"Boss, Mr. Winner would like to speak with you, if that's all right," FRIDAY announced, and Tony closed all the windows with Eve Wars research.

"Send him down," he said, picking up pieces of a gauntlet to keep his hands busy. He didn't realize how late it was until Winner was standing in front of him in sleep pants, slippers, and an oversized long-sleeve shirt that probably belonged to his partner. "Too worried to sleep?" he asked.

"About Duo?" Winner asked.

"Do we have another person of interest in common?"

Winner smiled indulgently. He was really way too young to give Tony that look. "No, I'm not worried about Duo. I'm not especially pleased that he felt the need to talk his way around Mr. Wilson, but not really surprised either. I hope you don't mind the intrusion. Miss FRIDAY said you were still awake."

Tony wants to push it, wants to point out that Duo took his battery out of his phone, has gone completely dark, wants to know why Winner just isn't that concerned, but decides to let it drop for the moment. Of the two of them, there's no question that Winner knows Duo better. "Yeah, well, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist is a lot fit into a mere twenty-four hours. Who has time to sleep."

Winner padded over on surprisingly quiet feet. "May I?" he asked when he reached a stool.

"Help yourself."

He sat, posture prim and painfully correct, which was at odds with the oversized shirt."You forgot the most important one," he said.

"Huh?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Winner recited, diction as precise as only the best tutors could instill. "And father."

"Yeah, well, I'm doing a pretty shitty job of that last one," he said, staring down at the gauntlet in his hands. "He's safe here, you know," Tony had to tell him. "I would never let anything happen to him here."

"I know. Duo does too, even if it's hard to see. He would never have allowed us to come here if he didn't truly believe it were safe."

"Didn't seem like you gave him much of a choice in the matter," Tony quipped.

Winner gave him a small, dry smile. Tony wondered if he remembered how to smile for real or if they'd all become affectations. "We would have come to Earth no matter what, yes. But we wouldn't be here in the Tower if he did not believe we would be safe here. Duo does not take risks with people he loves. Especially not now."

Something in his voice made Tony look up, and he caught a flash of grief before Winner hid it. A consummate politician, this one. "You're not talking about Reyes," he guessed.

He shook his head. "No," he agreed.

"Yuy," Tony guessed.

A sad, tight smile. "Yes."

"Tell me about him. I know he and Duo were partners. They joined Preventers at the same time, so I'm assuming they knew each other before they joined. I know Yuy is still listed as Duo's next-of-kin on his file."

Winner made a soft not-chuckle. "I guess she never updated it when he went undercover to preserve the fiction that he'd quit. You don't update next-of-kin for inactive Preventers," he said, though he still seemed sad. "But yes, they were partners in all senses of the word."

"I thought Preventers had a strict no-frat policy?"

"You'd have to ask Une why she made an exception," he suggested. "I can't speak to her personnel decisions," he added, giving a helpless shrug.

Tony narrowed his eyes. He didn't trust Winner. No one who had as much money and influence as Winner did was this seemingly harmless. "Okay, then. Pretending I believe you don't actually know, how did you and Duo even end up being friends?"

That earned a real smile, but shrewd eyes considered Tony before he spoke. "Do you know what my first thought was when I learned that you were Duo's father?" he asked instead.

"Ah-ah." Tony wagged a finger at him. "I asked first."

"It's related. I assure you."

Tony gave him an openly suspicious look then said. "Okay, I'll bite. What did you think?"

"That he certainly took after you."

Whose leg did Winner think he was pulling? "Sure you did."

"No, really. You may have had a lot of public catastrophes, but when I first heard you were his father, I thought of some of your most public triumphs. I think he inherited a lot of the best parts of you."

"The best parts of me?" Tony asked, and he couldn't help the sarcasm.

"Your personability. Your charisma—"

"Uh, clearly you have me confused with someone else, because no one would ever accuse me of being personable. I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others—that's just the base personality assessment."

Of course Winner had the nerve to look amused. "You armor yourself with narcissism, ego, and sarcasm, but you won the devoted loyalties of Pepper Potts and James Rhodes," he said, more an observation than a criticism. "You can afford to offend everyone, and keeping the gold diggers at arms' length is just common sense. But if you took away the money and the fame, I suspect you would do much what Duo did—charm people. Win them over. Invite them in. Use that brilliance to make people want to get to know you, want to be around you, want to support you. You were born with the power of your name, and the value of your regard only grew as your brilliance became public."

"I honestly can't tell if you're trying to butter me up or see how many backhanded compliments you can load into one monologue."

"You both use sarcasm to deflect, and you both suck at accepting genuine compliments."

"Yeah, still think they're of the backhanded variety."

"I'm telling you that I believe many of Duo's best qualities are qualities that he inherited from you. No backhand angle," Winner said, patient.

Tony looked at him hard for a beat before challenging, "Okay, kitty cat, tell me something about Duo that I should know. Something we share."

Winner gave him a shrewd look before answering. "Neither of you like to be honest, for one."

"Duo told me he doesn't tell lies?" Tony shot back, half question, half challenge.

"Oh, he doesn't," Winner assured. "But I think you know better than most not to mistake telling the truth as honesty. Duo will not tell you a lie—he generally even avoids hyperbole. Don't think that means he's being honest. And don't make the mistake of thinking that just because he won't tell you the lie, that he isn't perfectly content to let you believe one."

"Great thing for us to share—dishonesty."

"You said something you should know and something you share. You didn't say it should be a virtue. He couldn't just get your good qualities, after all," Winner said, and he somehow looked disarming again when he said it. "It's funny, you know, that you and I haven't had the occasion to meet before now. The press loves to compare us to one another."

"You mean contrast us. About the only thing you and I have in common is that we're two of the richest men on or off planet."

"Arguably the two richest," Winner agreed. "And yet we're both still greedy."

Tony made a face. "Greedy is not a word I've seen associated with you—me, sure, no question. You're the shining scion of the colonies."

The smile Winner gave him was sharp and dark and even a little menacing. "And yet, we who have more money and power and influence than most people can even begin to comprehend, we still want more. We want people to love us, be loyal to us for who we are. We want the regard of the ones who cannot be bought."

"Is that really greedy?" Tony asked. "Or is it just human nature?"

"It's greed if we can't let go of those who don't want to give it."

There it was, Tony thought. "You think I should just let Duo shut me out? Cut me off?"

"Part of me says yes," Winner admitted without hesitation, then paused before he continued. "You and your team, you have one of the most genuinely dangerous occupations in the world. You stand at the front lines willingly. It's something he understands and respects, but I don't know if he will survive another blow. He's… better, a little. But the Duo you have met is a pale shadow of the man he was. Losing Heero…" He clasped his hands so tightly, the knuckles turned white. "It broke him, in a way that no other loss ever has." He stood and walked over to where the old suits were standing, putting his hands in his pockets, and for the first time since they'd been introduced, Tony saw not just the façade Winner liked to project, but the man who ran the biggest family-owned corporation not named Stark in the world. Winner had only been fifteen when his father had died and he had to take over his company. He hadn't had a mentor available like Obadiah, but he'd been arguably more successful than Tony had. This wasn't a man to be trifled with.

"I have the BARF, you know. Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing—it basically allows you to walk through your memories in a virtual reality so you can, you know, reframe them in the context of who you are now. We're using it with Barnes to deal with the brainwashing, and he's got a lot of induced amnesia. It's certainly worth looking into whether it might help… Yuy?"

Winner was already shaking his head. "Maybe if it had been available immediately after the accident, it would have been worth trying. It's been nearly three years. Heero has a new life, and it's one in which he does not know that Duo Maxwell exists."

"Yeah, I noticed that when I met him."

Winner's head snapped around. "When did you—"

"Hey, housing arrangements weren't that hard to get a hold of. When I found Duo's old address, I also found that he had a roommate. I tracked Yuy down more than a year ago. He… didn't even recognize the name," Tony admitted. "His girlfriend was less than friendly too—no wonder Pepper likes her so much."

"Oliviana will be formidable," Winner agreed neutrally, turning back to the suits. "Neither the Fitzhughs nor the Strohs are known for being pushovers."

"Are you sure it isn't worth a shot?" Tony asked.

"Duo and Heero were one another's next of kin. He was at Heero's bedside every minute he could be, but if he so much as left the room, Heero would completely forget him."

"That…" Tony paused, frowning. "That doesn't sound normal."

"It happened with others too. We'd visit, and if we left for more than a day, he'd have a hard time remembering we'd met and who we were. We have—had, rather—mutual friends who are still in the Fitzhugh-Stroh's social circles. People Heero knew. People who he can now barely remember, even meeting them at multiple events years later. It's like his mind can't retain anyone he used to know. But the effect was most pronounced with Duo—and it got worse as time wore on. To the point where if Duo left his line of sight, he'd forget him."

"I'm not a doctor, but I know how amnesia works pretty well by now—and that isn't it."

"Not how it should work," Winner agreed. "Or, if he was forgetting everyone from before, he shouldn't be able to remember new people at all, but he could remember his doctors and nurses."

Tony got there. "Unless he subconsciously wanted to forget everything from before," he said, his stomach sinking.

Winner turned back to him. "That was the doctors' evaluation." His eyes were sad but resigned. "He knew he was forgetting people, and he got frustrated. After discussing with his doctors, he decided that whatever he had lost, he had lost for good reason, and us all trying to be there and help him regain it was impeding his recovery. After three months, he told us he wouldn't see us anymore and not to attempt to contact him any further. He wanted to move on with his life."

Tony closed his eyes, heart aching for his son. Just hearing it, and not knowing Yuy at all, Tony it felt like a kick in the gut. How much worse for Duo—who had loved him? "What did Duo do?" He had to ask. He didn't want to ask. Part of him didn't want to know, but he needed to.

"He did what he always does," Winner said, soft, his voice barely carrying in the room. "He put Heero first, even at his own expense." He let out a slow breath that sounded shaky, but when he spoke again, his voice was steady. "He always puts others first. He's never really believed that he has value beyond his skills. In his deepest heart of hearts, he'll always be the nobody L2 orphan who will be forgotten when he's gone."

That statement hung in the air until Tony couldn't stand it. "Why are you telling me all of this?" he asked. "If you don't think I should have a right to him, that I would be good for him? If you think I'm just another ticking timebomb of loss waiting it hit, why tell me anything?"

"There is a large part of me that says you're another wound waiting to happen." He looked at Tony like he could read his mind before he sighed. "But the larger part of me says he needs new bonds or we're going to lose him."

Tony's chest felt tight at the implication, but of course this was where the conversation was going. It should have occurred to him sooner, but no one would accuse Tony of having a high emotional IQ. People were so much more complicated than machines. "Do we need to set a suicide watch?"

To his credit, Winner considered it before shaking his head. "If Duo were going to kill himself, he'd already be dead."

If Winner were trying to be reassuring, he was failing.

"What do you need from me?"

"Keep him busy. He threw himself into work after Heero left. Have you brought him down here?"

"Haven't had much of a chance. He's only really been in the Tower for, what, four days total? He came down here the day you arrived, but he didn't seem very interested in anything—mostly just had some questions for me."

"Invite him down and give him something to work on. He's a genius with machines. This place should be irresistible to him."

"Genius with machines, huh?"

The smile Winner gave him was wry. "I wonder where he got that from."

"Any other tips or tricks you care to share?"

"You can ask questions, but don't push. Don't lie to him. No matter how flexible his definition of a lie can be, he doesn't tell them, and he hates being lied to. And stay away from Heero—both as a topic and the person."

"You really don't think I could help?" Tony wondered.

"I really think there are far less painful ways to commit suicide than provoking Duo."

Remembering Duo's nonchalance about cutting out part of a man's jaw, Tony figured that was less a joke than a sincere warning.

"How did you guys get to be friends?" he asked again, leaning back. He'd been curious since he first realized they were, but he didn't feel like he'd gotten any substantial answers.

Winner yawned, covering his mouth politely. "I apologize. Looks like the time is finally catching up to me."

"That wasn't an answer," Tony accused.

"I told you, we met when one of my homes was used as a Rebellion safehouse."

"That's how you met, not how you ended up friends."

"When he wants to be, Duo is quite irresistible, and I am far from an immovable object, Mr. Stark. Get him to stick around long enough, and you'll understand." He walked toward the door. "You should think about getting some sleep as well. I have continued jetlag to blame for my sleeplessness. What's your excuse?"

He didn't stick around to wait for a response, and Tony watched his back until he got onto the elevator.