Disclaimer: I don't own HP or Avengers.
Warning: HP/TS
Edited: 11/23/14
Chapter 2
Tony wasn't sure why he felt so attracted to the strange man he'd just met. Since he was a known playboy, he didn't usually get so serious about anyone, and especially not on the first meeting. It just wasn't expected of him, by anyone. Not even himself. And yet, there was just…something about Harry, something that Tony had never felt before.
It was starting to get on his nerves.
Not because it was a bad feeling, but because he didn't know what it was. He wasn't used to this new feeling, and he never did want to become used to it. Ever since he was a kid, he'd hated not knowing what things were, or what they meant. Especially things that pertained to him. And this definitely pertained to him because not ten minutes ago, he was about to kiss a complete stranger, and not the usual kiss that held no meaning. The kind of kiss that promised a long, happy life together, and made Tony cringe. He'd tried that kind of relationship with Pepper, but he had to end it when he found her making out with another man. She still worked for him, but he kept it business only and rarely ever spoke to her.
Even though he hid it well, her betrayal hurt him deeply, and made it harder for him to love again. He'd never really known what love was until Pepper, and then she'd ruined it by cheating on him. Although, even Tony couldn't find a single good reason for staying with himself. He was annoying, spoiled and immature. Pepper had said it all the time, and Tony knew it was true. How could anyone love someone as broken as Tony? He could barely interact with normal people without offending them, and even his friends weren't that close because of the barriers he'd put up as a kid.
"Where to, sir?" Happy, Tony's driver asked, looking back at him with concern. Happy had been worried for his boss ever since Pepper had cheated on him. Tony was becoming more withdrawn, and didn't ramble about random things the way he used to. Happy had thought that Pepper would be good for Tony, but apparently Tony wasn't good enough for her, and it had ruined the boss Happy knew.
"Hmm, how about home? Or maybe that ice-cream place near that one place, by the thing." Happy smiled at the familiar vague and unhelpful directions. Tony did this all the time before Pepper broke his heart, and Happy was, well, happy to hear the old Tony back.
"You got it, sir. Right away." He pulled the limo out onto the street and made his way to Tony's favorite ice-cream shop. Tony usually only came here when he had to think about personal things that he had a hard time coming to terms with. Something had happened in the house just barely, and it left the driver with a shaken man.
Once Tony had gotten the ice-cream he always got, he felt himself calm down. It wasn't often that he was able to calm all of his speeding thoughts, but thankfully, this was one of those rare times. With his new, clear head, Tony went over every detail of his visit to Harry Potter. The young man had been stressed, obviously Nick's fault, and he'd spouted off those words as soon as he saw Tony. Something about how Nick was a monster or something. And then Tony had told him about how he used Harry's software, and there was a bit of pride in Harry's eyes at hearing that, but then Tony had seen horror when the other man heard how Tony tried to destroy the software. That wasn't uncommon, and for a second, Tony was a tiny bit ashamed of trying to destroy the software, but then he brushed it aside and continued remembering every detail about the mysterious computer programmer.
He hadn't even tried to move away when Tony had invaded his space, and yet he mentioned sexual harassment in his reasons for not working for Tony. As cute as it was that Harry thought that invading his space was sexual harassment, Tony would never do that to someone who wasn't willing, and Harry Potter had definitely been willing. The look in his eyes had said it all, as well as the dilating pupils. And they weren't dilating from fear, either.
After finishing his ice-cream, Tony went back to the Avengers tower. It had been a while since the battle with the Chitauri, and Tony had finished rebuilding the tower to make room for all of the Avengers. He'd actually made a few more floors, just in case there needed to be more room. Such as a whole floor for Harry. Of course, if Tony had his way with the handsome young man, he wouldn't have to use it for anything other than the crap lost under the empty bed. But he was not focusing on Harry right now, he was focusing on the fact that Steve Rogers was trying to use a Stark Phone and looked ready to punch it.
"What do you think you're doing, Capsicle?" Tony cried indignantly, running over to the war hero to save his precious technology. Steve looked up at the genius, a lost look on his face, something that made Tony pause in his lecture about how to treat technology. With a heavy sigh, he handed the phone back and showed Steve how to do what he was trying to figure out when Tony came in and walked away.
"Is something wrong, Tony?" Steve asked, and the billionaire rolled his eyes. He knew in his heart that Steve wasn't trying to make him feel even more tired, but sometimes, just seeing Steve's face reminded him of his dad, and that made him take out all of his childhood hurt and anger out on the soldier.
"Nothing that you need to worry about, Rogers. Just ask me if you need help with your tech again. I'll be down in the lab." Tony knew he was acting so out of character that even he couldn't recognize himself, but he had a lot on his mind, and he couldn't be bothered to act like he normally did.
"Uh," Steve seemed to be in a stupor, but snapped out of it quickly enough. "A-alright, Stark, uh, I'll take you up on that?" It sounded more like a question than anything, so Tony turned to face him once again.
"Listen, Capsicle, I'm feeling generous, so don't worry 'bout it." Without another word, Tony disappeared down to his lab, not willing to let his thoughts wander to the mysterious man who fought to stay in his mind with a vengeance.
"Uh, alright then, I'll just do that," Steve managed to say eventually, despite the fact that Tony was long gone.
Harry growled in frustration! His entire day had been wasted on thoughts of Tony Stark and the fact that Harry wouldn't really mind it if Tony 'sexually harassed' him every day. But at the same time, Harry couldn't stand the idea of being the puppet of another Albus Dumbledore. And Nick Fury was definitely a controlling war leader. He led the Avengers, as well as being the director of SHIELD. This man obviously craved control and power, and he wanted anyone who could give him that. As much fun as it seemed to be under the control of this kind of person, the boy-who-lived wasn't interested in the slightest.
"But Tony Stark is so hot in real life!" Harry moaned to himself, wishing it weren't true, but it really was. Meeting Tony Stark in person was something Harry had only dreamed of before, but now that it had happened, there was no way Harry would be able to let him go. At least not mentally. The wizard had become used to physically pushing people away, but he always thought about his family and friends, always held onto a piece of them in his mind. He would just have to do the same thing with Tony, because even that hot body, sexy voice, and brilliant mind couldn't convince Harry to help out in another war. He wouldn't let himself become close to another person who fought and could die any day. It always ended in hurt and loss for him.
As he had been all day, Harry was depressed and he wasn't sure if he wanted to get out of his funk. Sometimes, being depressed is a lot easier than being positive. Randomly, Harry decided to classify whether he was an optimist or a pessimist and almost immediately his answer was that he was definitely a pessimist. He always had been ever since he was a child living with the abusive Dursleys.
The black Smartphone on his counter rang loudly, making him jump from his seat on the ground. With fumbling, ungraceful fingers, he answered the phone, trying to make himself sound slightly chipper as he said, "Hello?" The voice on the other side made him freeze where he stood.
"Harry, this is Tony Stark. I just thought I should call you, 'cause I'm insanely bored, and you're the only interesting thing in this town. Not even the musicians on the side of the road can interest me today. Not even a little bit. Do you know how rare that is for me? Usually those guys take all of my attention, which is why I usually have a car, but right now, I'm bored. Did I mention that I'm bored?"
Blinking slowly, Harry felt a small grin creep onto his face. Tony Stark was calling him, boring computer programmer Harry Potter, because he wanted someone to talk to. Heaven definitely visited earth right then, because Harry was in it!
"A few times, actually," he replied as smoothly as possible, which meant that it was horribly delayed, and he stumbled a few times. Smacking his face and groaning silently in embarrassment, Harry waited for Tony to hang up on the lame computer nerd who couldn't have a conversation right.
"Yeah? I hadn't noticed," Tony said, and he sounded like he had a smirk on his handsome face, making Harry blush brightly from the humiliation. "But that's okay, because I really am bored, and I've picked you to fix it. So tell me about yourself, Harry Potter. What do you like to do, what do you like to eat, what gender do you like to love, what restaurant do you most enjoy eating dinner at? And do you have a suit in that small closet of yours?" Harry's mind was reeling. From the latter half of the questions, it sounded as if Tony was asking him on a date!
Thinking hard about the answers, and trying to remember the order the questions were in, he spoke, saying, "I like to program things on computers, I like to eat anything that's not plain, I lean more towards men, I love most restaurants, and yes, I have a suit in my small closet. How do you know my closet is small?" He didn't really care how Tony knew, but he wanted to distract the genius superhero from his third answer, and that was the only thing he could think of.
"I had a camera put outside your bedroom window and saw how small your closet was. And then the camera broke, so I really only got enough feed to figure out your closet size, and where your bed and desk was. You need more things in your room. It looked like all you owned was a bed and desk and three pairs of clothes. You should come to the Avengers tower and I'll take you shopping to fit one of the closets here. They're practically the size of your room, only bigger. You should consider it." Harry laughed slightly and walked over to his couch. He had noticed a camera a while ago that was pointed right at his room, so he'd sent a confundus charm at it, and then broke the thing. Good to know that all Tony had seen was the bare basics of his room. Anymore and the statute of secrecy would've been wasted.
"Yeah, maybe. But I don't fancy being the puppet of Nick Fury, and since you're one of the puppets of Nick Fury, I don't really want to be around you, in case you convince me with your pretty face to join the Avengers. Not something I plan on doing, by the way." Tony gave a sharp laugh, sounding annoyed. Harry knew better than to hope it wasn't at him, and resigned himself to Tony hanging up on him.
"As hot as you are when you're fighting—I saw you on the cameras—I bet you're much hotter when you're making brilliant software for my company. So don't worry about joining the Avengers. We already have the Hulk, we don't really need anyone else but me, so don't worry about me being the pressure-putter-onner. I just want you near me at all times, so that we can have some fun, and then when I go off to fight, you go off to program software that will make you and me, and everyone in Stark Industries incredibly rich and famous. Well, even more rich and famous. So what do you think? Will you come to the tower for me?" Harry groaned audibly in frustration. He wanted everything to be as Tony said, but he knew that was impossible. As soon as Tony saw him fight, or save someone, he's going to want Harry's help for some mission, and then if Harry helps once, Tony will want help all the time, and then Harry really will be an Avenger!
"You're making it really hard for me to stay away, Mr. Stark," Harry growled, losing all the fight in him, but not really wanting to give in so easily. He was Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, the man-who-conquered! He should be able to win against a muggle with a cute face!
"That's the point, Mr. Potter," Tony mocked, and Harry growled slightly. "I'm here to convince you to come to my tower so that not only will your software be mine, but you will be there to alleviate any boredness that comes my way." That made Harry smirk at the thought, but he decided to remain firm. He didn't want to be used, so he wouldn't let Tony use him. Simple, right?
"I'm sorry, but I won't let that happen any time soon. Fury wants me to fight for him, and I'm really tired of fighting, so how about we pass along on our daily lives and forget all about each other? Sound good? Great. Now I have to go, so if you want to work for me, or have any questions about my software, please e-mail me, and I'll make sure to get back to you on that. Goodbye, Mr. Stark." And with that, Harry hung up his phone, ignoring the sounds of protest coming from the speaker. Dropping the phone to the ground, Harry soon followed after it, letting his forehead rest against his knees. He wished that he could be a normal person, who had normal love interests, and didn't have crazy, controlling leaders out for his fighting abilities, or billionaire genius' trying to get in his pants!
Four minutes and thirty-three seconds later (he'd been counting to get his mind off of Tony), the doorbell rang, and he forced himself to get up. Groaning from mental exhaustion, he opened the door to see a frowning genius billionaire. Said billionaire had his phone in his hands, messing with something on the touch screen. Wishing he had the strength to slam the door in Tony's face, Harry resigned himself to the fact that he really didn't want Tony to leave him alone at all. In fact, Harry wanted Tony to keep popping up in his life as much as possible, until Harry no longer feared being with the Avenger.
