Piper was juggling a cat carrier, an over-stuffed reusable shopping bag and his keys the next time he bumped into James-the-architect in the hallway. He was trying to lock his apartment door behind him, but the yowling kitten running back and forth along the cat carrier was doing its damndest to make that an impossible chore.
"Hey, do you need me to hold something?" James offered.
To his credit, Piper managed not to drop anything. He turned around and smiled gratefully. "Sure. Can you take this?" He passed over the cat carrier and successfully locked the door.
"Hey there cutie." James cooed at the kitten, who instantly quieted. It jogged over to the little slats in the carrier and bumped noses with James. "Your kitten's adorable."
"It's not mine. I'm bringing it to the shelter."
"Oh. Is it a stray then?"
"Kinda." Piper answered. "Why, do you want him?"
"For real? Yeah, that'd be great. You sure you don't want him?" James was already opening the carrier and extracting the kitten, who started purring and rubbing up against him.
"By all means. That's one more errand I won't have to run."
"Not a cat person, huh?" James guessed.
"Not in the least. I prefer rodents, and where cats eat them, well it's not a good combination."
"Yeah, I can see that. Well thanks for the kitten. Have fun with your errands."
Piper sighed. "If only. Uh, I mean sure. Thanks. See you later."
Piper's first stop brought him to the hospital to check up on Kendra. He almost walked into a nurse who was carrying a massive bouquet of flowers out of the room. The nurse was grumbling under her breath about her bitch of a patient.
Eyebrows raised, Piper edged into a barren hospital room. He'd expected the place to be full of flowers and get well cards, considering Kendra's clientele.
Then again, that was the reason she was here. Right.
Piper waved nervously from the doorway. "Hi Kendra. Um…just wanted to check up on you."
"It's okay Piper, you can come in. But if Mick or any of the others try to visit me again I'm going to tell the doctors who they really are and have them shipped to Iron Heights with Len." Other than the bandages and the shadows under her eyes, she looked like her normal self at least. Piper sat down next to her and nervously tapped his hands against his knees.
"So…um. Sorry about everything."
"Don't be. It wasn't your fault." She sighed. "As soon as they let me out of here I'm getting out of the cities though. Not sure where I'm going to move this time, but I think I'm just about done crime doctoring for super criminals."
"Ah." He'd seen that coming, but it was still bad news. "We're going to have a hard time replacing you."
"I'm fully aware of that."
"Don't get me wrong, I understand. I'd be concerned for your mental health if you wanted to stay after this, but-"
"I'll miss some of you boys too." She smiled sadly at him. "You and Trickster in particular. You were great customers." She reached over and squeezed his hand. "Good luck hon."
"Yeah, you too. Well, I guess I'd better get going. I have a lot to do today." He stood up and stretched.
"Anything exciting?"
"Nothing to scan the news for. Well, Sam's trying to get a group together to bust Len out of Iron Heights, that might be newsworthy."
She scowled. "Can you wait until I'm out of the hospital please? Preferably out of the state?"
"Kendra, he'd never hurt-"
"I don't want to see him again as long as I live."
He took an unconscious step away from her hospital bed. "Kay. Um, yeah. I can talk to Sam about holding off for a little bit. Feel better Kendra."
"Bye Piper."
Piper was just leaving Gambi's with a new set of costumes when his cell phone started ringing. He stuffed the bags into his trunk and felt along his pockets until he got his fingers on the phone. "Hello?"
"Pookie? Where are you?"
Piper pinched the bridge of his nose. "Running errands. I told you I'd be busy today. Can you try not to whine at me?"
"S-sorry…I've got a headache. It makes me whiny. Um…the kitten's gone. Was I supposed to be watching it?" James actually sounded a little nervous. Piper smirked.
"No, no. One of the errands was bringing Muffin to the shelter." He sat down on the hood of his car, resigned to a short conversation before he was off anywhere else. "But I didn't even have to. James-the-architect took him."
"…you gave your crush a kitten?"
Scowling, Piper hung up on him. The phone immediately started ringing again. After several minutes of this, Piper realized his boyfriend was more stubborn than he had the patience for, and he answered it. "For the last time, I do NOT have a crush on James!"
"Okay, okay, geeze! God you're touchy lately. But you know the guy is really, disgustingly into you, right?"
"Yeah, I'm aware." Piper frowned. "But what do you want me to do about it?"
"I dunno. Just think giving him a cute little kitten was a bad plan, personally. So, um…what time do you think you'll be home?"
"Dunno. I stopped by to see Kendra, she's leaving the state by the way-"
"Good." There was a healthy amount of bitterness in James' tone there.
"Ah huh. I picked up the new costumes. Gambi was amazed at what you did to the last one-"
"What Flash did to the last one!" James exclaimed.
"Whatever. Apparently fabric doesn't normally burn quite like that. Anyway, I've still got to pick up a new set of pliers from the store and, um, yeah, a few other things. I'll probably be home in a few hours." He glanced at the backseat of his car, more specifically at the Toys 'R Us bag nestled amongst his reusable shopping bags.
"Okay Pookie. I'm gonna take an aspirin or something and watch some cartoons. See ya later."
"Yeah, bye." Piper hung up, took another look at the bag, and then started for the industrial park.
Osgood Rathaway said a terse goodbye to his secretary before rushing out of the office building for his car. An unexpected meeting had completely thrown his schedule off, and now he was running late for his daughter's birthday party. Considering he still had to pick up a few things for the party, his wife was going to be in a mood by the time he got in. If he'd thought of it, he could have called the maid and had her do the errands. Oh well, too late for that now.
Osgood was busy mentally planning out the best route to take with the fewest stop lights as he jogged to his car and therefore didn't really notice the music. In fact, he didn't notice it until it stopped, and he found himself in a shadowy corner of the parking garage that happened to be in a security camera blind spot.
Hartley was standing in front of him in a hooded sweatshirt holding a gimmicked flute. He smiled easily, like the meeting was pleasant instead of abhorrent. "Hello Dad."
Osgood backed away, reaching for his cell phone. "Stay back!" He dialed 9 and 1 but couldn't bring himself to push the 1 again.
"Dad, come on, I just want to talk."
"I thought I'd made myself perfectly clear Hartley. We're not interested in talking to you ever again."
He inhaled sharply. "It's been a few years. You don't…miss me at all?"
"No." Osgood lied.
In truth, he was looking Hartley over for signs of injury or malnourishment (he'd had a tendency to skip meals when he was younger, often needing to be reminded to put his music collection away and eat). Osgood and Rachel had spent sleepless nights following the news, making sure the Pied Piper wasn't getting himself killed fighting the Flash, or in an ill-conceived team up. But he couldn't let Hartley back into their lives, not while he was so dangerous and unstable. Not with how impressionable Jerrie was.
Hartley looked stung, but quickly slipped into an expressionless mask. "I was hoping you might let me visit Jerrie. You can tell her whatever you want, I just want to give her a birthday hug and a present." Though he was affecting a casual demeanor, it was pretty obvious how badly Hartley wanted the visit.
Which was too bad, because Osgood certainly couldn't allow it. "Don't be ridiculous! We're protecting Jerrie from you!"
"I would never hurt my sister!" Hartley yelled. "I'm not some kind of monster-"
"No, you're a deviant bank robbing hoodlum! You're a wanted criminal, Hartley. How in good conscience could I expose Jerrie to you? She's so innocent and confused about the whole mess."
"Dad, please. Just five minutes?" Hartley's mask dropped entirely as he fixed pleading eyes on his father. Osgood was sharply reminded of better times, of Hartley begging for just one more CD (and if he got it, he'd really do his homework this time), to stay up for just a half hour longer for a TV show, or any other number of innocent requests he'd happily indulged. But he couldn't this time. Hartley was too dangerous, too unstable.
And there was Jerrie to think of.
"If I catch you near our property I will call the police. Stay away from us. You'll only make your mother cry."
"Dad…"
"Pookie, you home?" James called. He didn't get a response, but there was music playing in the bedroom. James set down the box of movies and video games he'd brought with him from his house and went over to knock on the open bedroom door. "Piper?"
Piper was lying face down on the bed with a pillow over his head; this was the third time James had caught him like this in the past week. The new-couple euphoria had long worn off, and now James was discovering to his displeasure just how moody a human being he'd fallen in love with.
Well, at least lately he was pretty friggin' moody.
He sat down next to Piper and plucked the pillow off of him. Piper was wearing real clothes at least, that was a good sign. He'd been wearing pajamas and old sweats lately, something James had noticed as coinciding with depressive cycles. He ran a hand through the messy orange hair and rubbed soothing circles on Piper's back. "Hey Hart, you okay?"
"No…" Piper finally answered. He sat up, and for a moment James saw Piper's pain etched into his face, burning in his eyes. Then Piper curled up against him, burying his face in James' shirt. James hugged him protectively.
"Baby, were you crying?"
"My…my abandonment issues are acting up a-again."
"It's okay, ssh…I'm not going anywhere. So don't worry about being abandoned."
"It's, it's not just that. I…James, I don't want to be a super villain anymore! I want-I want my parents to l-love me again, and I want to hug my sister on her birthday and I want my family back. I hate this life-I don't want to fight the Flash anymore, or have to do my charity work with aliases! But I can't…I don't know how to stop…" Piper shook with fresh sobs.
James' stomach clenched. He sincerely hoped Piper didn't mean anything he'd said beyond missing his family. 'He's just having a bad day, he's just…fuck, what if he means it?' James was intricately connected to Piper's life as a criminal. If he gave up the one, would he give up the other? 'Great, there go my abandonment issues'.
"Piper, ssh, it's okay…it's okay, if you're that unhappy we'll fix things, okay? Come on, you've got me now and one of my principal goals in life is to make you happy. Pookie?"
"Y-you do make me happy…which is why I'm so fucking scared I'm going to push you away." Piper choked out.
"Hey, I'm not going anywhere. No need to worry about being abandoned."
"Promise?" He sounded so young and scared, nothing like the confident super villain James was used to. God, he really didn't want Piper to quit.
"I promise. I'm not leaving you." James kissed the top of his head and tightened the embrace.
After a few more minutes of soothing nonsense and reassurances, Piper got control of his breathing and gradually the hug shifted to more of a genuine cuddle. Piper nuzzled against James and leaned up for a kiss.
"You're perfect." Piper murmured.
"So are you."
"James, clearly I'm not-"
"Circumstances aside, you are. And I love you. So tell me what's up. How do I help?"
"You can't." Piper answered. James snorted derisively.
"The Trickster begs to differ."
"It's my family James, and it's personal. You're doing all the help you can right now." Piper snuggled closer and sighed in near-contentment. "I'd be stark raving mad without you."
"Not to mention dying from some kind of nutritional deficiency. By the by, the rats that have started hanging out in the apartment I keep meticulously clean despite your sabotage…"
"You're not calling an exterminator. I invited them in."
"Yeah, I saw you petting one of them the other day. That's not hygienic babe. You could catch a disease."
"I'm fine." Piper objected.
"If you want a rat, we can go to the pet store and get a nice clean caged one."
"I like the ones I've already met. Wouldn't say no to the pet store one, mind you, but I'm not going to stop inviting the other ones in."
"So I should woo you with rats?" James asked. "I mean, it's creative, I'll give you that. Way more unique than flowers."
Piper laughed, and James finally considered his job as a comforting boyfriend successful.
The next afternoon, Piper woke up to tiny little feet scrabbling along the pillow just above his head. He peeked out from the covers and spied a chubby white rat with a blue and orange striped bow around his neck gnawing on the edge of the pillow case. He let out a squeal of delight and hugged the rat to his chest.
James walked into the room, leaning against the doorway. He smiled, watching Piper giddily hug his new pet. The sincere joy Piper exuded brought home exactly how miserable he'd been lately. Clearly more than a pet was necessary to truly remedy the situation, but James was going to tackle the messy stuff later. For now, the rat was a good start.
"You like him?" James asked.
"Of course! He's so handsome! Though his fashion sense leaves a lot to be desired."
"Nonsense. He's clearly a fashionista. That bow? It's daring. Not every rat could pull that off."
"Mm. I think I'll name him JJ."
"Hey! I don't care how well he rocks my colors, I'd rather you not name a plague bag after me."
Piper held the rat up. "But look at that sweet little mischievous face."
"How'd you feel if I named a cockroach after you?" James asked.
Piper considered. "I suppose that would depend upon how you feel about cockroaches and what you associate with them. If you loved them the way I love rats, I'd find it endearing."
"Damn you and your logic. Fine. Call the vermin JJ. But don't tell Len."
"Who's the handsomest rodent in the world? It's you, yes you are!"
"Oh God is that gonna get old quick." James whined, but he was smiling. "Glad you're happy though babe."
"I am. Very much so. Thank you James."
"Anything for my Pookie. By the way, how d'ya think you'd be at setting up a Habitrail? I'm having trouble, and you're a helluva lot more handy with this stuff than me."
"He doesn't need to live in a-"
"Rats track urine."
"But James-"
"And they get everywhere. I'm never cooking here again if JJ's free range." And the house happened to smell like delicious, delicious crepes and coffee at the moment.
Piper pouted. "Fine. But I'm keeping him with me nearly constantly."
"I figured you would."
"Piper, the rat's staring at me."
"Take it as a compliment." Piper suggested.
James was sprawled across the couch with a volume of Carl Barks Disney comics he'd been looking forward to reading since he'd made up his mind to steal it from the collectibles store that morning. But JJ was wigging him out, to the point where he couldn't even get into Donald and Scrooge's steam shovel fight.
Piper was sitting on the floor in front of the TV, surrounded by notebooks, reference books and equipment. He'd been busy working on his project all morning, and the rat (today sporting Piper's colors) was perched on his shoulder. JJ was facing behind Piper towards the sofa, beady little eyes fixed unwaveringly on James. He'd been like that since James had sat down.
"Can you make him stop?"
"Um, no, not really. Now stop bothering me. I'm working."
"I'm working too! Well, trying to. If your stupid rat'll let me."
"James, you're reading comics."
"Right. For me, this is research." James whined defensively. "I get ideas for gimmicks from this stuff."
"If JJ's bothering you that much you could always read somewhere else. Your apartment, for example." Piper set down the warped piece of metal he was holding and frowned. "I still don't understand why you're keeping that place. You never spend any time there anymore."
"Yeah, but say Flash finds out about this place. Never hurts to have more than one. I've got a couple of workshops that double as safe houses in Keystone too."
"Mm. I've got a hideout in the suburbs around Central. Alright, fair point. I thought you were just afraid someone would notice we're living together and out you."
"Yeah, that too."
Piper frowned. "You could just come out."
"I could." James agreed, and hid behind his comic books.
"So are you going to?"
"Going to what?"
"Are you going to come out?" Piper yelled.
"Ida know. Not yet." James mumbled.
"Well why not?" Piper stood up suddenly, turning to face James. JJ almost fell off his shoulder.
James stared up at him, a sad puppy look on his face. "We already talked about this. I'm just not ready Pookie. I'm sorry if it's pissing you off."
Piper sighed. "It shouldn't bother me, but it does. I'll…I'll try to get over it." He threw his things into a box and stomped over to the bedroom.
"Piper? Are you-" The door slammed shut. "-okay?" James frowned. "I don't think I can get enough rats for this."
The next morning James woke up alone in bed, which was just plain unusual. He was typically up at least a couple hours before Piper, who slept so cuddled up to James that he had to extract himself from his boyfriend as part of his morning routine. He felt along the bed but didn't even notice a warm spot.
Rubbing at his eyes, he walked into the living room and blinked a few times. The floor was covered with tools, scraps of metal and bits of wire. In his haste, Piper had even left some notes and schematics out (things he'd become particularly secretive about recently). James looked through them, but he couldn't make sense of it. Too much sonics jargon for him to follow. Sighing, he cleaned it up, made breakfast, filled JJ's food dish and freshened his water bottle, and waited to hear from his pain in the ass of a boyfriend.