The multiverse was weird and big and confusing, but as it turned out, there was a constant in it. It was this: Johnny couldn’t stand Harry Osborn. This version? Same insufferable rich guy, more or less alright looking, if in a sickly kind of way. And, like the Harry that Johnny had known, he was Peter’s real best friend. Johnny heard that, in Peter’s voice, every time he looked at Harry. Something ugly rose in his chest. “Wow. Big word. Hey, thanks for explaining it. I usually stick to one syllable ones, you know, like fuck and you,” Johnny said, pointedly stressing the words, and then smiled brightly, “I’m a bit of a ditz like that.”
Fake as it was, the smile stretched thin and disappeared into a scowl. Of course it was fake. Everything about Johnny was, which was exactly why he would never be to Peter what Harry Osborn was. Peter’s real life, his real friends - they all had a lot more going for them than Johnny did. He didn’t fit into it, wasn’t good enough for anything more than a friendship at arm’s length. Which was why Harry got Peter Parker and Johnny … Johnny got the mask. Maybe that was better, in the end, having that distance. Everyone else who’d ever gotten close to Johnny had seen it, eventually, that he was nothing more than his powers and nothing without them, the incendiary brilliant flash whenever he went nova, sure, but that was always followed by him crashing down to earth right after, when there was nothing left but himself. Nothing left. Johnny didn’t ever want Peter to realize that.
Yeah. Like he said. He really couldn’t stand Harry Osborn. The smug glint in his eyes made Johnny see red, zeroing in on a small stack of paperwork on the desk between them. He kicked his heels up on the desk, deliberately kicking the items off and looked back at Harry with pretend innocence. “Whoops. Sorry. Good thing you’ve forgiven me, right?”
🧪—Harry watched as his papers tumbled to the ground, head tilting as they spread out across the floor, it was petty and childish, and the exact kind of thing that had once given Harry the reputation of “boy king” at Oscorp. On the other end of it, he could see how it didn’t really have the effect he was sure it might.
“Of course I forgive you Johnny…” Harry finally let his eyes rest on the super’s face, it was set hard, a coldness that he was sure was reserved for him alone. Even his Human Torch hadn’t hated him quite like this, it was almost addictive, Johnny’s anger at him. The jealousy that clearly clawed at him. Harry held up his hands as if showing off that he was unarmed. Calm and unaffected. Not really, but his face stayed that way as his hands fell back below his desk, his fingers curled into a tight fist nails cutting into his palm, wondering how tightly Johnny could wind himself up before something snapped. “.. I mean that’s what Petey would want.”
“Want to know what I think Johnny?” Harry slid out of his chair, stepping directly on the papers that had been kicked to the ground. Leaning down so he was close to Johnny’s face. “I think you so badly want me to hate you, so you can justify your own fucked up jealousies, because you know that no one will take your side otherwise.” He didn’t move his face one way or the other bracing for pain if it came. “Or to dumb it down for you, fuck you, darling ”
