**This is some begrudging Peter/Harley bonding. I have this personal headcannon that Peter can deal with Tony's ego, but when he is face to face with Harley's incredibly arrogance for the first time, he just can't deal with it. Of course, it's all a show (Harley is secretly such a sweet heart) but I just really love that idea. It's a mix of fluff and angst, but mostly fluff at the end. Enjoy!**

Peter hated him. Okay, so maybe hated was a strong word, but there was just something so frustrating about sharing the lab with such an idiotic maniac!

"Catch!" Harley yelled, throwing a wrench over his shoulder. Peter barely caught it, his flailing hand wrapping around the cold metal. Peter let out a low growl.

"Got a problem back there?"

"No," Peter said, his voice cold like the wrench in his hand. "Just don't like being thrown things from behind my back."

Harley snickered. "You've got a spider-sense for a reason, right? Tony said you can sense stuff before it happens."

Peter rolled his eyes. He hated the flicker of jealousy that sparked up when Harley said 'Tony'. Besides, Spiderman was... was the only thing that only Peter and Tony shared, and now it was something Peter had to share with Harley, too.

"Whatever." Peter focused back on his work. The soldering iron was hot, and even through his gloves, Peter could feel the heat. He just had to connect these two...

"Ah!" Holding up the circuit, Peter smiled to himself with pride. He'd been working on it for weeks now, but with everything finally done, he was ready to show Tony. It wasn't particularly impressive, but Peter had basically created a new mod for FRIDAY, something to 'plug-in' to the QuinJet for secondary encryption of mission data.

Harley turned around. "What'd you make?"

"Secondary encryption program and storage for FRIDAY in the QuinJet."

Harley laughed. "You're tryna' mess with FRIDAY's coding? You think that's a good idea?"

The southern drawl in Harley's voice made Peter bristle. A shiver ran down his back - was he really getting worked up over this?

"I actually help Tony with all sorts of coding, Harley. It's part of my job here."

The blond scoffed. "Mmhm. I'm sure you're a top notch computer nerd, but no one is as nerdy as Tony."

Peter nearly choked. "Don't you dare call Tony a nerd!"

"Woo, found a sore spot, then. Don't worry about it, 'kay? Tony will probably like the effort."

Peter was red in the face, both blush and rage heating the teen's cheeks. "You're a fucking idiot."

"I, dear Petey, am actually an engineering genius," Harley teased, holding up what appeared to be a very simple recreation of Steve's shield. "I'm working on multi-layered rings. Save the Vibranium for the center and the edge, and then work on weight and flexibility for the middle ring."

Peter laughed, his head tilted back. It was just too funny. Too stupid. Too egotistical. Sure, Tony could get like this at times, but Peter always knew how to tease back, how to tell the ego from the real, honest Tony. And Tony deserved to be a little egotistical! He was a goddamn billionaire! And a hero! And Peter's best father figure so far!

"You're unbelievable."

Harley smirked. "I know. It's hard to imagine I'm not only a pretty face, I'm also a genius. And funny, too."

Peter turned, closed his eyes, and put his hands on the table. It wasn't the time for a fight. It wasn't the time for- what was that smell?

Peter pulled his hand away from the soldering iron as his palm began to blister and bleed, the smell of burning flesh wafting through the lab strongly.

"Peter!" Harley was at the other teen's side in a flash, holding the smaller boy up as he swayed on his feet. Peter's eyes were glued to his hand, which was looking more and more like a Halloween movie prop the longer he stared, and then, without warning, he was down.

Harley caught him easily. It helped that he was a good 20 pounds bigger than Peter, and a full 6 inches taller. Scooping the brunet up in a bridal hold, Harley began to rush to the elevators, calling for FRIDAY to take him up to the med-bay and to call Tony.

"Fuck, Peter, you're going to get us in so much trouble."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing Peter did when he came to was look at his hand. It was wrapped in thick, white bandages, with funny smelling cream slathered underneath. Spider-senses picked up on the cream right away.

Peter hummed, his throat dry. After a few tried, he was able to whisper. "Tony?"

FRIDAY was smart enough to know what Peter wanted. It was a few minutes before the billionaire came through the door.

"Hey, Pete."

"Hi," Peter rasped.

"Want to tell me what happened? Harley said it was just an accident, but he was doing that thing with his mouth all scrunched up so I know he's lying."

Peter couldn't help the shadow of anger that crossed his face at the mention of Harley's name.

"So it's having him here. What's up, Underoos? You can always talk to me."

"I just-" Peter took a sharp breath, his throat and mouth too dry to really form words. The teen coughed, and Tony quickly got him some water. "I just don't-"

"Don't what?"

"I don't like him!" Peter didn't mean to yell. "I don't like his snide remarks, I don't like the way he talks about you, I don't like how he's always going on about how smart and perfect he is, I don't like how he get's everything!"

"Everything?"

"He gets good hair and a pretty face and the stupid accent! He gets smarts and he's witty and he's never once been shy or picked on! He's the golden boy, and then you invited him here, and that was okay for a while, but I don't like how he acts and talks and annoys me! And he's perfect! And I'm not and he's just sitting there, like he owns the whole Tower, like he-" Peter's voice cracked, a tear slipping down his face. "-he gets you. You. We used to have so much, like we were always in the labs, always movie nights, always building, but now... Now he gets lab privileges, and he's making jokes about engineering with you, and you're laughing like its the funniest thing ever! And we had Spiderman still, and I thought that if I didn't have anything else going for me, I had that. We had that. But you gave him that, too!"

Peter was crying harder now, his words chopped up and strangled by ragged breaths. Tony's heart ached, suddenly realizing that instead of bringing his two sons together, he'd driven one away. The older man moved to the edge of Peter's hospital bed and pulled Peter in for a hug. It was comforting and strong, and Tony whispered sweet things as he kissed Peter's curls.

"Peter," Tony started, rubbing tight circles on the teen's back. "You will always be my son. My boy. And when I brought Harley here, it was so that I could have you meet someone important to me."

Peter whinned at that, and Tony was quick to adjust his statement.

"I wanted you, someone who is most important to me, meet someone who was a little less important to me, because I love you."

Peter sniffled and ran his hospital gown sleeve across his nose. "I love you, too."

Tony smiled, pulling Peter's circuit out of his pocket. "Did you really make this for me?"

Peter nodded.

"It's really impressive."

The two sat for minute, neither saying anything at all. Then, Peter broke the silence. "Why does Harley act like that?"

"Likes what?"

"Like a big butt-jerk."

Tony laughed, his whole body heaving. "He's a little like me as a kid, and its because he's had a rough start. He's got a single mom, he was beat up pretty good in school, he became the Robin Hood of his school when he finally learned to throw a punch. He's smart, but he's never really believed in himself, so he has to say he's smart to believe it."

Peter nodded, his mind wrapping around Tony's words. Harley sounded like Peter. And like Tony. Like all three of them were some rag-tag family of outcasts, all trying to believe in one another as strongly as they could.

"He said you were a computer nerd."

"I am a computer nerd," Tony assured. "And I'm pretty happy with that."

Peter chuckled. "Me, too."

"Want to head upstairs? Harley brought you down here earlier, he was pretty worried. I think he'd like to watch Star Wars with us."

Peter furrowed his brow. "Mr. Hot-Shot Harley wants to watch Star Wars?"

"Well," Tony started, drawing out the syllable. "He actually said 'tell him I'm so sorry and that I never wanted him to get so angry he hurt himself and that I'll watch anything he wants tonight to make up for it'." Tony mocked Harley's voice.

Peter smiled. "I'd really like that, then. And maybe he could go with us tomorrow when we go for lunch?"

Tony peered at Peter with a strange look, almost like he was asking him 'what for?'.

"It'd be good for the people who are important to you to like each other, and I think me and Harley got off on the wrong foot. Beside," Peter threw back his blankets and got out of bed, sending Tony a lopsided smile. "It'd be good for your two sons to like each other, dad."

Tony couldn't stop the smile that split across his face, not even after the movies were done and the boys were in bed, when his cheeks ached, and when Pepper teased him all night about his boys down the hall.