Bonus Chapter 2 (Chapter 12)
By the time Harley made it down to the party, drinks had already been passed around and bottles littered multiple surfaces. He hadn't thought they'd been too long, but he could see his family were already showing varying signs of drunkenness. Thor, Loki and Cap were sharing a flask of Asgardian mead, something that would've knocked out the rest of the party, although they didn't even look affected. Tony, Pepper and Natasha were all drinking whiskey at the bar, the day having stressed and upset the three of them the most, (not to say that the others hadn't been pissed at the pupils' treatment of Peter, but those three were the most protective of him) even if it had had a more positive ending. Everyone else had their drinks in traditional Red Solo cups that Harley didn't even know Tony kept in the tower, and seemed to be having a nice enough time, but then Harley's eyes landed on Clint and Sam, who had obviously already had a shot drinking competition, little plastic shot glasses scattered around them and bottles of various liquids all had their lids off. They were clearly already wasted, leaning on each other and hiccuping as they tried to convince his fiancé to join in with their game. Shaking his head at their antics, he made his way over to them, intending to rescue Peter, but when he got there, Sam and Clint were just as happy to see him.
"There he is!"
Look Peter, it's your boyfriend!" they said simultaneously.
"No, he's my fiancé," Peter said with a soft smile directed at Harley.
"Oh yeah, you're engaged! We should celebrate! Here, have a shot," Clint enthused, pouring them both shots and handing them over, before pouring himself and Sam some more. Both Harley and Peter cheersed and threw back their shots, but as soon as Clint tried to hand them another they both declined.
"Aww come on, don't be boring!" Sam whined. "It's supposed to be a party! We should be having fun."
"Yeah, I know, let's play a game. You two cover your eyes and we'll pour you drinks and you've got to guess what they are."
Peter and Harley exchanged glances before Peter inclined his head slightly. "Ok, but just a couple. I want to be able to remember this party, not end up black-out drunk," Harley acquiesced. Clint and Sam ran around looking for things to blindfold them with, drawing the attention of a few others who came over to see what was going on and then join in the game, leading to the decision that they would just have to be trusted not to peak at what was being poured.
It became a competition between them all, to see who could guess correctly the fastest. Peter had an advantage with his enhanced senses, but Tony and Nat had both joined in and were evenly matched. Natasha was almost always right when it came to different vodkas, Tony won the rounds involving any type of scotch, whiskey or bourbon and Peter took the lead whenever it came to anything fruity, or any concoctions Sam and Clint came up with. Ned and MJ were just using it as an excuse to be able to drink without any adults telling them off, although everyone at the tower trusted them to drink (mostly) responsibly and knew that they'd be safe there, and Wanda and Pietro had joined in to try to bond more with some of the others.
Before long they had all drunk far more than Harley had intended, although him, MJ and Ned were certainly feeling it far more than the others who had enhanced metabolisms and drinking experience on their sides.
"Alright guys, this is going to be my last one and then I'm done," he called out, only to be met by boos and Clint blowing a rather loud raspberry. Once everyone had settled and the drinks had been poured (during which clint and sam had dissolved into giggles for a long minute, so who knew what they had concocted), they all got ready for the last round.
"3, 2, 1, GO!"
They all drank their shots and several faces of disgust were pulled, as well as some exclamations over the disgusting taste. All Harley could work out was an overwhelming taste of sour followed by a burning down his throat that he associated with a very strong whiskey. Before he could puzzle anything out further, Peter had piped up.
"Whiskey, lemon juice, apple Sourz and just a hint of cherry gin."
"How on Earth did you guess all of that?" Harley exclaimed. "I would've just guessed sour whiskey. It was disgusting!"
"Well I didn't say I liked it!" Peter laughed. "I guess I'm just good at picking out different flavours." With Peter's win it put him and Nat at a tie, but despite calls for a tie-break, they decided to leave it there and both boys wandered into the kitchen for a bit of a break.
Peter handed Harley a bottle of water before grabbing one for himself and sipping at the contents. "Gods I'm going to regret that tomorrow!" Harley groaned.
Peter laughed at him but said, "It's ok, I'm sure we can persuade Brucie to whip up some of his miracle hangover cure. Then we can spend all day in bed watching movies. What do you think?" "Mmm sounds wonderful baby," Harley replied, coming over to draw Peter into his arms, pressing a kiss onto his forehead. The two stood like that for an immeasurable moment before Peter started humming and they found themselves swaying along to his melody. As they danced in the kitchen they felt as though they were in their own universe, completely caught up in each other.
"I love you Harls," Peter sighed with his forehead resting on the other boy's shoulder.
"I love you too baby," Harley whispered back, running his hand up and down Peter's back for a moment. "How are you though? I know today's had it's ups and downs."
Peter looked up at him with a small, but genuine smile on his face.
"Honestly? I'm actually feeling pretty great. Sure, them all picking on me throughout the day sucked, but having you with me every step of the way helped." Harley couldn't help but smile back at him and give his hand a reassuring squeeze. "And with the truth coming out about everything, I feel like I can finally stop holding back. They can't hurt me any more. I'm just going to enjoy my last few weeks of high school and look forward to college with you and Ned and MJ."
"I'm so proud of you Peter. You've endured more than you should've ever had to. But you've got through it. You stood up for yourself. I'm not saying that Monday won't bring a whole new set of challenges, but hopefully it'll be better. And you know I'm always here, whenever you need anything."
"I know Harls. Thank you, truly. You mean the world to me. I don't know that I could've got through it all without you; both today and in the past."
You're welcome baby. You mean everything to me too." And with that he leaned forward to give Peter a gentle kiss that expressed all his love, pride and devotion. It was just as Peter's hand came up to cup Harley's cheek that Loki waltzed into the kitchen.
"Alright you two, time to break it up," he interrupted with a smirk. "No one's here to watch you two making out, there's supposed to be a party going on."
"Yeah, to celebrate our engagement. Again. So that's what we are doing. Celebrating." Peter snarked back.
"Yes, I'm enjoying my fiancé, so go away," Harley quipped.
"Kid, no one wants to know about you enjoying anything. Now Tony's ordered food, so go eat something other than Peter's face," Loki joked, disappearing in a cloud of green sparkles before either boy could reply.
Disentangling from one another, they made their way back into the living room, only to find an absolute mountain of takeaway had been brought up. It was only then that Peter remembered how little he'd had for lunch and he dove over to grab a plate and start piling it high. When he had filled his plate with so much food that it was precariously dangling over the edges, he made his way back over to where Harley was now sat on one of the couches.
"Aww thanks doll," Harley exclaimed, reaching over to grab a slice of pepperoni pizza. "You know pepperoni's my favourite!"
"This is mine! Get your own" Peter all but growled, gently slapping Harley's hand away and making those around him laugh.
"Come on, please?" Harley asked, reaching over again, making Peter angle his plate away from Harley.
"Peter doesn't share food!" Peter intoned, before shoving almost the entire slice in his mouth, causing more laughter. Harley just sighed in fond exasperation before getting up to go and grab his own plate.
Later on, once the food had been devoured and everyone had sat chatting and drinking for a while longer, Clint (egged on by a now very drunk Sam) decided he was bored and the only solution was for everyone to play Twister. They couldn't all play at once, so they got split up into groups of 4 and it was decided that they would play tournament style, with the winner of each round then going on to play in the final round. Bruce offered to be in charge of spinning the dial, emphatically stating that he had no interest of getting on the mat.
In round 1 it was Peter vs Loki, vs Clint, vs Bucky. The round started off easy enough, but with Clint being one of the most drunk in the room, it didn't take long for him to start to struggle with his balance. Clint got told to put his right foot on red, which led to him sticking his ass in Bucky's face, which was not appreciated, but was made even worse when he shook it in front of the super soldier's face and said, "I know you want it!" before he promptly lost his balance and almost fell butt-first into the man. The whole room erupted into laughter when an unimpressed Bucky shoved Clint away from him, making the archer fall in a heap on the floor, taking Loki out with him. It then became Bucky vs Peter, but even all his ninja assassin training (as Tony referred to it) could not help Bucky win against Peter's enhanced flexibility.
Round 2 saw Harley face off against Thor, Sam, and Wanda. Sam found himself knocked out quickly when, like Clint, he was too drunk to keep his balance, faceplanting the floor when all he had to do was put his left hand down in front of himself, on yellow. Thor soon found his large muscles to be a hinderance, rather than a help, and was unable to squeeze into the tight spot that was his only way of reaching his designated place. This then left Harley and Wanda, who were pretty evenly matched. They both breezed through several turns without so much as a wobble, but eventually it came down to lucky (or unlucky, depending on who's side you were on) timing. Harley was wobbling and struggling to maintain his bridge position when Wanda got given her next instruction. She moved her right foot, but slipped over before she could reach her destination. Not a second later, Harley crashed to the floor, his arms having given out. Despite his fall though, Harley was narrowly declared the winner.
Round 3 was May, Ned, Steve and Natasha. Everyone was already pretty sure of the outcome of this one before it started, and sure enough they were right. Natasha won. May and Ned dropped out early, knowing they had no way of beating the Black Widow. Steve put up a good fight and pulled off some interesting contortions, but he was no match for Natasha, who gracefully moved into each new position as though she were dancing.
Round 4 had MJ, Pietro, Tony and Pepper going against each other. It was the quickest round yet, as Tony flirted with Pepper so much and so lewdly that it put off both MJ and Pietro and they both quit, not wanting to be involved in what was very rapidly feeling like a private moment. Pepper had been biding her time though and on her next move draped herself as provocatively as possible in front of Tony, who immediately lost all concentration, forgot all about the game and lost his balance trying to reach for pepper, who just laughed and announced her victory.
So the final round saw Peter and Harley decide to team up on the mat at first, to try to take out Nat and Pepper. They started off well, each making it through multiple turns until the boys got distracted, having somehow become completely tangled up in each other. Harley couldn't resist leaning in to kiss peter as his mouth was right there in front of him, but as he leaned in he got stuck and toppled over, taking Peter down with him and both boys were so intertwined that it took them several minutes to work out how to get off of the mat and out of the way, much to everyone's amusement. After that it was down to the two ladies, who kept the game going for much longer than any of the other rounds. They twisted around each other and apart again sinuously, never missing their designated spot, many of their positions drawing wolf whistles from the drunken crowd. Eventually though, they began to tire and Pepper's arm trembled from the maintained position, leading her to collapse on the floor. After Natasha's win they all dispersed a bit more, talking, picking at snacks and nursing more drinks.
Harley and Peter had slipped off for a little while for a private conversation, but then came over to ask Tony if they could chat, which led to them all standing in one of the spare rooms down the hall from the party.
"What is it boys, are you not having a good time?" Tony asked.
"Of course we are, thank you Tony. It's just that we worked out what we wanted our favour to be for winning our bet earlier."
"Ok Harley, what have you two decided that you want? Unlimited ice cream? To get the whole tower to sit and watch a Star Wars marathon with you?"
Both boys laughed at that, but then Harley looked over at Peter. "You ask him Pete."
"OK." Peter took a deep breath and then looked to Tony with puppy dog eyes. "I was hoping... um we were wondering... you can totally say no, it's fine, uhm..." He trailed off nervously.
"What is it Peter?" Tony asked gently, smiling at him.
"Will you officiate the wedding for us?" Peter asked quietly, looking down at his shoes, so he missed the fact that Tony's eyes glimmered with tears. Suddenly he found himself drawn into a hug and then felt Harley's arm coming around him as well.
After a while Tony pulled back to look at both of them with hope shining in his eyes. "Do you both really want that?"
Both boys nodded. "We'd love that Tony. If you'd be willing to." Harley replied.
"Of course, I would love to! I love you both, I hope you know that."
"I love you too," they both replied at the same time, causing all three to chuckle.
Tony drew them both back into a brief hug before saying, "Come on, I need to tell Pep!" and they all made their way back to the others.
When Tony told Pepper she smiled brightly and came over to hug both boys. "I'm so happy for you both. It'll be wonderful!"
A little while later the party was winding down and Harley, Peter, Ned and MJ decided to head off into what had been deemed their room. It was where they all stayed when they had sleepovers, complete with sofas, a cinema screen, snack cupboards and even beds that Tony had designed to fold away into the walls when not in use. They had brought a bottle of whiskey with them and passed it back and forth as they played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity. They had debated playing truth or dare, but they all knew everything about each other and were all feeling too lazy to get up to do any dares, so they settled on playing never have I ever, seeing who drank for the most random things. "Never have I ever been arrested," - Harley drank. "What, the guy was a jackass and deserved to be punched in the face. I didn't actually get charged with anything." "Never have I ever hacked a government server," - Ned drank but quickly followed it up by saying "Shh, they could be listening!" with such an overly concerned face that the other three dissolved into giggles.
They went through a few rounds, but then MJ said, "Never have I ever announced that I am a superhero to a room full of my classmates, and stood up to my bullies and announced my engagement all in one day."
"Well, technically, I didn't announce our engagement," Peter hedged.
"Shut up and drink Parker," MJ demanded. After he'd done so, she turned to face him and said in an uncharacteristically soft voice, "I'm proud of you Peter, for how you've put up with it all, and for how you stood up for yourself today. I know it was more to do with Ned, in the beginning, when we weren't overly friends, but thank you for staying at school and wanting to spend time with me, even when you could have been off having bigger and better adventures." Peter didn't know what to say, so he got up and hugged her, with Ned quick joining in, and Harley a beat after. Their warm mood lasted until they had all drifted off to sleep, all cuddled together on the floor. Friday made sure to save a photo of them into Tony's "Kids 3" folder.
