Chapter 6

Apologies for any grammar mistakes and bad writing. I also don't own any of the characters marvel does. Sorry that I suck at fluff. This is just a fanfiction but I still hate others copying my ideas. I am putting all my other fics on hold to finish this one.

Tony and Pepper quietly shut the door and headed back down to the common floor. They met with Bruce and Rhodey, who were more like brothers to Tony than friends. They plopped themselves down on the couch and took a while to notice that the two men were not staring at them and not the T.V.

Rhodey broke the silence, "So…. How do you think it's going?"

Bruce joined in, "He seems like a sweet kid Tony, if I didn't know better I think he could actually be yours and Peppers kid. I mean he has that twinkle just like yours and a spark of genius too. Though I don't want him in the lab with us, he could get hurt with all my chemicals and I have hulked out before."

"Bruce it will be fine, and the kid is pretty much a genius. He helped me rebuild the suit when it crashed in Tennessee. I guess he does remind me of me, he's got the smarts and the looks."

Rhodey snarked back, "but unlike you he is somewhat polite, I thought you said he was sarcastic?"

"The kid is but he must still be shocked after his mother's recent death, I guess that could do that to someone," Bruce said, thinking about watching his mothers own death, (it's Canon read the comics).

"This is exactly why I go to you to talk about my problems Brucey, how do you know so much about that?"

"I studied the mind a lot when I was learning to meditate, but back to the original subject, anyway how do you think the media will react, and what about Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. what will happen with them?"

Pepper took this one, "We'll keep him away from the media as long as possible and if one person finds out we will lie till he is comfortable by calling him my nephew, but we should tell Fury, and Bruce he will not be in the lab, Tony has converted one of the labs with my help to make it child safe. I think Harley will love it. And I know everything will go great."

Everyone looked a bit more optimistic with that and just when Tony was about to thank Pepper in his radio talk show voice for one of her Peps pep, she jumped on him and covered his mouth. The four talked some more, as bothered as Tony and Pepper were about the media finding out about Harley. They had decided to sit Harley down tomorrow and talk about this as well as school options for next year but that could wait, they would have Tony and Bruce teach Science and Math, Pepper would help with English and History and he would be good for the rest of the year. It was absurd to start a new school in March. Also he would talk to fury that morning and see what would happen. Harley would get a tour of the rest of the tower as well and Pepper would bring him shopping for some new clothes and toys, he had been having a growth spurt but his mom was in no shape to bring him shopping at the time.

Rhodey said he would stop by as often as possible and he was always on call for them. Bruce agreed to help teach, and he would try to be more careful about Hulking out, even though Tony and pepper didn't ask him too. He just wanted this child to be happy, he knew he and Tony didn't have happy childhoods and he wanted this kids to be different. It was a lot to think about but he would do it for Tony and Pepper, hopefully this would all turn out great.

Everyone had headed to bed, and it seemed it would be a peaceful night, but just then Jarvis woke Tony up. "Sir, you might want to know it seems Master Harley is having a nightmare, you might want to check on him." Tony immediately jumped out of bed careful not to rouse Pepper and headed to Harley's room. The little boy was shaking around in his sleep, he was murmuring. Tony recognized the symptoms, poor Harley had PTSD just like he had after New York and Afghanistan. He still had the occasional flashback but not as bad as he used to. He knelt over Harley and tried to shake him awake.

"Hey kid, wake up, it's ok, your safe, your fine, wake up, c'mon Harley, wake up!"

"No, mom! Lizzie! You can't die, I need you!" Harley cried out in his sleep.

"C'mon kid, wake up!"

"Huh, Tony? What's going on? Why you in my room?"

"Jarvis told me you were having a nightmare, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, it's just a bit weird and sudden, after I met you, I heard mom was hospitalized and Lizzie had died and then you come and my mom died and now I'm here!" Harley could barely finish his sentence he burst out crying. Tony brought the little boy toward him and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Hey, I promise everything will be fine. Now look, whenever you have a nightmare, you come find me or Pepper and we will help you. I used to have those nightmares too! My parents died when I was young and I was all alone, but I promise you will never have to be, Ok?"

"Fine, but can you stay here until I fall asleep?"

"Sure thing kid, now get some sleep!"

Tony shut the light back off, and sat at Harley's desk chair just watching and waiting, he was lulled to sleep himself by Harley's soft snores and the flickering of the city lights out the window. That's how Pepper found them in the morning, she immediately took a picture with her phone before heading to the kitchen to prepare some food.