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“Rhodey.”
Rhodey stirred a bit.
“Rhodey.”
“What.”
“Rhodey! Honeybear! Good morning to you!”
Rhodey opened his eyes, jumping a little bit when he found Tony’s face two inches from his own. Unfazed by the most part, though, Rhodey just stared right back into his friend’s grinning face. “What do you want?”
“I brought you breakfast,” Tony informed him.
“Thank you. What for,” Rhodey said without emotion.
“It’s your birthday!” Tony exclaimed, whirling away from him. “Sixth of October, I didn’t forget!”
Rhodey couldn’t help himself from smiling. “It’s not your birthday. Why are you so happy?”
“You’re another year closer to death,” Tony said cheerfully, pushing a plate of scrambled eggs into Rhodey’s lap. “They didn’t have pancakes by the time I got there. Enjoy.”
“Thanks, man,” Rhodey said, digging into his food. Breakfast in bed. To be honest, Rhodey had forgotten about his own birthday, it had stopped being a big deal once he had reached fourteen or so, just a happy birthday from his friends and family and a cake after dinner. A suit from his ma. It wasn’t that he wasn’t appreciating Tony’s attention, he was just surprised.
“Here. Got this for you the other day.” Tony gently placed a box about the size of a textbook wrapped in green paper onto Rhodey’s legs. It was surprisingly heavy, and at first, Rhodey thought that Tony really had gifted him a textbook.
“What is it?” Rhodey shoved the plate of eggs aside for the time being and brought the parcel toward him, about to shake it, but Tony stopped him.
“It’s fragile. Open it.”
Rhodey pulled apart at the hastily wrapped paper, unable to control his grin when he saw what it was. “Oh my God. I shouldn’t let you. You shouldn’t have.”
“It’s the newest model. Two hundred and fifty-six gigs. Lighter than the previous one with a nearly twenty-four hour battery,” Tony explained, geeking out himself.
Rhodey held the laptop box up, his smile faltering. “There’s no way I can accept this.”
“No, Rhodey, please. It’s honestly like, the least I can do. You’re always complaining about how slow your laptop is and it’s half doing me a favour, now I don’t have to listen to you bitching about it.” Tony shook his head. “Take it. Happy birthday.”
“Oh my God. I can never thank you enough.” Rhodey shook his head in disbelief. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, Rhodey. It’s yours,” Tony grinned, punching him on the shoulder lightly. “Happy birthday.”
“That’s the third time you’ve said that.”
“And I’ll say it again. Happy birthday Rhodey-bear!”
--
Later that day, Tony buys Rhodey his lunch. They’re sitting at the cafeteria table together, Tony shoving his burger into his mouth as if it was going to disappear and Rhodey taking his time with his own burger. Everything Tony does was rushed, Rhodey noticed. He always had something to do.
“Eat your birthday lunch and stop looking at me,” Tony blurted out between bites.
“You eat like an animal,” Rhodey snorted. “But birthday lunch? This is literally no different than the lunch we have every other Saturday.”
“It’s your birthday,” Tony said in a sing-song voice. “That makes it special.”
“You want to celebrate my birth more than I want to,” Rhodey joked, but he was speaking the truth.
“Pardon me for loving the fact that you’re alive,” Tony said with fake hurt. “Today is about you. A very special day.”
“You’re suffocating me, man.” Rhodey rolled his eyes, but let Tony put him on a pedestal anyway.
“I wanna take you to this bakery I found the other day. You can get anything you want,” Tony said, nodding. “I’ll tell them it’s your birthday. Maybe you’ll get something for free.”
“Tony, you’re making this too big of a deal. Hell, I even forgot it was my birthday until you reminded me,” Rhodey argued.
“But?” Tony batted his eyelashes.
“But you know me too well. I never say no to bake goods,” Rhodey sighed, finishing off his burger.
“Great! Eat up! It’s only like a fifteen-minute walk from here!” Tony exclaimed, standing up to throw the trash away. Rhodey moved to help, but Tony stopped him. “Don’t move. It’s your birthday. You don’t have to do anything even remotely like work today.”
“I’m a year older, I’m not old and weary yet.” Rhodey rolled his eyes, but sat back down anyway.
“Yet.”
“Shut up.”
--
“I’m trying to study.”
“Why’re you studying? It’s your birthday,” Tony whined.
Tony hadn’t shut up since they got back from the bakery. Granted, they did give Rhodey a free cupcake, but only after Tony practically shouted that it was Rhodey’s birthday at the top of his lungs and hinted at the people behind the counter about getting free dessert. It was embarrassing, really, but Rhodey really didn’t have the heart to tell Tony to shut up.
Until now.
Tony was getting on his nerves. He had a test to study for, he had a paper to write, and with Tony’s incessant jabbering about how he shouldn’t have to study on his birthday, it was getting difficult to concentrate. Rhodey had tried to just grit his teeth and carry on, but it was getting near-impossible with the way that Tony was talking, the word ‘birthday’ seemingly one of the only few words in his vocabulary.
“Look, man. I appreciate it. I really do. But would it kill you to shut up for a second?” Rhodey turned around to face Tony, who was sitting on his bed. “Go somewhere else. Go down to the lab. Just stop talking.”
Tony shut up. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, but thought better of it and kept quiet.
“Sorry,” Rhodey quickly apologized, seeing the effects of his words on Tony.
“Do you want me to leave?” he asked in a small voice, looking absolutely crushed.
“No. I was, I was trying to concentrate. And kinda spazzed on you. I’m sorry.” Rhodey was kinda worried. Usually Tony took a ‘shut up’ as a challenge to talk even more. “Are, are you okay? Like, what’s going on? It’s like you’re obsessing over my birthday or something.”
Tony said something too quiet for Rhodey to hear.
“What?”
“We’ve never celebrated my birthday,” Tony admitted, a bit louder. He looked down at his hands. “I don’t know how. I’m sorry.”
“Tony.”
“We’ve just- I don’t know how people do it. I don’t know the lengths that people go to, I almost rented out a banquet hall until I read that it’s usually for people’s fiftieth. Reddit isn’t that helpful.” Tony laughed a bit, but there wasn’t any humour.
“You searched up on Reddit how to celebrate a birthday?” Rhodey smiled.
“Yeah.”
“Aw, Tones. That’s adorable.”
“Shut up. Just tell me where I went wrong,” Tony mumbled.
And of course Tony would’ve treated it as a way to get better. A way to improve because he wasn’t good enough. And as much as it showed that Tony was a character who learned from his mistakes, Rhodey didn’t want Tony to feel that way. This isn’t something he should learn not to do next time.
“You didn’t go wrong.”
“Then why are you angry?”
“I’m not angry. I just, I got annoyed.”
“Same thing.”
“But you’ve, you never celebrated your birthday?” Rhodey asked.
Tony shook his head. “It was just another day of the year.”
Rhodey knew the Starks were shit parents. Rhodey knew that Tony grew up in a house where they were all solely business partners, together simply for the public eye. Howard was smart, and Maria looked good by his side. Rhodey knew that Tony didn’t really interact that well with kids his age, as he was so much older mentally, and by consequence, Tony missed out on a lot of things. Birthdays, for once. By the time he knew that a birthday should be celebrated, his classmates were already on their Sweet Sixteens and he was ten.
“I’m sorry,” Rhodey said finally.
“It’s not your fault. I should be the one apologizing.”
“And you did. And I accepted it.”
“Do you still want me to go?” Tony asked, and Rhodey didn’t know if the puppy eyes were intentional or not, but they worked.
“Tell you what. Let’s go to Dairy Queen, order an ice cream cake, grab two forks and eat it right then and there,” Rhodey decided.
“Really?” Tony brightened up.
“If you don’t tell them that it’s my birthday, I might even let you pay for it,” Rhodey joked.
“Okay! Okay, yeah, sure. I, yeah. Thanks.”
“C’mere, man.” Rhodey held out his arms, and Tony fell into them.
Tony was warm. Rhodey squeezed him tight, reassuring him that he did no wrong. He had bought him a laptop, the least Rhodey could do was spend the day with him, even if he really had to be studying and working on that paper. Whatever. He had all of Sunday to work on it, he’ll just pull an all-nighter.
“When your birthday rolls around, I’m gonna throw you the best party ever,” Rhodey promised. “It’ll make up for all the birthdays you missed. Maybe I’ll even let you sip a beer.”
“Shut up,” Tony mumbled into his chest. “But thank you.”
They pulled apart, and Tony dragged Rhodey all the way to the Dairy Queen, his excitement returning. Rhodey just had to grit his teeth and take it, but it was tolerable in a way. Rhodey liked the affection, although he probably wouldn’t be able to take it every day. Besides, Tony had promised not to tell the Dairy Queen workers that it was his birthday, he didn’t need to be publicly embarrassed again.
Tony marched into the restaurant like he owned the place, went straight to the counter, and grinned.
“It’s Rhodey’s birthday.”
“Oh my God, Tones. You promised!”