Disclaimer: Again, I do not own any of the characters from this story. Aside from the names that you don't recognize, which could be some of the OC's names I came up with. Otherwise, the rights go to Marvel.

A/N: Woah, five reviews on only two chapters? You guys rock! Also, I'm sorry for the delay, but I'm kinda stuck on my mobile phone for a good while, so I won't be able to update that often. But, I will update whenever I got the chance.

Chapter Three: Your Grumpy-ness

I can easily recall that the first week as Tony Stark's roommate went smoothly. For a genial kid he was, I expected him to be popular around the campus, but he wasn't. Surely, everyone knew who he was, but he didn't had a lot of friends.

Not from what I knew. And I didn't knew too much about him.

Shortly after he had moved in the same room, he had set some well-defined rules. You see, the campus' rooms weren't luxurious. Far from it. There were two bunk beds with metallic edges and headboards. The campus also offered a change of light blue sheets for the newcomers. Those sheets should keep you four years, if not, then you'd have to buy yourself new ones. Surely, I already had my own sheets, the one my Mother almost forced me to take.

"You don't need their pity, Jim."

Her words still echoed through my ears. Those were the words that she told me while I was packing my stuff for college. I could easily tell that she was proud of me and what I achieved with the help of my brain. I wasn't a genius. Not at all, I might say. But I gave my best in school and always had good grades. Still, that's not the point now.

The point is how I learned to know the history behind the college's prodigy.

The first time I had a conversation with Tony Stark was two weeks before the Christmas vacation. While everyone was chatting about their future plans for the Christmas, I could sense that my roommate felt at unease. I couldn't blame him. The kid didn't had a single friend in the whole campus. He always sat alone, at the table beside the window, in the lunch period, and then when he finished eating, he'd head straight out of the lunch room. Later, during the lunch period, you could find him somewhere in a corner with a book cradled between his arms and knees.

I couldn't understand why the kid didn't had a single friend. Heck, even I was able to make a friend. His name was Jackson and he was black, too. He was a mathematics and computer engineering major, and I remember that he mentioned something about the Prodigy being in the same class with him at the engineering classes. From what I can recall, Jackson was kind of cocky and grumpy, sometimes. Correction; most of the time. But, with me, he was...fine. He wasn't rude or anything. Maybe since we shared the same skin color. Whatever.

Moving on.

I recall that it was a Friday night when I finally decided to attempt and have a small talk with the college's prodigy. I had made my return from a game of basketball with Jackson, and after I paid a visit to the showers room, I headed back to my dorm. I remember that I had greeted my roommate and was greeted in return with a muffled 'hi'. The kid definitely had some issues.

This memory is still fresh in my mind.

I recall that I threw my overly used notebook on the upper bed, which happened to be my bed. It had been my bed ever since the beginning when I shared the room with Freddie. Since he couldn't bare sleeping up on the top bed, he gave it to me, and to be truthful, I appreciated that. I've always been fond of high places.

"So," I remember that I began, taking a seat at the feet of my roommate's bed. I could easily see his eyebrows lift from over the book that he was holding, and I had to snicker quietly. The kid was really weird. "Watcha doing for Christmas, mate?"

Apparently, I didn't chose the right subject to make a small talk about since I could easily feel his glare on my temple, but I ignored it. I didn't show that it made me feel uncomfortable. I hid it. Even more, I made myself comfortable and climbed in the bed, too, only that I settled myself at the headboard from the bed's feet.

"Are you trying to get out a life history out of me, or what?" His harsh reply shocked me, and I could easily recall that my eyes widened involuntarily at his words. For a fourteen years old kid, who was in college, he held the harshness and bluntness of an over twenty years old man. "You could always pick up the college's magazine and read it over if that's what you want to know."

"Look, mate," At addition of his, I was practically huffing and I made sure to show it through a meaningful glare. "I was just trying to bond with you. We've been sharing a room for a month now and the only thing that I have ever heard you speak was, 'The milk is in the fridge', or 'We need more milk'. I was just trying to be friendly, so I'm sorry if I disturbed you, your Grumpy-ness."

I heard him sigh as I took a hold of the bed's ladder and climbed into my own bed. Five minutes later, I heard the book that he was holding closing with a loud thump and then I've seen that the light that was above his head faded slowly until it darkened completely. Now, the only light in the room was the one from my bed. So, I decided to shut it, too, as I pulled the duvet over me.

"I'm staying here for Christmas," I heard a small voice come from the bed beneath mine and I tilted my head sidewards toward the bed's frame before I leaned my neck over it enough to catch a glimpse of my grumpy roommate.

"You're what?" I asked, both of my brows were lifted somewhere near my hair-line at that point. That was impossible. From what I've heard around the campus, nobody remained here. Which meant, the warmth will be cut as soon as the students gathered their stuffs and left for the two weeks long Christmas vacation.

"I don't have where else to go." If that was possible, his voice grew even smaller as he peered his eyes up from underneath his blanket. His own blanket was tucked underneath his chin, and even pulled up until it covered his mouth and nose, too. He looked as a Smurf, only that he wasn't blue.

"Don't you have a family?" I asked again, and leaned even more over the bed's frame as I looked down at him.

"Well," I heard him shifting in his bed and I saw as he crawled out from underneath the warmth of his blankets and his hand gripped the ladder's rail. I could see that he mentally calculated if the ladder was safe enough for him to climb onto, and I chuckled quietly at his facial expression.

"C'mon, I can climb that ladder and it didn't broke 'til now. And you're half my weight." That was true. The kid was slim – skinny, even. I could easily encircle his wrist with two fingers. He was definitely under weighted.

"Well," He began once again, as he was settled at the foot of my bed, and I prompted myself on an elbow to can look at him. "You asked why I'm staying here." I nodded a little and he sighed as he folded his arms in front of his chest.

"My Mother, and Father, are gone out of the town – New York, I mean – for some kind of Christmas party. Obviously, they don't need a fourteen years old prodigy to stick after them as a puppy's tail." That made me chuckle lightly, and he did the same, something that surprised me. I've never heard him chuckle before.

"The only one left home is Jarvis, the family's butler, and he clearly doesn't have the authority to write a ticket to get me out of here." I totally forgot, since he was a minor, he was in the college's custody for the period he was their student. Which meant, he could only get out of here if someone – an adult, wrote a ticket for him, in which they'd say that they'd take him in their custody. Tricky, isn't it?

"So, I guess you've got your answer now," He continued with a slight smile, then the smile faded and his chocolate-brown eyes cast downwards as if the bed's sheets were the most interesting thing he had ever seen. As if. "Also, I'm sorry for being rude earlier. Everyone's just looking forward finding out how it is to be that smart." He rolled his eyes and I nodded my forgiveness as an idea swirled through my mind.

"Hey," At that, he looked up at me and I smiled slightly. "What about we get it straight from the beginning?" His eyes betrayed his confusion, but his curiosity, too. I shifted forward a little bit, my own blanket coming down in my lap into a mess. Well, I'll straighten it up later.

"I'm James Rupert Rhodes," I said, holding out my hand for a proper handshake. "I'm a mechanical engineering and flight combat major."

As if on cue, he immediately took my hand in his and gave it a firm handshake. For how tiny he was, the kid obviously had some strength in there. "Anthony Edward Stark, but you better call me Tony," Both of us chuckled at his little joke. "I'm a computer engineering and physics major."

That was the night when a friendship blossomed between the two of us, and I could never take that memory out of my mind. I could never forget the tiny kid that slept beneath me in college, nor the period when I used to call him 'Your Grumpy-ness'. Those were our first memories together, the beginning of a lot of other good memories. But, we'll get to those, too. In a while.