mostlyajerk | Then why are you in a cage?

"Nah, it's cute. I like it." Cisco smiled genuinely before he took a seat next to Hartley, catching Rathaniel when he tried to escape, lifting him up and petting his little head. "Careful, daredevil, you're going to fall." He set the rat on his lap and then held out his arm so that Schrödinger could run onto Hartley's shoulder.

Echo was too busy nuzzling Cisco's neck to care either way. "Did I get the right food?"

Hartley watched as Schrödinger crawled into the front pocket of his hoodie and he almost missed Cisco asking him a question, looking at him just in time. He nodded, in-between bites, showing a thumbs-up. One of these days he should really sit down and properly learn how to sign.

"Perfect. I forget eating when I'm stressed."

"Relax, I can help. I have no plans. My plans were mostly to harass you into sleeping with me." Mostly because that was all they had together. Now they could have more? He could bug Hartley for things like his time and attention instead. He watched as Echo made an escape attempt from his shoulder to his lap, smiling playfully and looking up at Hartley so he could talk.

"Now I just have you to myself for all kinds of things and making tech seems like a killer plan."

"I'm almost done." Hartley gestured to his workbench and then focused on eating again for a while. He'd have had a better retort, but he wasn't a hundred percent sure about everything Cisco had said, even if he could take a good guess. "I just need to weld everything together, smooth the edges. Put it all back."

"Cool. Then when you can hear, we could watch a movie or something?" Cisco suggested, shrugging his shoulders afterwards to make it clear it was a question, gesturing for his input. He guessed it was probably wiser to take things slow if they were dating. He didn't want Hartley to think it was all just big talk. He did want to spend time with him outside of the bedroom and this seemed like a good way to do it. "Me, you and the rats. Just chilling."

"I only have a laptop..." Which was where he did watch movies and everything else, but given Cisco's obsession, he wouldn't be surprised if that made him protest. Hartley smiled though, nodding. "Sure, we can. I haven't watched a movie with someone in a long time."

"Oh man, okay, no. First off, you need a TV. I'm gonna buy you one because I can't live like this and secondly, you are going to love me." Inside his wallet was a tucked away SD card which he set on the table proudly after letting Echo sniff it. "That's my movie drive, I go nowhere without it. We can watch something off there and plan what TV to get you."

"You talk fast," Hartley informed him, then leaned in to kiss him to cut him off from saying anything else, "But I got the gist. I'll finish up my earpieces and you can play around with my laptop." He pointed out the laptop, not that he really had to, given it was right on the table. Finally he got up, holding his hands out to keep balanced. Damn ears.

He made his way over to his workstation and picked off where he'd stopped. There was a lot of residue shame over being disabled, installed there by his parents. He felt lesser like this and he knew he shouldn't, but there it was anyway.

While Hartley worked, Cisco didn't bug him, he just ate his food and played with the rats, talking away to them until his food was gone and they were somewhere safe. He left the rats contently playing on the couch and came up behind Hartley, he waved a hand in front so he didn't startle him before he eventually just draped himself around the back of Hartley as he watched him do the final tweaks of his ear pieces.

He kissed him on each ear playfully before he nuzzled his neck.

"Distraction," Hartley scolded him, but that didn't keep him from smiling. It also didn't really mess with his focus, not judging by how his hands steadily kept working, sanding off the edge to make sure this wouldn't cut into him. Finally he put his tools down and turned around to look at Cisco, reaching up to the headphones. "I'll have to take them off to put these in, so please don't make any sound while I do that?"

Cisco nodded and miming zipping his mouth as he stood some steps back and waited, watching him and hoping this wasn't too painful. He wanted to ask if he wanted music to counteract the noise but apparently he must have had a plan so he just waited, knowing he couldn't make any sound.

Hartley took the headphones off and closed his eyes, quickly putting one of the earpieces in. He needed to focus to make sure it did its thing and was on the right setting, biting down on his lower lip, because of course he hurt. He repeated the process on the other side, finally cursing under his breath and covering his ears with his hands while he lowered his head. It was just never much fun, but the worst of it all was really the bad memories it brought up.

"I can hear you now."

"Are you okay?"

Cisco came to him and touched his shoulder, checking his ears to make sure they were okay before he pulled Hartley onto a quick kiss, just to assure him. "Hey, it's pretty cool you could make those and they seem to be working. Which means you have no excuse to avoid movie night with me!"

"It's not so bad, I'm just always scared it will get worse."

The way Cisco had actually experienced when he'd vibed Hartley's injury, not that long ago, although neither of them really thought about that now. It seemed long ago, that time in the cage. Hartley leaned back against Cisco and closed his eyes. This was a strange thing to allow himself, this kind of comfort, because it felt like something that would backfire.

"What movie are we watching?"

"Then we'll keep on top of it together. We're the two smartest guys in the world and there's nothing we can't achieve. Even keeping your ears from going to hell." He never suggested fixing them because he knew Hartley had been deaf from birth apparently so that wasn't a fixing issue but he definitely needed something to keep the constant pain away.

"Erm, I don't know, want to watch Avengers? It's my go-to chill out movie."

Then why are you in a cage?

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