Chapter Text
The Stark Industries private jet cut through cloudless sky at thirty thousand feet, engines humming with the kind of engineered precision that still made Harry appreciate this world's technology. Six months since Obadiah Stane's betrayal. Six months of what passed for normal in their strange, blended life.
Harry sat in one of the cream leather seats, phone pressed to his ear, while Ted occupied the chair across from him, reviewing logistics of the night's event on a tablet. Pepper Potts paced near the cockpit door, her posture carrying that particular tension she always had before one of Tony's more dramatic entrances.
"Hermione, I need your help," Pepper was saying into her own phone, her professional mask firmly in place despite the chaos they were flying toward. "I want to get the boys something special for their report cards, but I have no idea what fifthteen and sixteen-year-old boys actually want these days."
Harry caught Ted's amused glance. Pepper had been integrated into their family's life so thoroughly over the past months that she'd appointed herself auxiliary aunt to James and Hugo. Tony had done the same, showing up at their house for dinners, helping Hugo with physics homework, teaching James how to work the arc reactor mathematics.
It should have felt intrusive. Instead, it felt like the family was growing rather than being invaded.
"For Hugo?" Hermione's voice came through clearly enough that Harry could hear her considering tone. "There's a first edition of Feynman's lectures on physics at that bookshop on Melrose. He's been eyeing it for weeks but won't let himself buy it. And for Jamie... that new camera system he was looking at. The one with the ridiculous number of lenses. He's been getting interested in photography."
"Perfect," Pepper said, making notes on her ever-present tablet. "I'll have my assistant pick them up tomorrow."
"You spoil them," Hermione said, but there was warmth in her voice.
"They're good kids. They deserve to be spoiled occasionally." Pepper glanced toward the back of the plane where Tony was supposedly preparing.
The intercom crackled to life before Hermione could respond. "Ms. Potts, Mr. Black, we're two minutes from the target zone."
"Acknowledged," Pepper called back, then returned to her phone. "Hermione, I have to go. Thank you for the suggestions."
"Keep an eye on them, Pepper."
"Always." Pepper ended the call and headed toward the rear cabin, her heels clicking against the deck. "Harry, you're still on comms?"
Harry nodded, adjusting his earpiece. Pepper disappeared through the door, leaving Harry and Ted in the main cabin. Harry lifted his phone back to his ear.
"Still here," he said quietly.
Hermione's sigh carried through the connection. "You know I hate it when he does these things."
"I know. But it's just a show tonight. Tony does all the flashy hero landing and grandiose speech, Teddy and I watch the perimeter from up here, and everyone goes home safe." Harry kept his voice level, reassuring. "How's Jamie doing? First therapy session was this morning, right?"
The pause told him everything before Hermione spoke.
"He wouldn't talk about it. Dr. Morrison said he barely said ten words the entire hour. Just sat there, shut down completely." Her frustration bled through. "Afterward, he went straight to his room. Won't come out."
"Damn it," Harry muttered.
"Damn it," Ted echoed automatically, then caught himself. "Sorry. Didn't mean to—"
"It's fine." Harry rubbed his free hand over his face. James had been doing better, or so they'd thought. Laughing more, sleeping through most nights. But the kidnapping had left marks deeper than bruises. Harry knew that particular kind of damage, the way trauma could hide in your bones and wait for quiet moments to resurface. "I'll talk to him when we get back."
"He might listen to you better than me." Hermione's voice carried that peculiar mix of gratitude and sadness. "You understand what he's going through in a way I can't."
Because Harry had been taken, tortured, forced to watch people die. Because James knew his father carried the same scars, even if they never spoke directly about the war they'd fled.
"Different subject," Harry said, needing to shift away from the weight of his son's pain. "Mexico. Two weeks. Are we really doing this?"
"You need a vacation, Harry. When was the last time you took more than a day off?" Hermione's tone turned pointed.
The rear cabin door opened with a pressurized hiss. Tony Stark emerged, and Harry's response died on his lips.
The Mark IV armor gleamed red and gold, each plate perfectly fitted, the arc reactor glowing bright blue in the center of the chest. Tony had been refining the design constantly, improving mobility, adding weapons systems, integrating better targeting protocols. The suit was a work of art and engineering genius.
But Tony's face, visible through the open faceplate, was pale. Too pale. The kind of pallor that spoke of sleepless nights and something eating away from the inside.
Harry frowned but caught himself before commenting. Tony was sensitive about his health lately, deflecting questions with humor and misdirection. Another thing to worry about, added to the ever-growing list.
Pepper followed Tony out, her expression caught between exasperation and fondness. "You have the coordinates?"
"Jarvis has them locked in. It's going to be a beautiful entrance." Tony's grin was pure showmanship, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Epic. Legendary. They'll be talking about this for years."
"Try not to give me a heart attack," Pepper said.
"Would I do that?"
"Yes. Regularly. On purpose."
Tony moved to the emergency exit, and Harry stood, tucking his phone into his pocket. Hermione was saying something, but he'd catch up with her after. Right now, he needed to be present for the insanity Tony was about to commit.
"You know," Harry said conversationally, "most people send a card or make a donation when they want to help with disaster relief. They don't personally deliver themselves via high-altitude freefall like you've been doing in the past weeks "
"Most people are boring," Tony countered.
"Tony..." Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose
Harry glanced between Tony and Pepper, that mischievous look Tony had learned to recognize as dangerous over the last months. "You two should just elope. Skip all the dating drama and wedding planning. Fly to Vegas, get it done, send everyone a postcard after."
Pepper's face flushed. "Harry—"
"I'm just saying, you're clearly perfect for each other. You're the only person who can manage his chaos, he actually listens to you about seventy percent of the time, and you're already basically married in every way that counts." Harry crossed his arms. "Stop dancing around it."
Tony took off his helmet and turned, pointing a metal-encased finger directly at Harry's chest. The repulsor in the palm hummed faintly, though Harry knew it wasn't armed. Probably.
"That is rich coming from you, Potter-Black." Tony's voice carried amusement and challenge in equal measure. "You and Hermione have been doing this elaborate we're-just-co-parenting dance for around a year, —"
"Two years actually" Ted interjected
Tony, however, didn't stop to acknowledge the younger man's words "— six months of which in my face, may I add, and everyone with functioning eyes can see you're crazy about each other. So here's the deal: until you and Hermione pull your heads out of your asses and actually date like normal people, I will not take a single piece of relationship advice from you. Not one."
Ted made a choking sound that might have been suppressed laughter.
Harry felt heat creep up his neck. "That's completely different."
"How?"
"We have a complicated situation—"
"So do Pepper and I. Try again."
"There are the boys to consider—"
"Who would probably throw you a party if you two finally got together." Tony rolled his eyes "Face it, Harry. You're a hypocrite. A well-meaning, heroic, occasionally fire-bird-shaped hypocrite, but still."
Tony turned back to the exit, then paused.
"Pepper?" His voice carried a different note now, softer. Vulnerable.
"Yes?"
"Can I have a kiss? For luck?"
Pepper's expression melted into something tender and exasperated and fond all at once. She stepped forward but before their lips could meet, Pepper grabbed the helmet from his hands and pressed her lips to its smooth red surface.
"For luck," she said, then threw the helmet out the open door.
Tony stared after it, shocked. "That was... mean. And brilliant. But mostly mean."
"Go be a star, Tony." Pepper's smile was almost wicked. "Try not to show off too much."
"No promises." He gave a jaunty salute, then dove backward out of the plane.
Harry and Ted immediately moved to the window. Far below, a streak of red and gold plummeted toward the ground, repulsors firing in controlled bursts. Then Tony caught the helmet and the suit screamed downward toward the Stark Expo grounds.
Pepper came to stand beside Harry, watching until Tony was just a distant glint.
"He's going to be insufferable about that helmet catch," she murmured.
"Probably," Harry agreed. "For what it's worth, I stand by what I said. About you two."
Pepper glanced at him, her expression turning pointed. "And I by what the fact that Tony's not wrong about you and Hermione either."
"That's—"
"Complicated. I know. You've said." Pepper's voice gentled. "But Harry, life is always complicated. And it's short, and unpredictable, and sometimes the universe doesn't give you as much time as you think you have. Don't waste what you've been given."
She moved back toward her seat, pulling out her tablet to monitor Tony's descent. Harry stayed at the window, his godson beside him.
"She's not wrong," Ted said quietly.
Harry sighed. "Not you too."
"I'm just saying. We all see it. Even Jamie and Hugo have a betting pool going about when you two will finally admit you're in love."
Harry turned sharply. "They what?"
"Hugo thinks you'll crack first. Jamie is betting on Hermione." Ted's grey eyes were amused. "I have money on you both being too stubborn and it taking some kind of dramatic near-death experience."
"That's not funny."
"It's a little funny."
Below, Tony landed at the Expo in a three-point superhero pose, and the crowd went wild. The show was underway. Everything was going according to plan.
So why did Harry have the creeping feeling that complications were coming, that the fragile normal they'd built was about to fracture?
He pushed the thought away and returned to his seat, pulling out his phone to text Hermione that that Tony had landed successfully. Her response came through almost immediately.
*Come home safe. All of you. We need to talk about James. And maybe other things.*
Harry stared at that last sentence, heart doing something complicated in his chest.
*Other things?* he typed.
*Later. Over wine*
Harry pocketed his phone and tried to do exactly that. But Tony's words echoed in his head, mixing with Pepper's gentle rebuke and Ted's observation.
Maybe everyone else could see something he and Hermione had been too scared to acknowledge.
Maybe it was time to stop hiding behind complicated and start facing simple truths.
Maybe.