Title: Trouble By Design
Rated T for mild swearing and probably violence later on, because honestly, people swear more casually than any of us like to admit… (save for those people who swear as often as they can to prove they're "something else" that is)
A/N Inspiration for this story is cage the elephants "too late to say goodbye," and the fact that I'm fed up there aren't many finished or good Harry Osborn/literally anyone fanfictions. Yeah that's how this began... this will take place in the non debatably questionable ASM2 universe of spiderman and will feature Harry Osborn/OC. The timeline is stretched out a bit from the movie, but harry (whom I will refer to as HO in A/Ns) will have retroviral hydroplasia and will become gg in the end and all. This fic will be done when I post this and I will post once a week. So enjoy, reviews are love!
Also, other sidenote, if anyone is interested in being my beta I would love you forever 'cause I am utterly prone to making mistakes and not realizing it. I also wrote this originally in the iphone notes section which is why formattings a tad weird but whatever...
OH and this starts in fall.
Disclaimer: Do I seem like Stan Lee or any other spidey creators/owner? No? Well then I don't claim to own this other than my OC(s) and any additional plot nuances.
"Oh my precious ember burning, my sweet glowing light
From the moment I first saw you I was yours and you were mine"
The echo of Peter's horrified yell for Gwen struck me to the core as the young genius pummeled down to her demise in the crumbling clock tower. I'm conscious of Harry's arms wrapped around my waist, his fingers digging into skin covered by a now tattered shirt, mumbling whispers into my ear that I could not recall for you, keeping me safe and calm from my own demise, but my thoughts are not all there.
How did my life ever reach this?
Honestly I barely have an answer for that myself. I guess it started a year ago though. Wow how time passes. I was younger by just enough to make a difference. Naïve even. The only piece of advice I had known was from my mother, and I can only remember it by the smell of alcohol that caressed me as she bent in front of my child self and uttered "baby don't you play with fire." Pretty weak advice for being the only advice I got, and honestly I didn't even follow it and look where that got me.
Anyways, back to the subject. This whole escapade started a year ago when my closest and best friend Peter Parker planned to hang out with me. After 30 minutes of waiting on my part(as I can't even seem to remember when peter was ever on time anymore), I got to my nerves end and called him, tapping my foot impatiently as the line rang.
"Yullo Ada, what can I do for you?" Peter's unmistakeable voice ran through the cell phone. I had asked where the hell he was and he responded with a groan and a "crap we're hanging out today aren't we?" I rolled my eyes, soon getting the full story. Peter, being the social scatterbrain he is, forget we had planned to hang, instead electing to catch up with a childhood friend in New York after an around 10 year absence. I sighed to myself, resigned to walk back home when Peter yelled through the phone.
"Wait wait Adeline! Don't go home, j...just wait there! Err we'll meet you there in latest 20 minutes!" Without even a goodbye he hung up.
Guess I'm waiting.
I took out a book (yeah I was prepared for this), leaned against the rail behind me overlooking a river, and waited. True to his word within twenty minutes the infamous Parker and friend in tow appeared.
"Adeline!" Peter waved over to me, I closed my book, "Hey sorry for the wait, did you bring a book?" I chuckled and stuffed it back into my jacket.
"I mean, whenever I want to chill with you I have to be prepared for the long haul" I teased, Peter scoffed at my accusation.
"Me? Make you wait? It's only been," He looked at his watch, "50 minutes..." I gave him a knowing looking, "okay maybe I'm a, a bit late." This is where tag along friend laughed as well.
"You know Peter, I never expected in ten years for you to be chronically late, especially while keeping a girl waiting." I glanced at Peters leech friend (i've never claimed to be nice), who held out a hand to me, "Hello, I'm Harry, pleasure to meet you," he said. I grabbed his hand and shook it.
Damn he's got smooth skin, super soft too…
I shoved back my thoughts, early crushing never seemed to lead me anywhere good.
"The name's Adeline Namin, nice to meet 'cha," I gave him a strained smile. We parted and observed each other in a fashion we believed to be discreet as Peter kept up a conversation between us three. I took in Harry's form, immediately feeling self conscious about myself from his fashionable nice pants and vest. He had piercing blue eyes and stylish brown hair, short on the sides of his head but a long portion in the middle that partially covered his eyes. His skin was pale, almost sickly but I thought better of my assumption, thinking it to be the cause of caucasian heritage. Compared to him I looked basically like trash. I hadn't been expecting another person thus I had opted to wearing sweatpants, a long sleeve tee shirt with a scarf, and literal slippers (what can I say, I'm lazy). My rat's nest hair was concealed by a ponytail and beanie, my thick framed glasses added a nerdier edge to my freckled face, mud brown eyes, and reddish brown hair. He seemed to think the same of me, if his slight scoff after giving me a once over was anything to go by.
The two guys joked a bit with each other, Peter teasing Harry about his supermodel girlfriend and then Harry asking Peter about his romantic adventures. After a few peppy inner monologues as Peter started raved about his complicated relationship with Gwen (honestly I didn't see why they were on and off, it couldn't have been that hard to be in a relationship), I managed to ignore the lingering feeling of judgement this Harry seemed to give me. Out of nowhere Peter turned to me.
"So Ada, still no guy in your life? Cause if there is you know I'll have to screen him like the good bestie I am," I laughed at him.
"Oh you know me, my closest relationship is to my lovely, gorgeous, excruciatingly perfect computer," I know, I was swooning, "anyways, you saying you'd basically threaten any guy I try to date doesn't seem like nice incentive to tell you if anything's happened!'" By the end I was basically singing in my teasing. Peter gave me a pouting look before focusing once again on Harry, I guess ten years were a bit much to catch up on. I once again took a back seat in the conversation, only interjecting a few snarky comments and answers.
In a sense, Peter was like a brother to me. To put things simply, I was a strange, introverted, and quiet child who couldn't seem to make any friends. Moving to Queens New York after my parents divorce when I was only 9 didn't help my social status or skills in any way whatsoever. Given my depressing state I'm surprised Peter both managed to befriend me, but also deal with my bitchiness at the time, even though we were neighbors. I used to literally give him the silent treatment and actively ignore him in school and walking home. But Peter being his ray o' sunshine self never gave up on me and eventually I opened up to him. His perseverance alone obtained him a special place in my heart and our friendship has only grown into a familial feeling over the years. Don't worry about me falling in love with him or anything either. Him and Gwen are my true OTP and honestly, dealing with someone as a child never leaves much to be desired. Oh I could go on and on about embarrassing stories about Peter, all with distasteful traits that I don't want to ever have to deal with.
The same goes with him about me probably, that kid has more blackmail on me than any other human I think I'll get to know. I also know Peter thinks of me only as a deranged sibling as well. I moved right after his old friend was sent to boarding school (I'd bet you my lovely computer that this friend was the Harry hanging out with us now). I guess I filled in the gap of "guy friend" that Peter needed at the time and our broship just continued. Not that I'm even complaining, I love just being a friend, no drama and no relationship problems either.
Back to the present though. We had made our way over to the beach portion of our hangout spot over conversation. I wasn't paying too much attention to our talk and soon we started skipping rocks. With an awkward silence on the verge of popping up Harry piped up.
"You know when my father sent me away I tried to forget everything about this place, that included you Peter," man was this punk fabulous at cheering the mood up. Peter paused in his quest for a rock and straightened himself up, looking straight into Harry's eyes with a look of broship I never thought existed.
"You don't need to explain anything to me man, to us," at least Peter didn't forget I was there, "we all got kind of dumped," I nodded, saying my bit.
"Best not to ponder too much and live life," I don't think Harry noticed me speaking, or he was ignoring me… because he spoke up again a moment later.
"Hey Peter, you ever find out why your parents bailed?" I frowned, knowing how much of a hard subject Peter's family was to him. Peter's face scrunched up a bit.
"Nah, all I got is this briefcase," Peter let out a dry laugh, skipping a rock, "a briefcase full of crap," Harry's smile dropped as well, Peter shrugged, "I try not to think of it much, like Ada was saying…" I nodded slightly. Harry still felt the need to remark.
"Well how's that working out for ya?" Oh dear this kid was getting to my nerves, but Peter sighed anyways.
"Fine I guess," he responded, accidentally skipping a rock with more force than he meant. Literally 8 skips, that's got to be a new record. Harry scoffed in disbelief.
"Woah man did you see how far that one went?!" He took a double take at Peter, to make sure he wasn't imagining anything. Peter got nervous, his voice jumping up an octave with his next exclamation.
"It's all in the wrist man, all in the wrist," my hands went to cover my mouth when I accidentally snorted a laugh out. What made me laugh more was Harry actually believed Peter.
Nice cover Peter Parker, or ya know, Spiderman.
Yeah yeah, I knew about Peter being Spiderman, I mean, it wasn't that hard to figure out when putting all the facts together. The change in personality and confidence at the moment spidy became a thing, Peter's sudden inexplicable tardiness to EVERYTHING, and the fact that I maybe followed him after school one day and found him st a warehouse working out like no human could possibly do all added up to the logical conclusion that Peter had to be spiderman! Once I had the theory in my head it really wasn't hard to discover him, small peaks of his suit from out of his clothes, all the long sleeved shirts, the dual metal bracelets probably for webbing, his sometimes uncontrollable strength… Yeah it wasn't much difficulty figuring him out, and that was a problem. If I could figure out he was spidey than who else could discover him? From the conception of that thought to the present I've made it a point to keep him secret. A small mention of the "red sports shirt he was wearing that clashed with his outfit," or how I "liked his new bracelets" sent him into a more cautious state. There was still one more thing I did though, and that was protect him with technology. I mean the boy is an idiot for how smart he seems to be! Not only did he order RED SPANDEX to his own home, but he changed literally anywhere out of immediate eyes, including alleys with cameras. So I maybe learned how to hack to delete this camera footage… maybe to erase any knowledge of the spandex order too… and maybe a few other things, such as turning off location on his phone, making sure absolutely nothing ever saw him. I don't brag much but spiderman would've never had this much free reign in the city without discovery without my help. Now I know some of y'all are going "does Peter know you know his superhero alter," and no, no he does not. I mean, hell I get why he wants to be secretive, he doesn't want to put people In danger, if I let him know of my awareness it'd send him into a worry frenzy! I couldn't, and I wouldn't, do that to him. Also how was I supposed to breach the topic? Take him out to coffee and be like "hey there pal, I know you're Spiderman," I don't think that'd be smart either. And I mean, Peter has gotten a lot more careful over the past year of him being Spidy, if he didnt become more cautious I honestly would have told him, if only to get him to stop changing in obvious places. I'm not stupid to believe I can keep my secret forever, and if I slip I know who Peter is in his spare time it'll be on me and I'll have to deal accordingly. I do know that telling him now would do more harm than good though. I'll tell him one day, although not today.
Back to the present, I had checked out for the rest of the time we hung out, as Peter was clearly, and understandably, paying more attention to Harry. We got hot chocolate and I informed the two of my "pressing other matters" that I "had to deal with immediately," I mean, they accepted it. I gave Peter a warm hug and stood back with a slight wave to Harry.
"I guess I'll see ya around, it was a pleasure meeting you Harry," I iterated with a not-so-obviously-strained smile. I could tell he held back a sneer.
"Pleasure indeed Miss Namin," he said pleasantly, and with that I walked away, back to my lovely computer and back to my own existence. That was our first meeting, and neither of us could have guessed what it led to.
~Fin chapter uno
ExTRA - Harry's first impression of OC, in first snobby POV
I observed the girl in front of me, apparently Peter's best friend since I left for boarding school. She didn't seem like much, in fact she seemed rather distasteful. Her improper grammer had ticked me off at the beginning but her clothing really put me on edge. Sweatpants, long sleeve shirt, scarf, and literal slippers were an unpresentable mix of clothing. The fact that she had the balls to go outside in her putrid outfit was respectable, but still disdainful in my eyes. Her matted hair was only amplified by her attempt to hide it with a ponytail and beanie. Thick glasses hid the rest of her face but did nothing to conceal the amount of freckles that were haphazardly splattered across her face. I held out my hand for politeness sake, and introduced myself, careful to leave out my last name. She accepted it and grasped my hand firmly, her small hand dwarfed by my own.
Damn did she have soft as hell skin.
I made sure to abolish that thought as soon as our hands disconnected.
I named my OC Adeline Namin after I went on a college visit and there was a Barbershop quartet convention going on. The female version of Barbershop quartet is apparently Sweet Adeline's and Namin's from the last name of the guy who checked into the hotel before my parents and I. I know random but that will at least make her less of a possible Mary Sue right? RIGHT? (Please I don't want to write a Mary Sue)
I hope she turns out not terrible and I'm counting on you readers to tell me if Ada's too good at something or something like that.
Also also, my writing is haphazardous and skips around a lot because honestly, I'm way to impatient to write a full length story as of now. Thus I won't focus much on the movies plot (not that there was much) and instead focus on developing ho and ada and their relationship in longer, drabble like chapters.