It Only Takes a Second

- LII -

"Here you go," Bruce handed Harry a steaming mug of hot chocolate. "Careful, it's really hot."

"Hence the name 'hot chocolate,'" Tony snorted as he entered the room. Bruce let out a small sigh and rolled his eyes.

"Tony, I was just telling him to be careful not to burn himself," the scientist explained, but it was no use. As soon as Tony had even an inch to go off of, he took it a mile.

"I think he could tell that himself based on the steam, the heat of the mug, the-"

"Okay, okay," Harry giggled, interrupting his dad. "Don't piss Bruce off. You know what happens when you do."

Bruce slipped Harry a small high five behind his back.

"Hey now, you can't do that," Tony cried defensively.

"Do what?" Bruce asked innocently.

"Use my own son against me!"

"Sir, I hate to interrupt, but Agent Coulson and Director Fury are waiting downstairs for you" Friday's voice announced. Tony frowned, looking at the date on his watch.

"They weren't supposed to come until tomorrow," he grumbled before letting out a large sigh. "Bring them up."

"Right away, sir," Friday replied curtly. Tony turned to Harry and Bruce with an exasperated expression.

"I'll be right back after I deal with these two," he pinched the bridge of his nose, and with one last exaggerated eyeroll, disappeared into the elevator.

"Surprisingly, I have never met either of them," Harry declared, taking a sip of his hot chocolate (which he had stealthily cast a cooling charm on to make it a reasonable drinking temperature).

Bruce's face took on an expression of surprise at this declaration, and he let out a small chuckle.

"That is surprising. I would have thought that Fury would have demanded to meet you as soon as he knew that Tony was planning on adopting you," Bruce shrugged. "Maybe he just did some research and decided that it was for the best."

"They were at my trial, you know. At least, I'm assuming that's who it was. Does one of them have an eyepatch and look really intimidating at all times?"

Bruce couldn't help but let out a bark of laughter at this. "Yeah, that's Director Fury. He's not as scary as he looks, I promise."

"I'm sure he can hold his own pretty well, though," Harry said, chewing on his bottom lip anxiously.

"Sure, I mean, he is S.H.I.E.L.D director. But he's not a malicious person by any means. He has everyone's best interests in mind, trust me," Bruce reassured, noticing how tense Harry seemed. He knew that the kid still had a lot of trouble trusting new people, especially men, and with someone of Fury's caliber, it would take a bit more coaxing to make Harry comfortable.

"But Agent Coulson, despite what Tony may say about him, is a big teddy bear. He really is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Tony just gives him a hard time because Coulson is big on rule following and, uh..."

"My dad's not?" Harry chuckled, finishing Bruce's sentence.

"Yeah, you could say that," Bruce grinned, taking a sip from his own steaming mug- though his contained coffee.

"I'll have you know that I follow many more rules now than I used to," Tony interrupted, strolling into the room with the two agents in tow.

"Harry, I want you to meet Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D, and Agent Phil Coulson, the bane of my existence," Tony motioned to the two men. Coulson rolled his eyes with a sigh.