“Everyone squish together!”
July 30
Harry sat on the sitting room floor, his back to the armrest of the sofa, his legs pulled up to his chest, his chin propped on his knees. He looked away from the open window, glancing at his phone…
11:57
It was a tradition nearly as old as Harry himself was. Every year he waited up until midnight to be awake when his birthday rolled around. It was stupid, but had been comforting when the Dursleys went out of their way to make him extra miserable on his birthday. From midnight until morning, Harry could pretend that it would be a good day. He could pretend that when he woke up, someone who cared about him would wish him a happy birthday.
It had been a good omen when Hagrid arrived only minutes after Harry turned eleven.
It had been even better the last two birthdays when Harry’s friends had timed their owls to arrive at the Dursleys right at midnight.
Those owls with well wishes, gifts, and oftentimes life saving food, were the brightest spots of the grey coloured memories of the times with his relatives. And now…
Harry looked out the window that remained open for Hedwig, only ever the one in the sitting room—
“Can I open my bloody window?”
“You going to see a therapist?”
“No.”
“Answered your own question then.”
—and sighed.
Harry’s friends couldn’t write, not properly as Harry had Hedwig with him and Sirius assured him that other owls weren’t clever enough or connected enough to Harry to track him to America without an address. It wasn’t as if Hermione or Ron didn’t talk to him, they’d given Sirius a letter that Sirius sent Harry a photo of, one he hadn’t replied to yet. Proof though, that his friends cared about him, even if they didn’t realize what a pathetic coward Harry was.
So it was stupid, waiting up until midnight, thinking an owl would fly in, but…
11:58
But still he sat.
When his phone blinked over to 11:59, a soft footstep startled Harry in to turning and looking over the armrest he had been leaning against.
Tony.
Tony had managed to make it halfway across the sitting room, clear to the other end of the sofa, before Harry heard him, as lost in his own thoughts as he had been.
“Headache?” Tony asked lightly. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish as he stood there in the same silky looking black clothes he’d had on the night before.
It was the reminder of Tony finding Harry in the throes of a nightmare—
“Kill the spare!”
“Not Harry!”
—that caused Harry to scowl.
“I needed fresh air,” Harry lied baldly. “I can’t exactly get it in my room, can I?”
Tony grinned a little, his tense shoulders relaxing at Harry’s snappy tone. “Can’t jump out a window that won’t open,” he said with an airy wave of his hand. “Oh, hey, what time is it?”
Harry looked down at his phone just in time to see the numbers click over to 12:00 and the date to change.
“Mister Harry?”
Harry glanced up toward the ceiling as he always did when Jarvis spoke to him. “Yeah?”
“I apologize.”
Harry felt his entire face scalding as Jarvis broke out in an entire rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ while Tony sang off-key and waved his hands around like a conductor.
As soon as they were done, Harry’s phone pinged and he looked down at the messages on the screen.
Happy birthday, Bright Eyes. -Peter
Happy birthday, Harry!! XOXO -Gwen
Happy birthday! I love you! -Pepper
Your dad is planning a surprise party. I told him you didn’t seem to like surprises, but he doesn’t listen. See you later, happy birthday. -Natasha
There were more, from the rest of Tony’s superhero friends, but Harry looked up at Tony, intending to scowl about a surprise party, and instead blinked in surprise.
Tony had moved quickly while Harry checked his texts. He stood just behind Harry with a wide smile and plate of red iced cupcakes in his hands. The cupcake in the middle had two number shaped candles lit, a one and a five.
Harry felt his throat swell up and had to blink very quickly to keep from doing something stupid, like crying.
“You’re supposed to make a wish and blow out the candles,” Tony said cajolingly. “C’mon, kid, I didn’t bake them, so you know they’re probably good.”
Harry got up and kept a hand on the sofa to steady himself as he got up and walked slowly over to the cupcakes.
“Make a wish!”
For the first time in Harry’s life, he had no idea what to immediately wish for.
Harry still closed his eyes, blew out the candle, and smiled weakly when Tony let out a cheer.
“This one’s made of some sort of weird dog food,” Tony said quickly, pointing at one of the cupcakes on the plate that was a slightly darker shade of red than the rest. “I tried to order one for Hedwig, but sticky foods aren’t good for owls I guess, go figure.”
“You ordered a cupcake for my dog?” Harry asked. He grabbed the one Tony pointed out and crouched down to feed it to Joey.
“Sure.” Tony put the plate on the back of the sofa, apparently not worried about it tipping over and ruining the cushions with red icing, before snagging one for himself and peeling the wrapper off it. “The dog’s my grand-pup, or whatever, it’s part of our family.”
It was that airy statement, coupled with the bloody cupcakes and the midnight birthday wishes and the ‘our family’ that undid Harry.
“Excuse me,” Harry muttered. He jumped to his feet and tore off to his bedroom, probably looking like an ungrateful prat as he slammed the door shut and slid against it. He pulled his knees to his chest and put his head between them. He inhaled through his nose, clenched his eyes shut, and argued against his own annoying and intrusive thoughts.
Stupid to be upset over this.
Stupid to be crying over cupcakes and… and a surprise party and Tony getting Joey his own cupcake.
Stupid to—
Ding!
Harry hit head head on his door and then sucked in a shaky breath before checking his phone, idly hoping it was Sirius so he could give him a call to chat.
I’m bad at the whole feelings thing, always have been really, but I love you, kid. I’m glad we finally get to have one of your birthdays together.
Harry read it again.
And again.
And again.
Then he flung the phone and ducked his head, letting his shoulders shake while his body wracked with sobs he didn’t understand.
Everything he used to wish for- friends and family that loved him- he got, so why did he feel so conflicted over it all?
Harry wound up falling asleep right there on the floor and woke up with a sore neck and Joey scratching at his door to be let in.
“Hey buddy.” Harry grinned when Joey attacked him with little puppy licks after he picked him up. He looked around the sitting room and felt both relief and guilt at it being empty.
“Give me just a second,” Harry told Joey. He hurried to get a pair of shoes on, sandals, which he’d never owned before he moved to New York and felt weird on his feet, and grabbed his half-charged phone from where he threw it on the floor.
Harry frowned at his phone as he carried Joey down to let him run in the yard while Hedwig flew overhead and chirped happily at them. Harry wasn’t self-centered enough to think Sirius didn’t have more important things to do than text Harry, it was just that Harry hadn’t ever woke up without some sort of ridiculous message from his godfather and it was worrisome that he did that day.
Their last phone conversation had been at four in the morning Harry’s time a few days prior, and it hadn’t exactly left Harry feeling secure about Sirius’ safety.
“Hey, kiddo.”
Harry had felt uneasy almost immediately.
“What happened?”
“Little mishap…”
“Sirius.”
Sirius sighed. “Albus knows where you are.”
Harry felt the air in his lungs freeze.
That was it then.
Harry was going to be taken back—
Taken from the place he’d began begrudgingly considering a home. It had been nice there, recently. He got to talk to Sirius every day, Tony had been hunting for Pettigrew to clear Sirius’ name. Harry went shopping with Pepper. She helped him buy picture frames and a mirror and a poster to hang up in his red room.
Peter and Gwen had been helping Harry study for high school. Gwen even made up lesson plans to get Harry on track, which had been such a Hermione thing to do that Harry laughed every time she pulled them out.
And… and Harry and Peter had been hanging out a lot.
They hadn’t put a name to the whatever they were doing, but… but it was a bit like dating, Harry supposed. They hung out, snogged occasionally, and text each other songs and Peter kept sending Harry ‘memes’, which mostly consisted of a cat that resembled Crookshanks saying things about hating people.
Peter said it reminded him of Harry.
And now Harry was going to be put in a war. He was going to get more people killed because he wasn’t a hero, he wasn’t particularly smart or skilled or brave. He was someone who got lucky a few times and twice had been at the expense of other people’s lives.
“HARRY!”
Harry startled, jarred from his swirling thoughts. He had dropped his phone at some point and he picked it back up as carefully as if it were one of the bombs in Tony’s lab.
“Sorry,” Harry said quietly. He cleared his throat. “So I guess that’s it then?”
Sirius, shocking Harry, chuckled in what had to be some of the worst timing ever.
“You’re going to hurt my feelings, kiddo. I know I’m old, but do you really think I’ve got no tricks left up my sleeve?”
Harry had been worried, warning Sirius to not do anything rash, but the way Sirius laughed away Harry’s warnings hadn’t exactly been heartening.
And now Harry woke up with no random emojis on his phone from his godfather.
While Joey did his business, Harry sent a text to Sirius. Just a little ‘hey’, crossing his fingers that he messaged back quickly.
Even after lingering in the yard for a while, Sirius hasn’t sent anything back when Harry returned to the flat.
It felt ominous.
Harry didn’t forget about it, but he did push it to the back of his mind when he found Pepper and Happy in the kitchen with Tony, arguing over pancakes it seemed like?
“Harry!” Pepper gave Harry a bright smile when she was the first to notice him standing in the doorway, curiously watching them fight at the stove. “Happy birthday! Ugh, you’re so old now!”
“Hey!” Tony had an apron on over the jeans and band tshirt he preferred (Harry was oddly pleased to recognize the band this time, even if he didn’t like Poison much, Gwen did). “He can’t be old because if he’s old then you’re implying that I’m not young.”
“You’re not,” Happy and Pepper said simultaneously.
Tony stuck a lip out at Harry. “Kid, tell them your old man isn’t old.”
Harry usually didn’t fall in the easy banter the others shared, but… but Tony got Joey his own cupcake and made Jarvis sing happy birthday to him at midnight and then sent a text that Harry ignored…
“You’re not old,” Harry said. He took a seat at the counter and shrugged when Pepper and Happy seemed shocked at Harry’s almost unprecedented defense of Tony. “Wizards live to be like 200, so…” Harry tapped a finger on the counter, “so that’s old.”
Tony looked inappropriately happy at Harry’s very small concession.
“See?” He jabbed a finger in Happy’s chest. “I’m young.”
Harry grinned and relaxed. “Are you guys trying to cook?”
Pepper huffed, blowing her bangs up off her forehead. “I wanted to make you breakfast, something special instead of cereal, and these two,” she pointed at Tony and Happy accusingly, “are making a mess.”
Harry mumbled something about her not needing to go through so much effort while he stretched his head up to see that Tony and Happy were covered in quite a bit of flour…
And… there was egg dripping down the kitchen counter…
And milk spilled on the floor.
“How do you keep your lab so neat when everything else you do is so bloody messy?” Harry asked Tony after Pepper waved off Harry’s protests.
Happy chuckled and raised a brow over his shoulder at Harry while he resumed stirring a bowl of what was possibly batter.
“Have you seen his lab? It’s a wreck.”
“It’s organized chaos,” Harry said in a sarcastic drawl that did nothing to take the truth from his words. “It’s not… this,” Harry gestured to the mess they made.
Tony, for some inexplicable reason, looked as if Harry had handed him the quidditch cup as smugly as he smiled while he told Happy and Pepper that Harry ‘understood him’.
Harry entertained himself with watching the three of them make some of the most lopsided and poorly mixed pancakes he’d ever experienced in his life. He ate every bite of the three he took though, puffs of flour and all.
He also quietly mused that perhaps Tony didn’t have many people who understood his erratic, witty, and oftentimes overtly genuine personality.
After breakfast, Harry went to shower and put on normal clothes. He’d sort of expected to just do nothing, perhaps try and talk Tony out of whatever mad surprise party he planned, but then Pepper insisted that Harry go shopping with her and he was very bad at telling that woman no.
Pepper was good company though. She drove with the radio on full blast, singing along while her hair whipped crazily from the open windows. Harry knew a few songs and Pepper poked him in the side until he sang with her. Pepper had a nice voice, musical and pretty. Harry did not, but he sang anyway because it made her laugh and made him stress a little less over Sirius’ continued silence.
Then Pepper drug Harry around shopping malls for what seemed like an eternity. Apparently the ten pairs of jeans and fifteen shirts Harry owned weren’t enough of a wardrobe for Pepper.
It was more clothes than Harry had ever owned before. Even combined with his seven uniforms for school, Harry had never owned so much clothes before.
Harry let Pepper pick things out though after they had nearly an hour long conversation about ‘love languages’ and she said that she expressed love through gift giving. It sounded ridiculous, but Harry thought about how happy it made him to buy gifts for his friends, so he figured there was a bit of truth to it too.
“Your dad‘s big on giving gifts too,” Pepper said when she looked at trainers. Her eyes kept roaming toward a pair of pumps though; Harry snagged a pair in her size, having been exposed to shopping trips enough with her to have remembered her shoe size. Pepper winked when Harry grabbed the burgundy colored death traps.
“Oh yeah, you are your fathers son,” she laughed. “You know he once bought me a diamond bracelet as an apology for singeing my blouse?”
Harry furrowed his brows together. “I mean, that seems like an apology?”
“A ten thousand dollar apology for a fifty dollar blouse, Harry.”
Harry shrugged. Even if he didn’t like people spending money on him, he’d never worried much about spending money on other people. Since his eleventh birthday, when Harry realized he wasn’t penniless, he’d never considered how much he spent when he bought things for his friends.
“I once paid almost twenty galleons on owl treats for Hedwig to apologize for her being locked up at my relatives’ house,” Harry told Pepper.
Pepper’s hand stilled from where she’d been reaching for a pair of black trainers. “How much is that in pounds?”
Harry tried to do the math from the currency exchange rate Hermione patiently explained to him once.
“A little over 99?” he said slowly.
Pepper bit her lip and closed her eyes for a moment.
“Harry, darling, I really hope you’re bad at math and not telling me you spent $110 on bird food.”
“Treats,” Harry stressed. “She spent three weeks locked in a cage, Pepper. Trust me, she deserved them.”
Pepper tossed the trainers in the ridiculously large pile of things she insisted on buying and gave Harry an exasperated look.
“I don’t know why Tony bothered with a DNA test,” she mumbled before adding more clearly, “Tell me about magic money.”
Harry did. He explained about galleons, sickles, and knuts. He tried using Hermione’s explanation, but as he’d barely understood it himself, he couldn’t really use it to explain. Instead, Harry talked Pepper through the train of thought he used every time he tried to do the conversion while they ate lunch and finished shopping.
“Why do you think you’re not intelligent?” Pepper asked Harry when they were back in her little silver sports car and driving toward the tower. “You’re so worried about high school, why?”
Pepper didn’t sound as if she thought Harry was an idiot; she just sounded curious. Harry gnawed on his lower lip for a few minutes while he watched the busy New York streets pass his window as he tried to phrase an honest response.
“My friend Hermione, she’s a genius,” he said slowly. “She can read anything and remember it years later, probably the page number too. Definitely the page number,” he added with a small grin as he recalled study sessions spent together with his friends. “But I just- I’m not good at reading and memorizing everything.” He shrugged a little, “I’m not stupid,” he said defensively, “I’ve just never been top of my class.”
Pepper made a thoughtful face. “I bet you do better with your hands.”
“I do,” Harry grinned. “I think practical demonstrations are what kept me from being as bad as Crabbe and Goyle.”
It was a decent distraction, because Pepper began asking Harry questions about his old classmates which was much easier to talk about than himself.
“Draco Malfoy sounds like a spoiled brat,” Pepper said when they arrived back at the tower and got in the lifts. They left the proof of their trip in Pepper’s car, as she said they could carry it up later. “Oh, hey, do me a favor? Please?”
Harry eyed her warily, “What?”
“Act surprised.”
The lift doors opened and Harry’s entire body twitched when an absurd amount of people jumped and screamed, “SURPRISE!”
Harry must not have looked surprised despite his racing pulse because Tony put his hands on his hips and glared at his friends.
“Alright, who told him? Jarvis? Was it you?”
Pepper winked at Harry before putting an arm around his shoulders and guiding him in the flat while Tony bickered with his friends.
“Peter and Gwen should be here soon,” Pepper told Harry in a conspiratorial whisper. “Until then, have you met Rhodey?”
Harry assumed it was a rhetorical question since Pepper and Tony seemed to track where he went, who he talked to, and what he did to a borderline obsessive degree.
Despite Harry’s lack of a response, Pepper led him to a tall man with short cropped black hair, dark skin, and soft brown eyes.
“You must be Harry, I’m James Rhodes, everyone calls me Rhodey,” he said. He offered a hand to Harry and raised his voice, “And I’d say I’ve heard so much about you but that would be a lie.”
“I said I was sorry!” Tony cried.
Harry shook Rhodey’s hand briefly. “Harry,” he said, a pointless introduction.
Rhodey held firm to his hand when Harry tried to release it. “I want you to know how truly sorry I am.”
“Er… for what?”
Rhodey jerked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing at Tony who was then fiddling with plates on the kitchen counter beside what looked to be an entire buffet of Chinese food.
“Your terrible misfortune in being related to Tony,” Rhodey said solemnly. His eyes were glittering though, so Harry assumed it was a joke.
“It’s a bit of a nightmare, but it could be worse, I could be related to Clint,” Harry said.
Rhodey laughed and dropped Harry’s hand. “I like you already, I’m going to call you Tony 2.0, the better version.”
Harry gave him a brief grin before taking note of the decorations and things Tony must have set up while Harry was out with Pepper.
“You did say your favorite color was red,” Bruce said with a grin when he noticed Harry eyeing what had to be 100 red balloons floating up on the ceiling.
“Right…” Harry checked his phone once more, still nothing from Sirius, and struggled to force at least a partial smile when Tony came bounding up to him with a wide smile.
“I know this looks like your standard boring birthday party, but you should know that I spiked the punch,” he announced cheerfully.
“And then I replaced it with unspiked punch,” Steve sighed from where he sat on the sofa with the red headed psycho. The psycho winked at Harry, because apparently she thought they were friends.
Which they absolutely were not.
“And then I spiked the new one,” Tony whispered.
Rhodey laughed while Pepper sighed in a long suffering sort of way.
“Tony, you didn’t,” she said warningly.
Tony held his hands up innocently. “Joking,” he said in what Harry dubbed his ‘placating Pepper’ tone.
Pepper walked off, toward the bowl of what Harry assumed was punch set up on the counter to sniff it.
“I’m not joking,” Tony immediately winked at Harry when she was gone.
“I shouldn’t even be surprised,” Rhodey shook his head with a fondly exasperated look. “Harry, this is the same son of a bitch that threw a party in my dorm the night before my finals.”
Harry accepted a drink from Tony, that was definitely spiked, and sat at the kitchen counter with Rhodey and Tony while he listened to what seemed to be a highlight of Tony being a terrible teenager while the others chatted in the sitting room.
Rhodey was in the middle of a story involving what sounded like a lot of drugs, alcohol, and ‘sorority girls’ when Jarvis announced that Peter and Gwen arrived.
Tony, who had drank two cups of punch and had been sneaking sips of a bottle of something he shared with Rhodey when Pepper was distracted, told Jarvis to let them in.
“You’ll like this kid, Peter,” Tony told Rhodey. “He’s really nerdy, really obsessed with Harry.”
As if that didn’t bring a scowl and blush to Harry’s face.
“You’re the only parent in the world who would find that endearing,” Rhodey laughed at his friend.
Harry rolled his eyes and carefully stepped around psycho, Clint, Bruce, Steve, and Pepper where they were having a heated debate about some law or something to go wait by the lifts for his friends.
His greeting died in his throat though when the lift doors opened and…
“Oh bloody fucking hell,” Harry breathed.
Peter stepped off the lift, probably Gwen behind him, but Harry couldn’t see her, because… because Peter looked…
There wasn’t really a word for it, but… good. Peter looked really, very, truly, good.
Peter had on a black button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the middle of his forearms (how had Harry never noticed that Peter had attractive forearms? How had Harry never realized that forearms could be attractive?) paired with a pair of black dress pants that made him look even taller than usual. His hair was brushed back in a swoop that had Harry’s fingers itching to mess it up.
And he was beaming, as if Harry were his favorite person in the world.
“Hey, Bright Eyes.”
Harry blinked and tried to get his vocal chords to work again. He probably looked like an idiot…
“You look like an idiot,” Gwen said abruptly with a cheerful laugh. She threw her arms around Harry’s neck and squeezed him in a tight hug. “He looks so handsome, doesn’t he?” she whispered.
Harry managed a hum that Gwen took as confirmation.
“Business casual, huh?” Peter said, looking over Harry’s shoulder with a brow raised.
Harry glanced behind him and saw Tony leaning against the wall with a smirk.
“Harry’s idea,” Tony said. He raised his drink to Peter, “Way to be classy though, Pete.”
“I don’t know what he told you, but it wasn’t my idea,” Harry told Peter quickly. “And his name is Peter,” he added to Tony.
“Don’t worry about it,” Peter smiled again at Harry and handed him a small blue wrapped package. “Happy birthday.”
If Harry hadn’t been a red-faced mess, he was then.
“You didn’t need to get me anything,” Harry told him awkwardly. “I didn’t get you anything for your birthday.”
Peter shrugged with an easy grin. “It’s in ten days, so you’ve got time.”
“Oh my god, you guys should have a joint birthday next year!” Gwen squealed eagerly. “We can invite everyone from school! Oh! We can have it at my place!”
Harry laughed, grateful for Gwen’s inability to let any silence stretch too long, and led them further in the flat to offer introductions to everyone else.
Pepper, thankfully, reacted like a perfectly normal person as she met Gwen and greeted Peter.
Everyone else was ridiculous.
“Wow, Pete, what a look,” psycho whistled, instantly causing Harry to bristle. “Are you making up for the lame shirt from last time?”
“Ooh, I like your look,” Gwen said sweetly, cutting off Harry’s retort. Gwen looked Natasha over from top to bottom in a haughty manner that had Harry and Peter exchanging grins. “Is it like a Sexy Assassin costume? I mean, Halloween isn’t for a few more months, but I suppose leather never goes out of style, if you’re middle aged and obsessed with the 80’s, that is.”
Clint barked out a laugh and leaned on psycho with one elbow. “She’s got you pegged, Nat,” he said playfully.
“And you must be the stalker I’ve heard so much about,” Gwen smiled at Clint and offered a hand. “Sure would be a shame if the paper heard about your unfortunate penchant for peeping in the windows of teenage boys.”
Peter laughed quietly and grabbed Harry’s hand when Clint sputtered and the other Avengers roared with laughter.
“She’s the best,” Harry said fondly as they simply walked away and left Gwen to mock the rest of the Avengers on her own.
“I’m better though, right?” Peter grinned.
Harry scoffed and rolled his eyes. “You’re adequate,” he drawled.
Peter put his hand on his chest and sniffled. “God, you sure know how to make a guy feel special, Harry.”
“He’s good at that, isn’t he?” Tony walked up behind them and threw an arm around both of their necks. “Harry’s a real charmer.”
“Jesus Christ, Tony,” Rhodey laughed from where he stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed. “Leave them alone, old man. Don’t you have a Pepper to chase after?”
“Leave me out of it!” Pepper yelled from the sitting room. She sat on the sofa, picking at a plate of Chinese food, and looked up from her conversation with Bruce long enough to toss a wink at Harry.
“Pepper doesn’t like PDO, public discussions of her obsession,” Tony explained. He dropped his arm from Harry but kept his other around Peter. “How about you, Pete? Big fan of PDO?”
Harry gave Peter a mortified and apologetic look, but Peter seemed entirely at ease.
“PDO? Nah. PDA though? Huge fan.”
Harry and Rhodey laughed when Tony seemed momentarily stunned.
“Someone managed to shut Tony Stark up.” Rhodey whistled and raised his glass to Peter, “I like you, kid.”
And Harry decided he liked Rhodey as well. At least he was a normal friend of Tony’s.
Harry liked Rhodey that much more when he’d given Harry an entirely normal gift.
“Teenagers love cash,” Rhodey shrugged when Tony rolled his eyes at his card and overly generous gift. He waved off Harry’s thanks though, saying he had fifteen years worth of birthdays to make up for. “They’re all about freedom and independence.”
“It is very important at our age,” Gwen said with a sage nod and a mischievous smile. “I would say that cash is much more highly valued than…” She waved her hand at the actual knives that Clint and psycho gave Harry, “weapons.”
“Weapons can save your life,” Clint argued. “You can’t exactly bribe a stranger in to not killing you.”
“You definitely can and if you can’t, then you didn’t offer them enough,” Tony said from his seat on the sofa.
Harry, Peter, and Gwen sat on the floor with Pepper and Steve, tossing a ball between the five of them for Joey to chase after.
“Hmm… so you’re a pacifist then?” Peter asked Tony. He tossed the ball to Harry, grinning when Harry easily caught it from the air. “That’s not what those aliens said.”
Gwen caught the ball when Harry tossed it to her and paused with her hand on her heart. “A moment of silence, for all those poor, poor aliens.”
Harry and Peter bowed their head solemnly, as did Pepper, the others looked bewildered.
“Now that that’s over…” Peter snatched his gift to Harry off the coffee table and handed it to him carefully. “Open mine, Bright Eyes.”
“Oooh, bright eyes,” Clint laughed and batted his lashes at Harry. “Young love, so cute.”
“Ignore him, kids, Clint’s just jealous,” Bruce piped up helpfully. “Last date he had was with a target he killed.”
“Oh?” Tony gave Clint an interested look. “Do tell.”
Harry ignored Clint’s story about a woman he ‘followed’, see also: stalked, as he slowly and carefully opened Peter’s gift.
“I helped pick it,” Gwen said brightly when Harry had it unwrapped and was shocked in a rather pleasant way by the gift.
Harry tenderly turned the camera around in his hands, absently smiling as he noticed it was the same brand as Peter’s.
“And by that, Gwen means that she paid for it,” Peter said as he ran a nervous hand through his hair, finally messing up the neat swoop it had been brushed in. “But it’s awesome, look…”
Harry let out a startled laugh when Peter quickly snagged the camera and flashed a photo of him sitting there. He was still blinking the stars out of his eyes while Tony and Pepper exchanged pleased looks.
“Ooh! I want to take photos!” Gwen cried.
The three of them wrestled lightly over the camera, Gwen somehow coming up victorious despite being much smaller than Harry or Peter. Harry suspected it had more to do with Peter and Harry being more occupied with each other and neither of them wanting to accidentally elbow Gwen in the face than any proof of her strength.
“Okay!” Gwen got to her feet and danced backward to the doorway of the sitting room. “Everyone squish together!”
Harry rolled his eyes, but it was a brilliant idea, truthfully. He didn’t know if Peter had told Gwen about Harry’s small admission of wanting to have more photos of his life and the people in it or not, but a photo of everyone there seemed like a good idea anyway.
So Harry sat on the floor beside Peter, with Joey in his lap, while everyone else tried to squish themselves on the sofa behind them. Rhodey plunked himself in the middle and Bruce and Steve sat on either side of him. Happy perched himself on the armrest beside Steve after being coaxed in to joining the photo. Clint leaned across the back of the sofa with the psycho propped up on his shoulder. Tony sat beside Harry, Pepper sat beside Peter, and Harry thought of what a peculiar family photo they made.
Harry’s mouth had been more open in surprise as he realized he’d mentally referred to their group as a family when the first flash from his camera went off.
Tony’s friends weren’t Harry’s family, as much as Tony called them his, but…
But it wasn’t as if Harry were someone who could be picky about who his family was, could he?
“Pepper, your boyfriend flipped the camera off,” Gwen laughed after checking the screen on the camera before allowing anyone to move. “We need another—”
Gwen’s (rather bossy) demand was cut off by the lift dinging. Harry turned to glance at Tony, his look of confusion mirroring Harry’s own.
The lift never just opened. Jarvis always announced whoever was on it before it did, when Tony was home anyway.
Clint and psycho were on either side of the lift before the doors could open and Harry scowled when Tony jumped up to stand in front of him.
Gwen turned with the camera in her hands as the doors opened and—
“Happy birthday, kiddo.”
“Sirius?!” Harry pushed Joey off to Peter and jumped to his feet, rushing toward his godfather as he stepped off the lift. He drew up just short of launching himself at Sirius by another familiar figure, one that Harry would rather not see at the moment.
“Good evening, Harry.” Professor Dumbledore stepped off the lift and smiled at Harry before looking around the overly full and excessively red-decorated flat curiously. “I apologize for interrupting what looks to be a delightful party spent with your family.”
Tony stepped up beside Harry, his red metal suit attached to his forearms, and placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder.
Harry didn’t have to look over at him to know they were thinking the same thing in that moment:
Fuck.