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(Don't worry, you don't HAVE to read this crazy long comment)

This an Avengers college AU. I've written ten chapters in hand while on holiday on Iceland, and this is the prologue.

The pairings are past Tony/Pepper, future Steve/Tony and possibly other couples among the ensemble cast. (Definite Clint/Natascha vibes, but it's pretty f**cked up)

Most characters are based on their movie versions though Hawkeye is also influenced by the earth mightiest heroes version. Antman and Wasp are also gonna appear a little, inspired by the emh universe.

The character's backgrounds are inspired by the comic version in most cases, though they have naturally been changed to fit the story as well.

(As an example Tony actually graduated MIT at 17, but for the purposes of my story he's going to be a third year student at 17, making him a graduate at maybe 19.)

I have tried to keep the IDEA of the characters and their background more so than the actual events where this wasn't possible.

(As an example Avengers-Steve has "returned after an absence" and has "lost a great deal" and suffers from something like "survivor's guilt"). In this chapter you will learn how this came to be for THIS version of Steve Rogers)

I hope that my vision for the character's will seem clear – And fear not, even though the story is Steve/Tony centric the rest of the cast are very much involved as well.

Now, enough talk. On with the prologue!

Disclaimer: I most definitely don't own these characters, but I would like to work for marvel one day, and borrow them more officially ;)

Prologue

Steve is not, in fact, unfamiliar with Tony Stark.

Actually, if one was to be completely honest – And one always should be – he has met him on a few occasions over the years.

The first time he wasn't yet six, and frankly had absolutely no idea what it meant to be "a Stark".

All he knew was that he was in the hospital – Again. He'd been in and out of the damned place for as long as he could remember. Sometimes his weak health was threatened by sickness, but most of the time he'd gotten himself hurt because he'd forgotten, or simply refused to accept, how weak and fragile his tiny body was.

As such it wasn't the first time, either, that a kindlooking doctor had approached him -alone- with a serious look on his face. And Steve had had to explain that the broken wrist and severe bruising really DID come from trying to save his younger brother Bucky who'd gotten stuck in a tree – And wasn't somehow inflicted by his mom or dad.

Steve wasn't even sure HOW his parents could've done that – They would hardly be throwing him down a flight of stairs, and he wasn't actually THAT fragile, thank you very much!

He had fairly rich parents, and was used to having a hospital room to himself. It did tend to get pretty lonely, but his mother apparently thought it best, so who was he to argue?

It was becaue of this, though, that he was rather surprised when the nurse walked him into a room, where there were two beds and another boy around his age.

The boy had dark, unruly hair and brown eyes that were locked angrily with those of some adult guy. The man was bald but he did have a beard, and Steve wasn't quite sure if he liked the way he smiled behind it. It reminded him of the important people on television that his mother always swore at.

"Obie-!" the darkhaired boy whined.

"You know that I HATE this place..Please, it was just a lil' miscalcula-la-lation, I just need to do it one more time, and.." Steve was wondering how old he was, he sounded like Bucky, the way he pleaded. Then again, Steve couldn't actually remember ever pleading himself, so maybe it had nothing to do with age?

"Tony," the man said sternly. Steve wondered if he was the boy's father.

"You were LUCKY you didn't get more hurt! There's no reason to test your f.." the man stopped for a moment, as he suddenly looked back at Steve and the nurse.

"fate." He said, giving the nurse a look that Steve didn't understand, but he still didn't like it.

"Now, be a good boy. Don't bother the nurses, and.." He turned and smiled at Steve.

"..get along with your new roommate."

Steve smiled politely back, and would have introduced himself, but the bald man had quickly brushed past them. Later Steve came to know the man as Obadiah Stane, Tony's godfather and Howard's business partner.

As soon as Steve was settled into bed, the nurse left and the two boys were left alone.

They eyed each other with curiosity for a while, before Steve decided to break the awkward silence.

"Hi. My name's Steve Rogers," he said, testing the waters.

The blackhaired boy looked sharply at him for a moment, then smiled.

"Hi! My name's Tony Stark! How old are you? Like..four? Did you know I built a circuit board when I was four? It was in the TV 'n all..Yeah. I'm awesome like that.."

Steve was a little taken back by the talkativeness of his roommate, but he quickly recovered and fired back a monologue of his own:

"No, I'm five, I'm just real tiny..But what's a circle board? I can draw circles real well, also my brother is awesone he can climb the TALLEST trees even though he's just three!" Tony eyed him for a moment, as if he was trying to figure out what part to answer to.

"I'm five too," he finally answered.

"Actually I just turned five," he added and looked so proud that Steve didn't have the heart to tell him that he would soon be six.

"Congratulations!" He said instead. Tony hadn't really commented on any of what he said, so the conversation died out.

Steve eyed the boy's apparent injuries. Much of what could be seen, except his face, was covered in light bandages. His arm was in a sling, and he had a black eye. Steve wondered if he had had to explain to the doctor's that his parents' hadn't hurt him, too.

"So..How'd you end up in here?" He asked curiously.

"I burned myself.." Tony offered with a frown. "And my arm got broken."

Steve nodded. He kind of figured that out, being a repeat visitor to the hospital and a quick study.

"Uhm..How?"

Tony looked a little annoyed, but then said:

"I was just going to weld some iron..for my robot.. But I miscalcula-la-lated, so I lost control and burnt myself." Steve nodded, not sure what it meant to weld iron.

"And your arm?"

Tony blushed slightly, looking down, and Steve thought he was embarassed.

"I broke father's equipment.." He said, clearly ashamed. Steve cocked his head, not sure how that would break his arm. It wasn't till he was older and thought back, that he really caught on to the implications.

Moments later his own father arrived. His mother was busy with some diplomatic affairs as usual, but Bucky came along and soon Steve's whole attention was on his lively little brother.

Steve didn't have a chance to talk more to Tony – Soon after a new nurse came along, and Tony was taken to another room.

The next time Steve saw Tony was in the news, little over a year later, when he was seven. Apparently he'd built an engine, which the news-woman made a big deal out of. Steve just felt a little bad that it wasn't the robot he'd wanted to build.

He had no trouble recognizing the boy – He had a disinctive face, and besides, who built weird machines at their age? (Steve had since found out what a "circuit board" was. Kind of,)

Tony's father was in the frame too, smiling broadly along with his son.

Steve's mother had groaned, and shaken her head.

"Seems like the world won't be rid of the Starks for another seventy years.."

Steve looked at Tony's proud face and found that he wouldn't mind awfully much. Of course, it wasn't till later that he found out what the Starks' did for a living, and made sense of his mother's remark.

He met Tony Stark once more before he followed his mother to Italy.

He was twelve, and hospitalized with a bad case of pneumonia. He was getting better, and had gone out to explore the hospital. (Not that there was much to explore, he'd been there often enough.)

He'd come to something called "the coronary care unit", when he walked past an open door, and caught sight of Tony. He immediately turned back, and stared inside. Tony was pale, and hooked up to a heart-monitor among other things. Even then, he was easily recognizable with his funny long eyelashes, round nose and wild dark hair, or at least so Steve thought at the time.

Steve stood still for quite a while, hoping that the other boy would wake up – But nothing happened. After a while he left, feeling a little bit let down.

Once he got home he looked up "coronary care unit" on google, and as he read about different heart diseases he felt a knot of worry grow in his stomach.

The next weeks he looked out for news on the Stark heir. It was over a month before he showed up in the news – Looking healthy and smiling brightly, no mention of his hospital stay anywhere.

After a while Steve started to wonder if he could've been wrong – If the boy at the hospital had just LOOKED a lot like Tony.

He kept tracking the news, even after he moved to Italy for his mother's job at the embassy. Reading the news on Tony was a bit of a guilty pleasure – It wasn't exactly a CRUSH... But he wasn't sure what else, either.

Bucky definitely thought it was a crush. At 16 Steve had finally hit his growth-spurt, and had grown bigger than his younger brother – But little did it help, and he wouldn't let Steve hear the end of it.

That was, of course, until the car accident that all at once tore his mother and Bucky from their family.

There were no hospital stays, just a bleak funeral-for-two and an empty house.

It took a while before Steve felt anything but lost again, and even longer before he did so without it being accompanied by a pang of guilt.

When his father announced they were going back to the States once Steve had finished high school, he had felt strangely relieved.

And if he had been just a tad bit too elated to learn that the college Tony Stark AND Steve's childhood-friend Pepper attended offered an art-course as well – Then that was a matter entirely between himself and his conscience.

/And that was that. I hope someone thinks it sounds interesting, and will do me the favor of reading on. Next chapter is set in present time, and features the science bros^^