Tony was twelve when the Soldier showed up in his room. While Tony was quite happy about that the same couldn't be said about the Soldier.
Tony was a master at merging with the background.
He was a loud kid that demanded attention without ever really doing something; he was noticed no matter where he went, just because of his personality and his big mouth and his inability to behave most of the times. Because of that he had learned how to hide from his parents when he, again, behaved inappropriately.
And he did that a lot, according to Maria and Howard, so by the age of twelve he had mastered the art of disappearing nearly completely. Especially if someone was looking for him.
He knew all the hiding spots in the house and the corners where no one came to, so he could be undisturbed or hide if his parents had visitors, and it helped a lot that he had the most removed room of the house.
Even Jarvis was closer to the main part of the house than himself, because Jarvis was important to the household and to his parents, but Tony didn't mind it all that much. In fact he was quite happy with it. It meant his parents rarely came by and he could do what he wanted without disturbing anyone.
And that was a blessing given how often one of his inventions turned out to be louder than he had anticipated.
His parents snooped around sometimes, they came into his room and took great liberties with his personal space, especially his father, and Howard sometimes even took some of Tony's projects. Tony pretended he never noticed, not wanting to invoke another fight, and Howard never mentioned it.
But since Tony was well aware of that fact he immediately felt like something was off when he came into his room.
Tony wasn't supposed to be home, he should be on a class trip but his parents had kept him home in the last moment. Tony was quite angry about that he had looked forward to the trip, so know he spend most of his time in his room. It was his refuge, his place and he knew every corner of it and so he also knew that someone had been in here.
There was no immediate sign of someone being in the room now, nothing too obvious was missing, but Tony moved around cautiously nevertheless. There was some light falling into his room from the hallway but it was not enough to illuminate the part of his room where he worked and so he slowly walked towards the light switch, never fully turning his back to the room. usually whoever had been in his room was long gone when he came because Howard just took what he wanted and then left but on very rare occasions people waited for Tony to abduct him and so Tony had learned to be careful. When he finally used the switch and light filled the room Tony still couldn't see anything wrong.
He quickly checked his work but nothing was missing or out of place and Tony relaxed slightly, so he turned around to close the door. When he turned back to face his room a man was standing in the middle of it.
Tony took a surprised step back and reached automatically for one of his tools to defend himself with and in the time it took him to do that the previously empty-handed man levelled a gun at his head. It had been a few years since the last abduction attempt and Tony had hoped that people would leave him alone now. Tony eyed the gun cautiously when some light caught on something silver.
Only now did Tony recognize the metal arm and by that the man. He let go of the hammer he picked up and slowly raised his hands to show that he meant no harm. While Tony didn't remember his meeting with this man when he was two he did remember the one when he was seven.
He had even seen the man a few times after that, when he walked home or was out but only from afar and he always wore heavy clothes that hid the metal arm, but Tony always knew that it was him and it wasn't only the mask that gave him away. When Tony saw the man he regularly caught him staring, like he tried to figure out where he knew him from but it happened very irregularly, and he never came close enough to Tony to talk but he knew that he had been there.
Tony figured that now was his chance to talk to him again. "Hey there. Is the arm stuck again? Is that why you are here?" Tony asked him.
The man tilted his head and watched Tony closely and Tony got the impression that the man didn't remember him at all. He pointed at himself and said "I helped you when your arm was stuck and you couldn't move it, remember?" but the eyes of the man remained blank.
He was wearing his mask again and so it was very difficult to read his expression but by what Tony could see it was a mixture of pain and confusion. "Who are you?" the man asked after some time while he holstered his gun.
"I'm Tony. Tony Stark. You should know that. You are in my house. Why are you in my house? What are you doing here?" He pointed at the arm again. "Is something wrong with it? Do you need me to take a look?"
The man ignored him and instead activated a device in his ear. Tony had seen his father experiment with those for a few years now and so he knew that it connected to someone not that far away. The range wasn't that good yet.
"The boy is here. He saw me. How do I proceed?" The voice of the man was rough and muffled by the mask but the person on the other side obviously understood him because the man gave one sharp nod. Apparently that wasn't enough because there were some sharp words which even Tony could hear from across the room and then the man said "Don't harm the boy. Abort mission. Extraction in ten."
He turned the device off and Tony couldn't help but ask "Are you a soldier or something?"
Dark eyes snapped to his and Tony took an involuntary step back. The part of his face that Tony could see was clouded with pain and confusion but his stare was totally blank, bare of every emotion and it scared Tony, so he refrained himself from asking about the Soldier's work.
Tony had seen some caged animals and they bore the exact same look as this man.
After he got himself back under control Tony remembered that he had met the man, the Soldier, before and that he hadn't hurt him then either. So Tony repressed his flight reaction and took a step towards the Soldier.
He outstretched a hand to grab for the metal arm but the Soldier yanked it back and turned that side of his body away from Tony. "If something is broken again I can help. I am a lot better at this stuff now."
The Soldier frowned and briefly closed his eyes before he looked at Tony again. "It was stuck" the man mumbled and Tony nodded.
He silently wondered if the Soldier had a memory problem but he figured if that was true then he wouldn't work as a soldier. Maybe he was traumatized. Or maybe Tony was just not important enough to remember him.
"It's not stuck now" the Soldier eventually went on and Tony couldn't quite suppress a small grin though that still didn't explain what the Soldier was doing in his room.
"I can see that. Is something else wrong with it?"
The Soldier shook his head at that and as if he wanted to prove it he moved one finger after another and made a fist. Then he looked at Tony again. "You repaired it without hurting me."
"Eh, yes?" Tony replied confused. "It's not supposed to hurt. Does it hurt now?"
"Always" the Soldier said absentmindedly and stared at his hand while he flexed one finger after another again and again.
Tony was not happy with that answer because the arm seemed still fairly advanced and if someone was able to do that they should also be able to make it not hurt. Tony had no idea about biology and nerves, that was not his forte, but if someone was able to build such an advanced device they should also be able to attach it correctly.
"Can I take a closer look?" Tony asked because now he wanted even more to get a good look at it, but the Soldier shook his head. "Okay then" Tony said even though it was not okay. He needed a closer look to understand how it worked and he wanted to look inside again. Maybe if he had enough time with the arm he could even help with the pain.
But the Soldier seemed edgy enough on that subject and so Tony dropped it only to ask about something else. "You said something about a mission. What mission? What could you possibly do here?" Tony inquired and this time he wasn't met with that blank stare.
Instead the Soldier already pointed a gun at his head again before the question was even fully out of his mouth. "Oookay then. No questions about your work. Got it" Tony said and took a step back. No need to crowd the Soldier in this state.
The Soldier watched him closely for a few seconds before he holstered the gun again.
He moved to turn away from Tony but then he stopped and looked at him one more time. "It grates when I move it like this" the Soldier said and demonstrated the movement.
The arm made an unpleasant low sound and Tony smiled. He could do that. "It will be fixed in a second" he said confidently and pointed at a table.
"Come over here?" he asked while he walked over. The Soldier followed a step behind but Tony could see that he was still rigid and tense and he eyed the workbench warily.
"Move your arm again" Tony said and looked for the tools he would need.
The Soldier did and when Tony turned back around he did it again so that Tony could localize the place where the sound came from.
He instructed the Soldier to hold the arm a certain way so that he could get a better access to it and it only took Tony two minutes and a bit of oil to get it to work smoothly again. He wondered why no one had taken care of it before.
When he announced that he was done the Soldier tried it again and then nodded. Tony understood that that was his way of saying thank you and said "You're welcome."
The Soldier stared at his arm for a few long seconds before he said "I have to go now" and he immediately turned away to walk back to the window. It was closed and Tony wondered if that was how the Soldier came into his room in the first place and if he had closed it after that because he had to pull it open now.
"Come by again? Sometime? Even if the arm isn't stuck?" Tony hastily asked before he could change his mind.
The Soldier briefly looked back at him and Tony realized that it seemed kind of insane to invite someone like the Soldier back but Tony was lonely and the Soldier proved to be a distraction; not to mention how fascinated Tony was with that arm and the fact that he was certain he could help with the pain.
The Soldier didn't reply to that though, but instead went right out of the window, without a rope or something.
Tony only distantly worried about him, after all they were on the second floor, because he was stuck on the nod the Soldier had given him right before he vanished.
Given the fact that he had seemed confused and had some troubles recognizing Tony he wasn't so sure if it meant anything at all, if the Solider would remember this, if he really would come back, but he still smiled despite that.
It had been the sixth or seventh time he had seen the Soldier after the alley and even if this was the first real close interaction they had since then, Tony suspected that not all of the previous meetings were by chance. So he was pretty sure the Soldier would find his way back to him.