**It was a close race, y'all, but I have the line up for the next few chapters! Enjoy!!**

Harley loved winter time. Call him a sap, but there was something about holiday music and the bright lights all over the city and cocoa that made him melt inside. The scent of homemade cookies made his heart ache for home, and each year since he moved for college, he would count down the hours until he got to fly home for Christmas.

Which is why when he stepped off the plane in New York, he nearly took Peter off his feet with a hug.

"Peter!"

Harley saw Tony, Pepper, and Morgan peeking out from behind Peter's shoulder. "Mom, dad! Morgs!"

The young man gave each of his family members a hug, ending with Morgan, who he spun around wildly. "I missed you guys so much!"

It was no secret that college had been hard for Harley. He was so close to Peter and Tony, and he hated missing everything from the weekly Saturday dinners to Morgan's first science fair. Pepper and Tony had to talk him out of flying home every weekend, let alone every time he found himself with a long weekend on his hands.

"Ahhh," Harley let out a sigh as they walked through the airport. "It's good to be home."

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"Hey, Tones, the snow is getting pretty bad," Pepper said from the window. The Tower was warm and the windows were fogged up pretty badly, but she could make out the storm outside pretty well. "Maybe we should go get Peter from school instead of him taking the bus?"

Harley was on the carpet with Morgan, who was home from school with a cold, and looked up excitedly. "I'll go!"

"Really? You'll have to go downtown during rush hour." Tony looked away from his newspaper and over at his oldest son. "It's kind of a shitty drive."

"Language!" Pepper and Harley said at the same time. Tony just rolled his eyes.

Harley got up and handed Morgan the action figure he'd been using while playing with her. "It'll be fine. I want to go." The 22 year old grabbed his keys off the hooks by the elevator and headed down to the garage, giving his family a little wave as he headed out.

The drive to Midtown School of Science and Tech was, as Tony had put it, shitty. Rush-hour drives through the downtown were already difficult as is, but the winter weather made things all the worse.

Harley wouldn't let it dampen his good mood, though, and he just kept thinking about surprising his brother.

Harley pulled into the line of cars waiting at the front of the school to pick students up and got out, bundling up his coat as he did so to keep out the cold.

Harley heard the bell go off. He saw the first wave of kids flood down the stairs. He spotted Peter, walking with Ned, and then...

"What the fuck?" Harley muttered to himself as he watched another kid come up behind Peter and shove him. Peter fell onto the stairs roughly, barely catching himself with his hands. The kid who had pushed him laughed. Ned said something, the bully pushed him backwards. Peter put his hands up, probably to defend Ned, and the bully laughed again before punching Peter square in the jaw. He walked away as Ned helped Peter up and gave him a tissue from his backpack to clean up his face a little.

"Peter!" Harley called to his brother. 

Peter turned, his face pale and stark against the little smear of blood along his nose. "Harley?"

"What the hell was that? Who was that kid? Are you okay?" Harley fussed over Peter's face, helping him wipe away some of the blood. "Have you told the principal about this?"

"No," Peter mumbled.

"Do mom and dad know?"

Peter shook his head and pushed Harley's hands away. He grabbed his bag and got into the car quietly. Harley rolled his eyes and got in the driver seat. His knuckles were white over the steering wheel as he took some deep breaths to calm himself.

"Peter, seriously. What was that?"

"That was Flash. He's kind of been picking on me and Ned since we were in middle school, he's the biggest jerk in the whole city. It's really nothing, Harls, I can take it."

"You're bleeding all over my nice leather seats," the older boy said pointedly. Peter wiped his nose again, which was already starting to set.

"I'm fine," Peter reiterated. "See? I'm already healing up. There's no reason why mom and dad, or anyone else for that matter, needs to know."

Harley bit his lip, a habit he'd picked up from Pepper when working or thinking hard. "What does he say? Is he just physical, or..."

He trailed off, leaving Peter to fill in the blanks. "Yeah, I mean, he hits me. Kinda pushes me around. Says stuff about me, how I'm a loser and stuff."

Harley knew Peter was hiding something from the way Peter wouldn't look up and the way he was wringing his hands together. It was a habit he'd picked up from Tony after the Siberia incident.

"Peterrrrr," Harley drawled.

"I'm not Peter Stark at school, Harls. I'm just Peter Parker, ya know? Dad doesn't want people to know and swarm me with all the attention, so I use the name Peter Parker and then Happy nearly blew the cover one day so then we covered by saying he was my uncle and Flash ran with it. He says I'm an orphan, 'cause no one has ever seen my parents, and he says I'm a stupid, worthless, loser and how everyone in my life is just here for pity."

Peter got carried away as he let himself spit Flash's common insults, a little water pooling in his eyes. Harley pulled over on a side street, down a couple allies, and cut over to Queens. He parked on the street. "Come on."

Peter looked around. "What?"

"Come on, let's go get some ice cream."

Peter and Harley got out of the car. Peter's nose was already starting to heal, much to Harley's fascination, but the younger teen still looked pretty upset. Harley slung an arm around Peter's shoulder and bumped him around a bit.

"Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, that Flash has said is true. You're the most loved, worthy people I know, okay? You're definitely Mom and Dad's favorite, okay?"

Peter chuckled a little.

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Harley barely made out the street signs in the snow. It was late at night and the streetlights were on, but the snow was so thick now, the light was dampened. Harley checked his phone again, then looked around.

"Ah!"

He turned down a smaller street and watched the house numbers go up. There, at the end of the cul de sac, was the house he was after.

"Perfect." The young man tip-toes through the bushes by the house and looked up at the windows on the second floor. He tapped on his watch, activating the ankle thrusters he's developed from some old Ironman parts.

"Let's see..."

Harley hovered around the second floor, checking around the bedrooms for what he was looking for. There, finally, he found it.

Flash was standing in his room, wearing some old style SPiderman Underoos. The spiderman theme was playing in the background as Flash jumped around his bed, singing along loudly. He jumped onto the rug in the middle of his room, landing like a superhero and pretending to shoot webs around the room.

"Thwip! Thwip!" Flash made funny sound effects as he punched his hands out like he was shooting webs. He did some pretend flips, but of course, Flash couldn't do flips, so he just sort of kicked up his legs like a donkey, fell onto his shoulder, and rolled forward over his head.

And Harley, beautiful Harley, got it all on tape. Harley quickly returned back to the ground and hurried away, tapping on his phone as he went. By the time he got back in the car, the video was all over Instagram and Twitter. Flash's reputation as the school's tough guy was already starting to fall apart, and it'd only been a few minutes.

Harley's phone dinged.

Really? How'd you get that?"

Harley smiled at his brother's text.

No one makes my little brother cry and gets away with it.