Work Text:
Bad Temper
The first time Maria Stark thought there was something wrong with her baby boy, was when Harry was two and a half. Well, not wrong per say, more different. Both Howard and Tony were, simply put, geniuses, so she was used to her family being somewhat different. She had thought that maybe with Harry she would have a chance at giving him a much more normal childhood than Tony. Or as normal as you could get, surrounded by maids, security personnel and a nanny. Although right now she didn't have one. The last one had been incompetent enough to let Harry run off and almost kill himself. The one before that had quit... QUIT… because Harry was such a handful. Maria would never be able to understand that. Little Harry was quite possibly the sweetest boy on the planet. He ate his food, he hardly ever cried (which still made Maria really angry, because she had a very good idea why) and if you spend time with him, he rewarded you with the most endearing smiles. The first nanny had said she needed to quit, because she obviously couldn’t keep up with him and was scared of getting him hurt. The second one had lost him. It was all a bit weird.
“You are just a big runner, right, love?”, she asked Harry lovingly and smoothed his wet hair. She was giving him a bath and he was just happily playing with the bright red fire engine Howard had given him last week. She knew they were spoiling him. She just really didn’t care.
“Mom, can I go with Dad to LA?”, Tony interrupted her musings.
“What? Why?”,she asked, turning around on the floor to face him while simultaneously trying to steady Harry, who had excitedly gotten up in the tub, when he saw Tony.
“There is a particle distributor there that I need for my project.”, Tony informed her. Maria had no idea what exactly he was talking about and Harry was raising his fire engine up towards Tony.
“Looki, Tony!”, he told his brother, “Looki here, Harry’s fire.”
“Very cool, Buddy. Keep loving in. Maybe Dad will buy you a big one.”
“Tony.”, Maria chastised as Harry accidently dropped his toy onto the floor outside the tub ,”Why exactly do you need to go to LA for that? Doesn't your father have this thing in New York? Harry, dear, wait a second. Mommy needs to talk to Tony for a moment.”
Harry was starting to fuss and desperately trying to reach for the toy.
“Tony, your Dad is leaving…”
“Harry’s fire!”
“Two seconds, Harry. Tony, you have…”
Maria stopped in the middle of her sentence. Tony was just staring at his brother in horror. Harry had happily set down in the tub again, fire engine back in his hands, babbling happily.
“Did that thing just fly up?”, Tony asked carefully.
“Of course not.”, Maria told him firmly, “He must have reached.”
“That far down? I do not think so. Are you a Jedi, Buddy?”
Harry was ignoring Tony now.
“Tony, did you do something dangerous to the toy? To make it fly and scare me, because…”
“Mom, I would not give anything like that to Harry. Ever. Come on, Buddy, let me see that.”, Tony carefully took the engine away from Harry and looked at it with interest.
“It’s basic plastic, Mom. Nothing special about it. Here Harry, wanna have it back? Come and get it.” He was holding the toy a little out of Harry’s reach and loosely so, as if to give it a chance to fly out of his hands.
“Don’t be silly, Tony, nothing is going to happen.”
And it really didn’t. Harry seemed quite happy to let Tony have his toy. Tony on the other hand did not go to LA with his Dad, instead he spent the next three weeks watching Harry like a hawk. They decided not to tell Howard for now and except Harry’s weird tendency to go missing, there wasn’t really anything weird going on. Well… maybe little things. But nothing to really worry about.
Harry was eight when for the first time ever something happened that both Maria and Howard could not argue away. Tony had just been send on a business trip to learn more about the workings of Stark Industries and every time something like that happened, Harry became moody. He HATED it when Tony wasn’t home and had been almost inconsolable every time Tony had left for MIT. And then today Howard told them that he was going to try and test some knew technology to try and find Steve Rogers. Normally Harry was always very excited about the mere possibility that Captain America could be found, even if that meant not seeing his Dad for a couple of weeks. Last summer Howard had even taken the boy on a four week expedition with him and Howard had proudly told Maria that Harry hadn’t once complained about being bored. He had taken Tony at that age once, too. It had been a disaster.
But now Harry wasn’t excited. He was angry at being left behind by both Howard and Tony.
“Why can't I come?”
“Because you have school.”, Howard told Harry with more than a hint of annoyance. These kind of discussions weren’t his thing. Especially not, when they were happening in his workspace. Normally very much a protected space for him.
“Don’t be like that, Love.”, Maria tried to appease Harry, “We are going to spend some time together. We can go to some musicals. Dad hates those anyway.”
“But I don't wanna be left behind like a baby.”, Harry refused, “ And Tony doesn't like musicals either. They are for babies, he said. And I am not a baby.”
Maria had to admit that that did sting a little. He was very much her baby and she always thought he enjoyed spending time with her.
“Do not talk like that to your mother.”, Howard snapped.
It wasn’t helping. Harry was getting full on angry now. Maria briefly wondered where he got that temper from. Weird thoughts like that often hit her unexpectedly these days.
“Stop making an issue out of nothing, Harry. That is not like you. And it doesn't suit you either.”, Howard chastised Harry. Normally angry words like that did work, but again: It didn't seem to be a normal night.
“Stop treating me like a baby!”, Harry shouted angrily, his face white in anger and his fists balled at his side. And then everything just went to hell. The electronics in Howard’s lab blew up all at once and Harry, Howard and Maria were left standing in the middle of sparks and smoke. Howard’s mouth was open in horror, Harry stood frozen in shock and fear… and Maria just did the practical thing: she grabbed both of their hands and pulled them out of the smoky room, as the fire suppression system deployed.
“Are the two of you fine? Where you hurt?!”, both of them were staring at Maria as if she had suddenly grown a second head. She was probably taking this too well. Then again, in her heart she had accepted that Harry was special a very long time ago. Howard apparently had not. He had a tendency to miss things that were right in front of him. The main reason he and Tony seemed to clash more and more these days.
Harry looked more guilty than shocked, now that Maria was really looking at him.
“This is why we don't throw childish fits.”, she told him sternly.
Howard made a wheezing sound.
“I am really sorry.”, Harry mumbled, tears in his eyes, “I didn't mean to. I was just so angry, I don't even know why anymore.”
He tried to discreetly wipe the tears away.
“Harry, we all do stupid things sometimes, mh? But I fear you will have to help clean up the mess.”
“There are things in there he really shouldn't touch.”, Howard informed them, his expression quickly changing to the one Maria had come to expect of him when he was trying to solve a mystery.
“Like your father bringing dangerous things home again.”, Maria continued, but Howard was simply ignoring the not so subtle critique. He was staring intently at Harry, who was getting increasingly uncomfortable.
“Howard, stop that. Our son is not one of your projects.”
“Mh? Oh no. Of course not, I was just wondering if he might have inherited it.”
Both Maria and Harry froze. They had not made a secret out of the fact that Harry was adopted, but it had never come up like that. Harry hadn’t wanted to know anything about his biological parents, although Maria had told him that they had died when he was a baby. It was a strange night after that. Harry had been shaken to the core and Maria and Howard had actually let him sleep in their bed. Nestled in between them, he had fallen asleep almost immediately and was now breathing so deeply that Maria was sure he was really asleep. Harry was terrible at faking sleep.
“She called him a freak.”, Howard told her softly in the safety of the dark. She knew who ‘she’ was, of course.
Howard had never told her exactly what had prompted him to just take the baby and run, but she knew from the expression on his face and Harry’s unusual behaviour that it had not been good.
“Harry is NOT a freak.”
“Oh course he is not.”, Howard told her forcefully. She could see the shadow of him carefully smoothing out Harry’s ever wild hair.
“It just means he is special in a different way than we thought.”, Maria told him firmly.
“How did you expect him to be special then?”, he asked, sounding honestly curious.
“All kids are special to their parents. Ours are just special to other people as well.”