It was all over but counting the bodies. Russia's internal collapse had been aided by some adroitly pointed leaks and the collapse of the oil markets as Vanko ordered enough Palladium to put an end to any gas powered plant in Europe by '17. Konstantin had won the coup and promised, "conciliation with Europe and America, and a united front against all threats." We were winning. I was winning. The world's greatest leader, even if I got neither byline nor headline.

If you consider the fate of other empires, a tiny voice said in my head, you know how this too will end.

I pushed against the thought. I didn't need to win forever. Winning forever is an illusion. I only needed a victory that united humanity and didn't end with my wife and daughter and me dead.

The ongoing chaos that we had caused in the economics situation was being met with remarkable vigor by the governments of the world. The United States was extending educational funding to other countries, the world was turning and turning and turning. And always turning up Hydra.

It was a weird sensation. For so long I had fought and scraped and begged to get my hands on the reins of destiny and now the horse merrily trotting to my tune. We had distributed Falcon-style flier units to the Fireflies, bringing them up to a new level of combat versatility. Wakanda was expanding its influence in Africa, Europe, uninhibited by Russia, was enthusiastic for our internationalist program. Asia wasn't falling under our influence, exactly, but the seeds of future rule were germinating, especially in India and Pakistan - If we could get them away from each other's throats for a few years. Central and South America were becoming reconciled to the world order.

War was at a nadir. Coups were the only form of violence, usually prompted along by the helpful hand of Hydra, and they generally found themselves suddenly supported by friendly regimes.

So why didn't I feel like I was making any progress.

"None of it fucking matters," I said to Tony as I slouched against his couch. "None of it fucking matters if Thanos comes back."

"Don't be ridiculous," Tony said, pouring me a glass of water to match his alcohol. "If half of us vanish tomorrow, our heirs will definitely benefit from, let's see, an instant education machine and a nearly unlimited supply of energy."

I leaned forward and grabbed the glass, the coolness of it soaking into my hand. It wasn't really welcome - The sun had gone down hours ago. "Didn't you say the education thing was cyberpunk?"

"It is cyberpunk, you should shut that off," Tony said, plopping down in a chair across from me. "Obviously, if there were an emergency need, that would be different."

"Poverty is an urgent need, Tony."

"Poverty is a useful threat, Mike."

Tony talks a lot and doesn't think about his words. But he's very, very quick-witted and he wasn't wrong. I took a drink of water and thought about it, "How's Iron Manning going?" This was our bond of friendship - Never having been a member of the Avengers, I was Tony's Iron Man support system. Pepper didn't like me much by extension.

"Amazing," he said and tapped his chest module. "20 gigaojoules per second. And I've started using shrunken shield projector drones that can shield civilians."

That was… absolutely amazing. The sheer amount of gigaojoules that thing in Tony's chest could put out would have crippled the U.S. economy before Tony had built out the Arc Reactors. We lived in the future. "Tony, that is bonkers," I said honestly. Maybe you could share those outdated 2012 models now…"

"Mm, nice try but no. I put one of those in your hands and next week, I hear about seven thousand of them."

"Had to do it." It was a running joke.

"Always coming for my arc reactors," he said. "I might think you're only using me for my things."

"Tony," I said, sitting up and looking at him as he lazed in his chair. I was managing to hold in my frustration on this front fairly well. "How can I be using you for things you never share?" I tried to look at the bright side of my own going failure on obtaining the most useful technology for world defense. Honestly, it was good to have Tony as a friend. A good person, who did good things, for free and didn't have any manners at all. It was nice. It was a relief from the constant pleasing and supplication I had to engage in with my coterie of mad scientists, crooks, and cultists.

Tony let out a bark laugh at that and took a drink. "You know, I saved a sinking ship last night and got back home in time for dinner."

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"Good job," I said honestly. Tony Stark was quickly becoming a hero we could all envy. You can't resist talent like that.

"She's still mad about it," Tony said, looking frustrated. "I don't know what to do. You were right, you know, that night we had that argument. Cut me to the heart. She's still barely able to even deal with the fact that I'm Iron Man. She wishes I'd give it up and hand it over. Go back to being… Tony Stark, billionaire playboy philanthropist." He slammed his glass back and chugged the whole thing and I wondered if that was wise. "Yinsen didn't die for me to go back to arms manufacturing."

I wasn't going to argue with Tony about this in the context of Yinsen. It would alienate him. "Pepper only worries about you, Tony. That's a reasonable thing for a woman to do."

"Maybe so," Tony said after a moment. "You know, she really liked the cards you suggested."

I had suggested to Tony that instead of buying her something large and ostentatious, that he write a month's worth of short compliments and have a calligraphist write them up and send them to her. Tony liked grand gestures but he hated work, so he had a tendency to get Pepper gifts she didn't really like. "This is because a gift is a material symbol of affection, it needs to be a product of thought and effort in order to have effect. You can't simply buy bigger and more expensive things."

"Am I supposed to remember that forever?"

"Yes, Tony, this is pointless too isn't it? You're not going to learn how to be romantic unless Thanos comes."

"Oh yeah? Is he going to force me to go to etiquette lessons? Honestly, I think a man who wants to wipe out half the universe is at least marginally ruder than me."

I laughed at that. It was more that a major crisis had served to unite Pepper and Tony and actually get them married and him settled down. "You're a smart guy Tony, you can learn this without a deranged purple demigod putting your face into romance novels."

"You know, you're supposed to be here to shore up my morale. I'm the hero, after all."

"Tony," I said as the doorbell rang, "You know what helps morale? Pizza."

"Pizza!" Tony said in agreement as I got up to go get it. The delivery guy handed me two boxes of pizza and I handed him a thousand dollars in hundreds and said, "Keep the change." Being rich is, and I cannot stress this enough, extremely fun when you do it right. I closed the door on him and walked back to Tony with the pizzas and put them on the table.

"How much was it?"

"Tony, we are not check balancing on pizza, we are the two richest men in the world."

"No, come on, you cook for me, at least let me pay for the pizza."

"You don't have to do that," I said sincerely. "I got to tip the guy, always boosts my morale."

"Morale boost! I can do that instead. You were being down on yourself for no reason earlier, let's go back to how you've saved the world from poverty. Your wireless energy transmission has revolutionized power delivery everywhere in the world. You've cleaned up the air. Well, I did. But you helped."

"You made it two sentences."

"Three, actually, I'm clearly smarter because I can count," he took a bite of the pizza and savored it. "These guys are so good. How had I never heard of them before you?"

I know the best restaurants of every sort in every city in the world, but Tony, having grown up rich, had too many friends who didn't understand the virtue of grease in pizza. I took a bite of my cheese pizza and savored it. "Rich people have too refined palettes."

"Mm," Tony said, taking another bite. "You're right. We do. See, I can say nice things."

"It's a start."

He put the pizza down on the box and looked at me. "Michael Gideon Trent," he said honestly. "You're the guy who put me back on path to my calling," that was true but it was also my fault he had left it, "You've increased global security tenfold all by yourself. You've helped rid the world of energy poverty. You've helped move along Extremis, which cures nearly everything as far as we can tell. You've helped design Osiris, a literal, actual afterlife. You're doing a good job. You're not just a good man, you're basically a demigod."

Well, I wasn't a good man. But I didn't argue with him, it was good to have some outside affirmation by a non sycophant. "Thank you, Tony."

Then he ruined the moment a little with a, "Still not as smart as me though." He was still Tony, after all.