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“So you’ve come to bother me again?” Hartley drawled, not bothering to get up from where he sat. A few feet closer wasn’t going to make much difference, especially since he knew how the conversation was going to go. It never changed. “That’s what, three times this week? You must really like me.”
Cisco frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “That’s not- I just-” he stuttered, before stopping and shaking his head. “Stop doing that. You’re a prisoner. You’re supposed to be like… resigned to your fate!”
Hartley couldn’t hold back a snort of derision at that. “Sure, sure,” he said, waving a hand vaguely in Cisco’s direction. “I’ll get right on that.”
“Shut up,” Cisco snapped, just like he always did when Hartley started getting a bit sarcastic. Hartley could practically set his watch, if he had one in this ridiculous little prison, by Cisco’s responses.
“What scintillating conversation, but I’d never expect anything less from you. Or should that be less?” he said, eyebrow raised as he waited for Cisco’s response. There was a beat of silence and he frowned. This was not how it usually went, not the same conversation they always had. Something had changed.
“I wish I didn’t like you so much,” Cisco muttered a moment later, turning away, shoulders hunched.
It was said so quietly that Hartley almost didn’t hear it, even with the improved hearing aids Cisco had brought him not long ago. He jumped up, heart pounding, and strode to the cell door. He had to have misunderstood. He hoped he hadn’t.
“Say that again,” he said after a moment, watching the way Cisco’s shoulders tightened at the words. There was no reply, though, and he gritted his teeth, not sure if he was angry or frustrated. “Please.”
“Did you just say please?” Cisco asked, face full of disbelief as he turned to face the cell again.
Hartley made a face, wishing a little that he’d just kept his mouth shut. “Once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said, smirking to cover up how uncomfortable he was. He hoped it would be enough to distract Cisco, at least for the moment.
The soft smile that grew on Cisco’s face said not. “Sure, sure,” he said, mocking but still somehow more fond than Hartley would have expected just a few minutes before.
Without really meaning to, Hartley could feel himself giving a small answering smile. “Shut up,” he said, and just like that, something seemed to ease between them.
He wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, or even what the next step was, but there was something for them to build on, some mutual feeling. It would take time and effort and a lot of convincing before Cisco would even just let him out of the cell, but for the first time, Hartley was sure it would happen.