Being the son of a billionaire brought its many perks, however they rarely translated to Christmas. Tony always found himself receiving meaningless expensive gifts from parents who barely knew their own son and attempted to buy his love. It may have seemed selfish to some for him to complain about being doted since the day he was born, but the attention and gifts never meant anything, not really.
So by the time school rolled back around, Tony was left with flashy gifts but no true friends to share them with; because as much as people pretended to care about him when he had something expensive to show off, they didn't care about the boy behind the money.
One year, Tony was say by himself at his desk, fiddling with his new pencil case, when their teacher stood at the front of the room with a small scrawny kid shuffling nervously at her side. He wasn't in any particular state of mind or mood to bother listening to whatever rubbish she was saying and instead let his mind wander.
That kid probably has parents who love him, Tony thought bitterly, don't try to buy him onto their side after they leave him for months on end. He was snapped out of his vicious day dream by the teachers pointed comment and glare, "Go sit in that empty seat next to Mr Stark, I'm sure he won't notice you long enough to bother you."
Tony just grinned smugly back at her and moved his things out of the neighbouring seat. The kid just screamed uncomfortable with the way he shifted from foot to foot when he stood, how he stared intently at the ground, and slid his over-sized glasses up his nose seemingly every five seconds.
The pair sat in an awkward silence whilst the rest of their class continued to chat around them. Tony couldn't help but notice the way the kid kept absently gazing around the room or how he tugged on his shirt sleeves when he caught Tony looking at him.
"Hi, I'm Tony." He suddenly blurted, visibly startling the other boy.
"Uh, I'm Bruce." He replied, blinking away the shock.
It was clear that he hadn't expected any social interaction between the pair in the way his discomfort clearly increased, if that's even possible Tony thought.
"I like your pencil case," Bruce said, then tapped on the edges of it, "did you add these bits yourself?"
"Oh, yeah, you have to press these little buttons here to get into them," Tony responded, sliding it closer to Bruce and pushing one of the buttons. A small drawer popped out of the side nearest to Bruce, with an eraser encased inside it, "I put them in so people stop asking to borrow my stuff - I don't share."
"That's a really cool idea." Bruce said, barely above a whisper.
"I got it for Christmas and started playing with it when I got bored, and then this happened," Tony added conversationally, "what about you, what did you get for Christmas?"
Bruce shifted in his seat and hesitated, "I - uh - I didn't get anything."
"Wow, your parents really must -" Tony stopped himself, noticing how Bruce frowned and tugged on his shirt sleeves again, Oh. "Well, you can come over and play with some of my stuff, if you like?"
"Really?" Bruce's face lit up at the invite.
"Sure, I mean, we're best friends now, right?"
"We are?"
Tony scoffed, "Yeah, you're my new friend, and I don't have any other friends, so by default you are my best friend."
"You're my best friend, too then, I guess." Bruce grinned, leaning closer to Tony.
"Exactly, and best friends go to each others houses to play with their toys!" Tony exclaimed, this boy obviously hadn't had many - if any - friends before. Tony sometimes knew the feeling, and was honoured that he could be a friend to Bruce. It was probably silly that he had known Bruce for barely an hour, but already had a strange attachment to the boy.
"I - I'd love to, thank you." Bruce said, barely containing his obvious excitement.
"Quiet please, class, I know you all have exciting stories to tell each other about your vacation but you still have to learn!" Their teacher almost shouted across the room of hyperactive children.
Tony didn't want to stop talking to Bruce, and they still had plans to make, so he tore a scrap of paper out of his notebook and scribbled, are you free tomorrow night?
Bruce took the paper from Tony and wrote his reply, I think so, I'll have to ask mom, though.
Great, I can show you this cool chemistry set I got last year, I haven't shown anyone before. You do want to see it, right?
That's so awesome! I'd love to see it!
This, Tony thought, was the foundation of a beautiful friendship.
Just a silly little kiddie fic that I wrote in one of my free periods (most productive thing I have ever done in a German lesson ever, just for the record).
Special thanks to this bitch, Checkmate for idk like giving me the idea on the train home from shopping where I bought an Iron Man 3 pencil case with cool compartments that flip out and shit when you press the buttons. It's crazy cool. My graphics teacher fangirled.