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three (not so wise) brothers
December in New York City and the Avengers compound was, as always, abundant with activity. It wasn’t save-the-world-level activity but as Harley Keener watched the chaos ensue around him he couldn’t help but feel they were somehow heading towards it. Nate had been given, or had rather coaxed himself, one too many hot chocolates which had triggered his newly diagnosed ADHD and had sent the mildly enhanced seven-year-old “like totally doolally” (to quote Sadie Clarke) and had lead pretty much the entire Avengers team plus Harley, Peter and several of their friends on a wild goose chase around the tower. It was, rather obviously, pretty hard to get your hands on a hyperactive seven-year-old with the ability to climb ceilings.
Peter was their best chance but with his renewed powers not quite back at full force yet and possessing an abundant refusal to ever direct them towards the young boy, the Parker boy’s feet were staying placed firmly on the ground. Harley eventually sat back. He’d seen Nate with a sugar rush before and knew well enough that the boy would soon enough settle down and tire himself out before any damage was done, and they could always put up the Christmas decorations the next day.
True to form, Nate stopped his incessant giggling and running around after a few minutes and fell gracefully from the ceiling onto Harley’s lap on the sofa. The boy made no secret of the fact that Harley was his favourite person in the tower, and the only one other than his newly adoptive father James Rhodes who could properly simmer him down after a heightened day. Harley smiled to himself as Nate cooed in his arms and drifted off to sleep as everyone else, still flushed and panicked, sighed and sat where they had been standing just seconds before. Peter moved towards Harley and sat down next to him.
“Hey, how’re we doing?” Rhodey asked a few minutes later, ever so gently stroking the hair of his now sleeping son as he snoozed on Harley’s lap, “Little man really wore himself out there.”
“We’re good” Harley said quietly back, “You sure you’re not gonna miss him too much over the next few days? Damn Washington trips.”
“I know but duty calls” Rhodey sighed, “Luckily, they needed me this week and not next. I doubt even Fury’s as callous as to rip me away from Natey on our first Christmas together.”
“He’d be needing two eyepatches if he tried” Peter smirked
“Besides, I know he’ll be fine with you guys” Rhodey grinned, “He loves his big brothers, and he’s slowly worming his way into your father’s tin heart.”
“I heard that!” Tony bellowed from across the room. Peter smirked as Harley dramatically shushed Tony and rolled his eyes.
“That man has no regard for noise levels” he grumbled as Nate frowned and stirred a little, “You don’t have to worry Rhodey, he’ll be fine with us.”
“I knew I could trust you” Rhodey replied with a smile, ruffling Harley’s hair before moving away to have a whispered bicker with Tony by the fridge. Peter smirked as Harley blushed.
“What?” Harley demanded of his brother.
“Nothing” Peter sighed, “It’s just your Daddy issues know no bounds. You’re redder than Cooper Barton was after he accidentally brushed MJ’s boob at Thanksgiving dinner.”
“Oh like you’re one to talk” Harley shot back good-naturedly, “There’s a lot of concessions I’ll make for you being better than me, Parker, but when it comes to craving affection from grown ass men due to the complete lack of positive male role models in our lives we’re at a straight tie. Stalemate, if you will.”
“Fair enough” Peter said with a smile, “To be fair, I did nearly cry last week when Happy complimented that dumb chair we had to make in woodshop.”
“It’s a good chair, I taught you well” Harley grinned
“Teach me? You didn’t teach me” Peter shot back, “You wanted no part of the damn project.”
“I taught you through osmosis.”
“You’re exhausting.”
“You’re ugly.”
“You’re ugly.”
“Psshh, neither of us are ugly” Harley rolled his eyes, “We’re stone cold foxes, the boy-next-door heartthrobs of our generation, think of a more creative insult.”
Peter sighed and sat back.
“I’m not really in a bantery insulting one another kind of mood” he confessed, snuggling in to lay his head on Harley’s shoulder, “Tough patrol today. Lots of families on the street for Christmas, I’m trying to help them but there’s only so much I can do on my own.”
“Then you won’t do it on your own” Harley retorted.
Peter furrowed his eye-brows and gave Harley an inquisitive look.
“What do you-?” he began to ask just as Harley tipped his head back and looked up at the ceiling with a knowing and troublesome smirk plastered across his face. Peter sighed.
“FRIDAY, find the name of a non-religious affiliated food shelter in Queens” he announced, “I think it’s high time the residents of this Tower started giving back a little more.”
“Harley, you can’t just-“
“Found three that may be to your liking, young sir” the A.I. replied almost instantly, “I’m afraid Boss will insist on doing his own vetting procedures on these locations before he deems them suitable for you to go and help out in, however.”
“Damn right I will” Tony said appearing behind the boys and making them both joke, “Honestly? This is the closest thing I get to teenage rebellion from you two selfless hooligans. Appropriating a homeless shelter.”
“Ahh, but would you have us any other way?” Harley asked with a wink
“No, I guess not” Tony sighed, “Fine. All day tomorrow, the three of us are going down to that shelter and turning it around. Go big or go home.”
“Looking forward to it” Peter said with a smile, “I’m going to text MJ and the others. I know they’ll want to help out as well.”
“Whatever people say about your guys’ generation is strictly untrue” Tony said with a soft, almost choked, nature to his voice and gave both teenagers a kiss on the head before moving away, grabbing Pepper by the hand and whispering something in her ear that made her gasp. Peter rolled his eyes as they disappeared from the room and headed ‘elsewhere’. Both boys were blushing at such open affection from their adoptive father.
“Don’t say a fucking word” Harley sniffed.
“He loves us so much” Peter moaned, resting his head on Harley’s shoulder once again, “Holy fuck, Harls, we’re loved baby.”
Harley laughed and stroked Nate’s hair once again.
“Life’s crazy” he agreed, “This time last year….man, this time last year was bad. Evan was beating down on me every day, Mom was either too tired or too under his thumb to care and I had no friends whatsoever. I only had you and you were on the other side of the god damn country. My sister’s on the other side of the god damn world. Life sucked and now…well, now I have everything….”
“You deserve it” Peter hummed, “You really do. And I know this year’s been crazy and we’ve been through so much, but…I dunno, if I had the choice between where I was when I was on the streets and everything that’s been thrown at us this last year, I know what I’d pick.”
“Me too” Harley smirked, before tilting his head back, “God, we’re really fucked up. You’d take getting kidnapped and tortured, I’d take being stabbed and almost getting killed….all because we happened to have a family when all those things happened.”
“It’s not fucked up to want to not be alone” Peter shrugged, “Obviously, I’d have rather not been kidnapped and all that, but look at we’ve got now that we didn’t before. A whole ass family.”
Harley smiled and kissed Nate’s hair as the boy stirred and woke up a little. He initially looked worried, as he always did when he woke up, before his features softened as his eyes landed on the two smiling teenagers he’d come to know as his brothers over the last few months.
“I’m sorry” he muttered sadly, “Didn’t mean to be annoying.”
“You’re never annoying, bud” Harley reassured him, “Just get a little bit lost in yourself sometimes, but it’s alright, we’re here for you, ain’t we Pete?”
“Course we are” Peter said with a smile as Harley placed Nate between them, Nate sheepishly cuddled up to Peter’s side and allowed him to put an arm around the young boy’s shoulder, “Always. And you’re allowed to be excited about Christmas, kiddo. I know I am.”
“Room looks cool” Nate said with a grin as he looked at the now fully decorated lounge room, “No angel on the tree though…”
“Good point” Harley yawned, “Guess Bruce and Nat decided to save the most important job for our number one boy after all.”
Nate giggled as Harley lifted him up and allowed him to place the angel on top of the tree. The younger boy kissed him on the cheek as he was lowered back down, and Harley fought back tears, trying to come to terms with just how wonderful his life was now.
Peter squeezed his hand.
“Three brothers” he said softly as Nate slid out from Harley’s grasp and sat himself down on the floor. His two older brothers joined him.
“I love you boys” Harley yawned as Nate climbed on to his lap, “So freakin’ much.”
“We love you too silly!” Nate announced before tackling Harley to the floor. He fell backwards with exaggerated momentum as began to tickle Nate, who laughed hysterically. Peter snapped a picture of them on his phone before piling on to assist Nate in his quest to tickle Harley back into submission.
They won. It may have been at the cost of some air in their lungs, one of Bruce’s handmade straw woodland creatures and almost the entire Christmas tree, but they won all the same.