If you prefer to read on Ao3, it's posted there, as well.
Hope you like the chapter! :)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of these characters! They belong to the MCU! I only own the plot!
"Tony."
"…."
"Tony."
"Hm mm." Tony mumbles. Harley chuckles softly. God. His everything hurt. But Harley thanks everything above that it's him and not Peter, who is currently curled up at his side, slightly resting on his leg, fast asleep.
"Tony." Harley whispers a little louder.
"Hm." Tony groans, his eyes flickering open. Tony glances grumpily over and immediately takes on a worried but relieved tone.
"Oh geez. Harls you ok bud?" Tony asks, hurrying over to Harley's side. Harley grins. Those idiots in the media industry would never believe it but Tony was such a softie.
"Pete's rubbing off on you." Harley smirks. Tony rolls his eyes and ruffles Harley's hair.
"How are you feeling? Do I need to get Bruce? Or some meds?" Tony asks anxiously. He can't believe Harley was so calm after getting stabbed!
"Shhhh Sh." Harley hushes. Tony gives him a mock offended look.
"How dare you shush the Tony Stark." Tony teases. Harley rolls his eyes.
"The Tony Stark isn't an all that impressive dude." Harley retorts.
"Not all that impressive. Unbelievable." Tony repeats exasperatedly. Harley laughs quietly.
"He needs sleep. He rarely sleeps through the entire night." Harley says, putting a light hand in Peter's hair. Peter shifts closer to him and a small grin makes its way across Harley's face.
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Tony smiles fondly at Harley's protectiveness of Peter. He knows the most important people in his life are him, Pepper, and Peter. And it melts his heart when Harley so openly shows his love for his brother. Harley has a hard exterior built from his rough childhood. But it all comes crashing down when he's with Peter. Tony can definitely relate to that. Peter waltzed past all his walls the moment they met.
"You ok kid? That was one nasty boo-boo." Tony asks him.
Harley rolls his eyes. "I'm fine Tony. How's Pete? I know he didn't take it well." Harley says guiltily. He knows how Peter is. He just loves to put all the guilt onto his shoulders. Just like Tony does.
"He's not doing so well kiddo. You know how he is. You stepped in front to protect him and he thinks it's his fault." Tony sighs.
"Yeah, I need to talk to him." Harley says softly.
"Hey kid I know I'm supposed to say don't sacrifice yourself for each other and all that, but I'm proud of you. That was really brave." Tony says.
"Honestly, all I could think about was I couldn't watch Peter get hurt. Not again. I watch it too many times and I-I just can't anymore. It was kinda selfish of me." Harley says quietly. Harley clenches his jaw trying to keep his tears up.
"Hey-Hey. It's ok. I get it kid. That's what happens when the people you love get hurt. You want to do everything in your power to stop it yeah?" Tony emphasizes. He completely understands what Harley was going through. His anxiety was already bad when Peter just went out to patrol. When he got hurt, Tony often couldn't sleep until days after.
"I just- I want to protect him. But I can't." Harley says. He hated sitting at home when Peter was out as SpiderMan. He could never think about anything other than 'What if he gets hurt?'. Peter tells him not to worry but Harley can't help it.
"You protect him more than you realize bud." Tony says knowingly. He couldn't even try to count how many times Harley had gotten Peter out of a hot spot.
Harley shrugs looking down at his sheets. Tony moves from the chair at the bedside over to the edge of the bed.
"Can I tell you something?" Tony asks. Harley glances up curiously. He nods and Tony continues.
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"You remember a couple months ago when you were having a bad day? And you fell asleep on the couch half an hour into the movie?" Tony asks.
Harley thinks back. "Yeah...oh yeah Peter insisted we watched 'Empire Strikes Back' for the hundredth time." Harley laughs.
"Yup that's the one. We decided to let you sleep so he put a blanket around you and we went to the lab for a bit." Tony pauses.
Harley nods. In the morning he did wonder how he was wrapped up in his favorite blanket with fuzzy socks on. But he kinda put it together. He was a genius after all.
"Well we were working in silence and suddenly Peter comes up to me and gives me a hug. And I was weirded out. So I asked him what that was for and you know what he told me?" Tony asks.
Harley shakes his head. He doesn't think Peter had mentioned this before.
"Fri? Send the audio over to my phone." Tony smiles.
"Done." Friday replies.
"Thanks sweetheart." Tony says, pulling out his phone and clicking on the new audio file.
He hands it over to Harley.
Harley looks at it for a second, then swipes up to play it.
"Thank you for giving me a brother. I really don't deserve Harls, but I love him. He's the best big brother I could ask for."
"Then he said goodnight and slept on the couch opposite from you." Tony says, blinking back the memory. Tony smiles fondly as he sees tears well up in Harley's eyes.
"He's always such a sap." Harley remarks thickly, through his tears. Tony laughs and pulls Harley as close as he could, taking a shaky breath.
Harley snuggles into Tony and the mechanic starts rubbing his back gently. Harley lets out an involuntary sigh and Tony smirks.
"Who's Peter rubbing off on now?" Tony teases. Harley rolls his eyes.
"Shut up." He says, sticking out his tongue.
"Real mature." Tony deadpans, a hint of a smile on his lips.
"Haha." Harley says, shaking his head.
They sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes.
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Helen smiles and quietly steps out of the doorway. Tony was quite a different person with his kids. It was almost unbelievable. Tony Stark was really nothing his name suggested.
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"You mind giving me a hand?" Harley asks, gesturing to the clean shirt on his bedside table.
"Aw does baby need help?" Tony coos.
"I'll get it myself." Harley threatens, pretending to get up.
"Sit your ass down Keener." Tony says, reaching over and grabbing the shirt. Harley grins and grabs it from Tony, putting it on and making sure it doesn't touch the bandage.
"Thanks." Harley says, leaning back on his pillow.
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Just then his phone rings and Tony checks on it.
"Great. Just who I want to talk to at 7 in the morning. General Thunderhead." Tony sighs.
"Why's he calling now?" Harley asks.
"I may or may not have missed a meeting with him and some Congresspeople." Tony winces. Harley facepalms.
"You miss those on purpose! Every time!" Harley accuses.
"Hey! I have a good reason this time!" Tony defends.
"Yeah what are you gonna tell them huh? Oh yeah, my kid that I haven't released to the public got stabbed so I couldn't come to the meeting with the Vice President." Harley says, mimicking Tony's voice.
"Hey! I don't sound like that." Tony says. Harley gives him a look and Tony rolls his eyes.
"The Congresspeople are gossips too! The media is gonna have a field day." Harley says, amused at Tony's stupidity.
Tony sighs. "Ok, this idiot won't stop calling me. I'm gonna have to take this kiddo."
"Try not to get into too much trouble. And try not to call him thunderhead to his face please." Harley tells him.
"No promises!" Tony says, walking out the door. In the distance, Harley could hear a "Good morning Thunderhead! Whatever could I do for my favorite government hothead at 7 AM?", and stifled a giggle. Tony was in so much trouble.
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Harley awoke with a start. Shoot he fell asleep upright. Man what an idiot. He checks the clock while painfully cracking his neck. Agh, it's only been an hour. Harley sighs and rubs the sleep out of his eyes when he notices that Peter had snuggled even closer to him if that was even possible. Peter was mumbling things Harley couldn't understand in his sleep and Harley smirks. One time he caught him mumbling about MJ in his sleep. Harley teased him for at least a few weeks about that before he finally let it go. But when Peter started to tremble and occasionally flinch, Harley knew something was wrong.
"Pete? Wake up. Hey." Harley tries. Just as he speaks up, tears start steadily streaming down Peter's face.
"Please don't." Peter mumbles. Harley winces. It was so quiet yet there was so much pain and fear in those words.
"Pete. You gotta wake up bro. Come on." Harley says, louder this time.
"No! No, don't leave!" Peter says, mumbling louder.
"Peter! Wake up!" Harley says, his voice rising, almost to a yell.
"NO!" Peter screams. His nails rip the skin of his palms even through the sheets he was clutching.
Harley shakes Peter's shoulders trying not to full-on slap him until he wakes up.
"Peter. Please." Harley says, clenching his jaw as his wound rubs against itself.
Peter's eyes fly open and he opens his mouth gasping for air.
"I can't-" Peter heaves.
"Hey. Hey. Look at me. Breathe. Calm down." Harley says as calmly as he can.
Peter continues to spiral into his panic attack, looking wildly at Harley with tear-filled eyes.
"Oh God. Y-You're. You're dead." Peter gasps brokenly.
"No. No-no Peter I'm here. I'm here with you." Harley says, his eyes glistening. Nothing hurt more than Peter being in this much pain.
Peter shakes his head. "No. I-I saw you die. I'm sorry. I'm sorry Harls. I couldn't-" Peter cries.
"Peter. Look at me." Harley commands. Peter looks up with broken eyes. They were empty of everything. And it terrified Harley.
"I'm real. See?" Harley takes his hand and grips it firmly. "See?"
A flicker of hope passes through Peter's eyes. "Harls?"
Harley gives him a hint of a smile. "Yeah. I'm real. It's me, Pete. It's ok."
Peter chokes on a sob as he puts his head on his brother's shoulder. "Oh my God. Y-you were dead. You were dead. Your heart stopped." Peter gasps.
Harley lets out a breath and pulls Peter into a painful hug. "No it didn't. I'm fine. Petey you gotta calm down."
Peter melts into the embrace, trying to get it together. Harley only called him Petey when he was stressfully worried about him.
"Oh my God. Oh my God." Peter repeats. He can't believe he's alive. He saw Harley die in his arms. Peter wrenches out a sob as he thinks about it.
"Hey, I'm fine ok? Just breathe." Harley soothes.
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Peter finally brings his head out from Harley's shoulder when he hears a faint wince.
"I-I'm hurting you." he whispers, pulling back.
"Nope. Just this kinda sucks." Harley says, with a small smile.
Peter looks down guiltily. "I'm supposed to protect you. A-and I didn't. You had to save my ass."
"Isn't that what a big brother's s'pose to do?" Harley asks.
"Not when I'm SpiderMan." Peter mumbles.
"And that matters why? Because my little bro's SpiderMan I'm supposed to watch him get hurt?" Harley asks, carefully avoiding the word 'stabbed'. He doesn't want to trigger anything.
"Yes ok? Yes. I have fast healing you don't. I can't-" Peter stops, tears in his eyes.
"And that makes it ok for me to let you get hurt?" Harley asks. "I don't fucking care if you can heal in a minute. I've watched you get hurt too many times to sit and do nothing when I can prevent one." Harley says frustratedly.
"It's better me than you." Peter retorts.
"Why? Because you somehow think you deserve to get hurt? What the fuck Peter?" Harley asks angrily.
"I can't let you die. I can't." Peter whispers hoarsely.
Harley feels all the anger and adrenaline drain out of him as tears drip down Peter's cheeks.
"Peter. I'm-I'm not gonna die. Oh God. Pete, your shaking." Harley says, resting his forehead against Peter's. He knew it always brought both himself and the younger boy comfort, but he only fought up the courage on rare occasions. This definitely counted as one.
Harley knew they were unhealthily codependent on each other but he didn't know how much they truly were.
"I'm sorry." Peter says, breathing out slowly through his nose.
"Don't be." Harley says, putting an arm around his brothers back.
Peter sighs, pulling back reluctantly. "Are you…" he trails off.
"I'm fine. Gonna be good as new in no time." Harley assures.
"Can I see?" Peter asks quietly. Harley hesitates. He doesn't want to make everything worse by showing him and having him potentially freak out, but he also doesn't want to refuse. Peter already thinks it's his fault and if he refuses he might think Harley doesn't trust him anymore.
"It's not that bad I promise." Harley says lifting his shirt so Peter can see.
Peter traces the large bandage and shudders. "It should have been me."
"It's always you." Harley retorts.
"It's never this bad. I know you Harls. It hurts like hell doesn't it?" Peter asks.
"Fuck yeah it does. But-shit…" Harley takes a deep breath. "It hurts worse when you're hurt. How you're feeling right now? That's how I feel every time you come back bleeding from somewhere or beaten up so bad you have to sleep it off."
Peter looks down. "I know. I'm sorry."
"It's what you do. I can't tell you to quit. Just like I can't tell Tony too." Harley shrugs.
"Look. I'm sorry about that whole-"
"Don't you dare Parker." Harley cuts off. "I'm tired of your apologies."
Peter cracks a small smile.
"And you know how many panic attacks I've had when you've gotten hurt?" Harley asks, not thinking. His eyes widen and he slaps his forehead. "Dammit."
"Why didn't you tell me? Harls, What the hell?" Peter asks sharply.
"It's not a big deal. After your better, I get over it. It's just you know...first my parents then my sister…" Harley trails off.
Peter looks down sadly. "You need to tell me. You always help me, why can't I give you a hand?"
"Pete I swear I'm fine. I get worried over you and Tony a lot. And you help me more than you realize." Harley tells him. Tony might have an emotional range of a teaspoon but his sentiments were pretty damn good. And Harley meant it too.
Peter scoffs. "Right like last night?"
"Yeah." Harley tells him. "I would have gotten my ass kicked and kidnapped if you weren't there."
"Damn right." Peter smiles, getting back into their typical playful banter.
Harley gasps, putting a hand to his chest. "Now that's just cold. You're supposed to be nice to me when I'm hurt."
Peter shrugs. "You said it yourself."
"Yeah, it's called self-deprecating humor." Harley deadpans.
"You're literally a carbon copy of Tony." Peter says, shaking his head. "And I don't need another one to deal with."
"No you." Harley says, playfully slapping his arm.
"I love how we say that like it's the worst thing in the world." Peter giggles.
"Maybe cus it is?" Harley shrugs.
"Friday? Erase this conversation so Tony doesn't kill us." Peter requests.
"Sorry, Peter. You do not have the authority to do that as per the "Caught RedHanded" Protocol." FRIDAY replies.
"Damn it." Peter groans.
"I truly wonder how many protocols that guy has. Really. It keeps me up at night." Harley says shaking his head.
Peter laughs and leans back against the pillow.
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"Peter? Harley?" Pepper calls. Both boys look up and Peter leaps off the bed.
"Pepper!" He says, running out the room, towards her voice.
"It's beyond me how I can get lost where I live." Pepper says to herself shaking her head. A bright grin spreads across her face as she sees Peter run out of the room down the hall and towards her.
"Hey baby." Pepper says gently, trapping his head in her hands and kissing his forehead.
"Your home early." Peter says happily.
"Tony told me what happened." Pepper says, her smile fading. Peter looks down.
"Yeah. I-I'm sorry." Peter whispers.
"Peter honey. Harley wanted to protect you. That's not your fault. I'm so proud of both of you. Is he alright?" Pepper asks.
Peter nods. "He's awake and he says he is but you never know with Harls."
Pepper laughs as Peter leads her to his room. They enter and a Harley beams at Pepper. Pepper walks over and sits on the bed, extending her arms.
"Hey Pepper." Harley says, excepting the careful embrace.
"Always getting your brother out of trouble huh?" Pepper asks, smiling.
"You know him. Always needs a babysitter." Harley says, laughing at Peter's protests.
"You ok? How do you feel?" Pepper asks.
"Could be worse. They stalked me up on morphine last night so I can barely feel anything really." Harley shrugs.
"I took a knife. Could be worse." Peter mimics. Harley sticks his tongue out at Peter.
Pepper shakes her head. "Only you two."
"Do you know where Tony is?" Peter asks.
"Well I went down to his lab before I came over here and he was yelling into a phone. I decided to leave him be until he was done." Pepper giggles.
They all laugh. "It's Ross what do you expect?" Harley asks.
"I swear if Tony kept his mouth shut we wouldn't have lawsuits to spare." Pepper says, shaking her head.
"You just realized this?" Peter snickers. Pepper scrunched her nose up and flicks Peter's head with a smug smile.
"Meanie." Peter says, leaning onto her shoulder. Pepper puts a hand at the back of Peter's head and around Harley's back.
"Did you guys tell the others what happened?" Pepper asks.
Harley and Peter look at each other, wincing. Pepper looks at them sharply. "They're probably freaking out! Do you know if Tony did?" Pepper pauses. "Forget I asked that. Of course he didn't."
"Um. We both kinda fell asleep here. And I'm pretty sure Tony told Friday not to tell anyone until he got the chance. Aaand then he forgot." Peter winces.
"Friday? Tell everyone to meet Peter in the common room." Pepper requests.
"Peter Parker. Go tell everyone what happened so they don't worry any more than what they have already. You know how they are." Pepper sighs. "I'll stay here with Harley."
"Hey. Peter needs a babysitter, not me." Harley complains. Peter and Pepper both give him a look and Harley shuts up.
"Ok! Ok! I'm going jeez." Peter says, walking out the door.
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"What am I going to do with you boys?" Pepper asks, under her breath.
"Hey! I'm sitting right next to you ya know?" Harley protests.
"And?" Pepper smiles.
Hey guys! I really hope you liked that chapter! It was so heart-warming to write :)
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Stay safe and good night/day!
Love you all!