A/N: Didn't write a fanfiction in a while. This was a small story written in only five minutes that popped up in my mind after watching Iron Man 3. Hope you like it. Enjoy!

The Stark Mansion on 10880 Malibu Point had been rebuild almost exactly the same as it was before the Mandarin attack, except for the Iron Men storage that used to be under the house and the two extra bedrooms that were build in this time. In the first one a little girl was already vast asleep, dreaming about unicorns and Hello, Kitty. In the other bedroom, a man and a woman were watching a young boy drift off to sleep.

"Isn't he cute?" Pepper lay down her head on Tony's shoulder as they watched the boy together.

"Yes, very cute now he's asleep, but very annoying when he's awake." Tony answered as he took Pepper's hand and led her out of the room.

"Annoying? Oh come on! You love the boy hanging around you all the time."

"No. No I don't." Both of them knew that wasn't true. Tony did love having the boy around. Harley was a smart ass kid and reminded Tony a bit of himself. They had build a couple of toys together, and Tony had been a bit jealous of the ones Harley had made all by himself. That boy had a great mind.

Pepper snorted. "Yeah, right. Remember the day we adopted him and Sophie?"

Of course he did. How could he not. He might not admit it, but it had been one of the best days of his life.

The workers had only been busy rebuilding the house for two days when the police car drove towards the mansion. Pepper noticed it first and gave Tony a nudge. "Tony, look."

As the police officer came out of the car, Tony slowly walked towards him.

"Mr. Stark?"

"Yeah, that's me." Tony answered. "Can I help you, officer?"

The officer made a quick look at the car before turning to Tony. "I have two orphan kids with me who want to talk to you."

That didn't seem right, two kids who wanted to talk to him and the police giving them an escort. "Why? Why me?"

"Well, the oldest said he's a friend of yours." The officer turned back to the car and gave a small nod.

The car door opened and a boy came out of the car, followed by a younger girl. The girl clutched a teddy bear to her chest as the boy took her free hand and led her to them.

"Harley." Tony said.

"Hey Tony." The boy answered cheerful.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Pepper had walked up beside Tony as she had seen the two kids coming out of the car.

"Yeah. We do. Harley here is my friend from Tennessee. He helped with my suit and the investigation on those Extremis explosions." Tony knelt on one knee so he and the boy were on the same height. "It's good to see you again, kid, but what are you doing here?"

Harley smiled. "It's good to see you too, Tony, and this is what you get for leaving me behind."

Tony sighed. "I knew I was going to regret that more than I would leaving you behind. Why did you bring them here?" he said as he looked up at the police officer.

"I was actually going to take them to an orphanage, but the boy asked me for a detour to your mansion."

"An orphanage?" Tony remembered the boy had said he lived with his mother, and that his father had left them years ago, then when did they – "The Extremis attack? Your mom died in there?"

Harley nodded.

During the Extremis attack in Tennessee a couple of people had become injured, but only a few had actually died. Tony knew that, and he hadn't really forgiven himself for all that had happened yet.

He looked at the little girl with the teddy bear in her hand. She looked back at him with big eyes."And what about your dad?"

"Apparently he died in a car accident two years ago. He didn't win the lottery." Harley sounded indifferent. The boy hadn't seen his father for six years, but Tony knew the news hadn't hurt Harley any less because of it and that he tried to stay strong now.

"Sorry to hear it, kid." He looked back at the officer. "What's the real reason you're here?" Tony was almost sure he already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it from the mouth of the officer.

"They want you to adopt them."

Tony looked from the officer to the two kids. "Nope. Can't do."

Harley stared at him. "Tony, please?"

Tony ignored his plead as best as he could. "Don't they have some other family member they can go to, officer Mako-? Makov-? Makovithingy?" He had trouble reading the name from the tag.

"Makovski." The officer corrected with annoyance. "And no, their mother was all they had left, so I'm afraid not."

"Well, then, I'm sorry that I can't help you." Tony looked at Harley, who was looking back at him with sadness in his eyes. And something else. Determination. Tony grinned in himself. He had to give that boy something, he was as stubborn as a donkey.

"Tony?" Pepper said softly while putting a hand on his arm. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

She led him a couple of meters away from the officer and the kids. "Why did you say no?"

"Because I don't want two little, annoying kids running around in my mansion. I have you, and that's enough sometimes. Besides, we're wrecks. We have bad nights, anxiety attacks, kids won't help to fix that, would they?"

Pepper looked him straight in the eyes and he saw the same determination he saw in Harley's. He wasn't going to win this, he knew it, but he wasn't the man to admit that so easily either.

"They won't make us worse either. Tony, just imagine it, having kids. Don't you want a family?"

"You're my family, Pepper. I love you."

"I know, but that's not what I meant. Come on, Tony, look at them. How can you say no?"

Tony did look at them. The girl had hit her face in the fluffy fur of her toy, but the boy was still looking at him.

He sighed and looked back at Pepper. "Fine," Pepper started to cheer. "But you'll be the mother."

Pepper looked at him in confusion, as if that hadn't been obvious, but Tony had already turned his back to her and walked back to the trio.

"Well, officer Makovski, I hope you have some adoption files with you, because Ms. Potts and I'd like to adopt Harley and –" He looked at the girl and realized he didn't even know her name.

"Sophie." Harley said quickly.

"- and little Sophie as our kids." Tony finished.

The officer gave a faint smirk and told him to wait a moment as he went to get the files. Tony looked at the boy, whose sadness had disappeared and had changed to happiness.

"Welcome home, kid."