A/N: AU, Marvel and DC universes exist together. Begins when Tony Stark is 12 and Bruce Wayne is 10.
Warnings: strong, pervasive language
Tin Soldiers: Part 1
Tony doesn't think he's ever been more pleased to see a place for the last time. He hates St. Margaret's School for Boys with every fiber of his being. He hopes (perhaps futilely) that his parents with just give up on the ridiculous idea of him going to school. It's stupid. He's twelve and already taking a mix of junior and senior level classes. Even with AP courses still to come he'll be out of high school in two years.
He thinks his father would probably be okay with him testing out of the rest of his schooling, but his mother will never agree. So, despite his arguments, three weeks after leaving St. Margaret's he's walking through the doors of the Gotham Hills Academy. Really his parents hadn't wanted to look at schools in New Jersey, but Tony had left them few options in New York. He plans to be kicked out of this one before fall break (his current record for quickest dismissal is two months at St. Margaret's but he was slacking off in his trouble-making there, he can do better).
He makes plans and squirrels away supplies for pranks and generally intends to wreak havoc. Jarvis drops him off in his dorm room with a stern look that Tony pretends to misunderstand. This is going to be fun.
His first day of classes rolls around. He goes to English (useless) and History (really useless but at least interesting) and AP chemistry (he actually likes that one) and finally AP computer science. It's there, hidden from his teacher's sight by a large monitor that he decides to have a little fun. He's the youngest kid in the class (by at least four years) and no one is paying him any attention. He cracks his fingers and gets to work. Time to make sure he never has to go to another English class again.
He makes it through the first firewall and into the class schedules when someone appears at his side. The kid is scrawny (and Tony would know, he's not yet had a growth spurt and he's starting to think he never will). He has a shock of neatly combed black hair that makes Tony reconsider his ban on even thinking about touching his own hair in the mornings and the brightest blue eyes Tony has even seen. They're wide and serious as they look at Tony's computer screen.
"What do you want?" Tony hisses. How the hell had some little elementary schooler escaped its keeper long enough to wander into this classroom?
The boy doesn't take his eyes off the computer screen.
"You missed a backslash," he mutters quietly enough not to be heard by their teacher (who is still droning his way through the class roster for roll call). Tony looks at the line the kid is looking at. Well fuck. He quickly types a backslash and glares at the kid.
"Shoo!" He whispers, "Go back to recess or wherever you're supposed to be right now." The kid smirks and settles into the seat closest to Tony. The teacher makes it few a few more names.
"Go!"
The kid shakes his head and then raises his hand and says in a normal tone of voice, "Here, Mr. Fuller."
Done with roll the teacher (Mr. Fuller?) starts lecturing. It dawns on Tony that the kid actually supposed to be in this class. He's instantly intrigued. Not many people can keep up with him. If a nine year old is in this class, well, he must be at least passably intelligent….
"What's your name?" he asks quietly.
"Bruce." The kid is taking notes (by hand! Like a caveman) but he pauses long enough to give Tony an unreadable look.
"Tony Stark," Tony tells him, "So, what are you? Eight? Nine?"
Bruce is not nine (he's ten, still a baby in Tony's opinion). He is, however, the most infuriating little robot of a human being Tony has ever had the displeasure of calling a friend. Really, he's not even sure why he puts up with the ass. He's an insufferable little know-it-all who couldn't care less about those around him and Tony- Okay, he can't even finish that thought in the privacy of his head. Bruce is probably the only person on Earth smart enough to keep up with Tony (mostly that is, Bruce is genuinely terrible at differential calculus, but that's okay – Tony would probably fail history without Bruce at his side). The point is, he likes Tony and he listens to Tony and, well, that means a lot to the lonely twelve year old.
So, despite what he tells everyone, Tony doesn't really hate Bruce. He does hate the cold the little bastard's attitude some days. See, Bruce is a fucked up kid (and Tony knows fucked up kids, he likes to think of himself as the poster child for fucked up). He never sleeps, which Tony only knows because he rarely sleeps himself, he never talks (that's okay, Tony talks enough for ten people), and he never smiles (Tony likes that, people are always faking smiles at him). But, on the other days, on Tony's favorite days, Bruce is the best sort of sounding board. He listens to Tony and he points out the flaws in Tony's schemes before those flaws can get him killed. Sometimes he even cracks a little grin. It's most genuine, kind thing that Tony has ever had directed at him. He wants to hold onto the feeling it gives him forever.
Sometimes, Tony has trouble remembering why they became friends (Bruce always says it was when Tony latched onto Bruce like a fungus and Bruce didn't care enough to scrape him off, Tony says it was the other way around and oh-by-the-way that's derogatory to fungi). It doesn't matter really. Tony will always be grateful he got kicked out of the boarding school in New York.
Things are rough at first. Bruce is quiet when Tony is loud, mad when Tony is calm, passionate when Tony is laconic. But, weirdly enough, they work. One day, as Halloween approaches Tony realizes he has no plans to get dismissed from this school.
Tony spends pretty much all of his time in Bruce's room. He takes apart (and forgets to put back together) every alarm clock the school provides. Bruce retaliates by learning Old Church Slavonic and refusing to speak English to Tony for three weeks. Tony doesn't sleep, he prefers to spend the night hours elbow deep in wires and circuits, but when Tony's body eventually decides he has to sleep he steals Bruce's bed and wakes up to the younger boy's foot pressed against his spine. He thinks those nights are probably the best sleeps he's ever had.
They almost get suspended for sneaking a bottle of whiskey into the old science lab in the basement and trying to build a robot (his name is A.L.V.I.S. and he's supposed to help Alfred and Jarvis but they never quite makes it past the tinkering stage).
Three years pass. Tony gets kicked out of school and let back in (huh, daddy's money is good for a lot more than he thought). Bruce is always writing in a tiny little notebook he never lets Tony see. Tony falls in and out of love faster than most people could keep up with the names. Bruce stops flinching when Tony throws his arms around the smaller boy.
Tony graduates.
He starts college just before his fifteenth birthday. At first he drinks and parties and tries to pretend he's not mourning the best friendship he thinks he'll ever have. Why would Bruce want to still be friends with him? He's loud and annoying and selfish and dangerous and more awful things than Tony even wants to think about most days. Really, Bruce is too good for all that. Tony tries to be happy- Maybe he won't ruin Bruce like he ruins everything else.
He meets AFROTC cadet James Rhodes at a party and immediately refuses to call him anything but Rhodey. Rhodes is a ridiculous name. He thinks maybe he has a friend-type because Rhodey's I'm-disappointed-in-you glare could rival Bruce's any day of the week. Rhodey makes the end of his friendship with Bruce easier, not by much, but it's at least tolerable now.
Then, Tony's birthday rolls around and Bruce shows up at MIT with a cupcake and a glare.
"Brucie?" Tony asks. He's hungover and can't remember the last time he slept. Maybe he's hallucinating all this? That wouldn't be good, he shou-
"Tony," Bruce parrots back mockingly, "I see you're trying to pickle yourself in Jaeger."
Well, that settles that. Only the real Bruce could pack so much I-care-about-you-you-absolute-moron into a single quirked eyebrow.
Tony lets him in. They split the cupcake and Tony tries to pretend he isn't fighting back tears when Bruce hands over handwritten code to improve the motion of A.L.V.I.S's main lifting arm (the papers are smudged and coffee stained and wrapped in a perfectly tied red ribbon). Later, Rhodey shows up with beer and a few shitty movies. He's a little wide eyed to be meeting Bruce Wayne but Tony teases him and Bruce smiles at him until he relaxes and everything is perfect.
Two more years and Tony graduates again (Bruce is still in high school, the absolute slacker).
This time he doesn't worry that Bruce will leave him. Mostly because Bruce has made it very clear that Tony would need a court order to keep him away and Tony really can't be that bothered. Rhodey gets deployed to Afghanistan and Tony spends the first month after graduation loafing around Gotham with Bruce and pretending he's not worried about their older friend. During this time, He decides that Alfred and Jarvis must never meet. The world might explode from the sheer concentrations of sass and British propriety in a single location in they did.
One day, Bruce takes Tony out to meet his parents. Tony doesn't know what to say. But, Bruce doesn't seem expect him to say anything. He leans down to pat the stone.
"This in Tony," Bruce says, "He's my friend. You'd like him, I think." Tony smirks. He's made it his goal to be the sort of guy parents aren't so sure they approve of.
He waits until Bruce starts back towards the house before he whispers, "He's a great kid," at the stones and flees. Ugh, emotions give him hives.
It's not three months later that his own parents die in a car crash. He thinks he should probably be more sad about that. But, really he can only summon tears for Jarvis, the steady presence that made his life seem at least vaguely normal. He loved that old bastard with every ounce of love his shriveled heart could muster.
Hundreds of people show up to his parents' funeral. Obadiah's hand is tight on Tony's shoulders and Tony's eyes are bone dry. He's drunk.
Bruce and Alfred are the only other ones at Jarvis' service. Tony is horrifically sober. He manages to make it home and through more alcohol than he should probably consume before the tears start. Bruce doesn't leave his side until he is forced to for school.
Two more years pass and Bruce graduates high school. He's going to Princeton and even though Tony gives him shit for it (because come on Princeton?) he's actually crazy proud.
Things are pretty great for almost six months. Tony visits Bruce and Bruce visits Tony. They trade ideas and insults and their companies thrive. Tony even manages to cut back on the drinking just a little. It's hard to use a welding torch when he's three sheets to the wind.
Of course, nothing can ever stay right for too long and the worst happens. Bruce disappears.
Tony personally searches for as long as he can before the Board demands he return. He tells them to fuck off and would have probably searched forever if Obi hadn't asked him to come home. He's never really been able to say no to Obi.
So, Tony drinks. He invents and he codes and he drinks. One day, two years after Bruce vanished without a trace, JARVIS wakes up for the first time.
"Good morning, sir," JARVIS says and Tony cries. He cries because he misses his best friend and the only adult he ever thought of as a real parent is dead and he's terrified for Rhodey who apparently decided a fucking warzone is a great place to hang out and he doesn't want to be stuck in a lab inventing shit. He wants to be in Africa or Asia or Europe or anywhere but here. He wants to be looking for Bruce because he heard rumors that the Wayne Enterprises board is looking to have Bruce declared dead. He screams and curses when he hears that. It's only been two years! Bruce should have seven to return home before he's officially dead.
He doesn't sleep for more time than he's comfortable thinking about and when he wakes up after collapsing there's a pretty redhead staring at him with wide eyes and a clipboard of papers clutched to her chest.
"Hello?" He slurs.
"Mr. Stark," she says. He gives her points for confidence. He's sure he reeks of alcohol and b.o. and everything else but she says nothing about that (or about the fact that he's wearing sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt in the multi-million dollar lab of SI).
"Well," he gestures for her to sit, "What do you want?" He's being rude, but he doesn't really care. He hasn't cared about much for just over two years now.
"You made a mistake," she holds the clipboard out to him. Bright blue eyes flash in his head, he forces the memory of meeting his probably-dead best friend far to the back of his mind.
"Impossible," he mutters. He doesn't make math mistakes. He ignores the little voice in his head with the Jersey accent that says of course he makes mistakes, just look at the disaster of his 11th grade independent study.
He glares at the papers she handed him. Dammit. She's right. It's a simple arithmetic error but it would have cost SI millions.
He snaps the fingers of his free hand at her. "Name?"
"Virginia Potts."
"Nice to meet you, Pepper," he says and that is that. Suddenly he isn't quite so alone in the world. He thinks Bruce would approve of Pepper (and especially of the way they met).
Pepper makes everything better (and worse). He still drinks and fucks and invents his way through life, but at least now he has someone beside him again. Rhodey is great (is so much more than he deserves) but he can't take calls while deployed and Tony needs to be able to talk. It's pretty much his defining trait.
Five more years crawl by.
He fucks up. Oh god does he fuck up. He's been stupid and blind and now he's a dead man walking. Or well, he would be walking if it weren't for the fucking car battery attached to his chest. He wonders if this was how Bruce died (because even if his heart refuses to accept it, his head knows Bruce is dead). Was he afraid and angry? Or was it quick?
Thoughts like this are never far from his mind as he does the impossible.
He builds a suit.
Yinsen dies.
He burns them and burns himself and the sand burns everything.
Then Rhodey is there and Tony can't help but cling to him.
(He wants to cling to Pepper in the same way, to wrap his arms around her and to never let go. But he won't, can't, doesn't.)
Later, after hamburgers and the press conference and sending Pepper home for the night, Tony is finally alone. It's a weird feeling. He hasn't been alone in so long it almost freaks him out. So, he focuses on The Plan. His eyes have been opened and he's not about to close them again. His weapons have been used for terrible things and he won't allow that to go on.
He's just started the plans for a power system that would allow him to utilize his arc reactor more efficiently when he realizes he's not alone.
"Tony," the other man says from his position leaning against a counter across the room. It takes Tony nearly two seconds to recognize him and another two to wonder why JARVIS didn't alert him to the intruder. Then, he's lurching across the room.
"Bruce?" He gasps.
He swings a wild fist when he reaches his old friend. It's intended to be a punch but is poorly aimed in his shock and Bruce catches it with ease. Tony notices for the first time that his formerly scrawny friend is now a good three inches taller than he is. The baby fat that padded his face the last time Tony saw him is gone, replaced by almost gaunt angles and a hard look to his eyes.
"Hi," Bruce smiles and it's the cold sort of smile that Tony remembers. He returns the gesture weakly.
"Where have you been you bastard?" he asks.
Bruce's smile warms. "Oh," he says, "here and there. I heard you've been travelling yourself?"
Tony snorts. Travelling. That was one way to put it. But, something in the way Bruce says the word tells Tony that perhaps they have something in common in this regard.
"Are you okay?" Bruce asks more seriously. He's looking Tony over with a careful eye and Tony feels like all his weaknesses have been laid bare. He's too tired to do the same to Bruce. Instead he remembers that his old friend is now over six feet of what appears to be solid muscle and resolves to annoy him into telling the full story later.
"I'm fine," Tony bluffs. He really really not, but hey if Bruce is allowed to lie by omission and pretend to be dead for seven fucking years, well Tony can wait a few days to tell him the full story.
"Okay," Bruce allows his answer, "So, what's this?" He taps the arc gently.
And suddenly it's like they're ten and twelve again. Tony is explaining and gesturing and Bruce is listening with a fascinated look on his face. It's perfect.
(Tony doesn't introduce Bruce to JARVIS just yet. So he's a little vindictive. Sue him.)