I don't know what it is about that man. His face, his voice, his ego, his air of unchallenged confidence and pride. I'm a simple man, and I'd like to think I always will be. But Tony is complex, strange, much more profound and unfathomable than I give him credit for. He is advancement, while I am tradition. He is progress, while I am the textbook example. I follow the rules, and he makes up his own.
It pains me to see how he feels he is nothing without that armor. No, the real Tony Stark, the bared and unplugged Tony, is more powerful, more determined than any man, woman, or god, or Hulk I have ever known. Perhaps more than I could be.
I was a soldier. I still am, in almost every sense of the word. But the one thing I've never had the courage to fight for was… a say in anything. I was plucked from the draft and enhanced with superhuman abilities. I was the perfect fighting machine, built to kill, and yet… I stiller remained this husk of a person. And I have awoken in this bright and fast-paced world and everything I have ever known is outdated, obsolete, or destroyed. I'll never see my family again, my friends, my brothers in arms, Peggy… those people who I have put my love and trust into are dead. I'll never speak to them again.
And here he comes, with the world at his fingertips, with money and acclaim, everything he could have ever dreamed of having, and he chose me. He chose me amidst all the confusion and chaos Loki caused, my straightforwardness, my flaws. I'll never understand, never comprehend how he could see in me the good things, or even acknowledge that they were there. He says we all have demons to fight.
Well, maybe his demons match mine.