beginnings, 2
Honestly, Peter was kind of impressed with how easily he’d fallen asleep that night, after everything - not to mention the new city, new room, new bed. Meeting Harley and exchanging truths had been… relieving. The fact that someone else knew what he’d been through, or at least the general gist of it, was nicer than he really wanted to admit. And it had distracted him from all of the thinking he really needed to do about the whole Iron Lad business.
He was still trying to wrap his head around why last night had happened how it did. Peter found himself feeling surprisingly okay about there being someone taking up Mr. Stark’s mantle, but even so, there were so many other questions. How did Harley remember him, when literally nobody else did? With what little information Harley had, why did he believe Peter about being Spider-Man? Did he know more than he was letting on? And why did Harley take Peter to his workshop?
Maybe he wanted to be on equal footing, or he was trying to return the gesture of trust somehow. That was the best Peter could come up with for the last question, the only question he’d even bothered to properly dwell on at this point, since the others were so obviously unanswerable. Maybe they were actually friends. Or maybe Harley just saw an opportunity to have an ally, since he was clearly new to the whole hero thing. Maybe the offer of friendship was just a tactic. Well, he could try and figure that one out some more today, seeing as they’d swapped numbers and were supposed to be meeting up after breakfast.
Said breakfast was a rather… well, as much as Peter didn’t want to admit it, it was a lonely affair. He had avoided going to the dorm orientation event the previous afternoon, promising himself that he would start meeting people when classes began the following week. As a result, he didn’t exactly have anyone to sit with, whereas all the other new students at the dorm were already making friendships and forming groups and sitting together at meals. Peter sat alone, and made quick work of his large breakfast. He was definitely going to get questions about his metabolism if he didn’t figure out a plan to keep his eating needs under wraps soon.
Nutritionally satisfied enough to go about his first full day on campus, Peter took his dishes over to the scullery and made his way out of the dorm building. The scent of freshly mowed grass coming from the massive field right near the dorms was kind of irritating with Peter’s enhanced senses, but he was good enough at blocking it out these days. As agreed upon the previous night, he pulled out his phone and started typing up a text to send to Harley, when someone came up from behind and shoulder bumped him.
“Mornin’!”
Well, so much for needing to text, Peter thought to himself, and then turned to face the focus of his many, many questions. “Were you waiting for me?”
“No,” Harley answered quickly, though the sheepish grin on his face kind of gave the lie away. “Alright, maybe. But I’m just one buildin’ over from you, so I figured it’d be easier this way.”
Peter huffed. As torn as he was about trusting Harley just yet, his behaviour just felt so genuine that it was hard not to relax. “You could have texted to let me know.”
“Well, where’s the fun in that?” Harley teased, and then paused. “But if you want, I’ll text you next time before sneakin’ right up on you. So, coffee?”
Peter yawned right then, as if the universe had to run on some kind of schedule. “Yeah. Coffee. And then maybe you can tell me your extracurricular plans, so I can give you some advice as someone a touch more seasoned in the field.”
Because you seem nice, and I don’t want you getting overeager and getting yourself killed like I almost did when I was starting out, Peter didn’t say.
“No can do, Petey,” Harley responded, putting a pause on Peter’s plan to shoot him an expectant glare. “Well, not now. There’s a reason I have that whole setup off campus, and it’s all about that life balance. That, and Pepper insisted that if I was going to do this, I couldn’t let it get in the way of my studies.”
“That sounds like her,” Peter smiled sadly. He missed Pepper, and Morgan, and wished that he could have been there for both of them after Mr. Stark died. He wished he was still in contact with them, but that couldn’t happen anymore.
Peter felt Harley’s eyes on him for a moment, and then Harley bumped shoulders with Peter yet again. “Anyway, ‘nough of that. Right now, on campus, we’re just two new students gettin’ to know each other, yeah? You know, the club stalls should all be up and runnin’ pretty soon, wanna check them out too?”
“Sure,” Peter agreed, because it was actually a good idea. If he was going to move forward and start his new life here, he had to actually take steps to meet people, find hobby groups, and figure out what that new life was going to look like. “You seem rather… chipper about it all.”
“And why wouldn’t I be?” Harley questioned with a growing grin. “Look, Rose Hill was my home, and my ma n’ sis are still there, so of course I love the place, but it’s kind of a shithole. Small bible belt town’s not exactly the best place for a gay autistic kid to grow up, y’know? Had to stay in the closet for the most part, of course, the bullyin’ was already bad enough, but at least my family knew and were always fine with it all. But I’m here in the big city now, where I can finally just… be. It’s a big deal!”
After all the listening Harley had done last night, Peter was honestly a little surprised, and amused, by how much he was taking over and doing the talking now. The behaviour reminded Peter of himself, before the memory spell. Maybe one day he might heal enough to be like that again. Harley’s antics brought small smile to his face as the two of them headed along the path towards campus proper.
“You’re not gonna turn out to be some kinda homophobe, are you?” Harley questioned, bringing to Peter’s attention that he hadn’t actually said anything in response yet.
Peter shot him an amused look. “Definitely not. Speaking of, reckon we’ll be able to find a queer club to join up?”
“We?” Harley questioned, and his earlier grin grew wider. Peter nodded, and return the smile. Yeah, he could be friends with Harley Keener, because there was no way this was all just a tactic to gain an ally. “Surely there has to be at least one, right?”
“Surely,” Peter agreed, and he hoped he was right. Midtech hadn’t been as progressive as expected, so he’d kept certain things to himself and told only his closest friends. It would be nice to be a bit more open than that here. “Right, so where are we actually going?”
Harley chuckled, and turned left as they reached an intersection. “There’s supposed to be a buildin’ up ahead with a library and a cafe, I figured we could start there and then figure the rest out after?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Peter said. He’d taken a kind of general look at the campus map months ago, but didn’t know much about the specifics. It didn’t take long after that to find the building Harley had been talking about, what with the very noticeable columns and the orientation week signs all over the place. Inside, the cafe was just to the left, and it was early enough that the line wasn’t horrible.
“So, what’re you havin’?” Harley asked. “It’s on me today.”
“You don’t have to, I can pay,” Peter countered, and Harley glared at him. “Fine, I’ll get a large caramel frappuccino.”
Harley raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t take you for a sweet drinks kinda guy.”
Peter smirked. “You didn’t know me before… everything.”
Harley eyed him appraisingly. “No, no, I see it. You’re on leave from your position as a golden retriever, aren’t ya?”
“Something like that,” Peter snorted. They reached the front of the line, and Harley stepped forward to place an order for a large caramel frappuccino and a large mocha latte.
A few minutes later, Harley collected the coffees and passed Peter his, and they set off out the other side of the building, following the direction of a sign pointing towards orientation events. Peter took a sip of his drink, and gave a happy hum. “Well, it looks like we found the right place.”
“Pretty convenient, I’d say,” Harley remarked as the two of them looked across at ‘Killian Court’, a lawn full of stands and stalls. Most of them looked like they were still in the process of being set up. They had some time to kill, it seemed. “You probably don’t want me askin’ you much more about your past, right?”
Peter winced, and shrugged. He was pretty sure Harley had meant it as an honest question to check what Peter’s boundaries around that whole topic were. So, he answered as such. “I guess I’d rather you didn’t. It’s all still more than a bit painful.”
Harley nodded, and took a sip of his drink. “Hmm. Well then, we’ve covered that, our mutual father figure, and our extracurriculars, so now I’m wonderin’ what other side of you to discover next. How about… hobbies?”
“Honestly, a lot of what I did in my spare time before was stuff I had in common with Ned, and… I might revisit that stuff some day, but for now I’ve been looking for new things to try,” Peter admitted, because somehow even though he didn’t want to have conversations about his past, he still found himself referencing things here and there. Then again, it was a huge part of his life, so of course that was bound to happen. “I’ve been toying with the idea of getting into photography, actually. I can’t really afford to get a proper camera yet, so I guess I’d just use my phone?”
“Great, so when’s your birthday?” Harley asked, sounding rather suspect.
Peter thinned his eyes. “August tenth, but a camera’s way too much for a birthday gift. Besides, who knows if I’ll even like photography?”
Harley huffed amusedly. “Pete, I’ve recently come into a whole lotta money that I ain’t got a clue what to do with, I can use some of it to buy a gift for the guy with the literal saddest backstory I’ve ever heard if I want to. But enough of that, why don’t you give that photography idea a shot now - let’s get a selfie for the memories?”
Peter rolled his eyes in a sort of light-hearted way at Harley’s financial sentiments, even though they did seem rather fair enough. He pulled out his phone, and swiped across to the camera. “A selfie hardly counts as hobbyist photographer work, Harley.”
All the same, the two of them posed, and Peter took the picture. Only after he’d taken it did he realise that Harley had pulled bunny-ears on him in the photo - but in truth, it was funny. And it struck Peter that in that photo, he saw himself looking happier than he’d ever been since the memory spell took just about everything away from him. Harley looked just as happy, too. Peter may have lost everything, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t build anew.
“Send it to me?” Harley requested.
“‘Course,” Peter agreed, and copied the picture into a message to Harley’s number. It was kind of funny how that was the first message in the chat history. For the memories, huh. “Your turn. Hobbies?”
Harley hummed. “I’ve always liked tinkerin’ and buildin’ shit, ‘n I’m pretty fond of readin’ fantasy. Gotta say, whole new lens on fantasy novels when you live in the world we live in. Shall we? Looks like things are up and running now.”
Peter drained the rest of his coffee, and tossed it neatly over to a bin a few metres away. Harley whistled, impressed. They got up, and started walking across to the club stalls. Even at first glance, it was very clear that there was a bit of everything. There were clubs based around classes, research projects, hobbies, cultures and nationalities, and all sorts of other things. Peter caught sight of a tabletop roleplaying club and was tempted to check it out, but knew that it was too much too soon. Plus, he was confident Ned would show up to those club meetings, and Peter was not dealing with that.
“Found ‘em,” Harley declared all of a sudden, pointing off to the end of the row the duo were currently walking through. Peter looked, and saw a couple different pride flags flying in the summer wind. He smiled, and the two of them made tracks for the stall.
There were two people sitting at the stall and running it - one had long, silver hair with the right side shaved off, and the other wore a flower print dress and had the most glamorous makeup Peter had ever seen.
“Sup,” the silver-haired one greeted. “You guys made a real beeline for us, huh?”
Harley pointed at himself. “Gay kid from a bible belt town.”
“Yup, that’ll do it,” the silver-haired person acknowledged.
Harley then pointed to Peter. “First friend on campus.”
“Nice,” the one with makeup said sweetly. “How are you settling in?”
Peter shrugged. “I managed to unpack everything as soon as I got here, so that’s something. So, what’s the gist here?”
“Well,” the silver haired one said, a little drawn out. “I’m Ox, the vice-president, this is Julia, the club president. Obviously, as you already know, this is the campus’s main queer club. We have a lounge on the first floor of Stratton Student Center, and we run a whole handful of events pretty regularly. Plus, if you get any shitty lecturers, we can and will fight them for you. We’ve got some freebies on the table, as well as flyers with more details.”
Peter looked down, and only then noticed that both Ox and Julia were wearing pronoun pins - saying ‘they/he’ and ‘she/her’ respectively. He smiled at how refreshing they felt to him, knowing that he wouldn’t have been able to get away with wearing something like that at Midtown without being mocked pretty relentlessly. On the table, there were also two bowls of pins, one containing a broad selection of similar pronoun pins, and another containing various pride flags.
“Neat,” Harley remarked, and reached into the pronoun pin bowl to grab one that said ‘he/him’. He then took one of those green and blue gay pride flag pins from the other bowl, and pinned them both on his shirt proudly. Peter took a little longer to eye the bowls, and make a decision. What exactly did he want to be open about? Could he do it all? Would his first new friend suddenly be weird around him if he did?
Might as well, Peter thought. I guess it’ll help with surrounding myself with good people here.
After scanning for what he wanted, he grabbed out three pins. A ‘he/him’ pronoun pin, a bi flag, and a trans flag. He pinned them on, and looked up to see Harley smiling at him eagerly.
“I think I’m done going stealth,” Peter decided.
Ox nodded approvingly. “Hell yeah. Just remember, there’s no shame in choosing your own safety first - but also, Jules and I absolutely have your back if anyone tries to start shit.”
“Thanks,” Peter said, and then reached for one of the flyers, quickly scanning across the basic info. “So, movie night on friday?”
“Movie night on friday,” Ox confirmed.
“It’ll be a good chance to meet new people and make some new friends,” Julia added. “I hope we see you there!”
“We’ll be there if we can,” Harley declared, and grabbed a flyer for himself too. “Nice to meet both of you!”
With that, Harley and Peter set off to circle around towards the next row of stalls.
“If we can?” Peter questioned. He was pretty sure he already knew what that was about, but it didn’t hurt to ask.
Harley tutted. “I’ll tell you later.”
And that confirmed it - Harley wanted to go on patrol. Well, it would be a good chance for Peter to see what he could do and make sure the rookie’s skills were up to scratch.
But rather than worry about that right now, Peter instead kept his focus on chatting with Harley and seeing what student life on campus might have to offer. By the end of their joint exploration, Peter had learned a good few new things about Harley - like how he wanted to try his hand at writing, but was mildly apprehensive of the reactions of his younger sister, who had been promised the first viewing rights to his draft work. Peter had also learned that Harley fidgeted with his hair when he was anxious, and that he was incredibly good at using the word 'darling' to be snarky when he wanted to. And the more Peter learned, the more he was glad for the previous night's encounter, because he definitely wanted to be Harley's friend.