Chapter Text
Tony Stark was a man of many words and equally as many actions. He was a smooth talker and a genius with the ability to charm any of the middle aged agents at SHIELD Home Securities Inc. into letting slide any little mishaps along the way. Despite being a college intern hired because of his expertise in all things tech, Tony was perfectly content to do whatever was required of him. He was fast, thorough, and neat with his work, so much so that he was able to do the work of two people and still have a couple hours left to do whatever he pleased until the work day was over.
His skill with computer work and basic know-how made Tony the perfect candidate for officially unofficial “Tech Guy”. He had access keys to all of the machine rooms and was in charge of all system updates. And though Tony was only 19, he was suave, sophisticated, and carried a mountain of secrets with him wherever he went.
His best friend was the head of security for the building, a young man named James Rhodes, or Rhodey for short. They met on Rhodey’s first day at the office when he apprehended a suspiciously young Tony Stark swiftly locking the door to the computer room behind him, and carrying out three laptops, setting a pace that only the distracted or guilty ever do. After a slight scuffle, manhandling, and an unsettling trip up to Tony’s boss, Agent Fury’s, office did it become clear that 1) Tony was supposed to have those keys, 2) yes he was a little young to be the I.T. guy, and 3) Tony has just found a new best friend.
Tony could face any problem without the help of anybody (except for Rhodey when Tony wasn’t looking) because as he told Fury the first day he was hired, he “doesn’t work well with others. They only slow me down.” It was understandable, then, that Tony was thrown through a loop a bit when it was announced to him that Fury would be hiring a second intern, and that he would be working very closely with Tony.
“Stark,” he said, his elbows propped up in front of him on the desk and his fingers steepled loosely like he couldn’t quite bring himself to pray, “Rogers will be an asset to our organization, because while you handle all the tech stuff, we have the 16 year olds in charge of the actual intern shit that has to be done. We are bringing in Rogers to be a leader to them and to keep them on track. He won’t get in your way if you won’t get in his.”
At this Tony slumped back in his seat and mumbled, “It’s not like he won’t quit when he gets here and actually has to work with me, I’m a nightmare.” Fury gave him his best unimpressed look.
“I’m not taking pity on you because your relationship with Pepper didn’t work out and now she works in a different department. You will work with Rogers and you will not complain about it to me. His desk will be placed right next to yours in that little office you somehow wormed your way into and-”
“I didn’t ‘worm my way’ into anything! When Agent Coulson got that promotion to Director of the In-Home Securities department, he put me in charge of storing all of his files and cleaning everything out for the new guy. And we haven’t got a new guy yet.” Tony didn’t yell because he respected Agent Fury, but he wasn’t afraid to let his anger show. They had worked together long enough that if Fury was going to fire him for an outburst, Tony would have been out of the job as soon as he started.
Fury just raised an eyebrow at Tony. It was enough to shut him up.
“Rogers is moving in next Tuesday” he said, reordering the papers on his desk and generally ignoring Tony until he got up, slightly defeated, and left.
Tony met Rhodey in the hallway outside and fell slightly into him, sighing dramatically in his patented “the world isn’t fair” kind of way.
Rhodey told him to get over it, but pulled him into a side hug and walked him back to his office.
“Who knows,” he said with a chuckle, “maybe he’ll be cute.”
“Oh James,” Tony said, dramatically gazing into Rhodey’s eyes, “ you know you’re the only man for me.”
Rhodey pushed him into his office and locked the door, only coming back to open it an hour later with forgiveness coffee and a smirking, “You know you love me.”