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Jim Rhodes was apprehensive to share a room with a certified kid genius. His mamma had tried preparing him, reminding him it would be hard to always be the smartest kid in class, not understanding boundaries or how others may struggle with concepts that come easily to you. But, he wasn’t necessarily prepared for the little hurricane that was Tony Stark.
Tony seemed determined to have a full “college experience” as he kept saying, making a mess of the dorm and experimenting with all kinds of things kids his age should stay away from, (and with things people 3 times his age couldn’t hope to understand). He invited Jim to all the parties he attended, as well as any fancy events only a Stark could afford to frequent.
Jim tried to keep his wits about him, ignore the privileged lifestyle of the… brat he was rooming with, and reminded him to actually do his schoolwork and attend his classes. He sighed in frustration every time he put the kid to bed when he stayed out too late or fought off an older student who was trying to take advantage of Tony’s naïveté. He took the too-young-to-drive boy to the doctor one day when he had the flu, then picked up his prescriptions and flooded him with Vitamin C and chicken noodle soup like his mother used to do for him. He stopped his own studying to listen to a presentation Tony was nervous about giving in one of his classes, and he scolded him when he tried to build an artificially intelligent robot in their room.
Jim didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the mess Tony had made of his previously ordered life, but his parents didn’t raise a whiner, so he pressed on and offered the too-adventurous boy a glass of water and cold cloth when someone convinced him getting drunk would be fun.
Then the holidays came, and Jim packed to go home. He noticed Tony had not yet started preparing to head to one of the many mansions he often bragged about and asked him about his Christmas plans with his family.
For the first time since he had met the kid 4 months ago, he saw his whole face fall, and the ever garrulous 15-year-old got disturbingly quiet.
“My parents are going to France for the holidays on a second honeymoon. They’ve asked me not to come along.”
Jim’s mind lit up with confusion, then offense on his roommate’s behalf.
“Are you kidding me?! This is your first time away from home and they don’t even try to spend even part of the holidays with you?”
Tony looked up at him sharply, shrugging as anger took over his face.
“It’s not like I’m a baby! I can make my own plans.”
Jim held both hands up in surrender, apologising whilst trying to calm his roommate down and hoping to banish the wetness he could see forming in the kid’s eyes.
“Yeah, Tones. I know you can! You probably have big plans with all your friends,” he offered conciliatorily. He turned away, shrugging like it was no big deal, packing his swim trunks in his suitcase. Why his parents thought the Bahamas screamed Christmas he had no idea, but he wasn’t going to complain if it got him on a nice, sunny beach in the middle of December.
“Ain’t got no friends,” he heard behind him, so softly he wasn’t sure he was meant to have heard it.
When he turned around, he saw Tony tinkering with his (fortunately very un-intelligent) robot arm, wiping at his eyes furiously as he refused to look up at Jim.
He looked at the spoiled, intelligent, obnoxious, brave, lonely heap of trouble who shared his room and he sighed, going over to Tony’s armoire and opening a drawer.
“You know, Tony, for being a supposed genius, you really are a dummy sometimes.”
Tony raised his head with a hurt-filled expression, only to be hit in the face with a piece of fabric.
When he pulled it away from his face, he was holding swimming trunk in his hand. His own swimming trunks.
He looked up in amazement and tentative hope at Jim, whose back was to him.
“Well, are you going to pack or not?” the older boy asked, still not looking at him.
Tony leapt off the bed, beginning to stuff anything he could think of in a suitcase.
“Gimme a minute, I’ll be done in a second, Rhodey!” he practically shouted, frantically throwing items he didn’t deem necessary out of the way and onto the floor.
Rhodey?, Jim thought to himself, rolling his eyes in exasperation at the disaster all over his once-neat dorm. He just shook his head and went with it, accepting it as part of his new life as Tony Stark’s best friend.