[That you so totally aren't gonna be a fan of at all. But it's fine. It all turned out fine. No deaths or injuries were made in the making of this news he has to tell you, Hartley.]
Soooo remember my E-2 twin, Reverb? He's kinda sorta not at all dead like we all thought?
And he actually figured out a way to text across dimensions, which is kinda cool, but anyway. We were talking and I maybe invited him over to watch a movie?
Which we didn't really do much watching because we started talking instead and comparing a bunch of stuff in our lives.
But moral of the story is Reverb is alive and I might be slightly disturbed by how alike we are?
No, I mean it. I honestly want to know what unit of measurement you could even attempt to use for something as vast and all-encompassing as your stupidity.
[He had braced for it, even as he sent the last message. He knew it was coming. Yelling, so much yelling. Not that Cisco doesn't see where he deserves it. It was kind of stupid. Completely stupid, really. BUT IT TURNED OUT FINE!]
Babe. Wait. Look, I know.
I know. It was stupid. And no, I don't have a death wish.
And I don't know how he survived and the only thing like a plan I got out of him was he doesn't know what he's doing from here out because... Because of a lot of stuff I'd really rather explain when you get here
No threats, no injuries. I know it's probably hard to believe, but seriously, we just...talked. it's fine, nothing happened.
[There wasn't any further reply, because the Pied Piper is the Pied Piper and he has a trick or two up his sleeve that let him navigate the city quickly, but that don't allow for any further messaging.
Instead he arrives at Cisco's window, which isn't really anything new. He pulls the hood back before he knocks, waits for him to open the window and then jumps in, grabs Cisco by the shoulders and walks him backwards so he can pin him against the wall.]
What the hell is wrong with you?
[A very important question, although the answer will have to wait until after at least one deep kiss that he's demanding now. He pulls away, leaning his forehead against Cisco's.]
[He's not surprised by the lack of response or the window greeting. He's only barely taken aback by being pinned and he can't even answer what's being asked because Hartley's lips are on his in a fierce and protective sort of way that kind of makes Cisco's heart skip even as he returns that kiss in equal measure]
A lot of things. Mostly impulsivity in this case, though? [He answers, his eyes locked on his boyfriend's own.] Presumably on another Earth, hiding. [What? He didn't ask where he was going when he left!]
[He speaks slowly. Carefully. Hopefully in a way that even an idiot could follow. Because apparently that is necessary.]
You invited your Doppelgänger, who calls himself a God and who almost killed Barry - with ease, over, for a movie night. Then instead you had some talks and when he left, without telling you what he is planning, you didn't even think to ask him where he's going?
[For a moment, he's at a loss for words, mouth moving but no sound coming out before finally sighing with a flourish of one hand.]
I don't know. It just-- happened. I don't have any excuse and I'm not gonna try and make any. I just...
[He sighs softly, reaching to take Hartley's hands in his, pushing gently away from the wall and tugging him over to the couch for the rest of this conversation. Wedging himself in the corner, he threads the fingers of one hand through Hartley's. Fleetingly, he realizes, even the little things he takes for granted are something Reverb can't have anymore.] I think I kind of understand a little more about why he is the way he is, why he made the choices he did.
Most people have reasons to be dangerous, that doesn't make them any less dangerous. [But since there is nothing he can do right now, Hartley does settle in on the couch, his head tilting as he leans into Cisco's touch. He still isn't used to it, casual touches, casual affection, there is still an uncertainty and a joy that comes with it ever time.]
You want to tell me why you understand him better now? Tell me. I'll listen.
I'm not saying it makes the things he did okay... [Because it's not. Killing the way he had, hurting people because he'd been hurt can't be okay.] ...but I get it. Which in itself kind of terrifies me.
[With his free hand he tucks his hair behind his ear, thumb of his other hand idly sliding across Hartley's.] I didn't get a lot about his parents but.. they weren't any better than mine, but he always had Dante. They were apparently pretty close. [And if that's a twinge of jealousy in his voice, Cisco's not claiming it.] Anyway...he needed help when his powers started manifesting. That's why he went to Zoom, it was out of Dante's depths and Zoom could help... It was the power, really, that he wanted. Over other people. To be better. Stronger. More. [His gaze drops for a moment.] To...make other people feel the pain he'd always felt.
And of course, Zoom always had leverage with Dante in hand, but-- eventually he had something else. Someone else to threaten to force Reverb's hand. [He looks up again and his voice is soft, thick with emotion because he knows--vaguely, if not the specifics--where this story ends.] He had you, too.
Can anyone just tell you any old sob story and you'll fall for it? [But in spite of the blunt and honest criticism, there is a softness to Hartley's voice, even before it all sinks in. Cisco is his soft spot to an almost embarrassing degree and that he is like that, that he's not as cynical as he is, that he can trust anyone, even someone he has seen almost kill his best friend.
His evil twin. Hartley tightens his hand around Cisco's and tries to get his attention, tries to catch his eyes.]
[He frowns a little at that. Mostly because, stupidly, the idea hadn't even crossed his mind. Could it have all been bullshit? Maybe. But there had been something too open, too real, too raw for Cisco to really doubt Reverb's sincerity.] I don't think it was like that.
[He tries not to trust so easily, doesn't as much as he once had ever since Thawne... And he's more suspicious than some of the others on Team Flash, but not as much as Hartley. And he knows he's not entirely wrong to be cautious, to want Cisco to be more so.
He squeezes Hartley's hand gently in return.] What it says on the tin... [He shrugs one shoulder slightly.] He was with his world's version of you. The way he talked about him... kind of reminded me of you, actually. Begrudgingly admitting there's that one person that nobody else can compete with, hating the vulnerability, but not the place it comes from... [He shakes his head, his thumb tracing idle patterns against the side of Hartley's hand in his again. He just remembers the necklace with the ring.]
Zoom used him as leverage to stay his hand... he didn't really have a choice because his options were do as Zoom asked or loose his Hartley. [He hates that it happens at all, but he can't stop the tears that sting at the edge of his vision. Not for the loss of someone he never knew, but for how easily it could be the one sitting in front of him, how easily Cisco could be in Reverb's shoes.] But he lost him anyway. Because of course he did, because Zoom's a dick.
Maybe it wasn't. But it might be a good idea to at least consider the possibility. [Hartley raised his free hand to run his fingers through Cisco's hair, his palm brushing against his cheek. He watches his face as he talks and then leans in finally, kissing him less with passion and more with something subtler, softer. Just as intimate. An attempt to simply be close, because he sees the tears threatening.]
Zoom's not going to lose us anyone else. We'll find a way, Cisquito. Anyway, I don't think Zoom was recruiting you, was he? [He frowns, remembering.] Reverb was.
I know... I'm sorry. [His voice is quiet and he shuts his eyes against the tears, leaning into that soft kiss a little. He always knows just the thing to say or do to get Cisco out of his own head. He opens his eyes again and leans his forehead against Hartley's.] Promise? [He knows that's not a promise anyone can truly make, but it'd sound nice, maybe make him feel a little better to hear it.
We'll do what we can. And we are good. [Hartley doesn't believe in making promises when he doesn't know beyond a doubt they will be kept, but he's confident and, more than that, he simply wants to be confident for Cisco's sake.]
Simple. If he wanted to recruit you then, but now there was no whisper of such plans, something must have changed for him between then and now. What would be interesting is if and why he actually believed you could have defeated Zoom.
[Not a promise, but close enough. Enough to calm his nerves, at least. The confidence in his voice is almost soothing in its own right.
At Hartley's words, a thoughtful look crosses his face.] You think there was more to it than just not going it alone? [He tips his head slightly. This isn't going to go over well, he's pretty sure.] I could try to find out. He seemed... amicable when he left, maybe.. maybe I could talk him into helping us take Zoom down. [Or Hartley. He could ask. And Cisco hates he jumped to that, even only in his head, because holy fuck is it manipulative and low. ...but as a last ditch effort in convincing him if he resisted, it'd probably work. But he can't even voice the idea because using that against him wasn't right.]
Maybe you should never be left alone with him again, how's that idea? [But he doesn't agree with the general principle of what Cisco is saying, just leaving him alone to talk to someone this dangerous? Not something very high up on his list.] Either way we need to know what he's doing, we can't leave him to try to take over some other Earth or whatever would happen.
That...is an option. [Not the best one, in his opinion, but he can't hate the way Hartley is so protective of him.] You'll be there next time and we'll figure it out. He was so... apathetic, though, I don't really think anything like that is even on his mind, Hartley.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
@mostlyajerk
Date: 2016-10-19 07:58 pm (UTC)I kinda have some stuff to tell you.
[That you so totally aren't gonna be a fan of at all. But it's fine. It all turned out fine. No deaths or injuries were made in the making of this news he has to tell you, Hartley.]
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 08:05 pm (UTC)[That just sounds like a bad way to start a conversation.]
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 08:08 pm (UTC)Oh, god. Okay, going back and reading that, I can see where you'd think that but I swear that's not what this is.
This is....I maybe did something that's going to sound really stupid, but it didn't turn out so bad in the end?
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 08:09 pm (UTC)Do tell, Cisquito.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 08:22 pm (UTC)Soooo remember my E-2 twin, Reverb? He's kinda sorta not at all dead like we all thought?
And he actually figured out a way to text across dimensions, which is kinda cool, but anyway. We were talking and I maybe invited him over to watch a movie?
Which we didn't really do much watching because we started talking instead and comparing a bunch of stuff in our lives.
But moral of the story is Reverb is alive and I might be slightly disturbed by how alike we are?
1/?
Date: 2016-10-19 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 08:26 pm (UTC)No, I mean it. I honestly want to know what unit of measurement you could even attempt to use for something as vast and all-encompassing as your stupidity.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 08:28 pm (UTC)DONE
Date: 2016-10-19 08:29 pm (UTC)You idiot.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 08:49 pm (UTC)Babe. Wait. Look, I know.
I know. It was stupid. And no, I don't have a death wish.
And I don't know how he survived and the only thing like a plan I got out of him was he doesn't know what he's doing from here out because... Because of a lot of stuff I'd really rather explain when you get here
No threats, no injuries. I know it's probably hard to believe, but seriously, we just...talked. it's fine, nothing happened.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 08:56 pm (UTC)Instead he arrives at Cisco's window, which isn't really anything new. He pulls the hood back before he knocks, waits for him to open the window and then jumps in, grabs Cisco by the shoulders and walks him backwards so he can pin him against the wall.]
What the hell is wrong with you?
[A very important question, although the answer will have to wait until after at least one deep kiss that he's demanding now. He pulls away, leaning his forehead against Cisco's.]
Do you know where Reverb is now?
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 09:05 pm (UTC)A lot of things. Mostly impulsivity in this case, though? [He answers, his eyes locked on his boyfriend's own.] Presumably on another Earth, hiding. [What? He didn't ask where he was going when he left!]
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 09:13 pm (UTC)[He speaks slowly. Carefully. Hopefully in a way that even an idiot could follow. Because apparently that is necessary.]
You invited your Doppelgänger, who calls himself a God and who almost killed Barry - with ease, over, for a movie night. Then instead you had some talks and when he left, without telling you what he is planning, you didn't even think to ask him where he's going?
[Why, oh, why?]
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 09:27 pm (UTC)I don't know. It just-- happened. I don't have any excuse and I'm not gonna try and make any. I just...
[He sighs softly, reaching to take Hartley's hands in his, pushing gently away from the wall and tugging him over to the couch for the rest of this conversation. Wedging himself in the corner, he threads the fingers of one hand through Hartley's. Fleetingly, he realizes, even the little things he takes for granted are something Reverb can't have anymore.] I think I kind of understand a little more about why he is the way he is, why he made the choices he did.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 09:31 pm (UTC)You want to tell me why you understand him better now? Tell me. I'll listen.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 09:57 pm (UTC)[With his free hand he tucks his hair behind his ear, thumb of his other hand idly sliding across Hartley's.] I didn't get a lot about his parents but.. they weren't any better than mine, but he always had Dante. They were apparently pretty close. [And if that's a twinge of jealousy in his voice, Cisco's not claiming it.] Anyway...he needed help when his powers started manifesting. That's why he went to Zoom, it was out of Dante's depths and Zoom could help... It was the power, really, that he wanted. Over other people. To be better. Stronger. More. [His gaze drops for a moment.] To...make other people feel the pain he'd always felt.
And of course, Zoom always had leverage with Dante in hand, but-- eventually he had something else. Someone else to threaten to force Reverb's hand. [He looks up again and his voice is soft, thick with emotion because he knows--vaguely, if not the specifics--where this story ends.] He had you, too.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 10:04 pm (UTC)His evil twin. Hartley tightens his hand around Cisco's and tries to get his attention, tries to catch his eyes.]
What do you mean, he had me?
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 10:56 pm (UTC)[He tries not to trust so easily, doesn't as much as he once had ever since Thawne... And he's more suspicious than some of the others on Team Flash, but not as much as Hartley. And he knows he's not entirely wrong to be cautious, to want Cisco to be more so.
He squeezes Hartley's hand gently in return.] What it says on the tin... [He shrugs one shoulder slightly.] He was with his world's version of you. The way he talked about him... kind of reminded me of you, actually. Begrudgingly admitting there's that one person that nobody else can compete with, hating the vulnerability, but not the place it comes from... [He shakes his head, his thumb tracing idle patterns against the side of Hartley's hand in his again. He just remembers the necklace with the ring.]
Zoom used him as leverage to stay his hand... he didn't really have a choice because his options were do as Zoom asked or loose his Hartley. [He hates that it happens at all, but he can't stop the tears that sting at the edge of his vision. Not for the loss of someone he never knew, but for how easily it could be the one sitting in front of him, how easily Cisco could be in Reverb's shoes.] But he lost him anyway. Because of course he did, because Zoom's a dick.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 11:10 pm (UTC)Zoom's not going to lose us anyone else. We'll find a way, Cisquito. Anyway, I don't think Zoom was recruiting you, was he? [He frowns, remembering.] Reverb was.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 11:24 pm (UTC)He frowns a little.] Yeah.. why?
no subject
Date: 2016-10-19 11:51 pm (UTC)Simple. If he wanted to recruit you then, but now there was no whisper of such plans, something must have changed for him between then and now. What would be interesting is if and why he actually believed you could have defeated Zoom.
[The thing about dating a chess master.]
no subject
Date: 2016-10-20 12:26 am (UTC)At Hartley's words, a thoughtful look crosses his face.] You think there was more to it than just not going it alone? [He tips his head slightly. This isn't going to go over well, he's pretty sure.] I could try to find out. He seemed... amicable when he left, maybe.. maybe I could talk him into helping us take Zoom down. [Or Hartley. He could ask. And Cisco hates he jumped to that, even only in his head, because holy fuck is it manipulative and low. ...but as a last ditch effort in convincing him if he resisted, it'd probably work. But he can't even voice the idea because using that against him wasn't right.]
no subject
Date: 2016-10-20 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-20 01:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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