The spoon scraped the side of the bowl as Harley stared blankly at the wall as he ate his cereal will sitting on the couch. Most of the apartment seemed to be asleep and that was fine by him. He needed time to himself since he was still decompressing from the fiasco that was Disney. Okay, yes, he was wearing a pastel Disney themed hoodie and a pair of sleep shorts that might have had Stitch on them, but everyone in this apartment already knew he was a bit of a nerd for that stuff. He liked to blame it on Abbie, but she wasn’t here for him to do that. The fiasco hadn’t been Disney’s fault. No, it had been everyone encroaching on his time with his family. A door opened and he blinked as he glanced towards Morgan’s room. Well, there went alone time. Maybe a good thing, it would stop him stewing.
“Morning,” he drawled out in a slightly thicker Southern accent thanks to being tired. “There’s more Lucky Charms if you want some,” he informed MJ as he spooned another mouthful into his mouth.
He felt slightly jealous at the fact that she had arrived. He was happy for Peter and the Stark family, honest, but he was missing his own sister. Another person for Tony and Peter to pay attention to… God, that thought annoyed him. He was going to have to listen to loud music at work and work more on his VR to calm himself down. “...if you want the Switch customized, let me know,” he said as he tried to be friendly. It came out indifferent and he merely ate more cereal as he watched MJ.
“Hey.” MJ offered him an awkward little half-smile as she grabbed some Lucky Charms and filled her own bowl. The apartment was a little more crowded than it had been when she was here before, but it sort of felt good to be here, even if she kind of felt awkward being a guest after having lived here once. Being on the orphans floor felt different and she’d honestly been a little glad when Morgan had insisted she stay with her for a couple of days.
She took a seat with her cereal and nodded. “Thanks,” she said. Her own tone probably sounded kind of indifferent, but she wasnt that inclined to admit caring about stuff, especially with people she didn’t really know.
Harley merely gave a thumbs up before going back to eating his bowl of cereal. The sugary stuff was bad for him, he knew that, but he couldn’t kick the habit of eating the stuff. Many a night this had been his go to food. Nothing like sugar and exhaustion being used to work on cars and other various machinery.
“Just let me know a color scheme,” he finally said as he idly spun the handle of the spoon in his fingers. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say to her. There was a part of him that felt like he had stolen her room, even if it could have been Aunt May who had. Yeah, this was kind of awkward. Har wasn’t the greatest at interacting with new people anyway and there was just history here. “I’ll refrain from putting sparkles in it.”
“Good. I’m really not a sparkle person,” MJ said, laughing a little. “Something dark,” she added after a moment. “Like a black or brown, I guess.” She wasn’t really into the bright colors or anything like that and she tended to favor darker colors in general. MJ didn’t really know what to say, either. Talking about Switch customizations was better, it was something to talk about, she guessed, but it was hard to know what to say to Harley. Like, Peter had told her about him, but she hadn’t actually met him before and it was just a lot, being back here and trying to talk to new people. She wanted to try, though.
"I can do that. Make it dark like my soul," he said in a completely serious sounding voice. "Morgan is probably the only sparkly one of us all." He pursed his lips together as he cast a look at her. "Morgan is cutthroat at Animal Crossing, so if you hear her cursing my name it is because I am messing with her village." Harley grinned a half grin as he looked down at his cereal bowl. It had been weird at first for her to be all grown up, but they had managed to fall back into a routine.
"She is glad you are back. Parker too."
MJ laughed, both at Morgan being sparkly and being cutthroat enough to be pissed at having her village messed with. She hadn't really known Morgan well before both of them arrived in Goodland, but she's become a good friend, almost like a sister. The notion of having a big family wasn't something MJ was used to. Truthfully, she was still adjusting to the found family she had in Goodland. Re-arriving after a few months absent made that adjustment feel even weirder, but she kind of liked it.
“I think I'm glad I'm back, too,” she admitted. For all it's quirks, Goodland was better than home in a lot of ways. “I'm glad they have you here, too."
The big family was overwhelming for Harley at times, but he was handling it pretty well considering. "I tried to live somewhere else when I arrived," he admitted. "Tony told me to stop being a little shit. I just forgot to move out after the trial period I gave was up." He honestly wouldn't have it any other way now, even if he felt bad MJ wasn't in her rightful room.
"Guess you are stuck sleeping over always, sorry."
MJ laughed again. “That sounds like Tony.” She shrugged, waving off his apology. “The kids floor kind of sucks, but I’ll be 18 in June, anyway. I figure I’ll be able to move out into my own apartment by then.” She thought if Morgan had it her way, they’d probably just install some bunk beds, but MJ privately thought this apartment had gotten a little too crowded, but the kids floor wasn’t any better. She looked forward to a day when she might have a less crowded space, even if it was one she still had to share.
"Tony hates hearing no," Harley remarked with a half smile. He glanced at MJ and couldn't help the smirk. "You do know he will do something for your birthday, right? I live in fear of my birthday." Tony might think he had to make up for all the missed birthdays. Lord, that was a scary thought. The apartment was crowded and Har actually spent a lot of time hiding in his room. More so when people like Liz came over for family time. His lips pursed into a line before he let out a few swear words. "I think we are lucky he hasn't taken over a whole floor, could you imagine?"
Laughing, MJ nodded. “I’m pretty sure he doesn’t actually know the definition of the word subtle. He threw me a party last year and I’m amazed he managed to keep it as, um, low key as he did.” It had still felt like a lot of people, but it had been good. And she’d also gotten Dahlia, which was probably the best birthday present ever. “I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t, you know.”
“We might not want to talk so loud or he will get ideas. Soon it will be the Stark Floor.” Harley wrinkled his nose in mild disgust at that idea. He liked Tony being happy, honest, he just got over the people. He tapped his spoon against the edge of his bowl as he couldn’t help the smirk that appeared. Tony was a great man, well loved, but man did Harley wish he could just shove people away at times. He was a selfish kid.
MJ couldn’t help but laugh, probably because she knew Harley was right. She wouldn’t put it past Tony to just take over an entire floor. She took note of the wrinkled nose, though, and dialed back her amusement at the idea. “Something tells me you wouldn’t like that very much,” she mused aloud. “Not a big fan of sharing?” Boy, could she relate.It could be hard to feel special when the person taking care of you seemed to just want to do it with everyone, even when you knew it was a really good thing they were doing. Especially if you were kind of used to being on your own, the way MJ had been at home.