Tony Stark was a normal child.
His dad never paid attention to him, which hurt but he understood because his dad was a busy man. Or, he tried to understand, at least.
He played with toys and ran around like a greyhound on meth, climbed trees and threw things.
He built circuit boards and tiny robots. He even mauled rats and barked at the cat, for a while.
He didn't think there was anything wrong with eating rats and barking, but his mother said otherwise and put a stop to that in an instant.
Tony Stark was a normal child, one who no longer mauled rats or barked at the cat. Not that he didn't want to, but his Ma said he shouldn't, so he didn't.
Tony Stark was a normal child who went to boarding school and got good grades. Well, great grades, and he managed to skip two years when he was seven, and was in university by the time he was fourteen.
Tony Stark was a normal child who wore an odd necklace his Ma said he had to, and who had to fight down the urge to chase things that ran away from him.
Tony Stark was a normal child who was top of his class at MIT, and made his first friend at fourteen while drunk (or, he thinks that he must have been drunk, he had drank a lot, after all).
Tony Stark was a normal child, whose parents died in a car crash when he was seventeen, and who learned that he had never been normal in a letter, that his mother had been planning to give him when he turned eighteen.
Tony Stark was a half-shapeshifter descendent of aliens who were banished to earth sometime in the sixteenth century.
Tony Stark was a normal child who repressed that shit like it was the last thing he'd ever do.
Tony Stark was a normal man who inherited a fortune 500 company when he turned twenty-one.
Tony Stark was a normal man who tried to drown himself in alcohol, and who never succeed because Tony Stark was anything but normal.
Tony Stark was a normal man who drown his sorrows in sex and alcohol, and tried to run from his genetics.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who invented world-changing devices when held captive in a cave.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who's business partner tried to kill him.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who decided to be a superhero.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who saved the city on a weekly basis.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who saved the world with the help of other normal people.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who went mad whenever he smelt blood and could hear his teammates berate him form two floors below.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who murdered his kid and made a monster called Ultron.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who didn't flinch whenever Wanda Maximoff looked at him as though he were nothing more than a monster, like Ultron.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who helped his teammates when they were in trouble, and built a compound for them because his mistake had destroyed their home.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who realized they'd fucked up when Senator Ross had come to them with the Accords.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who hid how much it hurt to fight with his friends.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who's heart turned to ice when he found out the man his friend had been protecting had murdered his mother.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who, when his suit was damaged in a fight, felt all of the rage had ever bottled-up raise to the surface, and boil in his blood.
Tony Stark was a normal man, who's body contorted and broke, then reformed into that of a wolf. A very angry wolf.
Tony Stark was a man, who tried to maul the man he had thought a friend, so that he could get to the man who murdered his mother.
Tony Stark was a man, who's ribs were shattered by the shield his father had made, and who's sides were slashed by the man who had killed his mother.
Tony Stark was a man who fought until he no longer could.
Tony Stark was a man who fell off of a cliff in Siberia, and who lied in the snow in a pool of his own blood as his abused body tried in vain to heal itself.
Tony Stark was someone who had spent his whole life running from his blood, who thought that he could ignore his instinct.
Tony Stark was someone who's lifetime of self-hatred and loathing had led him to try being good. Good enough for his father, good enough for the press, good enough for his team.
Tony Stark was tired of trying.
Tony Stark was a wolf, who's breaths wheezed passed the blood in his lungs as snow dusted his pelt.
Tony Stark was a wolf who wished he'd never been a man, because the only thing humanity had brought him was pain.
Tony Stark was a wolf, who refused to close his eyes as the last of his blood trickled down his side, because he'd always thought snow was pretty.
Tony Stark was a wolf who died with the regret that he had ever been a man.