Okay so in my AU verse Statistically Incorrect, a lot more happens in this verse than I’ve had time to write for so far. (I wanna write right now but I’m too tired to brain so the most I can do right now is give you this jumble of mess on things about this verse.) Tony/Rhodey canons for this verse are:
When Tony and Rhodey first met, they got assigned as roommates since they were both the youngest kids on MITs campus, but they specifically met when they got called into a counselors office to talk about their living arrangements because the campus didn’t want to cause an incident by putting a little and a caregiver in the same dorm together cause that can get iffy, but the two of them were fine with it.
It started out with them holding hands tho. Them being a little and big that is. See, Tony has a tendency to wander off. Even when he’s in the middle of the street. Which basically gave Rhodey a heart attack right then and there. It was Bad. After that, whenever they crossed the street, he had to hold Rhodey’s hand because Rhodey isn’t taking any chances. Nope. But of course, Tony is Tony, and so he complains about this, obviously, because he’s a Big Boy and doesn’t need any hand holding. Rhodey deals with it of course, cause he doesn’t want to deal with Tony getting hit by a car instead. Of course, one day, probably six months after this starts, Rhodey gets distracted (caregivers can get distracted too) and doesn’t reach for Tony’s hand one time when they’re crossing the street. He’s halfway across the street before he realizes Tony didn’t cross with him. He looks back to the crosswalk to see Tony standing there, stranded, abandoned, cold and lost and sad. Poor baby. His Rhodey has left him there to rot, like common street filth, he will forever be left here to the cold without his Rhodey. What cruel fate hath plucked this dimple cheeked little from the heat of the world- yeah okay you get it, Tony is a drama queen, but for the 4 seconds that he was all alone on the street corner -cause you can’t cross without an adult- he was SURE this was his new home now. Stuck here, on this dirty corner like common garbage. Rhodey you asshole, all the other adults are glaring at him now for making the baby cry.
But still, to be honest, that’s still not what made Tony realize that Rhodey was the perfect caregiver. No, Howard made him realize that Rhodey was the perfect caregiver. Listen, okay, I have to write one or two AUs every once in a while where Howard is a good guy or I’ll literally lose my shit okay, sometimes we need good parents to exist. But so one holiday Rhodey goes home with Tony to meet people, and proceeds to get in a rousing fight with Howard over not only a nutrino bomb mechanics, but also about Steve Rogers. Bad Topics to talk about. Tony is up at three am that night in the kitchen, binge eating his way through leftover chinese food and a chocolate cake when Howard finds him there, quietly sits down next to him with an espresso in a super sized mug, and tells him that he’s happy Tony has found himself a caregiver who wasn’t afraid to stand up for what he believes in. Tony is so in shock at that, he isn’t sure how to tell his dad that Rhodey and him aren’t like that. He’s starting to wonder why they aren’t, honestly, the two of them were probably long gone over each other less than a week after they met. Howard’s approval goes a long way to helping.
Okay, that’s all I got for now. God these two are adorable.