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“Peter, please, I need you to let go sweetheart.”
Harley’s words were thick with emotion, his throat lodged with tears. Peter was holding him tightly, arms wrapped around Harley’s waist with his head pushed as far into his chest as possible.
“Pete,” Harley tried again, “I need to go.”
“I don’t want you to, Harls.” Peter murmured, shaking his head. “I want you to stay here.”
He couldn’t. He was never supposed to stay. Hell, he had stayed for almost a month longer than he was supposed to already. Harley couldn’t put off going home any longer. His mama would kill him if he did, and his sister Abbie would probably drag him back by his ear if he stayed in New York any longer.
“I’m gonna be back, Pete. You know this. I’m coming back for Thanksgiving this year, mama and Abs are coming with me, we’re gonna spend the entire weekend together. It’s a few months until I’ll be back. We’ve survived without each other for longer before.” Harley said softly.
They had. He and Peter met at 15, Harley’s first solo visit to New York to see Tony. Peter had been a ball of chaos practically thrown at him, and Harley had never looked back. They were fast friends, the summer before Sophomore year, and were inseparable.
The entirety of the 4 weeks Harley visited, the boys were seen together or not at all. One wouldn’t go anywhere without the other. When Harley went home, their friendship stayed steady. They messaged every night, which led to phone calls, leading to video calls, leading to a very emotional reunion the next summer.
Now, they had survived through both Sophomore year and Junior year only seeing each other in person for four weeks of the year. This summer had lasted longer, Harley finishing two weeks earlier than Peter and choosing to wait in New York. He had been in the city since the day his last exam had finished, and had put off going home for as long as possible.
It had been different after last summer. Neither of them had ever put their finger on it, but they weren’t just best friends, instead something more. It was over the winter break that an exhausted Peter had laid out all of his feelings, and Harley had just sighed, saying “I can’t believe you’re telling me this when I can’t even kiss you.”
From there, they changed. Ned and MJ had noticed how much easier it was for Peter. How he was more honest about how he felt, more in tune with his mind and body. He tried harder too, tried to be more present with them. It was like Harley had unlocked a part of Peter he had been keeping hidden for years.
Waiting for Harley to come back to New York for the summer had been agony. But with busy schedules, it had been impossible to pencil in another trip before then. The moment Harley had stepped off the jet sent by Tony, he had his arms full of Peter and a smile wider than ever before.
They divided their time between staying at the compound and staying with May. Peter had said Harley didn’t need to stay with him if he preferred to be in the labs or with Tony or with the Avengers. The blonde had just shook his head.
“If you think I’m letting you go at all, you’re wrong darlin’.”
So another summer was spent together, this time filled with dates, day trips, Spider-Man patrols with Harley and Ned working together, and talks of college and the future. Harley became part of the group, fully integrated with Ned and MJ. He was introduced to the wider AcaDec team, brought along to team bonding activities, invited to the closed practices, taken in by everyone.
The thought that Harley would have to go back home hadn’t crossed Peter’s mind until they were in Harley’s room at the compound, packing the suitcase full of mementos and clothes and small items stolen from Peter. Seeing the room that was never organised so clean and sterile, it hit Peter like a truck.
He didn’t want to let Harley go. Ever. He had never wanted to let Harley leave, but now he never wanted Harley to be anywhere but with him. It was selfish, Peter knew that, but it was true. He loved Harley, Harley was the one person he wouldn’t think twice about spending forever with, Harley was his.
“I’m gonna really miss you, Harley.” Peter said, finally pulling away. He didn’t dare look up into Harley’s eyes, knowing that he wouldn’t keep back his tears any longer if he did.
“I really love you, Peter.” Harley said honestly. “I’ll call you the moment I land, and again when I go to sleep, okay?”
Peter just nodded silently, pressing his hands into his eyes as he held in the sob that was building up. Harley pressed a kiss into his curls, and Peter looked up to watch Harley disappear deep onto the jet.
He felt someone’s hand land on his shoulder, and through the blurriness of his eyes he saw Pepper trying to guide him away from the flight zone. The moment Peter’s eyes slipped from the plane, the tears fell.
He was pulled into a bone crushing hug by Pepper, the woman having stood by Tony’s side as they watched the boys say goodbye. She let Peter sob into her shoulder, his words too broken to make any sense.
He knew it must be hard for Pepper and Tony too. There was no doubt in anyone’s minds that they saw Harley as part of their family, just as they did with Peter himself. He was just too heartbroken to be saying goodbye again. They hadn’t had enough time. He wanted to kiss Harley again, to hold him again, to sit on the couch and play with his hair again, to take a nap together again, to go out for dinner again, to sit on the roof of the compound and watch the stars again.
Peter went home to May not too long after Harley left. He apologised to Pepper for his meltdown (which she waved away, kissing his forehead as she promised that she was there for him if he needed her), thanked Tony for letting him spend so much of his summer at the compound, and then swung all the way to Queens.
May was waiting for him, food and drinks already on the table, some easy to watch baking show on the TV screen playing at a low volume. Peter changed into some of Harley’s sweats and Rose Hill football shirt, lip wobbling as he realised these were some of the only clothes he had that still smelled like him.
He walked out of his room and fell onto the couch, burying his head into the pillow already placed on May’s lap. They spent the rest of the day together, mostly in silence, adjusting to the absence of the boy they had both gotten used to.
Things got easier after the first few days. Once Peter returned to school, there was less time to mope. He and Harley returned to their never ending stream of text messages, their falling asleep on call, the occasional “Are you jokin’, Pete? What do you mean ‘lightly stabbed’?!” after a rough patrol.
Peter picked up more patrols, begged for his curfew to be extended, worked in the lab more, kept his head down and studied. He kept himself busy, because being busy felt better than the aching feeling he felt when he missed Harley like a limb.
Ned and MJ kept the same old routine as they had for the previous years, it kept them all regulated. AcaDec practice was a saving grace for the three of them, some time where there was no time to consider anything but winning the season. When it was over, they all piled into one of their apartments and studied or built legos or watched films.
It got easier. It hurt less, just ached some. Some nights, their calls lasted longer. Harley would pick up the moment Peter got home, and neither of them would end it until the morning. Other nights, they went without. Those sucked, but they were bearable. Life had to come first sometimes, even though that usually involved some weird alien attack, or a family emergency.
Before Peter could realise it, September had come and gone. The countdown to seeing his very favourite person again was getting smaller. The change in the weather meant Peter would wear more of Harley’s jumpers to school. He ignored the looks he got, questioning why he would wear another school’s apparel, why he bothered to wear a Stark Industries hoodie with the wrong initials embroidered on the sleeve, why everything fit just that little bit bigger than normal.
As the days shortened and the time passed, September bled into October, and routine was restored. Instead of ‘come home, I miss you’, their talks became ‘I can’t wait to see you next month, but won’t it be weird for you to not celebrate at home?’.
Peter had fallen back in love with AcaDec, putting his all in for his final season. He and Ned and MJ and Cindy and Betty and Abe, and even Flash, they had all decided to make the season their best. Where they hadn’t been the best of friends before, they were now.
It was mid October when MJ ended practice early for the first time. That was unheard of, and the entire room looked between each other as if they were being pranked. She just shrugged, saying that it was her decision and everyone should go home.
So Ned and Peter packed their bags, stuffing their pages of notes into the folders hidden amongst textbooks. They slowly made their way out of the building, falling into a comfortable discussion of the upcoming Star Wars project. Peter was so engrossed in what he was saying that he didn’t notice when Ned fell silent, not even humming along.
When they reached the stairs, about to head in different directions, Peter noticed the frozen look on Ned’s face. He followed his eyes to the car parked at the bottom of the stairs, to the person leaning against the door wearing Peter’s SI hoodie and a crunchy baseball cap and the bracelet Peter had made after a 6 day bout of insomnia.
“Harley!”
The bag haphazardly thrown over Peter’s shoulder fell to the ground as he sprinted towards his boyfriend. He launched himself straight into Harley’s arms, breath hitching as he finally felt complete again.
“Hi Petey.” Harley whispered against Peter’s lips, kissing him for the first time in too long.
“What are you doing here, Harls?” Peter asked, chasing kiss after kiss after kiss. “I thought you were supposed to be at home.”
Harley brushed some of Peter’s hair from his face, rubbing a calloused thumb over Peter’s cheek. He cracked a small, watery smile. “Well you see, darlin’, you’ve ruined home for me.”
Peter looked confused, hands falling slightly from Harley’s hips as he tried to move back and study the boy in front of him. Harley kept him where he was though, pressing another kiss into his chapped lips.
“You ruined home for me, Peter, because I can’t call it home if you’re not there with me.” Harley said, eyes flitting to the ground.
“Jesus, Harley.” Peter exhaled, reaching to wrap his arms around his neck and pull him close. “I really fucking love you, y’know?”
“I know, sweetheart. I love you too.”