Sleeping on the sofa didn’t bother him. What did bother him was Jarvis’s constantly bugging him—Tony tried to turn on his side and away from his irritating voice, but there was something on top of him, or someone.
“Sir, Ms. Potts is here with Mr. Stane.”
Tony tried to rake his mind for his memories. For a moment, his brain was terrifyingly blank before it all flooded back to him. Tony jerked his eyes open, as there was a sudden movement on top of him. Kendis sat straight up, wand in hand.
“Kendis,” Tony hissed. “Put the wand down.” The lights flickered (which should be impossible with the way he set up the electrical system.
Kendis blinked, and then they gave him a sheepish look as they made their wand disappear (and he had to ask her how she did that).
Tony’s eyes traveled across the dim room. The TV was off, and the sun had long since set. Sometime during their Godfather marathon, they had fallen asleep.
“ETA Jarvis,” Tony said, as Kendis suddenly pulled away from him.
“4.3 minutes, sir.”
“Fuck,” Tony swore under his breath.
“I can leave,” Kendis said, and she was adorable with her dark riotous curls all over her face, green eyes bright with a faint crease from where she slept on top of him.
‘Focus, Stark’, Tony said as he rubbed his forehead. He could hide Kendis in a closet somewhere, but something made him stop. Tony was a grown-ass man, and Kendis was just… Well, he didn’t know what they were to him, but she was clearly in need of help.
Tony was just being a good Samaritan, and there was nothing wrong with that.
“One minute, sir,” Jarvis updated.
“No, stay,” Tony said.
Kendis nodded and straightened up as much as she could.
Tony offered a small smile, but before he could speak again, the front door opened, and Obadiah burst in, Pepper close behind.
“Tony!” Pepper’s eyes widened at the sight of Kendis on the sofa. “Please tell me you didn’t blow off your meetings again for a hookup.”
“I didn’t!” Tony gestured at Kendis. “We are still wearing our clothes.”
Obadiah’s eyes traveled up and down Kendis’s body with a look that rubbed Tony the wrong way. ”Pretty,” Obadiah commented. “But not your usual type.”
Kendis huffed and frustratedly ran her hand through her hair. “Can you bloody stop talking about me like I am not here?”
“I can call a car,” Pepper said, strained. “It can take you anywhere you want to go.”
Tony and Kendis exchanged a long look. Tony was worried about Kendis, but he wouldn’t hold her if she didn’t want to be there. Kendis shook their head, and Tony inwardly sighed relief.
“She stays,” Tony replied firmly.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Obadiah slapped a hard hand on his shoulder. “The Jericho demonstration is eight weeks. You can’t afford—Obadiah trailed off as he gave Kendis a smirk. “—any distractions.”
Obadiah was his godfather, and he loved him like a second father, but his high handiness was getting on his last nerves.
“The Jericho is ready to go,” Tony bit out. “And Kendis is not a distraction.”
Pepper and Obadiah both threw Tony a dubious look. Tony rubbed his forehead and asked tiredly, “Obie, why are you even here?”
“Tony, you responded to calls or texts for days,” Obadiah said. “You missed the meeting with Mitsui Group.”
“And Jarvis locked me out of the house.” Pepper put her hands on her hips. “I came by earlier, and he refused to let me in.”
Tony flinched, wondering whether to tell the AI off for locking Pepper out. As his personal assistant and one of his best friends, she was one of the three people (Rhodey and Happy) who had unlimited access to his residences.
Obadiah didn’t have that level of access. There were some things a person didn’t want their father figure to know about their pseudo sons. All of this is to say that it was highly out of character for Jarvis to lock Pepper out.
“Tony,” Obadiah called, snapping Tony out of his thoughts. “Can I have a word?”
Tony nodded, and then he turned to Kendis, who shrugged. Tony turned back to see Obadiah with a sour look on his face. “Yeah, let’s go.”
Tony followed Obadiah out of the living room and into the kitchen. Obadiah leaned against the kitchen island and narrowed. “That was Kendis Black,” Obadiah said slowly. “I recognize her from the photos from the background check I had done on her. That’s the woman you married in Vegas when you were drunk.”
Tony opened his mouth to tear into Obadiah about doing a background check. Then he realized how much of a hypocrite that would make him. It annoyed him that Obadiah had gone behind his back, but he was self-aware that to know that he had no right to get mad at his godfather.
“Non-binary, not a woman,” Tony finally replied. “And yeah, Kendis is my spouse.”
Obadiah shook his head and gave him a pitying look, “Please tell me you are developing feelings for her, they, it?”
“Kendis has she/they pronouns.” Tony bit out, starting to get pissed off at his godfather’s attitude.
Obadiah’s nose flared, but then he bit out, “Please tell me you don’t have feelings for her.
“No,” Tony shook his head. “I’m just helping her out for a while.” However, in truth, Tony’s feelings for Kendis were a messy maelstrom that he was terrified to parse or quantify.
“How long was a while?” Obadiah asked, crossing his arms.
“A few days,” Tony shrugged. “More or less.”
Obadiah took a deep breath, and he could see through the fake calm façade and that Obadiah was biting back some harsh words. He then pinched the bridge of his nose, and then he looked up at Tony.
“Tony,” Obadiah warned with a note of pity. “You need to nip this in the bud. We have been through this before. Remember Jasmine Roberts?”
“Who?” Tony frowned.
Obadiah shook his head. “Your first wife? The one who threatened to sell your nudes to The Daily News? How about Shayne Horton? Your ex-husband? He thought you were allergic to strawberries and tried to poison you?”
Tony vaguely remembered a hot blonde twink who kept giving him dishes that had strawberries in them. He thought the guy (Shayne) had some type of fetish.
“He tried to kill me?” Tony said, shaking his head bemusedly. “But Kendis is not like that.”
Obadiah snorted; Tony felt like listing all the times Kendis tried to protect him. All the times that Kendis had pushed him a way to keep Chester from targeting him.
Tony laughed, “No, seriously. Kendis is not like that, and she definitely doesn’t need the money.”
“Bullshit,” Obadiah replied bluntly. “You know how the game is played, Tony. She is not with you out of the goodness of her heart.”
Tony looked at him long and hard, and it was on the tip of his tongue to spill all that they told him. Kendis was probably just as famous as he was back home. Hell, she all but fled all of that when she left England.
Obadiah gave him a dubious look and Tony realized that Obadiah had taken one look at Kendis in her Fall Out boy t-shirt, ripped jeans, scuffed combat boots, and tattoos, and made all types of assumptions.
“No,” Tony replied slowly. “The last thing she wants from me is money or fame.”
“Tony,” Obadiah pleaded
Tony put up his hand. “Look, Kendis is only going to be here for a few days, and then she will leave.”
“You haven’t filed the papers,” Obadiah said, crossing his arms. “That’s what I want to talk about.”
Tony looked away and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, about that…”
“Tony, you are playing with fire,” Obadiah said as he walked forward and put his hands on Tony’s shoulders. “You need to cut her off before you get any deeper into this. It’s not only your feelings on the line. It’s the company. It’s your father’s legacy.”
Tony nodded because maybe Obadiah was right. Not about Kendis being a fame hungry gold digger, but about his father’s legacy.
And besides, Tony wasn’t cut out for monogamy. Tony was his father’s son in more ways than one. He never wanted to put a partner through the hell his father put his mother through.
“It will be only for a few days,” Tony reassured his godfather. “And afterwards I cut it off.”
“You’ll file the papers?” Obadiah challenged, and Tony nodded. Obadiah gave him a relieved look. “I knew you would see reason, son.”
Tony offered Obadiah a smile that was entirely fake. Tony believed his godfather only wanted what was best for him. However, his godfather was unaware of the full story. Obadiah relied entirely on assumptions and the false persona Kendis had constructed.
Yet, despite his words to his godfather, Tony couldn’t shake the sick feeling at the pit of his stomach he got when he thought about walking away from Kendis and never seeing them again.
But what in the hell did he had to offer Kendis, besides his money and fame? They were too good for Tony but he didn’t know if he had to the strength to let her go.
