"Why would I lie about that?" Hartley rolled his eyes, tightening his hand around Cisco's and not entirely sure how he felt about this development. He had cuddled with Cisco, cuddled with Axel, never with them both at the same time. He still wasn't sure he could trust Axel, but then. When was he ever sure he could trust anyone? "Cisco isn't that subtle when he has a crush. I know the symptoms."
Axel didn't exactly cuddle, not like he would have if it was just him and Hartley or him and Cisco. He was suspect, uneasy, looking like it was a trap. He hid his mistrust behind a silly smile as instead, he sat upright and leaned on Hartley's body, looking at Cisco with a curious expression. "You like me? ... Oh boy, that's dumb. You don't wanna do that. That is not going to end well for you. Back me up here, Hart."
"I didn't say you would." The scrunchy confused face says he's too drunk at this point to connect the implication to his own statement. Sorry, Hart.
He tilts his head and peeks over at Axel, smiling a little. "I don't always make the best decisions. And also I didn't really choose to like you, I just do." His gaze falters, eyes dropping down to watch his own fingers tap an idle rhythm against Hartley's chest.
His voice is quieter with his next words, a frown creasing across his forehead. "even though I probably shouldn't and I kinda feel bad about it." His eyes dart back up to Axel, "Not that liking you is necessarily bad," even if technically it is asking for something chaotic, "but I shouldn't like you like that, or anyone else." Now he's looking at Hartley again. "It's not fair." To you. It's unspoken, but it's there, in the guilty way he looks at him. Cisco's grip on Hartley's hand tightens a little.
His gaze drops away from both of them again, lips drawing together as he tries to sort out where to go from there. It's all kind of a lot, and he probably wouldn't have said any of it out loud without the tequila. He can't decide if it might have all been better left unsaid. "Emotions are weird and hard and confusing." Such a novel idea for the two he's laying here with, clearly. They neither have any experience with ignoring their feelings because of that exact sentiment. Nope. Not at all. "It's supposed to be easy and clear cut and solid and it's nothing like that at all." And he's pouting now. Emotions are totally rude and unfair.
"You're right. Probably isn't fair." Hartley frowned, turning his head to look up at the ceiling, even though Cisco is looking at him. Perhaps because Cisco is looking at him. "I don't think I expect fairness out of life anymore."
While he listened to Cisco, he tried to process this. Emotions were weird, hard and confusing and Cisco wasn't making this any easier on him by being drunk, being sweet, being Cisco. Hartley didn't want to lose him. However...
He finally looked at them again, first Axel, then Cisco. Leaning back on his elbows and raising his eyebrows. "So what is it, Cisco? Do you want to be with Axel more than you want to be with me?"
"You can like two people at once. Who ever said you have to like one person at a time only?"
Well, Hartley, maybe? He wasn't sure. Axel was all for liking two people. He liked two people right now, they were both in bed with him but unfortunately he'd learned the hard way that if he liked them, he wanted them to be happy. And this? it had the potential of making them both very unhappy. Axel backed up a little bit, even if he hated himself for doing it.
"Hartley, he loves you, don't be an idiot. It's okay, like, people get crushes. And I am ridic hot and charming. He doesn't love me more, he's just endeared." Axel beamed a fake smile and shuffled away from them, ready to get up and slip away. "Look you two have your happy reunion, I should really just..." Yeah.
Before he could even get his mouth to catch up with his brain, Hartley certainly would hear the suddenly quicker pace of Cisco's heartbeat as panic rises and settles in his chest. "What?" He sits up, staring at Hartley, equal parts shocked and a little scared. "No, I-- that's not what I meant."
This is it. He'd just gotten Hartley back and he was already ruining everything. Cisco regrets saying anything at all. He sits, for a long moment, leaned halfway over his knees, palms pressed to his eyes as he tries to process everything. He hears Axel talking, getting ready to leave and he doesn't want him to, not really, but he doesn't think saying as much would help anything right now so he doesn't.
What he does, instead, is lower his hands away from his face and look up first at Axel, "I like him," then at Hartley, "but I'm in love with you..." He shrugs one shoulder, eyes dropping to his own fingers, twisting a bit of the sheet between his fingers. "it's different."
The people pleaser in him wants to over-explain it all, to reassure Axel because it all sounds so much like he just doesn't matter, which at this point he isn't sure he can say is exactly true. And to soothe away whatever doubts Hartley may be forming in his mind because nothing has changed in how Cisco feels about him. But he forces himself not to do that, to immediately go into some huge babble about it all because he thinks it would look worse, somehow.
"Stay, Axel." To make sure the words would be listened to, Hartley reached out and what was intended to just be him holding Axel's arm. Instead he somehow ended up with an arm around him and then he fell back on the bed, pulling Axel down on top of him. Well then. He didn't think he was very drunk, but apparently his balance had been affected.
As had his sense of humour, given he was now laughing over this. Or, perhaps, over the whole ridiculous situation the three of them were in.
"So, what, Cisquito? You want to date both of us?"
Axel tumbled back with Hartley and flailed a little, lying on to of Hartley with his leg almost kicking Cisco. Not on purpose. Sometimes he honestly forgot just how strong Hartley was sometimes. God, these two were way drunker than he expected. He laughed a little himself because it was easier that focusing on how potential painfully everything else could be. Rejection was hard but rejection was sadly something that he was getting very used to it.
"God, you two are so drunk. No one is making sane or consistent decision tonight." Rolling his eyes, he stayed on top of Hartley and reached out, amusingly bopping Cisco on the nose. "Look, handsome, you can have a crush on me and not wanna date me. That's totally fine. I have a big thing for Oliver Queen, doesn't mean I will ever actually date him but a harmless crush is fun!"
Cisco's still sitting in a drunken heap on the bed and he looks up as the two of them fall back onto the bed in their own mess of limbs, and Axel nearly kicks him. Despite himself, he laughs a little, too drunk to stay very serious for too long.
His face scrunches a little at Hartley's question, "Whaaaat?" That's the question of someone who has never legitimately considered such things. That isn't even possible. ....Right? ....No. Definitely not. He is way too insecure for-- Axel tapping his nose distracts any thoughts he may have been having, nose crinkling against the action. "Where's the line between harmless and harmful, though."
"Why would you want to date Oliver Queen? He's a stupid fratboy. I know he's all about becoming mayor or whatever now, but trust me, I've met him. Stupid fratboy. Definitely not your type." Because apparently Hartley knew exactly what Axel's type was or at least what he wanted Axel's type to be. He turned his attention from Axel and, by proxy, Oliver Queen, back to Cisco, shrugging his shoulders.
"Harmful is when harm is being done, when someone is hurting. Are you hurting? Are you, Axel?"
"Oh yeah, totally my type. I like them hot and I like them dumb." Axel grinned excitedly and clapped his hands together, mouthing 'yay' at Hartley. He said that, of course, yet here he was in bed with two very not dumb people. Though tonight was seriously going against them, he had to say. This was neither of their brightest moments.
"It gets harmful when you, I don't know, ruin a relationship for me or cheat on Hartley. That's dumb, you don't wanna do that. Harmless is just admiring how pretty I am and not wanting to run away with me or tap this." Axel explained to the two very drunk people, petting Hartley's hair like he was a silly puppy. Which he kind of was. "No one is hurting right now."
"He is though," Cisco nods his agreement with Hartley about Oliver being a fratboy. Pretty only got someone so far and Oliver wasn't really Cisco's type anyway. He sobers a little at that question, though. "No..." He focuses his attention on Hartley, gauging him carefully. "are you?" Because, really, right now that's what mattered. He wouldn't want Axel to be hurt either, but he could deal with that far easier than he could with Hartley right now.
His gaze flickers back toward Axel, shaking his head. "I'm not gonna do that." He isn't snappy about it, just simple and very matter-of-fact. It's obvious, he'd never dream of cheating on Hartley. Cisco was a lot of things but he wasn't That Guy.
Still....everything continued feeling too confusing to deal with. And because he was drunk and could only handle so much introspection and processing right now, he decides, effectively, to give up on it for a little while. A fact that is made clear by the sudden shift to lay down in their weird little cuddle pile again, head pillowed on Hartley's shoulder, fingers toying idly with Axel's own, without so much as a word. He doesn't really want to talk or even think any more, mostly he just wants to be here, with the two of them and, for a little while, maybe pretend this could be as simple as it feels right now, instead of the mess that it really is.
"Probably. I'm angsty." It was true and a rare moment of at least public introspection, inwardly Hartley was that openly honest with himself much more often. However, he was still lying here with Axel petting his head and Cisco on top of him, feeling pleasantly warm and also both light and heavy at the same time, which made no scientific sense but which felt pretty nice nonetheless.
"You're pretty," he told Axel as he looked at his face, "You look so gay." It was a compliment, coming from him, and he reached out to stroke his cheek and almost poked him in the eye, but managed to redirect it to run his fingers through his hair instead.
"Cisquito, do you think Axel is pretty gay?" It made sense in his head right now.
Axel flinched back from the stroke before he lost an eye and caught Hartley's wrist, kissing his palm before placing his hand back to avoid any accidents. God, these two were so damn drunk, it was hilarious.
"Wait, are you saying 'pretty gay' as in I'm really gay or 'pretty gay' as in I'm a pretty gay? I mean yes to both but I kind of want to clarify." Axel didn't take offence, he'd known he was gay pretty early on, he'd been very proud and no one rocks rainbow booty shorts quite like his hot ass so seriously, people can come at him. "You're a very pretty gay too, Hartley. So pretty. Let's just take these glasses off though so we can all appreciate the full pretty."
And also stop Hartley from sleeping in his glasses on cause that'd hurt. He looked over at Cisco, smiling playfully at him too. "You two are adorable."
Cisco looks up with Hartley's question, smiling a dumb little lopsided grin at Axel. "Both." it's an answer to Hartley's question, and the...lack of clarification that Axel was wanting, but hey. It worked as an answer. To him, anyway.
His nose crinkles in a weirdly cute way at the compliment being directed at both of them though. He's bad at taking them, because he never really sees the things other people do in himself. But he doesn't disregard it or tell Axel he's wrong because that just seemed rude.
"I'm not adorable," was Hartley's even less mature reaction, huffing and closing his eyes in protest. He'd have stormed off, but that seemed like too much effort and once he closed his eyes, the possibility of just keeping them closed was a lot more appealing, so he did that. He hadn't realised that he was tired. Huh.
"You two can..." He knew what he wanted to say, but formulating words seemed like a lot of effort suddenly. "Something!" he finally declared, his eyes still closed.
"Fine, you're badass and cool, never adorable. And yeah, we can something. We'll something all night long." Axel laughed faintly and lay back, aware that Hartley was on the verge of crashing out now and Cisco probably wouldn't be too far behind him. Given how much booze they had, it'd be shocking if they both lasted long. "You two are gonna hate yourselves in the morning. It's going to be so funny."
Tomorrow they'd just be hung over messes but at least Axel would get a better read on just how they felt on this whole thing.
"Are too." Cisco mumbled sleepily at Hartley's denial of being adorable. There's a beat and he adds, "D2." He thinks he's funny, and that's pretty obvious with the snicker he gives at his own joke.
He wanted to ask what kind of something, but he's so comfy all curled up like this and his eyes are getting hard to keep open.
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Date: 2017-03-21 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-22 07:06 pm (UTC)Axel didn't exactly cuddle, not like he would have if it was just him and Hartley or him and Cisco. He was suspect, uneasy, looking like it was a trap. He hid his mistrust behind a silly smile as instead, he sat upright and leaned on Hartley's body, looking at Cisco with a curious expression. "You like me? ... Oh boy, that's dumb. You don't wanna do that. That is not going to end well for you. Back me up here, Hart."
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Date: 2017-03-23 12:10 am (UTC)He tilts his head and peeks over at Axel, smiling a little. "I don't always make the best decisions. And also I didn't really choose to like you, I just do." His gaze falters, eyes dropping down to watch his own fingers tap an idle rhythm against Hartley's chest.
His voice is quieter with his next words, a frown creasing across his forehead. "even though I probably shouldn't and I kinda feel bad about it." His eyes dart back up to Axel, "Not that liking you is necessarily bad," even if technically it is asking for something chaotic, "but I shouldn't like you like that, or anyone else." Now he's looking at Hartley again. "It's not fair." To you. It's unspoken, but it's there, in the guilty way he looks at him. Cisco's grip on Hartley's hand tightens a little.
His gaze drops away from both of them again, lips drawing together as he tries to sort out where to go from there. It's all kind of a lot, and he probably wouldn't have said any of it out loud without the tequila. He can't decide if it might have all been better left unsaid. "Emotions are weird and hard and confusing." Such a novel idea for the two he's laying here with, clearly. They neither have any experience with ignoring their feelings because of that exact sentiment. Nope. Not at all. "It's supposed to be easy and clear cut and solid and it's nothing like that at all." And he's pouting now. Emotions are totally rude and unfair.
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Date: 2017-03-28 09:11 pm (UTC)While he listened to Cisco, he tried to process this. Emotions were weird, hard and confusing and Cisco wasn't making this any easier on him by being drunk, being sweet, being Cisco. Hartley didn't want to lose him. However...
He finally looked at them again, first Axel, then Cisco. Leaning back on his elbows and raising his eyebrows. "So what is it, Cisco? Do you want to be with Axel more than you want to be with me?"
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Date: 2017-03-28 09:35 pm (UTC)Well, Hartley, maybe? He wasn't sure. Axel was all for liking two people. He liked two people right now, they were both in bed with him but unfortunately he'd learned the hard way that if he liked them, he wanted them to be happy. And this? it had the potential of making them both very unhappy. Axel backed up a little bit, even if he hated himself for doing it.
"Hartley, he loves you, don't be an idiot. It's okay, like, people get crushes. And I am ridic hot and charming. He doesn't love me more, he's just endeared." Axel beamed a fake smile and shuffled away from them, ready to get up and slip away. "Look you two have your happy reunion, I should really just..." Yeah.
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Date: 2017-03-29 02:36 am (UTC)This is it. He'd just gotten Hartley back and he was already ruining everything. Cisco regrets saying anything at all. He sits, for a long moment, leaned halfway over his knees, palms pressed to his eyes as he tries to process everything. He hears Axel talking, getting ready to leave and he doesn't want him to, not really, but he doesn't think saying as much would help anything right now so he doesn't.
What he does, instead, is lower his hands away from his face and look up first at Axel, "I like him," then at Hartley, "but I'm in love with you..." He shrugs one shoulder, eyes dropping to his own fingers, twisting a bit of the sheet between his fingers. "it's different."
The people pleaser in him wants to over-explain it all, to reassure Axel because it all sounds so much like he just doesn't matter, which at this point he isn't sure he can say is exactly true. And to soothe away whatever doubts Hartley may be forming in his mind because nothing has changed in how Cisco feels about him. But he forces himself not to do that, to immediately go into some huge babble about it all because he thinks it would look worse, somehow.
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Date: 2017-03-31 06:35 pm (UTC)As had his sense of humour, given he was now laughing over this. Or, perhaps, over the whole ridiculous situation the three of them were in.
"So, what, Cisquito? You want to date both of us?"
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Date: 2017-03-31 06:45 pm (UTC)Axel tumbled back with Hartley and flailed a little, lying on to of Hartley with his leg almost kicking Cisco. Not on purpose. Sometimes he honestly forgot just how strong Hartley was sometimes. God, these two were way drunker than he expected. He laughed a little himself because it was easier that focusing on how potential painfully everything else could be. Rejection was hard but rejection was sadly something that he was getting very used to it.
"God, you two are so drunk. No one is making sane or consistent decision tonight." Rolling his eyes, he stayed on top of Hartley and reached out, amusingly bopping Cisco on the nose. "Look, handsome, you can have a crush on me and not wanna date me. That's totally fine. I have a big thing for Oliver Queen, doesn't mean I will ever actually date him but a harmless crush is fun!"
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Date: 2017-03-31 10:11 pm (UTC)His face scrunches a little at Hartley's question, "Whaaaat?" That's the question of someone who has never legitimately considered such things. That isn't even possible. ....Right? ....No. Definitely not. He is way too insecure for-- Axel tapping his nose distracts any thoughts he may have been having, nose crinkling against the action. "Where's the line between harmless and harmful, though."
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Date: 2017-04-04 04:12 pm (UTC)"Harmful is when harm is being done, when someone is hurting. Are you hurting? Are you, Axel?"
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Date: 2017-04-04 04:16 pm (UTC)"It gets harmful when you, I don't know, ruin a relationship for me or cheat on Hartley. That's dumb, you don't wanna do that. Harmless is just admiring how pretty I am and not wanting to run away with me or tap this." Axel explained to the two very drunk people, petting Hartley's hair like he was a silly puppy. Which he kind of was. "No one is hurting right now."
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Date: 2017-04-05 02:28 am (UTC)His gaze flickers back toward Axel, shaking his head. "I'm not gonna do that." He isn't snappy about it, just simple and very matter-of-fact. It's obvious, he'd never dream of cheating on Hartley. Cisco was a lot of things but he wasn't That Guy.
Still....everything continued feeling too confusing to deal with. And because he was drunk and could only handle so much introspection and processing right now, he decides, effectively, to give up on it for a little while. A fact that is made clear by the sudden shift to lay down in their weird little cuddle pile again, head pillowed on Hartley's shoulder, fingers toying idly with Axel's own, without so much as a word. He doesn't really want to talk or even think any more, mostly he just wants to be here, with the two of them and, for a little while, maybe pretend this could be as simple as it feels right now, instead of the mess that it really is.
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Date: 2017-04-27 09:13 pm (UTC)"You're pretty," he told Axel as he looked at his face, "You look so gay." It was a compliment, coming from him, and he reached out to stroke his cheek and almost poked him in the eye, but managed to redirect it to run his fingers through his hair instead.
"Cisquito, do you think Axel is pretty gay?" It made sense in his head right now.
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Date: 2017-04-27 09:22 pm (UTC)"Wait, are you saying 'pretty gay' as in I'm really gay or 'pretty gay' as in I'm a pretty gay? I mean yes to both but I kind of want to clarify." Axel didn't take offence, he'd known he was gay pretty early on, he'd been very proud and no one rocks rainbow booty shorts quite like his hot ass so seriously, people can come at him. "You're a very pretty gay too, Hartley. So pretty. Let's just take these glasses off though so we can all appreciate the full pretty."
And also stop Hartley from sleeping in his glasses on cause that'd hurt. He looked over at Cisco, smiling playfully at him too. "You two are adorable."
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Date: 2017-04-27 10:21 pm (UTC)His nose crinkles in a weirdly cute way at the compliment being directed at both of them though. He's bad at taking them, because he never really sees the things other people do in himself. But he doesn't disregard it or tell Axel he's wrong because that just seemed rude.
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Date: 2017-04-27 10:25 pm (UTC)"You two can..." He knew what he wanted to say, but formulating words seemed like a lot of effort suddenly. "Something!" he finally declared, his eyes still closed.
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Date: 2017-04-27 10:29 pm (UTC)Tomorrow they'd just be hung over messes but at least Axel would get a better read on just how they felt on this whole thing.
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Date: 2017-04-27 10:57 pm (UTC)He wanted to ask what kind of something, but he's so comfy all curled up like this and his eyes are getting hard to keep open.