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Snow crept up the windows of the compound, the air above flurried with large white flakes that fluttered lazily downward. The main room didn’t hold the same serene silence the weather did, no, it was filled with people laughing, talking, cheering.
It was Christmas Eve, after all.
The Christmas tree twinkled in the corner. Glasses of eggnog had been passed around after dinner, and now everyone was settled in the main room around the television, getting ready to watch some animated Christmas movie that Peter knew he wouldn’t be able to pay much attention to.
See, all the Avengers and their families were over, which filled up the large room quite nicely, with every couch filled. So when Peter had originally sat down next to Harley on the smaller sofa and left the normal amount of space you would leave between two people, Scott and Hope and Cassie had filled up the rest of the space, and when Peter shifted over to give them room he suddenly found himself pressed right up against Harley’s side, touching from shoulders to toe.
Peter thought about moving, maybe finding a different spot so Harley wasn’t so squished. But Harley didn’t look uncomfortable at all as the movement, just smiled at Peter with his bright grin that had Peter weak in the knees. “You good?” he asked like Peter wasn’t the one who had just pressed him up against the side of the couch.
“I mean, yeah, if you are,” Peter said, wondering if he could discreetly put some space between him and Harley and not end up in Scott’s lap.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just gonna get my arm out so it doesn’t fall asleep during the movie.” Harley pulled the arm that was in between them up and stretched it out. Peter felt the weight of a hand on his shoulder and a slight push, and then he was leaning against Harley’s shoulder while his arm hugged him tightly. Peter took a slow breath, hoping he wasn’t shaking as much as he thought he was. Leaning against Harley’s shoulder, nearly on his chest, Peter could feel the slight rise and fall as the other boy breathed, he could hear his heartbeat, which was slightly elevated. “Is this okay, still?”
“It’s fine,” Peter said, ignoring how quick his own heart was beating. There was a stretch of silence too long between them as if both were waiting for the other to do something.
“Alright!” Tony walked in, Morgan on his hip. “Who’s ready to start the movie?”
“We all are, we’re the ones who have been waiting on you!” Clint called from where he sat with Laura and the kids.
Tony shrugged. “Sorry, Morgan couldn’t find her snowman, and we can’t watch Frosty the Snowman without the snowman. Also!” he addressed the whole room again. “It’s Christmas Eve, so I’m setting the rest of my children loose.”
It was to the group’s testament that they only groaned a little at the inclusion of Tony’s bots. Peter fought to keep from laughing, and felt Harley shake with similarly contained laughter.
“Also, I’ve attached mistletoe to DUM-E.”
Now people really did groan, but Tony held up a hand. “You don’t have to participate, if you just wait a bit, he’ll move on. But I just thought it’d be a fun way to spread, you know, peace and goodwill and all that. Plus, we’re all sitting next to people we love anyway, so what’s the harm?”
There was still some grumbling, but no one seemed to have a real protest to that. Peter shifted his eyes to look over at Harley who was scarlet and staring straight ahead. Peter shifted to put a little bit more room between them, disappointment gnawing at his heart. Harley looked over at him, and there was a sadness in his eyes that hurt to look at, so Peter focused on the movie again, the best he could when he could still feel so much of Harley.
The kids were paying attention to the movie, but the adults were all softly talking, low murmurs over the excited cartoons. Clint was making scathing commentary of the movie, much to the delight of his kids and the exasperation of his wife. Sam and Bucky were pelting popcorn at each other from across the room, though it was hard to tell if they were trying to throw it into the other’s mouth or give each other welts. Peter could hear Cassie talking her dad’s ear off about the movie, and when he turned his head Peter saw the two adults exchange fond smiles over her head.
True to Tony’s word, the bot soon entered the room, a sprig of mistletoe dangling from his claw. The group chuckled as he stopped in front of the tv for a few minutes before wheeling off toward his first mistletoe victims.
Peter tried not to tense as the bot rolled toward the couch where he sat next to Harley, but he found he was only able to exhale after the bot rolled past him and stopped over Cassie’s head.
Hope and Scott looked at each other before both leaning down to simultaneously press a kiss on either of the young girl’s cheeks. She laughed, and so did the rest of the room. DUM-E wheeled off, chirping happily.
A few minutes later, the bot had rolled to a stop and was dangling the mistletoe in between Pepper and Tony, who were curled up next to each other. Tony turned expectantly to Pepper, who leaned down to kiss her daughter instead. Tony made an offended noise, and Pepper rolled her eyes before giving her husband a kiss.
Some time later, after all of Clint’s kids had attacked him with kisses and Wanda showed Vision what a kiss was and a few others had declined DUM-E’s mistletoe gift, the movie was wrapping up, and Peter felt a little relief mixed with disappointment.
Yeah, he wanted to kiss Harley. But he had felt the tension in Harley’s shoulders every time the bot made a loop around their couch, felt his heartbeat speed up. So Peter clamped down his welling disappointment and focused on getting through the evening and waking up for Christmas tomorrow.
So, of course, it was just his luck that as the movie wound down and parents started wrangling their sleepy kids to bed, there was an excited chirp, wheels slowing to a stop, and then Peter looked up to see a sprig of green leaves and a cluster of red berries.
Tony paused halfway across the room, a sleeping Morgan in his hands. “Nice job, DUM-E,” he said to the bot, clearly fighting back a grin as he exited. “Merry Christmas, you two.”
People were filtering out back to their respective rooms, barely paying attention to the two boys left on the couch aside from a few side glances and quiet laughter. Peter shifted, pulling away from Harley slightly to look at him. Peter forced out a laugh, face warm, eyes flicking back up to the bot’s extended arm and back at Harley, who was looking at him unwaveringly. “I’m going to kill him,” Harley said simply, an unreadable expression on his face.
Peter thought about saying something, some sort of dismissal. It would be easy enough to just get off the couch right now and head to his room, ignore anything that happened tonight and be in the same place tomorrow.
“Fuck it.”
Harley was apparently not thinking along the same lines, however, because he darted in to press a quick kiss to Peter’s lips.
It was awkward, their noses bumped and Harley’s lips were chapped and dry. Peter darted back in surprise before his brain caught up to Harley’s actions, then he was moving back toward Harley at the same time, eyes fluttering shut.
Their foreheads slammed together as they tried to kiss again without looking. They pulled back, both muttering “ow” simultaneously and grabbing their head. Peter laughed first, and Harley followed after a moment, pressing his face into Peter’s shoulder as he giggled. Their fingers threaded together like they had been doing it for ages, resting on Peter’s thigh.
“I can’t believe he actually did that,” Harley groaned, lightly banging his forehead against Peter’s shoulder. “I was joking .”
“Wait, what?”
Harley pulled back, a guilty grin on his face. “I may have accidentally mentioned to Tony that I wanted to kiss you under the mistletoe.”
“Oh my God,” Peter blushed bright red, tipping his head back. “No wonder he set this up then. I told him pretty much the same thing the other day.”
Harley laughed. “Seriously?”
Peter nodded. “Seriously.” There was a beat of silence, then Peter looked up and back at Harley. “So DUM-E hasn’t moved. Do you think he’s broken?”
“Probably. But the mistletoe’s still here, which I think means I’m supposed to kiss you again, sweetheart.”
“Not if I beat you to it,” Peter challenged before rushing to capture Harley’s lips with his own, laughing against his mouth, breathing him in.