A/N: Hey there. I know it's been awhile and I wanted to update...but I feel guilty 'cause I don't think this is quite as good and definitely not as long. I'm sorry, but I do believe this is necessary. I'm excited 'cause I came up with so much plot and background but I have to wait until later chapters to use it. Sorry. And I promise, next chapter will have Clintasha. Yay!
And, as always, check out my other stuff, take the poll on my profile, and tell your friends about this story!
Also - REVIEWS! I LOVE THEM AND WANT MORE! :D
Love always,
~PJA
P.S. My birthday's in three days...just saying

Chapter 7: Tony

Gloriously ending his torture, the bell rung, and Tony leaped out of his seat to celebrate the end of the day. Quite honestly, this day wasn't nearly as bad as he thought it would be. He'd made some great friends - and that, honestly, was something he had trouble doing. He was looking forward to the little outing he'd scheduled for Friday - it was Tuesday! Why'd he have to wait three more days? Of course, he'd have to make all the arrangements, make reservations, and make sure his dad didn't notice all the missing money. No harm, no foul.

Of course, just as Tony was preparing to make his grand exit, he saw her. And he stopped.

It was the lovely and beautiful Pepper Potts. Strawberry blonde hair pulled up behind her head, and her official-looking attire daunting all she passed, her shoes clacked down the hallway as she walked next to her friend Jane Foster. They were deep in conversation about something, and hardly seemed to notice Tony gawking at them. Well, just at Pepper. However, luckily for Tony, Jane bid goodbye to her friend and left to go to her locker, which left Pepper all alone heading for the exit. Tony grinned. Now it was time to being this year's edition of the game Make Pepper Fall in Love with Tony. Tony hoped that this year, he'd win the game.

Pepper didn't see him until Tony had already slipped an arm over her shoulder. "Hello, darling. How was your first day of school today? I noticed that we didn't have any classes together this year. What a shame, I say."

"I say it's quite a relief after the four we had together last year," Pepper retorted, attempting and failing to get Tony to remove his arm.

Tony made an executive decision to ignore her comment. "How 'bout we go get some coffee? On me."

Pepper sighed. "Are we doing this again?" This time she stopped, removing his arm and looking into those dark brown eyes of his. "I told you all last year. I'm not interested."

Tony sighed. But he wouldn't give up yet. This wasn't just a game to him. "Fine. Can we at least be friends?"

Pepper took a moment to consider. "Fine. Friends."

"Can we get some coffee then? As friends?"

"Sorry, can't. Jane wants me to go with her and Darcy while they take pictures of the football team. And then afterwards we're going downtown to pickup some science and astronomy books."

It made sense. Jane and Darcy were photography students, along with them both being brilliant in the science department. But Tony couldn't help but feel hurt, especially if they were going to take photos of the football team. "Our football team sucks," Tony stated.

"I know," Pepper agreed. "We're in desperate need of some new players, but apparently out of the thousands of kids in our school, no one's good. But still, they have to take pictures for their class. And I think they wanted to go check out all the players."

"'They'? Not 'we'?" Tony brightened up.

"Don't get your hopes up. They're just not my type," Pepper responded, seeing the look in Tony's eyes. "Now I've gotta go. Have a nice time...doing whatever it is you do." She began to walk away, her shoes clacking as she left.

Tony sighed. "See you later." She didn't hear him. He had been hoping, in the pit of his heart, that he'd have the opportunity to invite her to his Friday night outing. Then it would be a double date...plus Steve and Bruce. But no. Alas, that was a thing for another day.

He gave another sigh. He'd get her someday. Sooner or later, Pepper Potts would be his.

Tony drove his car into the garage, joining the other fifteen-some-odd that were already there. He settled the car in park and took the key out of the ignition. He barely had a chance to grab his bag and slam the car door behind him before a platoon of mechanics and cleaners were on the car, inspecting, cleaning and fixing it, bringing the car back to sparkling perfection. One of these days Tony would drive it through a mud pit just to get on everyone's nerves.

Tony got in the elevator and rode it up to the main floor, tossing his bag onto the couch and helping himself to whatever was left in the pantry. He settled himself on the couch, putting his feet up on the table. One of the old, crinkled maids, currently vacuuming the floor, gave him a dirty look.

"Sorry, Felicity," Tony apologized. "I know better than to put my feet on the table." He removed his feet, admiring the crust of dirt he left there.

"As you should," Felicity snapped, sucked the dirt into the vacuum cleaner before moving back to the floor. "Your father won't be home until late."

"When is he not?" Tony wrenched open the bag of Ruffles he'd stolen and shoved a handful into his mouth. "Who's he meeting with this time? The President? Wouldn't be the first time."

"No, not the President," Felicity put away the vacuum and took out a feather duster, beginning her rounds on the countertops. "Some military man. Rogers, I think."

Another handful of chips stopped halfway to his mouth. "Rogers?"

"Yeah, Rogers. He's worked with him before. What's got you so bothered?"

Tony tried not to sweat at the palms. "Um, nothing. I've gotta go work on my homework now." Tony sprinted from the couch to the elevator, knocking the chips to the floor and spilling them all over the ground. Felicity steamed.

"Clean up your own mess, Anthony Stark!" she shouted at him, waving the feather duster in his direction. "Wait, don't you need your bag -" It was too late. The elevator door closed.

He clicked through his dad's files. Either he had no files on a man with the last name of Rogers, or it was well-hidden. And knowing his dad, it was most likely the latter.

This wasn't the first time he'd broken into his dad's office, but it was the first time he'd done so with a purpose. He had to know the connection between his dad and Steve's dad. There was something big there, and he didn't know what, and it was bothering him. He had to know. There was no way that Steve Rogers, the kid he'd met at that party eight years ago, and whose dad was a business partner of Tony's dad, could be now going to Tony's school by coincidence. Tony had to know what ulterior motives were at work here.

Ha-ha! Tony celebrated, as he'd just managed to crack the code for his dad's secret files. Honestly, the date when he'd started his company wasn't that hard to guess.

Tony sifted through the files, his hungry eyes scanning for a man named Rogers, and his connection to Tony's dad, and what Steve might have to do with everything.

Bingo. There it was. It was a file on a man named Joseph Rogers, married to Sarah Rogers and father of Steven Rogers. Tony knew he'd found the one. He knew he didn't have time to read everything, so he quickly emailed the file to himself, deleted the evidence, and then skimmed through the file. Joseph was a military man, and moved around with his family a lot. He married his wife and had his son in New York City, and lived there until Steve was five. Since then he'd lived in six places, and had moved back to New York twice. Poor Steve hadn't had much time to settle in some place.

Then he saw something much more interesting. Tony's father had met Steve's father at some presidential event for the military, and they'd hit it off. Tony didn't think he had time to read through it all right now, so he skimmed. It looked like they'd discussed some business stuff, and then they'd helped work with this organization called...S.H.I.E.L.D.? Tony decided to look into that as well.

He managed to find this file particularly quickly. He immediately emailed the file to himself and then decided to read it. He needed to know what S.H.I.E.L.D. was. It seemed like it was an important thing.

He didn't get very far before he heard footsteps approaching the room. And they weren't the click-clack shoes of any of the maids.

Shit. Tony had about fifteen seconds to clear the evidence of his searching. He frantically closed all boxes, cleared all searching and browsing history, made sure the desktop was clean, and then opened up a folder of pictures to browse, and propped his feet up on the table.

The door creaked open. Tony hoped no one could hear his heart pounding.

"Tony, what are you doing in here?"

Tony turned his head. "Oh, hi Dad! Nice to see you."

Howard Stark was not pleased. He stood tall, menacing and unamused. Even in his old age, Tony's father was one of the scariest, strict, and influential people Tony had ever known. He did not like to be crossed. He did not like to be out of control or power. And he did not like to be outwitted. "You're avoiding the question, Tony."

"Oh, right, that." Tony gestured to the screen. "I'm looking at some old pictures. Lovely, huh? Look! There's me when I was four! You used to love me back then, right?"

Howard looked as if he was about to blow a fuse. "Anthony Edward Stark, you have three seconds to get out of here. One..."

"Come on, Dad, you can't be that serious! I was only looking at pictures is all..."

"Two..."

"Fine. Alright, I'm going."

Tony swung his feet off the desk and landed them hard on the ground, not even so much as giving a glance to his dad as he walked past him, out the door and into the elevator. He had files waiting for him in his room.

Tony threw himself onto his bed. He sighed, then ran his hands through his hair. Couldn't life be easy, for a change? Was that too much to ask? Was it? He couldn't get the girl of his dreams to like him, he couldn't make his father love him, and he could barely make friends. What kind of life was this? The best things he'd done with his life were learning technology and hacking, and creating J.A.R.V.I.S. He'd had a butler, Edwin Jarvis, back when he was a little kid. He was more of a father than Howard ever was. But then he'd passed away, and Tony had created an A.I. in honor of him. It was Just a Rather Very Intelligent System. Probably one of the only useful things Tony had ever done.

He rose. He decided now would be a good a time as any to look at those files. He could put away the inner turmoil inside him and distract it by reading about this S.H.I.E.L.D. thing, whatever it was.

He sat down at his computer, opened up the emails, and began to read. It wasn't interesting at first, but as he got further along in the files, his eyes began to open wide. He honestly couldn't believe that his father was involved in something as large and complex as this, and have given to acknowledgement of it to Tony. Even stranger was that Steve's dad was just as involved, and it seemed Steve also had no clue.

But then it got worse. Tony opened his mouth in shock. This was not good. He had to tell Steve. He had to tell Steve as soon as possible. This was big.