p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"strongJanuary 22, 2022/strong/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Muttering a few choice words under his breath, Rhodey shook his head and yanked out the lopsided knot from the tie before starting over. In the corner of his eye he saw Tony's reflection shaking in the mirror from the laughter he wasn't really attempting to hold in. He glared at his friend as best he could while he kept trying to get the knot right, "You're not helping you know!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Tony continued laughing and nodded, "I know but you can consider this payback for how much help you were right before my wedding to Pepper!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"A growl followed by another few expletives as Rhodey yanked his tie off yet again, "Are you going to keep laughing at me or try to do something help instead?"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Oh, laughing at your complete EPIC failure in this is entirely too fun for me to stop now," the billionaire gleefully retorted./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Tony! Come on seriously man!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Wiping his eyes, Tony held up his phone saying, "Relax, platypus, I've called for reinforcements."/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Not Moni I hope! Please tell me that you didn't send her a message-"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Tony gave him a, "oh please it's ME" look, "Again would you relax? I didn't call the soon-to-be Mrs. Rhodey to help her soon-to-be husband tie his tie after he's spent emhow /emmany years in the military having the PERFECTLY tied knot whenever he needed it before?"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Shaking his head, he started fiddling with the offending part of his attire again, and said without any real heat to back up the words, "You're a real jerk, you know that? Right?"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""And you're just emnow/em figuring that out?" Tony retorted. "Seriously-" A knock on the door interrupted whatever he had been about so he said instead, "Ah that must be my better half now."/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Rhodey snorted, "Don't you mean your emway better/em half?"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Giving his friend a smirk, Tony went over to open the door, "Oh good, it is you, Pep! Please come in and help my best friend before he falls over from a heart attack!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Pepper came into the room, and went over to the man indicated, immediately straightening the tie up, "Don't worry I'll have this fixed in less than a minute."/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Good 'cause Tony has been way too busy laughing at me to be ofem any/em real help!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Tony!" Pepper said in a scolding tone./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"""What?" he replied innocently./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""I think the best man is supposed to help the groom, not laugh at or mock his nerve induced difficulties!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Tony rolled his eyes, and pointed a finger at Rhodey, "Oh yeah right! Be helpful! Do you have emany/em idea how actually not helpful this guy to me was right before our wedding?"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Pepper shakes her head as she finishes with getting the tie on perfectly straight, "You could still be nicer and not harass Jim!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""It's okay, Pepper," Rhodey said, straightening his jacket, "In Tony's defense, I guess I need to admit that I was pretty awful to him right before you guys got married."/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Still," she countered, giving her husband a pointed look, "He should be helping you, not giving you payback for that."/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Tony smirked at his wife, "Well they do say that payback's a…"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Pepper held up a finger, "Don't you emdare/em finish that sentence, Tony Stark!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"The look he gave her was one of confused innocence, "What? All I was gonna say was that it's a dish best served cold. Honestly, Pep, get your mind out of the gutter, woman!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"His wife and best friend both gave him a knowing look before she kissed him on the cheek anyway, then turned to leave, "Well, I need to get back to the bride's suite to make sure the flower girls are all ready to go. I'll see you both inside the chapel. Oh, and Mr. Stark?"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Yes, Mrs. Stark?"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""emBehave/em."/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"He smiled at her, and waggled his eyebrows but didn't verbally reply to her. Shaking her head, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then turning back to her husband's best friend, she told him, "I've done my best with him. Sorry if he continues to give you grief."/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Rhodey shrugged, "I've been through worse."/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"When she hesitated in leaving he added, "I'm sure I'll live through emanything/em he can throw at me because there's no way in the world I am going to miss marrying the incredible woman who is waiting to become my wife."/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""We'll see about that, Sourpatch!"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Remind me again emwhy/em I asked you to be my Best Man?"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Because…"/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"Shaking her head at their antics, Pepper made her exit./p
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"strongFebruary 16, 2022/strong/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"emTONY AND VIRGINIA STARK ANNOUNCE SELLOUT OF STARK INDUSTRIES/em/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"New York City, New York - Yesterday, at a specially scheduled press conference, Mr. Tony Stark, son of late U.S. contractor/weapons manufacturer magnate Howard Stark, and Virginia Potts Stark announced their departure from the very company Mr. Stark's esteemed father founded./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;""Last year, I emalmost/em lost my husband, not because he was critically injured during a fight with the Avengers. No, I almost lost him because a Stark family member decided he wanted the ementirety/em of the family wealth as his own. He was so determined to for it to be his own that he would let nothing stand in his way. emNothing/em, ladies and gentlemen. Let that sink in and remember that nothing meant even if he had to take the lives of innocent NYPD policemen and federal agents in order to frame my husband for their murders, because he hoped Tony would be sentenced to death, and that he be executed sooner rather than later./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"This was the answer given by Potts Stark when they were asked by reporters why they've made the decision to sellout of Stark Industries right at this specific moment in time./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"The surprises did not end with the announcement of their sell out of Stark Industries as Mr. Stark also announced he has stepped down from the Avengers along with his official retirement as Iron Man, both are effectiveem immediately/em./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"When they were asked what the future may hold for them, and their family, both gave an enigmatic smile then Mrs. Stark said: "Hopefully there will be a lot of peace, laughter, love, and joy in our future."/p