Tony Stark was twenty one and he was bored out of his mind. Who could have known that the Soldier would have such an impact on his life.

Tony Stark was twenty one and he was bored out of his mind.

Sure he had a few projects going on, he wasn't really one to sit idly around, but they were expensive and even though his income was kind of impressive he couldn't finance himself the way he wanted. And with the technology they had Tony could only do so much to program an AI like he wanted to.

The progress wasn't yet far enough to get it to his satisfaction and so he kept to physically building things with minor AIs. Like Dummy and You. He was working on his superior AI and he had a few awesome ideas but nothing he could yet accomplish so he kept himself busy otherwise.

A thought in the back of his head kept nagging him; he just had to accept his heritage, take over the company and all his problems would be solved. That thought was always there and Tony tried to keep it at bay as best as he could.

He knew that if he would ever accept his heritage he would never have to worry about projects or money ever again. There would be an overflow of both. And SI probably had some technology that they kept from the public.

Intellectually he knew that. Emotionally he refused to acknowledge that thought because he wouldn't. Nothing could ever make him accept his heritage to take over Howards place.

Everyone would only see him as Howard's son, brilliant by family association, and he didn't want that. Tony wanted to make a name for himself and not inherit that too.

So he had to cut most of his projects short and instead kept working on easy things. Occasionally he did contract work but only if the idea of what he was to build intrigued him enough to keep him interested and he tried to stay clear of stuff that could be weaponized.

He knew of course that building weapons had been Howard's thing, that that was what the company still did under Obadiah, and it was just one more reason not to do it.

He didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps, didn't want to continue the path of the Starks. It was not that he had a problem with weapons, he could appreciate them and he knew about their importance, he wasn't naïve, he just wanted to make something of his own, far away from the family work and the path his father lay down.

The people who came to him and paid him to build something, they knew who he was and he was not keen on making the family recognition any stronger than it already seemed to be. So he kept to small constructional stuff with the occasional new invention.

He financed himself mostly with those small contract works, not willing to touch his family's money. It was piling up somewhere, he knew that, but he refused to use it for anything. It always stirred a bad feeling in Tony if he thought about using it to make things easier and that was always enough to stay away from it. That he could almost see the disappointing face Howard would make at him if he used that money for something deemed unnecessary by him was also very helpful.

The patents he hold did help too, though in the beginning they cost him more than the brought him. Still it was something and it was incredibly satisfying to hold a patent with his name on it in his hands and he hoped that that feeling would never go away.

Mr. Warly kept calling him regularly, checking if he was yet ready to take over the company and Tony didn't even bother telling him 'no' anymore. He would just hang up the instance he recognized the voice. Despite that the lawyer kept calling every few weeks. As if something would happen that would change Tony's mind.

Tony laughed at that thought while he swiped away some sweat from his brow. He could wait long for that. Tony wasn't sure that anything out there was big enough to ever change his mind about his father's company. He knew of all the benefits it would bring him but even that wasn't enough to outweigh his hate for his father and his wish to remain as separated from the family inheritance as he could.

Tony shook his head and pushed all thoughts about his father and the company away. It always got him in a bad mood to think too much about it and he needed to finish this update on You before he could try and make his other AI work again.

He didn't have any luck with that yet; sure it was rudimental like Dummy or You but he wanted more out of this one. He wanted to create a true artificial intelligence, one that could talk and maybe make decisions on its own. In a controlled perimeter of course within set up rules but he was very far from achieving anything close to that.

It wasn't even that his programming was bad; it was just the lack of proper technology. Tony had invented his fair share of programming for Dummy and You, enough that many people had been interested in his work, but it was still not enough. He lacked the proper equipment and it bugged him.

Additional to that it also left him with no real project at the moment and being bored was not a thing Tony liked. He needed to be busy, to invent something and tinkering could only do so much for him especially if it was as frustrating as working on his AI.

When he was certain that there wasn't anything else he could do to improve his AI at the moment he sighed and idly spun a screwdriver in his hand while he thought about his next project. It was not that he didn't have ideas; his head was full with projects and thoughts that needed to be properly inspected, but he had to keep an eye on his expenses.

When nothing that was within his limits really peaked his interest he put the screwdriver down and left his workroom. Dummy and You were driving around in the living room trying to wipe up some dust but making more of a mess than actually helping with anything.

Tony looked at the clock on the wall and realized that he had worked longer on his AI than he had thought and his stomach grumbled to emphasize it. Tony turned to the kitchen to fix himself something to eat and he was in the middle of cutting up some vegetables when something heavy crashed through his window into the living room.

He spun around, knife in one hand ready to defend himself against whatever had just intruded into his home but when he recognized the Soldier he immediately put the knife down. Tony knew that he wouldn't need it and he wasn't keen on finding out what the Soldier would do if he felt threatened.

The Soldier had totalled his window and he was still on the ground amidst glass shards when Tony carefully approached but he was not moving.

Tony was by his side in a second when he realized that but when his feet hit the glass the Soldier snapped up and wrapped a hand around Tony's throat. When he stood up he lifted Tony off the ground and even though Tony desperately clutched at the arm to relieve the pressure it was hard for him to breathe.

"It's me. You're safe" Tony managed somehow between two desperate breaths and only now did the Soldier seem to recognize him. He slowly lowered Tony back down to the ground and he softened his grip but he didn't let go.

"Who are you?" the Solider asked and his voice sounded pained and there was sweat running down his face.

"We've met, remember? I repaired your arm before." Tony was trying to steady his breathing but if he inhaled too deep the Soldier would squeeze his throat again so he kept his breaths shallow.

The Soldier blinked a few times and then he nodded and removed his hand. Only now did Tony realize that the Solider had used his flesh arm instead of his metal arm and he wondered if something was wrong with it. In the past he always seemed to favour that arm and did nearly everything with it, always keeping it in front of him as if he was also using it as a shield.

Tony couldn't see the arm now, not with the way the Soldier was angled towards him but Tony was certain that if something was wrong the Soldier would eventually tell him.

"It did not hurt. With you" the Soldier finally said and slightly relaxed.

"Repairing the arm? No. You said it didn't" Tony said and moved a hand towards the arm. "Is it damaged?" he asked and looked at the Soldiers face for confirmation. It was hard to read with the mask on but the little flicker of his eyes was enough for Tony.

"Will you let me have a look" he carefully asked but the Soldier remained impassive. Belatedly Tony realized that the Soldier was bleeding profusely from a deep wound in his side.

"You're hurt" Tony stated the obvious and moved towards the Soldier again. "Christ" he said once he got a good look at the wound without touching anything. "This is bad. I have to stitch that up."

"No" the Soldier said hastily and covered the wound with his hand obviously not realising that blood almost immediately seeped through his fingers. "They'll know."

Tony frowned at that, not understanding why 'they' shouldn't know that someone tended to his injuries but the Soldier seemed afraid of that and so Tony nodded.

"Fine. Let me bandage it though. That's something you would do right?"

The Soldier frowned again as if he wasn't sure that that was the truth but eventually he nodded. In an instant Tony was off to get his first aid kit and he sat down on the couch waiting for the Soldier to join him.

The Soldier kept angling the metal arm away from him and Tony suspected that it really was damaged, maybe didn't even work anymore. He badly wanted to look at it but he had to tend to the bleeding wound first. It wouldn't help if the Soldier passed out on him.

Tony tightly wrapped a bandage around the Soldiers' side, hoping that he could stop the bleeding without stitches, and he had expected the Soldier to react to it in any way, maybe flinch or try to move away from the pressure, but he sat there like a statue and let Tony do his work.

When Tony finally secured the bandage he said "I'm sorry. That must have hurt but it needs to be tight."

The Soldier gave a sharp nod and then he cradled his metal arm close to his chest. Tony could see some sparks coming from it now and he gently asked "Do you want me to take a look at it? I can probably help."

The Soldier looked at him for a long minute before he cautiously moved around so that Tony had easier access to the arm. Tony carefully took it in his hands and tried to move it but the Soldier suddenly inhaled sharply in pain.

Tony immediately let go of the arm. "Does it hurt that bad?"

The Soldier nodded while trying not to move the arm.

"Okay show me where it hurts the most" Tony said and the Soldier got a resigned look. He pointed to various points, so many that it would have been easier to just gesture at the whole arm, and Tony gritted his teeth. That was a lot of damage. Tony wouldn't be able to get a good look at everything without hurting the Soldier.

"Think you can trust me enough to do this with as minimal pain as possible?"

The Soldier didn't seem to comprehend what he wanted and so Tony pointed at the arm. "I'll have to move it and it will hurt."

At that the Soldier just nodded like he didn't expect anything else and Tony sighed internally. He wondered not for the first time who the Soldier worked for that he was this impassive and neglecting to himself.

Tony got up to get a bunch of tools he would probably need; he didn't want to move the Soldier more than necessary. His bandages were still white but it probably wouldn't be long until he bled through them and jostling the wound wouldn't help the matter.

Tony pulled the table closer to the couch to have good access to his tools and then he carefully moved the arm again. Several plates were damaged and bend so that he could get a good look inside of the arm and Tony was impressed at what he saw.

This was very advanced technology, something the public definitely had no access to, and suddenly Tony wasn't sure if he could repair whatever was wrong with it. Sure he could correct the damaged plates but the circuitry inside was complicated and delicate and Tony didn't just want to poke at it blindly. But he would have to do that since he lacked the proper knowledge for this.

"I'm sorry but I have to turn your arm" he told the Soldier before he actually did it and the Soldier just took it without any acknowledgment that it hurt. But Tony could see the tension in his shoulders and how he had balled up his other hand to a fist and Tony felt truly sorry for hurting him.

It couldn't be helped though, not if he wanted to repair the arm the best he could, and so he kept working as fast as he could.

He needed some time to figure out the wires and when he did he was mesmerized. This was futuristic. As far as he could make out the cables and wires did not only work for the arm by fuelling it but they also posed as nerves for the arm.

Tony suspected that that was the source of the pain because a few of them were damaged. He hoped he could repair them but whatever he did would only be a temporary fix. Someone with more knowledge needed to look at this.

"I can repair some of it but someone other than me has to look at it. I don't have the right tools." Not to talk about his lack of information about this.

"Just make it stop" the Soldier said through gritted teeth.

"The pain? I can try" Tony said and picked up small tweezers. "But I am afraid it will hurt at first."

The Soldier didn't react to that, not that Tony had expected anything else, and so he began his work. He was certain that he hurt the Soldier a few times in the progress by grazing one of the wires but it was all so delicate and complicated, he was happy to have figured out a way to help at all. He couldn't let himself worry about that as well.

It took him nearly two hours but then the arm looked almost like before, no more sparks and the plates were all back where they belong. The inside of the arm was a different matter though. Tony was sure that he had repaired the wire damage as best as he could, but he was not satisfied because it wasn't enough.

The damage was still there, he didn't have the parts to replace the wires or let alone access to the schematics to understand exactly what needed to be fixed, but the Soldier seemed more relaxed now. He carefully moved his arm and flexed his fingers and then he said "Thank you."

Tony had worked on that arm a few times now but the Soldier had never thanked him for it so he must have done something right. "Does it still hurt?" Tony tentatively asked and the Soldier nodded while Tony's stomach dropped. Seemed like his work hadn't been good enough. "It always hurts" the Soldier admitted after a few seconds and his flesh hand moved to his shoulder where Tony suspected the joint to be.

"Always?" he asked to clarify, not willing to believe that but also glad that the areas the Soldier had pointed at earlier didn't seem too bad now, and the Soldier nodded again.

"May I?" Tony asked and pointed at his shoulder.

The Soldier reluctantly removed his hand and Tony felt for the part where metal met flesh. The seam was nearer to the Soldier's neck than he had thought and he could barely feel it through the thick leather jacket the Soldier was wearing but he figured that asking him to remove it would be pushing his luck.

"Does it always hurt here?" he asked and put a bit of pressure on the seam. The Soldier inhaled sharply and that was all the answer Tony needed. "Sorry" he rushed out and removed his hands to show the Soldier that he didn't mean any harm.

His thoughts spun. It should not hurt that much, not with the advanced technology; Tony was sure that the connection could be painless. And yet it wasn't which made Tony really question the Soldier's employers. If someone knew enough to replace nerves through wires they should also be able to connect the metal to the flesh in a painless way.

The Soldier abruptly stood up and moved his arms a few times experimentally before he turned to Tony. "You have to let someone else look at it. It's a temporary fix at best" Tony said again. He tried to ignore the now red stained bandage and instead checked the arm again for some sparks. Luckily he couldn't see any.

The Soldier didn't respond to Tony's worries though and Tony suddenly was sure that he would hide it from whoever took care of the arm for as long as possible. Before Tony could say something else the Soldier walked over to the broken window and without a look back he was gone.

Tony didn't resist the urge to roll his eyes but he knew that it couldn't be helped. The Soldier always disappeared on him sooner or later. He had stayed a long time today and Tony knew that he probably had to be somewhere else. Though Tony couldn't say that he liked the idea that the Soldier was probably going back to whoever he had to respond to, not with the way they screwed over the arm.

He pushed that thought away and now Tony was very aware of the fact that he had to fix his window somehow, probably call his landlord for that and he needed to come up with a reasonable lie for that. Before he worried about that though he needed to write everything he remembered about the arm down.

He drew the circuits and the plates, scribbled notes and measurements next to it and he knew that he could figure out how the arm worked with the knowledge he now had.

But he couldn't do it here, not with his means and without a lab and extensive testing. He would need so much more than his workroom for that.

Tony didn't sleep at all that night, mulling over the plans, thinking about the pain the Soldier had endured and was most likely still enduring due to the poor connection at the joint. Tony wondered idly how deep the arm went into his chest, how they secured the socket and if maybe that was the problem, not the arm itself.

Tony was certain that with enough testing and experimenting he could build an arm that would fit without hurting the Soldier. For that he only needed three things: a thorough examination of the joint, a well-equipped lab and so much money that he wouldn't have to worry about anything.

He wasn't sure if he could convince the Soldier to let him look at the arm properly but he did know where he could get the lab and everything else he could ever need for this.

He paced in his workroom the better half of the day but then he had made up his mind. Maybe some things were after all big enough to accept his heritage. Maybe some things were more important than his need to remain separated from the Stark name. Some things were more important than he was.

He went to the phone and dialled and he didn't have to wait very long, it got answered after the second ring. "Mr. Warly, I think I am ready now. What do I do to take over the company?"

Yes, this is one day early, but there are some family celebrations going on and I had time now, so I hope you enjoyed it.

I am still amazed by all the positive feedback and wanted to thank you all for your continued support.