chapter three
Having ADHD, and living with his single mom and twelve year old sister in Rose Hill Tennessee, as it would turn out, is not great for mental health. Add bisexual to that, and you’ve got Harley Keener, genius, emotional train wreck, lot’s of fidget toys, anxiety and hardly any sleep.
Not great for rural Tennessee.
So, when Harley goes to bed at eleven o’clock, hoping to finally sleep through the night, he most definitely does not expect to be woken up by Tony Stark FaceTiming him four hours later at three in the morning.
Unexpected, but welcome.
“Hey! Haven’t heard from you in a while. How are y'all doing over there?” Harley asks.
Tony, of course, picks up on his lack of tiredness. “Kid, it’s three o’clock in Rose Hill. Ever heard of sleep?”
Harley rolls his eyes. “‘Course I have, Stark. Can’t you see I’m the pinnacle of sleepiness right now? Also, isn’t New York only an hour behind?”
Tony squints. “Sure,” he says.
Harley nods, mock seriously. “The pinnacle,” he deadpans.
The two spend time catching up. Tony tells him about how Rhodey’s spine was fixed when The Snap happened, the rehab for his arm, et cetera. Harley, in turn, chats about his own life. How his sister just had her twelfth birthday, how his mom has started dating again, and how he’s just passed his driving test.
But not about coming out as bi to his sister and mom. That’s too fresh.
Eventually, though, Harley has to ask why Tony was calling him when he knew Harley should be asleep.
“Well,” Tony starts, “last week, Peter, Rhodey, and I were kidnapped.”
“What!?” Harley blanches.
“Yeah, and I kind of need you to come out here?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can’t just drop that bombshell and not expect me to ask: what the hell happened?” Harley asks, majorly worried.
He and Peter had met a couple years before the Blip, when Tony invited Harley to his wedding. When he’d first laid eyes on the other teen, Harley had taken an instant liking to the energetic - yet shy - boy.
Even if he knows Peter is very straight, and that he’ll never like Harley the way he likes Peter, they still hit it off almost immediately. The whole Spider-Man secret had come out later, when Harley mistakenly had walked into Peter’s room at the Compound, only to find Peter stitching up a stab wound.
“Well, some idiots wanted me to sell them some BARF tech and then they just, like, stole us when Rhodey and I were driving Peter to Academic Decathlon. Or, well, technically, we were already in the parking lot, but you know what I mean,” Tony explains.
Harley’s face scrunches up in confusion. “BARF?”
“Binary Augmented Retro-Framing. Besides the point. Anyway, so, they throw me in this room, right, and demand that I agree to sell it to them. They must’ve lost their patience at this point, because of my charm. Skipping the part where they beat me black and blue -“
Harley opens his mouth, but Tony continues talking.
“I was fine, bee tee dubs, but it was very traumatizing for our boy Peter, so I need you to come to New York for the week. School’s taken care of, I’ve got your room ready, and the Jet can be in Tennessee in two hours.”
Barely a heartbeat passes before Harley says, “Yes. Absolutely. Where should I wait for the Jet?”
“Concerning that you want to leave so badly, but okay,” Tony says, thankfully choosing not to push it.
He figures he might be asleep right now if his mom hadn’t called him disgusting and vile, when he’d finally came out as bi to her and Abbie yesterday. If he’d been asleep, he might’ve missed Tony’s call, so he guesses he has something to thank her for.
He should really stop trying to find the bright side of that. That’s Peter’s thing.
He doesn’t like to think about how she looked when she’d said those awful things.
He’s ready in half an hour.
____________________
Peter sluggishly blinks, eyelids heavy from sleep, and rubs his eyes. The morning sunlight streams in through his window in his temporary bedroom. He groans and rolls over, trying to ignore that darn music that Tony must have cranked to full volume.
Oh, no, wait. That’s just his hearing on steroids.
He covers his ears, but it does nothing except muffle the sound the tiniest bit. Eventually, Peter faces the fact that he’s not going to sleep, and asks for the time.
“It’s seven twenty three in the morning, Peter,” F.R.I.D.A.Y responds.
“Uhhgghghg, no.”
“Might I suggest coffee?” FRIDAY asks. “There’s a coffee maker on the common floor Kitchen. I’ve heard it’s very good.”
Peter pushes himself up, slowly and tired. “Sure, FRI, thanks.” And then, as he realizes Blue is not where she was when he went to sleep, he asks, “have you seen a small female Jumping Spider in here, FRIDAY?”
He sees Blue in the corner of the room, attached to the ceiling.
“No, Peter, but I’m not equipped to find insects,” FRIDAY says.
“And yet you can find me,” Pete mumbles. “Part insect, remember? And don’t worry, I see her now.”
“I’m not sure you count, Peter,” FRIDAY says, almost teasing.
Blue, who is now awake, jumps onto Peter’s head, landing in his messy hair.
{I do not like it here. It is too…. open.}
Peter shrugs, and continues moving. Silently, though, he can see where Blue’s coming from.
His room at the Compound is nothing like the one at the apartment he and May live in. The room at the Compound is much more extravagant.
It has everything that his normal room has, only the bed is definitely not a twin, it’s a king, and the entire wall facing outwards is made of glass. Glass, that can be cleared or dimmed, depending on Peter’s sensory overloads and FRIDAY’s control. It also has a private bathroom attached to it.
The first time Peter’d had an overload in front of Tony, Tony had insisted on helping out in any way possible, and embarrassed as he is about it, it really does help.
Would have been helpful if he’d had that sort of thing last week.
He has to admit, though, when Peter’s sleepy brain decided to make a wall of web, it helped a lot.
Anyway.
Peter walks out of his room with Blue perched on his head. He wanders down the halls, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, and then speed walks back to his room, after realizing that he’s still got his PJ’s on.
Tony makes fun of him enough for the onesie he used to call a suit. Tony definitely doesn’t need to see him in a real one piece pyjama.
You’re never too old for sleeping in a onesie. Never.
Peter picks out a black t-shirt with blue jeans, and a red hoodie. He slips on his clothes, brushes his teeth and hair (Blue has to jump off), and then, when he feels presentable, walks out of his room and heads toward the elevator. He hums the tune as the elevator descends, completely forgetting about Tony’s and Rhodey's conversation last night.
When he does remember, anxiety rises in his stomach, and he tries not to think about it.
The elevator dings, and the doors slide open to reveal another hallway. Peter takes a wrong turn and goes right, and enters the common floor, which is basically a huge living room with four TV’s on the walls, five giant white sofas, and, like Peter’s room, a glass wall.
He quickly backtracks out into the hall and turns left, into the biggest kitchen he’s ever seen. All six stoves in that kitchen are gas, not electric, there’s lots of counter space, and enough room at the rectangular dining table to fit ten people.
Peter wanders into the pantry, to where the coffee is located, and immediately gapes at who is already there.
“Harley!?” Peter yelps. The other boy turns around.
“Parker!” Harley responds. He puts the coffee pot down, and moves to give Peter a friendly hug. Peter returns it, gladly, while Blue, who is now sitting in his hood, growls slightly.
Harley is dressed in a blue hoodie, black sweatpants. He stands a few inches taller than Peter.
“So,” Harley begins. He sits down on a stool. “Tell me, what’s been goin’ on since we last FaceTimed?”