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Wake up far too early for someone who went to sleep at 5AM the night before; drink grotesque, copious amounts of Jarvis’s best-brewed coffee (no, coffee doesn’t stunt growth that is not why Tony is still so short, shut the hell up); grab his to-go coffee and yawn as Happy and his dad pull up to drive him to school; stop to pick Rhodey up (why is carpooling a thing?); arrive at the hellhole to find Pepper glaring (always for a different reason; this time it was because Tony hadn’t called her last night to work on their Econ project together over the phone and she’d had to finish the whole thing by herself); tromp unhappily through the large front doors of the school and somehow manage to make it to first period without insulting anyone, much to Pepper’s surprise—a morning in the life of genius teenager Tony Stark.
The rest of the day passed in a similar, blurry strain. Then came 4th period.
4th period was Tony’s favorite part of the day. It was not his favorite class. That title was earned by his advanced computing elective, but it was the one thing he looked forward to all day long—it was practically the reason he was still in school in the first place. If he wanted to, Tony could be in college now. But what the hell fun would that be?
4th period was Tony’s America history class.
That class happened to be taught by one Mr. Steven Rogers, who also happened to be a friend of Tony’s father (at least before the car accident), who also happened to be fucking hot, who Tony also sometimes fucked outside of school. It was a thing.
Of course, the fucking thing hadn’t happened all of the sudden; there was a whole lot of build-up before Tony could finally convince Steve they were wasting valuable lovemaking time because Steve was being stubborn about the whole Student-Teacher thing.
See, they had begun a tentative relationship not long after Tony’s parents died. Steve was one of the people who’d been there for him and of course Tony had his friends and Jarvis and Obie (sort of), but Steve understood what it was like to lose someone and he had been the first one to get Tony to open up and actually cry about his parents’ sudden death. Steve helped Tony a lot and somewhere along the way Tony started to fall for him.
Tony had always been attracted to Mr. Rogers, an army captain and old friend of his father’s from back when Howard had been building various equipment for the army, but, really, who could blame him? Rogers was one huge hunk of big, blonde, and beautiful with shining blue eyes and a smile that melted even Tony Stark’s cold, jaded heart. Of course, when he was younger he never admitted how hot he thought Captain Rogers was, but at some point he stopped trying to fight it and embraced his teenage wet dreams. It was only a little awkward when Rogers became a teacher at Tony’s school and he ended up in his class three years in a row.
That was when their personal relationship really started. In class, Rogers only saw Tony, not his father, so could be himself—and being himself generally constituted a lot of flirting and sarcastic comments. He didn’t think Mr. Rogers liked him at first, because of Tony’s way of appearing to make fun of anyone he meets, but after a while he became immune to Tony’s comments and managed to throw a few back himself.
Mr. Rogers was a good teacher. He didn’t move too fast (though Tony usually wished he would) and always explained something with a smile if another student had a question. Tony didn’t actually get up to much studying during Steve’s classes—unless you counted studying the movement of Mr. Rogers body as he moved around the class. Tony didn’t usually need to study. History was one of those subjects he could pick up pretty easily if he just did some of the reading (actually, he could pick up most subject pretty easily that way). That meant that Tony spent all class talking to Steve.
And by talking, he usually meant bothering. It started on the very first day of school, at the beginning of Mr. Rogers’ class.
“Hi Tony!” Steve said when Tony walked into his classroom.
“Hiya Cap,” Tony replied, already looking forward to this class. For some reason it was just really cool to know a teacher outside of school—especially one as hot as Mr. Rogers. When the bell rang and Steve went up to the front of the class to introduce himself, Tony realized that not only was Steve hot, he was also hilariously adorable.
“Good afternoon, class! My name is Mr. Rogers, and no, I don’t really want to hear a joke about Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood.”
The class was dead silent; there might as well have been crickets chirping. After a minute of Mr. Rogers standing up there looking horribly awkward and uncomfortable, Tony burst out laughing. Steve looked over at him, completely startled. Tony said, as he wiped tears from his eyes,
“Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood? Really? Oh my god, you are, like, from another century, aren’t you?”
That was the first time Tony saw Steve blush and from that moment on vowed to make it happened as often as he possibly could.
“I—I loved Mr. Rogers neighborhood when I was a kid! It was a great show!”
“Yeah, back in like, 1940 or something.”
This was only the first of many such exchanges between Tony and Mr. Rogers throughout their three-year classes together. Eventually the other students just learned to ignore it. Well, as much as they could.
The first time Mr. Rogers had gone up to the whiteboard to write something out, Tony’s head had shot up from his lap where he’d been inconspicuously texting Pepper and he let out a low wolf whistle.
Rogers had spun his head around to find Tony grinning lasciviously at him. Everyone else in the class had turned too but Tony really didn’t care. He already had a terrible reputation at school; the rich smart-ass who hit on everything that moved (and slept with everything that said yes). Anyone in the class who didn’t know him of him yet would learn soon enough.
Mr. Rogers was apparently one of the few who had not been informed of Tony’s bad habits—or at least hadn’t believed when he’d been told. He hit on teachers too, if they were hot enough. It had placed him in some dangerous situations in the past; particularly when he’d tried hitting on the smokin’ hot Russian teacher, Ms. Romanov. He actually thought she would kill him if he ever got a little handsy. Dr. Banner just stuttered nervously, but Tony figured out pretty quickly that he wasn’t gay or even bi—not that he stopped, of course. Coach Barton never seemed to take Tony seriously (he always just rolled his eyes and told Tony to run another lap) and Coach Odinson (who everyone just called by his first name because he never seemed to care) didn’t ever seem to realize Tony was flirting and just laughed it off, slapping Tony hard across his back and nearly sending him flying across the gym floor.
Principle Fury and Tony had a very close, intimate relationship, mostly because Tony was sent to the principle’s office on a weekly basis. When Tony made this comment to Fury all it had earned him was a cold stare from one dark eye—which was actually better than vice principle Coulson ever gave him, but Tony wasn’t picky.
Mr. Rogers wasn’t the first teacher Tony had flirted with—though his reactions were definitely the best. When he realized that the one Tony was whistling at was him, he went beet red and started stuttering nonsense while Tony’s grin just grew wider.
He probably should have found it weird to be hitting on a friend of his father’s (and maybe a part of Tony was doing it for that very reason) but Mr. Rogers was nothing like Mr. Stark. Where Tony’s father was cold and calculating, Steve was warm and friendly. Tony had never seen his father laugh (at least not around him) and Mr. Rogers laughed all the time, a light, gentle sound that was one of the first things that tipped Tony off the fact that maybe he was starting to have feelings for Steve beyond the physical. Once he figured that out, he changed his flirting tactic ever so slightly.
He stopped flirting with his other classmates; it seemed to bother Steve, though he never said anything about it. He tried not to get sent to the office so much because he hated seeing that disappointed look on Mr. Rogers’ face. He took class a little more seriously (only Mr. Rogers’ class, of course), just so he could see that smile Steve gave all his students when he was proud of them.
But, it wasn’t until Tony came to class with a black eye and a busted lip that Steve first spoke those fateful words,
“Tony, would you please stay after class today.” It wasn’t a request. “I would like to speak to you.”
Tony was already in a bad enough mood that he didn’t have a witty come on to reply with and just laid his head on the desk until the bell rang. As soon as the other students were out of the room, Steve sat at the desk nearest to him. Tony reluctantly sat up, raised an eyebrow and said,
“If I stay here too long I’ll miss my bus.”
It was a lie. Tony never rode the bus; Jarvis came and got him (and usually either Pepper or Rhodey to hang out) afterschool.
“I can take you home if I need to,” Mr. Rogers replied, blue eyes that combination of pity and worry that Tony hated to see directed towards him. He rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone to text Jarvis that he was getting a ride home.
“Okay, then I just need to let some people know where I am.”
He texted Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy too because they would probably be worried when they didn’t see him outside. He finished quickly and as soon as he slid his phone back in his pocket began talking so Mr. Rogers wouldn’t get the chance.
“I know, I know, Cap. Fighting is wrong; you can settle your disagreements without the use of violence; peace power, I know. It’s not like this happens a lot. This was a special circumstance.”
“I wasn’t going to say that fighting is wrong, though I don’t think it’s something children should be doing. I was in the army, Tony. Sometimes fighting it necessary.”
Tony was surprised but had to hold back from rolling his eyes at the ‘children’ comment. Mr. Rogers sighed.
“Tell me what happened.”
Tony waved him off, trying to pretend like it was nothing; it wasn’t anything really. It wasn’t nearly the first time he’d been in a fight and it probably wouldn’t be the last.
“A couple of assholes called my buddy Rhodey a few unsavory terms at lunch. I woulda started punching ‘em then but he held me back. Then they started in on me, which, I really don’t care, but then the jerks decided to involve Pepper. That was when we we’d had enough. I know I look bad but you should see them.” He grinned though it hurt his split lip to do it.
Mr. Rogers frowned, then sighed.
“If I tried to say you shouldn’t have done that then I’d be a hypocrite. I can’t stand bullies. When I was your age I was scrawny and had a big mouth—bullies didn’t like me too much. My friend Bucky and I got into a lot of situations similar to yours when we were in high school.”
Tony hadn’t really seen that coming. He didn’t know anything about Mr. Rogers before he’d joined the army. It was insane to think the guy in front of him had ever been “scrawny.”
“Bucky? I don’t think Dad ever mentioned anybody named Bucky before. Do you still see him?”
Steve dropped his gaze and bit his lip. Tony had the sudden wish that it was his lip his teacher was biting instead.
“Bucky… Ah, we were in the army together and... Bucky died on a mission.”
Oh. Tony felt bad for asking about this Bucky guy now. He hated situations like this; he never knew how to react.
“I’m sorry,” he said, but it sounded fake and he wished he just hadn’t said anything at all. Or made a funny comment instead; now those he was good at.
But, Mr. Rogers didn’t seem to think it was fake. He smiled at Tony, that big, warm smile that Tony loved to see, and in that moment Tony knew he was screwed. He was serious about Mr. Rogers. The kind of serious you should never ever be about a teacher (or anyone, Tony thought, but he would let that slide).
So, even more tactics were changed. The time for subtlety was done; Steve didn’t seem to notice all Tony’s little changes anyway. Or, even if he did he wasn’t interpreting them the way Tony wanted.
Step one in plan “woo Mr. Rogers”—make sure Steve was fully aware that wooing was being done. Tony decided to use a creative approach to do this.
“Tony… what is this?”
“What is what, Cap?”
“Your test, Tony.”
“What about it? Did I get another perfect score?”
“No, you—I—Um?”
“Yes?”
“Nothing… Never mind.”
It was worth the time and patience it took to circle all those letters in the test questions just to see that blush and look of realization on Steve’s face when he figured out what Tony’s secret message was. Your ass is bombin’ in those slacks.
Okay, granted, it was not the most romantic saying Tony could have come up with. But, really, it was the best he could do with the letters he’d been given. Not to mention how accurate a statement it was.
Phase two in the wooing of a teacher, the obvious: bring him apples!
Mr. Rogers was thrilled when Tony delivered the first apple. He was a little thrown off by the way Tony winked at him before heading for his seat but he didn’t let it bother him. He was equally thrilled the next day, and the day after that, and after a while came to expect Tony’s apples and the accompanying flirtatious wink.
After a few weeks of secret notes hidden in his tests and apples, Mr. Rogers was clearly starting to take notice. He smiled brighter whenever he saw Tony and was much more receptive to Tony’s comments and come-ons during class. He usually just smiled and rolled his eyes. Tony got a little ballsy in one of his tests and asked a question by circling the letters. Do you like me?
When Mr. Rogers handed the tests back he refused to look Tony in the eye and on the bottom of the page, in red ink and artistic handwriting was the reply, of course I do.
On the next worksheet, Tony replied with: But do you like me, like me?
This time there was no reply on the bottom of his paper and Tony sighed, running a stressed hand though messy hair and glancing in Mr. Rogers direction from the corner of his eye. He wasn’t ready to give up just yet.
Phase three of Tony’s brilliant wooing was to make Mr. Rogers attracted to him. This was the most difficult part, considering he didn’t even think Steve was gay—at least, that’d been what he’d thought.
Of course, before he could really put phase three of the plan into action, there was the car accident.
Tony tried to act tough. He had to; he was a Stark. He didn’t cry at the funeral and he didn’t cry to his friends and he didn’t cry to Jarvis or Obie. He’d spent his entire life being talked about behind his back, but somehow this was different, and it was harder to ignore. Still, he did ignore it. He shut himself away for weeks after the accident. He barely spoke to Rhodey or Pepper and he never smiled. It was hard to be around them and to talk to them. They acted too wary of him, too unsure what he might do or say. He hated that. He didn’t know what he wanted but he knew he didn’t want that.
Mr. Rogers was the one to finally through Tony out of his funk. Tony barely remembered Steve telling him to stay after class, and he didn’t remember what Steve said to him, he just knew that it was exactly what he needed to hear. He threw himself, sobbing into Steve’s arms.
Tony Stark, who had always been more of an adult that half the actual adults he knew just needed one moment to be a child; a child who had just lost both of his parents and now had to face a cruel, unforgiving world all on his own.
And Steve was warm and strong and Tony had never felt safer than when he was in those arms. He didn’t think he ever wanted to leave them. And some of that must have shown on his face, because one moment he was smiling, teary-eyed up at his teacher and the next Mr. Rogers’ lips were warm and soft on his.
Of course they were gone before Tony could even savor the sensation, but that kiss changed everything. Steve appeared to regret it immediately after he’d done it, but Tony had never been happier.
“Oh my gosh,” Steve whispered, pushing Tony away with an expression like he’d just been singlehandedly responsible for the civil war. “I—I’m so sorry, Tony. I didn’t—I can’t—you’re Howard’s son and I just—“
“Cap, wait—“
Steve shook his head, placing a large hand gently over Tony’s mouth to cut him off.
“No, Tony. I’m sorry, I should have done this earlier, but I thought—I don’t know. Look, Tony, I will always be here for you, do you understand? You can come to me for absolutely anything you need. I’m your teacher and it’s my job to help you in anyway I can. Just—there are some things I can’t help you with. I know I should have said this sooner, and I truly am sorry, but we cannot do this, Tony.”
“B—because you’re my teacher? That’s the only reason we can’t—?”
“Yes,” Steve replied, eyes dark and earnest and Tony was mad. He’d come so close to having what he wanted, he gotten a taste of it, and for a moment everything hadn’t sucked, his life wasn’t pathetic in that moment and he wouldn’t stand for that moment being taken from him.
“But—but if we weren’t, you know, student and teacher, then we could?”
Steve blushed, refusing to catch Tony’s eye.
“L—look, Tony, you’ve just lost your parents and you’re not in the best place to—“
“Please,” Tony begged, the front of Mr. Rogers button-down shirt bunched in his fists that sudden felt very small. “I—I need to know, Cap—Steve. Please.”
Steve must have seen something in Tony’s eyes that made him sigh and smile fondly as he began.
“I do like you, Tony. I like you more than I should. I think you’re amazing and brilliant—you should hear what the other teachers say about you. ‘The child genius, Tony Stark.’ But I think you’re more than that. I know—I know your life at home wasn’t the best. Howard wasn’t, well, you know. And I think you try to act a certain way but that’s not who you really are, Tony. I—I started to fall for the kid who brought me apples everyday and left me secret notes in his tests. And I shouldn’t have, but I did. I couldn’t help myself.”
Tony was speechless. No one had ever looked at him closely enough to notice those things about him—and even if they had, no one had ever said them to Tony’s face before. If he started crying again he hoped Steve thought it was still because of his parents. This time around, Steve didn’t push Tony away when pulled his teacher down into a sloppy, messy kiss. He moaned when one of Steve’s large hands came up and tentatively held the back of his head as he deepened the kiss. Tony opened his mouth, licking along the ridge of Steve’s lips.
The older man stiffened momentarily but then allowed Tony’s tongue entrance as he carefully cupped Tony’s cheek, gently wiping away the tears that were spilling from his eyes.
It was all making Tony’s head spin. He knew he’d wanted Steve before but he hadn’t actual ever imagined that he’d get him, and that Steve would like him so much. Steve saw him. The real him. Not the genius who flirted with everything that moved and then went home alone most days. He saw Tony for what Tony wanted to be, and he liked that Tony.
“Steve,” he gasped when they broke apart for air. “Steve, I’m—I haven’t really slept with half the school.”
Steve just smiled.
“I know,” he replied. Tony had to kiss him again. When they broke apart again Tony added sheepishly,
“It’s more like a fourth, really.”
“Tony!”
Tony laughed and kissed Steve again. Then again, and again until Steve finally decided it was time for Tony to go home. Tony snuck more kisses before Steve managed to drag him out of his classroom, then even more kisses when they were in Steve’s car, and one last kiss when Steve had insisted on walking Tony to his front door.
Once everything was out in the open, Tony had a very hard time sitting still in Mr. Rogers class. He always had trouble sitting still during lessons, but this was by far the worst. Especially because Steve would not look at him.
He tried all period just to catch Steve’s eye but no matter what he did, he was invisible. Near the end of class, Happy leaned over and whispered,
“Geez, Boss. What’d you do to Mr. Rogers? He hasn’t so much as glanced at you all day.”
Tony slumped in his seat, where he remained until and after the bell had rung. As soon as the last student was out of the room, Steve, who was turned away from Tony, released a heavy sigh and his shoulders slumped. Tony cleared his throat.
When Steve turned around he might as well have been turning to face a grenade, head-on. Tony rolled his eyes at his teacher’s exaggeration.
“Tony, we need to talk.”
“I figured,” replied Tony less-than-enthusiastically. Steve gave him an apologetic half-smile, which transformed into grimace when he leaned carefully on the edge of his desk—far enough away from Tony for it to be a noticeably purposeful distancing. Tony had to really hold back from rolling his eyes once again.
“Did you also figure what I was going to say?”
“Pretty much,” said Tony with a lazy shrug.
“Then I guess we don’t really need to have this conversation,” said Steve hopefully. Tony just smiled at him.
“Just because I know what you’re going to say doesn’t mean I agree.”
Steve’s face visibly fell upon hearing this. If Tony didn’t think he was being so dumb about the whole thing he would find that totally, irresistibly adorable. But, seriously, there was no way he was gonna wait until he graduated or whatever before kissing Steve (and doing a few other things) some more. Steve mumbled something quietly, so quietly that Tony couldn’t hear him and asked him to repeat it. Steve’s blush flared up again as he said, a little louder,
“I knew you were going to be difficult. You didn’t even bring me an apple this morning.”
Tony grinned as he pulled out his phone, fingers flying before the lock screen even opened.
“I forgot this morning. I was up all night working on this.”
Suddenly, Steve’s projector (which he could manage to use with some ease, after more than a few lessons from various students on how it worked), which had been off, started up, the whirring of the computer inside filling the quiet room. When the screen had fully loaded it showed that Powerpoint was also starting up.
“How did you do that?” Steve asked, bemused as Tony continued pressing things on his phone.
“I just need to borrow it for a few minutes. Don’t worry, it’ll go back to normal after I’m done.”
“What are you doing with—“
Steve never finished that sentence, because the first slide of the powerpoint presentation appeared on the screen in that moment and he sort of went speechless.
Tony grinned wolfishly until Steve finally found his voice again and sputtered,
“Tony—We can’t! Really! I Don’t—“
“Just hear me out, Cap,” Tony said, clicking to the next slide.
Steve made a noise somewhere between a squeal and a scream. It reminded Tony of that one time he’d accidentally walked in Pepper changing clothes. It was very similar to the sound she’d made just before the screaming started.
“See, now I find this slide to be very persuasive. Thoughts?”
Steve really seemed to have lost the ability to speak. He just kept looking between the projector screen to Tony, face growing increasingly red as he tried to come up with a response. Tony thought it was going well. He clicked onto the next slide.
Steve made that funny little sound again, although this time it was more aghast than anything else. He even managed to shoot Tony a reprimanding glance, though words still seemed to fail him. Tony saw him swallow and cross his arms so Tony clicked onto the next slide.
He got pretty much the best reaction he could have hoped for. Steve smiled a little—though his face was still thoroughly flushed—and rolled his eyes. Tony grinned. He’d sort of made this powerpoint last night on a horny whim after his makeout sessions with Steve, so he wasn’t actually sure how this was going to go over—but Tony Stark was never one for giving in without a fight, and this had been the best idea he’d been able to come up with (it really wasn’t his best, but what could you do?)
He clicked onto the next slide and laughed along with Steve (he’d forgotten what the next slide was).
Steve had now gone from utter shock and embarrassment to slight amusement mixed with the reasonable amount of exasperation. This was going pretty well. Tony may just get laid tonight yet! He clicked to the next slide.
At this, Steve turned to him with an expression that said, really? And Tony just grinned back and shrugged.
“OKAY, I THINK THAT’S ENOUGH OF THAT,” Steve said loudly, nearly falling over himself to manually turn off the projector then sigh when the screen no longer showed the last slide. Tony just stared at him in shock.
“What’d you do that for?”
“I get your point, Tony. There’s no need for anymore of these.”
“But—But I had graphs and charts, and—"
“Tony.”
Tony huffed and folded his arms across his chest unhappily. He caught Steve’s eye and rolled his eyes.
“Fine. But you should know I’m not giving up. I can’t wait, Steve. I’m young and impatient and I need—I just need someone.”
Steve sighed, and in that moment Tony knew he’d won. (It was probably the powerpoint).
So, that was how Tony convinced Steve that they should skip all the angst and go right to the fucking (not that there wasn’t angst, because there was, there was just also fucking). He and Steve’s lives continued onward from that point. At first, Steve refused point-blank to do absolutely anything in the classroom, but Tony soon found ways around that too. Steve didn’t actually take much convincing once Tony started showing him what a truly gifted mouth he possessed. It really only took a little nudge to have Steve riled up and wanting, and once he was, barely anything could stop him.
Tony’s particular favorite was to be pressed up against the whiteboard so he got expo marker on his clothes (washable, thankfully, though Tony wouldn’t have really cared if they weren’t). Steve favored bending Tony over the desk, and it really wasn’t purposeful if, during those moments, Tony gasped a soft, “Mr. Rogers,” instead of calling Steve by his name. He totally didn’t find it outrageously hot, either. (Neither did Steve. Nope. Not at all).
Tony walked into his fourth period, teased Happy about some girl who had left him a love note, texted Pepper about making it up to her for the project thing, glanced at the clock and pulled out his backpack. He unzipped it, reached in, and pulled out a shiny, red apple. As innocently as he could, Tony walked over to the teacher’s desk, gently placing the apple on a cleared corner of the desktop, hand resting on it for a moment until Mr. Rogers looked up from grading his papers and caught Tony’s eye.
“Why thank you, Tony. How thoughtful,” said Mr. Rogers, grin perfectly decent, unlike the naughty glint that Tony would never miss flashing in his eyes.
“My pleasure, Mr. Rogers,” he replied sweetly.
They held their gaze for a moment longer, only breaking it when the bell rang and Mr. Rogers had to begin teaching class for the day. Tony moved to sit back in his seat, propping up his feet on the chair in front of him and getting as confortable as he could. He had a distinct feeling he would be staying after class today.
Just as he was about to write something on the board, Mr. Rogers caught his eye again. Tony bit back a grin and knew instinctively that Steve turned back to face the board to hide his matching grin.
Tony really liked fourth period.