Every year there was exchange students, that’s just the nature of things but Tony never paid much attention to them. There was the one hot Russian chick two years ago that he thought liked him but ended up using him to get closer to Pepper but that was pretty much it for his experience with exchange students. And in Natasha’s defense after being pissed off at her for six months he finally relented because her meme jokes were too funny not to laugh at and the fact that he was the only one who knew she was joking made it all the better.
But this year was a special year in which Tony’s friend group somehow became mostly exchange students, but there was one in particular that caught his attention. Wakanda wasn’t exactly on anyone’s map, mostly because Wakanda kept to itself most of the time. Earlier in the year, though, the king there decided to open the country to the rest of the world and America got lucky in receiving the freaking prince for an year long exchange. Tony hadn’t exactly cared much when he heard at first because he was used to wealth and flashiness and Wakanda wasn’t particularly relevant to him but then he met T’Challa. First, he was smart and that way key, and second, T’Challa was hot.
Unfortunately for Tony the prince didn’t seem fond of his classmates aside from Charles Xavier. “I’m sure there’s a way to get him to like me,” Tony says to Rhodey as he tried to find something, anything online about the guy. So far he had no luck.
“Stop stalking the guy, Tony, it’s weird,” Rhodey tells him.
“Excuse you, I am not stalking him I’m just trying to find relevant information on him so I can gently prod him into liking me,” Tony says. There was a difference.
“Tony, stop being weird and give it up,” Rhodey says.
“Fine, but that’s only because I’ve turned up absolutely nothing and trust me I looked.” Everywhere too but no, Wakanda either ran on a different system or they really knew how to clean up after themselves online.
“You know you could always start a conversation with the guy like a normal person,” Rhodey suggests, “you two banter a lot in class, I’m sure he doesn’t hate you.”
Tony snorts because that was probably not true. People disliked when he argued with them because he tended to make people feel stupid. It wasn’t something he did on purpose but he had a bad habit of easily proving someone wrong and not being very nice about it. He didn’t mean to be an ass; he just got annoyed when people tried to argue points that were wrong. If you were wrong he’d prefer you to shut up and he said so too, which didn’t earn him bonus points with the crowd.
“Shit you’re right Rhodes, why haven’t I thought of that? Oh right, because it probably wouldn’t work. Next,” he says, waving a hand around. Rhodey rolls his eyes at him but he leaves it be.
*
T’Challa was not fond of America, at least not compared to his home country. There were a few highlights though, like Charles, but mostly one Tony Stark made his days a little brighter. Tony was far smarter than his classmates, which made T’Challa wonder why he was even in high school when his intelligence was clearly far beyond his peers, but he wasn’t about to complain. Tony was fun to argue with because he knew more than everyone else in the classroom and so did T’Challa. His arguments with Tony were the highlight of his day but Tony showed no interest outside of that.
“You know, there is this thing called casual conversation and you could try that. Just refrain from being like Erik,” Charles says. Erik rolls his eyes and mumbles something in German that T’Challa doesn’t understand. He was kicking himself for not learning the language now but he knew eight languages, he figured that was plenty.
Living in America, however, has taught him that knowing the language was hardly enough when there were thousands of different dialects too. South Carolina had its own language, T’Challa was sure, and then there were all the other accents that lingered around. Things got more confusing to him when people with accents even by America’s standards complained about his accent or the accent of anyone who was not white, or at least that was his observation. People did not complain to Charles, even when he might as well be speaking another language or perhaps that was just T’Challa’s difficulty in understanding English from an actual English person. Or British, they were really all the same to him even if Charles insisted that there was a difference.
“He is not interested,” T’Challa says dismissively. He knew what interested looked like, and what Erik’s bizarre version of interested was, and Tony simply liked to argue with someone who could keep up with him. T’Challa could understand that, he also rarely met someone who was as smart as he was and it was nice to have someone around that could keep up.
“You could always ask if he isn’t interested,” Charles points out.
“If not Stark’s a bit of a slut, he’d probably fuck you anyways,” Erik says, earning a horrified look from both T’Challa and Charles.
“Erik, please do not give relationship advice,” Charles tells him. “And you, have a conversation with him, he may surprise you,” Charles says to T’Challa.
“My ways worked out with you, didn’t they?” Erik says to Charles. Charles only sighs in response because Erik’s methods never would have worked on anyone else but Erik wouldn’t accept that answer.
*
Tony watches as T’Challa all but forcefully rejects another person hitting on him with an annoyed look. It didn’t help that he was currently bent over a book and watching him has taught Tony that he took his studies very seriously. Wakanda must do school differently than America because T’Challa wasn’t at all lax about his grades. Or maybe it was a family thing, who knows.
But this was an opportunity and he was going to take it. “Don’t worry about them, everyone takes the opportunity to hit on the hot exchange students. Also here’s a book on World War Two that’ll be useful. And if you want bonus points with Vankov insult my father at least three times, he hates the guy. He hates me too but that’s bullshit because I didn’t steal his designs and pass them off as my own but that’s another story,” he says, waving his hand around before he got too off topic.
T’Challa raises an eyebrow, “everyone takes an opportunity to hit on the exchange students? Then how come I have not seen you do that? You have a reputation,” he points out, “and thank you. I do not understand Americans and the way they deal with schooling. There is such an emphasis on it here yet none of the students seem to take it seriously,” he says, shaking his head.
“It probably helps that most of them have more money than brains. If you want someone who’ll understand how you feel about school hang out with Rhodey- the guy I hang out with all the time- or Sam. Both of them are on scholarships here so they actually know what it’s like to work for something. And I haven’t hit on any of the exchange students because most of you are dating each other,” he says.
Erik was with Charles, god even knows how that worked out given that Erik was not the best at… well anything involving people. And Wade was technically single but he had a thing for Peter, who didn’t seem to be sure what he wanted and even if that wasn’t true he barely counted an exchange student from Canada a real exchange student. Wade and his buddy Logan sure as hell did though, and they were pretty damn adamant that they were not even remotely American. Tony didn’t get that considering Canada was basically America but okay. And then there was T’Challa, who was single, but sadly disinterested.
“Are Wade and Logan not single? I do not think they are dating each other; Logan does not seem interested in Wade outside of complaining about Americans from a Canadian standpoint. And last I checked I am single, unless I accidentally agreed to date someone. I certainly hope not but American body language is confusing and I do not understand most of it. Why do you all smile so much?” he asks and Tony bursts out laughing, surprising T’Challa with it.
“Sorry, sorry. Its just that we had an exchange student from Russia awhile back and she once told us that if people smiled in Russia as much as they did in America she’d punch them in the face. Apparently they’re hard core in Siberia,” Tony says. Natasha had been dead serious when she said it too and the fact that she was confused by everyone’s reaction was even funnier.
“Well it is confusing, I do not understand why Americans are so obsessed with smiling. Why do you think that not smiling means you are in a bad mood? Maybe I do not feel like smiling today, that hardly means that I am upset,” T’Challa says, shaking his head.
“We’re weird. Or at least so the exchange students say. Need any help with that essay?” Tony asks, figuring T’Challa might be a bit lost on World War Two given that like most things Wakanda wasn’t involved and whatever he learned about it wasn’t likely to be relevant to the essay he was working on. T’Challa excepts his help gratefully and Tony grins, hopping into a seat next to him.
*
T’Challa did not mean for anyone to find out but Tony was a night owl and he hardly expected his cat to go darting out of his room. Tony looks at the cat for a long moment before smiling- Americans smiled at everything he swore though it was slightly less irksome when Tony did it- before letting the cat sniff his hand.
“You are so cute and illegal, where did you come from?” he asks the cat. Sola did not respond of course but Tony did not seem to mind.
“I would prefer that you do not tell anyone about the cat,” he says. Technically he was not supposed to have a cat but cats were important to him and his culture so he figured if it came down to it he could claim cultural importance and make the Americans uncomfortable enough to let him keep the cat.
“If I get visiting rights I’ll say whatever the hell you want,” Tony says, petting the cat’s head happily.
T’Challa smiles, “if you agree to go on a date I will give you access to the cat.”
“Deal,” Tony says far too fast. T’Challa raises an eyebrow and Tony’s cheeks turn a bit red, “leave me be, I just really like you and cats okay?”