Or: Why Tony Stark Is A Serial Womanizer
(Or or: The Beginning of a New Legacy)
Spoilers: Iron Man movie (all I know is movie-verse, ppl)
A/N: I recently started posting these on my tumblr (daddy-klaine) but thought people on here might enjoy them, too. I started with the idea of writing random little fics involving Blaine as Tony's son, because the more I watched the movies, the more it just made perfect sense. And then there was meta- and over-analyzing with a BFF who knows the comics (this is totally all her fault), and before I knew it, there was a timeline, and a gazillion ideas I want to write...
It was called "sowing your wild oats." Tony Stark had been doing it since he was almost 20 years old.
Back then, he had graduated from MIT just a couple of years previously, and he wasn't really looking to settle down. He knew soon, he'd have an entire multi-billion dollar international corporation to run, and he wanted to get in as much fun as he could before he had to head back to working every day.
Before, there had been school, every day for 17 years — which, he was exceptionally good at learning, but he was also exceptionally good at pushing himself, pushing and testing his limits. And when he turned 21, he would take over as CEO of Stark Industries, while Obadiah Stane, his father's partner, stayed on in a more advisory capacity. But for now... for now, Tony just wanted to have fun.
He dated several women, for brief periods of time, each more beautiful than the last. Before he met Miranda.
Miranda Thompson. She was gorgeous, with wild, curly red hair, green eyes, milk white skin, covered in a riot of gorgeous little freckles. She was a few inches shorter than himself, petite but curvy in just the right places, and she fit against his side as if she'd been made for it. She was witty, with a wicked tongue and a dry sense of humor, compassionate when the situation called for it, sweet... and she adored Tony. The feeling was, of course, mutual.
They went out on lavish dates, to the finest restaurants. Miranda (or Mandie, as her long-time friends called her) wasn't poor; her family had done well for themselves, her father and mother were both bankers, but she by no means had the kind of wealth that Tony had. She sometimes grew embarrassed when he casually used his money to get things done for them; a private box at the opera after she'd casually mentioned how much she enjoyed the music. Reservations to the most exclusive restaurant and lounge in the city. A new car for her birthday, after they'd barely been dating a month. A trip to Japan in the spring on one of his private jets, just to witness the Cherry Blossom Festival.
And, of course, there was the bedroom.
Tony liked sex. He wasn't ashamed of it, and he wasn't going to lie about it. He'd enjoyed it for the three years he'd been having it. But, with Mandie... it was something else entirely. It wasn't just about the physical, when he was with her. They had fun, were passionate about each other, and connected in a way he hadn't realized was possible. They were passionately in love, and quickly growing to become something even more. Something Tony had never experienced, and never seen even with his own parents, except on those rare quiet nights when his father was miraculously home by bedtime, and not falling-over drunk. They were growing comfortable with each other, and their relationship, and Tony never wanted it to end. All of his plans for the future, at least in his head, began to include Mandie.
He should have known it was too good to last.
It wasn't until years, many years later, when he allowed himself to reflect on that time in his life, that he realized what had really happened. He'd been played. Played for a fool, by someone who was masterful at the game.
He'd been going over some new designs with Obadiah one night. He'd mentioned Mandie, as he was wont to do if even five minutes went by and he was speaking of anything besides strictly business.
Tony couldn't even recall what he'd said, now. But it had led to Obadiah sitting beside him (not across the table, where Tony could possibly believe he was confronting him), and questioning just how serious the relationship was. And, of course, Tony had answered honestly. It was very serious. They were in love. He couldn't imagine his life without her. And Obadiah, with a well-crafted look of almost-hidden unease, questioned if Mandie felt the same way.
Well, of course she did, Tony had responded. We love each other.
Obadiah had remained silent for a long stretch, glancing down at the plans on the table that were now lying forgotten. 'Are you sure?' he'd asked. When Tony had looked at him, (not thinking of getting angry yet), Obadiah had shrugged and said simply that he just wanted Tony to be careful, he didn't want him to get hurt.
And then Tony did get angry, and asked (as he later realized was exactly what Obadiah had been wanting) what he meant by that. Mandie wasn't going to hurt him!
Obadiah had explained that he was just being cautious, and trying to look out for Tony. 'She doesn't come from a long line of genius millionaires, Tony,' he'd said. 'I just don't want her to want you for any reason besides who you are, that's all.' Then, he'd suggested they get back to working on the design.
That had been the end of the discussion between them. But the seed had been planted. And, with a mind like Tony's, always racing at a hundred miles a minute, it didn't take long for the seed to take root, and begin to grow.
It began with wondering what Obadiah had meant by 'who you are.' He was Tony Stark, heir to Stark Industries. If Obadiah was worried about Mandie being a gold digger, then his fears were baseless. Mandie didn't care about money. She dreamed of having a nice house away from the city, but that could easily be provided by her own parents, or herself, once she finished going to school to become a lawyer. She wasn't with him for the money, and it was inconceivable that she could fake being in love with him, just to get him to marry her, or anything ridiculous like that.
But, that was what Mandie wanted. She wanted marriage, eventually, and kids. Tony knew that, they had discussed it; not seriously, but in a 'dreams for someday' sort of way. And, Tony thought, he wanted that as well. Eventually.
Not yet, of course. They were barely twenty, marriage and children could definitely wait.
Stark Industries, his legacy, on the other hand, was looming ever closer. And once he took up that mantle, he might as well settle down then and there, because he wouldn't have the freedom he had now.
But, did he really have that freedom now, anyway? Wasn't Mandie taking up all his time? She wasn't doing it maliciously, of course, but wasn't all of his 'free time' being spent with her, on her, instead of getting in all the living that he'd planned on doing before becoming a bona fide businessman? Hadn't he wanted to try drag racing, and parasailing, and deep sea diving, and a hundred other things, before they started dating? He wasn't doing any of that, now. He could, of course. He still could. But Mandie was worried he'd get hurt, doing most of the things he wanted to try. (She was right, of course; he could get hurt. But, that was kind of the point. It wasn't an adventure if there wasn't that thrill of danger involved.)
So, Tony vowed to get in all his living now, before he had to settle down with a job, and a potential wife.
It didn't go over so well with Mandie. Surprisingly, it wasn't his adventurous activities that bothered her nearly as much as the constant partying. The drinking. The fights that inevitably broke out, either because Tony had absolutely no brain-to-mouth filter, and a wicked tongue, or simply because he wanted the fight, and he'd goad the biggest man he could find into giving it to him.
They started getting into fights. Over petty things, but they might as well have been starting World War III the way they screamed at each other. Mandie would cry, sometimes when Tony could see her, a lot more often when she didn't think he knew, or wouldn't find out.
The more they fought, the more he tried to smother the horrible feelings; more alcohol, more partying, more dangerous adventures. Which, of course, led to more fighting.
Until finally, Mandie had had enough.
She broke it off with him in late June, six months before his 21st birthday. She said she couldn't stand it any more, how immature he was behaving. Immature! Of course he was immature, he was barely out of being a teenager! He was supposed to be immature!
The truth was, they'd grown apart, and he was entirely to blame. She hadn't said it, but he often wondered if she thought it. He certainly thought it, even when he tried not to. Which usually led to getting spectacularly drunk.
After she left, Tony was set adrift. She'd been his anchor, and without her, he was floating with no course, no goal in sight. He continued to party, and he started picking up women. Beautiful, gorgeous women. They practically threw themselves at him, and he was willing to take them to bed. More than willing.
But he never let it get beyond that. He became a consummate playboy, always unattached, always held apart, even while he mingled and smooth-talked his way through every situation.
Just before October, Mandie contacted him. She had something she felt he needed to know, even if he didn't do anything about it.
Mandie was pregnant.
The range of emotions Tony went through after learning about it was staggering. He was terrified. He wasn't ready to be a father. He was elated, because he was going to have a child, something that was wholly his, and not inherited from his predecessors. Grief, that they weren't together for this, that they couldn't share in the excitement and the anticipation, not the way they would have if she'd still been there with him.
He went to see her. She was about halfway along, she had told him, so she wasn't so large that it was difficult to get around, but she was quite obviously pregnant. She'd never looked more beautiful to him. Or more reluctant to see him.
She wasn't getting back together with him, she explained, once he showed up. That wasn't why she had told him. And she didn't want money. She said that she'd done a lot of thinking, and no matter how he was acting now, he did have a right to know that, out in the world, he was going to have a child. If he wanted, he could have a role in their life, but it was going to stay minimum, until she felt it was safe to let him get closer.
She didn't trust him anymore, and that hurt on so many levels. After she'd left, she'd still heard the news stories and seen the tabloid headlines, which were, he was slightly ashamed to admit, almost all true. (He both hated and loved tabloids; they were great fun to mess with, but they had the nasty habit of playing dirtier than he did, and messing back.)
Tony told Obadiah what was going on. He had no reason not to; it was a major event in his young life, and Obie was like a father to him, sometimes it felt like more than his own father had been.
Obadiah was skeptical about a lot of it. He questioned her statement that she didn't want any money. Of course she would say that, he reasoned, but what were the odds that they'd been together for a year, and only after the relationship had gotten rocky, just a month before they broke up, that she became pregnant? And, really, he continued, how could Tony even be sure that the baby was even his? Didn't you always hear about this happening in the news? Some woman claiming that some celebrity had fathered her child?
It angered Tony, that Obadiah was trying to take this away from him, and badmouthing Mandie as well. They had their issues with each other, but whatever those were, he still loved her. More importantly, he knew her, knew that she would never stoop to something like that. She didn't need his money, and why would she stoop to using the lure of fatherhood to draw him back into her life, when she'd made it perfectly clear that she wanted nothing to do with him now, and that she felt he was too immature even for an adult relationship, let alone a paternal one?
His response, of course, had been a glib 'That's what paternity tests are for.'
In the midst of all this, Tony turned 21, and became the new CEO of Stark Industries. His partying slowed down, but he quickly learned how to work the system, what rules and guidelines he could ignore, and what had to be dealt with. And in between the whirlwind of learning how to effectively run a business for a profit, he continued to speak to Mandie — Miranda. She was just Miranda to him, now.
She was also as big as a house. She refused to let him set her up in a condo close to her school, instead staying in the nicely furnished loft apartment in which her parents had helped her get. He wouldn't let her refuse his furnishing everything for a nursery, however. The best (which usually translated into the most expensive) of everything a baby and toddler could need or want was supplied. Safety-tested crib, a bassinet, state-of-the-art baby monitoring equipment, everything. (This was the prototype for what was to become JARVIS.)
On February 5th 1995, in a secured hospital with only the best doctors and nurses attending, Tony Stark's infant son was born. He was named Blaine Devon Thompson.