When I was a young kid, the only thing I'd ever look forward to when it came to my father were his stories about Captain America.
I'd always, always admired him. To be honest, at times I was a little jealous of Steve. He got the admiration of my father, and that was the one thing that I really wanted. I just wanted my dad, but Steve got to him first. It just wasn't fair, not in my opinion anyway. I was his son, not stupid dead Steve Rogers, the amazing war hero who helped take out a massive threat.
I knew that without Steve, I wouldn't be alive because if New York had been bombed then my dad would be dead and so would a lot of America and we would have lost the war. But I also knew that it wasn't like Steve was smart, he wasn't a genius like I was and he'd have had no clue what Thermonuclear Astrophysics were, well, not that I did, but still, I could study it and work it out if IO really wanted to, but Steve would never be as amazing as I was when it came to brains so I didn't really see what the complication was at all.
But now I'm seven and I'm a big, brave boy now. I know that if I ever want Dad's attention, I'll have to earn it by doing everything Captain America couldn't, and some things he could. That's what Jarvis said I should do, well, not exactly, but he implied it. Dad always says to read between the lines when it comes to what people say to you, because if you don't read between the lines then you won't get anywhere near the full picture of what the person means. I'm not very good at that, that's why I'm going to improve it. Dad said that Steve had loads of friends and even though he was rubbish with women, and he was really nice to people and he had a sense of honour and once he curled his body around a grenade to save a bunch of other people before he became strong.
I don't think I'll ever be as strong as Steve. Or as perfect. It just isn't possible because I'm just a person. An insanely clever seven year old who's really famous and can make engines and stuff. I'm really clever, probably more clever than my dad when I'm older, but at the moment I'm just a silly, cute little boy who's the son of a weapons manufacturer. I don't like that part of my dad being him, because although he has loads of money and cool things, sometimes bad people come and take me away and I hate that because then my dad has to pay money to get me away from them. They do bad things to me and hurt me and I hate that, but I try to be strong about it because that never happened to Captain America. My dad always says he's really proud of me whenever I come back from being in captivity or whatever the technical term is. I don't know if he's telling the truth or not, but I know that my smile whenever he says things like that is always genuine.
Dad's gone to Antarctica. He says they've found something in the ice. I'm not sure if I want it to be Steve or not. If it is, then I'll be happy and stuff because Dad will stop looking for him, but if it is him, he'll be around a lot, I think, and then he'll meet me and see how not-perfect I am. Well, if he's still alive, anyway. And then he won't like me because he'll listen to what Dad says, because everyone listens to what he says and Dad often says that I'm useless and should be more like Steve.
I tell Jarvis about these things and he says that he's sure that Steve is a very good person, and that I'm not a bad boy, I'm just a Stark.
I don't know what that means but I think it was a nice thing for him to say.
