poeticterms | (no subject)

(no subject)

The thing about the Stark house is that it looks perfectly normal unless you are paying attention.

Perfectly normal houses are not covered in quite so many discreet cameras. Nor do they have pressure sensors under the driveway to record where guests choose to park. (Jarvis is already learning Cal's favourite spots in the loop.)

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"I'm starting to get an idea."

Or so he thinks.

"I hate to interrupt," Jarvis says dryly, "but the pizza has arrived."

"I'll get it," says Tony, and off he goes.

Incoming pizza! Awesome.

Cal is effectively distracted from the subject of Irenes. For now.

His lips quirk.

"Thank you, Jarvis."

Pizza is a very preoccupying thing.

Which is why, though Cal suddenly remembers a question he'd been planning to ask, it takes a few minutes after Tony's brought the pizza back and they've all settled in with their shares for him to ask it.

"Hey, you guys got the invites for the party this weekend, right? I'm pretty sure Mother put you on the list."

"We did, yes."

"Maybe I won't jailbreak until next week," he says, half-smiling.

"Awesome." Cal looks pleased.

"You know, I'll be honest, it's gonna suck, it's like the big showoff social affair that everyone's expected pretty much since I was born, but if you guys are there, it might not be so boring."

He's also quite certain that his mother is hoping only Tony will accept the invitation, since Sherlock is such a delicate subject socially, but he doesn't mention that. He figures he doesn't really have to.

"I'll get so drunk I won't care anymore; then I'll be happy and you guys'll have something to laugh at. Now your party's not boring. Done."

Cal laughs.

"Mother will never invite you to another one."

At least, not for the next few years. But he has a feeling Tony won't be too brokenhearted over that.

"She'll invite me when I'm CEO of Stark Industries," he says. Just because he doesn't play the game doesn't mean he doesn't know the rules. "And I'll get drunk and make an ass of myself."

Cal laughs some more.

"At least then people will understand why she's putting up with it," he says. "This weekend it'll be all, 'Well, if she wanted someone from Stark Industries here she could have invited' -"

Um.

"- 'someone else,'" he finishes lamely.

In all innocence: "Who, Obie? But you don't even like him."

Oh dear.

Cal takes a bite of pizza to give himself a few seconds to recover.

After he swallows he says,

"Yeah, but it's not my party, Mother'll invite whoever makes us look good. He won't be there, though. Uh - no offense, but nobody cares about Stark Industries right now. I mean, nobody we need to care about."

That and after the events in New York, Violet wouldn't dream of inviting Obadiah anywhere near her son, regardless of social relevance.

"Y'know, I don't get that. I mean, Dad was good, but he wasn't Jesus. They're still kicking ass even without a Stark running the show."

Cal shrugs a little.

"If we were in business, it'd probably be different," he says. "She'd probably have to invite him. But this is politics, it's a whole other thing." It doesn't have to actually make sense, for starters.

He puts down his pizza to reach for his drink, continuing,

"It's Stark Industries without a Stark, so - basically it's just 'Industries,' and there are lots of those. Socially there's just nothing special about it."

"Well, whatever. In four years I'll get behind the wheel, and then I'll send Obie to all the boring parties for me anyway. He loves that shit."

Beat.

"Not your boring parties, though. 'Cause you don't like him."

Looong swallow of soda.

Casually: "Thanks."

Cal returns to his pizza.

"Anyway, in four years Dad'll probably be President and then it would look bad if you didn't come yourself anyway."

"Oh please, I'm Tony Stark. I can blow off the President if I wanna."

Sherlock cracks up.

Cal would deny that the sound he is making into his pizza crust is giggling.

He would be wrong.

"Dad wouldn't care," he says. "Mother'd be pissed, though."

"Yeah, well—"

The words your mom can blow me are rejected almost as fast as he thinks of them, because no.

"—as long as she doesn't get my contract cut off, it's all good. And from what I hear your mom's smarter than that."

"I would like to register the opinion that Violet Chandler would make a positively terrifying First Lady," Sherlock comments.