Monsters are real and ghosts are real too. They live inside of us and sometimes, they win.
-Stephan King
1. That there are good people and bad people. Until he turns sixteen Roman's mama is a superhero. Then she's a super spy. When he turns forty-three, an impossibly aged Nick Fury lets him read his mother's file. And it turns out she's not a just a superhero and a super spy, she was also a plain old spy, a killer, a ballerina, a thief, an exercise in biological and psychological engineering, a sociopath, a liar, a lover. So many pieces of her that he never got to see, he only saw the best, just like when he only ever saw the best in his father, not the angry, scared, sad parts. And maybe it was for the best.
2. That family is happy. Roman's seen the scars on his father' back, he knows what his grandfather did to Papa when he was a little boy. He also knows that his Mama doesn't talk about her parents, instead she talks about men named Ivan and Anton, but never Alian. Dyadya Tony hates his father, Atom and Natalie's Grandpa Howard, but Dyadya Steve was friends with Howard Stark and teaches Zuzu, PJ and Einstein to love Howard Stark like a third grandfather. Dyadya Thor only says happy things about his family but Roman can see the sad reflected in his eyes. Nobody talks about Loki, Odin, and Laufey. Dyadya Clint doesn't talk about his family at time that Roman found his Papa sitting in his lab with a gun like Mama and Tetya Maria and Dyadya Clint doesn't talk about his family at all.
3. That time that Roman found his Papa sitting in his lab with a gun like Mama and Tetya Maria and Dyadya Clint use pointed at his head Papa was just playing. He called for his Papa and Roman's father put the gun down, wrapped his son in his arms, and lied to him. Roman knows this was a lie because Papa told Roman never to tell Mama about it. Roman is sure that Mama finds out because Mama knows everything and a week later a man named General Ross dies in his sleep and Papa's shoulders finally relax.
4. That he shouldn't have to fight their battles or take up their mantles when they can no longer support the crushing weight of being the 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes'. The world will always need someone to protect it, so when their parents drop the torch, the 'Minivengers', as Tetya Darcy had dubbed them, took it up. Roman becomes the Hulk to remind people that not all all monsters are evil.
5. That the people you love never really leave you. Because they do. Everyone does
6. That Papa will never hurt him. Roman knows his father will never hurt him the same way Dedushka hurt Papa. Roman also sees the fear lurking under pride and love and wonder in his father's eyes whenever he looks at his son. Roman supposes he owes Dedushka in some sense because without his rage Papa would have been normal all his life and have married the pretty but dull-looking woman that appears with his father in photos at Culver and had some equally dull children named Victor or Regina or whatever it is that Papa would have named his children had Mama not already picked out names a long time ago. But Papa hurts Roma whenever he asks Mama to punish Roman instead of him, hurts him whenever the pride and wonder slide away and only the fear remains.
7. That only the good die young. Well, this might have been a little joking on his mama's side, but he know's it meant something to her and his father since it was carved on the inside of the wedding bands they sometimes wore. Roman thinks his parents were, ultimately, people who loved each other and what they stood for. And maybe that's all you need to make you 'good'.
8. That torture is simple. It isn't. It's an art; a careful application of force to create the maximal effect. Roma meets the man introduced to him as 'McCullough' when he's sixteen and he and his mother are kidnapped. His mama had always said that only the unskilled spies use torture to get what they want, that it id a last resort, but Roman sees the beauty in what McCullough does. Only the very best operatives would be able to notice and exploit his mother's weaknesses. Roman canning help but think how wrong his mother was when her screams rip through the room as McCullough opens Roma's mouth and reaches in with a pair of needle-nose pliers.
9. That Mama is safe to be around. Once, when Papa goes away and the Zelenyy Voin comes out. The Zelenyy Voin is only unhappy for a little while until Mama sticks a funny little stick into the Zelenyy Voin's arm and he drops down to the ground, his head cradling into Mama's lap. She'd smiles and strokes the Zelenyy Voin's hair like Roma'd seen her do to his papa so many times. 'You were right lyubovnik, there really is magic in science, in every tranquilizer there's an apple for my sleeping beauty.'
10. That everything was going to be alright. Because, eventually, it wasn't anymore, was it?