Fic: Growin' Up (Iron Man/Fantastic Four movieverse gen)
Title: Growin’ Up
Author: harmonyangel
Crossover: Fantastic Four and Iron Man
Characters: Tony, Reed, cameos from the rest of the Fantastic Four. Gen with some canon Reed/Sue.
Word Count: 3,400
Recipient: inlovewithnight
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Request: Reed and Tony, gen or slash. They're the smartest men in the world. And completely dysfunctional in completely different ways. There should be something with that.
Summary: Four times Tony Stark saved Reed Richards’ life, and one time it was the other way around.
Author’s Notes: Many thanks to second_batgirl for beta and hand-holding, and to likeadeuce and mississippienne for encouragement and feedback along the way. Title and section headers are from Bruce Springsteen’s “Growin’ Up.” Also, I haven’t taken a real science class since high school, so forgive me if my scientific mumbo-jumbo is a little less than plausible. It’s comic books, right?
strolled all alone through a fallout zone
Reed Richards could have gone to college years earlier. He was more than smart enough, and motivated enough, to skip several grades in elementary and middle school. But his parents always refused to sign the necessary forms; Reed, they said, was socially awkward enough as it was. Throwing him into a shark tank of classmates years older than him would only stunt his development. In the end, Reed wasn’t sure it made much of a difference - he never had much in common with the other students in his year, and he finally gave up on ever making friends somewhere around 10th grade, when even the chess club started to resent his intelligence. But he was finally 18, and he was finally going to college, and maybe, just maybe, things would be different.
If he could just survive this scholarship banquet.
It wasn’t that Reed didn’t appreciate the scholarship. His parents weren’t poor enough for financial aid or rich enough to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to MIT, and the school didn’t offer merit awards. An outside scholarship was Reed’s only chance to avoid years of crushing student loan payments, and he was grateful that industrial giant Tony Stark had formed a special fund for students like him who’d chosen to attend his alma mater. What he hadn’t known, when he’d filled out the application and written a carefully-worded essay on his future ambitions, was that the acceptance of the scholarship would involve sitting uncomfortably at a table for several hours with nine other terrified prospective freshmen while Tony Stark himself gave them tips on MIT life.
“Now,” Tony said, raising his martini glass, “if you’re looking for a little bathroom action - and really, who isn’t? - you’ll want to go to the third floor of Baker House. Roomy stalls, nobody around to interrupt, and a nice view of the Charles River if you’re bent over the window sill. Or so I’ve been told.”
Reed desperately wanted to find an innocent interpretation for Tony’s advice, but the fact was that he’d been going on like this for at least half an hour. As far as Tony Stark seemed to be concerned, half of the college experience was about finding interesting places on campus to have sex-including, but not limited to, lecture halls, museums, and the library floor beneath the Great Dome. What made this even more startling was the public knowledge that Tony, unlike Reed, had skipped a few grades and had started college at age 14. Reed couldn’t imagine even talking to a girl when he was 14, much less having sex with one who was at least four years older. (To be honest, Reed still couldn’t imagine successfully having sex with a girl, of any age, though he had accomplished conversations once or twice in the last few years.)
Tony was finishing his seventh martini - Reed was keeping count - and whatever starstruck admiration Reed had felt upon first meeting him had long since faded into discomfort and bewilderment. Though he’d been talking nonstop since dinner began, Tony hadn’t mentioned the scholarship itself, or the students’ future plans, since the brief introductory speech he’d given to their parents. As if sensing their confusion - and Reed was glad to see, from the expressions on the others’ faces, that he wasn’t alone in that - Tony finally plunked down his glass and smiled.
“I know you were all expecting some kind of inspirational speech about character and persistence and the future and all that junk, but who needs to hear that? You know you’re geniuses. You don’t need me to tell you.” His eyes made a slow circle around the table, looking each student up and down, his expression more serious than it had been all evening. “But you’re part of Tony’s Gang now. And when you’re in Tony’s Gang, you get the kind of perks those big brains of yours might not get you on your own.”
Tony reached into his pocket and pulled out ten business cards, which he passed around the table. “Private phone number,” he explained. “Whatever you need, whenever you need it, you call me.”
Reed slipped the card into his pocket without looking at it and focused on his dinner, waiting for the banquet to end. Whatever “perks” Tony was offering, Reed wasn’t interested. He’d rather be sexless and lonely than a drunken hedonist like Tony Stark.
jukebox graduate for a first mate
As it turned out, Reed didn’t have to worry about keeping the business card, because Tony Stark had no intention of letting his “gang” get through college without his constant presence.
First it was just a dinner once a semester for all the scholarship recipients, which Reed could understand even if he didn’t relish those evenings. But after that came the e-mails, and the phone calls, and the surprise visits to campus to find out how they were doing in their classes and if they were working on anything interesting in their independent research.
Reed ignored Tony as much as he could. He was adjusting to college surprisingly well, and (less surprisingly) acing all of his classes. Working with world-renowned professors every day gave him a heady rush, and though he still wasn’t a social butterfly, he’d begun to make a friend or two, though some of them - particularly an arrogant international student named Victor von Doom - seemed to switch between his friends and his rivals depending on the day of the week. When Tony asked him how he was doing, Reed always answered honestly, if curtly, and though he never struck up the kind of chatty friendship some of the other scholarship students formed with him, Tony always seemed satisfied.
The only consolation to being stalked by a billionaire playboy genius was that Tony, despite all his bawdy advice, never actively hit on any of his scholarship students. Which, considering the stories that peppered the tabloids week after week, was a bit surprising. (It wasn’t that Reed read the tabloids; it was just that his eyes couldn’t help reading the headlines when he stood in line at the supermarket with an armload of Kraft macaroni and cheese.) For awhile, Reed was sure he was just missing the signs; he’d never exactly been clued in to the secret codes of human mating rituals. But the more he saw Tony in action, the more sure he became that Tony saw them solely as protégés, not conquests. Whatever his unorthodox methods, the man genuinely seemed to want them to succeed, even if his altruism was filtered through self-congratulation for finding them all in the first place.
That wasn’t to say that Tony was wholly uninterested in his protégés’ sex lives. Tony Stark’s definition of success, after all, was not limited to scientific and technological advancement. Which was why Reed got a call one night at one o’clock in the morning (despite his genius, California-based Tony never bothered to calculate time zones) and announced, without preamble, “I’m going to set you up with Sue Storm.”
Reed blinked at his phone. He knew Sue - she was another member of Tony’s Gang, and he couldn’t deny that he found her attractive. But he’d never actively pursued her, and he had no idea where Tony had gotten this idea in his head.
“Um,” Reed said, ever eloquent. “Why?”
“Reed, Reed, Reed, my boy.” Tony had a rather obnoxious habit of calling Reed “my boy,” despite the fact that he was only about seven years older than him. “Do I need a reason? She’s hot, she’s brilliant, and she’s single - a status, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, that you share.”
“Tony, I don’t need your help getting a date. I’m perfectly capable of doing that on my own.”
Tony actually laughed at that. “Reed, my boy, let no one tell you that you have no sense of humor. Now, I’ve made you dinner reservations for tomorrow night and my tailor will be delivering a suit in the morning. Eight o’clock. Don’t be late.”
The phone line went dead, and Reed barely resisted the urge to beat his head into the wall. But the next night, as ordered, he showed up at the restaurant in the clothes Tony had given him and met a stunning Sue Storm for dinner. The date was awkward as anything (and, as the first date of Reed’s life, potentially permanently debilitating), and Reed began to wonder why his super-intelligent brain couldn’t seem to come up with a suitable escape plan.
That’s when Sue spoke up. “Let’s get out of here. I like a nice dinner as much as the next girl, but you’ve been squirming for an hour.” She smiled. “I’m sure Tony won’t mind.”
Soon they found themselves lying on the grass of a quad, staring up at the stars. Sue told Reed about her brother, Johnny, who wanted to be an astronaut; Reed told Sue about his own secret space aspirations, something he’d never confessed to anyone before. Under the light of the Dippers Big and Little Reed received his first kiss, and thus began the greatest significant relationship of his lifetime.
All because of Tony Stark.
never once gave thought to landing
When Reed graduated from college, it was Tony who gave him his first job as a lab tech for Stark Industries. He rose in the ranks swiftly after that, earning multiple advanced degrees along the way and eventually becoming one of the company’s top research scientists.
Later, when Reed wanted to work on independent research in addition to his Stark work - he had never been all that comfortable working on weapons tech - Tony awarded him the grants to make it possible.
And when Reed finally patented his first private invention, something called the Ultimate Nullifier that no one outside of the scientific community actually understood the purpose of, it was Tony who bought the patent for a considerable sum, providing Reed with the funds to create his own private work space in the Baxter Building and devote himself to research full time.
All in all, it seemed, Reed was going to be a member of Tony’s Gang for the rest of his life. But he still wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
They were eating lunch one day in California, in the private back room of some swanky café. Tony never ate in back rooms - he loved mugging for the paparazzi - but Tony also knew crowds gave Reed hives, so he broke tradition for his sake.
“So, my boy,” Tony said, gesturing with his sandwich. “What’s the haps at NASA?”
Reed had been consulting with NASA for a few months, attempting to develop more effective rocket fuel for the shuttle program. He hadn’t yet let on that his aspirations had more to do with the stars themselves than the manner of getting there, but getting his foot in the door was at least allowing him to make connections. His official liason, a gruff mountain of a man named Ben Grimm, had swiftly become a very close friend, a fact that still surprised Reed daily. On the surface they had little in common beyond a fascination with outer space, but Ben, in his own blunt way, seemed to understand Reed better than anyone else ever had.
Certainly better than Tony ever had.
“Oh, it’s been great,” Reed said, politely. “They’re looking to test out the fuel within the next few months, provided the hydroelectric turbines can be modified to efficiently produce it.”
Tony sipped his martini - it was eleven o’clock in the morning - and furrowed his brow. “Have they tried any transistorized tech? I might have something they can work with that would make those turbines obsolete.”
Reed raised his eyebrows and considered the suggestion. “I’ll have to look into it.” These moments always surprised him, the sharp, unexpected reminders that Tony Stark, whatever his copious flaws, was still at heart a genius. He may not have been doing very much for his company - if the rumor mill was to be believed, he spent more time partying and tinkering with cars these days than he did designing weapons tech - but he hadn’t yet managed to cause alcohol-induced mass cell death in his brain.
“So, how’s the lovely lady? Still driving you wild with those big, heaving… brain hemispheres?” Tony winked.
“I have no idea,” Reed said, honestly. Sue had left him the week before, and he’d spent every day since reminding himself that he’d never had any claim on her to begin with and that it was a perfectly rational choice on her part to pursue greener pastures. He liked to think he was being very mature about the whole thing.
“Ouch. Too bad.” Tony brightened. “But, hey, there’s this girl I know, she works in R&D for Worthington, seems just your type.” He reached for his phone. “Here, I’ll arrange something with her right now.”
Reed shook his head strenuously. “I’d really rather you not.”
“Oh, come on. It’ll do you good. And here, let’s get you a drink, too.” He flagged down a waiter, ignoring Reed’s protests.
Ten minutes later, Reed had a glass of scotch and a date with a girl he was sure he wouldn’t see more than once. Tony smiled a self-satisfied smile across the table, his lips skimming the rim of his martini glass. “Like I always say, Reedy-boy. Anything you need, I’m here. You name it, you’ve got it.”
“Yeah,” Reed said, and he found himself staring at the tablecloth. “I know.” He’d known every day of his life since his high school graduation.
Tony didn’t miss the dark expression. “Hey, hey, what’s with the long face? I’m solving all your problems!”
Reed looked up at Tony, the stifled frustration of fifteen years simmering beneath his expression. “It’s nothing, Tony. Nothing at all.”
month-long vacations in the stratosphere
Later, when the bills started accumulating, when NASA and MIT and a dozen private research firms turned down Reed’s proposal for a fact-finding shuttle mission on the link between cosmic rays and evolution, it was Ben who asked the question.
“Hey, Reed, not to be a pain in the ass, but aren’t you friends with Moneybags Stark?”
Reed started shaking his head before Ben even finished the sentence. “No, Ben. I’m not asking him.”
“Why the hell not? He’s helped you out before, and it’s not like anyone else is offering.”
Reed stared at his hands, trying to find a way to articulate how he was feeling. He owed everything to Tony. His education, his career, the only thing remotely resembling a romantic history. This thing - this one thing that could change everything - it had to be his own. He couldn’t owe it to someone else.
“I just won’t. Besides, I have another idea.”
Humbling himself to Victor von Doom had never been Reed’s first choice, but it beat reaffirming his inferiority to Tony Stark.
In the days after the accident, when Reed was working day and night to find a cure for the havoc his hubris had wreaked on his best friend, the only girl he’d ever loved, and her brother, Tony stopped by the Baxter Building. It was supposed to be a quarantined space, but Tony had never met a rule that he believed applied to him, and the receptionist on the first floor let him up.
When Tony walked in the door, Reed was in the process of calculating equations with his right hand while his left stretched across the room to turn the dials on his prototype machine.
“Whoa. This is even better than TMZ made it sound. Has your skin actually vulcanized?”
Reed retracted his hand. “What are you doing here?”
“I can’t check on my good buddy after he’s barely come home from outer space in one piece? “
Reed frowned down at his table. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little busy right now.”
Tony approached his papers, glancing over the tiny digits and Greek letters, and his voice became more serious.
“Reed, why didn’t you-“
“Don’t, Tony. I don’t want to hear that right now.” He couldn’t bear to hear “I told you so,” or whatever the equivalent would be in this situation. I told you you’d need me for the rest of your life. I told you you had to depend on me utterly. See what happens when you don’t?
“I was just asking why you didn’t increase the molality of the sodium fluoride solution.”
Reed looked down at his papers and did a few quick calculations. Tony was right. Increasing the molality would improve the speed of molecular metamorphosis tenfold.
By the time Reed looked up to thank him, Tony had disappeared.
cosmic kid in full costume dress
A year later, when the rest of the world gasped in surprise at the revelation that Tony Stark was Iron Man, Reed didn’t bat an eyelash. Of course Tony would use the opportunity afforded by capture to build a robot suit. Reed was sure he'd have done the same thing. In technological experimentation, if nothing else, he and Tony had always been of similar minds.
The first time they encountered each other after Tony became Iron Man, Reed and the other members of the Fantastic Four were in the process of fighting Victor. Again. Tony, apparently in New York on business, swept in with his gleaming metal and rocket boots and delivered a mechanical greeting of "Hey, Stretch-o" as he shot a repulsor blast at Reed's arch-enemy. Reed had only a moment to wonder how his life became so full of metal-covered egomaniacs before he seized the opportunity provided by Tony's distraction and wrapped himself around Victor, immobilizing his arms. With an assist from Sue's force fields, the battle seemed all but won.
That’s when Victor let out a shockwave and an EMP and knocked Tony unconscious.
In the ensuing chaos, Sue dropped her force fields, which Reed had crashed against as the shockwave propelled him from Victor’s body. Victor cackled.
“Did you really think you were my goal this time, Richards? Mr. Stark is far more valuable a prize. This fight was just a lure.” He took a step toward Tony’s crumpled body.
In the pregnant pause that followed, Reed waited for Tony to wake up and sock Victor across the jaw with a metal fist. This was Tony Stark, after all. Three months in a cave hadn’t kept him down. He could do anything he set his mind to.
But when Tony continued to lay like a brightly-colored scrap heap on the ground, Reed realized he needed to take action of his own. Instinctively, he stretched his body out, tarp-like, and enveloped Tony’s suit. The others could hold Victor off for awhile, and his rubbery body naturally repelled Victor’s electricity. He could buy a few minutes to do what needed to be done.
Hacking Tony’s armor wasn’t an easy task. Tony was likely the only person who’d ever touched the tech, and it was covered with the hallmarks of his firm and idiosyncratic hand. But Reed soon realized that the armor’s schematics included several features he himself had developed during his time at Stark Industries, including a miniaturized version of the Ultimate Nullifier he’d patented. With a little prodding and rewiring, Reed managed to circumvent the voice-activated protocols and interface directly with J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony’s personal A.I.
Reed contracted his body and saw Ben punching Victor mercilessly, dodging electrical attacks as Johnny flew overhead, strafing the hood of Victor’s cloak. Though Tony remained unconscious, the suit rose on Reed’s command.
“You always did underestimate my value, Victor,” Reed said, coolly, right before ordering J.A.R.V.I.S. to fire the suit’s Nullifier-enhanced repulsors at full blast.
Later, when Victor had been taken in by the authorities and Tony had woken up in Reed’s lab, Reed explained what had happened. He could only barely disguise the edge of guilt in his voice. He and Tony hadn’t spoken since that day in the lab with the molality, and their reunion now had only been precipitated by a nearly-disastrous encounter with a man Reed should have taken care of ages ago.
“I did the best I could,” Reed finished lamely, hanging on a slim hope that Tony might choose to believe him.
But Tony, still looking dazed, just smiled. “That’s what I love about you, Reed. You’ve always got my back.”
Author: harmonyangel
Crossover: Fantastic Four and Iron Man
Characters: Tony, Reed, cameos from the rest of the Fantastic Four. Gen with some canon Reed/Sue.
Word Count: 3,400
Recipient: inlovewithnight
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Request: Reed and Tony, gen or slash. They're the smartest men in the world. And completely dysfunctional in completely different ways. There should be something with that.
Summary: Four times Tony Stark saved Reed Richards’ life, and one time it was the other way around.
Author’s Notes: Many thanks to second_batgirl for beta and hand-holding, and to likeadeuce and mississippienne for encouragement and feedback along the way. Title and section headers are from Bruce Springsteen’s “Growin’ Up.” Also, I haven’t taken a real science class since high school, so forgive me if my scientific mumbo-jumbo is a little less than plausible. It’s comic books, right?
strolled all alone through a fallout zone
Reed Richards could have gone to college years earlier. He was more than smart enough, and motivated enough, to skip several grades in elementary and middle school. But his parents always refused to sign the necessary forms; Reed, they said, was socially awkward enough as it was. Throwing him into a shark tank of classmates years older than him would only stunt his development. In the end, Reed wasn’t sure it made much of a difference - he never had much in common with the other students in his year, and he finally gave up on ever making friends somewhere around 10th grade, when even the chess club started to resent his intelligence. But he was finally 18, and he was finally going to college, and maybe, just maybe, things would be different.
If he could just survive this scholarship banquet.
It wasn’t that Reed didn’t appreciate the scholarship. His parents weren’t poor enough for financial aid or rich enough to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to MIT, and the school didn’t offer merit awards. An outside scholarship was Reed’s only chance to avoid years of crushing student loan payments, and he was grateful that industrial giant Tony Stark had formed a special fund for students like him who’d chosen to attend his alma mater. What he hadn’t known, when he’d filled out the application and written a carefully-worded essay on his future ambitions, was that the acceptance of the scholarship would involve sitting uncomfortably at a table for several hours with nine other terrified prospective freshmen while Tony Stark himself gave them tips on MIT life.
“Now,” Tony said, raising his martini glass, “if you’re looking for a little bathroom action - and really, who isn’t? - you’ll want to go to the third floor of Baker House. Roomy stalls, nobody around to interrupt, and a nice view of the Charles River if you’re bent over the window sill. Or so I’ve been told.”
Reed desperately wanted to find an innocent interpretation for Tony’s advice, but the fact was that he’d been going on like this for at least half an hour. As far as Tony Stark seemed to be concerned, half of the college experience was about finding interesting places on campus to have sex-including, but not limited to, lecture halls, museums, and the library floor beneath the Great Dome. What made this even more startling was the public knowledge that Tony, unlike Reed, had skipped a few grades and had started college at age 14. Reed couldn’t imagine even talking to a girl when he was 14, much less having sex with one who was at least four years older. (To be honest, Reed still couldn’t imagine successfully having sex with a girl, of any age, though he had accomplished conversations once or twice in the last few years.)
Tony was finishing his seventh martini - Reed was keeping count - and whatever starstruck admiration Reed had felt upon first meeting him had long since faded into discomfort and bewilderment. Though he’d been talking nonstop since dinner began, Tony hadn’t mentioned the scholarship itself, or the students’ future plans, since the brief introductory speech he’d given to their parents. As if sensing their confusion - and Reed was glad to see, from the expressions on the others’ faces, that he wasn’t alone in that - Tony finally plunked down his glass and smiled.
“I know you were all expecting some kind of inspirational speech about character and persistence and the future and all that junk, but who needs to hear that? You know you’re geniuses. You don’t need me to tell you.” His eyes made a slow circle around the table, looking each student up and down, his expression more serious than it had been all evening. “But you’re part of Tony’s Gang now. And when you’re in Tony’s Gang, you get the kind of perks those big brains of yours might not get you on your own.”
Tony reached into his pocket and pulled out ten business cards, which he passed around the table. “Private phone number,” he explained. “Whatever you need, whenever you need it, you call me.”
Reed slipped the card into his pocket without looking at it and focused on his dinner, waiting for the banquet to end. Whatever “perks” Tony was offering, Reed wasn’t interested. He’d rather be sexless and lonely than a drunken hedonist like Tony Stark.
jukebox graduate for a first mate
As it turned out, Reed didn’t have to worry about keeping the business card, because Tony Stark had no intention of letting his “gang” get through college without his constant presence.
First it was just a dinner once a semester for all the scholarship recipients, which Reed could understand even if he didn’t relish those evenings. But after that came the e-mails, and the phone calls, and the surprise visits to campus to find out how they were doing in their classes and if they were working on anything interesting in their independent research.
Reed ignored Tony as much as he could. He was adjusting to college surprisingly well, and (less surprisingly) acing all of his classes. Working with world-renowned professors every day gave him a heady rush, and though he still wasn’t a social butterfly, he’d begun to make a friend or two, though some of them - particularly an arrogant international student named Victor von Doom - seemed to switch between his friends and his rivals depending on the day of the week. When Tony asked him how he was doing, Reed always answered honestly, if curtly, and though he never struck up the kind of chatty friendship some of the other scholarship students formed with him, Tony always seemed satisfied.
The only consolation to being stalked by a billionaire playboy genius was that Tony, despite all his bawdy advice, never actively hit on any of his scholarship students. Which, considering the stories that peppered the tabloids week after week, was a bit surprising. (It wasn’t that Reed read the tabloids; it was just that his eyes couldn’t help reading the headlines when he stood in line at the supermarket with an armload of Kraft macaroni and cheese.) For awhile, Reed was sure he was just missing the signs; he’d never exactly been clued in to the secret codes of human mating rituals. But the more he saw Tony in action, the more sure he became that Tony saw them solely as protégés, not conquests. Whatever his unorthodox methods, the man genuinely seemed to want them to succeed, even if his altruism was filtered through self-congratulation for finding them all in the first place.
That wasn’t to say that Tony was wholly uninterested in his protégés’ sex lives. Tony Stark’s definition of success, after all, was not limited to scientific and technological advancement. Which was why Reed got a call one night at one o’clock in the morning (despite his genius, California-based Tony never bothered to calculate time zones) and announced, without preamble, “I’m going to set you up with Sue Storm.”
Reed blinked at his phone. He knew Sue - she was another member of Tony’s Gang, and he couldn’t deny that he found her attractive. But he’d never actively pursued her, and he had no idea where Tony had gotten this idea in his head.
“Um,” Reed said, ever eloquent. “Why?”
“Reed, Reed, Reed, my boy.” Tony had a rather obnoxious habit of calling Reed “my boy,” despite the fact that he was only about seven years older than him. “Do I need a reason? She’s hot, she’s brilliant, and she’s single - a status, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, that you share.”
“Tony, I don’t need your help getting a date. I’m perfectly capable of doing that on my own.”
Tony actually laughed at that. “Reed, my boy, let no one tell you that you have no sense of humor. Now, I’ve made you dinner reservations for tomorrow night and my tailor will be delivering a suit in the morning. Eight o’clock. Don’t be late.”
The phone line went dead, and Reed barely resisted the urge to beat his head into the wall. But the next night, as ordered, he showed up at the restaurant in the clothes Tony had given him and met a stunning Sue Storm for dinner. The date was awkward as anything (and, as the first date of Reed’s life, potentially permanently debilitating), and Reed began to wonder why his super-intelligent brain couldn’t seem to come up with a suitable escape plan.
That’s when Sue spoke up. “Let’s get out of here. I like a nice dinner as much as the next girl, but you’ve been squirming for an hour.” She smiled. “I’m sure Tony won’t mind.”
Soon they found themselves lying on the grass of a quad, staring up at the stars. Sue told Reed about her brother, Johnny, who wanted to be an astronaut; Reed told Sue about his own secret space aspirations, something he’d never confessed to anyone before. Under the light of the Dippers Big and Little Reed received his first kiss, and thus began the greatest significant relationship of his lifetime.
All because of Tony Stark.
never once gave thought to landing
When Reed graduated from college, it was Tony who gave him his first job as a lab tech for Stark Industries. He rose in the ranks swiftly after that, earning multiple advanced degrees along the way and eventually becoming one of the company’s top research scientists.
Later, when Reed wanted to work on independent research in addition to his Stark work - he had never been all that comfortable working on weapons tech - Tony awarded him the grants to make it possible.
And when Reed finally patented his first private invention, something called the Ultimate Nullifier that no one outside of the scientific community actually understood the purpose of, it was Tony who bought the patent for a considerable sum, providing Reed with the funds to create his own private work space in the Baxter Building and devote himself to research full time.
All in all, it seemed, Reed was going to be a member of Tony’s Gang for the rest of his life. But he still wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
They were eating lunch one day in California, in the private back room of some swanky café. Tony never ate in back rooms - he loved mugging for the paparazzi - but Tony also knew crowds gave Reed hives, so he broke tradition for his sake.
“So, my boy,” Tony said, gesturing with his sandwich. “What’s the haps at NASA?”
Reed had been consulting with NASA for a few months, attempting to develop more effective rocket fuel for the shuttle program. He hadn’t yet let on that his aspirations had more to do with the stars themselves than the manner of getting there, but getting his foot in the door was at least allowing him to make connections. His official liason, a gruff mountain of a man named Ben Grimm, had swiftly become a very close friend, a fact that still surprised Reed daily. On the surface they had little in common beyond a fascination with outer space, but Ben, in his own blunt way, seemed to understand Reed better than anyone else ever had.
Certainly better than Tony ever had.
“Oh, it’s been great,” Reed said, politely. “They’re looking to test out the fuel within the next few months, provided the hydroelectric turbines can be modified to efficiently produce it.”
Tony sipped his martini - it was eleven o’clock in the morning - and furrowed his brow. “Have they tried any transistorized tech? I might have something they can work with that would make those turbines obsolete.”
Reed raised his eyebrows and considered the suggestion. “I’ll have to look into it.” These moments always surprised him, the sharp, unexpected reminders that Tony Stark, whatever his copious flaws, was still at heart a genius. He may not have been doing very much for his company - if the rumor mill was to be believed, he spent more time partying and tinkering with cars these days than he did designing weapons tech - but he hadn’t yet managed to cause alcohol-induced mass cell death in his brain.
“So, how’s the lovely lady? Still driving you wild with those big, heaving… brain hemispheres?” Tony winked.
“I have no idea,” Reed said, honestly. Sue had left him the week before, and he’d spent every day since reminding himself that he’d never had any claim on her to begin with and that it was a perfectly rational choice on her part to pursue greener pastures. He liked to think he was being very mature about the whole thing.
“Ouch. Too bad.” Tony brightened. “But, hey, there’s this girl I know, she works in R&D for Worthington, seems just your type.” He reached for his phone. “Here, I’ll arrange something with her right now.”
Reed shook his head strenuously. “I’d really rather you not.”
“Oh, come on. It’ll do you good. And here, let’s get you a drink, too.” He flagged down a waiter, ignoring Reed’s protests.
Ten minutes later, Reed had a glass of scotch and a date with a girl he was sure he wouldn’t see more than once. Tony smiled a self-satisfied smile across the table, his lips skimming the rim of his martini glass. “Like I always say, Reedy-boy. Anything you need, I’m here. You name it, you’ve got it.”
“Yeah,” Reed said, and he found himself staring at the tablecloth. “I know.” He’d known every day of his life since his high school graduation.
Tony didn’t miss the dark expression. “Hey, hey, what’s with the long face? I’m solving all your problems!”
Reed looked up at Tony, the stifled frustration of fifteen years simmering beneath his expression. “It’s nothing, Tony. Nothing at all.”
month-long vacations in the stratosphere
Later, when the bills started accumulating, when NASA and MIT and a dozen private research firms turned down Reed’s proposal for a fact-finding shuttle mission on the link between cosmic rays and evolution, it was Ben who asked the question.
“Hey, Reed, not to be a pain in the ass, but aren’t you friends with Moneybags Stark?”
Reed started shaking his head before Ben even finished the sentence. “No, Ben. I’m not asking him.”
“Why the hell not? He’s helped you out before, and it’s not like anyone else is offering.”
Reed stared at his hands, trying to find a way to articulate how he was feeling. He owed everything to Tony. His education, his career, the only thing remotely resembling a romantic history. This thing - this one thing that could change everything - it had to be his own. He couldn’t owe it to someone else.
“I just won’t. Besides, I have another idea.”
Humbling himself to Victor von Doom had never been Reed’s first choice, but it beat reaffirming his inferiority to Tony Stark.
In the days after the accident, when Reed was working day and night to find a cure for the havoc his hubris had wreaked on his best friend, the only girl he’d ever loved, and her brother, Tony stopped by the Baxter Building. It was supposed to be a quarantined space, but Tony had never met a rule that he believed applied to him, and the receptionist on the first floor let him up.
When Tony walked in the door, Reed was in the process of calculating equations with his right hand while his left stretched across the room to turn the dials on his prototype machine.
“Whoa. This is even better than TMZ made it sound. Has your skin actually vulcanized?”
Reed retracted his hand. “What are you doing here?”
“I can’t check on my good buddy after he’s barely come home from outer space in one piece? “
Reed frowned down at his table. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little busy right now.”
Tony approached his papers, glancing over the tiny digits and Greek letters, and his voice became more serious.
“Reed, why didn’t you-“
“Don’t, Tony. I don’t want to hear that right now.” He couldn’t bear to hear “I told you so,” or whatever the equivalent would be in this situation. I told you you’d need me for the rest of your life. I told you you had to depend on me utterly. See what happens when you don’t?
“I was just asking why you didn’t increase the molality of the sodium fluoride solution.”
Reed looked down at his papers and did a few quick calculations. Tony was right. Increasing the molality would improve the speed of molecular metamorphosis tenfold.
By the time Reed looked up to thank him, Tony had disappeared.
cosmic kid in full costume dress
A year later, when the rest of the world gasped in surprise at the revelation that Tony Stark was Iron Man, Reed didn’t bat an eyelash. Of course Tony would use the opportunity afforded by capture to build a robot suit. Reed was sure he'd have done the same thing. In technological experimentation, if nothing else, he and Tony had always been of similar minds.
The first time they encountered each other after Tony became Iron Man, Reed and the other members of the Fantastic Four were in the process of fighting Victor. Again. Tony, apparently in New York on business, swept in with his gleaming metal and rocket boots and delivered a mechanical greeting of "Hey, Stretch-o" as he shot a repulsor blast at Reed's arch-enemy. Reed had only a moment to wonder how his life became so full of metal-covered egomaniacs before he seized the opportunity provided by Tony's distraction and wrapped himself around Victor, immobilizing his arms. With an assist from Sue's force fields, the battle seemed all but won.
That’s when Victor let out a shockwave and an EMP and knocked Tony unconscious.
In the ensuing chaos, Sue dropped her force fields, which Reed had crashed against as the shockwave propelled him from Victor’s body. Victor cackled.
“Did you really think you were my goal this time, Richards? Mr. Stark is far more valuable a prize. This fight was just a lure.” He took a step toward Tony’s crumpled body.
In the pregnant pause that followed, Reed waited for Tony to wake up and sock Victor across the jaw with a metal fist. This was Tony Stark, after all. Three months in a cave hadn’t kept him down. He could do anything he set his mind to.
But when Tony continued to lay like a brightly-colored scrap heap on the ground, Reed realized he needed to take action of his own. Instinctively, he stretched his body out, tarp-like, and enveloped Tony’s suit. The others could hold Victor off for awhile, and his rubbery body naturally repelled Victor’s electricity. He could buy a few minutes to do what needed to be done.
Hacking Tony’s armor wasn’t an easy task. Tony was likely the only person who’d ever touched the tech, and it was covered with the hallmarks of his firm and idiosyncratic hand. But Reed soon realized that the armor’s schematics included several features he himself had developed during his time at Stark Industries, including a miniaturized version of the Ultimate Nullifier he’d patented. With a little prodding and rewiring, Reed managed to circumvent the voice-activated protocols and interface directly with J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony’s personal A.I.
Reed contracted his body and saw Ben punching Victor mercilessly, dodging electrical attacks as Johnny flew overhead, strafing the hood of Victor’s cloak. Though Tony remained unconscious, the suit rose on Reed’s command.
“You always did underestimate my value, Victor,” Reed said, coolly, right before ordering J.A.R.V.I.S. to fire the suit’s Nullifier-enhanced repulsors at full blast.
Later, when Victor had been taken in by the authorities and Tony had woken up in Reed’s lab, Reed explained what had happened. He could only barely disguise the edge of guilt in his voice. He and Tony hadn’t spoken since that day in the lab with the molality, and their reunion now had only been precipitated by a nearly-disastrous encounter with a man Reed should have taken care of ages ago.
“I did the best I could,” Reed finished lamely, hanging on a slim hope that Tony might choose to believe him.
But Tony, still looking dazed, just smiled. “That’s what I love about you, Reed. You’ve always got my back.”