Peachy

Not So Good Luck

"Whoa. Alright." Tony backed up a little. "Well, I don't know if you've notice Devin-"

"Stephen." Stephen said.

"Yeah, okay. But feast your eyes on this." Tony said, pulling his shirt over his head.

"Uh..." Stephen was confused. "Tony I don't think that's very-"

"Ta-da!" Tony said, puffing his chest out. In the middle of his sternum sat a silver and blue circle.

"Whoa. What is that?" Stephen asked, he walked a little toward Tony.

"I made it. It's an arc reactor." Tony explained. "It's got millions of nanobots in it that keep me healthy and give me strength." Tony said flexing. Stephen laughed a little. "What?" Tony looked at him.

"It's just that your muscles are tiny even when you're flexing." Stephen said.

"Oh I could have you on the ground in a matter of seconds." Tony took a swing at Stephen, who caught it and twisted his arm. "Ow. Ow." Tony groaned. "Okay. Okay. I give! I give!" He whined. Stephen let go of him. "Ouch." Tony looked at Stephen. "You might have won this time, but I guarantee I'll win the next one." Tony said.  "Where'd you learn to do that by the way?"

"Oh, I lived in a temple with ancient monks in Kamar-Taj. I learned everything I know from them." Stephen explained.

"Do you think maybe you could take me there?" Tony asked.

"I could, but I haven't quite mastered the sling-"

"Tony! Tony!" A voice called from the hallway. Hurried footsteps echoed in the hallway. Suddenly a boy appeared at the doorway, carrying papers and wearing a white lab coat. He gasped for air.

"Bruce, hey." Tony said.

"I came as soon as I heard." The boy said. He looked over at Stephen. "Oh, so it is true. I started to think people had made things up." He placed the papers on Tony's desk and approached Stephen. "Hmm..." He placed goggles over his eyes and went around Stephen, examining him. 

"Stephen, this is Bruce. My partner in crime." Tony said.

Stephen's head perked up. "Huh? Crime? You're criminals?" Stephen grew very nervous suddenly.

Tony rolled his eyes. "No you dumb dumb. I mean he's my partner in everything."

Bruce stepped away from Stephen and lifted his goggles. "So you got yourself a wizard roommate. Can he do magic?" Bruce asked.

"I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that one out." Tony answered him.

"Does everyone at this school scan every new person? Geez, I've never felt so violated." Stephen said, covering himself up with The Cloak of Levitation. "Timothy didn't do this."

"Wait, Timothy? As in Timothy Green?" Tony asked. Bruce turned to Stephen.

"You spoke with Timothy?" He asked.

"Yes. He was the first person I met." Stephen said.

"Gah!" Tony quickly jumped Stephen.

"Hey! Watch it! What are you-"

"He's always trying to spy on Tony and me." Bruce explained, watching Tony search Stephen.

"And, why is that?" Stephen asked.

"Ha! I knew it." Tony got off Stephen. Bruce helped Stephen up. Tony presented a small device to Stephen. "Ever since I arrived here, I've beat him in every science fair. He's always trying to see what I'm up to. Trying to copy my ideas. Get a glimpse of my plans." Tony explained, he crushed the small device.

"I wouldn't recommend hanging around him." Bruce explained.

"But he's actually a very nice person." Stephen said.

"Yeah, until he decides you're not worth his time. Then he dumps you like last week's garbage." Tony said.

An alarm went off. Tony and Stephen looked around.

"What is that?" Tony asked.

"Oh, my bad." Bruce said. "I've got to hurry to my next class. See you later guys." Bruce was gone.

"See ya." Tony said, going back to working on whatever he had been working on when Stephen walked in.

"Good bye." Stephen waved goodbye, as did his cloak.

"Whoa dude, that's cool. I'll have to get some samples of that later." Bruce said, disappearing.

"Dude?" Stephen asked.

Tony laughed, still working. "You've got lots to learn."

///0///0

Stephen lay awake in his bed, eyes wide open. He was tired, very tired.

Tony was still working on whatever he was working on when Stephen had first met him. It was 1:43 am. Sparks and light would light up the room from time to time.

He placed the pillow over his ears, then his face. He groaned. He couldn't take it anymore. Back in Kamar-Taj it was quiet and peaceful, everyone went to bed at eight. It was great. This. This wasn't great.

He sat up. "Tony, do you think you could save that for later?"

"Nope." Tony said, popping the p at the end of that.

"It's 1:43 in the morning. I'm sure you are tired." Stephen said.

"Are you kidding?" Tony said, stopping and lifting his welding mask. "This is nothing. I get an eight full minutes of sleep."

"That's not enough." Stephen said.

"That's more than enough." Tony gave a hard nod, making the mask fall over his face and going back to welding.

"Urgh..." Stephen fell back in his pillow. "Now I see why you've never had a roommate."