The start of a new season
Sometimes Tony would hold his breath in the helmet. He was 4 when he started racing and no one taught him how to properly wear a helmet, and because of how suffocating it was he thought it meant that he wasn’t supposed to breathe while wearing it.
So when he crossed his first finish line - in a real race, taking 3rd he was holding his breath. He doesn’t remember much of the transfer from the Kart to the small podium but when he was up there there were many cheers and celebrations. He does remember looking into the crowd of parents celebrating and cheering for their kids, which included his dad. He again held his breath. He couldn’t stop smiling so much so his face ached when he had laid in his bed and attempted to sleep. It was no surprise when sleep didn’t come, he was still too happy, too full of energy. He wanted to feel that feeling for the rest of his life. Wanted to lay in bed with an idiotic smile everyday.
Tony’s always loved Italy. Not only has it been his home for most of his life, but he also just genuinely loves the culture of the Italians. The food is no question the best, but so are the cities, the history, the buildings, the people, just everything is so amazing. He’s appreciated his mothers decision to move from day one, and fully understands why she chose Italy.
Truly there’s no other place in the world that he’d want to be but Italy. Sure he might’ve been born in the United States, but to this day he races with the Italian flag. Not like the US was much of a home to him. When he was 7 his mom fell ill and wanted to spend the time she had left in Italy. So his father dropped everything and took them. It was rather amazing when she did recover years later, but cancer’s a bitch and there’s never a promise that it leaves forever.
Tony rolls his eyes at himself. He can never peacefully think of Italy without thinking of his mother. Speaking of which he should probably visit her, or at least send a gift - most likely food because he knows she appreciates food that doesn’t come from the hospital. Not that it’s bad, when your husband is a millionaire you can afford extraordinary care. It’s just nice to still feel connected to the outside world.
“Tony!” Rhodey snaps his fingers in front of his eyes.
Tony’s not used to having people worry about him. His mother was sick for most of his childhood, or at least the little he can remember. His Father was always busy. No one on the karting tracks ever really took an interest in him, possibly due to his aggressive driving and his arrogant demeanor. And god knows he didn’t even want to talk to anyone at school. So it had been mostly lonely years.
“Tony, are you ok?” Rhodey is snapping again.
He blinks then rubs his eyes. He didn’t know how long he was staring for but his eyes had gone extremely dry. “I’m fine.” He simply states.
Rhodey had originally taken pity on him. The lonesome new driver of the grid, Tony Stark. He thought they’d have more of a mentor-mentee, or babysitter and the baby type of relationship. But as they began to talk more Rhodey sees just how fun Tony can be when he truly lets himself open up. Granted it rarely happens, but the fact that he knows it’s there makes him want to stick around and help him release that side of him more often.
Tony won’t admit it but he wouldn’t have been able to do what he’s done in F1 without Rhodey.
“Are you sure?” Rhodey asks. He always does this because he knows Tony has a bad habit of keeping to himself. Over the time of their friendship Rhodey has forced Tony to open up to him more times than he’d liked to admit, Tony hates it but knows it’s good for him.
He shrugs. “Fine, spaced out.”
Rhodey takes a seat next to him. “How long has Hammer left you in here?”
Oh right, Hammer, Justin Hammer. The team boss. The reason he was at the factory, well there were a lot of reasons the main one being the next season was starting soon so testing needed to be done. But he apparently arrived way too early. “Uh…. I honestly don’t know.”
Rhodey slips out his phone. He chuckles and mumbles something, Tony doesn’t have to hear it to know what it is. “I’m not a rookie anymore!” This only caused Rhodey to laugh more. He throws his arm around Tony. “To me you’ll always be my baby.”
Tony, being the brat he is, forces Rhodey’s arm away. “I’m not your ‘baby’ stop making things weird.” Rhodey laughs playfully and lets Tony push him arm away.
Then Hammer walks up to the two that were currently sitting in front of his office. He smiles and opens the door without having to tell them to come in.
Their little meeting is basic. What they expect from the team. What the team expects from them. Normally it goes, “I expect the best work that the team can give me.” Then Hammer says. “And we’ll give it to you, but in return we want you to do your hardest.” The Ferrari driver will say. “Of course.”
Rhodey has been on the team for 4 years now, this season being his 5th. He knows how this goes. So it is a little unexpected that in the middle of a silence Tony blurts out.
“I expect a championship from the team.”
It had been a no question at first that Tony was the second driver. He was the rookie, they’d help him through the season but most of the time there was only a small chance at a championship for a rookie. He made it hard on the team when he refused to get that through his head, a few moves of his had affected Rhodey's season. Lucky him there were no hard feelings. It was known that if Ferrari really wanted a future with Tony then he’d have to be deemed the first driver.
Which they would’ve given eventually. He did get close to winning the drivers championship in just his first season of F1, something that hasn’t been seen since Lewis Hamilton. There have been comparisons, but it’s probably best to keep those away if not it’ll go straight to his head.
Hammer looks up a little stunned and offended by Tony’s words. “That’s the goal.”
“Yeah.” Tony says as if it was an obvious thing. “I don’t want to make a big deal or anything but I’ll need this championship to know whether or not I should continue to race with the team.”
In Formula 1 there’s a lot of business. In fact it’s almost all business. Only it’s mostly kept on the down-low, almost an unspoken rule. All business gets discussed one on one with only who it concerns. But Tony’s new and young and he’s got a one track mind. He doesn’t care for these rules. He’s going to win a championship. He doesn't care who hears about what he has to do to get it.
“You want to leave the team?” Hammer seemed upset. Rhodey was a little surprised at his tone. Rhodey had seen 1 other teammate in his time at Ferrari. They had no problem dropping their last for Stark, so for Hammer to be seemingly attached was a little odd. He wouldn’t be half as concerned if Rhodey threatened to leave, probably would say, “I have little control in the matter, but if you deem us ‘unworthy’ of your skill then so be it.”
Tony shrugs with a hard glare to show he wasn’t playing. “Depends if you can get me a championship.”
Hammer smiles to hide his annoyance but it was hard to ignore it when the right side of his face twitched. Honestly creepy. Contracts were in need of being negotiated. He huffs and then Turns to Rhodey. Who was very awkwardly glued to his chair. “Do you mind stepping out?”
Rhodey nodded and hastily made an exit. He loved Tony to death, but man did he know how to put people in awkward situations.
He doesn’t know what made him do it, but Rhodey decided to wait for Tony. Or maybe he was waiting for Hammer, or maybe even he was waiting for security to be called to throw Tony out. God knows he wouldn’t leave without a fight. Either way he took a seat back to where Tony was originally seated when he found him.
The door opens and first Hammer steps out, not giving Rhodey a glance and walks off. Probably has some engineers to yell at.
Then Tony steps out. He’s smiling. Not an often sight. “What happened?” Was the only thing that could come to Rhodey’s mind.
Tony shrugs. “Not much, got lectured on how the world works, wanna grab a drink?” An odd thing to smile about.
“It’s 2pm” Rhodey reminds him.
“Ok?” Tony grew up in Italy. Getting a drink was a casual thing, a drink during lunch was normal. Though he’s come to phrase it horribly, it started as a joke and now it’s just what he says. So he was very confused why Rhodey, someone from the UK, had something against lunch. Rhodey, unknowing that Tony means an actual lunch, says. “I mean I guess.”
Again, Tony hasn’t had many friends. All the people he used to be close to were people he met while out at bars and clubs and those friendships only lasted so long. He never needed to explain his wording, they hang out and then they wouldn’t. It was simple, but real friendship isn’t.
Tony took him to a nice restaurant. They’re seated and Rhodey immediately questions this. “I thought you said drinks?”
Tony nods. “Drinks and a meal, you think I wanted to get fucked up in the middle of the day?”
Rhodey didn’t answer and instead rolled his eyes. “So…” he only says this in order to change the topic.
Tony looks through the menu, it was all in Italian so he could read it fine where on the other hand Rhodey couldn’t. So Tony waves down the waiter and orders for the both of them, in Italian of course.
He doesn’t give Rhodey time to question the ordering. “How has your winter been?” He sits forward and undoes his silverware.
“Do you really think you’ll win the championship?”
Tony looks up. “No small talk?” He laughs.
Rhodey rolls his eyes. “I know you don’t care for small talk.” Tony nods in agreement.
“No,” he starts “but I have to, so yes.” Tony didn’t look up from his plate as he shifted things around, acting busy. Rhodey starred for a moment longer.
He watched Tony’s eyes. A habit he’s picked up in recent months. Tony is an externally difficult person but at the same time he has a want, a want to be noticed. It’s hard to express himself, he can’t use his words or his actions, he doesn’t know how. But he knows that he can’t hide his eyes. He never hides his eyes. Instead he lets people watch him, lets people stare right into them. He waits for a response and is disappointed when one doesn’t come.
There was nothing but determination in his eyes. Rhodey only knows half of how far Tony’s willing to go for this championship. Rhodey couldn’t hide the worry on his face.
When Tony looks at him he smiles, it was clearly fake. “It’s going to be fun, no?” He tries to lighten the mood but that’s not something he is really known for. “Racing again…” he was hesitant with his next words “winning again.”
No one on the track was really superstitious, but he doesn’t want to say anything he’ll regret. Rhodey just nods and tries to move on. “Yeah.”
The drinks arrive and Tony takes his and automatically takes a sip. He had to hide for just a moment. He knew Rhodey was judging him, that Rhodey doesn’t agree with his aggression and wants towards the championship. But it’s so much more that Rhodey could ever imagine.
And now there’s so much on the line for Tony. Normally you don’t start burning bridges you know you're going to need to walk across soon. And normally you don’t get your engineer to hate your guts, but Tony isn’t like everyone else; he's special. Tony plays by his own rules and it’s upsetting a lot of people.
Fans, teams, drivers, everyone has something they don’t particularly like about him. He doesn’t care. None of them matter, all that matters is the championship. And beating Steve, something he doesn’t ever say out loud. He doesn’t need to make friends with any of the drivers. He’s here to beat them all, why even try to be nice about it?
Rhodey was a surprise. Tony had openly admitted to trying to take him down but now they’re best friends. And to think that Rhodey really does care a lot about Tony was always a bit overwhelming. He tries his best to be a good friend and when he’s not Rhodey helps him figure out how.
Tony also didn’t mind his trainer, Happy, and his manager, Pepper. His circle is small but he’s satisfied with it. This season will be filled with smiles and victories, he will make sure of it.