𝒩𝑜𝓌 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓈𝒽𝑒'𝓁𝓁 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝑒 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒶𝓈 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝓊𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎
Audelia Motter and Tony Stark had each other's backs through thick and thin. But after the abduction of the billionaire in Afghanistan by the Ten Rings...
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Pepper Potts raised an eyebrow as she walked down the steps into the basement lab of Tony Stark Malibu mansion. Through the glass she could catch sight of Tony fastening the bolts of a device resting on his arm.
Punching in her code for the lab, Pepper walked in while balancing the brown box that held a gift for Tony in it, along with a cup of coffee for her boss as well.
"I've been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?" she questioned the man, only getting a hum in response has he tightened the device once again. "Obadiah is upstairs."
"Great, tell him I'll be up," Tony spare a look over at the brown box on the counter as he raised his arm to stabilize himself. "What's that?"
"Gift from Deli, just got here today," Pepper walked forward, her heels clicking on the ground as she stared at the device on her boss's arm. "I thought you were done making weapons."
"It's not a- it's a flight stabilizer, Dell's idea," Tony shot his assistant a look. "Don't tell her that, her ego will inflate to the size of mine."
Tony aimed across the lab, kicking on the stabilizer only for a jet of energy to burst out of it, sending him flying back across the room and into a table littered with tools, all of them clanking down to the concrete floor below him.
"Just meet me upstairs, please,"
After pulling himself to his feet, shaking off the pain, and placing the stabilizer on the table once more, Tony Stark bounded up the stairs into the main living room of his home, the sound of his grand piano flowing through the night.
"So, how'd it go?" Tony called out to Obadiah and where he sat at the piano. His eyes caught sight of the pizza box on the coffee table as he sat at on the couch. "That bad, huh?"
"Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean that it went bad," Obadiah stood up from the piano, the house falling into silence once again as he walked toward Tony who was stuffing his face with pizza. "Would've gone better if you were there."
"Um, no. You told me to lay low, so that's what I've been doing,"
"In public, with the press," Obadiah took a seat next to Tony as he sent him a pointed look. "This was a board of directors meeting."
Tony mumbled a 'shit' under his breath, leaning back into the couch as he took a sip of his drink, raising an eyebrow at his friend.
"This was the-"
"The board is claiming that you have post-traumatic stress," Obadiah cut in. "They're filing an injunction. They want to lock you out."
"All because the stocks dipped 40 points?" Tony questioned incredulously. "We knew that was going to happen."
"Actually, it was 56 and a half-"
"That's not the point," Tony cut Pepper off, sending her a look before looking back to Obadiah. "Because we own the controlling interest in the company. Even if they lock me out, Dell owns the second highest percentage in the company which means she still holds more control over the board."
"Actually, they're filing an injunction against her too,"
Tony's eyes widened as Obadiah rose from his seat, walking around the room in front of him.
"They're what?"
"They want to lock her out, too. They're claiming that because of her relationship to you she's too personally involved in this and isn't making decisions based on the good of the company-"
"Don't talk about her like she's my pet," Tony cut in, rising from his seat as well as he stood in front of Obadiah. "Dell's got more wit then you'll ever have in your life. Every decision she's made has had the company's best interest in mind."
"But you need to realize from the board's perspective how this looks, Tony," Obadiah tried to reason with him, trying to keep himself under control.
"Oh I see exactly what it looks like to them. They don't want to see a woman in charge so-"
"What they see is a man who at twenty-one years old gave over the complete power of design and partial ownership of the company to his best friend all because he's in love with her," it was those words that had Tony frozen in place in the living room, even Pepper looking up at Obadiah with wide eyes as he stared directly at Tony. "You think I don't see it? You think we all don't see it? You hold Audelia on this platform, like she can do no wrong, but she can because all she does is support every decision you make. You're in love with your best friend, an engaged woman, someone that you can never have. It's time you wake up and realize that, Tony. The board has rights, too. They don't believe that the direction you both want for the company is what is best for it-"
"I'm being responsible. That's a new direction for me, for the company- of me on the company's behalf," Tony narrowed his gaze as he took a threatening step toward Obadiah. "And don't sit here and berate Dell to my face again, because you're wrong. She always tells me when I'm wrong, but she still stands by me and supports me through it. Unlike others who I thought had my back."
Obadiah let out a deep sigh as Tony reached down, grabbing the pizza box from the table and walking toward the otherside of the room.
"I'm not berating her, Tony. I don't want to see either of you locked out, but you have to give me something to pitch them," with Tony stopped in his tracks and Obadiah standing at his side once again, his finger tapped on the arc reactor. "Let me have the engineers analyze that. You know, draw up some specs. It'll give me a bone to throw them in-"
"Out of the question, Obie," Tony cut in again, tapping on the reactor in his chest himself. "No deal. This one stays with Dell and I."
"Fine, then this stays with me," ripping the pizza box from Tony's hands, Obadiah rolled his eyes as he watched him walk away and begin to head downstairs to the lab again. "Can I at least come down and see what you're working on?"
"Goodnight, Obie,"
The older man sighed, throwing the box down on the table as he watched Tony finally disappear down the stairs. He muttered a curse under his breath, turning around only to come face to face with Pepper Potts.
"Something you need to say, Ms. Potts?"
"I'm just here to escort you out," Pepper told him, moving past him toward the front door. Obadiah let out another sigh followed by an eyeroll, turning to watch her walk away.
"Thought I was a welcomed guest?"
"After you berate both my bosses and my friends, you are officially unwelcome,"
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I love them. I really do. Wow I love them so much. AND STICK IT TO THE BALD MAN PEPPER YOU GO BABY!
