tony stark is rich and popular and an arrogant asshole. in other words: his iq rivals einstein's, he's slept with most of his "friends" at least once, and he's so fucking lonely that sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and cries into the cold sheets on the empty side of the bed.
it's no different at SHIELD boarding school, at first. half the student body hates him, half want to be him, nothing new. that is, until tony accidentally breaks james barnes's prosthetic arm, and he suddenly finds the most vulnerable pieces of himself surfacing whether he wants them to or not.
Pretty much everything had gone to hell after the accident, really. Life had been good beforehand. His dad had been distant, sure, but his mother had been a warm light to wipe that all away. At least Howard had been supportive, in his own way. He hadn’t liked that Tony wanted to be a dancer, but he’d made damn sure Tony would be the absolute best once he figured out there was no persuading the young genius otherwise. He’d even been at that performance; the last one Tony had ever done. It was hard to keep dancing after a spinal injury, after all. Not to mention how all that metal in his chest really limited his lung capacity.
“Rhodey says it’s weird that we never fight,” Tony announces as he slams open the door to Bucky’s room, throwing his backpack into a corner and crawling up onto the bed, right into Bucky’s lap. “He says normal couples fight. We haven’t fought once in three years, do you know that?”
Bucky gives up on his homework, putting his book and papers on the nightstand and settling his hands on Tony’s hips instead, thumbs sneaking under his shirt. “I don’t wanna fight with you.”
“Right?” Tony throws up his own hands, then tangles one in Bucky’s hair and unceremoniously stuffs the other down Bucky’s pants, purring, “Much more interesting things to be done with our time.”
Bucky agrees wholeheartedly, hooking a leg over Tony’s and flipping them over.
High school AU - Adorable, sweater-wearing nerd Tony has been pining over Bucky Barnes from afar for years. When, on a dare from Rhodey, Tony starts to act on these feelings, Bucky is certain that he's trying to gain the favour of his best friend Steve, because why on Earth would someone as kind and intelligent and rich as Howard Stark's son be interested as someone as rough as Bucky?