Chapter 5
Hartley doesn't really pay attention the first time the lights flicker.
He trades his pajama pants and comfy sweatshirt for a pair of jeans and a button down left open over a black t-shirt and then goes to wake up Wally. Perhaps a touch obnoxiously, but he's always been a morning person - despite his insomnia - and he's never been shy about using his powers for evil.
Wally swatted Hartley with a pillow that he then covered his own face with. "Dishonor," Wally grumbled, voice muffled. "Dishonor on you and your family and your cow."
"That's not the actual quote," Hartley informed him, taking the pillow away. "Also, please don't smother yourself. Jesse would be very upset with me as her faux metamour if the first thing you did the morning after we started fake dating was smother yourself to death."
Wally cracked up.
"Also the polycule has expanded. I'm real dating Cisco now." Hartley bounced happily and tossed the pillow to land on the other side of the bed from Wally.
"Seriously?" Wally sat up and said enthusiastically, "that's great man. Though," and he smirked slyly, "I do have to question Cisco's taste in men."
Hartley lunged for the pillow in order to swat Wally with it.
The next time the lights flicker, he's pulling out the orange juice and eggs from the fridge. Hartley frowned. "That's twice this morning."
"Really?" Wally frowned and looked up. "That's weird. I'll go check out the breakers." He was gone a handful of seconds. "It all looks fine. Generators look good too."
"I was actually gonna check those too," Cisco said, joining them in the kitchen, hair damp around his shoulders.
Hartley licked his lips, giving his boyfriend a once over. Cisco looked a lot tastier than their half-cooked breakfast.
Cisco smirked at Hartley, as if he knew what was going through Hartley's head. And he probably did. Hartley might be leering a little, but he was just so pretty...
"So are you two gonna be like this the whole time or..." Wally ducked when Hartley threw a dish towel at him.
And then the lights flickered again... and then went out entirely.
"Oh shit," Hartley hissed as they all froze. He listened carefully, hearing the whir of the generators below the house keeping the basement running. But the upstairs was utterly devoid of power.
Cisco joined Hartley and asked, lowly, "do you hear him?" Because he'd jumped to the same conclusion Hartley had.
Sparky, as Wally had called the guy last night, had to be somewhere nearby. And... at the edge of the clearing behind the house was a distinctly human heartbeat.
"Behind the house," Hartley told him, wanting his cuffs.
"I'm sending you to STAR Labs," Cisco said, opening a breach.
"But..."
"No. You volunteered to run comms, so you're going to run comms. Your lungs haven't recovered from all that smoke inhalation and I don't want you having another asthma attack."
They stared at each other for a long moment and then Hartley nodded. He hated it, but he wasn't really a fighter at heart for all that he was good at it when he needed to be. But he didn't need to be right now. Cisco had Wally for back up - Hartley would only make him worry and distract him.
He walked through the breach into the STAR Labs cortex.
Cisco grabs his gear, pulling on his jacket, gauntlets, comm, and glasses before heading out of the house. Wally was already there, racing around as arcs of electricity drained out of the electrical lines into their new nemesis, the Wire. (Admittedly, not the most imaginative name Cisco had ever come up with, but he was on a Doctor Who kick since he'd dubbed the other attacker who'd gone after Hartley as the Silence.) Then the electricity arced from his other hand out towards Wally.
It reminded Cisco more than a little of Farooq Gibran's powers, but more controlled. Gibran had been ravenous for electricity, but this guy seemed to merely control it, using his own body to redirect it. But that didn't mean he didn't consume the electricity too, when given a chance. The last thing Cisco wanted was for this guy to do to Wally what Gibran had done to Barry, draining his connection to the speed force.
Raising a hand, Cisco created a breach between Wally and the next arc of electricity, opening the other end of it so that the blast hit the Wire.
Electricity streamed off the meta and he, at least, stopped leaching off the electrical lines to the house. He turned to Cisco and threw lightning in his direction instead, so this time Cisco redirected harmlessly into the air with another breach. And then he directed his own vibrations at the guy, knocking the Wire off his feet.
Another breach opened and Cisco called, "Kid Flash, grab some dampener cuffs and get back here."
"On it." A blur of lightning in and out of the breach and Cisco closed it. And then immediately ducked as the Wire started draining power off the power lines to start throwing electricity again.
So bright side was, they now had the means to restrain the meta. The downside was that they had to actually get those cuffs onto the guy first. Hitting him with his own electricity was out, but Cisco couldn't keep redirecting the bolts or he'd wind up hitting his limit.
Over the comms, Hartley's voice said, "his drain on the power line is increasing, I think he's amping up for something worse."
Shit, shit, shit... Cisco flung another blast of his own power but it met a burst of electricity and exploded, blowing all three of them across the lawn. Which, oh, that hurt. He was going to want to soak in a bath tonight. Bubbles. And Hartley.
Wire's draining power again, both hands stretched up towards the power lines. Possibly thinking Cisco and Wally were out for the count. "I'm gonna knock him down, then get those cuffs on him, Kid," Cisco ordered.
"No problem," Wally promised.
Cisco kept low, getting up into a crouch and then throwing vibrations at Wire's feet.
He stumbled and fell, his draw on the powerline faltering... and then sputtering out as Wally put the cuffs on him. Which is when things went sideways.
All that electricity had to go somewhere. It fried the cuffs immediately, threw Wally into a tree (making Cisco wince and immediately ask for Kid Flash's status), and electricity poured off the Wire into the ground. The Wire himself collapsed, twitching as though he were having a fit. Which... he was. The backlash of his powers had to be pretty damn painful.
When Cisco was sure it was safe, he crept over and checked the Wire's pulse. It was steady, but the guy was out for the count.
"Is he okay?" Wally sounded concerned and, well... he'd never had an opponent die in a fight before. Cisco never had either, though he knew how hard it hit Barry the few times he'd gone through it. But, thankfully, they'd dodged that bullet today.
"Unconscious and a little singed. We should drop him off at the CCPD's anti-meta cells. Give Joe a heads up that we're on our way there, Piper."
"Calling him now, you guys go ahead," Hartley told them.
Another breach opened and Wally scooped up their opponent for his next destination. Booking.
"The Silence I get," Wally said, "but Sparky is way more accurate than the Wire."
"You don't watch enough Doctor Who," Vibe grumbled. "I mean, I will grant it's not a perfect, one to one name match, but it still works."
Dad... Joe rolled his eyes at their antics. "Nice work you two," he tells them firmly, pride on his face as he looks between the two of them. And Wally feels his grin stretch a little wider. "See you two later," he added, waving them off.
Vibe breached out while Wally ran off, taking the long way back to STAR Labs just to make sure oven was off in the safe house and the abandoned breakfast was either put away or otherwise disposed of. (He gleefully nommed on the finished bacon.) The electrical was back to normal, thankfully, so Wally also shut off all the lights before finally heading to STAR Labs. Then he dropped by the break room where the made for speedsters power bars were kept and snagged one of the banana bread flavored ones. Apparently the originals were like chocolate covered cardboard, according to Barry, but Cisco and Caitlin... Frost had significantly improved on the recipe since then, coming up with several different flavors. The coffee cake one was actually Wally's favorite, but they were out of that one and Cisco had refused to make more until some of the other flavors got finished off.
(Wally had even recruited Iris to pout with him, but Cisco had held strong, laughing at them the entire time. So his plan may have, slightly, backfired on him.)
He arrived in the cortex, however, to find Cisco already there. And he's lip-locked with Hartley.
Wally rolled his eyes and headed for the breach room. Harry was supposed to be there soon and someone might as well be there in time to greet the man. And, who knew, maybe it'd earn Wally some points with the guy.
Probably not. But he suspected, grumpiness aside, Harry was more fond of him than pretended.
And... he did do good today. Backing Cisco's calls had netted them a dangerous meta who'd burned down a building and tried to murder Hartley and it felt good. So maybe this wasn't the way Barry went about things, but... it was okay for him not to be just like Barry. It was okay for him to be his own person and his own kind of hero. Maybe by the time Barry came back, Wally would even have a name for his speedster alter ego that brought him fully out of Barry's shadow.
Something to think on, anyway.
"Hey," Hartley said, forehead pressed against Cisco's. "Best way to say hello."
Cisco chuckled and the sound was just... warm. "You realize that was our first kiss, right?"
"Well, first kiss where both our mouths were involved," Hartley teased, adding, "cuddling was more important last night and oh-thank-god-you're-okay kisses are more important this morning." And then he kissed Cisco again to demonstrate.
Laughing into the kiss, Cisco pulled Hartley a little closer. "I should probably put my Vibe gear away," Cisco said when the kiss finally broke.
"Probably," Hartley agreed, kissing the corner of Cisco's mouth. "Or we could go back to your place," he kissed along Cisco's jaw. "And I could help you take it off..."
"You're not as smooth as you think you are," Cisco teased, whining softly when Hartley nipped the shell of his ear.
Hartley didn't get a chance to refute that, as there came a loud throat clearing from the doorway and they both jumped. Oh, sure, Hartley'd heard Wally walking up with Harry, but somehow he'd thought the older scientist would just turn around and nope off. Apparently not.
"Ramon. Rathaway," Harry greeted with an amused drawl that said he was going to enjoy being a killjoy for them all day.
"Harry," Cisco greeted with a smile and a fond eyeroll.
"Wells," Hartley said, tone far less fond than Cisco's but politely accepting of his fate. He had the time and distance - and hot boyfriend - that he'd lacked two years earlier. It was still weird seeing Harry's face and knowing that wasn't the Harrison he'd known and made terrible dating decisions with. But not so weird he felt the need to put half the city between himself and STAR Labs to keep away from bad memories.
"There's science we should be doing," Wells reminded them pointedly.
Hartley huffed in annoyance but let his arms drop away from Cisco.
"You guys start without me. I'll join up once I've put my gear away," Cisco told them, grabbing his discarded Vibe glasses and hurrying off.
Harry gave Hartley a steady look. "You sure you're okay working with me?"
"Yeah," Hartley said, deciding to take the other man's concern at face value. "I'll be fine. Thanks."
Wells just nodded and then headed off down the hall, clearly expecting to be followed. The mannerisms similar to what Hartley remembered and yet, somehow, completely different.
"Are you sure you're safe to come home?" Osgood asked, though he was already grabbing Hartley's duffel away from him and ushering Hartley, Cisco, and Joe through the doorway. "Detective?"
"Vibe and Kid Flash apprehended the other meta that was threatening Hartley," Joe assured Osgood.
Admittedly, there was no telling if the people who'd sent the first two assassins wouldn't try again. But ARGUS was apparently about to make their move on the alien tech theft ring, so the people responsible were about to realize that the cat was already out of the bag and what Hartley did, or didn't, know was no longer a worthwhile concern.
But the short answer was that Hartley was safe to go back to his parents house today. Though Cisco would rather have brought Hartley back to his own apartment that night, Hartley wanted to reassure his parents that he was okay. And Cisco couldn't begrudge Hartley that.
Rachel came over and enveloped Hartley in a hug. Hartley clearly went tense for a moment before relaxing and hugging her back.
Honestly, Cisco wasn't much better with hugs from his own mother. Things were still awkward between him and his parents too, though their relationship was much improved from where they'd been before Dante's death.
"I'm okay and I'm safe. I'm still going to be on loan to STAR Labs for a while, as Tina sorts out the mess I uncovered at Mercury Labs. But it looks like the threat's over." Hartley gave his parents an encouraging smile.
"Good. Thank you, Detective, for keeping our son safe." Turning to Hartley, Osgood added, "we've fixed the broken door and the drywall from when that meta attacked the other day, so if you're okay with the same room you were in before, the adjoining room is cleaned up." As he spoke, Osgood started leading Hartley upstairs while still carrying the duffel bag for his son.
"Thanks for everything, Joe," Hartley said brightly waving goodbye and giving his father an amused look.
Clearly Osgood could not wait to get Hartley settled back into the relative safety of his own home.
Joe made his own goodbyes and headed on out.
Rachel closed the front door and turned to Cisco. Quietly, she added, "and thank you for keeping our son safe. Osgood is terrible with faces on a good day, but to me your hair is a little... recognizable." She looked amused as Cisco ducked his head.
He didn't try to dissuade her, though he did ask, "does your husband realize who blew out the windows on the Rathaway Industries building a few years ago?"
That was greeted with a snort of amused laughter. "No. And I'm not going to be the one to tell him. I love Osgood, but I'm quite grateful Hartley didn't inherit his observational skills. Or lack thereof, rather." A sly smile curled on Rachel's face that looked just like her son's. "And I can't wait to see the look on his face when Hartley finally tells us he's dating you."
Cisco felt his cheeks heat in what had to be an obvious blush. "Uh... how... I mean... yeah. We are. Pretty much as of today, though, so..." How did she know? Had they been obvious about it somehow?
Rachel just laughed. "Would you like some tea?" And that innocent smile she wore now wouldn't melt butter.
Eyes widening in realization, it occurred to Cisco that Rachel knew perfectly well that no one liked her too-sweet tea and that she enjoyed tormenting everyone with it specifically for that reason. And he didn't dare say a word, because Hartley would hear and it'd give away the game.
If Hartley couldn't figure out his own mother's deviousness for himself, who was Cisco to ruin her fun?
Hartley nearly tripped over his own feet, hearing his mother tell Cisco first that she knew he was Vibe and then that she knew they were dating. And then she basically forced her sweet tea on him. Once his things were dropped off in his room, Hartley resolved to go rescue Cisco from his mother.
Honestly, his mother was a menace sometimes. Though it did mean that Hartley came by it honestly, being quite the menace himself.
"Father," Hartley said, putting a hand on Osgood's arm to cut off the nervous chatter about the minor repairs they'd needed after the attack on the house. He looked... tired. And a little old.
"I love you Hartley," Osgood told him. "I don't say that enough. But I do love you, son. You've become an amazing person and I can't take credit for any of it. I was an absent father when you were a child. And disowning you was the greatest mistake I've ever made in my entire life. One that I can't ever make up for because I can't get those years back."
Hartley's eyes stung.
"I could have lost you and, once you'd left for the safe house, I realized... I didn't remember when the last time I told you that I loved you was. So I just... I wanted to make sure you know."
"I love you too," Hartley said, stepping forward and hugging his father. Only for a moment - Osgood Rathaway was not the hugger his wife was - but it was nice while it lasted. "And, well, maybe you can't fix the past. But you're here for me now. And that counts for a lot. It really does."
"You know..." Hartley sat down on the bed and gave Cisco a look that promised trouble. "I never had a boyfriend sneak into my parents house before."
They were alone in Hartley's room in his parents house, Cisco having quietly breached back into the house after dinner when he 'left'. He snickered and sat down beside Hartley. "Truly, you missed out on an important high school experience. Bet you never made out with a boyfriend in your parents house either." And then Cisco leaned in to kiss Hartley, stealing his glasses in the process.
"Thief," Hartley muttered between kisses, taking the glasses back and tossing them onto the nightstand.
Cisco chuckled and let himself get lost in the taste of Hartley's mouth and the feel of his hands sliding beneath Hartley's shirt.
Eventually Hartley pulled away with a breathless laugh. "Yeah... definitely never kissed a guy in this house before. Clearly you're corrupting me."
"Want me to keep corrupting you?" Cisco asked innocently.
"Oh, definitely." Hartley laid back on the bed, pulling Cisco atop him and bringing their mouths back together. After that time sort of blurred and stretched a bit, full of heated touches and teasing rolls of their hips and giggles and moans as they each cautioned each other to stay quiet even as they both had the objective of teasing all kinds of noises out of one another. At some point their shirts came off, but they hadn't bothered with their jeans and underwear yet. And Cisco was enjoying getting to explore the expanse of skin he'd uncovered, coaxing shivers and whines out of Hartley even as Hartley tried to keep his voice steady, telling Cisco where he liked to be touched and kissed the best.
Of course, it's in the midst of this that there comes a knock at the door.
It's probably comical the way they both freeze and stare at each other with wide eyes.
Another knock.
"Be right there," Hartley called, reaching around for his shirt and pulling that on along with his glasses while Cisco rolled off the bed to hide on the far side from the door.
He couldn't see Hartley open the door from there, but he could hear it creak open. And hear as Rachel bid him goodnight.
"And goodnight to you too, Cisco," she called sweetly.
"W-what?" Hartley stammered out, fooling no one.
"Your shirt's on inside out, Hartley," Rachel told him.
Cisco sighed and snagged his own t-shirt, which had thankfully landed on the same side of the bed he now found himself. He pulled it on - right side out and front side facing the correct direction - and then let himself stand up. Sheepishly he waved to Hartley's mother. "Good night Rachel."
She snickered and hugged Hartley - who was looking a little shell shocked - goodnight. "Sleep well, Hartley. And I'll see you in the morning. But I won't be too surprised if you spend more evenings at Cisco's than here after tonight."
"Night, mother," Hartley replied, definitely dazed as he shut the door. "Okay, so... that was..."
"Congratulations, you've now also basically had the experience of your parents walking in on you making out with your boyfriend," Cisco offered teasingly, even as he walked over to put his hands on Hartley's shoulders. Rubbing those shoulders gently, Cisco asked, "are you okay?"
"Yeah, just... a little freaked out. But she's actually... okay. With us. That's..." Hartley let out shuddering breath. "I think I was a little afraid they would only accept me being gay in theory and not in practice and now..."
Cisco kissed Hartley's cheek, but figured heavy petting and passionate, desperate kissing was officially done for the night. "Do you want me to stay and just sleep with you tonight?" That had been the idea to begin with, since Cisco hadn't really thought Hartley be any more comfortable having sex in his parents house than he was in Harrison Wells' former residence. The enthusiastic make out session had been very nice, if unexpected.
Hartley nodded. "Tomorrow night at your place, though. No parents knocking at the door there."
"And also I've got condoms and lube. Pretty sure that's lacking here."
"Yeah..." Hartley blushed unexpectedly and buried his face against Cisco's shoulder. "Oh, god, I would not have survived that as a teenager."
Carefully reaching up to stroke Hartley's hair and, hopefully, calm him down a little, Cisco told him, "you're safe with me. Promise."
"I know," Hartley murmured, relaxing slowly. "You make me feel safe," he added and, well, that gave Cisco a bit of a thrill.
Cisco had never really thought of himself as a protector before. But with Hartley... it just felt right.
Maybe it wasn't just Team Flash that was changing without Barry there to be in charge. Maybe it was Cisco himself, who was becoming someone a little stronger, a little braver... a little more confident in himself.
And apparently a lot more attractive to Hartley.
"You should go change into your pajamas and then breach back," Hartley told him. "I'll be waiting in bed for my designated sleepy cuddles."
"It really is adorable hearing you say that," Cisco admitted with a laugh, kissing Hartley one more time before breaching home to get into his pajamas as ordered.