It Only Takes a Second

- XLIX -

"You two suck, you know that right?" Harry groaned, hand cramping as he scrawled yet another note in his notebook.

"If you want us to get an official wedding planner, we will. You do have an awful lot on your plate right now," Steve acknowledged. Harry glanced up with him, scowling.

"Are you insinuating that I'm not an 'official' wedding planner?" He questioned, raising his eyebrows.

Tony couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the interaction from across the kitchen island.

"I think what Steve is trying to say," Bucky began with a smile, "is that we understand if you don't want to take this on as well. We know that you're already pretty swamped with the bakery's opening, and planning Pepper and Tony's wedding. It's completely understandable if you don't want to add this to your list of things to do."

"It's alright, I'm just a bit scatterbrained at the moment," Harry sighed, reaching down and petting Lucy, as she had just pressed her nose against the palm of his hand, signaling to him that he needed to calm down.

"Seriously, kiddo, we don't want you to feel overwhelmed. It's nothing you need to stress over. Right now, the bakery's opening should be your top priority, and nothing else. We haven't even sent out save the date's yet, so there's still time to move it back," Tony reassured.

"No!" Harry cried, eyes growing wide. "You are not moving your wedding date back, just to spare me a little bit of worry."

Tony raised his eyebrows at the kid and leaned against the counter, expression growing more serious.

"Your mental health and wellbeing comes before anything, understand? If this is stressing you out, or is causing you to relapse at all, we can either move back the date, or hire a wedding planner to help you out, got it?"

Harry was about to object when he saw the sincerity and seriousness in his dad's eyes. Letting out a small sigh of defeat, he nodded his head.

"Great. Now I'll leave you alone so that you can do your work in peace," Tony gave his kid's shoulder a light squeeze. With a small nod of his head, he indicated to Steve and Bucky that he wanted to speak with them elsewhere.

"Same goes for us," Steve declared, standing up and intertwining his hand with Bucky's. "If you need anything or have any questions for us, though, just holler. However, I doubt we'd be any help when it comes to telling you what we want."

"Okay, I'll let you know," Harry agreed, picking up on Tony's not-so-subtle attempt to privately conference with Steve and Bucky.

The three Avengers exited the room and Harry sighed, staring at the sheet of paper he had been scrawling ideas on. He was beyond honored that Steve and Bucky had asked him to be their wedding planner, but he had a lot going on right now with Tony and Pepper's wedding, and the opening of Lily's in less than six weeks.

Placing his head on his hand, he let his eyes flutter shut for a few moments, hoping that a vision came to him. Instead, his eyes grew heavier and heavier, and soon, his head was in his folded arms and he was fast asleep.

*

"I'm worried about him. He's stressing himself out, and he's too stubborn to ask for help," Tony pinched the bridge of his nose.

"When we asked him to plan our wedding, we didn't think he would start right now. We figured that he would wait until after everything slowed down, like we told him to. I should have known that he would have jumped right into it," Steve grimaced, feeling partially to blame for Harry's high stress.

"He needs a break," Bucky interjected. "He needs a few nights to himself without having to worry about the weddings, or the bakery opening, or anything else."

"I know, but how...?" Tony trailed off, eyes lighting up as he reached for his phone and hit one of the favorites in his contacts. It rang twice before a young voice answered-

"Hey Mister Stark, what's up?"

"Peter, are you free this weekend?" Tony questioned, cutting right to the chase.

"Um, yeah. I've got some homework but I was planning on coming to the Tower tomorrow night for dinner. Is everything okay? How's Harry?"

Tony couldn't help but smile as Peter rambled, immediately jumping to the conclusion that something was wrong.

"Everything- and everyone- is fine. Harry's just a bit stressed and I was going to see if you wanted to stay the weekend here and help him keep his mind off of it."

"I'd love to! Let me just ask May really quick," Tony heard Peter cover the receiver with his hand, muffling his words as he asked permission from May. Moments later, his clear voice was back in Tony's ear.

"Should I take the subway or is someone already on their way to pick me up?" Peter asked, already knowing how Tony worked. Surprisingly, the answer was not what he expected.

"I'll send someone over there now. You've got time to pack, and for heaven's sake Peter, you know I hate when you take the subway by yourself, why would I have you do that?"

A giggle on the other end of the line made Tony's eyes crinkle with a smile.

"I'll see you in a bit Mister Stark," Peter declared before hanging up.

"Good thinking, having Peter over. I know he's been busy with school and they haven't been able to spend as much time together as they'd like," Bucky nodded thoughtfully. He too, felt partially responsible for Harry's stress. After all, if he had just waited to propose to Steve until after Tony and Pepper's wedding like he had planned, none of this would be happening.

But then he wouldn't be engaged to Steve.

A tight squeeze to his real hand snapped him out of his trance, and he smiled at his fiancé who, somehow, knew exactly what he was thinking.

"I just hope you're right," Tony sighed, glancing at the security camera footage in his lab that showed Harry fast asleep at the kitchen counter with Lucy contently curled up at his feet. "He could really use a pick-me-up right now."

(A/N: I AM SO SORRY THAT IT HAS TAKEN ME SO LONG TO UPDATE THIS STORY! And I'm doubly sorry that this chapter was absolute crap and didn't really have a purpose-- I'm trying to figure out where to go from here, and hopefully the next chapter will be better! Things have been really crazy recently with college and balancing my schedule, and just having 0 inspiration for this story! Fingers crossed that the next chapter for this story will be here soon! Thank you for your patience, and for reading even the worst of chapters! I hope you're still enjoying- stay safe and healthy everyone!)