Steve's ears went bright red, much to his annoyance, when his name was called out, the words ringing through the sterile white walls of the science room. He hated group projects, especially within chemistry class. No matter how hard he tried he never managed to get it right, whether it was that the bunsen burner was too hot, or he'd miscalculated-.

"Rogers, with Stark."

Oh great. Even better. Steve's eyes sought out toe dark-haired teenager's, his face reddening even further. It absolutely had to be him, didn't it? Stupid junior chemistry. Said boy turned his head to catch Steve's gaze, cocking an eyebrow at the attention. Steve tried to shrink back further, wishing not for the first time that he was invisible, and in his flustered state and desire not to draw any more attention to himself he knocked his book onto the ground.

Crap.

Silly, scrawny Steve Rogers, always fumbling and tripping over his own two feet, embarassing himself in front of girls and boys alike. Would there ever be a day he'd get through it without making some sort of fool of himself? He doubted it.

"You okay?" His best friend Bucky asked, leaning over once Steve had righted himself, his voice hidden by the chuckles and snorts of their classmates. Supportive bunch they were. Steve nodded, furious at his inability to just be normal for once.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks Bucky."

The other boy clapped him on the back and once the class had settled into silence once more the rest of the partners were assigned. There was the scraping of chairs as they moved away from desks, the students relocating to sit next to their partners. Bucky shot Steve one last sympathetic smile before moving away to sit beside his partner, Natasha Romanov, who looked less than thrilled that Barton, her best friend, had been assigned elsewhere. Why everyone just called him by his last name Steve had no idea, but the sound of his name pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Hey-Rogers. I'm not moving so you'd better get your ass-."

"Language, Stark!"

"You'd better get your patriotic ass over here then."

Great. That was exactly what he wanted to hear. He managed to get his things together and walk over to Stark's table without making too much of an idiot of himself, though his lab partner still looked at him as if he wasn't sure whether the teenage boy would or wouldn't fall apart at the slightest breeze. Somedays, Steve wondered the same thing. Once he was settled Stark turned his piercing gaze away and started rattling off what they'd need, dictating to Steve what to go and get. It was all Steve could do to pay attention and try and follow.

It didn't help that Stark had the most beautiful lips he'd ever seen-.

His face flushed as the idea passed through his mind, though if Stark noticed this time he said nothing. "You got all that, Rogers?"

"Steve."

"Huh?"

"If we're going to be lab partners you might as well call me Steve."

Silence. "Right. Got all that, Rogers?"

Steve rolled his eyes and took off to go get the things, in too much of a muddled state of mind to pay much attention to what he was grabbing, and how it was much more different than everything else. Tony had to have known his name; they'd gone to the same school as long as Steve could remember. Not to mention, Steve was sure he was the first one that Stark had ever apologized to.

It had been in the second grade science fair. Steve had spent an entire month and a half on his project, calculating the many different functions of science and mathmatics within baseball. Mr. Erskine had been nice enough to help him come up with the formulas, dumbed down so that the second grader could understand it; they ranged from the laws of force and movement, to how to calculate the speed of the ball, to the way the wind speed and direction affected the pitcher. Steve had furthermore decorated the tri-folded poster board with a large flag, in the middle of which there was a baseball diamond. He'd been so proud of that, at least until Tony Stark blew a spud from his solar-powered potato launcher through the picture.

"Sorry, kiddo," Howard Stark had apologized profusely to the red-eyed child after buying him an ice cream from the cafeteria to try and calm him down.

"Tony, say you're sorry." He nudged his son, who grudgingly took a step forward to mutter an apology, the words sounding as though they tasted like vinegar coming from his mouth. He didn't even meet Steve's eye, staring instead at where he was kicking at the linoleum.

"But you shouldn't be such a cry baby-ow!" Howard had smacked him on the back of the head before apologizing once more and dragging his son off. From there it had been all down hill as they said; Steve had never been able to get over how cute Tony had been. At first, when he'd tried to come to terms with his feelings, he'd written it off as resignation for the way the teen had sabotaged what had obviously been a great project, not wanting to be shown up. As he got older, however, he tried not to delude himself further, but considered the idea that maybe it had been on purpose. Maybe he had done it to get Steve's attention. But the idea was ridiculous; they were kids, they didn't know any better. It was likely done out of jealousy.

And then Stark had come back from the summer of the junior year looking like he did, from the devil may care hairccut to the beginnings of a goatee that would've made any other boy look like an idiot and yet . . . and yet. It made him look even more handsome than Steve thought possible.

"Rogers, I'm not getting any younger!"

Oh, right. He scooped everything into his arms and brought it all back. Stark just smirked, obviously pleased at how well Steve had responded, and got right to work. The bunsen burner was already on and it didn't take long for Tony to begin to craft something that looked . . . well, more out of a science fiction fantasy novel than out of a high school chemistry class.

"Tony-what're you doing?" Steve asked quietly, looking at where the teacher stood with his back to them. What if they were caught?

"Relax Eagle Scout, I know exactly what I'm doing."

That much seemed obvious, except for when the teenager took the vial from the fire and accidentally tipped it over the edge. Without thinking Steve raised his hands to catch it from where it was slipping, and the liquid inside the tube spilled out onto his hands. But there was no burn, no pain that set into his nerves and ate away at his skin. No, all that happened was that his skin turned bright, fire truck, American flag red.

Son of a gun.

"Stark, Rogers! Why aren't you doing the lesson plan? Perhaps a night's worth of detention will teach you two to pay closer attention! Now clean that up right now." The teacher was fuming, having heard the curse from Stark's lips as the vial had tipped. Steve turned nearly as red as his hands and nodded while Stark did his best to look contrite as well. He failed. Miserably.

"Well, we'd better clean this up." Steve muttered, hastening to pull the paper towels from the center of the table. Stark's hand found Steve's and clamped down for a moment too long.

"Nonsense. We'll have plenty of time to clean later tonight. Relax for a little bit." Tony shot him a wide, playful smirk that made Steve's heart somersault in his chest before belly flopping into his stomach.

"We have detention, isn't that bad enough? Why make it worse?" Steve asked, feeling miffed. It was the first time he'd ever had detention before in his life, and all because Stark wanted to make, what, a colorful dye? The jerk.

"Because I'd rather see it as a date than a punishment, Rogers." Stark's grin widened further. "And I don't mind lengthening the sentence."

On cue the teacher headed over and berated the pair of them for being lazy and irresponsible. As the lecture droned on Steve found that he, well, couldn't have cared less. He had a date, though it would figure that Stark was the type of guy who had to break something in order to get what he wanted. As Steve looked over at his partner in crime and shared the first, shy smile between them he realized he couldn't have cared less.

A/N: Wow. I think that's the choppiest thing I've ever written-sorry about that! I might go back and edit it later but for now I think I'm happy with how it is. Title comes from the song "Till Kingdom Come" by Coldplay. Lovely song. Thanks for reading!