The cafe he’d chosen for his meeting with one of the Oscorp employees responsible for the manufacture and distribution of the GR-27 antiserum is nearly empty--as he’d hoped--and he finds a table at the very back, well away from the wall of untinted windows of the front. He pays the lone waitress in advance to ignore his table, and she does, pocketing the money with a shrug and returning her attention to her phone. 

While he waits, he minds his own phone for a while, scrolling through news articles and video clips about all the things that had happened while he’d been in treatment. He’s missed so much, it’s unreal. His father’s old lab partner releasing Devil’s Breath in Times Square, well-known philanthropist Martin Li leading a gang of Demons, several attempts on his father’s life, Spider-Man spider-manning, the whole Sable fiasco. All of it makes him feel like he’s been gone a whole lot longer than he has.

The bell on the front door pulls his attention away from his screen, and he quickly mutes the device, pocketing it upon seeing Gwen Stacy’s approach. 

“Gwen, hey, thanks for coming,” he greets her warmly, quickly sliding out of his chair to stand and offer her his hand. 

“First, I want to thank you for your... discretion regarding my time abroad. I’m hoping I can rely on it a bit more.” He poses the statement as a question, eyebrows raised as he invites her to sit.

Seeing he’d known Gwen from his time at ESU, he’d been a bit worried when he’d first learned that she had uncovered the reason for GR-27′s development. But as the shock wore off, relief overpowered that worry: here was someone he was comfortable with who also knew her way around Oscorp and GR-27. That, and the fact that she already knows his secret makes her the perfect person to speak to about his experience.

He just hopes she agrees to his terms.

“There’s someone following you,” Harry says as he slides into step beside her.

From the rooftops, Harry watched a rather plain looking man tailing this woman for several blocks. Nothing about his person looked overtly suspicious, but something about his stride instantly set the hairs on the back of his neck on end.

He’d thought about dropping down in his suit and dispatching the man before he could act on whatever was in his head, but without proof that he was up to something, his new alter-ego would be the one in trouble. 

This is the place. 

From under the low bill of his cap, he catches sight of her before she realizes it’s him. Which makes sense, seeing as on paper he’s supposed to be somewhere in Europe touring his father’s international facilities.

When he approaches the counter, he keeps his head down until he’s through with his order, and when asked for a name, he gives hers before making eye contact with her. He does everything he can to make the gesture non-threatening while still making it clear that her extracurricular activities on his father’s campaign haven't gone completely unnoticed to someone with such an inordinate amount of free time.

Standing in his socks on the cold marble floor, Harry grabs two large coffee mugs from the cupboard, moving with slow precision to keep the blanket around his shoulders in place. He works quietly at the stove, crafting a treat for himself and Harry.

For Theo, today has been a good day so far--all things considered--and he’s determined to make use of every last bit of it. Even if none of the tasks he managed to accomplish would look like much to anyone else, he was simply happy to be up and out of his room.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” he teases warmly as he enters the living room to find his brother dozing on the laughably oversized sofa. Before sitting himself next to Harry, he hands him his mug of hot chocolate and rearranges his blanket so that it sits on his lap. “I made it just the way you like it. Three marshmallows.”