Chapter 7
"Shh," Tony whispered, brushing Harry's ever unruly hair behind his ear. He didn't miss how Harry winced at his touch, but he didn't push him away.
"Almost done, bud. Just hang in there for one more second," Bruce winced as he eased the tube out of Harry's throat.
With one final gag, Harry was sent into a coughing fit as Bruce removed the rest of the tube that had once been connecting him to the ventilator.
It had been four days since Harry's transplant and he was already looking much better. The kidney took and was now helping Harry, unlike his previous two. Bruce and Dr. Morris had decided that, based on Harry's recent test results, his lungs were strong enough to breathing support Harry's breathing on their own, with the help of a nasal cannula.
"You did so good, kid," Tony praised, grabbing the cup of ice chips from the bedside table. Harry, not liking to ask for help, tried to reach for the cup to do it himself, but Tony just frowned.
"I've got it, you just relax. Enjoy being pampered," Tony reassured, a joking tone in his voice. But despite the kindness in Tony's voice, panic began building in Harry's chest. The only time someone had ever told him to 'just relax' it ended with Uncle Vernon...
Harry began trembling at the though of his uncle forcing himself upon his unwilling body, with no possible escape.
Harry's chest began constricting, causing him to draw in short and fast breaths.
"Harry? Harry!" Tony exclaimed, as Harry began gasping for breath. "Bruce! Help him! Maybe- maybe he wasn't ready to do this on his own after all!"
Bruce rushed to Harry's bedside, holding an oxygen mask to Harry's face. He frowned when he glanced at the heart rate monitor next to the bed.
"Deep breaths, Harry," Bruce soothed, holding the mask firmly in place while looking Harry directly in the eye. Harry immediately looked away, as not to make eye contact with the man standing over him. It was something that had been drilled into him since he was a child.
"Harry look at me," Bruce said firmly, but there was a softness to his words instead of anger. "You're having a panic attack. Just focus on me and taking deep breaths."
Harry held eye contact with Bruce until breathing was easier, and he no longer needed the mask.
Bruce sighed and replaced the oxygen mask with a simple nasal cannula, carefully looping it around Harry's ears and into his nose as not to startle him.
Tony had been sitting there wordlessly the entire time, the color of a ghost. The panic in his chest when Harry began hyperventilating was heavy, and even now that the danger was gone, it was taking a bit to wash away all of the worry.
"I'm sorry if I scared you kiddo," Tony apologized. "I didn't mean to. I really didn't."
"S'okay," Harry managed to croak. His throat felt raw from the tube, and his mouth was so dry that he couldn't hardly make any noise.
"Here," Tony carefully held up a spoonful of ice chips, making sure Harry saw it before he brought it to his chapped lips. This time, Harry didn't try to argue, he just opened his mouth willingly, eager for the refreshing taste.
Those ice chips were the best things that Harry had ever tasted, he decided then. Forget any of the food at Hogwarts, or Molly Weasley's famous pastries— these were the absolute best thing on the planet.
Without realizing he was doing so, Harry opened his mouth for more.
"You remind me of a baby bird," Tony teases, chuckling as he fed Harry another spoonful. "That's exactly how they look when waiting for their mom to come back to the nest with food."
Harry's face turned beet red, and he quickly clamped his mouth shut. He didn't want to look ungrateful for what he was getting, much less begging for more.
"Hey, it's alright. You can have as much as you want," Tony's eyebrows furrowed as Harry turned his face away from the spoon.
"Harry, look at me," Tony sighed, setting the spoon back in the cup and placing the cup back on the table. Harry tentatively rolled over, but didn't make eye contact with Tony. Instead, he focused his gaze on the glow of the arc reactor.
"Look at my face Harry. Look at my eyes," Tony said, and Harry raised his eyes to meet Tony's pools of dark brown.
"You will never, I repeat, never, have to worry about him again. Nobody will ever a hand on you again out of anger or hatred- only love. I promise you."
"Knock knock," a voice called from the doorway. Tony and Harry both looked up to see Natasha, standing in a pair of leggings and a sports bra, arms linked with Steve as he helped support her as she hobbled slowly. Clint followed behind the two with a wheelchair in case Natasha became too tired or weak to continue.
"Hey, there you are!" Tony cried, standing up and opening his arms, welcoming the three.
"Harry, this is Steve Rogers, and Natasha Romanoff, and of course you already know Clint Barton" Tony introduced, helping Steve and Clint slowly ease Natasha into the wheelchair and moving her closer to Harry's bed.
"Whew, never though those ten feet from my room to yours would be so far," Natasha joked, glancing at Harry. He was staring down at his hands silently.
"Hey, can you guys go get me some ice water and some Jell-O please?" Natasha asked, eyes telling the three men in front of her to give her and Harry some alone time.
"Aye aye captain," Clint false soluted her, giggling at the look of mock-hurt on Steve's face. "What color?"
"Water's clear dumbass," Tony joked, earning a crude gesture from Clint.
"Hey now," Steve warned joking, but he placed his hands on both Clint and Tony's shoulders, guiding them out of the room.
"Also, the only color Jell-O we have is green," he could be heard saying before the door fully closed behind them.
"Sorry about them," Natasha chuckled, hand resting on the bandage covering her side. "They're a bunch of idiots, but they're the sweetest goofballs you'll ever meet."
Harry still never lifted his head, continuing to stare down at his hands.
"Harry," Natasha murmured, wincing as she leaned forward slightly to place her hand over Harry's.
When Harry looked up at her, she could see exactly what Clint had been saying when he thought she was asleep. She had never seen eyes that big and green and innocent, and in that moment, she knew that Harry had her wrapped around his finger too. She had been worried that even if his body didn't reject her kidney, they wouldn't like each other. But now, she knew that there was nothing this kid could to do get rid of her.
"Why?" Harry asked, a tear slipping down his face.
"Why what sweetie?" Natasha asked, voice soft and sweet as if she was talking to a lost child. In a way, she supposed, she was.
"Why did you do it?" Harry choked out, voice hoarse and raw with emotion. "You don't know me. Why would you do it?"
"Harry," Natasha gave his hand a light squeeze, careful of his IV on one hand and cast on the other. "You're part of this family now. Sure, I had never had a conversation with you, or met you properly, but I could see how much Tony cares about you. And if Tony cares about you, that makes you part of the family. And that's what family does; they help each other."
Natasha couldn't have known how much those words would resonate with Harry. How he would play them over and over again at night when he couldn't sleep.
And that's what family does, they help each other.
His family had never helped him. All they ever did was tear him down. Harry didn't understand how someone he had never met before could be so generous as to give him one of their organs. The thought of what they may ask in return terrified him.
"I- I don't have anything. To- to give you," Harry replied, his voice so soft that it was almost inaudible.
Natasha's heart broke as she watched the small kid flinch away from her hands, shifting as best he could manage away from her. She didn't even look threatening- he had seen how slow she was moving. There was absolutely nothing she could do - or would do, for that matter- to him.
"Sweetheart," she began, realizing how hurt Harry had been in the past. She herself knew how cruel people could be. Her childhood wasn't exactly the happiest either, but she could already tell that hers was like a trip to Disneyland when compared to Harry's.
"There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that I want in return for this. This will never ever, ever, be used against you in any way. I promise."
"Really?" Harry blinked, looking up slightly, but still avoiding eye contact with Natasha.
"Look into my eyes and tell me if you think I'm lying."
Harry tore his eyes from where they were focused on the bandage wrapped around her side, slowly looking around the room before finding her green eyes.
"I promise you Harry, you will be met with nothing but love, kindness and adoration here. We're a family, and we look out for the ones we love. That includes you."
"I can't," Harry said quietly, his hoarse voice cracking with emotion. "You don't want me. All I do is cause trouble and hurt everyone. Just look at you."
"Harry," Natasha breathed, reaching out to touch his arm gently. "Everyone here fucks up. All the time. And sometimes, people get hurt because of it. But nobody ever holds it against you. Hell, Harry, Tony and Steve literally fought each other, and now they're living together as best friends. I promise you, everyone here cares about you and they don't care if you mess up, or how badly you do. We're always here to talk to, yell at, throw punches with, cry on- anything you need. We're here for you, and nothing is going to change that."
"She's right," Tony said softly from the doorway, holding a glass of water in one hand and a container of green Jell-O in the other.
"I've made so many mistakes, it's a miracle Jarvis even talks to me anymore, and I made him!" He chuckled sadly. "But everyone here cares for you, and we are there for you no matter what. Always will be. Trust me kid."
"Thank you," Harry managed to choke out. He had never had anyone want him for him before. He had always been wanted because of his magic, or just not at all. The thought that someone, much less people he had just met, wanted him? It was overwhelming.
Tony saw how paranoid Harry still was. He could tell the kid still didn't believe that they were doing this just out of the goodness of their hearts, and that they didn't want anything in return. It hurt him to think of how much abuse he must have suffered to reach this point.
But all of that was over now. Harry was with him now, and as long as he was around Tony, he was never going to be hurt like that again.
*
It had been almost two weeks since Harry's kidney transplant, and both Dr. Morris and Bruce decided that Harry was healthy enough to move out of his room in the medbay, and into his room in the penthouse. Little did he know that Pepper had been working all week, when she wasn't working or staying with him, to decorate a room for him.
"Are you ready?" Tony asked, pushing the wheelchair up against Harry's bed and putting the brakes on so that it wouldn't roll away while he was transferring Harry.
Harry was so tired of sitting and lying in a bed all day, everyday, so the last thing he wanted to do was immediately move to the wheelchair. But due to the bulky cast on both his wrist and his leg, walking was still out of the question for the next few weeks.
Harry gave Tony a prepared nod, wincing when Tony's arm gently wrapped around Harry's body, right underneath his armpits, careful to mind the large, healing wounds on Harry's back.
"One... two... three," Tony counted. On three, he helped Harry swivel on his good leg from the bed into the chair. Tony frowned at how light Harry was still, but he knew that it was going to be a slow process to get Harry up to a healthy weight for a boy his age.
When Tony first met Harry, he only weighed around 84 pounds, which was 19 pounds under the third percentile body weight for a 16 year old boy.
Now, after two weeks of IV fluids and 4 small meals a day, Harry was weighing 91 pounds, but he always put up a fight a meal time. During the first week he was cleared to eat solids, Harry would claim he was full after a mere three bites.
Now, he could take almost six before he began shuffling the food around his plate to make it appear that he ate more. It was concerning to everyone, but Bruce told them not to worry too much, as it was probable that Harry's stomach had shrunk significantly from years of malnourishment. He assured them that eating too much would actually be worse for Harry.
"Are you excited to see the penthouse? You haven't been up there yet," Tony asked, attempting to make small talk. Harry still didn't speak without being spoken to first, and even then, it was a tossup as to if he was going to respond with words or just a simple head nod or shake. This time, Tony earned a head nod, so he continued on.
"So we were thinking that tonight, everyone could get together in the main room and watch movies. Jarvis has popcorn and any type of candy you could possibly imagine available already. What do you say?"
Scared to say anything but yes, Harry nodded his head. He still wasn't completely sure about what they wanted from him, even though everyone had assured him multiple times that there was nothing the needed in return, and that he was part of the family.
Family was just a concept that he was unfamiliar with.
Tony sighed, watching as Harry's head gave a barely visible nod. He had spent the past two weeks trying to gain the kid's trust enough to have even a simple conversation, but progress was slow. He wasn't upset with Harry at all, just frustrated with the situation, and pissed off about how Harry ended up like this.
Once Tony had finally told the rest of the team what had happened to Harry, everyone was outraged. It took both Clint and Steve to wrestle Hulk into a containment cell to keep him from smashing everything in sight. Natasha had been ready to charge out of bed and murder Harry's relatives, Clint right behind her. Steve, always the calm one, had spent hours in the gym after Tony told them. Everyone in the tower pretended not to notice his torn up voice and bloodied knuckles the next morning, but they had all heard him late that night, screaming angrily and battling the punching bag.
"What movie do you want to watch?" Tony asked, knowing this time Harry would have to answer him.
Harry shrugged, "I don't know. Someone else can choose."
"Well, what's your favorite movie?"
Harry gulped. He wracked his brain as to come up with a movie he had heard either the Dursley's or someone at Hogwarts talking about. He couldn't possibly let Tony know that he had never watched a movie before.
"Um... the Titanic?" Harry blurted, thinking of the time he heard crying in the Gryffindor common room at Hogwarts. He had gone down the stairs to see Lavender, Parvati and Padma all curled up on the couch watching the movie, sobbing into each other's shoulders.
"Your favorite movie is the Titanic?" Tony raised an eyebrow as he pushed Harry's chair into the elevator.
"Erm... yes?"
"Alright, then Titanic it is," Tony decided, pressing the button for the living quarters levels, punching in a code until the light flashed green.
"You're on the lower floor so you don't have to maneuver into the elevator or up and down the stairs. Pepper and I's room is just down the hall from yours, and Steve's is right next to yours. Clint, Bruce, and Natasha's are all upstairs, in case you need them."
Harry nodded as the elevator doors dinged and opened up, revealing a huge living area. Standing in the middle of the open kitchen and living room was the entire team, a 'welcome home Harry' banner hanging from the ceilings. Balloons were tied to the backs of the barstools along the island in the center of the kitchen, and Pepper had made cupcakes which were perched upon the marble countertop.
"Welcome home kid."
And for the first time ever, Harry felt as if he was actually home.