Spooktober 04: Jealousy

a/n: I'm rewriting this forbidden oneshot because the first one is godawful and an embarrassment to this society. this is my super villain origin. if you read the first one then no you didn't

Peter walks into the Avengers Compound with his eyes peeled for Tony. The man had told him the plan for the today, that another teenager about Peter's age from TENNESSEE (Crazy, right?) would be visiting for the weekend that he wanted the two of them to meet.

Tony had seemed nervous about it when he first brought it up with Peter, making lighthearted jokes about how he didn't want either one of them to get jealous about being both science kids that Tony pseudo-adopted, but Peter assured him that it would be fine, that he would love to meet Harley (that was his name, right?) and that he couldn't wait to gang up on Tony with the other boy.

And he genuinely meant it. It wasn't like Peter was the most popular kid in school. He had two close friends in entirety and cherished them with everything that he had, but he was also friendly and wasn't terribly against the idea of meeting someone who was like him— just some kid who liked science that also seemed to know Tony Stark on a personal basis. Small world.

He accidentally bumps into someone on his way to the security doors, and does a double take, stepping back to apologize immediately. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!"

Taking in the boy's appearance, he seemed to look about the same age as Peter. This wasn't something he normally would notice, but despite popular belief, teenagers in the lobby of Avengers Compound were not an everyday occurrence.

He had dirty blond hair that was somehow not covering his eyes despite it's length on the top, olive-toned skin, and piercing blue eyes that were wide at the run-in they had experienced.

"It's cool," the teen responded. The accent made Peter stop immediately. That... That was not a New York accent. "Do you know where the entrance is? I'm sorta lost."

"Oh!" Peter shakes his head. "Yeah. Of course, sorry. Uh— Follow me."

Peter starts his walk to big doors at the back of the hallway, looking back at the teen trailing behind him aimlessly. "I feel like this is a stupid question, but do you have a pass from F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Uh..." The blond teen scratches the back of his neck. He looked puzzled in every meaning of the word, squinting at Peter with confusion. "Who's Friday?"

"What's your name?"

"Harley." The teen introduces. The southern drawl he has sticks out a little more on the 'r'. "Harley Keener."

"Harley," Peter grins. "I thought so. Mr. Stark wanted us to meet. I'm— I'm Peter. Parker?"

Finally, recognition lights up in Harley's eyes, following quickly by relief. His shoulders relax and he lets out a breathless laugh. "Oh, thank the lord. Yeah, he told me about'cha. I have no idea what I'm doin' here."

"Yeah," Peter grins. "I totally know the feeling. I'm surprised F.R.I.D.A.Y. didn't warn Mr. Stark that you were here; he would have been down here to help you. No worries, though. Fri, can you let us in?"

"Hello, Peter. Welcome, Harley." F.R.I.D.A.Y says over the speaker. The doors open.

Harley jumps and looks around for the voice. "Tony really's got those AI voices everywhere, huh? Gotta admit though, I kinda miss J.A.R.V.I.S."

J.A.R.V.I.S.? That was a system Tony had retired during the battle of Ultron, which was... ages ago. Peter had only heard about the system a few times during the lab, but Tony never seemed to want to talk about it. How long ago did Tony and Harley meet?

Peter blinks, turning to look at Harley as he walks backwards through the doors. "Uh... I think that was before my time. I never actually got to know him."

"Oh." Harley frowns, but doesn't say anything more than that. He follows Peter through the hallway.

"So..." Peter clears his throat, trying to keep the conversation moving. "When did you meet Mr. Stark?"

"He, uh, broke into my garage when I was eleven," Harley answers bluntly. "I gave him a place to stay, stuff to eat... Helped fix his armor, too. Then he ditched me. But stayed in contact, obviously, 'cuz I'm here now."

Peter gives him a surprised look. "I guess it's a Mr. Stark thing to just show up in people's houses unprompted. He showed up in my living room.

"Oh yeah?" Harley grins.

Peter nods, smiling himself. "Yeah. It was ridiculous. He even tried my Aunt May's walnut date loaf. Total rookie move, he had to spit it out once she wasn't looking."

Harley laughs, throwing his head back. "Oh, man. Did he really?"

"Yep!"

The two of them giggled on their way down the hallway. Peter was pleasantly surprised to learn he was wrong about them having a bunch in common.

He learned, for example, that they both could talk for hours without stopping. They both were able to blabber and perfectly keep up with each other at the same time, which was enough recipe for disaster now that Tony had gotten them in the same room.

He also learned things about Harley's family, like that he had a sister and that he had helped his mom take care of her since his dad left when he was five. He learned about a bully, and an incident regarding their own Mr. Stark and a potato gun, and a gazillion little details about his hometown, Rose Hill in Tennessee that Peter couldn't possibly remember but enjoyed listening to anyways.

Needless to say, he had made an instant friend with the southerner, and Tony should be very afraid.

Finally Peter stopped in front of the lab. "Well, here we are. Hey, before we go in— I've got an idea."

"What's the idea?" Harley gives a devious grin, his eyes lighting up with similar mischief.

"Let's pretend to be really jealous of each other and hate each other a lot to mess with Mr. Stark."

"Peter," Harley says seriously. "I think we're going to be very good friends."

Peter gives on last smile and then opens the door.

"My gremlins!" Tony calls out once they walk in. He stands up immediately envelope Harley in a tight hug. "Harls, it's been so long. Geez, you're tall. Why didn't you tell me you got here?"

"Uh, your intern found me," Harley gestures to Peter, who was being uncharacteristically silent as the two of them hugged in front of him.

Tony pulls away. "Right, intern. I see you've met Peter. My two brainiac children right in the same place. You may have to pinch me."

Peter gives an unsure smile and slides into a chair. "Yeah. Harley is... He's cool."

"What is it?" Tony asks, narrowing his eyes. He looks at Peter with suspicion. "Kid?"

"Did you call him kid?" Harley speaks up from behind. "I thought that was my nickname."

Tony frowns. "I— Well, I mean— You both are children, but Harls, I haven't really called out kid since—"

"Please don't call me kid anymore," Peter says with furrowed eyebrows. "Just call me Peter, Mr. Stark."

"Um." Tony gives him an incredulous look. "Okay... Peter. Let's just get started on some stuff. I thought it would be a cool team-building exercise to rebuild one of the cars I've got in the back of the garage."

Harley grins. "Hell yeah. I'm so excited to work with my favourite father-figure."

Peter gives him a pointed frown.

Tony raises an eyebrow and stares at Harley for so long that Peter is convinced that he's figured out their prank, but Tony then shakes his head and starts walking to the back of the garage.

Harley and Peter exchange a look and have to stop each other from bursting out in laughter before following after Tony.

Pretending to hate each other was becoming increasingly difficult as their work on the vintage car proceeded. Harley and Peter worked just as well together and they did with Tony, and the fact that they both were blabbermouths didn't make it any easier to fake being jealous.

The most Peter was able to muster was a few forced sad puppy looks and a fake nervous tapping of his foot to throw Tony off his rhythm.

"Hey kid, can you go get me a water bottle?" Tony asks, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Both Harley and Peter go to grab a water bottle.

"He asked me." Peter hisses, using every ounce of his superhuman strength to keep the laughter from exploding out of his chest from the look of fake anger on Harley's face.

Harley snarls back. "No, he asked me! You said you didn't even want to be called kid!"

"Okay!" Tony steps in between them and takes the waterbottle. He looks at the both of them as if they were feral cats arguing over a piece of kibble. "What the hell is going on? Both of you, spill. I will not have conflict in my lab unless it's me scolding Dum-E for giving me another one of his smoothies."

Dum-E chirps sadly in the corner.

"I don't want to be replaced!" Peter cries out dramatically.

"Y'know, technically," Harley speaks up, "you would be replacing me, 'cuz I met him first."

Peter looks at Harley with distress, and it only takes them 3.0347 seconds before both of them finally break, doubling over with breathless laughter that makes Peter's stomach hurt.

Once they get even the slightest bit of control left, they glance up at Tony to find the most confused expression on the man's face, and it only makes them howl louder.

"You just got pranked," Harley finally wheezes out. "Get dunked on, old man!"

Tears stream down Peter's face and he still can't say anything, leaning on Harley and the desk to keep from falling on the floor as he laughs the hardest that he has in a long time.

"You two are insufferable," Tony states. He cracks the cap of the waterbottle off and guzzles the whole thing, and then proceeds to throw the empty plastic bottle at Harley's head.

What a nice family they made.