Clint
Being a genius was hard work, Tony knew that. Being a genius in high school was not easy either. Being a genius in high school and only 12 years old in sophomore year? Completely unmanageable.
He never attended as a freshman, having skipped straight to the second year of high school.
Briefly he wondered how he got enrolled in a normal public high school but Howard knew it would built his character instead of going to an elite boarding school for the rich and richer.
“You know it’s lacking Anthony, so we gotta change that if we want any chance of you managing the company when you are older.”
was the meant well but still insulting argument his father made so Tony accepted the decision. It’s not as he really wanted to continue staying at Phillips so public high school it was.
As it was with geniuses Tony didn’t really keep to his curriculum, instead already taking AP courses while his peers being two years his senior were taking Algebra I at maximum.
This wasn’t really what made school so unbearable.
“Ohhh, was that your place little Stark? Too bad, the big bad football player from senior year wants to sit here now. Maybe if you do my homework for me I will consider to let you sit at the table instead of under it.” The big boy snickered, this was too easy.
The small child they had found sitting all alone in the lunch room was easy prey. He simply walked up to him and lifted the bench he was sitting on, dumping him onto the ground, his food falling down onto him and the floor.
“And clean that up. The poor cleaning staff doesn’t have to pick up after rich boys who think they are better.” he sneered and threw his own trash from his tablet onto the floor too.
Tony didn’t say anything, just looked up at the six years older boy, and sighed. This was the thing Howard had been talking about. If he were to direct the company he had to deal with annoying people like this without loosing face.
“Yes Sir...” he muttered and started picking up the trash and his fallen food. It seemed like he had to complete the essay of this douche-bag now instead of doing something he enjoyed, like programming more of the interface for his first robot he tried to get to work. It was taking up all his time but the result would be worthwhile.
“I think you can do your homework all alone, Derek.” a voice was heard and for a second Tony was inclined to lift his head but then the voice continued, this time addressing him.
“And Stark, there is no need to throw a tantrum and making all the floor dirty just because somebody asked for your help with homework.” the guy proceeded to lecture him on something he did not do.
“Fuck off Steve. Stark’s rich, he doesn’t need a bodyguard.” Derek dismissed Steve.
“I ain’t no bodyguard, ‘specially not for someone like him. Still Derek, you’re from Brooklyn, like me, we gotta keep together against the other folk up there.”
Ah, New Yorkers and their feuds against other parts of the city. He was born and raised in Manhattan and still didn’t get why everybody identified with the streets that surrounded them. It’s not like they did anything about the place where they lived.
Steve was not done with his rant.
“So, if you deemed to listen for once, Stark. You ain’t doing anyone’s homework, but you also ain’t throwing things around just because helping someone pisses you off. You got that, bougie?”
“I’m surprised you know the origin of that word, beggar.” Tony had enough, he could live with doing homework for other people but being insulted because his parents had money was too much.
Steve went beet red, sputtered something and finally went away.
Derek just smiled, leaned down to Tony who was still sitting on the floor.
“I expect my essay done tomorrow at lunch, got it?”
“Yes Sir.” Tony mumbled once more, getting to his feet and slinking away, not bothering with collecting more of the food than he had. Let them take it out of his fathers deep pockets, if they had to.
Being a rich kid in a common school had its up and downs. Being way too young to go to the school however and therefore not buying your friends or leeches alcohol or cigarettes with your voluminous allowance was one of the downs.
Tony had some sophomore and freshman and even the occasional junior girl following him around, all eager to get in his good graces but there weren’t really interested in him as a person.
“Oh Tony, you have to come with me to the mall tomorrow, they have so much stuff to look at. No, I don’t have a car but can’t your butler drive us there? And can my friends come with? Oh, you will love Mandy, she’s such a nice girl...”
He could have refused, but then sooner or later nobody would talk to him and on the positive side, he knew he was being used and didn’t expect anything else from these people. It was good practice for later his dad argued when he complained about spending all of his measly allowance on other girls whims.
Howard Stark had a normal upbringing, with maybe his dad being a little to eager to drive his son to perfection while hitting him when he screwed up. Big deal, pretty common for the thirties as far as he was concerned. Now it was the eighties and nothing much had changed. Howard also corrected his son when it was needed and Tony needed it more than normal kids did. Or so he argued.
Also, Howard didn’t want Tony to be some stuck-up-asshole who lived high above everyone else and didn’t know anything about poverty and modesty.
So, he gave him some money to spend but it was maybe ten bucks a week. So Tony had to save like every other teenager to buy himself frivolous (his fathers words) things.
All in all Tony could have lived with it fine. He did some extra homework for older kids who were frankly put too stupid to do it themselves and he spend some money on people that he didn’t like nor they liked him.
But then the day came where he had a lesson of PE. Running around was fine but being two or sometimes four years younger than the whole class he had trouble keeping up the regime of the coach. Of course it was a substitute teacher who didn’t really know about his age and they quickly saw that he was lacking behind.
“Oi, kid, what’s wrong? Get it up, everyone’s waiting on you.” The teacher tried to get him to speed it up but Tony was already panting hard.
“He thinks only us common folk have to sweat. Prissy kid from Manhattan.” some older student sneered and the teacher ate it up.
“Now Anthony (he had to look into the book where all classmates were listed) it doesn’t matter where you live or not, as long as I’m in charge of the class, you will keep up with the others. Now ten extra laps for you for slacking off.”
Tony wanted to protest, but he already knew that no-one would bother to listen. Who cared for a twelve year old’s opinion?
So he ran and ran and completed the ten laps finally, staggering to the bench to finally sit down. Quickly, other kids were occupying every space on the bench so he had to sit on the floor – again.
Tony more fell down than anything and stretched the collar of his shirt. It felt like his air supply was short somehow.
“What’s that?” someone shrieked and Tony tried to cover it up but too late, somebody had seen the bright blue light coming out of his collar.
“Stark’s hiding something in his shirt, coach!”
“Coach, Stark’s cheating.”
“Maybe it’s some of these futuristic cell phones that were just invented?”
“Anthony, show me what you have hidden there.” The coach demanded, trying to tug at Tony’s shirt already.
“No!” Tony cried out, anything but this. His breaths were still coming short from the exercise and he briefly wondered if his diminished lungs would be able to handle it or if he would pass out but now he had to defend himself again.
“Anthony, I don’t repeat myself. Take off your shirt, I wanna see what you got hidden there. It’s disrupting the class.”
“No, I can’t” Tony tried again. Even if he wanted to show it off, his father had told him that under no circumstances could anyone see this. Tony began to understand why.
“That’s it. You are coming with me, to see the director.” The coach took Tony’s arm, and when Tony decided that anything was a better outcome than doing it in front of the class (and the director knew about his handicap) and was getting up to walk away, the teacher quickly pulled his shirt up so the arc reactor was on full display.
Some kids screamed, others were laughing with glee. The teacher was speechless and stared at Tony like he was a monster.
“W-what is this?” he stuttered, looking at Tony with haunted eyes.
“Stark’s a freak!”
“I knew he ain’t normal.”
It took barely an hour, then the whole school knew that Anthony Edward Stark was not only a genius, 12 year old sophomore and rich, but also a disfigured freakish alien creature.
Of course, Howard knew then too. Of course, he blamed Tony for not keeping his promise to not show the arc reactor to other people.
Of course, of course.
“It seems you can’t go to a normal school, boy. I’m disappointed.”
He knew he was rich, a genius, disfigured and also a disappointment already. Nothing new.
“You always rely on me to find a solution for your mess, Anthony. This stops now. You have to learn to take care of yourself, you are old enough to be in high school, you can do it yourself.”
Tony didn’t point out that he really barely old enough for even middle school but he kept quiet. For as much as he loved to talk, nobody seemed to listen.
Of course, Howard found a solution. He had a friend, Nicolas Fury. Fury was part of SHIELD, which Howard had founded together with Peggy. They had an academy where they trained new spies in the making. Also, it was off the grid.
Also, they had found Captain America in the summer and he was now re-introduced into the modern world.
So Howard had even a reason to visit his son.
“Mum, I don’t want to be a spy for some agency. I want to build my robots. Can’t I just be home schooled until I get to go to college?”
Tony tried to reason and it would have been the reasonable thing for a genius child with health issues. But of course, Howard had the last word.
“It was decided and you will go. Nobody will bother you there.”
Yeah right. High school were kids and young adults while this was a recruiting base for a secret organization. How was he not bothered there?
Being a rich, twelve year old genius with some unknown bodily issue surrounded by young, capable and sometimes even dangerous individuals was impossible.
At first, Tony was ignored. Stared at, yes like somebody could not believe that a child was sitting there in the canteen all by himself. A few even stopped to see where his parent or guardian were but when they realized that he really was alone, they shook their heads, muttered something like “irresponsible” and went their way.
He really wasn’t bothered. Nobody wanted him to do their homework and nobody threw his food into the floor. In this regard it was a vast improvement from high school. But Tony was twelve and all alone. His parents hadn’t bothered to show him how to do his laundry, how to cook a simple meal and legally he wasn’t even allowed to buy things for himself at the base supermarket. Being a secret agency of course your campus wasn’t anywhere near a big city and surrounded by high walls, electronic fences and barbed wire. In fact it was more like a prison than a boarding school.
School was another issue. Nobody here was so young so there weren’t really any classes to attend. There were some workshops though so Tony headed to them.
“What are you doing here?”
Tony flinched.
“I’m bored. There is nothing to do around here.” he decided to be honest. It never took long for anyone who wanted to bully him to find out the truth so why play pretend?
“Where are your parents? It’s dangerous to be here all by yourself, I’m working with chemicals that could cause an explosion.”
Tony shrugged.
“Not here. Probably back in New York or traveling somewhere...” he trailed off. He never went to vacation himself, always staying back in the mansion.
“New York? That’s… like 500 miles away. Give or take. Who is with you then? You have a guardian around?”
The stranger was getting worked up and this too was something Tony knew. It was interesting, his first impression was always a small child, all alone. Then they find out who Tony is (or what) and they ignore him or ask to talk to Howard. After that talk, it always ended the same. They stayed polite around him and went away as quickly as they could.
“My father decided this was the best place for me to be.”
“You a mutant or something?” now the strangers eyes were narrowed. Maybe he just looked like a child.
“Nah, just have some health issues. Nothing to worry about. Oh, and I’m smart.” That should do it, normally at this point the worrying was going away.
“How old are you?”
“I’m twelve, turning thirteen in May next year.”
The stranger stared at him, then turning away rapidly. His skin was tinged greenish and Tony thought the guy was going to be sick. Was he so disgusting?
“Holy… I’m sorry but you should go. Go to the canteen, I will arrange for someone to find you there.”
The man was running to the door now, not bothering with the kid standing in his room anymore.
Tony sighed. That went well.
He didn’t have anything better to do than listening and tracking back to the canteen. At least he didn’t have to pay for anyone else being here. Food was taken care of by the academy.
It didn’t take long and he was approached.
“You the kid Banner’s talking about?” Another adult, albeit a young one asked him. Tony was tempted to roll his eyes.
“I don’t know who Banner is, but no that was the other kid sitting all alone here. Just missed him.”
“Oh, a funny one then. My name is Clint, and yours?”
“I’m Tony.” He really found someone who didn’t know him? Maybe his father lied and outside New York he was a no-one.
“So, what’s the deal with ya? If you got Banner to freak out I’m interested.” Clint grinned and sat down opposite of Tony. He had a feeling that he would have helped himself to any food Tony had, but there was nothing to take.
“I don’t know, he just asked me about my guardian, how old I am and if I’m a mutant. Then he turned green like he was sick and told me to leave.” Tony recounted the rather peculiar meeting with supposedly Banner.
“He turned green? Holy cow, kid, you must be something else. If he hulked out...”
“I’m twelve, not a mutant and smart. Judge for yourself.” Tony added, already getting tired of these conversations.
Clint widened his eyes.
“I think I understand… lemme guess, parents thought this the best place for ya?” The tone was turning from snarky and sarcastic to something genuine, like he really cared about Tony.
“Got that right. You got talent to act, you get to be a spy when you’re grown up?”
Of course, that had to be a lie. Nobody just cared about Tony, and if they did, it took one phone call from Howard to dissuade them.
“Why do you think I got talent? I didn’t do anything...”
“I could have fallen for your interest, if I didn’t know better. So good job.”
Clint sighed. This was getting bothersome.
“Kid, I get it. Didn’t trust anyone at first either. But you gotta understand, SHIELD is full of adults and this is no place for a kid like you. At least not all by yourself. So to appease Banner, you’re coming with me. I have my own condo here on base but we got a guestroom so you can stay there. You know how to cook? Wash? Dress yourself?”
“Screw you too.” Tony countered, this guy was nothing better than the senior at high school.
“Language. Young kids like you shouldn’t say words like that. It’s fuck. Not gosh or dang. If you curse, do it right, kiddo.”
This was new.
“I know how to dress and wash myself. I think I can figure out the washing machine on my own. I don’t cook but I can manage with the canteen. So I don’t need you to watch over me. I’m not a kid.”
Clint laughed.
“Yes, you are. But it’s fine, just come with me and we will not have a big green rage monster at our hands. Win win for all of us.”
“That’s the third time you mention some kind of monster. What’s it about?”
Clint was stunned.
“You don’t know? Of course, you don’t know.”
“I do not know what?” Tony tried to sound intimidating but it didn’t really work out.
“Banner. He’s got… well, he experimented on himself a while back… wanted to replicate the super soldier serum. It didn’t work out like he thought. Now, when he is getting agitated, he turns into a giant green monster that destroys everything in his path. It’s why he always drinks tea, takes more yoga lessons than anyone else and never bothers himself with other people.”
“Sounds bothersome. I bet he’s lonely...” Tony shuddered.
His arc reactor was one thing, being a literal monster another. He would keep away from people too if that were the case.
Clint was speechless once more.
“Sure. Bothersome is the exact word I would have used.” Who was this kid? And who the fuck thought it was fine to load off this small child all by himself at Shield academy off all places? A place where assassins like him and Natasha were housed, where literal monsters like Banner existed and they also thawed a man out of the ice who was a walking legend and about nearly forty years frozen. That was going to be some heavy adjustment.
“Anyway Tony, was it? Let’s go to the condo, I’m starving and the canteen food is crap.” He took Tony’s hand and pulled him up and towards the exit doors.
“I’m not running away, there’s no reason to hold my hand. I’m not a kid.” Tony protested but Clint ignored him.
Yes, you are…