2000
Tony, James has realized long ago, deserves the whole world.
James' job is to give it to him.
Tony, at the turn of the millennium, says he doesn't care at all about the world.
James smiles sadly.
2010
He finds Tony in the middle of the desert, as he knew he would. It's been a week.
'Next time, you ride with me, okay?' James laughs and Tony nods. 'What is this?' he adds, with a note of sudden panic, noticing the blue glow in Tony's chest.
'Thanks for sticking with a week,' Tony replies with a fake smile instead of offering an answer, 'you know I work best with deadlines.'
They agreed to that years ago: in case of kidnapping, there are seven days to make escape before wherever they are kept is blown up and whoever the captors are die. The world hasn't seen an explosion as great as this one in decades, the dust will be settling down in the desert for days.
James doesn't push, he will have his answers later. Instead, he presses his hand into Tony's, the twin scars melting into one, and pulls him up.
1991
Tony isn't a monster but he doesn't cry.
James is a monster and he doesn't cry.
He wishes Stane would be in a coffin, too, only because he wants to have Tony all to himself, but it's not the time yet.
2003
They kill a few hundred people, leaving the bodies to be buried by the desert sand, and make a few arrangements.
There is no war.
The world congratulates the US but everyone seems confused, Pepper too. She knows too much not to come and demand answers.
'I make a call and it happens,' James tells her, his voice heavy and tired. 'We'll keep making these calls as long as we can save people.'
'Who gave you the right to make the calls?'
'No one,' James chuckles darkly, 'no one at all. But someone gave me the power to make the calls, and someone else gave me the means to execute them. So I will keep going. You can either agree and help us, or walk away.'
'You wouldn't let me walk away,' Pepper says, her voice stronger than James had expected. She doesn't sound afraid.
'No, I wouldn't,' James admits.
Pepper nods and then walks up to him, takes his hand, and traces the lighter line running from his wrist to his thumb.
'What do you want me to do?' she asks, giving him everything in this one sentence.
1984
James meets Tony in August.
It's sunny and hot and they are eighteen and fourteen, respectively. They look twenty and twelve, respectively. James laughs at Tony when the boy introduces himself with a hint of awe James has never expected.
'I've heard a lot about you,' he tells Tony before offering his name. Someone from behind shushes them, since other seem to pay attention to the boring speech.
'I haven't heard about you at all,' Tony counters, observing James' face closely, almost making him look away. Almost.
'That's the thing,' James replies in a whisper, wondering if it makes sense. Tony doesn't make any indication, he just looks back to the professor and pretends to listen.
The skinny kid turns out to be more than everyone and everything James has ever encountered.
2004
Tony laughs so lightly when they watch the satellites being launched, and then opens a bottle of champagne, pouring it over the strawberries in the glasses and shaking his head at Pepper's antics.
One step at time.
She comes barefoot, looking up at the sky and almost tripping over an uneven tile, and Tony stretches out his arm to support her and kisses her. James grins.
Two steps at time.
2010
'They wanted me to build them weapons,' Tony says, hand playing with the reactor's shiny surface, but he doesn't seem to do it consciously.
'You laughed at them?'
'I laughed at them,' Tony admits and shivers slightly. 'They thought torture would help.'
'How silly of them.'
'Exactly.'
'So, you said yes and built the reactor instead, and got out of there a few hours before, I know that part – but this has palladium in it,' James frowns and Tony's hand freezes in mid-movement, 'it's a painful death.'
'You're telling me you won't find a solution?'
'I'd never fail you in this life,' James says solemnly. He's already made phone calls. If there isn't a solution, he's going to make sure they create one. He can't lose Tony yet – no, he can't lose his brother ever.
1987
Tony is a genius. He might be a kid and he might be misguided, but he is a genius and he knows exactly what James is doing, and allows it.
1980
James is fourteen.
His mother calls him Jim and he hates how small it makes him feel.
There is a fire burning inside, bigger than him, a fire he doesn't understand yet, but he lets his instincts guide him; he studies by nights and works after school, meeting people, observing people, learning people, hoping that one day it will help him somehow.
He tells his mom he loves her every night because it brings him profit.
He does really love her. It's just not enough.
Everything is not enough.
1986
As much as James hates Howard, he always smiles when they meet. It's useful. Howard's on speaking terms with more of the important people than James could ever dream of knowing.
James is taken to luncheons and told to have an eye on Tony, since he's a respectable and serious adult.
'I will, Mister Stark, sir,' he replies politely over the whiskey. Howard offered him one even before he was legal to drink.
He wishes he could be the one to murder this man, the thought slipping into his head when he's chewing on his steak, thinking of how hurtful Howard's words can be, even if he's half a world away.
It scares James that he can think it so easily, but then, he realizes, it's justified.
He finishes the meal and says his goodbyes, thanking Howard for his offer of help when James joins the army, for smoothing out the paths for him in exchange for keeping an eye on Tony. James is willing to do that but not for Howard, the man never hears a real word. James does not betray his people.
The first night Tony is back after holidays, James doesn't sleep at all, he stares at the familiar tired face all night long, frozen like an ancient sculpture.
1997
Tony buys a race car and crashes it the same night. Concussion and eleven stitches, he's lucky it's nothing serious. It's easy to fall off one of Californian cliffs straight into the ocean.
'What are you doing, Tony?' James whispers, so that his voice doesn't echo in the empty hospital room, with burning urgency. He needs answers. 'What are you doing?'
'I'm… I don't know, I'm looking for something…'
'For?'
'I don't know,' Tony replies stubbornly, his hand moving to scratch the itchy stiches automatically, but James stops it and curls his fingers around Tony's cold wrist. 'I want something, I need something, I can't breathe, but nothing seems to be it.'
James closes his eyes, takes a breath of the antiseptic-scented air, and ruffles Tony's hair.
'You'll figure it out, you're still young.'
'I'm twenty-seven,' Tony reminds him with an eyeroll. He's been an adult since he entered MIT, he likes to say, but the truth is he's been just a kid looking for someone to guide him. James was the only one who ever dared to.
2012
'There is no stopping them,' Iron Man says over the comm, staring at the army of aliens pouring through the portal. 'As long as the portal is open, they'll keep coming.'
'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' War Machine asks, ignoring all the other voices on the channel.
'S.H.I.E.L.D. and WSC tried everything they could,' Tony replies, sounding distracted.
James can imagine.
'Go on,' he orders.
Tony sends the nuke through the portal. It takes six minutes during which James makes sure his stupid genius is safe, abandoning everyone and everything else; soon the battle will be over because between the two of them, they are never mistaken.
He can't bring himself to care about civilians. Not a hero thing to do, but he's never claimed to be the hero.
1991
'You need to take care of the company,' James tells Tony.
Tony hasn't eaten or slept in about three days and look pitiful, even after having a cup of hot tea that brought some color to his cheeks.
'Obie can do that.'
James stares.
'I know what you want to say –'
'You need to do it. Obadiah will be in our way. You know he only wants money out of it, money is not what we want, is it?' he questions, moving closer to Tony, lowering his voice, so that the last words are almost hissed into Tony's ear. 'Is it?'
'You know it isn't,' Tony all but giggles, James' breath tickling his oversensitive skin.
'Then?'
'… all right,' Tony agrees after a beat, 'but you will –'
'I'll be here,' James tells him.
He gets himself a job as Stark Industries liaison the next morning, while Tony's still asleep in his lap.
2007
'Install this into every piece of arms we have.'
'But Mister Stark –'
'This is of utmost importance. Nothing takes priority,' James hears Tony's voice over the comm and smiles proudly, looking back at the general and pretending to pay attention.
1984
Tony hisses when the blade cuts his skin, almost inaudibly, but James is oversensitive about everything concerning his friend.
'We are a bit late, this is very fifth-grade,' Tony says to cover what he'd call a slip-up.
James laugh harshly, leading the blade across his palm with ease and determination.
'How would you know? You never were a proper fifth-grader.'
'I've seen the movies.'
'Movies,' James laughs, and then Tony's hand and presses it to his, their blood mixing, hands red and messy and tingling. 'Now we're brothers, sworn to protect each other.'
'Rhodey,' Tony whines, knowing well where this is coming from. 'I'm fine.'
'I will make sure you are,' James promises.
2012
WSC and Fury and Captain America and everyone are in shock because no one has seen a nuclear weapon in action in decades.
'Explain it to me,' the head of WSC snarls from the screen, 'you have five seconds.'
James smiles. Tony seems too tired to smile; James needs to wrap this up quickly to take the idiot to bed and force-feed him sleeping pills.
'Out of all of us here,' he says, shrugging slightly and straightening his back to a military-trained position, this is the moment of trial, he realizes, 'right now I am the one with an atomic bomb at my disposal. And I think it means I can choose my own time to explain–' he glances at his watch theatrically, 'oh, five seconds. I don't know what's supposed to happen now, but it's not happening… Anyway, I chose the terms. We talk tomorrow. There are more pressing matters, like all the dead to be given a honorable burial and to be mourned, or –' he cuts off, giving Tony a quick glance.
'The bombs won't go off accidentally or something,' Tony chips in cheerfully, eyes dull with suppressed ache James knows too well. 'Since I made them. And don't worry, they are reserved for aliens only –'
'As long as you don't try to get your hands on them,' James adds in a pleasant voice and stands up.
1984
James kisses Tony at the top of his head in December.
Tony is leaving for New York for holidays and James is going back to his family across the states.
'Jamesss,' Tony hisses, the sounds swirling and low, music to James' ears. 'Please.'
'You silly?' James asks, turning Tony around and meeting his eyes, 'I would never – and you are a kid. I would never. This is all you're getting,' he says, his words strong and almost overbearing, as he gives Tony a strong hug. Tony melts into his arms. 'Come back in one piece, please,' James adds, giving Tony one more squeeze before unwrapping his arms and leaving, a strange air of emptiness following him into the frozen streets.
2000
'New millennium,' James sighs, staring at the wonderful fireworks over Sydney. 'Any wishes?' he asks nonchalantly, but there is a serious note to his voice that only Tony could pick out.
'The usual,' Tony replies, raising his glass half-filled with champagne. 'You?'
'The usual,' James says, too, and clinks his glass against Tony's, and then ruffles his hair.
1976
'New year,' people say on the radio.
James wonders why a new date should be any special but everyone seems to think it important and make wishes, so he makes a wish, too.
'I want another brother,' he whispers into the darkness when the clock's hands show midnight.
James doesn't have one anymore.
He misses him as much as a child can.
'I won't let him get hurt this time,' he adds, as if this promise would help to make his wish come true.
2010
James kills Obadiah as soon as they are back from Afghanistan, as soon as he learns the man is the person who damaged Tony irreversibly. Death is merciful in James' opinion.
No one ever mentions it.
1988
Tony drinks more, gets more reckless, and gets hurt.
When it's August again, the last day, hot and stuffy in a strange way for this time of the month, Tony stumbles into their apartment, his clothes bloodied, his face a mess.
James can guess what happened and he knows he failed, because he's been trying to stop Tony from drinking and he couldn't manage and Tony does stupid things when he's drunk, so this is James' fault.
A second too late he realizes he's staring.
'Do you want me, too?' Tony spits in a way that echoes in James' mind for years.
'I want,' he starts, and Tony shivers at the word, breaking down any self-restraint Jams' might have still had, 'you to be safe. And happy.'
Tony laughs and spits blood and disappears before James can move, only to come back a few minutes later with a thick stack of papers. It's a project he's going to gain his so premature doctorate with, James realizes, and it's far more daring than his musings have ever been.
'You're my star,' he tells Tony, and then throws the file across the room. Tony's face changes into one of betrayal, his breathing hardening, and James smiles weakly. 'But not because of that,' he adds, moving to Tony to wrap his arms around the thin body. 'Because of this,' he says as he tightens the hug. 'I want you,' he whispers, the words melting into Tony's collarbone, 'but never like that. How many times do I have to say this?'
2001
'She's amazing,' Tony says, his eyes shining.
James is wary.
'She'll be my PA, nothing more,' Tony assures him.
'You didn't tell me,' he says accusingly; he doesn't know anything of the woman. She could be anyone, an assassin or a corporate spy or a man-huntress, and being a PA involves a lot of unsupervised contact and almost-intimacy.
'I didn't plan it,' Tony explains, looking down, 'but then she was there and I knew she'd be perfect for the job. C'mon. Give her a chance.'
'If she hurts you,' James states and leaves the sentence unfinished because it's not necessary to say the rest of the words. They both know.
1985
James holds his brother's hand when he stops breathing.
He cries, he cries, he cries.
2003
'It comes with responsibility because you promise,' James states, emphasizing the last word; it tastes sweet at his tongue. It's been keeping his heart beating for decades.
'I know,' her eyes shine in understanding, and she takes the knife from Tony's hands.
James is glad he isn't the only one.
1990
James kills his first man for Tony, and he does so with Stark-made gun. He never regrets it. He is twenty-four when he does it and he never regrets it.
Tony is twenty and holding a presentation for his father in the middle of Asia. A man runs up to them when they are strolling around a local market, Tony looking for a customary gift for his mother and James walking beside him in silence. The man has a knife in his hand.
He only manages a graze against Tony's ribs, cutting the suit open, before James shoots him.
They walk away from the market without looking back, fingers nervously intervened.
2011
James has his people help Tony find out a new element that will run the arc reactor.
'There you go, kid,' he says, placing the upgraded version into Tony's trembling hand. Pepper smiles with encouragement from her spot on a workbench.
Seeing the reactor yanked out of Tony's chest always hurts in a way James remembers only from when he was a kid, in painful awareness of his own uselessness. He failed to prevent this and now Tony is paying the price.
Even if James made sure none of those men – none of Ten Rings – survived, the price is still too high.
1988
'What are you doing to yourself?' James asks Tony when he comes back in the middle of the night, face covered in dirt.
'Punched some guys,' Tony says, the words sloppy. 'They wouldn't understand no.'
James takes a breath and welcomes the burning feeling in his gut.
After getting his masters he joins the army and climbs up, driven by something unspoken that amazes everyone around.
2012
'Imagine we haven't had the navigation installed in all our things,' Tony says, staring at the half-destroyed Manhattan in pale sunrise light.
'That's why I told you to do it,' James smiles, pulling Tony closer.
It might be the first time he said I like this. Tony nestles himself into James eagerly, as if he hasn't noticed, as if it didn't matter, as if he accepted it.
'Since they know now, it makes things both easier and more complicated for me,' he adds, testing out the waters.
Tony's laughter is like music.
'It does, for you,' he plays along, even though they both know that there isn't any I without you.
1988
'I hate this fucking world,' Tony mutters into James' chest when he's finally back.
'Put on a CD,' James replies and starts making up a plan in his head.
2010
Tony is not there when James wakes up, everyone but he and two other soldiers from his van is dead. He notices Tony's phone in the sand, with half-finished message on the screen.
Don't dare to stop if I –
James smiles, and he cries, cries, cries.
2001
'So, do you let girls in your club?' Pepper asks after walking onto Tony and James working, whispering between themselves, flushed with excitement at the new project.
Barely legal, hence the whispers.
'Sorry?' James asks, minimalizing the windows and turning around. Pepper looks as professional as ever, in her suit and heels and hair tied up, but she has a look on her face that's something new.
'You guys planning something secret?'
'We're always,' Tony flashes her a smile.
James shakes his head a tiniest bit, and it mans, not yet.
'So, which Picasso are we buying today?' Tony asks, standing up and a second later her folders are in his hands as he strides out of the room, Pepper scrambling after him. James turns back to the screen and continues to work.
1985
'You could have been first in your year,' Tony says with a frown the evening after they received their exam results. Tony came in first in every subject he took. James was at the end of the first dozen.
'Shut up and eat your dinner,' James tells him, pointing at the macaroni.
'You could have been first,' Tony repeats stubbornly and then almost chokes on a forkful of pasta.
'When you are first,' James says, looking at Tony intently, 'people remember your name.'
2010
S.H.I.E.L.D. goes crazy when Tony tells them and the whole world that there will be no more weapons.
The army goes crazy when James supports Tony and explains why.
'It's not what we call accountability,' he tells the generals, head high, 'if our own people are hurt by those weapons.'
'It didn't seem to bother you before,' one of the men points out.
James raises an eyebrow.
2002
'He's hurt,' Pepper whispers, eyes focused on Tony's chest moving up and down, up and down, as if she was afraid it'd stop if she looked away.
James nods.
There are red marks over Tony's wrists and around his neck.
James would punch the wall, breaking his fingers, if only it wouldn't wake Tony up.
'Does this happen often?'
'Too often,' he replies instantly. Even once in a lifetime is too often. Pepper nods in understanding.
'We could… we could use these,' she adds, almost unsurely, unlike herself, taking something out of a locket she has on a chain around her neck today. 'Chips. Just the three of us. You'd know if…'
'You'd be mine,' Rhodey points out, weighing the tiny things in his hand.
'I wouldn't mind,' comes the reply.
1997
Tony seems happier, these days. He still scratches his almost-healed cuts too much.
'You any closer to finding it?' James asks him over lunch one sunny afternoon.
'Hmm?'
'The thing you've been looking for.'
'Impatient much?' Tony wonders, and then adds, 'how do you know?'
The urgency to his voice makes James' breathing harder because he knows the answer.
'You think of something,' James tells him with a smile, almost as bright as the sun, 'and it makes you shiver with anticipation.'
Tony closes his eyes for a long moment.
'I think you know,' he replies in the end. James breathes out.
'I've been waiting for you to say that.'
He breathes in. The air smells like Tony and spring.
2012
'How long have you been in possession of those arms?' Fury questions, his face blank. Maybe this is too serious for snark and sass, for everyone in the world.
'Arms?' Rhodey asks, giving the screen with WSC members a long look. Arms. If they only know. Arms are… a hundredth, maybe, of what's theirs.
'A long time?' Tony questions playfully, pretending to take the lead, like he's expected to. 'Definitely a long time. Dad left all the nuclear research behind just after the war and it was publicly burnt or something, or hidden to prevent anyone who shouldn't from knowing, we kept making bombs for scare and all that… But you forget that there are people who have perfect memory and a penchant for big words like legacy.'
'So your father left you nuclear weapons as inheritance,' the leader states disbelievingly.
'Don't worry, dear,' Tony says happily, giving the woman a mock-kiss, 'your home in Fontaine, Isère, is quite safe. I like skiing in the Alps too much to ruin the general area with toxic fumes.'
The screen blacks out immediately.
James will know wherever they go in an instant, if they move. JARVIS is on it.
1977
James kisses his mother a goodbye and leaves for the basketball game with his friends.
He never makes it to the game, instead, he helps an old lady and gets invited for a tea. She tells him all about her husband who died in World War Two. James listens intently because in his house no one talks about this and at school they never learn enough, and he grows angrier and angrier with every word.
The reality of war feels like betrayal. Death feels like betrayal.
A world like this, he realizes, is worth nothing.
He runs back through the sun-dried neighborhood and gets home all dusty, feet aching, and he doesn't speak to anyone for a week.
1991
Tony drunk-cries over the phone.
James pulls some strings to take time off and fly to New York for the funeral, everyone knows he is – was – Howard's friend. That means as much as James could have hoped for the first time he met the man. He doesn't regret the death.
He is a little concerned because it was Tony's mother, too.
The army men have been easy to manipulate, prone to corruption and very sleek in everything they do, in James' experience so far, and it only makes him try harder. He knows exactly what to do and what to say, he'll know even without Howard's hand on his shoulder. There is no stopping. It's time for him to be his own man – right after he makes sure Tony doesn't do anything stupid.
That's one thing people say about him: he's a man of responsibility and integrity.
Most of them will never know they've been used.
2001
The towers don't fall. The planes do.
James laughs.
'Tony,' he says on the phone, they can talk only because Tony has his own satellite connection set up, all the normal lines in the area are overloaded, everyone is freaking out. 'You in?'
'I'm in,' Tony replies almost inaudibly.
1987
'Let me,' Tony whines, squinting behind his half-transparent sunglasses.
'Not before you come of age,' James teases, holding the cigarette out of Tony's reach. It's pointless because Tony gets his hands on drugs and alcohol whenever he likes, and he likes it a lot. But James has rules and they are not to be broken.
'C'mon, I'm seventeen…'
Rhodey shakes his head for no wishes he could tie Tony's hands and have him by his side, all the time, so that Tony would never be in danger again, since he's a magnet for accidents. James wants to give the kid orders and be obeyed, Tony definitely needs discipline, and even more than that he needs leadership.
But they are not there, not yet.
One day. Softly.
2013
People listen to James in a way they'd never listen to Tony: drinking his smart sentences and deadlined promises with happiness – because it's easy – mostly without realizing what they are doing, but James knows his steps well enough. There are some important people who know well enough, too, but they wouldn't dare to act; WSC headquarters is still in France, since they understood it wouldn't matter if they moved. James' knows everywhere like the back of his hand.
People like listening to James because it's easy and friendly, and he always knows things and talks kindly and conveys a smile in his voice, and his advice is always what people are secretly hoping for.
People listen to Rhodey because he's just a man like them, only that he isn't.
Or maybe he is, unless he snaps his fingertips and sets the world on fire, for someone, always for someone, because he's clever enough to always be justified.
Sometimes Tony jokes about that, but James can only shake his head with amused disbelief: they have an ancient agreement.
This time, he scowls when Tony says domination. Tony just laughs and accelerates and James opens the window and throws the cigarette outside, letting the smoke out, and then leans against the cold glass, the air swirling around his head hungrily.
'Tony,' he speaks up some fifty miles of rock'n'roll later, 'it's August.'
'August again,' Tony chuckles, 'and we're getting old.'
'Does it feel good?' Pepper asks from the back, her voice curious. She's sprawled across the seats, with cold red-painted toes sticking outside, as if she doesn't have to care.
'Feels homey, like putting down roots, for real,' Tony says with quick ease, as if he's been preparing the answer. James snickers with amusement. 'Feels like we've finally got the right place for it.'
'Tennessee?' James teases, wriggling in his seat, impatient to hear what he's been waiting for for such a long time, since – for such a long time.
'Hell no,' Tony laughs and they are distracted for a second by a pop-up message from JARVIS about completing an assignment he's been given.
JARVIS is the fourth one, even if he's got no blood to share. Together, they are growing, they are expanding, they are slipping under everyone's skin unnoticed, but it's all because of one kid's dream. And they are happy.
James and Tony are forty-seven and forty-three, respectively, Pepper is forty-one, and they all look ageless.
'Hell no,' Tony repeats, as if Tennessee required a double negation, or as if he needed a preface; then he pauses for half a second and adds, 'the world.'
A pleasant shiver runs down James' spine, the declaration seems ripe and bold and he's been waiting for it since that night decades ago when the ten-year-old him made the promise. Fulfilling it means new challenges, but there is no hurry, James realizes. He hasn't felt this peaceful ever before.
'At your service,' James replies smoothly. Tony snickers and puts on his sunglasses a second before the sun peeks from behind the clouds and floods the highway with hazy light. Pepper laughs and offers them chocolate.
It's been a long ride home.
A/N: Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Your thoughts are always very welcome!