Hold Me

The day had started out in an ordinary enough fashion, and progressed in much the same way.  Early evening had approached faster than expected, and the waning light of dusk found Hartley sprawled across a moth-eaten two-seater couch in the Rogue’s hideout, watching some inane soap opera on their stolen television. 

Across the room, if an abandoned warehouse could really be referred to as a ‘room’, Mark was busy cheating his way through a poker game, while Sam, Mick and Len lost spectacularly.  Not that they minded too much, as the more they lost the drunker they seemed to get, though it was still early for the quartet who could often continue on until long after sunrise, drinking enough to rot each of their respective livers.  Really, it was a wonder none of them had died from alcohol poisoning yet, though it kept them busy and kept their attention away from the slight redhead, who much preferred to sit off to one side rather than join in with their noisy games.

When James stumbled through their concealed doorway, the five men in the room barely acknowledged his presence.  Len grunted a low greeting, and Hartley waved from where he sat without taking his eyes off the television.  He was so engrossed, in fact, that the Piper wasn’t aware of the close proximity of the blonde until hot breath skimmed over his cheek.  Turning, surprised, Hartley stared up into lidded eyes for a moment before finding himself pinned to the couch, the hard arm digging into the back of his neck uncomfortably.

“James, what the hell?”  Surprise, more than fear, coloured the redhead’s voice as he pushed against the Trickster’s grasp.  The blonde had their attention now, all of them, as a low snicker sounded from Sam and four pairs of eyes watched to see what James was up to, what great trick he had up his sleeve.  The blonde didn’t budge, didn’t speak, and Hartley couldn’t move.

Deep, black eyes stared down at Piper, as the usually stunning blue irises of the blonde disappeared behind the expanding darkness of James’ pupils.  Parted lips breathed warm air over Hartley’s face, and the slightest flicker of fear began to surface as he realised that his friend didn’t really seem like he was there. 

As the seconds ticked on, movement again began to sound from the table as their watchers grew bored, though the chatter was distinctly quieter than before as a singular pair of eyes continued to bore into the pair.

It was that pair of eyes that Hartley found himself most thankful for when, without warning, James shifted to pin the redhead down with one arm while the other slid easily down into his pants to grip at an area he most certainly did not want the blonde touching.  Letting out a shout of protest, bucking against the much larger man holding him captive, trying to free himself as the grip tightened and became somewhat painful.

Turning his head, terrified green eyes met furious brown for a moment, before Len’s fist impacted with James’ chin, sending the Trickster reeling back.  Another one sent him across the room, as the powerful brunette slammed into him full force, leaving the blonde in a broken pile on the floor, looking around in bewilderment.

Len didn’t need to speak, didn’t need to say a word, but Hartley knew to follow when the leader of the Rogues strode from the room without looking back.  Taking the redhead into the once-office, now converted into a makeshift bedroom, Cold checked his young charge over before leaving once more to deal with the Trickster.

By the next morning, James had three broken ribs and a cracked jawbone.  He couldn’t remember any of it, but admitted to Len that he’d tried some sort of strange drug while he’d been at a club.  Captain Cold docked his pay for a month and swore he’d kill him if he ever tried anything like that again.  Neither the blonde nor the redhead could really look at each other after that, and although James made no move towards harming Hartley again, Len still forced the smallest of the Rogues to share the room he’d claimed as his own.

Not that Hartley minded in the slightest, of course.