Summary: Hartley is planning to move back to Central City and calls up Cisco for lunch while he's in town apartment hunting. Things sort of spiral naturally out from there.
Hartmon Fest 2019 – Feb 27th – lunch
Notes: I've decided to split this one into chapters because there was a lot I wanted to say. So the rest of the chapters will come later, probably once Hartmon Fest is done. I'll probably complete it over on Ao3 first and then post the remain chapters here, but since I've been posting all my Hartmon Fest stories here too, I didn't want to skip this one despite it being incomplete
Five Times Hartley and Cisco Had Lunch Together (And One Time They Had Dinner)
Chapter 1: Lunch One
Hartley groaned in relief as he dropped his suitcase on the floor and fell backwards onto the bed. It felt nice to be back in Central City. Weird to be in his childhood bedroom, but his parents had insisted he stay with them for the weekend while he looked for a new apartment. He didn't officially move back for another couple of weeks, so he needed to get a place lined up quickly.
All Saturday was basically booked solid for him, going from one apartment complex to the next, taking a tour, talking with the building managers, and comparing rent. He was going to spend Sunday deciding which one worked best for him, then head back there on Monday to kick off the process of signing paperwork and setting a move in date.
But today was Friday and he could be lazy and just... stop to catch his breath after the long, awful train ride. (No flying. Not with his ears.)
Better yet, he could maybe catch up with some friends.
Sliding his phone out of his pocket, Hartley dialed a number, put the phone on speaker, and dropped it on the bed by his head.
It rang once, twice...
"Hello, Cisco Ramon speaking."
"Hey Cisco." Hartley grinned at the sound of Cisco's voice.
"Hartley? Hey, it's good to hear from you. How're things in Opal City?"
"Well everything was fine when I left this morning. But I'm actually in Central right now."
"What?" Cisco sounded pleased. "That's awesome. Have you had lunch yet? Because we were about to do lunch and I can probably get everyone to meet up and say hi. And you can meet Ralph and Nora in person."
"Ralph is the stretchy guy who makes for an uncommonly attractive pear, right?" Hartley asked, grinning in memory of the meme that had most recently taken tumblr by storm. He might have done a few manips of it himself.
"Yeah, though maybe don't bring up that meme in front of him? He's really embarrassed about it."
"Sure. I don't think Nora was around last I called, though, so who is she?"
"Um..." Cisco hesitated a second, then said, "Barry and Iris' daughter from the future."
"Inherited her father's speed and lack of common sense, I take it," Hartley inquired with a sigh.
"You said it, not me," Cisco retorted which, really, was basically confirmation in and of itself.
"Lunch sounds great. Where do you want us to meet?"
Cisco rattled off an address of a Thai place he promised would meet Hartley's picky standards and they agreed to get there in about forty minutes before ending the call.
Forty minutes later, Hartley was led to a large table where Cisco, Caitlin, and presumably Ralph were already seated. "You must be Ralph. Nice to meet you," Hartley greeted, shaking the other man's hand and giving him a flirty look.
The uncommonly attractive pear was much prettier in his normal human form.
Ralph grinned and purred back, "oh, the pleasure is all mine, really."
Iris was the next to show up and Hartley got a hug from her. "I'm glad you're back, Hartley. How long are you going to be in town?"
"I go back on Wednesday, but I'll be back again in a few weeks. Dr. McGee wants me to take over the entire sonics department."
"That's awesome Hartley," Caitlin said at the same time Cisco went, "please tell me you're going to build an actual sonic screwdriver?"
Hartley laughed. "Thanks, Caitlin. And yes, Cisco, of course I am."
"So you're in town for apartment hunting, then?" Iris guessed.
"Yeah," he shared his plans for the weekend. "Pretty sure that at least half of Sunday will just be me sleeping in, still exhausted from hitting all the apartments on Saturday."
From there they started discussing where Hartley was planning to look for apartments and ordered their food and drinks (Iris ordered for Barry and Nora since they were, as always, running late).
"Uncle Hartley! I mean, uh, um... hi? You must be Hartley Rathaway." Hartley turned around in his chair to see a very sheepish looking young woman who had to be Nora West-Allen.
"You really are Barry in miniature, aren't you?" Hartley responded, giving her a knowing look. "So, I'm gonna achieve uncle status, huh? Good to know."
"I shouldn't have said that," she muttered.
"Good to see you Barry," Hartley said with a genuine grin as the speedster settled at the table beside his wife. Nora took the final open seat, between Barry and Ralph.
"You too, Hartley. What brought you back to Central?"
"I'm moving back. Dr. McGee offered me the sonics department," he repeated, catching Barry up quickly.
"So where are you staying while you're apartment hunting?" Caitlin asked.
"My parents place, actually. I think they're still trying to make up for... everything." Hartley changed the subject and, once their food arrived, enjoyed the good food and good company. He would tag team with Iris to make Barry blush bright red much to Nora's amusement and flirt outrageously with Ralph because Ralph flirted back just as ridiculously. And he talked science with Cisco and Caitlin, reminding himself how much he actually missed working with them. Not enough to go back to STAR Labs, but enough that he knew he was going to be feeling nostalgic for the rest of the day.
"Hey, so is Ryan going to be joining you here in Central when he's done with his stint in Germany?" Cisco asked, as lunch was winding down.
Hartley grimaced and shook his head. "No we, uh... we broke up about a month ago. He had a chance to make the temporary position permanent and, as much as I enjoyed visiting him in Berlin, I did not want to move there. So we talked it over and broke up over skype."
"Cynthia and I broke up too," Cisco said, "the long distance thing wasn't really working out for us either." They exchanged commiserating looks.
"Well, I gotta run," Barry spoke up. Iris swatted his shoulder and he stuck his tongue out at her in response. "Nora too; if we're late again this week Captain Singh is going to make us work over time."
Once the two speedsters were gone, Hartley asked, "so I have got to know. What does Singh think is going on with Nora. Because we all know he has this shield of plausible deniability where Barry is concerned, but..."
"He literally called her dad's time-displaced granddaughter when he and Rob joined our extended family for dinner the other week, so... safe to say he has a strong hunch she's our daughter." Iris rolled her eyes. "Barry didn't hear him say it, but dad did and he looked like he was going to pass out. Cecille couldn't stop laughing, though, she found it so funny. Our official cover for her is that she's my second cousin, Nora West."
The waitress came by with their checks for them to sign and then Iris headed back to work herself.
Outside, Hartley hugged, Cisco, Caitlin, and even Ralph goodbye. Though Cisco lingered a minute.
"Maybe once you move back we could make meeting for lunch a regular thing."
Hartley grinned. "I'd like that a lot."
Notes: In addition to inheriting her dad's speed and lack of common sense, Nora's also inherited Barry's tendency to flirt with the villains, much to Iris' annoyed dismay. That whole scene where Barry is just so confused about what's going on and Iris has that frustrated response of "she's flirting with our daughter" was hilarious.
Anyway, my intention is that the next four lunches are just Cisco and Hartley, along with some before/after lunch filler where Hartley interacts with some of the other characters (like getting more info about the cure and Cisco's obsession with it from Caitlin). And finally dinner will be their first date.