Hey guys!

So, I thought about waiting to post this to maybe try and curve my crazy updating spree-but it was done, so I figured, why not? Bruce Banner makes a surprise appearance, so get excited!

I don't own Iron Man or any of the characters-just the story I'm making up.

And thanks, y'all, for all the reviews! You're all very lovely.

Harley was bored.

He wasn't sure how you could be bored while you were in Stark Tower, which was full of the coolest gadgets money could buy, and quite a few that money couldn't. But he was.

He was so bored! Even school would be better than this, and he hated school. Tony and Pepper had decided that he wasn't going to start going to school again for a while—they told him that getting adjusted (people were using that word a lot lately) and feeling comfortable were more important. Harley had been thrilled, at first, but not having school school left big expanses of empty in his days that he had no way of filling.

Harley decided to see what Tony was doing. He found him in one of the tower's labs—working on an invention. Harley joined him for a while and tried to help. Tony was patient, to a point, but the fifth time Harley knocked something over in his eagerness to assist, Tony snapped, "Harley! Jesus Christ, you're doing more harm than good. If you aren't planning on actually helping me, then get out."

"Fine!" Harley snapped in return, "I'll go find Pepper. She's more fun than you anyway."

So, with a sigh and an eye roll, Harley scampered from the lab. He did manage to find Pepper after a few minutes of looking…only to discover she was in the middle of a conference call.

"Hey, Pepper?" Harley whispered from the doorway. Pepper looked up and smiled at Harley.

"Excuse me," Pepper said into the phone, "I need to put you on hold for just one moment. Is that alright? Wonderful."

She put down the phone and turned to Harley, "What's going on, pal?"

Harley looked down at his feet—embarrassed, suddenly, that he was interrupting her. It seemed so insignificant, really, his being bored. He didn't want Pepper to think he was a complainer; he didn't really worry about what Tony thought, but Pepper was different, somehow.

"Oh, nothing," Harley said, "I just…nothing."

Pepper looked at him carefully, "Are you sure?"

Harley nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Well, if you're certain," Pepper said, "I really need to get back to this call. We can all do something fun later, okay? Go out for ice-cream, maybe? It'll be great. I promise."

But Harley didn't know exactly how much later later was. He knew from experience that when grown-ups said "later", it could mean anything from one hour to eight. So, for now, he was stuck wandering around Stark Tower and looking for something—anything —to do. His mom would've said all he was looking for was trouble—

Harley swallowed hard at the thought of his mom. He was trying not to think about her too much, because it meant he didn't have to feel the missing. But he couldn't help it. She was just always there—same as the scar on his forehead and the rod in his arm.

Harley spent the next hour or so poking his head in the many, many rooms of the tower. He didn't know what he was expecting to find, but it was better than sitting around and staring at the ceiling. Besides, it was a good way of keeping his mind off of…well…her.

So, imagine Harley's surprise when he threw open a door expecting to find nothing, and instead discovered none other than Dr. Bruce Banner.

Brow furrowed, Bruce was writing feverishly into a notebook, so he didn't notice Harley right away. Harley, in turn, just stood and stared—mouth agape—at one of his main life heroes. That's the Hulk! His brain was going a thousand miles a second. It's really him! It's Dr. Banner! It's an Avenger! It's him! What do I say? Do I say anything? Should I just leave? What if he doesn't like me? Has Tony told him about me, even?

Harley's rapidly careening train of thought was, luckily, disrupted when Bruce looked up and said, "Hey, uh, Harley, right?"

Harley snapped to attention and managed to stammer out, "Yeah! I—I mean, yes, I'm Harley. That's me. Harley. Yeah."

Bruce smiled slightly, "It's nice to finally meet you. I know I'm not, uh, around much. Sorry about that. I tend to lose track of time when I'm working, you know?"

Harley didn't really know, but he nodded all the same, "He told you about me? Tony told you about me, I mean?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah," Bruce answered, "He told all of us, actually. He seemed pretty excited about the whole thing."

"Really?" Harley asked.

"Sure," Bruce said, "We were all pretty…surprised, to say the least, when we found out."

Harley's chest tightened uncomfortably at Bruce's admission. His face flaming, he shifted his gaze down towards his sneakers. Bruce sensed that what he'd said had upset Harley somehow, and he rushed to reassure him, "Not because he didn't want you here or something! It's just, you know, a pretty big shock to find out your friend's adopted a kid since you last saw him a few weeks ago."

Harley looked up quickly at "adopted", "He hasn't adopted me yet," he said, more sharply than he intended, "We don't even know if that's going to happen, okay?"

Bruce looked bewildered at Harley's response, "No, yeah, I know. I just couldn't come up with the more appropriate…legal term, I suppose," he said.

"It's fine," Harley said, feeling slightly self-conscious about his harsh response, "You couldn't have known."

Bruce nodded and the two of them lapsed into silence—a distinctly awkward one. Harley scuffed his toes at the doorframe as Bruce tried to puzzle out whatever was in his notebook. Harley, finally, managed to break through the quiet, "What are you doing?" he asked shyly.

Bruce looked up, and beckoned for Harley to come over to the desk, "It's just some formulas," he explained, "Tony's working on a few new inventions, and he had questions about logistics and the like. So, ideally, my math will answer them."

"Couldn't he figure it out himself?" Harley asked.

Bruce snorted, "Probably. But I'm going to let you in on a secret—our friend Tony can be pretty lazy."

Harley laughed, and Bruce smiled at him. "You want to know how these equations work?"

Harley nodded excitedly. "Good," Bruce said, "Go grab a stool."

Once Harley was situated next to him, Bruce began his explanation, using the simplest terms he knew, "Well, on this one—for starters—you need to first think of what an electric field actually is. It's just a ratio of the force felt by a charge, right? Right. Now, this is useful if you know the magnetic field and the amount of charge, but it's not useful in defining the electric field with respect to distance. What can we do in this case, then? Well, we can relate the electric force of attraction of two charges to distance…."

Bruce continued to talk and Harley continued to listen, occasionally interrupting to ask a question, or for clarification. This went on for over an hour, and it probably would've gone on even longer than that—had Tony not poked his head into the room and interrupted them.

"I see you two have met."

Harley and Bruce looked up at Tony. "He's teaching me about quantum physics," Harley said.

Tony raised his eyebrows, "Really? Huh. You're a braver man than I am, Banner. I don't think I'd have the patience to teach the monster here anything."

Harley stuck his tongue out at Tony, before he turned to Bruce and said, "Thanks for showing me all this, Bruce."

Bruce smiled, "Sure thing, Harley."

Harley hopped down from his stool and trotted towards the doorway. Halfway out, though, Tony gently grabbed him. He leaned down to Harley's level and murmured, "Hey, I'm…sorry I yelled at you earlier today. I—it's just—you know," Tony faltered, (apologies were not his forte), but managed to continue, "Work can be frustrating. But I shouldn't have taken those frustrations out on you. And I'm very sorry."

Harley half-shrugged and smiled, "It's okay."

"So we're good?" Tony asked.

Harley nodded in affirmation, "We're good."

Tony ruffled Harley's hair, "Great. Now, come on. I think Pepper may have mentioned something about getting ice-cream," Tony turned to Bruce, "You're welcome to tag along, if you want, Bruce."

"Please come, Bruce!" Harley pleaded, "It'll be great."

Bruce laughed, "How could I say no to that? I think I'm just about done here, anyway."

Harley yelped excitedly, "I'll go get Pepper!" and ducked out of the room.

Bruce and Tony watched him go. "He's a good kid, Tony," Bruce said.

"Yeah, he is," Tony agreed quietly.

"He's lucky you found him," Bruce said.

Tony nodded absently, and Bruce continued, "You know, I think you're lucky you found him, too."

Tony smiled slightly at a spot in the distance, "Yeah," he said, "I really think you're right."