~Broken Family~

Lullabye

A/N: I know it is not the Gwenley content you readers came for, but the Peter content... I'm trying to wrap it up. Please bear with me, 5 years is a surprisingly big gap to fill lol.

"Look..." Harley sniffed and wiped his nose on his plaid sleeve, unable to look any of them in the eye. "I--I think it would be best if you just all went home, okay? Just leave me here in the system in my home state. I'm--I'm not fit to go back to my mom's and--and I can't go back with you guys, so I---"

"No." Tony's voice sounded angry. They were standing outside of Happy's van in the street where Gwen had half-dragged him to, where he'd spent the last few minutes hyperventilating until he'd finally calmed down.

Squeezing his eyes closed and pushing down the burning hurt, Harley shook his head. "No, please just listen to me, you don't understand---"

"Tony said no, Harley!" Pepper said, grabbing him by the shoulders and staring him straight in the eye. Her eyes bore into his, forcing him to make eye contact. She looked almost as bad as she had on the day Peter and Morgan had disappeared. "Like it or not, alright? And it's not because we feel bad for you, it's not because you're almost eighteen and won't have anywhere else to go. It's because we love you."

Harley choked on a disbelieving cry. "W--what?"

"You don't think we love you just as ferociously as we loved your brother and sister?" Tony challenged. "Not even close. Look, you may have had real parents, you may have not called me dad, but you know what? You chose to come to us in your time of need, looking for a home. And we provided one. You made that choice, and now you're stuck with us."

Pepper nodded. "Mm-hm. We're gonna be there for your college graduation, embarrassing you in the front row like Tony always warned about. Because you are smart enough and you are going, and we're gonna be there for you when you propose to Gwen."

Harley's jaw dropped and Gwen snorted.

"Right." Tony took one of Harley's hands and clutched it tightly. "Just because they're gone doesn't mean we're going to stop loving you any less than we did before. It doesn't mean we love them any more than you. You're stuck with us, just like Peter said."

***

Gwen stayed with him all night.

Tony got a hotel room and he, Pepper, and Gwen all crammed in. Happy took a room down the hall, claiming he wanted more space. Since there were only two beds, Tony and Harley decided to bunk together and leave the other one for the girls, but Harley found he couldn't sleep at all. Tony started snoring as soon as his head hit the pillow, but Harley stayed wide awake, emotions tearing at his brain.

Pushing himself out of the bed, he wobbled over to the door and curled up in the corner, thinking about what he'd done.

How could everything have gone so horribly wrong? By leaving Tony, he'd destroyed a relationship with his number one role model, destroyed any chance of returning back to a normal life with his adoptive parents, no matter what they said. The fact that he had tried to leave them would always be hanging in the air. And by running from his mom, he'd crushed her, crushed any hopes of restarting a healthier relationship with her.

There was no way he could go back to her, of course. He knew that deep within himself, in the ten-year-old part of him that'd been totally ignored on the good days and yelled at and cussed out on the bad days. 

Beaten black and blue on the worst day, dragged away from his house and tossed into the back of a cop car a mere hour later.

Why did he have to ruin everything?

Slowly, he raised his head and looked over at Gwen's form underneath the blankets, the girl who had literally dropped everything and flown all the way over here just to look for him. Just to tell him he was wanted.

Maybe there's one relationship I can get back.

As the thought came to him, Gwen sat up, took one look at him, and joined him on the floor a few moments later, looking just as pretty in her ratty sweatshirt and worn-out shorts than when she did at homecoming. Without speaking a word, she reached over and grabbed one of his hands, which were clenched tightly together around his knees, and squeezed it.

Breathing a sigh of relief, inhaling her sweet scent, Harley put his head on her shoulder.

"Thank you," he whispered. "For coming back. For getting me."

Gwen's shoulders gently rose and fell as she took a deep breath, taking her other arm and wrapping it around his shoulders.

"Anytime," she whispered, her breath tickling his ear. "I'll do anything for you, you know? I love you. No matter how much I may try to deny it."

Harley twisted his head to smile up at her. "Sing me a lullabye, darling fiance?"

A light slap to the shoulder accompanied by Gwen's scoff was all he got in response. It was enough for him.