Fire and Ice

Secrets had been a part of Tony’s life from the very start. From the day he was born, a tiny hatchling curled against the scales of his mother’s chest, secrets had been whispered into his ear. Never show them who you are, was the first thing he ever learned. Never let them see. Even before he knew how to do more than draw breath, he was taught the magic to make him hide, to keep his real heritage protected away from the rest of the world.
He was the only dragon to be born of Midgard – Earth – that he knew of. There were no others out there like them. His mother, a beautiful Light dragon, made sure he knew all the stories about his kind and their lives on the other realms. She told him the history of the Light dragons found of Alfheim, and of the Fire dragons of Svartalfheim, where his father came from.
Tony soaked it all in like a sponge. He absorbed every bit of their history, every magic lesson his mother taught him.
But nothing had sunk in as deep as those earliest words. Those, Tony carried in his heart. Never show them who you are. Never let them see.
It was a motto that Tony Stark shaped his life around.