Summary: Cisco has a very hard night as Vibe. Luckily Hartley's there to take care of him afterwards.
Hartmon Fest 2019 – Feb 22nd - hurt/comfort
Love and Protect
Cisco was utterly silent on the ride home. He kept his forehead pressed against the car window, watching as the street lights as they drove by. He could have just breached home but instead he was letting Hartley drive him.
Hartley hadn't quite figured out if that was a good sign yet.
They arrived at Cisco's apartment complex fairly quickly and Hartley parked over in the visitor's section. When the car turned off they both sat there for a long moment.
"Would you like me to stay the night?" Hartley asked, hesitantly. Afraid the answer would be no and he'd stay up all night fretting.
"Yes," Cisco says, but no more than that.
It's enough to release the tension in Hartley's chest. He gets out of the car and, when Cisco doesn't follow suit, he circles around to get the door for his boyfriend. Cisco slowly, mind clearly elsewhere, undoes his seat belt and lets Hartley help him out of the car.
Then Hartley slides their hands together and leads the way to the parking garage elevators. It only takes a moment before an elevator arrives and they step inside together. Hartley presses the number for Cisco's floor while Cisco leans against him, listless.
The elevator music is unbearably cheerful and Hartley wishes he had his gloves so he could destroy the speakers. Who even thought elevator music was a good idea these days?
But they make it to Cisco's floor without Hartley doing violence to the elevator's sound system and then Hartley is leading the way to Cisco's apartment. They have keys to each other's apartment - a new development - so Hartley is able to let them in without having to request Cisco's keys. A good thing too, because Hartley's fairly certain Cisco forgot his keys in his desk.
It's dark inside the apartment and Hartley has to feel around on the wall for the light switch. But once the room floods with light, he guide's Cisco over to the couch and sits him down. Hartley sits beside him, holding him, and they just stay like that for long minutes before Hartley finally asks, "what do you need?"
"I... I need to shower and then just... I just want to sleep."
Hartley presses a kiss against Cisco's temple. "Alright."
Cisco's still listless as they get up and head to the bathroom. Hartley turns on the shower and prepares to leave Cisco to it, but stops when he sees that Cisco's settled on the toilet - seat and lid both down - and is just sitting there, head in his hands. So Hartley kneels down in front of Cisco and takes the other man's shoes off for him. Then his socks. He tugs lightly at the bottom hem of Cisco's shirt and receives immediate cooperation in pulling it up over Cisco's head. It gets tossed aside and then Hartley is prodding Cisco into standing up so that his pants and underwear come off next.
Normally kneeling in front of a naked Cisco is a very sexy experience. But right now, Hartley just wants to cry. And he's pretty sure that the only reason Cisco isn't crying is that he's all cried out.
Hartley gets up, intending to head into the bedroom to grab pajamas and get things ready for sleeping, but Cisco catches his wrist and leans his forehead against Hartley's shoulder. "Please, would you..." Cisco gestures to the shower.
"You want me to shower with you?" Hartley asks.
"Yes."
"Okay. Go ahead and get in. I'll join you in a minute." Hartley urges Cisco into the shower, then strips himself down to follow him in.
From there, Hartley does most of the washing for both of them. He makes quick work where normally he would linger and has them back out and wrapped in fluffy towels in record time. Hartley uses towel drying Cisco's hair as an excuse to hold him close before leading Cisco into the bedroom.
Cisco's a little more active now, though, and he dresses himself in clean underwear and pajama pants before crawling into bed. Hartley follows suit with borrowed night clothes and spoons up against Cisco's back.
There'd been an explosion that night. A gas main blew. A whole neighborhood... destroyed just like that. Vibe and the Flash had immediately offered their help to emergency services, but... there'd been some dead kids and Cisco was taking it hard.
In the morning, with distance, Cisco would start trying to smile again. Would probably wake Hartley with a kiss and a thank you. But for now Cisco just needed to shut down and that was okay.
Hartley would take care of him.