You, Peter and Harley all crowded around your TV the next morning as the news was rather bleak.
WHERE HAVE THE AVENGERS GONE? was the running title along the bottom of the screen as a panel of news broadcasters all shared their opinions, talking over one another, and theorizing what these kidnappings all had in common.
"Good luck figuring it out," you grumbled, "If we don't even know what's happening and have three times the information you do, then I sure as shit know your argument is a lost cause."
You switched the screen off, moving over to the sink to clean your yogurt bowl as Peter and Harley watched your choppy, aggressive moves.
"I'm going to the meeting this morning," Peter said, "You're welcome to come, Harley, if you want."
Harley raised his eyebrows, "Yeah I mean, if the Avengers don't mind."
"Who cares?" you called from your bedroom where you were struggling to get into your heels.
"You have my full permission to do whatever the fuck you want, Harley. You're the one who always comes in and fixes everything anyway. Maybe you'll crack Reed's time travel code before he does."
You came walking out of the bedroom now completely dressed for work, still struggling to get your earrings in as you walked up to Peter who was waiting for you with your to-go coffee mug.
"Have a great day at work, babe," Peter smirked, leaning in to give you a quick kiss.
"Aw thank you love bug," you cooed, cupping his cheek as he scrunched up his nose.
Harley pretended to gag.
"I have classes all afternoon but we can all meet up for lunch?" Peter asked, following you to the door.
It was one of those days where you were busy majority of the day and by the time you finally had free time, that was when Peter was busy. It was just the way your schedules worked and you'd both become accustomed to it.
"Sounds good," you nodded, "Bye love you."
"Love you," Peter said, opening the door for you.
"Bye Harls!" you called into the apartment, hearing a grunt as a response before you and Peter shared a smirk as you walked out the door.
"You two are really gross," Harley said, little Tofu situated on his chest as he laid out on the couch.
"You know 98% of that was just to annoy you, right?" Peter asked, "We're not usually so ..."
"Suburban token couple?" Harley chuckled, "Thank God."
"Come on," Peter said, looking around for his keys, "I can drive us to the Compound. My first class is at 1:30pm so we've got some time. I can leave you there too, for the afternoon, if you'd like."
"Whatever works," Harley sat up and Tofu jogged to keep up with him. "I'm ready to pick Reed Richards' brain."
"I'm ready for you to finally meet the Fantastic Four," Peter chuckled, thinking particularly of Harley and Johnny finally meeting.
"Are they as Fantastic as I've been hearing?"
Peter shrugged, "I guess you'll find out for yourself."
Peter didn't hang around the Compound much. He didn't really feel like being there, honestly. He was tired, and he just wanted to focus on his schoolwork and honestly, his homework was piling up like crazy these past couple days.
"Peter!"
Peter thought he'd have easily dropped Harley off and left without anyone noticing him. He'd said a quick hello to Hope and checked in on her, grabbed a waffle from Vision who was passionately becoming an amazing chef, and he thought he'd been in the clear.
"Hey Johnny," Peter said, turning and giving the boy a tired smile. "How's the Compound treating you?"
Johnny's eyebrows furrowed as he cocked his head slightly to the side.
"What's wrong?"
"What?"
"Something's wrong. You can see it in your posture."
Johnny mocked the slight slouch in Peter's broad shoulders and Peter chuckled, knuckling at his eye with a slight shrug.
"I'm fine, Johnny," Peter started to say but he was betrayed by a yawn.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
The tips of Johnny's hair quickly burst into flames before disappearing again. Peter had become used to these moments of spontaneous combustion in times when Johnny's emotions were too much for his body to handle.
He found it endearing.
"You're stressed about something. Is Y/N okay?"
Though Johnny obviously and openly flirted with Peter unapologetically in public, Peter always knew that Johnny would never do anything to jeopardize Peter's relationship with you because Johnny cared for you just as much.
It was all in good fun, and at the end of the day Johnny would protect you and Peter just as much as anyone else would (and vice versa).
"She's fine. Yeah she's at her internship. She has a ton of classes today."
"How's she feeling?" Johnny asked, "Since she was in the hospital and everything."
"Oh yeah," Peter waved it off, "Yeah she's perfectly fine. I mean, I think she should take some time off, obviously, but it'll take some serious persuasion to ever get her to back down. I've been trying for years."
Johnny smirked, "I'm glad she's good then."
"Yeah she's good, thanks."
"But you're not," Johnny stated flatly.
Peter sighed, "Really, Johnny, I'm fine. I'm just tired."
He tore at the waffle in his hands, popping a piece of it into his mouth as he shrugged, "Just a lot going on these past couple days, you know?"
Johnny nodded, fiddling with his fingers before tugging at the thick blue knit sweater he was wearing.
"You need a break," Johnny suggested, "Listen, I never got the college experience but I mean, well ..." he hesitated, "I definitely partied, but I never had the experience of going to classes and hanging with friends my age and ... you know, being in the world."
Peter winced, remembering that Johnny had agreed to stay relatively in the shadows along with the rest of the Fantastic Four after their whole initial incident.
"But you and Y/N have a really good thing going. And you have some really great friends. You should go out one of these nights and just let loose like normal college kids do. You'll be out of college soon, so this is really your last opportunity, you know?"
Peter nodded, nibbling more on his waffle.
"You're right," he sighed, "Maybe the two of us will go out with some of our friends or something. Hey," Peter's head shot up as he got an idea, "Why don't you come with?"
