Chapter Text
May 1990
Tony never liked rain or cloudy weather. It intensified all of his darkest feelings or at least made them more difficult to ignore. But that day rain was appropriate for once, because he didn’t want any distraction. He had overcome his initial denial and was now ready to accept the reality. At first he didn’t want to attend the funeral, it seemed pointless to him. But his mother insisted and he was never good at saying no to her. So there he was, in a little town in England that looked like it had more cows than people in it. There was a light rain that made a calming sound against the few umbrellas gathered around the hole on the ground. Tony took another look at the tombstone that laid next to it and felt a few tears running down his cheeks.
Edwin Jarvis
1902-1990
Tony was sure he would never feel as alone again as when he saw the man who had been his father, best friend and protector disappear underground. Unfortunately he was wrong. But it would be a long time before he knew that.
July 1990
“Are you gonna join us for dinner, darling?”
Tony looked up from his tool box. He was sitting cross legged on his workshop’s floor. There were a few stains on his clothes and his skin. After learning of Jarvis’ condition eight months ago, he had decided to move back to the Stark mansion and be there for his friend. Jarvis had stopped working as their butler 10 years ago, but since he was childless and single, Tony and his mother insisted that he stayed with them so they could look after him. Jarvis hadn't loved the idea, but there wasn't room for discussion.
“Not tonight, mom, I’m going to change some of Dum-E parts”
“Can’t you continue with that in an hour or two?” she asked, looking between her son and his oldest robot with a soft smile.
“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly. Dum-E’s really excited about it, look at him” Tony insisted, pointing at the robot in question. Maria sighed, only his son would see anything resembling an emotion coming out of a machine.
“Please my love, it would make me very happy to have your company upstairs. I feel like I hardly see you despite living in the same house” It was Tony’s turn to sigh before he looked down. He swallowed a comment about his dad’s lovely company and proceeded to smile back at his mom.
“Fine, but if Dum-E refuses to bring you your birthday breakfast later you’ll remember this moment” he said, pushing the tool box and getting up.
“I’ll make it up to him later”
“Didn’t think I’d see you tonight” Howard Stark said when he saw Tony approach the dinner table.
“Wasn’t my idea” was his only reply. Howard exchanged a look with Maria, his wife did a subtle gesture that probably meant Don’t push him. He sighed and didn’t make any other comment. For about 5 minutes. Right when the servants finished pouring the soup on their plates he thought it was okay to say what he had been thinking all week.
“When I come back from Paris maybe you can come with me to the company’s headquarters and take a look around” Tony wasn’t even aware his father was leaving the country. But it didn’t make much of a difference for him, so why pretend to care?
“Why would I want to do that?” he asked innocently, like he didn’t know what his father was implying. Howard gave an exasperated look to his wife and then to his son.
“So that maybe you can find something interesting to do in one of the many departments we have, you certainly have the qualifications to work in any of them” Howard was clearly trying to keep his cool, although that was more for Maria’s sake than for Tony’s.
“Thanks, but I’m fine” he said, not taking his eyes off the soup in front of him. Howard dropped his fork on the table, Maria held hers a bit tighter.
“You need to do something. You can’t stay in this house all day like a useless hippie!”
Well that was fast Tony thought to himself.
“I’m doing stuff” was his cryptic reply.
“Oh, are you now? It’s not like you’re building anything new. You are just playing with the same old toys you’ve had since you reached puberty”
“Howard” Maria said, interfering for the first time.
“What? It’s the truth! He’s been doing absolutely nothing for almost two months!”
“Well, this was lovely. See you next week then, dad” Tony stated suddenly as he got up from the table. Maria sighed in defeat. Howard gave an unimpressed look to his son.
“I’ll be in France for three weeks” Howard said, giving up on getting anywhere with his son that night.
“Even better”
Tony could hear his parents argue as he left the dining room. He ignored it and walked faster. He went to his workshop again and buried his face in the couch he and Jarvis had moved down there when he was 13 and his tendency to not sleep at normal hours or on his bed began. He wanted to scream. It was obvious someone like Howard Stark wouldn’t understand what it was to lose someone you loved. He felt lost, with no direction to follow.
However, Tony knew his father was right about something. He couldn’t continue like this for much longer, even if he hadn’t completely recovered from Jarvis’ death, his brain was going to melt at any second due to inactivity. He needed a new challenge, some project that excited him but where was he going to find something like that? Certainly not at Stark Industries, working for his father sounded like an actual nightmare.
With that in mind, Tony knew that whatever the challenge was, it had to be outside California. He sighed, sat down properly on the couch and buried his face in his hands. He heard DUMM-E coming towards him. He looked up and a friendly claw greeted him.
“Alright, let’s get you fixed while I figure out my future” He grabbed his tool box and started working.
“Maybe I can open a workshop, fix cars or home appliances” Tony said out loud, “I‘m sure my father would love that” Dum-E made an approving sound and Tony chuckled.
“Oh you think that’s a good idea? Perhaps you can even be my assistant”. Dum-E’s claw moved to “face” him and it made another sound that probably only sounded cheerful to him. “Yeah, when you can hold something for more than 10 seconds without dropping it or when you stop running over things, I’m sure you’d make a fine assistant” Dum-E’s claw dropped in defeat.
Tony continued working for ten minutes before he was done. Another sign that he was running out of things to do in that place. He walked over to his desk and looked at the framed photograph that showed him and Jarvis with the first prize of a science fair he had won when he was 4.
“How do you feel about that, Jarvis? Is a workshop what you had in mind for me?”
After a second of silence he changed his expression for a serious one, put his hands behind his back and with his best British accent he replied “Afraid not, sir. Although it would certainly entertain you, your youth and remarkable curiosity would make a common workshop like that rather boring in a matter of days”
“Ah” Tony continued in his normal voice now “I was so sure you’d like the idea. Too bad you didn’t leave me an actual list of suggestions or something to guide me with”
“I did tell you repeatedly, sir, that what you need is a challenge”
“But what does that mean? What sort of challenge?”
“To tell you that I would have to have a brain as brilliant as yours and if i had that, I’m sure I would’ve followed a different career path, sir”
“Hmm, not helpful” Tony concluded. He smiled at the picture and congratulated himself for his performance. “I just can’t believe you’re gone. You always seemed a hundred years old to me so I figured you were immortal or something” he said, while he tried to put some order in his lab, apparently acting like Jarvis had more effects on him than just momentary wisdom.
“So selfish of you, you know? Leaving when I just turned 20, as if I wouldn’t need you now more than ever. Who is gonna talk me out of doing crazy stuff when I have an identity crisis or something? I’ve barely begun my twenties, you know crises are on their way! I mean, I have Rhodey… but he is always in a secret location far away flying around these days, you know? Not that he was that good at stopping me either way.”
Tony sighed once more and took a look around his lab. It wasn’t that much to look at, but it was the only place Tony felt at peace in the whole mansion.
“I don’t know for sure what I’m supposed to be doing, Jarvis, but I think it’s time to leave this place for good. It was never much of a home to be honest, but without you it feels like a prison. What do you think?”
This time he was met with nothing but silence. The emptiness he felt made his eyes watery.
“At least I still have your voice inside me… which is where it should be, ‘cause if I keep having conversations with you like this in public, the only place I’m going to will be an asylum… which is still a better alternative than here but-”
An idea. An idea so obvious that it made Tony feel stupid for not thinking about it before. Jarvis had been the answer all along. Or more like J.A.R.V.I.S. What did that stand for? He had no idea, but he would come up with something. He felt a rush of excitement like he hadn’t felt in a while. He almost flew out of the lab.
“Tony! No running like that inside the house” his mom yelled after him.
“Sorry!” he shouted as he made his way to his room on the other side of the mansion.
Artificial Intelligence, of course! Tony had been curious about it before for sure, just not enough to actually work on his programming skills hard enough and start a project focused on that. AI as Tony was imagining at the moment was still a futuristic concept more than anything else by the time he got to the MIT being just 13 years old, however the field had grown since those days. He still wasn’t sure where to begin with the idea that popped into his head back at the lab but he was sure he at least needed more knowledge about sound engineering and advanced programming.
He got to his room and took out all the college magazines that got sent to the Stark mansion every year in hopes to attract him as a student or his father as a donor. He ruled out all of the universities in California, he needed something farther away. It took him a while, looking at all the different kinds of programs each place offered but eventually he made his decision. Were all kinds of applications closed by now in a prestigious place like Columbia? Definitely. Had those sorts of things ever stopped him from getting what he wanted? Not even close.
Next morning, as his father left for another continent without a clue of what was happening, Tony Stark made a call that lasted less than 15 minutes, by the end of which Anthony Edward Stark became an official student at Columbia University.
September 1990
Stephen Strange never seemed to be in a great mood according to most of the people that had known him in the last couple of years. But he was definitely in his worst mood around September and this September would be no exception. For most people the reason was a mystery, however Stephen had a perfect explanation for this. Summers at the Strange’s household were always a painful experience. At the beginning of them, his family would leave him alone for the most part, but as the weeks went by he was expected to get more involved with the family’s farm activities. He didn’t mind the labour that much, but doing it meant being in close proximity with everyone else and once a conversation was started a fight of some kind was sure to follow, especially between him and his father.
So, despite being grateful for going back to college, two months with his family left him with a sour mood for at least a week. As if that wasn’t enough, there had been so much work in the farm that his father didn’t let him leave until the last possible minute. Which meant Stephen would be “late” according to his standards. He would have very little time to settle in and put all of his belongings in place, after which he would probably have to run around campus to figure out where each of his classes were going to be beforehand and avoid getting lost or sidetracked the next morning.
As a result, the chem student wasn’t feeling particularly cheerful when he arrived at his dorm. But as he started with his routine, pulling out a framed picture out of one of his bags, he was reminded the other and most important reason why September was his least favourite month. Donna’s birthday was a week and a half away. She would’ve turned 14 that year. He put the picture away and continued unpacking. He had too much to do to get distracted, he would have enough time to be miserable soon enough.
When his alarm clock went off the next morning Stephen was still tired but ready to start the new semester. Since he was a prodigy, he had taken way more classes than humanly recommended the first two years of his degree, so now he only had a few lectures to attend each week. But of course Stephen didn’t like having too much time on his hands, he liked being productive and making the most out of college. So this would be his second semester taking a couple of extra classes that had nothing to do with his chemistry degree or medicine, which was his ultimate goal, but that he found interesting nonetheless.
His week actually started with one of them. Advanced Astronomy. He never tried to become an astronaut or anything remotely similar, but it was one of his hobbies as a kid. One of the very few advantages of living in a really small town in Nebraska was that the skies were way clearer than in a city, so at night when his family still felt like a family, they enjoyed sitting outside figuring out what constellations they were watching.
Stephen got ready, had a banana and a healthy cereal bowl for breakfast and then headed out to get to the class a bit early and have enough time to choose the best seat. Soon after his arrival other students started to show up and at 10:05 the lecture began. The professor was the same that gave Stephen Astronomy 101 and most of the other people he had taken the class with were also there, which the chem student liked, ‘cause he knew what to expect from this. The class was interesting but not too demanding and his classmates weren’t Einsteins but also not that bad.
After some announcements from Mr. Thompson about what topics they were going to cover that term he began asking some basic questions to make sure everyone had not forgotten all about their previous class over the summer. Stephen was in the middle of giving an elaborate answer when someone walked into the classroom rather loudly. Everyone in the room turned to see who it was.
“Oh, I’m so sorry professor, I wasn’t-” the guy began. He was brunette, average height and, despite being a little out of breath it seemed like he didn’t just run to class straight out of bed, his appearance was too good for that. Except for the sunglasses. Why the hell was he wearing sunglasses inside the building?
“It’s 10:23, young man. The class starts at 10”
“I know sir, I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again I just couldn’t f-”
“What’s your name, young man?” the teacher asked, clearly not interested in whatever excuse the guy was about to say. Serves him right, Stephen thought. He was already annoyed by the interruption and the sunglasses. He was half expecting the guy to be in the wrong classroom because Stephen didn’t recognise him and why would someone who wasn’t in Astronomy 101 be allowed to–
“Stark, sir, Tony Stark” The name didn’t mean anything to Stephen but it clearly meant something to the professor because his whole demeanour changed.
“Tony Stark? Howard Stark’s son?”
“The one and only” the guy replied with a charming smile.
“Oh, welcome to Columbia, sir”
SIR?!
“Oh, please just call me Tony” The professor smiled, delighted, and nodded.
“Please, take a seat. The class was just beginning, you haven’t missed anything”
“Great, thank you, professor Thompson” The professor seemed even happier that the guy knew his name.
What the hell? Who was this guy?
He started to climb down the stairs to find a place to sit. His eyes found Stephen’s and smiled. Stephen turned again to stare at the board. The new guy seemed to think that was an invitation of some kind because he chose the chair right next to his.
Fantastic
Once the new guy was seated the professor carried on. The question Stephen tried to answer was completely forgotten, as Mr. Thompson repeated some of the announcements he had made at the beginning and then the actual lecture began.
“Hey there, I’m Tony” the guy said, holding out his hand
“So I heard” was Stephen’s reply, he didn’t even turned to look at him
“Right, guess you did” this time there was less confidence in his voice A beat of silence as the professor kept explaining something. “So what’s your name?”
“None of your business”
“Woah. This must be a new record. We’ve known each other for less than a minute and you already hate me. That’s imp-”
“Hey, do you mind?” Stephen said, finally facing him “I actually happen to care about this class. Really not interested in chitchat of any kind, okay? Is that—”
“Mr. Strange? Can you wait till the end of the class to socialise?” Suddenly all eyes were on him.
“What? N-No, professor. I mean yes I- I was- Sorry”
Stephen was shocked. Teachers had never asked him that or looked at him like that. Like an inconvenience. Mr. Thompson nodded and kept writing something on the board. Stephen was still processing what had happened when he heard Tony chuckle. He turned to look at him and find out what he thought was so fucking funny.
“Your name is Strange?” He whispered with a stupid grin on his face.
“Fuck off” Stark chuckled again but remained quiet after that.
Stephen’s blood was boiling. As soon as the class ended he got up. Stark looked like he was going to say something when Mr. Thompson called his name.
“Yes, sir?”
“Could I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure thing” he replied. Stark muttered something to himself that Stephen couldn’t comprehend but he certainly didn’t care enough to ask. He took the opportunity and left as fast as he could.
Not the best way to start the new term.