"Do you want to spend all of Sunday here as well? Come on." Hartley was aware that he sounded a lot like a whiny child, if not in his voice than in his word choices, but anything more eloquent hadn't worked. He doubted anything would work at this point.
"Just think of all the time you could waste at home on a Sunday." With a sigh he leaned back against Cisco's desk. "Some of us have plans, you know?"
"Dude, stop nagging, I'm doing my work. Look, see, downloading all the data from the last test." Cisco gestured to the very tiny icon at the bottom of his computer screen while he watched Captain America. It would have been downloaded by now but he didn't want to pause during the scene where Steve saved Bucky so he was a little delayed. And by a little, over twenty minutes. He purposefully turned the volume up on the film to try and make a point to Hartley that he was watching this.
"What are your plans? Work from home? Cause I gotta tell you, bud, that's not plans." Cisco laughed at one of Howard Stark's jokes, sipping on his slushie as he did so. "Did you know they're making an Avengers film soon? It's gonna be the bomb."
"No. I have a date." Or something. Whatever, Hartley already regretted even mentioning that, the last thing he wanted was his dating life, such as it was, to be the topic of speculation among STAR labs employees. He was just frustrated and Cisco often made him say things he regretted afterwards. "Yes, I know there's a new Avengers film in the works, I don't understand how that features into our work."
"Rushing us out of work for dates? Hartley Rathaway, that almost sounds unprofessional of you." Cisco teased with a slight laugh as he set his drink down and grabbed a handful of popcorn. Yes, popcorn, popcorn he'd stopped mid-work to make, slowly microwaving it to perfection and waiting for it to cool. He was in literally no rush. "It doesn't, I'm just make some conversation since you're hovering by my work station like a weirdo."
He paused the film for a second and pulled up the data, just for show, looking at it for a moment before minimising it. "It's still downloading. I can't work any quicker than the computer, man." Not that his general slowness was helping. "Tony Stark is in the Avengers."
"That's because I have nothing to do while you're wasting our time. Be glad I'm just hovering, if I had your work ethic I'd be giving you a lap-dance by now, just to make sure nothing gets done." It was Saturday, they were alone in the lab, there was no need to keep this argument purely professional.
"I know. If that team is anything like you, he'll regret that." Just saying.
"Dude, you get in my lap, I'm throwing you off it so don't even try." Cisco rolled his eyes and turned the movie back on, louder this time, pulling his feet up near where Hartley was sitting and purposefully lounging back in his seat. What? Was he being annoying being all casual and not keeping an eye on the date? Oh no. How tragic. "And the team is nothing like me. Bunch of white dudes running around with incredibly muscles and insane good looks? Pfft. Not really a reflection of me."
As much as he'd love for there to be a hero anywhere near what he was like, he'd learned a long time ago to just sit back and appreciate. And maybe dream of having a chest like Steve Rogers. "I'm thinking of ordering pizza soon, you and Wells in or what?"
"Oh, please. You should be so lucky to get me on your lap." This was officially the most stupid argument they had ever had, but whatever. He was bored out of his mind, Harrison was off doing who knew what and all he had for company was Cisco, who was in the process of messing up tomorrow for him too. "If you're lucky, you'll turn into something like the Hulk. No workout needed that way."
Seemed like a lot less effort, really, just had to get angry. And he knew how much anger Cisco had stored up. Not that he could blame him for that, especially after gaining some unwanted insight into his family life. "I'm not hungry. You'd have to ask Dr Wells, but I don't know where he is right now. Also, do your work."
"You should be so lucky to get in my lap. I'll have to know it's a happening spot." Or would be if he could get any girl to go out with him and then could explain the whole thing and have them be understanding, somehow be cool with being touched there and then not be a pathetic weirdo that almost cries during sex. Eh. Fuck that. Easier to be a virgin until he sorted everything out. "Do you think Bruce Banner is ripped? Like he turns into a giant green rage monster who's ripped but is he like buff or what? He doesn't look it."
It was a tough call. It'd be nice to have a superhero that isn't ripped for once. "I can do my work and call for pizza at the same time. Actually, easier yet, I have an app for it." And there he was, a film playing, on his phone ordering pizza, not even looking at the data he had to do. Working so hard.
"Funny, because thanks to you my lap is a solo adventure." Whatever. This whole argument and everything related to it was completely lost by this point. Hartley sighed and pushed away from the desk to walk around the lab instead, not that he really had anything to do. Damn it all. "I don't know how buff he is, but I'm pretty sure he could be a skinny dweeb and would still become a green rage monster."
Whether that was a plus or not was debatable. "Right. At the speed you're working at, I'll just have to assume that you actually love my company."
"No but the longer I do this, the more likely I am to ruin your weekend plans and that seems pretty fair revenge for telling on me when I lost the keys to the super conductor. Not like I lost them outside of the lab, I don't even know why you felt the need to make such a big deal out of it." And get him told off and banned from holding the keys. Cisco had a habit of accidentally losing important things, misplacing them and one unfortunate time, leaving them in a taco bell but hey, he was usually like ninety percent on game and not fucking up.
"Look, chill, I'm gonna get it done. After pizza." He finished his order and slipped his phone back into his pocket, bringing up the data again. Ninety-six percent. Eh, maybe he'd start a little earlier than planned. "Wells still needs to test the last piece of equipment, right? So we have like one more I have to look over and then I write the reports, check over all the specs and we're done. I got this."
"I can't wait for the day we start the particle accelerator and a group of people wanders in, because you lost the keys again." Seemed like a fair assessment. Hartley inspected something that was intended for said accelerator, then grabbed on to one of the horizontal metal bars to challenge himself with a few pull-ups. He wasn't amazing at them, but it wasn't as if he was about to get any workout routine in today.
"If you don't leave until you're done, you'll be here until after midnight. Meaning we'll all be here until then."
"That's cool. We work until midnight and you get all of tomorrow to get ready and go get laid, seems like it's a good trade. Late night for a free day." Cisco turned his head and watched the way that Hartley did that, raising an eyebrow at the way he moved. Man, Cisco could manage about two of those before having to lie down and recover. He learned the hard way he'd never be buff or ripped, he just didn't have the effort and stamina for that kind of masculinity. "I was hoping to stall it out to Sunday but apparently that just makes you pissy so I'll just lie and say I'm working. Same excuse but less honest."
He didn't want to attend family dinner on Sunday and apparently working all weekend wasn't going to happen so new plan. Hide inside his apartment, ignore his phone, pretend to be busy as all hell. He was pretty good at lying to them now. He turned his chair and cleared his throat. "Could you knock that off? It's annoying."
"What's annoying?" Hartley asked an honest question, because it wasn't like he was doing anything particularly offensive. "Look at what you're doing, how am I the annoying one here?"
He did say all that while still holding himself up, then finally let go and landed on the ground. "If you need an excuse to get out of something, you can always do work here. You don't need me and Dr Wells to be around for that."
"That whole showing off 'oh look at me, I'm so handsome, I'm probably ripped' thing. I get it, you're strong." Was that a hint of jealousy? Yes, of course it was. Hartley was a guy with a manly body and it was all badass and cool. He wished he could be like that. He wished he had half of what Hartley had. To just be a handsome cool guy. "It's annoying and it's making noise and I'm trying to do my work. Like you said. See, look, working."
He looked over the data and shrugged, not really wanting to get into any further details on this one. "Work alone on a Sunday? Yeah, no, kind of loses something." Working with people he liked? Fun. Working alone? Fuck that. "Nah, I'll go home and marathon House of Cards."
Huh. Knowing what he knew, Hartley could actually guess where some of that resentment came from, so he decided to mostly let the remark pass. He knew he had it easy in many ways, compared to Cisco. He might not like Cisco, but he was at least aware of this much. Best to play it down by focusing on some minor teasing. "You think I'm handsome? Wow, Cisco, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"I'm not dumb, of course you're handsome. I've got eyes." Hartley was definitely a handsome kind of guy, he noticed that from the get go and the envy had started then. If only he could be like Hartley. He knew that was pathetic but he wished for it. He opened up the downloaded files and looked over all the information he had on the progress and specs, trying to see any faults. There were a few, Cisco scribbled down some notes of a spare piece of paper. "Ronnie is also handsome. And the guy who works the protection and security? That dude is hella fine."
"Not my type." Hartley shrugged, looking at Cisco for a while before finally stating, "Objectively speaking, you're handsome too."
What? It was true. Hartley hadn't ever really spent much time thinking about it, but now that he did, he could admit that much. Especially since his attempt at teasing had apparently hidden on badly hidden angst instead. He didn't want to feel Cisco bad about this. About his shoddy work, that was a different matter. At least he was finally doing something.
"I'm not handsome. I don't need you to say that to me, it's cool. I get that you know but come on, man, don't pity me. It's just awkward."
Cisco had never been called handsome before. Pretty, cute, adorable and recently by a charming guy his mom forced on him, kinda butch. Which was depressingly the closest he'd ever gotten to a masculine-ish description from someone in that little hellish world so he was kind of taking it as a win. "You're handsome. My main man Steve Rogers? He's handsome. Guys like me? I don't even know. I guess cute isn't the end of the world."
"...I don't pity you. Why would I say something just to make you feel better? You've been annoying me all day. I'm just saying. Your eyes, your shoulders, your hair, chin, general facial structure, lips, you're objectively speaking handsome. It's not quite a science, but it's pretty difficult to deny." Hartley shrugged and leaned against Cisco's desk again, shaking his head.
"I don't think I'm handsome either. I don't think most men think that about themselves. I think I'm intelligent. That's more important."
"Oh. Cool." Cisco had no idea how to respond to that, it made him feel weird. Like relieved but painful like he wanted to cry and he knew he so couldn't do that and also woah, so unmanly, no way was he doing that. He sucked in a deep breath and tried to ignore how much it mattered to hear those words. "Did you know that in the new Avengers film, the villain will be Loki? The guy from Thor. Which seems hella weird but whatever man, if he can be evil enough, I bet he could be a worthy villain. I just hope they'll do Thanos."
Topic change, just so he didn't end up doing something embarrassing. he finished jotting down all the stuff that needed sorting and his phone finally buzzed. "See, look, here's some stuff that needs looking at and now I have pizza. I can have fun and do my job."
"If they do it right, they'll work up to Thanos." He was showing way more comic book knowledge than was advisable around a guy like Cisco, but whatever. At least the awkward moment was sort of over, because that had just made him feel all over the place. "Loki will to fine. Tom Hiddleston is a great actor. He can take over my world any time." Something else he wouldn't say during a normal workday, but professionalism had kind of gone overboard a while ago.
Hartley nodded and started to look over what Cisco had done. "Indeed. Admirable."
"I have done the final test, you'll both be happy to know." Eobard declared as he came out of the pipeline and shot them both a smile, coming over to see how much Cisco had done. More than he expected, he was kind of impressed. Perhaps he bet on the wrong horse, maybe Hartley would win this one. He had no intention to meddle, he was curious if he would have Sunday off or not and if he jumped it, he knew for a fact he'd win. Less fun.
"So more data to download?"
"Unfortunately, yes but after I've returned about fifty phone calls, I can come assist." Eobard offered, shooting Hartley a quick smile. "Looks like we won't be needed in on Sunday at this rate."
"Yeah, well, Hartley had a date and he's whining about missing it." Cisco complaining mockingly as he got up and wandered off to fetch his pizza. Eobard gave Hartley a knowing look and then winked. What? He appreciated the enthusiasm.
Hartley smirked and wished that he wasn't also blushing. Not only had his parents made sure he'd have a terrible last name, but also that he had the worst complexion that showed every freckle and every damn time he blushed. Whatever. He decided to look at Cisco instead, shrugging his shoulders. "You're the one who called me handsome, I'm just sharing that gift with the world."
"You are, dude. You rock that body, go get yourself laid. I believe in you." Cisco yelled as he left the room to grab his pizza. Eobard raised an eyebrow, they were getting close. Almost flirting? He didn't expect that. Was it tactically a good move or a bad move? Probably bad. He needed to divide and conquer. He supposed he could let them have this weekend and then he was going to have to step in. End it.
When Cisco came back with two pizzas, he tossed them on his desk and took a seat, putting his feet back up. "Doctor Wells, you want pizza? I ordered extra. Hartley said no but I figured he'd want to eat something so there's plenty to spare."
"Maybe later, I have calls to return. Now, you two? Let's get cracking." Eobard moved towards his office as Cisco chewed on his pizza, not at all 'getting cracking'.
Hartley frowned and looked after Harrison when he left for his office. He hadn't said anything, he hadn't even looked at him when Cisco had left the room. What was the matter? It couldn't be that harmless bit of teasing between him and Cisco, could it? He was probably reading into things. Hartley shook his head and looked at Cisco, arching his eyebrows before stealing a piece of pizza. Might as well.
no subject
"Just think of all the time you could waste at home on a Sunday." With a sigh he leaned back against Cisco's desk. "Some of us have plans, you know?"
no subject
"What are your plans? Work from home? Cause I gotta tell you, bud, that's not plans." Cisco laughed at one of Howard Stark's jokes, sipping on his slushie as he did so. "Did you know they're making an Avengers film soon? It's gonna be the bomb."
no subject
Damn it. "This is why Tony Stark works alone."
no subject
He paused the film for a second and pulled up the data, just for show, looking at it for a moment before minimising it. "It's still downloading. I can't work any quicker than the computer, man." Not that his general slowness was helping. "Tony Stark is in the Avengers."
no subject
"I know. If that team is anything like you, he'll regret that." Just saying.
no subject
As much as he'd love for there to be a hero anywhere near what he was like, he'd learned a long time ago to just sit back and appreciate. And maybe dream of having a chest like Steve Rogers. "I'm thinking of ordering pizza soon, you and Wells in or what?"
no subject
Seemed like a lot less effort, really, just had to get angry. And he knew how much anger Cisco had stored up. Not that he could blame him for that, especially after gaining some unwanted insight into his family life. "I'm not hungry. You'd have to ask Dr Wells, but I don't know where he is right now. Also, do your work."
no subject
It was a tough call. It'd be nice to have a superhero that isn't ripped for once. "I can do my work and call for pizza at the same time. Actually, easier yet, I have an app for it." And there he was, a film playing, on his phone ordering pizza, not even looking at the data he had to do. Working so hard.
no subject
Whether that was a plus or not was debatable. "Right. At the speed you're working at, I'll just have to assume that you actually love my company."
no subject
"Look, chill, I'm gonna get it done. After pizza." He finished his order and slipped his phone back into his pocket, bringing up the data again. Ninety-six percent. Eh, maybe he'd start a little earlier than planned. "Wells still needs to test the last piece of equipment, right? So we have like one more I have to look over and then I write the reports, check over all the specs and we're done. I got this."
no subject
"If you don't leave until you're done, you'll be here until after midnight. Meaning we'll all be here until then."
no subject
He didn't want to attend family dinner on Sunday and apparently working all weekend wasn't going to happen so new plan. Hide inside his apartment, ignore his phone, pretend to be busy as all hell. He was pretty good at lying to them now. He turned his chair and cleared his throat. "Could you knock that off? It's annoying."
no subject
He did say all that while still holding himself up, then finally let go and landed on the ground. "If you need an excuse to get out of something, you can always do work here. You don't need me and Dr Wells to be around for that."
no subject
He looked over the data and shrugged, not really wanting to get into any further details on this one. "Work alone on a Sunday? Yeah, no, kind of loses something." Working with people he liked? Fun. Working alone? Fuck that. "Nah, I'll go home and marathon House of Cards."
no subject
no subject
no subject
What? It was true. Hartley hadn't ever really spent much time thinking about it, but now that he did, he could admit that much. Especially since his attempt at teasing had apparently hidden on badly hidden angst instead. He didn't want to feel Cisco bad about this. About his shoddy work, that was a different matter. At least he was finally doing something.
no subject
Cisco had never been called handsome before. Pretty, cute, adorable and recently by a charming guy his mom forced on him, kinda butch. Which was depressingly the closest he'd ever gotten to a masculine-ish description from someone in that little hellish world so he was kind of taking it as a win. "You're handsome. My main man Steve Rogers? He's handsome. Guys like me? I don't even know. I guess cute isn't the end of the world."
no subject
"I don't think I'm handsome either. I don't think most men think that about themselves. I think I'm intelligent. That's more important."
no subject
Topic change, just so he didn't end up doing something embarrassing. he finished jotting down all the stuff that needed sorting and his phone finally buzzed. "See, look, here's some stuff that needs looking at and now I have pizza. I can have fun and do my job."
no subject
Hartley nodded and started to look over what Cisco had done. "Indeed. Admirable."
no subject
"So more data to download?"
"Unfortunately, yes but after I've returned about fifty phone calls, I can come assist." Eobard offered, shooting Hartley a quick smile. "Looks like we won't be needed in on Sunday at this rate."
"Yeah, well, Hartley had a date and he's whining about missing it." Cisco complaining mockingly as he got up and wandered off to fetch his pizza. Eobard gave Hartley a knowing look and then winked. What? He appreciated the enthusiasm.
no subject
no subject
When Cisco came back with two pizzas, he tossed them on his desk and took a seat, putting his feet back up. "Doctor Wells, you want pizza? I ordered extra. Hartley said no but I figured he'd want to eat something so there's plenty to spare."
"Maybe later, I have calls to return. Now, you two? Let's get cracking." Eobard moved towards his office as Cisco chewed on his pizza, not at all 'getting cracking'.
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)