Chapter 19: When No One's Looking

The last milestone prior to adulthood unfolded before his eyes.

Also, before his very own eyes, his two best friends slowly danced in the middle of the dance floor, staring at each other as if it were just the two of them in the entire world. Based on everything he had seen of them about the other, both together and apart, Rhodey had no doubt that these two were each other's everything.

As someone who had known the inventor since they were in diapers, Rhodey still could not wrap his head around how much his childhood friend had beat the odds against him and still stand there, as if much of his life had not been defined by loss. The loss of his mother at a young age. The loss of his father, albeit momentarily. The loss of his heart's normal function. The temporary loss of his family's company and his father's life's work. The loss of longtime friends. The complete loss of the kind of world that is handed on a silver platter to a rich kid that had only wanted to use his privilege to save humankind – even before he knew that this was the goal he had wanted to achieve in his life.

Nope. No one staring at the blue-eyed boy in this moment, as he lost himself in the redhead's eyes and smiled while wearing an expensive tux he would probably never wear again, would have believed that he had had any life-altering challenges to overcome. No one who did not know him, at least. Rhodey and his other close friends and family, however, had witnessed it first-hand.

As he took another sip of his non-alcoholic drink – this was prom, after all – he thought back to the moment when Pepper had finally found the perfect dress for the occasion. He was proud to say that he had been part of the decision-making process and, given the look on Tony's face when they had picked up Pepper at her house in a limo, the decision had been well-received. If that metric had not been sufficient to measure the success of the gown, there were also the looks of envy that reeked from the girls that had tried to preemptively make tonight a failure for Pepper. Then again, Rhodey was certain that Pepper could have shown up in overalls made of a wooden barrel and he would still be dancing with her.

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand, this holy shrine – the gentle sin is this – my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand, to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."

The sudden and perfect rendition of the play's line near him made Rhodey do a double-take.

"Happy? Did you just randomly recite a line from Romeo and Juliet?"

Happy Hogan, who was sitting at the same table as Team Iron Man, smiled smugly.

"You wanna hear a secret?"

"Sure?"

"I knew my lines," the jock admitted as he stole a glance at the dancing couple.

"What? You… you knew Romeo's lines?"

"Yup."

"This whole time?!"

"Yup."

"But, then… why did you pretend you didn't? You have no idea how many headaches that caused!"

"I do," Happy began, not showing any evidence of regret in his posture or voice. "But it just didn't feel right to be Romeo to Pepper. She chose her true Romeo at long time ago."

Rhodey rolled his eyes. "You could've just told Daniels that, you know? That you wanted to swap roles with Tony."

"I did. She said: no."

"Oh. Well, then I guess she had it coming, huh?"

"She did."

A short moment of silence passed between the two young men before Happy spoke again.

"Dude, can you believe graduation is next week?"

"No. And yes. But mostly no."

Happy chuckled. "You made no sense, but you did."

"You know what doesn't make any sense? That after that crazy Senior Prank, they still let us have prom and graduation."

"The play made us even, I think."

"It sure did."

"Hey!" Happy suddenly exclaimed. "Where are Tony and Pepper? They were just there."

"Huh?" Rhodey searched the crowd for his friends, but they were nowhere to be found. "I don't know. Should we look for them? See if the limo is still outside? That's our ride!"

After a moment of reflection, Happy scoffed and shrugged. "Actually, never mind. I don't want to know where they are. This is prom, after all. I'd rather not find out what they're gonna do when no one's looking."

Immediately catching Happy's implication, Rhodey laughed. "Yeah, never mind. I don't want to know either."

"To not knowing," Happy raised his glass of soda to Rhodey.

"To not knowing!"

The boys laughed before clinking their glasses together and downing their drinks in one gulp.