Invincible
By: Eva Grimm
Prologue: Love and Arms

"The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Iron Man, Tony Stark, or any other Marvel intellectual property. Invincible is a fan-based work and not sold for profit.

***SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers for any Marvel movie and comic book — they're going to happen. You've been warned.

Thursday, May 29th, 1986 11:49a | Stark Residence

Howard Stark was having a bad morning. By all accounts, it should have been a good morning, albeit a busy one, since it was his son's sixth birthday. The guests would be arriving any minute, and everything was in place: A couple of tables stood end-to-end, each spot decked with red paper plates, white plastic silverware, and a gold napkin, Tony's favorite colors. A separate table was set aside and buried under enough snack food to sate a horse.

Howard blinked at the thought. "A horse? I need to get rid of that Speak-and-Spell, or Tony's going to drive me crazy sooner or later."

After a moment's pause, he continued his inspection of the party area, trying to suss the problem. The drink table was a picture of perfection, covered in juice boxes, all strawberry flavored. Howard knew the guests would think it was odd, but Tony was picky, and Maria wanted everything to be perfect for her "little one." Howard cringed as he thought back to a time when he tricked Tony into drinking cranberry juice. Tony, ever the smart kid, had noticed the juice was a darker red than he was used to and initially refused to drink it. He eventually tried it, but only after his father had reassured him the drink was similar to strawberry juice ("Strawberries are red, right, Tony? Well, this is a different red berry."). Naturally, the moment the bitter juice had touched Tony's tongue, it reversed course and graced Howard's shirt rather than Tony's stomach.

With a final glance over the room, Howard nodded to himself.

"Everything's ready," he said aloud, to no one in particular. Of course it was all ready. Maria would have moved heaven and earth to make it perfect. Not that she had to, given how diminutive the guest list was. Tony wasn't exactly a social creature.

"But are you ready?" Howard shivered with pleasure as his beloved Maria's slender arms slid around his middle and squeezed him lightly. Thirty-one years. They'd been married for thirty–one years, and she still made his heart sing. Well, she made many things "sing," but he curbed that train of thought quickly. He didn't relish the idea of a guest accidentally seeing his... equipment.

Howard opened his mouth to reassure Maria, but no words came out. "Of course I am," he could have said. "Why wouldn't I be?" he wanted to reply.

But it was no use — Maria had always known when he was bothered. Hell, she'd been able to back before they began dating. Back before they lost the Captain. Back before the Curtain fell. God, back before so many things. The War was without a doubt the most horrific period of his life, but it was the most exciting one too.

Working with S.H.I.E.L.D. had been his breakthrough. When he first started, he had so many dreams, and it had been so frustrating to see them unfulfilled. His biggest success before the War had been a flying car. A flying car! It worked really, really well — for the first five seconds, anyway. It wasn't long after that when Dr. Erskine sucked him into S.H.I.E.L.D. and, if he was honest with himself, the rest of his life. A life filled with enough government contracts to truly fund R&D. A life filled with exciting people like Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers, and Maria Stark née Carbonell. War was the simple life: get paid to stop the bad people and save the world.

Howard broke free of his reminiscing long enough to whisper a reply, "Not really."

Maria softly replied with a soft, "I thought as much." Howard started to unconsciously scrutinize the room for a problem, any problem. Finding none ("Perfect!"), he finally gave up on ignoring the real problem and grimaced.

Tony. Tony, his sweet, beloved child. Howard's efforts to ignore his problem were doomed from the start. After all, Tony was the birthday... child.

Howard resigned himself to tackling the issue head on and asked, "Is Tony ready?"

Maria had her head against his back, so even though he couldn't see her face, he felt her mouth become a sad smile. "Not really," she said, echoing his own answer.

Unable to help himself, he snorted. "Dress? Make-up? Both?"

Maria's sad smile slowly outgrew its sadness, as she replied, voice full of mirth, "Some of my red pumps, actually. Really quite cute."

"As strange as it sounds, I wish we were still in the '60s." Howard twisted around in those slender arms to face their owner, giving her a lopsided grin. "At least I'd be able to think of somewhere Tony would fit in."

Maria's smile finally reached its true brilliance, making him want to sweep her off her feet just for the sake of doing it. "It sounds to me like your next project is a time machine."

She'd meant it as a joke, but they both sobered up quickly as the sheer infeasibility brought reality crashing back down upon them, reminding them that they were failing Tony. They wanted to help their child, but they knew that the world wouldn't be very accepting. They did what they could, hoping every little bit helped — that trivial matters like a perfect birthday would somehow solve the unsolvable.

Nothing had prepared them for their child. Sometimes, Howard would find himself pondering what-ifs. What if Tony was a normal boy? What if Tony had been born with a girl's body? What if they had never adopted Tony? It made him sick to his stomach. He hated that the world wasn't accepting of children like Tony, but even he struggled with the situation.

"Mom! Dad! I'm... I'm ready!"

Maria turned around to face the door, and Howard broke out of his reverie enough to glance up. Tony stood there wearing a red mini-skirt (He must've stolen it from Maria's closet, Howard thought to himself.) as a makeshift dress. A thin, sparkly gold belt secured the top of the skirt across Tony's chest, keeping the hem off the floor. His little feet were planted in the red pumps Maria mentioned earlier; they were naturally too big, leaving careful shuffling Tony's only option for movement. Bright red lipstick haphazardly adorned his mouth, which bore a small, hopeful smile.

Howard's heart broke at the sight. Maria's clearly had as well, since tears flowed freely from her eyes as she lowered herself to her knees to envelope Tony in a fierce hug. The sweet, hopeful smile upon Tony's face began to quiver, tears beginning to flow from his eyes as well. "I'll change."

Howard surprised everyone, including himself, with a fervent, "No."

Tony's eyes widened, even as tears still flowed from them. "But you said I can't when guests will be here?"

"You're right. You can't when guests are here."

Tony murmured in wonder, "You'd send them away?"

Ever the smart kid, Howard thought to himself. "It's your birthday, Tony. Spend it..." Howard paused. The moment was only a hair's breadth long, but he needed it. This isn't about what you need, Howard. It's about what Tony needs. "Spend it how you want to."

As his child crashed into his legs, hugging him as tightly as those little arms could, he knew he was doing the right thing. Maria never used words to express her love for him. When her slender arms surrounded him, he could feel her love. As Tony stood there, crushing Howard's legs with her arms, her love felt like the sun itself.