Forever

chapter four

"Give me that screwdriver back. I need these tools, you're in the way."

"I'm in the way? Weren't you supposed to leave a couple weeks ago?"

"So what? Go work somewhere else."

"I was here first! And these are my tools. You're the one that needs to move."

"Oh, sure, Sugar. While I'm at it, why don't I—"

Tony groaned from the other side of the lab. "Cut it out, I swear you're giving me gray hairs. Harley, go work at the other table." Peter swore he mumbled something about 'these kids being the death of him'.

It had been about two weeks since Peter moved into the tower and May moved to Arizona. It was tough, but the best option for them both. He missed her every day though.

And anyway, it had only made things worse with Harley. For a few days, they had just avoided each other like the plague and while it sucked, it worked.

Now, when they were around each other, Harley would make dumb comments and Peter always rose to the bait. Not to mention the names like "sugar" or "sweetheart" or "darlin'" that he would use solely because he knew it pissed Peter off.

From then on, Peter no longer had to worry about avoiding him, then they just argued nonstop. They couldn't be in the same room for more than a few minutes before starting. In all honesty, there were plenty of times when Peter forgot it had started out as an act, hating Harley. Sometimes he really did feel like he hated him.

"It's time for dinner anyway, you can finish later. Let's go," Tony announced, making them leave what they were working on. The elevator ride up was silent, though the tension was obvious.

Unfortunately, Peter and Harley were stuck sitting next to each other. They happened to be the last ones up—again—so they had no choice.

Peter just sighed and tried to ignore him or be cordial at the very least.

"Can I have the salt?" Peter asked him neutrally, trying to keep the lasting annoyance out of his voice.

"When I'm done," Harley replied shortly.

After a couple of moments, while he swore Harley slowed down to the point it was almost comical, Peter said under his breath, "How long's that gonna take?"

Evidently, not quiet enough though. "What's it matter? What, first I can't use your tools now, what's it, your salt too?"

"I never said—"

"For god's sake," Tony cut them off, exasperated. He reached across the table, putting a different salt shaker in front of Peter. The rest of the Avengers seemed to be any combination of annoyed, like Tony, or amused.

And, for the next few minutes, they were saved from his and Harley's bickering. Until—

"My god, can you stop elbowing me!" Harley exclaimed after Peter had bumped him again.

"It's not my fault you're left-handed and make it an inconvenience for everyone else!"

"Please Darlin', if you wanna talk about an inconvenience, maybe it's how clumsy you are. No one else would be elbowing me right now."

Sam, who was just visiting the tower and had yet to be subjected to this, leaned over and asked Steve, "Do they always do this?"

Steve just nodded, clearly over it. "Alright, that's enough. You can argue later when we're done with dinner," he cut them off.

They both returned to their food, silent with anger still written all over them both. It had been like this the past few days with Harley, and the only source of comfort in it was that Nico seemed happy they were no longer friends.