Say it Back - [ironstrange]

17: purpose, part One

May 20th

"There was this place I used to go to with my family, a water park, and there was a sprinkler system. I was seven and I managed to destroy it." Stephen chuckled, watching as Christine hid her face as she laughed too. "Imagine being seven and you destroy an entire ride at a water park."

"I don't think I can, to be honest," Stephen admitted with a fading laugh. He continued writing the next equation, hating the thought of having to solve it. It wasn't like he couldn't or that it was hard, but he'd have to explain to Christine how to do it and also solve it himself. He was tired.

He felt he needed to ask about her thoughts on her process. She was doing better and better with calculus and Stephen was a good teacher. And they got to know each other. Well, Stephen got to know Christine, all Christine did was receive lies from Stephen to protect his sorcerer identity.

"What do you do during the summer?" Christine wondered. Stephen was meant to answer, with the truth this time since he spent a lot of time with Tony during the summer.

But he was interrupted by a loud rattling and the librarian shouting in a rage. "Mr. Stark and Mr. Barton! Get off the trolley right this instant!" She yelled.

Stephen and Christine turned their heads toward the hallway between bookcases and saw Tony, laying on the trolley which the librarian uses to store books on, while Clint pushed him and stood on the edges. They glided along the hall with the librarian stomping after them while they laughed hysterically.

"Tony?!" Stephen exclaimed as him and Clint neared their table.

"Oh, hello, Stephen!" Tony yelled back and waved.

"What the hell are you doing?"

They swooshed past and Tony turned back to answer. "Winning a bet!"

"Was he wearing a cowboy hat?" Christine asked, befuddled by the sight of the two boys and the sprinting librarian. She was someone who no one ever saw walking faster than an old man with a walker.

"I don't know him anymore."

&

"How was the principal's office?" Stephen asked casually while writing down his new biology assignment, he was nowadays always sitting next to Pepper. They had gotten close.

"They took my hat," Tony pouted and sank down in the chair next to his friend, his upper body sagging like a half-filled bag.

"Be glad they didn't take your head," he said like they were in an episode of Game of Thrones. It's ridiculous how such little things could cost you your life.

"The hat would still be on my head even if I was beheaded."

"Drama queen."

"You started it," he complained before resting his head on Stephen's shoulder.

"Just buy a new one." Stephen slightly turned his head so he could see just the tip of Tony's nose and his own nearly touching his sad friend's forehead. "You're a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I have attachment issues."

"I know."

Why Tony was surprised he got punished for disturbing the silence in the library was beyond comprehensible to Stephen, but he was sentenced to two weeks detention every Friday which meant he'd miss half an hour of practice. And yet he was still more upset about the hat.

Unfathomable stupidity resides in him, Stephen thought, snickering to himself. Tony heard but chose to make nothing of it. He was on the brink of falling asleep on Stephen's shoulder when he heard a notification from snapchat sound, naturally, because he had more friends, Tony thought it came from his but Stephen's display lit up.