Loren was now, and always, entirely too astute. Tony groaned into dark hair and then laughed, already feeling more comfortable just by having someone else break the ice on the matter. “Evidently you missed out. You could have been with a genius version of me who flies around in power armor and saves the world on a regular basis.” That was the jist of the issue, if not the underlying cause. There was no way that Tony was just going to spill his guts about everything. Not even to Loren. He tended to keep all of his troubles to himself.

And that was true across the board in all version of the man. He was maddeningly willing to suffer alone and in silence with periods of being an asshole and acting out to deflect away from the cause of his unhappiness.

Being with him was maddening.

“What do you think about kids?” And there. That deflection. As promised.