Lightning Scars & Metal Hearts

Sunday, June 12

The next time Tony tried to talk Harry into leaving his room, ‘hanging out with the guys’, Harry was going to remind him of this.

It had been innocent, mostly. Harry crept quietly from his room to the kitchen to steal a drink, content that nobody was around yet to see him, maybe even snag a snack from the now fully stocked cabinets that he could eat instead of wings and pizza, and what happened?

He got attacked by a psychotic redhead.

Harry had barely begun digging through the pantry, curious about some of the labels for food that he’d never even heard of before, when someone grabbed him by the back of his shirt and spun him around to slam him against the cabinet. He hit his head on the wood hard enough to see a few stars in his eyes, but it wasn’t as if he hadn’t been hurt worse before then.

“Who are you?” the psychotic redhead in question demanded.

Harry didn’t struggle in the iron grip she had on his shoulders, pinning him in place, though he did pale at the look of single minded fury in her eyes. He opened his mouth to tell her his name, but no sound came out.

“Who let you in here?” she yelled. She shook Harry’s shoulders, only heightening his inner terror. He had seen this woman in the documentary thing before, ‘Black Widow’. She was the other assassin that Tony said lived in the tower.

Aka: she was another person who could kill him instantly.

As suddenly mute as Harry found himself verbally, he was mentally cursing Sirius out for letting him travel to New York without so much as his bloody wand.

“Who sent you?” She shook him again and Harry lost his grip on the can of soda he had. He let it slip from his fingers and it burst open in a spray of brown foam that the psycho didn’t even seem to acknowledge as she undoubtedly planned the best way to beat answers out of Harry’s non-working throat.

Harry was so entirely focused on keeping his teeth from chattering from the way the (supposed) hero woman shook him that he entirely missed Tony running in the room until a quiet whoosh sound triggered a burst of light that struck the refrigerator a few inches to the right of Harry and it immediately began smoking.

“Next one won’t miss,” Tony snapped at the psycho with a hard look on his face. “Drop my son, now, Natasha.”

“Son?” The woman, Natasha, apparently, immediately let go of Harry’s shoulders and took a quick step away from him, leaving Harry free to slide to the floor as his legs decided to no longer support him. “When did you get a son, Stark?”

Harry twisted his head to gape at the sizzling hole that was burnt right through the thick metal door of the refrigerator.

“Hey, kid, Harry, you good?”

Harry turned toward Tony’s voice and jolted to the side as Tony had somehow moved the length of the kitchen and knelt down right in front of him without Harry noticing. He reached out for Harry’s head and Harry ducked it automatically to keep him from making contact.

People shouldn’t be allowed to move so quietly, it was disconcerting after spending his life with the Dursleys who practically shook the house every time they so much as breathed.

Harry jerked his chin up in a nod when it seemed like Tony wanted an answer. He reached up for the cabinet handle and used it to pull himself to his feet. He grimaced at the sticky brown liquid staining both his jeans and the floor.

“I’ll clean that,” Harry said quickly, his voice finally returning to him. It was a bit hoarse and shaky, but he doubted if anyone noticed.

Harry looked around the room quickly, curious now about where the cleaning supplies were. Ever since he first snapped off at Tony that he didn’t know how to cook or clean, nobody had insisted and Harry had been bloody relieved to not touch a spatula or broom during his stay there.

“Where’s- where’s a mop?” Harry asked Tony, ignoring the gawking psycho while keeping her in his line of sight.

“Don’t worry about it,” Tony straightened up too and tucked the silver square he had shot the laser thing from in his equally stained jeans pocket. “I’ve got a robot that cleans.”

Harry stopped looking for a cleaning cupboard of some sort. “A- a robot that cleans?“

“Yup.” Tony grinned at Harry and whistled sharply, “Harry, meet your brother, CHOW. You’re my favorite, of course, but he was here first.”

Harry watched as a cabinet door slid open and a little round metal contraption whizzed out of it and immediately moved to the puddle of spilled soda. Tony reached down and grabbed the can and they watched as the machine buzzed around and left spotless tile beneath it as it cleaned.

Harry edged out of the mess; he had to choose between stepping over beside Tony or putting himself closer to the psycho and Tony was obviously the lesser of two evils as he hadn’t even bat an eye over Harry pouring soda all over the place.

“Chow?” Harry repeated the name of the robot. “What’s a Chow?”

Tony chuckled when he glanced down at Harry’s passively curious face. “C-H-O-W, because he’s for ‘Cleaning the House Or Whatever’.”

Harry didn’t grin, mostly because the psycho was still staring at him like he was the one attacking fourteen year olds looking for food, but he was fondly reminded of Hermione trying to steamroll House Elf freedom with a club named SPEW.

“Hello, sweet father-son nerd-family moment, someone want to take some time to fill me in on what the fuck is going on?”

Harry glanced up at the psycho who now had her leather jacket covered arms crossed tightly and was tapping a black leather boot irritably on the floor. He quickly averted his eyes as hers were far too curious as they bore into his.

“I’m gonna…”

“Wait!” Tony spoke up as Harry was trying to slip back to his room. Harry flinched a little, he blamed his still racing heart and the fact he had just been attacked over a bloody snack (was that the first time that happened in his life? No, but for some reason he hadn’t been expecting it to happen there. Which was stupid, but he knew better now.).

Harry turned his head to Tony and gave him a silent and questioning look. Either he was pissed about the snack and soda thing, or he wasn’t.

“You good?”

Apparently he wasn’t.

Harry refrained from shooting a dirty look at the psycho, certain that if his mere presence had set her off once, then a mean look would do it twice. He unconsciously raised his hand to his head, smoothing down his hair and feeling for a bump, and raised his shoulders. “Fine,” he answered shortly.

Tony looked like he didn’t believe him, but that was too damn bad because Harry was fine.

“Sure,” Tony said skeptically. “Well the guys will be here in about ten minutes, so why don’t you go change and I’ll fill Nat in on why we don’t shake our family and give her your dry cleaning bill?”

Harry wasn’t entirely sure that was a joke, and he didn’t actually want the psycho to have more of a reason to be pissed at him, but Tony did pay for Harry’s jeans so he could do what he wanted, he supposed. Personally, he’d be more concerned about the smoldering refrigerator, but Tony didn’t even give it a second glance.

“Great,” he said flatly with a quick glance towards ‘Nat’. “I’ll go do that then.”

“Family dinner in ten!” Tony yelled as Harry quickly made his way to his room.

“Great,” Harry repeated before he carefully closed his door.

Dinner with the guy who kept trying to talk Harry into abandoning Sirius, the team of deadly superheroes, and the psycho.

‘Great’.

Harry decided that a hot shower would be a quick way to force his heart to beat slower. He regret it almost immediately when he’d lifted his head to the spray and felt his face crumple.

It was stupid, because he really was fine, not even hurt at all, but… but it was as if he’d been waiting to release his misery and the psycho had just been the trigger to do so.

He was grateful that it didn’t happen until he was safely in the shower with the water drowning out the pathetic noise he made. Once he started, he sank to the floor of the unreasonably large bath/shower, it was a faucet he couldn’t turn off. So Harry did what he always did when everything was overwhelming, he ducked his head to his knees and rode it out.

He missed Sirius. He missed Ron and Hermione, their unwritten letters aside. He missed Hedwig.

And he had no idea what the fuck he was doing in New York with Tony anymore.

He didn’t want to talk about pets and family dinners and college or have someone shoot a deadly laser at a psycho on his behalf when he couldn’t stay. He didn’t know what Tony wanted when he said all that weird shit about Harry staying forever and them being a family, but there was surely more of a catch than just losing Sirius.

Even though Harry couldn’t imagine a worst catch than that.

Sirius couldn’t come to New York, not as a free man. And Harry wasn’t going to ask him to go anywhere that he couldn’t be free. Sirius got Harry free- free from the war, free from the Dursleys -Harry would do the same for him.

He just wished it wasn’t beginning to feel so hard to do. Even if there were ulterior motives somewhere, it felt a lot like a starving man turning down a hot meal every time Harry had to remind Tony that he wasn’t staying and playing family with him and his friends.

Then he felt guilty, because he wasn’t a starving man in that scenario, he had a family already and his family had done a damn sight more for him than anyone else had ever bothered to do.

Then he was pissed at Tony for trying to bribe him into leaving that family. Then he was pissed at himself for leaving behind his friends. Then he was stressed as he thought about what the war he cowardly fled from looked like, and then, and then, and then.

It was no wonder it had only taken a hard shake to set him off. He was probably lucky that he’d avoided curling up in the puddle of soda and having a whole breakdown while Tony saw what a nutter Harry was.

Eventually, as it always happened, Harry got control of himself and was able to stand up and finish showering without any more delays.

He was a bit past the ten minutes he’d been given, but he had purposefully stalled until he felt like his eyes weren’t too embarrassingly red and swollen.

Was Harry thrilled to see Steve, Bruce, the assassin who maybe hated him or maybe didn’t, and the assassin who definitely hated him and was a bloody psychopath all immediately turn toward him when he stepped in the room? Not at all.

Was Harry incredibly surprised to see a huge round wooden dining table in the middle of the sitting room instead of the posh and sleek leather furniture that usually filled it? Very much so.

It was that aggravation and surprise that led Harry to taking a hasty step backward and bumping into his closed door when ‘Natasha/Nat the Black Widow Psychopath’ jumped from her chair and moved toward Harry.

“Hey, Harry, right?” She didn’t seem angry at all anymore, so Harry assumed that Tony explained that Harry was actually a guest who was supposedly allowed to wander freely about the tower. “I make a shit first impression, I’m Natasha, you are allowed to call me Nat, if you want.” She offered Harry her hand with an exaggerated slowness that made Harry wonder if she thought he was afraid of her over something so minor.

“I don’t,” he said coolly. He held her gaze as long as he was able, which wasn’t all that long as there was some look in her eyes too similar to pity that made him uncomfortable, before he looked toward the new table in the sitting room again.

Bruce must have picked up on Harry’s curiosity because he explained while the psycho (she smacked his head off the cupboard and made him feel stupid, he wasn’t calling her ‘Nat’) moved back to her seat with a frown.

“This usually stays on my floor, I like to work at a table and Tony hates to have it take up an entire room, but we move it up here on Sunday evenings.”

Harry nodded slowly while he stared at what was undoubtedly a heavy, not to mention bulky, piece of furniture with eight heavy looking chairs to match. “I don’t suppose you considered eating on your floor instead of moving the table?”

Tony, who had been sliding stacks of colorful boxes to everyone and shooting Harry annoyingly ‘concerned’ glances when he thought Harry wasn’t looking, chuckled quietly.

“Bruce’s place is a mess, Steve’s OCD, Nat and Clint aren’t always here on Sundays, and Pepper rarely stays here unless she’s working late,” he said. He slid a few boxes to an empty seat, one across from him but without anyone on either side of it, and looked up to smile at Harry. “Take a seat, kid. Join the fun.”

Harry sat, ignoring the obvious looks they all kept giving him. Or, trying to anyway, until he snapped off at Clint’s scrutinizing look.

“Do I have something on my face?” Harry asked him.

Clint shrugged and tossed Harry a grin before he opened one of the boxes Tony slid him. “I heard we’re getting a dog,” he said casually, apparently deigning to not answer Harry’s sarcastic question. “I just wondered if it’s bark would be as bad as it’s bite.”

Harry furrowed his brows and tried to puzzle through that cryptic remark (he was not getting a dog because he didn’t even know if he could take the bloody thing to Russia and it would probably chew up a cord, just as Tony said, and Harry’d be in a ton of trouble for it) when Tony distracted him.

“Harry, you like beer?”

And then Harry didn’t get a chance to even respond before the psycho laughed from where she sat beside Clint.

“He’s like twelve, Tony,” she snickered. “Jesus.”

“I’m going to be fifteen in July,” Harry snapped at her, subtly sliding back in his seat when she turned to him with her dark brows raised. He didn’t break eye contact this time though, feeling mildly more secure as he doubted if she’d attack him in front of the guy who nearly blew a hole in her head.

“You’re short,” she finally said. “Why?”

Harry quirked a brow. “You’re a bitch, why?”

Why… why… why… could Harry never simply shut up? Was the adrenaline rush of wondering when the next blow would come really worth the sweating palms he got every time he said something in that scathing tone without thinking it through first?

The laughter that suddenly filled the room startled him and caught him off guard.

Clint was bent over at the waist, nearly falling out of his chair, while Tony hit the table with his fist and howled with laughter.

“I think we’re going to get along just fine,” the psycho told Harry as she swiped what looked like actual tears of mirth from beneath her eyes.

“I doubt that,” Harry said truthfully.

“Maybe you’ll make a better third impression, Nat,” Steve said with a wry smile.

“Mm, doubtful. I’m still waiting on her to make a good impression on me and I’ve met her over fifty times.” Tony winked and slid a can of soda to Harry, one of the same soda’s that Harry had dropped on the kitchen floor.

Harry peeked over toward the kitchen and saw that the refrigerator was no longer smoking, though he doubted it worked anymore as there was a fist sized hole right through the front of it.

“Don’t worry about that,” Bruce told Harry when he saw what he was looking at. “Tony’s already ordered a new one.”

“I’ll have to tweak it, of course, but it’ll be perfect once I’m done.” Tony flapped a hand toward the red and blue boxes by Harry, “Eat, kid, and I’ll bore you to death about how we’re going to have a super fridge by the time I’m finished with the one they’re delivering in the morning.”

Harry wasn’t super what a ‘super fridge’ was meant to be, but he obediently ate a slice of the pizza Tony got him, along with a few of the wings he had never tried before, as he explained. And, yeah, having a refrigerator that could give out hot water, cold water, or even lemonade through the quick press of a button did actually sound brilliant.

“Enough shop talk,” Clint groaned, interrupting Tony’s story about the other household appliances he’d updated in different ways (apparently the robot assistant, Jarvis, could preheat the oven no matter how far from home Tony was, a neat, but useless, trick as Tony proudly admitted to not knowing how to cook anything past cereal). “What’s the plan?”

“We should let Harry decide since it’s his first Sunday,” Steve said. He turned toward Harry and smiled at him. “We always do something together on Sundays, usually cards or watch TV or a movie or something. You can pick tonight.”

Harry glanced at the expectant looks on everyone else’s faces. “I… er… what?”

“Idiot,” Tony told Steve. He shook his head at him and gave Harry a ‘can you believe him?’ sort of look. “Kid, what card games do you know?”

Harry tried to keep the blank look off his face. “None?”

“None?” Natasha rolled her head from side to side, causing her neck to click. “Everyone knows how to play poker!”

“Suppose I’m a no one then,” Harry said.

“You’re not a no one,” Steve said firmly, sounding more emphatic than Harry’s sarcasm really required. “I didn’t learn to play poker until I joined the army.”

“How about board games?” Bruce asked him. “I’ve got a few down on my floor. Do you know how to play Monopoly?”

“Pepper’s going to be pissed if we play Monopoly again,” Clint snickered as he shared a sly look with Natasha.

“Fury said he’ll let the next dumbass who gets arrested on game night sit in jail for a while,” Natasha added. “He might be bluffing though.”

“He’s just jealous that we don’t invite him,” Tony said airily. “Kid, you down to kick some ass at Monopoly? I’ll warn you now, it can get heated.”

Harry grinned a bit, “Will it get heated enough to see Bruce turn in to the Hulk?”

Not that Harry particularly wanted to be around when he did, but Tony seemed to be a bit obsessed with the giant green monster.

“The way we play? Absolutely,” he winked.

Harry had never actually played Monopoly before, but he still doubted if they played by standard rules.

There seemed to be a lot of cash betting for what seemed to be a kid’s board game. Tony had moved over to sit beside Harry and slid him an actual stack of real, really green, American cash while Steve set up the game and Bruce explained the rules. Natasha and Clint were busy moving drinks from the ruined refrigerator to the table and Harry had been trying to listen to the rules when Tony distracted him once more.

“These guys are gamblers,” he murmured quietly enough that the others couldn’t hear. “Use this to gamble with, anything you win is yours.”

“No.” Harry used a single finger to slide the money back.

Tony slid it back, “Call it an allowance.”

“No.”

“Back logged child support?”

“No.”

“An outright bribe to make you smile at me?”

Harry frowned even harder. “No.”

Tony’s smile was bright, “If you’re worried I’ll be mad when you lose it all, don’t be. You’ll just lose it to me while we play anyway.”

Harry didn’t push it back that time. He was suddenly determined to win the complicated sounding game. “We’ll see.”

Once they got going, Harry realized that they were all intently competitive, except for Steve who didn’t seem to care if he won or not.

They all also sniped at one another in playful tones in the beginning that didn’t last long before it turned more heated.

“You’re cheating!”

“This is bullshit! You know I wanted Boardwalk!”

“I’m not paying you! I know you put the ‘go to jail’ card on the top of the pile!”

“Go fuck yourself, Barton, I’m not paying rent to you.”

Harry had started quiet for a while, focused on not losing horribly, but then Natasha bought Marvin Gardens despite Harry owning the other two yellow properties.

“You bloody prat!” he cried, furious when she smugly took the card from the ‘banker’, Bruce. “What the hell are you going to do with that? I’ve got the other two!”

“Sell it back to you at triple the price,” she quipped with a playful smile. “Come on, Stark Junior, $840 and it’s all yours.”

“Piss off,” Harry said irritably. He had plenty of money, somehow despite having the least amount of properties, but he wasn’t giving her what she wanted. “You can keep the bloody thing.”

Harry thought he misunderstood a rule somewhere because Steve bought the property from Natasha on his next turn and then on his next turn, when he didn’t have enough money to pay rent to Bruce, he sold the property to Harry for $300.

He probably shouldn’t have bought it in the first place, but if he was bad at thinking logically, that wasn’t Harry’s problem.

The game ended when Clint threw the dice across the flat, lodging them into the drywall beside the elevator. He threw his part of their complex bet down on the table and pointed at Tony accusingly before he stormed away, “You’re a damn cheater.”

“You’re a sore loser!” Tony yelled at his back. He waited until the others left, most of them annoyed, to turn to Harry and wink, “I did cheat.”

Harry sent a pointed look at his neat piles of Monopoly money, “Not good enough, I still beat you?”

Somehow.

Harry actually had no idea how he wound up with so much of the colorful paper money.

Tony sighed and pushed the pile of winnings to Harry. “I’ll just cheat harder next time.”

Harry, against his will, laughed as he counted out the money Tony had originally given him to bet with and returned it to him.

Tony pocketed it without an argument. “I’ll have to teach you poker before next Sunday, you’ll make a killing.”

Harry ignored the brief pang of longing. “Will I still be here next Sunday?”

He didn’t want to make plans he wouldn’t be around to fulfill.

“Maybe. Oh, hey, that reminds me. The team and I are going to be busy tomorrow, top secret Avengers bullshit. Pepper will be around though, if you need anything. And I’ll Bluetooth our numbers to you, so you have them. Probably should have done that before now.”

Harry shrugged and helped pack up the game pieces. “What time should I be expecting to be attacked again?”

“Never.”

Harry looked up at Tony’s fervent tone curiously. He had gone to retrieve the dice and was staring at Harry intently as he walked back toward the table.

“Natasha fucked up, she knows that now, but I don’t want you expecting to be attacked again. Not by her, not by any of us. For however long you’re here, this is your home, kid. Nobody’s going to put their hands on you.”

Harry ducked his head so Tony didn’t see the disbelief on his face. “I was joking.”

“I’m not. You’re safe here.”

Harry tried to divert the suddenly intense conversation, “There is a Hulk two floors below us.”

Tony wasn’t distractible for once. He shook his head at Harry. “I give Bruce shit, but he’s good about knowing when he’s going to change. Even if he did change in here, I’d get you away from the danger before I got him to the Hulk-cage. And he might be a jolly green giant, but I’m fast.”

Harry hummed and then glanced up when a small silver square landed on the table in front of him.

“For you,” Tony explained as Harry looked at him. He also tossed the dice in the game box and put the lid on it. “Keep it on you. Just press that top button and the laser comes from that little hole on the front, it has sensors built in so you don’t deploy it on accident in your pocket.” He bent over to grab the box and made uncomfortably solemn eye contact with Harry, “If anyone ever puts their hands on you in any way you don’t like, shoot them.”

Harry picked up the deceptively light weight contraption. It was smaller than his phone and hardly looked like it would leave a hole in a refrigerator. “You want me to kill someone for touching me?”

“Yes.” Tony grinned and straightened up, box now in hand. “Don’t worry, kid, I’ll help you hide the body. Oh, hey, but do me one favor?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t tell Pepper I gave that to you. She’ll be all ‘Oh, Tony, you’re sooo handsome, but you can’t be giving out military-grade weapons to your equally handsome son, kiss me!’” Tony began making kissing sounds that had Harry unwillingly laughing again.

“I won’t tell her,” he said. He looked at the silver weapon and grinned to himself, imagining if he had it back in May. He could have just shot a laser through Wormtail and baby-Voldemort both and kept Voldemort from ever coming back to life.

… Cedric would still be dead though.

“Thanks,” Harry mumbled, the small smile gone. He slipped the contraption in his pocket and got out of his chair. “I’ll just, er… see you tomorrow?”

“If I’m back before dinner, we should try Greek,” Tony nodded. “Lamb-kabobs are a delicacy, kid.”

“If you say so.” Harry paused by his door and gave Tony a lingering and curious look. “Er… night then.”

Harry shook his head after he slipped his jeans off and slid in his bed. He kind of hoped he would be long gone before the next Sunday, but… Harry rolled on his side and reached out to trail a finger on the sleek little silver square.

Harry angrily flipped on his back after a moment.

He didn’t need someone trying to watch out for him. Harry watched out for himself and Sirius did too.

‘Safe here,’ what a stupid thing to say.

Harry expected to dream about graveyards and green lights, screams and sobs, that night, and he wasn’t disappointed.

***

“Good morning.”

Harry had drug himself from his room when the sunlight fully filled the room and his stomach began to complain. It had been a long night, but as he didn’t expect anyone to be around all day, he hadn’t bothered getting out of bed until he absolutely had to.

And he regret it immediately, as he did the last time he left his bedroom.

Sitting on the newly replaced sofa, with a pair of white trainers propped up on the coffee table, was a woman, Pepper, probably.

She was young, and just as pretty as Tony said she was. She had long strawberry-blonde hair that was loosely tossed about her shoulders. While Harry probably looked sloppy in his sweatpants and tshirt, she looked elegant somehow in the black sweatpants and fitted white shirt she wore.

She plucked a remote off the table and paused whatever show she had been watching so she could give Harry a sweet smile.

“I’m Pepper,” she said. She had a nice voice, soft, but still warm, a bit like Molly Weasley’s really. She waved the remote toward the kitchen behind her head. “You missed breakfast, but there’s subs in the kitchen if you want one.”

“Er… I’m Harry and thanks.” Harry turned to the kitchen when she flicked the telly right back on. He rolled his eyes when he saw the dozen different sandwiches, all with plastic wrappers and brightly colored labels on them, laid out across the counter. He snagged one at random, ham and cheese it said, and couldn’t even put the rest of them in the refrigerator because it was still broken.

Shrugging it off, Harry settled for getting a bottle of water and simply sliding the excessive amount of food off to the side so he could sit.

And, since he only cleared one spot away, he’d been annoyed when Pepper wandered in the kitchen not moments after Harry unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite.

“So, I’ve heard absolutely nothing about you besides Tony swears you’re hilarious and adorable and Steve said you like dogs,” she said cheerfully. She sat herself down at the opposite end of the counter from Harry and sifted through the pile of sandwiches until she found the one she wanted.

“I’m not funny or adorable,” Harry said, no real heat to his tone. “And all I know about you is that Tony swears you’re in love with him.”

Pepper threw her head back and laughed, and she had a nice laugh too. Musical, sort of. Harry could see why Tony always lit up when he talked about her, anyway.

“Tony thinks the whole world is in love with him,” she said brightly, apparently not worried about insulting her boss to her bosses biological son. “He’s got an ego the size of this building.”

“Yeah?” Harry grinned a little. “Where’s he store it?”

“Secret weapons lab,” she winked. “It’s expansive enough to fit his ego and Natasha’s attitude.”

Harry laughed and it spurred her into giving him ‘the dirty details’ on every on their team. Harry ate while she talked about Clint having a hot head, Steve’s ‘annoying self-righteousness’, Natasha’s impulsivity and attitude, Bruce’s wariness and his reluctance, and Tony’s ego and bossiness.

“You’re literally giving me the weaknesses of these guys,” Harry pointed out when he was finished eating and she was done talking. “I’ve got a team of killers too, you know, and I do plan on using them to take down the Avengers.”

“Oh yeah?” Pepper smiled at him, apparently pleased with Harry’s dry jest. “Got room on your team for one more? It’s about time someone knocked these guys down a peg.”

Harry laughed and shrugged, “I mean so far it’s me and half a dozen German Shepherd puppies, so I suppose you can join if you have any secret skills.”

“Hold that thought…” Pepper winked and held her phone up as it began beeping out a song. Harry saw a photo of Tony flash on the screen before she answered it.

“How goes the top secret mission?” she quipped, drawing another smile from Harry. “Are you prepared to tell me about it and how it’s went horribly wrong yet?”

Harry couldn’t hear Tony, but whatever he said made Pepper roll her eyes.

“He’s fine,” she said, “I’m about to take him to see my secret skills so I can join his League of Evil.”

Harry cleared his throat softly, “We’re the good guys, actually.”

Pepper laughed and nodded at him. “Sorry, I meant I’m about to audition for a position on Team Good Guys.”

Harry collected their trash while Pepper assured Tony that they weren’t doing anything ‘dangerous’ and that he ‘better not be doing something stupid’.

After she hung up, she spun around in her chair to give Harry a wide smile that had a mischievous look to it.

“Ready to see my super power?”

“Sure. What is it?”

Pepper pulled a slim black wallet from her pocket and produced a sparkling blue card from it. “I can destroy Tony’s credit limit in mere hours. Are you ready to join me as I prove my worth as an ally?”

Harry hesitated for a moment, but there was just something likable about Pepper. And… and as much as Harry didn’t want to be responsible for something that could destroy wires and get him punished for it… he did actually quite like that dog.

“Can we stop by a pet store?”

Pepper’s blue eyes twinkled harder than Dumbledore’s ever had. “Oh, Harry, we can absolutely stop by a pet store, in fact, I insist.”

Harry rushed to get dressed, throwing something less messy on, and grabbed the money he won from Monopoly, his weird little weapon, and his cell phone. He shot Sirius a quick message, just a little face rolling it’s eyes, but he sent a slightly longer one to Peter.

I’m stealing Joey from you today and teaching him to respond to Arsehole.

He’d been flying down the streets with Pepper, the radio blaring some catchy pop song, headed to a mall Pepper swore ‘had everything they needed’ (not that Harry needed anything aside from dog stuff) when he got a text back.

I just told Joey, he barked and it means ‘cool’ lol

“Oh.” Harry blinked at the message and snapped his surprised mouth closed. He hadn’t expected to run into Peter when they went to ‘liberate an innocent puppy and bring him to their lair of goodness’, as Pepper called the mission.

Pepper turned down the radio and slowed the car as she turned it into a parking lot. “Everything good over there?”

“Yeah…” Harry told Peter he’d be there later and pocketed the phone. “I met a kid who works at the shelter, he’s there today, I guess.”

“A kid, huh?” Pepper gave Harry a sly smile. “Cute kid?”

Harry scowled. “I have no idea. I guess you can see for yourself today. I’ll even give you his number if you like what you see.”

Pepper laughed brightly and shut the car off. “I prefer my men to be men,” she winked. “I’ll just leave this kid to you.”

Harry blushed and jumped out of the car after she stepped out. “I’m, er, I’m not gay,” he said in a heated whisper, conscious of the people milling about in the parking lot. “So… I don’t need you to ‘leave him to me’.”

Pepper gave Harry a curious look as she strolled over and linked their arms, catching him by surprise and causing him to tense before he relaxed in her easy movements.

“Tony says he isn’t gay either, but a gorgeous man is a gorgeous man,” she said conversationally as they walked toward the huge shopping mall entrance. “He told me he slept with both of your parents, you know.”

Harry sputtered and knew his face had to be as red as Ron’s hair. “Bloody gross thing to bring up,” he scoffed. “Siri- my friend,” he barely caught himself, “already told me. I don’t need to hear it twice.”

Pepper grinned and held the door open for Harry without ever releasing his arm. “Your friend knew your parents pretty well then?”

Harry nodded absently as he took in the sights and sounds of the mall. Everywhere he looked, there were people and noise and lights and activity. It was much busier and louder than the electronic store and department store he went with Tony to a few days prior.

“Everyone walks fast in New York,” Pepper told Harry as she briskly led him by their conjoined arms around the crowds. “Pet supplies first, destroy your dad’s credit card second.”

Harry was too distracted by keeping away from the other people milling about and talking in their odd accents to correct her, but Tony wasn’t his dad.

He also didn’t care much to start an argument with the warm and friendly woman anyway. He quite liked her, he imagined she was a difficult person to dislike.

They found a little pet store on the third floor, and Harry had a bit of childish glee at riding the escalators up to the floor. Pepper guided Harry on the supplies he’d need- a leash, collar, food, bowls, toys, and little bags to pick up messes the puppy might make -and Harry liked her all the more when she offered to use Tony’s credit card and merely shrugged when Harry insisted that he’d use his money.

They went to a store filled with home decor next and Pepper badgered Harry into buying ‘one damn thing’ to decorate ‘his’ bedroom with.

“It’s not my bedroom, it’s a guest room and I’m leaving soon,” Harry told her firmly.

“Fine, take it with you when you go. But I’m going to look like some wicked stepmom if I buy stuff for my place and you don’t have anything.”

Harry doubted if Pepper could ever be considered anyone’s parent, wicked or not, as young and lively as she was, but he did snag a neat looking rock that set off warm lights and boasted on the packaging that it ‘enhanced peaceful sleep’.

Then Pepper drug him to a woman’s lingerie store, where Harry refused to step foot inside once he saw what it sold. Then they went to another department store and Harry side eyed a leather jacket that reminded him of Sirius’. He hissed when he saw the price tag though.

“That is a lot of money.” Probably more than his bloody Firebolt had cost.

Pepper grabbed it off the shelf and held it up after juggling her other purchases in her arms. “I think you should get it and wear it to go see your totally not cute friend.”

Harry shook his head and tried to take it back from her to hang it up. “I don’t think I’ve ever had that much money in my life.”

Which Pepper found hilarious.

“Oh, Harry, Harry, Harry, you’re so humble,” she laughed. “You must get that from your mom. We’re buying this, come on, help me pick out shoes.”

As bossy as Pepper said that Tony was, Harry privately thought that she was just as bad really.

By the time they made it back to the car, their arms were both ladled down with shopping bags and Pepper was all but beaming.

“Another successful day!” She yanked Harry’s new jacket out and thrust it to him before closing the overflowing boot of the car with a flourish. “And now we go liberate your dog from the forces of evil!”

By the time they pulled up at the animal shelter that Pepper had to find the address for, Harry could definitely see why Tony was obsessed with the woman. Incredible bossiness aside, Pepper was loads of fun to be around.

“Harry!” Peter met them as soon as they walked in the doors, a crooked smile on his face, Joey already squirming in his hands. “And…?” he shuffled Joey to one arm so he could hold a polite hand out to Pepper.

“Pepper Potts,” she said, grabbing his hand with a grin, “I’m just here to rescue a puppy from evil.”

“You hear that, Joey?” Peter held the dog up to his face and let him lick him. “You’re joining the Avengers, buddy, since Harry’s apparently a secret member.”

“I bloody well am not,” Harry said. He took Joey from Peter when the other boy held him out and immediately started scratching his ears, happy to see that Joey seemed to remember him. “We’re starting an Anti-Avengers team—”

“Anti-Avengers,” Pepper quipped, “the fun AA.”

“Right,” Harry grinned, “and Arsehole here is helping us take them down from the inside.” He ruffled Joey’s ears and laughed when he tried to thump his tail on Harry’s arm. “Aren’t you, buddy? You ready to take on the Hulk, huh?”

Joey woofed in an enthusiastic way that made the three of them laugh.

“Have room for another member?“ Peter asked, he leaned against the front counter and watched Harry play with Joey, occasionally reaching over to scratch Joey’s head, while Pepper filled out the adoption paperwork.

“Depends,” Harry said seriously, “have any secret superpowers?”

“Well they wouldn’t be a secret if I told you, would they?” Peter deadpanned with the same crooked smile.

“Fair enough,” Harry said. He held Joey up and looked him in his black puppy eyes, “Do we let Peter join or tell him to piss off?”

Joey barked and licked Harry’s nose.

“I’m in!” Peter cried, throwing a fist up victoriously. “I need a cool name, Peter just doesn’t sound like a superhero, does it?”

Harry considered the other Peter he knew and crinkled his nose in disgust. “No,” he said, “we’ll come up with a good name for you that isn’t Peter.”

“And I’ll come up with one for you,” Peter said with a wink.

Harry hadn’t noticed it before then, but it was actually really hot in that building and he hoped Joey wasn’t too warm.

Thankfully, Pepper saved Harry from stammering out something stupid as she bound over to him with her phone in hand.

“It’s done! Congratulations! Now you have to take a photo on the day you adopt your first dog,” she told Harry. She pointed at a wall that had a banner, apparently designed for just that purpose. “Go, stand, smile.”

Harry rolled his eyes at Peter’s smirk, then did as ordered. He held Joey up by his face, hoping the cuteness of the puppy would mask Harry’s… Harry-ness.

“Cheese,” he said with a half-arsed smile.

Pepper rolled her eyes that time and pushed Peter over toward him, causing another heat wave to fill the room. “Peter, show Harry how to smile, will you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Peter said politely. He stood next to Harry and threw a friendly arm over his shoulder before making the most ridiculous face at Pepper, eyes crossed, tongue sticking out.

Harry laughed, Joey barked, and Pepper took the photo.

“He seems nice,” Pepper hummed in the car while they drove back to the tower and Harry held his sleeping puppy in his lap and tried to get a good photo to send Sirius.

“Who?”

“Peter,” she drawled, “obviously.”

“Oh.” Harry shrugged. “Suppose so.”

Pepper glanced over at Harry and laughed as he stuck his phone right in Joey’s face, trying to get a video of the way his nose twitched as he slept.

“You could invite him over,” she said lightly, her eyes back on the road. “Take Joey for a walk, play video games, whatever the hell it is that two cute teenage boys do together.”

Harry scoffed, he had no idea what other teenagers did. “Sounds a bit like plans I can’t make considering I’m leaving soon,” he said carefully.

“It does sound like that, doesn’t it?” Pepper said in her unflappably chipper way. “I don’t know what’s in Russia, but I promise you that Tony can get it for you here, if you wanted to stay.”

Harry put the phone down, ignoring the text from Peter, and frowned. “You can’t buy everything, Pepper.”

Pepper ignored Harry’s rude tone. “Name one thing you can’t buy,” she challenged him playfully.

Harry wasn’t in the mood to play though. “A family,” he blurted, thinking of the one thing he’d always said he’d trade his entire vault to have.

Pepper gave Harry a sympathetic look and reached out to grasp his knee gently. “We could be your family, if you let us.”

Harry stared down at Joey and swallowed back the lump trying to clog his throat. “You’re great, but I can’t,” he admitted. “S- my friend is my family, and I made promises I can’t break.”

Pepper hummed again, but didn’t say anything else.

They made the rest of the drive home to the tower in silence.