Archive of Our Own

Harley walks around New York looking for something to eat, this was his first time exploring the city alone and Harley had almost gotten lost like a million times.

Then a metal pipe was thrown into the wall right in front of him.

Harley sort of froze as he stared at the metal pipe that could have probably impaled him.

Next thing he knew something latched into him and pulled him across the street on top of a building and moments later another metal pipe hit the place where he had just stood. He looked at what had pulled him out of the way to see Spider-Man leaping off the building toward someone holding a metal pipe. Culprit caught.

Spider-Man shoots a web at the guy to prevent him from attacking anymore and then webbed him to the side of a building. He pulled himself to the top of the building and walked toward Harley.

"Are you alright?" Spider-Man asked.

"Yeah, thanks to you." Harley laughed.

"Do you need to be anywhere?"

"Can you take me to Stark Tower?" Harley wasn't really feeling hungry anymore.

"Alright." Spider-Man seemed to smile under his mask, he picked Harley up and began swinging.

Each swing filled Harley with adrenaline and fear, he bit his tongue and hoped not to scream. He took several deep breaths as they landed at the base of the tower.

"Alright," Spider-Man saluted and shot out a web, "see ya' around kid!"

Harley just smiled and waved awkwardly before going back into the tower.

Harley first went to the gym, it was mainly designed for the Avengers but there was still stuff there Harley was able to use. It was empty so it gave him a clear space to empty his mind.

He was glad he was okay.

Peter blew onto his hands as he began to get ready for bed. He rarely took off his suit, except when he needed to take of his binder. He curled up in his sleeping bag and shut his eyes, he quickly fell asleep under the open night sky.

"Hey Tony." Harley yawned as he walked past Tony's workshop.

"Hey, are you alright?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, just saying goodnight." Harley nodded.

"Goodnight."

"Y'know," Harley snapped his fingers as he realised something, "Spider-Man saved me today."

"Is that so?"

"Mhm, this guy was fighting with him and he pulled me out of the way, isn't that awesome!?"

"Yeah, I'm glad you're safe."

"Mhm," Harley yawned once again, "anyway night."

"Goodnight Harley."

Peter could tell when someone was watching him. He didn't feel in danger. But he knew they were there. He sat on his rooftop sometimes and just wished the feeling would leave him. He felt like he couldn't take off his suit until they had finally left. Sometimes the sensation sort of became natural, like white noise, Peter didn't realise when it was or wasn't there.

Sometimes when Peter could feel someone watching him he would just leave and find someone to fight, at-least then he had something else to think about. Other days he just sat on the ledge of the rooftop he slept on until it went away.

When Iron-Man showed up Peter wasn't particularly surprised, he probably wouldn't have guessed Iron-Man would show up but he knew something was up and it was pretty easy to connect the dots.

"So you were the one who was watching me." Peter said defensively.

"I had assumed you noticed."

Peter didn't particularly feel any need to be so tense, but he was still anticipating something to happen.

"Do you live out here."

"I do," Peter wasn't one to lie, "things haven't been so easy."

Tony nodded. "Well I'm here because you recently saved someone very close to me. I wanted to thank you in person."

Peter raised an eyebrow, trying to recall who he had saved.

"But I don't think I can thank you simply by saying the words."

Peter tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Would you like to come live in the Tower."

Peter's eyes widened. "Like with the Avengers?"

"They stay there occasionally." Tony shrugged.

"I can't live there it's not like I can afford the rent!" Peter joked, but really he didn't think he deserved it.

"Do you help protect people?"

"Yeah, I guess I try to?" Peter shrugged, it's not like he felt the need to be humble because that is what he did.

"Well then rent payed, come live there."

Peter didn't particularly want to turn down the offer of a lifetime, and it was better than living on a rooftop. "Thank you." He smiled.

Spider-Man followed Iron-Man to the tower.

"Alright, I should probably learn your name or something because you don't need to always be in your Spider-Man costume."

Peter thought for a moment. "It's Peter."

"Alright, nice to meet you. You can sort of do what you want, FRIDAY will tell me if you do anything dangerous... or illegal." Tony continued to explain some more ground rules as they moved from place to place in the tower. "I think this room isn't being used." Tony opened the door.

The room was nice. There was a bed, a couch at the end of the bed, a closet, a desk, a Tv and even an en-suite bathroom. One of the walls was just a window looking over the city.

"Is it alright?" Tony asked.

"It's perfect." Peter beamed.

"Good, there are clothes at the bottom of the closet if you need any." Tony waved toward the closet. "See you around."

"Hey, Mr Stark?" Peter called to Tony.

"Hm?"

Peter took a breath and took off his mask. "Thank you sir."

Peter placed his bag on his desk. He looked around at the drawers scattered around his room: under his bed, on his desk, on the night stand by his bed and at the bottom of his closet.

Peter grabbed his sleeping bag and shoved it under the bed, the only other things under there were spare duvet covers for different times do the year.

Peter looked around the Bathroom, there was a toilet, sink, washing machine, shower and a bath too. It was quite spacious. The bathroom already had soap and shower gel, everything you would expect in like a hotel bathroom plus some other things too. It was nice.

Peter decided he probably needed a shower, living on a rooftop for a while isn't going to help you smell great. He also took the opportunity to throw his suit in the washing machine. He made a note to himself that he would also put his other clothes in the wash once his suit was done.

It was weird looking into a mirror after awhile, Peter certainly had seen his reflection in puddles but they weren't particularly clear. He didn't like how messy his hair looked, or how it stuck to him. He grabbed some scissors out from a drawer he had looked in earlier and trimmed his hair down, it might have been a little short and choppy but it was nice.

That night Spider-Man stood on top of a building overlooking the tower he now lived in. Even through the mask Peter could feel the breeze over his shorter hair. His suit felt so fresh and clean, it was so much better than before. Everything was better, it was like a dream.

He got back pretty late, but that wasn't unusual.

What was unusual was the voice that called out to him. "Good evening Peter."

Peter practically jumped out of his skin. "Hello?" He looked around, suspecting someone might be lurking, his spider-sense have him no clue as to where the voice had come from. "Who are you?" He demanded.

"My name is FRIDAY, I'm an AI assistant that runs throughout the tower, I have lots of jobs, depending what you might need." She explained.

"Oh right." Peter nodded.

"If you ever need me just ask."

"Will do." Peter nodded again. Getting ready for bed Peter took off his Binder and took a look at the clothing provided in the drawer at the bottom of the closet. It was mostly cotton shirts with logos on but they could work as night shirts, there were also matching tracksuit bottoms or shorts too. It was a comfortable enough outfit to sleep in, even if Peter became a walking advertisement for the Avengers.

Peter woke up. It was surreal, looking around this room that sort of was his own. He got up and sort of wondered where to get food, he hadn't eaten since probably midday yesterday -where he enjoyed a very nice sandwich donated generously to him by someone who Peter had saved- and he needed food to keep up with being Spider-Man.

"Uhh, FRIDAY?" Peter anxiously called out.

"Yes Peter?"

"Do you know where I can get food?" Peter asked.

"Down the hall there is a kitchen for you, and anyone else talking residence in the tower, to utilise." FRIDAY answered. "It is currently empty."

"Thank you." Peter got up and made his way down the hall. He found the kitchen area FRIDAY described and began looking through the drawers, he didn't want to take something that wasn't his but wasn't sure what he was allowed. "FRIDAY?" Peter called again.

"What do you need?"

"What am I allowed to take?"

"Anything unlabelled is usually respected as usable by anyone in the kitchen but I suggest a bowl of cereal if you would like."

"Thank you." Peter found the box of cereal, the milk and a bowl. All seemingly unlabelled as Peter looked over them, just in case.

Peter sat at the kitchen island, eating his cereal, when someone walked in. The person was a boy, that Peter could vaguely recognise. He grabbed a yogurt from the fridge and a spoon and quickly left, too wrapped up in his music to notice Peter.

Usually as Spider-Man Peter would get given money -or a sandwich- by people of New York, he would rarely refuse, despite hating taking money from people he did really need it. He mostly spent it on money for food or resources to make web fluid.

Peter took his web fluid supplies from his bag, carefully unpacking it all and laying it out neatly.

"You know we have lab spaces available for you to do that." FRIDAY spoke out.

"What do you mean?" Peter was less caught off guard by FRIDAY this time.

"If you would like I can ask Tony Stark to set up a lab space for you to do your experiments."

"No, no that's fine," Peter called out, "he's done enough for me I don't need to start asking for more."

"I'm sure he would be happy to allowed you to use a lab, there are plenty located within the tower." FRIDAY continued.

Peter considered his options, he didn't want to ask for too much, but he also didn't want to refuse something that would genuinely be so useful to him. "If that's alright with Mr Stark, but I don't want to be in anyone's way or anything, I only want the lab if it's unused and stuff."

"I can ensure that Tony will understand your request." FRIDAY responded.

The next day Peter awoke and FRIDAY was the first to speak with him. "Good morning Peter, a Lab has been allocated to you. Would you like me to direct you to it?"

Peter yawned. "Maybe later? I just woke up."

"Alright, just ask me when you would like to go to the lab."

Peter threw on his clothes and a binder, He hadn't really explored the tower up to this point so if he did end up running into anyone Peter didn't want to wear overly baggy clothing and have to position himself awkwardly to try to disguise his chest. Although he considered he may regret this if he ended up spending hours out as Spider-Man.

For the first week of living on a rooftop Peter wasn't totally comfortable changing out in the open, so he would end up leaving his binder on for far too long. This ended when he began to have mild chest pain, he knew his binder was the source and that he wouldn't wear it for such long periods. So he began hiding under his sleeping bag to take it off, it was inconvenient at first he soon got used to it.

It was weird, no longer having those weird little routines. In a way Peter did want to hide under the covers, with the way his window covered so much of his wall it almost felt like he was changing out in open, but he knew no one could see him and it was kind of refreshing not having to struggled underneath a sleeping bag.

Friday guided Peter to the lab. It was mostly clear, apart from a few boxes of spare parts Peter didn't need scattered around so he just piled them into a corner. There were cupboards dotted around the room, mostly sparsely filled with bunsen burners, beakers and other things Peter could see himself using.

"FRIDAY?" Peter called out.

"What's up Peter?"

"Where are the chemicals?" Peter asked, although he considered he would simply have to supply his own chemicals. He had a lot left, but he knew he would be running out of some chemicals by at least next week, so it would be good to know if he needed to get more.

"There is a storeroom located a-few floors below you." FRIDAY responded. "Would you like me to lead you to it?"

"Yes please." Peter smiled.

The door to the storeroom was coated in warning labels, it was quite daunting.

"I can assure you it is safe to enter Peter." FRIDAY reassured him.

Peter took a deep breath and stepped inside. First and foremost there was a desk with a sign stating 'the technician isn't in today, please use the computers to search for items and collect them yourself' alongside some days and times below when the technician would be available to help.

There was a door behind the desk labelled "computer lab" which Peter stepped inside, it was small and only had a few computers but no one else was inside. He sat at one of the computers and began searching for what he needed.

Peter took note of the places he needed to go to to get the chemicals he wanted. Everything was very organised, with different materials being kept in different places. Some places Peter didn't have access to, but luckily non of those rooms had anything Peter would need. Most things Peter needed were kept in the same rooms which was useful.

Peter only took the chemicals he knew he would run out of fastest and just kept note of where the the rest of the chemicals he might need were kept.

He got back to his lab and realised he had left all his chemicals in his room. He rushed off and grabbed them before coming back to the lab. He stepped into the elevator and saw the guy from the kitchen, getting a closer look he still couldn't place why he recognised him but Peter assumed that he had saved him before, Peter saved a lot of people.

"Hey." The guy smiled at Peter. He had a Tennessean accent.

"Hey." Peter replied.

"I'm Harley, and you are?"

"Peter."

"Good to meet you." Harley nodded. "What in the bag?"

"Oh just some chemicals." Peter laughed awkwardly.

"Nice." The elevator doors opened. "Well this is my floor." Harley stepped out of the elevator.

"Mine too." Peter also stepped out.

They continued to fill the silence with awkward conversation before Peter walked into his lab.

"Oh this is your lab." Harley looked around. "It's been empty for months." He laughed and walked over to the boxes in the corner. "What are these?"

"Dunno," Peter shrugged, "they came with the lab. Spare parts I guess?"

"Can I take them?"

"I don't see why not."

"Sweet." Harley picked up one of the boxes. "They're heavy." He warned as Peter walked over to pick up one of the boxes.

Peter picked one up. "I'm stronger than I look." He shrugged.

They carried the boxes to Harley's workshop.

"Nice Worksop." Peter commented.

"Thanks." Harley smiled. "Just put the box over here, I'll sort it all later or something."

"What landed you getting a workshop here?" Peter asked.

"Mr Stark landed in my garage one day, I sort of fixed his suit and befriended him and then years later he let me sort of just live here if I needed. I usually spend a bit of the summer here after school has finished but now I'm done with school I'm always here." Harley reminisced on the memories.

"Haha, cool." Peter laughed.

"What about you?" Harley asked in return.

"Oh," Peter didn't particularly want to out himself as Spider-Man, "I uhh, sort of help out Spider-Man sometimes, like his guy in the chair." He stole the line from Ned, he should really call Ned.

Ned and Peter sort of lost contact a-bit before Peters life kind of fell apart, they just sort of drifted apart over time and then May died and Peter became too focused on Spider-Man and everything sort of fell apart.

"That's so awesome! I love Spider-Man!" Harley beamed.

"Really?" Peter blushed.

"Yeah! You know he saved my life once."

"Really?" Peter repeated.

"Yep," Harley nodded, "it was like the other week, he was fighting with this guy and he was throwing metal pipes and he pulled me out of the way before one hit me. Then he swung me back here. It was my first day exploring the city on my own too."

Peter could vaugely recall this. "Wow, must have been a crazy first day."

"Haha, yeah I guess." Harley laughed. "Well thanks a lot to him, he really saved me there."

"You're welcome." Peter said, before quickly correcting himself. "I'm sure he would say."

"Yeah, we'll see you later! Was it... Peter?"

"Yea, see you." Peter went off to his lab again.

That evening Peter sat over a bowl of cereal, that's basically all he had eaten since he had gotten there and didn't actually know what to else he was allowed to eat and there always seemed to be loads of cereal.

Harley walked in. "Yo, Peter right?" He smiled.

"Yeah, what's up Harley?"

"Nothing much what's up with you?" He smiled.

"I'm good thanks."

"Why are you eating cereal? It's like nearly midnight?" Harley enquired.

"I don't actually know what I'm allowed to eat." Peter admitted sheepishly.

Harley laughed. "I was like that my first summer here. Now I just sort of eat whatever, unless it has a name on, sometimes I buy stuff too but I only label it if I really want it."

"FRIDAY sort of told me that, but I still feel bad taking stuff, so I stick to the cereal because there is so much, why is there so much cereal anyway?" Peter questioned.

"I have no idea man, it's always been like that. I'll make you something."

"Oh you don't have to."

"Yeah I don't, but I'm offering, and anyway I was going to make something for myself so I'll just make double."

Harley made some Pasta in sauce and it was nice to have a warm cooked meal for once in a while.

"This is really nice." Peter smiled, he hadn't even tasted it yet but he was referring more to the gesture than anything else and it smelt nice too.

"No it ain't." Harley laughed. "Although I didn't burn it."

Peter took a bite. "No it is really nice, thank you."

"Fine if you say so." Harley rolled his eyes and smiled. "Thank you too. So who's your favourite superhero?" Harley asked.

"Hmm," Peter ate a forkful of pasta and thought, "probably Captain America, he was always my favourite as a child and I used to always read books and stuff about him." Peter always kind of found his story relatable, in a way. "You?"

Harley was quick to answer. "Iron-Man, I'm definitely biased as I literally know him but he has always been my favourite."

"Fair choice."

"Hey wanna hangout in my room and watch a movie or something?"

Peter laughed. "Alright what are we watching?"

"I've got no idea man."

Harley probably spent more time picking a movie than actually watching one and neither of them cared about the movie because they ended up discussing the characters actions or just talking in general over the movie.

That evening Peter still went out as Spider-Man, but he made sure to limit his time as he knew by this point that it had been far too long wearing his binder.

Peter wasn't particularly sure what to do during the daytime now, when he lived on the rooftop he always tried to sleep throughout the morning and go out as Spider-Man from midday. That way he could meet with New Yorkers and hopefully get some food or money, he didn't particularly enjoy manipulating them like that but it was useful to get some money and food for himself. Then the evenings (similar to how they are now) woulf be spent crime fighting, and crime would obviously happen in the daytime but it was a lot less frequent.

Now he found himself trying to avoid being Spider-Man due to not wanting to wear his binder for too long. And he also found himself waking up earlier and not staying out as late. So sometimes he would spend his mornings in the lab and other times he would go out as Spider-Man earlier in the day and then go to sleep earlier and then he would wake up earlier too.

He didn't hate being more healthy it was just certainly proving to be more troublesome for him.

"Yo dude what's up?" Harley smiled as Peter walked down the hall.

Today's activities included walking to and from the lab to Peter's room. He even found a set of stairs that let him there, Peter didn't even know this building had stairs and -based on how empty they were- neither did anyone else. "Harley honestly I have absolutely no idea what to do, I am so bored."

Harley looked at Peter awkwardly. "Well I'm going to the gym, join me if you want?"

"We have a gym?"

"Yeah, c'mon I'll take you, the Avengers mainly use it so you probably aren't usually allowed to use it but I'll let you join me this once, we probably have one for the other employees."

"First I find we have stairs and now a gym." Peter threw his arms in the air dramatically as the elevator arrived. "And I'm summoning the elevator!"

"We have stairs?" They both stepped into the elevator.

"I mean I think we legally have to have them, and there is an arrows literally right on the elevator door pointing toward them."

"I probably saw that before and have never thought about it." Harley shrugged.

"I probably shouldn't be wearing jeans for this." Peter commented. "Wait Harely open the door!" The door shut and Peter groaned, then it reopened. "Oh phew." Then he went and changed into gym clothes and a binder while Harley waited outside.

Peter was stunned by the gym. It was huge, and had equipment designed for the strongest Avengers to use. And it made sense why things were literally designed for the Avengers but it was still shocking to see.

"I would advise for you to start with a smaller weight, but I've seen you carry those boxes so I can assume you know what you're doing." Harley spoke.

Peter didn't actually have any idea what he was doing, he had never tested his strength before and didn't actually know how strong he was, he assumed pretty strong but he had never tested himself and only had memories to work from.

Harley picked up a weight and began doing a routine. Peter picked up some similar weights and did the same, watching Harley's movements closely.

"Are you just gonna keep copying me or are you going to do your own routine?"

"I don't have a routine." Peter admitted.

"Man, then how are you so strong!?" Harley exclaimed.

"I used to help around a lot," Peter lied, "overtime I guess I just got pretty strong moving neighbours furniture around or helping people carry heavy things when they were gardening, you know."

"I used to help people with their gardens when I was a teen as well." Harley beamed. "They would always ask around for a 'nice strong young man' and there I'd be me and some kids from school helping move things around." Harley imitated his neighbours voice.

Peter felt a twang of jealousy as Harley referred to the youth Peter would never have. "That's nice." He spoke softly, hoping his envy didn't show through in his voice.

For the rest of the exercise Peter felt envious of Harley, the way he looked the way he sounded. He was perfectly masculine and Peter wasn't. Harley had a flat chest, and Peter didn't. Harley had a deep voice and Peter only did from hours of vocal training from videos online.

Peter still went out as Spider-Man that night but he ended up on the rooftop of a building rather than fighting crime. The sun moved below the horizon while Peter hugged his knees to his chest. He was rarely super dysphoric but some days he saw someone and felt so jealous of the way they looked compared to him.

Peter soon went home. He took a shower, got changed and got into bed. He then noticed a small box on his desk. He got up and wondered over to the box. It was clearly a phone box. With a post it note on top that Peter could only just read through the dark, and the messy hand writing.

'I asked FRIDAY and she informed me that she hadn't seen you with a phone so I bought you one.
-Tony S.'

Peter stares at it before carefully opening the box. It was in fact a phone.

Peter used to have a phone but he dropped it one day and it stopped working, just his luck, and he wasn't able to fix it.

The phone was already partly set up, with Tony's number already saved as a contact. Peter just texted Tony a thank you and began looking through the phone. There were not many apps on it or anything really so Peter made a note to sort all that out tomorrow.

Peter woke up ate some cereal and sorted out some things on his phone. He downloaded Instagram and typed in Ned's username and texted him with a brief explanation as to why he hadn't messaged in a while. Ned soon messaged back wishing Peter well and that he was just glad Peter was alright. They texted for a-few minutes longer before Ned had to go.

"So what's else do you actually get up to?" Peter asked Harley.

Harley shrugged. "Sometimes I help out in labs, other times I just keep to myself."

"Interesting, what are you doing today?"

"Going for a walk to buy myself some food, wanna come?"

"Okay."

"So what are you going to buy?" Peter followed closely behind Peter.

Harley shrugged. "Don't know, as long as it isn't too heavy I don't care, you want anything?"

Peter shook his head.

"Yes you do." Harley folded his arms across his chest.

"It's fine, really."

"Well I'm getting a mini cheese cake, so I'll get you one too."

"You don't have to."

"They come in packs of two, so you're get gom one anyway." Harley put his foot down. "Now let's get some actually healthy food or something."

Peter carried one of the bags home and they carefully placed everything in the fridge and labelled the cheesecakes for later.

"We can eat them when we watch a movie tonight." Harley declared.

"Movie?"

"Well I've decided we are watching a movie together tonight so we are. In your room?"

"Sure." Peter didn't see why not.

"Sweet. I'll knock on your door tonight. See ya." Harley went off to do his own thing.

Afew hours later after the sun had set Peter heard a knock at the door.

Harley stood there, an armful of food. "I brought snacks." He declared.

"Alright, I still haven't decided on a movie so I ended up just starting a list of films I kind of liked the look of." Peter took some of the stuff from
Harley and gave him the list, which was mostly made up of films Peter had just put on there because he wanted to watch them alone rather than with Harley.

"Hmm, I've seen some of these."

"We don't need to watch something you've already seen." Peter laughed.

"Yeah, well there are a lot of films here I haven't seen." Harley reassured Peter.

"Cool, let's watch one of those."

Harley grabbed the remote and picked a movie, it was something Peter had put on the list just for himself but he didn't particularly care that much.

It was some gay romance so Peter was really hoping Harley wasn't homophobic. Luckily Peter's hopes were answered when Harley practically screamed with joy when the characters finally kissed and said practically every five minutes how jealous he was of the character's relationship.

The movie had finished and Peter and Harley just sat on Peter's bed talking.

"Your room is so neat." Harley looked around.

"Haha yeah I guess."

"No like genuinely we gotta go to IKEA or something this room is so bland."

"Well the room is furnished." Peter defended.

"Furnished and completely unpersonalised." Harley retorted.

"Shut up." Peter laughed.

"I just realised I don't actually have your phone number!" Harley exclaimed.

"Do you want it?" Peter shrugged.

"Yeah, then I can text you if I ever get lost in New York, maybe you could get Spider-Man to save me."

Peter laughed and handed Harley his phone.

Peter woke up one morning and felt like he was on fire. Well the term 'morning' is used lightly, in actuality when he checked the time it was 3:38am. He removed the blanket from his body and still felt too hot. His throat felt dry too.

Peter crawled out of bed and drank some water from the bathroom sink.

"FRIDAY?" Peter croaked out.

"Yes Peter?"

"Can you turn down the temperature, I'm feeling really overheated."

"Of course, you appear to be displaying symptoms of a cold, would you like someone to get you some medication?" FRIDAY asked as the temperature cooled.

"No I'm fine." Peter crawled back into bed.

"Alright if you need any advice just ask."

"Thank you."

Next time Peter woke up was far past midday. He didn't particularly want to get up or do anything and his head was hurting. Wasn't it summer? Why was Peter getting a cold?

Most of the day was spent in bed resting with the TV playing in the background. He didn't even know why was playing, it just made the room less silent.

At one point Peter got a message. He reached over and opened his phone to see 2 notifications: one from Ned and one from Harley.

Peter opened the one from Ned first, Harley could wait, it was a simple "Hi hru" so Peter just responded saying he had a cold. Ned was quick to reply back with an apology and hoping Peter would get well soon.

Next Peter opened Harley's text, asking if Peter wanted some Pizza. Peter groaned and replied with a mostly coherent text saying he wasn't hungry and was feeling sick. Due to said cold Peter didn't really have an appetite at this moment in time.

Peter didn't know how long it had been before Harley opened the door.

Peter pulled a pillow over his chest. "Dude, do you knock? I could have been changing!"

"Sorry," Harley scratched the back of his head and looked away, "but you aren't so it's okay. Also I brought some strawberries." Harley walked over and sat on the bed. "Why didn't you tell me you were sick earlier?"

"Didn't think it was that important." Peter shrugged.

"Hm. Have a strawberry." Harley held the box of strawberries to Peter.

Peter took one and ate it.

"What are you watching anyway?" Harley looked over to the TV.

"I genuinely don't know. I just shoved the TV on for some background noise, or for something to pay attention to if I got bored of thinking." Peter shrugged.

Harley flicked through the TV channels and decided he didn't really care enough to change the channel. "Anyway, you had a good day?"

"No; I'm sick."

"Oh right yeah."

Harley sort of just spoke while Peter just let it add to distractions and the background noise.

Harley started to talk about Spider-Man. Peter idly listened in, although he still wasn't particularly paying attention it was what he was most focused on.

"Spider-Man was sort of like my first crush." Harley said offhandedly.

Well that certainly caught Peter's attention. "Huh?"

"What's up?" Harley raised an eyebrow.

"What do you say?"

"I used to really admire him as a teen?"

"I thought you said you had a crush on Spider-Man." Peter laughed.

"Oh I kind of used to." Harley blushed and avoided Peter's gaze. "Why? Are you dating Spider-Man?"

"You- no..." Peter blinked. Drawing out the 'o' as his mind tried to process everything, while he had a cold. "You had a crush on me!?"

"Wait you're Spider-Man!?" Harley exclaimed.

Peter blinked. "What?" Damn he really did just do that didn't he.

"You just said 'you had a crush on me' in reference to Spider-Man." Harley raised an eyebrow.

Peter tried to think of a lie, then realised he just felt too sick to come up with one. Then quickly used exactly that as a lie. "You know, I'm sick! My mind is just a little foggy, I'm stumbling over my words! I'm tired and sick and I can't think straight! I'm mixing up my words that's all." He felt like he was over explaining.

Harley folded his arms over his chest, then shrugged. "Yeah, sorry, you're sick, duh." He laughed. "I'm just embarrassed you know."

"Why, it's just Spider-Man?"

"I'm admitting I had a crush on Spider-Man as a teen! It's kind of a little embarrassing okay!"

"It's alright. We all have had weird celebrity crushes as teens." Peter laughed.

"Really," Harley did not sound convinced, "who was yours?"

"Spider-Man." Peter lied.

"Oh my, shut up!" Harley groaned.

"Sorry sorry." Peter laughed. "I had to, I just had to!" Peter did not, he didn't even intend to, Spider-Man was just the first one he thought of. "I guess I found captain America a little hot."

"You cant say a hero just to make me feel better!" Harley blushed again.

"No no, I'm telling you he is attractive." Peter also began to blush, although that could be attributed to the cold.

"So you still have a crush on him?" Harley teased.

"No!" This time he was definitely not just blushing because of the sickness.

"I'm just teasing, don't sweat it."

They soon calmed down from that conversation and the conversation shifted.

"So you liked Spider-Man, are you like gay?" Peter asked. "Sorry if that's rude I'm just curious."

"It's alright, yeah I'm gay." Harley smiled awkwardly. "And you said you liked Captain America, are you gay?"

"Nah, I'm bisexual but I don't usually date." Peter looked out the window, which FRIDAY had dimmed throughout the day to keep the room dark for Peter.

"Why not?"

Peter paused, he had come out in high school and he knew the issues surrounding coming out as trans. But he also wanted to be more open with Harley and wanted to be able to freely share his issues with him. "I'm trans so dating isn't always easy, some people are super creepy and others would prefer someone who isn't trans. So I kind of just decided it wasn't for me." On top of being Spider-Man, which made dating hard enough.

Harley looked at Peter sympathetically. "I'm sorry about that. I don't know exactly how to help but I think you're a pretty cool... I don't actually know if you're-"

"I'm a guy." Peter answered before Harley finished his sentence.

"Thanks, you're a cool guy Peter. I'm sure someone will like you, don't give up hope."

Peter smiled, although he felt all hope was lost. "Yeah, maybe there is hope."

Soon enough Peter was feeling better. A few weeks past and he was back to a routine of going out as Spider-Man each night.

On one particular night a guy pulled a knife on Peter. Peter was mostly able to dodge or deflect most attacks, except he received a few deep-ish cuts to the arm and hand.

After the fact he went straight home, not wanting to risk infection. He quickly disinfected and bandaged and band aided up his arm before heading to the lab. He shoved in some headphones and began stitching up his suit in the lab.

As he got to finishing his sewing his spider-sense triggered. He spun around to see, Harley.

"Harley?" Peter removed an earphone.

Harley looked at Spider-Man's suit laid out on behind Peter. "What happened?" He stepped closer to the suit, looking at the stitching.

Luckily Peter was smart enough to wear long sleeves, so he just hoped Harley didn't notice his hands covered in bandages. "Oh he just got in a fight with a guy in a knife." Peter ensured he didn't refer to himself in first person.

"Damn, is he alright?"

"Yeah he's fine."

"Well, tell him I hope he's okay or whatever." Harley walked off.

"Will do."

Peter usually steered clear of the gym. Every-time he had tried to go in another Avenger was already using it and he would rather some alone time. Or Harley was using it so Peter wouldn't really be able to get a workout as he would have to pretend to be weaker than he actually was.

Today Peter was happy to see an empty gym. He sort of didn't know what to do, so he kind of just tested out everything in the gym that he hadn't tried he wasn't really exercising, just seeing what he could try at another time.

Finally Peter moved onto the weights, he sort of wondered what the maximum weight he could lift was. He would start with the smallest weight, do a few bicep curls and lateral raises, then move onto the bigger weights one by one. There was also an information sheet about what weights the average person could use and things like that. Peter liked to imagine that someone with superhuman strength had tried to hand someone -without that kind of strength- a particularly heavy weight and this poster was purely made out of spite.

It wasn't long before Peter was lifting weights that no normal person could.

It was weird he could tell the weights were heavy but he wasn't particularly struggling to work out with them.

Peter looked toward the doorway as he carefully placed down the weights to see Harley staring back at him, he sort of looked startled or like a deer in headlamps more than anything.

Peter, on the other hand, looked completely terrified. His scarred arm, scars quite similar to the tears on Spider-Man's suit, was completely exposed as Peter old wore a tank-top and he was holding an extremely heavy weight. It wasn't difficult to connect the dots.

"Hey Harley." Peter waved awkwardly, although he didn't really move his arm above his waist.

Peter watched as Harley began to process things, it's like you could almost hear his thoughts from his expressions and actions. Harley stuttered a few times, like an old car on its last legs, before forming a complete sentence. "You're Spider-Man?" His speech bordered between a statement and a question as he questioned what he was actually seeing.

"Yes." Peter's voice was high pitched and he sort of smiled awkwardly.

Harley nodded, slowly at first but gradually accelerated before he clicked his fingers and spoke again. "Right, right, that's makes sense."

"You're freaking out because you told me I was your first crush?" Peter spoke normally now.

Harley yelled back as his face turned bright red. "You don't need to bring it up! That doesn't help!" He shoved his hands over his face.

Peter laughed. "It's fine it's fine."

"I fell for the same guy twice." He groaned into his hands.

"What was that?" Peter definitely heard that. He hoped he didn't sound overly offended by that statement, he was just a little startled.

Harley sort of paused. He did not want to answer that. "It doesn't matter."

Peter wanted to know more, but didn't want to bother Harely with personal questions. "Alright."

"Well I should be off." Harley turned and walked off.

Peter lay wide awake that evening staring at the ceiling. He had tried to go out as Spider-Man to take his mind off of things but it didn't really help.

Peter sat up. He hadn't particularly considered dating Harley, or anyone for that matter, but he didn't dislike the idea of it. He was actually quite liking the idea of it now he did think about it.

Peter wanted to do something nice, but he had no idea what Harley would want to do as a date.

Peter was also kind of broke, he sort of just lived off of whatever was offered at the tower.

"FRIDAY?" Peter called out.

"Yes Peter?"

"Howard am I supposed to find something nice to wear? I literally only own the clothes I had on the roof-top and the clothes that came with the room!" Peter pushed the palms of his hands on his forehead and put his fingers through his hair.

"You know you can just ask and I can deliver you some nice clothing, courtesy of Tony Stark."

"What!?" Peter exclaimed. "I can't take money from Mr Stark!"

"It's more viewed as a sort of payment for helping out in the tower or being a hero."

Peter considered this, he only really needed a suit and some flowers, and maybe a suit for Harley too incase he didn't have one. "Hey FRIDAY," Peter asked, "can you order me a suit and some flowers, also a suit in Harley's size that compliments the other suit?"

Peter got his suits and flowers. He took a shower and trimmed his hair down. He made some spaghetti in a sauce and left it to simmer while he rushed back to his room to quickly change into his binder and suit, style his hair and get ready. He mentally reaffirmed himself.

Peter knocked on Harley's door. Harley answered. "Hey Peter, I'm sorry if I made things-" Harley stopped as he saw what Peter was wearing and holding out for Harley. "Thank you?" Harley grabbed the flowers.

"I have a suit for you, put it on and meet me in the kitchen?" Peter smiled.

Harley smiled. "Uhm, okay."

Peter finished with the spaghetti and set out the table. Everything was going to be okay. Harley walked in. He was wearing the suit Peter gave him and he looked great. Everything was great.

"I didn't really know what restaurant you liked, and I thought this would feel more personal, so I made us something to eat." Peter smiled.

Harley blushed. "This is so... nice. Thank you."

They sat and ate their food. Not talking too much throughout, neither knowing what to say.

"Thank you." Harley blushed again as he finished his food.

"You're welcome, I wanted to do something romantic, but I didn't really have many ideas."

"I think this was the best idea you could have had." Harley smiled.

"I also wanted to ask if you wanted to go out with me?" Peter wanted to look away, but held Harley's gaze.

Harley blinked for a moment. "Of course." He couldn't help but beam.

Peter beamed too.

Peter cleared up and put everything away now that they were done.

"Alright, what do you want to do now?" Peter asked.

"I want to take you out." Harley smiled, he grabbed Peter's arm and took him to the elevator.

"Where are we going?" Peter asked.

Harley shrugged. "I don't know. I just want to find somewhere nice to go."

They both walked throughout New York together, everything looked so different at night.

Soon they found themselves somewhere on a bench in Central Park, it was so peaceful as they quietly talkies about whatever.

"Thank you." Harley blushed. "For a while I kind of assumed you wouldn't like me back."

"I had given up on finding anyone, and it's nice to have someone I'm not lying to about something." Peter admitted.

"Why didn't you tell me about being Spider-Man sooner?"

Peter shrugged. "At first I guess I didn't want to tell a stranger, then I just never thought much about it."

"I'm glad I get to know." Harley smiled as he looked at the park.

Peter looked at him, he looked so handsome in the dark. "I never really considered dating you, as I said, I had given up on the idea of dating at all. But I'm glad I got to reconsider it with you." Peter kissed Harley on the cheek.

"I'm glad I changed your mind." Harley smiled.

They returned to the tower.

"Hey." Harley called to Peter as Peter walked to his room.

"What's up?" Peter asked.

"Do you wanna sleep in my room?" Harley asked.

They were both out of their suits and sat on Harley's bed. They spoke about their lives and what it was like as Spider-Man or odd things like that. They just spoke, enjoying each-other's presence

"I've had a few dreams about kissing you." Harley admitted.

"Oh yeah, how does that go?"

"Sometimes we are sort of just standing, talking like normal and it just happens. Other dreams we are sitting together, looking at a nice view, and all I focus on is you, and you lean over a kiss me. Other times you tell me that you'll miss me and kiss me before disappearing forever." Harley looked away from Peter, his expression appearing quite sad.

Peter leaned over and kissed Harley on the lips. "There, now it's real, and I'm not gonna run off."

Harley smiled and pulled Peter in for another kiss.

Peter woke up the next morning next to Harley, he even looked Handsome in his sleep. Peter smiled, he didn't know what he did to deserve this but he was glad he had done it because this was pretty great.