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To say Peter was obsessed with Tik Tok would be an understatement.
There was rarely a day when Peter was not scrolling through Tik Tok, spiraling looking at new trends and stupid dances. Most he was up till three am mindlessly scrolling through the for you page trying to suppress his quiet giggles at the idiotic nature of the majority Tik Tok stars.
However, Peter’s obsession was no secret either to those around him. It started slowly, Peter’s vine quotes began getting spiced with various cringy renditions of Tik Tok dances and he could be found procrastinating homework by craning his neck down at his phone, scrolling, and giggling instead of loudly watching old Shane Dawson videos. Soon enough, he was quoting Tik Toks just as much as he was quoting vines and was doing crafty DIY room renovations with LED lights and aesthetic printouts clearly inspired by ten-second Tik Toks. As soon as M.J. caught on and started jokingly teasing him, the rest soon followed- the Avengers, Harley, and even May would tease him about his obsession with the app.
Peter just rolled with the friendly jokes, even playing into them sometimes by ironically hitting the ‘Woah’ on occasion when he made a good burn- usually against Clint or Sam. Despite his addiction, however, Peter himself did not make many Tik Toks. He had made one or two with Ned and M.J. but they were just for fun and he never posted any of them. It wasn’t that he couldn’t make them, in fact, Peter was remarkably good at dancing since the Spider bite and some of the pranks he played were literally Tik Tok gold, but Peter never posted any. He didn’t because Peter never really felt he was interesting enough to make content that others would enjoy. Peter had always been insecure- it stemmed from a lifetime of Flash’s snide comments and an overwhelming sense of anxiety and need to please. He knew that his friends and family loved him and found him interesting, but he never quite believed that the rest of the world would see him like that. So, the few Tik Toks that Peter created remained in his draft folder where he had absolutely zero intention of ever posting them.
That being said, Peter absolutely loved a lot of the Tik Tok trends, he would spend hours browsing through one tag, obsessing over variations on the same video until he was so tired he couldn’t keep his head up anymore. Normally, he would obsess over one dance started by our Lord and Savior Charli D’Amelio or he would send himself spiraling into a gay panic by watching different videos of hot Tik Tok boys mouthing the words to the same song while seductively eyeing the camera and biting their lip. On occasion, Peter would even get sucked into the trap of watching quirky home renovation projects or cringy conspiracy theories. However, the one type of Tik Tok Peter actively tried to avoid were ‘couple goals’ Tik Toks. Seeing cute couples traveling the world together, or beautiful love stories and adorable children only made Peter’s heartache and sent him spiraling into a stream of self-doubt and depression caused by his presumably unrequited love of one Harley Stark.
For one long and extremely painful year, Peter Parker has been desperately and hopelessly in love with Harley Stark. At first, it was just a crush after they first met but eventually, it devolved into a full scale, head-over-heels, all-consuming love for him. But, he never wanted to ruin the friendship he had with one of his closest friends, so Peter decided to- as John Mulaney says- keep all the emotions inside and then one day he’ll die. This was, however, getting increasingly difficult for him. Whenever Harley and he were hanging out recently his stupid subconscious would tell him that Harley was ‘definitely flirting’ with him and that he should ‘just ask the boy out- consequences be damned.’
‘I am definitely not helping myself right now,’ Peter thought, ‘I should just go to bed and be done with this.’ Peter kept scrolling.
‘Just one more video and then that is it I am going to bed and never looking at this trend again.’ It wasn’t just one more video though- is it really ever just one more video? Peter had a problem, he was trapped obsessively scrolling through one singular trend that was certainly not helping him get over his crush or healthy for his mental state: the ‘I tried kissing my best friend’ trend. Peter saw his first video four days ago. At first, he was able to ignore it, but soon enough his For You Page was filled with heartwarming success stories of friends turned lovers.
It was as if Tik Tok was mocking Peter’s inability to ask his friend out.
The more he scrolled, the later it got, and the more obsessed Peter became, the more his heart ached for Harley. He would watch a video and imagine it was him and Harley- making out on the pool table, in the kitchen, the garage- anywhere and everywhere. Soon enough, a stupid idea popped into his head, an extremely dumb, incredibly risky not-Peter like idea formed: Peter should try this trend with Harley. At first, he shook off the idea, just another stupid idea his thirsty as hell subconscious jokingly thought up, but as the hours passed and Peter became more and more sleep-deprived, the more he was considering the idea. He rationalized that, if Harley hates him then at least he’ll know and he could finally move on. Soon enough it was daylight, Peter had gotten zero hours of sleep and he rolled out of bed with a plan: Peter Parker was going to kiss Harley Stark on video for Tik Tok.
Peter Parker had been pining after Harley Stark since the day Mr. Stark introduced them in the lab. Harley and he had been in the same school for over two years, but, with Harley being the son of THE Tony Stark and just being a general genius and an amazing guy and Peter being… well, Peter, they had never run in the same circles- or even the same universe for that matter. That all changed, though, when Mr. Stark showed up on his couch talking about a scholarship he absolutely did not apply to. Mr. Stark found out Peter was Spider-Man just a few weeks after he went viral on Youtube, and instead of turning him into the authorities like Peter was sure he was going to, Mr. Stark offered him an actual internship at freaking Stark Industries instead. Mr. Stark said that the mind that can up with his webs was genius and he needed them to work for him before he got swept away by some quote “crapshoot company like Microsoft or Oscorp.” That comment alone as enough for Peter to consider it, but with the added bonuses of a high tech suit, access to medical care, and working with Tony Fucking Stark- it was a no-brainer. And just like that Peter was a Stark Industries intern who worked directly with Tony Stark on highly classified projects and Avengers technology.
It was Peter’s third day working in the lab when Mr. Stark introduced him to his smoking hot son. Well, more like Harley just sauntered into the lab and Mr. Stark begrudgingly introduced them.
Harley walked into his father’s lab with a mischievous grin, he had finally come up with an adequate excuse to go to his dad’s lab when his new mysterious intern was there. While both his mom and his dad had explicitly told him to let the new intern get settled before introducing himself because quote his personality is “loud and overbearing” and his humor is “questionable at best'' and his parents didn’t want him “scaring Peter away” or something, after a week of hearing both of his parents go on and on about how amazing Peter was, and how kind Peter was, and how smart Peter was, Harley was getting impatient. He finally decided to ignore his parents’ warnings when Steve freaking Rogers, fucking Captian America, leader of all things polite and well-mannered walked into the living room asking his father about the polite, sweet teenager he had just met in the elevator. Someone who could make that good of an impression of Steve Rogers of all people was someone Harley had to meet- warnings be damned.
The day Steve sauntered in the common room singing Peter’s praises was Peter’s second day of work- and his last that week, so Harley knew he had some time to come up with the perfect excuse to go into Dad’s lab while Peter was there. On Monday he implemented Phase One of his self-called genius plan to meet the new secret intern; he went into his father’s lab and asked him to look over a few schematics for a robot prototype he was making, while he was there he “accidentally” grabbed one of Tony’s Stark Pads from his desk, replacing it with his own. It was a perfectly acceptable excuse, his father and he got their tech confused all the time.
Harley practically jumped with joy when he got into the elevator. Phase One complete, now all he had to do was casually walk into the lab tomorrow and ask for it back- simple as pie.
His father noticed him before the intern did. His dad cocked his head and squinted his eyes, “Harley…” he growled out, “ What are you doing down here?” he questioned barely trying to hide his anger.
“Well,” Harley drawled, “I went to do some work on my new prototype on my Stark Pad only to realize- huh? What is this? This is not my Stark Pad but yours!”
“Is that so?” his father questioned disbelievingly and obviously annoyed, “and I supposed those got switched accidentally yesterday?”
“You know me, father, ever the scatterbrain.” Harley grinned and finally turned to the mysterious intern. The intern- Peter- was not at all what Harley was expecting, he was only a few inches shorter than himself and had adorable curl brown hair and gorgeous puppy-dog brown eyes. Instantly Harley felt his heartbeat a little faster- he was a proud bisexual man so having feelings for guys was not foreign, but he was not expecting to stare into the eyes of his father’s newest intern and begin planning their entire lives together. Somehow, though, despite the sheer gorgeousness of the boy in front of him, Harley did manage to keep up his suave innocent facade, “So, you’re the new intern, huh?”
Before Peter had the chance to answer, Tony let out another lower, warning “Harley…”
Harley put his hands up in mock surrender, “What Pops? I’m just doing the polite thing and introducing myself.”
Tony sent another glare his son’s way and looked at Peter who was just watching the whole scene play out thoroughly confused, “Peter, this is my annoying son Harley.” He turned and gave Harley an obviously fake smile, “Harley this is my newest intern, Peter.”
Finally, Peter got the chance to speak up, “H- hi, Harley its n-nice to finally meet you.” Peter wanted to cringe at his stutter, of course, he would make fun of himself in front of the gorgeous Harley freaking Stark. He tried to recover, “I’d, um, shake your hand but, uh…” Peter trailed off and gestured to his hands which were covered in grease from the project he was working on.
Harley smiled at his adorableness. “Yeah, no sweat.”
Before the conversation could continue any further Tony interrupted again, “Okay… well, you two have met, Harley here is your Stark Pad. You should probably get going-” He was cut off by the sharp ring of his phone on the workbench next to him. Tony groaned and looked down at who was calling him. He let out an exasperated groan “Fuck…” Tony looked up at the two boys and glared at his nuisance child, “I have to talk this, Harley take your Stark Pad and go I don’t need you corrupting my intern.”
“What? Me? Corrupt him? I would never- I am appalled you would even suggest-” Harley was going to keep going but he was swiftly cut off by his father.
“Harley the day Sam moved into the tower you had that grown man playing childish pranks on everyone.” Tony spoke as he was hastily trying to clean the grease off his hands so he could take this call, “You corrupt people, it is what you do.”
He was about to leave the room to answer the call when Harley yelled out after him “You know just because you’re accurate doesn’t mean you’re interesting!”
After his father finally left the room, Harley turned back to Peter to apologize for his father’s crassness only to see Peter with his hand over his mouth trying desperately to suppress a laugh. Harley looked at Peter and raised his eyebrows expectantly. It took Peter a second to get his bearings but finally, he made eye contact with Harley again and stuttered out “D-did you just angrily quote John Mulaney at Mr. Stark?”
There was a brief pause where the two boys just made eye contact until they both just broke down in near-hysterical laughter.
By the time Tony walked back into his lab he saw that Harley had not in fact left like he had asked but instead he was casually leaning on Peter’s workbench, laughing. It appeared he and Peter were… bonding. “What’s happening here?” He questioned.
Harley turned around and Peter looked up from his project at him. “Mr. Stark,” Peter began, “Harley and I were just bonding over our mutual existentialism and chronic depression.”
“Yeah, that and our mutual enjoyment of vines and John Mulaney.”
“Oh….” Tony was honestly speechless. Even though he had only known Peter for about a week, he had not exactly expected the two boys to get along. Harley was loud and had a dark sense of humor and could be too much like tony at times, while Peter was quiet and more reserved- but, there they were laughing and joking like old friends.
Eventually, Tony’s mind caught up and comprehended the situation. He squinted his eyes at Harley, “I thought I told you to leave?”
“Actually Mr. Stark,” Peter spoke up, surprising Tony even further, “It is my fault, I got us talking on a tangent and I was actually enjoying myself. It is okay.” Peter gave a cheeky smile at Tony.
Harley let out a short laugh, “ha, I win- he likes me, we’re friends now. You can’t deny us anymore.” He said mockingly at his father.
“No, no,” Tony said, “You did not win, Peter here was simply being polite, isn’t that right, Pete?”
“Sorry Mr. Stark,” Peter said without a hint of remorse, “He’s right, we’re friends now, we have bonded.”
“Yeah, we are connected now, dad.” Harley pipped up.
Tony dramatically placed his hand over his heart, “Peter,” he gasped, “How could you betray me like this. I thought you would resist his corruption.”
“Sorry Mr. Stark, but I have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair.” Peter shrugged and then instantly both boys burst out laughing once more.
And just like that Peter Parker and Harley Stark were friends.
The friendship of Harley Stark and Peter Parker grew at light speed.
After that one day in the lab, Harley could be found in his father’s lab every time Peter was there, no matter what. Slowly and almost instantaneously, they got closer- their conversations evolved from ideas for inventions and experiments with vine and John Mulaney jokes peppered in, to full-on complete teenage dumbassery complete with full Gen-Z humor.
Tony could only helplessly watch as his son and his intern devolved into a fit of giggles over getting lost in some kind of sauce? Tony just shook his head at that, he would never understand their humor. When Tony met Peter he never thought there was this side of him- a loud casually depressed, sarcastic child- hidden carefully under Peter’s facade of shy politeness.
Soon enough Peter and Harley were hanging out outside of the lab. It started when Peter almost passed out in the lab one day and Harley offered to take him to go get some coffee. Peter quickly agreed, and suddenly he and Harley were friends beyond the door of Tony Stark’s lab. Peter and Harley’s coffee adventures became a tradition before Peter would start working with Mr. Stark, he and Harley would venture down to the R&D Levels of Stark Tower, grab some crappy office coffee and talk for thirty minutes while roaming the level looking at all the cool projects.
Three weeks into his internship, Harley Stark plopped his tray down at Peter’s lunch table with M.J. and Ned. To say the three were shocked would be an understatement- sure, he and Harley hung out at the lab but Peter never expected to commit the social suicide which was sitting with the three biggest nerds at Midtown High. Ned’s eyes grew double their normal size and M.J. looked up from her book and slightly raised her eyebrows before resuming reading- which for her is the equivalent of pointing and screaming “What the fuck?” at the top of her lungs. Sure both Ned and M.J. knew that Peter and Harley were getting close and that Peter most certainly had a crush on Harley, mostly because of the way Peter literally never stopped talking about him and his “hot southern accent and dreamy eyes,” but they didn’t think the two were ‘sitting together at lunch’ kind of close. Nor did they really believe Harley would feel the same way, but based on the interaction they were watching, they were wrong.
“Peter…” Harley groaned as he sat down.
Peter just chuckled a little, hoping that Harley wouldn’t notice his and his friends’ obvious surprise, “What can I do for you Harley?”
“Ugh…” Harley groaned again and placed his forehead on Peter’s shoulder, “My Dad is forcing me to go to this stupid charity ball tonight and I don’t want to go.”
Peter chuckled once again, which made Harley pick up his head and lightly slap the boy, “Hey, don’t laugh at me- this is a serious problem-”
“Yeah,” Peter jokingly barked out, “That is such a conundrum you have there rich boy.” Peter mockingly rolled his eyes.
“You don’t understand these stupid events always suck, everyone is all ‘Oh Harley when are you gonna take over SI?’ or ‘Harley maybe you could ask your dad for more funding?’ and blah, blah, blah. It is an atrocious shmooze fest full of homophobic rich white people.” Harley looked at Peter, “Please Peter, help me get out of this, please.”
Peter rolled his eyes once more, “What do you expect me to do about this Stark, hm?”
“I don’t know come on man, give me something, an excuse, anything- I will get on my knees and beg, right here if you want.” Harley made a move to get out of his seat- obviously not joking about begging- when Peter quickly pushed him back down.
Peter let out a begrudging sigh, “um, I don’t know man, why don’t you say you have a group project due that you have to work on?”
Harley gave Peter an Office-worthy deadpan stare, “A project? Seriously Parker, what will happen when my parents ask where I am going?”
Before Peter could defend what he thought was a spectacular idea, M.J. spoke up, “You could come to my place.” Both Harley and Peter whipped their head around to look at the girl whose nose was still in her book.
“What?” Harley questioned.
“Yeah, what M.J.?” Peter asked.
“Well…” She drawled, finally looking up from her book to see all three boys staring at her like an alien, “these two losers are already coming over my house tonight for an idiotic movie marathon of some nerdy movie- what is one more person? Just tell your parents you have a project with us and come and chill or whatever” She shrugged.
“Are you serious? You’d really be okay with me crashing you guys’ hang out session.” Harley questioned, he turned and looked at Ned and Peter expectantly.
M.J. kicked Ned from underneath the table to break him out of his haze, “Um, uh, yeah, dude, it is, uh, totally chill or whatever” Ned stuttered out.
“Peter?” M.J. asked, raising his eyebrows at the boy who looked a lot like a goldfish at this moment in time.
“Y-yeah, man it is all good.”
Suddenly, Harley’s whole face broke out is what Peter could only describe as the most beautiful smile in all of existence. “Thank you so much, seriously- ah fuck, I need to go see Mr. Harrington before this period is over.” Harley stood up to leave, quickly grabbing his stuff, “Thank you so much M.J., just have Peter text me the details, okay.” M.J. just nodded not even acknowledging the boy anymore, “Ned, Peter, see you guys tonight I guess.” And just like that, Harley walked off with a massive smile on his face.
The rest of the table sat in silence for a few seconds before Peter spoke, “Hey M.J.,” he questioned, “What the fuck was that?”
M.J. looked up innocently from her book, “What was what?”
This time Ned spoke, “You just invited Harley Freaking Stark to our Star Wars Movie night!”
“So?”
“So?” Peter exclaimed, “So, why on earth would you do that? You don’t even like Harley or Tony Stark for that matter.”
“He needed help, plus you should be thanking me- now you get to hang out with your boyfriend tonight.” M.J. shrugged and Ned snorted at that.
Peter’s eyes widened, “He is not my boyfriend, we are just friends.”
“For now.” Ned snorted.
Then the bell rang and M.J. and Ned got up to go to their next class. Peter stayed seated for a moment and then yelled out after them, “We’re just friends!”
The Star Wars movie marathon fear Harley Stark actually went pretty well after Ned got over his hero worship and Peter got over the weirdness of seeing Harley and his friends interact. M.J. and Harley actually began getting along when he went on a rant on the annoying rich assholes that run SI, and Ned and Harley bonded over their mutually held belief that Star Trek is better. The night was honestly a blast, and just like that Harley Stark became a part of their little friend group. Harley could be found eating lunch with them and be seen at various coffee shops with the trio.
Soon enough we are playing Mario Kart on the couch of the common room of the Stark Towers Penthouse. Harley had never had friends that he trusted enough to bring there, most people became to entranced about meeting the Avengers or how many cars he had to care about actually hanging out- so when Pepper Potts and Morgan Stark walked into their home they were shocked to see Peter, Harley, and two teenagers that they did not know aggressively playing video games on the television. Pepper had met Peter when he was given the internship and she had heard from her husband that the two were becoming friends but she did not think that they were this close. After introducing herself and Morgan to the two strange teens, she instantly adored them- they were both extremely kind and sweet and M.J.’s compliment about her inspiring a generation of badass women made her like them even more.
Peter and Harley were basically together all of the time. Peter was always coming over Stark Tower, even when he didn’t have the internship, and Harley was at Peter’s Queens’ apartment at least once a week. Over time they both met and bonded with each other's families- the Avengers almost instantaneously took a liking to Peter after Tony told him that it was quote “impossible to solve the Flint water crisis in a day” to which Peter snorted and replied “Ok Boomer” and then promptly did it.
It was also no secret that Harley liked Peter and that Peter liked Harley, the entire world could see it- except for Harley and Peter. They were always talking about each other- especially when the other was not there- and there had been multiple occasions where they had both passed out on the couch together cuddling. The Avengers had a running pool of when the two were finally going to get together and Ned and M.J. would often just accidentally ‘forget’ about a project due so that Peter and Harley would be forced to hang out alone.
Those two were meant to be, the whole world knew it, except Peter and Harley.
As the day dragged on, Peter became more and more tired, and when Peter is tired all rational thought and logic go out the window. He and Harley had already had plans to hang out at his house so all he had to do was wait. Despite his lack of rational thought, Peter had managed to come up with a somewhat cohesive plan to kiss Harley- all he had to do was execute it. Granted his plan had two parts: one, get Harley to make a TikTok with him and two, kiss him; Had Peter mentioned that he has not slept in thirty-two hours?
As Peter waited for Harley to arrive, he paced around his room- on the ceiling.
He was muttering to himself, “This is stupid. You're going to ruin your friendship” and so on but now Peter was in too deep, he had to do it now- he had already texted Ned and M.J. that he was doing this and they both responded with something along the lines of “the day you tell Harley you love him is the world ends.”
Peter's pacing was interrupted by a hard knock on the front door- two quick knocks followed by one slow one- Harley’s signature knock. He walked out of his room to see the door swing open and in walked Harley in all his glory.
“Sup Pete,” Harley said casually.
‘Play it cool. Be casual.’ Peter internally chastised, “H-hey,” Peter’s voice cracked.
‘That is not casual!’ Harley just looked Peter up and down and let out a small laugh, “You okay over there?”
“Y-yeah,” Peter spoke, this time more confident, “Yes. I'm good, how are you?”
“Ugh,” Harley groaned falling onto the couch in the living room, “ya know, life is just the same soup reheated, and i/m craving something different y'know?”
Peter laughed as the two fell into their usual banter, “Fucking mood man.” Peter paused for a moment, “So… I have a question…” Peter trailed off.
Harley sat up and looked at Peter- he squinted his eyes in mock suspicion, “What?”
‘Okay here goes nothing, Phase one, you can do this Parker’
“Well… I was wondering if you would maybe film a Tik Tok with me.” Peter flashed Harley a cheesy smile.
For the second time since entering the Parker apartment, Harley groaned and flopped back down on the couch, “Why…” he drawled.
“Please, just one?” Peter flashed his trademarked puppy dog eyes.
Harley knew he couldn’t resist those stupid Parker Puppy-dog eyes, “Fine, but i’m not promising I’ll be any good.”
Peter smiled, “You’ll do great.” Peter promptly pulled Harley up off the conch, he couldn’t tell if he was anxious or excited anymore- it was probably a little bit of both. He quickly taught Harley a short, easy dance to “death bed (coffee for your head)” by Powfu. Finally, when Harley got it down Peter was practically shaking.
“Are you gonna post this?” Harley questioned as Peter moved to set up the recording.
“Nah,” Peter said casually, “I never post Tik Toks.”
“Then why are we doing this?”
“Because, Harley, it is fun- ya know fun, that thing normal people have.” Peter jokingly said as he adjusted the camera, it was hard to get them both in the frame because of the height difference.
Harley scoffed, “Fun, sure.”
He was cut off by Peter, “Okay I'm gonna start it. There will be a three-second count down and then we’ll start, okay?”
Harley rolled his eyes, “Sure,” he relented. He’d do anything for Peter- even stupid TikTok dances.
Peter pressed play and ran back to where Harley was. He gave Harley a small smile before the music started. Peter did the first move and then gently turned towards Harley who was oblivious to what was about to happen. Harley was confused about why Peter stopped and turned to him with furrowed eyebrows. Before Harley could get a word out however, Peter gently grabbed Harley’s face and stood on his toes and placed a quick kiss on Harley’s lips.
He broke away- terrified of what he had just done, honestly expecting Harley to never want to speak to him again, but instead of saying anything Harley placed his hands on Peter’s hips and pulled him into another, longer, more passionate kiss.
Fireworks were the only way Peter could describe it.
Harley prefers the term euphoria.
Either way- Clint owed Natasha a lot of money for betting against Peter making the first move.