation and got all dressed up. So let's go already," Cisco sighed, mock pouting. But he has this look on his face, like he knew exactly how good he looked in that suit and how hard a time Hartley had keeping his eyes off the way cut of the clothing accentuated Cisco's body.
Cisco was fucking edible in a suit.
They were headed back to that fancy restaurant they'd sort of had their first date at. This time Cisco's confident and composed, enjoying the step out of his usual comfort zone for the joy of making Hartley positively drool over him.
They're seated at a cozy table and order the fried calamari appetizer before perusing their menus for what they want for their main course. Then, when everything's ordered, they chat about science and play footsie under the table. Neither of them care who might be watching them because all that matters right now is each other. And not once, all night, does Hartley see Cisco mess with the collar of his shirt.
Plus One
Sticking the dvd into the PS4, Hartley says (not for the first time), "I can't believe you've never seen Stardust. It's... it's basically the spiritual successor to The Princess Bride. You love The Princess Bride."
"It just passed me by somehow, Hart. I'm watching it now, aren't I?"
The doorbell rang and Cisco answered it, trading cash and a tip for the pizza and bread sticks they'd ordered.
Hartley grabbed some plates and drinks and joined Cisco on the couch with the pizza. They started up the movie and Hartley smirked and giggled every time Cisco would exclaim over something.
("Wait, wait, is that Ian McKellen doing the opening narration?"
"Yup, that's him.")
("Wow, Dunstan is about as terrible at flirting as I used to be."
"Used to be?"
"Do you want to get laid tonight?"
"I love you, Cisquito.")
("Wait... Tristan is Daredevil."
"Uh-huh. Charlie Cox is just so pretty, I swear.")
("I realize she played Beth in Little Women, but she looks so different as a blonde."
"What I always find weird about that movie is that Laurie is the voice of Howl from Howl's Moving Castle."
"Wait, really?")
("Michelle Pfeiffer's comedic timing is just spot on. She makes such an excellent villain here. And Septimus... wow, whoever is playing him is just..."
"Gorgeous? Incredibly hot? Probably should have made me realize I had a hair kink long before we started dating?"
Cisco cracked up.)
("Oh my god."
"I know."
"Oh. My. God."
"I know. De Niro's character and his pirates just get better from here.")
("Love can be mistaken for loathing, huh?"
"Is this about to turn into meta commentary on our relationship?"
"No... no of course not. Though it totally could, couldn't it?"
Hartley swatted Cisco with a pillow.)
("The Slaughtered Prince... that probably shouldn't be as funny as it is, but all the princes sitting there, that's just..."
Hartley buried his face against Cisco's hair and just giggled.)
("Wait, did that one light go down while the others..."
"Went up? Yes. Yes it did.")
"So," Hartley asked as the movie ended, "what do you think? Worthy spiritual successor to The Princess Bride?"
"Oh, yeah, definitely." Cisco grinned, wrapped his arms around Hartley's shoulders, and kissed his boyfriend enthusiastically. "Great choice for movie night."
Notes: Stardust is a great movie and I cannot recommend it enough. That being said, your mileage may vary when it comes to De Niro's character. He is a textually queer character - maybe genderfluid, maybe trans, maybe a gay man who likes to dress in drag sometimes. While he is played for laughs to some degree, his pirate crew is fiercely loyal to him regardless of whatever he's hiding in his closet and he's otherwise depicted as being well respected for his reputation as a pirate and his genuinely tough negotiating skills (dude does not budge from what he believes is a fair price when it comes to taking care of his crew). Personally, I adore his character and the pirate crew that loves and supports him when he's outed to them, but I also understand why others would be displeased.