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1
Once Tony Stark had quite literally driven out of his life, all Harley could feel was bitter disappointment. The chance that Tony Stark (the Tony Stark!) would crash into his monotonous life was even less than one in a million, yet somehow Iron Man had defied those odds and got in anyway. Then, he'd dropped Harley like a sack of potatoes as soon as he didn't need him anymore.
They always say never meet your heroes.
Over the next few days, Harley reasoned with himself that such a rich and influential man such as Tony Stark would never have time for a kid like him to begin with and he was a fool for even getting his hopes up. He resumed his dull routine of getting his sister ready for school, going to school, walking home alone, then wallowing in his garage/lab. Until one day, the garage was suddenly a real life lab.
As he'd walked through the front door, his mom who was home from work for a change had practically carried him into the garage, a smile covering her normally stressed face. She'd looked on as her son ran around the garage/lab fascinated and enthralled with the new high-tech gadgets that littered the shelves.
When he read the note from the Mechanic, he suddenly didn't feel so alone again. The Mechanic may have left Tennessee, but he clearly hadn't forgotten the little genius kid that lived up in Rose Hill.
Whoever said 'never meet your heroes' had clearly never looked up to Tony Stark.
2
When Peter had been offered the place at Stark Industries he thought it had been a cover for his shenanigans as Spider-Man. It turned out that Mr Stark was serious and saw potential in Peter.
Before the whole Spider-Man gig, Peter had desperately wanted to be a scientist of some kind. As a child, he rarely heard about current scientist, only ones from the past who were long gone, until he'd seen Mr Stark on the TV.
Curiously, he'd asked Uncle Ben who the man on the screen was, only to be awed in response as he was told that the man was a scientist and a engineer. Desperate to learn more, Peter threw himself into learning all he could, reading stack upon stacks of Mr Stark's papers to further his knowledge on topic he knew school would never touch on. The man quickly became his hero.
So, when Mr Stark had proven that his offer was legitimate, Peter was over the moon. Working with Mr Stark was his childhood dreams come true. The man re-sparked his passion for science that had been neglected as he figured out how to function in his enhanced body.
Without Mr Stark, Peter could admit that he would've only further neglected his studies to focus on Spider-Man, and that he'd needed an experienced superhero to remind him that although he was now one of them, he was also still just a kid; no matter how much he may resent it, he needed the balance between the two.
Peter would forever be thankful that Mr Stark had shown him how important that balance was.
3
Whichever way you looked at it, the limited schools in Rose Hill, Tennessee could not cater to Harley's genius. Harley was only growing more frustrated with the school work that didn't challenge him, refusing to attend school all together and hiding away in his room or his lab all day.
Miss Keener knew that she needed to get her son an education that challenged him, and luckily she knew a man that could provide that.
Once Harley and his sister had gone to bed, Miss Keener called Tony Stark, hating to ask him for favours when he'd already been so generous towards her family, but she knew that the man had been a child genius himself and would understand Harley's position. Tony had offered to tutor Harley once a week, as well as emailing him challenging work, to keep the kid engaged and learning. Miss Keener almost broke down crying with gratitude.
The next morning when Harley woke, his mom was sat at the kitchen table with a laptop, and slowly she talked her son through the proposed tutoring and work that would be different and more fitted to him than the schoolwork was. Harley's attention was well and truly grasped. Of course, he hated school, but that didn't mean he hated learning, so the opportunity that was being presented to him was beyond amazing.
After a month of tutoring and work courtesy of the Mechanic himself, Harley was finally enjoying learning again.
4
Peter had never been a self-assured person.
He tended to focus on his flaws and setbacks rather than his gifts and privileges. To his despair he caught himself picking apart his character rather than reflecting on his progress.
Embarrassingly, Peter had tried to talk it through with Aunt May one time, after all, they had a close relationship and they told each other everything (minus Spider-Man of course) but Peter found that he couldn't talk to his Aunt about this. He didn't want her looking at him any differently, so Peter decided to bottle it up.
When he'd met Mr Stark, the man had immediately picked up on his lack of self-confidence. Sure, he could fake it, but Mr Stark had seen straight through it. Now, Mr Stark was a businessman and businessmen oozed confidence.
Mr Stark boosted Peter's confidence; for example, he would praise him for any amount of good he did, which was a huge shock as at school he couldn't be smart without the risk of Flash making his life a living hell for the next month. As well as this, he would commend Peter every time he created a new web or protected the streets as Spider-Man, which was something that no one else could congratulate him on because no one else knew.
Slowly but surely, Peter became more confident in himself. He wasn't constantly doubting himself or comparing himself to others because he was Peter Parker goddamn it, and he didn't need to try and be anyone but himself. Even May noticed the change in him, pleased that her nephew seemed to be growing out of his self-doubt and turning into a young man.
And although Peter knew that he had changed his own attitude, he'd have to credit Mr Stark for showing him how.
5
Perhaps the best thing that Tony had done for Peter and Harley, was introducing them to each other.
Both boys were the same age, although it certainly didn't feel like it as he'd met Harley when the kid was barley scraping twelve whereas he'd met Peter when the kid was fifteen. They had common interests, could relate to the 'double life' as Harley was just a kid from Tennessee yet was milling around Stark Tower like he owned it and Peter had Spider-Man, and they'd both looked up to Tony as a hero in the beginning, and now respected him as the father figure in their lives.
With Peter, Harley became far less lonely. In his little town, there was only a small group of kids his age, so the chance there would be another genius science-obsessed in his grade was basically none existent. Peter lived on the bustling streets of Queens, so of course whilst he'd had his fair share of bullies, he'd also made friends with people like himself. He'd introduced them all to Harley and within the next five minutes, Harley was firmly planted within their friendship circle. Although Harley lived his town with his house and his lab, a glimpse at the life he could have in Queens was sorely tempting.
With Harley, Peter had been officially introduced to the 'bots: Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers. The 'bots were eager to meet Peter, but were far more friendly with him than they would have been as they saw that he was friends with Harley. Harley taught him how to interact with the 'bots who, to be fair, were like a group of children begging for attention. Eyes glinting, Harley had told him that the 'bits favourite game was catch, and so they'd spent the next two hours tossing tennis balls around the workshop and the 'bots excitedly whirled and squealed to catch them.
The boys would forever be grateful to Tony for introducing them.
+1
Peter and Harley wanted to do something nice for Tony. After all, the man had quite literally transformed their lives. He'd nurtured their education, he'd helped them grow as people, and most importantly, he'd introduced them.
Harley had been noising around on the Stark Industries server when he'd found out that the Mechanic's birthday was next week.
"Should we do something for him?" Peter questioned, putting down the laboratory equipment to join Harley on the ratty, old couch.
"We should get him, like, the best present ever." Harley replied, logging out of the servers to give Peter his full attention.
"I know what to get him." Peter grinned.
\/\/\/
On the morning of May 29th, Peter and Harley arrived at Stark Tower extremely earlier, allowed entrance by Friday. As quietly as they could, they each took a seat at the breakfast bar, and placed their joint present in the middle of the table.
"May I just say, I think the present will be a hit." Friday's voice grinned.
Peter and Harley smiled nervously at each other at that. They prayed that Tony would like it.
Half an hour later, Tony stumbled into the kitchen, still in his pyjamas and his hair sticking out at all angles. His glasses were firmly on his face because damnit he was getting old, leave him be and overall he looked 0% like Tony Stark, CTO of Stark Industries and 100% like Tony.
Blearily he looked up and saw his boys sat at the island beaming at him, and on the counter was a...was a dog?
"Happy birthday!" They both cheered, holding their arms out to motion to the dog.
"What's going on?" Tony asked, then mentally slapped himself for being so eloquent in the morning.
"Well it's your birthday and we wanted to get you something amazing." Harley began.
"Because, we want to say thank you for everything that you've done for us...so we got you a dog." Peter continued, pulling at his sleeves in a nervous habit.
"Not just any dog, she's trained to calm people down from anxiety attacks." Harley added, with that goddamn all-knowing look in his eye.
"Overall, we...we just really wanted to say thank you 'cause, you've kinda become like a dad to us, Mr Stark." Peter trailed off.
Tony could feel himself choking up. What had he done to deserve such good and wholesome people in his life? Looking at the counter, a little Jack Russell Terrier was sat in the middle of it, baiting him to make the first move. She had a dainty pale blue collar around its neck to show that she well and truly belonged to Tony.
"Thank you, so much." Tony smiled softly, his voice shaking ever so slightly.
Slowly, Tony began to pet the dog until she was confident enough to rub her head in her owners hand. Sneakily, Harley and Peter had come up to either side of him and embraced him into the first hug he'd had in years. These kids could claim all they wanted that Tony had helped them, but really, it was the other way around.
Then, as he looked at the engraving on the dogs collar, he burst out laughing.
"You called my dog Salt?" He chuckled, messing up their hair.
"Well the name Pepper was taken." Harley cheekily replied.
Tony's said it before and he'll say it again: he loves these kids like his own sons.