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It was a quiet night and quiet nights made him nervous.
Harley’s come to expect weird messages from Peter and Shuri. Ever since he met the two heroes (and that itself was a story he wished he could forget) they’ve had a thing for sending him the weirdest things they could find from vine parodies of the Avengers (Harley’s personal favorite was Thomas Sanders going up to Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes for a story time) to the Avengers photoshopped into everyday situations with captions about being “normal people with normal lives”. Most of them fell into the middle ground of incorrect quotes that Harley were certain had been said at one point by someone in the Tower. He couldn’t go three hours without another horrible meme being sent to the group chat so for it to be silent for so long was concerning. His first thought was that something horrible had happened but then he remembered Shuri had told them earlier in the week that she was going to be busy with something related to being the Princess of a country and she’d message whenever she was free. Her moments free were far and in between and any actual conversations they had with her were limited to one’s in their personal messages.
In a sense the same thing was happening with Peter while on his bi-monthly trip to the Avengers Compound. Harley was meant to be there with him but had to cancel his trip last minute after Adaline fell off the garage (which she still refused to tell him how and why she got on there in the first place) and broke her arm. When he told his friend Peter didn’t sound too upset by it but he also hadn’t texted him in nearly thirteen hours which for the Spider-Kid was a lot. Harley was only slightly worried.
When Harley’s phone started playing the unofficial “Spider-Man Theme” at two am he should have known something was wrong.
FROM: Spider-Kid
its a cursed image kind of day
Harley stared at the image. He read it. And then he reread it.
His life started to flash before his eyes and it was so boring.
He set his phone down and stared at the wall. Harley wondered if he could have prevented this if he was in New York instead of Tennessee.
Probably not. Peter had a bad habit of not listening to anyone, not even Tony. Still, Harley liked to imagine the two of them had some sort of connection that might have helped him stop Peter.
“Stop Peter 2K19” could be Harley’s new motto.
He texted that to Ned and MJ, both whom would appreciate it, and then opened his messages with Shuri because he couldn’t keep staring at the wall and doing nothing.
—
TO: Princess
Please tell me Spider-Boy didn’t just send it to me
FROM: Princess
Sent you what???? Is Peter sending memes outside of the group chat???
TO: Princess
Oh god
Please kill me
Why me
FROM: Princess
Harley???
—
Harley saved the image and sent it to Shuri. He doesn’t know how to feel knowing that Peter sent this just to him and not Shuri. He imagined he should feel touched that Peter thought about him but also wished Peter hadn’t thought about him. He was having a nice night working on the newest Iron Lad design when his phone rang and ruined it. Why did it have to be Harley? Why did Tony have to break into his garage? Why did Harley have to agree to meeting Peter?
“Incoming call from, The Mechanic.” Kevy said over the speaker system. Harley glanced at the clock. It was three a.m. and Tony was calling him. If Harley ever tried calling Tony this late he’d get a lecture about how young kids need their sleep.
Harley answered anyways.
“Oh, thank God. Shuri wouldn’t answer and I thought I was going to be ignored by you too.”
“Not that I don’t like talking to you or anything, but why are you calling me at three a.m.?”
“Kid, Peter is broken. He’s lying on the floor crying about weed or something and I have no idea what to do.”
“Tell Peter he deserves every bad thing that happens.”
“Jesus Christ, why the fuck would I say that? Wait, he said he sent it to you. Are you broken too? Do I need to send a suit to pick you up?”
“I’ve been broken since you broke into my garage but thanks for finally noticing. And yes, he did send it to me and now I want death. You know, I was having a nice night working on the Iron Lad suit, even had some new designs I wanted to run across Peter and Shuri, and then he sends me that and I don’t think the world is worth saving anymore.”
“Ah, hell. That’s it, I’m sending a suit to pick you up. Bring your sister, I don’t care. I just need to make sure the two of you aren’t dying on me anytime soon.”
“Tony, my dude, my bro, my mechanic...I’m already dead.”
Harley drops the call. He imagines Tony is freaking out right about now. He wonders if Tony is actually going to send a suit.
Probably.
It’s too bad Harley is too busy being dead to come to the door. Maybe he’ll be revived one day or maybe he’ll keep staying dead.
He’ll probably stay dead. This isn’t the kind of wound he can walk off, sorry Cap. He can hear his phone ringing but he’s already on the floor and under the table. He doesn’t even get up when Adaline comes in and starts interrogating him on why Tony Stark is blowing up her phone at three a.m.
Harley is gone. He has joined Peter in the land of death and maybe Shuri too. Or maybe she wrote it. That seems like the kind of thing she would write to fuck with the rest of the world. That’s why Harley is afraid of her. Well, that and the fact that she could kill him because he even has a chance to put on the Iron Lad suit, but she won’t.
Unless this was her plan all along.
In which case, Harley is dead and Shuri has won.