“So, Peter, now that you’re officially a knight in training, I want you to meet someone.”
Peter nodded eagerly, as he trailed behind the King, Anthony Stark, through the castle halls and paths. The sun was shining through the windows, casting colourful spots on the walls and the floor. It all felt surreal, just two nights ago he was but a kitchen boy, running through some of the halls, and now he was a soon-to-be knight! Training under the King himself!
“Where are we going? Who is it, I’m supposed to meet?”, he finally asked, when his curiosity weighed deeper than his patience. Peter already knew Queen Pepper, and the head knight Steve and Tony’s right hand Rhodey and the head physician Bruce. Who else was there to meet?
“You will see in just a second”, the King said. They rounded another corner and now faced two large wooden doors. Peter had lost track of where they were going long ago, though he grew up behind these walls, he got lost more often than not. Still, he recognised the entrance and the sounds behind it.
“The armoury?”, Peter asked, wide eyed.
“Of course, step one to a successful life as a knight: befriend the royal blacksmith and you’ll have the best weapons and armour. I mean, you can make it without befriending him, but it’ll make your life easier, trust me. Once he was mad at me and my sword snapped in two while training. He can be a downright dick at times”, Tony rolled his eyes, but in a fond kind of way.
“That doesn’t sound like someone I’d like to befriend”, Peter answered honestly. Tony laughed in response and clapped a hand on his shoulder.
“Just at times, Peter. If he wasn’t a good kid, I wouldn’t have made him the royal blacksmith.”
Then he opened the door, before Peter could ask if he heard kid correctly. Maybe Tony said that to everyone younger than him? How would a kid, someone approximately his age, have made royal blacksmith already? Well maybe if he was the former blacksmith’s son…
His train of thought crashed, after they entered the room. The armoury was larger and more… exquisite than Peter remembered it. He hadn’t been here often. As the nephew of a physician he had no right or reason to be in the armoury, even though he always tried to catch a few looks inside. May had scolded him for it, out of fear he would run in and hurt himself with some of the weaponry. Which wasn’t too farfetched, Peter was a bit clumsy and reckless, always had been.
Walls were filled with swords, daggers, spears and any other kind of weapon the knight in training could dream of. On wooden displayers armour was hung, some silver, some gold, some with fine engraving, others almost rusty. On another wall hung frames with what appeared to be jewelry inside it, most of it simple rings or bracelets, but also a few jeweled necklaces and a crown. Peter was struck with awe, looking at all the details in the metall work, but he was soon pulled out of the trance, as Tony caught his arm and dragged him further towards the back of the room, where another door was, slightly open. Just enough to hear the sounds of a blacksmith at work behind it. That must be the wrought, then.
Tony pushed open the door without a knock - King’s don’t ask for permission to enter, Peter supposed - and announced their presence by harshly shouting “Harley? Get your ass over here!”
First, Peter could only make out a rather lanky stature, bend over a desk more towards the back of the wrought, his back turned towards them, and a mop of blonde hair, could be curly, but it wasn’t clear to see. Then the figure - Harley, Peter remembered - moved and the already heated workshop air felt even more suffocating now. Harley actually was a kid, around Peter’s age he guessed, maybe a few years older, and he was taller than Peter first thought. His hair wasn’t quite curly, but neither straight and he had a lean stature with defined arms that let Peter only guess what was under his tunic. In conclusion, Harley was hot. And coming closer and about to talk to Peter oh god, oh god .
“Ah, it’s you, old man”, he greeted the King and immediately Peter’s heart started to pick up speed. The slight accent from outside the castle walls, paired with the casual disrespect he showed towards the King made him just more attractive. “Oh and you brought someone”, Harley added, as soon as he caught sight of Peter. His eyes lingered on his form, before snapping back to Tony.
“If this is a weird try of yours to get me to come out more often and befriend people, Tony, I swear to god-”
“ No , I gave that up a long time ago, it’s actually the other way around. I thought Peter could use a friend, who is also the blacksmith, as the new knight-in-training and all”, Tony explained himself. Harley lowered his eyes as he watched Tony closely, but didn’t seem to find what he was looking for. Swiftly he turned back to Peter, offering his hand in a friendly gesture.
“Well then, I’m Harley, as you heard the royal ass here shout already, and I take it, you’re Peter?”
“Yeah”, the boy barely croaked out, taking the offered hand. Harley had a strong grip…
“Nice to make your acquaintance, let’s see if I deem you worthy of becoming an honorary friend of the royal blacksmith. Tony, you can leave, your judging looks and annoying comments are no longer needed here. Go do King stuff and tell Pepper I said hi, the bracelet for her isn’t yet finished, though.”
Was Harley giving an order to the King? Peter didn’t catch up anymore, because Tony looked merely displeased instead of downright offended.
“What? You had a whole week for that bracelet!”
“Well, you aren’t my only customer! And Pepper isn’t just anyone. The Queen deserves the best quality and my best work, I’m sure she will understand. Now, shush, and lemme talk to the knight in shining armour”, Harley told, leaning against the wall and giving Tony a ‘I’m done with you’ kind of look. The king… obliged? He grumbled something unintelligible and left the wrought directly after. Peter was sure he heard some cursing and by the looks of it, Harley heard it, too, grinning brightly.
“Excuse me, what kind of godless being are you, ordering the King around like that?”, Peter couldn’t help but ask, his mouth hadn’t closed in minutes out of sheer shock. Harley laughed.
“Honestly, I keep forgetting that the whole being King thing isn’t a joke. And that man has nothing on me. If he lays a hand on me, he for one, will never again see a happy day in his life, because Pepper will make it living hell, she loves me, and two, he’ll never find a blacksmith as skilled as me and he knows that. So treating him like the lovable idiot he is, isn’t all that hard. You should try it sometime. It comes naturally, when you hang around him more often and as a knight in training, you are destined to.”
Peter stared as Harley waved for him to follow. Slowly he trailed behind the boy to the corner with the only big window in the room. Chairs covered in fur were placed there, so he could enjoy the view over the Kingdom comfortably.
“I don’t quite follow”, he eventually admitted, as he sat across Harley in one of the chairs. They were cozier than Peter had anticipated. “How do you know Sir Tony, if not as King?”
“Ah, I thought he already told you, now I get your confusion”, Harley’s eyes lit up excitedly and he made himself comfortable in the chair to start telling his story. “You see, a few years back the old man was on some kind of royal mission way outside the kingdom, don’t ask me what, and got attacked, lost his companions, his horse and was heavily wounded. Luckily, he wasn’t far from our farm and I picked him up from the woods, when I was collecting firewood. Mind you, we thought he was a knight, nothing more. So my mother, my sister and I took care of him for a few weeks, nursed him back to health. While he stayed at ours, he taught me a few things about being a blacksmith. He’s the reason I started with all of this. Well and then he left, promised to visit. We thought nothing of it. Until a few months later, he honoured his promise and showed up with that fucking crown on his head and too much gold for us to accept. He also brought our horse back and two more. It was wicked, we were so shocked. I didn’t believe him for the better part of his few days stay. So since then he visited us every few months, brought Pepper along sometimes, told me I was becoming an excellent blacksmith, already exceeding him at age 15. Now at 19, I’m a master and a few months ago he asked me to become the royal blacksmith. Of course I agreed, now we’re here. It’s weird, though, that people call him ‘my liege’ and ‘your majesty’ and all that jazz. For me he’s always been stupid old man Tony, whom I’d give my life for.”
Peter had listened intently to Harley’s truly magnificent story. It sounded too good to be true, but Peter knew first hand that it was. He still remembered the time, when Tony had gone missing and the whole castle fell into panic. It had been a few stressful weeks for Rhodey and Steve, who had to take over the kingdom, as Tony and Pepper weren’t even a couple yet at the time.
“You sound a lot like some of the knights”, Peter acknowledged and Harley laughed.
“I get that. When you start to hang around Tony as much as the knights and I, you’ll understand why we talk about him like that. Truth is, he might be a little arrogant, but he saved my family from going under. I found work, because of him. Hell, I live in the castle now! I owe him more than I can ever pay back. He’d disagree with all that saving his life shit and nursing him back to health, but honestly he has done far more than save us.” There was a moment of silence, in which Harley stared out the window, a contemplating look marking his face. Peter couldn’t help but keep his eyes on him.
“Weird, I don’t usually talk about myself so much, especially not when I first meet someone”, he said after a while, eyes snapping back to the conversation. “So, Peter, tell me about you . Why are you becoming a knight? What makes you worthy of becoming a blacksmith’ friend?”
“Uh”, the boy said, dumbstruck. “I, well. I grew up in the castle as a knights’ kid. My parents were both knights, but they died on a mission, when I was very young, so my aunt and uncle took me in. She’s a physician here. My uncle was also a knight- he fell, too, a few years back. I always wanted to be a knight, even if life showed me again and again how dangerous and short one’s life can be as one. So when I was old enough, I became a kitchen boy here, that way I was able to meet most of the staff and some of the knights! A few of the knights helped me train for the entrance examination to become one, too. I passed and now I’m here, youngest of the crew, but I don’t mind. And honestly I’d like to befriend you, because you seem cool, not because you’re the blacksmith.”
“ Royal blacksmith, you mean.”
“ Of course, your majesty ”, Peter mocked, bringing out another of those gorgeous laughs from Harley, who nodded approvingly and added in the same mocking manner: “Wonderful answer, I accept your friendship request, posed upon me by your boss.”
Once more, the boys laughed. Peter still couldn’t take his eyes off the other. Somewhere deep in his stomach, a butterfly was spreading its wings for the first time in a while. It was just the first of many to come.
From that day on, Peter visited Harley daily in the armoury. Everyday after knight’s training he came to excitedly tell Harley what happened in training and Harley in exchange showed him his work. Harley always listened to Peter intently, remembered most of what he said and asked questions at just the right time. He made Peter feel so important. Soon he even started visiting the training, watching as Peter got better day by day, cheering for him even.
“I think you have been more outside and interacting with people in the last week than you have in all five months you’ve been here”, Tony commented one day, as he joined Harley at the sidelines, while Peter trained his duel skills with Sam. The look he gave Harley wasn’t to the boy’s liking at all.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”, he asked.
“That means, you’re getting soft. And that only happened once as far as I know, two years back, when that kid Leon visited your farm a lot more than he was supposed to.”
Harley’s cheeks immediately reddened at the mention of Leon, but his eyes stayed focused on Peter, as he dodged some hits from Sam.
“I don’t know what you mean. Leon and I were good friends until he decided to go and be a dick.”
“You can say ‘cheated’, Harley. I know he cheated on you with some girl from the town.”
For the first time since Tony joined him, Harley’s eyes left Peter’s figure on the field and he looked at Tony. His blood had frozen in his veins. Everything in his body felt like it was on hold.
“Did Abbie tell you that?”
“I pressed it out of her, after you wouldn’t do more than greet me when I was over. You never ignore me when I visit, I was worried. And I remembered Leon from the last time I was there, so I asked her”, Tony admitted.
“She’s such a loudmouth”, Harley cursed and turned to look at the ground in embarrassment, as to not see the pity in his mentor’s eyes.
“You know, that I knew about you guys, right? Like, you did not hide it well, at all. I saw you kiss multiple times.”
“I… did not know that.”
“Oh. Well, now you do! Anyways, never liked that Leon kid, he was a dick, not only for cheating. Peter on the other hand-”
“I’m going to stop you right there”, Harley had never interrupted someone faster. “You have already overwhelmed me with your sudden knowledge of me… liking…”
“Boys? Harley I like boys-” Harley gasped.
“Oh my god I knew you mentioned Steve’s name far too often-”
“No, I did not like Steve ”, Tony pressed immediately, then remembered he was supposed to be calm. “But boys, in general, yes. Nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Okay, this is extremely weird. Let’s stop here, alright? Peter and I are friends.”
“‘Friends’ alright. I’m going to tell your kids that one day.”
“I don’t even want to have kids.”
“Then I’ll tell some random other kids. Or your dogs. Whoever I can find.”
“Please just shut up.”
“Maybe I will, after you asked him out.”
“Don’t jeopardize this friendship.”
“ I obviously won’t, but you should take the risk.”
“Just shut up, will you? He’s coming over here.”
Neither had noticed the fight being over, too occupied with bickering, but Peter had a smile bright as the sun, as he came running from where he just defeated Sam.
“Did you see that?”, he exclaimed happily.
“Hell yeah, you beat his ass”, Harley answered with a grin, even though he saw almost nothing, thanks to Tony, who in turn was definitely raising his eyebrows at him. Harley ignored him the same way he ignored his beating heart, when Peter hugged him.
It’s now been three months and Peter was already close to finishing his training and become a real knight.
But that wasn’t the exciting thing for Peter at the moment, no. The thing was that today, Peter would leave the castle for his first mission. A group of bandits had formed just outside the walls and was causing disturbances everywhere in the Kingdom. The job was to find them and arrest them, maybe do what needs to be done to protect the Kingdom and its people. Peter was out of his mind, Harley less so. Still he insisted that Peter should come see him in his wrought, before their departure. Peter promised and of course honoured it, like a true knight. Now there they stood, more awkward than they have ever been, avoiding each other’s eyes in the silence of the room.
“I… I got something for you”, Harley eventually broke the silence and Peter looked at him in surprise.
“You shouldn’t have-”, he started, but Harley wouldn’t let him continue.
“I really should have.”
Peter didn’t dare talk back, he knew better, as Harley walked over to his workbench and lifted something off it. When it came into view, Peter gasped delightedly. Harley held a beautifully crafted sword with a delicate, but simple handle and fine engravings along the blade. It was the most gorgeous weapon Peter ever had the honor to hold in his hands. It was perfectly balanced, too. Light, but strong. Overall perfect.
“I made it for you, after you told me you’d like a lighter sword, but a heavy handle, so I thought, you know. As the blacksmith I can do that. It has to have some perks being my friend”, Harley explained sheepishly, eyes glued on the sword, as if he feared Peter’s reaction.
Peter definitely did not think of him as a friend, especially not now. The sheer amount of butterflies in his stomach could fill the whole room, he was sure.
“Harley- I don’t know what to say. It’s perfect, thank you”, it wasn’t more than a whisper, but Harley heard it anyway. The boy smiled proudly, but it didn’t reach his eyes, like it should.
“You’re welcome. Now go and protect the Kingdom, mighty warrior”, he tried to mock, but it came out rather honest. Peter still didn’t know what to answer, so he gave him an encouraging nod, before making his way to the door. Before he could reach it, Harley’s voice held him back once more.
“Peter?”, he asked, pleading almost and Peter met his eyes. “Stay safe, alright?”
This time neither smiled.
“I will”, Peter promised, even if he knew it wasn’t in his power to keep it. One could never know what would happen on a mission, his life had told him this story more than once. Which is why Peter hesitated again, as he stood right outside the wrought. What if he couldn’t keep the promise? What if he went and died, without ever telling Harley how he felt? That couldn’t happen and it won’t, he decided. So he turned right back around, pushed the door to the wrought open once more and made his way over to Harley, who had barely moved since he left, only shifted his head so he could look out the window.
“Peter?”, the boy asked surprised, when he noticed the determination in his eyes. “Something wrong?”
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t go without doing this at least once”, he merely explained.
Harley still looked confused, especially when Peter entered his personal space and grabbed the front of his tunic.
“Peter?”, he asked again. This time Peter didn’t answer with words.
In a swift motion, he pulled Harley towards his own body, chest to chest. One deep look into those blue eyes of his confirmed every feeling Peter had felt in the last months. With not another second wasted, Peter tenderly pressed his lips onto Harley’s in a rough kiss. Harley answered almost immediately, arms wrapping around Peter’s torso and pulling him impossibly closer. It just felt… right and if he could, he’d never stop kissing Harley. But they had to eventually and when they did, both were smiling brighter than the sun ever could.
“Now you really have to come back safe, Peter. If you don’t, I swear I will resurrect you, just to kill you myself and haunt you in the afterlife”, Harley mused, eyes still locked on Peter’s.
“Message received, loud and clear. I will try my best.” Peter gifted him another kiss, before peeling his body away from Harley’s comfortable warmth.
“Can’t wait to call you my boyfriend, when I come back.” And with that he was out the door, lighter on his feet with every step.
In that moment, love was almost palpable.