Chapter Text
Year 14 - Open It Up And See What It Can Do
(Steve 39, Bucky 38, Peggy 34, Tony 31, Barney 23, Laura 23, Clint 19, Nat 19, Bruce 16, Jane 16, Cooper 3, Lila 3mo)
Nat answers a knock at the door that summer to find an old, bordering on elderly alpha in an expensive suit waiting behind it. She raises an eyebrow at him.
“I’m looking for Anthony Edward Barnes, Miss. Would he be at home?”
She turns her head halfway back toward the inside of the house, keeping the man in her peripherals as she shouts, “Ma!” at the top of her lungs. The alpha winces. Nat grins at him overly sweetly and says, “He’ll be down in a minute,” then she shuts the door on him again.
A few minutes later, Tony makes his way down from the lab, opening the front door to see if the alpha Nat talked about is still there. He is.
“Good afternoon, Anthony Edward Barnes, I presume?” the man asks.
Tony nods, “Yeah, that’s me. Can I help you?”
“My name is Raymond Sturges, Esquire, I represent the law firm of Sturges, Rowe, & Meyer.”
“Ok,” Tony says, since the man stops like he’s waiting for some response from Tony. Of course Tony recognizes the name of the law firm Howard always employed, but he isn’t going to make it easy on the alpha.
“I’m afraid I’m going to need to see some identification, to verify who you are, before divulging the reason for my visit,” Mr. Sturges says apologetically.
“Oh, is that so? Look, if you’re here to serve a lawsuit or subpoena or something, just get it over with, otherwise, get the hell off my doorstep,” Tony says, giving the man a moment to produce any paperwork or documents. When he doesn’t make any immediate move to, Tony starts to shut the door in his face.
“Wait, Mr. Barnes, please, it’s about your father!” Mr. Sturges says as the door is closing.
Tony pauses, having figured as much, but also dreading the turn the conversation just took. He opens the door back up again, slowly, staring down the lawyer intensely. “What the hell could Howard possibly want from me after all these years?” he asks.
“Nothing,” Mr. Sturges is quick to tell him, “Nothing at all. ...I suppose that with that face, the genetics would be hard to deny,” he says, waving at Tony, “So I’ll count that as having ‘identified’ you for now. The reason I’m here is because Howard Stark is dead.”
Tony blinks at him. “Ok, what does that have to do with me?”
Mr. Sturges blinks back at him, not having expected such a response. “Perhaps if I could come inside, we could discuss the matter further?...”
Tony sighs, looking the lawyer up and down before he says, “Yeah, ok.” He swings the door open wide to admit him, then leads him into the dining room. Nat is playing with Cooper in the living room, teaching him some tumbling, and she watches them go by suspiciously.
“Tea?” Tony offers, deciding to be cordial.
“Please,” Mr. Sturges accepts, seeming less off kilter now that social niceties are being observed. It does seem to throw him a little when Tony makes the tea himself, but he says nothing about it.
“Alright, so what exactly are you doing here, Mr. Sturges? Howard specifically took on Obadiah Stane as his business partner so that everything would go to him when he died,” Tony says after they’ve both taken the first polite sips of their cups. Tony and Bucky don’t own any china, so Tony is drinking from a mug that says “World’s Best Mom” while Mr. Sturges’ mug indicates what level of coffee it’s acceptable to speak to him after.
“Obadiah Stane was convicted on half a dozen counts of weapons trafficking almost ten years ago. He’s currently serving 50 to life. His contract with Howard immediately became null and void once he was convicted of treason,” Mr. Sturges says, like he can’t believe Tony didn’t know that.
“Why isn’t my mother dealing with this?” Tony asks, but he has a pretty good idea why already.
“Oh… Um, I’m afraid your mother passed not long after the Stane debacle… Howard narrowly avoided jail himself during the trails, and he liquidated the accounts set aside for her upkeep upon his passing to pay the fines he incurred. She overdosed a week later. I apologize, I wasn’t aware that you hadn’t been informed…” Mr. Sturges looks like he might actually be sorry, at that.
“Not your fault,” Tony says, shaking his head. He’d been living his life pretty much assuming his mother was gone since Jarvis’ funeral. It sounds like she only lasted a couple years past that, from what Mr. Sturges has outlined.
“I have some documents for you and your alpha to look over. The firm has already conducted our investigation and concluded you are the only remaining heir to the Stark fortune,” he says as he opens his briefcase and pulls out a thick stack of paperwork. “You and your alpha will need to come down to the firm’s office to sign for the actual transfer of the estate, since it has to be witnessed and notarized.”
“So, this paperwork here?...”
“It’s the summary of probate, what funds were liquidated to settle which debts, etc., and the description of all property, real or otherwise, left in the estate. A 70% share in Stark Industries Inc., also passes to you and your alpha, as well as the title of CEO, so all its assets and yearly projections are delineated therein. I believe the board of directors is holding off on the annual shareholders’ meeting until they’ve had a chance to meet your alpha,” Mr. Sturges informs him.
Tony snorts at the idea of Bucky sitting down to a highly lacquered table wearing a suit and tie and having any opinion on the state of modern weapons manufacturing. “Do we have a deadline here?” he asks, just to make sure.
“If you do not make a claim within a year of Howard’s passing, then it will revert to the state,” Mr. Sturges tells him, “But since it’s only been nine months, you still have plenty of time.”
Tony nods, then shows Mr. Sturges back to the door since there really isn’t anything else to discuss right now.
“We’ll probably be down tomorrow, no point in waiting,” Tony tells him.
“Indeed, we’ll see you then, Mr. Barnes,” Mr. Sturges says with a tip of his head.
Tony is about to close the door behind him when curiosity finally gets the better of him. “How did he die?” Tony calls out, with Mr. Sturges being on the bottom step already.
“A heart attack,” he turns and indicates, pressing a hand over his own chest.
Tony just nods, then finishes closing the door.
<//>
When Bucky gets home that evening, Nat is waiting for him in the foyer.
“Someone named Howard died. Ma hasn’t left the dining room since some old alpha in a suit came to tell him,” she says, smelling just slightly worried.
Bucky didn’t really think about it until that moment, but Tony’s never talked about his past or his family with the kids, aside from to promise them that they’ll never be hurt by him like he was by his dad.
“Does he seem sad?” Bucky asks somewhat incredulously.
Nat picks up on it right away, of course, tilting her head to the side. “I’m not sure…”
“It’s ok, I’ll go talk to him,” Bucky assures her, giving her a hug. He’d bet all the gold in Fort Knox that his and Tony’s conversation will be listened in on, but with as many kids as they have, they’re used to never being truly alone.
“Doll?” Bucky calls out, seeing Tony seated at the dining room table with a bunch of papers spread out in front of him. He doesn’t look teary eyed or anything, but he doesn’t look particularly happy either. Tony turns to look at him, like he’s surprised Bucky’s there.
“Hey, is it that late already?” Tony sighs, rubbing at his face, “We should probably order something in for dinner, I didn’t realize how late it was…”
“Nat told me ‘someone’ named Howard died… Are you doin’ ok, sweetheart?” Bucky asks as he comes over to stand by Tony’s chair.
“What? Oh, yeah, he did. A while ago, apparently. I mean, good riddance to that part of it, the world’s definitely going to be a better place without him,” Tony answers, fiddling with the papers.
“But?...” Bucky prompts him, taking a seat next to Tony.
“No buts,” Tony says, shaking his head, “I mean, I wasn’t expecting him to tell me when my mom died. That’s par for the course. What I don’t understand was why he didn’t remate, try for an alpha heir… The only thing I can think of was that maybe he thought or hoped the law would be changed back before he died...so that omegas couldn’t inherit… Unless he was just that drunk and out of it that he didn’t know about the change at all…” Tony just kind of trails off, looking over the lists and spreadsheets with a shrug.
“Wait, you mean you’re actually going to inherit Howard’s estate?” Bucky says, disbelief plain in his tone.
“Uh, yeah. That’s what the lawyer said. He didn’t have any other living alpha relatives. Hell, I don’t think he had any other living relatives at all, alcoholism runs in the family,” Tony waves a hand in the air.
Bucky watches him as Tony’s face turns down though, finally displaying some of the emotion he’s held back about his childhood nearly all his life.
“It’s just… I don’t want to ever have to live in that mansion again,” Tony says, tears spilling over briefly. He wipes at them right away, accepting the hug Bucky pulls him into as well.
“Shh, of course not, Tony. You don’t have to. Hell, if you wanted to sell the place and just wash your hands of it entirely, I’d be fine with that. It was a gaudy monstrosity anyway. It’s your family’s money and stuff, you can do whatever you want with it,” Bucky says as he comforts him.
“Don’t say that until you hear how much the estate is worth,” Tony jokes to lighten the mood as he pulls away. He wipes at his eyes a few more times, but the worst of it is over. Howard can’t hurt him anymore, and an idea is already beginning to coalesce in the back of Tony’s mind, of how to make sure that the Stark legacy dies with him.
“I’m serious, Tony, I don’t care how much money it is, it’s yours, and we’ll do whatever you want with it. I’ll sign whatever I need to, say whatever I have to, to make sure you get to do what you want with it,” Bucky says vehemently.
Tony believes him.
“Thank you, for that. We’ll need to go down to the lawyer’s office tomorrow and sign some stuff. That probably just starts the process though, I have no idea how long it will be until we actually have control of everything. You’re sure you don’t care how much it is?...” Tony asks again, but his tone has a more teasing edge to it now.
“Tony,” Bucky says, taking a hold of his face, “I don’t care. Not even if it was a million dollars,” he cracks a grin as he says it though, unable to keep a straight face. Bucky did see the mansion once, after all, and just the gold gilded gate probably cost a million by itself. Tony laughs with him, then he gives Bucky a coy look as he flips through the pages on the table until he gets to the very last one in the stack.
He taps a finger over the line tallying all the assets up together, knowing the walls have ears around here.
“Holy fuck,” Bucky blurts out, partly because he didn’t even try to hold his reaction back, knowing Tony was looking for one.
Five hundred and twelve million, four hundred thousand and twenty eight dollars.
“Well, thank god they didn’t leave out that twenty eight bucks,” Bucky says, shaking his head.
Tony bursts out laughing. He takes a moment to appreciate how unbelievably, blindingly lucky he got in having Bucky as a mate as Bucky laughs with him.
<//>
Tony is right, and the documents they sign the next day are only the beginning step of claiming Howard’s estate. It takes many months after that for accounts and properties to actually be turned over to them. When the deed on the mansion is finally transferred, the lawyers urge the two of them to do a walk through, implying that they should make sure that nothing valuable that Tony remembers from his childhood is ‘missing’ since the servants have had free reign of the place for over a year now.
“We don’t have to, doll,” Bucky rubs his shoulders, “You don’t ever have to set foot on that property again, if you don’t want to.”
“It’s ok,” Tony assures him, taking a deep breath, “I can handle a visit or two, that’s nowhere near the same thing as moving back in.”
The grounds are still as immaculately kept as ever when they arrive, and Howard’s lawyers are already there, waiting for them. There’s not a dull spot on the front doors when they go inside. Tony muses that the servants probably haven’t had anything to do but clean for a while now, although them having had "free reign" of the place has nothing to do with his reasons for coming.
It feels weird, disjointed to him in a way, to see people other than Jarvis and Anna waiting in the foyer for them. It’s that more than anything that makes Tony start to get emotional, the reminder of how much everything has changed. He gives a year’s pay as severance to them, then releases them right then and there, promising an excellent recommendation if they want it. His reasons for agreeing to this walk through are very different than the lawyers’.
“I’m not some new buyer who needs a tour,” he says, taking Bucky’s hand to lead him up the stairs, “I remember the way.”
He shows him his old bedroom, which is sitting virtually untouched from when he occupied it. Probably because Howard had more rooms than he could have ever used anyway.
“This is where he hit me the first time,” Tony says, staring at a spot in front of the closet while the lawyers look unsettled. “At least, the first time that I remember...” Tony opens a few drawers, but none of these clothes would fit him anymore, not that he wants them. He starts to take a few old text books off the shelves, but then he puts them back. He got by this long without them just fine, after all.
The longer and longer he looks, the more he realizes that anything he kept from this room would only serve to remind him of the bad times.
“Let’s move on,” he finally says, taking Bucky’s hand again.
Bucky gives it a squeeze, following sedately.
“Over there is where he threw a bottle of MaCallans at me, but missed, and it broke against the wall. Boy oh boy was he pissed after that,” Tony says, shaking his head in the hallway.
He points out Howard’s humidor in the study, and how Tony learned not to go near it by having a lit cigar ground into his arm. Bucky holds him close for a moment, then bends down to kiss the circular scar near his elbow that Tony still has from the incident.
In the formal dining room, Tony stands in the spot where he first threw up from Howard yelling and screaming at him. “I mean, I’d dropped something during a very important, very prestigious party, so naturally it was the end of the goddamned world. I don’t even remember what it was now, but I still remember the exact shade of red that his face was, and the smell of bile on the hardwood…” The lawyers have decided it’s ‘polite’ to hang back in the doorway of whatever room Tony enters, so they don’t comment.
“Here’s where he called me a little bitch for the first time. Not that I knew what it meant back then...but I learned quickly…”
Tony saves his Dad’s workshop for last.
“Do you know what the best selling gun of all time is, for Stark Industries?” Tony asks in general as he walks around the dusty work space. The servants didn’t have the code to get in here, but that wasn’t a problem for Tony.
“I have no idea,” Bucky answers.
“The P10,” one of the lawyers speaks up. They’ve overcome their “courtesy” in the face of their curiosity over the place where Howard created his inventions.
“Thank you, yes, the P10,” Tony says, looking sad. He gives the lawyer a smile for participating though. “I drew up the plans for the T10 when I was ten years old. I thought, Howard loved weapons, they were all he ever talked about, all he cared about, you know, aside from money. And I just thought, you know, if I could show him that I could make good weapons for him, that he would, I don’t know, love me or something, I was ten and delusional,” Tony pauses to wipe at his eyes. He carries on though, walking around a workbench with his fingers trailing along the edge of it. “So I did some research on handguns, looked at the designs we were already using, and improved them. Then I took the plans for my T10, which stood for Tony 10, because I was just a wealth of originality at that age, and I left them for him here in the workshop while he was out of town.” Tony pauses, looking around the place with eyes that are obviously not seeing the present. “You know, it might not have been so bad, if Howard had found them... But he didn’t. Obadiah did. And he thought my dad had drawn them up. So he took the plans down to SI, and showed them to the engineers there, who immediately jumped on production, because it was the most promising re-invigoration of the line they’d seen in decades. And before my dad got back from his two week trip, they’d already made a thousand of the things and were getting rave reviews from quality control.”
The lawyers give each other looks like they don’t quite believe what Tony’s saying, because a ten year old, really?... But Tony doesn’t pay them any mind. He’s telling this story to Bucky, not to them.
“And when Howard found out what had happened, word had already gotten out about a brilliant new design, so he couldn’t just pull it from production out of disgust. So he let everyone think he’d designed it, called it the P10 instead, because retooling the existing stocks from T to P was easiest, and then he beat me black and blue when he got home. He broke both of my arms that time, as a lesson not to ever try and upstage him again,” Tony says, staring a little too vacantly into the distance.
Bucky comes up in front of him, horrified, gently putting his hands on Tony’s upper arms to try and draw him away from the past.
Tony snaps to the present immediately as soon as Bucky touches him, blinking and saying, “I want to sell it,” before his mate can get a single comforting word out. “I want to sell it all. Every piece of furniture, all the artwork, every nut and bolt and screwdriver,’ he says, waving an arm to encompass the workshop. “I want to sell it all and donate the money to omega charities,” he says passionately.
“Consider it done then,” Bucky nods right away, loving the idea and loving everything about the incredibly strong, brave man that is his mate.
Tony nods, closing his eyes as a few more silent tears fall. Bucky’s hands cradling the sides of his face keep him grounded though.
He lets Bucky wipe away the tears and the memories for him.
When he opens his eyes again, he only sees the future.
<//>
“Well, Mr. Sturges said we have two options,” Bucky tells Steve as the two of them are catching up after a hectic week, “We can either piecemeal things off to auction houses, art galleries, etc, and get the most possible money, but it will take longer, or, we can do batch sales to just get everything sold as quickly as possible.”
“What did Tony decide?”
“He ain’t in any hurry, he wants to be able to do the most good for other omegas as possible, so Sotheby’s is coming by tomorrow to pick up a few things.”
<//>
It takes almost six months to sell everything of value in the mansion. The only thing any of the kids make even the slightest noise about wishing they could have kept was Tony’s mother’s jewelry collection. Tony still sells it, but he buys each of the girls, including Laura, a set of Mikimoto pearls to start on their own collections instead.
Tony sells everything, even some things that are nailed down. He even has the teak paneling in Howard’s second study pulled off and salvaged.
Everything, except for Howard’s liquor.
When all else is gone, those bottles remain. After calling and cancelling the insurance on the mansion, Tony sets aside a bottle of Grey Goose, because vodka, and then starts picking up the rest of the bottles and carrying them to various rooms within the mansion. He takes a MaCallan to his parent’s bedroom, knowing that was the smell his mom hated most out of all of them, the whiskey. He pops it open and upends the bottle, dumping it out and letting it soak into the carpet, trailing out to the hallway.
The smell threatens to make him sick right then and there, but Tony pushes on.
There are actually more rooms in the mansion than he has bottles, so he concentrates on the central ones, dumping out trail after trail of hard liquor as his eyes water from the fumes. He saves the Remy Martin Black Pearl for last, making sure it connects with the others and trails through the foyer and out onto the steps.
When it’s empty, he drops the bottle and lets it lay there on the marble.
Tony picks up the vodka he’d set aside earlier, drawing curious looks from his family, who are all assembled along with Steve and Peggy in the mansion’s driveway. Clint’s boyfriend Phil is there too, practically part of the family now, and Barney and Laura even brought their newest baby, Lila. Tony takes the bottle of vodka down to Bucky, who’s waiting for him with a rag. In the end, Steve has to help them fashion it into a respectable Molotov cocktail, but it gets done.
Tony would have thought his hands would be shaking as he lights it, but they’re surprisingly steady.
He hefts the lit bottle once, then flings it toward the front doors as hard as he can.
Never before has the sound of shattering glass felt like such a relief to Tony.
The flames burst in a pool outward at first, then spread farther and farther as the doors catch on fire and then the structure does. Tony can see the floor of the hallway catching ablaze too, and something that had been locked tight and squeezing around his chest his entire life suddenly breaks free.
Tony doesn’t know that Clint is capturing the moment and its progression with his camera, but Clint doesn’t know he’s going to win a Pulitzer Prize for those photos later either.
Only once the entire mansion is on fire, with no hope of being saved, does Tony call the fire department.
“What about the company?” Bucky asks, flames dancing in the background.
“Weapons manufacturing has never really been my thing,” Tony says, accepting a hug from his mate. He continues to watch the flames from within his alpha’s arms as sirens are just barely starting to be heard in the distance. “I’d be inclined to shut the whole thing down and be done with it, but, I know that would be catastrophic for all the employees… I can’t just turn 5,000 people out onto the street.”
“What are you going to do then?”
“I’m going to rebrand, rename, and give them something else to build,” Tony says, determined.
He looks over to his “secretly” flying car, then smiles at Bucky.
“And then once I’m a household name,” Tony says, “Once there isn’t a person left on the planet that hasn’t heard of me and my brilliance, once the name ‘Tony Barnes’ is synonymous with the cutting edge of technological innovation and advancement...then the omega’s rights revolution begins.”
THE END.