#e57289

[mockingbirdie]

Here’s a little pre-tony/rhodey blurb that doesn’t really have a place but we can pretend it takes place on Earth 57289 because I love them so. 

Jim was not expecting his old college roommate to be at the Potts gallery. Being as it was a decade or so since the last time he had seen him, it should have been difficult to recognize Tony Stark, but just a passing glance as Lila led him to the other side of the room saw the man look up - and Jim could recognize his eyes.

“Uncle Jim,” Lila said, “who is that?”

“Who is who?” Jim asked.

“The man you’re staring at,” Lila said.

“I’m not…” Jim started, pulling his gaze back to his niece. There was no way that was Tony, Tony would never be in New York City after everything his dad put him through. Jim shook his head, seeing ghosts was never good. “Nothing, sweetie, just thought I saw something.”

“Oh,” Lila said. “You looked really surprised.”

“I was,” he told her.

“He looks really surprised too.”

“What was that, Lila?”  

“Jim Rhodes, as I live and breathe,” a very familiar voice said. Jim spun around.

“Tony Stark…” he said, eyes wide. “Holy sh-cow, man!” he automatically reached forward and pulled the other man into a hard hug, patting him on the back. “How are you doing?”

“Good, good,” Tony said, laughing.

“It’s so good to see you,” Jim said. Lila pulled at his arm and gave him an impatient look. “Oh, I’m sorry. Tony, this is my niece Lila. Miss Lila, this is Tony - he was my college roommate.”

“Oh!” Lila said as Tony bent down in an elegant bow and extended his hand for a shake. “You knew uncle Jim when he was small, huh?”

“Smaller than he is now,” Tony told her. Lila grinned.

“Everyone’s bigger than me,” she said.

“Back then, he was less so,” Tony said. As he spoke, his eyes darted up to smile at Jim again.

“So what have you been up to?” Jim asked. “You sort of dropped off the face of the planet after MIT.” 

After MIT, after your parents died, after I got deployed, after I got back and you were gone.

“Oh, I did a lot of traveling,” Tony said. “That magical finding yourself thing. I’ve been working some odd jobs for awhile - just got back into the interview game for some tech companies.”

“You should give me a call, Rhodes is always looking for people - especially crazy smart people.”

“Oh, well I don’t exactly want to encourage nepotism,” Tony said. His tone was light but his eyes were hard.

“Tony!” a tall redhead came over, walking fast in impossibly tall heels. “I was wondering where you wandered off too.”

“Pepper! This is my old college roommate Rhodey and his niece Lila.”

“Rhodey?” Lila asked. Tony cleared his throat, face looking a little pink.

“Jim, rather. Sorry.”

“Oh, pleasure to meet you Jim,” Pepper said with a wide smile. They shook hands. “What brings you to my gallery today?”

“Pepper also goes by Virginia,” Tony added. Pepper rolled her eyes.

“As in Virginia Potts fine art gallery,” Rhodey said. She nodded.

“I told her she should make it Pepper Potts - really make it pop.”

“Yes Tony, you’re hilarious,” Pepper said drily, rolling her eyes. In a confiding tone she added to Jim, “He and my husband are the only ones who call me Pepper.”

“You love it,” Tony said.

“I love him, you’re still growing on me,” she said sternly. Then she winked at Lila, who laughed.

[mockingbirdie]

More Earth-57289 headcanons

Rhodes Labs International has a huge science team. 

Nearly every single one has been complicit in a plot to get Rhodes and Stark to finally admit they’re into the other because holy fuck we can’t work like this. 

you name it: mistletoe, locking them in a closet, secret santa, gag gifts, etc. 

There’s this one night, when a team of them are finishing up this one project because there’s one little thing that keeps going wrong and they’re way past time where everyone should have gone home hours ago but they’re so close and when they finally figure it out everyone just crashes - one scientist cries, one screams, everyone laughs and hugs each other. And there’s this moment where Tony and Rhodey hug and they pull apart slowly and there’s a pause where they make eye contact and the world seems to slow... and then they pull apart with awkward laughs and turn to each talk to someone else and the rest of the scientists present are fucking pissed because for real that would have been the time I hate this place. 

(Except for Amir and Lana, they’re part of the betting pool with money on next month) 

[mockingbirdie]

Simple Earth-57289 Character ideas

Rhodey: Billionaire industrialist, self-made man who came up with a patent while at MIT and when he came home from his first military tour he went from a ‘kid from philly’ to a billionaire. Invested that money in a tech start-up now runs one of the premier research and development facilities in the world. Has a bunch of scholarship, charity, and grant organizations that he does his best to be actively involved in. Paid off his parents’ mortgage first thing, then set up a college fund for Lila.

Tony: Scrappy scientist from an awful family life who crawls his way to the top on his brains and need to prove himself and distinguish himself from his father’s bankrupted company (went down well before Tony was even 5, a footnote in history now). Also Iron Man, but with an actual secret identity. 

Pepper: Runs an art gallery a few buildings down from Rhodes Labs International. Occasionally runs interference for Tony on Iron Man business. Husband Happy was Tony’s roommate for a year or two. Usually accompanied by her dogs Socrates the bulldog and Plato the boxer.

Aristotle the boxer dog was a gift from Tony who rescued him from “i dunno some alley somewhere he was all alone and look his paw is hurt ‘e has a little doggy cast and he’s like big like a big Socrates and did you know Plato was fucking built and an it’s a BOXER you know like Happy!!” Pepper looks to the moderately less-drunk Happy for a further explanation, “these little assholes were screwing with it - throwing bottles and stuff and I figured we could call the police but that wouldn’t really do anything so then Tony went running in screamin’ and I couldn’t let him do it alone so we have another dog now.”

Happy: Boxer who retired early, distinction of two Olympic Bronze medals. Works security at Rhodes Labs International and managed to wrangle an interview for his old buddy Tony Stark at one point. Met Pepper when she was on a crappy date and he pulled the fake-date au trope to get her out of it. He sees her walking down the street to the gallery before it opens like a week later and nearly has a  heart attack. Pepper is the one to ask him out because he couldn’t work up the nerve.