Who: Adrian and Tony Where: Dinner When: Thursday 3 September Warning: None Status: Closed, Complete
Tony had discussed the menu for the evening with Jarvis and planned accordingly. Since he was eating with a teenaged boy there should be an assortment of foods, both plain and exotic. An assortment of desserts was brought as well, and Jarvis was on standby to let Adrian in and to keep things going. While there were at least hundreds of elves in the castle, Tony would not part with his own.
When he heard a knock, Jarvis opened the door and bowed slightly to Adrian. "Master Battye. This way." And he led the teen toward the table, overloaded with food of all types.
Master Battye? House elf footman? Adrian was not used to this level of propriety. He didn't fidget only because he had significant self control. The urge to tug at his cuffs to make sure they sat right or adjust his tie though was strong though. He felt even more uncertain about this than he had before coming. He could handle dealing with the high brow people he met at the gallery, but it was another thing when it was a dinner with the man who was his father.
Tony himself, as tended to befit him, was in a muggle band shirt and jeans. He looked at Adrian for a moment before motioning him to sit down. "I wasn't quite sure what teenaged boys eat nowadays so I just had Jarvis bring up an assortment." Because it was easier that way to make sure his son had something he would enjoy during the meal. "There's no need to dress formally for dinner. It's just a meal and in here I'm just a guy trying to get to know his kid."
Adrian nodded, taking in the contrast between the incredibly formal elf and Tony Stark's casual dress. This entire thing was just odd. "I did not know if I should change out of my uniform or not." He said of his dress as he sat down. Looking at the food he nodded. "I am a teenaged boy… I eat whatever I'm offered." It was a little flippant perhaps, so he softened the statement adding, "I am used to eating different kinds of cuisine. We go to Paris at least once a year and Mom likes it when the caterers match the food to the theme at her gallery events," he explained.
"Whatever's comfortable." Because Tony wasn't a fan of dress codes and kept a focus on comfort instead of style. He was pretty sure his own father would be rolling in his grave but honestly it didn't matter. Nothing had been enough for Howard. "You enjoy traveling? What else do you like to do?"
Adrian took note of the implied casual dress code. "Yes, sir," he agreed. He nodded again when Tony Stark asked if he enjoyed travelling. "Most of my travel has been to the big cities and museums in Europe or New York here in the US." It felt formal. It was formal. What else did he like to do? "Obviously I play Quidditch - Slytherin chaser. The rumors are that there will be a lot of scouts at the games this year because of that."
Tony nodded at the discussion of scouts. "They don't know much other than that you're related to Wallace, as I understand it." Because that seemed to be the boy's refrain. "What do you intend to do? I don't know if you're planning for a quidditch career, but if you are I doubt you'll be able to keep that fact, that she patented you, hidden."
"She never advertized she had a child, no," Adrian agreed with Tony's assessment. "It is not clear her manager even knew." Not that Adrian had been there to know, but it was what he had gathered over the years. Wallace was a difficult subject. "But it is not exactly a secret. It is not as though I did not grow up knowing who she was." Although neither had she any real part in raising him. "You figured it out after seeing us at a single luncheon." As for what he intended to do, "It seemed advisable to see what interest there was, and consider all of the options available to me."
Tony nodded, accepting the conversation. "I know things that most people would not figure out, though. I'm paid for that, generally quite well." Because he hadn't gone to school in both worlds for nothing, after all. "You have a lot of channels open to you now with the Gringotts account you can now access. Your future just got a good deal wider as to what you can do."
Adrian was just as happy for people not to figure it out. He loved his parents and preferred that others didn't question that relationship. He was still ambivalent about Tony having figured it out, no matter what advantages the other man indicated it might grant. "What will happen if it does get out?"
“Tabloids mostly. I plan to do my best to avoid that for as long as we possibly can. Until you decide you want to make it public, if you plan to. I’ve got attention on me constantly, so something like this is simple to deal with for me. You’re less used to it.” A shrug and he plucked a roll, biting into it. He would let Adrian ask whatever he needed and go from there.
Adrian's only taste of tabloids was the ridiculous Scribbler accusations and the attention that Wallace courted. But Tony was right that he had largely been excluded from most of the tabloid coverage of Wallace. "It has all the makings of a tabloid story," he admitted, clearly not entirely comfortable with that idea. He had spent the better part of seventeen years avoiding scrutiny for his family. "The alternative is coming out with the story yourself, picking the interviewer and the magazine?"
"Like I said, all of that is up to you. I've got more publicity than anyone else would know what to do with." He motioned with his hand to the room around them. "This is the only place it's difficult to access me. I'm going to be in the public eye. If you don't want that I fully intend to try and keep you from it."
Adrian nodded. It sounded good, to hear the other man say it, but it also sounded incredibly unrealistic to think it wasn't going to blow up eventually. If he was going to play though, he would get media attention, if only for his connection to Wallace, which was public. And Tony Stark was not the most quiet and retiring. It wasn't going to be solved now. "What should I call you?"
“Tony. Professor. Whatever suits you. Dad or father is probably not going to feel comfortable and so I don’t expect that.” It wouldn’t make sense to suggest those as options currently when he had been no more of a father to the boy than Howard had been most of the time to him.
Neither sounded entirely comfortable to Adrian, but he nodded again. He called Wallace by her first name only but they had seventeen years of an awkward relationship, and it had come about in part since she was 'Aunt Wallace' to his sister it was easier. It felt odd to call Professor Stark Tony. And Professor was what everyone called him, it implied nothing personal. It was a strange limbo they were in. He threw his mind back to other topics. "Do you travel much yourself?"
Tony didn't worry much about what he was called. He knew well enough that he got names behind his back. It was not the biggest deal. When someone was successful they invited that. A nod at Adrian's question. "I go around wherever I have to for Stark Industries. My work in university and the ability I had to expand the business gave me the chance to do as I want now."
"Like teaching,", Adrian noted. More likely Professor Banner decided to teach, and Tony was bored and decided to come along. Adrian chided himself: he was supposed to be keeping an open mind about this man. "Where did you go to university?" Jackson was talking about muggle music schools instead of WADA, and Adrian didn't know of a science college for wizards.
"Like teaching." It was true. It wasn't like he would ever need the money he was paid for the time he spent at Hogwarts. Most of it ended up donated to the fund for students who couldn't afford their own materials. "I went to MIT. It's a muggle school. One of the best out there for what I do." Because that's how he worked.
There was no question it would be the best if Tony Stark was involved, with the possible exception of Adrian - but that was Wallace's influence. "Did it help? Going to muggle school?" Adrian had only passing knowledge of muggle life - mostly what he got from Jackson and the customers at his mom's gallery.
"It was an experience. I attended for a portion of the time via correspondence since I was here as well. It gave me the ability though to understand more of muggle tech and how it works with magic." Tony looked at Adrian. "It's a good experience to have. Looking at how muggles live and work, all that."
Adrian wasn't sure how something like that would work, but ironically what Tony was saying was echoing Jackson to no small degree. It was all a bit uncomfortable. "It seems as though adjusting to not using magic could be a challenge." Adrian was quick to reach for his wand to solve most things in his daily life, and it was worse now that he was of age.
"It can be. It is interesting though to see the tech muggles have developed to get around it." Obviously from Tony's perspective that was the most interesting thing. He had proven to himself that he could live without magic, and that was a rather large feat for most of age wizards.
Adrian nodded, not having enough experience to comment. It was at least easy to get Tony talking. Adrian could ask just enough questions to keep the older man's train of thought moving and keep him talking about himself or his experiences, so he could maintain his usual distance.