When Tony and Rhodey met each other
We know that they already knew each other in the spring of 1987 (IM1), right?
But for how long at that point? When did they actually meet?
While researching these questions, I discovered some inconsistencies and logical errors in the MCU.
It is known that Tony was born on May 29, 1970, and Rhodey on October 6, 1968. So Rhodey is 2 years older.
1984 - Tony went to MIT for his BS when he was 14 years old. Rhodey was 16.
We have information that Rhodey did not attend MIT for his Bachelor’s degree. He received it from the Air Force Academy and went to MIT for his Master’s degree. The minimum age for admission to the Air Force Academy is 17. Logic says that if Rhodey is not a genius like Tony, the appropriate age for him to start MS would be 20-21. But this would mean that he did not enter MIT until 1988. This is where the problems begin.
Spring Break 1987 (most likely March) - from what Tony said in the first Iron Man at 0:53:10, we have several interpretations:
Was it true?
a) One day, Rhodey woke up with a transgender/transvestite named Ivan in the same bed, and Tony witnessed or heard about it;
b) it was Tony’s joke and nothing happened, because Rhodey said “Don’t do that. They’ll believe that”.
Where were they?
1) They already knew each other. Rhodey was already studying at MIT. Logical error.
2) They didn’t know each other yet, but Rhodey was already at MIT getting his MS, meaning he started it at least in 1986 (18 years old). Logical error again.
3) They didn’t know each other yet and Rhodey was attending the Air Force Academy.
4) They knew each other because they met outside of MIT (maybe at some engineering competition, for example), and spent that spring break together.
1987 – Tony graduated from MIT. Graduation usually takes place in May.
What is 100% true we don’t know, because there is not enough information.
But the logical answer would be: at the time of spring break 1987, Tony was 16 and he was finishing his BS degree. Rhodey was 18 and he was still doing his BS at the Air Force Academy. At some point, they met and struck up a friendship. Then in 1988 or 1989, Rhodey went to MIT to get his master's degree at the same college as Tony because Tony was most likely getting his master's degree there at the time.
The movies never mention that Tony was getting a Master’s degree or actually received one, but there are enough hints to draw a conclusion, and I will do so in my next post.
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Super Surprises
Harley Keener x Reader
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Written for my personal fic writing challenge for 2024, Sophie's Year of Fic! Featuring a new fic being posted every Friday, all year long :)
Fandom: Marvel
Summary: Harley's SO shows up earlier than expected to his apartment and discovers he leads a slightly more interesting life than the average MIT student
Word Count: 1,781
Category: Fluff, Humor
Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.
"Harley! You'll never believe the email I got from my professor! I mean, I'm not complaining, since it meant I could get out of class early and grab some food for us before coming here, but-"
I stopped short, frowning from the kitchen of my boyfriend's apartment. Normally, by now, he would've come out here to join me, or at least acknowledged me from somewhere else in the apartment. But I hadn't heard anything since I'd walked in the door.
Granted, I'd shown up much earlier than he'd been expecting me. My professor had canceled class about five minutes after I'd sat down in the lecture hall because he couldn't find parking, had been trying for twenty minutes, and was fed up with the whole ordeal. Still, there was no reason Harley shouldn't have been here. His lack of response was odd.
"Harley?" I called, tentatively heading towards his bedroom. I heard a hushed commotion and some shuffling from inside, then a muffled bang before total silence. I reached the knob, starting to feel a little concerned for the wellbeing of my boyfriend, when he flung the door open a moment before I could.
"Hey," he said, fixing me with a delayed version of his usual grin. "Sorry, I was just... cleaning something up."
"That's okay..." I said, narrowing my eyes a little and trying to look past Harley into his room. He shifted in the doorway to block me, and I raised an eyebrow at him. He grinned at me, trying to look suave, but I wasn't buying it. I ducked under his arm and moved into the room, looking around with my hands on my hips.
"You, uh... you said you had a story about an email from your professor?" asked Harley from behind me. I just hummed without turning around. He was acting weird, and I was determined to figure out why.
I scanned the room, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Other than my boyfriend, that is, who hovered behind me radiating a nervous energy I never felt from him every time I took a step. I started moving around the room, and Harley looked so nervous I thought he might fidget so hard he hit his head on the ceiling. I walked past the window and his bed with no real effect, but the moment I started heading for the closet with purpose, he sprang across the room to jump in front of me.
I put one hand on my hip and fixed him with a look.
"What's in the closet, Har?"
"Nothing."
I snorted. "According to my sources, that's a load of bullshit."
"What sources?"
"My common sense. Come on, you're never this jumpy, especially not around me! So what's in the closet. I know you're not hiding a secret lover in there, so just tell me. What is it?"
"It's... a surprise," he managed, not even half as convincing as he would need to be. I just rolled my eyes and took another step towards him.
"Harley Keener, you aren't fooling anybody. You are, however, starting to worry me. So come on. What's in the closet?"
Harley's eyes darted around the room, scanning me and our surroundings, and I could see his brain working a mile a minute. Finally though, he sighed, the restlessness draining away from him as he settled his stare on me. He looked like the normal, slightly tired, sarcastic and blunt guy that I'd fallen for so fast in one of our physics classes again, and relief washed over me.
"You want to know what's in the closet? Fine. I was working up to telling you all this shit anyway, so why not now?"
I raised an eyebrow, but Harley just turned around to open the closet door a crack. He had a harsh, whispered conversation with someone apparently hiding inside, and my mind started racing, trying to come up with possibilities that would tie into this whole situation and actually make sense. Before I could come up with anything, Harley stepped back, and someone stepped out of the closet.
Never in a million years would I have been able to come up with the guess "Spider-Man is hiding in my boyfriend's closet".
My mouth dropped open as the beloved hero of New York stepped further into the room, Harley at his side. I just stared, trying to get my brain working again. I wasn't having much success.
"What... how... why-?"
"Remember I told you I met Tony Stark once, in Tennessee? When I was a little kid?"
I nodded, shifting my attention to Harley again. He had his hands in his pockets, and the usual casualness in his posture seemed a little more forced than usual.
"Well, I didn't mention that I saw him again. Regularly. He's kind of... adopted me, I guess, as a science kid who helped him fight off some bad guys one time. I actually go visit somewhat regularly, and Spider-Man's Tony's other science kid."
I blinked a few times, looking between the two people before me, my brain still trying and failing to play catchup. Spider-Man gave me a little wave, which didn't really help.
"That's... Harley, that's insane! Why didn't you... why didn't you tell me?"
He sighed, his shoulders slumping a little as his gaze fell towards the floor.
"I didn't want to tell you before we got serious. It just felt weird, like I was bragging or trying to get you to like me based on who I know. And I didn't want you to go out with me because of it, either. And then when we did get serious, it had been long enough that I wasn't sure how to bring it up. I was trying to figure it out, but I guess that's not a problem anymore."
He shot a look at Spider-Man that only a sibling could, with all the annoyance and irritation possible communicated in a single second. I couldn't help smiling.
"Well, I'm glad I know now," I said, crossing the room to take Harley's hand and give him a soft kiss on the cheek. "I love you, Har. I'm always happy to hear about you and your life, even when it's... unexpected."
He smiled at me, then leaned in and gave me a real kiss. I didn't let it go on for more than a few quick seconds, since we still had a guest in the room, but it was still nice. A little reassurance for us both.
"So..." I started, finally turning to the masked superhero in the room. "It's nice to meet you, Spider-Man."
I held out my hand for a handshake, which he returned.
"Yeah, it's nice to meet you too! Harley talks about you all the time."
I grinned, and I could see Harley shaking his head out of the corner of my eye. Spider-Man's voice made him sound way younger than I'd thought he was, but I decided not to comment on it. At least, not right now.
"So... what brings you to my boyfriend's dorm, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Oh! Well, I'm working on this case, and there's this technology that I think can help me track down the bad guys I'm looking for, but I can't figure out how to hack into it, and Mr. Stark's super busy-"
"Yeah, just gimme the drive," Harley interrupted, holding out his hand. Spidey obliged, then Harley glanced back at me. "Are you okay with this? I know we planned to just hang out together and do some studying..."
"Har, you're involved in superhero business. I'm not going to tell you to drop it, especially when it doesn't really have an impact on us." I turned to Spider-Man. "Luckily for you, I even brought extra helpings of food from Harley and I's favorite place. Although, it might be kind of hard to eat it through the mask."
Spider-Man turned to look at Harley, who completely missed it because he was staring at me.
"I never agreed to share my food with him. How could you offer that?"
I just smiled and shook my head, nodding in Spidey's direction. Harley turned to him with narrowed eyes, but his expression quickly changed when he saw something in Spider-Man's body language or otherwise that had his eyebrows furrowing in concentration. Maybe Spider-Man was secretly telepathic or something.
After a few long moments where Harley and Spidey were apparently managing to have a silent conversation despite the mask, the superhero turned back to me. Harley took my hand in his, a small smile on his face, and then a moment later, Spider-Man whipped off his mask.
A baby-faced teenager stared back at me with a beaming smile, and I instantly got hit with the most irrational surge of protectiveness I'd ever felt.
"Hi! I'm Peter," he said, giving me another little wave. "Peter Parker. Harley trusts you, and I trust him, so I figured... I could probably share this with you."
I smiled, reaching out to lightly squeeze Peter's arm.
"Thanks, Peter. I'm glad you did. And not to be dramatic, but I'll take your secret to the grave."
Peter's eyebrows shot up, and I heard Harley snort from next to me. I grinned at them both and headed for the kitchen.
"Now c'mon, you've got a case to work on or whatever and I have a ton of upper div calculus homework. None of us has time to waste."
Both boys followed after me, and within a few minutes we were settled at the table in Harley's apartment. Harley and I sat shoulder to shoulder, legs pressed against each other. Even though we were working on separate things, we were completely together, which made everything so much easier.
Every once in a while, I'd look up at Harley and Peter working over the same laptop. Whenever one of them noticed me, we shared smiles before returning to our tasks. We'd moved past the whole Stark-superhero thing pretty quickly, and I was okay with that. It didn't really change my impression of Harley or who he was, it was just another interesting aspect of his life. But I didn't miss the significance in Peter sharing his identity with me.
He wouldn't have done that, and Harley wouldn't have given him the silent yes, if Harley wasn't incredibly serious about this relationship. I'd become more and more convinced over the past few months that Harley was the one, and this told me he was most likely on the same page.
Of course, we'd have to have some conversations about that at some point in the future. But for right now, I was just happy to be working next to him, perfectly comfortable together, even in this new aspect of his life. Shoulder to shoulder through shitty classes and superhero drop-ins alike.
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