Tony V: Don't Waste It

Tony used to look forward to being able to slack off during senior year of high school. He'd planned to get his college applications out of the way as soon as possible—not that they even mattered that much with his heritage—and then mentally check out. Obadiah was on the same page. But now, especially after hearing Bucky avow how much he valued a normal sophomore year after being robbed of his freshman year, he didn't think that was fair. Instead, he planned to take advantage of the gift of life his VAD had given him.

He started his MIT early action application as soon as it was released in August, two weeks before school even started. From the moment he knew what college was, he'd wanted to go there. It was one of the few opinions he'd expressed as a young child that his father had been genuinely supportive of. To keep his options open, he also planned to apply to Stanford, Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon, but frankly MIT was the only one he genuinely cared about getting in to, so he poured most of his efforts into that.

~0~

Tony's first day of senior year was…strange. He never thought he would grow used to school in a single classroom with the same teacher for every subject, but suddenly his high school loomed enormous and daunting. Carrying two backpacks proved an awkward task. His VAD pack he carried in his hand while he wore his school backpack normally. When he sat down at his desk, he placed his school bag on the floor and strung the VAD one over the back of his chair. Tony crossed his fingers that no alarms would go off today and draw even more attention to him. Even without his backpack screaming, he garnered plenty of lingering glances from peers who hadn't seen him in the hallways since March. He should have expected he wouldn't get away with not explaining his absence and new equipment to certain people.

On multiple occasions, Tony had considered hacking the school's scheduling algorithm to prevent him and Justin Hammer from ever being in the same class. Frankly, only laziness stopped him. But now he wished he'd actually done it, because he once again found himself in the same situation as last year: open seating on the first day. Tony took a seat near the back and tried to look inconspicuous, but of course Justin would probably recognize him even if he saw just his forearm or something.

"Oh my God, you're back," he said in awe as he practically barreled into the seat next to Tony.

"Yep. I'm back," Tony said tightly. He glanced at the clock and despaired as it showed he had a full two and a half minutes until the bell rang to signal the beginning of class.

"I thought you died when you collapsed last year. But then Stark Industries didn't make a statement or anything so I figured you probably weren't dead."

Tony restrained himself from whispering, "I wish I was." Justin had a way of making him wish he was anywhere but here. Instead, he just said, "Not dead."

"Boy am I glad that's the case. What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh, okay. I respect that. But what's in this backpack? Oh wait, is that wire going under your shirt?"

Tony tugged the hem of his shirt lower and scooted imperceptibly farther from Justin. "Doesn't matter." He certainly didn't trust this kid with the knowledge that his life depended on that wire and what it was connected to.

"Okay, sorry. I was just really worried while you were gone."

"I'm flattered." Tony didn't remember the last time he said more than one sentence at a time to Justin, but no matter how many nonverbal—or sometimes even verbal—signals he gave, the kid just would not leave him alone. He glanced at the clock one more time. Thirty seconds to go. If he timed this just right, he could avoid a semester of this nonsense. Ten seconds before the bell rang, he grabbed both his backpacks and made a beeline for an empty seat on the other side of the room.

"Where are you going?" Justin asked after him. He stood up to move too, but the ringing bell forced him back into his seat. Tony glanced over at his new neighbor. Maya Hansen offered him a crooked smile, and he attempted to smile back. He didn't bother to look back at Justin. The teacher began class and now Tony had more important things to focus on.

Things went well until lunchtime. He avoided any more encounters with Justin. Christine flirtatiously waved at him in the hallway at one point, but he merely ignored her. Maya and Killian were clearly still together—not just as lab partners. Tony stumbled across them making out in the hallway on his way to lunch. Last year, he'd sat alone or with Obadiah most days, but he didn't see him when he walked into the lunchroom. Apparently, he just beat Obi there, because he joined him a few moments later, approaching from behind and placing a hand on his shoulder before sitting down across from him.

When Tony said nothing, the other boy spoke up, "Nice to see you too."

"Hey, Obi." Tony missed his Gravesen friends more than ever in that moment. Why couldn't he have lived somewhere where he went to the same school as Bruce? Or Steve and Bucky? Or Parker? He'd give anything to go to school with Parker.

"Are you going to show me or not?"

"Show you what?"

Obi nodded his head. "You know…"

"Who told you?"

"Never mind who told me. Show me."

"Was it my dad?"

"Well, it was mine, but I'm sure he heard it from your dad. Now show me."

Reluctantly, Tony dropped his backpack on the table and pulled out the controller and batteries. Obi quite literally ogled them. Tony rolled his eyes and stuffed them back in the bag before the shocked and amazed look fully faded from his face. "Happy now?"

"Those really power your heart?"

"Yep." Changing the subject, he asked, "How were things here those few months without me?"

"Boring," Obadiah sighed. "My dad dragged me to all the meetings with him instead of sticking me with you."

"I'll bet you learned a lot."

"Well, I would have if I'd been paying any attention."

"That's fair."

The first day couldn't end soon enough. Even after the bell rang on his final class of the day, Tony had one more thing to check off before he went home. He'd passed the classroom on his way in this morning, and it only reminded him that he wouldn't even be back here if it weren't for one man. Tony owed him recognition, so he made his way to the classroom. The bell only rang a minute or two ago, so a few students still milled around packing up or asking last-minute questions. He waited until the last student left the classroom before knocking on the doorframe. Dr. Yinsen looked up from his desk and immediately smiled. "Tony Stark. It's good to see you back."

Tony smiled hesitantly and approached the desk. He remembered the mind-blowing revelation he'd had when Steve revealed he heard him collapse at Gravesen and alerted the nurses. What was he supposed to say to the man who literally saved his life? "Yeah, I'm back," was the first thing he could think of. "I, uh…wanted to thank you. I didn't get a chance to…right after. Thank you for saving me."

"Don't waste it," he said knowingly. "Don't waste your life, Stark."

"I will certainly strive not to, sir."

Tony had never received such a vital and terrifying instruction in his entire life. Don't waste it. After all the times it nearly ended, Tony certainly didn't want to waste it. But at this point he didn't know what level of accomplishment he needed to reach before his death in order to confidently say his life hadn't been wasted. Steve had already figured out a way not to waste his by becoming a leader and source of comfort for sick kids at Gravesen, and Bucky was pursuing his goals of amputee soccer stardom. What did Tony have to offer the world? Ideally, he had the next four or five years to figure that out.

~0~

The Avengers group chat proved to serve exactly the purpose Tony intended. They all stayed in touch, except for Peter Quill, who had apparently dropped off the grid without a word, and celebrated each other's accomplishments. It was especially beneficial for Thor and Natasha, who couldn't easily pop by to visit. With so many of them in the chat, there was pretty much always something or other going on, and it provided a wonderful distraction from Obi and Justin's nonsense. Putting up with them was so much easier when Tony knew he had genuine companionship to turn to.

At Gravesen, Parker and Steve met Monica Rambeau, the younger sister of Carol's girlfriend. Despite not knowing her in life, Tony loved that both he and his friends had the opportunity to learn more about the girl who had meant so much to them. Nick sent a lovely photo featuring his sister and his new prosthetic eyes that his ocularist had painted based on hers. Not long after that, the chat was flooded with pictures of Thor's seizure response dog, Valkyrie. It was obvious the guy was head over heels for her and Tony couldn't be happier for him. Between those and Natasha's cat photos, Steve joked that he might have an asthma attack through the phone.

Parker, the last of their group to be discharged, went home with his adoptive parents. Tony had never seen him so happy before. Bucky finished chemo and was declared cancer free. Steve's reaction to that news didn't surprise Tony, but it deeply saddened him. He'd never had a best friend of his own, but he could imagine it would suck to have him move on to a healthier life without him. Fortunately, Steve appeared to come to terms with it rather quickly.

Both Tony and Bruce took to complaining about college applications, leading the rest of the group to single them out as the 'grandpas.' The age discrepancy hadn't meant as much back at Gravesen, since they attended school only in two separate groups, but now that they were all back in real school it became more apparent. Tony and Bruce were two grades ahead of their closest counterparts, although Steve was technically a year old for his grade, and therefore they were the only ones worried about college.

While Tony focused on engineering as a career future, Bruce was more concerned with biology and chemistry. "I want to study neurotransmitters," he told Tony during a commiseration-slash-attempting-to-motivate-each-other-to-get-their-applications-done FaceTime call. "You know, figure out what goes wrong in the brains of people like me so they don't have to suffer like I did."

"It seems we have similar goals, Bruce," Tony said. "My dream project is to design something a little more user friendly than this." He showed off a spare VAD battery. The ones actually powering him at the moment were in the pack on the back of his chair.

"I have no doubt you can make something ten times better."

"And I have no doubt you will solve your problem in half the time it takes me to solve mine."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Only if you want it to be. I don't want our friendship to turn into a rivalry."

"Agreed."

Tony chuckled. "Just imagine…we get into an all-out war sabotaging each other's projects or something. I sneak into your lab at night, not knowing you're also sneaking into mine at the exact same moment. And we both return to find the place hopelessly vandalized."

Bruce laughed hesitantly. "Tony, I would never vandalize your lab."

"I know, I'm only joking."

"Just making sure."

"Bruce, I would never vandalize your lab either. I would just stand there and let you attempt to explain your work to me even though it would probably go way over my head."

"That's ridiculous, you're probably one of the smartest people on this planet."

"If that's the case, then so are you."

"Yet neither of us are smart enough to derail this conversation and actually get back to work."

"Wrong. You are. You just did, see?"

"At this point we're just distracting each other. I'm hanging up, Tony."

"Bruce, don't you hang up on me."

But he did. It was probably deserved. Tony really did need to work on this essay for Stanford, but he also really didn't want to. Ultimately, he set a timer for forty minutes and made himself work until then. He actually got a lot done. Then he let himself get distracted by the most recent round of Valkyrie pictures from Thor. She really was a cute dog.

~0~

Just before Christmas, he heard back from MIT. Not that it much mattered with his father's fortune, but they awarded him a full scholarship to their engineering program. He got the email the exact same day he got the acceptance package in the mail and eagerly showed both to his parents. "I knew you'd get in, but it still feels good," Mom said.

"Thanks." It did feel good. Especially when his father actually acknowledged the accomplishment too.

"Tony, you are a marvel," he said almost reverently. Tony's eyes shone. To have lost one son so tragically early in life and see the other one succeed now, he couldn't imagine the whirlwind of emotions going through his father's head. "I can't wait to see what you achieve."