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Stephen’s first urge as soon as he steps inside his dorm is to immediately turn around and leave again.
Would it be a little extreme? Yeah. Would he look like a complete idiot if he was seen by anyone? Probably. Would it be worth though? Most definitely.
At this point, Stephen is ready to become the joke of the entire dorm if it only means that he won’t have to deal with the guy that’s currently giving him a shit-eating grin from where he’s sitting on the floor, back leaning against the door.
“What’s the matter, Strange? Did my shockingly good looks manage to catch you off guard for once?”
Tony Stark has to be the single most annoying person that Stephen has ever met in his entire life - and it’s just his luck that he is forced to talk to him almost daily.
He would be more than happy to ignore the so-called ‘genius’ entirely whenever they’d cross paths but the other man seems to take immense pleasure from bothering him whenever he gets the chance.
Now, it doesn’t appear to be any different. Why else would he be sitting in the hallway, propped up against the door of his room and watching him a grin? It doesn’t look to be too comfortable.
“What are you doing now, Stark?”, Stephen asks, just barely keeping his eyes from rolling back in annoyance as he passes the sitting figure to approach his own door room. “Did Rhodey kick you out because you were too much of a pain in the ass?”
Rhodey, unlike Tony, is actually a moderately pleasant person to talk to. Smart but without the urgent need to rub it in everyone’s face, able to hold up a conversation without making a bad pun every two seconds and most importantly, just not annoying.
It won’t surprise Stephen if he actually locked his friend out for the day.
How these two became best friends in the first place is still one of the big questions that the universe has yet to answer.
Stephen is busy rummaging around his shoulder bag, looking for the key to his room. Wong won’t be back for another few hours and he needs to get some work done if he doesn’t want to be up all night, having to catch up with various classes.
Beside him, Tony chuckles; the sound low and rough. “That does sound like something my honey bear would do but no. He’s out with some of his buddies so it’s just me - and you.” Stephen doesn’t have to look up to know that Tony is wiggling his eyebrows at him.
He huffs, still looking through his bag, searching. A key can’t be that hard to find - there aren’t that many places for it to hide. “Well, soon it’s just going to be you. I’m not in the mood of putting up with you and your corny jokes.”
“Ah, that’s what you say but I’m not so sure that you’re telling the truth, Strange.”, comes the cheerful reply and he can hear Tony shuffling around, trying to get more comfortable on the floor. “I know how hard it is to resist my charm.”
“I think I’ll manage. Honestly, don’t you have anything to do besides bothering me- damn, where the hell is it?!” Stephen growls in frustration as he starts forcefully pushing the other items around but it’s to no avail.
His key isn’t there.
That’s just his fucking luck.
He’s ready to throw his bag across the hallway when Tony, very helpfully, pipes up yet again. “Aw, Strange. Did you lose your key?” His question is accompanied by a light laugh that makes Stephen want to haul the bag at him instead. “Isn’t that a shame.”
With rising suspicion, he turns away from the door to look at the still seated figure who is staring up at him with those stupid brown eyes. “What did you do with it, Stark?” Stephen has no idea how Tony would have been able to snatch it from him but it sounds too plausible to not be true.
Besides, why else would the guy be sitting here?
Tony is quick to put his hands up as if surrendering. Stephen almost laughs - like it’ll be that easy. “Hey, I didn’t do anything. We haven’t been in the same room all day. I know I’m a genius and all but even I don’t have magic.”
“You’re hilarious.”
“Oh, I know but thanks for reminding me.” Stephen is this close to starting a fight right there in the hallway, not even caring that it’ll most definitely get him in trouble. Instead, he takes a deep breath and raises an eyebrow at Tony who responds with a wink. “I’m serious, though. I didn’t take your key. You’ve probably left it in your dorm. Happens to me all the time.”
Stephen doesn’t want to accept that explanation, as correct as it might sound. Accepting it will mean that he’ll be locked out of his room for another couple of hours and most of the books he needs for studying are inside said room.
“ Fuck .”, he groans out before turning around and letting himself fall back against the door, slowly sliding down until his ass hits the floor. “Just perfect.” He silently curses himself for being so stupid and forgetting to take the key with him, followed by cursing Wong for not being here to open the door for him.
And then he curses Tony because the guy won’t stop staring at him. Stephen can see him doing so out of the corner of his eyes; his own gaze locked at the dull wall across from him.
“What, Stark?”, he asks, voice sharp enough to cut something.
There is a moment of silence before Tony answers. “Damn, Strange. A bit overdramatic, are we? You act like this is the end of the world.” He hums for a moment. “I mean, I know that you’ve always had a thing for going a bit over the top but-”
Stephen has had enough. Between being forced to listen to this clown and the prospect of having to pull an all-nighter to have enough time to learn, he doesn’t feel like tolerating Tony anymore.
“Can you just shut up for one damn second?” It’s a mystery to him - how someone could have the urge to constantly talk and talk and talk. “Don’t you ever get tired of listening to your voice?” Oh, he hasn’t meant to say that out loud.
It just gives Tony a reason to speak up again.
“No and no.” With a long sigh, Stephen turns his head to look back at him. His eyes drop to the duffle bag in Tony’s lap, which he’s bouncing up and down. It irks him that he recognizes it as a sign of Tony getting restless. The guy has bothered him so much; to the point that Stephen starts to know his ticks. “My voice is pretty nice - and as you said, I’m hilarious.”
There is no possible reply for that, so Stephen just sighs once again and shakes his head. “So, are you finished with watching my day being shit or is there something else that I can help you with?” If he can just find out what he wants, he’ll be able to at least get rid of Tony.
It will still leave him with having nowhere to go but at least he’ll be able to suffer through it without the running commentary. At this point, Stephen actually considers just taking a nap right here and now, not caring for the other people that might walk by to witness it.
“Come on, Strange.” Right, Tony’s still with him. Fantastic. “Lighten up a little. Wong will be here any second and release you from this torture.” With a loud ‘thud’, Stephen’s head connects with the door. He can see the other man actually flinch at it. “Or he won’t be…?” The silence he receives is enough of an answer for Tony to understand. “Well, that’s unfortunate.”
Stephen snarls, the slight pounding in his head getting stronger by the second. “You don’t say.” It really isn’t Tony's fault; any of this and maybe he should stop giving the guy such a hard time.
Maybe - he’ll consider it.
“Wanna hang out in my room while you wait for your grumpy friend?”
The question catches Stephen off guard; causes his eyes to snap back to the other man, watching him. The trademark Stark smirk™ is grazing his lips, leaving Stephen no choice but to roll his eyes.
He’s seen that smirk countless times before - it’s what Tony uses to get everyone in his bed, man or woman. He’s caught glimpses of it from across the room at overcrowded parties, has noticed how it gives Tony slight dimples at the corner of his eyes every time the man uses it.
Not that Stephen looks out for him at parties - it’s always a pure coincidence when it happens.
But Tony’s goal right now isn’t to get him into his bed. He just wants Stephen to get riled up to the point where he’s ready to scream at his annoying behaviour. For whatever reason, that seems to be his favourite pastime activity - besides drinking.
Stephen won’t have it; not today. He doesn’t feel up to fighting with this idiot. “Fine.”, he simply agrees, surprising even himself. He gets up and slings his bag over his shoulder, mentally telling himself to simply ignore Tony once they are in his room. Even when he can’t drown out the running commentary, it’ll be easier to tolerate that behaviour when his ass doesn’t hurt from the hard floor.
The reaction his easy surrender gets him is even better than Stephen expects. Tony’s eyes grow big as he begins stuttering, making no attempt to get up from where he is blocking the door. Stephen understands to some degree - so far, he’s never been in his and Rhodey’s room.
Well, ignoring that one time he had stormed in there in the middle of the night to yell at a half-naked Tony, threatening to call campus security if he didn’t turn down the damn music.
But he isn’t sure that Tony even remembers that - the guy had been beyond drunk that night, barely reacting to Stephen when he had practically kicked down the door to start his aggressive monologue.
Stephen gives him a couple of seconds to compose himself but Tony stays quiet, staring up at him with his giant, brown eyes. “Well, get your ass up, Stark. You’re in the way.”, he helpfully offers, enjoying the other man’s speechlessness more than he probably should.
“Wait, seriously?”, Tony asks, completely baffled by this turn of events. Stephen cocks his head to the side, his hand motioning for him to stand up already. Tony doesn’t. “Oh, wow. I didn’t expect that.”
Stephen hums. “Really? I didn’t notice that at all. Now, will you get off the floor or…?”
“Ah, no.” His amused expression turns into a frown as he watches Tony explain. “Shit. You see, I didn’t think you’d actually say yes to my offer and just kind of threw it out there.” He scratches the back of his neck, a sheepish look appearing on his face. “I would let you into my room but the thing is…”
Stephen’s gaze drops back down to the duffle bag in the other man’s lap as his mind draws the obvious conclusion. “You locked yourself out as well, didn’t you?” Fucking perfect.
“Bingo.” The sheepish look is still there, though it’s accompanied by a small smile now. “I think Rhodey still has my key from the party last Sunday.” He doesn’t have to explain any further. Stephen remembers - Rhodey has told him that he started taking his friend’s key away from him whenever they went out.
Apparently, Tony has a habit of giving it to random strangers once he had a drink or two.
“Great.” Stephen glares at him, hoping that, if he just musters up enough willpower, he’ll be able to make Tony catch fire. Surprisingly, it doesn’t work. “Thanks for giving me false hope, you prick.”
The insult makes the other man jump back into action. “Hey now - no reason to get mad at me. At least I didn’t simply forget it. Mine was stolen by my own honey bear. Imagine the betrayal.”
“The last time your honey bear didn’t take away your key before letting you go to a party, he ended up having to chase away two drunk strangers out of your room.”
Tony’s smile grows, gaze focusing on something beyond Stephen’s reach. “That was a fun night.”
Before he has a chance to brag about something completely inappropriate that no one wants to know about, Stephen starts to head for the door. He has no clue where he is going to go but anywhere is better than-
“Woah!” Tony’s offended voice stops him dead in his tracks and making him turn back to stare at the man. “Did you forget? You already promised to hang out with me for the time being. No backsies.”
Stephen laughs; a flat and dull sound and gets ready to continue his way outside but there is already a hand grabbing his arm and pulling him back down. He barely has enough time to turn his body around to fall flat on his ass instead of his face.
“You ass.”, he growls at Tony who looks anything but sorry. “You almost broke my nose.” His arm is still trapped in the other man’s grip and Stephen quickly pulls it away, shuffling around and putting a good distance between them.
“Laying it on a bit thick, are we?” The snicker in his voice is unmistakable.
“Is everything a joke to you, Stark?”
For the faintest of moments, he can see Tony’s face fall - a shadow passing over it, making his smile falter and his eyes shine a bit less. It’s gone before Stephen can be sure though. “Well, yes. You should try laughing sometimes, Strange. It might do you some good.” He points at Stephen’s face. “With all the frowning you do, you’ll be wrinkled up before you hit your 30s.”
“Stop being an idiot and giving me reasons to frown then.”, comes the dry remark. “Can I go now?”
“No.” Fantastic. Tony claps his hands together, the loud sound echoing in the otherwise quiet hallway and startling him. “But if you want to go out we can go to McDonald’s.”
Stephen actually gags. “ No .” Wong has dragged him there once and the so-called ‘food’ he was forced to eat has done enough to scare him for a lifetime. That thing shouldn’t be allowed to have the name burger.
“Fine.” Tony is starting to get frustrated, he can hear it in the sharp edge his voice is slowly gaining. Good - it’s what he deserves. “What do you want to do then?”
‘Nothing with you.’ is the first answer that comes to mind but Stephen bites his tongue and keeps his mouth shut. He’s told himself not to start a fight and saying that would most certainly lead to an argument. “What I want to do is get into my room to study.”
Tony groans and rests his head against the locked door. “Well, you can’t do that though. Besides, studying is overrated.” Of course, he thinks that - but not everyone has the privilege of being born a genius.
“Easy for you to say.”, Stephen murmurs under his breath. “But I can’t just ignore all the work and then simply walk into class and ace a test.” He expects the chuckle before he can actually hear it.
“Right. That’s a 'me' thing, isn’t it?”
“Show off.”
“You know it.”
Both of them fall silent after that, simply smirking at each other. Well, Tony is smirking - Stephen, on the other hand, is still glaring at the man beside him but somehow, it has lost all the hostility. He has no idea when that happened.
The silence is getting heavy, the thick air causing Stephen to squirm around a little. He opens his mouth, ready to break it with another attempt of leaving the dorm but he gets beaten to it.
“Wanna see something cool?”
The question makes him squint at Tony. “If it’s the definition of cool that Rhodey has told me about - no, thank you.” He isn’t sure if Rhodey had wanted to tell him that disturbing story but after a couple of beers and a few shots, he had gotten very talkative. “I don’t want to see your bare ass.”
Tony chokes on nothing but air, painfully coughing a few times. “I didn’t mean that!”, he croaks out, followed by an angry: “I can’t believe Rhodey told you that. Damn traitor. I was high as a kite that night.”
“Right.”
“I was! And it was just a jo- you know what? Nevermind. Just-” He slips his hand into the pocket of his jeans, pulling out his phone a moment later. Stephen expects the worst - a video of Tony breaking into a house, of him wrecking a car or something like that.
What he doesn’t expect is for a picture of some kind of robot to be shoved into his face.
“Look at this.” He’s never heard Tony being this excited; not even drunk. “That’s Dum-E.” Stephen’s eyes trail from the screen back to the man holding the phone and back to the screen. Interesting.
“Dum-E?”, he slowly asks, not sure if the name is something he should recognize.
“Yeah. He’s an idiot. Drops everything and finds a way to set the most random stuff on fire.” The words are harsh but the voice that utters them is anything but. No, there is a certain… fondness to it that Stephen hasn’t thought Tony capable of possessing. “But he’s trying his best and I appreciate it.”
Something inside his head clicks. “Did you build it?”
“I sure did.” Tony pulls his phone back, swipes his finger across the screen and pushes it towards him again. Another picture of the robot is shown on the display; this one from a different angle. “Look at him. This is right after he spilt the coffee all over me. Dropped all of it in my lap - and it was hot coffee.”
It takes all of Stephen’s willpower not to laugh. “Tell him ‘good job’ when you see him again.”
An angry growl reaches his ears. “Hey! Do you know how much that actually hurt?” Stephen can imagine it. “I’m pretty sure that it was a failed assassination attempt.”
He lifts an eyebrow at that comment. “Now who is the one being dramatic?”
“Get piping hot coffee spilt into your lap and answer that question yourself, Strange.”
He cringes at the thought of it alone. Yeah, that doesn’t sound like something he wants to experience anytime soon. “Then why don’t you simply change the robot?” He has no clue how to phrase it any better - robots aren’t something he is very familiar with. “I mean like modify it or something?”
From the look Tony gives him, it seems like he has just suggested the most outrageous thing. “I can’t change Dum-E, Strange.”, he explains quickly. “That would change his entire personality. Can’t risk that.”
Stephen frowns. “His personality? It’s a robot - how much personality can it…” He trails off when Tony glares at him. “Okay, so I said the wrong thing.”
The other man nods. “Yup but it’s okay. You don’t know Dum-E yet. I assure you: one minute in a room with him and you’ll change your mind.” Stephen isn’t sure why but something about the way that he’s talking about his robot is kind of sweet.
Not that he’ll tell him so. Still, it’s a welcoming change from their typical conversation which consist of a lot more eye-rolling and insults. Who would have guessed that Tony Stark was more than a bag of ill-timed jokes?
“I’ll take your word for it.”, Stephen answers, at last, just to have the phone shoved into his hand a moment later. He looks up, the question clear in his face. Usually, people don’t like handing their phones over.
“Go on. There are a lot more pictures of him.” Apparently, Tony isn’t one of those people. “You’ll see. He has a lot of charisma in those.” When Stephen doesn’t comply immediately, he takes it as an invitation to shuffle closer, nudging his leg with his own. “ Go on. ”
Fuck it, Stephen thinks to himself. What harm can it do - and how often does he get the chance to openly snoop through someone’s phone? He has to enjoy that opportunity. “Alright, alright.” He starts swiping. “You’re really proud of him, huh?”
Tony leans even closer so that their shoulders are pressed against each other, staring at the screen while Stephen looks through the pictures. “Hell yeah. He’s the first bot I ever made. Kind of my bot son. I’m like a proud father.”
Stephen snickers. “Which father wouldn’t be proud of their son dumping hot coffee in their lap and almost killing them?” His joke earns him a punch into his shoulder. He decides to let that one go - he kind of deserved it.
He keeps on swiping, impressed with just how many pictures Tony has of the robot. There are enough to have their own folder which is equally cute and weird. He’s heard stories, mostly from Rhodey, about how serious Tony takes this kind of stuff.
But there is a difference between hearing it and actually seeing. Honestly, Stephen isn’t sure how to react so he simply continues going through the pictures. He snickers at a particular one, featuring Dum-E with a Christmas hat on top of him and a candy cane in his claw.
Beside him, Tony laughs as well but it’s a different laugh - one Stephen hasn’t heard before. There is no snark to it; no cheek. It’s… kind of nice. Quickly, he shakes his head and moves on.
The next picture has Tony inside the frame as well. He’s crouching next to Dum-E, a dopey smile on his face. It actually takes Stephen a moment to recognize him without the stupid leather jacket and his perfectly made hair.
The Tony in the picture is dressed in an oversized hoodie that has stains what can only be oil, grease or maybe even coffee on it and his mop of brown curls is a complete mess, falling in his face and hiding half of it.
For some reason, Stephen’s thumb continues to hover above the screen, refusing to swipe to the next one. He simply stares at the picture, at this complete stranger featured in it. He feels like he’s in some sort of trance, eyes taking in every little detail that he can make out.
When he finally snaps it is, he feels his cheeks start to heat up. His head turns to look at Tony, mouth opened and ready to explain why he has been creepily staring at a picture of him for the last minute or so.
Only, Tony isn’t even looking at the phone or the picture that it shows. No, his are locked on Stephen’s face and if he hasn’t been in the process of turning red before, this certainly does the trick.
Awkwardly, he clears his throat, not sure how he is supposed to react now. Holding Tony’s gaze proves to be a bit too much and his eyes drop to focus on a spot just above his shoulder as he holds the phone out for the other man to take it back.
He doesn’t.
Stephen has had enough. “Stark?”, he asks carefully. “Everything alright?”
He gets no reply; Tony simply continues to stare at him with dark eyes. His lips part slightly, the motion causing Stephen’s gaze to flicker to them. He has no clue what is happening and he isn’t sure if he likes it but he can’t seem to bring himself to back off; to do anything but sit there and look.
And then Tony is leaning towards him and Stephen barely has enough time to utter out a weak “What?” before their lips are pressed together. He takes in a sharp breath, eyes as big as they can possibly get while his brain starts going into overdrive.
Tony Stark is kissing him. Tony Stark is kissing him.
The smartest move would be to push him away and tell him to fuck off but his brain just short-circuited and Stephen stays right where he is.
Tony hums quietly and then the man’s lips are moving against his, asking him to return the kiss. It takes Stephen longer than he’ll admit to get a grip on himself but when he finally does, he hesitantly does just so.
Why he does it, he isn’t even sure.
He hasn’t imagined that this is what it feels like kissing Tony. Not that he has imagined it at all but if he had done so, this wouldn’t have been the feeling that came to mind. He has expected it to be rushed and urgent, all teeth and desperation but no.
If anything, Tony appears to be hesitant - like he’s scared that Stephen will pull away any second. The fear isn’t unjustified per se; it’s just not something he thought that Tony would be actually considering.
Before his mind can catch up, Stephen feels one of Tony’s hands cupping his face, fingers sliding along his jaw and effectively raising goosebumps on his entire body. Christ, he’s already a mess.
He gasps; he can’t help it and Tony immediately sees his chance, his tongue using the room it has to sneak itself into Stephen’s mouth. It shouldn’t feel this good; it shouldn’t but it fucking does and Stephen can’t help it, his own hand coming up to curl itself in Tony’s hair.
The picture comes back to his mind, how messy his hair had been in there and Stephen wants nothing more than to get it into that state again-
Someone loudly clearing their throat makes Stephen freeze. “Am I interrupting something?” Wong’s voice hits him like a slap, makes him pull back so quickly that he almost falls on his back.
Tony doesn’t look any better - his eyes are wide and his chest is rising and falling rapidly, making him look like a terrified animal, ready to bolt at any second.
Without waiting for him to say anything, Stephen scrambles to his feet, absentmindedly shoving the phone back into the other man’s hand. “I left my key in the room.”, he gasps, as if that explains anything. It doesn’t, not at all but he can’t bring himself to say something else.
Wong stares at him in confusion, eyes going back and forth between the two men. “Okay? That doesn’t-”
“Can you just open it?” He’s being a coward, Stephen knows as much but he has to get away from this hallway, from this moment, from Tony who is looking up at him like Stephen has just kicked him.
Thankfully, Wong complies with his order and quickly fishes the key out of his pocket as he walks over to their door. He doesn’t even know why his friend is already back but he doesn’t feel like asking.
“Stephen.” Tony struggles to get up from the floor and if Stephen wasn’t such a damn coward, he would have helped him. “Wait, please. Just let me-”
“I really need to study.”, he cuts the man off, refusing to turn around and look at him. “I’m sorry.”
There is a heavy silence before Tony speaks up again. “I still have nowhere to go.”
Stephen swallows just as Wong opens the door, giving him an easy out. “Nothing new there.” And then he is following his friend through the threshold, immediately slamming the door shut as soon as he can.
He takes a few shuddering breaths but it doesn’t help to calm him down and Stephen slumps back against the door as the reality of the situation comes crashing down on him. If the door didn’t hold him up, he would most definitely have fallen to the ground.
He’s so fucked.