Work Text:
The first time Cisco meets Hartley Rathaway, he's actually in the middle of another consultation when he walks in. Cisco's eyes tracing his very nice ass as he walks back to the tables covered in the black bound artists books, and Cisco clears his throat and turns back to his consultation. Does notice he's not alone.
Hottie with the ass and the glasses walks over to Wally at the front desk and hands him one of the books, "There was no name."
Wally flips it open, skims it slowly and says, "Ramon, how many times do I have to tell you to label your shit?"
"At least twice more.", Cisco fires back and Wally laughs.
"I'd like to book a consultation."
Wally skims the calendar, "When did you have in mind?"
"Tomorrow, in the evening?"
"We close at 8 but if you wanted to come in at 5 or 5:30, Cisco will be free." Cisco throws a thumbs up in Wally's vague direction to indicate his approval.
"5:30.", the man says.
"Alright, name please and phone number?", Wally asks.
"Hartley Rathaway." And he rattles off his phone number quickly.
"Alright Hartley, Cisco will see you tomorrow. At 5:30."
***
Hartley arrives as he finishes up the shading on a back piece he's doing next week and Jesse pokes her head around the corner. "Your 5:30 is here."
And Cisco glances up at the clock, he's fifteen minutes early. He nods, "We can be early."
She just smiles at him and heads back down the stairs. Slowly he gets up and cracks his neck as he heads down the stairs. Hottie, er Hartley, is listening to music on the couch in the far corner and flipping through one of the magazines. "Hartley?"
Hartley looks up, light eyes focused behind round framed almost Harry Potter like glasses, and stands up to shake his hand. "Hi."
"So," Cisco pulls out his notebook, "What did you have in mind?"
Hartley pulls a tablet out of his bag, "I was going through your work and pulled some pieces I liked." He flips through the pictures and Cisco quickly notices some commonalities: none of them have ripped skin, they all are more wire and computer chip heavy, a lot of green shades and a lot of black and grey. "I was thinking a full sleeve."
"Have any tattoos?", Cisco asks out of curiosity.
"No, go big or go home."
And Cisco can't help it, he snickers and he can Jesse's lips twitch in a similar response.
Hartley just rolls his eyes at him. "Definitely thinking something more cyborg, android, computerized and less steampunk robot."
Cisco raises an eyebrow. "I do my research." Hartley says flatly as though he knows Cisco wants to accuse him of being a nerd.
"Black and grey or colour?"
"Black and grey." Hartley says firmly. Cisco nods and notes it down as Hartley continues, sounding kind of embarrassed, "Something that evokes the Matrix, very cyberpunk."
And Cisco lights up, "A tattoo like Molly Millions or Case would have!"
Hartley looks up at him in surprise, "Yeah. More Case than Molly though."
"What if we worked some traditional Japanese motifs into the circuits?" Cisco asks, pulling his hair off his face as he smiles.
Hartley can't help but grin, his icy facade flickering, "That's actually brilliant."
"Shockingly I am rather good at my job.", Cisco teases back, just to see that grin again. "Yakuza gone biomech, a street samurai with a knack for tech."
It feels like they've only been talking for a few minutes when Wally reminds him that technically he is done work for the day and Hartley flushes lightly.
Cisco smiles, "We should book your first sitting."
"This weekend?"
"How about Saturday at noon. I'll book you in until close", Cisco asks.
"That sounds good.", Hartley acknowledges.
Cisco is mildly dubious but agrees, "I'll see you Saturday."
***
When Hartley arrives, he's again 15 minutes early. Better than Barry who works in the same damn place and still manages to almost always be a couple minutes late. So Cisco shows him the finished sketch and Hartley signs off on it, pleased.
"You're gonna need to ditch the shirt.", Cisco comments and Hartley nods, tugs off the green t-shirt. Cisco takes a moment to appreciate Hartley's toned chest and smooth skin speckled with moles and freckles before telling him to take a seat.
And Cisco tries to converse with him but he quickly realizes Hartley isn't much of a talker when the gun is buzzing, answering in nods and monosyllables.
"Barry, toss on a movie!", Cisco calls when the silence becomes too much for him. Barry looks up from setting up his own station.
"Star Wars?"
"Hell yeah.", Cisco grins as he focuses back on the line work.
***
Hartley makes it the whole six hours to get the line work from collarbone to forearm done with minimal reaction and Cisco has to admit he's impressed. He's seen people with many more tattoos react much stronger but Hartley just sits and breathes and barely speaks. He wonders where else Hartley exercises that kind of control. When he pays for the first session he leaves Cisco a pretty decent tip and Cisco smiles at him but Hartley doesn't seem to be paying attention.
So he sits down in the tattooing room and talks to Barry who is adding some more colour to Roy's leg sleeve. "Hot clients are the worst.", he complains.
Barry just laughs, "Hey, it's how I met Oliver."
"Yeah, well, Oliver is a freak of nature." And Roy snickers at that.
Barry just rolls his eyes and says, "Wait until you finish the tattoo at least."
Cisco glares, "I am professional as fuck."
"Or something like that.", Barry teases.
"How is Oliver anyway?", Cisco fires back.
The tips of Barry's ears are pink and he laughs, "Just making up for lost time."
Roy laughs, "Them Queens love their long distance relationships."
"I think it keeps them from feeling tied down.", Barry says, playing armchair psychologist.
"He's not wrong.", Roy acknowledges.
Cisco isn't sure that the human trainwrecks he calls his friends are the best people to go to for romantic advice.
***
A month later, Hartley is back for to start the shading. This time the guy from the consultation is with him and Hartley doesn't bother to introduce him.
"I'm still amazed a twink like you managed to sit for one hour, let alone six."
Hartley rolls his eyes, "Just because your pain tolerance is abysmal doesn't mean you have to take it out on the rest of us."
The other man gives an exaggerated pout, "You have no sense of humour, Hart."
"You're just not funny, Axel.", Hartley fires back as he catches Cisco's eye.
"Ready for round two?" And it comes out much much more flirtatiously than it was supposed to and he can hear Jesse laughing at him from the front desk.
Hartley smirks and looks up at him, "Round two of what I'm sure will be many more." And he is definitely flirting back. But he stands up and waves the other guy away, "You can go now, Axel."
"You'll miss me when I'm gone."
"No, I really won't.", Hartley calls as the door closes and he sighs. "Sorry about him, his dad was a comedian so he thinks he is too."
Cisco laughs, "No worries, we've had worse."
He has Hartley booked in for another four hours to get from collar to elbow.
"Can I take a look, see how it healed?", Cisco asks.
Hartley pulls off his hoodie and Cisco examines nearly perfectly healed skin.
So he sets up his station with Hartley standing behind him and he's pretty sure Hartley's just watching him. Caitlin had chosen the movie this time so they're playing a documentary. And he laughs, "Caitlin wanted to be doctor but she ended up an artist so when we let her pick the movie we usually end up with science."
Hartley nods, "I'm ok with science."
"Next time I'll make sure we have Johnny Mnemonic playing.", Cisco promises.
Hartley doesn't comment but when Cisco tries to start conversation he's more receptive this time around. However, Cisco quickly notices that Hartley deflects any and all personal questions so they stick to science and science fiction.
They end up debating the finer points of William Gibson novels but around hour three, Hartley's breath gets a little quicker so Cisco suggests a quick break so he can stretch his legs and Hartley can properly breathe. And Cisco is a little embarrassed by the extent of his reaction to the shift in Hartley's breathing.
The next hours is shading so he starts at the shoulder, where it's healed the best and tries not to think too much.
***
They book Hartley in again for the next month and it's Friday so when they close up they head to Speedy's, down the block.
Barry looks very comfortable on Oliver's lap, and Cisco nods to acknowledge him. "Does this mean I'm spending a week getting sexiled?"
Oliver raises an eyebrow, "Cisco, did you seriously just say "sexile"?"
"It's a valid question.", Cisco challenges, waving his beer in Oliver's general direction.
"We'll stay at my hotel, don't worry.", Oliver laughs.
Caitlin laughs, "You could always ask Hartley out."
"Oh, Hartley, eh?", Iris grins.
"Hot client.", Barry explains.
Iris laughs, "You're the expert there."
"I asked him out.", Oliver reminds them.
"So Hartley", Iris says, dragging them back in topic, "explain!"
"He's just a client. I know he's probably at least kind of queer. He's hot as hell. Showed up with a guy for this sitting but I don't think they were a thing."
"That's a lot of things to notice for 'just a client'.", Iris challenges.
Cisco just glares at her, "Sush, you." Iris bats her eyelashes at him with an innocent smile, "You're lucky you're cute."
"I know, right?" She grinned.
"Hey, Cisco", Caitlin leans over the table conspiratorially, "I think your hot client is over there."
Cisco turns rapidly in the direction Caitlin is looking and sure enough he sees Hartley sitting a few tables over, alone with a book and a high ball glass.
Oliver laughs, "He does look like your type."
"Uh, he doesn't look like either Lisa or Kendra.", Cisco points out dryly.
"No, but he is pretty nerd hot, remember Ray?" Barry laughs.
Cisco chuckles fondly at the memory of that short lived but very fun relationship.
"You should go say hi!", Iris suggests.
"Because that's not creepy at all.", Cisco says flatly taking a sip of his beer, "He looks like he's happy alone."
"I have heard rumours of people like that.", Oliver jokes over Barry's shoulder.
"No.", Cisco repeats but he definitely gets distracted watching him a couple of times, much to everyone's amusement.
***
Like clockwork, Hartley is fifteen minutes early to his last appointment and Cisco is just finishing up the appointment before him when Wally pokes his head in and says, "Your hot client is here."
Cisco tries to glare but he's too focused on his work for it to have much power.
When it is time for Hartley to sit, Cisco can't help but comment, "This should be your last sitting for this." He hopes it doesn't come out as disappointed as he feels.
Hartley blinks, "Oh." But that's all he says.
As promised Cisco has Johnny Mnemonic playing on the shop tv screen and Hartley nods approvingly, "It's not a good movie but it would be a hard book to adapt."
"At least back then, now they could probably do a decent job if they decided to adapt the Sprawl trilogy or something."
"That would be cool.", Hartley acknowledges.
"Vin Diesel as Case?" Cisco suggests with a smile.
Hartley raises an eyebrow, "Maybe, yeah. What about someone like Jason Momoa or The Rock?"
"Oh that would be awesome!"
Cisco's right, by the time hour four rolls around, all of the shading is done and he smiles, "Alright, go take a look before I have to wrap it up."
Hartley stands, wobbling ever so slightly as he walks over the mirror and examines the completed arm from every angle, "Wow.", he breathes.
Cisco just smiles, this is definitely the second best part of the job.
So he wraps up Hartley's forearm and they head back downstairs where there is a moment of awkward silence as Hartley pays and Cisco blurts out, "You should swing by after it heals so I can take some better pictures of it."
Hartley turns and looks at him, "Ok, I can probably do that."
And then he leaves. Jesse blinks, "You're an idiot, Cisco."
"Why?"
"You didn't even give him your number."
"I barely know him."
"So? You've already seen him with his shirt off, that's as good a start as any."
"Does your father know you think like that?" And Jesse's eyes dart in the direction of where she knows Wally is tattooing Barry with a slight blush and Cisco just laughs, "Say no more."
"Not a word, Ramon."
"My lips are sealed, Jess."
She just glares at him.
***
"You know, you should have asked him out.", Barry comments over his latest client.
Cisco glares, "Are you and Jesse teaming up on this or something."
"If we were conspiring we would have just given him your number."
"You are the worst sort of person, Allen.", Cisco snaps.
Barry just smiles.
***
Over the next month, Cisco doesn't think much about Hartley, he swears but he's finishing up one of his trademark pieces, all gears and pistons and ripped away skin when he hears the bell and the door swings shut.
Cisco can vaguely hear people talking over the buzz of the needle and as he's wiping down the finished thigh piece, Wally pops his head in, "Hot client just booked another consultation with you. Next week."
Caitlin shoots him a thumbs up from her own work station and Cisco glares again.
"You all need to get laid.", he muttered.
Caitlin just chuckles, "No, I think that's just you."
Cisco groans loudly, "I hate you."
***
Hartley is 15 minutes early and Cisco is shocked, shocked I say, by this.
"Hey!", Cisco smiles.
Hartley looks up from his magazine and smirks, "Hello, stranger."
Cisco hopes Hartley can't see that he's blushing a bit but from the knowing look Hartley gives him, he's pretty sure Hartley is aware of the effect he has on him. So he sits down and can't quite meet Hartley's intense gaze, "So, what can I do for you, stranger?"
Hartley looks him over, "Well..." He just smiles at Cisco, that intense, slow, almost wicked grin, "First, you can put this," he hands Cisco a segment of sheet music, "on my forearm."
Cisco examines the music, it looks vaguely familiar so he hums the first few bars and realizes it's the opening theme to Harry Potter and he grins at Hartley, "Harry Potter, eh?"
Hartley just glares and snaps back defensively, "It's a nice piece of music."
"It is.", Cisco acknowledges.
Hartley's looking at the VIBE tattoo on the Cisco's left hand and he says, "I dated a tattoo artist a while back, he had a set of knuckle tattoos like that."
Cisco laughs, "Yeah, it's like proof of your commitment to being a tattoo artist: get your hands or face tattooed."
Cisco asks a couple of questions about the type of script Hartley wants and how he wants it placed on his forearm. The consultation is wrapping up when Harry walks in, waves at Cisco and turns to talk to Jesse and Hartley's expression shifts ever so slightly.
Cisco blinks, "What's up?" Being a tattoo artist you learn to read people pretty well, if only to make sure "tough guys" don't faint.
"Uh, you know how I said my ex was a tattoo artist?"
Cisco nods but Hartley doesn't say more, his eyes just flicker to Harry.
Realization slaps Cisco in the face, "Oh. Oh!"
"So uh, when should we do this?" Hartley asks, awkwardly.
"Uh, weekends are best for you?"
"Yeah", Hartley acknowledges, eyes flickering to the front desk where Harry doesn't seem to have noticed him.
"Alright, this should only take one hour but I'll book you in for two. Morning, afternoon, evening?"
"Evening?" Hartley suggests.
"Ok." Cisco turns to the front desk and hollers, "Yo, Jesse, book Hartley in two hours on Saturday evening."
He sees Harry sort of freeze mid sentence and then recover himself and carry on with his sentence as Jesse taps in the appointment into the calendar and jots it down in Cisco's personal appointment book. Hartley puts down his deposit without saying much more than, "I'll, uh, see you on Saturday, Cisco."
Cisco nods awkwardly. And the three of them just sort of stand there for a few long seconds before Harry clears his throat and says, "Is my client here?" And that seems to break the tension.
Jesse shakes her head, "You're still early."
Harry nods and heads up towards the tattooing floor.
Cisco blinks, "What the fuck just happened there?"
Jesse looks around and sighs, "About a year ago, my dad said he was getting really serious about someone but they were younger so he was waiting a bit before I got to meet him. His name was Hartley, that much I knew. And then something happened, and they broke up really abruptly and Dad was just devastated. And considering what just happened, it must have been that Hartley."
"Oh.", Cisco says in surprise and he walks upstairs to sketch a bit and sees Harry flipping through the DVDs, back tense. But he puts his headphones in and lays down a piece of sketch paper. He thinks about Harry and Jesse and Hartley. As difficult as Harry can be, he's seen how deeply Harry cares for all of them, he remembers when a couple of skinheads had started harassing Barry and he'd been leaving the shop pretty late and they'd jumped him and Harry had just come out with a shotgun and made it pretty clear what a mess they'd have on their hands if they didn't back the fuck off and stay backed off.
And he tries to imagine what happened, if it had been as serious as Jesse implied given that he knows Hartley is only about five years older than Jesse, for it to have just ended and left that amount of something behind.
He can't imagine how you just walk away from a relationship that serious.
He hears Harry's client come upstairs when he's mid sketch and the tension finally seems to have drained from Harry as he sets up his station.
***
The next time he sees Harry, it's a few days later and he has Jesse in the room tracing a simple new style rose on Iris's hip freehand before she takes the gun to it when Cisco and his client slip in. Laurel was getting one of his original pieces, a screaming bio mechanical canary as a chest piece and he was super excited.
He and Harry briefly make eye contact and Cisco resolves that after Laurel's sitting he's going to ask Harry about Hartley. It's probably not his business but as good looking as he thinks Hartley is, the answer to this question might be a deal breaker. Luckily, Laurel is reasonably chatty and she laughs about the straight edge tattoo that she got as a joke when she quit drinking and this keeps his mind off of Hartley and Harry.
There comes a moment near the end of the day when they're alone on the floor and Cisco takes his chance, "Hey, Harry, I need to ask you something?"
Harry turns, slowly, like he knows what Cisco wants to ask but he says, "Go ahead."
"What happened between you and Hartley?"
And Harry sighs deeply, "We dated for about a year when Jesse started art school. He was teaching near the shop I was at and I ran into him on a coffee run and a few days later he came in and asked for my number." Harry speaks slowly, like he doesn't tell this story often. Cisco thinks he probably doesn't. "We hit it off, he taught art and was passionate about art history. I fell pretty hard. I was planning on introducing him to Jesse..." He trails off and Cisco doesn't know if he should say something but Harry starts talking again, "I told him I loved him right around our first anniversary and he said we should break up. And he just left. And I didn't hear from him again. Took about a week before I realized he wasn't coming back."
Cisco doesn't even know what to say to that. I'm sorry doesn't seem appropriate, what the fuck seems too harsh and he wonders how much he really knows about Hartley and he thinks if Harry could be blindsided like that, even he, after a year of dating, didn't know him that well. There's something kind of scary about that.
***
Hartley's next sitting rolls around and again he's early. And he's very silent as Cisco sets up the station and tells Hartley to set his hoodie down on a small table in the back of the room. The movie of the day was Barry's choice which means they're watching an old Robin Hood movie. And Cisco laughs in Barry's general direction, "I'm gonna blame this one on your boyfriend.", as he traces the delicate lines of the piece of music.
He's right, even with shading, it only takes about an hour and a half to finish the whole piece. And as Hartley gets ready to leave he says, "We should really stop meeting like this." And he snags a pen off the front desk and grabs Cisco's hand and writes his number down. "Call me." He says with a wink.
Cisco just sort of freezes as Hartley slips away and Wally laughs, "You should do it."
Harry walks past to meet with some special client who flew in specifically to see him, "Cisco should do what?"
"Call the hot client who just left his number.", Wally explains.
Harry pauses and finally he says, "You should." Wally smiles triumphantly.
***
He's off for the day not long after that and he has tomorrow off, so he's staring at the ink on his hand and finally he pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials the number.
"Hello?"
"Hi, uh, Hartley? It's Cisco from the shop."
"Ah yes, I'm glad you called."
"Do you want to get drinks or something.", Cisco asks nervously.
"Drinks sound good." And then Hartley suggests a reasonably trendy cocktail bar in the area, Gideon.
"Cool, I can meet you there in 30 minutes, an hour?"
"I can do 30.", Hartley says quietly.
***
He's waiting by the door of Gideon, feeling rather undressed when he sees Hartley walk up. The two of them slip into the bar and grab a table for two. "How does your arm feel?", Cisco asks.
"Uh, kind of sore.", Hartley jokes and Cisco rolls his eyes.
When the waitress comes by Hartley orders for both of them but they fall into arguing about science fiction and Hartley brings up the pull between Gieger biomech and Matrix style biomech and the impact of art of human consciousness and Cisco can totally see how Harrison fell so hard for him. Hartley is sort of intoxicating when he's passionate. And so Cisco just leans over and kisses him. Hartley doesn't seem that surprised and returns the slow, soft kiss. When Cisco pulls back, cheeks flushed, Hartley smiles that wicked, intense smile, "Come home with me?"
Cisco pauses, he barely knows this guy, just a few hours once a month for several months, where admittedly, he wonders what it would take to break Hartley's controlled facade. No, he wants to see where this goes. "Alright.", he says decisively and Hartley flags a cab down. Hartley's apartment is reasonably sized, just one bedroom but very well decorated in a minimalist way, he obviously lives alone. There's art on the wall, nothing fancy but the sort of stuff that you need an eye for art to pick out.
There are several small highly detailed paintings hanging over the computer and Cisco gets briefly distracted, "These are fantastic, where did you find them?"
"I did them.", Hartley admits quietly.
Cisco blinks, "Wow."
Hartley steps in closer and kisses him again, slips his fingers through Cisco's hair and Cisco gets his hands on Hartley's hips hard enough to bruise. Hartley pulls back and says, "Bed or couch?
"Bed, definitely." Cisco says firmly and he follows Hartley back towards the bedroom. The bedroom has a similar high concentration of art but it looks slightly weirder, the art has more of technology bent. He pulls Hartley against him, just kissing him and as he moves down Hartley's throat he realizes just how much he wants to see Hartley come totally undone.
***
A few days later they're closing up for the day and Hartley is sitting on the steps, as though he's waiting and Cisco feels maybe a little awkward when he slips past Harry to press a quick kiss to Hartley's lips.
"Called it.", Wally grins and Barry and Caitlin both hand him some cash.
"Gambling is illegal, you guys.", Jesse singsongs.