incitethemuse: When's the last time you were truly honest with someone?
"Are you sure about this, Tony?"
Tony doesn't look up from the will that he's signing. He just gives the document a glance, makes sure that everything is exactly as he wants it to be, and signs where he had been told to. "Why wouldn't I be?" he asks as an afterthought once all the dotted lines have been completed, a confident smile on his face. "I'm Iron Man. You know how dangerous that kind of thing can be? Gotta be prepared."
Thomas Deeds had been working for his family for years before his parents had been killed. He had been the one that had overseen the execution of Howard's will. He had been the one that had, in a way, watched Anthony Edward Stark go from being just an orphaned teenager to one of the wealthiest men in the world and head of a major corporation. That is why, when faced with who to go to in order to get his things in order, he's the one that Tony goes to. He knows that his secrets for the future of his company are safe with him. There's just no other way around it.
Which is good. Because if it were to leak out that he had named an heir to the Stark throne upon his death, and that the boy doesn't even have the Stark last name... Well. It would be absolute chaos that he's just not ready to deal with, and that he doesn't want to put his son in the middle of.
Thomas doesn't seem very convinced, though. He just stares at Tony, as if trying to figure out what had brought this on. "...are you okay?"
"Yeah. Wonderful. Are we done?"
"Yes." He overlooks the documents and rearranges them in order. "Dylan James Elliot to be appointed CEO of Stark Industries once he is 21, immediate main benefactor of the family fortune--"
"And the thing with Pepper and the whole...thing?" The way Thomas looks up and just stares at him over his glasses makes Tony look away for a moment, and suddenly he knows exactly why with Thomas it's so much harder to lie to. He looks so much like Yinsen. In the way he acts, in how he treats him. He has forgotten what being honest is like anymore, though, so he just continues. "I'm too busy being Iron Man. It's just as a precaution." A beat. "I've given this a lot of thought. A lot, trust me."
After a pause, Thomas just nods. "Very well. Just let me know when to get things ready, and I will send someone over to get things completed."
With a quick excuse of having to run after checking his phone, Tony races back to Long Island almost immediately. Even with the top down it feels as if he can't breathe while he's on the road, and he doesn't bother with music; there's just one thing in mind. He has to get home. He has to get home.
He really, really needs to get home.
Once he does, he has never been more thankful of the fact that the lab is so close to the garage. He heads straight to the cigar box containing the extra palladium to put into the arc reactor, and after switching up the burnt out piece with a new one, he's quick to push it into his chest. He's winded, he can feel the irregularity of his heartbeat, the metallic taste in his mouth is worse...and damn it, how much longer does he have? The blood toxicity level shows to be at 25%. Now what?
Reaching for the container that holds the chlorophyll he watches as Dummy and You work in the lab. He glances at the statistics that Jarvis is running on the chest piece, but it all sounds so far away that he half tunes it out.
It's not as if he doesn't know what he's saying, though. Time is running out. There's just no other real alternative to it.
Tony doesn't look up from the will that he's signing. He just gives the document a glance, makes sure that everything is exactly as he wants it to be, and signs where he had been told to. "Why wouldn't I be?" he asks as an afterthought once all the dotted lines have been completed, a confident smile on his face. "I'm Iron Man. You know how dangerous that kind of thing can be? Gotta be prepared."
Thomas Deeds had been working for his family for years before his parents had been killed. He had been the one that had overseen the execution of Howard's will. He had been the one that had, in a way, watched Anthony Edward Stark go from being just an orphaned teenager to one of the wealthiest men in the world and head of a major corporation. That is why, when faced with who to go to in order to get his things in order, he's the one that Tony goes to. He knows that his secrets for the future of his company are safe with him. There's just no other way around it.
Which is good. Because if it were to leak out that he had named an heir to the Stark throne upon his death, and that the boy doesn't even have the Stark last name... Well. It would be absolute chaos that he's just not ready to deal with, and that he doesn't want to put his son in the middle of.
Thomas doesn't seem very convinced, though. He just stares at Tony, as if trying to figure out what had brought this on. "...are you okay?"
"Yeah. Wonderful. Are we done?"
"Yes." He overlooks the documents and rearranges them in order. "Dylan James Elliot to be appointed CEO of Stark Industries once he is 21, immediate main benefactor of the family fortune--"
"And the thing with Pepper and the whole...thing?" The way Thomas looks up and just stares at him over his glasses makes Tony look away for a moment, and suddenly he knows exactly why with Thomas it's so much harder to lie to. He looks so much like Yinsen. In the way he acts, in how he treats him. He has forgotten what being honest is like anymore, though, so he just continues. "I'm too busy being Iron Man. It's just as a precaution." A beat. "I've given this a lot of thought. A lot, trust me."
After a pause, Thomas just nods. "Very well. Just let me know when to get things ready, and I will send someone over to get things completed."
With a quick excuse of having to run after checking his phone, Tony races back to Long Island almost immediately. Even with the top down it feels as if he can't breathe while he's on the road, and he doesn't bother with music; there's just one thing in mind. He has to get home. He has to get home.
He really, really needs to get home.
Once he does, he has never been more thankful of the fact that the lab is so close to the garage. He heads straight to the cigar box containing the extra palladium to put into the arc reactor, and after switching up the burnt out piece with a new one, he's quick to push it into his chest. He's winded, he can feel the irregularity of his heartbeat, the metallic taste in his mouth is worse...and damn it, how much longer does he have? The blood toxicity level shows to be at 25%. Now what?
Reaching for the container that holds the chlorophyll he watches as Dummy and You work in the lab. He glances at the statistics that Jarvis is running on the chest piece, but it all sounds so far away that he half tunes it out.
It's not as if he doesn't know what he's saying, though. Time is running out. There's just no other real alternative to it.