rathawayxhartley:

Hartley stared at Cisco, looking quite confused and still in a lot of pain. Why was Cisco talking in Sign Language. And why was he asking if he was okay? Hartley couldn’t think with the squeal of his earpieces which were probably shattered. He dug his fingers into his ear canals, pinching the small wires on each sides and pulling them out, letting out some obscenities as the devices were removed, some blood dripping out as well. Hartley gritted his teeth as he looked at his lifelines that lay imploded in his hands and growled, angrily throwing them both on the ground and stalking away, punching a nearby tree and hissing as he shook his hand out. Hartley was not at all the outdoorsy or ‘punchy’ type nor was he built for it and it was quickly apparent that the nerd that Hartley was took back control. He could barely face Cisco, the pain of not having the earpieces only slightly less than having them in and broken. Finally, he sighed and set his jaw, turning to face Cisco again. “When did you learn ASL?” his hands asked, the fingers flying. “Have you known it since the beginning and just kept it to yourself so that you could know what I was thinking when I talked to myself? Harrison already used that information against me, don’t think you’re special.” The embarrassment of his entire situation; from the outburst to being back to being able to hear so much that he couldn’t filter anything useful; too much to not go back to being nasty. And here he was; in the middle of God knows where with Cisco. 

Hartley’s chest was heaving as he backed up, running into the very tree that had probably at least bruised his knuckles and let out a grunt of frustration. “Don’t listen to what I just said. I can’t think. Don’t hate me.”

Cisco took a step back from the man as he released his frustration and anger. He winced when Hartley punched the tree, knowing that was definitely going to swell up, if not worse. “I  learned when I first saw you use it. I recognized some of the words. But wanted to learn more about you, what you had to go through. We got off to a rocky start at the lab, and I just wanted to know you as you. I didn’t want our work to put a rock between us. It didn’t work though, you were gone before I could really show you. I can’t imagine not being able to hear. I don’t manipulate people like Harrison did.” It was like Cisco was speaking in broken english, but ASL. To him, it felt like he was making coherent sentences, but he wasn’t really sure.