Due to the crazy amount of interest in 'Saving Harry', I give to you 'Saving Cap'.

These are truly silly little fics that are just fluff bunnies. As such, I am screwing around with the MCU/HP timeline a fair bit (as are all of us who muck with this crossover, as they don't match too well for some characters, especially a young Harry with a full Avengers crew, pre-Infinity).

As usual, I own nothing, I'm just mucking about in other people's litterboxes.

Enjoy!

(sorry about the previous chapter upload notification – glitched and the formatting looked like gibberish)

Saving Cap

Steve Rogers sat firmly on a wooden kitchen chair, back straight, scowling at a tablet that Tony had given him. Even with the incredible technology that Harold Stark was capable of back pre-freeze, tablets were both fascinating and frightening to him. The Internet was complicated and highly rude, and people said the most horrible things about people but pretended they didn't mean it.

Back before, a handshake was your bond and your word was simply your word. Women didn't show so much skin and they didn't swear that lewdly either. The music was loud and crashing and hard on the ears. The garbage that spewed from Tony's lab was horrendous. Steve was positive that it was only the Super Serum preventing his ears from bleeding.

He heard the whine of an engine and looked up through the window of the kitchen. The Quinjet was landing. There wasn't much information on why the Avengers were semi-assembled to go pick up a little boy, but orders were orders and his were to stay put. Banner was out of town on a scientific consultation. No one had heard from Thor in quite some time, and it was assumed the Bifrost had not been repaired to completion just yet.

He'd received further instructions a few hours ago from Stark to go and buy some clothing that would hopefully fit a 2 to 3-year-old toddler, which he did. He figured the kid must be staying for a little bit and didn't have things with him. He may have accidently thrown a stuffed bear in the pile of clothing while he was at it. He'd left the bag in the kitchen beside the cupboard for now. They could put it away later once he figured out where the kid was going.

Shutting the tablet off, he stood and headed over to the door off the atrium that was closest to where Tony, Clint and Natasha would bring the little boy in, and waited for them to disembark and come closer.

Clint & Natasha were the first to come down the gangplank, followed by Tony carrying the little boy. Steve had zero experience with little kids, but he was suddenly worried that the clothes he bought were miles too big. Tony was carrying him with one arm under the boy's little butt, and he handed a paper bag to Clint, and then adjusted his hold on the little guy. He looked to be about two years old, to Steve's inexperienced eyes.

Captain America was used to not questioning orders or missions, but he was so very curious. The kid looked like he did when Steve was sickly and weak and small. The poor boy was in desperate need of a lot of sandwiches and had a cast on his left arm. Other than a mop of black hair, Steve couldn't see much else right now, as he little boy's face was buried in Tony's neck.

As the group came in to range of Steve, Tony caught Steve's eye and shook his head, just as Steve was about to open his mouth to greet them. Tony slowed down as they got to Steve and put his arm up on the boy's back.

"Hey Sport. We're home. Feel like meeting someone? He lives here too. He's one of the good guys – nice like me, and not as ugly as Fury." There was a muffled but tired giggle from the little boy, and he lifted his head up to see Steve.

"Capsicle, this is Harry. Harry, this is Cap. Sometimes, we call him Steve." Tony and Harry shared a little grin and Harry looked back at Steve.

Steve smiled at the little tyke and figured he was too little to understand the conversation but greeted him anyway. "Hey Harry. Welcome.

Despite how tired he was, Harry knew it was rude to be introduced to someone and not at least look at them. Aunt Petunia would smack him one for that. Not that she ever introduced him to anyone. He'd been called 'Harry' more times in the past day or so than he had in his lifetime!

"H'lo, Cap," he said, and then tucked his head back on Tony's shoulder. Steve smiled at the boy. He was awfully cute, and somewhat reminded him of a kid he went to grade school with, back in the day. A fleeting maudlin though raced across his head that the kid would be long dead by now. He also clued in that Harry's speech wasn't that of a toddler, despite his size. Curious.

"Hello yourself. Are you hungry? There's some food in the kitchen, and it's still hot," Steve offered. Harry shook his head 'no', but Tony answered for him.

"Thanks Cap. He's tuckered out, but he needs to eat." With that declaration, the group moved inside and made their way to the kitchens.

"It's nothing much," Steve corrected. "Just soup, but it's good."

Clint snorted. "Yeah, nothing much. You can't cook your way out of a wet paper bag Cap, but your soup is damned good." Natasha was going to pass on food, but her growling stomach gave her away.

The four Avengers settled down around the common room table, Harry still in Tony's lap where he'd been glued since they arrived home. Steve already had bowls and spoons on the table, and he dropped a steaming hot tureen of soup in the middle of the group.

"Ladies first," and he handed the ladle to Natasha, where she started dishing up. Very soon, sounds of slurping and eating and murmurs of pleasure were coming from all of them. Even Harry was sitting with his back to Tony's chest, trying a little bit while making the cutest little screwed up face trying to blow cooler air on his spoon.

Sitting beside Tony & Harry, Steve leaned a little closer to Harry and asked him in a soft voice, "Do you like the soup, Harry?

The little guy's green eyes connected with Steve and he smiled and hummed in agreement. "Yum! Thank you Mr. Cap," and he took another spoonful, albeit awkwardly. Steve noticed he was struggling with his spoon. It was far too big for a little guy his age, and he held it awkwardly, like he had never been shown how.

Steve stood up with the intentions of getting the smallest teaspoon he could find in the drawer, but he startled Harry with the abrupt movement. Soup spilled right on to Tony's lap. Harry dropped the spoon and his eyes went wide in fright. With a now-familiar 'pop', he disappeared right out of Tony's lap.

"Sonnuva… Jarvis, did you catch his energy streak?" asked Tony. Steve just stared at Tony's blank lap. What on earth had he just seen?

"Stark?" he asked. "What the heck?" Clint answered while Tony stood up.

"Harry's not had a good life, Cap. He startles easily, poor guy." Clint's face flash with brief anger thinking of where they rescued Harry from. "He probably expected to be punished for simply spilling a tiny amount of soup. He teleports when he's frightened, usually to somewhere small and tight so he can feel safe."

"Jarvis can track him," Tony added, "But we have a helluva time seeing what happens. Even on camera. We call it an energy streak for now. We've yet to figure out what energy though."

Steve frowned and thought it over. What had Harry been through to react like this? To have to be rescued by the Avengers? He watched Tony as he looked at his phone at what Jarvis had sent to him and couldn't help but peer over the shorter man's shoulder to see what it was that Jarvis sent about Harry.

There was the footage of Harry sitting on Tony's lap, happy with interacting with Steve, then the flash of sheer terror on his little face and then something Tony was playing over repeatedly, as it happened so fast. Steve saw a streak of extremely fast light flash off Tony's lap and it went straight back into the kitchen. After Tony slowed the video down a bit, they both could see it end in the pantry.

Tony sighed. "Tony," started Clint. "We'll get him there." Even the ever-controlled Black Widow looked sad. "All of us together. He won't do this forever." Tony nodded and started to move to the kitchen.

Steve couldn't believe what he was seeing, but hey – Norse gods, teleporting kid, right? His long legs brought him in to the kitchen before the others. "Let me get him. I frightened him. I want him to know he's safe with me too."

The other three nodded their assent. They'd spent the last two days with Harry on the Helicarrier and they were as tired as the little boy was. It had been a long 48 hours of a little boy flipping between panic attacks, happy giggles and hidden displeasure at the medical treatments. Mentally, they were done. They were more than willing to let Steve take a crack at soothing Harry.

While the other three Avengers stood back, Steve walked right over to the pantry doors near the large fridge, then sat on the floor cross-legged. He listened for a moment and heard an upset little sniffle. His heart broke for a kid who wasn't with any family and somehow was stuck with a bunch of overpowered humans in a tower. Not really the spot for a little boy, he thought.

After a few seconds, he leaned forward and knocked gently on the door with three quick knocks. "Hello? I'm looking for Mr. Harry. I wish him to know that the teensy bit of soup spilled is cleaned up and gone away. I wish him to know that Mr. Harry is safe here and no one will hurt him and the rules he knew before don't matter here." Steve stopped for a moment and listened again. The sniffling had stopped, and he heard a little bit of movement as Harry shuffled.

Clint elbowed Natasha and they exchanged a look that had them both agreeing that they thought Steve was half crazy and half genius. Tony was looking anxiously at the door and like he wanted to just rush the pantry and pull Harry out. The SHIELD spies collectively agreed they would stop him if he did something that colossally stupid. At least Thor's booming voice wasn't around. The kid would probably teleport to Africa.

Steve knocked one more time on the door. "So hey, Mr. Harry. Can I open the door a little? You can stay put. You don't have to come out, but I give big hugs and I have one for you. It's all yours and you don't have to do anything for it, okay?" Steve thought back to when he was a kid and Bucky would help Steve through his asthma attacks. Harry wasn't much different than him, really. Tiny and scared but taking on the world with everything he had and coping the best he could with a stiff upper lip.

Tony leaned forward a little bit to see if the door opened and Clint went to the balls of his feet, just in case Tony bolted forward. There was a brief pause, then the pantry door slowly opened a crack. Steve had to force himself not to open the door the entire way. They'd probably never get Harry out of there then. Natasha tried to hold back a smirk. The entire situation was like hatching a baby bird. You want to see what's inside when it starts to crack but you can't pull the shell off or you risk harming the hatchling.

"Hey, green eyes," they heard Steve softly say. "I see you. You can come out when you're ready. I'll wait here for you, so you can get your hug. Hugs are always free." Like Tony had only a couple of days before, Steve talked to Harry as if he was soothing a wounded pet. It amazed him how fast the little guy had wrapped himself around his heart. He'd do anything never see that frightened look ever again.

After some more soothing words from Steve and some very high anxiety moments for Tony's crumbling self-control, finally a little mop of black hair pushed its way through the crack in the door and Steve carefully scooped him up and deposited him on to his lap, folding him in to a hug.

Harry sighed in exhaustion. He was about done with the world right now. He was so confused and still hurting a little bit. The cast on his arm itched, and he just wanted to find a spot to curl up in and sleep. He'd found it. Cap'n's arms were strong and huge! They wrapped around him like blankets and he felt very warm and safe with Mr. Cap, even more safe than with Tin Man. Tony had an aura about him that buzzed. Nat outright scared him, even when she was smiling. Clint made him giggle. Cap'n was steady, and home and most of all, safe. He'd never felt safe in his life and he never wanted to leave where he was right now.

He'd always wanted to be hugged like this. Dudley got hugs. Harry got slaps. In his cupboard, Harry would sometimes pile his blanket and twist it, then wrap it around himself and pretend it was his mum giving him a hug. It was never the same and he couldn't remember ever having received a single hug.

Until now. It was perfect.

Another big sigh from Harry and he snuggled down in to Steve's arms and fell asleep. Clint quietly padded over and ran his fingers through Harry's soft hair. "Good job Cap," he quietly said. "We've had a helluva time trying to get him to sleep. He trusts nothing, expects nothing pleasant but everything that hurts, asks for nothing, and I think he's just found what he wants." Clint couldn't help it. He was a father, with a third on the way, though that knowledge was pretty much classified and buried. "He needs to be safe and warm and steady. He needs you. None of us could do that."

Steve's eyes flicked up from looking at Harry and he saw his three companions all staring at him. Nat smiled, nodded and walked away to start cleaning up lunch. Tony was just staring at the group on the floor, torn between jealousy and gratitude. Apparently, the gratitude won out.

"Told ya he'd find a mother in one of us, though I expected Bruce," he quipped. Clint snorted and stood up. "C'mere Tony. Let's help Cap stand without jostling Harry," and they both did so by grabbing Steve's elbows and bodily hauling the heavy man to his feet. Steve walked over to the leather sofa that was in front of the huge TV and carefully sat down, pulling the throw on the back of the sofa to cover them both.

"Guess I'm having a nap whether I like it or not." Steve grinned. He scooched back on the sofa and got comfortable. Harry never moved and slept on. "Oh, Barton!" he softly called. He pointed to the bag of clothing he purchased, sitting on the floor. "In there. You'll see it." Clint saw on the top of the items in the bag the stuffed bear and brought it over Steve who tucked it in with Harry.

Tony smiled and headed down to his lab and the other two Avengers cleared away the last of lunch and left to go do whatever they did when they were not avenging.

Steve couldn't help it. He felt all of the responsibilities and weight of carrying the Avengers, the past he'd been forced to leave behind and his dislike of the world he'd slept his way in to, start to dissolve. He hadn't been this relaxed in the couple of years since he'd thawed out. He was still desperately trying to come to terms with this very strange world. Had he lived normally, he'd likely be dead by now and never see the 21st Century.

He missed Bucky so much it hurt, the last image of his best friend falling to his death haunting and chasing his dreams. He'd since learned that shellshock is called PTSD, and he had a large dose of it. Somehow though, a little broken boy soothed him like nothing else could. Not all of the running and exercising, not the fighting, but Harry. Steve couldn't even begin to explain it. He had no experience with kids, but this felt so right.

He knew nothing about Harry, only that for the first time since he woke up, his heart was happy. He could breathe again. This little guy was innocent and hurt and no one had protected him or fought off whatever nightmare he came from, and it stirred something supremely protective in him.

Steve knew he was an old-fashion sort, compared to this modern world. It was absolutely shocking to him to see a little boy treated in the way that Hydra and the Nazis had treated so many people in his days. He was used to fighting for the underdog, and he'd fight all of SHIELD for this little guy if he had to.

He did know that Fury was supposed to show up in the next 24 hours to brief and debrief the team. Rogers was prepared to fight to keep Harry with them. He didn't know the logistics of having a little pair of feet around the tower, but he'd do whatever it took to make sure Harry happened.

Little did he know, down in his lab, Tony Stark's thoughts were running right with him. If Fury thought he could steal the kid away and take him away from the Avenger's, he'd have a helluva fight on his hands. As Steve fell asleep on the couch, his breath ruffling Harry's hair, Tony too was in full agreement with Rogers' thoughts.

Steve slept soundly for the first time in over a year. Both he and Harry slept through the night on the couch, and even when Bruce made it home late that night, the pair slept on. Bruce got another blanket and covered them up and had Jarvis turn the lights off.

The scientist had been forewarned by a text from Stark earlier in the evening that, when he came in to the common area to be quiet and to expect a kid who wasn't good with surprises. He smiled softly at the two on the couch. Harry was laying full out on Cap's chest, his one arm in a cast, the other curled around a stuffed bear. Steve was laying the full length of the sofa, one arm cradling the length of Harry, and the other gently laying across the little boy's back.

Bruce knew Cap wasn't as mentally well as he pretended to be, and even the Other Guy was emoting some feeling of satisfaction to see him sleeping soundly. He let them be and took the elevator down to his suite of rooms.

He'd get some answers tomorrow.