The Arachnoids [A Starker Rock Band AU]

7: Ice Cream Ignition

The next couple of days, Tony only turns up for the soundchecks and live shows. Other than that, no one knows where he's at. He doesn't linger, doesn't walk in early, doesn't join in on the badly organized McDonalds dinners with everyone. Everyone's there. Bruce, Happy, Natasha, Steve... But not Tony.
Peter can see that Natasha and Steve are worried. They keep glancing at Tony whenever he is there. Which is enough proof for Peter to finally be sure that something's actually wrong. It doesn't seem Tony trusts anyone to help him. Instead, he closes off. He hides. Runs away.
Peter wonders if it has anything to do with the exchange he had with Tony after the Copenhagen show. He still feels bad about it and wishes he could talk to the man to apologize, but he hasn't gotten a single chance.

Right now, Ned's driving their van along the boring roads of Finland. They'd taken the ferry from Umeå to Vaasa yesterday, and from there it's another 5-hour drive towards Helsinki. MJ's face timing with Harley again and Peter can see Harley chilling out in one of the bunk beds on The Avengers' second tour bus. MJ's wearing headphones so he can't exactly follow their conversations, but it's clear they're having a good time.

Peter smiles and sighs, closing his eyes for a second. It's tiring, much, much more tiring to be on tour than he'd expected. Of course, he'd known he wouldn't get enough sleep. That the stress and hectics of hopping from one city to the other are exhausting. Yet, they're only five days into the tour now and he's already utterly wrecked.
They don't have a show until tomorrow night, so today is a nice day-off. Then, they play their last Scandinavian show and head off for the Baltic States. He's looking forward to exploring Helsinki. And sleeping in tomorrow. That's gonna be lovely as well.

"Alright, we'll see you there!" MJ chuckles into her phone and then raises it in the air. Harley waves at both Peter and Ned - happy as always - and with one last goodbye he disconnects. MJ takes her headphones off and sighs, dropping her head against the window. She takes a couple of seconds for herself before turning around in her seat.
"Do you guys think Harley, uhm, likes me?"

Ned can't help but laugh, but quickly presses his lips together. He winks at the girl, whose eyebrows are now raised.
"Of course, we can't be certain..." Ned starts and Peter finishes the sentence. "But he sure seems interested."
"Oh," MJ responds to that and sinks back into her seat, contemplating that. When the realization hits her she groans.
"Why does this always happen to me..." she mutters.
"Don't you want him to like you?" Peter asks carefully. MJ chews on her bottom lip as she watches him through the rear mirror.
"I don't know? I... I really like hanging around with him. I... I guess that long-term, I might see it happen?" She sucks at her teeth. "It scares the fuck out of me. What if... Y'know- What if he's like Brad? I don't know if I can go through that shit a second time."

"Look," Ned starts slowly. "No one can promise you that things will work out, granted you want it too, of course. Not even Harley himself can promise it. But it might be worth a shot to talk about it with him?" MJ scoffs and shakes her head.
"How? I just go up to him and say, 'Hey Harley! I'm demi, so you gotta wait it out, bro.' Yeah, I bet he'll like that." MJ rushes out, her voice slowly starting to sound a little panicked. Peter leans forward and puts his hand on top of her shoulder, squeezing lightly. He frowns when he feels her shaking lightly. A soft sob rises from her chest.
"I don't want to lose our friendship," she chokes out. Peter can feel his own eyes sting at that and he swallows. He doesn't know what to say. He can't take her worries away and it hurts so much.

"You'll figure it out, Em," Ned tries to comfort her. "No matter what happens, you've got this. Harley's taking it slow as well, isn't he? Maybe, everything will just... Y'know, work out? And if it gets hard, he doesn't seem like the type of person to just drop you and run."
"I... I guess that's true," MJ sniffles and wipes her tears away. "He wouldn't do that."
"See? You'll ace this, no matter what," Ned continues, attempting to cheer her up. MJ lets out a surprised chuckle and shakes her head, eyes still watery, but twinkling playfully again.
"That actually works as a pun," she laughs.
"Wait, what'd I say?"
"Ace it," she chuckles. Ned snorts and nods to himself, seemingly pleased with his unintentional joke.