beginnings, 4
It was Monday morning, on the first day of classes for the semester. Peter and Harley still hadn’t talked any more about what had happened on Friday night. Peter understood that Harley probably needed some space from the matter. He really did, but he also knew that if Harley didn’t talk to someone about it, it was going to eat at him and get messy. Harley had other people too, though, so maybe Peter could just check in and see if he’d had someone to debrief about it with. Just for the peace of mind, to know that his current only friend was okay. And damn, Peter really needed to make some more friends. Maybe class would help with that.
What didn’t help was the fact that it was 7:40am, and Peter had class in twenty minutes. It was first year physics, so it probably wouldn’t be too hard, but it was still way too early in the morning. Peter had gotten used to later wake-ups since finishing at the unremarkable little public high school he’d transferred to, and now it was going to kick him the ass. Harley had already texted to say he was waiting outside, so Peter grabbed a few protein bars to keep him going, grabbed his bag and walked briskly out of his room and out of the dorm building.
“Mornin’,” Harley greeted him rather eagerly, followed by the shoulder-bump that had apparently become a thing.
Peter returned the gesture, and yawned. Even his enhanced physiology didn’t save him from the horror that was early mornings. “Morning. How are you this awake?”
“Didn’t you know? Us southerners don’t need sleep,” Harley joked. Peter raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah, fine. Energy drink. But I’ve been thinkin’ of gettin’ up earlier and scorin’ a gym membership to get in better shape. Wanna tag along?”
Peter yawned again. “You know there’s nothing in a standard gym that could give me a good workout, right?”
“You and your enhancements,” Harley shot back in a teasing sort of dry tone. “I gotta say I’m real curious, how much can you lift?”
The duo turned left, heading in the direction of that library building with the cafe; their physics classroom was out past Killian Court. “You know, I’ve never actually tested the limit? Probably at least twenty tonnes, I mean I can pick up an ambulance pretty easily if I grab it from a good point.”
“What the shit, Parker?” Harley exclaimed. “Twenty- That’s unfair.”
Peter grinned, taking the opportunity and running with it. “Then again, there was that time I held a ferry full of people and cars together for a few seconds, so who even knows?”
“A fe-” Harley tried, his voice failing him part-way through. He took a breath. “You know what? Now I’ve gotta know. Pepper already knows I’ve teamed up with Spider-Man, I’m gonna get some proper equipment into the trainin’ room, and we’re testin’ this later.”
“If you say so,” Peter responded, the grin fading as he yawned again. He grabbed one of his protein bars, realising he hadn’t started eating yet, unwrapped it and took a bite. “So, ready for class?”
Harley exhaled almost indignantly. “I’ve worked my way through a good deal of the Feynman lectures, I’m sure it won’t be much of an issue.”
Peter nodded, eyeing the coffee shop as the duo passed through the library building. It probably wasn’t a bad idea to grab some. He checked his watch, relieved that there was still another ten minutes before class. “I’m getting some coffee. Stick around?”
“Nah, I think I’ll leave you stranded here while I employ my absolute social mastery and become the most popular guy in class before you arrive,” Harley deadpanned. Peter punched him lightly in the shoulder.
“Oi!” Harley made a show of rubbing his shoulder as though it had hurt, when Peter knew for a fact that there was no force behind his punch. They joined the line, and about four minutes later, Peter had his double shot coffee and had downed all of the protein bars he’d brought.
After quickly crossing the court and making their way into the classroom, Peter and Harley moved to find an empty table. The room was set up with a whole bunch of circular tables that could each comfortably seat five students, and screens set up around the room. The class was running on a flipped model, with lectures to be watched outside of class time and work to be done collaboratively during lessons, so it made sense.
Peter drained the half-cup of coffee that remained, and tossed it over to the nearest bin. Nervously, he started scanning the classroom for any familiar faces. There wasn’t really anyone he expected to see in this class from Midtech, since Ned was doing computer science and MJ was studying politics, but it was better safe than sorry. Flash was in computer science as well, if Peter remembered correctly. Well, Ned and Flash would be a problem for later, since Peter had signed up for a computer science class too - it wasn’t compulsory in his degree, but encouraged.
8:00 rolled around, and still no sign of anyone Peter needed to worry about. Good. 8:01, and the teacher still hadn’t shown up - Professor Aisha Salisu, a woman from Nigeria with an impressive set of publications in physics education, as well as a handful in the changing nature of fluid mechanics in tropical cyclones resultant from climate change. She had seemed pretty cool when Peter was reading up on her, so at least that was something about the class to look forward to.
“Oh thank god, I found the gays,” a voice called, and then a bag was being unceremoniously thunked down onto Peter and Harley’s table. Peter looked up to see someone with short chin-length side-parted blonde hair, with the left side shaved off. They were wearing plain khaki and green colours, and had two badges pinned to a rainbow lanyard - a ‘she/they’ pronoun pin and a lesbian pride flag.
Peter and Harley had both decided to wear their badges at least to the first week of classes, because it was a helpful tool to find good people to befriend. It made it more likely that the people who’d want to chat with them were either queer themselves or had no bigotries around the matter. This newcomer was clearly of the former category.
“Hi,” she said as she slumped down into a chair and huffed a little. “Hope you don’t mind me joining you guys. I’m Gwen. My friend Harry - he might come and sit with us once his slow ass makes it here - insisted that I should take physics to round out my degree, and for once he’s probably right.”
“Oh yeah? What are you studyin’?” Harley asked. “I’m Harley, by the way. And this is Peter.”
Gwen glanced across at both of them. “Harley, Peter. Got it. I’m in biochemistry. Not sure where I’m going with it yet, but it’s as far away from what my dear dad wants as I can. He’s a fucking cop, literally. What about you guys?”
“Chemical Engineering,” Peter answered. “Same hat, no clue where I want to take the degree, but I might do a bunch of postgraduate stuff.”
“And I’m in Mechanical Eng,” Harley added. “Felt like it’d be a step up from my old job as an apprentice car mechanic.”
Professor Salisu walked in right then, looking a little harried as she marched to the front of the classroom and started setting up. She was followed in by a guy with almost obnoxiously gelled curly hair, a dark jacket and equally dark formal-looking clothes underneath. The guy looked around, and made a beeline for Peter’s table. He held up a finger to his lips in a shushing moment and then moved to poke Gwen in the back.
Peter’s spidey senses didn’t go off, so why was he feeling so… apprehensive? Taking in the guy’s features again, Peter understood. The face was different, but familiar. Oh so familiar. Here Peter was, nervously watching out to make sure he hadn’t landed in a class with anyone from Midtown, not even thinking that someone from another part of his life might show up. There was almost no doubt that this was Harry Osborn, who had once been Peter’s best friend.
Maybe-Harry prodded a finger into Gwen’s back, and they yelped, earning the attention of numerous other classmates, but fortunately - for Gwen - not the frazzled professor, who was now busily getting a set of slides to show up on the screens.
“Oi, Harry!” Gwen complained, and Peter shifted anxiously in his chair. It was Harry. “Motherfucker. You know I’m gonna get you back for that, right?”
Harry rolled his eyes, and pulled up a seat. “You know you love me.” He then glanced around the table, and Peter noticed his eyes falling on the various badges being worn. He himself had a ‘he/him’ pronoun badge but nothing else. “I see I’m the token cishetallo at the table, a fitting reversal.”
A smile tugged at Peter’s lips. “You know your lingo, huh?”
“Papa raised me right,” Harry said simply, and then received an elbow-jab from Gwen. “And Gwen, too. Childhood friends and all that.”
Harry’s eyes settled on Peter for a moment, looking at him almost appraisingly, and then darted away. Peter didn’t know what to make of it. Did Harry recognise him? He wouldn’t exactly be surprised, but what was he supposed to do with that?
After class, Peter told himself. After class, I’ll wait outside and see if he comes.
Before anyone at the table got a chance to say more, a tapping sound came through the speakers. “Testing, can everyone hear me loud and clear?”
Peter spun on his chair and became one of many people in the room to hold a thumbs up or some other sign of confirmation for Professor Salisu. Despite how long Professor Salisu had been living in the United States, her Nigerian accent was clear and untouched.
“Fantastic. Well, sorry for the delay! I’ll be the first to admit that my sleep cycle is off-kilter with the early starts,” Professor Salisu admitted, earning a chorus of laughs from the class. “But this is what scheduling gave us, so we’ll make do. No judgement to any of you who show up a bit late because you needed a coffee, but try your best. Right, well, let’s get on with this. I’m Professor Aisha Salisu, and I’ll be running workshops for both first year physics classes. My work is in climate fluid dynamics and teaching methodologies, so please feel free to come and ask me about it after class.”
Peter excitedly drummed his fingers against his legs, liking the personable professor quite a bit already.
“Now, for many of you, this will be your first class as an MIT student. Many professors might spend a large deal of time in the session talking you through how the term will be structured, but I will not. I’ve prepared a handout that you can find at the top of the online learning platform which should explain it all very clearly, and you can of course ask questions later. Instead, I’m going to tell you a bit about the class itself, and then we will do some real physics work,” Professor Salisu continued.
“First off, many of you will have noticed that this class is flipped. I find that it is very helpful for students to have class time to engage in the how, and own time to engage in the what. It is here that you will learn how to think and be like an effective physicist. A question for the class: What do you think is the most important skill for a physicist to have? I will toss a small chocolate to anyone who gives an answer I like,” Professor Salisu said. Peter contemplated putting his hand up, but he was more interested in hearing what his peers had to say.
Several hands shot up into the air. Professor Salisu pointed across to someone in a far corner of the classroom. “Yes?”
“Well, we’ve got to be good at mathematical computation, right?”
Professor Salisu tilted her head side to side, considering the suggestion. “Hmm, no. It is definitely a good skill to have, but even some of the best physicists replace this with a computer or a calculator. An understandable contribution, but I expect that your mind will be changed after today’s class. Next… you in that orange tank top!”
“Being able to remember all the formulae!”
Professor Salisu sighed. “Emphatically no! That is what we have Google for. Someone else! Yes, the man who’s dressed in a dark winter jacket during summertime. Seriously, man, are you not boiling?”
Harry laughed a little awkwardly. Peter had wondered the same thing when Harry walked in, and then remembered it was Harry. From what Peter could tell, he hadn’t changed much at all. “I tend to find it pretty helpful to visualise a problem I’m trying to solve first.”
Professor Salisu clapped, and tossed a chocolate across the classroom to Harry. Her aim had been impressive. “God, man, you are so close. That’s definitely a big piece of what I think the most important skill is. In my mind, the most important skill for a physicist to have is the ability to break down a problem into its components, understand it and figure out what you need to solve it. Then you can google the formulae and have a computer handle the numbers. This skill is primary, and knowledge is secondary. This is why you will notice that every single assessment I have set for the class is open-book. I’ll give you all a moment to think on that, and let it sink in.”
Quiet fell across the classroom.
Gwen was making grabby hands at the chocolate Harry was holding. He shrugged, and tossed it to her. “Eh, I don’t really like chocolate anyway.”
The slide on display on all of the large classroom screens changed, no longer displaying a basic introduction slide and now showing a series of steps on problem solving referred to as ‘ninja physics’. Professor Salisu began talking through it, explaining how to approach any difficult physics problem by converting it into different components and manageable pieces. She explained things like separating away negligible variables and those that can be worried about later without vastly affecting the structure of the scenario, like wind resistance and friction in many mechanical problems.
More than a little distractible with a lesson on problem solving that Peter was already well and truly familiar with, he set to entertaining himself by wobbling a pen between his fingers. This went on for about fifteen minutes, during which Professor Salisu asked more questions and distributed more chocolates. Then came the question that set the class into motion.
“I want you and your tables to work together to solve this problem: could a nuclear bomb explosion stop a category 4 hurricane? I will roam the classroom to assist, as will my three teaching assistants. Very well, begin!”
So, they got to work. Gwen immediately pulled out their laptop and started googling information about category four hurricanes and nuclear bombs. Harley picked up a whiteboard marker and started scribing on the table - which was itself a whiteboard. He wrote down the question as Professor Salisu had said it, and indicated that he was ready to take notes on what was discussed.
Twenty minutes later, Peter and Harry found themselves arguing about the specifics of the bomb explosion and whether it was relevant.
“It doesn’t matter where you put the bomb, the energy of the hurricane is at least a two orders of magnitude above the bomb,” Peter insisted, finding himself getting far more heated by a first year physics class than he would have expected.
Harry tutted, and shook his head. He was grinning, and it looked rather smug, but Peter was pretty sure Harry was just enjoying himself. “But are you seriously telling me it’s not worth us looking into if there could be a more noticeable effect based on placement? I mean, what if you blast the bomb against the direction of the vortex, or right at the top to disrupt the whole cycle?”
Peter rolled his eyes. “As if it’ll even make a difference when the energy disparity is so large.”
Harley cleared his throat. “We still have plenty of time, why not try out Harry’s ideas n’ see what comes of them?”
“I’m with Harley on that one,” Gwen declared. “We’ve got the time. So, what do we need to know in order to approximate the viability of those two options?”
Onward they went, now testing out the different ideas because Harley was a traitor. Peter wasn’t actually upset, though - much to the contrary, he couldn’t help but enjoy how much he and Harry had fallen into step, interacting just like they had as kids. The two of them always had different ideas of how to do things, argued it out, and then did both anyway.
After another twenty minutes crunching through Harry’s ideas as a group, Peter turned out to be right. He shot Harry a self-satisfied grin, and then started organising the information that had ended up being relevant to solving the problem in one section - but he also rewrote Harry’s ideas out carefully too, because they had been fun to play around with and test out.
Class moved on, and Professor Salisu delivered a very interactive lecture on the different problem solving techniques and visualisation methods that would be helpful for the different branches of physics that would be studied in this introductory unit. Then, faster than Peter had expected, class let out.
“Seriously man, how are you not boilin’ in that?” Harley questioned Harry, eying the jacket with an impressed sort of confusion.
Gwen grinned. “Believe me, I’ve been wondering that for almost ten years now. All I’ve gathered is that Harry here just likes to look witchy.”
Peter did not miss the way Harry shot Gwen a ‘what the hell, why would you say that’ sort of glance, and Gwen responded by poking her tongue out at him.
“Oh yeah, before we all go,” Gwen turned to face Peter and Harley again as they were all packing up their things and cleaning up the very messy whiteboard table. “Hey, can I grab your numbers? I’ll make a group chat with the four of us, and we can hang out again later. You two seem pretty damn cool.”
“Oh yeah, sure thing,” Harley agreed quickly. Gwen passed him their phone. He keyed in his number, and then handed it over to Peter, who did the same.
Harry squinted at him. “What did you say your name was again?”
Peter doubted Harry had actually forgotten. Harry didn’t forget names. He was impressively good at not forgetting names. “Peter Parker.”
Harry’s eyes widened a fraction, so Peter nodded in the direction of outside. Somehow, Harry remembered him, and they needed to talk.
“Hey Harley, I’ll catch up with you later alright? I’ve got something I need to take care of,” Peter said quietly to his friend.
“Sure thing, Pete,” Harley agreed. “I’m just headin’ over to the queer lounge to hang out. See you there?”
“Ooh, I was headed there too!” Gwen exclaimed, and followed Harley out. Peter left too, walking just a few metres away from the classroom and waiting. If Harry really remembered, he’d know what this meant. Back when they were kids, and they hadn’t been in the same class at school, they had a tradition of waiting for each other outside the classrooms before going to lunch so that they could eat and play together. It was something they did every single day.
But what was he actually supposed to do if Harry remembered him somehow? On the one hand, he was trying to move on without getting bogged down in the past - but on the other hand, he was friends with Harley now, wasn’t he?
“Peter, huh? A very you name to pick,” Harry said from right behind him. Peter turned to face his long lost friend. Back when they were friends, Peter hadn’t been his name yet.
“Mm, Aunt May and Uncle Ben said the exact same thing,” Peter revealed with a fond sort of sorrow. He missed them both.
“Oh yeah? How are they doing, anyway?” Harry asked.
Peter sighed. “They’re dead, Harry.”
“Shit,” Harry cursed. “I’m so sorry. They were both great people.”
“What happened, Harry? One day you just disappeared, without a word or any way to get back in touch,” Peter said almost chastisingly. It had been incredibly hard on him, back when they were both ten years old. Peter had never really gotten on with most of his classmates, except for Harry. Harry’s disappearance left him stranded without any friends, until he met Ned in middle school.”
Harry exhaled deeply. “Walk and talk?” Peter nodded, and they set off. “Mom disappeared, or died, or something, and we just needed a fresh start. Papa didn’t know how to cope, how to figure out if he was relieved or heartbroken, and Greenie couldn’t hold shit together on his own. So, we moved to Boston. I am sorry we fell out of touch, and I did try to convince both of them to let me stay in contact with you.”
“Right,” Peter said, processing Harry’s words slowly, trying not to be angry about it. He still had a lot of questions, and he could make up his mind once he had answers. He found himself wanting to be friends with Harry again, but it just wasn’t that simple. “How are they? Norman and Greenie.”
“Still bickering as much as always, but they’re both well. Papa’s been working tirelessly on renewables ever since the Blip, and Greenie makes sure to cover PR so the work actually gets somewhere. It never ceases to be funny how the world thinks they’re one person,” Harry answered, and Peter snorted. He remembered when Norman and Greenie explained that they were two different people who shared a body, how he had been a little confused at first because he’d never heard of it before, but accepted it pretty smoothly. It was just how they were, nothing more and nothing less. “I don’t want to force anything, but you’d be welcome to come around sometime. They’d both be happy to see you.”
“Mm,” Peter hummed. He wasn’t sure yet. Maybe he could try and cut the tension he felt first, and ask questions later. “Gwen really just went and called you ‘witchy’ like that, huh?”
Harry snorted. “They’ve done it before. I used to get so worried that they were going to out me, but nobody ever puts it together.”
“Is that how you keep from overheating?” Peter asked. “Magic?”
Harry nodded, a proud grin adorning his face. “It’s a little cooling spell I picked up like five years ago or something.” Harry paused, both physically and verbally, and looked Peter over. “Okay, what is it?”
Peter closed his eyes for a moment, allowing himself to just feel the sun on his face and the light breeze against his hair. “I’m trying to figure out how and why you remember me. You shouldn’t. Nobody does.”
Nobody but Harley.
Harry tilted his head, and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“There was a memory spell that I screwed up,” Peter admitted. “To fix things, Doctor Strange had to do another one that made everybody forget who Peter Parker was.”
“Huh. You know Doctor Strange?” Harry asked. Peter wasn’t surprised by the inlaid admission that Harry did too - he’d probably found his way to a Sanctum at some point to learn more magic on top of what he was born with. “And does that have something to do with the literal cracks in the universe that happened last year?”
Peter didn’t answer that. He wasn’t ready to tell Harry about his secret identity, even if Harry might now put it together on his own. He’d already shared quite a bit just to understand what was going on with Harry remembering, but this was as far as he was willing to go with that. “I’m just trying to figure out how you even know who I am, when even my best friends forgot.”
Harry shrugged. “Maybe… Don’t take this the wrong way, but I never knew you as Peter. If the spell was designed so that nobody would remember ‘Peter Parker’, then of course it wouldn’t have worked on me. It’s nice to know you as Peter now, though. Dude, it’s really nice to see you again.”
Peter frowned. That didn’t feel like it made proper sense. Basically the whole world knew who Peter Parker was - except for Harley, somehow. He just couldn’t shake the idea that Harry had seen the news, and had made the connection between his childhood friend and Peter Parker, and just continued to see Peter as a girl. Or maybe he could give Harry the benefit of the doubt and just assume that Harry had seen the news about a ‘Peter Parker’ and just not even slightly made the connection.
Maybe he should just do that. Give Harry the benefit of the doubt, not spend time worrying about how Harley happened to remember his face from the funeral despite the news, and move forward with life. Maybe he could let Harry in again. He relented to the want. “It’s good to see you again too.”