Work Text:
Dragging his feet slowly, Peter pulled himself up into his room, which was incredibly impressive, considering the fact that his room is on the top penthouse level. Oh, and he has a stab wound. That counts too.
“...Peter, I believe it’s in your best interest that I inform Boss about your knife would before you accidentally go, y’know…Night night.” crackles the AI inside his suit. Hah. Karen is getting better with her jokes.
Wait.
“No no! Mr Stark is out of state right now, Karen! I can’t bother him over something like this. Please don’t inform him of this little…situation. I can handle it. Besides! It’s not fatal. It’s an inconvenience at best, needs 3 days of bed rest at worst. Like I said, I can handle it.” he hurriedly replied, not wanting her to make a decision herself.
Funny thing is, Peter does not have it handled. While he can heal quickly (thanks, spidey powers), the knife is lodged between the lower-left kidney area and near his ribs, deeming mobility incredibly painful. Yeah, it’s impressive how he even managed to get up here in the first place. He was also stabbed more than 30 minutes ago, which means his enhanced healing is starting to come into play, which is horrible because the wound still hasn’t been cleaned up and the knife was still in his fucking side (...damn it, spidey powers) .
So haha, sorry Karen, he might have lied. Karen didn’t seem to catch it, fortunately (or unfortunately?), and just responded with an “Ok Peter.”.
Peter, starting to lose consciousness, starts to look for the medkit Mr Stark had installed in his room. He reached out onto his bedside-
…Where is his bedside?
This isn’t the layout of his room. Or is it? He couldn’t think straight anymore- Oh and there he goes.
While falling, Peter couldn’t help but think “ Should’ve taken Karen on that offer.”
When he hit the ground, he felt an overwhelming instinct to call for someone. Maybe it’s his self-preservation? He hasn’t talked with it in a while now. Apparently, he did manage to mumble something out because he heard Karen responding to him. He laid on the floor for a while, he’s not sure how long, but right as his eyes are about to shut, he sees a figure opening his door.
Oh. This isn’t his room.
He also thinks that Karen didn’t believe his lie.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is, in no way shape or form, how Harley thought his day would go.
Okay, yeah the day was nearing its end- or is it beginning? Anyways, what he’s trying to say was that finding a bleeding Peter Parker on the floor of his bedroom at 2:14 am was really fucking concerning.
5 minutes ago, he was just chilling in their shared lab, working on his latest project, when he heard a crash coming from the hallway. Like any sane person would do, he made sure to grab the sharpest screwdriver and went to investigate.
Walking out of the lab, he tiptoed into the living area.
No one.
Huh.
…Was it from one of the bedrooms?
No, it’s far too secure for anyone to break in there. Hell, it’s far too secure for them to enter the living area. Why was he even worried?
Harley mentally shrugged and figured he might as well grab a cup of coffee while he’s out here. That is, before a voice coming from his phone spoke up.
“Harley!” it (she?) screamed.
Startled, he took out his phone and threw it on the island, pointing the sharpened screwdriver at it.
Blinking furiously to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, Harley looked horrified at his phone.
“Who are you?! How did you get into my phone??” He tried to sound angry but found it difficult to manage because, frankly, he hadn’t even processed what just happened.
The voice spoke up again. “Harley, I need you to listen to me. I’m Karen, Peter’s AI.”
That put a screeching stop to his thoughts.
…Peter has an AI? And he never told him? Lowering his screwdriver, Harley couldn’t help but feel a pang of hurt.
Did-
Did Peter really not trust him that much? He knows they just met and all but he thought their bond was actually really good.
“Harley! Please listen! Peter needs your help!” The voice called out to him again.
That snaps him out of it. Peter’s in trouble? Isn’t he sleeping right now?
The crash. The crash was from the bedrooms.
“What happened.” He moved closer to his phone.
A pause.
A pause that felt like hours, a pause of suspense, because he doesn’t know what happened. He doesn't know what happened to Peter-
“Peter is asking for you, Harley. He accidentally stumbled into your room and requires medical care. Boss has a kit for Peter behind the kitchen counter, bottom left. Please, hurry.” the voi- Karen, spoke softly.
A recording played. It was Peter’s voice.
“Harley. K-Karen. Call Harley…”
Medical care
Peter’s hurt.
Peter’s hurt.
His legs were moving before he even realized it. He found a medkit right where Karen had told him it would be. Red and blue. Weird colour choice but Harley didn’t have time to care about that right now.
Rushing to his room, his door slid open.
On his floor is an unconscious Peter Parker.
On his floor is also blood.
…Oh.
“FRIDAY! Lights on! Turn it up to 67%!”
Rushing to Peter’s side, he kneeled down. Fuck fuck fuck shit- There’s a knife sticking out of his lower abdomen. Okay, okay Harley, calm down. You can’t help if you panic. Remember all the medical training you were forced into.
Opening the kit, he grabbed the antibiotic and bandages. Rushing to his bathroom, he grabs a clean towel, a bowl of clean water, a few extra towels and bowls, and washed his hands. He’s immediately right at Peter’s side after that. He put on the gloves that were inside the box and reached out to pull the knife out, cloth ready in his other hand to stop the bleeding,
and that’s when he realized-
What in the fresh hell is Peter wearing.
Some kind of red and dark blue suit? What is that stripe pattern?? It looks like-
No.
No fucking way.
…The medkit design made sense now.
Deciding that there’s so much to unpack there, Harley just decided to throw the whole suitcase away. At least, for now. He has to focus on Peter’s wound. Taking off his suit, Harley tried to yank the knife out.
Peter must have sensed the knife moving, or the lights, or the motion, or just, anything, because he started to groan in pain.
Harley’s eyes immediately locked onto Peter’s barely opened ones. Opening his mouth, he opted to speak softly
“Hey, Pete. Shh, it’s just me, cuckoo. It’s Harley. You’re safe right now.”
Peter stared at him for a good few seconds.
“...H’rls?”
Peter could still comprehend him, that’s good.
“Yeah, Peter. It’s just me. Hey, uh, buddy? I’m going to have to take that knife out. It might- No, it’s 100% going to hurt. But you’re going to have to stay strong through it, yeah? I-I’ll try to make it quick-”
“Mmm…’skay, H’rls. Been thr’gh this ‘lot”
…What?
Clearing his throat, Harley decided to deal with that information later as well. “...Alright then. I’m pulling it out in 3…2….1…!”
Peter hissed when the knife leaves his body. Harley grabbed one of the towels and started to apply pressure. He kept it there until the bleeding stopped…enough. Fortunately, it was only a flesh wound, so no ever-lasting damage there.
Nope, he’s not saying, fortunately. This is the farthest thing from ‘fortunate’. Peter shouldn’t have even gotten stabbed.
Putting the blood-soaked towel aside, he wet another one into the bowl and started to clean the wound. Much to his surprise, Peter barely flinched in this part of the process. The words Peter mumbled before sank it. He’s been through this before. He started to process what he had just witnessed while he was cleaning the wound.
Peter’s Spider-man. Peter’s…Spider-man? What does Harley have on that so far?
Motives? Check
Strongest moral backbone Harley has ever witnessed? Check.
Has never been seen together? Check.
The AI that he didn’t know about previously because it might belong to Spider-man and not Peter Parker? Check.
The blaringly unmistakable red and blue suit?
.
.
.
.
.
Peter’s Spider-man.
Okay, okay. Cool. Yeah. It is. It’s….It’s cool.
No.
No, it isn’t!
It’s not ‘cool’ when he’s the one over here cleaning up Peter’s wound, one he shouldn’t even have!
It would be cool if he hadn’t just heard Peter saying that this was his ‘normal’!
It would’ve been incredible if Harley hadn’t heard Peter’s voice, asking for him to help through his phone!
It would be awesome if Harley could stop imagining Peter dying and bleeding in a dark alleyway-
Shut up Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut upshutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshutup-
He mentally screamed at himself.
Peter winced in pain. Harley pressed the cloth too rough. Reeling back, he muttered strings of soft apologies. After he made sure that the wound is absolutely clean, he applied antibiotics and started stitching the wound close. He wrapped the stitched-up wound with bandages. Just in case.
He looked up to see Peter already dozing off.
That’s when he realized. He shouldn’t be mad. Peter’s saving lives.
But he’s furious.
He’s furious at Peter because while he’s saving hundreds, he’s endangering his own.
He’s furious at himself for not realizing it sooner.
He’s livid at Tony for allowing this to even continue because Harley knows that the man knew.
He’s mad at Pepper, Rhodey and Happy by extension.
But as furious as he is, he feels acceptance.
Because he’s seen the news. He’s heard the stories.
He’s heard how Spider-man ran into a burning building to save a cat (That’s such a Peter thing to do), and how he visited the sick children in the hospital every month. How he single-handedly took down a few weapon dealers right after he busted a drug ring. He knew Peter was capable. He knew Spider-man was capable.
And he knew that Peter wouldn’t just stop. That’s probably the reason Tony gave him the suit.
Harley’s angry at the man, of course, but he would bet his entire life savings that Tony had tried to get Peter to stop but failed miserably. Tony would do absolutely everything to keep Peter safe. So if even
Anthony Edward Stark can’t stop him, how can Harley?
For the short 5 months Harley has known Peter, he can recognise his survivor’s guilt from a mile away. Peter has a mindset that if he could somehow be slightly blamed, he is to blame. He would sacrifice everything he has even if it meant that it wouldn’t slightly inconvenience someone. Self-sacrificing little shit, as Tony has previously stated. And with that mindset? Peter being Spidey made so much sense.
Harley can’t stop him. And he doesn’t plan to.
He does plan to threaten Tony into letting him into the Spider-man Support System™
Sighing, Harley cautiously carried Peter onto his bed. Glancing back at Peter, he smiled softly.
He’ll talk to him in the morning.