#Now Strong Mailman is happily offering to carry him home

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[random-imagines-blog]

No Matter What You Say {Tony Stark!Mentor x Reader Oneshot}

Requested by: @lunchawx Wordcount: 2070 Summary: After taking the entrance exam for Midtown High School, you receive a special guest.

New York, New York. The most populated city in the United States just got bigger by three. You were already settled in your new room which looked out upon your small backyard where there was barely enough room for a bird bath let alone actual lounging space. But it was still better than the apartment that you had in your old city, which didn’t have so much as a balcony. It didn’t have superheroes or supervillains tearing up the streets either, but you weren’t in Manhattan so it should be alright - right? You looked out your window, seeing the back of another house, and then another house, and then another house, and then another house - so it wasn’t like in the movies, not exactly.

“You ready for the test?” Your father asked, standing in the doorway. That’s the real reason that you were here. Your parents had such strong belief in your intellect that they up and moved from your normal life with your best friends, to this place where 'you have so much potential to succeed’. Because apparently your old school wasn’t good enough. Didn’t have as good a reputation as Midtown High.

Because nothing spelled fun and social life like a high school filled to the brim with smug geniuses.

“Considering you’ve been making me study for two weeks straight, yeah, I think I’m good,” You said, your voice filled with attitude. “I could have spent that time with my friends before you just plucked me up and dropped me here, but you know. Studying. So much more fun.”

“You’re not going to be making friends here if you keep that up,” Your father said. Always the optimist. A real silver lining kind of guy. Oh, we’re not going to end up dying in an alien attack on New York city like those other people did because Captain America took care of it!

Yeah. He sure did. And left the city with billions of dollars of damage and quite a few lives lost. Great job superheroes.

“Yeah, because I really wanted to come and be friends with the characters from Gossip Girl,” You grumbled. Your dad rolled his eyes - finally, a sign of human emotion that wasn’t just happiness. “Are you going to get out so I can get ready or are you just going to stand there?”

He held his hands up in surrender and left you to get ready. Midtown High School. Home of the brightest young minds in New York City. Even famed Tony Stark went there, and was a large sponsor of the school, and would apparently stop in for lectures sometimes. You knew which days that you were planning on skipping then.

-

There was a knock on the front door while you and your parents were sitting around the table pushed into the kitchen since the house was too small for a dining room, enjoying breakfast. Your father was the most relaxed out of the three of you, munching happily on toast, while your mother was too nervous to actually eat and was just clinging onto her coffee mug like it was her only tether to this earth. You were just eating, not caring either way about the test results which you should be getting today. In fact, that might have been the mailman.

“I’ll get it,” Your mother said, getting out of her seat so fast it fell over. You laughed at that, and dug your spoon back into your cereal, getting the sugar rush you needed to start the day. You could hear her voice grow louder and more excited. “Oh, please, please, come in! Come have a seat. Y/N! Honey! Can you come into the living room please?”

“Oh god, is it one of those prissy schools where the principal comes and welcomes you themselves?” You groaned. You were still in your pajamas, having no plans of leaving the house today, and now you were expected to greet a guest. This whole New York thing was not working out.

“Won’t know until we go find out,” Your father said. Never ending optimism on this guy. You certainly didn’t inherit that. You let your spoon fall back into the bowl and followed him out into the living room. Your first thought was that this guy was impeccably dressed, so unless the principal of Midtown was extremely rich, this probably wasn’t him. And then you noticed the facial hair - that probably was a hundred and fifty dollars from a good barber. That hair, colored to cover grays, obviously. Then it finally clicked in who exactly was sitting on your couch.

“Tony Stark - I mean Iron Man! I mean - Tony Stark!” Your dad said, his jaw dropping. “Can I get you anything? There’s a fresh pot of coffee, or I think we might have a beer somewhere...”

“It’s nine in the morning,” You said blankly to your father and walked past your parents to sit in an arm chair across from the couch so you could get a better look at your guest. Ironman was in your living room, and he was seeing you dressed in your pajamas. At least this was something to write to your friends about. Everything else had been boring so far. “No one needs a beer at nine in the morning.”

“I’ll take a coffee,” Tony said, as if he was at a cafe ordering from a waiter rather than in someone’s home. Your father ran to get it, nearly tripping over his own feet, while your mother came and stood beside you. You looked up at her, furrowed your brow and shook your head. She was acting so weird. Both of your parents were. Guess it was up to you to be the adult here?

“Cool, so while you have my dad running around like a chicken with his head cut off...” You said, leaning back, crossing your arms in front of you. “Why is Tony Stark in our living room? Unless you think we’re some sort of bad guys - which we’re not. Though they would probably say the same thing.” You just really couldn’t think of a reason, and he clearly wasn’t just going to spit it out.

“Well, I came to deliver the bad news, and the good news for myself,” He said with a little clap, and leaned in close, catching your eye. “The good news is that you got the second highest score on the entrance exam that Midtown High ever received.”

A mug broke from the kitchen as Tony’s voice carried to your father who was coming back with the coffee. The cup had slipped out of his hand and had broken into small pieces, the hot liquid getting all over his shirt. “Shit,” He said, looking at himself, but only worried about that for a second. “The second highest in their history? Y/N! We knew you would get in but that’s amazing!”

“So what’s the bad news?” You asked, not getting your hopes up.

“You’re going to have to take another test right here and right now with me watching to make sure that you weren’t cheating,” He said with a smirk. “We don’t have much tolerance for that.”

“Ahh - alright, bring it on.” I said. He continued to look smug as he opened a briefcase and took out a piece of paper and a pencil. Even the pencil said Stark Industries along the side, and was in the Ironman colors. “Seriously?”

“It’s all I got.”

“Of course it is.” I picked up the paper and looked over it. The question were similar to the ones that were on the exam I took, but not the same. I laid it back down on the table, and was about to press lead to paper when he stopped me by clicking his tongue.

“I’m going to have to ask these parents to leave the room. Just to make sure there’s no cheating going on. And that coffee, if you don’t mind?”

My parents hid out in the kitchen, picking up the broken pieces of the mug and mopping the floors. There was no music, no television, no devices allowed, just in case I found a way to cheat. It was a bit insulting, really. He was watching you like a hawk. “Don’t you have anything better to do?” You asked, filling out a math equation. “They probably could have sent a teacher to do this, don’t ya think?”

“If you get these right, then I have a counter offer for you.” He said, and then narrowed his eyes. “No talking. Finish the test.”

“Jeez, okay, okay, I’m working on it.” You continued to work, finished it up, signed the paper and then handed it over. “No way I could have cheated, right?”

“None that I could tell,” He didn’t take the piece of paper, just motioned for you to set it down onto the table. You shrugged and did so, and then he picked it up, scanning through it. He took a pen out of his breast pocket, and started to write things down, following your lines of thinking. He removed his sunglasses from his face, ran his hands through his hair, and looked at you. Really looked at you. It made you uncomfortable.

“Well?” You asked about the test.

“Perfect, and no signs of cheating. Guess there’s only one thing left to do then. Hey parents!”

You sighed, glad that it was all over now. You were expecting him to just give you and your parents the papers to sign and then you would be in Midtown High. All to fulfill this great potential that your parents said that you had inside of you. And yet still, all you wanted to do was go back home to where your friends were. You’d rather work in a grocery store and still be able to see them rather than live in the big city, become rich and only deal with snobs. Your parents came back into the room, and stood on either side of you, beaming proudly. They never thought that you cheated, which you guessed was a good sign of their faith in you, even if it was a bit annoying that they were the reason you had to take the stupid exam in the first place.

“I want to offer you a mentorship, working under me, for Stark Industries,” Tony said, his tone already showing that he was expecting for you to say yes. “We’ll work around your Midtown schedule. I’ll send a car to pick you up, bring you to be after class, and you’ll get first hand experience in the best workplace in the world. I’ve got some papers here, just need the parentals here to sign.”

“Uhh - no thanks,” You said, shaking your head and stood up. “I mean, I’ll go to Midtown, great, but I don’t want any sort of mentorship.”

“Excuse me?” Tony asked.

“Hey, let’s not be hasty-” Your father would start.

“Don’t embarass us in front of Mr. Stark...” Your mother started.

“I’m not looking to work for you in the future, Mr. Stark. No offense. But I’m not really planning on doing this whole tech stuff when I graduate. I just wanna go to school, come home, talk to my friends and not have the added stress. I appreciate it and all but-”

“Is y/n being serious?” Tony asked, bypassing you and looked towards your mother. She shook her head quickly.

“Just a shock,” She reassured in your behalf. “Y/n will be more than happy to take the mentorship. Won’t you, sweetie?”

You looked up at her. Her nerves were frazzled. This was all that she had ever wanted for you. And then you looked at your dad, who looked a  bit more caring about all of this. About you.

“It’s your choice,” Your father said. “But you earned this opportunity. It’s not going to come again, and you might regret giving it up.”

Ugh.

You nodded reluctantly. Your parents started celebrating. Tony said he would take that beer now.

Looks like you had yourself a mentorship.