A/N: Hi everyone! So this is my latest fic, but a different fandom this time! I started re-watching the films and for some reason I couldn't get the idea of a high school AU out of my head. I read a high school fic a while ago (it's called Expressions of the Heart - definitely worth checking out!), and I reckon I got some inspiration from there. Obviously if any events or anything look the same, then it's not deliberate, I just thought it was a good idea and was inspired by it! Although if the author feels it's too close to their own writing then I'll take it down of course, but hopefully everyone will enjoy it! But anyway, I really enjoyed writing this so I hope any of you that read it will enjoy it too. I'll probably update every few days, depending how much stuff I have to do :). Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing to do with the MCU or the comics or anything at all. No matter how much I wish I did.
Tony groaned to himself, rolling away from the bright light cracking through his curtains. He had just about found a position comfortable enough to contemplate falling back to sleep when the alarm went off.
"Oh bloody hell," he mumbled, slapping his hand down on it to shut it up.
He grumbled to himself, thankful his haphazard method worked. That was until the alarm went again four minutes later.
"For fuck's sake."
He kicked the covers off of him and used his momentum to swing his legs round and stood up, knocking the clock over in the process.
"Poxy thing," he said dismissively and shuffled towards the bathroom. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he stared at his reflection in the mirror. His hair was sticking up in a multitude of directions and he recognised his pallor as one of someone who had spent the previous night partying.
"Well at least I know I partied well," he muttered to himself. "Even if I do feel like crap."
He leant towards the sink and splashed his face with water before he grabbed a glass and Aspirin from the cabinet. As his brain began to wake up, he started piecing together what had happened yesterday. He had hosted one of his infamous parties and he thought he remembered falling asleep downstairs…
He'd ask JARVIS later.
Despite landing in the nerd category or being classified as a know it all by most people, he was still kind of popular. Or at least his parties were. He didn't give a shit what people thought, and it was clear that some people only spoke to him because of his money but he couldn't be bothered to waste his time with those people. Hence why he had a pretty small friend group consisting of Bruce, Rhodey and most importantly Pepper. They had all stumbled across each other during middle school and hadn't been separated since. Sure, he hung out with the guys in his soccer team, or flirted with various girls who came up to him, but they weren't his friends. Acquaintances maybe.
He hummed to himself when he saw the state downstairs. He would have to get DUM-E and the rest of them to clean up. His parents, his father in particular, would go ballistic otherwise. To come back home after a business trip to find his home in a state of disarray was not something that Howard Stark took lightly. He grabbed his car keys and slammed the door, wincing when the loud noise registered in his brain.
As he parked his car outside of his school, he grabbed his shades from the centre console and slammed the door behind him. He would just have to hope that Mr. Andrews wasn't overly boring today. Otherwise he would genuinely fall asleep. In fairness he had done it before when he wasn't hung over.
But still.
xxxxx
Pepper had been woken up early this morning by a set of bumps and clunks coming from her sister's room. Sighing, she had got up and had her shower in the hope that it would properly wake her up. Having successfully avoided her sibling's room that looked like a bomb had been set off in it, she came down the stairs, thankful for the smell of coffee that came wafting from the kitchen.
"Morning mom," she smiled, grabbing a mug from the cupboard.
"Morning sweetheart, ready for school?"
"Just about, I just need to grab my books off my desk. It's only been a week but I'm already exhausted," she joked.
"I know Ginny, you'll be fine," her mom chuckled, "Toast?"
"Please."
She sat at the kitchen island and was hunched over her coffee when Maddie skidded into the room.
"I can't find my Physics homework. Mr. Harper decided it would be a good idea to set it only a week in. And now I've lost it."
"Didn't Tony help you do it?" Mom asked.
Pepper heard Maddie curse under her breath and looked at her questioningly. Since when had Maddie started cursing? Tony's influence no doubt. Sure, he was a good friend, but a good influence for her sisters? Not so much.
"He did it for me," Maddie whispered to her. "And I don't know what he did with it."
Pepper sighed and got up from the stool, promising to find the homework. Ringing Tony did nothing but frustrate her; he didn't pick up. She left a voicemail but knew it would be pointless. She had come round late the night before and had helped Rhodey take him to his room after he had passed out on the couch. She didn't know why she really expected a reply, it wasn't like he charged his phone anyway.
She entered Maddie's room and stopped dead. How she could find anything in here was beyond her, but she dived in with the vain hope that she could find the miscellaneous piece of paper. Even Holly tried to help at one point, but the 7-year-old was more hinderance than help seeing as she was destroying everything in her path: driving Maddie up the wall and in turn driving Pepper the same way. She eventually found it and they all piled into the car, it was like this every morning in the Potts household.
xxxxx
As her mom finally pulled up in front of her school, she rested her head back against the headrest and sighed. Her sisters were squabbling about something in the back that she didn't have the capacity to listen to and leapt out of the car.
"Bye Mom."
"Bye sweetie," her mom called, but she was already walking towards the doors, her sisters tired her out. She got enough childish exposure day to day with Tony as it was.
"Speak of the devil," she muttered, walking into homeroom to see him talking to some girl from the cheerleading team. She made her way round them to get to her seat nearer the back of the classroom, but Tony stopped her.
"Hey Pep, did you enjoy the party yesterday?" he said with a smirk.
"What makes you think I was there?" She raised her eyebrows.
Gotcha, she thought when he saw his eyes scramble for an excuse.
"What makes you think I didn't see you?" He asked, faking innocence.
"Well if you had I like to think that you would have had the decency to acknowledge my presence," she said with her hands on her hips.
"Okay so maybe JARVIS had some input," he shrugged.
"Thought so," she smirked, and started walking back towards her seat. Tony followed having grown bored with the 'dumb blonde' he was talking to, as it was so eloquently put.
xxxxx
He often lost track of who was at parties that he held, people that he recognized were usually lost in the crowd, not that he expected many of his friends to come to them. Rhodey did tend to come most of the time, sometimes Pepper did if she thought she could endure it, and it really wasn't Bruce's scene. Hence why he couldn't be found dead there. Tony couldn't blame him, he really only held them to fill the empty house that he found himself in when his parents were out of town. If he didn't want to host a party, he just told Pepper who in turn would tell her parents. They always took him in. But sometimes he just tried to be independent, desperate to prove that he could look after himself and save the Potts the trouble if he could. Pepper always called him out on it, but he didn't want to take her for granted, she would likely grow tired of him soon. If he was honest, he couldn't understand why she hadn't the minute she met him. It took a certain calibre of person to put up with him on a regular basis.
"You done the French homework?" he prompted, sitting on her desk.
"Budge."
She swatted him slightly and he moved to his seat, provoking Pepper wasn't always the best thing to do first thing in the morning.
"And yes, I did."
"Crap. Shoulda known," he sighed to himself, glancing round the classroom. He turned back to her only to see her raised eyebrows.
"Alright, alright. I know, I had a week to do it and it's my own fault," he rolled his eyes.
"Hey you're learning," she said mockingly, a glint of playfulness in her eyes.
"Shut up," he laughed.
"If I help you do the French will you help me do the Physics," she bargained.
"Really Potts? Willing to ask me to help you? I thought you didn't like fuelling my 'unstable ego'?"
She shrugged. "Well if you don't want to help me then good luck figuring it out."
"No I'll help you," he said hurriedly. He stood no chance, he blamed having a father who had international relations; he was forced to take languages. He really didn't like French. Plus, he liked spending time with Pepper, even if it was just to do homework. It was better than nothing.
"Good," she smirked, she always got her way. It was annoying sometimes, but in the end, it always ended up with a good outcome so he could deal with it. Besides, Pepper's smart remarks were what he lived for; it wasn't often he found someone who could match the majority of his snarky remarks. Or 'starky' remarks as he liked to call them. But Pepper had been quick to shut that one down. He didn't understand why, he'd thought it was a good pun. His train of thought followed a similar line until the end of homeroom, and he felt Pepper swat him. Furrowing his brow, he looked up at her.
"You coming Stark? Despite your admirable will power, classes still exist crétin."
He was silent for a second before he picked up his bag and asked as he trailed after her, "Did you call me a moron just now?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," she smirked, turning to face him before heading for her next class.
"Whatever Potts. If I was, I wouldn't be top of my class," he smirked to himself, running to catch up with Bruce who had the same class as him.
xxxxx
"You know Pepper called me a moron just now?" Tony said, trying to sound indignant.
"Doesn't that happen on a daily basis?" Bruce asked, face contorted into a frown.
"Aren't you gonna say 'no Tony, don't worry. We don't think you're a moron'?"
"Why would we when it's a lie," Bruce told him, almost as if it was some sort of fateful disease.
"You're no help. At least Pepper would at least make an attempt to tell me she was just kidding," Tony pretended to be hurt.
"Poor guy," Bruce muttered sarcastically under his breath.
"Huh?"
"I said you're a smart guy," he said quickly, walking into the classroom.
"Thanks for your concern," Tony rolled his eyes, following behind him. Bruce just had to hope that he wouldn't talk about Pepper the whole day because as nice as it was, there was only so much of it a person could take. He didn't even realise he did it, it was infuriating sometimes.
xxxxx
"Stark!" his teammate called, "Get in the box!"
"Right," he replied and got in position. They were currently refining their set plays and were doing corners. Personally, he hated this sort of thing, he never really did much and there wasn't enough movement to feel like he was playing a sport. It was alright when they were taking free kicks, he always took them, but corners weren't really his thing. And he wasn't tall enough to get his head on the ball, he had to leave it to the forwards.
They went through it countless times and he was thankful when the practice turned into a half pitch game, he could finally show his use. He didn't like looking useless in front of Pepper (who was currently sitting in the bleachers), she'd make fun of him otherwise. So he played his hardest and was breathing heavily by the time practice finished. He sprayed water from his water bottle over his face and walked over to her, grinning as he blocked out the sunlight, causing her to look up.
"Hey, you done?" she asked.
"Yup, let me just go and grab my stuff and I'll take you home."
"Thanks Tony, I would be stuck here for hours otherwise."
"Not a problem, I'll be back in a few minutes, you can go and sit in the car," he told her, tossing the keys over.
He rushed off to collect his things and took a quick shower before heading back to Pepper.
xxxxx
They got to her house easily enough, and Tony took the invitation from Pepper's parents to stay for dinner. He would go home, he would, but his parents weren't there again. And currently his heating wasn't working, but he was none the wiser to fix it because despite being a literal genius and unqualified engineer, he couldn't fix the thing. It had a mind of its own. So far, in order to survive the autumn climate, he had collected all the blankets he could and had stacked them on his bed. Contrary to popular belief, Autumn was fucking cold. And he didn't know how to cook, so he'd take Michelle Potts' cooking over a microwave meal any day.
"Thank you Michelle," he smiled gratefully.
"Don't worry about it Tony, you need feeding. I can't let you go home hungry can I?" she smiled.
"Well as long as you're offering," Tony charmed, "you're cooking is always the best."
"Stop lying and go and sit down, it should be ready soon enough," the redhead replied.
"Thanks," Tony grinned, and followed Pepper from where she had disappeared into the living room.
xxxxx
Later on, he regretfully went back home and braved the freezing atmosphere. He got goose bumps as soon as he entered and sighed. No hope for it magically fixing itself then. He flicked the light switch so that he could make his way to the living area only for it to have no visible impact.
"Oh you have to be kidding me," he shouted into the empty space. God, what was with this?! He retrieved a torch and went to try and fix it. How the mains could turn off by itself was a mystery to him. He fiddled with the mechanics and got to the point of trying to mend various switchboards but he could find nothing wrong with them.
"Great," he sighed. At least JARVIS worked separately. Maybe he could help.
"Hey JARVIS?" he called.
"Yes sir?"
"Why don't the mains and heating work?"
"It appears that Mr Stark has turned off all of these facilities because himself and Mrs Stark are away and do not want to waste energy. It is something he implemented a month ago."
Tony shook his head, of course they forgot that their only son would still be here.
"Do they even know I'm still here?" he asked pointlessly.
"Yes."
Okay that surprised him, but he was at least thankful they didn't completely forget him.
"I have been instructed to tell you to stay at the Potts' household while they are away."
"Do Joe and Michelle know about it?"
"No sir."
"Of course they don't," he sighed. He wasn't about to go round to their house and say 'Hey, I know I just left but can I stay here while my parents are away? They kind of shut down the house so I'm freezing my ass off and I'm navigating around like it's the 1800s'. No fucking way. He'd just stay here; he could deal with it right?
A/N: So that's the first chapter! I hope it was worth your time and if you liked it then stay tuned for updates! :)