summary:
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Harry was really good at having really bad ideas. See, a smarter person would maybe have stopped and called the police. Informed them that they have seen what building the Goblin took Spider-Man to, and let the authorities handle it. But Harry wasn't that person. Harry took the elevator down and sprinted the whole few blocks down to the skyscraper he saw the villain disappear above and decided that if even a superhero managed to get himself kidnapped, surely a stupid rich teenager would be able to save him.

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„How is she?" Peter stared at Harry, trying to avoid focusing on the band-aid on his forehead. Harry was fine. Just a little banged up. It could have been worse. Harry turned to him with a sour expression.

„No longer my girlfriend, apparently."

Peter winced. He wasn't overjoyed when he found out Harry asked MJ out but he certainly didn't want for them to break up before anything could come out of it. Harry was right. Peter never made a move. And maybe, that was for the better, after all. When he looked back on it, he barely knew MJ.

„So... Who's incredible?" It was meant to be teasing but Harry's face did a weird journey of emotions, ranging from disappointment to anger to confusion before he laughed bitterly.

„Spider-Man." He said, leaning against the stairs barrister. „Apparently MJ cannot be with me anymore because she found a new love of her life, and it's a superhero."

Peter laughed. Then he realized Harry wasn't laughing.

„You're joking right?" He still wasn't quite ready to buy it. „Your girlfriend dumped you for a guy whose identity she doesn't know, who she has no way of contacting, who she doesn't actually know, like personality-wise, who may not even be single... or into girls..."

„Yeah." Harry nodded. „Wait, is he?"

„What? Who's what?"

„Spider-Man. You take pictures of him, don't you? You know him. So is he?"

„I wouldn't say I know know him..." Peter squirmed, unsure how to approach. Hell, most people didn't even know he was the one snapping pictures for Bugle. They weren't signed. Harry only knew from Peter himself. Maybe he should tell Harry, except... It was scary. And Harry just told him MJ dumped him for Spider-Man, but Spider-Man was Peter, and Peter had a crush on MJ, except maybe not anymore. „You mean... single? Into girls?"

„I don't know." Harry shrugged. „Either?"

„He... doesn't care. Like us." Peter answered, eventually, trying not to blush. „But he's not dating anyone right now, as far as I know."

„Cool." Harry smirked, and then looked out of the window, his expression turning serious. He sighed. „I'm just now realizing maybe we were chasing after a non-existent ideal of MJ. She probably wasn't for me either." Then he perked up, trying to loosen the atmosphere. „On the topic of not being into girls, how the fuck are you sitting, Peter. Get off the armrest, no one will believe you're straight."

„And they'll be right so let them think." Peter shrugged with a smile.

„And take the shoes off, you'll get it all dirty."

Peter rolled his eyes, and smoothly slid down to land in the armchair properly, with his ass on the cushion.

„Happy?"

„Very." He turned to the stairs. „I'm gonna get some rest. It was a... long day."

„Tell me about it." Peter shook his head. „Go on. I'm gonna stay up for a while."

„What was that thing?" Harry asked, taking his sweet time climbing up the stairs.

„I don't know." Peter answered truthfully, because that was the question, wasn't it? „But whatever it is, somebody has to stop it."

„Spider-Man?" Harry smirked, finally climbing up. „Maybe MJ is right, you know. Maybe he is incredible. Maybe he's not my league. Goodnight, Pete."

And just like that, he left Peter with questions and a blush that slipped through at the thought of his best friend found him incredible. If only he knew.

***

Harry had been known to have bad ideas all his life. His entire history was failure after failure after failure. He excelled at one thing, and it was doing the wrong thing. His father never hesitated to remind him of that. And Peter... Peter never hesitated to support him in making equally stupid decisions. Peter made equally bad ones just as well as he did. He was just better at school, but he made stupid choices right along with Harry. Case in point: becoming a superhero photographer which placed his workplace at battlefronts, and apparently befriending a superhero too, which placed him in danger directly.

But that didn't change the fact that Harry always had stupid ideas, and if anyone was able to talk him out of them, it was usually Peter, and Peter wasn't here right now to do it.

Harry was in a cafe at his college, glasses on his nose that should be buried in a book. But instead he was staring out of the window and wondering if he would be able to graduate as he tended to do until Peter swooped in like a hero and explained shit to him. There was a doodle of Spider-Man on the page of his notes, and Harry turned the page with a sigh, thinking of what it would be like if mom was still alive or dad was fine with him trying to pursue art instead of taking over OsCorp. But mom was dead, and everything in his life always boiled down to OsCorp and responsibility. It was sickening.

He was admiring the sunset, halfheartedly describing it in his head in a poem or a piece he would never write down, when a streak of green crossed his vision. He blinked, but his glasses were on, and he saw just fine at the distance anyway, even as he took them off. No one else around him seemed aware, but he could swear it was The Green Goblin flying to the roof of the building across, and what was worse, carrying a familiar, unconscious blue and red figure in his arms. Harry turned around and tuned in to the newscast playing on the TVs in the students' lounge. It was just a few minutes after a full hour, so the presenter was still calmly reciting new events. He told himself maybe he imagines it as he scanned the news bar at the bottom, but a moment after that the screen flashed the red sign of freshest breaking news and footage of Goblin's attack on The Daily Bugle - Bugle, where Peter worked! - and Spider-Man's kidnapping appeared. He called Peter immediately, stuffing his books into his bag, but there was no answer.

And well.

Like he said, Harry was really good at having really bad ideas. See, a smarter person would maybe have stopped and called the police. Informed them that they have seen what building the Goblin took Spider-Man to, and let the authorities handle it. But Harry wasn't that person. Harry took the elevator down and sprinted the whole few blocks down to the skyscraper he saw the villain disappear above and decided that if even a superhero managed to get himself kidnapped, surely a stupid rich teenager would be able to save him. Frankly, it was a wonder he was even right about the place. It may very well have been a mistake, Goblin may have disappeared from his view above that place, or turned, or moved on from there. The roof may have been inaccessible, or the whole building under heavy security. But apparently Harry, besides the abundance of bad ideas, also had an abundance of good luck, because it wasn't.

He easily got to the top of the building, found an open door to the personnel staircase, found his way to the top. And aside from the spectacular view of New York, crouched behind a vent fan, he had a prime view of the Green Goblin, as Jameson had dubbed the man, and Spider-Man. The friendly neighbourhood hero, normally a snarky fighter, looked dazed, barely conscious, flinching away from the gloves hand that gripped his chin, as the Goblin spoke to him, offering cooperation. Harry snorted. As if Spider-Man would suddenly turn to the side of evil just because some Halloween clad asshole suggested it. The voice of the Green Goblin carried through the roof, Harry easily making out every word, and it seemed somehow familiar, although he couldn't quite place it. He would have to give it deeper thought later, try to jog his memory.

He didn't even have time to try and think of a plan (although if he had, he would have probably realized how little he could do if there was a real danger to Spider-Man) before the Goblin ended up taking off. He watched Spider-Man struggle, realizing he was tied down to the floor with his own webs, and followed the green figure disappearing on the horizon until he was sure it was safe to come out.

„It's fine, let me help you."

Spider-Man's head shot up sharply, the white lenses widening in a surprisingly expressive display of surprise.

„Harry?!"

„Wait, how do you know my name?" He looked at the hero, but chose to dismiss is, trying to free him instead. It was much harder than it seemed. „Why is it so goddamn sticky?"

„God, I don't know, Harry, I'm a physicist, not a biologist, just cut it with something sharp, it works, I tried it before." His voice was still a bit slurring but Harry raised an eyebrow, somewhat amused at the bickering and choosing to play along as he dug in his bag for a swiss knife his father gave him because „that neighbourhood wasn't safe for someone of his standing".

„Well, Mr. Physicist, I'm not the best at science myself, but I think you should know it's really fucking dumb to get kidnapped because you got gassed when your costume literally has a mask. Couldn't have thought of some filtration system?"

He eventually got the knife out, opened it and slashed through the webs. He helped the hero scrub the sticky substance off the red suit as he stretched, freed from his restraints.

„Well, I am gonna add one now, okay!" He sounded more alert, at least. „You try and design and sew a badass superhero suit on an old Singer between classes."

Wait.

Old Singer? Classes? Physicist?

Harry knew that voice.

He knew that snark too.

He narrowed his eyes and quickly grabbed the edge of the fabric, pulling the mask up before Spider-Man could stop him, still a bit sluggish from the sedative.

„Oh my God." He pulled it back down before Peter could even protest the reveal. „Oh my fucking God, I knew it."

In the light of the new discoveries, Harry had to say that Peter may have been even better at making bad choices. He didn't just place himself in danger as Spider-Man's photographer, on no, he jumped straight into that danger as Spider-Man himself.

„Well, that's not quite how I imagined you finding out..."

„Peter, you idiot!" Harry whispered in quiet annoyance, not willing to raise his voice and potentially compromise his friend's identity. „This is dangerous, you know!"

„I know what I am doing!" Peter rebuffed, but it was half-hearted at best, as he stood up. They both knew he probably didn't know what he was doing, he never did. Harry just opened at sending him an unimpressed look that communicated that he just got kidnapped by the villain and wasn't very convincing. Peter got it, based on the sigh and the way he put his head down, looking like a kicked puppy even in the red mask.

„How do we get back? You gonna ride down the elevator in that onesie?" Harry finally asked and Peter shook his head, jumping up and down a few times.

„No, it's fine." He took the mask off, taking a deep breath. It was a bit weird, to look at him and see Peter, but clad in the Spider-Man suit. „I can swing in a moment, I'm almost back."

„You sure that's a good idea?" Harry was somewhat sceptical. Especially if he was supposed to trust Peter to take him flying through the skies too.

„Yeah, he waited for me to be lucid enough to be able to understand and remember his offer, right?"

„Who the fuck is that guy, anyway?" Harry looked at the horizon where the Green Goblin disappeared. There was something about the villain that unsettled him.

„I don't know." Peter squinted in thought. „But there's something about him... something familiar. Like I know those eyes, but I have no idea where from."

„Really?" Maybe Harry wasn't paranoid then. „Because I could swear his voice reminded me of someone."

„We should look into that. Okay, I think I can swing." Peter put the mask back on, but now it was as if Harry could see through it, in the voice, the body language, the quips. „Just, put your arms around my neck and hold tight."

Harry listened, with something of trepidation, but his gaze kept drifting to the ledge. Peter's hand wound itself around his waist, firm and strong, and Harry only just now noticed that oh. Peter had muscles now.

„I won't drop you. Promise."

„Wait!" He went to move but Harry stopped him with a last-minute realization. „Wait, let me just. I don't want my glasses to fall off."

He took them off and carefully put them in the case and in his bag, feeling Peter's watchful eyes on him the entire time before he resumed position.

„You know. You look really cute in those glasses of yours."

„And that's how I know for sure you're drugged." Harry blushed. „You sure you can swing?"

„What? No, I mean that!"

„I know that." Harry smiled. „But you sure as hell wouldn't say that aloud if you were sober."

He wanted to say something more, but he didn't get to, because suddenly Peter was stepping off and they were falling, flying through the air, and Harry was screaming, until Peter finally shot a web and swung them forward and up again. It was terrifying, exhilarating, and absolutely awesome. Harry was so getting Peter to take him swinging again.

Finally, they landed in their living room, Peter closing the window and the curtains to not draw more attention to the fact Spider-Man was suddenly swinging with someone and landing in a specific apartment.

Harry stepped away from Peter, laughing and still a bit drunk on the feeling, and he could feel Peter's matching grin even through the mask.

„Holy shit." He sighed. „So you're Spider-Man, huh. I'm roommates with Spider-Man. Fucking hell. Hey, can you... um." It was almost surreal, standing in front of the suit, looking into those captivating white lenses and knowing what was behind them. „Can you do the thing? You know, the pose. The upside-down thing."

Peter chuckled and jumped, suddenly standing upside down on the ceiling.

„Like that?" He asked, and then crouched, and slowly lowered himself on the web until he was face to face with Harry.

It felt surreal.

Harry kept coming back to that thought because everything about that day felt like a wonderful dream he would wake up from any minute. And he didn't want to.

He carefully rolled up... down... Peter's mask, and not thinking much, still a bit high on adrenaline, and leaned in. They both melted into the kiss, slow, deliberate, purposeful. It was mutual, and unapologetic, and perfect.

Then Peter landed on his head on the floor with a thud.

„Ouch." Harry laughed, the uncaring bastard.

„Did I kiss you so well you fell from the ceiling?

Peter narrowed his eyes at him, not willing to admit it, and stood up, brushing off the dust and embarrassment. He linked his arms around Harry's neck and drew him close.

„Just shut up and do it again."

Harry obliged. Peter tasted of sweat, a vaguely hospital flavour that was likely the drugs Goblin used on him, and familiarity. He was warm and grounding as they leaned their foreheads together, and suddenly Harry knew this wasn't a dream. This was real. This was good.

„You know, I realized something."

Peter just hummed, signalling for him to continue.

„What MJ said, when she broke up with me, she was both right and wrong, in a way."

„About Spider-Man?" Peter frowned, confused, remembering the conversation.

„She was right that you're incredible." Harry smiled and pecked Peter's lips once again. „But not because you're Spider-Man. Because you're Peter Parker."

The End.

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Word count: 2687