“The Iron Man & Avengers Documentary!”
Tony gave Harry a winning smile as they toured the top floor of the tower. What had once been Tony’s living space and the Avengers unofficial hangout, was now Tony and his son’s place.
‘Temporarily’.
Unless Tony could convince Harry to stay.
They’d already seen almost everything, but Tony paused dramatically before flinging open the door to the second bedroom on the floor.
“And this is the best room in the place,” he told Harry. He flapped his hand toward the bedroom, indicating that Harry go inside.
“Oh yeah?” Harry slowly stepped inside and looked around the room. It was a nice room, in Tony’s entirely humble opinion. The bedroom faced the west side of the building and that wall was made of the same reinforced glass that the living room was. The other walls were white, like the rest of the tower, and there was a spacious bed in the middle of the floor. The closets and tech were all just as excessive and necessary as every other room.
“Why’s it so special?” Harry asked after he peeked in one of the doors and found the attached bathroom.
“This is where my son sleeps,” Tony said. He leaned against the doorway and grinned at the quick look of surprise on Harry’s face. “He’s a nice kid, you’d hate him. He’s all sweet smiles and ‘Golly, I love you, dad’.”
Harry suddenly glowered, driving a stark contrast between Tony’s description and the truth. “He sounds like a prat,” Harry said.
“Very boring too,” Tony agreed with a wink.
“You’d turn on your own son like that?” Harry asked, now sporting a wide-eyed look of innocence on his face that didn’t suit him anymore than it had ever suited Tony. “Bit of a shit parent, aren’t you?”
Since this was a joke, Tony absolutely wasn’t offended.
“Well I’m new to it,” Tony said lightly. “Cause here’s the thing, kid, I’ve never been a parent before, and I might suck at it at first, but I’ve never really been bad at anything in my life, so I’m sure by the end of the day tomorrow I’ll be a pro.”
Harry’s eyes, the ones he definitely inherited from Lily Potter now that Tony bothered remembering her, narrowed into what Tony was beginning to see what a semi-permanent suspicious scowl. “A whole day to become a pro? Can’t you do it immediately?”
Tony didn’t remember a whole lot about his week in London, he’d probably never have remembered Lily or James Potter in general if Harry hadn’t been glaring at him with Lily Potter’s distinct eyes when he first said her name, but Tony was still pretty sure that Harry got his sarcastic sense of humor from him and not her.
“Even brilliant men, pioneers in their field with incomprehensible IQ levels and good looks to match, need time to read ‘How to Parent Your Teenage Son You Didn’t Know You Had’,” Tony joked.
Unless that was really a book option.
“You don’t have to parent anyone,” Harry said with a quick sneer. “You agreed to get the paperwork I need and then we can be long distance penpals.”
“What about when you write to me, ‘Dear Dad, I’ve got my first crush, what do I do? Love, your doting son’?”
Success.
It wasn’t a full smile, but it was at least a more friendly look than Tony had gotten so far from the kid.
“‘Dear Son, send security after them, that’s how I win people over’,” Harry said with that same tiny grin.
If a game of witty banter made Harry quit staring at him like he was his enemy, then Tony could do it all day. Hell, he never had anyone to talk with like this.
“‘Dear handsome and brilliant father of mine, I tried setting her house on fire, but she’s still resistant to my charms’.”
“‘Dear Son, nobody can resist your charm work, keep trying’.”
“‘Dear—’”
“Mister Stark, Miss Potts is calling.”
Tony sighed and rolled his eyes. “To be continued,” he told Harry. He gestured to the bathroom that Harry had already peeked in, “Feel free to get comfortable, kid. Shower, change, sing soulful tunes about your broken heart, whatever it is that teenagers do in the bathroom.”
Harry raised a brow at him, but he jerked his chin in a nod.
The smile was gone though. Damn Pepper for the worst possible timing.
“Jarvis, send everything you can find about Harry Evans or Harry Potter to my mobile. Roughly fourteen years old, run facial recognition if there’s too many of them,” Tony murmured as soon as he stepped in his home office and the door was safely closed. “Also, everything on Lily and James Potter.”
All Tony remembered about Lily and James Potter had been that they were young, attractive, a shit ton of fun in the local bar he’d been in, and James had hit on Tony before Tony even had a chance to hit on his pretty wife.
Once Harry sparked his memory though, Tony remembered spending a week with the couple. They drank with their friends, they toured the city together, and Tony had slept with both of them multiple times.
Now that he considered it, it wasn’t really all that surprising that he’d fathered Harry that week. It had been a wild time.
He imagined that the world was a little darker without the young, happy, lively couple in it.
“Yes, sir,” Jarvis said, breaking Tony’s fond memories. “I’m also patching Miss Potts through now.”
“Hey, Pepper, how’s the chocolate?”
It was an old joke, Tony asked her the same thing every time she went to Sweden. Correctly, she didn’t laugh at all.
“What’s wrong?” she asked instead.
How the hell did she do that?
“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong,” Tony said casually. And nothing was wrong, not really. Sure he had to convince his supposedly orphaned son to stick around and give Tony a chance to get to know him, but Tony had that handled.
He’d find out what kind of crime his son committed, hide all evidence of the crime ever happening, convince the kid to give him a chance, then keep him forever.
It was one of his best plans, really.
“Tony…” Pepper sighed. “What the hell did you do?”
“Currently? Nothing. Hey, I have a surprise for you when you get back.” Tony sat in his chair and spun around. “How do you like your future stepkids? Blonde, red head, or the spitting image of their father?”
Pepper sounded like she choked on something, probably the same air that Tony choked on when he actually read the results. He doubted if it was the ‘stepkids’ reference, he’d been hitting on Pepper for years without any results.
“What?! Tony, you’re joking?!”
Tony put a hand over his chest. “I never joke, Miss Potts. He really will be your stepson one day, as soon as you stop denying your painful, and rather embarrassing really, crush on me.”
“I’m coming home,” Pepper said, Tony didn’t have to be there to picture the exasperation on her face. “I knew this day would come, I just knew it.”
“Then you’re a hell of a psychic because I did not,” Tony grinned. “See you in a few days, Miss Potts?”
“See you then, Tony.”
Tony was grinning and whistling to himself as he disconnected with Pepper and pulled up the files Jarvis sent him.
He quit whistling pretty damn quick.
“Jarvis, what the hell?” Tony snapped. He clicked through the sparse folder quickly. Three birth certificates- James F. Potter, Lily R. Evans, Harry J. Potter (he knew the kid was lying when he said his last name). Two death certificates- James Potter, cause of death, car accident, Lily Potter, cause of death, car accident. One guardianship form for Harry J. Potter to Petunia P. Dursley. Five years worth of school reports for Harry.
That was it.
Harry never made it to school the fall after he turned eleven. Until now, it was as if Harry Potter had disappeared off the face of the earth.
“That is all I could find, sir. Would you like the files on Petunia Dursley?”
Tony sighed and shook his head at the computer screen. “Yeah.”
Petunia Dursley, formerly Petunia Evans, had a lot more information than Tony’s son had.
Married to Vernon Dursley, a drill salesman for a company that Tony vaguely recalled making some orders from. Mother of Dudley Dursley, one year older than Harry. Petunia was a homemaker and had been in the local papers with her family for various activities over the years.
Her family minus Harry, who didn’t appear in a single photograph that was published.
“What the hell?” Tony whispered to himself. Harry just… just barely existed. There were homeless guys who left more of a paper trail than Harry Potter did. There wasn’t even record of him boarding an international flight.
“This Petunia is still alive?” Tony asked Jarvis as he had a quick thought. He clicked through the documents again after Jarvis confirmed it. “Then why isn’t there a missing persons report?”
Harry was clearly a kid on the run. A desperate kid on the run, really.
“Jarvis, send her contact information to my cell,” Tony said. He got up and stretched his arms over his head. “I’m going to give her a call, see what she’s got to say.”
He also needed to get her to sign over her rights. He’d get them from her either way, but if he could keep it quiet and out of the courts, then all the safer for Harry.
“Very good, sir, Petunia Dursley’s information has been sent. May I remind you that it is currently 12:15 in the morning in Little Whining, Surrey?”
Tony checked his watch and grimaced. “Suppose that’s too early for a wake up call then?”
“Yes, sir.”
Tony nodded. He’d just call her in the morning then.
In the meantime, maybe he could get some answers from Harry.
He kind of doubted it, the kid was evasive and prickly and defensive, but Tony was nothing if not determined.
Tony strolled from his office towards the room he gave Harry. He’d just knock, ask him if he wanted to watch TV or something, and then he’d casually ask about his life. Maybe tell him about his too, especially since supposedly the kid didn’t know anything about the Avengers.
Not a single one of his references seemed to hit home, but Tony doubted if there was a person on the earth who didn’t see footage of the alien attack in May.
Tony knocked lightly on Harry’s door then silently opened it when he got no response. He poked his head in, then paused at what he saw.
Harry was sprawled out on his bed, his soaking wet hair leaving a dark mark on the comforter that he slept on top off. Tony nearly smacked himself in the face when he saw that Harry had on the same hoodie and jeans he showed up in— he’d suggested the kid take a shower and never even thought about the fact he wasn’t carrying a backpack of some sort with him.
The kid traveled from London to New York, without a valid passport apparently, and didn’t even bring a change of clothes.
Whatever he and his friend were running from, they were clearly pretty damn desperate.
But… Tony took a step further in the room and felt his mouth curl upward into a smile. Harry didn’t look like a sarcastic kid who was always ready for a fight when he slept, he just looked like a kid. With his face lax and his eyelashes brushing his face, he looked like a cute kid, probably even cuter without the damn bruise marking his face.
His kid.
And since Tony planned on convincing him to stay forever, he had plenty of time to get answers. He’d start in the morning, of course, but for now he slipped silently out of Harry’s room and closed the door softly.
Tomorrow then.
***
Tony stumbled out of his room the next morning, his nose following the scent of coffee and his ears following the loud sound of laughter and conversation.
“Finally,” Clint said when Tony stepped into the kitchen dining area they had, “Sleeping Beauty has risen from her sleep.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Tony mumbled. He poured a cup of coffee and drank it straight from the mug without sugar or cream. It had been a long night of questions without answers and staring at a ceiling and not sleeping.
“You look like shit,” Clint snorted, ever the charmer. “Bad night?”
Tony turned and grinned at his teammates, his friends, over the top of his cup of coffee. “Great night, actually. Stark stock rose, I didn’t develop any grey hairs, I’ve got a son, and Pepper will be home in a few days.” Tony took a sip of his coffee with a pleased smirk as Clint sputtered out a bite of his eggs, Steve’s jaw nearly hit the table, and Bruce’s eyes bulged from his face.
“Repeat that,” Steve said, the first to recover from his shock.
“Gladly. Stark stock rose, it’s never been higher, really. I think I might end up rich.”
“You have a son?!” Bruce yelled. “Jesus Christ, Tony. Are you sure?”
“99.99%,” Tony said. He stretched his neck up and saw that Harry’s door was still closed. “And if you don’t keep your voice down, you’re going to wake him up.”
The three Avengers’ heads spun almost as one to gawk at the closed door.
“There’s a kid inside there?” Clint whispered. He turned back and narrowed his eyes at Tony. “Is this a joke?”
“What would the punchline be?” Tony asked him curiously. He rolled his eyes when none of the others seemed to be in the mood to banter. “Yes, there’s a kid in there. Yes, it’s my kid. Yes, he did inherit my stunning good looks and probably my brains as well.”
And since that didn’t seem to appease them either, Tony hopped up on the counter, as close to his coffee maker as he could get, and filled them in on what they missed while they were gone.
When he was done, Bruce was rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Steve was staring hard at Harry’s still closed bedroom door, and Clint had his head on the table and his hands linked on the back of it.
“What’s in Russia?” Bruce finally asked when the silence started to bother Tony.
“They don’t extradite to the UK,” Tony chuckled. He knew Harry said it sarcastically, but he didn’t doubt that that was precisely why he wanted to go there. And, since Harry Potter was already a legal nobody, Tony had to assume it was his friend who was on the run from the law.
“You’re not really going to get him those documents, are you?” Steve asked Tony incredulously. “He’s fourteen, Tony, he needs a parent, not an escape plan.”
“But Captaaaain,” Tony whined, “all the other kids have a parent and an escape plan!”
Steve didn’t look impressed, he looked annoyed, which was fair because Tony had been trying to annoy him.
“I told him I would, and I will, eventually,” Tony shrugged. He could have documents so good they’d never be questioned within minutes if he wanted, he just… didn’t want to. He wanted to try and convince the kid to let him help him in a different way instead.
“You sure he’s even still here?” Clint asked skeptically, lifting his head and squinting suspiciously at Harry’s door. “Aren’t teenagers like… noisy?”
Tony frowned and checked the time. It was nearly nine, and Harry had been asleep since around seven last night.
There weren’t very high odds that Harry had managed to sneak out past all the security measures Tony had on the tower, but…
“Jarvis, is Harry in his room?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Asleep?”
“No, sir. He’s awake.”
Tony raised a brow. “Has he eaten yet?”
“He hasn’t left his room since you put him there last night.”
Steve chuckled. “He’s not out getting into everything? You sure he’s yours, Tony?”
Tony grinned, more of a smirk, really. If Steve wasn’t sure, he would be the moment Harry opened his mouth. “99.99%,” he said again, though truthfully there wasn’t even a 0.01% doubt in his mind. “Hey, Jarvis, tell Harry there’s food out here.”
“Yes, sir.”
Tony kicked the cabinet beneath the heels of his feet as he swung his legs out and waited for Harry’s door to open. The other guys looked wary, but a bit eager, as they all watched the door and waited too.
After a few minutes of silence, Tony called for Jarvis again.
“Did you tell him?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And? Is he coming out?”
Jarvis didn’t sigh, he wasn’t programmed to sigh, but somehow he still sounded like he wanted to. “He is sitting on his bed still, sir. He said ‘thanks, robot bloke’.”
Bruce chuckled, but Tony frowned. The kid barely ate anything last night, probably overly anxious, and that was over twelve hours ago. He had to be hungry, teenagers always were. Hell, Tony was still always hungry.
He sat his mug down beside him and cupped his hands around his mouth to yell in the direction of Harry’s room. “Hey! Favorite son of mine! Breakfast time! Up and at ‘em!”
Personally, Tony didn’t give a damn if the kid wanted to sleep until noon, he looked like he needed the sleep, but he wasn’t sleeping he was supposedly just sitting silently in his room. Plus he also looked like he needed to eat some good meals.
And meet the guys, clearly.
Speaking of which…
“Where’s Natasha?” Tony asked Steve. He’d been so excited to share his news, he hardly noticed the absence of one red-headed member of their team. They were also missing a god, but that was expected.
“She’s at SHIELD, giving report,” Bruce answered for Steve. “Can’t imagine what Fury finds so interesting about training, but—”
Tony shushed him and jumped off the counter when his son’s door opened slowly and Harry’s head poked out.
“I don’t know how to cook,” Harry snapped at him. His hair was a mess and he still looked rough, bags under his eyes and that bruise didn’t miraculously heal overnight. He still had on the same clothes too, and Tony made a mental note to take him shopping after breakfast.
“I don’t either. Do you know how to eat?” Tony asked him deadpan, ignoring the way the guys all spun in their seats to stare at Harry.
Harry did not ignore the guys. Harry’s jaw ticked and he blinked very quickly as he looked the three others over closely.
There wasn’t any recognition at all, not even for the well-known and universally beloved Captain America.
“Good, you have company,” Harry said in his flat and cheeky way, his eyes still roaming quickly. “I’ll just quietly stay in here then, yeah?”
“Wro-ong,” Tony sang. He grinned and gestured to the food one of the guys must have ordered that was spread out on the bar in front of them. “Come eat, meet your uncles.”
Harry’s back stiffened and he was outright glaring at the three men by that point. He took a step out of his room and closed the door very gently.
“Hey, kid,” Steve stood up and offered Harry his hand as he slowly approached them. “Steve Rogers.”
“Harry,” Harry said shortly. He nodded at the guys and moved to the opposite side of the counter, outright ignoring Steve’s hand. “As fun as this looks, I’m afraid I’m not in the market for any new relatives. One surprise parent was enough, you see, so I’ll just grab this,” Harry’s hand snuck out and snatched an apple out of the bowl in front of Clint, “and I’ll stay out of your hair until I leave.”
Tony laughed, the kid’s sarcasm always caught him off guard and amused him in equal measures. “Or you can sit, eat something besides an apple, and let them introduce themselves.”
And never leave, was what Tony silently added.
Harry glanced over at him and Tony saw a quick flash of… something… in his eyes. “I’m not a dog, I don’t sit on command,” he said coolly.
“Do you know any neat tricks though?” Clint asked Harry with a grin.
Harry’s returning smile wasn’t exactly what Tony would call friendly. “A few, but a good magician never reveals his secrets.”
Bruce chuckled quietly and looked between Harry and Tony for a moment. “Man, you two are related, aren’t you?”
“That’s what the machine said,” Harry drawled. He seemed to be inching toward his bedroom door. “Please, feel free to discuss this life changing event amongst yourselves.”
“Let’s discuss it amongst the entire household,” Tony said brightly, his words drawing Harry into an immediate stop.
“Entire household?” Harry asked. He stared at Tony with something like accusation on his face. “How many people live here?”
“One devastatingly handsome man, one heartbreakingly gorgeous woman, one incredibly sarcastic and handsome teenage boy, a very old man, a green monster, an assassin, another assassin, and a god on occasion,” Tony said, ticking his fingers as he went. “So seven full time, eight part time.”
Harry quirked a brow and twisted his lips. “I don’t live here.”
“Did I list a Harry?” Tony blinked innocently.
Harry scoffed and then eyed the guys again. He didn’t move for one of the open stools beside them, but instead grabbed one and drug it to the opposite side of where they sat. “Which is which?”
“Clint Barton,” Clint nodded, “assassin.”
“Bruce Banner, green monster,” Bruce glared at Tony quickly for the insult.
Steve sighed and rolled his eyes before giving Harry his literally trademarked friendly smile. “Steve Rogers, I’m probably the old man.”
Harry toyed with the apple he held as he slowly looked from Steve to Tony with a small smirk on his lips now. “You don’t look old.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” Tony winked at his son. “Bruce hardly looks like he can smash the entire building in a single fit, but I assure you he can.”
“So you’re missing a god, another assassin, and a pretty woman?” Harry asked him. He either thought Tony was joking about Bruce or he didn’t care about the Hulk sitting across from him.
There was a very slim chance that Harry already knew about the Avengers, but Tony didn’t think that was it either. He just seemed indifferent to it all.
Probably because he planned on leaving before it mattered to him…
“And a handsome and sarcastic full-time teenage resident,” Tony nodded. “If you find one, send him my way.”
“Perhaps he’s already came and your security guard sent him packing,” Harry said. He picked at the apple skin with his fingernails in an absent gesture.
“Did security do that to your face?” Steve asked, his ‘defender of the weak’ indignation riling up.
Harry glanced curiously at him. “What’s wrong with my face?”
Tony bit his cheek to keep from laughing.
Steve shook his head and frowned at Harry. “You’re black and blue, kid, looks like a nasty punch or two.”
“You’re bloody joking,” Harry said. His eyebrows shot up on the bruised face in question. “When I went to sleep, it was fine.”
Bruce glanced at Tony, but Tony tilted his face up to the ceiling.
“The bruises just popped up overnight?” Bruce asked Harry, clearly seeing Tony wouldn’t give him any hints. “Do you frequently wake up covered in bruises?”
“Every month on the morning after the full moon,” Harry said, causing Tony to work even harder to hold in his laughter. “Do you think I could be a werewolf?”
At that so perfectly delivered line, Tony did lose his shit and started laughing while the others exchanged pinched looks.
“Eat up then, wolf cub,” Tony told Harry with a happy smile. “We’ve got a lot to do today and a measly apple isn’t going to be enough to sustain you.”
“Maybe I wasn’t clear, but I don’t sit on command, I don’t eat on command, and unless the things we need to do today involve our deal, then I’m afraid it’s another command I don’t do.”
Tony didn’t miss the way Harry’s fingers twitched in tangent with his rant. Neither did Steve. Steve looked slowly from Harry’s hands to Tony and raised his brows, but Tony merely shrugged subtly. His kid was twitchy and defensive, but he assumed that he was under a heavy pile of stress considering the whole criminal case he was running from, meeting his dad, and whatever other worries fourteen year olds had.
“Do you shut the fuck up?” Clint muttered.
Tony glared at him, but Harry looked amused.
“Not really, no. I’m a person, not a pet. If you’re confused about the difference, it means I’m capable of independent thoughts and actions. If you’re still confused, buy a fucking dictionary.”
God, Tony adored the kid. Harry was a riot.
It didn’t seem like the guys agreed.
“Language,” Steve said slowly, a quizzical wrinkle on his forehead. “Seriously, Harry, who hit you?” He glanced toward Tony, too quickly for Tony to notice, but not quick enough for Harry.
“You.”
“What?” Steve yelped and held his hands up as Tony slowly turned his head to stare him down. “I did not! I just met you!”
“Seems more logical to say some bulky stranger hit me than my biological father though, doesn’t it?” Harry shrugged and curled his upper lip at Steve. “Tony didn’t hit me and it’s none of your god damned business what happened.”
“Language,” Steve said again, impulse probably.
Tony imagined that he’d be saying it a hell of a lot more often now that Harry was there.
Harry ran a hand through his hair, a nervous habit Tony had that it seemed like his son inherited. He didn’t sound nervous though, which was impressive because his shoulders seemed to be so tight it had to ache. “Whose innocence are you protecting? I’m the only minor in the room.”
“You’re a kid and… and kids shouldn’t curse,” Steve finished. He looked like he knew exactly how lame that sounded, but he was a stubborn ass and still went ahead and said it.
“Minor,” Harry stressed. He grinned, a cool and amused grin that didn’t look very happy at all. “I’m not a fucking kid.”
Tony interrupted the building argument, stepping forward and casually standing between Harry and Steve. Steve was red faced and obviously torn between his oh so polite manners and the urge to correct Harry on his language again, but Harry was holding himself stiffly, looking like he was prepping for Steve to actually hit him.
“You like shopping?” Tony asked Harry.
“No.”
“Do you like anything?” Clint asked him.
“Not particularly,” Harry said.
“Too bad,” Tony said cheerfully. “You don’t have any clothes and we need to fix that.”
Harry sent a pointed look down at his hoodie then back up to Tony. “I have clothes.”
“One outfit does not a wardrobe make,” Tony declared, “or whatever. The point is, kid, you have to wash those clothes sometime and those papers might take a while.”
Harry clenched his jaw and glanced distrustfully past Tony toward the others. “Kind of defeats the purpose of disappearing if you tell a bunch of bloody strangers about it,” he said tightly.
“We aren’t strangers, we’re like family,” Bruce said. He scratched his jaw and lifted his brows. “You’ve really never heard of us?”
“Have you heard of me?” Harry countered with.
“Should we have?” Steve asked genuinely.
“Should I have heard of you?”
Tony watched Harry thoughtfully, trying to piece the kid together. Were all teenagers this unfriendly and defensive?
“You’ve never heard of the Avengers?” Clint smacked his hand on the counter— Harry moved backward in his seat —and sighed heavily. “Nobody told you about the aliens? Or Loki?”
Harry crossed his arms and shook his head. “Nope. Sounds like bullshit though.”
Steve murmured ‘language’ while Tony had a brilliant idea.
“To the TV!” he cried. “Jarvis, pull up the Iron Man and Avengers documentary!”
Bruce looked at Tony and Tony wondered if he’d ever be able to give Harry that sort of ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed’ look that Bruce perfected. “What Iron Man and Avengers documentary?”
Tony winked at Harry, “The one I had made, obviously.”
Harry smirked over Tony’s shoulder at Bruce. “Obviously,” he drawled.
And since that sounded a lot like the kid teaming up with Tony against Bruce, Tony didn’t even comment when he saw Harry slip the apple in his pocket, completely uneaten.
Whatever good will it seemed like Tony earned with his son before the documentary, it was completely gone by the end of it.
Harry seemed stunned, “You were going to die to save all those people?”
“Welll…” Tony shifted uncomfortably from where he was perched across the back of the couch. He messed up with hair and shrugged at the odd look his son was giving him. His stunt with the bomb and the portal wasn’t exactly the point. He mostly just wanted Harry to see the guys in action, maybe, maybeeeee, think how cool his old man was… it wasn’t meant to be a heavy conversation.
“He saved the world,” Steve said gravely. He looked Harry square in the eyes. “Your dad’s a good man.”
“Brilliant.” Harry got up from where he had been sitting on the floor and wiped his hands on his jeans. “I’m going to my room then, if there are no more superhero movies to watch.”
“Nope, just clothes to buy,” Tony said quickly with an excited smile. Tony liked to make money for one reason—
He loved to spend it.
And spending as much money on his son today as the two of them could manage while showing Harry around Tony’s favorite city in the world? It sounded like a dream.
Except Harry was having none of it.
“No, thanks,” he said in his flat voice. He wasn’t even looking at Tony now and he was definitely inching toward his room this time. “Buying clothes wasn’t part of the deal. I said I’d stay here, and I am, I didn’t say I’d go waltzing around stores with a hero.”
And with that jab straight at Tony’s chest, Harry backed straight up to his room and slipped inside.
Tony stared at Harry’s door after Harry gently closed it behind him and wondered how on earth he’d managed to fuck up his relationship with his son even worse than it already was in a span of a few hours.
“That kid is an asshole, he’s definitely yours, Tony.”
Tony turned and pointed at the door, “Goodbye, Barton.”
Clint shrugged, long since used to being kicked out of Tony’s floor of the building they shared. “I’ll just leave you to your bonding time with Junior.”
“We all will.” Bruce got up and laid a gentle hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Aliens are a bit much to drop on a kid,” he said softly. “I’m sure he’s fine.”
“Yeah, I know,” Tony said, lying through his teeth. “He probably saw the aliens and freaked out.”
Except Harry didn’t even blink at the aliens, he’d been perfectly calm, too calm really, until Tony’s stunt at the end.
That was definitely being scrapped from the video in all future uses.
Steve and the other two got in the elevator together, leaving Tony to figure out the situation with his son. Steve wasn’t going to comment on how weird the kid was, but…
“What’s wrong with him?” Steve asked quietly with a speculative light in his blue eyes.
Clint snorted, “You mean the obvious bruise or the attitude?”
“Both.”
“He’s a brat who probably ran his mouth to some punk who took a swing at him,” Clint shrugged. “Maybe if the kid hit him harder, he wouldn’t still be such an asshole.”
Bruce grinned and shook his head at the guys. “Do you really think Tony Stark’s kid could be anything but an asshole?”
Bruce and Clint could laugh, but Steve wasn’t laughing. Something was seriously wrong with that kid.