connection - parkner week 2019

day one: parades

peter was ecstatic. he was finally going to his first pride parade. to be honest, he had no idea what it would be like. queens had never had one exclusively, and peter had never managed to get to manhattan pride. ned and mj had gone the year before, and they had said it was amazing. although, they'd not managed to get there early enough to look at all the stalls before they started packing away. this time, however, tony had let the three friends, plus shuri, stay at the tower the day before, so that they could wake up at a reasonable hour, as well as have time to experience everything.

~~~~~

it was the evening before pride, and the four friends were playing just dance when tony decided to strike up a conversation. however, they were halfway through dancing to umbrella (again - they were trying to all get five stars), so none of them were going to answer tony until it was over. the billionaire stood at the door and watched them, a tiny bit confused as to what was so important that they couldn't pause the game and listen to him for just one second-

"shuri, you suck at this game." mj said, as soon as the song ended.

"oh, come on! i was only, like, two hundred points off. and i'm furthest away from the sensor! it can barely see me!" shuri retorted.

"that's not good enough! now we have to play again, and i have to watch peter beat me, again."

"you're just a sore loser, mj. i'm just too good at this game." peter laughed.

"how, though?" ned decided to join the conversation.

"practice."

"i thought you hated playing this on your own?"

"yes, but i don't mind when i'm home alone."

"i hate you." mj spoke up again.

"love you t-" peter started to reply before tony shut him off.

"now that was very entertaining from an outsider's point of view, but seeming as none of you were listening the first time i said it, i need to introduce you to someone. i met him a while back - during the mandarin incident - and he wanted to go to manhattan pride as well, so, seeming as you were all going this year, i got him a plane ticket, and he's here now." tony stepped aside, allowing the teenagers to see a boy, who was a little taller than tony - none of them knew how tony had managed to hide him.

"oh, hi!" shuri was the first to speak. she was the most confident out of the group - considering that she had to participate in many press conferences in wakanda, and she had to talk to a lot of strangers. "i'm shuri, this is my girlfriend mj, this is ned, and this is peter." the princess continued, pointing to each person as she said their names.

"hey, i'm harley, and that was definitely the best just dance performance i've ever seen." the boy, now known as harley, smirked. "mind if i join in?"

"sure, you can take my place." ned offered, already taking his wii remote off his wrist. tony wasn't strict with his household rules, but after clint had put a hole in the tv after accidently letting go of the remote after a family game of wii sports, tony made the rule that everyone had to wear the wrist strap when playing.

"no, ned, keep your remote. harley, please come and take shuri's place. we're all trying to get five stars on this, and shuri is the only one who can't do it. we're getting tired over here."

"ned and i aren't, but go off." peter spoke up for the first time since harley had got there.

"well, ned isn't because he's only moving the hand that the sensor picks up. and god knows why you're not tired." mj replied. suddenly, everyone (exculding harley) gave mj a weird look as if to say 'we know why'. "okay, yes, five out of six of us in this room know why he's not tired. i was trying to cover peter, but i guess you all didn't want that." mj corrected herself with a shrug of her shoulders.