Chapter 2: Arctic wind

When Tony Stark was a child, he did not hear any voice humming to him inside his head. No, there was no sweet lullaby whispering to Tony, who only ever heard the howling of the wind. And whenever Tony paid enough attention to it, he felt cold inside. Terribly cold, as if he'd been camping out in the Arctic, wearing only shorts.

He wondered why that was, but he never dared to ask his father about it. He had never been good enough in his father's eyes, could never measure up to the great Captain America, and he didn't want to appear as more of a failure than he already was in the old man's eyes. But whenever Howard Stark would mention Steve Rogers to Tony, it always felt inexplicably colder in the room than it had been before.

It stayed that way, until one day Tony wondered if the reason he could only hear an arctic wind was because fate felt he was not good enough to have a soul mate, that he was unworthy.

Then again... he sometimes tries to comfort himself, fate's a bunch of nonsense brought into the world to control the will of the people and keep them weak.

As Tony came to the conclusion that there simply was no soul mate waiting for him, he began to act out. He began to party harder, came home later into the night. It wasn't as if his father actually cared about him beyond getting excellent grades and preparing for the inheritance of Stark Industries. He wasn't Steve Rogers, and so he wasn't good enough for Howard's attentions.

On December 16, 1991, Howard Stark and his wife Maria died in a car accident. Howard died, thinking of Tony as a disappointment.

Tony, unable to cope with the death of his parents, had the majority of Stark Industries' responsibilities handed over to Obadiah Stane, while he began to cultivate the image of genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist for himself.

Then, Afghanistan happened.

It changed Tony's life. The super hero Iron Man was born, and for the first time Tony felt that he was good enough. He was good enough to save peoples' lives, to make a difference in this world.

It appeared that fate was trying to fight his happiness, though.

Not long after he became Iron Man, he discovered that the Arc Reactor, which was powering the electromagnet that stopped the shrapnel from entering his heart, was slowly killing him.

Death by Palladium Poisoning, what a great way to go out! he thought to himself sarcastically.

In truth, it was affecting him a lot deeper than he cared to admit. He did not want to die, but he wondered whether fate was telling him that he was unworthy of the Iron Man armor.

It seems that I'm not good enough to be a hero either, eh?

But Tony was not called a genius for nothing. In the end, using the old diagram his father left behind, he managed to overcome his Palladium dependency.

He felt elated; after defeating the villain Vanko, his life was on a roll! Sure, Nick Fury didn't think he was good enough for the Avengers Initiative, but who cared? He was Iron Man once more, Pepper was running Stark Industries like a boss, and to top everything off, he and Pepper had started off a steady relationship. What more could he want?

He felt so giddy that one day he decided to take his suit out for a joyride. But as he flew in the sky, something strange happened.

The howling inside his head began to diminish. The ever present biting cold in his heart seemed to slowly melt and slip away from his being.

It was as if something was warming him from the inside.

Then, very softly, he heard the first notes of a song. Someone with a deep, gentle baritone was humming to him.

Was humming to him inside his head.

"Uhm, JARVIS?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark?" his ever faithful AI replied in clipped tones.

"Are you humming a song right now?"

"No, Mr. Stark, you never programmed me to perform such features. But with the algorithms you did install for me, I can acquire these new skills in approximately 15 seconds."

"If you're not humming to me, then who is?" asked Tony with trepidation.

It remained silent for a few moments, but then JARVIS said, "Sir, perhaps this is the ever elusive heartsong, that is only known to living organisms with a higher form of intelligence?"

If not for JARVIS taking over the suit, Tony would have crashed into the skyscraper in front of him in that moment.

xxx

Elsewhere in the United States, Steve Rogers woke up from a seventy year slumber to the light teasing notes sung by a man's voice.


TBC...