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The hands never left.
Sometimes they were wrapped around his throat, choking him until spots danced around his vision and he felt like his head was going to explode.
Sometimes they were slapping him across the face, leaving a burning, tingling sensation in their wake to remind him who he was and where he came from.
Sometimes they were shoving his head under water, waiting for him to stop struggling to let him back up and breathe the air like it was a privilege to even have lungs in the first place.
Sometimes they were feeling underneath his shirt, grabbing and taking what wasn’t theirs. They would grip and burn him and make him feel so dirty he wanted to pour bleach into a bathtub and soak in it for hours. Other times, they were so soft and gentle that he almost forgot he said “no”.
Now, they were gently leading him backward as he felt his blood freeze in his veins, his body betraying him and refusing to move even as he begged it to. He was confused for less than a second before the familiarity washed over him and scenes from his childhood played like a movie right in front of his eyes. This almost felt the same as the drugs did.
“Breath,” the man said, just as he had the first time he stole Tony’s childhood, “Easy, easy.”
Tony thought he would be shaking if he could move, but just as it had for years, his body was betraying him once more. He couldn’t even call out to JARVIS or his suit or Pepper or even Rhodey- fuck, fuck, what is he meant to do? How is he going to get out of this? He wasn’t nine anymore, he was supposed to be done with this. What did he want? Fuck-
“You remember this one, right?” Obadiah asked as he waved the device in front of Tony’s face, his voice so soft that he almost seemed apologetic.
Tony thought this was over when he left Afghanistan and the Ten Rings behind. He was supposed to be free, wasn’t he? Sure, Obi still had a say in the company, and sure, Obi was trying to take said company away from him, but he still had himself. His body was still his own, wasn’t it?
“It’s a shame the government didn’t approve them,” Obadiah breathed into Tony’s ear so intimately that all Tony could think was run run run, “There are so many applications regarding short-term paralysis. I could’ve used one all those years ago.”
Tony would have puked if he wasn’t paralyzed. Obadiah hadn’t ever mentioned those instances that happened decades ago, not even while he was raking Tony over for everything he had.
When Obi grabbed Tony’s chin so roughly, he almost thought Obi was going to do it again, reach under his shirt and grab and take like Tony was nothing but a doll to play with.
“Oh, Tony,” Obi tsked, as if Tony was sixteen again, drunk off his ass as he mourned his parent’s death once more. Tony wanted to spit in Obi’s face and tell him to fuck off, but he thinks that would have just provoked Obi to do something worse.
“When I, uh, ordered the hit on you,” Tony’s breath stuttered as Obi took out the earplugs Tony had designed, “I didn’t think it’d be that hard to let go of you. After all, I still have all those home movies from the good ol’ days. But I was so nervous watching you go to Afghanistan. I worried that I was killing the golden goose, my golden goose.”
Tony didn’t stop watching Obi’s face, even as he took out a tool and stuck it right above the arc reactor. Tony couldn’t even think about what the fuck Obi was doing as he was so afraid that Obi was going to victimize him all over again.
“I guess it’s fate you survived the hit. I get to see you all pliant for me again, and I get your one, last golden egg.”
Tony physically felt the arc reactor being gently pulled from his body. If he still had air in his lungs, he would have had it knocked out of him, but he was already so short of breath from panicking so hard. It burned as metal scraped against metal, and the bright light that was once in his chest now sat between the two of them as if it was some consolation prize.
Obi trapped Tony in with one of his arms, leaning heavily against the leather couch as he inched closer to Tony’s face. Tony could almost feel himself recoil, the fear in his eyes no longer masked as he felt Obi’s hot breath against his chapped lips. Obi looked down at Tony’s lips before staring deep into Tony’s eyes, chuckling softly. “Did you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you? When has anything just belonged to you?”
Tony began to feel his toes tingle as his breath stuttered, more tears falling down his face. Obadiah hadn’t been this close to him in years. He thought he was over this paralyzing fear of Obi. He could even stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the man now without any visible discomfort, and when Obi walked into the room, he didn’t automatically look for exits anymore. He was better. Why the fuck was Obi doing this?
“Your father,” here comes the bile again, “He helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?”
Obi ripped out the last thing Tony had left of Yinsin and shattered what was left of his heart into a million pieces, “I was lucky to know you when you were younger. Back then, you were so much more willing to give yourself to me. Don’t you remember that? Why can’t you be like that now? After all, you have so much more to offer.”
Obadiah laughed as he grasped the arc reactor with both of his hands, smiling at it with a disgusting type of awe. He had looked at Tony with the same awe when Tony was eight years old and sobbing to Obi because his dad had handed him a burning hot piece of iron. When he looked back up at Tony, he gently brought one of his hands to the younger man’s cheek, using his rough thumb to gently wipe away Tony’s tear.
“It’s beautiful,” Obi whispered, and Tony couldn’t tell what he was referring to.
“Oh, Tony,” Obi began as he settled right next to Tony’s limp body, throwing an arm around the younger man and resting his head against Tony’s sweaty one. He sat so close that their hips were pressing together, thighs touching and feet resting on top of each other. Tony was just grateful he couldn’t feel it. “This is your ninth symphony.”
Tony could feel the tips of his fingers twitch against the hot leather couch as he moved his eyes to watch Obi sit down. His mind was screaming at him to get away, but like always, his body continued to betray him.
He couldn’t feel Obi, but he knew Obi was there, and that was enough for his mind to go into panic mode.
“Oh, what a masterpiece. Look at that, Anthony, look at that.”
Tony could almost hear him over the memory of Obadiah calling ten-year-old Tony a masterpiece for the first time.
He was breathing harder now, his breath coming out in harsh, sporadic bursts and his entire body overheating.
“This is your legacy,” Obadiah whispered in Tony’s ear, his lips brushing his skin and Tony could feel it but he wasn’t sure if he should be excited or disgusted. “A new generation of weapons with this at its heart… And all it takes is killing you. I did love you, Tony, but not as much as I love power. I know it hurts to hear, baby, but it’s true.”
Tony slowly curls his left hand into a fist, his heart leaping up into his throat from the pet name. Baby. Did Obi still love him?
“This will help build the weapons that will steer the world back on course, put the balance of power in our hands- the right hands,” Obadiah laughs, his voice grating against Tony’s ears. Obadiah slowly let go of Tony’s shoulder, slowly dragging his hand up to the back of Tony’s neck and squeezing it softly. Tony could see Obi leaning in from the corner of his eye, his breath centimeters from Tony’s cheek, but at the last second, Obi pulled away.
Tony decided to disregard how he could feel himself wanting to lean into Obi’s touch.
Obi pulled himself away from Tony, chuckling softly under his breath as he pulled a case out from beside the couch. “I wish you could see yourself, Anthony. You almost look as good as you used to like this – so open to me. I always preferred you like this – dazed and pliant.”
Tony thought his lungs stopped working in that moment. God fucking dammit, he wasn’t a kid anymore. Why was Obi rubbing this in his face? He wished his body would hurry up and shut down so he wouldn’t have to be here anymore, trapped under Obi’s will.
Obi shook his head as if he was ridding himself of the thought, “I would show you my prototype. Of course, it’s not as, uh- not as conservative as yours. But, you’ll be dead here soon, I’m sure. A shame, really. We could have done so much together, just like we used to.”
Tony could feel Obi pressed against him now, the heat of their bodies making Tony shake. He was sure Obi could feel his fingers trembling near his thigh, but he wondered if Obadiah was so used to it that he blocked it out. Tears easily slid down his pale cheeks, pooling near his lips. He wanted to scream, move, do anything. He could feel himself slowly dying – his heart was slowing down and his lungs were moving slower than they were before. What if this was how Pepper found him? Dead and helpless, no defensive wounds to scream that he said no over and over but at some point, he got so tired of the word that he just let it happen. Wait, no, that’s not where he was- He was an adult in his own living room being killed by the only person who had ever truly loved him, right?
“Too bad you had to involve Pepper in this,” Obadiah said as if he was reading Tony’s mind, “I really would have preferred that she lived.”
Obadiah slowly began walking away, not even a single ounce of hesitation in his movements.
Did Tony mean nothing to him? After all Tony gave him, he couldn’t even look back?
As Obadiah Stane walked out of Tony’s house for the last time, he left the boy he had built up and ruined over and over again laying on the couch.
And all Tony could think was that his body would never truly be his own.