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This time, when Barry walks in looking vaguely guilty, Hartley knows better than to let him start. “Did we get invited to another family dinner?”
“Huh?” Barry looks fleetingly confused. “Oh, no. No, actually, Caitlin and Ronnie invited us to, um…to go on a double date with them. Only Ronnie wants to go to a karaoke night and I can’t handle a karaoke night with Caitlin again, please come with me?”
Hartley laughs. He’s heard the stories of the infamous first karaoke night, and he’s also not sure he trusts his sweet boy not to let himself get dragged into something equally humiliating. “What do you want me to do?” he teases. “Bring my flute? Get up onstage and play for you?”
“No,” Barry says. He probably wants to sound dismissive, as though the idea is ridiculous, but his voice comes out breathy and unsure. He loves being sent deep into trance, and while seeing him so mindless and vulnerable is something Hartley only feels safe allowing at home, the thought of his sweet boy hypnotized and pliant in public is a lovely fantasy.
“You’re sure?” he teases. “You don’t want me to make you nice and controlled in the middle of a date?”
Barry gives himself a little shake. “If you used your flute, you’d affect everyone in the bar,” he says. “You wouldn’t do that.”
“No,” Hartley agrees. More than that, he doesn’t want Barry so drifty and suggestible unless the two of them are alone; Barry’s trusting, tranced submission isn’t to be shared. “So when is this alleged double date?”
“Um.” Barry rocks back and forth. Hartley knows the answer before he speaks. “In like an hour?”
He leans in and gives Barry a kiss on the nose. “I adore you. We’d best get ready, shouldn’t we?”
Barry perks up. He’s always so happy when Hartley agrees to join him for social things, even now that Hartley accepts more offers than he declines. “Yes, we should!”
An hour later finds them in front of the agreed-upon bar, waiting on Caitlin and Ronnie. They arrive some five minutes late, giggling and flushed as though they’ve been making out. Upon seeing Barry and Hartley waiting for them, Ronnie says, “Wow, I’m sorry, I hope we didn’t keep you waiting too long. Caity said…”
“That I’m usually late?” Barry guesses with a grin. “Yeah, she’s not wrong, but Hartley’s a good influence.” He gestures toward the door, from which emanates an eerily dim light. “Shall we go?”
The inside of the bar is, by Hartley’s admittedly low standards, surprisingly spacious but not very well-lit. Unkindly, he supposes this is best for drunk patrons. Onstage, to his amusement, is none other than Lisa Snart, singing ‘Mickey’ and laughing uproariously. Somewhere in the audience, he suspects, is an annoyed Mick Rory wondering why his life ever intersected with troublesome Snarts.
“Is that…?” Caitlin asks.
Barry tilts his head. “Her voice is okay,” he proclaims, as though that’s the most pressing issue.
They find a table not too near the stage. The noise is still overwhelming, but Hartley can grit his teeth and bear it. He’s endured worse, although listening to a roomful of people munching on salty bar snacks and slurping drinks has to be one of the levels of hell.
“I can get everyone’s drinks,” Ronnie offers. “I know everybody’s orders—not yours, Barry, but Caity brought your special brew anyway.”
“Um.” Hartley feels like he has to shout to be heard over the noise, though he knows they’re not as sensitive to background sounds as he is. Given how little he’s gone out with the team, Ronnie has no reason to know that he would no longer be thrilled with scotch, his drink of choice before the particle accelerator explosion. “Club soda for me, Ronnie.”
Ronnie laughs. “Huh, never thought I’d see the day you were the designated driver. STAR Labs parties were the only times I ever saw you relaxed, and then it was more like…”
“Plastered,” Hartley says curtly. “Yes, I know. I’ve learned my limits.”
Barry gives him a sideways look that, thankfully, Caitlin and Ronnie ignore. “Probably just as well,” Ronnie agrees, “if the stories I’ve heard about drunken karaoke are true.” This is clearly aimed at Caitlin, who holds up her hands in defeat.
“All true,” she agrees. “Actually, speaking of karaoke…” She pauses long enough to give Ronnie a kiss on the cheek before he goes off to get drinks. “Hartley, I was wondering if you would do a song with me.”
He recoils. “Do a song together? Why?”
She shrugs. “I feel like we don’t spend much time together outside of work, and I thought, where better to do a little team bonding than up on stage, where there’s the adrenaline rush and the sense of unity against a vast, judgmental crowd?”
It’s psychologically sound reasoning, although he’s still not entirely convinced. Half out of desperation, he appeals to Barry. “And you won’t be upset about not doing a duet?”
“Well.” Barry reaches over and squeezes his hand. “In the name of team bonding, how can I be upset?”
“Well.” Hartley isn’t sure of this, but he hates to put a damper on the fun. It’s not as though Caitlin is wrong—they’re polite to each other, but they’ve never properly bonded. He’s not entirely sure this is the way to do it. “All right, I suppose.”
Ronnie returns with the drinks. While he distributes them, Caitlin pulls out a vial of Barry’s Flash-proof alcohol. “I figured you’d want to relax, too,” she says, handing it over to Barry.
“Thanks,” he says. Then, with a bright grin, he bolts up out of his seat. “I’m gonna go set all of us up for karaoke.”
Hartley forces himself not to worry about what kind of song Barry will choose for him to sing with Caitlin. That isn’t stress he needs right now. The noise level is more than sufficient on its own without adding any fear of the near future.
Barry returns, beaming, and promptly refuses to say a word about what horrors are in store. All he’ll say is that Ronnie will sing first and that he suspects if Stein and Jax are listening, they’re going to have opinions.
“Stein always has opinions,” Ronnie chuckles. “It’s only mostly annoying.”
Before terribly long, Ronnie is called to the stage. He instructs Caitlin to watch his drink, leaps to his feet, and bounds up onto the stage. When the music starts, he bursts out laughing. “Oh, we’re gonna have words about this,” he says gleefully before launching into the open lines of ‘Burning Love.’
“A little too accurate, don’t you think?” Hartley glances at Barry. Belatedly (aided in large part by the strong whiff of alcohol that accosts him), he realizes now isn’t the time to ask Barry to exercise restraint.
His sweet boy giggles. “Yeah, well…it was the most Ronnie song they had.”
“You know, I didn’t want to be afraid of the song you picked as my and Caitlin’s duet,” he laments. Unfortunately, this touches off another round of giggles. Hartley rolls his eyes and forces himself not to consider what kind of song Barry chose for him.
As it turns out, Barry apparently wanted to play up Hartley and Caitlin’s occasional (and now-infrequent) animosity. When they reach the stage, they’re faced with the lyrics for ‘Anything You Can Do.’ They have two options: be awkward or embrace the hilarity. In the split-second before the music starts, Hartley murmurs, “Let’s have fun with it.”
Nervously, Caitlin agrees, “Okay.”
As it turns out, they have a great deal more fun than either of them could have anticipated. Caitlin is a little stiff at first (and her singing voice is only adequate), so Hartley goes out of his way to be as dramatic as possible. Thankfully, she picks up on his dramatic energy, and by the time the song ends, they’re playing off each other to the crowd’s great amusement.
“That was fun!” Caitlin proclaims as they scurry off the stage.
“Yeah, yeah it was.” Hartley feels dizzy with nerves in the best possible way. It’s been a long time since he got up in front of a crowd—he’d forgotten how good it feels.
Ronnie greets Caitlin with a kiss. Barry greets Hartley with a wide grin and a giggled, “Told you not to be nervous.”
“I don’t think you did, actually.” Hartley kisses him and asks, “Aren’t you up?”
“Oh yeah!” Barry hops to his feet and scampers up onto the stage at a slightly-faster-than-normal pace. He staggers when he reaches the microphone stand, rights himself, and grins. “So, this song’s for my guy.”
Hartley can only imagine what he’s about to hear. When the opening chords fill the room, he drops his head onto the table.
“It could be worse,” Caitlin suggests, giggling. “It could be Lady Gaga.”
“Still,” Hartley mumbles to the table. “‘Smooth Criminal?’”
“I never said his music taste was good.” Caitlin must go to sit back in her seat—somewhat too clumsily, if the ‘eep!’ and hasty thunk of chair legs are any indication. With the thunk still resounding in his ears, Hartley almost misses her whispered thanks to Ronnie.
When the song is done, Barry bounds off the stage. He flops back into his chair with a victorious giggle and reaches over to take Hartley’s hand. “That was for you,” he murmurs. “’Cause…you came into my life with a crescendo. That song always makes me think of you.”
Caitlin makes a delighted little ‘awww’ sound. Hartley blushes and is suddenly unsure where to look. He settles for studying Barry’s hand. “I…um…thanks.”
“It still didn’t quite live up to that duet,” Ronnie says. His tone is gentle enough that they can brush away his remark if they want, but Hartley is grateful to him for providing an out.
“That was a lot of fun,” Hartley agrees. He leans over and gives Barry a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for choosing such a delightfully antagonistic song.”
“You were great.” Barry gazes at him with adoration. Presently, as though realizing he’s stared at Hartley too long, he shifts his focus to Caitlin and grins. “Both of you were.”
“Aww, thank you.” She leans against Ronnie’s shoulder. “This has been a lot of fun.”
“So you’d do it again?” Ronnie teases. He clearly expects a no—Hartley can only assume he thinks the memory of previous drunken karaoke incidents will overshadow the fun they’re having.
“Yeah, I think so.” Caitlin looks expectantly across the table at them. Barry nods immediately, too drunk and happy from singing to refuse. Hartley makes a show of considering.
“Yes,” he finally says. “I think I would.”