Chapter 13
Fury waited in Harry's kitchen, well out of the way of the Hulk. Harry left the big, green guy in the living room with some show called Little Shop of Horrors. Harry hadn't seen it, but Hulk had been excited when Jarvis flipped past that channel so it stayed there. As long as the Hulk was entertained until Bruce came back, Harry really didn't care what channel it was on. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be in the room with the Hulk, or the room with Fury, though.
"That was quite a display, Stark." Fury walked slowly around the island counter, hands behind his back. "You should have let us handle it."
"You're joking, right?" Harry opened the cabinet and brought down a cup of applesauce. "The Hulk doesn't respond to force and since it didn't take me that long to figure it out, you should have already known."
"Not all of us are at genius-level thinking."
Harry stared at Fury for a long moment before scowling and looking around the room. Fury knew he wasn't at Tony's level, so there had to be someone hiding that he didn't want to know. "Who's here?"
The corner of Fury's lip twitched up as Natasha walked in with a tall, brown-haired woman. She looked nervous, her hands clutched in the fabric of her sweater, but her stance was steady next to the two SHIELD agents. Harry wasn't relaxed, but he forced himself into something that looked like relaxation, leaning his body against the counter as he ate the applesauce.
"This is Betty Ross," Natasha said. "Miss Ross, this is Mister Stark. He has been housing Doctor Banner for a short while."
Harry waved his spoon at her. "Ross, right? Wasn't that the name of the guy who tried to kill my big, green friend earlier?"
"My father has gone a little insane," Betty said quickly. "Bruce was his best scientist and they spoke endlessly about curing the world together."
"And then the accident happened."
"Yes," Betty agreed. "And then the accident happened. My father was never the same after that, sorry. I tried to find Bruce by myself, but my father found out and I just… He had better resources to find Bruce and I thought…"
Harry sighed, tossing his empty cup to the trash. "You thought that if he found Bruce, you could see him, too. Yeah, I get that."
Betty smiled and motioned toward the living room. "May I see him now?"
"Ah, he's kind of big and green still."
Betty gave Harry a look. "You think that matters to me?"
At that, Harry couldn't help but grin. He didn't know much about Betty Ross, but if that was how she always treated Bruce? Well, she was okay enough. "Go ahead. I'm pretty sure he's a giant teddy bear when people aren't shooting at him."
Betty returned his smile and then disappeared to the living room. The Hulk rumbled something, Betty murmured to him, and Harry then decided to tune their conversation out. He looked back to Fury and Natasha and pointed his spoon at them.
"This is totally not my fault."
"We aren't blaming you, Stark." Natasha crossed her arms. "Though we're glad you decided to destroy most of your expo rather than the city."
Harry winced and stuck the spoon back in his mouth. Hermione was going to lecture his ear off when she returned from damage control. He hadn't even thought about the property they were destroying, too focused on getting them both out of the fight with minimal damage. He would still need to see Miranda soon, but his body wasn't that bad considering. Maybe he should add more cushion to the next suit.
"Pepper told me the expo was a bad idea anyway. Maybe this is for the best?"
"It has been one of your better ideas, actually," Fury said with a shrug. "The race? Not so much. The hot dog contest? Hell no. At least your expo brought in some kind of money."
Harry laughed and put the spoon in the sink. "Enough to turn around and use it to fix what I broke? Sure."
"Stark—"
"Not now, Fury, please. I have enough to worry about." Harry left the kitchen. He glanced in on Betty and the Hulk (who was now Bruce, thank god, and they were talking softly together) before getting into his elevator.
He really should have expected Fury and Natasha to climb in with him.
"Seriously, Fury? I can't get a simple break?"
Natasha's lips quirked, but Fury only scowled further. "I need to debrief you on what happened and then we need to have a meeting."
"We can have our meeting now." Fury's eye went to Natasha and Harry hesitated. The man didn't want her here, which meant he had to mention Harry's past and that was one direction Harry didn't want to go. "Now, Fury."
Fury scowled further at him. "Stark, it has come to our attention that you possess abilities that can be useful to Shield."
"Is this about the Avengers? Because if it's about the Avengers, my answer is still no."
The elevator opened and Natasha stepped out. "I will check on your butler, Stark. You talk to Fury."
She waited until the doors started to close before walking away and Harry cursed at how transparent he had been. So what if he wanted to visit Edwin? The man had been hurt. "Trapped in my own house. I'm changing the security."
Fury ignored the last few minutes and continued like normal. "Yes, this is about the Avengers Initiative. There are things out there that we need to be prepared for and—"
"I'm done being a hero, Fury. At least, the hero that you're asking me to become." Harry leaned against the wall and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Besides, if it's my magic you want, you can't have it. I can barely control it as it is now and I doubt you want some wild card on the field."
"I know, which is why I'm not asking you to join despite the fact that you pack a nice punch with that suit of yours." Fury clasped his hands behind his back. "I'm asking if you wouldn't mind becoming a consultant for us. Help us understand things in specific circumstances."
That didn't sound too bad, but Harry had dealt with men like Fury before. "Ah huh. If that's all you wanted, you wouldn't have come here. You would have asked Natasha or Clint to ask me."
"Agent Romanoff knows nothing about this side of you, and Agent Barton is still in New Mexico. There are… annoying problems over here."
Harry knew that, but he didn't want to get Clint into trouble. He kept silent on that matter. "Natasha doesn't need to know everything in order to ask me to become a consultant."
"She would demand it."
"Doesn't matter. Why did you come to ask me yourself?"
Fury let out a sigh. "You are the only one who can possibly speak to Doctor Banner and my superiors want him on the team. I want him on the team."
They wanted a man who could barely control himself, but they didn't want Harry? He didn't understand that, but it didn't matter. Shield wanted an unstoppable killing machine and that wouldn't do. He didn't need to think too hard to come up with his answer. "No."
"Potter—"
"It's Stark, Fury, and it'll be Stark until the day I die." Harry reached forward to open the elevator doors. "Get out of my tower."
"I could still get Agent Romanoff to ask—"
"Go ahead, be my guest." Harry grinned and hit the button to shut the doors. "Let her ask Bruce to use a part of him he hates. I'd love to see the outcome."
The door closed before Harry could hear Fury's answer and he was glad for that. The only problem was that he was now on a floor that had nothing but offices and people were starting to stare (over time hoarders, seriously). He waved his fingers at them before disappearing into the stairwell; there were only a few floors between this and his penthouse, so the walk wouldn't be that bad.
By the time he reached where he had left Bruce and Betty, he could tell something was wrong. The floor was eerily quiet save for the traffic sounds below. Bruce and Betty weren't in the TV room, nor were they in the kitchen or the bar. Harry searched the place twice, confirmed with Jarvis that the two were no longer in the building, and then frowned.
It was when he later went to his bedroom to change into a more comfortable pair of clothes that he saw the note tacked onto his door. It was from Bruce, but obviously written by Betty (the script was too flowy), and Harry felt his heart sink.
I'm sorry, it read. That's the part of me I wished you had never met. Notes on our project are in my room, the combination is the date I found out, and I wish you well. Thank you for everything, Tony.
Bruce had signed it himself, but the signature was shaky – Remus had signed his name the same way after every full moon. Harry hated Fenrir and he hated gamma radiation and he hated New Mexico and he hated the sickness that took Dudley and he hated the curse that killed Ron and he just hated. Hated everything.
But he couldn't fall back, now not. Taking a deep breath, he pushed into his room and told Jarvis to call Hermione. She needed to know what happened and, from there, she would tell the others. Harry was simply too tired and too frustrated to care about telling this story more than once.
Tomorrow he would try to find Bruce and bring him back. Tomorrow he would work on the suit. Tomorrow he would remind Fury to kiss his ass. Tomorrow – part of Harry hoped that tomorrow would never come. He just wanted to sleep.