Warning: AU!Canon divergence
How did he get there? Piper couldn't help but wonder how he managed to survive the explosion of that goddamn planet. He was pretty sure the explosion should have killed everyone on that place. But even so, he found himself waking up in a dirty alley on Gotham City.
"Looks like we did it, Tricks-" He cut himself off after remembering what happened back on the train.
"Right" He said, staring at his now naked wrist, the hand cuffs that once bounded them together now gone. The memories of the train and the aftermath came flooding back his mind. The shots. James, now lifeless body, covered in blood after blocking both bullets, one of them aimed to him. Him slowly losing his sanity. And for what? Because a stupid weirdo who manipulated everything since the beginning so he went crazy and could manipulate him to use the 'Anti-life equation' and whatever was that supposed to be.
"You fucking homophobic. We were supposed to come out of all of this together" Piper said to himself, lowering his head and staring at the ground, the rats in the alley as his only companions.
"Okay. That totally didn't sound like you were hitting on me, right Pipes?" Another voice in the alley said. Piper raised his head after hearing it. He clearly knew who that belonged to. But it couldn't be him, it wasn't possible.
"James?" Piper asked doubtful.
"The one and only" The other voice replied.
Piper stood up as soon as he could to face whoever that voice belonged to. But he couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing.
Trickster was standing in front of him. Alive.
"James…" Piper whispered, still not believing what his was seeing.
"Yeah, I think that's me"
"So, it looks like I actually died on that explosion, because you're dead. You were killed right in front of me!" The ex-rogue yelled, still not grasping what was happening.
The man in the stripped costume just shrugged. "I know Gotham is pretty damn close to it, but I swear we are not in Hell. At least, not yet" He joked, trying to ease his companion.
There was a moment of silence, until the green hooded man spoke again.
"This is a dream, right?" Piper asked, still not believing what was happening.
"If it were so, I would ask you right now why I am in one of your homoerotic fantasies and why you have a kink for places like this" James joked again, trying to make the conversation less awkward, a forced laugh coming out of him.
The next thing the no longer dead man felt was his ex-rogue companion giving him a tight hug, as if he would disappear if he let him go. The Trickster, instead of getting away from him, hugged Piper back just as tight as his companion was doing it.
Both men stayed like that, in the darkness of that alley in each other's arms without saying a word for what seemed like an eternity.
"How?" Piper asked breaking the silence, still holding his companion.
"I don't know" The Trickster replied, knowing exactly what he meant with that question "The last thing I remember are Deadshot's bullets hitting me, everything else in blank. I just woke up in this alley and heard your voice, and well, this happened. God, I can't believe I actually died".
"Please, don't even mention it" Piper said "If watching you die wasn't hard enough, dragging your dead body, being delirious and hearing you speaking to me as the last thing for me to cling to life sure was".
James was about to make a joke about all this, but preferred to stay quiet. This wasn't the time for jokes nor was a matter to laugh about. Maybe dying wasn't a big deal for him, he died almost instantly after all, but it seems like Hartley was really affect for it. They stayed there, enjoying their meeting, neither of them wanting to let the other go.
"What? Aren't you going to say something about how you're 'going to catch the gays' because I'm hugging you or something?" Piper asked half joking.
"Usually, I would. But not even me I'm that bad to ruin something like this" The ex-circus acrobat replied, finally releasing his companion from their hug "Let's go, I don't feel like meeting Poison Ivy, ever again in my life if possible, or any of those goddamn psychopaths who live in Gotham".
Piper couldn't help but chuckle for his friend's comment and agree with him. Both men walked out of the alley, leaving the city behind.
Even after all that happened, they were glad to see that things between them and Wally were in better terms and he apologized for not trusting them before. He even offered them to live in his house until everything was back to normal and their names cleared of any implication in Bart's murder. And that they should not leave the house until then.
Both ex-rogues resigned themselves and accepted the speedster's offer, there was no point in decline it after all. Neither of them felt like running away was a good idea after what happened the last time they did it nor they had anywhere else to go.
Being able to live and sleep without the Suicide Squad or any other lunatic chasing after them day and night was something they really missed. Living with the Wests was actually pretty good, except when Wally or Linda started bossing them around and making them clean the house, but it wasn't that bad, they were living there for free after all.
It actually felt really cozy living like that. Almost as if…
"For the last time Wally, I'm not gay!"
"Are you absolutely sure about that James? I mean, I'm not homophobic or something like that, I've been friends with Piper for a long time, and I wouldn't be against it if you two were dating or-"
"No Wally, Piper is one who loves 'blowing the flute', not me!"
Yes, this was definitely not the image James wanted people to have of him.
"Ok James, now that was really offensive" Wally replied to his friend's joke "There's no need to get so defensive"
"Well, true, but-".
"And for what Pipers has told me, you started telling a lot of those joke after both of you joined back to the Rogues. Why?" The speedster interrogated.
"It's none of your business West" The ex-rogue replied.
Wally let out a frustration sigh. "Whatever Jesse. But we're not over with our conversation yet, and we're going to continue with it after my meeting with the League" And just as his name implied, he stormed out of the house as flash and slammed the door behind him.
James let out a sigh of relief after Wally's departure. He wasn't feeling like talking about that to someone ever again.
"Why Piper had to come out as gay? Why he had to make things a lot harder? Why all this shit happened to us?' He thought.
James Jesse was supposed to be straight. His full interest into women none into men.
And then Pipers came into play and makes him wonder if that statement was ever true. And what's worse, he started to have feeling for his teammate what were stronger than just friendship.
Denial seemed like the best option to deal with this. Especially since they were handcuffed together and forced to stay like that.
"Damn, I need some rest. I don't feel like waiting here for 'the inquisitor' to come back" The ex-rogue said to himself and headed toward the guest room their hosts were lending to him and Piper.
James found Piper already sleeping on the bed they were sharing. He wasn't in the mood to sleep with him this night and would rather sleep on the sofa to prevent more awkward conversations about his sexuality. He was about to get out of the room, when he heard something that caught his attention.
"Trickster" He heard Piper talking in his sleep saying his old rogue name. That got his attention and turned back to face him.
"Why? Come on, wake up! Not now! Please James!" Piper kept saying in his sleep. It seemed like he was having a dream, or rather nightmare, about what happened on the train.
The ex-Trickster was about shake his friend to wake him up from his nightmare.
"I love you James" Said man stop himself from waking up his partner after he heard those words. "Please, don't leave me".
James was frozen. He couldn't believe what he just heard. He thought this must be some cruel and sick joke of the destiny. Now this would make things with Wally far worse. He was trying to convince himself that Piper liking him like that was a bad thing, but he couldn't help but feeling oddly warm inside for those words.
"¡NO!" Piper screamed in horror as he was waking up from his nightmare, catching James off guard, making him fall from the bed.
The redhead was panting for the nightmare he just had. He tried to calm himself down and started looking around the bedroom, when his eyes found his friend lying on the floor.
"God Piper, you almost scared me to death… again!" James joked. But looking at his friend, he realized Piper didn't find the joke funny at all. "Sorry, I guess it's not time for jokes".
"It's okay James. It's just this nightmare I've been having lately, that is all" Piper replied, trying make the matter seem less than it was.
"What is it about anyway?" The ex-Trickster asked "Because we've been living with Wally and Linda for two weeks I don't know anything about them".
"It's nothing"
"Of course it's something" James stated "If it were nothing, you wouldn't keep having them".
"James, please".
"Piper, just tell me".
"It's nothing, I swear"
"Pipes, I know you're lying just tell me"
"They're about that okay!" Piper yelled "I keep having this dream, after Deadshot shot you, playing those moments and the aftermath over and over again, trying to wake you up, hoping you to do it and tell me it was just a joke and nothing happened".
It was easy to tell that Piper was about to have a nervous breakdown anytime soon. James still didn't know the whole story of what happened to Piper after he kicked the bucket, and he would rather keep it like that. But seeing how his friend was right now, everyone could tell that it wasn't something nice.
James didn't know what else to do, so he hugged Piper the same way he hugged him back in that alley back in Gotham when they met again. Piper was surprised by his friend's display of affection, but after some moments he hugged him back.
"Hartley, please, just forget about everything that happened back then. That's in past now and it must stay there. I still don't know how, but I'm back and I'm not going anywhere. I promise" James softly said, trying to ease his friend.
James finally decided he was sick of all the 'straight man' façade and started kissing his friend. Piper was caught off guard by that, but soon started to relax and kiss him back. James wasn't sure if was actually doing it right, since it was the first time he kissed a guy, but watching Piper's reaction, he could tell he was bad at all.
After a while, both men broke the kissed and looked at each other.
"Wasn't you the one who swore himself totally straight?" Piper asked.
"And do you have any idea of how hard was to keep everyone, even myself, believing that?" James asked.
"So it's true, you 'caught the gays' after all" Pipper said, trying not to laugh at his own joke.
"Ha ha, very funny" James replied, try to look offended.
"I'm sorry, couldn't help myself. After all your jokes about gays and all" Piper said now feeling a lot better.
James smiled at his friend and hugged him again and made both of them lie down in the bed.
"So, do you like me?" Piper asked
"I always had" James replied "I just was trying to convice myself I didn't"
"So, the gay thoughts caught you or something?"
"Piper, I'm the one who tell jokes. They're only funny when I tell them"
"They are not. But as you wish, Sir Not-so-Straight"
James didn't say anything else, he deserved it after all. Instead, he stayed there, cuddling with Piper until both fell asleep.
James still wasn't sure how he came back to life, and probably he would never know. But he was sure he wasn't going to waste this second chance.