Chapter Text
“Call Declined, Boss” The Irish voice rang out in the lab, unlike every other week.
Tony looks up at the ceiling, as if he could see FRIDAY if he tried hard enough. “I’m sorry, what? The kid declined my call? Our weekly cancel-all-your-other-plans-because-i’m-more-important-call?”
The sarcasm lacing his voice was thick, a meager attempt at hiding his concern. The kid always picked up the phone. They threw insults back and forth, talking about robots and coding for hours before it got too late in the night for Tony to (legally) keep a child awake with his shenanigans.
“Try again, Fri. Twice more, if he doesn’t pick up the first time. So help me God, Keener, you better not be ghosting a billionaire.”
The threat didn’t seem to make its way to Tennessee, seeing as Harley still didn’t answer the - very insistent - calls of one Tony Stark.
Confusion bled into concern as Tony tried to keep calm. It wasn’t like Harley to not answer the call. It was at the same time, same day every week. Even the conversations were practically the same every single week. If he ever needed to reschedule the call, he’d mention it in advance. A school trip, an overload of homework, he’d tell Tony before the fact. He’d never left him hanging like this before.
Tony tried to keep himself occupied. He looked over the dozens of blueprints that littered the many worktables in the lab. Despite staring at a particular sketch of a new repulsor model, he couldn’t focus on it. He spent maybe two - no, three hours pacing his lab, asking FRIDAY to pull up any and every information on Harley Keener. He even went so far as to run facial recognition on any open sources from New York to Tennessee, he needed to make sure the kid was okay.
Right as his search for intel was getting just a little creepy, FRIDAY startled Tony out of his frantic antics.
“Someone’s here to see you, Boss.” Somehow, Tony would swear that her voice sounded pleased, thankful. She was just an AI after all, so it was doubtful that she would have had any intonation in her voice at all, maybe Tony was just projecting because he needed -
“Hey, Mechanic.”
“Harley! Kid, what the hell are you doing here?” Tony rushed to hug his (first) prodigy, glad he was safe, but oh so confused.
“Just, uh, thought I’d hop a bus to NYC?” Harley leaned into the hug, he hadn’t actually seen Tony in person since he was 11 years old. Maybe when explaining himself, his excuse shouldn’t have sounded so much like a question, though.
“You just, uh, thought you’d come to New York, unsupervised, after not answering my calls and not seeing me in, uh, 6 years?” One of his favorite pastimes was definitely mocking the kids that surrounded him. Tony loved the quick wits he imparted on his teenage lab rats.
They broke apart, Tony holding Harley’s shoulders tightly, reassuringly. The latter’s cheeks were flushing a scarlet color, clear embarrassment written on his features.
He quickly started mumbling excuses, trying to justify himself. “I’m sorry, I should’ve called, you have a life here, and I totally cannot just jump on that. Uh, I’ll just, go to a hotel? New York has cheap hotels right? Yeah, okay, I just wanted to say hi.”
Harley’s rambling did nothing for him. Tony was glad that he was okay, relieved even. He was confused, definitely, but he’d address that at a later time.
“What the hell are you talking about? First of all, you need to be 21 to rent a hotel room. Second of all, New York does not have any worthwhile cheap ones. Third, obviously you can stay here. Are you kidding? I haven’t seen you since you were shorter than a smurf, I’m not letting you stay in some shabby place because you think you’re not welcome here.”
Tony made sure he knew he was welcome. Though his appearance was unexpected, it wasn’t unappreciated. He loved seeing the kid, especially after such a long time apart.
Last he’d heard of the kid was the previous week on their call. Tony had just quipped at him for working on a new version of his potato launcher.
“Another potato gun? Really? Are you sure you’re Southern and not Irish? This obsession is bordering on hoarding potatoes in case of another famine, kid.” Tony asked through the phone, desperately trying to keep his cackling to a minimum.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re just lucky we live hundreds of miles apart, or these potatoes would be breaking windows in your multi-billion dollar lab left and right.” Harley responded, polishing the automated launcher using a Metallica T-Shirt Tony had sent him the month prior. Apparently it was better than a regular rag.
“As if that gun has any kind of power. It couldn’t even dent a McDonald’s stool on its best day.” Obviously Tony had never actually set foot inside a McDonald's, he always had Happy pick it up, but the sentiment was there.
“Oh but it could definitely shove a potato way up your a-"
“Alright, goodbye. See ya next week, kid.” He made sure to cut Harley off before he would say anything he might regret later, especially since FRIDAY records any and all calls. (Blackmail? Tony Stark would never!)
Tony really loved this kid. The sense of humour he imparted on him was a little less than classy, but it just made the both of them laugh harder. He’d do anything to protect him, keep him safe. If that meant he’d have to stock the fridge a little more, or he’d have a little less stationary lying around for a few days, then so be it.
So be it.
Whoa. Harley was not expecting that.
Smurfs are like 3 inches tall.
That was rude.
“Oh.”
That was all he managed to say. The shock of how welcoming Tony was being didn’t seem to fade for a while.
Tony invited him further into the lab, saying they should catch up on their missed call. Harley smiled at that, already feeling better than when he left Tennessee a mere 14 hours ago.
They looked over new blueprints, Harley designing a few of his own, marvelling at the state of the art lab. The cool grey accents to the white and glass walls reminded Harley just how modern and rich Tony was. He’d never really cared about the money, but he sure did appreciate it when Tony would send him more supplies. It was more the mentorship that Harley latched onto, rather than the semi-constant stream of money that it entailed.
Just as Harley moved onto the material-finding-phase of his newest invention (a robot that rivals U and DUM-E, not that Tony would ever admit it), Tony asked the question that had been burning on the tip of his tongue since he’d arrived.
“Kid?” He asked softly.
“Yeah?”
“Why did you really come to New York?”
Oh.
Of course Tony was going to ask. He wouldn’t just have Harley settle into his rich, powerful, prominent Avengers Tower without asking why the hell he was even here.
Harley just wished he’d have a couple more hours of peace. A few more moments where he didn’t have to think about Tennessee. About what he had to leave behind.
Silence overcame the lab.
Tony stopped his tinkering to look at Harley, his gaze searching the boy’s soul for an answer. A hint at what could’ve pushed him to cross 723 miles on a very random Saturday.
“They kicked me out.”
Harley hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that. He wanted to calmly explain what had happened, maybe throw in a joke or two to lighten the mood as he described the events of the weeks - months, really, that led to his mother and stepfather kicking him out.
But he could feel Tony’s eyes burning a hole in the back of his head, and he couldn’t take that anymore. The feeling like he was lying to the one person who’d been there and who had always given him what he’d needed.
Not only was he a friend on their weekly calls, but he helped him figure out career paths, school options, they even started looking at colleges. He couldn’t lie to his mentor.
So instead of calmly, sincerely explaining the details, he just spit it out. Before he knew what he had said, it was out there.
The truth.
They had kicked him out.
Oh.
Now it was Tony’s turn to be speechless.
So many questions tormented him in so little time. They flashed in his mind one after the other, staying for only a moment, leaving him to ponder them as he stared at the kid in question.
“They did what?” He tried so hard to keep calm, for Harley if nothing else.
If Tony wasn’t sure what he was feeling, he sure as hell was now.
Angry. He was so full of white hot anger, brimming with rage and feeling this wrath consume him from the inside. How could they kick him out? What could he have possibly done that was so horrible that they kicked out a child? They didn’t have any excuse. Tony was not going to let this slide. They would pay for what they did to the kid. His kid. Because now, Harley was his kid. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t biologically his, or even legally his, if his family decided to kick out a 16 year old, then that child was no longer theirs. Tony would take care of him. He’d make sure he had everything he ever wanted or needed in his life. He’ll be damned if he lets someone else hurt Harley. God knows what trauma he’s going to take away from being kicked out of his home as a kid. Tony would be there with him through it all. The kid had already lost his father, and now he lost his mother, stepfather, and sister too, by their own hand.
Tony could see Harley lean on the nearest worktable. He was wringing his hands together, staring intently at them as if they were the most fascinating things in the world, too timid (scared?) to raise his eyes.
Tony felt his emotions seeping into his face, the flashes of confusion and anger. All he could do at the sight of his kid was sigh and get closer to him.
“Come on, kid. Let’s get you to bed, you’ve had a long day.” Tony placed a soft hand on his shoulder. Harley finally looked up to meet Tony’s eyes. They were kind, caring. Tony had only ever used sarcastic glares, eye rolls and panic ridden gazes. This was a new side to Tony that Harley had never seen, that he didn’t even think existed. Maybe time had softened him? It had been 6 years, he was still as sarcastic, but maybe he also had - somehow - managed to grow a heart.
Tony guided Harley to another floor. He was talking to him, but the kid wasn’t paying attention, presumably from exhaustion.
He brought him to the penthouse, giving a smile and a nod towards Pepper, who was sitting on the couch reading quietly.
Tony directed Harley to a guest room, telling him to settle in and that they could make the room more to his taste tomorrow. He left Harley to his devices, hesitantly pressing a soft kiss to his head before heading back to his fiancée.
Pepper stayed seated, though her book was discarded on the coffee table in front of the couch. Her eyes trailed after the boys as Tony led them towards the guest room.
As Tony walked back towards her, she couldn’t wipe the confusion and concern off her face. She didn’t recognize the boy, but if he was staying here, it was by necessity.
“Is he okay? He looked a little dazed,” she commented, not untruthfully.
“Yeah, I think he will be. You remember Harley, right?”
“Harley?” Her gaze was questioning, like she was hoping Tony would supply her with the answer, when it clicked.
“Keener? The one that helped you with the Mandarin?”
Tony chuckled lightly at the memory that he let an 11 year old child help him with the Mandarin.
“That’s the one.” A smile tugged at his lips, his fondness for the kid only growing.
“He’s grown up a lot, doesn’t look like the pictures you showed me anymore.” She smiled softly at him, inviting him onto the seat next to her.
“He’s really great. Didn’t think he’d grown up all that much, but he showed up here and, man was I thrown.” He sat down and sighed, his thoughts floating, his brows furrowing now and again as comfortable silence surrounded the couple.
He dropped his head into his hands, trying to figure out what his next steps would be.
“You know I love you, and I’m definitely not saying he can’t stay, but why is Harley here?” That was so Pepper. She would never deny Tony a chance to bring - yet another - teenager home, but she at least wanted to know why this was becoming a (almost) regular occurrence.
“He was kicked out.”
Deep breaths, deep breaths, deep breaths.
Ugh.
It was as awful coming out of his mouth as he had expected. His gritted teeth and harsh glare were enough of a hint for Pepper to understand that Tony cared about the kid and didn’t approve of the situation. (If the kiss on his head wasn’t proof enough already.)
“He can stay here as long as he likes,” Pepper said with a smile, getting up and rubbing Tony’s back on her way to their bedroom.
Harley didn’t take long to flop onto the huge bed in the guest room.
The half-day spent in a bus was not exactly a thrilling way to spend his time.
He felt out of place here, slightly. Tony was being really welcoming, which was both so great and so unsettling.
Maybe it’d make more sense tomorrow.
He closed his eyes, and in mere minutes he was out like a light.
He was getting some much needed sleep, and much needed peace.