A Second Family

-Chapter 22-

  Peter was anxiously tapping his foot in front of him against the seat of the car. Happy had already been gotten on him about "some random kid" sitting in the car. Luckily Ned is an expert in complaining until he get what he wants, so Happy had no choice but to give in.

  "Would you quit kicking me seat?" Happy complained and Peter immediately ceased his obnoxious kicking. When they pulled into the garage Ned and Harley could still not stop jabbering about literally everything~ what they were going to do, how excited they were to be in the Avengers house~ things along those lines.

Peter was still a bit upset by the fact that Ned invited Harley, not that he didn't like Harley, it just wasn't his place. "Hey Peter!" Harley jumped in front of him suddenly with a big grin on his face. "Do you have any cool video games we could play together. At home I didn't have many, but I have to say, I'm basically an expert at every game in the arcade."

  Parker decided to just ignore his stressed out feeling. So what if Mister Stark gets mad, it's not like he'd throw Peter out on the streets. Right? "Yeah! There's basically any console you could imagine."

  About two months ago, Peter was practically on hands and knees, begging Tony Stark to purchase him a simple 3DS, his last one was in the apartment when it caught fire. Eventually growing tired of his whining and begging, Tony did in fact purchase the 3DS and a number of games to go with it.

  Throughout the next week as Peter was basically playing his games nonstop, he always saw Tony lingering around him, trying to catch glimpse of what the kid was playing. Peter realized what was going on; Tony Stark wanted to give the 3DS a try for himself.

  Alas, after letting Mister Stark give the game a try, he practically became addicted and Tony at that point had definitely spent more hours on the 3DS than Peter. He could spend hours on end fishing in the little Animal Crossing rivers or looking for treasure in every single Legend of Zelda game available to the 3DS.

  Peter was growing annoyed so one day he approached Tony Stark about it, "Mister Stark, why don't you get your own game? You're kind of addicted to mine and I think Pepper's getting worried."

  "I am not addicted to your stupid game, kid. Believe me," he scoffed  whilst moving around the joystick with his thumb to maneuver Yoshi around the Mario Kart track.

  "You've been playing it for the past three hours since I've gotten home from school," Peter deadpanned, nearly glaring at the man. "Who knows how long you were playing while I was away."

  "Y'know, I bought this for you, Pete, I think I have some right to play it," he defended himself with an eye roll and locked eyes on the track as he crossed the finish line. "First place! I bet you couldn't beat that if you tried, kid!"

  At that, an idea popped into Peter's head, "Nah I'd be way better than you, I guess we'll never know- hold on. Did you know if you bought your own game we'd be able to play multiplayer and truly see who is the best racer."

  Tony practically threw Peter's 3DS across the room as he jumped off the couch, "FRIDAY! Order me a brand new 3DS, one far superior to Peter's." The kid happily held his game in his hand, knowing that he successfully gotten his back. "Oh it's on Pete!" And he stormed off to the lab.

  Since then, Tony had been completely fascinated by all sorts of video games, purchasing a new console whenever he felt like it. He even had a number of vintage games, Stark was very fond of the Nintendo 64.

•~•

  Harley was practically in awe as they arrived to the common area where, to Peter's dismay, Bruce was reading a book, "Hey Peter, I see you brought some friends home with you?" He shut his book and stood up to greet the guests.

"Woah!" Harley's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Y-You're the Hulk!"

"Well yes," his face was in a sort of half smile. "But, you can just call me Bruce."

"It's so nice to meet you Banner- I mean Bruce. Banner." Ned seemed to be practically hyperventilating. Harley didn't know this yet, but Bruce Banner, not the Hulk, was pretty much worshiped amongst many Midtown High students.

"It's great to meet you all," he stuck his hands in his pants pockets and looked to Peter. "I should uh- get back to my book though." And he walked off to a different room, taking his book with him.

"Did we scare him away?" Harley frowned as Parker plopped himself down in front of the television.

  "No, don't worry, he can be like that sometimes," Peter held out a number of games. "Mario Kart, Smash Bros., or Mario Party?"

  "Definitely Smash Bros! I wanna beat all you, I'm a pro at this game!" Ned sat down next to his best friend as he put the cartridge into the system and handing each boy a controller.

  As the teens began playing, Harley was struggling at first but eventually got the hand of it, even managing to win a match.

  In between rounds all three nearly jumped in their seats when they heard a voice behind them, "Kid, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Peter twisted around to see Tony Stark practically glaring daggers at him. "I know for a fact I've told you that you are not allowed to play Smash Bros. without me." Iron Man took a seat behind the boys.

  Ned was nearly falling over at seeing the one and only Tony Stark in his presence. Harley in the other hand just had a smile on his face, "Hey Tony!"

  "Hello?" His replied seemed like more of a question as Peter tosses him the last Switch remote. It had been a number of years since Tony last saw Harley and now, he hardly recognized the boy.

  "C'mon! It hasn't been that long," Harley laughed.

  "Mister Stark," Peter interrupted, he didn't know if these two actually knew each other. "He goes to my school and came over to hang out. His name's Harley, he says he knows you."

  A look of recognition appeared on Tony's face,  "Ah. Tennessee Harley. Helped me out in a pinch. It's been awhile. You live here now?"

  Parker had to say he was surprised, they actually knew each other. "I won a school scholarship ship here. I'm just that smart," Harley laughed partly sarcastically. Peter wasn't like Harley's tone, it wasn't that he was being disrespectful, but he seemed to be acting much chummier with Tony than even Peter knew he was. He wasn't jealous. Again. Not jealous.

  "That's great kiddo," Tony smiled. "I'm gonna jump in on your game here. Paid for it with my money, so don't bother stopping me."

A/N
I'm seeing Endgame on Saturday. Oof. Imma need some serious mental help after this. I can sense the tears I'm gonna cry in a few days.