Chapter Thirty-Two: Getting to Know You
*TIME SKIP: 2 WEEKS*
It had been an eventful couple of weeks since the day the sky opened up and rained aliens on the Big Apple. After the shortest visit to the Helicarrier in history, Peter and Hiro had disappeared into the city once again, not even sticking around for the celebratory shawarma feast. Hiro had happily figured out that the black cat was his Animagus form, which led to an interesting conversation about that after he exited from the bag into the alley Peter touched down in. He had also discovered that his vison had not improved. At all. Leading to a good deal of stumbling into things with Peter laughing it up in the background.
The brunet had taken to the whole "magic-cat-boy" thing surprisingly well, but then again, he had seen more than his fair share of weird during his time as Spider-man. He'd gone as far as to help Hiro dig around in the donation boxes outside of stores for a grey sweatshirt when the nights got too cold, and half-jokingly offering him somebody's old walking stick – minus the hook – from a garbage can when he walked into yet another lamp pole trying to follow the more nimble teen. He still had the old stick. People tended to get out of the way when you walked past while tapping the end on the sidewalk like an old blind man. It was also helpful when he wanted to poke Peter for laughing too much.
Now they were being typical homeless people and sitting on a practically grown-over bench in the middle of Central Park, both half-asleep. Peter's head looked like it was going to fall off and tumble onto the grass behind the bench as his mouth hung open, prompting a series of quiet giggles and snorts from the wizard. Hiro himself had shamelessly propped his feet on his friend's legs, missing the light blush on the spider's cheeks, and was slowly succumbing to the welcoming afternoon sun's call to sleep. His grip on his stick loosened and it fell to the lawn with a soft thump as he drifted into darkness.
…
When he jolted awake, Hiro didn't know what time it was, only that it was later as the sun cast long, gold-lined shadows on the ground. But he was more concerned with the position Peter was in, leaning forward on his knees, face covered by his hands and head propped up by his elbows. His hair was ruffled from sleep and a bit too long to comb back with his fingers like he usually did. It flopped over the sides of his head from what his fuzzy vision could make out. Hiro's feet had fallen out of his lap at some point.
The raven sat up carefully and prodded what he guessed was Peter's shoulder gingerly. "Hey."
"Sorry," came the mumbled answer.
"No," Hiro said. "You okay?" The brunet shook his head yes, not convincing the other in the slightest. "Hm." Peter let out a snort-laugh and sighed deeply before sitting up to lean against the armrest of their bench with a too-bright smile plastered on his face.
"So, what's up with you?" he attempted. "Have a funny dream?" The emerald-eyed teenager continued to look unimpressed with him, even though his irises were looking somewhere to the left of where the arachnoid's head actually was. It was still plenty effective, however.
"Stop hiding," he chided, a small frown marring his face.
"You stop hiding," Peter mumbled like a petulant child and slumped down in his seat.
Hiro snickered at the tone, then appeared to contemplate the idea seriously. "Okay." He supposed he could accept the obvious change in subject if it meant clearing some of the air on his end.
"Okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay." They looked at each other for a split moment and burst out into raucous laughter, filling up the evening air in the forested portion of the park around them.
"Okay," the raven-haired one breathed absentmindedly, causing another bit of giggling, "what I meant was, ask me whatever questions you have. You said you had a billion—"
"A bajilion."
"Yes, that. We haven't really gotten a chance to just talk," he finished knowingly. It wasn't exactly hard to notice the amount of moving around they'd had to do recently. With the casualties and damage the city took, the authorities were out and about more often. While that was good news for the kids who lost their parents in the invasion and had to be sent off to other family members or the apartments that needed protection from common thieves, it wasn't great for the pair. And though Hiro still disapproved of Peter's "I'm not going to associate with anybody or accept any help" motto, he didn't want to be separated. "Ready, steady, go."
"Uh," Peter hesitated as he thought it over. "Oh, how many spells do you know? What can they do?"
"Oh Merlin, I don't know! Why you'd ask that?" Hiro groaned comically with a little smile. "Magic can do a lot of stuff. In school we learned about potions, charms – which was basically spellcasting – magical plants and animals, and transfiguration – turning things into other things – plus some other stuff."
The still sleep-messy American had a dangerously audacious smirk now. "Double, double, toil and trouble?"
"Oi, shush up you."
"But really, a school for witches and wizards?"
"Yeah, Hogwarts," he paused, waiting for the few snickers to die down. "Wizards name things weirdly. It's a first through seventh year school, middle and high school for you yanks."
"What's it like?" the enhanced urged, sitting forward.
"Barmy, absolutely barmy. But great. The staircases move, the paintings talk to you, potions is actually in the dungeons, the Great Hall – it's rather like the cafeteria in a normal school – has a roof that mimics the sky, I ran into a door that wanted me to scratch its back once…" The young Brit continued to ramble about the school, gesturing wildly with his hands with every sentence. He illustrated with passion his old school, the teachers, the students. Peter soaked up every word, before posing a question that didn't thrill him as much as the previous ones had.
"But what was your experience?"
Hiro froze in the midst of lowering his hands from a particularly large flourish and stared over Peter's shoulder with an inaccuracy that had nothing to do with his lack of glasses. Finally, he set his arms down in his lap with a tiny slump in his posture, letting out a small breath. "Both awesome and terrible."
And so, he explained everything to his closest companion.
How his parents were killed by a Dark Lord called Voldemort and he was sent to live with his relatives, the Dursleys. Their abuse and his constant work, not even knowing his name before hearing it on the first day of school, and the insane arrival of his very first Hogwarts letter. His first year with Quirrell in the maze of challenges under the school. Second year and the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets after being shunned by the whole of the school. Then came third year, and along with it dementors, murderers, werewolves and hippogriffs. The Triwizard Tournament in fourth year that put him up against a dragon, mer-people, and finally a maze meant to kill him even without the portkey to the cemetery.
Cedric dying.
Voldemort rising.
And nobody believing him. Fifth year with Umbridge at Hogwarts and the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries. Sirius dying. The craziness that came with the next year even before Dumbledore's death at the end, then being taken to the Weasleys' at the end of the next summer, where everyone tried to pretend everything was still normal. Horcrux hunting, learning he was going to die, that the purpose of his life was the end of it, and walking to it anyway. The nightmares he had and the horrors he had seen, the feelings of being abandoned and alone even in a crowd and the pain inflicted. How he got to Peter's world. "And I think you know the rest."
Hiro stared at the ground between his feet, where he thought that the blurry long thing next to them was his walking stick. He didn't know how long his explanation took, but it was either deep into the evening or into the beginning of the night. His hands fiddled with the hemline of his hoodie as his mind whirled a thousand kilometers per hour from the memories he had just dredged up and the million possibilities of Peter's reaction to his less than perfect life. He wanted to leave Harry behind with the terrors he'd found in the wizarding world, but he wasn't so delusional to separate himself completely. It had been his life and it left its impact in more ways than physical scars. If Peter was going to accept him, he'd have to accept his old life.
The raven hadn't noticed it, but Hiro sat in almost the same position he had nudged his friend out of earlier and the other set his slightly tanner hand on his arm. He mimicked their earlier conversation with a reassuring countenance. "Hey." Hiro sat back with a quiet snort, though he opened his posture to cock his head at the brunet. A mixture of uncertainty and a touch of challenge. "Whatever happened, happened," he said decisively. "Now you're here."
They shared a rather emotional few-second smile before Hiro spoke up. "Well that's good, 'cause I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."
"So, I'm stuck with you?" Peter sniggered.
"For better or worse," the wizard mocked, relaxing against the back of the bench, unconsciously gravitating towards the other half of the pair. "Like a bowtruckle on doxy eggs."
"What?"
I'm freeeeeee! No more school as of the 14th! (Until September, but we're not talking about that…) I also passed my driver's test yesterday so hooray for that as well! That's my life at the moment… back to the story!
If it seems like Peter and Hiro are too chummy for not knowing each other that well, note that they've really been living together for two years and still have a sort of dynamic that hasn't changed drastically. Maybe it's a little awkward, but not like they won't talk to each other or are skirting around each other.
I know this type of chapter is boring, but sometimes you just need something like that. It's also rather short, so, sorry.
Chapter title is straight from what I like to call the Stalker Song (you know, getting to know you, getting to know aaaaall a-boooouuuut yooooou).
Lastly, next chapter is the cameo chapter! Yeah, that thing y'all voted on forever ago, it's here!
Lucky
To Enes: You're welcome, I suppose! That's a lot of thank yous! Glad to know you liked it!
To Carl-the-strange: Yeah, there'll be a lot more of that coming up soon! Always awesome to hear that you enjoyed the huge reveal chappie!
To kossboss: Honestly, that's a pretty accurate summary of that chapter, LOL.
To : That's a different type of magic, so he probably won't. They will probably interact and compare notes at some point (possibly in a sequel or one-shot, IDK), but I don't want Harry to be OP and he already has a good handle on his own magic, which is powerful in its own right.
To Werewolfshaverights: Thank you! And don't worry, Hiro still has his cat form! I can have some fun with that in later chapters… ;P
To MayaHikari: Oh good gods there are so many ideas swirling around in my mind! I'm going to have so much fun with those four. Thanks for the review and your support!
To era-romance: Okay, so I agree with everything in your amazing review and you really shouldn't apologize for rambling (though I might be a hypocrite for saying so). However, as much pity as I feel for Loki and as much as I absolutely love reforming Loki and then having him make mischief with other characters, that will not be a huge point in my story. Now that Loki is back on Asgard, he probably will not appear again, unless something changes. I know that in the MCU, Loki was mind-controlled, hence his bright blue eyes in the original Avengers. But in my story/AU he's not. He's just a bad guy. I recognize that this limits character building and such, but I have no real plan to make Loki a bigger part in this. Sorry if that's not what you were expecting. Deadpool and Venom may or may not appear, but if they do, it might be a while. Sorry for any disappointments… I really do love Loki, from the bottom of my mythology-obsessed heart!
To tempetapapillon: It's gonna be great! Especially with Tony's protectiveness sometimes.
To SilentProwler: Oh my gods! LOL! I just might have to use something like that, we'll see.
To Vladimir Mithrander: Thanks! And well… they might not be at the Tower per se, but that adorable point shall be utilized!
To SkylerHollow: Thank you so much! I'm always afraid I'm straying too far from canon for it to be likable. Hope you liked this chapter too!
To Phoenix373: Okay, so I see how this might be confusing… but I did mention in the previous chapter that he was wearing all black, like the color of his fur in cat form. "In fact, his whole ensemble was black, from the jeans to the tennis shoes, but it showed that he was mostly just happy to be clothed in the first place." So, yeah he has clothes on, but he kinda only has that one outfit… hope that explained that!
To Beth9891: Thank you! And since he's now an animagus, Hiro the cat isn't really gone forever!