quigonejinn

Pretty Good Company
Tony/Obadiah FST
58MB, Zip file.

bottom of your heart, you don't love no one (The Black Keys - When the Lights Go Out)

Obadiah keeps, in the foyer of his house, handsomely-framed photos of him with celebrities and politicians. The theme continues on every flat surface in the public areas of the house, though the closer the space draws to Obadiah's private areas, the fewer photographs of appear and the more South Asian art tends to take its place. Statues of gods and saints with more than the usual number of arms, for example, or war elephants shrunk down to the palm size. On the mantle in the showpiece living room, which also features a cathedral ceiling and photos of Obadiah with every president since Eisenhower, there is a candid black-and-white of Tony and Obadiah the year that Tony came back from Europe. It's an out-take from the shots that the photographer for the Forbes article took; Obadiah bought the negatives for it, so it's the only print in existence.

Tony wears a suit made in Italy; you can see it in the slope of the shoulders and the height of the notch at the lapel. He has his mouth open to argue a point, and Obadiah has his hand on Tony's left shoulder in a comfortable sort of way and is talking over him.

since I've come home, well, my body has been a mess -- I hope you find the right man who'll fix it for you (Mark Ronson - Valerie, feat. Amy Winehouse)

So coming home form Afghanistan is the second time that Tony has come home in a dramatic way. He did more press coverage the first time back, in fact, and one night, he's doing an interview in Obadiah's office since his isn't ready for press yet. Tony has his feet on the coffee table and a glass of Obadiah's best scotch in hand; the reporter is determined not to get into a drinking competition on the job, so he has a ginger ale with a couple of ice cubes in it. Obadiah sits across from the reporter, next to Tony. The rest of the couch are the year-end financials that Obadiah is looking through.

"Right. So the thing I missed most while in Europe?"

Tony holds the glass of Scotch up to the light. Obadiah looks over at him, and Tony looks back over and tries not to roll his eyes. When you go to Europe like Tony did, missing things about America is not really an issue. If Tony Stark wants a McDonald's Big Mac at two AM, the Ritz Carlton in Paris will get you a fucking le Big Mac, even if they have to recreate it by grinding filet mignon and serve it on Limoges porcelain.

"Knowing that I was part of something bigger than myself," Tony says.

"Also, drinking Obie's Scotch. You know how hard it was to get him to visit?"

Obadiah snorts, mutters something about having a company to run, and Tony leans back on the sofa, pleased at the effect he's produced. The reporter is charmed, and includes, as a detail in his story, that while Tony is talking about this, Tony hast three pieces of cardboard that look like scraps from a box. The reporter watched Tony idly cut them, freehand, out of a piece of stock cardboard that Accounting had run graphs on for the financial. Tony gives them to R&D later; they're the solution for the tailfin problem they've been having on the Stark Interceptor CD-34. He'd started thinking about it on the Concorde ride back, he explains. Accurate miniatures of what they should look like within a tenth of an inch.

traveled time for the future of mankind (The Cardigans - Iron Man)

"Do you remember when Dad was building the place on Long Island?"

"Sure, I remember. Gave him more headaches than building the Arkansas plant."

This is a lie, and they both know it -- Obadiah clearly, and Tony, at least in the back of his head. Tony seems to enjoy it that way, though, much like he enjoys working on the Roadster under the general of banner of trying to get it run well. The thing hasn't been driven an inch in five years now, and Tony and Obadiah are sitting on the blocks in front of the half-dug hole in the ground that'll become Tony's pool by the Pacific. City lights wink at at them from the other side of the bay.

I watch you capture what I can't hold. now, make it make some sense to me (Santogold - My Superman)

At seventeen, Tony has had as much sex as some people have in the course of their married lives, and he has the confidence, too, of being able to start twenty minutes after he last got off. The moon is out and low over the ocean; in defiance, Tony insisted on wearing jeans. If the graduation party was being thrown in honor of him and not, say, as a reminder of Stark Industries having a freak of a genius for an heir, then he'd wear what he wanted, right? And there's a half-drunk G&T in his hand to match the one in Obadiah's hand. The cleaning crew is going to show up tomorrow morning; there are balloons and dying tiki torches all around the back yard. It's the Hamptons, after all.

Howard and Maria have gone to bed. It's only Obadiah and Tony sitting on a bench, looking at the pool.

"How soon is Dad going to ship me out to LA?"

"You've got a couple months. At least. We don't have much out there right now, so there's nothing for you to develop." Obadiah looks over at Tony, who's staring fixedly at the lights underneath the pool. "It's nothing to worry about, Tony. He's just making formal what you've always done for him."

"Yeah, well, it would have been nice if he told me beforehand."

Tony drains the rest of his G&T; it makes his lips shine in the light, and he offers to get the box of cigars that Obadiah got him for a graduation present, but Obadiah tells him to save them for something really worth celebrating. Instead, Tony ends up blowing Obadiah behind the pool house, and Tony is seventeen. He's had as much sex as some people have in the course of their married lives, but it doesn't mean he knows a whole lot about giving head to a guy who has, himself, had plenty of it.

"Slow down," Obadiah says and puts one hand on Tony's head and pulls him off enough so they can look each other in the eye. "Pull off sometimes and take it between your lips. Use your tongue. You had the right idea before."

Later, when Tony decides he wants to jam as much of Obadiah's cock in his mouth and down his throat as he can fit, though, Obadiah isn't going to say no. He thinks Tony is going to gag, in fact, but Tony, surprisingly, doesn't, and Obadiah knows Howard isn't just sending Tony out to do R&D at a new location. Howard means for Tony to inherit the full measure.

the knife in your back ain't as sharp as your tongue (Joseph Arthur - Pretty Good Company)

Obadiah doesn't use sex to bring Tony back from Europe, and after the time behind the pool house, they don't do anything for over a decade -- breakfast was less awkward than might be expected. Tony and Maria weren't morning people, so they stayed in bed and had it brought up to them. Howard and Obadiah split the Sunday Wall Street Journal out on the pool deck while the housekeeper made omelettes and waffles in the kitchen.

Ten years later, Tony and Obadiah are having an argument about settlement negotiations with a woman who brings a class-action gender discrimination suit. Tony wants to fight it out; Obadiah wants to settle for a reasonable amount, and he wins by laying out the hard numbers, but Tony is still pissed even after he's had a couple of post-argument drinks. They're in Tony's house in Malibu; it's mid-afternoon, but nobody is expected in for a while. Obie sits on the couch with his feet up on Tony's coffee table; Tony stands.

"You want to fuck me?"

Obadiah looks up from the puzzle in the newspaper. He lifts his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"You know. Your dick, my ass. I've already blown you, so I figured we'd try something else."

Obadiah still has the pen in his hand, and he doesn't say anything. Tony is still pretty pissed. It shows in the way he stands, really, even more than the hands balled up into fists. Tony has unexpectedly large hands. Probably the result of working on engines and things that need to be soldered since he was large enough to sit without on a stool without falling off.

"I'll let you do it bareback, if you want. Pepper will swear to me being clean."

Obadiah considers Tony. Tony unclenches his right fist, then clenches it back again.

"Yeah, let's do it that way," Obadiah says and puts the cap back on his pen, then sets the pen and puzzle onto the coffee table.

They go into Tony's bedroom.

it will bleed (Arlene Bishop - Cut A Man's Heart (Angel Chorus))

Obadiah has faith in his ability to read people, and he knows this guy is a reliable customer. A good operator, with a reputation in this part of the world; agents that Obadiah relies upon vouched for how badly he wants the Jericho missiles. Still, though, Obadiah wants to take his measure, face to face.

"Raza of the Ten Signs," the man says and holds his hand out.

"You know who I am," Obadiah says and shakes the hand.

don't hang that head. you know it's nothing I ain't seen before. (Kris Delmhorst - Heavens Hold the Sun)

Tony has more trouble relaxing than Obadiah expects -- than either of then expects, really, to judge from the way Tony starts to snap and snarl and shove pillows off the bed. Obadiah doesn't know whether to hold Tony down and go for it or go slower, gentler, in the hopes that he'll get to do this again, but Tony makes the decision for both of them. Tony lies on his stomach; Obadiah is propped over Tony. He has two inches into Tony, and slowly, Tony works himself up an inch or two on his elbows. Then, his knees. Obadiah holds still. Up with the elbows again. Then, the knees. It's not really a stable position because Tony is still less than halfway up.

Obadiah would guess he's got four inches into Tony at that point, and after that, sinks all the way in. Tony throws his head back, and when Obadiah pulls Tony fully onto his knees and elbows, Tony moans with his whole body.

was it two wills? one mirror holding us dearer now. (Little Dragon - Twice)

"Obie, what're you doing up?"

your father and me, we were a team (Antonio Salieri - Piano Concerto in C, II, Larghetto)

"Do you ever worry, Mr. Stane -- "

"Obadiah. Please."

"Do you ever worry, Obadiah, that Mr. Stark will retire early or leave Stark Industries?"

The answer is always no. Obadiah has a line about how Tony believes in what Stark Industries is doing. It carefully echoes, but doesn't mimic, language that Tony uses himself in interviews. Reporters find similar themes, but it's not phrased so similarly as to make the PR gambit obvious. It helps, too, that Obadiah honestly believes it: the idea that Tony owuld walk away from Stark Industries would thrill him. Even more than that, though, Tony would never give it up. He tried for two years in Europe. He tries it every time he drinks so much that a normal man would collapse on the floor, but Tony is still able to walk. Talk. Deliver a lecture on integrated circuits. Wake up the next morning with the solution to the YF-44 thrust coordination problem in his head, casually mention it in a morning text to Obadiah, then make the head of R&D play Twenty Questions about it until Tony gets bored and has Pepper re-fog his bathroom and transcribe the equations he wrote on the mirror when he got out of the shower.

Obadiah watches the end of the video that the Ten Signs sent him, then closes out and executes the keystrokes to wipe the ghost drive. No sense in giving the government what they already have, and he turns the chair around, looks at the lights of the Stark Industries plant underneath the window, glittering like tiny orange stars.

And then he picks up the bag with the extractor and casing for the arc reactor and leaves.

their names are never spoken. the curse is never broken. the curse is never broken (Arcade Fire - Black Mirror)

Pepper is ready for a lot on the day of Obadiah's memorial service. In her head, she's prepared scenarios to cope with drunk Tony, angry Tony, sulking Tony, and Tony-who-can't-be-found-because-he-slipped-off-to-Vegas-for-coke-and-showgirls. She's even brought the makeup kit in case he did something foolish; she's allocated precious pocket space in her suit for the extremely unlikely event that Tony starts to cry and she can't reach over and grab his pocket square.

What she doesn't expect to see, on arrival, is Tony sitting on the couch in the living room, already dressed with his tie knotted and shoes polished and ready, for at least an hour, to go and be done with Obadiah Stane.

. . . basically, the Kris Delmhorst song is, in its entirety, one great giant clusterfuck of Iron Man movieverse awesome. I know it's

dafnap's song for the forthcoming creepfic of TOTAL AMAZING PORN AND PAIN, from which I also pulled the bit about how good Obadiah is at reading people. And the Arlene Bishop and Santogold songs from her. HURRAY HIVEMIND.