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Tony is almost half an hour late when he finally makes it up to the penthouse. He’s had it all timed out perfectly - finish the board meeting, look in on R&D and then be back in time to slip into some more comfortable clothes before firing up his favorite website, generously filled whisky glass in hand.But then there had been a crisis in the patent and trademark department because somebody had discovered that one of SI’s employees had absconded and patented one of their most recent inventions before they could.Which, in turn, had brought Pepper in, who’d proceeded to ream out every single one of the department’s supervisors for not picking up on the employee situation right away. All with Tony standing behind her, feeling like he’d been betrayed personally.Something like that had never before happened at Stark Industries. Tony and Pepper personally took care to ensure their employees were satisfied, paid well above average, had incentives, access to exceptional health care plans and child care, lunch options that were affordable and healthy and got bonuses for extraordinary work. Yet somebody had felt unsatisfied enough to turn against them and hit the company where it hurt most.Which meant that six months’ work from a whole team had been for naught and now the competition had an advantage. It would take at least another three months for the department to improve the invention enough to be able to patent it and put it into practice.Frustration was palpable in the room and it was made even worse when people started assigning blame to each other. Pepper had stopped them at that point and scheduled individual interviews with all persons involved for the next week.Frustration is now the main emotion Tony is feeling as he walks into the penthouse nearly a half hour late. He’s missed half of his weekly live-stream.Tony Stark is a busy man who’s working 70+ hours a week, so what little bit of time he takes for himself each day is important. His personal Friday evening tradition of watching his favorite livestream is sacred. And now he’s missed half of it already.True, the stream usually lasts about an hour with the main action happening in the second half. But it’s actually the first part that Tony enjoys most of all, the slow build-up of chemistry and excitement before the main event.And of course the cuddling afterwards!He’s never seen porn with as much emotion in it as his two favorite actors manage to convey. Must be because they’re actually a couple behind the camera as well.Captain Steve Rogers and Sergeant Bucky Barnes are not your usual porn stars. But then again, Tastes and Sizes is not your average porn studio.For one, they really make their name their trademark feature. The actors come in all shapes and sizes. And cater to any tastes except normal.There are persons of color, people from all stages of life, trans men and women as well as non-binary folks, tall and tiny, big and small, normal guys, big girls and anything in between that make them relatable.There is something for even the most unusual tastes. There’s no sexual fantasy too obscure, no sexual practice too exotic for the actors to try, as long as it’s safe, consensual and all participants are into it.Tony loves to watch all of them. There are so many beautiful people that would never appear in mainstream porn but have found a home with Tastes and Sizes.It’s mesmerising to watch real people actually really enjoy themselves. There’s no fake moans, no artificial posturing for the camera, just two people enjoying themselves and each other.What’s also fascinating is that there are actual couples in front of the camera. Some will come together regularly but also appear with other actors, while others only appear together, like Barnes and Rogers do.The names, however, are just as fake as everywhere else. I mean, who would want to be called Captain Steve Rogers and Sergeant Bucky Barnes in real life, seriously. Not that Tony minds. He enjoys when Barnes, voice breathy with arousal, calls out for his Captain when he’s in the mood to be dominated by his partner. Both men are into variety and so far there hasn’t been a video or stream that Tony didn’t enjoy. They switch it up, one time the Captain working over Barnes, the next, Bucky literally holding the reins in his hands. They get rough, use toys or just fuck. They make love. They love each other. And Tony’s favorite part hands down is the cuddling afterwards that the two never fail to deliver.Tony loves the cuddling. Watching the two hunks love on each other makes his own afterglow even more pleasant. Even though it never makes him feel that much more lonely afterwards.Right now, Tony is still struggling to get out of his suit, the buttons not cooperating, while he still contemplates just skipping the livestream for exclusive subscribers and waiting for the vid to be released to the regular subscribers.Then again, he could really use a good orgasm right about now to help him unwind. So Tony hurries through throwing on comfy clothes and settles down on his bed, while simultaneously firing up the projector. At least he’ll enjoy their beautiful bodies writhe against each other larger than life.But it isn’t to be, because just as the feed has finished loading, his cell rings. He’s trying to ignore it, but unfortunately the ringtone is announcing a call from his ex. And it just won’t stop. Tony curses himself for not switching the phone off before starting the relaxing part of his evening.Grumbling, he presses pause and gets up to look for his slacks, where his phone is still buried in one of the pockets. He presses decline and silences the phone, but as soon as he’s back on the bed, sweatpants down to mid-thigh and finger on the play button, the landline starts to ring.He’s totally set on ignoring it, but then the call goes to the answering machine and his previously excited erection flags completely. Because the voice he is treated to is that of his ex.“Tony, gee, would you answer your phone?”Tony is already rolling his eyes at Sunshine’s grating high pitched voice, tucking himself back into his sweatpants.“Tony? Tony, listen, you didn’t have to be so mean about the whole thing on that talkshow, and don’t you deny it, they sent me a copy in advance before airing, so don’t tell me you’re innocent! Did you really have to tell people all about that one episode? You know it was totally different and they could have at least asked my opinion!”Oh god, not this again. He and Sunshine have been apart for close to six months now and she still thinks every single word he says in public is about her. She calls him several times a week and at least once a month his legal division gets a call from her lawyer concerning another alleged accusation against him that she means to bring to court until Tony’s attorneys explain to her lawyer how useless another big court case would be.He knows she’s just out for his money, but he loved her once upon a time - at least he believed it was love - so this hurts all the more.Finally, after several seconds of grating voice and accusation upon accusation, the answering machine finally beeps again and cuts the call, just as Tony manages to get to the cable to unplug it.By now his evening is well and truly ruined and the live stream will probably be almost over. His mood is gone and he’s got no desire to watch his favorite couple cuddle like the pathetic and lonely loser that he no doubt is.He guesses that people are right when they say you can only have one thing in life, love or a career. He’s got the career alright, but, if he’s honest with himself, he’d trade it all for real love in a heartbeat.He thought he’d had that once upon a time with Sunset, but it turned out she was just after his wealth and his name, like so many others before her. People care for the Stark name and for his assets, but nobody really cares for Tony.Here comes the wave of self-pity rolling in to drown him in misery. Tony throws himself onto the bed, groaning in frustration, not surprisingly landing on something hard which turns out to be the remote; more specifically the button to turn the almost finished livestream back on just for the beautiful couple on the screen to turn into each other with a passionate kiss and gentle caresses. Tony wants to cry. And as if that wasn’t frustrating enough the camera catches the Captain’s lips perfectly for the whole audience to catch the visual of softly murmured words meant only for his partner: I love you.And that’s when Tony’s evening takes a turn for the worse.***“You did what?”Tony winces at the incredulousness in Pepper’s tone. And probably because the pitch of her voice grates against his oversensitive, hungover brain.“Pepper-” he starts, but winces again when she talks over him.“Could you please repeat that again, because there’s just no way you just said what I thought I heard.”Okay, this is bad. Her glare is fierce and Tony can barely defend against it when he’s at the top of his game. Right now he feels sick and miserable, courtesy of one too many whiskeys, guilty, because he just told Pepper that she’ll essentially be taking on another project for SI on top of her current workload, and even lonelier than he did last night - if that’s even possible.Tony ducks his head, wishing he could just go back to his apartment and bury himself in the world of online porn. But then, that’s where his current situation stems from.Because last night, when he’d been well into the bottle of whiskey and his one-man pity party, after watching round after round of hot, kinky, loving sex between two incredibly gorgeous men, after googling all there was to know about Tastes and Sizes he’d discovered the site’s donations page and discovered they were in financial trouble.It’d been only a matter of minutes to find out where the business was listed and that they were currently selling off a percentage of shares to gather more funds.Tony is a businessman after all, and a very good one at that.He hadn’t hesitated long. In his drunken and lonely state it had seemed like a good investment. At least that way he’d be a little bit closer to the two gorgeous actors he’d been mooning over ever since his discovery of their channel.With a few clicks Stark Industries had made a new investment. In porn.I’d taken him even less time to see that there must have been a mistake because nobody would be stupid enough to sell a controlling part of their business shares. Which he now owned down to the last one.“You bought the controlling share. In a porn studio.”Ah, seems Pepper understood him quite well the first time.“Looked like a sound investment at the time,” Tony shrugs, getting up from where he’s been sitting at the big table in the meeting room. This easier to bear when he doesn’t have to look Pepper in the eye.As it is, he can see her exasperation, hear the displeasure in her voice.“At the time?” she huffs. “A good investment? You really believe sponsoring a porn site is going to be a good investment? We are a respectable business, what are the board members going to say, when they find out their CEO bought a company producing dirty movies, or the public, when they find out Tony Stark is funding porn?”Admittedly, when she puts it like that, the whole thing sounds rather sordid. But it’s really not. He just needs her to understand that.“Now wait a minute there,” he protests, turning towards her. “This isn’t any old porn site on the web. I have a little more class than that.”“Since when in porn classy?” Pepper scoffs and Tony is starting to feel a little put out. Sure, he’s caught Pepper in a bad moment, but this is unusual for her.“Since it is ethical porn, Pepper.” His voice is firm and almost commanding all of a sudden.He knows he’s got bad taste sometimes, makes bad decisions almost daily, isn’t the poster boy for virtue and good, but he’s doing his goddamned best.And what if he enjoys porn made by people who aren’t gay-for-pay actors with too many muscles to be real, with too much bosom to be real, who aren’t shaved and groomed and made-up to within an inch of their lives.He likes natural, honest people, who aren’t afraid to put their imperfections on display, their scars, rolls of fat, body hair, disabilities, dare to be other than white and heterosexual, dare to have different tastes than your mainstream missionary-position intercourse - who dare to love.He enjoys what Tastes and Sizes does, showing people that not everybody is born perfect. That nobody on this earth will die perfect. They show the whole spectrum top to bottom and front to back and everything in between.They show their viewers that it’s okay to be the way they are and that they’re not alone with their imperfections.The first time Tony came into contact with T&S was through a video of a young man, Wade Wilson, who was covered in scars from head to toe. And yet his partner Peter, a young trans guy looked at him with admiration, lust and even love in his eyes. Their scene had been beautiful and rough and so intimate it had taken Tony’s breath away.After a few minutes he no longer even saw the scars, just two people who had a lot of fun together in bed and who accepted each other the way they were.It had made Tony rub over the patch of thick, cordy scars on his chest with his hand. It had made him horny and aroused and it had made him feel. It had made him believe that there might somebody out there who would see more in him than a genius, billionaire and former playboy, more than an ageing face and a mass of scars.He’d done his research, discovered more about the studio that specialised in queer and ethical porn.And now he is the proud owner of more than half of this business and he will be damned if he’d let his assistant criticise those wonderful people who do nothing more than try to make a living and making other people happy in the process.“You haven’t even looked at their website or you would know what I’m talking about.”Pepper looks up, clearly surprised at the determination in his voice. “Are you asking me to look at porn during work hours, Mr. Stark?”Tony bites his lip. He hates when she resorts to calling him Mr. Stark. “I am asking you to get familiar with the new business investment I have decided on, Ms. Potts,” he replies tartly. “Which does, incidentally, not include watching porn. I can, however recommend watching the personal vlog entries of the actors. Which will no doubt give you ample insight into the business itself.”With that Tony turns towards the exit. He hasn’t often had to be this curt with Pepper during their long business acquaintance that’s turned into a firm friendship over the years. Pepper has been the one to help him through many crises in his life by being a firm and unforgiving assistant and later on business partner. But this time she’s taken to criticising one of the few healthy choices Tony’s made and he will call her out on not looking beyond her own nose.He’ll make her see that while this is porn, it is one of the most acceptable forms he’s ever come across and that there’s nothing dirty or sordid in helping these people getting their business back on track.***
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Several days later there’s none of the bravado left that Tony has felt when confronting Pepper with his new investment. He’s sitting in a small meeting room that seems to double as a cloak room slash make-up studio, stuffed with all kinds of props and tools that range from nice to naughty to downright depraved. There are clothes rails stuffed full with garments ranging from leather harnesses, feather boas, chaps, silk shirts, long shirts, short skirts to chain mail and even a section with handcuffs made from different materials.He’s squashed into a corner of the big conference table with Pepper situated next to him and sorting through her collection of papers.Across from them sits a delicate redhead who looks like she could just as well act like a tame kitten as strangle you with her thighs in your sleep.And from the other corner, muscled arms crossed across broad chests and glaring daggers at him, are the stars of T&S, Captain Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes.***“What on earth were you thinking, Natasha?”Bucky watches Steve wander up and down the set, automatically stepping over the edge of the bed and the camera cables on each pass. There isn’t really much space here but that won’t deter his restless partner. Before Nat can answer, Steve is already continuing.“I mean, we did agree on putting out more of the shares up for sale but how can it be that we’re no longer the owners of our own business?”Natasha winces a little at Steve’s irate tone, not because she’s afraid of Steve, Bucky knows her better than to believe that, but because of the volume the man’s organ can achieve. He hadn’t been an army captain for nothing, after all and sometimes he still falls back into his command voice.Bucky will admit to finding that irresistible in certain situations, but now is not one of those times. He prefers Steve to keep that to their own private bedroom or for when the cameras are rolling.“I have no idea how this could have happened,” the redhead finally interrupts Steve’s rant. “I instructed Vanko specifically.”Steve pauses, one leg resting on the bed’s frame. “So the mistake was his?”Natasha just shrugs. “He said something must have gone wrong during the upload but that doesn’t sound very plausible, to be honest.”“So he what, typed in the wrong number for the shares?” Steve demands, but Natasha just shrugs.“I’m no expert with these kinds of things, and neither are you, that’s why we hired him, if you care to remember.” Natasha’s voice is cool and snappish, her Russian accent thick. Bucky is sure she does it for Steve’s benefit.And indeed it finally manages to erase Steve’s patented ‘The Captain Is Disappointed In You’-glare. He deflates with a sigh and sits down on the edge of the bed.“Sorry, sorry, you’re right of course. I’m just upset.”Bucky sighs. They’ve all been worried since Natasha told them the news. He walks over to where Steve is sitting, making the blond look up at him with a small smile. As soon as he is in range, Steve lets his head drop against Bucky’s stomach.“It’s just that now that Tastes does no longer belong to us whoever takes over is gonna push their ideas through. Nothing’s gonna be like it was before, I just know it.”Bucky raises his hand and buries it in Steve’s hair. His lover isn’t usually so pessimistic, but Bucky totally gets that this is the time for it. Tastes & Sizes is their shared project, their baby and their livelihood. And now, seemingly due to some computer error they’ve lost the majority to some anonymous buyer who will want a say in everything they do from here on out.Because there’s only one kind of person who has enough money to buy the majority of shares literally seconds after they’ve become available online, without even taking the time to think twice about such a huge investment.Such people are usually in the business for the money.But Tastes & Sizes is not about the money. It’s about people.When he and Steve started out, they had nothing but a crappy camera and a mattress, filming live streams from the basement of their small house, mostly for fun. They’d had a surprising number of viewers from the get go and soon afterwards even subscribers but it wasn’t until Natasha had started helping them out behind the camera that things had really taken off.Natasha had never been interested in a job in front of the cameras, but she has a nose for business and an eye for natural beauty and aesthetics.It hadn’t taken long for other people to offer to film guest sessions, streaming from their own bedrooms into their tiny network. Wade had been one of their first, a guy doing hot solo things with toys that their viewers just ate up. Next came Clint who’d had various partners in the beginning but now is only taking orders from his boyfriend slash master Phil, who is never seen on camera, mostly because he’s away so much and has a high-profile job at a government agency. Not like the audience minds the anonymity. In fact, Phil has his own circle of devoted fans, much to his own amusement.The people Tastes & Sized hire are the studio’s strength. There was no boring heterosexual couple with the man plowing the woman till she fake-screams through her fake orgasm.The thing their viewers appreciate most is the authenticity of the people in front of the camera - from any and all walks of life, literally something for all tastes and in all sizes. That is the niche he and Steve have found and grown into quite successfully. They receive fan mail from all around the world. People who are happy that there is a person having fun in bed with their partner who had just as much of a paunch as they did, who has the same skin color as they do, who like things in bed that are still frowned upon even by polite porn society.Tastes & Sizes gives people a chance and a home.The next addition to the family had been young Peter, a trans guy who’d been thrown out by his parents once he’d come out. At first Natasha had hired him because he was brilliant with a camera. He’d slept on Steve and Bucky’s couch for months before Wade had offered to let Peter move in with him after his roommate had moved out. Their story is a love story for the ages and has finally found their way to the front end of the cameras, where they stun their viewers on the regular, a dude with a vagina and his lover who is covered from head to toe in scars adoring and loving on each other.The next was Eddie, former model gone stocky sex god and his partner, a non-binary POC who called themselves Vee. They regularly throw team dinners where Vee can channel their inner chef, even though it’s strange that no matter what the main meal item is, one of the sides is always tater tots.Thor and Loki were added to the studio family after they were hired to repair the damage of a lighting strike blackout. They'd argued constantly the whole time they were working, but Steve discovered later on - quite by accident as he likes to stress, as he caught them in flagrante in a maintenance cupboard - that the two of them were horrible as co-workers, but quite splendid as lovers.They have their signature lesbian couple Peggy and Angie who do the most dedicated tonge work Bucky has ever witnessed. And their heterosexual couple Bruce and Betty, star-crossed lovers showing their audience a loving and respectful relationship through the lens of the camera.Bucky keeps joking that the only thing they don’t have in their little family yet is a steady threesome, even though they have filmed the occasional orgy.Looking over at Peter now, both he and Wade sitting close together in one corner of their little studio, makes Bucky sigh and frown with worry. Peter is six months pregnant and the proud parents to be have asked Steve and Bucky to be the kid’s godparents. Steve had been so thrilled.In a way Tastes is their family as well. Bucky has never been close to his own family. They’d thrown him out for being gay and not even his long and successful army career had been enough to prove to his father that he was just as much of a man as any other guy out there. Needless to say they weren’t thrilled when he’d announced that he was sleeping with his former Captain.Here at Tastes he doesn’t need to hide. Nobody looks at him funny because he’s only got one arm. Here nobody looks at him twice when he uses a little eyeliner or even some eyeshadow. Steve doesn’t mind when Bucky’s lips leave sticky red prints on his body when he kisses that beautifully pale irish skin.For Steve it’s no different. He grew up in the system after his mother’s death, a sickly child with a penchant for finding trouble a few sizes too big for him. Luckily he’d grown into his hunger for fighting and had made a brilliant army Captain.That’s when Buck had met Steve, during one of their deployments in Afghanistan. It’d been love at first sight, but it had still been during the time of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, so nothing had become of the innocent bantering and teasing between two good friends. It’d only been much later, when Steve had visited Bucky at the hospital after his horrible injury that things had changed.At the time Bucky had been wallowing in self-pity, not battling so much as giving into PTSD and depression. Yet Steve had refused to treat him with kid gloves. He’d gone right in and touched Bucky, touched his arm, his side, the shoulder that was still covered with a compress, gently yet noticeably, like he’d just put a hand on Bucky’s shoulder while leaning over a tactical map back on the battlefield.He’d taken none of Bucky’s bullshit, carted him to his follow-ups with the hospital and to his therapy appointments. He’d made sure Bucky had a social life. He’d retired from his army post for him. Bucky had shouted at him once he’d found out but Steve had just smiled at him and shook his head and told him that Bucky meant more to him than any military accolade ever could.They’ve found their home with each other and extended it to others.A touch at his arm draws Bucky out of his musings and he finally looks up to see Steve smile gently at him from the side.“What I’m saying is,” Wade interjects, or rather continues, because Steve nods and smiles at the other man like he’s been listening attentively for a while now. “What I’m saying is that he’s really worried the new guy ain’t gonna keep us on. And to be honest, so ‘m I.”Steve nods gravely, waiting until Wade has finished. Bucky looks around looking for Peter, but Wade seems to have approached them alone. He feels a little guilty that he hasn’t listened to Wade from the beginning of their talk. He and Steve have always made sure to listen to their artists’ concerns and worries.Bucky can well understand Wade and Peter’s concerns. They’re expecting their first child and up until now have had a steady income from the streams and videos they’re doing for Tastes. And while they are contractually guaranteed a percentage of income as royalties from their clips in addition to their fees for providing new material or doing live streams, all this could be cut away if the new owner of Tastes decides to take their clips off the web.And with neither Peter nor Wade having a regular daytime job, that would leave them in financial trouble, which all of them are very aware of. It’s not easy, even in this day and age to keep a family fed and happy if you’re a guy covered in scars from head to toe or if you don’t conform to other people’s expectations of gender.Beside him, Steve bites his lip. He’s been beating himself up over the matter as if he’s directly responsible for the whole mess himself. Which they all know is not true. He’s been very direct in his instructions on how many shares to make available at one time to avoid just the mess they’re finding themselves in right now. The only mistake might have been trusting the wrong person. And none of the artists Bucky and Steve have spoken to at such short notice have made any indication that they blame Steve for that.“Well, I wish I had better news, but right now we know as much as you do,” Steve explains carefully, “we haven’t met with the new investor yet, so we have no way of knowing what they actually want. And until we do, there’s really no use speculating.”His tone is apologetic and concerned, genuinely so. Steve couldn’t fake an emotion if his life depended on it.Across from them Wade nods. “You gonna speak with whoever this is soon?”“This afternoon,” Bucky confirms, hand twisting against Steve’s thigh beneath the table.“Guess there’s no need worrying Petey till later, I guess,” Wade finally sighs, shoulders slumping. “You gonna tell us as soon as you got any news?”“Of course,” Steve promises. “As soon as we’re out of this meeting. In fact, why don’t you come along too?”Bucky is about to protest, the meeting set for later that day by a Ms. Potts is supposed to be just them as co-owners with the new shareholder. Then again, this isn’t only Steve’s and his baby, but also the rest of their crew’s. They’re a family and it may be best to present a united front right now, so he doesn’t say anything when Wade nods and leaves to ask Peter if he wants to come as well.Nat hurries out after Wade, leaving Bucky and Steve in the small makeup room. It’s the first time they’ve had a moment alone all day.Bucky looks over at Steve, his partner in every sense of the word, and is dismayed to find the usually so sunny eyes dull and lackluster.“It wasn’t the right thing to do,” Steve sighs, staring down at the tips of his shoes. “There must have been other ways to get more funding. And now it’s all gone wrong and we’ve let them down.”Bucky sighs. Usually that is his text. Steve is the optimistic one in their relationship, always believing in the good within people, always defending the people around them and trying to make the world a better place. But he rarely sees the good in himself and when Steve thinks he messed up it’s Bucky’s job to make sure Steve will stop beating himself up over things that aren’t his fault.“Not exactly your fault that guy doesn’t know his numbers,” Bucky argues, getting up to walk over to Steve.“But I was the one who hired him,” Steve protests and Bucky rolls his eyes. The man has never known when to give in. Lucky for him Bucky is just as pig-headed. Other people would have given up long ago.“Hey, stop beating yourself up. I was there and I remember you distinctly telling Natasha how many shares we wanted to launch. And she even gave him the number in writing. No idea how he’d be able to get that wrong.”Bucky kneels down in front of the blond who’s had his heart since the day they met. He places a firm hand on Steve’s neck, starting up a gentle massage and pulling him forward until Steve’s forehead is resting against him. “But I picked him,” his lover murmurs with a sigh, burrowing his face against Bucky’s stomach.“Actually, didn’t the guy come recommended by one of the subscribers?” Bucky asks, frowning. He’s distinctly aware of the guy’s name popping up as a recommendation in their client mail one day. But that’s not really the point here. What’s done is done and they better focus on the future right now. “Maybe we can persuade the guy who bought us to let us buy the studio back if we explain the situation.” It’s really the best suggestion he has and it’s not a good one.Steve apparently agrees with that assessment. He snorts against Bucky’s sweater. “Even if he’s willing to do that, we don’t exactly have the money. It’s what landed us in this mess in the first place.”“Well, we should definitely think about doing something about that guy. He went against our instructions, maybe we could sue him for damages.” “Yeah,” Steve nods and pulls back to look up at Bucky. “Maybe there’s something we can do. We need to get a lawyer involved, right? We can get the studio back.”“There’s my Captain,” Bucky smiles at hearing the fight back in Steve’s tone, and he leans down to press a gentle kiss against his partner’s lips. “We can do this. But meeting first, alright?”“Alright,” Steve agrees, standing up to crowd against Bucky’s front. “One step after the other.”“And afterwards,” Bucky grins, “some relaxation.”The answering smile he gets tells him that Steve knows exactly what Bucky’s brand of relaxation entails. They are porn stars after all!***