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[every-marveler-ever]

In The Circle

Fluffbruary Day 10 | @fluffbruary | Moment

Marvel Rare Pair Valentine’s Mini Bingo | 💘 @marvelrarepairbingo2022 | Platonic Relationship(s)

All Caps Bingo Round 1 | 🤷 @allcapsbingo | Reality TV AU

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RATING: General. WARNING(S): Catfishing, Based on 'The Circle' from Netflix

A/N: This story had many interactions including a bachelor interaction with Bucky at the lead, it was a mess. Thank you so much to the Marvel Rare Pair Bingo Discord because without your sprints I don't think I would have ever written this. Thanks to @endlesstwanted for the cheerleading and support.

Peter signed up to the circle for some fun (and because he desperately needed the money) thinking that it would at least be a fun 4 week's vacation, he didn't expect to fall in love with someone over a screen. | peter parker/? (read to find out)

fluffbruary 2023 | mrprb 💘 valentines mini bingo | acb 🤷 round 1

Peter Parker walks into his room and his reaction is exactly what Netflix shows when he watches it back. He’s incredibly excited for a multitude of reasons, one being that he’s never lived alone before and now he has a whole apartment to himself. Another is that the apartment is incredible because of its blue walls and an awesome red fluffy couch it seems a little too on the nose to the favourite colours he put down on his application, but then there’s a chalkboard wall and it feels like the producers can read his mind. 

It’s perfect, and despite the show not working exactly how it plays out on TV there is an Alexa in the room which makes him feel like people are listening and watching him all day. It’s almost like he has a friend that’s not on a TV screen.

He has one of those too, his name is Harley, he thinks because that’s how the circle works, just because Peter’s telling the truth and he is actually Peter Parker with the birth certificate to match, he has no idea if Harley is the same. 

“Hey Circle message Harley,” this has become a daily routine every morning as Peter brushes his teeth Harley supposedly makes breakfast and Peter is normally the person that initiates the conversation. He knows it’s weird because he has no idea who the man (or woman) on the other side is. Harley gets to wake up to random facts every morning anyway, “did you know there are more than 1,700 references to gems and precious stones in the King James translation of the Bible.”

The little circles that come up and down remind Peter that Harley is responding and has accepted the chat, which if he didn’t producers might have made him anyway. 

Harley's face shows up next to his response, “is that the magical fact that showed up on your calendar today? A biblical one seems like an odd choice?” It’s an honest message because Harley had made it known throughout this season that he is extremely atheist which doesn’t seem like something anybody in the circle would lie about.

Peter doesn’t want to say he was tricking him but the actual fact on his daily calendar today was ‘If you had enough water to fill one million goldfish bowls, you could fill an entire stadium.’ and he didn’t particularly feel like starting off the day with a sports fact. It’s also a fact that he felt Harley would know, it says he is a chemical engineer so that seems pretty reasonable, he’s also a huge fan of the Philidelphia Eagles. 

It seems weird to know facts like that because Peter has no idea if any of them are real. 

“Circle message, Ha I guess you're too hard to trick then, but yes my calendar choose a weird one today. Do you think mantis would appreciate it? It talks about gems.” 

Mantis was their resident crystal healer which sounded cool in theory but once again Peter had no idea if that was real either. She seemed to be good at reading people as she had sent the last two home and both were revealed to be catfish in their final video diaries. Peter was really hoping nobody else that was left was a catfish because they were getting very close to the final. 

Harley pops up again, “I think that is really sweet of you to think of her Peter when reading that, and I do think she would seriously enjoy it.”

That puts a smile on Peter’s face because he had the same thought, he finishes brushing his teeth and ends the conversation, “circle message back, I’ll talk to her soon, you too, hope to talk later,” he’s happy with it adding a smiley face at the end, “circle end conversation.” As the words come out of his mouth the screen goes back to the circle home screen and Peter movies on with his day.

In the end, he doesn’t care if Harley isn’t  Harley if his favourite colour isn’t yellow like he says or if he actually barracks for the New England Patriots, he just hopes he is just as loveable. 

When he makes breakfast he always talks to Tony and Bucky who kind of feel like his parents in this whole situation, which seems strange seeing as he was very sure they were hitting on him previous to them realising he was only 21. It certainly seems that they know each other and that makes Peter trust them. 

Bucky message the group first, “so how did Mr Harley take your morning fact this morning? Did you tell him the biblical one?”

It’s very much like Bucky Barnes, he is ex-military according to his profile and one of the pictures he displays on his profile includes him and a black man, his partner Rhodey, in military gear, Rhodey in blue and Bucky in a green cameo. Peter rolls his eyes as he sees Tony typing next, “let the kid breathe, he’s probably hyperventilating, over sexual attention from Harley.”

He knew this type of comment would come and according to Bucky Tony has no room to talk because in college he slept with anybody with a working heartbeat. 

Peter still writes down in his notebook that Bucky is still uncertain if Harley is a catfish and Tony, well Tony is being Tony. “Circle message,” Peter says as he snaps close his notebook, “uh we had a great conversation, he questioned the fact that my calendar would give a biblical fact but other than that he seemed to stay on track.” It’s the complete truth because Peter doesn’t really know anything but the truth. 

Peter feels left out It was only an hour ago that the alert had come to prepare to vote for the last round before the final before the final five would meet for the first time in person.

This season you can see who is chatting by the little icon next to their profile head and everybody is chatting but him.

It doesn't mean he'll get voted out, he feels great about the other people in the circle, and he expects that Harley, Bucky or Tony would place him high, Mantis and Wanda he's not as confident. But he has been nice to everyone and completely honest, he is Peter.

When the alert alarm finally comes on his screen Peter feels relieved because all the annoying texting that had been going on was diminished. 

Harley's face comes up first in the 6th spot and Peters follows him not long after in the 4th. Bucky and Mantis become influencers shown by the star next to their name and Peter thinks it's okay they both like him right?

Wrong because he gets left out, not even invited to go to someone else's room, instead told he will meet them at the grand final.

The games are over for him, but it's not for Harley.

When his face shows up on their screens the next morning it's not a shock that he’s real, more of a shock that he's gone.

.

The final is incredibly scary for Peter because he still hasn’t seen Harley yet, because unlike Peter he made it to the final five and Peter couldn’t be happier with the result. He sits at the bar with everyone else enjoying drinks and dressed in their finest, the suit he’s wearing appeared on his doorstep one day and he thought it came from the producers but the note attached to it proved otherwise, ‘go get him kid - Tony’. 

It feels nice that somebody is rooting for him in the mess that this game subsequently became, but he made so many friends through it all with not much care if they were catfish. He talks to Wade who explains that he’s much more comfortable in his skin since getting caught catfishing as [], because everybody made him feel better.

“And welcome your final five!” Michelle Buteau announcers to the cameras and the past contestant, who all whoop and cheer, “let’s welcome in the illusive, Mr Bucky Barnes,” Bucky comes out just as Peter expected from the photos except with his hair cut short and a much cleaner beard. 1 out of 5, not catfish, pretty good, “and his partner in crime in real life and on-screen Mr Tony Stark, ladies and gentlemen,” Tony is similar as he struts out like he owns the place, with all the confidence in the world as he gives Bucky a hug for the first time in 4 weeks. 

It gives Peter hope.

Mantis comes out next and is actually revealed to be Peter Quill and one of the girls beside Peter, Gamora, starts crying at the shock of it not being the person she expected. Peter remembers them being close in the game and to see such a shock makes his stomach drop. What if that’s him and Harley?

Wanda is completely herself smiling and yet still mystical in a way that you wonder if she could bite your own head off. She talks about her girlfriend at home, Natalie and that she was glad she didn’t come on as single because now she has made countless platonic friendships that mean more to her than she thinks love could have. Peter thinks similarly being able to know Tony and Bucky with promises one day he’ll get to meet Rhodey and talk his head off about Tony and his time at MIT. 

“Last but certainly not least we have our Kentucky lover from Rosefield Tenasse, Harley Keener,” Peter closes his eyes squeezing Gamora's hand, he doesn’t want to open them but Gamora squeezes his hand back and he feels like he has to. The man he opens his eyes to see is not Harley Kenner, at least not the man in the photos Harley Kenner. 

One of the cameras gives a close-up on Peter’s face as it twitches and turns before Michelle Buteau redirects it towards the potential winners, “now Ned isn’t it?” She turns to Harley and the small guy nods his head. Harley and Ned definitely aren’t the same because Ned is quite short and he had described Harley as 6’1 and the guy is more like 5’4. 

Ned keeps smiling over at Peter and Peter just smiles back because this is the guy he’s been talking to every morning for 4 weeks straight nearly. 

“Can I just say,” Ned takes the mic and looks over at Peter, “I am entirely the person I presented on the show, except for the sports, I’ve never been to a football game before,” every body laughs, Peter included, “but I really do want to stay friends with you all and maybe more,” Ned looks directly into Peter’s eyes?

Who cares about the 250,000, Peter has a Ned to meet. 

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