Summary: Cisco calls together Team Flash - minus Dr. Wells and plus two unexpected new team members - to talk about the visions he had of the day that wasn't. Meanwhile, Hartley's plush army of rats continues to grow.
Notes: Hartmon Bingo Card 1 (gen card) O1 - Woke Up in Bed Together
Part of my The Pied Piper's Army of Rats series, follows directly after the events of both "Moments in Time" and "Hurricane"
Respite
Hartley wakes up curled up around Cisco, all warm and snuggled close and it'd probably be just about perfect if the first thing he did on waking hadn't been inhaling Cisco's hair. That definitely has him sputtering and gasping a bit and sitting up with a jolt that wakes Cisco up too.
"You okay?" Cisco asked, flopping onto his back and yawning, peering up at Hartley sleepily.
"Yeah. Fine. Your hair tried to choke me, but I survived," Hartley responded, a touch dramatically. He smiled, though, when Cisco chuckled.
"Sorry. Thanks for, uh..." Cisco blushed a bit, waving his hand in a sort of all-encompassing motion at both them and the bed. "Sleeping with me. Pretty sure you warded off the nightmares I'd have had otherwise."
"Not a problem. Seriously." Hartley carefully laid back down, making sure to avoid any choking hazards - such as Cisco's hair - as he did so.
Somewhere around thirty-six hours ago, they'd been kidnapped by two Snarts and a Rory and then, to complicate things more it turned out the three rogues had taken Dante Ramon too, not having anticipated Hartley's presence at Cisco's apartment. Then when Cisco had passed out due to is emerging powers as a meta, it had fallen to Hartley to finish Leonard Snart's new Cold Gun and Mick Rory's Heat Gun, all while hoping that eventually Barry would come running to the rescue before things got too dicey.
And while Barry had gotten both Dante and Hartley out safely, Cisco's new powers had revealed something that Hartley still didn't know how to wrap his mind around. The Reverse Flash - the man who'd murdered Nora Allen some fifteen years ago... was, somehow, Harrison Wells.
It was one thing to think Harrison might be in cahoots with the Reverse Flash, but another thing entirely to believe they were one and the same person. And had murdered Hartley for learning the truth in a timeline that had, thankfully, been unwound. But Hartley didn't doubt what Cisco had seen. Because Cisco's visions had also revealed to him the location where Hartley and Dante had been moved to after Cisco had been taken to the hospital, which was the only reason Barry had been able to find them.
So, yeah, Hartley had no doubt that Cisco's visions were very real.
But that still left them with more questions than answers. They'd already established that there were two speedsters in the Allen family home the night Nora Allen was murdered. The Reverse Flash, who'd murdered Nora... and the Flash, who'd quite likely saved Barry's life. But the Reverse Flash was a time traveler. He claimed to come from the future and had no reason to lie about that. And it even made sense, since the Flash who'd been in the house that night had to be a version of Barry from the future. If Barry had traveled back in time to that moment, he likely only would have done so while chasing after the Reverse Flash.
Harrison Wells was not from the future. He had parents, one of whom was still living in a retirement home somewhere on the east coast. He had an estranged sibling in West Virginia. He had several verifiable PhDs, a number of published papers that predated the murder of Nora Allen, former friends and colleagues a plenty, not to forget his tragic love story with one Tess Morgan. Harrison Wells wasn't just some puppet identity created by a stranded time traveler, but a real person.
Yet, somehow, the Reverse Flash and Harrison Wells were, undoubtedly, one and the same.
Time travel officially gave Hartley a headache.
But all of that was why Hartley was in Cisco's bed that morning. They'd both needed the comfort of someone to hold onto that night. It wasn't anything more than that, though honestly if Cisco had been asking for more than just platonic cuddling... Hartley would have said yes. And probably made a hash of their newly minted friendship in the process since Hartley might be catching feelings that were more romantic in nature.
He probably needed to get his own place and move out so that the fluffy, over-protective feelings he had for Cisco would tone down a little.
But fluffy feelings Hartley was trying not to interrogate too closely aside, this morning they were going to have to figure out how to explain Cisco's visions to the rest of the team. Preferably somewhere that Dr. Wells wouldn't overhear.
First, though... coffee. And breakfast.
"I'm gonna make something to eat," Hartley declared, reluctantly shoving off his covers and getting out of bed. "And then I call the dibs on the shower."
"So if I were to shower first..." Cisco trailed off leadingly.
"I suppose there would be food waiting for you when you get out," Hartley promised. "Better hurry up, though, so you'll still get the coffee while it's hot."
"Thank you, thank you," Cisco said, sitting up slowly and still looking adorably sleep frazzled. "I have gotten so spoiled having you make breakfast most mornings since you started staying here. Can I just keep you?"
Hartley blushed because, well, he wouldn't mind if Cisco kept him in pretty much any fashion. "What, don't want your privacy back?" he asked, startled.
"Honestly?" Cisco shrugged. "I, uh... I really like having you around."
"I think this may be a topic we both need to be more awake for," Hartley decided after a moment. "Go shower. I'll start the coffee."
Hartley's making eggs on the stove when someone knocks at the front door. And, for a split second, he panics. It's just a moment and then Hartley's moving the eggs somewhere they won't burn and turning off the stove before going to check who is there through the peep hole.
It's not going to be a repeat of the other night. There's not going to be a brunette with a gun standing out there. Hartley's safe here, with Cisco.
And, low and behold, the person fidgeting outside the door nervously is Dante Ramon.
Hartley leans his forehead against the doo, takes a shaky breath, and acknowledges that he might be having a bit of a post traumatic reaction to the kidnapping. Then he unlocked the door and let Dante inside.
"Cisco is in the shower, so if you were wanting to talk to him..." Hartley shrugged. "You'll have to wait a bit. Had breakfast yet? I was in the middle of making eggs."
"I've eaten already." Dante sighed and muttered under his breath, "shit, I should have called first."
"Probably," Hartley said, shutting the door and heading back to the stove, "but you're here now so you might as well stay. I doubt Cisco'll be annoyed by an impromptu visit, given what the last two days have been like."
"Right, you hear everything." Dante huffed and then gestured to the coffee machine, "mind if I have a cup?"
"Pour three, would you?"
Dante made a scoffing noise when he saw Cisco's mug collection in the cabinet. "Why is everything he owns so childish?"
"There's this idea that adults are supposed to be mature, give up their childhood pass-times, and stop enjoying things they've always found to be fun. Cisco dares to ask why he should have to if his hobbies are harmless and make him happy." Hartley shrugged. "Maybe he's wiser than both of us for figuring out that some markers of adulthood are just elitist bullshit." Hartley wished he would have realized that sooner instead of being such a dick about the t-shirts.
Huffing softly - a thoughtful noise this time - Dante plucked a mug from the cabinet and stared at it quietly before setting it down on the countertop. "Is he happy?"
"He's part of a literal super hero support squad. His geeky heart is having the time of his life," Hartley said, grinning for a moment. Because being part of Team Flash was definitely every nerd's dream come true. Even Hartley's. "But it is also dangerous and Cisco's probably the bravest person I know. When the Flash is in trouble, Cisco's the one who figures out how to save his ass."
"Which is how Snart knew about him," Dante observed.
"Unfortunately." Hartley heard the water cut out and turned the stove down low - the eggs would be fine for a few moments - and went to knock on the bathroom door. "Your brother's here, Cisco."
"What?!" Cisco called back. "Why? Oh, never mind, I'll ask him when I'm out."
Hartley checked the eggs back on the stove and decided they were done, splitting them onto two plates and topping them both with some shredded cheese. Dante had, finally, poured three cups of coffee into those childish mugs he'd complained about. Hartley cheerfully nabbed the Legend of Zelda one for himself and settled at the counter to eat, putting the second plate of eggs and a mug of coffee done up the way Cisco liked it at the seat next to him.
Cisco finally padded out - hair still damp - in his pajamas and went straight over to hug Dante hello. "You're okay, right? Nothing from the Snarts or Rory since the Flash rescued you?"
"No, haven't heard anything from them. Hopefully they got what they wanted and are done with us," Dante said, awkwardly hugging Cisco back. "I, uh... I wanted to check in on you and... see you're okay. No more headaches, dizziness, nosebleeds... mini-strokes..."
The look on Cisco's face is fond as he shook his head. "I feel fine. Caitlin says all my scans came back clean, so I'm not at risk for a recurrence."
Dante's relief is a palpable thing as he hugs his brother again. "Thank god."
"Yeah, well I think she's gonna stick me in a scanner every time I get a headache going forward, so you can trust I'll be in good hands, okay?" Cisco shrugged out of the hug. "So what did mom and dad have to say about you being missing for so long?"
"To call next time I stay over at a friends." Dante shrugged and reached for his coffee to sip. "I said I stayed the night on Eric's couch since his place was closer to the bar. Admittedly, if I ever have to testify in court about this, that'll turn into such a fun conversation. But that's for future me to deal with. Anyway, I uh... I didn't just come here to check on you. That was, like, my main motivation, but... I wanted to thank you too, Rathaway. For, you know, for convincing them to send Cisco to the hospital and trying to get me out of there too. And keeping me safe when they were using me as a hostage against you. Caitlin mentioned you were collecting these as a sort of joke between you and Cisco, so..." he reached in his pocket and then held out a little rodent-shaped Beanie-Baby.
Hartley accepted the rat with a grin and a laugh. "Pied Piper should have an army of rats, right?" a quick flick of the tag told Hartley that the little critter's name was Tiptoe. "Thanks." He settled the plushie by his plate for the moment, though he planned to go put Tiptoe with rest of his small, but growing army later. General Rattata, the three little Ikea rats, and the mice on the sewing machine shaped music box would happily welcome the newest recruit. It was a cute little collection and Hartley's fairly certain it'll eventually outgrow the joke. At some point, he should definitely get a real rat.
Like... when he has his own apartment again.
"Right, well... thanks for the coffee. I should get going if I'm gonna make it to work on time." Dante bowed out quickly and Cisco saw him to the door.
"You okay?" Hartley asked once the door shut.
"Yeah." Cisco sat back on the bar stool by the counter again to finish his breakfast. "It's just... surreal, having him show up and be concerned about me. It really scared him, didn't it?"
"You scared the hell out of both of us, Cisco." Hartley glanced over at the front door. He hoped, for Cisco's sake, that when Dante's fear finally wore off he'd still keep putting a sincere effort into reconciling with Cisco.
Cisco is intensely uncomfortable walking into STAR Labs. He's all too aware of Dr. Wells watching him - watching Hartley - but he'd promised to let Caitlin give him a checkup before he took the rest of the day off. And where he went, Hartley went. Hartley had made that very clear.
Knowing that Hartley had been willing to sacrifice his life for Cisco's safety not just once, but twice all technically in the same day... Cisco's honestly not sure anyone has ever made him feel so cared for before. It also scares him a little, how readily Hartley puts Cisco's wellbeing before his own. Cisco wants very much for Hartley to live.
But much as Cisco would like for Hartley to be back in Cisco's apartment, safe and far away from Dr. Wells... that's not how the morning goes. Thankfully, by lunch time, Cisco and Hartley are free to go and they get Caitlin to come with them for a food break. They call Barry and have him meet them along with Joe for an impromptu Team Flash meeting. And while Iris and Eddie showing up too is a surprise, Cisco is a little relieved that Barry's finally told them he's the Flash.
They all get food from different places and then meet up at a park. It's a beautiful day and Cisco hates to think that what he has to say is going to ruin that, but... he needs to tell them. And then they all need to figure out how to prove the truth and defeat Wells.
Just... where does he even start? Cisco feels tongue tied pretty much the moment they've all settled at the picnic tables.
Thank goodness for Hartley.
"So, who else is having an infinitely better day today than yesterday? Because I certainly am," Hartley beamed around the table as he spoke, getting smiles back from the others.
"While I'm still not happy about certain developments," Joe said, glancing at his daughter and Eddie, who both glowered back at him in a way that clearly said he was losing whatever war was going on in the West family at the moment, "I'm glad you and Cisco are doing okay, Hartley."
"Apparently I'm no longer the most annoying problem on your plate, which is kind of nice," Hartley added cheerfully, getting the detective to roll his eyes. Though Joe had a hint of a smile, betraying his amusement.
No doubt Hartley rescuing Barry from Eiling had rather endeared him to Joe in a way nothing else possibly could.
"So, today we're going to be playing catch up with everyone here so that we're all on the same page," Hartley continued. "Some of this is stuff some of you already knows. But some of this I've been sitting on because we had some mutual mistrust going on and some of it Cisco only just learned yesterday. You'll notice Dr. Wells isn't joining us?" There were some nods all around. Joe clearly seemed to have an idea where this was heading. "Good. Because today's topic is what the fuck is up with Harrison Wells. So, anyone else want to go first or should I keep going?"
"I know Mason's been looking into him because he may have been involved in Simon Stagg's disappearance," Iris spoke up.
"He asked me about that when I was looking for you on the day that got erased," Barry added quietly, having clearly told Iris and Eddie about the time travel given the way they both looked at him, nodding speculatively.
When no one else said anything, just... shifted uncomfortably, Hartley took the conversation back over, having used the opportunity presented by Iris and Barry to snack on his sandwich and chips some. "So I'm going to start where things began for me, then. Not quite a month before the accelerator was set to turn on, I discovered a series of flaws in the accelerator and it's fail safe systems. When I did the correct thing and brought it to Harrison's attention he made it very clear that there would be no delays and no fixing it and when I insisted that I'd come forward to do the right thing if he wouldn't, he fired me and blackballed me from the industry. Fucked up my career so thoroughly that not even going to Dr. McGee over at Mercury Labs did me any good, and her enmity with Harrison - starting some time after Tess Morgan's death - is rather well known in certain circles. And since I wasn't the most well liked person at STAR Labs, there wasn't really anyone I could go to there for help either."
"True," Cisco and Caitlin chorused.
"Gee, thanks," Hartley drawled.
"You're an asshole and you're proud of it, Hartley," Caitlin said in amusement, smiling at him.
"Well, yes. Not the point. The point is that I knew people were going to die that night and everyone I went to for help ignored me. Then the night the accelerator goes live comes and I'm standing out there with the protestors, waiting for everything to blow up in everyone's face. And while Ronnie Raymond managed to prevent the explosion from taking out several city blocks, redirecting the energy up into the storm had other side effects."
"Meta humans, like Barry," Eddie filled in.
"And myself," Hartley agreed. "Enhanced hearing. Not nearly as easy to control as the show The Sentinel makes it look. Less homoerotic subtext with a hot PhD student either, given that there was none at all, so I really don't recommend the experience."
Caitlin snickered and gave Cisco a significant look that he valiantly ignored. She knew him too well, though, if that glance meant what Cisco thought it meant.
"So a number of people still died that night," Hartley continued, "and hundreds more were injured. An untold number of us had our genetic code violated and were made into metas, which means that the true number of victims of that night will likely never be completely known. But every time a latent meta's powers activate... there's another one. All of it entirely preventable."
"He gave a press conference about that, though... didn't he?" Eddie frowned. "Two months ago, or thereabout?"
"Covering his ass, yes. And it was still mostly a very pretty lie to hide the scale of the problem." Hartley hesitated. "Okay, so I'm probably going to be bad at explaining this, but Harrison's actions immediately after the accelerator failure and the months that followed are actually pretty sketchy and depended heavily on a combination of popular ableist concepts and a widespread misunderstanding of what penance really entails. So first of all, the ableist side of things is the idea that disability is some kind of cosmic punishment. Harrison played pretty heavily into the idea that his paralysis was punishment for screwing up the accelerator. That his disability was the suffering he was due for his hubris. Barry was napping for all of this, but the rest you remember what the news coverage was like. The narrative Harrison was spinning up for public consumption."
Cisco certainly remembers and it's a little uncomfortable to look back on. Oh there was nothing overt, but there was a subtle message slowly built up by Dr. Wells' interviews and overall PR strategy. It was a terrible accident and Dr. Wells was suffering enough over his physical disability and the shut down of STAR Labs to a mere skeleton staff. He'd lost everything and deserved pity, not recriminations. He'd been found criminally not liable and largely used that to quash civil suits, because if he wasn't criminally liable then he shouldn't be considered liable at all.
The number of times a narrative intended to call Dr. Wells out was shut down because he was paralyzed and what kind of awful person picked on a disabled man...
He'd crafted his disability, which might not have ever been real, into a shield and a bludgeon. A way to avoid taking responsibility for that night all while telling everyone else suffering a disability because of the accelerator that his pain was worth more than theirs.
"Being hard of hearing before the accelerator blew up wasn't some cosmic punishment for being gay, though my parents would certainly have had me believe that," Hartley said firmly. "And while it may have felt like a punishment for failing sometimes, my enhanced hearing isn't something I deserved because I couldn't get anyone to listen to me about the flaws in the accelerator. It's ableist nonsense to treat a disability as all the punishment a person deserves for screwing up, but it's so rooted in modern society that no one objects to hearing it in the news or on a blog post or getting preached about in church on Sunday. After all, how many people hear stories as a child about people who are forgiven for their sins and can miraculously throw off their disability... and the idea that disability is divine punishment becomes an ingrained truth after a while.
"Makes it a lot easier to hide what is really going on behind the scenes, though." Hartley's fingers were getting fidgety now and he took a moment to snack some more on his sandwich. "The idea of penance kind of comes into this next, for me anyway. It's kind of the best framework I've got for explaining this. A lot of people think of it as tasks a person does in order to be forgiven by others. In the Catholic act of reconciliation so many people dismiss penance as being the spiritual equivalent of being told to take two aspirin and call in the morning. But telling someone to pray two Hail Marys and an Our Father and come confess again if you're still sinning does absolutely nothing to address an actual problem. So people see penance as being a very performative action. Like deciding out of a pool of potentially hundreds of victims you'll pick one to help, for whom really all you can do is make them comfortable and pay off their enormous medical bills. Or a public admission of wrong doing, but only after the truth has been revealed to the people you most wanted to hide it from.
"Actual penance means acknowledging your very decision making paradigm is wrong and actively choosing to change. Making better decisions, admitting to guilt, and accepting the consequences of your actions. If Harrison had been truly penitent, then he wouldn't still be weaseling out of the consequences of knowingly activating a flawed accelerator. He wouldn't have stopped at helping just one person suffering from an unexpected medical condition that could be linked back to the events of that night. The one person, I might add, whose unusual abilities could, if replicated, actually heal the disability Harrison claims to have. And I say claims because, well... when I blew out the windows on that ridiculously gaudy show home of his, Harrison was standing several yards away from his wheelchair in the middle of the living room. Unassisted. So either he was never disabled to begin with or he found a way to heal himself and has been pretending to still be disabled for several months."
"He didn't have a scratch on him," Barry said quietly. "The glass... it didn't touch him. The way it fell, there wasn't any place where the fall pattern would indicate there was a person standing in the middle of all of that. Or a wheelchair, which would fit with that being elsewhere when the glass shattered. But for him to have been standing in the middle of all that... unless he moved very quickly out from beneath the falling shards, there should have been a place where the glass pattern on the floor was inconsistent, a gap of sorts. But there wasn't. I put those shards back together to determine how the windows were broken and..."
"I guess I thought that he'd started moving out of the way between when I looked to check where he was and putting the phone down to actually use my gloves, but honestly? Didn't even occur to me check that he was cut by the glass. I just assumed he was," Hartley admitted.
"But there's a very simple explanation for how he got out of the way of the falling glass," Cisco finally said. "He ran faster than the glass fell. Because Dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash."
Joe frowned, "I thought you two ruled that possibility out."
"We figured it out on the day that wasn't," Cisco said quietly. "When Hartley told me that Dr. Wells can walk, it fit with something that the Barry from the future told me privately before he returned back to whenever he travels back in time from. About Hartley knowing something about the Reverse Flash's real identity that'd make it kind of obvious, to me anyway, once I had all the pieces."
Iris and Eddie were giving Barry very curious looks, so apparently he hadn't told them everything quite yet.
"I've been trying to figure out why the speedster trap failed, but knowing that Dr. Wells was the Reverse Flash... I wanted proof and I thought I knew why the trap failed now. We found holo-emitters secreted into the trap's design and a hidden program that not only created a hologram of the Reverse Flash, but accounted for the distortions I saw in the field emitters that night. Only Dr. Wells found us. Or... he found Hartley because Hartley made me hide right before the elevator opened. And then he killed Hartley to hide his secret. And I'd have been next, but that was when Barry called about the tidal wave."
"But how can you know all of that?" Barry asked, frowning. "You didn't time travel back with me. And I certainly didn't know any of that to tell you, so..."
"I'm a meta." Cisco's voice shook a little. "It's kind of the only explanation that fits. At first i thought... it was just something my brain came up with because of my collapse. Except then I had another vision. This time of the place where Hartley and Dante were being held. That's the real reason I knew where to tell you to look for them, Barry."
"Cisco! Why didn't you tell me you'd collapsed again?" Caitlin demanded.
He shook his head, "because I didn't. I'm kind of hoping the whole nose bleed and passing out thing was just because my powers were finally triggering for the first time or whatever. And I didn't want Dr. Wells to know about my abilities."
"Okay, so Dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash," Barry said, frowning. "But... the Reverse flash said he's a time traveler from the future. So... is Dr. Wells working with some future version of himself?"
"It's a possibility," Hartley sounded skeptical. "But I doubt it. This is gonna be a little out there, but the theory that fits things best so far seems like in an alternate timeline where Nora Allen wasn't murdered, the Reverse Flash and the Flash have their epic rivalry going on. The Reverse Flash decides, for whatever reason, that the only way to end things are to kill Barry before he becomes the Flash and so runs back in time to that fateful night in 2000. The Flash gives chase and suddenly we've got two time traveling speedsters running around the Allen family home. Little Barry comes downstairs and the Flash has to make the decision to get his younger self out of there, probably intending to come back for his parents if he can. Unfortunately, Reverse Flash throws a hissy fit and murders Nora Allen in place of her son. Probably hoping that'll be enough to prevent Barry from becoming the Flash.
"As for how this ties into Harrison..." Hartley sighed. "Dr. Tina McGee has been quoted saying that Harrison's personality changed radically after the car accident that killed Tess Morgan. And she's not the only one who's said so. While both physical and emotional trauma could account for a radical personality shift... another possibility comes to mind. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Harrison Wells no longer seemed like himself because he wasn't. if I'm right, then Harrison Wells is dead and none of us have ever actually met him."
"Then Dr. Wells' body might still be somewhere near the stretch of highway where the crash happened," Eddie spoke up. "The Reverse Flash couldn't have had much time to dispose of the body and if he couldn't time travel then he may not have had his speed either."
Iris was nodding. "If we can find the real Dr. Wells body then maybe we can prove that the Reverse Flash is an imposter."
"I wonder what his real name is," Eddie mused.
"I guess now the question is what do we do about Dr. Wells in the meantime?" Caitlin grimaced. "Or not-Wells. Fake Wells?"
"Business as usual, don't let on you know?" Cisco shrugged.
"Ask Dr. McGee for a job?" Hartley shrugged. "I happen to have it on good authority she'll be hiring for a new project shortly that could use a good engineer and biochemist."
"When are you starting at Mercury?" Cisco asked.
"To be determined once I actually go back and officially accept her offer." Hartley hesitated, "which can wait for however long..."
Barry shook his head. "Wells damage to your career has had you put your life on hold long enough, Hartley. If you've got a way out of this mess... or at least to the periphery of it, I think you should take it. I don't want him having another shot at killing you."
"Yeah, next time it might actually take."
Cisco's hand grabbed on tightly to Hartley's, seemingly of its own volition. "Don't joke."
"Sorry." Hartley squeezed back, giving him an apologetic look. And Cisco wants to kiss him. Wants to grab the front of his shirt and drag him into a kiss.
He's been wanting that all day. Wanting to drag Hartley all the way back to his apartment, back into his bed, and kiss him into the sheets...
Waking up up in bed with Hartley was... addictive. Though they'd have to work on Hartley not choking on his hair every morning, funny though it had been.
Aaand... apparently Cisco had been a bit zoned out, because now they were discussing Iris and Eddie going to Star City to find the real Wells' remains. "I've got time off from work. I could make the trip with you. After all, if we want Team Arrow's help then someone who knows them should go along. Barry and Caitlin can't go because Dr. Wells would be suspicious, particularly of Barry."
"It'd be a good idea to get their help," Barry agreed.
"And getting you away from Harrison is a great idea," Hartley muttered.
Cisco wondered if he could come up with an excuse to bring Hartley with him too.
There was a package wrapped in black paper waiting by the door to Cisco's apartment when they got back. Small, no return address. Or any address, for that matter. Just... Hartley's name written on it in gold sharpie.
Hartley nudged it with his foot before Cisco could stop him. "Too light for explosives."
"Probably," Cisco muttered. "We should call Barry."
"I don't think it'll be a problem," Hartley responded, picking it up and slipping the lid off the top. There was a letter atop some crumpled tissue paper.
Carefully, Hartley shifted the package under one arm and opened the letter.
"Rathaway," Hartley read out loud. "Sorry about the rough treatment, but you and your roomie are safe from further disturbances. Though Lenny," and Hartley snorted in amusement, "wants another play date with that speedy friend of yours sometime soon. I hope Cisco's in better health - he's such a cutie and you two are such an adorable couple." Hartley blushed. "As a token of my thanks for the lovely gun design - looks like it'll be so much fun - please accept the gifts inside. I went with name theming; Lenny's cold punning might finally be getting to me. Lisa."
Handing Cisco the letter, Hartley picked out the crumpled tissue paper and fished out a small, realistic plush rat and a coffee cup covered in drawings of rats. Hartley snickered. "I'm keeping these."
"At least let me check the rat for bugs," Cisco muttered, reading over the letter himself. "I would not have expected a Snart to be a shipper on deck," he added absently.
"Well, she's... apparently very observant." Hartley was pointedly looking at the rat in the mug sitting in the box he was holding.
"Oh?" Cisco raised an eyebrow. And then grinned when Hartley looked up at him.
"Yeah." And then Hartley leaned over to kiss Cisco's cheek. He missed, however, because Cisco turned his head and - a bit awkwardly, their noses bonking into each other - let Hartley's mouth meet his own instead. It's a startled, chaste kiss and Hartley's eyes are comically wide behind his glasses even as a pleased smile curves rather attractively on his lips. "Oh..."
Cisco unlocked the door and gestured inside. "I think we put off a talk this morning about you staying in the apartment with me. Maybe we should be revisiting that now?"
"I'm pretty sure what we should be doing now is making out on your couch," Hartley retorted. "The apartment thing can wait. It's not like I'm going anywhere regardless."
"Hmm, guess you are a genius after all," Cisco teased. "Though actual first thing we do should be checking the rat for bugs because I'm not letting Lisa Snart listen to us make out on the couch."
Chuckling, Hartley aimed another kiss at Cisco's cheek - successfully sticking the landing this time - and then walked into the apartment.
Notes: Admittedly, in the show I think EoWells does get caught in the last glass breaking wave during his dramatic run under the skylights. But for the purposes of the series he did not git hit by any.