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“Whose kid brother is in my bed?” Rhodes glares down at the kid in question, who doesn't seem perturbed at all. In fact, he seems more inebriated than a kid that age should be. “I thought I said keep all the partying out of my room.”
“Dude, that's Tony Stark,” his friend calls from the other room, watching TV with the rest of their drunk suitemates.
James Rhodes has heard of Tony Stark. There's not a single person at MIT who hasn't, probably. What he wants to know, however, is why he's curled up in Rhodes's comforter, grinning sleepily up at him like he's just won a Nobel Prize.
Stark sticks a hand out of the comforter cocoon for a handshake. “Yep, Tony Stark.”
Rhodes doesn't shake his hand. “Out. Now.”
“Sorry, I'm seriously crashing right now, but if you want I can scoot over and we can share — ”
“This is my bed!” Rhodes protests, aghast. Stark just curls back up in the blanket and shifts to the other side of the bed to make room for Rhodes.
Rhodes sleeps on the couch.
Stark is no less annoying to talk to sober than he is when drunk, and Rhodes is just glad he didn't throw up all over his bed.
Stark introduces himself again in the morning, way too perky for the massive hangover he should be nursing. But he's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and all of fifteen years old, goddamn, and Rhodes doesn't know whether to be angry or impressed.
Stark takes to calling him “Rhodey” and tells Rhodes to just call him Tony, which doesn't happen for a while. It's not until he sees Stark elbows deep in some sort of circuitry, grease streaked across his forehead and grinning as he asks Rhodes to hand over a wrench, that something just clicks. He rolls his eyes and passes him the wrench, saying, “Only you would do this right before you had a date, Tony.”
And Tony just beams at him, smile practically blinding.
Tony likes Pepper so he doesn't try to sleep with her.
Don't get him wrong, he thinks she's hot as hell. But she's also the best PA he's had in, well, years, and she doesn't take his shit the way everyone else does. It's new and refreshing and he doesn't want to lose this new feeling.
He describes it to Rhodey one day over pizza and Rhodey just rolls his eyes and tells him he's the only guy in the world who would be having an emotional crisis over being friends with his secretary. Tony scowls and flicks cheese at Rhodey because she's more than just a secretary and he's not having an emotional crisis over anything, thank you very much.
“Ms. Potts, it's a pleasure to meet you. Tony's already told me so much about you.”
Pepper smiles, taking James Rhodes's hand and giving it a firm shake. “Only good things, I hope.”
He shrugs. “Well, you know Tony.”
“That I do.” She shakes her head slightly, both hands clasping her Stark tablet in front of her. “I'm sorry, I was actually about to take my lunch break. Would you like to accompany me, Mr. Rhodes?”
“Please, just call me James. And I'd love to, if you don't mind. Apparently Tony stood me up for our lunch date.”
Pepper nods, gesturing for James to walk with her to the elevator. “That doesn't surprise me. Mr. Stark can be...” She trails off, looking for a word that accurately gets the point across without sounding too rude.
“An ass?” James supplies.
“That was nicer than what I was thinking, but yes.”
“Oh trust me, that was me being nice.”
“I can see why Tony keeps you around,” Pepper remarks, smiling again.
“Now if only I could figure out why I keep him,” James replies, drawing a quiet laugh out of Pepper.
They spend more than an hour chatting over lunch, interrupted only by an aggravated phone call from Tony asking Pepper what she thinks she's doing stealing his best friend. Pepper tells him not to worry and that she'll have James back safe and sound before curfew, hanging up as Tony sputters on the other end.
Tony is asleep on the couch when Pepper walks into the living room, which isn't unusual at all. What's unusual is that he's asleep on top of Rhodes, facedown with James’s arm draped over his back. Pepper hesitates in the doorway, uncertain whether she should wake Tony or leave him be. None of the paperwork in her hands is that important. It could wait.
Instead, she carefully makes her way over, quiet as she can with her heels clicking against the perfectly polished floor. She sets the files down on the coffee table and nearly jumps right out of her two-inch heels when she feels a hand on her arm.
“Sorry,” James whispers, glancing down at Tony. Tony stirs slightly, still curled up on James’s chest, but doesn’t wake.
Pepper lets out a relieved sigh. “It’s all right, I just thought you were asleep.”
“I wake easily. Unlike some people.” Another glance at Tony.
“I should apologize, I didn’t mean to interrupt — ” She waves a hand at them vaguely. “This.”
“We were watching a movie and he just crashed,” James explains apologetically, as if that were somehow his fault.
“Do you need help moving him?” Pepper offers, even though she’s unsure what she can do to help short of waking Tony up.
“No, it’s fine. He’s… It helps him sleep.”
For a few awkward seconds they stare at each other, Pepper looking down at him, James peering up, chin partially obscured by Tony’s dark, messy hair. Finally, she nods and points at the paperwork on the table.
“Could you have him sign those when he wakes up? Thanks so much.”
James nods and Pepper heads out without another word, letting him drift back to sleep.
Pepper calls him “Rhodey” instead of “James” one day and it’s like some odd, invisible barrier shatters. He’s unsure when he grew so attached to the nickname, considering Tony is the only one who calls him that, but coming from Pepper it has a whole new feel to it. Like it’s an actual endearment instead of being a regular Tony quirk.
Pepper apologizes and tries to call him James, but he shakes his head and smiles. Surprisingly, he likes it better this way.
“I think Pepper thinks we’re dating,” Tony says around a mouthful of hamburger one afternoon.
Rhodey looks unconcerned. “I wonder why she thinks that, honey bear.”
“When you put it that way, you make it sound like you don’t like my cute pet names for you,” Tony protests, frowning. Rhodey sighs and steals some of Tony’s fries. “Are we dating?”
“Never in a million years, Stark.”
Tony stares at his hamburger contemplatively. “What about in one of those ‘last people on Earth’ scenarios?”
“At that point I don’t even think it matters. Since the human race would end once we die.”
“Yeah, but we’d get to have sex before the human race collapsed. And that’s what’s important.”
Rhodey chews on the end of his straw, thinking, then points it at Tony. “Valid point.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“Ask me again when the apocalypse happens.”
The apocalypse doesn’t happen, but Afghanistan does.
Tony is sore and bruised and doesn’t give a fuck as he presses into Rhodey’s body, Rhodey holding him tight on the hot desert sand. Pepper cries when they call in the news so that she won’t when she sees Tony for the first time in months.
Tony has nightmares for a while. He doesn’t tell anyone about them, obviously, no one but JARVIS knows, but keeping them a secret doesn’t stop them from happening. He works late into the night, redesigning the suit, building useless additions to the electronics in the house, crafting yet another phone for Pepper. He sleeps in the workshop a lot, when he can sleep.
He thinks about calling Rhodey sometimes, in the middle of the night, just to hear his voice, or see if he’s in town and can come over. Pepper’s out of the question, because she doesn’t need to worry any more than she already does. Tony never calls though, because that would be selfish and needy and god knows what else.
He laughs, the sound empty and harsh, because when has he ever cared about being selfish and needy.
“You and Pepper need to stop dancing around each other,” Rhodey says. He watches Tony work on the Iron Man armor, twirling a wrench in his hands.
“What,” Tony mutters around the screwdriver clenched between his teeth, not looking up from his work.
“You’re obviously into each other. It’s awkward seeing you guys fumble around like a couple of high schoolers.”
Tony's protests are lost around the screwdriver, and he spits it out and repeats, “Hey, I was a smooth operator in high school.”
“You were thirteen in high school.”
“Your point?”
Rhodey just rolls his eyes and sets down the wrench. “I’m just saying, ask her out.”
“Rhodey, we’ve been over this, I don’t want to fuck things up with us.”
“Right, because giving her mixed signals and stringing her along is much better.”
Tony glares at him. “I’m not doing anything like that.”
Rhodey kind of looks like he wants to hit himself with the wrench (or hit Tony with it), so Tony studiously returns to fixing the wiring in Iron Man’s gauntlet.
Tony is dying (again).
It’s less horrifying than the cave in Afghanistan, so he doesn’t do much about it.
Until he appoints Pepper his successor as Stark Industries CEO. And takes up racecar driving all of a sudden. And lets Rhodey “steal” a suit.
That, he thinks, might be doing something about it. Not the right thing, but something.
Pepper kisses him on the rooftop and Rhodey’s cracking jokes and everything should feel perfect.
Tony has this nagging feeling that it’s not.
Rhodey wakes up one morning with Pepper’s hair caught in his mouth and Tony’s knee jammed into his side. It would be a lie to say this was the weirdest position he’d ever woken up in, but it was definitely up on the top of the list. Especially since they were all still wearing clothes.
Tony stirs besides him, mercifully moving his legs so they are no longer pressing painfully against Rhodey, and blinks sleep from his eyes. “You’re not the sweetie pie I expected to wake up with here,” he says after a moment, squinting at Rhodey.
“She’s over here,” Rhodey whispers, trying not to wake Pepper, but it’s a lost cause. She tries to sit up and fails, one arm caught under Rhodey. He has to roll over to let her loose.
“Urgh, I never should have listened to you about those drinks,” she mutters, then freezes when she realizes it’s Rhodey, not Tony, that she’s looking at. “Oh. Hello.”
Tony smiles at her from over Rhodey’s shoulder. “I think I’m starting to remember what happened after we came home from that charity dinner.”
“Does it involve some sort of terrible decision on our part,” Rhodey asks, laying back down and staring up at the ceiling now that Pepper has moved out of the way.
“No, but it does involve a very heated round of Never Have I Ever and also what I think was a Lord of the Rings drinking game movie marathon.”
Pepper drags a pillow over her face and groans. “All in favor of just going back to sleep and pretending this never happened?”
Rhodey tugs the sheet away from Tony and closes his eyes without a word. Tony would be more confused, but the huge headache he has is killing him and he decides to leave the confusion for later, curling back up at Rhodey’s side and drifting off to sleep.
“He just drives me absolutely crazy sometimes, you know? I love him, help me God, but some days I just need a break.” Pepper sighs, both at the sentiment and at the data projected from the holograph touchpad on her lap. “He leaves his stuff all over the place, which, fine, it’s his house, but he leaves his stuff on my stuff. Do you know how hard it is to get oil out of cashmere?”
“I can only imagine.” Rhodey flips through a few more channels on the TV. (Tony always complains that JARVIS can do that for him, but Rhodey insists he enjoys doing the actual channel flipping himself.)
“Not to mention his odd sleep schedule, and how I have to constantly remind him that there are more foods out in the world than pizza and Chinese take-out. And he snores like a champion.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
Pepper looks up from her tablet, expression curious as she considers Rhodey.
After a moment, he notices her staring and mutes the TV. “What? Something on my face?”
She shakes her head, smiling. “I was just thinking how you know Tony so well.”
“Well, I would hope so,” he says hesitantly. “I’ve known him since college.”
“Plenty of people have known him since college. You actually stuck around.”
“Are you considering giving me an award for my perseverance or something? Because I do feel like I kind of deserve one.”
“I hadn’t planned on it, but I suppose I can think up something.”
Rhodey nods and unmutes the TV, only somewhat paying attention to the baseball game playing. Pepper works a little while longer, unbothered by the sound of the television.
Finally she turns off the tablet, smoothing her skirt as she stands and starts to head out of the room, pausing to lean over the back of the couch to press a kiss to Rhodey’s cheek. “There’s your award. Congratulations.”
Rhodey smiles up at her, completely unflustered as he says, “I’d like to thank the Academy.”
The first thing Rhodey does when the plane lands in New York is head over to the ruined Stark Tower and yell at Tony for leaving him out of pretty much everything.
“I had to learn about what was happening through my superior officers,” he exclaims, hands out like he wants to grab Tony by the shoulders and just shake him.
“Better than the news,” Pepper says from the couch, feet tucked up under her. Tony had jumped up to intercept Rhodey as soon as he’d entered the room.
“We were all a little busy,” Tony protests, hovering just outside of Rhodey’s range. “You weren’t even in the city — ”
“I could have gotten here with War Machine fast enough. God, Tony, you flew a nuke into space.” He’s slightly breathless, his tone weary, and he runs a hand over his face in frustration. “You could have died.”
“That’s hardly anything new,” Tony says weakly, but that’s all he can say before Rhodey closes the distance and gets his hands on him, pulling him close.
“You’ve got to stop doing this to me,” he says, breath warm against Tony’s skin.
“Sure thing, cupcake,” Tony replies, and it comes out more serious than he’d like.
Pepper sighs contently and settles against Tony’s chest, tracing a finger along the muscle in his shoulder. “I’m curious, were you ever in a relationship with Rhodey?”
“Aha! I knew you thought we were dating!”
She smiles, lips curving against his collarbone. “Just answer the question.”
Tony runs his fingers through her hair, watching the long strands glide across his skin. “No, I never dated Rhodey.”
“Did you want to?”
The hand in her hair stills, Tony pushing himself upright on his elbows. “What?”
“Did you ask him? Or consider asking him?” Pepper stares up at him, expression curious.
“What’s with the twenty questions? I don’t know how you forgot, but I’m kind of dating you right now, so — ”
“Because I like him.”
Tony falls silent, the rest of his ramblings dying on his lips. “You might have to clarify that statement for me.”
“I said I liked Rhodey and was wondering if you liked him too.” She draws a heart lightly with a finger in the space above the arc reactor.
Tony swallows heavily. “Oh. Oh. I, wow. Um, yes. Definitely yes.”
“I had a feeling you’d say that,” Pepper says with a grin, and kisses him.
Tony’s had threesomes before (the tabloids aren’t always wrong), but never anything meant to last more than a night. He balks at bringing the subject up with Rhodey, even though he and Pepper have already talked everything out. He botches a particularly opportune moment when the three of them are out for dinner, Pepper just glancing at him in disappointment over their dessert.
Turns out, asking your best friend if he’d like to be in a relationship with you and your girlfriend is harder than it looks. Thank god he has Pepper, seriously.
They’re making out in the workshop when Rhodey walks in, asking Tony if he can borrow one of the cars. He stops mid-step, spins around, and takes about two steps before Pepper calls after him,
“James.”
Rhodey doesn’t turn around, because Pepper’s blouse is on the floor and she’s sitting in Tony’s lap, but he does stop, waiting for whatever she says next.
“You don’t have to go. Right, Tony?”
Tony clears his throat, voice still rough as he answers, “Not if he doesn’t want to.”
“No offense, guys, but you already know how I feel about your awkward makeouts,” Rhodey says after a moment.
“They’re a lot less awkward if you’re personally involved,” Tony remarks as lightly as he can.
Rhodey slowly turns around. They’re watching him carefully, Pepper’s arms still looped around Tony’s neck. “You’re being serious.”
“When am I ever not?” Tony tries looking innocent. Pepper just rolls her eyes fondly.
“I wouldn’t let him joke about this,” she assures Rhodey, and there’s nothing Rhodey believes if not Pepper’s assurances.
He sticks his hands in his jacket pockets, shifting uneasily in place. “So, what, is this some sort of way to spice up your sex life or — ”
“Does it look like our sex life needs spiced up?” Tony interrupts, expression skeptical. He runs a finger along one of Pepper’s bra straps for emphasis.
“What Tony means,” Pepper says, giving Tony a look, “is that the offer’s on the table only if you want it to be.”
Rhodey takes a few tentative steps closer. “You know, I’d expect this sort of thing from him,” he nods at Tony, “but coming from you…”
“I’d hope you would be able to take my word a little more seriously,” Pepper says with a smile.
“I’d argue with that if it wasn’t completely true,” Tony says with a shrug. Rhodey stops a few feet away, as if awaiting permission, so Tony gives it to him. “Now are you going to kiss me or what?”
There’s barely a moment’s hesitation as Rhodey does just that. After that there’s only enthusiastic consent.
“So what about that whole ‘not even if we were the last people on Earth’ thing, huh?”
Tony grins, pressed up against Rhodey without a single stitch of clothing between them, and grinds down with his hips. He rocks back after a moment, grin widening as each movement elicits half-suppressed sounds from Rhodey.
“Can we have this discussion later,” Rhodey hisses, tugging Tony down into a sloppy kiss, obviously hoping it would take his mind off the topic.
No such luck. Tony nips at Rhodey’s neck, saying, “What, don’t like chatty foreplay?”
“Not everyone is you, Tony,” Pepper says from her corner of the bed. She watches the two of them with dark eyes, breathing uneven. She still has her underwear on, which Rhodey thinks is a shame. Tony apparently has the same idea, because he sits up and motions for Pepper to come over. Rhodey watches as he peels the bra off her, then the panties, and she glances coyly at him, eyelashes lowered.
Rhodey sits up, knocking Tony off balance. With a laugh he lands on Rhodey’s knees, but Rhodey doesn’t mind at all because Pepper’s slipping her arms around his neck and kissing him. She moves to sit in Rhodey’s lap, sandwiched between him and Tony, and Rhodey kisses her. Despite the coy expression she’d worn mere seconds ago, the kiss isn’t timid at all.
Tony leans forward, chin on Pepper’s shoulder and arms around her waist while he babbles, “So, why the change of heart? Was it Pepper? It was Pepper, wasn’t it. I’m kind of offended, I think. Except not really because it’s understandable, Pepper’s got that kind of effect — ”
“If we were the last people alive on Earth, I think you’d drive me mad,” Rhodey says, but he’s smiling and Pepper laughs against his cheek.
“Aw, I knew you loved me,” Tony croons, and slides his hands up Rhodey’s chest to see if that gets any more delicious sounds out of him.
Rhodey takes it well the next morning. Pepper wakes up first and does some work on her tablet while she lets the other two sleep in. Rhodey’s second to wake, unable to get up because Tony’s attached himself to him like an octopus. He lies still and stares at the ceiling for a moment before turning to watch Pepper.
“Hey,” she says softly, giving him a smile.
He smiles back. “Hey yourself.”
Tony nuzzles Rhodey’s neck, murmuring something about transistors. Rhodey wraps an arm around Tony, gently toying with the hair at the nape of his neck. Still smiling, Pepper watches them for a moment before going back to work, pleased.
For a while it doesn’t even seem like anything’s changed. Rhodey leaves NYC for work, Pepper and Tony stay to handle Stark Industries and the Avengers. They call when they can, and one evening Tony convinces a somewhat intoxicated Rhodey that phone sex would be really hot (spoilers: it is). It’s just like before, except that sometimes there’s an extra person in bed when Rhodey comes to visit. To be completely honest, even that’s not entirely new. It’s just the lack of clothing that is.
It doesn’t seem like it should work at all.
Rhodey and Pepper are both light sleepers; Tony sleeps like the dead. Rhodey can’t sleep with any light at all; Tony and Pepper need a little bit (just an arc reactor glow little) to help them drift off. Pepper gets up early; Tony and Rhodey like to sleep in. Pepper kicks in her sleep, Tony snores, Rhodey hogs the blankets.
It doesn’t seem like it should work at all, but it does.
Pepper and Rhodey are chatting over drinks when Tony stumbles into the kitchen after a particularly long stint in the workshop. He squints as the scene, not even trying to hide his confusion.
“I thought you were in LA,” he says accusingly.
“Surprise,” Rhodey replies dryly, raising his glass in Tony’s direction.
“How come I wasn’t invited to the party,” Tony continues as if Rhodey hadn’t spoken, sitting down beside Pepper and taking her drink. “You can’t have a party without me.”
“I’d hardly call this a party,” Pepper says, covering the glass with a hand before Tony can take a sip and tugging it away from him.
Tony reaches for Rhodey’s glass instead, which he relinquishes without a fight. “We should do something.”
Pepper glances at the clock. “It’s 2:30 in the morning.”
“Let’s watch a movie.” Tony tosses back the last of Rhodey’s drink, sliding the glass back to him.
To his surprise, they agree. Fifteen minutes later, Tony’s dead to the world, snoring against Rhodey’s shoulder while the opening of some action flick he’d nagged them to put on played out on the giant screen. Curled up on Rhodey’s other side, Pepper sighs.
“That was faster than usual,” Rhodey comments, shifting so he can move Tony into a more comfortable position on his lap.
“He’s been working nonstop,” Pepper says quietly, reaching out to stroke Tony’s hair.
Rhodey glances over at her, gesturing at the TV. “You want me to turn this off?”
She shakes her head. “Let’s watch a bit.”
By the time the movie ends, all three of them are fast asleep. Tony doesn’t even complain about his sore back when he wakes up later.