Tony Stark (ironwizard) wrote in carpediem_rp, @ 2015-10-25 10:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: adrian battye, character: tony stark, thread: complete |
Who: Adrian Battye and Tony Stark
When: 24 October, Dinner
Where: Tony's apartment
What: Discussing Wallace
Rating/Warnings: None
Status: Closed/Complete
Tony had a number of papers in a pile to the side of the table where he and Adrian generally shared meals, mostly legal documents that had been drawn up in the few days since the Scribbler. Owls were still in and out, though the amount had dwindled thankfully - it had been a bit annoying having to send so many letters out, but it was no less than he expected. A stack of unopened envelopes sat in a corner, ready to be used as kindling.
He had ensured that the foods Adrian seemed to enjoy the most were offered at the meal, adding hot chocolate as well as water and pumpkin juice. This wasn't going to be an enjoyable discussion really by any stretch of the imagination, and so making Adrian as comfortable as possible seemed to be the wise course of action.
Adrian wouldn't say he was comfortable with Professor Stark, but they were finding a pattern and an accord with each other. There was a oddness to be near strangers, but to have such a profoundly intimate relationship that defined them. Although this wasn't their usual night - Adrian had spent Thursday with his sister exclusively - it was familiar to go to the Professor's apartment for dinner. He knocked, and was let in by Jarvis.
Adrian settled easily at the table as was their custom, though he did note the stack of correspondence. Adrian suspected that he was likely the subject of a few of those. It was not ego, but logic. Professor Stark had said they needed to discuss things, and no doubt it was their relationship, and their relationship to the tabloids.
Tony didn't much care about tabloids honestly. He was a fixture in them and while the comment on him in the Scribbler was at least halfway true, it was not the first or last time he'd be mentioned and he knew it. When Adrian settled at the table Tony took a sip of his coffee before speaking.
"Have you run into any problems? Tabloid contacts?" Because he wanted to be sure that the system he'd set up was working before anything else. Everything else was legal and logistical. This was a bit more personal to start.
"No, sir," Adrian was a little surprised by that given what he knew of Tony Stark's reputation. They had discussed what might happen should the word get out about their relationship. "One of the scouts that has been looking at me wrote, but only about coming to the game in three weeks." It was not completely unexpected to hear from the scout. That that had been the only inquiry though seemed to defy their fears.
Tony nodded, inwardly pleased. The rerouting of the tabloid contacts had been a success then. "It is good to hear that. I imagine you know that Wallace will find out about this eventually. I have discussed that fact with my lawyers, since you were raised by Isolde and Jonathan Smith." Tony paused and took another sip of his coffee, weighing his next words. "Had she raised you she would be entitled to a large sum of money. As she did not, she is less so. And yet you were never officially adopted. That means if she determines she wants that money, there could be years of court dates to prove the situation."
"Mom probably wrote her after the owl." Adrian's mother would have wanted her sister to know before she read about it in the tabloid press, especially given the fact that Wallace was in the press often enough that she probably wouldn't know this story was real.
Adrians frown deepened as Tony talked about his parents, and the lack of adoption to legally define their relationship. "They aren't legally my parents you mean… So they have no claim to me, and therefore none to you… Wallace is, and does. She didn't want the negative attention that legally giving me up would cause… or the responsibility of raising me… so she isn't likely to want the ill-attention and bad press that would come from suing you over me."
Tony listened to Adrian speak, thoughtful. He did not doubt that in a normal situation that might be the case, but he preferred to not bank on the goodness of people, or even their desire for positive recognition.
"Be that as it may, I have spoken to my lawyers. They've drafted a contract with a set amount to be paid out if she keeps things away from the courts. I also intend to give a rather larger amount to your family, as they are the ones who raised you and I cannot imagine any child is inexpensive."
Adrian frowned a little as Professor Stark began talking about lawyers and contracts and payouts. "Has she written asking for money?" He knew, without asking, that his parents - Jonathan and Isolde who raised him - would not. "We had enough money growing up. Dad, Jonathan… does banking and finance. We spent part of every summer in Europe…" He frowned at the idea that Professor Stark needed to buy off his parents to keep them out of court too.
"I am working on the assumption that she will. She has not. I also am aware your parents had sufficient funds to raise you and your sister. They've likely done a better job than I would have, for all my experience and knowledge in other fields. It is because they are unlikely to request the money that I am providing it." He donated huge sums as it was to many different funds. This was just another, though a good deal more important honestly.
Adrian nodded, relieved at least that he was not wrong, at least not yet, about his family. It still didn't sit right that Professor Stark felt the need to buy out his family. "She is more likely to contact you to try to rekindle what you had, if she wanted money from you. It's been two months since she introduced me to her last boyfriend, so she might be tiring of him by now, or him her… but you aren't likely to hear from her if she is still happy with him." Wallace's boyfriends were always rich enough to take care of her.
"Another situation I would prefer to avoid." Because he knew very well that old habits could come back too easily for his liking. He would not allow that to happen though. He couldn't go back to that - he knew very well that it could kill him and he wasn't about to put out that risk. "I have no problem ensuring that she does not come to me with that in mind, or worse, to you. The money that is yours, is yours. I don't want to have any risk that she'll try to gain from this through you. From what I've seen of your parents, they would not. I've seen some negative situations as well though and would prefer to avoid them."
Adrian couldn't help but snort a little at Professor Stark's dismissal of a rekindled relationship with Wallace. It was a rare reveal of his feelings in the normally reserved Slytherin. "Wallace doesn't come to me for anything except to make sure she looks good." Adrian shrugged. "She doesn't want to be the villain; it is ego. If she came to me for money then it would be a sign she faltered... " It wasn't impossible that she would come to him for money someday, since his birth mother was an addict who didn't want to work… "But she prefers not to pay for things herself, and that means having a man to pay for them for her."
"I have more than enough money to supply just about any ego." Except perhaps his own, but that was a given. It was why he worked so hard. The snort amused Tony though, a tiny hint that the boy- while maybe not trusting him entirely- had at least a willingness to show some of his feelings in the matter. "Avoiding the risk is what I'm aiming for. I'm lucky. I would never find myself in that situation, even when I was young. Not everyone is." Tony shrugged slightly. "Everyone has their burdens, obviously, but if I can do small things to prevent one for you it is something I do gladly."
"She has chosen that… she has enough skill that she could have made her own way had she wished it." Adrian knew the addictions made that impossible for her, and accepted her choices, having no choice not to. "You might be wise then to put money into an investment trust for her, that gives her only a monthly income." Otherwise, she would burn through however much he gave her and come back to him for more, knowing he was a money source.
"I've been there. If I hadn't had Howard's money to start I probably still would be." Expensive rehabs and the ability to keep himself away from situations simply with his money made it a lot easier. His work did too, if he were honest - he probably worked more in a week than most normal people did in twice that time. "A trust would be the way I would manage it, yes. Interest bearing, monthly income." Tony nodded. His son was clearly at least versed to some degree with money, which would make things easier when it came to his trust and how it could be distributed.
Adrian's father - the man who raised him - was a banker. Adrian had learned a little from him over the years, and even though he had more interest in art and the gallery, he had some business sense. "That will help at least… although she will likely resent you for it too." She always resented not getting her way.
Tony shrugged. "It's happened before and it will happen again. Resentment isn't anything I can't handle, or I wouldn't be who I am." He had grown up with it, and the fact that he had been hugely successful in his life didn't do much to assuage the issue.
Adrian nodded. "You do not need me to tell you about Wallace." Obviously, he knew Adrian's birth mother, or else they would not have the relationship they have. "Or how to do business.... you were just telling me." Adrian recognized.
"It is something you should hear from me and not her." Because he was doing it in the hope that it would make some things easier on Adrian in the future. "I intend to be entirely transparent with you. You're my son. You're going to need to see where Stark money goes and have a hand in it as well, even if you don't take the company proper."
"She wouldn't tell me." Adrian knew that at least. Wallace never discussed anything 'real' with him. The rest of Professor Stark's statement though - that he might have a hand in the Stark family business was entirely foreign to him. But professor Stark was thinking that way already, with Adrian, a boy he'd know for just two months. It was unsettling in a way. But all Adrian did was nod acceptance.
Tony nodded at that. Adrian would know Wallace better to offer that information. The fact was though he just wanted to do what would make life easier for the boy. He supposed it was some sort of paternal instinct maybe. He watched Adrian quietly for a moment, taking his demeanor in and figuring that perhaps moving from serious topics was in order now. "We should have dinner now, I believe. Jarvis?" He glanced at the elf, motioning to the table with a smile. He was polite to house elves in a way many rich purebloods weren't since the elf had raised him, and so he rose too to help bring the plates to the table.