Chapter Text
“Peteeerrrr!” Harley complains.
“Mmhm.” Peter hums from Harley’s shoulder. Harley sighs. It was Peter’s idea to go to the movies at 11 P.M. and now he was almost falling asleep on his shoulder while walking back to the Tower.
“Never listening to you ever again ya know that?” Harley asks.
Peter lets out a sleep-deprived laugh. “We both kn’w that’s n’t true.” He mumbles.
“Unfortunately.” Harley deadpans.
“You're a pretty awesome big brother.” Peter says, closing his eyes again. Harley smiles. Peter says the most adorable things when he’s tired.
“Yeah?” Harley asks, putting an arm over Peter’s shoulders.
“Mmmhm.” Peter yawns.
“Alright. Let’s get us home. A sleep-deprived and sappy Peter is never good.” Harley tells him fondly.
“M’k.”
As they trudge past a dark alleyway on the way to the Tower, Peter suddenly stops, all of his fatigue draining out of him.
“Harls.” Peter whispers.
“Hmm?” Harley asks, confused. “Pete?”
“Shh for a sec.” Peter says, listening. Harley frowns but stays quiet. It’s not his first day on the job, he knows when Peter’s serious.
“Harls. Run. Run!” Peter says urgently. Peter pulls Harley with him and speeds off in the direction of the Tower.
“Peter what?” Harley pants. He hears footsteps behind and suddenly, pain wracks through his body as electricity courses through his veins.
They both fall to the ground and are surrounded by a group of four men. Harley is in so much pain he can’t see straight, each second the shocks more and more agonizing.
Peter, unbothered by being surrounded, puts his full attention to Harley, who’s trying to hide his obvious pain.
He finds a small silver circular device on his brother's back and pulls it off. Harley relaxes and rests on the ground, trembling. Peter chucks it away from them and glares at the group who are watching them, amused. Peter stands up in front of Harley, glowering at the smirking group.
“Let us go.” Peter growls at them.
“You sure these are Starks kids?” One of them asks, ignoring Peter. Peter’s eyes widen. How do they know?
“Yes I’m sure. Grab them.” The one next to him says. They lunge at Peter. Peter kicks the first guy’s legs and he goes tumbling down. Suddenly, he’s fighting 3 fully grown adults, trying to keep them away from his brother. Come on Peter. It’s just like SpiderMan. Come on SpiderMan. Peter punches a really buff guy in the face as Harley stands up.
“Harley! Get out of here!” Peter pants, kicking a guy in the stomach.
“I can’t let you have all the fun.” Harley remarks, putting his fists up. Peter rolls his eyes as the group gets back up again.
“I’m not getting beat by some teens.” One of them growls, stalking toward Harley. Harley kicks him in the groin before the man can block and knocks him, groaning in pain, to the floor.
“Yes you are. Unfortunately for you, we were taught by the Earth’s mightiest heroes.” Harley smirks. He turns around to see Peter fighting two people at the same time. He runs over as he sees a guy coming up behind Peter to knock him out.
“Not today.” Harley says, he grabs the man’s fist out of the air and twists it behind his back painfully. Then, Harley knees him in the chest and he goes sprawling backward.
“Agh!” Harley grunts as one of them comes up behind him and locks their arm against his throat. Peter flips the two people holding onto him and throws them at the wall. He then runs over and rips the guy off Harley, allowing him to breathe again.
“Thanks.” Harley gasps. Before he can nod, he’s punched in the head and knocked to the floor. Peter gets up, putting a hand to his throbbing head as Harley sees a flash of silver. His heart stops.
“No!” Harley shouts. He pushes Peter backward as the knife enters his stomach. Peter screams and catches Harley as he falls to the floor.
The group come together again, rubbing their limbs. “We killed one of them. That’s payback enough. Let’s get the fuck out of here.” The big one says. They nod and sprint away into the dark.
“Hey. Hey...hey.” Peter whispers. Harley groans as Peter puts pressure on the wound.
“Pete.” Harley groans.
“It’s ok. Ok? I-I’ll call Tony. It’s gonna be fine.” Peter says, choking on his words.
“Peter.”
“What?” Peter asks, taking his cell-phone out of his pocket. It had miraculously stayed there during the fight.
“I love you ok?” Harley mumbles.
“No. No..no. Y-You’re not going to talk like that ok? Tony’s coming and everything’s gonna be fine. D-Don’t you dare Keener.” Peter tells him, his eyes filling up with tears as he looks at his brother’s pained face.
“Your a p-pretty awesome little brother too.” Harley says, smiling as he coughs up blood.
“Stop it. Harls please no.” Peter pleads, tears steadily streaming down his face. “Karen! Call Tony on my emergency protocol!”
“Calling Tony Stark.”
“Hey y'all prepare yourself for the rubberband maaan.” Tony mumbles the lyrics as he fiddles with the latest model of the StarkPad.
Suddenly, his music shuts off as red lights blink across his lab. “What the-”
“Boss. Incoming emergency call from Peter.” FRIDAY announces. Tony’s heart skips a beat.
“Wha-Put him through!”
“ T-Tony! Track my phone and get over here right now! Harley’s hurt! T-There’s so much blood.”
“What the hell happened?! Pete I'm on my way!”
“FRI! Get me a suit!” Tony shouts, running out on the roof. A few seconds later, as suit comes shooting out from an open window, and in front of him. Tony steps in and puts the suit on autopilot.
“Flight time. T minus 3 minutes.”
“ Harley! Open your eyes!”
“Peter! He’ll be fine, I promise. Listen to me kid. I’ll be there in two minutes. I need you to make sure he’s breathing.”
“Tony. I-It was my fault. I-I’ll just make it worse.”
“Peter. In and out ok? It wasn’t your fault bud. Harley needs you right now. I need you to tell me if he stops breathing.Ok?”
“O-ok. Harls? He's coming ok? Just h-hang on.”
“Shit-What happened kiddo?”
Peter doesn’t answer.
“FRI? I need you to fly another suit out here for Peter. I’m probably going to have to fly Harley in.” Tony says, his heart pounding.
“Done.” FRIDAY replies.
Tony lands on the ground.
“FRI! Eject!” Tony says. He jumps out of the suit and runs toward his kids. Tony kneels down and sucks in a breath as he sees the wound.
“Hey. I’m here Harls. It’s ok buddy. Just hang in there ok kiddo?” Tony says, his voice threatening to shake. “Pete, I have a suit coming in for you. Can you-” Tony starts.
“Go. Get him help.” Peter says, his voice cracking. Tony kisses Peter on the head and picks Harley carefully off of Peter’s lap.
“He’ll be fine ok Pete? Pete. He will be ok.” Tony says. They both get up and Tony carefully passes Harley to Peter as he gets in his suit. Peter presses his forehead to Harley’s and hands him back to an Iron-clad Tony.
As Tony gets back to the Tower, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t notice Harley’s breathing get shallower.
“Fri? You got Bruce and Helen right?” Tony yells over the wind.
“Dr. Cho and Banner are ready in the MedBay boss.”
“Open window 8a.” Tony commands. The large window in the MedBay opens and Tony flies in and places Harley down on the bed. Moments after Helen, Bruce and they’re small team of assistants swarm him.
“Ok people! Get him in!” Helen calls. They wheel him off into the operation room leaving Tony outside. Waiting.
Peter flies in at full thrust into the room and looks around wildly. “Where is he?” Peter demands.
“He’s in ER Pete. I got Helen and Bruce working on him. I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Tony says, trying to convince both Peter and himself. Peter falls into a chair and puts his head in his hands. Tony sits next to him and wraps his hands around the boy.
“It was a-all my fault Tony. I-I did this. A-and now he might…” Peter trails off, dissolving into tears.
“No. No...no Pete. It’s not your fault buddy. I know it's not.” Tony mutters into Peter's hair.
“It was , Tony. He got hurt because h-he was trying to protect me.” Peter sobs.
“Pete. You gotta tell me what happened. Please kiddo.” Tony says gently. Peter shakes his head and buries it into Tony’s chest.
“Just n-not now ok?” Peter whispers.
“Ok.” Tony says, carding a hand through Peter’s hair.
An hour and a half later, Tony finally gets Peter to tell him what had happened.
“It was my fault.” Peter says, his voice hollow and his eyes empty.
“Pete. Harley loves you. He choose to take that knife because he didn’t want to see his brother hurt, you understand? It’s not your fault.” Tony explains, his voice soft.
“If I had just-”
“No. It’s not your fault. And I’m pretty sure you didn’t tell me everything so I’m going to be asking Harley when he wakes up.” Tony tells him.
Peter tears up again thinking about it.
“What if…”
“Peter. Helen and Bruce are the best doctors out there. Harley will be waltzing around with you annoying the crap out of me in a matter of days.” Tony says smiling. He’s really trying to believe his own words, but there’s always the what-if.
“I want to see him.” Peter whispers.
“I know kiddo. I do too.”
They sit in silence for a few minutes.
“You need some sleep Spiderling. Let’s get you to bed.” Tony says, patting Peter’s back.
“No. I’m waiting here.” Peter says in a tone that says he’s not going to change his mind.
Tony sighs. “Ok.”
Peter leans his head against Tony’s chest and closes his eyes. Tony notices the growing wet stain on his shirt and rubs Peter’s back.
“It’s ok Pete. He’s going to be fine.” Tony mutters. Tony whispers soothingly into Peter’s ears until the boy’s breathing evens out.
“Shit.” Tony murmurs. He had completely forgotten to call Pepper, who was currently in France for a nerdy meeting for CEOs.
“ Hello?”
“Hey Pep.”
“Tony? Its 3 AM over there. Are you ok? You sound horrible.”
“Thanks. It’s been a long night.”
“What happened honey?”
“Peter and Harley were walking back to the Tower from the movies and some guys surrounded them. There was a fight and someone was going to stab Peter. Harley jumped in front of him and took it. He’s in the ER right now.”
“What!? Oh my God. Tony I’m coming back right now. Is Pete ok? Is he hurt?”
“No he’s not. He’s asleep, but he’s in bad shape. He thinks it’s his fault.”
“Try to convince him it’s not ok? You know how big Peter’s guilt complex is. It’s as big as yours. Maybe even bigger.”
“Yeah ok.”
“Tony they’re saying I’ll be back by tomorrow afternoon. Have you gotten any updates on Harley?”
“No we haven’t. I’ll text you if we do.”
“Ok. I’ll see you and the boys tomorrow. Try to get some sleep honey.”
“We both know that’s not going to happen Pep.”
“Just try Tony. Bye. I love you.”
“I love you more. I’ll see you soon.”
“Tony. Tony!” Bruce says, shaking the mechanic's shoulder.
“Hmm. Mm.” Tony says, blinking the sleep out of his eyes.
“We’re done. Harley’s going to be fine in a few days.” Bruce says tiredly.
“Thank God.” Tony sighs, rubbing his forehead. He looks at the sleeping boy on his chest.
“Can we see him?” Tony asks.
“Yeah. He’s on a lot of pain meds so he probably won’t wake up until tomorrow.” Bruce says, standing up.
Tony picks Peter up gently and adjusts the teen in his arms.
“Is Pete ok?” Bruce asks, looking sadly at the tear tracks on his face.
“I don’t know Brucie. Harley’s the only person who can make him feel better right now. Except maybe Pep.”
Bruce nods and opens the door for them.
“I’m going to get some shut-eye. FRIDAY will tell me if anything happens ok?” Bruce asks him.
“Yeah ok. Thanks Bruce.” Tony says sincerely.
Bruce gives him a small smile and leaves the room.
Tony sets Peter on the side of Harley's bed, smiling as he unconsciously leans toward his brother. Tony collapses in the chair next to his kids and puts his head in his hands. Harley has a new pair of shorts on and his upper body bare of anything but a big bandage on his torso.
“Oh, Harls. What did you do?” Tony mumbles. He reaches over Peter and strokes Harley’s slightly wet hair. They must have washed it. Tony settles back on the chair and decides to try and listen to Pepper and get some sleep. He rests his head back on the back of the soft chair and closes his eyes.
Only an hour or two...