Chapter Text
It was not going well, to say less. An unplesant feeling keep rising with every gaze Kate send his way while trying to entratein the group. It was starting to really bother him, someone would notice soon.
The Avenger's museum was huge, he would give it that. The truth is, for all the hover around he had done, specially with Kate, they never made it there. In the tower there are way more interesting places. Besides, he had met all of the avengers personally. So he wasn't really curious about it, but Ned was.
Peter was sure the museum didn't even mention their love for Tony's expensive billar table, they had had to replace the sticks twice this week. They got really intense. Nor the amount of broken boards for late night games.
"Oh, dude! Let's go!" He let himself be dragged, staying at the door was like carrying a big neon sing asking Flash to go bother him. He knew better than that.
They passed the Black Widow exposition, full with old suites, cool photos he had no idea when they had been took and different weapons. What it didn't show was the latest prototypes sitting in his desk, they were coming along pretty nicely.
Tony had tried to make a list of curiosities in every stand, he wasn't too suscefull. Kate, Peter, Rohdey, they were all for it. Spies? Super soldiers? Defently no. Not even Dr. Banner was on board, although Thor seemed ready to write the longest biography ever made.
Peter liked Spider-man's stand. He would admit it was kind of weird to see it, known he was Spider-man. His first suit, still cover in dust from being trapped under a bulding —just thinking about it gave him a chill, not a cool moment.— And a colection of different mask he had wore. There also was an interactive hologram made by Harley to analyes the webshooters, inclompleate of course, that no one could recreate.
"Dude! Look! It says here Spider-man has a guy in the chair! That's me!"
"Ned, dude, calm down, would you?"
"Hey! This is wrong! Spider-man is not the funniest! He's the most annoying." Kate appeard at his side, arms cross and smirk. He did mostly not jump in surprise, upsides down of having a sense that only alerts you of threats.
"I think that title belongs to you, Bishop. You basically annoyed Clint into making you an Avenger."
"I did not! Please, you never shut up. You have a broken arm and five guys going at you and still talking about how cool you think Bucky's arm is."
In life there are good moments, bad moments. People you like, people you don't like.
And then there's Flash.
"Is Parker here bothering you, gorgeous?" He came and throw an arm over Kate. Smiling as if he was her knight in shiny armor. "Get lost. Honestly, Spider-man is very cool, but the new Hawkeye is better."
For a moment, the second it took her to react, Peter saw the uncomfort in her face, how her shoulders came forward and her arms tight in her chest. He didn't care that Flash took it on him all the time, he cared that now she was involve too as if Ned wasn't enough already.
"I'll take the compliment. I agree in the hero stuff. Nothing else, bye." You know that face you make when you eat accidentally expire food? That was Kate's face taking Flash's arm away.
Unfortunally, he wasn't known for taking very direct indirects.
"Oh, c'mon, pretty—"
Peter was alert this time. He moved faster, came between them and grabbed his wrist before it touched her. "Finish the sentance." He wasn't one for confrontation, except when people crossed a limit. Flash had crossed a very clear limit.
Their eyes were locked. Flash's were wide open in surprise. Peter's squint, just like when he was figthing. He knew he was putting too much preassure in Flash's wrist, it would at least be red but he couldn't bring himself to care.
"Parker! This is your last warning!"
It was frustrating, Flash parents were rich, Peter wasn't. Peter never saw Mr. Harrington giving Flash detention while he just got two days. He didn't try to defense himself, just rolled his eyes walking away.
Kate interviene, promesing to call her bodyguard to supervise the group just in case. Great, exacly what he wanted. In his opinion, the only one here that needed supervision was Flash.
The last thing he wished was to draw attention, his classmates would gossip about it for weeks. He could already picture himself walking from one class to another hearing comments in the hallway.
On the other hand, he got that same tingle that came to him right before a fight, every night in his suit looking for criminals. He felt it climbing up his hands and his arms, a need to move.
He keep walking. Head down, hood on; he wore this specific hoodie because it was the softest to touch, also, the hood covered his head in a way no other could. As the nerd he was, he recite the periodic table in his head over and over again, it helped him focus on one thing.
There were fifty five steps from Iron man's stand to Captain America's stand. In between, he passed Hawkeye filled with trick arrows' ends, Hulk, the Maximoff's brothers —yes, Pietro was there, Peter had the feeling they would had been great friends —and Vision. He looked at them, he read the funny facts, he pretended to pay attention.
He was in automatic mode, it wasn't Peter who was putting one feet in front of another. He smiled to MJ, laughed with Ned, even tho his mind was far away from that field trip.
They were talking, he knew they were talking. He didn't caught up one single word, except.
"Hey, darlin'" An arm brushed his.
In a blur, he snatched his wrist and jammed it up behind his back at an unnatural angle. He winced in pain, arm still pinned between their shoulder blades.
Harley twisted his head, smirking at Peter acting as nothing was going on. He let go inmediatly with an apology.
"Hey, it's alright. What's going on?" He dragged the 'what' like he always did. Harley picked his hood to take it off, pressing his hand in Peter's neck.
It was warm at touch, when was it not? It was the same feeling when he got home after a rough night to a warm blanket and bad films. Harley played with the too longs curls on his neck, Peter would lean in his touch.
"I'm sorry. It's just- It's been a long day."
"It's nine in the morning." He laughed.
"Yeah I know." Peter sighed, rubbing the tiredness from his face. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"Oh! I'm Kate's body guard."
"You're kidding."
"I'm takin' it as an insult. I can't believe a guy that walks around in spandex is insulting me." Things like this, Harley pushing away in the most dramatic possible way, made Peter wonder if it was possible he was Tony's biological son. He should try to run some test. "For the record, I could take anyone in this room. Anyone!"
"Sure you could, H." He patted his arm, the same way he patted Morgan's head.
For a second, all the stress lifted from his shoulder, all he could see was blue as the sky eyes, sparkling more than the stars. A comfort smile that he knew to well, the one he got to see when the nightmares wouldn't leave him alone. The smell of oil from working in the lab and garage impragnate in his clothes like a second skin with the touch of cedar wood that he loved.
"I totally could!"
"Yes, yes, you could, yes."
"You don't believe me." He squinted his eyes, pouting like a little kid. A blond strand fell over his forehead, Peter pushed it back behind the ear instatly.
"I do! I totally do."
They always joked around, used to the safetest of the tower, the trust relationship with the Avengers. Harley hitted him in the chest with enough strenght to move a piece of paper, Peter grabbed him by the waist to keep him close.
The second Harley was close enough to feel his breath mixing, Peter letted go. He took a step back as if it burned.
The worst thing was seeing the hurt swing Harley's eyes. It changed to understandment pretty quickly but it had been there, deep down, it was still there.
Peter knew that Harley, coming from a small town in the middle of nowhere, had been through more that anyone should ever been for being who he was. There was a reason he wasn't living in his house nomore.
A part of him wanted to fix it, go back to his arm. A bigger part felt invisbible looks over him. It heard nonexistent gossip in school. It felt the pushes and insults.
Because New York defended inclusivity, it set itself high, on top of all. It was New York! How could New York not be the best?
New Yorkers didn't care for any of it. Kids were cruel, adults looked away.
So Peter stayed where he was. A wall growing between them. He knew he was sleeping alone that night.
"You should really stay close to Kate. There's a guy after her." He turned around, looking for Ned or MJ.
Harley did what Peter told him to do. He avoided his boyfriend compleatly, stayed by Kate's all the time.
Settle himself behind her, arms crossed with his best intimidating look. Followed from the museum to some low level labs. She gave basic instruction and made polite conversation with the professor while the students looked around.
Peter tryed to lay low. Hided between his only two friends.
He talked to some of the guys working there, hoping it looked like he was the only asking the question instead of giving solutions. He even got Helena to come to his own lab later that day because the problem needed hours of work together.
Flash's attention was divided, which he was gratefull for. On one hand, he was as close as he could to Kate, ready for when the body guard took a break. On the other, he was talking to his friends while keeping track of Peter. The moment back in the museum had scared him enough to stay away.
Harley didn't even tried to make conversation with Kate. They weren't as close as any of them were with Peter but they did expend time together now and then. Usually, Harley was the one to fix Kate's bow, he tried to help with new trick arrow's ideas too. He wasn't too much for conversation today, not after what happened with Peter.