WHOO! Who's ready for some Parksborn?

I am. I am ready for Parksborn. T.T

This ficlet is set in season 2, episode 8 "Carnage." It's a retelling of the episode and how different it could've gone if Peter actually told Harry that he is Spider-Man. And the amazing inclusion of a budding Parksborn, all nicely bundled with a bit of angst, pining, and daddy issues. :D (All the ingredients to cook up some good ol' Parksborn, right?)

Enjoy the mess that is one Peter Parker and Harry Osborn, followed with the exasperation of the team, and the all-around insanity and terribleness of Goblin.

<><>

"Harry...there's something I need to tell you."

Eight words.

Peter Parker, the infamous Spider-Man—agent of SHIELD and hero who fought lunatics and villains as often as one went grocery-shopping—a boy who's worked with some of the greatest heroes on the planet, and all it took was eight simple words to make him want to kick down the door and run for his life.

It's crazy how a single sentence puts him in fight-or-flight mode more than facing down a gang of robber. With guns.

He knows he's not in any real danger—unless you considered the solidity of his friendship with Harry Osborn as dangerous, in which case, his spider-sense should be tingling up a storm. His and Harry's relationship has been on shaky terms ever since the team started going to Midtown and their fallout had been a long time coming. That doesn't mean it hurts any less.

Thankfully, for the sake of the brittle remains of their friendship, Peter is seat-belted into the limo and the doors are locked, so he can't escape. He doesn't even let himself think about busting open the door and diving into oncoming traffic, not just because it'd give Harry (and every driver on the road) a heart attack, but because he can't run from this anymore.

Just looking at Harry makes Peter's fingers wring in nervous guilt. The other boy was staring aimlessly out the window, head in hand, looking so dejected and exhausted Peter's insides wriggle and writhe like a fish out of water. It's a frightened, panicked feeling, because the very idea that he had a hand in making Harry look this way makes him want to flop and flail on the ground too.

Harry saw the damage to the Oscorp building the night the Goblin was born. Witnessed the horrifying acts of his transformed-father while being hunted by him. But he didn't know the circumstances that led to Norman Osborn becoming the Green Goblin. He didn't know that Peter had been there every step of the way, always ready to intervene on the Osborn's behalf. Or that Peter had been too deft and stupid to realize Norman was pulling the strings from the shadows all along. And he definitely didn't know that the serum that mutated Norman had Peter's DNA all over it.

Harry is in the dark about everything and he doesn't even know the half of it.

Maybe it's selfish, but Harry needs to know the truth so he finally understands why Peter's gone all the time. Why Norman looks like he should be working part-time as a building gargoyle.

Peter likes to believe his only motive to reveal himself is because it'll make protecting Harry easier, but he can't deny that the true reason he wants to stop lying to his friend is so he finally stop lying to his friend. So he doesn't have to tip-toe around one of the people closest to him to keep his masked life a secret.

But his chance for a peaceful confession is gone, because Harry hates Spider-Man. Hates him with a burning passion. Blamed the very existence of Goblin on Spider-Man, so how can Peter possibly tell him they're one and the same?

How will Harry react to the news? He'll be furious, that's for sure. Angry. Hurt. Betrayed. He'll hate Peter and they'll never never be friends again, because Peter ruined his life.

But it's too late now. He already uttered those horrifying eight words and Harry is looking at him, blue eyes trodden and sad, and such a pretty color Peter's heart aches. Harry must notice how anxious Peter is, because he sits up straighter, perfectly manicured eyebrows coming together.

"Hey? You okay, Pete?"

"I - I need to tell you something," Peter repeats dumbly, rubbing his two middle fingers against his palms. The pressure-sensitive plate to his old webshooter would've been there if he still wore them, and the bare skin he feels make him miss them even more. "But it can only be between you and me, okay?" he continues in a rush. "No one else can know about this. Do you promise? You've got to promise first."

Harry is sitting ram-rod straight in his seat by now. The glum countenance he'd been wearing is gone, replaced with something as confused as it is curious. Maybe even a touch of concern that makes Peter's chest swell. Even while mad at him, Harry still cares.

"Oh? Uh, yeah. Yeah, I won't tell anyone. I promise."

Peter glances at the limo driver through the small, open window that separates them, and Harry pushes the button on his side of the door so a dark glass panel slides shut, giving them privacy.

"You sure there aren't any microphones or cameras in here?"

"Pete."

Peter slowly looks up from where he'd bent over the leather seats, fingers stopping their search through the crevices.

"No on is listening," Harry assures him firmly, "what is it?"

Peter takes a deep breath, sitting back against his seat, leg bouncing and fingers drumming a nervous pattern against his thighs. The backpack at his feet leans more heavily against his leg, and did the air conditioner turn up or had he simply gone into a cold sweat? God, it feels like he's preparing for a fight. Maybe he is. One he can't use his fists to fix.

"Okay, this is going to sound completely, one-hundred percent crazy, but I promise I'm not lying. Just...try to keep an open mind and let me explain before you start judging me." Or hating me, he silently adds.

"Uh...okay," Harry says, eyes roaming over Peter as if picking up on his silent tells. His eyes widen suddenly, and he leans forward, "What are you, like...gay, or something? Cause if you are, that's fine, Pete. I'm not going to hate you over it or anything. I really don't have a problem with-"

"What? No. No, that's not-" Peter shakes his head rapidly, cutting the air with his hands, "that's not it. I actually think I'm bisexual, if we're being honest."

"Really?" Harry's eyebrows shoot up and he grins. "That's awesome! Does anyone else know?"

"Thanks," Peter can't help but grin back, "Aunt May does, and I'm pretty sure MJ suspects, so I'm planning on telling her soon. I've been meaning to tell you too, but—wait, no, this isn't what I wanted to talk about," Peter cuts himself off, making "stop" gestures with his hands. "This is different."

"Oh." Harry sits back. "Okay, what did you want to talk about then?"

Peter takes another deep breath, looks around one more time to make sure they're alone, and blurts before he bites his own tongue off, "I'mkindofsortofSpider-Man," and winces, heart pounding so loud he can hear it in his ears. His fingers curl anxiously in the loop atop his backpack as he stares at his friend.

Harry stares back blankly. He blinks once and slowly leans forward. "What?"

"I'm...Spider-Man," Peter repeats, forcing himself to bite off the words. "I - I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. And I know you said you hate Spider-Man, but I feel like you just really needed to know, and because I fought your dad - er, well, the Goblin this morning, and I think he's coming after you, and I just want to make sure you're okay."

Harry is still staring at him, unblinking, as he absorbs this new information. Out of everything, the only thing he seems to register is the first bit and he parrots quietly, "You...you're Spider-Man?"

He sounds doubtful, but at least he isn't laughing. Peter doesn't think he could take it if Harry downright laughed at the idea. He'd panic and pass it off as a joke and then go home and stick his head in the toilet.

"Yes." Peter says. "I dress in tights every day and fight bad guys, and I would like to repeat that I think your dad is coming after you and we seriously need to get you somewhere safe, and I know you don't like Spider-Man, but please believe me when I say I never meant for your dad to end up like this."

Harry cuts the air with his hands, as it trying to chop Peter's words into tinier, more digestible pieces. "Okay, whoa, whoa - you can't just say something like that and just-" he takes a deep breath, running a hand through his perfectly styled red hair, mussing it a little, "Where's your proof? If you're claiming to be Spider-Man, I need some, like, actual evidence."

Peter nods quickly, rubbing his thighs in thought. Yeah, should've expected that. Makes sense. He pulls his backpack onto his lap, unzips it, and tips it toward Harry so he can peek inside.

"Okay," Harry says, unimpressed. "It's a costume."

Peter brings up his wrists, showing Harry his bare skin, before pushing a button and his web-shooters morph out of thin air, fading out of camouflage mode. This time Harry gives a small gasp of surprise, mouth falling open. He leans forward, and to confirm his suspicions, Peter flexes his wrist and pushes his middle and index finger down, releasing a string of webbing that hits the door with a sudden TWHIP!

"And just so you really believe me," Peter holds out his hand, "give me your hand."

Harry hesitates but slowly does so. As soon as their hands touch, Peter fuses their skin together, and Harry's eyes become saucers. Harry lifts his hand and Peter's follows. He shakes it, but they remain firmly glued together.

A few seconds later, Peter unsticks and drops his hand in his lap, but Harry's remains frozen in the air.

"You...you really are Spider-Man." he whispers.

"Yeah. I am."

Slowly, that information sinks into Harry's skin, and Peter's shoulders drop as Harry's face darkens. "You are Spider-Man," he repeats with more of a growl.

"Okay, I know you're probably pissed, but first we've got to-" Peter's spider-sense buzzes, crackling across his brain and down his spine like lightning. Quicker than any how normal person can move, he unclips his seatbelt and throws himself over Harry, forcing them both down. "Get down!"

Milliseconds later, the limo squeals as they suddenly swerve, tires screeching against the pavement as they spin and lurch. To Peter's relief, and surprise, they don't roll over, but he has a niggling suspicion that whoever caused the limo to veer off didn't mean to cause them harm.

Peter unclips Harry's seatbelt, catching Harry as the other boy slumps slightly, eyes wide and stunned as he uses Peter's arms to brace himself. They're kneeling on the limo floor when a spine-tingling CRUNCH rips through the metal, and they look up in horror as a pair of monstrously huge hands dig into the limo roof, prying it open as easily as popping open a soda can.

"Goblin," Peter says at the same time Harry gasps, "Dad?"

Goblin's large green face turns upward into an appalling grin, flashing serrated fangs, the sides reaching too far up his leathery cheeks to be normal. His yellow eyes narrow in pleasure.

"Gentlemen," he greets with an odious voice that sends unhappy shivers down Peter's spine. Is it just him or is Goblin looking at him funny? God, if he was listening in on their conversation...

Peter doesn't give himself the opportunity to panic over that thought. Goblin leans down, hand out to grab them, and Peter acts. "Run!" he shouts, grabbing the collar of Harry's shirt and kicking the door open. He switches his grip to Harry's arm as soon as their feet hit the pavement. Harry stumbles, still looking shocked, and Peter stabilizes him, pushing him in any direction that isn't towards the towering, hulking green figure crouched on the limo. Goblin watches them go, amused.

Peter is sprinting behind Harry, halfway down the street, before his thoughts catch up to him. He gasps, head snapping back to the limo. "My costume."

His backpack is slumped against the limo floor, abandoned. He can imagine a red spandex sleeve unzipping the bag and pointing an accusatory finger at him.

"Whoo-hoo," his own obnoxious voices rings in his head, "Petey. Don't catch a cold crime fighting with out me!"

Peter withers, glaring at his backpack as well as his own imagination. "Brilliant."

Goblin is staring at him, still perched on the limo, holding the crumpled top in his hands. Oh God, it probably looks like Peter was staring at him. Oof - maybe Gobby didn't notice.

He doesn't feel very confident as Goblin's grin grows.

Well, there's no way he's going back and getting it now, as much as it grates on his nerves. Unhappily spinning on his heels, Peter sprints after Harry, who is still making a mad dash down the street. Peter doubts he even noticed he'd stopped. Then again, the loud hum of Goblin's glider firing up is enough motivation to get anyone hot-footing it, superhero or not.

In a burst of panic, probably from hearing the glider approaching, Harry lurches to the side, running into the nearest alley. Peter inwardly groans. C'mon Harry, we've watched enough cheesy horror movies to know never to run down a deserted alleyway!

Peter follows, regardless.

He finds Harry pressed up against a wall, breathing hard. The other boy immediately slouches in relief when Peter stops next to him, so maybe he had noticed Peter fell behind. With a moment to breath, Peter peers around the corner. Goblin would be on them in seconds if they didn't move.

"C'mon backup, do your backup thing." He grumbles, eyes zipping around the emptying street. Most people know the drill by know, and the moment Goblin was spotted, most civilians hurried off the streets to avoid the ensuing battle. Tourists, who were new to the NYC scene, took precious seconds shrieking and pointing in horror, but at least had enough sense to follow in the footsteps of the cities natives.

Peter wishes he and Harry could've disappeared into the crowds, but that would put a lot of innocent people at risk. Goblin doesn't care about who he hurts when he's got his sights on something—or someone—he wants.

As expected, Goblin's shadow falls over them, hovering in the air atop his glider, making him look more enormous than he already is. Instinctively, Peter steps in front of Harry, one hand out to keep his friends out of the line of fire. Before either he or Goblin can act, a bright streak of light explodes against the wall next to Goblin.

Peter sags in relief as his team finally comes sprinting down the street.

"Hey!" Powerman shouts, ripping a newspaper stand out of the ground and hurling it at Goblin. "Get away from Pe-uh, from that random kid whom we do not know personally."

Peter refrains from face-palming. Yeah, nice save Luke.

"Yeah!" Nova continues eagerly, "that random and totally defenseless wimpy kid!"

Peter glares at them both. "Hey, you had me at random!" Most of it is drowned out by Nova's next blast. Which Peter is actually grateful for. Don't need to add more gas to that dumpster fire of a save.

Remind him to talk to Fury about secret-identity lessons and how not to be suspicious about it. He's had a good year or two to hammer our a good system for himself, but the team had been picked up by SHIELD not long after they got their powers (if he was told correctly). They weren't as used to keeping a secret identity as he was.

Thankfully, Goblin looks more irritated than suspicious and turns towards the team. Peter sighs, anxiety easing up enough to allow him to breathe. Good, the team has been training harder than ever to fight Goblin. At the very least, they should buy him some time to get Harry somewhere safe and double-back to fetch his costume.

Grabbing Harry's wrist, Peter takes a single step to get them moving again, but a flash of movement makes him stop. Goblin isn't diving in for a real fight. Instead, he reaches into a few pouches around his hips and flings several green orbs at the team, which instantly expand into large green bubbles. It's fast and unexpected. The first one envelopes White Tiger, the second Powerman and Iron Fist, and third Nova, who despite trying to swerve last minute, is still engulfed with a surprised yelp.

They swipe and punch the bubbles, but whatever they're made of it strong. Not even Powerman can punch through it right away and Tiger's claws have little effect.

Peter curses and pulls Harry down the alley. "Come on!"

They still have a few seconds. Goblin will probably hang back to make sure the team is properly stuck before pursuing them again, but it's still all too soon that Peter picks up the whirring of gears and humming of an engine.

They turn the corner, Harry shouting, "This way!" only to stop at a dead-end. The alley is cut off by a brick wall. Their only other escape is blocked by a large fence with spools of barbed wire curking around the top with several delivery trucks parked on the other side. Harry's head whips around desperately, taking a defeated step towards the wall, and then going to the fence, curling his fingers around the metal loops and tugging, as if to pry them apart.

"There's got to be a way out!"

Peter doesn't stop or hesitate as he runs up to the wall, jumps onto the bricks, grabbs the iron-ladder connected to the fire-escape, and yanks it down. Harry gapes, eyes wide, as if he'd already forgotten their entire conversation in the limo.

Under normal circumstances, the look on Harry's face might've made Peter laugh (or puff out his chest), but Goblin's glider is getting closer and time is slipping out of their hands.

"Come on, up here," Peter says, and waits until Harry is climbing up the ladder, still dumbstruck, before following. They don't climb to the top of the building, but stop at the first landing, using it to climb over the fence and land atop the delivery trucks.

But by the time he's helping Harry off the trick, they putter to a stop, watching hopelessly as Goblin descends, blocking their final escape.

Fuck, fuck, fuck - what are they supposed to do now? There is no way Peter is going to let Goblin take Harry. Not this time. But he can't protect him without throwing his identity at Goblins feet in the process. If he throws a punch hard enough to dent a car, or fluidly back-spring off a wall, it'd be the same as yanking his mask off in front of Goblin, costume and all, proclaiming, "Yep! I'm Spider-Man! Deal with it."

He cares for Harry. Cares for him deeply. So much so that it scares him a little. But he still needs to keep Aunt May, MJ, and everyone else he knows safe.

Maybe Harry knows this too. He glances between Goblin's grinning face and Peter's tense stance, and his eyes harden in determination. The same look he gets when he's got his mind made up and no one is going to talk him out of it. He grabs Peter's shoulder, pulling him back.

"Stay back, Pete. I got this." It's too tense to be friendly, but not hard or angry either. Harry's still thrown through a loop given the news of Peter's "hobbies", but he's making the choice for Peter. He isn't going to force Peter to sacrifice his identity to the Giblin, and it makes Peter's throat tighten, choking, and he forces himself to swallow. A flush of warmth blooms in his chest. Whatever problems they were having, Harry isn't going to risk him.

Peter's awe and affection is doused quickly as Harry stands before Goblin, back straight, but obviously flinching as Goblin jumped off his glider and landed on the ground hard enough to crack the cement. Harry looks positively tiny in comparison to Goblins intimidating width and height. He barely makes it to Goblin's stomach, and is so much thinner. Like a twig standing up to an oak.

Despite his bravado, Harry's voice trembles slightly as he sweeps his arm back to gesture to Peter, "Leave him out of this, dad! It's me you want."

Peter's heart seizes in panic as Goblin's large hands fall onto Harry's shoulder, making Harry stumble under its weight. His yellow eyes are bright and his feral grin amused. Peter takes a step, preparing to put himself between Harry and Goblin, terrified of the repercussions that might follow, but determined to keep Harry safe.

But Goblin has a way of throwing a wrench in Peter's plans.

"Hardly," he laughs, and tosses Harry aside, throwing him into a pile of trashcans and garbage. Harry disappears into the mess with a grunt.

Peter backs up, a new panic seizing his heart, as Goblin stalks forward. He's used to seeing that horrendous face behind the lenses of his mask, and it terrifies him on an unfelt level to see those eyes looking at him, Peter Parker. His worst fear realized.

Peter's back hits the front of one of the trucks and suddenly he has nowhere to go. There's no climbing the walls for higher ground, or swinging around for a better vantage point. Here, Peter is forced to look up, experiencing the full, terrifying force of the Goblin, with all his hard edges, looming intimidation, and sharpened claws. Hands that have ripped apart metal like paper. Feet that have pinned Peter to the ground before. Strength that threatened to break him a thousand different ways. A look so cruel and insane it sends Peter's spider-sense packing.

No backup. No powers. No way out.

Just a small boy against a giant.

"Peter Parker," Goblin rumbles, voice bracketing him from all sides like a cage. "I want you."

Those large hands fall on Peter's shoulders gently. Like a father preparing to invoke his son with wisdom. Uncle Ben used to do the same, marking it as an affectionate touch. It feels so wrong coming from Goblin.

Then his spider-sense flashes and an overwhelming current of electricity courses through his body, snapping from nerve to nerve. Peter screams, knees buckling, skin burning. Goblin's hands grasp his shirt, keeping him upright as currents of electricity flow through his body, before finally letting go, gently lowering him to the ground.

Peter is unconscious before he reaches the cement. 

<><>

Alright, guys, I was originally going to post this as one huge one-shot, because the final draft reached 16,000+ words, I decided to split up into chapters. The entire one-shot is already written, so you don't have to worry about long breaks between updates for this story

The next chapter will be out in a few days.

Anyway, hoped you enjoyed the first chapter! As you can see, there are several similar elements to the original episode in this story, I just added my own bits and pieces as I went (and because I enjoy exploring their thoughts during the events of the episodes.) There will be more similarities to the episode as we go on, but there will also be some very new scenes that I've added because I can, and I wanted to, and I did.

See you next update! :D