ripped at every edge (but you're a masterpiece) (Hp x Mcu) by Lissy

Chapter 13: can you let me try?

Summary:

Tony and Draco meet up.

Chapter title:
Prove You Wrong - He Is We

Notes:

Timeline:
[x] (2012) The Avengers
[x] (2013) Iron Man 3
[x] (2013) We are here
[ ] (2013) Thor: The Dark World
[ ] (2014) Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Guardians of the Galaxy; Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2
[ ] (2015) Avengers: Age of Ultron; Ant-Man
[ ] (2016) Captain America: Civil War; Spider-Man: Homecoming
[ ] (2017) Doctor Strange; Black Panther; Thor: Ragnarok
[ ] (2018) Avengers: Infinity War

Tony's going to build a better google.

Really, he should have done this a long time ago. As far as search engines go, google is definitely better than yahoo or bing, but even google has failed him. And JARVIS isn't really all that helpful either.

"You can't find anything?" Tony asks, cocking his eyebrow.

JARVIS' tone is wry as he says, "These are the only available hits for your search, sir."

The holographic screen in front of him is lit, and Tony scowls at the lack of information. It's like Draco Malfoy doesn't exist, which makes sense considering the Statute of Secrecy, but it's also really fucking inconvenient.

Although Howard Stark never won any Father of the Year awards, he did impart some invaluable life lessons that Tony still employs to this day. Howard Stark was an extremely intelligent businessman. He had to be in order to create Stark Industries from the ground up and turn it into a Fortune 500 company.

One of the (only) good memories that he has of his father is when he was nearly five. He'd just successfully built his own circuit board and had ran through the halls, shrieking like a madman in excitement. He was nervous, presenting it to his father, a genius, master engineer and scientist. His insides seized because as proud of his circuit board as he was, he feared showing it to his father and ultimately not measuring up.

But instead, his father inspected the circuit board, pointed out a few flaws that had Tony disheartened, but then the man smiled. It wasn't the distant, polite smile that Tony was typically faced with. No, this was one of his Captain America smiles, so named because he only looked that happy when he was looking at old photos of Captain America.

And then his father picked him up, put him on his knee, and showed Tony the book he was reading.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

"This is probably the best book you will ever read, Anthony," his father had said as Tony looked at the book in wonder. "It will teach you how to be a great leader for when you take over Stark Industries. But more importantly, it will help you in all aspects of your life. Read it, breathe it, live it, and you will be successful beyond measure."

Because what Tony hadn't realized was that his father had looked at his circuit board, and although he had seen the flaws and mistakes that his son had unwittingly done, he had also seen potential. He had seen his son, his legacy.

The future. And there was some kind of parental, fatherly instinct that had awoken, for however brief a time it was, and wanted to cultivate the intellect he could see in his son's warm, bright eyes.

That was before Tony grew up, before Howard's expectations grew higher and higher, before a younger Tony couldn't quite meet those demands, before their relationship started to fracture under the brunt of his father's disappointment.

So, yeah, no Father of the Year award being given. Adulthood and maturity have given Tony some context, some clarity into his father's drive for perfection, into his father's character, but it's all too little too late.