Chapter Text
Mumblings…pounding heart…sweat dripping,
A big swoosh…heavy, something, something heavy on top of….
Yelling, no.. Screaming and pleading
“Hello.. Anyone, Hello”
“Please, I’m stuck down here”
Panic.
Screaming….
“Peter.” Tony shakes him slightly, panicked. “C’mon, bud, wake up”
“Help,” Peter mumbles.
“I’m here, buddy; just gotta wake up and show me those doe eyes of yours.” Tony curses under his breath. “Peter”
Peter gasps, eyes watering, searching for the voice. His eyes land on Mr. Stark's worried face. He starts to cry.
“It’s okay buddy, you're safe, I’m right here” Reassuring Peter, rubbing his back firmly.
“H…Hey M...Mr. Stark,” Taking slow breaths, matching his mentor's.
Tony pulls him into a hug slowly running his hand through his curls. “Shhh. It’s ok, you just had a nightmare bud. Fri alerted me that your heart rate was spiking so I came up to check on you” He pulls back a little bit to look at him once he knows he has calmed down. “Wanna talk about that dream you had?” he asks, concerned.
It’s been a while since Peter has had a nightmare this bad, to where he practically screamed in his sleep. “mfine Mr. Stark’ he pleads but not pulling away from his grasp.
“I’m sure you are, but you were screaming, bud”
“I..I was?” He glances over to the clock and sees it’s a little past two. “I didn’t wake you did I?” He looks back with pleading eyes.
“No, bud, I was still in the lab, awake, you know, insomniac and all that jazz,” he sends him a reassuring smile, squeezing him into a hug again. “Wanna tell me what that dream was about? It helps to talk about them,” resting his head on Peter's bed head
“It.. it was just the building one again…ex…except it felt more real this time. I..I couldn’t lift the building in this one…”
“Oh bambino, it's okay, you're safe now. Wanna try going back to sleep?”
Peter nods a little bit. “C.. Can you stay till I fall asleep?”
“Of course, Miele,” Tony scoots Peter over and gets under the sheets. Peter lays his head on his chest as Tony wraps his arms around him. One, rests on his chest and the other on his head, threading his fingers through his hair to play with it.
Tony whispers softly to him as he drifts off in his arms. He learned from May that when Peter refuses to go to sleep or struggles with it, all you have to do is play with his hair and he’ll be gone within five minutes.
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Flashback to a few months ago.
Peter opens the door to his and his aunt's apartment and walks right past her to his room.
“Hey Pete” she says as he walks past her. She turns to look back at Tony, who brought him back after a weekend stay instead of Happy. “Is everything alright?” she asks him with a sad look.
“Had a long couple of nights,” He responds. “He had night terrors almost every night, couldn’t go back to sleep after,” He sighs. “He’s just really embarrassed and fed up with not being able to sleep right now” he says worried.
May nods knowingly. Peter gets nightmares quite often and terrors every once in a while. It’s hard going through traumatic events and seeing as much as he does as Spiderman to not have dreams about it.
“I’ll keep him home from school tomorrow and watch movies with him to try and get him to sleep,” she glances down the hall towards his closed door. “He always falls asleep whenever someone plays with his hair, so I’ll just trick him into sleeping,” whispering so Peter can’t hear.
“I wish I knew that before, I could’ve helped him better…. I just want him to be okay; I feel bad for him,” Tony glances down at the floor.
May puts an arm around him, guiding him away from the open door.
“It’s okay Tony. I’m sure you did the best you could having him while he had bad dreams,” she reassured him. “He’s always had nightmares like this since he was little; it took me and Ben forever to come up with ways to get him to fall asleep or just sleep in general. Warm Milk, warm baths, singing, pretty much all of the above, until one time we were cuddling after a bad night, and I started to run my fingers through his hair and play with his curls. He quickly drifted off immediately after.” She smiles at the fond memory. “From then on, that 's how we got him to sleep.” She shrugs.
Tony and May are now sitting on the couch, just talking about Peter's nightmares and how he can help him better in case it happens again.
______________________________________________________________________________
Present.
Peter woke at a decent time and slowly made his way to the kitchen. When he walked in, he saw Tony making pancakes and Pepper sitting at the bar across from him reading something on a StarkPad, already dressed and ready for the day. She must’ve flown back early this morning from Madrid for meetings at the tower.
“Hey, Pete,” Pepper turns around smiling. Mr. Stark must’ve told her he had a nightmare cause next she's pulling him into a tight hug, brushing a hand up and down his back.
“Mornin” he yawns.
“I hope pancakes and bacon are okay for breakfast” Tony says from across the kitchen, flipping pancakes.
“Always” he rolls his eyes. Pancakes were his favorite for breakfast. A big tower with syrup all over them and a side of bacon.
He takes a seat next to Pepper at the bar and listens to her and Mr. Stark talks about S.I. business that she has to do today.
Faint feet can be heard walking down the hallway into the kitchen. Peter doesn’t turn around yet, too tired to function normal.
“Harley!” Pepper jumps up to hug him. “How are you sweetheart? You sleep okay?” She says, pulling away from the hug to look at him.
“Hi Pepper, yeah, I slept alright” he says. He glances towards the kitchen and sees Tony cooking??? “Is that old man cooking? Didn’t he like, set a fire in the kitchen last time I was here?”
“I heard that” Tony says waving around a spatula and a kiss the chef apron on. “I’ve learned to cook better since the last time you were here. And the fire in question, that was all your fault, you distracted me” he says with a pouting tone, turning back to his pancakes.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night” he raises his hands in defence. He stalks over to the coffee maker to wake himself up with a little boost.
The coffee maker that is directly across the counter from where Peter is sitting and…. Oh. My. Gosh. He thought. Harley was hot in the morning. Messy blonde bed head, red and blue pajama pants and a white tank top.
Harley definitely works out, and it shows.
“Oh hey there ‘darlin’, didn’t see you there” Harley said, turning around to face Peter with a mug in his hand that said NASA… His NASA mug. Actually, his only mug that was personally his in the tower.
But God,, was he blushing, that morning accent was rougher than ever. Ugghh, stop it, Peter. There is no way he likes dorky ole you.. What if he decided to mess with him, he thought.
“That's my NASA mug, by the way” he says, making his eyes turn to a glare instead of his previous shocked look.
Harley looks at him, surprised, with his change of tone. That's new, Harley thought. “My baaad Mr. Grumpy” He pushes the mug across to him and grabs another from the cupboard.
Pepper and Tony share a silent look at each other. Pepper nods her head to Peter then raises a brow towards Harley. Tony just shrugs his shoulders back, confused.
“Okay” Tony claps. “Pancakes and bacon are on the table," he says, walking over with two plates full of food. “Eat up; we got a long day of lab time ahead of us. There's a project I want you two to look at for me” Tony says, passing the syrup to Peter.
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After breakfast, all of the boys take showers and one by one head to the lab. In Harley's bathroom, he can’t stop thinking about Peter at breakfast. When he first saw him, he couldn’t stop looking at him. Messy curls, oversized hoodie, and Hello Kitty pants. It was adorable. It was even cuter the way he thought he looked intimidating when he saw he was using his mug. He watched as the gears turned from flustered to a puppy trying to look mean. All he could do was laugh at the thought, finishing with getting changed.
Walking out, he heard faint singing coming from Peter's room. As he got closer, he heard that it was Peter singing, and was that Hamilton?? He smiled big, trying to listen some more. He wasn’t a terrible singer, switching between a Bass and a kind of high Tenor. Jamming too, he leaned closer to figure out… ‘What’d I Miss’?! He then hears Tony opening his door, so he scrambles back out to the kitchen.
“What did you do?” Tony asks him, raising a brow.
“Me! Nothing, why would you assume I did something?” He says trying to act nonchalant.
“You just have that look on your face” He glances at him once more, then turns to the elevator. “I’ll meet you down there. Don’t do anything stupid” he says right before the doors shut.
“Friday? Do I look suspicious?” He looks at the ceiling.
‘When aren’t you suspicious, Potato Boy’ She responds.
“Ugh, whatever.” He rolls his eyes, heading to the elevator. Of course Tony made her call him Potato boy.
Back in Peter’s room, he takes his time showering, he was never one for taking a quick shower. He liked to enjoy his music and warmth the shower produced. Since getting bit by that spider, he was always cold, so staying warm was harder for him. Any chance of warmth he was able to get he abused.
Getting dressed in an old MIT hoodie Mr. Stark gave him, and some random pants. He makes his way to the lab. Walking in he sees Harley and Tony talking. Tony has a worried expression on his face while Harley is dodging his glares with a silent, guilty face.
“Finally” Tony says, looking over at him. “Okay, so as Peter already knows, I made Rhodey Bear some prosthetics to be able to walk on his own” He looks over at Harley, who nods along. “Well, I decided why not make a profit from this invention. After talking with Pepper, we decided to go ahead and make a prosthetic line. I want the both, of you to work together and look over the designs for Rohdey's that I made and try to improve it. Afterwards, I want you both to work together and come up with more ideas for the line.” He finishes looking at the boys with a smile.
“Sounds easy enough,” Harley replies, glancing at Peter.
“That sounds awesome!” Peter replies not a second later. “That's so exciting; we get to help disabled people walk on their own again. That's so cool, Ned is gonna freak when I tell him.” Peter is basically vibrating at the news of a prosthetic line. He was always one who just wanted to help people so the thought of helping people walk again made him excited.
“Good, Great!” Tony claps. “Friday, pull up the design for Honeybears Prosthetic.” As the design is pulled up on the holo table, the three of them start to work.
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After hours of working and lots of snacking, it is nearing seven. “Alright boys, let's order something in tonight for dinner and watch a movie. You both worked hard today; I have a good feeling about this line” Tony says, turning off the holo table and walking them out of the lab. “I want you two, the rest of the week, to start up some designs on your ideas”
After Dinner and a movie Peter excuses himself to bed early. Or so what Harley thought. Really, he was just going to go out patrolling for a little bit. Tony knew this and sent him a faint smile and a wink, signaling him to be safe.
With Peter gone, it’s now just Tony and Harley.
“So, how are you? Is your sister doing okay?” Tony looks over to Harley, who takes a deep breath.
“Abby's alright. Me? Could be better…” Harley looks at Tony.
“That's good.” Tony debates whether or not he should push for more, but before he can ask, Harley speaks.
“Does Peter get nightmares? I uh…heard screaming from his room last night and didn’t want to intrude by asking him” Harley said cautiously.
“Yeah..” Tony sighs. “He gets them quite often. He lost his Uncle a little over a year ago, bled out from trying to stop a robber. Peter was there when he died. His parents died in a plane crash when he was young too.”
“Damn” he curses under his breath. Harley feels bad for him. It’s rough losing one parent but two and another father figure that's something else. Though how would he know? His dad practically left them, and he had a choice.
“A couple months ago, you know how my plane got hijacked, and Spiderman saved it?”
“Yeah”
“Well, Pete's girlfriend at the time, it was her dad who hijacked it, and her mom moved them away after he got arrested. The breakup hit him a little hard. He started having nightmares more often after that.” Tony explains.
“Man, kids been through a lot” Harley glances down at his hands. So he had a girlfriend, he notes for later.
“Yeah, but he’s tough; that's why I thought it’d be good for you two to meet. He needs more people in his life to prove that he’s allowed to get close to people. He thinks if he gets too close to someone, it’s his fault their life gets ruined. E calls it his “Parker luck” Tony has a sad smile on his face.
“Don’t worry” Harley reassures the older man. “I got him, bond with experiences and all”
Harley knows what it feels like to get close to people and have them leave feeling alone. He’s struggled a lot through high school with being gay. His mom has had many boyfriends; there will always be that one he liked who truly supported him coming out of the closet about being Bisexual.
Though he didn’t know what he was truly getting himself into with his crazy mom. He soon left after a couple of months. She then got a new boyfriend, and the cycle of crazy, abusive boyfriends came back. Being pulled from his thoughts, Tony started to stand up.
“Don’t stay up too late, okay” Tony says, patting him on the shoulder. He was probably going back to the lab.
“Same goes for you, old man” he says back, earning a grunt from the older man.
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After lying in his room for some time, Harley starts to get hungry. It's around one in the morning, so it's not that late yet. As he walks towards the kitchen, he hears faint noise coming from Peter's room. He decided taking a peek wouldn’t hurt anyone; he just wanted to make sure Pete was okay. Right?
When he opens the door, he sees Peter having a Panic attack and rushes over to him.
“Hey, ‘darlin’,” He says softly. “Can you follow my breathing, in and out?” he tries to calm the younger one down. He places a hand on Peter's chest and starts breathing deeply in and out, getting him to try and copy.
After a couple of minutes, Peter’s breaths even out, and he looks over to see Harley there, a worried expression on his face.
“I-I’m sorry, I-I didn't wake you, d-did I?”
Oh, this boy, Harley thought. The first thing he's worried about is him being woken up when he just had a panic attack. He really loves putting people before himself, he's coming to learn.
“No, ‘Darlin’, I've been awake; I was actually about to grab a snack. Would you like to join me?” The older boy asks.
Peter sniffles and nods his head. “Yeah i’d like that”
In the kitchen, Peter is sitting on the counter while Harley pulls out a tub of ice cream and two spoons. They both sit in silence eating out of the tub until the older boy finally asks.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
The younger just stares, confused. Gosh, he looks like a confused puppy. “Tony mentioned you get nightmares”
“Oh my god! I woke you up last night, didn’t I? I’m so sorry!” Peter says panicked
“Hey, hey it’s okay, I get them too sometimes” He reassures him by placing a hand on his shoulder, he gives it a light squeeze before releasing it.
Peter looks at him apologetic, “It was about my Uncle” he says quietly.
Harley already knows what happened with his uncle but chooses not to say anything, letting the teen on the counter continue.
“He was shot at a corner store trying to stop a robbery; he died from a gunshot wound in my arms. The medics didn’t make it in time.” He takes a deep slow breath before continuing. Tears formed in his eyes at the memory. “It’s my fault, I got into an argument with him that same night and ran out. He came looking for me. If I never would’ve runned out to that stupid corner store, he would’ve never tried to stop that robber and get shot. At the very least, I could’ve tried to stop him myself and gotten shot instead of him, and he would’ve still been here.” At this point, tears are flowing down his cheeks. What Peter doesn’t tell him is about his spider powers, but decides it isn’t the right time yet.
Harley’s eyebrows furrowed, letting him finish before engulfing him in a tight hug. “Oh ‘Darlin’, It’s not your fault. Family’s fight all the time. You wouldn’t have known what was going to happen. And if it was you that got shot, you wouldn’t have met me, and I’m pretty awesome once you get to know me” Harley says rubbing his back. He hears Peter laugh a little at that last comment.
“Why don’t we put on a movie? Might help calm the nerves. I’m not even tired yet myself” he says to the younger, pulling away to put the ice cream back.
Peter walks over to the living room and sits on one of the big couches curled up in a soft thick blanket. Harley scoots him over, lifting the blanket to sit under it with him.
“Friday, put on a ‘Harry Potter’ movie please” Harley says to the ceiling.
As the first Harry Potter movie starts, Harley slowly puts an arm around Peter guiding him to lean on him hoping he’ll fall asleep. Whenever his sister got nightmares, he would put on a movie and cuddle with her on the couch till she fell back asleep. He always looked after his sister until she got old enough and thought hangouts with her brother were embarrassing. Every now and then she would give in to him and watch a movie or let him teach her about cars in his workshop. He missed his sister but it felt good being away from home, he felt safer and content at the tower with Tony.
Halfway through the movie, Peter’s breathing starts to become even as he slowly slumped against Harley even more. Once Harley knew that the younger was asleep on his shoulder, he adjusted him slowly, lowering him to where Peter was lying on his chest, and he was resting his head on one of the soft cushions.
Harley threads his free hand in his hair to play with his curls. He feels Peter relaxing into the feeling drifting off into a deeper sleep. Once satisfied, Harley closes his eyes, hugging Peter close, eventually also falling into a deep sleep.