For Romance Awareness, Prompt: The outline of your shadow is your soulmate

Word Count: 810

Having a soulmate younger than you is not a walk in the park, Rhodey can attest to that. It's not exactly something you can hide, since for whatever reason nature had decided that human shadows work differently and you don't get your own, but your soulmates one.

There's plenty of lore around that, obviously. Just about every culture on earth had some sort of text about how this is meant to be a way to find yours.

That does not stop classmates from ruthlessly teasing you when you have no shadow. Not does it stop them when it finally appears as a baby during a test in third grade.

"She's way too young for me," James informs his mother when he is back home that day.

"What if you only meet her when you're in your mid-twenties, Jimmy? Or after that?" his mother asks him.

"I suppose then it's not weird," he agrees. "But that's so long!"

His mother chuckles. "It will happen sooner than you think. It won't be long now until you're ready to leave my home for your own life."

"I'm not gonna leave you," he declares, crossing his arms stubbornly, but his mother simply laughs and shakes her head.

"You say that now."

That night, Rhodey sees that his soulmate is definitelynot a girl.

And he has another reason why being the older soul mate sucks.

Nobody can know of this for as long as possible.

Years down the road and he is at MIT with the help of the US Air Force. His soulmate is worrying him at more than one occasion, when he quivers in a ball or when he is definitely too focuses on a task for someone his age.

James is pretty sure he never saw his shadow run without quivering first which is not good on so many levels.

But today, it looks like the kid is drinking things he definitely shouldn't drink. Hell, James is just barely old enough.

He goes out for a walk around campus to distract himself. It's dark enough that he doesn't have to think about what his soulmate who he hasn't even found yet is doing. He has no way to protect him, so he should focus on something else.

But he can't. Or at least he can't until he finds someone too skinny — just like his soulmate an unhelpful voice in his head mutters — lying head first in a bush, clearly drunk.

Without even thinking, Rhodey takes the kid to his flat. He has an air mattress in case one of his siblings wants to visit, so he can take that for a night while the kid takes his bed.

It is only on the next morning — when there's light and Rhodey's awake — that he notices that the silhouette is a little bit too familiar.

And so is the face.

His soulmate is Tony Stark, he realizes that the second Tony does, too.

"So you're the guy my Dad's been giving me shit about for the past thirteen-ish years? Sorry to drag into the mess that is public life. But hey, you can still leave, if you want. You clearly haven't called anyone — your expression makes that obvious — so the paparazzi and such, they'll leave you alone. But not me." Tony sighs.

And while Rhodey is far from developing romantic or sexual feelings for someone who is just barely a teen — he is no pedofile, even if that was what they had teased him with back in school, thank you very much — Tony Stark nevertheless manages to claim a space in his heart in these few seconds.

"My names James Rhodes," he responds. "And I won't leave you hanging, kid."

He hadn't expected that he would have to explain to his soulmate that boundaries and legal consent were a thing — all other things aside — but someone had royally screwed up in raising this kid.

It wasn't the butler. Rhodey — a nickname Tony gave him — knows that much from a single call he overhears.

Tony speaks with the butler about the way Rhodey speaks with his Dad and it's the first person Tony had thought to tell.

It's probably not a good idea that they're paying him, but what does Rhodey know?

The kid tags along with him at Thanksgiving and the way you can see he hasn't celebrated anything like this before makes him a part of the family in two seconds flat, even if he hadn't been Rhodey's soul mate.

Hell, the fact that he had thought that he would spend the holiday at MIT is enough.

Tony is part of his family and he will stay such until both of them are dead and gone. He's not sure how they're family, but that doesn't matter.

Just that they are.