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The doors to the lab opened with an audible woosh as Peter quickly walked through them, his head down with headphones in, furiously scribbling in a notebook held in his arms. He was wearing one of his usual science pun t-shirts, oversized blue jeans cuffed at the bottom, tattered white Converse high tops squeaking against the floor.
Tony and Harley cut their conversation and turned their attention away from the Iron Man suit laying open on the table and towards the boy. Tony tried not to smile as he heard Harley suck in a breath and hold it, then lean back against the lab table, trying to look as casual as possible.
“Hey Mr. Stark! Sorry I’m late. Ned wanted to show me this new comic book he got which actually looked really cool, I think i’m going to borrow it,” The brunette dropped his bag on the floor and automatically made his way to his corner of the lab, never looking up from his notes, oblivious to the other teenager in the room. “And then on the way to the subway, a dog walker walked by with like seven dogs so I had to stop and say hello to all of them-“
“Kid-“ Tony tried to interject. He knew that once Peter started on his ramblings he was hard to stop.
Peter, unphased, dropped down his notebook and began shuffling papers on his table. “And then this weird guy on the train tried to sell me candy which I was too tempted to take but I didn’t cause there was probably like… razor blades or rat poison or something in it-“
Harley ducked his head and poorly hid a laugh behind his hand, Tony tried once more, “Pete-“
“Also I’m pretty sure Sam and Clint are having another prank war because I narrowly avoided getting a bucket of rainbow glitter dumped on my head on my way up, so watch out for that-“
“Peter-“
“Anyways, I’ve been working on a new web formula all day and I’m stuck on this last equation, I was hoping you could look at it and-“
“PETER!” Tony all but shouted, a knowing smirk on his face as the kid finally settled, he looked up and blinked a few times, tilting his head to the side like a puppy.
“Hm?” Peter's eyes drifted from Tony’s form to Harley’s, finally noticing the blonde boy. “Oh.”
Tony cleared his throat to suppress a laugh. “Peter, this is Harley. Harley, Peter. This little twerp helped me out during the whole Mandarin incident.”
Harley, for the first time since he entered the lab, tore his eyes away from Peter to look at Tony. “If by ‘helped out’ you mean saved your ass? Then yes, I helped out, old man.” Tony rolled his eyes and the blonde looked back over to Peter, who seemed to be frozen in place, staring at the other boy. “Hey.”
Peter just stared, and Tony nearly called his name again when he finally snapped out of his trance and spoke. “Gay!” Peter’s eyes somehow widened even more, the tips of his ears turning bright red. “WHA- shit, I- I mean, h-hey! I, I’m P-Peter.”
Tony couldn’t hold in his laughter anymore, doubling over and cackling loudly, smacking his hand against the table like an obnoxious child. Harley ignored the man, a shy smile adorning his face as he watched Peter shuffle on his feet, his cheeks dusted pink from the adorably awkward interaction. “Yeah, I got that much.”
Peter looked back and forth between his mentor and the boy and Tony wiped tears from his eyes, his laughter dying down. “Peter, I told you I wanted you to meet someone. Don’t tell me you forgot.”
The brunette looked annoyed, “I-I didn’t f-forget! You just failed to mention that h-he was-“ Peter cut himself off, looking to Harley.
Tony raised an all knowing eyebrow and smirked, “That he was..?”
Peter breathed in and looked back and forth between the two like he was watching a tennis match, eyes landing on Harley, “Riesci a capirmi?” (Can you understand me?)
Harley furrowed his brows, confused, “Uh… What?”
“Good.” Peter quickly replied, taking a deep breath he turned to Tony, “Non mi avevi detto che era bello! Che cazzo, Tony!” (You didn’t tell me he was beautiful! What the fuck, Tony!)
“Language!” Tony chuckled and shouted back, “Non sapevo ti piacessero i ragazzi.” (I didn’t know you were into guys.)
“Sorpresa, sorpresa! Ora sai. E anche lui perché l'ho appena annunciato al mondo!” (Surprise, surprise! Now you know. And so does he cause i just announced it to the world!) Peter was red in the face, he ran a shaky hand through his curly brown hair, “Dio, sono così imbarazzato.” (God, I’m so embarrassed.)
“Non dovresti esserlo!” (You shouldn’t be!) Tony smiled sweetly, “Speravo che voi due andreste d'accordo. Ora, questo non è esattamente quello che mi aspettavo, ma voi due avete così tanto in comune. Sarai fantastico una volta che ti conoscerai.” (I was hoping you two would get along. Now, this isn’t exactly what I expected, but you two have so much in common. You’ll be great once you get to know each other.)
“Ti aspetti che interagisca con lui!? Ora!?” (You expect me to interact with him!? Now!?) Peter squeaked out, voice getting higher with each word he said. “Dopo quello che ho appena detto?” (After what I just said?)
Tony smirked and shrugged his shoulders, holding his hands out as if weighing his options. Harley looked back and forth between the two with clear confusion written on his face, but his eyes grew soft whenever they landed on the brunette boy.
“No! Preferisco morire!” (No! I’d rather die!) Peter nearly shouted, the blush growing on his skin turning his whole face red. He shifted from foot to foot and looked around the room as if he was going to bolt.
Harley must have noticed this because he spoke once more, “Now, I have no idea what you’re saying, but I like the way you say it,” he smirked. “You think, maybe, someone can translate?”
Peter’s features filled with surprise.
“Huh,” Tony breathed and looked at his wrist where he wore no watch, “Would you look at the time! I have a… thing… Pepper said she need me, so… I better get going.”
The older man clapped his hands together and began exiting the lab. He walked past Peter and placed a warm, callused hand on his shoulder, whispering, “You got this.”
Peter just squeaked in response, sounding a bit like a kitten. What’s with all the animal analogies? God his kid was adorable.
“Non rovinare tutto!” (Don’t screw it up!) Tony called over his shoulder as he exited the lab.
Peter watched him go with anxiety growing in the pit of his stomach. After a few seconds, he cursed under his breath, “Cazzo.” (Fuck.)
“Language,” Harley responded, almost involuntarily.
Peter looked at him with wide eyes and pink cheeks.
“Don’t worry, I still have no idea what you were saying,” the blonde boy reassured him with a sweet smile and a wave of his hand. “I just had Tony teach me, ah- all of the Italian curse words.”
Peter giggled at that, light and airy, some of the anxiety from the previous few minutes washing away. He looked at Harley with soft eyes, not knowing what to say next.
“So, uhm… How long have you known Tony?” Peter asked, rubbing an awkward hand on the back of his neck and talking a few steps toward.
“About seven years,” Harley nodded, stuffing his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Yeah… I shot him with a potato gun.”
A surprised laugh bubbled out of Peter, this time loud and bright. Harley couldn’t help but smile at the boy.
“Wow,” he chucked. “I hope you got a good hit in! He probably deserved it.”
“Yeah, we’ll go with that,” Harley smiled. “The story’s much cooler that way, anyways.”
Peter laughed and ducked his head, waiting for a comfortable minute before responding. “He barged right into my apartment when I wasn’t even home. Confused the crap out of my Aunt,” the boy smiled, clearly reminiscing on the memory. “He’s saved my life a couple times too-“ he cut himself off.
Harley's eyebrows furrowed while Peter’s rose on his forehead.
“… I think I’m over sharing…” Peter said nervously, not meeting the other boy's eyes.
Harley thought over his words carefully before responding, “I’ll tell you all my secrets if you tell me yours?” he suggested, trying to hide his growing smirk.
“Uhhmm…” Peter lamely responded.
“Come ooon,” Harley drawled, “There can’t be too many skeletons in your closet,” he raised a challenging eyebrow.
Peter chucked at that, shaking his head as if he knew some joke Harley didn’t, “You’d be surprised.”
Harley studied the boy for a moment before making his move. He took a step toward and asked, “You can tell me over coffee?”
Peter’s face crunched in confusion and surprise before relaxing again, “Really?” He looked behind him then back again, pointing a finger towards the ground, “Right now?”
Harley shrugged and took another step forward, trying to look as casual as possible, “Unless you’ve got something better to do.”
“No!” Peter reassured quickly, “No, it’s just- this is definitely not how I thought my day would go.” He mumbled the last part under his breath, though Harley heard it.
“Well…” Harley took one last step foward, closing the gap between the two teenagers. He stuck his arm out for Peter to grab into, “Shall we?”
Peter blinked, looked down at Harley’s arm and back up to his eyes, smiling softly before taking his arm, “We, uh- we shall.”
“Great,” Harley smiled big and bright, making Peter swallow nervously. They began walking out of the lab together, arm in arm.
“To be honest, I have no idea how to get out of here, you’re going to have to direct me,” Harley confessed in a rush, making Peter laugh.