It Only Takes a Second

- IX -

"Hey kiddo, how're you feeling today?" Tony asked, watching as Harry shuffled into the kitchen slowly. He glanced at the time on the StarkPad he had been using and frowned. It was 4 a.m.

"M'okay," Harry murmured, pulling out a barstool with his good hand and taking a seat at the opposite side of the long island.

Bruce was amazed at how quickly his body was healing physically- he had never seen anyone recover this quickly, other than Peter and Steve, but that could be explained by their superhuman abilities.

Harry, however, was already walking with only a boot, his ankle having healed at a rapid pace. The cast he had on his wrist had also been replaced with a sleek brace that Tony had designed to help him achieve a full range of motion without any pain.

But even Tony's most developed tech couldn't help Harry's struggling mental state.

"What're you doing up at 4 in the morning?" Tony chuckled, but under the laugh was concern. It wasn't healthy for someone recovering to be getting this little sleep.

"Time zones, I suppose," Harry brushed the question off with the lie. He had already gotten used to the time zone differences in the three weeks he had been staying at the tower.

In all reality, he was just trained to get up insanely early so that he could fix breakfast before Uncle Vernon woke. He had learned very quickly that if Uncle Vernon was left waiting for anything, he would be punished heavily for it. Even if it wasn't his own fault.

"Oh yeah," Tony responded, seeing through the lie immediately. Harry had stayed up with them until 11 last night, so he knew that time zone change or not, Harry should still be sleeping.

The two sat in silence for a moment, before Tony stood up.

"Look at me being rude. Can I fix you anything? Coffee? Breakfast?" Tony asked, walking to the other side of the counter.

"No, no, I'm okay!" Harry replied, too quickly. Tony raised an eyebrow at him quizzically.

"Really, I'm fine," he tried again, a little quieter.

"Alright..." Tony said, trailing off. He could tell that Harry had come out here with the intentions of being alone, and despite everything inside of him that was screaming 'stay with him', Tony sighed in defeat.

"Well, I think I'm going to go get a few hours of shut eye before Pepper gets up. Are you alright here by yourself?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you," Harry replied, keeping his head bowed. Tony wanted so badly for the kid to just look at him again with those big green eyes, but it had been days since Harry had made eye contact with him. It was if they were taking one step forward and two steps back with progress.

"Okay, then I'll see you in a few hours okay. Tell Jarvis to wake me or any of the others if you need anything," Tony said, wandering out of the kitchen with one more glance in Harry's direction.

As soon as Tony was gone and Harry had heard the door to his and Pepper's room close, Harry carefully slid off of the barstool. He had originally come into the kitchen to cook breakfast for everyone, but he hadn't expected to see Tony sitting there.

He had watched the team cook enough times in the past few weeks that he knew roughly where everything was. Quietly, he began pulling out ingredients and materials he would need to make pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage.

Harry had made the meal so many times that he had the recipe down to a fine science. He had never tried his own cooking, but based on the neutral or even pleased reactions he had gotten from the Dursley's, he assumed that his cooking was at least mediocre.