Notes: I cried writing this. That

Tags: This one is Endgame compliant again. Sorry.

Tony was a friend of mine

We were together all the time

It was Rhodey's first day at MIT, and he was struggling to get into his dorm room. Because of a massive box in the doorway. What was in the box you ask? Scraps. Why does anybody have a box of scraps?

His thoughts were interrupted by a kid walking up to him, he must have been what 15, 16? Was this someone's brother or something? Why is there a random kid just walking around?

"Whoops, I forgot to move that, sorry!" The kid said before he jammed his shoulder into it and pushed off of the door frame to get it into the room.

Rhodey's confusion must have shown on his face because the boy introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Tony," he greeted as he held out a hand, "You're Rhodey right?"

Wait… this kid is his roommate?

"Yeah, I'm a genius. That's how I'm here so young." The kid he now knew as Tony said.

Rhodey shrugged to himself, it wasn't the strangest thing he'd heard.

Little did he know, his view of the word strange would be evaluated pretty soon because of Tony.

Since they had most of the same classes, they started spending a lot of time together.

They started studying together, they ate together (Rhodey had to be the responsible one otherwise Tony would rather tinker with the box of scraps than eat), they went out together, more often than not, they were paired together on projects and presentations. Rhodey suspected Tony having something to do with that, but he wouldn't complain. He'd sorta become attached to the weird little genius.

He had my back

Once he really saved my life

Usually, it was Rhodey that was keeping Tony out of trouble.

It was how the whole argument started in the first place. He thought Tony was too reckless, that he drank too much (when he shouldn't be drinking at all), didn't care about lab safety.

Tony almost lost a finger to some robot he was working on. Tony would say it wasn't that bad, and usually, the subject would have been dropped. But it wasn't dropped because in Tony's stupidity when the robot exploded and he almost lost a finger, a piece of metal had gone flying and given student nearby a pretty bad concussion and left another with a bad sprain. It's what pushed Rhodey over the edge.

"You are such a childish idiot sometimes!" He'd yelled. "You never think of anyone else except for yourself!" At the moment he hadn't seen the momentary hurt flash on Tony's face before it was masterfully concealed.

"You're right, it won't happen again. Sorry." Tony said as he hastily left the lab, his workspace miraculously cleaned already.

'Rhodey you idiot, you really screwed up now.' He thought to himself later when he saw that Tony hadn't come back to the dorm. He thought back and he just saw the hurt Tony could wipe from his face but not his eyes.

He looked for hours but he couldn't find him. Tried calling him but he never answered. Eventually, he decided to head back to the dorm. Just before he crossed the road he felt his phone vibrate with a notification, hoping to see a text from Tony he looked down, only to be yanked back onto the sidewalk just as a truck barrelled past where he'd been standing.

"Who's the idiot now?" He looked to his left and there was Tony. He'd been the one to pull him out of the way.

"I'm sorry," He said quietly, "And thank you."

Tony scoffed next to him. "You hurt me but I wasn't going to let you become a Rhodey shaped pancake. You're the only damn person I like in this place."

Sometimes, I wanna call him

Say hey then stay up 'til morning

They would call each other all the time. Between Rhodey being deployed in different countries and overseas, and Tony's lack of sleep schedule, they would speak during all hours of the day.

After Afghanistan, New York, and Siberia, it became usual for one of them to call after a nightmare or during a panic attack.

When I close my eyes

When I close my eyes

I see you, you

When I close my eyes

When I close my eyes

You come through, you

Time just deepens, sweetens

And mends old friends

Sometimes Rhodey would turn around to say something to Tony, a joke from their college days, a question about Peter or Morgan, and he wouldn't be there.

He would walk past a bench in central park where they would sit and have coffee together, and he would see a ghost of a memory.

The first time he saw the lab after Tony, was a disaster. He cried because Dumm-E brought him an oil smoothie in a platypus mug that Tony got him as a joke.

He accidentally called Peter 'Tony' once when he found him tinkering in the lab. They both cried that time.

Rhodey would watch Peter and Morgan and would smile because they hadso muchof Tony in them.

He saw Tony in everything that he did. It hurt so much but it made him happy too. He knew he would never forget his brother.

We all melt back into the picture

Raindrops back into the water, old friends

Hmm

There was a picture the Rhodey kept in his pocket. He couldn't remember when it was taken anymore.

He just knew that it was before the snap

It was taken at the compound on their personal floor. Happy and himself could be seen talking together near the open balcony door, a beer in both their hands. Harley and Peter were sitting on a web hammock, laughing at something on one of their phones, smiles slightly blurred from their laughter. May and Pepper held wine glasses, looking at magazine. He remembered that they had been mocking Norman Osbourne, much to Tony's delight.

And then there was Tony. He was leaning against a wall with a soft smile, face free of stress lines as he watched his family.

He was happy.

A now much older James Rhodes stood on the lake house porch. He watched as the now even larger family laughed and smiled together.

Happy was standing at the grill, making hamburgers and hot dogs. May stood near him and they shared a smile as their eyes met.

Pepper was looking at wedding venues with Morgan and her fiance, Brendon.

Peter was chasing after a curly-haired, brown-eyed little girl. As he chased her she darted up the side of a tree, you could hear her giggles as her head popped out from leaves. Upside down.

MJ was sitting on a chair, sketchbook in hand. She looked up at the little girls squeal when Peter pulled her from the tree and tickled her.

They were all happy, but someone would always be missing.

Rhodey let a sad smile cross his face. He let out a wistful sigh, "You did good Tones." He said quietly to himself.

He moved towards the porch stairs, leg braces whirring.

As he stepped down he could have sworn he heard the ghost of a heart-achingly familiar laugh.

He scoffed slightly. His old age was playing tricks on him he thought.

He missed the whispered "Farewell, brother."

And there are no ends to old friends

Amen