Chapter Text
“This is disgusting, Clint.”
Natasha “Nat” Romanov was never one to be easily impressed. Her absolute disgust was very much evident on her face, her red lips twisted into a frown and eyebrows drawn together.
Next to the desk she was seated in, her friend, Clint Barton, had his book bag open. Clumsily stuffed inside of it was a bag full of homemade mint chip cookies, the concoctions a disorienting mix of brown and green with flecks of black from how burnt they were.
“Okay, so they look kind of bad, but that was because of the green food coloring. It only makes sense since it’s mint flavored.”
“Yeah, and they’re burnt to no return.”
Natasha shifted her position, facing the front of the classroom to pay attention to the teacher’s droll and boring lecture about Cavalieri’s Quadrature Formula.
“Clearly Home Ec isn’t doing you any favors,” Another kid, Bruce Banner, spoke up. He sat to the left of Natasha, keeping his voice low enough, only for the other two to hear.
“Bruce, you too? You haven’t even seen them yet,” Clint rolled his eyes, “Hey, I’ll make sure you guys try some after–”
“Late again, Stark?”
The teacher’s aggravated voice caused Clint to quiet down. The entire class’ focus shifted to the student at the classroom entrance. He sported messy pitch-black hair, large brown eyes with prominent dark circles, and a wardrobe that looked like it was put together in the dark. His backpack was clumsily attached to his side, papers begging to fall out of its partially unzipped condition. He was slightly crouched over, his cheeks somewhat flushed, probably from running so fast to reach the classroom.
“No excuses this time?”
“Miss, I’m trying to catch my breath.”
That elicited a few giggles among the class.
The teacher rolled her eyes at Tony Stark’s fake, saccharine tone. She motioned for him to take a seat.
“I’ll see you after class, by the way,” She said monotonously, clearly more than used to this whole type of situation at this point. Tony just grunted in affirmation.
“You look like shit,” Clint said, as soon as Tony took the seat behind him.
“Thanks. I was adding the finishing touches to the repulsor and the whole thing went on a little bit longer than I wanted it to. I would’ve pulled an all-nighter if I didn’t pass out on my ass and wake up five minutes before this class started.”
Natasha snickered at the snide attitude that matched Tony’s annoyed expression.
“I don’t think that’s healthy,” Bruce shrugged.
“I won’t make a habit of it, only cause you worry about me Bruciebear.”
“Just don’t injure yourself again on another one of your projects,” Bruce plainly said, eyeing his textbook. Tony often took his engineering escapades or projects rather seriously to a point where he nearly sliced his finger open with a heavy duty saw from not sleeping for a whole two days.
“What page are we on?” Tony asked, poking Clint on the back.
“We’re–”
“Tony, can you not go one day without interrupting my class?”
“I was asking what page we were on!”
“Maybe you wouldn’t need to ask if you’d make it a habit to come on time. Plus, I’d much rather prefer if you asked me.”
“What’s the difference?”
------
Tony once more flipped both of his pink detention slips before shoving them into his pocket.
The first one was for his persistent tardiness to school and the second was for his "conduct" in class. Apparently his “attitude towards the teacher” was what earned him that one, whatever that meant. He was just asking an honest question, wasn’t he?
“Ms. Garrett is out to get me. It’s all some part of her calculated scheme to get me kicked out of this school,” The moment their second period class ended, Tony began his tirade, “Notice how it’s five detentions before you get a referral and once you get three referrals in one semester, you get expelled. These two slips add up to my fourth detention after getting two referrals. She’s counting down my days here as we speak...”
“Get ready guys, Tony’s about to put on his tinfoil hat,” Natasha said, walking alongside Bruce. The two made sure to keep up with Clint and Tony’s rapid footsteps. The crowds within the school hallways were ever so congested, making it a headache to navigate through. Students either loitered around, catching up with their friends in between classes, some would fetch extra supplies from their lockers for their next class, and others like Tony and his three best friends were starting their lunch period.
“I’m just saying, Nat. She punishes me for the dumbest things,” Tony replied, “Clint could talk up a storm in that class and she wouldn’t say anything, I utter a single word and she goes all Defcon 1 on me.”
“Hmm, you do make a point,” Clint uttered, he skipped ahead of the other three, “Come on guys, we have 30 minutes till lunch ends.”
------
“I swear to god I’m going to hurl those across the field if you shove them in my face again,” Natasha said, roughly pushing Clint’s bag of cookies away.
“I’ll try them,” Tony said, making a beckoning gesture with his hand for Clint to hand the bag towards him.
While Tony was reaching in to grab a cookie that wasn’t burned beyond repair, Natasha was rummaging through her backpack. Clint would cautiously peek out through the bleachers, making sure there weren’t any teachers in the near vicinity of the field.
The four had found a relatively hidden location behind the bleachers of the football field. This was where they would sometimes congregate and do...whatever recreational activities that weren’t so school friendly, such as...
“Found it,” Natasha said, pulling out a bag of pre-rolls that were mixed in with a couple of golf ball sized cannabis clumps. They were a darker green hue than the cheaper alternatives. Beside Natasha, Tony spat out a large glob of mint chip cookie in disgust.
“Guys, make sure not to blow it in my direction!” Bruce called out to them, keeping a far enough distance from the other three.
“Got it,” Natasha replied, in a knowing voice. Bruce wasn’t so keen on smelling like weed for the remainder of the day. His parents would easily pick up on it and he’d be in huge trouble.
“Wow, Quill really outdid himself this time, huh?” Clint said, eyeing the dried, high quality cannabis between his thumb and index fingers.
“Yeah, even managed to roll a few for me,” Natasha winked. She handed one of the joints to Tony before doing the same to Clint.
She pulled out a lighter from her pocket and lit her own joint first before proceeding to light up Tony’s and Clint’s.
“Cheers,” Tony said, extending his own blunt towards Clint’s and Natasha’s whose were also extended.
Apart from his detention mishaps at school, Tony loved his life.
He really did.
He came from a well to do family and had a good enough relationship with his parents. His father was a little impatient with his troublesome antics at school, but he let him off easy. It helped that his job kept him out of the house and often out of the country, so he didn’t have enough time to pay much attention to Tony’s little school infractions such as “showing attitude to the teacher”. His mother just full on spoiled him. That was the consequence of being a rich only child.
Plus, he had his three best friends alongside him. Ever since they met in the sixth grade, Tony, Clint, Natasha, and Bruce were inseparable. They had distinct, sometimes clashing personalities, but they somehow made it work. They were always there for each other whenever each of them went through something such as Tony losing his former butler and family friend, Jarvis; Clint losing his mother; Bruce and his heartbreak with Betty Ross; and Natasha being separated from her two sisters due to her parents’ very messy divorce.
Tony loved these idiots with all his heart.
------
Tony, Natasha, and Clint were lying beside each other on the grass, staring at nothing in particular. The talkative trio retreated into a peaceful silence, the chirping of the birds being the only occasional source of noise. A thin plume of smoke remained above them even after they finished.
Scattered footsteps and several voices broke Clint out of his stupor.
“Holy smokes. Has P.E already started?” Clint said, shooting upwards from his laying position and peeking outside from the corner of the bleachers.
Tony sat up as well while Natasha remained lying on the ground, her hand now blocking her face. Bruce was at a far corner, meticulously writing down notes from his calculus textbook. He wrinkled his nose at the foul weed stench, hoping to god he didn’t smell like it.
Tony crawled over to Clint, slightly pushing him aside for a better view.
He partially shielded his eyes from the harsh afternoon sun, seeing a group of three students. Fortunately, there weren’t any teachers in sight so it was just them. He pursed his lips to the side, his eyes unmoving. All of them were very familiar faces. Like him, they were seniors – Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, and Steve Rogers.
They were the star students, always coming to class obnoxiously early, sucking up to the teachers, and seen as model pupils of the senior class. They always acted as if they were one step ahead or even superior to the more rebellious students like Tony, Clint, and Natasha. They participated in many school clubs, played sports, had decent enough grades, and were just all-round liked by everybody. If Tony counted, Sam Wilson probably had more than six extracurriculars racked up on his school resume, just for this year alone.
“Fuck, I can’t stand those asshats.”
“Asshats that are eye candy, Clint. I’d let the blonde one have his way with me if I could.”
Clint groaned, letting out a disgusted grimace. His friend always had to make passes at any walking specimen he deemed attractive. If not, he’d make some lewd comment having to do with how attractive they were.
“Gross. You have horrible taste, Tony.”
“Ah, maybe it’s cause you’re not attracted to men.”
“Well I don’t need to be. I just know those types are overrated.”
From below, Tony could see their footsteps shake the Bleachers as the three other boys stepped up on them. That’s when he emerged out of the corner, stumbling on his footsteps after Clint playfully extended his foot. Steve, Bucky, and Sam were animatedly talking amongst each other as they took their seats.
Tony did an obnoxious wolf whistle, the weed in his system knocking out all inhibition. That immediately caught their attention.
“Shirts looking a little tight there, Rogers.”
Tony could hear Clint snicker not too far from him. Bruce and Natasha were probably rolling their eyes beyond annoyance right now. Tony couldn’t help himself; he liked rousing up the guy. It was refreshing to see that seemingly perfect streak slip up a bit.
Steve, the blonde Tony had made a not-so-appropriate statement about a minute ago, had his full attention on him. A frown was etched onto his features. As predicted, he wasn’t amused. Tony could have sworn Steve’s frown would become permanent if he held onto it any longer.
“Getting high behind the bleachers again, Stark?”
“Well, shit,” Tony sniffed himself, “You have super soldier senses or something, Captain America? I didn’t know you could smell me from all the way here.”
Steve’s jaw only twitched before he looked away from Tony and focused his attention on his friends again. He didn’t want to fall for the bait, not again.
“Have a nice day, Cap,” Tony said, “If you’re looking for a date to the winter formal, hit me up!”
When Steve gave him one more glance to possibly tell him to buzz off, the dark-haired boy gave him a wink before heading back to his friends.
------
Bucky Barnes did a quick glance of the field with his eyes, double checking to see if Tony and his friends had left to the locker rooms inside the school building to change into their P.E uniforms.
“All that money and no class,” The brunette said.
“Can we not talk about him?” Steve said, a sudden bout of annoyance in his voice.
“He’s just a kid depraved of attention; you shouldn’t let him get under your skin. He’ll move onto someone else to annoy if you ignore him.”
“What do you think he’s been doing for the past week and a half?” Sam spoke up.
“I meant giving him the complete silent treatment,” Bucky retorted.
“Buck–”
“Am I wrong?”
“No, no you’re not,” Steve replied in a haste fashion, wanting Bucky to quash down the topic of Tony Stark or anything having to do with Tony Stark, “I’m just trying to keep my sanity intact before we graduate.”
“…By not talking about he who must not be named, got it,” Bucky said, earning an amused chuckle from Sam.
If it wasn’t clear by now, Steve Rogers had a low opinion of Tony. He thought the kid was obnoxious, loud, entitled, and even arrogant at times. Being the son of a businessman and scientist with a multimillion-dollar net worth clearly did him no favors in that regard. People like him thought they were gods gift to the world because they were raised to believe so. People like Tony did not care about the consequences of their troublesome antics because their parents would scoff them off and everything for them would go back to normal. Steve was very adamant on that opinion of his.
On the other hand, people like Tony Stark thought Steve’s do-gooder nature…contravened with his more nefarious behaviors. They would clash with each other with their limited interactions and Tony, being his wisecracking self, always knew how to rile him up.
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[3:58 P.M] ALegOLas: tony, you absolute nut
[3:58 P.M] Tony: ill be the one to suffer the consequences if it all goes to shit alright??
[3:59 P.M] ALegOLas: just wait until next week
[3:59 P.M] Tony: my parents will be home sunday night, business trips don’t last forever
[4:01 P.M] Bruciebear: You guys are such bad influences on me. I should stop hanging with you lot.
[4:02 P.M] Black Widow: I’m going to pretend you didn’t include me
[4:02 P.M] Bruciebear: I don’t. You’re cool.
[4:02 P.M] Tony: ouch,, you dont really mean that, do u bruciebear :’(((
[4:03 P.M] Black Widow: so am I carpooling you idiots or are you driving yourselves to Tony’s?
[4:03 P.M] Tony: here we go…
Tony grinned to himself, getting ready for the inevitable discussion on who would be the one to drive the others to his lavish house on the night of a party he was going to throw.
Tony was well-renowned for the grandiose parties he would throw for the school when his parents weren’t home. It just so happened that his "detention" spanned the length of two detentions - two slips and all - and fell on the same day both of them were out of the house. Maybe he could make an excuse that he forgot about it. He could get his dad to vouch for him and they could reschedule it. Fuck, he was a genius.
“Hey, uhh, Stark, what are you up to?”
Tony turned around from his crouched down position, cellphone in both hands. He resisted the urge to let out a sigh when he realized the voice belonged to the timid yet overzealous Peter Parker. Tony stood up, leaning his side against his locker. He noticed that the hallways had cleared out, everyone else ready to go home for the weekend, just as he was.
“What is it now?”
“I– it’s– nevermind,” Peter fumbled, getting ready to turn around and head off. Tony grabbed him by the shoulder.
“You’re here now, so just tell me,” Tony said, hoisting his backpack up to his shoulders.
“So it’s about the automatic solar tracker Ned and I have been working on, last time you said I should reinstall the software connected to it, but that turned out to be a bust, so I disassembled and reassembled it like three times and there still wasn’t any change. Mr. Harrington couldn’t even answer my question and everyone else I ask seems to be completely stumped about this so…who knows better than you when it comes to this stuff.”
Peter Parker immediately took a liking to Tony, the moment they met one day in detention. Well, Peter was volunteering to clean up the storage room next door and organize a few things in the room Tony was staying in at the time. He was a nerdy, at times coy, freshman who shared Tony’s interest in engineering and physics. Tony remembered fondly rolling his eyes when Peter once had said, “you’re like an older and much cooler version of me”. He had a protective streak towards the kid even if he did annoy him at times.
“Okay, explain the specifics from beginning to end.”
“Thanks, Stark, I really, really owe you one.”
The two began to walk down the hallway, heading to the entrance that would lead them outside.
“For the love of god Peter, call me Tony.”
“S-sorry force of habit. That’s what all my friends call you-”
Tony hoped he didn’t make a huge mistake. This kid could talk his– anyone’s head off once he got carried away.
Afterwards, all that Tony would have on his mind was his meticulous plan for what was to come tomorrow. He really needed to unwind. He wasn’t going to let a couple of pink detention slips get in the way of it and he wasn’t going to let it bite him in the ass.