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Hartley walked into his shitty little apartment and shut the door. He collapsed against the door, dropping his keys on the table.
“I hate my life,” he moaned. He had tried. He played by the rules. When “Wells” had threatened to ruin his life, he had kept his mouth shut. And yet in the precious little time “Wells” had before destroying his own name he had managed to drag Hartley through so much mud that no one in the scientific community would take him seriously. Which is how Hartley had ended up flipping burgers at McDonalds. His life was dull. He hadn’t even dawned his Pied Piper alias in weeks having been too exhausted to stir up trouble for Team Flash.
He reached over to flick on the lights. Nothing. He flicked the switch again. Still no lights.
“Now that’s interesting,” he muttered. Grabbing the bat he kept by the door for just this sort of occasion. He knew the building had power. He could hear his neighbor watching CSI next door through the too thin wall. Someone had wanted to take away his power.
He wander through his small apartment walking as quietly as he could. The bat hung loosely in his grip ready to swing at any moment. Nothing had been disturbed. Things were moved yes, but not the sort of disturbed you would expect from your generic burglar. No one had touched his computer equipment, or even grabbed the five dollar bill he had left sitting on his desk. His clothes however had been rifled through. His drawers had been dumped.
Someone was looking for something.
Suddenly a shadow darted in from the left. Hartley swung the bat at the attacker but the man, large and bulky, stepped out of the way easily. He knocked the bat out of Hartley’s hands before Hartley could swing again. Another step and the man wrapped his arm around Hartley’s torso pinning his arms against his side. Hartley kicked back, connecting his heel to the man’s shin. The man however did not let go just grunted as the pain radiated up his leg.
The man’s other hand came up and pushed a rag against Hartley’s face. Chloroform, Hartley realized. He began struggling in earnest. Whatever this was it wasn’t a simple burglary. However he quickly began to lose consciousness.
“Nighty night,” the man sneered as Hartley’s vision faded and he passed out.
Hartley woke up sitting in a chair. It was hard and plastic and one that he certainly didn’t own. The ground beneath his feet was concrete not his soft 30 year out of date carpet. So he had been moved from his home he realized.
Next he opened his eyes but saw nothing but darkness. That combined with the clawing heat and his breath being reflected back into his face concluded that there was something over his head. He wasn’t supposed to know where he was.
He slowly rolled his shoulders. His hands were tied behind his back but nothing felt broken. If he could escape the ropes then maybe he would stand a fighting chance against his kidnappers.
Unfortunately he was a scientist, not an escape artist.
There was rustle of noise beside him before the bag over his head was pulled off. He closed his eyes as light assaulted his cornea from the single swinging light bulb.
“Hartley Rathaway,” Someone sneared. Hartley slowly opened his eyes to see a man wearing a parka in front of him. He was somewhat short, of average build and horrid hair, Hartley memorized just in case he ever had a chance to describe his kidnappers to the police, or seek personal revenge. “Or should I call you Pied Piper instead?” He asked dumping a bag on the table. Hartley’s frequency gloves came tumbling out.
Okay this was bad. No one was supposed to know who he was. That was the point of the whole secret identity thing.
“I have a proposal of sorts,” The man continued, “I am looking for enterprising young villains, like you, to create a coalition of sorts. Together we’ll bring this city to it’s knees.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Do you have any questions?”
“When do we start?” Hartley grinned.
On a scale of one to ten, one being coming out to his parents, and ten being his decision to go into science Hartley would rate joining the rogues as a 5, maybe a 5.5. Overall it was decisively neutral. They hadn’t done anything villainous yet. Honestly Snart seemed much more interested in recruiting new members and planning mixers than coming up with new plans to conquer central city or take down the flash.
But still it did get him out of his apartment, so that had to be a plus right?
At the moment they were holed up in some seedy little bar that had gone under. Peek-a-Boo had recommended it. Hartley had scoffed at her name, probably something that dofus Cisco had come up with since he insisted on naming them all. Still there was cheap alcohol, and the furnishings were at least comfortable, if horribly clashing.
It was the first official meeting of the rogues. They were supposed to mingle, plan crimes, become a support group of sorts, but so far Hartley had only managed to sit in the corner slowly sipping his drink waiting for someone to do something. He supposed that some of his reticence was the rule that they check their weapons at the door. Not that he normally wandered around town with his sonic gloves, but just in this situation with all these dangerous people? No, Hartley wasn’t too happy to leave his gloves behind. But he still had his implants and his superior intellect. He supposed that would have to do.
Hartley drained the rest of his drink. He sighed staring at the empty cup. He was going to need a lot more alcohol if he was going to get through the rest of this “meeting.”
He made his way to the bar, slipping past Brie Larvin and Mark Mardon. He leaned over the bar and pulled out a dusty old bottle of [alcohol] and mixed it with one of the open bottles of soda. Next to him Snart and his sister, Lisa were telling Axel all about some heist they had pulled off or something.
“You know it’s tough on us non-meta’s,” Snart was saying, “We have to rely on our tech so heavily.” Hartley mentally agreed, slowly turning to join in the group's conversation. “So the last time Flash broke my cold gun, I had to get it rebuilt. I certainly couldn’t do it.”
Hartley agreed with that statement, though he refrained from saying anything. He had examined Cold’s gun the first time he had a chance to. The thing was a piece of art practically with all the wires more delicately placed the the petals painted on a flower. Hartley was sure that given the appropriate amount of time he would have been able to come up with a similar design, though he wasn’t sure his could ever beat the original.
“So what do I do?” Snart continued, “Well I kidnapped the mechanic of course. Lisa helped, which is how she got her gun in the end.”
“It was my pleasure,” Lisa practically purred, “Quite literally. He was quite the good kisser.” Leonard scoffed at that statement.
“Will you shut up about that?” He asked, “I do not need to be reminded that that greasy little pipsqueak made out with my sister.”
“Half sister,” Lisa corrected. “But what does it matter if you approve. We’re like Romeo and Juliet, thrown hazardously on the wrong sides of two warring forces.”
“Oh come off it,” Leonard glowered.
“What? He’s smart, well employed, cute, has nice hair, funny,” She glanced over at Hartley, “Wouldn’t you agree, Rathaway?”
“Hmm?” Hartley asked, sipping his drink. He hadn’t actually wanted to be involved in this conversation.
“Wouldn’t you agree that Cisco is wonderful. Didn’t you used to work with him?”
Hartley glared at her. “Cisco Ramon is the most annoyingly pop culture obsessed idiot I have ever had the misfortune of meeting.” Hartley growled.
Lisa laughed at his comment. “See even Piper agrees with me.” Hartley slammed back the rest of his drink and left his cup on the bar.
“I’m leaving,” Hartley announced to the room at large.
“I’ll walk you out,” Leonard said, standing as well, “I don’t need to listen to anymore of Lisa sick fantasies.”
“He really likes Cisco doesn’t he,” Lisa mused watching Hartley dig his sonic gloves out of the pile of weapons by the door.
“Doesn’t sound like he does to me,” Axel questioned, scratching his head.
“Oh, he really does,” Lisa smirked, “He just doesn’t want to admit it.”
“Rathaway, may I have a moment,” Leonard said as Hartley grabbed his sonic gloves out of the weapons stack. Hartley turned and glared at him. “I’m planning a heist of sorts. I could use your help bring it in.” Hartley continued to glare not saying a word. “You would get a cut of the profit of course.”
“Fine I’m in, text me the details later,” and with that Hartley was out the door trying to get as far away from Lisa and any mentions of his past life before Wells had destroyed everything.
Cisco was enjoying his afternoon off. He had slept in, had his morning cereal, created a new weapon design, and argued with Caitlin about the virtue of the Star Wars prequels. He was topping his day off with a trip to Jitters for a latte. He had set up at a corner table just trying to work on some new ideas for Flash’s suit when someone set a new drink down in front of him. He looked up startled as Hartley Rathaway flopped into the seat across from him.
“What’s this?” Cisco asked eyeing the drink suspiciously.
“A cream latte with a shot of espresso and an extra shot of syrup,” Hartley rattled off, “The barista said that’s what you ordered last time.” He watched as Cisco sniffed gingerly at the drink. “It’s not poisoned - well I think it is poison but I didn’t add anything to it if that’s what you think.”
“What do you want?” Cisco asked, putting the drink down after a sip. It didn’t taste like it was poisoned but he wouldn’t have put it past Hartley to get something flavorless and odorless just to do him in.
“A fresh start,” Hartley replied, “I’ve come to realize you are quite the genius. I got a look at that gun you made for Captain Cold, quite a spiffy piece of technology.” It had been several weeks since Lisa had first started making comments about how adorable Cisco was in front of Hartley. It was her constant gushing that had finally driven him to this point. He wasn’t sure what he wanted with Cisco, all he knew was that he couldn’t stand the thought of Lisa trying to be with him.
“Yes, I heard you had join Cold’s band of jolly villains. A fresh start?” Cisco questioned, “why?”
“How sweet of you to be keeping tabs on me. Can’t you just go with it? Assume my intentions are pure? Well pure in the greater battle of good and evil, not my intentions towards you. I must admit those are rather wicked.”
“Fine, a fresh start. You have 5 minutes,” he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. He never would have thought that Hartley would be the first to reconcile their tense relationship. Especially now that they were on opposite teams in the battle of heroes and rogues.
“Doesn’t sound that great of a start but whatever,” Hartley mumbled. He took a deep breath, and stuck out his hand, “Hi, Hartley Rathaway, it’s great to meet you Mr?”
Cisco rolled his eyes but shook Hartley’s hand anyways, “Ramon, but you can call me Cisco.”
“Nice to meet you Cisco,” Hartley said, giving him what looked like a genuine smile, but Cisco couldn’t say for sure. “I’m a disgraced ex-employee of STAR labs. I currently work at Mcdonald’s and am in the process of getting my teaching certificate so I can teach physics to high schoolers.”
“I’m sorry?” Cisco started confused as to why Hartley was telling him all this. Was this his pre-villainous act monologue?
“No, I’m fine. I’ve moved on, mostly,” Hartley replied, “So Cisco what do you do?”
“I work at STAR labs,” he stated slowly, “Hartley you know all this, why are you-”
“Fresh start, Cisquito,” Hartley chided, “Mending fences and all that rubbish.” he smiled again. “So what do you do at STAR labs?”
“Mostly work on containing the damage caused by the particle accelerator explosion a year ago,” Cisco replied. Technically it was true. “So high school teacher?” he asked cringing.
“My reputation was ruined when I was fired,” Hartley said, trying not to grit his teeth. He would have thought that Cisco knew that Wells had tried to destroy him. “It’s a foothold back into the science world. And it’s better than Mcdonalds.”
“Well I suppose anything would be,” Cisco replied. they lapsed into tense silence. True it was a good start, no insults had been slung. But Cisco doubted they would ever be friends.
The silence was interrupted when Hartley’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the message and frowned. “I have to go,” he said, slipping his phone into his pocket.
“This has been fun though,” he continued, “We should do it again sometime. Maybe go get dinner? My treat?” Cisco nodded, watching the other man leave. As he set his cup down he noticed the slip of paper Hartley had left on the table.
Call me later, cariño, he read, glancing at the phone number. He paused for a minute. “Wait, was that a date?” He asked no one in particular. He sighed. This did not bode well for him.
It took a lot of wheedling but finally Cisco agreed to go on a real date with Hartley. Hartley counted this as a win, even if it was just a quick coffee. He still had one upped Lisa and made a move on Cisco. One coffee date turned into another and then a dinner date. Turned out that they hit it off quite well when they tried to be civil. Without all the insults they could talk about science, about life, about disappointing parents, Cisco even managed to get Hartley to admit to having seen the Star Wars movies. As long as they avoided the topic of the greater battle of good and evil in Central City they were good.
However nothing can remain perfect for forever. They were 3 dates into their relationship, and everything was going wonderfully. They had gone to see a play, and afterwards were stopping at Jitters.
Cisco was halfway through a story on how Caitlin had accidentally spilled a superglue substrate Cisco had been working on in her hair, and had ended up having to cut a huge chunk short to get it out, when Hartley’s phone buzzed.
Hartley took a quick glance at it and froze. He paused to read the message again.
“Sorry Cisco, I have to go,” He told him. He grabbed his wallet and threw a few bills onto the table to cover the coffee and a pretty good tip - a habit he had gotten into by working in food services. “But we should definitely do this again sometime.” He seemed distracted as he pocketed his cell phone and wallet. He didn’t even notice when Cisco also stood and tried to move in for the kiss.
Cisco glared at Hartley’s retreating form. He had thought their date was going fantastic. He had had high hopes for the rest of the night, but now those were dashed across the floor.
Where was Hartley rushing off to in such a rush anyways.
Which is how Cisco end up doing the most obvious thing. He hacked the phone system and used the GPS in Hartley’s phone to track his where abouts. He followed the little blinking dot to the dive bar district of town. He stopped in front of one with boarded windows and a good layer of dust on all the window sills.
He wondered for a moment if he had written the program wrong. The little dot beeping on his screen appeared to be inside the abandoned building, but there was no sign that anyone had enter the premise today, let alone in the last five years.
Cisco circled around the building until he found a side door that was unlocked. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t the almost 20 pairs of eyes that turned to look at him as soon as he entered the room.
He recognized most of the faces. Most of the people here were people who he had either locked away in their special supervillain prison or that he had helped send to regular prison. Of course he had to be the idiot to accidentally stumble into a Rogues meeting while just trying to keep tags on his boyfriend.
“Whoops,” he said softly, trying to back out of the room. Hartley was up and out of his chair in an instant.
“Cisco, what are you doing here?” he asked cordially, rushing to the door making sure to get between Cisco and any of the other Rogues.
“I... uh... I was looking for you?” Cisco replied,still trying to back out the door. Hartley however made it more difficult by pulling him into the room, and closing the door, “I just thought... the night had been going so well ... and-”
“Right, so everyone,” Hartley turned to address the group, “This is my boyfriend Cisco. He’s with me, and I expect everyone to respect that, right? We’re all friends here, and we don’t mess with other people’s personal lives right?” He looked pointedly as Lisa Snart who smiled and winked at Cisco.
He grabbed Cisco’s hand and dragged him to an empty seat next to him. “Just stay quiet and don’t mention you know who and we’ll get out of this one piece,” he whispered.
“Don’t mention Voldemort?” Cisco asked, trying to suppress his laughter. He totally earned the glare that got him from Hartley.
“I’m not sure how I made it out of there alive,” Cisco laughed as he let Hartley into his apartment. “You know how many of those people I’ve helped put behind bars?”
“Most of them?” Hartley guessed, “Myself included.”
“And Cold’s sister!” Cisco continued, “I’m not entirely convinced that she didn’t want to eat me.”
“Oh, she did,” Hartley huffed, he had spent most of the evening trying to keep Cisco on the opposite side of the room from Lisa, “in a completely inappropriate way for a man who has a boyfriend.”
“Well good thing I only have eye for you,” Cisco giggled, kissing Hartley on the nose. Hartley grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back in for a real kiss. He grinned as Cisco melted in his arms. Turns out the night wasn’t going to be wasted after all.
Cisco was late for work in the morning and it was all Hartley’s fault. The Rogue had still been at Cisco’s apartment in the morning and had completely distracted Cisco was he was trying to shower. Not to mention that he had left a gigantic hickey on Cisco’s neck, the possessive bastard. Cisco had gone through 5 different scarves trying to find one that covered it.
“You’re late,” Caitlin commented when he entered the lab. She glanced up. “You’re wearing a scarf.” Her eye’s narrowed, “Who was it and how big is it.”
“What?” Cisco spluttered into his coffee.
“You wouldn’t wear a scarf in the middle of summer unless you were trying to hide something. So you must have a hickey, how big is it, and who left it?”
“It’s gigantic,” Cisco admitted, “ and I’m not telling you who.”
“Why? Are you embarrassed?” Caitlin asked. Cisco was doing nothing to throw her off. There was juicy gossip here and she had to get it.
“Yes, now can we get to work?” Cisco asked, going to his desk.
Cisco managed to ignore her questioning for a good hour before he finally broke down.
“Look, I just can’t say okay? We’re supposed to be the good guys and if Barry knew I was seeing this person well... he’d be extremely disappointed?” Cisco trailed off.
“Oh god, it wasn’t Lisa Snart was it? I saw the way she was all over you when Barry thought they could help us,” Caitlin started.
“Ugh no,” Cisco grimace, “It was not her. Can’t you just drop it?”
“Mardon?” Caitlin guessed, “that bug girl? Not Heatwave right?” Cisco shook his head. “Good that would be weird. Uhm, Captain Cold? Hartley?” Cisco flinched.
“HARTLEY!?” She gasped, “But I thought you hated each other!”
“Look you can’t tell Barry-” Cisco started.
“Of course not!”
“Okay good.”
“Was it a one off thing, or...” She trailed off.
“We’ve been seeing each other for a few weeks,” Cisco admitted, “I don’t know where we’re going with it, so don’t ask. We mostly avoid talking about our various team affiliations.”
“Okay but-” Caitlin never got to finish her question as Barry strolled into the room. They had scheduled to do more tests on a recent piece of tech Cisco had invented and Barry was going to help them out.
The testing took them all the way to lunch, so Caitlin didn’t have another chance to interrogate Cisco. That didn’t stop her however from gleefully rushing to her lunch date with Iris.
“I have the biggest story to tell you!” She gasped as got to the table.
Cisco was busy working on a new piece of tech for Flash when the news began to report a bank heist. He immediately grabbed his phone and texted Barry telling him about the heist.
“We have a job,” He told Caitlin as she came into the room. “The Rogues are robbing a bank.”
“You don’t think Hartley-” She started to ask.
“Oh I’m sure he’s involved,” Cisco glowered. “Barry keep an eye out for meta-humans,” He said into the comms, “This is probably a job from Cold’s merry band of villains.”
“That would explain the weather,” Barry replied. Sure enough when Cisco looked up at the newscast the sunny skies had been replaced by thunderous hail. Not that it deterred Flash for long as he zipped into the bank.
“I’m in,” Barry said softly into the comms. He had managed to sneak in without the rogues noticing and stopped behind a table.
“Who’s there?” Cisco asked.
“We have Weather Wizard and Piper on crowd control,” Barry said, “Some of them are in the vault I can’t quite see them. One sec.” He made a quick circle of the room getting a good glance at the back of the vault. “Okay Peek-a-boo and Trickster are in the vault clearing out the boxes.”
First thing first Barry decided he had to get the hostages out of the room. Of course that would alert the Rogues to his presence but that was better than risking an innocent civilian getting caught in the crossfire. He would just have to be fast. Luckily for him that wasn’t a problem for the Flash.
Barry ran around the room grabbing the poor civilians and moving them to behind the police line. He just got the last receptionist out when a Mardon created a gust of wind that knocked him against the back wall.
Barry recovered quickly rushing across the room. He got a quick punch to Mardon’s gut knocking him back, followed by a kick to the side, knocking him to the ground.
“Piper! help!” Mardon coughed, trying to roll back to his feet.
“Tell Cisco I said hi,” Hartley said turning to Flash. Mardon looked at him like he was crazy. Hartley rolled his eyes. He knew what he was doing, and his plan was certainly a lot better put together than this faulty heist.
Cisco slapped his hand against his forehead. It was bad enough he was dating an active rogue, he didn’t need Hartley making it so obvious.
“Oh look,” Caitlin cackled, “Your boyfriend said hi.” Cisco glared over at her ready to make a smartass come back. His eyes widened however as he saw where her arm was resting- right over the comm button. He scrambled across the desk pushing her arm off the button.
“Whoops,” she gasped, genuinely horrified. She had no intention of actually outing their relationship to Flash, who had the most obvious reasons to object to their relationship.
“Wait what?” Barry asked, pausing in his constant movement to hear what was being said better, “Boyfriend?”
“Do something!” Cisco hissed at Caitlin.
“uh, I was joking, obviously. I mean Cisco can barely stand Hartley, there’s no way he would date him,” She started to ramble.
Hartley saw his chance while Barry was distracted by Caitlin’s ramblings. “Peek-a-boo! Trickster! Let’s go!” He yelled to the back room. He shot a quick sonic wave at Flash knocking him against the back wall before grabbing Mardon and high tailing it out of there. He made it to the meet up point two buildings over where Brie Larvin was waiting with the getaway van.
Barry stalked into STAR labs a few minutes later. He flopped down in the remaining office chair, turning to face Cisco and Caitlin.
“I’m sorry,” Caitlin said softly.
“It’s alright,” Barry sighed. The rogues on their own had been tough to beat. All teamed up like that? It would have still been a difficult fight that Barry would have had a 50/50 chance of losing. “I just can’t get distracted by things like that you know? I know that none of us would get involved with one of the Rogues, so why should I even question it right?”
“Right,” they both agreed. Cisco averted his eyes. Getting involved with Hartley had never been a bright idea and he knew it. There was no telling how much longer he would be able to keep their relationship a secret, or how much longer he would have till one of the Rogues used his association with Flash against him.
It was the end of Joe’s shift. He didn’t need this sort of shit. But still when the beat cops came and said that they had arrested Hartley Rathaway trying to break into STAR labs and that Rathaway insisted on talking to him he just had to go do the interrogation anyways. At Least they had brought him coffee.
He sat down in the chair across from Rathaway. Joe slowly sipped his coffee as he flipped through Rathaway’s file. It was surprisingly empty considering that Joe knew Rathaway was the Pied Piper.
“Officer Kelly said you wanted to talk to me?” Joe finally asked setting down his coffee.
“I figured you would be the most reasonable person to talk about why I’m here,” Hartley replied, leaning forwards.
“You’re here because you were caught trying to break into STAR labs,” Joe informed him.
“Right, to see my boyfriend,” Hartley replied.
“Your boyfriend?” Joe questioned. Only a few people still worked at STAR Labs and most of them were on Team Flash. Why would any of them be dating a Rogue?
“Yea I think you might know him,” Hartley said casually, “Cisco Ramon.”
“I was not aware that the two of you were dating.” It certainly was a shock. Joe had thought that Cisco was smarter than that. Besides everything that Caitlin and Cisco had said about Hartley had led him to believe that neither of them had liked their ex-coworker.
“Well he was working late, and I wanted to see him,” Hartley explained.
“The Thai food?” Joe asked, already knowing the answer.
“A surprise dinner,” Hartley replied, “You know how Cisco gets when he gets involved in one of his projects. I didn’t want him to forget to eat something.”
“That’s sweet,” Joe replied, flipping the folder closed. They had nothing they could stick on him then. “ Next time call first so he can let you in. So let’s talk about the Pied Piper.”
That was not the direction Hartley wanted the conversation to steer in, but no matter how hard he tried to change the subject and bring it back around to Cisco or STAR labs Joe kept dragging him back to the Rogues. Finally Hartley had to shut up and refuse to say anything else.
Which is how he ended up being taking down to a holding cell to wait till the police had to release him.
“Don’t I at least get a phone call?” Hartley asked the officer that roughly pushed him towards an open cell. The officer nodded gruffly before handing him a phone. Hartley sighed. He knew who he had to call even if he didn’t want to.
Cisco woke up at midnight when his phone began to ring. He almost didn’t answer it but then he saw it was from the CCPD.
“‘ello?” he asked voice covered in sleep.
“Hi,” Hartley said softly, “I think I need some help.”
“What? I swear to god, Hartley, if Snart put you up to something-”
“No, it’s nothing to do with that,” Hartley informed him darkly, “But I am at the police station.”
“What did you do?” Cisco asked not at all amused.
“Hey don’t sound so offend! I was breaking into STAR labs to come see you,” Hartley huffed, “Pretty sure the cops ate the dinner I brought you too, fucking pigs.”
“Hartley,” Cisco gasped, “You can’t come to STAR labs what if someone had seen you?”
“What are you embarrassed to date me?” Hartley scoffed.
“Yes,” Cisco muttered.
“What because I’m a boy?” Hartley asked, “Honestly your just as bad as them.”
“No, because you’re a fucking Rogue and I’m supposed to be helping the Flash stop you,” Cisco hissed.
“Whatever, just come bail me out,” Hartley insisted, “I’m sure you and your precious team have enough pull with the police to at least accomplish that. “
“Hartley for all I care right now, you can rot in that cell,” Cisco hissed before hanging up. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but sleep was not forthcoming. He knew exactly who Hartley had been comparing him to and the thought that he would dare to accuse him of being as bad as his parents was just too much. He certainly had no problem dating a boy, he thought he had made that much clear with the way things had started getting hot and heavy between them. No, it was the Rogue part that was a problem. Cisco was supposed to be a good guy. Could he really do that knowing that his boyfriend and his associates were busy trying to take over the city?
Sleep finally overtook him around 2 am. However it was not a restful night. His dreams were haunted by thoughts of Hartley getting arrested or worse, getting the death sentence. When he finally woke up for work in the morning he felt less rested than when he had gone to bed.
Cisco sighed as he walked down the street. Maybe he had been too harsh on Hartley? He was a rogue after all, Cisco should expect to get a few “I’m in jail” phone calls.
But still. Hartley shouldn’t have been trying to break into STAR labs. He’s a known criminal! He just has to hope that they can’t make anything stick so he can get out and not end up in prison for life.
His musings were interrupted when he almost ran into someone. “Sorry,” he mumbled trying to sidestep out of their way.
“Cisco?” She said. Cisco looked up to see that the person he had almost run into was Lisa Snart.
“Oh, hey,” he sighed, trying to find a way out of this conversation. He didn’t have the energy to deal with her right now.
“Aw what’s wrong Ciso,” She cooed, “Trouble in paradise.”
“Hartley and I are just going through some stuff,” Cisco said slowly, “We’ll work it out.”
“Oh Cisco, when are you going to leave the minor leagues and go out with me?”
Axel Walker watched the exchange between the two of them with little interest. Lisa needed to get a move on. Mark would be there with the van any second now and they would only have a few minutes to get off the grid before the police and Flash would be on their tale. However Lisa seemed more interested in making Cisco uncomfortable than actually going through with the plan.
He sighed pushing off the wall. Apparently if you wanted it done right you have to do it yourself. He should have never teamed up with these losers.
“Here,” he said, tossing a blindfold at Cisco, “put this on.”
Cisco glowered at the black fabric in his hand for a minute. “Did Hartley put you up to this?” He asked darkly.
“Sure yea,” Axel agreed, “He wanted us to take you somewhere.”
“I swear to god if he makes me late to work,” Cisco muttered tying the blindfold behind his head. Axel couldn’t believe it was really this easy? He glanced over at Lisa. She shrugged. Oh well, there was no use making this more difficult than they had to.
Mark pulled the van up to the curb and Lisa opened the door. Axel ushered Cisco into the car and they clammered in after him. As soon as the door was shut Mark took off swerving into traffic.
“Hey what’s up with the crazy driving,” Cisco asked as he toppled out of his chair, “It’s not like we’re doing anything illegal. This isn’t a kidnapping or anything.” Axel, Mark, and Lisa exchanged looks.
“This is too easy,” Axel giggled, unable to contain his mirth.
“what?” Cisco asked.
“Kidnapping you,” Mark stated.
“Wait, what?”
“See dear Cisco,” Lisa said, walking her fingers up his chest, “We’re setting a trap for the Flash.” She flicked his nose.
“And you’re the bait!” Axel laughed.
“But Hartley-” Cisco started.
“Doesn’t know about the plan,” Mark said, “He was too busy playing the jail house blues. Now shut him up, he’s getting on my nerves.”
Cisco opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything Axel pushed a gag in his mouth and tied it behind his head.
Around 10 am Hartley was released from his cell. The officer who opened the door gruffly told him that the DA didn’t want to press charges at present. When Hartley collected his person possessions he saw two texts on his phone, both coded messages about Rogue meetings. One he had obviously missed. Oh well no one would blame him, he had been stuck in jail after all. The other had started 5 minutes ago.
They could wait he decided. He needed coffee first.
10 minutes later Hartley arrived to a meeting already in progress.
“Look who finally showed up,” Mick sneered, as Hartley walked in with his starbucks. “Did you bring drinks for the rest of us.”
“No,” Hartley replied shortly.
“Mick could we get back to the meeting,” Leonard interrupted. “As I was saying the plan to capture the Flash is already well underway. Lisa just texted, They have moved the bait to the warehouse and are setting up the defenses.”
“What plan?” Hartley asked.
“Maybe if you would have shown last night-” Mick started.
“I was arrested,” Hartley deadpanned.
“Last night we decided upon a plan to capture the Flash,” Leonard interrupted, “Lisa, Axel, and Mark have captured the bait, and are moving into position.”
“okay but what bait?” Hartley asked getting a bad feeling about this. Any plan these morons thought up in one night of drinking was bound to fail.
“Cisco,” Leonard stated, “He’s part of their team, Flash will come for him.”
“Wait,” Hartley said slowly, setting down his coffee. “Your grand scheme for capturing the Flash is to kidnap my boyfriend?” He slowly reached for his frequency gloves. “And why exactly did you think I would go along with it?”
“Lack of a better option?” Shawna guess from the other side of the room. Luckily for Hartley he had seen some sort of conflict coming between him and the other Rogues coming from a mile off. One of the first things he had done when he and Cisco had started dating was getting the specs for the heat and cold guns, figure out their resonant frequencies and program them into his gloves. So when Leonard and Mick raised their guns to threaten him all he had to do was activate the frequence and watch as their guns shook apart in their hands.
After that, all he had to do to get out of there after that was to set a high enough frequency to befuddle everyone else in the room, and walk out the door.
So they thought they could just take Cisco like that? They thought that he’d be okay with them playing with his boyfriend’s life? They thought he wouldn’t mind them having Lisa guard him?! Well they had another thing coming if they thought he’d take that one lying down. He stormed down the street, his cloak swirling behind him. It was time to see what the Pied Piper could really do.
It didn't take him long to figure out where they were keeping Cisco. A few weeks prior Snart had had Hartley help him create a fake identity to buy a warehouse at the edge of town. Hartley had assumed at the time that Snart was just using it to hold some stolen merchandise until the buyer was ready to pick it up. It now made sense that it was really used to set a trap for the Flash.
Hartley pulled out his cell phone and tried to remember the number. It had been years since Caitlin had given him her cell phone number, back when they both still worked for STAR labs and she didn't hate his guts. He hurriedly typed what he could remember in and let it ring.
"Hello?" Caitlin answered sounding confused.
"Caitlin-" Hartley started.
"What do you want?" She interrupted, sounding infuriated.
"I didn't know who to call-" He tried.
"I don't want to talk to you. Cisco told me all about your little escapade last night, and I've seen you and your merry band of criminals all over the TV."
Hartley opened his mouth to say something else but the line went dead. She had hung up on him. He glared down at his phone.
Rogues took Cisco, he typed into a text dialogue, Going to rescue him now. Tell Flash. He sent it to her number and then tucked his phone back into his pocket. He had been hoping to get the flash as back up but he had no other way of contacting him.
Caitlin glared at her phone. Why would Hartley ever want to talk to her. They had never had a good work relationship back before the particle accelerator exploded, and she didn't think they would ever get over the way he had attacked them when trying to get Wells. No. She had no desire to have any sort of friendship with Hartley Rathaway. She left her phone on her desk when she went to go tweak something on the Flash suit for Cisco. She didn't notice when it flashed with a text.
Hartley approached the warehouse carefully. He had no idea what sort of booby traps the Rogues had planned for their little Flash trap. He scanned the area looking for any obvious signs of who or what he should expect in there. Honestly he should have stayed at the meeting just long enough to find out what the plan was, but ce la vie. All he had was his Piper equipment, a decent understanding of the floorplan of the warehouse, and his superior intellect.
He approached from a side door to the main office. The windows overlooked the main floor, that was still filled with abandoned crates, any one of which could hold Cisco or a deadly prize. He saw no signs of life in the entire building, the lights were out. The previous managers coffee still sat on the desk where he had left it when Snart had fired everyone.
Hartley snuck through the office moving quietly to the main floor door. It creaked open as he quietly pulled it. Still no sign of life. There was a sharp sound of metal clinking against metal as he walked across the floor. He looked down to see hundreds of little pins. He recognized them. Trickster and Peek-a-Boo had been sent to steal them from an army base weeks ago. Apparently they were attracted to extreme kinetic energy. Luckily for him he wasn't the Flash. The needles would do nothing but fall to the ground.
To his right he heard a snickering. Hartley recognized it instantly.
"Hello, Axel," he said turning to face the Trickster. Axel grinned, stepping out from behind a shipping container.
"We weren't expecting you to be out of the slammer yet," Axel told him. "You aren't supposed to be here."
"Snart sent me," Hartley bluffed, "He said you might need reinforcements in case the Flash showed up."
"Liar," Axel chuckled. "Cold already texted and told us you went Rogue... well as Rogue as you can go from the Rogues!"
"It was worth a shot," Hartley shrugged, flipping a switch to turn on his sonic gloves. Axel dove out of the way as Hartley sent a piercing sonic blast at the crate he had just been standing in front of. Hartley glowered, he didn't have time for this.
He barely managed to move in time as Trickster threw something at him. They looked like jacks but exploded as soon as they hit the floor.
Hartley was not cut out for this, he had spent too long working on a team and not enough time fighting on his own. He ran through the maze of shipping crates trying to formulate a plan. He didn't have time to kill Axel. It would take to long to even figure out his resonate frequency let alone program it into his gloves. No he would have to trap him instead.
"Come out, Come out wherever you are, Piper!~" Trickster sang. Hartley could hear his footsteps clicking as he walked down the aisle adjacent to him. He scrambled up over one of the crates, trying to stay low and in the shadows.
Axel gave him the perfect opportunity when he stopped to peer into one of the shipping crates. Hartley silently slipped off the crate and snuck around behind him. He gave one mighty push and slammed the door shut trapping Axel in the shipping container. He locked it before hurrying on. He knew he didn't have much time. The other Rogues in the building would have heard the fight, and that shipping container wouldn't hold Axel for long.
He slipped through to the door on the other side of the main floor. They had to have Cisco hidden somewhere else in the warehouse.
Mark Mardon was waiting for him in the break room. He wasn't so much posed for action but sitting at the table, munching on some chips that had come from the smashed up vending machine.
"You're not supposed to be here," He told Hartley. He stood dusting the chip dust off on his pants. "You should leave and let it be." He raised his hands summoning a mini tornado ready to attack.
"You kidnapped my boyfriend," Hartley pointed out, "How exactly am I supposed to just let that go?"
"Good point," Mark replied. He dropped waved his hand dissipating the tornado. "I don't really know what Cold was thinking when he planned this." He flopped back in his chair. "Want anything?" he motioned towards the vending machine.
"No," Hartley shook his head. He gingerly took a seat wondering of Mardon was going to attack him. "All I want is Cisco back."
"Ah," Mardon continued munching on his chips, "Well he's through there," he motioned at a door leading out of the room. "Go fetch him if you want, I won't stop you."
"Thank you," Hartley responded. He stood slowly and walked to the door. Mardon raised his hand for a fist bump as he passed.
Hartley couldn't believe how easy that had been as he passed through the door. He entered a sizeable room that had been cleared off all the cargo it used to hold. In the middle of the room surrounded by a glass box was Cisco, bound and gagged. Hartley approached the box slowly watching for other traps. He saw no wires to indicate explosives, nor other rogues waiting to jump out at him. No everything was quiet.
He examined the glass, tapping his fingers against it lightly. It was definitely bullet proof glass. He wouldn't be able to punch his way through it. No he would have to break it with sound waves. He set one of his gloved hands against the glass and began typing buttons on his glove with the other. He set the glove to find the resonant frequency of the glass and watched as the pitch went higher and higher, searching for the pitch where the glass would vibrate with the sound waves. It took a minute but soon enough the glass fell to the ground in tiny shards.
"You know, I think I like you all tied up like this," Hartley told Cisco slowly approaching him. Cisco glared at him. "While I have you all tied up let me clarify a few things." He stopped in front of Cisco glaring down at his boyfriend. "I am not a good guy. You knew that I was with the rogues when we started dating so you have no righteous standing in getting upset with me. I got arrested. So what. It happens. You should have expected a lot more bail requesting calls just based on me being with the Rogues."
Cisco started trying to say something but it was still muffled by the gag.
"I had no idea the rogues were planning on taking you, by the way," Hartley continued, "but just because I'm fighting against them right now doesn't mean that I'm suddenly going to go good and join team Flash. Just that I'm a protective asshole, which we have already established." He bent down and began to untie Cisco.
As soon as Hartley ripped the duct tape off his mouth Cisco jumped to his feet.
"Expelliarmus!" Cisco shouted at something behind Hartley. Hartley whipped around just in time to see Lisa Snart's gold gun flip off. She quickly reached for the on button trying to make it work again.
"Did you really think I wouldn't put in a fail safe so my own tech couldn't be used against me!?" Cisco asked her, exasperated. She glanced between Cisco and Hartley.
"No hard feelings, right Piper?" She asked, backing slowly back to the door she had entered from. Hartley raised his sonic glove in response, emanating a slowly rising pitch. She turned and ran for the door.
"That was too easy," Cisco laughed. He leaned over and kissed Hartley. "Thanks for rescuing me. Now let's get out of here."
They walked back out the way Hartley had come in. He waved at Mark, who was now on his third bag of chips as they passed through the break room. The shipping container that Hartley had left Axel in was blown open, but the Trickster was no where in sight. He must have run instead of going after Hartley.
"Hey," Hartley said as they exited the warehouse, "I'm sorry they did this too you."
"Occupational hazard," Cisco grimaced, "It's not the first time I've been kidnapped, probably won't be the last."
"Right," Hartley mumbled, "Just... forgive me? I'm sorry I got arrested, and I'm sorry I got involved with the Rogues, and I'm sorry about this huge mess."
"It's alright-" Cisco's words were cut off as the flash ran in. One second they were all standing in front of the warehouse, and the next the three of them were standing in the control room of STAR labs, much to the shock of Caitlin, Iris, Eddie, and Joe. Flash ran back by one more time and the next second Hartley was in handcuffs.
Barry stopped in front of them finally, panting. “Wow you’re heavy than I thought,” He said to Hartley.
“Rude,” Hartley mumbled.
“What the hell is going on?” Cisco gasped, looking around at everyone.
“Caitlin said the Rogues kidnapped you,” Barry said slowly, “I was saving you and catching the Rogue?”
“Excuse you, I was rescuing him,” Hartley glared, brushing past Flash to stand next to Cisco.
“My hero,” Cisco joked in a falsetto voice. He leaned over and kissed Hartley.
“Wait, what?” Barry asked slowly.
“I’m sort of ah... uh... dating Hartley,” Cisco said, his cheeks turning red.
“Sort of?” Hartley scoffed, “That’s not what you said two days ago whe-”
“IF you finish that sentence no one will ever find your body,” Cisco threatened.
Barry looked around the room slowly. “Am I the only one who didn’t know?”
“I figured it out when Cisco started wearing scarfs in the middle of the summer,” Caitlin shrugged.
“Caitlin told me,” Iris said.
“Iris told me,” Eddie admitted.
“And Eddie couldn’t keep his mouth shut,” Joe finished.
“How am I the last to find out!?”
“Now you know how it feels to be the last to know something!” Iris said.
“Right, well I’m not overwhelmingly opposed to being handcuffed, but I’d prefer it to be with fewer people and considerably less clothing, so if you don’t mind?” Hartley held up his wrists, still handcuffed together. Barry tossed the keys to Cisco who undid the locks.
“So what are you going to do now?” Iris asked Hartley, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Not sure yet,” Hartley shrugged, “I just went against the rest of the Rogues, so I’m probably not welcome back. Not that I would even want to go back if they think they can just use my boyfriend as bait. But for now, I want to take my boyfriend back to my apartment, and make sure that everything, and I do mean everything, is okay. Cisco?” and with that Hartley grabbed Cisco and dragged him out of the building.