Peter Parker and Avengers One Shots

in which i see if my soul can muster up a crumb of fluff for my sad readers

glvtterpills thx for the request! your request wasn't the whole focus of the one-shot, but I think I did okay!

i wanted to make a happy story bc i write nothing but angst. You decide which it is i guess

***

Peter had gone from being the stereotypical nerd in every 2000s high-school coming of age movie to having the buffness of the jocky bully in the same one. There were going to be consequences, as if he hadn't been given enough things that he hated about himself. 

He wasn't fond of them, them being the stretchmarks, but luckily, Harley was.

Harley loved them more than he could ever love himself, more than he could ever love the dying world that had failed him so, so much. He loved the dips and uneven surfaces more than he ever thought he could love anything, to be fair, and he loved, especially, Peter.

Sometimes Peter would catch Harley looking at him like he was the very higher being that had given both of them all of the sorrow that neither deserved. Harley looked at Peter like he was the only thing that kept him clinging to his miserable life, and the feeling was mutual.

Peter looked at Harley like he was the entire sky. The constellations, the comets, the asteroids and icy planets all spoken in soft whispers at three AM when the nightmares struck and the city life still didn't rest. Harley was the comforting voice in the midst of collapsed buildings and dusty dreams, tracing the scars and divots that made his lover so unique and beautiful.

The life that they lived and the world that they existed in wasn't so wonderful, but one smile from the other and suddenly, it was all worth it. Suddenly, all of the suffering and all of the work to cling to a strand of stability were worth it. Suddenly, all of the isolation and thoughts that they'd promised not to think about disappeared. Suddenly, they felt themselves smile too, and even if it was for a few minutes during a school day, the dark fog in their minds lifted and the light seemed to warm them.

They stole the quiet moments that they could barely grasp with their fingertips before they were whisked back into trauma, miniscule moments as simple as folding laundry. The basket of clothes was warm, warm like their smiles, and the folding only lasted as long as Harley could keep his hands out of Peter's hair that just looked so cute and fluffy, and then the laughing started, lazy and soft on a bed covered in messed-up clothes that had been so carefully formed even just a minute ago.

They stole moments that smelled of nail polish and freshly baked brownies (that weren't burned, shut it) that lasted in Harley's memories even weeks later, when he was tracing the stretchmarks on Peter's stomach while he slept. Harley couldn't sleep, but in that moment, feeling the steady rising and falling of Peter's body and through the action of tracing maps on the rivets of it, he was more relaxed than any moment when the lights were on and the thoughts were plaguing his mind. To be fair, they always were, but the shouting was reduced to slight whispers when he was in the arms of the one person that could calm him down.

The tracing was comforting for Harley, and Peter didn't know how much it grounded him. Peter just didn't understand, fully, how something that he hated with his entire being could be one of the things that Harley loved most.

He wouldn't ever love his body as much as Harley did, but maybe that's why they needed each other, to love what they'd never be able to.

Peter could learn to love his form, but he found it much easier and much nicer to himself to love Harley. He had enough self-hatred to get through before thinking about self-image, but Harley would love it for him until he found time to be better.

With every bandage that Harley wrapped around Peter's bruised body, Peter felt that his soul was healed too, but it wasn't the white cloth, it was the way that Harley's eyes crinkled whenever he told a bad pun, it was the way that his hair flopped when he blushed, it was the way that he sang when a good song came on the radio. 

With every time that Peter fell asleep in Harley's arm, Harley felt his heart swell even more. It wasn't the intimate moments that made their relationship, it was the domestic mornings after them when Peter came out wearing Harley's sweatshirt. It was when Peter got an answer correct during AcaDec and beamed so brightly, and so contagiously, that Harley grinned, too.

They both taught each other things that they needed to understand. Peter was taught that in a world so cruel to him, he deserved loving, and Harley was taught that in a world so dark and lonely, he could love, and not have them leave.

It was beautiful, and sad in it's own way, but so is life. It could be perceived as horrible, and depressing, but that's not how they viewed it.

They viewed it as because of each other, they'd live full, happy years, and they wouldn't have it any other way. 

Because without the other, what more would they have? They'd already lost everyone else, they'd lost their will, they'd lost everything that had made their lives worth living, so they'd learned to rely on each other. And yeah, maybe it wasn't so healthy, but it worked, and the emotions that they felt for the other were the strongest they'd ever been able to feel, so why would they take it away?

Why, in a world of sleepless nights and cold dinners would they get rid of the angel that had been sent to them?

***

sorry. i was gonna say that there's fluff next for sure but i can't even promise that. haha ;P