mostlyajerk | Then why are you in a cage?

"Right." Leonard moved forward and pointed out the mark on Cisco's neck, then turned to look at Hartley. "Did you have fun?"

"Plenty." Hartley decided not to bother denying it. Instead he had to rethink his strategy here, because apparently Cisco was worse than useless. "He won't be building you any weapons. Clear enough, isn't it?"

"And why's that?"

Of course that was the moment Mick also chose to come closer, just as Len's tone shifted a little. But Hartley didn't show any signs of intimidation, instead he just picked up his flute, seemingly idly turning it in his hand. "He's my boyfriend."

"... What?!" Cisco's voice was a whole note higher as he stared at Hartley in confusion, his eyes wide because what was even happening. This was the weirdest day of his life and he was stuck tied to a chair during it. Cisco twitched a little as he stared at Hartley, his mouth gaping a little. "Wait, when? What? How? No. What?"

Okay, deep breath. He was definitely taking one of those.

"We're dating?" Cisco had no idea if this was a thing that he was supposed to be lying about or not but he could have at least hinted or suggested he was doing another play, maybe made some eye contact instead of looking at his flute and confusing the hell out of Cisco. "... Is that why you sucked my neck? Is this like a villain ritual thing I don't know about where you like stake a claim and that's how dating begins and I'm yours forever. Well, no, it can't be forever because the mark will fade so that's just dumb."

Leonard looked from Cisco to Hartley, frankly not even sure how to react to this. Meanwhile, Mick just laughed. "You're a special kind of stupid, kid."

Hartley found himself agreeing. He finally pushed away from the desk, flute still in hand. Putting himself between Leonard and Cisco, he looked at Leonard and straightened his shoulders. "All right, he's nothing to me, but you're not touching him again."

"Not how it works, Piper, and you know it."

"Wait, I'm nothing to you?" Oh. That sucked. He wanted to go back to the boyfriend thing. He swallowed hard and looked between the two, sensing where this was about to go and oh man, Leonard Snart was terrifying, he was going to kick Hartley's ass. He couldn't let that happen. "Woah, cool it, come on, don't fight. I-I actually can't do what you asked and I'm not lying because clearly, as we all just learned, I can't do that well."

He licked his lips and tried his best to do what he could to prevent this from turning into a fight that Hartley was apparently walking into with a flute. Yeah, that was going to beat a cold gun.

"To do what you want and do it so it's worthwhile, you'd have to have components that have to be specially made and then it'd cost you an insane amount and you can't just randomly steal that shit, you have to send away from it and fill in a form with the funding and that could take up to three months to approve and I don't want to be tied to a chair for three months." There. Cisco inhaled sharply and hoped against hope that would help. God help him, he was worried about Hartley and more than a little freaked. "If I made it with what you have, it'd probably backfire and kill you anyway."

"So, which is it, Piper? You've been telling a lot of lies for this kid." Hartley narrowed his eyes and wished there was any way for Captain Cold's glare not to terrify someone to their very core. Maybe he'd get used to it one day. But at least he had determination.

"He's at least as useless as he says, yes. But he's coming with me now."

"He is?" Leonard just raised an eyebrow and Mick walked up to stand behind him. Perfectly coordinated as always, it was so damn annoying when standing opposite them.

"Yes, he is. You can play your bondage games with someone else, this one's taken."

"Why am I a kid and he's not? We're the same age, he's got like a few months on me tops."

Okay, that probably didn't matter right now and given the looks he got whenever he spoke, he decided to make a wise decision. He closed his mouth tight shut and then watched, unsure what to do, kind of freaked and pretty certain that Leonard was about to kick Hartley's ass. This really sucked

But apparently he was taken? That was cool. He thinks? It's hard to tell.

"Put your flute down, Piper. If you say he's taken, he's taken. Take him." Leonard shrugged, looking as nonchalant as possible and as if he didn't even care. He turned his back to Hartley and walked past Mick, who grunted, eyes narrowed at both of them.

"You're lucky, Piper. Or maybe the kid's the lucky one, if you vouch for him."

Hartley shrugged and walked behind Cisco, getting his pocket knife out and using it to quickly cut through the rope. "Don't get up yet, Cisquito, you'll need a minute for the blood-flow to adjust itself."

"Maybe two minutes. He's had that boner since we got back." Helpful, Mick.

Oh God. Cisco was dying. Literally dying.

"... Is it that obvious? Oh man." Well, yes, it was that obvious. He could not have gone redder as his hands were finally free and he used them to aptly cover his face, his hands felt all numb and weird but it didn't matter. This was just the most embarrassing thing ever.

"Wake up, Cisco, wake up." This had to be a bad dream. A weird, kinky bad dream. He'd had those before.

"Aw, don't worry about it. You're short, I wouldn't have thought you could be that obvious."

"You can stop helping now, Mick. Come on, Cisco." Hartley hauled Cisco up by one arm, deciding that they shouldn't spend more time than necessary here. "I'll get you out."

"Of the closet," Mick added with a grin and Hartley rolled his eyes as they made their way to and finally through the door.

"...you're really bad at improv."

"Can we all just pretend this never happened. Oh God." Cisco was dying as he followed Hartley out, wishing for the love of God that something would strike him down and save him from this awful madness. Once they were finally out of the room and up the stairs, Cisco made a frustrated whimpering whiny noise and cursed under his breath in Spanish.

"That is officially the most embarrassing thing to have happened to me. And that beats out being thrown into the girl's room in my undies."

Highschool had been rough, of course it had. He shook his head and tried to focus, looking at Hartley in confusion. "You saved me... Why?"

"Don't worry about it, Mick embarrasses himself all the time." Hartley leaned against the wall of the house and tried to think of a good answer to the question. Finally he just shrugged. "Because I kissed you and your lips were soft and it'd have been strange to watch Cold bloody them."

It came as close to the truth as he was willing to go here, because this was beyond awkward. "So. Do you need a cab or to call the Flash or now does this work for sidekicks?"

"I'm not his sidekick. God, you're such a dick."

Cisco knew he should just call Barry, he should just get as far away as possible and go hide until it all blew over but instead, he took a moment of dumb courage, moved in and kissed Hartley. And not some little cowardly kiss either, a proper one. The kind they were going to have before Len and Mick kind of ruined it.

Hartley hadn't expected that. What he had expected was Cisco storming off or something along those lines. Instead he found himself being kissed and his eyes widened while he made a definite sound of surprise, that was thankfully muffled by the kiss. His eyes close and he kept kissing, moving his arms around Cisco's waist to draw him closer. No, this wasn't the place to do this and he didn't even know what he was doing, but here he was anyway.

"This was cool. In a horrifying 'hopefully it's a dream and went way cooler in real life' sort of thing." Cisco said as soon as they broke away, clearly nervously, clearly unsure and if anything was going to happen, it wasn't going to happen here. "I have to go before Snart changes his mind and, you know, people are probably freaking on my behalf but, erm, seeing you wasn't totally awful." And as he backed up, he decided not to accidentally close this door entirely. "... You know where I live, right?"

"No. But I can probably find out." Hartley frowned for a moment, trying to figure out the mixed signals Cisco was sending and finally just digging in his pocket until he found a pen. He moved forward and grabbed Cisco's hand so he could scribble his number on the back of it. Then he hesitated for a moment before lifting the hand to his mouth and placing a kiss on the palm, eyes on Cisco's face. "Go home, think of me." He moved so he could kiss the tip of one finger. "If you still feel like it then, text me."

That said he wrapped his lips around one of Cisco's fingers and nipped on the tip before sucking on it, just for a moment.

"Bye."

Then why are you in a cage?

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