The crash wakes Tony up.
He thinks it's a part of his nightmare but when he sits up panting and sweating, Pepper is just as alert as he is. He checks his phone but he doesn't find anything and Thor usually calls before destroying his living room.
Harley and Peter are at their bedroom door looking both shocked and confused, though Peter is more excited than Tony's seen him in weeks. At Peter's face, Pepper rolls back over to go back to sleep. She's been a lot more tired lately. He wonders if she's sick.
"Do I even want to know what's going on in there?"
"Mr. Dr. Bruce Banner is back!" Peter says excitedly. "I know he was here before uh...the space stuff, but I never got a chance to talk to him. Now he's back. The Hulk Buster ran out of juice and he kind of fell in through a window."
"How do you kind of fall through a window, Pete?" Tony says getting up and slipping his feet into a pair of Iron Man bedroom shoes Harley had smacked him with one morning.
"He also fell through part of the roof," Harley explains.
"Of course he did," says Tony tiredly as he makes his way through the living room with his boys, assessing the damage before walking straight to the coffee maker. "Hi, Brucie-Pie," he calls from the kitchen island a few feet away from the couch where his friend is sitting, looking drained. "Coffee?"
"Yes, please," groans the other man before flopping his head back onto the couch. He screeches when he opens his eyes to find Peter standing there with a huge yet shy smile on his face.
"Pete, give'em space," Tony says once he sees what happened.
"Sorry." And he does look at least partially apologetic.
"Bruce, this is my kid, Peter. He helped with all the stuff before—"
"He's Spiderman," Harley interjects to save time.
"And that's my other kid, Harley."
Harley waves from where he has flopped himself onto one of the armchairs not covered in glass shards.
"Nice to meet you both," Bruce says then he blinks. "I didn't know you had kids, Tony."
"Well I do."
"Mr. Dr. Banner, sir, I've read like all of your research. One of your papers helped me come up with my web fluid. Mr. Stark is helping me create different variations of it for different tasks."
"Web fluid?" Bruce asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Mr. Stark?" asks Tony sounding offended as he walks over with mugs of coffee, handing one to Bruce.
Peter lights up at the prospect of explaining his compound to a new party and he looks over to Tony for reassurance that it's fine to tell. Tony chuckles but nods.
"Yeah, go for it, Pete."
"Thanks, Dad."
"C'mon, Harls, they're going to start talking chemistry."
"Oh, yeah. That's a hard no," Harley says standing up following Tony as he heads to the elevator.
"We'll be in the lab once you catch your breath. Pete bring Veronica."
"Veronica?"
"The suit," Bruce supplies. "And we'll be right there." He turns back to Peter. "So you were going to tell me about the web flu—"
The door closes on the elevator and Tony lets out a breath, but he's smiling.
"You're glad everyone's back together aren't you?" asks Harley in a small voice. "Even after everything they did to you before?"
They're family, Tony almost says as an explanation, but he can't figure out a way to make it feel right. He hadn't ever felt that way about Howard. He still doesn't, just thinking back on his childhood. He looks at his feet. "I don't know why, but yeah. I wish I could say it was because they're like family to me but I practically prayed for the days I didn't have to spend with my dad. I know being family doesn't excuse the things they've done just like it doesn't excuse the things he did, but they weren't the only ones wrong this time."
"They were the only ones aiming to kill."
"It wasn't like that."
"Yes it was. Uncle Rhodey is paralyzed. Cap tried to kill you."
"Don't you think I know that!? We all did things we regret. Said things we shouldn't have."
"But you never tried to kill them."
"You and Pete...you guys think I'm some kind of saint. I'm not."
The door slides open and they walk the short distance to the lab. Tony immediately grabs a screwdriver and starts picking at a piece of whatever is on his desk. The kid isn't trying to pick at his wounds. He's angry and trying to understand and Tony knows that, but it doesn't make his chest hurt any less.
"We don't think you're a saint. We both know you better than that. When I first met you, you were a raggedy ass man with a busted suit and nowhere to go. I just don't think you give yourself the credit you deserve. You're not perfect, but you're a great person. A great dad. You made mistakes and you learned from them and you act like none of that matters!"
Tony thinks back to when Harley was an 8 year old kid taking care of his little sister because his mom worked and his dad ran off but he still looked up to Tony because he talked to him and made him feel important. He saved him. He remembers Peter after the Ferry Incident and his quiet pleading voice saying he just wanted to be like Tony and he breaks into tears.
"I- I want to give you guys your best chance, b-but then I think about how much I've fucked up. All the things I've done...the lives I've taken. And then there's a part of me that thinks maybe—"
"Don't say you deserve it," Harley says, but he isn't looking at Tony when he says it. He's staring at the ground, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. His voice sounds shaky and there are tears on his face but he is still talking. "You don't deserve to be treated like nothing more than a babysitter for the Avengers. You don't deserve to be a punching bag to them. You don't deserve to be murdered by someone you thought of as your friend because you were hurting!" Harley snaps his mouth shut, but he's still trembling.
"Listen—"
"No, Dad, I get it. I want you to have friends and be able to be happy that they're home again, but I don't want you to have to keep everything to yourself or feel like you deserve to be treated like garbage because that's how they act."
Tony stands up, steps closer to Harley, though the boy still refuses to look at him, and pulls him into a hug.
"I hear you loud and clear, kid."
-§-
hey futher muckers
holy fuck so i actually moved into my apartment and classes started and 2 of my 3 flatmates are absolutely annoying and do not clean up after themselves.
but iM fiNe
howre you lot doing? havent updated in a bit and thought it'd be nice to post and say hi!
so hi!
as always i hope y'all enjoy
love y'all
-- angel janeé xoxo 💋
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Our Dad's an Ir⎊n Dad || Marvel
Fanfiction[sequel to A Dad of Iron Will] Tony's retired. Mostly. He brought his kid back (and half the population with him), but it's been months since he and Pepper have had a full house. Now Harley's home and Peter's back and not even Tony knows what they'l...
