"I wouldn't know. He wasn't exactly around much and when he was, he was... distant. Our butler, Jarvis, raised me mostly. Couple years after I graduated MIT... he uh," Tony was used to being forward, crass. He wasn't used to considering others' feelings or even acknowledging his own, so when he stumbled here for a moment, he decided to change the end of his sentence. "...we stopped speaking after that." Which wasn't a lie. He took in a short, quick, refreshing breath and exhaled sharply with a shrug. "So you'd know him a bit better than I would."

Speaking of being mellowed, Pepper had mellowed Tony considerably in their time together. A few years ago and this conversation would have been far less kind. He'd also discovered a few things about Howard since then that left Tony feeling a little mixed on the subject.