Oops?
Look, it wasn’t necessarily purposeful, but it wasn’t a complete accident.
His senses warned him, but after a second glance at the person about to cross his path, he decided hey, why not bump into the cute guy?
Okay, maybe it was kind of purposeful.
Mostly purposeful.
Yeah, he did it on purpose.
But who wouldn’t?
So, when Peter was met with the chance to interact with a cute stranger on the way to the tower, he took it.
What he didn’t account for was the energy drink in his hands.
Oops.
So, here he was, apologizing profusely while trying to wipe the liquid off of the taller, blonder, and probably slightly older boy. It definitely wasn’t the worst decision he ever made, he decided after the boy spoke.
“Hey, it’s not a big deal. I’m fine.”
Peter immediately blushed, because oh my god he has an accent that’s so hot. He stopped wiping the boy’s front and shoved his hands in his pockets, turning his face down. “So-” he cleared his throat. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to spill on you.”
The blonde laughed and Peter thought that he probably looked like a teenage Elmo with the amount of red covering his face. “I just told you it’s not a big deal, you don’t gotta apologize.” Peter looked up a bit when the other spoke. “I’m Harley.”
“Peter.”
The taller boy smirked and held out his hand. Peter shook it. “Nice to meet you, Peter. Hopefully next time we run into each other it’s not in the literal sense.”
~~~~~
Next time just so happened to also be in the literal sense. Sure, it wasn’t on purpose this time, but if his senses weren’t going haywire after meeting up with Wade again, he’d probably still opt for it, if only for the sake of irony.
Okay, for irony, and also that he was worried that Harley wouldn’t remember him and he would run away after Peter says ‘hello’ again.
Luckily, he didn’t have a drink this time, since he wasn’t planning on another late night in the lab with Mr. Stark. In fact, he wasn’t even planning on going to the tower for a few hours. He’d promised Ned that they would check out the nice Thai place that Steve had recommended. Ned’s exact words were “If it’s good enough for Captain America, I wanna try it. Maybe we can bond over Tom Yum!”
Of course, it was about a block away from the tower, so he couldn’t swing there if he didn’t want to be called into any official Avengers meetings that may or may not be happening.
So, of course he bumped into Harley again. Peter thought he must live or work near here, if this is the second time they’ve met. Either way, that’s not the point. The point is that today, the blond is wearing an MIT hoodie. MIT as in the school. MIT as in Harley is smart. Yeah, you can usually buy university merchandise even if you never went to the school, but who buys MIT sweaters? Usually it’s some Ivy League bullshit, not the top science school in the world. So, either Harley was smart as hell, or he was just really interested in technology. Either way, holy shit that did it for Peter.
“Hey, fancy meetin’ you again.” Harley grinned at him, and Peter smiled awkwardly back. “You should probably start watching where you’re going.”
Peter giggled - in a totally manly sophisticated way, of course. “Maybe I’m not the one who needs to watch where they step.”
Harley snorted. How in the world Peter found that attractive, he didn’t know, but man did he find that attractive. “Maybe I was watching. Maybe I meant to run into you. You know, for the sake of irony.”
Oh my god, they shared the same brain.
“Pfft, okay.” Peter cracked his knuckles, as he usually did when he was anxious. “So, MIT, huh?”
Harley looked confused for a split second before he looked down at his attire and smiled fondly. “Yeah, my um… my old man gave me this. It’s always been my dream school, and it just so happens that he went there too.” He tugged at the hem a bit before sighing and putting his hands in the front pocket. “I may not have gotten my passion from him, but he’s definitely taught me a lot over the years.”
Peter smiled softly, noticing that Harley talks about his dad like he talks about Ben, or even Mr. Stark. “Yeah, it’s nice when you have a person in your life that shares the same interests as you. My un-” Peter cut himself off, reminding himself that he’s literally known this boy for a total of 5 minutes.
Harley obviously noticed that he didn’t mean to say that, so the blond changed the subject. “So, whatcha doin’ around these parts?” He put on a stronger country accent, drawing a laugh out of the shorter boy.
“I’m meeting a friend at the Thai place down the block.” Peter looked at his phone and went wide eyed. “Oh shit- sorry- I gotta go.”
Harley chuckled and waved him goodbye as he speed-walked towards the restaurant, shouting at him. “See ya later, Pete!”
By the time he processed his words, he was already sitting at the table with Ned.
~~~~~
“So, why were you late?”
They had just started eating their food when Ned decided to ask. True to his words, his best friend had ordered the Tom Yum and was currently nose deep in the soup. Peter couldn’t say he was better, he was shoveling Gaeng Daeng into his face like he was about to be given the chair and this was his last meal.
Peter stopped halfway through a bite, staring at his friend.
Ned took another spoon of soup up to his mouth and continued. “I mean, not that I care, like, I’m not mad, you know? I was just wondering.” he looked at Peter, watching as the webslinger took a slow bite of his food. “Like, I know you have spidery things going on, but as your guy on the chair you should tell me everything.”
“Ned-”
“Oh my god, was it classified? Wait, was Iron Man there? Was it-”
“Ned, it wasn’t anything like that.” Peter cut his friend off from his rambling. “I just… ran into someone.”
Ned definitely noticed his not-so-subtle blush, because he gasped and leaned in close, almost spilling his soup before Peter pulled it to the side, away from his overenthusiastic friend. “Holy crap, you have a crush! Who is it? Are they cute? Tell me everything.”
So, Peter told him the full, slightly embarrassing story. Ned was a patient listener for the most part, except for a bit of poorly-hidden laughter as Peter described Harley with probably too much detail.
“Jesus, Ned, I barely even know the guy, but I already want to tell him everything.” Peter put his face in his hands. “I mean, I don’t even technically know if I’ll see him again, it could’ve been a coincidence that he was in the area.”
“Both times?”
“Well, I mean-”
“Peter, it’s probably not random. He most likely has a job in the area, since you’ve seen him around lunchtime twice.” Ned rubbed his friend’s shoulder.
Peter groaned into his palms before inhaling and rubbing his face. “Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you’re probably right. God, I don’t know why I worried so much. It’s fine.”
Ned smiled and went back to his soup. Peter did the same, opting to finish his curry before it got cold.
~~~~~
He met Harley like that (on the street, not literally bumping into each other) twice more before anything actually happened. Said thing-that-happened was Harley asking him on a date.
Kind of.
“So, Pete, I feel like our impromptu meetings should be followed up sometime.” Harley mentioned after he called Peter over to where he was sitting on a bench eating a sandwich.
Peter - who was awkwardly standing at the end of the bench, not quite sure what else to do - rubbed his neck. “Y-yeah, maybe.”
“Maybe?” Harley leaned forward and patted the bench next to him. Peter sat down stiffly. “You saying you don’t want to see me anymore?”
Peter’s face dropped in shock and he whipped around to Harley. “No! No, no, of course not. I’d love to see you again. I mean- not in like, a weird way, but-”
“Relax, I was joking.” Harley nudged him with his shoulder. “On another note, you seemed pretty nervous when I said that. Is there something you wanna tell me?”
Peter might have died. He didn’t really know. “I mean, no? No, no. No. Nope. Uh uh.” Harley’s smile brightened with every sputtering word he said.
“Fine, be that way,” the blonde wiped his hands on his pants and turned to face Peter with his entire body. “Peter, uh, unknown last name, will you go on a date with me?”
Okay, yeah, he definitely died.