The Harley Keener Villain Complex

Peter Parker is actually three idiots in a trench coat

AN: Okay so- Moon knight season finale, Multiverse of Madness, Met some dope cosplayers, All in all, today was a good day. Have some Peter Parker POV

They say there are five stages of grief. Peter had heard that many times, for the first time when he had been dragged to a therapist after his parents had died by May and Ben he had locked all of his feelings inside, too many for his mind to handle at the time. It really influenced how he dealt with his emotions these days, how he both managed to work through his feelings internally whilst wearing his heart on his sleeve all the same.

Peter was working his ass off, he hadn't slept much ever since 'that day' nightmares tore him out of his sleep, leaving him restless and scared to close his eyes. So he didn't sleep, period, there was no reason he should for now, humans could survive on around 11 days without proper sleep and he wasn't exactly human either way so he should be fine- as long as he kept himself busy.

Despite being drop dead tired he did not dare close his eyes to intentionally find sleep, as soon as he closed his eyes, surrounded by absolute darkness he was back there. He even had to tape the light switch in his room shut to keep himself from accidentally being surrounded by absolute black again. He really did everything possible to not think about anything but work and it was working surprisingly well for the most part.

Harley did not help his state of misery and confused pain. Tony had spoken so highly of the genius, but the person Peter had met barely resembled the image he had conjured in his mind. Whenever he looked at the brunette he looked as though speaking with Peter was tearing him apart, like words were on the tip of his tongue, acid burning his throat but he could not get them past his lips. Like he was a stranger to trust and friendships. He had greatly appreciated him patching him up and offering his bed but the dichotomy of Harley Keener remained. He wondered if Harley would stay, would become a part of his life to a greater or lesser extent, he wondered if they could ever be friends though he was doubtful. On the kitchen counter he found a sticky note

Coffe is in the cup board, ceep the hoodie, if you need jens good luck finding 'em IDC - HS

Whilst he had no idea why the signature was HS instead of HK he did appreciate it. Just like he had appreciated the warm and fluffy bed Harley had allowed him to rest in, whilst sleep had come with great difficulty he had managed to take a few naps through the night, short ones, maybe ten or twenty minutes long each but it was some form of sleep nonetheless.

Harley was an odd duckling, of course, odd or duckling were far from the best words to use for the teen but Peter felt as though the metaphor fit regardless. The man struck him as strange, dangerous and most importantly as a liar. Because no matter how often he reiterated that he did not care he very clearly did. If it was some form of humour or some kind of defence mechanism Peter did not know, but he knew there was more to him than he let on and frankly, Peter wanted to know just who he was. He did not regard Harley as some twisted mystery he could solve, he saw him as someone he wanted to be his friend however strange that thought seemed to him.

He wanted to remain and snoop around a bit but as soon as the sun started to hit the floor he realised he had to work, Pepper was doing everything humanly possible to pretend that she was ok while bringing a multi-billion dollar company back on everyone's screens within mere hours. She may be human in the terms of biology but her business abilities were out of this world. Steve tried to look after him to the best of his ability and even asked if he wanted to join him at the press conference he had held on Sunday together with Rhodey and Sam- which he didn't. May was being the most supportive she could be though Peter refused to speak about his experiences with her, not able to live with the thought of upsetting her by telling her about what had happened and he couldn't bear the thought of going back to his old life, having to pretend he was fine and not traumatised what so ever. It had been a long debate with his aunt to suey her to allow him to go back to school, something Pepper knew nothing of and it was better that way in his mind.