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The moment Harley and Peter walked into class, hands intertwined like usual, the feeling of excitement that hung around the room had made the two confused.
Harley gripped his boyfriend's hand, squeezing it as they walked up the small ramp to their seats. "Lotta chatter for an 8 AM class," Harley mumbled and Peter cracked a small smile.
Peter pulled his phone out, opened a random app, and mindlessly scrolled. Harley leaned against him, looking at Peter's feed and smiling whenever he saw something that Peter had paused to look at for longer than a few seconds.
A dog video showed up, a happy golden retriever running along a grass field with the sun setting.
Harley hummed and put his head in the crook of Peter's neck. "You look exactly like that dog," Harley grinned, enjoying Peter's stunned response.
"Harls, that's a dog. I'm not a dog."
"Yeah, I know, but you have big golden retriever energy."
Harley could tell that Peter was rolling his eyes.
"That means you have big black cat energy."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Harley pouted.
"It means that you try and act all mysterious and aloof but you're just fucking insane."
Harley pulled himself away from Peter, glaring at Peter who was smiling.
"Least I don't beg,"
Peter raised an eyebrow and jabbed his hand into Harley's side, making him hiss. "Yeah, okay. What you do every time we have sex isn't begging."
Harley placed a hand on his chest, gasping in betrayal. "Do not!"
"Yes huh,"
"This is slander and I will not stand for it, how dare you ruin my image like that!"
The two looked at each other for a moment and started laughing.
They had been dating for a few months now, only shortly after the school year started. It was rapidly approaching Christmas break and that meant the two would separate from each other for a few weeks to visit family.
Peter had first met Harley on patrol, saving him from getting mugged and it all bloomed from there.
For months, the two interacted with each other, Peter hiding from the cute genius under his mask and Harley being Harley.
Really, the most awkward part was explaining why Peter had almost dropped a box he was carrying into his dorm when he saw Harley sitting on his bed, staring at the ceiling with a dopey smile.
Yeah, Harley found out that Peter was Spiderman shortly after that.
Peter found it strange how Harley never asked questions about how well he worked with Tony, considering it was public knowledge that the two of them worked with each other.
Peter wondered if Harley even knew that fact, considering he was from Tennessee and had only been in the city for a week before they had met.
He was visiting a family friend before he went off to college, MIT.
Peter had practically jumped at the chance to be closer to the boy and spilled that he was also going to go there. He just wasn't expecting to be Harley's roommate, having expected to have to stumble into him and hide the fact that they knew each other with his side gig.
Still, it made things a lot easier when his secret was out. Peter couldn't patrol around Queens anymore, and there was that slight twinge of loss.
Tony had prohibited bringing the suit to college and for the most part, he was glad. It meant not worrying Harley every night or being so sleep-deprived that he couldn't pay attention in class. It also meant that Peter had some freedom now that he didn't patrol every day.
Harley stole a quick kiss, a small smile on his face as he watched Peter blush. He was glad that they always sat at the back.
The two were always attached by the hip, always reluctant to pull away when they had to go to their separate classes.
It was like the two were perfect for each other, biting wit and chaos that only promised trouble when they worked on projects together.
They quieted down as their professor walked into the room, catching everyone's attention. The two adjusted in their seats so their shoulders were touching.
"So, today we're having a change of plans if you haven't read the email I sent out."
Harley noticed that even their professor looked a little excitable.
"If you all would please welcome our surprise guest lecture, Tony Stark!"
The two boys stiffened in their seats, eyes wide as the aforementioned genius stepped into the room with a wide smile.
Harley stole a glance at Peter, who looked like he was questioning his entire life and how he got here.
Which was understandable even though he didn't know why Peter looked troubled.
Harley hadn't told Peter of the whole Mandarin thing back when he was eleven. He had meant to, totally willing to tell his boyfriend how a billionaire had broken into his garage and how he helped Tony fix his suit.
Weird childhood stories just hadn't come up and Harley wasn't sure how to start explaining it all to Peter.
As Tony walked up to the podium, he flashed a smile at everyone, eyes lingering on Harley for a moment longer than Harley wanted.
Harley rolled his eyes and quickly pecked Peter's cheek, smiling smugly as Peter looked over at him, much more embarrassed than usual.
Tony raised an eyebrow at him but chose to focus on the rest of the class. "Alright," Tony rubbed his hands together. "Who wants to learn about Nanotech?"
The lecture went by too fast for Harley's liking. He hadn't got the chance to work with Tony on his suits while he was staying the summer and he felt a little sad about it.
They worked on old cars that needed fixing, and Tony always kicked him out of the lab whenever his intern was stopping by. When questioned, Tony simply told him that he was (though not in his words) scared of the chaos that the two would cause together.
So, they never met, which Harley was still salty about.
He absorbed all the information readily, quickly jotting down notes that he was surely going to ask questions about when they had their weekly phone call.
So when their hour-long lecture ended, Harley huffed in annoyance at the sudden stop of information.
He poked Peter's hand and smiled. "Wanna go get coffee after this?"
"Do you have to ask?"
Harley laughed and stuffed his things into his bag, grabbing Peter's hand as they started to head out of the classroom. They didn't notice Tony quickly wrapping up the conversation he was having.
Sure, he wanted to stop by and say hello to Tony, but he was also with his boyfriend, who Tony had no clue about until an hour ago. He really didn't want to put Peter through that.
"Starbucks or in our room?"
"Ugh, room, please. That coffee you keep buying is spoiling me." Harley grinned as they exited the building, walking leisurely to their dorm room.
They didn't have another class until later that afternoon, so they felt like they could take all the time they wanted to get there.
Harley should have suspected that Tony would pull something while he was here.
When Harley unlocked their dorm room, nearly thirty minutes after they left class, his gaze landed on the man who was smiling and looking at their things.
He glared at him and let Peter in, barely noticing how he had also started glaring at Tony.
"Tony," Harley huffed and set his keys and bag down, pulling out three coffee mugs since he doubted the man would leave any time soon. "Why did you break into our room?"
Harley raised an eyebrow as he turned on the coffee machine. Tony simply hummed and looked at him innocently.
Peter looked vaguely uncomfortable as he kicked off his shoes and grabbed a snack from the mini-fridge.
"Well, I didn't break in, it was unlocked when I got here,"
"Yeah, sure, whatever you say, old man."
Tony rolled his eyes and watched the two work around each other in the tiny shared kitchen.
"So, when did you two start dating?"
Peter's face turned a deep shade of red and Harley nearly spilled the coffee pot even though he knew Tony had seen their PDA. Harley quickly regained control and handed a mug to Tony, smiling when he saw the slight surprise in Tony's eyes when he took a sip.
"Like, a few weeks after school had started," Harley said and Tony furrowed his eyebrows.
"You two started dating a few weeks after you met?"
Peter spoke up. "No, we knew each other for a few months before that," Peter gently elbowed Harley. "Saved his ass from getting mugged because he was acting like a tourist."
Harley scoffed. "Not my fault I ain't ever been to New York before,"
"You got mugged?" Tony asked, alarm in his voice.
"Key word, old man, I almost got mugged. This unfairly attractive human being dressed in spandex had swung in and stopped it from happening."
Tony visibly relaxed as he looked at Peter. "So he knows you're Spiderman?"
Harley raised an eyebrow and looked at the two as Peter nodded.
"Yeah, he found out when we were moving in," Peter said and sipped on the coffee. "How, uh, do you two know each other?"
"He broke into my garage during that whole Mandarin incident and I helped fix his suit," Harley responded as he set his coffee down at his desk and sat on his bed.
Peter looked over at him, surprised. "You're that potato gun kid?"
"Yeah? How did you know that?"
Then it clicked for Harley as he looked at Tony, who was visibly unimpressed and confused.
Peter was Spiderman. Spiderman worked with Ironman. Peter knew Tony.
Harley felt like he should drop out of college with how long it took for him to figure it out. He sighed and put his hands on his face, feeling stupid. "Oh my god, I completely forgot that Spiderman worked with Tony."
Peter laughed and Tony shook his head, already done with the two.
"Well, now I gotta meet that intern that you kept me away from." Harley shot a glare at Tony, who smirked.
"Well then, meet Peter Parker, your boyfriend."
Harley looked over at Peter who hid his smile behind his coffee cup
"You're telling me that you prolonged our meeting until we started school so we didn't make a mess in your lab?" Harley glared and threw a pencil at Tony, whose arms flailed for a moment trying to catch it.
"Yeah, duh. Wanted to release two menaces of society in this college because of this," He held up a blueprint of a robot. "Is the only thing I expected when you two would meet."
Harley shot Peter a look, who only responded with a nod. Tony frowned and looked at the two. "I don't want to know what you two are planning."
The three settled into a comfortable silence, enjoying their coffees. "Why didn't you guys talk about me?" Tony asked and Harley chuckled.
"Despite popular belief, our worlds don't completely revolve around you." Harley snarked and Tony rolled his eyes. "But we haven't talked about you because you've just never come up in conversation."
Peter nodded, agreeing as he pulled out a paper from his bag, squinting as he read it.
"So, Mr. Stark, what's with you finally agreeing to do a lecture that you constantly said you weren't going to do?" Peter asked once he realized he had accidentally put one of Harley's papers in his bag and handed it to him.
Harley smiled at him in appreciation as he took the paper and looked at Tony, waiting for his answer.
"Well, Pete, you called and said that you were missing everyone so I planned something so you could at least see one of us, and that guest lecture was a good excuse to come up here. Aside from seeing you two of course."
Harley scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I pulled some strings so you two are excused from your afternoon classes,"
The two looked at Tony with wide eyes, trying to figure out why he did that. Harley was the one to break first.
"Why?"
"I'm up here anyway, so I might as well hang out with the two smartest kids I've had the pleasure to teach." Peter had a slight blush on his face and Harley waved his hand, secretly swelling with pride at the compliment. "And we're going to go find where you got this coffee from because I'm going to put so much money into this business."
"Mr. Stark, I think you'll overwhelm the small business where I buy it from." Peter shakes his head but smiles, glad that Tony wants to support the business.
"Small business? Oh, we're going there. Get off your asses and let's go." Tony quickly pushed them out of the dorm room much to the protesting of the two boys.
They ignored the looks of the wandering college students as they walked to the coffee shop.