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Cold, whistling wind whipped around Alec, who trudged down the dark London street, soaked through from the rain and utterly miserable. It was already too late for any sane people to be wandering the streets, and, of course, because this was London, midnight was about the time at which the criminals decided to venture out to the streets. Over the time that he'd been living here, however, Alec had learnt that, as long as you don't make eye contact with them, you're fairly safe (key word: fairly). If course, Alec being, well, who he was, he had very little to worry about, but after a bad day, followed by a bad shift, he didn't particularly fancy saving any lives tonight either.
Fate did just love to screw him over, though.
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He was so painfully close to home now, having trudged all the way across town from the dingy, dirty little fast food restaurant where he was forced to slave away over a hot oven for just about minimum wage to the drafty old building that he'd begin to call home, which made it all the more painful when the sounds of shouting came from the alley a street away. There was a part of him, Alec was not-so-ashamed to admit that was tempted just to ignore this one, leave it to the police for the morning and go and hide away at home, but of course, the part of his conscience nagging for him to do the right thing won out, and he pulled the mask across the lower half of his face, walking carefully to the alley.
Gradually, he had begun to pick up small scraps of whatever was going on in the alley, and determined that it must have simply been a drug deal gone wrong - not uncommon for this part of London. Alec had dealt with these types before - wait for the sounds of a struggle, when things really started to get intense (hopefully in the non-sexual sense, had Alec judged the sounds right- the one time he hadn't still haunted him), jump in, pull some punches and get out of there before anyone got too badly hurt. So, that's what he elected to do - he stood guard, just along from the alley, just about ready to materialise next to the criminals (the looks on their faces were always priceless).
"Hey!"
Fate definitely hated him tonight, and so just as he readied to go, some tourist superhero wannabe announced themselves at the front of the alley, coming in all-guns-blazing with some fancy red-gold tech, blasting the two criminals away from each other.
"Shit!" Alec mumbled as his position was given away. A little hopeless, he disappeared from the scene and reappeared next to one of the criminals, hoping to keep the two apart, when he was greeted almost immediately by a blast of white light and a hasty apology, then the cold ground and darkness.
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Everything hurt. Like how it did after you'd stumbled in after a long night out and woken up with a thousand cricks in your neck, except with none of the happy drunken memories and all of the nausea. The light in the room wherever Alec woke up was definitely too bright to be his own house, and the feeling of a soft sofa beneath him was too unfamiliar to be somewhere in which Alec had stayed before. As soon as he could just about muster the energy, he forced his eyelids open and took in his surroundings - he obviously lay in someone's living room, evidently the house of someone relatively well-to-do as everything seemed to be new and squeaky clean, as if no one had ever lived here before. The room was eerie in its absolute silence, it seemed the whole house was just too quiet, which hp was the first thing that set alarm bells ringing in Alec's head. With a grunt, he pulled himself from the sofa to further observe the room. The sofa sat against a wall, with an expensive-looking painting above it and a glass-topped coffee table in front of it. A window on the adjacent wall showed clear blue sky and busy London streets, meaning that he must have been somewhere nearer the centre. Opposite was an open doorway to what looked like a kitchen, and around the corner there send to be another room, with three separate doors and a small entrance table, with a pair of smart shoes sat next to it. After a small inventory, Alec concluded that he had definitely never stayed here before. It was at this point that some of the memories from the previous night's debacle came back to him, along with a pulsing ache in the back of his head. He had no idea what had happened after the stranger had turned up- had someone found him passed out on the street and taken him in? That would mean that there would be questions asked of him- why a 16 year old was completely passed out in an alley so late, and why he was alone, why he had nowhere to go, no-one to go to. This would lead to enquiries, and his parents getting involved; what if he had to move back? What if they made him? What if-
"Woah, calm down, magic man."
A voice, that of a somewhat exhausted, middle aged man, bust through Alec's thoughts and he whipped around to face it. A man, with greying brown hair and scruffy peach fuzz stood in the doorway, holding two mugs and looking mildly concerned. He was dressed in a white shirt, which was crumpled as if he had slept in it, and grey suit pants. Something pulled at the back of Alec's mind, a memory of seeing the man before, possibly on the old television at his Grandfather's house. He brought up his hand and swiped it across in front of the man's face, green lettering filing neatly across, telling Alec the details of the man. The last thing to appear, however, the name-
"Tony Stark."
The man sighed. "Have a seat, kid."
"What the hell are you doing in London? And where the fuck am I? What did you do?"
Stark didn't answer, just held the mug out to Alec, who just stood there defiantly. Sighing again, he put the mug on the table and sat down on an armchair, observing Alec curiously.
"What were you doing out so late last night? You must be, what, 15? Good Samaritan or something?"
"None of your business. Who do you think you are? I don't know if things are different where you come from, Stark, but you can't just-"
"Alright, alright, just, calm down Prince Charming, I'm not gonna kill you."
Alec was fuming. He summoned his magic as close to Stark's throat as he could without causing damage, but the man only looked mildly surprised.
"Don't. Call. Me. That."
"Just- sit down kid, you're okay, looks like you could do with a good meal anyway."
Alec blushed slightly at that, withdrew his magic and sat back on the sofa, reaching cautiously for the warmth of the mug on the table. The man looked curiously again at Alec for just a moment, then pulled himself up from the chair to wander into the kitchen. Whilst his back was turned, Alec quickly ran his finger around the rim of the mug- after all that had happened, he had learnt not to take any chances. Neat green words appeared next to the mug, just like before, informing Alec that it was, in fact, just a standard cup of tea. No risk.
"Don't trust easily, huh?"
Alec hadn't noticed that the man had walked back into the room in time to observe Alec checking the mug, holding a plate of toast in his hand, which he placed on the table.
"Yeah, well, you learn not to," Alec muttered, taking a small sip from the mug. The warmth of it slipped down his throat slowly, warming him - it felt like it's had been forever since he'd felt like this- sat in a warm house, a cup of warm tea in his hand and a soft blanket over his lap. It was the closest he'd felt to safe since-
"What's that, uh, thing you do with the green stuff then?" Tony asked, wiggling his fingers, in what was supposed to be an imitation of Alec's magic. He snorted.
"What was that supposed to be?" Tony glared at him in response.
"The truth is I don't really know. Something happened, it's a part of me and I do whatever I can to control it."
"What's with the wings then, on your jacket last night? I take it you fancy yourself as more than just a Good Samaritan?"
At that, Alec tensed up again. The man was definitely nothing if not persistent.
"I wanna help people, make a difference."
"Yeah, don't we all."
Alec sighed and looked at the clock. He was already late for his shift.
"Look, what do you want from me?"
"Why, you got somewhere to go?" The man said sarcastically.
Alec glared at him. "I'm not a charity case, you know."
"So that's why you were wandering around London at midnight then?"
"I was walking home from work."
"What kind of 15 year old works that late?"
"I'm not 15!"
"I don't think that was the point."
"What do you want from me?" Alec shouted, standing up from the sofa. "I'm not some teenage freak that you can just- pick up from the street and throw money at! I'm not a pet project- just fuck off!"
Tony stood in silence, somewhat shocked for the first time at Alec's outburst.
"No one ever said that you were a freak."
"See, that's the first thing you don't know about me."
"You think your magic makes you a freak?"
"Everything about me makes me a freak. I've had that drilled into me since the day I came out."
And suddenly, Alec's heart stops for a minute. 'Since the day I came out'. Shit. He definitely hadn't meant to mention that, and now it would surely trigger a new onslaught of questions from Tony. Strangely, though, the man just stood there for a minute, clearly lost in thought and trying to put the puzzle pieces together. After seemingly considering his options, the man spoke again.
"Look, kid, the truth is, I want to help you. I know you're not a charity case, but you could really do with an upgrade- if you're gonna be doing this superhero lark, you might as well be safe about it. You don't have to trust me, but the offer's there kid, take it or leave it. Up to you."
Alec let a tiny smirk creep onto his face at that - Stark's paternal instincts were clearly kicking in. The offer of help was tempting, though. He really could do with some more equipment...
"Okay." Alec held out his hand, somewhat hesitantly, which Tony then shook. "I'm guessing you've got a lab?"