By the shoulder. It was always by the shoulder. Reined in like a disobedient puppy to Obadiah's side.
'Call me Obie.'
Guided along to business contact after business contact for Tony to woo with his genius, his big eyes and his tussled black hair. He had an innocence or something his father lacked.
Snidely under his breath he would claim it was charm. Mother had to be in charge of the social aspect for a reason.
Working people came easy to him, in a way he could admit that he father sometimes struggled with. Perhaps when he was younger he handled it better but his father now was a jaded old man who struggled to talk to him let alone work a crowd off his own back without his money or achievements to work with. His father was like a sledgehammer when it came to getting what he wanted, he just forced his way through. It was an age thing perhaps, Howard considered himself old enough not to care about what people thought of him. Tony liked to think that he was a little bit more subtle and wheedled like a little snake with his words and charm. Push comes to shove however he was willing to break out the sledgehammer.
Obadiah however claimed that his appeal came because he was still untouched, unassuming and they were just waiting to eat him up. But it was okay as Obadiah had his back. That wasn't comforting.
He had nightmares sometimes with Obadiah leading him like a lamb to slaughter to a pack of wolf-like people, complete with snarling snouts and gaping, drooling mouths. He was always lead by the shoulder. He always turned away from them only to find that Obadiah was the hungriest and ugliest wolf of them all.
His father had grown a lot better at listening ever since Steve Rogers made his way into the family picture however he refused to hear Tony's 'foolish claims' about how his long-time business partner and friend Obadiah Stane.
'It's just business, Anthony. You're going to have to learn it to live in this world of ours.'
He did not want to run the business, to mingle with the contacts.
It was just like being a prized pedigree put up for inspection at a dog show. Look how high the little Stark can jump, look at the tricks he can do. The way they talked about his 'breeding', how he got the Stark genes for both his hair and his brains. A mini Howard just better trained, mildly better at keeping his mouth shut. The hand on his shoulder would always squeeze a little harder when he said something he was not supposed to. Sometimes he could swear he had bruises.
He just wanted to make. Not weapons. Innovative things that no one had thought of yet. He wanted to fly. Truly fly rather than being in the confines of a helicopter or a private jet. He wanted to soar through the clouds face first.
But he needed the business to allow him to make. Resources and technology that was not easily accessible to a poor man was what he needed to make his visions.
You couldn't fly when your resources were just a car battery. Or when your main priority is food.
After he found Captain America - Steve - his father had been taking far more interest in what he actually requested and so he was getting away with far less. Being monitored meant that he was no longer allowed the more volatile of resources because of his safety. If his father cared so much for his safety he would rescue him from being man-handled by Obadiah.
It was not all bad though, normally events such as this were utterly terrible. Since his father actually took time to notice him now, he was not left alone with Obadiah for the entire night.
The crowds were delighted at the sight of the two Starks side by side when they usually occupied opposite sides of the room or when only one of them appeared. The journalists seemed to have a field day when Howard quietly but assertively removed Obadiah's hand from Tony's shoulder to replace it with an arm draped around Tony's waist. Tony was beaming - a true honest smile - rather than the fake polite thing he had for the public. Perhaps his father cared more than he first realised. He could not help but lean into Howard and relax.
Everyone but Obadiah looked delighted at the turn of events, many of their reasons were bound to superficial. Scavengers and gossips the lot of them. Obadiah's jaw was doing this odd twitching thing.
Obadiah was hovering to the side just waiting to snatch him up after Howard got bored of him. Which seemed to come earlier than expected thanks to seeing a familiar face in their circle around the room all in the name of mingling.
"Howard."
"Hank."
Oh great. Not this pissing contest between these two again. Howard's grip all but disappeared as he faced off against his 'arch rival'. Rather than dealing with Obadiah herding him around, he turned his gaze to the young girl who stood sulkily beside Hank being ignored like he was now that the adults were peacocking.
"Hi, I'm Tony. How old are you? Three?" He asked the dark-haired girl.
"I'm Hope, I'm four." She looked affronted at him calling her three and it came off in her voice.
"Four? Four's a good age. Made my first circuit board when I was four." Tony stated with a grin. "Want to ditch our fathers and get some cake?"
"Chocolate?"
"Whatever cake you want."
Hope tilted her head in consideration before nodding, she took Tony's hand and very forcefully dragged him to the food table. Away from Obadiah. He liked this girl already even if she was only four.
"Lift." Tony amused obeyed the girl and hoisted her onto his hip allowing her to point out the cake she wanted. There were a bunch of photographs being taken but he couldn't bring it in himself to mind too much considering Obadiah was lurking but seemed hesitant in causing a potential scene in front of the cameras. Thank the lord for little girls with big attitudes. Because if Obadiah dragged him off he would either be leaving a four year old unattended or potentially kidnapping said four year old.
"What is this?" Howard asked waving the newspaper in Tony's face. Apparently he and Hope had managed to capture the front page. Rather than the big thing Howard had been trying to promote, that had been demoted to page sixteen because according to the news a picture of the heirs of two publically self-proclaimed 'enemies' eating cake together was more important than flying cars or whatever dear old dad was selling. He was mildly mortified at the Romeo and Juliet spin on it, the age difference was a bit much and both Romeo and Juliet offed themselves off. No thanks. Well at least he managed to avoid Obadiah.
"I forgot to wear a condom? I'm just sorry you had to find out this way."
"Not funny." Howard's lips twitched a little however betraying his amusement. He and his dad had similar senses of humour who would have thought? Before dear ol' Steve came home, he had not realised Howard could laugh. "But that better not ever be the case, or do I have to get Captain America to give you the Talk again?"
Tony winced despite himself. That was not a fun day. It had been awkward for everyone involved.
"Fairly sure that's not necessary, especially because I'm fairly sure a sixty-something year old virgin isn't qualified to be teaching sex-ed."
"Virgin? But the USO tour..." Howard trailed off in confusion. "Oh this is great." He finally concluded.
Tony merely grinned as he had successfully distracted his father from having a go at him for stealing the thunder and/or consorting with the 'enemy'. Hank Pym and Howard were not even on that bad a terms, no doubt due to the efforts of Pym's wife Janet keeping them from clashing too hard.
"New girlfriend?"
"She's four." Tony replied with a glare that could melt butter, if the butter was already melting, and probably not much else to be honest. "How many papers did everyone buy?" He grumbled. Jarvis had framed one, his mother held hers all pleased and all the cleaning staff seemed to have one. A few of the maids giggled at him.
"It's actually really cute." Steve admitted looking at one of the many photos in the two-page spread of Tony and Hope just getting and eating cake. "Yeah, I'll be an amazing uncle." Steve said after a while, Tony just looked so surprisingly comfort with a child on his hip.
"Hold up. What if I don't want kids?"
"Don't deny the children the right to having Captain America as their uncle."
"Children?" Tony quirked an eyebrow in a gesture that was so Peggy that it had Steve grinning.
"One girl, two boys. I expect one to be named after me by the way." Tony snorted in disbelief and threw a paper aeroplane at Steve's smirking face. It very satisfyingly struck him right in the forehead.
"Tough luck buddy. I'm marrying Rhodey so expect no children as neither of us are very fertile grounds." Tony answered gesturing downwards.
"Science can do amazing things nowadays."
"You gotta be shittin' me!" Tony looked torn between laughing and horror.
"Language jar." Steve hummed. Jarvis had implemented it after the house had become home to three (four when Rhodey was around) men who swore like sailors. Peggy re-enforced it which meant of course that all ended up chipping in. Jarvis could afford rather dishy vacations thanks to the Language jar. Peggy claimed she could run a whole super secret government organisation off of it. Tony called bullshit on Peggy's one, for he was fairly certain if Peggy was running an organisation it would be the country as President.