Light of my Life (STONY)

Today is The Day

"Happy Birthday, sir." Tony walked into the lab and was greeted by the AI as per usual. "Today is the day."

"Today is what day," he yawned, pouring himself a mug of cold brew coffee. "It's a birthday, it's nothing special."

"It's your 21st birthday, sir. Today is the day you inherit Stark Industries." Tony dropped his glass and it shattered everywhere.

"What?" In the past few years, Tony had developed intricate designs to help the army and to protect America, but he never thought the day would come for them to actually be used. "You're shitting me."

"You've been out of the loop so long that you've forgotten, but it was in your fathers will, in case you didn't remember."

"Right. Right, yeah, holy shit. DUM-E, clean this up." With a hop, skip and a jump, Tony was at his desk with no major injuries. He'd caught the side of his foot on a small piece of glass but he was okay, really. Not a lot of harm done. After cleaning it and applying a band-aid, Tony got dressed (he had a small amount of clean clothing in his lab, purely because he either didn't want to put his laundry away or he was planning on sleeping in the lab - he had a couch, it wasn't uncomfortable) and hopped into his car. He got it going and drove to Obadiah's house.

He pulled into the driveway and was greeted by paparazzi, so once he managed to get through them all, he rang the doorbell, his eye was scanned, and he was let in.

"Obi," he called loudly.

"Kitchen," came a response. Tony walked in and there were 2 bowls of breakfast on the kitchen island. "Sit down and eat, we need to talk." Tony sat down but didn't eat anything.He waited for Obadiah to face him before either of them started talking.

"How did you know I was coming?"

"Doesn't matter. Hungry?" Staine asked, pushing a bowl towards the boy.

"Allergic," he replied, pushing it back. Obi nodded.

"Right. Kiwi. Sorry, kid." Obadiah had, for some reason, made a banana, kiwi, strawberry and raspberry fruit bowl for breakfast.

"Did you put orange juice in this?"

"Yeah, cuts back from the sharpness of the lemon." Tony tried not to look extremely repulsed but Obi laughed.

"If I was even thinking about eating it before I'm most definitely not going to now."

"So, we need to talk about you."

"Why?"

"Because I don't think you're ready in inherit Stark Industries." Tony stood up and poured himself some water.

"What do you mean? Dad left it for me when I turn 21, it's my birthday, I turn 21 today, I therefore inherit the company today, why am I not ready?" He took a sip of water and put his palms on the table, his elbows facing inwards.

"Because I can see from this angle, you're vulnerable." Tony looked down to see cuts and grazes on the inside of his arms so he pulled the sleeves of his hoodie down further, muttering angrily.

"That was a misunderstanding,"

"Tony-"

"That was a month ago."

"What even happened?"

"My girlfriend had stayed the night and went home. She promised she'd call me. And after a couple days I hadn't heard from her, she wouldn't answer my calls, I was worried about her."

"This is exactly what I mean!"

"She was found hanging from her ceiling 2 days later when she didn't show up to work. She told me she was on a business trip and I didn't need to call her. I trusted her, I thought she was fine. I was stupid." Tony bit his thumbnail. "I was too trusting."