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"Dad?"
Tony barely stopped himself from jumping a foot in the air, his dish sprayer sending water everywhere before he got it back under control. He shut it off, wiping his hands on his shirt as he turned to see Harley standing at the edge of the kitchen, bleary eyed in his pajamas and a bedhead to match Tony's.
"Hey buddy," he glanced at the clock on the shelf. 2:37 in the morning. "What are you doing up?" Tony was only awake because Pepper wasn't home and his mind was struggling to shut down tonight. Doing chores sometimes helped. It hadn't.
His youngest son mumbled something he didn't catch, walking toward him. Before Tony could ask him to repeat, the teen hugged him, face buried in his chest.
'Something's wrong,' the genius thought, returning the embrace with one arm. He swept his free hand through Harley's dirty blonde curls. "What's going on, Harls?"
He almost didn't catch the one word answer. "Nothing."
Tony hummed, not believing that at all. There were very few reasons Harley would act like this. One was very easy to figure out. He shifted his hand from his hair to touch his forehead and cheek without jostling him. The kid's skin was unnaturally hot. "Aw, you don't feel too good, do you?"
The fifteen year old didn't reply, burying his face impossibly further into Tony's shirt. Tony shifted his hand to card repeatedly through his curls once more, turning his questions to FRIDAY. "FRI, what's his temperature?"
"101.3 degrees Fahrenheit, Boss." She replied, voice soft.
"Why wasn't I told earlier?" He carefully kept his tone from accusing. If she didn't, then there was a reason.
"Harley asked me not to as he was going to try and go back to sleep. When he couldn't, he enquired of your location. If you were asleep, I would have woken you up." She explained.
"Thank you." He said to her before gently nudging Harley's head back where he could look at him. "You don't hesitate to come get me, buddy, alright?" When he got a small nod, he led the boy over to the kitchen's medicine cabinet, arm still wrapped around him. "Let's see what we've got..."
When he'd pried a few more symptoms out of Harley and through FRIDAY's observation skills - besides the fever, he had a headache, chills, and a bit of a cough - he gave him a full dose of NyQuil and some flu/cold medicine. Once Harley had washed it down with some water, Tony corralled him back upstairs and into his currently Star Trek themed bed.
Tony tucked the blankets around him, then settled in beside him after putting the water on the bedside table. Harley immediately curled into his side, head resting against his chest again. Tony braced an arm around him and grabbed the remote, turning the television on. He flipped through a few things before landing on Love It or List It, that house show that Pepper sometimes watched. It wasn't because Harley liked it a lot. No, it was because it would have enough of a plot for him not to complain but still be bland enough for him to fall asleep.
Halfway into the show, when the remodel ran into some trouble with corroded water pipes, he was proven correct as Harley's eyes fell shut.
"Love you, Dad." He mumbled.
Tony pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Love you, tesoro."