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"Hey, Pete. I actually want to talk to you about something." Tony said, sitting down on his couch. He had invited Peter over to his lake house that day, which was nothing unusual, since Peter was always there. Pepper walked out of the kitchen area to join them, after putting Morgan to bed.
"Yeah? What is it?" Peter asked with curiosity, sitting on the loveseat in the living room area.
"Alright, so...how old were you in 2013?"
"I was...eleven...or twelve."
"Okay, so you probably remember that whole terrorist issue that I had? Where I went missing and everyone thought I was dead?"
"Wow, this is a lovely conversation." Peter chuckled. seeing Pepper also smirk a little.
"Do you remember it, or not?" Tony laughed back.
"Yeah, yeah, I remember." He decided not to mention the reason why he remembered it so vividly. Mainly because he was embarrassed about the story. Little eleven year old him would cry at the tv because he was so scared for his idol. Ben had to hide all the newspapers and skip the news whenever it was family night and they wanted to watch something.
"Right, I don't wanna bore you with the details, so I'll cut this short. After I, stupidly, gave my address to a terrorist and he destroyed my home," Peter caught Pepper rolling her eyes. "my suit flew me to Tennessee. I met a kid there, his name is Harley Keener and he's the same age as you."
Peter let out a fake gasp. "Are you replacing me, Mr. Stark?"
"Technically, I replaced him since I met you afterwards."
"You're making it worse. And get to the point." Pepper added.
"Right, point is, Harley helped me out a lot back then and I think it's time you met each other." Tony said. "He's actually...kinda...a big part of my life."
"Huh...how come I've never heard of him before, then?" Peter asked.
"Because, well...I only recently realized how much he means to me after...everything went down." Tony explained. They all had a silent agreement to not mention the blip. "Actually, what happened opened my eyes to a lot of things." He added. Peter knew he was talking about him.
"Okay...when do I get to meet him?" Peter asked, causing Tony to smile.
"How about next week?"
"That works." Peter nodded.
"I think you'll like him, Pete. He's real smart, very witty and sarcastic."
"I think I know why you like him so much." Peter mumbled.
"Oh yeah? And why's that?"
"C'mon. Witty, smart and sarcastic? He's a mini version of you!" Peter said with a smirk.
"I said the exact same thing, Peter." Pepper said.
Tony scoffed.
Today was the day. Peter had to admit, he was a little nervous. There weren't many kids that Tony Stark liked, other than himself and Morgan. So it was also a little surprising, especially because Tony met Harley before he had 'a change of heart' as the journalists put it.
Was Peter a little jealous? Maybe. Did he think there was a possibility that Tony liked Harley more than him? Yeah, yeah he did.
But he pushed those feelings down and put on a happy face, for his mentor's sake.
He waited at the lake house with the others. Tony was hovering near the door, as Happy was supposed to be dropping Harley off any minute now. Pepper was in the kitchen, making some snacks for everyone and Peter was with Morgan in the living room. She had asked Peter to draw with him, and he couldn't say no to that.
"Hey, Mo, can I have the blue crayon please?" He asked politely, whereas Morgan made a grimace.
"But, Petey! Giraffe's aren't blue!" She giggled. Peter was coloring in a giraffe, whereas Morgan was coloring in a unicorn.
"Maybe this one is?" Peter said with a shrug and the girl laughed more. Peter smiled. They were both interrupted by a knock at the door and Tony's hurried footsteps to answer it.
"Hey, kid! Good to see you!" He heard Tony exclaim.
"Hey, old man." He heard Harley respond. Peter stood up from the floor to go over and meet Harley.
"Wait for me!" Morgan said, also getting up from the floor. Peter picked her up and placed her on his hip before making his way to the front door.
His eyes fell on Harley as soon as he rounded the corner. He looked sixteen, just like Peter. He had light brown, straight hair and blue eyes. He was quite tall, the same height as Tony, which meant he was taller than Peter. Overall, he looked pretty good.
It only made Peter more jealous. He knew he was being ridiculous, so he shook those thoughts away.
"Daddy!" Morgan squealed as she wriggled in Peter's arms, so he placed her down. She rushed up to Tony and he scooped her up.
"This is Morgan, my daughter." He smiled and showed her off to Harley. Morgan waved proudly at the teenager.
"She looks like you." Harley said, waving back. "Hi, Morgan. I'm Harley."
"And this," Tony beckoned Peter closer, "is Peter Parker. He's my adoptive son." He said with a smile.
Peter stuck his hand out for Harley to shake. "Hi, nice to meet you Harley." He said, nervously. Harley accepted the handshake.
"Nice to meet you too, Parker." The teen said with a smirk. Peter loosened up a bit. After all, Harley seemed pretty cool.
"Okay, I have a lot of questions about this." Harley said, gesturing to both Peter and Tony. "So why don't you guys tell me your story while I eat your whole entire kitchen because I'm starving."
Peter laughed. Yeah, Harley was pretty cool.
They were all eating lunch as Tony told the story of how he and Peter knew each other (leaving out Spider-Man, of course) and Peter was actually having a good time. Harley was funny, and just like Tony said, he was smart. He was just as smart as Tony and Peter.
Which was how they ended up in the small lab Tony had in his house, at 10pm. They were simply messing around with one of the Iron Man suits, since Tony didn't use them anymore.
"I can't believe you tried to sue Peter's school." Harley said as he barked out a laugh.
"What? It was totally justified! If that dickhead, Flash, wouldn't stop leaving him alone, I gave Pete full permission to punch him in the face." Tony said, defending himself. "I think it was unfair of the school to suspend the kid."
"In my defense, I wasn't feeling too great that day. That punch was on impulse." Peter added.
"Nah, dude. I think it's great that you punched him. Even if you were feeling fine." Harley said.
"Tony!" They all stopped working at Pepper's voice shouting down the stairs. "Morgan woke up and she won't go back to sleep unless you tuck her in!"
Tony sighed and stood up. "I'll be right back, be careful." He said and made his way up the stairs.
"So...you're pretty good at the engineering stuff." Peter said to the other boy, trying to think of something to talk about.
"Yeah, I kinda always have been. Plus, I've been practicing for years ever since Tony gave me all that equipment." Harley responded, head down in the work. Peter looked up.
"He gave you equipment?"
"Yeah. When he left Tennessee to go back home. He gave me a parting gift."
"Huh. That's pretty cool."
"Yep, it was." Harley smiled at the memories. "So, I was thinking of staying for a week. Would it be cool if you could show me around? Introduce me to your friends, show me the places you hang out, all that?" Harley asked, turning back to his work.
Peter perked up. "Of course! I mean, I'm from Queens, obviously, so I can show you around there."
"Great." Harley smiled. "You're pretty cool, Parker."
Peter smiled. "You're not too bad yourself, Keener."
Peter scolded himself for ever feeling intimidated by Harley. He had no need to feel jealous of him, and he couldn't wait to start a friendship with the boy.