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It’s advertised as a ‘Protecting an investment’, and only open to ROTC students deemed mature enough to handle the task, whatever that means. Jim has no idea, seeing as the whole advert is couched in equally unspecific terms, but it looks like quite the job and his superiors are clearly aware of its importance, even if it isn’t directly military based.
And, well, it includes free food and board, which is something Jim needs; the Air Force has been generous in paying for his graduate degree, but they aren’t covering living costs.
So he applies for the mysterious, unspecified assignment, and is pleased to be called for an interview, if slightly terrified that all his superiors and some higher ups are all there. He tries to not look too closely at their stripes; the decorations alone are making him feel a bit faint. Whatever this is must be imperative. But it goes well, his engineering background apparently winning him some favors, and in the end they tell him he seems mature and self-sufficient, with a stable outlook that is both encouraging of his future career and his durability in what is to come. He still doesn’t know what the hell he’s signed up for, but apparently these are all important qualities to have.
They leave him with one final message; Don’t screw up. If he maybe sits down for a while afterwards, still confused as to what the hell is going on, and feeling a bit sick at the prospect, well, the room was rather hot and they say dress takes a while to get used to.
At the given time he moves into his new digs and waits for his briefing. Two days later the Howard Stark turns up at his door. So phased by the terror and mild awe at what's been sprung on him, he barely notices the kid curiously peeking out from behind him.
Instead of trying to abate the shock he’s wrought, Howard Stark sends the kid off to another room with a forbidding gesture before subjecting Jim to the most grueling hour of his life. The upper echelons of the military have nothing on this guy.
It is from this that Jim gathers a) Howard Stark is a genius but also a massive hardass, b) As the military’s greatest supplier anything in his interest is in their interest, c) Howard Stark’s son is also a genius and that is why he has taken the decision not to restrict his intellect and send him off to college at the tender age of 14. And - this is where Jim comes in - d) because he’s only 14, Howard (and Maria, whoever that is) felt it would be best to provide him with some form of protector/provider to make sure nothing bad happens to him. Which, seeing as the boy is an up and coming engineering maverick like his father, means the military were happy to provide.
Finally, and potentially most important to Jim; e) that if he screwed this up Jim’s life would not be worth living. And did Jim know Howard had helped invent the atomic bomb?
At the end of this interview, Howard seems marginally satisfied (though he doesn’t seem a man often completely satisfied so Jim tries not to be too worried), and Jim himself is left marginally traumatised. He will later remember this in the same nightmares that feature his combat memories and other PTSD inducing experiences. It will take him even longer to realise that whilst he knew from the get-go Howard Stark adored his son; his son never had the same realisation.
Finally being deemed worthy, the kid is summoned back for Jim to meet, even as Howard steps between them once more. The head poking out from behind is introduced as Tony, and he barely says a word, leaving the only things Jim knows about him as his name, age, apparent genius, and the fact that he is absolutely tiny, but has the biggest eyes Jim has ever seen. Jim will swear up and down he has never seen any Disney film, but the resemblance to Bambi is mildly upsetting.
When Howard looks at his watch, it is with the grim look of a busy parent who now needs to leave their baby behind. With a few gruff words about being good and trying his best, Howard finally takes his leave, brushing off his son’s attempt for a hug off with a pat of the shoulder. If Tony’s brief hurt look is anything to go by he didn’t see the mist in his father’s eyes, but it’s not Jim’s place to interfere.
So that’s how Jim found himself with custody of a kid genius.
“I’ll show you to your room” Jim told him, attempting to be reassuring. The kid seemed quiet; college was intimidating enough for people older than him, so Jim took this as a sign that he was shy and/or intimidated and would need some serious support.
Two days later Jim had been renamed Rhodey, much to his displeasure and Tony had. Not. Shut. Up.
Rhodey will laugh years down the line when people make up wild rumours about Tony Stark’s college days because, honestly, they really aren’t that wild.
Tony’s not actually that famous, and being both much younger and much brighter than his peers means he tends to be ignored, which he seems used to. He still keeps up a constant stream of chatter to Rhodey, who finds he can’t shut him up, what with the fatal combination of his own empathy for the kid, and the sheer force of Tony’s personality when away from his dad.
He’s hardworking, and if he’s out late it’s because he’s in the labs rather than because of parties. Despite that, Rhodey is still pole-axed when Tony finishes his undergraduate in a year and a semester. Tony merely shrugs.
“I tested out of a bunch of stuff before I even came. Besides, it was all really boring, you’re stuff looked way more interesting.”
“I’m still pretty sure you can’t graduate in 18 months, man. There are credit load limits and only so much you can test out of. Things haven’t changed that much since I finished my undergrad.”
“I don’t believe in limits.”
“Whatever, I bet they send your ass back down to freshman before you manage to grow enough to see them over the desk.”
Tony joins him in the Engineering Graduate program, and Rhodey finds he’s ruefully thankful they’ve somehow become friends.
Sharing lab space with Tony really does knock home the fact that the guy really is a genius. He understands it all like it’s another language he speaks fluently, and has the most amazing way of reimagining everything to be better. Science fiction is just stuff that hasn’t become science fact yet, and Tony Stark is going to be the one who grounds it in reality.
He has innumerable projects going on, and the professors are all too intimidated by his obvious superiority to question it. Rhodey’s half convinced that if he set his impressive mind to one task at a time and stopped dabbling in computing (the future, according to Tony) he could have graduated again by now. But when he tells him this one night after too much engineering and coffee mixed with too little sleep, Tony only seems amused.
“Rhodey I’m sixteen, if I graduate now what the hell do I do? Besides, it’s not like Dad can’t handle the fees, especially when it gives him a convenient place to put me.”
There is just the barest hint of bitterness behind the blasé words, but all Rhodey can think of is the fierce pride he’d seen in Howard’s eyes when Tony had completed his undergraduate so early and so easily. However it’s been a long night for both of them, and Rhodey can barely weld at the moment, let along deal with a heart-to-heart.
He regrets that, later.
So Tony goes from being an assignment, to a companion and finally somehow ends up being his best friend.
They spend almost all their time together, either eating or hanging out in their shared apartment, or down in the lab, working on their projects and razzing each other. Even Rhodey’s fellow ROTC cadets notice, teasing him about the kid that’s always trailing about after him, but his superior’s look on pleased, and promise good things in his future.
All in all, they are good days. Quiet, but never lonely, filled with the drive to learn, to create and to have fun, and the biggest worry what too have for dinner and if their progress reports to their supervisors make any sense whatsoever.
That is what Rhodey remembers, and that is what Rhodey treasures but will never share with another soul.
Several things happen right next to each other that throw their neatly ordered world out of alignment. Tony makes good on his promises and creates a working AI and is published in magazines across the globe; they both graduate; Rhodey gets his first deployment; and Howard and Maria Stark die.
By the time Rhodey gets back Tony is in gossip sheets everywhere, and appears to be cultivating a party personality and an alcohol dependency.
This is the Tony Stark that the world will come to know; let loose with all the wealth and charm possible, combined with all the grief and personality to be a force to be reckoned with.
But Rhodey knows he will always see the little boy with the too big eyes and the too big brain who couldn’t even cook pasta, and that will always keep him coming back.
And when, years later, Tony’s been missing for months and his superiors want him to stop looking, he’ll remember a promise he made to other, older superiors, and a man who didn’t want to leave his little boy behind. He’s not going to screw up again.