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Peter Parker had a pretty fantastic life, as far as he was concerned. His Spiderman career had never been stronger, with his “internship” with Mr. Stark giving him access to the resources to upgrade his suits to something near perfect. And with Mr. Stark practically giving him access to the Avengers Tower whenever he wanted, he’d found a family– not just with Aunt May and Ned and MJ, but also with the Avengers. He’d never been more content.
Well, he would’ve been content. But then his boyfriend of six months, Harley Keener, had brought up the topic.
“Tony keeps trying to get me to come to New York to stay for a while,” Harley was saying, voice muddled through the speakers of Peter’s phone. “He said he wants me to meet some of his employees.”
With Harley living in Tennessee and Peter in New York, their main interaction was video calls late at night, and Peter reveled in the way Harley’s Southern accent came out when he was tired.
“That’d be nice. I miss you,” Peter replied, leaning back against his pillows. It’d been so long since they’d last seen each other in person.
He still remembered the day (night) they met, rather vividly. Aunt May had a long shift at the hospital, so Mr. Stark had offered to let him stay at the Tower. He’d been holed up in one of Mr. Stark’s more private labs that night, working on perfecting his web fluid, so immersed that he’d completely lost track of time. Realizing it was three am and that Mr. Stark was definitely going to kill him, Peter quickly wrapped up his project and half-ran for the elevator, only to literally run into a teenage boy holding a sack of potatoes.
The potatoes spilled at their feet, and Peter looked up in confusion at the other boy. He was definitely attractive, with curly blonde hair and a bright smile. Exactly Peter’s type. Uh oh. The boy looked at Peter, looked down at the potatoes, and looked back up at Peter.
“What are you doing here? It’s three am,” the boy said, and oh boy, that was one heck of an accent. Peter didn’t realize that someone’s voice could sound so…nice.
Peter swallowed. He spent so much time around superheroes twice his age that he forgot how to act around people his age. He was always woefully behind on TikTok trends, maybe this was for one of those? He’d have to ask MJ. “Why do you have so many potatoes?”
“It’s fall break,” he replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Peter blinked. Was this some sort of strange dream? It sure felt like one. “I’m sorry, who are you? My name’s Peter, I’m Tony Stark’s personal intern.” He held out his hand for the other boy to shake.
“Harley Keener. Though I’m sure if you’re really Tony’s intern, he would’ve told you about me.”
Peter looked at Harley blankly. “He never mentioned you, sorry.”
Harley seemed to deflate a little at that, but he saved face very quickly. Peter was almost impressed. “At least you’re cute,” he said, in a tired but still flirty tone of voice.
Peter blushed and tried to stammer out a response as Harley lugged his bag of potatoes up, heading towards the elevator.
“You never explained about the potatoes,” Peter said as Harley stepped into the elevator.
Harley winked at him, which really didn’t help Peter’s blush. “I’m trying to build an Iron Man suit that can be powered solely by potatoes. How else does one spend their fall break?”
The doors closed and Peter was left wondering if he was dreaming. Quite frankly, he hadn’t thought his brain was imaginative enough. After their encounter, Peter had Googled around, and asked some of the employees, and sometimes strolled empty hallways at three am, just in case. Harley Keener was essentially the Tower Cryptid, with most people suspecting he was some sort of long lost son of Mr. Stark’s that could come and go as he pleased.
The next time Peter managed to track down Harley, he promised himself he wouldn’t screw it up. Peter offered to help Harley improve the energy storing capabilities of the glorious potato, and Harley responded by relentlessly flirting with that stupidly attractive accent of his. And then, somehow, they were dating. And no one knew, save for MJ, because she knows everything. And Ned. Ned knew because he walked in on Peter and Harley making out on the couch. And Aunt May also knew. But that was only because she walked in on Peter trying to frantically find the perfect first date outfit. Actually, a lot of people knew.
But Mr. Stark didn’t know. And he was the important part. And that was what Harley was obviously trying to segway into by telling Mr. Stark about their relationship.
“If I do come up to New York, it’d be a good time to tell Tony about us,” Harley said, and Peter could pick up on the nervous excitement in his voice.
“Um.” Peter said eloquently. “Um, yeah, we could do that.”
The thing was, Peter wasn’t even sure why he was so scared of Mr. Stark knowing. Obviously he liked both Peter and Harley enough to let them both have access to his secret labs. Obviously Mr. Stark was okay with gay people in general, judging by the way he reacted by papering a famously homophobic reporter’s house with a variety of pride flags. Mr. Stark had been there for Peter when he came out as trans, doing all kinds of research and buying Peter his first binder. But…despite Peter and Harley both staying at the Tower, sometimes even at the same time, Mr. Stark had never introduced them.
Did Mr. Stark not want them to meet? Did he not want them together? Peter couldn’t help the sense of heavy dread at the thought that somehow, Mr. Stark wouldn’t approve. He lov– liked, he really, really liked Harley, and he liked what they had, and he didn’t want anything to change. If Mr. Stark disapproved for whatever reason…things would change. He didn’t want to lose Harley. Besides, what was he even gonna say?
Remember how you were helped by some potato-obsessed kid in Tennessee one time a few years ago and you kind of think of both me and him as pseudo son figures? You remember him? Yeah, I wanna stick my tongue down his throat.
Peter was cringing just thinking about it.
But he wanted Mr. Stark to know. He didn’t like the idea of sneaking around behind Mr. Stark’s back, in Mr. Stark’s own house.
“Yeah, we could do that,” Peter said, with more conviction this time. He could do this. “But not Thursday night.” Or Wednesday night. Or Friday night. Or–
“Why not Thursday night?” Harley asked.
“Mr. Stark is planning on promoting some guy to Head of the Engineering Department, he wants me to meet him.”
“Sounds boring. You should skip it to hang out with me.”
Peter smiled. “Maybe I should. Good night, Harls. I love you.”
“Love you too, darling.”
He liked this. This was nice . He couldn’t wait for when Harley would come to New York– well, actually, he could.
Everytime Peter ran into Mr. Stark, he thought about his conversation with Harley, and that anxiousness filled his stomach again. Luckily for Peter, however, Mr. Stark seemed to be too preoccupied with the aforementioned future Head of Engineering Department.
Peter and Mr. Stark were working in the lab together, with Mr. Stark tweaking an Iron Man suit while Peter was repairing a gash in his costume from his last fight. Normally, they worked in near silence, but not today.
“I think you two would get along well,” Mr. Stark was saying,hunched over the slightly odd-looking suit. It didn’t look like the other Iron Man suits. Maybe he was trying something new?
Peter made a noncommittal noise. Thinking about the new Engineering guy made him think about Harley, and about how he and Harley were going to come out to Mr. Stark soon.
“I’ve been working with him for years. He’s great. I think you’ll get along really well. He’s around your age and he’s, uh, you know, he’s pan–”
Peter almost dropped his suit. “Mr. Stark, are you trying to set me up?” He was blushing and stuttering.
Mr. Stark cringed, resolutely looking anywhere but Peter. “Well, you know, it’s just that you’re both single, and I think you’d get along well, and–”
“I have a boyfriend,” Peter said quickly.
Mr. Stark’s eyes widened. “You have a boyfriend? What’s his name? How long have you been dating?” Peter recognized this voice, it was his protective dad voice. Uh oh.
Abort, abort, abort, abort, abort–
“He’s, um, you can meet him soon, actually. He’s coming up to New York,” Peter said. No turning back now.
“You didn’t meet online, did you? You can never trust those dating websites,” Mr. Stark scowled.
Uh oh. Peter swallowed, rubbing his slightly sweaty palms on his jeans. “No, we met in person. He’s visited me a few times.”
“You should bring him here. I’m sure everyone would love to meet him.”
Was Mr. Stark suggesting that Peter introduce Harley to the Avengers? He didn’t think Harley even knew the Avengers, except for Dr. Banner (who also had the odd habit of staying up late in the labs, along with Peter and Harley and Mr. Stark). Coming out to Mr. Stark was bad enough, but the Avengers? That was too much.
“I think that’s a little much,” Peter said quickly. “He hasn’t even met Aunt May yet.”
“Well, I want to meet this…boyfriend of yours. When’s he coming into town?”
“Thursday, I think.”
“Then I’ll take you two out to dinner on Friday night. FRIDAY, I’m going to need reservations…”
Peter gulped. This was it. One way or another, Mr. Stark was going to meet his boyfriend. And he really, really hoped Mr. Stark approved of them. No offense, but the engineering guy sounded like a loser.
Thursday came all too quickly. MJ had laughed when Peter had told her the whole story: harley wanting to tell Mr. Stark that they’re dating, Mr. Stark wanting to set Peter up with the engineering guy, Peter freaking out. He didn’t understand what was so funny. He was in crisis.
When he walked into Stark Tower that day, wearing a nice outfit to make a good impression, and secretly hoping that Engineering Guy was really a loser. Engineering Guy sounded smart, and accomplished, and all the things someone could brag about, and it wasn’t that Harley wasn’t those things, but…ugh. Peter thought Harley was awesome and perfect for him, but that didn’t mean Mr. Stark wouldn’t stop trying to set up Peter with who Mr. Stark thought was perfect for Peter.
“They’re down in the private lab, Peter,” said FRIDAY as Peter stepped into the elevator.
“Thanks, FRIDAY.”
He took a deep breath. This would be fine. If Engineering Guy liked him, then he’d just turn him down gently, and then on Friday, Mr. Stark could see that Peter was already perfectly happy with his own engineering guy, and that Mr. Stark didn’t need to interfere, and everything would be okay again.
The elevator doors open, and Peter took a deep breath, heading into the lab. Mr. Stark was standing there, and so was Engineering Guy, and oh. Oh. Peter really didn’t have anything to be worried about after all. It was Harley who was standing next to Mr. Stark, smirking knowingly at Peter.
“Peter, you’re here! Excellent,” Mr. Stark said, clapping his hands together. He was wearing a nice suit, as opposed to the cheap, plain grease-covered clothes he wore in the lab. He was holding a steaming cup of coffee in one hand, and Peter felt a sense of pride that it was one of those #1 Dad mugs that Peter had jokingly gotten him one year. “We can get started.”
Peter’s eyes shifted from Harley, to Mr. Stark, to Harley, to Mr. Stark. Harley was Engineering Guy?
“Is this the guy you wanted me to meet?” Peter asked.
Mr. Stark nodded. “Peter, meet Harley Keener. Harley, this is Peter Parker. Harley’s been–”
Harley interrupted Mr. Stark with a huge smirk. “Hey, Petey, d’you think now would be a good time to tell Tony that we’re fuc–”
The sound of Mr. Stark’s coffee mug falling to the lab floor drowned out the rest of Harley’s sentence.