summary:
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While skulking around in the vents Peter accidentally eavesdrops on a conversation he wasn't supposed to hear and learns something about his best friend.

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"How in the hell did you manage to lose an entire robot?"

Miles at least had the decency to look sheepish as he scratched the back of his head and shrugged.

"Something must be wrong in the program. When I was testing it, it was supposed to just run in a circle and then shut down, but instead it just kind of—" he waved his hands around, "kept running."

Peter sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"And you needed me, specifically, to help find it because—?" Miles knew he had a big project due tomorrow, and he was already seriously lacking in work time because of superheroing.

"Well, it's pretty agile. It might have ended up somewhere that we'd need our special skills to get too, you feel?"

"Alright," He sighed again and began mentally rearranging his schedule to include even less sleep, "you take the north of the building, I'll take the south?"

Peter wandered the building aimlessly for about ten minutes before he found a lead. A classroom door was slightly ajar. He pushed it open and slipped inside. At first glance there didn't seem to be any movement in the room, but he decided to do a quick sweep, just to be safe. Nothing. No robots in sight.

He was just about to leave when something caught his eye. There was a vent opening in the wall, next to a shelf filled with books and microscopes, and one of the slats was bent. He stepped over the wall. The vent was a little out of his reach, so he gripped the concrete and climbed up to where he could inspect it better. The opening was just big enough that something small could have gotten through. Could it really have—?

Peter closed his eyes and listened. Very faintly, he heard clanging echo from the metal. He opened his eyes and let out a sigh that probably contained half his soul as he worked the vent cover out of the opening.

He shifted his weight to one side so he could pull his phone from his pocket and shoot Miles a quick text. If Miles taught his stupid robot how to climb Peter wasn't going to be the only one crawling around inside the dusty vents. He took one last weary look into the vent before climbing inside.

The irony wasn't lost on him as he brushed aside cobwebs to shuffle his way further into the air ducts. It was hardly the first time he's been inside a vent, but he was usually in full body spandex so the dust wasn't as uncomfortable and his clothing didn't catch on every imperfection in the metal creases.

He stopped moving and listened again. It was hard to pinpoint the exact direction the noise was coming from because it bounced around the empty vents before reaching him, but he could hazard a good guess.

He followed the sound through a couple twists and turns, passing a fork in the vent as he contemplated all the ways he was going to force Miles to make this up to him. A different sound brushed passed his awareness.

Peter stopped and shuffled backwards to peer down the other shaft. This direction led towards the engineering labs in the B building, and he could hear voices bouncing metallically off the walls. They sounded familiar.

He worried his lip between his teeth for a moment, glancing back in the direction he'd last heard the robot, before making his decision and starting down the other vent shaft. The closer he got the clearer the voices became until he was able to pick up bits and pieces of the conversation.

"—you know he wouldn't care—" That was Gwen, no doubt about it, but she packed up her work half an hour ago, he thought she'd gone home for the day.

"—that doesn't mean—" The next voice was Harry. As far as he could tell it was just the two of them, but he couldn't make out what they were talking about. They kept raising and lowering their voices to the point where even his enhanced hearing couldn't pick up the whole conversation, like they were arguing but didn't want to be overheard.

When Peter reached the opening of the vent their voices were quiet. He peered out between the slats into the nearly empty lab. Harry was sitting at one of the desks, glaring daggers at the motherboard he was tinkering with. Peter could feel aggravation rolling off the tense line of his shoulders and hard set to his mouth. Gwen was standing next to him, leaning back against the desk with her arms crossed. She wasn't nearly as ruffled, her fingers tapped a smooth melody onto her skin.

They sat in heavy silence for a moment before Gwen sighed.

"Are you ever going to tell him?"

"Nope."

"Are you ever going to tell anyone?"

"Nope."

"So that's it?" Gwen pressed her palms against the table behind her. "You're just gonna marry some girl your dad picks out and be miserable your whole life?"

"That's the plan, yeah." Harry picked up his pliers and stripped the wire he was holding with an aggression that made Peter wince. Gwen drummed her fingers against the table.

He shouldn't be listening to this. Whatever they were arguing about it was obvious they didn't want didn't want to be overheard. He didn't have any right to eavesdrop just because they were his friends. Peter shuffled back, trying to adjust himself as quietly as possible so he could leave before he heard anything they didn't want him to. Back in the room, Gwen's voice rose from the silence.

"That's great and you can be the best man at Peter's wedding one day-" There was a loud slam that nearly made Peter hit his head on top of the vent. He looked back towards the opening as Harry shoved his chair back and stood up, paying no attention to the sensitive equipment knocked over by the movement. He was barely able to ponder why Gwen had brought him up because he was too focused on how Harry paced to the back of the room and ran a hand down his face.

"Gwen, could you just drop it. I can't- I can't risk losing Pete." Peter's eyes widened and he had to fight the urge to press his face against to vent opening to see better. What could Harry possibly think would turn him away? "He's the only stable thing in my life and I refuse to put that in jeopardy."

"You refuse to? Or you're too scared to?"

"Yes!" Peter winced as the shout rang through the vent and Harry whirled around to face Gwen, throwing his hands in the air. "Is that what you want to hear? I'm scared. I'm scared of making things awkward. I'm scared of ruining my closest friendship. I'm scared of my dad giving me that look like I somehow just ruined 30 years of plans and expectations, but then we'll never bring it up again because God forbid we have a normal conversation for once. Does that satisfy you?" Gwen frowned, looking more sympathetic than satisfied.

"Harry—" He didn't seem to hear her as he ran a hand through his hair and down his face.

"You have no clue what I'm going through here. You have a normal life, a normal family."

"My uncle turned the entire city into spider monsters."

"You know what I mean."

Gwen was silent for a moment, when she spoke her voice was quiet and controlled.

"Do you really think your dad would be angry?"

Now it was Harry's turn to pause. Peter couldn't help it, he scooted a little closer to the vent's opening.

"... I don't know," he finally answered, "but it's not just him I have to worry about, it's everything, the whole Osborn legacy." Harry ran his fingers through his hair, his jaw was tight. "I'm gonna inherit the company one day. How many investors will pull support if they find out the sole heir to the company is a fag."

Peter couldn't help it, he sucked in a breath. He slapped a hand over his mouth but it was too late. He could only hope the noise he made was quiet enough to not be noticed. By the way Harry whipped around and stared at the vent he wasn't so lucky. Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"It's nothing." Harry turned back around, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Listen, Gwen, can we bench this argument for later? I really need to finish this project."

Gwen watched his back for a beat before pushing herself up off the table.

"Alright." She crossed the room gracefully and opened the door, hesitating with her hand resting on the doorknob. "Harry, I'm sorry for being so pushy about this. I just don't want to see you make yourself miserable your whole life."

"Yeah."

It wasn't much of a response. Gwen hovered for a second more like she wanted to say something else, then finally stepped out and let the door shut behind her.

Peter held his breath. The sudden silence in the room was deafening and although Harry had normal human hearing, Peter was sure his heart was beating loud enough to be heard. Harry let out a short sigh, but didn't turn around.

"You can come out now, Pete."

Peter tasted his heart as it leapt into his throat. He'd been caught. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. For a moment he considered ducking back the way he came and pleading ignorance later, but Harry really didn't deserve that. With nothing left to do he pushed open the grate, pulled himself out of the vent and dropped smoothly to the floor. He stumbled to find his words for a moment.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Who else goes crawling around in the vents?" Harry still didn't turn to look at him. "How much did you hear?"

"Um—" he swallowed, mouth suddenly feeling gritty and dry like he'd just gone a couple rounds with Sandman, "I showed up around you marrying a girl your dad picks and being miserable your whole life." Harry said nothing, only shifted his weight slightly. "Harry," he started, "Are you—"

"Gay?" Harry cut in. He folded his arms across his chest, turning his head to face further away from Peter. "Yeah."

That was... huge. It made sense, thinking about it, Harry never really talked about girls unless he brought it up. Never really talked about dating at all.

"How long have you known?"

"A few years."

"And... you told Gwen but not me?"

"I didn't tell Gwen anything," Harry snapped, "she figured it out on her own. Then took it upon herself to give me advice." Peter winced at the bitterness in Harry's voice, and the way his fingers dug into his sleeve. He was pissed and Peter couldn't blame him. He hated when Harry was angry though, it reminded him of a worse time in both of their lives.

"I didn't— I mean I wasn't trying to eavesdrop. When I saw you and Gwen arguing I was planning on leaving because I didn't want to overhear anything you didn't want me to," Harry wasn't answering and the words came out faster and faster as his nerves frayed, "that's not the kind of thing I want to use my Spidey powers—great responsibility and all that—and just because your my friends doesn't mean I can eavesdrop on you whenever I want, so I really was going to leave, but then Gwen brought me up and you—"

Harry flinched, and Peter's rambling died on his tongue as he realized like a kick to the ribs that Harry wasn't angry at him for eavesdropping. He was scared.

"It's okay!" He blurted out, and Harry actually jumped a little at the suddenness of it. "It doesn't matter to me. I mean—God, fuck— I should have started with this—" he scratched a hand through his hair, trying to collect his racing thoughts. "You're my best friend, Harry, and nothing will ever, ever change that. I don't want you to feel like you have to hide parts of yourself. Not from me."

Harry didn't say anything for a moment, but the relief he felt was palpable in the way his shoulders relaxed and he finally, finally, turned to look at Peter.

"Thanks, Pete... that—uh—that means a lot to me." He plucked at a loose thread in his sweater. "You're a lot better at this than me. I wasn't... the most supportive person when you were the one keeping a secret."

Peter huffed out a laugh.

"Your secret didn't make you as bad of a friend as mine did."

"You were never a bad friend, Pete. Things were just changing, and I didn't want them to."

There was a weight to the words that felt like more than just his messy time learning to be Spider-man. He fiddled with one of his hoodie strings, twisting it around his finger.

"I am sorry, you know. I wish I hadn't found out like this. I would've rather waited until you were ready to tell me yourself."

Harry sighed through his nose and glanced down and away, searching for something in the tiled floor.

"No, it's... probably better this way." He hesitated. "I don't know if I would've ever told you."

Peter swallowed thickly.

"Did I... make you feel like you couldn't tell me?"

"No." Harry looked back at him and uncrossed his arms. "Not really, it's just... hard... to talk about. Even when... I thought I wanted to tell you, when I was pretty sure you'd be okay with it, there was this part of me saying 'keep it a secret, it's better this way, you'll ruin everything,' " he slid his hands into his pockets, "and there were... other things that made it hard."

"Your dad?" Peter asked quietly.

Harry's pressed his lips into a thin line, but didn't answer.

"Are you... really planning to just marry whatever girl your dad picks out?"

He took a while to respond, staring at the floor like the answer was written there. Peter checked, it wasn't.

"...I don't know. It would definitely be easiest."

Peter's insides squirmed uncomfortably.

"Maybe, but is that really what you want?"

Harry rubbed his arm.

"Well, my dad—"

"Forget about what your dad wants!" He reached out and gripped Harry's shoulders, twisting him to face him full on. "Forget about what the investors want. Forget about what Gwen wants. Forget about what I want! What do you want."

Harry opened his mouth, then closed it, eyes flickering over his face before locking with his own. Peter couldn't quite pin the emotion that was burning in them.

"I'm... still figuring that out."

Peter smiled and gave his shoulders a reaffirming squeeze before he let go.

"That's fine, just make sure when you do figure it out, it's not because of what everyone else wants from you."

"Yeah..." He shifted his weight. "It's just, coming out is a big ordeal. Especially when you're even close to the public eye... Even when I thought I might... When I wanted to... I never knew where to start."

"Well," Peter laid his hand lightly on his friend's shoulder, "now you've got a start with me."

Harry chuckled quietly and the sound was like music to his ears.

"Yeah, well, it's always you Pete."

Peter grinned, leaning over to put his arm all the way around Harry and pull him closer.

"Honestly, I thought I knew everything there was to know about you, kinda glad there's still stuff to learn."

Harry, tilted his head away, he looked a little red for some reason.

"You're unbelievable."

"I think you mean amazing, maybe spectacular?"

"If I'd meant that, I would have said it." But he was smiling now, which was a million times better. "What were you doing in the vents anyway."

"I was—"

The sharp sound of metal on metal rang out like tiny footsteps and suddenly a little robot dropped out of the vent Peter left open and made a dash for the door. "I was looking for that, actually."

With one smooth motion Peter shot a web at it and pulled it back to his hand. The little machine continued to run like it hadn't been caught. Harry stared at it wearily then met Peter's gaze.

"Miles?"

He nodded.

"Miles."

"Are you gonna tell him you caught it?"

Peter flipped a switch and the little robot went limp.

"Nah, he can crawl around in the vents a little longer. I've actually got an engineering project I need to finish too." He nodded towards the lab tables, where Harry's project sat forgotten. "You wanna work together for a while?"

Harry smiled, full of warmth and affection, Peter would never get tired of seeing that.

"Sure."

The End.

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Word count: 2747