Archive of Our Own ^beta

Titanium (by CIA plays ominously in the background)

If anyone was to blame it would be Peter.

Well, Peters Spidey-senses to be specific and it wasn’t Peter ’s fault persay, but he was the one who noticed first. Even before Pepper herself.

They were eating dinner in the communal kitchen like every Friday (they all ate together at least once a week and Fridays were the elected day) when Peter felt something odd when he looked at Pepper. Not the normal reaction he got from spider-senses, his hair didn’t rise up or anything, just like a general feeling of something is different, not bad but off . It was something new, because he  had never felt this way before. The other Avengers weren’t setting off any reactions or alarm bells, and it wasn’t until Pepper reached for some coffee - cause she always drank a cup after work to give her a kick to spend time with her family, work life balance and all that - when his body kinda lurched to snatch it out of her grasp before he could even think about what he was doing. Everyone looked at him oddly as he cradled the coffee near him - he couldn’t even drink it, they had cut off half on his caffeine intake cause ‘it wasn’t healthy’ or whatever. He didn’t know why he couldn’t give it back to Pepper, he just knew it would not be very good if he did. Not life threatening though, for some reason this feeling was easier to read if not more elaborate, but it still confused the hell out of Peter. Peter looked at Pepper, analyzing her.

“Okay spiderling, spill.” Tony said finally having enough of Peter ogling his fiancé after 5 minutes of his clear outburst - they had more patience for him lately, but when it came to things like this and random outbursts, that was hard to maintain. “Why are you staring at my wife like she just killed your kittens?” Peter snapped out of it and blushed.

“I don’t...” He mumbled, Pepper looked at him oddly. 

“You’ve been doing this a lot.” Tony huffed and crossed his arms “lifting things for her, getting her a blankets, pushing greens towards her, insisting she rides the elevator with you…” Tony accused.

“I-I’m not-” Peter tried to protest, and then Harley cut him off.

“Yeah, you’ve been doing it for like 2 weeks now.” he called out and Peter ducked to hide the small blush tinting his cheeks. He could feel the occupants of the table studying, Tony particularly boring into him and Pepper - who he was now like connected to or some shit - curiously gazing at him.

Tony then bit his lip. “Is...is something wrong?” he asked cautiously while trying to maintain his I’m-in-charge-here-so-fess-up posture, and yeah that reaction made sense. The Avengers were slowly coming to terms with the fact that Peter had a bit of a perception to some things - his spider sense for one - and usually that odd perception was right. It also happened that the odd perception was mainly used in battle and usually when something bad was about to happen, but you know those were just highly accurate statistics, just because Peter got a feeling now  didn’t mean that something was wrong with Pepper...at least he hoped so.

“No, no…” Peter tried to think quickly, an explanation because he didn’t want to tell them that he had a weird feeling about Pepper. Okay, he just had to break it down, yeah. Lifting heavy things - he was just being polite. Blankets- it got cold in the tower. Elevator instead of stairs-...he was already there right? Greens- healthy stuff is better for...Pepper is usually pretty healthy anyway so why would he insist on - no coffee...wait a second “No. ” he breathed disbelievingly, looking at Pepper in shock and awe.

No way.

“Did I do something wrong?” Pepper asked politely, and like quicksilver things came together in his mind and finally processed. 

“No…” he trailed off, averting his eyes. Was it his place to tell them? Shouldn’t they find out by themselves. It wasn’t even confirmed, it was just a hunch. Him doing all those things could be a million other things - however he seemed to do those unconsciously, he didn’t even know he was doing it in the first place. Maybe he should take her off to the side and tell her his hunch privately, ask her to take a test (would that be weird? That would be weird wouldn’t it. You don’t just go ‘hey Mrs.Potts I think your pregnant can you pee on this stick?’. That’s weird...but then again so is this feeling…).

“Oh no, Parker. You are going to tell me what’s going on, right now“ Tony demanded and Peter suddenly got a little defensive. He bristled and he could see his parents steeling themselves to come to his defense (or at least Bucky, who was always ready to defend Peter even when he was wrong, which Peter appreciated. Natasha was a little more questioning of him, but in the end she’d always find a way to be in his corner - she, however, wasn’t afraid to tell him when he was wrong but she always had advice if he was. He appreciated both of them and their endless support, because Peter needed both, it turned out, unquestionable and questioning loyalty). The other Avengers wisly stood down. When it came to Pepper Potts, never get in Tony Stark's way- which is apparently where Peter was stupidly standing.

“What’s it to you? It’s nothing.” Peter huffed. He didn’t like telling them things, especially big things, without any concrete evidence - and this was as far from concrete as he could get. 

“It’s never nothing with you.” Tony scoffed, and then a certain worried look flashed in his eyes for longer. “Please… you got a feeling kid, I know you did. That Spider thingy, right?” Tony bit his lip as his anger swirled with his worry. Tony was like Peter, he didn’t like not knowing things. “Usually you only get those when we’re fighting some space junkies or robots or on patrol or before something is about to explode in the lab or when-”

“You’re pregnant!” Peter blurted. Because Tony was becoming frantic and it was only adding to Peter’s anxiousness and ...And the room went silent. Peter was very red and Pepper eeped and brought her arms around her stomach. 

“Tactful.” his mother mumbled, a bit amusedly - which not fair . His dad didn’t seem to know how to react. “он получает это от тебя”( He gets it from you.) she said to her father, who didn’t even react to that in favor of staring at Peter like he had a second head. 

“Excuse you..?” there was only a slight crack to Tony’s tone as he raised a pointed eyebrow at him. “If this is your way of calling my fiancé fat then-“

“No! I mean, no- ugh how do I explain...” Peter bit his lip “You aren’t showing or anything, I dunno, I don’t know how babies work. “ he started rambling off “I just, it makes sense with the stuff I’ve been doing - which I didn’t know I was doing I swear. Well I knew but I didn’t like know . I don’t know, I mean like it could be something else, I don’t have much other information. Maybe my spidey-sense just wants to be polite, I mean I enjoy being polite to you in general I don’t need my spidey sense for it. I dunno why that was the first thought that came to my head, but I dunno maybe take a test- wait am I supposed to ask you that? I wanted to ask you that after dinner, you know in private in case it wasn’t-”

“I’m sorry, I’m gonna stop you right there.” Tony held up a hand and effectively shut Peter’s rambling off, thank god. He was talking for way too long. He sat down in his chair and massaged his temples.

“Just how does your...erm spidey-sense work Peter?” Bruce asked trying to get the shock out of his system.and Peter shrugged helplessly. 

“I dunno..I mean you can double check but.. uhm maybe just a heads up you might be pregnant.” He blushed to Pepper, and wanted to just disappear into the ground. Pepper cleared her throat

“Well...I’ll keep that in mind.” she got up and smoothed her pantsuit “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to test out your theory.” She smirked nervously as she left. 

“I should check on her.” Tony said hurriedly following, looking way out of his depth. 

“I shouldn’t have said that here.” Peter breathes out and sagged in his chair. He wanted to literally turn invisible and hide away in some remote island, never again to interact with another human being so long as he lived.

“Ya think?” Harley deadpanned and Peter looked even more guilty. “You could’ve been more subtle about it?” And Peter glared at the other boy, who seemed a mixture of nervous about the unknown and amused at Peter’s embarrassment.

“I’m sorry.” Peter grumbled “Next time don’t grill me about something I don’t know what I’m feeling.” he crossed his arms defensively around him.

“Wait, but you’ve saved thousands of people peter. You have to have saved a pregnant woman at least once. Didn’t you like feel it then?” Clint said and Peter blushed.

“Yeah? But also no? I just...” he mumbled. Thinking about it, he’d felt something similar but never like this. He felt the need to protect everyone . “It was just stronger this time.”

“Do you have any idea why?” Bruce always the scientist and Peter shrugged.

“Maybe cause I’m actually taking care of myself? You know, sleeping and eating more regularly and shit like that… it makes sense… I’m stronger now too.” Peter flexed his hands in and out “Or maybe because lasting exposure? I dunno, I’ve never been able to pin my spidey-sense.”

“Precognition?” Bruce asked.

“It’s… more complicated than that. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, just that it’s gonna happen or that it’s there or something.” Peter shrugged and played with his food, not looking up at any of them. Can they stop talking about this now?

“Wait!” Sam cut in helpfully “You mean you’re stronger than you used to be?” Sam said in slight horror and Peter nodded “but you could literally lift a fucking helicopter airborn. I’ve seen you do it! And you didn’t even break a sweat!” Peter just shrugged and pushed the food around his plate more. 

“I still shouldn’t have said that. I should apologize to Pepper.” He mumbled and Natasha patted his back in approval. Peter couldn’t help the small smile at that. 

At least he did that part right.

OoO 

Turns out Peter was right.

Which was terrifying - because this really wasn’t planned - and awesome (because it’s been a non-secret that Pepper and Tony have wanted a bio-kid for sometime, especially after Peter came out as Nat and Bucky’s bio-kid. Not that they didn’t love Harley and Abby, they loved them like they were their own kids because they were. But the concept of a bio-kid had always been appealing to them.) at the same time. Pepper and Tony weren’t actively trying - what with having Abby and Harley being enough of a handful as it was - and it would’ve just been terrifying but Pepper and Tony were delighted at the prospect of another kid, this time a baby. And their baby nonetheless.

Not to say they didn’t love Harley and Abby, which they made that very very clear when sitting them down. Harley was naturally psyched to have another sister, although a bit wary. Abby smiled and responded quietly that it’d be nice to have a little sister. She whispered it like it was some locked up secret that she had been keeping for years and it made Pepper smile softly and hug her gently while Tony grinned.

Harley had also taken Abby to the side and told her just as much: that the new baby wouldn’t change the fact that Abby was still his sister and Abby rolled her eyes playfully and said she knew that and she was excited to reek havoc and mess with Harley. Harley couldn’t even find himself to be aghast because she had been opening up more lately and this was Abby’s humor now. She was 11 and cynical and Harley blamed it all on Peter’s influence.

The embryo was only three weeks old, just barely enough for them to have an accurate test. So Peter’s prediction was almost scarily accurate. They had kept it to themselves while confirming with an OBGYN and her saying that yes the egg caught and in 9 months they’d have a healthy baby, if all went according to plan - and it was Pepper so of course it was going to go to plan. 

They were happy to tell the news to the rest of the Avengers a few nights later, because Pepper didn’t think Tony could keep his excitement contained any longer and the Avengers were all waiting in anticipation - because this took priority in everyone’s minds. Also, they literally had super spies which made it hard to keep anything a secret in this tower. Everyone, as expected, congratulated them openly and silently made their vows of protection.

Harley thought Peter had the short end of the stick, because not only was he weirdly connected to a pregnant woman but Bruce’s continued grilling on Peter’s spidey sense and Peter sort of feared that Bruce would start on experiments - logically he knew that Natasha and Bucky would literally castrate the scientist, Hulk or not, he would be going down. 

Either way, Peter being right was probably a fluke.

But still...

“Holy shit.”

OoOoO

Harley is getting progressively jittery.

It was honestly annoying. 

At first he didn’t mind; it was understandable, he was getting a new sibling. It only started with mild zoning out when working independently, then zoning out when Peter was talking to him offhandedly - which Peter would be a hypocrite if he snapped at Harley for that - then zoning out in the middle of a conversation when they were actually talking - which also Peter would be a hypocrite if he told off Harley for that, but damn maybe he should get a lid on that because it could be irritating . Peter drew the line when something exploded ( which is usually where the line was drawn, with only a few exceptions, that exception usually being when he was in his superhero persona particularly with Team Red). Well when the fire extinguisher was required - which it was . 

Peter huffed as he lowered the fire extinguisher and glared at the boy who was shocked still in the position he was inventing in, soot covering his face, blinking in astonishment.

“Okay, Keener,” He finally said, throwing down the extinguisher with a clang. “Be here or not. I know getting a new sibling is sudden, but they aren’t here yet. You’ve got time, so get your head out of the clouds before you burn down this highly volatile lab with extremely flammable and radioactive chemicals before you give someone a really weird superpower.” Peter scolded, and he never thought he’d be in the position to lecture Harley about lab safety - usually he was the one blowing shit up and mixing highly volatile chemicals when running on 43 hours of no sleep and energy drinks. They couldn’t both be irresponsible, something was bound to go horribly wrong and he couldn’t account for himself to be the irresponsible one; that just wouldn’t do.

“R-right.” he stuttered out and Peter sighed, anger draining out of him slowly, giving way to wary exhaustion. 

“Seriously, why are you so freaked out about this?” he asked rubbing his temple with one hand, the other arm slung across his waist.

“Dunno.” Harley shrugged “It was never like this with Abby, I was actually really excited. I helped my mom out more and stuff.” 

“Then why are you so jittery now ?” Peter said mildly irked at not getting a straight answer -is this what it was like when he did it? “Do you…” he swallowed, as the implication sunk in “Do you not think of Tony and Pepper-”

“No! Gods no.” Harley said quickly and sighed “I think of them as my parents, yes. It’s just…” Harley trailed off.

“Just..?” Peter prompted, he was really lost here. Out of his depth. Why had he started this conversation?

“Just I got the jitters out by helping my mom, and then I knew I could help after Abby was born.” Harley said “But here? In a tower with literal superheroes . I haven’t had to do anything because everyone else is stronger or faster and beat me to it.” Harley said “It’s like it’s everyone's baby.” he mumbled and Peter snorted.

“So everyone is stealing your thunder.” he clarified, that ....made a little more sense. It would be kind of bothersome if he felt completely useless in a position that he shouldn’t be useless in. This was different than being helpless, it was being unneeded which is one thing Peter had never felt entirely. Worthless sure, but in every place he managed to whittle a nook for himself, he made himself useful and needed and before he could be useless and unneeded he’d be kicked out.

“I mean even you figured out before Pepper did. I just feel…” Oh.

Oh.

“Like you can’t do anything?” Peter filled in and Harley nod. “And then when the kid is born you won’t have to do anything either.” A sigh this time, and Peter hummed. 

“Yeah, and I want to. I want to be that kid’s big brother. But…” Harley bit his lip again, fiddling around a bit trying to find the words “I love having Abby back, I really do. But she isn’t the same . She isn’t a baby anymore and I can’t protect her from what she’s afraid of. She won’t even tell me, because she goes to you. ” Harley said and Peter stiffened “And I’m not… I am so glad you found her, I really am. But I can’t protect her and it sucks knowing that someone else can. I’m glad she feels safe, I just…” Harley huffed in frustration, leaning forward and putting his head in his hands.

“Want her to feel safe with you.” Peter finished solemnly. Harley nodded in his hands choppily. 

“It’s gonna be the same with that kid. I won’t be able to make them feel safe. Not like you, or Tony or any of the Avengers.” Harley said and Peter sighed as he came over and collapsed on the rolly chair next to Harley and tilted his head back to look at the ceiling and spin in a lazy circle.

“Makes sense, I mean we are literally superheroes.” Peter said unhelpfully, Harley chuffed again “But you’ll be that kid’s big brother. Sure not their hero or idol or whatever - you’ll be something no one else has. Like you are with Abby.” Peter stopped his chair so he was facing Harley. “She may not need you the way she used to, but she still needs you. You were a big part of her life before and …”

“Trauma victims need a reminder of happier times when they were safe. I know.” Harley rolled his eyes, he’d heard that a billion times. Read it even more. And while it’s a very important part of her recovery, Peter could see where that could be frustrating if that was all he had to be and nothing more “That’s all I am. And that kid won’t even have trauma. There’ll be nothing there.” Harley said hopelessly.

“Just because you can’t protect them, doesn’t mean you won’t be able to be their big brother or whatever. Just like with Abby.” Peter pointed out, he really didn’t know if what he was saying was right. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be a big brother, sure he helped kids out on patrol but he never had that kind of emotional connection with any of them “And you aren’t just a reminder of good times or whatever - who ever told you that is shitting you or something.” Peter huffed, trying to be helpful.

“Then what am I?” Harley looked at him with pleading eyes. 

“Her big brother.” was all Peter could answer. And wasn’t that lame.

“But what does that mean now?” Harley stressed, leaning forward “I used to but” he bit his lip. Peter didn’t know why Harley was asking him and not Tony or Pepper - Pepper was like emotionally smart and capable, surely she had a better answer than a PTSD riddled teenager with a family complex. 

“How should I know, I’m an only child.” Peter grinned instead. That was starting to feel like a lie lately though. He wouldn’t admit that to anyone, not until he figured out what that particular feeling was. Nope, right now was about Harley and his Big Brother complex. Yep, let’s focus on that

“Helpful.” Harley deadpanned at him. “What am I gonna do.” He sighed. Peter didn’t know clearly, so Harley should probably stop asking him and start figuring it out. 

“I dunno but you’ve got like 7 months to figure it out.” Peter said instead and continued to spin around in his chair.

Helpful indeed.

OoOoO

Peter was right.

Usually Peter was right, in the oddest way. Okay, when it came to science and math and logical shit, he was mostly right (like only 89% of the time and he was open to any additional ideas which were both infuriating and a breath of fresh air because Tony and Bruce were always set in their ways and Peter actually listened to him. Whenever Harley had an idea, he just kept rolling with it until it worked, which is why his experiments had a lesser success rate which is why he was better at mechanics, because doing the same thing would work eventually , right?). When it came to other stuff, like life advice and shit of that variety, he was usually so vague it was up for interpretation. Maybe it was his way of never being wrong, or he just genuinely did not know. Or he just didn’t want to be blamed for it if it went wrong, and gave himself a lot of loopholes - that last one sounds about right. And he never gave a set answer or solid solution.

What he liked about Peter, probably the most, was the fact that he didn’t fake anything - especially when he gave advice; an attribute, he noticed, that he shared with MJ- although Peter was less blunt with advice and more gentle than MJ. If he had been in a similar or same situation - and he had been in a lot of weird, not normal situations - he would use that as an example and explain his mistakes and such. But if he didn’t understand, he didn’t try to give advice - he helped brainstormed ideas and solutions and never pushed or patronized or preached about anything he didn’t know personally, especially feelings. He didn’t act like he knew everything, because he didn’t. Not like MJ who was more prideful and less personal about things. Not like Ned who was all emotional and tried to put himself in Harley’s shoes and asked a million questions to do so. Peter just listened and gave his view and let the conversation flow; let what needed to be said, be said. Harley appreciated that about him.

Peter didn’t know how it felt to have your whole sibling dynamic change, and he didn’t pretend to. He didn’t have siblings, he had a weird super family and some really questionable grown up friends, and the friends that weren’t sketchy were almost like siblings but something a little different - something deeper- but he didn’t actually have a sibling. He didn’t have to take care of them from when they were literally born. He wasn’t there to give them a whole childhood and protect them from everything until the law separated them. He didn’t think they were safe when they actually weren’t and then when they did come back to him as a traumatized child who was scared of their own shadow and it was all his fault because it was his job to protect them and he abandoned them and -

Okay, breath.

At this point Peter related more to Abby’s trauma and that’s probably why they got on so well. Harley couldn’t do that, because he hadn’t been kidnapped for years on end and used in the worst ways - which Peter has - well not exactly but like close enough. That and he also literally saved her from a terrible child trafficking ring that was using children as slaves. Yeah, maybe it was that. Peter swooping in like a literal superhero and carrying her out like a knight in shining armor - he knows that isn’t how it went down, it’s not even how anyone described it, but sometimes Harley felt that way.

Harley couldn’t be that. He couldn’t do that. He wasn’t a superhero, he was barely allowed to help with gear before Peter showed up and ever since he became Tony’s day assistant- which stung but he knew Tony was just trying to keep him safe. Harley did not run into burning buildings, or fight robots. He couldn’t lift over 2000 pounds like it was a feather or use a lamp post as a makeshift bat to smash drones. He doesn’t have super healing, he doesn’t have heightened senses and he doesn’t have super flexibility. He doesn’t stop drug deals or trafficking rings or go on patrol and beat up muggers and purse snatchers.

He can throw a punch. He can get a good grade on a test. He knows how to be a brother to a non-traumatized child. He can make a not half bad sandwich and is pretty competent in the kitchen - ie being one of the few people that live in the tower without burning it down. He can build gadgets and code software. He is a quick learner. He is just a normal guy in a weird situation and a slightly higher than normal IQ. He is smart and resourceful. He’s just an average guy living with a bunch of superheroes.

He can figure out how to be helpful in a towerful of superheroes. He did it before. And non-superhero people that were close or lived with the Avengers found ways to make themselves useful (like how Pepper literally ran one of the biggest multi billion dollar corporations in the world. Or how Shuri created technology that ran her entire country. Or how Happy protected Tony’s civilian persona because he was just an average guy with a high IQ and was completely irresponsible outside the suit- even sometimes in the suit. Or how Ned hacked stuff for Peter from a remote location, or MJ doing pre-recon for some of his operations - after an extensive amount of training and she’s MJ so of course she convinced Peter to let her help. Or how Laura and Maggie took care of Clint and Scott’s kids, which was more of a family thing but still it was hard to take care of kids.)  But before Peter wasn’t here, and Abby wasn’t here. He was the only kid actually living at the tower and didn’t realize how much he didn’t really help out until Peter showed up and fixed all the Avengers gear - because even if Harley’s upgrades were useful, Peter had on the field experience and he knew better how to make battle armor and weapons which he’s been doing specifically since he was a kid. He hadn’t realized how useless he was. 

He’d never felt like that before Pepper was pregnant, maybe a little whenever Abby would sneak into Peter’s room to sleep instead of his (which Natasha and Bucky let her do, she had her own passcode to their not so mini apartment so they don’t freak out on her if she sneaks in. Even when Peter was on a late patrol or stakeout she’d sometimes go. Tony was a tad upset when that happened because that insinuated that Bucky brought her more comfort - Harley thinks it’s more Nat though - than him and Pepper, but tried not to take it personally for Abby’s sake. Like Tony would ever deny her anything. Peter saved her, and Nat and Bucky make him feel safe, so in Abby’s mind: if Peter wasn’t there, then Nat and Bucky would have to do it). He had never felt this useless before, Tony actively tried to make him not be when Peter first showed up at the lab. But this wasn’t a lab problem, or even a family problem. It was a brother problem - something Tony could not help remedy.

Like it or not, Peter had become Abby’s honorary big brother- whether he knew it or not and no it wasn’t actually said before but actions speak louder than words - which wasn’t a bad thing it just made Harley look smaller in comparison. But he would have to get used to it, because Peter made Abby feel safe, and the only reason that Harley could keep a lid on it is because he will never deny or force Abby to do anything. 

Never again.

So he needed to find a way to make himself useful, if he couldn’t keep Abby and their unborn sibling safe. Being fun wasn’t enough, Clint was fun, Sam was fun, MJ and Ned were fun. Different kinds of fun, but interchangeable. He had to be the kind of thing that wasn’t interchangeable, because if being fun was all being a big brother was, then anyone could do it. 

Being supportive and protective were the main things about being an older sibling.

Keeping them safe was the main thing about being a big brother - supportive he thought was more of an older sister thing to him - and under normal circumstances he’d do fine. But it wasn’t just school yard bullies or a broken heart and bad boy/girlfriend/ partner (whatever they’d be into, Harley would support). The threats were much bigger, like kidnapping-human-trafficking-super-villain big. And sure he had safety protocols that Tony installed because of that, but those only work most of the time - which wasn’t good enough. And everyone who wasn’t a superhero got them, so it’s not like Abby could initiate a protocol herself, she didn’t need Harley to do it.

So maybe he’d have to lean on the support angle, because if he didn’t have the proper means to protect his siblings like the others, then support is all he could do. 

But even that was impossible in a tower of superheroes. Like spies who noticed things when they were even whiffing the wrong scent, or supersoldiers who could lift anything and everything. Or telekinetics who could grab something and cook and clean without getting up and literally read your mind . Or geniuses who could upgrade their armor and gear and weapons. Or even a vigilante who was semi-nocturnal and never home half the time with some sort of freaky sixth sense for danger.

 Helping with Pepper’s pregnancy was even a nightmare. When his mom was pregnant with Abby, he would help around the house, cook, clean, lift things, drive her places, go to the grocery store, get her meds, that kind of stuff. But with Tony hovering half the time and Pepper’s stubbornness it was already going to be difficult from the get go; he was a billionaire who could get anything he wanted within the hour. That didn’t even factor in two worrying adorably old fashioned supersoldiers anxiously doting but trying to stay time appropriate, or superspies who were playing lookout out of the corner of their eye for any signs of distress, or a genius doctor giving health advice to make sure the baby was healthy at all times, or a telekinetic who made specialized meals and empathy, or a god who was literally a call puppy to go fetch anything, or a soldier therapist who could give life advice(and damn, he hadn’t realized how much the rest of the team cared. It made sense, the tower was literally Pepper’s home, no matter what Tony said everyone knows who calls the shots. She didn’t seem like a super important part of the team, but she was and everyone appreciated and valued her hospitality and this is their way of showing it). That especially didn’t factor into a spider child who had a biologically coded action to not only protect her, but keep her healthy and rested - there have been a few times where Peter outstubborn her but she still holds the streak.

And, yeah, she was Pepper freaking Potts , she was the least incompentant person in the world. Of course she could maintain her high functioning schedule while pregnant  - she could maintain it if the world was ending, in fact she has .

How could he compete with that?

But supporting Pepper isn’t what a big brother does, but it is a prep course for it. Harley guesses he’ll just have to fly in blind and skip that step altogether. Support can come in many forms, like listening, giving advice, accepting them. But since Abby came back, she was more closed off, less prone to talk in general - much less about personal things. Even with Harley she was shy and fidgety, and yeah they were getting better, but they’d never be as close as they were. They’d never be what they used to be. Harley mourned that the most probably, but he’d never told anyone that before - and he never would so long as he could help it; it’s his most closely guarded secret and it’d never be shown the light of day. 

Support came with keeping secrets and telling them what was the right thing to do and not throwing them under the bus, but that was just standard sibling support. Being the older one came with standing up for them, and speaking out for them without embarrassing them, and taking the heat when parents/guardian/adults/authority figures were being unreasonable - which is the sucker part of the job if he was being honest. 

But he can’t do that with Abby yet, because Abby didn’t think of him that way anymore - she didn’t think of him in a lot of ways she used to. Right now, Abby’s support came in the form of helping her through her trauma and therapy. But he couldn’t do that, because Abby doesn’t talk about that stuff with him. Abby talks about Tennessee and stargazing in the fields, and swimming at the waterhole, and about Miss.Johnson’s inappropriate dress that no 67 year old should be even allowed to buy; or rather Harley talks to Abby about that and Abby has slowly become more responsive - ging small smiles and little comments that made Harley’s day. He knew it helped, but what helped her more was Peter being able to understand her and probably being the only one to tell her off - in a gentle reassuring way, but only he and Pepper was not afraid to tell her to actually do or not do something, or suggest it at least, when it was absolutely necessary, Pepper more than Peter. 

He should stop comparing himself to Peter, Tony said that he could never replace Harley in a million years, but sometimes Harley just didn’t think that was true.

So supporting the new kid might be even harder, cause they’d be a baby for a while before they grew into themselves and tried to figure things out and get into trouble that Harley would have to bail them out of - he doesn’t think that Abby was trafficked before she got to that point - cause if this kid was anything like Tony then they’d need it. Protecting them personally would be impossible, at least in any way that mattered. He knew it would come to a point that Peter or Tony or the Avengers couldn’t be there all the time though - that's what the protocols were for. But what if those fail?

Peter might be like a big brother to his siblings, but he wasn’t and it is not his job to do Harley’s for him.

He’d have to figure this out and he’d have to figure it out soon .

OoO

Now this was a stupid idea.

But it’s not as if he hadn’t thought this through. He’d actually thought about this a lot, thank you very much. Given those were all just passing thoughts, but it still counted right? And the only reason he hadn’t done this before was because A.) it was forbidden by Tony - which was just begging him to do it in the first place - and B.) he’d never had a reason to before - not any real reason or excuse.

Becoming a superhero with no abilities would be hard, but not impossible. Clint, Natasha, and Tony do just fine, given Clint had intense circus training and Tony had armor and Natasha was basically a not human- and yeah he was going to take Tony’s approach but you know they had a family theme going, or they would once Harley made his suit. The media already called them the ‘ Iron-Family’ , why not make it a bit more literal?

Making the armor was a lesser issue - he’d seen Tony build multiple parts for it literally all the time, and he asked Harley’s opinion for some of it, and Harley wasn’t incompetant with some tools and scrap metal himself, thankyouverymuch - keeping the fact that he was building it a secret was a bigger one, but the biggest issue would be getting advice on how to be a superhero without alerting any of the naturally suspicious and extremely perceptive references he conveniently had in the tower.

So he started with the one person he knew to create and maintain a secret identity for most of his superhero career - and the one least likely to rat him out: Peter Parker. And the perfect place to do it, where most probably bad, definitely stupid ideas were conceived in the tower: the lab.

Harley breathed out as he looked over to the other boy on the opposite lab bench, soldering a circuit board with half his attention on - and usually his attention was divided with menial tasks like that and it was great to have an in lab conversation. He was alert enough to have the conversation, but distracted enough to not analyze it in depth. Harley took his opening.

“So I was going through some old files, and I found some reference sheets to your old suit.” Yeah, Harley did his research. He went in depth in not only Peter and the Avengers, but everything they had on New York’s vigilantes “Did you really wear goggles on patrol?” He smirked, humor wasn’t just a tease, it was a device to divert from his true goal. A distraction.  

“Not all of us had billion dollars of high grade tech to start off.” Peter huffed and Harley snorted. No, but not everyone could become a vigilante in glorified jogging gear.

“Yeah? I just wonder how you didn’t get completely grilled in your yoga pants.” Harley smirked and Peter took the bait, looking up sharply for a second and then looking back down at his work.

“I didn’t have a lot of money to splurge, okay? And it had to be a secret. ” Peter rolled his eyes, he shifted a nanometer into himself, soldering became a fraction more interesting than it was “I was only supposed to be a one time thing anyway.” he mumbled to himself, Harley was definitely not supposed to hear that.

“One time thing?” Oh, was Harley good at this? Harley thinks he might be good at this. Should he interrogate people for a living? No that would be ridiculous. Maybe this superhero thing wouldn’t be so hard after all.

“Yeah, I was just supposed to ice the dealer that killed my uncle and sent my aunt spiralling into depression.” Peter said casually and looked up with a deadpan expression on his face. Or, maybe Harley wasn’t so good at this. Yeah… definitely needed work. Superheroing, not easy , message received.

“Oh.” was all that came out of his mouth.

“Yeah. Oh .”Peter looked back down at his melted iron droplets on a circuit board.

 Okay, awkward. 

“So why’d you keep going?” Harley asked, because he really didn’t want to open that can of worms right now. Stay focused.

“Dunno, just did.” Peter said unhelpfully as he shrugged “I made enemies and they were tearing up the city and that was my mess so I had to clean it up.” Right, because Peter cleaned up his own messes - then again Peter’s messes usually didn’t tear up downtown so totally that it left 10,000 people homeless. Usually.

“Oh.” Maybe he should rethink this superhero thing, if it was just gonna bring more baddies to the doorstep than keep them away. That was something he had not considered. ”And the patrolling?” Not that he’d actually try to do patrol, this armor was solely for protection.

“I hacked into police scanners, figured I could help. Turned into a thing. People depended on me more, now it’s kinda my thing.” Peter said, but not possessive, there were other vigilantes in New York, just none that crawled out into the daytime. “Not like I was gonna deny anyone help anyway, don’t really need a fancy suit to help a cat, although it sure is nice.''Peter smirked up at him before looking back down at his work.

“That’s nice.” Harley nodded. That was easy. Harley didn’t expect that, Peter doesn’t like talking about himself or the reason he is Spiderman often. He must’ve gotten lucky and caught Peter on a good day. 

Okay: Don’t make enemies. That’s a big one.

Yeah, Harley was so screwed.

OoOoO

It took a lot of leg work but it was finally done.

All those weeks and late nights drawing up plans in the dead of night in his room in the dead of night into the wee hours of morning and in classes where none of his friends were in - he couldn’t have anybody know about this, not even Ned and MJ, they’d tell Peter because they’d be ‘ concerned’ or whatever - and on the bus; literally anywhere he wouldn’t get caught, which left only weird obscure places and times to work on this project. 

Sneaking parts in from shop class, and using free period to tweak the more technical parts and code. Keeping too many tabs open so he could quickly and easily switch them when someone walked in the room - taking small homework breaks. Sneaking the big hunks of armor to his room was probably the hardest part, but he managed. He had barely gotten any sleep in weeks but now it was finally done.

So standing on this secluded roof while everyone was already asleep - well he bid everyone a goodnight so they wouldn’t be bothering him, because he built up a reputation as a pretty honest kid; which was about to change a lot - and about to take his official Mark I(it was actually mark 1.213 because parts kept exploding and code kept failing. Damn he should’ve gotten Ned in on this, the coding would be so much easier. But then Ned would tell Peter - because Ned couldn’t keep a secret for the life of him -  and Peter would freak out on him - and may or may not snitch - you never know with that kid, although usually he wasn’t a snitch - and then the Avengers would find out and he’d be grounded for life and never be trusted in the lab again and then he’d have to come up with another way to protect his siblings and everything would be ruined and-) out for a test run.

“Okay here we go.” he breathed out to himself as he activated the thrusters and wobbly started to lift off the ground “Woah.” he lost balance but finally stabilized and he laughed incredulously - it worked! “Okay, let’s see what this puppy can really do.” he smirked and started to fly around low grade in stealth mode - he didn’t need any media coverage of this outing him so that was the first thing he installed.

It was great! Flying through the air, feeling the of not being on the ground like when a plane lifts off. He could see why Tony loved being Iron Man, it was almost freeing. He was flying ! How cool was that?

Then his sensors picked up a distressed noise coming not too far off from Harley’s perimeter. Harley unthinkingly flew toward it, nevermind that he had no idea what he was going to do once he got there; he’d figure it out as he went along. 

He landed in a dirty makeshift ally - made up of shipping containers - where there were three thugs and a scared lady quivering in the corner, obviously having been chased through the yard and her clothes were torn, using her purse as a pseudo shield.

“Hey, assholes!” Harley’s mechanized voice called out. The distortion was enough to make the thugs yelp and turn around - probably thinking he was Iron Man - but once they saw him, cruel smiles spread on their faces. The lady looked up with wide eyes and pressed her back against a shipping container in fear, ducking down to avoid a blast that would never come. He didn’t put weapons in the suit…

It was a prototype , he didn’t think he’d actually have to use it.

“Look, it’s knock off Ironman.” one of the thugs taunted, Harley clenched his fists. He couldn’t get mad, he knew he needed a plan, but goddamn if that didn’t piss him off - even if it was kind of true, and he’d for sure be dealing with it if he continued with this little pet project.

“How’s this for knock off.” He hadn’t equipped the weapons yet - this was supposed to be a dry run of the armor - but that didn’t mean this wasn’t built for battle - it was still armor afterall. Harley charged at the man but stumbled with his extra clunky weight, huh no wonder Tony rarely went into close combat it was impossible to move in this thing.  

The thugs laughed as they started toward his form on the ground as his suit tried to calibrate from the sudden change in position - another thing he’d have to tinker with - and that’s when he heard heels running and faces being smashed and grunts from the impact and a distinctive thwipping noise all at the same time. 

“You okay ma'am?”

Great.

The woman must’ve nodded as the new voice went through his checking on the victim protocol that seemed to almost be built in, until he finally addressed him with a completely different tone “ Hey Iron Idiot.”

Harley groaned. Spiderman, of course. And he sounded pissed.

Just great.

Harley looked up, to see the woman shakily walking toward the entrance of the alley and Spiderman facing away from him “I didn’t think you could actually do it.” he drawled as he tied up the now unconscious thugs - he did it with such ease , that was kinda infuriating even if it made sense. He really should have put a weapons system on this thing. “But you’ve actually managed to out dumb youself.

“What brought you to that conclusion?” said dryly, trying to buy time to make up an excuse or you know, get off the ground . God he must’ve looked like an idiot.

“I don’t know, your stupid; I should have seen this coming.” Spiderman blew out an irritated breath.

“You did see it coming.” Harley raised a brow, and couldn’t help but smile as he finally got to his knees.

“No, I mused it. I actually hoped you’d have common sense.” Spiderman said offhandedly. He was done tying up the thugs, he just wasn’t facing Harley.

“Jokes on you. I didn’t.” Harley replied as he finally got to his feet. And just as quickly he was pinned against a shipping container with a resounding clang - he forgot how strong Peter was sometimes with his unassuming body, that was a common mistake but  damn the  kid could pack a punch. Harley was out of breath, and he had armor on.

“What the fuck Keener.” Peter hissed as Harley flipped up his mask. Which, wasn't that like his biggest no-no. Damn he must be mad. If looks could kill, Harley wouldn’t be anything but a bunch of molecules spread across the universe, the taller boy gulped. “This isn’t a fucking joke.” Peter snarled, looking almost feral.

“You said have a distraction.” Harley somehow managed to say back. He almost thought he couldn’t, but if he didn’t then he somehow knew it would be worse .

“That didn’t involve getting yourself nearly killed .” Peter usually never was mad, it wasn’t his thing. But when he did, you know you screwed something up bad. And Peter was mad . And it showed . Which is very very bad for Harley.

“I have more armor than you.” Harley tried to logic his way out of it, it wouldn’t work, not when Peter was like this, but he had to try.

“I have fucking military, HYDRA, Red Room and specialized training Keener, don’t try to fucking spin this.” He spat back, and yeah okay fair enough. The lack of armor was a weak argument, Harley acknowledges that now. Can they get out of here before Peter summons a demon with his aurora or something? 

“Still I’m completely- ack!” Harley was pinned up against the wall, choking against his spit and Peter looked furiously through his Spiderman lens. How was He this intimidating? 

“Your armor is working for you now.” He shoved back and stood back as Harley coughed on the ground, feeling the arped metal and damn he was pissed and scared of the boy infront of him at the same time.

“Did you just...choke me through my armor?” He rasped and Peter huffed as he crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation. Right.

“Specialized training. Remember.” He gritted when Harley didn’t give him anything. “What’s with the Iron kid cosplay?” He asked in a no nonsense tone and Harley knew better than to divert this time - he’d let this go on long enough. This was the Black Widows son, but then again he was Iron Man’s. 

But then again Black fucking Widow .

...Yeah, there was no competition. Why was he even trying?

“Okay, that’s not my name but to be fair I don’t have one yet.” Harley mumbled and Peter raised his brow. How did he convey that under a mask? Is there like a class to do that or something? How to have expressionless expressions?

“You’re trying to be a hero?” He asked and scoffed, which, okay rude , he can be a hero “who are you tryin to kill?” Harley blanched at that.

“No one!” Harley said indignantly as Peter studied him more closely, as if analyzing him. 

“Then why are you trying to get shot?” He asked and Harley sighed, even while mad, Peter had an odd but incredibly real way of telling it as it is.

“What does that have anything to do with me killing?” Harley asked, because he hasn’t entirely gotten over that particular accusation. Why was that the first thing that came to mind when seeing a teenager in battle armor?... okay point, but Peter knew Harley so it didn’t make sense.

“It means something is worth getting shot over.” Peter stressed, leaning a little closer, just hovering inside Harley’s space. 

“I have no idea.” He admitted. What was he doing? He was just testing something. He didn’t actually mean to engage in anything. And he knew why he built the armor, but the longer Harley sits here at the mercy of Spiderman, he is starting to realize there really is no point. It was stupid. How would this help?

“Stark is gonna kill you if he finds out.” Peter said nonchalantly. 

“If?” He asks. 

“I did some investigating.” Peter shrugs “you were talking about the new baby in the lab. You were jealous that you were getting replaced weren’t you.” Peter said and Harley blushed because that was right “So is this some kind of attention cry?” He hates how Pete could dissect things so thoroughly. That wasn’t what it was about. It was different, he was actively trying not to get caught,

“N-no... don’t tell Tony.” He mumbled and hummed. Peter scrunched his nose.

“I’m not a snitch. But you probably should tell him anyway.” Peter huffed out. Mood finally dying down. 

“He’d ground me for life.” Harley accused. 

“Not if you have a good enough superhero name.” Peter smirked.

Harley raised a brow.

OoOoO

Harley wasn’t used to being ignored.

Not that it wasn’t great, with him setting up his hero-persona and what not it's just he didn’t think it would be this easy. Especially around the Avengers, who were always watching him out of the corner of their eye. It was hard to talk to a new person at school without them knowing. But things have changed, he isn’t the only minor in the household anymore - well minor that wasn’t a superhero. 

But even when Abby came into his life again, Pepper had mostly handled it - she was far too afraid to let one of the bigger Avengers even attempt and the others were either men or too intimidating, but she did get on with Natasha rather well - and he also had an active role in helping her too. Getting acquainted with her again was both happy and sad, but he tried to focus on the happy moments. (She spent more time with Peter at first and clung to him like a koala which Harley resented a bit but ultimately understood. It was Peter who saved her after all, not him. And if she was happy, he wouldn’t dare to take anything away from her that made her happy.)

This was the first time he had to hang back and watch as people ignored him for sometimes stupid reasons. 

Pepper was having a kid, this time one that was actually blood related to her and Tony. He suppressed the old jokes from his guardian (he didn’t call him ‘dad’. His ‘dad’ had abandoned him, Tony had taken him in. Tony understood why Harley and Abby didn’t call him dad or Pepper mom, well he didn’t call her mom, Abby did though). But now Tony was finally getting a child that could call him dad, and somewhere deep down, he knew that the affection that Tony would give to the new baby would never be the same as the one he gave to Harley and Abby. Abby did too, but she had been put in a situation that made her long for even a little bit of positive reinforcement. She was satisfied.

But somehow Harley wasn’t. 

Maybe Peter was right… maybe this was a cry for attention and he was just masking it by saying it was to protect his siblings.

His thoughts were interrupted as Natasha popped her head into the lab, where he and Peter were working on smaller parts of his armor - something that could be blown off as just ‘fiddling around with’ if asked and wouldn’t conduct any follow up questions, and having a second opinion really was helpful when building the armor. 

“Петя, я иду на задание. Баки вернется завтра. “( Petya, I’m going on a mission. Bucky will be back tomorrow. ) she said to Peter and he hummed in response, not looking up from the soon to be micro-proton blaster in his hand.

“ хорошо, мама, будь в безопасности.“( okay Mama be safe. )he replied and she grunted an affirmative  and sneakily dropped a kiss in his hair - giving him a light dusting and a miniscule duck. She smirked playfully and left.

“What was that about?” Harley asked and Peter waved as he didn’t look up from the unassuming hunk of metal, as moved some wires aside to inspect the inner workings more thoroughly, brow furrowing.

“She’s going on a mission.” Peter said distracted, screwing something into a small circuit board (he didn’t have to use a microscope or hyper-spectural magnifier for things like this because he had stupid enhanced eyesight and Harley couldn’t be more envious of it, from an inventors perspective). “Hey you wanna go train? She be gone now.” He said putting down the prototype and looking at him with a neutral gaze.

“Yeah sure.” Harley shrugged, he didn’t really think he could focus on the armor right now anyway.

“Cool.” he said and closed the tabs on his laptop to clean up, and Harley started to put away his own tools.

They head out of the lab and sneak down to the training rooms, Peter disabling the security systems and Harley getting on the mat after wrapping his hands, near the sandbags and Peter following him to hold it, wrapping his own hands as he does so. Harley knew how to punch, this exercise was to build up his strength and stamina - holding up all that armor is in some ways very taxing. Like holding a baby, light but gets heavy after a while.

Harley got in proper position and started to punch the sand filled sack, exhaling sharply with each blow that landed. They went on like that for 15 minutes before Harley broke.

“Aren’t you upset?” He asked, as he landed another one - Peter barely moved, which was annoying sometimes when he did that - suddenly, wanting answers over how Peter could be so chill about his mom just up and leaving him - I mean didn’t he have abandonment issues or something. He didn’t know why.

Dammit, this was Peter’s interrogation method. He must've known that Harley could hardly pay attention in the lab because something was bothering him. For someone so out of tune with his own emotions, Peter sure was perceptive of others.

He can’t believe he fell for it.

“About what?” Peter asked in a sigh, like he was exasperated by this impromptu interrogation. Even though he was the one playing mind games. Right? Peter was the one playing mind games and Harley didn’t actually want to talk about this - it wasn’t even true ...maybe. But Peter already thought that was the reason Harley was doing this whole thing in the first place - Harley suspects he didn’t really believe him all the way when he explained the helplessness and uselessness he felt.

But seriously, Harley can’t be the only one feeling the neglect.

“Seriously?” He asked, a minor twitch in his brow “Natasha spent most of the week planning a baby shower and Bucky had spent some time with her doing that and was on a mission right after. He didn’t even say goodbye .” Tony always says goodbye, but goodbyes are becoming less and less. And so are the ‘welcome home sport!’ that would come jokingly when he walked into the lab afterschool. Now Tony was barley in the lab, which was just wrong.

“It was an emergency. Was he just supposed to wait until I came back from patrol? Because I don’t always do that you know.” Peter looked at him with a raised brow and Harley rolled his eyes. Okay, yeah, Peter was more used to this and no Nat and Bucky weren’t very traditional parents. But still! (yeah that’s all he’s got.)

“Whatever. Why aren’t you upset that Natasha hasn’t been hanging out with you this week. I know for a fact you’ve skipped meals because no one was here to enforce the rules.” Harley huffed. Because they were too busy with the unborn child to notice their son’s slow but surly steady health decline. Peter grinned sheepishly.

“You noticed, huh?” He mumbled. Harley raised a brow.

“Yes, aren’t you upset no one else did ?” Harley emphasized and Peter looked at him oddly.

“What? Am I supposed to be mad that I can get away with things, even small ones.” Peter joked, he had a very messed up take on this situation. 

“It’s like when you met them all over again!” Harley accused, which okay was a total exaggeration. Peter scrunched up his nose like he ate something sour.

“That’s very different than what’s going on right now.” He said in a slightly dark tone that told Harley he was pushing a line that he shouldn’t. Which fair, he didn’t want to diminish any progress the Avengers had made with Peter because of his own personal problems. That was his bad. “and what’s wrong with how they are now? I haven’t noticed anything.” Peter furrowed an increasingly irritated brow. 

“That’s cause you are always out during the day.” Harley grumbled. 

“Oh, and you’re not at school. I’m almost always in the lab when you’re there.” Peter said back and Harley groaned. 

“But you’re also Spiderman !” Harley he made a little spiderman hand and Peter rolled his eyes and went back to his project. “You have a distraction.” 

“From what ?” Peter said sarcastically, as if Harley was being over dramatic - which he isn’t . 

“From being ignored.” Harley blurted. Peter looked at him for a long moment, one where Harley fidgeted and couldn’t look the other boy in the eye. 

“I’m used to being ignored.” Peer mumbled unconcernedly and great he was in the same boat as Abby. Starved of affection their whole childhood so even the tiniest bit was shockingly appreciated. Was Harley being a brat? Compared to Peter, yes .

Ugh, Harley wanted to stop competing and being compared - even if no one else was doing it. He wanted to stop feeling like he couldn’t measure up, that his problem were lesser. For once, he wanted his mundane life to be enough for the Avenger’s affection. He wanted to deserve it.

He might not have super problems, or major trauma like the rest of the kids in this tower, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have problems.

“Well I’m not.” He grumbled resolutely and Peter rolled his eyes. See, now his problems were being trivialized!

But instead of coming back with how he had to get over himself Peter said “Then ignore them back. Distract yourself.” sarcastically and Harley blinked at him as Peter gestured to the punching bag again. 

Maybe he would.

OoO

Peter called Natasha two days later.

“It’s a girl.” was the first thing out of his mouth. They had just found out and now Peter was in a secluded corner of the tower to tell his mom and as soon as Natasha picked up he blurted it.

“Hell yeah.” Natasha said, in a semblance of proudness. The baby’s gender has lowkey been a big part of why Natasha wanted to plan the baby shower, even though she was unable to attend. She had texted Peter to tell her everything once it was over and now he was reporting back to his mother. 

Whenever she’d get a free moment on an away mission, Peter would try to call her and keep his schedule moderately free. He enjoyed talking to Natasha about every little thing, which is a very mother/son thing to do, but it’s the one he enjoyed the most. She gave good advice, and related to him. She was funny and put things into perspective. It was easy to talk to her, and she didn’t mind when it lowkey turned into a gossip session. She was not above manipulating Bucky into making cookies either, which yeah, best mom moves. 

“The press were hounding Pepper and Tony about it anyway, asking if it was a girl or boy. I don’t think they should but with this sort of thing but I think Tony was impatient anyway.” Peter said “Besides, MJ says you gotta pick your battles with those Vultures.” Peter quoted and Natasha hummed

“Truer words.” Natasha agreed solemnly “It’s still good to know.” Natasha said, and Peter thinks she might be biased. He doesn’t call her out on it.

“Yeah , I guess” Peter shrugged, even though she couldn’t see “For naming and stuff, but they were looking at gender neutral names anyway.” Which is probably something they were already considering, but MJ probably had a not so little influence on. 

“How progressive of them.” Natasha drawled, he could just see the little giddy mischievous smile on his mother’s usually stoic face. It made him smile too.

“Well since Harley is Pan, they wanted to be as supportive as possible, like not imposing gender or anything. I think Harley and MJ had more of a hand in it than it being a PR thing.” Peter said honestly. Like they could be swayed on such an important decision by people they didn’t even know . Picking battles doesn’t mean ruling over their lives.

“Makes sense. Stark didn’t care about the press before, he certainly won’t care if it involves his probable daughter.” she snorted and Peter let there was a stretch of silence as Peter gathered his thoughts “Was there anything else?” Natasha prompted in a softer tone.

“Did you know?” Peter finally asked after a minute. Natasha hummed, understanding what he meant.

“Yes, they had wanted all the information on you as soon as they could get it.” she said a little bitterly. Did Natasha want to know his gender before he was born? Would she have thrown a baby shower? Would she look for gender neutral names with Bucky if they had had the chance?

“A clinical birth, huh.” he said instead, not wanting to rub salt in his mother’s tender wound because Peter knew that they would do everything they could. They would have a little cake between the two of them that revealed his gender and they’d go through lists of names based on their meanings completely disregarding gender. If they had the chance, they would keep him safe and special and close . Or at least that’s what Peter hoped. He wouldn’t dare ask.

“Clinical pregnancy.” Natasha sighed, sounding a bit sad and forlorn. 

“Would you have wanted to know?” Peter asked hesitantly after a short pause. Should he ask these questions? Should he just keep them to himself?

“I wouldn’t have cared, and it’s up to you anyway.” Natasha said honestly, not shutting him down. Peter smiled a little when she asked “You are what we’ve been calling you, right?” she asked almost accusingly, with a tad of franticness.

“yeah, I like being a guy.” Peter said with a wide blown smile when he heard Natasha’s small almost inaudible sigh of relief “Male white privilege and all that.” he could almost hear her eye roll. 

“You certainly are like your father.” she said with a happily, tired sigh.

“I literally saw him almost deck a police officer for harassing Sam.” Peter deadpanned and Natasha laughed a little. That day was one for the memory books. 

“That’s not what I meant.” Natasha chuckled, shaking her head “What am I gonna do with you two?” she sighed and Peter laughed.

“Did you pick my name too?” he asked and the tone of Natasha’s voice didn’t change, so a pressure inside Peter’s chest released.

“Yes, they gave you a serial number. Although Petor is more masculine, Petya is more gender neutral.” she said and Peter hummed. He didn’t know what his name meant, but Peter thinks it doesn’t really have a meaning - well it means Stone, but that’s kinda an odd name to call your kid after but that’s okay, both his parents had bizarre tastes.

“I can see that.” Peter hummed agreeably. 

“Do you…” she hesitated “Do you like the masculine version or…”

“No, I’m cool with whatever you wanna call me.” Peter sighed “I think if my superhero name wasn't Spider- MAN then people think I go by they/them pronouns. Which I don’t mind, nice of them not to assume or anything, but before I had a name it was more they/them than he/him.” Peter confessed. 

“So what pronouns do you prefer?” she asked with a tad pointedness.

“Does it matter?” Peter asked, just to be difficult. He didn’t mind either way. He identified as cisgender male, but they/them promouns in correlation to him didn’t bother him either.

“Yes.” Natasha said seriously, and okay Nat really gunning for mom of the year. Well with all this competition coming up, he can see why.

“I go by he/him, but I don’t mind they/them - especially for my hero identity. I didn’t mean anything by what I said about not caring what pronouns they use, I just meant it’s nice that people are being more open minded in general.” Peter explained, as Natasha hummed along. He could hear her mentally taking down notes to relay to her partner later probably “ Although there are still some assholes out there, it’s better then it would’ve been where they would just assign me a masculine gender role without considering other options- not to mention the hazing for even considering it. Even if they are right and I am a guy. Come on.” Peter rambled. Natasha hummed in a firm agreement.

“You know it would be okay if you weren’t.” Natasha said in a gentle tone that Peter couldn’t quite place. 

“That’s probably one of the only things I’ll never doubt here.” Peter smiled, and he could hear Natasha do the same on the other end.

“Is everything okay?” she whispered after a minute.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be.” Peter tensed up a bit. Everything was...virtually fine. You’d think after a conversation like that, she would want to keep it light an breezy, but nope. She just solved one issue to the next. Super-mom indeed.

“I mean with Harley.” Natasha said, and of course she sniffed that out. Peter sighed, he wasn’t really surprised.

“He’s just going through something, you know a new kid and what not.” Peter sighed, Natasha made another pointed hum “Don’t worry I’m handling it.” Peter reassured.

“Okay.” Natasha said easily. 

“You...You trust me?” Peter asked hesitantly.

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t?” Natasha asked, and even though it was over the phone Peter could just see her brow go up. Peter bit his lip “Petya,” she said seriously “Я всегда буду тебе доверять”( I’ll always trust you ). She said firmly and it made Peter get a watery smile.

“Спасибо мама”( Thanks, Mama ). He whispered like it was a secret, because if he went any louder he wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

“Я люблю тебя мой паучок”( I love you, my little spider ). She said. Peter’s lips quirked up.

“Я тоже тебя люблю.”

OoOoO

“I am Titanium~”

 Peter hummed quietly and Harley nearly spit out the water he was drinking, choking it down with some deep breaths. Peter smirked. “shoot me down, but I won’t fall. I am Titanium.~” Peter continued the lyrics under his breath, but just enough for people to hear him, as he casually put a bite of food in his mouth. Harley looked like he was about to have an aneurysm, this was great .

“ Петя, пока жуешь, молчи.“ ( Petya, don’t talk while you chew. ) Bucky scolded absently and Peter smiled as he swallowed his bite. 

“Sorry, Баки I just have that song stuck in my head.” He looked coyly at Harley who glared at him and Peter smiled sweetly back, pleading innocence - Harley didn’t believe it for a second. Pepper looked between the two of them. 

If Harley was gonna be an idiot about this, then Peter could play that game right back. He got why Harley didn’t want to tell anyone, and he got that it was hard to come out - secret identity wise (given he didn’t actually tell anyone they just found out accidentally). But Harley wouldn’t talk about all the other problems he was having, like his feeling of uselessness and his lack of attention thing, and Peter really couldn’t be the one to solve that problem - it could only be solved by his parents . But Harley didn’t want to hear that, so Peter didn’t say it.

He should have sicked MJ on him… but this was more fun.

“Yeah, well I have Never Gonna Happen by Lily Allen stuck in my head.” Harley retorted back with a sharp glare and Peter shrugged. 

“Oh Lily Allen’s great , but you know who was a great influence on music? Shakeria, remember Inevitable ? That was a masterpiece” Peter said with a smirk. He could go on all day, Peter does not limit his playlist by genre or artist. Harley’s glare sharpened “Underrated not gonna lie.” Peter drawled, twirling his fork in his food. 

“I’ll have you know,” Harley gritted his teeth, gripping his fork tighter “that Lily Allen also produces the song Fuck You , which slaps.” Peter didn’t look up for his response.

“That’s not a very appropriate title. I think you should change your playlist.” Peter said and Steve nodded along to that, clearly lost like every other adult in the room. He could imagine, clearly they were having a coded conversation, and Peter excelled at passive aggressive - he could go on all night; Harley doesn’t even know the half of it and he’ll cry before he gives to defeat.

“Peters right Harley. I mean if you listen to songs like that when your baby sister is born, then what kind of influence would you be?” Tony interrupted, unknowingly bringing their pissing war to a halt. Peter furrowed his brow as Harley’s gaze became downcast. Tony wasn’t supposed to be a part of this. Not yet.

“Well Abby turned out fine.” Harley mumbled. Peter - along with the other Avengers - did not point out that Abby was also kidnapped and trafficked, and wasn’t as easily influenced. But something they also forgot was that Harley had raised her before, but trauma changes a person so they don’t know what  Abby was like before, which is one thing Harley keeps incredibly tight lipped about - Peter wasn’t sure if it was because he was just genuinely sad about the change and what he lost, or if he wanted one thing that the others hadn’t with Abby, and following the past few months it was probably more of the latter. 

“I was in hell for  a whole year big brother.” Abby had no qualms in reminding. She looked up sharply, immediately regretting what she had said when Harley bit his lip and tried not to get smaller. Peter wanted to say something, but… that just didn’t seem right. 

“That wasn’t your fault Harley.” Steve quickly interjected, and it really didn’t seem like his place either. Why hadn’t Tony interjected first? Maybe Harley did have a point about the lack of attention. 

“Yeah, but it should’ve been!” Harley got up and ran out of the room. Which is…. Not at all the reaction Peter was expecting. He looked around the room to everyone’s downcast mood, and Abby’s guilty bit lip, her hands ringing each other out tightly in her lap. Peter looked back to his plate. It was too quiet. Too loud. 

“Uh uh oh ohh ohhhhh.” Peter mumbled and everyone looked at him as he gave a nervous smile, at their incredulous gazes that said ‘ really?’ and ‘ not now’ . Tactful, Parker. “Big Time Rush...kinda a game changer.”  he said sheepishly. 

“I remember them. I thought One Direction had better songs though.” Abby confesses quietly, still not looking up. She was folding into herself, and Peter knew okay. He knew that sometimes when dealing with trauma that it’s easy to forget it actually affects other people too, especially when no one cared for a long time before. It’s hard to watch what you say, and sometimes things just slip out. Dark humor is a way to deal with it but didn’t go over well with the outside population usually, and Peter may have kind of been an influence on Abby in that respect - so this wasn’t entirely on her. ANd he did kinda start this whole dinner mess in the first place so he stood up and passed Abby’s chair, putting a hand on her hanging head. 

“BTR walked so 1D could run.” He reassured. That got a small twitch of her lips through a bit lip. He looked at Tony and then Pepper. He’s got this. They seemed to understand.

“Honestly.” Abby mumbled and quickly glanced at the door “did I...I thought we were okay...” Abby said quietly. Peter gave her a quick head pat. 

“Yeah, he’s just stressed out.” Peter said offhandedly, he looked to his own mother who seemed to not be paying attention. Peter knew better, and they’d be having a little heart to heart later, he knew. 

“About what? It's winter break.” Abby asked, her tone giving away her innocence and dammit Peter sometimes forgot Abby wasn’t completely messed up. In most ways she was still a kid. Peter sighed as he looked at Tony more pointedly, who looked the picture of confusion. Did he have to do everything himself? This wasn’t even his family, ugh. Okay, fine whatever. This was fine . 

“Nothing. I promise.” Peter said and the adults looked at him, he said it to not only her but them “seriously,” he held up his hands in defense and started walking to the door where Harley had run out of “ I’ve Got This .” he smirked at Sam’s soft groan.

“There’s a song for everything now.” Tony grumbled and Peter let his smirk drop as he disappeared out the door and tried to catch up to the taller boy in the hallway. He turned the corner as Harley was half way down the corridor and jogged a little.

“You should tell them.” Peter called to him as Harley kept stalking forward angrily, probably to his lab to work on the armor, and ignored him.

“So you keep saying.” He grumbled annoyed. And god, Peter just wanted to catch up couldn’t he stop for a second . He really didn’t feel like running.

“Actually I’m singing.” Peter corrected and huffed and stopped Harley by flipping in front of him, startling the older boy so much he almost fell on his ass, Peter held back a smirk “I also thought it’d be a nice teaser for our author.” he shrugged. Harley looked at him like he was crazy. Peter wasn’t sure if it was the flipping or what he said, probably both. The flipping was unnecessary but fun.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Harley sneered, leaning forward and Peter shrugged again, looking Harley directly in his blazing hazel eyes that were slightly red around the edges and slightly wet. 

“What can I say. Fourth wall breaking is a gift that is given only to a certain few.” He said wisely. It’s true, him, Deadpool and this sewer idiot named MoonKnight who popped around every few arcs. Who knows, maybe he’d even come in this one. 

“You know I’m not looking forward to being a nut job when I’m a superhero.” Harley snarled out, and stalked past him, bumping his shoulder on the way. He gritted his teeth when the impact came to his shoulder, but Peter didn’t budge. Peter smirked, heh super strength .

“The Avengers aren’t nutjobs.” Peter said back flippantly as Harley continued and spun around to skip after him.

“Yeah but you and Deadpool are.” Harley pointed out and Peter blinked once then twice and then started laughing. Oh sweet summer child.

“You think...you think I a -oh god heheh you think I’m a superhero?!” He said between hysterical laughter. Harley looked confused and a little concerned as Peter hunched over from laughing so hard. 

“Well, you save people...” Harley grumbled. Oh, if that was all it took to be a superhero then a traffic director was a superhero - which they deserve respect, but he’s guessing crossing guard Larry doesn’t qualify. 

“Illegally! Harley I’m a Vigilante.” Peter said, straightening up from his laughing. “Only vigilantes are nut jobs.” dih, everyone knew that. They were unstable assholes, why do you think the law, media and basically everyone hated them when they weren’t saving lives. They were mostly night gremlins for a reason - Peter was just an exception because he was a kid, huh what was he gonna do when he became an adult? Oh well he’d figure it when he got there.

“If I’m not an Avenger, what does that make me, genius.” Harley rolled his eyes, and okay, point. 

“You’ll take Iron Man's place one day. I don’t plan on replacing Black Widow or the Winter Soldier. I don’t have a mantle to uphold. So your safe” Peter said, the taller boy paled. Peter blinked and looked at Harley with a cocked head, dammit that was supposed to be reassuring, but Peter thinks he might have put more pressure on Harley than there already was but still “You do know that’s what is going to happen when they find out?” he said in a prompting voice. The color draining out of the frozen boy’s face told Peter that he decidedly did not .

“You became Spiderman on your own, why can’t I just be Titanium on my own?” Harley asked a tad panicked with a furrowed brow. Which was making Peter kind of panic, because this was big and Harley should’ve known already and oh shit ohshit ohshit .

“Because I wasn’t trying to be Spiderman, it just happened.” Peter said equally as frantic.”I mean you can’t force yourself to be a vigilante or a hero it just...kinda happens?” Peter asked and Harley gave him a look like that wasn’t helping, which it probably wasn’t, which is probably why Harley gave him that look, because hewasntmakingthisbetter “But the difference between us is, Vigilantes are basically addicted to vengeance and/or this whack responsibility we carry because of our traumatizing neglectful most likely abusive childhoods and since you don’t have one of those, thank god, you have to take a mantle.” Peter rambled and peaked at Harley’s expression meekly “that’s not a bad thing, right?” He said sheepishly with, what he hoped was, a reassuring smile and Harley shook Peter off and stalked off again.

“I don’t want to be Iron Man.” Harley said resolutely, a steely look of determination in his eye.

“Then don’t.” Peter blurted, he had no idea what he was saying. It just seemed like the thing to say.

“You just said-“

“I said, there is a mantle that needs to be taken, not replaced .” this is complete and utter bullshit, every word of it “The world doesn’t need another Iron Man.” Peter said seriously, as if that made any sense. 

“They need an Avenger.” Harley said to him, working through something in his head. Wait, Harley can’t actually be taking that crap he just unloaded seriously?

“Then be an Avenger.” Peter encouraged  “It’s not that hard to get on the team.” Yeah, afterall they often him a position. And he was a mess. Like he’d even join, that was actually the best part: he got to decline them . It was great, really got on Fury’s nerves. Like he’d play by their rules and they knew it too. It was a statement. He was proud of it and no one could take that away from him - he’d die before he let that ever happen.

“Yeah, how can it be. You’re on it.” Harley laughed and Peter squawked.

“How dare you.”

OoO

“I am Titanium~” Harley mumbled in the lab an hour later. 

“See you’ve already got a theme song.” Peter grinned wickedly. Harley blushed.

“Shut up”

OoOoO

“You should put more padding in the armor.”

“Who’s suit is this?” Harley asked irritably. Peter hummed, continuing to absentmindedly scroll through his phone, lazily spinning around in the rolly chair upside down, with his legs crossed on the back of the chair. 

“Just saying, it’s nice to have a cushion.” Peter hummed, continuing to be an unhelpful addition, but this was Harley’s dumb crusade, so he kind of felt justified in irritating him. It’s on him for not becoming a superhero through a horrific mutation or enhancement of some sort, that was his first mistake. Building from the ground up was exhausting. Even building from super powers was hard. It’s really the getting started part that’s really tedious, a lot of trial and error, at least with powers you kinda just had what you had, you know, and build off that. So, Peter was determined to make this as exhausting as possible, not for any particular reason, he’d stop winding Harley up when Harley stopped being an idiot.

“Cause there is so much cushion in that skin tight spandex.” Harley snarked back. Excuse him, his suit was amazing and kevlar .

“I said it’s nice , besides I have super healing, human .” Peter retorted with a huff. He would like extra padding but that would dampen his mobility and aerodynamics. That’s kinda the point of his whole persona.

“Mutant.” Harley muttered back.

They’ve been bickering like this in the lab for hours now, bickering - or just Peter badgering Harley about his suit. He needed a form of entertainment before patrol started after dinner.

“You know Stark won’t let you take that out if it doesn’t have some sort of primary internal defense.” Nevermind that Tony didn’t know about this whole production... yet.

“It’s a suit of military grade armor, that’s the primary external defence.” Harley puffed up his chest a bit and Peter hummed.

“Famous last words.” He said idly and Harley threw something at him, which he dodged and sent it flying to the doorway.

They didn’t notice Abby come in to tell them dinner is ready. Not until she had already drunk in the scene and gasped, seeing the mess of wires and parts on the table and the incriminating blue prints - how did she even sneak up on them?! Drawing their attention sharply snapping their heads toward her in a panic; Peter freezing and Harley trying to close the tabs, but it was too late. She stared in horror as she looked at the dismantled suit parts and their implications with wide doe eyes, tears filling up. 

She immediately ran out.

OoO

“ Shit. ”

“It’s gonna be fine.” Peter said automatically, like he always did. But this was really not fine. Like really really not fine. Abby wouldn’t tell, but it was worse because she was upset . Harley had upset her, the Titanium armor that had his measurements upset her. The implication that Harley would be a superhero upset her. He got up out of his chair to go after her.

He was confused, and worried and lost and sad all at the same time. His urge to hide was just as strong as his urge to wrap Abby up in a hug and tell her it would all be okay, and he wouldn’t have to be a superhero if she just said the word, which was as strong as his urge to go to his room and telling her that she couldn’t stop him from doing whatever it took to protect her, and beg her not to blab. Of all the things he was feeling, the begging was the one thing he was gonna do 100% - he’s just not sure silence is all he’ll beg for.

“She ran out the room, I doubt that’s a definition of fine, even by your fucked up standards.” Harley huffed irritability, he wasn’t really mad at Peter but still. How could they be so stupid ? Talking about the gear in the wide open, where anyone could walk in. In the daytime, they should have been more careful. It’s like they were asking to be caught. Ugh, this was such a mess. 

He had to handle before it became something he couldn’t and got out of control.

Just outside of the room he paused. Why was he hesitating, he should go in. Explain himself, offer comfort, be her big brother - that’s the entire reason he’s doing this in the first place, right?

But...

What should he say? What should he do? He couldn’t just go in there and ask Abby not to tell and completely ignore her feelings about her big brother actively throwing herself in danger - which apparently she had a problem with, he would’ve thought having a big brother as a literal superhero was cool. He had to set her down gently, explain himself and why he was doing this. Why he needed to be the one to protect her.

But he didn’t even have a logical reason for that either.

Harley entered the room, regardless of his thoughts. Ripping off the bandaid, he’ll make something up as he goes along. His heart broke slightly at the scene in front of him. Abby was there on her bed, huddled in one of her soft blankets, silently crying - something she became good at in her time with those horrible people. Her face was practically buried in the plush fabric, her body engulfed in the pastel yellows, light purples and soft pinks striping across it.

“Hey kiddo.” he said gently, knocking on her open door. “I’m gonna come in okay?” he waited for her to deny it (a trick he learned when Abby was being unresponsive or stubborn when she was a kid. If she really didn’t want him in the room, she’d say so. Harley would respect that now more than ever.) she didn’t just stayed still, with the slightest tremor. He walked over to her bed and crouched down on the floor next to her, getting at her eye level. “Everything okay?” he asked gently.

“Why do you have to be a superhero?” Abby whimpered quietly, shifting in a way so that Harley could come up on the bed. He took the invitation immediately and sat at his sister’s side, legs stretched and arm coming around Abby-burrito, where she burrowed into him, so they didn’t have to look into each other’s eyes. Nightmare position, as he called it, because this was how he comforted Abby after a nightmare or when something scary happened, or when she was sad - he used it mostly for nightmares now, when she came to him. “I don’t want you to be a superhero.” she admitted quietly, Harley felt something in his stomach sink.

“Well, I gotta be.” Harley said gently, as if this wasn’t something he could change. He honestly didn’t think he could, Peter said he was still in the clear to turn back, but that’s not how Harley felt . Peter also said once you weren’t in the clear, there was no going back - Harley didn’t think he would have been in the ‘clear’ forever though, and he thinks Peter knows that too.

“Why?” Abby nearly begged, Harley hated this. He shut his eyes to think for a second.

“I just… it’s something I have to do.” Harley sighed “For my sake, I gotta be able to protect you.” and the baby he didn’t add but Abby understood anyway. That was the best answer he has, he wished he could give her more.

“But we got Peter, you don’t need to protect us.” Abby said meekly. Harley was somewhat aware of the other boy’s presence skulking in the shadows. He was mildly irritated at that, even if Peter wasn’t intruding; he didn’t need to be here, Harley’s got this. Still a small - very small - part of him was grateful for the silent support; Harley doesn’t think Abby’s noticed him.

“That’s the thing about big brothers, we have to protect our little siblings.” Harley said gently with a small smile, trying to get one out of Abby, but she just shook her head. “It’s stupid, but it’s the rule.” he tried humor, it only half worked.

“It is not .” Abby insisted, with a huff.

“How would you know?” He poked her cheek - which still had residual baby fat hanging on - gently, as she pouted a little “You aren’t a big brother. How would you know the big brother rules. There is an entire by-law about it, a manual and everything.” Harley pandered and that got a half amused, half irritated huff out the girl. He’d call that a win.

“But Peter is my big brother too, he can do it. You don’t… you don’t have to.” Abby stuttered out and fidgeted. Harley quickly glanced at Peter who had went a tad rigid, enough so that he wasn’t noticed but still clearly uncomfortable with that notion. They’d have to talk about that later. “Does he not know the rules because he isn’t my big brother.” Abby’s voice wobbled and dammit Peter better not let her down - he knows he won’t, not after that sentence, he;s probably got a 100 step plan now.

“He’s still learning, so I guess that means you’ll just have two brothers looking out for you.” Harley said and Abby barrelled into him and buried her head into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her entire frame - was she always this tiny .

“And looking out for each other.” Peter whispered, just enough to reach their ears, from where he was lurking in the shadow against the wall. The movement of a cloud illuminating half his face, his eyes almost glowed. Harley looked at him with a steely gaze. Determination set in fiery brown eyes (Peter’s eyes always had this subtle ethereal glow to them, especially in the dark. Harley wasn’t sure if it was because of the mutation, or powers, or if Peter just gave off that vibe. It was easy to miss, especially because Peter didn’t look anyone in the eyes often, but sometimes they intensified and it was impossible not to see. The longer Harley thinks about it, the more he realizes that Peter’s always been able to do that. It could be as scary as it could be reassuring.)

They had an understanding.

OoOoO

It was a small job.

They should have been fine.

It is a small job and they had been training for a couple of months now. Harley followed Peter’s rules to a tee (the tee? Or was it just ‘t’. He’d have to ask Wade later, but if he asked Wade then he’d have to confirm it with 3 other sources. He’d ask Matt.), he trained, upgraded his armor - with most of Peter’s suggestions, Harley could be bullheaded sometimes. Peter gave him cold cases to solve or cases that Peter had already solved to puzzle out. Harley snarled and snipped at him and his methods - did he expect them not to be unorthodox and ridiculous - but ultimately the work got done - Peter tried not to be unreasonable but sometimes it was just too easy. Harley’s tasks got ranked up slowly, and Peter started to give him more and more to do. And for all the complaining, he didn’t beg Peter to go faster; he actually wanted to learn this right .

Peter was impressed, but there were just some things that you couldn’t learn from other people - especially when being a vigilante. You had to be smart and think on your feet, and that wasn’t something that could be taught through training or explanation. That was something that set you apart, thinking differently, because only ideas that get you killed are bad ideas.

So now was the dry run.

Small, easy job. Meant to get Harley battle experience and a feel of a fight, because training was nothing like the real thing - Peter had said that many, many times. You can mess up in training, but in real life you only got one shot, and usually that one shot spirals into just winging it, even if you do have a plan. It was actually very hard to mess up, mostly because you just kept grindin until you succeeded. Only when you give up you mess up. Huh, that was good, he should be like a guru/sensei or something. Wise beyond his years.

He highlighted that this was not , under any circumstances, a patrol. He’d seen movies, and he could tell you that they were like 72% accurate when things go to shit during a time when you’re still trying to learn. An ‘easy patrol’ was not, and could never be, a predetermined thing. It never happened when you needed one and literally the whole point of patrol was to stop crimes before they started; they were just too unpredictable. Trust him, he’s learned. And with his luck - nevermind protagonist luck, which he too had because Harley was with him - there was never a chance in hell that patrol wouldn’t have at least one of his rouges - or even a new one because hey, Harley is starting his arc. 

So a small drug circle that he, MJ and Ned had been scoping out for a few weeks? Perfect. Predetermined, patrol was done, there literally could be nothing wrong because he had check all his bases and his bases bases. Cross referenced and everything and then had MJ and Ned do the same.

So like a 36% chance things wouldn’t go to shit. That is a record, yes they do keep track; he’s winning.

In addition, the gang wasn’t too big, so Harley wouldn’t end up in the media. It was at night so no bypassers were here, so no media posts. If they wanted a debut then they’d go flaunting around on patrol, but this was a discrete mission, in a remote place so there was no way they’d get caught...Probably...most likely… like a 62% chance. 

It was simple clean up, there was no way these guys could outrun them, especially when in such a secluded place. This was a small gang and a small operation. The chemical lab would be taken down after the initial shipment was taken down. The chem lab would pack up, but it being volatile chemicals they’d take longer. If things went well now, they’d hit that next. MJ had an address already. It’s gonna be a fun night.

“Skulls gonna make a drop on a new drug tomorrow, so you guys better blow up their supply before it hits the streets.” MJ summed up as Harley and Peter crouched down on the roof of the opposite warehouse. 

“Skulls?” Harley asked. Peter was now second guessing everything - come on he put that in the packet. “I thought it was Team Skull.” oh so he did read it. Okay, faith restored. 

“Well I wanted it to be Team Skull.” Peter grumbled. He could hear MJ roll her eyes, that little name changer. He should have never allowed her on the team. Before he could call anyone whatever he wanted, but now he can’t even do that without being criticized or people not knowing what he was talking about - screw their ‘official’ names, his are better.

“And I refuse to let you name a dangerous street gang after Pokemon villains.” MJ drawled. Fun sucker.

“Watchtower liked it.” Peter huffed, and did not pout...okay so what if he did, he had a mask, no one could prove it.

“I neither confirm nor deny that.” Ned’s voice crackled. That traitor.

“Un believ able, no allies here.” Peter made a small gesture outwards, not enough to draw attention but enough to show his clear betrayal. Harley lifted an eyebrow. Huh, Peter thought he’d be laughing. Oh rookies, so uptight their first mission, it was adorable. “Okay, Agent M, tell me when you’re clear and we’ll storm.” Peter gave the go ahead.

“Copy that.” MJ clicked off.

“Agent M? Watchtower?” Harley asked.

“Yeah, codenames.” Peter said and looked at Harley dead in the eye “Use them, it’s to protect their identities. Never use real names, Titanium.” Peter said dead serious. He could not have been more clear on that; it was the number one rule: whenever you are in costume you might as well forget your name and the name of all your loved ones (edit: somewhere between late 2019-early 2020) unless they have a codename, then use that and forget their real name. That was right next to: NEVER TAKE YOUR MASK OFF - this applies to physical, psychological, and physiological attributes to one’s personality but don’t worry about it if you're not a nutcase, which you are because you are actively throwing yourself into fire dumbass.

He has a notebook. There are 72 other rules.

“Got it Spidey.” he said seriously, with a mechanical nod. 

“Okay, you’re good to go.” MJ confirmed her position was outside range and blast radius - they weren’t planning on blowing anything up, but then again Peter rarely ever plans for things to blow up they just do ...all the time - and Harley’s face plate clanked down. Ready to go.

“Let’s do this.”

OoO

“Okay, I’ll admit that was my bad.”

“I thought you’d be more mad than this.” Harley gritted his teeth as Peter swabbed the gash on Harley’s leg from where his armor had been blown off during the fight, cutting into his skin. It protected him from the blast, just not the residue of his armor; see internal padding was important teen genius.

The fight had been going well, but then Peter was jumped and was fighting off 3 big guys so he couldn’t see the fourth that was behind him. Spidey sense just went off at the same time Harley had flown in front of the blast, but it knocked a piece of his armor loose (because everyone in this town had ultrasonic guns now, ugh he really had to get back on top of the weapons trades in New York. He thought he had put Wade on that, that lazy son of a bitch. New lesson Harley: Never trust anti-heroes, they don’t care unless it’s a vendetta or they get permission to blow up shit. (edit: October 12, 2018) Unless it’s Domino, always trust Domino.) Which wouldn’t be an issue - because the thruster still worked, it was just the shell that had gotten blown off - but the armor sliced his skin on his leg. So Peter had taken out the rest - the remaining 2 guys - while MJ was called in for evac, and took Harley and his gear to the alley near the tower. She took the armor back to her apartment - because they couldn’t just leave evidence lying around while Peter patched up Harley, and they couldn’t hide it properly before he patched up Harley (rule #5: get medical treatment as soon as it is available; NOT as soon as possible, NOT after you do anything else you deem ‘more important’. You see a hospital and you are injured in the middle of the apocalypse, you go into the damn hospital and get treated, dumbass. Claire made that one. Was it annoying sometimes? Yes, all the time. Would he break this rule? Are you kidding, he has some sense of self-preservation. However, there was a loophole, if no medical attention was available then he could go on his merry crippled way - Claire learned long ago to pick her battles, she was but a woman. Matt taught him that one, Claire beat the shit out of him.) - and Peter carried Harley up to his room. MJ had sent the chem lab’s address to Matt so he could bust that place after his patrol - it was close enough to Hell’s Kitchen. Yeah, Matt could handle it. But...explosion :,(

Oh well, chem labs would’ve been more attention anyway.  

Now they were hiding out in Peter’s room with the door locked, Harley lounging - gritting his teeth to keep from crying out - on the beanbag chair while Peter dabbed antiseptic on the gash.

“Why would I be?” Peter hummed, not really paying attention, or rather focusing on the leg. He was so stupid , he should have seen that guy. Sure this wasn’t the worst injury he’s ever seen - not by a long shot - but still, it should never have happened (not that he could guarantee no injury, that was impossible. He always at least came back with a few bruises, definitely some sore spots. But those all healed in morning, the cuts, bruises and bumps, those wouldn’t heal overnight for Harley; he was human ). Harley was definitely gonna have to wear pants for a few weeks, luckily it was February so it wouldn’t be too suspicious - hell it was still snowing in New York. Thank god for northern climates.

“Because it was my first bust and I blew it.” Harley grumbled and Peter looked at him for a second and then burst out laughing. “What? Hey, stop laughing, I’m sulking!” Peter kept trying to keep the giggles in - it was either that or start crying, because in no way was this Harley’s fault. Peter isn’t gonna get mad at Harley for saving his life; besides it would be hypocritical. Still it was funny, because things going to shit was kind of the norm for superheroes, he forgot that normal people don’t really see that part of it - their spills and falls. They messed up all the time.

“What, man? You know that was one of the cleanest busts I’ve ever been in.” Peter laughed, he wasn’t even lying, that’s been the cleanest bust in probably a year and a half - another record, suck it losers (Frank) “Deadpool leaves an explosion of any variety, even a small one.” Wade was a human disaster - mutant disaster? He got hut all. The. time. Probably because he knows he can’t die, that asshole. Fucking showoff. Harley’s nose scrunch, bad example? “Hell, my first patrol I let the guy get two blocks because my web shooters malfunctioned and I had to run. I looked like a complete idiot .” given his web shooters were made of literal garbage - no seriously he dived like 50 dumpsters at least to get all the parts -  but that never stopped him before “Trust me that was not a disaster.” He said with finality, Harley seemed to relax a bit.

“Seriously?” Harley asked, with a slightly hopeful look “But I got hurt.” he said, and oh poor confused child. 

“Dude, getting hurt kinda comes with the gig.” Peter huffed out a laugh.

“But you never get hurt.” Harley exaggerated, he’s seen Peter in the med bay with a piece of metal, plastic or something sticking out of somewhere at least 3 times from a nasty spill during patrol - everybody in the tower over the age of 14 has at least at some point. 

“I just have super healing, so it goes away by morning but I don’t think I’ve ever come back unscathed.” Peter snickers and Harley looks between awed and concerned, and maybe just a tad scared - but that was acceptable because a healthy amount of fear was always a good thing to have in this line of work.  “My first patrol I literally swung into a billboard and broke my nose.” Peter snickered “Do you know how many times Dare Devil has fallen into dumpsters because he has miscalculated?” Given, Matt was blind - but still, he was DareDevil and Peter was allowed to laugh, okay? That was a rule!

“How many times have you fallen into a dumpster?” Harley grumbled, and sank a little lower. Peter took that as a rhetorical question, and like all rhetorical questions Peter did what any sensible person would do. Answer that rhetorical question, with his own rhetorical question.

“How many times will you?” Peter said back casually, going back to his wrapping. 

“Point.” Harley sighed, Peter smirked. Worked everytime ...most of the time… like 46% of the time.

“And if you think I am going to get mad at you for covering my 6 you’re wrong.” Peter said to more himself, seriously. Harley looked at Peter’s top of head before Peter looked up to look him dead in the eye. He wasn’t fucking around. It’s not everyday you find an ally who’s automatic response is to pull your ass out of fire - or in this case get in the fire for you. You keep those people close, they are your greatest resources and Peter will never ever fault Harley for that. The Avengers had to learn this skill, and didn’t even start trying until this past year. Harley has been on one simple op with him and has gained more trust than any of the Avengers have right now - besides Wanda, Hulk and his parents and maybe Tony. But it was harder to build trust on a foundation of contempt and betrayals and secrets. “We promised Abby we’d watch each other’s sixes. And I don’t like breaking promises.” Peter bit his lip. “So thank you for holding up your end of the deal.” Not a lot of people do that, especially before he did it first. 

“Anytime.” Harley after a beat, his sincerity must’ve come off and Harley tried to brush it off as casual, but Peter could see the blush dusting the older boy’s freckled cheeks.

“Oh and Harley.” Peter prompted.

“Yeah?” Harley still refused to look him in the eye.

“I was right about the internal defense.” Peter gave his best shit eating grin as Harley squawked indigently and furrowed his brows in a glare toward him. 

“Shut up .”

OoOoO

Harley watched Peter as he slipped into the med bay for some bandages after patrol. 

After that first op, Peter made Harley sit out until the gash would scar over. He updated his armor and everything, but he needed a lot more training. He watched Peter come in everyday after patrol.

He knew getting hurt was a part of this duty he was trying to take on. But knowing and actually experiencing were completely different. When he went down he was fucking terrified , and yeah sure, Peter was there, but Peter could have easily been not there - he could have been unconscious or busy or wounded too. And that had been a small , highly researched op - something that wouldn’t happen often. 

Harley had clearly not taken everything into consideration.

Watching Peter come in with cuts and bruises he earned while trying to protect this city - his home and family . To make it a safer place to live and for people to be happier. It’s a nice notion, but then put into practice it's bloody and messy and hurts . 

It hurts alot.

It’s not easily achieved and at first Harley did understand the significance of vigilantes, he really did - they protected from things that regular people couldn’t defend themselves from, but were too ‘small fry’ - and he was updating his definition of that phrase everyday - for the Avengers or X-Men. But he never took them seriously, not until now. Not until he realized just how grueling and bloody and dirty the work could be; it wasn’t just saving kittens out of trees, it was taking down entire drug rings and smaller mobs that didn’t hit the government's radar and were too underground for cops to notice. It wasn’t just happy swinging and joking around. It was stopping problems before they became problems and hurt people. It wasn’t just the occasional throw down with a wanna be supervillain tearing up down town, or times square, or the empire state building or whatever. It was careful planning and execution and improvisation that came with experience.

And it was easy to write off, because no one saw it.

It was easy to write off because they acted like idiots who had nothing better to do but goof off in spandex and beat people up.

It was easy to write off because they never took any credit or bellyached about it.

They did their job, and there was nothing more to it.

“This is serious shit.” He said as if it really dawned on him for the first time. His wound was almost healed - or at least up to Peter’s standards where he’d consider taking him on another op.

“It is.” Peter hummed distractly, trying to patch up his forearm that had a gash running along it up to the tip of his elbow.

“It’s really not a joke.” Harley continued and fidgeted a little “You … you really don’t treat it like a joke.” Harley had been watching closely these past few days. Peter has been carefully calculating his busts, using patrol as not only a means to stop immediate trouble - like muggings - but skulk out future trouble, as well as check on his current open cases. It was more layered and complex than Harley thought, and he wondered how Peter did this stuff without a team while going to school - and managing to graduate early .

“Sam says it’s an unhealthy coping mechanism to use humor to face adversity.” Peter said back still not really paying attention. 

“But… this really isn’t a joke.” Harley leaned forward, and Peter finely looked up, half way through his wrapping and blinked at him.

“You keep saying that I’m gonna start thinking you're cap.” Peter quipped half heartedly. He was really tired by the looks of it, it was a long patrol - he could tell by the drying sweat and matted hair and pale complexion and yeah, the bleed 7 inch gash in his left arm, that was probably closing up cell by cell.

“I know, just confirming.” he leaned back from Peter, who shrugged and looked down at his wrapping. There was a stretch of silence.

“So what are you gonna do?” Said to the wrapping, Harley was slightly startled by the question.

“Huh?”

“What are you gonna do with it?” Peter asked again “Patrol, cases, join the Avengers.” he listed offhandedly.

Harley really hadn’t thought about it. These past few weeks was just trying to know what’s what and what he didn’t understand. What he’d have to learn and what it would be like if he was going to be anything like Peter. He liked about 5% of what he saw, but it might be better once he gets into it? He really can’t understand why Peter, or any of the nutcases he works with like this job. But then again, they were nutcases and absolutely insane. Peter was the most sane of all of them - or the ones Harley knew - and he was absolutely batshit crazy .

“I don’t know, I still don’t want anyone to find out yet.” Peter gave him a scrutinizing look at that, and fine he could admit that he should tell someone. But now, Harley wasn’t even sure if he wanted to do this anymore. At least not in the way he was thinking “ Yet. It’s just not the right time.” Harley reassured and Peter rolled his eyes and looked back down to his wrapping to tie it off.

“It’s never gonna be the right time.” Peter snorted. Harley knew he wouldn’t tell. That was his job and no one else's. Peter made that abundantly clear, but it didn’t seem to deter him from giving Harley a panic attack every time he made a reference to one or multiple of the Avengers. Maybe that was his trick to make Harley tell them, just so he could end Peter’s amusement.

“Yeah okay…” Harley said instead “I guess… I can be back up?” he answered. Back up was good, back up was safe. Back up is where you knew the situation and already had a gauge on how strong the enemy was. Back-up was a guarantee to have alleys, because you were the back up - there were situations running through Harley’s head where being back up sucked, but he tried not to think of that because he had to do something . Most of all reliable back up was important. It was 24/7 on call, and Harley thinks he can do that for Peter.

“No one knows you are even on the roster.” Peter said dryly.

“ You do.” Harley said. Peter went quiet. Harley rolled his eyes.“Come on, you said it yourself it’s better to have allies-”

“When have I ever-” Peter started.

“And I will watch your six and everything.” Harley plowed on, cutting Peter off as he looked at Harley “I promised Abby didn’t I?” There was a stretch of silence where Peter was just like staring into his soul or something. Finally, he dropped the tension in his shoulders and relented.

“Okay.”

OoOoO

Having a child in your arms, really changed a person’s perspective of life.

These last few months have been anxiety charged and fueled with anticipation and nervousness of the unknown. This new chapter that was going to change his life forever. 

He knew that.

But this was tangible evidence. This was...was a child . A human life . His new sister. She had a heartbeat and big brown eyes and soft tuft of dark brown hair. All slimy and wriggly, and absolutely content and happy. He was a big brother all over again.

This time it would be different though. This time Harley didn’t have to make her lunches for school, or babysit there for her when mom was at work late. This time Harley would have help protecting and caring for her. This time Harley wasn’t the only one who truly loved her and would do anything for her. This time he wouldn’t have to be a big brother alone . This time he had Peter.

This time he was ready, and never letting her out of his sight. Both of them. Never again.

There was a lot he didn’t know about this situation. He was a superhero now, part-time but still. He was a secret part-time superhero and in some ways he’ll have to relearn everything that makes him a big brother. He’ll have to teach Peter too, cause the kid really didn’t know what he was doing half the time. And in a weird way, it’s like he gained a new younger brother as well as a brother in general. 

He looked down at the small human child squirming in his arms. Morgan. There were a lot of things Harley didn't know.

But he knows it’ll be worth it.