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“He's a bad guy!?”
Cisco sighed as he pushed his apartment door shut behind Winn. To be fair, he thought it was all gonna go over as well as it was starting.
“Define bad?”
Winn spun around, his hair a mess from running his hands through it. “Not a civilian or a hero.”
“Then, yeah.” He nodded.
Winn sputtered. “Why are you telling me now?”
“I didn't exactly get his permission to tell you this. Or the other thing.”
“What other thing?”
Cisco waved his hand. “Oh, you know, he likes watching baseball, he has a baby sister, and… he’s a Rogue.”
Winn’s eyes widened at the last part. “What do you mean ‘A Rogue’?!
Like tearing off a bandaid, he knew he had to get it over with. “He's part of The Rogues.”
A few seconds of complete silence passed before Winn pointed a finger at him and let out a wryly laugh. “You're telling me that the guy we’ve both been seeing for the past few months is part of an organized crime gang, so notorious in name that they have connections everywhere, even respect among other villains and even sometimes the heroes?”
“Yes…?” He grimaced at his own deliverance.
“And you didn't think to mention this before!” Winn exclaimed.
“I didn't anticipate a spontaneous threesome with him, you, and me that would end up in all three of us being whatever we're doing right now!”
Winn let out a loud groan. “Who else knows?
“That Hartley Rathaway is The Pied Piper?”
“Don't—” he waved his hands. Saying it out loud made it worse. “Yes, that!”
“Me… you, his sister, probably the Rogues.”
Go figure, of course The Rogues would know his true identity.
“How did you find out?”
“Uh…” Cisco hesitated. “It's a long story. But, Hartley won't say anything to anyone.”
That was the least of Winn’s worries. “That's not what I'm worried about.”
“Then what?”
“I…” Of everything that Winn found out in the past hour, this was the least thing he prepared himself for.
But Cisco knew.
“Like him?”
“Yeah… yeah, I do.” More than just Hartley too.
Cisco smiled, something bashful as he looked at him. “I get that.”
He'd like to think they both knew this was a bad idea. They couldn't risk it all just for him. Right?
Winn could feel his stomach twist at the thought of everything going wrong. “Supergirl would kill me.”
“You don't think the Flash and the Detroit JLA would kill me too?” Cisco countered.
Winn knew it would be ten times worse for him if this got out.
“Look,” Cisco continued. “Worst case scenario is the heroes find out and think we're conspiring with the Rogues.”
“Cisco—”
“But. But…” He eased him back down. “That'll never happen,” he replied, far too laid back about the whole situation.
“How the hell not!”
“He's been a Rogue since we was like sixteen. That's like twenty or so years of him doing this, he's good at it!” He smiled, practically bouncing on his feet.
Hartley being a Rogue since he was sixteen, and the mention of a sister aside to acquire about later; Winn knew he was right. The Rogues had a reputation. Heists planned down to the second with details and double contingency plans in place, he'd seen news reports of them outsmarting and taking on members of the Justice league.
And most of all they had a code. Something that made more sense now that he knew the person Hartley was.
“Winn…” Cisco's voice softened. He rested his hand on his shoulder.
Those big brown puppy dog eyes made it harder to not give in far too easily; something that even he and Hartley had both joked about being so hard to resist.
They could be careful. Winn knew how it was to keep someone's secrets; he'd been through it with his dad. But this… this was different.
“We can't mention this ever again.”
Cisco raised his pinky to him. “Plausible deniability?”
He let out a breath and interlocked their pinkies.
“Plausible deniability.”