Harry stumbled into the kitchen rubbing his eyes. A small smile appeared on his face as he noticed his dad standing at the counter, tossing blueberries to Lucy who was sitting eagerly at his feet. At hearing someone enter, Tony looked up and beamed.
"Well kiddo, today's the day!" Tony announced, clasping his hands together and creating a sharp staccato noise that reverberated through the kitchen. Harry had just woken up, and despite his excitement about the bakery's opening day, he couldn't find the energy in himself to be as awake and excited as his dad at just 4 in the morning. With a fleeting thought, he wondered if his dad had slept at all.
Probably not.
Harry had insisted on getting up early so that they could get to the bakery and he could make a few batches of the likely to be popular items, before the shop opened at 6 a.m.
Pepper made her way into the kitchen, giving Harry's cheek a quick kiss, reaching down to give Lucy's head a quick pat, and walking over to Tony, who greeted her with a more proper kiss. She nestled herself into his side, and smiled contently.
"So, today's a big day-- how are you feeling?" She asked Harry, and he began to wonder how many times he would be asked that throughout the day. Between the normal excitement of opening your own business and the events that transpired only a few days ago, he was sure to be bombarded with questions surrounding his wellbeing today.
"I'm excited," he admitted with a smile. He noticed that his mom wasn't dressed in her normal Stark Industries attire, and was instead sporting a Lily's t-shirt and a pair of high-waisted jeans. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled back in a braid, and she looked every bit ready to help work the bakery for the day.
Tony had apparently noticed as well, as he held her out at arms length to inspect.
"You look hot," he commented with a wink as Pepper swatted his arm. "Maybe I need to have you wear that all the time."
"She wears pencil skirts on the daily, and you're saying that's your favorite?" Clint teased, entering the kitchen with Natasha on his tail. "No offense, Pepper, you look great."
Natasha smacked Clint's head, and Tony stuck his tongue out at the archer in an undignified manner. Pepper just let out a laugh, and Harry wondered how they were all so awake at this hour of the morning.
"How are you doing this morning?" Clint asked, pulling up a chair and taking a cup of coffee offered to him by Natasha.
Harry groaned inwardly, knowing that his suspicion was right-- he was going to hear that question a lot today.
"Tired at the moment," he answered honestly. "I didn't really sleep well last night. I was just so excited."
Everyone nodded in understanding, and took a sip of their coffee in an unintentional synchronous motion.
"It's so early," a new voice spoke, belonging to Bucky who was stumbling into the kitchen with a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Steve trailing him.
"Maybe if you two didn't stay up so late-" Tony began, but Pepper smacked his arm before he could finish the sentence.
"Real classy, Stark," Steve rebutted, but he was still smiling. Bucky turned to Harry, and immediately, Harry was dreading the question that he was sure he was about to hear.
"Please tell me you've got a few extra orange cranberry scones that you can spare this morning. I think it might be an emergency," the winter soldier's eyes were wide and serious, and it was such an extreme difference from what Harry had been expecting that he couldn't contain his laughter.
"Yeah," Harry spoke between laughs, "I think I have a few that I can spare."
Everyone else joined in laughing, which made Bucky start mock-pouting.
"What'd I miss?" Bruce asked, entering the kitchen with a soft smile and a mug of tea already in hand. It was obvious that he had already been up for a while, but had lost track of time. Harry presumed that he had been in the lab-- for someone that lectured him about getting more sleep and taking care of himself, Bruce spent an awful lot of time tucked away in the lab instead of in bed.
"Luscious locks over here didn't get the beauty sleep he needed," Clint poked Bucky in the side, making the soldier squirm in his chair. The idea of harassing an ex-assassin and making him squirm was funny to Harry, in a twisted way, and he couldn't help but laugh.
"Is everyone here?" Tony asked finally, surveying the room to see if all of the charges of the building were present. Other than Thor and Loki, who had promised to meet them at the bakery later in the day disguised as civilians, and Peter who would meet them after his classes were out for the day, everyone seemed to be there.
Harry glanced around, pride and excitement bubbling in his chest as he saw everyone wearing the Lily's t-shirts that he had had made. Steve looked proudest, wearing the logo he had designed proudly.
"Before we get this show on the road, Harry, we have a gift for you," Pepper announced, pulling a box out from underneath the counter. "Hon, this is from all of us, to you. You've put in so much hard work these past few weeks, and we all know that this bakery is going to be a huge success."
Harry felt himself growing red, both flattered and completely unprepared for this.
"You didn't have to do that," he murmured, "you've all already done so much for me."
Everyone smiled at him, and Pepper slid the box across the counter. "You've done so much for us as well, and we wanted you to have this."
Harry looked at the box which was tied with a bow that was the same shade of periwinkle blue as the shirts. Carefully, he untied the ribbon, and lifted the lid off of the box.
Underneath the tissue paper that was layered carefully on top, was an apron. On the front of it, the Lily's logo was carefully embroidered. However, beneath the apron were several picture frames, turned upside down so Harry couldn't see the photo.
He glanced up at everyone who was watching him, to his dad that nodded encouragingly.
The first frame contained a picture of him and Peter in the bakery's kitchen, completely unaware that their picture was being taken. It was from the day that they had been baking cookies together, and there was flour smeared across both of their faces. They looked so happy-- so unbothered by everything else going on in the world.
"I hope you don't mind," Tony blushed, "I had Friday take the picture."
Harry beamed at him, heart melting at the photo within the frame. "I love it, dad. Thank you."
"Don't get all sappy just yet, there's still more pictures," Clint chimed in, earning a couple laughs.
Harry reached in and flipped over the next frame. In this picture, both Pepper and Tony were standing with him in front of the bakery. It was supposed to be a posed photo, but Pepper and Tony were smiling at Harry who was staring proudly up at the sign that had just been hung outside. Their arms were wrapped around him, and the love that they had for their son was evident by the look on their faces.
"We figured you could either keep these for yourself, or hang them up in the bakery for everyone to see. Or we could make a copy, and you can do both," Pepper smiled, suddenly sheepish as if she felt like maybe the gift hadn't been great.
But as Harry flipped over the other two frames, he couldn't imagine a better gift.
The other frames were photos of him directing Steve and Bucky as to where to go while carrying the display case into the building. Everyone was laughing, as Clint was in the middle and was supposed to be helping, but instead had the case 'balanced' on top of his finger.
"They had that! I don't know why I was needed," Clint exclaimed as everyone began laughing again at the memory.
"You weren't-- that's the point," Natasha elbowed him playfully.
The other frame was a photo of Bruce trying to teach Natasha and Harry how to set up the computer system. In the photo, Bruce was speaking animatedly about it, and Harry and Natasha are glancing at each other with a confused look on their face. Harry couldn't help but laugh-- he hadn't realized how visibly confused they had been.
"You two had absolutely no clue what I was talking about, but I thought it was funny to see how far I could go before you politely told me to shut up," Bruce chuckled, then paused. "But now that I think about it, Nat, you weren't polite at all."
Natasha tipped her head and raised her coffee mug, before taking a drink.
In the final picture frame, it was a picture of everyone outside of the bakery. Pepper, Tony, Steve, Bucky, Clint, Natasha, Bruce, Thor, Loki, and Peter were all there, with Harry in the middle. It was taken only yesterday, as the finishing touches were placed on the building. Jacob had stopped by to wish Harry good luck and declare that he would be one of the first in line for opening day. They had asked him to take a picture of all of them before he left, and he had eagerly complied.
"I love them," Harry looked up from the photos and around the kitchen to some of the most important people in his life. His team. His support-system.
His family.
"Of course, kiddo," Tony smiled, walking around the counter and slinging an arm around his shoulder.
"Now, are you ready for this?"
Harry glanced up at everyone, whose eyes were all on him, eagerly awaiting his response.
"Let's do this."
*
(A/N: It's opening day! Next chapter, we'll be at the bakery and see what happens with all of Harry's hard work! Sorry that this chapter was super duper long, but it felt better to break it up this way instead of continue it on. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're still enjoying! Stay safe and healthy everyone!)