quigonejinn | Five Times Pepper Could Have Figured It Out.

dafnap does Your Daily Iron Man Squee. I do Your Daily Iron Man Spam. Except it's not really daily, but uh. You know. Definitely spam. And

jamaillith has seen part of this already.

1.

Tony and Obadiah are having a corporate disagreement about how to handle a contract where the supplier isn't stepping up to the plate as he'd sworn he would. It happens in Tony's office, the real office, not the shop. They've been going at it for about fifteen minutes without breathing, and Pepper has been working for Tony just long enough to recognize when he's really dug himself into a trench and will man it at all costs.

"Pepper, give us a minute, will you?"

Obadiah says that. His puts his hand on Tony's shoulder, and Tony starts to say something, but Obadiah turns to look him in the face, and Tony's head goes up. There are spots of color in Tony's cheeks, but he doesn't say anything or move, so Pepper goes out and sits on the couch and chats with the corporate secretaries and gets herself a drink of water from the water cooler. Looks at the little models sprinkled through the waiting area. Flips through this year's shareholder report, which is glossy and features a lot of photos of Tony standing in front of fighter planes. She can't hear any shouting, but the walls of Tony's office are thick, and eventually, Pepper gets called back into the office.

It's been resolved -- a little Tony's way, a little Obadiah's way. Compromise.

"That's how adults solve problems," Obadiah says, right as Pepper comes into the room, shortly after which Pepper notices that a) the curtains are drawn and b) Tony isn't wearing his tie anymore.

In fact, Obadiah leans over on the sofa, picks Tony's tie up, and folds it into his palm. Tony's face is still a little flushed.

2.

Obadiah is not married, but he has a better attention span than Tony does. He dates good-looking women of respectable age, goes around town with them, goes on a vacation to a nice island with blue water once or twice, and then breaks it off before things get serious. It's always amicable, and the women always have very nice manners and tasteful clothing, so it's possible to bring them to the occasional black-tie benefit without causing massive humiliation for all concerned.

This particular lady is named Alice. Or Ellen. Pepper isn't entirely sure. The women tend to look alike, and she can't entirely tell when Obadiah has changed models -- he never seems to have difficulties keeping them apart.

Pepper stands with her at a benefit, and they make small talk about the hors d'oeuvres and champagne and how nice everything is. The woman is definitely one of the better-looking ones that Obadiah has dated, Pepper decides. A pretty blonde in her early forties, in a silver dress that suits her.

"I hope dinner went well last week." Obadiah was taking a day or two out in Vegas last week with this woman, and Tony went out to have dinner. Pepper booked the three of them for dinner at Mix, then a show. Obadiah is, perhaps, more serious about this woman, though Pepper has no idea where he meets any of them.

"Did you enjoy the show afterwards?"

The woman had been in the middle of taking a drink from her champagne flute, and she colors up a little. Looks over at Obadiah and Tony, who are standing together, charming the living daylights out of a Senator on the other side of the room.

"Yes, we did," the woman says, after a moment.

Obadiah sees them looking, so he smiles and raises his glass of champagne in their direction. The woman can't quite meet Pepper's eyes, which is uncomfortable, but Pepper can't exactly go off and leave the woman alone since she doesn't know anybody at the function but her and Tony and Obadiah, so Pepper has to say something.

"Your earrings are very nice," Pepper manages. Her and the woman are still watching Tony and Obadiah, yes. On the other side of the room, Obadiah reaches over and puts his arm around Tony's shoulders. Tony laughs. So does the Senator.

The woman still sounds strange.

"He got them for me afterwards."

3.

New York, the usual suite at the Plaza, and the news on the new production quality on the Declaration-class helicopters is so bad that when Obadiah asked Pepper to order a pizza from Ray's, Tony told her to get two. And French fries. And a bottle of Laphroaig if she can find it. And ice.

When she comes back with the food and drink , they're still sitting on the couch going through the stacks of results, and whenever Tony turns the page and sees a fresh disaster, he makes a noise like he's in pain. Pepper watches, though, he kicks his shoes off and, without a word, props his feet up on Obadiah's knee. It's a nice argyle, yellow on gray.

Obadiah looks down at Tony's feet, then at Pepper. Then over at Tony, who's still pretending to be absorbed in reading about how their Manufacturing engineers can't find their ass with both hands and a map, and slowly, Tony looks over at Obadiah.

"I'm going to be spending the next three months saving your helicopter and our ass. The least you could do is give me a fucking footrub."

Obadiah looks at Tony; Tony looks at Obadiah. Tony has a strange kind of smirk on his face, whereas Obadiah has his eyebrows lifted up.

"Not until you take your socks off," Obadiah says, after a while, and it takes Tony a while after that to start laughing, but then, they all start to. Obadiah has that kind of laugh, and Pepper doesn't think twice when Tony sends her out of the hotel and back to the corporate office in Midtown to look for a batch of test results that don't exist.

4.

Tony is about 99.95% straight, Pepper figures. She'd say completely straight except she knows that he's taken a guy home once or twice in his life: the time in Chicago, for example. Tony was in town to romance Boeing for a possible joint venture to produce the next generation of stealth fighters, goes to a charity benefit for an organization run by one of the board members afterwards as a show of goodwill, and when Pepper comes to his hotel room the next morning, Tony having taken off to the gym already, Pepper thinks her heart is going to stop because there's a kid sitting on the bed, wrapped up in sheets, looking like he might cry.

He doesn't look like he's eighteen.

"Um," he says. "Hi. Is -- Is Tony around?"

His caterer's uniform is over in the corner. Polyester slacks, Old Navy white shirt, and a clip-on bow tie. Pepper tells him to order up some room service, and when he reaches over to snag the room service menu, she sees that he's got skinny elbows and skinny knees. Rugburn on both knees.

To her infinite, infinite relief, it turns out that he's twenty. An engineering junior at Northwestern. Tony picked him up at the benefit, and there're a couple bottles of champagne in the corner. They had a great time, but it's just that he doesn't do this kind of thing normally, but don't worry. He won't tell anyone. Pepper leaves him to eat an enormous room service breakfast and takes his clothes to be cleaned and arrange transport back to campus, and she can't quite get him out of her head: brown eyes, black hair. Soft mouth. An engineering student.

A bruise on his cheek just the right height for him to have gotten it by being bent over the marble-topped table in front of the window on Lake Michigan.

5.

"Is Obadiah inside?"

Happy is still smoking his cigarette, but he's never really been much of a guy to talk, so he just nods. The Segway is parked outside, too, right next to the Rolls, and Pepper can see Tony and Obadiah now. Obadiah's back, mainly, blocking her view of Tony.

"Is it going well?"

Happy shrugs and flicks ash from the end of his cigarette, and Pepper watches as Tony and Obadiah turn so that she can see them in profile. They're kind of staring at each other, and Tony has an expression on his face that makes Pepper's stomach twist into knots. Then Tony say something; Obadiah says something back, and Tony unbuttons his shirt.

Obadiah looks, then looks away, which makes Pepper's stomach twist even harder -- and then, with the ease of a man who's had a lot of practice, he turns and starts buttoning Tony's shirt up for him. And then he puts his arm around Tony, and Pepper lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Are they OK?" Happy asks. He's just ground out the cigarette. Tony has his arm in a sling and turns, a little awkwardly, when Obadiah can pull him closer.

"Yes," Pepper says, smoothing down the front of her skirt as Tony comes out with Obadiah's hand still on the back of his neck. Tony even looks like like he's listening now.

"It'll be fine."

OK, how much does IT BREAK MY HEART the way Tony tosses his head when Obadiah mentions "your father and I" in that scene? A lot, guys. A lot. And yeah, that ending isn't as sharp as it could be, but what can I say? My brain is still stuck back at what

jamaillith said:

when he's got Tony bent over the back of the sofa with his legs spread, one hand on the back of Tony's head pushing it down, putting his mouth to the back of Tony's neck, his breath scalding hot on Tony's skin, and just holding him there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

dafnap.livejournal.com

...I was just saying to

obsession_inc as we were commiserating about the lack of Obie/Tony out there, that, no shit, this happened: "I'm sure quigone is going to post one in 3...2...1..."

AND THEN I HIT REFRESH ON MY FLIST. Dude. The universe is awesome.

Though not as awesome as the thought of Pepper having made this calculation in her head:

A bruise on his cheek just the right height for him to have gotten it by being bent over the marble-topped table

Because she probably thinks about it. A lot. That, and the kid is mirror image of himself, and oh, Tony, trying to see how it feels like to Obie, even for a little while. Deeply. Deeply. Messed. I am a fan, naturally.

Also, seriously, this:

"He got them for me afterwards."

Is so intensely creepy, I can't even. Like, I know they're all consenting adults, but there's something in her affect that just, gah. Owch.

From:

obsession-inc.livejournal.com

I will back her up on that.

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED.

Five Times Pepper Could Have Figured It Out.

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