Forever

chapter eleven

Peter rolled over, shutting his eyes. "Look, I already have plans tonight to hang out at the tower." He knew talking to Nico would be hard, but this felt like walking through a foot of mud, each foot getting heavier and draggin farther behind.

He heard Nico groan over the phone. "Don't tell me, with Harley?"

"No, actually." They had planned to play video games later, but Nico didn't need to know that. Peter couldn't be bothered to start that argument right now; not with the thinly concealed annoyance lying just under his voice.

"Good. I don't like you hanging out with him. I swear, Peter, I don't ask that much of you, really. This is what I mean; as my boyfriend, you could at least try to help me out and just get rid of him."

Peter huffed and rolled over. "I told you I'm not hanging out with him. I have to go," he finally said, hanging up the phone without another word.

He rolled out of bed and stood up, stretching to go find Harley. What Nico didn't know wouldn't kill him.

That didn't make hanging out with Harley much better. After his friend's confrontation about him liking Harley—which, for the record, he did not—Peter felt awkward about it. He was fairly certain that it was one-sided though.

But also, while he may not agree with Nico, he still felt weird about doing exactly what Nico asked him not to do. It all confused him so much. Nico had hurt him but Peter loved him. Loved him so much. Really, telling him not to hang out with Harley wasn't even that big of an ask. It was reasonable when he thought about it. If his friends thought that he liked Harley, it was probably fair.

Still, as guilty as the thought made him, he couldn't help but think that Nico seemed controlling sometimes. Even if it made him guilty to think of his boyfriend that way, it was what he felt and he couldn't change it.

Peter couldn't imagine not having him, though. Sure, they fought more than their fair share, but there were too many good times to just throw it all away. And if Nico was sorry and said he was trying, how could Peter blame him, even if it hurt?

Maybe he wasn't as good at hiding it as he thought, though. "You alright, Peter? You seem a 'lil lost there."

"Yup," he said, flashing a smile at Harley. "All good."

Harley looked at him long enough that Peter broke eye contact and shifted. "No, seriously."

They were alone in the lab. Tony had left to visit the compound for the night and it was unlikely anyone else would come down. It had been fairly quiet up until this point, but not at all bad.

Harley moved to face Peter, who was sitting on the desk. Peter considered not telling him, really. It would do no good telling him, there was no reason to. But it was so hard to lie to him, with his unrelenting stare and confident posture. There was no convincing lie he could spin with Harley watching him.

"Nico, uh..." he took a breath, looking up at Harley. "He doesn't want me to hang out with you. Well, he hasn't for a while, but..." he trailed off, leaving it unsaid that he'd brought it up again.

Harley just nodded as though he'd expected it. "Why? Does he have a good reason?"

"I mean... I guess? I dunno, I think he's wrong but—"

"No buts. If you don't agree, it's probably not a good reason. It's not fair, like I told you before. He can't tell you who you're allowed to hang out with."

Peter sighed, avoiding his gaze. "It's not like that. He's just..." he faltered, trying to think of what to say, before just grumbling, "It's fine."

Harley stared at him for a moment, before leaning up against the wall across from where he sat, crossing his arms. "I wanna talk to you about Nico." Peter started to protest, but Harley got there first. "I told you we weren't done talking about this. You can't just leave it like that."