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A long time ago Tony knew a man. Not by choice but by necessity. Their first meeting was not auspicious at all though how it ended set the precedent for the encounters to come.
Many strange adventures were had that had him and this man traveling far and wide in countries that had names that were unpronounceable. Through jungles and deserts and dark towns. Many explosions occurred and not all of them were caused by him.
He was a very competent man, this man that Tony knew a long time ago.
Very practical, with a biting wit that could make him laugh even through the hailstorm caused by machine guns. It was a very exciting time even by his standards, especially considering the fact he ended up married to this man through happenstance and some obscure clan ritual in a forgotten city.
Tony Stark marrying? He couldn't even blame that on alcohol or mind-altering drugs.
In spite of that, in spite of everything they went through, it didn't come as a great surprise to wake up one day and find this man gone. No longer by his side, or watching his back, Tony knew enough of the man he married to know that the waters truly ran deep with that one.
It was both harder and easier than he thought it would be to get back to the jet-set life, to sweep the events of those few eventful years under the rug where he saved the world for the first time.
He spent less and less time thinking of this man he once knew, though truly never forgot, until the day he met him again.
Out of the shadows of his darkened home Tony sees the striking figure who remains much the same and still not at all.
And as he watches Nick Fury gives his speech Tony knows, he truly never knew the man at all.
The End.