As it turned out, they really didn't like his answer.

He only vaguely remembered being pressed into water, his breath being cut out over and over again until he was on the edge of unconsciousness, how they continued to pull him back out by his hair only to slam him back in a few moments later.

Still, he refused. They won't get me to even lift one damn finger.

At one point they dragged him and Yinsen, the name of his new 'friend', outside. The scene in front of him resembled a horror movie. Dozens of containers, filled with machine guns, missiles and worse. Every single one of them had the name of Stark Industries on them.

Tony wanted to throw up, what he promptly did once they were pushed back inside their prison with the warning that his time to start cooperating was running out. A few hours later the two of them were sitting around a small fire, a beanie and thick sweater helping him to keep warm.

He was absently staring into the flames, thinking about nothing, thinking about everything.

His mom, how she had to suffer right now, all alone in their giant house, knowing that her husband was dead, not knowing if her son was alive or not.

He thought about the few friends he had back home.

Rhodey, who was probably just as worried as his mother about him. He was like the brother he had always wished for. He didn't mind any of Tony's bullshit and always had his back, no matter how irritating he was towards others and him.

Pepper, who was the only one to really know all of his secrets. She could be controlling sometimes but Tony knew that most of the time it was out of concern for him and the way he was practically working himself to death.

He thought about him. They hadn't parted as friends, there had been a fight, a big one. Insults had been thrown and received, every single one more hurtful than the last. He had sworn to himself that he wouldn't be the one to come crawling back. Oh, how regret filled him at the memory of it.

That's enough now. Since when are you such an emotional whiner?

He lifted his head to find Yinsen quietly eating the vomit their captors had the nerve to call food. He also gazed into the flames, a much more peaceful look on his face.

"Do you have any family back home in your village?"

They hadn't talked about his life so far. All Tony knew was that he had been taken as a hostage because of his engineering and medical expertise.

He didn't know if it was a topic he wanted to be discussed but the need to offer him some sort of emotional comfort, as little as he would be capable of giving, had been strong for a while now. He wanted to give something back in return.

At first, he thought that his question hadn't been heard but they were sitting close and his voice had returned during the evening. Then the idea that he just didn't want to talk about it, at least not with him, crossed his mind.

After what felt like minutes to Tony but we're probably just a few heartbeats, in reality, Yinsen lifted his head and smiled at him.

"Oh yes, and I will see them again once we leave here."

He raised an eyebrow. "We? I don't want to darken your spirits but I doubt that I'll still be alive by the end of the week." He fully meant it. That car battery beside him was nice and all but sooner or later, it would run out of energy and then he'd be fucked.

"No, not if you keep on starving yourself and being so negative.", exclaimed the older man with a headshake. "I don't understand you, Stark. Why do you so desperately want to die in a cave in Afghanistan?"

Tony stared at him angrily. With a hard voice he answered:

"Of course I don't wanna die here but if the only way to survive is to build them the Jericho I have no other choice."

"And why is that? You saw the weapons outside, they already have a lot of them and-"

"-and that is nothing compared to the Jericho. No, I'll not build that missile for them."

Yinsen threw his hands in the air, a loud, irritated huff filling the space between them.

"Does that really matter? That, out there, the weapons, is your father's legacy, your lega-"

"That out there is NOT MY LEGACY!", Tony roared, kicking the bowl with untouched 'food' inside of it into the fire. He watched silently as the flames devoured the wood.

It was always, ALWAYS, about Howard Stark. Could no one in this goddamn world judge him for himself? Was that really too much to ask for?

"I am not my father, I am my own man.", he explained, much quieter now. "And even my father, as horrible of a parent as he was, would have never sold these kind of people weapons. They must have gotten them some other way."

His eyes returned to Yinsen. He was sitting there opposite of him, hands folded under his chin, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"That doesn't change the fact that when people are going to die, it will be through weapons with your father's and your name on it."

Not wanting to lose control of his temper again, Tony bit the inside of his cheek instead. Honestly, what could he actually say to that? Nothing, because there is nothing to say. He is right.

He dropped his gaze, softly whispering:

"I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"So, what do you want to talk about, Stark?" He could hear a bowl getting refilled. How did he manage to get that stuff down and keep it in his stomach? It looks and smells like shit.

After a moment of thinking, he knew. "Well, we were actually talking about you in the beginning. You said that you have a family. Did you mean a wife? Children?" He was actually curious. From what he witnessed so far, the man would be an amazing father.

"Ah, yes. A beautiful wife and daughter back in my village, Gulmira. They are the lights of my life." Even without looking up, he could hear the smile on his face.

"You sound awfully cheerful.", Tony mumbled. They were prisoners with practically no chance of escaping and he still had the nerve to smile.

"Of course, I do. This is my family we are talking about after all. If there is anything to be happy about in this world, it's this."

A dark chuckle rumbled in his stomach. "If you say so."

"What about you, Stark? Got someone special in your life? A beautiful, young girl currently crying her eyes out?", he got asked, jokingly.

Tony had to smile at his remark. "Not so wrong. He IS quite the Drama Queen but I doubt that he is crying. I have given him no reason to do so, at least.", he whispered more to the flames than his friend.

He lifted his head and was met with an astonished glance. "Oh, I see. I have to say I'm surprised."

Tony smiled sadly at him. "Yeah, I saw it written all over your face."

Yinsen quickly shook his head. "Please don't get me wrong, Stark. There is nothing wrong about that. The media just always made it seem like you were quite the womanizer."

"Hmm, was the old man's idea. We can't have anyone know about this, Tony. It could affect the company, Tony. That's a nice lady, Tony. Why don't you take her out somewhere? How about a place with a lot of cameras and while you're at it, give her a good snog."

He was practically hissing the last words, letting out all of his build-up frustration. It had taken him more than 3 months to build up the courage to tell the old man and the reaction he had gotten couldn't have been worse.

It would have been even better if he would have gotten mad, telling him that he wouldn't allow his son to behave like that, that he should find himself a wife to have children and grow old with.

It would have been horrible, yes, but still, it would have been about him. Not about the company, not about their image. Not like everything fucking else always was. It would have been about Tony.

But it hadn't been. Nothing would ever be about him as a person.