A/N: Hello again and welcome to another exciting installment in my Pavement Cracks series. For newcomers, this fic is part of a larger series that will eventually encompass as much of the Flash canon as I can while focusing on Piper and Trickster. Since I try to follow canon, the fics can be taken as stand-alones, but if you want to read the other ones then feel free to go to my profile page and check the other fics out. The series consists of Pavement Cracks, Late Morning Lullabye, 21, and an unfinished prequel fic called White Light. Enjoy!

Chapter One

"So…Barry Allen is back from the dead. Can I hang with you for a little while?"

James Jesse still had his hand on the front door, and with a greeting like that he wasn't entirely sure he didn't want to shut it in Piper's face. Then again, their friendship was fragile enough at the moment* without that particular insult. And besides that, really, the Trickster had shown up on Piper's doorstep in much worse circumstances (when he bothered to wait to be let in).

"You okay Piper? You seem a tad…hysterical," James couldn't help but observe.

"Oh no, I'm good, I'm good. Just got grabbed by a man I thought was dead when I was on my way to visit a friend, but good." He was still wearing his costume. James quirked an eyebrow. "I was planning on helping Wally with this mob power struggle I got wind of, but since the old Flash is back I figured I'd best make myself scarce. And, you know, avoid Wally for a little while."

"You're that scared of the old Flash?" James taunted.

"And you're not?" Piper returned.

"Touché. C'mon in, you can borrow some clothes." James stepped aside and let his old flame in.

"For the record," Piper continued, while James headed to his room to fetch some civilian attire, "I'm not scared of Barry. I just find him incredibly awkward to be around. You know what happened the last time I saw him."

"I know," James snapped. It wasn't exactly a pleasant remembrance for him either. The last time either of them had seen the old Flash was when Piper had had a mental breakdown that ultimately ended their relationship. The breakdown had been building for awhile, but it finally materialized during Piper's last battle with Barry Allen (which was also his last outing as a supervillain). The long months Piper had spent recovering his sanity in the Breedmore Mental Hospital had been grueling for both of them. They were still trying to get their lives together and salvage what they could of a friendship**.

James avoided confronting the awkwardness for a few minutes by going through his walk-in closet for something Piper would both fit into and wear. He'd gotten a little chunky during his most recent relationship; both because his ex-boyfriend was a chef, and because he'd been adjusting to different psych meds. However he was no longer dating the chef, and maybe he was on different meds now or something, because he'd lost a lot of that weight. He was still a little heavier than James though, so he settled on a pair of orange sweatpants and an old t-shirt. Piper wrinkled his nose in distaste when he saw the garish orange sweats, but he went into the bathroom to change without commenting on them.

"So what are you planning on doing?" James called through the bathroom door. "Hide from your new best friend until Flash the elder kicks it again?"

"Don't say that James, that's horrible!" Piper yelled back. He opened the door, wearing James' clothes with his costume balled up under his arm. "I'm really happy Barry's back. It's great news for Wally, y'know, since the two of them were so close."

"Funny, you don't look very happy," James observed.

"I'm just going to keep my distance for a few days until Wally can explain everything to his uncle, and get him to actually believe I'm reformed. God James, the way he looked at me…I almost didn't believe I was reformed anymore."

"Well…I might not be the best company. You know I'm still kind of back and forth on the whole super villainy or super heroics front."

Piper snorted. "It's funny, the other night when you had that buzz on you were a staunchly reformed superhero, but when you sober up…"

"Yeah, well…yeah. But hey, if you did take me back, I really would go all noble for you. Completely, boringly heroic," James promised. "So really, by continuing to spurn my advances, in a way you're more responsible for the crimes I commit than I am."

"Uh huh." Piper didn't look convinced.

"It was worth a shot," James said with a shrug. "Wanna watch some cartoons?"

"I guess."

Piper was getting bored. Having James for a best friend just wasn't the same when they weren't in a relationship. Piper found that he didn't care as much for video games and cartoons in the absence of cuddling, and James was reluctant to do much else with him since Piper was completely reformed. Not that Piper was planning on telling the Flashes anything about James (or any of the Rogues for that matter***). After a couple awkward afternoons of hanging out in which James made some half hearted passes at him, Piper decided to get back to work on some non-Rogue related intel gathering.

James felt a bit relieved when Piper left. He found the awkwardness between them incredibly disconcerting. It wasn't all that long ago that he and Piper had spent almost all their time together, and except for some circumstances beyond their control and Piper's building breakdown, it had been the happiest time in his life. He'd felt completely at ease and content in himself, content that he was cared for, in a way he never had in any other relationship (the closest competitor being Mindy Hong, but she was a bit too judgmental of his eccentricities to quite make it). He desperately wanted to get that back, but he was starting to think it might not be possible.

Maybe they'd changed too much. Piper had become a startlingly different person since James had seen him last; he didn't even look the same. To be fair, James looked pretty different too, but that was just a different hairstyle and a snazzy new costume. Piper's change of appearance went a little further in reflecting his internal changes. He was…somehow softer now, that bite to him that had always been simmering under his playful visage of cartoonish villainy had been dulled. He was still a smartass when he wanted to be, but he definitely wasn't villain material.

He was nice now. James (and the rest of the Rogues too, from what he could tell) figured that Piper was probably the only supervillain in the history of the profession to stand a chance of actually reforming. It helped that he was motivated by more than a reduced sentence. He seemed to really want it.

James was much more conflicted on the subject. When he was hanging around Piper and fantasizing about getting back that shared life they used to have, of course he thought he had it in him. But when Piper continuously rejected him and emphasized rebuilding their friendship, and blew him off for Flash jr., or if James spent a few nights with the guys or they just had a really good poker game…then he wondered how he'd ever give up the thrills and the freedom of villainy.

Robbing banks was way more fun than trying to protect cities from cosmic threats. He already knew that. Despite popular opinion and the righteous speedster propaganda in the Flash Museum, the Rogues had done their part to protect the twin cities more than once (otherwise they'd have to move to a new city and, well, fuck that). Being a cape sucked. As a villain at least you got to call the shots.

James thought through all this yet again while looking through a box of stuff he'd saved from their old apartment in Keystone. He was looking at an old picture he'd taken. The angle was a bit sloppy because he'd held out the camera so he'd be included in the shot, but he liked it regardless. It showed the two of them cuddled up on the bed, Piper looking sleepy but pleased, his pet rat perched on his lap and James' arm slung around his shoulders.

"And I'm still no closer to having that back then when I first got back to the Cities," James said with a bitter sigh. Sure, Piper was talking to him now, which on the surface seemed like an improvement, but really it was just a stinging reminder that things weren't the way they'd been, that he'd utterly fucked up by walking away from the best thing that'd ever happened to him.

"Fix the friendship first," James reminded himself. Piper was worth it. He'd just have to be more patient than he was last time.

He put the picture up above his dresser, then shoved the box of old memories back under his bed. 'Fix the friendship. There's no rush. What's the worst that could happen?'

"So he wasn't really your uncle?" Piper asked.

He and Wally were splitting a pizza and catching up on all that had happened since they'd last seen each other. Piper's story was quite short; he'd dug up a little dirt on some minor crooks, taken his sister to the symphony, met Len and Lisa for lunch and not a whole lot else. Wally, it seemed, had had a much more eventful couple of weeks.

"Nope. Wasn't Uncle Barry at all. It was frickin' Professor Zoom with amnesia! I mean, can you believe that? Do you know how many crazy coincidences the universe just threw together to traumatize me?"

Piper frowned. "The universe has a way of doing that. Do you need to talk about it?"

"Nah, I was just catching you up. Linda's been a pretty good ear so far. You were totally right about her, by the by," Wally admitted. "She never really hated me, and we've got this amazing chemistry…things were never this good with me and Frankie, or Connie…or anyone ever really. I think she might be it for me."

Piper smiled, but found himself a bit discomfited by the dazed grin on his friend's face. His young friend's face, he couldn't help but think. He'd looked like that a few years ago when he'd had his first two loves back to back, and the universe had spawned particularly heart wrenching coincidences enough to knock the naivety right out of him.

"Are you sure you're not moving a little quick there Wally?"

"Good one Piper. I'm a speedster, I'm supposed to move quick. Besides, it's okay when you really love them, isn't it?" Wally said with a laugh.

Piper frowned. "And how old are the two of you?"

"I'm sorry, and you're trying to speak with the mighty wisdom of exactly how many years on me?" Wally returned.

Piper rolled his eyes. "Six. And a half. Whatever, you're still young and stupid."

"Yep, but Linda's smart and I know she's feeling this too." Wally continued smiling vapidly and stared into space for almost a full minute, which was a good long while for him. Piper shook his head, but decided against teasing him anymore for the time being. He did like Linda after all, and just because none of Piper's relationships had ever worked out for him didn't mean Wally was necessarily doomed to the same fate…though his track record really wasn't much better than Piper's.

Piper was just starting his second slice and Wally his second pizza when they heard some screams and a loud crash coming from the street. Piper set his pizza slice back on the paper plate, calmly reached for his wallet, and when he'd looked up again Wally was already off to investigate. He threw some money on the table, then ran off in the direction the crimson blur had gone, glad he'd taken a few sonic guns along with him this time.

James was having the day from hell. He'd gone into the office to find his desk covered with those little pamphlets people give you at subway stations explaining how you're hell bound if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior. And by covered, it had been James-couldn't-even-see-his-own-desk covered. He'd been late for a meeting trying to sort the papers he actually needed out of the mess, and had still accidentally set one down with the design he was trying to pitch at the meeting.

Needless to say, he wasn't confident about getting this particular architectural gig.

Lunch had been spent cleaning up the mess while taking paranoid phone calls from his mother, who was still hoping to convince him to move back to Connecticut, no matter how hard he explained that he was happy and productive in Central City. After lunch he'd scrambled to start working on another project, all the while distracted by hunger (he hadn't eaten anything since a breakfast bagel on the way in), and cubicle mates who kept walking by loudly discussing their plans for the weekend. James had to wonder how they had the funds for all these elaborate weekend vacations when he was just scraping by these days, and they never seemed to work.

He also wondered which of the assholes had filled his desk with socially conservative hate literature.

It was salt in an open wound. Lately James felt he was getting all the negative consequences of being gay in the form of discrimination and isolation, without any of the perks. He hadn't been on a date in ages, probably because he never seemed to find the time to get out to the few clubs and bars that made life for a gay man in conservative Central City tolerable. Facing the sneers or patronizing "acceptance" of his coworkers and acquaintances would be so much easier if he had a good guy to go home to.

At the end of the day, James glances wearily at the stack of work still left to do and resolved to ignore it for awhile. He was too young to be this worn down from life. Instead of taking his work home with him yet another weekend in a futile attempt to get ahead, he resolved to get some good take-out, put on something fun (or at least something that didn't make him feel prematurely middle aged) and hit up a bar.

At first his plan helped his mood. He hadn't treated himself to Indian for awhile, and his chicken korma was excellent. Wearing something other than a suit or pajamas (even if it was only tight jeans and a David Bowie t-shirt) made him feel a little bit more like the twenty six years old he knew himself to be despite his routine.

But then he'd gone out to the bar he remembered to be his favorite and found a candle store. A further search revealed that all his old haunts had since become family restaurants, pet stores and antique shops. James didn't believe for a second that the gay community of Keystone City had disappeared, but it looked like they owned a new neighborhood now and he didn't know where to go anymore.

He really was pathetically out of touch.

Disappointed but unwilling to admit defeat, he hopped a bus and went back to Central City to check out a new bookstore that had opened by his office. So he wouldn't be doing anything overtly gay…he was still out of the apartment, which was a marked improvement. His odds of meeting a guy were still statistically better.

James snorted as he hopped off the bus and started walking towards the bookstore. 'Right, because in a closeted town like this a queer dream guy's just going to drop out of the sky'.

And then he was tackled from behind and flattened against the pavement. Too startled to cry out, James fell with his palms flat out in front of him, wide eyed and breathing harshly with a strange man pressed against his back. Then he heard a whirring sound, and something warm passed above them.

"What was-" James was cut off by a nearby trash can exploding.

Most everybody on the sidewalk had already scattered. The strange man (hopefully a superhero and not a supervillain) hauled James to his feet and dragged him to a slim alley between the two nearest buildings. James wasn't able to see much of the action behind them, but he caught more explosions and a streak of red out of the corner of his eye.

While falling over his own feet in the alleyway, he finally caught sight of his rescuer. "Piper?"

James barely recognized his former neighbor. Back when Piper had lived in his building, he'd been skinny, elusive, soft-spoken but intelligent, and posing as a custom instrument maker though he'd really been a costumed villain. James, not one to follow headlines and not owning a TV at the time, had believed the cover story until he'd been told otherwise. After that he'd followed Piper's exploits on the news, though there hadn't been much to see for some time now. He'd heard about Piper reforming, and seen stories about him working with the new Flash. And, a still somewhat smitten James had noticed, he'd gotten a bit heavy.

'Superheroics must be good exercise', James thought dazedly. The young man standing opposite him in ripped jeans and a baggy sweatshirt with a low, ripped neckline was clearly not fat. James had been fantasizing about Piper back when he was a tad underweight, scrubby and nerdy. This toned version would certainly be in his dreams tonight.

"Stay put," Piper ordered. He unclipped some kind of gun that looked like it belonged in a sci-fi movie from his belt and ran back into the battle.

James gaped after him for a moment, then, when he got his jaw back into place, he unfroze and ran over to peer around the corner of the building. He stayed hunched over, since there were a lot of ray guns being fired, but it was a quick battle. One by one, Piper helped the red blur subdue five thugs in awful looking homemade supervillain costumes. The gear they were carrying looked much more impressive than their outfits though.

The Flash ran the thugs off scene, presumably to jail, while Piper stood guard over the prone figures of the ones he hadn't carried off yet. James crept over to them, tripping over rubble and ripping the knees of his one pair of sexy jeans as he went, quietly wondering if he'd suddenly gone insane.

"Oof!"

Piper jogged over and helped him up. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah." James watched his face for any spark of recognition, but none came. Of course not. Why would a supervillain turned hero remember their dweeby neighbor the architect? Still though, James resolved to press on. He had gotten along well with Piper. He could find a way to jog the man's memory or, better yet, replace the old associations Piper had for architect-James with something new, suave and sexy.

Oh, that would never work.

"H-hi. Um, thanks for-for saving m-me," James stammered.

"Not at all. It is part of the new job."

"Still though, I've never been rescued by a super hero before…" James mumbled. Piper smiled easily at him, and he continued. "I'm not sure what the protocol is. Do I buy you a drink or something?"

Piper laughed. "Oh, you don't have to do anything like that."

James could feel his face color. He noticed then that the Flash had come back, and that all the criminals were gone. But instead of coming over and interrupting them, he shot Piper a knowing look and took off again.

"Um…what if I just wanted to? Y'know, buy you a drink?"

"Sure James. That'd be great. Just let me run home and get changed-"

"You remember me?" James asked, blown away. "I didn't think you recognized me."

"I didn't at first," Piper admitted. "I don't think I ever saw you dressed so informally. You look good."

"S-so do you."

Piper laughed again. "Thanks, but I'd still rather wear something a bit less bloody and sweaty. Do you still live in the old place? In Keystone?" James nodded. "Great. I'll meet you there in an hour, okay?"

"Yeah, perfect."

"It'll be nice to catch up," Piper called over his shoulder before heading off.

James smiled shakily, then headed back for the bus stop.

Well how 'bout that.

* See 21 for all the slash-y details

** Discussed in Late Morning Lullabye

***21 will fill you in on everything surrounding that. Blacksmith went to great lengths to assure Piper's silence regarding the Network and its frequent clients.