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Peter loved to help other people. He did it in a lot of ways, obviously as Spiderman, but he also helped struggling kids at school, invented and developed revolutionary technology in the internship with Mr. Stark, and he also liked to help people who asked a question on stack overflow.
He scrolled through the problems people had, searching for one to challenge himself. He found one that actually interested him from someone called @potatogunkid. he scrolled through his (very long) code for something like an hour. in them he thought he solved it a couple of times, but after a conversation with Harley in the comments in which both tried to solve the problem, but Harley said he already tried anything that Peter thought and explained why it wouldn’t work, they decided to go on a video chat showing their screens.
“I don’t know man, I don’t know” Peter said, almost giving up.
“Oh, come on, we can do that darlin’” Harley said on the other side of the call, with a southern accent that made Peter blush.
“Oh my god I found it” peter gasped
“Really? What is it?” Harley asked, his voice hopeful and a bit desperate.
“The loop on row 267, you put larger than instead of smaller than!” Peter exclaimed, excited.
“Oh my god, how haven’t I noticed that?” Harley said, hurrying to change that.
“Well maybe because it’s one row in almost twenty thousand rows of code?” Peter laughed
“Well thanks sweetheart, I don’t know what I would have done without you” Harley said
“Your accent is pretty” Peter said without thinking and then caught himself and put his hand on his mouth, blushing hard.
Harley just laughed, the screen shaking as he shook with laughter. “Thanks sweetheart, but how old are you? ‘cause if you’re old it would be pretty weird”
“I’m fifteen” Peter squeaked behind his hand
Harley whistled, impressed “and you are already at such a level in coding and engineering? Oh and I just turned sixteen”
“I don’t know, it’s just easy for me.” he said, embarrassed.
They continued talking, and they have talked almost every day since. A few days after the first talk they showed each other their faces, and two months after that they started dating remotely. By the summer Peter was almost ready to say I love you, but waited until they could finally meet.
A few months ago they found out they both knew Tony Stark, (even though Peter still kept spider man as a secret), and decided not to tell him, but agreed that they will tell him as a surprise, when Harley will ask to come visit Tony in New York towards the end of the summer and they could meet and tell him together.
“I will be there on the 17th of August” Harley said.
“I’m sorry I can’t make it to your birthday” Harley said.
“I just have to watch my sister because my mom has that thing” Harley said.
It was okay. It really was. Peter was just really hoping to celebrate his birthday tomorrow with his boyfriend.
“Hey kid, you’re coming tomorrow morning, right?” Mr. Stark asked. He said yes. Not that he’ll have something better to do with Harley not there.
_______
“Hey Pete, happy birthday” Tony said, and Peter noticed there was someone beside him, with his face to the desk.
“Who- Harley” Peter gasped, wide eyed, and raced to Harley’s embrace , who only managed to get up and catch the smaller boy in his arms, hugging him tightly. Harley had tears in his eyes and Peter was crying.
“What?” Tony asked confused at the sight of the boys
Peter pulled back, looking into Harley’s eyes. “I can’t believe you’re really here” he said, and Harley put his hands on Peter’s cheeks, wiping his tears. They both slowly leaned in and kissed. It was amazing, they were trapped in their own world, not even able to hear Tony screaming, shocked.
Finally Harley pulled out of the kiss, and attached his forehead into his boyfriend’s. “Happy birthday, darling, I love you so much”
“I love you too Harley, so so much.” Peter said, soft smile on his lips.
“What is going on here?!” Peter finally heard one of Mr. Stark shouts and blushed deeply, burying his face in his boyfriend’s chest, Harley hugging him and pulling a hand through his curls.
“What are you looking at, old man?” Harley said.
“That’s what I’m asking!” Tony shouted back
“Sorry Mr. Stark, we should probably explain” Peter looked at Tony, head now resting on his boyfriend’s chest
“He’s my boyfriend” Harley said shrugging and Tony noticed a dopey grin stretching over Peter’s face at the nickname.
“How… how do you even know each other?” Tony asked, baffled.
“He helped me with the iron lad suit” Harley replied
“What?” Tony asked
“Yes, what?” Now Peter was confused as well.
“Oh” Harley grimaced “I forgot I didn’t tell you”
“Told me what?” Peter asked, looking at Harley.
“You remember when I told you about the time when he came to my town?” Harley asked Peter
“Wait, if you knew that I know both of you why didn’t you tell me?!” Tony asked.
“Shut up Tony” said Harley. “Anyway, I looked a bit at how it was built when it was at my house, and decided that if you could make one,” he now looked to Tony, “I can make one too. It took me a bit more time than you, but…” he raised his hand and parts of metal flew to his body, crushing from the open window.
“You made an iron man suit from memory? That’s so cool!” Peter looked all over the suit.
“How… what…” Tony stuttered, not knowing what to say.
“So anyway,” Harley continued “he helped me with the code after I asked the question on the internet and then we started to talk and that’s it”
“Okay. whatever. I don’t care.” Tony mumbled, sounding exhausted . “Anyway I still have a present to Peter, even though bringing you here can be counted as my present” he said looking at Harley, and then turned around to his desk and mattered in a voice he knew only Peter would hear “does he know about the spider thing?”
“Not yet, but I had planned on telling him today so if it’s connected to this I don’t care if he sees this.” Peter answered him in a regular voice.
“Who are you talking to?” Harley asked, looking at Peter confused, and Peter signalled Harley to wait.
“Okay” Tony said and handed him a blue box.
Peter opened it and found a StarkWatch.
“Cool, a stark watch!” peter exclaimed
“A product from your company? I expected better” Harley said, making a face.
“What?! Of course not!” Tony called, offended. “It's a customised watch!”
“What do you mean a customised watch?” Peter asked wide eyed.
“it has Karen, a way to send all of us a distress signal, and your new nano-suit” Tony explained with a smirk
“What?! A new suit? With nanotech? Oh my god!” Peter said, overexcited.
“What suit?” Harley asked quietly at the same time as Peter talked to the watch, asking Karen to open his new iron-spider suit.
“What the—“
________
It was the evening of that Day, and Peter was on the couch watching TV and eating while Harley finished something in the lab. After he explained about the Spider-Man thing he and Harley worked at the lab, and once in a while Harley would send him to eat after Tony explained the enhanced metabolism thing.
“Hey kid” Tony came into the living room. “I still have one more present to you, I just didn’t know if Harley knows and thought that it would be best to talk to you alone” he said in a serious but sincere voice.
“Okay” Peter tore his eyes off the TV, giving Tony his full attention.
Tony took a deep breath and looked Peter in his eyes. “I know you said I didn’t need to, and that you’re okay, but after bugging your aunt a lot of times she finally agreed for it as a birthday present. Peter, I know you think you don’t deserve it, but you do. You are the most kind and good-hearted person I have ever met, including all of the avengers and definitely better than me. You deserve the world, kid. And I also hate that you’re binding in your suit, even after we made an adjusted binder, It’s still not completely safe, and I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you” Tony now had tears in his eyes.
“I don’t.. I don’t understand. What are you saying?” Peter asked, tears rolling out of his eyes and voice shaken.
“Top surgery. When you want, and where you want. It’s all your choice and we’ll do it on your terms, okay?” Tony said
“Yeah, yeah, thank you so much dad” Peter said, leaning in to hug Tony and then pulling back abruptly. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to call you that” he said, looking horrified and scared “I know you don’t feel like that, I’m sorry.” He said in a rush, more tears rolling down his face.
“Hey, it’s okay. I kind of like it” he said, now actually hugging Peter.
“Hey” a voice that Peter recognised as Harley’s said from the doorframe.
“Har.. Harley… since when are you standing there?” Peter asked, voice shaking.
“The middle of Tony’s speech, I think” he answered, looking at his feet “I’m sorry for interrupting, I’ll just go.”
“Harls…” Peter said, tears in his eyes and voice laced with fear.
“I’ll be in my room if you need me” he said and Peter noticed a hint of coldness in his tone. Then he turned around and left.
“I… I knew he grew up in a homophonic town, but I assumed since he’s gay he would probably accept me..” Peter couldn’t control his sobs “I guess I was wrong…” he sobbed and cried “oh my god he probably hates me”
“Hey, Pete.. Peter… I don’t think Harley hates you, and I’m pretty sure he’s not transphobic. I think you should talk to him, and if it turns out that he is transphobic he’ll go back home to his outdated town and none of us will ever need to see him again, okay?” Tony told Peter.
“But he’s also your kid, I can’t do this to you” Peter said crying
“Hey, Pete, look at me” he said and continued when their eyes were locked. “I love you, and no one who doesn’t except you, or for that matter every other part of the lgbt+ community, I don’t want them in my life. People who don’t respect others are not worth my time. No one that won’t except you won’t ever be in my life, do you understand?” Tony said, his voice soft by the end.
“Thanks Mr. Stark. Really.” He said and with Tony’s encouragement he went to talk to Harley.
_______
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Harley asked when Peter entered his room.
“I just… I was scared” Peter answered, sitting on the bed as far away from Harley as possible.
“I… I honestly didn’t think you’d keep a secret like that from me. I thought you trusted me… I trusted you. I just can’t believe that you thought I wouldn’t accept you. I told you what I went through at home, and you just, what? Assumed the same about me?” Harley said, with tears in his eyes.
“What? No!” Peter called, still scared but relieved that Harley doesn’t care.
“You just said you didn’t tell me cause you were scared, are you really trying to deny it?” Harley asked, voice bitter.
“Yes, because I wasn’t scared of that.” Peter said in a small voice. “I was scared of reliving the bad memories that came with being a boy in a girl’s body. Of all of the transphobic people and comments who came with the transition procedure. I just… I’m really trying to avoid talking about it usually because sometimes it’s making me go into a panic attack… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but in my defense, you only came here today, and it’s not really something to tell you on the phone. And when… when you heard us and just ran away… I thought the worst, because you didn’t say anything about it, and you sounded so… cold” Peter explained, looking down.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about it like that. I.. you’re right. I didn’t even give you a chance to tell me. I’m so sorry Peter” Harley said to him, biting his bottom lip, and Peter knew he was serious, because Harley only used his name when he had something important to say.
“That means you still love me?” Peter asked, a small smile on his face
“What? Of course I love you Peter! I’ll always love you.” Harley said , a bit panicked.
“I love you too.” Peter said and leaned in for a kiss. It was perfect.