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The first time Harley met Peter Parker he made a complete fool of himself. It wasn’t entirely his fault though. Tony neglected to tell the 10 year old that he happened to be fostering the coolest kid in all of New York State. A boy who not only owned Star Wars t-shirts, but also wore them. A boy who wore blue nail polish like it wasn’t anyone's business. A boy who’s literal foster dad was Iron Man. The coolest.
Peter was standing across from the blond headed fool, arm stretched out, ready to shake, just like Pepper taught him. A shy smile ghosting his face. But instead of Harley accepting the hand shake and introducing himself like a normal person, Harley says something that sets off a sequence of events. A bit that would creep up and follow the two boys for the rest of their lives.
Tony chokes on his own breath, which turns into a full blown cackle.
Peter’s eyes go wide and his smile turns into a look of disbelief.
“I’m going to marry you, someday.”
“Okay.” Peter responded
— — — — — —
1.
It was early. Much earlier than Harley was willing to be awake. But when one Peter Parker is banging on your window, on a school night nonetheless, you get your butt out of bed, and you let him in.
“Good Morning!” Peter stumbled through his bedroom window, clad in pyjama pants and a baby blue sweater he was 90% sure was his own.
“I’m not quite sure this constitutes as morning, but hello darling.” Harley sits down on his bed nodding at Peter to do the same.
“Well, we’ve got to get this day started off right, Harley! No time to lose. Not when it’s your 13th birthday. You, my friend, are officially a teenager as of 3 hours and 32 minutes ago.” Peter looked at his watch, “Now come on, we’re already working on lost time.”
Peter launched himself, stomach first onto the twin sized mattress. Squishing himself on top of the birthday boy.
Harley sunk his fingers in the other boy’s hair, once Peter finished wiggling his way onto laying on his back.
“So what do you have planned, Mr Party Planner?” Harley smiled down at Peter.
“Well we can do whatever you want to do, Harley. I’ve decided that just this once, I would break my own rule, and we could skip school…”
“Skip school? You really are living on the edge, Pete.”
“Oh shut up, what do you want to do today?”
“We can really do anything, I want?”
“Anything, Just tell me what you want to do and I’ll make it happen.”
“What if I said, I wanted to get married.” Harley grinned.
Peter groaned before throwing up his middle finger, and sinking deeper into Harley’s lap. “I’m being serious, dork. What do you want to do today?”
“Can we just lay here all day? Please?”
“Sure.”
— — — — — —
2.
“You guys are not going to believe what happened this morning!”
Peter came running to the table at full sprint.
Every Morning the 4 fifteen year olds would meet in the school cafeteria before school started. Today was no exception.
“What happened? Are you okay?” Harley asked as Peter sat down beside him. Completely out of breath.
“I am Amazing, Harley. AMAZING! Now guess what happened.” Peter couldn’t stop smiling.
“Happy let you sit up front with him?” Ned guessed.
“BETTER.”
“Netflix finally added survivor to their catalog?” Ned guessed again.
“EVEN BETTER.”
“I fear this could go on for a long while, Pete. Why don’t you just tell us what’s gotten you so excited?” Harley spoke up after MJ sent him a desperate look to stop what they both know could have easily lasted another 45 minutes.
“HE ASKED IF I WANTED TO BE ADOPTED!”
Ned shot up before Peter could even finish the sentence. “NO WAY DUDE!”
“That’s great Peter. We’re really happy for you.” MJ smiled.
“That is so much better than anything I could have guessed. You’ve been hoping for this, for as long as I’ve known you.”
“There is literally nothing that could make this day any better, I am so freaking happy.” Peter spat out.
“I mean, getting adopted is pretty great, but I could think of one thing that would make this day better.” Harley grinned.
“And what could that possibly be?”
“If we ran away and got hitched, on the side of the road.” Harley couldn’t even make it through the sentence before he started laughing.
“Oh piss off, you buffoon. In your pretty little dreams.” Peter nudged the other boy, with his shoulder.
‘In my dreams,’ Harley wished in his head. Looking over at Peter and giving him a side hug and a real congratulations for the big news.
— — — — — —
3.
“I don’t understand why you don’t just tell him, kid. You’re putting yourself through all this misery for nothing.” Tony leaded against the kitchen island sipping his freshly brewed coffee.
“Tony. I’ve been telling him for seven years, at this point. I don’t know what more I could possibly do. He just doesn't like me like that.”
Harley was sat in the Avenger’s kitchen with Tony and Nat, waiting for Peter to get back from patrol.
“I don’t know about that, Cowboy. You’ve sort of turned this whole flirting thing into a joke, and you know our little spider needs some clarity from time to time. Just tell him how you feel.” Nat tried to convince the younger.
“What are you guys talking about?” Peter walked into the kitchen wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of white joggers. His hair was still wet from his shower, and he looked exhausted.
In a bit of a panic Harley spat out the first thing he could think of, “Oh you know, just planning our wedding reception is all.” Harley cringed a bit.
Natiasha smacked Harley upside the back of his head, before whispering, “be earnest”, despite both knowing that Peter could hear the spy.
Tony and Nat, walked out of the room, giving the blond haired boy a thumbs up, and a not very subtle nod of encouragement.
There was no getting out of it now.
“Are you okay, Harley? What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?” Peter came to sit down bedside the older boy.
“I’m fine darling, I’m just nervous.” Harley smiled down at the brunette.
“You know you can tell me anything, right?”
Peter was getting worried. As far as he was concerned he and Harley told eachother everything. No secret left unsaid. So the fact that Harley was hesitating, left a sour taste in Peter's mouth.
“You’re not moving back to Tennessee are you?” Peter whispered.
“What? No. Where did you even get that idea from?”
“Oh, okay, good. What is it then?”
“I love you Peter.”
“I know that Harley, I love you too.”
“No. I love you, in like a, not completely platonic sort of way.”
“I know Harley. I know you do. And I love you too.”
“What? You know?”
“I mean. Yes? You’ve told me that you were going to marry me, since we were like ten years old, Harley. I didn’t know it was meant to be a secret.” Peter grabbed the other’s hand in hopes to calm him down.
“Oh.”
“Truthfully, I was just waiting for you to ask me out.” Peter laughed.
“Well, why didn’t you ask me out. If you already knew I had an unwavering crush on you.” Harley clasped their hands tighter.
“I knew that would be something you wanted to do yourself, Mr Country boy. I just didn’t understand why it was talking so long.”
“Oh my gosh, I’m such a fool.”
“Yeah, but I love you anyway.”
“Tony and Nat are fucking useless.”
“Well I could have told you that.” Peter laughed
“Peter?”
“Yes, Harley.”
“Will you do me the honour of going out with me this sunday?”
“Of course I will, Honey, of course I will.”
— — — — — —
+1
“What if he thinks I’m joking. I’ve been screaming wolf for like over a decade at this point, he’s just going to laugh it off. Stop Laughing At Me! This is not funny…”
The 26 year old was pacing around the beach, quickly spiralling to the point of no return, as his best friends laughed at his demise.
“Harley it will be fine. You have a ring, and a speech and he isn’t fucking stupid. If the photographer doesn't tip him off, all of his friends surrounding him will. Just take a breath man.” Harry patted the taller on his back.
“Yeah but after the promise ring fiasco, I think it’s a little fair to stand on the side of caution.” Harley sputtered.
Back when the boys turned 20 Harley had bought Peter and Himself matching promise rings. In efforts to not look like the babbling buffoon, Harley decided to practice what he was going to say. He was pacing around the Stark residence, but when the man heard his partner walk into the room he got spooked and tripped over his feet, effectively kneeling in front of Peter with the ring hoisted high between the two.
When Harley finally convinced Peter that it in fact was not a marriage proposal, Peter broke down and cried for the next three days.
Harley honestly wasn’t sure if Peter truly forgave him for getting his hopes up that night, but now Harley was worried that no matter how perfect today went, Peter wouldn't believe that this was the real deal.
“No he’s not stupid. But I am, Harry. I am a fool. A disaster. And even if he does believe me, that still leaves room for him to say no. He’s entitled to say no. WHat if he says no. GUYS.”
“Alright, enough of that. Harley, he is so head over heels for you. And you know that. He will say yes, and you will have a long, beautiful, disgusting marriage, and you will adopt a dog, and have beautiful kids, and it will be everything either of you have ever wanted. You hear me? It’ll be great.” Kate declared.
“Okay.” Harley meeped out.
“Can I get a little enthusiasm, Keener.”
“Okay!”
“OKAY!”
“OKAY!”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” Kate smiled and reached up to give the fiance to be a much needed hug. “I love you, congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
“I just got word that they’re five minutes away.” Abbie called out to the group of people.
“When Harley told the gang that he was going to propose to Peter, Ned had BEGGED to be a part of the plan. And how could Harley say no to that. He’s been Peter’s best friend since literal diapers; Harley was not going to be the one to deny Ned that honour. However, Harley didn’t particularly trust Ned in the slightest to keep this whole thing a secret so he had sent MJ with them.
Harley wasn’t completely sure what their plan was to get Peter to the beach, in dress pants nonetheless, but the two assured him it would be fine.
He was choosing to believe them.
“This is it people, show time.” Harley stammered out in fear.
A chorus of ‘you got this man’ and ‘it’ll be great’ echoed around him before he told everyone to shut up so he could hear if Peter was coming.
“You were right. This place is gorgeous.” the faint voice of Peter walking closer rang out. “You know who would absolutely love this, Harley. You should hear the way he talks about the beach. He’s obsessed with it.”
By the time he could see Peter, the brunette had already locked eyes on Harley, who was smiling a shy nervous smile that Peter doesn't think he’s ever seen before.
Peter was wearing linen dress pants, a white flowy button up, and the watch Tony gave the man when he was just a boy.
“Hi baby, what are you doing here? I thought you were stuck in meetings all day.” Peter kissed his boyfriend before looking around at all his closest friends. Peter was hopeful.
“Hi darling, you look gorgeous.” Harley reached out to grab Peter's hands, when he noticed his nails were painted navy blue. It immediately brought Harley back to their first meeting all those years ago, and Harley’s mind immediately went blank, forgetting the words he spent all week perfecting.
“I’m going to marry you someday.” He said on autopilot.
Peter laughed, squeezing Harley’s hands in return, “I sure hope so, honey.”
“I love you so much Peter. I’ve loved you since before I even knew what love was. You are the smartest, bravest, most beautiful person that I have ever had the honour of meeting. And I am so lucky that I get to wake up with you beside me everyday. You are patient and kind, and loving and gentle, and you care so much about the people around you, and the work you do. And I guess what I am asking is, if you would make me the happiest man on earth and marry me.”
“You're not on your knee.”
“What?”
“If you are proposing to me right now, like for real, you have to get on one knee.”
Peter was sobbing now. But that didn’t stop Harley from flying down to the sand, One knee propped in front of the other, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a ring box.
“Peter Benjamin Parker Stark, would you please marry me, baby?”
“YES!”