Work Text:
Long Time Coming
Harry Stark was sitting in his favourite armchair, his feet up on a stool and reading files on a possible acquisition. The past few months he had spend working from home a lot, still going in for meetings and such, but generally making himself a bit rare. He wasn’t actually hiding, but being generally careful of things. They all were. Bucky was still being treated at St. Mungo’s, apparently making great progress… Clint and his family had relocated to Scotland, not exactly hiding either, but laying low. Steve, Sam and Scott had made Sirius’ home in France their base, when they weren’t out doing whatever they got up to. And Wanda had permanently found a home with Harry’s family. She really seemed to enjoy her role of big sister and Harry favourited the Weasley approach to family: at a certain point one child more or less doesn’t make a difference.
He had wanted to stay awake and wait up, but it had been a very, very long day. He had returned from a trip to Japan yesterday and was still trying to adjust.
The doorbell rang, stopping Harry in his decision to go to bed early. There was an excited noise of feet moving upstairs. Harry made his way towards the door carefully, seeing the excited faces of his three youngest on top of the stairs.
“Back to bed, you three.”
“It’s Uncle Tony!”, Lily declared, bouncing up and down.
“I saw him from my window.”, Alec explained.
Harry felt his heart sink and simultaneously swell with hope. Tony had come. After all those months of radio silence.
“You shouldn’t be anywhere near your window.”, Harry chastised, “Off with all of you. Don’t try eavesdropping. I will check.”
Three loud groans followed, but Harry could hear them returning to their rooms.
Carefully, he opened the front door to find Tony standing there, dressed casually and looking even more tired than Harry remembered.
“Can I come in?”
“Of course.”, Harry agreed, stepping back to allow his big brother inside.
“Where is everybody?”, Tony asked, looking around the place.
“It’s past ten. Lily, Alec and Jimmy are in bed, Emmy, Wanda and Johanna have a Zumba class.”, Harry explained, as he and Tony reached the living room.
“Zumba class?”, Tony laughed.
“Yes. Every Thursday. From 8.30 to 9.30.”
“I am trying to picture that.”, Tony laughed again.
Normally he probably would have said something about that, but Zumba class wasn’t his favourite subject in the world. It had been Johanna’s idea. She had been worried about Emmy and decided that maybe spending some time with something like Zumba during the holidays was a good idea.
Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Emmy’s mental health problems, he thought, was not the conversation he wanted to have with Tony right now.
“So Wanda is living with you full-time now?”, Tony asked, studying a picture on the wall. It was their last family picture from Christmas, and yes, it very much included Wanda, she was standing between Johanna and Teddy, waving just like the rest of them. Harry didn’t answer. Tony probably didn’t expect an answer anyway. Or apparently he did.
“Picking up strays everywhere then?”, Tony continued, moving on to a very different picture of the Barton Family in front of Castle Urquart. Harry chose to ignore him. There was a reason for those pictures. And for the one of the rest of TeamCap. Those pictures hung in all three houses. Dormant portkeys, ready to take them to the house in question. Or, if it was the house you were already in, to Grimmauld Place. Harry didn’t like to take chances. Especially not with children involved. It had been time for him to embrace his magical side a bit more again.
“I like having pictures of my friends around.”, Harry chose to answer instead, still weary of what was going to happen next.
“You like to hide them, too.”, Tony turned around to look at him, “Hide them from me.”
“If I have to: sure.”
“Where is Barnes, Harry?”, Tony turned around to look Harry dead in the eyes. All pretense and nervous laughter vanished.
“Being treated. If you came here to try and get me to give them up, any of them, I fear I’ll have to disappoint you.”
Tony nodded gravely, “That’s right. Harry Stark. Loyal to the end.”
“You think this is about loyalty? Interesting.”
“Mh. Maybe stubborn is the word to use? Like Zemo, I guess. They have been interrogating him for months, you know? And he stubbornly refused to talk. Until yesterday. And then he spilled the beans. About his family… about how he planned to have ‘the Avengers torn apart from the inside’. Rather successfully, I’d say.”
Harry knew what was coming next. He could feel it in his bones, in every fibre of his being. “Some people are predictable.”
“Yes. Some. Ross now thinks you aren’t one of them. He doesn’t know what to make of you. But when Zemo told us Barnes… Barnes had killed our parents and there was a video… well. He meant to play that to me, I hear. Predictable son that I am, he expected me to get suitably angry. Of course I didn’t see it, but you did. I hear you were really composed. Calculated. Chose to take out Zemo. Ross is impressed. I am not.”, Tony interrupted his little rant, looking at Harry darkly, who chose to let his brother get this off his chest, before replying, “Composed? That really didn’t sound like you. Oh no… you didn’t explode anything. Didn’t punch someone’s lights out. You just… what? Accepted it? There is only one reason for that, dear brother of mine: you already knew.”
Harry took a deep, audible breath.
“Yes. I knew.”
Tony’s face went blank. Strongly suspecting and knowing were two very different things, that Harry knew all too well.
“You knew. Knew that Mom and Dad were murdered? Knew it was Barnes?”
“I knew they were murdered and I strongly suspected Hydra used Bucky to do it.”
Tony was breathing angrily through his nose now, if it weren’t Harry standing in front of him, he strongly suspected Tony would have hit him.
“How long? How long have you been lying to me?”
“Since the fall of SHIELD.”, Harry admitted, “I told Steve not to tell you. I was worried about what you might do.”
“Worried about what I might do.”, Tony echoed, “How dare you? How dare you make that decision for me?”
“Oh, come on, Tony.”, Harry huffed, “I had good reason to be. So yes, I made that choice. You know what? I don’t even regret it. You were a mess. Don’t think I am that blind. You hid away for months. Probably drank your weight on a regular basis. I was worried you’d do something rash. Worried you might go after an amnesiac super soldier. I did not want to have to scrap you of a pavement somewhere.”
“So that’s what you think of me then? Tony. Who can’t be trusted with the truth? Because he is… too fragile?!”
“There is no shame in needing help, Tony! It does not make you weak. I have been trying to tell you that for years. Damn it, I wish I had had the foresight to go see someone. I didn’t. I buried myself in work and caring for Teddy. But I damn well should have. So no. When Steve told me, I didn’t tell you. I was scared, Tony, seriously scared for you!”
“You just let me run around not knowing. Like it was nothing!”
“You do not get to play that card with me!”, Harry was now getting angry himself, “Not you! You didn’t even tell me when you were dying. When you were slowly being poisoned. There was NOTHING you could do about Mom and Dad. NOTHING. I on the other hand could have done something to help you. Did you tell me? NO! But that was okay, I guess. You got help from someone else. Why bother telling your BROTHER that you were dying. And I fucking asked you point blank.”
“That’s not the same and you KNOW it!”, Tony yelled.
“Why? Because it doesn’t fit into your narrative? That’s why you are here, right? Tell me what you know. Watch me apologize and growl. Tell you you were right all along. And then to graciously accept me back? Tough luck.”
“I can’t… I can’t fucking believe you. How can you even compare these things?!”
“True. I was trying to protect you and possibly Steve’s friend. You were just protecting yourself. You are Tony Stark, after all, you can do ANYTHING. Why the hell would you need help?”
“How the hell is this about me now?! No. Just no. My parents were murdered and you chose to keep that from me. You chose to HELP their murderer.”
“I chose to help a brainwashed torture victim.”
“He’s a fucking killer!”
“So are you. So am I. What’s your excuse? What’s mine, for that matter?
You think it was easy for me? Finding out? Looking at him? They were our parents, Tony.”
“Well.”, Tony sneered, “Technically, they were my parents.”
Harry felt everything around him go quiet, except for the blood pounding in his ears.
“What did you just say to me? What did YOU just say to ME?! They were my parents. Mine. And no one can take that away from me. Not even you! The hell do you even think you are doing right now, mh? Lashing out on me now? What for? Provoke me until I beat the crap out of you, so you can spin it that way again? Poor little Tony Stark, severely screwed over by the world. Buhu, my Dad never had time for me. So sad. I now have a justification for every shitty thing I wanna do. My life is so hard. Buhu. My girlfriend left me. I made some horrible decisions and people died. But hey, not my fault. I am the victim here, right?”
Tony’s chin was quivering now, he was staring at Harry wide eyed.
“Grow the fuck up, Tony. For once in your life take responsibility for your own fucking life! You always expect everyone to help you. When you needed me, I was there. I came with you. I stood by your fucking side. Became CEO and had your BACK. And when I needed you? When I lost my wife you wallowed in your own pity. Poor Tony, doesn’t want to think about the fact that Ginny is gone. Never mind me. Never mind the CHILDREN. And now here you are again. I didn’t tell you, so I wronged you. Your friend’s chose to side against you. And everyone has left little Tony alone again! But that couldn't POSSIBLY have anything to do with him now, mh?!”
Harry stopped, when he saw movement behind Tony. It appeared the other members of his household had returned. Emmy and Wanda were staring at him open-mouthed, Johanna was holding onto the doorframe, her eyes glued onto him.
“Girls.” she said, “Let’s head upstairs. Showers sound like a nice idea.”
Neither Wanda nor Emmy moved, so Johanna took one arm each and almost dragged them out. Harry and Tony were just staring at each other. Not moving. Not blinking. Harry could hear Johanna upstairs, her voice loud and angry “What is this?! Back to bed. Now. Bewegung!”
Oh no, Harry thought. They had been so loud, the kids had definitely heard them.
“So that’s what you think of me? Quite… enlightening.”, Tony told him, his voice now sounding more hollow than anything else.
“You basically just told me I was only adopted, so why does my opinion matter anyway? I think you should leave. Now.”, Harry told him coldly. Not waiting for a response, not even waiting for Tony to leave, he just walked past him and up the stairs.
The hallway was dark and empty. He could hear the showers in the kids’ bathrooms running, both of them. When he made his way up to the 3rd floor, he could see light still on in Lily’s room. She switched it off the moment she realized he could probably see it. Smooth, his daughter, really smooth.
Like a zombie he moved into the master bedroom and sat down on his side of the bed. The shower in their bathroom was running as well.
His emotions were running amok. He was torn between anger and betrayal on the one side and horror and regret on the other. What had Tony dared to say to him? What had he said to Tony?
He was sitting upright, blankly staring towards the door. Tony had left, right? He wasn’t still downstair? He should check. Really. But he didn’t want to. He wanted to… punch something. Punch Tony. And then apologize. Tell him he was sorry and he loved him. Always would. What had Ron told him all those months ago? ‘Just because you always love each other, doesn’t mean you always like each other.”
“Harry, Schatz?”, he could hear Johanna coming out of the bathroom behind him. Could smell her shampoo.
The bed behind him dipped down and he felt her arms encircle him from behind, her damp bathrobe pressed into his back. Her wet hair held back by a towel. She carefully rested her face on his shoulder.
What did her shampoo smell like? He had never thought about that before. Something fruity.
“It’s going to be alright, Harry.”, she softly mumbled into his neck, “It’s going to be alright.”
“What did I do?”, he asked her, his own voice sounding so far away, so strange, “Oh God, what did I do?”
“You told him some things that were true and some that were very harsh. But all of which you have been carrying around for a long time now.”
“I… I shouldn’t have. I should… I shouldn’t have… we don’t do this. We don’t fight. We are Tony and Harry. We are a team.”
“Just because you don’t fight, doesn’t mean you are okay.”, Johanna started to soothingly rub his arm, “Fighting is good sometimes. We fight, don’t we? It clears the air. Gets the anger out. Lets wounds heal.”
“How do we come back from this?”
“With time. Time and forgiveness. And love. I believe in you, mh? You are Harry and Tony. You will be okay.”