Tony didn't know who the boy was. He couldn't remember a time where Eleanor mentioned any boy other than himself or Rhodey in her seventeen years, and he could feel his blood pressure rise at the sight of the boy that held his sister's attention.

"Should I be concerned?" he hissed to Rhodey, eying the two in the living room. Rhodey followed his line of sight and let out a sigh.

"No," his friend hissed back and jerked his head to the other room. "And you know she's going to notice you spying on them. They're not even doing anything!"

"That's why I'm concerned!"

Tony looked up any info he could find on the boy with her and learned that he went to the same university as her, was older than her, and was not nearly smart enough for his baby sister. He was a few seconds from pulling his hair out and wished that Pepper was there to give insight onto this scene.

They really weren't doing anything scandalous. It looked like they had a group project (it was a lab report for biochemistry, the horror), and it was mainly Eleanor explaining concepts to the poor kid while she wrote down their data. And if that was it, Tony wouldn't have said anything. She was the one that offered for him and Rhodey to visit her place closer to her university while neglecting to inform him of any other occupants, so seeing some boy in the house surprised him, but if she didn't think it was important, then it must not have been.

When they had gotten there in normal 'walk in obnoxiously loud' fashion, Eleanor had merely greeted them from her position behind her laptop with a promise that her and her lab partner were almost finished up. Her partner looked starstruck when he walked through the door, and Tony wasn't sure if he wanted to preen at the attention or scoff at the fact that he was okay with sitting so close to Eleanor Stark but couldn't stop staring whenever he walked in.

And oh, Tony knew his little sister wasn't very interested in dating as much as Pepper had tried to steer her towards it ("It's a normal thing, Tony! Stop acting so weird about it!") But this boy must not have been very aware of it by the looks and light touches he kept giving Eleanor. A subtle brush of hand here and bump of the shoulder there, he kept dropping hints to the admittedly emotionally stunted Stark.

"All that's left is to label the rest of the steps of the citric acid cycle. I'll send you the list of all the enzymes because it'll take too long to go through all of them."

Her partner (Tony refused to learn his name) blinked at her a few times, shocked that she was packing away their things so quickly. Tony wanted to laugh because she was basically kicking him out.

"O-oh," he stammered, standing quickly and gathering his own belongings. She walked him towards the door, past both Tony and Rhodey, and he tried to come up with something to continue the conversation. "So, uh, do you want to meet up again? N-Not for school! But for a coffee or just some food?"

Tony leaned forward in anticipation, swatting at Rhodey as he kept trying to pull him down. He knew that boys and girls thought his sister to be attractive - they had the same genes after all - and he knew that there had to be times when she was asked out, but he had never been present for them.

"Sorry," she apologized with a smile that looked closer to a grimace. "I'm not interested."

Tony cheered while the boy at the door deflated. It was an awkward goodbye after that, and Tony was buzzing in his seat. Perhaps it was wrong for him to get so excited at the blatant rejection, but he couldn't help it. Imagining Eleanor with a boyfriend (or girlfriend) made his nose crinkle and his eyes narrow. Pepper told him that he should ease up on those feelings and let his sister deal with her love life on her own, but Tony couldn't help it.

Once she shut the door, she faced the two men with a sigh, rubbing the space between her brows. "I didn't think he had it in him to ask me out in front of my brother and his friend," she commented, tossing them each a bottle of water (Tony had already decided to raid her liquor storage even though she really shouldn't have any alcohol at the tender age of seventeen). Rhodey nudged him again when he caught the smug smirk on his face and gave Eleanor an unimpressed stare.

"Me neither," he agreed. "Why didn't you take him up on it, though? Seemed like a nice guy."

Nice guy? Tony mocked in his head as he sipped on his drink. How could you even tell from that? They barely even spoke! He -

"I'm already seeing someone else."

Tony choked on his drink while Rhodey let out a strangled sound. He pounded on his chest as he coughed because what? When had she ever mentioned that? Surely he would know? She must be lying.

"What?!" he managed to choke out, taking a sip of his water to try and calm the coughing fit. Rhodey was staring wide eyed at the teen that didn't seem at all concerned about the bombshell she just dropped. In fact, she just shrugged and leaned back in her seat.

"Yep," she said, popping the 'p'. "We're not official or anything, but we've been on a few dates. We're going out next weekend."

Tony let out a mix of a scream and a laugh. She wasn't lying! She was seriously seeing someone and refused to tell him! Rhodey himself looked miffed at the lack of knowledge, and Eleanor just rolled her eyes at them.

"What?" she asked. "You really think I'd just offer that up to you two? I know that you looked up my lab partner's information as soon as you walked in, Tony!"

"Well, yeah!" Tony finally got out, waving his hands around. "It was just some random guy in here! How could you not tell me that you were dating?!"

"I told Pepper."

As if an arrow struck him, Tony hunched over and Rhodey gave him a pat on the back, this time not mocking him for his dramatics. How could Pepper know before him? Eleanor was his baby sister, not Pepper's!

Eleanor let out another sigh, putout by his overreaction. "You're not seriously that upset, right?" she questioned, an almost irritated tone to her voice. "Tony, I'd tell you if I were in a relationship, you know. But it's just dating."

"But you told Pepper!" he whined back, and she looked as if she would strike him if he kept it up.

"Yes, you idiot. I had to ask her what to wear and where to go," she pointed out, giving both him and Rhodey a glare. "It's not my fault she didn't tell you guys."

Tony let out another noise of frustration and faced his best friend.

"Next she's going to tell us she has a sex life! I don't know if my old heart can take it, Rhodes."

"Let's test it. I'm not a virgin."

Tony thought he was going to die right then and there.